By the Light of the Silvery Moon Chapter 3
Draco left his common room the next morning. Sleep had eluded him that first night as the realization of the situation set in. He was very tired and wished he could just skip his first day of classes to sleep, but he knew that was unacceptable. He was also aware that his situation was unacceptable. He had hoped to talk more to her last night, but she ran from the Great Hall as soon as the feast had started and he hadn't seen her the rest of the night. He was thinking they should have Double Potions first thing this morning. Draco was hopeful he could get some time alone with her after class to talk. Then he heard it; the whispers all around him and all in a different group of students walking around him.
"It has to be Harry or Ron's. They are the ONLY boys she's ever around."
"I knew she wasn't that smart if she and the boy couldn't even cast a simple contraception charm."
"Malfoy has all new ammunition against her this year. A Mudblood and her spawn."
The more he heard and with his lack of sleep his anger flared and by the time he reached the Great Hall he had found the objects of his anger. He barged to his table and slapped his hands at the two girls giggling and looking over their classes for the term.
None to quietly, he shouted at them, "You two just couldn't keep your fucking mouths shut! Why? What damn business is it of yours?"
His actions didn't go unnoticed at the Gryffindor table as Harry, Ron, and Ginny all turned to watch Draco and his first hissy fit of the year. "What do you think he's on about? We haven't even started classes and he's already blubbering about stuff." Ron commented.
"Well, if you shut it, I'm sure we could hear him better." Ginny scolded.
They had missed a few things but then Pansy stood yelling back at Draco, "You can't tell me what I can and cannot say. Besides, I don't seeing anyone claiming this baby." She glanced at Harry and Ron. "That means the prissy prick is ashamed that he had sex with her or he is a filthy muggle. Plus, just so you know if the prissy little prick does step up, I'll make it my personal mission to make him regret admitting to fucking her."
Draco rolled his bloodshot eyes, reacting before he thought about his audience or actions getting nose to nose with Pansy, held out his arms, and said, "Hit me with your best shot bitch!"
They stood there staring at one another while Theo and Blaise at the same time said, "No, fucking way, Mate!"
Ginny, Ron, and Harry had matching expressions as Theo and Blaise at Draco's admission. They watched as he spoke again before leaving the Great Hall. "No one will say another word to or about her." He stormed off then. Three Gryffindors ran after him while four Slytherins sat staring at one another in shock.
They caught up with him at the stairs, "Malfoy, wait a second will you." Harry said reaching him first.
"What?" Draco snapped out.
Ron huffed as he caught up, "You? You're the father? No bloody reason she didn't tell us."
He felt some of his anger start to dissipate, "Have you not heard the talk through the halls this morning? How are you three allowing it?"
Harry nodded, "We have but she made us promise not to react to anything we heard. I guess you didn't get that message because you definitely reacted." Harry pounded his fists together and dragged them out like an explosion going off.
Draco looked at him and rolled his eyes. He knew he just messed up by his declaration and now he would never get her to talk to him much less let him near his baby. "I just messed up, didn't I?"
Ginny had her hands on her hips and smiling up at him said, "You didn't earn any house any points for that one."
He put his face in his hands, "Is she still in your dorm? Was she sick this morning?"
They shook their heads and Ginny said, "Appointment with Madam Pomfrey this morning. She said Dumbledore wanted a status on her and the baby so they could get a better understanding and if there are any complications."
"Complications," Draco left them standing there looking after him as he took the stairs two at a time until he reached the floor where the hospital wing was located. He turned toward the hospital wing where he saw her sitting by the doors. She was crying. He slid to sit next to her and pulled her smaller hand in his. He didn't know why he had done it. He just did.
"Are you okay or is this a pregnancy thing where a butterfly pissed you off and now I have to kill the butterflies?"
He felt her shoulders begin to shake as she laughed. "What did the butterflies do to you?"
"If the butterflies have upset the one carrying my child for no reason, then yes, the butterflies will die. It's my job at this school to bring you to tears. I'm sad to say I haven't made you cry in at least a year."
"I cry when I'm mad, not because I'm hurt. I told everyone not to react or respond to what they hear but I wasn't able to. I know your friends kept their word and told the school. I just wasn't as prepared for what I heard and I yelled at people, telling them to burn in hell slowly."
"About that whole not reacting thing, I didn't know about that and I kind of reacted." He mimicked Harry's hand explosion with his own.
"You didn't?" She shook her head and laughed a little.
"You didn't tell me I couldn't defend you. It would've been nice to know. You ran from the feast last night and I couldn't find you the rest of the night. I wanted to talk to you. We don't have time now because you, Miss Granger, have an appointment and then we have class." Standing he helped her up and held the door open for her. She turned and asked, "Aren't you coming with me?"
