The orphanage and Mrs Leonte let Lily be taken away by the two English men with no argument at all. They signed the paperwork, left forwarding details, then walked away with the few things Lily had been given by the nurses. The whole process only took a few hours.

Harry had a feeling that they were breaching serious protocol somewhere along the line and forced those thoughts from his mind. Charlie was the one carrying Lily since he couldn't walk and hold her at the same time. They only got far enough away that they were out of sight, then Apparated back to Charlie's house.

Lily didn't like that.

"I've got her," Harry said, immediately going to the sofa and settling the baby in his arms.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I dunno… is there a bottle or something in there for her?"

"Shit, Harry, I haven't got a clue. We should take her back to my mum."

Harry hummed noncommittally and gave the little girl his pinkie finger to suck on. She settled after a few minutes, looking up at him with those big, expressive eyes.

"Harry?"

"Sorry. What did you say?"

"Nothing. I'm going to fire-call mum, okay?"

"Mhmm."

xXx

Molly didn't arrive. Hermione did.

"Oh, poor little dot," she cooed, lifting the baby from Harry's arms with the experience of a seasoned mother. Experience Harry didn't have. "How old is she?"

"About three or four weeks," Charlie said, noticing only the death-glares Harry was giving one of his oldest friends.

Her face broke into genuine distress. "God. Okay. Well, I have to go down to Molly anyway so I can save you a trip-"

"What?" Harry interrupted. "No you won't. She's staying here. With me. Us."

Hermione silently lifted an eyebrow. "And you've cleared that? With McGonagall, the Ministry, Molly...?"

Harry frowned. "No, but-"

"Then I have to take her," Hermione said. "I understand if you've become attached, Harry, but we really don't have a choice."

From his place on the sofa Harry stretched out his hands for the baby. Hermione gently placed her in his arms, then sat down on the coffee table.

"What's going on," she demanded.

Harry ignored her and gently bounced Lily, who was starting to fuss.

Charlie sighed heavily and shifted Harry's legs so he could sit down too. "The little girl's name is Lily."

"You named her?"

"No." Charlie shook his head. "That was her name that the nurses at the orphanage gave her."

"Oh."

"She's staying with us," Harry said softly, but with a tone of voice that reminded the others, if they needed reminding, that this man had spent many years leading teams of the ministry's best Aurors.

"If," Hermione started, then stood, shrugged out of her peppermint green robes and sat back down again with them folded across her lap, over her now sizable bump. "If you're serious about this then you have to follow procedure, Harry. You have to. If you don't take her to a Ministry approved temporary foster parent then you could be charged with kidnapping."

Harry scoffed.

"This is serious! The Protection of Vulnerable Magical Children Act is one of the best things to come out of this Ministry and I'm fucked if I'm going to let you ruin that." She took a deep breath. "If you want to come with me then I'm sure Molly would be delighted for you to stay with her for a few days until we can figure something out."

Charlie groaned something that sounded like 'oh lord'.

"I want to keep her," Harry said defiantly.

"Have you thought about this?" Hermione asked, her voice now soft, begging. "Really thought about it, Harry? She's beautiful. But you've got a new job that you're amazing at, and we're still looking for that counter-curse, and McGonagall is going to work with you on the Animagus thing…"

"Let me ask you one thing, Hermione," Harry said. "On the day you gave birth to Hugo, and the nurse put him in your arms, if someone asked you if he was worth it – if you were sure, did you really want to give up your career and take care of a baby – would you have said no?"

She didn't answer.

"Exactly."

"Let's get her home," Charlie said softly. "If we take her back to mum's now, then we can do all the jumping through hoops that they're going to make us do and figure things out from there."

"Okay."

"You sure?"

"I'll do whatever it takes," Harry said, his attention already turned back to the baby.