-O-
Draco didn't know what he had expected afterwards, but it hadn't been what he had got. They'd left that locker room hand in hand; Potter had kissed him under the shadow of darkness and whispered that he'd never come so hard, and Draco had been so turned on by Potter's nearness and his words that he'd pressed him back into the wall near the school entrance and they had rutted against each other again, both of them coming in their trousers.
To Draco, that had been the promise of more. Yet the next day, and for the few after that, Potter had been nowhere to be seen. He'd then heard that Potter had picked up food poisoning and was in the infirmary. So he hadn't really worried, deciding not to go and see him and have to explain his presence before they were ready, fully expecting that when Potter was better they would pick up where they'd left off – that something would happen.
Nothing happened.
When Potter came back to class after three days in the infirmary Draco tried to catch his eye, which was not easy when Potter was so clearly trying not to look at Draco. When, finally, Draco managed to get some eye contact during Potions, Potter had blushed and looked away.
Draco watched Potter filing out of the classroom at the end, flanked on either side by the other two thirds of the Gold Trio. He looked thoroughly wretched; pale and twitchy. Draco knew he'd been unwell, but he shouldn't look like that. He worried that there was something worse wrong with him than simply food poisoning' something that was looking to Draco like regret.
As soon as dinner was out of the way he intended to track Potter down and find out for himself.
-O-
"You did it then," Blaise said after dinner as Draco attempted to leave the common room to look for Potter. At Blaise's words, Draco froze and dragged Blaise into and into the shadows of the corridor outside the entrance, dropping his voice to a whisper, annoyed that Blaise had waited until now to ask when he'd had days to do so.
Draco had his own reasons for not telling Blaise what had occurred.
"Yes, I did. I told you I would." Even though Draco had no intention of collecting on the bet he'd made with Blaise, he couldn't help but feel some self-satisfaction that he had won - he had gone out there and got his man – and Malfoy's always got what they wanted. Well, admittedly, half of it had been Potter's doing, but Blaise didn't have to know that. "So how many weeks of homework do I get out of you?"
Blaise's shoulders sagged a little, and he said, "A month's."
"You should never bet against a Malfoy, Blaise. We always win."
"I'm impressed. I thought you'd bottle it," Blaise said." Although, I'll be expecting to see the evidence in the pensieve seeing as I don't get to have a go myself."
Draco sighed and shook his head at Blaise's words, hating the idea of Blaise or anyone else 'having a go' at Potter. What had happened between the two of them was incredibly private and he intended to keep it that way. This stupid bet with Blaise had been good as a kick up the backside - he had needed it. Now he'd got Potter, he was not going to share any part of him. Not even a memory.
"No - I wasn't lying about this but the bet is off. I'm not going to let you see a single moment of it."
Blaise grinned. "I knew you wouldn't want to." He pulled Draco into an unexpected hug. "I'm pleased for you. He's the only one worthy of you."
Merlin, Draco hoped he was worthy of Potter. He returned the embrace, pleased that his best friend wasn't pushing the 'evidence' thing. "I need to go and find him," he said, pulling out of the hug. "I need to-"
"Alright," Blaise said, giving Draco a gentle shove. "While you're there can you ascertain if there's a chance for me with that Seamus Finnegan?"
Draco laughed and rolled his eyes. "You never stop, do you?"
-O-
Draco had zero luck finding Potter that night. It was as though Potter knew where Draco was and avoided him. The Golden Trio's usual library table was empty, Potter was not lurking atop the Astronomy Tower as he often did - not that Draco knew about Potters habit of going up there of course and thought about joining him before or anything - nor was he on the Quidditch pitch. The only place he could be was in the Gryffindor Tower and for a Slytherin, a Malfoy especially, to turn up at the door asking for Harry Potter, well, Draco knew he couldn't just do that.
So he waited, getting more and more despondent and his heart slowly breaking at Potter's obvious avoidance of him as the days passed, until finally his chance arrived when Professor Slughorn asked Potter to stay behind after class; Draco waited for him outside the door, stepping out the shadows as Potter passed and yanking him into an alcove.
"Malfoy- What are you doing?" Potter gasped, wrenching his arm out of Draco's grip.
"Trying to get your attention as you've been avoiding me," Draco answered, trying to meet his eyes and having no luck at the task, Potter seemingly found the wall more interesting than him. "The other night-"
"-was just sex." Potter finished. "It was nice and all, but I've had better."
Draco's jaw dropped and something dark twisted inside him. Of course. Just sex. The Chosen One would never love the son of a Death Eater. The Chosen One had rejected Draco's friendship once before; now he had come back for another twist of the knife and rejected his love as well.
