Draco Dormiens

Chapter Ten: Welcome to the World

5th of June, 1980

Lucius was tired. More tired than he had ever been before. His head was pounding, all the lights in the room were glaring into his eyes and transforming into blinding pain. His jaw was sore and each one of his teeth ached from the constant clenching. He had thought that holding his son in his arms would make the tension drain right out of him. But now, while holding the squalling child in his stiff embrace, he knew how wrong he was.

It started three days ago. Narcissa had felt her first contraction and their hired healer had started to prepare one of the many guest rooms as a birthing chamber. Three days ago.

Since that first contraction neither he nor Narcissa had slept. The contractions faded in and out, regular and close together for a few hours, and then so far apart they didn't bother timing. After a few hours of near inaction they would come again, wave after wave, in quick and painful succession; only to slow down again an hour or two later. The healer had decided that they needed to move things along. This meant that they had to be moved to the hospital- not only was it stressful for Narcissa, but the baby as well.

Twenty-four hours after arriving at the hospital their child was finally pulled into the world. An extremely healthy baby boy, seven pounds eleven and just over eighteen inches. He had a set of lungs that would put a banshee to shame. His skin was pink as though it had been pinched all over. His eyes were a startling and somewhat alarming ice blue that seemed to take in everything around him.

They had placed the boy on Narcissa's bare breasts once they had checked him over and taken his measurements. Instead of wrapping her exhausted arms around her newborn she had begun to shiver. Only a little bit at first, but over the next minute the shivering progressed to a point where her teeth were chattering and a healer raced over to take the child from her, in fear for his safety.

"So… Col-d" Narcissa had said through chattering teeth. The healers looked at each other, and then at Narcissa again before all hell broke loose. Shouts and yells echoed through the corridors, words like "haemmorage" and "class four" and "transfusion" were thrown about before Lucius was dragged from his chair, pushed outside the room, and told to wait there. A few moments later a healer had opened the door, shoved a bundle of screeching blankets in his arms, and told to comfort his son.

Lucius managed to catch a glimpse of the scene in the birthing room before the door was slammed shut again. Blood. A lot of blood.

Twenty minutes later a healer brought him a bottle for the child. When he asked her what had happened to his wife the impudent woman had shrugged and walked away. An hour and a half after the baby had finished the bottle three healers made their way over and sat on the sterile leather couch opposite him.

"We are afraid we have some bad news." The first healer said, a man in his mid forties with graying hair and a too-kind smile. The other two healers looked grave. Lucius's entire body turned to ice and he held his breath. "Your wife had what was known as a severe postpartum hemorrhage. She lost nearly two and a half liters of blood. We had to perform a hysterectomy as her uterus as it failed to contract after the birth of your son. We have given her two blood transfusions and several blood replenishing potions… She seems to be stable at the moment, but we are not sure if she will pull through."

For the first time in his life Lucius Malfoy found himself unable to come up with a response. He opened and shut his mouth a number of times, looking between the healers for some small mercy, for one of them to say that this was all a joke and that his wife was well and waiting to be reunited with her husband and son.

It wasn't until three days later that Narcissa regained consciousness for a decent length of time. In the days that had passed Lucius had been spending every waking hour at the hospital watching his son. Just watching. Wondering what it was about this baby that meant that so much destruction need accompany his introduction to the world.

They had spent ten years trying to conceive this child.

Narcissa had spent nine months in constant discomfort while he grew in her womb.

His wife had been in labour for seventy two hours of agony to birth him.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Their long wait should have been punishment enough. But for some reason their child saw fit to make them pay for tearing him from where ever he had been waiting and bringing him into their world.

Their son had come into the world and brought with him so much more pain suffering than either Lucius and Narcissa had thought possible.

But when his son looked up with him sparkling blue eyes he could not help but be in awe of the baby's beauty and perfection.

Narcissa's eyes fluttered open and Lucius sat up straighter in his chair, stiff back hurting in protest at the sudden change in position.

"Where is he?" She managed to croak painfully, her voice sounding dryer than a windswept desert. Lucius stood and walked over to his son. With a heavy sigh he leant over and scooped the dense warm bundle into his harms arms.

The corners of Narcissa's lips turned up in what could only be described as the most picturesque smile in the world. Lucius's heart fluttered at the look that his wife gave their son, amazed that so much love could be contained in one look.

Despite all of the waiting.

Despite all of the pain.

"Draco." Narcissa crooned, as she carefully traced her fingers around their son's porcelain face. Dragon. Lucius smiled, knowing then that it was a perfect name for their child. It described him perfectly;

Strong.

Handsome.

Dangerous.

A/N: Wow... so there is the final chapter. I know there are a few things that are left incomplete, but the scope of the challenges was the pregnancy, so I tried to give you all a glimpse of what happened in that time and how the Malfoy's felt about it- after this letters the story continues to be cannon, so hopefully I managed to give you a bit of a back story on why the Malfoy's are the way they are. Now, I won't say that this is 100% absoloutley and positively the end, as I may add another chapter whenever the urge strikes, but for now- this is it.

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And to those who have read, reviewed, favourited and alerted- thank you so much. You have all made writing about characters I normally avoid into something fun and wonderful- a great learning experience!