• 1-Love By Accident
• 2-Chapter 2
• 3-Chapter 3
• 4-Chapter 4
• 5-Chapter 5
• 6-Chapter 6
• 7-Chapter 7
• 8-Chapter 8

Disclaimer: See chapter 1.

Harry had worked every calculation he could find on the shield potion, and he still couldn't figure out why the damned thing hadn't killed him and Draco. He would have just counted his blessings, but he knew that there could be consequences that hadn't yet made themselves known.

Hermione came in just then and saw what he was working on. "Figure it out yet?"

"No. Has anything happened to the room or the vegetation outside where the wall blew out?" He was missing something, he just knew it.

Hermione frowned. "Now that you mention it, all of the plants on that side of the building have been seeding off like crazy. It's not really in season for any of them either."

Harry blanched. "The bottle!" Fear gripped him as that last missing ingredient hit him like a freight train. "It's not just the extra wormwood, it's the silicone from the glass bottle." He turned to his slate and said, "Add silicone weight of bottle containing extra wormwood extract." The slate responded, adding the appropriate figures and then printing the product of those calculations.

Harry didn't like what the numbers were telling him, and neither did Hermione. "Oh, Harry!"

Harry shook his head, his stomach doing flips at the thought of what had probably happened. "Go get Madame Pomfrey, 'Mione. And then you'd probably better get Dumbledore and Snape. And Malfoy." She nodded and left.

Harry watched her run out of the room, then leaned back into his pillows, his hand going to his abdomen. He had been in the infirmary for just a week, so there wouldn't have been any changes just yet that he would be able to detect by feel, but the motion was almost instinctive. The thought of what his calculations told him was possible was terrifying, but it also brought him a sense of happiness, strangely enough. And he knew, no matter what answer Madam Pomfrey gave him, it was going to be a very emotional day.

The three adults were shocked at the conclusions that Harry had come up with. Draco just looked at him, frozen, a thousand emotions flitting across his face. "Tell me I'm wrong, Professor Snape. Please tell me I've done something wrong in those calculations."

Snape's eyebrow went up at that, but he still went over the equations with a fine-toothed comb. He sighed and looked up. "I'm afraid not, Mr. Potter. If I had given you this as an assignment, you'd have gotten a perfect score. Good work." Any other time, Harry would have been pleased as anything to have gotten such a compliment from the Potions Master, but since this was only confirming his fears, he merely sighed resignedly.

Madam Pomfrey approached her patient and took out her wand. "Experior gravida." A light green aura enveloped Harry and slowly concentrated itself around his lower abdomen. There it swirled for a moment, until it finally turned bright blue. "Well, that's conclusive, I'm afraid. You're pregnant, Mr. Potter." She turned around. "Mr. Malfoy, I need to check you as well. Just stand still. Experior gravida." The same light green aura developed around Draco, but when it coalesced, it turned red. "You're not pregnant. I'm going to guess that this is because Mr. Potter shielded you. However, I am completely certain that with the effects of this potion, you are the other father of Mr. Potter's child."

"But, how...?" To say that Draco was confused would be an understatement.

Dumbledore was the first to speak. "Well, this is quite an interesting development, isn't it?"

Snape explained. "Because of the way the potion interacted with the silicone in the glass of the bottle, it caused carriage in every living thing it encountered. Luckily it wasn't very pervasive, or the entire school would be in jeopardy, but as it is, only Potter and the plant-life just outside the laboratory were affected. You, Draco, would also have become gravid if the potion had touched you, but the reason Harry's child is also yours is because he was touching you. That contact allowed the DNA to be transferred. If you hadn't been there, either the child would be a clone or he would not be pregnant. I'm not really sure which." He sighed. "And the point is rather academic."

Draco moved to one of the other cots so he could sit down. He was going to be a father! And with Harry Potter, no less! Sure, he and Harry had buried the hatchet, but there was no way that his father was going to be happy with this. Of course, with Lucius being in Azkaban, there wouldn't be too much trouble from that angle. His mother, however, was another story. He didn't know what she would do, but it couldn't be good.

