"Okay, I can't decide, pink hair or black nail polish?" A heavily pregnant Hermione chuckled, holding her side uncomfortably despite her mirth as she held two photographs up for Ginny's inspection. The red head eyed the pictures seriously, her lips twitching slightly as she bit back laughter, enjoying the proof that her best friend's husband wasn't always the classy man he thought he was.

They were putting together a photo board for the Hogwarts Annual Celebration, it was a month away and the two women were only halfway through finding pictures of all the students from their year for the board. The theme was, embarrassing pictures.

The choices for Draco had been narrowed to down to the Goth phase when he had when was 19 or the regrettable hot pink hair he had sported for about three weeks during a holiday in Italy when he was 28.

"I think we have to go pink." Ginny decided. "He kind of pulled off eyeliner and nail polish."

"Agreed." Hermione added the pink photo to the growing pile on her dining room table and put the Goth one back in her photo album.

"Alright let's see, we've got your 6 year old mullet, me as a half-cat monster from second year, Harry's hideous strip tease at his bachelor party, Ron's dress robes from fourth year and Luna vomiting on the Minister for Magic when she had morning sickness during a Ministry brunch. That's a fantastic start." Hermione listed the highlights of the bunch as she applied glue to them and passed them to Ginny to stick on the board.

Harry had taken all the children out for a day at the zoo, leaving Ginny and Hermione at her house to work on their project. Hermione's baby was due in a week and she wasn't keen on much physical activity before then. Draco, unwilling to spend the morning with a Weasely, had gone grocery shopping.

The spent the rest of the morning on their project before Ginny, sensing Hermione was tired decided they'd done enough for the day. They packed up, chatting happily, but it wasn't until they were standing on Hermione's porch that Ginny finally asked her friend the question that had been weighing on her mind ever since her friend had confided her marital woes to her weeks before.

"So, are you guys staying together?" She asked, swapping the box of photos between her hands uncomfortably.

Hermione frowned at the red haired woman. "Of course."

Ginny looked taken back by her dismissiveness. "It's just you were pretty upset a few weeks ago, and you had every reason to be…"

"Ginny! Yes I was upset but we've worked through it, drop it okay?" Hermione was immediately defensive.

"Okay, okay, I'm just worried." Ginny apologized, hefting the box and turning away. She expected Hermione to stop her before she reached her car but the curly haired woman did no such thing.

Hermione watched her friend leave in silence. She was mad at Ginny for bringing up old pain right when she and Draco had rekindled their magic. She went inside, closing the front door and leaning against it. She wished Draco was home already. All she needed to reassure herself was his arms around her, his body against hers, his words of comfort in her ear.

She stayed in the cold foyer until the silence began bothering her. It was insanely quiet without the children and she started missing them a little too intensely. She got out her photo albums, and was soon sniffling into tissues and reminiscing about all of her children, and Draco, their family's past.

By the time Draco arrived home she was fast asleep in the middle of the afternoon, surrounded in photo albums and tissues, her cheeks tear stained. Draco's heart ached a little when he saw her like this. He quickly put the groceries away and cleaned up the mess around his wife. He was about to nestle in beside her when Harry arrived to drop off his children.

"Potter." "Malfoy."

"Hi babies. Shhh, mummy's sleeping okay." Draco greeted his children with affection, which his greeting to Harry was completely devoid of.

The children were exhausted but happy. He fed them and put them down for naps, Ariana going willingly, telling her father all about the trip as he tucked her in, and falling asleep almost instantly.

Jeffrey was similarly easy, though he had been frightened by a lot of the animals. Draco comforted him until he was content and left him to fall asleep on his own as Thomas was getting fussy.

He ended up walking Thomas up and down the hall, the toddler so exhausted from his exciting day that he was impossible to put down for sleep despite all he wanted/needed was sleep.

Eventually he stopped wailing and Draco tried putting him down in his cot, only for the boy to immediately begin sobbing. "Shh, shh baby." Draco murmured, patting his back and rocking him gently on his shoulder. "Come and sleep with mummy and daddy okay fella?"

He walked him downstairs, relived that he was quiet, his toddler's breathing sounding more and more like sleep as he was content on his dads shoulder. Draco kicked off his own shoes and slipped onto the wide couch in front of Hermione, letting Thomas slide slowly off his shoulder until he was snuggled happily between them.

He stroked Thomas's back until he fell asleep, his face turned toward his dad, his long lashes still damp from his tears, his face losing its red tinge slowly. Once he was asleep Draco moved his hand to his wife's arm, stroking her softly, her warm skin soft beneath his fingers. He ran his hand along her swollen belly as well, pausing to feel some gentle kicking from his unborn child before twining his fingers with hers.

"Mmmph, hey Malfoy." Hermione murmured, eyes still shut, her voice hazy with sleep. "Shhh, back to sleep beautiful." He whispered, watching her snuggle in closer before closing his own eyes.

Hours later he was woke up as something wet pooled under him. He opened his eyes groggily, rays of the setting sun right in his eyes as he got his bearings and put a hand down to feel the wetness on the couch beneath them. It was warm and sticky, confused, he lifted his hand into view and his heart dropped, waking him up fully, as the red stain on his fingertips came into focus.

He looked down in horror and saw that Hermione's jeans were soaked with blood, as was the couch, his own jeans and Thomas's feet.

Panicking he grabbed his wife's shoulder, shaking her as he got up, leaning over her as she groaned and turned her head away. On her face you could see she was in discomfort but still asleep.

"Babe, babe, wake up! Hermione you're bleeding." Draco shook her harder until she woke. For a moment she just looked at him, blinking numbly until her face suddenly crumpled in pain as her body became fully aware. She clutched her belly, her look of terror matching Draco's as she spoke.

"Call an ambulance."