Title: The Perfect Wife
Author: slytherin-nette
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters you recognize from the HP books in this story. All I own is the plot. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling. She rocks.
Pairings: DM/femHP, RW/LrM, BZ/HG, SB/RV, BM/??, AM/?? and many others.
Warnings: This is a Post-Hogwarts story so it will be slightly more mature than TPG but equally insane. Wahaha. Also, this story contains PREGNANCY, RATED scenes and SLASH relationships.
A/N: To those interested, I will start writing a dark DM/femHP (turned girl, not born. :D) story soon. It's very angsty and starts after Deathly Hallows so if you're interested, keep a lookout! :D Otherwise, enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 8 – The Third Trimester
"…Trayton?"
"VETO. What kind of a stupid name is THAT, Potter?!"
"Tsssch…Fine. How about Nicholas?"
"You want to name MY son after that bastard hitting on you in the office? I'm going to have to talk to him, by the way. I'd like to introduce him to Crabbe and Goyle. Or maybe even my fist. VETO."
"He's an Unspeakable Agent. Crabbe or Goyle won't be able to lay a finger on him."
"Well I can, Potter! Maybe I'll introduce him to a friend of mine called the Cruciatus Curse."
"Ugh. You're an impossibly jealous prick, you know that? Alright, how about…Leonard?"
"Oh perfect…I can already hear the perpetual sounds of his glasses breaking every time the kids pick on him in the classroom for being such a loser —Wha?! HEY! What are you doing, Potter?! Put that stupid red robe down, I will NOT have MY son wear Gryffindor colors!"
Turning around to look at her husband lounging lazily against the wall behind her, Harry raised a single eyebrow and held the small red baby robes in her hand higher up into the air. "You mean this?" She smirked at him and watched the irritation flash clearly in Draco's mercury eyes.
"Yes, that! That's hideous! Put that way, I am NOT paying for that!" He growled again, straightening up from where he leaned against the wall and walking over to snatch the robes from her. Harry protested sharply but Draco had already set it down and grabbed her by her hand, leading her over to a small rack with small green and blue baby robes near the corner of the shop.
Just outside, the busy and crowded shopping streets of Diagon Alley could clearly be seen. Every now and then, heads would turn and several pairs of eyes would peer into the baby clothing store in interest at the sight of the famous couple shopping inside. This was followed by the excited whispering of many middle-aged witches who would all point at the Malfoy Head and his Hero-turned-Heroine Mistress. Some would even have the occasional nerve to walk right into the shop and ask directly for their picture or autograph.
Somehow accustomed to all the attention they constantly received at this point, Harry turned to give Draco a glare just as he began pulling several dark green baby robes off the racks. "They are my sons too, Malfoy! I won't have you turn them into your Slytherin, perfectionist clones. Unlike me, I want them to have a normal life apart from all this stupid attention we've been receiving lately." She told him but Draco was only half-listening to her, signing the sales invoices and purchase receipts held up by the young teenage shop assistant behind him.
When he finished with this, he looked up and rewarded his wife with a handsome grin. "Harry, whatever happens….These children are the sons of Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. They were doomed to attract media attention from the moment they were conceived. They weren't even supposed to be conceived at all had you not turned into a woman, remember?" He told her carefully, walking over to another corner of the store to peer at some green-patterned blankets, bottles and baby towels.
Harry grumbled in response and sank down tiredly onto the couch near the center of the store, rubbing a hand over her swollen, 7-month pregnant belly. "Why couldn't you have turned into a bloody woman, Malfoy? You're the one who seems to enjoy all this boring shopping rubbish." She complained and at this, Draco turned around and gave her a warning glare.
"Shopping with me is not boring—"
She continued talking anyway. "Ugh…I can't wait to get these babies out of me! My back hurts like hell from all the added weight! I haven't seen my feet in ages! Plus, I miss work and being able to wear pants. I can't believe Ashford let me off from the office already, I'm just seven months pregnant!" She complained loudly, scowling at her husband from across the shop as he began rifling through a selection of expensive looking baby shoes and mittens.
"You've been on leave for less than two weeks, Harry. You're turning out to be much more of a workaholic than I am. Ashford was right to have let you off two months early; you weren't doing anything in the office other than snapping irritably at everyone and making all the male unspeakable panic. Stop whining." Draco answered in a bored tone of voice, turning around to sign more sales invoices from all the purchases he had made so far. When he looked back at her, he was surprised to find her glaring indignantly at him with narrowed eyes.
She scowled at him, her eyes dark with contempt. "Stop whining? You talk about this experience like it's so easy for you. Do you have any idea how unnatural this all feels for me right now?" She asked him angrily and at her words, Draco finally sighed and walked over to where she sat.
"Harry—"
"I'm sore all over. My feet and hands are swollen. I haven't gotten a decent sleep in weeks because my back hurts all the time and I still don't know how I'm going to give birth to your sons, Malfoy. Work was the only thing left reminding me that I haven't been reduced to a hapless, pregnant wife of pureblood family Head just yet. Now that it's gone, what's left of my male ego is taking a serious beating!" She muttered darkly at him, her eyes dropping down to glare at her hands.
Sensing her anger, Draco indicated to the shop clerk to leave them alone for awhile. Once she had left, he sat down next to Harry and leaned over to nuzzle her cheek affectionately in silent apology. Since he wasn't exactly sure of the right possible response he could give to such a statement, he settled for a different approach instead.
"Thank you for doing this with me."
Her anger forgotten, Harry looked up at his words. She blinked at him and watched as Draco rested his hand gently on her stomach and looked up to give her a small smile. "For what?" She asked softly, watching the former Slytherin as he struggled for the right words to say.
He paused to gather his thoughts. "…For…having my children…You didn't have to get pregnant you know, since it was my fault you became a woman but you still chose to give me children. Thank you. It really means a lot to me." He stopped and looked up at her, an awkward expression in his gray eyes that indicated to her that he obviously wasn't used to thanking people in his life for anything.
Smiling in spite of herself, Harry shook her head at his words and placed her hand over the one he had on her stomach. "'Co, that wasn't what I meant to say at all, I—" She laughed slightly and shook her head at herself. "I want this as much as you do. I just…Can we lie low on all this pregnancy stuff for awhile? I mean – the shopping, the baby stuff, the Healer appointments? I just… I need some time to reorient myself again so that my male ego doesn't suffer too much from all this." She kidded, finally earning an amused chuckle from her husband when he nodded in understanding.
"I understand, Potter. You need to find your 'manhood' again." He teased with a smirk, earning a punch from his wife as she gave him a weak glare at his words. Laughing, he feigned a sigh and stood back up. "So I take it you want to continue baby shopping some other time then?" He drawled, walking back over to the front desk to retrieve all the items that he had purchased.
Once he had cast a proper shrinking charm on all of them and placed them into the pocket of his robes, Draco turned around and helped Harry back up to her feet. As soon as she was balanced and upright again, she gave him a sheepish smile and a halfhearted shrug.
"Actually…I'm a little hungry. I just saw that Italian restaurant down the corner, do you mind if we eat lunch a little earlier? I think I'm craving for some good Italian pizza…" Her voice trailed off in slight embarrassment and this time, Draco really did laugh and offered her his arm.
"Don't you think of anything else except for food, Potter?" He drawled, rolling his eyes as he signaled their leave to the store clerk before finally leading her out the shop towards the main streets of Diagon Alley. Once again, a couple of curious heads turned in their direction but neither of them paid any attention to it and began walking briskly to the nearby street corner.
As they passed the entrance to a narrow street around the side of the main road, Draco stopped and raised his eyebrows imploringly at her. "Do you mind if we drop by Borgin and Burkes for a short bit? I'd like to see if Mr. Borgin has some new interesting artifacts for me." He commented lightly and at this, Harry couldn't help scowling and rolling her eyes at her husband.
