Author's Notes: First part, all nice and happy... thank you Arnel for beta'ing.

Please go check out my Pat reon (take out the space, this platform censors words) account, Sarah Jaune. I have the first book in one of my series FREE for another week or two! You can join for a very low fee and read the whole rest of the series, then cancel after one month :D It really does help support my original works.

I know this story is long and drawn out, but I'd always planned on this going until Al is about 21 and he's 20 now in the timeline so there isn't much left to go. Then I'll likely hang up my fanfiction hat for a long time, so if you like my stuff consider following me on face book (Sarah Jaune) and/or the pat reon. We have months of writing yet, but it'll go by fast.

As always, please leave a review even if it's to yell at me that Al and Nat need to get their acts together already lol
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Chapter 80

Teddy awoke with a start, unsure of what had startled him awake, but then felt his wife's freezing cold foot on his bare calf and relaxed. He turned his head slowly to see her blue eyes watching him. "Why are you up?" Teddy asked thickly, clearing his throat as he tried to clear away the sleep. He squinted at the clock and saw it was just after three in the morning.

"I'm in labor," Victoire informed him quietly.

Teddy's heart gave a single jolt, but then he relaxed and grinned. "Yeah? She's decided to come today?"

"Looks like," his wife agreed. "My water hasn't broken yet and the contractions aren't very regular, but they're starting to pick up."

Teddy leaned in and tenderly kissed her, lingering over her lips and her cheek, brushing his fingers along her cheek and through her hair. Merlin, he loved this woman. He'd loved her for so long, and yet it never felt long enough. He'd thought he'd known what it was to love her when he'd been eighteen, but hadn't understood then, not really. He didn't know this bone deep love that would be wound between them with strands of memories, kisses and their children's laughter. "I'll go ahead and let everyone know," Teddy told her.

She brushed her fingers along his chest. "Alright, I don't know if they need to rush or not, but… oh wait," she paused and he twisted so he could take her hand, letting her squeeze his through the contraction.

He silently counted in his head and noted the pain lasted a good forty-five seconds and then he audibly heard the pop of her water breaking. He didn't need her to tell him what that meant. He'd been through two other labors with her and when contractions hit that level, things were starting to move. "You good?" he asked when she relaxed her hand.

"Yeah," she panted quietly. "Maybe…"

He grabbed for his wand and waved it, cleaning up a lot of the water that had just spread all over the bed. "I'll tell them to move fast," Teddy promised as he grabbed for a pair of trousers and a jumper. He called for Audrey first and then for Fleur and finally Ginny.

Audrey arrived just as he stepped away from the Floo and they made their way upstairs to find Victoire on her hands and knees, rocking in the bed. "Alright, my darling girl," Audrey told her as she helped her to strip out of her wet underpants. "Let's see how you're… oh, you're already crowning."

Teddy stopped and looked and sure enough, there was the baby's head.

"Owwwww," Victoire let out a low moan and he quickly moved up on the bed, getting up near her shoulders. "Hold me up," she told him.

"Okay," he said as he scooted around so she could wrap her arms around his shoulders and rest her head. He held her up through another two contractions, one on top of the other. Ginny rushed in followed quickly by Fleur and a moment later the baby slid out into Audrey's hands and he felt Victoire sag into him, crying softly. "Luv," he laughed softly and felt his own tears as he gently helped her down onto the bed on her side so Audrey could hand her their baby girl.

"She's beautiful," Victoire whispered reverently as she kept her eyes fixed on their baby.

The baby had let out several annoyed squawks, but at the sound of her mother's voice, she'd quieted instantly and focused in on Victoire.

Teddy scooted down until he was lying next to them, the baby between them. Victoire looked up at him and smiled and he leaned in to kiss her. "Thank you," he whispered reverently, in awe of her and the gifts she'd given him. Then he leaned down towards the baby and named his daughter, "Welcome to the world, Ireland Genevra."

Ginny let out a snort and then laughed. "Well, at least Ireland is a lovely name."

