When the Stars Fall

Seventeen: Harry and Ron's Gifts and Many More

Draco carried Hermione out of Great Hall, up the stairs, and to the portrait of the fat lady. The lady in the portrait looked at the young couple with a smile and a sigh. Draco rolled his eyes and Hermione laughed. He looked down at her, loving how she laughed. Most girls would have giggled, but she laughed a rich and deep sound that reflected emotion.

"Find me funny, do you?" he asked with a smirked.

Her arms tightened around his neck and she smiled. "You're so charming when you roll your eyes. I suppose its just nerves. We finally get to have a proper wedding night, one without a fainting spell and my parents to intervene..."

The fat lady looked at the young couple and said, "Congratulations. And what a lovely young couple you make. Now, the password if you please. Or I could just enjoy your company as you blissfully ignore me."

Draco shot her a rather unpleasant look, gave her the password, and then carried Hermione through the portrait hole. Once he was through, a bright flash blinded him and he paused. As his vision began to return he noticed a grinning Creevey brother, Dennis, looking up at him.

"Creevey!" Draco snapped, "Warn someone before you attempt to blind them. Especially on their wedding night! And I better not be cross eyed in that photo."

Hermione playfully slapped his shoulder and said, "You're a Gryffindor now. I thought you were above terrorizing third years. I'm sure the photo will be good, and it's the first of us together. Now are we going to spend the night in the common room amidst gawking Gryffindors? Or are you going to carry me across another threshold?"

He smiled wickedly. "Well, if you insist, Mrs. Malfoy."

With that Hermione leaned up and brushed his lips with hers. He leaned down and caught her lips in a more heated kiss. When they parted Hermione looked into his eyes and noticed how dark they were with desire. She pushed back some stray strands of his hair out of his face, and then he carried her up the stairs and to their room.

They didn't noticed the shocked silence that filled the Gryffindor common room; up until that point, most of the Gryffindors didn't believe the feelings were real between the couple. It was safe to say that they had their doubts. They all suspected he had her under some sort of spell or was using her. The Gryffindors finally realized that whatever Draco Malfoy had been before, he was different now, and he was one of them.

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Draco wasn't sure how he got the door open and still managed to hold onto Hermione. He carried her across the threshold and kicked the door shut behind him. Amidst a flurry of kisses, Draco managed to cast wards on the door and silencing charms on the room. He set her down gently on her feet and groaned as she yanked his shirt from his pants and ran her hands up his chest.

They parted long enough for him to pull off his shirt and toss it across the room. When he leaned down and kissed her, he noticed something different. She returned the kiss, but it was not feverish. It was gentle. He lifted his hands to her face, and his fingertips brushed tears that were trailing down her cheeks. He said, "Lumos."

The room filled with light; then he wrapped his arms around Hermione's trembling body.

"What's wrong?" he asked, worry thick in his voice. "This isn't about my father, is it? I didn't know he would be there..."

Hermione smiled and shook her head. "I'm just happy. I suppose I'm just so happy that the girl side of me has taken over."

"You have an odd way of showing how 'happy' you are," he said with a wry grin.

"It felt so good to have my mum fussing over my hair and Mrs. Weasley getting emotional and sobbing over how beautiful Ginny and I looked. We were among family and friends, and now they know that what we have is real. That's all I've ever wanted. To have my family and friends share in the most precious moments of my life," she whispered and then leaned her head against his chest.

He leaned down, his lips brushing lightly against her forehead. "They are my family too. Thank you for giving me that. Now as far as Potty and Weasel..."

Hermione looked up at him and put her fingers to his lips. "Don't start in on them tonight, of all nights. It's just us for now."

"As you wish," he spoke, his voice husky, as he leaned down and caught her lips again, in a heat of passion.

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"She really does love him," Ron said sadly.

Harry looked at his friend and put a hand on the redhead boy's shoulder. " I know, Ron."

"It's real though, Harry. It's not some nightmare or joke, like I wanted it to be. I thought I was ready for it. I've tried, but until now it never clicked. It was like it wasn't real before. He really loves her, doesn't he?"

Harry nodded and sighed as Ron went off on a tangent, "Well, that won't change a thing! He's still ferret boy to me, and if he ever hurts her..."

"Some things never change," Harry said with a grin and then his attention turned to Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey hovering around Snape.

