I wanted to post this chapter last week, but I was camping in West Virginia where there was absolutely no internet connection. Or plumbing, but that is a different story.

April 30th, 2003

"Harry, I'm pregnant."

The science was deafening as they sat in Harry's office. Daphne wanted to look anywhere but at Harry. But she couldn't. Her watery eyes were trained on Harry. A very still, Harry. She didn't know if it was shock or anger. Maybe, both.

This wasn't going the way she imagined in her head. She had a best-case and a worst-case scenario that she figured would happen.

The bis-case scenario was where Harry would leap from his seat, no questions asked, and with tears in his eyes, place his hand on her stomach, saying, "We're having a baby." A very naive way of thinking since they weren't even together or trying to have a baby.

The worst-case scenario was him screaming at her to get out of his office, neither speaking to each other again as she raised the baby by herself. Something Harry Potter would never do, but that didn't stop her anxiety ran mind from creating the image.

She certainly should have gone through more scenarios in her head.

Then something horrible happened as Daphne felt her stomach churn. Summoning the trash can, she let the contents of her breakfast, apply jelly on toast, the only thing she could keep down the past three weeks, came rushing out. Thinking she was done with morning sickness when finally discovering something the baby agreed with. Now she was thinking it was the stress of telling Harry.

Being the people saver that he is, Harry ran to hold back Daphne's hair, as she made herself friendly with his trash can. After she was done, he asked, "I'm the father?"

"You are. I haven't slept with anyone else before or after that night." Daphne said, giving what she hoped to be a comforting smile. "I'm about twelve weeks along."

Nodding his head in response, his emerald eyes chained on her. There was no emotion in the eyes, making Daphne feel the tension building in the office, "So when you found out, you decided to avoid me? Instead of telling me?"

"I'm telling you right now." Daphne rebutted, which in turn made the tension grow stronger. "It's not as if I walked into your office with a newborn saying, 'Here, Harry, hold your child.' I'm not a monster."

"Just an Ice Queen," Harry said, a slight glare coming from his eyes.

Once those words came out of his mouth, Daphne felt her eyes glaze over. No one had called her that nickname since Hogwarts. At least in a negative sense. Gathering her things, she walked to the office door, and before she left, she turned to face Harry, "You seemed to enjoy that I was the Ice Queen the night we slept together."

Daphne was in a rage when she made her way through the second floor of the Ministry. Anyone who was walking past her made sure to get out of her way. Mostly if they recognized her from Hogwarts. She never heard so many mumblings of the Ice Queen before, which made her anger grow stronger.

How could she forget the first rule as a Slytherin? Self-preservation was her staple. It was how the Ice Queen came to be. She shouldn't have gone to Harry's office without an actual plan. A plan that could have worked for both of them. Not just the worst and best-case scenarios.

Once she made it to the lifts, she heard someone yelling her name. Glancing over her shoulder, she found Harry briskly moving past his coworkers. Pressing the button once more, hoping the doors of the lift would open. But unfortunately for her, Harry beat the lift.

"Daphne, I'm sorry," Harry said once he caught up with the blonde. "I'm just surprised."

"And you think I'm not? Harry, I didn't expect any of this to happen! Why else do you think it to me a couple of weeks for me to tell you?" Daphne exclaimed as the doors to the lift opened.

Grabbing her hand to stop her from entering the lift, Harry apologized again, "I know, I'm sorry. I responded badly, but you can't just drop a bomb like that and not expect me to not react in a non-agreeable way."

"Why else do you think it took me a couple of weeks for me to tell you?" Daphne asked as she turned her attention towards him, "I had to process this without being able to see you. Which was horrible because not being around you also made it worse since I like being around you. Then Theo told me that you were going to start seeing someone else."

"Seeing someone else?" Harry's eyes locked with her own, making him not pay attention to the small crowd forming around them. "I'm not looking to see other people. Why would he tell you that?"

Daphne's eyebrows furrowed as she stupider Harry's confused face. He had no idea what she was talking about. There were no other women in the picture to steal Harry away from her. Something clicked when she realized that Hermione had already told Theo before her best friend walked into her office yesterday. "They set me up. Making me think you were going to start dating. That way, I would tell you sooner."

"They? Theo and Hermione?"

"Yes, they manipulated me into telling you. And that's why I went into your office without a plan."

Harry raised his eyebrow in wonder before realizing that there was a small body of people watching their exchange. One would think Aurors' would be discreet in the eavesdropping. But apparently, when freshly divorced Harry Potter was having a somewhat private conversation with someone of the opposite sex, being discreet was off the table.

"We need to talk about this privately. Let's head to my place before the press gets here."

Daphne looked around the sparse apartment as she stepped out of the fireplace. Harry had surprised her when he said his address. Possibly thinking that Hermione would be home since it was close to the end of the workday. She had yet to see his new apartment, with only being freshly moved into the apartment after his divorce was finalized. And her ignoring him.

He and Ginny lived in Grimmauld Place after doing a complete gut job on the old cursed house. Even though the house, given to Harry by his Godfather, Harry didn't want to keep it after the divorce. Not with there being more bad memories in the house than good.

After canceling all the charms and enchantments on the house, he sold it to an expecting muggle couple who could make new memories—hopefully, more good than bad.

Harry's apartment reminded her of his off, bland. Making Daphne immediately start decorating the space in her mind. Even though the apartment was a perfect bachelor pad, he was clearly clueless about decorating and making a house into a home. Something she had learned from a very young age. Her Grandmother always thought that if you could make anyone who steps foot into your house feel as if they were home, they would never leave.

"You need help with decorating," Daphne said, grimacing as she sat down on the horrible purple paisley uncomfortable sofa. Has he ever heard of a softening charm? Or any household charms in general? "Nothing in this room matches."

