Don't own Harry Potter or make any money here. All rights to J.K. Rowling and co.
Hermione felt kind of bad for being such a bitch to Draco, but it wasn't like he didn't have it coming. He'd told her they needed to be more in character, after all, and her character was a girl who'd been knocked up by a guy she didn't even really like. It was working rather well from her point of view. Since he'd essentially given her the okay, she didn't have to worry about pissing off her friends with her mood swings. Now, if she felt one coming on, she would shut her mouth, march off to find Draco, and let lose with him. Although occasionally she wished she were letting lose in ways that didn't involve yelling at him- not that he needed to know that tidbit of information. It was one part disgusting and two parts titillating, which made it all the grosser.
For his part, he was taking things pretty well. He seemed to acknowledge her need to blow off steam and besides, she usually ended up staying around to help him with his homework, so that was a bonus for him. It also made sure she got hers done, too- something she'd been actually neglecting since she learned about the pregnancy. She'd thrown herself so whole-heartedly into learning about and caring for her child that she was taking time to do things like read mothering books and soak her feet. Her grades weren't reflecting it yet, but she knew that if she let up just one more day, they'd start to sink faster than Neville's toad in the Prefect's bathtub.
Of course, to the untrained eye it looked as if she was working three times as hard in all her classes as she had before. However, to the trained eye she was skimping on inches and letting her measuring get a bit messy. Ginny could tell she'd let up on her study hours by at least a full two a week, but she still wasn't concerned, despite Hermione's more regular panic attacks.
"You won't fail anything," she told her repeatedly. "You still have top marks- even if you did cut an inch or two from that last scroll for Snape, you wrote so clearly and knowledgably that he couldn't help but still give you the highest score. What's happening isn't that you're cutting corners, Hermione- no matter how badly it feels like it. You're merely becoming more efficient with your intellect."
Ron seconded her. To Ginny's annoyance, her brother had begun to follow them everywhere. He claimed it was because they were friends and he could offer protection against any crazed Malfoy fans who wanted to take Hermione out. Ginny knew better than that, but without outing her brother's secret to the whole school, she couldn't do anything about it. Yet. She had written the twins for some advice on the matter, after all. About how to get Ron to leave them alone, of course.
What was even more discouraging was the way Hermione responded to Ron. It wasn't worshipful, or anything like that, but it was more like…admiration? Gratefulness, perhaps, that he was sticking by her after the way he'd treated her? When she should be seeing right through him. Ginny could only chalk it up to the fact that instead of turning to Draco for emotional support, she was using him purely as a punching bag at the moment. Not that she blamed her, exactly, but it wouldn't look good if anyone sifted through her memories. Still, she couldn't see that there was any way for Hermione and Ron to maintain a truce for Harry's sake if they were constantly bickering. Perhaps she could cast a subservient spell of some kind on Ron that would make him take Hermione's berating. That way she could build the kind of relationship with Draco that she was supposed to without losing an outlet. She'd just be switching punching bags, instead.
But it would probably still be a week before the twins could help her come up with something. Until then, she'd have to do her best to run interference.
With a pointed look on her face, she turned to Ron. "Don't you have somewhere else to be? Like writing quidditch plays or something? Go help Harry out, will you?"
Ron gave her a glare and turned back to Hermione. "As I was saying-"
"Oh? Are you supposed to be helping Harry right now? Don't worry about me, then. We'll get together for potions later. You know, Harry could probably help you out with them, himself, with how well he's doing- no thanks to that book," Hermione remarked, smiling at Ron. She unconsciously rested one hand on her still small abdomen and Ron resisted the urge to lean across the table and kiss her cheek.
He gave Ginny another glare. "He can manage, I'm sure."
"Ron- Harry really needs us this year. Besides, your girlfriend will probably be back at the tower soon and want to see you. We have to make time for Harry."
With a sigh, Ron stood up. He couldn't argue with Hermione- not with her looking all rosy cheeked and healthy and so concerned about their mutual best friend. She gave him another smile and he felt it straight down his spine. With some maneuvering, he got his books into his bag and slung it in front of himself before backing from the space. Merlin, how embarrassing. Now his pregnant, best friend, never girlfriend, one time fling was giving him hard-ons without even trying. And he could barely stomach kissing Lavender without imagining she were someone else.
Merlin. He waved a hand at them before turning and moving out the door. "See you later, then."
