It was Monday November thirtieth and the Malfoy family was barely starting to think about preparing for Christmas. Just that morning Narcissa had instructed the house elves to bring down all the old decorations that had been stored in the attic by Lucius' parents when they had lived here. The decorations were all old, so Narcissa was sorting through them to see which ones were still good. She had talked her mother Druella into helping her, although Druella didn't help much; mostly Druella sat in a chair and told her what was wrong with wizarding society these days.
Lucius was very much aware of the fact that he couldn't go out and buy his family gifts this year like he normally did, so when Narcissa pulled out the decorations, he pulled out a set of books on how to make gifts. He spent the morning sorting through the books and eliminating most of them, based on the fact that he didn't have access to the proper supplies. The transfigurations gift book he eliminated just because using transfigured items was a low class thing to do. Even if he was making the gift himself, he refused to sink that low; plus, how many transfigured crystal goblets did one really need? There was a very large set of real crystal here at the villa, left over from his mother.
Finally, just before lunch, Lucius decided on the woodworking gift book, because it was full of spells and directions for making furniture out of wood, including a cradle, which would be useful given that Draco was due to deliver a week before Christmas; Narcissa had ordered two basinets, but all Malfoy infants had a hand carved antique magic cradle that rocked and soothed the young heir as needed. But Draco wasn't using the Malfoy cradle or any of the other Malfoy furniture, because Draco was having two babies, not the one baby Malfoys typically had. And it was always nice to have a spare cradle in the room, so he thought he might make a pair.
When the antique clock struck noon, the family sat down to a simple meal of soup, cheese, and bread. The soup was tomato, basil, and cream, made from jarred tomatoes, because the garden had long since stopped producing fresh ones. The cheese and cream were from the dairy cows on the property and the bread was made using wheat from their storeroom. They were all sick of it and longed for the days when they still had fresh grapes, even though they had all been sick to death of grapes by the time they had used the last of them. Now the only grape products they had were the wine and the grape preserves.
After lunch the family gathered in Draco's bedroom to wait for him to wake up. He was now very heavily pregnant and only woke up to eat, before falling right back to sleep. And since that was the case, the only times the family could communicate with him were meal times, which was why they always made an effort to gather in Draco's room while he ate. That and they thought it made Draco feel better to have his family around.
A house elf delivered a tray of the same tomato soup and cheese the family had just finished eating, along with a bowl of elf made ice cream and a large glass of whole milk. Ice cream had more calories in it than most of the other foods the family had on hand and he really needed the extra calories due to his pregnancy, so the family was saving all of the ice cream for him. Narcissa went over to his bed and gently stroked his face in an effort to wake him up and said, "Wake up Dragon, it's time for lunch."
Draco woke up, but was still groggy. He had been tired the entire time he had been at the villa, but it had been so bad the last three months that he remembered very little of it. There was pain and discomfort from having his abdomen swollen to the size of a beach ball and a burning in his arm when the Dark Lord called, sleeping, and eating. If he was lucky, Mother and a house elf would clean him and help him brush his teeth. But mostly, he had slept away the last three months.
Seeing his family gathered around him, Draco smiled a small smile and then sat up to eat in his bed. When he finished, he lay back down and his mother said, "I'm just going to cast the usual spells and then you can go back to sleep."
Draco nodded and Narcissa began to cast. She checked Draco once a day now, right after lunch, but didn't go through the entire list of diagnostic spells. The full list was saved for the weekly visit from Severus, but Severus couldn't come every day. At this advanced stage in his pregnancy, Draco could go into labor at any time and Severus would need as much warning as possible. Plus the last few weeks were the most risky as Draco's body struggled to support two ever growing babies; the last thing they wanted was for something to go wrong at the end.
Thus Narcissa checked the health of each baby, making sure they were getting enough oxygen and nutrients and their waste products were being properly filtered out by Draco's body. Then she did the spell that would determine if Draco's body was preparing to go into labor. Draco wasn't in labor yet, as evidenced by the fact that the second cervix on his considerable baby bulge was not moving, but the body would start preparing for labor hours or even a full day before labor started.
The family let out a collective gasp as they watched the results of the labor detecting spell, because for the first time, it indicated that Draco was indeed going into labor.
"I'll fire call Severus," Lucius announced, standing up and striding quickly out of the room.
