The next three days passed by very slowly. Harry had stuck by Hermione as often as he could and Remus had followed Harry's orders and stayed as far away from Hermione as he could.

He didn't go to meals, Tonks filled in for him during his lookout shifts, and no one had seen him about the castle.

Hermione began to grow slightly concerned, not sure what to make of his behavior. She pondered this as she walked to her room after dinner the third evening since the encounter.

Was he angry? Was he upset? Had he told Tonks? Would he pretend that it had never happened? Would he ever speak with her again?

It was then that she saw him sitting in the hallway outside her door.

To say that Remus looked like a mess would have been an understatement. His clothes, normally very tailored and neat, were wrinkled and looked ill-fitting. His hair was practically sticking out in all directions and the bags under his eyes suggested that he had gotten little to no sleep over the past few nights.

And then there was the massive bruise on the right side of his jaw.

"Hermione…"

She turned around and began to walk away, her concern for him momentarily forgotten and anger taking its place, pregnancy hormones in full swing. Three days of disappearing without a word and he thought he could come back just like that? She was not it the mood for this.

"No!" He exclaimed, stumbling to his feet, "Wait!"

"Why?" she asked, continuing to walk away, "So you can yell at me some more?"

"Hermione, you have to understand that the news…how I found out…it was quite a shock."

Hermione stopped and stared intently at the floor. She knew he had a point and tried to battle her sudden mood swing long enough to hear what he had to say.

"I know that my reaction was…was not a good one, but I've had time to think about everything and we need to talk…about this."

Hermione continued to stare at the floor, unsure of what to think. As moody as she was at the moment, she knew he was right, they did need to talk about the situation. She just wasn't sure if she could handle another confrontation like last time.

"Please, Hermione. You have every right to hate me, but at least hear me out."

That did it. She sighed, "I don't hate you, Remus. It's just…that night…your reaction hurt. It wasn't how I wanted you to find out, but the way you looked at me after you knew…"

"Hermione…" he began to reach out to place a hand on her shoulder, but recoiled his hand back thinking better of it.

"If you promise to be rational, we can talk." Hermione said, turning around to face him.

"Anything, Hermione. I'll be rational." Remus promised, relieved that to be given a second chance.

Hermione looked around the corridor nervously, tugging at her robes around her stomach, "We should probably continue this conversation in my chambers."

Remus nodded in agreement and the two headed back to her room.

"What happened to your face?" She asked as soon as she shut and locked her door, whispering a quick silence charm to prevent eavesdropping. She couldn't be too careful.

"Harry paid me a visit that night." Remus stated, absentmindedly rubbing his sore jaw as he took a seat on one of the chairs in Hermione's seating area. He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts over the past few days that he had forgotten to fix it.

Hermione took a seat on the sofa across from him.

"What? Oh, Remus! I'm so sorry—"

He held up a hand, politely stopping her, "No, don't be sorry. I deserved it."

They sat there in silence for a moment before Remus cleared his throat, "So…you're…five months along then?"

She nodded, "Yes."

"How long have you known?"

"Since the train ride back to Hogwarts."

Remus furrowed his brows as he remembered that day; how they had made amends before she had gotten on the train, how she had disappeared upon arrival, how she strangely she had acted when she had run into him and Tonks.

The look on her face when Tonks had shown her the ring.

It was all starting to make sense.

Over the next hour Hermione recounted the events of the last six months, how she had felt sick on the train, finding out in the hospital wing, going to Hogsmeade with Snape to get supplies, everything. Well, almost everything.

"Is that why you disappear at night?" he asked

The question caught Hermione off guard, "Wh-what? How do you—"

"Harry mentioned that you often disappear at night, assuming you're off doing homework. Do you really just go to Hogsmeade to get more supplies for prenatal potions?"

Her cheeks began to flush, "Not…exactly."

Remus tilted his head to the side, confused, "Then where do you go?"

"Well, sometimes it's for that, but usually…usually I just go to Hogsmeade to work."

"Work?" He asked, stunned.

"Yes…I have a waitressing job at Hog's Head that Dumbledore set up for me."

"But…why?" He asked, still not fully understanding why she needed a part-time job during her last year of school.

Hermione's cheeks continued to grow red, "Because I am saving up money. My…parents made it perfectly clear that I would not see a cent from them if…this situation ever happened as I was growing up and I just figure that with you getting married to Tonks, that you would need your money to buy a house and—"

Remus rushed over to the sofa and sat next to her, unable to let her finish that sentence, "Hermione," he stated flatly, looking her directly in the eyes, "if you think that I was not going to support the mother of my child, you are sorely mistaken."

