You owe the best part of this chapter to DriftWood. His testimony and suggestions lead to Harry and Hermione having this very serious yet touching discussion. I was already thinking something like this was necessary (for the beginning of chapter nine, in fact), but was unsure about it because of the most sensitive topics, which are entirely my idea (but I don't see how they would be avoided in a discussion like this, and once treated, if the character's position was different, the progression of this fic would change entirely). So warnings for chapters 2 and 8 stand. (I'm not a part of any organization hereby mentioned, so excuse the mistakes).

The same applies to the following chapter, which will be published on Sunday. They were one, but I had to divide it because it was a monster of 8000 words and no matter how much we all like long chapters, I didn't want to bore you into submission.

The contract

"It can be worn however you want" the necklace on his open hand changed to bangle, to wristband; but between a shape and the other, it always became a ring, and the third time Hermione saw the coat of arms delicately traced on one side.

"I'd be slightly less scared for you" Harry was saying, "if I knew you'd be wearing this. There are ways to prevent it from warning me, but not many…"

"Is that the Potter seal?"

Harry's heart skipped a beat, then galloped, as she took the wristband from his hand. There was a moment of pondering before he silently ordered it to change, so she could see. The jewel glowed softly from inside as it returned to its original form, lightening both of their faces.

The boy still was beyond scared. It felt like cramps, really. Every two seconds or so, he wanted to tell her this didn't have any meaning, but it did have one, if she wanted it to. It had whatever meaning she wanted to give it. He'd get on one knee if it'd help, but he didn't want to lose more points by being too clichéd. She was smart enough. He didn't have to spell it to her.

"This is your mom's wedding ring, right?"

He swallowed, then nodded, incapable of speech, yet he refused to shrink upon himself. He still couldn't see her for she was half shadowed by hair and gazing down to the ring glowing beautifully among fingers for which it seemed –it was- crafted for.

"Harry" she whispered vehemently, "how am I supposed to accept this? This is an heirloom; you can't just give it away. Am I supposed to borrow it until Mrs. Potter come along?"

"It's yours" he managed to breath.

She looked at him then, and he saw her eyes were swimming in tears, though her voice betrayed nothing. So encouraged, he found in himself the nerve to go on.

"There won't be other Mrs. to me, and there's no other Potter in my lineage… until yours come along. So… yours"

She opened her mouth, but there seemed to be no words. Her gaze took him in –so boyish and natural, torso supported on a hand as the opposite elbow rested on his risen knee- and she felt, stronger than ever, that pull that his willingness made no less irresistible for turning it into elation. She had thought of a way to show how moved she was for the house, but this…

He was the last of his name, yet he was telling her he wouldn't marry any other –he wouldn't pass on his family history- because of her? Even if he lied on that, by giving this ring to her the heirloom and the family seal would be out of his family forever. As guardian of his family's history, he barely had a right to do that.

Though there was, of course, the probability that he'd die before any of that became a problem.

"Oh, Harry…!" she said, tears finally falling from her eyes.

"Don't think too much of it" he smiled sheepishly, perhaps finally aware of the enormity he had implied –probably conscious of how intimidating it would be for her. "I just want you to be safe. Will you wear it?"

That was not a yes/no question. She could wear it, but eventually she'd have to resolve exactly in what capacity she'd do so. Even if he didn't want her to, even if he didn't push her at all, it was something that simply had to be decided.

"You make it sound so easy" She meant marriage, and judging by his sudden seriousness, he got it. "How long has it been since we first… agreed upon this? Do you have to own to it that fully? Aren't you confused? At all?"

He looked straight at her for a second, as if pondering what he was about to say. The intensity of his gaze made her shiver.

"Let me be absolutely clear on this, Hermione. If just once. I have thought hard about this –as hard as someone like me can, anyway-, and I have taken my decision. Life is not something I'll get to live once the war finishes; by then, it may have in fact ended, or it might not. In any of those cases, I'll want you in it. As my partner. And if I'm not insisting harder, it's solely because I want you to decide as freely as I have. Which is not much, given the circumstances. But still…"

She had taken his hand, taken it to her face, where tears fell on it as she kissed it tenderly. He really didn't know what to do. He opened his hand to cup her cheek and she leaned into it before opening her eyes to see his. At the sight, something in him woke up and growled. But he still had to hear that "yes" from her own –so very lovely- lips, and judging by the trembling of her lips, she'd still resist.

