Radix Acclaro

21 - Birth

Harry stared down in horror as the ridge that had formed across his lower belly started to split. Terrified eyes shot up to the people around him, silently pleading for help before a scream of pain escaped between panicked breaths.

"Easy Harry," Lucius crooned, gently wiping the brunette's sweat dampened brow with a cool cloth, "we knew this would happen."

"No we didn't," he squeaked. "You had a theory, an assumption, a GUESS!"

The last word was another scream and Lucius saw the muscles of his mates' stomach contract, pulling the sides of the small split apart.

Merriweather looked concerned... but calm as he examined the widening opening. Charlie Weasley, their dragon expert guest for the last month and a half seemed calm, if a little pale, while Tom was close to tearing off the arms of his chair in the far corner of the room.

Harry screamed again and Lucius winced at the crack of breaking wood – that had been his favorite chair. Vainly trying to comfort his struggling mate he decided the chair was a small price to pay; all things considered, Tom was being very well behaved. It was obvious to the Draconians, if not to the Wizards, that the elder Drake was having a hard time dealing with the fact that his mate was in pain and there was nothing he could do about it.

They were all uncomfortable with Weasley and the Medi-Wizard's presence, even if intellectually they knew it was necessary.

Lucius personally found himself wanting to toss the Wizard across the room and have Tom kill him. Luckily his inner dragon seemed to understand that the man was helping so the urge wasn't overwhelming – but it was still there.

Harry's back bowed with the next contraction and the slit pulled fully open. Severus leaned over the panting brunette to block the view of Merriweather reaching in.

Lucius watched the man hesitate and then pull out a small bloody... balloon.

The blonde shot a quick glance at Weasley but the man looked puzzled – which did not ease the Slytherin's mind.

"Poppy," Merriweather called, "if you would be so good as to remove the sacs."

The woman slowly approached and Lucius narrowed his eyes at her while the Medi-Wizard removed another balloon. He couldn't stop his growl when the woman picked up a scalpel.

"Be calm Mister Malfoy, I believe the individual placentas around the babies did not break as they normally would and I am merely having Poppy remove them – we wouldn't want the little ones to suffocate."

Lucius nodded and tried to discretely cover the fangs that had formed over his eyeteeth at the scalpel's proximity to his children.

"Babies," Harry squeaked. "There's more than one?"

"Three so far Harry and we're not done yet!"

"Three?"

His little mate sounded a bit shell-shocked and Lucius himself felt rather faint. He sponged Harry's forehead again in an effort to distract himself as Merriweather removed another balloon.

Both Lucius and Severus however watched the nurse like a hawk as she quickly but carefully removed the thick membranes and then Lucius could see... his child. His and Tom's and Harry's child. The nurse used some sort of sucking device and the baby cried out.

Tom was across the room in an instant but before he could injure the Witch she slid the tiny towel wrapped bundle into his clawed hands and started on the second child.

Lucius found himself going back and forth between watching Merriweather clean up his small mate after removing a fifth babe, and watching Tom's stunned face as the darker man stared at the tiny bundle in his hand.