Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Counting Fingers, Counting Toes	By : ssdawn Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Cedric Views: 3796 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Harry Potter, it's characters, nor make money from writing this.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
Finally we have the epilogue, and I hope that you like it. I also hope that you've enjoyed reading this story. I know it's not your normal fanfic story, but I feel it has a lot of heart.
Counting Fingers, Counting Toes: Chapter 7- Epilogue
It was still early morning as Cedric reached down to pick up his daughter from her crib. This was one of his favorite things to do now. He loved waking up at dawn and rocking his sweet baby girl in the nursery. Calantha Jean Diggory had changed all of their lives the past six months. The beautiful baby with her dark, curly hair and rich amber eyes made his heart skip a beat whenever he looked down at her. She couldn't look anymore like her mum than she already did. He and Hermione had bounced baby names around for two weeks after she'd been born. Finally with pressure from family and friends, and having had enough of Fred and George's hideous nicknames of Hermedric and Cedmione, they'd decided they had better hurry and find a name. Hermione had insisted on a Greek name like her own, which had made the task even harder.
One day Cedric had picked the baby up and said, "Oh, my beautiful flower you are blossoming more and more each day. Don't grow up too fast." He'd then kissed her little head and held her carefully against his chest.
Hermione had jumped up and headed to the small library. She'd come out holding a huge Greek dictionary flipping through the pages. "This is it! You did it!" Cedric would have thought she'd gone mad if he didn't know his loving wife by now. He looked at her with interest without saying anything.
"The baby's name…I found it." Hermione smiled up at him. "Actually you came up with the name without even trying." Cedric had held his breath in anticipation, hoping that it was a name that he'd be able to agree to.
"Listen to this Ced," she held the book tight against her, "Calantha,as a girl's name is of Greek origin, and the meaning of Calantha is "beautiful flower. Isn't it perfect?"
He remembered looking down at his then two week old daughter and swearing that he'd seen her smile at hearing the name Calantha. So, at the next family and friend gathering, along with Ron and Lavender announcing that they were pregnant, Fred and Katie announcing their soon to be wedding along with their pregnancy news, Cedric and Hermione had shared the name they chose for their daughter.
"Calantha? What kind of name is that?" Ron of course had been the one to blurt out what everyone had been thinking at hearing the news. The only person giddy with excitement had been Jean Granger, who'd also given her daughter a Greek name.
"It means beautiful flower, and Cedric called her his beautiful flower and I knew it was her name." Hermione just shone with pleasure and soon all of the women in the room agreed that the name suited the absolutely gorgeous baby. It was a true fact, that out of all of the babies in the family, even Bill and Fleur's Victoire, Calantha was the most beautiful. With her thick, dark hair, flawless skin and dark eyes, there was no match.
Now, six months later, she had only grown more striking. There were times when they looked at her they couldn't believe that she was really theirs. Cedric made sure to come home as early from work as he could each day. Hermione had quit her job at the ministry because she didn't want to spend one minute away from her daughter. She'd gone through so much heartache and many lonely years of wanting and trying for a baby. So, much to everyone's shock, Hermione had quit her job without a second thought and decided to be a stay-at-home mum. Cedric made enough money that they lived comfortably, and Hermione did a side job at home working on new charms for the twins Weasley Wizard Wheezes products.
The window was open in the nursery letting in a cool morning breeze. Calantha snuggled up in her favorite blankie, was held tight against her dad. He rocked her back and forth, relishing in his quiet time with her before he had to head to the ministry. His favorite days of the week were now on the weekend when he'd get to stay at home with his girls, as he now called them. Calantha looked up at her dad reaching for his chin. Cedric bent down and peppered kisses all over her face making the baby giggle. She then babbled away staring into his face. This of course made him laugh.
"Baby Girl we're going to wake your mum again." Cedric didn't want to wake his wife. She'd been sick the past few days, after finally getting Calantha healthy after her first cold. It seemed that now she'd fallen sick with what Cali had caught. He secretly smiled because he only called Calantha, Cali, when he was alone with her. Hermione hated anyone shortening her name. She had always hated it when someone, specifically Ron, shortened her name and called her Hermy, Mione, or Herms. She swore that no one would give her daughter a shortened version of her name. Cedric decided that later on in life Calantha would get to make up her own mind about whether she'd want to be known as Cali. For now though he respected his wife's request, except when he was alone with his baby girl.
