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Draco waited until he heard the violent heaving stop before pushing open the door to the loo. Hermione was crouched next to the toilet, her head resting on her arm. He knew she didn’t like him to be in the room while she was sick. He could appreciate that; he didn’t like anyone to see him at his weak point either. However, he also desperately wanted to hold her. It had been four weeks since their anniversary date and for the past three mornings he’d woken up to the sounds of her vomiting. The one time he tried to bring her breakfast in bed after a vomiting spell, she had leapt out of the bed at the smell of the eggs and brought more of the contents of her stomach up.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t see a healer?” he asked, helping her up. He pulled her hair back from pale face and walked her to the sink to rinse her mouth out. Once she was done brushing her teeth, he picked her up and put her back in the bed. “Actually, I’m going to go ahead and call one. You don’t need to go into work today.”

“You’re right,” she said sleepily. “There’s no reason for me to go in and get everyone else sick as well. Maybe I need a day to rest. I’ll feel better tomorrow.”

“I’ll owl the doctor and have one of the elves make you a cup of weak tea. Don’t move, I’ll be right back.” He kissed her forehead and walked to the front hallway to where they kept their owl. If he had known that this would be that difficult on her, he might have rethought it. What if something happened and he lost her? What if she wasn’t pregnant and was really sick? He couldn’t stand the thought of her being ill.

Attaching a note onto the leg of the eagle owl, he sighed before summing Zed, their house elf. After making sure that the elf understood how sick his mistress was, he walked back through their home to see Hermione’s pale face lost in thought.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, sitting down next to her.

“Nothing,” she said. He gave her a look and she smiled and continued. “It’s just that I really appreciate you staying with me while I’m sick. I know I’m a burden right now and you’ve been very sweet.”

“What else am I supposed to do? I know we don’t have the most conventional of relationships, but I wouldn’t have asked for this if I didn’t like spending time with you.” Taking a deep breath, he looked at his feet while he said his next sentences. “I do care for you, you know. It isn’t just about sex, although that part of it is amazing.”

Instead of being shocked at his revelation, Hermione merely smiled at him and said, “I know.”

As she drifted off to sleep, Draco thought to himself about how she didn’t seem bothered by his admission and how she seemed to just accept what they had. Maybe he should have tried to win her the old-fashioned way, but he still didn’t think it would have worked. She said so herself that she probably never would have stayed another night if it hadn’t been for the pictures. However, he didn’t think that he would have fallen for her if he hadn’t spent all that time with her their seventh year. He remembered what his life was like before her. It was lonely and fake. No one before her had ever taken the time to truly get to know him in a capacity other than what would motivate in a political alliance or in an attempt to get in his bed. He knew he was good in bed, but the witches he’d slept with previously were only after what he could give them, whether it was an orgasm, status or money. None of them wanted to actually spend time with him. With her, he felt accepted and alive. Hell, he could fart in front of her and she just giggled and went on as if nothing had happened. He didn’t want to go back to the stiff coldness of his previous life. It would seem even emptier now that he knew what companionship and intimacy were like.

Then there was also the fact that every time he thought of another man touching her, he felt rage boiling up in his chest. He hadn’t been this bothered by it before, but now he felt an ownership over her that had nothing to do with having been her first and only lover. He felt like there were certain parts of her that only he should ever be allowed to touch and see. He was glad he was her first lover because now he didn’t have to torture himself with mental images of her wrapped around Weasley or Krum.

Likewise, he felt that she had her own rights to his body. He knew that Theodore Nott frequented Knockturn Alley’s lodgings for meetings with random witches and that other men in his social circle often had girlfriends or wives and a mistress on the side with a few quick flings here and there. His mother and father often had quiet flings with different members of society or employees while they kept up their social façade of a happy marriage.

