Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Forty Three

After the two of them had woken up later that night, they had both got up
from the bed and put the rest of their clothes on. It felt slightly awkward
having slept in the same bed again, and having again ended up closer than
they were when they\'d originally went to sleep. Neither of them seemed to
want to stay in the room; Draco paced almost imperceptibly, but Harry could
tell he was in a bit of a mood. What mood, Harry had no idea, but when he
suggested they go for a walk, or something, he was glad it seemed the right
thing to say. Shouldn\'t Draco be the one being supportive of Harry\'s moods,
since he was the pregnant one, after all. He supposed it just wasn\'t like
Draco to actually know how to do that, but he still barely knew the other
boy, so how was he to judge? They kept their hoods up after they left their
room, and as they walked through the wizarding community. For all Draco
knew, someone might recognize him, since he knew he had relatives somewhere
in France, gh hgh he had no idea where.

It wasn\'t quite dark yet, hence the walk was killing time as well as
preventing Draco wearing a hole in the rug in front of the fireplace. \"We
should get some food to pack.\" It was the first thing either of them had
said since leaving the hotel. Draco almost made it sound like they were
packing for a trip together, and Harry had to admit they sort of were.
Together wasn\'t what was so strange about it, but rather where they were
going. They\'d been forced to do a lot of things together over the years, in
hopes of lessening their rivalry at school, but they hadn\'t really worked.
Sure, they\'d have their moments, usually less than five minutes total, where
they got along, but this \'trip\' had severely broken that record. The thing
was, though, would they be the same when they went back to school, or would
they be how they always had been?

\"Just in case we can\'t get a place to stay, or get hungry in transit,\" Draco
clarified, when he glanced over to see the odd look on Harry\'s face. He had
been thinking about that, too, bn thn the back of his mind, since other
thoughts had happened to come up. Draco had spotted a newsagent ahead, and
he slowed as he began to reach into the bag, which was slung over Harry\'s
shoulder, still covering his Gryffindor badge. Harry slowed as well, sighed,
and watched Draco dig in the bag. The blond could have carried the bag, and
not burden Harry with it; it\'s not like Draco wasn\'t strong enough, or would
be willing to do it, it simply had become habit for Harry to carry it, since
it covered his badge. First of all, Draco hadn\'t even realized he\'d stuffed
his personal things, such as his money, into the main bag. He\'d had it in
his pockets, but he must have put it in when he\'d changed his pants. Yes,
he\'d brought a change of pants.

Draco grabbed hold of what he felt was his bag, pulled it out, and spared a
glance at Harry\'s badge before meeting the other boy\'s eyes. \"Come on,\" he
said, and started walking, barely noticing that they\'d both stopped
completely. When they reached the store, Draco hesitated before going
inside, andquicquickly went about gathering non perishable food stuffs for
them to take with them. There would be food at the hotels, Harry thought,
but maybe if they got stuck in some remote place where there was strange
food or something, it might be a good idea to have something of their own
after all. He knew Draco was right, and besides, itld bld be a good idea to
be able to have a snack whenever he wanted, say, in the middle of the night.
He doubted Draco was taking into consideration any potential food cravings.
Harry had been trying to remember all the things that pregnant Muggle women
went through, from what he\'d seen years ago on telly and in magazines.

It was one of the draw backs of being pregnant, Harry thought, or was it a
good thing? He supposed it\'d only be bad if he craved something, then by the
time he got it, he\'d think it was disgusting; and it wasn\'t like he expected
Draco to dart off and get him whatever he wanted to eat at the moment. Harry
absently began rubbing a hand over his stomach as he watched Draco set a
pile of things at the till, though still a small enough pile to fit into
their bag, unless they were going to enlarge the inside of it. The worker
glanced back from Draco to Harry, and looked curiously at Harry\'s stomach.
Harry looked down as well, and jerked his hand down automatically. He wasn\'t
embarrassed, but he didn\'t want everyone hinkhink he was pregnant. Maybe she
just thought they had the munchies or something, and that was what the tummy
rubbing was for. It was still quite flat, though Harry could tell it was
protruding slightly, down towards his groin. One wouldn\'t be able to notice
unless they were close enough, knew as well, and viewed him from the side,
and even then it might just look like a bit of a gut.

