Jesse Potter stumbled as a rock dislodged making her feet slip a little down the small mountain that she was climbing. She stayed still as she heard something move up ahead, but after nothing appeared after a minute, she adjusted her invisibility cloak, and started to walk, a little more carefully this time. She had only been here once, and that was in broad daylight without the need to hide under the cloak. This time it was much harder, but she knew she had no other choice in the matter. Not one she was willing to take anyway.
She finally reached the entrance of the cave, and stepped inside. A low growl emitted from the darkness. She froze. Another growl. This time closer.
"It's okay," She licked her lips. "Snuffles it's okay. It's me."
There was a pause.
"Lumos." A light appeared on the tip a wand, illuminating the small space. "Jesse? Is that you?" Sirius Black whispered.
Jesse pulled off the cloak, and watched as her godfather's eyes widened. He rushed towards her, pulling her way from the entrance saying, "What are you thinking? Why are you here? You shouldn't have sneaked out."
"I had to Sirius," she said. "I need help, and you're the only one I can think of who can."
His face was troubled as he sat down. She copied him.
"Help? But the second task is over. You said you did well," he said.
"I know. This isn't about that," she said, looking down at her hands.
"Did something else happen? Ron or Hermione –"
"They don't know I'm here. No one does," she said, glancing up at him. He looked confused and worried.
"Jesse tell me what's wrong. I can help."
"I know. It's why I came here, but." She sighed. "You're going to be angry."
He leaned forward, grabbing her hands. "C'mon kid, you're worrying me here. Tell me what's going on."
"I need to get to a muggle pharmacy," she whispered.
He furrowed his eyebrows. "If you're sick why don't you just go to Pomfrey?"
"Because, Sirius, I think I'm pregnant," she said, looking straight into his eyes.
His mouth opened up. His eyes widened. His grip on her hands loosened. Jesse knew that whatever he had been expecting, it hadn't been that. She found it hard to believe as well.
"Pregnant?" he whispered.
"It's just a guess though. I have to be sure," she said quickly. "And I didn't want to go to Madam Pomfrey because what if I'm wrong? I don't want it to get out."
"Jesse you're fourteen," he said.
She wondered if he had heard a word of what she had said. "I know. Believe me, I know."
He jumped up and started pacing around. "Obviously not, or we wouldn't be in this situation. Who is he? Who did this? It was consensual, right?" He stopped then, looking horrified at the thought.
"No one forced me," she said.
He nodded and went back to pacing. "So who is he?"
"He . . . I," she stuttered.
"Was it Ron? I'll kill him," he snarled. He looked like he was going to go to march into Hogwarts right that second.
"What? No," she exclaimed, getting up and standing in front of him. "Sirius please. Can't we just make sure I am before I tell you?"
He looked at her steadily for a few long moments. Jesse wasn't sure what he was looking for, or what he had found, but after a tense silence his shoulders slumped, and he nodded. "Okay, fine. So how far along do you think you are?"
"Two months," she said, wrapping her arms around her middle.
"Christmas then," he said, softly. He tilted his head back, and rubbed at his stubble.
She didn't say anything. He eyed her before dropping his hands, and sighing.
"Okay. Okay, I can't get to a muggle pharmacy right now, but there is a wizarding one right here in Hogsmeade. Let me go get a test. Stay here. Don't move," he warned, before he transformed into Padfoot, and took off.
Jesse sighed, and was going to sit down, but a rustling from in the cave startled her. She pulled out her wand and asked, "Who's there?"
Buckbeak walked slowly forward. She lowered her wand, and bent into a bow. When Buckbeak bowed back, she walked forward. "Hello. How have you been?" She petted his smooth feathers for a bit. "I think I really messed up this time. I don't know what I'm going to do if my suspicions are true. Everyone's going to hate me."
"Not everyone."
Jesse gasped, spinning around. Sirius was looking at her seriously. She wondered how much he got back so fast before she noticed the potion he was holding. In the vial was a white potion. The test.
"You need to put a couple drops of blood in it. If it stays the same it's negative. If it changes color, it's positive," he explained, walking closer to her.
Buckbeak went to lay down again. Jesse held out her hand as Sirius pulled a knife out.
"Ready?" he asked.
Biting her lip, she nodded. He gently pressed the cold metal against her index finger. Big drops of blood welled up. He guided her hand over the opening of the vial, and they both watched as the blood dripped into it. They watched with bated breath as the color stayed that way, but it only did for a moment before it slowly started changing to green.
"Positive," she breathed.
Sirius nodded, his mouth set in a firm line. "Too early to tell the gender. It would have changed to either blue or pink otherwise."
"Yeah," she said, distantly. She had hoped so much to be wrong, and now she couldn't pretend that everything was going to be okay. Without her permission, her throat tightened up and tears welled up in her eyes.