"Honestly, Draco. I don't understand why you or Lucius are so fascinated with that store. Those old antiques are dirty, creepy and cause nothing but trouble – I remember how much you wanted that stupid Hand of Glory back in second year—" She cut herself off immediately at this, her eyes going wide when she realized that she was not supposed to have known that little fact.
Just as she had expected, Draco's eyebrows rose up in shock at her words. As they turned into the narrow street, he gave her a suspicious frown and clasped her hand tighter as he led her through the small crowd of creepy looking witches and wizards lounging about in Knockturn Alley.
"My father and I are fascinated with them because they're beautiful priceless antiques and they're reasonable investments. Besides, how did YOU know I wanted that Hand of Glory back in second year?" He asked suspiciously, turning to glare at her as they finally reached the shop entrance.
Harry laughed sheepishly and tried to change the subject by pretending to observe the crowd of suspicious looking wizards and witches walking along the streets. "Lucky guess? You know Knockturn Alley really creeps me out, Draco, so if we could just hurry this up and go back—"
Draco's eyes narrowed further and he turned around to face her from where they stopped in front of Borgin and Burkes' shop doors. "Lucky guess?!" He mocked sarcastically, causing his wife to flinch. "You were spying on me, weren't you? Tell me something, Harry. Is there anything else I should know about something you know about me that you shouldn't know?" He asked her, earning a laugh from Harry again when she pretended to look confused at his words.
"Haha… That's funny. A play on words….Know that I know that I shouldn't—"
"Harry…" Draco warned in a threatening tone of voice. When he scowled at her, she finally sighed, shrugged and offered him a helpless smile. "Well….There is one other thing. You know that time in second year when Crabbe and Goyle acted kind of weird and started asking you all those questions about who was the Heir of Slytherin in the Slytherin Common Room?"
Draco's eyebrow rose in anticipating suspicion. "Yeah… I think I remember…"
Harry's managed a sheepish grin and pretended to stare at the passing shoppers. "Well…I er… Ehehe. That wasn't actually Crabbe and Goyle, that was me and Ron in disguise with Polyjuice potion." She looked up and tried pathetically to flutter her eyelashes at him but Draco simply glared at her.
"…Okay…Uhm…WHY exactly…?"
"We thought you were the Heir of Slytherin. It didn't help that I saw you skulking around in here before the year started buying all these dark artifacts…" She sniggered in spite of herself and offered him an apologetic smile. "Don't worry… No harm done. It's all in the past now. Right, love…?"
"………."
"….Draco?"
"………."
After a moment of silence, he sighed exasperatedly and dragged her into the shop. "We seriously have to talk more about open communication and honesty in this marriage, Potter." He grumbled under his breath, eliciting an easy laugh from his wife as she followed him through the doors.
"What? It's not like I knew I'd ever get married to you then!"
Once inside, Draco ignored her last comment and helped her sit down onto the waiting couch near the entrance. "Wait here; I'll only be five minutes. I just need to talk to Mr. Borgin." He leaned over and dropped a kiss onto her forehead. Walking ahead to the front counter, he left a scowling Harry fidgeting and staring uncomfortably around her rather creepy surroundings in dismay.
"Draco, hurry up. This place gives me the creeps…"
She watched impatiently as Draco conversed with Mr. Borgin for several minutes, scowling and fidgeting more and more in growing agitation when her husband seemed to lose track of time and peered in childlike, avid interest at the offered Wizarding artifacts Mr. Borgin was showing him.
After more several minutes, she felt a familiar foreboding feeling brought about by the prickling at the back of her neck. She was just about ready to stand up and yank Draco out of the shop when a brief flash of moment out of the corner of her eye startled her out of her reverie.
"…You look like you're about to jump out of your skin, Miss…"
Harry did jump and gasped in shock. She turned around to face the small, amused smirk of a handsome blue-robed wizard who had just walked in through the shop doors. When all she could do was blink up at him without any intelligent response, the man offered her a warm, reassuring smile.
"My apologies. I didn't mean to startle you…Miss…?" He sat down on the couch beside her and immediately, Harry's shoulders stiffened and she scooted away. "Malfoy. Mistress Malfoy. No worries, sir…I'm just waiting for my husband over there to finish up." She put particular emphasis on the word 'husband', her trained impulses directing her hand to ghost over the wand in her pocket in suspicion.
The man seemed to understand her hostility at once and nodded politely in understanding. "My apologies, Mistress Malfoy. I realize a random stranger talking to a pregnant, married woman in a shop like Borgin and Burkes may seem creepy at first but I assure you I'm perfectly normal and completely harmless." He raised his hands up – indicating that he didn't have a wand – and chuckled.
"I was just trying to make friendly conversation while I wait for my turn to talk to Mr. Borgin over there. I'm an acquaintance of your husband, actually…Not that we're close or anything but we do hang around the same pureblooded circles of families." He indicated to Draco by the shop counter and hearing his explanation, Harry's shoulders seemed to relax a little in surprise.
"…Really? Well then, I apologize for my hostility… Mister…." She looked expectantly at him.
He grinned, inclining his head briefly and offering her a smile. "Thornton. Maximillian Thornton. My friends call me 'Max' for short though. It's a pleasure, Mistress Malfoy…And may I say you are definitely as beautiful as you're rumored to be. Perhaps even more." He kidded in a light teasing voice, finally earning a friendly laugh from Harry as she grinned at his words.
Inspecting his features carefully, she idly noted his dark blonde hair and the strange speckles of dark red in his otherwise easygoing brown eyes. When she noticed him staring back expectantly at her, she blushed in embarrassment and offered him her own hand in greeting.
"My name is Jaimee, Mr. Thornton but my friends still call me Harry. I'm sure you and the rest of the Wizarding world know the sordid history behind that little detail." She quipped mildly, causing him to laugh and place an obligatory kiss onto the back of her palm.
"I'm sorry if I seemed a little uptight awhile ago. I'm not really comfortable hanging around in a place like this—"
She was cut off when Max held up a hand to stop her and gave her a reassuring smirk. "Don't worry about it, Jaimee. It was my fault for walking up to a trembling pregnant woman so casually like that. I really did seem a bit suspicious at the time. I'm actually just here to pick up something I ordered from Mr. Borgin a week ago and I thought—"
"Thornton."
Jaimee flinched immediately when she recognized her husband's cold, taunting voice. Sure enough, she slowly looked back up and wasn't surprised to see that Draco was now standing over them – his narrowed eyes darkened into steely silver and glaring warningly at Max' form.
Max looked up uncertainly at the blonde's hostile expression and offered him a confused, casual smile. "Hello Malfoy…Long time, no see. I was just chatting up your lovely wife while we were waiting for you to finish with Mr. Borgin over there—"
"How dare you talk to ME or MY wife you filthy, insignificant SQUIB?!" Draco sneered mockingly at him and yanked Harry up from the seat by her arm. She would have protested but Draco had already pushed her back behind him, covering her from the other man with his body.
At the word 'squib', the smile on Max' face had instantly disappeared and was replaced by an equally menacing, angry snarl. "Don't you dare call me by that foul name, Malfoy! I'm a Pureblood wizard just like you are and you'd do well to treat me with respect before I—"
Draco laughed harshly, his silver eyes glinting like knives. "Pureblood?" He sneered again; ignoring the way Harry was trying to yank him back by his arm. "You call yourself a Pureblood Wizard, Thornton? Alright then, cast a spell on me! Come now, I'll let you have a free shot! You CAN do magic right? Since you're a Pureblood?! Let's see your wand!" He taunted, smirking wider when Max' face seemed to darken and he began to shake with utmost fury.
