Hermione shifted slightly to let Bear on the sofa with her. She was reading a book, one that Draco had recommended, and the large dog kept nosing her hand and trying to get up next to her. Hermione had eventually relented and shifted so that Bear was lying between her legs. His large head was on her right thigh, and he kept sniffing her stomach and looking up at her. Bear, they'd quickly learned, was a giant sweetheart. He was scared of loud noises and often hid behind Draco's legs, but other than that he was sweet. It was actually fairly amusing, how much he'd taken to Draco. The large dog frequently laid across Draco's lap and tried to lick his face. Bear climbed into bed with them every night, despite Draco's protests, and kept trying to cuddle with him at night. Hermione just laughed every time she saw it, and Draco rolled his eyes and blamed her for everything.
"You're just a big sweetheart, aren't you," Hermione whispered, scratching Bear's ears. Scorpius was napping in his room, and Draco had run to the store while he was asleep to get groceries. They were just about out of food and Hermione had a craving for a specific cake from a grocery store across town, and Draco had promised to go there and get it for her. "It's okay, Bear," she said as she shifted and rubbed her back a bit. It was starting to ache, and she was frustrated by it. "My back just hurts a bit, Buddy. You're okay; it's not your fault."
Bear licked her hand and looked at her with wide eyes. "What?" Hermione asked, smiling at him. "What's up? Do you think you need a treat?"
His tail started to thump against the sofa and Hermione scratched his head one more time before getting up. It was harder now than it had been before, and Hermione was a bit frustrated with it. She felt helpless half the time, and nothing was really making her feel better. She waddled into the kitchen-and it really was a waddle now-and found one of the treats Harry had brought for Bear to welcome him to welcome him to the family. Bear sat obediently on the floor and looked at the treat, whining slightly. Hermione just smiled and handed it to him, and he took it happily and started munching on it.
Hermione headed to the bathroom. She's been having to go more frequently in the last week, and it was getting frustrating. She finished quickly enough, glancing at herself in the mirror to look at her stomach. Draco was right; she had dropped. As excited as she was for the baby to come, Hermione wasn't exactly ready for him. She was scared that something would go wrong, and while the baby-Hugo-was kicking and acting normally, Rose had been acting pretty normally too. She hadn't been as active as Hugo, that was true, but there was still time for things to go wrong.
She shook her head and went back to the sofa to sit down and continue reading the book. Half an hour later she noticed that her back was aching again, and she groaned before shifting to try and get comfortable again. "It would be nice," she said, poking her stomach, "if you could stop making me ache." Still, she couldn't help but smile; things were okay for now, and she didn't really want them to change.
Draco popped into the kitchen a few minutes later. "Is Scorpius still sleeping?" he called.
"As far I know," Hermione said. "I've been fairly quiet, and I haven't heard any noises from his room."
"Good. I brought you something."
"Is it my cake?" Hermione asked, carefully marking her page and getting herself off the couch again. "Please tell me that you got my cake."
"I got the cake, yeah," Draco said, coming into the living room to help her up. "But that's not what I was talking about."
Hermione frowned at him, and Draco grinned as he held a small pair of blue socks. "I bought these for Hugo. See? They've got his name on them." He pointed out the name excitedly, trying to make sure she saw the green embroidery on the blue socks. "I'm hoping he'll be in Slytherin-I thought I'd push the idea now."
She laughed and kissed him, and Draco smiled into it. He was excited, genuinely excited, and it made her worried. But she didn't want to think about the fear right now. She wanted to focus on being happy and getting back at Draco by enchanting the embroidery to turn red. She wanted to think about being happy above anything else.
"You're an idiot," she said, pulling away from him and trying to discreetly rub her back again. "I love you, but you are."
"I was the second best person in our year," he protested. "I almost beat you on a couple of exams too."
"Oh please," Hermione said. "You could never get close."
"Defense Against the Dark Arts, fourth year. I looked at your score, and I was incredibly close."
"You looked at my score?"
"I'd been trying to beat you for years; of course I looked at your score. I was confident that I'd beaten you and then somehow you'd pulled it out."
