Draco hastily apparated back to his childhood home with a scowl plastered on his handsome face.
As he walked down the long, dark hallway of Malfoy manor, he pondered the different ways he could approach his current situation.
Enraged by his parents and still reeling from the nauseating realization of how close he had come to losing Harriet forever, Draco chose to act boldly as he stomped into the damask dining room.
Immediately, Lucius and Narcissa looked over at their son, frowning when they saw that he was alone.
As soon as the reporters noticed movement, the cameras began to flash and the quills began to sway back and forth as pictures were snapped and reports were documented.
Draco lifted an arm to cover his squinting eyes from the blinding cameras. Without hesitation, he raised his wand in his other hand and set to work.
Lucius and Narcissa looked on in horror as their son removed the knowledge of his impending fatherhood from each of the reporters' minds.
While the reporters stood and blinked in confusion, Draco collected the parchments they had scribbled on and threw them into the flames that were cradled by the heavy, stone fireplace at the front of the room.
Draco left the cameras alone. Pictures of him standing by himself in his own house didn't prove or hint at anything, so he saw the possibility of destroying the film as a waste of his time.
Time was not something Draco had in ample amounts. It took him only a few seconds to whirl on his heel and face his father with a grimace.
Lucius met his son's glare with a steely gaze as he snapped, "What on earth have you done, Draco?"
"What on earth have you done, father?" Draco hissed back.
Behind them, the reporters apparated away one by one since none of them could remember why they were there at all.
When the Malfoy family was left standing alone in their elegant dining room, Narcissa frowned and glanced worriedly between her warring husband and son.
"Your mother and I have spent a great deal of money and time setting everything into place and now, you've ruined it all!" Lucius growled.
"'Everything?'" Draco sneered, "Tell me what is 'everything', father? Feeding me and Potter to the media so we be swallowed down like candies? Plastered across the pages of the news? Harriet hates the press and-"
"- I don't care if she hates it or not! Your engagement to the Potter girl won't stay silent forever, my son. I see no reason why we shouldn't utilize your unfortunate mistake to reclaim some of our esteemed reputation." Lucius sniffed.
Draco's grey eyes widened in shock before they narrowed in anger.
"My 'unfortunate mistake'?" Draco asked as he echoed Lucius with a mirthless chuckle, "Tell me, father, is that how you intend to address your granddaughter or grandson?"
"That's not what I said, Draco." Lucius replied dryly.
"....But it's what you meant." Draco determined with a nod.
Narcissa looked like she was in great pain as she gazed at her son and spoke softly, "Draco, darling-"
"-Hush, 'Cissa!" Lucius hissed cuttingly to quiet his wife. When Narcissa fell silent, he turned back towards Draco and regarded him coldly, "When you have your own child, you'll understand the lengths that a father will go to so their child's survival is assured. Your mother and I don't understand why you and the Potter girl can't take a photo together and have a small article run in the Prophet. It would be wonderful publicity for this family's companies."
"Is that all I am to you, Father? Your failed son, now a chance for 'wonderful publicity'?! Potter and I aren't engaged!" Draco exclaimed in exasperation.
Narcissa and Lucius exchanged a look of unsatisfied surprise.
"But, sweetheart, your letter said you had gotten her back, that she was staying here." Narcissa frowned incredulously at Draco.
"She's hiding here, Mother!" Draco went on, "She'll have the baby and then she'll leave....sometime...shortly after. She's going to leave! She's with me, for now, but we're not....together! I never said we were a couple in the letter! I never said we were engaged! You both jumped to conclusions!"
"What do you mean you're not engaged?!" Lucius asked his son with narrowed eyes.
Draco's eyes narrowed to slits as he looked at Lucius and replied, "Have you lost your hearing, Father?"
"Why are you not engaged to the Potter girl?! She rejected your proposal?!" Lucius demanded.
"No! I haven't given her one!" Draco snapped.
Lucius glowered at his son and stepped so close to him that he and Draco were eye to eye. Their slender noses were nearly touching as Lucius hissed warningly to his only offspring, "Our family has been involved in.......perhaps unscrupulous magical practices.....at different times throughout the ages, that's true, but no Malfoy has ever been a rake. You may have been a coward in the war, Draco, and I suppose I have to accept that, but I will not stand by and allow my son to become a scoundrel."
