The First Rise & Fall of Voldemort

by Unknown Future

Slight AU. Begins summer before Marauders 7th Year. What Happens when there is no prophecy claiming a 'Chosen One? How are the Marauders, and eventually Harry, involved in the War? How does Harry recieve his scar? Why are the Marauders in danger?

11. The Second Generation of Marauders

A/N: Long chapter. Just thought I'd warn you. Its 43 pages, but well worth the time if you ask me. I think the song fits, but if anyone has another suggestion let me know and I'll consider it. Enjoy!

Chapter 10: The Second Generation of Marauders

Song: Carry On Wayward Son

By: Kansas

-Sirius' POV-

3rd June, 1980

Sirius and Regulus:

I need to speak to the both of you immediately. Floo to my office as soon as you receive this letter; it is of the utmost urgency.

Albus Dumbledore

After Sirius had read the letter, more of a note really, he gave it to his brother, who was visiting for the weekend, to read. Once he had finished it as well, they went to the fireplace with a quick shout through the house at large that they'd be back later. They took some floo powder and yelled out 'Hogwarts; Headmasters Office' before being engulfed in the flames and appearing in Dumbledore's office. He appeared distraught at best.

"Hello Albus. What's the emergency?" Regulus asked while dusting himself off.

"You both should sit down." They did as asked and noted something must be terribly wrong as Dumbledore hadn't offered them a lemon drop as he usually did. He continued on though, grimacing slightly as he noticed their concerned glances. "I have been informed that your mother has passed away this morning." That got no reaction from the brothers other than a quick glance at one another. "It seems that she had a heart attack whilst asleep. I'm terribly sorry for your loss." He paused for a moment, but seeing they weren't wrought with grief as most would be, he continued. "The reason I need to speak with you is this. If one of you does not inherit the Black fortunes, this includes all the housing and money, then it will all go to your cousin; Bellatrix Lestrange. We cannot let that happen; the money would be put to funding Death Eater activity and the estates would go to housing the Death Eaters."

"What are you proposing, Albus? We've both been disowned; as has Andromeda otherwise she would be next in line. We cannot legally protest a thing to do with the inheritance of this money; we would be laughed at by the ministry." Sirius said this with a hint of malice in his voice at the thought of having to go to the ministry asking for his family's money and homes.

"Actually, either of you could protest. You see, when your mother blew your names off of the tapestry she became distraught; first at her eldest son disobeying her and then at her only other child following the first. She was in such a state that she forgot to fill the forms for a legal disownment. You are still technically the heir, Sirius. However, your cousin Andromeda wouldn't be able to protest as her mother disowned her with all due haste in ever possible way." Dumbledore informed them of this, thoroughly shocking both of them. "You see, while blowing you off of your family tree has its own meaning within the family, those laws do not apply to the greater wizarding world. You can and must protest the handing over of the fortunes to your cousin."

"But, what if we don't want any of it? What will we do with houses we hate and so forth? It's just not plausible to take any of it." Regulus pointed out with a hint of discomfort in his voice, face and posture.

"It matters not what you do with the fortune once you have it, so long as Bellatrix is not in ownership of any of it."

"So, we could just get rid of everything once we'd won it? The ministry can't object to that?" Sirius asked.

"That is correct. You can do whatever you wish with the property once you obtain it; nobody can interfere."

"Could we have a moment to talk in private, Albus?" Sirius asked.

"Of course, of course; I'll just be in the back office. Knock on the door when you've finished up." Dumbledore got up and walked to the other room leaving Sirius and Regulus to talk in solitude.

"I think we should do it," began Sirius.

"But why?" Regulus asked his brother, completely astonished.

"Think about it, Regulus. We could sell the houses and add the money to the vault. We could use that money, coming up. We both have children on the way." Holly had become pregnant a week or so after the wedding; Regulus had been heartily teased by the others for his quick action in the bedroom. "Think what we could do with the money. We could give our children the finest of everything instead of turning to James; sure he has more than enough money, enough for the next twenty generations if I'm not mistaken, but this way we could do so much more. I know that it's that woman's," he spat these words as if they were some disgusting vulgarism, "money, but its money all the same. Besides, if that won't win you over, think how pissed she would be with the different ways we would spend the money; supporting our 'muggleborn' wives and our 'half-blooded' children. It would give me, personally, a little skip in my step to know that she would disapprove of the spending of her money."

Regulus had listened to all his brother had said. It made perfect sense to Sirius; he just hoped he could convince his brother to think the same way. Regulus looked about thoughtfully for a few moments before nodding his head slightly, as if finishing an inner-debate with himself.

"Alright, but only because it would piss her off to no end. I vote we sell the properties at once and add the gold to our vault. I also think we should get some of those, what are they, credit card thingy's to use. We could get one for each of us, Holly and Rose to use. I hear they make a quick way to buy things. I was talking to Remus about them the other day. Anyway, that can come later. Let's get Dumbledore back in here and iron out the details."

Regulus got up and knocked on the door. When Dumbledore came back in he looked anxiously to each of them; Sirius noted that his characteristic twinkle had dimmed a bit. Wow, this must be a huge deal if he's this unnerved by it, Sirius thought to himself. They told Dumbledore of their decision and, Sirius noted, he was in a much better mood; if only a little less antsy.

Dumbledore told them they needed to go to Gringotts immediately, as that was where the transaction between holders would occur. He told them to go to their family's account manager and demand they be heard. They agreed and left for Gringotts immediately, asking Dumbledore to owl the others and inform them of the goings-on.

-Regulus' POV-

After a few hours spent traveling between Gringotts and the Ministry, they had accomplished their goal. They had seized control of the Black fortunes. They had also spoken to the family's account manager, a goblin named Bilford. They had discussed the credit card idea, one originating from the muggles, and had gotten cards for the four Blacks to use. The cards would be accepted anywhere and would be charged to their vault. They also discussed the sale of the properties. They decided to sell almost all of them; eleven of the twelve. The last one was a house on an island in the Caribbean that they wanted for vacations and it held no memories for either one as neither had been there. The rest would be sold and the money put into their already giant account.

Bilford had told them the exact holdings of the Black family; upon hearing the sum, more than they ever thought it to be, they both fell out of their chairs with a resounding thump. Regulus couldn't believe that the Blacks had such a fortune! They had enough money to support fifteen generations, at least! Bilford had told them, in no uncertain terms, that they had, without sale of the homes or the added in yearly interest, 350 million galleons! They were both so shocked that they took a while to be able to continue the meeting.

They had decided that, with so much money to spare, they would set up accounts for their children and for Andy and Dora, as they had settled on calling her as of late. They drew up six accounts; four of them to be for 'future Black heirs' as no names had been chose; two for the twins Sirius and Rose were expecting and two for Regulus and Holly's own expectant set of twins. They put one million galleons into each of these four accounts. The other two were set up for Andromeda Black Tonks and Nymphadora Tonks, though they warned the goblins against addressing her as Nymphadora; Bilford just grinned at the warning.

They put two million galleons into each of these; then, thinking of Andy, they decided to make Tonks' inaccessible until her seventeenth birthday when she would come of age.

Once finished with the setting up of the accounts, they left for a quick drink at the Leaky Cauldron before apparating home; they didn't want their location discovered by using the floo connection. Upon arriving home, they were bombarded with questions about what went on. They decided to wait and tell everyone over dinner.

It was now dinner time, and Regulus was not looking forward to the discussion to come; he didn't know why, he just didn't like the thought of using his parents' money and he didn't feel like discussing it.

He went down to the dining hall where the others were sitting waiting for dinner to begin. Sirius walked in right behind him, apparently having similar feelings if his face betrayed anything. They sat and began eating.

Just as everyone was finishing their first course, a salad, James' curiosity got the better of him.

"What the hell is going on? You haven't said a damn word about what's happened!"

"James, watch the language. In a couple months there will be children living here; I don't want my child's first words to be bloody hell, got it?" Lily reprimanded her husband, much to the amusement of others. The amusement only increased when James uttered his next words.

"Sorry love."

"We got a note from Dumbledore this morning, that's where we went first." Sirius then began explaining the events of the day, Regulus occasionally added his input where he saw fit. "So, we now have a ridiculous amount of money and almost nothing to use it on."

"Join the club. I have a fortune as well and no reason to spend any of it. The elves conjure our food, the clothes are as good as the day we bought them and we have a wonderful house that we didn't pay for." James said, a grin on his face as he finished the statement.

"So, anyway, we've instructed them to sell all but one house. It's in the Caribbean; we've never been there though. We could go on a trip in October, after the children have been born. We could go there for a while around Halloween or so. We can talk alone after dinner, at any rate. Let's finish our food." Regulus said all of this in almost one breath, finding that he was very excited about a vacation for the ten of them. It was just what they needed.

After they'd received the letter from Peter, they had fire-called Dumbledore to confirm the information. He had told them that Peter had in fact asked for removal from the Order. They had decided it was best to not talk about him, as they now all got angry at mention of his name. They avoided that topic very well.

-Holly's POV-

They finished eating and each couple went their separate ways to discuss the idea of a vacation. Regulus and Holly went up to their sitting room to talk. They settled onto their couch next to each other, Holly had her feet up on the coffee table and Regulus had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. He was slowly stroking her hair as they sat in silence for a few moments. Holly finally spoke, what she said didn't appear to surprise Regulus greatly; she guessed he'd been thinking the same thing.

"I think we should resign from Hogwarts, at least temporarily, to raise our children. I know that I want to be there for them, and I hope you do to…"

"I do love, wouldn't miss it for the world," he assured her.

"…and now we have the money to take time and do whatever we wish. We can always go back later on, but I think for now we should spend the time here, with our friends, raising our children. After all, who else would they learn to prank from; certainly not McGonagall." They both laughed slightly at the thought of McGonagall teaching their children to pull pranks.

"I agree, my dear, with all my heart. I want to be there for our children as well. We can go back to Hogwarts when they start; I'm sure they'll love that, their mum and dad teachers at their school."

"So we're agreed? No more working for a while, just the family?"

"Yes. It's settled."

"Good."

-Alice's POV-

Alice and Frank had also gone to their sitting room after dinner. Alice, being nearly eight months pregnant, found herself lying on the couch with her feet in Franks lap to get comfortable. He was sitting at the other end, absently rubbing her feet for her. They began talking the moment they were settled in.

"I think a trip would be lovely." Alice began their conversation.

"Yes, it would. However, I think something else needs to be decided first. I think I should resign for the time being to stay home with you. We have the money from our parents, a fair sum. We could afford to take the several years off to raise our child. What do you think?"

"Not to be rude, dear, but I've been hinting at this for quite a few months. So, forgive me when I say, it took you long enough." Alice smiled at the look on Franks face; he was dumbfounded.

"Well, at least we're on the same page now. Next time I'll either have to pay more attention or you'll have to be blunter."

"Sweetie, if I was any blunter, I would have resembled a dull ax." She once again grinned at his look of shock. "It's all right, dear, you caught on before the baby was born."

"So it's settled about the job. What about the trip? I must admit, it would be a rather fun thing to do."