Teddy looked up and grinned at his surrogate mother. "It's only fair."

"Yes, I have Olivia Fleur," Fleur agreed as she kept her arm around Ginny. "Oh," she said as she squeezed her hard. "We have another bebe!"

He didn't move as his aunts and mother went to work, magically cleaning the sheets and taking care of Victoire. He lay stroking his baby's cheek and her head which was still a little damp and sticky from birth. The mothers had warmed the room, though, so he was a comfortable temperature for the baby.

"Let me clean her up and get her in a nappy," Audrey said as she moved over behind Victoire and reached out to take the baby. The moment the baby was out of Victoire's arms, she started screaming her head off.

Victoire was not a novice mother, so normally she didn't worry about a bit of fussing, but she glanced in distress towards the baby as Audrey quickly cleaned her. She made to move, but Teddy stilled her. "I have her," he promised as he rose up and went to the baby. "Sweetheart," he whispered, getting in close to Ireland's head. "Hey," he said and she turned towards him, snuffling pitifully. "Very soon Mummy will have you and then everything will be alright. We just need to make sure you don't pee all over us."

Ireland seemed to consider him, and before she could make up her mind about what she thought of this situation, she was all clean and this time Teddy picked her up to take her back to Victoire. In the short time he'd had his back turned, Fleur and Ginny had completely changed Victoire and cleared up the rest of the mess from birth. She held out her arms and he gave the baby back to her. Ireland seemed to completely relax again, rooting her face into Victoire's chest.

"You might have a mummy's girl on your hand," Ginny told him with a grin.

"It's only fair," Victoire said as she helped the baby latch on to nurse. "All the others have been very attached to him."

"She's right," Teddy agreed with a smile of remembrance as he watched them. "Except when Emma was about a year old. She had about a month when she didn't want anyone but you."

"Oh, yeah, that was fun," Victoire agreed. She held out her hand for him and he climbed back into the bed, snuggling in with her. He should have been exhausted, but he was wide awake.

"We're going to let you sleep for a bit," Audrey told them. "We'll go rest downstairs, so call if you need us. I'll check on the baby in an hour or so."

"Alright," Teddy agreed as they dimmed the lights. He watched his wife and he watched his smallest daughter and saw the moment each fell back into sleep. He nearly picked the baby up to burp her, but knew it would startle Victoire awake if he did, so he let them sleep, keeping watch until he, too, drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, he carried Olivia in while Emma and Amelia walked to his room to meet their baby sister.

"Mummy," Emma said as she walked in to see Victoire sitting in bed, holding the baby. She stopped at the edge of the bed and boosted Amelia up before clambering up, herself and crawling over to Victoire. He wanted to ask her to be careful, but he saw that Emma was being careful. She studied the new baby and then said, "She has brown hair!"

"It looks like it," Victoire agreed as Teddy sat on the edge of the bed, still holding Olivia. "It might not stay brown, but it is right now."

"She wittle," Amelia commented as she picked up Ireland's hand and then dropped it.

Teddy also wanted to say something about that, but he knew from long experience that he had to pick his battles and the baby of the family was going to be petted and poked and prodded. A lot. "Remember we talked about being gentle?"

"Uhhuh," Amelia agreed and then pointed to herself. "Me-uh gentle," she assured her, butchering her own name in a way that always made him smile. "Come Wivvy!" she said to her twin.

Olivia shook her head and buried her face in Teddy's neck. His heart clenched as he held her tighter, soothing her with his hand on her small back. She was getting so big, but even still she felt so small in his arms. "Livy isn't ready yet."

"Do you want me to hold you?" Victoire asked their daughter. Olivia shook her head again and tightened her arms around Teddy's neck.

"She wasn't awake," Teddy explained to Victoire, who nodded. Even if she had been awake when the other two were hopping around to see the new baby, Olivia may have still reacted like this. She was slower to warm up than her gregarious twin.

