//AN// This is a sequel for those who wanted to see Hermione pregnant in my story Freedom. If you were against that in Freedom, then I suggest you pretend this one isn't here.//
Hermione sat in the medi-witch's office with her mouth hanging open. "There must be some mistake," she had argued.
The medi-witch showed her the test results, and did a sonogram to show her the two beating hearts inside of her. She then informed her that she looked to be about 14 weeks pregnant.
"I don't get pregnant. I spent thousands of galleons being informed that by the best medi-witches and medi-wizards in England. There's no way. Especially not twins. No way." She tried to reason with the medi-witch.
The medi-witch just shook her head and scheduled an appointment in 4 weeks to find out the gender of the babies and gave Hermione a prescription for special nutrient potions for women carrying twins and a potion to make the pregnancy easier on her body, to help her carry the twins to term.
After insisting that Hermione use the floo instead of apparating back home, the medi-witch let a still shocked Hermione go home.
Hermione didn't floo home though; she landed with a thud in the living room of Potter Manor, the home of her best friends, Harry and Ginny Potter.
Hermione just sat there on a floor in front of the floor until Ginny came out of the kitchen to investigate the noise, saw her sitting there, and rushed over. "What's wrong Hermione?" She asked.
Without saying a word, Hermione handed the paperwork from the medi-witch's office to Ginny and let her read.
The ginger haired witch's mouth dropped open as she read through the papers. Then she broke out into an enormous grin as she reread the papers to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. She threw her arms around Hermione and started to cry.
"Oh Hermione, this is so wonderful! And you're almost halfway done already! Oh and twins! Twins Hermione! You're going to have two beautiful babies for the price of one!" Ginny said with a laugh.
"What if they think I tricked them? What if they don't want babies and leave me? What if I have to raise twins who look like mini-Remus and mini-Sirius all by myself?" Hermione said in monotone, staring blankly at the wall.
Ginny grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and shook her, forcing her to turn and look at Ginny. "You know that Sirius and Remus both love children. And even if they didn't, they love you more than life itself and would never leave you, no matter what! You've got a huge 'extended family' who loves you, and are all going to be excited about your babies. Besides, who's to say that you won't have identical twin girls who are the spitting image of you?" She teased.
That made Hermione smile, and she began to calm down. She and Ginny sat in the Potter's living room floor talking about babies, baby clothes, nurseries and labor for several hours until Hermione had calmed down and was together enough to apparated without splinching herself.
Just as Hermione was about to head home, Ginny stopped her, "How are you going to tell the boys?"
"I think I'm going to do that thing with the food like you did with Harry," she said with a grin.
"Good idea. Let me know how long it takes them to figure it out. Took Harry almost the entire meal before he asked why we were eating all the baby food. Good luck!" Ginny said, giving Hermione a hug.
Hermione landed on the front steps of Number 12 and went in. She first headed for the kitchen to talk to Kreacher, and put in her order for dinner.
She found Kreacher in his spot underneath the heater. He crawled out and she explained to him that she had a surprise for Masters Lupin-Black and that Kreacher was ordered not to tell them a word. She then requested baby back ribs, baby corn, baby carrots, and baby peas for dinner. As an afterthought she asked for a baby bottle shaped cake that said "Congratulations Daddies" in pale pink and baby blue frosting.
After confirming everything with Kreacher she headed up stairs to shower and change clothes.
She made it to the master bathroom when she heard Sirius' motorbike come to a stop in the backyard. A smile crossed her face and her hand drifted to her slightly rounded abdomen as she imagined a precious little baby with Sirius' beautiful eyes.
She stepped into the shower and turned it on warm and began to scrub. She washed her hair and used a deep conditioner to keep down the frizz. After she got out, she towel dried her hair, wrapped up in a bathrobe and then went to their bedroom to fix her hair. She used a light drying charm and then used muggle anti-frizz gel and went on to get dressed.
She put on jeans and a pale pink knit hoodie and then headed downstairs to find her boys. They were both in the sitting room, Sirius watching Deadliest Catch and Remus reading a book.
"Hey boys," she said with a smile. "I've got Kreacher making a special dinner for us tonight."
"Sweet, what is it?" Sirius asked.
"Come and see, it's probably ready by now."
She led her boys into the kitchen and sure enough, three places were set at the table, and large bowls and platters of all the 'baby' food was set out before them.