"Malfoy, you arrogant, two-faced bastard! I ought to—"
"Draco, we were just talking. Stop it—"
Draco ignored Harry's attempt to stop him again and finally jerked his own wand out of his robes, pointing it directly at Max' growling face. "Whoops…" He smirked smugly, watching as the other man's face twisted into a menacing sneer of dislike. "Time's up, Thornton. If you're really a Pureblood like me and NOT a stupid, useless Squib, then you'll be able to block the simple hex I'm about to shoot at your face now for coming near MY wife—"
"Draco, I said STOP IT! Get back!" Harry finally growled out as she yanked his wand angrily out of his grasp and placed herself right in between the two men. Draco blinked himself out of his rage long enough to glare at his wife, his eyes flashing when she glared right back at him in warning with a look of frustrated exasperation clearly written in her features.
Not wanting to anger her or do anything to upset her in her current pregnant state, Draco relented and fell silent, clenching his jaw in unkempt anger. "You're just lucky my pregnant wife is here, Thornton. Otherwise, you'll be getting a taste of just what exactly a pureblood wizard is capable of." He warned darkly, failing to see the chilling glint in Max' eyes.
"Oh I know exactly what a pureblood is capable of, Malfoy…" He drawled back in a low tone of voice, one corner of his lips lifting into a strange smile as he watched Harry struggling to keep her irate husband from tackling him. She looked up and gave the other man one last strained smile.
"I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding, Mr. Thornton… Please excuse us. Thank you very much for the company." She told him with an embarrassed and apologetic grimace. She didn't bother waiting for his response as she turned back around and grabbed Draco by the arm again to drag him out of the store before any serious fight could break out between the two men.
"Master Malfoy! Your purchases!" Mr. Borgin had called out from behind the counter, rushing over to hand the Malfoy Head a small, miniaturized box of artifacts. As Draco shoved it irritably into his pocket and turned to sneer at Max one last time, Harry was surprised to see the other man sneering right back at him – a strange gleam in his eye that she couldn't quite comprehend.
When Draco looked as though he was about to make another malicious comment, Harry grabbed his arm again and began to drag him out of the store as fast as she could. Just before they exited the shop, she turned back one last time to give Max another apologetic glance but the man was already facing Mr. Borgin and was taking what looked like a golden chalice out of the storeowner's offered hands.
She was broken out of her thoughts when they reached the outside of the store and sighing, she found herself at the mercy of her husband's furious, accusatory glare. "I talk to Mr. Borgin for FIVE MINUTES and the second I turn around, you're ALREADY flirting with some other man?!" He raged, his eyes blazing as he yanked her down Knockturn alley back towards the main path.
Harry rolled her eyes to herself and pulled her hand out of his grasp. "Oh please, Draco. Here I am…INFLATED like a balloon with YOUR two children growing inside me and you STILL think that I would flirt with other men? Give me a break, there isn't even a man in his right MIND who would hit on a pregnant woman." She pointed out irritably just as they reached the main streets of Diagon Alley.
Draco stopped when Harry held up a hand and gave him a frustrated glare. "You know, you were a real jerk back there. Thornton seemed like a genuinely nice guy and you just flat out insulted his magical capacity like that for NO REASON other than the fact that he was talking to me. You have issues, Draco." She muttered angrily, causing his eyes to harden even more.
"I don't like him, Harry. I never did, even then. There's just something about him that isn't right…And it isn't just because he's an ugly, pathetic little Squib who tried to tail around the rest of us pureblooded sons when we were kids. I didn't like the way he looked at you either—"
"Draco, you can't just judge other people like that! So the man is a Squib, why do you have to shove it in his face?! Why do you think WE never hit it off as friends the first time we met?! Because you're such a biased, arrogant git!" Harry snapped back, ignoring the stares they were receiving from the passing people along the streets who overheard their argument.
Draco's jaw clenched and his hands tightened into fists. "I just don't like him, Harry…Okay? He always makes me feel very uneasy. There's something about him that I just can't place. Just…trust me on this one for once. Stay away from him…okay?" Draco's voice softened towards the end of the last sentence. He grabbed her hand and gave her fingers an imploring squeeze.
Harry raised an eyebrow and answered in a sarcastic tone. "Since when were you a better judge of character than I was, Draco? I think you're being horribly shallow—"
"Please, Harry."
There was an unmistakable hint of fear and uncertainty laced into his voice that Harry didn't have the heart to refuse him. Sighing, she squeezed his fingers back through their intertwined hands and nodded, reaching her free hand up to stroke his tightly clenched jaw.
"Don't make a habit of this, okay? I'm not going to stay away from people you don't like just because of biased, unfair reasons that I don't even understand." She reminded him firmly and at this, Draco nodded in relief and leaned down to give her a gentle kiss of gratitude on her forehead.
"Thank you."
"Master Malfoy, your wife is at the seventh month of her pregnancy. Her magical fluctuations are liable to start any day now and should continue until just before the end of her ninth month." Wickham took off his glasses and peered at Draco with an apprehensive look in his eyes.
The Malfoy Head, however, merely scoffed and waved his hand lazily at the Head Healer's concern. "Don't worry about that, Wickham. I was raised in a traditional pureblood family, I know all about magical fluctuations during pregnancy and trust me, this is something I can handle." He drawled arrogantly, giving the Head Healer a superior smirk.
Wickham wasn't impressed at this and merely raised a single eyebrow at the younger man's self-assurance. "I should warn you, Master Malfoy….With a familial legacy like yours and the one your wife has, I can't quite ascertain the strength of the magical fluctuations she'll be having." He warned but again, Draco scoffed and waved the matter away.
"I just survived five months of my wife jumping my pants every fifteen minutes. Trust me, Wickham…I can handle her magical fluctuations."
Wickham just smiled back at him with a knowing twinkle in his eyes.
7 Months and 3 Weeks
Profits up by 25% but expenses up by 30%... I thought I told them to cut down on manufacturing. Draco thought irritably as adjusted his reading frames and scanned thoroughly through the financial documents laid out on his desk that morning in Malfoy Manor.
Grumbling under his breath about how he was going to fire that newly appointed manager, he dipped his quill briefly into his bottle of ink before noting down the necessary information onto his reports. Seated a couple of feet away from him on one of the lush couches near the side of his office, Harry raised an eyebrow and yawned to herself in growing boredom.
She watched him for several minutes before eventually sighing in boredom again and leaning back against the couch to close her eyes. Draco ignored this and continued to read through his work reports, pausing every now and then to dip his quill into his ink bottle or to glance up and make sure his wife was comfortable where she had fallen into a light slumber in her seat.
Within the next half hour, nothing else was heard within the confines of his private office except for the occasional sounds of the tip of his quill scuffling along the surface of his parchments. Every so often, he would look up and stare briefly at the adorable sight of his beautiful wife sleeping peacefully on the couch – the sight of which never failed to make him smile each time.
Just as he turned back to what he had written on his progress reports, he dipped the tip of his quill into his ink bottle again – only to pause in shock a second later when he realized that he hadn't actually dipped his quill into anything and he was merely scraping its tip uselessly on the parchment.
"What in Merlin's name—" Draco arched an eyebrow and made to dip it into the bottle of ink once more but just as he began writing – he stopped again when he realized that the tip of his quill was completely dry and had no remaining traces of ink on it.
Highly irritated, Draco finally flicked his eyes up from his parchment to the ink bottle supposedly beside him – only to have those silver orbs widen incredulously in confusion when he saw that the ink bottle he had so surely placed right onto his table had, in fact, disappeared.
What the—Where did I— Draco felt his eye twitch as he reached into his office drawer and took out another bottle of ink, placing it carefully beside his parchments. After dipping his quill into it, he shook his head and began writing again, his eyebrows fusing together in deep concentration.
After about another fifteen minutes of silence doing this, he paused and dipped his quill into his ink bottle again. The minute he began writing, however, his quill was once again completely dry and inkless. Draco didn't bother holding back the angry curse word that escaped his lips as he tore his eyes away from his reports and looked back at the ink bottle – blinking in utter confusion when he realized that it had disappeared – AGAIN.