"There's much more to discuss, Harry"

"No day like today, right?" he proposed without pause.

She seemed half-scared.

"You first" she said at last.

"What am I to discuss?"

"What do you expect from me? As… you know… partner in life"

He hardly had to think.

"You cannot push me towards someone else. Not Parvati, not anyone else. I'm exclusive"

She felt that stone in her throat again, and wordlessly turned to the hand she still kept close to her cheek.

"What if I'm unable to conceive? What then?"

"Adoption?"

She seemed about to swat him on the side of the head with the book.

"You do know your cut of His soul won't vanish with it"

"Fertility treatment, then?"

This time she actually reached for the book.

"You are being daft on purpose, right? It's not that sure in the best of circumstances, it's not that quick, and a new girl would do far better"

His eyes turned dead serious again.

"Then we'll just have to try harder"

This wasn't the first time he had used those words. And he meant them, too. She tried to breathe past the swell of emotion, and couldn't. But she was to be rational, because his life was on the line. So she shut down emotionally and appealed to reason. Parchment and quill were invoked, to his immense amusement. He transferred his gaze from them to the ring that had been carefully deposited beside the parchment, and to her frown. Full Hermione mode. He straightened his back and prepared for war.

"I am willing to write down an agreement" she proposed, "but it won't happen without a life-saving clause"

"A clause?"

"I won't push you towards anyone else" she elaborated, "but if it comes to be a choice between ways to eliminate the horcrux, and I can't help, I won't have to push"

"You want me to be with someone else"

"No" she breathed as she swiftly brushed away the tears that just kept falling, "but I don't want you to die"

He realized she was trembling, whole-body shivers traversing her. This made her suffer, and cry, and his heart ached for her.

"If the fertility problem is in you" he stated, "and given proof of it, then I'll… I'll surrender to that… life-saving clause"

He was not protesting further; the clause thing would quite probably be useless anyway. So he saw her dip the quill into an ink pot and start writing, the frown still very much present, but shivers fading already. He whispered a lumus to help her write, she whispered a thank you and for a second they stared at each other over the parchment and under the golden light and smiled.

"Next point: professions" she stated, all business. "Do you know what will you be working on?"

"Only thing that has ever motivated me has been being an auror"

There was a heartbeat, even the quill stayed suspended upon the parchment.

"An auror is always at risk" she stated slowly.

"I know"

"I do not want you to be at risk any more than you already are"

A pause.

"I'd love to humor you in this, Hermione, but… Is it nonnegotiable?"

She was tempted to say yes, yet was she to deny him the only career he had ever wanted to pursue?

"I won't throttle you so" she sighed. "Can't promise I won't try to convince you, though"

"Will you stop loving me when I look like Mad-Eye?"

He made a startlingly fair imitation of the auror, and she gasped, then laughed, making him smile, though it had been a perfectly legitimate question. Ginny's teachings today were most fitting.

"No, I won't" she answered firmly. "Though I hope you'll take pity on me and the kids, and be more like the rest of the aurors. Who are not so patched up. The big blue eye would scare little Lily. You won't like that"

There was a silence. He was looking at her, simply looking, the corners of his lips twisted in the shadow of a smile. It took her too long to notice that his eyes were no longer dry through the glasses. She was dangerously close to losing all perspective, so she lashed out:

"I won't let you pick up all the names"

"If you keep picking up those ones, I couldn't be happier with your choices"

Touché.

"I mean it. And their last names won't be all Potter. I have a perfectly good last name too"

"I have nothing against you keeping it and passing it on"

"But you'll need a Potter heir"

He shrugged, thinking it over.

"I guess. But knowing you, you'll be fair"

Sometimes his faith was a miracle in itself. Focus, Hermione. She shook her head, trying to keep her defenses raised.

"What will you be working on?" he asked, pure curiosity.