"Ribs, peas, corn and carrots…" Sirius said, confused. "What's special about that?"
Hermione smiled as she watched Remus' face. His expression started out confused. He looked at Hermione, and back at the food, and then his face read pure shock. He looked to Hermione for confirmation of his shock, and when she nodded, he picked her up and swung her around in a circle.
When he sat her back down, he had tears in his eyes, and when the two of them looked at Sirius, he still looked completely confused.
"These are baby back ribs, that's baby corn, those are baby carrots and those are baby peas, Siri. Notice a theme?" Remus asked him.
Sirius looked at Hermione. He was growing more and more puzzled by the second. "Are… you…" he stammered at Hermione.
"Yes love, I am. After all these years of being told I can't have children, here I am. And I have another surprise for both of you." She told him.
Both men looked at her, wondering what in the world she was going to say now, after a surprise like the first one.
"Not only am I pregnant, but we're having twins and we find out the genders in 4 weeks." She said with a grin.
Sirius and Remus sat down quickly. Remus spoke first. "If we can find out the genders in 4 weeks then you've got to be…."
"14 weeks pregnant." Hermione said with a smile. "I hadn't had a period in a couple of months, but that's nothing new for me, but I've been super tired so I finally went to a medi-witch today. She said I should start to perk up in a week or two when the hormones start to balance out."
Hermione went on to explain the potions that she'd have to take, and how it was a good thing she'd taken off from teaching this year because she couldn't be around the potions fumes with twins growing inside her.
Sirius was sitting in a chair next to Remus with a big smile on his face. "This is wonderful love. A couple of mini marauders running around this place. Maybe I better get the foundation reinforced." He joked.
They all laughed and Remus pulled Hermione down into his lap. "This is amazing baby." He placed his hand on her stomach and continued, "I can't believe that we're going to have two little munchkins in this house in 26 weeks. It's amazing."
"The medi-witch said that we can also do a spell at the next appointment to see the paternity of the babies, if you want to know, but I figured I'd leave that up to you guys, since it doesn't matter to me."
"No." Sirius said quietly. "It doesn't matter who donated the genetic material, both of those children are equally all three of us."
Hermione smiled. "I thought the same thing.'
"I agree," Remus said with a nod.
The next four weeks found Hermione being petted, pampered and waited on like a princess. Both Remus and Sirius spent all of their free time making sure she didn't need or want for anything. They took turns fixing or going out for her cravings. They gave her foot rubs, back rubs, full body massages and anything else she asked for.
Hermione didn't ask them for much, and she was very gracious for everything that they did for her. It seemed to them that she was an exceptionally rational, exceptionally sweet pregnant woman.
Finally August 3rd rolled around and both Remus and Sirius escorted Hermione through the floo and into the maternity ward at St. Mungo's Hospital.
The nearest medi-witch greeted them and showed them to a small private room where Hermione sat on a table and the boys took a seat on each side of her. A maternity specialized medi-witch came in and Hermione laid back on the table and the ultrasound began.
"I see two healthy babies, but you already knew that," the medi-witch started. "Both have 10 fingers and 10 toes. They have healthy hearts, lungs and kidneys. Their brains are developing nicely, their abdomens and heads are the perfect size for their range of development. I'd say you've got two healthy little ones in there Mrs. Lupin-Black."
"Oh come on! You know what we want to know!" Sirius practically whined.
The medi-witch laughed. "Is everyone in agreement on finding out the sexes?" She asked.
When all three of them nodded, she continued to move the wand around Hermione's stomach. She stopped at one point and drew a circle around something on the screen.
"This is Baby A. You have a healthy baby boy in there."
Sirius and Remus both grinned at that.
"And this is Baby B. Seems to me that you'll be having one of each Mrs. Lupin-Black. Baby B is a girl. Congratulations." The medi-witch said when she saw the grins on all three's faces.
The medi-witch cleaned the ultrasound goop off of Hermione's stomach, wrote her a prescription for stronger nutrient potions and a pregnancy safe muscle relaxant for leg and back cramps and sent the three on their way.
"Let's celebrate," Sirius suggested. "Let's go out to lunch, Mione's choice."
Hermione chose a small outdoor café where they had grilled sandwiches, ice tea and large ice cream sundaes.
As she finished the last spoonful of her sundae, Hermione groaned. "I'm not sure if I can apparate home."