"Is that allowed?" He shot an eyebrow in the air.
"You have every right to know what's going on with this baby. Come with me. I don't want to be alone."
Walking in together Madam Pomfrey met them at the door and proceeded to scold Malfoy. "Mr. Malfoy, I don't have time for your antics today. Please go to class."
Draco went to speak but Hermione cut him off, "I asked him to be here. He's the father."
The older witch stare for a moment then shook her head and instructed Hermione to go and change into the exam robes she had set out for her. "Mr. Malfoy, you stay on this side until she has changed and ready." She left to go get the rest of the items for the exam.
Draco peeked around the curtain, "You think she would know I have seen it all before," seeing her in only her bra and underwear he whistled, "whoa, those are new. Can I revisit them?"
He felt the slap on the back of his head as Madam Pomfrey scolded him, "I told you to stay on this side of the curtain!"
Rubbing his head he smirked at Hermione, "I thought she said she was finished."
Hermione got on the table and lay down. Madam Pomfrey opened a section of the gown over the abdomen for her exam. The room suddenly was washed in unfamiliar sounds to Draco. First there was a swishing noise then a steady rhythmic beat. Draco pulled his eyebrows together looking toward Hermione who began crying again.
"Stop you're hurting her!" Draco bellowed as both laughed at him.
Hermione put her hand on Draco's chest and explained, "No, that's the baby's heartbeat. We want to hear that."
"Heartbeat, that's the baby's heartbeat we're hearing?" Draco whispered.
"My word, Mr. Malfoy, if the sound of a heartbeat has thrown you, however do you plan to make it through delivery?"
"Delivery," could he have gotten any paler Hermione thought.
"Yes, delivery, when the baby actually comes out of her body. Are you certain he knows about babies Miss Granger?"
Smiling she said, "I thought he did. Draco, are you okay?"
He didn't know if he was okay or not as he listened to the sound of the heartbeat surrounding him. A million things went running through his mind. They only had six months left. His parents didn't know and he didn't know how to tell them. He knew that since Pansy had ran off at the mouth, it was better if he found a way to let his parents know before someone else told them. Then a thought hit him. "Can we tell if it's a boy or a girl?"
"It is possible, but I prefer to wait a few more weeks to get a more accurate reading."
Now it was Hermione's turn to look confused, "Reading, you aren't going to rub tea leaves on my belly are you?"
Madame Pomfrey rolled her eyes," Really, the two of you! It's a wonder you even managed to make a child together. No, we don't use tea leaves. The spell just works better the farther along you are. We can check next time or the time after that. Well, that is if you really want to know."
"Yes! No!" Draco and Hermione answered respectfully. They looked at one another both confused by the other's answer.
"We can discuss that later, Hermione." Draco said sternly.
It took another half hour to finish the exam and set the next appointment. As Hermione was changing back into her uniform and robes, Madame Pomfrey gave Draco some paperwork she wanted them to fill out before the next exam and sent him to the corridor to keep him from going and "checking" on Miss Granger as she redressed.
Hermione came out of the wing and they headed toward Potions class. "What is all that?" She asked Draco.
"Apparently we need to fill out paperwork for you to have a baby. From the looks of it, it looks like it is going to take us longer to fill these out than it did do make the baby that the forms are for."
Shaking her head she said, "Give them to me and everything I can fill out on my own, I will. I don't expect you to try and figure it out. It probably has more to do with me than you anyway."
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and said, "What do you expect of me?"
"I don't want to talk about this now. It can wait until later. We're almost late for Potions class. I mean Snape knew I was going to be late, but how can you explain being late too?"
He looked up at her and wondered if she remembered his confession about his confession. Most likely not because he was still alive and had all his parts still attached. "About that, remember when I said I reacted to the talk in the hallways this morning?"
"Yes, so you snapped at some people." A light went off in her brain, "What in the hell did you do Draco Lucius Malfoy? What did you do?" Taking the papers in her hands she proceeded to hit him across the shoulder.
"If you would stop hitting me you crazy witch, I'll bloody tell you. I appreciate that you asked your friends not to react, but it would have been nice if you would have told the father not to as well. I don't know if you've noticed or not, I kind of have a temper when I am pissed. I walked all the way from my dorm to hear how the baby could ONLY belong to Potter or Weasley, since they are the ONLY guys you hang out with. Not to mention how stupid both of us are because neither one of us were smart enough to cast a contraception charm, or my personal favorite was hearing how I had all this great new ammunition to use against you this year and how fun it was going to be to watch me use it." When he finished he was breathing hard and she saw that all the comments that had gotten to her had also gotten to him. She never really thought he would care enough to worry about what was being said to her so it never even crossed her mind to talk more to him.
