Merlin's Coven

Merlin’s Coven

Chapter 9

Heartbroken would be an overestimate of how Hermione and Draco felt when they realized that the ‘prophecy’ meandered on for three more incoherent pages. She knew some of it had to do with them, but which parts? Much of the prophecy dealt with the state of affairs of the Highest Law Making Body of the land, which apparently was not The Ministry. It spoke of returning power and wealth to the Britons. It spoke of neighbors helping other neighbors during a golden age of Britain. By all accounts, it went from the dark times of the false God, to a period known as the Reckoning, which was shortly followed by the Golden Age. It was all terribly confusing. It would take a muggle scholar, knowledged on the days of Merlin, to decipher what all of this meant. It didn’t help that the text was partially written in Latin, while the rest was in an ancient dialect of English, no longer used. Hermione and Draco eventually nodded off to sleep. It was just going to take more time to figure out what it all meant. Time, they weren’t sure they could afford.

Harry had pulled Hermione aside at breakfast. He said he had to speak with her, urgently. Hermione stepped out into the corridor to talk to Harry, Draco having reluctantly stayed behind.

“I need you to look at Cho for me,” Harry asked Hermione.

“Why? “

“Just, can you come with me?”

“Sure, Harry. “ Harry was being co cryptic, yet she had never seen him paler. He opened a broom closet, where Chow lay on a cot.

“What on Earth are you doing in…” Hermione stopped herself when she realized what she had stepped into. With them both being in different houses, and neither of them prefects with access to private common rooms and quarters, she had stepped into their love nest. Hermione looked around, and wondered if she could ever become aroused in a dirty and dingy broom closet, even with the most gorgeous man in the world, her husband, Draco Malfoy. She didn’t think so. Draco would never stoop to such levels anyway. He had more taste than that. Hermione shuddered at the thought, that already she was becoming a snob. Maybe she fit in with Draco better then she realized. She knew right away, just what the snarky blond would have said at seeing this pitiful sight.

She turned her attention to Cho, who looked like she was hiding something under her robes. Harry sat down next to her and held Cho around the waist.

“’Mione, Cho thinks she’s pregnant.” Hermione had to steady herself against the wall of the closet, because she was not expecting to hear this from Harry. “Can ya look at her or something and tell us if you think she is? Maybe compare feelings. I dunno. I’m a guy. I’m not very good with this stuff.”

“Well apparently you are, if you knocked Cho up,” Hermione piped in. She couldn’t help it.

“So let’s see then,” Hermione waved her hand in front of her, a signal for Cho to take her cloak off, in order to give Hermione a better look. She eased the cloak off and Hermione found herself looking at Cho’s enormous girth. Cho, wasn’t just a little bit pregnant. She was a whole lot pregnant, even more so then Hermione.

“Congratulations you look about to pop,” Hermione said and both Cho and Harry’s faces dropped.

“Why is this such a surprise? You’ve obviously been knocked up for a good long while. How come you didn’t tell me about this sooner Harry?”

“I told you Harry. We are having a baby! Since Hermione was the first one, nobody will look at me and laugh as much. They all think she and Draco are nuts, and well, people like me so much, that I don’t think it has to tarnish either of our reputations.” Hermione opened her mouth in shock, feeling insulted by Cho’s comments.

“I am not nuts, I’ll have you know! And Draco, Draco was more popular then you Cho.” Hermione held her nose in the air before deciding that she looked stupid.

“Was, Hermione. Not anymore,” Cho said with that pathetic sorry expression that Marcia Brady used to her sister Jan in the popular muggle series The Brady Bunch. Sadly, when it came to the Ravenclaw girl, Hermione was out of her league. Cho was smart and pretty, athletic and liked by everybody. Still, she hated how Cho could be so condescending, without even knowing she was doing it. She was so good at it too. Like the time they had to get into groups in Herbology. Hermione had been the last girl left without a partner. Hermione asked if she could join Cho’s group and Cho just looked at Hermione and said, “Sorry Hermione, but we already have enough people in our group.” She said it with that pathetic and sorrowful fake frown, that infuriated Hermione to no end. She had never liked Cho and her self-assuredness. She always expected people to bow down to her.

“So, do you need to compare symptoms?” Harry asked innocently. “To be sure, you know.”

“Cho are you feeling the baby move inside you?” Hermione asked, folding her arms across her chest, still perturbed by Cho’s stuck up response earlier in the conversation.

“Yes. Just this morning for the first time.”

“Really? You look further along than me Cho.”

“Harry, can she leave now?” Cho said to Harry, as if Hermione wasn’t even standing in the room.

