AN: So here it is, at long last. So so so sorry for making you all wait so
long for it.
First thing's first: Thank you to Ayame and Rachael for your help. Having someone else read my explanations of the pregnancy before I published it really helped. *glomps them both*
Second thing's second: My reviewers, thank you all so much for your reviews. There's a few of them to answer, so bear with me:
Lady FoxFire: Sorry for making you wait so long. I can't say it wasn't avoidable, but...
frizzy: Who ever said that the father had to be a wizard? Did I say that? ^_~ (and you can read that wink anyway you like...)
kapies: was a little boring, wasn't it? Thank you for reviewing anyway. It means a lot to me.
npetrenko: *grins* you couldn't stop me if you tried.
ohinvertedworld: I do have ideas that I'm building up to, and they will come out as I go along. Especially after this chapter. lol, I have to say I'm glad you can't tell where this story is going just yet. May I suggest you sit back and enjoy the ride?
Saavik: Divine conception? Not quite.
xikum: No... I don't imagine Harry's secret will be kept long with Hagrid knowing... Even if he does always mean well. About the King Arthur thing: remember, Snape is only the heir to the castle, not the blood line. Make of it what you will, for now. Methinks you'll have a field day with the implications in this chapter.
Teigra: I don't think you're the only one that would like to get Jason alone. And yes, McGonagall does seem to recognize the name, doesn't she? I wonder what that's about. ^_~ Thank you for coming all the way over here to review my story and add me to your favourites list. I will be posting this at ~harrypottermpreg~ - naturally.
harrylovar: LOL, it's okay to rush me a bit. I really do need the incentive.
Pixie_Genius: Thank you for your praise. There's a little more background info here, but the rest will come out as we go along... That's just the way this story has to be written, unfortunately. *L* You're not the first to speculate on whether or not Snape is the father, the first to suggest polyjuice, tho'.
blah: Lil' ole me's got you hooked on Harry Potter fanfic? *grins evilly* Welcome to the world of HP fandom!
M. F. Luder: Remember you? How could I forget you? *glomps* Tell you if you're wrong? Does that mean I don't have to tell you if you're right? Let's just say that you're kinda half right. ^_~
SilverWolf: *sighs with* I love Sevvy too! And what do you mean? Was Sev the result of the pregnancy? No, he had a mother. And if I didn't know that you liked it before, I do now!
sev1970: *grins* Loving your story, by the way. As for your theory, I have to say... well, actually, I don't have to say anything at all ^_~
Anita (Insane1): Okay, I'm so writing you an email.
Toffee: Sure, I'll email you. Of course, you should have gotten the email, by the time you see this...
SlytherinAtHeart: *growls* Weren't you the one that told me it was purple in the first place? *taps foot* ^_^
PeachDancer82: ...? Last time I looked, father started with an 'F'.... hehehe, not going to answer your question, except to say, Jason *is* the father.
lunar_scythe: In this story (and in the books) Blaise is a girl. Either that, or Ron is very confused. It DOESN'T actually say anywhere in the books that Blaise is a girl, but according to JKR, she is. Check out the list of characters on mugglenet.com. Personally, I prefer to think that Blaise is male.
Potter-Snape: Thank you, and sorry I kept you waiting for so long.
Dreams of Magic: Hehe, I like shocking people.
InKY: Nope, don't think Harry will be seeing his relatives again. I mean, he didn't spend the summer with them, and this IS his last year at Hogwarts.
Vita Brevis: Continuing... Finally! Someone that accepts the fact that the father is a muggle! I don't think Harry will be getting back with Jason, tho' we may see him. I don't know that I really want to pair Harry up with anyone other than the father tho, so you never know...
blue: *glomps* thank you! I think there's lots more to be written...
RogueAngel: Why thank you for pressing the button. I think the button thanks you too. ( I love mpregs too, for the same unknown reason. And yes, I am still setting the story up.
*kicks the chapter* The explanation all had to be done at some point...
Chapter Five.
* * * * * * *
The library wasn't as empty as it usually was on the evening of the first day of school. A group of seventh year students had taken over reading table in the farthermost corner. Open books were scattered over the table, and all six of the students were poring over them. Every now and then, one of them would look up, scanning the vicinity for any potential eavesdroppers.
Harry had only intended that Hermione accompany him to the library, but when the others - namely Draco, who then told Blaise, who told Ron, who mentioned it in the presence of Dean - had found out, they had all decided to come as well. They were - naturally - researching male pregnancies. For all that the phenomenon wasn't that uncommon, there didn't seem to be a great number of texts that dealt with the subject in any real depth. Only a passage here, a paragraph there, a passing reference in a third place.
Muttering under his breath, Harry read a passage detailing the exact same information he'd read in three other places already: "'The phenomenon of the male pregnancy is peculiar to the humanoid magical races: wizards, Fae, Veela, Selkies, Giants; even Vampires, Werewolves and Trolls. -' ugh, trolls! 'The males of none of these species are designed -' Designed? They make it sound like we're mannequins. '- to bear young. It cannot be conclusively said what causes male pregnancy, but it has long been a commonly held belief that there are a range of contributing factors; the most notable being the desire - whether conscious or unconscious - on the behalf of the bearing parent to father a child, and the ambient magic.
