Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine.

Chapter 4 Cheater

Draco,

Sirius (Teddy) is inviting you to dinner.

Katherine

P.S. I already told them you said yes.

Dinner with Black. Wonderful. Unfortunately, Mother was still giving him the cold shoulder, as if she had any say as to how Katherine gave birth. It wasn't his place to say why Katherine wanted a "quick" birth, so he'd rather go than stay at home and get dirty looks all day. Hopefully Black wasn't feeling like, well, Black.

"Don't just throw yourself into your seat, Kat!" Black panicked, causing Edward to laugh loudly. They had barely been there for five minutes. "You'll jostle him."

Katherine raised one eyebrow, causing Edward to laugh again. "Are you going to feed me or what, Padfoot?"

Black hurried off and returned with a giant pan of lasagna. Katherine looked at it appreciatively, and then started helping herself to the string beans that were already on the table. Lupin shook his head and poured himself some wine.

"Kat?" Edward asked. "Can I bring you and Drake to show and tell next week? Or just you, I guess."

"Show and tell?" Katherine repeated. "Why don't you bring Sirius? He's got webbed toes."

"Kat!"

Edward was used to this and remained unfazed. "The other kids at school don't believe that you got pregnant without having sex."

Lupin spat wine all over the table and almost started choking. Edward was what? Two years away from Hogwarts. Katherine burst out laughing.

"T-Teddy!" Black choked, even though he hadn't started eating. "D-do you even know what sex is?"

Edward frowned. Obviously he didn't. "It's what those two cats were doing in the backyard before you hosed them." Or maybe he did. "Kat said they were trying to make a baby in my fort."

"It is very romantic in there," Katherine said loudly between laughs.

"Kat," Lupin said tiredly. "Teddy, I don't think it's appropriate for her to explain to your class how she got pregnant."

"I have pictures!" Katherine offered eagerly. She was referring to the photographs of her and Astoria, the day she was going to be inseminated with the embryo. Draco wondered what it would have been like, if he had been there. Would he have been supportive? He didn't like when Astoria talked about dying. This was her preparing for her death. He would have been a wreck.

Edward rolled his eyes. "I'm not bringing Dad again. He ate all the donuts two years ago."

"Oi!"

"I had fun." In a weird way, he did. They were back at Katherine's house, and she was putting all of the leftovers that Black insisted she took home in her fridge.

"Do you want to take some home?" she offered. "I don't think I'm ever eating again."

"No. I think I'll let you finish everything in an hour." Draco laughed when she threw a dinner roll at him, causing his heart to sink. He hadn't really laughed since…

"Are you okay?" Katherine looked concerned and utterly ridiculous, considering she was holding another dinner roll, arm poised to throw it at him.

"Fine." There was nothing wrong with laughing. He couldn't expect himself to never laugh again. But after Astoria died, he never thought he would be happy again. "I-I should get going."

Katherine grabbed his sleeve as he started to leave. With a pause, she chose her words carefully. "You know, I have a guest room too. If you don't mind Teddy's dinosaur sheets that is."

Draco swallowed at the lump in his throat and nodded numbly. For once, he didn't want to go home, where everything reminded him of Astoria.

Draco woke up the next morning to find Katherine reading the paper and was half surprised that she wasn't trying to force a mountain of food on him. His heart skipped a beat when she put a hand over her belly and pulled a face.

"It doesn't hurt." She forced herself to smile. "False labor. This is one thing I've never felt before… You're lucky. I almost decided to wake you up and go to the hospital. But I decided to crack open a book for once."

"Oh. How about I make breakfast then?" he nearly squeaked. He was used to her wanting to go the hospital for every little thing. Katherine raised her eyebrows at the thought of him cooking something. "Cereal?"

"Sounds safe." She turned the page. "Did you know Fudge is having an affair with Romilda Vane? Gross."

