The Eighth Year Universe
Love Wins
Chase Your Dreams
For any Greys Anatomy fans out there, you will notice an ode to Bailey in the scene when Lilly introduces herself to the new trainees and also to Arizona through the introduction of Nina as a Healer, not just a Potter-Wolfe
Hope Tower, Scotland
Charlus & Victoire's Home
It was an average Saturday evening – Phoenix was crying, Charlus was pacing up and down the small lounge in their new tower home trying to get him to sleep, and Victoire watched them.
"I think we should get married."
Charlus looked up, and Phoenix even stopped crying, "What?"
Victoire met his eye, "Do you want to get married?"
Charlus snorted, "Are you proposing to me?"
Victoire made a face, "I'm just asking you if you want to get married. Do you?"
"Well, yeah, obviously," Charlus said in disbelief, "I would have proposed to you by now if you had let me. But I thought you didn't want to get married. Remember that speech about it being for all of the wrong reasons?"
"I know," Victoire said offhandedly, "But it wouldn't be for the wrong reasons, Charlie. We've already had a baby out of wedlock. We're living in sin."
She grinned in amusement, and it took Charlus a minute to realise that Phoenix was asleep. But when he did, he chuckled and set his son down in his Moses basket, then knelt in front of Victoire.
"Fine, but if we're doing this, we're doing it right."
Victoire smiled fondly at him, and Charlus murmured a summoning charm under his breath.
He held up a diamond ring and said, "Vic, I fell in love with you the minute I met you. You were my life before you had Phoenix, but now you two, this is my life, and it's perfect, so yes, I'll marry you."
Victoire laughed and let him slip the ring onto her finger. Then she leaned down to kiss him.
When she drew back from the kiss, she rested her forehead against Charlus's and murmured, "You're far too relaxed about this, which means my dad told you, didn't he?"
Charlus chuckled, "You knew, of course you did."
He drew further back, and Victoire smiled at him, "I knew you would get the recognition that you deserved, yes."
Charlus grinned and nodded, "When we reopen P&W in Hogsmeade, I'm Interim Manager with a contract of five years. The plan after that is for Thea and Arthur to take over, which is fine. I don't want to do this forever, you know? Eventually, I want to work for Gringotts but not till Phoenix is older. It wouldn't be fair to you if I was abroad all of the time. At P&W, though, I'll rarely be out of the British Isles."
Victoire kissed him again, "Stop rambling, and congratulations."
Charlus chuckled against her lips in response.
Blacknot Castle
"This is really happening."
Draco smiled across the table at his wife, "Yes, it is."
Hermione nodded tearfully, "I just can't believe this is happening, and you are the one to push it through the Wizengamot."
Draco leant back in his chair, "It's gone through the Wizengamot, love. It passed while you were caught up in your three-hour meeting with the Austrian minister."
The tears in Hermione's eyes threatened to spill, and she looked from the document in front of her to Draco.
"No more Muggle-borns?"
Draco smiled warmly at his wife, "No more Muggle-borns. Just those who have magic – Magical people – and those who don't – Non-magical people."
Hermione practically jumped across the table to kiss him, and Sadie chuckled.
"Well, that was inevitable."
Theo smiled at his wife, "Yes, it was. Both the legislation and Hermione's reaction to it."
"The world is changing, Theo," Sadie mused softly, "In all the ways you predicted it would after the second war with Voldemort."
Theo nodded thoughtfully, "We took longer to get there than expected, but I'm glad it's within our lifetime. I'm glad our grandchildren will grow up in this new world."
Sadie grabbed his hand.
"So am I," She promised.
St Mungo's
Andrea's first day as a Midwifery and Paediatrics Trainee Healer was not as plain sailing as she had expected it to be. After two weeks of paperwork, they were finally allowed in the hospital, but only to shadow other Healers. They wouldn't be allowed to touch a patient for weeks or months.
Everyone had told her to expect her Aunt Lilly to be different at work, and Andrea thought she had prepared for that, but she hadn't. She was absolutely not prepared for how mean the aunt, who seemed like the softest person in the world, could be when she was running her hospital.
Andrea was waiting in the staff room with the other trainees. There was Hollie James, who was training to just be a Midwifery Healer. Then there was Myla MacMillan, who was training simply as a Paediatric Healer. Annie Richards was on rotation in this department because she wanted to be a General Healer. Montgomery Green was training to be a Trauma Healer but needed a grounding in Paediatrics, so he was also on rotation here.
