The Muggle Project

What Next

DRACO'S POV

I had just finished cooking the chicken and cutting up the stuff for our chef salads I had planned for dinner. The table was set neatly with our best china. I wanted everything to be absolutely perfect tonight. Especially after all that Hermione had been through these past couple days.

After the food was placed on the table I went to our laundry room and grabbed the mop and mop bucket and filled it up before I headed upstairs to clean up the mess Hermione had made. It had been about fifteen minutes since she had asked me so she was due to be finished with her bath any moment now.

"Hermione, love, where is the spill?" I asked as I knocked on her bedroom door.

I heard no response so I opened her bedroom door.

"Hermione?" I called again. Still no response.

I could hear music from the bathroom so I suspected that maybe she didn't hear me. I crossed the room and peered into the bathroom. There, laying facedown in the tub was Hermione.

"Hermione!" I breathed, dropping the mop and mop bucket as I lunged forward to pull her from the tub.

Holding her in my arms I patted her face to try and rouse her but she didn't move. I pressed my ear to her chest and heard a faint heart beat.

"Merlin, Hermione, please wake up!" I cried as I pulled her back against my chest.

I brought my ear down to her mouth to listen for signs of breathing. Just like her heart, they were there but faint. As I moved to brush her hair that was plastered to her face I froze when I felt my hand coat with a warm sticky liquid. Pulling my hand away my eyes widened as it was covered with blood.

Cradling her into my arms I rose to my feet and took her to the bed before I laid her down. I wrapped her carefully with the blanket and then lifted her into my arms again and started from the room.

I took my time as I went down the stairs. The second I reached the landing I started running. I knew I had to get her to the hospital wing and fast. I had made it to the front doors of the castle when I began to grow weak at my knees. Pushing myself I tugged on the door and stood aside as it opened.

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" I shouted the second I crossed over the threshold.

Several heads turned my way and then one of the girls from Hufflepuff called for someone to get help.

"Here, you need to apply pressure to her wound." The girl said as she took a corner of the sheet I had Hermione wrapped in and pressed it to the spot that the blood was seeping from.

Finally, I saw hope in the form of Professom Krum. When he saw it was Hermione he rushed forward. "Vat happened to her?" He asked as he took her into his arms.

"I think she slipped and fell into the bathtub." I began as we started up the staircases to the Hospital Wing. "When I found her, she was facedown in the tub full of water. She had to at least been like that for fifteen minutes."

"Is she even alive?" He asked.

"Last time I checked, she was breathing, but it was faint."

The second we made it to hospital wing Madam Pomfrey was there waiting. Apparently one of the students had ran up to tell her about the incident. She ordered Professor Krum to place her on a bed and then shooed us away so she could get started.

Professor Krum led me to his office and I took a seat in a chair off to the side of the room. I was vaguely aware as he grabbed a couple glasses and his bottle of firewhiskey that was stashed in one of the drawers of his desk. Only when he handed the glass to me and I took a sip did my senses regulate.

"Is she going to be okay?" I asked him after the burning sensation of the firewhiskey left my throat.

"I cannot be sure."

"What if Madam Pomfrey can't fix her?" I asked, unsure about whether or not I really wanted the answer.

"If she can't be fixed by Madam Pomfrey then she will be sent to St. Mungo's."

I drained the remainder of my glass and set it down. St. Mungo's was for those in dire condition. Only when no home healing remedy can heal a person are they sent to St. Mungo's. They carried the more serious healing potions.

Professor Krum poured another glass for the two of us and this time I sipped it slowly as we continued to talk - this time about other things, like careers, to take my mind off of Hermione.

After a few hours Headmistress McGonagall entered into the office, her face looking worried. "Draco, please." She beckoned me forward and I rose to my feet and followed silently behind her.

When we arrived to the Hospital Wing, I went straight to Hermione's side and took her hand into mine. "Is she going to be alright?" I asked as I kissed her hand.

"Draco, Madam Pomfrey has given her a potion that should've worked by now but it seems as if her body has rejected it."

"No! What does that mean?"

"It means that her body isn't accepting the medicine and we don't understand why."

I clutched Hermione's hand as if it was a lifeline. "Maybe it's the charm for the Muggle Project." I tossed out there as a random guess.

Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "We ran through that idea but it is impossible unless,"

"Unless what!" I rushed out.

"Unless she is pregnant." Headmistress McGonagall finished.

I quickly shook my head. "That's impossible."

"Did you and Miss Granger have s****l interactions?" She asked.