Draco walked over to the table slowly, balancing two bowls on one arm and the milk and the cereal box in the other. Then he realized he forgot the spoons and nearly dropped everything to turn around. Katherine laughed and pointed her wand at the cabinets. Maybe he shouldn't prepare food…

Katherine rubbed circles over her belly and tried her best to contain her laughter. The prat's lips twitched. "You know, everyone's saying that I shouldn't be alone, but I think you're the one who needs me to move in."

"Thanks." He was sure once Mother got over the other night that she was going to start pushing for it again. He tried to picture what it would be like to have Katherine living at the Manor. He wouldn't mind it actually. The baby shouldn't be shuffled back and forth through the fireplace. The only problem was that he liked coming over too much. He needed an escape from the Manor.

Katherine was waiting for him to offer. Couldn't Mother's invitation be enough? "Anyway, Daphne is taking me shopping. Want to come?"

"No." She wanted him to though. Just like she wanted him to ask her to move in. How could he be so selfish?

"Sirius signed you up for a birthing class," Remus informed her. They were in his bookstore. Sometimes, Sirius joked, Who would have thought that Remus would be the only one of us who bothered to work? Sirius was an idiot.

Kat glared at him. She felt like a whale and still had eight weeks to go. Well, five if she only made it to thirty seven weeks, which was still considered full term. She really wanted a baby for Christmas. "I'm having a C-section."

"He's convinced you're going to get stuck in the elevator," Remus said dryly.

"I hate him." But Kat found herself smiling anyway. "I wonder what Draco will name him."

"You don't have any input?" Remus asked lightly. Kat shrugged. She didn't ask. "I was watching the two of you last night."

"When you should have been giving Teddy The Talk," she said as he started ringing up a costumer, who started staring. Remus glared at her. No wonder he fired her when she tried to work here a few years ago.

"You know Kat." Any precautions he was taking were suddenly out the window. Imagine that. "Draco is widowed, not married."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kat flinched at her own tone.

Remus didn't care. He was too used to the melodramatics of Sirius Black. "It means that I saw the way you two look at each other. It wouldn't be wrong if, one day, something were to happen between the two of you."

"He'll never get over Astoria." And that was okay. It hurt, but Kat knew better. Plus, she didn't have to have a physical relationship with someone if she was in love with him. In love? It was more that she was just hormonal. She would just want to be friends again after she had the baby.

Remus sighed sadly, like he was taking it a lot harder than she was. "When he's with you, it seems like he already has."

Stupid Remus.

Draco,

Remus gave me a bunch of books with baby names. He didn't believe me when I said I couldn't read. Come over and look through them with me?

Katherine

P.S. Bring snacks!

Was it bad that he hadn't thought of names yet? He almost wished that the child was a girl, so he could name her Astoria and be done with it. Katherine was going to laugh in his face when she heard Astoria's father's name.

"Carrot sticks?" she whined. Then, she jumped off the sofa, causing her to hiss in pain and rub her back. "You're lucky I have ranch dressing. I think Sirius bought me celery the other day too…"

"Right." Draco picked up a book, which had a baby snuggling with his mother on the front cover. The baby would never know what Astoria's touch felt like. "Her father's name is Hyperion."

Katherine froze with a dressing covered carrot halfway to her mouth. She looked at him like he was nuts and then shoved the entire carrot in her mouth so she wouldn't have to say anything. "I'll call him Hype."

"Please don't." Draco had yet to put down the book of the mother and her son. "I was thinking that could be his middle name."

"So you want to look through the books?" Katherine's face lit up, even though she seemed perfectly willing to let his name be Hyperion.

"Yes." Draco pushed aside the Muggle books. For some reason, Lupin sold both magical and Muggle. "I was hoping to go with the constellation tradition."

"Okay." Katherine leaned closer to him when he opened a mythology book. She didn't seem to be opening one herself. He felt his face flush at her closeness. "Did you have anything in mind?"

"No." Draco cleared his throat, but she didn't take the hint and move. Stupid Gryffindor. "Did you?"

"Nope." Katherine finally backed away. "I don't think it's my place."

