Hermione Granger didn't know why she stuck with her husband for four years.
They barely saw each other on weekdays and on weekends they never managed to catch each other at home. Hermione would work the early morning shift at St. Mungo's, and Draco slept through the morning and left just half an hour before she got home to go train the new aurors. She didn't even know when he woke up every single day.
They owled each other while at work, sure, but all she wanted to do was spend just one day with Draco. Nothing too fancy, just maybe a movie date and dinner at a simple restaurant. No distractions. She would share her news with him after they got home. She knew he would be happy. He'd been pestering her about the topic for eight months already and she'd just found out last week.
So she decided to take a day off work and try to be home with Draco as much as she could. She owled the hospital, telling them she would be taking a much needed break she hadn't taken advantage of since she first started the job.
Hermione opened the fridge and slid out a package of bacon, setting it in a bowl and putting it into the microwave to defrost quickly. She then opened the refrigerator and picked out six particularly large brown eggs.
She hummed the song that had been playing at their wedding as she cracked the eggs open one by one into the blue bowl she had bought with Draco the day before he proposed to her, smiling. Hermione grasped the whisk with one hand and held the bowl with the other and beat the eggs quickly, jumping a little when the microwave beeped.
Fifteen minutes later found Hermione sitting at the dining table with two sets of silverware and plates, one piled with eggs and bacon, the other considerably less full. Two glasses of orange juice were poured and ready to be enjoyed at the early hour.
She heard the soft shuffling of slippers and looked up from her hands just as Draco strolled in with a surprised smile on his face.
"Good morning, honey," she greeted her husband with an expectant grin.
"Good morning, Hermione." Draco leaned over to kiss her cheek and then her lips. "Aren't you supposed to be at work by now? Not that I'm complaining the slightest bit, however. I love seeing you in the morning."
"I took a day off to spend time with you," Hermione trailed off when she realized something. "I hope you don't mind that I didn't ask you beforehand."
Draco took a seat across from her and sipped at his juice with a sad shake of his head. "Of course I don't mind spending time with you. We never see each other anymore, don't we?"
"We don't really have schedules that complement each other, Draco. Neither of us is at fault here."
Draco scooped up a forkful of eggs and dipped it in in the small bowl of ketchup, and then brought it slowly over to Hermione's mouth, poking her lips until she opened them and allowed him to feed her. "I'd love to wake up every morning next to you and go to bed with you. I was actually considering changing jobs just the other day. I only see you when I go to bed and by then you're too tired to do anything."
Hermione returned the favor by spearing a piece of bacon and watching him accept the food with a loving smile on his face. "I'd like to watch a movie today. Could we go into Muggle London and see what's playing, and then go eat at Betty's?"
"Of course we can." Draco poked her nose playfully. "Now open up so I can feed you some more eggs and this ketchup you like so much. I'll owl work and tell them I'm not going in today so I can spend the night with you."
They walked hand in hand along the line of shops lining the street. Draco carried a tiny bag filled with candy that Hermione insisted on buying. It was also the only thing she would accept from him, even if they were married.
"Did you like that movie?" Hermione questioned with a grin on her face.
"No." Draco frowned at the mere thought of having to sit through an entire romantic movie. "It was complete rubbish."
"I saw you crying at one point, you know," she teased him. "You don't have to act manly and deny your emotions. Let it out and cry on my shoulder if you want."
Draco glared at his wife. "I was most certainly not crying. I was just trying to get some of the very, very salty butter out of my eye from when I accidentally rubbed it in."
"And it just happens to be when Georgia was holding her boyfriend's hand on her deathbed? I think the timing was a little too perfect to be true."
"All right, I may have shed a couple of tears here and there but I was not sobbing like you were. You used up your entire travel pack of tissues!"
"Can you pass me one of the caramel ones?" Hermione pointed at the brown bag in his hand. "I'm a little hungry."
Draco reached into the bag and took out a caramel chocolate, unwrapped it for her, and then bit off half of it before popping the other half quickly into her open mouth that was ready to yell at him for taking her food.