“Hello! I’m right here. If you want me to leave just ask ME. “ Hermione spun on her feet and left the room. Harry caught up to her.

“Don’t tell anyone, until we figure out what we intend to do,” Harry said and Hermione nodded in agreement. “Do you think this has something to do with the prophecy? I mean, maybe this baby has something to do with Merlin. It makes more sense that Cho would be fulfilling the prophecy, over you and Draco.”

“Why?” Hermione almost shouted. She felt so insulted. What was she, chopped liver? Thankfully, Draco didn’t see her as that.

“Well it’s just that…the other prophecy is about me. So it stands to reason, that this prophecy, about a baby, probably pertains to me too…And since I never slept with you…then…You couldn’t possibly be…”

“I get it alright? You’re wrong though Harry. Draco and I are fulfilling a prophecy. The text is very vague, but we did at least figure that much out. Our baby,” Hermione put a comforting hand over the wriggling baby inside her. “Our baby has been chosen…For what I’m not sure, but the coven is good, so I know whatever happens it will be for the greater good.”

“I guess we will see won’t we?” Harry smiled and left. Hermione waddled to Potions. Draco was beaming at her; his blond hair looked like heaven’s gates Hermione missed him so much.

“Really Granger. It’s only been about thirty minutes? You couldn’t have missed that me much already,” Draco smirked.

“Don’t even start with the conceited bullshit, Draco my love,” Hermione winked and smiled and the blond made a crude tongue gesture with his tongue at her. Hermione blushed. He proceeded to make their potion for them, letting Hermione copy from him and pretend to look busy, while she calmed her nausea. This was such a change for Hermione. She would never have copied off anyone, but she knew Draco was smart and she felt like shit, so she allowed him to take the reigns in Potions. Arithmancy though, would be a different story. The two of them had a healthy rivalry going, where one week Hermione would have top marks and then the next week Draco would beat her on a test and take the top spot. She fully intended to see this bitter rivalry to the end too, with maybe some sugar instead of sourness though. There was no reason they couldn’t be each other’s motivating force to achieve, while still sleeping in the same bed. Draco called it healthy competition and Hermione tended to agree. Honestly though, the pair had been competing with each other for years, so it came naturally to them, and neither were willing to let the other one win.

She had told Draco that she wanted to see if she could manage getting to classes on her own this morning. That he couldn’t coddle her and protect her from everything. Hermione desperately wanted to feel normal again, so getting back to her routine was vital. Her health wasn’t great, but she was at least eating again. In fact, she was eating quite a lot, even packing snacks into her bag, so she could eat between meals in the Great Hall.

She waddled like a duck, down the halls, and everyone pointed and laughed. In class, if anyone smelled or heard a toot, then Hermione was blamed for passing gas. If she even looked at people the wrong way, she was told, “to get her hormones into balance,” and to stop fussing about nothing. Everything was blamed on the pregnant girl, it seemed.

She watched Cho enter Charms, wearing Harry’s Gryffindor robe. She played it off as if they were dating and that she missed Harry so much, that she had to wear his robes to be close to him. Hermione sent her a scathing look, though she didn’t know why. She wasn’t really mad at Cho, though she did feel slighted by her, and by Harry too, it seemed. When her long day was over, she retreated to the Room of Requirement where Draco gave her a well-earned and needed, body massage. He doted on her religiously and Hermione felt supremely lucky to have him around. She would become sullen thinking about the woman that Voldemort raped. The thought was inconceivable. Some poor woman was out there right now, carrying Voldemort’s wicked spawn. For all she knew, it would pop out and cast the killing curse, this was Voldemort’s child they were talking about, not some innocent child born out of wedlock.

“Did you hear the news!?” Ginny stopped in front of the Malfoy’s bedchamber. She smiled when she saw Draco tenderly massaging Hermione’s swollen ankles. Hermione noticed how drop dead gorgeous Ginny looked. In fact, every female member of the coven, except Hermione, whose role was too be fat and pregnant, looked stunning. It wasn’t hard to notice the train of guys that followed them to and from their classes either. Even Tonks, had become the most popular teacher in Hogwarts, next to Lupin of course. Both of their classes, were overflowing with students, that wanted to suddenly switch their schedules.

“What news Ginny?” Hermione moaned as Draco sat at the end of the bed now, massaging her tired feet. The extra weight had really caused her feet to throb.

