Author's Note: I deeply apologise for the lengthy and nigh-on unforgivable delay in the gap between this chapter and its precedent. I fell out of love with writing for a long time and haven't done any writing so it's not personal at all to this story. Thank you so much, however, to those of you who reviewed, favourited and followed this story in spite of the hiatus. It is what motivated me to get off my proverbial literary arse and finish this story, which has annoyed me to no end, because it is over halfway done and it would not take much on my part to finish my product. I will say that there is a time jump here and I suspect it's going to split the 'fan base' for A Great Deal of Bravery as this story was not meant to be some great epic like some of my others but instead is just a small smut and fluff piece about two lost souls finding and making their own family. So reviews still welcome and appreciated, and expected if the remainder of this story does not meet with expectation! Happy further reading - have no fear - the end will come!
DAENERYSTARGARY3N
A Saturday Afternoon Nine Months Later...
"Hermione, are you quite sure you should remain in the village? I worry for you, dear." Minerva remarked from the hearth in the cottage's salon, "It's not safe or wise for you to be there alone with Teddy."
The young woman sitting in a sage green armchair conversing with her mentor and employer whose stern but concerned visage peered at her through the flames in her fireplace, looked down with a serene smile, her burgeoning belly proudly protruding from her midriff.
"It's not safe for you, Hermione, and you know I've always said that when Potter's away you can bring the boy to the guest quarters in the school and stay there, where we can keep an eye on you and help out. You know as well how much everyone here dotes on Teddy."
Hermione chuckled at that last statement. It was true that when Harry had brought Teddy up to the castle on occasion to visit her throughout her pregnancy all the professors and some of the students were enchanted with the boy who could morph his features on command and whose natural button nose (inherited from his mother) made him a cherub to be cuddled and cherished excessively. He adored visiting Hogwarts, despite its sordid history as the place his parents were savagely taken from him. She still couldn't forget his first encounter at Hogwarts with its gamekeeper.
"Thank you, Minerva," Hermione said, patting her belly contentedly, "I appreciate the offer, as you know, but I'm quite safe here. My wand is never far away so I can call if I need assistance and I'm not due to give birth for another week, by which time Harry should be back. Merlin knows, I'll send him to live at Hogwarts if he isn't! I can't actually believe they made him go to bloody Tangier out of the blue like that just for overseas pursuit training. He was so torn about leaving, Minerva, it was awful. It was like when he used to have to return to the Dursleys every summer. He told my bump that it had still better be there when he gets back and told me to hold my knees together at all times for Morgana's sake! It's the one part of refusing to be fast-tracked he loathes. He's contactable, though, by patronus, should the bump decide to make an early disappearance."
"Very well. It's your decision. I won't pressure you further, or kidnap you, though the thought had occurred to me. Besides, I suspect the problems with Teddy last time he spent the night at the castle have something to do with your wanting to stay at the cottage." Minerva acquiesced.
Hermione's mind went back four months to Teddy's illness. The poor boy had caught Scrofungulus from a playmate. Scrofungulus, while being highly contagious, was merely inconvenient for a healthy adult but to a small child, who also happened to possess a latent werewolf gene (to complicate matters further) and a pregnant woman, the disease was fraught with danger. To be in reach of Madam Pomfrey while avoiding sick and injured pupils, Minerva had allowed Teddy to spend his illness and subsequent quarantine (to protect Hermione) in seclusion with Harry in one of the castle's many guest suites. During the quarantine period, when he wasn't delirious with fever, Teddy experienced night terrors and would not eat or drink or do anything a normal boy would. She could not even see him or Harry when she was up at the castle to teach. It had driven Harry to distraction and Hermione to tears, stuck as she was in the village beneath the castle. Hermione's entire form shuddered. Some nights she was still sure she remembered hearing the cries of the boy she considered as a son, who had screamed until his vocal cords were damaged for five nights.
"I'll admit it did. I have no wish to relive that nightmare." Hermione murmured, glancing to her left where Teddy was snoring softly taking his afternoon nap on the sofa.
Harry had been a wreck when he had brought Teddy home. He had not slept and Teddy would be held by no one but him, although screams for Miney were plentiful. He got Teddy in the door and thereupon succumbed to his own exhaustion while Hermione hugged the boy and pointed him to the ice cream on the table. Hermione had levitated Harry to bed and nursed him through the fever and migraines that plagued him and would not be assuaged by potion or pill. Hermione and Harry had grown closer - if that was even possible - through his infirmity. Hermione had more than once during that time fancied herself in love with the father of her unborn child despite her warnings before she moved into the cottage, yet after a surprise kiss when he rose again from his bed well again, she wondered constantly if he felt any differently towards the mother of his child and if maybe 'sweetheart' would change to something more...
"Alright. I'll leave you to rest while you can. Keep your wand with you and I'm only a patronus away for a chat, a visit, whatever you need, dear." McGonagall said with a content smile as she disappeared from view getting a grateful nod from her defence professor.
Hermione felt her wand clutched comfortingly in its holster just as she drifted off to sleep in the remnant heat from the warm fire listening to Teddy sleep as he would for the next hour or so.
