A/N: So yeah...Its been a LONG time since I've posted, and I'm waaay to busy to be taking on writing a fanfic right now, but hey...its been lingering over my head and I REALLY want to finish it! And I just realized how I start off every author's note with "Okay, so it's been a REALLY long time since I've posted", lol. Who needs free time anyway, right? ;) So, this chapter we will be seeing a new house, a new baby, new challenges and ... old foes. Oh crap. Read more and find out how Draco and Hermione will deal with... well, you'll see. Oh, and on a side note...from the Author's Note, lol, it wouldn't let me indent the paragraphs, don't know why, do please don't bitch at me about it, I don't really care for fans who nit pick every damn thing in your story when you write "then" instead of "than". Get a life :O! OMG! Death to spell check!
Unto the End, Into the Beginning
Chapter Six: "And Baby Makes Three…"
Hermione found herself speechless as she entered the old Warwick castle. The ceiling stood higher than any house she had ever seen. An odd smell filled her nostrils as she entered the main living area of the castle. It smelled like rotten eggs and day old cabbage. She dragged her hand across the wall as she turned the corner and into the kitchen. Over the years, a very thick layer of dust and dirt had accumulated on the walls. It was going to take a lot of work, but she could see this place as home. She turned around and her eyes were met with a rather large bouquet of roses, lilies and carnations. She took the flowers, which revealed Draco with a very large grin on his face.
"So? What do you think?"
"Draco, I think it's perfect. Or, at least...it will be, but its going to need a lot of work"
"Of course darling, anything you would like. Now let's go buy it before someone else snatches it up"
"Oh, I doubt there's any hurry," Hermione reassured him as she wiped her itchy eyes. She was going to have to do something about all this dust very soon.
"It's a very nice piece of land, Mister Malfoy. I'm sure you'll be very happy with it. Mr. Aitor has informed me of your deal. The remainder of your balance is 50,000 Galleons" said the man.
"I'll have my associate escort you to Gringotts this afternoon to make the withdrawal. Now, if you'll excuse me, there is a lot of work to be done," replied Draco.
Hermione and Draco had set up their bed in what would sometime soon be their bedroom. The castle made Hermione feel very empty, but to Draco it was a new beginning to life with his soon to be bride and child. They lay there together in silence; they didn't have a need for words. He held her hand tightly, their fingers intertwined.
"Draco!" she said excitedly moving his hand to her stomach.
He waited there for a moment, waiting for something. Then he felt it. His child was kicking. A wave of excitement and awe came over Draco, leaving him speechless. Inside Hermione's stomach was their child, and they were coming soon. He left his hand there, stroking her stomach softly until Hermione drifted into an uneasy sleep.
Hermione shivered. There was an uneasy darkness and her breath came and went in clouds in front of her. She was alone in a cold, dark room. No, not alone. She could hear someone else breathing. A window above them opened and light flooded the room. In front of her sat a battered man, his arms and legs bound to the chair with brown rope. From the red marks on his skin on either side of the rope, she could tell they were very tight. His eyes were blindfolded, but it didn't cover the cuts on his face. In fact, there were cuts all over his body, easily viewed through his torn clothing. His head hung down, he was either asleep or dead.
Suddenly, the window opened and a small package hit the floor hard. The echo told Hermione that the room was bigger than she had thought. The man's head shot up, and he began to panic. Even though he couldn't see, she could tell he knew what the package was, and it wasn't good for him. He began to scream out, and it pierced Hermione's ears with such a force she didn't think she could ever forget it. The room went dark again.
Hermione rose abruptly from her sleep, drenched in sweat and seconds later Draco awoke as well, concern on his face.
"Hermione, what's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing," she lied, "I just think my dinner didn't settle well, but I'll be fine," she said, lying back down.
Draco wasn't so easily convinced, but he decided not to push it, as it could have been fears about the coming birth Hermione was facing. He grudgingly went back to sleep.
Hermione made sure she was facing away from him, pondering the possible meanings of her dream, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Welcome, Cadets, to your first day of your third level training. My name is Gabriel Morgan and I'll prepare you for your final examination. I have no tolerance for foolery or recklessness. By the end of your training with me, you're going to be tired, and you may even hate me... but I'll make you an Auror. You're going to be exhausted, starved, you'll have little sleep and I'm going to push you beyond any limits you may think you have. And once you break, I'm going to push you harder. Death Eater's will show you no mercy, and neither will I. If at any time you find this training too difficult for you, do us all a favor and leave, because we don't have room for men like you out in the field." At this point, the Cadets were exchanging nervous looks amongst each other, each of them trying to overcome their own insecurities.
