Chapter 36

What Would You Do For Love?

They sat at the kitchen table, Cynthia looking livid as ever, "so you did this to my daughter, do you even realize the damage that's been done?" Even Adamina remained quiet, this time Marius had gone too far. "You know full well that a Conk female is practically helpless during her pregnancy, they are already weak enough as it is and this practically cripples her! What about Draco Malfoy, do you think for an instance that he won't know by looking at her, hell, smelling her that she's pregnant, he's sure to come after her now!"

"I…," Marius didn't even get to finish.

"He will kill her on sight!"

All Hessa could do was sit there with the knowledge of a child growing in her belly, Marius sitting extremely close to her, his arm on the back of her chair. He finally got to speak, "she was helpless anyway…"

"You think that makes it all right?"

"I did not say that."

"Then what are you saying, Marius?" Adamina looked at him in disapproval. "You sit by her bed, she barely knows who you are and you get her pregnant…it's a violation of her trust, our trust."

"But it isn't," Hessa finally spoke but softly.

"Hessa…," Cynthia said sympathetically.

"It's not, I was to marry him…I knew who he was to me before. I know it was probably rash but…"

Marius cut her off when he saw she was getting upset. He did not want her to do anything that would get her that way; it was no joke that Conk females were extremely fragile for the first three months of pregnancy and only better after the fourth or fifth, "she will stay with me and we will arrange for the wedding as soon as possible."

Cynthia looked at them both, finally she was defeated. For every step she took, Marius was always two more ahead of her, but in all honesty, she knew in her heart that he would take very good care of Hessa, she just didn't want to lose her little girl so early on. "All right," was all that could be said.

He stood up and bowed respectfully to the grandmother, then led Hessa to her room where he packed her things and had them taken to his own home. Marius was very quiet during this whole process as if concentrated, Hessa found it a bit odd but later found out that the Conk male tended to be over-protective if she was pregnant. He concentrated on her needs to ensure the safe birthing of the child and made her as comfortable as possible. If a male did not take care of the female Conk that he impregnated, he could be shunned from the city. But that is not why Marius took care of her, he had wanted this from the very beginning.

Hessa didn't know what to do really, she felt uncertain and that perhaps her mother was right. Cynthia put her arm around her, "if he comes, you are to hide, do not attempt to fight at all, let Marius and the others take care of it. I wasn't much older than you when I had you." Marius came up to Hessa and took her hand, pulling her forward and away from Cynthia, Hessa looked back fairly worried. "It will be all right, I'll be by tonight."

Marius picked Hessa up and walked out of the house with her, not because she couldn't walk but because it was a sign to others that she was in fact pregnant with his child. Other males stepped out of the way of them while women smiled softly and bowed as if congratulating them, but there was one that was not happy…Viktor's daughter, she stepped in front of them causing whispers and gasps. Marius looked at her offended and outraged, "here now, get out of the way!"

"NO! How dare you!"

"How dare I? You have known ever since she came here how I have felt about her and you want to act surprised!"

"Of course…especially when we were intimate all those times before!"

Hessa shot her head up and looked at Marius as if she didn't understand, "is this true?"

Marius stared ahead with a look of shame, "yes. But it was a while ago and months before you came to us. I ended it because of her selfishness and behavior, which was just proven." He looked at Rose, "I'm asking you to step away, Rose…and I'm asking politely."

Rose gave Hessa deadly look as if to strike her, "why don't you go back to your master…oh wait, you can't…he'll kill you on sight, but it's not like he wouldn't be doing me a favor!"

Once again, the female Conks put their hands over their mouths as Hessa teared. Marius slowly put her down and turned to Rose and then backhanded her just hard enough to turn her head, it could have been much worse but she was a lady after all…in the loosest term possible that is. Rose looked back at him in surprise and held her cheek; she looked around and saw the other females comforting Hessa which made her even more angry. "Why can't you leave well enough alone? Even when she was taken by Draco from the fair you plotted and schemed in hopes that you would gain my favor, you are a selfish little wench, spoiled and unkind and I swear, you should have been born a pureblood from the Black or Malfoy family, rather than a female Conk!"

