Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Having Carina's birthday first, so that Severus can have the last birthday, won.

Percy's toddler, Molly, had had her second birthday party the week after Caelum's birthday. The Weasleys had arranged for a petting zoo then and to make things easier on them, Harry agreed to reuse the theme for his youngest, especially because Carina was so fond of animals. Given that it was Carina's first birthday, they had forgone the waterpark theme and the petting zoo was the perfect replacement, because animals seemed fond of Carina. Birds were especially fond of her, following her around as she toddled on unstable feet.

The dry birthday party was a fortuitous move, because fall was already coming in and Carina's birthday had been a chilly day that turned into pouring rain and thunderstorms. The children had played outside all morning with the animals, but then the rain started, so they bundled up the kids and ushered them under the marque tent. The tent wouldn't hold for long in that rain, so they rushed through the cake and presents and sent the guests home. Carina hadn't even been able to try out her new baby broom that Harry had gotten her that day, although he had since taken her out on it.

Draco was still pregnant, Severus even later now than he'd been before. Healer Smith was still making regular house calls to check on their health. Draco and the baby continued to be in excellent health, so the situation was allowed to continue.

Harry was anxious about the wait, but in the meantime, he still had eight other kids. Aries was chief among his thoughts, because he felt as if Aries was falling behind, especially when he thought back to how Cassy had been last year. When he'd met the two year old Cassy, she was weaned, potty trained, mostly able to dress herself, and could count to twenty; Aries could do none of those things. Thus Harry decided a talk with Draco was in order and sat himself down next to Draco on the sofa. Aries was the only child in the room at the time and hopefully he'd be too little to understand they were talking about him.

"Draco, I want to talk to you about Aries." Aries looked up from his Playdoh at the mention of his name, but went back to his sculpting once he confirmed that he wasn't being called.

"Alright," Draco replied. "What about Aries? Does Hermione not want to take him on Saturdays anymore?" Hermione had been taking Aries to mentoring with his piano tutor.

"No, that's all fine. She says he's alright." Actually what Hermione said was that he was no worse than little Fred, but Harry knew Draco wouldn't appreciate the comparison. "Well, er…" Harry then spotted Cassy through the open doorway to her room. She had climbed onto Carina's toy broom and was trying to fly. "Oi, Cassy!" he called, getting up and going after the three-year-old. "That broom's not big enough for you. You asked for the abraxan, not a broom. Next year you can ask for your own broom."

"This one's too little and t'others're too big and the pony's too little ta fly; it's not fair," Cassy pouted as Harry lowered her to the ground.

Harry put the broom up, out of reach, before turning back to Cassy. "You have plenty of other toys you can play with. You have a bike, a trampoline, a playground, and you can still ride your pony."

"Yeah, but Ikin never play pony, 'cause no one wanna watch me."

Harry sighed, knowing she was right. She was too little to use the animal without supervision. Draco couldn't do it and Narcissa was busy planning her week's lessons for the older children. The older children had gone to the Burrow for the morning, because they'd complained that they'd never gotten to paint or do the type of crafts the younger children got to do all day. It was only the preschoolers who were left there for Harry to watch and he liked it that way, because it meant more individual attention for each child. "Alright Cassy, I'll take you to ride your pony later, but not right now."

"When?"

"When the other kids return. Why don't you play with Cyg? What's he up to?"

"Cyg dig fer worms; boys," Cassy said exasperated.

"Well how about Aries then? He's playing with his Playdoh.'

"Kay," Cassy agreed, before bouncing off into the sitting room to play with her little brother.

How Draco kept track of all of them when they were on different floors, Harry didn't know. He wasn't entirely comfortable with Cyg being downstairs, when he and Draco were on the second floor, and had the urge to migrate down there, to keep an eye on the four year old. But first he had something he needed to say to Draco. He sat back down and took a deep breath, before finally getting to the point. "Have you thought about weaning Aries? He's two, isn't it time you stop breast feeding him?"

"I don't typically stop breast feeding one until the next baby comes along. It's all about how many monsters I can stand sucking on me, which is two, by the way. As long as Sev stays where he is, I don't have a problem nursing a little while longer."

"But Sev is going to be here any day now. We might as well start now."

Draco looked at Harry skeptically, before responding. "No."

"No? Why?"

"Because I have a pattern established and it works. I get two babies to cuddle with at all times. Once the third comes along, I can explain that I can't cuddle Aries, because the new baby needs me and he is a big boy. Until then, it just seems cruel to both of us."

Harry was beginning to think that his youngest two children were never going to be weaned, if it took a new baby to stop Draco from nursing the last. "And how old are Carina and Sev going to be before they're weaned?" he asked. Draco didn't have an answer for that. "Don't you think it'd be best to establish the cutoff at two? That way you're not dragging it on forever?"

"I'll nurse this baby until he's seventeen if I want to." Draco tried to sound angry and petulant, but his breathing was shallow and he had a quaver to his voice, as if he was holding back tears.

