Marriage, Muggle Life, and Babies

Chapter Twenty-Five: Money Talks

By jessebelle

Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter or anything you might recognize.

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            Hermione Granger was asleep, well, that place in between being asleep and awake. She was cold, and that was the reason she opened her eyes, reluctantly. Yawning, she grumbled about having blankets that didn't stay on at night, and reached down to pull the blanket up. Her eyes, barely open, caught sight of something different right away.

            Now awake, she looked over at the other bed with her boyfriend sleeping peacefully. "Draco, wake up!"

            The blonde, after being pulled from a really good dream, heard the urgency and immediately thought the worse. "Hermione, what is it? Are you okay?" He was sitting up now and looking for what could possibly be wrong.

            Hermione looked at him sadly. "Come and see for yourself." She sniffled.

            Draco looked over at her, all the way over there in a different bed. Standing up, he warned her, "Watch out, I'm coming over." He took a step/leap over the gap in between the beds and onto her bed. It was cold, so he immediately sat down and went to pull the covers up. However, Hermione stopped him

            "No, look." She pointed at her stomach. He stared, and stared, and realized it was a nice stomach.

            "So, what's the matter? You wake me up at," He looked at the clock, "six in the morning just to look at your stomach?" He was grumpy, so what.

            Hermione just sniffed again. "I'm fat!"

            Draco looked at her in shock. He once again returned his gaze to her stomach, and sure enough, it was bigger than when they had gone to bed that night, but, it wasn't that big. "What? You're not fat!"

            Hermione gave him a watery look. "Yes I am. I'm going to be fat, and it's already happening. You'll probably find some nice muggle that looks good in a bathing suit and I'll be all alone and I'll be fat!"

            She went to continue her tirade, but Draco was having none of that. He shut her up the only way he knew how, he kissed her.

            Hermione was shocked, but soon melted into the kiss. When they were out of breath, Draco kept his face by hers, their foreheads touching. "Mione, you are many things, but fat isn't one of them. And sure, with this project you're supposed to get as big as a house," he got a hurt look for that one. He quickly continued before she pulled away. "But, the reason for that is you'll be carrying my, our child. I love you, and that's not going to change just because you'll be fat. If anything, I'll probably be more in love with you for that fact. So why don't you stop worrying, 'cause even your worst nightmare about me leaving you, it ain't gonna happen. You're stuck with me, and if I didn't run when I found out about your uncle, I'm not going to run now."

            By now Hermione's look had melted into one of love and happiness. She had tears of joy running down her face, too. Draco wiped them away with his thumb, and holding the side of her face, he dove in for another kiss. She responded accordingly and soon they were curled up in the small, twin bed. They broke apart and Draco laid down pulling Hermione close to his side.

            Smiling with embarrassment, Hermione looked up at him. "You must think I'm this shallow girl for acting like that."

            Draco grinned at her. "Hermione, you're not shallow. You do have extra hormones though, so I'm just going to lay the blame on them, okay?"

            She smiled. "Okay." She snuggled up to him and he grinned. Both felt sleep coming to take them away. They were both almost in the land of dreams when Draco spoke again.

            "Hermione?"

            Hermione yawned, her eyes closed. "Yeah, Draco."

            "I think we're gonna need a bigger bed."

            Hermione giggled sleepily before succumbing to sleep. Draco opened his eyes and stared at her, her chest and stomach moving up and down as she breathed. Reaching over he placed his hand on her stomach and smiled. "I can't wait till you're fat." He closed his eyes and fell asleep soon after.

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            Waking up alone, Draco got up confused. He quickly pulled on a shirt; he'd been sleeping in pajama pants, and walked out of the room. He padded down the hallway and checked in all the rooms. She wasn't in the living room, or the kitchen, or the other rooms. He went back to the bedroom and heard the toilet flush. Ah, she was in the bathroom. She walked out and looked at him in surprise.

            "Oh, you're up."

            He smiled and walked over to her. "Yep, and guess what we're going to do today?" He put his arms around her.

            She looked up at him and smiled. "I don't know. What?"

            He leaned down and kissed her quickly on the lips. "We are going to buy a new bed."

            Hermione giggled. "Didn't you like sharing the bed last night? It was extra cozy."

