Honey- Trace

Champion- Windy & Carl

Matilda- Oskar Schuster

Lily woke slowly, groggily, and painfully. The room was too bright, echoey and unfamiliar. Someone was walking around, their shoes clopping loudly on hollow wooden floor.

She squinted, and rubbed her eyes. She was hurting.

She looked up. Above her, a huge ornate-carved wooden headboard painted gold, a high white ceiling and a gold chandelier.

"I came as soon as Andromeda told me what had happened," said a voice. A woman. Lily recognised this person. "I couldn't believe it. What was your husband thinking? Dragging you all the way out here, heavily pregnant!"

Molly Weasley was here. And Lily remembered where she was, and why she was here, and why she was hurting.

Mrs Weasley's footsteps came closer, and she placed something on a surface beside the bed where Lily lay.

"Roast dinner leftovers, I'm afraid. But it's something. Everyone likes leftovers."

Lily turned her head, and blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light. On a table beside the bed was a plate covered with a cloth. Beyond that, a huge window. Beyond that, the Eiffel Tower.

Where was James?

"Your husband is in the other room with the others, feeding your son. That boy needed some attention from him, and you needed some rest."

Lily wanted to sit up. She felt uncomfortable, in a bed far too big to be hers, in an apartment that had only ever been intended for a romantic gesture. But she was so sore, and aching too much to move more than an inch.

"You should have sent for me straight away!" Mrs Weasley sighed, now sitting on the side of the bed. "I promised I would help you if you ever needed. Now look where we are."

Mrs Weasley sighed and stroked Lily's cheek. "Poor little thing."

She stood up, and looked around the room admiringly. "Still, it's very nice here. And look at that view..." Mrs Weasley gazed around the room, then chuckled. "That's a silly thing to say, I suppose. Not when it compares to this..."

Mrs Weasley approached something at the end of the bed, something which made her melt.

She bent down to admire the little person in the Moses basket.

"What a little angel..." Mrs Weasley put a hand to her chest. "I waited a decade for my girl..." she looked up at Lily, smiling warmly. "... you're very lucky."

The pain in Lily's middle was wearing her down. She looked at the baby; her tiny flexing fingers, her chubby cheeks, her pouting lips and her fluffy black hair.

She slipped into unconsciousness once more.

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James had failed his child before it was even born.

He'd arranged to have the rooms in Paris for one night, after the wedding, as a surprise for Lily. A little twenty-four-hour holiday before the baby came, a month away from when Healers had told them it would be born. A safe distance from the danger zone. It was too early to start tip-toeing through their daily life; too tense with anticipation to do anything.

They must have got the dates wrong.

A rooftop dance to the twinkly music from the restaurant below had turned into a battle with Harry to keep him from the edge of the roof, and at first Lily had said that her little twinges of pain were just anxiety pangs.

When Harry was born, Lily's mother had told them that childbirth got easier the more children you had.

But they were alone in a strange city this time, and the baby was big.

James had been too panicked to think rationally, too wracked with guilt and worry to leave her and fetch someone. Her hand was too tightly clamped around his for him to go anyway.

Lily had been screaming, red-faced and drenched in sweat, crying for her mother, and James had put her there.

It had occurred to James hours into Lily's labour that the baby might be sick. Or dead. Lily's twin brother had died on his way out of the womb. Genetics could to cruel things. It could happen to their baby. And all of the pain would have been for nothing, and would lead to a much worse agony.

He wondered if she would ever forgive him for this. He'd wondered the same when Harry was born, but this was too much. He'd been thoughtless, typical careless Potter, and now she was giving birth with no-one but a clueless, guilt-stricken, terrified husband to help her.

He'd caught his daughter as she came out, slimy and bloody, and handed her to Lily, who tearfully welcomed her second child into the world, and James was numb with shock and fear and love.

Now, hours later, after James had launched himself into a tornado of practicality, they had friends on hand to help. Lily was bed-bound, pale and deathly, her desire to have several children surely quashed after this ordeal.

But he saw Lily searching for her with her eyes whenever she woke. He would place the baby beside her, and she would weakly gaze at her with heart-breaking adoration, and James knew that this experience would be looked back on overall with unquestionable joy.

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"Can I hold her?" asked Sirius, holding his hands out.

"Hold your own Godchild," Remus replied, not taking his eyes off the tiny baby in his arms. "This one's mine."

It was a strange situation to be in: in an enormous bed fit for a Pope, in a Parisian apartment she'd never seen until last night, surrounded by friends who had come to France to meet the surprise arrival as though this sort of thing happened every week.

It was nice, watching her child slot in to their world so effortlessly, as though she'd always been there.

Lily reached for James' hand and pulled him towards her. "I wish we were going home."

James frowned, and Lily regretted wording it that way.

