Harry wearily trudged to Dumbledore's office with Hermione and Ron in tow. Ron had been asking him how he felt about every five minutes since he had woken up and Hermione was still going on about how interesting Virgin Mary pregnancies were; Harry was tuning them both out. He had come to expect the steady throbbing pain in his stomach so it almost didn't bother him anymore. Except when he thought about why it hurt; then he would curl his arms around his stomach in an almost protective manner, though he wasn't sure if he was protecting the child from Voldermort or its father. They came to Dumbledore's office and Hermione whispered the password,
"Wuzzling Wozzy Bezzys." Harry began to laugh softly. What a wonderful password. If anyone knew it, it was unlikely they could manage to get their tongue and teeth around it on the first or second or even third try, and Hermione barely managed it though being a Prefect she had had plenty of practice. Not that Wuzzling Wozzy Bezzys were any less difficult to keep in your mouth as they had a tendency to start buzzing and flying in the confines of your teeth until you either managed to crush them or let them go. There was actually a small colony of the small treats just outside Harry's dorm window, as Neville had upturned a whole box of them and sent them into a frenzied flight which kept the entire dorm up all night trying to catch them; eventually they all just left them alone and the small bee-like sweets had begun forming some kind of honeycomb, though only heaven knew what was actually in it.
"Harry?" Harry shook his head and turned to his best friend, expecting to be asked if he was okay. Again. "Are you with us? You were kind of floating off into space there." Harry realized that they were just outside Dumbledore's office now.
"That's typical for the sixth and seventh week. It will be really hard for you to keep you concentration for a while," Hermione added in. Harry thanked her for the forewarning and promptly tuned them out again as they walked into Dumbledore's office.
"What's he doing here?!" Harry, once again startled out of his re-visit of yesterday's Transfigurations class, looked up to see Draco Malfoy standing calmly next to Dumbledore's desk, Severus Snape on the other side engaged in some sort of conversation with the Headmaster though the words were too quiet to hear. Ron just stood and fumed, awaiting an answer while Draco glared daggers at him; from his expression it was apparent that Draco had no clue why he was there either.
"Ah, there you three are. Please take a seat, I'll be only a moment," Dumbledore told them.
"Well...it could work, but not if someone can contest it. Mr. Malfoy is of course far out of the equation on that particular matter if half the rumors that get around to me are true." Snape said. Dumbledore nodded and seemed to notice for the first time that they had an avid audience.
"We think perhaps we have a plan to implement. There is only one thing I need to know honestly before we can tell you what that is. Mr. Weasley, are you a virgin?" Ron reared back, momentarily breaking his glaring contest with Draco.
"W-what?!"
"I'm sorry to pry into your personal life, but I do really need to know. Are you a virgin?" Ron's face grew bright red and Draco began to chuckle softly.
"If you don't tell us Mr. Weasley I'll be forced to get out of you by other means...." Severus warned, ignoring the look he received from Dumbledore, though he said absolutely nothing.
"I...I....Why do you need to know that?" Snape began to rustle through his robes and Ron panicked. "Yes! I am...a virgin..." His face was now even more scarlet than before.
"Thank you, Ron." The Headmaster smiled at him and he turned his face away. Drao was now laughing a little louder; it was a soft thing, a chuckle that shook his delicate frame in an oddly alluring manner. "Mr. Malfoy? If you would please have a seat." Draco consented with a delicate tip of his head and took the seat next to Harry. While the Headmaster and potions Professor continued to speak in quiet hushed tones, Draco leaned over slightly.
"So, you're going to have a baby?" He asked softly, that normal menace in his voice absent. Harry knew he should have been angry that Draco knew that, or at least indignant. Instead he just nodded, his arms curling around his torso. "What is it like?" Harry turned and looked to him; he seemed like he actually wanted to know. He shrugged.
"It just hurts," He answered finally and received a radiant smile for it. Draco reached out slowly, moving carefully so Harry could see exactly where his hand was headed; still he let his palm hover over the exposed portion of Harry's stomach.
