Freedom

A/N: Wow, I kinda/sorta got a flame for the last chapter, that's a first, I think. Well, to that person, I'm sorry if it was a bit 'WTF'y, but there were some important plot points in it that were needed for these next couple chapters.

And here's a nice, long chapter for everyone, lots of stuff. :)

Chapter 12

“You’d better have a seat, Draco,” Harry said in a calm voice.

Draco’s eyes widened and he immediately sat down. Charlie sat beside him with Jamie on his lap.

“You should probably tell the story, Neville, since you were the one there,” Harry said.

Draco and Charlie both turned to Neville. He shifted consciously in the seat before clearing his throat. “Well, I was visiting Luna at work—” he started.

“I’m sorry, Longbottom,” Draco interrupted. “But I really don’t care how you got there or why you were there, just tell me what the fuck is wrong with Hermione.”

“Draco,” Lucius said in a calming voice.

Draco just looked sideways at his father, still trying to figure out why he was here, of all people, but deciding he didn’t care. He just wanted to know about Hermione. “So…?” he prompted Neville.

“Well then,” Neville started again. “Lucius and I were going to your flat, then, so that he could talk to you, and when we got up the stairs, there was Ron with Hermione in his arms. She was thrashing about but wasn’t making a sound and then he just let go of her and pushed her down the stairwell.”

Draco and Charlie’s eyes had both gone wide, and Charlie instinctively hugged Jamie closer to himself.

“Well, Lucius here cast a pillowing charm on the stairs, but she still hit pretty hard. We weren’t close enough to catch her, you know? I…” he stuttered. “You know I’m a botanic healer, but I could only heal her broken ribs…”

Charlie looked at Draco. Draco looked hard at Neville. “So why is she here?” he asked almost angrily.

“Well, we weren’t sure about…we weren’t sure if…if the fall harmed…” It seemed as though he couldn’t get it out. But he didn’t have to. Draco had stood up and slammed the heel of his palm against the wall. He stood still for a long while, just breathing hard.

“The baby,” he said finally. He was facing the wall, away from everyone. He didn’t want them to see the intense pain he was feeling in his chest at the thought of the Weasel harming not only Hermione but his child as well.

“Yes,” Neville said.

“Sweet Salazar, I swear if I ever get my hands on the Weasel…” Draco muttered, hitting his hand against the wall again. He felt a sob break in his throat as he let his head fall against the wall.

Charlie stood up and handed Jamie over to Harry. “Go to Uncle Harry, Jamie.” He put his hand on Draco’s shoulder. “Draco, love,” he said. Draco didn’t move, he just shook Charlie’s hand off of him. “Draco,” he said in a firmer voice. “It’s going to be—”

“Don’t you dare say it’s going to be okay!” Draco almost yelled. He turned around. “Because no, it will not be okay!”

“If the baby is okay,” Charlie said, “Then yes, it’s going to be okay.”

“And what if it’s not okay?” Draco asked with tears welling up in his dark grey eyes. “What if that fucking Weasel killed…” he half-coughed. “I swear to Merlin, I’ll kill him.”

“And if he did hurt it,” Charlie said. “I’ll help you kill him. We’ll fucking torture the little twat to death.”

Draco half-smiled, half-sobbed as he pulled Charlie to himself and kissed him. They made out almost desperately for about a minute before Lucius cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable.

They pulled away, put Charlie still held Draco close, giving him all the support that he could. Merlin, he didn’t know if this could be any worse. Draco’s life revolved around Charlie and Hermione, and for the last four months he had been doting like a madman on Hermione and acting the incredibly eager expectant father. Charlie couldn’t think of what it would do to him if he was to lose that. He and Hermione could always have another baby together, but it would never be the same.

“Draco Malfoy?”

Draco looked up and saw a healer walk into the room. “Yes?” he asked, still not pulling away from the comfort of Charlie’s embrace.

“Miss Granger would like to see you.”

“Is she okay?” everyone started asking at once. The doctor just shook her head. “Just Mr Malfoy, please.”

Draco kissed Charlie again and stepped away from him, following the healer down the hall.

Charlie sat back down, looking over the assembled party. Harry was holding Jamie. He was such a good godfather, Charlie thought. When Hermione had gotten pregnant with Jamie, and found out it was a boy, it was just after Harry had found out that Ginny was pregnant with another girl. To appease Harry, Hermione had named their son after Harry’s father, since Harry seemed to not have a boy coming. James Charles Weasley. Ron, with his little input, had wanted to name him ‘Hubert’ or something like that but Hermione had immediately shot that down. Charlie smiled.

He looked again confusedly at Neville Longbottom and Lucius Malfoy. “So, Neville, why were you and Draco’s father at our flat? And how did Harry fit in?”

