Amazing Grace

Draco couldn't ask for much more. He had given up the Dark Lord, and denounced his father, but it did not change the fact that he had everything he wanted - including, for one of the first times in his life, happiness.

It stretched his wings as he landed on the in table next to Draco's chair. The seventeen-year-old eyed in conspicuously, then took the piece of parchment it had clenched between its beak. He unfolded it, bemused, and began to read...

Draco Malfoy -

Draco, it's Weasley - Ginny Weasley (Draco groaned inwardly: what had happened between them at the end of his sixth term was nothing to brag about). I have some news that you might find surprising. I know this is the last thing you could possibly want, but it's happened. I'm pregnant. Draco, I'm only sixteen. My parents hate you, and, to be quite honest, I don't care too much for you either. Just...stay away, eh? I think it would be best. I hope you'll understand...

- Ginny

Draco crumpled of the parchment. "So," he said aloud in a furious tone. "She's pregnant for nine months and doesn't tell me? How did she cover up at Hogwarts?" A sudden thought hit him. Nine months?

He would be a father soon. That was a nice prospect. Just because that git Crabbe didn't know how to duel and had changed their appearances didn't mean that he wasn't going to respect having a child. But the kid would have to live with being brought into the world because his mother looked like Fleur Delacour and his father looked like Harry Potter for a day...and that was worse than being a mistake. At least a mistake was brought into the world by loving parents, right? But what kind of circumstances were he conceived under? His father wanting to keep the Malfoy name alive? Draco snorted. How petty...

Draco didn't know what else to do. He had to get to Ginny...he had to be there for the birth of his child.

Draco arrived at the Weasleys' homestead after Apparating from his small home just outside the gates of the Malfoy manor. It was a ramshackle of a place, and he did not like the looks of it. But he had no choice but to walk up to it. And he made it, somehow, to the front door - he did not even stumble over a stray chicken.

He knocked tentatively at the door. After a loud CLANK! a shaken-looking Ron Weasley opened the door.

"Oh," Ron said flatly, "it's you." He seemed to be expecting to see Draco turn up at his house without word. Though, his sister was having his child, so it probably was not a big deal.

"Yes. Me," Draco said, smirking and stepping into the house. "Where is...Ginny?"

"She's at St. Mungo's...if you have to know," Ron said scathingly.

Draco's heart skipped a beat. "Is the baby okay?" he breathed.

Ron eyed him suspiciously. "What do you care?"

Draco did not stick around to listen to Ron's ranting. He Disapparated instantly. He arrived at the musty shop, and quickly entered, finding himself in the lobby. A tired-looking witch with silver hair stood lazily behind the counter. He ran up to her, and she peered at him glassy-eyed.

"Can I help you?" she drawled.

"Yes," Draco murmured, "where is Ginny Weasley's room?"

The witch lowered her eyes to a piece of parchment on her desk and looked back up at Draco, gave him the room number and floor, and picked up Witch Weekly from beside the parchment.

Draco hurried up flights of stairs and found Ginny's room in seconds. Thoughts of what could possibly be his only shot at carrying on his family's name - of being a father - flashed through his head; was she giving birth now?; was she all right?; why had she just decided to write him this morning, the morning she would be sent to St. Mungo's?

He burst into the room to see Ginny, her mother, the Healer, Ron, and...

Harry Potter.

Draco stared at the people standing in the room. "What the hell is he doing here?" Draco yelled, eying Harry incredulously, taking a step toward him.

Ginny frowned to Draco's right. "Because," she said quietly, "I want him to be my baby's father."

It felt as if she had just tied a cauldron to his ankle and thrown him in a lake.

"What are you on about?" Draco said, staring at Ginny as if she were mad. "He's not the father! I am! You told me that this morning!"

Ginny didn't say anything, she just pulled the sheets covering her body up to her chin.

"You're upsetting her, Malfoy," Harry said in a venomous monotone, walking up to Draco.

"You just shut up," Draco said hotly, taking out his wand and pointing it at Harry. Harry mimicked him.

"Put those away," Mrs. Weasley said from beside Ginny, staring pointedly at Harry's and Draco's wands.

The Healer and Ron watched the scene with raised eyebrows. Draco would have normally been surprised Ron was not speaking up for his sister - were he not about to fulfil Potter's death wish.

Draco wanted to lash out at Mrs. Weasley. He wanted to tell her to shut up. He wanted to hex her. He wanted to do so many things to her, but he could not. He had to keep his tongue inside his head and leave it there: bashing Ginny's mother was no way to persuade her to let him be the father he was entitled to be.

"Malfoy - Draco - please remember why we're here. Neither of us wanted this. And I know you don't want my baby, so if you would just leave - " Ginny started patiently with a frown occupying her lips still yet.

"You think I don't want your baby? You think I'm just going to leave and let Potter raise my child? Do you think that the heir to the Malfoy name will be brought up by some - " Draco started out in whisper, but finished in a harsh, angry tone.

"So that's what it's about, is it?" Ginny said defiantly, looking at Draco with hate covering her bright blue eyes. "Carrying on the Malfoy name? Nothing else matters to you, does it? That's why Harry should be - "

"Ginny, stop. If he wants it, he can have it," Harry said in a soothing whisper from the other side of Ginny's bed. Ginny opened her mouth to protest, but Harry, to silence her, continued, "I know neither of you care for each other. I know you dislike each other as much as anyone could possibly dislike someone. But, Gin, that doesn't give you the right to stop him from fathering his child."