Lilly stepped in and shut the door behind her, and somehow, despite being shorter than most of them, she just looked intimidating. Her hair was pulled back tightly, she was wearing red lipstick, which Andrea knew was her mother's influence, and she was looking at them sceptically.
Hollie smiled nervously and said, "Good morning, Healer Longbottom. It's an honour to meet you and be working with you."
Lilly rolled her eyes, "I have four rules – memorise them."
Hollie drew her hand back because Lilly hadn't shaken it.
"Rule one, don't bother sucking up. It won't work," Lilly said simply, "The only way you will win my respect will be by doing your job and by doing it brilliantly. I don't settle for okay here. If you're just okay, you can become a General Healer; okay isn't good enough when the lives of pregnant women and children are at risk."
Andrea nodded and wrote that down.
"Rule two," Lilly continued, "If you talk to me before I've had my morning coffee and someone isn't dying, I will not be the happy bubble person you see at the end of a shift."
She grabbed some clipboards from the wall and said, "Rule three, we work with pregnant women, babies and young children. There are very few margins for error in this job, so we will not let you work for longer than 12 hours. If you are tired, go for a goddamn nap, don't push through and kill a patient."
Lilly handed them each a clipboard and opened the door. They instinctively followed her out into the corridor, where she pointed to a door labelled 'on-call rooms'.
"Which brings me onto rule four. For the duration of your shift, you do not leave this hospital. You eat here, crap here, and sleep here in an on-call room. When you are in these rooms, you are on-call even if you are asleep, and for the love of Merlin, do not sleep with another Healer in my hospital because I will find out, and I will fire you."
They all looked at her, pretty much stunned by the abrupt entry into the world of healing.
"Are we all clear then?" Lilly asked bluntly.
Everyone nodded, so Lilly said, "Good. In that case, let me clarify that you are trainees, which means if a Healer asks you to do something, you do it. You get coffee if you're asked to get coffee, and you don't complain about it. You run basic diagnostics, you check charts, got it?"
They all nodded again.
Lilly then stepped forward and began to tap their empty clipboards, giving them their tasks for the morning, "James, you are shadowing Marcella Sheppard in Midwifery today. Macmillan, you are running diagnostics and checking charts in Paediatrics. Richards, you're on diagnostics and charts in Midwifery. Green, you're with me for the day, lucky you."
She smirked, then looked at Andrea, "Potter, you're shadowing Nina Frost in Paeds. Good luck, don't kill anyone, don't piss me off, and we'll all be firm friends in a decade or two."
With that, she turned on her heel and stalked off.
"Well, she's evil," Montgomery muttered.
"Satan incarnate," Hollie agreed.
Andrea didn't point out that they were talking about her aunt. She just nodded and tucked her clipboard under her arm, escaping to Paediatrics as quickly as possible where she could work with Nina all day, who would be nice to her.
The Town Hall, Godric's Hollow
Temporary Auror HQ
"You know I don't want babies, right?"
Teddy looked up at Almina. It had been a random comment made in the middle of lunch. They were sitting on the grass outside the town hall while Nick played football with a couple of the kids from the houses over the way.
"Yeah, I know you don't want to give birth to them," Teddy replied, "Because of what happened when you were born, right?"
Almina nodded and sipped her coffee, "And when my mum had Ada and Dora. Both of them had difficult births, and I know people say it's because they had twins, but I researched it. I got Victoire to run some tests, and it turns out that there's a blood malediction in the family."
Teddy's eyes widened, "What?"
Almina noticed his concern and said, "It's not the kind of thing that could kill someone, and it's not like it will affect every Nott. I mean, look at Victoire, she had Charlus's baby, and everything was plain sailing. But somewhere in our family history, I suppose someone lost a child and blamed a Nott so cursed the bloodline. If I had a baby, I have a high chance of having a haemorrhage and not being able to have anymore, so I don't want to do that to myself, mentally or physically."
Teddy reached across and took her hand, "I understand that."
They were silent, then Almina said, "But I do want to adopt."
Teddy looked over at her, "You know I have no problem with that, Mina. I was adopted, and I had a brilliant life."
