At breakfast Tuesday morning, Druella announced her intentions to move back into her own house and that was fine by everyone.
Hermione came over after lunch. She carried on quite a few conversations with Draco, starting with one about appropriate presents to give the muggles who had saved Scorpius' life; a photo of the baby they saved and a donation to their NICU was the conclusion the pair came to. After that she explained how the muggle-pens worked in much greater detail than Harry had managed. And finally they talked about house elf rights. The disagreement didn't go to blows, but instead sent Hermione off to do more reading on the nature of the house elf species.
In the afternoon, Draco took a nap with the twins, leaving Harry and Hermione plenty of time to talk privately, with just Teddy around. Their plan for crashing Bellatrix's funeral was pretty much set, but Hermione needed to be informed of the things Harry had arranged with the Aurors. Then she went off on one of her strategy maps, in which she tried to map out every possibility and get Harry to help her figure out how the plan could still work if some part of the plan failed. For example, if the Aurors bailed, they could go by themselves. That was an easy one. A hard one, on the other hand, was what to do if Draco wasn't at the funeral. The deluminator required the desire for a loved one to work. If there was not at least one loved one on the inside, their entire plan would collapse. But Harry was convinced that would not happen, because Draco was going to that funeral and nothing major would go wrong.
Wednesday, Kingsley met Harry and Lucius over at Malfoy Manor and the three of them spent the entire day erecting wards. They didn't finish, but they did get all the most difficult wards up, including the fidelius charm with Harry as secret keeper, before supper. All of the remaining wards and charms were easier to put up and Harry thought that he and Lucius would be able to erect them on their own. They would have to, or risk telling someone outside the family the secret now that the fidelius was in place.
Thursday was Scorpius' big healer appointment at St. Mungo's and everyone wanted to know what the healers would say. The entire family wanted to go, but there were two other babies and they didn't want to take them all out into the public; that would probably instigate a media frenzy. The photos taken of Harry and Draco at the Ministry last week had made the front page of the paper and all the couple had done was to hold hands as they walked through the Ministry.
It was decided that Lucius, Andy, Narcissa, and Druella would stay home with Sev and Teddy, while Harry, Draco, and Scorp flooed to St. Mungo's. They were about to leave, when Harry remembered his invisibility cloak. He summoned it and wrapped Scorp in the cloak. Now it looked like Draco was wrapping his arms around a bundle of thin air, but it was still better than getting ambushed when the public realized they were out with the son of the Chosen One.
"Good idea, Harry," Draco said.
"Thanks. Now Scorp, you just keep quiet and no one will know what your father's holding," Harry said and Scorp squealed.
Harry flooed over first, followed by Draco and Scorp. They checked in with a receptionist and were directed to the pediatric wing; the other patients stared at them as they walked passed and someone even took their picture, but even though Scorp wasn't silent, he was concealed under the cloak, so the photo would show little. They sat down in an empty waiting room and removed Scorp from the invisibility cloak. They worried that someone would come in then and take their picture or alert the media, but they were only in the waiting room for a minute before Healer Pritchard called them back to an examination room.
Healer Pritchard was a tall gangly wizard with a full head of hair that looked like it may have been very dark once, but was now mostly grey. He spoke in the type of happy tone that children took to. He asked Draco to remove Scorpius' clothes, leaving the baby in just a nappy so that he could examine the malformed leg. He spent half an hour looking at the leg, casting diagnostic spells, and testing Scorpius' ability to move the leg.
Finally Healer Pritchard finished his examination and said, "The leg is bowed and the foot is turned in, as you said the muggle healers diagnosed. I can fix that easily. The problem is that it's also too thin and he seems to have little muscle control; that is harder to fix. I can give him muscle strengthening potions, but they aren't a cure-all, they may not fix the problem, and they might damage his liver, because he is so young. I think the best thing to do right now is to put him on the very minimum dosage and for you to exercise his leg every day. We can try that for now and see how it works out."
