Hermione woke up slightly stiff and unsure of where she was. The light was strange, and Charlie was snoring, not positioned quite right.
She remembered. They had been celebrating having the house to themselves again after sheltering Draco for the week. It meant they'd worn themselves out and fallen asleep on the sofa in an extremely compromising position, as was their right as hardworking newlyweds about to be slammed by a baby in a few months.
Carefully, she sat up, gently turning Charlie by his shoulders, easing into the space she'd been filling. His noisy breathing stuttered and quieted into soft, deep waves.
His hair had grown long enough since the cut she'd given him right before they left Romania for her to be able to tuck a waving red lock of it behind his ear. At her touch, he sighed in his sleep, as if aware she was nearby, pleased to have her there, but too tired to do much about it.
A coy smile blossomed on her face, determined to get more than this serene reaction out of him. She was bending toward him, her mouth opening to close around his earlobe when something settled in the fireplace, falling into the grate.
Hermione jumped, sitting upright, away from Charlie who slept on. He was undisturbed in spite of her snatching at the afghan they'd slept underneath, frantically covering herself with it in case someone was coming through the Floo.
When it was clear no one was there, she laughed quietly at herself. All that brazen talk last night about the thrill of being caught here - in the daylight, she no longer meant any of it. The thought of anyone finding them here like this was mortifying, especially if the person who discovered them was Draco.
She unwound the afghan from around Charlie, wrapping all of it around herself, and placed the largest cushion she could reach over the most vulnerable parts of him. He looked like the subject of a raunchy painting, and she giggled to herself as she tiptoed up the stairs to shower and get dressed.
As it turned out, her timing must have been charmed. No sooner had Hermione turned on the water than the Floo in the lounge truly did flare to life. With a flash, Draco Malfoy came through to find himself confronted with sleeping Charlie wearing nothing but a throw pillow.
Draco yelped in surprise. Between his outburst and the heat and clamour of the Floo, Charlie was waking up, rubbing his eyes with one hand and pushing himself to sitting with the other.
"Don't get up!" Draco hollered at him.
Confused, Charlie looked down at himself, swearing softly as he clasped the pillow to himself. "What's she done? Hermione?"
"Honestly, Weasley," Draco said. "I've never met a grown man as carelessly immodest as you. By now, I think I could draw a map of the freckles on your back if I was pressed. I don't know if it comes from the bad habits of living in close quarters with your oversized family or - "
Still sleepy and confused, Charlie shook his head. "Oversized - what?"
Draco scoffed as bleary eyed Charlie scanned the room for something more to cover up with.
"Stop showing off and just - just summon something to wear," Draco said. "Or - here, take this." He'd taken off his cloak and thrown it over Charlie on the sofa.
Charlie grappled with it as it sailed over him. "Sorry, Malfoy. But it was you who told us not to expect you back this morning."
"Yes, well, that was before. Goyle he's…" Draco had no words, ending his sentence with just a snarl. "And that house of his has me smelling of swamp."
Charlie slumped into the cloak and pulled it closed, sniffing at the sullied fabric. "From the way Hermione tells it, you probably should have known to expect a comfortable stay at the Goyle's. But what else is it? You're beyond being bothered about a smell."
Draco groaned as he pivoted toward the stairs. "I'm positively livid. As soon as I got there, they handed me over to Daphne, my angry-as-anything sister-in-law."
Charlie gave a low whistle as he rose from the sofa to follow Draco up the stairs.
"Yes, and she showed me visions of Astoria suffering alone in the manor," he went on. "Looks like our plan to make her sorry has worked, Weasley. Worked far too well. So I'm off home to see to my wife as soon as I get cleaned up."
"She's not in any danger, is she?" Charlie asked, following Draco along the upstairs hallway.
Draco paused, his hand on the doorknob of Hermione's childhood bedroom where he'd been staying all week. "That's not something you need to worry about, mate," he said. "Leave it to me. Your job is to prepare Hermione to accept an apology from her. I'm going to insist that Astoria offer one. It's not that she isn't sorry, just that being sorry and saying sorry - well, they aren't quite the same."
