Chapter 5
Another evening rolled around for the Malfoy-Potters as father and son proudly and successfully created a picture-perfect Turkey dinner without burning a single item of food.
"I think we've got it!" Harry exclaimed, dropping his expensive cookbook to the table and lifted his grinning son to rest on his hip, one leg draping over his slightly bulging stomach. "Who knew I'd figure out how to cook?"
Evan shrugged his shoulders and shoved another juicy strip of turkey that had been hiding in his hand into his mouth and chewed it happily.
Harry carefully set Evan down into his chair at the table, set up the vanilla scented candles and turned off the oven. He made his way to the front window and peeked out over and over again, eagerly awaiting his husband to apparate onto the front lawn. As he pulled back the curtain and peered out again, his hand fell to rest on his stomach as an odd nauseous feeling overtook him. Harry leaned his forehead on the warm glass heated by the May sun and closed his eyes.
His son had taken the opportunity to devour as much turkey as possible and jumped from his chair to join his father in the waiting for the other father to arrive. "Look!" he pointed and exclaimed as a wobbling and laughing Draco appeared on the lawn in the arms of a taller and handsome dirty blonde, whom was also laughing and held an alcoholic drink bottle in his free hand. "Who's that?" inquired Evan.
The former Gryffindor's eyes opened slowly and finally rested on the image of his husband stumbling in the yard and eventually falling on top of his drunken buddy. They both laughed together and helped the other stand again before tumbling to the ground in a heap of sweaty bodies. "Oh my Merlin," Harry whispered as he closed the curtains viciously and sped towards the fireplace. "Evan!" he called as he grasped a handful of Floo powder. Suddenly, a rippling pain surged through his body as Draco crashed through the front door with the unwelcome gentleman holding him up by grasping the blonde's waist.
Draco instantly recognized his husband standing uncomfortably in the fireplace, a hand firmly placed over his stomach. "Harry, I, wait," he babbled as he tried to stand on his own and run towards Harry. "Don't go, you don't understand!" he called but Harry fiercely wiped his tearing eyes and grasped his son by the arm and pulled the scared boy into the fireplace.
"Fucking damn you, Draco!" he spat. "I'm bloody pregnant and you go off and get drunk and cheat on me! Then, you bring the leach here and I'm fucking in pain, you piece of shit!" Harry gripped his son close to him and clearly screamed the destination he wished to be, "Ron Weasley residence!"
The former Slytherin watched dumbfounded and drunkenly as his husband and son disappeared into the bright green flames, leaving him to cry alone as his designated apparater left him to mend his predicament alone.
Ron sat peacefully in his favorite worn-in chair he had taken from The Burrow while reading the latest Daily Prophet with his daughter resting her head against his chest, seated comfortably on her father's lap. He had never expected to see a groaning Harry and a whimpering Evan shooting out of his fireplace.
Harry coughed loudly as he rest, flat on his back, on the hardwood floor of Ron and Hermione's home, a hand protectively over his stomach as the pinching pain continued. "Hermione," he gasped and drew his knees to his chest in pain.
Ron set Rose on the floor and kneeled beside his best friend. "Harry! What's wrong?" He instantly felt Harry's forehead for warmth and felt only clammy paling skin. "Hermione, get in here!"
Hermione peaked in, noticed the situation and instantly began to search the medicine cabinet.
"Draco, he cheated on me," Harry whispered as he rolled onto his left side, curled up in the fetal position, cold sweat beginning to form on the back of his neck as another pain ripped through him. "Oh, Merlin, Ron," he whimpered as dreadful thoughts filled his head. Images from the description Draco had given of the time he almost lost Evan entered his head and tears fell from his eyes. "I think," Harry whispered as Ron leaned closer, "I'm losing the babies, Ron."
Terrified emerald eyes looked up at him as his wife finally entered the room with a vial of potion in her hands. She dropped to her knees and ordered Ron to lift Harry's head. "You better be fucking thankful I became a part-time medi-witch," she sternly spoke as she poured the potion into Harry's awaiting mouth.
Eventually, the pain in his abdomen ebbed and drowsiness followed. Harry passed into a dreamless sleep right there on the Weasley's floor with Hermione dabbing the sweat from Harry's face and neck with a moist towel, Ron propping his head up under a fluffy homemade Weasley pillow, and the two children cuddled in a corner of the room.
Draco eventually ran out of tears to spill and dragged his sobering ass to the kitchen where a well-prepared dinner lay to spoil and the recently bought candles for a special night stood half gone in the crystal candleholders. He turned on the faucet and rested his face under the freezing water to rid his face of its red blotches. After turning the water off and drying his face, he plopped down in his chair at the table and ate a meager turkey dinner with his hands.
