"Stop. Right there. Don't move a muscle," Susan instructed, looking critically at her best friend as she sat at her desk.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, eyes wide.

"The only thing wrong here is that boulder hanging off of your finger!" She exclaimed, casting an eye over the ring on Hermione's finger. "When did that happen and when were you planning on telling me?!"

"Last night." She beamed, holding her hand up high for Susan to get a better look. "There were horses, a carriage and a field full of paper lanterns."

"And you are here today why?" Susan asked softly, grasping her friend's hand between her fingers and gawking at the rock. "This would have cost more than my flat."

"Is it too much?" Hermione asked in question. "Do you think I should ask for something smaller?" She said with uncertainty.

Susan scoffed loudly, dropping Hermione's hand. "If someone gave me a ring like that, I'd be flaunting it everywhere. The diamond is the size of a small child's head.

"That's a bit of an over-exaggeration."

"Not by much. Now put your resignation in. You've got the man rope, saddled and bridled. You may as well go the whole hog and live your life in the lap of luxury."

A single raised brow was all Hermione needed to give Susan her answer.

"Ok, fine. When is the wedding?" Susan changed the subject quickly.

"Not while I'm looking like I'm two kilos away from morphing into the Michelin Man," she sighed, defeated. "I look and feel terrible."

"We will plan it together once the babies make an appearance," Susan offered.

"That would be wonderful," Hermione replied.

o-o-o-o

"Why are you here?" Susan asked sincerely, watching Hermione struggle to grasp a quill with swollen fingers. Despite her best efforts, her fingers that now somewhat resembled sausages weren't doing what she needed them to do.

"I work here, Susan," she quipped back.

"I know that." She rolled her eyes at the inane reply. "Why are you here in general. You have the richest Wizard in the world wrapped around your little finger and you choose to be here instead of at his lavish mansion surrounded by sprawling acres of perfectly manicured gardens and stable of majestic equines."

"I have a job to do, Susan," Hermione retorted back in a flat monotone voice.

"A job that would replace you two minutes after you dropped dead from stress? A job that no one would bat an eyelid if you resigned. Despite all of Lucius Malfoy's glaring flaws, and trust me, there are many of them. He would travel to the deepest, hottest depths of hell and slay the devil himself with a butter knife if you so desired, Hermione. Look at you, you're swelling up like a balloon, your heartburn can hardly be contained for love nor money, you almost have a heart attack walking up a small flight of stairs you are that unfit, and your feet and ankles are so swollen you won't be able to fit into shoes anymore. You are exactly one month off having these babies, so why not go home to that man who would literally do anything for you and let him look after you, hey? You don't have a point to prove anymore. You did it. You were the first female in this role. You single-handedly proved witches can do anything they put their mind to."

"I am fine. I am pregnant, not dying. This too shall pass, and I will be back better than ever. Yes, Lucius might be loaded but I don't want him to think I am sponging off him." She threw the peacock feather quill down on the desk with a light thud, resigning to the fact she would have to charm it to do the writing for her because there was no way she was holding this for love nor galleons.

"Stop. Being. So Stubborn!" Susan admonished, side-eyeing her best friend. "If I was marrying someone wealthy enough that I never had to work again a day in my life, I can guarantee you I wouldn't be standing here arguing with someone as frustrating and stubborn as yourself. You look so tired. I am sure you will fall asleep at your desk any second. You think Lucius cares if you are 'sponging off him'", she used air quotes as she talked. "He's going to be your husband; he is old school. His whole ideology is that the woman should stay home, and he takes care of her, so quit being a stubborn ass and go home," Susan huffed.

"I'm fine." She waved a dismissive hand airily. "I'll be fine. I enjoy working."

"I'm going on my lunch break," Susan lied. She was going to seek counsel with Lucius and see if he could get Hermione to at least take a break for the rest of the day, if not until the babies were born.

Lucius eyed Susan hesitantly as she walked into his library. Fingers steepled under his chin, he gawked at her with wonder and then panic. "Is she ok?" He asked, tone panicked, leaning forward in his chair.

"She's fine," she said with a tight jaw, "but we need to talk. You need to get her out of the office and back here to rest. I worry she will kill herself with the stress she is under," her voice sincere as she plead with him for help.

An enormous grin spread across his face, and his eyes lit up. "I never knew you were a comedian," he began, a small chuckle emitted from him. "I've tried. I beg her daily, but she is just too-"

"Stubborn to listen to reason!" Susan finished his sentence, frustrated.

"Exactly. I'd get more sense from the front door than I get from her whenever I bring this exact subject up. She seems to think she needs to be this wonder woman who can juggle work and raise babies and make her own money and she won't have it any other way. I'm hoping once she has the babies that is will be a bit of a wake-up call and she might prioritize them over her thankless job."

"Just please try again when she gets home. It would break my heart if she lost those two babies from stress."

"I'll do my best," he promised.

o-o-o-o

"I just don't see what the big deal is if I work. It feels like you and Susan are both against me right now," she bit angrily, throwing her hands high in the air she left the sitting room and walked towards the bedroom, halting eyes wide and mouth agape she glacially looked at the floor. "Well, that can't be good."

