I'm unfair to Edward Granger in the one chapter he features.
He was young, newly qualified and newly wed when they had Hermione. He hadn't objected to the idea of children but unlike Lucy he couldn't say he'd wanted them since he was a child.
Lucy was a only child of a widowed mother who herself had been an only child and her father's family found keeping contact with Lucy and her mother too painful after his death. Lucy's desire for children was more about having a family than any real love of children. Edward had attended boarding school since he was seven and was raised by distant older parents who had both passed away so Lucy and he were the only family they each had.
Lucy feared Hermione from the moment she was born, in the hospital she was too uncomfortable to breastfeed and after three failed attempts that left them both hysterical it was agreed that formula would be best. She seemed to cope, once skin to skin contact was eliminated, changing Hermione and feeding her without complaint although she observed that the benefit of bottle feeding was Edward could do midnight feeds as easily as her. So Lucy was released from hospital and they went home.
She seemed to cope. Edward found himself the one picking Hermione up when she was just unhappy and needed a hug but Lucy did her share for the remainder of Edward's paternity leave and her mood seemed to pick up. Especially when the day before Edward returned to work her mum travelled up to see them and let them have a date without the baby. It wasn't until three weeks after he returned to work and two weeks after her mum went home that Edward began to notice a pattern. The baby was always hungry, wet and crying when he came home. The downstairs was spotless, but the upstairs looked exactly as it had when he left and Lucy was dressed the same as she had been when she kissed him goodbye in the morning.
Thinking the Lucy was struggling with the baby and stairs, he set up the travel cot they'd brought downstairs and took to bringing the baby down with him in the morning. It changed the routine, the baby was still crying but now the upstairs was spotless and it was clear that Lucy hadn't come back down since he left.
Edward was a middle class, privately educated, white man. He trusted authority. So he contacted their health visitor and GP who diagnosed postnatal depression and failure to thrive for Lucy and Hermione respectively. Lucy was prescribed antidepressants and a social worker was contacted who discussed support networks and groups.
The antidepressants helped, when Hermione wasn't there or when Edward could stay home and be her primary caregiver but Lucy couldn't return to work yet and her mother had a job in Cornwall so the social worker was called again. Temporary foster care was suggested. Just long enough for Hermione to catch back up and Lucy to feel better.
It was great, Lucy was feeling better and when he visited his daughter she was gaining weight and giggling. So their now four month old daughter was returned.
Within a week it had gone to hell. Lucy phone him at work claiming that the baby's toys were dancing. She was hysterical and was admitted with suspected postpartum psychosis. He and the social work sat down again. This time an oddly dressed woman was with their normal social worker. The woman explained that Hermione was what they called a muggleborn and that an instinctual fear of magic was an exacerbating factor in Lucy's condition. He need to make a decision, to keep his daughter at home he would have to provide the majority of her care and his wife would find her presence increasingly uncomfortable as Hermione grew up. Edward didn't need the man to finish his explanation, respite foster care had been great for Lucy and Hermione. The best thing that had happened to either of them since she was born. He signed the papers and kissed his daughter goodbye promising her that her new parents would be better than they could be.
The next ten months were as good as could be expected. Lucy recovered and returned to work. They gave the baby's things to charity and they got a puppy. They accepted that children weren't going to be an option for them.
Then there was a knock at the door and on a cold November morning they found the same strange woman Edward had spoken to the day Lucy was admitted holding a baby. Lucy screamed and ran upstairs.
Politics returned to them a child who terrified her mother and didn't remember them. She cried for the parents she had been torn away from and had large magical out bursts. Lucy deteriorated again and there was no more respite care for Hermione.
The second time Lucy was admitted Edward had the attic converted and sound proofed and moved the child up there. She quickly learnt not to come down unless he was home.