Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy!

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It was a cold and rainy Thursday during Harriet Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts.

She found herself pleasantly hidden away that stormy morning, with her lover's arms wrapped around her while they huddled in a hidden corner of the northernmost tower and shared a tender kiss before classes began.

Draco's lips were amazingly soft and surprisingly tender, perhaps that was what had kept Harriet secretly addicted to him for the past two years.

That morning though, Draco couldn't help but notice the unhealthy pallor that had crept across his darling's skin overnight.

As he pulled away from Harriet with his grey eyes half-lidded, he asked her quietly, "...Nightmares again, love?"

Draco was careful to keep his voice little more than a whisper, although the lovers had cast several charms in an attempt to protect themselves against any wandering spies who might be lurking about.

"...What?" Harriet asked.

She had woken up that day to the harsh cramping that signaled the imminent arrival of her menstrual cycle.

Between the low, rippling pain, the pounding deluge of rain against the stone wall, and Draco's intoxicating kiss, it was difficult for Harriet to focus.

"Did you have nightmares again last night?" Draco asked directly as he narrowed his eyes at his beloved, "You look very pale today. Are you ill?"

"No." Harriet said as she shook her head, "I'm fine….it's um, it's that time."

"Oh……" Draco said with a grimace as he squinted in understanding, "Sorry."

"There's no need to be sorry, Malfoy." Harriet sighed as she let her arms drape over Draco's neck while she pressed her face into his chest.

"If we didn't have to sneak around like criminals, I could make you much more comfortable, Potter." Draco replied as he let the fingers of one hand trace soothingly over Harriet's back.

"One day……" Harriet said as she clutched onto Draco while another frustrating pain began.

"One day." Draco confidently replied before he bent down to kiss the top of Harriet's head.

How much he would have loved to have walked her to class, to have held her hand, to have sat with her and her friends, as much as he loathed them, and watch the color come back into her cheeks, but that wasn't possible.

A few moments later, Harriet went her separate way, creeping out of their corner first, with Draco following a short while afterwards, heading in the opposite direction.

He scowled as he watched Harriet walk away with a hand pressed to her lower belly.

What they had spoken of, what they fantasized about, it was true and it was the only thing that gave Draco strength.

One day, the war would be over.

One day, he and Harriet could walk together.

One day, Draco Malfoy could take care of his darling Potter.

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Like most young women her age, Harriet was well accustomed to the aches that accompanied her monthly cycle.

However, the unusual intensity of pain she was forced to endure that morning quickly became frightening to her.

Harriet stumbled out of transfigurations class early to crawl into the bathroom and sit on the toilet.

She was holding onto both of her thighs by then as the agony built to a nearly unbearable level.

Harriet soldiered through it, panting and sweating while blood pooled in the water beneath her.

She sighed when she looked down and saw the telltale crimson drops.

That was good.

The pain would leave soon, now that her body had started properly performing its task.

The pain always left soon after the blood came…..but Harriet was horrified when her torment failed to lessen.

She didn't know how long she was there, in that deserted lavatory on the far corner of the east hall of Hogwarts.

To her, it felt like she was sitting in that lonely stall for an eternity.

Harriet gasped for breath and fought against her body's urges to stay where she was while she managed to line her panties with toilet paper, clean herself up, and stagger out of the bathroom in search of help.

Help!

She needed to find help!

The hospital wing…….that was where she should go…….

As Harriet emerged from the lavatory, dizzy and nauseous, she raised a trembling, white hand to the wall and let her damp fingers slide across the stone that she grasped onto for support.

Harriet Potter's absence from the rest of the morning's classes had been the hot topic at lunch in the Great Hall that day.

While Draco had to sit at the Slytherin table and pretend to sneer and scoff in delight, on the inside, he was as worried as the head of his Hogwarts house, who sat staring at Harriet's empty seat next to her friends.

Students were chaperoned nearly all the time in the castle.

It wasn't often that someone vanished from class in the middle of the school day and never returned.

Not more than a minute or so after everyone had begun eating, Draco excused himself from the Great Hall under the pretense that he too needed to visit the lavatory.

That wasn't entirely a lie, but Draco's trip had nothing to do with his own needs.

As soon as he was out of sight from the doorway of the Great Hall, he dashed down the stone corridor and mumbled under his breath while he gripped his wand tightly in his hand.