Charlie raised his eyebrows, growing philosophical as he became more alert. "Aren't they?"
Draco cocked his head, thinking for a moment before shaking his head. "Don't needle me with your finer points of ethical behaviour, Weasley. Now for star's sake, put some clothes on and give me back my cloak."
By the time Hermione came downstairs for breakfast, Draco had left for the manor. In his place was Percy, always the early riser of the Weasley family. He was sitting at the kitchen table, a stack of spell books at hand along with a black satchel like an old-fashioned Muggle doctor's bag. Charlie was piling boiled eggs and beans on the plate in front of him, the sad excuse for breakfast in the Granger-Weasley household now that Draco had left them.
Percy gulped an egg and washed it down with his tea. "Listen to yourself, Charlie. You're telling me you want a thorough ante-natal check up, a clean bill of health for Hermione and the baby so you can go ahead and help the Malfoys to a tier four Gravida Sympatico spell?"
For some reason, Charlie hushed him. "Yes, actually. And since Hermione and Draco are still in the public eye, we're not risking a gossip storm by going to a professional midwife for it. We're asking you."
Percy cracked a second boiled egg against the tabletop, peeling it nimbly. "You're asking me to take our mother's latest unborn grandchild," at this he held the clean peeled egg between his face and Charlie's, "and put them into a complicated fertility spell where they are the more vital of the two pregnancies? Not to mention the father on the other side is a former..." Percy didn't finish, unable to say the words "Death Eater." Instead he dropped the egg on his toast and mashed it with his fork.
Charlie rolled his eyes and shoved a triangle of toast into Percy's mouth.
Percy hid the mashed egg under a forkful of beans as Hermione came into the kitchen.
"Morning," she sang as she stepped up behind Charlie and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Give over and trust us, Percy," Charlie finished.
"It's not you I don't trust."
"We'll only consider proceeding with the spell if it's safe," Charlie insisted, taking Hermione's hand and kissing it. "Nothing's been decided for certain yet, but we're never going to have the information we need to make a good decision without your help. I've learned how to conjure a visualization of the fetal heartbeat, but we need Hermione's blood and energies analysed."
"And since I'm not a dragon, that's beyond Charlie," Hermione said.
"It's true. Her vital signs would be most alarming on a dragon."
"Please, Percy," she said. "The Malfoys are already pregnant, so..."
He swallowed his toast. "Fine, I'll work it up. But not because I think it's a good idea. It isn't."
Hermione stretched herself on the sofa and waited for Percy to begin his exam. He conjured the heartbeat visualization first. It was more golden and robust than ever, faster than Hermione's own heartbeat but steady, with a sound like a clock at the bottom of a well.
"There she is," Hermione cooed at the sight of the orb.
"She?" Charlie smirked.
"Sure, why not?" Hermione said. "Is it alright if I touch it?"
She had been asking Percy but Charlie answered. "Yeah, Astoria touched hers and…"
He didn't finish, frozen in his tracks by Hermione's sudden sadness. They had to get past this. Charlie took Hermione's hand and dipped her fingertips into the golden light.
The ice cracked as she let out a laugh of surprise. "It's so warm," she said. "As warm and golden as freshly brewed Felix Felicis."
Charlie drew her hand back, her fingers still glowing, and kissed them.
"So that's the fun part done," Percy said as the spell faded from the end of his wand. "Now for the medical bits."
He used a ribbon marked with numbers to measure from the top of her uterus to a point deep in her pelvis.
"Just under 24 weeks, I'd say" he mused. "Coming along but still not old enough to make it on its own."
"That's a dour way to look at it," Hermione chided him as she extended her arm over the side of the sofa.
"Dour. That's our Percy," Charlie smirked.
Percy accepted it as if he was proud. His expression couldn't have been more serious as he lanced the tip of Hermione's ring finger with a small silver knife. A rich red drop hung from her finger, and he smeared it on a square of glass. He raised his wand over it, moving and muttering incantations as he read her blood.