Cedric heard shuffling feet down the hallway. A head of hair attached to his wife peaked in, "There you are. I thought you left for work without saying goodbye." His heart went out to his love of his life. The cold had made her nose red, her head stuffy, and her throat sore.
"I'm going into work late today. I thought I'd stay and help out with the baby so you could get a few extra hours of sleep." Cedric noticed the smile that lit up her tired face.
"Oh, I love you so much." Hermione came over to the rocking chair to kiss the top of Cedric's head. "You are our hero my love." She put her arms around his neck and leaned over to smile at her daughter. Of course Calantha started kicking and reaching out to her mum. The two had grown very close with Hermione spending every day with her. At first Cedric had been a bit jealous, but had gotten over it when he saw how happy the situation made both wife and daughter.
Cedric held tight to his squirming child, "No, no sweetheart. Mummy is sick and needs to rest. You get to stay here and play with daddy for a few hours." Hermione gave a quick kiss to Calantha's full head of hair.
"Daddy is right sweetpea. Mummy feels rotten and I don't want you to get sick again." Hermione stood back up and started heading to the door. "Why don't you go feed her? That will make her happy."
Cedric lifted her high in the hair and blew kisses on her belly. Cali laughed and kicked her legs as they headed into the kitchen. He put the baby in her highchair and turned on the CD of Muggle children's tunes that the Grangers had given their granddaughter. Jean had claimed that Hermione had listened to these songs every day growing up. He made sure not to tell her that he thought the lyrics were strange, but played them for Cali anyhow.
After he got the baby drinking a bottle, since Hermione didn't feel like breastfeeding when she was sick, he called out to his wife. "Hey love, do you want me to fix you some breakfast?" She didn't answer him, so he decided that she'd probably gone back to sleep in their nice, comfy bed. Fixing some fried eggs, bacon, roasted tomatoes and hash browns he dug in for his hearty meal. It was going to be a great day.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hermione wasn't asleep in the bedroom; in fact she couldn't sleep at all. She was bone tired, ached all over and felt like she was going to vomit. She could smell the full English breakfast her husband was cooking for himself in the other room. As the smells drifted into the bedroom, Hermione leapt off of the bed and ran to the loo. She made it there in time to lose what was left in her stomach from the previous evening. Gods how she hated to throw up! She also hated cleaning up throw-up. Thank the Gods Calantha hadn't been doing that this past week. The poor little thing had just had a nasty cold and was now almost over it. It was her rotten luck to catch the bug that her baby had been fighting. She'd hoped that Cedric wouldn't get sick too. He was even harder to deal with when he got sick, it was even worse than dealing with a sick baby.
Hermione leaned against the wall after puking a second time hating the world right now. As she sat there, the cool tile underneath her felt good to her heated body. She could tell that she had a fever like the baby had done for several days. Hermione felt so weak and was having a hard time telling her legs to move to go back to the bedroom.
"Hermione love, why are you on the floor here in the loo?" Cedric shook her awake and she looked up at her husband. She must have fallen asleep after throwing up that second time.
She didn't want to, but soon she was crying as Cedric lifted her up in strong arms and carried her back to the bed. "I threw up, twice, and couldn't even walk back to the bedroom." Cedric's eyes showed his concern and Hermione knew what he would say next.
"I think you need a healer. This is different than what Cali had." He placed her on their King size bed.
Hermione's head turned to look up at him, "What did you call our baby?" Even in her sickness she heard what Cedric had called their daughter and it wasn't Calantha.
"Oh Bloody Hell!" He smoothed his hand down the side of his face. "I…well…I sometimes call.." He was interrupted from his stammering by his wife's voice.
"I told you that I didn't want anyone giving her a nickname." She started crying again. "You of all people gave her a nickname." She poured on the guilt to make him feel as bad as she felt.
