Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine.

Chapter 34 Dread

Kat sat on the Ginny's bathroom floor for a long time. Not even Ginny dared to say a word for nearly half an hour. She hadn't gotten her period once since the twins were born.

"I don't think Malfoy would care," Ginny said quietly. "… If… You, you know…"

"I would care," Kat whispered. Ginny shrugged helplessly. "It's just a baby."

"Just," Ginny repeated. "You have two already, Kat. Do you really want another?"

"I can't…" Kat started at her shoes, the shower curtain, anything but the positive pregnancy test on the counter. "It's-it's part of me. And I know what everyone's going to say. No one will judge you for getting rid of it. But they are going to judge me for keeping it."

"I won't." Ginny gave her a small smile. "Slag."

"Aurora's going to take it the worst." Kat felt her eyes glisten at the thought. Little Aurora, who liked to be rocked to sleep every night, was going to have to share her parents. "Ric will be glad to get rid of me."

Ginny weakly punched her knee. "Way to focus on the positives."

"I'm a bad mum." Kat forced herself to smile when Ginny raised her eyebrows. "I left them with Snape."

"Well…" Ginny seemed to be holding in a gag but tried to act like it was no big deal and poked her in the stomach. "At least you've got a backup baby. Because the git surely ate them by now."

Meanwhile, Severus learned that quieting one monster only caused the other one to fuss. The male liked the sound of the phone ringing, so he charmed it to ring continuously to shut Alaric up. The female, however, shrieked louder than his telephone. Severus involuntarily leaned away when she held out her arms, telling him in her own way to pick her up. Like hell he would.

"Silence!" The boy laughed, but Aurora only cried harder, causing Severus to feel a migraine coming on. Although he felt like a fool, he quickly abandoned all pride as he rubbed his temples. It was dribbling all over, but he slowly reached in the pram and picked the girl up. Anything to stop the incessant shrieking. "What?"

She sniffled and reached for his hair. Severus nearly dropped her when she put a lock in her mouth. He could hear James Potter making a comment about infants consuming too much grease in his head.

Well, she wasn't crawling yet. Severus set her on the ground, figuring she could entertain herself with the dirty carpet. Katherine did say she wouldn't be long. He left his book in the kitchen.

"Ahaha!" The boy was pure evil. Severus returned half a minute later to find the girl gone, and the boy laughing at his misfortune.

"Aurora!" he called out, using his best Gryffindor in trouble firmness. Did she even know her name yet? "Aurora Katherine Potter!"

"Ha!" Alaric laughed again from the pram, perhaps calling him stupid for assuming his sister knew her full name.

"Shut up!" Severus snapped as he glanced around the living room. That only earned him another laugh. She couldn't have gotten far. She was a four month old baby for Merlin's sake. "Aurora!" Still nothing. "Just like your mother! Always running off and expecting everyone to chase after you."

He was talking to a baby. Fifteen minutes in and he was already losing it. Thank Merlin he didn't have any children.

"No!" Severus ran into his parents' old room and snatched the little brat up just as she was scrambling for the rat poison. When he saved her from a likely horrible death, she immediately burst into tears. Typical Potter. He's stuck saving her life and then listening to her bitch about it. "Shut up!"

She whined and rested her cheek on his shoulder. Alright… He dealt with Longbottom's many potions accidents. He could handle with a little dribble.

Aurora was just like Potter, desperate for attention. The boy figured the entertainment was gone and was sound asleep in the pram by the time Severus returned. He sat her on the couch, and she immediately snuggled next to him as he opened his book. Disgusting.

"I'm not fawning over you like the others," Severus muttered as he turned the page. She looked up at him with big blue eyes and smiled. "Your mother hates to read, but I do know for a fact you're read to. Lucius won't stop bragging about you. For some reason."

Aurora smacked a slobbery hand on his potions textbook and giggled when he cringed. Could Katherine have her nervous breakdown any slower?

"Your grandmother only liked books with happy endings, which is why she hated History." If he could get her to listen, she would stop getting her drool all over everything. Her eyes lit up at the word "grandmother." "No… Not Narcissa…"

She continued to slap the pages, somehow understanding that she was being talked to, not read to. So she was as demanding as her mother. Well, he never stooped so low as to read to his students. He wasn't about to do it with an infant.

"She wanted to be a healer, before the first War." Severus had never told anyone that. He wondered if Lily still wanted to be a healer after she graduated. "So she only liked happy potions too…"

Another slobbery slap assaulted the text. "Ma, ba! Ta!"

