Recognizable characters and universe elements from Harry Potter are property of J. K. Rowling.
A/N: This story is something fluffy I wrote for myself while out sick. I'm not sure if many/any teenage boys would actually act the way Draco does in this story, but a soothing Draco romance with a side of protective Snape is just what the doctor ordered.
[Present day - Cassy]
Martha pulled her foot up behind her head and examined the snapshot.
A beautiful blonde couple posed in a garden, arched like swans around a small blonde boy.
Cassy balanced on demi-pointe. She adjusted the feathery headpiece against her pale hair. "Having fun going through my stuff?"
"I sure am. Is that your sister? I didn't know you had a sister."
"Um..." Cassy settled her heels back to the floor and raised them back up in relevé. There was an uncomfortable silence, and Martha made to put the photo back, when Cassy spoke. "I don't," she said in a rush. "Those are my parents."
Martha let her foot go, although it stayed in place, hovering by her ear. "But I thought Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin..." Martha peeked around the curtain, where the older couple was already seated.
"My birth-parents, I mean. I'm adopted." Cassy let out a breath and sprung into a little pirouette from first plié.
"You're adopted? That's great." Marsha prided herself on being open-minded. She looked at the picture again and took in the lush roses and the intricate silver jewelry draped over the blonde woman. "They seem to have done well for themselves," she said doubtfully. Why would such a wealthy couple give a child away?
Cassy took the offered snapshot back, studying the picture herself. "They're both heirs or something. They had me awfully young. But they call a lot, and they've gone to all my birthday parties, lots of school things, you know, and almost every piece I've danced, even when I was just in the corps." She tucked the photo back into her bag, which was hanging from the barre support. "They paid for all my ballet until I got into the company."
Martha nodded. She understood that expense.
"So the little boy is your brother?"
"Yes, that's Scorpio." Cassy paused. "It's a – um – family name."
[Some time after the Battle of Hogwarts - Severus]
Severus eyed the couple, relieved that what he saw today still matched his previous assessments. They would do very well.
His eyes flicked to Astoria, who sat pale and shaking in the chair beside him, and to his godson, who clutched the arms of the chair beside her. They had agreed on this. There was no place for a squib in either family, no safe place except under a stone. They knew what their roles should be to get the terms they wanted, but there would be little need for acting on their part.
The counselor looked expectantly at Astoria, which was Severus' chance to cut in. "There is no question of these foolish young people keeping a child," he rasped, keeping his hands together so they would not reach up to massage the bandages about his neck. "No question at all." He sent his most quelling glare at Draco, swept his most disdainful look over Astoria.
The counselor stared at him - looked at Astoria weeping silently - glared at him. "Dear," she repeated gently to Astoria, "are you sure you want to go through with this?"
Astoria managed a shaky nod.
The middle-aged couple exchanged worried glances, torn between their desire for a child and their guilt over the pair of children before them.
"Now, Astoria, Draco," the husband said firmly. Severus quite liked the sound of that voice. "We won't pressure you. You've seen that we have everything ready for her – "
All eyes swung to the carseat where Cassy lay dozing, then back to the table.
"- and that Judy and I are prepared to give her the best life we can. But if you'd like to change your mind-"
Astoria collapsed against Draco, sobbing noiselessly.
"We'll do it," Draco said, shooting Severus a look so full of unfeigned malice that Severus was taken aback. "But we may see her? You're sure we may see her? It's legally binding and all that?
"Yes, of course," both the counselor and the couple hastened to assure him.
"No visitation must interfere with their studies," Severus interjected churlishly.
The wife pursed her coral lips and regarded him coolly. "No," she said, squeezing her husband's hand, "Of course not." But her eyes matched Astoria's reddened ones across the table as if to say, "We'll show him."
The ghost of a smile flickered on the corner of Draco's mouth as Severus turned away, triumphant, looking at the small face and its silvery curls and seeing garden parties, birthday parties, graduation parties, all sorts of parties in that lovely back yard of that respectable brownstone home.