When she found herself waking, it was not to a tug on her tunic as Teddy was wont to do to rouse her for playtime or to a floo call or to Harry returning, it was to a spasm in her lower belly that was felt all the way up her spine and in the very centre of her heart.
"Oh, hell! Braxton Hicks had better be a thing with magical pregnancies as well…" Hermione cursed, pressing a hand to her distressed womb.
Hermione breathed through the rapid contraction and looked over at her only company who was still fast asleep clinging to his knitted blanket from his grandma.
Retrieving her wand from his holster on her left calf, she pointed it at Teddy and murmured, "Dormeo."
The sleeping spell effectively left Teddy in a vegetative state. He would lie completely immobile on the couch, still breathing, still dreaming, still blissfully unaware of his guardian's pain and later screams but removable with a counterspell and safe for a child.
As the labouring mother fought past the pain of another contraction, she tried with all her might to recall her exact emotions and joy she felt when Teddy crawled into her bed one night wanting to be comforted by her presence and hers alone. She remembered how natural and beautiful he felt in her embrace and how it made her feel ready to be mother to the child pressing to come into the world.
"Expecto patronum!" Hermione bellowed, relishing the freedom to exclaim now Teddy would not be disturbed.
Hermione expected to be presented with her usual spectral otter but was shocked on another front as a wispy lioness who roared on arrival. She took a brief moment to inspect her new patronus and wondered at its alteration but when a new contraction hit with three times the intensity of the last, the time for musing proclaimed itself over.
"Well, here goes," Hermione groaned, still reeling, "go to Minerva and Harry and tell them the baby is on its way and to get here. You can also tell Harry that I forgot to nap with my knees glued together."
Hermione could not resist smiling at her capacity for wit in dangerous situations but when another contraction ripped through her nervous system, she sank onto the carpet before the fire and panted through the agony.
While she waited for someone to make their appearance, she experienced three contractions in under ten minutes. That felt unusual given what the witch had read and it plagued her mind to no end while she was in solitude. It had already been thirty minutes by the time she looked at the mantle clock and that was far longer than she thought it would take either of the two to reach her.
Suddenly, a burst of green flame erupted from her fireplace and she let go of the held breath she didn't know she was holding when two bodies emerged.
"Oh, thank Nimuë!" Hermione moaned as she recognised Minerva and Poppy.
"Hermione?! We're so sorry we took so long. I thought your patronus was an otter and it took a moment to gather myself when I understood your message, then I went for Poppy." Minerva exclaimed upon finding her Defence professor and most prized former pupil on the floor before her.
"Alright, m'dear," Poppy said, kneeling beside her patient, "let's see where we are. No Mr. Potter yet? I'm sure he's not far behind us. And young Master Lupin sleeping under a dormeo spell, I assume? Good, good. Well done, Hermione. Now, let's get you up and into your bed so we can deal with the matter at hand."
Just as Hermione was about to respond to the School Matron, another contraction seared through her and she screamed as Poppy and Minerva hooked an arm under each of hers and escorted her upstairs to her bedroom.
She was settled onto her clean and crisp Egyptian cotton sheets that felt like ice to her clammy body and as Minerva took up her station at Hermione's head and clasped her hand firmly in support, Poppy disrobed Hermione's lower half and covered her modesty.
"Right, this is progressing a mite faster than I would have anticipated," Poppy pronounced, waving her wand fluidly over Hermione's distended belly, "but that's not a problem. Just means the little ones are keen to meet their mother."
"Little ones?"
Poppy's brow furled, "I take it you know you have been carrying twins for the past nine months, Mistress Granger…."
Hermione's eyes widened, unable to process the news, for news it was to the mother-to-be. She had seen a Healer at St. Mungo's at the beginning of her pregnancy but had not returned as there had been no complications and she had read up on prenatal spells, potions and procedure. Also, she and Harry had agreed not to find out the gender of their child - or children as it now stood - so there was no need to explore her womb further.
Minerva saw her protégée's expression change from confusion to shock to shame to exasperation to fear in less than thirty seconds and looked at her long-time friend and colleague, "I would take Mistress Granger's expression to mean 'no', Poppy."
"Indeed."
Hermione rallied and mumbled to her companions, "Well, typical, isn't it? If anyone would be surprised by twins as they come into the world it would be Harry and me. I can't believe he's gone and put two in me! Stupid Harry blasted James sodding Potter, always causing me so much trouble! I - oh, Merlin's BALLS!"
Before Hermione could conclude her tirade, a contraction more violent and quick to fall engulfed her. She gripped Minerva's hand in her vice-like grip and roared her way through the pain, pushing with all her might.
Madam Pomfrey checked her condition as she worked and seeing a crowning head, was certain that the first of the Potter-Granger twins was close at hand.
"Hermione, one more push and your eldest child will be in your arms. On your next contraction, give it all you've got."
Just as Minerva prepared to help her charge deliver her first child, all three adults heard the fireplace spring to life downstairs.
"Harry?" Hermione wailed, the relief at having him there drowning out the pain.
