A/N: I still don't own Harry Potter; somehow I don't think I'll ever own it. I finally figured out what to name the babies. (Oliver and Katie are having twins, a boy and a girl, in case you forgot.) And you'll just have to wait until we get to the point in the chapter where the babies are named to find out what their names are.
Lost Angel92: Well, twins were already in the plans but the names are coming off the list between chapters four and five.
Trinity Cloud: Thanks for reviewing!
Luvin-it: I'm planning to write a sequel about the Wood family after the babies come. Katie will probably learn to cook then. Yeah, it did take me a long time to update. Thinking up baby names is harder than you think.
BTW, I'm totally psyched that my other HP fic, I Think We're Alone Now, has 89 reviews now! I really want one of my stories to get over 100 reviews, so this is really good news for me. This story probably won't get that high since it's almost done. But never fear; I'm planning a sequel.
THIS IS A REPOSTING OF THIS CHAPTER! SIMON, NICHOLAS, AND ALEXANDRA WERE A RESULT OF ME BEING STUPID. THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE KEVIN, JACK, AND LORYN.
Chapter Eight: It's Twins!
April 27, 2000: 10:00 AM St. Mungo's (Oliver's POV)
We had been at the hospital for almost twelve hours. I knew from when my mum and my aunts had given birth that usually people were in labor for much longer than that, so I was extraordinarily grateful that Katie had only been in labor for ten hours. I hated it when my darling was in pain and this had been an awful kind of pain for her.
The doctors had Katie on a bed specially made for women giving birth. "All right, Katie, I need you push with everything you've got," the doctor told her. "Just one more push."
"I can't do it!" Katie screamed. "I can't push anymore."
"You can do it, Katie. Come on, sweetheart, you can do it. It's just one more push and the baby will be out. You've got it in you. You can do this, girl," I whispered in her ear.
Katie screamed as she contorted her face and pushed as hard as she could. She screamed at the top of her lungs. When she stopped screaming, I could hear the sound of a baby crying. Dr. Kensington smiled up at us. "Congratulations, you have a healthy, strong son." Suddenly, he gasped. "There's another head in there. Katie, I need you to give me another push to get this other baby out." He handed our son to one of the nurses.
Katie moaned but pushed again. She moaned as she pushed. She was squeezing my hand so hard it felt like she was going to break it. Then we heard the sound of the second baby crying. "And this one is a girl!" Dr. Kensington announced. "You have a beautiful baby girl."
I smiled at Katie as I saw the nurses holding our babies. "I love you," I whispered. "I love you so much." I kissed her cheek.
A few minutes later, the nurses brought our babies over to us so we could hold them. Katie was holding our daughter and I was holding our son. Katie looked down at the baby in her arms. "She's so beautiful," she whispered. The baby girl had light brown hair and green eyes, like her mother. And her brother had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, like me.
"What should we name them?" I asked her.
She sighed. "I'm not sure. I sort of want to name our son after your father or my brother, but since I can't pick which one, I'm not sure. Also, I'm not sure I could ever have a son named after my brother; it would be too painful to call him Greg every day."
"I once promised myself I would never give my son the first name Michael," I told her. "It's too painful for me. I guess that means Michael and Gregory are off the list."
"Kiernan," Katie whispered. It was barely audible.
"What?" I asked her.
"Kiernan Thomas," she said a little louder. "It was my grandfather's name. He died when I was seven but I always loved him and I always loved his name. Do you like it?"
I nodded. "It's a handsome name for a handsome lad."
"What do you want to name our daughter?" she asked me. "I picked Kiernan's name. You can pick the girl's name; I know you wanted to name her after Mary. Do you still want to?"
I nodded. "Mary Alexandra, it's a beautiful name. I think we ought to name our first daughter after your only older sister. I know how much you loved Mary and I think this would be an appropriate way to honor her."
Katie smiled. "Mary Alexandra Wood and Kiernan Thomas Wood, they're beautiful names. Welcome to the world, Mary and Kiernan."