"I wasn't a coward and I'm not a scoundrel either, Father!" Draco retorted, not flinching and not backing down as he stared into Lucius's frigid, grey eyes, "I'm in love with her! Her rejection of me isn't my choice! I want to marry Potter!"
"Then see that you do." Lucius spat, his breath hitting Draco in the eyes, "I'm warning you, son. No Malfoy's ever been born a bastard, and I won't stand to see the first while I'm the head of this family."
Draco kept his scowl on his face as he took a step back. He glanced between Lucius and Narcissa in such melancholy disappointment that it disturbed both of them.
"Don't worry about it, Mother, Father." Draco said coldly to his parents, "What difference does it make if my son or daughter is born a bastard? My child's just an 'unfortunate mistake' anyway, right? So is my love for Potter, I assume? Tell me, did you two feel the same way about me?"
Lucius was silent for a moment and Narcissa opened her mouth to speak again but Draco abruptly turned and stormed out of the dining room.
"Draco, where are you going?!?!" Lucius called.
"To protect my child, Father! And when I come back later, I expect Potter's welcoming party to be much different if you're interested in ever meeting your unfortunate, bastard mistake of a grandchild!" Draco shouted at his parents hatefully before he apparated away from the manor and back to the gelato shop where Harriet was waiting for him.
Draco had no idea who else was waiting on him there too...
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"You two aren't supposed to be here!" Harriet snapped at her friends. She felt like a criminal who had been caught in the middle of an offense as Ron and Hermione stared at her in the gelato shop.
"You're supposed to be on holiday!" Ron gasped.
"I came back early!" Harriet lied pointlessly. Even if that statement was truthful, that did nothing to explain her condition, of which Ron and Hermione were in absolute disbelief that she hadn't mentioned anything about it to them previously.
Ron's eyes were glued to Harriet's rounded belly as he repeated, "You're supposed to be on holiday!"
Hermione just frowned at her friend. Although she did seem to process the shock better than Ron as her brown eyes returned to their normal size and she spoke, "That doesn't matter now, Harriet. Look at you, we're not stupid, you know. Why have you hidden from us?"
"I......." Harriet started to speak.
Ron and Hermione both stood waiting to hear what she had to say, but as Harriet's gaze flickered back and forth between the shocked, hurt looks on her friends faces, she was overwhelmed by guilt.
While Ron and Hermione had Harriet cornered, Draco appeared with a pop in the bathroom of the gelato shop. He flushed the toilet, and turned on the water to pretend he had finished what business Harriet thought he had excused himself to take care of.
Draco opened the bathroom door and walked down the narrow hallway that led from the lavatory and the side of the shop out into the main dining area and the counter.
A worried scowl marred his face when he saw Harriet standing tensely in front of the table they had shared. Draco's pulse quickened when he saw how bewildered his omega looked.
It was his first instinct to protect his pregnant lover. As he rushed forward, Draco didn't notice Ron or Hermione standing to the left of Harriet. Concerned only with her safety and well-being, Draco walked right up to his omega and promptly splayed his hand protectively across her belly.
"What's the matter?" Draco murmured to Harriet as her green eyes widened in horror at his sudden, ill-timed appearance.
"MALFOY?!?!" Ron squealed.
Draco's head snapped up and he grimaced when he noticed what had startled Harriet so.
Or rather, who.
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As they stood there and stared each other down in that muggle gelato shop, Ron, Harriet, Hermione, and Draco all endured what may have been one of the single most awkward moments of their lives so far.
No one knew what to say or what to ask or where to start.
Harriet glared at Draco's hand on her and he removed it.
Somehow, that made everything more uncomfortable for everyone.
Hermione had never been one to have trouble reacting and she spoke first as she accused Harriet, "I can't believe you've lied to us!"
"You're having a baby with Malfoy?!" Ron asked Harriet in complete disbelief and utter disgust.
"I.....I didn't mean to lie! It was never supposed to be like this!" Harriet said defensively to Hermione.
After all their years as friends, Hermione still frightened Harriet when she was angry.
"Ron, it's complicated!" Harriet said quickly as she glanced over at Ron.
Draco remained silent and let Harriet speak for herself. She had been so headstrong about the entire situation he didn't dare try to interject. However, he didn't hold back the proud sneer that slipped across his thin lips as Ron looked over at him as if he were silently asking their longtime enemy if what it looked like was really true.
"You're having a baby with Malfoy!" Ron said slowly in utter revulsion.
