Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Twenty Three

The only thing Draco could do right now was keep walking. He\'d had no idea
what ungodly reason Harry would follow him straight into Slytherin territory
for, but he decided to save the other boy the trouble of getting caught. He
wasn\'t ready to talk to Harry about what had happened, having no idea what
the hell he\'d say anyway. Draco had made an excuse and started down another
hall, knowing that Harry would come running after him.

When he\'d heard what Harry said, he immediately wished he\'d stayed with the
group instead of making time for the Gryffindor. He couldn\'t even respond,
not knowing what he should say. So, all he could do was turn and walk away
from it, leaving an undoubtedly upset Harry in his wake. What could he have
said, anyway? That he was such an idiot not to think of that before, or be
an arse and tell Harry that it wasn\'t his problem?

Draco slammed the door shut to the Slytherin dormitory, not caring if it
startled anyone or not. He\'d never had to be ginger with anything before, no
one would say a word to him about it anyway. He sneered at a few of his
house mates that turned to stare at him, and they quickly looked away as he
stalked by them. He was glad Blaise wasn\'t in their room when he went
inside, slamming that door, too. Draco slumped himself down on his bed,
wondering what he was going to do.

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Harry had managed to escape from the wrong side of the castle without too
much confrontation. A Ravenclaw Prefect had stopped him, but his excuse of
going for a walk seemed to be acceptable, even though she had raised an
eyebrow, and he had made off down the hall as quickly as he could. His mind
was reeling, and all he really wanted to do was to have that nap. Maybe he
could start over, and pretend he never told Draco anything, or at least not
have told him the way he did.

He didn\'t think he\'d make it through Herbology, and when that was over, he
still wondered how he\'d managed to answer any of Professor Sprout\'s
questions. She seemed to think his leaning over the table, head propped up
on his elbow, trying to keep his eyes open was him paying attentio heo her.
Well, he supposed he was trying to do that instead of fall asleep, or let
his mind drift off to things he\'d rather not think about right now. By the
time lunch rolled around, he was hungry again, and was glad for the break.

It seemed like they hadn\'t had two hours off during the time when they
should have had Potions, or at least it felt that way to Harry. He and
Hermione had made it to the table and sat down, waiting for Ron. He\'d had
some trouble with his plant, it having twisted its way from its pot to
inhabit a nearby watering can, poking Ron\'s fingers when he tried to pull it
out. There didn\'t seem to be any announcements, so the food appeared, and
they started into their mid-day meal.

Ron trudged in not a minute later, holding a bandaged hand. Harry felt bad
he didn\'t stay to help, but was still glad his fingers weren\'t bleeding. Ron
sat down and made a pained face at his friends before picking up his fork.
\"Uhm,\" he saimomemoment later, drawing both his friends\' attention.

Hermione frowned, unused to seeing Ron holding a fork with not a bit of food
on it. \"What is it?\" she asked, and Harry looked at him after putting a
slice of ham on his plate.

\"It\'s a letter... to Harry,\" he said, sounding quite confused, as he picked
it up off the table and handed it across to his friend. Harry looked at it,
and took it from Ron when he passed it over the table. Quickly, Harry looked
around them, and no one else seemed to be watching. Sure enough, it did have
his name on it: H. Potter.

He slid his finger under the blank seal, popping it open and sliding out the
piece of parchment that was inside. The first thing he did was look to the
bottom, where there was an ornate capital D. Harry tried not to smile; Draco
must have came over to the Gryffindor table and put the note under the fork,
simply assuming Harry would have sat there. Well, he was close, Harry
thought. Though somehow he couldn\'t picture Draco watching him from across
the Great Hall.

Ron and Hermione watched as Harry read. They shared a look with each other,
already knowing who it would have been from. \"He want\'s to talk to me,\"
Harry said quietly, careful not to mention who, exactly. He folded the note
and slipped it back into the envelope, which he reached around and shoved
into his bag. \"I talked to him earlier, and he just... walked away.\"

Ron scoffed and Hermione threw a pea at him, having been dishing up her
lunch while Ron glared at the note while Harry read. Ron mumbled something,
and started to gather food to his plate as well. \"Um,\" Harry started as he
sat up from his seat, stepping over the bench and hefting his book bag back
on his shoulder. \"I\'ll meet you guys here before class starts, okay?\"

They both nodded, not knowing what to say, but Hermione managed a, \"See you
later,\" as Harry left. They did understand that Harry didn\'t want anyone
else to know, and they respected that. It really wasn\'t something that
needed to be publicized. They were all still friends, even if it was a bit
tense between them right now. They were glad Harry was being honest with
them, and glad they knew where he was going, even if they didn\'t like it.