Sirius went to take care of the bill while Remus helped Hermione from her chair and walked her to the door. Sirius joined them just outside and he took Hermione's other arm, and together the three apparated home.
The weeks seemed to fly by as Hermione, Sirius and Remus cleaned, scraped, painted, carpeted and decorated the biggest room on the second floor of Grimmauld Place. Once the cleaning, painting and carpeting was finished, Sirius and Remus warded the door of the nursery so that Hermione couldn't get in.
She was 34 weeks pregnant when Sirius and Remus came to her, announcing that the nursery was done, and they wanted her to come and have a look. They blindfolded her and then helped her out of her chair and down the hall to the nursery.
They paused to open the door helped her step inside and then let her remove the blindfold.
Hermione was startled when at least 40 people yelled "Surprise!!!"
Her jaw dropped open as she saw everyone and everything in the room.
The nursery had been repainted with a mural of a giant meadow on all four walls. There were dozens of different creatures, both magical and non-magical around the meadow. Unicorns and bunnies played in the sun while a centaur and fox slept under a tree and several pygmy puffs played on another wall.
She began to cry when she saw the cribs, both white sleigh cribs, one with pink bedding and one with baby blue bedding. There were stuffed animals in each one, a black dog, a brown wolf, and a traditional brown teddy bear with beautiful brown eyes.
She was led over to one of the two rocking chairs in the room and everyone gathered around her, bringing gifts.
Molly brought hand knit blankets, booties and hats for the babies, Ginny brought two magical baby books with places for magical photos, locks of hair, and places to record first accidental magic release, first broom ride, first floo trip, etc… from she and Harry. Penny brought a white wicker bassinet with a pink rattle on top from her and Percy while Fleur brought the same in blue from her and Bill.
The gifts kept coming and coming. Hermione's parents brought a huge basket of cloth diapers, burp clothes and receiving blankets for the babies, along with nursing gowns, bras and shirts for Hermione. Hermione's dad even slipped in a large, aged bottle of scotch for the boys.
There were countless rompers, dresses, toys, books, onesies, socks, shoes and blankets from everyone. All the Weasley women were there, as were all of the women in Hermione's family that knew she was a witch, plus Remus' sister and Sirius' cousins Andromeda and Tonks.
After all the presents were opened and cake was being eaten and the party was winding down, Hermione bent over in her chair and screamed.
Remus and Sirius both rushed to her side and asked her what was wrong.
"My stomach just cramped really badly and my water broke," she cried.
Sirius scooped her up and the three headed to the floo and went straight to the maternity ward at St. Mungo's.
Molly directed half the woman to putting away the gifts and the other half to cleaning up the food and trash. She pulled Ginny to the side and sent her to get Harry and go to St. Mungo's to check on Hermione and the babies. "The boys will need Harry, and Hermione will need you," She told her.
Ginny and Harry arrived at St. Mungo's about thirty minutes after Sirius, Remus and Hermione.
Harry walked up to the nearest healer and demanded to see Hermione. The healer refused, stating patient confidentiality. Ginny pulled Harry away and up the stairs toward the maternity floor. "We'll be able to find them up here dear," she told him.
Harry and Ginny jogged up three flights of stairs until they came to the maternity floor. As soon as they opened the door, they saw Sirius and Remus pacing back and forth across a baby themed waiting room, worry evident on their faces.
Ginny nudged Harry toward Sirius and then went over to Remus and wrapped her arms around him. Both men stopped their pacing and leaned into the hugs. Ginny and Harry led them over to a couch and sat both of them down. "What have they said?" Ginny asked gently.
Sirius explained that Hermione's blood pressure had apparently been really high for a while, unknown to them and it had caused her to go into labor. Since her water broke at the party, there was nothing they could do to stop the labor and the babies would have to come early.
"They tossed us both out and took her in for a c-section." Remus said. "We've been pacing here for 15 minutes and haven't heard a word yet."
"Remus and I will go and find a healer to check on Hermione, Harry you and Sirius stay here incase someone comes out to talk to them." Ginny said, taking Remus by the hand and walking out into the hallway.
Just as they stepped out into the hallway, an isolet with a tiny baby wrapped in a blue blanket was rushed by then toward the NICU.
Following his gut, Remus let go of Ginny's hand and chased after the isolet. "Is that one of my babies?" He asked a healer who was running beside the isolet.
