Chapter 2
"What now?"
Hermione just stood there, pondering on what they should do next when she heard a small cough come from the pink crib. She watched as Draco walked over to the crib and followed him. They both looked down at the baby and saw that her eyes were open. The baby looked up at both of them with confusion at first, but after a few seconds she started to giggle and reach her hands up wanting one of them to hold her. Hermione bent over the crib and picked up the baby girl and smiled as the baby reached up to touch her face.
"Hi baby."
"I don't think she can talk yet, Granger." Malfoy said as he walked over to one of the couches on the side to sit.
"So? It's good to talk to babies, they'll learn to talk faster."
"Yeah, whatever." Draco snorted. "I'm bored."
"Do you want to hold her?"
"No way."
"Why not? She's your responsibility too."
"I don't care. You're the wife, you take care of the kids!"
"What?! I thought we already went through this, don't treat me like some kind of house wife. These kids are your responsibilities too! Why can't you just grow up and stop acting like an immature child? I swear, Malfoy, you're probably going to horrible husband and parent in the future. I already feel bad for whoever…"
"That's enough! How dare you talk to me like that, you disgusting mudblood." Draco was so angry at what Hermione was saying to him that he was practically screaming at her, which made the baby in her arms start to cry and worse, the baby that was sleeping in the crib was woken up by Draco's loud voice and started to cry too.
"Look what you did! You know what, Malfoy? If you don't want to help me take care them then fine! Just leave! I don't need you." Hermione said as she walked over to the blue crib while trying to calm down the baby girl in her arms.
"Good then! You take care of them!" Draco was livid, he left the room and slammed the door shut which made Hermione jump. Stupid, stupid Malfoy. No good, stupid git, Hermione thought to herself as she walked over to the couch while holding both babies in her arms. She sat down on the couch and was trying really hard to get both of them to calm down. This is harder than I thought. I think I'll go ask Ginny to help me out for a while. Hermione stood up and found a baby stroller in the corner. Perfect! She put both babies in the stroller and walked out of the room. She expected to see Draco sitting outside in the living room but when she looked around she saw that he had left their dorm. Where did he go off to? He could've at least stayed inside. I hate him. Hermione pushed the stroller out the portrait door and walked towards the Gryffindor tower.
Draco slammed the door shut behind him and angrily walked out of their dorm.
"Stupid Granger" he whispered to himself as we walked down the corridor. He heard couples laughing with their kids as he walked past each door and made faces at them. He was about to turn the corner when he heard something that caught his attention. Turning back around, he walked over towards a portrait with a lion like creature.
"Is Pansy Parkinson in there?"
"Yes, she is. With Harry Potter."
Draco rolled his eyes at that last part. "Well, can I go inside?"
"Password?"
"How am I supposed to know what the password is?"
"Sorry. No password, no entry"
"Come on! I'm her friend. Just let me in!"
"I can't let you in without a password"
Draco became frustrated and was about to turn around and walk away when he heard the portrait swing open.
"Malfoy? What are you doing here? Where's Hermione?"
"Who cares where she is, Potter. I came here because I want to talk to Pansy. I heard her voice earlier so I know she's in there. Now let me in." Without waiting for Harry's response, Draco just pushed him out of the way and walked into their dorm. Harry gritted his teeth and refrained himself from saying something. He walked into the dorm and up the stairs into the bedroom.
Once inside, Draco looked around and saw that the dorm was no different than the one he and Hermione had, although the furniture were placed differently it was pretty much the same. He looked over towards the couch and saw Pansy sitting with a child that looked about three. She looked up at him and smiled.
"Hey Draco! How nice of you to visit. Meet Isabelle. Isabelle, this is Draco."
"Oh, uh….hello…" Draco said as he walked over and sat on the other couch next to them.
"Hi Drago!"
"It's Draco, with a C"
"Haha, you're funny."
"Pansy, I think your kid has problems."
"Shut up" Pansy said and glared at him as she picked Isabelle up.
"Hey, where are you going? I need to talk to you."
"Bringing Isabelle into her room so she can play with her toys. Come up with us"
Draco followed Pansy into the child's room. He was expecting to see a room similar to the one that was in his dorm, but remembered that his kids were only a year old and Isabelle is three. Instead of a crib there was a kid size bed with pink and red covers and there were doll houses instead of stuffed animals. He also noticed that there was only one bed. Pansy set Isabelle down on the floor so she could play with her dolls.
