Early October

"Potter and Malfoy," Snape sounded oddly satisfied with himself, pairing up the two boys to work together. Really, Harry thought to himself, he had this strange glint in his eyes, like he was seriously getting his rocks off by pairing them together. He had no option but to comply though, and as Malfoy was sitting alone at his table, Harry went over to him just as Neville made his way to take Harry's place beside Ron.

Malfoy didn't even look up as Harry sat down. He just continued chopping the roots of the simila-blossom into perfectly identical pieces. They were to make a walk-a-mile-potion. Commonly used amongst arguing couples to get a glimpse into the other persons mind, to 'walk a mile in each other's shoes' so to speak. Harry really couldn't think of anyone he was less interested in taking that potion with, but that was what he was about to do though, in approximately one hour.

"Do you think you can manage to get some steamed lagro-leaves from the storage and then stir them together with these roots into the base-solution correctly, or are you as useless as you look?" Draco drawled, looking at him with thinly veiled contempt. Frowning at him, Harry went to get the leaves. Getting back, he found the roots ready, waiting beside the cauldron. Malfoy seemed to be busy on the next task, so Harry threw in the ingredients and started to stir.

"Are you out of your mind, Potter?" Malfoy's irritated voice suddenly made him stop his stirring. "It's three times counterclockwise, two clockwise, four counterclockwise, three clockwise and repeat three times and then the solution should turn pink if you've done it correctly. Not whatever it was that you were doing." Feeling his face coloring, Harry concentrated on the task and at least thought he got the stirrings right. His mind drifted only a couple of times and the solution did turn pink - after he'd stirred a couple of extra times in random directions, but maybe he'd just counted them wrong. He decided to not mention it to Malfoy.

While Harry stirred the potion, Malfoy apparently had extracted the essence from an cogni seed. Adding that to the solution turned it light purple. Malfoy frowned at it, but just as he was about to say something, the potion simmered and settled to a full, deep purple color.

As the next step was to let it simmer for half an hour, until it turned yellow, there was nothing for them to do but wait.

Harry had actually thought something would be different about Malfoy this year, Voldermort being dead and all. Malfoy was as obnoxious as ever though, prancing about as if he owned the world. Of course having sufficient money to buy yourself and your whole family out of Azkaban probably helped. Lucius Malfoy had known exactly which pockets to grease after Voldemort's fall, and because of that the whole family was enjoying pretty much the same standing as before the war. Sometimes there just wasn't any justice to anything.

Thus, Harry had tried to accept that even if the threat that had been Voldemort was gone, things hadn't actually changed much. Therefore he had been making an effort to avoid Malfoy and instead focusing fully on studying for his NEWTs. It had worked fine up until now, and Hermione had been happier than ever with his efforts to actually learn something this year.

Killing Voldemort had of course brought him fame, and with it had come an offer to join the Aurors even without his NEWTs. He didn't want that though. He wanted to become an Auror the same way as anyone else - getting the NEWTs to qualify and then passing the entrance exams and the training. He didn't want a free ride just because he'd killed a crazed dude with a snake fetish.

So, here he was, back at Hogwarts and back taking shit from Snape. He really needed to pass NEWT level Potions, but just as Malfoy was behaving as if the war had never happened, so was Snape.

"I know they say fame is blinding, but really Potter? You should ask your fans to gather their resources to buy you a new pair of glasses, as your current ones are clearly useless. Make them throw in a new brain in the bargain as well, might take the opportunity to cure your stupidity at the same time." Malfoy's pratty voice cut through Harry's musings and he saw the potion was now yellow and Malfoy was waiting to start the last phase - adding a strand of hair from each of them and then performing a stirring pattern that had to be done by the two of them working together in perfect, synchronized motions.

Feeling himself blush again for not paying attention, Harry joined Draco to start the stirring. Soon the potion was thinning and turning lighter, a sign that it was almost ready. A couple of minutes more and it looked like regular water.

