CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: Confessions at Christmas

Draco and Astoria settled into life as godparents pretty quickly. Their lounge already had several framed photographs dotted around the place - Zila on her own, Zila with Astoria, Zila with Draco, Zila with both of them... By far, Astoria's favourite was the one in a solid silver frame which was upstairs beside their bed. It was of Daphne, Blaise, Draco and herself at the christening, her and Draco holding baby Zila between them. And they all looked so happy. It was a gorgeous photo. Draco looked particularly handsome in a black shirt and trousers, and a green tie. He and Blaise has bought matching outfits especially.

Draco and Astoria took over care of Zila every other weekend to give the new parents a well deserved break. They were finding it very draining and Astoria could see why. However, she couldn't complain. She especially loved seeing Draco with Zila - it turned out that he was a complete natural. One night she'd got out of bed to go to the toilet and heard Draco's voice. She'd walked to the doorway of the spare bedroom and, through the space where the door was ajar, had found Draco in his pyjamas, rocking Zila to get her back to sleep and singing to her, softly. She had stayed watching for a minute, smiling, before heading back to bed, where Draco had joined her a few minutes later.

"You're a natural, you know?" she had whispered to him through the darkness.

"Do you think?" Draco asked, his question genuine.

"Absolutely. You'll make a brilliant dad one day," Astoria had told him.

Draco hadn't responded with words. He just cuddled up closer to Astoria, kissed her softly, and fell back to sleep. It had been too dark for her to see the big smile on his face as he'd threaded his fingers through hers.

In all honestly, Draco was a lot better with the baby than her own father was. Blaise hadn't taken to fatherhood very well. He especially struggled to get out of bed in the middle of the night for her and it became obvious that Daphne's patience was wearing thin. Astoria had overheard a conversation between Daphne and her mother whilst the family were all gathered at Celia's.

"You should see Draco with her, mum, he's amazing," Daphne had said. Astoria had froze, her heart pounding in her chest, when she detected the tone of envy in her sister's voice. "I just wish Blaise could be a bit more like him..." Astoria had decided not to worry about the comments as Daphne sounded exhausted and, well, she was right, Draco was amazing with Zila.

Spring and Summer passed by and things were going very well. Astoria's clothes business, which she had simply named 'Astoria's', was doing well with good profits in both the robes and dress robes she had designed, as well as muggle type attire for the witch and wizard, for example, jeans and hoodies. She was, to her knowledge, the only shopkeeper of this kind in existence and the store certainly proved popular.

Draco was also doing extremely well and had achieved his goal of becoming Nimbus' youngest ever head of department. He was now in charge of quality control and he had some twenty plus people beneath him of whom he was now in charge of. Stripping brooms and checking for undetectable charms had become second nature to him over the last few months and he was very good at his job, hence the promotion.

Once Daphne had began coping okay with Zila, she had decided to spend the inheritance money she got from her father on a house for her, Blaise and Zila. They had picked a detached house with a nice big garden in the countryside in Surrey. Daphne had wanted to be near the city but not in it. They had certainly picked an idyllic place to bring up a child. She had settled into motherhood well, despite only being twenty two. Blaise was slowly getting used to being a father and, although the responsibility still scared him a little, he was rather enjoying it.

In the run up to christmas, they all decided to spend the festive period at Blaise and Daphne's. It would be their first christmas as a little family and it made sense to have it at Daphne's. It was a fair bit bigger than Draco and Astoria's place and so there was plenty of room for them to stay and some of the other family members if they wished.

Draco and Astoria arrived in Surrey late on christmas eve morning, completely weighed down with bags full of presents. It was the first christmas that Draco had been earning his own paycheck which amounted to a pretty big sum, and so he'd gone slightly overboard. He and Astoria had spent a whole day shopping for gifts and, at the end of it, Draco had practically passed out on their sofa, he was that tired.

The couple trudged up the driveway towards their home for the next couple of days, the freshly fallen snow crunching under their feet, woolly hats pulled right down over their heads.

"I'm so excited," Astoria said, turning to Draco and grinning. "Our first christmas all together like this."

Draco smiled back. He completely agreed but there was something on his mind - he was hiding the fact that there was something he wanted more than anything. A baby.