Harry moved closer towards the group, and Ron followed close behind and they overheard Dumbledore chuckle and say, "My, my, Severus, I haven't seen you that passionate or angry since your last confrontation with Sirius. Still brooding over lost love I see."

"That is not your concern, old man," Snape hissed.

Madame Pomfrey spoke up then, "It might not be Albus' concern, but when you've gone and broken your hand it becomes my concern. Now hold still or I'll immobilize you!"

Snape's head snapped up as he glared at the mediwitch. "Either heal me or send me to the bloody hospital wing! And will someone tell Minerva that I want a word with her! Now!"

"I'm right here Severus. And for Merlin's sake, Poppy, heal the man to ease some of that bad temper," McGonagall said.

With a harrumph, Poppy finished her assessment and performed a bone repairing charm on his hand.

"Osteo Repairo."

Snape flexed his hand and then looked dead into McGonagall's eyes. "Tell me the truth, right now. I need to know everything if I'm going to keep the boy and his wife safe. It's time I know for certain. She didn't miscarry, did she?"

McGonagall shook her head, her whole countenance one of sadness.

Snape took a deep breath and spoke in hushed tones, "So, he is my son?"

"Yes, Severus, but the time is not right for him to know. That is why I insisted Albus overlook the ceremony. Fathers cannot overlook the wedding ceremonies of their children, as you well know." McGonagall's voice seemed to wilt a little with defeat.

Snape took a deep breath and as he let it out, exhaustion seemed to overtake him. "After eighteen years of wondering. Eighteen damn years! At least I stood for him at his wedding."

Harry noticed Ron standing beside him, the redhead's mouth hanging open. Harry grabbed Ron's shoulder and they both backed away. As they headed toward Gryffindor tower, Ron spoke:

"Bloody hell! I only said Snape was his dad to get a rise out of him. I never really thought the greasy git was his dad! Guess I can't call him Malfoy anymore..."

Ron visibly shuddered at the thought of Severus Snape and any woman together, "Snape is a father. I thought there were laws that prevented that."

Harry stopped and grabbed Ron by the shoulder. He pulled the boy over to the wall so they had a bit more privacy and said, "They can't know until Snape wants them to know. We can't be the ones to tell them about Mal...Draco's real father. I doubt he'd believe us and it's not right. You can't hold this over him either."

"Aw, all right, but could you imagine the look on his face when he finds out?" Ron said with a demonic glint in his eyes.

Harry only nodded.

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Draco was lying in bed, his head propped on his hand, as he looked down at Hermione. He took his free hand and traced over the lines of her face with his fingertips. He could hardly remember what life was like before there was her. He could recall waking up alone covered in sweat and goose bumps from the nightmares that always plagued him, but there were no nightmares with her by his side. He wondered if she knew how beautiful she was. How much she meant to him.

He noticed a change in her breathing and smiled as she moaned and her eyelids fluttered open. She let out a yawn and then stretched, before turning over to look at him. A small smile played across her lips as she looked up at him.

"Good morning," he spoke softly.

"Um," she moaned, "How do you always manage to get up before me? At this rate I'll never be able to make you breakfast in bed."

He let out a laugh. "You could always tell me to roll over for a bit. I wouldn't mind a few minutes in bed while awaiting one of your wonderful breakfasts."

"Maybe we should get up. It's Saturday, and my parents will be leaving this afternoon if I recall correctly, and we have so much to talk about," she said.

He shook his head. "All right, although, the bed is far more inviting."

He wiggled his eyebrows and she rolled her eyes and with a quick movement on her part, swatted him with her pillow. After a pillow fight, the two got out of bed and pulled on some clothes. Hermione noticed the presents at the end of the bed.

"Oh, it's like Christmas. I really wasn't expecting anything," she said.

Draco walked around to see what she was talking about. He'd just fastened his pants and looked down at the many gifts on the floor. He noticed a large box wrapped in Gryffindor colors. He rolled his eyes, knowing whom it was from, even before Hermione picked up the card that rested on top of it. Her laughter caught his attention as he tried to read the card over her shoulder.

"What does it say?" he asked.

She was still trembling with laughter as she held the card out to him. He took the card, looked over it and let out a rather undignified grunt.

Mione,

Ron wanted to give you a long lasting supply of Snape's patented Contraceptus Potion, but I thought better of it. Hope you enjoy this instead.

--Harry and Ron

"Remind me to give Ron a swift kick in the arse," Draco said.

