I don't own Harry Potter.

This was co-written with Tiger of the Fire.

Enjoy!

Chapter 33

It was the next morning. Luna had arrived safely and nobody appeared to have freaked out. In fact, everyone was sitting down to breakfast quietly. Harry hadn't shared his news on him having a girl; he would leave that to Draco. Harry smiled softly and put his hand on his stomach as he ate. He was being kicked by his little girl. Lucius looked over at Harry and Draco. He raised his eyebrow at the whole scene. "What's going on?" Lucius asked. Harry just began to hum and focused in on his eggs that were covered in mayo, sausage, ketchup and relish. Everyone, except Ron, tried to focus on something else.

Draco looked up at his father and smiled happily. "You will be happy to hear that we have found out the gender of mine and Harry's child," he said as he took a sip of his hot coffee. Lucius looked at him silently, telling him to get on with it. Draco rolled his eyes and then said, "We are having a beautiful baby girl." He smiled as he reached a hand and placed it one Harry stomach, feeling the kicks his baby daughter was giving her mommy.

Lucius has to shake his head at that. It was the last thing he had expected to hear. "A girl?" Draco nodded in response. This got a smile to break out on Lucius' face. "Well, it seems we have a lot of surprises lately." Luna had been watching this whole exchange quietly. She found their interactions interesting and something people wouldn't generally expect. Ginny could only smile. She could tell that the Malfoys were happy with the news they had received. Whatever was up with Lucius about surprises, she guessed it had something to do with her brother. It made him happy, so she wasn't about to question it.

Ron smiled at his best friend and heart brother. He was just about to say something when an owl flew into the room bearing the Daily Prophet. Lucius gave the owl the money and took the paper from the tawny owl, letting it fly out of the open window. Lucius opened the paper and began to read the front page; he was slowly going red with anger as he read the main story on the front page. After a few more minutes he slammed the paper down, hiding what was on the front page and storming out of the room, knocking his chair onto the floor.

Severus raised an eyebrow. It took something of magnitude to cause his friend to flip out in such a manner. Reaching over, he picked up the paper as well and began to read the article. Severus' face went from his slightly confused look to one of anger. In fact, his scowl looked as if it would be sucked right into his face. He calmly folded the paper up, the main article closed, and walked out of the room. This bought the curiosity up a bit. Harry reached over and began to read the article. What scared him was the headline: Harry Potter's Mates and Children. That freaked him out. He looked right at Draco. "This isn't good." He hadn't gotten past the headline. "They know who my mates are, and about our children." He only handed the paper over to Draco. Draco took it and began to read the article.

Draco finished reading the article and stormed out of the room, he wanted to find his father and Severus. They had to do something, the reporter had given the facts that he and Severus were Harry's mates and that Harry had two children already with another on the way. What had anger the younger blond was the way the writer had slandered himself and Severus, saying they were dark and would end up killing the young Fae. It had also mentioned about the relationship between his father and Ron and how Mrs. Weasley had also lost her only daughter to the wrong doings of the Malfoys, that she wanted her family to be proper.

Lucius was in his study with Severus. Severus was listening to the older man rant. Lucius' hair was a mess, which was unusual for the normally impeccably dressed blonde. "This whole situation is uncalled for. That damned woman telling the entire world just because her daughter and son aren't up to her standards." Severus was sitting with a glass of brandy. He would let Lucius be the vocal one, right then; the alcohol was a way to calm him down. He wasn't about to be around either Conner or Harry in the mood he was in. It wasn't good on either of them. What he hadn't expected was for Draco to come storming in, flinging the doors open. Lucius stopped in mid-rant and looked directly at Draco.

Lucius noticed that Draco's silvery blue eyes were a little brighter than usual, showing that what was written had hurt the younger blond. The reporter had said some unsavoury things about him, saying how he was always an enemy of Harry's and that the young blond would end up hurting the young Fae. "Father can we do something so they can never print things like that about us, please, I don't want Harry reading that type of thing in his condition, it could cause problems. You know we will get mail telling us of their opinions especially because Harry is concerned," Draco asked his father, who could hear the suppressed hurt and anger with his son's voice.

Lucius let out a soft sigh and looked Draco in the eyes. He didn't know what to tell his son. He knew perfectly well that Harry couldn't have that sort of thing. It was the same with Ron. He sat down in his chair behind his desk and let out a slow breath. "I don't know what to tell you Draco. There are some things I cannot control. That reporter thinks one thing, but says another. It was written by Rita Skeeter. The woman was a Slytherin, yet she's pulling the stunts of a Gryffindor." He shook his head. Severus looked over at Draco and motioned for the younger man to sit down. Draco complied with the request, as he felt like his legs could no longer support him. He didn't want anything to happen to Harry. Then again, neither he, nor Severus, wanted a repeat of the last pregnancy.

Severus wrapped his arms around the young blond, trying to give him some comfort. "We should do something, maybe an interview with an opposing paper, one that has a good reputation. Something that shows people what we are really like and how happy Harry is, if they see that maybe it will be alright," Draco said as he leaned into the Vampires arms and leaned his head against Severus chest.

That was when the doors opened again. "If you're going to do that, use The Quibbler. That's what I did in fifth year, worked like a charm." The other three occupants of the room blinked. They hadn't expected Harry to show up. Harry just gave them a smile and moved over to his mates, sitting down. "Sorry, but I needed to speak with you." He kissed Draco softly on the cheek and watched Draco pulled out of Severus' arms and hugged Harry close. Harry enjoyed the fierce protectiveness of the veela.