He had several reasons to keep this to himself. Firstly, it was traditional and expected that all Malfoys should marry before having children. His dad would be fuming to discover if he were to have a child out of wedlock and he couldn't imagine his mother being overly enamored, either. Secondly, he and Astoria had only been together for three years. Indeed, it was a lot longer than Blaise and Daphne had been together when Daphne fell pregnant, but the shocked look on Astoria's face when she found out was enough to put him off telling her how he felt. Thirdly, Astoria was still only a teenager herself. Draco didn't want to say anything until he was one hundred percent certain she wanted it, too, and right now he was pretty sure she didn't agree. He would have to make do with being uncle Draco for the time being.

"Oh and your mother's coming today, I'd totally forgotten. Draco?"

Draco zoned back in on his girlfriend at the mention of his name.

"Huh?"

Astoria rolled her eyes. "I said I'd forgotten your mother was coming today. For dinner."

"Oh, right. Yeah," Draco said vaguely.

"Are you okay?" Astoria said as they approached the front door which had been decorated with an elaborate wreath.

"Yeah, I'm fine, babe. Why wouldn't I be?" Draco said, smiling as he knocked loudly on the door.

"You just looked in a world of your own," Astoria said then she smiled and brushed a snowflake from his cheek. Draco leaned in and gave her a peck on the lips just as Blaise answered the front door with his spare arm, Zila resting upon his other.

"Happy christmas, bro," Draco said, crossing the threshold with his bags full of presents.

"Cheers, mate. And to you both."

"Happy christmas, Blaise," Astoria said cheerily, standing on tiptoes and kissing him on the cheek. "And how's my favourite little niece today?" Astoria cooed over Zila who was dribbling slightly. She was already ten months old and had grown a fair bit. The time was already flying by.

Blaise chuckled. "She's a greedy little bugger is how she is," he told Astoria as they made their way through to the lounge, Zila beginning to make gurgling noises. "We feed her, it's all gone, and she bursts into tears!" Blaise informed Astoria, sounded bemused.

Daphne was fussing over Draco, who had dumped all the gifts underneath the beautifully decorated christmas tree which now dominated the Greengrass-Zabini living room.

"Take that hat off, you look ridiculous," Daphne told Draco, snatching it from his head.

"Hey, it's bloody cold outside!" Draco said defensively, plonking himself down in a squishy sofa next to the roaring log fire.

"Ri, honey, I'm just in the kitchen preparing the buffet, do you want to come with?" Daphne asked, throwing Draco's hat from out of his reach. She knew he wouldn't bother getting off of his ass to retrieve it.

Astoria followed her sister through to the kitchen to help with food preparation, leaving Draco and Blaise to catch up. It wasn't long before Draco had retrieved his beloved goddaughter from her father's arms. He just couldn't resist.

"Mate, she's growing up so fast!" It had only been a couple of weeks since Draco had last seen Zila, but he still couldn't believe how big she'd got.

"Yeah, I know," Blaise said, watching how Draco held her so confidently in one arm. There was a long silent pause and then Blaise asked in a hushed voice "How do you do it?" He sounded in awe of Draco and Draco looked confused.

"Do what?"

"You just make it look so easy. And I've heard Daph and Astoria talking, saying how you get up with her in the night to feed her and that. You're ten times better at this stuff than I am. Daphne's always calling me useless and she's probably right. I struggle to even get out of bed when she's crying..."

Draco watched his friend closely, and could see that he genuinely wondered how he could be better. Draco wished he could tell him how he did it but, truth be told, he had no idea.

"I dunno, Blaise. I really don't know... I mean, when I get up in the night it's just automatic. I suppose it helps that I've never really been a heavy sleeper."

Blaise snorted with laughter. "Unless you've had a few pints and then you can't be woken for shit!"

Draco laughed. "True! But seriously, I wish I could answer it, mate, but I can't. But you don't have to worry about things like that. This kind of thing must take some getting used to, right? I guess it's easier for me because I know I can just give her back at the end of the weekend whereas she's your life now."

Blaise nodded, listening to Draco's words intently. Draco couldn't believe how seriously his friend was taking this chat.

"You're proper good at it though, mate. You're guna make such a good dad one day." The hint of jealousy in Blaise's voice made Draco feel a but uncomfortable. He wished he knew what to say but he didn't. Luckily the girls came back through soon after.

"Oh, Draco, look at you and my little girl," Daphne said, wandering over and perching herself on the arm of the chair in which Draco was sat. "The way things are going, you're going to have to start trying to make one of your own."

Draco glanced quickly in Astoria direction as he handed Zila back to Daphne, hoping to catch some flicker of a reaction to Daphne's words. No such luck.