When Hermione had asked for exclusiveness at the beginning of their deal, he’d been elated. It meant that she actually had something more than a passing fancy for him. He had no trouble complying with her rule; he didn’t even have an urge to be with anyone else, not even for a quick shag or a blow job. His secretary at the ministry often made passes at him and he furtively ignored her attempts at seduction. She was exactly what most of the other witches he’d been with were like. With them it was always too much make-up, painstakingly created hairstyles and clothing that showcased what they were selling. He got more of a hard-on watching Hermione cook breakfast in her yoga pants and his t-shirt than he did looking at his secretary’s well displayed cleavage. Hermione wore little to no make-up and while her wardrobe had gotten more stylish since she’d left Hogwarts and gave her a sensual look, she wasn’t fishing for compliments or a man. It took other women two hours to look as good as Hermione did when she rolled out of bed.

While Draco sat there musing about how lucky he had gotten, the wards outside their flat went off, alerting him to the doctor’s presence. Getting up, he let the old man in and led him to the bedroom, waking Hermione up in the process.

“The healer’s here, love,” he said and helped her to prop herself up on the pillows of the bed.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him and it warmed his heart. “Hello, Healer…?”

“Healer Brownstone, young lady. How do you do? Now, please tell me your symptoms.” As he spoke, Healer Brownstone took various instruments out of his bag and began examining Hermione.

“Well, for the past three mornings I’ve not been able to keep anything down and I’ve been having the most trouble staying awake even though I sleep through the night. I’ve had headaches which seem to bring on crying spells. I think I might have mono or the flu. Ouch!” Hermione jumped when the healer pricked her arm and took some of her blood. He put the collected blood into a vial with a few potion drops and then gave her another potion to swallow.

“Now tell me, my dear, have your feet been swollen lately?”

“Now that you mention it, yes.”

“Have you had any breast tenderness?”

“Yes, they’re quite sore, actually.” Hermione blushed and the healer moved Draco’s shirt that she was wearing up to expose her stomach. All three occupants of the room stared at Hermione’s belly, two of them with a confused expression on their faces. Suddenly, it began to glow a faint blue color, which steadily got brighter.

“It is as I thought. You aren’t sick, my dear, you are pregnant.” The old man smiled kindly at her and then turned to Draco. “Congratulations, young man. You’ll want to make her an appointment in a week with an obstetrician. Here is a potion for prenatal care and see that she gets plenty of rest and is well-fed. Your obstetrician will tell you more. I recommend Healer Howard at St. Mungo’s.”

Getting up to see the old man out, Draco’s heart thudded with excitement. He’d done it! He had successfully tied her to him. They would of course have to move to the Manor. He wanted his child raised in his family home and with Hermione living there it wouldn’t be nearly so lonely and empty. He couldn’t wait to take her shopping for maternity clothes. He wanted anything that would show off her bump. Planning out his next shopping trip, he opened the bedroom door to find her gone.

Draco hurried to the bathroom to check there. Nothing. He ran to check the kitchen, spare room, living room and even laughingly, the closets. Tearing through his flat he was beginning to hyperventilate when he suddenly recalled his watch.

“Hermione!” he breathed into the time piece’s face and watched as her tear stained face came up and under it, the words, “Granger House”. Closing his eyes he apparated with a pop and found himself pounding on the front door of her parents’ house.

“Hermione! Hermione, we need to talk!” he shouted as he banged on the door with his fist. He was about to ‘alohamora’ the door when it swung open and he was face to face with Alex Downing.

“Well, well. Looks like the little creep actually managed to find the balls to do it.” Draco glared at Alex’s smirking features.

“Where is she?” he growled, pushing past Alex’s broad shoulders.

When he was inside the house he saw Chris Granger coming down the stairs. “What the hell did you do to her?” he demanded angrily. “You got her knocked up and had the balls to say you don’t want it!”

“I never said anything of the sort! Where is she?” Draco wasn’t scared of Chris Granger on a normal day, but right now he backed up from the angry face of his girlfriend’s brother. “I’m ecstatic that she’s pregnant! I want to marry her!”

