Chapter 3: 3
Chapter 3: Doing It All For My Baby
Harry blinked, grinned, looked at all the sober faces staring at him, and blinked again. "Malfoy, you have bits. You can't be pregnant," he reasoned.
"Harry." He looked at Dumbledore, certain that his faithful mentor would let him in on the joke. "Do you remember studying the First Great Persecution in History of Magic?"
Harry nodded. He vaguely recalled Professor Binns teaching it. No, actually he remembered Hermione making him study about it. "It was when the Muggles first found out about the Wizarding world. They didn't take it-well." They killed off as many as they could find, which Voldemort loved bringing up to his followers.
"No, they didn't. But some of the Muggles were slightly misinformed. They thought only women were magical, so the number of witches killed was disproportionate to the number of wizards who were sacrificed. Afterwards, they were not certain there were enough witches left to sustain a wizarding population. A group of extremely gifted wizards came up with a very complicated spell which enabled them to bear young. Of course we have potions today that can assist in a wizard becoming pregnant, but this spell was different in that it was permanent. A wizard only had to have unprotected relations with another wizard to achieve conception. These wizards called themselves Progenitors."
Whipping his head around, Harry stared at Malfoy. "You're pregnant?"
"So the annoying cramps tell me."
"Cramps? Are you okay? The baby?" Harry asked frantically.
"Nothing me or my child can't handle, Potter." Malfoy shot Harry a look. "And if you ask me if it's yours, I swear I'm going to hex you prickless."
Dumbledore smiled and stood. "I think you two gentlemen have things to discuss in private. Severus?"
"Headmaster, I'm not sure it is wise to leave Mr. Malfoy alone with Mr. Potter. Need I remind everyone here that the incident in question was nonconsensual? Since we have not ascertained why Mr. Potter felt the urge to savage a fellow student, I don't think it's proper to allow him unchaperoned access to said student."
"I'm afraid Professor Snape has a point," Dumbledore began.
"But Professor Snape is forgetting that I have my wand this time," Malfoy interrupted. "Potter can't get the best of me if I'm armed."
"Don't be overconfident, Mr. Malfoy," Snape warned.
"I'm not, sir. Just because I get to keep my wand doesn't mean that Potter gets to keep his."
"Hey, that's not fair!"
"And is it fair, Potter, that I'm pregnant? That I can't go home? That no matter my mindset, my beliefs, I now have to side with the Light just to protect my child?"
There was nothing Harry could say to counter that so he reluctantly handed his wand to Dumbledore, because there was no way in hell he was giving it to Snape.
They stared awkwardly at each other after the adults left. Harry thought Malfoy looked paler than usual, but that simply could be because his sight wasn't tinted with the red of anger.
"So this is all true? You're-"
"Pregnant, Potter. With child. Enceinte. Up the duff. Preggers. Two months gone. Knocked up. What? You want Madam Pomfrey to perform the test in front of you? I'm sure she'd oblige. Let's go to the wing-"
"You sure you're okay? The cramps and everything, I mean," Harry interrupted the rant softly.
"It's normal. My insides are shifting around so that the baby has enough room to grow."
"Did you know?"
"Know what?"
"That you could get pregnant."
Malfoy sighed and absently rubbed his stomach. "I was diagnosed a Progenitor on my seventeenth birthday. I was taught the spell to prevent pregnancy just like witches."
"So why didn't you use the spell?"
"When should I have used it, Potter? When I was pleading with you not to rape me? When I was struggling to get away from you? When I was screaming because you jammed yourself up my arse without even a bit of spit? At what time during your attack do you think I had the wherewithal to think of a bloody spell that I'd never used before? Oh, and let's not forget my lack of a wand."
Harry wondered that if he hadn't given Dumbledore his wand, could he have possibly charmed the earth to open up and swallow him whole. He hadn't just stuck his foot in his mouth, but his entire leg. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little stunned."
"Join the crowd. At least your whole future hasn't suddenly fucking changed."