"'A womb-like sack forms in the abdomen of the male to support the embryo in the initial stages of the pregnancy. As the pregnancy progresses, a slide-slipped sub-reality forms, in which the child exists and develops, thus ensuring that the male body - unsuited as it is to pregnancy - is not damaged by the expanding fetal sack. The sub-reality is anchored in the bearing parent's body and manifests as a distension of the abdomen.'" Harry's hand had drifted to his stomach and was gently kneading as he contemplated the changes that would be occurring within him, "Oh god, why didn't Madam Pomfery tell me any of this? 'Because the sub-reality is not completely displaced from our dimension, the bearing parent still enjoys -' Enjoys? Yeah, right. '- all the physical manifestations of pregnancy that a female would; the only visible difference being that male pregnancy only appears to develop to mid second trimester, after which point the distension of the abdomen is arrested. The male body is not designed to support pregnancy -' I know this already! '- and because of this, the risks already inherent in a normal pregnancy are increased twenty-fold.
"'At term, the fetal sub-reality is realigned with our own dimension, causing the rapid distension of the abdomen. A birth canal forms in the lower abdomen and contractions begin. The average labour time in a male pregnancy is between nine and thirteen hours, sometimes ranging as low as three or as high as thirty-two. There is no umbilical cord or after-birth as, in the fetal sub-reality, the child gains sustenance through a magical conduit to its birth parent. Within twenty-four hours of the delivery, the birth canal closes and the fetal sub-reality dissipates.'"
Harry pushed the book away from him, his expression dismayed. Beside him, Dean snickered.
"What are you laughing at?" Harry glared, "This could happen to you one day."
Dean stopped laughing, and Draco and Ron started. Until their girlfriends swatted them. Harry sighed and pressed his palm to his abdomen, "I don't think I want to be pregnant any more."
Hermione gasped, "Harry! You don't mean that!"
"Of course I don't!" Harry exclaimed indignantly and then sighed, "But this book is useless any way. I still don't really know how I got pregnant in the first place."
"You wanted to be," Dean stated simplistically.
Blaise frowned, "You must really have loved this Jason if you wanted to have his child."
"Yeah," Harry muttered, flinching a little.
Blaise gasped, "Oh, Harry! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."
Harry gave her a small smile, "It's okay, Blaise. I told you guys you didn't have to tiptoe around the topic, and I meant it."
There was a small, uncomfortable silence among Harry's friends, before Hermione pulled the book towards her.
"It said something about 'ambient magic'. The other books I've looked at mentioned that as well, but none of them say what it means."
Hermione swapped that book for another. The tome she selected had been found by Draco far to the back of a dusty top shelf in the corner of the library closest to the Restricted Section. It was entitled 'Unguided Magics' and, according to the dated first page, was over five hundred years old. Hermione gently blew away the dust that had settled on the cover - sending Dean and Draco into sneezing fits - and gingerly opened the book to its page of contents. Her finger not even touching the page, she skimmed down the faded, ornately-lettered words, searching for something of relevance. Reaching the bottom of the list, she started from the top again, leaning closer and barely breathing.
Harry snorted, "If you're as careful with babies as you are with books, you can baby-sit mine any day."
Draco laughed and Hermione glared at him.
"What! I wasn't the one who said it!"
Harry smirked. Draco raised an eyebrow at him and turned back to his girlfriend. She was already bent over the book again, a frown marring her brow. She paused over an entry in the list, then carefully flipped to the page indicated by the faint text.
"Oh," she cried, letting her hands fall into her lap, "It's no use. This page can't be read!"
The text on the page she opened the book to was smaller, fainter and - if possible - more obscurely scripted than on the contents page.
"Here, let me try something," Draco gently dragged the book over in front himself and drew his wand, "*Scriptura* *investigo*!"
There was a sudden glow of white light, and Hermione screamed softly, "Draco! What have you done!"
"Nothing bad, Hermione. Look," Draco gestured at the old book.
Hovering not an inch above the surface of the page was plane of light. As the group watched, it began to duplicate the page below it into legible writing, altering the old English to modern as it went.
Hermione gaped admiringly, "Where'd you get that spell, Draco?"
"Our librarian taught it to me," Draco shrugged.
"You have a librarian?"
"Well, considering our library is only a little smaller than this one..."
Hermione went all starry-eyed at the thought of her boyfriend's family library. After a moment, Ron kicked her under the table.
"We can't read upside down, Hermione, so either pass us the book or quit daydreaming and read it to us!"
Hermione glared at her best friend and reached down to rub her shin, "If you left a bruise, Ron Weasley..."
The threat trailed off as she retrieved the book from Draco, "This book is really old, so I don't know how much use the information will be to us."