"Are you one of the Lupin-Black husbands?"
"Yes." He answered quickly.
"Then yes, this is your son." The healer paused as the other three healers continued into the NICU with the baby. "We have to get him into the neonatal intensive care unit and get him stabilized. His lungs just weren't quite ready to breathe on their own yet and he's getting a little bit of oxygen, so we want to keep an eye on him. Go back to the waiting room and they'll take you to your wife in a few minutes, your daughter is on her way down here as well. We'll call you and your husband down here once they're both stabilized, so that you can see them."
The healer turned and went into the NICU, leaving Remus to stare at the doors.
Ginny came up and put her arm around him, walking him back to the waiting room. When they got there, they saw a medi-wizard telling Sirius the same things that Remus had just learned.
Remus went to Sirius and they sat down on the couch, holding each other. Ginny went and took a seat by Harry, who looked like he'd just seen a ghost.
"The baby boy looked good, we saw them rushing him by us as we went out the door," Ginny told Harry.
A healer came out and told Sirius and Remus that they could go back and sit with Hermione, as she was starting to wake up and would want to see them.
Both men got up and followed the healer. "Give her our love," Ginny called after them.
As they entered the recovery room, they saw their beautiful witch laid back in the hospital bed, her hair spread out frizzily behind her head, looking pale and sad. "Hey guys," she croaked.
They both went to her sides and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Hey beautiful," Sirius said.
"I saw our little boy a few minutes ago, he's beautiful." Remus said.
"The healers said we can all go see them as soon as they're stable and checked over." Sirius told her.
Each man took a seat beside their wife and spoke quietly and soothingly to her as she cried. She cried for her babies who were being poked and prodded on the other side of the ward. She cried for herself, because she felt like a failure as a mother, and her children weren't even an hour old yet. She cried for her husbands who were trying so hard not to cry for their children.
A young healer came in and told them that she was there to take the three of them to visit their babies, and that a neonatologist would be waiting for them to explain everything to them.
She then helped Hermione sit up and then levitated her into a wheelchair, told the boys to follow her, and began to push the wheelchair down the hall toward the doors Remus had seen them take their son into.
They entered the double doors and were taken to a small room on the right side of the hall where a tall, dark-haired wizard was looking over their children.
"I'm Healer Smith, I'll give you a few moments with your children and then I'll come back and discuss any questions you may have." Healer Smith and the young healer left the room and closed the door to give them some privacy.
Remus pushed Hermione up in front of the tiny crib that held their tiny daughter. "4lbs 11oz," she read off of the little card on the end of the crib.
"5lbs 1oz," Sirius read from the card on their son's crib.
"They're so small," Remus said.
The three softly caressed their son who had an oxygen cannula in his nose and their daughter who was whimpering softly in her crib. They spoke softly to both babies, calling them by their names, and pressing soft kisses onto their foreheads.
After about 15 minutes Healer Smith came back into the room and began to explain.
The trip to the NICU had only been a precaution for their baby girl. She was healthy as a horse, just needed to be checked out. Their son was breathing well on his own, but needed a little oxygen supplementation to keep his levels up.
Their daughter could go home when Hermione did, in two days, but their son would have to stay for a few more days to make sure he could keep his oxygen levels up with no help.
After about an hour Sirius wheeled Hermione back to her room while Remus sat with the babies. When he was alone, he picked up his daughter and sat down with her in the rocking chair next to her crib. She opened her eyes and looked up at him, and she had the same beautiful blue eyes as Sirius, Hermione's perfect nose and lips, and she seemed to have his own hair color, but it couldn't be. Was it even genetically possible for the baby to belong to both men?
Healer Smith came in to check on the baby boy and Remus decided to ask him.
"If two wizards are with the same witch, frequently, is it possible for both of them to be the biological father of one child?"
Healer Smith explained that with extremely powerful witches or wizards sometimes their sheer will could bend the normal laws of genetics. In this case, Hermione's secret desire for a child probably caused her to be able to conceive, and all of their desires for the babies to belong to all of them probably caused the DNA from both men's sperm to merge and give both of the babies both men's DNA.
Remus smiled and thanked the healer. Sirius came back a few minutes later, telling him that Hermione had fallen sound asleep, but only after being given a calming draught and a sleeping potion by one of the healers.
Remus explained when Healer Smith had told him about the DNA to Sirius, and passed him their daughter.
