Chapter One: The Potion

The Parenthood Project

Steph

"As you have all been told, you will be participating in a project that the Ministry of Magic has put in place as a way to help prepare you for your futures. Although some of you may believe that this particular aspect won't be part of your future, it is still mandatory to participate. The sorting hat will be placed on the girls and it will choose a suitable partner. There is no changing the decision once it's been made, so don't try and argue about who gets picked. Alright, Miss Parkinson, you will go first," Professor McGonagall told the ten students that were seated in front of her. Pansy stood up with an unpleased grimace on her face and sat on the stool. This had been the same stool they'd all sat on in their first year to get sorted. She sat in the Sorting Hat and waited.

After a moment of deliberation, the hat said, "Miss Parkinson will be partnered with Mister Zabini." They both frowned and Draco smirked, thankful that he didn't have to be paired with her.

It was Luna's turn next and she skipped happily up to the stool. The hat didn't take as long with this choice and quickly proclaimed, "Miss Lovegood will be partnered with Mister Longbottom." She smiled at him and went to sit back in her seat.

Lavender stood up next and it took the hat quite a long time to decide. Finally, it said, "Miss Brown will be partnered with Mister Weasley." Ron went red and Lavender looked extremely annoyed at the choice, sitting back down in her seat.

Ginny walked up next and sat confidently on the stool while the hat deliberated. "Miss Weasley will be paired with Mister Potter," it said, and Harry beamed with delight. Ginny walked down and sat next to Harry.

Hermione looked around and noticed that she was the last one left. That could only mean one thing. She walked up and sat on the stool, knowing her fate as soon as the hat touched her head. Without much thought, the hat said, "Miss Granger will be partnered with Mister Malfoy." Draco groaned and Hermione wore an unpleased frown on her face. She went and sat down in her spot, and McGonagall began to explain more.

"Now that you all have your partners, you will need to decide as a group what the password for your common room will be. The ten of you will be living in a dormitory and will be spending the remainder of the term living as muggles. Anything outside of your schoolwork is to be done without magic. Inability to abide by this rule will result in a week's detention. Now off with you. The rest of your assignment will be waiting for you in your dormitory. Good luck everyone," she told them.

They all stood up and made their way out of the Great Hall. No one spoke much on the way there, and when they reached the door they had to decide what the password would be. They decided on "Unity" because of the partners and how they needed to have unity in order to cooperate. The portrait opened and they walked in. It looked similar to their dorms in Gryffindor tower, only there was a kitchen on one side of the common room and five love seats on the other facing the fireplace. There was a piece of parchment on the coffee table with emerald green writing on it. Hermione picked it up and read it out to the others.

Students,

Welcome to the Parenthood Project. As part of the assignment, the ten of you will be living as muggles for the remainder of the school year. Each pair will be responsible for taking care of their child or children. In each pair's room there will be a crib with a small doll in it and a vial of potion. You are to take the potion and add to it a hair from each parent. Mix it well and pour it into the mouth of the doll, after which you will leave the room for thirty minutes and wait. The child or children will grow noticeably faster than normal, each month representing a year. By the end of the year, you should have children that are approximately ten years old. Enjoy the rest of the year.

Minerva McGonagall

Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

"Children? You mean there could be more than one?" Ron asked aloud, not caring who answered.

Hermione replied with "I guess so. Well, let's go up and get started on this, shall we?" The girls were up and ready, but the boys were sulking on the loveseats. They each grabbed their partners by the wrists and dragged them up to their rooms.

Each room was the size of a dorm room in the other houses. There were two twin beds on either side of the room and a crib against the wall between them. Each person had their own closet and desk, and there was an extra closet for the baby's clothing. The change table stood next to the crib, fully stocked and ready to be used.

"Come on Draco, let's do this," Hermione said excitedly, forgetting that she was paired up with the most obnoxious, self-absorbed person on the planet.

He walked up next to her. "Fine, let's get this over with." He sighed.

They each pulled a few hairs and dropped them into the vial. As Hermione shook it, it changed colors. Green, blue, orange, red, white, and finally, it became clear. She popped the stopper off and poured it carefully into the mouth of the doll. A second or two passed before a blinding white light erupted from the crib. Hermione grabbed Draco by the wrist and dragged him from the room, shutting the door behind them and walking out to the common room.

Pansy and Blaise were already there sitting awkwardly on one of the loveseats. Neville and Luna came after them and Ron, Lavender, Harry and Ginny came out last. They set the kitchen timer for thirty minutes and waited. The awkward silence was almost too much and Hermione had left all her books in the room.