Harry vaguely heard Draco speak a bit in French as he conversed with the
girl, and Harry turned and started for the door, going to wait outside for
the blond. He supposed he should have waited for Draco, to let him dump an
armful of food into the bag that he carried, but when Draco caught up with
him, he had all of it in another paper bag anyway. The blond gestured for
them to move away from right in front of the store, and they walked a bit
down the et bet before Draco stopped and turned to face Harry. \"Give me the
bag,\" he said, and he pulled out his wand from its custom pocket on his
robes, and then took the proffered bag from Harry, and set it down on the
ground between them.

\"Now what?\" Harry asked, watching the other boy warily, not sure why he\'d
pulled his wand out, unless he was, indeed, going to enlarge the inside of
the bag. Draco reached his right hand up to flatten the upper part of
Harry\'s robes, and then pointed his wand at it. Harry opened his mouth to
say something, but Draco beat him to it, saying a couple words Harry didn\'t
quite catch. A small bolt of clear, bubbly light shot from Draco\'s wand, and
Harry felt it hit him, and almost was shocked to think Draco might be doing
something to hurt or incapacitate him. Harry barely realized that Draco had
leaned down and was adding the bag of food into the larger bag, hoo hooking
it over his own head and shoulder. Looking down, Harry saw that Draco had
turned his badge from Gryffindor to Slytherin. Draco had turned and taken
slow steps away from him, obviously waiting for him to catch up; Harry did
so, but he wasn\'t going to say anything about the change.

He\'d never told anyone the Sorting Hat\'s first choice for him would have
been Slytherin, but maybe Draco would have a little bit of respect for Harry
if he told him. Harry wondered why Draco had picked now to take the bag from
him, and change the badge. Was there something in the bag that Harry
shouldn\'t have access to? No, that was just his paranoia of not being told
things before it was too late flaring up, he thought bitterly. He\'d carried
the bag most of the time, so what else could it be? It\'s not as if Draco
felt bad about him carrying it in his \'condition,\' or maybe he did. \"Okay,
let\'s go,\" Draco said, interruptiarryarry\'s thoughts abruptly, and before
Harry could really focus on anything to respond with before the blond
disappeared with a \'crack.\'

Harry sighed into the evening air, and closed his eyes, picturing Draco\'s
face, his eyes, and the whole rest of him, hood up and all, though minus the
bag; hoped that didn\'t screw anything up, the worst time to be splinched was
when you weren\'t even thinking of it. He felt the air around him displaced,
and suddenly could feel the colder air even through his y, ny, now Slytherin
badged, robe. When he opened his eyes, everything started to spin, and he
tried to vaguely turn the opposite direction of Draco before he promptly
threw up everything he\'d eaten earlier that day. It was either apparating in
general that didn\'t agree with his body, to make him this sick, or it was
something to do with the pregnancy. He didn\'t have an easily upset stomach
on any given day, but every once in a while, if it got stirred up too much,
like on a particular match of Quidditch where he\'d spent a large amount of
time spinning in Sloth Grip Rolls, it might just decide to rebel. This was
different, though, and he really had to side with it being the pregnancy
thing right now.

He was glad it wasn\'t an every day occurrence when he woke up; he could deal
with every other time he apparated, but not every morning. Harry wasn\'t sure
he\'d be able to handle it if that was the case. He was still on his knees on
the pavement, and he tried not to look at the puddle of vomit, not that it
would gross him out much, but just that it was preferable not to stare at
it. Instead, he opted for watching the black dragon hide boots stepping into
his line of sight. He looked up a bit, and Draco looked a bit disgusted, but
he held out his hand. Harry took it, and stood up. They started down the
street they were on, keeping their eyes out for any hotels to stay at for
the night. Harry was glad at least one of them knew the way; he didn\'t think
he would have liked an aimless road trip.

Harry was glad that Draco seemed to know what to do, or where to go. He
assumed Draco had been here before, or at least in the area, if not the same
place before. The first place that seemed to be a hotel looked at least as
if it had been around for a few centuries. It wasn\'t quite falling apart,
but it could definitely use a good sprucing up. As they walked down the path
leading to the door where they were hoping to stay, a low growl caught
Harry\'s attention. He looked off to the side and squinted slightly to see in
the darkness. He the the shapes of at least two dogs, perhaps German
Shepards, who were lazing about under a big tree. Making a quick step to put
him on the other side of Draco, rather than behind the other boy, putting
some more distance between him and the animals. They must have been trained
to stay there and not bark at every person walking up to the door; they n\'tn\'t seem to be tied up, either. Not only would they scare potential
patrobut but they\'d wake up ones already inside the establishment.