"Lovely, lovely," he said. "No dourness here. Everything as it should be except for your iron level. It's rather low. You must be exhausted."
"Yes, but that's just me. I exhaust myself. Always," Hermione explained.
"Well, stop it," Percy said. "Charlie, you've got to get her to rest. I'll give her a medical boost with an iron restorer potion to drink." He searched his pockets as he spoke. "You'll hate it, Hermione, but force it down. It's nasty stuff. Looks and tastes like rusty black treacle. Audrey and I are currently working on a new formulation, but it's not ready yet. Oh bother, where is it? Has it fallen out of my pocket?"
Hermione sat up to help him look through the sofa cushions.
"It's in a plain grey bottle. About as big as my thumb," he said. "And now that I think of it, I may have left it in the kitchen. One minute."
He had just left when from beneath a cushion, Hermione pulled out a remote control, a ballpoint pen, and exactly the bottle Percy had described.
"Oh, here it is," she chirped, prying open its black glass stopper. "Percy, I've got it!"
Charlie watched for Percy to come back as she took a swig from the bottle.
Hermione gagged but managed to keep the mouthful down. "Stars, it's worse than Polyjuice," she said, swiping the back of her hand across her mouth.
Charlie took the open bottle from her and sniffed at its mouth. The potion's vapours burned his nose and he capped it with the stopper with such force he might have broken the bottle if it hadn't been made of stone.
At the clatter of the stopper, Percy stopped in the doorway, petrified, his eyes wide. "What is that?"
"Your potion," Hermione moaned, lying back on the sofa, her arms crossing over her abdomen. "So awful."
Charlie's senses piqued at the fear on Percy's face. Their eyes met over where Hermione lay moaning on the sofa. Percy raised his hand, and in it was another grey stone bottle, this one with a stopper made of green glass.
The brothers rushed to Hermione, neither wanting to send her into a panic, both of them terrified.
"How are you feeling, Hermione?" Percy said, his tone grave.
"Bad," she said. "Like a period mixed with food poisoning mixed with a stab wound. I've never had an iron restoring potion before. I had no idea or I wouldn't have drank so much so quickly."
Percy and Charlie exchanged another horrified glance. "It wasn't iron you drank, love," Charlie said. "That bottle you found in the sofa - do you know what else it could have been?"
Her face blanched white. "What else - how could it - no!" She fell into strained silence, her back arching as if she was trying to escape her body, a clenching, burning pain waving over her abdomen.
"I've never seen a bottle like this in the house before," Charlie told Percy. "I can't imagine what it is."
"Maybe not, but it's clear what it's doing to her," Percy said. "This pain is uterine contractions. Strong ones. Strong enough to..."
"The - the baby?" Charlie stammered, staring into Hermione's face, her eyes closed even as the pain ebbed away for a moment.
Percy nodded. "We need to know what the potion was. Who else has been in the house? Who might have left this here? If we know, we might be able to find an antidote. Calm down and think, Charlie."
Charlie closed his open mouth, swallowing hard. "Draco."
Percy sneered, barely restraining himself from shouting out loud that they should have known fraternizing with the Malfoys would come to this. A comment like that wouldn't have helped anything but it wouldn't have been wrong either. A scene replayed in Charlie's mind, Draco's cloak falling over him this morning, reeking of Goyle Hall, landing on this sofa with something evil tucked into its pockets that found its way under the cushions.
Charlie sprung to his feet already casting a Patronus, a swooping silvery chimera flying off to bring Draco back to answer for this.
Without any more consulting with Percy, Charlie was gathering Hermione in his arms, desperate to apparate with her to St. Mungo's.
Percy understood and grabbed at Charlie's arm. "She can't travel that way. Think about it, Charlie. All that squeezing and tugging at the navel. It will stimulate stronger contractions. She might lose more than the pregnancy in the act of traveling. She might be injured herself - "
"I've apparated with a woman with a threatening miscarriage before," Charlie said, shaking him off.