With a groan declaring his uncomfortable state, Harry awoke and righted his glasses on the bridge of his nose. He peered out of the window opposite his position and noticed the black sky. He stood, a few bones cracking as he did so, and found his way to the Weasley's kitchen and vigilantly took his seat in one of the chairs at the table. His head dropped into his hands as he tried to review the night's bungled activities.
Hermione slid into the room, clad in a red nightgown, startling her guest and slipped into the chair adjacent him. She sent him a warm smile as his hands dropped to the table. Her hand rested on his and rubbed it lightly. "Harry?"
"I'm afraid," he answered back sadly and chewed on his bottom lip in misery and apprehension.
"Of what," she inquired softly and continued to rub his hand, her brown eyes begging him to talk to her.
"I'm afraid," Harry choked and tried to hide his face in his folded arms, "that I lost the babies."
Hermione sat up straight in her chair and gripped his hand tighter. "Babies? Meaning more than one?"
Harry turned his face towards her and nodded. "I started showing last month." He paused and bit his lip, running a hand through his extremely tousled and soot-filled hair. "At two months Mione."
"I have a friend in wizard London that specializes in gynecology and obstetrics for witches. We need to go there later today. It's three in the morning." With that statement, Hermione gave Harry's hand one more squeeze and placed a quick peck on his cheek, leaving him to make himself comfortable on the living couch and attempt to sleep with no one by his side.
The following afternoon was so dreary that Harry's heart felt even heavier as he and Hermione borrowed Ron's new silver Ford Anglia. She explained on the trip that Mr. Weasley had bought another one but because of the flying car incident Harry had been involved with, Mrs. Weasley forbid the enchantment of another vehicle and gave it to Ron as it was, a simple muggle vehicle.
"Here we are!" she announced somewhat happily as she pulled in front of a semi-vine covered brick building.
Harry took one glance around, noticing the figures of witches and wizards pass up and down the streets. He sighed, relieved, that indeed, it was wizard London. As he followed Hermione into the foreign building, his chest tightened in anticipation of the great or grim news. His stomach continued to do flip-flops and churn as he anxiously awaited his name to be called, and his mind filled with horrible thoughts and wonderings of whether his children were still alive inside him. He jumped as he felt Hermione grip his arm and pull him up from the horrid waiting room chair. He barely registered the familiar process Draco endured of stripping, pulling on and buttoning the gown halfway, leaving his stomach bare for the world to view.
The doctor entered soon after Harry had climbed onto the table. She set her clipboard down to tie her long black hair back and greeted her patient with a warm smile. She simply held his hand momentarily instead of speaking. What words exist that would lighten the situation until the results were known?
The supposedly brave Gryffindor laid on the table, motionless except for the irregular rising and falling of his chest as sporadic tears appeared in the corner of his eyes and drifted down his cheeks. Soon, the buzz of the machines filled the room and Hermione gripped his hand with both of hers. "I'm so scared," he mumbled as the doctor rubbed the cool jelly over his bulge. "I really was happy to be pregnant. I really want to have Draco's children," he murmured as he slipped his eyes closed and felt what it was like to have that disk-shaped object move over his slick stomach. "I love him, even though he cheated on me."
"I never cheated on you," came a raspy voice at the entrance of the room.
"Draco?" Harry whispered as his eyes settled on the image of his husband clad in the robes he wore yesterday, wrinkled and reeking of alcohol and cigarette smoke, with his normally brushed-back gelled hair sticking off in every direction in pure Potter fashion. "You what?"
"I never cheated on you." He stepped in further as the doctor nodded and continued to turn dials and move the disk. "I was offered a permanent teaching position at Hogwarts. I accepted and we all celebrated afterwards." Draco reached forward and rested his palm against Harry's cheek. "That guy just made sure I got home safely. I'm sorry if I made it appear to be something it wasn't." His fingers brushed against his husband's face softly. "Look at you," he murmured, his voice thick, on the verge of tears, "all pregnant."
"Hopefully," Harry responded sadly and leaned into Draco's feathery touch.
"Shh." Draco moved a finger to cover Harry's lips. "Don't. Ron told me."
The doctor moved slightly to allow the room's occupants to view the image on the screen. "Science finally allowed us to create a color image for ultrasounds." Everyone glared at the monitor as shades of red and blurs of tan came into focus. "You two are still becoming fathers. Harry only lost one of the babies." She paused and pursed her lips, and forced a genuine smile on her face. "However, congratulations, you're having twins."