Rose saw her father coming immediately and smiled, "you'll see! You'll pay for what you did!"

She ran to her father, who didn't look at all happy, but it wasn't at Marius, it was at his own daughter, "how dare you embarrass your mother and I in this way! Making a spectacle of yourself in the middle of the streets of the city!"

"But he…."

"You deserved to get struck and I myself should have done it years ago, maybe then you would have learned some humility!" Viktor came over to Marius and Hessa, "I apologize for my daughter's behavior, please, except this gift…" He pulled out Rose's dowry, a large sum that he had been saving for when she got married.

"That's my….!" Rose shouted.

"Like you'll need it after the way you've behaved today, I'll be lucky to find a sane male that would marry you…," Viktor hissed. Roses cheeks turned red and she started to tear and turned away.

"Thank you," Marius took the dowry in kindness and bowed to Viktor and for the first time, the men truly came to an agreement. The rest of the street watched as Viktor escorted his daughter to their house where who knows what would happen to her. For such behavior from a daughter or son, the parents could put their offspring into seclusion for months if not a full year to save face.

Hessa was once again picked up and they continued on to the house where Marius made sure she had all she needed. But she was disturbed by what had happened, "I think it was harsh…you slapping her like that, would you ever do that to me?"

"If you went stark raving mad like she did, yes," he said sardonically. "Rose has had that coming for some time, she has a history of being cruel and selfish."

"Then why did you even sleep with her…?"

"To be honest, like all males here, at the time I just wanted something casual and she turned it into something it wasn't. I never brought her to my home and I made the mistake of telling her how much money I was making off certain business deals and she got it in her head to marry me, when I refused she became outraged and threw a temper tantrum, which was all the more reason why I wouldn't have anything to do with her."

Hessa sat back and looked at him, "I don't understand you men, no matter how mean or materialistic a woman is…you still want to mate with them and then you complain when it turns sour."

"Women can be the same way," he said chastising.

"Well, I'm not like that…."

"No, you aren't. And you wouldn't understand and I'm glad of it," he got down on his knees in front of her and laid his head on her lap. Hessa put her hands through his hair, "I love you, Hessa and I promise I will never stray from you and I will be a good father to our children…"

"Children…more than one?"

He looked up at her, "yes, I want more than one. It's uncommon here because of how long we live but I do want more than one."

"All right," Hessa petted him more, in a sense, he was being submissive to her, giving his heart to her and it was rare for him to be submissive to anyone.

……………………………………………………………

Draco sat in his chair and stared at the bed, he had not cleaned up the mess that was made when he threw Hessa as he did. He couldn't kill her, he wouldn't…and despite her rebelliousness, he still wanted her. It was his own fault, it wasn't Harry Potter or Marius, it was him and unlike his father, he could admit when he was wrong to someone he loved.

The war on the Conk's city would start in a few days and they were preparing, reading all they could about weaknesses of their people. But unfortunately, there was more on the females than the males. As Draco found out, more males had become because of the lack of interference of wizards over the centuries, the Conk's slowly severed their connection as laws changed and the generations lost their proper ideas, especially when the female Conks got tired of being second best when it came to being married, purebloods wanting to marry purebloods.

From what he gathered, Marius would be a formidable opponent and one he looked forward to killing, but he wasn't totally sure what he was capable of. Marius had already proven that he could use his shield to launch himself and he was incredibly strong, as strong as Draco was. He would have to fight to keep her, but what would he do after? Would he have to erase her memory again and would such a thing be dangerous? There was one man much better than he at changing memories, he was called 'the eraser'. His services were high but well worth it. People who fell under his wand were never able to recover their original memories and he could even work around other memory charms…perhaps it would be something he would have to consider, otherwise, Hessa would never forgive him and Conk female that did not want her Master any longer and was forced, would will death upon herself.

This love for her was more than anything he had ever felt, and he would never let her go. Ever.