Remus watched with tears in his eyes as Sirius sat down in the rocker with their daughter and began to sing softly. He walked over to their son's crib and picked him up gently, watching the oxygen hoses and monitor wires and rocked him softly.
When he opened his eyes and looked up at his daddy, Remus was staring into his own amber eyes. Their son seemed to have a nose all his own, but his mother's lips and his Papa's black hair.
"For being genetically the same, these two are so different." Remus commented.
Healer Smith came in and gave some potions to their baby boy and explained that in 4 hours they would test him to see if the potions matured him enough to take him off the oxygen. If they did, he would go home with his sister after all; if they didn't it would be a few more days.
Both babies were soon rocked to sleep by their Daddy and Papa, and the men placed them back in their cribs and went to check on their mummy.
When they walked through the waiting room they noticed that it was full of Weasleys, Grangers, Tonks, Potters, Longbottoms and Remus' sister.
They stopped and gave everyone an update on the babies and Hermione, and then headed on in to Hermione's room.
When they got there, she was still out, and would be for hours, so Sirius pulled out his wand and enlarged her bed. He then used a charm to scoot her over to the middle and each man took one side of their wife and held hands on her hip.
Four hours later, Healer Smith woke up Sirius and Remus to tell them that the potions had worked, their son was off the oxygen and would be going home day after tomorrow with his mum and sister.
Two mornings later, they were awakened by two crying babies. Sirius, Remus and Hermione sat up in bed and they were all smiles when they saw two healers wheeling in two tiny cribs, ready to go home.
The boys helped Hermione dress and then packed the few things she had. She sat on the bed watching them, breastfeeding both babies at the same time. At that moment, she felt like the luckiest mom in the world. She had two beautiful, amazing husbands who wanted nothing more than to spend every moment of their lives with her and the babies, she had two beautiful babies that she was told she'd never have, and even breastfeeding had come easy for the three of them.
"Boys, I don't feel like going home just yet." Hermione admitted as they were walking out the door of the hospital.
"What do you want to do Princess?" Sirius asked. "It's all up to you."
"Let's take a walk through Hogsmead and then up to the castle. I wouldn't mind showing these two off to a few professors." Hermione admitted.
They took a public flood two at a time, Remus with their son, Sirius with their daughter, and Hermione with the diaper bag and stroller, and came out at another public floo right outside Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
They set up the stroller and placed the babies in it before walking around town. It was Hermione's first trip into town since she was 4 months pregnant and put on activity restrictions. They slowly made their way up to Hogwarts and to the Headmistresses office without being noticed by too many students.
Once they reached Minerva's office, they took the babies out of the stroller and left it at the bottom of the spiraling staircase.
"Good morning Minerva." Hermione said cheerfully as they stepped into her office.
The headmistress turned around with a smile on her face and called Professors Sprout, Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey to her office.
Once they were all there, Pomona couldn't hold in any longer. "Well what are their names?"
"This," Sirius said, holding up their son, "Is John Orion Lupin-Black, Future Lord Black."
"And this," Remus said, holding up their daughter, just as Sirius had done with Johnny, "Is Lila Jane Lupin-Black, Future Lady Lupin."
"John and Lila," Minerva said. "Both are strong names for undoubtedly strong children."
After visiting with the headmistress and the professors for a while longer, they made their way back out of the castle and down into the town, wanting a bit more sunshine and fresh air before they headed home.
They were heading toward the public floo when Hermione stopped in her tracks. When the boys asked her what was wrong, she pointed across to Madam Malkins where Ron sat outside with his 3 children with Lavender, trying to keep the all still while their mother was gone, and they could see Lavender through the window, chatting with the sales witch.
Ron looked up as they were staring at him. He saw the children that Sirius and Remus were holding, and knew that witch and those babies could have been his family, if only he hadn't been such an idiot.
AN// Just to clear up a few things from reviews and PMs, I do have a bit of knowledge about preemies because my son was born 7 weeks premature. We spend our entire spring fundraising for the March of Dimes for the past 4 years because were it not for their research and developments, my son and millions of other babies might not have survived their premature births. 5lbs 1oz and 4lbs 11oz is small. It may not be as small as a 28 weeker or a 24 weeker but it is small. Most babies weigh over 6lbs when they are born. I spent a lot of time in the NICU with other parents who I know would agree with me.