More confused than annoyed at this point, Draco looked up and narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Harry across the office but his wife was completely fast asleep – her breathing even and her form snuggled contentedly onto one of the couch's throw pillows.
I don't get it… Draco thought incredulously to himself, scratching his head as he stood up from his chair and roamed his eyes around the room. I was SURE I placed that ink bottle on my desk…Otherwise I couldn't have been able to write anything. He thought to himself, shaking his head as he placed his glasses back on the table and began to walk out the door.
I need a drink. I think I'm just stressed out. He grumbled as he walked out of the office, returning moments later with a glass of vodka in his hand. Just as he slipped into the room, dropped a kiss onto the top of Jaimee's hair and began to walk back to his office – he froze.
What…In…Merlin's…Good…Name… Draco's eyes widened to comical proportions and the glass of vodka he held slipped from his hand to shatter noisily onto the floor. He barely heard it – his eyes slowly trailing upwards where he finally found his two ink bottles floating up near the high ceiling – along with just about every other furniture in his office.
Bloody hell!
Draco blinked up nervously at the table that was hovering right over his head – praying to Merlin that the furniture wouldn't all just suddenly come crashing back down. Turning panicked eyes back to Harry, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the couch she was sleeping on seemed to be the only remaining furniture that remained on the floor.
Potter, your bloody children are going to drive me insane! Draco thought irritably to himself and just as he took out his wand to set things right, his sleeping wife finally began to stir awake – sitting up from the couch and stretching her limbs out lazily to wake herself up.
When she noticed Draco's stunned, horrified expression, Harry raised an eyebrow at him and cutely tilted her head to the side. "What's wrong, 'Co? Are you finished working?" She asked, raising a hand to brush back an irritating, wiggling strand of hair that kept falling into her eyes.
To her confusion, instead of answering her question, Draco paled further and gaped at her, raised a hand up to point at shakily at her hair. "H—Harry…D—don't move! I—I'll fix it…J—just…D—don't move!" He gasped out loud, forgetting all about the floating furniture as he raised his wand and pointed it at her mane of tangled, wiggling black hair.
Harry raised an eyebrow at him and gave him an annoyed look. "Draco, what's wrong with you? Why are you pointing your wand at me? You know Wickham said it's dangerous for me to be exposed to magic while carrying the twins, I could—"
"Shhhhh! D—don't move! It might not bite you if you don't move, j—just—" Draco was about to flick his wand over at his wife's moving mane of hair when the door to his office slid open and drew his attention. Both he and Harry looked up to the sight of Byron walking absentmindedly into the room.
"Harry, I know you're supposed to be on leave and everything but Ashford is making me finish these reports in time for tomorrow and I was wondering if you could help me with it—BLOODY MERLIN'S BEARD! M—MEDUSA! You're MEDUSA! You've got s—s—slithering SNAKES on your head! S—stay away! Don't bite me! Please!" Byron yelped out loud, unwittingly tossing the folders he held in his hand up into the air and scrambling away from Harry in utter horror.
Harry stared at him in question before turning her confused expression to Draco, noting the similar look of horror and panic written clearly all over her husband's face.
"What? What's wrong with him? Why are you both staring at me like that?" Still not clearly understanding what they meant, she ignored Byron's hysterical shouts and walked over to the nearby wall mirror – causing Byron to scoot further away from her and hide behind Draco in fear.
Draco cringed and held his wand up to her hair again. "Harry, don't panic alright? I can fix that with a simple spell, just don't move! I promise I'll—"
The minute Harry saw herself and the dozens of black, red-eyed snakes floating up above her head instead of her hair, she laughed, shrugged and turned around to offer Draco and Byron a sheepish smile. "Not bad…I figured my sons would be more creative than just turning my hair a different color." She reached up and pet a particularly nasty looking snake dangling below her ear, hissing out soothingly to it in parseltongue.
Byron let out a disgusted wheeze of horror and pointed a finger shakily at Harry's head again. "B—bloody hell, Harry! You've got snakes for hair! Th—that's horrifying! H—how can you just—" He stopped and smiled sheepishly at the warning glare Draco gave him at his antics.
As the Malfoy Head walked back warily over to help his wife set her serpent hair back to normal, Byron finally glanced up around the interior of Draco's office – the horrified expression on his face transforming into one of incredulity and bewilderment.
"Uhm….Draco? Why are all your office furniture floating up along the ceiling?"
8 Months and 1 Week
"Mmmm…Merlin, that feels good. What time is it?" Draco murmured sleepily as he woke up that morning to the wonderful feeling of his wife trailing teasing kisses along his bare chest. Shifting his legs lazily under the blankets, he reached up and placed his hands on Jaimee's waist, gently trailing down the curve of her hips until his hands cupped lazily at her rounded bottom.
"It's a quarter to 8…You'd better get up soon. You're going to be late." She whispered back, leaning down and tracing her lips along his collarbone – eliciting a groan of pleasure from her sleepy but highly aroused husband. "You know the best way to wake me up, Potter?" He asked with a suggestive smirk, causing Harry to laugh again and answer him with a peck on the lips.
"I don't think so, Draco. Good morning…"
Draco smirked wider when he felt her lean down and begin pressing heated kisses along his neck after she had said this. "Mmmm…Good morning indeed…" He teased, his eyes still closed as he heard her chuckle, her hands moving to trail languidly over his firm, toned body.
"Don't get any perverted ideas, Malfoy. I really was just trying to wake your lazy arse up. You have to leave for work in half an hour and I have another appointment with Wickham this morning. Your mother is coming with me." She told him pointedly, her voice still slightly muffled from where she was now intent on biting and licking along the pale skin of her husband's neck.
He let out a sleepy incoherent murmur in response, thoroughly enjoying the feel of her soft hands lingering over his body and stopping in areas she knew would drive him absolutely crazy with lust. When she stopped and began to pull away from him, Draco groaned out loud in frustration.
"You are such a little tease, Potter…You just had to leave me hot and wanting like this, did you?" He complained sleepily, stubbornly keeping his eyes closed and turning over so he could bury his scowling face into his pillow. Harry laughed at his reaction and rolled her eyes, slipping her feet into her slippers and beginning to make her way to the bathroom.
"I'm going to take a shower, Draco…When I'm done, you'd better be awake or I am dousing you with freezing cold water again." She warned halfheartedly, earning another lazy grunt from the blonde when all he did in response was to toss the blankets up over his head.
Once she had entered the bathroom and Draco heard the unmistakable sounds of the shower running, he began to fall asleep again – his eyelids feeling heavy and the muscles on his body relaxing under the comforting warmth of the silk blankets wrapped around him. Just as he was falling into another delightful slumber, he felt a strange wetness licking at the side of his face.
Thinking it was Harry cozying up to him again; he shifted under the blankets and pretended to turn his face away. "Harry, stop teasing me if you don't actually intend to do anything else. Just let me get five more minutes of sleep and I swear I'll get up and shower." He mumbled, trying to push her away when the licking shifted to his neck.
"Ugh…You are absolutely relentless, Potter! Sometimes I wonder why you weren't placed in Slytherin." He complained out loud again, a reluctant smile making its way onto his face when the licking moved to just behind his ear, causing him to groan and try to move his face away.
"Harry, stop it. Now you're deliberately just being a tease. If you don't stop that right now, I am going to screw you senseless—"
"Draco?! I don't know WHAT you're muttering about over there but I meant what I said! When I step out of this shower, you BETTER have gotten up or I will literally drag your arse out of that bed! I mean it!" He heard Harry's irritated voice echoing from the direction of the bathroom, her words muffled slightly by the sounds of the running shower water.
Shifting uneasily against the blankets, Draco fused both his eyebrows in sleepy, half-processed puzzlement. Heh…That's funny…She was just licking me, how did she get there so fast— His thoughts deliberately trailed off when he felt the licking start up again – this time followed by a very distinct bark that definitely did not seem like a sound his wife would – or could – make.
