Happenstance

Chapter 17: That's Got To Be A Record!

Try as she might, Luna couldn't get Draco's words at the Ministry Ball out of her mind. Part of her knew that he was right; she did want him, quite badly in fact, but the rest of her was too busy trying to deny her attraction to him to listen to the part of her that had already accepted it. For the remainder of her date with Neville, Luna spent her time ignoring him and trying to sort through her jumbled thoughts. The only time she was able to snap out of her confused state was when he walked her to her door and leaned down to kiss her goodnight. Before leaving, Neville asked Luna to go out with him again, and she accepted. Luna figured that dating someone else was a pretty good way of getting the nagging thoughts about her current obsession out of her mind.

Now, if things were that easy, Luna's life would be perfect, but unfortunately, things weren't that simple. The only problem with Luna's plan of getting Draco out of her mind, by replacing him with Neville, was the fact that it didn't seem possible to get Draco off of her mind. He was like this permanent fixture that simply refused to leave her be. For nearly four weeks after her date with Neville, Luna's every thought was fixed on Draco, even during her and Neville's second date, not to mention all those thereafter. Luckily, Neville didn't really notice, so their relationship hadn't been too affected by it.

Ever since their first date, Neville and Luna had seen each other every other night. For the most part, the living, breathing Draco didn't interfere too much. Sometimes he'd even volunteer to watch Landon while she went on her date. If Draco couldn't watch him, than her father was always more than willing to do so. The first couple of times Draco didn't object to her going out with Neville again, Luna kind of felt bad. She'd expected him to flip his lid, but instead he remained calm and was even polite to Neville when he arrived to pick her up.

Luna wasn't aware of this, but every single thing that had happened since their date, had all been a part of Draco's master plan. The main objective of Draco's plan was to convince Luna that he was done pursuing her. Once that happened he would be able to move on to phase two, which involved Blaise's idea of making her jealous. To Draco, it seemed like he'd be stuck in phase one forever, but finally, after several long weeks, he was quite sure that she was convinced that he was happy for her and Neville, and he could now move on to the second part of his plan.

"You going out with Neville tonight?" he asked, as Luna sat his breakfast down in front of him. Their routine was the same every morning. First, they'd both get showered and ready for the day, and then they would eat breakfast together before waking Landon up and feeding him. Now that Draco was over his fear of breast feeding, he made it a point to sit next to Luna while she nursed Landon. In one of the many parenting books he'd purchased from the 'Baby Depot', it said that feeding time was one of the best times for a parent to bond with their child. Not wanting to miss out on forging a tighter bond with his son, Draco always stayed within the boys line of vision as he ate, even though it annoyed Luna to no end.

"Yes, I think we are," she replied, setting her plate down next to his and taking her seat. As usual, they were having omelette's, which were apparently Draco's favorite breakfast food.

"Is your Dad going to be able to watch Lanny?" Draco asked, before taking a bite of his omelet. "Cause I've got plans tonight, so I can't."

"Actually, my Dad's going to meet Rosmerta's parents tonight. I guess Neville and I could stay in."

"I'd appreciate it if you did. I haven't been out in a while," Draco said, hoping she'd be alright with keeping her date simple tonight.

"Not a problem. I'll just owl Neville and let him know."

"Thanks."

"Welcome."

The rest of their breakfast was ate in silence. Draco knew that Luna was trying to figure out what he had planned for that evening, so he didn't try to strike up any sort of conversation. It was no secret that Luna's imagination could get the best of her, so he knew that if he let her think about it for a while, eventually she'd come up with some outlandish idea and she'd worry herself senseless. This was exactly what Draco wanted to happen. He wanted Luna to spend her day trying to figure who or what was occupying his free time. She needed to do it, she owed him that much, seeing as how that's what he'd been doing every time she left with Neville. By the distant look in her eyes, Draco knew that his plan was working. He could practically see the gears in her head turning.

88888888888888888888888888

The day breezed by faster than Luna would have liked. Normally she was excited for the evening to come so that she could go out with Neville, but this time, she was too busy trying to puzzle together who Draco was going out with, that she wasn't able to even think about her own date. As the clock chimed seven, Luna laid Landon down for bed and went downstairs to wait for Neville to arrive.

When the doorbell rang, Luna had assumed that it was Neville, but upon opening it she was shocked to find Cho Chang standing on her front steps. Luna didn't like Cho, she never had and probably never would, but she especially didn't like her now that she was going out with Draco. While Luna was busy glaring at Cho, who, she was glad to say, had gained a bit of weight since leaving school, Neville came bounding up the drive towards her.

"Is Draco here?" Cho asked, her heavy accent grating Luna's nerves.

