"She kicked you out, didn't she?" Twenty-one year old Teddy Lupin barely spared a glance toward his smirking little sister.
"No," he said. Lily Potter gave him a look. In the years since her parents' deaths, she had changed a lot. She'd cut her dark red hair when she was eight, 'till it barely brushed her shoulders, and braided sections of it, weaving gold ribbon into the braids. Her skin had lost most of its tan, a consequence of rarely being allowed to go out of the safehouse they'd been placed in when she was almost seven. Her freckles remained the same, though. Dominique reckoned that all Weasleys were born with, lived their entire lives with, and died with freckles. Even the two darkest skinned Weasleys, Fred and Roxie had them.
Lily had also grown… a bit. At eleven, she was only 4' 10'', and practically the shortest in the safehouse, second only to Bryony Finnigan.
"Okay, maybe she did. What does it matter to you?" Lily grinned.
"Nothing, dear brother. Only the fact that your embarrassment doubles as my amusement." She dodged his half-hearted hex. "Anyway, I've got to go. I just came here to tell you that your wife might be delivering her own baby, if Auntie 'Mione can't find a healer in time." Teddy was torn between curiosity and worry.
"How does that work?" Was what he settled with. Lily shrugged.
"I don't know. I'm just the messenger. Don't shoot me."
"See you later Red!" Teddy yelled after her, as she sprinted down the hallway. Lily always seemed to need to be in motion. It was considered one of those weird facts that Lily was constantly in motion, yet could sit in front of a cauldron, stirring a potion (1) for hours. They didn't question her on it though, because Lily was the only one at the Barracks that could brew a potion. Even Victoire was useless in that area.
Speaking of his wife… A large scream filled the air. "EDWARD REMUS LUPIN TU NE TOUCHES JAMAIS À MOI (2)!"
"Allons, allons. Tu n'as pas serieuse ma chère (3)," soothed Fleur Delacour-Weasley. "Continues à pousser. Tout va bien se passer. Maman est la (4)."
"Maman, ça me fait mal (5)." Victoire gasped.
"Je sais. Tu peux le faire (6). " Fleur replied. By this point, Teddy bet that his mother-in-law was rubbing her daughter's back. He was knocked to the side as Hermione Granger-Weasley rushed past, with an older woman on her heels.
"Victoire, this is Poppy Pomfrey. She used to run the hospital wing when I was a student at Hogwarts, before Death Eaters took it over. She's going to help you through the birth." Teddy heard her say. "What did you do with your husband? I think he'll want to be here for the birth of his daughter."
"He's out-AGGGHHHHH!"
"Simply a contraction. You will be fine Mrs. Lupin. Now will someone fetch the godson of my most frequent patient?"
"I will Madam Pomfrey." Hermione came out of the door, and beckoned to Teddy. "Go." She didn't have to tell him twice. He nodded thankfully in her direction, and slipped back into the room where his wife was giving birth to their first-and possibly only-child.
For the rest of the birth, Teddy agreed with his previous statement. They were not having another baby, if Victoire was going to go have to go through this again. Maybe they would adopt… yeah right. He snorted at the thought of him and Victoire disguising themselves so that Death Eaters wouldn't find them, and trying to adopt a baby. Like any adoption agency, or however Muggles handled these things, would allow the two of the people on Voldemort's 'kill-or-capture-but-preferably-kill-so-I-don't-have-to-deal-with-them-anymore hit list' adopt a baby. Besides, maybe this whole experience would put Victoire off the whole baby thing altogether, and he wouldn't have to worry about protecting more people. Then again, Molly was a month into pregnancy, so in eight months, there'd be another one anyway…
He was shaken from his thoughts seven hours, a broken hand, and two ringing ears later, when the scream of a newborn filled the room. He looked up to see Madam Pomfrey calmly wrapping a red squalling thing in a tattered pink blanket. A girl then. A daughter. His daughter. He had a daughter. Whose idea was it to give him a daughter? He dropped James twice-not that he would ever have told his godfather that-and that was with a boy. Girls were even more dangerous. Oh Merlin. A daughter. An arm prodded him in the side. He looked down to see his tired, but still beautiful wife holding their little girl.
"Still the name we picked?" Victoire asked. He nodded. "Theadora Hope Lupin," she told Madam Pomfrey.
"Hope?" Fleur asked, who had seemingly never left.
"My grandmother on Dad's side." Teddy told her. "Gran Molly told us."
"It's a beautiful name," Madam Pomfrey said, "and perfect for a child born in such horrible times." That was it, he had to get a look at her. Teddy looked down and gasped. Dora (ah, they'd most likely end up calling her Dora anyway, what kid wants a name like Theadora) was as beautiful as her mother, and had apparently already discovered the joys of changing her appearance. She currently had tufts of lime green hair, pink eyes, and a dog snout.
"That's my girl," he chuckled. "My girl. No boys."
"Yet." Victoire said with a smile.
"Ever." Teddy said firmly. "No boys that aren't related to you anyway."
"Teddy, don't you think that's a little bit extreme?" He gave her a pointed look, then turned to Fleur.
"Fleur, what did Bill say when Victoire and Dominique were born?"
The Frenchwoman smiled. "'E said they were not to go near boys unteel 'e was dead. Zen I told 'im that that may be any day, and 'e just grunted. Eet was very sweet, I theenk. Eef 'e were not on a meession right now, I theenk 'e'd agree weeth Teddy, though 'e wouldn't eenjoy eet." Teddy turned back to his wife.
"See? And Uncle Harry threatened to dismember any boy that came near Lily before she was forty, if they weren't already related to her, Ron promised to show any boy just why he was the brother of a former curse breaker, a former dragon trainer, and the two founders of a very dangerous joke shop, and George was confident that just being a Weasley would scare off boys that wanted to date Roxie."
Hello there! If you've made it this far, congrats! The French was translated by starenloeand again, I highly recconmend checking out her profile. She hasn't published anything yet, but I think she will soon. English for the French phrases with be right below this. Next chapter will be 'Letters: Rose to Hermione' and will be published by March 31.
Love,
Swanglade
(1) Hey, that rhymes!
(2) EDWARD REMUS LUPIN YOU ARE NEVER TOUCHING ME AGAIN
(3) Now now. You don't mean that dear
(4) Keep pushing. It's going to be alright. Mom is here
(5) Mom, it hurts
(6) I know. You can do it