The Secret Malfoy: A Drarry Romance

Chapter 18 - A Malfoy's Love

Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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The classes and the books all mentioned what a delightful, blissful time for Harriet and Draco the first few days of their baby's life would end up becoming.

Draco was distraught to discover that that had all been a lie.

A hideous falsehood spewed out to expectant parents to stop them from fearing the approaching horror that was postpartum.

Scorpius did fine.

He was a newborn and as such, he brought all of the challenges that came with his kind, from frequent feedings to messy diapers, but he was a happy, cuddly, little baby that loved to be held and only cried when he was in need of something.

Narcissa was delighted with her grandson and even Lucius took his fair amount of turns holding the latest addition to his prestigious family.

It was convenient for Draco that he had parents who were so willing to help, because most of his attention had to be focused on Harriet.

Harriet seemed to deteriorate with each passing hour after Scorpius's birth.

Her body itself appeared to be alright, neither the healer nor the midwife could determine anything physically wrong with her, but the omega lost her appetite and began to refuse food.

Draco had to nearly force what little he could down her throat. He complimented his efforts at feeding the mother of his child by coaxing her into taking small sips of water every once in a while.

Draco watched in silent terror as Harriet slowly......shut down.

At intervals, he gently voiced his concerns to his suffering omega but whenever he mentioned anything about her appetite changes, whenever he asked her how she was feeling, or what else he could do to help her, Harriet responded by snapping hatefully at him or bursting into tears.

Draco hadn't been with his lover for a terribly long time but he knew from seven years of observing her and staying by her side those past, lovely few months that Harriet just wasn't herself.

Harriet wasn't willing to admit it to her alpha, but he was right.

She felt like she had been strapped to a dartboard since Scorpius's birth.

Every moment was a pit of despair that she struggled not to fall face first into, and each one was deeper and uglier than the last.

Harriet kept having unwelcome flashbacks from her time at the Dursleys, the brutal battles of the war, and the arguments she had had with Draco, although she had started most of those......but they were all there, all her negative memories, in the forefront of her mind.

Relentlessly, they hounded her throughout the day and chased her like angry ghosts all night every night in the form of nightmares, from which she woke shivering and drenched in sweat.

Harriet was constantly and irrationally worried about Scorpius's life. If he cried, she cried along with him. If Scorpius was carried out of the room by anyone, even Draco, Harriet followed closely behind, convinced that whoever held her baby was out to take revenge on her by hurting her only child. 

Draco recognized Harriet's symptoms from a page out of the muggle pamphlets that he and his omega had been given during their classes.

When he brought up the idea of a postpartum depression to the midwife and the healer, they shrugged Harriet's issues aside.

"It will pass, Mr. Malfoy. This is a difficult transitional time. Of course, there will be changes in your omega." The healer said dismissively.

"My mate won't even eat enough food to feed our son!" Draco retorted, "I've seen it myself! He cries for her breasts and when she nurses him, he cries afterwards with an empty belly!"