Harry checked the timer. Fifteen minutes to go. Neville and Luna were busy discussing names, and soon enough everyone was chattering away. The timer rang at the end of the thirty minutes and everyone jumped. They all sat and stared at each other nervously, waiting to see who would go first. Ginny pulled Harry up and Hermione followed suit, encouraging the rest of the pairs to follow them. Each of them entered their rooms at the exact same time, and to begin with, there was complete silence.

Draco stayed by the door while Hermione walked over slowly to the crib. A smile broke out across her face when she saw the tiny baby girl lying there staring up at her. Hermione picked her up carefully and looked at her. She had Draco's blonde hair with her curls and her warm brown eyes. She looked like Hermione, but had a bit of Draco in her as well. Intrigued, Draco walked over to see what had Hermione so fascinated. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the little blonde haired baby lying in her arms.

"She's beautiful," he whispered.

Hermione looked up and nodded then said, "What should her name be?"
"Well I like the name Nicole," he suggested.

Hermione looked down at the baby. "Nicole Granger-Malfoy."

Draco smiled and said, "That's perfect. Come on, let's go show her off."

They walked out of the room, Hermione and Nicole first and Draco right behind them. They were the first ones back in the common room. Draco could feel the pride swell up inside him as he watched his daughter.

"How old do you reckon she is? She looks about four or five months old at the most, don't you think?" he asked.

Hermione nodded, her eyes glued to the baby in her arms. Excitement buzzed through the air in the dormitory and they could hear some of the others in their rooms.

Blaise and Pansy walked in the room, Blaise holding the baby and Pansy following closely beside him. A little boy with black hair and bright blue eyes. They'd named him Parker.

Harry and Ginny came down next, Harry holding the baby in one arm and the other wrapped around Ginny.

"Her name's Grace. Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?" Ginny told them excitedly.

"I don't know Weasley, my little Nicole here is pretty tough to beat," Draco joked, taking the baby carefully from Hermione and walking over to where Ginny and Harry were standing.

Hermione followed closely, not too fond of the uneasy feeling she felt when being separated from her baby.

Luna walked out with a little curly brown haired, blue eyed girl in her arms, and Neville followed behind her with a blonde haired, blue eyed boy in his arms.

"Oh, you guys got twins! That's so cute! What are their names?" Hermione asked.

"Logan and Lucas," Luna told them. She was all smiles as she watched the babies.

"Logan and Lucas? The girl is Logan I assume? Weird... I like it. It's very you," Harry laughed.

Ron and Lavender came out last, Ron carrying a little red haired brown eyed boy and Lavender carrying a red haired, blue eyed boy.

"Everyone, this is Arthur and Rupert. Turns out the red hair is a pretty dominant trait hey Harry," Ron laughed, noticing that Harry and Ginny's baby also had red hair.

Everyone sat down on one of the loveseats and talked about the babies. Hermione had taken Nicole back from Draco and couldn't take her eyes off her. No one realized how late it had gotten until some of the baby's had either fallen asleep or started to get restless. Everyone said their goodnights and went to their bedrooms. In the rooms of the pairs that had twins, there were now two cribs.

Hermione had changed Nicole into a pink sleeper and was now rocking her to sleep. Draco returned from the bathroom and saw that Hermione still had Nicole in her arms. He smirked, knowing it was going to be a long night and walked over to them. He kissed Nicole's head and took her from Hermione, who headed off to change. The sleepy brown eyes that watched him slowly closed and her breathing was slow and even. He set her gently into her crib and made sure she was asleep before sitting on the edge of his bed.

Hermione returned and sat on the edge of her bed. "If she wakes up, I'll take her first, then you can get her after that and we'll just trade back and forth. Sound good?" she asked.

He nodded then shut off the lights and climbed into bed.

There it was, the sound they'd both been dreading. It was two in the morning and she'd started crying. Hermione groaned and sat up, stumbling over to the crib. She picked the crying infant up and rocked her in her arms for close to five minutes before Nicole was finally back to sleep again. Hermione could hear another baby crying from the other room, followed by two people bickering. Draco was fast asleep in his bed on the other side of the room. Hermione climbed back into bed and fell asleep once again.

"Hermione... Hermione, wake up." The voice sounded familiar, but she was unwilling to open her eyes.

"What is it Draco?" she mumbled, still half asleep.

"I think Nicole needs a diaper change," he told her.

She rolled her eyes, "So change it then." She turned onto her side and tried to get back to sleep, but Draco was persistent.

"I can't. I've never done it before and were not allowed to use magic," he told her.

She growled something under her breath and sat up, rubbing her eyes and stretching. She only now realized that Nicole was crying again, or more rather screaming. It was enough to make you want to hex your ears off. Draco sat on his bed and watched as Hermione trudged over to the crib and pulled the screaming infant from it a second time. She looked at her watch. Four thirty two. She looked back over at Draco, who was now asleep again and frowned.

