Chapter 4

Their wedding was beautiful. Hermione had been happy to basically let their mothers have their way while they planned it. They seemed to care a great deal, and she just wasn't all that worried about the details. She had a busy job, which a good portion of the magical population still didn't believe she was capable of performing, and so she had to work twice as hard to prove herself.

More importantly, she had Draco and Scorpius whom she found herself rushing home to see more evenings than not. She missed them over the course of her work day, more than she once would have thought imaginable. She simply didn't have it in her to care about color schemes and flowers; those just weren't her things.

And it had obviously meant so much to her mum and Narcissa that she trusted them. She did spend an entire weekend with the two of them wedding dress shopping and Hermione felt like she had watched her pure blooded future mother in law blossom in front of her eyes over the course of those two days. Hermione wondered how many people in her life hadn't treated Narcissa with some degree of either deference or disdain and held her at arm's length.

In the end, the two women didn't disappoint her. They found a beautiful gown, and then in the magical world, the perfect outer robe to accentuate it for the magical ceremony. And the wedding itself had turned out to be beyond her wildest dreams. First, there was a perfect ceremony in her local church, a reception at her parents country club, then a magical binding at the Manor and a fitting celebration to follow.

And if she had been happy to see her peers in the muggle and magical worlds figuratively eat their words about the way she would end up, well that was just a benefit. A large benefit.

She actually felt a little bit of guilt that she had so much pride in her good luck. Her husband was gorgeous, gracious, and against all odds - thoughtful. Best of all, he came with a perfect little son. A son who had officially to become hers upon their marriage. She wasn't certain she deserved what she'd been given. Which was what gave her pause.

Because her life never turned out this well. Every time it seemed to be turning a corner, things went spectacularly awry.

But the wedding went off without a hitch. Her smiles for the pictures - even those they'd agreed to provide for the press - had come easily.

And then there had been two weeks of sand and sun. Two weeks spent mostly inside, barricaded under the covers with her gorgeous new husband.

Naked. Breathless.

And now her period was late. It seemed too good to be true.

Hermione set the plastic stick down on the floor in front of the toilet with shaking hands. She wasn't going to place it on the vanity because...ew. She washed her hands and then set a timer on her phone, keeping her eyes intentionally off of the muggle pregnancy test on the floor. She couldn't bear to just sit and wonder if two pink lines would appear.

She'd felt certain. But now that confidence seemed to be mocking her.

There had been one night a few weeks ago, during their honeymoon, when she and Draco had made love as they almost always did. But afterwards something had been... different. And she had just known they'd conceived a child that night.

She'd kept quiet. She hadn't planned to keep it a secret, but it had felt sacred, this bond between her and the little being growing inside of her. Selfish, maybe, to hoard such knowledge for herself. Or perhaps it was actually paranoia.

She and Draco had decided early on, when they'd decided to try and get pregnant, that they wouldn't do the charm on her every morning. That they wouldn't turn the process of making a baby into a chore, the results of which they tested daily. However, why she'd felt the urge to wait and use a muggle pregnancy test she couldn't have articulated.

But here she was.

The alarm on her phone sounded and she closed her eyes, briefly bracing herself against the cool marble of the vanity. And then she turned around.

She didn't need to pick it up or even move any closer. The results were as plain as day.

Two pink lines.

She took several deep breaths and resisted the urge to seek out Andromeda or Harry, or anybody really who could help her confirm this with magic. As much as she didn't want to risk disappointing him, Draco deserved to know first.

She wanted him to know first, but she really, really, didn't want to get his hopes up if the test was wrong. So, as an alternative, she removed the second test from the box, rationalizing to herself that two should be enough, enough to assure her that all her intuition on top of the best muggle technology could produce was, in fact, correct.

Three minutes. Hermione spent it curled in on herself on their luxurious marble floor. Her eyes squinched closed.

Three minutes.

Again.

Two pink lines.

She felt like she drifted apart from her rational mind at that point. Or at least she lost the composure she'd been clinging to for weeks so that she wouldn't get Draco's hopes up - or perhaps, even her own - and sent him an owl at work, asking him to come home. She was writing an owl to clear her own schedule for the day when he came sprinting into the room. It wasn't until then that she realized her error.

He looked panicked.

He glanced between Scorpius playing at her feet and her, seated at her desk, and breathed a sigh of relief. "What the hell, Hermione?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."

"Well, mission very well not accomplished!" He barked.

