The Marriage Law

Chapter 20

"It's okay. You're going to be alright," Draco soothed as he swept Hermione's hair away from her face to keep it from falling into the toilet along with, it appeared, her supper from the day before.

"Get out of here," Hermione croaked out. "You don't need to see this!" She shoved at him in a weak attempt to get him to leave.

"I'm not going anywhere," Draco said firmly. "We're a team. It's already unfair that we're both going to be blessed with this child yet only you are suffering from this bloody morning sickness thing!"

Hermione didn't correct him, but privately she knew that this wasn't morning sickness. She had (fortunately) stopped suffering from that the month before. What was ailing her right now was stress-induced sickness, but she didn't want to tell Draco that, he was already stressed enough as it was she could tell. Lucius Malfoy had been sending him letter after letter berating him for poisoning the purity of the Malfoy line with Hermione's pregnancy. Though Lucius could not harm them from his cell in Azkaban, he was still clearly doing everything in his power to try and make their lives miserable for their alleged treachery. Though Draco tried to hide his dismay, it was clear on his face to Hermione who could now read his emotions from the twitch of an eyebrow to a frown line that disappeared as quickly as it came. In an effort to help him in the only way that she could given the situation, she kept her own stresses to herself. Their final exams were only two months away for heaven's sake! The other girls were taking the opportunity offered to them by the Ministry to take an extension and to write their exams at the end of the summer, but that simply wouldn't do for Hermione. She both wanted the distraction and the satisfaction that taking her exams at their standard time would provide, and besides, it was her last defiance of the Ministry for imposing the Marriage Law. Despite the fact that she was now thrilled to be with Draco and recognized that without the law she wouldn't be, she still found it barbaric that this all had been imposed on them and wanted to maintain this one element of normalcy; to have something that wouldn't be impacted by the law.

So, she had buried herself behind a pile of books and rolls of parchment, studying late into the night and between classes. She had renewed her habit of spending many of her waking hours in the library much to the bemusement of Harry and Ron and to the chagrin of Draco who missed spending more time with her. Of course, he wasn't going to argue with his hormonal and determined wife, opting to take the "whatever makes her happy and keeps her sane," approach. Yet strangely, Hermione felt neither happy nor sane. She was beginning to realize that she had underestimated just how difficult it would be to study, maintain her impeccable grades, go to all of her medical appointments with Madame Pomfrey, to the Marriage Law course with Draco, and to still find time to eat, sleep, and hang out with her friends and husband. Slowly, she felt herself slipping into a frenzied panic which she did her very best to mask. She pushed her food around on her plate when her appetite went, snuck their bedroom to the pod's common area to catch up on study during the wee hours of the morning, and tried to keep a smile on her face that felt more and more like a grimace every day. Most people would have admitted defeat by this point, but Hermione wasn't known for her stubbornness for nothing. She couldn't quite articulate why even to herself, but she simply couldn't give up. She had to write those exams in June!

All of this stress had come to a head this week. It was the last week of March, and Easter was just around the corner. Draco and Hermione were planning on spending the long weekend with Hermione's parents, and Hermione had been determined to not only keep up with her work, but to get ahead so that she could enjoy her visit with her family without worrying about getting behind. The self-added stress had culminated in her breaking point, and it was that that had caused her to find herself kneeling on the tiled floor of their bathroom.

"That was a particularly bad one, Love. Maybe you should take the morning off and rest. It isn't as though you'll miss anything in Transfiguration, it's your best subject," Draco suggested.

"You know I can't do that Draco! What would McGonagall think? Besides, I think that my wand movement isn't quite right for animal transfigurations, I really need to practice, I don't want to fail!" Hermione snapped sounding unintentionally harsh as well as panicked. Without thinking, she added, "You may not care about failing but I do, I'm not lazy unlike some!" Immediately regretting her words, her face crumpled and she sobbed, "Oh listen to me, failing in yet another way. I'm so sorry Draco, you know I didn't mean that."

Draco easily laughed it off, saying, "Those bloody raging baby hormones eh? Don't worry about it love. We all have those moments, and you at least have an extremely viable excuse!" He grinned at her, leaning in and planting a kiss on her forehead, giving her mouth a wide berth but whispering in her ear, "Come and find me when you brush your teeth so I can finish comforting you, what do you say?" Winking at her, he left to give her privacy while she cleaned up.

Normally, Draco's suggestion would set Hermione's stomach aflutter, but this morning it only caused her knotted nerves to tighten painfully at the thought of putting effort into appearing unbothered and happy. Or maybe that was just more of her sickness, she was beginning to find it difficult to differentiate....

Standing, she took a deep breath, attempting to calm her pounding head and nauseous stomach. After brushing her teeth, she splashed cold water on her face and took several more steadying breaths. Leaving the bathroom, she quickly went to her desk and grabbed her school books, going out of her way to avoid Draco's gaze.

"Shall we head down to breakfast Love?" he asked her.

"You go on ahead, my stomach is still very upset, I'm not sure I could handle the sight of all of that food!" she said forcing a laugh.

Chuckling along with her easily, he responded, "Fair enough. I'll bring you a piece of toast to class. I'd better head out now. Take care and I'll see you in a bit! I love you," he added, and Hermione couldn't help but smile at the shy way in which he said those words to this day.

When Hermione reached the classroom, Draco was already there, chatting away with Harry and Ron. She wasn't sure if that was a sight that she'd ever get used to, no matter how old she got. She would venture to say that Draco and Harry were friends. Ron and Draco got along without displaying any animosity, but they had yet to entirely warm up to each other. Still, they had come farther than anyone would have ever thought. When Draco looked up and saw her, he excused himself and brought over the piece of toast he had taken from the Great Hall for her. Accepting it out of politeness more than anything, Hermione took it to her seat and set it on the desk. She was feeling quite light headed and knew instinctively that she should try to eat the piece of bread, but she wasn't sure if her stomach could handle it. When Draco wasn't looking, she quickly transfigured the toast into a stone which she slid into her pocket before he could see. At that moment, McGonagall arrived signaling the beginning of class and Draco took his seat next to her. "Thanks for the toast," she whispered to him as McGonagall tapped the blackboard making the lesson plan appear. "Of course!" he replied.

"Today we will focus on transfiguring large objects into animals," McGonagall announced, causing the class to chatter excitedly before the professor silenced them with her trademark stern glare. She then instructed them to practice with their desks. Hermione struggled quite a bit. There was a buzzing in her ears and her arm felt like lead as she waved it. She was grateful that they were practicing with their individual desks instead of in partners so that she could avoid Draco's worried stare. Her relief was shattered when McGonagall informed them that they would demonstrate one by one their progress with her big professor's desk. When it was her turn, she trudged up slowly, staggering at one point from the nerves. Or was it her sickness? The front of the class seemed to stay miles away despite her steady progress up toward the front. It almost seemed as though it was at the end of a long tunnel which was filled with light and shifting in and out of focus. The appearance was enhanced by the echoing quality of McGonagall's voice as she inquired as to whether or not Hermione was okay. Hermione tried to respond but before she could, she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness. She never heard the shouts of worry and surprise, nor did she see Draco lunge for her, or feel his arms encircle her as he tried to break her fall.