Chapter 5: 5/6
Chapter 5: Po-tay-to or Po-tat-o
Harry was in a daze as he made his way to the Great Hall for lunch, having missed the rest of his morning classes. He was still in a daze when he made it back to his common room at the end of the day. He still wasn't quite sure he believed all he'd been told, but Dumbledore's presence indicated it was all true. He'd...impregnated Malfoy. During a rape. He'd raped Malfoy and knocked him up.
Sweet Merlin!
"Harry, you wanted to talk to me?"
He nodded. He'd told Ron and the others that he couldn't go out to the pitch with them because he had to get the notes he'd missed earlier. But actually he just wanted to speak to Hermione alone. Because she was Muggle-born and so smart, he figured she'd be the easiest one to approach first.
"You want my notes, right?" Hermione continued. "When you didn't make it to class, I actually charmed my quill to make a copy automatically. So, here."
He accepted the bundle of parchment with a mumbled thank you. When she turned to go back to the girls' dormitory, he asked her not to leave.
"Is this about your visit to the Headmaster?" He nodded. "Don't tell me you actually did have to save the world?"
Harry shook his head. "That would have been too easy." He glanced around, then dragged her over to a sofa in the corner. Thankfully, the common room was nearly empty. Following classes, most students either napped, studied in the library, or searched for trouble to get into. " I want to talk to you, but I don't want this getting back to Ron just yet."
Hermione grabbed his hands. "What is it, Harry? You know I can keep your secrets."
"What-what do you know about Progenitors?" he nearly whispered.
"They were created during the First Persecution in order to ensure that the Wizard World survived. They are wizards capable of pregnancy without the aid of potions or direct spells. The enchantment they used was so complex that it flowed within the blood of their offspring, thereby making the male offspring Progenitors as well. This trait was eventually bred out due to existence of more witches and normal pregnancies."
"But just like with muggles, there can be throwbacks?"
"Two recessive Progenitors could have a Progenitor, but the odds are astronomical," Hermione said, scoffing at the notion. Then she studied Harry a bit longer and paled. "Oh, Harry, you're not-"
"No, I'm not." She looked relieved. "Malfoy is."
"Malfoy? Figures. Repeated inbreeding can cause all sorts of nasty recessive traits to appear. But why were you told this?"
Harry slumped back against the sofa. "Malfoy's pregnant."
"So?"
Harry stared at her.
"Seriously, Harry, what does it matter to us that Malfoy's a slut who-"
"Don't," he said forcibly. "Don't call him that."
She frowned. "You're not making any sense. Why are you defending Malfoy? And why are we talking about him in the first place? So what that's he's up the duff? It couldn't have happened to a nicer person," she sneered. "Wonder what his dear old dad's going to say? Maybe he'll hex him-"
"This stops now," Harry said firmly. "He was right, you know. He knew this was the way everyone would react. Slytherins don't look at the world with blinders on. They see so clearly."
"What are you on about? Malfoy's preggers. Let him deal with it."
"It's not an it!" Harry shouted, then looked sheepish as everyone stared at them. "It's a child," he said much softer.
"Malfoy's child," Hermione pointed out.
"And mine."
Hermione froze. Then she opened her mouth. Then she closed it. Finally, she decided she could speak. "What?"
"I'm the father, the other father, I guess."
"What? How?"
"The usual way."
Hermione shook her head. "No, I don't believe you, Harry. This is some sort of mind game you and Ron are playing on me, right?"
"I wish. Look, Hermione, you know that my relationship with Malfoy has always been...intense. We just went too far one night."
"But..." She couldn't think of anything else to say.
"You know I thought I could be gay or bi or something."
She nodded. "But..." she sputtered to a stop again.
"It's not his fault. What we did was unexpected, and he wasn't used to having to do a contraceptive spell. It's not a trap or anything. Dumbledore and Snape both sat in on the meeting. He's pregnant, 'Mione, and it's mine. I mean, he or she is mine."
"Are you certain? He's-"
He placed two fingers quickly against her lips. "Mine, Hermione."
"The baby...or Malfoy?" Hermione asked when her lips were freed.
"For the moment, both. This situation is my responsibility. I have to take care of both of them."
"You're seventeen, Harry."