"Yes, I think we should. The baby will be old enough by then for travel. We still have to choose a name you know." They had found out they were having a boy a few months ago. They hadn't wanted to know at first about the sex of the baby, as the charm could be easily wrong within the first five months or so. "I think we should each choose a name, and whichever one we like most will be his first and the other will be his middle."

They sat there thinking for a while and after a half hour or so they had their choices. Alice had chosen Neville after her grandfather and Frank had chosen Mortimer after his favorite uncle. They decided Neville would be best, so they were to name their baby Neville Mortimer Longbottom. Alice thought the name might give him cause to be teased, but was assured that he would have no problems with the other children, as most wizarding names were ridiculous and ended up being shortened.

They spent the night in quiet contentment up in their suite.

-Rina's POV-

Rina and Remus had gone into the library to read, as they'd already made a silent agreement at dinner and a verbal one a week ago. The silent agreement consisted of them wanting to go on the trip with the others; both thought it a good idea and they figured it would be safe for the baby to travel by then.

The verbal agreement about a week ago had been a little more of a lengthy chat. Remus had confronted her about the choice to stay home and help with their daughter who was to be born in August.

She had asked him if he would mind, and he had said no. He did, however, ask her about their monetary situation. She had handled their fiscal affairs as of late, so he hadn't the foggiest about their standings.

She had visited Gringotts a few weeks ago and had had a run-down of their accounts. She had eventually combined them all. She had told him they had more than enough to be getting on with. She was a pureblood witch from a substantially wealthy family and had her own account.

Remus also had an account from his father, who had died when he was young. It was a decent amount of money that would have gone to buying a certain potion if they didn't have such capable brewers in the house, but as it was it was slowly earning interest.

They were also in possession of a joint account containing all their earnings from working at the ministry.

After all was said and done, they had enough for several years of comfortable living; especially since they lived in a rent-free mansion with all meals provided for them. All they had to buy was clothes; and not that often. She had told all this to Remus and he had been relieved to hear he could take the time off to spend with her and their daughter. She had already resigned her post, much to the dismay of her boss, and Remus would hand his own resignation in on Monday. She knew their boss would be inconsolable as they had quickly become the best at their job. She had informed him that she would return some-day and not to fret too much.

They were, in fact, looking up names to do with the moon at the moment. They hadn't chosen a specific name yet but had decided it should be something to do with the moon or sky. This is what you could find them doing at night; searching the library for possible names.

-Rose's POV-

She and Sirius were upstairs in their bedroom. Rose was on her back looking up at the ceiling, absently stroking Sirius' head. Sirius was laying on his side with his head on her stomach and an arm around her waist. This had become a common position for them to lie in over the past months, as her stomach got bigger.

"Sirius," she said. "What do you think about the trip? I mean, we don't have to do it but I think it would be fun."

"Oh, I think it would be lovely. I've just been thinking…"

"Did it hurt?" she couldn't help asking, and then snickering at her own joke. He smiled then continued; she'd been like this the last trimester of her pregnancy, cracking random and odd jokes.

"Oh, a great deal, my lady. I fear I shall die of pain. But seriously, no pun intended, I was thinking before. I think I should resign. We have the money and I could spend the time at home with you."

"Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love to have you here with me. It's just that, I never thought you'd want to give up your job to stay at home."

"I don't want to miss a thing with you or our children, and if you're going to be here with them I couldn't be happier elsewhere. Besides, fatherhood will bring its own adventures, won't it?"

"That it will dear, that it will. Well, if you're absolutely sure you want this then I guess I'm happy. But, if you decide you want to go back to work, for any reason, just let me know and we'll arrange it, alright?"

"I got it love, although I don't foresee that happening."

"So what, now you're a divination buff? Well then, what will the lottery numbers be next week?" Sirius was, to say the least, confused at her joke. He hadn't learned about the muggle lottery yet, but apparently he would tonight. She enjoyed a thorough laugh at his confusion and explained to him about the lottery. After he grasped the general idea, he laughed along with her.

-Lily's POV-

Lily had a feeling she knew what James would do now. She had seen it forming in his mind for the past few days. He was going to tell her something she'd been hoping to hear from him for a while now.

He began pacing while she lay on the bed twiddling her thumbs waiting for him to begin. He finally stopped walking and went over to the bed. He knelt down next to the bed so he was eye level with her then took her hand.

"Lily, I want to temporarily resign my post so that we can raise little Osbert together." They had begun calling the baby Osbert because they couldn't think up baby names for a boy as of yet. They hadn't had the proper inspiration come to them, so Osbert was their back-up for the baby.

"Why James, whatever gave you that idea?" she asked him, feigning ignorance.

"You know very well what, you've been 'hinting' for months. What, didn't you think I noticed?" he asked this playfully, but with a little bit of seriousness in his tone showing her he really wanted to know.

"Of course I knew you caught the hints, I just wasn't sure you'd agree. I don't want you to resign unless you really want to, though. I don't want you to stay here brooding about what you could be doing."

"I really want this. Little Osbert will need us both to be here for him. And if I'm right, he'll have all his Uncles around too. They were all contemplating the same thing, I think."

"Yes, they would be. Well, since you're happy with your decision, I'm happy to welcome you to the role of full-time parent. It ought to be interesting; the ten of us home all day with seven babies. It will definitely be a sight to see. Now that that's settled, let us consider names once again."

They talked for a few hours about names, still drawing a blank about the choice to be made. They talked for a little bit after that, but then went to bed for a good nights rest. James would be resigning Monday and he'd need all the rest he could get to deal with Mad-Eye. The Auror was loosing six of his top Aurors for the next eleven years or so; that would bring any person down.

-Mad-Eye Moody's POV-

It had been hard to cope with the loss of three of his best Aurors in February. When the three pregnant women had resigned, he hadn't been entirely surprised but he was disappointed nevertheless about the loss of three such talented Aurors. They were hard put to find replacements for the three. They had already made names for themselves as well, as the top at their job. He didn't think the department could take any more losses.

They still had Black, Potter and Longbottom though; also exceptionally talented. Those three had been picking up the slack since their wives left and had done a damn good job of it too. At least one of them was requested for every case, and if you got the three of them together, they never failed. They were a great team that had been damaged slightly when their wives left, but the group had recovered their losses and continued on.

To say the least, Moody was nervous when all three walked into his office after lunch on the late day in June. He hoped they weren't going to do what he thought they were; the office would have such a time recovering from that.

"What do you three want?" he asked in a gruff voice, his composure hiding his nerves at what was about to happen.

"We need to talk to you Mad-Eye. It's rather important." James began their talk with a grasp on his composure that left nothing for Moody to read.

"I gathered that, get on with it. We haven't got all day."

"Mad-Eye, we're resigning. All three of us, but it's only temporary." Frank added his part of the 'speech'.

"Yeah, we're gonna take time off to be with the kids, then come back in a few years. Maybe more than a few, but we'll be back. So will the girls; they wanted us to assure you of that. They said that they didn't train for nothing and that they would be back when they were ready." Sirius said this all cautiously, trying to gauge Moody's mood.

"Damn straight you're all coming back. Take your damn time off, but get your arses back here as soon as you can. We have plenty to do, that needs you sixes skills. When will you start your 'break'?"

"Sirius is starting tomorrow; Frank and I will stay on for two more days to help with the rookies."

"Good, good. We're getting a new batch in tomorrow anyhow; you can show them the ropes before you go. Now, get out of my office you good for nothing louts and get back to work."

The three departed his office smirking. Once they had left and the door was shut, Moody drew his wand and conjured some targets. He immediately began throwing hexes at them and blowing them up. After a half hour of this, he felt able to address his people of the future loss. He walked to the door and opened it. He put an amplification spell on his voice and walked out to the group of cubicles.

"Attention!" he barked out. "We've got some announcements to make. Black will be off the job as of tomorrow; he's joining the others at home. Potter and Longbottom will be gone in two days; make the best of the time and pick their brains for what their worth. Find out what you can because they won't be back for a few years! CONSTANT VIGILANCE! How many times must I tell you; I could have been an impersonator and you'd all be dead by now. Get back to work."

When he walked back into his office, he didn't hear the noises of people working frantically; he heard a great collective silence. When he looked out the window on his door, he saw everyone sitting with their mouths hanging open looking at each other for confirmation on what they'd just heard. So, he thought, they do grasp the situation properly. Maybe they'll get to work and make up for the losses; not likely.

The Aurors finally got back to work and for the rest of the day, the three departing Aurors were being questioned by everyone and their dog. Especially Black; today was his last day. At the end of the day Black, Potter and Longbottom stayed a few hours late to finish up some of Blacks paperwork; at least it wasn't being left for their incapable replacements.

-Frank's POV-

"Mad-Eye took that better than I thought he would," Frank said once they were home. "I thought he was going to tell us we can't quit."

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting that either. I was figuring on him cursing us until we saw what a mistake we were making." James added. They were now sitting in the kitchen eating a late supper. The others had gone to bed already.

"You guys didn't see him after we left then. I was walking past his door a few minutes later and he was hexing and cursing conjured targets. He was furious." Sirius said after a bite of his sandwich. "He just didn't show it to us; had to keep his composure, didn't he. They'll get over it, eventually. I mean, there's only the three of us. Not that big a loss is it?"

"Course it is. There's also the girls, that's six losses. They still haven't caught up from those three resigning. No help for it though," James said.

"There really isn't," Frank added. "Not much we can do anyway, except work with the newbies and finish our paperwork."

"Too right," James agreed.

They sat in companionable silence for a while, still eating the food Tinker had prepared for them. Once they were done, they went to bed straight away. They had plenty to do coming up the next bit.

-James' POV-

It was Frank and James' last day at work. They had just gotten back from a late lunch and were walking into their office to finish clearing up their desks. They had vanished all their personal stuff home that morning and were almost done with their paperwork clearing up. They only had one drawer left on James' desk to go through. When they got back, they saw Sirius pacing in front of James' desk.

"What's up mate?" James asked his best friend.

"Rose. She's in labor at St. Mungo's. The others are there with her now; I was sent to get you two. I finished up your paperwork while I was waiting. I had Shacklebolt file it away after I sorted it. We've got to go. We'll use the floo in Mad-Eye's office."

The two didn't even bother speaking further; they just raced to Mad-Eye's office. They didn't even bother knocking; they just barged in and went to the fireplace. They flooed to St. Mungo's and followed Sirius to the proper waiting room. Their friends were all there already, waiting for them to get there.

-Rose's POV-

Rose woke up around four in the afternoon after a nap with a sharp pain in her stomach. She got up and began getting dressed, putting it off as an uncomfortable sleeping position. Sirius was in the shower. She put on her maternity dress; a blue flowery number. When she was walking to the door ten minutes later, it took her a while to get dressed; she had another of the sharp pains. This time she grimaced at the pain.

She ignored it again and walked down to the kitchen, stopping once on the stairs to sit down and rest; she was five floors up! When she finally got to her destination, she had another of the sharp, agonizing pains and decided that she must be in labor. She sat down, taking deep breaths to ease the pain; the breathing did absolutely nothing for the pain, she found, it only ticked her off. She spent the next few minutes catching her breath and deciding what to do. She was alone in the kitchen; everyone was still sleeping except for Sirius who was in the shower. Besides, I couldn't walk up those stairs again if I wanted to, she thought bitterly to herself. It turned out though, that she didn't need to walk up the stairs again.