"May I?" He asked softly. Harry eyed that delicate hand warily, but slowly nodded, bracing himself for a wave of pain. Draco carefully lowered his hand until it rested softly against Harry's stomach. It was an almost-not-there touch and Harry found that it evoked no sharp pain. Harry carefully moved his arms above his head without breaking Draco's tentative touch and stretched languidly. Draco chuckled again, moving his hand in a gentle circular motion that was oddly comforting. Harry rested his head against one fist and adopted a contented look, nearly purring again; they remained thus until Ron gently nudged Harry's elbow, inadvertently moving it out from under him and causing him to be roused efficiently but rudely.
"What?" It was only then that he realized that the room was quietly watching Draco Malfoy rub his stomach while he practically purred in contentment. Dumbledore smiled at him.
"Well I'm glad to see other people are no longer agitating your growing child." Harry turned bright red a looked away. "Anyway, I suppose we had best begin discussing the plan that Severus and I have spent many long hours on. We have, of course recognized that a Virgin Mary pregnancy will not be kept secret for long. Therefore, we have decided to announce it." There was an eruption of protest which Dumbledore silenced with a wave of his hand. "However, it is not *Harry's* pregnancy we will be announcing." Now there was a contemplative silence.
"We plan to make a decoy so to say. Another student in the school will become mysteriously pregnant. It will be determined that the carrier is a virgin, the father will be determined and after a slight...enhancing...of certain records it will be determined that no conception spell was utilized." Hermione's brow drew together.
"But, Professor...there's no one else in the school powerful enough...at least not among the student body...." Dumbledore smiled at her.
"Do you remember, Ms. Granger," Severus took over smoothly "the essay we finished last week involving power boosts?"
"Well yes, but the power has to be innate or naturally boosted for conception to occur..."
"Yes, I see you do remember. The passage you wrote, somewhere towards the end...?" Her eyes lit up.
"Of course! Power Shots! When two male wizards entering or undergoing puberty are extremely agitated at one another, and receiving the same emotions back, their magical powers momentarily pool and for a few minutes both are nearly thirty times as strong!" Severus nodded and she continued, explaining it more for the benefit of the boys sitting next to her. "The actual underlying emotions are almost always unresolved sexual tension, but they usually come out as anger, hate, loathing or extreme annoyance."
"That's correct. So let us say that two of the gentlemen in our school were to be sexually attracted to each other, but because of circumstances that sexuality has been mutated into, say, extreme hate or loathing. Now lets go further and say that they met in a conflict in the halls, and both are experiencing the same magnitude of the same apparent emotion, though under it is, as Ms. Granger pointed out, 'unresolved sexual tension'. And perhaps they take this so far as to achieve a Power Shot and get into a mild fist fight..."
"Providing the power, touch and attraction needed for conception!" Hermione finished for him.
"I couldn't have said it better myself."
"And then it gets out that there's a pregnancy, but since no one knows it's actually Harry who's pregnant, there's no longer a risk to his life." Ron summarized.
"Yes, however for technical details as well as safety and security, there would have to be an actual pregnancy on the decoy's part that fits the full description of a Virgin Mary pregnancy, while Harry's pregnancy would have to be concealed. We'd have to use an accelerated conception spell since the carrying time could only be six months. But this is not without risk. Conception spells are dangerous and if done wrong or in any way tampered or harmed...the carrier could die." Severus added.
"Wow. Who are we going to convince to do this?" Ron asked, his face screwed up on thought.
"As it would be dramatically easier to make excuses to keep a monitor on Harry's pregnancy as well as that of the decoy, it would perhaps be prudent if the decoy were Mr. Potter’s best friend," Dumbledore said quietly. This took a moment to sink in. But only a moment.
"ME?!" Ron jumped out of his chair, his eyes wide, well-developed muscle rippling under his shirt that was exposed as he had carried his outer robes and hadn't put them on yet. The room was quiet.
"No" Harry said finally. "We can't ask Ron to do this. Or anyone for that matter; it's too dangerous."
"Wait a minute!" Ron interrupted. "I didn't say I *wouldn't* do it...it was just a bit of a shock that's all."
"Ron...no, it's too dangerous."
"I don't care, Harry. I want to this, okay? And not just for you...I've always wanted children."
"And when you grow up and are out of school and get married you and your wife can have as many children as you-"
"No, Harry. My *wife* and I will never have children and Conception spells are more and more dangerous the older the carrier is. I might not ever get another chance."
"What? But you wouldn't need a...oh." Ron smiled at him.
