Almost a week after Hermione, Harry and Sirius arrived at their new home, Dumbledore paid a visit to deliver the news that he'd been unable to locate Crookshanks. Hermione had acted devastated and used the incident as an excuse to spend less time with Harry and Sirius. Although even as she was keeping to herself, she fervently hoped that Draco had indeed found Crookshanks, and he was safe at the manor and hadn't run away when she'd left without him. However, with no way of contacting her boyfriend, she just had to have faith that he hadn't let her down and that her precious cat was safe.
During the time she spent avoiding Harry and Sirius, Hermione started to read the pregnancy and baby books Dumbledore had thoughtfully provided. Even when she started to interact with Harry and Sirius a bit more, she still continued to read as she absorbed as much information as she could about the trials the pregnancy, childbirth and raising children.
Picking up on her interest in the books, Harry suggested they started to plan for the baby's arrival. He suggested that next time Dumbledore visited, they could ask him about finding a way for them to go shopping for baby things. He even suggested they pick out a room for a nursery. Not wanting to do any such thing, Hermione reminded him that they still had months before the baby was born and she was still getting used to the idea of having a child, so would rather wait before making any plans. Reluctantly, Harry agreed they could wait to start sorting the nursery, although he did start making lists of things they would need to sort before the baby's arrival.
Not that the nursery was the only thing Harry wanted to forge ahead with, as one afternoon he mentioned the subject of names to Hermione. Before she'd even managed to respond to the idea, he'd shared his hope that they could name the child after his parents – James for a boy and Lily for a girl. Even if she had genuinely been carrying Harry's child she would have been reluctant to go down that route, as it felt too much as if he was trying to replace the parents he'd never known, and she couldn't help but think he would expect them to be replicas of their namesakes. Maybe middle names as tributes would have been more acceptable. Not that Hermione said any of that before Sirius announced that he loved the idea and though Harry was a genius for thinking of it.
As with the nursery, Hermione claimed it was too soon to be thinking about names, but she promised Harry they could talk about it at a later date. Not that she had any intention of doing so as her child already had a name. A name she'd decided on with Draco. And their child, be it a boy or a girl, would not be named after a long dead relative. They would have a new name that was purely theirs.
With Harry taking more of an interest in Hermione's pregnancy as the days turned into weeks, she began to worry about how much longer she would be stuck with him. She was well aware that so far she'd been lucky that her deceit hadn't been discovered. Aside from when Madam Pomfrey had initially confirmed her pregnancy, she hadn't been seen by a Healer. Or at least not one who thought she was expecting Harry's child. She'd seen a private Healer early in the Christmas holidays, but none since then. And she was sure that if she was seen by Healer now, her deception would be exposed. After all, Harry thought she was only four and a half months pregnant, when she was at least a whole month further along than that.
Day after day, Hermione examined her growing waistline and hid the extent of her bump with baggy clothes. However, she knew she wasn't going to be able to do that for too much longer. Eventually someone was going to mention that she needed a medical check-up, and when that happened, she was busted. All she could hope was that her father pulled his finger out and made his move before her lies were exposed and she found herself in danger.
Going on for a month after arriving at the cottage, Hermione was taking advantage of a rare, nice day as spring threatened to bloom, and was lounging in the garden with her books. Harry and Sirius were also out in the garden, but they were down the bottom of the large space, practicing their duelling as Sirius had recently been reminding Harry that he was still the one destined to save them from Voldemort.
Lying on a picnic rug she'd used a warming spell on to keep the chill away, Hermione tossed away the book she was reading and placed her hand on her expanding stomach.
"I'm sure we'll be out of here soon," she whispered to the bump. "We'll get to go home, and you'll get to see your Daddy."
Hermione's sentence turned into a shocked cry as she'd felt a distinct kick as she'd said the word Daddy. For weeks now she'd been able to feel fluttering in her stomach, which her books told her was the baby moving around, but she'd never felt anything as solid as the movement she'd just felt. With her hand still pressed to her stomach, she waited for further indication her baby was active, but none was forthcoming.
"Maybe it was the mention of Daddy," she said, gasping as yet again she felt a kick at the word Daddy.
Laughing happily, she repeated the word Daddy several times, each time getting a kick in response. She knew it was just coincidence and the baby wasn't really kicking simply because she mentioned Draco, but the idea of it certainly made her feel better. It made it feel like the baby was aware that they weren't where they were meant to be. As if the baby also knew they were missing part of their family.
Basking in the feeling of feeling her baby kick for the first time, Hermione was suddenly distracted the feeling of eyes on her. Looking up she expected to find either Harry or Sirius watching her, but they were still busy down at the bottom of the garden. Instead all she could see was the nearby wall that marked the boundary of the cottage. Over the wall all she could see was rolling fields, but she knew that since the cottage was cloaked, that might not by what lay beyond the cottage. For all she knew there could be a sprawling town right at their fingertips. Or there could even be someone standing at the wall, not realising that just beyond stood a hidden cottage.
With the feeling of someone watching her refusing to go away, Hermione stared at the wall for several minutes. She was just starting to allow herself to dream about Draco or her father being close by, when Harry's voice asking her if she was hungry, interrupted her. Knowing she needed to eat, Hermione got to her feet, and taking one last look at the stone wall, and the empty fields beyond it, she headed into the cottage with Harry and Sirius.