"Draco, what's wrong?" Harry was concerned now, inching closer cautiously.

"It's…my…body. I can…nurse…whoever…I want...however…long…I want." Each word was separated by an intake of breath as Draco began hyperventilating.

Harry realized then that he was encroaching into an area he didn't want to touch. He didn't have any right to tell Draco what to do with his body, even when it came to their children. Unless it had gone on unreasonably long, he really should keep his mouth shut and let Draco decide. He'd gone too far and made Draco feel violated. "Oh sh—" he stopped himself from cussing, because of the two children in the room. Then he summoned a paper bag, which he handed over to Draco, who used it to breathe. "Here. Sorry, um, Draco, er, I didn't mean to say you couldn't. You can keep nursing them if you want to. I never should've said it. Should I get you a calming draught?"

Draco was already calming down. He knew Harry wasn't a real threat and that he shouldn't have over-reacted. He felt foolish for doing so, even as his breathing was out of control. The bag was helping and he was soon able to put it down and breathe normally. He wanted Harry to stop staring at him with that worried expression, so he decided a bit of distraction was in order. "There is a peachick under the other sofa. Cassy's, I think, although it's hard to tell; they all are white."

Harry got up to look. Sure enough, there was a little white chick under the sofa. Harry crawled under the furniture after it, but it pecked at his finger. "Ow! Why couldn't you just get them a dog?"

"For one, there are no dogs running around the place laying free puppies all over the yard, and two, I don't like the taste of canine," Draco answered.

"You are not eating these chicks! Not after all the kids have bonded with them!" Harry hissed, having caught the chick and standing back up. It didn't escape his attention that hatching peachicks was a typical birthday thing, but that the children didn't have any peachicks left by December last year.

"Not these ones, no. I prefer lamb anyway. Next year we should buy them a couple of sheep for their birthdays."

Harry seriously hoped Draco was joking. The chick pecked him again, reminding him that he had things to do. He took the chick downstairs to the peachick coop and put it in with the older chicks. While he was outside, he checked on Cyg who was as Cassy said, digging for worms on the side of the house.

"Cyg, Cassy and Aries are playing with Playdoh, do you want to play?" Harry asked.

"No, I'm gonna catch the giant sloffer worm Madam Molly told us about in class!" Cyg exclaimed in between shovels of dirt.

"Alright, but when you're done with that, come back inside please," Harry replied and went back upstairs.

"Harry, there you are. What took you so long?" Draco asked before Harry even reached the top of the stairs. "Aries ate some of that stuff; are you sure it's safe?"

"Yes, I'm sure. It's designed so that young children won't be harmed from eating it," Harry said, going immediately over to check on the toddlers. Aries had crumbs of Playdoh in his hair, but otherwise looked fine.

"Good. Cassy needs a timeout for calling Aries names and putting Playdoh in his hair."

"Cassy, that's not nice," Harry scolded. "Come on, to the timeout chair with you."

"Do I hafta? It was only Ries," Cassy protested.

"Yes, you do young lady. That's not how Madam Pince taught us to treat our little brothers, is it?"

"Madam Pince is boring," Cassy replied.

"She may be, but I don't like it when you're mean to Aries. Now sit here for three minutes," Harry said, putting his daughter on the timeout chair.

Cassy obeyed and Harry went back to Draco.

"Look Draco, about earlier, I said it all wrong. What I meant was to ask you what you think is a reasonable amount of time to nurse our younger children. I'm not going to tell you what you should do with your body, but I'd like to know," Harry said.

"I was planning on nursing them both until Sev is two. Then I'll…" Draco trailed off.

"Then you'll revert back to normal?" Harry asked.

Draco gulped. "That's the plan."

"You don't seem too sure."

"It's a big change. I've been stuck like this for a long time."

"You know, if you want to change back, you can always take the potion again."

"And get pregnant another nine times? No thank you."

"Well whatever you decide, I'll support you. Whatever you need."

"Thank you."

"Is my time up yet?" Cassy asked.

Harry looked at his watch, before answering. "Almost, a few more seconds."

When Cassy's timeout was over, Harry took her and Aries outside to the playground and watched them. Cyg came over, evidently having given up on catching the magical worm, and joined them. It wasn't long after than when the older children returned from their visit with Arthur and Molly and came swarming out to the playground with fresh paintings to show. Then Harry took the children over to the stable to ride the pony, as he'd promised Cassy.

Author's Note: We are getting to the end of this story. I plan on writing about the birth, anti-ritual, Halloween, and Lucius coming home, but are there any other loose ends I still need to tie up? Or scenes you'd like to see? Halloween will probably end up with a good dose of intimacy between Harry and Draco; just how far should they take it? If Draco asked Harry to go all the way, how should Harry respond? Is Draco ready for that? How much would he even ask for? Please Review!