Harry snapped out of his thoughts once again when he felt a nudge on his
shoulder, and he looked back to Draco. \"Sorry,\" he said automatically, and
frowned at the exasperated look leveled at him, and then he realized Draco
was hol the the door open. He stepped through the door, and into the lobby
of the building. It looked as old inside as it did outside, and this was
definitely not a Muggle hotel. \"Where are we?\" Harry whispered to Draco.

\"Germany, by the looks of it,\" Draco said, gesturing to the signs around the
room, which were, of course, written in the native language. Harry goggled
at them, especially the \'Der Müde Reisende\' one, which seemed to be the name
of the hotel, as he\'d seen it outside as well. \"Didn\'t you see the dogs?\" he
asked, turning to glance over his shoulder at Harry, who had lagged behind
again, \"That\'s a bit too ironic for my taste.\" Draco walked up to the
concierge, and spoke to him. It sounded in English, which was a bit odd,
considering. When the blond rejoined Harry, he put a hand on the dark haired
boy\'s elbow, and Harry thought he saw a smirk on Draco\'s lips, but he was
mostly shaded by his hoso Hso Harry didn\'t know what he\'d seen. \"I don\'t
know about you, but I\'m not in the mood to sleep in the woods tonight. Come
on; room 213.\"

\"How fortunate for us, then,\" Harry replied, adopting a favored tone of
Draco\'s, which wasn\'t very hard when he was tired, and blinking heavy
eyelids. He was tired, too, and would gladly go straight to sleep when they
got in the room. Draco led him to a small lift on the far side of the
reception area. \"Were you speaking in German?\" Harry asked, still wondering
about that.

Draco tilted his head back some, and shook his head. \"I don\'t know anything
besides English and a bit of French. I was using a translation spell; sounds
the right language to whoever\'s listening.\" Harry nodded, really thinking he
should have known that, since they\'d learnt it in Sixth Year, but at least
he found out something about Draco. It was odd to be traveling with someone
he barely even knew, and what he did was spurned from animosity and
bitterness, so anyone could imagine how different it would be to be
traveling and being so intimate with someone whom he\'d had that kind of past
with.

Once the lift stopped on their floor, the third, they walked down the hall,
looking for 213. Draco unlocked the door with the key he\'d put in his
pocket, andurneurned it there as soon as he\'d pushed the door open. Setting
the bag on the bed, Draco shuffled things around inside of it, and Harry
once again noticed there was only one bed. He didn\'t mind, because it wasn\'t
exaca cha chore to sleep beside Draco, as long as it didn\'t interfere with
him getting some sleep. His feet hurt, and his lower back was beginning to
ache, too. It must have been the baby, he supposed, although it still would
have been only the size of a quill tip so far, and unable to do much to
c phy physical pain. He hadn\'t really thought of when it had happened, when
he\'d actually conceived, but the baby couldn\'t be too big yet, since they\'d
only had sex for a little over a week.

Unless this was some freak occurrence in a wizard pregnancy, and his baby
was half way grown or something; anything could happen in the wizarding
world, though, he knew that much. Harry made his way to the bed as well,
took his robes off and tossed them over onto a chair and sat down on the end
of the bed. Draco had pulled out a few items of clothing he\'d stuffed in the
bag before they left Hogwarts, and then pulled the bag of food out for the
second time since he\'d been rearranging. He put the clothes back in, and
then the food, and then stuffed his personal bag back into the side, making
sure he\'d know exactly where it was next time he needed it. When everything
was back inside the bag, Draco tied it closed, and walked around the bed,
setting it down, and then sitting down himself beside Harry. He wasn\'t very
tired, but his feet were a bit tingly, probably from being unused to walking
so .
.

Harry shifted over a bit when Draco sat down, not to put more distance
between them, but just so he wasn\'t on a complete tilt. The bed w't v't very
big, but it was able to hold the two of them comfortably, so it wasn\'t much
of an issue. Draco let his body falck ock on the bed gently, though bouncing
Harry a little, and then sighed. Harry looked over his shoulder at the other
boy, seeing him actually leaning on his elbows. \"What?\"

Draco turned his head to look at Harry, who just laid the rest of his body
down on the bed as well, since there was no point in exerting to keep
himself sitting up, when he was tired and wanted to lie down anyway. He
noted Harry looked a bit worried, but for what, he had no idea. \"Thinking
about how much further we have to go,\" he said, lying flat on the bed, and
resting his hands on his stomach, staring up at the ceiling.

