Unplanned

March 7, 2004

While Draco Malfoy may have been a self-absorbed bastard, Hermione was grateful for his intellect as she pressed the silver disk of the Draco constellation bracelet between her fingers, using it to brace herself as a contraction came.

Within minutes, Draco appeared in her flat, the familiar whoosh of apparition forcing her to look up from where she was hunched over. "Granger?" He asked, clearly shocked and confused she had used the bracelet to summon him.

Hermione took a few more seconds to breathe through the rest of the pain before she unclenched her jaw. "Your son is ready to meet us. My water broke a little while ago and my contractions aren't that far apart. Ready for St. Mungo's? Our bag is in my bedroom if you wouldn't mind grabbing that for me."

He stared at her dumbfounded for a minute as her words washed over him, forcing the realization that he was actually about to become a father. "Yeah, I'll grab it. Let's go have a baby."

Draco knew he shouldn't be the one panicking. He wasn't the one who had to give birth. Who had to push out a human. But yet, here he was ridiculously anxious as he stood alone outside of the delivery room, waiting on the okay from the Mediwitch to join Hermione. He brushed off the dust he could feel stuck to his suit pants, he hated floo travel. Too dirty. But, when Hermione Granger won't apparate on the off chance it will hurt the baby, you take the floo.

"Mr. Malfoy," the mediwitch called, breaking him from his thoughts. "She looks good and ready to deliver. You can go ahead and join her if you want, your son should be here soon."

Draco opened the door and entered the room in an almost trance-like state. He was going to be a father. He was going to have a son.

"I hate you," Hermione growled as he got closer to the bed. "These freaking contractions hurt like a bitch."

"I'm sorry," Draco offered. "What can I do?"

The healer who was in the room looked up from the chart he was monitoring. "Probably hold her hand, Mr. Malfoy. It's time to deliver this baby."

The next few minutes went by in a blur as he held onto Hermione's hand, whispering what he hoped were soothing words as she threatened to never have sex with him and blamed him again for getting her pregnant.

Draco laughed at that one as he brushed a kiss against her curls, before pulling them away from her face. "I thought we decided it was Theo's fault, love."

Shortly after his hand went numb and he suspected he would need skele gro to fix a minor bone, a cry filled the room as the healer started to wrap a blanket around the newborn.

"Congratulations to you both, you have a healthy baby boy," the head healer announced, placing the baby on Hermione's chest.

His son.

Draco watched as Hermione soaked in the moment of holding their child for the first time. It was there with her sweaty curls matted against her forehead, tear tracks stained her cheek, their son in her arms, it hit him.

He had fallen for her in the last few months.

Before he could do something stupid like tell Hermione he was in love with her, she turned to him and asked, "want to hold your son?"

Draco stood there speechless for a moment after hearing those words for the first time. He hesitated a second longer before reaching out and accepting the newborn from her arms.

Within moments he was looking down into grey eyes that mirrored his own. "Hi Scorp," Draco said with a hushed tone, wondering if the moment would be ruined if he spoke any louder. The baby wrapped his fist around Draco's fourth finger, gripping tightly right above the signet ring as if he already knew the importance that being a Malfoy would have on his life.

"So, I've been thinking," Hermione interrupted, not realizing the weight of the moment. "I'll have full custody and you can come over a few times a week while he's this little. As he gets older we can talk about mixing it up, him spending the night at your place. "

And just like that, the world that had seemingly fallen off its axis just moments before it righted itself again. Back to a universe where Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger could never be anything more than friendly at best. He felt his heart plummet to the floor as his stomach sank. "Uh right, co-parenting. Custody arrangements. Got it."

"That's what we agreed to," she reminded him.

That's what we agreed to before I fell in love with you, he wanted to scream at the mother of his child. You just went through ten months of hell to give us the most incredible gift and now you're taking him away from me.

Instead, all that came out was, "uh yeah. That works. I can have my solicitor draw up the paperwork. He'll have other roles and responsibilities as the Malfoy heir that will need to be put into writing. A custody contract is easy," he didn't take his eyes off his son as he answered her, afraid that with one look into her chocolate brown eyes and the truth would come spilling out faster than if he had swallowed a bottle of veritaserum.

"Draco," Hermione said, drawing his attention away from Scorpius and to the eyes, he was trying to avoid. "I'm sorry to have this conversation now. I've been putting it off and I just don't want to forget about it later in the day."

"It's fine, Granger," Draco snapped, a lot sharper than he meant to. "Co-parents."

Throughout the rest of the day, Draco watched in awe as the woman he loved interacted effortlessly with their guests despite giving birth hours prior. When he realized he had been staring for too long, he switched to his son, a part of him afraid that if he kept his eyes off the infant he would disappear. Like he would wake up and realize it was all just a dream.

Not seeing him daily was bad enough, he wanted to be selfish and hold him while he could. And he did. Taking advantage of passing him to each guest and holding him while Hermione napped, soaking up every moment he was given with his son.

What Draco didn't realize while he doted on his son is Hermione stared at him holding the infant in his arms, she secretly wished that they could be more than civil. More than co-parents. More than friendly. But the universe was a cruel place and would never let Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy be more than amicable former enemies.