"What's not good?" Lucius asked from the other room, causally walking in to see Hermione standing in a puddle of water, looking very unsettled.

"You're still a month off!" Lucius exclaimed, worry sliding into his tone as he raced to her side, casting the argument they were having to the furthest corner of his mind.

"Let me carry you to the bed." He made a move to grab her, but she stopped him.

"I'm about to give birth, not lose my legs. I can still walk. You can, however, get the healer and the midwife."

"Yes. Right." He nodded curtly before leaving the room in mild panic.

"And Susan too," she called out after him, hoping he caught her last message.

Slowly, she walked to the bed and sat on the edge. A sharp pain shot across her abdomen and through her back as if she had been stabbed. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she calmed herself. Everything would be fine. The babies would be fine, the babies would be fine, was the new mantra she whispered to herself repeatedly as she waited what felt an eternity before she heard footsteps heading towards the bedroom.

"Hermione!" Susan exclaimed, skidding to a halt beside the girl and sitting on the bed beside her. "It's all going to be ok," she reassured the other woman, gently rubbing her back rhythmically.

"But what if they aren't?" she choked, tears welling in her eyes. "What if they are sick or worse and it's my fault because I wouldn't listen to you or Lucius because I wanted to prove a point?"

"Don't you think for one second that anything you have done has caused them to come early?"

"But what if it's the stress of my job? You were right, I should've called it quits months ago, but I'm too bloody stubborn to admit defeat."

o-o-o-o

Hours had passed, and labour was progressing. Contractions were closing in on one another as Lucius paced the bedroom without stopping for what seemed like an eternity. Susan sat perched in a chair beside her and the midwife was coaching Hermione on her breathing.

The healer had been and gone, assessing the situation as non-serious and leaving the midwife, an older lady with long waist-length greying hair, small round glasses and sharp features to do her job.

"Deep breath. The baby is just about in the birth canal," the midwife coached. "I can feel it."

"I can't do this!" she screamed. "I can't."

"Well, you have little of a choice," Susan informed her. Taking the woman's hand in her own.

"You need to push now," the midwife informed Hermione.

"I can't," she panted. "They can stay in there."

"On the count of three, push. One. Two. Three."

Hermione bit her own tongue hard to take away from the searing pain she felt radiating throughout her body and down into her pelvic area. Push after push with a force she had never felt in her life combined with a pain she'd never experienced, she heard the shrill cry of a newborn baby taking its first breath in the world.

Cheek's red eyes heavy and sweat adorning her brow, she reached out and took the first baby, a boy. He had the trademark platinum blonde hair that passed through the Malfoy line never faltering and the sharp angles of his father's facial features.

"He's perfect," she cooed, holding the tiny hand between her fingers and smiling before the second wave of contractions swept over her relentlessly.

"You need to push again," the midwife instructed.

"I can't. I've got nothing left," she panted, feeling shaky and lightheaded.

"We don't really have much choice. You need to push now."

Summoning energy from Merlin knew where she pushed once, twice, thrice before the shrill sound of the baby's first cry filled the air. The midwife quickly wrapped the baby in a blanket and handed it to her.

"A girl," she said simply, placing the baby in the crook of her second arm. The blazing platinum blonde hair adorning her head, just like her brother.

"A girl?" Lucius asked with a question. "Are you sure?"

"Well, I've delivered babies for the past twenty years, so I feel I am more than able to get the gender correct. That's a girl if I've ever seen one," the midwife said sarcastically as she began packing up her belongings into a small black bag.

"They are a little on the small side but don't you worry about those babies. Even at a month early they are as healthy as horses."

"Well, horses aren't very healthy," Lucius Scoffed. "The wind blows in the wrong direction, and they are on the ground colicking with a broken leg."

The midwife looked over her glasses at him and narrowed her eyes. "You know very well what I meant, Mister Malfoy. It's a saying, don't take it so literal."

Lucius reached down and gently took his daughter from Hermione and cradled her in the crook of his arm lovingly. "There hasn't been a female Malfoy born in the Malfoy line for at least a hundred years." He ran a thumb gently over his daughter's cheek in a soothing manner. "It truly is a miracle."

Gently leaning down, he dropped a kiss upon Hermione's forehead with gentle adoration and no words were needed to express how happy he truly was right in the moment. His life had changed from bleak and heartbreaking to joyous and full of love, and he couldn't be any prouder of his future wife than he was now.

"They are beautiful," Susan cooed, reaching over and taking the baby boy's hand in between her thumb and index finger and casting a glance up to Lucius. "You don't make half bad babies I guess."

A small smile spread across his face. "Is that a compliment?" He asked jovially. "And you aren't so bad after all either, Susan."

The two watched one another for a moment, giving the other a curt nod of understanding and both knew from here on in there would be a mutual appreciation for one another.

A/N: I am so sorry. I didn't realise it had been SEPTEMBER! since I last updated. Where does the time go?!

-Aliasmel1