If Harry is shouting at me from the bathroom, then who's this on top of me— Draco immediately tensed up in horrified realization – his sleepiness completely forgotten. Placing his hands on his attacker, he winced in disgust when he was immediately met with a scruffy, hairy body.
Oh…Mother…Of…Merlin… Forcing his eyes wide open, Draco stiffened and found staring face to face at the slobbering, drooling face of a large, hairy canine who, at that particular moment, stuck its long tongue out again and licked him right along the side of his face.
"EEEEYUUUUUUCK!"
Draco immediately shoved the dog right off the bed and bolted up from under the covers, rubbing furiously at the skin of his cheek where the dog had just licked and slobbered all over him right along the side of his face. Growling, he glared angrily at the dog that had now hopped back up onto the bed and gave him a friendly bark, wagging its tail happily at him.
Jumping up from the bed and wiping a towel disgustedly at his face, Draco glowered at the dog in angry indignation. "Where did YOU come from, you disgusting mutt?! How did you even get into my bedroom?! Did Harry let you in because I swear if she did, I'm going to twist her ears off—"
A strange noise and movement caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He cut himself off, blinking rapidly and very slowly turning his head away from the barking dog in front of him to inspect the horrifyingly bizarre scene that had once been their bedroom.
The sight that greeted him, however, was one that made Draco's jaw drop open and his eyes glaze over in stunned, speechless disbelief.
A chicken squawked noisily as it flew up over his head – followed by the sound of a small horse neighing impatiently as it trotted past him to plop itself down on the far corner of their bedroom. A couple of ducks and pigeons followed it, causing several feathers to swirl around Draco's frozen, unmoving form but he barely noticed, his eyes circling helplessly around his surroundings. Save for their bed, all other furniture in the room were gone – all of which he deduced had been magically transfigured into the different animals scurrying about around him.
Slapping a hand over his forehead, Draco groaned and turned around, gaping seconds later at the sight of a transfigured half-table, half-cow slinking its way clumsily toward him from the other corner of the room. Growling, he narrowed his eyes and glared at the door to the bathroom.
"HARRY JAMES POTTER, GET YOUR ARSE IN HERE RIGHT NOW!" He growled loudly, kicking impatiently at a random squawking chicken that trotted across his bare feet.
When she didn't seem to hear him right away, Draco scowled and shouted louder – his voice echoing around the walls of their bedroom. "DON'T MAKE ME DRAG YOU BY YOUR EARS AGAIN, POTTER! GET IN HERE!" He shouted again and this time, he heard the shower water being shut off.
Draco heard her shouting several indistinct phrases in concern before she came rushing out of the bathroom, her wet form clad only in a white towel and her hair dripping with bubbles and water. When she burst into the bedroom – a bar of soap in one hand and a shampoo bottle in the other – she took one look at her husband's seething form and gaped in panic.
"Wh—what? What happened?! What's wrong, did something—"
Draco blinked once, took one look at her and burst out laughing – his prior concerns immediately forgotten. He stared and sniggered mirthfully at the figure of his glaring wife in front of him, who unknowingly enough to her, had successfully sprouted two very white and fluffy bunny ears from her head and was now sporting two sets of whiskers along her nose.
Harry glared at him, one eyebrow raised in irritation.
"What?! What's so funny?! Why did you call me out here all of a sudden—MERLIN'S BEARD! DRACO! WHY IS THERE A DOG ON THE BED?! WHERE ARE ALL THE FURNITURE?! WHAT DID YOU DO?! DRACO? DRACO! STOP LAUGHING! WHAT'S SO FUNNY?! IS THAT A CHICKEN?!"
8 Months and 3 Weeks
Seated at the head position of the large table in the Malfoy Manor conference room, Draco raised a hand to massage his aching temples. He stared at the scene of his entire family debating heatedly with each other – all of which were locked in several separate arguments pertaining to either Anton or Byron's impending marriages.
An 8-month pregnant Jaimee sat directly in her appropriate seat to his right as the current Malfoy Mistress. She didn't seem to care about the familial spats all around her and was more content on eating the large bowl of chocolate ice cream Draco had set in front of her before the family meeting had started. For several minutes, he contented himself with watching her – hiding a fond smile when Harry looked up, grinned at him and offered him a spoonful of ice cream.
Shaking his head, Draco finally tore his eyes away from her and set his face back into a frustrated growl as he turned back to his arguing family. "SILENCE, EVERYONE! You're all acting like a bunch of commoners! One conversation at a time please!" He snapped out loud, finally cutting everyone's arguments short and forcing all their attention back to him.
Silver-blonde heads from all around the table turned and faced him, meeting the irritated scowl on his face with one of their own. Lucius and Narcissa sat at Draco's opposite side near the head of the table while Lawrence and Genevieve sat beside them. Both sets of former Heads and Mistresses were watching the proceedings with calm, idle amusement.
Seated several seats down the table beside his parents, an irritated Anton in his hostile form crossed his arms over his chest and glared angrily at Draco in accusation. "I don't see what we need to discuss about this, Draco. I've said it before, I'll say it again. I have absolutely NO INTENTION of getting married. It's NEVER going to happen and none of you can force me!" He scowled at them, his shoulders tensing up when he was met with several violent reactions from his cousins.
"Anton, you can NOT remain a bachelor your entire life! Not only is it disgraceful to our family but it is completely idiotic!" Alexandra snapped at him from across the table, a giggling Cherry-Lyn seated comfortably on her lap. She pointed at Anton and grinned up at her mother with a cute smile.
"Uncle Anton is idiotic!" She echoed, causing Byron to laugh in amusement at his goddaughter from where he was seated right beside her. "That's right, my smart goddaughter…Your Uncle Anton is an idiot." He agreed, picking Cherry-Lyn up from her mother's lap and placing her on his own.
Anton narrowed his eyes at him and was about to snap out a sarcastic retort when Lucius beat him to it and turned a disapproving sneer to Byron. "He isn't the only idiotic one, Byron. You also have yet to get married and you're already twenty-years-old. Perhaps we should concentrate on getting you married first." He suggested to the rest of the Malfoys, who – except for Draco who cringed knowingly at Byron – all nodded firmly in agreement.
Byron paled at this and let out a nervous laugh. "U—uhm, Uncle Lucius…My case is a completely different situation from Anton's…" He began uncertainly, ignoring the smirk Anton was now sending him from across the table. His words aroused Nadine's curiosity and she raised an eyebrow at him from where she was seated beside her husband.
"Oh…? How so, Byron? Clearly both you and Anton have commitment issues with women, right? Nothing else could explain why you two still aren't married until now." She pointed out and if anything, her words caused not only Anton to smirk wider but Draco, Reggie, and William as well.
When Byron couldn't seem to do anything else but stutter out incoherent syllables, Anton spoke up again – directing everyone's attention to his smug face. "While my case is more a matter of commitment, my dear family…Byron's case is more a matter of…Shall we say a conflict of interest?" He sniggered at this, causing his parents to look at him in confusion.
"What do you mean by that, darling?" Lizette asked her son uncertainly, the look in her eyes similar to the look Louis was shooting Byron across the table. "If it's simply a matter of choosing the right woman, I shall have my friends in France introduce you to some of their part-veela daughters debuting this season, Byron. That should prove to be a worthwhile venture." Louis offered lazily but Byron paled even more at his words and shook his head furiously in refusal.
"Th—that's generous of you, Uncle Louis! B—but I—I don't think—"
"I can pull several necessary connections of mine from pureblood families all around the world. What kind of woman would you prefer as your spouse? Someone from America? From Italy? From Spain?" Markus Princeton – Alexandra's husband – offered with a smirk and shrug but again, Byron shook his head hastily in growing panic.