Severus rolled his eyes. "It's called a book." He was rewarded with another slap. "Fine. One chapter." That earned him a gummy smile. She must understand the tone of one giving into her demands. It probably happened all the time. Spoiled brat. "Katherine better hurry up, before I dump you at the nearest hospital…"

Kat felt numb when she apparated to Spinner's End. She didn't knock and was still in so much shock that she almost didn't say anything when she found Aurora sleeping on Snape's lap and Alaric being ignored while he cried in the pram. "What the fuck?!"

Snape didn't look up from his book. "His nappy is dry. But he tried to put his mouth to my chest. I will not tolerate such behavior, Katherine."

Kat stuttered a few times as she picked up Ric, who immediately started tugging at her shirt. "He doesn't understand that you're a man!"

"You mean he doesn't understand that I'm not a cow," Snape drawled. Stupid, greasy bat. "You were gone for nearly two hours, Potter."

"It was an emergency." Kat felt her throat close up at the thought of the "emergency." How was she going to tell everyone?

"Right…" At least Snape didn't give a flying fuck. "You could've at least told me that the girl can crawl, Katherine. I would've left more rat poison out."

Rory can't crawl… Wait… She missed her crawling for the first time? Snape recoiled when her eyes filled with tears. Before she knew it, she was bawling her eyes out, and Ric was joining her once he realized the milk wasn't coming any time soon. Rory opened her eyes and started to whimper, making Kat all the more overwhelmed. What the hell was she going to do?

"Potter!" She could barely see Snape sneering at her through her tears. "Go cry somewhere where I can't hear you. And take your spawn with you."

"I-I can't do it!" she sobbed. She should've brought Ginny with her.

"Yes, you can," Snape seethed. "You live right down the street!"

"I can't have another baby!" she wailed, freezing when she realized what she just said. Snape didn't even hurl another insult at her. His black eyes widened as her heart sunk to her stomach. "I mean…" She wiped her nose on her sleeve. Rory was full on crying now. "Thank you for watching them. I have to go now."

"Are you alright?"

Kat didn't greet Draco when he came home for lunch. She was sitting on the floor in the nursery, feeding Rory and staring blankly at Ric as he flopped round on the rug. At least she didn't miss him crawling. "Yes…"

He sat next to her, but she still couldn't look at him. "Did Black come over this morning?"

"No…"

"Mother stopped by and said you weren't home." He must sense something was off because he didn't make a joke about his mother stalking them. "There are no meetings tomorrow. I can work from home."

Finally, Kat managed to meet his eye. She should tell him. "Rory can crawl."

His eyebrows shot up, and he looked a little sad. "Did you take a picture?"

"No." We're going to have another baby. Kat swallowed down the secret as she gently switched Rory to her other breast. "I, er, had to stop at Ginny's. So I missed it too. Snape doesn't seem like much of a picture taker."

"You left them with Severus," Draco said slowly. "Can she disembowel toads now too?"

"Ric probably does." Kat forced herself to smile. "He tried to suck on Snape's tit."

Draco glanced at Ric, as if to double check that he was, in fact, still alive. "So what did Ginevra need?"

To take off work and make sure I didn't jump off a cliff… Kat was in too much shock to make something up as she started burping Rory. "How many kids do you want?"

"What?" With a smirk, he scooped Ric up, who made an outraged face at the interruption of his tummy time. "Ask me that after I go a week without getting shat on. Then I might say three."

"Oh." So he didn't even know if he wanted another. Kat set Aurora down and started heading for the kitchen as she buttoned up her shirt. "I'll make you last night's leftovers."

Something was terribly wrong, obviously, but Draco was too afraid to push it. The only time Katherine wasn't with the babies was when she was asleep. She even took Aurora into the bathroom with her once. She bathed once in three days and hardly spoke. He told Father he was going to take a leave of absence, and after his parents came over for dinner one night, they saw why and didn't leave. Draco honestly didn't even care at this point. Katherine would cry when she thought he was asleep.

"Did you still want to go away this weekend?" he dared to ask Friday night. The only time she smiled was when Aurora or Alaric smiled at her first.

Katherine pursed her lips. "Yeah." Aurora crawled over to her brother on the floor in the nursery and tugged on his sleeve. "I need to talk to you about something."

WHAT?! Draco forced himself to smile. "I can't wait…"

Call her delusional, but Kat figured Draco would take the news better if he had a night away from the twins, like he could somehow forget how much work they were after having a night off. She would tell him first thing in the morning, after he had a good night sleep and some breakfast in him.

But then she woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't breathe. She didn't realize she was hyperventilating and not having an nightmare about him hating her until he turned the light on with his wand. "Katherine!"

