A/N: Chapter what? Say what? Chapter 10! Hehe x)

xxxxxx

When You Lose Your Way

And They Look On

xxxxxx

I was really starting to get sick of this room.

I'd seen it at least four times this one month, and it felt like I was living in it's white, plastic walls. I wouldn't have minded just hiring a medi-wizard to check up on me inside the dorm, 'cause what can I say? Draco had more than enough money for it, but no, we had to save all the money we could for this baby.

I travelled down the school and all the way up to this medical place. I really would have apparated here, but they didn't advise it if you were pregnant, just in case of splinching, no matter how experienced you were. I listened to them, even though I was very unwilling.

Besides, nobody wants a splinched pregnant woman.

"Okay, can you spread your legs open wide?" the medi-nurse asked me. I sighed.

Without complaint I stretched them open and the nurse went to her work. Draco turned his eyes away while holding onto my hand, although I didn't need it, and pretended to be looking at some interesting posters on the wall across from us.

The nurse removed her equipment from within me, and smiled.

"Everything seems to be great."

"Thank you," I said with irritation.

"You know, if there continues to be no problems, Ms Granger, there really is no need to come so often. Unless you've got an appointment of course."

"Oh, I know. But the father of the baby insists on weekly visits. For the baby of course," I added with annoyance. Draco looked at me with fake affection.

"Whatever's best for the baby," he said.

The medi-nurse smiled and nodded, sensing the fact that we were in an arguement. She got up from her seat quickly, and pointed to a screen on the wall.

"Pictures of how you're baby is looking up to now will appear soon on that screen. I'll give you two a moment."

I smiled, waiting till she left. When she did, I turned to Draco, looking at him angrily.

"My goodness, are you happy now?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm not the only one that insists on these, you know. Potter, Weasley and practically half the school want you going to these things. They'd injure me if I didn't take you."

I crossed my arms. "I know you promised to be here for the baby and I, but..." I narrowed my eyes, and crossed my arms tighter over my chest, which had gotten a lot heavier over the past month. I was becoming a fat pregnant woman before everyone's eyes.

Draco laughed. "Alright, alright. Twice a month. All I'm offering."

I tried for a smile. "Thank you."

"But I'm not telling Potter and Weasley this. They still don't like me."

I opened my mouth in protest. "What are you talking about? Of course they like you."

"It's really hard to tell when they openly mock my fathering skills," he said, although with a smile.

"They just haven't completely come to terms with the facts yet," I said matter-of-factly. And it was true. Breaking the news to them wasn't easy. They had plotted on how to murder Draco for a week until I discovered the rope in their room.

It was actually very funny.

"The facts? The facts to them and the whole school are that I put a love spell on you."

I laughed a little at that. "Don't forget the one about me pursuing you all these years and finally seducing you inside the Room of Requirement."

"Oh, and when I confessed my undying love over Christmas break, and hid our relationship 'cause of shame."

"Or when you tricked me into sleeping with you, thinking it was Ron."

"Or when I snuck you out of the school and held you hostage as a sex slave in my fathers mansion."

I looked at him oddly. "I never heard that one."

"Yeah, well, Blaise made that one up especially for me."

I gushed with laughter. The rumours that followed the confession of Draco being the father were seriously insane. People seemed to forget that we're much too sophisticated for love spells and slaves. I was really glad that Draco and I had taken it all in stride, and that we were continuing with life.

After a while, the pictures that the medi-nurse spoke of appeared on the screen while I was just in the middle of saying no to a disgusting name for our child that Draco suggested, though he clamped a hand over my mouth immediately. I stared, bewildered.

"It's beautiful," I said, though it came off as a strong muffle, as I hadn't removed Draco's cold hands off my mouth.

"What?" Draco asked.

I raised an eyebrow and thrust his hand off of me.

"Oh, sorry," he said quickly.

"It's beautiful," I repeated.

"Yeah, I know."

"What do you think it is? A boy or a girl?"

He shifted his eyes and pondered for a moment. "Tough question..."

"I can tell you if you like," the medi-nurse said, walking back into the medical room. She put some folders onto a counter that had a sink, and read them for a moment. She peered at us over the top of her glasses, and held the files up in front of us.

"This holds the gender of your child. Would you like to know?" she asked kindly.

We looked at each other worriedly. Did we? This was a tough decision to be making.

"How do you know what it is for sure?"

"Well, Ms Granger, you're four months pregnant. We're perfectly able to tell you what gender they are at this stage because they're beginning to show some specific things. Do you want to know?" she repeated.

Draco's eyes were wide, looking alarmed. He squeezed my hand and I squeezed it back with caution.

"Could we think about that for now?"

She smiled at us. "Of course. Just owl us when you're sure. In the mean time, you're free to leave, this check-up is over." She put the papers down on the counter and left the room, winking at us both.

Draco and I stared at the files.

"You don't want to know, do you...?"

"No," Draco said promptly. He looked hesitant. "Why - do you?"