"And if that woman's uterus was still small enough to be safely inside her pelvis, that would have been fine. But Hermione's way past that."
"Then I'll have to fly her."
"On a broom?" Percy raved. "If anyone could make it to the hospital in time on a broom, it would be you, Charlie, but - if you don't make it, she could bleed to death in mid-air. If you stay here, at least I can help - "
Cradled in Charlie's arms, Hermione was beginning to whimper again, the pain from the potion mounting.
Charlie coughed out a sob. "I can't just sit here!"
He summoned his broom, and just as it landed at his feet, Draco came crashing out of the Floo.
He fell to his knees on the floor, panting not with exertion, with grief. "Abortifacea Dolorus," he blurted. "That's what Goyle said it was. He wanted me to give it to Astoria so I could divorce her cleanly. I never had any intention - "
"No," Percy was saying. "No, no. That's a black market potion. Deliberately crafted without an antidote. Even if we got her to St. Mungo's they'd have nothing for her, no guarantee - "
"Get out of my way, Percy," Charlie said, shaking him off again. "I'll fly her there and take my chances without a guarantee. I will not just wait here while she suffers."
Percy gave in, nodding and bending to hand Charlie the broom. Any rescue was doomed. He knew it. But Charlie would recover better from this tragedy if he'd felt like he tried everything last thing he could. Percy set the broom hovering for Charlie to step over, and he hadn't yet lifted his leg when the Floo was flaring at his back again.
Astoria had arrived. She didn't speak a word to anyone but crossed the floor and took hold of Charlie by both arms, Hermione moaning between them. "I'm here to fix it, Charlie. I owe you both that. Let me fix it. Lay her down."
He was shaking his head. "We haven't got time to soothe your feelings today."
"Forget me," she said through gritted teeth, her grip on his arms exceeded her natural strength, tight enough to mark his flesh. "Forget all about me as anything but the way through Goyle's potion. The only way through it."
Draco was at her side, the four of them not quite touching. "Astoria, we have to let them go."
"Gravida Sympatico," she called over his voice. "It's still the best spell for saving a doomed pregnancy. Only, at this moment, our child is the one in this pair with the greatest vitality. So I'm," her grip tightened even as her voice quavered, her eyes shiny with tears. "I'm switching our roles in the spell. Let us offer our vitality."
Draco gasped, staggering slightly. And as he found his footing again, his head began to nod. "Yes," he said. "This is the way."
Percy lifted his chin from his chest. "They're right, Charlie. It might work. The spell has no chemical or biological mechanism. Purely magical. It's all we have left."
Charlie made a pained growl. "It might work if their child wasn't so tiny and weak. They need all their vitality. If you share any of it, that might be the end of them."
He fell silent as Hermione squirmed in his arms, her contraction peaking. Charlie held her, his lips pressed to her sweating forehead.
Astoria watched as the contraction waned. Then she spoke, low and firm. "If you'd never met us, this wouldn't be happening to you. We are in your debt, and we will repay it."
Draco winced. "It's true, Weasley. This is all down to us. Down to me trailing that poison behind me, bringing it here."
"Shut it, Malfoy," Charlie roared. "It was a complete accident. There's no way we'd expect you to sacrifice your own family over it."
"What sacrifice?" Astoria cried back at him. "If your child dies, it's just a matter of weeks before ours dies too without a Gravida Sympatico spell to seal this pregnancy and make it viable."
"Yes," Draco said, his eyes red with tears now. "You have to let us do this. We're the awful, selfish Malfoys, remember? Saving your child is the only chance we have of saving our own."
Charlie thrashed his head from side to side, tortured. "There's still a chance yours will survive on its own, or with another couple. You can't calculate - "
"No!" Astoria shouted at him. "Take it. Don't be noble. Take it with our love and our sorrow."
At the sound of Astoria's voice, Hermione's hand reached out, blindly groping for Astoria's arm.
"Hermione, tell him to do it," Astoria said, catching her hand. "Order him. Tell him he has to take the chance."
