A/N: I know, you guys want some Dramione affection. It's coming.
As you may or may not be able to tell, my knowledge of Latin ranges all the way to using an on-line translator. I can only assume it is correct. fetal contego= fetal shield. Just a little extra protection for the active witch-mum-to-be
It's a little longer than I planned but I felt like a bitch to stop any sooner.
CHAPTER 14:
"Wow. I don't think I've ever heard Talon making this much noise. Ever." Ginny complained, but with a smile on her face as she entered Hermione's dorm.
"He won't settle." Hermione was practically in tears as she rocked the crying baby, who was clearly feeding off her own negativity.
"Where's Malfoy?"
"Probably with his... whatever she is to him." Hermione said bitterly.
"Want me to retrieve him and drag him back here by his manhood?" Ginny asked, quite sadistically.
"No." She said quickly, having to raise her voice to be heard over the dramatics of the infant.
"Here, let me try." Ginny offered, not really knowing what she was going to do, but knowing her attitude would be better at this point. Hermione hesitated for a second before handing Talon over.
"I'll go get a few things that might entertain him." She offered, practically running up the stairs.
"Shh." Ginny cooed softly as she put the pacifier back in his open mouth, and rocked him against her chest. "Where's my darling Talon gone? Aunty Ginny's here, calm down." She said calmly, and he paused to look up at her with watery, grey eyes. He started sucking on his dummy and waiting for her to speak again. "Mummy's a bit tense, huh? And your daddy is being horrible."
"He stopped?" Hermione called from the top of the stairs.
"No offense, 'Mione. I think I should take him for a walk, alone. All the drama in this room would make me hysterical too."
"Okay."
~**~
"Hey, Ginny. Baby-sitting duties?" Harry asked when the red-head thankfully took a seat, and settled the almost sleeping baby on her chest.
"Trouble in paradise." She joked. "Well, not so much paradise. It would appear that Draco and Hermione are being so unpleasant around eachother that even Talon can't tolerate their presence."
"What's happened now?" Harry asked, sighing at his best-friend's bad fortune.
"Well, Hermione didn't say anything. But I do know that after asking Draco his opinion of finding out the sex of the baby, he stormed out of the hospital. Then spent the rest of the afternoon, relieving any frustration he had on Astoria Greengrass." She said.
"Greengrass? In Slytherin?" He asked.
"I figured the only part of that story you would pick up, would be who Draco was having sex with. Astoria is a Slytherin in my year, her sister Daphne is a sixth year." She explained quickly.
"And what was Hermione's issue with this?"
"I'm not sure. She tells me it's because instead of acknowledging his feelings about the baby, he went straight back to his old behaviour. Then he returned to their common room lying about where he'd been." Ginny explained. "As for me, I think the fight was a little simpler."
"How so?"
~**~
"Much as I love your company, particularly when you're angry, no others today?" Blaise asked.
"Leave it alone, Zabini." He snarled.
"Ooh, back on last name basis. You need to not get laid considering it actually has the opposite effect on you than it has on the entire rest of the human population." Blaise laughed. "Come on. Tell Blaisey what happened."
"No."
"What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything!" Draco snapped, instantly.
"But Granger's pissed anyway." Blaise concluded. "It's clearly about you shagging Astoria."
"No." The blonde answered, but paused. "I don't know."
"Wifey all jealous?"
"You're starting to thoroughly piss me off by calling her that." He stated as a fact. "She claims she was not jealous, and that she expected me to go off and see to my own needs sooner or later."
"Ooh. Interesting." Blaise said and contemplated the situation for a minute. "For the two most intelligent students in the whole school, you two are idiots."
"Umm… fuck you." Draco said with a slight inflection. "What are you babbling about, Blaise? I am getting well over this whole conversation."
"You accused her of being jealous?" He asked and Draco nodded. "Even if she is jealous, which I would bank my first-born son that she is, you don't say it."
"She started attacking me."
"Did she really?" He smirked.
"Well, she accused me of lying." Draco added, honestly.
"Were you?"
"Yes, but…" He started before he was interrupted by his best-friend.
"Oh, you two are messed up." The dark Slytherin chuckled. "Let me talk to her."
"No chance."
"Okay. Have fun living with her for the next year and a half, Stubborn ass."
"Fine. But stop the flirty shit. No one is buying it, and you just come off desperate." Draco threw back as the two of them started walking to the Great Hall for Lunch.