"Well," Ginny said coming into the room. "What do we think of our new baby?"

"She's pretty," Emma told her. "She got brown hair!"

"I did see that," Ginny agreed as she moved over towards them, running a gentle hand along Olivia's back, adding comfort, but not commenting. "Who is ready for breakfast?"

"MEEEEE!" came the two shrieks of Emma and Amelia. Teddy chuckled when he saw that Ireland didn't even stir at the noise. She was already used to chaos.

"Do you want to go with Gamma for breakfast?" Teddy asked Olivia, but she shook her head. "Alright, two little monkeys down to eat. I'll bring Olivia down when she's ready."

"Alright," Ginny agreed as she took the girls hands and walked them out.

Teddy stood and moved around the bed, climbing in to sit next to Victoire. He tried to settle Olivia onto his lap, but she was having none of it, insisting on resting on his shoulder. They'd been through this before with her, so they didn't comment and instead spoke of other things that weren't of much consequence. It took about ten minutes before Olivia squirmed down to sit in his lap, her fingers firmly in her mouth. It took another ten minutes and Fleur bringing up breakfasts on a tray before Olivia moved further.

"Ireland needs breakfast," Olivia told Teddy as she reached up with her damp fingers to grasp his chin so he'd look at her.

"Mummy gave her breakfast," Teddy promised her. "Remember how baby eats?"

She nodded and then reached for a piece of bacon, which she daintily started to eat from.

Olivia didn't talk as much as Amelia, which they'd started to notice when the twins were about eighteen months old. But when she did speak, it was a lot clearer and easier to understand than her sister. Victoire said, not without some truth, that Livy couldn't get a word in edgewise between her sisters, but that when she actually had something to say, she wanted to make sure she was understood.

Amelia sometimes just chattered about absolutely nothing and didn't really care whether the people around her were listening or not.

He heard a rap at the door and glanced up to see Harry and Bill in the doorway.

Olivia squealed and stood up, tottering a bit on the bed while Teddy grabbed the back of her pajama shirt to keep her upright. "We have a baby!" she told her grandfathers with a lot of enthusiasm.

"I see that!" Bill told her and he came over and plucked her up, giving her a loud, smacking kiss. "Papa!" she said to Bill and pointed. "She has brown hair! Did you see, Granddad?" she said as she turned to Harry, who was grinning at her. "It's wike yours, Granddad, but not gray."

"She's a totally different kid with them," Victoire said under her breath. Teddy had to agree. She was always a bubble of energy with her grandfathers, and he didn't know why, but he was glad for it. They always helped her to feel special, which he knew was probably part of it.

"I would hope she wouldn't have my gray hairs," Harry grinned as he bent in to tickle her. "What's our new baby's name?"

"Ireland," Olivia told him proudly, amazingly pronouncing it correctly.

"I bet," Harry said to her as he studied her, "that you're going to be a wonderful big sister."

Olivia seemed to consider this for a moment and then looked back at the baby before she nodded slowly. "Yes," she said finally.

That was it. Just yes.

Their first day as a family of six went very well. Teeny, who had stayed on with them to help them out, was now a full-grown elf. She still played with the girls a bit, but mostly she managed the household for them. She accepted wages and took days off, but she rarely left except to see her mother and new baby brother. She wanted to be with them. As she'd explained it to Teddy, in her elfin way, they were her family and this was where she wanted to be. Teeny was very excited to meet the baby and promised them that she had the running of the house all set. He only felt a little guilty over it, but honestly it seemed to make her happy. Victoire had been encouraging her to find something she liked to do besides work, but so far that hadn't resulted in anything.

He'd hoped maybe she would be a different kind of elf, and in some ways she was, but she was still an elf and that was that in Teeny's mind.

Ireland wasn't even twenty-four hours old when Victoire said, "I want to do this again."