"And I'm being trained to kill a wizard that even Dumbledore can't touch. So what does my age have to do with anything? Admit it. If this was Ginny we were talking about, or Cho or anything other non-Slytherin, you'd be harping on me to take responsibility."
"But Malfoy..." She shuddered. "You know his father is going to want to give the baby to You-Know-Who."
"Which is why Draco has decided to join our side. He's really protective."
"Malfoy?" Hermione snorted.
"You know, if we knew the Slytherins half as well as they know us, we wouldn't have to rely on some stupid seventeen-year-old to win a war."
"You're not stupid, Harry, and what do you mean?"
"When it comes to being prejudiced, we Gryffindors are worse than the Slytherins."
"We are not! How can you say that when every other word out of Malfoy's mouth is mud-blood."
"And every other word out of our mouths equates Slytherin with Death Eater. They are not one and the same."
"Everyone knows dark wizards come from Slytherin House."
"Except we seem to forget Peter Pettigrew was one of my dad's best friends and a Gryffindor."
"But-but that's different! He was an anomaly."
"He was a Gryffindor and now he's Voldemort's right-hand man! How many other anomalies are there in Gryffindor? Or Ravenclaw? Or even Hufflepuff? Voldemort has tricked us into watching all the Slytherins, while the real evil could exist somewhere else."
"Is that what your precious Draco whispered in your ear while he seduced you?"
Harry laughed and it was not a nice sound. "There you go being prejudiced again. Why do you assume Draco was the one doing the seducing? Maybe I started it. Maybe I-attacked him."
Hermione lay her hand on his shoulder. "Oh, Harry, Malfoy's certainly done a number on you."
He shook off her hand and stood up. "I really hoped that you of all people would understand. You live in the real world. You know what it feels like to be labeled because of where you live or how you dress or what your parents do for a living."
"I don't hate Malfoy for where he lives or how he dresses or what his parents do for a living. I hate him for what he himself has said and done."
"And you've never said anything nasty to someone or played a dirty trick on someone or got someone into trouble because you didn't like them?"
"I had my reasons," she pouted, folding her arms defensively.
"And Draco had his. But none of that matters now. Not to me, and not to him. We have a life we're responsible for, and if you and my other friends can't accept that, then being with Draco isn't the only mistake I've made in my life."
"Aha! So you admit it was a mistake," Hermione gloated.
"I'm seventeen. Getting anyone pregnant would be a mistake! But that doesn't mean being with Draco was a mistake." He shook his head in frustration and started to walk away.
"Harry, wait. I'm sorry about Malfoy." Hermione gave him a feeble smile.
Green eyes made sure they stared directly at her as he said, "I'm not," before turning and leaving the Common Room.
Chapter Six: Are We Slytherins or Hufflepuffs?
"What did you do to Potter this time?"
Draco didn't look up from the text he was reading. One of Snape's bloody potions had put him to sleep for the rest of the afternoon. He had a whole day of classes to make up. And no time to waste chitchatting with Pansy Parkinson. "What are you on about, Pans?"
"Both you and Potter were missing from morning lessons. That usually means trouble."
"Or it could just mean Potter and I were somewhere shagging."
She snorted. "Riiiight. You and Potter? I don't think so."
"Why? Haven't you noticed the body he returned with after the summer?"
"Sure I have."
"And you know firsthand that I go both ways, or are you forgetting that weekend with Blaise?"
Pansy blushed. "I'll be 120 and still remember that vividly, Draco. But we're talking Potter. You wouldn't shag Potter merely to satisfy an itch. So if you are shagging Potter, I want to know why."
"Why should I tell you shit?" he asked as he turned a page.
"Because we're Slytherins and we know when something's up," Blaise Zabini said, and Draco looked up to see the seventh year Slytherins surrounding him: Pansy, Blaise, Millicent Bulstrode, Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Theodore Nott, Gregory Goyle, and Vincent Crabbe. "You and Potter have been acting oddly ever since we came back after Christmas."
"Yeah, no fights or nothing," Goyle pointed out.
Sighing, Draco closed his book. Goyle talked a bit too loud at times, and he could tell that they weren't going to take "fuck off" as an answer-not when they were ganged up as they were. "Let's take this to the dorm."
