Chapter 2 The Prophecy Children Born
There is no sixth floor of St. Mungo's, but I need somewhere magical for the kids to be born. I'd like to thank alix33 for going through this for me, but any mistakes are my own. But, hey if you see a mistake or something comes to question feel free to let me know, I'm pretty mellow about stuff like that.
Edited on 5/26/2016
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July 30, 1980 around 10 p.m. St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, maternity ward sixth floor
All hopes for the Potter twins or the Longbottom child being born early were dashed as the 30th of July came and they both fell into labor. The single child came first and right now there were mums cooing over the newborn baby boy.
"Oh, Alice," a very pregnant Lily gushed, "he's such a handsome young man. What are you going to name him? I know you two were stuck on a few different ones, which did you decide on?" she asked, her long red hair falling past her shoulders, as she tried to lean over her rather large belly to take a peek at the newborn boy.
"We decided on Neville. His name is Neville Franklin Longbottom," Alice said with pride as she looked fondly at her baby boy. It had been an easy delivery, not like poor Lily who had been here for days now. "How are you, Lily? Are the contractions getting closer?" the new mom asked, holding the newly named Neville up so that Lily could see him better.
Lily could make out wisp of curly white blonde hair, peeking from under the sleeping cap they put on all newborns. "No, they are still far apart," she answered distractedly as she looked at the newborn. "Looking at this little guy makes me happy to know I will bring life into the world. I mean I've known that for nine months, but now…"
"Yeah, it is a miracle," Alice said fondly as she peered at her child, and then she looked at Lily's tired face. "Maybe you should sit down, or better yet take a short walk. Not that I don't want you here, you are Neville's godmother after all, however, you need to move around. Go on, Lily, take a short walk — you need to get the circulation going," she suggested to the other woman, and then glanced at James to support her.
"That sounds like a lovely idea, Alice. Come on, Lily-flower, let's see if we can't get these two to be born soon. A walk will be just the thing the Healer ordered," James said, taking her gently by the elbow and trying to guide her away from the baby. "Come on, sweetie, don't you want to have these two born soon? You know what nurse Stewart said, some walking will do you good." And with that he led her out the door.
"But I want to see my godson, James," Lily complained, trying to get back into the room. "Why do I have to go for a walk? My feet are swollen, shouldn't I be sitting?" she grumped, but reluctantly followed her husband down the hall, knowing what they said was true, but she was tired and wanted to sit.
"Come on, sweetie,you'll feel better. I promise," he coaxed, and with her elbow still gently in his grip he guided her further down the hall and towards the room set up for them.
They had been in the hospital for two days now, waiting for Lily to go into labor. They had been so hopeful that she would deliver early, but now they were hoping to hold off for at least two more days. She was one of the rare mothers who carried her twins to full term. She had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for weeks now, and after being sent home three times, the hospital decided it was close enough to the due date to have them stay here. It wasn't busy this time of year and it was the Potter money was paying for it, so who were they to complain?
The next night Lily went into labor as well. At 11:55 p.m. Harry James Potter was born. At 12:03 a.m. Gary Charles Potter was born. When the nurse put down the time for Gary and both parents were shocked that the time marked on Gary certificate read 11:59 p.m.
"Lily, did you see that?" James whispered to his wife, after the nurse left the new parents alone to bond with their children. "I wonder what that was all about. Do you think it might be fate changing the time like that? Do you think we should tell anyone?" his voice showed his concern. His face took on a firmer look, as if reaching some important decision. "No, I think we should leave it alone," he said with a decisive nod, "that way Albus will not have any reason to pick one over the other. Our boys could be said to be born as the seventh month dies. I don't want any of them singledout."
"You're right. I think we should leave it alone," the new mother said, just as unwavering as her husband. "We'll raise both boys exactly the same. What one gets so does the other. Well, other than what Harry receives when you die, after all he is your heir and all. Although, Sirius said if he doesn't have children, then he wants Gary to be his heir. So that should balance it out. Not that I don't want Sirius to have kids," she said hastily, not wanting bad luck to fall on a friend just so her son gained. "Just that, you know, if he doesn't, then Gary will inherit something too. We'll talk more about that later. For now get your friends and let's celebrate the boys' birth day," Lily demanded as she cuddled her boys close, the feeling of doom was closely approaching and she wanted to love her boys as long and as hard as she could.