"No, of course not," I replied quickly, while shaking my head strongly. Then I bit my lip.

"It'd be best if we wait till it's birth," he said reasonbly.

"Yeah, of course," I agreed. My fingers curled over his arm. "But it could help us pick with the names."

"Yeah, it could."

"And we could start desgining the nursery..."

"Yeah, we could..." Draco looked at me from the side. "Do you just... want to..."

"No," I said, shaking my head some more. "No, no, no. We should wait."

"Yeah, sure, we definitely should - "

" - Take a peek?"

"Exactly - wait, what?"

"Er... nothing! Let's go!"

"But you said - !"

"But nothing! We should go. I'm ravenous. How about we visit The Three Broomsticks?"

"Hermione - !"

But I let him protest no further. I pulled him out of the room, while pushing the files as far away from us as possible. The gender of our baby could wait.

My stomach however, definitely could not.

xxxxxx

Although we were rather shaken up about being this close to finding out the gender of our baby, Draco and I somehow managed to pull ourselves together and make our way (very arguementively) towards the Three Broomsticks. It was not easy.

"You don't even want to go back and take a tiny, tiny, look!"

"No, I'm too distratced by that sound, Draco!"

"What sound?"

"That!"

I pointed at my stomach the moment it started grumbling. I'm not sure if it was from me being hungry or the ravenous baby in there that was hungry.

"Well we've already ordered so just be patient."

"Be patient. Patient, patient, patient, all I ever hear..." I muttered, while taking off my jacket.

Draco ignored it and picked up a left over newspaper that was on the table. I let him read it while I sat grumpily in our booth.

"Don't be grumpy."

"I'm not grumpy, Draco, I'm hungry."

"The food's coming."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said.

By now, many people had noticed that we were arguing a lot latey. More lately then before, when he wasn't the father of my child and an immature brat.

They weren't serious fights. They were little things, and we usually fought about me. What was good for me, what wasn't, what we should do. We never stayed mad for long though, because for some reason, all our fights seemed to be very pointless after the next five minutes. I liked being able to fight with him without having to really want to chew his head off. Maybe punch it, but never chew.

"Oh, look, here come my two favourite boys."

"Oh for Merlin's sake, what are Crabbe and Goyle doing here?"

"To eat, probably. But no, not those two idiots. Those two idiots." Draco removed his head from within the paper and raised his eyebrows upwards, looking towards the two people who had just entered the place.

I smiled when I saw Harry and Ron grin towards me (while glaring at Draco, if that's even possible) and make their way to our table. I immediately began shoving Draco aside, so they could sit with us.

"What are you two doing here?" I asked, as I moved to the other end of our booth.

"We were hungry," Ron said.

"And wanted to spy on Hermione," Draco muttered, while focusing his attention back to the newspaper. Ron and Harry glared, and I nudged him. Draco didn't take his eyes off the paper.

"How was your check-up, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"It was fine. Medi-nurse Olsen told me that unless there's something wrong with me, I don't have to go there as often as I do." I nudged Draco so he could back me up.

"Sorry, what? Oh, yeah. What she said," he said, seemingly indifferent. I could tell he was kind of enjoying this.

"Well, I'm not sure about that, Hermione, you need full attention."

"I agree with Harry," Ron said.

"You know," Draco said, now wanting to be in the conversation, "you could leave those decisions up to us. After all, we are the parents." He smiled fakely.

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Oh yeah, of course. By the way, Draco, brewed any Amortentia lately?"

I kicked Harry in the shins. "Play nice," I hissed.

Harry looked at me reluctantly. I gave him an urging look and he sighed.

"Yeah, okay," he surrendered. I smiled.

"Lost my appetite," Ron stated, after there was a long silence between us. "I think I'll go check out the Quidditch Shop. Need some new equipment." He stood up and bent over Harry to kiss me on the cheek. Harry followed suit and patted my stomach.

"We'll be really close if you need us, Hermione," Ron said. He made sure to specifically say my name. I rolled mye eyes.

"Okay. Say goodbye to Draco," I said, as if I were their mother.

Ron and Harry looked at each other and raised their eyebrows. Ron was the first to do so.

"See you, Malfoy."

"Yeah. Bye."

We watched the both of them go.

Draco sighed when the door closed. "That was painful."

I raised my eyebrows. "Not as painful as it's going to be if you guys don't start playing nice."

"I'll play nice when they play nice. Didn't I apologize to them for doing this to you anyways?"

"Well, you didn't really finish it."

Draco scoffed. "How could I? They both rammed me into the wall before I could!"

I laughed. "At least you tried."

"At least I made it out alive," he said with a heavy sigh. "I must have apologized and begged for forgiveness a million times and I got nothing but a severe beating. I've still got bruises!" I shrugged, though uneasily. Come to think of it, they really didn't take it well. But then again, who would take the news well that you're best friend was raped? Definitely not Harry and Ron, that's for sure.

"Be checking their rooms every now and then for ropes, won't you?" he asked me, and although this was a serious question, he added a grin to the end of his sentence. I smiled.