\"How come we don\'t just apparate straight there? I\'ve wanted to ask; I mean,
it can be done, can\'t it?\"

\"Normally, it could be accomplished,\" he said, pausing a minute before he
continued, \"but, one, we\'d need e bee better at the whole thing, and I\'ve
only been doing it for a year and a half myself. Two, from what I\'ve read,
it\'s not good to apparate over very long distances; that\'s why they invented
Port Keys. And, three, we can\'t apparate directly into the school, or even
about four hundred meters from the doors. It has stricter and more dangerous
wards protecting it than Hogwarts does.\"

Harry frowned at the ceiling, eyebrows pulling together slightly as he
thought it over. \"Then why do we stop for the night? If we could just
apparate in little jumps to each country, we\'d be there a lot sooner,\" he
surmised. He shifted his body, and felt his arm brush up against Draco\'s.
Draco didn\'t move, so Harry didn\'t either. It wasn\'t like they should be shy
about touching each other, especially for little things like their arms
touching, when they\'d already done much, much more.

\"I have to remember the locations for us to apparate each time,\" Draco said.
\"The last time I was here with my father, I was ten, so you can imagine it
takes a bit for me to remember where exactly it was, and what it looked
like.\" He sighed deeply, almost as a yawn, thinking about how long it\'d
taken him to recall a small tidbit of their current location. He hadn\'t
forgotten the small restaurant they had appeared in front of. His father had
taken him there for a late lunch one afternoon, and the name still made him
grin. \'Die Kneipe von Han und Speiselokal.\' His father had thought it was an
upper class establishment, but it turned out to be a regular pub, filled
with all kinds of dirty old wizards and witches. Draco let the smallest of
smiles creep onto his lips, knowing his father never quite did well with
translation spells. Lucius didn\'t have many, but he did have the occasional
little thing that made him flustered and embarrassed. He hadn\'t have worried
about impressing Draco, though, knowing his son looked up to him whether he
was perfect or not.

\"Thanks for changing my badge,\" Harry said, not really on the topic, but
they\'d been quiet for a few minutes, so it kind of cleared the slate for a
subject.

\"Well, I can\'t very well let you carry the burden the whole time, can I?\"
Draco said, and immediately knew he really should have worded that better.
He didn\'t necessarily think the child was a burden, but what the bloody hell
was he supposed to do about it? He didn\'t think Harry was lying about it
anymore, and that left them both with a pretty big decision to make. As much
as he doubted they both wanted to make this type of choice, with each other,
no less, they had to do it at some point. Draco felt Harry shift a bit more
on the bed, but he didn\'t say anything in response. Well, that was the end
of that, apparently.

Harry had opted for not saying anything, but he knew both ways it could have
been interpreted. He doubted Draco meant it in a helpful way, the same as
food for his cravings that Harry had thought of before; Draco wouldn\'t be
taking the bag from him because it\'s heavy, he\'d be taking it from him
because he felt like he wasn\'t contributing. If anything, Harry knew Draco
liked to have an equal share in everything, even if it was something as
simple as carrying a bag. It wasn\'t even that heavy. Harry knew the blond
hadn\'t meant it in the way of the baby, since there was no way he could lift
that burden, without it being very, very messy; with lots of blood.

He really didn\'t want to think about that. Choosing to think about something
else, Harry settled on what he\'d just found out. Why didn\'t Draco just tell
him these things from the start? It might make things a bit easier, but he
supposed if he tried to pull up specific memories of something that happened
eight years ago, he t not not be so successful. He\'d make a note not to
interrupt the other boy when he looked like he was in deep thought about
something, only to simply ask, \'Whatcha thinking about?\' It sort of ruined
the process, didn\'t it?

\"You traveled a lot with your father, then?\" Harry asked, and finished it
off with a yawn. Maybe the apparating was making him sleepy. They\'d almost
graduated back to a day schedule, instead of a night schedule, but then it
really was more of a sleeping in until two in the afternoon deal. Merlin, he
wanted to fall asleep right where he was, but he\'d never be comfortable with
all his clothes on, not to mention the horrible tangles he\'d be in by the
time he woke up. Add tat, at, he\'d just tried to start a conversation, so he
couldn\'t really fall asleep, could he? It felt rather good to talk with
Draco. Sort of like getting to know him, if there were ever a stranger idea
than that. Ron would shit himself if he saw Harry trying to chat it up with
Draco Malfoy.

