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Chapter Seven: Restlessness & Trickery

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Light snoring filled the small room, followed by giggles of glee. Finally finished with her homework, Hermione stepped out of the kitchen, a yawn finally escaping her. A glance at the giant wall clock in the room surprised her. She couldn't believe how late it was. She followed the noise she'd been hearing from the kitchen, her search leading her to the large sofa where five of her companions sat and slept. They looked rather silly, she thought as she shook her head.

Harry, who was seated next to Draco and also at the end of the sofa, had his head rested upon the arm while next to him Draco slept peacefully, one arm extended, resting on the back of the sofa. Ginny was cuddling with him, her head upon his chest, one arm around his waist. On the other end of her were Luna and Ron. Ron seemed to be falling off the armrest, while Luna's head rested upon his back. All together they snored lightly, exhausted from the days events.

Then her eyes fell upon the three infants, sitting in a large play pen, smirking and giggling at each other. Aric was clapping two blocks together while Lily and Leander stared around the room in amusement. She slowly made her way over, picking up Lily, fighting back another yawn. She was tired and really wanted to just flop down onto a bed… It was then she spotted the door across the room. She couldn't recall seeing it earlier. Shrugging, she walked over, opening it to reveal long, dark narrow corridor that withheld three doors. She whipped out her wand.

"Lumos," she whispered, illuminating the hall. She walked to the first door, slowly opening it. She was surprised when the lights came on, dimly lighting the small dark space. In it were two separate beds, on the other end a crib. "Bedrooms," she said with awe. "This room really does think of everything. She decided to set Lily down in the crib, watching as the toddler crawled over to the bunny-like teddy bear in the corner. She threw it down repeatedly before snuggling with it.

Hermione made her way back to the living room, gently waking up everyone as best as she could. She decided to shake Harry since no one else seemed to want to wake up willingly. His eyes fluttered open. His first instinct was to push his glasses closer to his face before they could fall off completely. He stared at her for a moment before stifling a yawn.

"Hi," he stretched. He looked around at his comrades before laughing. "Wow, taking care of kids must really be exhausting… Oh, are you done studying now?" he asked turning to her.

"Yep. I think we should wake them up… I can't imagine it's comfortable the way they are," she gestured to everyone else. "I'll wake Draco and you get Ron." She gently poked Draco. He twitched momentarily before going back to sleep. She looked over at Harry who seemed to be now punching Ron on the shoulder, but the redhead still continued to snooze. The commotion, however, caused Luna to flutter her eyes open.

"Mm, Harry, you really shouldn't beat on people while they're sleeping." she said.

"Yeah well, I wouldn't be beating him if he'd get up already." Harry said as he poked Ron harder. He drew back when Ron let out a small whimper that soon turned back to snoring. Frustrated, he smacked him. If that doesn't wake him up, I don't know what will. He didn't get up at all.

"Uhn… Stop poking me!" Draco shot up, his arms extending out before him as a defence mechanism to shove whoever had been poking him, away. This course of action caused him to accidentally push Ginny down onto the floor. Despite the impact, the Weasley girl slept on, just as her brother had done. Draco jumped up, quickly picking her up and setting her down on the sofa. He could feel Hermione and Harry's watchful eyes. He spun around with a glare.

"What," he demanded. He turned and glared at Luna as well but she was too busy pinching Ron's cheeks to notice. Then fatigue washed over him. "Why'd you have to go and wake me up anyway…"

"Well, sorry for being concerned about your well being. But I figured since the five of you couldn't possibly sleep there…" Hermione stopped, figuring there was no time to lecture the stubborn blonde. "I found rooms. With beds. That you can actually sleep in. But if you'd rather just sit there and have a stiff body in the morning, well be my guest."

Draco blinked. He looked away, muttering, "Okay, fine…"

"I think it's impossible to wake these two up," Luna suddenly said while yanking on Ron's ears. She giggled as he laughed. "Ooh, he's ticklish."

The three of them stared at her, brows furrowed. She shrugged. As if the others weren't shocked enough, she stood, hoisting Ron over her shoulders, carrying him like a fireman would. Harry and Hermione watched, mouths open. Draco ran a hand down his face, unable to believe the sight before him. He shook his head.

"Well, we're off to sleep, I'm pretty tired," Hermione said. It seemed she didn't have to say anything more because Harry soon followed after her. The sound of slamming doors, one by one, filled the room.

Draco was the only one who remained, staring at Ginny. He then set out ways to wake her up. Poking, yelling (which only caused Harry and Luna to poke their heads out and yell at him to "shut the hell up"), shaking and even pinching. Nothing worked. He decided there was no other way but to carry her to the last room. He made to pick her up when Luna stepped out with a silly grin on her face. She walked over to the playpen, picking up Aric.

"Heh, silly me… Forgot my own child…" and she sauntered off to return to her room.

Sighing, Draco picked up Ginny, carrying her to the last unoccupied room. It surprised him how light she was. Despite the fact that she and him hardly ever got along, carrying her didn't seem to bother him at all. He opened the door with one hand, kicking it open with his foot. He stepped forward. He forgot to tilt her around, thus causing her to hit her head against the wall. Afraid that she might awake, Draco stood still. But she didn't say anything. She slept on.

