Winds of Desire

A Trip To St. Mungo's

Hermione and Ginny fall asleep in the living room after Ginny puts James to bed. They tried to stay up and wait on the men but were unsuccessful. It is about midnight when Harry and Ron walk into the house in a hurry, making the girls jump off of the couch and love seat in terror with their wands drawn.

"Draco! Where is he?!" Hermione asks, frantically looking around and noticing her boyfriend is not present with the other two men.

Ron just looks at his feet silently and Harry speaks first. "Well we went with Kingsley Shacklebolt to Azkaban to try and figure out how the ten of those Death Eaters escaped and-"the girls both gasp loudly when Harry pauses.

"Did they take him?!?" Hermione screams, clutching a hand to her face and one to her belly. Ron snorts at her and shakes his head sneering, "I wish." Hermione gives Ron a horrible death glare in return.

"No, he went to talk to Lucius in his cell and they talked for a few minutes so we left them alone. I urged him to go and talk to him. Then suddenly I heard a lot of yelling from Lucius and I ran to see what was going on-"

"Go on!" Hermione yells at him her bright brown eyes wide.

"And he was busy strangling Draco after breaking his nose. I am guessing Draco said something harshly to him and it must have hacked Lucius off, I am not sure! But he was trying to kill his own son, I know that much."

Hermione looks terrified and her eyes are still huge. "Is he okay though?"

"He's at St. Mungo's. Kingsley brought him there and we left just now. He's fine, but they won't let you in now since it's so late. Let us all just go to sleep and go to see him in the morning," Harry states, pecking Ginny's lips after he finishes speaking as he feels happy they made it home safe and sound.

Hermione is so relieved that Draco is okay. She feels very tempted to leave to St. Mungo's tonight but decides not to because she is very tired. And she knows the Healers really would turn her away like Harry says they will. So after saying goodnight to everyone she leaves the rest to go off to bed. Her energy seems to be gone in her twenty-second week of pregnancy and she is getting more tired by the day it seems. She drifts off to sleep quickly as if nothing bad happened this night.

The next morning comes quickly. Hermione opens her eyes and she gasps. Ron is sitting on the opposite side of the room staring at her.

"Ron, you scared me! What are you looking at?" Hermione asks him with an annoyed tone, sitting up and looking at him.

"Just looking at you, okay? I was engaged and due to be married to you, is it wrong to look at you?" He asks in a quiet, relaxed voice.

Hermione just rolls her eyes at him and stands up, luckily her nausea is long gone now but hunger has seemed to take its place. She immediately leaves Ron alone in her room and walks to the fridge to try to find something to eat. She grabs cereal and then swishes her wand to get it ready as he walks in and sits at the dining table. She then sits at the table too, feeling awkward as this is the first time she has spent the night in the same house as Ron since they broke up. And they were all alone, no one is up yet.

Ron's feelings are hurt because she used to let him look at her all the time. Damnit, I have to get over her, I need to realize we're over, he thinks to himself, just looking blankly out the window, shaking his head.

It is a sunny morning, only about eight. Hermione can hear Harry getting out of the shower in the nearest bathroom, and to her relief, he enters the kitchen just a few moments later fully dressed in Ministry robes.

"Ron, are you okay?" He asks his best friend who is still staring as he levitates the cereal to pour in a bowl like Hermione did moments ago.

"Yes, I'm fine, have no choice but to be," He answers getting up and glancing at Hermione, who is looking back at him with sad eyes.

He then says, "I'll be waiting for you outside Harry so we can go to work." And he is then gone from the house. Harry eats his cereal in a hurry and joins him.

Hermione is supposed to go in for her one day of this week, but she decides to take it off to be with Draco. Besides, she is still thinking about her job offer from Mr. Weasley which she is going to decline most likely because of wanting to finish her pregnancy before advancing to a higher demanding job.

She finishes her cereal and walks to her bedroom to get ready. She doesn't know what to wear; her pants are all too tight now, all but her sweat pants. Her little baby bump sticks out in between her pelvis and she can no longer see her feet. Feeling agitated, she just chooses her sweat pants and a t-shirt to wear. She braids her brunette wavy hair to the right side where it rests lightly on her shoulder, and she is ready to go see Draco.