Changing her diaper only momentarily calmed Nicole before the screaming started up again. Hermione held her and walked around the room, hushing her and talking to her to try and calm her down. She had run out of ideas when she walked past the change table and saw a pacifier sitting there. She grabbed it and put it to Nicole's mouth. She immediately began sucking on it and was calmed instantly. Hermione knew what to do.

She walked down to the common room and made her way over to the kitchen. She pulled open a cupboard and found it full to the brim with bottles. She grabbed one and the first jar of formula that she saw. With Nicole content in her arm, she managed to mix together the formula and sit down on a loveseat. The light from the fire was just bright enough to see what she was doing. She pulled to pacifier from Nicole's mouth, who promptly began to wriggle in protest, and replaced it with the bottle.

She sucked on it quickly, her eyes searching around the room as she drank. About half way through, she began to fall asleep and close her eyes. Hermione stood up, carrying them both in her arms and made her way back up to her room. She laid Nicole back in her crib and set the bottle in the corner for next time. Her bed had never seemed so inviting as she crawled into it and curled up beneath the covers.

A loud noise was beeping in Hermione's ear when she woke up. The alarm clock that was on the table beside her bed was going off. She squinted at the numbers and saw that it was almost seven in the morning. She pressed the button on top and sat up, rubbing her eyes to try and wake up more. She could hear Nicole babbling to herself in her crib and smiled.

She walked over, leaning against the edge of the crib and said, "Good morning Nicole. How's mama's little girl?" Nicole babbled to Hermione as she pulled her out of the crib. She carried her with her and walked down to the common room to make breakfast. Ginny was sitting on one of the loveseats with Grace when Hermione walked in.

"Morning 'Mione. How was your first night?" she asked.

"It wasn't too bad I suppose. She only woke up twice, but I had to get her both times. Draco was either sleeping or unable to perform his fatherly duties in the middle of the night," Hermione told her.

They both laughed and Ginny said, "I know how you feel. Harry wouldn't budge from his bed the whole night. Grace was up at least four times. Did you hear Ron and Lavender arguing?"

"Yeah I did. Their kids are going to be loud, that's for sure." Hermione looked over at the kitchen area. "Hey, there's a letter from McGonagall on the counter here," Hermione said, picking it up and opening it.

Good morning everyone,

This letter is to inform all of you that you will, until your children are old enough, be alternating your classes with your partners. The girls will take the first day to adjust and create a routine for the children while the boys attend their classes as normal. Then tomorrow the boys will stay with the children while the girls go to their classes. This will take place until further notice.

Professor McGonagall

Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Ginny looked slightly confused, and Hermione felt slightly disappointed. She'd been looking forward to the first day of classes.

"We should wake the boys, because they'll never get up if we don't," Hermione said, shifting Nicole to the other arm and making her way toward their bedrooms.

The sun had started to come through the windows when she walked in. Draco was lying on his back snoring lightly, which made her laugh. She sat Nicole on the bed beside him.

"Malfoy, wake up. Someone wants to see you." Nicole squealed and tapped her hands on his chest. His eyes fluttered open and he smiled, grabbing Nicole and sitting her on his chest.

"Good morning Nicole," he said, sitting up and kissing her on the forehead.

"Draco, it's your day to go to your classes. There was a letter from McGonagall this morning," Hermione told him, grabbing Nicole and waiting for Draco to get up off the bed.

"My day? You mean like we're switching on and off for classes. I do one day and you do the next sort of thing?" he asked, pulling on his school uniform.

"Basically, yes. She said that the girls have to stay here and create a routine for the babies, and then you guys get to stay with them tomorrow," she told him, trying not to stare at him while he changed. She wondered why he hadn't waited until she'd left to change. She'd never noticed how nice he looked before.

'Hold on a second. This is Draco Malfoy we're talking about. Slytherin sex god. The father of our child... He's the father of our child. That must mean something... He's just so... So handsome.'

Hermione shook her head slightly and stood up. "We'll be down in the common room to say goodbye before you leave," she said as she walked out the door.

Lavender was practically screaming at Ron to wake up with no success.

Hermione knocked on the door. "Hey, is everything ok in there?"

Lavender opened the door, her face red with anger. "No. Ronald won't wake up or get out of bed, Rupert and Arthur won't stop crying and everything's a mess."

Hermione walked in and went over to the cribs where the twins lay screaming. She grabbed the green and blue pacifiers off the change table and popped them into their mouths. They were both completely quiet and Lavender was amazed.

