Chapter 6

Lily

Harry was lounging in his living room watching some cooking competition on the TV. On the coffee table in front of him were the remnants of a Dairy binge. At seven and a half months pregnant, he felt it was justified. His stomach was now distended to a point that all of his clothes had to be spelled to fit him. Steve had been very supportive…when he was available. SHIELD had decided that it was still too risky to have him live out of the compound he presently called home. Harry hadn't liked that, he had gone straight to Fury and informed him that either he allowed him to move in, or he would have an irate pregnant wizard living in one of their compounds. It seemed that was a risk he wasn't willing to take. They eventually came to a compromise that once the baby was born, he would let Steve move in.

He was just debating if he should get something else to snack on when he felt the wards react to an intrusion. He took a moment to analyze the wards before he figured out that someone had tried to Apparate directly onto his property. Not an intelligent thing to do. Not even Serene had the ability to apparate onto the property. Resigning himself to having to look into it. He struggled to his feet and made his way out of the house.

It didn't take him long to find the source of the disturbance. It was on the far side of the back of his property, that he found a woman trapped in the web of his wards. She didn't look amused by this in the least. Harry realized she was wearing a uniform. The same one he had seen in the WAND files he had been receiving detailing his personnel. After he realized that, he quickly identified the woman as Pandora Peters, the previous Director for WAND.

"Well well, Miss Peters. This is a surprise. I do wish you had called ahead. This situation might have been avoided." He said allowing his amusement to show.

She could only glare, unable to actually speak or move whilst trapped as she was.

"Now now, no need to glare like that," He said waving his hand and allowing the wards to free her. "Tell me, Agent, what business would bring you to my doorstep? Or I suppose backyard would be more accurate." He said still highly amused. Had she honestly thought that he wouldn't have wards set up?

"Your file didn't make any mention of wards like that." She snapped.

"Whereas I have absolutely no idea how you would have come into possession of my file, and I'll not be entertaining any theories on that just yet. I would assume that whoever wrote it wasn't aware of my full ward network. It is quite complex after all."

She scowled but said nothing more as she cleaned herself of invisible dust.

"Director Potter, I came to find out just when you will be assuming your duties." She said in a manner that was professional, while still being clear that she didn't like him.

Harry rubbed the back of his head. "Um, not sure if you noticed, but I'm a little…. well, pregnant at the moment. I won't be able to take on any duties until well after the baby is born." He pointed out.

"Your personal life should have no bearing on the consistency of your work, Sir." She said practically spitting the word.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Agent, if you have something to say-"

"I do not question my orders, sir."

"And yet here you are, playing the passive aggressive role."

"I am only doing my job." She said with a sneer but yelped when she felt a stinging hex hit her thigh.

"That was a warning agent, I will not tolerate that attitude. Furthermore, this issue has already been discussed between my self and the WSC. If you have a pro-" but Harry was suddenly cut off by a sharp shooting pain shooting up his side. "GAH!" he exclaimed clutching his stomach.

"Sir?" Pandora asked, though this time there was obvious concern in her voice.

"I'm fine. I-I'm sure its nothin-" but he was cut off by another shooting pain followed by a very obvious wetness in his pants. Panic began to set in as he realized what was happening.

"no no no no! it's too early!" He said falling to his knees.

"Sir, what's happening?"

"The baby's coming." He said quietly causing the woman to pale.

"I'm gonna need you to take me back to the house and call some people for me." He said trying to calm his breathing.

To her credit, Pandora followed these orders to a 'T'. Using a levicorpus spell, she brought him smoothly and quickly back to the house. once there he told her to call Fury, he would be able to contact Serene and Steve more quickly than Pandora. While she was doing that, he banished his clothes and summoned a large blanket to cover himself. He could already feel the birth canal forming in the space between his testicles and hole. Things were happening quickly, and it was making him nervous. He tried to focus fully on his breathing to calm himself down.

"Sir," Pandora said coming back in the room. "Director Fury said that he would call the right people."

"Thank y-ARG!" he screamed as he felt a contraction hit.

No! the birth canal isn't fully formed yet! If the baby tries to come out now it could be bad.

"What can I do?" Pandora asked helplessly.

Harry could only shake his head as he fought through the pain. Sweet Merlin this was horrible. He was just about to ask for death when Serene and Steve came barreling through the door, followed closely by Fury.

"Harry, talk to me, what's happening?" Serene asked even as she waved her wand over him.

"The baby is coming," he panted out, "but the canal isn't wide enough yet!" Steve immediately fell next to him taking one of Harry's hands in his, in an attempt to offer comfort.