"Well, I'm not the only one that calls her by a nick name." Hermione saw the way that he was getting in defense mode. "Fred and George still call her Hermedric and Cedmione. Then Ron calls her "Little Hermione", so me calling her Cali isn't that horrendous. It's actually kind of cute."
If it were any other day when Hermione wasn't feeling so sick, his excuse might have made her grin. Today wasn't Cedric Diggory's lucky day. "It's not cute and you promised." The tears started falling again and Cedric stood at the side of the bed looking lost. He often looked that way when they fought.
"Fine. I'm done." His words shocked Hermione enough that she stopped crying. He walked over to the fireplace and made a floo call. "Ginny? Ginny?" he called out in a panic.
"Hey Cedric, what's up?" the bonny redhead asked in a bright voice.
"Could I bring Calantha over for a few hours? I need to take Hermione to a healer." Cedric looked over at her to see if she was going to protest.
"Sure, bring her on over. The boys would love to have the "pretty baby" come and play. Ever since she was born James has been asking for a sister. Harry is stressed that soon I'll be asking for another baby." Ginny giggled as she spoke to Cedric.
Cedric left the bedroom and came back with Calantha and her diaper bag. He first stopped at the bed, "Kiss your mummy because she needs to go to see a healer."
Hermione reached up to hug her and kissed her forehead. "Bye precious baby, be good for Aunt Ginny." Then she started crying because she felt like she was going to vomit again and her head hurt.
"I'll be right back love." Cedric grabbed some floo powder and yelled out, "12 Grimmauld Place" and he was off with the baby. A few minutes later he was back helping her out of bed to get dressed. She swayed against him as he helped her take off her nightgown.
"Oh, please stop the room from spinning." Hermione clung to him. Again his concerned face was troublesome to her, as she knew it took a lot to break his cool.
Soon they were on their way to St. Mungos Hospital.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cedric was trying not to feel panicked, but it was hard. Hermione clearly was sick with something very different from what Calantha had been fighting last week. It took a lot for Hermione to break down and act like this. In fact, the last time she'd had a breakdown like this was when she'd been pregnant with Cali. He wanted to slap himself silly too. Out of all days to let the "Cali" secret slip, it had been the day when Hermione had felt her worst. He still felt that she was being silly about the nickname, but today wasn't the day to argue with her about it.
He took her to the main desk and was directed to a general healer. They soon had her back and examining her. So many thoughts were running through his head. What could possibly be wrong with her? After almost losing her and the baby over six months ago, he tended to be a worrywart over his family. He sighed as he watched the healer and two nurses fuss over Hermione as they did a series of various tests. None of their faces showed any signs of what the tests were revealing. After a half hour of non-stop tests he could feel his patience running thin. Hermione looked as white as a ghost or a Malfoy and he chuckled to himself. She ended up throwing up once more, even though there wasn't much left to thrown up.
The nurses cleaned her up and got her comfortable. The healer sighed and came over to stand next to Cedric. She wasn't smiling, but seemed concerned. Cedric moved over to hold Hermione's hand. If the healer was going to drop bad news on them, he wanted to be by her side.
"Mr. and Mrs. Diggory after a series of tests we do have some news for you." Cedric could hear Hermione's breath hitch as she waited to hear terrible news.
"You are showing signs of Hyperemesis Gravidarum, or in other words extreme morning sickness." Both he and Hermione stared at the Healer.
"What?" Hermione looked stunned at the healer's words. "Are you serious? Are you sure?"
Cedric felt very confused. Hermione seemed to know what she was sick with and seemed to be in a daze about it. "Hermione what do you have?" he looked at his very pale wife and then he looked up to the healer.
"Mr. Diggory, your wife is pregnant."
Hermione grabbed his hand and grinned up at him and he tried to smile back.
The last thing he remembered before his face hit the floor was Hermione saying, "We're going to be parents again!"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
So what did you think about the Epilogue? Do you want more of this story? Let me know if you are interested by you leaving some reviews. If there's enough interest I may be persuaded to write a part 2 for this story. Thanks for hanging in there. I'm still busy writing my three other stories:Playing With Granger, Blinded and Living. Go read them. I'd love the support and reviews!
- 6
- 7
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Counting Fingers, Counting Toes