Harry Potter One-Shots

We can do this (DracoxHermione)

“Shit.” I breathed. How could this have happened? Well, obviously I knew how it had happened, but we had been so careful, so deliberately careful, to prevent anything like this. “Shit.” I repeated. “Are you sure?” I asked hopefully. Maybe this was just a hunch. Maybe this was just a misunderstanding and we could move on, look back and laugh in ten years. She nodded solemnly, tears forming in her eyes. I raised both of my hands to my hair, taking fistfuls and pulling. I got up from the bed, paced around the room and returned to my perch, rubbing my face before resting it in my hands.

“Are you mad?” She asked timidly, her voice failing her half way through the question. Was I mad? I didn’t know. Confused, yes. Scared, certainly. But mad? I shook my head jerkily, feeling that the action was foreign to me, that my body wasn’t my own. She let out a sigh of relief, followed by an abrupt sob. My eyes jerked to her face. She was obviously terrified but trying to hide it. She always tried to hide her vulnerability from everyone, never letting anyone take care of her – one of her most annoying and admirable traits. She held her bottom lip between her teeth, her eyes watering, and her shoulders trembling from silent sobs. She looked to me for… Reassurance? Guidance? I didn’t know. She looked at me like I was the last thing tethering her to sanity. She looked at me like the eleven year old girl she was when I met her – small, scared, desperate for acceptance. She looked up at the ceiling and another sob choked its way out of her small body. “I don’t know what to do.” She whimpered. “Please, Draco, what can we do?” My eyes widened at that. Throughout our entire relationship she had used my first name only on rare occasions, no matter how many times I tried to convince her to use it all the time. I looked down at my lap. Could I do it? Raising my head slowly, I looked her in the eyes and gave her the only option I was interested in.

“Marry me.” I said simply. Her face was a picture of shock. She observed me for a moment, seemingly trying to decide whether or not I was serious. When I showed no sign of joking, she blushed.

“Don’t ask me just because you think you have to, Malfoy. I don’t need to be a wife to-” She stopped when I shook my head at her.

“I’m not asking because of this. I’ve wanted to ask for a while, I just haven’t had the opportunity, the courage…” I trailed off, embarrassed despite the situation. “In short, I love you, and that’s the most important thing to me. It’s the only thing that I know for certain and it’s the only reason I have for asking you to do this. It’s the only reason I have for wanting you to be my wife. Selfishly, I want to wake up next to you for the rest of my life. I want people to see a ring on your finger and know that you’re coming home to the person who loves who most in the world.” I paused for a moment, trying to gauge her reaction. “This is just providing the opportunity I’ve been waiting for.” I offered with a weak smile. She stared at me for a moment – unsure and obviously forming countless questions in her mind – , before she smiled too.

"I love you.” Was her simple reply. “Yes I’ll marry you, and we’ll do this together. Right?” I nodded, now grinning.

"This may not be the ideal time, and it may not be the way I’d hoped but it’s happening. Everything’s in the wrong order but it’s happening.” I brought my hands to her waist and pulled her close, resting my cheek against her slightly swollen abdomen. “No matter what happens I swear I will do my utmost to take care of you and this baby…” I promised. “Our baby…” I tested it out. This life growing inside of my girlfriend turned fiancée was ours. This small swell of her stomach was my child – my son or daughter – and nothing had ever been as important to me as this tiny, barely existent life was. “We’re actually having a baby.” I breathed and she chuckled above me, bringing one hand to rest in my hair.

“We are.” She was grinning when I looked up, her messy brown hair falling around her face as she looked down at me, her face shining with pride and determination. We could do this. Together, Hermione and I could do this.