            Draco grinned. "I didn't mind that part; and I do want to be close to you, but when you ah, get, um, bigger, we might have a small problem."

            Hermione pretended to pout, and Draco quickly kissed her before she could say anything. She grinned as his lips attacked hers. He pulled away, a question in his eyes.

            "Hmmm, I should pout more often."

            He just shook his head in amusement. "So, since you're a muggle-born and know more about it then I do, where do we buy a bed? And how?"

            Hermione giggled at his lack of knowledge of the muggle world. "Hmm, well first we need to get dressed, and then we need to see our chaperones about money."

            Draco released her and walked over to get some clothes. "I thought we had money." He pulled out a pair of black jeans and a black sweater. Hermione saw this and took the clothes out of his hands. "We do, but we'll probably need more, especially since we need a big bed. Plus, I doubt they're just going to just give us money, there's gotta be a catch somewhere."

            Draco grumbled as she put his clothing selection away and pulled out something else. It was a pair of blue jeans and a grey sweater. "Here, these are a little less morbid. Go change, I need to get clothes."

            When she turned her back to get clothes, Draco made faces behind her back before going to the bathroom to change. He almost closed the door when Hermione's voice reached him. "Draco, quit being immature, no more faces, they aren't very becoming on that handsome face of yours, and I'd hate to have to punish you."

She had her back to him and was pulling out clothing. Draco stared in shock, before shaking his head and going to change.

            He came back out to see her already dressed in a pink sweater and some blue jeans. He could hear her mumbling about them being tighter, but he chose not to comment. He walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle. "So, do I have to go visit my mom now?"

            Hermione turned around to face him. "Yes, and I need to go see my uncle, after we eat, I'm starving." He laughed and followed her to the kitchen where she used the weird appliances to make some breakfast before they left. Walking out of their apartment, Draco gave her a quick kiss before going down the stairs to see his mom.

            Hermione watched him go with a smile, before turning and walking to the apartment a couple of doors down. She heard a muffled bang, but shook her head before knocking. She waited a few minutes, before knocking again. This time an out of breath Remus Lupin answered the door.

            "Hermione, wonderful to see you."

            She smiled at the kind werewolf. "Hello Professor, I was wondering if I might be able to speak to my uncle." Just then, there was a loud bang coming from inside the apartment.

            Lupin just sighed. "I'm sorry Hermione; it's not really a good time."

            Then shouting could be heard. "Get back here Black!"

            "Sorry Snivellus, but this means war!"

            Hermione just opened her mouth as she heard her uncle and Sirius Black run through the apartment cursing each other. She looked up at Remus for an explanation. The older man shrugged. "I don't know. I woke up to this."

            There was more cursing in the background and Hermione could see a few spells being shot at each other. Regaining her composure, she just shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Oh well, oh, maybe you could help me."

            Remus smiled. "Of course dear, what can I do for you?"

            "Well, I was wondering what you guys were going to have us do for money. I'm guessing we need to get jobs, but seeing as the boys and Ginny no nothing about muggle work, it might be a bit of a problem."

            Lupin's mouth dropped in shock. "Merlin, I can't believe we forgot." Before he could explain, a spell went awry and hit Remus in the back of the head. The werewolf just gritted his teeth. Hermione covered her mouth and tried desperately not to laugh. Remus' hair was now neon green. They heard a shouted "Sorry Remus," before the fight between the men continued.

            Remus took a few deep breaths. "Hermione, why don't you go collect everyone and we'll meet downstairs to talk. I need to do damage control, but we'll be down shortly."

            Hermione gave a few giggles. Her old professor just rolled his eyes and shut the door.  With a smile, she went and knocked on the door across the hall. Just like last time, there wasn't any answer. Knocking again, she waited, and waited. Finally as she was just about to walk away, the door opened. Raising an eyebrow, she walked inside. Harry and Ginny were making out.

            "Come on, come on. Break it up." Her friends separated, reluctantly, and turned to Hermione.

            "Well hello to you. Make yourself at home."

            Hermione rolled her eyes. "Cute Harry, real cute. Sarcasm does not become you." She walked over and swatted him in the arm.

            "Ginny, show me you're stomach."

            The red head's eyes widened. "What! Hermione, Harry's right here, and why do you want to see my stomach?"