"You're lucky, Pansy. You only have to take care of one kid."
"How many do you have?"
"Two. One year olds. A boy and a girl, I think they're twins."
"Well, obviously, if they're both one year old. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out."
Draco glared at her.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Don't you think this Family Life class is a load of crap?"
"No actually, I think this is a really good experience for us."
"Who are you and what have you done with Pansy Parkinson?"
"I'm serious, Draco. We can learn a lot from this. What's so bad about it anyways?"
"I don't know. I guess I'm just frustrated that I got stuck with Granger."
"Just give her a chance. I got stuck with Potter and after a while I realized that he's actually not that bad."
"Okay, seriously Pansy. What happened to you? At this time last year you would've hexed Potter the instant you found out you were paired with him."
"That's not true!"
Draco raised his eyes at her.
"Okay, fine. Maybe it's a little true, but things change, Draco. People change."
"Did you change because the Dark Lord's no longer around?"
"Draco, stop, I'm not going to talk about that with you. Look, this is something we have to do and there's no getting out of it. You've already signed the contract. It's not like they're asking you to fall in love with Granger or anything drastic. So why don't you just try to get along with it. What's the worst that can happen?"
"I just don't know if I can handle it. How do they expect two people who hate each other to come together and raise these kids and pretend like we're one big happy family."
"Hey, this isn't easy for any of us. This is something totally strange and random that they've decided to throw at us, but remember, you're not in this alone, Draco. Every sixth year student is going to go through this. If you still think you're not able to handle this, think about Granger. How do you think she feels? Her partner won't help her and she has to deal with not only one, but two babies."
"Who's side are you on, anyway?"
"Draco, I'm just trying to make you understand that this isn't supposed a cake walk, it's going to be hard and you may not like the person you're paired up with, but she's dealing with the same situation too, so why not try to make the best out of it for both of your sakes."
"I guess I could try to help her out. I don't want to go back to a cranky wife every day. She gets a little crazy when she's in a bad mood."
"Haha, that's a good boy. Now go back to your dorm. Remember, we still have other classes to attend to."
"Yes, mom." Draco said and rolled his eyes at her.
Pansy smacked his arm, but couldn't help from smiling. Draco got up and walked towards the door. He turned around right before he was about to leave.
"Hey Pansy?"
"Yea?"
"Thanks for talking with me. It's good to know I have someone who has a brain to talk to. I don't know what would've happened if I went to Crabbe or Goyle."
Pansy smiled at his comment. She got up and went over to hug him.
"Your welcome."
Draco walked out the room and down the stairs. He turned to see Harry sitting by the fire reading a book.
"See ya, Potter." Draco said as he walked out the door.
"Uh…bye?" Harry said, although it was too late since Draco already walked out the door. He was shocked that Draco hadn't given him a sly remark or challenged him to a duel.
Pansy walked down the stairs with Isabelle and sat down next to Harry. Isabelle climbed onto Harry's lap and tried to peer over the book that Harry was reading.
"What's up with Malfoy?" Harry asked Pansy, as he put the book lower so the little girl on his lap could see the pictures.
"Nothing's wrong with him. Why do you ask?"
"He's acting quite strange…I think he's plotting something against me."
"Seriously, Potter, you need to relax. No one is plotting anything against you. Come on, We have to get ready for our next class."
Draco walked back to his dorm to find that it was empty. He walked up the stairs and into their children's room, but found that no one was there. He decided that Hermione probably left for class already and brought the kids with her.
But throughout the whole day he hadn't seen her in any of their classes. Where the heck is Granger? It's not like her to miss classes especially on the first day back! Even at dinner he didn't see her. He made sure to look over at the Gryffindor table every minute or so to see if she had arrived, but she never did. He walked back into the dorm expecting to see Hermione studying or taking care of the kids, but again he was wrong. The room was empty.
"Where is she?" Draco whispered to himself. It was almost 11 o' clock and he still hasn't seen her since that morning. He sat on the couch and lit up the fire place. He decided to work on his assignment for DADA to take his mind away from Hermione, but when 11:30 came rolling by he started to get worried.
"Stupid Granger. Don't tell me she got lost trying to find her way back here." He said to no one in particular.