Serene closed her eyes in a silent plea for strength. "The baby is impatient huh? We have two options here Harry. Number one, I perform a Caesarean Section and remove the baby myself." She paused as he screamed and did his best to break the hand that was holding his desperately. "Or two, I dilate the Canal artificially and we deliver the baby that way."

"Which is…. Safer?" he panted

"The C-Section is safer for you overall, but your womb is magic. It has a higher risk for the baby. If I dilate you artificially, the baby will be born at minimal risk, but it could cause you serious damage." She explained.

Harry panted for a moment, but when another contraction hit him he screamed out the number two.

Serene wasted no time as she set to work casting the spells required. Steve, meanwhile, stayed next to Harry, trying to encourage him.

"It's okay baby, I swear you're going to be okay."

"Steve! If you say the word OKAY one more time-" He cut off as another pain ran through his body "FUCK! I swear to God Steve, you're bottoming from now on! I am not going through this again!"

"Anything you say, Harry." Steve agreed readily, he would agree to anything if he thought it would help.

"Don't Patronize me!"

Fury walked over to the corner of the room where Pandora Peters stood awkwardly watching everything unfold.

"Peters."

"Director,"

What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story." She said simply. No way was she going to say that she came here to bother her own Director.

For the next hour, they watched Harry as he continued to yell threaten and scream. All while Serene continued her work. When she finally got him to a point where he could push, the baby came quick. It took only two pushes and the room was filled with the cries of a newborn.

"Steve," she said holding up the tiny body to him, "Take your Daughter and get her cleaned up and weighed, would you? I need to wrap things up here."

Steve looked to Harry who tiredly nodded his head. Having gained confirmation that he was alright with it, Steve took hold of his slimy baby girl and left the room.

"Fury, keep him busy! And you, whatever your name is! Ward the doors! I need all my concentration here," she said getting back to her work with a much more serious expression then she had held a moment ago.

"What's happening?"

"He's hemorrhaging, badly. I can stop it, but I need to focus, now MOVE!" she almost yelled as her wand continued its work trying to stop the bleeding.

Fury wasted no further time as he left the room. As soon as he was out of the room

Pandora set about putting up Wards to keep others out. It didn't take her long before she turned back, her task complete, and watched the Healer work. Serene was a flurry of wand movements and incantations as she continued to heal Harry. From her new position, Pandora could see the blood pooling.

"This isn't going to work," Serene muttered before casting a glance over her shoulder. "Go in my bag, there should be a tear shaped bottle with a red potion inside." She ordered the WAND Agent.

Pandora went over and looked. There were a lot of potions like that. "This one?" she asked holding one of them up.

Serene barely even glanced before she nodded. "I need you to feed it to him. I almost have the bleeding stopped now, but he's lost too much blood as is." She explained, even as Pandora moved to sit by his head. "If I stop now, almost all my work will be undone and we end up back at square one." She explained before going back to her spell casting.

Pandora fed him the potion easily. And set to waiting for further instructions. Twice more over the course of what felt like two hours, Serene had him drink another potion. One was another blood replenisher, and the other was a healing potion. Then, Finally after so long waiting. Serene wiped her brow with a sigh of relief.

"The bleeding has finally stopped. Now he just needs to rest."

-oOlllOo-

Steve was pacing outside the door. His baby daughter sleeping peacefully in his arms. Fury had attempted to get him to leave so the baby could be checked by a SHIELD Doctor, but he had known something was amiss as soon as he had brought it up. Fury wasn't really scared of anyone, but he did have a healthy degree of respect for Harry. The notion that he would even suggest taking the baby to SHIELD without telling Harry was so out of character, that Steve had immediately been put on guard.

As it turned out. He had a right to be. When he tried to re-enter the room, he found the doors locked and seemingly reinforced. He was forced to resign himself to waiting anxiously for news. Fury had tried a few more times to get him to calm down but gave up when it became clear that he had no intention of listening.

To Fury, it was no surprise that the baby had caused some damage. He wasn't a Doctor, but a ten-pound 4-ounce baby was big for anyone to have to carry, never mind that Harry was a male. He knew from several conversations he had had with his Brother over the last few months, that babies born from male pregnancies were often on the smaller side, somewhere between six and seven pounds. So, For Harry to give birth to a ten pounder was ridiculous. Still, from what he knew of him, Harry never did anything by half or even normal standards. After almost two hours of waiting, the door finally opened to reveal Pandora and an exhausted-looking Serene.

"Is he…" Steve asked immediately.

