Love Thy Enemy

CHAPTER 37: The Stick


“Come on Hermione, just pee on the stick.” Ginny said handing the little plastic stick to Hermione.


“I don’t want to, it’s the flu, and it will go away.” Hermione insisted. She had left Lucius asleep in her bed when she had stumbled into the bathroom to throw up, again. Unfortunately Ginny had seen her and followed her in.


“Mione, sweetie you have been sick for the last month. It’s not the flu. Pee on the damned stick!” She growled.


“Where did you get it anyhow?” Hermione asked staring at the box in Ginny’s hand.


“London. I’m gonna turn around now, and you are going to pee on the stick.” Ginny turned her back and waited, smiling when she heard the sounds of Hermione grumbling as she followed the directions.


“Now what?” She asked, setting the stick on the edge of the tub and washing her hands in the sink.


“Now you brush your teeth so your breath doesn’t smell like vomit when you tell your husband he’s going to be a father.” Ginny handed Hermione her toothbrush with a smile.


“I think I would know if I were pregnant, Ginny.” Hermione shook her head and set about brushing her teeth. Ginny picked up the pregnancy test and sat on the closed lid of the toilet. She watched as one line, and then another showed up on the test. She picked up the box and compared the pictures, then smiled.


“Apparently you don’t know squat about your body, Mione. Or should I call you Mummy?” Ginny handed her the stick and the box.


“Are you serious?” Hermione compared the results of the test to the photo on the box. “That idiot! I told him a million times not to forget! I can’t take the potion, it makes me sick and he promised he would remember!” Hermione sat on the side of the tub and stared at the two lines on the pregnancy test.

“Is it so bad?” Ginny asked. “You’re going to have a baby, Mione.”


Hermione closed her eyes and tears seeped from beneath her lashes to roll down her face.


“Not bad, just bad timing. Ginny my life is a mess. What right do I have bringing a child into it?” Hermione had just made the decision to try and work on her marriage less than a day before, and now she had to consider the child’s future as well.


“You don’t want to have it?”


“Of course I do! I just wish that Lucius and I were in a better place. I told him we could work on things but I wanted to take it slow. Now I get to tell him that he not only has to worry about our relationship, but he has to prepare for the birth of the first half-blood Malfoy.” Hermione leaned forward and rested her head on the rim of the sink. “Nothing is ever easy for me.”


“Oh, I hadn’t thought about how he would react. Do you think he’s going to be upset to have fathered a half-blood?” Ginny was rubbing her back. She really felt bad for Hermione, but she was also thrilled and slightly jealous that she was pregnant. Ginny hadn’t been able to convince Harry that the time was right yet.


“I don’t know, but it is all his fault.” Hermione suddenly felt her temper rise. She was out the door quickly, stomping down the hall to her room with Ginny right behind her.


Lucius wasn’t where she had left him. The blankets on her empty bed were shoved aside but most of his clothes still littered the floor next to it.


“Where in the hell did he wander off to?” Hermione frowned.


“Maybe he went down for tea?” Ginny followed her down the stairs, practically slamming into her back when she stopped in the kitchen doorway.


Lucius stood in front of the sink, staring out the window with his back to them. He was wearing only his leather trousers and socks and looked very much like some Norse god standing there in the sunlight.


“Holy shit, Mione. Your husband is hot as hell.” Ginny whispered, gawking at the half clothed wizard in her kitchen.


“Yeah, he is.” Hermione couldn’t help but admire the broad, muscular back and shoulders, and tight backside encased in dark leather.


“Should I turn around so the two of you can ogle the front now?” Lucius asked, looking back over his shoulder.


“Yes please.” Ginny said brightly. Lucius laughed and turned around, leaning back against the counter with his ankles crossed as he drank from a Hogwarts mug. “Damn, Mione.”


“What are you two doing lurking in the doorway?” Harry asked, sneaking up behind them.


“Staring at Lucy.” Ginny said, looking over at Harry with his hair all mussed and wearing his sleep pants and t-shirt.


“Oh, could you move so I can get some coffee?” He asked, stepping past them into the kitchen. “Morning, Lucius. Feeling better?”


“I was until your wife called me Lucy.” Lucius frowned.


“She always calls you that.” Harry yawned and fell into a chair at the table.


“How nice. So why exactly are the two of you standing there ogling me while I have my coffee?” Lucius asked.


Ginny nudged Hermione into the kitchen and then fell into the chair next to Harry.

“Hey, Mione. Heard you getting sick again, you alright?” Harry asked. He was groggy and waiting for the coffee to kick in.


