-Chapter Three-

Madam Pomfrey had just finished healing a third year Hufflepuff, whom Draco did not know, when the blonde Slytherin entered the room.

"Mr. Malfoy, I will be with you shortly. Please, have a seat."

Draco sat down in a chair by Madam Pomfrey's desk and busied himself looking at her newest book 'New Cures For Old Curses'.

As he was half-reading the section on how to cure an infertility curse when something caught his attention.

In the early 1400's the infertility curse was cleared up with a wave of a wand and the incantation "Innovo Aetus". However, this had the unpleasant side-effect of also impregnating whatever wizard was at the witch's side if he was close enough to be struck in the abdomen.

"Innovo... " Draco trailed off, the curse somehow familiar.

"Now, let's have a look at you," Madam Pomfrey suggested as she joined Draco. She examined the burn mark and smiled. "That doesn't look too bad." She noticed the tiny wand mark and frowned. "Dare I ask who it was who tried to heal you?"

"Gilderoy Lockhart." Draco looked up. "Why?"

Madam Pomfrey sat back and heaved a long sigh. Then, she summoned an owl, scribbled a note on a bit of paper, and sent it in the direction of the Malfoy Manor.

*****

Hermione and Ron helped Harry limp to the hospital wing that evening. He was laughing despite the pain. Which was understandable when you learned that he had survived a gruelling Quidditch practice unharmed and then had broken his ankle when his foot had snagged a tree root on their way back to the castle.

"SLUT!"

The word was punctuated by a resounding slap. Harry looked like he wanted to break into a run, but Ron and Hermione gripped his shoulders, firmly.

"You'll just make your ankle worse, Harry." Hermione told him.

"But that sounds like Lucius Malfoy," Harry told her. "I thought he was in Azkaban."

"Oh honestly," Hermione shook her head. "Don't you ever read the news? Lucius Malfoy cut a deal with the Ministry in exchange for being released. And he had many of them bribed or blackmailed so that they didn't dare refuse him."

"Who's the father, Draco?!" Harry was sure he'd misheard that. But he didn feel sorry for the girl Draco had impregnated.

"WHO IS THE FATHER?!"

This time there was no doubt what he'd heard. Though it didn't make sense. How could Draco be pregnant? Unless Draco was a girl and he didn't know it.

"Mr. Malfoy, please calm down." Madam Pomfrey was saying. "There is no father as such. Your son was the unfortunate recipient of a misspoken spell intended to heal a burn he'd received in Potions."

"What idiot cast a pregnancy spell on my son?" Lucius demanded as Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered the room.

"What would be Gilderoy Lockhart," Hermione offered.

Lucius's glare could have killed a basilisk. "What house is Mr. Lockhart is?"

"None," Madam Pomfrey told him, wondering how much more of his memory had been lost during is brief stint in Azkaban. "He was a teacher until..."

Smoke began to erupt from Lucius Malfoy's ears. And not because he'd just taken a pepper-up potion.

"GET! ME! DUMBLEDORE!!"

-Chapter Four-

Madam Pomfrey strode briskly out of her office, her mind so focused on the problem with Draco that she was half way up the corridor before she realized it wasn't empty. She turned and marched back to the trio who were standing there, one apparently injured.

"You'll have to wait until I get back, Potter." She apologized. "I'm dealing with a... family crisis at the moment."

"Yeah, I heard." Harry told her.

"Excuse me, Madam Pomfrey," Hermione offered.

"Yes, Miss Granger? What is it?" Pomfrey asked, hoping that Hermione wasn't about to ask her to join that House Elf fan club, or whatever it was.

"I could deliver the message to Dumbledore for you?" Hermione offered.

Pomfrey smiled. "Yes, that would make things so much easier." she gave Harry an appraising look. "Come," she told him. "I should like very much to have a look at that ankle."

And with that, she helped Ron assist Harry into the hospital wing, while Hermione went to fetch Dumbledore.

*****

"Draco," Lucius had calmed down somewhat by the time Pomfrey returned with Harry and Hermione. He was talking in a low voice, apparently believing that he was speaking low enough to not be heard.

Harry, however, could hear every word.

"Draco," Lucius repeated, gently. "I know you love your family. And I know you care about our reputation in the pureblood community. I've worked hard to keep it high, and I know you'll want to do the same. Am I right?"

Draco nodded.

"Now, you can't have an abortion," Lucius mused. "It wouldn't look good. And if you gave the baby up, one of the local hack rags would probably say you were shunning your responsibilities. There's really only one thing you can do at this point."

Lucius craned his neck and called over to where Harry was having his ankle treated. "Weasley," he called. "I want you to marry Draco."

"Father, are you insane?" Draco exclaimed. "I'm not going to marry the Weasel King. No way!"

"You *will* marry him. His is the only pureblood family I can trust in this matter." Lucius looked pained as he spoke. "And you will take his surname when you do. If you continued to be a Malfoy while you were in your third trimester, it would cause our family terrible shame. You don't want that. Do you, Draco?"

"No, father,"

"Don't call me that." Lucius told him. "Once you are a Weasley, you will severe all ties with the Malfoy family. In time our people will forget that you were ever a Malfoy, just as they forgot that your mother was a member of the House of Black."

"Excuse me," Ron cut in. "But don't I get a say in the matter? I mean why should Draco marry me? Why not Crabbe or Goyle? Or... Harry!"

He'd said Harry's name because Harry had stepped on his foot as he'd been getting up.

"Sorry, Ron." Harry whispered.

"You'll be fine," Madam Pomfrey told them both as she returned her attention the Malfoys.

"Mr. Malfoy," She said. "I think you are being unfair to your son."

"Is he?" Dumbledore had just arrived. "Oh dear. So, whatever are you up to now, Lucius?"

"I want Draco to get married." Lucius told the Headmaster. "I think that's reasonable as he's pregnant."

"He want the poor thing to marry a boy." Pomfrey told Dumbledore. Clearly she thought very little of this idea. Or at least of why Lucius was suggesting it.

"Really?" Dumbledore beamed. "Does that mean you'll be wearing a wedding gown, Draco? You know, I saw the cutest little bridal shop in Diagon Alley the other day."

Draco couldn't believe what he was hearing. His father wanting him to stop being a Malfoy had been bad enough. But now Dumbledore was saying how pretty he'd look in a wedding dress. This was getting way out of hand.

"Look, I am not marry Draco," Ron said. "And that's final."

"Oh, yes you are." Lucius told him. "Because if you do not, I will tell the Daily Prophet that your brothers, Fred and George, put a fertility spell on my son and then raped him. I'm sure that'll be good for their business, don't you think?"

"You *wouldn't*!" Ron exclaimed in horror. But even as he said this, he realized that this was exactly the sort of thing Lucius Malfoy *would* do.

Lucius continued to glare at him until, finally, Ron got down on one knee in front of Draco.

"Will you marry me?"

There tears running down Draco's face as he said "Yes," were not of joy.

During the past few minutes, he'd been thinking about when Ron had accidentally added Harry's name to the list of other boys Draco could marry. At first, he'd thought of it in jest. But the more times he ran it through his mind, the more he liked the idea. And now, he'd said yes to Ron's proposal. Now he was stuck with the Weasel as his fiance. An hour ago, he'd have thought nothing of it. Just another task he'd have to undertake for the sake of family honor.

But inside, his mind was laughing, bitterly, at him. ~You've just realized you're in love with Potter, and now you have to marry the Weasel.~