"I…" She grabbed her tight chest and tried not to gag. It was going to be alright. Everything was going to turn out alright. The first few months would be hard but…

"Katherine!" He gripped her shoulders, but Kat still couldn't concentrate, still couldn't breathe. She felt stupid for thinking she was going to die, but in that moment, she thought she was having a heart attack. "Everything's going to be okay! We'll get the healer to give you something tomorrow, and Mother and Father can stay for the next year for all I care—"

"I'm pregnant." Kat started crying with relief once the words tumbled out, but the frantic, worried look never left Draco's eyes. His grip loosened on her shoulders. "I don't want Rory to hate me but…"

He was silent for a while, letting her words sink in, especially her last sentence. "You aren't…" His breathing slowed with her own. "You aren't considering keeping it, are you?"

This was what she was worried about. She could deal with everyone else disapproving, but her own husband… Kat wiped her eyes. "It's our baby."

"No, it's not." He looked away and picked at a thread on the white hotel blanket. "Alaric and Aurora are our babies, and it's not fair to them to have another one before they're a year old."

Kat wanted to throw up. She dreaded telling him all week, and now she was dreading the fight that was about to start. He was supposed to hug her and lie and say everything was going to be alright. "It's too late. I can't trade one of our children for another."

"This isn't—" Draco put his face in his hands and rubbed his eyes. "I can't believe you're doing this. It's not even good for you. You almost died last time, Katherine. You need more time—"

"It's not up for discussion." Kat didn't know what else to say. There was nothing else she could do. Well, nothing else she wanted to do. "We're having another baby."

His jaw set, and he made that face he made when he was trying not to say something he would regret. "I'm going for a walk."

Draco didn't come back to the hotel room, and Kat flooed home around eight in the morning to find Sirius, Teddy, and Remus over with their new puppy, who was hopping around and wagging its chubby tail. Everyone looked so happy while she felt so horrible.

"Kat!" Teddy waved a piece of paper in the air with a pink blob and a blue blob on it. "I drawed the twins!"

"Awesome." She forced herself to smile when Remus frowned, instantly picking up that something was off. Aurora cooed and held out her arms at the sight of her mother while Ric ignored her and kept sucking on his bottle in Narcissa's arms. Without even sticking her tongue out at Sirius, she stole her little girl from her godfather. "At least someone missed me."

"Where's Drake?" Teddy asked as he started adding his puppy Coal to the picture. Rory tugged at her hair.

"I don't know," Kat admitted. "Probably buying us candy."

"When did he leave?" Narcissa asked worriedly, probably thinking Draco was dead in a ditch somewhere. Kat shrugged and snuggled Rory. This was definitely not the time to tell everyone… "Katherine?"

"He went for a walk." Kat kissed Rory's cheek and couldn't bring herself to look at her mother-in-law. "And I got tired of waiting for him. He knows where we live."

"We should bring everyone pizza, shouldn't we Teddy?" Remus asked without taking his eyes off Kat.

"But Remus," Sirius whined, oblivious as usual. "We had pizza last night!" Remus gave him a Hermione worthy you're an idiot look. "What?"

"Kat's in trouble!" Teddy said loudly. You don't know the half of it, she thought. What was she going to tell Teddy? Rory at least was too young to understand, too young to ask why.

Her little girl laughed loudly and reached out for Teddy when his hair turned a lighter shade of blue, which was his way of saying he thought it was funny his godmother was "in trouble." Kat closed her eyes and kissed the top of her head. She nearly had a full head of wispy white blonde hair now. Ric had a little less.

"Which is why we need to make her feel better," Remus said gently. "We'll drive around and see what we should get her."

"Not pizza," Sirius grumbled, seeming more put out than Teddy. "And we're coming right back!"

Don't go, Kat thought as Sirius complained and Teddy listed all the things they could get for dinner. Rory turned to face her and grinned, already forgetting that her mother was gone all night. She sighed as they left, waiting for the Malfoy lecture when the floo turned bright green.

"Just bring him to bed." Hermione sounded irritated and tired, a voice that she usually reserved for Ron but no, Blaise was dragging Draco to the bedroom. He smelled like a brewery. Draco never drank.

Blaise snorted. The two of them obviously knew, but he didn't seem to care. "He had like four shots."

"It doesn't smell like it," Hermione said stiffly.

"He's a lightweight," Blaise joked as he half carried Draco into the next room.

"You're stupid, Kat-ter-rine!" Draco slurred without even opening his eyes.

Hermione frowned and then turned her all-knowing eyes to Kat. "You can't be serious."

"What's going on?" Narcissa demanded. Kat wouldn't be surprised if she was worried about her son needing a new liver after one night of drinking.

"I'm not going back to therapy," Lucius muttered.