"Yes. Oh." Harry fell silent and Ron sat back down slowly. "Alright, I'll do it." Then he paused. "So this all explains what *we're* doing here," he continued, gesturing to Harry and Hermione, "but what is *he* doing here?" He glared at Draco. The two adults in the room were momentarily silent.
"Mr. Malfoy comes from a fine bloodline, and is a remarkably powerful wizard for his age...he also fits all the descriptions..."
"You want *me* to sire a *Weasley*?!" Draco roared, all cool confidence flushed down the drain.
"You both meet the full criteria...so yes. We want you to sire a Weasley," Severus said firmly.
"That's almost as bad as dropping Harry right in You-Know-Who's lap!" Ron added in.
"On the contrary, Mr. Malfoy would be our safest possibility with the least likelihood of betraying any of the actual goings on involving this...incident," Dumbledore countered. Draco was opening and closing his mouth wordlessly while Ron simmered.
"Do. You. Have. *Any*. Idea. Who. His. *Father*. Is?!" Ron pressed out deliberately, manners be damned.
"Yes. Lucius Malfoy is one of our chief supporters and top spies. So is Draco for that matter," Severus answered him.
"Well you've just done an absolutely lovely job of blowing my cover. Thank you *Severus*" Severus chose to ignore Draco's statement. Draco sighed finally.
"I'll do it if he will," He decided finally, resting his elbow on the arms of his chair and lacing his fingers together. Ron worried his lower lip with his teeth for a long, long moment, but eventually the facts that he wanted children, *and* this was for Harry won out and he sighed in defeat.
"Alright; I'll do it with him." Draco chuckled again and Ron's cheeks burned. "Not that!" He hissed, glaring at the boy.
"Alright, all is settled. After dinner tonight, all of you will report the infirmary...actually we better do this later, so say midnight?" They agreed on midnight and Dumbledore wrote passes out for them, though he suspected they wouldn't need them.
The day had gone mostly uneventfully; they made it through all their classes without Ron trying to kill Draco-or the other way around. Harry sought Severus out at lunch but only when Hermione dragged him down to the dungeons and made him. Thus at midnight Ron, Hermione and Harry was under the invisibility cloak on their way to the infirmary.
"There's Malfoy." Ron pointed out quietly. Indeed Draco was coming down the hall, though he seemed very lost within himself; thus did not see Flich on the approach. Nor could he really have since the man was coming down a hall perpendicular to there’s with Mrs. Norris on his heals. Certainly, Draco had his pass so there shouldn't have been a problem; but Dumbledore had warned them not to get caught anyway as people had a way of putting two and two together. So they did the only thing they could; they slipped down the hall and intercepted Draco, placing a hand firmly on his mouth and pressing him against the wall. Flich passed without so much as a glance.
"So this is how you little twats get around at night?" Draco seemed mildly amused, but also in awe. "And to think; I'm out just as often, if not more so, than you and still you get caught more than I do." He shook his head slowly, but he couldn't manage to force his usual venom into his voice.
"That's because you-" Hermione stilled Ron's indignant outburst-rather loud outburst at that-with her hand over his mouth and hissed at them all to be quiet.
"Let's just go; we're going to be late." Draco stepped out from under the cloak as he was not fond of shuffling around under it and melted into the shadows, paralleling them all the way to the infirmary. There were no further incidents.
"I trust you had no use for those passes?" Dumbledore asked them when they were in the room and had removed the cloak.
"No. None at all." Ron said sweetly, shooting a venomous grin in Draco's direction
"Well then; perhaps you would all come over here." Ron and Harry each took a bed as ordered by Madam Pomfrey and sat on the edge to listen, feet swinging over the side.
"I'm going to give Harry a quick check up since the conception spell will take a while," She informed them, pushing Harry onto his back and running her wand along his body. "It's a good thing that Quidditch is over. I don't think I could convince you two stop playing." Ron and Harry shared a smile.
"Well, everything seems to check out fine. Your child is developing nicely." Harry forced out a smile, but he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. "Now, if you would all wait outside for a minute? Draco, come in here with Ron." Harry jumped off the bed and stepped close to Ron.
"You can still back out, Ron," Harry whispered. Ron shook his head.
"Even though I have to live knowing *Malfoy* is the father..." he shuddered playfully and smiled at his friend "I'm still doing this, because I want to. I just wanted to tell you something, before I can't anymore." He looked to Madam Pomfrey with a pleading expression and the woman smiled softly, hustling Draco out and shutting the curtain. "I just wanted you to know that I love you Harry...I always have..." Harry smiled at his friend.