“Cho Chang went missing! Harry’s in a rage over it too. He’s threatening to curse everyone, in a desperate attempt to find the person with information. He says, that someone had to have seen her taken. She was after all, in History of Magic class when she disappeared.” Hermione looked worried. She hadn’t mentioned anything about Cho’s pregnancy and Harry’s involvement in it, to anyone, even Draco.

“I guess it’s understandable right? I mean, they’ve obviously been dating a long time,” Hermione said.

“A few days is all ‘Mione. Nobody understands why he’s got his hair so ruffled over it. She’s probably down in Diagon Alley getting her hair done. You know Cho,” Ginny looked at Hermione and rolled her eyes. Hermione understood.

“What do you mean they’ve only been dating a few days is all? I mean I know he didn’t tell us, but he’s been hiding it is all. He probably knew what we would say after the last time he got together with Cho.”

“Hermione, I was fucking Harry, up until about three weeks ago or so. Once the coven was formed we split. I thought you knew?” Draco stirred uncomfortably. He really didn’t want to be hearing any of this. Thinking about Harry Potter humping anyone, was not an image he wanted in his head. He ignored the conversation and continued massaging Hermione. Ginny dropped her scarf and waved a hand and Draco knelt down and picked it up for her without hesitation. This act was not lost on Hermione either. It was almost as if Ginny and Lavender and Pansy and Tonks, had become strong enough in their magic, to make men do what they wanted with just a thought, or a wave of the hand.

“Well, he had at least one night with Cho during that time Ginny.”

“What do you mean? He cheated on me? Did he tell you that?” Ginny said quizzically.

“He didn’t have to Ginny. Cho is pregnant and I mean big-time pregnant. She looked at least eight months pregnant, maybe more.”

“Oh my Gods! Merlin Hermione!” Ginny held her hand to her mouth.

“What? It wasn’t me! I did not pass gas, alright! “ Hermione fumed. Draco laughed.

“No, no Hermione. Don’t you see? Cho is having a baby. She only slept with Harry two days ago…It isn’t Harry’s baby. It’s HIS baby!” Ginny looked like she might faint and Hermione ushered her to sit down on the bed.

“Ginny, Harry told me it was his baby. He’s not so daft in anatomy that he wouldn’t know that the dates don’t match up, is he? I mean he knows it takes forty weeks to grow a baby, right?”

“Hermione…Harry’s idea of going down on me, was to see how far he could push his tongue inside me. And that’s it! I had to tell him what to do. I know, call me superficial, but I need a guy who at least knows the different parts on a woman’s body, and how to make them work.” Draco bust into a fit of laughter at this. Hermione scowled at him, but then smiled, knowing that her Draco had all the right moves. She wasn’t about to broadcast that around the school. His reputation preceded him enough already and she wouldn’t risk swelling that adorable blond God’s head of his anymore then it already was, by telling him.

“Have you seen her!” Harry Potter was suddenly upon them as the Room of Requirement opened. “Which one of you did something to Cho! Hermione?”

Harry was running to the top of the maze of staircases and levels, to Draco and Hermione’s bedchambers. Ginny was almost laughing watching him trip and fall. The absurdity of his question was hilarious. As if Hermione would have done something to Cho? Hermione was so pregnant, she could barely handle her own schedule, let alone have time to plot a way to take Cho.

“No closer Potter!” Draco said, and Worth stood between Harry and Draco as if meaning to protect Draco from Harry. Harry’s wand was out and pointed at them.

“I have to find Cho! She’s gone. I checked the Marauder’s map and she is gone, gone!” Draco cast Hermione a suspicious glance, having no knowledge of the Marauder’s Map. Hermione struggled to sit up on the bed, her body rolling slightly. She finally made her way up to the edge of the bed.

“Harry…Voldemort raped a woman in order to implant his…seed, into her. The seed grows. Voldemort is having a child,” Hermione said uncomfortably, as if repeating the act was as bad as the act itself. This isn’t going to be easy to hear… but we think… it may have been… Cho,” she scowled and waited for a response.

“Lower your wand Potter,” Draco commanded, his own wand on Harry. Harry Potter scratched his head, ignoring Draco.

“I know we only did it the one time, but…magic. Your own pregnancy has gone so quickly that I thought maybe it was possible.

“Lower your god damn wand Potter, if you want to continue to talk to my wife!” Draco cursed and Harry finally did lower his wand. Ginny protectively moved in front of Hermione as Harry approached. Hermione thought, perhaps the coven was responsible for Ginny’s sudden protective stature over Hermione and the baby that grew inside her womb.

“Harry, Cho was made pregnant many months ago. If you did not have sex with her, then that means somebody else did…and they are in fact, the Father. Did you ask her whom else she had sex with? Maybe another student? Or…” Hermione didn’t want to say it again.

