The Prince and the Slave

Part 25

###Dream Sequence###

Draco hugged himself closer to Harry. The cold morning caused him to shiver, which caused Harry to tighten his hold on him. He wasn’t complaining. He didn’t care that they were standing in the middle of the court yard, nor did he care for the dozens of people around them waiting for the king and prince to leave for war. Draco didn’t want to let Harry go. The fear of him never returning scared Draco more that anything, the fear of never being in his arms gain, he’d never been so scared to loose something in his life. He closed his eyes, wanting to stay in this moment for ever.

But it was not meant to be. After a few moments he felt his husbands arms start to loosen its grip on him. He new he had to let Harry go, but he couldn’t get his hands to listen. It took Harry’s gentleness to move him away before he could let go. Once he was a foot away from his husband, he looked up only to be met by a kiss, the kiss was gentle and sweet, but spoke volumes of the love they held for each other. Harry was the first to break the kiss and moved his mouth to hover outside of Draco’s left ear. “I’ll always love you Draco.”

A tear escaped Draco’s eye. “I love you to.”

Harry brought a hand up to wipe the stray tear away. “I will come back to you. I promise that I will.”

Draco gave him a watery smile. “You had better you prat.”

Harry nodded softly and gave Draco another swift kiss, before he turned around and walked towards his horse. He quickly mounted and turned give a quick nod at his father, who was waiting on his horse right next to him.

“I’m ready father.”

Both nodded in apprehensiveness and began to guide their horses towards the court yard’s exit. Right before they left through the exit he turned his head one last time to look at the man he loved, and swore to himself right then. He swore that he would come back. Not for himself, but for Draco.

###End Dream Sequence###

Draco was brought out of his dream by a persistent shake on his shoulder. He rolled over and buried his head under the pillow, giving a muffled go away.

Hermione, who had in fact been trying to wake up Draco for the past fifteen minutes, wasn’t going to hear it. She had plenty of experience in getting Draco awake. It was always a morning ritual to get him to wake up. He was such a heavy sleeper. She reached down and plucked the pillow out of Draco’s grasp.

Draco let out a whine when he felt the warmth of his pillow, which just happened to smell like a certain someone, ripped from his hands. But once he relized that the incessant shaking on his shoulder wasn’t going to go away, he peeked one eye open. He took one look at Hermione before he decided that there was no way he was going to get anymore sleep. Groggily he sat up in his bed and stretched his arms above his head. He looked over again at Hermione. “What time is it?”

Hermione smiled, glad that he was finally up. “A little after eight.”

Draco’s eyes grew wide. “Eight… Why in the hell are you getting me up this early? I want to go back to bed.” He said, barely audibly, and started to move his body to lie back down on the bed.

Hermione wasn’t going to let him get the chance, she quickly grasped Draco’s hand and hauled the tired boy out of the bed. “Oh no you don’t. You have to get up. We are having breakfast with the queen, and then you have your medical appointment.”

At the words, Medical Appointment, Draco became fully awake. He had been looking forward to this day. He was finally going to find out if he was pregnant. It had weighed heavily on his mind these past weeks. He looked back at Hermione. “Why didn’t you say so? Where are my clothes?”

Hermione let out a sigh. “I have been trying to tell you for over fifteen minutes!” At times she wondered why she had agreed to work as a servant for Draco while the war was going on. Who was she kidding, she knew why. She and Draco had been friends since he was six and she enjoyed taking care of him. She shook her head again and pointed to the chair next to the bed that held Draco’s cloths. She watched as he stripped out of his pajamas, not being ashamed of being naked in her presence, after all she had seen him naked many times.

Draco quickly put on his clothes and went over and sat in front of the vanity mirror. He watched Hermione in the mirror as she walked over and grabbed a comb, gently running it through his hair. “Hermione, I am glad you decided to stay here with me while Harry is away. I would go nuts being all alone.”

Hermione gave him a smile. She knew that Draco hated being alone. It came from his forced isolation during most of his life. She was more than happy to be here with him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. “I am happy to be able to stay with you Draco, you’re my friend.” She quickly finished with his hair and placed the comb on the desk. She then walked around the chair and helped Draco stand up. “Come on, Queen Lilly is probably already waiting for us.” Draco nodded and walked out the door along with her.

After a few moments they both came to the door leading to the dining room. Draco was the first to walk in and take noticed that Queen Lilly indeed had already arrived. He nodded in a greeting manner. “Mother.”

Lilly gave her son-in-law a smile. “Good morning Draco. How are you feeling today?”

Draco took a seat across from the queen and watched as Hermione took a seat beside him before addressing the Queens question. “I’m fine, thank you.”

Lilly let her gaze drift from Draco to Hermione. “Did it take you long to get him up?” She knew that Draco was a very heavy sleeper and also that he usually did not get up until after ten.

Hermione nodded sadly. “Yeah, over fifteen minutes today.”

Draco noticed the look of sympathy that the Lilly gave Hermione and let out a humph. “It’s not like I am that bad.”

Hermione and Lilly decided not to pressure it. So Lilly decided to speak next. “Are you excited about today Draco?”

Draco let out a big grin. “You bet I am! You are going to be there, right?”