"Harrys gonna be just fine. He's resting now, but you can go see him." Serene answered with a tired smile.

Steve didn't waste any time and made his way inside to see his lover.

Serene turned back to Fury. "How big was she?"

Fury winced. "19 inches long, 10 pounds 4 ounces."

She sighed resigned. "I should have guessed that Steve would make a big baby."

"Do you think it's the super serum?" Fury asked seriously

She shrugged "Anything is possible. If she starts bending Iron bars at two, I think we'll have a decent idea." She answered.

Steve, meanwhile, had gone to sit next to Harry. He already looked less pale then he had earlier. The bleeding having been stopped and the blood replenishers doing their job. He reached forward and absently brushed aside some of his fringe. "You did Harry," he said quietly. "We have a beautiful baby girl, all thanks to you."

He held her up as if to show him. She was asleep now. Her little face had smoothed out in her sleep. She hadn't opened her eyes for him yet, not even while he had been cleaning her. Steve was very happy now, that he had listened to Harry and watched a few videos on how to hold and care for a child. Of course, theirs was going to have magic. So, he was going to have to be careful of that until she was older. According to Harry, she would most likely have little to no control over her magic until after she started school. Or at least, that's what Harry had said. Serene had pointed out that it was likely her magic would begin to taper off around the age of eight, but Harry had laughed and pointed out that no member of his family was in the norm.

Harry opened his eyes to gaze at his family tiredly. "Hey you," Steve said with a smile.

Harry looked at their baby girl and his lips twitched.

"Lily," He said quietly before falling back to sleep.

Steve smiled. His Daughter finally had a name. He noted that a phone was ringing somewhere in the house, but he paid it no mind as he continued to watch over his new family.

After a few moments of Silence, Serene came back in, looking just as tired as earlier. "Um, Steve?"

"What is it Serene?" he asked, not bothering to look up from Harry as he bounced his baby girl absently in the crook of his arm.

"Hermione Granger is on the line, she's demanding to talk to you." She said sounding only slightly annoyed.

Steve sighed as he knew he wasn't going to be able to ignore the witch. He gave a small kiss to Harry's brow, before standing up and leaving the room to go find the Magical phone in the house. Harry had moved it from his bedroom to his Study at some point, it was far more convenient that way. Especially considering that, after he and Hermione had supposedly patched things up, she had started calling him at the most inconvenient times. That wasn't to say she called while he was trying to sleep or anything like that, no no no. She always seemed to call when they were in the middle of sex. Every, single, time.

Steve stepped into Harry's study, his baby girl fussing a little in her sleep. As he calmed her down, he looked at the room, it was always interesting how every room in this house was a little different in their styles. The study was done in rich reds and browns. On the wall to the left was a wood stove, set on top of a decorated and polished cement slab. The wall behind it was finished with a dark wood wainscoting with several rows of bookshelves on either side of it. The opposite wall had several more bookshelves and a few pictures hung up on it. Harry had shown them to him once. One was of a group his parents had once been a part of, something called "The Order of the Phoenix". He wasn't really sure how he had felt about Harry's parents apparently being vigilantes. But Harry had pointed out that that was rather hypocritical, coming from a spandex wearing crimefighter.

Directly in front of that wall was Harry's desk. It was a huge solid wooden thing. Steve was convinced that Harry must have used magic to get it in there because there was no other way the thing would have fit otherwise. He had thought it was made out of Mahogany when he first saw it, but Harry had said it was made out of something called Caranda. On the desk was the Phone, the receiver resting on its side waiting for him to pick it up.

He didn't even bother to center himself, too worried about Harry to care about much else. "Hello?"

"Steve? Ronald come here, it's Steve!" she said, and it sounded like she was moving about for a moment.

"Stop hitting me Woman, I'm right here sweet Merlin!" another voice said on the other side.

"Steve, where's Harry? His Healer wouldn't tell us anything!" she asked worriedly

Steve sighed in exhaustion. "He's just sleeping. The baby came earlier than we thought, it was a hard birth, but he's fine."

"Birth!? What in the Hell are you talking about!?" Hermione and the other voice asked together.

Steve blinked. "Didn't Harry tell you he was pregnant?"

"No, he did not!" Hermione almost screeched into the phone, forcing him to hold it away from his ear. "we're coming over there!"

"What?" both Steve and the man on the other end asked simultaneously.

"This is non-negotiable, we are coming to see Harry. We'll be there by tomorrow afternoon. And don't tell Harry. He wants to keep secrets, then he has to deal with a few surprises." Hermione said, then hanging up to the sound of the other man trying to talk her out of it.