James did as he was told and soon brought Sirius and Remus into the room. Peter had yet to show up, something about taking care of his mother. They all loved Peter — he was such a good friend and good son to his mother. So, they forgave him for not being there. "Remus, I'd like you to meet your godson, Harry James Potter. He's the one with the purple band around his wrist," the proud father said, pointing to the child in Lily's right arm.
Remus went to the right side of the bed and looked at the baby. Sirius went to the left side to see his godson.
You couldn't tell the boys apart, they both had dark curly hair and both were looking around the room with bright unfocused green eyes. "Sirius, I'd like you to meet your godson, Gary Charles Potter, the one with the green," James said to the air, since both men were already in awe of the little tykes.
"Wow, look at that will ya," Sirius said, admiring the boys. "They are so tiny." He let his finger be grabbed by the baby. Those tiny fingers wrapped around his larger one and then tugged, making the dark-haired man smile.
"Yes, babies tend to be that way," Remus chuckle.
"Now," James said, clapping his hands together and getting their attention, his voice taking on a serious lilt, "as you know you'll be sharing responsibility with the Longbottoms as Alice will be godmother to both boys." He looked at his boys and puffed out his chest. He made those, and then he looked at Lily who was glaring at him and deflated a bit with a small smirk, she just smiled a very weary smile and nodded.
"Don't worry so much, Prongs, we know that we are to be careful," Remus said, his eyes still glued to the little bundle of miracles.
"Which one is the oldest?" Sirius asked, not really paying attention. If he were then he would have answered his own question, since they decided that the youngest would be his godson.
"Harry was my first born, so he will be my heir," the messy-haired wizard stated with a wave of his hand to the boy on the right. "Gary will still be treated with the same love and attention that Harry will," he offered quickly when his wife looked at him.
As a pure-blood, having an heir was very important, most were very lucky to have one child let alone twins. He only knew of two other set of twins born around this time. It was too bad they had lost the Prewitt twins earlier that year thereby ending that line. They would have had a great time helping raise their sister's twin sons and the other four boys, of course. Molly was a miracle among pure-bloods as she had had six children so far and it didn't look like she was going to stop any time soon.
The tired father sighed and continued, "I just wish we had one more child for Peter to be godfather to, but he said he understood. Maybe our next baby." He was looking forward to having a large family, maybe a girl for the next one, which would suit the shy friend better.
"Look at my godson, Remus. He's better looking than yours," Sirius said as he gazed at Gary, not really meaning it, but wanting to brag anyway. He tugged at his finger and the little guy let go. "Look, he has his mother's eyes, let's hope he has her eyesight as well, eh James," he said with a smirk and ribbed his best friend in good humor.
"Sirius, you moron, they look exactly alike. The only way we know the difference is the colored band on their wrist," Lily complained, she wasn't in the mood for his antics right now. The man was never serious, no pun intended. She had been up for hours with Alice and then with her own labor and it seemed like days since she slept. Now all she wanted to do was sleep, which is why she had James bring them in now so they could get it over with.
"Sorry, Lily, I'm just playing around," the dogman said with an unrelenting smirk.
"Remus, if something happens to us, I'm counting on you to keep a leash on this mutt," she said as, pointing to Sirius after she handed Harry to Remus. Then she handed Gary to his godfather and sunk down into the pillows. Now that she knew that the boys were healthy and fed, she really needed to sleep. She only shut her eyes for a minute and out she went.
"Shhh," James whispered to the clucking godfathers as he put a finger to his lips, "it looks like it has all finally caught up with her. Let's take the boys over here and see if we can't get them to sleep as well. I know I'm tired," he said after kissing his wife on the forehead. He led his friends to the nursery part of the room, where there were two rocking chairs and one solid comfortable armchair. "Don't you two look so proud," he said with a grin as he watched his two friends coo and fuss over the boys. "You act like you did all the work in bringing them into the world." He took the armchair since he didn't have a baby to rock. It was comfortable enough to sleep in; he should know he used it for the last few nights.
The two men ignored him as they settled into the rocking chairs and tutted that the boys, who were still looking around and fussing at the loss of their mum's warmth.
"Well, I guess, I'll let you be proud. Remember, what we talked about we don't want the boys spoiled," the tired dad said firmly, gaining the attention of the two distracted godfathers. "We want them to learn how to be responsible. However, if they're so inclined, we can teach them all about the pranking, but I don't want them to be bullies like we were. It was too close a call that night with Snape. He or Remus could've been killed and I don't want them to ever experience that. That was a horrible feeling," he grimaced in remembrance.