Draco held Harry close and asked, "What is it you wanted to speak to me about, is it something in the article, if so ignore it for now, we are going to do something about it soon," he told him softly, rubbing his hand lightly across Harry's stomach. His daughter was not kicking her 'mommy' at the moment. He placed a soft kiss on Harry's temple.

Harry shook his head. "It isn't about the article. I know most of its garbage; I just wanted to know what we're going to do. This hasn't just upset all of us, it's upset Ron too." That got Lucius' attention. Harry looked at him. "He's okay, just upset." Lucius nodded, but left the study anyways to be near Ron. Harry sighed and just placed his head on Draco's shoulder. He was a little worried that his child wasn't kicking. She usually kicked non-stop, so that worried him slightly. He wasn't about to tell either Draco or Severus that one.

Severus stood up from the couch and walked over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself another brandy, though he would have preferred some blood, but he wasn't too fussy at the moment. "We should ask Miss Lovegood if her father would like to do an article for us. We should also plan what we want to put in, and if we want a picture of us all," he said as he sat back down next to where Draco and Harry were resting on the couch.

Harry sighed. "If it's an interview with me and to show up the prophet, Mr. Lovegood won't argue and will willingly do it. He'll even settle to our terms." He shook his head and shifted in his seat, allowing him a more comfortable position next to Draco. Draco still held him protectively. He didn't want the fae to go anywhere. That wasn't too surprising. Harry rubbed his own stomach and wished that his baby girl would kick. That didn't appear to be happening. Severus looked at him, an eyebrow raised. He could tell that Harry was worrying about something.

Severus put down his brandy and got up once again. He knelt before Harry and took one his hands into his. "Harry I can tell you are worried about something, will you tell me please, I don't like it when you don't tell me when you think there is something wrong. So please tell me Harry?" he asked him softly.

Harry bit his lip and looked at Draco. The blonde looked worriedly at Harry. Harry sighed and took one of his hands and set it on his stomach. "It's just…Our daughter…She's usually kicking me non-stop, but she hasn't for the last half hour. It's worrying me." Draco's hand went to Harry's stomach as well. He looked worriedly at Severus. Severus only smiled reassuringly. It was his way of telling them that she was still alive and well. That eased some of the strain on Harry, but not all of it. He had told them what was worrying him, but that didn't mean he would stop worrying. Harry was a natural worrier, especially when it came to the lives of his children.

Draco smiled and said softly, trying to allay Harry's fears. "She is fine Harry, I know you will worry anyway, but it will be okay and so will she. You know that Harry, so let us take our minds off of that for a little while, Severus will know if something is wrong with her, you know he can sense life, especially unborn children even seconds after conception." Harry felt a little better knowing that Severus would be able to tell if something was wrong with his unborn daughter.

Harry nodded and closed his eyes. He then stood up and looked at them. "I need to check on Ron." He then walked out of the room, leaving Draco and Severus to follow along if they so wished. They did, not wanting to leave Harry alone. With him in his worried state, that wouldn't be good. The duo were trying to avoid a repeat of Harry's last pregnancy. They closely followed Harry. If anything would happen, it would have been right then. Harry had a tendency to get issues before he made it anywhere.

They walked down the corridors and into Lucius' study, where Ron and Lucius were sitting on Lucius' large leather chair; Ron was sitting on Lucius' lap. Ron was relaxing against his husband. "Hey Ron are you alright, I wanted to make sure that the paper didn't upset you, I think we have an idea on how to counter it, has Lucius told you about it?" he asked his friend and heart brother.

Ron nodded. "He told me about it. How are you doing?" He looked at Harry and had no trouble noticing the hovering of Draco and Severus. He was amazed that Harry didn't flip. He figured it had something to do with his Fae nature. Being a submissive fae meant that he loved all the attention he received from his mates. Ron on the other hand, had already thrown something at Lucius for hovering the day before. Right now however, he was more in the mood to try and remain as calm as possible. He couldn't believe what his mother had said. It hurt him. What he hadn't shared, though he knew that Harry felt it, was a slight pain at the thought, specifically aimed at his heart. It was like his mother had taken an ice pick and shoved it directly into his heart at that. He hoped that Harry hadn't shared that.

"I'm fine, the baby hasn't kicked in a while and it made me panic a little, but it's okay now." Harry smiled as he went over to the comfortable leather couch and sat down with Severus and Draco following him and sitting on either side of him. "We should plan what we are going to say to the paper, though we should ask Luna if she can get word to her father and ask him if it would be alright to run the article in The Quibbler."

Lucius nodded in agreement. "That would be a good idea to figure out." He watched as Draco and Severus both put their arms around Harry. He could only smile and hold Ron closer. Bit his lip and shook his head. There were many things happening at that period of time that did not make sense to him. He had to sigh softly and just take in the appearances of the others. This was not proving to be easy on any of them. Of course, nothing in any of their lives had ever been easy.

Lucius, keeping one arm around Ron, pulled out a quill, ink and parchment so he could write down the ideas they came up with. "Now let's see what we can come up with, Harry why don't you go first?" the blond aristocrat said as he waited for ideas to begin. It didn't take long until they started to flow and Lucius was hard pressed to scribe the as quickly as he could. It wasn't long before they had so many they covered the parchment fully that Lucius had to use another foot long piece.

Well, I hope you are enjoying it so far, please review and tell me what you all think.