"Today, I'm going to show you what it's like to be a Prisoner of Voldemort. For some of you, this is your first simulation. For others, you've already had the displeasure of experiencing the real thing," he quickly glanced at Harry, and then back to the center of his audience. Three men dressed in cloaks entered the room and stood at the door.
"Finnigan!" Morgan cried, Seamus looking very tense, "You're up first!"
The three men came up behind him and grabbed him. Seamus, not sure of what was actually going on, struggled with the men. In the end, he was overpowered and drug out of the room. Jacob, who had been sitting next to Draco, gulped and shifted uneasily in his seat. Over the next two hours the cadets were being picked off, one or two at a time. The ninth time the men entered the room and another one had joined them, and they grabbed Draco and Harry.
A steal door opened and Harry was thrown into the room, hitting the floor hard. The door next to Harry's room opened and the two men shoved Draco into the small room with such a force that he hit the wall on the other side of the room. Draco heard the door slam behind him and before he could act, three of the men forced him into a chair, and bound his arms and legs to the chair with brown rope. Draco flinched slightly when they tied the rope; it was cutting off his circulation. Finally, they used old cloth with a very odd smell to blindfold him and everything went dark. Then, silence was all he could hear.
Draco shivered, it seemed like he had been in there for hours, cold and alone. Leaving him alone for his thoughts to consume him was worse than any punishment anyone could inflict on him. Little did the Ministry know that Draco had endured more of Voldemort's wrath than Potter had, or ever would. When the Dark Lord had found out he had impregnated a muggle...NO, he wasn't going to think about that right now. He didn't want to think about the deal he made with Aitor or how he was lying to Hermione every day of his life. Their fresh start together was built on a lie, and it was eating Draco alive. Should he tell her? Or would she hate him for the decision he had made? Why should she hate him? Their child was going to have two loving parents. Of course, if she ever found out...How would she find out? His mind had a cynical retort for everything his heart was feeling. His eyes began to sting. He came to the conclusion that whatever the odd smell on the bandage was, it was some sort of chemical that was irritating his eyes. His swollen eyes fluttered. Through the bandage, he could tell that there was a light not far from him. He heard footsteps.
"Ready to talk Malfoy?" came a harsh voice in front of him.
"That little git ain't brave enough to talk," came a voice draped with a heavy accent to his left.
"Oh yeah, I'm ready for a great conversation. How's the wife?" Draco replied with a scratchy voice, he hadn't realized how thirsty he was until now. He managed a smirk, but he wasn't exactly sure who it had been directed at.
He felt a fist crash into his stomach with such a force it would have knocked him onto the ground, but he guessed someone was holding the chair. That's what he would have done. He knew one of the men was really close to him now; he could smell his foul breath and felt it on his face.
"Listen 'ere, I know you think you're a brave man. You want ter be honorable and save whoe'er it is yer protectin'. But I think we both now you better than that, don't we?"
"I think the only one that knows me is myself, thank you," Draco spat.
"Ah, now that's not true, is it? She knows you very well, doesn't she?" Draco shifted uneasily in his chair, and the man seemed to have got the reaction he was looking for, "now that I've got your attention," he continued, "Let's get down ter business"
"I'm not telling you anything!" Draco informed him.
"Oh, I'll be beggin' your pardon sir, I think you will.'Cuz see, if yer don't, I've got a plan. I think you'll be quite interested! It's a brilliant one, it is. I'll bring her here, and I'll tell her all your nasty little secrets, and then she'll know it's your fault why she's in danger. But it won't just be her, but your unborn baby too. I'll rip that child right out of her and then I'll slit her throat, nice and slow like, and you'll have a front row seat." The man laughed coldly.
By this time, Draco was filled with such a rage, that he managed to rise and swing his chair around, breaking it against one of the men's body. He had managed to free himself from half of the chair, another piece still tied to his arm. He removed his blindfold just in time to swing the arm piece against the head of another man and made his way for the door. He opened it, and on the other side stood Morgan and Wood.
"Brilliant!" exclaimed Morgan, "wonderful performance!"
It was then that Draco had realized where the light had been coming from; the two of them had been watching the whole thing from behind the glass.
"Bloody Hell!" one of the men cried, rising from the ground, "I'm going to have a headache for days" he said, wiping the blood from his right temple.
