Hello! This is a request I received a while back from guest anguis domus. They requested that I write about the future with Hermione and Draco and their children. I hope you enjoy it. :)
...
Hermione flopped onto her bed, all of the wind leaving her in a gust. Draco fell beside her and she rolled over into his side.
"This is hard," she whined, and Draco chuckled.
"Maybe we should have listened to Ginny," he replied. "We're not ready to be parents, are we?"
She sighed. "But I want to be."
Draco smiled softly. "I know you do.
"How come Ginny can do it so well? What's wrong with us?"
"Hermione, Ginny has parents who raised somewhere around 10 kids," he said. "She has a lot of help and advice. We were both only children who only have books."
"Maybe we're being too technical?" Hermione sat up and rested her chin in her hand. "Think we should take the class again?"
"If the teacher fails us again I'm putting my foot down," Draco groaned. "But sure. Why not."
Hermione laid back down in her bed and curled up against the side of the still-lying-down Draco. The two had been married for five years now, counting the year they were married because of the Life Project. All of the pictures had come true by now and they had only their future to look forward to. They were both in the Order, Voldemort was dead and the Death Eaters were being rounded up everyday and thrown into Azkaban.
And through it all, Hermione and Draco had been planning out their life together and making what they wanted to happen come true. They lived in a nice little cottage and Hermione opened her medical practice. Draco worked in Diagon Alley with Blaise Zabini in an apothecary they named after their godfather, Snape's Apothecary. Ginny and Harry had married shortly out of Hogwarts and now had little baby James, whom Hermione had been babysitting for the past week under careful attention of Ginny, their "teacher."
Hermione wanted a baby more than anything, but Ginny had told the two of them twice that they should wait a while - they just weren't ready.
They couldn't keep the baby happy. He was always upset, and they could never figure out what was wrong with him. Draco could't keep his attention on James for more than three minutes at a time, leaving Hermione with all of the work that she usually couldn't do and Ginny had to take over. Why was it so difficult to just feed the kid?
Draco patted Hermione's hair. "Don't worry, Hermione. We'll catch on one day. We have the whole future ahead of us to get better, don't we?"
Hermione nodded. She yawned. "I hope so."
...
Hermione threw up. They did not, it appeared, have the whole future to get better. At least, not according to the little pink plus sign.
They were had around 9 months to get better. Otherwise they were going to have to figure something out. Fast.
...
Draco was beyond ecstatic to hear the news only a week after they'd had their discussion about waiting to get pregnant. Apparently, he wanted a child more than he'd been letting on. Hermione felt bad for not noticing. Maybe she should have worked harder with James.
"Hermione!" he exclaimed, his eyes bright. He scooped her into a hug and swung her around, clutching her tightly to himself when he was satisfied that his hug was sufficiently lovey. "That is so wonderful!" He kissed her hard. "But I thought we were going to wait?"
Hermione shrugged. "I suppose it doesn't make much of a difference now, does it?"
He rolled his eyes. "How did this happen?"
"Well, when a mommy and a daddy -"
Draco mock-shoved her. "That's not what I meant. I mean, weren't we using charms and potions? That potion Blaise made - is it not working?"
Hermione shook her head. "I never took it that night at Harry's party."
Draco wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Oh, right. In the closet."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Not one of my better moments."
Draco pulled her against him by her waist. "One of your best moments, if you ask me."
Hermione laughed. "Well, the fact of the matter is, you've gotten me pregnant and now there's no going back. Also, you're telling the Order at Weasley Sunday supper."
"Okay, but if Mrs. Weasley tries to hug me again I'm going to kick her."
"If you want to be decapitated, sure, go ahead."
...
Mrs. Weasley was happy, of course, but did not attempt to hug Draco on Hermione's advice - Draco wasn't very touchy-feely unless it was with Hermione. Ginny congratulated them and said that she'd be glad to take care of the baby while the two were away at work and still training to change a diaper properly. Ron looked murderous, but Cho stomped on his foot and smiled pleasantly, offering up her congratulations as well. Harry was ecstatic to have a boy that they planned on naming after him, and Dean was happy, too - ever since he'd become a girl he had this strange connection to babies. James loved him more than he loved his own father.
All in all, everyone was happy to hear the news.
...
Draco wasn't sure how he was going to handle this moody wife for another four months. He was so desperate that he had to get out with Harry Potter of all people and ask him advice.
"Trust me, mate," Harry said, patting Draco's back as he bought him a firewhiskey. "Take my advice - keep a lot of this in your house, do whatever she asks and don't keep a broom in the house. My wife played Quidditch and new what she was doing with a broom, but Hermione - she's imaginative."
Draco went home horrified that night that he'd be murdered in his sleep, but Hermione was in a sad mood and instead just wanted to sit and cry and tell Draco that she wasn't ready to be a mother. Draco agreed with her; however, he reassured her by saying that someone who could spend their entire life as a pediatrician who made clothes for house elves on the side would be the greatest mother in the world.
She didn't believe him, though, and accused him of lying - at which point Draco had to pull her wand out of her hand before she shoved it inside of him somewhere quite creative.
Then she cried and demanded to know what was wrong with her, so Draco got her some leftovers from the night before and she ate and then went to sleep. The next day she was too sick to be moody and the day after that she was perfectly fine. Draco was going crazy, never knowing what to expect from his extremely pregnant wife.
...
Draco knew Hermione was strong. He knew she'd endured terribly torture during the war. He did not, however, expect her to be so quiet during childbirth. Sure, she was squeezing his hand so hard that he heard it crack and his fingers turned white and he lost all feeling in his arm, but she didn't even scream. He did hear one short scream, but that might have been himself, just before he passed out.
When he woke up, he was a father. A very nervous father.
"Isn't he sweet?" Hermione whispered, completely drained. "So perfect."
Draco was awestruck. "I can't believe we...made that?"
"Made him, Draco," she replied. "Harry."
...
Harry was a ridiculously hyper child, but Hermione and Draco had raised him well. He always said please and thank you and he did everything his parents asked him, except when he snuck out to see a concert and when he asked out his first girlfriend when they told him they didn't approve of her, but he stuck up for himself, they could see, and he was sure in his decisions and it was all they could have really asked. They loved him more than words could express, and when he went through the same project as they had done in their seventh year he stayed married to the same girl his parents hadn't approved of, but who turned out to be absolutely wonderful and they loved her in the end.
He was there to take care of them when they were old and he had his own child and Hermione and Draco swore to their graves that he was ten times the better parent than they ever were.
Harry begged to differ.