A/N: So so so SORRY for such a long long wait. If you must know, I'd almost given up on the story, but it remained in the back of my mind while I procrastinated about, reading Glee's Kurt/Karfosky and Sevitus fics and watched the backlog of all the shows I'd missed because I was procrastinating about. So, now that I've nothing else to do... I have finally decided to start writing again...
And I know it's a very very very short chapter, but I needed something to ease me back into the game. Don't worry the others won't be as short. So without further ado...
Chapter 3
Neville hated the basements.
From the age of 6 when Uncle Algie had accidently locked him overnight with one of his experimental Snares, Neville had been terrified of the damp, dark, underground areas. It hadn't helped that the most fearsome Potions Master to ever walk the hallways of Hogwarts had made his life hell for 6 years in the dungeons of the Institution. Not only that, the dungeons were also the dominion of the Slytherins. The Snakes who, for 6 long years, had tried to break him… and spent the whole of last year holding those pieces together… stitching him… making him into what he was today.
Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom may have gotten the rewards and accolades but Neville was the only one who knew about how Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass seduced Carrows' guests, so they wouldn't feel the need to turn to younger students for their perverted games… so other houses would have no idea how bad it really was. Neville himself had wielded the wand that had stitched up Blaise Zabini's torn rectum because Poppy Pomphrey had been forbidden by the good people of the Light Side to not accept Death Eater patients.
Then there was Gregory Goyle who always goaded Crabbe to throw frantic and useless Crucios at him so Amycus wouldn't feel the need to punish him further. Pansy Parkinson who had acted as his nursemaid, cleaning his filth and patching him up so he could walk up to the infirmary without bleeding to death. Milicent Bulstrode who had, on more than one occasion, dragged him up to the Common Room when he was too spent to even stand on his feet…
And Headmaster Snape. Headmaster Snape to whom he owed his life… and the very existence of the Wizarding World.
Neville remembered them all... in spite of all the drugs and potions and mind numbing alcohol concoctions he stuffed into himself, he always remembered how much he... and the Wizarding World owed the toe-licking scum of Hogwarts... her Snakes. The beaten, downtrodden snakes who had never been given a choice to choose a side and had still survived. Snakes who, inspite of being hated and doubted and discared, had held up the foundation of Hogwarts from deep within the enemy lines.
Resilience, survival, hope… those were the words Neville associated with Slytherins.
And it was to them he owed Malfoy and his child's recovery.
-x-x-x-
Longbottom Family Archives were situated in the lower basements of the Longbottom Family Manor, occupying the size of a small Muggle flat. The entrance to the Archives was private and sealed, keyed only to the magical signature of the reigning Patriarch and his spouse.
That is where Neville found himself one week after he found Draco Malfoy lying in middle of Knockturn Alley, barely alive and pregnant. Pregnant! Neville still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Draco Malfoy, the poncy prat and bane of his existence for six long years, was pregnant. No wonder, the first time he had heard the words, he had burst out laughing.
It was Dr. Thomas who broke the silence. "Mr. Longbottom," he said, but tone was curt, and just a tad apprehensive, "it seems that your friend here... is pregnant."
"Neville?" Healer Agatha slowly ventured, reaching a cautious hand towards him. "Are you alright?"
Neville looked up, wiping his impromptu tears, still snickering and nodded, subconsciously reaching out to pat Malfoy's "pregnant" belly. "Yeah," he replied, trying to get his laughter under wraps. "No really, Madam, what the heck is wrong with Malfoy here?" he asked.
Dr. Agatha shook her head. "We are not joking Neville, the poor lad is really pregnant. See that red light?" She muttered something under her breath and waved her wand over Malfoy. The red ball of light that had enraptured him from the first heartbeat sprang up like those holo-thingies from those Captain Kirk movies Dean was addicted to. "This means there is life in there."
That seemed to rouse Neville. "But… but…" he spluttered looking between the Healers. "He's a bloke!" he argued, "A bloke with a cock, in case that escaped your notice. Blokes don't get pregnant, girls do," snatching his hand when he realized that he was once again pawing Malfoy's pregnant belly.
"Mr. Longbottom," Dr. Thomas enunciated, like he was talking to very slow five-year old. "Pureblooded Wizards can get pregnant. It's an odd genetic anomaly, I'm afraid. Like vestigial tail, or a third nipple, among the Muggles. There is at least one such individual reportedly rumoured to be in every Oldblood family."
"My family doesn't," Neville automatically protested.
"Actually…" Healer Martha interrupted "Your great-great-grandfather Bernard was born of a man. My great-grandmother was the midwife," she added, answering his silent question.
Neville was sure his eyes had bugged out like those Muggle cartoons Ron's father was fond of. "What?!" Neville was sure he was really hallucinating now. "How… how is that even possible? And why do I not know about it?"
"Be real, Mr. Longbottom," Healer Martha snapped. "Homosexuality maybe common these days, but in those days it was not. And even if no one cared about their Lord being a queer, to find that the Lord is a begetter and a bearer…" her words trailed off, but Neville got the gist. Even today, being gay was fine, being a bottom was not. And if the news leaked that the Lord of the Manor was a pillow-biter… he could just imagine what a scandal that would be. He nodded unsurely.
"So Malfoy's a'right, then?" he asked gazing at the now-fading red-light. "You all know what to do if it's not that uncommon, right?"
Dr. Agatha shook her head sadly. "It's not that simple. Wizards pregnancies, unlike in women, are sustained due to the Carrier's magic…"
"And Malfoy has no magic to speak of," Neville completed the horrific thought, as a sharp current passed through him and he suddenly realised that it happened only when the foetus felt threatened. Huh! "But… but surely there's something that you can do. I mean, we can't just let the… the baby… die…" he said. He had never ever thought that he would be addressing to the spawn of Malfoy as a "baby", or be concerned about its well-being. Well, it was not time to think of that now.
Dr. Thomas smiled tightly. "Fortunately, there is a solution, Mr Longbottom," he said. "Right now, Mr. Malfoy is parasitic to the foetus' growth. He has been inadvertently sucking the life out of it. But if we bind his magic and separate the child from the mother, we can prevent it. Mr. Malfoy, however, will have to live a life of a squib. Or…" he looked repentant for a second, before he gathered his resolve. "Or… we can abort the chil—"
"No!" Neville denied as a sharp Cruciatus-like shudder passed over him. He wouldn't be responsible for more deaths, even if it was a Malfoy. "No, No! That… that magic binding will suffice. What do I have to do?"
"For now… nothing," Dr Thomas smiled the same tight smile. "Go home and rest, Mr. Longbottom. Lord knows we have some very difficult months ahead of us."
That is how Neville found himself in the underground levels of his haunted mansion.
He figured if great-great-great-grandfather Algenon had given birth to a child, it would have to be recorded in the family bible. Also, the progress reports of the pregnancy might be found in the archives the . Merlin only knew outside of Healer Martha – and her great-grandmother's sealed case files – he, and Algenon, were Malfoy's only hope.
So he wiped a hand across his face and trudged through the rolls and rolls of yellowed parchments and scriptured linen, hoping for some clue to help them.
A/N 2: I'll try to update at least one a week, if not sooner... and yes, I am going OOC and begging. Please Review. They provide an excellent balm to my ego and motivate me to keep going. Also I'd really love to hear your thoughts.