When the next contraction came, or as she called them, Hell on Earth, she screamed.

"BLOODY HELL! SIIIIIRRRRIIIUUUSSSSSSS! GET YOUR ARSE DOWN HERE!"

Within one minute, Sirius was running down the stairs wrapped in a towel. He still had shampoo in his hair. He was quickly followed by Regulus and Remus, who had come to find out what the hell was going on. Sirius ran up to her.

"What is it love?"

"I'm," breath, "in labor," deeper breaths, "I need to," fuck the breathing, this hurts! "Get to the hospital NOW!" She began screaming. Her contractions were getting more painful, but keeping a distance time of about ten minutes or so.

"Sirius, go up and finish your shower then go get the others from work." Regulus dictated this to his older brother.

"Why don't you go get them? Huh? She's my wife!"

"Yes, but you'll be screaming at the nurses; nobody needs that straight away. We'll get her settled in by the time you get there and then you can spend the time with her. Now go. You look ridiculous."

Sirius left for the stairs and ran up them. Regulus and Remus waited until the next contraction had passed before helping me to my feet. By this time, the others had joined them in the kitchen. They all made their way to the fireplace in the sitting room. Regulus stepped into the fireplace with her and he shouted out 'St. Mungo's' just as another contraction hit her. She doubled over as she got to the other end. Lucky for her, Regulus caught her before she fell over from the intense pain she was feeling.

He brought her to the desk and told them the situation. The desk nurse said to wait for a few moments and someone would be with them shortly. I knew what that meant; it meant that they'd get to her when they were damn good and ready. She wasn't about to have her children in a waiting room in front of a group of strangers. She vaguely noted the entrance of Remus before she sidled over to the witch and began her rant.

"You had better get someone down here NOW! I'm not waiting for your convenience to have these children! If there isn't someone down here in less than five minutes, you'll be in a lot more pain than I am right now! Now get your arse moving and find me a healer!"

Rose had shouted so loudly that the entire waiting room was silent. The witch looked shocked; her brown eyes were wide.

"Straight away ma'am; I'll get right on it." She picked up her speaker phone and said into it; "Birthing Healer to the front desk, Birthing Healer to the front desk."

Rose smiled slightly at her handy work; she had a wonderful persuasive side when she needed it. She turned to Regulus and Remus who were gaping at her and gave them a quick smile. They returned it, but the moment didn't last as she the white hot poker had returned to attack her stomach. She doubled over again and Regulus and Remus each grabbed one of her arms. She took their hands and began squeezing with all her might.

She vaguely heard them gasp but was too focused on ridding herself of this torture to notice. Once the pain subsided, she saw there was a nurse waiting there for her with a floating gurney and that the others who had been at the house had arrived. She got on the bed and was taken to a delivery room. Her friends, she guessed, had been sent to a waiting room. They let two people stay with her; she guessed that it was Regulus and Remus still. They came up and took her hands again and stood next to her bed.

She tried to smile, but it was a pathetic attempt at best that ended up being a grimace as another contraction came at her. She screamed every vulgarism, every swear word, every obscenity that popped into her head. She began squeezing her friends' hands once again. When the contraction finished, she stopped her screaming and let go their hands. This was going to be a long night.

"Is Sirius here yet?" she asked.

"Not yet, Rose. He will be shortly though. How are you doing?" Remus answered her.

"Oh, I suppose I'll be alriiiiiight…" but she had to stop as another contraction came. She squeezed the hands again. This time she distinctly saw them wince. The contraction finished and she loosened her grip once again.

The healer began speaking, but she wasn't paying attention. She did here the woman say, though, that unless they were the father they had to leave. They protested; Regulus saying he was her brother-in-law and Remus saying she shouldn't be alone. They argued for a few minutes, pausing to wince when she squeezed their hands at the next contraction, and eventually agreed to let Regulus stay until Sirius got there.

Remus left muttering something about going to get Holly to check out his hands.

-Regulus' POV-

Regulus took her other hand with his when he saw her beginning to gasp at the pain. Her face was bright red and she was sweating profusely. He had asked the Healer about some pain spells or potions but had been told that she was to close to delivering to be allowed those. He grimaced as he thought about what she must feel like.

He stayed by her through the contractions until Sirius got there and took his place. Regulus left immediately to find Holly. He was pretty sure he'd heard something snap after the last contraction. He walked into the room cradling his hands and went to sit by his wife.

She took one look at him and said; "You as well, huh? Well get over here. Remus had a few broken bones in each hand. I'm fairly sure you will as well seeing as you were in there longer." She began setting the bones in his hand and soon the pain had dulled. "You had six broken bones in your right hand and eight in your left. What the hell is going on in there? Why is she in this much pain; I know Rose, she's very stoic when it comes to pain."

"They wouldn't give her any sort of relief for the pain as she was too close to delivering. I tried arguing and yelling and all sorts of rubbish but they wouldn't give in. Sirius will probably need his hands healed later as well."

"Poor Rose. Childbirth without pain relief; I don't envy her." Lily said, shaking her head at the thought.

-Rose's POV-

Regulus had left her side to be quickly replaced by her husband.

"Sirius," she said. "You're here. What took you so long?"

"Of course I'm here. James and Frank weren't at their desks when I got there so I had to wait for them to get back. Now then, we're almost there."

"What do you mean we? I'm the one who's pushing two living people out of my body! There is no we here! Nest time you can get pregnant and I'll stand there telling you to calm down! WE! HA! Yeah right. Oh SHIT!"

At that point she had to stop talking. The healer instructed that it was time to start pushing. She took a deep breath and pushed with all she had in her. It took four pushes to get the first baby out. The first out was a little girl. Rose began relaxing, as the Healer told her it may be a while. She went through a few more contractions before she was instructed to start pushing again.

She took hold of Sirius and pushed. The second baby didn't seem to want to be born; it took her eleven pushes to get the baby out. The second was a little boy.

The twins were taken to be cleaned up. Once they had been washed, they were brought to their parents to be held. Rose took their daughter in her arms while Sirius held their son.

They had decided to follow the Black family tradition and name their children after stars or constellations. They'd chosen some that they thought appropriate.

"Callidora Adhara and Arcturus Procyon Black," Rose stated. "They're beautiful."

"They're wonderful, amazing and every other possibility." Sirius agreed with Rose. "Can I take Calla to go show the others?"

Rose nodded and handed over their daughter. Sirius walked from the room, crooning over their children. She was tired as hell, so she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

-Sirius' POV-

Sirius wanted to show off his children to the others. He was so thrilled about being a father; nothing could burst his bubble right now. He felt he couldn't be much happier. He walked into the waiting room to show his friends his children.

James, Regulus, Remus and Frank all got up to look at their 'niece' and 'nephew'. Sirius just kept smiling down at his children for a while. Once the guys had finished examining the babies, Sirius brought them over to the other ladies.

"Lily, this is Calla; short for Callidora Adhara Black. Holly, this is Arcturus Procyon. Kids, meet your aunts; Lily, Holly, Rina and Alice. Behave while I go check on your mother." Sirius handed his children over to their aunts and went to see Rose quickly; it was quite the wrench leaving his children, but he knew his friends would take proper care of them and he wanted to see Rose.

He walked out of the room, noticing that the girls were singing to the young ones. He went back to the room Rose was in and saw her asleep. He went over and bent to kiss her forehead. He didn't want to disturb her, so he went back to his friends and his children.

When he walked in, he reclaimed Calla and Arcturus from Alice and Rina; who were the ones holding them now. He sat down and began rocking them gently. He looked up after a few minutes to see everyone smiling at him.

"What? Haven't you ever seen a man dote over his children?"

"No, no we haven't. But next time, we'll know what we're looking at and we won't stare." James replied with large amounts of sarcasm in his voice. "Hey mate, can you take any more good news today? Cause we've got something that will brighten even the worst of days."

"Go on."

"Mad-Eye caught a certain Death Eater today. He came by and told us, also wanted to check up on Rose but he wouldn't say that. He happened to stumble across Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband, Rodolphus. They have now been put to Azkaban with a trial date set for October; nobody's in a hurry to see them out."

"That's great!" Sirius exclaimed. "When did he catch her?"

"About an hour after we got here, he got a call to London. Bella was hiding in a local pub, using Polyjuice. He was using the dark detector spell and it turned black when it was pointed at her. He bound her on suspicion and brought her in. Shortly thereafter, she changed back to her ugly self and was imprisoned. Apparently, Rodolphus had tried to help her get away and had ended up being caught as well." Frank gave Sirius all the details he knew of on the situation. "How's Rose doing?"

"She's asleep. She was really exhausted after the delivery."

They continued to talk for a little while, then Sirius went back to speak with Rose. He found her sitting up and talking to a secretary of sorts.

"Ah, good timing Mr. Black. We'll be needing footprints momentarily." The woman began murmuring to herself, "date of birth, June 28th, 1980. Time of birth, 9:36 p.m. Place of birth, St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Alright, that's it. Now then, footprints."

The woman proceeded to finish her paperwork then departed. Sirius and Rose didn't sleep that night; they stayed up watching their children with adoring smiles on their faces. Rose was released a few days later as were the children.

-Frank's POV-

One month later, July 30th, they were all back at the hospital again. This time, Alice was the one giving birth. Frank was by her side the entire time. Alice had woken up at four in the morning with a contraction and they had gotten to the hospital immediately, barely remembering to tell the others where they were going.

It was now 7:30 and Alice had just given birth to Neville Mortimer Longbottom who was being cleaned and handed to his parents. Frank brought their son to their friends in the waiting room after a short while. They all oohed and ahhed for Neville.

"This, everyone, is Neville Mortimer Longbottom. Alice is resting just now. I told her I'd be back in a little while. Neville meet your Aunts Lily, Rose, Rina and Holly and your Uncles James, Remus and Regulus." Sirius was currently at home with the twins, but would be bringing them to visit anytime now. Frank chatted for a while and then went back to Alice. The others came along to visit with her.

-Alice's POV-

Labor had been tiring; though not as painful as Rose's had been because Alice had had pain killers. The nurse's assistant came in around mid-morning with some food for Alice and some paperwork about the birth. After the paperwork had been finished, the healer came in to check on Alice and Neville. The healer gave their friends permission to come in and see her for a short while and Frank brought them in from the waiting room. The guys eventually wandered off in search of breakfast.

They talked and introduced Neville to Calla and Arcturus. Alice reveled in the new life that was her son. She was talking with the others, but they stopped when they heard nurses talking in the hallway.

"Can you believe the Malfoy's had another child? Mrs. Malfoy has brought their new son in four times since he was born in early June. She did that with their daughter as well; as if something without symptoms was attacking the child. She's going to turn those children into hypochondriacs; it's inevitable with all their unnecessary visits to the hospital."

"A second child; wasn't the one bad enough?"

"Apparently not; they're thrilled though, a son to pass on the family name. Mr. Malfoy especially."

The nurses walked away just then. The group of women was shocked, to say the least. Two Malfoy children who would probably be attending Hogwarts, not good at all.

