Chapter 1: Volunteering

It was chaos in the Potter household.

Days-old Lily Luna Potter was squirming and wailing as her mother Ginny tried, in vain, to bring the baby to her breast for feeding. Beside them, Harry Potter was at the desk in his study, attempting to tune out the cacophony as he read up on every parchment about breastfeeding he could get his hands on.

When Harry and Ginny had begun to discuss having children, Ginny had made it clear from the outset that she wanted to breastfeed all her babies. "That's what Mum did," she explained. Harry hadn't argued the point. Traditions ran hard and deep in the Weasley clan, the family he had married into.

At first, things had gone well. James had come along, followed scarcely a year later by Albus. Both boys had been very receptive to their mother's attentions - sometimes too much, in the case of the former. Ron had once called little infant James a glutton. But now, no matter what Ginny did, Lily would latch on, then promptly turn away, screaming, as if she sensed something that her mother did not.

"I... I can't feel anything!" The quiver in his wife's voice made Harry look up from his papers. It was very rare that Ginny cried. She had cried at Fred's death, then funeral. She had cried happy tears at their wedding, and when their first child was born. But that still confined Harry to counting on one hand the number of times Ginny - tough, irrepressible, irreverent Ginny - had ever gotten emotional. And when she did, Harry had learned that you'd better ruddy well pay attention.

Harry breathed deep through his nose, keeping his temper in check. He was more than a little frazzled, and barely staving off sheer panic over the state of his wife. "What do you mean, you can't feel anything? Isn't there, you know, any milk there?"

"I thought there was!" Ginny said desperately. She bounced Lily nervously, pacing the room and fretting. "I... I could feel my breasts changing when I was carrying her. Same as I did for the boys. But now, it just feels... empty."

Harry seemed to freeze where he sat, as a shuddering thought fell into his head unbidden. No, it couldn't be... breast cancer? He didn't know much about the disease, or even how it might manifest itself in a pregnant woman/new mother. For a brief instant, he entertained the idea of calling his cousin, Dudley, who had grown up quite a bit, gone on to university and eventually became a renowned cancer doctor. Harry and Ginny were on Christmas card terms with his relative, and had even dined together a time or two, though it had been painfully awkward. Ginny knew all about her husband's sordid upbringing, and though Harry had been much more willing to forgive, she had not.

"You want me to call Dudley...?"

"NO!" Ginny shot down, as he knew she would. "We don't need to bring your cousin into this!"

"Well, damn it, Gin, what do you propose we do, then? It's an angle, and from where I'm standing right now, it's all I can think of!" Harry angrily threw down his copy of The Joys and Benefits of Breastfeeding Your Magical Baby and stormed around the desk. "What was different about when you fed the boys? Try to remember! I can't very well figure out what's wrong unless you tell me!"

"I'm trying!" Ginny wailed.

CRACK! Ginny gave a little scream; Harry spun around, wand in his hand, nearly slipping on the polished hardwood floor of his office.

"Hermione!" he yelped.

Harry's sister-in-law froze when she saw the tense state of things. She bit her lip. "This is a bad time, isn't it?"

You think?, Harry wanted to say, but he held his tongue. He couldn't even remember the last time he and Hermione had fought; they got on famously. And really, it wasn't her fault she hadn't known how fragile things were. The birth from a couple of days before had been splendid, routine, Lily almost certainly the last in a line of 13 Weasley grandchildren, including the practically adopted Teddy Lupin.

Hermione's gaze traveled around Harry to rest on her best girlfriend. "What's wrong, honey?"

Ginny blinked back tears. "I can't feed her! It's like there's no milk in me! She's latching and latching and there's nothing I can give her!" She finally broke down. Hermione wheeled around to her brother-in-law, shaken.

"I've been busy pouring over parchments about alternative formulas, but nothing's helpful. And would it have killed someone to invent a charm that conjures breastmilk? But no... I have to watch my wife come apart, and I'm useless! I'm not supposed to be useless - I'm Harry Goddamn Potter!"

Hermione lay a gentle hand on his chest. "Calm down," she soothed. "I'll do it."

Harry blinked. "What?"

She flushed. "I... I still have some milk. Left-over from nursing Hugo. Let me nurse her." When her best friend still looked unconvinced, she clarified, "Just for now. Lily needs somebody's milk, Harry. Maybe it will at least buy you guys some time." A thought struck her. "Have you tried Dudley?"

Harry opened his mouth to say that Ginny wouldn't let him, but his wife cut across him. "That bloody tosser doesn't need to know about this!" Harry closed his mouth.

Hermione shrugged. "Fair enough. It was just an idea." She wasn't exactly a big fan of Dudley's either, and Ron's opinions on the subject were even more crude. Not long after Rose was born, Harry had talked his best mates into joining in on a triple dinner date with himself, Ginny, Dudley, and Dudley's wife. It had been disastrous.

Turning to her sister-in-law, Hermione beckoned for Lily. "Lily... come here, little gumdrop..."

Ginny passed a squirming and wailing Lily into Hermione's arms, and Hermione awkwardly undid her top. Harry turned his body away, facing the wall, out of respect.

Hermione's bare breast in sight, Lily latched on instinctively and began to suckle. Hermione smiled down at her niece.

"That's it!" she crooned in baby talk. "Oh, you're just a greedy little guzzler, aren't you? Aren't you? You have a very strong appetite... like your mummy..."

Ginny's face went as red as her hair as she scowled. Behind them, Harry had to shove a fist into his mouth to hold back a snort. Daring himself to turn back, he watched in relief as Hermione fed his baby, her goddaughter.

It was something, for now.