Draco and Harriet shared a stronger bond than many young lovers their age.

Their passion was true and deep, as reliable and as unyielding as the ancient sea or the height of the old mountains.

It was their bond that Draco used as a trail to find Harriet as she stumbled along and clutched onto the wall in that same hallway.

By then, she hadn't made it far from the girls' room, unable to move quickly, paralyzed by the pain that burned in her abdomen like a smoldering fire.

"Potter!" Draco hissed as he pocketed his wand and ran towards her.

Harriet reached for him before she stopped herself, but then she whimpered in protest as he placed his arm around her shoulder to hold her up.

"No….." Harriet gasped, "N-No…...Draco…...No one can see….."

"Don't worry about that." Draco spat, "I'm here, I've got you…...I can lie and say a teacher asked me to take you to-"

"MISS….POTTER……." The words were spoken slowly in a low, accusatory hiss.

Draco knew that voice instantly but Harriet just groaned as her back and abdomen started to ache again.

Professor Snape didn't see what was going on at first.

Professor Snape didn't see the way Harriet was bent double, the sweat that dripped from her face, or the way that her eyes were closed shut so very tightly as if she were clinging to sanity in a battle against the pain.

It was Draco's cry that alerted him to the fact that something was very, very wrong.

"Help us!" Draco shouted as he looked behind himself and Harriet at Severus Snape.

When Professor Snape heard the urgency in Draco's voice and saw the wild look of total terror in his godson's grey eyes, he glided over to the two students and studied the pair more shrewdly.

"What have you done to her, Draco?" Severus asked suspiciously as he furrowed his brow at Harriet.

Severus watched in concern as she clutched the wall with one hand and Draco with the other, panting harshly while she sucked her breath in and out.

Professor Snape's look of vexation quickly melted into one of deep worry as the severity of the situation began to press down upon him.

"I-I haven't don't anything to her!" Draco insisted, "I...I just found her like this! Please!"

Professor Snape noticed that Draco's usually cold, haughty voice was uncharacteristically soft as the frightened Slytherin pleaded with him again, "HELP US!"

Draco gasped as Harriet sobbed and hunched over towards the floor.

Professor Snape tried to keep his composure while he stated calmly, "Come along, Draco, it appears Miss Potter needs to be taken to the hospital wi-"

The screeching cry that tore from Harriet's throat shook Draco to his core but it shattered Severus's heart as grim realization bloomed in his mind.

He had heard a cry like that once before, a little over sixteen years ago……..

Severus felt anxiety grip his chest as he saw the loving concern in Draco's eyes and that, combined with the gentleness that Draco used to hold Harriet up offered Professor Snape enough clues to see what they had so very valiantly tried to hide.

Their relationship was of little consequence at the moment.

Professor Snape gathered his thoughts and called out, "Quickly, Draco! Bring Potter inside."

Draco was so focused on Harriet that he didn't notice the Room of Requirement had appeared until he looked up to see his strict potions professor swooping like a bat through its doorway.

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Draco's mind was little more than a slushy mix of incredulous fear and absolute horror as Severus took off his black cloak and chivalrously helped Harriet to lie down on top of it.

At Severus's command, Draco settled himself behind her and let her rest against him with her back to his chest.

Draco's mouth fell open as he watched his godfather move between his lover's legs, sanitize his hands with a hasty spell, vanish her undergarments, and scowl down at her center.

"Do what you need to do, Potter." Severus ordered in his low, velvety voice.

Draco blinked as Harriet clutched onto his hands.

Was that…...encouragement that he heard there, in Professor Snape's deep voice?

Draco didn't know that Severus knew what encouragement was as Harriet tucked her chin to her chest, grunted, and bore down until her body shook violently from the force of its strenuous exertion.

"Relax…..take a breath." Severus urged as Harriet slumped back against Draco.

"What's the matter?!" Draco asked Severus. He was begging for an answer as he pressed, "What's wrong with her?!"

Severus's black eyes snapped up to Draco's face for a brief second as he retorted, "I think you should know very well what's wrong with her…...If I were your father, I'd have your head for such recklessness in the middle of our situation as it is now, however, should yours find out about this moment, he very well might."

Draco scowled and asked incredulously, "What are you talking abou-"

Harriet cut him off.