"Yes, he'll be down in a minute," Luna replied, stepping aside so Cho could enter the foyer, Neville following behind her. Leaning down, he kissed Luna and went to set his bag down. When Luna had told Neville that they would be staying in that night, he'd offered to bring some Muggle board games and his Wizards Chess set. Luna loved that sort of thing, so she quickly accepted his offer. While Luna and Neville busied themselves in the sitting room, setting up their games, Draco and Cho left the house so that they could get their date underway.

88888888888888888888888888

The seconds seemed to drag on, in Luna's opinion. She and Neville had spent the entire night talking and playing board games, but she couldn't seem to keep her mind on what she was doing. With Draco out with Cho, Luna found it even harder to keep him out of her mind. Truth be told, she was jealous, and she wouldn't even try to deny it. Seeing Draco all dressed up as he walked out of the house with Cho Chang was like having a knife plunged into her heart and twisted viciously. She wanted nothing more than to rip Cho's stringy hair out of her pudgy little head. Unlike most of their dates, Neville couldn't help but notice how distracted Luna seemed. At several points he'd had to shout her name loudly just to get her attention, and even then her mind would start to wander seconds later. Realizing that the evening was a bust, Neville called it quits just before midnight. After he had gone and she had straightened up the sitting room, Luna sat up and waited for Draco to come home instead of heading to bed, as she should have. At nearly two in the morning, still having seen no sign of Draco, Luna decided to throw in the towel and just go to bed.

A few hours into her fitful slumber, Luna was awakened by the sound of loud thuds and moans. Not really thinking clearly, she wrapped her robe around herself and headed towards where the noises sounded like they were coming from. Before she knew what she was doing, Luna was opening the door that led to Draco's bedchamber. It took her several moments to realize what she was looking at, but the moment she did, Luna let loose a very high pitched squeak before jerking the door shut and covering her mouth with both hands. 'That's just obscene!' she thought, as she tried to process what she'd just seen. While Luna was trying to compose herself enough to walk back to her room, Draco's door opened and he came out, shutting it behind him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, as if she'd just walked in on him doing something as perfectly innocent as knitting. Luna couldn't quite speak, so she just stared at him dumbly, her mouth slightly opened. "It was late so I thought it would be safer for her to sleep here instead of going home alone," Draco tried to explain, knowing that his words were not only a lie, but were also completely unbelievable. Even though her walking in on them had always been a part of his plan, Draco couldn't help but feel guilty about how bad he was making Luna feel. It took a great deal of effort to continue acting nonchalant about what had just happened, but he managed to muddle through. "You okay"

"Not nearly as good as you are, but I'm fine," she grumbled, her shocked look giving way to an angry glare.

"You seem mad."

"I'm only mad because you woke me up," Luna lied. "Not everyone can sleep through what sounds like to wild boars going at it."

"You've heard two wild boars shagging?" Draco asked, sarcastically.

"Of course not, stupid. Next time, just put up a silencing charm so you don't wake everyone up. It's only polite!" Without another word, Luna turned and stormed down the hall towards her room, slamming the door loudly behind her. No sooner that the door connected with the jamb, Landon started screaming, the loud noise waking him up. How he'd managed to sleep through the commotion caused by Draco and Cho but not through her slamming a door, Luna didn't know. What she did know was that she was quite pissed. Having to see the father of her son shagging that cow made her want to puke, cry and throttle him all at the same time. As she rocked Landon back to sleep, Luna finally snapped out of her state of denial. She was finally able to admit to herself that she wanted Draco. But there was one problem, well, two actually, one being Cho Chang and the other being Neville Longbottom, and Luna didn't have the slightest idea of how to address either of them.

88888888888888888888888888888

The entire time she had spent in the nursery with Landon, after walking in on Draco and Cho, Luna had contemplated whether or not it was a good idea to let Draco know how she felt. She was torn. For the last couple of months, she'd made it a point to tell him that she wasn't interested in a romantic relationship with him, and now that she was sure that she did want to pursue one, Luna wasn't sure how Draco would take the news. The only ray of hope that she was able to cling to was what he had told her the night of the Ministry Ball. He'd said that they were made for each other and that he'd always want her. If that was true, than she had nothing to worry about. If it wasn't, she was screwed. Not that it really mattered anyway, because Draco and Luna didn't speak all that much after she had walked in on his and Cho's 'celebration', as she liked to call it. In fact, for some reason, even though she'd finally come to terms with her true feelings for him, Luna had gone to great lengths to avoid him, and Draco hadn't done much to make it hard for her to do so. As a matter of fact, in the three weeks that had passed, he'd hardly spent any time at the house. He'd even gone so far as to not come home several nights in a row. Luna assumed he was probably sleeping over at Cho's or some other witches house; a thought that made her skin crawl.