"I didn't say anything to you five years ago," Kat hissed, feeling like dirt as soon as she said it and Hermione's eyes widened. "So don't say anything to me."

"Be reasonable." But Hermione turned away, torn between hurt and giving a lecture. "At least talk… Listen, Kat, he's hysterical—"

"What's going on?" Narcissa repeated a little louder this time.

Narcissa would be on her side. She had to be. But Kat knew she had to butter her up first. She chewed on her lip. They had already outgrown their house. Maybe in a year or so they could magically expand it but for now… "Can we move back into your house?"

"The Manor," Lucius corrected as if she just suggested they lived in a cardboard box under a bridge.

"Please," Kat said through clenched teeth. At this point, she wasn't above begging. Still, she wasn't ready to explain why yet, considering how Draco took it… how Hermione was taking it.

"Of course!" And in a matter of moments, Narcissa was bouncing Ric across the living room while using her wand to pack everything up. Kat sighed as the house started looking less lived in by the hour, and Sirius came back with pizza demanding answers. She didn't even get her mother's house for a year.

Draco didn't say anything about moving back into the Manor. In fact, he hardly spoke to Katherine at all. She didn't care about his opinion, so why should he bother? She just dropped a devastating bombshell on him and pretty much told him to deal with it. It wasn't fair to the twins, and it wasn't fair to them. But she didn't care as long as she didn't have to feel guilty about something that couldn't think or feel yet.

Yet. It was going to eventually, which made Draco feel worse. It was going to be his child, and he didn't want it. In fact, he resented it. How was he going to be able to look his child in the face, knowing how he felt? Worse, what if these feelings didn't go away?

"I'm so glad Hermione doesn't want kids." Blaise seemed to think this was funny. Hermione sent him a glare, but he merely shrugged. Draco had dinner with them every night this week. It was hard to be around Katherine when the babies were down for the night.

With a shake of her head, Hermione took a sip of her wine and scribbled something on her notepad. She was going to be graduating law school soon. "What have your parents said?"

"Father says he's not going to therapy again, and Mother says she's willing to go to therapy again." They hadn't told his parents or anyone yet. That would make it a little too real for Draco's liking. "They know something's up, obviously."

Hermione clicked her nails on the table, which was her way of showing her disapproval of the entire situation. Other than that, she was suddenly neutral instead of on his side like she was Saturday night. Katherine must have said something hurtful. "Kat's first healer's appointment is tomorrow. You should go. As in if you don't, I'm telling Ginny."

"Oh joy," Draco mumbled. Katherine didn't tell him that, although he didn't exactly give her the chance to. By the time he came home, she had usually finished crying herself to sleep. Hermione glared at him again. "I'm going."

Without a word, Draco kissed Kat slowly as she was getting ready for her first healer's appointment. That was the most affection he had shown her all week, but like the rest of the week, it was silent and full of fear.

"I only feel a little nauseous once and a while." Kat tried to keep her voice light, but this was only the second time they've spoken about the new baby. "So maybe I'm only like, a week or two along or something. That wouldn't be so bad."

Draco smiled sadly but said nothing.

"You're nearly three and a half months pregnant." Her new healer was Hermione's gynecologist, meaning he was blunt and opinion-less. The guy even looked emotionless. He scribbled something on his clipboard and went on like that wasn't a big deal at all. "So since you're continuing the pregnancy and considering your past history, I'm going to add a potion to your regime to keep your blood pressure in check. We don't want to take any risks, considering—"

"What other risks are there?" Draco squeezed her hand so tightly it hurt.

The healer blinked and pushed his glasses up to his nose, seeming surprised at being interrupted. "Yes, of course." Kat wanted to ring his neck. "Placental abruption, placenta previa because you had a cesarean section, and the child has a higher risk of developing autism. Also, you are at higher risk to go into preterm labor, and for the child to be small or have a low birth weight. And if you are going to continue with breast feeding, your body may become depleted of several vital nutrients, so along with your potions, I would suggest you eat as much as possible."

"Placental what?" Kat squeaked and immediately regretted it as he gave an extremely wordy explanation that only Hermione would appreciate.

"This is ridiculous," Draco muttered as Kat felt her hand start to go numb, and the room started to feel smaller and smaller. What if the baby was sick?

The healer blinked again but went on with his lecture. "But the fetus is currently developing at a normal pace. Although, Katherine's weight is slightly less than what it was before she was expecting the twins. I want to monitor you on a weekly basis and may suggest partial or full bedrest at the end of the month."

Somehow, the healer didn't pick up on the fact that Draco was ready to explode. Kat couldn't even remember his name. It was something common like Smith. "Do you have any questions?"

