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This is the last chapter of Here to Live and Die, and with it, the end of the Hurricane series. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Chapter Twenty—Children of Hurricane

"But I want to, Uncle Harry."

It was still hard to be proof against a Teddy with a pouty underlip and the world in his deep green eyes, Harry had found. Perhaps especially when his eyes were deep green. He bent down near Teddy and touched his hair, which was shaggy and brown right now. "I know you want to," he said. "But it wouldn't be fair for you to have two turns when Victoire has only had one, would it?"

"Not fair!" Victoire echoed, from where she was jumping up and down on the side of the ring of trampled grass.

Teddy sighed, deeply enough that the breeze that whirled through Harry's hair couldn't compete. Harry only smiled at him, and Teddy turned around and lowered his head and tried to kick something that turned out not to be there. "All right, fine," he said, with all the graciousness of three years old, and stomped away, to stand with his arms folded outside the ring.

Nuisance snorted from the other side. Harry caught his eye, and Nuisance twisted his ears and shook his head a little. He didn't mind giving rides to the children, but he was just as happy that he had someone else to share the duty with now, Harry knew.

The kires in the center of the ring, one who looked more like a unicorn and had decided that she was female and her name was Iron, sank down to one graceful knee. Victoire leaped onto her back, which was shaggy like a goat's, and sank her hands into the white fur. Harry thought she would drum her heels for a moment, but she remembered the talk they'd had last time, and sat still. She did stick her tongue out at Teddy, though.

Teddy had his head down and didn't notice, thus preventing a scene.

Iron rose to her feet and turned her head back along her neck, as careful of the single long spiral horn that rose from the center of her forehead as Nuisance was of his antlers. "Are you well-balanced, dear little one?"

Victoire beamed and leaned forwards to pet Iron's neck. "Yes!"

Iron kicked up her heels in response, which made Harry glad that Fleur or Bill weren't here right now to see and gasp, and then began to prance around the center of the ring. Nuisance's nostrils flared. Harry grinned. He knew what Nuisance was thinking, again. He'd been present for the argument between Nuisance and Iron a few days ago when they had shouted at each other over who was better at prancing.

Teddy leaned against Harry's leg as Harry watched Iron and Victoire. Harry caressed his hair, and smiled into the distance. That they were all here, that no one was hurting as much anymore, that they had survived the storms of a year, and, right now, that Andromeda hadn't succeeded in taking Teddy back through the gate to Earth, seemed to him the greatest blessings imaginable.

What, you don't think the presence of your bondmate and son is the greater blessing?

Harry tilted his head back and closed his eyes as Draco's hand fell on the nape of his neck. It caressed and rubbed much the same way he was caressing Teddy; Draco, of course, could feel the kind of touches Harry was using on his godson through the bond. Harry let out a sound that could be a purr. Draco was always accusing him of being a cat lately, or as lazy as one, lying around on the bed when he didn't have a storm to fight or duties to do in the meadow.

What else am I going to do? he asked Draco, as the images flashing across his mind made Draco snort again in disapproval.

Make another child?

Harry opened his eyes in astonishment at that, and turned to glance at Draco, and Jeremy. Jeremy leaned against Draco's leg, watching Iron with big, solemn eyes that had settled into a stormy grey. He could walk, but not well, and usually wanted something around to hold onto so he didn't fall.

I suppose we could do that, Harry said slowly. I didn't think you would want one so soon. You just finished saying what a relief it is that Jeremy can finally walk now.

Draco turned and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Harry. Now they both watched the ring of grass where Iron gamboled and Victoire shrieked in excitement. Her silver hair flew behind her, and she had such a blissful smile on her face that Harry had to smile in return. If this was the way Fleur had been as a child, Harry was sorry he hadn't known her then.

I've thought about it, Draco said, picking the conversation back up deftly, as he had a habit of doing. Thought about little else, sometimes, during the days when you're flying storm patrol and I have to stay in the house.

I did offer to let you come with me last time.

Draco shifted against him again. No matter how old Jeremy is now, I don't want to chance leaving him an orphan.

Harry winced. It wasn't that Draco was afraid other people in the camp wouldn't treat Jeremy right. Things had worked out the way he thought they would; living with Jeremy all the time, people forgot what was strange about him, the same way they did about the mummidade and the riders and Nuisance and Iron. Hell, Hermione had been more negative about Iron when Nuisance trotted out of the hills with her last year, because she was still flowing from form to form and Hermione was afraid they were compromising her free will by thinking around her. It had taken forever to reassure her that being defined by others was normal for a kires, not the other way around.

No, Harry said. I know that you don't want to leave him without a family.