"NNNNGGGGHHHH!"

She instinctively widened her knees and groaned like an animal caught in a trap as she did something she'd never done before…..relied on Professor Snape to see her through.

"Bear down…" Severus commanded in his deep purr of a voice as he moved forward, "That's it, Potter, bear down!"

Draco grappled to hold onto his consciousness as he looked in disbelief from Harriet's flat stomach to the screaming baby that his potions professor pulled out from between her legs and laid on her chest.

The baby boy was healthy and pink, with tufts of platinum hair, and undeniably Malfoy-grey eyes.

Severus looked at Draco and sighed as if he were very irritated by some childish shenanigan he had just caught him in, but Harriet's eyes glittered with happy tears of total disbelief.

As love for her newborn son overflowed her heart, a surge of gratitude rose in the new mother.

She looked up at Professor Snape with watery eyes as she finally spoke the words that she should have years earlier, "...T-Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me, Potter." Severus quipped as Draco tried to process what had happened.

Severus's eyes darted from Harriet to Draco as he added, "I promised to protect the both of you long ago." His stare moved to the baby as he frowned, "...Now it seems that you two have extended my work."

Draco remained quiet as he kissed Harriet's sweaty forehead and then moved hesitantly towards the baby.

The baby.

That was…..his baby.

That was…...his son…….their son.

Draco wanted to kiss Harriet to take away her pain.

He wanted to suck the fear from her soul, but the baby……..Draco wanted to kiss the top of his son's head to make sure that the infant was real.

It sent chills down Draco's spine when his lips were met by the tender little skull of the life that he and Harriet had unknowingly created.

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Severus and Draco discreetly evacuated Harriet and the newborn to a healer who worked with the Order of the Phoenix.

While they waited on a bench outside of the room in which Harriet and the baby were being tended, Draco frowned at Severus and remarked quietly, "I didn't know that potions skills qualified you to deal with childbirth…….."

Severus scowled over at Draco questioningly.

"How did you know?" Draco pressed, "How did you know what to do? How did you know what was happening? I had no idea….I don't think she did either."

Severus bristled and turned away.

He was silent for a long moment before he spoke.

"...I've assisted with a birth before." Severus revealed in a tone that was barely above a whisper.

The gut-wrenching emotion in Severus's otherwise smooth voice caused a theory to ignite in Draco's mind and he asked quickly, "...Your….your own child?"

"That's not what I said, Draco." Severus snapped.

Severus abruptly stood and walked down the hallway, eager to leave.

To his dismay, his godson had already surmised the secret that he had kept well-hidden for nearly seventeen perilous years.

"...Is she your daughter?!" Draco asked after he leapt from his seat and chased Severus.

Severus met Draco's gaze with a mournful frown as he said with bitter remorse, "...No one can ever know."

Draco was going to ask his godfather another question, to pry deeper into the issue, but Severus was gone before he got the chance.

He slyly slipped away from the interrogation in the instant that Harriet's door opened and the Order's healer called out to Draco, "You can see her now!"

Draco turned around and straightened his tie before he walked into the room and saw Harriet lying on the bed holding their little boy.

Slowly, Draco approached them both.

"He's beautiful." Harriet whispered softly as she gazed down at their sleeping baby.

Draco sat on her bedside and stared down at their small baby.

"He's ours." Draco purred quietly.

"I didn't know….." Harriet confessed in a hushed whisper as she looked up to meet Draco's gaze. Her voice was distraught as she repeated, "Draco, you have to believe me, I didn't know!"

"Of course you didn't know." Draco replied with a scowl, "I didn't know either. How could I? You didn't act any differently."

"I didn't feel any differently." Harriet replied with a laugh, then her green eyes widened as she wondered, "...How are we going to keep him safe?"

"We'll manage." Draco replied as he snaked his arm around Harriet's shoulder and pulled her towards him, "We'll manage."

As Harriet sighed and pondered how she, her baby, and her lover would survive the battle that was to come, Draco for once didn't feel afraid.

He didn't have the ability to be a coward anymore, to back down, to stay quiet…...

"Draco" meant dragon and finally, it was a name that suited Lucius's son.

Draco Malfoy was no longer a sniveling schoolboy, he was a lover and a father.

The Malfoy dragon had treasures to protect.