A/N: OMFG! I am so so sooooo sorry. I am officially a boob. You are all allowed to throw vegtables in various stages of rotting. But yes, I did update and while this chapter is painfully short in my mind, I refuse to call it a promise chapter. Nope, it's filler! A filler chapter I say! But it's here and it's more so nyeah. And yes once this is all done I'm going to go through and fix all the freakin plot holes that have developed throughout this.

"He still isn't responding?"

Draco turned his head to the side and nodded at the frizzy brunette. His shoulders sagged in defeat as he once again turned his attention back on the broken form on the bed.

Hogwart's hospital wing was unusually quiet today and Hermione was finding it disconcerting. Was Madame Pomfrey purposefully keeping the hospital wing free of students or was it possible that the school was just having a good day accident wise? That seemed wholly unbelievable to her. In a school like this one an hour couldn't pass without someone having to be brought her.

"How long now?" she asked, perching on the arm of his chair. She glanced across the bed to where Sirius was gripping his friend's hand desperately looking ready to crack. The air in the room was thick with tension and unease and it was becoming difficult to not fidget. Tension rippled through her so thick and fierce that she was afraid the room would implode from it.

"4 hours," Draco said roughly. Hermione examined the blonde's face closely, noting the drawn expression and worry lines that marred his pale forehead. It was times like these that she was forcibly reminded how strongly Draco cared about Harry's well being. He may have been staring at Remus Lupin unflinchingly for the past four hours but she knew it wasn't out of concern for the man, but for Harry. Draco wasn't dense in any regard. Hermione had been pushing herself to remain on top grade wise and her main competition had always been this Slytherin.

"He'll be fine," she said, praying she kept the waver out of her voice. It wouldn't do to reassure Draco and sound nervous herself. Stars, this was harder than she thought it was going to be. She had tried to keep herself busy so she wouldn't think on her friends sudden disappearance and her teachers collapse but it was hard and so she found herself back where she started.

Draco looked up at her with an aggravated expression. "You can't know that."

Hermione shrugged noncommittally. There was really no convincing the blonde sometimes. He could be so stubborn about the worst things. She sighed, settling a hesitant hand at the back of his neck. He tensed for a moment before realizing that was all she was going to do and resumed his nervous posture. Her stomach twisted painfully as she stared down into the shuttered face of Remus. His eyes were open for all the good that did. He was barely blinking, his breathing was shallow and labored as if he was in pain and they didn't even know if that was true or not. Madame Pomfrey didn't have any more answers than they did, but it was obvious from the way she was treating the situation that she knew more than was letting on. There was something she was missing and it was driving her insane.

"Come on, Moony," a broken voice murmured, interrupting her train of thought. She glanced up at Sirius and her heart sank. Of course Sirius would be taking this harder than either of them. If something bad had really happened than Sirius would be losing a lot more than a friend and a professor. He'd be losing his entire family and Hermione was suddenly filled with dread. Sirius was already grieving something that hadn't even happened yet and she didn't have the heart to berate him for his lack of confidence in either men. Inside she felt exactly the same as he did, but if she didn't put on a brave front for both Draco and Sirius than all would be lost.

"Miss Granger, may I speak to you for a moment?"

Hermione nodded, removing herself from Draco's side, her fingers gently caressing his bare skin raising gooseflesh. At any other time the anomaly would have been examined further but she didn't have a chance to. Madame Pomfrey was standing by the door to her office looking agitated. Hermione couldn't help but echo the sentiments. Her nerves were already frayed to the point of snapping and the look the matron was giving her assured her that whatever she was about to be told would be the final thing to push her over the edge.

"Madame Pomfrey, what is going on?"

Pomfrey glanced around the already established empty hospital wing before gesturing for Hermione to enter her office. Hermione stepped inside the healer's office with trepidation. Obviously, there was a piece of this puzzle that was missing and suddenly Hermione wasn't sure she wanted to know what.

"Miss Granger?"

"Yes ma'am?"

Madame Pomfrey sighed heavily and seated herself behind her desk. She picked up a copy of the Daily Prophet and handed it to Hermione. It was from a week ago, the day no owl mail had arrived. But how did Madame Pomfrey get her hands on a copy?

"All the teachers got a copy," The nurse answered Hermione's unspoken question. Her frown deepened making the worry lines around her eyes and mouth more pronounced. Hermione nodded slowly, her mouth felt like it was full of cotton. There was more to that sentence than the matron was letting on.

"Except?" hazarded Hermione uncertainly. She still hadn't looked at more than the date on the top of the newspaper; she didn't have the heart to quite open it yet, knowing that whatever she read would not be anything pleasant.

"Just read it."

Hermione was flabbergasted at the curtness of that remark. It never occurred to her that this was as touchy a subject for her as it was for Hermione. The feeling of dread from earlier escalated into panic as she unfolded the newspaper to the marked page.

New Legislation passed by the Ministry

Hermione's eyes widened. "The article on new legislation?" she queried with an ill feeling. The only legislation that ever passed from the ministry that could be interconnected with the current events would be werewolf. But, what haven't they already done?

New werewolf legislation was approved by the Minister of Magic last night. Werewolves are no longer allowed to reproduce for fear of their genes being passed on to younger generations. It has been found that one in three infants born to a couple with an alpha male has positive DNA for being a werewolf. Those at the ministry wish to apologize to those who will be inconvenienced and wish to stress that this is for the good of the wizarding world. All questions can be addressed to us here at the Daily Prophet and will be answered accordingly.

"But," she said staring at the tiny blurb of an article in disbelief. "What does this have to do with Professor Lupin and Harry? It's not like Harry was pregnant or anything."

Madame Pomfrey arched a brow and Hermione's stomach plummeted. If it had been anyone else she would have laughed it off, but not for this. It was a very real possibility that Harry could be pregnant. Unlike the idiot with the scar, she actually did research on werewolves and their mates and found out some things that would have helped Harry if he had bothered to look something up for once in his life. But, Hermione couldn't feel much beyond dispair. Harry was somewhere, and he was in real danger. Male pregnancies, even of this nature, were extrordinarily uncommon and extremely volitile. Miscarriages were common if not expected if he isn't careful. And as if that weren't enough, with the extra magical properties that werewolves have most pregnancies both of men and women were excelerated to dangerous rates. Harry needed to be here, he needed to be here and in the capable hands of Madame Pomfrey. Remus needed to be in contact with him or both of them could die. "No."

"I'm afraid Miss Granger that it has to be the case. The ministry would not just kidnap the boy-who-lived without just cause."

"'Just cause!'" Hermione yelled angrily. "There is nothing just about this at all? What right do they have that says they can kill an unborn child?"

"Miss Granger, I must ask you to calm down. Working yourself up like this will not change matters one wit. All we can do is wait for Mr. Potter's return and pray he isn't harmed."

Hermione snarled but lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry I lost my temper, Ma'am."

"Don't apologize, you were well within your rights to lose control."

There was a hint of resignation in the healer's tone and Hermione looked up curiously. She could see the stress lines creasing her forehead.

"Ma'am?"

Madame Pomfrey glanced out into the main ward with a far off expression. "Some one will come out of this hurt, Miss Granger, and we can only hope it's not one of them."

A/N: I hope that was satisfactory, I really, really do. Guys, I love all of you individually and thanks for the constant prodding and pushing for me to write more or die. I choose to write more. I hope you're all appreciative.