this little light of mine
and you, of the tender years
can't know the fears that your elders grew by
.crosby, stills, nash, &young.
"teach your children"
1.
Blue. It glowed around her navel, an ethereal light that seemed to illuminate the entire bathroom and bounce off the tiles and the marble counter and the mirror. She placed her palm over her belly, covering the glow, and pressed slightly, then moved her hand quickly. There was something alive in there. A child. Her child.
She dropped her wand and it clattered to the floor, rolling under the cabinet. The blue glow vanished at once, and the bathroom looked like its normal self again.
"Astoria?" A shuffling just outside the bathroom door, followed by a brisk, "Did you drop something?"
"Just my wand," she said. Her lips felt numb. She carefully reached down and picked up the holly stick, and as she stood up straight, she caught a look at her reflection. There was a young, scared girl staring back at her, wide-eyed and breathless. And there, inside her, small and tiny and innocent and fragile, was a baby. A baby.
But how? How could she have a child when she was such a child herself, barely twenty-three? How would she do it? How?
A baby, inside her. She let out a cry of surprise and Draco burst into the room dramatically. Messy hair, shirt half unbuttoned, a far cry from his usually composed self. She almost laughed at his appearance and lost control over a hysterical little giggle. Draco swallowed hard.
"What's the result?" he asked. He raised his hand to touch her, but seemed to think better of it and shoved it into his pocket.
Seeing his distress calmed her just a bit. She straightened up slightly and said, "It's a baby."
He released a breath. A beat passed between them in silence. His cool grey eyes poured into her blue ones with an intensity she had never known before.
"Well," he said, "I'm glad it's not a hippogriff."
Astoria laughed, long and hard, and tears fell down her face and mingled with his as he held her.