Chapter IX:

One night in March when they were scheduled to patrol together Ron came down with the flu and had to cancel. Inconveniently, none of the other prefects were available either, that or they were lying because they didn't want to do an extra shift. She would have to do it with Malfoy. The two of them walked in silence down the lamp lit hallways, somewhat hoping to find a few troublemakers to break up the uncomfortable silence. "Ginny felt the baby kick last week," she told him finally, unwilling to bare it any longer.

"Cool." He glanced at her stomach. "How long until, uh-"

"She's a good three months ahead of me, so a long while yet." He nodded. Peeves' mischievous giggle echoed towards them but she couldn't tell where it was coming from.

"Like you say, it's a long while off yet, but have you started thinking of any names?" She tipped her head to the side, her eyes sliding across to him, and then shrugged. You'd think it would be one of the first things to occur to her, but she hadn't thought about it at all really. He was still looking at her and, realising he was waiting for some type of signal that he could go on without her hexing his brains out, she nodded minutely. "What about Scorpius?" She made a face and he hastily went to its defence. "It's almost an oxymoron: Latin for scorpion, so it has a dangerous side; but it also means love and hope from the stars." It had sounded a little pretentious, but that meaning was really quite beautiful. Besides, you had to consider pretentiousness differently when your last name would be Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy. It flowed off the tongue. Not wanting to concede too much to him, she just made a noncommittal noise and agreed to add it to the list.

"What about for a girl?"

Malfoy scoffed. She raised an eyebrow and he made a sort of 'Are you kidding' expression. "Malfoy first borns are always male."

She rolled her eyes. "Well Granger 'first borns'," What an archaic thing to say! "Have been both genders, so I think we should plan for the possibility- just in case." The sarcasm made her feel a little more comfortable. This was familiar. She could do this. After a little more back and forth they decided to head down to the library for some late night research. There were no lanterns in there so they each cast a lumos charm and split up to find relevant books. Feeling victorious, Hermione called out "I've got it!"

"Confident," he drawled as he made his way over. She waved the book like a fan.

"Well if I do say so myself, I've found a name that compliments your choice perfectly." He made an interested "mm?" Noise so she pressed on. "Seraphina." It sounded even more beautiful to say aloud. "It's Hebrew for fiery, but it's derived from the seraphim, the most powerful angels in mythology."

"Our little multi-faceted kid," he smiled. "You know what, Scorpius and Seraphina would make amazing sibling names." At the implication that she would ever have more children with him she snapped the book shut and glared. He quickly backtracked. "I mean, if they were twins." Nice save.

The hardest homework assignment Hermione ever received was to write a love letter to her future baby. Madame Pomfrey said it would be a beautiful opportunity to talk to them before they could physically do so and, with a chuckle, that it would be something to look back on when they were in the terrible twos or teens screaming at them. Hermione sat down in the common room with a piece of parchment and a quill and wrote Dear S,

Drops of ink splattered onto the page as she held it up uncertainly. She scratched her head with the feather, experiencing total writer's block. This felt a little silly, writing to someone that wasn't in existence yet. Surely she could say everything she wanted to them in the years they would soon have together sequestered at the manor. She sighed at the thought.

Leaving his room to head to Quidditch practise, Malfoy had a piece of parchment in his hand. "Is that your BAM homework?" She asked.

He nodded, passing it to her without her needing to ask. He didn't stick around for her to read it though. Fine with her, she didn't want him staring at her while she tried to read in peace.

Dear Scorpius, she rolled her eyes at his stubbornness.

I don't know if this will be the first time you discover it, but I hope it is. I hope you grow up in a rose tinted wonderland, never knowing about the darkness that came before you. That said, I will never lie to you. Your mother and I didn't fall in love the traditional way. We didn't fall in love at all. After the Second Wizarding War, the Ministry for Magic introduced a law whereby Hogwarts students would be matched and married to increase the GWP in Great Britain. I expected I'd be paired with a Greenglass or a Parkinson, but I never expected to be paired with your mum. To put it bluntly, we had a pretty awful childhood relationship. I'd been raised to hate everything she was and everything she stood for, so we would never get along, but I'll admit, over the years, I developed a grudging respect for her. She was always ahead of me in class, ahead of everyone. She said what she thought about me to my face, which many didn't. She stood up for herself and her friends- she punched me in Third Year! I'm sure she's going to bring these traits to you as well. She'll be protective, wise, honest. Anyway, when we were paired I continued doing her wrong, no matter my best efforts. I truly wanted to make the best of a bad situation, but I guess a good relationship between us just wasn't meant to be. I just couldn't control my hurtful nature. I'm not going to swear I won't ever hurt you, but I'll do my best. I want you to look at me and see a father, not a monster. Silly as it sounds, it's my greatest goal in life right now. I'll try and do better Scorpius, for both you and your mother. I'll try and make things right.

-Father

A knock on the portrait door jolted Hermione out of her snotty snivelling. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, momentarily panicking it might be him and then realising that, of course, he had the password. She peered outside to find a witch with usually stern eyes turned sad with a hint of anger. "Professor McGonagall!" She'd never seen the headmistress in this part of the school. When she wanted to speak with them they met in her office, not their rooms. "Is everything alright?" She could tell it wasn't. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Is Mr Malfoy within?" Asked the transfiguration teacher.

She shook her head. "He has Quidditch practise. What's going on?"

Her question remained unanswered, instead McGonagall just said, "I think you should follow me."

It was only mid-afternoon so there was still plenty of students buzzing around but it felt like they were in a bubble of sombreness. It took her a while, but when she realised they were heading towards the hospital wing Hermione just knew something had gone wrong with a pregnancy. McGonagall was mad at the Ministry, not at her. Who was it though; Ginny, Luna? Unfamiliar sobs. They were outside the doors now. Hermione took a shaky breath and went inside.

Lying on a bed, blood everywhere like a sick horror film, was Millicent Bulstrode-Finnegan. It was someone she'd never seen be anything but strong and confrontational so seeing her this broken was jarring and heart wrenching. Seamus was talking to his parents and Millicent's, the latter looking disturbingly disappointed in their daughter rather than sympathetic towards her. Hermione felt a little out of place, but Seamus seemed glad to see her, perhaps it gave him more of a sense of normalcy in this world tipping moment. She hugged him and then went to sit beside the Slytherin girl, unsure of what to say. She remembered the spotting of blood she'd experienced, the physical trauma when she'd fallen from the sky. All signs pointed towards her miscarrying rather than Millicent. She was subconsciously cradling her own bump, but when she saw the other girl looking at her she dropped her hands awkwardly to her sides, feeling incredibly guilty for still having her own baby. "Is there anything I can do for you?" She asked.

Millicent looked at her bleary eyed. "I've never been anything but heinous to you Granger," she didn't correct her on the name. "You being nice to me right now makes everything seem so much more real. Something must be seriously wrong for that to happen," she sniffled. "Just get my friends." She nodded, squeezing her hand impulsively on the way out. For just a second Millicent gripped back, as if she needed an anchor, some type of support.