Ginny watched him go with satisfaction. "Finally," she sighed. "Thank Merlin. Gods, he's getting on my nerves."
Hermione shot her a glance and quirked an eyebrow. "He's been rather sweet lately, I thought."
"You can't still like him, can you?"
Hermione squirmed in her seat. "I didn't say that, did I? Besides, it's just nice to have him being so…nice. I like it. I hated how we were always arguing. This has to better for Harry, right?"
Ginny gave her an appraising look. "So you really don't still like him that way?"
Hermione shook her head. "Gods, no. I mean, maybe in twenty years. I know I'm having his baby, but…there's no point in talking about it this way. I can still think he's cute and not want to go out with him at the same time, can't I?"
Ginny thought about this for a moment. "That's true. I hadn't thought of it that way." She smiled and leaned forward. "In that case, who do you like? I know that look- you're day dreaming lately and it's not about that baby."
Hermione squirmed again and shut her book. "I can't get anything done with either of you around, can I? You know the only time I actually finish my homework now is when I'm studying with Draco and that's only after I've yelled at him, despite the fact that the person I'm angry with is really Ron or Harry or McGonagall, that sainted witch!"
Ginny stared at her, felt the corners of her mouth turn up in a wicked grin, and began to laugh. Hermione glared at her.
"What's so funny?"
"You like Draco!"
"And that's funny?" Hermione replied, before realizing what she'd said. One hand went over her mouth. "I didn't mean-"
Ginny's laughs diminished to chuckles and she waved a hand. "Of course not. How could you? He's rude and arrogant and handsome and rich and agreed to be the father of your unborn child despite great danger to himself." She lowered her voice. "Despite the fact that it's the child of a Weasley."
Hermione stared at her, looked away, fumed for a second, and began packing her books. "I'm going to find Draco. I can't get anything done around you when you insist on acting so juvenile."
Ginny gave her a smug smile and leaned back in her seat. "Okay. You should probably spend more time with your baby daddy anyhow."
Hermione shot a glare at her before picking up her bag. "Unless you want to start attending my sessions with Madame Pomfrey with me, you can shut it." This remark was immediately followed with a wave of guilt and she sat down again. "Oh, Ginny, you know I don't mean that-"
"I know, darling. You're pregnant. That makes you crazy. I don't take anything you say seriously."
Hermione laughed this time. "Except unwitting declarations of like, right?"
"Except those, yes."
A few days later found Hermione exactly where she wanted to be, for once: studying with Draco in the library. Not that she wanted to be with Draco- well, the jury was still out on that one. But essentially, she was spending time with books and that was good. Although she really wasn't spending all the time studying…to Draco's eyes, she was only talking. About the baby. And Weasley. Oh, her quill was still moving a mile a minute, but he didn't see how she could be getting anything constructive done. And the conversation was starting to get on his nerves.
"Stop talking about him for once!" Draco hissed at her before turning back to his book and raking a hand through his hair. He was at his wit's end. For the last week all he'd heard from Hermione was what did he think the baby would look like and would it have red hair, she wondered, or brown eyes?
He didn't bother pointing out that, no shit, it might have brown eyes- weren't her eyes brown? That was one less glamour charm they would have to cast, at least. Now all he had to pray for was mouse brown hair and not red and maybe they wouldn't have to cast any charms. Was this Hermione- the caring, loving one excited about the baby- better than the frightened, detached one? He wasn't sure, but either way it was getting on his very last nerve. He paused in his thoughts as he realized that she had been talking to him, responding to his heated request.
"What?" he asked irritably. She frowned.
"If you're going to make demands, you might pay attention to the conversation, you know!"
He eyed her impassively and sighed. "Look, all I mean is that no one is going to take us seriously if all you do is talk about red hair and goofy grins and whether it will have a penchant for the Chudley Canons!"
She huffed. "It is a she, I've already told you that!"
"You don't know that yet."
"Yes I do-"
"Have you had it tested or something?"
"No, but-"
"Then you don't know. I refuse to listen to you going on in a motherly tone about this bastard any longer and for your information, Malfoys never beget daughters."
Tears welled in her eyes and she turned away from him this time. He frowned. "What?"
"You didn't have to point out she's illegitimate."
"So? It's what she- argh! It! It's what it is and there's no point diddling about the facts."
The sniffling began. He groaned. She whirled about.