Almina nodded and looked him in the eye, "I mean now, Teddy."
His hand nearly slipped out of hers, "Now?"
Almina bit her lip and nodded, "There are a lot of children at Lupin House in need of a loving home. But when I was helping out there at the weekend, I fell in love with this little girl, called Piper."
Teddy stared at his wife for a moment, "Uh…I mean…."
"I know the time doesn't seem right, what with Nina having her baby in a few months," Almina continued, "But Piper is eight months old, they would be so close in age, and I know how well that worked for some siblings, look at your family – Alastor and Andrea are like twins."
Teddy nodded slowly, "Still, Almina, you're talking two kids under two. And I mean, Nick and Nina need to be okay with it too."
"Nina's okay with it," Almina admitted. She smiled sheepishly at Teddy. "We talked last night, for hours, while she couldn't sleep. She's okay with it, but I thought you might be better placed to talk to Nick."
Teddy ran a hand through his hair, "Uh, yeah, of course. Sure, I'll talk to him."
"Potter, Wolfe!"
From the steps behind them, the voice drew Teddy out of his mild panic, and Nick looked over from his spot on the football pitch.
"You've got a case, guys," Owen said, waving them in.
Teddy jumped at the chance to escape and get his head straight after Almina's revelation. He kissed her quickly and said, "See you tonight!" then dashed into the building.
Nick smiled and hi-fived Almina on the way past, then he headed in too.
St Mungo's
When Andrea stepped into the Paediatric section of the hospital, she decided then and there that this was her calling, even if Midwifery was part and parcel of the course she had undertaken.
In every other part of the hospital, it was a white cloak, stiff upper lips, grumpy faces. But here, the walls were painted with moving dragons, and the Healers all wore a pink cloak and smiled as they passed by.
Nina stepped out from an on-call room and smiled warmly at Andrea, "It's magical, isn't it?"
Andrea looked away from the walls to Nina, and she smiled, "It really is."
Nina tapped Andrea's cloak, turning it to the same shade of pastel pink as her own, "Today you're shadowing me because I don't have any surgeries planned, so let's see what you're going to be assisting on…."
A Medi-witch handed Nina a clipboard. She smiled and thanked the other woman, then glanced down the list, " – ooh, what a first day Lilly's got planned for you. We're doing the rounds this morning, and then it's off to HGS for the start of year health check for the Nursery and Reception kids. We will need a lot of bribery for that, so I think we'll have to detour via Hogsmeade to stock up on chocolate coins."
Andrea laughed, and Nina handed her a clipboard, "Before we head in to start the rounds, I just want to talk to you about how things are here because, as you can see, it's totally different from every other ward in the hospital."
Andrea nodded, and Nina said, "That's because Lilly designed it to be somewhere safe for the kids who need it. We call this the Paediatric Ward, but to them, it's a kingdom where dragons roam, and they play pretend as princesses, kings and sorcerers. To them, any magic is possible, and the whole place runs on fairy dust."
Andrea smiled at Nina, "It's everything they want it to be."
Nina shook her head, "No, it's whatever they need it to be because when they come into hospital, they are sick or hurt, and they're scared. But they hope, cross their fingers, and make wishes, making them more resilient than adults. They recover faster, survive worse, and they believe. In peds, we have miracles, and anything is possible."
Andrea took a breath and nodded.
"Are you ready?" Nina asked, holding open the door to the ward.
With a nervous smile, Andrea nodded, "I'm ready."
Godric's Hollow
The case that Owen had sent Teddy and Nick out on was with a family they knew well. Since Teddy and Nick had started working CPS, they had been in and out of their lives, and with the move to Godric's Hollow, that was nothing new.
They dealt with the complaint, then headed back to base, and halfway down a narrow, cobbled street, Teddy spoke up.
"Almina wants to adopt a baby."
Nick looked up, "What, now?"
"That's what I said!" Teddy muttered, "And yeah, now. Apparently, Nina's on board. They spoke last night. The little girl is eight months old, she's called - "
"Piper," Nick finished.
Teddy frowned at him, "Yeah. How did you know that?"
"I dropped in on Almina at the weekend, when she was volunteering at Lupin House," Nick explained, "Just to give her coffee, make sure she was coming home at some point. She was sitting in a rocking chair with this baby. Apparently, she'd been trying to get her to sleep for hours."