Lucius set his cup in the sink and put his hands on Hermione’s shoulders.


“You sick, love?” He asked with concern.


“Sort of.” Hermione said as she looked back over her shoulder at Ginny. Her friend was sitting there expectantly, anxious to see the fireworks. Hermione probably should tell him privately, but she couldn’t wait.


“She’s been sick for a month but she won’t go to the healer.” Harry jumped when Ginny slapped him on the back of his head.


“What’s wrong with you? Did you catch something?” Lucius laid his hand against her forehead to ascertain if she was feverish.

“Just you.” She said. Ginny snickered from the table.


“What?” Lucius looked confused.


“You are an idiot, Lucius. You told me you would remember, but you didn’t did you? You only remembered half the time.” Hermione said, her face reddening.


“Love, I am completely lost. What did I forget?” He asked. What had he done now to make her upset?


“You forgot the contraceptive charm, Lucius. That army of half-blood Malfoys now has its first soldier.” It took a moment for her words to register. Lucius’s eyes widened his jaw dropped.


“Baby?” It was the only word he could manage.


“Yeah, baby.” Hermione handed him the little test stick. He had no idea what he was looking at. It was a white stick with a blue tip and two blue lines on it.

“What is this?” He asked.


“Muggle pregnancy test. Two lines mean you are a daddy.” Hermione said, waiting for his reaction.


“There are two lines.” He said, staring at the test. He smiled and looked up at Hermione. “So I’m going to be a father again?”


“Looks that way.” Hermione was caught off guard when Lucius grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. He was hugging her so tight she could barely breathe.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” He whispered again and again into her ear.


Ginny was crying and reaching for Harry’s hand as she watched. She wanted a baby too. Harry pushed his glasses up and stared at his wife. She had been on him for the last six months to have a baby, and he suspected that things were going to amp up soon on that front.

“I’m so happy for you both! Your first baby, how exciting!” Ginny said, wiping her eyes.


“First of many.” Lucius said, pulling away from Hermione and pushing her curls back off of her face.


“I was joking about the army of half-blood Malfoys taking over, Lucius.” Hermione said, amazed at how well he was taking it.


“An army isn’t necessary. I just want my own Quidditch team.” She would have laughed, but he looked very serious.


“You aren’t kidding are you?” Hermione asked.


“No, I want lots of children. I always did. Narcissa didn’t want any more after Draco.” Lucius stepped back and smiled. He couldn’t help it, he was just damned happy. “I can’t wait to tell Draco.”


“Lucius, I’m glad you are happy, but this….”


“Doesn’t fix everything, I know.” He took her hand and pushed her wedding rings back onto her finger. “But it is an amazing start. I really am happy, love.”


“Even though it won’t be a pureblood?” She asked.


“If you had asked me six months ago it may have mattered, but now I could care less. I’ll do it right this time.” He gave her a quick, soft kiss. “Now, I want to have you seen by my family physician and I really want to see you wearing something other than Harry’s workout clothes.”


Hermione looked down at the oversized knit pants and the sweatshirt that hung to her knees. They were a far cry from her wardrobe at the manor, but she hadn’t wanted to go home to retrieve her clothes. She wouldn’t have put it past him to lock her in the dungeons or to tie her to their bed.


“I’ll go home with you to see the healer and get some clothes, but I am not moving back yet. You promised we would go slow and work on our relationship and I expect you to honor that despite the pregnancy.”


“I’ll do whatever you want, love. Whatever it takes to fix our family.” He said, smiling still.


“Don’t look so pleased with yourself Lucius or I’m going to start thinking you did it on purpose.” Hermione said, turning to leave the kitchen with the smiling Lucius following right behind her.


“Isn’t it wonderful?” Ginny asked Harry. “Mione is having a baby.”

Harry looked at his wife’s wistful expression and tried to imagine what she would look like pregnant.

“It’s nice. Lucius seems pretty happy, though Mione seems a little dumbfounded. You really are ready to start a family aren’t you?”


“I was ready the moment we said I do.” Ginny smiled. “But I don’t want to do it until you are ready. I don’t want you to have any regrets.”


“We’ll talk about it tonight, when I get home from work.” He smiled at her and pushed himself up from the table. He stroked his finger down the bridge of her nose. “Hold off on taking the potion till then.”


Ginny watched him walk away with a giddy feeling in her stomach and a smile as bright as Lucius’s on her face.


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There ya go…….now he gets to woo his wife.