"Draco, darling, your body is preparing for labor. You'll be in labor soon," Narcissa told her son.
Draco heard what his mother said, even though he had been about to drift off to sleep again. The shock of the news was just enough to have him opening his eyes and looking up at his mother again. He was too tired to feel excited or nervous and it just barely occurred to him that this meant he would be in pain soon. "Pain potion?" he asked in a rough voice; he hadn't said much in months and his voice was rough from disuse.
"Yes dear, I'll get out the potions and find the pain one," Narcissa said, squeezing Draco's hand gently before turning to the large desk in Draco's room where Severus had left all of the potions. She moved the rack over to Draco's nightstand and pulled out a long lasting pain potion, which she fed to Draco. It wasn't the strongest one, but then Draco wasn't in any actual pain yet and there was no telling exactly when the pain would start. "Now you just close your eyes and try to get some rest. You'll wake up when it's time."
Draco did as instructed and was quickly back asleep, even though he could hear his mother and grandmother talking in the background.
Narcissa and Druella whispered excitedly as they went about turning Draco's room from a bedroom into a delivery room. They got out all of the birthing supplies, such as umbilical cord clamps and scissors, soft baby blankets and fresh sheets for Draco's bed. Then they gathered items for cleaning the babies, such as two suction bulbs to clear the airways and a baby tub filled with warm soapy water and spelled to stay the perfect temperature. Then there was a nappy bag already packed with cloth nappies, undershirts, nightgowns, and booties. Finally they pulled out two basinets, which Draco had insisted he didn't need, but Narcissa had ordered anyway.
Narcissa was just spelling the sheets underneath Draco to switch with the fresh set of sheets when Lucius came back in, and announced, "Severus is letting the Carrows know that they need to cover for him for a few days and then he'll be right over."
"Good. Now all we can do is wait," Narcissa said, folding the top sheet over and tucking it under Draco's hips, so that it sat low on Draco's waist, under the huge baby mound.
Draco was lying on his side with a pillow propped under his belly, as usual, because the babies were far too large for him to be comfortable lying on his back. Narcissa pulled up a chair next to his bed and sat to watch the second cervix for any signs of movement. Lucius sat down too, next to Druella, and they all waited.
It was an hour before Severus arrived and began casting the full regiment of diagnostic spells. When he was done, he stood back and announced, "All three of them are in good health and Draco's body is indeed preparing to go into labor."
There were a few grateful comments from Lucius and Narcissa directed at Severus and then Severus went and double checked all of Narcissa's preparations. The adults changed into clean muggle clothes, in case something went wrong. Then there was nothing else to do but to wait. The four adults had dinner in shifts, Severus and Lucius going to the dining room first to eat, while Narcissa and Druella sat and watched Draco. Then Severus and Lucius watched Draco, while Narcissa and Druella went to eat. No one bothered to wake Draco and disturb his peaceful slumber for one last meal, because the last meal always came up during labor anyhow. Instead Narcissa called the house elves and informed them that Draco wouldn't be eating for the time being.
It was seven fifty-two in the evening when Draco's cervix started twitching. Draco didn't wake up, but Severus, who was watching at the time, noticed it. Draco slept for an hour more before the pain woke him; Severus gave the boy a stronger pain potion and Draco went back to sleep. Draco's water broke soon after, sending a flood of liquid out of the opening second cervix. Severus vanished the fluid and then vanished fluid again half an hour later when the second water broke, since there were two babies. The next time Draco stirred it was to vomit, which Severus also vanished, before giving Draco a glass of milk with the usual anti-nausea tea mixed in. Draco didn't wake again until midnight, when his cervix was halfway dilated. Again Severus gave him a pain potion and again Draco went back to sleep.
At three in the morning, December first, Draco woke up again in excruciating pain. Severus gave him yet another pain potion, this one a non-drowsy one, and said, "You need to stay awake this time Draco; you're dilated and it's time to push."
Draco didn't want to stay awake and he didn't want to push. He was exhausted and still in pain, despite the pain potion taking the edge off. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep through his discomfort. He closed his eyes, but the pain was too much for him to sleep and Professor Snape was there telling him he needed to push. Father and Mother were there too, whispering comforting words into his ear and Grandmother Druella was there in the background, urging him along.