Draco leaned harder against his shoulder, and Jeremy whimpered a little. Teddy promptly tried to pick him up, but even though Teddy was taller and stronger at three than he'd been, he was too little to handle another toddler properly. Harry reached down and picked up Jeremy. Jeremy settled, content, into his arms, and stuck his thumb in his mouth as he watched Iron. Harry wondered what he was thinking. Jeremy said a few words now, but they didn't form a lot into coherent sentences.

Unless you take "No!" as a single sentence.

Harry snickered in agreement, and watched as Teddy edged his way up to the side of the ring, obviously waiting for the moment when it would be his turn to ride again. I do. He says it often enough.

Draco smiled, but said nothing, and the expectant pool of waiting silence spread out around Harry. He wondered how he should try to break it. If he should. He wondered whether he wanted another child.

Not right now.

Draco tilted his head towards Harry, and his curiosity raced across Harry's mind like a golden cloud lit from behind by sunset. Harry hadn't stopped finding Hurricane's sunsets more brilliant and wondrous than Earth's.

I had thought you might not be willing to consider it at all, Draco admitted. But why not right now?

I think we both need more of a holiday from nappies than this, Harry said. Especially since we both spend a lot of time with Teddy, too. We can let Jeremy grow up some more and have the experience of wanting a little brother before we dance him one.

I thought we might want a daughter this time.

Harry laughed and turned his head to drop a cheek on Draco's hair. You really are insatiable in your desires, aren't you? You get one fulfilled, and you immediately want something else.

Your arse should tell you how insatiable I am.

Harry clenched down a little, and hoped that his face wasn't absolutely flaming red. He was surprised that he'd managed not to cry out when Teddy jumped on him this morning to wake him up, in fact. Another problem that he'd never had when they lived on Earth, and that he wouldn't trade now for the chance to go back there.

I think we need more of a holiday, he repeated, when Draco did nothing but touch his arm and hum with deep satisfaction. Harry had to admit that the way he was thinking wasn't really going to deter Draco from deciding that they should have another child. Time to concentrate on the two children we have.

Draco was still for a second, and then he inclined his head and stepped back from Harry. Harry swallowed his protest. Draco's mind told him that he didn't resent what Harry had said, that he agreed that Teddy was their son as well as Jeremy, and that he would consent to wait. But there was still a depth to the middle of his mind that Harry wanted to understand and appease.

Draco smiled at him out of the corner of his eye. "As long as we can consider it someday," he said.

"Consider what?" Teddy was paying attention again now, looking up like an eager dog, and Jeremy was fussing to get down. Harry put him down, and he immediately leaned against Harry's leg and looked warily at the grass, like it was the deck of a tilting ship.

"Consider what?" Teddy repeated, and pinched Harry's leg, which was a nasty habit that he had lately.

Draco felt the flinch of pain from Harry and the silent shout that he couldn't bring himself to utter when Jeremy would start crying, and he immediately scooped Teddy up and carried him back towards Andromeda's house, saying, "No." Teddy's protests floated back to them on the wind, more about how he was going to miss his chance to ride Iron when Victoire was done than about how he hadn't done anything.

Harry rubbed the place where the pinch had landed and cursed under his breath. Jeremy watched him with his finger in his mouth and big, solemn grey eyes.

Harry picked Jeremy up and nuzzled his face into their son's forehead. "You have better role models than your Cousin Teddy," he told him solemnly. "Imitate them instead."

Jeremy nodded, the way he did whenever Harry talked to him in that tone. Harry knew that he was far from understanding yet, but that didn't matter. Jeremy wasn't of an age yet where he needed to understand.

He had just turned back to Iron and Victoire when Nuisance bellowed and hooted, and there was a rush of wings from overhead. Harry looked up to see the riders wheeling in precise patterns, not so much shielding the meadow as if looking like they'd like to deflect something from it.

After a few squinting moments, Harry could make out what had aroused their attention. The Tssisid were passing overhead in their migration again, later this year than it had been last year. Open Wings said that Harry turning some of the storms and sending them out over the ocean might have something to do with that.

Harry stroked Jeremy's hair and held him up so that he might witness the rushing golden beasts. Jeremy reached up with small hands and laughed, then began to pout when he realized that nothing was going to land in one of his reaching palms. Harry settled Jeremy back against his chest and stroked his hair, ducking his head to kiss his forehead.

He would begin fussing in a minute, their son. And Harry would take him back to their house, and he and Draco would soothe them together. And Bill and Fleur would come to fetch Victoire, and Angelina would tell them what minor wound she had managed to heal today, and Ron and Hermione would come by for dinner.

Harry liked his life.

Draco sat down and watched Teddy for a second. Teddy bowed his head and kicked at the edge of the bed. Andromeda had listened to what he had done, then shaken her head a little and said that, if Draco didn't mind, could he deal with it? She had another house that she was building, and she needed to concentrate on raising the magic to construct the walls.