Ginny's eyes widened in shock. "You're siding with him?" she said in a definite voice, her face screwed up disbelievingly.

"Of course not," Harry said gently, taking her hand in his. "I want to be your baby's father, but I'm not. Malf- Draco is. And as much as we all hate that, I can't take something like that from him..."

Ginny's expression lightened and she smiled brilliantly at Harry. "You're right..." she said in one breath. "I'm sorry, Harry, I - " but she stopped suddenly. She then screamed loud enough for the people on the next block to hear.

"What's wrong with her?" Ron asked quickly as the others rushed to her side.

The Healer was pointing her wand at Ginny and muttering things under her breath as different colored jets of light emitted from the wand. "She's going into labor."

Draco's heart was beating at such a rate he had never felt. His child...his child was coming into the world...now...

Ginny's contractions came at twenty minute intervals. Every time she had one, Draco watched as Harry gripped her hand and muttered words of ease to her as she clenched her eyes shut. As the time gap between contractions steadily diminished, the Healer looked around at the four other weary occupants of the room as Ginny let out a painful sob.

"Maybe," she said, frowning, "you lot should leave....She needs to be...she needs to focus," said the Healer looking from Mrs. Weasley, to Ron, to Harry, and Draco.

"But I'm the father," Draco said in an insubordinate tone of voice. "And the father stays," he added, inclining his head at the Healer for effect.

The Healer frowned again. "Yes. Yes, you're right..." she muttered, hurrying over to Ginny and administering a vial of thick, dark purple potion to her.

Harry glowered angrily at Draco, who pretended not to notice. He kept his eyes locked on Ginny, who was now breathing heavily, blocking out the others' angry stares as they exited the room.

"Damn...you...Malfoy..." Ginny yelled through clenched teeth. "You...put...me in...this...goddam...position! I hate...you!" she screamed, grabbing Draco's hand and squeezing it so tight that he thought his veins might burst.

"Ginny," he said, trying, and failing, to wrench his fingers away from Ginny's grip. "Ginny! Let go, dammit!"

The Healer frowned at Draco. "You shouldn't upset her, Mr. Malfoy..."

Draco turned to look at the Healer, an old witch with a grandmotherly look about her, about to say something hurtful, but bit his tongue. 'Don't say anything...just shut up...' he thought. Once again, the prospect of having an heir to his name floated through his head.

"Yeah," he mumbled, turning back to Ginny, who now had a look of mixed pain and anger on her face.

Draco looked strangely at her. 'Words of encouragement...' he thought. Words of encouragement to Ginny Weasley? came a second voice in his head. Yes, of course...

"Just...er...push," he said awkwardly, still struggling to release his fingers, which now had no feeling left in them and were turning a shade of deep purple.

Ginny inhaled deeply and looked up at Draco. "I'LL PUSH!" she yelled. "I'LL SURE AS HELL PUSH! WAIT UNTIL I GET OUT OF THIS BED, DRACO MALFOY! I'LL PUSH YOU DOWN A FLIGHT OF GOD DAMNED STAIRS!"

Draco frowned, wishing he were anywhere else on the planet than where he was now. The Healer wore a look similar to Draco's as she shot another spell at Ginny. Ginny let go of Draco's fingers in an instant and looked rather tired. Draco sighed, flopped down in the chair by the bed, and fell asleep.

Three hours later Draco awoke to a terrible sound. "Wha' tha hell..." he slurred, looking around wildly to see a sweaty Ginny, smiling with her head laid back on the pillow, her eyes shut; the beaming faces of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Harry, Ron, Hermione Granger, Charlie Weasley, Bill Weasley, and, to his surprise, Luna Lovegood.

"When did they ge' here?" he said sleepily, peering around the room at the faces of the people he would rather not see when he had just awakened.

"We sent word to them," Mrs. Weasley said shortly as two people Apparated by her side - Fred and George Weasley.

Draco didn't say anything; he was looking past Ginny: for on the other side of the bed was the source of the sound.

"Ginny's son," Mrs. Weasley said when she saw where Draco was looking.

Draco cringed at the phrase, 'Ginny's son,' but held back words yet again. He got out of his seat and walked around Ginny's bed to the clear box next to her. A quiet, involuntary gasp escaped his lips. His son had a small tuft of pale orange hair, dark blue eyes, and, in the eyes of anyone else, the most adorable, tiny fists and feet.

He turned around to see that Ginny Weasley was actually smiling at him. "What's his...what's his name?" he said in a monotone, glancing back down at the boy.

Ginny propped herself up on her elbows. "Harry - " Draco scowled, " - said I should leave it up to you."

'Leave it to saintly Potter to make up her mind for her,' he thought angrily, but he turned back to the baby. He studied him for a few moments before making up his mind:

"Amyn." He looked up at Ginny, expressionless.

"Superb name, Malfoy!" Fred Weasley walked up to him with a noticeably forced smile that did not quite reach his bright blue eyes.

"Yes, yes, I quite agree, Fred," his twin, George, said, standing beside Fred.

Draco threw glances at the two to kill. The twins shrugged and went back over to Charlie and Bill.

"Weas- Ginny," Draco said turning around to look at her. "I believe I will be going. Owl me when my son is able to come to me."

Ginny frowned, but nodded, and Draco Disapparated.