On top of having to wrestle with her thoughts of Draco, Neville was also making things difficult. Admittedly, Luna had been avoiding Neville ever since that night, but he was quite determined to see her again. He'd even developed the habit of showing up at Luna's office at Quibbler Headquarters, which she had started working at two weeks prior. At one point, Luna had to hide under her desk just to avoid talking to her persistent suitor. It wasn't like Luna didn't care about him. She just didn't want to hurt him, and if she told him that she wanted to be with Draco, not him, there was no way he wasn't going to be damaged by it. Personally, Luna hoped that if she ignored him long enough, maybe he'd just forget about her. Deep down, she knew that it was highly unlikely, but a girl could hope, couldn't she?

As if her Draco and Neville problems weren't enough to deal with, on top of being the mother of an infant who has just started her new job at the Quibbler, Luna also had to deal with the fact that she had recently developed a virus. The last thing a girl wants to deal with when she's got boy trouble is the flu, but Luna, being as lucky as she was, wasn't given the opportunity to take on one problem at a time. Not only did Luna have to worry about herself being sick, she also had to worry about not getting Landon sick too. The boy was still an infant and she was terrified that she would pass her germs on to him. So instead of nursing, she'd taken to giving him nothing but formula until she was well again.

But even with all of the precautions she had taken, Landon still managed to get sick. For days he'd been a fitful mess, his little nose either running constantly or stuffed up, making it uncomfortable for him to breathe. He'd even developed a bit of a cough. Needless to say, Landon wasn't sleeping very well, which meant, neither were his parents, both of whom had to get up early for work. All week, Draco and Luna looked exhausted, neither getting more than an hour or two of consecutive sleep each night. The only positive thing that came out of Landon catching a cold was that Luna and Draco were finally able to sit in the same room together without things feeling awkward. They'd even shared quite a few decent conversations while they comforted their fussy baby. Not once did it occur to Luna that it was an opportune time to let Draco know how she really felt about him, mainly because her mind was, as it should be, on her ailing son. Luna was surprised by all of Landon's symptoms, as all she had to deal with was nausea and dizzy spells, but her father assured her that he would be fine in a few days, once the virus had worked its way through his system. Luna was tempted to brew a draught to help rid him of his cold, but Mr. Lovegood had advised her against it because of the babies age. So instead, Luna was forced to endure watching her son battle his cold on his own, which made her feel completely helpless.

Draco knew that Luna felt awful about not being able to make Landon feel better, and he was sure that her being so tired wasn't helping her cope either, so that evening during supper he had told her to go to bed early and that he would watch the baby so that she could get some decent sleep. Luna's schedule at the Quibbler had grown to be quite demanding and he knew that she could really use the rest. Eternally grateful, Luna had trudged upstairs the moment she'd finished cleaning up the mess she'd made while cooking supper. Within moments of lying down, the physically and emotionally exhausted mother was out cold. Just a few hours after settling into bed, Luna felt herself being jostled awake.

"I really think we should take him to St. Mungo's," Draco said, as he cradled a bundled up Landon in his arms. "He's burning up and I don't know how to make his fever go down." He hated having to wake Luna up because if she was half as tired as he was, she really needed to sleep, but he couldn't help but feel like things were a bit more serious than just a cold and if they were, than they needed to get the baby the proper care as soon as possible.

"Just give me a sec and I'll be down," Luna replied, jumping up out of bed so that she could throw on a tee shirt and some jeans.

88888888888888888888888888888

It seemed like they had been sitting in the waiting room for hours without receiving any news on how Landon was doing. Luna didn't think she'd ever been so worried before in all her life. When the medi-witch finally came out to speak to them, both Luna and Draco ran over to meet her. According to the witch, Landon had a really bad case of the flu and that though he was dehydrated and had a really high fever, he would okay. Luna thought that she would be able to take him home right then, but the nurses had a few more tests they wanted to run and they wouldn't let him leave until his fever had dropped to a tolerable degree. The witch was also curious as to how Landon had gotten sick, so she asked Luna to allow her to look her over, since she had been nursing the boy. When Luna told the medi-witch that she had been sick earlier that week but that she hadn't had any real troubles since then, the witch was sure that was how the baby had contracted the virus. This officially made Luna feel like a horrible mother, even though she'd done everything she could to avoid passing her germs on.

The exam only took about half an hour and Draco was nice enough to stay with Luna while they did it. Usually she would have to wait until her follow up visit to know the results of her exam, but since they needed to know what she'd had in order to ensure that they treated Landon properly, they gave her the results within half an hour of her having taken the test.

