Desperate Measures

Chapter 30 - 2nd Term

-January 5-

Pansy entered Draco's rooms eager to share her newest information. She stopped short, though, at the site of Draco pacing agitatedly. She closed the door then took her customary seat on Draco's bed and watched for several minutes. When it appeared that Draco was too far gone in whatever was upsetting him to think clearly, she interrupted. "What is it?"

Draco glanced at Pansy but gave a short hysterical laugh and continued pacing.

"Draco?"

"Harry's pregnant," Draco said tightly and continued pacing.

Pansy sucked in a shocked breath. "That's...," she couldn't determine how to voice her mixture of congratulations and dismay.

Draco gave another short hysterical laugh. "Isn't it?"

"How did you find out?" Pansy asked after a pause. "It's awfully early. He can't have realized yet."

"Luna gave Harry a journal yesterday on the Express," Draco said as he ran a hand through his hair. "It was full of spells detailing how to hide and protect a pregnancy. We thought it might be a hint."

It was Pansy's turn to give a short hysterical laugh. "Good thought," she choked out. Luna was one very scary girl. Only Hermione Granger seemed to be able to handle the girl's shocking revelations with any kind of aplomb.

Draco nodded absently. "So we cast the detection spell so conveniently included on the first page of the journal and guess what?"

"Babies," Pansy answered softly.

"Babies," Draco confirmed. "This is....this is..."

Pansy opened her mouth then closed it and bit her lip. "Inconvenient," she eventually suggested.

Draco snorted and flopped into a chair. "What a good word," he said sardonically.

"I...well...this will give you a lot of status within Veela society," Pansy said hesitantly.

Draco stared in disbelief.

"A conception pregnancy, of a twinning mate, in wartime," Pansy elaborated. "It's really..."

"Do you think I care about that?" Draco asked loudly. "I have enough status! We wanted to take a couple years to get settled before we started having children!"

"Well, it wasn't exactly your decision, now was it?" Pansy asked peevishly. She wasn't happy either; she wasn't pleased with the danger her new siblings were in just by virtue of being in Hogwarts and close to members of two warring factions.

Draco merely groaned and put his head in his hands.

"And, really, it's your own fault," Pansy accused. "If you hadn't proven yourself as such a good mate then this wouldn't have happened."

Draco snorted but couldn't argue the point. It was true that he'd done everything he could think of to show Harry that he would be protected and provided for. And now they were reaping the consequences. Draco dropped his hands and said with a sigh, "It's not that I'm unhappy about the babies."

"I know," Pansy said with her own sigh. "It's good news. Really. Congratulations. I'm looking forward to when they're born. May I be the godmother?"

Draco smiled slightly. "Sure. You and Neville can be this set's godparents."

"Thanks," Pansy said with a sincere smile.

They were both silent for several minutes as they thought through the consequences.

"Do you know if the babies are human or Veela?" Pansy asked.

Draco huffed another short laugh. "Veela, of course," he said. "We couldn't be lucky and have human boys that would take a full nine months to mature. No, we have to have Veela boys who will only take six. Veela biology is not helping us right now. We figure his due date must be June 20, give or take."