-Lily's POV-

Lily and the others were visiting Alice. It was mid-morning on the 30th and the women were chatting while the men went in search of food. They talked about how any time now; Lily would be going into labor. Lily didn't know if it was a coincidence or not, but at that moment she started having pains in her stomach and back.

She told the others and Alice pushed a call button for a nurse. When the nurse came in, Alice explained that they would need to be admitting Lily straight away.

Lily tried telling the nurse that it was probably just something she'd eaten, but the nurse said it was better to be safe than sorry. Rose went off in search of the guys and Lily was led to the room right next to Alice's.

They had her put on a gown and started checking her over with spells. They discovered that she was, in fact, in labor but that she had quite a ways to go yet. The nurse told her to make herself comfortable as it would be a long while.

Lily put a few pillows behind her back and head then leaned back and settled in. Rina and Holly came in then, smiling at her and looking slightly smug.

"What'd they say?" Holly asked.

"I'm in labor," Lily mumbled.

"Thought so; what can we do? Rose is still in pursuit of the guys and Alice has the twins as well as Neville in her room with her." Rina offered their help to Lily.

"Well, they say it's going to be a while; would one of you mind getting me a book from the library?"

Holly immediately left to get the book and Rina stayed to keep her company. Ten minutes later, Holly was back with a book in her hand. She handed the book over to Lily.

"Quidditch Through The Ages; very funny, Holly; now, where's the real book?"

"That's it. I just went in and grabbed the book off the table. Didn't look at the title before I left again."

Holly had a devious smile on her face. Lily decided to play along with the joke.

"Ok then, I guess I'll just learn the finer points of quidditch. You lot get out now, I need to concentrate if I'm to learn anything useful."

"Why do you always have to figure everything out?" Holly asked after Lily said her little speech. "Why can't we just have our fun?"

"Because; that's no fun for me. Now, where's the real book? Excellent," Holly had handed Lily her favorite book; Hogwarts: A History. "Thank you Holly. You guys can stay and chat; I'm going to read about the ceiling some more. It never ceases to interest me, the ceiling at Hogwarts."

Holly settled down next to Rina and they began chatting while Lily read. About ten minutes after they had started, they were interrupted by James bursting through the door looking about frantically.

-James' POV-

James was running down the hallways towards the room Rose said Lily was in. He shoved the door open in his haste to get to the delivery in time; Rose had said that Lily would be delivering any minute now. He got through the door and skidded to a halt. What he saw didn't resemble anything close to an imminent birth.

Lily was reading and Rina and Holly were talking amongst themselves. He looked around confused after seeing that; he had been frantic before. Rose walked in behind him, followed by the others.

"I thought you said she would be delivering any moment now, Rose." James was a bit more than miffed with Rose right now.

"Well, she could have been. When I left all I knew was she was having contractions." Rose put on her most innocent look but failed horribly when it turned into a smirk and she began laughing. James looked behind him and saw that the others were laughing as well.

"That's not funny, Rose. Not funny at all."

He shook his head and walked over to Lily. She told him what had happened so far and he settled in next to her in a chair.

-Lily's POV-

The others had left by now, leaving James and Lily alone. They talked about names for their son.

For boys, they liked Harry, Andrew, Charles and Ian. For girls, they liked a lot of names, their favorites being; Hallie, Alexandra, Catherine and Isis. They were already considering more children, so they thought of girls' names as well; just in case.

After a few hours of talking about more names, the contractions started to get closer together. It was around 7:00 now, time for dinner. Lily was sitting on her bed reading again when they brought the food; the nurse brought Lily's tray while Sirius got James something from the cafeteria.

They ate and then talked some more; the contractions were still rather far apart, about fifteen minutes. The nurse said to call for her when they were about five minutes apart. Their friends came to visit again before heading to the waiting room to sleep. James stayed up all night with Lily, holding her hand for every contraction, though they were considerably dulled by the pain relief potion.

At about two in the morning, the contractions started to get closer together again. Now they were only ten minutes apart. Lily dozed off, with James there in case she needed anything.

She would wake up at every contraction, so she didn't fall into a deep slumber. After three hours of fitful dozing, the contractions started to get closer together again and at a steady pace this time. By 8:00 they were five minutes apart and the nurse was called.

They weren't allowed to give her any more pain potions, so the contractions were coming in full-boar. The Healer allowed two people in the room at a time; James was always there, while the other guys rotated turns coming in and letting her squeeze their hands and yell at them.

She almost laughed at the look of shock on Remus' face; she had just screamed a particularly strong obscenity at the arrival of a contraction. She supposed he was so shocked as she very rarely swore. When it passed, she turned to him and smiled.

"It's a special case, today is. Just don't go spreading it around." She tried to joke with him, but got interrupted by another of the blasted contractions. They felt like someone was tearing her insides out. She felt as though her stomach was being ripped to shreds. She screamed!

She yelled everything she could think of, everything. Sometimes, she just let it out in one long, agonizing shriek. She felt sorry for Remus, with his heightened sense of hearing, but not for long.

The white-hot torture was coming every three minutes now. They were having her push with all her being. She tried and tried but it wasn't enough. They kept telling her to push and she started yelling at the Healer.

"BLOODY HEALER! QUIT TELLING ME TO PUSH DAMMIT?" She continued screaming until she had a second of respite before the next contraction and set of pushing. When the white hot poker returned, she started screaming again. "SHIT! DAMN! MERLIN HELP ME I'M NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN! I'M GOING TO KILL THE CRUEL SON-OF-A-BITCH THAT THOUGHT UP CHILDBIRTH!"

After a few more pushes, Harry was finally born. She almost cried with relief, until she started to feel another contraction.

"What's happening, they're starting up again. Why?" she asked the healer.

"It's not possible!" The healer was muttering to herself while checking Lily over. "It's not bloody possible, last time was 300 years ago!" She turned to Lily again. "Lily, I'm going to need you to push. It seems that you're having twins today."

"TWINS! How do you miss TWINS? HOW?"

"Lily, we need you to push now!"

Lily started pushing again, using her new fury at the healers to fuel her strength. She grabbed onto James' hand; the other guys had left when the pushing had begun. She looked at him quickly and saw that he looked like she felt; completely shocked. She pushed a few more times and then came the cries of a newborn baby brought safely to the world.

The healers cleared up the mess and washed the babies. The two were brought to the new parents promptly.

"Mr. and Mrs. Potter, you are now the proud parents of a baby boy and a baby girl. The boy is older by eight minutes. Both are perfectly healthy and in good condition."

The room was cleared out by all the nurses and healers. Lily and James looked at their children.

"Twins? What kind of screw-up was there that they didn't detect we were having twins? How hard is it, really, to check?"

"I don't know, Lily, I just know they're both healthy and beautiful. I guess we have to choose the second name. I vote for Hallie Lillian. What do you think?"

"I think Hallie Lillian Potter is a lovely name; it goes well with Harry James Potter."

"I'm not sure; Harry's good for when you're younger, but when he gets older he might need something more distinguished. What am I saying, distinguished, bah! Let's just go for Harry straight off the bat. Much easier that way, isn't it? Hallie Lillian Potter and Harry James Potter; our children; aren't they lovely?"

"They're perfect. Look, they both have brown hair just like you. I can't wait for them to open their eyes so we can see if their brown or green."

"I hope their green just like yours. I know Harry'll have the same problems with his hair that I do, but I hope Hallie has smooth hair like yours that can be tamed."

"I'm sure they'll look just fine either way. Can you imagine what everyone's going to say? I mean; twins. It's so unexpected. We'll have to do some more shopping when I get released. Three sets of Marauder spawned twins running around Hogwarts the same year, poor Minerva."

"Aw, Minnie will be just fine."

"Where did Minnie come from?"

"Sirius used to call her that in first year, to her face and during class." James chuckled at the memory. "She would reprimand him and he'd revert to Professor Minnie. It bugged her so much, but he persisted, of course, like he always did. I guess I just remembered that when you mentioned twins and Minnie; she always said Padfoot and I may as well be twins, with how much we acted alike."

"Well then, Minnie it is from now on. You'll have to remind Sirius, as I'm sure he'll have forgotten."

"Naw, Padfoot would never forget; he just stopped calling her that because after a while she started sending him to Dumbledore's office whenever he called her that. He finally stopped after twenty visits."

"Twenty?" Lily asked incredulously. "My, he is the persistent one isn't he? We should let the others know what's going on."

"I have an idea, I'll take Hallie out to show them; just Hallie. You stay here with Harry and I'll be back in a few." James got up and left the room with Hallie in his arms.

-James' POV-

James took their daughter from Lily and walked to the waiting room. He looked in before he opened the door. All their friends were sitting there, more or less twiddling their thumbs. He opened the door and walked in.

"Everyone, this is Hallie Lillian Potter." He said upon entering. All those who could stand quickly did so; Rina and Holly were fairly pregnant and Rose and Alice were holding their children. They all walked over to see the baby.

"Bit of a girly name, isn't it mate?" Sirius asked.

"You dolt, they had a girl. The tests must have read wrong somewhere along the line. How's Lily doing?" Remus said, smacking Sirius on the back of the head for his stupidity.

"She's fine, in fact, you should all come and see her before the healer restricts visitors."

They all followed him into the hallway; he hung back and walked with all the girls so they could croon over Hallie. The four guys walked into the room and paused. James heard Lily tell them something.

"Hi guys, this is your nephew; Harry James Potter. Want to come meet him?"

"Did you or James get hit on the head or something? He just showed us your daughter. What's going on?" Sirius asked, again a little slow on the up-take.

"You nimrod," Remus said, cuffing Sirius on the ear this time, "they had twins. Good Merlin, how slow do you get. How did they miss it though, Lily?"

"Well, the healer was just in explaining that. It seems it's the first time in over 300 hundred years that this particular slip up happened. She told me that what happened was Hallie was hiding behind Harry, or something like that. She didn't know how they fooled the magic, but said they would be checking into it. In the meantime, I'm going to ask that one of you floo Dumbledore and have him come here; I'd like to speak with him."

James and the girls and babies walked into the room and sat in some chairs surrounding the bed while the guys just stood about.

"I'll go do that," Remus offered. "Just don't go into labor while I'm gone, Rina." He joked, causing everyone to chuckle. He left for the nearest floo connection to call Dumbledore. James handed Hallie to Lily and took Harry from her. They introduced the new twins to the older ones and Neville.

By the time introductions had been completed, Remus was back with Dumbledore on his heels.

"Well, Lily, I must say this is odd. I'm not exactly sure what's happened here, or why, but I have the feeling we should figure it out at once. I'm going to enlist the help of others to search for information on the last occurrence of this type and others before it. It shouldn't be to long; not with Madam Pince on the hunt, it shouldn't take her long to find everything about the subject in our libraries."

"Thank you, Albus. That would be most helpful. In the meantime, both are in perfect health. Albus, this," she held up Hallie, "is Hallie Lillian Potter."

"And this," James said, holding up Harry, "is Harry James Potter."