Hermione cleared her throat and began to read, "'Not one hundred years ago, the incidents of male pregnancy were as high as one of every three hundred children born, higher among the Veela and Fae. But since the fall of King Arthur, one hundred and eighty-six years ago, and the disappearance of the last Wizard Merlin, the free magic of the world has been on the decline, and with it, the number of pregnancies resulting of male coupling. In recent years, as few as only one in five hundred children are the result of male pregnancy. As the child of such a union myself, I feel it is my duty to record and document this decrease.
"'As my elder father, a Fae lord of some note, explained it to me, so shall I endeavour to put into words here, the exact causes and circumstances that allow this most miraculous of events to occur.
"'Magic, like water, has the tendency to flow together, finding the path of least resistance. If left to itself, the magic of the world would run together and pool, forming ley lines and nodes of power. In an era now lost to the mists of time, magic was allowed to do as it willed and pool and flow, forming places richly steeped in power. Evil magicians sought to control and exploit these nodes of power to their own dark ends. There came to pass a war to change the course of history. In the wake of the cataclysmic end to that war, the leaders of the races came to together and created a unique power: the ability to change the nature of magic, to cause it spread evenly over the lands, were it once preferred to pool together. The races instilled this new power into a line of wizard-kind, charging them with the guardianship and fair distribution of the world's magic. And thus was the line of Merlin born.
"'For centuries beyond counting, the magic of the world spread over the lands like a heavy mist, evenly dispersed. The line of Merlin served the magic-using races well. The heavy mist of power was known as 'free' or 'ambient' magic. Under its weight, nature bent in ways it normally would not have. The line between what was possible and what was not was blurred and mutable. For those races with the ability to access the ambient magic, anything they could dream of, they could do, if they desired truly enough. Thus it was that a male being of magical nature, if his heart so desired, could bear a child.
"But when the last Wizard Merlin disappeared, his control of the magic of the world disappeared too. It began to change, began to resume its ancient form of ley lines and nodes. In the century and a half since Merlin left, nodes have begun to reappear and the ambient magic has decreased, as have the incidents of male pregnancy along with it. During my studies in the decades since, I have noticed an ebb and flow of magic, like the tides of the ocean. At certain times, under certain circumstances, the ambient magic of the world is almost as strong as it was during the times of the Merlin. And it is during these peak times that the majority of male pregnancies of recent years have been conceived.
"'It is the commonly shared belief of the wizards that have observed the ebb and flow of the magic that this is a remnant of the Merlin's power attempting to exert control over the nodal magic. The nature of the magic is forced to change again, and spread. At these times, the ambient magic in the world surges stronger and inadvertent magic occurs, and because of the perverted nature of the magic, it tends to pervert the natural world; allowing fish to fly, water to run uphill, fire to burn cold - and magical males to fall pregnant.
"'This re-spread of magic, known as the Merlin Effect, has been linked to phenomena of the natural world. It fluctuates in sync with the tides, the cycles of the moon, the cycles of the sun, the cycle of the seasons. The more infrequent the occurrence, the stronger the surge of ambient magic in the world. For example, the surge of the tides comes twice a day, and is not overly strong. The surge of the sun comes once a day, and is half again as strong as the surge of the tides. Ambient magic is strongest in the world at dawn or dusk of the first full moon after the summer equinox. A male-male copulation at such a time is likely to produce a pregnancy, as only one need have the magic and harbour the desire. Contrary to widespread belief, the pregnancy has little - if anything - to do with the magic of the second father; only a little of his life essence - his ejaculate - is required...'"
"Oh, I really didn't need to hear that."
"Ron!" Blaise slapped Ron's arm, as the other boys snorted with laughter, Dean and Harry especially. Blaise stared them all into silence. She turned away muttering something about "moronic specimens, wired directly to their libido..."
Ron grinned at her, "You weren't complaining last night when I-"
Blaise snapped back around, "Ronald Weasley, if you say another word, you'll be looking to Hagrid's menagerie for the next month."
Ron spluttered, "You wouldn't!"
Harry and Draco snickered at the look on their friend's face when Blaise raised an eyebrow, her expression clearly inviting Ron to try her."
Ron muttered mutinously and turned to Hermione, changing the subject, "What else does it say, Hermione?"
Hermione had ignored the by-play between her friends and instead had turned the page and recast Draco's spell on it. She was frowning down at the page, a look of vague disappointment in her eyes.
"It doesn't say anything more really. All it is now is a record of the pregnancies and births this wizard witnessed. It documents the time, place and conditions of the conception and follows the course of the pregnancy through to the birth. There's all sorts of..."
Harry tuned out Hermione's voice. So it was just a cosmic mistake that he was pregnant. He and Jason had simply made lo- had sex at the wrong time, and because Harry had always harboured a deep-seated desire to have a family all of his own, this 'ambient magic' had perverted the course of nature and gifted the pair with a miracle that only Harry wanted.
Harry had all but given up hope of having a child of his own flesh and blood; he was gay and that meant that there was little chance of his own child. So when he had realized that, against all odds, against all reason to the universe, he was pregnant, he had been ecstatic and no little terrified. The impossible had happened, and he didn't know how to handle it. For a week, he had turned into a recluse and there had been nothing Jason could do to get him to talk about what was troubling him so.
