Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
After the rather intense night the two had in the playroom, Tom had started teasing Harry in a much more tasteful manner. Instead of groping himself, he'd simply give Harry a heated look from across the room. Or he'd wink after an innuendo. Sometimes, he even neglected to wear anything but a frilly pair of lace knickers to bed.
It was driving Harry insane.
Harry had spent a long time contemplating the man that had become his slave. The love confession had affected Harry's emotions more than he ever thought would be possible. He had assumed he'd have his fun with the man and consider him solely a pet. He hadn't thought that he'd come to care for him any more than that and yet here he was, several months after that subspace confession, and still thinking about how the words had made his heart flip quite pleasantly. He stood, drawing the attention of Tom away from the bread dough he was kneading.
"I'm going to Diagon Alley for a quick errand. I'll be back shortly." Tom nodded, used to Harry leaving for small errands at random times.
He apparated directly to a specialty shop and picked out something that would make his pet very happy indeed. The price was incredibly high, but it was worth it.
With a carefully wrapped box in hand, Harry went back home and found Tom tending to his succulent garden on the back patio. He wrapped his arms around Tom and kissed his neck just under his ear.
"You're back sooner than I thought you'd be."
"I didn't have any unexpected detours today." Tom turned in his arms and wrapped his hands around Harry's shoulders.
"And what, pray tell, have you gone gallivanting off for this time? Another meeting with the goblins at Gringotts?"
"No actually, I left to get you a gift." Tom's eyes lit up at that. He loved receiving gifts, but Harry had never directly given him one before like this. Usually, gifts ended up being put away as soon as he'd return and Tom would find them later.
"What is it?" Harry could practically taste how excited Tom was as he held out the little box.
"Open it and find out." He watched as Tom gently undid the ribbon and lifted the lid to unveil an incredibly soft basilisk skin collar. It was wide with diamonds in a thin row down the middle. The buckle was platinum, reflecting quite nicely with the diamonds. Tom's eyes were huge, the shock was written across even his fingertips as he gently caressed the green scales.
"It's so soft…"
"Did you never touch the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets? Basilisk skin is stronger and more durable than dragon hide and it's incredibly soft. I wouldn't want welts to form on anything other than your arse-and even then, only when I specifically mean to put them there." Harry swore he could see tears swimming in Tom's eyes.
Tom lifted the collar and gingerly held it out to Harry. Smiling, Harry took it and gently buckled it into place before placing a light kiss over the platinum.
"There's another gift in there for you, you know." Tom looked down and gasped at the innocent vial residing where the collar had just been moments before. "You can take it if you want to, but only if you want to. I won't force you if you don't want that. It's good for six months and there's more in your nightstand. Only take one a day, there's enough doses for up to seven days. Healers won't prescribe more than that at a time. And Tom?" Tom was blinding with how happy he was at that moment. "You don't have to tell me when you take it if you want it to be a surprise. But I do expect you to tell me if it works." Suddenly, Harry's lips were too busy getting reacquainted with Tom's lips to say much more on the matter.
The two didn't leave bed for practically the entire next week. Tom loved his collar and made a point to tell Harry every single morning when he woke up and every single night before he fell asleep.
It was a particularly hot and sticky day outside when Tom finally joined Harry in the sitting room. There was a cooling charm on the room, and Tom laid down on the couch and sighed in relief.
"Well, if you hadn't taken so long in the bath, you wouldn't be so overheated," Harry chuckled. He stretched out his legs under his desk and put the book down when he noticed Tom wasn't in clothing but in a silk dressing gown. "Tom? Are you alright?"
Tom nodded and groaned before shaking his head. Harry rushed to his side and laid the back of his hand on Tom's forehead.
"Well, you don't feel warm. What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, necessarily." Confusion flooded Harry's mind. What could possibly make Tom take a longer than usual bath, wander around the house in a dressing gown and act like he's sick if nothing was wrong?
"You're not ill?"
"Not anymore, that was what took so long in the bathroom." Alarm replaced the confusion.
"You were sick? Why didn't you say anything? I'll go get a healer-"
"Harry! I'm fine, didn't you hear me the first time?" The confusion came back with a vengeance.
"But you just said…"
"That I was sick, not that I am currently. I don't need a healer right now, just an hour or two of rest. And maybe some tea. Raspberry tea sounds lovely." Harry was practically beside himself. Tom was ill and he was worried about tea of all things?