[End of Sixth Year - Draco]
Draco lay panting in the shrubbery, his mind jumping from thought to thought, skipping over a river of darkness. He scrambled upright, pulling at the leaves.
A sharp jerk at his robe brought him tumbling back again.
"Stay put," Severus snapped.
He couldn't think. "I've got to go back."
"Back? You can't go back." Shrewd black eyes assessed him coldly. "More secrets, Draco?" Severus drawled.
Draco shuddered, and at the first probing silver touch, he opened his mind, feeling a profound relief.
Severus frowned and flicked his wand. "Muffliato." A faint masking buzz arose at the edges of their hearing as Severus' eyes rifled quickly through Draco's mind. "Greengrass," he murmured, "The one who dropped Potions this year. Astoria."
Draco nodded, flapped his hands. "I can't leave her, Professor. She's, she's-"
"Do go on."
"There's a baby." Draco flopped back onto the ground, deflated.
Severus recoiled. "Have you lost your mind?" he hissed.
Draco laughed sharply and sat back up, kneeling and starting to stand. He didn't have time to be lectured.
"No. Don't go."
Draco felt a sneer form on his lips as he turned back, but whatever expression was there, Severus ignored it.
"Where are you keeping it?" Severus demanded.
"Keeping what?"
"The baby, idiot."
Draco wiped his hand on his forehead. "It's not born yet."
"Who else knows?"
"No one." Draco reconsidered. "The house elves."
Severus let out a breath through his teeth. "She's being taken care of, then?"
Draco nodded.
"Parkinson, Zabini. Your friends. Do they know?"
Draco shook his head. "They don't even know we're close. Not even Daphne."
"Does she show?"
Draco shook his head again. "Not till summer. And she has some charms..."
Severus considered. "Then she is safer right now than any action on our part could make her."
Draco opened his mouth to protest, but a strange look had passed briefly over Severus' face, and Draco choked as he placed it. It was envy.
"She wants it, then?" Severus' voice sounded hollow. Severus tapped his wand against the corner of his mouth. "I suppose she loves you," he sneered, and Draco felt a burn of pity.
"Yes, she does," he answered quietly. "We love each other."
Severus' face had gone blank again, hard. "We'll see what we can do." He canceled the muffling spell, cocked his head, and listened. "Now come with me."
[Middle of Draco's Sixth Year - Astoria]
Draco ignored her at supper.
Draco ignored her all the time. He had to, of course. She knew that.
She would appear once a week near the Room of Requirement, where he was working. Harry Potter wasn't the only student with an invisibility cloak. Hers was quite adequate.
He would run his hand down her body, just once, and kiss her gently, and maybe they would talk in low voices for a little bit, and then she would leave.
It was no way to start a family. Her house elf Biddy knew that. Biddy had swiveled one great ear towards Astoria during Christmas holidays. The tips of her ears had trembled with ecstasy for a moment. But then she had frowned fiercely and shaken one long finger, and proceeded to serve Astoria nothing but health food for the duration of the week.
Astoria had Biddy to thank that the Hogwarts elves were so well-informed. She had regained her appetite and been looking forward to bowls of trifle at school. But the first supper back, her plate piled with cakes and sweets had vanished after a tantalizing second, to be replaced in another few seconds with a perfectly balanced meal of liver, spinach, and rice with white sauce.
Astoria would have liked to protest, but vanishing plates were sure to cause attention. So, tonight, like at all the other meals, she dutifully created a sensible square meal from the choices before her while the other girls took their grapefruit halves or salad greens, drank down the disgusting goblet that followed at her elbow and would not disappear unless she finished it, and selected the apple closest to her. It always looked like an apple, but she had found to her delight that sometimes it was a peeled avocado, or a kiwi, or a starfruit – exotic, tasty fruits that she loved. This made up – partially – for a lack of treacle tart and so on.
Daphne poked her sister's plate. "Eat all that and you'll get fat, Aster," she said sourly, pushing some lettuce around on her own plate.
