Future Parents Program

Chapter Five- Revealed

Draco Malfoy was human.

Who knew?

Hermione certainly hadn't seen it coming. She'd noticed Malfoy gaping like a landed fish on the side of the pool and the second he'd turned his attention away she'd slipped beneath the surface. When he'd knelt by the water's edge, the wicked thought that it was her duty to return him to water had flashed through her head almost after she had grabbed him. Hermione sat next to Draco's bed and contemplated his still form seriously. He looked so perfect, with his flawless skin and blonde hair that normally fell in a "careless" style. Hermione was sure he spent hours creating the illusion.

She had always seen him as a sort of walking ice sculpture, cold and pale and without fault. Even his hatred had a precision to hit, never spinning out of control. But the pool had forever changed her perception of him. He'd held her so close she could see the blue flecks in his silver eyes. Those orbs had bored into her own with an force that had stunned her. She hadn't known he could feel such deep emotions, yet there they had been, however unidentifiable the majority were. She been lost in those eyes, almost forgetting to hold her breath when she saw the look he had cast her hair. Raw, naked, need.

Thank the heavens he'd almost drowned. She might have done something stupid.

Never once had it occurred to Hermione that the perfect Malfoy didn't know how to swim. She'd barely been able to wrap her mind around the concept even as she finally got him to the side of the pool and life giving air. Not before he'd had a panic attack and swallowed too much water though. She'd had to give him mouth to mouth.

Then he'd thrown up on her.

Then he'd fainted.

Yep, this school year was going to be just thrilling.

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When Draco woke up it was night. He sat up groggily and held his head in his hands. What had happened? He froze when he heard the rustle of movement in the darkness. Slowly, he turned his head until he saw a chair next to the bed he assumed to be his. Someone was sitting there, moving restlessly. He narrowed his eyes, trying to see. His Slytherin instincts weren't sensing any danger.

He got on his hands and knees and crawled closer. Who the bloody-

"Lumos!"

He squinted into the sudden light. "Granger?" he asked uncertainly around the hand that shielded his eyes. He heard Hermione gasp. "Clothes!"

"What in the world are you going on about? My clothes are-" he looked down at himself.

Missing.

Holy Mother of all the Gods in the Heavens, he was naked!

He leapt backwards out of instinct. His feet tangled in the comforter and he lost his balance, crashing onto the floor over the foot of the bed with a painful thump. He didn't pause but grabbed the blanket to wrap himself up in even as he leapt to his feet again. "What the hell is wrong with you, Granger! Stripping unsuspecting boys of their clothes! Shameful!" he shouted at her, red faced and wagging an accusing finger in her general direction.

She stepped closer. "Malfoy I didn't-"

Draco rushed around so that the entirety of his bed stood between them. "Don't come near me, you-you-you pervert!"

Hermione gasped at the insult. "I'm not a pervert! And even if I were, it would be the pot calling the kettle black!"

"Oh, and how is that, Granger?" he tossed back sarcastically. "Lying here, minding my own business while some random Muggleborn takes my clothes off doesn't constitute perversion by any means, even in the wizarding world!"

Granger's eyes blatantly wished him a painful fate. "Swimming pool," she spat, crossing her arms over her chest.

It hit him then. The whole wonderful, humiliating, utterly confusing experience. For the first time in his life Malfoy blushed a deep, deep red that ran from his chest and crept up to engulf his face. She'd caught him spying on her. He closed his eyes. "Did I--did I throw up on you?" Please say it isn't so.

Hermione sniffed. "Yes. Right before you fainted."

"Men don't faint!" Malfoy replied hotly. "We pass out."

"Whatever it was, you were out like a light and I had to levitate you to your room."

Malfoy was struggling to maintain some shred of dignity. "Where you proceeded to get me as naked as the day I was born!" Ok, maybe that wasn't the way to do it, but he was a little disoriented right now, thank you very bloody much. Hermione straightened her shoulders. "I did not. You were dressed when I put you to bed."

"Come off it, Granger. You just wanted to see what you'd been missing all these years," he taunted. He couldn't help the little thrill he experienced at the prospect, especially since he vividly remembered what he'd been missing. Maybe if he offered to show her his, she'd show him hers again.

His inner voice cheered him on. Horny little bastard.