"I suppose that's one way to get me off Granger's trail." He teased. "The plot thickens in the Malfoy love story."
"You're truly twisted."
~**~
"Potions after lunch. No way to end a meal." Ron complained, his mouth full of food.
"And yet you seem to be having no trouble eating, Ronald." Hermione laughed, despite her disgust.
"She seems okay." Harry whispered to Ginny who nodded in response.
"Her hearing seems okay too." Hermione added, causing Harry to blanch slightly.
"Where's Talon?" Ginny asked, in rescue of her boyfriend. After glancing toward the Slytherin table and seeing she had not given the pleasure to Malfoy.
"Sleeping. Boppy's already with him, so I can go directly to class." She explained.
"Spoken to Malfoy yet?" Ginny tried.
"No reason to."
"What'd I miss?" Ron asked.
"Nothing."
~**~
"What did the git do?" Ron asked Harry as they walked into the Potion's classroom, Hermione already making her way to her desk with Neville.
"Later."
"If everyone will notice they are in a Potions classroom. You will desist with the chatter, find your seat and try not to ruin your chances of a passable potion so soon." Professor Snape hushed the entire room, and had the full attention of the Gryffindor and Slytherin occupied classroom.
"This is a rather simple potion I would expect second years capable of brewing. However, the scores recently produced by this class tell me this most likely pose a challenge to most. The instructions are on the board, begin immediately."
The students were shamed by his blatant attack at their recent essay, and scurried off to produce the sleeping draught they had been assigned.
"Relax, Neville." Hermione tried before the Professor caught her.
"While your marks were acceptable, Mr. Longbottom's were lackluster, Miss. Granger. Allow him to make his own mistakes since your assistance will not help the boy pass." The Professor snapped at the girl, who had the beginnings of angry tears in her eyes, thanks to the stressful day she had already been having.
"Yes, Sir." She said softly and turned her anger to the few Slytherin's who were sniggering. Her look must have caught Blaise's attention as he started hushing the few that had been foolish enough to laugh.
The class was expectedly quiet as several made great messes of the 'simple' potion. Others were nervously dropping metal instruments as they feared the moment their Potion's Master would be behind them inspecting their potions, ready to pounce on any mistakes and deduct points.
"Damn." Pansy swore as she dropped a glass jar of still moving beetles on the ground, shattering it and scattering the insects all over. Some students jumped up onto their stools, others were laughing, as Snape scowled and made his way over to the broken mess to fix it. Neville was particularly distracted as he picked up his next ingredient.
"Neville, no!" Hermione yelled, trying to grab for his arm as he let go of the incorrect ingredient and it fell into the cauldron. The room was instantly plunged into smokey darkness as the cauldron blew up, predictably, knocking several students to the ground.
"Hermione!" Harry and Ron bolted instantly to where their best-friend was now laying on the cold floor of the dungeon classroom. Even Draco made his way over, Blaise helping Pansy from where she had been knocked into a shelf.
Snape waved his wand clearing the smoke and then wordlessly put both Hermione and Pansy in a form of stasis, so they could not move, without actually stunning them.
"Weasley, Malfoy, levitate Miss. Granger to the hospital wing. Potter, you assist Zabini in doing the same for Miss. Parkinson. All other students will remain to assist in the repair of my classroom. Go!" He commanded instantly.
"I do not need your help." Ron muttered toward Malfoy as they both raised their wands to take her out of the classroom.
"Nor I your's. Could we possibly just do this without making the situation harder by getting into a fight over which of us can handle a task one simple wizard could manage?" Draco tried.
"Fine." Ron agreed as they walked as quickly as they could toward the hospital wing.
~**~
"What's happened?" Madam Pomfrey asked sharply as the two girls were brought into the wing and placed in beds next to eachother, their stasis still in place.
"Accident in Potions classroom. Professor Snape did something to them before telling us to levitate them here." Harry explained, not taking his eyes off Hermione, as she remained still.
"I knew this was bound to happen. I warned the Headmaster but he would not allow these girls to be dismissed from the class." Poppy ranted as she ran her wand over Hermione, identifying any problems. She waved it again when she recognized the signature of another charm, often used by adult women that suspected their jobs could be a danger to their unborn child. With another wave, Hermione began moving. "Lay still Miss. Granger. You have a concussion and I suspect took a rather hard fall."
"Yes." She complained, rubbing the back of her head.
"Do you have pain anywhere else?"
"My back, but that had been hurting me already."