"It's okay Prongs, I'll do as Lily says and make sure that we don't spoil these two angels. I'll try and keep Padfoot on a leash," Remus promised with a whisper —ignoring the indignant "Oi,"— as he looked at Harry with tender and calm eyes. He gently rocked in the chair, hoping to put the newborn to sleep. He had never believed that anyone would trust him with their child, yet here he was holding a precious boy not even a day old. "You know, you were in the wrong that day, Sirius. If Snape had been killed or worse, turned, I'd be dead right now, and we'd not be here enjoying this time with our godsons. So I'll make sure that that never happens to them, if I can help it."
"I know," Sirius said, his head dropped in shame as he cuddled his godson to his chest. It had taken years to make him see that teasing Snape into going to the Whomping Willow on the night of a full moon was wrong. "When you asked me to be godfather to your youngest, I was so completely blown away that I wanted to make sure that all my guilt was extinguished. I tried to apologize to Snape, but my owls were returned unanswered," he said, rubbing Gary's back, and vowing to do whatever it took to make sure these boys lived long, happy and healthy lives.
"I know, Padfoot, I trust you to do what's best for Gary," James said with a yawn. He stretched and then settled into the chair more. His eyelids were closing and he struggled to open them and he was fighting sleep. He would take a nap in a minute, but for now he had to talk to his friends.
"You know," Sirius said in a low voice as he calmed the fussy baby, "Grandfather passed away about a month ago and he named me his heir. It was a magical will so my mother can't overturn it. For some reason he didn't want Regulus to be the Lord of the Black family. I think he wanted the Blacks to become the Grey family they once were. I'm not sure; I didn't get a chance to talk to him before he died. I want Gary to be my heir unless I have children of my own. So far that hasn't happened, and I'm not holding my breath that it will. As many women as I've been with, and as careless as I was in my youth, I should've had at least one bastard out there," he concluded, and wouldn't that put his parents' noses out of joint; him naming a bastard as his heir, or even someone not in the immediate family. He grinned at the thought. If there was one thing Sirius loved,it wasmaking his family angry at him.
"I know, Padfoot, we talked about this already and I have no problem with you taking Gary as heir," James said, closing his eyes and leaning his head back onto his chair. "I'll have Harry here as mine. It'll be good that they both have something to look forward to, so they have a secure future. We're going to want to make sure they understand the responsibility that comes with these titles." He was so tired; maybe, he would just take a nap for a little while. The guys would take care of the boys he was sure of it. He trusted them above all else. "I'm going to take a kip, you guys. When the boys go to sleep, there are the cribs over by Lily, or you can continue holding them. If they start crying wake one of us, or you can call the nurse and she'll help you. I hope you've been practicing changing nappies, because you won't get out of that duty."
"Go to sleep, daddy," Sirius teased, seeing how tired his friend was. "We'll take care of the boys. No one will hurt them while we are here. We might just head down the hall and see if Frank and Alice are awake and introduce all the kids together. They'll be growing up together after all; they should meet as soon as possible."
"Ummmhmm, whatever you think is best, Padfoot. Make sure the boys…," James trailed off as he fell asleep, his head lolling back on the chair in what looked to be an uncomfortable position.
"Come on, Moony," Sirius whispered, getting up and cradling his sleeping godson in his arms. "Let's go see the Longbottoms and show off our godsons to them." He gently swayed Gary to make sure he stayed asleep.
"Good idea, Padfoot, let's do that and we should see if we can get in touch with Peter so he doesn't miss all of this joyfulness, I'm sure his mother can do without him for an hour or so," Remus said as he followed Sirius out the door, making sure Harry was secure in his arms.
"Yeah, I didn't know she was so sick. He always seems to be helping her nowadays. He is such a mama's boy. But I guess that makes him a good guy. Tell you what, I'll try and call him after I hand this little guy off to Frank." And with the two friends went to introduce the Potters to the Longbottoms.
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Just a quick note, I actually got called out for calling Harry's brother Gary. I was told that it was lazy of me to give them rhyming names. Well, being a twin with an un-rhyming name, I have to tell you that I grew up wanting to rhyme with my sister. So he can bite me.
Also, the Black timeline of deaths is mixed to fit my timeline. See I have an artistic license, shows blank piece of paper. Well it still works, it's magical.