Hermione tossed her luscious hair out of her face. "It may surprise you to know that I have absolutely no interest in your body." She turned to leave, but paused in the doorway to cast him a smug look. "Besides, now that I've seen it, I am definitely sure that I haven't been missing all that much."

Malfoy's jaw dropped as she exited the room on that cheerful little note. Did she--Why that little--He was going to---

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

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Back at Malfoy Manor Narcissa glanced up from her blue prints to note the time. She couldn't help but giggle. That charm she'd placed on Draco's clothes should have activated by now. She wondered what he'd been doing when it happened.

Hopefully he'd been in the company of a very beautiful girl.

Then again, considering how much trouble he'd been giving her lately, Narcissa wouldn't have minded too much if he'd been right in the middle of the Great Hall when it happened. He could use a little humility every once in a while. Besides, maybe someone would like what they saw and give her grandchildren even sooner than she planned.

Her mood extremely good, Narcissa turned back to her plotting, er strategizing.

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They weren't going to survive the year together, Draco decided as he looked into his armoire. They were never going to see graduation. They were never going to even get to the part where they would get the bloody details of the old Dragon's ridiculous scheme. Why? Because the blonde had decided to kill Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor Princess and knew he was going to go straight to Azkaban for it.

Why? Because she didn't just content herself with the clothes on his back, the wench had absconded with his entire wardrobe!

That heifer was going down, and not even in a good way.

He wasn't even left with a blasted sock, and it was going to take a lot more than that to cover his assets. His very attractive assets, he might add! What did Hermione Granger know about blokes, anyhow? Malfoy snorted derisively. All she had to compare him to were Weasley and Potter, and any Bedlamite could see that was no contest.

He looked down at himself to check and nodded silently in approval of what he saw. He might be a pale bugger, but he was a sexy pale bugger. He was over six feet two and a half inches tall. He didn't have an ounce of fat on him. He was well defined, with rock hard thighs and a few other appendages he wasn't too shy to mention. He had pecs a lot of wizards would kill for. He had abs Granger could wash Weasel's second-hand clothes on, not that he'd let such inferior cloth touch him.

Which brought him back to the crime at hand.

He leaned over and waved a hand in his armoire to make sure there wasn't a concealing charm on his clothes, and encountered only air. Surely this wasn't a fair retribution for getting a little peek at her in the pool. If one looked at it in the right light, she'd gotten to see a lot more of his parts then he had hers. The way he figured it, she owed him a free show.

Just then the subject of his musings swept back into his room with a style even he could admire even as he jumped behind an armoire door to shield his still naked body. "Damn you, Granger!" he barked as she came closer. "Your little perversions may not raise any eyebrows in Gryffindor tower, but they won't fly around here, missy--" he was cut off when she unceremoniously shoved something under his nose. He backed away a little. It was a doll.

"Draco Malfoy," she said determinedly. "Meet your child."

One perfect eyebrow shot up to his hairline. "Doesn't look a thing like me," he told her. "Been seeing the milkman behind my back, Granger?"

She was not amused. She lowered the baby figure and looked at it critically. "Dumbledore gave it to me earlier along with instructions." She noted his continued nudity with a sniff. "As soon as you've dressed, you can meet me in the common room."

He hitched his blanket higher on his hips. "I would get dressed if you would give me my clothes back!"

She glared at him. "Are you still going on about that? I didn't take them!"

"Ha! Then how do you explain--" just as he stepped away to present the empty armoire, a tiny bit of magic burst and a letter appeared on the bottom of the space. "---this?" Draco snatched the parchment up and read it out loud. " 'Dear-Draco-consider-this-payback-for-robbing-me-of-my-fun-at-home-love-MUMMYKINS?!?!?!?" Draco finished with a shout. "PS DON'T GET A DRAFT!!!!"

Hermione couldn't help it. She snorted. It was one of those deep guttural snorts that last for several seconds right before one bursts out in wild laughter, which she did. Draco crushed the parchment and hurled it across the room in a fit of pique. It bounced off the other wall with a rather unsatisfying lack of carnage to fall harmlessly to the floor. "Shut up!" he snapped at Hermione, annoyed to the very fiber of his being.

"Your own mother plots against you!" she gasped. "That says something for your character, Malfoy."