            Harry grinned. "Oh, don't mind me, just go on."

            This time both Hermione and Ginny smacked him. He laughed and rubbed his arm. Hermione just smiled. "So, you haven't noticed yet?"

            "Noticed what?"

            Hermione reached over and pinched her stomach. It was noticeable that Ginny had gained some weight. Instead of reacting like Hermione, Ginny grinned.

            "Merlin, this is wonderful. I can't wait until I'm all fat and pregnant, Harry look at this." She brought the boy's hand to her waistline. Harry cocked his eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

            "Wow, that's really great, I think."

            Hermione just shook her head again. "Wow, not the reaction I was suspecting. I found out this morning and totally flipped on Draco. Hormones suck."

            "You're telling me." Harry was once again hit for his troubles. "Oww! Would you two stop that?!"

            The girls looked at each other, than back at Harry answering in unison. "No!"

            The boy-who-lived just grumbled. "So, Ginny's getting fat. Is that all you needed?"

            This time he was smart enough to move out of the way as Hermione's hand reached out. "No, I just came from my uncle's apartment. Apparently Sirius must have done something because when I left, things were a bit rowdy. And Remus' hair is green."

            The Potter couple stared at her, before laughing. "Oh, wow. Do you think we should get somebody, or a camera?" This time Harry didn't get swatted.

            "No. I'm sure Remus can handle it. But anyway, we need to meet downstairs for another meeting. This time it's about money."

            "What about money, do we get some?"

            Hermione rolled her eyes. "No Ginny. Think! We're doing a project to be like adults. How do you think we'll earn money?"

            Ginny looked puzzled. "Um, get a job?"

            "Bingo."

            Harry's face fell. "We have to get a job?"

            Hermione laughed. "Yes Harry. You didn't think Dumbledore was going to pay for everything did you? I'm surprised we don't have to pay rent."

            "Oh. But, um-"

            "Get over it. Now, you guys coming?" She walked back over to the door and opened it. Harry and Ginny looked at each other before nodding. "Yeah, we're coming." They followed Hermione towards the stairs. They were just about to go down when a loud crash came from the end of the hallway. The three teens looked at each other and smiled before walking down the stairs.

            Upon making the Slytherin floor, the watched as Draco was pounding at Ron's door. "Open up Weasley, I know you're in there!" He banged on the green door loudly.

            "Draco! What are you doing?"

            Draco stopped his knocking and turned at the group in surprise. "Oh, I'm, uh, just waiting for Weasley to open the door."

            Hermione shook her head and walked over to him. "Uh huh, did the thought ever occur to you he might not be in there?"

            Draco's face dawned in understanding. "Um, just now. But then where is he?"

            "Wait! Why are you looking for Ron?" Draco turned to Harry.

            "Well, Pot- I mean Harry. I went to my mom to ask for some money," this got him a smack from Hermione. Rubbing his arm he glanced at her before turning back to Harry. "Anyway, she and Molly?-" He looked to Ginny for confirmation, who nodded. "Yeah, they both looked like they'd forgotten something and sent me to get you guys to have another meeting."

            "Yeah, that's why we're here. Hermione came to get us."

            Hermione smiled at Draco. "Apparently great minds think alike."

            He returned her smile with one of his own, before his face showed confusion. "Where's Weasley then?"

            The group looked at each other for answers, before Hermione grinned. "I know!" She walked over to the door next to Ron's and knocked.

            Cordelia answered the door. "Oh, hi guys. What can I do you for?" Music flowed out of her apartment and into the hallway.

            Hermione smiled at her. "We were just looking for-"

            "Hey Cordy, who is it?" Ron appeared at her side. "Oh, hi Hermione."

            Hermione turned around and shared a look with the group before turning back to the two red heads. "Ron, we're having another meeting out here. Cordelia, you're welcome to join us."

            Ron turned to Cordelia, who nodded. "Sure, that sounds great. Um, wait right here." She disappeared in her apartment and the music stopped, than she returned to the door. "Okay."

            Ron gestured for her to go first, so she walked out of her apartment, him right behind her. Shutting the door, the group moved to the common area taking seats on the couches and chairs that all faced each other.

            "So, what's this meeting about anyway?"

            Harry answered. "Money."