"You said that you had been sick earlier this week, Miss Lovegood," the medi-witch said, as she looked over Luna's chart with a curious look on her face. "What were your symptoms exactly."

"I had terrible dizzy spells, headaches, my whole body was sore and I was pretty nauseous," Luna replied, softly, her guilt over getting Landon sick still weighing her down.

"Your son didn't get sick because of you," the witch replied, offering Luna a small smile.

"Really?" Luna asked, feeling a bit relieved by the witches assurance. "Than how did he get sick?"

"Babies are very good at getting sick, my dear. They touch everything they can get their little hands on and they put everything they possibly can in their mouths. It doesn't take much for them to become ill and its quite common." Luna was ecstatic. She still hated the fact that Landon was uncomfortable and sick, but she was relieved that she wasn't the one to cause him that discomfort. "The nurses are tending to his fever now. Once they get it down, you'll be able to take him home. It shouldn't be but an hour or so."

"Thank you very much," Luna said excitedly, as she shook the medi-witches hand. "You're the best."

"Wouldn't you like to know why you were feeling ill?" The witch asked Luna.

"Right," Luna laughed. "I'd forgotten about that."

"I'm not supposed to give you your results in front of non-family members," she said, gesturing towards Draco.

"That's Landon's father," replied Luna, waving off her concerns. "He's a part of our family."

"He's a part of Landon's family, so I can give him the results of Landon's tests, but since you two aren't married, I'll need your express consent to do so."

"It's okay, you can tell me while he's here," Luna assured the medi-witch, smiling over at Draco. She felt like a million pounds had been lifted from her shoulders and she didn't think anything would dampen her mood.

"You're pregnant." It took several moments for the witches words to click in both Luna's and Draco's minds, but when they did, their jaws hit the floor. Neither could believe what they'd just heard.

"What did you say?" Luna asked, disbelievingly. Draco was still unable speak, so he simply stared at the two witches with a stunned look on his face.

"You're pregnant, Miss Lovegood."

"But I just had a baby," Luna exclaimed, the severity of the prognosis hitting her. "I can't have another baby, when I've already got a baby. Landon's barely five months old!"

"I assure you, Miss Lovegood, it is possible to have a baby when your first child is still so young. The female body doesn't tend to ovulate for the first six to eight weeks after childbirth, but thereafter is fair game."

"I don't bloody well believe you," Draco gasped. "You let Neville fucking Longbottom knock you up!" Luna was speechless. She couldn't believe that Draco would assume that she'd slept with Neville. They hadn't even moved past an innocent kiss here and there, and Draco was actually yelling at her for sleeping with him. "My son will not be related to Neville Longbottom's spawn! How could you do this?"

"I didn't," Luna whispered, her feelings genuinely hurt by his baseless accusations. "There hasn't been anyone else. Just you." Draco was dumbfounded, as he recalled the night they'd spent together after his trip to the 'Baby Depot'. Not only had he handled the situation in the worst way possible, but he'd more or less told her she was easy, when she wasn't. When Draco screwed up, he really screwed up.

"You mean..."

"Yes, you moron," Luna snapped, her hurt giving way to anger. "It's yours."

"Damn, I'm good," he muttered to himself. "That's two for two. Two shags, two babies. That's got to be a record or something, right?"

"I don't know Mr. Malfoy, I'll have to look that up for you later," the medi-witch said, sarcastically. "If you don't mind, I'm going to go check on your son." With that said, she left Luna and Draco alone in the exam room.

"Luna, I'm sorry. I didn't..."

"Shut up," she muttered, not wanting to listen to him try to formulate a decent apology for basically calling her a whore. "I don't want to deal with this now."

"Is that how you're going to handle everything? Push it aside? This isn't going away Luna, so you might as well just talk to me about it now," he argued.

"What's to say?" she snapped. "You basically called me whore, without any evidence of that being true. Like father like son, I suppose."

"Wow... If your goal was to hurt me, it worked," Draco muttered, tucking his hands into his pocket and staring at the wall. "I know what I said was wrong and highly presumptuous and I'm sorry. It's just after seeing you and Neville together for the last few month or so, and then hearing that you were pregnant, my mind automatically assumed the worst. I'd forgotten, momentarily mind you, that we'd had a fantastic night together not too long ago. I'm sorry, okay?"

"Whatever," she whispered, not really giving a damn if he was sorry or not. Truth be told, Luna wasn't so much mad at Draco as she was herself. She couldn't believe that after having sex twice, she'd managed to become pregnant twice. Draco was right, that's got to be some sort of record.

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

I'VE BEEN SO EXCITED TO POST THIS PART EVER SINCE I STARTED WRITING THIS STORY. HOPE YOU LIKE IT : )

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888