Lilly nodded happily. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. We will leave together as soon as we are done eating.” It was then that the servants brought in the food and together the three of them started to eat pleasantly.

~~~~~~~~~~~

After they got done eating the trio walked towards the infirmary. Draco was a bundle of nerves the whole way there. He couldn’t decide what answer he wanted. Was he pregnant or not. On the one part being pregnant and feeling as a part of Harry grew inside of him was great, but if he wasn’t pregnant then he could go out to the front and see him. He learned quickly these past three weeks how much he missed his husband. He let out a sigh.

Apparently his sigh was heard since the queen stopped and turned towards him. She looked at him for a moment, noticing his crestfallen face. “What’s the matter Draco?”

Draco pondered lying to her for a moment, but remembered Harry telling him that his mother could always sniff out a lie. He bit his lip a moment, before speaking. “I guess I am just nervous is all.”

Lilly peered at him a moment. “Why Draco? You have been looking forward to this day.”

Draco started to play with a strand of his hair. It was a sure sign that he was either scared or nervous. “I know, it just I miss Harry I guess.” He looked off to the side so as not to meet their eyes.

Lilly placed her hands on his shoulders and gave him a sad smile. “I miss James and Harry. You are not alone in this. Sometimes it feels like I miss them so much that I can’t even think straight. But they will be back Draco. You have my word on it.”

Draco gave her a short nod before they continued walking towards the infirmary. It only took them a few moments before they were actually there. Draco sat on the nearest bed with Hermione taking the chair to his left. The queen had gone off to get Madam Pomfery.

When Madam Pomfery walked into the room she went straight to Draco and gave him a big smile. “How are you feeling today?”

Draco looked at her a moment before replying. “I am fine.”

Madam Pomfery could tell that Draco was nervous, so she decided against delaying. Quickly she walked over towards her table and walked back with a vile filled with a light blue liquid. “Albus left me this to test you for pregnancy. Since I have never dealt with a male pregnancy before, it’s the only way I know to find out.”

Draco eyed the liquid in the vial. “Do I have to drink it?”

Madam Pomfery held back an amused smile. “No, you don’t have to drink it, in fact, the only thing I need is a little bit of your blood.”

Draco’s pale face got even paler and he squeaked out a response. “Blood!”

Madam Pomfery looked to the queen for a moment before turning her gaze back to Draco. “Yes, just a little drop of blood. All I will need to do is prick your finger with this.” She held up a sewing needle that she had sterilized earlier.

Draco shook his head frantically. “No way. I am NOT giving you any of my blood.” He started to get off the bed, but he was stopped by a hand on both of his arms. To his right was Hermione and to his left was Queen Lilly.

Queen Lilly sent him a mild glare. “Oh no you don’t. You are going to sit there and take this test. Do you understand me?”

Draco let out a gulp and sent a pleading look to Hermione. To his disappointment he was only met with the side of Hermione’s face. It was obvious that Hermione was not going to look him in the eye in order to keep herself from buckling. Desperate he sent his now pleading gaze to the nurse herself.

Madam Pomfery met his stare evenly with a cool gaze. Through her nursing experiences she had learned to not let looks stop her from doing anything. She had to, if she was going to take care of Harry. He always used to use looks on her to get his way. At first he succeeded, but it didn’t take long for her to become immune. After a moment Draco sighed and turned his body towards Hermione, who wrapped him up in a hug.

Madam Pomfery reached down and grabbed a hold of his hand. She felt how clammy it was and felt the slight shivers run down him. She didn’t know why Draco was acting like this, but one look at Hermione and she held her peace. The nurse quickly pricked the tip of one of Draco’s fingers, ignoring the flinch that came from the blonde, and held the finger over the vile of liquid.

After a moment a single drop of blood dropped into the liquid below. She moved the vile away and pressed a cloth to Draco’s finger to let the blood clot. She then proceeded to put a cap on the vile and started to shake it. “The moment of truth.”

Everyone looked at the liquid in the vial, including Draco. After a moment the light blue liquid started to change colors. It went from light blue to orange then to pink and finally it stopped at a deep blue color. Draco looked from the now dark blue liquid to the nurse. “What does it mean?”

Madam Pomfery gave him a big grin. “Congratulations, you’re pregnant.”

Draco broke out into a grin and was quickly enveloped into a hug from both Hermione and Queen Lilly. He was being congratulated from both sides, but his thoughts were on the little life growing inside of him. He placed his hand over his belly and gave it a few light pats. He couldn’t wait to meet his child. All his doubts that he had the last few weeks, quickly evaporated.

He sat patiently through an hour long lecture from madam Pomfery about eating habits, and medical check ups. Finally after an hour he was able to slip away from the group to go write a letter to his husband. Once he was out of the room Madam Pomfery turned to Hermione. “Hermione, why was Draco so scared about his blood?”

Queen Lilly’s interest was peaked as well and she looked from Madam Pomfrey to Hermione, she sat there a moment before answering. “When Draco was young, he had a problem with his blood not clotting, he almost died one time when he had a nose bleed. But he grew out of it eventually; he is still scared that he will bleed to death.”

All three ladies cast sympathetic looks towards the infirmary door. All three of them made a vow that they would make Draco’s pregnancy as easy as possible. On the other side of the castle, Draco was writing a much expected letter to Harry. But he couldn’t help but wonder, what was happening on the front?

TBC…