“Well,” Neville started. “As I said, I was visiting Luna at work. I was having lunch with her and then Lucius came in. He said that he had a comment about the newspaper article and wanted to get in touch with Draco. Since Draco had never mentioned to his father where you two lived, and cut off any means of communication between the two of them when he disowned him, Lucius came to Luna to get to Draco. Luna had me take him to your flat.”

“And Harry?”

“Well, after I healed Hermione’s ribs—”

“How many?” Charlie interrupted.

“Er, what?” Neville asked.

“How many did he break?” Charlie asked.

“Three,” Neville said, confused. “Why?”

“No reason,” Charlie said. “After you healed her?”

“Well, we still weren’t sure about the baby,” he said. “And we had no idea how to get a hold of you. We knew that when we got here, we would need one of her emergency persons, so we floo-ed up Harry.” Charlie nodded his head. “And Harry left the note for you to come here, because he didn’t know where you were either.”

“And have they said anything about Hermione since she got here?” Charlie asked.

“No,” Neville said. “They just said that she’ll be fine. They haven’t said anything else though.”

“So why did you want to talk to Draco?” Charlie directed his next question to Lucius.

Lucius looked at Charlie with a slight wrinkle in his brow. “Can’t a father talk to his son?”

“Not when that father hasn’t talked to him in seven years,” Charlie bit out. “No, you can’t just talk to him whenever you want unless you have good reason.”

“No matter,” Lucius said while looking away. “The trip may prove futile anyway.”

Charlie stared at the blonde aristocrat for a few moments until it snapped in his head. “You think that you can just waltz back into his life after seven years just because you have an heir now!?” he practically screamed.

“Listen,” Lucius said, putting on a false smile and obviously trying to be polite. “The only reason that I disowned him in the first place is because he would not be providing an heir to the fortune if he was in a relationship with another wizard. It was not you particularly that I had any vendetta against. I have spent my entire life trying to raise the fortune that had been passed to me, and I wanted Draco to be able to take part in that. If he didn’t have an heir, then who would it go to when he died?”

“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘and heir and a spare?’” Charlie said. “You’re supposed to have two in case something like this happens.”

“But I did not have two,” Lucius said. “I have Draco. And Draco has you, and now Miss Granger as well. And if he has a son or daughter, then he has an heir. And if he has an heir, I can pass on the fortune to him.”

“And you don’t care that ‘Miss Granger’ is a muggle-born? Or is it better that than nothing at all?”

Lucius gave him a wry look. “I would not explain any of this to you if you were not the most important thing in my son’s life.”

Charlie grinned. “That’s good, because I would never talk to you if you weren’t my lover’s father.”

“Can we please stop arguing?” Harry asked softly. Jamie was cradled against Harry’s shoulder, fast asleep, and Neville was looking nervously between Lucius and Charlie. Charlie sat back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. Lucius seemed to sit higher in his seat.

“So what happened to Ron?” Charlie asked. “Away at Azkaban, I hope.”

Neville smiled. “Nope.”

“What?” Charlie asked vehemently.

“He’s gagged and tied to a chair in your bedroom. I forgot to mention that,” Neville said. “While Lucius did the pillowing charm, I stupefied Ron.”

Charlie smiled broadly. “Finally.”

“I knew that you would want to get some revenge before they sent him away,” Harry said. “So when I showed up and they had him there, I tied him up and put him in the room. I’ll admit, he already has a broken nose.” Harry shook out his hand as if it still hurt from the punch.

“Well, that’s one of eight,” Charlie said softly.

“What?” Harry asked.

“Nothing,” Charlie said.

“There’s Draco and Hermione!” Neville said, pointing down the hall. Draco had his arm around Hermione’s waist and he was walking them both down the hall. Neither of them were smiling, but neither of them were crying either, so they weren’t sure what to make of it.

They walked back to the waiting room to be met with four expectant faces, hope shining in all their eyes. “So are you okay?” Harry asked.

“Of course,” Hermione smiled. “Of course I’m fine.”

“And the baby?” Charlie asked.

Draco smiled and everyone sighed. “Fine,” he said.

“Oh, Merlin,” Charlie said, his head going into his hands. “Oh, thank Godric for that.” He got up and hugged Hermione and Draco tightly.

Hermione hugged and kissed them both and then walked over to Neville and hugged him and thanked him for being there and—to everyone’s surprise—she went over to Lucius and hugged him, thanking him for saving her as well. She then went to Harry and took Jamie into her arms. He was sleeping like a rock.

“Here, let me take him, Hermione,” Charlie said, holding the boy with much more ease than Hermione could.

“Well, I’ll be off,” Neville said. “I’m so glad that you and the baby are all right, Hermione.” He smiled.

“Thanks so much, Neville,” Hermione said.

“Yes, thank you, Longbottom,” Draco added.