"Amazing…" he muttered as he walked into the dimly lit room. Laying her down on the bed, he went back out to get Leander. With everyone settled in where they were supposed to, he fell back on the bed with a sigh. He cringed. He never knew how sore his body was until then.

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"WAH!!"

Harry bolted upright in his bed. With blurry vision he scanned the room. The lights had turned off during the night, making it completely dark. He heard sniffling before another cry was let out. Lily, was up. He lethargically got out of bed, trudging over to the crib. He picked her up, rubbing her back, but the crying didn't cease and only seemed to intensify. He hadn't of wanted to wake up Hermione, but it was too late. The young woman was already getting out of bed.

"What's the matter," she asked groggily. She flicked on the lamp, only to blush when she saw Harry cradling Lily. He was trying to ease the infant's cries but nothing seemed to work. She had a feeling that somewhere in the near future she'd be seeing a familiar scene like this once more. She got up, walking over to him to offer a hand.

"I can't get her to stop and she doesn't need changing or anything…" he mumbled sleepily. Just then, more cries could be heard erupting from the neighbouring rooms. As if on cue, all of them stepped out into the hall with crying children.

"Bloody 'ell," Ron was rubbing his eyes. He didn't seem to mind that Luna's arms were wrapped around his, her head upon his shoulder as she too yawned. For a while they stood there, yawning as their children cried in their arms.

Soon they were all seated in the kitchen, three highchairs containing their "babies". Ginny was falling asleep on the table while Draco put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. He (despite how much he wanted to see it) didn't want her slamming her face down on the marble counter.

"I didn't even think to feed them," Ron muttered grudgingly as he prepared baby food for Aric. Luna was busy, sleeping on the cold countertop. He wanted to pour the apple sauce on her head just for the hell of it.

He looked over at Harry and Hermione who were the only ones who didn't seem to have an issue. Harry was playing with Lily while Hermione prepared food for Lily and Leander, seeing as how lazy the child's actual "parents" were.

"It's four in the morning… We should be sleeping," Ron whined. "It's not fair."

"Well it is, punishment," Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"McGonagall is just mean." Ron muttered. He handed Draco a small bowl of apple-sauce. The light murmur of "thanks" from the blonde went unnoticed.

"If parenting is really this hard, I'm never getting married." Ron said as he struggled to feed Aric. The pink haired child was being to fussy.

He watched, envious, as Harry and Draco had no problem feeding their so called "children". He glared at Aric, who glared back. Apple sauce flew at him. Giving up, he set the bowl aside, collapsing down onto the marble table top.

"I forgot…" Hermione yawned, "…who's going to take care of these guys when we've got our classes? Draco can't exactly miss anymore classes…"

Draco nodded wearily. He put his hand down, palm up, catching Ginny's forehead as she fell forward.

"I guess I can take a round," Harry suggested, struggling to keep his eyes open now.

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked worriedly. The look on her face caused the two young men across the table to scoff before quieting.

"Yeah, I mean, if Malfoy can do it, I can do it ten times better." Harry grinned, trying to provoke the young man.

"As if," Draco muttered. "You'd probably end up losing them."

"I would not. It was ONE time. And really, who cares about you? The babies favour me more," Harry challenged. His statement was met with a giggle of appreciation from the toddlers. Draco turned red.

"You can't possibly do a better job at baby-sitting than me! I had these babies fed, bathed, changed and asleep when you showed up! You'd probably forget about them!"

"I would not!"

"Well I'm not letting you look after them so you'd better just forget it!"

Harry jumped up. "The hell you won't! I'm going to stay here tomorrow and take care of them!"

"No! I am!"

"I am!"

"I am!"

"I'm going to take wonderful care of them. Besides, who knows what you might teach these pure innocent minds! They could grow up to be like you! A lecherous, conniving little-"

"I'M GOING TO TAKE CARE OF THEM AND THAT'S FINAL!" Despite the loud voices, Ginny and Luna slept on while Hermione and Ron shook their heads. Grinning, Harry sat back down.

"Okay, if you say so." he said and went back to feeding Lily.

"Damn right I'm going to- AH! NO!" Draco smacked himself on the forehead realizing he'd just been had. "I hate you, Potter." he muttered and picked up Leander before going back to his room.

"What a git," Ron muttered.

Moments later Draco came rushing back, picked up Ginny and left in a hurry.

Giggling, the other four (excluding Luna who had to be dragged back into room later) went back to their rooms.

Surprise!! Ha-ha! I bet you're like, "WTF YOU UPDATED!?". Consider it my birthday gift to you... My deepest apologies. Things have been a whirlwind of events for me and for a while, I will admit that I forgot about this, but now that I've finally got free time... I WILL FINISH THIS! I thought, "hey, it's my birthday, I should do something nice" so.. Here you have it! I'm SO sorry I took forever to update but I PROMISE I will finish. Please don't be mad and review... I'd appreciate it. Make it my birthday present!

MarauderWormtail89