Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, of course. Just puttering about in her world.
A/N: Dedicated to RRW, my faithful reader who requested snapshots of the major moments between the two weddings in "Must Go On". Draco's POV since we never see that in MGO. As inspiration hits, I'll add to these snapshots, detailing the births, Sortings, and so forth of the Potter-Malfoy children.
Chapter 1 – Star Child
Draco slid into the bathtub as Harry flashed him a cheeky grin. It had been a long day, and he felt they'd both earned a long, pleasant soak.
"What possessed those miscreants to think soaking each other with butterbeer was a brilliant idea?" he complained as he settled into his husband's waiting arms. "I swear we never behaved like that in the common room when I was in school."
He could feel Harry's laughter reverberating through them both before the darker haired man spoke. "I always knew Slytherins were too uptight to have fun. I bet we Gryffindors had the best parties."
"I don't know how you managed with Minerva as Head of House. Didn't she do House checks?"
"Very rarely. We were allowed to run a bit wild in Gryffindor back then, I'm afraid. Nothing like how close an eye Arthur keeps on his lions or you on your snakes."
Breathing in the sweet scent of the bath oils Harry had added to the water, Draco relaxed and tried to be amused by the scene he'd come upon in his House's common room. "If this is how they behave knowing I might pop in at any time, can you imagine what they'd do if I didn't?" he asked. "They'd manage to blow up the entire tower, if not the whole school!"
"Nah. Blowing things up still isn't quite the Slytherin way of doing things. But I imagine we'd have a lot more secret tunnels in the place."
Draco snorted, but then had to agree with Harry's assessment. "That's probably why we were always stuck in the dungeons before. Can't tunnel with the lake right there."
Laughing, Harry began to slowly draw the big bath sponge over his chest when Sadie popped into the room. The house-elf seemed torn between consternation at interrupting their bath and a bubbly excitement. "Master Harry, Master Draco! It's time! Master Krum is sending for you, telling you to come to the Hospital Wing."
Heedless of Sadie's presence, Draco was on his feet and out of the bathtub in an instant. He cast a drying charm before turning and urging Harry to hurry up. Harry let himself be rushed along, even allowing Draco to cast drying charms before they donned the clothing Sadie brought.
"You'll stay here with the children until we send for them, Sadie," Harry reminded her. She nodded, bouncing happily in place. The house-elf was almost as excited about a new baby in the family as Allie was, although Allie thought it grossly unfair that she'd be living in a student dorm come September instead of getting to spoil her new sibling.
Before Draco's impatience could make him literally shove Harry out the door, his husband turned with a gentle smile, cupping his face for a quick kiss. "Calm down, love. The baby isn't going to arrive before we do."
The blond felt a sheepish grin spread across his face. He knew he was acting like a first time parent, but this birth was so unlike Allie's that he couldn't help his excitement.
Draco fluttered around, adjusting pillows and bedding, offering Luna ice chips, and pausing between every action to take her hand and pat it gently. After the tenth time he expressed his distress to Poppy over the pain of Luna's contractions, the medi-witch threatened to stun him until the baby actually arrived. Apologizing, he turned to do the same to Luna only to find her watching him with serene happiness that seemed at odds with the fact that she was in labor.
"Everything will be okay, Draco. Trust me. I know these things," she said softly.
On the other side of her hospital bed, Viktor nodded. "She always does seem to know."
Feeling a bit embarrassed by all his fuss, he finally realized that it was only the three of them and the medi-witch. "Where's Harry?"
Viktor tipped his head toward the door to the little private room. "He stepped out when you were debating potions versus spells for pain relief."
Luna's serene expression slipped at last, as she frowned in concern. "Perhaps you should go find him. Viktor knows how to look after me, and we've a few hours yet before the baby arrives."
Wondering what could have drawn Harry away from watching their child arrive, Draco stepped out of the room, scanning the empty Hospital Wing for any sign of his husband. He found the dark-haired wizard at one of the windows, his expression half-masked by the moonlight streaming in. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be in some sort of pain.
"Harry?"
That something was wrong with Harry was confirmed when the other man met his gaze. Green eyes shimmered with unshed tears, and for the first time since the excitement of the night had begun, Draco realized just what sort of memories could be rearing their ugly heads for the man he loved. He crossed the room quickly, tugging Harry into his arms and hugging him fiercely.
"I'm so sorry, love. I didn't think about what this might be like for you," he whispered softly.
Harry's voice was hoarse with emotion. "I'm not sure which is worse, remembering that night and all the helplessness I felt or the fear that something might happen to Luna and feeling like it's our fault for letting her go through this for us."
