A/N: Thank you for all your comments! Enjoy the next chapter!

o.O.o

Chapter Twenty, Visages

They sat down onto the hard plastic seats lining the white clean walls. The waiting room was fairly small, with harsh uv-lights coming from lightbulbs in the ceiling. Draco Malfoy, looking entirely uncomfortable into Harry's Muggle clothing, scrunched up his nose. The scent of disinfectant was heavy, poignant in the air, and it made him squeamish.

"Why couldn't we do this in St. Mungo's?" Draco asked again. "I could have altered my looks and no one would have been the wiser."

Hermione rolled her eyes, her eyes searching the poster of woman holding babies and she nervously cradled her stomach. She was by far the youngest (except Draco) in the waiting room and several older woman had bestowed them with curious looks.

"I told you, we can see the child now." she whispered back, flattening a folder onto her lap. He glanced at the folder, to the anatomic explanation of breasts and how the milk production started — which started around the fifth month of pregnancy.

Hermione slowly, subtly, tried to wipe her sweaty hands to her sweatpants. Draco shifted in his seat, fingers absentmindedly tapping against the side of his chair. Under normal circumstances she would have thought his unease was slightly cute, but now it annoyed her. Couldn't he just trust her? The O.W.L's were coming closer and closer, teachers growing nervous and students growing ever more nervous.

Hermione had nearly screamed — she might have screamed — when Hagrid suddenly introduced her and Harry to his full giant Half-brother, Gramp. Harry was planning with Sirius, just as he had promised and told her not to worry about a thing, but she couldn't help worrying.

"What are you thinking about?" Draco asked annoyed and Hermione sighed tiredly.

"For God's sake, Draco!" she whispered, when he glanced angrily at the woman behind the desktop. "I told you this way we can see the child!"

"There is no way you can see the child unless you're planning on giving birth, and I know for a fact, you're not far enough along to give birth to him."

"Him?"

"I just know it's a him!" he muttered back, and Hermione sighed, before dropping the folders in his restless hands.

"Here, why don't you go through these?" she asked, and Draco gritted his teeth together. He glanced at a detailed picture of the birth-way and immediately dropped the folders back in Hermione's lap. Several of the older ladies chuckled at their antics, while one gave them an apologetic look.

'They must think we're too young…'

Draco sat back, pouting slightly and Hermione smiled again. She knew she'd ruffled his feathers by making an ultrasound appointment, but she didn't think the diagnostic spells she had thought herself were enough to ensure the baby's health. She'd planned it all perfectly, aided by the room of requirement they slipped away from the castle and used the floo to arrive in London.
The woman behind the counter, nails an awful pink, and lips too red, had smiled warmly at them. Tapping her pen against the receptionist's desk, she'd clicked around on her computer — Draco gazed at the computer monitor, his eyebrows disappearing under his hairline — before pointing them to the waiting room.

"When will he come?" Draco asked, while holding a dummy between his thump and index finger. "Do we need this?" he continued, when Hermione only gave him an annoyed empty look.

"No," Hermione answered, "Letting a child use a dummy, or a thump for that matter, leads to malocclusion of the teeth."

"Excuse me?"

"Well the suckling on the dummy or the thump can interfere with the growth of the child. Especially with the teeth; they'll start to stick out, no longer meeting properly when they bite together. Muggles use orthodontic treatment to correct a mall occlusion, but it takes a long time and is often very expensive."

"I see," Draco muttered and Hermione smiled. He obviously didn't, but she had all the time in the world to slowly explain it to him. Or as long as they needed to hide in it. After a few minutes sitting in silence, the receptionist got up from her desk and crossed the room to where they were seated.

"Miss Granger, the doctor is ready for you." she explained, "Please follow me!"

Hermione nodded, gathered her bag and gestured for Draco to come along. They passed through the swinging doors, down a squeaky clean hall, to the room. It was fairy small, with white walls and a greenish ceiling. An examination table stood against the wall with a large machine next to a monitor, which Hermione suspected was the ultrasound machine.
Draco slowly lowered himself in one of the chairs, and Hermione sat down onto the bed. He turned even more nervous in the new environment and Hermione watched him shuffle in his seat. She was about to snap, when the doctor entered into the room.

"Ah, Miss Granger, may I call you Hermione?" she asked, her face slightly tanned and her hair pulled back in a tight bun. Hermione nodded and the doctor glanced at a still restless sitting Draco and smiled warmly. "The father I suppose,"

Draco nodded quickly, straightening in his seat, while adopting an air of superiority. The woman didn't seem to notice and smiled at Hermione. "All right, this is your first medical examination, isn't it?"

"Yes," Hermione agreed readily, rubbing her slightly swollen abdomen and smiled shyly.

"Good, my name is Doctor Lena Alger, and I will be making the sonogram, today." the woman explained, "How have you been feeling?"

Hermione shrugged, folding her hands together. "I'm fine I suppose. I've got a lot of cravings—"

Draco snorted, "Nothing that has sugar in it, is save for her." he added and Hermione glowered at him. "She's often sick as well." he added helpfully.