"Well of course I did," Hermione said. "I'm supposed to be the brightest witch, remember?"
"Future Minister, from what I hear," Draco said. "That's the word, anyway. Everyone thinks you'll be Minister one day."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh please," she said. "That's too political; I'd hate it."
"Either way," Draco said, "You are the brightest person I know. I'm confident that you'll go far. And hopefully I'll get to stand beside you."
"I'm pretty sure I'm going to drag you along," Hermione said with a small smile. "I love you, and I love your son more, and I don't want either of you to go."
"Don't forget the dog," Draco said, gesturing to Bear who was sitting at his feet. "You like him most of all."
"Of course I do," Hermione said, reaching down to scratch his head. "He's truly the only reason why I'm staying."
"We've only had him a week." Draco said, rolling his eyes. "Come sit down at the table and I'll get us each some cake, okay? I know you really want it."
He led her to the kitchen and Hermione took a seat at the table while Bear trailed behind Draco to try and catch crumbs from the food he was cutting up. Hermione smiled and couldn't help but think that her life was turning out perfect. She thought that she was actually kind of lucky that Ron had cheated on her all those months ago, because it led her to Draco and Scorpius, and some part of her thought that she was supposed to be with them all along. Things had just worked out, and she was honestly glad that everything had happened.
"What are you thinking about?" Draco asked, setting a plate down in front of her and taking the seat across the table. "You seem quiet."
"I'm just thinking that I'm lucky to be with you." she said softly, hoping that he won't judge her too much for being sappy.
"Funny," he said, smirking at her. "That Hermione Granger thinks she's lucky to be with me."
"Oh shut up," Hermione said. "I don't need you to make fun of me for it."
"Isn't that what you signed up for?" Draco asked. "I mean, we're together and you know that I'm not just going to stop picking on you."
Hermione just rolled her eyes and took a bite of her cake. It tasted amazing, just as she'd expected it to. "Merlin I can't thank you enough for getting this," she said. "I've been craving it for weeks, it feels like."
"I've heard you mention it once." Draco said, raising his eyebrow.
"That doesn't mean I haven't been craving it." Hermione muttered, taking another bite. She took a small piece and gave it to Bear because there wasn't any chocolate in it. He took it immediately and then licked her hand to thank her, and Hermione smiled. She'd never really loved dogs, but Bear made her heart melt.
Scorpius was up a half hour later, bouncing around and full of energy once again. He wanted to color so Hermione sat up with him to color and Draco worked on paperwork that had been sent over to him from St. Mungos. The afternoon, like most had been in the last couple of months, was quiet and relaxed. Scorpius didn't seem to mind that Hermione couldn't get up and play with him, as he just kept picking activities that they could do at the table. They played games and colored and Scorpius was happy no matter what. She was relieved that she wasn't disappointing him, because that was one of the last things she wanted to do. Scorpius was sweet and kind, and he deserved to have all of the happiness in the world.
They ate dinner, which Draco had ordered from a nearby take out place, and ended the night by playing another game together. Scorpius was particularly fun of muggle card games that Hermione taught him, and it always made him giggle to see Draco lose terribly. Draco would always tickle him and make him squeal. He was a good father, better than Hermione had ever expected him to be, and he really did love his son and he loved making him happy. But before long they had to put Scorpius to bed. Hermione read him a story and Draco helped him to brush his teeth and put on his pajamas.
Draco came back downstairs as Hermione was rubbing her back again. "Are you okay?" he asked, concern clear in his voice.
"I'm fine," Hermione said. "My back is sore, but I think I must have just been sitting wrong or sleeping wrong."
Draco nodded and said, "As long as you're sure. I want to make sure that everything's okay with you."
"I know," Hermione said, "And I love you for it."
"I love you too," Draco said, smiling and kissing her cheek. "Do you want to go upstairs? You could read and I could do some more paperwork."
"I think I love you more now." Hermione said, kissing his cheek.
