Chapter 6

Hermione was usually the type to wake up slowly, naturally, letting the morning light course over her body, touching her skin, which she could feel inside even if she couldn't really feel it. So waking up with a start because her wand alarm...set to go off only if she wasn't already up, which she always was...was shrieking loud enough to make even Draco grumble and swat at the air in distress was not the best way to start her day.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd over-slept like that, especially not since starting Outreach. There was something about the work that called to her, that made sleeping in seem selfish and unnecessary. She was usually only too happy to wake up before her alarm, stretching for a few minutes, trying not to disturb her husbands, before slipping out of bed and down the hall to her room, where she dressed.

Now, though, there was only rushing and panicking, and Hermione did not do well with being rushed. She punctured her nylons twice before deciding to forgo them, despite the season. She grabbed a rubber band instead of a hair elastic and ended up making an even worse disaster of her hair, something that would need a spelled solution. She even made it to the door wearing two different navy pumps. Why did Draco and Lucius feel the need to buy her so many shoes? They were all the same!

How, she wondered to herself as she tore through the closet looking for one of the matching set, would she ever manage having children if she could barely even manage herself? What kind of additional stress would children bring to her life? She'd have to wake up earlier, go to bed later, bribe for time to shower...

Finally! Hermione snatched the hiding peeptoe and slipped it onto her bare foot. She buttoned her shirt as she ran down the steps, relieved, for once, that there was a house-elf waiting with her traditional breakfast of porridge and toast.

And this, Hermione mused, digging in voraciously as she cast Tempus again and again, this would take so much longer with children. She'd heard things got tougher exponentially with each child. How would she handle getting them to wizarding pre-school or day-care when she or Draco couldn't watch them? How could they run Outreach from the dining room when there were little ones all over the place?

Pretty prim, blond, wide-eyed, mischievous little ones...

Hermione couldn't wait to have children!

Her spoon paused halfway to her mouth before splashing back into the bowl with a clatter. Porridge splattered her cream-coloured blouse, and she thought it kind of looked like baby vomit.

I want children? Now? she thought, rubbing frantically at the stain, effectively spreading it into an even more impressive mess. Where had that thought come from?

I didn't really mean that. It was just a reaction to the influx of thoughts I've been having lately. Seeing pregnant women, seeing fathers with their daughters, those playpens at the store the other day...

Uncaring by now that her shoes were tromping on the marble loud enough to wake the dead...so probably Draco, too...Hermione ran back upstairs to grab another shirt. She changed quickly, considering that the red didn't really look very nice with her navy pencil skirt but deciding it didn't matter since she was meeting a man whose gaze wouldn't make it past the mess she'd made of her hair before it turned disinterested and businesslike.

She popped into the bathroom and wiped up the glob of porridge on her neck. As she tossed the tissue in the garbage, she saw, resting idly as such things were wont to do, her contraceptive potion.

It was the first of the month.

She took a dose every month without fail.

She needed to take another dose, to renew it.

But she didn't.

*

After her meeting, during which she'd impressed a new client despite her mismatched outfit and almost-lateness, Hermione sat back on the bed in her room and watched with a distracted smile as Draco and Harry annihilated zombies...and each other...with a passion that could only come with being enemies first and friends later.

Hermione knew all about that passion.

She was pretending to read but her mind was distracted. In her purse, which sat on the end of the bed looking innocent as purses should, was an antidote. Not that she was poisoned or anything. Far from it. Unless one counted her thoughts being poisoned with images of Draco with an armful of baby and Lucius with a lapful of toddler.

No, this antidote would reverse the effects of a certain completely harmless but very helpful potion. She'd purchased it from a rather seedy apothecary, apologising internally all the while for doing business with a Potions master other than Thello.

But no one could know.

She knew why she hadn't taken it yet. She was a coward. Chicken. Yellow-bellied. Lily-livered. Hermione cursed her breadth of synonyms as she contemplated the potion. It would flush away all traces of her contraceptive potion, making her able to start trying for children immediately. She knew her schedule well enough to know that she would be ovulating in the next few days.

"I can't believe this game is rated so low," Harry said, shaking his head. The television screen was bathed in red and bits of brain matter slid down quite convincingly.

"Hermione says most Muggle kids play games like this," Draco said. "No child of mine will, that's for sure."

Hermione's heartbeat sped up even as she tried to look like she wasn't listening.

"Yeah, right. All parents say that, and the next thing you know, they're foisting their kids off to the great telly baby-sitter so they can have a glass of wine."

