Happenstance
Epilogue: Only the Beginning
"Luna Lovegood!" Snape barked, slamming his fists down onto the wooden work bench, his head bowed as he tried to reign in his temper.
"Malfoy... Luna Malfoy," she corrected, laughing at Severus' short fuse. They'd been spending as much time in their laboratory as they could, trying their best to finish up their test run of their cure for Obliviate. Twice they'd been sure that they'd had it, but after testing it, their subjects still suffered from the same symptoms they were trying to cure. Frustration had begun to bother Luna, but thanks to Severus' vast experience with having to be patient and wait things out, she was able to muddle through. Apparently it was now Severus' turn to lose hope. He'd already threatened to throttle poor Luna twice that afternoon because he was so frustrated with their lack of progress. "Why are you so cranky?"
"My apologies," he ground out, his disdain for making apologies more than evident. "But I'm beginning to think we're wasting our time. I hardly doubt the alterations we've made to the draught will be significant enough to change our results. Perhaps we should just throw in the towel."
"Rubbish," Luna sighed, approaching the workbench and picking up a vial which held a bright blue liquid. "Let's add the pixie blood, and see for ourselves whether or not we've just wasted the year of our lives." Before Luna's hand could move to pour the blood into the cauldron, Severus grabbed hold of her wrist tightly, stilling her. "Ouch!"
"Upstairs!" he snapped, wrenching the vial from her hands. "You know the drill."
"But..."
"Upstairs," he hissed, through tightly clenched teeth. Halfway up the stairs that led out of the workroom, Luna turned back around and asked, "Why?"
"The same reason I always have you leave when we're testing a new ingredient in our draught," he said for what seemed that like thousandth time since he'd started working with her. "I'll not have you blowing yourself up. I can list off about ten people who'd have my head on a pike if I were to let that happen, and quite frankly I don't want to have to listen to Draco bitch for the next fifty years." It was the same thing every time. Severus would order Luna upstairs while he did the dangerous job of adding the new ingredients into their brew. Fortunately, they'd only had a few mishaps, but nothing too dangerous. Either way, Severus wasn't willing to risk her safety, especially since she had a young son, the child she was currently pregnant with, and an at times, whiny Draco, to take care of.
"You know, you've got a baby on the way Severus," Luna replied. "I don't think Penny would be too pleased with me if I let anything happen to you."
"PENELOPE," Snape grumbled, sounding out every syllable slowly, so she couldn't miss them. "I hate it when you shorten her name like that."
"What don't you hate?" Luna asked, rhetorically, before turning and heading upstairs.
For fifteen minutes she sat outside the door, waiting for Severus to come and tell her whether or not the changes in the draughts had taken place. All they needed was for it to change from its dark brown color, to a pale, almost milky blue. If that occurred, then they were sure that they were correct and their cure would in fact be a cure. When he didn't come to get her, and she didn't hear a loud bang, signaling that something had gone wrong, Luna cautiously headed back down to their workroom.
As she entered, she saw Severus standing over the cauldron, staring down into it, silently. At that moment she was sure that they'd failed... again, but as she approached she saw the bright glow that the pale, milky blue liquid gave off; her breath caught in her throat. Standing right next to her research partner, Luna joined him in his silent appraisal of their months and months of hard work finally having paid off.
"I don't believe it," he murmured, breaking the silence that had over taken the room. Carefully, he began ladling the still steaming brew into little containers, so they could take them over to St. Mungo's for official testing.
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"Another batch?" the head of the Magical Maladies ward asked, as Luna and Severus entered the room, vials in hand. As he looked at his frequent guests, the ward head, Mr. Fletcher, couldn't help but notice that they looked a great deal more excited than usual. "Why are you so chipper?"
"We did it," Luna blurted out, excitedly, barely able to contain her pride over their achievement. "There's no question of it. We did it."
"I'll get a test subject," he replied, breathlessly, hoping to Merlin the young witch wasn't just full of herself, but that she was correct when she said they'd created a cure for Obliviate.
"We want Lockhart," Snape said, causing Mr. Fletcher to turn quickly back to them.
"Lockhart?"
"He's the most afflicted patient you have here. If it works on him, it'll work on anyone," Severus replied, busying himself with setting out the necessary tools. "Fetch him now."
"Please," Luna added, knowing that Severus wouldn't ask nicely.