Scorpius looked up in alarm at the tone of his father's voice and Draco's demeanor immediately softened. He lifted the toddler into his arms, tossed him up and down a few times until he was giggling and placed a kiss on his cheek. "I'm sorry," he said to Hermione.

"No, I'm sorry, truly," she responded in return, "I understand why you were worried."

"It's okay. What's going on?" He jostled Scorpius on his hip and they both laughed at the way Scorpius grabbed at Draco's jaw possessively.

Hermione kind of wanted to cry at the sight; so sweet, so innocent. Instead, she stood up. Perhaps her hormones were already catching up with her.

"Do you know the pregnancy detection charm?"

Draco's breath caught and his eyes went wide. "I- yes, of course. Are you serious?"

"Very serious."

He lurched forward and kissed her forehead.

"Would you cast it on me please?" She asked.

She watched as he swallowed thickly, gripped Scorpius a little tighter, but removed his wand from an inner pocket of his robes without further argument.

He went to cast it and then he paused and met her eyes. "I know what we both want, but whatever this says changes nothing, you know that right?"

She nodded. He stepped forward and wrapped his wand-bearing arm around her, then kissed her deeply. As anxious as she had been to get confirmation one way or the other, she now whined in irritation when he pulled away from her. That was, until she noticed that Scorpius was - not so gently - batting at his face.

"Oh Bug," she sighed, caressing his cheek. "I think you are about to be in for a rude awakening."

Draco arched an eyebrow, clearly once again asking for permission and she nodded. He cast the charm and a tell-tale blue glow appeared over her abdomen. She let out a sob and collapsed against his chest.

She looped one arm around Draco's neck and used the other to cup Scorpius' head, running her fingers through his fine hair.

"Are you happy?" She asked Draco when she heard him let out a choked breath.

"Ecstatic," he answered, without hesitation, though he continued to sound rather choked up.

"Me too. But I'm scared."

She felt him take a deep breath. "I won't deny that I'm worried, but I've decided that the universe owes you - if not me - this."

"I hope you're right."

They held each other, and even Scorpius seemed to be absorbing the seriousness of the moment.

Hermione brought Draco's hand to her abdomen. "I'm having trouble believing it."

Scorpius, in a clear attempt to be included, strained in his father's arms to cover their hands with his.

Hermione let out a gasping little breath.

Draco laughed.

"And then there were four."

"Four," Hermione repeated in reverent disbelief. "Four."

00000000000

Harry held her so tight when she told him her news - which she couldn't stop herself from doing the next day, because she was apparently incapable of keeping secrets from her best friend - that she briefly and irrationally worried that it could be bad for the baby.

Draco informed Pansy nearly as quickly because he was nearly bursting with pride, and she could suss nearly anything out anyway. Hermione was trying to be discreet to protect her best friend, and so she hadn't shared her suspicions with Draco, but she was pretty sure Harry would have spilled the beans to the dark haired witch if she hadn't encouraged Draco to do it himself. Because there was definitely something going on there.

Andromeda was the next to know, because Hermione needed a healer that she could trust to check on the health of the pregnancy. She too, held Hermione tight after proclaiming that everything was normal and that she was seven weeks along.

Her parents were tearful and congratulatory, but she got the impression that they had been anticipating their announcement. She noted that they made a special effort to dote on Scorpius that day.

But then Draco dragged his feet informing his own parents. She would have been insulted, but the way that Draco held her at night: caressed her belly, talked to it, and just generally spoke with excitement about the baby, told her that his reticence had nothing to do with shame and everything to do with protectiveness. So she'd decided to grant him time.

However, when Pansy started randomly dropping baby items at their house, Hermione insisted that they had to be told. She didn't much care about Lucius' feelings, but she just knew that if Narcissa realized that so many people had known before her, she would be devastated and Hermione refused to do that to her.

And so, Hermione convinced Draco to tell them over Sunday brunch which had become a weekly affair, and which they alternated between taking at their house and the Manor. Well, at least she thought she had him convinced.

"Draco," Narcissa began, interrupting a lively debate between him and Lucius about some muggle relations legislation that was due to be voted on in the next Wizengamot session. Both men shut their mouths so fast that Hermione almost laughed. "Would you care to explain to me why Hermione keeps kicking you under the table?"

Hermione glared at her husband and he sighed.

"Well Mother," he cleared his throat. "I think that is her way of not so gently reminding me that I agreed to tell you that we'd like a quiet Yule this year, before you start planning anything extravagant."

