His Veela Heritage by RiverWriter

chapter 27

Draco lay beside Hermione- propped up on one arm- just watching her sleep. He concentrated on her deep, even breathing to keep himself as calm as possible. Otherwise, his roiling emotions were sure to wake her.

Something was different. Something had been different for weeks and he had been pretending not to notice. But he couldn't pretend anymore, it was driving him mad.

So, the night before he'd snuck into his aunt's study- like a thief- while they were having dinner at her house and looked up the pertinent spell in one of her healer's texts. Yet he was still too much of a coward to say anything to Hermione. So he was watching her sleep.

Because if this was...the thing he thought that it was, it was his fault. She'd turned her life upside down for him more than once over the past several months, and if he was right this would be the biggest bombshell of them all. She would be more ostracized than ever. He reached for his wand on the bedside table and before he could second guess himself yet again, waved it over her abdomen, while quietly murmuring the incantation. There were three beats where nothing happened and then a soft blue light appeared over her womb.

For a moment his heart soared with joy. His hand hovered over her, longing to clasp her to him in his jubilation. She was pregnant with his child! It was the strongest desire of his soul, even if he hadn't known that such a desire existed until a few weeks ago.

But almost just as quickly as he rejoiced, he recoiled in horror. Not for himself, but for her. It was the thing he longed for most, but she wanted time...to establish her career, to let their relationship settle, to let her friends and his father learn to accept them, and to grow into her not insubstantial responsibilities as Lady Black. Merlin, it was a miracle she accepted them at all! She had no reason to respect the traditions of a society that had rejected her from the get-go.

It was disgusting, what he'd inadvertently done to her. She hadn't wanted to be pregnant. At least not for a couple of years. She'd been alienated from her friends- as many of them as had been supportive, she mourned Potter and Weasley still. This could only make this worse.

And there would be more children. This pregnancy made it clear that a contraceptive potion was nothing in the face of their connection. Their Merlin be damned, enhanced veela connection. He was certain that was the reason this had happened. His children would be forced upon her. He felt sick.

It was far too much for him to control and, much to his horror, her eyes popped open and she sat straight up in bed.

"What's wrong?" she gasped.

He cupped the back of her head gently and brought her to rest in the crook of his neck. He wanted to put off telling her, enjoy one more moment with her before she surely began to hate him, but couldn't lie to her in the face of that straightforward question.

"I had begun to suspect," he paused as he noted the weird quality to the air as he spoke, until he realized that it was simply his voice quavering. He took a deep breath. "You're pregnant, and I am so sorry."

She just blinked at him and brushed her wild hair away from her face. "Pregnant?"

He nodded.

"And how do you know this?" she asked with a frown.

Draco sucked in a breath as he realized he had yet another sin to confess. "I performed the charm while you were asleep."

She smacked his arm."Draco! What heavy-handed male dragon shite is this!"

He didn't bother to defend himself, just continued to explain. "I suspected for awhile, but I wanted to know for sure before I worried you."

"Wanted to know for sure," she deadpanned, "before you informed me what was going on in my own body!"