A/N: I know the last part was short, but I wanted to leave you all with something before I went off to school for the day; and now I hope you will wake up to find this, as I am writing late into the night! The story is quickly coming to a close but I can't decide if there should be two or three more parts, AND, I would like to hear some suggestions for baby names…I am trying to steer away from James or Sirius since I have used them in my other stories…let me know.
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Part 14: The Baby Shower
Harry and Draco were all smiles as lavish amounts of attention that was being paid to them. There were many kinds of congratulations and a pile of presents so high Harry could have sworn that the ceiling in the Room of Requirement was at least four times it normal height. There were great wooden beams across the ceiling, which was enchanted to show the images recorded on the baby viewing globes both Harry and Draco had. Their were all kinds of pink and blue streamers and balloons. There were tables set up along the walls full of all sorts of delicious foods. Harry and Draco were pleased to see that peanut butter and pickles lined the tables as well as the ever popular shepherd's pie garnished with hot fudge, however that particular item seemed to materialize as soon as the pregnant pair walked into the room.
Harry turned to Draco, "I can't bloody believe that they did all of this for us"
"I know, I was ready to hex Ginny into the next Millennim!"
Ginny was the first to take control of the situation, "Ok you lot, it is time to play the baby games"
"Oh Ginny!" squeaked Hermione, "you have lost a diaper pin" and with a swish of the wand, a diaper pin that had been on the collar of Ginny's robes vanished. "Don't forget you can't say the word b-a-b-y!" called Hermione to the entire room.
Harry and Draco groaned, "What kind of bloody games are these?" sensing that the games weren't going to be too fun for them.
"They are mostly Muggle games that Hermione has adapted" explained Ginny, as she produced two large spools of enchanted ribbon, one pink and one blue. "Draco you hold on to the pink ribbon and Harry you hold on to the blue ribbon." As each one grabbed on, Ginny muttered some sort of spell and the spools wrapped themselves around the two young men seemingly taking a measurement of how wide around they were. "Now all of us here well measure a piece off of the spool and the one who is closes to the right measurement will win a lovely prize" explained Ginny.
Hermione held up a basket that was empty, "Who ever wins can get whatever they want so long as it fits in this basket and it is not actual money"
Draco was a bit upset when Neville's turn came to test his piece of ribbon against the one Ginny had taken earlier, it was at least four times the length. All of a sudden, a mirror showed up in front of Draco and he nervously looked at himself from the front, then the side, then with his robes on, then with his robes off, to determine if he could look anywhere near as remotely large as Neville had suggested. He decided, of course, that he could and a scowl grew on his face, "I can't wait for this blasted baby to be born so I get my body back"
Of course all Hermione heard was `baby' "Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, Draco, you know better, now you've lost a diaper pin" and then she happily flitted away to tend to Harry. Ginny on the other hand saw Draco sulking in the corner and went to see what she could do about making him happy.
"Draco love, this is supposed to be a party for you, what are you doing over here all by yourself?"
"Did you see the size of that dasted ribbon that Neville cut?"
"Oh, honestly Draco, it is a bloody game, and you know Neville, he couldn't get the spool to stop spinning so he could perform the severing charm, and once the ribbon is cut it is cut, you can't just fix it…he didn't mean to offend you!"
"I just saw my reflection, he was definitely telling the truth?"
"What are you going on about? You are hardly showing, it just looks like you've been drinking a bit too much butterbeer, and honestly I think it is quite…cute"
"Men are not cute, men are sexy and suave. How many times do I have to tell you that?"
Ginny just shrugged her shoulders and kissed Draco on the cheek and led him out from his corner back to the center of attention, where he belonged.
"Ok. Ok." Called Hermione from her perch on a table, "All of you listen up, this last game is just for the dads-to-be, it is `Diaper the Gnome'" when she said that a table appeared in the center of the room complete with two angry gnomes and some odd looking nappies, "The object of this game is to see who can diaper the gnome the fastest, without getting, …erm…messed, there is an added challenge, the nappies have been hexed so as not to go on easy…the winner will get to go first in the rotation of opening gifts!"
Draco and Harry cast each other one of those `guy looks', the ones that transfer complete and utter disdain for a situation, and then each turned to their pespective girl and pleaded with their eyes to cancel the game. Wahtever was going to happen it wasn't going to end good. Neither one knew how to charm a nappy on a baby when it wasn't hexed…
Harry and Draco took their spots like good sports and played the game while everyone else around them cheered. Harry grabbed the gnome bye its ankles, and let one foot go, then tried to `wingardim leviosa' the diaper over to it, the gnome however, protested by peeing on Harry's robes. "Bugger! That this has good aim!" snorted Draco, who was holding is gnome by its oddly shaped head with one hand while trying to open up a nappy that had sealed itself shut with the other.