            "What about money? Are they taking ours away?" Ron's face became alarmed. Hermione and Draco laughed. "No, but they'll probably be explaining how we'll need to come up with some of our own."

            "Oh." Ron's face looked disgusted. "That's means earning it, right?"

            From his side, Cordelia nodded. "Yep, that's how we do it here."

            The group continued talking before another door opened and Molly and Narcissa appeared. They walked over and took a seat. Molly was the first to notice the girl by her son.

            "I'm sorry dear; I don't think I know you."

            Cordelia looked up at the woman she'd seen in pictures. She looked slyly at Ron before nodding. "I'm Cordelia Evans."

            Narcissa's brow furrowed. Molly smiled at her. "Well, I'm Molly Winters, Ron and Ginny's mother. To my left is Narcissa Thornton, Draco's mother. You helped us when we arrived, didn't you?"

            Cordelia nodded. "Yeah, that was me."

            Narcissa continued to stare. Molly elbowed her in the ribs. "Oh, I'm sorry, it's just, you look so familiar."

            Cordelia opened her mouth to explain, but was interrupted by the arrival of Remus, Severus, and Sirius.

            "Hey everyone, sorry we were late. I had to fix the apartment after some people messed it up."

            "It's not my fault your hair was green, blame Snape."

            "Oh yes, blame the Slytherin. I believe that was your spell that hit him." Just then he was elbowed by Molly, as he had sat next to her. She nodded in Cordelia's direction. His eyes widened when he saw her. "Um, I meant-"

            Sirius just laughed. "Great, why don't you tell the whole world about us?"  He sat down in between Harry and Ginny and placed his feet on the coffee table.

            Remus just rolled his eyes and sighed, taking a chair next to Narcissa. The blonde woman leaned over and patted his arm. He looked at her and smiled.

            Meanwhile, the kids were watching the adults in interest, Cordelia especially. She smirked as she saw Severus scramble for an excuse. Ron just laughed in her shoulder.

            Molly raised an eyebrow at this. She shared a look with Cissa. "Um, Cordelia. We need to have a, um, meeting, and well, some of the things we might say might be a little, unbelievable, so, maybe it would be better if you left."

            Ron's head looked at his mother, his mouth open. He shared a look with Cordelia. Rolling her eyes she nodded. "Hi, I'm Cordelia Evans."

            Molly shared a look with Narcissa and the guys all traded looks. Recognition came into Severus' eyes. "Evans, um, you wouldn't happen to know anyone from England, would you."

            Cordelia smiled. "Yes, my Aunt Serena. I believe you guys knew her at Hogwarts."

            This caused the adults to stare at her in shock, though Severus had a smile on his face. "You're aunt is Serena Evans? The witch?"

            Cordelia nodded. "Yeah, I sorta figured out who you were yesterday. So tell me, Severus, right?" he nodded. "Did you happen to date my aunt?"

            His smile became one of shock while the other adults laughed. "Um, yes, yes I did."

            Cordelia smiled. "If it's alright with you guys, I'd like to stay for the meeting. I'm curious after all."

            Molly looked at Narcissa, than at Cordelia. "I think that would be just fine. Now dears, I believe you all know what we're meeting about."

            "Yes, Molly, It's about earning our money." The woman had insisted on the kids calling her Molly, as she was no longer Mrs. Weasley, and Miss Winters was so long ago.

            "That's right Hermione. Now kids, I'm sorry, but when we met we forgot to tell you. In order to live here, you will need to pay rent from now on."

            This caused a few "What's?" and "Buts". The adults waited for the children to calm down. "Are you finished? Good. As Molly was saying, in the real world, even in the wizarding world, you'll need to earn money to pay for food, clothing, a place to live, and all of those expenses that you might want. In order for you guys to do this, we'll be setting it up so that one of each pair, and Ron, will have to have some responsibility and work to do." By now they were listening, but their faces showed a little disappointment and confusion. "Don't worry, we're not making you go out and work with others, but at Hogwarts they've always had a system."

            Sirius looked at Narcissa before continuing. "Yeah, you're school work will be worth money. You can earn extra for doing extra work. The better and harder the assignment, the more money it's worth."

            This caused all of the teens to grin. "But, only one person in each pair can submit there work, preferably the guys since the girls have to have the babies. So, any questions?"

            Hermione raised her hand. "Yeah, Hermione."

