Harry and Draco spent Wednesday morning together with their two boys. It was very hot, so the small family went over to the creek that ran through the rear of the property. They all stripped down to their skivvies, including the twins, and waded in the shallow water. Most of the creek was a fast moving shallow stream, but there was a small shallow pond that Draco's ancestors had built for just such activities. The water was cold and refreshing; just a bit too cold for babies, so Harry cast a warming charm on it until it was cool, but not too cold.

"You know, last summer I remember sitting out on the patio staring at the grape vines, knowing this was here, but also knowing I'd never be able to make it this far," Draco said as the babies splashed in the cool water.

"Why? You couldn't have been that big until the very end of summer."

"I was sick; didn't I tell you?"

"Um, I think you mentioned being sick, but I thought you'd only been sick at the end."

"No, I started feeling tired almost immediately after leaving you. Within a month, I was sleeping eighteen hours a day and limited to the house and the patio. Within two, I was sleeping twenty hours a day and limited to my bedroom. The rest of the pregnancy I barely remember."

"I'm sorry, I had no idea it was so hard on you. If I had known, I wouldn't've suggested you get pregnant again. I wouldn't ask you to go through that again," Harry said, shifting Severus into his left arm and wrapping his right arm around Draco.

"Professor Snape said it was worse because it was twins and because you were gone. If you were with me, I could've drawn off your supply of magic to help support the extra baby."

"So it was a complication of having twins?"

"It was so severe because of the twins; I still would've had some magical depletion if it were only one baby or if you'd been there. You're more powerful than me; you'd probably be fine being pregnant."

"Yeah, I'll be fine and I'll carry the next one. Merlin, I had no idea; were there any other complications?"

"I remember there was one when I was giving birth. Instead of just waiting for the cervix to fully dilate, Professor Snape made me start pushing as soon as possible. He said Scorpius was getting distressed and he didn't think Scorpius would last much longer. Severus was in front, so he had to be delivered before Professor Snape could get to Scorpius. Hence I had to push."

"That must've been so scary."

"The really scary part was after Severus was out, when Professor Snape reached in and pulled Scorpius out and was trying to clear his airways and get him to breathe."

"I thought you had to push? How was he able to reach in and grab him out?"

"I had to push for Sev, because he was so much larger and my cervix probably dilated some more while I was pushing too. By the time Sev was out, I was dilated enough for Professor Snape to reach in and pull the smaller baby out."

"Oh. Did Professor Snape get his airways clear?"

"Yes, but Scorp still wouldn't breathe. That's when Professor Snape told mother and father to get ready to take Scorpius to the muggles. Mother grabbed a blanket and Professor Snape cut the cord and they apparated away."

"At least it all ended well. And there's a chance the Ministry might pay for the hospital stay," Harry replied.

"What?"

"Oh, did I forget to tell you? My back pay comes with back benefits. They said they'll pay Professor Snape's estate for midwife services for any care he provided you; I just need to provide them with the details. And they're looking into seeing if the insurance covers muggle hospital visits."

"That's great! I'll get my mother and father to help me put together a list; Professor Snape did leave everything to Sev. And if the insurance doesn't cover muggle visits, we'll take our issue to the papers and get public opinion on our side and get the law to include muggle visits during emergencies."

"Between the Potter, Black, and Snape family, Sev should have a big enough inheritance, right?"

"Prince family; the Snape's didn't have anything and all Professor Snape's possessions came from his Prince relatives. But actually I was thinking we might want to save the Black things and maybe some of the Potter things for our daughter."

"Why? I thought we wanted our boys to be equal?"

"Well yes, of course we do. But they'll be equal without the Black family heirlooms, that's for sure after what Father brought back from the Manor."

"Bellatrix's things? Are any of them cursed?"

"Well he brought back some of Bella's things, but nothing cursed. Most of what he brought back were Gaunt, Slytherin, and Peverell family heirlooms that Lord Voldemort had. Apparently the Gaunts had squandered their wealth and lost almost everything before Voldemort was even born, but Voldemort acquired it all back. Father found a trunk of heirlooms, such as napkin rings, silverware, crystal, a statue, cufflinks… The list goes on; if it was old and from one of His relatives, He took it."

"Shouldn't we give these things over to the Aurors? They can check for curses and give it back to the rightful owner."