That evening there was a larger gathering of people in the lounge. Narcissa and Celia had arrived, as well as aunty Annette with Caitlyn and Kayden in tow and grandma Etta who was getting more and more crazy as the days went on.

"Oh, hello, young man," she had greeted Draco, walking over to him and pinching his bum. He'd jumped about half a mile. It wasn't exactly something he'd been expecting and unfortunately both his mother and Astoria had witnessed the event. Astoria didn't stop laughing for a good fifteen minutes and even his mother had struggled to regain composure once she'd started laughing. Draco had chosen to say nothing.

As usual, Draco had been coaxed into playing exploding snap with Caitlyn. It had been nearly two years since they first met but they still had to play every time they saw each other. Kayden was much bigger than he had been on their first meeting and he wandered over and clung to Draco's neck.

"Hey Draky," he said in his innocent voice.

"No, no, no, no, no," Draco said, swinging an arm round and lifting Kayden round into his lap. "It's Drac-o, not Drak-y. Draco. Draaaacooooo."

Kayden giggled devilishly. "Okay, Draky," he said and, escaping from Draco's grasp he ran off. Draco rolled his eyes. He loathed being called Draky no matter who it was by.

As the evening went on, Daphne and Astoria put together an amazing spread for everyone to help themselves to. Draco grabbed a plateful and went and sat himself with his mother who had just finished having a catch up with Celia. He hoped that she wasn't feeling uncomfortable as the only member of his family there. Narcissa smiled as he sat down next to her on the sofa.

"Draco, I'm so proud of you," was the first thing that she said.

"Why, what have I done now?" Draco asked, biting into a chicken leg.

"Celia's been telling me how good you are with baby Zila and I've just been watching you now with Caitlyn and Kayden and I'm just so proud of you Draco. I wish your father had been twice the man you are."

"Mum..." Draco said, reproachfully.

"Draco, I mean it. Look at what we let happen to you when you were just sixteen. And now look at you. You're only twenty one, and look at you... Quite the family man..." Her eyes started to well with tears. She'd drank a little too much wine. Draco pulled her in for a hug.

"Mother, it's christmas, stop being ridiculous. You didn't let anything happen to me, I let it happen to myself. And who knows, maybe it made me the person I am today."

Narcissa smiled at her son. She was so terribly proud that he would never understand.

A couple of hours later it was time for the kids to go to bed, else santa wouldn't come as Draco had to remind a stubborn Caitlyn who, once again, was clinging to his leg. Slowly the family members began to leave until it was only Draco, Astoria and Narcissa left. Of course, Draco and Astoria were staying over. Draco decided to apparate his mother back home as she'd consumed a fair amount of wine. When he returned Zila was fast asleep in her cot and everyone had changed into their bedclothes and were sat in the lounge waiting for Draco to return, four glasses of whiskey ready to see in christmas.

Draco hot footed it upstairs and routed through his sports bag, discovering that Astoria hadn't packed his trackies and t-shirt. He made his way back downstairs.

"Umm, Ria," he said as he entered the lounge. "Where's my bed stuff? I could only find these?" he said, holding up a pair of thick pyjamas covered in pictures of reindeers. The three exchanged glances and all looked as though they were trying not to burst into laughter.

"Please tell me these are not what you packed for me?" Draco pressed on, giving Astoria a hard stare. She started shaking from struggling to hold in her laughter, biting down hard on her own lip.

"Babe?" Draco addressed her.

Blaise was first to crack, followed by Daphne, followed by Astoria. The three of them sat roaring with laughter as Draco stood, still clutching the reindeer pyjamas in his hand, not taking his eyes off Astoria who couldn't bring herself to make eye contact with him.

"Oh come on, Draco, it's christmas. We thought you were in the festive mood so... We thought you'd like them," Daphne told him.

Draco shook his head and without saying a word, left the room and went back upstairs. They had completely screwed him over, he wanted them to think he was angry when actually he was changing into the reindeer pyjamas. He could hear them all still laughing their heads off downstairs. When he was changed he looked into the full length mirror. He was never going to live this down.

Once the laughter had died down he went back downstairs and, as soon as he reached the lounge doorway, everyone was howling with laughter again. Astoria literally had tears streaming down her face. This time Draco joined in. He looked like a complete idiot but what the hell, he was only with family.

Once everyone had recovered from the hilarity of reindeer covered Draco, they picked up their glasses of whiskey, clinked them together and with christmas wishes they drank them down.

"Now, come on Draco..." Daphne said after a couple of minutes. "We have to have a picture of you in those!" She produced a camera from behind her back. Draco shook his head in disbelief.