"You are getting a little chubby," Pansy purred.
"It's water weight," Astoria lied smoothly. "I'm on an anti-acne diet." Indeed, her skin had never looked smoother.
Pansy quickly charmed over some boils on her own forehead. "Suit yourself," she huffed, and turned away.
Astoria saw the worried frown on Draco's face, and the tightening of his already pale knuckles around his fork.
She forced down some liver and contemplated a bit more. Poor Draco. He was under a lot of pressure. She must get that order for Darkness Powder in as soon as possible, no more putting it off, though goodness knows what he could want with that.
[Middle of Draco's Sixth Year - Astoria]
"Draco. Why don't you look at me anymore?" Astoria cornered him swiftly. "You used to."
He still wouldn't look at her.
"Draco."
Finally, his hand crept along the windowsill towards her, and she seized it with relief.
Astoria had to strain to hear Draco's whisper. "He mustn't know about you."
Astoria shivered through her woolen jumper. She knew who "he" was.
"My parents..." Draco drew his other hand across his face. "He's making me do horrible things. And I'm doing them. I'm doing them, because if I don't – and it would be – if it were you – I can't let that happen."
"So it's nothing to do with – " that time, that last time, Draco, when we finally did it, and you and Pansy sure had everyone fooled but good, because you were every bit as new as I was, and it was awkward and painful, but it was beautiful, too, and maybe it hadn't been a good idea to cast that contraceptive charm in the middle of kissing, because – "I'm pregnant." Astoria dropped his hand and clapped her hands over her mouth.
Draco paled like skim milk. Faint little veins appeared on his forehead, without any color to hide them.
Astoria felt the silence thicken, felt it clog her throat.
"But you cast the spell," Draco choked.
"I must have done it wrong." Astoria felt the flush of heat across her face. "I can - I can take care of it, Draco. Madame Pomfrey has – you know. If you want."
Astoria waited for several breathless, agonizing seconds, not really knowing what she wanted his answer to be, but knowing that she wanted some answer – anything other than silence.
Draco turned towards her then, and pulled her to him with her hands in his.
"That's not what I want," he whispered. "Is it what you want?"
She wasn't sure, but she shook her head no.
He rested his chapped lips in her hair. "We'll just have to be careful."
[Present day - Cassy]
"Do you know that man?" asked Marsha, looking over her shoulder while dabbing cold cream on her face.
"Which man?" Cassy asked, as she dropped bobby pins from her hair into her lap.
"The man – oh, he just left. He was talking to your parents. Tall man, all in black."
"Oh!" Cassy swept all the pins quickly off her skirt and dumped them on dressing table, turning around to look herself. "Oh." She sighed. "That must have been Uncle Severus. He's a friend of the family. I'm sorry I missed him. He doesn't usually come to the US."
"He could've come over and said hi," Marsha agreed.
Cassy shrugged. "He's kind of an introvert." She waved at her mother approaching. "Hi, Mom."
Judy bent to kiss Cassy on the cheek. "Hello, dear. Hello, Marsha."
"Hello, Mrs. Baldwin."
"Wonderful performance, girls. Jon's just bringing the car around, and we'll drive you both home. Cassy, your Uncle Severus was here. He said to tell you it was a lovely show, and he left this for you." Judy smiled. "To think, he was so off-putting when we first met."
It was another photo, in a silver frame, of the family vacation in Spain. Cassy stood in arabesque on the fountain with both hands on Scorpio's skinny outstretched arm, while her two sets of parents stood on the pavement below, along with another blonde woman, Aunt Daphne. Uncle Severus had just made it back into the picture, his long coat caught in mid-swirl as the camera timer had gone off.
Uncle Severus' spiky handwriting was on the back: "To Cassiopeia, who has her own brand of magic."
- The End -
A/N: Nice 'n corny! By the way - adoption is only one choice, and of course there are others, for every family to decide what is best in their situation. But everything works out just swimmingly here because it's supposed to be a happy story.