"All it says it that my mother has lost it and that leaves me bare-assed and fancy-free," Malfoy grunted. "Now what am I going to do?" He looked inside the armoire with just a hint of admiration for his mother's ingenuity coloring the frustration on his face. "Even my Quidditch uniform."

Hermione tapped her temple. "Hello? You're a wizard, aren't you? Cast a spell!"

Realization dawned. "Riiiiiiigggggghhhhhht," he said. "I knew that." He started for his wand. "I'll meet you in the common room in just a second." Draco picked his wand off the night stand. When he turned back, he found that Hermione hadn't left but still stood in the same spot, arms crossed and a toe tapping. "May I help you?" he asked sarcastically.

She flicked a curl out of her eyes. "Don't you owe someone an apology?"

"If you think I'm going to tell Mother I'm sorry for getting out when I could then you're--"

"Me, Malfoy, me!"

Draco's brow wrinkled, not unattractively. "Ok. I'm sorry for the milkman comment." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Prick," she muttered as she once again left the room.

Draco knew very well what Hermione wanted him to apologize for. Unfortunately for her, he was still smarting over the "not missing anything" comment.

Take that, Granger.

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Thirty minutes later, Malfoy was inspecting every nook and cranny of the little toy Dragon master had given them. Still didn't look anything like him, he thought. "So let me get this straight. We cast this spell Dumbledore gave us and then we have a real live kid on our hands, who we take care of like parents or whatever. Where's the grade part coming in?"

Hermione sat on the couch opposite of his own before the warm fire, watching Draco turn the doll upside down and look at its toes of all things. She suppressed the urge to shake her head and held up two mirrors. "We use these to record our daily progress, our opinions, and our personal thoughts. Dumbledore looks at it at the end of an undisclosed period of time and decides from there if he will keep the program."

Malfoy grunted while he peered into the dolls ears. "So how are we going to do this?" he asked. Was this thing a boy or a girl? He eyed the diaper. There was something a bit wrong about checking that out.

Hermione leaned back on the couch and pinned him with an inquisitive look. "What do you mean?" she asked slowly.

"Rather obvious. Are we going to switch off or something? You take it for one week and I the other, that sort of thing?" He had almost gathered enough courage to hook his finger on the edge of the nappy. Hermione replied in a tone that brooked absolutely no argument. "Dumbledore wants us to look at this from the perspective of a married couple. That means we do it all together, right to the last."

Well, bugger. More time to spend with Hermione. Damnit, he meant to say Granger. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Wonder if he could get her in the pool again?

She stood up abruptly and took the doll from him to lay it on the table between them. "Let's get this over with," she groused. She looked at the paper next to her and knelt on the floor. "Hold the hand." Malfoy mimicked Granger right down to the crouching position, holding the little hand between his thumb and forefinger gingerly.

"Right then. On the count of three, we say the spell at the same time and well....that will be that," Hermione finished lamely. She looked a little apprehensive, as though she were afraid the doll would suddenly jump up and bit her in the eyebrow. Malfoy swallowed, feeling none too steady himself. This wouldn't be so bad, he told himself. You change it, you feed it, you say a few things to the mirror and you're done. Babies sleep most of the time anyway, right?

I'll have to take your word for it, his inner voice replied shakily.

Draco looked at the spell to get the ball rolling and tried to sound it out in his head so he wouldn't forget at the last second and muck up the assignment before it even began. Talk about pressure.

"Ok," Hermione said, taking a deep breath. "One...Two....Three..."

"Parvivolus!" they said in unison. The doll lit up like a fireball, momentarily blinding the two students. Blinking, they stared at one another just a second before turning their attention to the doll they still held.

Only it wasn't a doll anymore.

The newly "born" baby looked back at them with the most amazing silver eyes they had ever seen. Not as pale as Draco, the baby's slightly darker skin provided the perfect contrast to the silver ringlets that had suddenly appeared. Draco's breath caught. It was real. The little hand he held curled itself around his much larger fingers, and the child kicked it's legs in delight. Hermione stared, dumbfounded.

After a moment Draco decided to try and touch more than its hand. He hesitantly stood up, reached down, and picked up the gurgling baby so that their remarkable eyes met. He was awed by the happy expression on the little thing's face.

"What should we call it?" Hermione asked in a quiet voice.

Suddenly the baby burped, showering Draco with projectile substances that he never ever ever ever wanted to see or smell or feel again.

"ICK!"