Chapter 18
Draco's point of view
Hermione approached me smiling. It had been a couple of weeks since we had slept together and I was finding it weirdly difficult to keep my hands off her. She was just so irresistible and so damn sexy.
"What is it?" I asked as I saw her face waver slightly. Before answering my question she nervously tucked her hair between her ears and looked me straight in the eye, biting her lip she opened her mouth and uttered the two words that had me jumping for joy. No exaggeration. I lifted her ecstatically, swirling her wildly around the room. I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't!
"You sure?"
"I'm sure." I couldn't help but twirl her again. Her laugh was breathless when I finally set her back down on the floor.
"We're going to have a baby! I'm going to be a father! Wait- oh shit! I'm going to be a father!" Reality set in and Hermione must have seen the panic in my eyes because she began laughing hysterically at me.
"What did you think was going to happen?"
"I guess I never really thought about it before." She laughed at me again, shaking her head.
I was going to be a father to a little boy or a little girl. I was going to hold my very own child in my arms in less than 9 months. I couldn't believe that a miracle like this could happen so soon. I was going to be a father! A father!
"You alright there?"
"I'm going to be a father!"
"Yes. Yes you are and I'm going to be a mother. I'm too young to be a mother." She said somewhat sadly. I knew she was thinking about the future and what a child could do but no matter what happened I would make sure that this baby wouldn't hold Hermione back from doing what she really wanted to do.
"We're going to be a family." Her eyes softened as she wrapped her arms around my neck. She kissed me softly and bear hugged me whispering into my ear;
"We're going to be a family."
The very thought of waking up in the morning to Hermione and a miniature version of us made my heart melt. How could anyone love something this much when it wasn't even born. It was crazy.
XXXX
About a month later both Ginny and Luna had their babies. Ginny had a boy who was named James Sirius Potter. His hair was already a scruffy blackish brown mane just like Potter's. And Luna and Blaise had a little girl with bronzed skin and the whitest blonde hair I had ever seen. They named her Fern after Luna's favourite tree/plant.
The babies both cried a lot and what often happened was one would start crying and the other would follow suit. I was glad that I could hand them back to their parents whenever that happened. Their shrieks were deafening- I would need to learn spells to create noise defending ear-plugs.
"It's the nappies mate. They are lethal. How can anything that cute produce anything that..." Blaise gagged. I was not looking forward to changing the nappies at all. But he seemed happy. Next to Luna who was holding the baby, he looked serene. He looked happy and I'd never seen him that happy before and I'd known him an awfully long time. No other girl had ever made him that happy either. I was glad that we all found our perfect matches. It was like our fate being realised for us. I had always been optimistic but many had complained but actually this whole law thing was a real blessing in disguise.
We had found The Ones without the search, without the endless rejections and the dramatic break ups. We had found The Ones, well they had been found for us, but it just means that we won't waste any time with people we won't end up with. We literally have our whole lives ahead of us.
Hermione's point of view
Months passed surprisingly fast and every day I noticed the bump get bigger and bigger. It was scary but also exhilarating. I was growing a whole human being inside of me! Draco would take every opportunity he had to rest his head on my lap and talk to the baby. He would talk about his day but mostly he would talk about the future that we three would have together. He wove stories of days in the sun, on a beach playing on the sand. Days where we went out for picnics and stuffed our faces full of unhealthy goodies. He even talked about the baby's first words, first sport- Quidditch of course- how he, or she, would need a broomstick. First everything. I wanted the future that Draco spoke of so badly that my chest hurt with the pain.
And then I was approaching the nine months mark. My ankles had swollen up to an impossible size and every thing I did felt like an effort. The baby kicked a lot less so I was extremely grateful for that relief. After the baby was born I had to sit my exams only a month later. It was crazy juggling going to the toilet and school work but somehow Draco was always there making it easier for me. We both managed to make it work and I kind of liked being waited on hand and foot, it made me feel like a Princess.
"He's so big now, I just want to give birth already!"
"I know it won't be too long now, you just have to be patient."
"Patient! You try and be patient with a whole fricking human being inside of you!" I also struggled to control the influx of uncontrollable hormones. I did get very moody but Draco never lost his temper. He was so perfect!
"Come here." He lifted my back and put another pillow on top of the massive pile of pillows that I was already leaning on.
"That's better." He snuggled into my side, cradling the bump as if it were the most expensive china. It was to us, it was more fragile and more important than anything we had ever known.
"Shit I think you peed yourself!" Draco suddenly exclaimed.
"I didn't pee myself." I said angrily and then I felt the wetness between my legs, "I think my waters just broke."
Without a second of delay Draco had hoisted me into his arms and ran through the apartment. Luckily for him I had the initiative to place a wheelchair next to the door just in case so Draco didn't have to carry my heavier body all the way to the Hospital wing.
Let me just tell you know child birth was excruciating but it was the most wonderful gift in the world. It was a bloody miracle.
The last push seemed to take everything out of me, I was so exhausted. Madam Pomfrey then took my baby away and I had the growing sense that something wasn't right.
"Why's he not crying?" I asked desperately, "they're meant to cry aren't they? Draco where's my baby." I could feel myself getting hysterical but she had taken my baby. MY BABY!
"Give me back my BABY!" I screamed. Draco had gone too to look behind the curtains and when he returned he was an ashen grey.
"Hermione calm down." He tried to stop me getting out of bed and he succeeded- I had no energy left to get up, only to shout.
"Wha...where's my baby?!" I demanded in confusion, I couldn't understand his solemn face.
"Hermi…"
"Give me my BABY!" I couldn't hear it, I wouldn't let him say it. No.
"She's... dead." My world tumbled down. The future crumbled and all that was left was black. She. My baby girl was...dead. My baby. My baby. My baby.
"No, give me my baby."
"I'm sorry Hermione." Tears fell down Draco's face but I couldn't give up. It was my baby, she was strong. She kicked so strongly.
But.
She stopped kicking.
"No. No. No. No. Please Draco no." I wailed. My poor baby, my beautiful baby. No. Just no, why? Why could this happen? She was fine at the last check-up.
"Would you like to see her?" Madam Pomfrey asked tears in her eyes, she hadn't carried my baby and yet she had shed more tears than me. Why couldn't I cry? I couldn't answer that, my baby girl. My baby girl.
Draco must have answered because Madam Pomfrey brought a bundle from around the screen and place her into my limp arms.
My breath sucked in painfully as I saw how beautiful she was. Her hair was white, as pure as snow. She definitely had the best of Draco's features.
"She has your nose." I looked closer and she did, she had my nose. My baby girl. MY baby girl. She had my nose.
Had.
"I'll leave you for a minute."
I just stared at her grey face, she hadn't been alive for a while. How could I have not gone to Madam Pomfrey when the kicking stopped? Stupid. I was stupid. Oh my baby girl, my baby girl is dead because of...
Because of me.
I clutched onto her body tighter hating the fact that she was devoid of any warmth. It was my fault. My baby girl. My baby girl.
Madam Pomfrey came back to soon and waited to take her.
"My little Jean I love you, my baby girl. My beautiful baby girl." When she was gone Draco crumbled into me but all I could do was stare at the wall and remember how her tiny cold grey fingers had looked so lifeless in my big pink warm hands.