Chapter XVI:

Lucius seemed satisfied by their compromises. He left the couple alone whilst they settled into their new home.

A couple of weeks into the holidays they held a housewarming. Blaise and Ginny came over with their new arrival, who Hermione took great pleasure in holding; as well as Neville and Luna, Pansy with her Hufflepuff husband, Nott and Goyle with their wives. Ron arrived with Harry and a ready-to-pop Daphne; Sally-Anne had been invited as well but she'd sent a polite message back that she didn't want to give birth there as she was just as far along as the blonde Slytherin. Her husband had tried to convince her it would be fun and that he could get her to St Mungo's just as quickly from there as from home, but apparently she preferred playing solitaire in confinement like a Tudor woman anyways. The appetisers Winky and Hermione had made was all that had been served when Daphne lifted up her maxi dress and peered down at the perfectly polished floor beneath her. As refined as ever, the blonde observed "I think I'm in labour." In contrast, Harry was not refined. He immediately began to jump around like a spooked puppy, pushing his sweaty hair off his face as his panic mounted exponentially to Daphne's calm. She and Ginny traded symptoms, and once they'd decided that Daphne was in fact in labour but like many women hadn't experienced her water breaking, they all apparated to the hospital. This time they were fully out of the room. Draco had already attended one of these things and he was ridiculously bored, kicking his chair in the waiting room like a rampaging toddler. Harry emerged from his wife's private room a couple of times for Hermione to comfort him, but she needed more to do than that afforded. At one point, she tried to ask Ron if he wanted to come for a walk, but he was adamant that if they weren't going to the cafe then he wasn't in. Rolling her eyes, Hermione walked away from all the restless boys. She hated the smell of hospitals, even magical ones. So stifling. She wanted to get out into the communal garden, but before she reached the door she was pulled into a cupboard, trying to shriek but her mouth was covered, her wand left on her bedroom hundreds of miles away. "I've cast a silencing charm on this area," hissed her husband's father. "Are you ready to listen to your superior, girl?"

When he removed his hand she wanted to fight, but she knew he had the upper hand. She wasn't skilled at many non-verbals that would be relevant against the older wizard, and he was probably physically stronger than her, certainly much taller. "Fine," she tried to draw her 5 feet 5 inches up as tall as possible, hiding her fear with exaggerated confidence. "Make it quick, Ferret Senior. I don't know what else you could have to say to either of-"

He didn't wait for her to finish her sentence, deliberately interrupting her with an aggressive backhand across the face that hurt more than it should have. He was wearing a sharp serpentine ring, she realised. "You are not even worth the filth I tread underfoot." His spit landed on her face and she raised a hand reflexively to wipe it off, but he pinned it to her side. She could feel her confident face trembling, tears were prickling her eyes, but she blinked them back again and again. She was not going to do this here. Not in front of him. "I sent Draco my censored list of demands, but there's a couple more things I need specifically from you." She couldn't look away from his steely eyes even if she wanted to. And she didn't. No weakness. "If this child is a boy it will become the heir to my fortune and my name. No-one wants that, do they?"

"I can't control the gender of my baby," her voice was hoarser than she would have liked.

"No," he admitted, disappointed. "But I at least want to make sure this child is raised... correctly." She did not like the sound of that coming from his mouth. "My son would find it strange if you suddenly flipped on your choice and allowed me to visit more often to discipline my grandson, but I don't have to be the one to do it, I suppose."

She bristled, anger taking over fear. "You want me to hurt my baby?"

"Discipline." He corrected. "I'll give you more information on how I wish you to act as the child ages. You should start with the Spartan treatment. Leaving the baby to cry in the dark," the thought upset her even now when her child hadn't been born. "You will not feed the brat consistently when it whines, only as a reward for good behaviour to teach it how to act."

"Them," she muttered the correction. She wasn't going to treat her child like a ward of the state, a soldier, least of all when he was only a pink faced, crying newborn.

Lucius sneered. "If you fail to do as I request, I will see to it that a more suitable guardian is chosen who will raise this child correctly." Meaning him. How had he known they were here? Some kind of tracking, maybe through a letter he'd sent? He had unspeakable power over them. "See you soon, daughter." He apparated from the cupboard, leaving her alone and shaken. She reached to her cheek and realised she'd already started crying. It was probably why he had looked so smug.


After James Sirius Potter was born and Ron and Daphne's sister Astoria were revealed to be the godparents, an exhausted Hermione readily agreed to Draco's previously incessant requests to go home. Winky was nowhere to be seen, probably collapsed somewhere from the exhaustion of cooking a lot of party food that never got eaten, so the house was silent when they arrived. Draco poured out two glasses from the decanter and handed her one. The two of them sat down in the sitting room, each taking a sip in silence before he said, "so I was thinking, everyone's making a big deal out of this whole godparents thing, but we haven't considered anyone for ours yet."

She looked at him blankly, still shaken up from her earlier encounter. "I want Harry and Ginny."

Draco made a face mimicking vomiting. Usually she would have rolled her eyes. "Weaselette and Scarface? Do you not remember their epically public break up? Besides, they'd indoctrinate my son with dreams of being a prissy little dreamer."

"It's not an issue," she said.

He raised an eyebrow. "It sort of is. I want someone perfect to raise the kid if we die and we can't."

"We're not going to die!" She yelled at him, her hands fisting.

"You're forgetting the world we live in," he reminded her. "So many people have died the government had to introduce a law to force people together."

"But the danger's over now."

"You know as well as I do that that is a delusion." She bit her lip. Of course she did. But she was terrified. She had to deny the fear she felt to him and to herself. "How about a compromise?" Draco relented. "Weaselette and Blaise. One of your friends and one of mine. Since they're a couple it will be more practical if they needed to look after Scorpius."

She had a feeling that if they did both pass away in mysterious circumstances, no matter what their choice was it might not be the guardian their child ended up with, but she humoured him and agreed. After all, they were the godparents to Blaise and Ginny's child.