She shook her head, "I don't want to be a burden—"

"Hermione stop." He interrupted, shaking his head, "You are not and will never be a burden. You are the farthest thing from it."

Hermione broke eye contact, looking at her slightly swollen stomach, near tears, "But this was a mistake. You and Tonks—"

"Will figure things out, but my relationship with Tonks does not change the fact that you are carrying my child and that I will always be there to support you two whenever and however I can. And don't call it…it's not a mistake, Hermione. It's just a complication."

She nodded, unable to stop one solitary tear from running down her cheek.

"I want you to quit your job, Hermione." Remus said, soothingly, handing her his handkerchief, "You don't have to worry about financial support anymore."

Hermione mumbled her agreement and gently wiped her face before whispering, "Does she know?"

Tonks.

"No." He sighed, reliving the last three days of her fluttering around him, concerned with his sudden withdrawn behavior, "She knows that something happened, that I'm acting strangely, but she doesn't know what the reason is or why."

"Oh." Hermione stated, offering Remus back his handkerchief.

He waved it off, "Keep it. How many people have you told?"

She folded the handkerchief nervously, "Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey, Snape, and Harry. Only Harry knows that you're the father."

Remus breathed a sigh of relief. He could only imagine what Snape's reaction would be to that bit of information.

"So…how are you feeling?" Remus asked, shifting uncomfortably on the sofa, "How…has the pregnancy been?"

Hermione's cheeks flushed again, "Generally, I feel fine. When the morning sickness comes it comes swiftly, but everything has been normal from what I can tell. It's a little touch and go around the full moon."

And there it was.

"Is it…?"

Hermione cleared her throat, " I don't know. There aren't any books on werewolf pregnancies and from what I have researched, this situation…a child half witch, half werewolf…hasn't ever come up."

Remus's head snapped up in attention, his mind momentarily sidetracked from the current line of conversation.

"You said…half witch…"

Hermione nodded, smiling weakly, "Yes. We're having a girl."

Remus's jaw dropped slightly before he let out a shocked laugh, "A girl? We're having a baby girl?"

She nodded, trying to read his expression. As the conversation had progressed, he became increasingly harder to read. It was almost like everything was returning to normal, well, whatever normalcy was for a situation like this.

Without warning, Remus pulled her into a hug.

"A girl!" He exclaimed, "We're having a baby girl!"

Hermione laughed despite herself, "You're currently crushing your baby girl!"

"Oh!" He immediately let go of Hermione, his brow furrowed in concern, "I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"It's alright, Remus." She said, chuckling a little, "I was only kidding."

"Oh." He stated shaking his head, smiling a little, "This is going to take an awful lot of getting used to."

"Here…" Hermione said, standing up and walking over to her bookshelf. She searched the middle shelf until she found the book she was looking for and headed back to the sofa, "You can read this if you want."

He looked at the cover, "The Art and Science of Scrying?"

Hermione laughed, before taking out her wand to reveal the true cover, "Sorry. It's just that Ron gets kind of nosy and I changed the covers on all of the pregnancy books to make sure he wouldn't bother them."

Remus looked at her and grinned, "Clever."

He looked back at the book and saw that the cover had changed to just a plain, light red leather binding. He flipped to the first page and instead of seeing printed text, saw handwritten words.

Hermione's handwriting.

He skimmed a few pages before looking up at her in shock.

"Is this…?"

She merely shrugged, "Since there were no werewolf pregnancy books available, I decided to make my own. It documents everything: every symptom, its severity, doctor's visits, her growth and development day by day."

"Hermione…this is incredible." He stated, leafing through it until he found a photograph of the latest ultrasound that had been magically inserted onto the page.

Hermione looked at the page and sighed, knowing that the full weight of the severity of the situation had returned.

They sat there in silence for a moment, Remus staring at the photograph of his child and Hermione staring at him before he gently closed the book and looked at her. He set the book down on a nearby table and grabbed her hands.

"I don't know how, Hermione, but this is all going to work out." He said, looking her directly in the eyes.

Hermione nodded slowly.

For the first time in six months, she actually believed that it would.

A/N: Again, I am so terribly terribly sorry about how long it's been since the last update. Life just sort of got a little crazy over the past year and I just sort of left this on the backburner. I want take this time to thank all of you again for sticking with this and writing the lovely comments that you do. The story requests, the author requests, it really means a lot and I made this chapter extra long as another way of saying thank you for being patient.

I will update this story more frequently until it is finished. Please keep letting me know what you think! I love reading comments and I hope that you liked this chapter. I wanted them to have a girl to sort of distinguish this child from Teddy and I also wanted to make Remus less of a jerk in this chapter. While the main hurdle has been jumped, there is still a rocky road ahead. Next chapter, more people find out…