Teddy paused in the act of pulling off his robe and studied his wife who was nursing the baby, she on her side with the baby snuggled close to her. She didn't even take her eyes off the baby as she spoke and he knew that Ireland would enjoy a lot of her mother's undivided focus. "We are not picking a 'U' name," Teddy said flatly. "I did a search at the library and there are no good names that start with 'U'," he assured her.

"That's fine," she agreed softly. "We can move on to something else or pick another vowel name. I was thinking maybe Beatrice next time."

He left his t-shirt on along with his boxers, knowing his odds of getting up in the middle of the night were high, and crawled into bed with her. It was just after ten but they were both ready to get to sleep. He almost said they might have a boy, but at this point he thought it might just be easier to only have girls. He already knew what to do with girls, after all. "I like Beatrice," he agreed. "But then if we have a Beatrice, we'd have to have another or she'd wonder why she was the only one without a vowel name."

"Hmm," Victoire mumbled as she bent to kiss the baby's soft head. "I think you might be right."

Teddy softly stroked the hair away from her face and leaned up to kiss her brow before dropping his lips to the baby.

Wherever they went, they were going together, and he knew he'd never regret any child they had. So, if that's what they ended up wanting, they could have two more.

~*~

"Caroline is about ready to pop," Lily told Scorpius after he'd helped her into their car and had come around to the driver's side. He'd already opened the baby seat door for Sera and she had her nose pressed up against the window, leaving her usual imprint on the glass.

They'd all stopped in for a short time to meet baby Ireland, but Lily hadn't expected to see Caroline.

"James said she was due a few days ago, but Nat said it looked like it would be another few days," Scorpius said he reversed the car so he could turn it around. He glanced over at his love and smiled, reaching over to take her hand and bring it up to his lips. "We still have until April, but I'm getting really excited to meet her."

They'd learned the baby was a girl from Nat and had decided on the name Lorelei Faith. It wasn't a name Scorpius had ever heard, but Lily had read it in a book and had fallen in love with it. Faith was, of course, for her big sister who hadn't made it. Scorpius was simply happy to be having a healthy baby with her. When he thought of how close he'd come to losing her, nothing else mattered. She would be close to eighteen when the baby was born, depending on when the baby was born. Maybe they'd share a birthday.

He focused on the road again and let his mind drift as he drove them back home. He'd had a few things in work that needed his attention, but nothing urgent. He was out of his training, now, and making good money which he'd started investing with Bill's help. He'd talked to Andrew about his own holdings, and he knew that in order to save his ancestral home he was going to need to build up a decent amount of capital. He didn't ever want to live in the home, and neither did Lily, but it was part of his family's heritage and maybe one of his children would want it at some point. Or possibly it could be repurposed for something else once his parents were gone. He didn't know.

He did know that his father's father, his grandfather, was very annoyed that the baby was a girl and that they hadn't selected to do something about that.

That simple, angry statement which had come in a letter to him, had told him a lot about his grandparents and their priorities. He'd asked Harry to put a block on their house so his grandfather wouldn't be able to write to him again and it had been bliss for about a month until Lucius had figured out a way around it.

His mother was ecstatic about having a granddaughter and his father… he'd been happy after he'd learned that this was not going to be their only child. It was, Scorpius knew, progress even if it was sexist and outdated progress. Draco wanted someone to carry on the Malfoy name and line.

Scorpius had mused to Teddy that having all girls was an excellent thing, and Teddy had laughed and reminded him that at some point he was going to have four teenage girls who all had their period at the same time.

He heard a soft murmur and glanced over to see that Lily had fallen asleep, her hand still in his. She was so beautiful that he wanted to watch her sleep, but he had to focus on the road. Technically he couldn't crash the car, as it was magical, but a police officer could still see him not paying attention to the road and that wouldn't do.

His mind continued to drift and before he knew it, he was pulling into their driveway.

He saw a woman stand from the porch and his heart clenched to see her face. He hadn't seen her in years. At this point, he'd even lost count at how long it had been.

He parked the car and turned off the engine before he squeezed Lily's hand. "Wake up, luv. Aunt Daphne is here."