Disclaimers: Delusions don't count…JKR holds the copyrights and they are pending.
CROWNING THE PAWN
There are several moves in chess that one needs to learn early on. After you learn the direction in which each piece moves, how to set up the game, and how to call each move, you begin to learn strategy. Among the more useful things to know in chess are: how to do a kingside castle; to get a pawn across the board so that the opposition has to give you another queen; or possibly, how to set up a checkmate. Everyone knows that you have to stop one move short of actually taking your opponents king…
It was a game to Draco Malfoy to see how far he could push Harry Potter before Potter would do something extremely stupid. So far Draco had managed to get Harry to stop fighting with him, he managed to marry him, and now Potter was attempting to save everyone Draco had ever cared for from either receiving the kiss or being sent to Azkaban.
Draco reckoned that today was Potter's crowning glory as far as stupidity was concerned. Today Harry was to meet Voldemort…conveniently after Draco had just manipulated him into brokering a deal with the Order of the Phoenix, and by extension with the Ministry of Magic, on the behalf of the Malfoy family. Harry Potter had vouched for the Malfoys being on the side of 'The Light' under veritiserum.
…
Lucius smirked his superior smirk and listened as Harry swore that Draco and he were bonded and that Draco had been his contact in Voldemort's circle. Harry swore that Draco had not betrayed the Light and had not intentionally put himself in danger when Voldemort had captured and tortured him until Harry went to his rescue.
Lucius and Snape had helped Draco plan the mission down to the last detail. It had been Draco who mentioned the possibility to his father that he might be able to lead Potter into a Death Eater trap. The three of them had planned and schemed for several months while Draco enticed Harry into his bed and tricked him into believing that he was loved and had something to fight for.
Draco's plan succeeded spectacularly. Harry was under the assumption that Draco was expecting their first child, so the day he received the note from Voldemort saying that Draco had been taken captive and had provided immense pleasure for him and the inner circle of Death Eaters he did the only thing any self respecting husband could do. He apparated to where Voldemort was and killed him without ceremony...
It left a bit of a problem for the Malfoys and Snape since they were all betting on Harry losing and them backing the winner. They reckoned that they had all better get on with mangling Draco up so that Potter wouldn't know it had all been a scam.
Harry ruined that plan also. He walked into the room where Lucius, Draco, and Snape were all having a cup of tea and discussing the next step in the plan. He smiled gently at his husband and said, "I am so pleased that your father and Mr. Snape found you and got you sorted out already."
Draco, the ever-dutiful husband threw himself at Harry and made a large production of greeting his spouse. He even acquiesced to Harry's demand that they go to Madame Pomphrey and let her check him over so that Harry could rest assured that Draco was indeed fine.
Now here they were at the hearing in front of the Wizengamot to sort out any further details regarding the Malfoy family's official position during the war. Snape was home clear with the testimony of Dumbledore and Potter on his behalf. No one really seemed quite sure of what to make of Harry's testimony regarding the Malfoy Clan though. It was eventually decided that Lucius and Draco could walk free.
Harry waited until both men finished hugging and thumping each other as they congratulated the other on the success of them both making it through the war alive and intact. Just before everyone was getting ready to leave he stood and asked to be recognized before the court ended.
His voice rang out clear and cold as he stood by himself and walked to the witness chair. Instead of sitting he looked up at the court and said, "Professor Dumbledore, may I have a few words before we all leave here today?"
The old man turned to him with a smile on his wizened old face. "Of course you may, my boy."
Harry flinched at the words but did not comment on them. Instead, he turned to his husband, father-in-law and former potions professor. He bowed and let a small smile grace his lips. "Gentlemen, I salute you on a job well done. I would also on this happy occasion like to mention that the Malfoy clan is expecting the addition of its next heir within the next few months. This is especially good news since it is a curse of the Malfoy clan to only ever manage to produce one heir."
Draco turned a confused face to Harry. "What are you talking about, Harry? Madame Pomphrey said I was not pregnant when she checked me after you brought me home." A few crocodile tears slid down his pale cheeks and the crowd of visitors caught their breath and gasped at the implication.
Harry smiled at him, a haunting smile full of love and pain. "Just that, my dearest one. Your father and you were both cursed by Voldemort to only ever have one heir each. You are your father's heir and your child has been conceived."
Draco blinked. "Did you really believe Voldemort when he sent that note telling you that I was pregnant?"
Harry lowered his head. "Did he lie about the new Malfoy heir having been conceived?'
Draco smirked. "Probably. He lied about most things."
Harry raised his eyes again. "But, he was correct about the House of Malfoy ceasing to exist if the heir was conceived and failed to be born?"
Lucius glared at Harry. "What are your incessant questions for, Potter? You are married to Draco. You know the legend: House of Malfoy ends if the heir fails to be born."
"My esteemed father-in-law speaks. Before everyone as Merlin is my witness, he proclaims our marriage legal?"
"Yes, Potter. You were married by Dumbledore, in front of the whole of Hogwarts and half of England's magical community."
Harry nodded at Lucius then turned to Draco. "I ask you again, do you carry the heir to the Malfoy House in your body?"
Draco smirked. "Harry, I told you that I though there was a possibility I did. However, I must have been mistaken since Madame Pomphrey says we did not appear to have suffered any damage and I did not hemmhorage."
His only answer was a flash of green light. While everyone else was paying attention to Draco, hanging off his every word, Harry had pulled his wand and pointed it at himself while whispering, "AVEDA KEDAVARA."
