Expecting The Unexpected

Chapter Fourteen - ...And Baby Makes Three?

Draco caught Harry by the shoulders just in time, as his unconscious form began to fall deadweight to the ground.

"No- Harry, wake up!" he yelled.

"He needs St Mungo's. Now!" Hermione shrieked. "That spell- I think it's detached the placenta from the uterine wall. Harry's got severe internal bleeding and the baby's not getting any oxygen."

"You mean he's suffocating?" Draco gave a whimper of distress.

"Malfoy- where's that Portkey? The one the Healer gave to Harry just before Christmas?" Ron bellowed, but Draco's brain wasn't working.

"I... I'm not sure," he said numbly. Ron looked at him for the briefest of seconds before drawing his wand.

"Accio Harry's emergency Portkey!" he yelled. Nothing happened. "Sod this, we don't have time. We need to get Harry to hospital now. We're Apparating."

"Draco can't Apparate," Hermione said.

"Fuck the law! Harry and the baby need help!" Draco's voice was full of panic. He was almost hysterical now.

"But what if it ends up Splinching the baby..." Hermione began, but Ron cut her off.

"Hermione, they're both dying. It's worth the risk, OK?"

"You're right," Hermione said, her voice trembling. "But we can't get into the maternity ward via Apparition, can we? It's warded for safety. It'll have to be Spell Damage. They'll be able to treat him there."

"Granger, will you take Harry?" Draco said. "I know you're the least likely of all of us to Splinch them during the Side-Along. I trust you." Hermione acknowledged this for the compliment it was with a quick nod of the head, and without further hesitation took Harry from Draco's arms, turned on the spot, and whisked him away.

"Malfoy, come on. I'll take you on Side-Along. You're in no condition to Apparate by yourself," Ron said, in a gentle tone he'd never used with Draco before. It was testament to the severity of the situation that Draco offered no objection. Ron quickly conjured a Patronus, relayed a brief message explaining what had happened and where to find Lucius Malfoy, and sent it to McGonagall, before grabbing Draco's right forearm and dragging them both into the smothering sensation of Apparition.

They arrived at St Mungo's almost instantly, only a minute or two after Hermione and Harry, and Draco immediately spotted Hermione pacing along the corridor, looking extremely white and with tears pouring down her face. She hurried over when she saw them.

"We made the jump intact," she said quickly, in response to Draco's unanswered question, "but they've taken him straight in for an emergency caesarean section. Room six." Draco nodded briefly to her, turned on the spot, and sprinted towards the door, flinging it wide open and running inside.

*

Harry stirred groggily. He tried to take a breath and felt a moment of panic when he realised there was something covering his nose and mouth, and scrambled to remove it.

"I'd leave that in place, if I were you, Mister Potter. It's just an oxygen mask. It's helping you to breathe," said a voice he recognised vaguely. Healer Moore's, he thought. So he was in St Mungo's then. Suddenly, everything flooded back to him- Lucius Malfoy, the argument in the garden, then being cursed with- whatever that spell was. And the pain... fuck, the pain.

"Harry, you've suffered a placental abruption, and your baby is very unhappy in there. We need to deliver immediately," the Healer continued. Harry screwed his eyes tight and nodded.

"Please save her," he whispered.

"We'll do our best," the Healer replied, and it wasn't lost on Harry that it was far from a guarantee.