Author's Note: A short fluffy bridge chapter to tie everyone over! This coming week will see another obstacle and a traumatic event so buckle up, my lovelies!
—-Chapter 8—
Accompanying Song: Adventure of a Lifetime - Coldplay
"Malfoy."
Damn it. He had nearly managed to escape for the afternoon without notice. Harry's pace came to a jog as he caught up with his partner.
"I have been told that you won't be my partner on today's stakeout."
"I know. Confined inside for the day to paperwork. You know how much I despise paperwork," Draco attempted to play it off with a shrug of his shoulders.
Harry pivoted, his palm pressing into Draco's chest as he came to block his path. "I hear that you're leaving early and that is why you won't be going with me."
Curse Olivia and her loose lips!
"Ah, yes. I have a prior engagement this evening."
"Malfoy," Harry ground out, "don't play me for a fool. You never have left early, and I hear that a certain someone else is leaving early today as well."
Draco arched a brow at Harry, continuing to feign ignorance to what he was getting at.
"Hermione told me to not wait for her at lunch today. She never misses our Wednesday lunch with Ginny, and you never leave early."
Of all days she could have planned this appointment, why would it be on the one day that Potter would notice something out of the ordinary? Hermione might have been clever but she did not think this one through.
"We have a meeting to go over wedding details," once more he tried to brush off the questions but Harry held his ground.
"Hermione told Ginny that your mother was still working on the announcement." Harry hesitated before his wand dropped through his sleeve into the hand bracing Draco. "You have five seconds to tell me, Malfoy."
"Can't stand not knowing, Potter?"
"Five."
"As if Hermione would let you live if you curse me," he attempted to call Harry's bluff.
"Four, and Bat Bogey is a hex not a curse."
Knowing the other half of the Potter's, that threat could be real menacing.
"Three," the countdown continued as he bargained for time.
"Perhaps Hermione wanted this to be a secret."
"Two." Harry was not deterred.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?"
"One."
"Alright! Damnit, Potter! Just don't hex me," he added a silent 'yet' to himself.
Harry's hand did not lower, "Well?"
"We have an appointment." When Harry did not seem to accept the answer, he ground out a low, "for the baby."
Harry staggered backwards in shock, and it was all the purchase Draco needed to get free. He brushed past his partner and broke into a sprint, an attempt to gain ground as he skidded around the corner towards the lift. The stunned news must have wore off as shouts of his name echoed through the vacant corridor. Heavy footsteps mirrored his own and it was only a matter of time before Potter would catch up to him.
But what would he do?
Draco did not dare to find out. Using the last of his energy, he burst through the wrought gold grille onto the lift.
"Level 8," he cried as Potter rounded the corner to the last stretch between the two of them.
The rattle of the gates resounded through the lift, Harry having almost reached his target before the lift began to move.
Hermione's hand glided over the the paper beneath it. Occasionally, she would jot the requested information into the provided blank. Once she reached the bottom of the paper, she flipped it over to fill out the backside and revealed another sheet below that.
"Why don't they just use parchment?" Draco was mere inches from her, observing every movement with both scrutanty and the wonder of an insatiable child.
"This isn't the 13th century," she hissed, using her elbow to push him back to his own seat. The last thing she wanted was for him to start asking questions about the different sections she was filling out or other basic things any muggle would have known.
Not one to be deterred, he leaned over to her again. "Why-"
"Draco, please," she set the pen down, eyes pleading with him. "Please don't ask what every contraption and device is while we are in the presence of muggles. They are going to wonder if-
"Miss Granger?"
Thank Merlin!
Quickly, she gathered the paperwork into her arms and Draco took her cue, folding her jacket over his arm and her purse safely tucked under it.
Clueless, but ever the gentleman, at least.
"You seem to be measuring at nine weeks, Miss Granger. Right on target."
Displayed on the bulky box before them was a black and white image of a small, alien like creature in a haze of static. A sound that reminded him of the sea carried with it that of a fast pace heartbeat. Draco's brows were furrowed as he leaned across Hermione, squinting as he tried to get a better look.
"That's our child?" Despite Hermione's warning, it was hard to hide the bewilderment of what he was seeing. Wizards did not invest their effort into things like this.
The nurse laughed, her hand gliding the doppler across Hermione's exposed midsection to get a better image. At this angle, it resembled a small stuffed bear shrouded in a black bean. "Indeed it is."
A smile stretched across his features, his look of amazement causing Hermione to elicit a laugh. His hands clasped around one of hers and drew it closer to him. "I can't believe it. We are having a baby," his tone was barely audible on a breath of a laugh.
