Formidable

Chapter 16

"Twins..." Draco breathed, his breath hitching.

"Twins..." Harry repeated, staring at Hermione in bewilderment.

Hermione nodded excitedly, her face splitting in to a wide grin as she watched the looks of confusion spread to happiness to ecstasy.

"Twins! We're having twins?!" Harry said rather loudly. He turned to Draco who was bolt upright, a huge grin plastered on his face.

He nodded hysterically, and tears filled his eyes. "Oh fucking hell. We're having twins." He cried, rubbing his eyes and sweeping the tears away. His face quickly became blotchy and he pulled Harry rapidly into a bone crushing hug, all the breath winded out of him.

"Twins!" Harry said for the umpteenth time, and he wrapped his arms fully around Draco, squeezing him tight and smiling against the sting of the happiest tears he'd ever formed.

The bond alighted, their wings exploding out of their backs incredibly, fluttering as the stretched and expanded to their fullest potential.

"Fucking Merlin, Potter! We're gonna have a baby boy, too." He said, just before he pulled back from the hug and crashed his lips into Harry's, circling his arms around his shoulders and throwing a leg over Harry's lap so he was straddling his waist.

He ignored the spikes of pain shooting up his legs and belly, and focused solely on kissing Harry, as though he were a lifeline. He didn't think about Ron and Hermione in the room, the latter of which was probably crying. He didn't think about how his wings flapped gracefully and curled around Harry's. And he certainly didn't think about the fact that there was a chance that he could die if Hermione couldn't do something about his raging temperature.

Harry's hands came up to cradle his head, his fingers carding through Draco's sweaty locks. He tugged on Harry's full bottom lip with his teeth, taking the opportunity to slide his tongue into Harry's mouth, relishing in the grunt that came from him when their tongues slid together as one.

Harry broke the kiss, slowly parting his lips from Draco's and resting his head on Draco's collarbone. His hands slid down from his hair and tugged Draco's t-shirt up, his hands pressing to the swell of his belly.

"There's two of you in there. Hi." He said softly, smiling prettily. Draco didn't think he'd ever seen Harry smile as wide as this, not even when he'd told him he was pregnant in the first place.

"Yeah." He whispered, holding his top up for Harry's hands to trace delicate, invisible lines into his skin, the warmth of his hands leaving temporary imprints into his stomach.

Soon enough, though, the pain was hard to ignore, and grew even harder as he realised he needed to cry out, or lay down, or do something, at least.

He hissed and his back bowed as a particularly strong bolt of pain shot right up his legs, travelling up his spine and dissipating at his neck.

"Ah." He said, squeezing his eyes shut and writhing, trying to find a position that was comfortable and caused him less pain.

It was no use. It was like a red-hot iron was being pressed all over his insides, as though he'd been cut open with a burning singe and put into a kiln to burn. He let out a sob, which quickly turned into a scream as the pain intensified.

Harry sat there, flailing his hands, the hint to find something to do as he watched Draco fall onto his back, his legs squeezing shut. "Hermione!" He called frantically, looking up at her.

He saw her with a needle in her hand, and saw her motioning to Ron to hold Draco down as he thrashed and screamed, calling for Harry in the most terrified, incoherent voice that could be mustered.