Disclaimer: obviously not mine. Why would it be on a fan fiction site?

Chapter thirteen

As the night wore on and Hermione's contractions came closer together, she received numerous visits from all her friends. Malfoy stayed with her the entire time, keeping her occupied by talking to the baby.

It was when her contractions were less than a minute apart that Pomfrey emerged from her office and made Hermione lay on the bed for a check up. Malfoy climbed onto the bed behind her so she was leaning back against his chest. Hermione was beginning to freak out again and when Pomfrey asked if she was ready to push she shook her head vigorously.

"Well I'm afraid you don't have a choice" Pomfrey stated. Hermione let out a gasp of pain and squeezed Malfoy's thighs, digging her nails deep into his skin.

"Hermione if you start pushing then it wont take more than fifteen minutes"

"Fifteen minutes!" she gasped.

"Ok… push!"

Hermione pushed. Pain tore through her entire body. Pain like she never thought existed. She knew childbirth was hard but the stories she had heard could never ever prepare her for this.

What seemed like an eternity later, madam Pomfrey told her she could stop. The pain subsided slightly as the room came back into focus. She could hear people talking, laughing and a baby crying.

Slowly and forcefully, Hermione opened her eyes as Pomfrey placed a neatly wrapped newborn on her stomach.

"It's a girl, we had a girl" Malfoy told her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and hugging her tightly. Hermione laughed and gently lifted the child into her arms.

"She's beautiful," Hermione whispered hoarsely as Malfoy reached over her to stroke the tuffet of dark hair on the Childs head.

"Draco, would you like to cut the cord?" Pomfrey asked, grinning from ear to ear and holding out a pair of scissors. Malfoy, grinning as well, took them and cut the cord. Hermione began to cry.

"Rest for a moment." Pomfrey instructed, taking the baby away to weigh her and test her reflexes. Hermione didn't want to give her up but once the baby was gone she fell back against her pillow, utterly exhausted. Malfoy, still grinning, crawled over the bed and curled up beside her.

"We had a girl," he whispered again. "A beautiful little girl"

Pomfrey finally bought the baby back and gave her to Malfoy who put her on the bed between he and Hermione.

"Shia?" Hermione asked.

"Shia" Malfoy replied.

Shia had a chubby round face with sapphire-blue eyes and ruby-red lips. Her tuffet of hair was pitch black but Pomfrey assured them that it would go blonde like Malfoy's.

"Hermione, your friends want to come in. I suggest you go and bathe and clean yourself up." Pomfrey came and stood over the bed, smiling down at them.

Hermione groaned but got up anyway and trudged to the bathroom. A hot bath was waiting for her and she slipped in gratefully.

She emerged ten minutes later dressed in a light cotton dress with fluffy white bathrobes over the top. Her freshly washed hair was tied back out of the way and her feet were encased in white slippers.

While she had been away, Pomfrey had changed the bloody sheets on her bed and cleaned the place up.

Malfoy was pacing the room with Shia in his arms, humming softly to her. When he saw Hermione he came over and handed Shia to her.

The door at the end of the wing opened and several people came racing in.

Harry reached them first and Hermione slowly lifted Shia into his arms.

"Oh, she is gorgeous!" Parvati said, reached over Harry's shoulder to touch Shia's soft baby face. Hermione smiled then went over to her bed where she curled up on top of it, watching her friends pass her daughter around. A few minutes later Harry came and joined her on the bed.

"Well done, Herm," he said, giving her a quick hug.

"Thanks, Harry. What time is it?"

"Uh…" he glanced down at his watch. "It's just past three in the morning"

"Three in the morning!" Hermione sat up. "How did you manage to stay up until three?"

"Snape tried to send us to bed but Dumbledore appeared and said we could wait up for you to have the baby."

Ginny detached herself from the group and came and sat on Hermione's other side.

"Ginny, I want you to be Shia's godmother" Hermione said formally. Ginny grinned.

"Yeah ok"

"Thanks"

"Hermione?"

"Mmm?"

"Your still fat" Ginny giggled and poked her. Hermione poked her back. The door at the end of the ward opened again and Dumbledore and McGonagall came in.

"Congratulation, Hermione" Dumbledore said, standing at the end of her bed and smiling at her.

"Thank you, sir. Would you like to hold her?"

"Please" Dumbledore winked at Harry then turned and collected the child from Ron. When Dumbledore had finished holding her, Malfoy's friends, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, showed up to congratulate their mate.

After that, madam Pomfrey ushered all the students out of the wing so Hermione could feed Shia and get some sleep. Luckily for Hermione, feeding Shia for the first time was a breeze. The hardest thing she found was that she was up two hours later, feeding her again.

Hermione and Shia spent the last few days of school in the hospital wing. Malfoy came to visit them every chance he got which was quite often after he had finally dumped Pansy.

The train ride back to London was extremely peaceful and very enjoyable. Shia spent the whole trip asleep in Malfoy's compartment so Hermione was able to spend her last few hours with her friends. In one part of the trip Harry and Parvati disappeared for an extended amount of time. When they returned they were both red in the face.

On the platform Hermione said a quick goodbye to Ron and Harry and promised to come visit them before she ran to meet Malfoy at the barrier. It had only been three days since the birth but Hermione was already almost back to her normal weight and looked as if she'd never been pregnant and simply put on a pound or two.

Neither Malfoy nor Hermione had had time to buy anything like baby seats, or bassinets or carrycots or even personal clothing (at the moment she was dressed in a plain white suit.) so Malfoy had her wrapped in his arms.

The first thing Hermione saw when they exited the train station was Charlie leaning against a black stretch limo.

