The Entangled Life of Claire (TSLOC sequel)

The Man in the Market

The Man in the Market

            It was now the twenty-sixth of February and I was slowly starting to be happy about being pregnant. I forced myself to stop thinking that the baby might be Draco’s but I still did every now and then. And that Sunday morning was one of them. I had a dream about Draco being there for the birth and I woke up quickly; making me gasp. I felt George move by me and I looked at him. His eyes were open and his face showed worry. “Are you ok?” He asked and rubbed my arm.

            I nodded. “Yeah. Just a bad dream.” I faked a smile.

            He sighed. “Again? I thought they were going away”

            “Me too but this one snuck in.” I sat up and rubbed my stomach. The baby was moving around and it was comforting.

            George sat up and touched my stomach as well. “Looks like someone is awake.” He grinned and moved so his face was to my stomach. “Hello in there. I’m your daddy.” He kissed my stomach and I couldn’t help but smile.

            “I think the baby knows that.” I told him and he looked up into my eyes.

            “I love you. And I love him.” He kissed my stomach and tears started to fill my eyes. His face showed concern. He moved so he was laying by me and he wrapped his arms around me. “What’s wrong, Claire?”

            I leaned into him and said, “You’re just… so cute.” I cried and shook my head. “It’s the pregnancy hormones.”

            He chuckled softly and kissed my temple. “I love the pregnancy hormones.” He rubbed my arm and said, “How about we eat and then go out for the day? We need to go grocery shopping and then I’ll take you out for lunch.”

            I smiled and wiped my tears away. “That sounds great.”

            “Okay.” He kissed my lips and stood up. “I’ll go make breakfast then. Anything you and our baby craving?”

            “Bacon and waffles.” I smiled and he nodded.

            “Then that’s what you two will get.”

            He walked out of our room and I sighed. It felt good to be like this for a change instead of worried about who the baby’s father was. But that still played in the back of my mind like a broken record and probably would never leave. Until the baby was born, that is. I sighed again as I stood up and got on a pair of jeans and a sweater before putting on my shoes and going out into the living room. George stood in the kitchen making breakfast and I plopped down on the couch, turning on the TV just to have noise in the room.

            After we ate and George got ready, we left the flat and headed out into muggle London. It was strange being outside Diagon Alley sense I hadn’t been in so long. It was actually making me a little nervous and I clung to George. We walked down a couple blocks to the grocery store and walked in. I grabbed the cart for us and George took out a list he had made up earlier that morning. We went down aisles and he put the groceries into the cart. We had a system down and both of us were smiling and happy. He crossed things off the list but then come to find he had missed grabbing the sugar when we were down the baking aisle. I took over getting groceries while he ran back to get the sugar and I ran into someone with the cart as I was crossing something off the list.

            “Oh, I’m sorry.” I apologized and looked up to see who I had hit. My heart fell to the floor and started racing around as I saw it was no other than Draco.

            His snarky smirk was sketched on his face and he stared at me. “Well, well. Fancy seeing you here.”

            My whole body was tense but the baby was moving around like crazy. That made my heart freak out more because it brought back all the doubts of him being George’s back into my mind. “Go away, Draco.” I said lowly, my voice shaky.

            “No. I need some groceries.” He grinned and grabbed a box of Fruit Loops off the shelf. He kept smiling at me and I started to feel insecure and more scared. I wanted to hide my stomach from him and I went to move my jacket to try to hide my bump but he saw that. His eyes widened just a tad and he said, “You’re pregnant. It’s mine, isn’t it?”

            I shook my head quickly; more to tell myself he wasn’t right than him. “No. It’s George’s.” I said quickly and touched my stomach protectively.

            He laughed. It’s like he knew I was lying. Like he knew I wasn’t sure. He walked around my cart and I backed up against the shelves. He put his hand on my stomach and the baby started moving like crazy. He grinned, obviously feeling it, and he looked into my eyes. “You’ll know the second you give birth who the father is. It’ll have the Malfoy good looks if it’s mine.”

            “Back away from her.” George’s angry voice came from down the aisle. I looked quickly at him and he came storming down the aisle towards us. Draco backed away, still smiling, and George wrapped a protective arm around my waist. “Get out of here, Malfoy.”

            “Hey, I’m not doing a thing.” He said and put his hands up innocently.

            “That’s a lie and we both know it. Leave. Or I swear I’ll make you.” George’s voice was still angry and I was getting a little scared.

            “In front of all these muggles? Go ahead. I’ll visit you in Azkaban.”

            I could feel how tense George was and I touched his chest. “Come on. You got the sugar and that was the last thing on the list so let’s go. He’s not worth it. Let’s check out and we’ll go to the flat, okay?” I looked into his eyes and pleaded to him.

            “Fine.” He agreed and took the cart with one hand and my hand in the other. We walked away from Draco and George stopped. “Are you okay?”

             I nodded. “Yeah.” I hoped he wouldn’t see that lie. Of course I wasn’t okay. I just saw Draco. The baby was moving around for Draco. I faked a smile and followed him to the register.

            George and I took the groceries home and put the groceries away before going to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. I wasn’t really talking and neither was he. We both knew the other was upset about seeing Draco and didn’t know what to say. When we got home, I sat on the couch and watched TV while George went to do some things for the shop. He came back a couple hours later and I heard him starting to make dinner. As I was watching a movie, the baby started moving and I thought about what happened at the store. Tears filled my eyes and I buried my head in my hands to cry.

            “Claire?” George asked and I felt him sit down by me. “Claire, what’s wrong?”

            I leaned against him and said, “The baby… he was moving around when Draco was around.” I cried.

            He held me tight and kissed my head. “It’s okay, Claire.”

            “No it’s not.” I cried. He didn’t understand and I couldn’t tell him.

            “It is. You’re okay and the baby’s okay. So what if the baby moved around him? There’s no reason to be upset about it.”

            I didn’t say anything. I just pressed more into his body and cried. That’s all I felt like doing.

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Yep! I updated Not sure when the next update will be but I'm going to try to write more often. Please comment and vote! This is dedicated to ellafox01 and she knows why. Love you hun!