"Father checked it for curses and he would argue that he is the rightful owner, being the only surviving Death Eater likely to walk. I'd argue that you have a right to those things, because you were his victim. Teddy has a right to those things too, since he was also orphaned by the Dark Lord. If we keep these things for our family, we'll have enough heirlooms to have some for Teddy too. Don't you want that?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Then we're in agreement?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No."

"Then yes, okay, we can keep them."

"Good," Draco said, kissing Harry. "My chest hurts."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I need to pump," Draco admitted.

"Alright, why don't you get out and sit on the edge of the pond, and I'll hold both boys?"

"Yeah, okay," Draco agreed, getting out and putting the pump, but not his robes back on. He sat with his legs and feet in the water on a large slab of rock at the edge of the water, where the pond suddenly dropped off to three feet deep. The other side of the pond gently sloped in, but this side was boarded by the giant boulder.

Harry and Draco stayed out in the cool water for a couple of hours, before putting their boys into the stroller and going back to the house. Scorpius was exhausted and fell asleep on the way, but Sev stayed awake and didn't go down for a morning nap.

Draco went to talk with his grandmother, so Harry went in the drawing room with Severus to see what Andy and Teddy were doing. Teddy was in a blue swing and Andy was reading through a stack of papers.

"Oh Harry, would you be a dear and watch Teddy for me for a bit?" Andy asked when she saw Harry come in.

"Yeah sure," Harry replied. "You're not leaving, are you?"

"Thank you for watching him, Harry. No, I'm not leaving, but I need to write an owl to the probate lawyer; I need to get Dora and Remus' wills figured out soon," Andy said, before leaving Harry alone with the two boys.

Harry spent the next little while playing with the boys and then orchestrating feeds and nappy changes. By the time Harry was done with nappy changes, it was lunch time and Scorpius was awake. Draco and Druella came into the nursery and each grabbed one of the twins, leaving Harry to carry Teddy down to the dining room for lunch. Teddy was placed into the cradle, Sev went into his high chair, and Draco held Scorpius on his lap, nursing him.

Narcissa and Andy came in and joined them. Andy got an owl while they were eating and went in the other room to read it.

When everyone was nearly done eating, Andy came back in the room and said, "Cissy, the probate attorney owled me back already; he needs to see me as soon as possible."

"Draco dear, what times will you be gone this afternoon?" Narcissa asked.

"From two to four, same as yesterday. Why?" Draco asked.

"Andy and I could go to the attorney's office before you leave. Harry and my mother can watch Teddy while you're gone and Sev and Scorp will be asleep, correct?"

"Yes, and Hermione's coming over again, in case Harry needs help," Draco replied.

"Perfect, then it's settled," Narcissa said.

Harry didn't like that he was being left alone with the babies again, but he had survived yesterday, he would have Hermione with him again, and two of the three babies would sleep through the majority of the time.

"I think we should get going now. That way we might be back before Draco leaves," Andy suggested.

Narcissa agreed, so the two women left. Draco and Harry moved the boys into the drawing room. Teddy was down for a nap and Draco played with Scorpius on his lap, while Harry spent some time crawling around the floor with Sev. Sev still moved slowly, but he was picking up the pace and Harry figured Sev would be very mobile in the near future.

"Draco, with Sev crawling now, shouldn't we baby-proof the house?" Harry asked, taking a break from crawling on his hands and knees.

"What's baby proof?" Draco asked.

"It's where you put up things to make the house safer for babies, like gates at the top of the stairs, so the babies can't crawl onto the stairs and fall down. Don't you have things like that in the wizarding world?"

"You mean like a gate spell that would prevent entry to babies on their own?"

"Yeah, like that? Do you already have one up?"

"No, we never needed it before. But if you want, there's a book on it I could get you."

"Yeah, that'd be great."

Draco retrieved the textbook for Harry and a children's book from the library. Draco read to his twins while Harry tried to figure out the baby proofing book, but Harry didn't get far before Hermione arrived and Draco left for his appointment. Since Teddy was still asleep, Harry cast a monitoring charm on him and went upstairs with Hermione to put the boys down for their nap. This time Sev went right to sleep, and Scorp fussed for a while first. Harry ended up giving Scorp a soother and rocking him in the rocker before he finally went to sleep.