It felt to them as if Harry was back in their life more than he had been for
the past couple weeks, and that was a good thing. They just hoped he
wouldn\'t bring Malfoy back with him, imposing him more than he already was
on them just by being ie sae same school. Harry grabbed a sandwich off a
plate on his way down the table, squeezing his arm between Colin and Ginny
to snatch it up. They were too busy looking at pictures to notice, and Harry
made his way out the door, chewing as he went.

Draco was waiting in the Prefect\'s room, absently picking at a string
hanging from the seam of a cushion that was sitting beside him on the couch.
A lot of questions had went through his mind during the time he\'d had to
think about things since this morning. One of the most ugly was, \'Is it
mine?\' It was actually the first to slip to the tip of his tongue after he\'d
made sure he heard Harry right, but he\'d held it back.

He hadn\'t noticed Harry going around with any other guys, and believe him,
he kept an eye on the other boy; he would have known. The only other
students Harry spent time with were the Weasel and the Mudblood, and Draco
was pretty sure those two fancied each other. That left it pretty clear for
a fact that it couldn\'t be Weasley\'s. Draco grimaced, not caring at all to
think of Ron\'s sex life, if he even had one.

That only left him, and he wasn\'t prepared for this at all. Draco sighed,
resting his forehead in the palm of his hand, propped on his elbow on the
arm of the couch. It was bad news on the whole, and he really didn\'t know
what to say. He\'d never been speechless in his life, and it was bothering
him. Harry probably wondered if Draco thought he was joking, or if he simply
didn\'t care.

Leave it to Potter to think he didn\'t care. Well, why should he? It wasn\'t
his problem; not really. Okay, so maybe it was his problem. It was his
child, too, and if Harry wanted to keep it, and Draco denied the
allegations, there were ways in proving him wrong. He hated being proved
wrong, and it was as rare of an occurrence as he could keep it.

Draco\'s head snapped up when he heard the latch click on the door, and saw
Harry push it open and step into the room. He sat up on the couch, and he
watched Harry walk into the room, one hand in his pocket and the other
holding the strap of his bag. Harry\'s eyes barely left Draco\'s as he came
into the room, coming to sit down on the other end of the couch from the
blond.

\"So,\" Harry said, setting his bag down in front of him, but keeping the
strap in his hands for something to fidget with. He was surprised, quite
frankly, that Draco wanted to talk to him. They\'d had a perfectly good
chance earlier, and Draco had blown him off. And that was a really bad
mental image, Harry thought, though he had to wonder if they\'d ever get that
far in any type of relationship to experience that sort of thing. Back to
the point, Harry reminded himself.

Draco cleared his throat sharply, before asking, \"How did this happen?\" He
didn\'t look at Harry, but watched the other boy\'s hands on the strap of his
bag, picking at the edge.

\"I didn\'t know,\" Harry said quietly, giving a small shrug, though since he
was staring at the floor now, he had no idea whether Draco had seen the
movement or not. Draco looked up, though, confused, and Harry continued.
\"That it could happen.\"

\"How could you not know?\" Draco asked, thinking maybe he\'d started to
overestimate Potter on his intelligence. He had to admit he didn\'t know much
about Harry, but he did know he grew up with Muggles, and that they didn\'t
teach him a damn thing; supposedly, they didn\'t even tell him he was a
wizard. Draco could barely fathom living with Muggles, or not knowing what
you arr cor could be.

Harry just shrugged, watching Draco seem to understand. The blond nodded,
and leaned back on the couch, crossing his arms loosely over his chest. To
be honest, the possibility never entered his mind more than once, and that
once was when he had been slumped over Harry\'s back, cock still inside the
other boy. A moment of sentimentality, he supposed, which he quickly
dismissed, thinking that Harry would be smart enough to use some type of
contraceptive. Even Muggles had them, so Harry couldn\'t have been that
stupid.

