When the Stars Fall

Twenty: Mending and Falling Apart

Hermione swallowed thickly as the mediwitch approached her. Her grip on Severus Snape's hand increased tenfold. The nurse looked at the odd display with a raised eyebrow, but chose to ignore it and looked at the girl. A gasp suddenly escaped her.

"I have a good idea as to why you are here Miss Granger, I mean Malfoy... And I must say that I am glad that you are a married woman," Madame Pomfrey said.

"Well?" the girl asked, her voice tinged with fear, and the mediwitch looked at the Potions Master and had to hold back a chuckle.

"Lie back on the bed dear. Although I am more than certain that you are to be a mother," the mediwitch answered.

"How can that be? I've been careful. I used all of the proper charms. It's not possible... Unless..." Hermione trailed as she began to remember the properties of moonstone.

"Unless what?" Severus asked, noticing how pale she'd suddenly gone.

"He gave me a moonstone the night before we returned to Hogwarts. That had to be the night. Moonstone is a woman's stone, it provides fertility, it would counteract any charm to prevent pregnancy if worn..." she couldn't bring herself to finish.

"Yes, well it would seem that fertility abounds in you my dear," Madam Pomfrey said as she held her wand over the girl's abdomen, and smiled. "It appears as though you are to be the mother of a son and a daughter. Congratulations dear."

"Twins?" Hermione and Severus said together, color completely draining from both of their faces.

For a moment Madame Pomfrey looked indignant. "I have never been wrong in these matters before. Now about your health, a good vitamin regiment is what I strongly recommend."

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Twins. The idea of two lives growing inside of her was surreal. She brought her hands timidly to her abdomen, and a small smile spread across her lips. She looked around the room, everything so neat and in its proper place, nothing seemed to have changed, and yet her life had taken such a profound turn. She took a deep breath, and everything came crashing down around her, waves of fear, worry, confusion, happiness.

"I'm going to be a mum. So many things are going to change. How do I know if I'm ready for this? I never thought I would be tied down like this so soon. I'm so young. And, oh Circe, how is Draco going to feel? What am I going to do? What are we going to do?" she whispered aloud to herself.

Tears came rushing to her eyes and she breathed in short little rasps, struggling to get air against the sobs raging within her. She wrapped her arms around herself and curled up on the bed. Everything was happening so quickly. She wasn't sure when it had finally dawned on her that she was married before finishing school. She'd vowed that she would never be the clichéd young pregnant girl, and yet here she was.

She sighed. "At least I did it right. We were married. Oh Goddess! What will my parents say?"

"About what?" a voice asked from the doorway.

Her head snapped up, she'd been so involved in her own inner turmoil that she hadn't even heard him come in. He cocked his head to the side as he realized that she'd been crying. She fiercely brushed the tears from her cheeks and tried her best to smile, but it was in vain. He slowly approached the bed, sat beside her, and as her body slid towards him, due to the shift in weight on the mattress, he wrapped his arms around her.

"Shhh, tell me what's wrong? Are you ill? What can I do to make it better?" he asked and then something occurred to him. "I tried to talk to you earlier, but you were closed off. Why would you block me out?"

She grabbed him in a crushing hug, burying her head in his shoulder, as more of her emotions surfaced and the tears flooded anew. "I'm so sorry. I should have known. Oh, Goddess, Draco..." she moaned in between stifled sobs.

"It can't be all that bad," he said as he gently rubbed her back.

"We're too young for this," she sniffled as she pulled back and looked at him, not caring that her cheeks were splotchy and her eyes were red from crying.

He pushed back a silky strand of her curly hair and used his thumb to lightly brush away a tear. "What are we too young for? Just tell me, Hermione."

"We're..." she began and her lip began to tremble, but she took a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing, "...going to be parents."

He simply stared at her, time seemed to have stilled and all she saw was a dazed expression on his face, his eyes wide and mouth slack. She reached up and lightly brought her fingers to his cheek. "Please say something," she said in a small voice.

He blinked and seemed to come alive all of once. His eyes locked on hers and he swallowed thickly. "Is this real? We're so young. I don't know anything about babies or children. How are we going to do this? Oh, Gods, I don't want to become Lucius, Hermione. I can't be like him, not to my children. What are we going to do?"