Harry's thoughts were similar. There was no way he could allow himself to be sent back to the Dursleys this year, not with a baby in tow. No way was he going to allow a child of his to be exposed to his mother's Muggle relatives and their hatred of all things magical. And the worst thought of all was that he had to find a way to keep the child's existence a secret from Voldemort. The Dark Lord would have absolutely no problem with using his baby against him or with killing it. A fierce feeling of protectiveness washed over him and he silently swore that nothing was going to harm his baby.

Dumbledore broke the silence. "We can discuss the future at a later date. I think we should allow Harry to rest for now. Your school work will be brought to you this afternoon so that you don't fall behind." And with that everyone left the room except Draco.

Draco said, "Thank you, P-Harry." It seemed odd to call him by his last name when he was carrying his child. "Thank you for protecting me. I doubt we could handle the both of us being pregnant." He paused, gathering his thoughts through the strange emotions that clouded his mind. "I- I want to be a part of this child's life. I know neither of us asked for this to happen, but--."

Harry stopped him. "That's all right Draco. I was actually hoping that you would want to be around to help. We won't even be out of school when the baby's born. There are a lot of decisions that have to be made. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with Dumbledore at the moment. I'm knackered, and I think I'd like to take a nap."

Draco smiled, a genuine smile rather than his customary smirk. "I'll leave you to it, then." He turned to go, but Harry took his hand for just a moment. They looked into each other's eyes for that brief instant, and then Draco left Harry to his thoughts. I wish... Harry's exhaustion caught up to him, and as he slept, dreams of a little tow-headed child with green eyes keeping him company.

Over the next couple of days, Madame Pomfrey worked out a diet for Harry, nothing strict, but that made sure both he and the baby were getting adequate nutrition. In particular, she added a lot of dairy products and uncooked spinach to his diet, the one for calcium and the other for folic acid, both of which were necessary for the baby's development. That was just fine by him. He enjoyed a baby-spinach salad with cheddar cheese grated all over it, and he loved most dairy products. He was infinitely grateful that this whole debacle had occurred so close to the beginning of the year or nutrition would have become a problem.

Very few people were told about Harry's pregnancy. The teachers had to knos sos some aspects of magic working could harm the developing baby and there was no telling what might go wrong in a male pregnancy, and Ron and Ginny Weasly were told out of friendship, but no one else was allowed to know. If questions came up, they all just said it was a medical problem that was likely to last the whole year. There was too great a risk that, should Harry's pregnancy become public knowledge, Voldemort would not choose this moment to strike.

Hermione started coming up with strategies for the present and the future. Even Dumbledore agreed that there was no way Harry could stay with the Dursleys any longer. Something much more defensible was going to be required until Voldemort could be stopped. Harry wanted to be close to Hogwarts so that he could evacuate to the castle if anything went seriously wrong. And Draco insisted on being in on all of these plans. Harry was glad, but more than once he'd had to knock Ron Weasly over the head for bad-mouthing the blonde Slytherin. His doing it saved Ron some severe hexes, but the fiery red-head didn't often see it that way. Things began to get strained between the two of them, until Hermione was ready to strangle Ron, but that had happened so often over the years that they were starting to get used to it.

Meanwhile, they kept Harry's condition a secret by developing a very subtle set of glamours, which were spells that changed the appearance without the use of Polyjuice Potion, a concoction which would surely kill the baby. The spells didn't change the way Harry looked. They merely hid the changes he was going through from prying eyes.

As Halloween approached, Harry found his emotions had started going all over the place. He had all the same worries as any teen mother, like the fact that he was still just a child himself, so how was he going to be able to raise one? And how would he support the two of them? Sure he had all the money in his parents' vault at Gringott's, but it wouldn't last forever, and it was somewhat depleted from buying school supplies over the years. He was going to have to get a job right out of school, and that would take away from the time he would have to spend with his child. Plus there were day care issues and the fact that he was going to be doing this alone. Oh, sure, Hermione and the Weasly family would all be there for him, but it wouldn't be the same as having another person there to help him all the time, someone who would love the child just as much as he and who would be able to give him emotional support. He needed a partner, but there was no one who could be that for him.

The night that all these things came crashing down on him was Halloween. This was supposed to be a joyous time of the year, but all Harry could see was his future going up in bright red smoke. He didn't go to the feast, electing instead to hide in the library. As his thoughts caused him to break down and cry, he was only thankful that there was no one around to witness it. He didn't notice the pair of silver eyes watching him through the stacks.

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