Unlike the Gryffindor tower, the dungeon didn't care what sex went into which dorm. Chairs were transfigured around the bed which Draco sat upon like a throne. "Potter and I are shagging," he said first, getting that out of the way.
"Why?" Pansy inquired again. "Potter isn't someone to fuck around with for kicks. He's not only a Gryffindor and has a tendency to take things like that seriously-"
"But he's powerful and can squish you like a bug," Blaise added. "And if he didn't squish you, his friends would for breaking the Golden Boy's heart. Too much of a risk for a random fuck. So what's the real story? Is this some sort of-plan?" Blaise's eyebrow went up for emphasis.
Draco made a rude noise. As if he'd allow his father and that mutated half-blood to use him as a whore. "Yes, it's a plan-my plan. I've made a decision and Potter's part of it."
"What is this all about?" Blaise asked impatiently.
"Tell me something, Blaise. Do you want to be branded, to run around in a mask like some lowlife bandit, killing people in order to prove you are better than they are, when you already know for a fact you are? Do you want to kill and maim at the command of another? We're Purebloods. We give orders. We don't follow."
"We've talked about this before, Draco, and you know how I feel, how we all feel. But-"
"Our parents-" Millicent Bulstrode interrupted.
"Are fools," Draco said bluntly. "Instead of banding together to get rid of a powerful threat to themselves, they joined Him. They became His slaves, His army of sycophants. I, for one, am no one's toy to command. If I am to kill, it will be because someone is in my way, not His. Besides, our parents forgot one crucial matter-if the world is rid of half-bloods, mudbloods and muggles, who will we be superior to?"
Pansy paled. "We'll be average...ordinary," she said with a shudder that spread through the other Housemates.
Blaise rubbed at his temples. "You're advocating... Are you saying you're joining the side of the Light?"
"If we follow our parents' lead, the future holds two options for us: 1) we end up dead or the equivalent thereof in Azkaban, or 2) we end up slaves to a master who wanks to the sound of his own voice saying 'Crucio!' That's not my idea of a secure future."
"And being Potter's slut is?"
"If it gets me to my goal, then yes. Potter's not about to crucio me for looking at him the wrong way. Potter's not about to hand me over to my fellow comrades and tell them to do whatever they want to me because I displeased him. And if I get put in Azkaban, Potter's not going to sit around and let me rot there like You-Know-Who did with my father!"
"What happens if you go with Potter's side and the Dark Lord wins?" Pansy asked.
Draco laughed. "The Dark Lord and Potter have gone up against each other almost every year since Potter's been at Hogwarts and Potter's still alive and kicking."
"But the Dark Lord was weakened. He's getting stronger every year."
"And so is Potter," Draco countered. "Do you really think the Light would put up with Potter's antics if they didn't seriously have evidence that he can defeat You-Know-Who? Potter fucking owns Dumbledore, Dumbledore who defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald. There's no way Potter can lose." Especially not with me prompting him along a bit.
"You're the son of Lucius Malfoy. You really think the Light is just going to accept you into its sanctimonious midst?" Blaise pointed out.
"The Light needs Potter. Potter needs me. Therefore, the Light needs me. They keep me happy, I keep Potter happy, and the whole fucking world rejoices. I don't foresee any problems."
"Maybe not for you, but what about the rest of us? Do we all need to go find a Gryffindor to shag?" Millicent snarled.
He thought about it. Did he want to go this alone? Shuddering at the thought of being the lone Slytherin in a nest of Gryffindors-Snape the Spy not included-he altered the Plan a bit. He gave Millicent a mocking half-bow. "My single sacrifice is enough to secure a place for all who want to join me."
"I know you're a good shag, Draco," Blaise said, "but let's be realistic. What happens when the mudblood and the weasel convince Potter that he's better off shagging a hippogriff than you?"
"Aw, Blaise, I'm wounded by your lack of faith in me. See, I can give Potter something that a hippogriff can't." He paused dramatically. "I'm a Progenitor."
"Holy fuck," Pansy hissed.
"You? Let yourself get knocked up and all stretched out of shape? Not bloody likely," Millicent snarled.
"You forget the number one rule of Slytherin: do what is necessary for your own survival," Draco reminded her. Then he frowned. "I'll stretch back afterwards, right?"