            "Um, I, I mean we," she gestured at Draco and herself, "were wondering if we could get an advance in money. We kind of need to pick something up today."

            "And, what, may I ask do the two of you need?"

            Hermione looked up at her uncle and gave him a nervous smile. "Um, a new bed?"

            Instantly Severus went to say no, but Narcissa quickly put her hand over his mouth. "Draco, Hermione, I think that will be alright. Actually, since we can still do magic, I think we'll save you two the trouble of buying a new bed. After all, you should have already gotten a good one." Here she gave Severus a pointed look and dropped her hand.

            He scowled and turned to his niece and Draco. "Fine, but I expect-"

            "Yeah, yeah, be responsible. If I touch her you'll castrate me."

            Severus gave his favorite student a look, before Narcissa hit him. Glaring at her, she smiled sweetly at him. "Enough threatening my son."

            Molly just ignored the two bickering adults and turned to Cordelia again. "Now Dearie, did you meet everyone here?"

            Cordelia looked around and nodded. "Yeah, the only two that didn't introduce themselves were Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, but I figured those two out by all of the pictures I have of you."

            Narcissa and Severus had stopped their little argument and turned to face the young muggle girl. Sirius grinned. "Pictures? Of us?"

            "Yeah, she's told me quite a bit about you."

            "Really? I remember how Serena used to carry that camera around everywhere. At first it was annoying, but then when she left at the end of the year, she gave us some copies of ourselves. But I had forgotten all about it." Remus smiled at Cordelia.

            "Oh, well, she has a lot of albums filled with wizarding pictures; I have a few of them if you'd like to look at them some time."

            "That would be wonderful dear. Now, how did you meet everyone?"

            Cordelia shared a look with Ron. "Oh, well last night she came out with us mom."

            Molly looked at her son, and smiled. "Really, well, it's great to see you all getting along. Now, as we're old and probably boring you dears, why don't you run along. Remus, do you think you can go transfigure Hermione's bed?"

            The werewolf smiled. "Yeah Molly. Say, after I'm done, would you like to come have some tea. I'm afraid some people," he glared at Sirius and Severus, "have worn me out a bit."

            Molly blushed a little and smiled. "That would be wonderful." She got up, as did everyone else. Molly and Narcissa headed back to their apartment. Severus followed them. Sirius shared a grin with Remus and hassled him in hushed tones as they walked up the stairs. The teens looked at each other.

            "So, um we're just going to go back to our apartment. We have, eugh, homework." Ginny and Harry headed for the stairs.

            Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like I believe that." But the couple was already on their way back to their apartment.

            Cordelia grinned shyly at him. "Um, Ron, did you want to come back to my place and watch a movie or something?"

            Ron blushed a bit and nodded. "Sure. Um, bye Hermione, Malfoy." He nodded his head and followed Cordelia inside her apartment.

            Draco sighed and put his arm around Hermione. "Ahh, young love."

            Hermione leaned back into him and giggled. "We didn't act like that, did we?"

            Draco started for the stairs, his arm still around her. "No, I actually think we just jumped right into a relationship."

            As they walked up the stairs, Hermione turned to him. "Do you ever regret not going through the awkward, getting to know each other phase."

            Draco just pulled her closer. "No, I think I'm happy the way things worked out. So, wanna come to bed to me?" He waggled his eyebrows comically.

            Hermione laughed and swatted him lightly. "I don't know, I'm not sure if I can resist you're manly charm."

            They reached the top of the stairs. Remus came out of their apartment and nodded before going back to his own. Draco puffed up his chest. "That will be a challenge, won't it?"

            Hermione just grinned and walked into the apartment. "What to do with you?"

            Draco followed her and closed the door. "Kiss me."

            Hermione smiled and moved closer to him. "I think I can do that." They leaned into each other and kissed. Pulling away she gave him a satisfied grin. "Yeah, I'm defiantly glad we can do that." They shared a look, before she turned and ran toward the bedroom yelling, "Race you," over her shoulder. Draco laughed as he followed her. Needless to say, the two definitely enjoyed their new bed.

***AN: Get you're mind out of the gutter. Strictly tickle fights and kissing between the two, maybe a make out session once in a while. Hope you liked the chappie. Many more to come. Toodles.