"In my opioion, good aim would have been if it hit you instead of me!" retorted Harry, who threw the gnome down on the table and pinned it down with his forearm while he tried to remember the charm Hermione had taught him for diapering a baby; it took him a few minutes, but eventually he remembered, and held his hand over the stack of diapers and muttered the charm and the diaper found itself tightly fastened around one very unhappy gnome.
Draco wasn't as fortunate as Harry, his gnome decided to get up and run away, Draco tried to charm the nappies to go after the gnome, but all he managed to do was to charm diapers onto a few of his unsuspecting guests, including poor Neville, "Why is it always me?" he asked shaking his head as he pulled he nappy off from his outer robes.
Harry didn't get any time to respond, Hermione grabbed him by the arm and led him over to the table where he and Draco were to sit and open their gifts. "Harry wins, so Harry goes first" The gifts appeared on the table as he sat before it, a quill was on a table with a stack of thank you parchments on it so that each one could be written out as the gifts were open; it would save so much trouble after the babies were born insisted Hermione.
Harry pulled the yellow gift paper off of the box and smiled brightly in anticipation as he opened the first box. He didn't remove the item from the package straight away, he was a bit confused about what the item was, upon further study he realized it was some sort of strange undergarment. Harry's face turned crimson, and Draco, the Slytherin side of him showing for a brief second, pulled out the largest pair of spandex knickers he had ever seen, "Oh look here Potter, you've got some support knickers, for that large bulge you've been lugging around, its magically enhanced to take some of the pressure off! I'd love to get a picture of you in those beauties!" Harry's face was still tinted red with embarrassment and anger, next it was Draco's turn to open a gift. Draco noticed that the gift was wrapped in the same paper, and his face was light up with antipation as Harry's face had been as he opened up the box and pulled out an identical pair of spandex support knickers, he turned to Harry, "Not a word!"
Harry and Draco were a bit apprehensive about the next gift they opened, it was from Mrs. Weasley, Harry went first, of course, and opened the package to reveal a set of powder blue baby jumpers, Draco seeing that the gift wasn't bad tore into his gift and saw he got the same thing except his were a pale green color.
They continued to work their way through their mountain of gifts, deciding it would save time if they opened gifts at the same time. Two huge gift baskets made their way to the table, their was no tag to see who the gift was from, but each guy rotated opening a package from the basket, neither one opening the same gift. Draco went first this time. He pulled out a box that was wrapped in white paper adorned with blue and pink footprints, and made an `aww' sound as he unwrapped it, then his face fell in a confused sort of grimace, almost, "What is it Draco?" shouted a few people from the group surrounding the table. He shrugged his shoulders for a second and then his face grew a hot pink as he realized what it was…"it's a breast pump, it says here you use it to get breast milk from your…breast…so you can feed the baby with a bottle" He took the odd item out of the package and produced the necessary charm to get the thing working. He put his hand over the suctioning part of the device, and his entire hand was almost sucked into the thing! "There is no way I am putting any part of my body near that thing!" Draco cried as he jumped up a little.
Ginny cast him a glare with a twinkle in her eye, "If you cross me you'll find certain parts trapped in there for eternity!"
Draco quickly put the breast pump back in the basket, vowing to toss it out before it made its way back to Gryffindor Tower.
Harry opened a package that was wrapped in blue paper with `boy' written all over it, he smiled, and guessing by the weight of the package that it was yet another adorable outfit to add to the ever expanding pile - he couldn't have been more wrong! When he unwrapped the paper a giant red rubber doughnut expanded before his eyes, and he sat looking at it puzzled for a moment. Hermione noticed the puzzled look on his face, and the terrified look on Draco's face, "Those are for after you give birth…it is kind of uncomfortable to sit for a while so you sit on those…" Harry and Draco just nodded, wondering why they would need those in the first place, the spell would be over so they would go back to their old selves…then Hermione burst their bubble, "you two do know you won't return to your normal selves until 6 weeks after the births, right?" she whispered at them, Draco and Harry gulped with that realization.
Each one went to reach for another package, but realized they had worked their way through all of the gifts, which was slightly disappointing, but they were in much better spirits now that they knew they were loved and appreciated by so many.
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