Hermione chuckled, and then tore into the package. The ripping away of the paper revealed a plain box. Hermione opened it and pulled out a yellow baby blanket. She looked at it with snort and then shook her head, but there was more to be had in the box. A few moments later she pulled out a photo album, followed by a stuffed ferret, hamster food (with an attached note from Ron that said it was expressly meant for 'ferret boy'), a book entitled Wizarding Wedding Woes (to this Hermione shook her head), and finally the last thing she pulled out was a small package that looked to contain muggle tablets for colds, headaches, or some such. Upon close inspection she blushed. The small package was labeled Wizarding Wheezes PMS Packers: Ladies take one of these and he won't want you for a week.

Draco looked at everything Hermione took out of the box and shook his head at most of the contents, with a growl and a promise to talk to Weasley about the hamster food, and then he noticed Hermione blush as she looked down at a small package in her hands. He raised an eyebrow at her and asked her what it was. She told him it was nothing. He reached over and snatched the package from her. She fought to get it back, but it was too late as he saw what it was.

He burst out laughing and after a few minutes managed to wheeze, "I should deck them both for this. Really, nothing could keep me from wanting you Hermione. This was rather clever though. What else have we got here?"

Draco picked up a simply wrapped parcel that looked as though it contained a book of some sort. He realized it was from Hermione's parents, and opened it carefully. A smile spread across his face as he recognized the photo album. It was the album that Penelope Granger had showed him that day shortly after he'd first married Hermione. He quickly flipped through the photo album and found the picture of Hermione when she was two. She was streaking through the backyard. He flipped through a few of her other baby pictures, but found himself coming back to that one.

He held up the book and let her have a good look at the picture. Her eyes widened in horror as he said, "Wait until Potty and Weasel have a look at this. What would they think?"

"You wouldn't dare!" she gasped.

His lips twisted in a devilish grin, "Of course I would."

"Draco..." she began, but he leaned toward her, catching her lips in a kiss that made her forget about the photo and what she'd been about to say.

Then Draco noticed something on her left wrist. He took her hand and brought her wrist closer to his face for inspection. He knew the bracelet that was around her wrist. It was set with the deepest blue sapphires he'd ever seen, stones the color of his mother's eyes, and that bracelet had belonged to his mother, and she never took it off for any reason.

"Where did you get this?" he asked her.

"It was wrapped in a small velvet box. The paper was black and it was tied with a silver ribbon. Why? Is there something wrong with it?"

Draco shook his head. "No, but it was my mother's. She never took it off for any reason. I never saw her without it. How could she know about us?"

"Perhaps your father mentioned something," Hermione suggested.

"No. He never tells her anything."

"Should I keep it?" she asked.

"It was a gift, of course you can keep it. I'm just surprised my mother would know about us, or give you that. She was always rather fond of it. I asked her once where she got it, if it was a gift from my...Lucius. She only shook her head and a whimsical look passed over her face."

Hermione sighed. "It obviously meant a lot to her."

"Hey, what else have we got here?" Draco asked, changing the subject.

They continued to open the gifts. They'd gotten a pair of socks each from Dumbledore, various cakes and fudge from the Weasley household, a charmed music box from Professor Flitwick, some garlic extract from Professor Sprout (who claimed garlic built passion), and a strange silver ring with the band shaped like a coiled snake set with an elaborate cut obsidian stone from Professor McGonagall.

Draco put on the ring and it fit him perfectly. He looked up at Hermione's questioning glance and shrugged. The last gift was rectangular and flat. It was wrapped in dark green paper and a silver ribbon and there was no card. Hermione tore open the paper and sighed as she looked at the gift. It was a framed photo of a woman with long platinum blond hair, holding a baby in her arms. The baby was asleep and the woman was gently rocking it back and forth. Draco looked over her shoulder and his hand went out, his fingertips brushing over the glass of the frame.

"That's my mother and me. Who was this from? I can't believe someone would give this to us. I never knew she ever looked at me like that before. It's almost like she loved me once."

"I'm sure she still loves you. She had a hard life being married to Lucius. I'm sure she wanted to love you, but she couldn't show how she felt or Lucius would have used her emotions against her," she whispered.

He took the photo from her, put it on their bedside table, helped her up, and suggested they take a shower. She readily agreed, and once they gathered fresh clothes they headed toward the bathroom.