"Oh Jesse," Sirius sighed, wrapping his arms around her. That broke the damn, and she started sobbing in earnest.
"What am I going to do, Sirius? How can I take care of a baby? I can barley take care of myself!" she coughed, a loud hacking cough, still crying. "I'm in the tournament and Voldemort wants to kill me and everyone is going to hate me."
"Shh," he said stroking her hair. "This isn't the greatest situation, but we will deal with it. I'll be there with you every step of the way."
"Not when I tell you who the father is," she said, sniffing but the tears seem to have disappeared now.
"Is it really that bad?" he asked, pulling back a little. "You know I am going to be mad no matter who it is."
She smiled weakly, and decided to get it over with already. "Draco Malfoy."
It was clear that whatever he had been thinking, it wasn't that. "Wh-what? But you always fight with him. I heard you had an epic rivalry with him."
Jesse shrugged looking down at her feet. She couldn't really explain what had happened. It was all so confusing. One minute she was at the Yule Ball and then next she was in the Slytherin boy's dorm. One minute Malfoy was being almost nice to her and the next he amped up his cruelty by ten.
"You have to tell him," Sirius said, after long moments of silence.
"Do I really?" she looked up beseechingly, even though she knew the answer.
"He's the father. He is in this just as much as you are," he said, more stern than she had ever heard her godfather. "Now, I want you to go back to your dorm and get some rest. Tomorrow, you will tell him. And you will also tell him that on Friday night you will both be meeting with me, here."
"What? No!" Jesse pulled away completely. "That's a big risk Sirius. I can't have you getting into trouble."
"I won't get into trouble. Malfoy is my cousin. Jesse, you're going to do this," he said.
"Cousin?" she asked.
"Yes, I'll explain later. Tell me you'll do what I said."
She looked at him and saw he wasn't going to budge. She had to do it. Sighing she nodded. "I'll do it."
"Okay. Come like you did tonight. And don't tell anyone else about this yet," he said.
She wondered why, but knew she wouldn't get an answer just yet. She nodded again. "I better get going." She picked up her cloak. "And Sirius? I'm really sorry."
He smiled at her weakly. "I know you are kiddo. I know you are."
Jesse paced around the room. He was late. A couple seconds late, but late all the same. Now she knew how Snape felt. She had did what Sirius had asked of her, and, in the middle of Herbology, dropped a note telling Malfoy to meet her after dinner in the abandoned classroom on the third floor. But he wasn't there yet, and she was really freaking out. What if he didn't show? What if he didn't believe me? What if—
"If I didn't know better, Potter, I would say you wanted a repeat performance of before, but the famous Girl-Who-Lived wouldn't want anything to do with a slimey Slytherin, would she?"
She turned around so fast she almost got whiplash. There he was, Draco Malfoy, the same as he always was. Pale hair, pale skin, piercing eyes, cool confidence, but without the vicious sneer that had taken up his face ever since the Second Task had happened. He looked like he did the night of the Yule Ball, the night –
"Well, Potter? Why did you need to see me for?" he asked, walking further into the room.
"Er . . . Well I," she stuttered. "You see . . the thing is, er."
He raised an eyebrow at her, walking even closer to her. "I don't have all day you know."
"I'm pregnant," she blurted out.
He stopped in the middle of taking another step. His reaction was just like her godfather's. Wide eyes, mouth opened. "Wh-what?" he whispered.
"I'm pregnant. About two months now," she said, staring intently at his face. Fear was flickering through his eyes. She knew the feeling. She just hoped he would take responsibility. It would be ten times harder without the father around.
"And you think it's mine?"
"I know the baby is yours," Jesse said coldly, anger washing through her. "You're the only person I've been with."
"Yeah, me too," he said, distantly. She didn't know why, but that confession made her a little happier.
They lapsed into silence. Jesse moved to sit on a desk, and started playing with her hands. She knew it would take time for this to process, and she wanted to give him some semblance of privacy while he did it.
Sometime later, she wasn't sure the exact time since her watch was still broken, she felt his presence directly in front of her. Looking up, she was startled by his fierce expression.
"Who else knows?" he asked, very seriously.
"Er-You and . . my godfather," she said hesitantly.
"Godfather?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Sirius Black," she whispered.
"The murderer?" he asked, shock plain on his face.
"He's innocent!" she exclaimed. "He was framed."
Malfoy looked like he didn't know whether to believe that. "And you've known where he was this whole time?"
"Not the whole time," she said. "But why did you want to know about who knows? Sirius said I should only tell you, and no one else."
"Not even the Weasel?" he asked, snidely.
"Don't call him that," Jesse frowned. "And of course I didn't tell him. He would fly off the handle."