"Why?" Draco wondered. If he just went back to sleep, wouldn't his cervix open up wide enough that he wouldn't need to push? Wasn't that what the book on Peverell pregnancies said?
"Because there are two babies Draco and we need to get the first one out sooner, so the second one does not get distressed," Severus answered. "Now push and help the first baby line up for me."
Draco's eyes didn't open, but he did push down like he was taking a shit, squeezing whoever's hand who was holding his as he did so.
"Very good Draco; I can see a head. It's covered in light colored hair," Severus said. There was a small amount of Draco's blood smeared on the head, so he couldn't be sure of the color, but he thought the baby probably had Draco's blond hair. Draco's cervix was open so wide that before the push Severus had been able to see inside the uterus and had seen pale skin and tiny moving limbs, but the first baby wasn't quite in the right position to come out before and now he was. "Go ahead and push again when you're ready."
It took a lot of coaching, but Draco did push, push again, and push quite a few more times after that. And then the head was out and Severus reached inside Draco and pulled on the tiny shoulder as he supported the tiny head. With the next contraction the first baby came free and Severus was clamping and cutting the cord, wrapping the baby in a blanket, and handing the crying baby off to Narcissa to clean. "It's a boy," Severus announced over the din of baby wails, even though everyone in the room already knew that Draco was expecting two boys.
While Severus was tending to Draco and preparing for the second birth, Narcissa had taken the baby over to the desk and was suctioning all of the mucus from his nose. He wiggled and squirmed and announced his complaint to the world with his wailing cry. Then she took him over to the tub and bathed him with her mother's help. She dressed her grandson, wrapped him up in a clean blanket, and finally he calmed down and his little cries tapered out. She brought the quiet baby back over to Draco's bedside for her son to see.
"Draco sweetie, he's gorgeous, really. He's got your hair," Narcissa said.
Draco opened his eyes and looked at the little bundle in his mother's arms. Something instantly clicked in his brain and for the first time in months, he felt something other than tired; he felt love. He wanted to reach out and take his son, but Professor Snape was there trying to get his attention too.
"Draco, I need to reach in and get the second baby out now; he's not doing so well in there," Severus said seriously. The second baby had never been as big or as healthy as the first and now the diagnostic spells were showing signs of stress.
Draco reached out and stroked the little cheek of his first born son and said to Professor Snape, "Go ahead."
Severus reached in with one hand and pulled out the second baby. "Pass me a suction bulb," he said.
Lucius passed Severus the clean suction bulb and Severus began suctioning the clogged nose, before even bothering to cut the cord. Unlike the first baby, this baby wasn't crying and his airways were fairly blocked. It took a minute for Severus to free both nostrils of debris, but even when the airways were clear, the baby still wasn't breathing. He opened the mouth and checked to make sure the throat was clear, which it was. And although the baby was squirming in Severus' hands, the baby still wasn't breathing. Severus rubbed the little back and urged the little guy to breathe, but the baby didn't breathe.
"He's not breathing. When I cut the cord we need to rush him off to a muggle hospital immediately. Lucius, you and Narcissa take the baby and Druella and I will stay with Draco and the other baby," Severus instructed.
They had been going over emergency plans for months now, Severus having long since decided that the best course of action should something go wrong was to seek out a muggle hospital to help. St. Mungo's would be best, if it weren't for the fact that Death Eaters were in control of the facility. And since they couldn't go there, the only alternative was to seek out help from muggles. Muggles had healers too and regularly used muggle means to save lives and deliver healthy babies. Thus Lucius and Narcissa would take the baby to a muggle hospital to see if the muggles could save him, while Severus and Druella would stay and make sure Draco and the first baby were alright.
At Severus' words, Draco turned his attention from his first beautiful blond baby boy to his second baby boy. The second one was tiny compared to the first and had tufts of wet black hair. His face looked puffy, but his features seemed distinctly Malfoy; Draco could distinguish the pointy chin and thin nose. He instantly loved this baby just as much as the first and his heart clenched to know that there was something wrong with his son. He wanted so much to reach out and take his baby into his arms, but he knew the baby needed medical attention. He had not been awake much in the past months, but his mother had told him about the emergency plan of asking for help from the muggles; they could always obliviate or confound the muggles later.