"Lovely, lovely. Splendid names, if I do say so. Would you mind if I do a few charms of my own to check their health and so on? The information could prove useful in research." James and Lily nodded, so Dumbledore took out his wand and began waving it over Hallie. His brow furrowed and he frowned slightly. He began waving his wand over Harry and his frown deepened. He repeated this process several times. "Peculiar. Lily, James, I must speak with you two alone. Could the rest of you please clear out?" Everyone else left at once, leaving the new parents and their former headmaster. "I've discovered something, while not unheard of, it is very rare. Both of your children seem to have extremely powerful magical capabilities. They are both already very strong in the magical sense; each very near that of a grown wizard's strength. The peculiar part though, is that they have incredible room for growth in their magical cores; they are nowhere near their full potential. I believe they will do great things, when they grow up some more. I remember a story, told to me once, by my own mentor. It may apply here."

"I can't remember much, and I'd rather not give you false information; I'll read up on the story and tell you once I've got it."

"The point is, your children will be immensely powerful at an early age. I wouldn't be surprised if they had great control, comparable to that of a fully grown wizard, over their magic by the age of five. They will accomplish a lot in their lives, if they are taught properly how to use and control their magic. Their magic will not, of course, just burst into being. It will develop slowly like other children; they will just be much more powerful in the end run. I think that stronger wards should be put up around your house, and soon. Voldemort will be able to sense this type of magic and he'll come looking for it. I would also advise you start teaching them control over their magic as soon as possible. If they start showing signs of special abilities, please contact me at once with information. I must be going now. If you have any other questions, feel free to floo me at any time." With that he got up and left.

"What, he's going to drop that bombshell and walk away without answering questions?" James was setting up for a rant, Lily knew. "Oh, you have powerful children that the most evil git in the world is going to hunt, but I've got to go. What is that rubbish? Coming in here and declaring that then leaving! I ought to go after him and give him a piece of my mind!"

"James, calm down. We can floo him when I'm out of the hospital. Until then, we should just enjoy our healthy children before they start floating us about the house."

"Right; well, since we now have so much to do, I think maybe I should take Rose and Sirius and get the shopping done. That way we can focus on this whole 'your children will be magical geniuses' thing more fully later. Should we tell anybody about it?"

"Good idea, and no; not until we know more, not even Sirius. You should get going. I'll stay here with Hallie and Harry; it ought to be fun, I can start to get to know them."

-James' POV-

He got up to go find Rose and Sirius. They were in the waiting room with the others talking. When he approached them, they asked him what was going on with Dumbledore.

"Oh, it's nothing; he just wanted to tell us something about Lily's sister. I stopped paying attention after I heard the topic." He could tell his friends didn't believe him, but the fact that he was even trying to lie told them to drop it for now. "Rose, Sirius, can you guys come with me to get some more baby stuff; we're not prepared for two babies." They nodded their affirmation to the idea and got up. "Great. The kids can stay with Lily and the others; can the rest of you go keep Lily company? I don't want her to be alone for long and we might be a while." The rest of his friends got up and went to chat with Lily, taking Calla and Arcturus with them. He thought of how great his friends were; and with a pang of sadness he tried not to think about Peter.

The three going shopping left for the Leaky Cauldron through the floo. They got there and walked into Diagon Ally. The three stopped briefly for some ice cream at Fortesque's parlor then continued on for the bank; James was going to get two of the credit card things for him and Lily. They went in and spoke with the Potter family account manager; a goblin named Zaida. She set up the cards for Lily and James quickly. At the meeting, as they were so few, she informed him of his family's current holdings.

The Potters were currently in possession of five estates and six other pieces of land plus Godric's Hollow and his parents' home making 13 properties in all. They had stocks and bonds invested in various things, all profiting well. They owned four properties in Diagon Alley, three of which were being rented. And their monetary value came out to be 450 million Galleons, 12 Sickles and 16 Knuts.

This number fluctuated on a daily basis, Zaida said, but it was well past the point of needing to worry about having fiscal funds. She also told him of many family heirlooms and family documentation in their vault. James, who was rather curious about all this, decided to take a trip into his vault. He asked the others if they wanted to come, but they said he should do this alone.

He was led down by Zaida. He got to the vault, at least a dozen stories underground, and was told to put his hands in the indented space for such appendages and to look directly at the door. He did as told and felt a tingling sensation in his hands and saw a light point at his eyes.

Slowly, the door opened and he walked in. There were chairs with red velvet upholstery about one half of the room to sit in. The other half was all money; James didn't think he'd ever seen so much money! This was the entire Potter vault; he usually spent form his own personal vault set up by his parents.

He went to the giant desk and began looking about it. He saw a family tree hanging above the desk; it was stitched hand stitched with gold thread on a red material. It went back more than a millennia. He saw, with a great amount of fascination, that he was a descendant of Godric Gryffindor. He would have to speak with his parents about this vault. For now, he just looked around some more. He found a lot of paper about various properties and birth/death certificates.

He decided to take the tapestry with him, for future examination. He wanted to hang it up in his study at home. He was impressed to see that Harry and Hallie had been added to the bottom already; huh, I guess it's charmed to add any addition to the family once the addition occurs.

He went back up to the surface and decided one more thing should be done. He asked Zaida to set up an account for each of his children. He told her to put a million galleons in each account; they would grow interest, and in any case one would be hard put to spend a million galleons.

He went and collected Sirius and Rose from the front entrance and they left for the store containing necessary items for a baby. Rose picked out all the clothes for the new girl; they'd already gotten a lot of boys' clothes. She gave her opinion on which crib to get, what type of mobile and so on. They got more diapers and another blanket, which Rose chose. It was a pale green with a different magical item in each corner; a broom, a wand with sparks shooting out of it, a cauldron with smoke coming off it and in the last corner there was space left for her initials. They had those embroidered on; HLP. They had gotten a similar blanket for Harry months ago; it was also pale green but it had a book instead of a cauldron and the initials read HJP; it was charmed to automatically put the initials on by the owner of the store. They got everything they thought they'd need plus some stuff Rose insisted upon purchasing.

They also decided to set up a specific room in the house, on the first floor, for changing the babies diapers in so that they didn't have to continuously walk up to the nursery's to change diapers. They would convert the room that Sirius had found last week into the changing room. It was a fair size, hidden behind a charm on the wall to make the door disappear. They got a few changing tables and another stock of diapers; they shrunk everything and put it into three or four bags. They sent it home by way of vanishing then left for the hospital. When they got back, James was surprised to see Dumbledore there again. He once again asked for privacy with the pair and so they were left alone.

"I have found the story and can now give you the finer details. I'll just read from the book, shall I?...

In the mid- sixteen hundreds, there existed a brother and sister, twins, of Lord and Lady status with magical abilities rarely seen. The mother, name unknown, was only expecting one child; the charms and spells revealed only one of the twins to healers of the time. When the children were born, all were curious as to the occurrence of such an anomaly. They were researched, but not much was found by test spells except that they were both magically powerful beyond the normal level of a newborn. They possessed magic at a level of a full-grown witch or wizard, still having enormous room for magical growth. They were left to grow up under care of their parents. While the two grew, they began displaying a fierce loyalty to one another; one was rarely in a fight of any sort without the other for support. They also developed powerful abilities in many fields of magic that had not been practiced since the time of Merlin.

Lady Claire possessed the abilities of; thought reading (different from Legilimency in that she did not need eye contact or a spell) and self-levitation (she could basically fly, but it was limited to an unknown height). Lord Charles also possessed a few unique abilities; telepathy (he could move things with his mind) and spell protection (most hexes and jinxes would not affect him; much like a giant or a troll).

Lady Claire and Lord Charles shared many abilities as well; that of empathy, for one. Many say this was one reason they got along so well, they understood each others' emotions all the time. Some say this was also the cause for success in later life as diplomats and leaders. Another shared ability, was that of Animagus transformations. The two were exceptionally gifted and could change into any animal they wished; a rare ability still being passed through families; those possessing it have been termed Polyanimagi. Both were also gifted with languages, speaking well over one hundred each; this included Parseltongue, Mermish, Troll, Gobbledegook, and many more, including human languages.

They were talented at all they did; also maintaining, what others termed, a 'trouble-making' streak. They were surpassed by none in their abilities and both had a thirst for knowledge that was nearly insatiable. They would study and read whatever they could get their hands on. The twins also enjoyed Quidditch; they both played for their house team at Hogwarts, Gryffindor.

When they left school, they went on to become political leaders and diplomats for England. Lady Claire Potter married James Prewett and had six sons. Lady Claire Potter Prewett died in her mid-hundreds. Lord Charles Potter married Margaret MacDougal and produced three daughters and four sons. Lord Charles Potter died in his mid-hundreds; some believe the same as his sister.

"From there, it goes on to talk about their descendants; of which you would probably find on your family tapestry. I believe it is in your family's vault at Gringotts."

"I've visited there today and I removed the tapestry to the manor. I can summon it here, Accio Tapestry." The tapestry appeared shortly there-after and went straight to James. He un-rolled it and Dumbledore cast a levitation charm upon it to keep it floating where they could all read it. James, Lily and Dumbledore began reading the tapestry, looking at all the names.

"Got it!" exclaimed Lily. "It's just there," she pointed to a spot near the bottom third of the tapestry on the right half.

"Wonderful. It appears that I'm a direct descendant of Lord Charles, which would explain the whole unknown twin's thing, I suppose. Albus, I also wanted to ask about another ancestor; I was going to question my parents, but you're here." James pointed to Godric Gryffindor's name on the tapestry. "Incidentally, I'm a descendant of Godric. It also appears that Godric was one of the twins' ancestors. Strange, isn't it?"

"Not really James. I suggest you speak with your parents though; they'll no doubt have more information on your parentage than I do. Now then, about this story, I believe that your children are another set of magical twins. I think that they will inherit the same abilities as Claire and Charles possessed and that they will be similarly gifted in what they do."

"If this is the case," Dumbledore continued, "then they should be more than safe in each others' presence. I would still like to put more wards up around your home and I've asked the other professors in the Order the help. We will stop by later today and put them up, keying them to the ten of you; your children will automatically be added to the wards keys. We have to discuss your children's futures. I should still like to train them as much as possible while they're still young to control their magic. We will have to wait and see, though, what their abilities are. In the meantime, let us work on protecting them to our best ability."

"Thank you, Albus. And please thank the others for us as well, for working on all this. Is there anything we know about that we can work on as of now? I mean, when do you think their abilities will start to develop?"

"I don't think that you will have to worry about those for a few months, at least. If they do exhibit odd behavior though, inform me at once. Also feel free to bring them to the school for check-ups whenever you wish; Poppy has returned, she decided that the hospital wing was her true home."

"Thank you, Albus." James thanked the man who had just come to such extensive conclusions about his children. "We'll be seeing you, soon I'm sure."

Dumbledore took one last look at the twins then departed. After James had once again vanished the tapestry to the house, he sat next to Lily and took Harry from her.

"Well, look at it this way," Lily said, "they've already got nicknames."

"Oh, and what might those be?" James inquired.

"Lady Hallie and Lord Harry," Lily smiled and James laughed, the names were perfect.