"Dunno. Research, probably?" she answered distractedly. "We haven't even gotten to the important point: house chores" he laughed as she continued, looking at the bookcases adoringly: "I have too many books to lose time with those."

"I'll take half"

She looked at him warily. It had been too easy, indeed.

"I will" he promised.

"You barely do your homework, and that's when I pinch you"

"Hey! Let me tell you, fair lady, that I still do everything at my aunt's"

"And you shouldn't" she answered fiercely. "Children must have time for themselves, to play and to… Oh…"

He had grabbed her hand and pulled, making her lie on him, her head on his chest.

"But that's beside the point" she said at least, felt him nod. Their children were not to be exploited like that. "Though I hope our children take some chores."

"That'd teach them responsibility" he agreed.

"And even knowing wizards tend to do the homeschooling thing, I'd rather send them to school."

"Be with their peers" he agreed again.

"I also want to pursue my own career; you know"

"I'm backing you up"

"You're only saying 'yes' to everything I say" she stated.

She struggled –mainly against herself- to meet his gaze, despite her own reluctance to confirm it, and in doing so she discovered that, against all expectations…

"I'm not"

He meant it.

The world was his eyes, and his scent, and the soft rasping of the quill as it moved by its own beside them, taking notes. Then the world was the contact of his lips against her own –light, soft, undemanding- that menaced robbing her of reason. She resisted, though she might have wanted not to.

"Back to you, young man; you say you'll take half the chores"

"I promise"

"Even if you're coming late from a night shift?"

That made him think.

"Can I change them for that day? I can take double the following day"

"You bet" she bickered, raising her head so she could look into his eyes. "And regarding living arrangements… my parents will want to be involved with the children…"

Harry's stomach flipped.

"I won't live with them… your parents, I mean"

"Don't be silly, Harry. Of course I don't mean that"

"Thank Merlin" he sighed. "I haven't properly meet them" the perspective gave him the chills, "and I might do so with you showing already… I just hope…"

"Actually" she mentioned, "Easter Holidays begin next week…"

This time, it was a triple somersault. His stomach was truly practicing for a circus.

"Now, we don't want you missing two weeks of following Slughorn around, but if you went for a brief visit, we would get that out of the way. If just Apparition test wasn't a month away…"

He was still frozen as he tried to remember the few times he had met the Grangers. The nice couple he had crossed might become –was entitled to become- a pair of true ogres, given the circumstances. Now that Hermione had mentioned a little Lily, he himself couldn't blame anyone for casting at least an unforgivable at any bloke doing to her what he was doing to Hermione. This was to give him nightmares until it was done and over with.

"Can I just fight the basilisk again? Or the dragon. I think I did real well with that one. Didn't get poisoned or anything" no reptile was as scary right now as Hermione's dad was.

"I hope you don't have to take on all three tasks"

He sighed and gathered his Gryffindor courage, and muttered:

"You should write to them… before I chicken out"

She placed a soft kiss on his chest, understanding. She could feel his chest go up and down in a deep sigh, and closed her eyes, utterly happy, and then she remembered the conversation wasn't over.

She was nervous. He could feel it as he let her sit down beside him and watched as she slid her fingers into her vest pocket, drew two badges and extended them to him. He raised them to the light, sitting in the process. One of them was her S.P.E.W one, he couldn't believe she still had it on her at all times. The other one looked more professional, with a pair of small feet surrounded by rings like an atom, all of which was crowned by the words 'Pro-life Atheist' (1).

"Funny you should mention fertility issues" she said.

He raised his gaze to her, lifting an eyebrow and trying not to smile at the spot of ink on her nose on her otherwise immaculate and extremely serious face. So they had to join a new society. Big deal. He'd not only be secretary of this one but even act as such if having her depended upon it. Hell, even if it'd only make her happy.

"You don't know what it stands for, right?" she said impatiently.

He just shook his head, trying to look ashamed and wondering if he should tell her he'd join firsthand.