Harry had spent the days worrying about his abnormal pregnancy, his unborn child's safety, his lover's reaction, *Voldemort's* reaction if Harry's luck was bad enough that he found out. He spent the nights dreaming of what could be. He'd long since told Jason he was a wizard and, if the other man had at first been wary and dubious, he'd soon come to accept the fact that he need never feel overshadowed by it when Harry had made it clear that he would like nothing more than to have most of the wizarding world forget he was ever born. Harry began to weave dreams of he and Jason buying a cottage somewhere and raising their child together in a loving household that incorporated both worlds. He even considered the far-fetched possibility of a second child. It was wonderful to contemplate such a life with the man he loved - and he was sure he did - and their miracle child. Harry allowed the optimism of the dream to overtake him.
Until he got up the courage to tell Jason. Who - to say the least - reacted badly. Harry had gotten so lost in his dream and already loved his unborn child so much that he could barely conceive anymore of a reaction counter to his own. He had certainly never dreamt that Jason would reject their child of hand. He'd never once considered that maybe he felt more strongly for Jason than Jason felt for him. That illusion had been quickly dispelled. He could still hear Jason's voice echoing in his ears:
~ It was never meant to last! We were both meant to go back to school at the end of summer and forget it ever happened! ~
It had hurt to hear him say that. Hurt more than anything anyone had ever said to Harry did. But nothing - *nothing* - had, or ever could, compare to Jason's next words.
~ Terminate it. ~
Terminate. It. Like he was suggesting they rid themselves of an annoyance. Like it wasn't his own child he was suggesting Harry abort. Like he couldn't care less...
"*Harry*," Hermione said insistently for the third time, and Harry looked up at her. She and Blaise were staring at him, strange expressions on their faces. Ron, Dean and Draco were squabbling over something, their voices washing acidly at the edges of Harry's attention.
"Harry," Hermione reapeated, her voice soft with concern, "Are you alright?"
Harry blinked, and absently answered, "Yes. Why?"
Blaise gestured at his hands, "We were just wondering why you saw fit to snap your quill in half."
Harry looked down at his hands. The mangled ruins of his favourite quill drooped from his white-knuckled fists, and the red ink with which it had been inked dripped sluggishly from the base of his left hand. Harry watched in morbid fascination as another fat drop splattered on the table beneath him. He wondered if he would have bleed so red and viscous if he'd taken Jason's suggestion about the baby and -
"Are you sure you're okay?" Blaise laid a hand on Harry's forearm.
Terminate. It.
Harry flinched away from Blaise's hand and stood up.
"I'm sorry. I gotta go."
Harry didn't even bother to pick up his books as he moved away from the table. He knew Hermione would take them back to the Tower with her.
Harry pulled up short, just in time to avoid running into the menacing figure of Professor Snape as he stalked over to the table in the corner.
"Leaving your friends to tidy up just so *you* can get back before curfew, Potter? Hardly very Gryffindor of you?"
Harry stared up at the man blankly. He had no idea what time it was. He couldn't quite understand what was being said because of the ringing in his ears. Instead, he held up his dripping left hand and said, "I've got to clean my hand, professor."
Snape flinched back away from the ink-covered hand and his lip curled in a disgusted sneer, "Only you are accident prone enough to injure yourself while studying, Potter. Really, you should-"
Looking down at his hand again, Harry dazedly interrupted, "It's not blood, sir. It's ink."
It really did look amazingly like blood, and Harry wondered for a moment if maybe he hadn't nicked himself with the nib and for some reason he just couldn't feel the pain.
Snape's sneer broadened and he glared over Harry's shoulder to where Blaise and Hermione were desperately trying to remove the ink stain Harry had left on the table.
"25 points from Gryffindor for vandalizing school property, Potter, and be thankful you're not getting a detention as well. Get out of here before you drip all over the books."
Harry nodded and moved past the professor, hurrying across the floor to the door. His ears ere still ringing and he could still hear Jason's voice.
~ It was never meant to last! ~
~ Forget it ever happened! ~
~ Terminate it! ~
Harry hadn't realized that seeing red was more than just an expression until Jason had said those words. But he'd seen red: his vision had tinged over until everything that should have been white was a blood red. Like Jason's face. The skin that had turned milky pale when Harry had first told him was crimson, and every time he opened his mouth, Harry had seen flashes of gleaming red teeth.
He had never been so mad, so enraged, so incensed, so *angry* as when Jason almost blithely suggested he kill his child simply because it 'wasn't meant to last'. Harry was that if Voldemort had shown his face at that moment, he would have been ashes before he could register there was a muggle in the room.
Harry had never hated anyone as much as he had hated Jason in that moment.
And the bugger of it all was: he still loved Jason.
TBC
* * * * * * *
AN: *dances around the room, in the street, on the roof top* I finished it! I actually finished it! I'm so sorry that it's taken this long to get out, but here it is now. Feel free to click on that little button you all know and love so well and tell me what a git I am for leaving you all hanging for so long...