She couldn't answer, the pain clawing at her again.
Percy spoke up. "The contractions can't be this close together already. It shouldn't be possible. It's the curse, the potion. It's like she's being torn apart. She must be losing blood by now."
"Torture. Just like Goyle said," Draco moaned.
Charlie couldn't bring himself to look for blood. What good would knowing do? He heaved one more sob, furious as he laid her down on the rug. "The spell. Do it."
There was a flurry of limbs and wands. Percy positioned everyone. Hermione lay on her back, her head in Astoria's lap as she knelt on the rug. Astoria's right arm was linked through Draco's, her left through Charlie's, each of the men holding Hermione's hands.
The spell began when Astoria laid her palms on the sides of Hermione's head. The jolt of natural affinity they had first felt weeks ago in the library of Malfoy Manor ran through them. The first time, it had been warm and invigorating. This time, in the crisis of Hermione's poisoning, it was pain, fear.
Percy saw the change in all of them at once, and he looked to Astoria one final time, questioning. She turned to Draco, kissed him hard on the mouth. "I'm so sorry, darling. All of you darlings. I've cost us everything. If I'd behaved better - "
"None of that," Draco said.
"No, I have to," Astoria said. "So she'll trust me. Hermione, please. I'm sorry."
Hermione said nothing, her eyes and jaw clenched shut.
Astoria's chin quivered, but she looked up at Percy. "Begin."
Percy held Hermione's wand in his left hand, Astoria's in his right. He raised Astoria's first, conjuring the glowing gold orb, pulsing with the life in her womb. It was as fast and frantic as it had been when she first saw it with Charlie, after her fall in the rain. The sound it made was tinny, like static on an old Muggle television from when they were children. Percy didn't hide his look of dismay. He had hoped it would be stronger.
But Astoria nodded at him, tears wet on her cheeks now. Percy pushed her wand into Draco's empty hand, linked through Astoria's arm.
Setting his jaw, eyes narrowed, his mouth pressed into a hard line, Percy raised Hermione's wand and conjured the orb over her middle. It was larger than Astoria's, louder, illuminating everyone's face like firelight. Its edges strained at their round shape, volatile as a tiny star about to supernova.
Charlie was grabbing for Hermione's wand, taking it from Percy.
Her voice was audible over the static and thud of the orbs. Another contraction, the worst yet, was coming over her. Draco recognized the sound from that night in the drawing room, when his aunt had cursed her, over and over. His hand shook as he held Astoria's wand, a cry in his own voice barely held back.
"Interpose the orbs," Percy called.
Slowly, Draco and Charlie moved the mismatched, sputtering globes of light toward one another. There was a gravity between them, bending them together as they came closer.
"Hermione, please," Astoria said, bowing over Hermione's face. "Do you trust me yet?"
Hermione's voice was rising, like a wave cresting. It sounded like agony, and at the apex of it she called out a word. "Yes!"
The men couldn't hold the orbs back. They sprung from the wand tips and into each other, swirling and flaring. There weren't two orbs anymore but one, burning larger than the sum of both of them.
Charlie gasped. Were they both gone now? He glanced at Percy, startling him into action.
"The incantation!" Percy said. "Everyone, repeat after me…"
He spoke the words, and as the members of the spell repeated them, Hermione held Charlie and Draco's hands against her abdomen, where the orb had first emerged.
As the words of the incantation ended, the fused orbs flew apart, scattering into sparks, drifting and falling. In the new silence no one spoke, no one moved. And then the sparks rekindled, eddying like whirlpools about the room. They were forming into a ball again, spinning toward where Hermione still lay.
It was back. Charlie and Hermione's perfect golden orb was crackling heartily over her abdomen, uncursed, saved. Her pain had stopped, her eyes opened, and she lifted the hand she held entwined with Charlie's and dipped it into the warm, golden glow.
And Astoria...she fell backward, away from the light, into Draco's arms.
"I'm so sorry," was all she could say.
He hushed her again. "Don't try to speak, love."