"It means I believe no person owns another human being". He was wondering if it wasn't obvious before when she added: "Not even when the other human being is in her womb and depends upon her" Then he turned his eyes to the mention of abortion in the badge, and started to understand. "Lejeune, Nathanson, Gilbert, Moore, Rostand... and countless other scientists confirm that the life of the human being starts with fecundation. Even if there was a shred of doubt, acting against that being would not be a right, and there's more than doubt: there's certainty. Therefore, ever from conception, it's a duty to take care of the child and… Why are you smiling?"

"It's just… Merlin, I know you so well… I just knew. Snape actually offered… but I already knew you'd say no"

Her shoulders sagged, and until then she hadn't realized how scared she had been that he'd not take her side on this. Because it was important -nonnegotiable really- and because it would inevitably affect a marriage.

"And you're all right with it"

"I'm no woman" he said raising his hand.

"Not following you"

Judging by her suddenly fevered eyes, he'd better find a good excuse.

"That's what they say, right? No uterus, no opinion"

"That's just stupid, Harry. That's like forbidding me from having a say in how they treat domestic elves because I can't afford one anyway. As a father, you are expected to be fully present, before and after birth. You have a say"

"What I mean is: your body, your choice"

"But that's it, Harry. It's not my body. It's his or hers. It's his or her life being terminated. That's why it's not my choice. If it were my body, we'd be discussing suicide, and paradoxically you'd probably be worried sick and trying to dissuade me, and you'd be right because death is not the choice of a healthy, happy person, but of a person in need of heavy support"

The mention of suicide opened an avenue he did not want to take -it chilled him to the bone-, but it still took a moment for him to mentally go back to the previous subject.

"It's not as if it could feel it"

"In fact, distress during abortion has been proven in the young fetus. But even if it hadn't, causing the death of human beings while they are unable to feel -people suffering from congenital insensitivity to pain, patients in a coma, subjects under anaesthetics- still ends up with them dead" she shrugged. "Pain doesn't change substantially the fact"

"But maternity should be wanted, right? Not imposed"

Hermione sighed and rubbed her forehead as she answered:

"I fully agree, provided that you have picked up a dictionary and know that maternity starts with conception" she sounded irritated and somehow bored, "that's precisely why we're discussing these things now and not… You know what, Harry? They have fed you way too many spins. What I want is for you to sincerely, truly, tell me how you feel about this from the bottom of your heart. Because make no mistake, it will affect you"

He sighed, then stared into her eyes, thought for a moment and spoke his heart.

"It's actually a relief, to know what will happen with the children I sire. People doesn't really give me a say, but it's not as if I fancied the idea of them being hurt"

She nodded, relieved, though even now, she felt Damocles' sword over her head.

"It's not that easy, Harry" she explained further. "It might seem so now, but this means: no emergency exit for unwanted pregnancies. What if it's the tenth child? What if it suffers from a genetic disease? What if –Merlin forbid- it were a result of rape –therefore mine but not yours? What then?"

He was significantly paler by the end of her little speech. She had not sweetened it, at all. Partly because she wanted this out of the way, she couldn't stand any more suspense. Partly because no harsh description would match the reality of any of those possibilities if it ever happened. But she was truly thinking she had lost him now –how to expect a sixteen years old boy to react differently to such an exposition- when he reached for her nape and took her to his chest. Thrown off-balance, she couldn't but hold him. The quill fell to the floor and the ink was dangerously close to spilling.

"You are a part of me, Hermione" she heard and felt the words vibrate through his chest. "Your problems are mine. Your children are mine, even if by some twisted joke of fate their biological father was Voldemort himself" she shivered. "I cannot hold your rationality or your principles or your coherence against you when they are the very thing that make me love you"

And there it was. Hope, shining brightly through her and before her. Cheek to his nude chest, she felt his warmth radiate to her. She could smell him –summer and spearmint– and nosed him gently, wanting so much to just lie on him and let go of everything else. He sought her lips and she met his in a kiss that was comfortable and warm and lazy and sensuous and full of promises.

This truly felt like hearth.

"But I… see what you mean"

As a girl being stirred from sleep, she held on, until rationality caught up and she sighed, hating her inner prosecutor that suggested to just get this over with. It was only upon seeing his expression that she paid attention to the tone in which he had spoken. He was still very much troubled. She paused, feeling her stomach drop. They'd better address it now. She'd better give him time to speak. And so he did, though many seconds later.

