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Hermione was sat up in their four-poster bed, covers tucked around her waist with a book in her hands when Draco finally made his way to their bedroom. He'd been working long days at the Malfoy Foundation followed by late nights in his home study, preparing the necessary documents to ingrain Hermione into his family's magic and assets. Changing clauses to allow a Muggleborn to inherit the Malfoy wealth and access to the wards required signatures in blood and no small amount of magic. By the time he crawled up the center of the bed and laid his head in her lap, nudging her book away, he was tired and weary.
Hermione smiled and replaced her bookmark, setting aside the novel to comb her fingers through his hair to a pleased hum from her fiancé.
"You're worse than Crooks, you know," she teased fondly, scratching his scalp with her nails the way that made him nuzzle into her thighs.
"Speaking of," he started, voice muffled by the duvet, "when's that old hairball going to kick the bucket? I found his fur in my—Ow!"
Draco grumbled and covered his ear protectively after she'd pinched it.
"I won't have you speaking ill of him. He's spritely and young yet, Draco. Might even outlive you if you keep draining yourself into those—" she scoffed— "vampiric old contracts."
Draco frowned and lifted his head, one eye closed from being pressed into her leg. "What on earth do vampires have to do with it?"
Hermione pushed his head back down and continued carding through his fine platinum locks. "Not real ones. Anyway, you said we could discuss whether we'd even be staying here once we're married."
Draco rolled onto his back, wincing when her knobbly knees pushed against his spine and shoved them apart to accommodate him. He clasped his fingers together over his middle and stared up at the canopy.
"I think it makes more sense to stay in the Manor than find someplace else. We could never move completely, and I'd still have to return weekly to maintain the estate. If we do have children, this is the safest place to raise them."
Hermione thought awhile, fingers tracing his hairline and down in twin arches over his sharp cheekbones. She wondered how his features would meld with hers. Would their children have his angular bone structure but her round cheeks? Her large dark eyes but his pale complexion?
"I know you like the idea of living somewhere else, but I also know that if you had any real intention to, you'd have several portfolios already lined up with properties to badger me over." Draco said as he tilted his head back to meet her eyes, a slight smile tugging on his lips.
Hermione hummed, accepting that he was right and she hadn't noticed her apparent lack of enthusiasm for her own argument.
"I've been distracted," she replied simply.
Draco rolled from between her legs and stood. He silently stripped his clothes, padding around the room to retrieve his sleepthings and ready himself for bed. Hermione put her book into the draw in her nightstand and used her wand to let down the voiles surrounding the bed.
When Draco climbed into his side of the bed, he held an arm out for her to scoot into his side, pulling her into the warmth of his bare chest and tracing circles on her arm.
"Wedding arrangements?" he asked softly, referring to her earlier distraction.
It took Hermione longer than expected to answer, sparking anxious concern in the pit of his stomach. He pressed a kiss to the crown of her curls and wrapped his other arm around her possessively.
"Draco..."
He tried not to tense. He tried not to leap and bound to all of the worst case scenarios that plagued him on his darker nights, but he loved Hermione which meant he committed every facet of her to memory, including the different tones of her voice. This particular one was not associated with happy memories. He swallowed drily.
"Yes?" If he'd meant to sound casual or unaffected, he failed spectacularly.
Hermione shifted, turning towards him and raising her head. He met her eyes and waited, concentrating on his steady breathing through his nose.
"We're having a baby."
Draco stared. Hermione stared back.
"We... a what? When?" He had never reminded himself so much of Crabbe and Goyle in his life.
"A baby. I don't know when, I'm not sure how far along I am yet. Luna confirmed it for me today and I have an appointment with your Healer in a few days."
Ah, had he remembered to renew the retainer on the family healer? He'd have to add that to the list to check when he got home tomorrow. Were there any board meetings coming up in the next few days? He'd need to arrange his absence to be with Hermione for her appointment.
"Draco?"
Of course, if he was going to need extended leave from the Foundation, it may be time to get around to putting out feelers for a new COO. He couldn't continue that job on top of everything in his current role.
"Draco."
Blaise had an international consultant for his family businesses on the continent. He'd have to schedule a meeting with him to discuss—
"Draco!"
Draco blinked and then had to close his eyes when they stung. He winced and screwed them shut, lifting his hand and finding his face wet with tears. He peered with bleary vision through his clumped eyelashes and found a very disgruntled witch in his line of sight.
"Draco Malfoy, you are going to be a father but you will not be a husband if you don't respond to me this very—"
Draco cut her off with insistent hands on either side of her face and an even more insistent kiss. She was leaning back with the effort of his gratitude, bracing herself to the side with her arm. He let her go with a loud smack of their lips and a grin so wide it hurt his cheeks to hold.
"Thank you," he breathed in a heavy exhale.
Hermione frowned, her ire still plain in the furrow of her brows.
"Thank you?" she echoed incredulously. "What do you mean, thank you?"
Draco laughed, a short but genuine laugh of glee, pride, whatever feelings were making his stomach do somersaults and his hair feel like it was standing on end.
"Thank you, Hermione. For being here, with me. For being the love of my life and my light in the dark and for being you, in all your fierce and wonderful ways. Marry me, raise our child with me, and we can live anywhere in the world. I'll build you a manor on every continent. I'll free every house elf personally with my own bloody socks if that would make you happy. I love you."
Hermione's mouth hung agape, a mixture of shock, confusion and horror on her face. She stuttered when she tried to speak, eventually schooling her face into an expression more akin to pleasantly surprised.
"Oh! So, you're happy then?" she said belatedly.
Draco kissed her once quickly, then twice, then three times when he couldn't help it. She turned her head away to laugh and he continued pecking at her cheeks, her temples, her jaw and her neck. She laughed to a chorus of "stop, Draco, we need to talk!" and replying growls as he dragged her underneath him, pulling the covers of both of them.
"Talk later. No words. Just this." Draco demanded against her skin as he travelled further south down her body.
Hermione tugged halfheartedly at his arms to come back up to her but when he dipped his tongue in her navel, causing her to squeak and squirm away from him, she relented and fell back against the bed.
They would have plenty of time to talk later, she decided. For now, she'd let him massage the words into the soft skin on her thighs instead and consume his fill of her until she was too boneless and tired to talk anyway.