"I thought it was more than that," he whispered, unable to stop himself and reached out a hand to Potter's. Potter flinched back and was already turning away.
"It was nothing more than that," Potter threw back at him as he walked away. Draco waited for him to go and dropped to his haunches and dropped his already spinning head to his knees.
He should've known better than have even hoped. Of course he wasn't worthy of the hero. Whatever made him think he could ever be?
-O-
If Draco had been in any doubt that Pansy was wrong about Potter's pregnancy, it soon died when the story of Potter's predicament reached the whole school. For a couple of days it was all anyone could be heard talking about, as though time stood still and there was only Potter, Potter, Potter.
Draco's world had been all about Potter since he was eleven. He didn't know who he would be without that constant – love or hate, Potter was in his blood.
Love and hate were close friends; so where did Potter's indifference fit in? It was the indifference that scared Draco more than anything else. Draco thought that was the most depressing word of the English language.
Everywhere Draco went he heard whispered conversations, other students blatantly not caring about being subtle and openly talking about Potter's pregnancy and speculation was the order of the day. Harry Potter was with child which opened up a lot of questions. If there was a baby in Harry's belly - who had put it there? A couple of people had suggested it was the Weaselette, but they were muggle born and probably hadn't even known that male pregnancy was possible, let alone what it meant.
At that thought, Draco had to wonder if Potterhad even known it was possible. Apparently male pregnancy was the result of the joining of two special magical signatures if combined during the alignment of certain stars. This was very rare and very very magical. The child would be unique amongst its peers, one of a kind. More magical than any of these ignorant gossiping school children could ever imagine.
When Draco remembered this – long ago stored information that every pure blood was made aware of at a young age - his gut clenched in the fear that he wasn't the father. He wanted to be. Merlin, he wanted that more than anything; so much so that he was freaking himself out. This couldn't be normal – barely eighteen and hoping that he had fathered a child with another man, even if the other man was Potter. He actually wanted Potter to be tied to him forever through this child. Potter might not want him right now, but at one point he had wanted him enough to fuck him and that had resulted in this magicalbaby. Potter would have to allow Draco some form of contact with the baby, and that would mean that Draco would always be in Potter's life, and perhaps one day he would let Draco back in.
How could it have been 'just sex' when it had resulted in this wonderful rare gift of life?
Okay, so the gift was coming to them early in life. Draco would have liked to be in his mid-twenties at least before becoming a father, however, it was happening nowand Draco could do this. If he was the father then he wanted to be in his child's life.
If Potter hadn't placed the doubt in his minds about having 'had better' then Draco would have been certain that the baby was his.
Merlin, he felt sick at the thought that Potter had even been with someone else before him, the thought of someone after him stabbed persistently at his heart. Harry Potter was his. The baby was his.
He had to speak to Potter to find out the truth; unfortunately, Granger and Weasley seemed to flank him wherever he went. Getting Potter alone was not going to be easy.
-O-
In the end Draco had to face them as a three. "Potter, can I have a word?" Draco asked two nights later as they filed out of the great hall after dinner, having given up on ever being able to corner Potter by himself. "Alone."
"Sod off, Malfoy," Weasley snarled, stepping protectively in front of Potter. "He doesn't want or need anything from you; he and the baby are just fine without you!"
"I never said anything about the baby," Draco replied, his stomach doing somersaults as his mind unpicked what Weasley had just implied. He flicked his gaze over to Potter, who looked a little pale and was glaring at Weasley before dropping his gaze to the floor and shuffling his feet. So, Draco was the father, and at least Granger and Weasley both knew it.
"You-" Weasley began again and was stopped by a hand on his arm. Draco kept his attention on Potter, still standing slightly behind Weasley, one hand over his stomach, now watching Draco through narrowed slivers of green. He still looked as though he wanted to vomit. Draco wanted to pull him into a hug and tell him everything was going to be okay, but he couldn't, because Potter had rejected him and hadn't even bothered to tell him he was going to be a parent. He also could not make promises he couldn't keep.
"Meet us in the Room of Requirement in fifteen minutes," Granger said, snagging Draco's attention away from Potter. "By 'us' I mean me and Harry."
"But-" Weasley stuttered and was cut off by a glare from Granger.
Draco nodded and with another glance at Potter, backed away. He could do this. He could remain aloof and show them that he only wanted involvement with the baby and not Potter. If that was what it took, then he would pretend. This child, although unborn, was about to become Draco's only family. His father had died at Voldemort's hands and his Mother had passed just after the war as a result of a stray curse that had slowly killed her. Draco had no one. For a moment he'd thought he'd found someone to care for who cared for him too, but he'd been wrong. It had only been sex.
He wanted his child. He needed this.
-O-
More tomorrow.
Comments are appreciated :-)