There's More To You Than You Let On

Chapter 18; Oh, Baby!

The next few days seemed to go back to normal, well as normal as it got around Hogwarts. A few people wrote to Rita Skeeter that Ron was obviously lying about being the father of Hermione's child. Harry and George even wrote to them about it themselves. Rita published it and now everyone knew he was lying. The only bad thing about it was that the whole wizarding world now knows Hermione's pregnant. Not only pregnant, but with Draco Malfoy's baby. She didn't have a problem with it being his baby, though. She was proud to call him her baby daddy, it's just that she was receiving a lot of hate from anti- dramione people. The hate was mostly towards Draco, saying he spelled her or poisoned her and took advantage of her. None of which was true but she could tell Draco was hurt they still hated him and that made Hermione upset more than anything.

Other than studying non stop for the N.E.W.T.s the group spent a lot of time walking and dancing around the empty corridors or around the grounds during their free periods or at night. Hermione loved dancing around and laughing with her friends at night the most. She liked the empty feel of it all, how the corridors echoed when they giggled, and how open and endless they were. They were in their own world, no worries, no problems, no nothing. Just her and her six friends. The only thing they had to worry about was whether or not Filtch was coming around the corner or not.

Tonight they made their way up to the Astronomy tower. They looked out over the Black Lake and felt free from all the stress due to exams. The air was chilly on the early January night. The breeze caused Hermione to shiver slightly. Draco noticed and took off his robes and wrapped them tightly around her from behind as he hugged her waist. "I love you," He whispered making her smile.

"I love you too," She whispered back as she laid her head back on his shoulder. "Promise you'll never leave me. Promise it'll be like this forever."

"I promise," He whispered as he kissed her cheek. "I promise I'll always protect you and our baby too no matter what. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you two safe," He mumbled as he buried his head in the crook of her neck. She sighed and laid her cheek on his head. They stayed for a few more minutes, enjoying the view, before heading back to the the Head common room. They all decided to have a sleep over there because it was the closest common room and the others were too tired to walk all the way back to their own common rooms.

The boys slept on the pull out couch and the girls slept in Hermione's room as Draco and Hermione slept in Draco's room. After tiredly getting ready for bed, everyone crawled into their sleeping arrangements before instantly falling asleep.

Draco and Hermione had developed a routine in the mornings. Wake up, start to get ready, deal with Hermione's morning sickness whenever it occurs, finish getting ready, have a daily check up with Madame Pomfrey, go to breakfast, then go to class. Today was no different. They did their usual routine before heading off to class.

As the days went by, Hermione began to get more and more nervous. She was not only stressed about the N.E.W.T.s but also she's going to have to meet Draco's dad in two weeks. It was one of the only things she could think about, but she distracted herself by studying and spending quality time with Draco.

During free period Draco had convinced Hermione to take a break from studying and to relax because stress was bad for the baby. They sat curled up in a blanket in the secret room. Hermione drew invisible shapes on his chest as he rubbed her thigh, which was pulled over his lap, and kissed her forehead repeatedly. He looked down at her and saw her biting on her lip hard and staring into space. "You're stressing," He pointed out.

"Nuh-Uh," She stubbornly spoke.

"Mione..," he said calmly. She let out a sigh.

"I'm just nervous about meeting your dad," She admitted.