Harriet'a cheeks burned with anger, shame, and guilt. Had someone dug a hold outside the gelato shop, she would have walked out and crawled in it.
Hermione's unsettling fury ebbed quickly as she saw the look on Harriet's face and took pity on her friend, "Why didn't you just.....Why didn't you just tell us, Harriet?"
"It's.......It's........" Harriet stammered as she struggled for words.
Draco had had enough.
Draco had had enough pretending.
Draco had had enough of sneaking around.
Draco had had enough battling for one day.
"Potter and I are mates." Draco said simply, deciding that he would interject after all, since Harriet couldn't find her own words, "And our gelato is melting, so you'll have to excuse us, Granger."
Harriet glanced over at Draco angrily at first, but her face softened a bit when Draco glanced at her then looked back over to ask Ron and Hermione, "Unless the two of you want to join us?"
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Draco helped Harriet sit back down at the table.
He was a bit surprised when Ron and Hermione accepted his invitation. He and Harriet both scooted their chairs over so that they could sit with them at the small table.
In a very tense quiet, all four of them began to eat their frozen treats.
"So.....you two are.......together?" Hermione asked.
Harriet answered so quickly that she stung Draco, "No."
"......But you're mates?" Ron asked, frowning in confusion.
Draco looked at Harriet, staring at her with his handsome, grey eyes as she cleared her throat, "Well, I mean, yeah, technically we did.......er, you know.......but we're not...um, together."
Hermione stared at Draco. Silently, she asked for his side of the story, but Draco only shrugged as he took another bite of his gelato and replied, "You heard Potter, Granger, we're not together."
The atmosphere became even more uncomfortable at that affirmation. Ron stared at Harriet and Draco but Hermione pushed to try and reach Harrirt as she asked, "Well, how.....um, how are you doing?"
"Fine, brilliant." Harriet said hastily, "And you two?"
"Really well." Hermione answered with a nod.
Ron nodded as well but his mouth was too full for him to speak.
Hermione didn't know if she should ask about the baby or not......it was making things even more awkward that Harriet hadn't said a word about her pregnancy.
Ron and Hermione both found that very, very strange.
There wasn't much more conversation.
Harriet and Draco finished their gelato alarmingly quickly and several seconds after, they bid Hermione and Ron brief goodbyes before they exited the shop.
Ron and Hermione were left to blink at each other in their wake.
"Was that not the most mental thing you've ever seen?" Ron asked Hermione with his face puckered as if he were concentrating very hard on something.
"Well, you don't think that's it, do you?!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Ron asked with a frown, "They both said they weren't together, but their mates.......but they aren't together."
Harriet and Draco hadn't bothered to explain enough of their personal lives to make any real, discernible sense.
"That's not what I'm talking about, Ronald! Can you not see this is obviously a bad situation? What if.....what if he's keeping her prisoner or something?! What if he's forcing her?! I'm going to owl her tonight and tomorrow and the day after that until she answers me." Hermione said quickly.
"You don't know where she's living." Ron reminded his girlfriend.
"That's alright, I know where he lives. I'll send them to Malfoy manor. I'll write to him! I'll threaten to send the Aurors after his father again unless he lets me speak freely with Harriet! He's done something to her, I know he has, there's no way she'd be with Malfoy!" Hermione said determinedly.
"What about the baby?" Ron asked.
Hermione blinked, "Maybe it was an illusion he cast, I don't know."
"Looked real to me." Ron commented.
"If the baby's real, then Harriet will need lots of help. We've helped all these years, we'll help her some more." Hermione decided, "We can't just leave her alone, Ron!"
"I wasn't talking about the baby being real, Hermione." Ron said in a voice that was so serious, Hermione stared at him with her eyes narrowed.
Ron gazed back at Hermione as he spoke with complete conviction, "I think that she and Malfoy really.......really care about each other."
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Draco knew they weren't together, that Harriet didn't want him, but that still didn't remove the pain of hearing her say that out loud to others.
With his pride and his heart wounded, the alpha held his omega close while they apparated back to Malfoy manor.
Once they arrived in the middle of Draco's bedroom, he was startled when he looked down at Harriet and saw her wiping away tears that fell from her eyes.
Draco took a step back from her and frowned as Harriet turned her face away from him.
"Potter, why are you crying?" Draco asked softly.
Draco was frightened he'd angered her by telling her friends they had mated, but that wasn't what made Harriet weep.
We aren't together.
That statement hurt Harriet even more deeply than it did Draco.