Harry was waiting for Snape to come to check the potion, giving them the all clear to go ahead and test it. He wasn't exactly keen on looking at the world from Malfoy's perspective, but he needed a good mark from this exercise, so he had no choice other than to go through with it. Malfoy didn't seem to plan on waiting though, as he was pouring the potion into two glasses.

"Shouldn't we wait for Professor Snape to check it first?" Harry asked Malfoy, when the prat gave him one of the glasses.

"I am sure you need to be checked for everything you do, but as some of us keep awake during the theory part, we actually know how to do things correctly the first time," Draco sneered. Angrily, Harry took the glass. Whatever. Malfoy might be a prat, but Harry knew he was a prat skilled at Potions, so he figured they could just s well get this over with. At the same time as Draco, he emptied his glass.

He felt a strong lurch, sort of similar to using a portkey. Instead of getting whisked away somewhere far though, he felt a strong tug that pushed him together closely with Malfoy. Uncomfortably close, in fact. There had been no mention of this happening, of that he was sure. He might have dosed of just a little bit during the explanation though, so maybe it was still okay.

Before they could even try to move away from each other, there was a new lurch, this time he felt it in his lower abdomen. He thought he was getting sick. It was impossible to get away from Malfoy, and now it felt like his insides were wringing themselves inside out. Harry really didn't think this had anything to do with getting to see things from Malfoy's point of view. He didn't have the strength to ponder it anymore though, as he felt a sharp jerk hit him deep inside.

At that last jerk he lost his footing, taking Malfoy with him as they tumbled down on the floor. Luckily, they seemed to get loose from whatever had held them together at the same time. Untangling their limbs from each other, they shakily got up on their feet.

"I guess we should have had Professor Snape check the potion after all," Harry couldn't help but commenting. Malfoy just glared at him in response.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor," Snape said as he came over, looking down his nose at Harry.

"What? I didn't do this potion all by myself you know!" Harry could barely contain his anger. As if failing this assignment wasn't enough, he had to loose house points as well?

"As I know Mr. Malfoy knows how to make this potion perfectly, it is clear that you sabotaged it willingly. Be glad I don't give you detention as well," Snape snarled while Malfoy's glare turned into a spiteful laugh.

Grumbling to himself, Harry gathered his things and joined Ron to head to Charms. Ron wasn't that much happier, his and Neville's potion had apparently failed all together as well.

Two months later - the beginning of December

Harry was on a binge. An as-much-asparagus-I-can-possibly-eat-binge. For some reason, he just couldn't get enough of it. He'd even sneaked down to the kitchen and asked the house-elves to give him some so that he could eat it between meals. It didn't make any sense. He hated asparagus - who didn't? Still, he just had to have it.

Christmas at the Burrow

Mr. Weasley had bought a Muggle television set and had it installed for Christmas. With it, he had bought an old VCR and a set of VHS tapes. Watching Home Alone had Harry discreetly removing himself to go hide and bawl his eyes out. It was just so sad with that little kid who had to fight those criminals all by himself and why didn't anyone come and take care of him and how could those parents not notice he was missing and and and… Harry really wished that they would watch a comedy next.

Mid-January, back at Hogwarts

"Harry mate, are you all right?" Ron asked, sounding worried. Harry looked up from under his bed.

"Sure I am. Why do you ask?"

"Uhm, because you are lying under your bed?"

"Yeah well the mattress was too fluffy so my back started to hurt and then I didn't want to be in anyone's way so I figure there's plenty of room under the bed."

"Sure…" Ron sounded incredulous. Harry figured he had a reason. He didn't really know why exactly he'd decided to sleep under his bed, but it had made sense at the time. He got up and headed to the bathroom before joining Ron and Hermione for breakfast.

"Do you want some ham, Harry?" Hermione asked, pushing the plate over to him as she spoke. Something about it smelled odd. He suddenly felt dizzy. Standing up clearly wasn't a good idea though, as he felt himself heavily sit back down when his feet suddenly refused to carry him. Sitting back down brought the smell of the ham back close though and suddenly everything became foggy and then Harry felt himself black out.