Harry and Hermione went back downstairs and Harry showed Hermione the baby proofing book. Hermione, of course, was extremely interested in the book and eager to help. While they worked, Hermione told Harry about supper at the Burrow last night and about how George was planning a giant wiz-bang display to honor Fred. While they talked, they cast a baby-repulsion charm on the stairs, which would prevent the babies from getting within two feet.

They were just moving onto the fireplace when it suddenly occurred to Harry that Hermione had stuck to telling him about the Weasleys, but had yet to mention her parents. "And what of your parents, Hermione? Did you bring them back from Australia?" Hermione turned bright red and looked down at the book she held, which was very unusual behavior for her. "You did go visit them and restore their memory, didn't you? How'd that go?"

"I didn't," Hermione admitted.

"You didn't what? You didn't restore their memories? Or you didn't go visit them?"

"I didn't even go. Oh Harry! What if they hate me? What if they're so mad at me for wiping their memories and sending them to Australia! What if they never forgive me?"

"It'll be okay Hermione; your parents love you and I'm sure they'll understand," Harry said, taking Hermione into a platonic hug in front of the fireplace.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right," Hermione agreed, calming down.

"Of course I'm right. Now when are you gonna go visit them? You at least need to restore their memory and ask them if they want to come back," Harry said, releasing Hermione from the hug.

"I guess I could go tomorrow… Ron will go with me."

"Yeah, Ron will definitely be there to back you up, but you know it'll go well; your parents love you."

"Yeah," Hermione agreed and started thinking about how she would do it; tell her parents first, or restore their memory first.

They continued their talk about Hermione's parents while they finished charming the fireplace to be cool to touch, so that it wouldn't burn little fingers.

Then Teddy started fussing and wailing, so Harry fed and burped him, while Hermione looked up the next safety spell; this one a confinement spell for the patio, so that the babies couldn't wind up lost in the vineyard. They set Teddy's swing outside on the patio and this time Harry told Hermione about some of the events that had happened at the villa since she left yesterday.

Harry didn't tell Hermione about Lucius bringing home Voldemort's napkin rings, but he did tell her that Lucius had brought back some of Bellatrix's things. Hermione was outraged that Lucius would bring anything of Bellatrix's back, so Harry told her about Draco showing him the dangerous potion ingredient and the conversation they had had last night about dark artifacts. Hermione was appalled at first, but by the end of it, she had to admit that Draco had a point that some things had both good and bad uses and that as long as the dangerous items were locked up safely with no chance of Lucius getting into them, it was probably okay.

They had covered all the biggest hazards, so they took a break, returning to the drawing room with Teddy, where they found Andy and Narcissa just brushing the soot off after returning from their trip to the probate attorney.

"Hello Hermione, it's good to see you," Narcissa greeted.

"Yes, and Harry, can I ask you to watch Teddy for a while longer? Cissy and I need to fill out some paperwork in the study," Andy said.

Harry agreed and Narcissa and Andy went into the next room, leaving Hermione and Harry once again alone with Teddy. Harry told Hermione about the conversation he had had with Draco this morning about how sick Draco had been during the pregnancy.

"Merlin Hermione, I felt like such an arse when I realized that he was so sick for the last six months of his pregnancy and here I was asking him to go through that again, just because I was scared to try it?"

"You didn't know and I'm sure he forgives you. He loves you, Harry."

"Yeah, I know. He's really great."

"So did you guys decide to stick with just the boys then?"

"Um, no, actually I was thinking…er…it might be nice."

"Are you telling me you've changed your mind?"

"Yeah, sorta."

"That's great!" Hermione said, giving him a hug.

"Yeah, I want a little girl to go with the three boys and I think I can do it. I mean, if Draco went through all that to give us the twins, then I can carry our daughter."

"Then you've decided on adopting Teddy? Did you talk to Andy about it?"

"No, I haven't."

"I know they said they had paperwork to do, but I'm sure it can wait. This might be the perfect time to talk to Andy, with your twins asleep and Draco gone," Hermione prodded.

"I don't know; she seemed busy."

"She's not too busy when it's something concerning her grandson. I'll watch Teddy; you go talk to her."

"Yeah, alright, I'll go," Harry said getting up and handing Teddy over to Hermione.

Harry went next door to the study and knocked. "Come in," Narcissa called.