And, I know! I haven't made the whole muggle father thing very clear here, and I really should, but I can't seem to make that thing work for me.... *kicks stupid plot device*
First thing's first: Thank you to Ayame and Rachael for your help. Having someone else read my explanations of the pregnancy before I published it really helped. *glomps them both*
Second thing's second: My reviewers, thank you all so much for your reviews. There's a few of them to answer, so bear with me:
Lady FoxFire: Sorry for making you wait so long. I can't say it wasn't avoidable, but...
frizzy: Who ever said that the father had to be a wizard? Did I say that? ^_~ (and you can read that wink anyway you like...)
kapies: was a little boring, wasn't it? Thank you for reviewing anyway. It means a lot to me.
npetrenko: *grins* you couldn't stop me if you tried.
ohinvertedworld: I do have ideas that I'm building up to, and they will come out as I go along. Especially after this chapter. lol, I have to say I'm glad you can't tell where this story is going just yet. May I suggest you sit back and enjoy the ride?
Saavik: Divine conception? Not quite.
xikum: No... I don't imagine Harry's secret will be kept long with Hagrid knowing... Even if he does always mean well. About the King Arthur thing: remember, Snape is only the heir to the castle, not the blood line. Make of it what you will, for now. Methinks you'll have a field day with the implications in this chapter.
Teigra: I don't think you're the only one that would like to get Jason alone. And yes, McGonagall does seem to recognize the name, doesn't she? I wonder what that's about. ^_~ Thank you for coming all the way over here to review my story and add me to your favourites list. I will be posting this at ~harrypottermpreg~ - naturally.
harrylovar: LOL, it's okay to rush me a bit. I really do need the incentive.
Pixie_Genius: Thank you for your praise. There's a little more background info here, but the rest will come out as we go along... That's just the way this story has to be written, unfortunately. *L* You're not the first to speculate on whether or not Snape is the father, the first to suggest polyjuice, tho'.
blah: Lil' ole me's got you hooked on Harry Potter fanfic? *grins evilly* Welcome to the world of HP fandom!
M. F. Luder: Remember you? How could I forget you? *glomps* Tell you if you're wrong? Does that mean I don't have to tell you if you're right? Let's just say that you're kinda half right. ^_~
SilverWolf: *sighs with* I love Sevvy too! And what do you mean? Was Sev the result of the pregnancy? No, he had a mother. And if I didn't know that you liked it before, I do now!
sev1970: *grins* Loving your story, by the way. As for your theory, I have to say... well, actually, I don't have to say anything at all ^_~
Anita (Insane1): Okay, I'm so writing you an email.
Toffee: Sure, I'll email you. Of course, you should have gotten the email, by the time you see this...
SlytherinAtHeart: *growls* Weren't you the one that told me it was purple in the first place? *taps foot* ^_^
PeachDancer82: ...? Last time I looked, father started with an 'F'.... hehehe, not going to answer your question, except to say, Jason *is* the father.
lunar_scythe: In this story (and in the books) Blaise is a girl. Either that, or Ron is very confused. It DOESN'T actually say anywhere in the books that Blaise is a girl, but according to JKR, she is. Check out the list of characters on mugglenet.com. Personally, I prefer to think that Blaise is male.
Potter-Snape: Thank you, and sorry I kept you waiting for so long.
Dreams of Magic: Hehe, I like shocking people.
InKY: Nope, don't think Harry will be seeing his relatives again. I mean, he didn't spend the summer with them, and this IS his last year at Hogwarts.
Vita Brevis: Continuing... Finally! Someone that accepts the fact that the father is a muggle! I don't think Harry will be getting back with Jason, tho' we may see him. I don't know that I really want to pair Harry up with anyone other than the father tho, so you never know...
blue: *glomps* thank you! I think there's lots more to be written...
RogueAngel: Why thank you for pressing the button. I think the button thanks you too. ( I love mpregs too, for the same unknown reason. And yes, I am still setting the story up.
*kicks the chapter* The explanation all had to be done at some point...
Chapter Five.
* * * * * * *
The library wasn't as empty as it usually was on the evening of the first day of school. A group of seventh year students had taken over reading table in the farthermost corner. Open books were scattered over the table, and all six of the students were poring over them. Every now and then, one of them would look up, scanning the vicinity for any potential eavesdroppers.
Harry had only intended that Hermione accompany him to the library, but when the others - namely Draco, who then told Blaise, who told Ron, who mentioned it in the presence of Dean - had found out, they had all decided to come as well. They were - naturally - researching male pregnancies. For all that the phenomenon wasn't that uncommon, there didn't seem to be a great number of texts that dealt with the subject in any real depth. Only a passage here, a paragraph there, a passing reference in a third place.
Muttering under his breath, Harry read a passage detailing the exact same information he'd read in three other places already: "'The phenomenon of the male pregnancy is peculiar to the humanoid magical races: wizards, Fae, Veela, Selkies, Giants; even Vampires, Werewolves and Trolls. -' ugh, trolls! 'The males of none of these species are designed -' Designed? They make it sound like we're mannequins. '- to bear young. It cannot be conclusively said what causes male pregnancy, but it has long been a commonly held belief that there are a range of contributing factors; the most notable being the desire - whether conscious or unconscious - on the behalf of the bearing parent to father a child, and the ambient magic.
