Changing Destiny

Forty-Eight: Thanksgiving Surprise

The two lines stared back at me on the bathroom counter. I was pregnant! Pregnant! Pregnant...Pregnant! My mind kept repeating the mantra in my head, and I had been told by my healer that if Severus and I kept trying, eventually, I would get pregnant. A big smile wreathed my face. I found a plastic Ziploc baggie, and packaged up the test. I checked up on Sebastian, who was playing in his playpen. He was off of my breast for good this time, thank Merlin, but he still loved to be cuddled when being laid down for his naps.

"Mummy!" He declared. "Mummy. Bast..yun loves you. Mummy is happy."

Hermione picked him up, and set him on her right hip. "Yes, yes, I am, honey. You are going to have a little brother in nine months. Won't that be fun?"

His eyes went wide with astonishment. "Yayyy! Where is he?"

"Well...he's in mummy's tummy now," I explained as best as I could to a one year old. "He's very, very teennie tiny now. But he'll soon get bigger and bigger, and eventually pop! He'll come out, and you have to be mummy's big boy and help her and the house elves out. Can mummy's little man do that for her?"

Sebastian smiled, and bounced up and down excitedly in her arms. "Uh huh! I can do all that cuz' I'm big now."

She kissed his cheek. "That's right. Your cousins are going to come to dinner tonight, and daddy will hear all about mummy's big surprise. It's a special secret between you and me, not even daddy knows about it."

"Kay. I wanna play now, can I?"

I set him in his playpen, and tousled his black hair a bit before straightening my beige chenille sweater. I went to my office, and did some work for the various charities I worked alongside Narcissa Malfoy, and many other pureblood witches, who had well known husbands, and were otherwise overshadowed by them. It was getting dark by the time I was done working, and knew that I was procrastinating on getting the house ready for company, but knew I was doing it because it never fully set in yet that after months of trying, I was pregnant with my second child, my second boy. Dorian, like the Oscar Wilde novel.

But then the latest Daily Prophet article came in, and it was Rita Skeeter's salacious, slanderous report that my younger self was in a three way affair with Harry and Viktor, and she threw in Cedric Diggory as a side piece of meat she was flirting with, but wasn't certain if she was going to go all the way with. The article would be funny if it were in The National Enquire, or another muggle tabloid rag you find in the check out aisle waiting for groceries.

I sent off my inquiring note to Severus in my note journal, and two hours later his reply was this:

Yes, it is true Skeeter is writing this tawdry trash. What would you recommend? You told me of this nonsense before from your timeline.

Me: Inform Mr Crouch, if the Moody imposter Crouch Jr, hasn't already killed him, that Rita Skeeter is an illegal animagus, whose animal familiar is a beetle, specifically, a lady bug. Please say you are coming home tonight with the children. I have wonderful news to share with you in private.

Severus: Oh? Please tell me that it is the despot's permanent demise.

Me: Better. No hints, but I am overjoyed by it all the same.

Severus drew a heart, which made me laugh when I shut the book, and put it in my desk. I locked it, and put up strong protective enchantments on it. With that done, Sirius Black strolled in from the gym, a towel wrapped around his neck, a dark tank top pressed tightly against his tattooed chest. Despite my love for my husband, I briefly enjoyed the eye candy, and sighed, knowing my brief ardor was the result of very early pregnancy hormones.

"How's the kiddo?" He asked.

"He's fine. I was just about to go upstairs to change for dinner," I explained. I was about to turn away when he noticed the baggie sticking out of my jeans pocket. "What's that?"