She enters the kitchen after going down the stairs and Ginny is now up feeding James.

"Hi! Off to work?" Ginny asks, smiling at her friend.

"Like this? No, to see Draco," Hermione answers, gesturing at her clothes.

"Oh, yes, I forgot. Well, have a good day then," Ginny wishes to her friend. "Soon you will be too big to apparate by the way, that's why I have the car because I stopped apparating at about twenty-five weeks. You can use it when you need it."

Hermione smiles at her friend, says "thanks" and walks outside into the driveway and apparates.

St. Mungo's looks just like what she remembers it looking like in her fifth year of Hogwarts when they came to visit Arthur Weasley after Nagini's attack on him.

It is brightly colored, and the people that work here have bright robes as well. Seeing her pregnant belly, some of the Healers look at her with concern that she is there for herself as she walks toward the front desk.

"May I help you? Do you need our assistance?" A lady asks with square-like spectacles and curly blonde hair, who is sitting at the desk with a quill and parchment.

"No ma'am. I'm here to see Draco Malfoy, he arrived last night." The Healers around her sigh in relief. Babies are a mystery to Healers, of course except to the Healers who are specially trained for babies.

"Oh, well in that case it looks like he's up on the second floor, in room 208," the woman answers, looking at her documents with Draco's name neatly written across them.

"Your name madam?" She asks Hermione.

"Uh, Hermione Granger?" she hesitates to ask to which Hermione nods and then walks away. Some of the visitors around her start to whisper things like "Death Eater" "Potter's friend" "Pregnant with his child or Weasley's?" and other various things.

Hermione ignores the gossiping people and gets on an elevator; she is so used to it by now anyway and it is a surprise if she goes somewhere without a person whispering about her. She arrives on the second floor and walks to Draco's room. To her horror, Narcissa Malfoy is already there with him by his bedside. Hermione does not feel like seeing her right now after hearing she let Death Eaters come in and interrogate Draco. But when did she ever feel like being around Narcissa?

The woman turns around at the unfamiliar footsteps. "Oh, Granger, how nice to see you," says Narcissa unenthusiastically. Hermione just nods in reply; walking to Draco's other side to grab his hand.

"You're okay, aren't you?" Hermione asks him, smiling at him lovingly.

Draco smiles back at her. "Yes, I'm fine. I'm getting out in a little while."

"Yes, I'm taking him home in just a bit. They are working on his discharge," Narcissa pipes in, making Draco look at her.

"Piss off about it mum, she's my girlfriend. I can go home with her if she likes," Draco barks, his voice quivering. His neck is still swollen with bruises from his father choking him.

"Daddy didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sure Draco," She suddenly says as if trying to convince herself, looking at her son's swollen nose and neck.

"Sure he didn't, he didn't all the others times either according to you," Draco admits sarcastically. "I told him off and told him about me and Hermione and basically that I didn't care for him because of how he treats us."

Narcissa makes a sound and shakes her head. She then glares at Hermione but then suddenly softens when she looks at Hermione's mid-section.

"My grand-child is getting bigger," Narcissa says changing the subject quickly, staring at Hermione's baby bump now and smiling to Hermione's surprise.

"Yes, about twenty-two weeks now," Hermione replies back, putting a hand on her belly and rubbing it.

Draco motions for her to come near him, she does and he puts his hand on Hermione's belly as well.

"My baby," He whispers, smiling very big.

"Yes Draco, our baby. No one else's," Hermione repeats, putting his pale hand over her's.

And she gasps, as she feels a movement from inside her for the first time where both of their hands rest on her stomach.

"Oh my God!" Hermione screams out.

Draco sits up, worried as his hand flies off of her. "What's wrong? Are you okay?!"

"The baby moved! I think that's what it was!" Hermione gushes, her eyes wide with excitement.

Draco smiles and leans in to kiss her belly. Hermione can't help but keep smiling with happiness of what she has right now, in this moment. She strokes his cheek as he sits back up, his hand on her stomach once again.

Narcissa smiles at the moment her son and his girlfriend shared, she starts to see why Draco is fighting so hard for her and for his baby. She thinks about when she was pregnant with Draco, Lucius never affectionately touched her stomach like that. This made her proud of the man her son is.