"I took the liberty of asking him and your maid to move in to," Malfoy said as the burly man came towards them.

"She's beautiful!" Charlie scooped little Shia up in his arms and cuddled her as Malfoy's driver loaded their trunks into the car. Charlie held out his hand to shake Malfoy's. "Good job"

"Do you think we should stop and buy her a bed and some clothes?" Hermione asked once they were in the car and driving towards the airport.

"Nah. Mum's a sucker for kids. I'd say she'd have already got the basics. You can go get her other stuff tomorrow if you want"

Hermione nodded and looked down at Shia. She was so perfect that Hermione thought she might break if she touched her. She reached out and let her hand hover over her daughter's calm face. At the same time she felt Malfoy's arm slide over her shoulders. She looked up at him and he grinned.

"We're going to have fun"

The flight to Denmark didn't take much time and before long they were in another limo driving up the drive to Malfoy's palace.

Narcissa Malfoy met them at the front door with open arms.

"Thank you for letting me stay here, Mrs Malfoy" Hermione said pleasantly as Narcissa scooped up the baby.

"Call me Narcissa, Please. Oh she looks just like you, Hermione! Same round face and luscious red lips!"

"She looks more like Draco" Hermione stated with a small smile. "Madam Pomfrey says she'll probably have blonde hair and she already has his eyes"

"Isn't she a beauty!" Malfoy's three assassins apparated in with a crack and crowded around the two women. Mark, the Aussie, was peering over Narcissa's shoulder.

"Would you lot get over here and help?" Malfoy called from the car where he and Charlie were struggling with the trunks.

"Wimp" Mark muttered and the three men strode over to the car.

"Come, Hermione. I'll show you the nursery. I decorated it myself!" Narcissa said proudly, turning and leading Hermione into the house. Hermione hesitated then followed.

Narcissa led her to the third floor of the palace and into a large room with a massive four-poster bed made of mahogany and matching furniture.

"This doesn't look like a nursery," Hermione said slowly, taking in the deep red tones on the quilt. Narcissa laughed.

"No dear, this is your room. The nursery is through here" Narcissa went to a gold tapestry on the left side of the room and pulled it back. Hermione stepped into the slightly smaller yet brightly lit nursery. Everything was in a brightly lit colour of red, green, blue, yellow, pink and purple.

"At least its not all pink" Hermione said, doing a full turn so she could see everything. There was a white cot fixed with a mosquito net in the centre of the room. To one side was a changing table fitted with draws. On the other side was a tall cabinet with a scattering of ornaments set on top of it. The rest of the room was dedicated to hundreds of stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes.

"Babies need colour, not sexism. I remember when Draco was born; Lucius had the entire room blue. Thank god he's out of our lives now" Narcissa looked down at Shia then placed her in the cot. She turned and looked at Hermione.

"You have slimmed down beautifully since the birth. Your very lucky."

"Yes I know" Hermione went over to the dresser and opened it. It was empty.

"I thought you might like to choose her clothes. We'll go shopping tomorrow"

"Oh shopping! I love shopping!" Kellie made her appearance at that moment. She was carrying a huge bunch of flowers, which she handed to Hermione. "From your father"

Hermione put the flowers on the changing table and pulled Kellie over to look at Shia.

"Oh what a cutie, miss!"

"She is, isn't she?" Hermione reached down into the cot and straightened Shia's blanket.

Hermione didn't think she was so cute at three the next morning when she was being woken from a peaceful sleep by her daughters frantic screaming. Blinded by much needed sleep; Hermione dragged herself out of bed and into the nursery. A silencing spell had been placed on the room so no one except Hermione (who had a baby monitor) could hear her. Hermione wasted no time in feeding the baby and changing her nappy and yet the crying persisted. After ten minutes of Hermione trying desperately to get her to sleep, Kellie entered the room looking quite awake for after three.

"Oh did we wake you, Kellie?" Hermione groaned apologetically.

"Of course not. I have a monitor."

"You don't have to be up"

"Its my job"

"Well make sure I give you a raise tomorrow, ok?"

"Will do. Here, let me try" Kellie took Shia and began rocking her.

Ten minutes later she was still screaming.

"Maybe she's sick" Hermione said for the fifth time, taking Shia back in her own arms so Kellie could rest.

"She isn't sick" Kellie assured her, yet again.

"Well what's wrong with her?"

"I don't know; I'm not a mother!"

"Having night troubles, are we?" Narcissa came waltzing into the room with a wide grin spread across her pretty face.

"You have a monitor too?" Hermione asked in a drawn out, strained voice.

"Of course I do!"

"So you've been laying there for thirty minutes listening to her cry?"

"I wasn't sure if you were the kind of mother who snapped at help."

"If help means I can go back to bed then help away"

Narcissa laughed and scooped Shia up, tightened her blanket then began rocking her gently. Kellie watched, amazed, for a moment before leaving. Hermione stayed until Narcissa had the baby sleeping again.

"You're a god send, Narcissa" Hermione said as Narcissa placed Shia back in her cot.

"After raising Draco I can do anything!" she said happily before dancing out of the room. Hermione shook her head, watched Shia for a moment then went downstairs for some water. On the way back she noticed Draco's bedroom door open a crack. She pushed it open and peered inside.

Malfoy looked like an angel curled up in his masses of emerald green blankets. His face was so peaceful that Hermione wondered briefly what worried him so much that he didn't look this peaceful all the time. Without thinking, Hermione entered the room and crawled under the covers of his bed. He snuffled gently and rolled over as Hermione cuddled up to his warm body and fell asleep.

In the arms of an angel
Fly away from here
From this dark cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort there

So she has a baby now! And she's sleeping with Malfoy! Hope you liked…