Doctor Alger laughed heartily: "That's perfectly normal.

"I don't get sick as often as I used to…"

"Oh Honey, morning sickness is different for every girl. It doesn't necessarily occur in the mornings, and it is different for every girl. Typically these symptoms occur between the fourth and the sixteenth week, but it certainly isn't unheard of for a girl to still have symptoms after the twentieth week of the pregnancy."

"Why does she get sick anyway?" Draco asked and Hermione exhaled tiredly through her nose. Why hadn't he asked her these things before they went to see the doctor?

"We don't really know the cause, but it may be related to changing levels of hormones. Anyway, are you only feeling sick, or are there any other symptoms?"

"No," Hermione shook her head, "only morning sickness."

"That's good, are we excited to see the baby today?" she asked and Draco's eyebrows shot up again. Hermione smiled excitedly and nodded eagerly, before Doctor Alger eased the sixteen-year-old on her back.

"All right, Miss Granger can you lift your shirt up for me and undo your trousers." she told her and Hermione swiftly followed her instructions.

"I don't understand!" Draco finally said. "What are we going to see?"

Doctor Alger laughed, before rubbing special lubricating jelly to Hermione's skin and she shivered. "We use special sound waves to create a visual image of the baby. The special computer then translates the echoing sounds into video images and that way you'll see your baby's shape, its position and its movements."

Draco nodded slowly before pressing a few buttons on the keyboard and the screen turned on with a low buzzing sound. "All right, Draco, right?"

Draco nodded, shifting closer to the monitor and the doctor grinned. He watched thoughtfully as Doctor Alger reached out and flicked the lights off. "With this transducer," she explained, placing a white device onto Hermione's stomach. The woman proceeded to glide it down, the monitor beeped softly and the doctor sighed. "The transducer produces high-frequency sounds waves through Hermione's body and this way we can form— ah, there he is!"

Hermione wheezed softly glancing at the monitor in awe and Draco shifted even closer, his eyebrows drawn together and his lips pursed. "There we have its head." she whispered softly, and Hermione grasped Draco's hand.

The tiny tympanic heartbeat from the ultrasound wand was the most obvious outward sign that a new life was indeed growing inside of her. He glanced at the monitor with a grease between his eyebrows. Hermione smiled, holding onto his hand tight.
Draco slowly tore his gaze away from the screen and leaned his cheek onto her forehead. They stared into the screen with wide wondrous eyes, while the doctor babbled on about a good heartbeat, a fine size and finally she grinned. "Do you want to know the sex of your baby?"

"You can say that?"

The doctor chuckled again. "We sure can!"

Hermione worried her lower lip while Draco eagerly glanced at the screen. Obviously, she wanted to know the sex of their child, of course she did, but she also wanted to be surprised. The woman was rather amused when they started to argue, but in the end her curiosity won out against any doubt she had.

Chuckling before glancing at the monitor again, she pointed at the child, "You're having a boy."

"So boy clothes," Hermione whispered, already becoming excited and the Doctor smiled amused.

"Do you want the film?" She asked and Hermione nodded. "Well, then the both of you are ready to go."

"Well, that was interesting," Draco decided as they stalked through the spotless corridor, down the stairs and out of the central hall.

"I'd like to visit the harbor," Hermione whispered and Draco wrapped an arm around her waist, leaning his cheek on top of her head. The wind was slightly chilly and the air muggy from a recent rain shower. Yet the harbor was not far. While they moved towards the soft grey water, Hermione explained how her parents had bought a sailboat when she was seven and she'd learned how to sail at age eight.

"It's really nice, you know." She explained, leading him down the harbor. The water was sloshing gently against the boats and Hermione sat down on the jetty near her parents' sailboat. "Dad, loves to sail. If he didn't enjoy his patients as much, he would probably look to make a living on one. A sailboat, I mean."

"I've never been on a ship before." He told her matter-of-factly. She smiled and they sat in comfortable silence. Before making an appointment with the Doctor, she'd taken several Muggle pregnancy tests. Eighty percent had a second pink line and then she decided to make the appointment. She hadn't expected Draco to come along, but without a second thought he'd demanded he would be there.

She hadn't expected him to be this caring.

"You want to? Go on a ship, I mean?"

He smirked his mean-like little smile. "Why not."

She smiled, her cheeks warming up considerably and she led him down the dock and up onto the boat. He stared around over the deck in a way she supposed she had looked the first time she'd touched a broomstick during her first year. She jumped onto his back when he found his balance, because she could and because he offered, looping her arms around his neck and grinning at him. "You're going to like sailing."

"I'm sure," he chuckled, falling back against white leather couch on the deck and she slumped back against him, explaining about the hull, the mast, holding up the sails and the rigging. Her head fell back against his shoulder and they both enjoyed the afternoon together.

"We should do this again," Draco whispered when the sun disappeared behind dark clouds.

Hermione was storing the pillows away in the small closet behind the couch and nodded. "We should."

None of them realised this was one of the last days they would get to enjoy an easy day off…

To be continued…

A/N: Leave a review! Harry Potter and his characters do not belong to me, but to J.K. Rowling.