Chapter XVIV:

AN: Two days in a row! And this is a big one...

A month after she sent the letter the only response Hermione received was a curt "well-played" comment at the dinner Narcissa insisted on them attending for her birthday. The Malfoy matriarch made it clear that she was highly invested in this child and wanted to see them often. Unlike her husband, the blonde woman had shown herself to be genuine in this yearning, so Hermione readily agreed. Narcissa or her own parents would be called upon first to babysit whenever they had plans, or if Draco ever decided to pursue this work interest he'd expressed.

A couple of days later her husband announced that he was going to see his friends. She waved him off, absolutely fine with getting some personal time. Truly, a spa night was needed. Scorpius/Seraphina had been battering her with their legs and magic again relentlessly, after a period of calm. It had started mid-morning and continued on all day. She'd only given herself a face mask when she had to go to for an (increasingly frequent) toilet break. Looking down at her pants her breath caught in her throat as she saw the red tinged discharge and remembered Millicent's miscarriage. "No, no, no!" She whispered in despair. Springing into action, she rushed downstairs to the fireplace and contacted the Notts. She'd warmed considerably to the intelligent Slytherin since he'd saved her soul, and when his face appeared in the flames he grinned charismatically at her. "Hello Hermione, how are you?"

"Fan-flipping-tastic," she bit out. "Could you please tell Draco to get to the St Mungo's as soon as possible?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "I would darlin', but he's not here."

She felt dizzy all of a sudden, but she didn't have time for his secrecy. "Thank you anyway Theodore, please send him if he ever shows up." She hung up the fireplace contact, scribbled a passive-aggressive note and left it in Draco's place at the dining table, then apparated to the hospital. That left her feeling even more sick, and by the time she stumbled into a hospital bed she was excitedly anticipating her promised epidural.

"How far along are you?" Asked the medi-witch with a clipboard.

"28 weeks," Hermione said. Epidural. Epidural. Epidural. She could hold out. And the baby would be fine.

"Um," she looked nervous now as she held the epidural in her right hand and asked, "Right here?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "You're the midwife."

"No-one at this hospital has ever had one of these muggle medications!" She said defensively. Hermione shut her eyes as the tube was inserted. She should have gone to a muggle hospital. Ooh, okay, calmness. She felt much better. There we- as quickly as it had been delivered, the calm dissipated once more.

"What's going on?" Hermione grilled the woman anxiously. She shook her head, unable to offer any immediate answers. "Is it being sucked back up the tube?"

Her midwife muttered something and did a scan with her wand, then looked apologetic. "I'm so sorry, this isn't going to work. Your child is draining the medication."

What? "Will that hurt it?"

"I don't expect so,"

"Is this what would happen with all witches or just me?"

"No way to know for sure."

Her Ravenclaw side was silenced by a contraction and she cursed her good-for-nothing snake of a husband. Where the hell was he when she needed him?


At his mother's birthday Draco hadn't missed his father's whispered aside to Hermione, even if they both thought he had. He watched them with the eye of a hawk for the rest of a night but they didn't interact once between then and when the two returned back home. He had told her he had let go of the secret she'd been hiding from him, but that was when he thought it was some silly thing between the Golden Trio. Having ascertained that the two dumb-dumbs were as clueless as ever, he was now fairly sure it was something more sinister. He spent a couple of days trying to work out what it could have been but with the letter destroyed there really were no leads. Except live ones. In reciprocity to their ban on the Floo network and apparition towards his father, the older wizard had done the same. Draco had to request access, which his mother, the one who picked up, readily granted. He kissed her on the cheeks in welcome and then snuck up to his father's office and disarmed the unprepared man.

"Draco, what do you think you're doing?" That tone would have terrified him when he was a boy. Fine. It still did, but he had to put away his childish fears for her. He cast a spell to bind his father to the chair he was so leisurely sitting in. The mirror of what he could easily become leered back at him. "You think you're more powerful than me, boy?" As he spat out the last word, it nearly sent Draco reeling back into a feature length film of every weakness he'd ever shown against this Titan. He bit down on his front teeth, controlling his emotions. He could argue back, he could cower, or he could concentrate all his energy into making this villain suffer. Option three it was then. Draco pointed his wand at the man who'd hurt him for so many years and whispered an unrepeatable curse, watching with full delight as the smirk faded into a scowl and then a downright pained grimace. He wanted to hear him scream. He wouldn't stop until he did.

"I presume your dirty little harpy finally came clean, eh?" He knew Lucius was goading him, but the strength of the curse faltered at the reminder of all the secrecy. "Or maybe not." He chuckled. "So you're here to make me spill the beans then?" It wasn't the primary reinforcer, but if his father became so tortured that he began to blurt out all his sins that wouldn't be the worst thing. Now another curse. One that Severus has taught him, his godfather had always been an incredible innovator. This one twisted his father's bones back in his hand with a satisfying click, accompanied by a scream that was even better. "You know what, I'd love for you to know actually." Lucius chuckled, even as blood spilled out of his mouth from the next curse. He spat it out, and venomously revealed "your paragon of virtue agreed to discipline your son in the true way, just as I did with you."

Draco's wand dropped a little and his father leapt up, but he was instantly back on form. "Obviously you forced her into it. Hermione would never do something like that willingly, and you're a fool for thinking I would believe she ever could." He cast one final spell that would leave his father crumpled in a heap and then he turned to leave, praying never to see him again.

"Fool..."

"What was that?"

Lucius sat up, leaning against his desk for strength but still managing to force a sinister smirk. "You foolish idiot." Draco gritted his teeth. "You think she loves you? After what you've done-"

"Of course not!" He snapped. "But I love her! That's enough." He shook his head, done engaging with this manipulator. Time to get home.


"Hermione?" Draco called out when he got back to find the house surprisingly quiet. "Hermione!" He tried again, his panic mounting, but he'd left his father in no fit state to come here on a rampage. He had conducted a search of the entire house before Winky appeared waving some paper. "Not now Winky." He snapped at the elf who'd only ever been helpful and kind. He regretted it immediately. But she wasn't taking that.

"Yes now Master Malfoy!" She asserted, pushing it into his hands. "The mistress needs you!" He scanned the paper quickly and stumbled backwards when he realised what it implied. "She's having the baby now?"

"Yes!" Winky clapped her hands together delightedly.

Draco put a hand to his sweaty forehead, wiping away silver hair. "I-I'm going to be a father..."

"Yes!"

"And I'm missing it!" Immediately he apparated to St Mungo's, braced for the storm that was going to be coming his way. He could see the sunny days to come at the end of it.