Ten minutes later, Mr. Fletcher returned with a very chatty Gilderoy Lockhart at his side. A testament to just how damaged his addled mind was, came when Lockhart wasn't able to recognize Severus, even though they'd just seen each other a few weeks earlier when they'd come to test their last batch of their work. After listening to Gilderoy's usual routine of telling everyone of what little information he did know, they were able to administer a dose of their draught. Patiently, they sat and waited, not exactly sure how long it would take for it to start working. After fifteen minutes of just sitting and staring at the clueless dunderhead that was Gilderoy, Luna's nervousness got the best of her and she tried questioning him.
"Do you know your name?" she asked, suddenly. He just looked at her funny, not sure why she was asking him so ridiculous a question.
"One of the few things they were able to teach him was his name," Severus reminded her. "Do you know why you're at St. Mungo's?"
"No," Gilderoy responded, looking at his surroundings as if he didn't understand them; which wasn't unusual given his current state.
"What do you do for a living?" Severus asked, trying a new question. He wasn't sure whether or not his first question was the best one to start with. After all, he'd experienced a rather traumatic event and he might not ever be able to recall exactly how it had happened.
"I am the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Gilderoy said, cockily. "But you're probably more familiar with my book, Magical Me." Without warning, Luna launched herself at Snape, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly. She couldn't believe it! Gilderoy was as cocky as ever. When they'd asked him that question before, he'd gone off on some tangent about how good he was at connecting his letters, and then would insist that they let him give them his autograph. But this time, he'd gotten it right. Or rather, he'd been able to tell them what his job was right before he'd experienced the devastating backfired Obliviate. Unable to help himself, Severus hugged her back.
"What the hell?" Severus asked, suddenly feeling as if his feet were wet.
"Oh Merlin," Luna gasped, her hands resting on her bulging belly. "My water just broke."
"You think?" Snape snapped, looking down at his feet with a disgusted look on his face.
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"Mr. Malfoy," the medi-witch said warningly. "I'm going to ask you one last time to behave yourself. I understand that you're excited, but you're getting in the way. If you can't calm down, I'm not going to allow you to be in the delivery room. Understand?"
"Yes, ma'am," Draco said, sounding like a little boy being reprimanded by his mother after doing something wrong.
"Your wife is giving birth," she added, "which is stressful enough. The last thing she needs is for you to be bouncing off the wall, peaking down at her privates while she's in excruciating pain. It gets a bit annoying."
"She's never had a problem with me looking at her privates before," Draco argued, knowing he should have kept his mouth shut, but not having been able to help it.
"Don't get cheeky," the old witch warned, opening the door to the delivery room, so they could get back to Luna, who's contractions had speed up so rapidly she was already ready to start pushing.
"Honestly, if you'd just tell me whether or not its a boy or a girl I'd probably be a lot easier to deal with," Draco said, as he walked past her in a huff, not really liking the way she'd spoken to him. He couldn't believe he was paying these witches a small fortune to deliver his child, and all they could do was berate him for being a bit over excited. The witch rolled her eyes at his comment, knowing that he desperately wanted their child to be a girl.
"You'll know soon enough," she informed him, getting in position so that she could safely deliver the baby.
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Though her contractions had progressed rapidly, the pushing stage had taken forever. Three and a half hours of pushing had exhausted the poor witch, but finally, the newest addition of the Malfoy family started to make its first appearance.
"Come on, just one more push," the medi-witch said, trying to encourage Luna to keep going.
"You said that like fourteen pushes ago," Luna snapped, really wanting to kick the stupid witch in the head. She said, 'one more push', like it was nothing at all; as if she were just asking her for the time or something.
"I can see the head," Draco whispered in Luna's ear, hoping she'd believe him when he said that they were almost finished. "Push for me... please." Though she was more tired than she'd ever remembered being, even more so than when she'd given birth to Landon, Luna mustered up all the strength she could and pushed. In less than a minutes time, Luna and Draco had their new baby.
"It's a boy," the medi-witch said, happily, as she cut the umbilical cord, wrapped him in a blue blanket and placed the baby in his mother's arms.
"Are you sure?" Draco asked, sounding panicked. Not waiting for an answer, he peaked inside the warm blanket to see for himself. Sure enough, he was the proud father of another bouncing baby boy. "Yep, that's a penis... that's definitely a penis."
"Um..." the medi-witch said, softly, still seated upon her stool between Luna's legs. "Nurse Stafford," she said, "can you take the baby and get him cleaned up for me. It doesn't look like we're finished just yet."
"What?" Luna asked, not liking the way that sounded. Draco was too busy overseeing the witch who was tending to his beautiful new son, to notice what was going on. "What do you mean not finished?"