"That's not true. It's my baby, too. I now have an obligation to-"
"To do what you always had to fucking do-kill You-Know-Who. That's the obligation you owe this baby. Because you and I both know what that fucker would do to a baby of yours."
"And what obligation do I owe you, Malfoy? How will you get along after Hogwarts? I have money, you know."
"I don't need your begrudgingly-given support. I have my own personal vault that Lucius can't touch. I won't be Malfoy-rich, but neither will I be Weasley-poor."
Harry ignored the dig at Ron. "It won't be begrudgingly-given. I want you and the child to live comfortably. I want the child to know that his father is taking care of him. I want to be part of this child's life, Draco." The name didn't flow easily off his tongue.
"And I don't want to be a pariah. I may lose everything, Pot-Harry. I don't want to be viewed as the albatross around your neck."
"You won't-"
"Your friends, especially Weasley, will treat me like shit and you know it. They'll blame me for getting pregnant. They'll accuse me of working for the Dark Lord. They'll watch my every move, waiting for me to stab you in the back. Or worse, they'll laugh at me and call me your bitch. They'll mock me cringing beneath you as you raped me. They'll ask me...if I cried. I can't live like that, Harry. If that's what my future holds, I may as well let my father kill me now."
"Stop it, Draco. They won't treat you like that. I won't let them."
"And how will you stop them? Sure, they'll respect you for teaching me a lesson, but-"
"I'll tell them I love you. I'll tell them it hurts me every time they hurt you."
"Like they'll believe that," Malfoy snorted. "I know for a fact that you hate me. I felt it when you attacked me."
Harry slumped in the chair. There was some...truth to what Malfoy was saying. He could feel something forcing his body into doing the terrible things he'd done to Malfoy, but at times he'd found pleasure in some sound that Malfoy had made or some twitch of his body.
He really didn't want to think about it.
"Passion," Harry said abruptly.
"What are you on about?"
"I overheard Hermione and Lavender talking one day when I got back from seeing Madam Pomfrey after one of our fights. Lavender said that we were passionate about each other. And Hermione said that yeah, maybe if we just shagged each other there would be a whole lot less violence. So see, we just let our passion get the best of us, we shagged, and now there's a baby. There's no evil plan, nobody is anybody's bitch, and we're both determined to do what's best for our child."
Malfoy pursed his lips for a moment, then nodded. "That could work. The whole 'thin line between love and hate' saying plays to our advantage. Just make sure you sell it proper, Potter. None of that half-arsed Gryffindor lying."
"I'll pretend I'm Slytherin," Harry said dryly.
"Do that."
"What are you going to tell your housemates, Mal-Draco?"
"To mind their own fucking business."
"Oh. They won't wonder?"
"Of course. But everyone sixth year and under know better than to ask me directly. As for my fellow Seventh Years-I can handle them."
"Remember what Snape said about overconfidence."
"You're quoting Snape now?" Malfoy responded with a smirk. "I know what I'm doing, Potter. Trust me."
"Just because you're knocked up doesn't mean you're not still fucked up, Malfoy. Trust you? What happens when you get orders from your father or your master?"
Malfoy leapt to his feet. "Fuck you! Have you not listened to a single word that's been said here? I no longer have a father, and I never had a master! So busy ripping my arse bloody that you didn't notice the lack of a mark on my arm?"
"And what will you give to have your father back?" Harry argued.
"Not my child." He placed a protective arm around his stomach. "I was a fool to think that you could get over yourself for the sake of our baby. You know what, Potter? Just go back to your fellow Gryffindors and bitch about Slytherins being all that is evil. I don't need you, and my child doesn't either. After all, he or she is half scum-sucking Slytherin." With a swish of his robes, he headed for the door.
"Malfoy, wait! Cut me some slack. This is hard for me to accept."
"Hard for you? Well, owl me when you're waddling around like an overfed erumpent. Until then, fuck off."
Harry would have sworn that Dumbledore had charmed the door not to slam, but somehow Malfoy managed to do just that.
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