"What?" Hermione squawked - they'd discussed no such thing.

"Wha!" Yelled Scorpius in imitation.

Draco snickered but Narcissa ignored them both. "May I ask why? This will be Hermione's first Yule Season as a Malfoy, we should celebrate accordingly. It's expected, if we don't it will look like a slight."

Draco casually threw an arm across the back of Hermione's chair. "I know what's expected, Mother. But I think even the staunchest of society matrons will understand that my wife shouldn't be expected to play partial hostess at a ball when she's nine months pregnant. In fact, I think most of them would find it to be downright gauche. And this way, you can throw all your energies into planning a fitting naming ceremony for after the baby's birth. I know how upset you were that I didn't have one for Scorpius."

The room was totally silent and Narcissa placed her teacup back on the table with shaking hands as she clearly processed what her son had just told her, and then nervously looked at Lucius. Hermione's gaze drifted to her father in law as well. He had frozen, his face like stone.

Narcissa audibly exhaled, as if her nerves hadn't already been obvious. "That's wonderful," she said, and Hermione could tell that she was sincere. "Congratulations. Isn't that wonderful Lucius?"

He shifted in his seat and dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Yes. Congratulations." It was stiff but it was so much more than Hermione had hoped for and she actually felt Draco relax beside her.

Narcissa spent the rest of the meal asking Hermione tentative questions about her pregnancy, which at first confused Hermione, because the woman had never been hesitant around her. But then she realized that, unlike planning a wedding, openly discussing a pregnancy was one of those things that simply wasn't done in pureblood circles.

But she knew Narcissa well enough by now to be able to tell that underneath her cool exterior, she was actually bubbling with excitement, so she tried to provide her with a lot of information without having to be explicitly asked, and made a mind note to continue to seek her out and include her in pregnancy related activities.

If she was being honest, she was morbidly curious about what Narcissa might think of the 3D ultrasound her mother had already talked about Hermione having once she was further along.

"Oh Lucius," she breathed, after Hermione had finished telling her a story about how Harry had started hovering so badly at work that she was no longer even allowed to fetch her own tea. "We should make up Draco's old nursery. We still have his cradle and all of the other furniture in that attic." Her gaze drifted to Hermione. "Unless you would prefer the baby to have new things?"

Hermione heard loud and clear what Narcissa wasn't saying: Astoria had bought everything new for Scorpius. Hermione also didn't believe for a moment that the other witch had included Narcissa in any of it.

"No, I think that sounds lovely," Hermione answered.

"And," Narcissa continued, "we could make some changes to Draco's old room to suit Scorpius. That way both children will have their own space here, since you aren't currently using your wing. And, perhaps, sometimes, they could stay here when you need somebody to watch them and others aren't available?" She picked up her teacup again and took a delicate sip.

Hermione's breath caught, and she wondered how long Narcissa had been waiting for an opportunity to broach this subject. Her parents, Harry, Andromeda, even George and Angelina all baby-sat Scorpius on a regular basis. Pansy, while a loving godmother, had offered Scorpius an entire tin of biscuits the one time she'd been asked to watch him and was therefore no longer allowed to do so without another adult being present.

However, they'd never so much as asked Lucius and Narcissa. Actually, as far as Hermione was aware, Scorpius had never in his life been left alone with his grandparents. Hermione had thought they just weren't interested in the more hands-on aspects of child care, but perhaps she and Draco both had mistaken reticence for disinterest.

She looked at Draco who was staring at his mother with wide eyes. He shifted his gaze to her and tilted his head as if to say 'your call.'

Hermione turned back to Narcissa. "That would be very much appreciated. And thank you for making space for them here, not many children are lucky enough to have their own rooms at their grandparents' house."

Narcissa literally waved her off. "I know that you don't live here at the moment, and perhaps you'll never live here again, but as far as your children go, this is their home, their birthright. They belong here."

Draco bristled and Hermione knew that he was taking that as a criticism of his choices, but Hermione heard how the other witch put a special emphasis on the words 'their birthright' and knew what she was trying to convey. Half-blood or not, Narcissa considered this new baby to be a Malfoy and she would accept him or her as such, and would treat them no differently than she treated Scorpius.

Hermione had rarely ever been so touched.

"Thank you Narcissa," Hermione answered softly.

There was a beat of silence and then Lucius cleared his throat. "Hermione."

She turned to look at him. He always said her name like he couldn't quite believe the syllables were leaving his mouth. It was more amusing than it was insulting.