"Well, good," he said. "I need to tell my parents before anyone else finds out."
"But you're dad wants to kill me," she said before she could stop herself.
Malfoy looked at her sharply, anger building up on his face, before, abruptly, it left. "Family is everything to Malfoys. You are carrying the next Malfoy heir," he explained. "Even if he is reluctant about it at first, you are family now, and will be treated as such."
Jesse felt dizzy. Whatever she had been expecting from this meeting, it was the exact opposite of this. Family? Really? "Does this mean you're going to acknowledge the baby? You'll be in its life?"
"I'm not a muggle, Potter. Of course I will be," he said, the snobbery she was so familiar with making its way into his voice.
"Of course," she repeated, smiling faintly. "Oh, and Sirius wants to meet you. On Friday."
If Jesse didn't know better, she would have said Malfoy looked worried. But he didn't say anything, just nodded.
"So meet me by the one-eyed witch statue on this floor, right before curfew. We're supposed to go together. And he said not to tell anyone else right now," she said.
Malfoy frowned but nodded. "I'll meet you there."
"See you," she said, watching as he paused, looking back at her at the doorway, before leaving completely.
Well that went better than I ever thought it would.
When Jesse arrived at the statue of the one-eyed witch, Malfoy was already there. She was already under the invisibility cloak, so she took her time examining him while he was unaware.
At first, he looked like he always did: snobby, expressionless, the prince of his own little world. But then she could see his eyes flicker nervously, and the way his fingers would rub each other quickly before straightening out. She bit her lip gazing at him, thinking, wondering.
"Hey," she whispered, pulling off the cloak.
Malfoy jumped, taking her in and then settling on the cloak.
"An invisibility cloak. That's how you never get in trouble," he said. There was no sneer or malice in his voice.
"Er –Yeah," she said. "Let's get going, shall we?"
He nodded and watched as she withdrew her wand and pointed it at the statue.
"Dissendium."
"How did you know this was here?" he asked, following her down the path.
"I can't reveal all my secrets, now can I?" She smiled as she heard him huff, but didn't turn to look at him, picturing the glare that was sure to be on his face.
They were silent the rest of the way to Honeydukes where they put on the invisibility cloak, and they were silent as they reached the edge of the village started the hard climb up the mountain. It was slow going, much slower than Jesse wanted it to go, but they didn't want to accidently trip and fall. Malfoy seemed to be very worried about that particular fact, steadying her with a hand on her wrist or back when she wobbled a little. Jesse found she didn't mind much.
Sirius was sitting next to a sleeping Buckbeak when they arrived, but stood up as soon as they took off the cloak.
"Malfoy," he said. Jesse couldn't tell what he was thinking.
"Mr. Black," Malfoy bowed his head respectively. He looked paler than normal.
Sirius looked startled. Jesse's lip twitched. "Call me Sirius. Now did you do as I tell you? No one else knows?"
"I haven't told anybody," Jesse said.
"I haven't told anyone either. But I need to tell my parents. They'll want to know why they weren't informed first thing," Malfoy said.
"That won't be a problem because we are going to meet with them right now," Sirius said, simply.
Jesse couldn't help the gasp that escaped her, and she saw Draco start with equal surprise. "But, how?" she asked.
"I sent them a letter after you left me telling them to meet us here. It is best to inform them at once, and then we can plan from there," he said.
"Are you sure that it is safe?" Jesse couldn't help but to question. She saw Malfoy's face pinch in annoyance, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Sirius was more important than his feelings. And his dad was a Death Eater. He couldn't deny that.
"Yes I'm sure. There'll be nothing to worry about," Sirius said.
"So you didn't tell them why they should come here? They don't know anything?" Malfoy took his turn at asking.
"Maybe you could ask us exactly what it is we are here to know. And why are we in the presence of two fugitives and a Potter," the unmistakable voice of Lucius Malfoy said behind them.
Spinning around, Jesse watched distrustfully as Lucius and Narcissa swept through the cave, disgust for their surroundings clear on their sneering faces. Jesse saw Draco's surprise before his face changed to impassive. She saw Sirius observe him too before he turned to the elder two with his own stern face.
"I'm glad you came," he said. "I wasn't sure if you would simply send the Aurors instead."
"We thought about it," Lucius admitted. "But you said it involved our son. An explanation now would be greatly appreciated. We do not want to spend more time in your, place, than we have too."
Sirius caught Draco's eye and tilted his head toward them. Draco pressed his lips together and shook his head minutely. Jesse watched this, wondering if she should help him out, but then decided against it. She had told Sirius. He needed to tell his parents. Everyone was staring at him. He looked at each of them in turn, before his shoulders slumped. Jesse watched as he twisted his fingers together, and took a deep breath.
"Potter's pregnant. The baby's mine."