• 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.

A/N: In this chapter, we're going to have a moment, but we're not going to go beyond that just yet. I want this thing between Harry and Draco to build gradually. It doesn't happen all at once in real life, not if it's going to last, and I'd like to bring as much RL into the story as I can. Doesn't mean I'll be successful, but hey.

Draco watched as Harry sat curled up in the reading chair by the library's fire place, crying. Somehow, he doubted that it would have happened if Harry hadn't been alone. He was too good at hiding his feelings from those around him. But he knew without a doubt that Harry Potter was in pain.

Draco had known for two years what his true feelings were toward Gryphindor's hero. But he was certain that those feelings were not returned, and he knew that he had only himself to blame. After all, why would Harry have those kinds of thoughts about him when all he did was torment the other boy? He'd done it in the beginning because of his father, but as he'd grown to know more about Harry, he'd continued to do it in order to hide his true feelings from himself, and then from Harry. And then this year, on the very first day of school, Harry had approached Draco after the sorting feast. He remembered it clearly.

"Malfoy, I need to ask you something."

"What is it, Potter? Can't be satisfied with our everyday rivalry, so you have to come after me in private?"

"Actually I can't be satisfied with the way things are going. I'd really rather not be your enemy, Malfoy. I can honestly only afford the one, and I need to concentrate on protecting myself and my friends from him. I'd wager that you have problems enough, as well. I'm proposing we leave each other alone this year. So I have to ask, even if you can't forgive me for landing your father in Azkaban, can you leave me alone about it until after Voldemort is no longer a threat?"

Draco had marveled that Harry hadn't even considered that he would be joining the Death Eaters. He'd said that Draco didn't seem the type to want to be controlled by anyone, even Voldemort. No matter what the political side of things was, Draco Malfoy was nobody's lackey! He had grinned at his nemesis and agreed to leave him alone until the Dark Lord had fallen. Neither brought up the fact that, if Voldemort won, the point would be moot. Draco wouldn't be able to go after Harry then because he would be dead.

Two weeks later, the accident had happened, and now it was Halloween and Harry was six and a half weeks pregnant with Draco's child. Somehow, all the bickering and the enmity just didn't seem so important anymore. More than anything, Draco just wanted to be able to tell Harry how he felt, but even he knew that just coming on to him wasn't an option. It would freak him out at the very least. However, he could most certainly offer to be his friend instead of his enemy.

Resolved, Draco stepped around the stacks and into the firelight from the hearth. Harry was wrapped up in his own emotions and didn't hear him coming, so when Draco put a hand on his shoulder, he jumped and looked up. As the beautiful green eyes landed on him, Draco said, "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." He sat in the chair across the rug from Harry. "Are you all right?"

Harry curled in on himself, wiping the tears from his face in shame. "I'm fine." Draco raised a disbelieving eyebrow at him. "Okay, I'm not fine, but e's e's nothing you can do about it, so why don't you just go out there and enjoy the party."

Draco shook his head and sighed. "Harry, I know I've been awful to you in the past, but I'd like to think that you and I could put all that behind us. I want us to be friends, Harry. I don't want us to hate each other when there will be a new life at stake in all our bickering. I mean, imagine it. What do we do when, ten years from now, this child asks one of us why we hate each other. My answer would be 'Because your grandfather told me to.' Yours would be 'Because he was mean to me in school.' It all sounds rather childish to me. Not the kind of example I want to set." He looked Harry in the eye. "Besides, didn't you ever hear that pain shared is pain halved?" Harry said nothing, looking into the fire as if it held all the answers to life. "Come on, Harry. Tell me."

Harry took a deep breath, then let it out in a blustery sigh. He looked into Draco's eyes, gauging his sincerity. Finding no deceit surprised Harry, but he nodded and looked back into the fire. "All right. I'm scared. I'm scared about being a single father, about school, about Voldemort, about my whole life. The prophesy said that between Voldemort and I, only one will survive. If he gets his hands on me while I'm pregnant, I know which one that will be. I can't do half the defensive spells I've learned, and occulmency training is out of the question. If he takes the baby after it's born, I'll still die, because he'll use it against me. And that's just the most immediate concerns. Say I win and Voldemort is dead. I'll still have to get a job to support myself and the baby, get a place of our own, and all that, and I'd have to work instead of being there for my child. Of course, the others will be there to help me, but I'll essentially be doing this on my own. I don't want to have to be an absent father, to worry that my child won't know me because I'm at work all the time."

