She stared blankly at the piece of plastic she held in her hand. Who knew she could have such intense feelings of hatred towards a tiny, non-sentient thing? It was negative.

Again.

This would now be the twelfth time in a row that she stood in her bathroom, staring at a negative pregnancy test. She had been really optimistic for this month, positive that it was going to be... well, positive. She even had a romantic dinner all planned and was hoping to surprise her husband with good news on Valentine's Day, which was tomorrow. Well, at least she would still be able to make him dinner.

With a loud sigh, she sat on edge of the tub and stared out the window overlooking the grounds. She did this often, and it usually gave her a sense of peace to watch the water flowing in the small river or the small animals frolicking about. Not today, however. No, today she felt nothing but self-loathing.

She had failed.

Not only had she failed herself but her husband as well. He wanted to have children, and she knew he was disappointed every time it didn't happen. Not that he would ever say that to her, of course not. But she could feel it and somehow that made her feel even worse. She also dreaded what was coming next. He was going to want them both to see healers.

She was scared.

Not only had she failed to get pregnant within the past year, she was scared to death about seeing a healer. What if it was her fault? There was a much higher chance of that being the case than it being an issue with her husband, considering her torture and all. She didn't even want to think about his reaction if the healer came back and told them that was the case. He would be devastated.

Anger overtook her as she looked at the test one more time. She flung it across the room as tears started falling from her eyes. Soon, the tears turned to full on sobs, and she couldn't stop herself. She was crying so hard that she almost didn't hear her husband calling for her.

"Hermione? Hermione, where are you? I wanted to see..." he trailed off as he entered the bathroom.

The next she knew, strong arms were wrapped around her body and soft words were being spoken in her ear. Not that she could hear them over her loud sobs.

It took a few minutes before she finally calmed down enough to be able to answer her husband's inquires. She said nothing, just pointed to the corner where the test had landed. A look of understanding crossed his face before he schooled it back into a blank mask. She couldn't help but remember the day they decided to start trying. He had been so excited...

They had been sitting at their dining room table, dining by candlelight. He was telling her all about the great day he had at work when she interrupted him.

"I want to have a baby."

"What?"

"A baby. I'm ready and I think this would be a good time to start. I've even done up a timeline, and you'll see that this is an ideal time."

"You did... a timeline?"

"Of course. What's wrong? Don't you want one too?"

"Of course I do! You just surprised me, that's all. I figured you would want to wait a bit longer. Only you would create a timeline to figure out when the best time to have a baby is. You never fail to amaze me, Granger," he said with a huge smile on his face.

"It's Malfoy."

With a bark of laughter, he got up from his chair, circled the table, and gathered her into his arms.

"I love you, Mrs. Malfoy," he whispered.

She sighed as she was brought back to reality by Draco tilting her face up.

"It's okay."

"It's not! I want this, Draco. And I know you do too. I've... I've failed us both."

"No! I don't ever want to hear you say that again. You are not a failure. You could never be a failure. This will happen for us, I promise. We'll get through it, together."

And they would, she knew. She could get through anything, as long as she had him by her side.

Task 2: Write a fic about someone failing to complete a task.

Prompts:

1. Valentine's Day

5. river

10. timeline

No beta as this was a speed round. Written for the A Demigod Wizard's Duel at the Hunger Games Competition.