"He is not your father, Draco. A man as cruel as him isn't capable of having a child. You will never be him, because I love you, and I have faith in you. I think we could do this. I know it won't be easy, and we are so young, but... Well, I've always wanted to be a mother. I suppose it just happened a little sooner than I thought it would."

"You really think we could raise a child? But what if I do something wrong? What if they hate me?" he asked. "Tell me, is it a boy or a girl?"

"Both," she answered.

He looked at her in confusion, and she decided to clarify. "Twins, Draco. We're going to have twins, a son and a daughter."

He drew her tightly against him and began to rock her back and forth as the news set in. He was going to be a father. Not long after his eighteenth birthday he would be responsible for a son and a daughter. He buried his face into her curly hair, and nuzzled her neck with his nose before kissing her collarbone.

She drew back from his arms. "Draco?" she asked, looking at him in confusion.

"I love you," he answered before he leaned toward her and caught her lips in a gentle kiss. His hand then wandered down until he came to the hem of her shirt. His hand slid beneath the material and cupped her left bra covered breast. "Let me show you how much."

"Yes," she moaned in answer, and began to flick open the buttons of his robes. He rolled his shoulders to help her get the sleeves of the offending material down his arms, and then he dipped his head to capture her lips once more. He tugged her shirt off and then his arms went around her, his fingers deftly unclasping the bra. She had unbuttoned and tugged his shirt free, and her hands were pinned between herself and his naked upper body.

He began to trail kisses from her lips down her jaw, throat, across her collarbone, until he came to her left breast and took it greedily into his mouth. He looked up at her slyly, and felt his arousal grow as he saw the beautiful expression of ecstasy on her face. He suddenly abandoned her breast and once again found his lips against hers as he leaned her back onto the mattress, his body dominant over hers.

"This means I will have to learn to share," he whispered as their lips parted and their foreheads met gently.

Her eyebrows knitted together as she looked at him in confusion. "What?" she asked.

"Well," he answered in an arrogant tone. "I won't be the only privileged individual to admire the exquisiteness of your breast anymore, now will I?"

She blushed at the insinuation he was making.

"Don't worry," he whispered. "I'll be the ever doting father. I swear that they will know my love for them. Nothing will ever harm them if I can prevent it."

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, as she saw the fire in his eyes, and felt her heart swell within her breast as his fingers trailed gently over her abdomen. She brought her hand tenderly to his cheek and whispered in a breathy sigh, "Please, make love to me."

"To you and no one else," he answered, as he once again returned fervently to her lips.

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Harry and Ron were sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room when the Potions Master entered the Gryffindor Tower. Everyone stared at the wild looking man with greasy dark hair, and black eyes, hardly recognizing him as their snarky professor. Harry and Ron rose from their chairs and began to approach the man, but he turned to them and the look of anguish in his obsidian eyes stopped them both in mid step.

He then took the stairs leading to the second floor where the dormitories were located, heading past the seventh year boys' dormitory, and suddenly stopping before the door he most feared to open. He steeled himself and rapped his knuckle sharply against the thick oak door. He heard rustling and grumbling, and then a distinct voice say, "Potter, Weasley, if that's you, then you'd better have a damn good reason for..."

The voice stopped as soon as the door was pulled open and the speaker was faced with the distraught man on the other side. "Professor?" he asked in confusion, tugging on his house robe to make it more secure.

"May I come in?" the man asked, his voice on the verge of breaking.

The blond youth pulled the door open wider and indicated that the man was allowed entrance. The dark haired man gave a nod and then walked past him into the room. He noticed the girl with unruly brown curls sitting up in the bed, a white button up shirt covering the upper half of her body, the bed linens covering the rest of her.

"Professor... Severus?" the girl asked from the bed as the man took a seat on the plush red chair by the desk.

He looked up, seemingly shocked at having been addressed. His eyes looked glazed, haunted, and then he turned to the blond boy, and swallowed thickly as he gazed deeply into the boy's eyes, the blue slowly melding into a deep, almost black indigo with rich silver flecks in them. He smiled wistfully and then the expression faded, as a strangled cry escaped his throat.

"My mother's eyes," he said, as his last resolve broke and he wept for the first time since the love of his life married another man.