-Lily's POV-

Lily had been released from the hospital the day before. She and James had decided to bring the children to the house and get settled in a bit and enjoy their first day home. Today, though, they were going to speak with James' parents about his heritage. Harry and Hallie, to the envy of her friends, slept through the night; Lily had asked Dumbledore by way of floo and he said that as long as they were together, they should be perfectly comfortable and calm. She was shocked, but decided that it made sense.

She and James woke up and got ready for their trip. They each dressed a child and then headed for the floo; you weren't supposed to apparate a baby until it was nine months old. They put bubble-head charms on the two and got into the floo; they didn't want Harry or Hallie to inhale ash.

They stepped out of the fireplace at Potter Manor and James called for his parents. They came into the room and smiled. Harriet walked up and took Harry from James and Hallie from Lily then went to sit on the couch in the room.

"They're wonderful, simply wonderful. I finally have grandchildren to dote upon; how much more lucky could I hope to have been." Harriet was nearly beside herself with joy.

"Actually, mum, we have another reason for the visit. When I went to Gringotts the other day, I went into the Potter family vault and noticed a tapestry. I took it down and brought it with me; I have some questions about some of our ancestors. First of all; why didn't you tell me I was a descendant of Godric Gryffindor?" James sounded like he was going to snap anytime, so Lily put a comforting hand on his shoulder that he covered with one of his own.

"Well son," Henry began, "we had our reasons. It would have been dangerous, for one, having a child walking about proclaiming that he was a descendant of one of the greatest wizards of all time. We thought it best to wait, and then it didn't seem all that important. You could have been hurt if the knowledge got out; before you found out, only Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall knew about our ancestry. I assume you've kept this to yourself. Another was, we didn't want you thinking you were better than anyone else because of your family; we saw how you acted with the Potter line, what would have happened if you'd known about the Gryffindor line? We weren't sure; but now you know, are there any other questions?"

"Yes; but first, did you ever trust me? I mean really trust me?"

"Of course we did, it was just such a touchy subject we thought it left best alone. We would suggest, that once you're done with it, that you put that tapestry back in the vault for safe-keeping. Now, what is it you want to know dear?" Harriet asked her son.

"Do you know anything about Lord Charles Potter and Lady Claire Potter Prewett?" Lily asked before James could make any more comments. Harriet turned to Lily with a surprised look on her face.

"Not much about their magic, only that they were very powerful. As for their families, Lady Claire married a Prewett, as you know, and had several sons. That line continues on today; I believe that if you were to follow the line, you would find Molly Prewett Weasley on there along with her brothers. Lord Charles was one of our direct descendants, I believe, though I'm not exactly sure of the line leading to us."

"Thank you," James said, "for the information. We can only stay a short while though, a meeting with Dumbledore, so you'd best get to doting over Hallie and Harry."

Harriet wasted no time in getting back to crooning over the twins. They stayed for lunch then flooed to Dumbledore's office; again using the bubble-head charm on the twins. When they got there, they saw Dumbledore speaking with Minnie. When James had told Sirius about the name, Lily had seen a spark light in Sirius' eyes. They went in and sat down. Minnie asked to hold Hallie, so Lily handed her over. Minnie began smiling at the baby in her arms. Dumbledore, likewise, wanted to hold Harry so James gave him over; he was obviously proud of his children, but so was she.

"Wonderful to see you all; what can we do for you?" Dumbledore asked.

"We'd like to talk some more about the twins future abilities. They haven't done anything spectacular yet, except sleep through the night. We wanted to talk to you and see if you knew of anything else that would be helpful." Lily directed her statement at Dumbledore, occasionally glancing at Minnie.

"Well, first of all, did you gather any new information about Lord Charles and Lady Claire from James' parents?"

"No, just that Molly Weasley is a descendant of Lady Claire Potter Prewett." Lily answered Dumbledore.

"Ah, yes. Anyway, we don't know a terrible lot about the pair three hundred years ago. Madam Pince did, however, find out that there was another such occurrence 600 or so years ago, three hundred before Lord Charles and Lady Claire. That one was even less documented than the one I told you of yesterday. All that is known is that it was also a set of twins, one male one female, and that they also had special abilities, though what they were was unknown, and that they too were fiercely loyal to each other as well as protective of each other." Dumbledore relayed the new information to James and Lily.

"That is all we have found out about past occurrences. However, for this particular occurrence, I believe we have found out some potentially useful tidbits. Those of us researching the topic have all come to the conclusion that Harry and Hallie will be a talented wizard and witch. We would like to have them tutored before they enter Hogwarts, and most professors have agreed. I am still lacking a Potions professor, but you all are more than capable of that. What we'd like to do, is watch them for a few years to see how they develop magically. Once they are two or three, we will begin training them to use their magic properly; nothing to harsh, we still want them to have a wonderful childhood after all, just enough to get them used to the level of magic they'll be growing into. As they get older, we would change the training from control of magic to development of abilities."

"Not much can be done before that time, so I would suggest you enjoy your children and not worry about this. We did drop by and put up the wards; Minerva, Fillius, Pomona, Andromeda and I have all put on the most powerful wards we could think of. I believe that your home should be perfectly safe, to say the least. Beyond that, the two will protect each other; accidental magic, don't you know. We believe that the two will come to no harm, so all should be well." Dumbledore concluded his advice with a smile at Lily and James.

"So there's really nothing we can do, is there?" James asked.

"No, there isn't." Dumbledore replied.

"What about who we tell, should we keep it a secret?" Lily inquired.

"My dear, I would suggest telling only those you trust implicitly. I have told only Minerva and Madam Pince; the others only knew about strengthening wards to protect the children. It's a rather delicate situation and must be treated as such. I would also like to put certain charms on the two; it will not harm them in any way, merely mask their magical ability so that others cannot sense it. It will last shortly over a year; I cannot replenish it until it has worn off, though, so you'll have to inform me of that day so I can renew it."

"On a lighter note," began Minnie, "I can't wait to have them in transfiguration class. I'd also be more than happy to train them in transformations, when the time comes. I think we can expect a lot out of these two."

"That's for sure," mumbled James.

"Hallie has the loveliest green eyes, Albus. What color are Harry's?"

"They are the same vivid green, Minerva. I can tell already that they're going to look remarkably like you two, remarkably."

"They'll be a regular pair of heartbreakers, these two," Minnie agreed.

"Yes, can you picture them teaming up with Sirius and Regulus' children? Most remarkable, it will be."

"How many Marauders will this school have to suffer before they stop coming back?" Minnie asked.

"I hope many more, Minerva. But, we cannot be holding Lily and James up all day; no matter how lovely their company is." Dumbledore handed Harry to Lily and Minnie reluctantly gave Hallie to James. "Good day, to both of you. The next Order meeting will be this weekend. Don't forget, it's a delicate situation; choose your confidants carefully."

Lily and James got up and went through the floo to their home. They were going to discuss who to tell before dinner, if the pointed look James gave Lily meant anything, which meant they had to hurry as dinner would be in only an hour.

They stepped through the floo into their sitting room. They found Sirius in the kitchen, when wasn't he there? They told him that they needed to discuss some matters privately and that they were going up to Harry and Hallie's nursery for a while.

-James' POV-

After speaking briefly with Sirius and throwing off his attempts at finding out what was happening, Lily and James walked up to the nursery. Shortly after Lily had found out she was pregnant, she and James had decorated one of the spare rooms. They had painted it a pale green, much like the color of the baby-blankets. There was a border around the room that had books on it, Lily had chosen it. There were two cribs along the far wall, under the windows and on opposite sides of the balcony door. They were each in a corner; Hallie's on the left and Harry's on the right. At the end of Hallie's crib was a rocking chair for Lily to sit in while feeding them. At the end of Harry's crib was the changing table. Above each of the cribs, was a mobile. They had different things dangling from them; James had chosen Harry's, so it was quidditch themed with quaffles, snitches, bludgers and brooms hanging down. Hallie's was more along the lines of academic; it had books, cauldrons, wands and other such rudimentary objects dangling down.

They went in and put Hallie and Harry in their cribs for a rest. James noticed that when they were laid down, they turned to look at each other and stayed like that until they closed their vivid green eyes and drifted off into a peaceful slumber. James gazed upon this scene, completely transfixed by it. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and turned to see Lily doing the same. He smiled at her and went to sit in the chair, motioning for her to sit on his lap.

"Well then, who do we inform of this? I think we can definitely tell all our friends, but who else?" James began the discussion. He had put one of his hands on Lily's lower back and the other was holding her hands in her lap.

"I agree with telling our friends; other than that, I'm not sure. I suppose your parents, and possibly Andy. What do you think?"

"My parents and Andy, yes. We'll have to make sure Andy doesn't tell anyone else though; she tends to slip sometimes when it comes to Ted. We should probably tell Molly and Arthur; their kids will be here a lot playing, I'm sure. And Mad-Eye could be trusted; that man is so paranoid about everything, he'd never let slip." James suggested a few more people he thought they could trust.

"True; I can't think of anymore. So, we've got your parents, Andy, Mad-Eye and the Weasleys. We should firecall them tonight and see if they're available last minute for supper or drinks so we can tell everyone at once. I'll go take care of that now."

Lily got up and went to the fireplace in the sitting room; it was almost always empty so it would be more private than the kitchen. James went and stood by the glass door to the balcony, looking at the grounds. He smiled when he thought about his kids growing up here; they'd never have the chance to be bored. He just stood there for a while, enjoying the scenery.

Lily came back up and told him they had all accepted the invitation for dinner tonight and that she had also flooed Dumbledore and Minnie about coming as well. James went to their bedroom to get changed for dinner; he had dressed hastily this morning in a hurry to get going.

-Sirius' POV-

Sirius had known that something had happened after Dumbledore left the hospital. James couldn't lie worth a damn, at least not to his friends. Sirius went down to dinner and was surprised to see a bunch of guests at the table. He looked confusedly to Dumbledore.

"James and Lily have invited us as they have and announcement to make," Dumbledore explained.

"Should have guessed," Sirius mumbled to himself, turning away from Dumbledore to find a spot to sit. He grinned and chose a spot by Minnie, as James had so diligently reminded him to call her. "Hello Minnie!"

"Oh dear Merlin, not that again!"

"Why yes, Minnie, I do believe that I called you Minnie. What's it been, six years?"

"I believe we had the lovely streak of seven going, but I suppose that's been stabbed to death. At least you're not calling me Professor Minnie; that was awkward. I don't suppose I can give you detention with Albus, either."

"You can try, I suppose. Don't know how successful you'll be, but you could definitely try." Sirius was grinning from ear to ear at Minnie's reaction to the name. "Do you know why you're all here? I mean other than the fact that Lily and James invited you?"

"Yes, Mr. Black, I do. I will not, however, be informing you."

"Wow, back to formality, are we? Well then, Professor Minnie, two can play that game." Minnie had winced at the use of her least favorite name. "So, Professor Minnie, how've you been lately? Looking forward to a new batch of hoodlums?"

"Not everyone is a hoodlum Mr. Black; some people manage to restrain themselves from time to time."

"Say it isn't so! People actually stop themselves from trouble-making? My world is crashing down around me! I didn't know it was possible!"