Severus clamped and cut the cord, before depositing the baby into a blanket in Narcissa's arms. Narcissa took the baby to the nearest muggle hospital via a side along and Lucius followed her, apparating separately. Once they were gone, Severus turned back to Draco, who still had two placentas to pass and was very weak. Severus gave Draco a stronger pain potion, one with a drowsy side effect, now that Draco was no longer needed to push. Then he gave Draco a strengthening potion and told his patient to go back to sleep.
Druella was watching the first baby sleeping in one of the basinets. The little guy, like his father, was all tuckered out.
Draco was worried sick about his second son, who he hadn't gotten a chance to hold and hadn't even touched. He tried to recall the image of that little face, but then the potions Severus had given him began to take effect and he was pulled instantly into a dreamless sleep.
While Draco was asleep, Severus delivered both placentas and observed as the second cervix retracted back down, closing the opening, before disappearing altogether. He cleaned his sleeping patient and pulled the covers over Draco's chest.
As Narcissa walked towards the deserted muggle emergency room in the middle of the night, carrying her still not breathing grandson in her arms and followed closely by her husband, she quickly went over the lie they would tell in her mind. She couldn't just tell the muggles that her son had given birth to this little boy, because muggle men couldn't give birth. Therefore this baby had come from her son's girlfriend and her son was at home helping to tend to the new mother and the first baby.
Severus had informed Narcissa that muggles were in the practice of insisting on seeing the actual mother, but Narcissa and Lucius didn't have a mother at home they could bring in to prove their point. Instead they would insist that the mother was refusing to come in for treatment, because she didn't want her family to find out she had even had a baby. The muggles would call their muggle-Aurors in and check out their story, but not before they treated the baby. Once the baby was healthy, Lucius would obliviate and confound muggles as necessary, and they would apparate away with the baby.
Lucius and Narcissa rounded the corner and found themselves at the entrance to the muggle hospital, which was guarded by a muggle-Auror. "We have an emergency! The baby isn't breathing!" Lucius exclaimed in French.
"Alright, we'll get you right inside and get the baby some help. How old is he?" the muggle-Auror asked, also in French, leading them into the muggle facility.
"Just born; a home birth. Our son's at home with the mother and we brought in our grandson," Narcissa said, handing the tiny baby over to a muggle-mediwizard.
The muggles took over from there and went right to work on the baby, who was now turning blue and no longer moving. They shoved a tube of some sort down the baby's throat and hooked wires and monitors up to him. Narcissa watched from a distance as another muggle and the original muggle-Auror asked them questions, which Lucius answered. Lucius was better at lying seamlessly than Narcissa, so while she was going over the story in her head, he took over and spoke to the muggles.
"What's the mother's name?" the muggle-Auror asked, writing down notes on a pad of muggle-parchment with a stick instead of a quill.
"Hermione Granger, but she didn't even tell her parents she was pregnant and refused to let us tell them. She ran away from them months ago and has been staying with us. She doesn't want the babies. She said she'd give them to our son and then go back to her parents like nothing ever happened, but the second one is so tiny and he wasn't breathing," Lucius answered.
The Malfoys were not aware of the fact that Hermione had altered her parents' memories or sent them to Australia; they knew only that Hermione had been in hiding and not seen her parents in months. Therefore if the muggles tried to check out their story, the Malfoys thought they would turn up at the Granger residence, and the Grangers would confirm that their daughter ran away. As it was, in the days to come, the muggles would investigate the Grangers and find out from neighbors that the Granger girl hadn't been seen in months and the parents had moved out of the country, so there was no one to question.
"Babies you say? Where's the other one?" the muggle-Auror asked.
"At home with my son and my wife's mother. They are looking after the first baby and his girlfriend," Lucius answered, as Narcissa eyes remained fixed on their grandson in muggle care. He hated that they had to turn to muggles for something, but he wasn't too proud to ask for help even from filthy muggles when it came to saving his grandson's life.
"What condition is the first baby in?" the muggle woman standing next to the muggle-Auror asked, also in French. This woman had a uniform on that indicated she worked at the muggle-hospital, but Lucius didn't know what her job was; her name tag just read Suzette.
"He was breathing and much bigger than this one. The pregnancy was only two weeks shy of full term and he looked like a full term baby," Lucius answered.
"What color was his skin?" Muggle- Suzette asked.
"Pink. He had my son's fair complexion; blond hair," Lucius answered, wondering what the muggle was getting at.