"Draco," she whispered. "I knew it might end like this, but I hoped…"
"We'll survive it," he said, kissing her forehead, her cheeks. "We always do."
"Not this time," Hermione said, her voice strong and bold again. Still holding Charlie's hand she sat up and laid her palm low on Astoria's abdomen as Draco held her.
Sparks were gathering again, drawn by Hermione's restored vitality. Above her hand, the sparks were revolving around each other, re-forming into an orb.
Draco let out a cry. "Astoria look. Open your eyes."
She looked to see the smoothest, brightest orb she had ever seen emanating from her own body.
Charlie shouted a laugh.
"Well done!" Percy cheered.
Slowly, Hermione withdrew her hand. The orb stayed over Astoria, not flickering or fading. The vitalities of the unborn children had multiplied themselves, and they were both safe.
Hermione bent over Astoria's head, and kissed her.
Before he left, Percy ordered all four of them to rest and to stay connected. He would be back with Audrey to check on everyone when the sun went down.
That was how Charlie and Hermione Weasley came to spend an entire day lying in their bed with Draco and Astoria Malfoy.
The women faced each other, their legs crossed near the ankles. The men held each of them from behind.
"It's rather nice," Draco said, smoothing Astoria's hair with his cheek. He'd gone a week hardly touching her at all, and was quite happy to spend a full day cuddling. "Mother and father never let me have sleepovers. Not even on special occasions like this."
Charlie snorted. "I spent my entire childhood double bunked. I took up faking a snore as a bid to get some space."
"And now there's no more faking about it," Hermione laughed.
"Not after all the years of brimstone fume damage to the inside of my nose there isn't," Charlie quipped in return.
"Really, Charlie, that's shocking. We'll brew you a vaporizer for that. Won't we, Draco?" Astoria said.
"For Weasley? Anything," he said.
"Nah, Hermione loves the snoring," Charlie said.
"Do I?"
"Sure you do. Show them." Charlie exaggerated a snuffle against her ear until she squealed.
"Stop that! Not in front of our company. Not even our dearest friends," she said, trailing off into a smile she knew had to be sappy but couldn't help all the same.
Draco understood it was up to him to spoil the moment. "So are our children siblings or spouses? Because either way, I think I might be a Weasley now, and I'm quite shook up about it."
"Oh, we have a Muggle-born sister in Hermione now," Astoria beamed. "How exotic."
"Sister!" Draco raved. "Madam Weasley is NOT my sister. No, not after - she can't be, or that'd mean the best snog at Hogwarts - "
He was cut short as Hermione thumped him on the head with a pillow. "I say we never mention this spell to the children. If the magic is any good, they'll sort it out themselves."
"Not mention it - aren't you Dumbledore's pet," Draco muttered, trying to flip his hair back into place without letting go of Astoria.
"No, I like it," Astoria agreed. "We'll just keep them close, be good to each other, and let them love each other whatever way they like."
"Even if it's as penpals from another country," Charlie said.
A chorus of protests went up from the three other parents.
"Now really, you want me to sign off on some Malfoy boy thinking he has a magical claim to chase after my daughter?" Charlie smirked from over Hermione's shoulder.
"Your and Hermione's daughter will be able to handle herself in a chase," Astoria said. "But she won't need to worry. I plan on raising our Scorpius as a gentleman."
Behind her head, Draco raised his eyebrows. Whether it was at the gentleman bit or at the name Scorpius, the Weasleys wouldn't dare ask.
By the afternoon everyone was napping. Charlie's breathing was the deepest, but not a fully formed snore. Hermione opened her eyes and found Draco propped on one elbow, watching Astoria sleep.
"Hey," she whispered across the bed to him.
He smiled at her, nothing smug or taunting about it, just a genuine smile. She reached out her hand and he linked his little finger through hers. "What?" he said.
She sighed, but not unhappily. "Of all the destinies I could have had with you, I'm glad I had this one."
He raised their hands and pecked a kiss on the knuckle of her little finger. "Me too."