Realisation dawned in Teddy's eyes, "Right…."
Nick nudged him in the ribs, "So, what do you want to do about it?"
"I dunno," Teddy admitted, "It feels like a lot. I can't just process it like that," he clicked his fingers, "You know?"
Nick nodded, "Yeah, but…I mean, I'm on board if you are. If we're going to throw ourselves in, why not do it at the deep end?"
Teddy laughed lightly and shoved his hands in his pockets, "Yeah," he said, his brain whirring at a million miles per hour, "Maybe you're right."
Potter Manor
After her first 12 hour shift on a ward, Andrea was exhausted and, despite moving out to have some independence, she went home because she wanted to see her mum.
Thankfully, Daphne wasn't on patrol at Hogwarts that night, so Andrea sank onto the sofa in the drawing-room and rested her head on her mother's shoulder.
"Bad day, sweetheart?" Daphne guessed.
Andrea sighed and shut her eyes, "I thought it would be okay because I know Aunt Lilly, and she's Aunt Lilly, you know? She's so nice and….caring."
Daphne smiled slightly, "Not when she's running her hospital."
"Yeah," Andrea sighed, "She was so mean, Mum."
And just then, Andrea seemed smaller and younger than her 18 years. She sounded vulnerable in a way that she hadn't for a while, making Daphne look down at her daughter.
"Why was she so mean?"
Daphne closed her book and said, "She's not mean, Andie, she's strong."
Andrea frowned up at her mother, "What do you mean?"
Daphne thought about it before answering, "Do you think running a hospital is easy? Do you think opening up a hospital that runs on donations and the good faith of humanity is a walk in the park? Because it isn't."
Andrea looked down at her hands sheepishly, "I hadn't thought of it like that."
"Of course you haven't," Daphne said softly, "Because to you, she's just Aunt Lilly. But she's so much more than that, Andrea. She is amazing. She runs on willpower and her love for her patients and humanity."
Daphne smiled at Andrea, "She is so strong, but still so humble. What she does is hard, and the only way she can protect herself at work is to be strong, to show those who work under her why they shouldn't mess with her. Just because you've seen the softer side, don't forget that."
Andrea smiled slightly and nodded, "Thanks, Mum. That actually makes sense now."
Daphne smiled back and picked her book up again, "If you're staying a while, I'll call an elf and get you some supper."
Andrea sighed, then nodded, "Yeah, that sounds great."
Longbottom House
"You made quite an impression on my daughter today."
Lilly was sitting in bed, reading a book with her glasses on at a funny angle, when Daphne stepped into her bedroom.
"Have you heard of a knock?" Lilly asked sarcastically, "It's this motion, you raise your hand like so, rap it against the door and - "
Daphne grabbed Lilly's hand and pulled it down to her side, "Shut up," she said fondly.
Lilly shook her head in amusement as Daphne climbed into bed with her, "So you're staying here tonight then?"
"Yeah," Daphne sighed, "Ever since he became Headmaster, I only see Harry at weekends."
Lilly took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes, "Neville isn't much better, and with my shifts, I feel like we're just ships passing in the night."
"You could become Matron at Hogwarts. Then we'd all be together again," Daphne said in a sing-song voice.
Lilly made a face, "And deal with stupid teenagers who curse each other and do weird sexual magic? Uh, no thank you. I've heard enough horror stories from Hannah to never want to do her job."
Daphne chuckled, and Lilly rolled onto her side to look at her, "What did you mean about me leaving an impression on Andrea?"
Daphne smiled slightly, "She said you were mean, and I corrected her."
Lilly raised an eyebrow, "I am mean."
"No, you aren't," Daphne said, "You're strong. In fact, you are one of the strongest people I've ever met, and you are an incredible Healer. I told her if she can put up with your bitchiness, she'll learn a lot from you."
"I think that might be the nicest thing you've ever said about me," Lilly joked dryly, "But I'm sorry if I was too harsh. I didn't make her cry, did I?"
"No," Daphne replied, "But she did come over for supper and a hug, I think. As far as she's concerned, Nina is the best thing since sliced bread, though."
"Of course she is," Lilly grinned, "Nina was my first protégé."
Daphne shot her an amused but exasperated look, "Don't get too cocky. It doesn't suit you."