Suddenly he heard the portrait door swing open and in walked Hermione pushing the stroller with one hand while the other hand was holding all her school assignments and books. She walked down to the living room and threw the books down on the table. She looked at Draco who was staring at her with a worried but angry look on his face.
"Hi." She said to him with a slight hint of confusion in her voice.
"Hi?...Hi!? Is that all you have to say to me?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I come back to the dorm finding it empty thinking you already went off to class without me and when I get there, I didn't see you so I thought maybe she's probably running a little late, but you never even showed up! Not to any of the classes! Then, I go to dinner thinking that maybe, just maybe you were there with that Weasley girl, but guess what? You weren't there either!"
"Are you done?"
"No, I'm not done. After dinner, I come back here to an empty room, what a big surprise! I decided to work on my DADA assignment to get my mind off that fact that it was eleven and you still weren't back yet. Finally, at eleven thirty you decided it was a good time to come back, so you casually walk in like it's no big deal that you haven't been to any of your classes and skipped dinner while I've been sitting here worried sick and all you have to say to me is Hi?! Where have you been?"
"Wait, you were worried about me?"
"Don't try to change the subject, Granger. And it's your fault for making me worried. They are my kids too, you know!"
"Oh so now they're your kids too? What a change of heart, Malfoy. This morning you wanted nothing to do with them and now you're telling me that it's my fault for making you worry about them? You're the one that told me to take care of them myself, remember?"
"Well, I've changed my mind."
"Ha! Yea right."
"Seriously, Granger. Actually, I would like to make a truce with you. No more fighting, from this day forward we shall be civil towards one another. So how about it?" Draco stuck out his hand waiting for Hermione to shake on the deal.
Hermione stood there for a moment wondering if she should trust Draco with this. Well, it does mean that he has to help with the kids. I guess it won't be that bad. It's really hard for one person to take care of two babies anyways.
"Alright fine, but you better not back out from this, Malfoy." Hermione said as she shook Draco's hand.
"Deal. So where were you all day?"
"Well, after you left me so rudely this morning, I was trying to take care of these two by myself, but found it rather difficult when both won't stop crying, which by the way is your fault." Draco rolled his eyes but continued to listen.
"So I went to look for Ginny to help me calm them down. I found her in her dormitory and she agreed to help. It was such a hassle taking care of two crying babies. It took forever for them to stop crying and once they stopped, they eventually, after about an hour, fell asleep. Ginny and I were so worn out from trying to get them to calm down that we fell asleep ourselves. We slept through all the classes and woke up during dinner time. I had to hurry and go find all the professors to tell them why I had missed class and get my assignments. That gave me no time to go eat. Finally, after getting all my books and work, I decided to go to the kitchens to grab some food. I hadn't eaten all day. And now I'm here."
"All this because you couldn't handle taking care of two babies? Why didn't you just come to me? I would've gladly helped you…" Draco said with a big smile on his face, but in return Hermione just glared at him. "Okay, okay. I'll admit I was a bit of a jerk earlier…"
"A bit? How about a big jerk?"
"Don't push it"
"Whatever. You've agreed to help me take care of them now and you can't back out."
"Okay, I get it. Here, let me help you carry them upstairs to bed."
Draco took the baby girl in his arms while Hermione held the boy. They walked upstairs into their children's room and set them down into their own cribs. Both back away slowly as not to wake them up. They stared down at the sleeping angels for a moment until Draco broke the silence.
"Uh…Granger?"
"Could you please call me Hermione? I hate it when you address me by my last name."
"Fine. Her..mi..o..ne…?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. Obviously Draco isn't used to calling Hermione by her first name. "Yes, Drayyy…co?"
"What are our babies' names?"
"Oh my gosh! I totally forgot about that! We haven't even given our babies names yet!"
"How can you forget?"
"Well if you hadn't made them cry so much, I would've had time to think about it. Instead I spent the whole time trying to get them to stop."
"Okay, let's stop playing 'Blame Draco Malfoy for everything'."
"But it's true. Whatever, not time for that, let's just think of a name for them."
Draco and Hermione stood there for a while pondering on what name they should give to each of their babies. Tick…Tick…a few minutes have passed and still no one said a word.
"This is harder than I thought" Hermione said.
"I have something."
Hermione looked up at Draco. "What is it?"
"How about Owen and Eleina?"
Hermione smiled. "Owen and Eleina…I like that."