Hermione and Draco

Disclaimer: These characters are not of my creation (I wish!). Everything belongs to JK Rowling, I'm just delving into the Pensieve and playing around with the memories a little!

AChapter 8 – The Baby Made Me Do It

He had been having a dream about their wedding. About a wizard standing up and cursing them both as they said their vows.

Then he was in a different dream. A dream with Hermione and children – their children.

Then the eldest of the children spoke to them. She was already here. They had to figure out how to fix their situation before she was born.

Draco sat up in a cold sweat, gasping for air. He shook his head to clear it and took a drink of water.

That couldn’t have been real, could it? He thought. It certainly felt real. And Hermione was there, not just a dream, but really there. Oh, Gods. She’s pregnant. Pregnant with our child. I have to figure out how to get back. I have to! Drucilla’s here!

But as soon as he had resolved to find a way back, his concentration dissolved and he went back to sleep.

*************
“What?” Four pairs of startled eyes looked at Hermione as if she were losing her mind.

“I’m pregnant with Draco’s child. I had a dream.” She was shaking and felt like she might be sick again.

She told them about the vision she’d had the first night with Draco. Then how she’d dreamed it differently tonight.

“It started out the same, but then Drucilla stopped playing and said she was here. Then she said something about True Love and Destiny not waiting for good timing. Then she told us that we need to figure out how to fix the situation before she was born. Oh, Gods. Draco was there. If he remembers he’s going to know I’m pregnant.”

“Uh – Hermione? Who’s Drucilla?” asked Neville.

“She’s our child – our first born.” Hermione smiled through her tears. “And I’m pregnant with her now. If you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it! Ginny, you know the pregnancy detection spell, right?”

“Y-yes.” Ginny stuttered.

“If you cast it on me, I’ll cast it on you.” Hermione cajoled.

“All right,” sighed Ginny. “But you don’t have to cast the charm for me. I know I’m not pregnant.” Ginny and Harry had been trying for three years to get pregnant, with no luck. Ginny was afraid to go to the medi-wizards and find out why she couldn’t seem to conceive.

Hermione knew better. Somehow she knew, without knowing how she knew, that Ginny was as pregnant as she was.

“I’ll do it anyway, for fun.” Hermione looked at the three men. “Now, if you boys will get out, we need some privacy.”

After the boys had gone, Hermione stripped off her clothes and laid flat on her bed. Ginny muttered the charm and circled her wand over Hermione’s stomach. Almost immediately it glowed bright pink with the word “Yes” in the middle of the glow. Hermione was pregnant, with a girl, just like she said. Ginny gaped at her as Hermione giggled.

“Okay, your turn.” Hermione said, as she got dressed.

Ginny copied Hermione’s pose on the bed. Hermione grabbed her wand, muttering the incantation as she circled her wand over Ginny’s stomach. Ginny shut her eyes tight, not wanting to see the negative results glowing, once again, around her stomach. Almost immediately after Hermione finished the charm, there was a bright flash and Hermione squealed with joy. Ginny’s eyes flew open and stared down at her belly. It was glowing an electric blue, with two words in middle of the glow.

“Yes! Twins!” crowed Hermione.

Ginny put her hand on her belly, muttering another spell to find out the date of conception. Her eyes widened when she got her answer. Saturday morning at 4:00 a.m.

She got up and dressed, grinning from ear to ear. She looked at an equally ecstatic Hermione. “Saturday, 4 a.m. You?”

“Saturday, 7 a.m. We need to call the boys back in the room.”

Harry, Ron, and Neville had heard the laughter and then the squeal as the girls were performing the charms. Harry thought the squeal sounded like Ginny… a very, very upset Ginny. He was prepared to go in, not showing the disappointment at another negative result, to comfort his distraught wife.

He couldn’t have been in for a better shock.

Ginny schooled her expression into calm, and Hermione followed suit. She called the boys in from the hall and they all three piled into the room.

Hermione smiled. “I am pregnant. It happened at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.”

Harry whooped with the other two men and hugged her. Then he turned expectant eyes on Ginny.

She looked at him gravely. “Well…”

“Well, what?” Harry croaked.

“Twins on Saturday at 4 a.m.” she grinned at him.

Harry’s eyes glazed over and his lips quirked into a lopsided grin. “Twins?” he shook himself and with a strangled shout of joy, he gathered his wife into his arms and twirled her around. Then suddenly he put her back down. “I’m sorry Ginny – I don’t know what I was thinking! Did I hurt you or the babies?”

“No, Harry, you didn’t hurt me – or James and Sirius.” She had decided a long time ago, when they were first married, that she would name their children for Harry’s father and godfather. Hermione smiled at her and nodded.