"'A womb-like sack forms in the abdomen of the male to support the embryo in the initial stages of the pregnancy. As the pregnancy progresses, a slide-slipped sub-reality forms, in which the child exists and develops, thus ensuring that the male body - unsuited as it is to pregnancy - is not damaged by the expanding fetal sack. The sub-reality is anchored in the bearing parent's body and manifests as a distension of the abdomen.'" Harry's hand had drifted to his stomach and was gently kneading as he contemplated the changes that would be occurring within him, "Oh god, why didn't Madam Pomfery tell me any of this? 'Because the sub-reality is not completely displaced from our dimension, the bearing parent still enjoys -' Enjoys? Yeah, right. '- all the physical manifestations of pregnancy that a female would; the only visible difference being that male pregnancy only appears to develop to mid second trimester, after which point the distension of the abdomen is arrested. The male body is not designed to support pregnancy -' I know this already! '- and because of this, the risks already inherent in a normal pregnancy are increased twenty-fold.
"'At term, the fetal sub-reality is realigned with our own dimension, causing the rapid distension of the abdomen. A birth canal forms in the lower abdomen and contractions begin. The average labour time in a male pregnancy is between nine and thirteen hours, sometimes ranging as low as three or as high as thirty-two. There is no umbilical cord or after-birth as, in the fetal sub-reality, the child gains sustenance through a magical conduit to its birth parent. Within twenty-four hours of the delivery, the birth canal closes and the fetal sub-reality dissipates.'"
Harry pushed the book away from him, his expression dismayed. Beside him, Dean snickered.
"What are you laughing at?" Harry glared, "This could happen to you one day."
Dean stopped laughing, and Draco and Ron started. Until their girlfriends swatted them. Harry sighed and pressed his palm to his abdomen, "I don't think I want to be pregnant any more."
Hermione gasped, "Harry! You don't mean that!"
"Of course I don't!" Harry exclaimed indignantly and then sighed, "But this book is useless any way. I still don't really know how I got pregnant in the first place."
"You wanted to be," Dean stated simplistically.
Blaise frowned, "You must really have loved this Jason if you wanted to have his child."
"Yeah," Harry muttered, flinching a little.
Blaise gasped, "Oh, Harry! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."
Harry gave her a small smile, "It's okay, Blaise. I told you guys you didn't have to tiptoe around the topic, and I meant it."
There was a small, uncomfortable silence among Harry's friends, before Hermione pulled the book towards her.
"It said something about 'ambient magic'. The other books I've looked at mentioned that as well, but none of them say what it means."
Hermione swapped that book for another. The tome she selected had been found by Draco far to the back of a dusty top shelf in the corner of the library closest to the Restricted Section. It was entitled 'Unguided Magics' and, according to the dated first page, was over five hundred years old. Hermione gently blew away the dust that had settled on the cover - sending Dean and Draco into sneezing fits - and gingerly opened the book to its page of contents. Her finger not even touching the page, she skimmed down the faded, ornately-lettered words, searching for something of relevance. Reaching the bottom of the list, she started from the top again, leaning closer and barely breathing.
Harry snorted, "If you're as careful with babies as you are with books, you can baby-sit mine any day."
Draco laughed and Hermione glared at him.
"What! I wasn't the one who said it!"
Harry smirked. Draco raised an eyebrow at him and turned back to his girlfriend. She was already bent over the book again, a frown marring her brow. She paused over an entry in the list, then carefully flipped to the page indicated by the faint text.
"Oh," she cried, letting her hands fall into her lap, "It's no use. This page can't be read!"
The text on the page she opened the book to was smaller, fainter and - if possible - more obscurely scripted than on the contents page.
"Here, let me try something," Draco gently dragged the book over in front himself and drew his wand, "*Scriptura* *investigo*!"
There was a sudden glow of white light, and Hermione screamed softly, "Draco! What have you done!"
"Nothing bad, Hermione. Look," Draco gestured at the old book.
Hovering not an inch above the surface of the page was plane of light. As the group watched, it began to duplicate the page below it into legible writing, altering the old English to modern as it went.
Hermione gaped admiringly, "Where'd you get that spell, Draco?"
"Our librarian taught it to me," Draco shrugged.
"You have a librarian?"
"Well, considering our library is only a little smaller than this one..."
Hermione went all starry-eyed at the thought of her boyfriend's family library. After a moment, Ron kicked her under the table.
"We can't read upside down, Hermione, so either pass us the book or quit daydreaming and read it to us!"
Hermione glared at her best friend and reached down to rub her shin, "If you left a bruise, Ron Weasley..."
The threat trailed off as she retrieved the book from Draco, "This book is really old, so I don't know how much use the information will be to us."
Hermione cleared her throat and began to read, "'Not one hundred years ago, the incidents of male pregnancy were as high as one of every three hundred children born, higher among the Veela and Fae. But since the fall of King Arthur, one hundred and eighty-six years ago, and the disappearance of the last Wizard Merlin, the free magic of the world has been on the decline, and with it, the number of pregnancies resulting of male coupling. In recent years, as few as only one in five hundred children are the result of male pregnancy. As the child of such a union myself, I feel it is my duty to record and document this decrease.
