Well, here goes my first attept at Harry Potter. Please forgive me if the characters are a little off... I haven't touched a Harry Potter book in a year and a half, but I just saw the movie not too long ago... but enough idle chatter!!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything to do with it... yada yada yada, you know how this works...
Cho walked through the Great Hall, completely ignoring any and everyone seeking her attention. The only thought that plagued her mind was this; did they know?
She had shown all of the symptoms clearly but, having the typical it-could-never-happen-to-me mentality, it had taken her until this afternoon to figure it out. Had she been a clever friend on the outside observing these symptoms, the answer would have been blatantly obvious. Go figure…
She dared to look across the hall and caught sight of white-blonde hair and sharp silver eyes before looking away as casually as possible. He couldn't see her at a time like this. He would certainly know. He seemed to know her better than she knew herself. She chuckled bitterly, earning confused looks from the students she passed.
Her Ravenclaw logic immediately told her that nobody knew her better than she knew herself. The concept was only a silly, romantic explanation as to why he knew her quite so well. Nothing more, nothing less.
But, Ravenclaw logic or romantic notion, she couldn't deny that he was more perceptive then anyone she had ever known. He could decide a person's mood simply by observing their posture, guess what people were thinking by studying their facial expressions, and could easily hear deception in a person's voice.
Surely, being as intuitive as he was, he could glance at her from across the hall and know. She could only imagine what he might say.
"I was right," he would say lazily to Zabini. "Twenty-five galleons, as promised. Double or nothing that she names the little brat Cedric…"
Cho shook her head of such thoughts. He isn't that cold-hearted, she told herself firmly. He had told her, more than once, that she was the only person who could truly see that.
If he knew, he would keep such information to himself. But the fact remained that, of all places, here was not where she wanted him to find out. And avoiding his gaze would do no good, as he would automatically know that something was amiss. Cho would simply have to let her gaze float where it would, and hope that she had the ability to hide such a private thing in such a public setting.
Without thinking, Cho saw an open seat and took it, refusing to acknowledge the chipper greetings from those around her. She sat it silence for a moment, staring blankly at the person next to her until an agonizing realization hit her; she was sitting next to 'Loony' Luna Lovegood.
"I can completely understand your wistfulness," she said knowingly. "I feel the same whenever I hear more news from my father about his nargle hunting. He was so close to catching…"
"Please, Lovegood," Cho said softly. "I'm sorry, but I'm not in a conversational mood right now."
The girl shrugged and turned to the unlucky boy seated on the other side of her. Cho allowed herself a sigh of relief. Most of the other students didn't know that Lovegood would happily take her table talk elsewhere if they'd only be polite and ask her to stop. It's not like she's relentless, Cho thought. She's just a little weird, that's all.
She absently grabbed at food and put it on her plate, determined to eat whatever she ended up with. If not for the sake of avoiding more questioning glances, then for the sake of the child growing in her stomach.
That thought was accompanied by a panicked wave of nausea, but she forced it away, refusing to vomit in front of so many people. She ate in silence, thinking about that she might do with a child. Her time at Hogwarts ended in two months, so no one need ever know about her 'condition.' Though, she thought it might be wise to tell Dumbledore. The old bat knows everything, anyways.
What would I name it, she wondered. Cho had the feeling that, this time, she might actually vomit. She excused herself early, and was sure to mumble about having a headache as she passed nosey students. She took a deep breath as she strolled down the halls, intending to go straight to bed. But, as fate would have it, she felt him fall in step beside her.
"Why didn't you finish eating?" he asked calmly. His voice sent shivers down her spine for two reasons; partly because his tone was deep and smooth as velvet, but mostly because she was convinced that he knew damn well why she hadn't wanted to eat. She didn't bother to voice this opinion, though. I'm sure he already knows that too… Still, he waited patiently for an audible answer.
"I felt a little nauseous, that's all," she said quietly, trying to sound casual and truthful at the same time. But he was too clever for that, as she figured he would be.
"Why won't you look at me?"
"I simply don't want to look at you."
"Then you must be hiding something. And am I right in assuming that you have no intention of telling me?"
