CHAPTER FIVE

With Draco's and my help, Nott Manor was fixed up and sold within the same month as our agreement to become a true ménage a trois with Theo had been made, and our new lover moved into our flat in Kensington with us. The next six and a half months was a wonderful time for all of us, learning how to live together, discovering each other in ways we had never before considered possible. There were fights, yes, but we were all willing to work the kinks out as they came, especially when it came to our insecurities and jealousy. The golden rule to never go to sleep angry became our mantra, and it helped – it really did. We handfasted four months into it – the three of us to each other - and that seemed to only strengthen our bonds of affection and devotion.

I admit that I fell deeply in love with Theo during that stretch of time, and I knew Draco's previous feelings for the man had definitely rekindled and bloomed as well. Many women might have been put off by watching two men together, but honestly, I found the way they touched to be rather erotic. Watching them tease and pleasure each other aroused me in ways I'd never suspected. Of course, I was never left wanting during such sessions - my wizards more than made sure of that.

During my eighth month of pregnancy, we gave up our flat to move into Malfoy Manor at the insistence of Draco's mother, who wanted her grandchildren to be raised in the ancestral home and was willing to overlook our unconventional relationship for the sake of having her family stay together. I gave birth there in the wing allocated to us, under the supervision of my Healer and several medi-witches a few weeks after that.

We had fraternal twins – both boys – almost exactly nine months after that wild first night together. Theo and Draco were both there in the room with me the whole time, and both got to hold a son in their arms in the end. My men – husbands, I called them both now - had their heirs, and I had my babies. Finally.

The night we settled our boys – Alexander Lucius Malfoy (named for my father and Draco's) and Aidan Donovan Nott (who took Theo's and my father's middle names) - into the specially prepared nursery, after they'd spent a week in a temporary bassinet, per tradition - Theo excused himself for a moment, leaving the room. Draco snuck in behind me as I stood over our sleeping children and wrapped his arms about my waist.

"Are you happy, baby?"

I nodded, relaxing into his embrace. "Very. Are you?"

He kissed my cheek. "Extremely."

"Thank you, for giving us this chance all those months ago," I again voiced my gratitude. It had been Draco's suggestion we seek outside help to conceive. He'd done so for me, because he knew my desperation to carry a baby under my heart. That decision had changed the course of our lives together – for the better. "We finally have the family we always wanted."

He sighed with happiness. "They're going to be a handful."

I chuckled. "I think I've got a good handle on the men in this family." I'd even been able to tame Lucius, it seemed, as he smiled easier now, and hugged me on occasion.

"That you have, wife of mine," he grinned against my cheek.

I was under no delusions; I knew the work was just getting started. However, motherhood was an occupation I'd been looking forward to for a very long time, and really it couldn't be as hard to raise my children as it had been to conceive them and then to convince the world that our method of doing so – and keeping us together as a threesome after the fact - had been right. I'd had to win over my family, his family, and all of our friends to the idea of the unusual relationship between Draco, Theo, and I.

That had been a very difficult boulder to push up the metaphorical mountain, and several times over the last three-quarters of a year, the stress had been so difficult that I'd feared Theo would cut and run. He never had, thanks in part to Draco's ability to charm the socks off any bad-tempered snake, and my insistence that we belonged together. In a way, we'd seduced Theo into staying with us, tying him to our bed and our hearts with lust and love. It had been a very Slytherin way to go about it, but it had worked.

"They're beautiful," he whispered in my ear, kissing my temple. "Thank you."

"I wish-" I began, but didn't finish that sentence. What good would it do to say I wished at least one son would have Draco's genetics? Such words would only hurt him and Theo both. After all, we'd gotten to this place because of a misfortune of biology. That we'd been blood incompatible had been, it turned out, the greatest favour we'd ever received from the cosmos, as it had brought us more love and pleasure than either of us ever imagined possible.

"Know what I wish?" Theo interrupted, coming up behind us, and we turned together. Our lover was holding a tray, and on it were three glasses of champagne.

I knew I shouldn't indulge, but I deserved it, so why not? The labour had been hard, and it had taken my body three days to get back on its feet again. A little indulgence never hurt anyone, right? I reached for a glass, and Draco took one. Theo took the final one. He toasted us.

"I wish us all a Happy Samhain," he stated, grinning like a lovesick fool.

"Oh, my goodness!" I squeaked, and then hushed my tone so as not to wake the children. "I forgot! It's Halloween tomorrow. But I didn't get either of you anything."

It was tradition in the wizarding community to give some small trinket, usually magical in nature, to loved ones on our most important of holidays. It was a throw-back tradition to earlier times when the completed harvest was celebrated at the end of October and an exchange of gifts was given when the yield had been good. The superstition claimed that showing such generosity came back around as luck, so families could weather the harsh winter months ahead.

"But you did," Theo indicated the cot behind me. "You gave us the greatest blessing of all, love."

Draco nodded in agreement. "You gave us hope, baby."

I very quietly clinked glasses with my husbands, thinking that they were right, but only partly: my two men had also given me hope, too.

I wasn't going to tell them that just yet, though. What they'd just unintentionally handed me was the perfect bargaining chip for a night of wicked and wonderful sex sometime in the near future. I intended upon taking full advantage of that. It had been several weeks since I'd had their hands, mouths and... other parts... on and in me, after all. I was looking forward to the fun to come.

"You're very welcome," I smiled around a sip of bubbly. "Oh, but when I'm finally recovered, be fully prepared for me to call in that favour. I've got weeks worth of new, naughty ideas I want to try out."

~FIN~

AUTHOR'S FINAL NOTE:

Thank you, dear readers, for sticking with this experimental fic to the very end. I appreciate your interest, and hope you'll leave me a review to let me know if the story worked for you or not. Be honest. I appreciate con-crit. :)

To let you in on a little secret, this story served as a very important milestone in my writing career: it was my first time writing a threesome. I'd wanted to do one between these three specific individuals since "When Love and Hate Collide" was initially published back in 2009, and I finally got my chance. More importantly, however, the story gave me the opportunity to open up dialogue concerning social and medical issues which some might find uncomfortable to discuss (or even admit exist, in some cases), although they are relevant and very real issues that should not be relegated to the 'closet of shame,' I feel.

When I initially conceived "The Favour," I had no plans for the threesome - it was to be Theo and Hermione having a one-off to get her pregnant because Draco's blood was incompatible with hers (thus playing off the whole blood purity issue from the novels). However, as I began writing, the story morphed and took on a life of its own. As my fingers typed away, it suddenly bloomed and became my vehicle for touching upon the controversial topics of alternate lifestyle choices, women's infertility, and how becoming pregnant can become an obsession and the desperate acts some women feel driven to commit to become a mother. I tried to tackle each of those subjects with sensitivity, while entertaining you with a plot that could possibly (maybe) be believable in the magical universe that JKR created. I hope it succeeded for you.

Again, thank you for taking the chance with me and following this one to the end!