Trouble's the Name, Breaking Hearts Is the Game

"Dalia? Dalia, where are you?" Draco called, knocking lightly on the door to our bedroom. I took a deep breath and stayed silent, hoping that he wouldn't come in. He did of course, as he always did and I buried myself farther into the corner. "Dalia... come on, look at me."

I glanced out at him from between my fingertips and he smiled at me. He looked strong and imposing standing over me, but he knelt down to look me in the eyes. I knew that he hated the feeling of the shag carpet floor against his expensive Armani suits, but he would deal with it to talk to me when I was in my moods.

Draco carefully peeled my hands away from my face and he held them both tightly, as if he was worried I might run away. He kissed my forehead gently. "I have to go to work at the Ministry today. It's unavoidable... will you be okay?" He asked, the pain clear in his voice.

I hated that he seemed to think he had to take care of me. I hated that everytime he left he told me about it, as if I couldn't figure it out. I hated that everytime he looked at me he thought of the battle and what had happened to me and how he could have stopped it. It was too much and it made me burst into tears.

He had his arms around me before I could protest. Gently, he ran his fingers through my long, blonde hair, kissed my neck and whispered sweet nothings in my ear. If anything good could be said about what Bellatrix had done, it was that it had made Draco a much better boyfriend. I was his world and it was evident in the way he kissed me.

"Do you want me to stay, Dalia?" Draco whispered, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ears. The love in his eyes was golden and it made my heart skip a beat. "We'll rent movies and eat popcorn... we'll be muggles for the day. I know you'd love that. Love to forget magic for a day."

Sniffling, I nodded and leaned in to kiss him. But then I was gone. Everything went white. Whether I was moving or staying still, I wasn't sure. Everything I touched felt like silk and what I heard was nothing but gibberish. There was no distinction between sounds. No little bell ringing in my head telling me what was the doorbell and what was the phone. There was nothing.

And before I knew it, I was sobbing and staring down into the bowl of the toilet. Seconds later, Draco appeared, carefully running a hand through my hair and handing me a glass of water. He opened his mouth to say something, but as soon as he met my eyes, he stopped. Licking his lips, he asked quietly, "How long?"

I shook my head.

"What's the last thing you remember, Dal?" He was twisting something on his finger, but I couldn't tell what it was, not from the angle I was at. I leaned over the toilet and vomited again. "Dal... tell me, so I can tell you what happened."

Taking a deep breath, I said, "The last thing I remember is... is sitting on the floor in our bedroom. I was sitting in your lap and you were in one of your gorgeous suits, hating the shag carpeting and you asked if I wanted you to stay. If... if I would like it if we acted as muggles for the day."

There was a long silence before any emotion passed across Draco's face. At first he looked angry, as he usually did after one of my attacks. I knew that on the inside he was cursing Bellatrix and what she did. Then an overwhelming sadness took over his features as he reached for my hand. Suddenly, I saw what he had been playing with on his finger and I realized how long I had been out.

"It's been... a year?"

He nodded slowly, "And eight months."

I almost threw up again, but I stopped myself. Terror crept its way into my voice as I whispered, "That's the longest by... sixteen months."

"Yeah."

"What else happened? What else is happening?"

Draco chewed on his lip for a moment, wondering what he was supposed to tell me and what he shouldn't. A couple of minutes passed and then he said, quite steadily, "You got pregnant, before we were married and as a couple we decided to keep it. But, uhh... you were in the city and had a panic attack and ran to the nearest clinic that offered abortions." He paused and licked his lips, "We broke up. And then we bumped into each other a couple of months later and started talking and got back together. I proposed two months later and we got married three months after."

I blinked. The numbers were rolling around in my head as I tried to add them up. He looked like he was in pain, so I took the glass of water from him and drank deeply. When I finished, I said, "That still leaves a ten or twelve months to be covered, Draco."

He nodded silently, "Well, there was the honeymoon and my promotion. You got a job in the muggle world writing for a newspaper... you said it made you feel normal. It made you feel like a kid again. Like you could have called up Ty and just talked and he wouldn't feel the need to forget you." I nodded slowly, "It took up a lot of your time though... so you quit and were really depressed about it for a couple of months and then..."

"Then what?"

Shaking his head, he said, "Damn it, Dalia, how could you be out for so long? How the f*ck can this curse make you miss so much... how can I not be able to tell you're not here?" Tears glistened in his eyes. I reached up to wipe them away but he swatted away my hands. "Then you wanted something else to do. And you realized that you're depression wasn't really about... your job. It was about the baby you had lost. So... so we decided to start trying."

"How many months?"

"You're six weeks pregnant, Dalia,"

I breathed in, hard. It was a lot to take, especially with the extra hormones and the morning sickness. Draco was still clutching my hand and it made me hurt to see how badly he wanted me to know. To remember. But it wasn't a curse that made me forget, it caused me to be completely gone for months or years at a time.

Pulling him towards me, I kissed Draco on the lips. He kissed me back, surprised but obliging until I whispered, "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For never leaving me, even though I am what I am."

He kissed me again and murmured, "Dalia Malfoy... how dare you say those words. I will love you no matter what happens and no matter how long you go for." He touched my stomach lightly, "I guarantee you that the baby will too."

The End