The witches in the group just looked at him and laughed.
He hated being laughed at, but made a mental note to look into the lingering cosmetic effects of pregnancy. He'd searched the physical effects, knew that there was a risk of internal hemorrhaging, loss of the use of his magic, and systemic sepsis in the case of a dead fetus before birth (he wouldn't have any means of expelling the fetus before the birth canal formed). But he never realized he might be...imperfect after the birth.
Damn.
"So, you're gonna let Potter knock you up?" Crabbe asked, finally understanding what was going on.
"No. Not 'gonna.' Have."
Pansy squealed and reached out to touch his belly. "There's a tiny Malfoy in there?"
Blaise took a step back. "Damn, mate, you're serious about this."
"You bet your arse I'm serious. You should be, too. If your idea of fun is dodging lethal curses and being knee-deep in hot, sticky muggle blood, go home and enjoy yourself. Oh, and don't forget the painful brand of a half-dead and all-crazed dark lord you'll be sporting on your arm so that he can keep track of all your movements and yank you to his side like some faithful bitch any time he wants to."
"Well, aren't you Potter's bitch?" Nott snarled.
Draco bared his neck. "Do you see a leash on me? Do you see me at Potter's beck and call? Just because we're fucking and I'm carrying his whelp doesn't make him my bloody master. In fact, it's just the opposite. He dances to my tune."
"Prove it," Blaise dared.
Draco sniffed. "I'll not do shit just because of a stupid dare. What do you take me for? A First Year? If you want something, make me an offer."
Blaise angled his head toward the other Slytherins and they moved to a corner of the room. Draco watched them, huddled and whispering with gestures. Although there were many at Hogwarts that would refute it, they were truly his friends and he didn't want to see them mixed up in the shit he'd endured during Yule. He didn't want to see any of them end up like their parents. Like his parents. Besides, "the gallant saving of his comrades from a life of evil service to the Dark Lord" would probably score him some points with Potter and his followers.
Life just kept getting sweeter all the time.
The Slytherins seemed to come to an agreement and they walked back to Draco. Blaise and Pansy looked at each other, both used to being spokespersons when Draco couldn't be. Finally Pansy nodded to Blaise.
"Here's the offer," Blaise said. "Get Potter to agree to a binding-"
"The whole ceremony, Draco," Pansy interrupted. "Dress robes, attendants, and Dumbledore doing the honors-"
"And we'll pledge ourselves to you," Blaise finished, scowling at Pansy. "But not to the Light."
A binding. He glared at the witches, figuring that kind of romantic shit had to come from them. Bitches. But Slytherin bitches. However, he was a Slytherin, too, and a bitch when necessary. "Accio quill and parchment." He took a minute to write out a contract which he handed to Pansy. "Read it aloud," he demanded.
"'If Draco Malfoy gets Harry Potter to consent to a full ceremonial binding, officiated by Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Magic, we, the undersigned, do hereby agree to swear our loyalty, fealty, and allegiance to Draco Malfoy.'" She looked around at her fellow Slytherins. "That sound right?"
Everyone nodded, except for Nott. "We're just exchanging one master for another," he said angrily.
Draco smirked. "Comparing me to the Dark Lord? Thanks for the compliment, Theo."
"Draco's no dark lord," Pansy said. "At least he's giving us a choice."
"Is he?"
Draco rolled his eyes. "If you don't want to sign this, don't, Theo." He pulled his wand. "I'll just obliviate this entire conversation from your mind and leave you to your wretched future. Makes no difference to me."
Nott looked around at his various friends and sighed. "Fine. I'll sign the damn thing."
The parchment was passed around and signed with a pen charmed to siphon the writer's blood as ink. With a bow, Blaise presented the parchment to Draco.
He rolled it up carefully and put protective spells on it. "Consider it done. But know this-I will not accept betrayal on any level. I may not be my father's perfect son, but I learned how to hex, how to scheme, how to make people rue the day they ever dared to cross a Malfoy, all that I learned at my father's knee. In other words, don't even think about fucking me over. Is that clear?"
"We'll be as loyal as fucking Hufflepuffs," Pansy quipped with a smirk.
"You fucking better be," Draco said and dismissed them all with a wave.
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