Prophesied

Chapter 17

Unexpected

I stared at the invitation in my hands. They were inviting me, of all people, to their wedding. It had to be a joke, something to rub in the fact that I had given up the best thing this country had to offer so someone else, someone who loved him more, could live.

And they couldn't even wait until after the baby was born! The date was planed for next week--July 2^nd. Harry knew how I felt about being in large crowds being how pregnant I was, and yet he was asking me to attend the marriage of what had to be the two most famous people in all of wizarding Britain. How many others would be there?

"Are we going?" Jeff asked. He was the one who'd taken the invitation from the owl, and the one who opened it first, so he knew exactly what it was asking.

"If there's too many people, we're leaving," I answered. "Other than that, yes," I said. "They'll probably want us there."

***

"You invited her?" Draco demanded. "Behind my back!"

"She's the one who brought us back together, it's only right that she attends."

"Merlin, Harry, why?"

"Because I want her there!" I yelled. "Besides, if there are too many people she'll leave."

"Why?"

"Because she's pregnant and no one knows. She's afraid that people will injure her or her daughter in large crowds. She's a bit claustrophobic now."

"Then lets make sure the guest list is more than unbearable."

"What is your problem with her?" I demanded.

"What's my problem?" Draco demanded. "Gee I wonder. It couldn't be that she's pregnant with your child, could it?" he yelled.

"How many times have we gone over this, Draco?" I asked. "That baby is not mine, she's Jeff's. Every one agrees with that."

"She's still got your blood."

"All the more reason for Lita to be there, then," I spat, glaring at him. "Her daughter's got my blood, isn't it right that my child attend my wedding?"

"Then maybe we should wait until the bastard is born," Draco spat. "Then her slut of a mother wouldn't have to come to the wedding."

I stared at my fiancé in shock. How dare he say that? How could he even be thinking that?

"I'm sorry," he whispered quickly. "Merlin, I am so sorry, I didn't mean that."

It wasn't just an insult on Lita, and Draco knew that. Maybe not when he said it, but he did now. What did that mean for me? Did that mean that Draco had some further unresolved feelings that he could not express, even now, only three weeks to the wedding?

"If you don't want to do this, just say so," I said softly, yet with a conviction I didn't know I felt before now. It was almost as if a small part of me was hoping he didn't want this.

"How could you even think that?" my fiancé whispered. "How could you even think that I don't want you?"

"I didn't mean me, Draco, I was referring to the wedding."

"How could you think that I don't want to be with you forever, Harry?" he asked. "How could you even think that I don't want to be your husband?"

"The way you're acting," I said, rising from the table we were sitting at. I walked out of the dining room and through the front foyer and out the door. I wanted to get away from this stupid place, but I had nowhere else to go. If I left Malfoy Manor, I would have no place left....

I'm an adult now, I can't go back to the Dursleys, and I wouldn't feel right invading on the Weasleys for a time and Hermione's still living with her family. And as for Lita and Jeff...well that was just out of the question. Lita was probably extraordinarily irritable, Jeff probably hates me--that is my kid after all, like Draco said...--and it would just be too awkward. Way to weird for me anyway....

As I began walking down the ivory steps and toward the gate to go to the nearest village, I heard the door open behind me. Shit...

"Harry, wait," Draco called.

I closed my eyes and sighed inwardly, willing myself to calm down. "What?" I asked, not turning to face him.

***

"Come on, Love, we've got to go!" Jeff hollered from the living room. I sighed one last time before turning off the light in our bedroom and leaving to face the wedding of the century. My ex would be marrying his lover in less than two hours, and I had an invitation. Part of me wished they'd decided not to invite us, but another part was glad that they had taken the time to consider and let us be there, like they weren't there for us.

"You look...beautiful..." Jeff whispered as I neared him. He walked over to the fireplace and took a handful of Floo powder from the bucket on the mantle. "You sure you don't mind traveling like this?" he asked. "You'll get your dress dirty."

"Fine, we'll Apparate."

"Did the Medi-witch say it was alright?"

"You worry far too much," I muttered, disappearing and reappearing in front of a white building surrounded by so much green.... It was Harry and Draco brought to the land....

Jeff appeared beside me and wrapped his arm protectively around my waist. "So this is where the great and powerful Malfoy family reside?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I've seen better."

"You've seen elvish," I reminded him. Of course he had seen better, but he hadn't picked up on what I had. He didn't seem to realize that the building was Draco, with all of his walls and protective barriers, and that the foliage was Harry, with his green eyes that served as both protector and silent observer.

With that assumption, I could also assume the dark sky above could be me, with my watching and feeling what was going on between the two men about to be wed.

***

I sighed heavily as I attempted to straighten my tie yet again. It seemed that every time I tried, it just became even worse. Finally Ron stepped in.

"Guess the Best Man is used for more than just standing next to you, huh?" he asked.

I let out a frustrated whisper of a laugh. "Would you just shut up and fix the damn thing?" I asked. I don't think I've ever been so frustrated in my life...or so nervous. This was marriage. Not only that, but I was marrying a Malfoy. There was no turning back from this. Was I really sure I could do it?

