Pictures

Draco sat in the meeting listening to Percy Weasley drone on and on as he exalted their supervisor, Mr. Lightbody with obvious manipulative praise. Honestly, who did he think he was fooling? He was doodling on the parchment in front of him, practicing writing out the names that he and Hermione had decided to give their boys. Aidan, Alistair and Abraxas or Abraxas, Aidan and Alistair? He decided that he liked the first order. Hermione had finally caved on the name Abraxas and he conceded Aidan to her. They both agreed on Alistair.

The meeting was coming to a close and as Mr. Lightbody lifted the silencing charm on the room he’d cast so they wouldn’t be disturbed, Draco heard agitated voices outside the door.

“Please, I can’t let you talk to him until the meeting is finished Mrs. Malfoy,” he heard the voice of Dennis Creevey say.

“Don’t-call-me-that!” Draco recognized Hermione’s voice and his stomach plummeted. This could not be good. A second later there was a slight yelp and the doors to the meeting room burst open and his wife stood there, eerily calm since she had just body bound a former housemate and intruded on a private ministry meeting.

“You!” She fixed him with a stare that could melt stone and he watched as the air around her sizzled with her reined in magic. She was wearing a flowing white dress and simple gold hoop earrings and she looked like an avenging angel. He had no doubt that in her current state she could cause locusts to fall from the sky. However, she schooled her features and regarded him with distaste. “We need to talk.”

Not even Percy objected and as Draco watched his fellow employees leave the room, he wished that one of them would be nosy enough to stay behind and at least witness his murder. When the room was empty except for the two of them, he finally rose from his seat and walked over to stand in front of her.

“How could you?” she asked, shaking with rage. “I actually thought you cared about me, never mind didn’t think so little of me that you’d manipulate my life and my body like this!”

“How could I do what?” he asked and he let the cold, indifferent mask slip onto his face.

“Don’t! Don’t you dare put that face on with me! You know perfectly well what I’m talking about! I didn’t get pregnant on accident, you’ve practically raped me!”

“So you found out about me pushing things along, so what? Do you suddenly not want my devil spawn in you anymore?”

“No, but I would have liked a choice in the matter! You purposely drugged me so that I’d get pregnant! I should have known that something was up when you didn’t flip out. I’ve been going this whole time thinking that I had some control over my life and the decisions I made, but you’ve been playing me like a violin and pulling strings like a puppet master!”

“So I wanted you to get pregnant. You were happy enough with the situation until you found out about the potion. Why does it matter?” He crossed his arms in front of her in a defensive stance.

“It matters because you took the choice completely away from me and I can’t even divorce you over it!” Her wand was sparking now. “Our deal was to get married and stay married until the end of our bargain and then assess the situation from there. I’ve just been to the department of domestic affairs where they informed me that unless you have attempted to murder me I can’t even file for a separation. You blatantly took advantage of my lack of knowledge regarding wizarding marriage!” She was stamping her foot now and for a woman pregnant with triplets, she was moving around quite quickly.

“I never lied to you, I just left things out. You weren’t unhappy in our situation, so I repeat, why does it matter now?” Draco was getting very nervous. She had gone to file for divorce? Thank Merlin he had gone this route. She couldn’t leave him. This was all worth it, right?

“I was happy! I really and truly enjoyed spending time with you, I liked making love with you and I loved the fact that you were being so supportive of what I thought was a surprise pregnancy and it was all a lie! I thought you actually cared about me and not just getting your rocks off. The reason I’m upset is because none of it was real! We were lying to the public, our friends and family and you were lying to me! How could you?”

“How could I? Let’s not forget that you never would have stayed if I hadn’t started blackmailing you. You whored yourself out to me for your brother’s safety and when that was over and done with if I wanted to keep you, I had to have something to make you stay. You wouldn’t stay for money, but you’d stay for my children.”

She took two steps forward with tears gleaming in her eyes and slapped him across the face. His head swung back and his jaw ached. He already hated himself for what he’d said to her. She was right. He was a foul, loathsome, evil, little cockroach.

“I’m leaving. I can’t divorce you, but there’s no law that says I have to live with you. I’ll owl you when the boys are born.” Tears were now streaming down her face and her shoulders trembled.

No! She couldn’t leave! He panicked. As much as he hated himself before, he still couldn’t hate himself as much as he would after his next sentence came out. “If you move out, I’ll print those pictures,” he said quietly.

She turned to face him. “What?” Her eyes looked at him as if for the first time.

“I’ll print them. You don’t need to be like this. We were happy before. You’re staying, unless you want the entire wizarding world to know that you’re much more than the good little girl they know and love. Don’t make me print those, Hermione, I care about you more than you’ll ever know. I never wanted to hurt you, but I had to do what was necessary to keep you. You said yourself that you never would have stayed if it hadn’t been for the pictures. Don’t make me do it.” His own eyes were burning with unshed tears as he watched her shocked face process what he’d said. She turned away from him and he felt something inside him break. However, she turned back to him, her face flushed and angry.

“You only care about yourself, Draco, and that’s what hurts the most.” Then she screwed up her face and pointed her wand at his crotch and whispered, “Reducto!”

It took him almost an hour in a ministry bathroom stall to get his manhood back to its original size. When he finally achieved it, he spent the next half hour crying. It was almost like being in sixth year again, crying alone in a bathroom stall. Finally, he pulled himself together and left work. When he got home, Hermione was there and she also had been crying.