"A sick child…" he sighed quietly, as the mere idea broke his heart. "I don't want to see him suffer, you know?"

"Neither do I"

"Then why, Hermione? Why bring someone like that into the world?"

She looked from one of his eyes to the other, then closed her eyes and sighed.

"Harry, you know we aren't brought by storks nor we come from another dimension at the moment of birth. Prenatal diagnostic is not a crystal ball. It's performed on a fetus that is alive and very much in this world. It's too late to decide if we want to bring him into it."

He was listening, though she could see it hadn't fully sunk in.

"Birth doesn't imply any anatomical change. Not one. So what's the big difference between a seven months old fetus and a premature newborn? Imagine our son is born seven months from now, sick and weak. Wouldn't you care for him? Wouldn't you defend him? Yet, he'd be in fact younger and less developed than an eight months old fetus, as the ones terminated in late-term abortions because of genetic diseases that, by the way, cause much less suffering to the sick one than to the society that isn't willing to help them…"

Suddenly he pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, rending her speechless.

"Harry…?" she was slightly scared, and her gaze darted to his forehead. "It's not your scar, right?"

"He'll be born in the middle of a freaking war" he thought aloud. "You could very well go into labor earlier merely because of stress. You could give birth in a dungeon. They could take him. They could… They could hurt him, Hermione. They could hurt him so bad…"

She blinked, then very slowly she kneeled closer and pressed his head against her chest as she tried to chase from her mind images of a baby with his skin burned black, with fingers missing, a baby in pain, helpless, his cries almost lost among the laugh of people too cruel to care. Now both of their minds were overflowing with those. And as much as she knew these things were best treated openly now, she hated it.

"No life is perfect" she sighed. "You were brought into the world in the middle of a war, too. And your life hasn't been ideal but…"

"I'd save him" he whispered against her skin, making her bend over his head, caress his hair. "If he was taken, there'd be no doubt in my mind, no risk not worth taking… Even if he was… even if… Even if there were sequels… I'd fight for him"

She blinked off the tears and kissed the top of his head, knowing that in such a case she'd have to be the voice of reason, so he wouldn't put the entire Order at risk to save the kid, and fully knowing she wouldn't be able to. In a way, no moment had been more intimate than this one between them.

"It'd be better if we didn't… if he never was…"

"Then you'd die" she reminded him. "We have been through this"

He nodded against her chest.

"The cost of my life… it has been too much. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better if I didn't exist"

"Harry…" she frowned.

"No, I don't mean… I wouldn't… kill myself or anything. Especially now. As bad as my life has been, air's too sweet. Yet if I had never existed, my parents would be…"

"Maybe not. Maybe they would have been killed, along with so many others"

Harry was shaking his head then.

"Neville would have stopped Voldemort"

"Then he'd be carrying your burden, and everyone's sacrifice would be not for you but for him. But the sacrifice would be just the same, anyway. Even if it was V-Voldemort who had never existed, there'd have been another tyrant taking his place. Don't think of what would have been. Think of what is, and act in consequence"

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(1) Yes, the organization exists; no, no, I'm not a part of it (as I told you before), I've simply seen the logo as described above, that's why I don't know when it was founded, I've taken literary liberties by assuming it was functional back in the '90s; yes, these arguments are scientifically sound; no, that doesn't mean we're authorized to judge people based on decisions that by the way hurt them badly too.

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Preview:

At once his hand had moved to hold her nape, the kiss initially chaste, increasing in heat with each time they tasted each other. She could feel his restraint, his lips trembling slightly with the effort he was making to not simply devour her, and at the thought her inner muscles clenched. It was hot. His longing, his self-control. To witness it, to be touched by that inner war, turned her on as nothing would.

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So how did it go? Too much dialogue?

Being promised a chapter in less than a week doesn't excuse you from reviewing now ;)

My favorite part was, understandably, the last one. I truly like angst, so that idea of her giving birth under those conditions got me hooked. (I wouldn't want to be one of my characters XD) But I might not put them through that specific kind of hell.

Please let me know what you thought and what you expect in the reviews.