"'As my elder father, a Fae lord of some note, explained it to me, so shall I endeavour to put into words here, the exact causes and circumstances that allow this most miraculous of events to occur.
"'Magic, like water, has the tendency to flow together, finding the path of least resistance. If left to itself, the magic of the world would run together and pool, forming ley lines and nodes of power. In an era now lost to the mists of time, magic was allowed to do as it willed and pool and flow, forming places richly steeped in power. Evil magicians sought to control and exploit these nodes of power to their own dark ends. There came to pass a war to change the course of history. In the wake of the cataclysmic end to that war, the leaders of the races came to together and created a unique power: the ability to change the nature of magic, to cause it spread evenly over the lands, were it once preferred to pool together. The races instilled this new power into a line of wizard-kind, charging them with the guardianship and fair distribution of the world's magic. And thus was the line of Merlin born.
"'For centuries beyond counting, the magic of the world spread over the lands like a heavy mist, evenly dispersed. The line of Merlin served the magic-using races well. The heavy mist of power was known as 'free' or 'ambient' magic. Under its weight, nature bent in ways it normally would not have. The line between what was possible and what was not was blurred and mutable. For those races with the ability to access the ambient magic, anything they could dream of, they could do, if they desired truly enough. Thus it was that a male being of magical nature, if his heart so desired, could bear a child.
"But when the last Wizard Merlin disappeared, his control of the magic of the world disappeared too. It began to change, began to resume its ancient form of ley lines and nodes. In the century and a half since Merlin left, nodes have begun to reappear and the ambient magic has decreased, as have the incidents of male pregnancy along with it. During my studies in the decades since, I have noticed an ebb and flow of magic, like the tides of the ocean. At certain times, under certain circumstances, the ambient magic of the world is almost as strong as it was during the times of the Merlin. And it is during these peak times that the majority of male pregnancies of recent years have been conceived.
"'It is the commonly shared belief of the wizards that have observed the ebb and flow of the magic that this is a remnant of the Merlin's power attempting to exert control over the nodal magic. The nature of the magic is forced to change again, and spread. At these times, the ambient magic in the world surges stronger and inadvertent magic occurs, and because of the perverted nature of the magic, it tends to pervert the natural world; allowing fish to fly, water to run uphill, fire to burn cold - and magical males to fall pregnant.
"'This re-spread of magic, known as the Merlin Effect, has been linked to phenomena of the natural world. It fluctuates in sync with the tides, the cycles of the moon, the cycles of the sun, the cycle of the seasons. The more infrequent the occurrence, the stronger the surge of ambient magic in the world. For example, the surge of the tides comes twice a day, and is not overly strong. The surge of the sun comes once a day, and is half again as strong as the surge of the tides. Ambient magic is strongest in the world at dawn or dusk of the first full moon after the summer equinox. A male-male copulation at such a time is likely to produce a pregnancy, as only one need have the magic and harbour the desire. Contrary to widespread belief, the pregnancy has little - if anything - to do with the magic of the second father; only a little of his life essence - his ejaculate - is required...'"
"Oh, I really didn't need to hear that."
"Ron!" Blaise slapped Ron's arm, as the other boys snorted with laughter, Dean and Harry especially. Blaise stared them all into silence. She turned away muttering something about "moronic specimens, wired directly to their libido..."
Ron grinned at her, "You weren't complaining last night when I-"
Blaise snapped back around, "Ronald Weasley, if you say another word, you'll be looking to Hagrid's menagerie for the next month."
Ron spluttered, "You wouldn't!"
Harry and Draco snickered at the look on their friend's face when Blaise raised an eyebrow, her expression clearly inviting Ron to try her."
Ron muttered mutinously and turned to Hermione, changing the subject, "What else does it say, Hermione?"
Hermione had ignored the by-play between her friends and instead had turned the page and recast Draco's spell on it. She was frowning down at the page, a look of vague disappointment in her eyes.
"It doesn't say anything more really. All it is now is a record of the pregnancies and births this wizard witnessed. It documents the time, place and conditions of the conception and follows the course of the pregnancy through to the birth. There's all sorts of..."
Harry tuned out Hermione's voice. So it was just a cosmic mistake that he was pregnant. He and Jason had simply made lo- had sex at the wrong time, and because Harry had always harboured a deep-seated desire to have a family all of his own, this 'ambient magic' had perverted the course of nature and gifted the pair with a miracle that only Harry wanted.
Harry had all but given up hope of having a child of his own flesh and blood; he was gay and that meant that there was little chance of his own child. So when he had realized that, against all odds, against all reason to the universe, he was pregnant, he had been ecstatic and no little terrified. The impossible had happened, and he didn't know how to handle it. For a week, he had turned into a recluse and there had been nothing Jason could do to get him to talk about what was troubling him so.