"Hermione! I'm here! I'm coming!" Harry called as he bounded up the stairs.
The three witches assembled around Hermione's childbed recoiled when Harry burst through the bedroom door in a cloud of dust and dirt, covered in perspiration and sporting cuts on both his arms.
Without words, Poppy cleaned and superficially healed the cuts on the young man's arms before he reached Hermione's side. He kissed her upon her brow and took her free hand.
"I'm here, 'Mione, I'm here. I'm sorry I'm late."
Poppy smiled at the pair and watched as Hermione squeezed Harry's hand in forgiveness and relief at his presence.
"Now, let's get these babies born, shall we? Now that everyone's present!"
Harry nodded before frowning, "Wait, babies? Hermione, what's she talking about?"
"We're having…" Hermione was cut off by her next contraction and the urge to push.
"Push, Hermione! You're nearly there" Minerva encouraged.
"And…it's a boy." Poppy exclaimed as she caught the infant.
"Twins. Harry, we're having twins." Hermione finished as the contraction passed.
"Bloody hell." Harry stammered, his eyes flitting between Hermione and his son. "How mad at me are you?"
Hermione chuckled shallowly, "Right now, not at all - I'm grateful. When I found out - I was livid."
Harry grinned and kissed her hand.
"Here's your boy, Mr. Potter," Poppy said, handing Harry a swaddled baby in a knitted gold blanket, "you might as well hold him while we deliver the next one."
"How long have I got?" Hermione asked.
"I suspect about three to four minutes."
"I don't think so...I think this one misses its brother." Hermione panted, feeling the pains commence again.
"You've never done things the easy way, Miss Granger, why start now?" Minerva mumbled, feeling a slight crack in her hand.
"I have - it's whenever I'm with this twat that things never go my way!" Hermione bellowed.
Harry sat by holding his squealing son, truly flabbergasted by the words coming out of Hermione's mouth. He had never heard her speak like that about him...ever.
Minerva leaned round Hermione and said, "You should have heard what she said ten minutes ago before you got here. I'll give you the memory as a gift."
"Thanks...I think!"
"Right, Hermione," Poppy interrupted, you've got one more push to give and then you're done."
"Headmistress, would you hold him?" Harry asked, holding out his son. "I'd like to do this with Hermione."
"Naturally." Minerva acquiesced, gathering the child to her.
Harry sat behind Hermione, propping her up against his muscular chest and whispered in her ear, "We made these two so we're in this together. I know this isn't what either of us planned but I'm glad we're here and we're going to be parents to amazing children. I know I'm always getting you into difficult situations, you're absolutely right, I've made your life ten times harder than it ever needed to be or should have been. For me and with me, you've had to tackle a magical obstacle course, been petrified, been chased by a werewolf and a swarm of dementors, stuck by me and helped me through the Triwizard Tournament, been cursed by Death Eaters when you were right, we shouldn't have gone, followed me into the wilderness with no plan or clue what I was doing, saved my life so often I've lost count even when your own life was at risk. Now, I'm sorry your life has been complicated by everything we've been through, but I'm not sorry you were with me or that we were together all that time because you are my best friend and the mother of my children and I wouldn't have that any other way. Now, let's have our next adventure, sweetheart."
The women were transfixed by Harry's speech: Poppy's bottom lip had fallen, Minerva's eyes were tearing and Hermione's breathing eased.
Only when Hermione grabbed her belly and screamed did all return to the task at hand. Poppy ducked beneath the coverlet and told Hermione that she had to push now or Poppy would have to pull the child out to protect its ability to breathe.
"Come on, 'Mione. Let's do this." Harry murmured.
As her contraction progressed, Harry put his hands above Hermione's and both pushed to bring their child into Poppy's waiting hands. Only when a shrill cry rang out did the new parents fall back into each other's embrace.
"Well, Madam Pomfrey, what is it?" Hermione panted.
"You have a gorgeous, healthy baby girl." Poppy reported, placing the newborn in her mother's expectant arms.
"I'll have him back, Minerva, please." Harry said to the Headmistress, longing to hold his son.
"Congratulations, you two! And as always, Hermione," Minerva praised, fighting tears, "outstanding work."
Poppy cleaned Hermione up and retreated from her lower half, "Well, I'm done here and they're perfect, so we'll get out of your hair. Congratulations, both, you will make splendid parents. Though when they're of age to attend Hogwarts, let me know and I'll retire. You two have given me enough grief throughout your school years, I can't begin to imagine what havoc children with both of your genes will wreak."
With a surprising wink that made Harry and Hermione giggle hysterically, the older witches withdrew, leaving the new parents with their twins.
"What are we going to do about names, 'Mione?" Harry asked.
"Well we planned for either a boy or a girl and I had a name for a boy and a middle name for a girl."
Harry smiled, "Then we get to use my middle name for a boy and my name for a girl."
Hermione laughed, "I agree to your terms, Harry. So, our son's name is...James."
"James Sirius Potter." Harry grinned, staring down at the baby in his embrace. "And our daughter is called Lily."
"Lily Minerva Potter." Hermione cooed, beaming in wonderment at her daughter.