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong with you so I can stop worrying or am I going to be worrying all day and ending up calling for a healer before the night is out?" Tom sighed, seemingly a bit put out.
"I'll tell you later this afternoon, how about that?" Reluctantly, Harry agreed before making Tom his raspberry tea.
Lunch hadn't even been an hour ago when Tom had brought Harry a small box. Harry looked up at Tom in confusion. He hadn't taken Tom out in days and certainly hadn't been away from him, so how could Tom have procured a gift?
"I hope you don't mind...I used some of the money you left in the kitchen and placed an owl order this morning with it."
"I don't mind at all. I meant it when I told you that you could place orders without consulting me first. Like the collar, you've earned that privilege." Relief shone in Tom's eyes that were pointedly flicking between Harry and the box. Harry tore through the wrapping and sat in his chair staring at a pair of cream coloured booties.
"Tom?"
"Hm?"
"Are these...booties?" Shock was the only thing holding Harry's voice steady.
"Yes." Several moments of silence passed.
"Tom?"
"Hm?"
"Are you telling me that you're pregnant?"
"Yes, I believe I am." Harry dropped the box back onto the desk he was sitting at and stood to face Tom who suddenly looked very nervous.
"You're telling me that in a few months you'll be heavy and swollen with our child?" Harry's left hand wrapped around Tom's back and his right was placed over Tom's midsection. When Tom nodded, Harry grinned and kissed Tom.
It was far from perfect. It was all teeth and gasping and all too gentle but entirely not enough. They finally pulled apart when Harry's laughter finally made it impossible to try to continue.
"I love you. I love you both so much."
Tom's hand came to rest on his cheek, a smile lighting up his countenance. "We love you as well."
It was the best and the worst of times for Harry. Tom was sick every single night from just before dinner until bedtime. Morning sickness indeed. The overly used nickname was the biggest lie Harry had ever heard. He had a healer in once a week to check on Tom and the baby, much to Tom's chagrin. Even the healer had told Harry it wasn't necessary to check this often before the last trimester but Harry had insisted and offered to pay double the healer's normal rates for her troubles.
It wasn't long before Tom's nausea had dissipated, allowing him to actually eat supper and take an evening cup of tea-although it always had to be raspberry. Every other tea turned his stomach. Shortly after Tom started eating properly, his baby bump started showing. In short, Harry was obsessed with it. He was constantly caressing the bump and talking to it nonstop. Tom had to implement two quiet hours a day just to get a moment of peace.
When the healer announced that the baby's magic was starting to form and would start draining Tom's energy, Harry had expressed concern since Tom's magic was gone. The healer quelled his worries, telling him that muggles did it all the time and simply accommodated it by upping their sleep to ten hours a night and taking afternoon naps. Tom would be fine, and the more time Harry spent around the two the more likely that the baby would draw on Harry's magic thereby saving Tom from extra exhaustion.
As Tom got bigger, he got needier, and who was Harry to deny Tom from snuggling into his arms all times of the day? Harry loved every second of it, getting to run his hands over the bump of taut skin, feeling the magic surge at his touch. Once the baby started kicking, Tom fully came to appreciate Harry's love for touching his stomach as that thoroughly soothed their child into calmer movements that didn't cause Tom any discomfort.
And when Tom decided he was horny, holy shit was Tom horny. They went from constant snuggling to constant fucking. Harry had brought it up to the healer when she came to visit two weeks into Tom's insatiable appetite for Harry à la mode. The healer simply laughed and handed him a vial with a deep blue pearlescent potion inside. "I'll owl you more later today. What he's experiencing is completely normal, simply make sure you're taking care of him afterwards. A mild healing salve applied on his sphincter and in his anal cavity wouldn't go amiss afterwards either to prevent any irritation." At this, Harry was blushing but pushed forwards anyways.
"And this?" He held up the potion.
"That will allow you to keep up with him. A lot of wizards and witches use it to put their partner on a bit of a hair trigger to amplify things in bed once in a while but most men in your position use it simply to keep pace with their partner. I imagine he gets irate if you have to put him off for a few extra hours?" Harry nodded. Tom would get downright vicious if he tried to play the distraction card. "Just take one vial every other day until he wears himself out. And don't forget about the healing salve!" She left in a flurry of green flames and mint robes.