Maybe she should let go of her old feelings and judgments as well, after all, the war is over and the other Death Eaters are most likely not coming back from Azkaban. Now she is a grand-mother, her very first grand-child will be here soon.

Hermione remembers her appointment the next day; they will get to find out the gender.

She looks up at Narcissa. "Would you like to come and see what the baby is tomorrow? It is at a Muggle OB/GYN but Draco went before. It didn't bother him much." Narcissa looks at Draco; her face looks like Hermione just asked her to jump off of a bridge. Draco nods at his mum and she hesitates.

"Y-yes, I'll come with you," Narcissa agrees in a whisper, her face is red with stress as she thinks of what Lucius would say to her if he found out.

Hermione can't believe she just asked Narcissa Malfoy to accompany her at a Muggle doctor's office, but what is not changing now that the war was really over and Voldemort really gone?

"Good," Hermione squeaks awkwardly, then sits beside Draco and smiles at him again.

Draco looks at Hermione in a no way kind of way with big eyes. Hermione giggles and Narcissa looks at her again.

"Granger, y-you aren't so bad for my son," Narcissa stumbles out, sounding like she had just said something she was keeping a secret.

Hermione looks at Draco's mum with a shocked face, he does the same. "Thank you Mrs. Malfoy, I appreciate that. You are a good mother and I hope I can be somewhat like you to this baby."

Narcissa grins broadly. "Thank you, that makes my heart happy that you think I'm a good mother."

"You're one of the best," assures Hermione.

Things really are changing around the wizarding world. Narcissa Malfoy is going with them to a Muggle doctor's office, Hermione is with Draco Malfoy, an ex-Death Eater and having a child with him, something Hermione never would have foreseen, and Ron is out of her life and they are on bad terms. After the war everything changed for better and for worse.

A very large Healer with a toothbrush mustache and a goofy toothed smile walks into the room and introduces himself as Draco's Healer, Troy Whitehert. He explains that Draco has nothing majorly wrong with him anymore and that they had fixed everything the previous evening. He puts some paste on the bruises to heal them and tells them that they can leave after making Draco sign a lot of papers. The Healer also congratulated them on their baby after telling Draco that he can't apparate for a week or so.

Hermione and Narcissa helps get Draco's things together, and Narcissa keeps a distance from Hermione, still feeling awkward and wrong about what she had said to her.

They walk out of the hospital and Narcissa says her goodbyes and promises to meet them in the morning deciding to let him go with Hermione as Hermione wants Draco to come home with her for the evening.

It is only around two when they got a taxi and by three they are walking up the driveway of Ginny and Harry's.

The baby, now that it has started to move, keeps moving every now and then, surprising Hermione every time.

Ginny is excited at the news that Hermione can feel kicking now and she feels her stomach. Feeling a weak kick, she gets excited and jumps up and down.

Ginny and Hermione together cook spaghetti while Draco entertains baby James on the Potter's sitting room floor.

About an hour later like every night around six, Ron and Harry have arrived at the house. Hermione somewhat wishes Ron wouldn't come over because he makes things awkward and the tension between him and Draco stresses her out every time. But Ron seems to be in an okay mood and even greets Hermione, but of course doesn't acknowledge Draco, which irritates her.

Everyone eats the dinner and tells the girls that they enjoyed it. Ron then says he is going to visit Lavender and leaves. Ginny tells Harry to put James to bed and then washes the dishes with her wand as Hermione and Draco sit on the couch. Draco cuddles her body to his.

"I hate hospitals, I am glad I got out. Father barely hurt me anyway," Draco states.

"It looks like he got you good," Hermione observes, grinning at her boyfriend trying to cover up how badly his father hurt him by strangling him.

Ginny and Harry goes to bed not too long after Harry finally gets James to sleep, and Draco and Hermione go to bed as well.

Draco is so fascinated by the baby's kicking and him being able to feel it sometimes with his hand that he starts to directly talk to Hermione's baby bump.

Hermione then proclaims she wants to sleep and Draco and her roll over, cuddling. They then fall asleep, Draco rubbing her tummy, both of them excited about finding out what the little bundle of joy is the next afternoon. Both feeling more in love with each other than ever.