“J-James and S-Sirius?” Harry stuttered. He then hugged his wife to him, crying. “Thank you, love. Thank you so much.”

Molly and Arthur, hearing the whoops and shouts of laughter came upstairs to investigate.

Hermione answered her door with a huge smile. “C’mon in Mum and Dad.”

They looked at Hermione, then to their daughter and son-in-law crying and laughing at the same time.

“What’s going on here?” they asked in unison.

“Maybe you’d better sit down, Mum and Dad – or should I say Nana and Boppa?” Suggested Ron, one arm around Neville, with a big smile.

Arthur and Molly, looking stunned, sat on Hermione’s bed. “Nana and Boppa?” Molly said faintly.

Ginny and Harry turned to them and Ginny said, “Yes, Mum and Dad – I’m pregnant – with twins!” exulted Ginny.

“Oh Ginny!” Molly cried as she and Arthur jumped up and hugged the Potters, congratulating them.

“That’s not all,” Harry continued. “Hermione’s pregnant as well!”

Arthur and Molly looked at Hermione who was smiling dreamily as she sat a chair in the corner, rubbing her belly absently. When she noticed they were looking at her with surprise, she blushed. “Um – I am pregnant. I had a dream about it, so I had Ginny do the charm. There must be something about that cottage…” Before she could finish her thought, Molly and Arthur descended on her, too, hugging and kissing her in congratulations.

Ron and Neville then also gave out hugs to the two women and Harry.

Molly decreed that it was time for dinner – so they all trooped down to eat and share the news with the rest of the Weasley siblings. Fred and George were besides themselves when they found out their little sister was pregnant with twins, vowing to teach them all the ‘good points’ about twinhood.

“I’d rather you didn’t corrupt the boys until they’re at least ready to start Hogwarts.” Harry chuckled.

“Corrupt? My good sir, we don’t corrupt – “ started George.

“ – We educate, teach self-improvement,” Fred continued. His eyes suddenly lit up as a thought came to him. “Can you imagine the look on old Filch’s face when he sees twin boys, obviously part Weasley, come to Hogwarts? That might be enough to force him into retirement!” he crowed.

“Especially when he realizes that they’re Potters’,” snickered Hermione. “He’ll take to his bed for a month!”

Everyone laughed as they envisioned Filch standing in his usual spot, at the back of the Great Hall, during the Sorting Ceremony to see not one, but two, Potter children that obviously have Weasley parentage as well being Sorted for their time in Hogwarts.

*************

Draco woke up feeling as drained as before. There was only one difference. He was happy.

He knew that the dream that he’d had of Hermione and their children had been real. He knew that somehow Hermione had really been there. He also knew, without a doubt, that she was pregnant with his child. He wanted to sing, dance and weep with joy and heartache. He wanted to rush to the Burrow and celebrate with her by making love. He also knew that he couldn’t do that until he dealt with Lucius and his henchmen.

So, he did the only thing he could do. He went downstairs and ate breakfast.

For the last several days he’d been thinking of taking up Severus’ offer to help. Now that he knew there was a child involved, he decided that he had to accept his old Potions Professor’s help, there was no way he’d be able to protect Hermione without it. So, after he had finished eating, he sat down to quill a letter to Severus, asking if the offer for help was still open and asking him to come to the Manor in Rome to talk.

As he watched his owl fly off with the letter attached to its leg, he felt a great weight lift off his chest. As if, by that one action, he knew that not only would Severus still help, but that together they’d be able to thwart any plan of Lucius’. He smiled to himself as he pushed away from the table and went to his study to start on his work.

*************

The next day Molly took Ginny and Hermione shopping for the babies. They went to the best shops in Diagon Alley and cooed and ah’d over all the baby clothes, toys and furniture.

Molly bought them each several outfits that would grow with them once they started showing. She bought them each several baby outfits; also tearing up when she was picking out clothes for Ginny’s twins, remembering doing the same thing when she found out she was pregnant with Fred and George.

She then offered to make up nurseries for them at the Burrow.

“Mum, you don’t need to do that,” protested Ginny.

“Really you don’t,” agreed Hermione. “Once I find a place of my own, I’ll make it up there.”

“Nonsense, girls. You’re going to need to put them somewhere when you all come to visit. You will visit us at the Burrow once in a while, won’t you?” Molly grinned.

“When we visit?” Ginny asked, biting her lip. She and Harry had talked about getting their own place now that they were going to have a family, but hadn’t said anything to her parents about it yet.

“Yes, dear, when you visit,” repeated Molly. “You don’t actually think your father and I expect you and Harry to live with us now that you’re starting a family of your own, do you?” She smiled at her daughter.

