A House Divided

Much Later That Same Evening…

Two hours and a stroll through the pensive later found Draco and Hermione in bed. 

Like every pregnancy thus far, she’d been eager to strip him to his pale skin and shag him until he required an IV to fight dehydration and antiseptic on the cuts and scrapes. Her ability to invent charms to accommodate her awkward girth amazed and frightened him. Tonight she’d levitated herself and Draco above the bed to allow him deeper penetration in what she called the “scissor” position. Then she’d drained him four times in rapid succession until his balls filed a grievance for cruel and unusual pleasure.

“Will you acknowledge I won the bet?”

“Yes. Fine. You did state you would never produce a Gryffindor.”

“And?…”

“I’m pregnant. I can’t very well produce another Slytherin for you right now — although a voice in my head keeps saying this baby’s a Hufflepuff. You’ll have to wait a year or two. I will meet my obligations —”

“Or you could just admit I was right and stop this silliness. And if you ever deliver a Malfoy Hufflepuff, I will divorce you and put the child up for adoption. How many children do you intend to give me?”

Her smile chilled the blood in him. He’d missed something very fundamental in this ‘bet’ thing.

“Dragon, how many children do the Notts have?”

“One.”

“And the Zabinis?”

“One — thanks to my fertility potion.”

“Don’t remind me. And the Flints, the Goyles, the Akimbos, the Cowleys,  the —”

“All have one child — Hermione, why does this matter?”

“Because, my love, very soon our eldest children will be making their way in the wizarding world. Who will have the advantage — blood purists like the Nott’s and the Goyles with one child or the Malfoy dynasty we’ve created?”

Draco saw it all then — eight (or more) brilliant Malfoys with the looks and the connections to control the wizarding world. His progeny would dominate the Ministry and magical business circles with sheer numbers and sibling bonds. Their half-blood status would keep them fighting bias and discrimination wherever they found it, a legacy from their muggle-born mother. And each would be a powerful magic wielder; of that much he was certain.

There would be no division between pure-blood, half-blood and muggle-born blood status in the House of Malfoy for the first time in history.

And his lovely wife had figured this all out years ago.

“It will take decades to rid the Ministry of the rest of those pure-blood preference laws — I know; the work exhausted me when I seconded the Magical Law Enforcement department — and Voldemort’s left-over fascists will be preparing their children for a rematch. So… I decided on a long-term solution…”

Hermione chuckled as she snuggled against him, resting her baby belly on his side.

“Have you ever known me to fail multiple times at casting any charm, husband?”

“You PRETENDED to cast that contraceptive charm!?”

“Not at first — the evening we conceived Scorpius I believe I screamed ‘Gods, Malfoy! You keep this up and I’ll help you fill Slytherin House!’ and you said ‘Promise?’. We were… touching and I think we accidentally made an unbreakable vow. Once I’d researched it, I decided we might as well use our mistake to improve the wizarding world for our children.”

“You BITCHED at me! You hit me with HEAVY OBJECTS! You BROKE MY NOSE — AGAIN! Now you’re saying you KNEW you’d get pregnant EVERY FUCKING TIME!?…”

“Not ‘knew’; suspected. Just like I suspect that we will eventually produce the first Malfoy sorted into Gryffindor House and satisfy that vow — or ‘bet’, if you’d prefer. The House of Malfoy could become the first post-war pure-blood family to have its heirs sorted into every house at Hogwarts  and, eventually, the most influential post-war wizarding family in Britain.”

The Slytherin prince blinked rapidly in disbelief, uncomfortable with the inscrutable smile adorning his life partner.

“The sorting hat considered you for Slytherin, didn’t it?”

That provoked a full belly laugh from Draco’s calculating wife of 11 years as she nodded into his chest.

“Dumbledore told me during my debrief with his portrait after the Battle of Hogwarts. In the end it decided that Harry and I would make a better team in the same house. Apparently the hat still wonders if I’ve been sorted correctly.”
“And the marriage delay? You made me wait five years before you relented.”
“I had to make sure you’d stay.”

With a tenderness that brought a hitch to his breathing, Hermione lovingly smoothed the fine hairs on his cheek with the back of her hand.

“I love you, Dragon. I’ve loved you — and only you — since we shared the Heads’ tower eighth year. I… I thought you’d break my heart and leave me — or cheat on me like your pure-blood ‘boys club’.”

Scooting backwards to accommodate her bump, Hermione placed a delicate, sincere kiss on Draco’s cheek, moving swiftly to capture his lips with hers until he moaned.

“Soooo… knowing you hate to lose at anything, I made it a challenge. Be honest, Draco; you’re known as the ‘Slytherin Sex God’ for good reason.”
“Wouldn’t it have been easier to discuss it with me?” he asked, pouting at her cunning and cheek.
“Would you really have agreed to have nine —”
“Ten — Leo’s a Ravenclaw; you still owe me on that so-called ‘bet’.”
“Ten, then. Ten children? Why risk you saying ‘no’?”

His sigh acknowledged defeat. She really was the brightest magical being in a century.

“Never could outsmart you, witch!” 

Hermione shrieked in surprised delight as Draco’s mouth landed in a place where he could get even.

AN: After some prodding I've created a photo album of the eldest five Malfoys in this story: Scorpius, Cassie, Corvus, Crux and Leo. To see the images remove the space before the "p" in photobucket and the "c" in com and paste the link into your browser.

The album password is: dramione

http://s284. photobucket. com/user/t-w-o/slideshow/A%20House%20Divided%20-%20The%20Malfoy%20Dynasty

Once again I am indebted to those who took the time to try this little musing out. My feedback to the reviewers:

RavieSnake: Cockroach aptly applies to this Draco. And Hermione’s utterance about love was more frustration than truth. Hopefully the final chapter clarified her reasons for putting him through the gauntlet. 

FieryPhoenix: I’ll try — LOL!

Sherlocked17: Because he’s Slytherin, a lazy prat and wouldn’t mind a little Granger-Malfoy scampering around the manor — LOL.

Lovey_reader: I absolutely LOVE Hermione’s violent side.

LemurGirl: Indeed, this came from an abandoned plot/ending for “The Best Of…”. That story is headed in a slightly different direction as I have Draco, Hermione, Lucius, Narcissa, Pansy, Blaise, the pure-blood issues, and the Ministry to braid together into a cohesive and funny tome. But I chuckled so much with this text that I went ahead and completed the plot line and writing for posting. Plus the idea of Hermione’s magic being insufficient — for reasons revealed in this last chapter — to keep from producing Slytherins had me ROTFL.

Pickles: I know some ladies whose birth control torpedoed them while taking antibiotics as well. Guess that vow pt the whammy on Hermione's magic LOL!

Jennifer: I'm glad you enjoyed it. I do try to finish everything I start in an efficient manner so I'm hoping to have "The Best Of..." moving along again very soon. Thanks for the review!

ashho21: I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the feedback. 

Rose Davis: Thank you; have to say I never considered the story sweet given Hermione's "handling" of Draco LOL.

As with all my stories, I wrote the epilogue first so I'd know where I was headed but did not publish it as it isn't polished. Hermione's plan does indeed lead to her children doing very well in magical Britain. They acquit themselves very well, I can assure you, each landing where they are best suited. 

Thank you all, once again, for reading my stuff. I will always respond to reviews so send me your thoughts — they may help me refine “The Best Of…”.