"Th—that's not necessary, Markus! Thank you anyway—"
"I'll take you up on that offer, Princeton." Anton spoke up with a sly smirk but Markus just sneered at him and shook his head in pointed refusal. "I'd rather I don't have to deal with heartbroken young debutantes filing lawsuits against me for introducing you to them, Anton." He responded, causing several chuckles from around the table.
"I know a couple of friends who are looking for respectable matches for their debutante daughters this season, Byron. I think Pansy's cousin is debuting soon—"
"Good Merlin, NO! Auntie Narcissa…Ehehehe. Thanks but no thanks!" Byron immediately rushed out before Narcissa could even finish her sentence, causing Draco to smirk at him from where he was contentedly watching the scene play out at the head of the table.
"Well I for one am sure that BOTH my handsome, charming grandsons do not need any help in choosing their wives. I say we just give them some time to themselves." Genevieve finally spoke up, giving both Byron and Anton a warm, reassuring smile that both men gratefully returned.
Draco sighed and was just about to bring up the next familial issue of concern to be discussed when Lawrence surprised them all by speaking up – causing all eyes to flick to his suspiciously narrowed silver eyes. At once, Byron stiffened and bit his lip in anxious anticipation.
"Humor me for a second here, Byron…If Anton doesn't want marriage because he has commitment issues…And you say your case is entirely different. Then pray tell, what is your case?" He asked carefully, his gaze piercing directly through Byron's nervous brown eyes.
"Grandfather, if I may speak for Byron—"
"Every Malfoy son has been taught the art of articulate conversation, Draco. I'm pretty sure Byron can speak for himself." Lawrence cut in harshly, keeping his eyes on Byron's ashen face.
Draco fell into an awkward silence after that, unable to say anything else. Byron just laughed nervously and flicked his eyes down to play with Cherry-Lyn's blond locks. "U—uhm… We—well…I uh…Th—that is, it's kind of complicated…I uh…Draco why don't you tell them…?"
He gulped and looked up to ask for help from Draco to tell Lawrence himself but instead, he was met with Harry's green eyes. To his horror, the Malfoy Mistress spoke up for the first time since the whole family meeting had started – her voice sounding conspicuously cheerful and nonchalant.
"Lawrence…While Anton's case is a matter of COMMITMENT, Byron's case is simply a matter of PREFERENCE—" She scowled when Draco cut her off by covering her mouth his hand – only to curse out loud in pain a second later when she had bitten his fingers in retaliation.
"OW! POTTER—"
"…What?!"
Byron and Draco both froze and flinched at the sharpness of Lawrence's voice when he asked this while Harry just grinned and shrugged, turning back contentedly to her bowl of ice cream. Just as Draco was on the verge of coming up with an intelligent answer, Anton spoke up for all of them.
"Byron doesn't want to marry women because he's gay grandfather…" He quipped cheekily, looking up and smirking at the death glare Byron was now sending him from across the table.
"Anton, you two-faced, veela prick—"
"Wh—what…?" Lawrence croaked out again, interrupting Byron's poorly formed threat and gaping at his godson in stunned disbelief. The metamorphagus smiled meekly at him and ducked his head behind his hand, looking up and meeting Draco's accusatory glare with a shaky laugh.
"I—if it helps, Grandfather…I'm not at all opposed to commitment like Anton is, I just—"
"Like blokes…?" Anton supplied for him, obviously trying hard not to smile when he saw the blood drain out completely from his grandfather's face. Draco looked as though he was also trying hard not to laugh at his cousin's less-than-graceful 'coming out' while the rest of the family chose to remain silent – looking anywhere except Byron or Lawrence's flushed faces.
"Anton, shut up right now before I – EEP! G—grandfather, wait! I—I can explain, I—I wanted to tell you before, I just—" Byron jumped up from his seat in panic when Lawrence shot up from his, the elder Malfoy growling and looking just about ready to slit Byron's throat.
"You're going to be kneeling in rocks for WEEKS for not telling me this sooner! What am I supposed to tell all my friends NOW?! I set up ALL those meetings with their granddaughters!" Lawrence snapped, trying to break free from the hold Genevieve had on his arm. Byron cringed and set Cherry-Lyn back on Alexandra's lap so he could rush to the door.
"Grandfather, wait! Stop—"
Draco's indignant protests were cut off abruptly when the table in front of him suddenly – and very randomly – burst right into blazing green flames.
"AAAAAAAAARGH! FIRE! FIRE! GET AWAY EVERYONE! MOVE AWAY!"
Almost immediately, the entire table of sophisticated pureblood aristocrats began screaming, shrieking and jumping up from their seats in hysterical panic – knocking, shoving and tripping all over each other in their haste to move away. Draco stumbled away from the table in shock – accidentally tipping his chair until he fell over backwards onto the floor with an ungraceful crash.
He blinked up at the ceiling for several seconds before forcing himself back up onto his feet with great difficulty and joining the rest of his family in gaping at the scene in front of them. After about a minute of speechless sputtering, Draco finally managed to croak out in a shaky voice.
"H—Harry…?!"
His pregnant wife remained seated peacefully and calmly in her seat, eating her ice cream as nonchalantly as someone who was blissfully UNAWARE of the fact that the table she was eating from and the chair she was sitting on was set completely ablaze with magical fire.
Behind him, Draco heard what sounded like the choking sounds Anton and his parents were making along with the panicked screams from his mother, grandmother, and female cousins. Byron had frozen mid-way in his attempt to run out the door and was now gaping at Harry with one eye bigger than the other. Lawrence was right behind him, his previous anger at Byron forgotten and his attention drawn to the large green flames surrounding his pregnant granddaughter-in-law.
Lucius stood directly behind Draco and was the only Malfoy who was merely laughing at the scene, shaking his head at the reaction of everyone else around them. Patting his horrified son's shoulder, he smirked smugly and leaned down to whisper to him in a calm, drawling voice.
"From the looks of things, I suppose we can gather the kind of wizards my grandsons are going to be when the grow up...." He mused proudly, causing the younger Malfoy to run a trembling hand through his hair and return his father's comment with a sheepish, nervous laugh.
"…BLOODTHIRSTY PYROMANIACS?"
9 Months and 1 Week
"You taste really good, you know that? I want to bite you all over…" Draco murmured lustfully as he trailed searing kisses all over his wife's delectable, pale skin – stopping to nibble at the sensitive area just below her ear and successfully making Jaimee squirm beneath him in pleasure.
"That tickles, 'Co…Stop it!" She protested weakly, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him in for a kiss. As their lips met and their tongues clashed heatedly against each other, Draco opened his eyes and cast a quick glance over their reflection in the nearby mirror beside their bed – tensing in shock when he saw that Harry's hair had turned into a shade of blonde.
Bewildered, he pulled away and stared down at her – his eyebrows fusing together when he was met with his wife's normal, black hair. Harry looked up at him in confusion and frowned. "What? What's wrong?" She asked him in concern, her hands moving from his shoulders to his back.
Draco spaced out for several seconds before shaking his hastily and managing a laugh at himself. "Nothing, I just…I thought I saw something." He smirked after he said this and leaned down to press his lips against hers again, thrusting his tongue into the delicious cavern of her mouth.
When she moaned softly and began caressing her hands all over the firm muscles of his chest, Draco opened his eyes again, the silver orbs dilating in shock when he saw that this time, Harry's hair was a raging bright orange and was now twisting itself into curls as though it had a life of its own.
Sputtering in horror, Draco immediately broke their kiss again and gasped out loud, raising a hand and pointing it accusingly at her hair. Highly irritated, Harry propped herself up on her elbows on the bed and glared up at him, running a hand through her disheveled…black strands.
"Y—your hair! I could have s—sworn it was—I—it changed—"
"Draco, not everyone cares as much about hair as you do. Okay?! For a man, you care more about fixing your hair than ME and that's saying something considering I'm a WOMAN now!" She snapped at him, her eyes narrowed and a mocking growl on her face.