"Oh, come on, it totally does," Lilly said with a teasing grin.
Daphne's composure broke, and she grinned too.
"Fine, maybe a little."
They both laughed, and Lilly turned the light off with a flick of her wand. It felt nice to have company. She was sure that she wasn't the only one who was still having nightmares after Diagon Alley.
Brave new world or not, the memories of the old one didn't just fade instantly.
Blacknot Castle
Almina had shown up for supper, uninvited, which was a little out of the ordinary. But she seemed as chipper as ever, so none of her parents were that concerned about something being wrong. The most intuitive of them all was Sadie, though, and it was her patrol night at Hogwarts.
When dinner was over, Almina asked Draco if they could talk outside.
Draco replied that of course they could, and when they left, Hermione dropped down onto the sofa by Theo's side.
"I told you she wanted something."
Theo nodded thoughtfully, "And if she's asking Draco instead of me, it's probably about adoption."
Hermione frowned over at Theo, "Why wouldn't she talk to you about that?"
Theo shrugged, "Because I think it's because of me and my genetics that she doesn't want to have her own children."
Hermione sighed and leaned in against Theo, "She loves you, Theo. You're the man who hung the moon in her eyes. She doesn't blame you for anything."
Theo nodded, but he didn't seem entirely convinced.
Outside, Almina sat down on a small wall by the stable and looked over at her dad, "We're thinking of doing something big, as a family, and I just…I need to know I'm doing the right thing, Dad. I need to know that I'm not acting rashly or emotionally."
Draco nodded and leaned against the stable wall, "Okay."
Almina took a breath, "We're thinking of adopting a baby girl from Lupin House."
Draco's eyes widened, "You are?"
Almina nodded and bit her lip. She watched him, gauging his reaction.
Draco was a little lost for words to begin with, "Well...I...I mean… why are you asking me about this rather than your pops?"
Almina looked him in the eye, then sighed, "Because Pops didn't have a choice, but you did. You chose to be my dad, so I figured you would maybe understand this."
Draco smiled and sat down on the wall next to Almina, "Pops would too. After all, he chose to be Ella, Cas and Dora's Pops, didn't he?"
Almina smiled slightly, "Fair point."
Draco chuckled and looked down at his feet, "Honestly, Almina. I have never regretted the way we chose to live our life. I look at you, and...all I feel is grateful that I get to be your dad."
Almina looked over at him.
"I thought about it a lot when you were little," Draco admitted, "Every time I looked at you, pretty much. Everyone would refer to you as my daughter even though you didn't have my smile or my eyes. But that didn't bother me because I would see you smiling and think of your mother, and I would look in your eyes and see your Pops eyes."
He looked at her, "It didn't matter that you didn't have my blood because I felt exactly the same about you as I did about Ella and Cas."
"And I missed some things while you were small. I didn't see your first steps, and neither did Pops because we were working," Draco said softly, "But I never missed one of your Quidditch games."
"No, you didn't," Almina said with a smile, "And I was awful."
Draco laughed lightly, "Yeah, you really were."
Almina laughed too, and Draco placed his hand on top of hers.
Hogwarts Castle
In the Headmasters Tower of the castle, a similar conversation took place between Harry and Teddy. They were standing on the balcony, leaning on the stone boundary and looking out at the setting sun.
"Adoption?" Harry echoed.
Teddy nodded and looked over at his dad, "Yeah."
"That's big," Harry mused, "Especially with a baby on the way."
"I know," Teddy admitted, "That was my first thought. I freaked out, but then I thought about it, and it's not… I mean, it's not that bad, is it? We have the house, and it's big enough. There are four of us, and we'll get some house-elves."
Harry nodded, "Two under two is hard, trust me. But I know you could do it."
He paused, then looked over at his son, "It's just...why adoption?"
"Almina's never wanted to carry children. I've always known that," Teddy said offhandedly, "But until the other day, I didn't know that there was a blood malediction in her bloodline."
Harry looked over in surprise, "Is there?"
Teddy nodded, "Victoire found it when Almina asked her to run some blood tests. It doesn't surface in every Nott, but it is in Almina's blood, and she thinks that's what caused the haemorrhages her mothers had."
Harry nodded thoughtfully.