She's his mother, Draco thought as he leafed through the book. Perhaps she was trying to get him to say it. He'd said it plenty of times. But it usually involved his grief over her replacing Astoria. That was his problem. He had never thought to say, "He can have two mothers."

"Yes, well…" Katherine leaned back into the sofa. "Thank you."

She only became more awkward. Since when was Katherine Potter afraid to tell him to stuff it? "I'm going to pick something ridiculous if you don't stop being so weird." She only shrugged. "Helios."

"I like it." Katherine threw her hands in the air at his snort. "What? I like animals."

"He's a sun deity," Draco said slowly.

"Oh." Again, she merely shrugged.

Draco sighed. "You're no help." He did not want to involve his parents.

Katherine brought her knees one the sofa, causing Draco to hunch into himself when her knee brushed against his shoulder. Why the bloody hell was she wearing shorts in late November?

"Is that a tattoo?" he said in disbelief. Why was he even looking? A black scorpion was on the side of her thigh.

"I dated a biker two years ago," she told him matter-of-factly. "And I got this tattoo to cover up the name Butch. The scorpion was actually Teddy's show and tell least year. He wanted it to be Astoria, but she said she couldn't make it."

More like she was too sick to make it. Although it was difficulty, Draco forced himself to push the thought to the back of his mind, where it would keep him up at night.

"Why would you tattoo a man's name on your thigh?" At this point, he shouldn't even ask.

"He had a really nice bike," Katherine joked. "I wasn't right in the head for a long time. Which is why I joined that group. Astoria said I needed to cover it up with something cool."

"I can't believe she put up with you." Draco shut the book, having enough for the day even though they had just started. For some reason, it bothered him that Katherine had memories of Astoria that he didn't. Plenty of people did. He was being stupid. "Want to get dinner?"

Katherine grinned. "Do I look like someone who says no?"

Remus should know better than to tell him secrets. Sirius couldn't hold it in anymore by Christmas. Kat and Malfoy were opening presents together for the baby. Although Kat didn't get her Christmas baby, she was happier than he had seen her in years. Her spark had come back.

"She's in love with him," Sirius told Narcissa. He would have told anyone that was nearby. At that moment, it was just really obvious. Unfortunately, Remus was nearby too and didn't hesitate to smack him on the back of the head.

Narcissa looked at him as God had come down and kissed him, a mixture of shock and awe. "Really?"

Sirius glanced at Remus, who was glaring daggers at him. "N-no."

"Hmm…" Without hesitation, Narcissa took out her wand and conjured a mistletoe. Great.

"Kat! How did St. Nick know you wanted a duck hat for the baby?!" Teddy was starting to question Santa Claus, but he had yet to officially give up on the belief, thank Merlin.

Kat smiled. She couldn't wait to hold the baby! "I don't know Ted. Sirius probably told him. He writes to him every day, even in July."

"I might have sent him a note," Draco said quietly. He was starting to get excited too. The gloominess about him wasn't present much today. Probably because Teddy was around though. His eyes were red this morning. This was his first Christmas without Astoria.

Kat laughed as she felt something brush against her hair. She looked up and saw mistletoe hovering between herself and Draco. Teddy's roaring laughter filled her ears. She glanced at Remus, who was too busy trying to kill Sirius with a look to notice. Of course. Stupid dog.

Then, her eyes fell on Draco who was turning bright red. He wouldn't think this was her idea, would he? No, he was staring at his mother. "I AM NOT CHEATING ON MY WIFE!"

"Draco," she tried. Maybe she could say Sirius was just pulling a prank. Then, he might get over it.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

Thank you for the reviews Ern Estine 13624, rozenmiko, myafroatemydog, ScarlettMeadow123102, Nataly SkyPot, Padfootette, regulusirius, and Becky G!

rozenmiko: I haven't heard of either, but I'm listening to it now! It really seems fitting for this story! I really like it. I'll have to look into that musical.

Becky G: Mother's Day is next Sunday! ;)

One more chapter to go!