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Thank you for reading! I don’t own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy!
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Hermione grit her teeth as she staggered through the doors of St. Mungo’s Hospital late one cold January night.
The iron grip of crushing pain wrapped from her back to her middle as she put a hand on the wall to steady herself just as she came within speaking range of the reception desk.
“Can I help you, dear?” The kind secretary asked with a smile as she leaned towards Hermione.
The fear in the young woman’s eyes and the flush on her cheeks prompted the secretary to furrow her brow in concern and rise abruptly from her seat.
“I…..I need…..” Hermione gasped through her agony.
A startled cry of shock left the hospital secretary’s throat as she saw the rounded belly of a very expectant mother.
“NURSE!” The hospital secretary shouted as she kicked her chair backwards and rushed around the partition.
She reached Hermione’s side just in time to let the poor girl lean on her as she helped her place her arm around her shoulders.
As the pain intensified, Hermione’s knees buckled while a low groan escaped her throat.
“NURSE!” The hospital secretary shrieked again.
The worst of the pain passed just as four women dressed in all white came rushing down the hall.
Hermione mumbled answers to the rapid succession of questions she was asked as they quickly tossed her onto a bed and wheeled her all the way down the corridor.
As she found herself squinting up into the bright, enchanted ceiling lights that blurred overhead, she had never felt more relieved to be in the hospital.
…….Or more ashamed.
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It took a moment to get settled into a room but a lifetime to get her exam, or at least, that’s the way it seemed to Hermione as her clothes were stripped away and a very unflattering robe was fitted loosely around her shoulders.
She would never forget the kind nurse who gently blotted her forehead and neck with a clean, cool damp rag as she endured another treacherous spasm, hunched forward on the bed.
A second nurse scribbled something down on her clipboard.
A third inserted her clean fingers into the one place Hermione absolutely did not want them to be just then.
“Alright, Miss…..Smith? Is that it?” The second nurse asked.
“………Yes.” Hermione hissed through grit teeth.
“Try not to hold your breath, dear, that only makes it worse.” The sweet nurse with the damp rag reminded her.
“Very well.” The second nurse sniffed with an air of arrogance, her tone heavy with judgement and doubt, “It’ll be sooner rather than later, so we’ll call the healer on duty tonight. Is there anyone you’d like with you for the birth?”
“No! I’m alone!” Hermione snapped.
Despite her suffering, her pride still suffered as she glanced up only to see the disgust in the second nurse’s eyes.
Hermione stammered an attempt to save what remained of her dignity, “I….M-My husband, he-“
“-It’s really none of my business, dear.” The second nurse said with a snide smile, “I see more and more of you young girls being abandoned though. I don’t know many times your lot needs to be told….who’ll bother to buy a cow if the milk is free?”
If another sharp pain hadn’t hit just then, Hermione may have slapped the glasses off the second nurse’s face.
“The healer will see you when he makes his rounds, dear.” The second nurse yawned as she made her final notes, pushed her nose into the air, and walked away.
“B-But I need the healer now!” Hermione shouted as the door closed behind her, “I NEED THE HEALER NOW!”
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As her cries echoed down the hospital hallway, the second nurse sighed as she walked up to the healer’s station and laid her clipboard on the desk.
The man seated nearby reached over and took her notes to read, holding them in his elegant, tapered fingers.
“We have a woman in labour. She should have another hour to go but she’s a vocal one.” The second nurse said in a bored voice as Hermione’s cries rang out in the background.
“I’ll see her now.” The man nodded as he stood from his chair and walked towards the room number he saw listed on the nurse’s notes.
The hem of his white healer’s coat fluttered around his sides as he went.
His other patients were all seen and stable.
It wasn’t often a labouring mother came through the main hospital entrance only to be triaged and given a room on the emergency ward.
Healer Malfoy wondered if his nonchalant assistant had downplayed his new patient’s progress.
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He walked into total chaos as he knocked twice on the door, swung it open, and stepped in to find the labouring woman being supported in a deep squat by two of the ward’s best nurses.
He spoke quickly, eager to help the woman who had her head bent in suffering, “Good evening, I’m Healer Malfoy and-“
His smooth voice trailed off as gray met amber.
Draco Malfoy’s eyes widened as he found himself gazing into Hermione Granger’s face.
His heart lurched.
His stomach dropped.
The room spun as he glanced down at her heavy belly and began to count the weeks since he had seen her last.
That night he had become her alpha and she had given herself to him as his omega.
Or at least, he had thought.
That single night of passion between them had seen real feelings finally acknowledged, only for her to leave before he woke the next morning with no card, no note, and no returned letters in the weeks that followed.
“Don’t you have anyone besides him?!” He heard Hermione hiss to the nurse closest to her face as Draco sanitized his hands and moved towards her.
“No. I’m afraid I’m the only healer on duty tonight, Granger.” He scowled, “Go ahead and move forward a bit if you can, there……that’s good. Alright, we’ll worry about the particulars later, yes? For now, I need you to take a deep breath and forget everything but the little one.”
As Hermione’s cheeks burned red, the only thing she could remember was her own rageful humiliation.
She knew Draco worked as a healer at St. Mungo’s.
Why had she not gone to a muggle hospital instead?
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There were no lies Hermione could tell.
The second that perfect little baby boy with tufts of snow-blonde hair and gray eyes slid into Draco’s hands, he knew the truth.
Anxious to see to his lover and child’s safety, Draco performed his job with expert precision and loving care as he made certain no steps were skipped and no detail was overlooked in settling mother and baby into a comfortable postnatal recovery.
He did however, remove his white coat and stay in Hermione’s room once his shift ended.
She lay in bed with enchanted blankets wrapped around her to provide cozy, continual warmth as Draco cradled their newborn son in his arms.
“You could have told me.” He frowned.
She began, “I-“
“You knew that I love you and yet you didn’t even bother to write me back.” He scowled.
“I was frightened.” Hermione huffed, “And shocked…….I panicked, I suppose……I’m sorry!…..I didn’t know what to do.”
“Well, you know what you’ll do now.” Draco sniffed.
“Do I?” Hermione asked.
“You’ll bring our boy home…..with me. You and I will be married and we’ll raise the best Slytherin student Hogwarts will ever see.” Draco smirked.
“The best Gryffindor student.” Hermione corrected him with a tired smile.
“As long as he’s not sorted into Hufflepuff.” Draco laughed.
Hermione laughed with him as she moved over just a bit in bed to let him sit beside her with the baby.
“He’s perfect, Draco.” She whispered as they both gazed down at their beautiful boy.
“Not quite as perfect as his mother.” Draco purred.
The fear and loneliness vanished from Hermione’s life as her alpha leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.
After months of debate, nights spent awake in uncertainty, she finally allowed herself to give in and accept.
Draco Malfoy was in love with her.
It was almost nauseating to think of how much she loved him too.