"That'll be the good thing about our children having three parents, won't it? It won't ever be unbearable."

"You might think so," Harry said, chuckling. "But I think even having five parents wouldn't seem like enough at times."

Draco shrugged. He pushed away the controller, conceding defeat gracefully for once. "Still, I'd rather forego even the most expensive wine than allow my children to be corrupted by this filth."

"That's big talk for someone who demands rematch after rematch," Harry quipped, turning off the console and standing.

"You'd just better make sure my heirs don't get exposed to this stuff at 'Uncle Harry's'," Draco said, smiling. He rose as well and came to sit beside Hermione on the bed. She put down her book and smiled at him, even though her insides were practically vibrating with nerves.

"What do you think, Hermione?" Harry asked with a trouble-making grin. "Children can kill zombies too, can't they?"

Draco gave her a close look, knowing how uncomfortable she was with that topic most of the time.

"Well, that'll be something I imagine it will take all three of us to decide," she said diplomatically, though she was inwardly agreeing with Draco. Sports games, sure. Racing games, even. But killing games? Not in her house.

"I can just picture you two explaining to Lucius the pros and cons of video games." Harry approached the bed and gave Hermione a hug. "It's been good to see you. Sorry I let Draco rope me in to another round."

"Hey! You challenged my prowess," Draco said, but he shook Harry's hand and smiled.

"No one's denying it now," Harry said wryly, alluding to the fact that Draco had lost again.

"Thanks for coming by, Harry. Next time I'll Floo you when Draco isn't home so I can be sure to have you to myself."

Draco raised an eyebrow at her and Harry laughed.

"And say hi to Ron for me, okay? Tell him he's welcome to come over with you any time." Hermione smiled softly. She did miss Ron at times. It was sort of strange to hang out with Harry without him.

"He won't be stubborn forever," Harry said reassuringly, but they both knew if Ron could be anything, it was stubborn for as long as it suited him.

After Harry left, Draco snuggled up to Hermione's side, resting his head on her breasts and giving a satisfied groan when she started running her fingers through his hair.

"I miss Lucius," she said idly. Spending time with Draco alone was always lovely, but without Lucius it felt like... eating a hamburger without the top bun.

Or maybe Lucius was the meat patty now.

"I do, too," Draco said, his hand tracing idle circles on her belly.

The innocent touched thrilled Hermione. She knew Draco was the type to absolutely dote on any children, and she suspected he'd be insufferable when she was pregnant.

"How are things going with you and him, Draco?" she asked quietly. She knew they were closer than ever, that they went beyond certain limits when it came to sex together or with all three of them. But she hadn't had much opportunity to speak to either about their feelings on the matter.

"Things are really good." Draco sighed and turned over, his head resting on her belly as he looked up at her. "It's not what I expected at all. I thought it would feel forced or wrong, but it's just... kind of awkward and really, really good."

"Do you think you're ready to take the next step?" She herself was excited for that to happen, and not only because it thrilled and aroused her to watch them together. She wanted them to achieve the level of intimacy she herself enjoyed with both of them. She felt that once they did, the triad would truly be complete. Their lives would be complete.

"Yes and no," Draco said. His cheeks were pink but Hermione pretended not to notice. "I want to. I want him. I know he wants me and that makes me feel really... amazing. I just know there will be no turning back from that. Even now, I feel like if we wanted, we could stop and things would be normal again. Not that I want that, but..."

"What do you want?"

"Simple." He smiled wistfully. "I want to make love with him. I want to touch him and feel him everywhere and I want him to do that to me. I want it all."

He was voicing Hermione's own thoughts with regards to getting pregnant. She wanted it all.

"I want my husband and my wife by my side for the rest of my life. I want to see you swell with life, to be with you when you give birth, to give my father the heir he wants and then have you give him the daughter he wants."

"Lucius wants a little girl?" she asked. She wasn't surprised, but she'd never heard him express that.

"More than anything," Draco revealed. "Just talking about it gets him all... well, not weepy, but as close as he would get, anyway."

Hermione's fingers stilled. It was so easy to picture Lucius walking hand-in-hand with a little girl dressed in a frilly green dress, patiently slowing when she stumbled and helping her stand again.

"What about you?" she asked. "For our first child, what sex did you picture?"

Draco closed his eyes. "I know it's politically correct to say it doesn't matter, and that's true, but I do want a little boy."

Hermione took a deep breath. "Me, too."