Draco had several questions for the healer, but eventually he agreed with the healer's decision to put Scorpius on the low potion dose. Healer Pritchard cast healing spells on Scorpius' leg, making it straight. Then the healer showed Harry and Draco how to exercise Scorpius' leg, bending it up to Scorpius' chest and then stretching it straight again. Scorpius was a good sport at first, but then on the third bend, he started crying.
"He's not used to moving that leg, so it'll fatigue easily and he may start crying. Don't push him; if he cries, then stop, but pick it up again the next day. After a few weeks of ten repetitions once a day, you can increase it to twice a day. I'd like to see him back in a month to see how it's going," Healer Pritchard said.
Harry and Draco agreed and then Healer Pritchard sent them over to a general pediatrician, named Healer Davies. Healer Davies was a blond haired witch, who checked all of Scorpius' vitals, before concluding that he was in perfect health. She wanted them to bring in Severus for her to examine as well, but Sev was fine and they didn't want to risk taking him out of the protection of the fidelius charm for a check-up he didn't need.
The healers let them leave through a private floo directly from the pediatric ward and then Harry and Draco were finally home again, safe and sound with their baby. Everyone was waiting for them in the drawing room to find out how it went. Draco and Harry told them the news and then showed off the newly straightened leg. A small family celebration followed, during which Draco announced that they were trying for another baby and Narcissa agreed to watch the twins so that Harry and Draco could have another date.
Lucius and Narcissa were very supportive of the idea of another baby. Lucius even suggested that Harry and Draco didn't need to stop after this one, because he wouldn't mind an entire Manor filled with grandbabies. How did the saying go? Barefoot and pregnant and out of the Aurors? Yes, that was how Lucius wanted his son-in-law.
Verbally Andy said it was great news, but she kept it to herself that she thought three babies were enough for the young couple. Harry getting pregnant so soon would detract from Teddy and the attention he would get. Teddy wasn't even the biological child and was close in age to the twins, so odds were that he'd get short changed in this family without another baby added to the mix.
After the well-wishing from their family died down, Draco leaned into Harry, nipping at his ear, and whispered that he wanted their next date to be the next evening. It was too soon to tell if Harry was pregnant yet, but it didn't hurt to try again. Harry was all too eager for the sex, which in his opinion was the best part about trying for a baby. He agreed instantly.
Harry began to think of all of the arrangements he would need to make for his date tomorrow night. He'd have to go over to Grimmauld Place to clean up and get some fresh flowers. Maybe he could ask the Weasleys to come over and help again; either that or use whichever house elves Draco had sent to live at Grimmauld Place to help. He didn't know which elves had been sent, but they had to be better than Kreacher.
Then Harry remembered that tomorrow was Bellatrix's funeral and that he would have to watch Draco all day, because he didn't know what time it'd be. That meant that there was a chance that he wouldn't be able to prepare Grimmauld Place, so he went while Draco and the twins went down for their afternoon nap. He left Draco a note saying where he was going and apparated to the kitchen of Grimmauld Place.
"Elves!" Harry called.
Three elves came crawling out from under the furnace where Kreacher had kept his nest. The nest looked new and clean and there was nothing but fresh straw material in there. The elves were a family, with a mother, a father, and a baby elf. They introduced themselves as Cotton, Sparky, and baby Dooly. Cotton, the father, said how happy they were to be living at Grimmauld Place and promised to keep the place in tip top condition. Cotton was already working on fixing up the garden and Sparky assured Harry that she had cleaned the entire house and would make a dessert for tomorrow night.
Harry thanked the elves, which caused Sparky to cover her baby's ears as if Harry had said a bad word. He ignored the strange elf behavior and went up to his bedroom to check to make sure the room was as clean as Sparky said it was. Along the way he noticed that the house was in remarkably better shape; it had never looked this good when Kreacher was the house elf. Even his bedroom was spotless and his bed was made, which was not how he'd left it. Then he checked the bathroom, which was also perfectly clean. And with everything taken care of except for the flowers, he apparated back to the Villa and climbed into bed with Draco. He'd worry about picking some flowers from the garden tomorrow.
Authors Note: Please review!