“She said she was a virgin, Hermione! Only me. I’m the only one who slept with Cho!”

“But what about Cormac McLaggen, last year? Renember that rumor Hermione?” Ginny said and Hermione shushed Ginny, under her breath.

“Then Voldemort raped her. Of course he would want a virgin,” Draco said, preferring to be blunt, despite the twisted and contorted expression on Potter’s face.

“No!”

“Harry listen to us!” Ginny begged.

“No! I won’t! I have to find her.”

“Yes, you do have to find her,” Draco said. His reasons slightly different, for agreeing with Potter. Harry doubled over, clutching his lightning bolt scar. Hermione knew that look, for she had seen it many times before. Harry was having a vision of the Dark Lord. When the vision passed he stood ramrod straight, with an intense look playing across his face.

“I saw her! He has her. I have to go. I have to save Cho!” Tears burst from Harry’s eyes. Draco found his hands on Potter’s shoulders, trying to calm him.

“I’ll go with ya mate,” Ron said showing up out of the blue. Perhaps he sensed he was needed.

“Thanks Ron! We have to hurry.” Ron gulped and turned to Draco.

“Will you come with us?” Ron asked Draco. “It’s just, I feel like after the last battle, like maybe you and I are supposed to…be…like, you know…watch each other’s backs,” Ron finally spat out the words.

“No! Draco you can’t go,” Hermione’s knee-jerk reaction spilled from her mouth.

“He’s right. Hermione, I have to go. It serves our child as well, if I go.” Harry raised an eyebrow at that, but remained silent.

“Draco…” Hermione plead with her eyes. This felt wrong. It didn’t feel right and the coven was not behind this action.

“Ron and Draco, I tend to agree with Hermione. You aren’t supposed to go. Look at your palms!” Ginny said. The boys did indeed look, and it was a bright, crystal clear, blue. No warning, no call for battle.

“I have to go Hermione. I’ll be back before you know it.” Draco leaned over and kissed Hermione, as he had done before their first battle, and all had turned out okay. Hermione threw her arms around his neck and clung onto him, afraid to let go.

“This doesn’t feel right Draco. Please stay. Without the coven protecting you, you will be at his mercy.”

“Have more faith in me, love. I know the dangers. Please, let me go. I love you. I’ll be back in a day at most. Try to stop worrying, alright? It isn’t good in your condition.” Hermione let go of Draco with a tragic look. Ginny too, looked ambivalent to watch her brother and Draco go.

“Smile for me. I want to take that smile with me. Come on, please,” Draco lifted Hermione’s chin with his fingers. She forced out a half smile.

“Get your broom. We will have to do a fair bit of flying, before the night is through,” Harry said turning on his heels, without even saying goodbye to Hermione and Ginny. Ron followed, peering back at Draco, as if prodding him to come. Draco reached for his Firebolt and kissed Hermione, one last time on the forehead, before disappearing out the door of the Room of Requirement. The forest sprite, Worth, was right behind him, but this time Draco did not order him to stay behind. This made Hermione shake with fear. Draco knew this wasn’t a smart idea either, yet he went. Why? Hermione couldn’t figure it out, but she had an idea.

“Ginny…Why are they going?” Hermione said, as if almost afraid to have her own worries confirmed by the redhead.

“Harry is going because he’s always been a sucker for love. Ron is going to save Harry from being the sucker that he is for love. Draco is going…” Ginny paused.

“Just say it. Why is Draco going?”

“Draco is going to kill Cho’s baby.”

.

The night was cold, and Draco felt a thick cloud of despair looming over him. He could feel Hermione’s hold over him diminishing. He couldn’t hear her voice anymore in his head. The comforting feeling of his wife, that he had grown so accustomed to, was replaced by uncertainty and reservation, the farther he got away from his beautiful bride.

“This is it! We have to land now,” Harry shouted across the dark skies.

“Shit!” Draco screamed. The Dark Mark on his arm burned.

Review!?

Ya know…I was thinking about something and I thought I would share. When I was fifteen my best friend had a brother, that I spent a lot of time with. His name was Lucius and was a tall blond who looked very much like Draco and was filthy rich lol He had four names too lol He was Lucius Quintes Cincinnatus Lamar IV LOL He went by Luke…So that is why in Broomstick’s and The Big Apple I named the younger Malfoy boy Luke for short. Stupid I know…but now I wonder if I like Draco because I always liked Luke (and he liked me, but you don’t date your best friends brother lol) If only real life were like the stories we all read and write! lol