"As expected. I will give you a pain-potion for that but you must not take it for another twenty-four hours, until I have fully healed your concussion." Madam Pomfrey bustled around in her cabinet, returning with the small vial, placing it on her bedside. "You will remain here for the rest of the day, and I shall see about releasing you for dinner. Tomorrow you will remain on bed-rest until I have had a chance to run another diagnosis to identify any delayed reactions. As for your back pains, they will come and go for the remainder of your pregnancy, but I must insist you begin allowing others to lift and carry your very healthy five-month old baby, and lighten your schoolbag."
"Very well." Hermione agreed, not getting up from the bed to try and alleviate her head-ache. "Is everyone else okay?"
"I am about to see to Miss. Parkinson. I do hope she had the fore-thought to cast the fetal contego, as you so successfully did, Miss. Granger." She praised in her usual clipped tone, and Hermione was glad she had cast the charm too.
They all watched as the witch directed her wand over the dark-haired Slytherin and frowned.
"She did not. Thankfully, the baby did not suffer any distress. She fell too?"
"She was thrown a little hard against a shelf. I don't know if anything hit her." Blaise explained, showing them all a serious side they had yet to see in the boy.
"Miss. Parkinson is bleeding. Mr. Zabini, hold the girl on her side away from me so when I lift the stasis, I can tend to the lacerations on her back before she is in danger." Madam Pomfrey directed.
The boy did what he was told, finding the seemingly lifeless girl scarily light as she was easily held onto her side.
With another wave of her wand, Pansy woke and was about to yell at Blaise for holding her so tightly as she started to struggle.
"Blaise, what the hell are you doing?"
"Miss. Parkinson, do not move." The medi-witch all but shouted, scaring the girl who did not know there was someone behind her.
"What happened?"
"Longbottom tried to kill us all in potions, yet again." Draco teased.
"Draco." Hermione attempted defending their friend who had done just that.
"What?" He asked, completely serious. "He should not be allowed to attend that class. Imagine you hadn't cast that charm? Then what?" He asked.
"I don't know. But Neville doesn't ever mean any harm." Hermione tried.
"This is not acceptable." Draco ranted, trying to calm himself, as Ron and Harry watched on strangely.
"Miss. Parkinson, you will also remain here until dinner, and then on bed-rest tomorrow. Mr. Malfoy stay behind, the rest of you may return to class. Mr. Potter, please instruct Miss. Weasley, Lovegood and Bones to come here before dinner so I can cast the charm on all the girls."
"Yes, Ma'am."
~**~
"I would appreciate you follow Madam Pomfrey's orders. She made it abundantly clear that any failure to do so will result in me being punished." Draco said somberly as they made their way back to their dorm.
"I can imagine." She laughed awkwardly, as they entered. Boppy was feeding Talon on the couch. Before Hermione could reach the pair and take the baby, Draco stepped in, gently taking him and dismissing the house-elf, with thanks as not to anger Hermione.
"I missed you all day, honey." She cooed to him, who in turn smiled and made a contented noise. "Come to Mum."
"Don't think so, Granger. You heard the lady."
"I haven't seen him all day. I just want to hug my baby for a little while."
"After you're in bed, I'll bring him in, so you can give him a proper goodnight." Draco compromised.
~**~
"Finally." Hermione complained, putting her book aside, as the two blondes entered the room after a brief knock.
"My sincerest apologies, Granger. Thought you would appreciate me showering him first rather than bringing him in here smelling." Draco entered the room, and then noticed the abundance of cleavage Granger suddenly had, as well as the rounded belly that finally looked like a baby and not just a gaining of weight, in her still conservative buttoned pajama top, and ridiculous shorts.
"Thank you." She said genuinely, as she took the baby and sat him on her lap. "Did you miss me, today?" She asked him and his hands instantly reached out to bring her face closer. Hermione laughed as she allowed him to pull her chin closer, and then attempt a sloppy kiss, that left a mark on her cheek.
"Gross." Draco muttered, laughing.
"He's showing his affection, you germaphobe." She teased.
"Germa… what?" He was confused, and then felt the need to fill the silence that followed. "About yesterday."
"We both had our reasons for reacting how we did." Hermione instantly answered. "You do need to acknowledge what you're feeling, no matter how uncomfortable it has made you feel." She started and he opened his mouth to argue. "And I need to learn to resist some of my own, especially now when every emotion I am feeling is amplified."
"Fair enough."