That potion saved Harry's nether regions from simply giving up the good fight and simply falling off. Tom was horny for the rest of his pregnancy. Although an uncommon symptom, it wasn't completely unheard of. Harry learned early on that rubbing some healing salve into Tom was the easiest way to take care of any more fooling around for at least a few hours if he rubbed just right in one particular spot for long enough.
When little Marie was born, Tom had demanded to hold her and smiled when she opened her eyes to observe him. Harry, still sitting behind Tom, helped him support her. Soon both Tom and the baby were fast asleep, allowing Harry to simply watch the two of them.
Hermione was the first to visit. Tom and the baby were under quiet charms, allowing the rest of the world to converse without disturbing their sleep. Harry, ever eager to hear about her climbing up the social ladder at the ministry, practically drilled her for information. He'd sequestered himself away from most everyone and everything while Tom had been pregnant, much preferring to take care of Tom rather than keeping up with current events.
She told him about the progress she's made with most of the politicians and even managed to get a few bills passed in favour of werewolves and vampires. She was currently researching the best way to protect house elves and was trying to find more productive ways of passing bills. Currently, it was an incredible pain in the arse the way the system was set up, which is why no one ever bothered to try to change the old laws. Part of the reason everything she was proposing was passing was simply because no one else had wanted to put forth the work of pushing a bill through the endless amounts of paperwork.
"Hermione, would you do something for me?" She nodded and leaned forward, ever eager to help her best friend. "Would you look up laws about slaves and their owners? Specifically, the types of legal relationships they can have?" She eyed the two of them shrewdly and smiled.
"You love him, don't you?" Harry rolled his eyes at her question.
"I think the answer to that is quite clear, don't you?"
She gasped. "You want to ask him to marry you, don't you?"
"Shh, not so loud! I don't want him having any inkling of an idea until I know for sure it absolutely cannot be contested. Just look into it for me, would you?" She nodded, a sparkle of joy at the challenge to come for her.
Hermione was Harry's favourite person on the planet, sans the two in his bedroom. Tom and Marie were currently sleeping, regardless of the sun high in the air. Tom had insisted he breastfeed the baby, citing how important it was and completely ignored the insanity of being up every two hours to ensure the little darling was well fed. Harry found it incredibly endearing.
The incredible witch in front of him had burst through his office floo and had done little more than ward the room from eavesdroppers before talking incredibly fast. Harry had barely processed that she was in front of him by the time she had figured out he wasn't keeping up with her.
"Seriously Harry, pay attention!"
"Sorry, I just woke up and you startled me! Here, have a cuppa." He pushed a spare teacup towards her and sat down in the second chair on the other side of his desk.
"As you know, I've been hard at work on the project you gave me." She sipped and proceeded without giving him a chance to respond. "I've managed to unearth some rather old laws about slaves. Quite conveniently, they were with some files on werewolf laws, which are right up my alley. So, naturally, I just had to bring up what I found to the Wizengamot. Abhorrent practices that are technically enforceable! Ridiculous. And of course, they all agreed these laws had to go and were overruled once I told them it covered slaves, werewolves, vampires and veela bonded to wizards or witches. How convenient that slaves were bundled into the categories I work with so frequently.
"Anyways, they overruled them all. Which means you have much more leeway with Tom as far as treating him like a person in public than a slave. There are minimum requirements now for things like housing, food, health-"
"Cut to the chase, Hermione! I'm impatient, you know!" She giggled and waved off his comment with a roll of her eyes.
"Men, honestly. Long story short, you can fill out these forms," She pulled a huge stack of parchment out of her bag. It fell to his desk with a loud thwump. "Once you've done that, give them to me and I'll have one of my associates accompany me to witness the ceremony-"
"Wait, I can actually marry him now?"
"Hold your horses, young man! It'll be a freedom ceremony. Obviously, we haven't found a way to give him back his magic yet, but I've got a team of unspeakables looking into it. Apparently the theory looks promising, they've just been waiting for the go-ahead on the research. Once he's free, then you can do as you please." Shock held Harry in place before he stood and pulled Hermione into a bone-crushing hug.
"You're the absolute best friend I could ever ask for."
"Glad to hear it. Can I have my lungs back now?" Harry let go and they visited for another hour before the monitoring charm on Marie's bassinet activated with her cries. A shuffle of silk later and Tom was soothing her. The charm faded before Harry heard Tom walking down the stairs.
Hermione had cooed over the two month old before wishing the two of them a pleasant day and leaving to go back to the ministry. Harry thanked her once again before she scoffed and told him it was no problem.