Next, she walked over to where Ron lay asleep and said, "Ronald Weasley if you don't get up and get ready, I'm going to get Ginny in here to wake you up, and we both know you don't want your sister in here."

He jumped out of bed, almost knocking over the night table and shouted,
"Okay, okay I'm up! Please don't send my sister in here!"

Lavender stood in the doorway with her mouth gaping at Hermione as this happened. Although they'd never really been good friends before, Lavender hugged Hermione once and said, "Thank you so much! You're a lifesaver."

Hermione nodded and walked out to the common room. Neville and Blaise were standing in the kitchen waiting for Draco, Ron and Harry to come out.

"Where's Luna and Pansy?" Hermione asked.

"They're both still sleeping. It was a long night," Neville told her.

Blaise nodded in agreement. "Parker was up all night. I don't think we got more than four hours of sleep. I'm starting to regret signing up for this assignment."

Draco, Harry and Ron shuffled into the common room, Ron looking like the undead, Harry and Draco looking exhausted.

Ginny came in shortly after them with Grace. "Alright you guys, you'd better get down to the great hall for breakfast and get to class."

Harry walked over to her and said, "Have a good day with our daughter. Try not to get into too much trouble."

She laughed and said, "You should take your own advice some time." They shared a hug before he began to depart.

"Bye bye Nicole, daddy loves you," Draco said to Nicole, then nodded to Hermione once with a muffled "Bye Granger," and walked out with the rest of the boys.

It was nearly eight o'clock when Pansy came out with Parker. She looked completely worn out as she slumped down onto a loveseat.

"Long night Pansy?" Ginny asked as she pulled a bottle out of the cupboard.

"You have no idea. This kid doesn't sleep at all, I'm serious. It was like all he wanted to do was scream. I'm surprised he still has any voice left. I never thought something so small could be so loud," Pansy groaned.

"I know how you feel. I don't think Arthur or Rupert slept more than a couple hours last night. Ron yelling at me probably didn't help any, but he wouldn't get out of bed to check on them. I was this close to killing him," Lavender told her, creating a very small space between her thumb and index finger.

Hermione had begun to look around the common room for one of her text books when she came across a small closet door. "Hey Ginny, come look at this," Hermione said from inside the closet.

Ginny walked over and her jaw dropped at what was inside the small closet. "What is all this stuff? I've never seen anything like it!" she told Hermione.

They walked out, Hermione pulling one of the larger boxes with her and setting it down on the floor. "It's called a playpen. Muggles use it to keep their kids safe while they do things. My mother had one, but she hardly ever needed it because I spent most of my time on the floor reading books. They're really useful when you need to get things done and not have to worry about your baby getting into things," she explained.

She walked over and grabbed a pair of scissors from the kitchen and cut the tape off the box. Thankfully, it came preassembled so they didn't have to do much. Hermione set Nicole into it once it was assembled and watched her carefully for a moment. She flipped onto her stomach and giggled happily, enjoying the freedom to move around as she pleased.

"That's amazing! Muggles sure have some astonishing things. It's no wonder dad loves them so much," Ginny said excitedly, placing Grace down into the playpen with her bottle and walking back over to the closet.

There was another playpen box and a few more things that Ginny didn't recognize left in the closet. They pulled all the boxes out and examined them, Hermione pointing out and explaining what each one was. There were strollers for each pair, doubles for the pairs with twins, high chairs, and a couple jolly jumpers.

"What's a jolly jumper? It looks sort of like a swing," Ginny asked, intrigued by the picture on the box.

"Once the babies are older, they can sit in one of these and jump around. It's sort of like a swing, only it's stationary. Once they start getting ready to walk, they can use it. I'd say close to the end of the month they'll be able to use them, if McGonagall's instructions are correct," Hermione explained, thinking back to the letter McGonagall had left them then night before.

"Lucky we have you Hermione, or we'd never know what to do with all this stuff," Ginny told her, opening the other playpen and beginning to set it up.

"Hey Hermione, would you mind helping me with Rupert and Arthur for a second? I need to feed both of them and I can only do so much at once," Lavender asked from the loveseat. She had both boys lying on the cushion in front of her, too afraid to move or leave them alone.

Hermione stood up and walked over, sitting down where Lavender had been sitting and watching the boys. They both looked just like Ron, except for Arthur's eyes. They were a golden brown color like Lavender's.

"Hey, there's something else in here! It was on the floor in the back," Ginny said, emerging from the closet carrying five cameras.

"Maybe were supposed to document the project or something," Hermione said.

Excitement filled her as Ginny passed her a camera. She turned it on and aimed it at the playpen where Nicole was lying with her legs kicking the air. The button was pushed and a quick flash erupted from the small bulb. That was their first picture.