Hermione chewed furiously on the sweet, swallowed, and then punched her spouse lightly in the stomach. "Why do you get the half that doesn't have germs on it?"
"Do you want one without germs? Here, you can bite this one first."
Draco fed her half of another piece of chocolate and then raised it to his lips after she took a bite out of it, placing it into his mouth. His jaw worked to separate the chocolate into smaller pieces so he could swallow. "Chocolate is probably one of the only things I like about your world, apart from you. You're the only one I love. I'd have you over chocolate for desert any day."
Dinner was magnificent. It wasn't too special, and that's what made it even better. The two enjoyed a quick meal of cheeseburgers and fries with one large smoothie to be shared between them. Draco insisted the smoothie be shared, and with a cherry so he could place it between his wife's lips, pull the stem out from her mouth, and leave the fruity part for her.
"I love feeding you." Draco smiled fondly at Hermione, who was squirting more ketchup onto her plate. "I wish this day would never end and we could relive it forever."
"I have something to tell you." Hermione fidgeted with her napkin nervously. "Do you mind if we go home after dinner so we can talk?"
"Are you alright?" Draco inspected her face worriedly. Was she mad at him? She was perfectly fine until about three minutes ago when her face started turning pale. "Of course we can go home after dinner. Do you want to stay here and eat or should we get it wrapped up to go?"
"Can we eat for a while?" Hermione asked sheepishly. "It's not bad news or anything urgent. I'm still kind of hungry."
"Take as much time as you want. Watching you eat is probably one of my favorite hobbies, up there with watching you read and sleep."
Hermione stuck her tongue out at him. "You sound like a stalker."
"Well, if I wasn't a stalker, you would never have seen me following you to class every day and confronted me. We would still probably be enemies if it weren't for that kiss to shut you up."
"I guess you're right. I love you and your stalker personality."
"I'm pregnant." Hermione blurted out sometime after they got home and were sitting in bed together.
"You're not joking, are you? This isn't some cruel trick to get me all excited for nothing, is it? You're really pregnant with my baby?"
Hermione frowned. "You don't seem too excited."
Draco suddenly attacked her with a hug and knocked her down so he was practically lying on top of her. "I love you and I love our child so much already. I've been waiting for so long to have a child with you. I love you. I love you. I love you."
"I love you too, Draco."
"Do you think I'll be a good father?" Draco set his chin on Hermione's stomach, the truth finally sinking in and insecurity showing through."
"Why wouldn't you be? You're the best husband I could ever ask for and you'll treat Orion the same or even better as you do to me."
"Orion? You think she'll be a boy? Kealani won't be too happy with you when she finds out once she's all grown up and beautiful like you."
"Oh, Draco. What am I going to do with you?" Hermione sighed. He sometimes laid the compliments on a bit too thick.
"Love me for the rest of our lives and give birth to all seven of our children?" Draco grinned at the woman he loved. He reached up to stroke her cheek lovingly.
"You just want to raise your own Quidditch team. I'm not popping more than three out of me. Do you know how much it hurts?"
"And you do?" Draco raised an arrogant eyebrow. "Are there any children I don't know about that I should?"
"I have an idea I know about the pain from all of the birthing scenes in the romance movies I watch. Do you want to watch them with me sometime and get some practice?" Hermione ran her fingers through her husband's silky hair.
"No." Draco sniffed.
"Afraid you'll cry again?"
"I'm just afraid to deal with a hormonal soon-to-be mother with anger management issues. Plus the fact she's the smartest witch in wizarding history is a big reason to be terrified." Draco rubbed a thumb over Hermione's stomach happily. "I can't wait for Kealani to arrive."
"Orion will be here sooner than you think. So we'd better start preparing his room soon or he'll be sharing ours with us. And you know what you won't be getting when there's a baby in the room."
Draco shot out of bed. "Which room will it be? Let's go buy a crib tomorrow. You'll have to rest at home and take a break from work and take good care of yourself."
Hermione wanted to laugh. She couldn't wait until she was showing and her husband would panic more than he was already.
"Hermione?"
"Yes, dear?"
"I love you. Thanks for being a brilliant wife and the mother of my child."
"I love you too, Draco."