The smile on Draco's face crumbled to a look of abject horror as his husband crumbled to the floor and moved no further. He finally grabbed his father's arm with a shaking hand. "Father?" He asked in a painfully childish voice.
Lucius Malfoy turned to look at Potter and hissed in fury as he realized exactly what the brat had done. He found himself dragging Draco down through the throng of people to where Harry lay. Kneeling beside the body, he opened the dead boys robes to reveal a small packet of letters in an inside pocket located just under some bandages from a previous curse wound to his chest.
His eyes narrowed as he watched Draco huddled beside Harry's shoulder, shaking him lightly with one hand as he patted his face with the other. The boy was doing a damn fine acting job for someone who purported not to care a great deal for his mate. Lucius was too skeptical of Draco's passion for drama to be too worried that he was showing real emotion.
He flipped through the letters and handed one to Snape, pocketed his and Draco's, then stood up and approached the court. "Mr. Potter has accomplished his suicide mission, Sir." He said to Dumbledore. Without further ado he turned and after having his childhood friend help him get Draco to stand, they all left the courtroom.
Draco was still shaking when they all arrived back at Malfoy Manor. "Father, is Harry really dead?" He was in shock, after surviving the war with his whole world still in one piece, his husband had just committed suicide… It appeared that Draco had understated his dependency on the Potter boy slightly.
Snape was the first to speak. "Let's read the infernal pest's letters. Maybe it will explain his latest dramatic attempt." He pulled out his letter and began to read:
Dear Professor Snape,
I have only the best of intentions as I exit stage left from this horrible script. I know of the adulterous affair that you and Draco have been indulging in while you plot the demise of the light and me. I had to defeat Voldemort just to spite your schemes…after all I am a Potter.
Regards,
Harry
"That did not tell us a great deal." Snape snarled.
Lucius took the letter from his coat pocket and opened it. After scanning it, he tossed it into the fire. There was a bitter smile on his face as he looked at his beautiful son. "We truly did lose everything we worked for. I was so sure that the noble Gryffindor would fall in line with our plans. Wizarding history even pointed to the fact that we would lose and I still gambled with my family."
Draco crumbled up his unopened letter and threw it into the fire also. He finally managed to stumble over to the couch and collapsed onto it. "I should have known that he would checkmate me. He always wins."
Snape looked at the boy curled up in a ball on the couch and still did not see what the issue was. "Why is Draco taking this so hard?" He asked Lucius.
The older blond just gave him a sad smile. "You are looking at the end of the House of Malfoy. Draco wasn't pregnant, Potter was."
Miracles of Medicine
Hermione and Ron watched the proceedings from the top row of the visitor's gallery. They refused to get any closer to the actual courtroom than that. Hermione knew that Harry was going to do some grand gesture and did not want to give anything away to anyone.
Ron clutched her hand and watched in horror as Harry drew his wand and committed suicide. Turning to his wife he mumbled, "Did you know he was going to do that?"
Hermione nodded a negative response. "We need to go home. I am not feeling at all well now."
Ron was more than a solicitous husband as he escorted her away from the pandemonium. They were soon back at their house in Godric's Hollow, a restored replica of the house Harry had been born in, where Harry insisted they live. It was a bit out of the way, but it was a great place to raise children.
As they sat at the table drinking tea, Hermione said, "Ron, there is something I need to tell you."
"Yes?"
"Harry knew that he was pregnant before he left to fight Voldemort. He was precisely sixteen days pregnant the day before he went to rescue Draco."
"How do you know that?" Ron was curious. You were almost exactly the same due date, weren't you?"
"We have exactly the same due date. This baby that I am carrying belongs to Harry."
Ron's face reflected total confusion. "How did you two manage that? Harry was gayer than a three galleon coin."
Hermione's face mirrored her humor. "You are the best husband in the whole world. You didn't even bat an eye when I told you I was carrying your best friend's child. Most men would be homicidal maniacs with a good chance for a temporary insanity plea right about now."
"Just tell me all the gory details. I know that you two did not shag, fuck, screw, or make love. It has to be some muggle thing that most of the wizarding world hasn't heard about yet."
"Do you know anything about in vetro fertilization?"
"I have the idea that I am about to learn."
"Well, it is a muggle procedure where the egg is fertilized by the sperm and then after it reaches a certain size it is transplanted into the host womb. It then embeds itself into the womb and proceeds just as a normal pregnancy."
Ron threw back his head and laughed maniacally. "Merlin's beard! Harry Potter and you together could have ruled the world. That really was the most diabolical plan you could have come up with. The Malfoy curse prohibits either of the other two from ever siring another child so long as a child already exists. Therefore, if neither of us ever speaks of who our child really is, no one will ever know who he is until he reaches his majority." He wiped tears from his eyes caused by his wicked mirth. "My little boy finally learned to play chess. I think that if all goes as the two of you have planned it is safe to say that Gryffindor checkmated Slytherin that time!"
Hermione shook her head in frustration at Ron's antics.
Ron, after a few seconds of consideration, spoke, "Hermione, I love Harry like a brother, and I will always miss him like part of our family is gone. But, the soul bond he had with Draco Malfoy was true. Draco's family altered the bond and rather than see him die, Harry chose to because he could not live with what their bond had been perverted into becoming."
Hermione, tears flowing down her face, nodded her understanding. "I know. It was a horrible game they played with him." Then rubbing her flat stomach she smiled through some sniffles and said, "And I am glad that he not only checkmated their mangy double-crossing arses, he captured their king!"