Chapter 26

Life after Death

Harry et al:

The group stayed with Victor for a week before moving on. He was really a great guy even if he did still harbor some feelings for Hermione. He had asked point blank when they had gotten together because both of them had adamantly denied that there was anything between them but friendship when Victor had met them a few years back. He seemed appeased that it had only been a recent development and they had not deliberately lied to him.

But they had more pressing matters than school days crushes. Voldemort had taken over Hogwarts and they feared for the lives and safety of the students and their friends that remained behind. Ron however had decided that the news that his sister had married Draco Malfoy as a sure sign that she was under the Imperius curse that that she was being controlled. He was convinced that there was no way that she would ever marry that guy of her own free will and took every opportunity to assert his belief of her innocence.

Harry was positive that Victor did not buy into Ron's belief that his sister was being forced into doing things against her will. In fact, Harry became so concerned about Victor's reaction whenever the subject came up that he cornered him one night after everyone else had gone onto bed.

"Is there something that you know about Ginny that you aren't sharing with us?" Harry asked quite bluntly, just wanting to get to the point.

"Yes there is. I really don't think that Ron should know right now. If he has convinced himself that they are controlling her and forcing her to do things this will send him over the edge."

"What is it? What has she done now?"

"It's…Harry, the papers reported several months back that Lucius Malfoy died in

his sleep at Azkaban."

"Really? But what does that have to do with Ginny?"

"The photos of the funeral showed a very pregnant Ginny."

"Pregnant. Ginny is pregnant? Wow."

"You see why I didn't want to tell Ron. He will immediately assume that Draco forced her to have sex with him and he will…."

"…go ballistic. Yeah. I agree. Now is not the time to tell Ron about this. But I will have to tell Hermione. I can't keep this from her."

"Yeah. I am going to have to leave in the morning for a match in London but you guys are still more than welcome to stay."

"Thanks but I think it's time to move on again. We have a few new ideas that we want to check out and its past time that we end this."

"Good luck Harry Potter. I trust that we will meet again really soon."

"Bye Victor and thank you for everything."

And with that the two gentlemen went off to their respective rooms for the night. Harry crawled into bed and snuggled up behind Hermione whom he was pleasantly thrilled to find still awake.

"Did you and Victor have a good talk?"

"How did you know?"

"Because I know you so well Harry. I know that something about him has been bugging you for a while. I've know that you've caught him watching me and you know that I don't want him like that right? I love you."

"I love you too Hermione. And although you're right I've seen him looking at you when he thinks that no one is paying attention that is not what I needed to talk to him about. I needed to ask him what he was hiding about Ginny."

"Did he tell you?" Harry went on to tell a shocked Hermione everything that Victor had divulged about Ginny and she agreed that there would be no controlling Ron if he thought that his baby sister was being raped. Which Hermione was sure was not the case. Malfoy may have been a nasty piece of work as they grew up but a rapist he was not. Besides Hermione, like Harry, was not convinced by Ron's arguments in defense of his sister but like everyone else just nodded along with him and allowed him to believe what he needed to get through the day.

Harry then went on to tell Hermione that Victor would be gone when they woke in the morning and that they would move on that night. They made the most out their last night in a bedroom alone together showing each other how much they loved the other.

The next day was spent refining their plans. They only had the only had the one left but they still had no clue what it was but they had spent their time this past week coming up with new ideas.

One was the old theory that there was something hidden somewhere within the walls of Hogwarts. But the knowledge that Voldemort was now in control of the school made it near impossible that they would be able to gain entry to search with out being found. So they decided to check out other ideas first and search Hogwart's as a last option even though they all agreed that it was the most likely location and every one of their instincts told them that that is where it was hidden.

So they moved on and searched high and low for the next month and a half for that last elusive horcrux. Finally, they knew that they were going to have to go to Hogwart's and risk exposure to find the horcrux.

Luna was the one that had figured out what the last horcrux was that they were searching for. It hit her one night while sleeping that there had always been the girls that gossips about boys and fashion and girly things that Luna just wasn't interested in. But she suddenly remembered that they always mentioning a bracelet that Rowena was given by her husband for her last birthday before he died. It was very special to her and she refused to take it off. Her daughter had taken possession of it after Rowena had died and later, after the daughter had died and it had been left to the school, it had been stolen and never seen again.

Now that they knew what they were looking for the only trick would be to get into the school and find and destroy it before they were found and destroyed. But no matter what the outcome would be of going to the school would be it real finality of the decision to go would be that one way or another it would all be over soon.

Ginny/Draco:

It had been a hard pregnancy for Ginny. Just being pregnant with twins would have been hard enough but then Draco went and added a toddler into the mix. Ayden was a wonderful baby but was a lot of work. Surprisingly enough to Ginny, Draco was a very involved father. They way that he doted on Ayden made her even more excited to him with the twins when they were born.

Their home was getting more crowded by the day. As time went on and Harry was still missing, Voldemort got angrier and more desperate to find him. Narcissa and Draco were constantly being called away on missions. Voldemort had ordered that Ginny be kept as safe as possible and not go out on missions. She was carrying pure blood and he did not want to risk anything happening to the pureblood race that he was determined that her and Draco would single handedly repopulate the pure blood race.

"I am not a fucking baby factory, Draco. This needs to end. I am not going to keep getting pregnant to keep him happy." Ginny had yelled at Draco one night when her emotions had gotten the best of her.

"I know sweetheart. I know. I do not want to do anything that would hurt you emotionally or physically. I will not hurt you and I will not let anything happen to you or our children, Ginny. I love you."