"Damn straight." Cho shivered as a cold gust of wind hit her. She had known there would be consequences for spending all of her money on such stylish robes. Before Cho could bring her hands up to coax warmth into her arms, his warm, heavy cloak was draped across her shoulders. She smiled gratefully as he put an arm around her and watched her face intently.
"Am I, then, to guess at what has you so ill tempered?"
"No need to be polite and suggest guessing. I'm quite sure you already know."
"Then why not tell me?"
"Because there's no reason for it to be said out loud. If you know, fine. If you don't, better."
"Then it's something important?"
"Why do you bother asking when you already know?" she said heatedly. He stared at her for a moment before withdrawing his arm and clasping his hands behind his back. This conversation was not going in the desired direction from his point of view.
"I want you to tell me," he said, his voice uncommonly soft. "I want you to trust me enough to tell me anything without a moment's hesitation."
Cho stopped walking and stared at him. "Draco, I've never trusted anyone that much. Not my friends, not my family, not my father and certainly not my mother. I find it hard to admit the truth to myself sometimes!"
Draco watched her steadily, unflinching under her piercing gaze. "You may think that I'm lying when I say this, Cho, but I know how you feel. I've never been able to put such trust in anyone either, myself included. But you have to believe me when I say that you can trust me that much. I promise not to abandon you the way they did."
Cho felt her throat tighten at the memory as she gave him a somber nod. She knew that she had to believe him if she had any hope of getting through this pregnancy without losing her mind.
"And to prove it," he continued, "from now on, I'll believe whatever you tell me."
Cho stared at him, baffled and unsure of what to with such trust. Could she lie to his face and have him believe her so easily? Could she pull any miniscule excuse for her behavior out of the air? Tell him that she had not gotten the grade she desired on a test, or that it was that-time-of-the-month for her? Could she tell him that she had been shot with a muggle gun in the back of the head? Did every possibility end with him hanging on her every word?
But, most important of all, could she live with herself if she had betrayed such trust so quickly and easily? As though it were nothing?
Cho took a deep breath and looked him square in the eyes. "Draco, I'm pregnant."
Cho wanted to turn away, but decided that it would be better to watch him. Perhaps she could gauge just how much she really could trust him by his reaction to such news.
He raised his eyebrows ever so slightly. He was surprised. Cho allowed herself a satisfied smirk. So that's how he does it…
"For how long are you, then?" he asked steadily.
"About a month."
"What are you going to do?" At this statement, Cho heard the hesitation in his voice.
"Keep it, of course."
Draco's posture relaxed visibly and he flashed her a knowing smirk. "In that case, I'm forced to tell you that it has been at least two months, love."
Cho frowned irritably. "And again, we are back to 'why do you ask when you already know?' "
He gave her a rare smile and grazed her lips with his sensuously. "You've become unusually bitchy since the day after your birthday. I would have written it off as one of your terrifying periods, but a week had passed and you were still at it. I could only assume that you must be pregnant and I wanted you to find out on your own. But tonight you looked so dysphoric and I was afraid that you had found out and didn't want it."
Cho turned her head to the side as Draco leaned in for a kiss. His lips met her cool cheek and he gave an annoyed huff, waiting for an explanation.
"So, instead of telling me anything, you took it upon yourself to keep me in the dark altogether?"
"He's my child too, dearest." His hand drifted to her stomach and patted it lightly. She swatted his hand away playfully and ignored the comment about it being a son that she carried. "Besides, it all worked out for the best. You got to find out for yourself… I get to raise my first child with you… We now know that we can trust each other… Everybody wins. You may not see it, but it was purely out of love."
"Fair enough." Cho rewarded him with a kiss. "But, just so we're clear, I get to name the child. If it's a boy, then Marcus. And if it's a girl, Monica. And I expect you to love your child unconditionally, thank you very much."
"Fair enough," he echoed, dropping a light kiss on her lips. She frowned up at him, wondering at his satisfied smirk. She didn't notice that he had pulled something out of his pocket and was now hiding that small, platinum 'something' behind his back, waiting for just the right moment.
Well, there it is! Hope you enjoyed it!
