DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created
and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited
to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and
Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or
trademark infringement is intended.
AN: WOW, it's been awhile since I've updated this story, and I truly apologize! I got hit with a bad case of writers block, but my muse for this story finally came back. If you've stuck around and are reading this still, then I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'm only planning on having one more chapter after this one, and it will be sometime in the future. Right now I have a couple of scenarios in mind that I might use. One of which is when she is younger (around 5 maybe) and Lucius decides he wants to see his grandchild. The other would be when she is 11 and getting ready to go to Hogwarts. Please let me know which scenario you prefer, or if there is something else you would rather see. I PROMISE there will not be such a log wait between chapters this time!
Draco's eye opened slowly and he groaned at the bright rays of sunlight that met him. For a moment he was confused, wondering how he had managed to sleep long enough that the sun was that bright. Normally his daughter's kicking would wake him up early in the morning, often before the sun had even had a chance to rise. His hands ran down his body to stroke where his baby lay in him but were only met with a flat, baby less, stomach. Blind panic gripped at him when his mind suddenly raced back to . . .when had it been? A day ago? Two days ago? Merely hours before now? He had no idea how long it had been since his daughter's birth. All he knew was that he had gone into labor a month early and the last thing he remembered was hearing a fear-filled voice declaring that his daughter was not breathing.
Terrified grey eyes scanned their surroundings quickly. There should have been a bassinet next to his bed, he had told Molly Weasley well in advance that he wanted the baby to be in his room from the moment of birth. However, upon finishing an inventory of the room, Draco determined that no such bassinet was anywhere nearby. Where, then, was his baby?
Pain shot through his body as he struggled to sit up, but he ignored it. The only thing on his mind was getting out of this bed and finding his daughter. She was the one thing that he had left to live for and he had to make sure that she was alright.
Mrs. Weasley and Hermione must have place some kind of charms around him to alert them when he was awake. Before he had even managed to set both feet on the floor both women were rushing into the room and fluttering around him, trying to get him to lay back down. He tried to fight them off, but it was no use. Each of them had taken hold of one of his arms and were very effectively pinning him to the bed.
"Draco Potter-Malfoy, stop flailing about this instant!" Molly's usually soft tone was replaced with the biting tone she typically reserved for her children. "Are you trying to kill yourself? You nearly died from blood loss! I patched you up best I could, but you need to be still! Thrashing about like this will only aggravate your injuries!"
"Aunt Molly, let me up, NOW!" The young man snapped at her. He didn't give a damn about himself, all he wanted was his baby.
"Draco, please, you need to calm down," Hermione spoke to him in a soothing voice as she ran one of her tiny hands along his forehead. "You're not doing anybody any good getting worked up like this."
"Hermione, please . . .make her let me go! My baby, I have to find my baby." Draco pleaded with his late husband's best friend. "I need to find her. My baby . . ."
"Is fine, Draco," Hermione tried to reassure him. Unfortunately by this point in time, Draco had worked himself up into hysterics, and he didn't hear a word she was saying.
"She wasn't breathing. I heard you say it! She wasn't breathing when she was born. Where is she? Where's my baby? Oh God, Hermione, I can't lose her. My daughter . . .Harry's daughter . .. . ! He would kill me if I let something happen to her!"
"Draco, calm down, she's okay. I got her to start breathing. She's okay, she's alive." Mrs. Weasley repeated herself over and over in a comforting voice until the young man finally calmed himself and turned tear filled eyes at her.
"She's okay? My baby's okay?" He whispered, almost as if he were afraid that if he spoke the words out loud then it wouldn't be true.
"She's perfectly fine, sweetie. A bit on the tiny side, and a tad sick, but she's alive."
Draco relaxed at her words and allowed himself to slump back against the pillows. His baby girl, his miracle, was still alive. He hadn't lost yet another important part of his life, he wasn't sure if he would have been able to make it if he had.