“You’re damned right you’re going to marry her! Don’t you people have condoms? She’s your responsibility and you had better take damned good care of her and treat her like gold.”

“Look, all I know is that we called the doctor, he came over, told us she’s pregnant, I saw him out the door and when I came back in the room, she was gone. I didn’t get a chance to even say anything about it! I don’t want her to get rid of it, I won’t leave her and I’m trying my best to create my family, but I can’t if you won’t let me get to her to talk to her!”

Chris regarded him for a moment and Draco’s chest heaved up and down after his outburst. He knew his normally pale face was flushed from his outburst. Finally Chris nodded at him and moved aside. “She’s in her old room.”

Draco took off up the stairs two at a time and opened the door without knocking. Hermione was curled up on her bed, her stuffed elephant clutched on her lap and her face wet with tears. When she saw it was him, she started crying anew, but squared her shoulders and regarded him.

“I didn’t do it on purpose. I’m not trying to trap you into anything. I’m keeping it and I don’t care what you say. You don’t have to pay for anything, but I won’t get rid of it. It’s our baby and I’m going to love it and protect it.”

“I plan on doing the same thing, love,” he said softly and watched as she started crying all over again.

“But you don’t want children! All you talk about is how much you love the fact that I’m not trying to get pregnant and trap you into marriage.” She set the battered stuffed animal down and unconsciously put a hand over her stomach in a protective gesture that warmed his heart. She was going to be such a terrific mother.

“I know you didn’t plan this. It just happened and to be perfectly honest, when the doctor told me, my first thoughts were that this was wonderful. I didn’t want children with anyone else because I knew that I would just see that child as part of an entrapment. What we have is real. You’ll be a wonderful mother and I wouldn’t anyone else, ever, to be the mother of my children.”

“But what we have isn’t real! It’s based off blackmail and what amounts to essentially prostitution on my part! Did you ever even really like me or did you just like shagging me?”

Draco was hurt, but he couldn’t blame her because she thought what he wanted her to think. “Of course I like you! I wouldn’t spend so much time with you if I didn’t love being around you. You’re the brightest witch of your age, surely you could have figured out that I have a more permanent attachment to you. We’re getting married and we’ll make the best of this.”

“We aren’t getting married!”

“Yes, we are,” he said emphatically. Hermione came from a very religious family and if he had to he would resort to using their help to force her compliance in the matter.

“This is the most horrible foundation for a marriage to start ever!” She was distraught, but he could see she was trying to convince herself as well as him.

“Are you in love with someone else?” he demanded quietly.

“What?”
“Are you in love with someone else? Is there some other bloke you’re pining away over while you’re tied up with me? Someone you’d rather be with?”

She blushed. “No, I actually haven’t given anyone else a thought. We pretend so much, I’ve kind of felt like I’m in a real relationship.”

So you don’t have anyone waiting on you?” she shook her head. “There’s no one else, not even Weasley that you’d be forever regretful about leaving behind?”

She looked up at him. “There’s no one,” she admitted slowly. “At one time I had what I thought were very deep feelings for Ron. I’ll always cherish him as a friend, but after everything, I could never be with him and now I know that I don’t want to be with him. He wanted me to be someone I’m not. No one wants a plain Jane bookworm.”

Draco was both elated and furious. She still believed herself unattractive and undesirable. Men fell over themselves to help her in Diagon Alley now that she dressed in more revealing attire and the ones who knew her were too afraid of making a fool of themselves to approach her for a date. If he let her go, she would have no trouble replacing him. He couldn’t let that happen. If there was no one else she felt drawn to, then he would feel no remorse in compelling her into marriage.


“Hermione, can you honestly say you don’t have any feelings for me? Can you honestly say that you stay home with me every weekend out of a sense of duty and not because you like spending with me?” He asked the questions with bated breath, his heart pounding and palms sweating.