Draco's jaw opened and closed like a fish out of water, one of his eyebrows raised and another lowered suspiciously over one bleary eye. "Wh—what?! B—but, I s—saw… H—Harry—"
"If you're going to keep doing this, I'm going to go to sleep. Frankly, this is the most uninteresting attempt at foreplay you have ever done. It's disappointing." Harry scoffed in annoyance, rolling her eyes and shifting away from him on the bed so that she could snuggle into her pillow.
Draco continued to gape at her and flicked his eyes back and forth between her and the mirror. "B—but, I swear—I could have sworn I—I saw y—your hair—" He scowled and cut himself off when Harry tossed the blankets up over her head and answered him with an irritated grunt.
"Go to sleep, Malfoy."
His scowl deepened and he glared at her in annoyance. "Oh so it's alright for you to attack me whenever you want sex but when I'm horny, you're just going to leave me hanging like this and go to sleep?! Some wife you are!" He demanded indignantly, a childish look of frustration on his face.
"Good night, Draco."
Draco pouted at her before grumbling and turning over to his own side of the bed, grabbing his wand from the nearby table and pointing it at the lights of their bedroom. Just before he was about to turn the lights off, his eyes flicked back lazily to the mirror beside their bed again and the sight that greeted him caused him to jump up from the bed and screech in horrified disgust.
"Bloody Merlin's beard! My hair is RED! I've been WEASLEY-FIED!"
Flinching awake at the sound of his loud, panicked shouting, Harry glanced sleepily over her shoulder and stared blankly at the sight of her husband rushing in panic to the bathroom. After the door to the bathroom slammed shut, Harry heard the rest of Draco's high-pitched, hysterical rambling echoing around the silent walls of their bedroom.
"WEASLEY HAIR! I HAVE WEASLEY HAIR! IT WON'T CHANGE BACK! HARRY, HELP ME! IT WON'T CHANGE BACK! I'VE BEEN WEASLEY-FIED, HARRY!"
Harry rolled her eyes at this and yawned, smirking to herself in amusement. She was just about to go back to sleep when she caught sight of her reflection in the nearby mirror, chuckling when she noticed that her hair was now a bright shade of red and had twisted into rather flattering curls.
Then – snuggling herself deeper into her blankets – she ignored Draco's loud cursing inside the bathroom and patted her stomach with a small, conspiratorial grin.
"Nice one, you two… You've just proven your Marauder legacy."
"Wow…We're at the final week for your pregnancy, Mistress Malfoy. You must be getting awfully uncomfortable by now." Richard Wickham gave Harry a sympathetic smile, watching as she shifted in her seat and scowled at her sheepishly smiling husband beside her.
"Uncomfortable would be putting it mildly, Wickham. I don't care how much it's going to hurt at this point. I just want these babies out of me! Lately, they've been using my uterus as a bloody football." She muttered, rolling her eyes when she was met with Draco's confused gaze.
"What's a football?"
Ignoring her husband's ignorance of muggle customs, she turned back to Wickham and glared at the Head Healer as he handed her several potions from across the table. "This should help make your last few days slightly more comfortable, Jaimee. Other than that, there's really nothing else I can suggest other than to wait patiently for the babies to come out." He smiled as she accepted the potions, chuckling at the unmistakable excitement written all over Draco's features.
Harry just gave another irritated grunt and shifted in her seat again. "I'm never having kids again!" She turned to glare at Draco. "This is YOUR fault, Malfoy. If I had known back then the hardships women go through to have children, I would have kept away from men and married a WOMAN anyway!" She snapped, her words causing Draco's eyes to narrow in righteous anger.
"Take that back, Potter! That is an INSULT to my manhood—"
"IN ANY CASE…" Wickham interrupted them loudly before the couple could fall into another one of their arguments, drawing both their attention back to him. "Your sons should be ready to come out any day now…In the meantime, just try and relax, Jaimee. Your pregnancy was very healthy and your sons should be in perfect shape when they come out." He told them and at the word 'perfect', Draco's face lit up with pride and arrogance.
"Of course they're perfect! They're MY sons and they have MY genes." He pointed out smugly, causing Harry to scoff at him and turn to give Wickham a sullen glare.
"Any chance these babies were asexually conceived?"
"Anton, I can NOT believe you just BLURTED it out to grandfather like that! I was supposed to tell him myself! You practically shocked him into a heart attack!"
Her eyebrows raised in avid curiosity, Jaimee sauntered – or rather waddled – into the Malfoy living room early Saturday morning to find Byron and Anton locked in a heated argument over breakfast, their angry voices echoing in the silence of the dining room.
Draco, the only other Malfoy seated at the dining table, was watching the scene with a lazy smirk, his eyes flicking back and forth between his two cousins in mild amusement. When he noticed Jaimee entering the room, his smirk turned into a smile and he stood up to greet her with a kiss.
"Good morning. Are you hungry? I had the house-elves fix up some of your favorites." He gestured to the table in front of them and helped her onto her seat, leaning down to give her another kiss on the top of her head. Harry just grumbled in response, managing a quick 'thank you' before Draco sat back down beside her and resumed his observation of his arguing cousins.
Byron and Anton were seated near the end of the table several seats away from them, their plates of food looking completely untouched as they continued to argue with one another. Ignoring their antics, Harry reached for a nearby muffin and moodily bit into it, her green eyes looking up at Draco in question. "Where's everyone else?" She asked, drawing her husband's attention back to her.
Draco smirked briefly, reaching over and wiping a smudge of chocolate from the corner of her lips. "Mother and Father are at the Ministry fixing up legal documents for our sons' names…My grandparents are having tea with the Parkinsons while the rest of the family is still asleep." He explained, causing Harry to nod again and take a sip of her goblet of water.
"Did you sleep well?" Draco asked her a minute later but his smile turned into a wince when Harry merely glared at him in annoyance. "I'm carrying your two kicking sons inside me, Draco. Do you think I slept well?" She snapped sarcastically, rolling her eyes at his question.
Draco clenched his jaw and bit his tongue to keep himself from snapping back a similar sarcastic retort, forcing himself to look away and watch his cousins instead. Byron and Anton remained unaware of them and continued to argue loudly with each other, irritating Harry even more as she groaned and massaged her temples in frustration.
"You should be THANKING ME for helping you tell Grandfather the truth, you miserable morphing prick! Unlike me, you no longer have to find a wife before the end of this season! Maybe I should tell them I'M gay just so they'd get off my bloody back!" Anton shouted, slamming his goblet of juice back down onto the table in anger.
Byron sneered at him, his eyes narrowing in indignation. "You think I WANTED Grandfather to find out that way? He's the most traditional man I know; couldn't you have given me more TIME to tell him about my…orientation? Did you see him this morning?! He looked like he was going to have a heart attack every time he looked at me!"
"I had to say SOMETHING! They were all on my case! I had to distract them SOMEHOW! The entire family was going on about how they wanted me to meet more debutantes and get married and all that rubbish, what was I supposed to do?!"
"So instead you diverted their attention to ME instead?! You pathetic veela tosser—"
"I said I was sorry, Byron! Alright?! What more do you want from me?! A bloody SONG?!"
"Just for that, now you HAVE to marry someone! It's the ONLY way Grandfather will feel better about finding out I'll never be able to give him any grandchildren!"
"What?! That's ridiculous! I'm NEVER getting married—"
"Ugh…This is making my head hurt even more. It's too early in the morning for them to be arguing like this." Harry grumbled miserably to herself, ignoring Draco's smirk as he stood up from his seat and leaned down to give her one last kiss on the top of her head.
"I'll be in my office if you need me, love…I have to finish going through some management reports for Monday. Just call for me if you need anything, alright?" He waited until Harry nodded in response before walking out of the room – stopping only to whack both his cousins on the back of their heads just as he passed them.
Byron and Anton both stopped and glared up at him in annoyance. "OH PISS OFF, DRACO!"They shouted simultaneously, causing the Malfoy Head to snigger to himself as he left the room, closing the door shut behind him before he could hear any more of their insults.