Letting out a snort, Harry took a seat on the maroon recliner, "I'm aware. I haven't really had the time to get new furniture, and I'm not the best at transfiguration spells."

Nodding her head, Daphne hoped the small talk about his decorating skills were only to hopefully ease into the difficult conversation they were about to have. "We are going to need to control the story. With you being you and all. There are probably already rumors going on from our scene in the lobby."

"I know, but unfortunately, the rumors will be there no matter what we do with the truth." Harry said, resting his elbows on his knees, "Trust me, I know from experience."

She agreed that it didn't matter if they did tell the press to control the story. There were enough so-called journalists that would twist their words to write the story they wanted to write. Daphne learned that from Hermione as the news of her and Ron's break up came to light.

Daphne figured she should already start preparing herself for being called a home-wrecker. No matter how many facts she would spill. Certain people will never believe that they only slept together once. And that was after the divorce papers were signed.

"I want to tell my family before the press finds out." She added, knowing full well if her parents wouldn't be pleased if they were to find out about their first grandchild in the Daily Prophet. They wouldn't believe it initially, thinking the rag was just looking for another story about Harry Potter to sell more papers. Something they learned as Hemione entered the picture.

Astoria would, of course, find it hilarious with all the careful planning Daphne liked to do, that her older sister accidentally got pregnant. Something that definitely wasn't part of the plan.

"Right, right. Makes sense." Harry mumbled, as Daphne watched the smile that was on his face, disappeared as a realization dawned on him, "I have to tell the Weasleys'."

Raising one of her perfectly manicured eyebrows, she questioned, "Why do you have to tell your ex-wife's family?"

"They are more than my ex-wife's family." Harry said softly, "The Weasleys took me in at eleven before they even knew me. They are my family. Molly and Arthur told me that even though Ginny and I are over, I'm still part of their family."

Nodding her head in understanding, Hermione told her the same thing. Even though the curly-haired witch distanced herself from the family, she still went to significant family events. Sometimes dragging Theo along with her. It seemed that Theo would have another Slytherin in the den of Gryffindors. "Okay, how about if you are there for me telling my family, I'll be there when you tell the Weasleys."

Standing from his seat, watching as Daphne did the same, Harry held out his hand, "Deal."

When Daphne's hand touched his, it almost seemed as there was a magnet pulling them closer together. Before either of them could stop the movements, their lips connected. The kiss wasn't anything like the kisses they shared that night. Rushed and hungry, making them move fast without thinking about the next step. No, this kiss was slow, filled with passion. Bother feeling the other's heartbeat relaxing to a slow and steady rhythm.

"Do we get married?" Harry asked against her lips.

Daphne's eyes widened at the proclamation Harry gave her. Pushing away, she exclaimed, "No, Merlin, no! We do not get married!"

Raising an eyebrow, Harry scoffed, "Wow, thanks for making marrying me seem like the worst idea in the world."

"Harry, that is not—I didn't mean." The witch became flustered as she thought about what was the right thing to say.

"What do you want to tell people when they ask what we are?" He asked, directing Daphne back to the couch. Clearly, Daphne didn't feel pleased with him sporting the idea of marriage.

"We can't get married. We are nowhere near that." Daphne pointed out, her body becoming stiff. The relationship talk was never her forte. Probably why she hadn't been in a serious relationship. "If anything, we are friends who had a drunken one night stand and ended up pregnant."

Harry wanted to laugh at the bluntness of Daphne's statement for being so right. But yet at the same time, he wanted to express how he felt about her without scaring her away. He had to play it safe, "That's what I want to find out. Do you want to be any more than just a friend who happens to have a baby together?"

One look into Harry's emerald green eyes, Daphne couldn't stop herself from getting lost in them. She had never felt this way towards a man before. At Hogwarts, the persona of Slytherin's Ice Queen came to protect herself from unwanted advances of the opposite sex. Most of the time, she didn't go on a date that she didn't engage in first. She could count on one hand how many dates she had been on. Clearly, her Ice Queen reputation followed her in the past five years.

Until now, when has a man who wants to be something with her? And from what she could see, not just because of the baby. Harry looked at her the way Theo would look at Hermione. A look anyone would want to be on the receiving end. A look that was deathly terrifying as well.

"We haven't even gone on a date."

"And yet, we already have a child together."

"That I literally just told you about." Reaching over, Daphne settled her hand on his knee, "Harry, we have time to figure all these things out. We do not need to rush into anything."

Setting his hand on her much smaller one, "Why are you so afraid?"

"I haven't been in a relationship for quite some time. You are freshly divorced from the woman you thought you would be spending the rest of your life with. Shouldn't you want to wait?"

"Is that question for you or for me?"

Slipping her hand out from under his, Daphne didn't know what to say. Of course, there was a part of her that wanted to jump in and be with Harry. But something was holding her back. Maybe she just didn't want to get hurt. Or worse, she didn't want Harry to get hurt, "I don't think I know you well enough to just jump in and be something with you."

"But yet, your feelings for me are terribly strong."

"Yes, and that scared the shit out of me."

Taking back her hand into his own, "It scared the shit out of me too. You're right; I shouldn't be jumping into a relationship with anyone right now. But my feelings for you are there, and they are not going away any time soon."

"None of this is right. We are doing all of this backwards."

"I would have asked you out on a date weeks ago if you weren't ignoring me."

Eyes widen in surprise, "Oh, so it's my fault?!"

"That's not what I meant. I just—Merlin!" Running his hand down his face in aggravation, "Will you just let me ask you out on a date so I can prove that we can try to make this work?!"

"Fine, I'll go on a date with you!"

"Thank you!" And their lips collided once more.