"I have one question for you."
"What?"
"Why are you uncomfortable naming a child after Greg but you're perfectly fine win the concept of naming our daughter after Mary?"
"Greg almost died so many times, I almost died when he really did die. It's been easier for me to come to terms with Mary's death because I didn't see her much before she died, but I saw Greg a few hours before he died. I'm not sure I can explain it all to you but I hope you can understand."
I nodded. I knew that Greg's death had been hard on Katie, so I just accepted the fact that she couldn't bear to name our son after him. She was closer to Greg in the last years of his life than she had been ever to Mary. "I do understand, Kates. It's kind of like I could never name one of our daughters Eva. I'm fine with my younger brothers' names but Eva is just too much for me. It brings back so many painful memories of when she died."
Katie got a faraway look in her eyes just then. I knew she was remembering the day we found out that Mary and Greg had died along with Mary's husband and children. It was a terrible night in January of 1998.
January 8, 1998: 10:27 PM in Oliver Wood's Flat (Oliver's POV cont'd)
Katie and I were enjoying a quiet evening at my flat. I cooked us dinner. We can both cook fairly well with the help of magic but my skills as a cook both with and without magic are better than hers. At least, that's what she told me. Maybe she was just trying to build up my ego. Am I an egomaniac? I hope not. I'd hate myself if I ever were an egomaniac.
So we were sitting on the couch talking when Katie's mum's owl flew in and landed on my head. She slapped it. "Hadrian! Cut that out!" she lifted Hadrian off my head and swatted him again. "Argh! I thought Mum and Dad had trained him to not do that anymore."
She untied the letter from his ankle and opened it. She read it quickly and gasped. "Oh my gosh!" Her face turned white and she shoved the letter at me.
I took it from her hands and read it.
Dear Katherine,
I don't normally write you letters seeing as I see you almost every weekend. But this is news I must send to you immediately and I cannot leave your younger brothers and sisters right now.
This is the news that I wish I never had to send to any of my children. A few hours ago, You-Know-Who broke into Mary and Jonathan's flat. Greg was there for dinner. You-Know-Who killed everyone in flat. They're all dead, all of them. Greg is dead, Mary is dead, Jonathan is dead, Kevin is dead, Jack is dead, and Loryn is dead. They're all dead. And the worst of it all is that they were all too young. Greg was twenty-four, Mary was twenty-five, Jonathan was twenty-eight, Kevin was six, Jack was four, and Loryn was two. They were all too young.
Your father and I would very much appreciate it if you and Oliver would come to our house soon. The family needs to be together and Oliver might as well be part of our family. I need to see my oldest living daughter. Mark and Joe are coming home as well, I hope. I know this will be especially hard on you and Mark since you were both very close to Mary and Greg. I just hope that being together as a family will help you all. Please come home soon. I need to see you and Oliver.
Your loving mother,
Elisabeth Theresa Bell
I stared at the parchment. The words seemed so false, so unreal. How could Greg Bell be dead? I'd just seen him earlier today. Mary and Jonathan Marsden couldn't be dead. They were both so young, so happy. They had three young children, all of whom were now dead. How could that be? How could Kevin Michael, John Kenneth, and Loryn Alicia be dead? I'd just seen them last weekend. I'd been over at their house playing with the kids. Every now and then I'd baby-sit for them. Now I couldn't do that anymore.
Katie looked into my eyes. "What are we going to do?"
Her eyes were now pools of tears. I raked my fingers through my hair. "Your family needs you. You need to go to your parents' house and be there for your family."
"But I need you," she sobbed. "Oliver, they need you. We all need you; you saw my mother's letter. They need you to be there. You're part of the family too. We need you to be with us right now."
I nodded slowly, realizing what she was saying. We had been engaged for two years. I practically was a part of her family. "All right, I'll come with you."