Draco silently watched Hermione disappear into the cottage with Potter and Black, wishing they could just make their presence felt now. As if sensing his desire to get to Hermione, Lucius placed a warning hand on his shoulder.
"We should get back," he informed his son. "This was only supposed to be a brief trip to put your mind at rest."
Voldemort had agreed to Draco visiting the cottage where Hermione was, just so he could be assured that she was perfectly safe. It was only supposed to be a quick trip, in Draco's lunch hour, but they'd been longer than planned as not only had Hermione been outside, but her growing bump was on display and Draco had been entranced by the sight of her laughing and smiling at their child growing inside her.
It had only taken Voldemort and Lucius a few days to track Hermione thanks to the child she was carrying, although it had taken them a bit longer to alter the wards so they could see the hidden cottage. Now they'd been watching the cottage for weeks, and they were almost ready to move and bring Hermione home. A plan which Draco was hoping to be given permission to be part of.
Reluctantly, Draco allowed Lucius to take him away from where his girlfriend was and return him to school. Even though it was tight, and he had no time for anything to eat, Draco arrived back in Severus's office before the start of afternoon lessons.
"Did you see her?" Severus asked, well aware of how anxious Draco had been over the last couple of weeks.
"I did," Draco replied with a smile. "And father thinks it will be this weekend when they go for her. He's promised to speak to The Dark Lord and try and persuade him to allow me to go with them."
"I'm sure he'll consider it," Severus said. "You better get going before you're late for your next lesson."
"We can't possibly have that," Draco drawled, as he picked up his bag, which he'd left in the corner of Severus's office, and headed off to finish his school day.
With missing lunch, Draco was starving before the afternoon was even half over, so the second the final lesson of the day ended, he hurried to the Head Dorms to grab himself a sandwich. Feeling more at ease than he had done since Hermione had departed Hogwarts, he settled down to plough through some homework. He was still busy studying when Padma entered the dorms, and when she'd left again forty minutes later. In fact he was still studying when it was time for dinner.
"I'm turning into Hermione," he chuckled as he packed away his books and headed down to grab some food with a smile on his face.
Dinner was highly enjoyable, and for the first time in weeks, he actually enjoyed been in his friend's company. Although his friends all noticed it and they all commented on the fact he seemed unusually happy.
"Can't I just be in a good mood?" he chuckled when his friends continued to quiz him. "Life is pretty good."
"And what is so good about it?" Blaise asked.
"Now I've got Ravenclaw Patil up to speed on the head duties, she's more than happy to do more than her fair share. In fact, I do less work now than I did when Granger was here. I'm virtually a man of leisure. Plus, it's always good to see Weasley looking so downtrodden."
Since Potter had left with Hermione, Weasley had been distinctly miserable, and would moan to anyone who would listen how he'd been abandoned by Potter. It didn't seem to matter to him that he'd been ignoring his so-called best friend in the weeks before he'd departed, and the argument could be made that it had been him who had abandoned Potter. But that was just typical of Weasley, making everything about him.
"It is amusing to watch him struggle in every single class," Theo chuckled. "I knew Granger helped him with his work, but I didn't realise how much she must have been carrying him. Without her to guide him, he's lost."
"I think most of that is just laziness," Draco snorted. "I hate to admit it, but Weasley isn't as thick as he likes to make out. After all, he did grow up in our world and all his brothers are pretty clever. He just doesn't like to make an effort and actually work. He relied on Granger and Potter to do the work for him, and he just coasted on their coattails, never pushing himself to be the best he could be."
"I wonder if he'll fail all his exams and have to repeat a year," Blaise mused.
"I think repeating a year is optional," Pansy said. "And I can't see Weasley wanting to stick around here for another year. Not now he's all alone in the world."
"It's amazing how people's attitudes have changed, isn't it?" Draco laughed. "A few weeks ago, no-one would give Potter and Granger the time of day, and now they've been driven out, everyone is muttering about how terrible their friends were to turn on them, and how awful it was they felt they had to leave."
"People are fickle creatures," Daphne remarked with a shrug. "But I guess it doesn't matter now, wherever they are, Potter and Granger are no longer our concern."
As the conversation turned to other matters, Draco was distracted by the sight of his godfather approaching the Slytherin table. Severus had just entered the Great Hall, but rather than heading straight for the Professors table, he was heading towards his students.
"Draco," Severus began. "I need to ask you a favour. I have some new ingredients being delivered on Friday afternoon, which I will need for the following week. However, I have things to do over the weekend so won't be able to sort them, so I was wondering if you could come and help me on Friday evening. It will be a long job, and you will be up rather late, but I'm sure I can make it worth your while."
"You're going to pay me?" Draco asked cheekily. He was fairly sure Severus was letting him know that he could be part of Hermione's rescue, but it wasn't as if he could ask in front of his friends.
"Nothing like that," Severus tutted. "I'm sure Slytherin would earn some extra points for your efforts."
"Go on, Draco, with Potter gone chances are we'll win the quidditch cup, which will give us extra points, and if you get us some extra points, we might just win the house cup this year," Theo urged. "And it would be good to end the year on a high."
"Okay, I will do it for my fellow Slytherins," Draco said with a dramatic sigh.
"Excellent, I will see you in my office after dinner on Friday evening," Severus said, sweeping off to join his fellow Professors.
Draco watched him go with a grin, hardly able to wait for Friday evening. It may have only been a few weeks, but he'd missed Hermione, and couldn't wait to be reunited with her again.