"This isn't going to end the same way, Harry. Magic can't fix everything, but the chances of a woman dying in childbirth are next to impossible." He kissed Harry gently, tasting the tears he'd shed. "Luna's healthy and even impossibly joyful to be in labor. We aren't going to lose her like what happened to Jamie."
Taking a shuddering breath, Harry rested his forehead on Draco's shoulder. "I keep telling myself that. The doctors said that Jamie wouldn't have survived her injuries even if she hadn't been pregnant, but it was supposed to be a happy event, making Jessie and me fathers. Instead, it was the most hellish night of my life."
Considering how much of that night had been spent in a Muggle NICU praying that he'd not lose baby Richard as well as the sister-in-law who had surrogated for him and his husband, Draco thought hellish only began to describe that night, in his opinion. He produced a monogrammed handkerchief and nudged Harry to take it. "Tonight's about making a better memory of how families grow larger, love. Do you want to wait out here until it's closer to time? I know Luna will understand, and Viktor's glued to her side, so she'll lack for nothing if we stay out here."
Putting the handkerchief to use, Harry looked pensive for a moment when he was done. "I think the better memory is in there," he decided. "Out here, it's worse, because it reminds me of the surgical waiting room that night, not being allowed to see the birth at all."
Smiling in reassurance, Draco slipped his arm around Harry's waist and guided him back toward the room. He tried for a change of subject, hoping some of his excitement might be contagious. "Do you believe Luna's assertion that the baby's a girl?" he asked. The blonde woman had staunchly refused to allow confirmation of her statement via potion or spell. She'd stated they'd just have to trust her instincts.
"Well, Viktor swears she knew with all of their children, so I think we'd best believe her."
He could tell that Harry knew what he was trying to do and humoring him, but as long as he could find distraction from the resurfaced grief, Draco didn't really care.
When their daughter arrived just before dawn with much protest at the change of scenery, it wasn't tears of sadness that graced Harry's face, if the grin he wore was any indication. Draco accepted the tiny bundle from Poppy, turning from where Viktor held Luna while murmuring quiet words of love in both Bulgarian and English. He allowed himself one overjoyed moment of feeling the baby against his chest, and then placed her carefully in his husband's arms.
Harry accepted their daughter as if she were made of the most fragile glass in world, tears falling liberally on the baby's face as he placed gentle kisses on her cheeks and forehead. "Oh Merlin, to hold her right away," he whispered.
Draco knelt in front of him, placing his own kisses on the soft golden wisps on the baby's head. "I know, Harry, I know." Remembering they'd never decided on a name, he spoke again. "Should we name her Lily for your mother?"
The dark-haired man remained quiet long enough that Draco wondered if he'd made a mistake, especially when Harry shook his head. "As much as I'd like to honor my mother and have her name live on, I want her to have a name that's all hers." He studied the baby closely. "A star name, I think, so she's like you and Allie."
"Elektra's another Pleiade name I always liked. Or we could go with something different, like Talitha or Cassiopeia."
"I like Talitha." Harry's gaze left the baby to rest on Luna, now resting peacefully in Viktor's protective embrace. "Talitha Luna."
Smiling, Draco nodded. "I think it's perfect." He leaned in over the baby's head to kiss Harry, hoping all the love he felt for his husband and the newest addition to their little family showed in the kiss. The movement jostled Talitha from her drowsy half-sleep, and she began a protest both men knew all too well. Laughing, they returned the newborn to the gentle, dreamy woman who'd given her life.
As the baby nursed, Draco's arms went around Harry with the ease of their year of marriage. He pressed a gentle kiss to the side of Harry's neck. "I love you."
"I love you too." Harry's arms returned the embrace. "Thank you for giving me new memories of this."
With that, Draco felt so happy he thought his heart could burst. He was reminded once again, as he had been so many times since Harry had come back into his life, that his true wealth lay in moments like this, not in the gold that lay in Gringotts.
He knew without a doubt he'd trade every last knut to make this happiness last forever.
A/N:
For those reading this little snapshot who read Must Go On, thank you for continuing onward with this little AU world.
There was a recent review of MGO where the reviewer was irate that I had named Richard something other than James Sirius, asking if I was pretending the canon children never existed.
The answer to that is a resounding yes. This world is AU from the end of the war. Harry didn't marry Ginny, and Draco didn't marry Astoria. Therefore none of these people had the same children they had in the epilogue, because the histories diverge.
As for me choosing alternate names for the children, it's based on a personal belief that I stated when my own second son was born, that I'd prefer a child to grow up knowing their namesake, all things willing, over honoring a deceased relative they'd never know other than from stories. All of the Potter-Malfoy children (Allie, Richard, and the four from the epilogue) have a first name uniquely their own, then a middle name honoring someone important to their father's lives.