"Here is your sheet, you've passed. Congratulations Malfoy, but don't get cocky, that's just day one. You've got a few more weeks ahead of you before you can even think about that final examination. Oh, by the way, this owl came for you, just got it before you escaped." Morgan handed him a small piece of parchment and left the room, the rest of the men following him. His eyes lit with excitement and he rushed into the locker room to grab his cloak, leaving the parchment forgotten on the floor.
DRACO-
COME SOON, HERMIONE'S GONE INTO LABOR. YOU'RE GOING TO BE A FATHER!
GINNY WEASLEY
P.S. I THINK YOU'RE A GIT, BUT YOU SEEM TO MAKE HERMIONE HAPPY, ONLY MERLIN KNOWS WHY!
Draco ran through the halls of Saint Mungo's Hospital as if his life depended on it. He passed a sign that said "Maternity Ward" and slid to a halt. He doubled back and turned the corner until he collided with Ginny.
"Ouch!" she shouted. "Calm down, you git! Hermione's not going to have the baby any faster just because you're here!"
"Malfoy!" came a shout three doors down. A man wearing white robes with a red cross signaled for him to come to him.
Draco took long strides to meet up with him.
"Draco Malfoy?" The Man asked again. Draco nodded in reply, too nervous to form words.
"We've got Hermione stable for now," the man began, but was interrupted by a worried Draco, "What do you mean for now?"
"Please, Mister Malfoy, let me finish. She hasn't delivered yet; she's about half way there. We've been having some minor complications, her heart rate has dropped a few times while we've been monitoring her, but we manage to get it back up. However, she's not as responsive to the spells as we would like. Your baby was turned the wrong way, but we've gotten that all fixed. You can relax…"
"Relax?! Easy for you to say! No, I'm not going to relax until I've got Hermione and our child in my arms!"
"I understand that this is a scary time for you right now, but you've got to remain calm for Hermione right now."
"Can I see her then?" Draco asked eagerly.
"I'm afraid not just yet, have a seat and I'll let you know when it'll be okay for you to come in."
Draco reluctantly fell into a chair right outside of the waiting room and cupped his head in his hands. He needed to get a grip on things. Hermione's condition was fragile, very fragile and he couldn't help thinking that this was his fault. Maybe someone had down something to her, to his child, to get to him. When he found out whom, there would be nothing stopping him from…Calm down, he told himself.
In the delivery room, Hermione was tightly gripping the hand of the nurse, Caroline, who was helping her through her difficult contraction and the overall delivery of her child. The pain subsided and Hermione fell back onto her pillow. Caroline wiped the sweat off of Hermione's forehead. What seemed like hours later, Hermione's face lit up as Draco entered the room. He immediately went to her side and kissed her cheek. He held her hand in his.
-
I would die for you. I would die for you.
I've been dying just to feel you by my side
To know that you're mine,
-
"You've never been more beautiful than you are now," he said, brushing the hair from her face.
"You're a really great liar," she said with the widest grin he had ever seen.
-
I will cry for you. I will cry for you.
I will wash away your pain with all my tears
And drown your fear
-
He kissed her forehead and her grip on his hand tightened and she leaned foreword, fighting her way through the contraction. Hermione struggled through two more contractions until it was time for her final push.
"That's it Hermione, push!" came the encouragement of the healer delivering her baby.
Time seemed to slow as Draco saw Hermione give life to their child. He saw his son take his first breath of oxygen and then exercise his new lungs with an odd sort of screaming.
-
I will pray for you. I will pray for you.
I will sell my soul for something pure and true
Someone like you
-
The Healer looked up at Draco and handed him his wand. His shaky hand performed the spell that removed his son's umbilical cord. The healers took their time testing the baby to see if he was healthy and cleaning him up, but Draco never took his eyes off of him.
-
See your face every place that I walk in
Hear your voice every time that I'm talking
You will believe in me
And I will never be ignored
-
Caroline wrapped him up in a small blue blanket and placed him in Hermione's eager hands.
"Hello handsome," she whispered to her son, and placed her first kiss on his forehead. He looked up at her with his large blue eyes, and he stopped screaming. He instantly fell asleep in her arms and she gently swayed him back and forth.
"Have you thought of a name for him?" Caroline asked. Draco looked to Hermione questioningly; they had actually never come to a complete agreement on a name. Hermione smiled and said, "Varius Damian."
-
I would die for you. I would kill for you.
To be close to you. To be part of you
Cause I believe in you
I believe in you
I would die for you
-
"That's a perfect name," Draco said, never taking his eyes off of his son, still in awe of him.
-
I would die for you
-
When at last Draco could tear himself away from the mesmerizing eyes of his son, Varius, he looked up and standing there on the other side of the glass, was none other than Perseus Aitor.