"Good, that means he is likely in good health, but we'll still need you to bring the first baby, your son, and the mother in for a check-up," Muggle-Suzette replied.
"Alright, we'll go back for them when you've sorted out my grandson. Is he breathing? What's happening with all those tubes and wires?" Lucius asked.
Of course they couldn't bring in a non-existent mother, but they might be able to bring their son and other grandson in once Draco was healed up and it was no longer evident that he had just given birth; that would mean giving Draco time to rest, but they could stall the muggles for now. Although, it would be safer for Draco and the first baby if they could get this baby out of the muggle hospital without forcing them to leave the safety of the Fidelius protected villa.
"The baby is connected to a machine that is breathing for him. His heart rate is good and his coloration is turning back to normal. He is very small and sometimes the preterm babies like him just need a little extra help breathing for a while. The nurse is cleaning him up a bit. Once we get finished with our questions, the doctors will move him to the NICU, where he'll be closely monitored and you and your wife can stay with him."
"Alright," Lucius agreed, not knowing what a nickyou was, but relieved to know the baby was going to live. "So he's going to live, correct?"
"Yes sir, the baby will most likely be fine," Muggle-Suzette assured them.
"Great," Lucius replied.
"Now what is your son's name?" the muggle-Auror asked.
"Drake Malcolm," Lucius lied. They didn't want this visit getting back to Death Eaters or Aurors, who were both looking for them. And muggles tended to ask for ID cards, so he had already made up a set of cards for the family with the last name Malcolm.
"And your name and your wife's name?" the muggle-Auror asked, writing in his muggle-pad again.
"Lawrence and Nancy Malcolm," Lucius lied again. It was going to be difficult to remember to respond to the fake names, but they would get used to it or confound the muggles. They couldn't give their real names, because their real names were too unique and might be recognized by wizards.
"And where do you live?" the muggle-Auror asked.
Lucius gave an address to a guesthouse that was part of the estate of their French villa, but not under the fidelius charm. The guesthouse was empty, so the muggles wouldn't find anything there and they wouldn't even realized that a large chunk of land was missing next to it. Only people like Lucius who knew that the villa had been next to that guesthouse would know; in fact, that guesthouse was how Lucius knew he was in the right area when he had been looking for his family. Once he located the guesthouse, he found the closest place to hide nearby, which happened to be the caves.
There were a few more questions about the details regarding the birth, which Lucius answered, telling the truth where applicable and lying when it was something Peverell specific. The muggle-Auror thanked them for their cooperation and muggle-Suzette led them over to the muggle-team who had worked on their grandson; their grandson was now in a clear muggle-box on top of a metal cart on wheels. Together the team of muggles, pushing the baby in the muggle-contraption, and the Malfoys walked through the muggle-hospital until they reached a door labeled NICU. They entered a large room full of muggle-medi-witches and babies in muggle-boxes on wheels.
When they stopped, the muggles set up their grandson's muggle-box next to all the other muggle-boxes and went about moving wires and cords and things. One of the muggles placed a sign on their grandson's box which read, "Baby Boy Malcolm."
After fifteen minutes, one of the muggles in a white lab coat who had been looking over paperwork said in French, "Hello, I'm Dr. Martin and your little guy here is going to be alright. We've got him breathing with the help of a respirator. We'll monitor him closely for the next day or so, until we can get him breathing on his own. Since he was only two weeks early, he is quite small for his gestational age. That is probably owing to the fact that he was a twin and the other baby was getting more of the nutrients. Other than his difficulty breathing and his low birth weight, he's in good health and will survive. In all likelihood he will be released in a week or so."
"That's great! Thank you sir." Narcissa's French wasn't as good as her husband's, because unlike Lucius, she hadn't been taking holidays in France since childhood. She had mainly learned French after marrying Lucius. Spending summers with Lucius and the rest of the Malfoy family here at the villa had forced her to learn.
"Yes, we are indebted to you for saving our grandson," Lucius agreed.
"But, we do have a few other concerns, because he has a few birth defects. Is there any history of birth defects in your family?" muggle-Dr. Martin asked.
"No, but he looks fine," Lucius insisted. Other than the fact that the baby was tiny and not breathing, he hadn't noticed any abnormalities.