"Stop your nonsense, man. You're going to frighten your children, sounding like the world is coming to an end." She continued to mutter to herself about inappropriate behavior and whatnot. The others who lived in the house entered the dining hall shortly after Sirius' conversation with Minnie, each taking a seat and looking about for answers. The last to enter were Lily and James. All the children were in their nurseries with charms placed about them to alert the caster to any cries or disturbances.

Lily and James went to stand behind their seats and James began talking. "We'd like to thank you all for coming on such short notice; and to those who live here, sorry for not warning you. We have some information to share, but would like you to enjoy dinner first and we'll tell you afterwards over some tea. Enjoy." They both sat down and the food appeared on the table. People began eating and talking amongst themselves. Sirius didn't hesitate to get some dinner, even though he was extremely curious about this announcement; it was food and he was hungry, then again, when wasn't he?

After everyone had had their main course and their dessert, treacle tart, Tinker brought in some tea; everyone took the opportunity to thank her for such a wonderful meal. Once the tea had been passed about and everyone was settled in again, Lily and James stood up again.

"We have found something out about Harry and Hallie and we wished for all of you to know. First, even though we know we can trust you all, we must remind you that this is not to go beyond these four walls. This information is not to be shared with anyone outside this room, ANYONE. Yes, Andy, that means Ted." Sirius looked over to his cousin and saw her looking sheepish; apparently she had thought she might be able to tell her husband. Lily went on after that.

"When I found out I was pregnant, I didn't know it would be twins. In fact, I didn't know until I started having a second set of contractions. We talked to Albus and he told us two of James' ancestors; Lord Charles and Lady Claire. A similar thing had happened a little over three hundred years ago; a mother had gotten pregnant and the second baby didn't show up on tests." Lily paused, letting James take over.

"When they were born, they were extremely powerful with a lot of potential for magical growth still. They grew up and developed extremely high levels of magical strength as well as magical abilities not heard of for a number of decades; we'll leave exact abilities out for now. They were talented at everything they did and were gifted in many magical areas. The two grew up and got married, having children of their own. Lady Claire married a Prewett," Sirius saw Molly perk up in interest after a slight gasp, "while Lord Charles Potter married a MacDougal woman. They each had children, thus passing down the potential for a similar occurrence. I am a direct descendant of Lord Charles." Lily picked up the fascinating tale.

"When the twins were born, Albus tested their magical cores for strength and found them to be above that of a fully grown wizard or witch with room for a lot of growth. He's told us that he believes them to have similar potential to that of James' ancestors. We wanted to tell you all, because we feel we can trust you and that you should know. Harry and Hallie will some day be a wizard and witch with great powers." James picked up the announcement again.

"We have also been told by Albus," James sounded a bit miffed now, "that Voldemort," some flinches from the listeners, "may be able to sense the magic. He has put concealment charms on their magic and has strengthened the wards on our house along with some of the others good with such things. He has assured us that the two will be perfectly safe and that they should not come to any harm whilst in each others' presence; something to do with being protective of each other, extremely loyal and able to calm each other; that ought to come in useful when one of them can't sleep, they'll just calm each other down and go back to bed." James said this last with a chuckle; all the parents present knew what a treasure it would be to have someone to calm their child without them having to wake up at two in the morning.

"Anyway," Lily continued, "that's what we wanted to tell you all. If you have any questions, you can ask us or Albus. I think Minnie," Minnie winced at the name, "also knows the full extent of the situation and can answer you questions. Thank you all for being so patient with us." Lily and James sat down again, waiting for someone to ask a question.

Sirius didn't listen as people began asking questions; he just slipped into his own thoughts and began thinking about recent events and how hectic their lives had been. After Calla and Arcturus had been born, Rose and Sirius had decided to name Lily and James as the twins' godparents. Remus and Rina had been named Neville's godparents; something about responsibility. James and Lily had named Sirius and Rose Harry and Hallie's godparents; Lily had given Sirius a stern warning not to take them on his flying motorbike before they could walk and not without permission.

Sirius thought about this new revelation and what it would mean for his godchildren; they had a tough time ahead of them, hopefully they would still get to enjoy themselves. I'll see to that, I'll make sure they get a good education in pranking and whatnot. After all, what are godparents for if not to spoil the godchildren?

He started paying attention just as Molly asked about the Prewett line connected to the Lord and Lady.

"Well," James said, "Lady Claire married a Prewett. They had several sons. From what a family tree we saw shows, you are one of Lady Claire's descendants; I'm not sure if it's directly or not."

People continued asking questions, but Sirius wasn't paying attention; he was planning all the things he would teach his godchildren in the years to come.

-Rina's POV-

It was a full moon tonight so when she felt the beginnings of labor, which she knew well by now from her friends recent deliveries, she got up and started towards the stairs. She knew it would be easier to go down than up, as she'd have to go downstairs anyway, so she started down the stairs to wake up Regulus and Holly; Regulus hadn't gone with the other guys in case something happened with her or Holly, Remus of course, had no choice about going.

She figured it was about 1:30 when she knocked on their door to rouse them from their slumber. She heard light footsteps and the door opened to reveal Regulus rubbing his eyes. He looked up at her and knew the only reason she'd be up in the middle of the night. He quickly went back into the room and grabbed a pair of robes to throw on over his pajamas then went over and woke Holly up. Rina saw her stir slightly and then rise up when she heard what Regulus was saying.

Regulus came back to the door then, slipping his robes on hastily. He grabbed his wand form a dresser on his way over to her putting it in his robe pocket. He led her out of the room, down the stairs and into the sitting room. He took some floo powder and when they stepped into the fireplace he threw it down and shouted out their destination. A few seconds later, they emerged in the lobby of St. Mungo's and walked up to the front desk.

"Holly will wake and tell the others, and then someone will wait for them to get back." Regulus told her all this, trying to sound comforting.

"Thank you, for everything I know your going to go through this morning and for putting up with me." She paused for a moment as a contraction hit her; the last one had been about ten minutes ago. "Don't worry; I'll try not to break your hands." She smiled at him, joking about one of the previous deliveries. The front-desk witch got them signed in and called for a gurney to be sent down.

They went and sat down and after a few moments the others from the house were there, all but Holly, and the nurse was there to take her upstairs. She climbed onto the floating bed and was lead upstairs, her friends by her side until they got to the delivery room. Alice and Rose left for the well known waiting room while Lily and Regulus stayed by her side.

"I'm sure Remus won't miss anything important," Regulus tried to reassure her. "It's still summer so the sun rises fairly early; he should be here in a few hours."

"Yeah," Lily agreed, "he should be here really soon. Holly's at home with the kids, waiting for the guys to get back. All of the kids are still asleep though," she assured at the look Rina gave. Five babies and one witch was not a fair match, not to mention the one witch was eight months pregnant. Rina listened and decided so long as they were asleep Holly should be all right. She did decide, however, that later in the day she would instruct someone to get Holly some help when all the kids woke up and needed tending to.

The healer came in and checked her progress, asking how far apart the contractions were, when they'd started, and where was the father?

"They're about nine minutes apart," she answered, "they began at about 1 O'Clock this morning, and the father is incapacitated by the full moon." Rina finished, hoping the healer would catch the hint and grasp why Remus wasn't here. She saw the healers eyes widen slightly, but only for a second.

"Very well; I believe sunrise today is around 6:05. It's about 2:30 now. If it helps any, my own brother is…incapacitated…by the moon as well this evening. Call if you need anything."

Rina settled back against the bed. Three and a half hours to go. She began chatting lightly with Regulus and Lily, both of them reassuring her every so often that Remus would make it in time. They brought up the subject of names, wanting to find out what they had chosen for their daughter, but she wouldn't tell them. They began guessing very odd names, making her laugh in-between the contractions. After a while, they were just throwing out random names.

"Bartholomew, Barnabas, Boniface," Lily said. Rina shook her head, giggling madly.

"Charbel, Constantine, Cuthbert," Regulus supplied. Again Rina shook her head laughing hysterically. Another contraction came and the laughter died off her lips at once. She grimaced, the pain wasn't so bad with the potions and spells, and squeezed Regulus' hand lightly so as not to hurt it. Two hours to go.

They moved on from 'the name game' as Regulus dubbed it and onto another, slightly awkward, topic.

"So, who are you going to name godparents?" Lily slapped him lightly on the shoulder, glaring at him. "What?"

"Use some tact; maybe she doesn't want to tell us."

"It's alright, Lily. Just his insatiable curiosity getting the better of him, again; someday he's going to be killed by that curiosity of his, like the cat in that muggle saying." She grinned at her friends' antics; Lily had hit Regulus' shoulder again, this time a little harder but with a smile instead of a glare. "We haven't decided yet, by the by. We were going to speak about it during the labor portion of the day, but seeing as Remus is…indisposed…"

"He'll get here in plenty of time, don't worry," Lily paused in her reprimanding of Regulus to reassure her friend.

"Lily, would you mind doing something for me?" An hour and a half to go; the kids will be waking up soon. Lily nodded her head. "I don't want Holly at home all alone with the babies; Harry and Hallie never seem to have any problems, but the others will pitch a fit if their not first in line. Would you mind sending someone over to help her; maybe Molly?" They had been getting better acquainted with the friendly matriarch as of late; she'd bring her kids over and they would stare at the newborns, being used to new children as they were. She also brought Ron, her newest son, along with to play with the babies; not that they could do much yet, but they sat by each other and made faces. Her twins, Fred and George, had just entered the stage everyone called 'the terrible twos', and since there were two of them…well, you get the picture. Everyone hoped they would outgrow this particular stage, especially Minnie.

"I suppose, she's usually up with Ron by now anyway. We've had a couple of early morning chats when Ron or Harry and Hallie woke up fussing; we always sit in the room with the floo so that if the other is up we can chat for a while. I'll go floo her now, probably should have sooner anyhow." Lily got up and walked out the door to seek out a fireplace. Regulus picked up her other hand, overtaking Lily's job.

"Finally," Regulus said, mock dramatically, "thought she'd never leave, that one." Here, he put on an air of fake relief. "Now I can have my way with you!" He pretended to be passionately absorbed in her, making her break out in hysterical laughter again. She decided to play along for a few moments; entertainment at this point was a golden treat.

"Why, good sir, I'm shocked at you! Do you not want to speak of our love to the world?" She pretended to be offended.

"I shall yell it from the mountaintops, if that is what thou wishes."

At this point, she couldn't hold in her laughter any more and she started laughing, unable to stop herself.

Regulus donned a look of outraged pain. "Thine own lady doth reject me! What shalt I do with myself, without thou to love?" He began laughing then as well, unable to keep up the pretense any longer.

"Did you ever consider acting?" she asked him after recovering from her fits and gales of laughter.

"Why yes, young lady, I did. I'm a regular John Wayne, if you hadn't noticed." He tried using an American Western accent, but failed miserably.

"Nah, I think you should stick to Shakespeare. More classical, it suits your personality."

Rina began wincing again, latching onto Regulus' hands and holding them tightly in her own. There was a white hot poker in her back, pushing its way through to her stomach. It was a horrible, searing pain that she wanted to end. She figured that either the contractions were getting stronger or her pain potions were wearing off; another daunting thought, it could be both. She didn't dwell on the matter though; just looked at the clock quickly before pushing the button to call the nurse.