The sight before Hermione gripped her heart. Her field of vision began to swim as tears threatened to spill over.
"I'll go get these printed and give you two a minute."
The click of the door behind the nurse brought with it a river of tears.
"Love? What's wrong?" Draco moved to envelope her into his arms.
"It's just," her voice was strangled with tears and muffled by his chest, "I was so worried."
Draco tenderly combed his fingers through her hair, pulling her in closer. "Why ever would you be worried?"
Her words continued to be broken, punctuated with body heaving sobs. "That I would do this alone. That you wouldn't be here."
His lips lingered atop her head, burying a kiss into the mess of curls. "I am here, and I will always be at your side so long as my heart continues to beat, for you and our child."
Hermione lingered in the doorway to savor the scene before her.
Draco was perched on the edge of her bed with a picture frame carefully gripped in his hands. He had been beaming from ear to ear since they left the obstetrician's office, but this smile was more gentle, more tender. The photograph of their unborn child had not left his sight since they had come home. It was a sight that sent the butterflies in her stomach aflight. She had worried about how he would react, but any fears she had previously had were quelled with his reaction to today's visit.
Crossing the short distance between the two of them, she gently sat down beside him.
"I'm really glad you came today, Draco."
His gaze finally broke away from the picture in his hands as he placed it on the nightstand. Snaking his arms around her waist, he delicately pulled her into his lap and nestled her into his chest.
"I would like to go with you every time, if that's alright."
She hid her smile against the crook of his neck, "I would love that."
"Are we able to see the baby every visit?"
"No, but we will get to hear them and in a few weeks they will be able to tell us the gender."
Draco let out a hum of contentment as his navigated under her shirt to rest atop her abdomen, a place that they so often seemed to gravitate towards lately.
"I still cannot believe it," he murmured. "We are actually going to be parents."
Hermione laughed before playfully nudging him with the elbow, "What have you been thinking the past month?"
Scowling, he nipped at the edge of her ear in retaliation, "This just solidified it is all. I have known that we would be, but to actually see and hear them brought it into perspective."
She glanced towards the frame beside them. "I know what you mean," she whispered.
Sitting up with a start, Hermione almost spilled from his lap as he moved as if electrocuted.
"Draco?"
"We haven't even started a nursery! We have so much work to do, furniture to buy, painting to do."
Hermione laughed, leaning up to press a chaste kiss to the edge of his jawline.
"We don't even know where we will be staying, let alone that."
The apartment had begun to feel like their own home, something that was completely theirs. Over the past days since their announcement to Narcissa, she had been shooing him out of the house under the pretense that he needed to work on his family. Slowly, some of his more important belongings had been making their way over to Hermione's flat: clothing and quidditch supplies, books and potions equipment. What his mother had decided that he was taking too long, she began to send small knick knacks by owl which left the couple coming home to several packages littering the kitchen.
"I could buy you a house," his tone was serious, a statement as opposed to a question.
Hermione peeled herself away from him, turning to cast him an incredulous look. "Why would you give up your manor?"
"Perhaps it is time for me to start laying down roots of my own."
With the space Hermione had given, he reached down beside the bed and produced a magazine.
"I went by the realtor's office a few days ago on my lunch. We could look at any of the houses you could ever desire, small or large. I know that my family has committed some horrifying acts, and I want our new beginning to be free from being associated with that."
She searched his face for any sign that this was not what he truly wanted.
"Draco, you don't have to buy a house. We have my flat or we could go half on one."
"Hermione," his hand covered hers. "Please let me do this for us. Let me show you how much the two of you mean to me with actions instead of words."
Once more he reached for the night stand and handed a pen to her.
"I do believe that the wizarding world would benefit from these devices. I cannot believe that you went from this to a quill and inkwell."
Her shock at his proposal wore off with the completely serious look that Draco wore.
"It was a bit of a downgrade, but I have gotten used to it. I just prefer them around the house, less items to carry or set up."
She flipped past the cover to begin picking through the houses, pausing for a moment, "This doesn't mean that I have agreed to just let you outright buy us a home, we will be coming back to that 50/50 split."
Draco absently nodded, brushing this off as he flipped a few pages to point to the first dwelling that caught his attention. "What about this?"
"Draco Malfoy, we will not be raising our children in a home with a dungeon."
It was a subconscious slip of the tongue as she absently looked, something that went unnoticed by her but brought a smile to his face.
Their children.
She was planning a future with him