"His left leg is thinner than the right one and the lower leg is bent, or bowed out more than the right one. The left foot is also turned in, or pigeon toed. We see both in a lot of babies and bowed legs often straighten themselves out all on their own, but if it's still bowed when he's a toddler, then we'll put a brace on the leg that will encourage it to grow straight. We don't have a way to make the left leg the same size as the right, so all we can do is hope that fixes itself."
"Alright," Narcissa agreed. A bent and somewhat thin leg was something that St. Mungo's could easily fix once the war was over and the baby could receive proper wizarding medical care. As long as the muggles didn't want to do anything about it now, it wasn't a problem.
"The pigeon toe is more of a concern right now. What we like to do is put on a special pair of shoes with a bar in between them, connecting them so that the feet are held outward. It encourages the feet to grow further out, instead of in, and after a few years the problem is corrected. It's best to start sooner rather than later with the pigeon toe."
"Um, sorry Doctor Martin, but we'd prefer to hold off on that just a bit; we haven't had a chance to confer with our son," Lucius said, interrupting the muggle-healer, because he didn't want his grandson to suffer through unnecessary muggle treatments.
"Well he is a bit small, so we would wait until he gets up to seven pounds before we'd fit him with a pair of shoe braces."
"How much does he weigh now?" Narcissa asked.
"Two pounds and fourteen ounces. But there is one other birth defect I need to talk to you about."
"Oh my," Narcissa replied concerned.
"Another one?" Lucius asked. Weren't three enough? Potter must have really bad genes, because the Malfoys had never had a birth defect in the family.
"Yes and this is a somewhat sensitive matter. You see, his penis appears to be misshapen; it's as thick as his limbs; thicker in fact then the left leg. For a baby with his small size, the penis should be correspondingly small. At this point we're not positive it's functional, but if he is indeed able to urinate out of it, well then we would leave it as is until he's older. We can send him out to a specialist, but I've seen genital birth defects before and if possible, they prefer to wait until the children are older to operate; generally around the age of twelve or thirteen, when puberty hits," Dr. Martin said.
Narcissa looked over at the baby in the incubator, but there was a nappy covering the genitals. The nappy had quite a bulge, but it wasn't charmed, so that was to be expected and she wasn't so sure there was anything wrong with the little guy's wee-wee. She had seen the baby naked after birth and she hadn't noticed anything unusual then, but she was concentrating on getting the him help and the fact that he wasn't breathing, so she could've missed it.
"Um, could I see what you are talking about?" Narcissa asked.
Dr. Martin agreed and ordered a muggle lady to show them. The muggle had on gloves when she reached into the incubator and unfastened the nappy. She let Lucius and Narcissa have a look inside, before closing it back up. She had trouble closing it, despite the fact that it looked far too large for the tiny baby, because it wasn't designed to fit a penis of that size.
"With all due respect, healer, but it looks fine to me. My son's was the same when he was born and he turned out just fine; no surgery and no complaints from the ladies," Narcissa said.
"Yes, our son was the same way. When he was born, my mother assured me that I looked the same and she said that my father had had the same before me. No surgeries needed and no complaints regarding usage," Lucius confirmed.
"Well it's certainly possible that he'll grow into it. Right now with it being thicker than the left leg and down to his knees in length, it seems hard to believe that he'll be able to walk like that. But hopefully his legs will grow and his penis won't. It might all even out and like you said, he might just be fine without surgery," Dr. Martin conceded.
"Doctor, when do you think we'll be able to take our grandson home?" Lucius asked.
"He's almost at three pounds; once we get him up to three pounds and get him breathing on his own, we can downgrade him from critical status and move him over to the SCBU. Right now he's in the NICU, which is the highest level of critical care we have, but if he holds stable for the next few hours and if he urinates successfully, we'll move him down to the NHDU, which is an intermediate level of care. Then it's SCBU and then he can go home. He'll have to be seen regularly once he's released and once he makes it up to seven pounds you'll have to bring him in for the shoe braces. And there will be more follow ups regarding the bowed leg and the over-sized genitalia later on. Understand everything alright?"
Lucius and Narcissa did not in fact understand, especially the abbreviated terms, but they didn't want to point out how little they knew of muggles, so they nodded their heads. The healer left and a muggle-medi-witch pulled up two chairs for them to sit in. They sat and waited and the muggle woman introduced herself, in French of course, as their nurse. She said she was assigned to look after only one baby, their grandson, for the next two hours. If he stayed stable, they would downgrade his status and move him over to the next ward, where there were two babies per nurse.