"We'll apparate as soon as you're feeling okay," he told her. "I'm so sorry."

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Stop apologising. It'll be a cool story for her one day."

"I monumentally fucked everything up."

Lily placed her hands on either side of his face. "No, you didn't. We're fine."

He still looked unconvinced.

"Remus," Lily called to the marauder. "Let James hold her."

"Whoa, whoa-" interjected Sirius as Remus began to walk towards them. "I haven't held her yet. I've got to go back in a few minutes!"

"Now that you mention it..." Remus turned to Sirius questioningly. "...you've only been married for about five minutes and you're already a really shitty husband. How does Isabelle feel about you leaving your honeymoon to come here?"

"If you didn't want me here, you shouldn't have sent me that owl. And besides, it's about three in the morning in Australia. She'll be asleep."

Remus begrudgingly passed the baby to Sirius, who grinned when she slowly opened her eyes.

Lily smiled. It was funny to see Sirius melt at the adorableness of children. He'd been borderline-besotted with Harry when he was born, and his feelings hadn't faltered since.

"She looks like Harry did..." he said softly, casting a glance at the toddler sleeping beside his mother. "Has she got a name yet?"

"Yes," said James. "Matilda."

Sirius gave Remus a suspiciously blank glance.

"What?" asked James. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," replied Sirius defensively. "It's... nice."

"I like it," said Remus. "It's very pretty."

From down the hall, they heard the front door of the apartment click open, and someone march down the hall towards them.

Andromeda breezed in, carrying several small brown paper bags. "I have pastries!" she sang, waving the bags around before dumping them on a side table. She looked around at the group. "What did I miss?"

"James just revealed the baby's name," replied Sirius.

"It's Matilda," Lily said, not wanting Sirius' announcement to be tainted with his obvious distaste.

"Oh!" smiled Andromeda brightly. "Very cute. Like a baby cow."

Sirius failed to hide a snort of laughter.

James rolled his eyes. "Well, we're not changing it now."

"Of course you can't," said Andromeda, approaching him with open arms for the baby. "You've told us what she's called, now it's branded on her. She is a Matilda, Matilda she is..." she scooped the now-drowsy baby out of James' arms and slowly moved to sit on the bed beside Lily.

"She is heavenly..." Andromeda gently rocked the baby in her arms.

"Getting broody, Annie?" Sirius asked of his cousin.

"Ha! No," replied Andromeda instantly. "I like handing back babies when they cry. Besides..." her humour faded. "... even if I wanted one, I don't think Ted could handle another child."

Lily reached out and stroked Andromeda's arm. "How is he?"

Andromeda sat up. "Better," she said with a deep breath. "He's happy and talking and staying awake longer and... he would've come to see you if he could, but-"

"Don't be silly," Lily interrupted. "He'll meet her eventually. He needs to recover."

Andromeda chewed the inside of her cheek. "I should get back to him."

"Yes, you should," replied Lily with a smile, holding her arms out for the baby.

Andromeda looked behind her at Sirius. "You need to get going too, Casanova. Your wife will have your guts for garters if she finds you missing."

"Nobody should be sleeping at night on their honeymoon anyway, Padfoot," James smiled, folding his arms. "Try harder."

While James and and Remus began to taunt Sirius, Andromeda handed the baby to Lily with a pout. "She's too cute. You don't deserve her." Andromeda stood and picked up her bag from the floor.

"You'll see her again soon," Lily assured her. "She's not going anywhere anytime soon."

Andromeda paused on her way out and raised her eyebrows. "You say that... and guess what I did this morning."

Lily looked at her curiously.

"I took Nymphadora to King's Cross."

Lily felt a stone drop in her stomach

Andromeda nodded. "Yep. She's left me. Hogwarts-bound. I expect I'll get my first owl from her in a month or two..."

Lily and James looked at each other, hurt by the realisations that they'd failed to notice their friend's sadness, and that after Matilda's tenth year, she would spend her birthday on a train each year, travelling away from them.

"Time flies, kids," Andromeda said, flinging her bag over her shoulder. "Enjoy your little creatures while they're still with you."

Andromeda took a look over at the baby again on her way out, and changed her mind and hurried back over to Lily's bedside to give her a hug goodbye.

"I do like the name..." Andromeda whispered in her ear. "I'm surprised you didn't go for something more... second-hand... know what I mean?"

Lily did know. "Harry is named after my father. But if we wanted to honour everyone we've lost, we'd need enough children to fill Hogwarts."

Andromeda half-smiled in understanding, and stroked the baby's cheek with her finger.

"She'll be someone new," she said, and glanced between Matilda and Harry. "I wonder who they'll become..."

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A/N: Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween mourning the deaths of two beautiful young things who never had this new child.