"H-how big was she?" Draco asked fearfully. He had known that she would be smaller than a normal baby to begin with, and now she was premature. Surely that couldn't be good for her.
"She was two pounds ten ounces, and twelve and a half inches long." Hermione answered his question, a small smile on her face.
"So tiny . . ." The wizard reflected as he thought about how small she must be. "You said she was sick. Where is she? Why isn't she here with me?"
"She's in the guest room, baby. Because she was early her lungs didn't have time to fully develop, so she needed some special attention."
"W-will she be . . .okay?" Draco worried. Despite what the two women told him, it didn't sound as if the baby were perfectly alright to him. It sounded as if she was a very unhealthy little girl.
"She will be in a few weeks. Right now she's in a specially heated crib with a spell around her to give her pure oxygen. She's been in it ever since you had her, about eighteen hours, and I'd like her to stay there for about another week. Hermione or myself will be here that entire time, just to make sure things go okay." Mrs. Weasley explained to him. "After that we'll just keep an eye on her and take it on a day by day basis."
"Can I see her, please?"
"Of course, just let me check you over first, okay?"
Draco nodded and lay back against the bed, waiting impatiently for Molly to finish her exam. It seemed like she was intentionally taking her sweet time. She poked and prodded him, waved her wand over him while muttering spells that were unfamiliar to him, checked his pulse, blood pressure, and temperature. Finally she finally declared him healthy enough to be allowed to go see his baby for the first time.
Both Mrs. Weasley and Hermione helped him to sit up in the bed and then easily swing his legs over the edge of the mattress. Once he was on his feet, he got a bit dizzy for a moment and Mrs. Weasley almost changed her mind about letting him leave the room, but one death glare from him had her shutting up quickly. Once his balance was regained the two women helped him shuffle to the door and across the hall to the guest room. The short trek was a painful one, as his body felt as if it had bee ripped in half when his daughter came out, but nothing was going to prevent him from seeing the baby.
When they at last entered the spare bedroom, Draco's breath caught in his throat at the first sight of his daughter. She was wrinkled, and blotchy, and impossibly small. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, an angel in his eyes, and she was all his. Hermione helped ease him into a recliner that they had in the room as Mrs. Weasley moved the baby crib closer to him so he could get a better look.
Draco's hand snaked forward and then snapped back quickly as it got near to the tiny baby. She looked so fragile that he knew he would break her with the slightest touch. In fact, he wasn't completely convinced that the mere act of breathing in her general direction wouldn't cause the tiny body to shatter.
Hermione laughed softly and rested a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Go ahead and touch her, Draco. You can hold her if you like."
"H-Hold her? But won't that hurt her? She needs to be in there!" As much as he would love to hold his little girl, Draco didn't want to do anything that would cause her even the slightest bit of harm.
"It's okay, the spell will move with her and keep her surrounded by the heat and the oxygen," Molly explained as she lifted the tiny baby into her arms. Draco watched in amazement as his baby was laid in his arms for the first time.
Emotions that he never knew he possessed flooded through Draco as he gazed down at the sleeping child he was holding. This little miracle had been created by the love that Harry and he had shared, a love that would now never die, and never be broken. She was all of their hopes and dreams personified, something that they had both wanted. The tiny angel baby was the perfect blend of both of them.
"Do you know what you're going to name her?" Molly asked softly, not wanting to ruin the tranquil moment between father and daughter.
"Reagan Airlia Potter." Draco responded immediately. He had been contemplating it for months before finally deciding upon the name he chose.
"You mean Potter-Malfoy?"
"No, just Potter."
"But . . .are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. It's the way we wanted it." Draco explained with out ever taking his eyes off of Reagan. "Both Harry and I agreed that we didn't want our children growing up with the stigmata that comes with the Malfoy name."
"Very well," Molly conceded as she waved her wand to complete the certificate of birth that would go on file at the Ministry of Magic. "Welcome to the world, Reagan Airlia Potter."