So they were in Teddy's bedroom, and he had his lip stuck out far enough to be a step climbing to the top of some pyramid. Draco reached out and brushed his mind across Harry's, telling him that he would be home later.

Harry sent back a quick, wordless acknowledgment, and then Draco turned back to the problem of a cousin who pinched his bondmate and didn't seem sorry about it.

"You know that Victoire had to have a turn riding Iron," Draco said, which was true enough, and ought to have made Teddy look up and pay attention.

Teddy kept on with his head-bowed, foot-kicking act.

"But the reason you pinched Harry wasn't about that, was it?" Draco asked, musing to himself as if speaking aloud. "It was because you're rude, and you were angry that Harry wasn't paying attention to you right that second. And only rude little boys who can't behave themselves and can't be trusted around other children pinch."

"I'm not rude!" Teddy looked up.

"I think you are." Draco nodded decisively. "I think you should stay here for a few days, until you remember that you shouldn't pinch people. And you can't come over to our house. We don't want Jeremy learning bad manners from you."

Teddy's eyes were wide and teary now. "I'm n-not rude!" he said, and knuckled at his eyes.

"Well, maybe not," Draco conceded, making sure that Teddy heard the doubt in his voice. "But people who aren't rude apologize when they pinch someone, and you haven't done that yet."

Teddy flung himself forwards and hugged Draco around the legs. "I'm sorry," he said, his words so fast that Draco wouldn't have understood them if he hadn't heard them before. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'msorrysorrysorry—"

Don't you think that's enough? Harry murmured in the back of his head, a moment before Draco would have called a halt to the recitation himself.

Draco snorted and rolled his eyes at Harry, but it was all right, because Teddy wasn't watching. Draco caught him up and pulled him close, settling him on his lap and against him, while Teddy sniffled and wiped his eyes. "It's all right," Draco whispered to him. "It really is all right. It just means that you have to apologize, and you did. And now you can come over and have dinner with us if you want."

He thought he heard a voice draw in air behind him, and glanced over his shoulder. Andromeda could protest against that, and he supposed she had a right. But she wasn't there. She must have left for the house she was building.

"Yes!" Teddy looked up and wiped his eyes, still sniffling a little. "I want to come over and have dinner with you and Uncle Harry."

"And Jeremy?" Draco stroked his hair. Sometimes Teddy still seemed jealous of Jeremy, sometimes he ignored him, but most of the time they played together like brothers. Draco just didn't want him around Jeremy if this was going to be one of the bad days.

Teddy nodded, eyes wide. "And Jeremy."

"Good." Draco kissed his forehead. "Then you're forgiven. Come on." He stood up and held his hand out to Teddy.

Teddy ran ahead of him instead, saying, "The winds protect me!" He had contempt for anyone who wanted to lead him by the hand across the meadow, and Draco supposed in a way that was more a relic of leading a child around Diagon Alley than common sense as it applied to Hurricane.

Draco took his time in strolling out, but Teddy hadn't waited for him. He darted ahead towards the house that Draco and Harry shared with Jeremy now, one of the more recently-built ones, and didn't look back.

Draco smiled into the air. When we get there, he's your responsibility, he told Harry through the bond. I'll take Jeremy for a while.

You'll be welcome to. He's whimpering for you, and it's driving me mental.

Draco half-laughed. If someone had asked him when the bond first formed how he and Harry could be good partners, he would never have said that they would spell each other taking turns caring for irritating children.

But that was what it meant. One of the many things it meant.

And Draco was content to have it so.

"Mate? Can I talk to you for a second?"

Harry glanced up in surprise. Ron and Hermione had come over for dinner, and George and Angelina had joined them later, after Angelina had managed to heal a wound that George had inflicted on his arm for her to practice with. Nuisance had even stopped by for a time, kneeling in the entrance of the tent and talking to them, but he'd left when Iron told him she wanted to run on the hills.

Ron was motioning Harry apart now, though, away from the comfortable circle surrounding Hermione as she told them about some of the wild magic she'd mapped. Harry managed to shuffle Teddy's head so that he was asleep lying on the floor instead of Harry's own lap, and followed Ron outside the house.

Ron stood not far beyond the arched silver dome that Andromeda had put over the door, a place that Draco said they might hang a swing when Jeremy was older. And their other children, too, Harry supposed. They'd already had arguments about whether the swing would impede them from getting in and out of the house, and it didn't even exist yet. Then again, Harry thought those arguments were par for the course when bonded with someone as impatient as Draco.

I do hear things like that.

Harry took a deep breath of the cool air and ignored the bond, placidly. A breeze whipped past him, reporting all well beyond the borders of the meadow. Harry thanked it, and it bounded away from him, back the way it had come, chased by two or three winds.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Harry finally asked, facing Ron, as it occurred to him that his friend had been quiet for an awfully long time.