"Um, Andy, I was wondering if we could talk about Teddy again," Harry said.

"Yes, of course dear. Let's go to the dining room and get some tea; I could use a break from this paperwork anyway," Andy said.

"I'll keep working on it for now; we can finish up later," Narcissa said.

Harry and Andy went into the dining room and Andy asked the elves to bring them tea and biscuits. Harry wasn't hungry, but he took a cup of tea, if for nothing else than for something to hold onto in his nervousness.

"I'm glad you came to me, Harry; I was just thinking that we needed to have another talk, what with everything I just learned at the lawyer's office."

"Oh, what is it?"

"Well there's all kinds of legal matters that have to be settled after a death. There's bodies to claim and funerals to plan and then there's planning for little Teddy's future. I thought that we'd be alright with Dora's life insurance policy. She died on the job as an Auror, so Teddy will get payouts every month. But the lawyer just informed me of all these bills that have to be covered as well. The biggest problem is that Remus and Dora just bought a house last year when they got married. It's a big step buying your first house and I was happy for them, but given what has happened, they really should've just moved in with me and Ted."

"Um, what's wrong with their house? Can't you just sell it?"

"Oh, we are going to have to sell it, that's for sure, but it won't fetch nearly as much as it cost."

"Why?"

"Because Dora and Remus were attacked by Death Eaters several times in that house. The Death Eaters set fire to the place, so they were staying with me the last few months anyway. They were hoping to get it repaired after the war, but the lawyer just told me that the home owners insurance won't pay, because they were late making a payment. I can't fix the house and I can't afford to keep it, so I've agreed to sell it for less than half what they paid. But then there's the mortgage to consider and the bank will want their money back, which they'll take from Dora's life insurance policy. Between that and all the expenses of another funeral and three burials… My house was paid off, but I had to take out a small mortgage on it to pay for repairs from my own Death Eater attacks and with Ted gone and me retired, I'm on a limited income. I was really counting on having that life insurance money to raise Teddy. As it is, I can't afford to support him."

"Oh. I want to help."

"Of course you and Draco can help. I saw the way Draco was with him yesterday and it got me thinking that Teddy really does fit right in with your family. Your boys aren't much older and I can just imagine them running through the halls when their older. I was thinking that the only way I can make things work, is to sell my home and get a smaller place. But I don't want Teddy cooped up in a small apartment, not when you and Draco are willing to take him in and you'll have the Manor for him to roam. It's just not fair to Teddy to keep him with me, so I want him to live with you and Draco."

"Yeah, he can live with us; it'll be great. That's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about: Draco said he wanted us to sort out who Teddy was gonna live with most of the time. He'll be happy to know we made a decision."

"Wonderful. Oh this really is such a relief off my chest to know that Teddy will be cared for.

"You know Andy, you'll be welcome over at our house all the time."

"You really are a remarkable young man, give me a hug, dear," Andy said, hugging Harry.

"Thank you, ma'am," Harry said, hugging Andy back.

"Now I really do need to get back to those forms. The lawyer said he would contact a realtor to put both houses on the market, but I've got to fill out the forms to claim Dora and Remus' bodies from Hogwarts; they can't stay there under stasis charms forever."

Harry hadn't thought about it, but it made sense that the bodies were all still at the school where they had fallen. He let Andy get back to her paperwork and he went back into the drawing room with Hermione to tell her the good news. Draco was already there, back from his interview at the Quibbler, which meant he could tell them both at the same time.

"How did your talk with Andy go?" Hermione asked.

"Good. Well she's having some money problems and that's not good, but we agreed that Teddy would live with me and Draco," Harry said.

"Did you talk to her about adopting him?" Draco asked.

"Um no, but I will," Harry said and Draco gave him a pointed look. "It wasn't a good time. She just found out that her financial situation is so bad that she has to sell her house and move into an apartment and I didn't want to add to her load that she has to deal with right now. Give her a few more days to sort out paperwork and make her arrangements and then I'll ask her."

"You can bring me home an orphan, Harry, but don't you dare bring me home half of an orphan. He can live with us, but only if we're adopting him; you should've been upfront with my aunt and told her that," Draco said and Hermione giggled.

"Alright, I will, I promise. We'll get it worked out before she leaves," Harry promised.