"Yes?"

"I was able to find a copy of the book we were discussing when you were last here. I was wondering if you would like to accompany me to take a look at it."

"Oh yes please," she practically leapt to her feet.

Draco looked at her, obviously questioning if she was truly okay with this, but she just smiled. "It's a lovely day, maybe you and your mother could take Scorpius out to the gardens to play? Tire him out?"

The child in question perked right up. "Scorp play?"

She turned to him. "Yes, would you like to go outside and play?"

He bobbed his head vigorously while Draco rolled his eyes. "I like how you phrased that as a question but it was clearly a command." But he stood up and went to retrieve the baby anyway. Hermione just laughed and trotted over to Lucius who led her out of the room.

They walked along in silence and Hermione became more and more unnerved the longer it lasted. She hadn't been truly afraid of Lucius since she was a teenager, but he did have an intimidating presence about him, and considering the news they'd just given him and the fact that Lucius cared so much about blood purity that he'd fought two wars over the issue, well, she thought she might be in for a very uncomfortable conversation.

"I'm sorry," she blurted when they entered his study.

He turned to look at her and tilted his head. "What are you apologizing for?"

She laughed nervously. "I don't know? Not for being pregnant. I won't apologize for that, but for upsetting you, I guess? I don't actually enjoy doing that. It's not in my nature. I'm a people pleaser."

He actually smiled. "And yet you have no trouble speaking your mind."

"Yes, well, telling the truth is an even larger part of my nature."

That sobered him. "You are an honorable young woman."

She was brought up short. "I — thank you?"

He paused and visibly gathered himself. "I find myself in your debt yet again, and I thought it was time that I acknowledged it, for the sake of my own honor."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean."

"The Dark Lord, Hermione," he said quietly and she felt her eyes go wide. "I know you may not believe me, but nobody was happier to see him fall than I. And Mr. Potter continues to get most of the credit, but I am aware that he could not have done it without you. My family survives because of your bravery."

Hermione could only stare at him for the longest time, he held her gaze steadily. "Well, you're welcome, I guess. But I know that you know that I didn't do it for you."

"Nevertheless," he tapped his walking stick on the floor and his lips quirked in what appeared to be amusement. "And then you came crashing into my son's life last year. I was not happy about it."

Hermione bit her lip to keep from making a sarcastic remark, but he cocked an eyebrow at her and she knew that he knew what she was holding back.

"I did not realize until then how deeply unhappy Draco was, and had been since he was a teenager. Nor did I realize how estranged we had become from him, even living in the same house. You have brought him back to us. And so you see, now there are two debts which I can never hope to repay."

Hermione was gobsmacked, but she knew she couldn't just stand there and say nothing to that astonishing statement. "You don't owe me anything for loving your son, Lucius. He's remarkable and," she considered her next words, "you had a hand in that, so if we're accumulating debts here, I guess I actually owe you."

He chuckled but shook his head. "I also wanted to thank you for your treatment of Narcissa, it hasn't gone unnoticed."

Hermione shrugged. "She's lovely. You hear all these stories about nightmare mother in laws, but well, like I said, she's lovely."

He nodded and cleared his throat. "I should mention that the cradle Narcissa spoke of earlier is actually a family heirloom. Before Scorpius, every Malfoy for generations had slept in it. It would mean a great deal if you would use it. I'm uncertain why Astoria refused."

"It probably has something to do with her being a heinous bitch," Hermione spat.

Lucius froze, met her eyes, and burst out laughing. He actually bent over at the waist and guffawed. However, Hermione couldn't bring herself to be embarrassed by her outburst or even enjoy having elicited such a response from the usually stoic man; she was too busy processing his words and allowing them to sink in.

'Every Malfoy for generations...it would mean a great deal if you would use it.'

Just as his wife had done earlier, she was almost sure that he was his way of acknowledging the baby as a true Malfoy. Hermione had to bite down hard on her lip and clench her fists at her sides to keep from doing something she was certain he wouldn't handle well, like bursting into tears or, Merlin forbid, hugging him.

When he calmed down she took a deep breath and absentmindedly placed a hand on her belly. "That would be my honor."

Author's Note: I didn't write the wedding, it just felt redundant. But in an utter fit of self-indulgence I did imagine it and I've posted some of my ideas on my Pinterest board for this story. Same name over there if you're interested. Thank you a million times to Weestarmeegie. Thank y'all for reading. Please continue to be careful!