"This isn't fair, Katherine!" Draco seethed. "Aurora and Alaric aren't going to want to stay in bed all day! And what are we going to do when it gets here? My parents are not a substitute for you!"

"I'll just eat more!" Kat yelled as the healer looked at the two of them in confusion. "They won't care if I'm eating while they're crawling around their room! Stop acting like I'm not going to spend any time with them!"

"They need all of our time, Katherine! They aren't even five months old!"

"Don't come to my healer's appointments anymore! I don't want you here!" Kat jumped as Draco sprung out of his seat and slammed the door behind him.

The healer frowned, and Kat thought he was finally going to comment on the fact that her and her husband weren't seeing eye to eye at the moment. "So do you want to meet with a nutritional healer to set up a meal plan?"

Kat stared. Where did Hermione find this guy? "Yes… That would be nice, thank you."

"Look at you!" A tense week went by where Kat and Draco hardly spoke, and in that week, Ric finally decided Rory was getting enough praise and decided to try out this crawling thing for himself. He crawled towards a plastic toy book in the nursery and immediately started chewing on it while he waited for their reaction. "Handsome and athletic!"

Draco smiled genuinely for the first time in nearly a week. "Now you know what all the fuss is about." Ric looked at him blankly as his father picked him up and kissed him. "Such a good boy."

The new baby was a boy. Kat decided to keep that to herself, not wanting to spoil the moment. She leaned in and tickled her son, almost jumping out of her skin when Draco wrapped an arm around her. "Now we can get you on the toy broom!"

"Like hell you will." For the first time in nearly two weeks, there was no resentment in his words. He almost sounded… playful.

Kat tried not to ruin things by looking too deeply into it. "Rory!" She looked, but Kat wasn't sure if she fully recognized her name yet. She was getting there, judging by the adorable funny look she was getting. It probably didn't help that half the family called her Aurora and the other half Rory. "Come here and celebrate, girl!"

With a breathy laugh, Rory crawled as fast as her tiny, chubby legs could carry her. Kat had motioned with her hand for her to come over, and she knew that was understood more than the words. Her heart soared when she scooped her baby up, and the little girl started giggling. This was how everything was supposed to be.

They acted like there was no third baby on the way. Draco didn't say anything in early May when she started to show, and she didn't either. He took her dancing for their first anniversary, and she stepped on his feet more times than he could count as they awkwardly made small talk that was mostly centered around the children. Then, they had sex for the first time in nearly a month, and Draco secretly wondered if she wanted to or felt like she had to.

"I needed that." Never mind then. Katherine snuggled up to him and closed her eyes. For the first time, both of the twins were asleep for nearly three hours straight. "Sorry for sleeping so much during the day."

"It's fine." Draco kissed the top of her head. They hadn't been this physically close in a while. She slept when the twins did, which was easier. Then they didn't have to talk about the new baby. Draco wondered if she was on partial bedrest but was too afraid of bringing it up to ask. "You need it."

She smiled into his chest, but her eyes were filled with worry when she looked up to face him. "Your parents think I'm getting fat."

"They think you have post-partum depression and that you're seeing the mind healer every week," Draco said flatly, trying to keep all the emotion out of his voice. His parents were mad at him too, thinking he was distant because he blamed Katherine for it. Mother has been particularly cold towards him lately.

"Oh." Katherine sat up and quickly summoned a robe. She didn't want him to see her naked anymore. "I'm telling Teddy tomorrow." She waited for him to offer to go with her. When he said nothing, her green eyes glistened slightly, but otherwise she acted like it didn't bother her. "So I'm bringing the twins to Grimmauld."

"Okay." He loved her and his family more than anything. So what was he doing to her? Draco hated this, but he was hurt and afraid and felt like she was too stubborn to care. She had her hand over the baby, as if to hide and protect it from him. "But… Can I go to your appointment on Monday?"

She nodded and seemed too emotional to speak. When they closed their eyes to go to sleep, Katherine whispered, "It's a boy."

He was going to have another son.

Thanks for reviewing Ern Estine 13624, JessebelleSilver, gr8rockstarrox, HypocriticalCommunistFromSpace, Gin okami99, and Bianca Di Angelo 0!

HypocriticalCommunistFromSpace: I'm not sure if you got my PM, but I love the Sims! Maybe that's why I like the marriage and baby happy ending cliché! ;) But right now it is like the Sims! Too many babies! Leave it to James to come into the world like this!

Author's note: I wrote a new fic called That Explains A Lot… I understand if it's too weird for some of you, but check it out! It might be my new main fic once I finish this! (Or it might remain as a two or three shot.) I'll be updating it in a few days!