"So, we've always planned to adopt," Teddy explained, "And that's never bothered me, you know? I figured Nina would have at least one baby, and...we'd adopt one day. I just..."
" - didn't think it would be so soon after you got married," Harry finished
Teddy nodded.
Harry turned his head to the side and looked Teddy in the eye, "Okay, then I'll be honest with you about our decision to adopt you."
Teddy looked at his father in surprise, "Really?"
Harry offered a slight nod, "It wasn't an easy decision. When we first talked about it, your mum and I were 18 when we first talked about it and 19 when we actually adopted you. It all happened very close together, our wedding and us officially adopting you."
Teddy nodded and listened carefully.
"It was hard," Harry admitted, "I was going through Auror training. Your mum was training to be a Curse Breaker. Honestly, if we hadn't had your grandparents to help out, we couldn't have done it."
Teddy bit his lip.
"But you have a lot of support if you decide to do this," Harry continued, "You have your mum and me, and you know we'll babysit whenever we can. You have Rob and Jen and all four of Almina's parents. So you have a great support system which is the most important thing to consider when you decide to have a baby."
Teddy let out a breath and nodded.
Harry smiled slightly, "And honestly, Teddy...it was hard, but I never regretted it, not for one single second."
Teddy frowned, "Not once? I mean, didn't I remind you of my dad?"
"You did, every day," Harry answered, "But that didn't make it harder to love you. It made it easier. You would smile, and I would just see your mum grinning at me and saying, 'wotcher, Harry'."
Teddy laughed weakly.
"And you'd snap a bar of chocolate in half and hold half of it up to me and fix me with your eyes when they were their usual colour," Harry said with a slight smile, "And I'd see your dad telling me to eat chocolate because it would make me feel better."
Teddy looked down to hide the tears in his eyes, "I say that all the time."
"I know you do," Harry said, his own voice quiet as he tried not to get too emotional.
He cleared his throat and looked at his son, "I took advantage of every minute I had with you because I knew I had missed a few. I was still finishing school when you were a tiny baby, and I knew I'd just sort of stepped in when you hit the toddler stage."
Harry smiled sadly as he thought about Andromeda, who he still missed so much, "Your Grandma Dromeda always said it was fine because we adopted you before the toilet training stage."
Teddy wiped his eyes and smiled, "I still miss her."
"Me too," Harry promised his son.
He wiped his own eyes on his sleeve and took a breath, "The day we adopted you, I knew I had some catching up to do, and I promised your mum I would do the best I could for the rest of your life."
Teddy nodded and patted his dad on the leg, "You did."
Harry smiled slightly, "I guess I'm saying that you don't love a child any less if you adopt them. I could never walk away from you or Alastor, just like I could never leave or hurt Andrea or Thea. You're my son, and that's my choice. You don't have my blood, but you have my name, and you're my kid."
Blacknot Castle
"So what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter if you make a baby or adopt one," Draco said calmly, "It's about how you treat that child and the love you can give it. You might not have my blood, but you've almost been one of my girls."
Almina nodded tearfully, "Thank you, Dad."
Draco smiled and squeezed her hand. He looked at the castle a short distance away and said, "When we got this place and became a family like the one Ada and Dora have always known us as, it changed my life, Almina. This, you and Charlus? You were bigger than any plans I had, and you made me a better man, so I think I should be the one thanking you."
Almina threw her arms around him tearfully, and Draco hugged her tightly.
Hogwarts Castle
"So you do what you think is right," Harry concluded, "Because I knew before we even adopted you that you being our son was the only thing that could feel right to me. The first time you called me dad..."
Teddy looked at Harry as he smiled tearfully, "It hit me like a train."
With a weak laugh, Teddy murmured, "Thanks, Dad".
Harry shook his head, "You changed my life, Teddy, and I think your parents knew that. I think that's why they made me your godfather. I looked at you, this tiny baby, orphaned by the final act of war, and I saw myself as a baby. The worst thing I could have imagined was you growing up how I did, so I made sure that would never happen, and it made me a better man. So don't ever feel like you have to thank me for that."
Teddy swallowed a lump in his throat.
"Being your dad has been one of the greatest honours of my life," Harry promised.
Teddy nodded and pulled his dad into a hug. He patted him on the back, and Harry did the same to Teddy as they both tried to pretend they weren't crying.
- TBC -