She hugged me and kissed my cheek; I could feel the tears on her soft skin as she kissed me. "Thank you so much, Oliver. You have no idea what this means to me."
The funeral was a week later. It was a terrible sight. There were three adult sized coffins for Greg, Mary, and Jonathan, but far more terrible was the sight of three small coffins holding the bodies of Kevin, Jack, and Loryn. They looked so peaceful, like they were asleep, but the sleep they rested in was a sleep from which they would never awaken. I looked at Loryn Alicia Marsden's body; she had been two years old. Her soft white blonde hair had been starting to curl gently. Her tiny lashes hid her once bright blue eyes, now cloaked in death. Jack, or John Kenneth, had been four. He had sandy blonde hair that reminded me constantly of Harry's hair. Kevin Michael, my little buddy, I'd been teaching him to use a broom properly. I loved that kid; we would go to Quidditch matches together because he loved watching people fly around. He was always telling me, "Someday, Uncle Oliver, I'll be a famous keeper, just like you. I'll fly in the air so brilliantly that everyone will compare me to the great Oliver Wood and I'll be able to say that he is my uncle."
Katie laid her hand on my shoulder. "Thinking about Kevin?" she inquired gently.
I nodded. "He was such a good kid; he didn't deserve to have this happen to him. None of them deserved them. What did any of them do? They only fought for truth, goodness, and justice. They were good, decent people. Mary was a mother of three small children. They're all dead now. How could this happen? Why did this happen?"
Katie hugged me. "I know you were close to Greg and Kevin. I know this is hard for you; it's hard for me too. But you have to remember I don't know any of the answers any better than you do. All we can do is pray that when we have children they will be born into a free, safe world where we'll never have to worry about Voldemort killing them."
I nodded and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "I have faith in Dumbledore, in the Order, and in Harry. Our children will be born into a free world, a safe world. We'll be able to tuck them in at night without ever worrying about Voldemort harming them."
And that was true. That was in January of 1998. In April, Harry fought a final duel with Lord Voldemort, killing his archenemy. It was a horrific battle that played itself out in an empty field in my beloved native Scotland. No one outside of the Order knew why that place had been chosen; all anyone knew was that Harry and the Order of the Phoenix had lured Voldemort and his Death Eaters there, straight into a trap. I ought to know; I was in the Order and in the battle. We had made it appear to anyone who might be watching us that our alliances with Ministries of Magic on the Continent were growing thin. The German Minister of Magic practically handed Voldemort to us on a silver platter by betraying the Bulgarian Minister who was considering joining Voldemort. The German Minister made it quite clear that he was going to be in that field on April 18, 1998 at 8pm, ready to broker with the Death Eaters for the life of his Bulgarian counterpart whom he had imprisoned. He said he would only be with a few of his top advisors and the prisoner. Instead, the entire Order of the Phoenix and all its allies from all over the world were waiting; there were over a thousand people there waiting for Voldemort and a group of ten Death Eaters, including Lucius Malfoy. The battle was over in minutes. And my children could be born into a free, safe world.
April 27, 2000: 11:45 am St. Mungo's (Third Person POV)
"You were right," Katie told Oliver. "Kiernan and Mary were born into a free world were they wouldn't have to fear Voldemort. You had faith in Dumbledore, in Harry, and in the Order. That faith was well placed. You did well to trust in them; you did well to fight with them."
"Harry is my friend and I will never abandon my friends and loved ones in their hour of need," Oliver told her. "Loyalty and trustworthiness are extremely important to me. It was also important to me that our children could be born into a free world." He looked down at his son in his arms and his daughter in his wife's arms. "It took a long war and the sacrifice of many noble lives, but Kiernan Thomas and Mary Alexandra, welcome to the free world."
A/N: Well, the babies are here but there is still one more chapter to come. Harry and Ginny are going to get married in the final chapter and Oliver and Katie will flashback to their wedding.
A/N2: Please click that little purple button in the lower left-hand corner. It makes me oh so happy when you do. I love all my reviewers.