Again, Draco fought the urge to ask if it was his, but the reality finally
hit him. This was his child. It was a strange feeling, though nothing felt
that different. It was like a new knowledge that did the opposite of what
the meaning of knowledge was. It gave Draco a numb sort of feeling, but that
could have been the fact that it simply hadn\'t sunk in yet.

\"What are we going to do?\"

Draco barely heard Harry\'s question, falling too deeply into his own
thoughts. They couldn\'t really abort now, even if Harry would do it, which
Draco knew he wouldn\'t. Neither of them were prepared for this, but it was
too late now. He couldn\'t get rid of it, he couldn\'t kill something like
that; that was murder. Despite what his father had in mind for him, and at
that, Draco scowled at the thought, he couldn\'t kill something like that.

They needed help, Draco thought. He brought a hand up to rub at his eyes,
trying to think of what their options were. Who could they tell? He didn\'t
want this getting out, though he\'d be praised for taking Potter down a notch
by buggering him, but there was a whole other side to that. If the Death
Eaters found out anything about this, they\'d use Draco as a ploy to capture
Harry. He knew that for a fact, and he also knew that every time he left the
school, he was watched by order of his dearly incarcerated father. He knew
many Slytherins that kept tabs on Harry for their parents in the Dark
Circles.

\"Bloody hell,\" Draco said, sitting forward again, and resting his arms on
his legs, looking towards Harry again. Harry had about as many ideas as
Draco did. He was still trying to deal with being the one carrying a ch
n
not just wondering what he was going to do. Harry looked back at Draco and
didn\'t have to try hard to feel bad about the situation. At least Draco
didn\'t seem to be too angry with him. That might have been what was making
Harry uneasy right now; usually when he ticked Draco off, the other boy
started some sort of fight. Though, what was he supposed to do now, make
sick jokes about coat hangers? \"Who can we talk to about this?\"

Oh, thank Merlin one of them said something, putting gore and blood filled
thoughts out of his head, though he knew Draco still could have meant it in
the way of, \'Who can we talk to about this, so we can get rid of it?\' Harry
shrugged again, and sighed, feeling very unhelpful right now, but - wait.
\"Snape,\" Harry said suddenly.

\"Snape?\" Draco repeated, sounding almost surprised, before looking quite
angry, Harry noted. \"He isn\'t even here! We can\'t honestly wait too long on
this, Harry.\" Harry nodded, knowing that, even though the consequences or
options really hadn\'t settled in his mind yet.

\"I don\'t want to tell anyone else. McGonagall would tell Dumbledore, and I\'d
rather not,\" have him be disappointed in me, Harry was about to say, or
something like that, but he held it back, finishing with, \"have him know.\"
Harry didn\'t want to upset Draco anymore than he seemed to already be. No,
the Slytherin was more distressed than upset. Upset just didn\'t seem to be a
word that suited Draco.

Harry sighed, it seemed he couldn\'t go more than half a year or, if he was
lucky, a bit more, before getting into some sort of mess. Maybe if he asked
Dumbledore where Snape went, he could somehow contact the Potions master. He
didn\'t know what else to say, and he had to get back to the Great Hall. He
didn\'t even want to think about telling Hermione and Ron about his... more
personal situation. Harry was still having a hard time thinking that there
was a baby inside of him.

\"Great,\" he heard Draco say, more to himself than to Harry. \"Just great.\"
Draco squeezed his hands into fists, wanting to yell, or scream, or kick
something really hard. Perhaps when Snape gets back, he\'d kick him in the
groin, though that might earn him some rather nasty tasks for the detention
that particular act would give him.

They sat in silence for a moment before they heard the bell ring outside of
the room in the hall. It signaled the end of their lunch break, and there
was ten minutes to get to their next class before they would be termed late.
They both stood up at the same time, and then looked at each other, sort of
unsure of how they should part ways for the time being. They couldn\'t very
well give each other a nice peck on the lips, could they? From the look on
Draco\'s face, Harry really didn\'t think so. He opted for mumbling a, \"Bye,\"
and walked to the door. Draco followed a few feet behind, and Harry heard
him shut the door after he\'d left, but only heard a few footsteps. Harry
turned around, but Draco had already disappeared down another hall, or, for
all he knew, behind another secret Slytherin passage.

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