Just as Byron and Anton glared back at each other and were on the verge of yet another argument, they heard Harry snapping something out loud in frustration. Looking over at the other side of the table, they stared blankly at the sight of the Malfoy Mistress glaring down the neckline of her dress at her stomach with a very stern glare on her face.
"STOP KICKING! I'M WARNING YOU TWO! As long as you're in MY body, it's MY rules! Are you hearing me?!" She admonished, earning a highly amused smirk from both Malfoy sons. Raising their eyebrows, they shared a look of confused inquiry with each other across the table.
When she looked back up and saw their questioning faces, Harry shrugged at them and gave them a rueful grin. "They were kicking again; I had to stop them somehow." She answered, popping another piece of bread into her mouth.
Byron spoke up first, raising a hand and scratching his head. "Uhm…I may not know much about pregnancy Harry but isn't it a good thing for babies to kick?" Harry laughed and shook her head in response, looking down in exasperation at her swollen belly.
"Not when they're kicking EACH OTHER. I swear, these babies fight almost as much as Draco and I do, it's unnerving." She mused out loud, earning an easy laugh from both men at her words. Anton turned his gaze back to Byron and gave the other Malfoy son a mocking sneer.
"I don't blame them. I know I'D like to be kicking SOMEONE right now myself." He mocked tauntingly and the minute the words had left his mouth, Byron had snapped his head back to glare at him – his teeth morphing themselves automatically into vicious, snarling fangs.
"Why you sleazy, hideous veela jerk! I'm going to skin you alive and feed you to a pack of vultures!" He threatened with a low menacing growl, his words causing Anton's eyes to flash in indignation as he stood up from his seat and shoved himself away from the dining table.
"Do you want to repeat what you just said to me, Byron?! Come up to me and say it right to my face so I'll know you're not just all talk!" He yelled back, his face transforming into hostile veela form and his hands magically lengthening into very sharp bird claws.
Byron smirked back calmly at him and stood up from his chair with deliberate, arrogant slowness. He ignored the panicked expression on Harry's face and slowly walked over to where Anton was standing, his hands morphing themselves into dangerous-looking, gleaming talons.
"Gladly, Anton…" He drawled, stopping directly in front of his half-veela cousin until their faces were merely inches apart. Anton's sneer widened at this and his eyes narrowed in challenge, his hand already reaching into his robe pockets for his wand.
At this point, a thoroughly panicked Harry had jumped up from her seat and had rushed over to stop the two Malfoys before a fight broke out. She laughed nervously and stood directly between them, placing her hands on their chests and shoving them a safe distance away from each other.
"Guys, guys…Come on…Let's not overreact here. Why don't you both cool-off a bit first and then we can all talk to the rest of the family about what to do with both your current predicaments." She suggested calmly, wincing when Byron chuckled at her words and sneered smugly at Anton.
"She's right, Anton…We should stop. I don't want to hurt you, you know. I'm a fully trained Unspeakable agent. You wouldn't want to mess with me." He taunted, raising Anton's hackles even more as the blonde half-veela snarled at him and hissed out a similar, angry retort.
"Unspeakable or not, Byron…I'm going to bash your bloody brains out! I should have done this YEARS AGO when we were children!" He growled and just as he was reaching his claws out to wrap them around Byron's neck, Harry stepped in between them again and pushed the two men apart.
"Okay, this is getting ridiculous! You two, STOP fighting or I'm going to kick BOTH your arses for giving me such an aching headache so early in the morning! PREGNANT WOMAN HERE!"
This shut both Malfoy sons up as they flushed and glared at her in helpless exasperation.
Harry smiled smugly at their scowling faces, crossing her arms over her chest and giving both grumbling men an admonishing glare.
"Now I'm going to finish my breakfast in peace and I expect you both to do the same—"
The rest of her sentence died on her lips and her eyes widened in horror.
Swallowing the forming lump in her throat, her green eyes flicked down nervously at the floor when she felt something very wet, very liquid and very WRONG trickle down from between her legs.
"U—uhm…G—guys…I—I think s—something's wrong…" She bit back a nervous scream and took a careful step backwards, her wide green eyes staring blankly at the puddle of water by her feet.
"D—did I just…WET myself?!"
Following her unblinking gaze, Byron and Anton froze for a split second before they cringed, paled and simultaneously jumped back from her in shock. Screaming and cursing at each other in panic, both Malfoys backed away from her frozen form and crashed clumsily against the chairs behind them, stumbling clumsily onto the floor.
Hurriedly scrambling up, Anton ran over to Byron and pulled the other Malfoy back up onto his feet by seizing the front of his robes. "BYRON, DO SOMETHING! I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PREGNANT WOMEN! WILL THE BABIES JUST SUDDENLY START SHOOTING OUT OF HER OR SOMETHING?! DO WE JUST CATCH THEM?!" He screeched at him, jostling Byron in hysterical alarm.
Byron shoved him away and slapped the other Malfoy back to his senses. "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF YOU STUPID VEELA! THIS IS NO TIME TO LOSE YOUR HEAD! STAY CALM!" He screeched back, his voice cracking as he grabbed Anton by his robes and jostled him pretty much the same way.
"WHAT DO WE DO THEN?! WHAT DO WE DO?!"
"HOW THE BLOODY HELL SHOULD I KNOW?! I'M GAY, REMEMBER?!"
Oblivious to their antics, Harry was still staring blankly at the wet floor – her shoulders heaving up and down in rapid, shallow pants. Finally, after blinking herself out of her daze, she took another deep, shaky breath and met their panicked expressions with a calm glare.
"Guys…Wh—what's…What's going on…?"
Anton's face was as pale as a ghost as he stared dumbly back at her while Byron looked as though he was having difficulty breathing as he tried to answer her question in a steady voice.
"I—I think your w—water just broke…"
Harry sputtered and looked at him as though he had grown an extra head. Blinking, she tried to laugh but it ended up sounding choked when it came out. When she opened her mouth to ask another question, she surprised herself when her voice came out in a high-pitched, hysterical shriek.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS A 'WATER'?! WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?! WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME IS GOING ON?! WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY I SUDDENLY WET MYSELF IN THE DINING ROOM?! STOP GAWKING AT ME AND TELL ME—"
"M—maybe you just really needed to go to the bathroom…?" Anton blurted out stupidly, wincing when he was answered by Byron knocking him upside the head from behind.
Harry continued to shriek anyway as though she hadn't heard him. "—WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?! DO I NEED TO SEE WICKHAM?! IS IT THE BABIES?! ARE THEY ALRIGHT?! ARE THEY SAFE?! ARE THEY IN DANGER?! IS EVERYTHING GOING TO BE OKAY, DO I HAVE TO—"
"HARRY!" Byron cut her off sharply in a loud voice, walking right up to her and placing his hands firmly on her shoulders to steady her shaking form. The next few words out of his mouth came out as a high-pitched stuttering squeak but Harry caught every word anyway.
"I—I think y—you're about t—to have th—those babies…As in now…RIGHT NOW…"
"…………"
As Jaimee's hysterical scream of panic filled his ears – followed later by the loud 'THUD' emitted by the act of Anton's limp, unconscious body hitting the floor of the dining room – Byron fisted his hair, banged his head against the wall and bolted as fast as he could towards Draco's office.
"DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACO!"
A/N: Cliffhanger! Never write a story without one! *runs and hides from all the death glares and hexes of her readers* Phew! Fun as writing the pregnancy was, I'm REALLY glad it's over. :D Now I can move back to the plot and throw in more surprises for you guys. *evil smirk*
Next Chapter: We find out the names of the two newest Malfoy sons (*jumps up and down excitedly*), A fluffy D/H scene and perhaps a bit of Anton/Ginny
PLEASE REVIEW! CHEERS!