"Right, come on then," he said with a sigh. He leaned in close to Astoria and grimaced for the photograph while Astoria was in fits of laughter once again.

"This is going on the first page of the album," Daphne informed him once the deed was done.

"Mate, you're never guna live this one down!" Blaise pointed out. "We'll show Zila in a few years time... 'Here's you're uncle Draco on your very first christmas...'"

"Yeah, and she's guna think 'God, my uncle is the coolest'" Draco said, sounding more confident than he felt. Once again, everyone erupted into laughter.

A short while later everyone headed up for bed, ready to be up bright and early for Zila to open her presents.

Astoria and Draco snuggled up together in the bed Daphne had made up for them. Draco pulled Astoria in close.

"You do realise that I will get my own back at some point, don't you?" Draco said in a hushed voice (Zila was fast asleep in the next room).

Astoria giggled quietly. "Yeah, right. We'll see..."

"Hey! I'm Draco Malfoy. I don't let people do this to me and simply get away with it." He began to tickle her playfully. She squealed and wriggled around until he stopped.

"Are you saying that people have forced you into wearing reindeer pyjamas before?" Astoria asked, breathless from being tickled.

Draco laughed. "No, darling. I mean I don't let people embarrass me and get away with it..."

The pair of them laughed and then cuddled up close to each other once again.

"I had such a brilliant day," Astoria said quietly. "I knew I would."

"Me, too babe," Draco said. "I can't believe this is our third christmas together."

Astoria smiled in the darkness. "I know..." She paused for a long moment to think. Thoughts were running through her mind. She wanted to bring up the topic of babies with Draco, as she'd thought about it a lot since Zila was born, but she wasn't sure how to. "You make me so happy, Draco."

Draco smiled and pulled her in for a kiss. It was long and passionate. After three years, the chemistry between them still hadn't faltered.

"You make me happier," he whispered.

After another few minutes silence, Astoria said "Isn't it great seeing Daphne and Blaise with Zila. They're a little family."

"We're a little family," Draco corrected her. Astoria's heart dropped a little as she took this to mean that Draco was satisfied with the family he had for now. Should she say anything or not?

"Draco you're so amazing with Zila," she told him. "I told you before that you'd make an amazing dad and I really meant it."

Draco's heart rate picked up. What was Astoria hinting at? It couldn't be...? He decided to just be honest.

"The last few months, I've... I've been thinking a lot about - about, you know, me... you... babies," he confessed to Astoria, whom he was still holding tightly in his arms.

Astoria looked up at him though the darkness, completely shocked.

"You - do you mean that you want to try for a baby?" she asked him.

"Yes," Draco said immediately. And then "I mean, yes I would like to but only when you're ready."

Both of their hearts continued beating rapidly. They'd both been wanting this conversation to come up for a while and yet neither had believed the other was ready. There was another long silence and then it was Astoria's turn to make a confession.

"I haven't taken my potion for nearly a week... I - I've just been so busy I kept forgetting and we've both been too tired for sex anyway and -" but before she could finish what she was saying, Draco's lips had met hers and he carefully clambered on top of her.

"Are you saying that you're not protected any more?" Draco wanted to be sure of what Astoria was saying.

"I suppose yes, that is what I'm saying..." Astoria whispered back. She gasped as she felt Draco's erection digging into her from below the sheets. Her hands were shaking ever so slightly in anticipation as she brought them up to stroke his hair.

"Let's do it, Ria," Draco whispered in her ear. "Let's try..."

As soon as he'd spoken they couldn't move quick enough. Within seconds they were both naked and got straight down to making love. Weirdly, it felt different. It felt like there was more of a connection between them than ever before and the pair of them were so spurred on by what the end result could be that it didn't take long for it to be over.

Draco had taken Astoria's hands in his and lifted them above her head. He'd been panting away on top of her, giving her everything he had. He'd come to climax and almost collapsed on top of her, overcome, his whole body shaking as he leaked out inside of her. He was biting down on a pillow hard so as not to make a sound. She held onto him tightly as he came. The connection was unreal. After a minute, Draco rolled over onto the bed beside her, his breathing still extremely heavy. That was undoubtedly the best orgasm he had ever had. He hoped they would be successful for at least the first few tries if he was going to feel like that every time.

The pair were so exhausted that they fell asleep almost immediately after, hand in hand, both sleeping easy after sharing the thoughts that had been on their minds for so long.