Neville apparated away. “I’d like to come back with you,” Harry said. Charlie nodded but Hermione and Draco looked confused.

“Harry’s got a gift for us back at the flat,” Charlie said with a smile.

“I would still like to have a word with my son as well,” Lucius said. “If you wouldn’t mind me going with you.”

Draco again looked at his estranged father. “Fine,” he said.

The six of them apparated back to the flat and went inside. Charlie and Harry showed Draco what their gift was, and Draco smiled broadly at the wide eyes of Ron as Ron saw the three of them standing in the doorway. They closed the door, however, and went back into the kitchen.

“I guess I need to have a word with my father,” Draco said.

“Privately,” Lucius said.

Charlie started to argue, but Hermione just pulled him away from the scene. It was obvious that Draco wanted privacy as well. They took Jamie into his bedroom to take the nap he obviously needed and then they went with Harry back to their bedroom to wait out the conversation between Draco and Lucius.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

“So what do I owe the pleasure?” Draco asked snidely after he had put up the silencing charms. “Come to cut your heir out of her stomach?”

“Come now, Draco,” Lucius said. “That’s a bit melodramatic.”

“Melodramatic?” Draco asked. “I think disowning your son is a bit melodramatic!”

“That was seven years ago, Draco.”

“And you haven’t talked to me since then!?” Draco said. “You booted me out on my own. No family, nothing! And it doesn’t help that Charlie’s family hates me as well. And Hermione’s been forced to spend Christmas with them every year, and I have been left alone for most holidays for the last seven years. No, that didn’t hurt one bit, father. And now that I’ve finally got everything figured out, that I’m finally going to be able to have a normal family and a normal Christmas, you have to come along and destroy that for me!”

“I’m not trying to destroy that, Draco.”

“So you haven’t come here to whisk off my firstborn to your little Pureblood prep school?” Draco asked mockingly.

“Draco, it’s tradition. Every Malfoy has been trained at that school before going to Hogwarts. I’m not going to make an exception just because your son isn’t Pureblood.”

“That school is just full of bigotry and fascist ideals about Pureblood superiority. I will not have any of my children going there, especially with their mother being a muggle-born.”

“All of the Weasleys went to that school as well, Draco.” He got closer to Draco and pulled out the chain from under Draco’s shirt, letting the gold ring fall back against his chest. “Your husband went to that school. It wasn’t the school that taught you to behave like that; it was, unfortunately, my ideals that corrupted your youth. And I am sorry about that, but I will never force that onto any of your children.”

Draco just stood there. He wasn’t sure how to take this side of his father. Before the war, his father had been a Purist, wanting nothing to do with muggles or muggle-borns or blood traitors like the Weasleys. It was strange to see him accepting of the fact that he had a muggle-born and Weasley for his lovers. But, he supposed, a half-blood heir was better than no heir at all. “And you don’t care if your heir is a girl?” Draco asked.

“Is it a girl?” Lucius asked—he and Longbottom had been arguing back and forth about what it would be before they found Hermione and…what did Draco call him…the Weasel? Longbottom said that his wife had a ‘feeling’ that it was going to be a girl, but Lucius was desperately hoping for a boy.

“Yes,” Draco said. “Yes, it’s a girl.”

“Well, she is still a Malfoy. It’s still in her blood.”

Draco nodded, seemingly happy with the answer. “Don’t worry, father, you’ll get your male heir,” Draco said, looking towards the bedroom.

“You’re planning on having more children?” Lucius asked.

“No, just this once,” he said.

“Then how will I get a male heir?”

“It’s a boy.”

Lucius glared at his son. Was he joking? “You just said it was a girl.”

“It is a girl,” Draco said.

“But, then…” Lucius did not like being confused, and he knew by the smirk on Draco’s face that the boy was deliberately trying to confuse him. So instead of bumbling like an idiot, he took a moment to think. Unless Draco’s child was a hermaphrodite (which Draco would not be smiling if that were so), there was only one other way… “It’s a girl and a boy?” Lucius asked.

“Spot on, father,” Draco smiled. “Twins.”

Lucius smiled as well. “That’s great news, Draco. They will both go to the Royal Academy and…”

“Father, I need to speak with Hermione and Charlie about this before you plan anything for my children's future. And let me tell you, they will not be easily persuaded.”

“I understand,” Lucius said. He looked at his son with a genuine smile. “I really do apologise for ostracising you for so many years. It was not the right thing for me to do as your father. Your mother has missed you grievously as well; she would love it if you were to come to dinner tomorrow evening with Miss Granger and Mr Weasley.”

“I’ll ask them, but again, they have never been on your fortunate side.”

“Of course,” Lucius said. “Just send an owl if you are unable to make it.”

“I will, father,” Draco said. “But now I have to go skin a Weasel. He’ll be begging for the Dementor’s kiss when we’re through with him.”