The woman came in just as the contraction eased up. Rina explained the way her contractions had come back with a vengeance. The nurse took out her wand and did several spells checking her over.

"Right, your potions have worn off. And, I'm sorry, but we can't administer any more potions; you're too far along for it to be a wise move anymore. The contractions will begin to increase in strength, intensity and frequency. There's nothing more we can do for a while; when the contractions get to be about five minutes apart call for me though." She walked over to the door and left.

Rina checked the clock again; a half hour until sunrise. She silently prayed to whatever God there was that Remus would make it in time. She turned to Regulus and smiled briefly before the door opened and Lily walked in.

"I've asked Molly to help Holly with the children. They took all the kids with, much to their dismay at the early hour; all but Fred and George that is. They were sitting there smiling and clapping their hands."

"So, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Percy, the twins and Ron all went with her to the house to help Holly. I'm guessing the older children will be sleeping in various guest rooms by now, but the twins and Ron were wide awake." They continued to talk for a bit; when Rina looked up at the clock, she saw it was now 6:10. Remus had changed back five minutes ago and would be getting back to the house anytime.

She immediately brightened at the thought of seeing her husband soon. Another contraction came, very painful, and then five minutes later another came so she called for the nurse. The nurse began shooing Regulus out, saying that unless he was the father he had to leave; Lily got to stay because the nurse didn't want to argue with the red-head who had also been a patient of hers a week or so ago. The nurse brought in the healer, who told her to begin pushing at the next contraction. Rina didn't want to without Remus there, but did as she was told. Lily was sitting by her bed, holding her hand. Rina pushed with a strength she hadn't known she possessed. Halfway through the second contraction and set of pushing, the door burst open and Remus ran in. Even through her pain, Rina smiled; glowing with happiness. He ran up to her and took her second hand off of the bedrail she had been holding onto.

"Just a few more pushes Rina and you'll be done. Keep up the good work." The healer was trying to keep her from giving up, as many mothers grew too tired to continue, but she needed no more support than Remus being right beside her. After four more pushes, their daughter was born and taken to be checked over and cleaned off.

"Here you are Mr. and Mrs. Lupin, your daughter. Eight pounds, nine ounces; 16 inches tall and all fingers and toes in tact. We'd like to get the paperwork done with straight away, if you don't mind; we have a lot of other patients delivering today. She was born at 6:32 a.m. on the morning of August 7th, 1980. Do you have a name chosen?"

"Yes, Lucinda Elayna Lupin. E-L-A-Y-N-A," she spelled out for the nurse. "Is that all?"

"Yes; we have the other information stored elsewhere or you wouldn't know it. Congratulations. Healer Jones will be back in a jiff to see how you're doing." The nurse got up and left.

"Where are the others?"

"They're in the waiting room. How are you? I'm so sorry I wasn't there for everything." He looked at her with an apologetic face, showing he was sincere.

"It's not your fault; besides, you got here, didn't you?" He nodded reluctantly, agreeing that he couldn't have done anything. "Now, about this business of choosing godparents; I was thinking of Regulus and Holly, they're responsible and will no doubt take good care of Lucinda should anything happen. Besides, Regulus was so helpful today."

"I agree." He concurred and his gaze shifted from his wife to his daughter.

"Here, why don't you hold her?" Rina handed their daughter to Remus and he took her cautiously. They sat that way for a while, their friends coming in to visit after a bit. They talked about what had gone on at the house. Apparently, once Remus had transformed back he had run to the house. He had sensed something was happening with Rina, an ability werewolves have is to sense their 'mates' current condition. He had guessed she was in labor, as the baby was due any day, and had run straight past Holly and to the floo. He had gotten here and run up to find her at once, not bothering to stop and ask for assistance.

Rina was released from the hospital two days later and was relieved to be going home. The next couple of weeks consisted of Rina getting used to waking at 5:00 a.m. to feed Lucinda; she couldn't complain to much though, because Luci always went to sleep easily and she rarely woke up during the night. She felt rather blessed, really, because her daughter was such a good sleeper at such a young age; Calla and Arcturus woke up constantly during the night during their first month home.

-Holly's POV-

Order meetings had gotten to be more frequent, as of late. There was one nearly every other day, reporting deaths and so on. Molly had been coming over nearly everyday after breakfast to talk with the other mothers about various things. Andy had brought Dora around as well, so she could play with some children her own age for a time.

It was a Saturday in early September, the fourth in fact, that there was such a meeting being held at the house. Everyone had come; the Weasleys, the Tonks', Hogwarts professors, a group of Aurors, and many other new members of the group. Dumbledore was in a corner trying to talk to Sirius and Lily about something; there wasn't much use in being private though, everyone knew what it was about.

Severus Snape had apparently gone to Dumbledore and 'repented' for what he had done as a Death Eater, asking for forgiveness and offering to be a spy. Dumbledore had accepted willingly, saying that he believed the former Death Scum. Dumbledore had asked Lily and Sirius to let Snape in, reasoning that he wouldn't be able to reveal their location, but Sirius wouldn't even listen. Lily had heard what Dumbledore said, then refused his request; she said she didn't want him in her house with her children. With that backing, Sirius had managed to get Dumbledore to give up; temporarily.

He was at it again though, but it was a pointless attempt; trying to get Sirius to let a man he loathed into his house with his wife and children, anybody but Dumbledore would have been on a suicide mission. Sirius was fuming now, his face red and his eyes barely discernable slits. He was waving his arms about erratically, nearly knocking Lily in the face; she took a step to the side to avoid his flailing arms. When Dumbledore responded calmly, Sirius snorted and then walked away. Dumbledore shook his head and turned to Lily, trying to talk with her. He began, but she shook her head and walked away as well. Dumbledore sighed and walked to the head of the table and sat down, pinching the bridge of his nose. Holly felt that if Snivellus, as the boys called him, would betray his oaths to the Death Scum, then why would he be inclined to keep the ones made to the Order? She didn't trust him, not one bit, but she kept that to herself and let the others deal with him. She thought that if Dumbledore wanted him admitted so badly, that he could have private meetings with the git and get information off him then. There was no reason to bring him to their home. Dumbledore stood up to begin the meeting so Holly went and sat beside Regulus at the opposite end of the table, near the door. "We have a few new members to induct…" Dumbledore went on to induct the Bones' and the Prewett brothers; Gideon and Fabian. Once they were done, Dumbledore continued on. Holly was feeling slightly uncomfortable, and all of a sudden she felt a warm wetness beneath her.

"Oh dear Merlin," she gasped. Everyone turned to stare at her, but she ignored them and turned to her husband who was looking at her inquisitively. "My waters just broken!"

"But the babies aren't due for two more weeks!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Yes, well, they want out now, not in two weeks!" she replied.

Regulus jumped into action, having been through this particular process four times already he knew what to do. He helped her into the floo and they left for St. Mungo's. The others in the Order had gotten up and followed them to the sitting room fireplace. A few seconds later and she was in the lobby of the hospital being admitted. The contractions were coming on rather close together and with surprisingly little pain. It wasn't as bad as she would have thought; a slight pressure on her back and a prodding feeling in her abdomen, but not much else. She timed the contractions and was surprised to see they were only four minutes apart. Just then, a nurse came down with a floating bed and instructed her to get on. Regulus followed beside her, telling the nurse what he knew. They looked to her when it came to the part about how far apart the contractions are.

"Four minutes, approximately." She answered them, receiving panicked looks.

"She's about to deliver any moment, Mr. Black. Are you sure her water only broke a few moments ago?"

"Yes; we were at a meeting with some friends and it broke, I immediately brought her here. How are you feeling, dear? Is the pain bad?" he sounded concerned.

"No actually," she smiled. "It isn't any worse than my monthly. In fact, I can barely feel any pain at all. I think my mother told me she had a similar labor and delivery; very quick and almost painless. Tends to run in the family, I guess."

Regulus looked, was that relief on his face? It must be, as he sighed the next moment and looked back at her smiling.

"So, godparents," he said. "Who shall we name?"

"I think Frank and Alice; they're both very responsible and everyone else has godchildren."

"Right-o; I think you're right there, love. We'll tell them later on."

They entered the room to be greeted quickly by the healer before long Holly was being checked over. "Amazing, simply amazing; you say you barely feel any pain at all?" Holly nodded, smiling at Healer Struthers. "Most remarkable, really it is. You need to start pushing, my dear. It shouldn't be long at all." The healer wasn't mistaken; it took four pushes and the first baby was born. Two more minutes and one push later and the second was joining the first at the table, being cleaned off and checked over. They were given to Holly and Regulus by the healer, who was shaking his head disbelievingly. "Someone will be in shortly to fill out the paperwork and I believe you have friends waiting to see you. Never before, simply amazing…" the healer was muttering on his way out.

Soon after, the witch who was filling out the paperwork came in. "Date; September 4th, 1980. Time; 7:36 and 7:41 p.m. Names?" she looked at the couple questioningly.

"Mira Isla Black, as the first born, and Carina Vega Black as the second born." Holly answered the woman, not looking up from her daughters' faces. The woman continued working and then set off when she was finished. Shortly after her departure came the arrival of their friends. The group talked for an hour or so, before the healer came in.

"We will be releasing you later this evening, Mrs. Black. Since your labor went so quickly and you were hardly drained by it, we see no reason to keep you; most of the time after is to be spent resting, but I get the feeling you'd be bored silly. We have your release papers all worked out, you just have to sign them and then you can be on your way after a few tests on the children."

"Thank you," Holly said as the man left. She turned to her friends and smiled. "We've decided on Frank and Alice as godparents, for all those wondering." Frank and Alice smiled at them excitedly. The entire group was there; Molly had offered to watch the children, insisting she would be alright. The meeting had been temporarily adjourned, to be continued the next day and everyone who was on good terms with the group, nearly everyone, was waiting at the house to hear back about the happenings of the evening.

After the nurse had come and checked the babies out, Holly had signed her release papers and been released. They walked down to the lobby and flooed home; bubble-head charms on the newborns heads. When they stepped out, Holly and Regulus last with the twins, they were bombarded with congratulations. People were coming up and giving them hugs, being careful of the children.

The Order members stayed for a short while before heading out at about 9:30. Molly stayed though, sending Arthur home with the children, as did Andy, also sending Ted back to their Hogwarts room with Dora. The two matriarchs sat and chatted with Holly, asking her about the delivery. She told them of how the healer was surprised at how easy it had gone for her. They shook their heads and smiled, thinking how lucky she was for such an easy delivery. They talked for a couple more hours before the day caught up with Holly and she went to bed, bringing the twins up to the nursery. She looked at them as she set them down in their cribs, absolutely thrilled about their addition to the household.

A/N: Yeah, I know, long. And yeah, I know, the last birth wasn't exactly realistic; but it could happen. Sorry it took me so long, like I said…family stuff. The next chapter may take some time as well, but it will have Tonks' firs trip to Camp Lily in it. Lots of firsts coming up, actually; what do you expect with eight babies? Hope the chapter wasn't to terribly long for you all. As always, reviewing is welcome.