Harry had spent the days worrying about his abnormal pregnancy, his unborn child's safety, his lover's reaction, *Voldemort's* reaction if Harry's luck was bad enough that he found out. He spent the nights dreaming of what could be. He'd long since told Jason he was a wizard and, if the other man had at first been wary and dubious, he'd soon come to accept the fact that he need never feel overshadowed by it when Harry had made it clear that he would like nothing more than to have most of the wizarding world forget he was ever born. Harry began to weave dreams of he and Jason buying a cottage somewhere and raising their child together in a loving household that incorporated both worlds. He even considered the far-fetched possibility of a second child. It was wonderful to contemplate such a life with the man he loved - and he was sure he did - and their miracle child. Harry allowed the optimism of the dream to overtake him.
Until he got up the courage to tell Jason. Who - to say the least - reacted badly. Harry had gotten so lost in his dream and already loved his unborn child so much that he could barely conceive anymore of a reaction counter to his own. He had certainly never dreamt that Jason would reject their child of hand. He'd never once considered that maybe he felt more strongly for Jason than Jason felt for him. That illusion had been quickly dispelled. He could still hear Jason's voice echoing in his ears:
~ It was never meant to last! We were both meant to go back to school at the end of summer and forget it ever happened! ~
It had hurt to hear him say that. Hurt more than anything anyone had ever said to Harry did. But nothing - *nothing* - had, or ever could, compare to Jason's next words.
~ Terminate it. ~
Terminate. It. Like he was suggesting they rid themselves of an annoyance. Like it wasn't his own child he was suggesting Harry abort. Like he couldn't care less...
"*Harry*," Hermione said insistently for the third time, and Harry looked up at her. She and Blaise were staring at him, strange expressions on their faces. Ron, Dean and Draco were squabbling over something, their voices washing acidly at the edges of Harry's attention.
"Harry," Hermione reapeated, her voice soft with concern, "Are you alright?"
Harry blinked, and absently answered, "Yes. Why?"
Blaise gestured at his hands, "We were just wondering why you saw fit to snap your quill in half."
Harry looked down at his hands. The mangled ruins of his favourite quill drooped from his white-knuckled fists, and the red ink with which it had been inked dripped sluggishly from the base of his left hand. Harry watched in morbid fascination as another fat drop splattered on the table beneath him. He wondered if he would have bleed so red and viscous if he'd taken Jason's suggestion about the baby and -
"Are you sure you're okay?" Blaise laid a hand on Harry's forearm.
Terminate. It.
Harry flinched away from Blaise's hand and stood up.
"I'm sorry. I gotta go."
Harry didn't even bother to pick up his books as he moved away from the table. He knew Hermione would take them back to the Tower with her.
Harry pulled up short, just in time to avoid running into the menacing figure of Professor Snape as he stalked over to the table in the corner.
"Leaving your friends to tidy up just so *you* can get back before curfew, Potter? Hardly very Gryffindor of you?"
Harry stared up at the man blankly. He had no idea what time it was. He couldn't quite understand what was being said because of the ringing in his ears. Instead, he held up his dripping left hand and said, "I've got to clean my hand, professor."
Snape flinched back away from the ink-covered hand and his lip curled in a disgusted sneer, "Only you are accident prone enough to injure yourself while studying, Potter. Really, you should-"
Looking down at his hand again, Harry dazedly interrupted, "It's not blood, sir. It's ink."
It really did look amazingly like blood, and Harry wondered for a moment if maybe he hadn't nicked himself with the nib and for some reason he just couldn't feel the pain.
Snape's sneer broadened and he glared over Harry's shoulder to where Blaise and Hermione were desperately trying to remove the ink stain Harry had left on the table.
"25 points from Gryffindor for vandalizing school property, Potter, and be thankful you're not getting a detention as well. Get out of here before you drip all over the books."
Harry nodded and moved past the professor, hurrying across the floor to the door. His ears ere still ringing and he could still hear Jason's voice.
~ It was never meant to last! ~
~ Forget it ever happened! ~
~ Terminate it! ~
Harry hadn't realized that seeing red was more than just an expression until Jason had said those words. But he'd seen red: his vision had tinged over until everything that should have been white was a blood red. Like Jason's face. The skin that had turned milky pale when Harry had first told him was crimson, and every time he opened his mouth, Harry had seen flashes of gleaming red teeth.
He had never been so mad, so enraged, so incensed, so *angry* as when Jason almost blithely suggested he kill his child simply because it 'wasn't meant to last'. Harry was that if Voldemort had shown his face at that moment, he would have been ashes before he could register there was a muggle in the room.
Harry had never hated anyone as much as he had hated Jason in that moment.
And the bugger of it all was: he still loved Jason.
TBC
* * * * * * *
AN: *dances around the room, in the street, on the roof top* I finished it! I actually finished it! I'm so sorry that it's taken this long to get out, but here it is now. Feel free to click on that little button you all know and love so well and tell me what a git I am for leaving you all hanging for so long...
And, I know! I haven't made the whole muggle father thing very clear here, and I really should, but I can't seem to make that thing work for me.... *kicks stupid plot device*