“Well, we weren’t sure,” laughed Ginny. “We were talking about getting our own place, but we weren’t sure how to approach the subject with you.”

“Well, then, it’s settled. I’m going to start putting a nursery together for both of your children.” She looked sternly at Hermione. “I expect you and Draco to bring the children over, too. Just because you’re with young Mr. Malfoy doesn’t mean you aren’t still a part of the family.”

Hermione hugged Molly tight. “Thank you so much, Mum. That means more to the both of us than you’ll ever know.”

Molly blinked back tears as she hugged her surrogate daughter back. “Well, then, let’s go pick out a theme for the nursery!”

They went to the wizards’ version of Babies-R-Us and picked out cribs and sheets, wallpaper and curtains. They set up a time for it all to be delivered to the Burrow and went off to get some lunch.

*************

Severus Snape had always made it a point to never get involved with people’s personal lives. That way he could remain aloof and alone, never having to inflict his friendship on anyone else.

That was before the second stage of the Final War with Voldemort. Albus Dumbledore had assigned him to work with Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger on a potion that would help Harry Potter defeat the Dark Lord. No matter how hard he fought Draco and Hermione’s friendship advances, no matter how much he hadn’t wanted it, Draco and Hermione had gotten their way. He was their friend. Eventually, though, he began to see this as something to be treasured. He’d never had a friend other than Albus, and having two distinctly headstrong people fighting for the friendship he was trying to deny them made him realize that even if he didn’t believe that he deserved friends, they did. Not only was he their friend, but also they were his. Even if he tried to hide it most of the time.

When he got the owl from Draco, asking to come by and talk if the offer of help was still open, he chuckled to himself. Yes, Draco definitely had it bad for Hermione, and if what he had heard was any indication, she had it just as bad for him. He politely asked the owl to stay for his reply, fed it a bit of his lunch and penned that he would be arriving the next day by noon. He tied the letter to the owl’s leg, thanked it for waiting and allowed it to fly off. He sat back and thought hard; trying to figure out exactly what Lucius could be capable of doing when he was safely locked away in Azkaban.

Draco felt relief wash through him when he saw the owl flying towards the kitchens open window. The owl swooped in through the window and landed softly on the table next to where Draco was eating a late dinner.

“Thank you, Socrates, for returning so quickly. Dirken will have something special made up for you in the owlery.” The owl puffed up his chest feathers a little, hooted tiredly and headed for the owlery.

Draco opened the letter to see Severus’ neat handwriting explaining that he would be there by noon the next day. Draco sat back in his chair with a sigh. If anyone could help him reunite with Hermione and their child, it would be Severus.

Noon the next day found Draco pacing nervously in front of the Apparation Foyer. He heard a ‘pop’, and standing before him was his old friend, Severus Snape.

“Severus! Thank you so much for coming on such short notice.” Draco took his cloak and hung it up. “How have you been?”

“Amazingly enough, I’ve been doing rather well,” replied Severus.

“Why don’t we adjourn to the library? I’ve had a small lunch sent there.”

Severus nodded, and followed Draco to the library.

Draco offered Severus a seat, making sure the tea sandwiches and the wine he had selected for lunch were within easy reach. As Draco took his seat, he opened his mouth several times to try and start, but couldn’t think of where to begin.

“Just begin at the beginning, Draco, that’s the best place to start,” chuckled Severus.

Draco blushed slightly, and then launched into the story. He told Severus of the disaster that was almost Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger’s wedding. He related what happened at the reception, from the dance to Ron showing back up and making a scene.

“Then I took her back to the cottage, because she didn’t want to go back to their flat in case Ron decided to show up and try to start another fight.” He caught the glimmer of amusement in his old teacher’s eyes. “No, I didn’t take her back there with the intent on anything happening between us. I hoped, but I wasn’t going to push.”

Draco then told of his frustration at the whole situation, of sitting down at the piano to try relieving some of that frustration with singing and playing. Of how Hermione had woken up and came out to find the source of the music and singing. He even told of how they ended up making love that night.

“You mean to tell me, that after you and Hermione had…” Severus paused, trying to find a delicate way to put it. “ – consummated your feelings for each other, Harry bloody Potter and wife floos into your bedroom to find out how his best friend is doing after being stood up at the altar by his other best friend?”

Draco thought about it for a moment, then nodded glumly. “Yes, Severus, that would be a fair summation of what happened.”

Severus looked incredulously at Draco for a moment, then burst out laughing.

Draco glared at his old friend. “A real friend wouldn’t laugh.”

“I’m sorry, Draco,” Severus chuckled. “But that is so like Harry, that you should have expected him to do just that. It’s only funny because you were caught with your hand in the cookie jar, so to say.”

