"Already? Oh my god you're useless." Rose complained as her disappointing new lover came almost immediately. She shoved the year six Ravenclaw off her, she had already been uncertain of his name and now cared even less. "You were barely even inside me."
The boy scrambled off her bed and buckled his pants. "So, it wasn't good for you?" He asked, looking at her a bit forlornly.
"No. Now get out." Rose scoffed as he ducked out of her dorm room in embarrassment and crossed her arms huffily. Of course, no one could satisfy her, not when the man she truly desired had the audacity to desire her mother instead.
It was Draco Malfoy that she craved inside her, him she wanted more than anything. She had a plan to win him, but it would take time and she was so impatient to put her thoughts to actions. She had to wait for her mother to give birth and then recover a little, losing a few pounds hopefully, before Rose would again take the Polyjuice potion she had brewed and seduce her step-father. This way, whilst masquerading as her mother, she could enjoy him sexually, learn what he liked, and satisfy her thirst for him.
The next part of her plan was a little shaky. As much as she would enjoy finally fucking him, he wouldn't KNOW he was fucking her, and she wanted to him to love her, to want her, as much as she wanted him. She was sure he already did, certain the only reason they were apart was because he was distracted by her mother.
"Maybe she needs to be taken out of the equation." Rose mused aloud as she paced the length of her room, naked, her hair and eyes wild. Had there been anyone present to see her, they would likely have been horrified to observe how thin she had become in the last month. Her bones protruded distinctively beneath her pale skin. Her hair didn't have its usual shine either, it was dull and snapped easily.
Rose had found herself eating less and less, not purposefully, it was just that her time was so consumed with her scheming. And with seducing other students to practice with in preparation for bedding Draco.
Rose felt certain that if Hermione were gone Draco would be free to love her instead, so she would have to redouble her efforts to break them up. Admittedly she'd tried hard to do so already, acting as though she hated Draco, making such a big deal that she thought her supposedly loving mother would have divorced him for her sake. Shouldn't her daughter's happiness have been more important?
No. Apparently not. Her mother, that selfish bitch, had chosen her husband over her daughter, time and time again. She had inflicted punishments on Rose and never taken her seriously. And even though she longed for him, she had grown to resent her step-father for real. Only because she'd realized her mother would never choose her over him. When she realized that, that was the day she decided her mother no longer mattered to her.
Now she focused only on Draco, knowing, despite her resentment of his position in the family, it wouldn't matter when she was his wife instead of her mother. Then it would just be them. Forever.
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She felt very numb. And very warm. Sound was still muffled, as was her vision as she opened her eyes. Hermione blinked several times as she tried to remember where she was and what was happening. Slowly it came back to her, the blood, the sirens, sharp pain, Draco's face, then blackness.
Her vision focused, she took in the curtains around her bed, the IV in her arm, and then she saw that her belly was considerably smaller and well bandaged. She looked to left. Nothing. To her right, nothing.
Where was her baby?
"Hello?" Hermione croaked, fully aware now, her heart-rate increasing as she panicked. Why was their no crib? Where was Draco? She received no answer and started fumbling around, trying to sit up, her fingers clumsy from the anaesthetic, her entire lower half completely without feeling, and managed to locate the button for assistance. She pressed it a few times before collapsing back onto the pillow, exhausted by this small task.
Miraculously quickly a nurse came through her curtains, un-smiling but also not looking as though she was about to deliver news of death.
"Mrs Malfoy, your awake. That's good news. I'll send your husband and a doctor in right away." She talked right through Hermione's questions about her baby and left without answering her.
"Hey!" Hermione called angrily, her voice cracking. She needed water, but she needed her baby more. "Come back, where's my baby?"
She waited in agonizing silence for about five minutes before finally her doctor entered.
His face was grave, but his tone was kind, filled with hope. "Hermione, you have a healthy baby boy."
Hermione's relief was intense. It flooded her, leaving her almost giddy. "Can I see him?"
Her doctor hesitated, coming to stand beside her and took her hand in his own. "He is a healthy and strong baby, but Hermione, I'm afraid he has zero vision, he is 100% blind."
Her relief faltered but ultimately won over the shock of this revelation. "But he's healthy? He's going to be okay?" She asked, tearing up a little.
"Yes, he's perfect." The doctor replied, offering Hermione a box of tissues off the stand beside the bed. She accepted gratefully and smiled tearfully at his words. "Can I see him now?"
"Yes, but there is just one more thing. This is uncommon but can happen, during your scans, your son's heartbeat was masking another, she's very small and must have been hiding behind him. When we went in for your little man, we found a sister as well. You've given birth to twins, and they both made it. You have a daughter as well." The doctor appeared to be choosing his words carefully and as he finished, before Hermione had even processed properly, in walked Draco, dishevelled, and holding two little bundles. The larger one was wrapped in blue and the much smaller in pink.
"Say hello to mummy." Draco whispered, kneeling beside Hermione's bed, his cheeks visibly tear stained and resting the sleeping babies on the bed at Hermione's side.
Her own eyes spilling over, all the emotions of the moment just overwhelming her Hermione gazed at her two youngest children, her newly born babies.
Her boy, plump and pink, a shock of brown hair like her own, his dad's aristocratic nose, sleeping peacefully in his blanket. Draco eased him into her arms and kissed his wife's forehead tenderly before he placed their daughter in her arms as well.
Though equally as soft and warm, and incredibly pink, her daughter was much smaller, and her face very different.
"Your daughter has Down Syndrome." The doctor informed Hermione as she stared at her smallest baby, her face un-readable. Draco was standing over her anxiously, exhausted by the emotional journey meeting his two babies had been. He'd had to do it alone, he'd never held one of their babies before Hermione before and it felt like a trespass of nature. The surprise of twins, the information that their son was blind, and their unexpected daughter had Down Syndrome. It was way too much to take in on his own and his reaction had mostly been to cradle and cuddle them, shaking as sobs wracked his body until the nurse had finally signaled that Hermione was awake.
"I'll leave you four alone." The doctor said after the silence following his previous statement. He went out, wheeled in two cribs, then left properly.
"Hermione?" Draco prompted, desperate for his wife to say something.
She looked up him, her eyes shining with tears, her expression that of a wild animal with a gun pointed at it. "How old are they?"
"Four hours." Draco informed her gently, hoping she wasn't too devastated to miss the birth. To be fair, they both had, Hermione unconscious, Draco not allowed in the surgery.
"Four hours." She repeated, turning her gaze back to her babies. Her husband noticed how dry her voice was and quickly poured her a cup of water from the stand beside her bed. At her behest he gently took the babies away one at a time, tucking them into their cribs and then giving Hermione the water. She sipped it thirstily before crushing the cup in her hand, her tears spilling over.
"Baby," Draco crooned, tossing the cup away and taking her hand.
"Will you just hold me?" Hermione beseeched him, her hands shaking in his.
"Of course." Draco couldn't bear her being so upset and immediately crawled into the narrow bed beside her, careful not to disturb her stitches and wrapped his arms around her trembling form.
"Shhh, shh." He soothed her, one arm across her, the other stroking her unruly curls softly. "It's going to be okay."
Hermione shook her head against his chest where she had buried her face, and let out a heart wrenching sob.
"No, it's not."