Hermione looked downward and blushed. “No, I can’t.”

“We like each other, we enjoy spending time with each other, we’re damned good together in bed, you’ve already promised me at least the next three years of your life and you’re pregnant with my baby. There have been far worse foundations for marriage. Just look at Pansy and Theo or my parents or any other pureblooded marriage.”

Hermione groaned and put her head in her hands. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

“No, this probably isn’t what you imagined, but life is typically better when it doesn’t go according to plan. Before you, I’d planned on marrying whichever money-grubbing witch was least offensive and spending the rest of my life hiding from her. Instead, I got you and that’s much better.” He watched her quietly think and he briefly thought about obliviating her and making her think their relationship was real.

Giving a defeated sigh, Hermione raised her head and looked into his eyes with her amber brown ones and he knew he’d won. “Fine, I’ll marry you but only for as long as I’m beholden to you. We’ll work everything out from that point onward.”

“Fine.” He was exasperated. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but it was close enough. She probably didn’t know that divorce in the wizarding world was almost impossible and if she did figure out a way to accomplish it, he had three years to come up with obstacles and further tie her to him. He was Slytherin to his core and while that didn’t automatically make him evil, it did make him sneaky and cunning which often had the side effect of underhandedness. Not wanting to think about it, he sat down on the bed next to her and gathered her into his arms. He held her on his lap while she held the silly stuffed pink elephant on hers.

“What’s its name?” he asked, inkling his head towards the creature.

“”Marvin,” she laughed. “I got him for Christmas when I was two. He and Teddy were my best friends when I was young.”

“It must’ve been quite a downgrade to go to Potter and Weasley then. I imagine you missed Marvin and Teddy’s conversation skills being stuck with those two,” he teased. She playfully punched him on the arm and he stood up with her in his arms, taking both the stuffed toys with them. “We’ll take them and put them in the nursery, a nice heirloom for our little boy.”

“Or little girl,” she countered as she let him carry her down the stairs.

“No, Malfoys always have boys first. There hasn’t been a female Malfoy born for almost a century and she had three older brothers. Of course, if you have your heart set on a daughter, we could always keep having babies until we get one.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort with her!” Chris and Alex were sitting on the lounge and Chris stood up when he heard about his sister becoming a baby factory. “Hermione, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Chris.” Hermione looked at her brother from her position in his arms. “We just had a misunderstanding and I overreacted.” Her fingers played with the collar of Draco’s shirt and it was having a very pleasant effect on his body that he didn’t want her brother to see.

“Are you sure you don’t need anything? Alex and I can take care of anything you might need,” Chris said with concern in his eyes. Draco’s hands instinctively tightened on Hermione’s body.

“I’ll be the one taking care of her and I am more than capable of giving her anything she might want or need,” Draco said with purpose. He was going to bring up the fact that if it weren’t for him Chris would be dead and his parents destitute, but he didn’t think Hermione would appreciate that.

“Chris, I’m touched for your concern, but right now I just want to go home. Thank you for being there and thank you for your support. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

Grudgingly Chris let her go. As Draco apparated them back to their flat he was elated. When she said the word ‘home’ now, it meant the same place he was. Taking her to their bedroom he laid her on their bed and went to get some more tea and toast. When she was awake, they would talk about their wedding, when they would move into the manor.



A/N- Sorry it took me so long to update, but I have a very good reason. I broke my ankle and had to have a bone graft and ankle fusion and spent two weeks in the hospital. Hopefully things will get better and story updates will be coming quicker.
A/N- As for Draco being sneaky, I feel that’s just in his character for this story. Should he be honest with her? Yes. Should he have gotten her pregnant without her knowledge? No. However, he is Slytherin and for them the ‘ends always justify the means’. Also, if he suddenly turned mushy and revealed his feelings, this story would be cut very short. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! You are all very kind, lovely people!