"I know, Draco. I love you too. But he is so insane about this and keeping me in a bubble and Mom said that he brought up me getting pregnant again right away. He even asked Mom about the possibility of HER getting pregnant. He even went so far as to tell her that there were plenty of pure blood males, single and married that could be used to get her pregnant now that he husband was dead."

"He didn't!"

"He did. She told me all about how he went on and on about how weak your father was and the weak deserved to die while the powerful and strong would repopulate the pure blood race. Oh and if you turn out to be weak like your father then there Young Goyle is single and a suitable male for me to continue procreating with."

"Next thing you know the psycho-ass will be considering fathering a kid with mom himself. No way in hell is he touching my mother! And there is no way that Greg is laying a single fucking hand on you. I'll kill Voldemort myself."

"First of all, not possible it's a pureblood race that he wants, and thank God his mother married a muggle. And second you cannot kill him only Harry can and when everything is in place."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that little hidden secret about dear old Tom Riddle. And sometimes I really wish that you could tell me what you know but then I know that I am probably better off not knowing."

Ginny walked over to Draco and put her arms around him. "You are better off not knowing this right now. Someday you will know everything. I promise. Now we had better get to sleep because we have a crowded house and we are on breakfast duty in the morning.

The next morning while Ginny was setting the table for breakfast the Young Goyle walked in carrying a large envelope that he immediately dropped on the table and rushed over to take the stack of plates from Ginny admonishing her for carrying so much. She assured him that she was fine but he still finished the table for her while he made her sit down. Ginny giggled when she heard him threatening to curse Draco for not doting on his wife enough. She decided to change the subject by asking what was in the envelope.

"Ahh. That is new pictures of little Theodore Lycurgus Lupin. That boy is sure getting big."

"What boy?" Remus asked walking out of the kitchen with a platter of food and setting it on the table next to Ginny. Then looking at her and moving to the other side of the table saying that he wanted it to still be there when everyone else arrived for breakfast.

"Your boy." Goyle jumped in before Ginny could lose it and yell at Remus as everyone knew that she was close to doing. She always did have a temper but the pregnancy hormones made everything so much worse.

"You got me new pictures of Teddy." Everyone knew that it was hard still being separated from his wife and child. Tonk's parents had been by her side and held her hands throughout the delivery of their son. Remus may not have been able to be there for the delivery but he did get to hold his son all of one time. Under the guise of the polyjuice potion Remus impersonated a healer, went to the nursery at St. Mungoes, and held his son for the hour that he was allotted. It broke his heart completely to leave his son and even more so by being so close to his wife at not being able to see her, to kiss her, or to hold her.

Remus was busy staring at the pictures of his son when he heard Ginny let out a yelp behind him. He spun to see her reaching across the table for the tray of food and clutching her stomach.

"What's wrong?"

"I think it was a contraction. But it's too early. I'm not due for a month!" Ginny had been scared that she would have the babies too early and they wouldn't be ready to be born yet. Remus yelled for Draco while Greg went to find Narcissa and Minerva.

Everyone assured Ginny that it was normal for twins to come early and everything should be fine. In addition, they were even sure that she was in full labor yet. She had only had one possible contraction. However, the next one came exactly ten minutes after the first and included her water breaking. Draco carried Ginny up the stairs to their bedroom and summoned a healer to come help with the birth.

It was ten long hours later that their son was born, Alexander Maban Malfoy. They had chosen to keep with the tradition of using mythological names. A half an hour after Alexander was born his little sister entered the world, named, Cassandra Aoife Malfoy.

Alexander looked like his mother but had his father blonde hair while Cassandra was just looked like her father with strawberry blonde hair; a perfect mix of her parents' blonde and ginger. Ayden was brought into the room before his Grandmother put him to bed to meet his baby brother and sister. He kissed the twins then gave both his parents a hug and kiss good night before being taken from the room yawning. And it the midst of a war there was peace in the house at that moment with two young parents holding their newborn babies. Ginny and Draco fell asleep that night to dreams and wishes for peace in their world.

But it didn't last long because as every parent knows babies have no qualms about waking an entire house when they need attention. Ginny and Draco learned very quickly that a toddler that slept all night was infinitely much easier to care for than newborn twins that woke hungry or wet every couple of hours…and never at the same time.

It always seemed that as soon as they got one settle and just fell back to sleep the other would wake up. It was a never-ending stream of changing nappies and feedings and crying. There was lots and lots of crying. And not just from the babies. Ginny was dealing not only with the lack of sleep, but her body was attempting to return to normal and her hormones were still going crazy and she would burst into tears for apparently no reason at all. Draco didn't know what to do to help his wife, his mother and every other person in the over crowded house told him to just be as helpful as he possibly could and bite his tongue when need be just like when she was pregnant.

It was a long two months but Draco had finally convinced Ginny to allow the others to get up with the babies one night a week around the one month point to allow them to get a good night's sleep. Her mood swings seemed to be non-existent anymore and Draco was glad to have his real wife back, the one that laughed at his jokes and not the one that would smack him and tell him to sleep on the couch.

Tonight he was planning a romantic night with his wife. Dinner in their room and hopefully, if he was lucky then he would get to make love to his wife again. Nevertheless, luck was not on their side as they were summoned the minute that they sat down to eat. When they arrived to where they were summoned to they were surprised to find that not only were they at Hogwarts but Voldemort had captured Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the others.

A/N:

This is almost done. I am thinking one more chapter then the epilogue. I am sorry that I've been MIA but that final was killer and then I needed to recover. But I am back and ready to finish this. The names have meanings Alexander means "to defend", Madan: "son"; Cassandra: "to shine" and Aoife (pronounced EE-ffa): "beauty" and Lycurgus: "by the wolf"