"Can I get you to try and push for me, again?" the medi-witch asked, looking up at a stunned Luna.
"No, I've done my share of pushing for the day, thank you," Luna snapped, trying to shut her legs, but not being able to because of the stirrups.
"Luna," the witch said, trying to get her point across but understanding that the young mother's being uncooperative came from being exhausted, "It looks like you're going to have another baby, so I really need you to start pushing again."
"What did you do?" Luna snapped, tossing a plastic cup filled with ice chips at the back of her preoccupied husbands head, but missing and hitting the wall instead.
"What?" Draco asked, inwardly trying to recall if he'd done anything to make her mad, but not being able to come up with anything.
"Mr. Malfoy," the medi-witch interjected, "I need you to come back over here with your wife, so she can start pushing. There's another guest who's still in need of making an appearance today."
"What?" Draco asked, stunned.
"Get over here," Luna ordered, Draco immediately obeyed.
"Are you saying there's another baby in there?" Draco asked, dumbfounded. The medi-witch nodded, as he took his place at Luna's side. "Is it a girl?"
"Shut up!" she shouted, trying to ignore the pestering father's redundant question. "Luna, can you start pushing please."
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"I just don't believe it," Narcissa said, as she walked around Luna's suite staring down at the newborn baby boy in her arms. "Twins. It was so unexpected. You weren't nearly as big as you should have been."
"Thanks," Luna said, sighing as she reclined in her bed, Draco lying at her side, holding their other new addition in his arms.
"So, are you ever going to let anyone else hold her?" Lucius asked, peaking at the beautiful little blond baby girl that slept in Draco's arms.
"Not anytime soon," Draco admitted, smiling up at his father. "She's beautiful, isn't she?"
"Gorgeous," Narcissa agreed, laying the new baby boy down in the crook of Draco's other arm, so that he was holding both of his new babies. "I swear, he looks just like Lanny did when I'd first seen him, but just a bit smaller." Draco nodded in agreement, and leaned down so he could place a kiss on his son's tiny little head.
"I don't think its possible to be any happier than I am right now," Luna declared, resting her tired eyes. "Not only am I finally not pregnant anymore, but I've two new babies... and I get to go shopping to buy stuff for our unexpected arrival." Everyone laughed, knowing how much Luna loved to shop. The young couple hadn't expected twins, so they'd only gotten one of everything, which meant more shopping and Luna was thrilled about it.
"So, have you chosen names yet?" Narcissa asked, lowering her voice, since all three of her grandchildren were sleeping.
"We're going to name him, Logan Noah, and we're going to name his little sister, Lorelei Bailey," Draco said, staring down at his two newborn children proudly. "So we'll have Landon, Logan and Lorelei."
"Those are beautiful names," Narcissa said, agreeing with their choices one-hundred percent.
"I agree," Luke said, not having said much of anything since arriving at the hospital. "Those names suit those beautiful babies well."
"Thank you, Daddy," Luna whispered, squeezing his hand, as he sat in the chair at her bedside. "You feeling okay?" It wasn't like her father to be so quiet during so momentous an occasion, and it was beginning to worry her.
"I'm just in awe," he whispered. "Never in a million years did I ever imagine that at the age of just eighteen, my daughter would have already done so much with her life. You've got a wonderful family, your ideas for the magazine have helped us gain some much needed notoriety, and you've completed your Mum's life's work. I just can't believe what you've done in so short a period of time. I'm just so proud right now." Luna's eyes teared up, and she wasn't sure if it was the sincerity of her fathers words or the excessive hormones that she was plagued with, but she couldn't stop herself from bawling.
"There, there," Lucius said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. "No need to get all worked up. Why don't we all head down and get something to eat while these two lovebirds collect themselves. I'm sure the medi-witches will be in shortly to tend to their first nursing session, and that is not something I want to witness." Agreeing with his desire to give them some privacy, Narcissa carefully lay Landon down into Luna's arms, before they all left the young family in peace.
"Could like be anymore perfect?" Draco asked, looking over at his wife and oldest son, as he gently cradled thee two newborns in his arms.
"No," was all Luna could say, as she gazed at her family, her father's words still hanging over her. Eighteen years old, and she already had everything she could possibly want. It was surreal, really, but Luna knew that this was only the beginning.
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YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN GREAT THROUGHOUT THIS ENTIRE STORY, AND I CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR ALL OF YOUR INPUT AND KIND WORDS. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING THIS STORY AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED WRITING IT : )
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