-oOlllOo-

When Harry finally woke up, the first thing he noticed was the distinct pain in his lower back. He remembered everything right up to Serene saying that he was hemorrhaging, but after that, it was all a blur. He groaned as he rolled himself into a sitting position, the strain reminding him that he no longer had the baby bump.

"Well, I see you're finally awake Harry." Said a very familiar, and at that moment, terrifying voice from off to the side.

Slowly looking over, Harry felt his heart drop into his stomach as he laid eyes on a heavily pregnant Hermione.

"So, how do you feel?" She asked with a smile that didn't meet her eyes as she reached for a cup of tea on the tray next to her. "Your friend Serene makes an amazing Ginger Lavender tea, I haven't felt sick all day."

"Oh, um, Hermione… when did you get here?"

"Ronald and I arrived late yesterday." She said simply, putting the now empty cup back on the tray.

"Ron's here?"

"Yes," she answered. "Honestly, we were quite worried when Steve told us about what a hard time you had giving birth…" she said, leveling a glare at him.

Harry paled. "I, um, uh, it's not what you think?" he offered nervously, already knowing that he was in for one hell of a lecture.

-oOlllOo-

Downstairs Steve, Ron, and Serene were having their morning Coffee when the house rang with the yell of "HARRY JAMES POTTER!"

Steve looked to Ron, who didn't look all that phased. "Should we be worried?" he asked.

Ron shook his head. "She's normally more level-headed," Ron explained. "But since she got Pregnant, she has these snaps. Best to just stay out of her way."

"Yeah but,"

"Look, Harry can take care of himself. Besides, Hermione knows full well the thing Harry hates more than being hexed, is being lectured." He said with a roll of his eyes before he looked pointedly at the bassinet with the fussing baby girl in it next to Steve. "And, you know as soon as you walk ten feet away, she's going to start crying."

Steve sighed. His baby Daughter had been very clingy since her birth. Not wanting him out of her sight. He was hoping that having Harry around might help mellow her out somewhat. He also knew that he and Harry needed to discuss names. Apparently, there were no magical means of finding the baby's gender before birth. And going to a normal hospital was out of the question since bringing a pregnant man in for a screening would raise a few too many red flags. As a result, they hadn't really managed to pick out a name for her before the birth. Not that they would have anyway. Harry had said that choosing a name for their child before they even knew them seemed rather impersonal.

"Is it normal for her to be this…attached?" he asked worriedly

Serene nodded. "It is, especially in magical children. Children are far more sensitive to the energies around them than we adults are. As we get older, we learn to…tune out the white noise, I guess you could say." She explained. "She knows that you're her Father, and She knows that Harry isn't altogether well, so she's clinging to you for support."

He placed his hand into the bassinet and gently rubbed her chest and belly, he had found that it calmed her down. "So, she is magical then," he commented as he watched her settle down from her fussing.

Serene and Ron raised their eyebrows, "The floating bottle this morning wasn't enough of a clue?" Ron asked.

Steve blinked. "I thought that had been one of you."

"No, it's customary in the magical world to not use magic around a newborn until they either reach the age of two, or display magic themselves," Serene explained for him.

"So, Harry wouldn't have used magic either?"

Ron let out a loud bark of laughter. "HA! Harry is anything but traditional. That particular tradition is more of a bad habit than anything else by this point." He explained with a huge amused grin. "it was started by a bunch of uppity purebloods who wanted to know if they had a magical Heir, or if they had to try for another one. Harry wouldn't give two shits if she was born with a tail, he's not one to cast his kid aside over something like not having magic. Not that it matters at this point." He finished proudly.

"Even still, it's both a blessing and a curse really." Serene continued. "It's great that her magic has displayed this early, but you guys are gonna have your hands full trying to handle her."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked nervously.

"Well," She said putting her hand under her chin in thought. "When a nonmagical child throws a tantrum, they might throw a few things around, and tire themselves out. But a magical tantrum, phew boy."

Ron nodded in agreement. "My niece threw one the other day, a real doozy of one. Her mum was trying to ween her off the bottle. Well, that little girl wasn't having any of that. They were still trying to get the scorch marks off the wall when we left." Ron said not noticing how pale Steve had become.

Serene looked interested. "Scorch marks?"

"Her Mums a Veela, so she has a… what's that word Hermione used…A proclivity for Fire?" He said after thinking of the word.

Serene nodded in understanding. Steve, on the other hand, had no idea what a 'Veela' was, and he wasn't altogether sure he wanted to know either.