Ron swallowed once, and then said, "Do you think—do you think that Hermione and I could do what you and Draco did?"

Harry's mouth fell open a little. He could feel Draco's snort of astonishment from behind him; at least the bond meant it would be silent instead of aloud. "Did you—I mean, I thought Hermione wanted to be pregnant," he said, flailing around for a response.

"That's the thing," Ron said shortly. "She doesn't want to. She says that she wants children, but she's always disliked the thought of being so uncomfortable during the pregnancy. The baby is what she wants, not nine months or more of trouble and discomfort."

Harry nodded slowly. "And we don't yet know whether any pregnancy on Hurricane is going to be normal." With the different sunlight and seasons and wild magic, there was the chance it wouldn't be.

"I have hope that Fleur's next one will be." Ron visibly shoved aside the temptation to talk about his sister-in-law, and faced Harry squarely instead. "Do you think that Hermione and I could do it? Without the bond, I mean."

"Not without the bond," Harry said at once. "Not the same way Draco and I did it. Hell, we had to practice and practice and practice as it was, and we only got it right by accident."

And because I'm clever and brave and willing to take a risk, said Draco smugly in the back of his head.

You praise yourself for Gryffindor virtues now? Harry taunted in return, and Draco fell silent, disgruntled.

"What if we did it some other way?" Ron's eyes were big and hungry. "Not the way the mummidade did it, but some other, different way?"

Harry shrugged, his arms out. "I don't know any other way. The mummidade are bonded, so much so that they can always anticipate each other's movements. It was hard for me and Draco to do that, you know. We had to dip beneath the surface of the bond, really dig down deep. Without a bond…I can't imagine how many months and months of practice it would take you. Do you want the baby right away?"

"I could wait," Ron mumbled. "I mean, I want one eventually. But she wants one right now, as soon as she can get one. I think she's afraid that we might lose this haven or something if we wait."

Harry reached out and gently settled his arm around Ron's shoulders. "You can at least tell her that we're never going to, not as long as we have our magic and the mummidade and the riders and Nuisance and Iron to protect us," he said firmly. "That I can promise."

Ron relaxed a little, but the lines around his eyes were still tight and troubled. "Do you think—is there any way that we can become bonded, when we haven't so far?"

Harry studied him. "Do you want to be?"

"Yeah," Ron said instantly. "I watch the way you and Draco seem so happy together, and I think about the way we could be, when we were in love before the bond, and we're so much more—compatible. Sorry," he added, probably because Harry was wrinkling his nose. "I tried to think of some other way to say it, but that was the only way that came to me."

Harry waved his hand at him. "You're forgiven. Well, I don't know exactly how and why our bond got created, other than we were both humming with the wild magic. But you and Hermione both have it now, so that shouldn't be a problem. But I think you'll have to think more about this, and exactly how you're going to become bonded, and when you'll dance."

Ron nodded, more reassured than Harry had expected him to be when Harry didn't really have an answer to offer him, and gave Harry a rough hug. "Thanks, mate. You always know what to say to cheer someone up." He slipped back into the house.

He nearly collided with Draco, coming out. Harry had been aware that Draco was there, and he simply turned around and grinned at him. Draco raised an eyebrow back, seemed to decide he had nothing to lose, and came further out.

"Where's Jeremy?" Harry murmured, leaning against him, perfectly aware that he could have asked the question through the bond, and choosing not to.

"I gave him to Granger to play with," Draco said, and leaned on his shoulder. So they want one?

Harry nodded. Although I don't know how we can help them if they're not bonded.

We'll find a way.

Harry eyed him, a little surprised that Draco would want to help his friends, and Draco echoed the reason back to him, face shining fiercely. This way, Jeremy won't be alone.

Harry considered that, and nodded. Jeremy wasn't alone now—he had Teddy, and Victoire—but as long as he was the only human child on Hurricane who had been born of the wild magic, then he would stand out. More children would make him feel at home, and they could give up the half-formed notion of leaving someday, if Jeremy never fit in and people never stopped making him feel different.

Oh, we could still travel, when Jeremy and the others are grown, Draco said, and leaned against him. But we could travel for a reason that doesn't depend on our children. Even if I do want more, we'll have several good decades left when they're all grown.

Harry turned and met Draco's eyes, and Draco dived into his mind, beneath the surface of the bond.

Their thoughts ran together like Harry's winds, like the creeks of water that Nuisance had told them ran off some of the sides of the northern mountains, and became one. He turned to the north, and lifted his head to the sweet breezes and the news they bore from there. He looked south, and wondered about the mysteries that lay beyond the territory of the thunderrin. He turned east, and dreamed of the ocean. He looked west, towards country that was completely unknown.

He dreamed, and he turned his bodies to meet each other, and he kissed under the stars, under the high and shining moons, under the winds of Hurricane.

The End.