Harry and Eloise Potter

Chapter Eighteen

Over the next week, Draco and I have gotten closer. A lot closer. My parents, uncles, and brother have all been avoiding me. I was curled up in a stall in a bathroom on one of the lower floors, trying not to puke. I jolted forward and puked into the toilet.
"Hello?" I heard mum question. I puked again, gripping my stomach, not being able to hold my hair back. "Eloise?" Mum opened the stall.
"Get out." I gritted out before puking again.
"Shh sweetheart, it's okay." She held my hair back. "It gets easier, I promise." I dry heaved again before my stomach finally settled. I took a few deep breaths before I relaxed and sat back. "Honey, are you okay?" She asked me. I suddenly snapped.
"You can't just suddenly care about me when you've been avoiding me for the past week!" I exclaimed. My stomach churned again making me put a hand on my stomach, closing my eyes for a second before standing. "Just leave me alone." I gritted out before walking away from her and going back to Draco, who was in our quarters.
   "Hey hun, where've you been?" He greeted, holding his arms out to me as I climbed into bed.
   "The loo, pretty sure all of my intestines are in the toilet." I groaned before laying on top of him, my head on his chest, making me feel him chuckle slightly, his chest vibrating.
"Why did you look so mad coming in then?"
"My mother," I spat, "came into the bathroom and held my hair back. She was just-ugh. I snapped at her. I told her she couldn't avoid me for a week and then come over to me while I'm dying in a bathroom stall." My stomach churned again and I bolted to my own bathroom, Draco following quickly, holding my hair back.
"Shh baby, it's okay." He rubbed my back softly, doing the thing I love, his nails scraping gently on top of the fabric even after I stopped and just hovered some more before pulling back from the toilet and sitting on the floor, looking at Draco as tears pooled in my eyes. "Oh sweetheart, come 'ere." He pulled me to him, my legs straddling him with my head in his chest as I breathed in and out shakily, cuddling into him, a few tears slipping down my face, the rest flowing to his shirt.
"Should I feel bad for snapping at her? I mean, she ignored me for over a week, she didn't say anything to me." I told him, sniffling.
   "No, I think you did the right thing sweetheart, she shouldn't of done that to you. Any of it. None of them should have." We stayed like that a bit longer, me relaxing against him.

Later on that day, we were in the Great Hall, eating, but I wasn't eating much.
"Hey, love, why aren't you eating?" Draco whispered to me softly, taking me hand.
"After earlier, all the puking I've done today, I'm just not all too hungry."
"Eat a bit more for me, okay? Please??"
"Okay. For you." I rolled my eyes playfully. He chuckled and kissed my temple before going back to his friends and food, me doing the same, engaging in conversation now more than earlier.
   "So how have you two been doing? With the pregnancy and all??" Theo asked us. Draco and I looked at each other.
   "Good. We're surviving." Draco barked a laugh at my choice of words before clearing his throat and forcing the smile from his face as I glared at him. He took my hand in his and intertwined our fingers.
   "Agreed." He took a sip of his pumpkin juice. Blaise suddenly spit his drink all over me in laughter making me gasp and shoot up in my seat. Blaise's eyes widened as he saw his mistake.
   "Blaise!!!" I exclaimed, not even angry. "That's disgusting." I sneered at him.
   "Sorry Elle." He said guiltily before the stain was suddenly gone. I snapped my head to the right, noticing a figure, and saw my dad standing there, an apologetic look on his face.
   "Hi Elle." He said, hesitant. I stepped from the bench.
   "I'm sorry, can we help you?" I asked him, crossing my arms, head held high.
   "Sweetheart, please don't be like that?" He begged.
   "Give me one reason why I shouldn't be." I stepped closer, a menacing look on my face.
   "Please let us make it up to you. We know we had bad reactions. We know. It was wrong. Really wrong. We realize that now. We want you back Elle, and we just pushed you further away. And we're sorry. So sorry. We didn't mean to- well we did, we just-" he cut himself off with a defeated sigh. "How can we make it up to you?"
   "I don't want you to make it up to me. Because there will always be some part of me knowing that you're disappointed. You're disappointed in the fact I got pregnant, I get that, but instead of talking to me, you took that disappointment out on me. Secretly disappointed, fine, but you didn't even try to support me, congratulate me, you did it to the son you've had, but not the daughter who had to run away just to be heard. You've never been there for me! It's always 'Good job Harry' or 'we're so proud of you Harry' I made an assumption, a good assumption about someone you thought you could trust and I'm suddenly shunned. I get to Hogwarts and you're all oh so devastated and looking for me, but you never thought that maybe I didn't want to be found. In your eyes and many others, I'm not a Potter."
   "Yes you are-"
   "No. I'm not. You've always been disappointed in me. I wasn't a fan of brooms and was scared of heights, you were disappointed that I wasn't interested in Quidditch like you were, that I had no interest in sports or anything similar! You thought I never heard but I've heard you and Lily talking about how you wish I was more like Harry. More interested in something that wasn't books or learning. More like you. How I inherited Grandma Euphemia's eyes and not either of yours. Or how I've got the temper of an Evens, but am nothing like Lily. I don't want to be your damn legacy! Harry might not have an issue with it, but I do! I'm not one for fighting! I'm not one for Quidditch! I'm more interested in having an actual conversation with someone to talk something out, confront them, than-" I had to cut myself off and put a hand on my stomach, trying to hold it down, but found it difficult. "Why don't you go bother Harry with everything he's doing great then standing there acting like you'll ever be proud of me?" I turned around and bolted from the hall.
   "Elle!!" Draco called. "Damnit." I heard him cuss before running after me. I got to the girls lavatory and puked up the little bit of food I consumed. "Shh Elle, it's okay. Let it out sweetheart." He combed my hair back with his fingers into his opposite hand, using a hair tie and putting it back in a messy bun before setting a hand on one of mine that was gripping the toilet and rubbing my back with the other. "We're gonna get through this sweetheart, I promise. And I'll be there every step of the way." He kissed the back of my shoulder softly.
   "Thank you Dray." I whispered to him as I sat back and buried my face in his chest as the tears started for the second time that day. He held me for as long as it took to calm me down, the minutes ticking by...