"I'm sorry. I never thought how the comments about me being a slag would bother you. I think we really need to make time to talk today and get some rules set; rules for both of us."
Again without thinking about it he pulled her hand into his and they walked to class. They were the last to arrive but they hadn't missed anything. She pulled her hand from his as they walked in together and suddenly all eyes in the room were on them. There was only one table left and they set their things down and pulled their books out to ready for the lesson.
Pansy looked over at their table and said, "Look Blaise, its Mommy and Daddy, I mean Mione and Draco. Wonder what took them so long to get here?"
Draco went to say something and Hermione placed her hand on his leg and when he looked at her she just shook her head and pointed to the front of the room where Snape was about to start his lecture. Hermione started taking notes on the Potion they were going to be making that day when she heard Snape say, "I hope everyone enjoys who they are sitting with because they will be your partner until the Christmas holidays."
Draco looked at Blaise and said, "Sorry, mate, looks like you drew the short straw of Potions partners. Pansy doesn't know gilly weed from ragweed."
Pansy retorted, "Well at least my partner knows enough to cast simple charms so he isn't making little Mudblood babies. How is Mummy and dear Daddy going to feel about that one?"
"Ms. Parkinson, the only one you should be talking with is your partner. Now please start your potions for the day. All of you." He glanced toward Draco as well.
"Yes Professor."
Draco turned to ask Hermione a question and saw she was on her way to the ingredients closet. He went to see if she needed any help when Pansy whispered behind him, "I wonder how long it takes a school owl to reach Whiltshire?"
He turned on her and before he could respond Professor Snape said, "Not long when intercepted by Professors. No, owls are going out for the first two weeks of school. Now again, Miss Parkinson, you need to only be speaking to YOUR potions partner for this lesson. Mr. Malfoy seems to be partnered with Miss Granger, now please go see if your partner needs assistance, which I presume was your goal when you left the table?"
"Yes, Professor" Draco went in the closet to see Hermione on the ladder and still trying to reach an ingredient from the top shelf. "Would you like some help? I am taller."
She climbed down and allowed him to get the higher up ingredients and was thankful he hadn't said anything about her being on the ladder in the first place.
He climbed down and said, "See longer arms. Do we have everything?"
"Yes." She answered smiling.
Her smile left her face as soon as he turned in the doorway with his smirk in place and said, "Don't ever let me catch you on that ladder again until after the baby is born."
Harry and Ron saw the happy smirk on Draco's face and the not so happy face on Hermione's as they left the closet. Harry stopped her and asked if she was okay. Not wanting to give Snape a reason to deduct points from their house she just nodded her head and went to go start her potion with Draco.
He was going over the notes as she began to cut, crush, and pulse items. "You need to actually pulse that to get the full effect."
"It doesn't say that." She countered.
He quietly snapped at her, "Look, just because you think you know everything under the bloody sun, I'm here to tell you that you don't. You have never gotten better grades than me in this class and you never will. For once in your life, just listen to what I have to say!"
"Why are you so mad at me? I was just stating that the instructions didn't state that."
"That's because the damn person that recopied the notes did it incorrectly from the original Potions Masters notes. If you noticed, which you didn't, there is a notation at the bottom about it. Read the whole thing before you begin and I bet your grade in here will improve on your own without my help."
She bit the inside of her cheek to not respond to his obvious low opinion of her intelligence. When she was done she left the rest of it up to him. She pulled out the paperwork and began to fill in the questions about her personal medical history. She had just finished all of her questions on her family history when she looked over and saw that Draco was bottling their potion to turn in.
"I thought it would have taken longer, we still have twenty minutes of class left." She said.
"It isn't a complicated potion." He sounded strange to her she just couldn't figure out why.
He set the vial on the table for grade, having marked it as his and Hermione's. He then went to gather the ingredients from their table to return what wasn't used while Hermione cleaned the cauldron. She noticed he had forgotten some thyme to turn back in. She made her way to the closet and just as she got there she heard Draco talking to Professor Snape, "… first time. Now it's the situation it is. I need to let them know before anyone else does."
"Go this weekend with my permission to leave grounds and head home. Tell them and then return and decide how you stay on plan with your future."
"My future plans don't exist any longer. Don't you get it? Whatever I had planned for my future went out the window on that train ride back here when I found out I am to be a father."
They walked out of the closet and saw Hermione standing there with the thyme in her hands. "You forgot this." She handed him the thyme. She went and gathered her books and paperwork, leaving his portion of the family history on his books, and left the room.