It seemed to take a few moments for the words to sink in. Draco's eyes slowly opened and he sat up, facing her. "You do? You want a little boy?" He didn't even attempt to hide his eagerness.

Hermione nodded. Her throat felt tight. "I want to start a family," she whispered.

"Oh, gods, are you..." Draco gave a tentative smile that exploded into a full-blown grin. "Are you serious? When? Soon? Now?"

"Yes," she said, surprising herself. "Now." And even as she said it, the rightness of it struck her. She'd only been waiting for herself, and now she just... felt ready.

Hermione squeaked as Draco's lips crashed onto hers. Their teeth clacked and he pulled back and apologised before kissing her again, more softly this time. His fingers twisted into her hair, pulling her closer even as he leaned back slightly.

"I wanted to say... for so long. But I didn't want you to feel pressured. Hermione, Father is going to be so thrilled. You'll... you don't even know."

"Draco, I don't want to tell him," Hermione whispered, anxious for the first time.

"What?" Draco cried, pulling back.

"Not right away!" she amended. "Please, think of what would happen if I'm not able to get pregnant." Hermione touched her belly and looked everywhere but at Draco. "I don't want to get his hopes up... You know the minute we tell him he'll be ordering furniture and demanding a nursery be set up. I can't break his heart if I can't get pregnant."

"You'll be able to," Draco said with the air of someone who hadn't considered the possibly and needed reassurance.

"I think so, too," she said. "But it may not be today, or tomorrow, or even this month. Please, Draco. Let's not tell him. Let it be a surprise." Hermione looked at him, pleading with her eyes.

Draco's slow smile was back. "A surprise. Gods, the look on his face... Okay."

Hermione threw her arms around Draco's neck, pulling him against her. Her heart felt almost dangerously swollen, like she could actually die of happiness at that moment. "I'll be most fertile in the next few days."

"Want to practise?" Draco asked with a leer.

Hermione laughed and nodded.

*

When Lucius came home from work, Hermione and Draco were waiting by the Floo like two people who had a secret and were desperate not to show it and yet failing horrible.

But if Lucius noticed anything was amiss, he said nothing. Hermione claimed the first kiss, letting Lucius fold her into his arms. Spending the day with Draco always made her realise how much she missed Lucius when he wasn't there, and that seemed like a lot.

She couldn't help but watch as Draco stepped up for his kiss. Lucius was so tender with him, as if he were made of spun glass. With Hermione, he was rather rough and demanding, and that was just how she liked it. She'd proven to both of them she wasn't about to break, and while they treated her with respect, they weren't gentle with her... Draco's sweet lovemaking that afternoon notwithstanding.

With Draco, though, Lucius held back, seeming afraid that if he pushed too hard, Draco would rebel like an unbroken horse. Their kiss was short and sweet but still enough to make Hermione feel warm.

"How was work?" Hermione asked innocently after Draco broke the kiss.

"Work was work. I'm sure you've not forgotten the politics of the Ministry," Lucius said, sounding tired.

"Unfortunately, no," Hermione said. Lucius seemed so weary that Hermione gave him another hug, this time wrapping her arms around him. Though he stood a head taller than her, he let her take some of his weight, which proved to Hermione just how exhausted he must really be. She couldn't help but worry at this rarely seen side of typically imperial husband.

"Why don't you go rest until dinner's ready, Father," Draco suggested.

Lucius nodded. "Yes, I think I will." And without another word, he walked from the room, perhaps more slowly than usual, presumably to their shared bedroom.

"Hermione, don't worry. I'm sure he just had a bad day," Draco said, wrapping her up in a hug and taking her weight this time.

She hadn't realised her fears had been expressed silently. But she was worried...what if Lucius wasn't ready to have children? What if he liked the idea more than the fact? What if he was just too tired and too busy for children?

"I just hope he'll be happy," she whispered, smoothing her fingers up the front of Draco's robes.

"He will be thrilled and you know it. He'd sooner quit his job than wait to have children. He was only waiting for you."

Hermione nodded. It was decided...she'd take the antidote that night.

Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the long delay between chapters. I've never done that before, and I hope you don't hold it against me. :D The good news is, in the interim, I wrote a *lot*--the slash fans here will hopefully appreciate that. :D

I know this was something of a teaser chapter, but it was meant to get me back into the swing of the story, and it worked. I hope you all enjoyed it, and you can expect another chapter from me in a week. (Also, I will begin posting my Snape/Hermione fic soon! I'll definitely make a comment when it's up.)

Reviews... let's just start over, shall we? From now on, expect responses.