Harry awoke in the hospital wing, a frowning Madam Pomfrey talking to a concerned looking McGonagall a little further away. Seeing he was awake, they both came to his bedside.

"Mr. Potter, do you know what happened to you?" McGonagall asked.

"I, uhm, felt ill from the ham and, uhm, fainted?" Harry asked, feeling embarrassed. He had fainted in front of almost all the students. He'd never hear an end of this from Malfoy and his cohorts.

"Yes, well, apparently there is a reason for that. Now I must ask you a question, it might seem strange, but try to answer it as truthfully as you can." Harry nodded, he could do that.

"Did anything out of the ordinary happen to you in the beginning of October?"

"October? I don't think so…" Harry started. He tried to think hard, but there had just been normal school-stuff. His life was finally quite normal now, with no Dark Lord to kill.

"Are you sure? You didn't eat or drink anything strange? Run into any strange people? Think, Harry, was there something?"

"Well, there was that accident in Potions. I think it was in the beginning of October. The potion I drank didn't turn out as it should have, but surely it didn't do anything that odd either." Madam Pomfrey's head snapped up to attention at his words though.

"What potion did you intend to make?" she demanded to know.

"Uhm, the walk-a-mile-potion, I think."

"And who did you do it with?" Madam Pomfrey asked sharply.

"Malfoy."

"Please, excuse us for a second," Madam Pomfrey said as she and McGonagall walked out of the room, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts. What had happened? Did they think that potion had done something to him? Surely they would have noticed that earlier then tough.

He tried to keep calm as he waited, but sitting and waiting had never been his strong side. Soon he felt restless and decided to try and stand. They hadn't said he was forbidden to do that, after all. He got up on shaky legs, but after standing a short while holding the bed post, he felt steadier.

He was standing by the window when Madam Pomfrey and McGonagall returned, followed by an angry looking Snape and a frowning Malfoy. Malfoy seemed as confused as Harry felt though. Madam Pomfrey led him to a bed and performed a spell on him - Harry couldn't say for sure, but he thought it was an identifying spell the healers used to examine their patients.

After having done the spell, she came over to Harry who had returned to his bed after getting a stern look from McGonagall. She then cast a couple spells on him that Harry couldn't say the purpose of.

After, the two teachers and the healer left Harry and Malfoy as they went to Madam Pomfrey's office. Malfoy was glaring at Harry, as if this was all his fault. Harry glared back before he turned his back at the git. His craving for asparagus had given way for a mad desire to eat all the yogurt he could lay his hands on, and right now he felt ready to kill for it. He really didn't have the patience to deal with a snotty brat.

"Gentlemen." McGonagall sounded concerned, which didn't bode well. "There seem to have been a problem with the potion you made in October." What was even more concerning to Harry now was Snape's lack of pointy comments about his potion-making skills. This was serious. Malfoy was looking at the teachers, still frowning.

"What do you mean there was a problem?" he demanded to know.

"You were tasked with making the walk-a-mile," Snape drawled. "Seems that someone didn't follow the correct instructions, using lafa-leaves instead of lagro-leaves, followed by an entirely wrong stirring sequence. Then you completed the mess-up by ingesting the potion without my approval" now he was glaring at Harry, who wanted to start to explain that he had wanted to wait for Snape to check the potion. There was no time though, as Snape continued. "Instead of making the walk-a-mile, it seems that you've managed to make the masculum generatia."

Malfoy frowned at that, as if he had heard the name of the potion, but couldn't place it. Harry, for his part, had no idea what it was about.

"That is a potion used by male couples who want to mix their genes and thus create offspring together," Madam Pomfrey explained. At her words, Malfoy instantly paled and started to look faint and on the verge of panic. Harry felt he should understand the meaning of Madam Pomfrey's words, but his brain just didn't work. McGonagall seemed to notice.

"That means, Mr. Potter, that you are pregnant with your and Mr. Malfoy's baby."