Draco hadn\'t answered, not quite sure he wanted to. He didn\'t have anything
to lose by talking about his past, since it was in the past, after all. So
were a lot of other things, like their intense dislike for each other. He\'d
never hated Potter, but it was just many things combined that led him to act
how he had, and even now, he hadn\'t stopped acting that way. He didn\'t
really want to speak about his father, but he didn\'t think it was so bad
after he thought about it for a moment; maybe he could answer a few
questions, since they seemed harmless enough.

\"I\'ve never left England much, but there were a few long trips, about a
fortnight, to other places where there was a wizarding attraction. To the
Castle of Durmstrang to see the school, to the dragon colonies in Romania,
and a couple other places in France and Germany. Other than that, mostly
just around London and Diagon Alley, and sometimes he\'d taken me into
kturkturn Alley. Never really did like going in there; too odd of witches
for my tastes.\"

Harry definitely agreed with Draco on that one. In his Second Year, he\'d
accidentally flooed into Knockturn Alley. He\'d meant to go to Diagon Alley
with the rest of the Weasleys when he\'d been staying with them for the last
bit of summer before school started. Taking his glasses off and leaning over
to set them on the bed side table, he remembered being so nervous, since it
was his fitimetime traveling by floo powder, and he\'d blurted out the wrong
name. Come to think of it, he\'d seen Draco there, too, but he didn\'t want to
tell the other boy that, since he\'d basically spied on him and his father at
the time, while hiding in some sort of human sized cheDracDraco sighed
again, remembering times past with his father. Some had been good, and some
bad, of course, but even though he may be better off with his father locked
away in Azkaban, he still missed him sometimes.

He couldn\'t blame Harry for it anymore, either. With his father gone, Draco
had realized how much better his life was, without the constant overbearing
presence, reminding him of failure, and what would happen if he didn\'t do
everything right. With a little help from his mother, Draco realized his
father had simply got what was coming to him. No matter what he\'d said or
felt in Fifth Year, which he supposed he might want to apologize for that to
Harry, he was a bit glad it had all happened. Draco was about to say more
when he heard light snoring coming from the other boy. Sitting up slowly,
not shaking the bed, Draco took his shirt off, and pulled his belt from the
loops on his trousers before moving to Harry, and tugging up the other boy\'s
shirt.

Harry flung his arms up in his half-sleep, allowing Draco to pull it over
his head. He had no idea why he was doing it, but he really didn\'t want to
be tangled in the dark haired wizard\'s clothing, if he somehow managed to
wiggle half out of it, and get Draco\'s arm caught in it, or something. When
he pulled Harry\'s shirt up, he was caught staring at the still flat stomach,
and couldn\'t help but want to touch it. He doubted he\'d feel anything, and
he tore his eyes away when he had to move around the other side of the bed
to pull the shirt over Harry\'s head, messing his hair up. He wasn\'t even
going to attempt to take Harry\'s trousers off, no matter how pliant Harry
seemed to be right now while he was half asleep. Harry mumbled in his sleep
when Draco lifted his legs onto the bed, turning him so his entire body was
on the bed, with nothing hanging over the side but one of his socked feet,
which Draco glared at.

Finished with arranging Harry, Draco took his shoes off, followed by his
socks, and left his own trousers on as well. He pulled back the blankets on
his side, and Harry shifted, pulling the blanket out from under himself and
then resting it over his shoulder, too. Draco laid on his back, and reached
a hand up to push the pillows into a more acceptable formation, but he was
surprised when Harry moved even closer to him, and once again trapped his
arm. The blond held his arm up awkwardly, with Harry\'s head resting on his
bicep. A bit awkwardly, Draco settled his arm around Harry\'s shoulders. The
hotel only had a single room available, but Draco had accepted, taking the
liberty to go ahead and get it. He did assume they\'d come to some sort of
understanding in that regards, since Harry seemed to want to share a bed.

Considering what happened at The Leaky Cauldron the other night, Draco
couldn\'t say he disagreed, but he had to admit it was a little uncomfortable
for Harry to almost cuddle up to him. Draco just knew Harry was almost
holding back, too, even while he was asleep, he\'d never come closer than
where he was now. Draco relaxed into the bed, but he couldn\'t stop himself
from thinking. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath; they still had
a long way to go, and he hoped for Merlin\'s sake that Snape would still be
there. That wasn\'t even the most prominent thing on his mind, though. It was
starting to drive him nutty wondering what the hell was going on between
them. Personally, he thought they should figure something out, or at least
set some rules before they went any further, especially since they shared a
bed. \'Oh, Merlin, what the hell am I doing?\' he thought to himself.

@>*~