"Your order," Madam Rosmerta said, once she reached our table with two trays of food balanced on one arm, and her opposite hand clutching two butterbeers, "Seventeen sickles and 10 knuts."

Draco handed the money over to her and we began chewing our food down like no tomorrow, forgetting all about Harry and Ron.

"So about the baby," Draco began, after we were well into eating.

"No, I don't want to know the gender yet," I assumed.

"No, not that," Draco said, after gulping some of his butterbeer down. "I want to start talking about our plans for it."

"Plans? Like?"

"Well we already decided shortly after I found out I was the father that we were going to keep it." I nodded while popping a potato chip in my mouth. "Where are we going to live? How are we going to get around to paying bills? How will we balance school with work?"

I almost choked on my food by the attack of his questions.

"Whoa, okay. We already talked about some of that, haven't we?"

"Well, not specifically, but yeah."

"I'll use up my savings from part time jobs to get us through for the first few months. My parents are willing to help a little as well."

"Mother and Father say that I could just use up the money they put in my Gringotts bank account when I was born."

"Okay, no doubt that that's a lot of money," I said.

"Yeah. We're good for a few months with that."

"And our living situation?"

"We'll rent for a while. We don't need to live in some fancy apartment or cosy house."

Draco's face scrunched up, like he just swallowed sour pumpkin juice. "Ugh. Fine."

I ignored it. "School with work?" I asked.

"I'm taking the intern-ship at the Ministry."

"And I'm taking training courses and classes at Mungo's..."

We sat quietly in thought while munching on our food.

"Well the intern-ship is only from morning to afternoon. And I have breaks. After I usually have periods to work on the things they've told me to do but I can just do that at home."

"Okay, so you've got the afternoon covered..."

"Mornings?"

I bit my lip. "Well... since the classes are at Mungo's, I could take the baby with me and keep her in the nursery there. I have my breaks too so I'll check up on her then. It'll be fine," I assured him.

He nodded and took a bite out of his burger. "Okay, well it's good we have the first few things figured out for the moment."

"Yeah, that's good," I agreed.

"If there are any problems..."

"Then we'll deal with them."

We looked at each other seriously for a moment and then both nodded. See, we agreed on plenty of things!

"And the name?"

Oh yeah. Except that.

I rolled mye eyes. "I like Jane."

"That's your middle name!"

"Well it's taking your last name, so I want something of mine in there."

"Having my last name is an honour, you shouldn't even mind!"

I tried very hard to stifle a groan. "You - but - oh for Merlin's sake."

"What about Draconius?"

"That's your name longer."

"Well Jane is your middle name."

"Why can't it - oh for crap's sake Draco, we don't even know the sex of our baby yet!"

"Good point."

"Thank you."

"So we should go back and find out, right?"

I gave him an unbelieving look. "Now?"

"Hey, I can't help it if I'm curious."

I sighed. "We could just be thinking of boy names."

He arched an eyebrow. "Why a boy?"

"I have a feeling that's what it is. Call it a Mothers instinct."

"So... we should be thinking of boy names?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Ah - fine. Let's go."

Draco looked at me triumphantly. "Really?"

I stood up from our booth and headed to the swinging door without Draco. "Yes. Now let's go before I change my mind."

Draco stuffed the rest of his food down his throat and clapped his hands together. "Five galleons that says it's not a boy."

I smiled. "You're on."

xxxxxx

Medi-nurse Olsen greeted us like she knew we were coming back. I was guessing that this wasn't the first time people had come back wanting to know the gender of their baby.

"Nice to see you so soon again," she said. "I'm assuming it's not for another check-up."

Draco shook his head. "No. We'd like to know the gender of our baby, please."

"Ah, I see." She winked at the both of us. "I had a feeling that was why you were here."

"Can we still know what it is?"

"Of course," she said. She walked over to a nearby cabint and pulled out a drawer full of files. She flipped through all of it for a while, before finally taking one out, and holding it out to me. I took it with rather shaky hands.

"Could we have a second alone?" Draco asked.

"No problem," medi-nurse Olsen said. Draco waited till she left the room.

"So."

"So," he echoed.

"Are you ready?" I asked him. I opened the folder.

"I am if you are."

I nodded. "I'm ready."

And right on cue, Draco and I dropped our heads down, to look at the sheet inside the folder. We both smiled.

"Wow."

"Wow."

"So..."

"Wow. What now?"

"Well, I think someone owes me five galleons."

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To be continued...

A/N: ZOMGWTF? Hahaha sorry. What happened? Who won? What's the gender of the baby? Are those questions you guys are all wanting to ask me right now? Well, I'll keep that a secret for now. Sorry guys. Didn't I tell you they'd come a long way in the last chapter? Of course! And I'm terribly sorry I didn't include the reaction of Harry and Ron - it didn't work well with the speed of the story, for it would definitely hold it up. Besides, I think we've had enough confessions, no? Flame me for it if you want Gives really apologetic look. Review if you lovede it or hated it!