"Thanks for telling me, Ron."
"Can I do something...because I know this is the only chance I'll get..." Harry nodded and allowed Ron to pull him foreword gently until their lips met. Harry's growing child protested with a sharp stab of pain, but Harry allowed his friend this and didn't move away. Ron gently ran his tongue into Harry's mouth and carefully explored it. "Thanks, Harry," He said softly when they parted. "That meant a lot to me." There were tears in his friend's eyes and Harry wiped them away carefully.
"No problem." Harry hugged Ron for a minute then kissed him chastely, ignoring the mounting pain in his stomach.
"Boys?" Ron took a deep breath to steady his nerves and smiled at Harry.
"I'm ready," He said finally, eyes never leaving Harry's. Pomfrey slipped in, towing Draco behind her and Harry smiled at Ron encouragingly before he ducked out of the curtain. Pomfrey placed a silencing charm over the curtained partition and Harry waited until he was sure that Ron couldn't hear him before clutching his stomach and dropping to his knees. Hermione moved foreword, then stopped herself and stepped aside as Severus slid to his knees behind Harry and pulled him to his chest.
"That was a wonderful thing you did, Harry," Hermione told him. "He's loved you for so long...I'm sure that meant the world to him." Harry nodded, smiling weakily, pressing his back into Severus' chest.
"Mr. Malfoy...up on the bed." Draco took a tentative seat next to Ron and let his legs swing.
"Are you nervous?"
"Of course I'm nervous!" Ron snapped; Draco reared back and sat glaring at him, hurt for some unfathomable reason-he had only stretched his neck over the chopping block and Ron brought the ax down.
"I....I'm sorry." He turned slightly to look at the boy out of the corner of his eye. "Maybe we should try to get along...we are going to have a baby after all." The last was said sheepishly, shyly.
"I think that would be a good idea. Truce?" He held his hand out. Ron stared at it for a moment stupidly before hesitatingly taking it and shaking it.
"Truce." Madam Pomfrey (who had been pretending that she wasn't there) smiled and turned back to them.
"Now this is how this is going to work. While I cast the spell you have to have some kind of intimate contact. We have found that there are two ways that work best. Either strip and hold full body contact-front to front-or hold hands and kiss. Up to you...I'll give you a minute to go over that while I get this ready." Ron was looking at her in horror and Draco had a look on his face that suggest he knew something of that sort was going to happen but he wasn't any happier about it for knowing.
"Can we just hold hands?"
"Oh, get used to it! I imagine it's something you'll have to do publicly in coming months." She informed them as gently as possible, but she couldn't completely withhold the note of annoyance that crept into her voice.
"Second one?" Draco questioned with a sigh.
"I guess...." Ron curled his upper lip and Draco noticed that he was shaking. Pomfrey noticed this too but said nothing. Draco however, lightly placed a hand on Ron's thigh in a gesture that was clearly meant to calm. Ron nearly fainted.
"Alright...Ron I'll have you lay down..." Shaking, Ron lowered himself to the bed, stretching out cautiously. "Draco, move over to his other side and stretch out next to him." Draco complied slowly. "I will cast the spell when this indicator tells me your energies are properly aligned-do not break contact until *I* say so, or this may take a long while. However, when I *do* say to stop, Draco you must move away *immediately.* That is of the utmost importance. Then you two mustn't touch until your 'fight' tomorrow. Understood?" They both nodded nervously.
"You may start whenever your ready." Draco looked down at Ron questioningly.
"I'm ready," Ron mouthed, eyes closing tightly. Draco couldn't help but smile.
"Relax...I'm *very* good at this..."
"Mighty sure of yourself aren't you-!" Ron's eyes went wide as Draco suddenly attacked his mouth. It wasn't the gentle kiss he had shared with Harry a few minutes before, it was hungry and persistent. Ron moaned and haltingly brought his hands up to rest tentatively on Draco's hips. The boy smiled against his lips and gently prodded at them with his tongue, demanding entrance. Ron gasped and Draco took the opportunity to thrust his tongue into the other boy's mouth hungrily. The blond shifted his weight carefully and brought his arms up to cradle Ron's head as he ravished his mouth.