They walked upstairs, Draco behind her and making sure Bear didn't trip her as she went up the stairs. Hermione changed quickly, as she wanted to get off her feet. The bed felt more comfortable than usual when she laid down, and Bear jumped onto it, laying his head on her thigh again. "Are you okay, Buddy?" she asked, rubbing his chin. "You've been clingier than normal today. You're not sick, are you?"
The dog couldn't talk back to her, but he did stare at her with wide eyes. "He's probably just taking a liking to you," Draco said, coming into the room without a shirt on. Hermione stared at his chest for a moment before flicking her eyes to his and seeing him smirk. "Which is good for me, because maybe then I can sleep in peace without a dog on my face half the night."
Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Most people would be glad to have a dog in love with them. Why aren't you the same?"
"I like him, of course," Draco said, climbing into the bed next to her. "I just like sleep a little more."
Hermione laughed softly, trying to avoid waking up Scorpius. She didn't want to be too loud and have him come running into the room when he was supposed to be asleep. She grabbed the book she'd been reading earlier in the day and Draco summoned his paperwork, and they didn't speak for almost two hours. Hermione had to adjust a few times, but she always found a new comfortable position. Draco glanced at her a few times, she noticed, but he never said anything so Hermione assumed she wasn't bothering him too much.
She had to give a little gasp around eleven as a sharp pain spread through her lower body. "What's wrong?" Draco asked, setting the paperwork on his bedside table and turning to face her with nothing but concern in his eyes.
"Nothing," Hermione said, shaking her head. "I'm sure it's fine. It's probably just false labor-I had it with Rose."
"Are you sure?" he asked, still concerned. "Maybe we should take you in just to be safe."
"They'll just send us back here," Hermione said. "I'm going to be fine, Draco. It's nothing I haven't done before."
He nodded, looking unsure but picking up his paperwork again. Hermione felt a few more contractions and they definitely didn't feel nice, but they weren't consistent and she didn't bother to get her hopes up or feel afraid. She'd gone through this with Rose, so she knew that nothing was going too happen. She set her book down and moved so that she was lying down. Bear barked softly, and Hermione quickly told him to be quiet so he didn't wake up Scorpius. She wanted to go to sleep, because then the false contractions might not bother her and she might be able to rest peacefully.
Sleep worked, but only for a couple of hours. Hermione woke around one to see Draco fast asleep with Bear's head on his chest. He looked happy and content, which made her smile, but then she felt another pain like before and she didn't feel like smiling anymore. Hermione slid out of bed and went to the bathroom She felt like she had to go to the bathroom, so it made sense to go their. And, because she didn't want to wake Draco up for what wasn't really labor, she decided to head downstairs and try to get some sleep on the sofa. She made some tea as well, thinking that a warm drink would help her stay calm. Hermione was relieved when she got to spent almost twenty minutes without any pain, but then it was back for almost a full minute.
When the pain faded, Hermione decided to go upstairs and get Draco. She wasn't sure why, but all of the sudden she was confident that this was the real deal. She was confident that her baby was coming sooner rather than later, and fear gripped her heart and all she wanted was for Draco to tell her that everything was going to be okay.
"Draco," Hermione whispered, poking him as she sat down on the bed. She realized that she was crying, and that embarrassed her but she couldn't really change it now. "Draco please wake up. I think it's happening; I think I was wrong and that it's really happening."
He groaned as she woke him up, and looked at him, confused. "What's wrong?" he asked, yawning. "Are you okay?" He looked at her then and saw that she was crying. "Hermione, what's wrong?" he asked, his voice suddenly more serious than before.
"I think I need to go to the hospital," she said, her voice shaking. "I think…"
He was up and throwing a shirt on before she could say anything else. He ran to get Scorpius and while his son was still sleeping, Draco grabbed her arm and apparated. They appeared in St. Mungos and Draco walked confidently up to the welcome desk. "Hermione Granger might be in labor." was all he had to say before she was whisked away. Draco tried to follow, but was immediately told to stay behind as a few healers he'd helped to teach came and followed Hermione back into the hospital. Hermione wanted him to be with her, and she was assured that he could come back as soon as they figured out if she really was in labor or not. Despite knowing that fact, Hermione just wanted him with her.