I felt my cheeks redden as I looked between her and Madam Pomfrey. "Yes, but she takes birth control."

"Have you not read the pamplet given to you?" Madam Pomfrey pressed as she started into her office.

"It was explained in handout that it is cruicial to abstain from s****l relations for the duration of the pregnancy charm."

I felt my heart tighten. I was barely able to speak when I asked her why.

She then explained that when the charm is mixed with human genetics -sperm- the charm would take on a more permanent form. Meaning the pregnancy became real. Only it was much more dangerous than that. The child would still age as quickly as those that were merely charms, only instead of simply disappearing in the end they would grow very sick and 9 out of 10 of these noted subjects died.

I ran my fingers through my hair as I looked at Hermione. If they were right in their hypothesis that meant that Hermione was pregnant with my real child, not just a charm, and that was the reason the medicine didn't work. I wasn't as bright as Hermione but even I could put two and two together. The only way for Hermione to be able to heal was for her to birth our child.

I let out a breath and then turned to Headmistress McGonagall as I said, "so, what do we do next?"

"Simple," Madam Pomfrey stated as she came back into the room. Miss Granger will be taken to St. Mungos where they will birth the child.Then she will be healed."

"Wait, does anyone see whats wrong with this equation?" I interjected. "She is unconcious, how is she supposed to give birth when she is unconcious?"

"A simple potion can awaken the girl and then they will go from there."

I narrowed my eyes at Madam Pomfrey. I didn't like how she referred to Hermione as the girl, she was more than just a girl, she was my life. Still, the whole plan seemed... bad.

When the Healers came to collect Hermione I went with them. They already had a room set up for her and had Healers standing by. I stood to the right of the bed holding her hand as they fed her the potion that was supposed to wake her up.

In an instant her eyes opened and began darting around the room in a panic. I gently squeezed her hand to gain her attention and when she saw me she calmed.

"Where am I?" She winced.

I pressed my lips to her hair and whispered, "St. Mungos." The second I leaned away a Healer advanced on her with a small vial of silverish-purple liquid.

"You need to drink that." The Healer said.

Hermione glanced to me and I nodded my head. Without another word she downed the contents of the small tube. A few minutes had passed by before she clutched at her stomach and began screaming. My eyes widened and I started shouting at the Healers, confused at what was happening.

"Okay, she is in active labor." A woman with a blue gown said as she took a seat at the foot of the hospital bed. "Miss Granger, you are going to feel the need to push so when you do I want you to take in a deep breath, hold it, bear down and push with all your might."

Hermione looked at me and I felt my heart clench as I seen the pain in her face.

"I can't!" She screamed. "I won't do it like this."

"Miss Granger," the woman Healer began.

Hermione let out a fierce growl before pushing herself into a sitting position, swinging her legs over so they dangled off the bed and rising to her feet.

"MISS GRANGER!" The Healer gasped.

As she moved to get her back in bed Hermione screamed a profanity at her. "You are all idiots!" She gasped. "Any one with a brain knows giving birth while standing up is better. The gravity..." she trailed off and squatted slight and pushed. After a few moments she inhaled sharply and said, "gravity is there, might as well take advantage of it."

After Hermione's insult towards the Healer's intelligence they stepped back and let her do her own thing. After a few more pushes Hermione delivered the baby.

"It's a girl." The Healer chimed as they cut the cord and wrapped her up.

The second they placed her in my arms I felt my heart warm.

"My little Eleanore." I heard Hermione croone.

Just seeing the passion in her eyes as she looked at our daughter was enough to make me fall in love with her all over again, not just once or twice, but three times in just that one moment.

And then I saw my entire future. I saw us watching our daughter age over the months. Us graduating Hogwarts. Me proposing to her and us walking down the isle. I saw more children and us on a porch slowly gaining grays and wrinkles and then our grand children. This woman... this bright, beautiful witch that was before me was the key to my future... a happy future.

But then piece by piece it began crumbling away as I watched the woman I love slowly turning pale as her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she collapsed onto the floor beside the bed.

Before I could even move they called a code green and several more Healer's entered the room. With them they wheeled in a machine similar to the one at the muggle doctor. Except there were many cords and at the end of the cords were sticky things that they attached to various parts of her body.

The second they flipped it on a long unbroken beep sounded.

"Cardiac arrest, we need to shock her." someone said.

The only thing I could do was stand aside helplessly with our daughter in my arms, watching as the woman I loved more than my own life die before me

AUTHORS NOTE: Yeah yeah I know another cliff hanger. still better than nothing though eh?