"You having second thoughts?" he asked.

"No," I lied quickly. Hopefully not too quickly.

***

I sighed nervously as Jeff and I sat down near the back. I didn't really want to be here, watching him get married, but...for some reason I felt I had to be. I didn't quite know why....

The music started, funny how they choose the traditional wedding march for such an unconventional wedding.

It was beautiful; the hall they were getting married in. the walls were strewn with ivy and red and white roses every little ways. The main two colors for the night seemed to be green and red. Slytherin and Gryffindor. Harry and Draco.

When they walked together, arm in arm, their eyes were glued to the alter. Neither of them looked away from it, not until they reached it.

They knelt down, facing each other, and searched the pair of eyes in front of them that were so different from the one staring back. They were opposites.... Were opposites really meant to attract?

When Dumbledore, who was officiating, called for the "I dos" Harry faltered. There was a hesitant nature about him that I could feel very strongly. Even the child inside of me reacted to it.

Harry Potter had second thoughts....

"I-I-" he stuttered "-I...cant," he whispered, clearly enough for me to hear, though I didn't know about anyone else.

The hall froze. Every person inside of the enclosed area seemed to still be waiting for Harry's answer. That was when I left; knowing Harry would soon follow behind me. I had to make him go back in there. I had to do something to make them stay together....

I stood on the stairway, just outside of the front door. Harry appeared soon after.

"You came," he acknowledged.

I nodded once. "You backed out on the love of your life," I observed.

Harry tensed. "I don't know what came over me.... I just...I couldn't do it."

"Why?" I asked. "At Hogwarts--"

"That's just it, Lita," he said suddenly. "That was at Hogwarts. We're not there anymore, this is the real world. I could die tomorrow, now that the protection around me is gone for good. There is nothing to say that I can't be there for him tomorrow or the next day, or even the day after that. I can't do this until I have that guarantee."

"What's your other reason?" I asked.

"What makes you think there's more?" he asked.

I raised my hand and placed over my fiercely beating heart.

***

"I can feel it."

Oh.

"She can too," she continued. "Our daughter. She knows something was going on in there that made you, her father, tense and hesitant. She knew it was something big, something that would change your life forever. And she didn't like it."

"Is that so?" I asked.

She nodded. "It is so," she answered. She began to walk down the stairs and into the moonlight that shown on the grounds. I was surprised that Jeff hadn't shown up yet.

"Go talk to him, Harry," she said softly, walking further away from me. "He needs you."

With that, she was gone.

Jeff came out a second later. "You seen Lita?" he asked.

I nodded. "She just Disapparated," I informed him. "Probably went home or something."

Jeff nodded his thanks and went after her. The old jealousy came back over me for a moment before I turned and went into the Manor. It seemed that all of the guests were still here, and my furious...Draco was standing in the foyer, with his hands on his hips, just waiting for me to walk back in, if I so dared.

Obviously I had.

"Come," he ordered coldly.

When we reached the room we had been sharing, Draco snapped the door shut and locked it.

"You can't?" he whispered. His eyes filled with the tears that shouldn't be there. "YOU CAN'T?" he yelled, causing me to jump.

"May I--"

"NO YOU MAY NOT!" he yelled. "Do you have ANY idea what you did to me tonight?" he demanded. "Do you have ANY idea what it feels like to have your heart ripped out of your chest and handed back to you, crushed--shattered into a million pieces--on a fucking silver platter? For the second time?"

"No," I whispered.

"Then I'll just have to make you feel it," he said in a low and deadly voice.

He reached for his wand.

"Draco wait!" I pleaded. "Let me explain," I begged as his wand reached level with my chest. "I have a reason!"

"It had better be a damn good one, Potter."

Ouch. Okay, that hurt.

"Draco I love you, more than anything I love you. But I can't marry you, not with the possibility that I could die tonight, or tomorrow, or even sometime next week. Now I realize that I may not for quite some time, but still, I can't marry you and then be forced away from you. Can we please wait until after I defeat Voldemort?" I asked.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" he demanded in that same cold voice.

"I didn't...I didn't know earlier," I confessed. Would I be in more trouble if I claimed cold feet? "I didn't know why I felt like I couldn't do this before, not until we got to the alter, Draco, I am so sorry, I can't believe I did that to you. Will you ever forgive me?"

***

There was a sharp pain in my belly followed closely by another one. I looked at Jeff in shock. What was happening?

"What?" he asked worried.

There was another pain that almost brought me to my knees. She was coming.... But--this soon??? How was that possible?

Then I remembered. Elven pregnancies are very short, to ensure the wisdom of the child, and to see if they really could survive in this world. If the baby made it through the birth, if they made it through the entire four months (I guess since I'm only half it's a little longer), and then if they made it through the first three months, they'd live forever. Would my baby?

"Lita?" he asked, the worry was clearly written on his features.

"She's coming," I whispered.

***

There was a frantic pounding on the door. Draco turned and hurried to answer it.

In the doorway stood a very distraught Ginny Weasley.

"What is it, Gin?" I asked.

"We've just gotten word," she said in a breathy rush. "Lita's gone into labor."