7 YEARS LATER

Walking through the hospital wing, I made my way through each of the occupied beds and tended to each of the students. I was plumping the pillow for one of the students when I heard the wooden doors swing open.

"Just a minute," I called out from over my shoulder.

Once I had dealt with the patient, I approached the group of students that were standing in front of the doors. Taking one look at the boy who was throwing up slugs into a bucket and the other boy who'd shrunk to the size of a mouse, I rolled my eyes. The student who'd accompanied the two boys, shared a look with me and picked up the smaller boy and put him in his shirt pocket.

"Let me guess," I started, leading the group of them to one of the empty beds. "You were duelling in Professor Riddle's Defence class?"

"Yes Mrs Riddle," the unaffected boy replied.

The three boys sat down on the bed and I excused myself to go and get the right counter potions. Honestly, fourth years were always so trigger happy when it came to duels. Shaking my head slightly, I walked into the storage room where we kept the potions and found Madame Embers, the head mediwitch, tending to a diagnostic potion. At the sound of my footsteps the elderly woman looked up at me with a smile.

"It'll be just a few minutes longer my dear, and then we'll have the result."

"Thank you," I replied with a grateful smile. There was no need for her to run the test herself, but I certainly felt more reassured if she was the one to do it.

I had trained under Madame Embers for the last 4 years to eventually take over her position. She had already told me that she was planning on retiring at the end of this year but the result of the test could make her change her mind. I, myself, wasn't sure what result I wanted from the test.

Pushing the thought to the back of my mind, I located the correct potions before making my way back to the boys. Pouring the appropriate dosages out, I handed the two boys the potions and watched them pour it down their throats. They gagged and I was satisfied – maybe next time they would think before casting such ridiculous spells or they'd at least bother to block the spell before it hit them.

Two of the boys left the wing shortly after I had given them the potion, but one – the one that had been vomiting slugs – remained seated. He played with his fingers, peeking up at me every now and then.

"Is there something you need to say?" I asked gently, sitting next to him on the bed.

"Some of the girls in my year say that you give good advice," he explained and I nodded encouragingly. It wasn't uncommon for some of the students to approach me if they had a situation they needed to talk about.

"What is it?" I squeezed his shoulder encouragingly.

"Your husband, professor Riddle that is, is the most handsome professors in the school," started to say, making my eyebrows rise slightly.

I nodded, "He is."

"And well, most of the girls in our year fancy him." A red flush crept up the boy's neck as he avoided my eyes, "Including the girl I fancy."

I held back my knowing smile. "Really now?"

Colour flooded his cheeks and he cleared his throat, "But rumour has it that you didn't like professor Riddle at first but he got you to like him. How?"

"That's a loaded question," I mumbled under my breath as I silently wondered what to tell him. "He was … very persistent, I guess you could say. He wouldn't take no for an answer."

"And that's what I should do?" The poor boy sounded so confused.

I shook my head quickly, "No that's what you should not do. Pushing a girl into dating you doesn't end well – I preferred it when he was sweet and slightly clumsy in his actions. He seemed more genuine."

"Professor Riddle was clumsy?" The boy repeated in shock, "Are you sure?"

I nodded and reached out to pat the boys shoulder, "He was and while I'd like to talk to you and give you advice for longer, you should probably get back to your lesson. I know my husband and I know he won't go easy on you for missing your lesson."

"I guess you're right," the boy grumbled, rising to his feet as Mrs Embers approached us, the potion clasped between her hands.

"If you want to talk to me some more, come down to the hospital wing when you don't have a lesson," I offered with a smile before rising to my feet.

Walking away from the bed, I waited for Mrs Embers to arrive next to me. She held the potion out for me to see the colour it had changed to.

"It's positive," she announced and I felt some of the blood drain out from my face.

I looked over my shoulder to see that the boy was still in ear shot and escorted the older woman to a different part of the room. Letting out a deep breath, I stared down at the potion.

"Merlin," I muttered, a hand coming up to cover my mouth. "What am I going to do? How am I going to tell Tom?"

"Don't panic dearie," Mrs Embers said as she handed the potion to me. "I understand it's a shock, so why don't you go and sit down for a bit. Let me handle things here."

"Mrs Embers-"

"Don't worry," she said with a smile, "It looks like I won't retire this year. It'll be too much for a heavily pregnant mediwitch to run around the hospital wing on her own next year."

Her words brought some sense back to me and I nodded, allowing her to escort me back to the storage room. I sat down at the desk, put the potion down on the table top, and dropped my head into my hands. Minutes past and I lost myself in my thoughts, wondering how this little development would affect the next few months. Maybe I could owl Melinia for advice? After all, she had only just had little Lucius a few months ago.

At the sound of footsteps approaching the storage room, I looked up and glanced at the doorway. Rising to my feet at the sight of the man waiting for me to acknowledge him, I cleared my throat.

"Tom, what are you doing here?" I asked as he walked further into the room, approaching me.

"Is it too strange for me to visit my wife?" he wondered aloud, "Especially after one of my students informed me that my wife had had a test run on herself."

"He told you that," I said weakly and Tom nodded, closing the remaining distance between us.

Taking me by my shoulders, he peered down at me, eyes scanning me from head to toe and looking for any sign of visible injury. "Are you alright? He said something about it being positive and I –"

His words trailed off as he stared at something behind me. I turned to see what he was looking at, and sure enough it was the potion vial that was lying innocently on the desk. Letting go of my shoulders, he reached out to pick the vial up and raised it to his eyes.

"Is this the test that was run on you?" he asked, meeting my eyes momentarily before looking back at the vial. At my nod, his voice picked up a hopeful edge as he asked, "And this is what I think it is, right?"

"That depends on what you think it is."

"Are you pregnant?"

A pause followed his words before I nodded, trying to explain, "I know we haven't spoken about this yet and we need to figure out what to do-"

"What do you mean figure out what to do?" Reaching out to wrap his arms around me, he pulled me against his chest. "Are you not – do you not want our child?"

"No I do," I protested, "But I thought -"

I trailed off, staring up at him.

"That I may not want children," he completed with the roll of his eyes. "Merlin's beard, woman, the only reason I didn't propose 7 years ago was because you didn't want to get married and wanted to put having a family on hold for a while."

"So you're happy then?" I gave him a tentative smile.

"Of course I am." He grinned for the first time, leaning down to take my lips in a deep kiss. He pulled away with a gentle smile and put his forehead against mine. "I'm not sure if this will scare you off, but I eventually want to have 4."

"Four children?" I repeated incredulously.

He nodded, pressing another chaste kiss to my lips. "One in each house."