Draco nodded. "What do you see when you look at the Weasly family, Harry? I see two very poor people raising a grand total of seven children. Do any of those seven seem to have any problems with knowing their parents, even the third one, Percy?" For Percy had never turned around from his criticism of Harry and his family. But Draco was right. None of the Weasly's had any doubts that their parents loved them, even though Arthur had to work long hours at the Ministry just to make ends meet. "You see what I mean? And I hope you'll let me help. I don't want the child growing up without me, either. As for the rest, you're going to have to let the rest of us help you."

Harry looked at Draco. He meant what he said, and he was offering friendship instead of enmity, support instead of degradation and ridicule. But there was something else in Draco's eyes, something that he desperately wanted to keep hidden. "Why, Draco? Other than this child, why are you doing this?"

Damn! Perceptive bugger. Somehow, Harry had seen Draco's deep and abiding love in his eyes. He didn't need to deal with it. "Nothing for you to worry about, Harry. I can handle my own battles. You have enough of them."

Harry's eyes narrowed and he grinned. "Pain shared is pain halved."

Draco grinned right back. "Ah, but you eno enough for the both of us."

"Draco..."

"I'll tell you some day. But my little problem is really nothing I can't deal with. I have been for years. Now what do you say we go enjoy the feast, hmm?"

Harry snorted. "Fine."

During Potions the next day, Draco noticed a group of seventh-year Slytherins snickering amongst themselves. Knowing that he was in ill favor with his housemates because of his decision to stop tormenting Potter and the other Gryphindors, Draco reached beneath his robes to touch his wand and whispered, "Aucupis." Information was power, and this was self-preservation. The spell caused their words to be audible to him without actually increasing their volume. They came to him with a strange echo effect as the Slytherins continued to chatter.

"I heard they've been snogging around." That was Crabbe.

Goyle answered him. "No, that was just a rumor. They've been rather chummy, though."

Pansy Parkinson was the next to speak. "Well that couldn't be because Potter saved his life, could it! Honestly, Crabbe, what were you thinking?"

"I was just..."

"You weren't, that's what! If Potter hadn't reacted so damned quickly, we'd have all gotten whatever he got. And I absolutely HATE being indebted to Harry Potter for any reason! And I still haven't figured out what that damned potion was, or just how much you screwed it up. All I do know is that Potter is wearing a glamour. I just don't know what it is he's hiding."

Satisfied, Draco whispered, "Disaucupis," which turned the spell off. Pansy was superb at creating glamours, so he'd known that she would figure that part out, but since she didn't know anything else, he figured that he and Harry were safe for the moment. He nodded to the pregnant boy before sitting down, but said nothing. His information would have to wait until they could speak more privately.

Having learned of the skill Harry possessed in Potions work, Snape had drilled him to find out why he was so inept in class. Harry'd told him that at first he had been distracted by Snape's attitude, and then he'd kept up an act so that he attracted the Potion Master's ire and kept his attention off the other Gryphindors. Snape had actually grinned at him for the strategy, but he would no longer allow Harry to do less than his best. They exchanged promises. Harry would pull his grades out of the barely passing zone, and Snape would lay off the Gryphs, allowing them to continue keeping their grades up. This was very important for students like Neville Longbottom, who got test anxiety just from being in the same room with Snape.

So ever since, Harry had been tested rigorously, and to everyone's surprise, including Harry's, he'd tested even higher than Draco! But some things just couldn't be done around a pregnant person, and that meant a great deal of book work for the green-eyed Gryphin Tod Today was going to be one of those days. Snape stood up and said, "Mr. Potter, you're excused for the day. I expect you to research and diagram the properties of duplication potions, specifically Doppelganger and Clone potions, including any and all side effects and ways to eliminate them. I want a two foot essay on the general properties and three feet each on the two specific potions, along with the diagrams. This is going to be your mid-term project, so hop to it."

Draco grinned. Yes, that would be a perfect solution, if they could get a potion to not try and duplicate the baby as well. The copy could do all the practical work that Harry was missing, but it would still be Harry's knowledge being tested. He chuckled to himself. Bloody brilliant! They might actually be able to pull this off without anyone figuring it out!

Draco wasn't kidding himself. So many things could go wrong here! Even if no one found out about the pregnancy, they were going to have a tough time hiding the baby, and there was no question that they would have to hide the baby. If just one word got back to Voldemort about the child's existence, then everyone's lives would be in much greater danger. But if Harry could figure out this potion, then it would make things a lot er. er.

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