Draco glared at his friend for a moment longer, then shrugged. “That’s not the problem, Severus. Harry and Ginny are fine with Hermione and I… the problem is fath – Lucius. How in the Nine Hells did he find out so damn fast? It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours, and he was summoning me to Azkaban to deliver death threats.”

“Hmmm.” Severus looked thoughtfully out the window. “The only way I can think is that he had outside help. Someone went to him willingly with this information.”

“But who?” Draco started pacing. “The only people that are allowed near him are family, members of the Order, and Aurors. None of them would willingly betray Hermione! Me, maybe… but no matter how annoying she can be, no one has ever been so annoyed with her that they would willingly betray her trust.”

“Not even an almost-husband that came back to find her in the arms of his worst enemy?”

“You mean Weasley? Like I said, he’d turn on me in a heartbeat, but no way would he do that to Hermione, no matter how hurt and angry he was!”

Severus’ mind was working overtime. He thought he’d found the solution. “Not even if he were being controlled?”

“Controlled?” Surprise and fear were warring on Draco’s face now. “Yes, I suppose… if Lucius was able to get control over Weasley, he wouldn’t have any way to stop himself. But how would Lucius have managed that? He’d still have to have someone working on the outside helping him to be able to get control over an experienced Auror like Weasley.”

“Yes… but still…” Severus’ mind was still whirling. “That is the only answer I can come up with. Lucius had a henchman watching the Golden Trio for some reason, and the perfect way for that to work would be to get someone that Weasley would trust implicitly. I say Weasley, because Harry and Hermione are too … hmm… clever to trust anyone, even if it was someone they’d known for years, to just suddenly pop in one day and want to take up residence in their pocket. Once the trust was established, it would have been easy work for the lackey to place the controls on Weasley and link them directly to Lucius. Then Lucius would have only had to summon him to find out what had happened. The rest, as they say, is history.”

Draco thought it over. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the Potions Master was right. Once he came to that conclusion, an overwhelming sense of dread crept across him. Hermione and the baby were in danger!

“Severus, you’ve got to help me find a way to go to Hermione! She and the baby are in danger if your theory is true!”

“Baby? What baby?” Severus looked at the perplexed Draco with surprise.

“Hermione is pregnant… I had a dream, that is, we had a dream. We were both there. We were snuggled up on a couch together, watching our children play. Then the dream rippled, like water down glass, and the eldest breaks away from the other children, who didn’t seem to notice, to tell us that she was here already. Then she babbled about True Love and Destiny not needing convenient timing and that we had to find a way to be together before she was born. I looked over at Hermione to find she was looking back at me. She looked as amazed as I felt. Then the dream was over. She told us that we had to be back together before she comes. Please, Severus, you have to help me find away to get to Hermione without Lucius being able to stop me!”

While Severus listened to Draco’s story, he could feel his eyebrows rising with each sentence. Unborn children coming to their parents in dreams to tell them that they were in danger? Severus tried to think of one instance of this happening in the past, but couldn’t. He also knew that it was unlike Draco to tell him something like this if it hadn’t actually happened. Draco stood up and started pacing again, and Severus could feel the fear and worry emanating from him. Draco was going to try something rash.

“Damn it all, Snape! I can’t wait here while Lucius, Weasley and the mystery toady from Hell stalks Hermione and our child! I’m going to the Burrow and get Hermione. We can find somewhere safe to hide us all until Lucius dies.”

Severus stood before Draco could run off and grabbed his arm. “Draco, you can’t. You going to Hermione would put you all in danger!” Draco tried to pull away from Severus. “Stop it, Draco! Stop and think! If you go rushing off there and it isn’t Weasley, then we have no way of finding out who it is! We need to find out for certain before you go to her side. And if you go to her with tales of it being him, one of her best friends, and we’re wrong – she’ll most likely not only hex you, but she’ll never speak to you again!”

Draco stopped cold when he heard the last. Hermione never speak to him again? He groaned as he collapsed into a heap on the floor. He looked up to Severus with tears shining in his eyes and croaked. “What am I going to do Severus? I need to do something!”

Severus dropped to one knee at Draco’s side, his eyes going soft. “The only thing you need to do is concentrate on making sure Lucius doesn’t suspect what we think we know, and I’ll take care of Hermione.” his eyes grew colder. “If anyone tries to hurt her, or the baby, they’ll have to answer to me.”

Draco was surprised to see concern not only for himself, but also for Hermione and their child in Severus’ eyes. On impulse, Draco grabbed Severus’ hand. Startled black eyes met molten silver. “They’ll have to deal with the both of us.” He released the hand. “Thank you, Severus. You’re a good friend. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

“Let’s hope we never have to find out. Now, let’s get going, we have a lot of planning to do.”