Then the muggle-medi-witch explained that the little guy was being fed continuously through a tube that went down his throat, directly to his stomach. It was a bit disturbing, but if it was the best muggles could do then they had no choice, so Narcissa and Lucius sat there and watched their grandson sleep. After an hour, the little guy proved that his penis was functional by urinating. Since the nappy didn't fit right, the stream of urine didn't stay in the nappy; there wasn't much of it, but the thin stream shot up his abdomen and then dribbled onto the blankets in the incubator.
The muggle-nurse was pleased with her patient, despite the mess she had to clean up. The baby needed a new blanket and nappy and she had to wipe off his belly too, but she did it all the while saying silly things in French like, "Oh what a good boy you are. You made such a good little tinkle. I bet your grandma and grandpa are so proud of you."
Lucius and Narcissa were proud of the small feat, even if they weren't sure why the muggle-nurse was calling it a tinkle.
After two hours the baby was moved down the hall, to another large room and assigned to another French speaking muggle-nurse. Once Narcissa and the baby were settled into the new room, Lucius rose to his feet and said in English, "I'm going to go home and inform our son that everything is alright."
"Get some rest and come back in the morning; we can take shifts watching our grandson," Narcissa replied, also in English.
Lucius agreed and then walked out of the hospital and far enough down the street that there were no muggles in sight. He apparated into Draco's room in the villa, thankful that Severus had finally trusted him enough to pass him a scrap of parchment with the secret. He had set fire to the parchment after reading it, to ensure that their hideout remained a secret.
Draco was asleep and Druella had long since fallen asleep in her chair. The first baby, the larger blond one, was sleeping in Severus' arms. Severus was the only one in the room awake and was watching them all.
"Well? What news have you?" Severus asked.
"The second baby is alive and breathing with the help of some muggle contraption. The muggles said they might be able to release him in a week or so. Narcissa is guarding him."
"Excellent."
"Narcissa suggested that I get some rest and perhaps it would be prudent for you to get some as well."
"Yes, perhaps I'll take the baby over to the nursery and have a lie down on the spare bed in there."
"Shouldn't you leave the baby with Draco?"
"He's out on pain potions. When this little guy needed a feed I had to hold him up to Draco's chest and help him latch on; Draco just slept right through it."
"Well in that case maybe it would be better for you to take the baby to the nursery," Lucius agreed. "And I'll just levitate my mother-in-law off to her own bed."
And so Lucius levitated Druella down the hall to her bed, before lying down on the bed he shared with Narcissa. Severus took the first baby to the nursery and sat himself down in the rocking chair while he looked at the beautiful face. He couldn't be sure, because the features were so tiny, but he saw a distinct resemblance to Lily. The second baby had Harry's black hair and resembled Draco, but this first one had Draco's blond hair and looked like Lily. He was tired, but this was the first time in sixteen years that he had seen those lips, forehead, and cheeks in the living flesh and not just in a picture. He couldn't be sure about the nose, because it was too small, but maybe even the nose might be Lily's nose.
Severus was absolutely enthralled with the tiny image of Lily to the point where he couldn't bear to put the baby down. He kept yearning for those eyes to open and look at him again. When the baby had woken up for his first feed, he had opened his eyes and Severus had been hooked instantly. The eyes weren't green, but nor were they blue, and they were too dark to be Draco's grey eyes. This baby had dark grey eyes that were a shade that only a baby's eyes could be. There was absolutely no color one way or another, except for dark grey. If either parent had had brown eyes, he would've thought that the baby's eyes would be brown. But the darkest eye color in the family was Harry's green eyes and so Severus was hopeful that this baby might just have Lily's green eyes.
Eventually Severus' eyes closed of their own accord and he fell asleep in the rocking chair holding the baby. That night he dreamed of Lily; that she was here with him and he was showing Lily her grandson; the joy he would see in her beautiful green eyes. To this day Severus still dreamed of his Lily and those eyes.
Author's Note: The babies are finally here! There's still more drama to come with the little one, but at least he's alive and Lucius and Narcissa saved him.
Drop me a review and let me know what you think! Was it all you've been waiting for?