"Stop that! You sit there groaning like you're being made to bear the worst cross in the universe when you're not even the one that has to be in labor for Merlin knows how long- urgh! Do you even know how hard all this has been? How long it's taken for me to learn to care about her this way? I'm not talking in motherly tones for your or anyone else's benefit, I'll have you know! It's entirely for her, so she doesn't come into this miserable world thinking she's not special, or not wanted, or, or…or unloved! So there, Draco Malfoy, and if you have a problem with how I treat my pregnancy and our unborn child, then you know what you can do about it! You can have out anytime you bloody well like!" She finished in a mighty shriek, hair frizzed up magnificently, eyes wild with tears and fright and arms akimbo. He smirked.
He couldn't help it. Then he reached a hand out across the study table and stroked his fingers very gently along her cheek. "Alright, then, Granger."
Her eyes widened at the touch and more tears spilled out. He smiled more gently. "Feel better?"
She nodded uncertainly and then broke away from him, turning to dig about in her bag for a hanky. He felt something swell up in his chest for a moment and he wasn't sure, but he thought it might have been…something more than fondness. Protectiveness? The nasty L word he was avoiding so stringently? No, surely not. He shook his head and closed the book in front of him.
"Why don't we take a little trip this afternoon?" he suggested, watching her wipe her face carefully.
The expected argument about school work and studies and- what were those things? Lamaze classes? Either way, the response he usually got didn't come this time and instead she lifted her tear stained face to his.
"Where?"
He leaned away from the table and eyed her for a moment. "Who are you and what have you done with-" he began, but didn't get far.
"Never mind, Draco. I'm tired. I'm skipping class to sleep unless there's something more interesting you had in mind." She stood up and shoved books into her satchel. He stood as well and retrieved the bag from her hands.
"I'll carry this. Come on, you can take a nap and I'll read to the baby."
"Her. You'll read to her," she corrected him.
He stifled a groan. "Of course, Hermione."
She eyed him sideways as they walked from the library together. "So you were just kidding about that trip then?"
He eyed her in return. "Not necessarily. But if you're tired…"
She turned her eyes back to the front. "I am. I was just curious. About where you wanted to go, I mean."
He smiled devilishly and moved closer to her, his free hand brushing hers as they walked down the hall. "And what I wanted to do?" he murmured close to her ear. His voice was low and she could feel it rumble into her chest…and other bits.
She flushed and stumbled a bit, causing him to reach out and grab her hand in his. "Alright?" he asked softly, the smirk still crossing his features.
"I'm fine," she snapped at him, withdrawing her hand. Whether it was the talk she'd had with Ginny earlier or simply her own haywire hormones, she was suddenly acutely aware of Draco's every move.
"Like I believe that," he responded and drew her hand firmly back into his own. "You do need a break from this awful castle, don't you? Fresh air and the country side and cute, fluffy animals- that's what you need. Someone to do your homework for you so you can relax and not worry about what's coming next."
She stared at him, not bothering to hide her revulsion and simultaneous fascination with the picture he had just described. "It sounds disgusting," she responded. "Is that what your mother did when she was pregnant with you?"
He shrugged. "Hell if I know. But it sounded good. Come on, I'm breaking you out of Hogwarts."
With that, he tugged on her hand, urging her to move a little faster. "What? Draco- you can't- we have Arithmancy tomorrow morning- Draco!" She protested heavily, but didn't let her hand slip from his. The truth was…the truth was, she was sick of Hogwarts at the moment. She never thought the day would come, but she also never thought she'd end up pregnant and in the cold, stone monstrosity of a school. The two were incompatible to happy thoughts of a positive pregnancy. And Draco's hand on hers? Her hand in his?
Incomparable, at the moment. Over the last two weeks things had begun to happen very quickly, with the unexpected reveal to his parents as well as hers and then the entire school finding out the way it had…
His hand on hers was the most kindness- not that this feeling had anything to do with his kindness- aside from Ginny's increasingly awkward hugs due to divided loyalties about Harry and Ron (not to mention the even more awkward hugs she got from Professor McGonagall), that she had felt in several days, to say the least. She sighed a little at the unexpected happiness and Draco looked over his shoulder at her.
What- was that happy on her face? Because he was kidnapping her away from school? Something must not be right in the girl's head. Very not right. That, or she was perhaps- very slowly, but there just the same- starting to care for him.
He wondered if the thought should put some happy on his face as well.
No?
Well, that was alright for now. If he hung around the manic Gryffindor for much longer, he was sure that would change soon enough.