"I'm casting the spell." Pomfrey warned after several minutes. There were several muffled words in a foreign language a few seconds later and both boys gasped as heat spread through their bodies. "Move away!" Draco forced his slow reflexes to react and he shoved himself away from Ron, simultaneously pushing the other boy's arms away. He succeeded in falling off the bed onto a mattress that had been considerately placed there for that exact reason.
"Wow," Ron managed breathlessly, rolling over to look at Draco who hadn't moved.
"Told you I was good." Draco smiled, eyes closed. His limbs were shaking and he didn't trust them to support his weight just yet. "Was that it?"
"Yes that was it. Draco can you stand up?" Draco tried and decided he couldn't. "Perfectly understandable. Your body put in much more work than Ron's." She preformed a mobilus corpus and moved him to another bed before opening the curtains. Harry was still on the floor and Severus was trying to calm the distressed child growing inside the young boy to calm down. Ron didn't even see it, but would have worried about if he had. They moved to a chair between the two boy's beds and Hermione and Dumbledore sat at the foot of the beds. Madam Pomfrey was too busy writing out records etc.
"Boys? Can you hear me?" They both nodded vaguely. "This is how tomorrow will work. On your way to your first period class you two will get in a fight. Severus and Poppy will be staged close by, but will not interfere until you've made physical contact. This is most likely the only time I'll sanction a fist fight!" They all laughed nervously. "Make it good anyway...believable. The first time you make substantial contact, I would suggest tackling. Pushing against a wall would probably be best, so you don't hurt each other. That's the important part-no real harm must come to either of you, namely Mr. Weasley. Severus and Poppy will pull you apart and deduct points. That will have to be believable as well, but since 'believable' for Severus would be at least fifty point from Gryffindor. Therefore, Poppy and Severus will get in a little fight themselves and get it lowered to twenty.
“Ron, for the next three weeks you will complain vocally-not screamed or like you're reading from a script, just enough that people hear that your stomach is bothering you. And it really will. Monday of the fourth week, Harry will drag you to the infirmary and you will stay over night as we 'try' to find out what's wrong. At that point we will 'discover' the state of your pregnancy and all that goes along with it. It will be announced to the school in yet another fight; this one is to be only vocal. Basically, Ron is going to storm out of the infirmary, find Draco in the hall and scream the news at him. Draco isn't going to take it well, do his normal 'my father is going to hear about this!'..." Draco laughed softly, but didn't interrupt. "and this will force me to announce it to the public." Dumbledore laughed a little and shifted his weight in his chair.
"Now, because Hermione put most of the rest of this together and I have a great deal of work to do, I will let her explain the rest." He nodded to Hermione and moved out of his seat, following Madam Pomfrey into her office to 'enhance' a few documents.
"I seem to be doing this a lot, don't I?" She asked sheepishly. "Okay, first order: Harry you're going to start showing in about a month and you'll increasingly require contact with Professor Snape. So what we've done is a little drastic, but it actually works very well. Harry is going to be Ron's nursemaid, and Severus-being Draco's godfather-will be his second. It sounds weird, I know, but let me explain. Both the carrier and the father require constant attendance-not so much in the father's case, but definitely in the carrier's case. Also, the baby will form a close bond to the nursemaid that attends its carrier, so the nursemaid is usually the best friend, and male. So the schedule will be something like this: Harry 'escorts' Ron to the dungeons every morning to see Draco and gets a settling potion from Professor Snape for his stomach. While this is going on, Harry is actually getting to see Snape *and* getting a concealing charm that will keep people from noticing how much weight he'll be gaining shortly.” Harry shuttered softly but still cuddled further into Severus' arms. Reacting subconsciously, Severus wound his arms tighter about Harry's form and leaned his cheek against Harry's head.
"The concelling charm used will be so strong that you won't even be able to feel the swell of your stomach if you put your hands on it, but it will have to be renewed every twelve hours." Hermione continued. "And Harry, the child requires the touch of its father to survive. I understand that you're not comfortable with this, but Harry...if the child dies, so do you, and most likely, so will Professor Snape. Do you understand?" Harry peered up at Severus and nodded slowly. "Perhaps we should all go to bed? It's been a long night." Hermione suggested. There was assent all around and the group slowly drifted out of the room, Ron and Draco taking pains not to touch.