Thank you to TrippingOverYou for being my wonderful beta! Kissies!
EPILOGUE:
Lord Harry Potter looked out over the grounds of the Potter mansion, his eyes stopping here and there, checking to make sure that everyone was happy and that no one was hurt. One child drew his attention more than any other; he made his way to the small redhead that sat alone by the fountain. Sitting next to the child, he drew her into his arms.
"What's wrong, Gwenna?"
"James said that I can't play Quidditch because I'm too small! It's not fair!"
"Do you want to play Quidditch?"
"No...not really, but I didn't get a choice. James just told me that I couldn't." She wrapped her little arms around Harry's neck and clung to him.
"I'll have a talk with James, alright? Now, why don't we go find your dad; he can get down and play some games with you and Fabian." He took the little girl's hand and went off in search of Fred.
"Uncle Harry? Why can't you get down on the ground and play with me?"
Harry chuckled slightly. "Gwenna, Sweetheart, I would love nothing more than to be able to sit on the ground with you, but I'm afraid I won't be able to get back up if I do. I'm getting too big to even get out of chairs on my own; I need your Uncle Charlie's help with that."
They reached the covered patio where the adults were congregated; Gwenna released Harry's hand and ran up to Fred, latching on to his hand. "Daddy, play with me?"
Fred picked up his little girl in one arm and her twin, Fabian, in the other and took them off down the lawn to play some games. Draco watched them go, resting one hand on his protruding belly. "What happened?"
"James told her that she couldn't play Quidditch with them; he didn't wait for her to ask if she could, he just told her she couldn't. I'll talk with him later."
Draco nodded and motioned to Charlie to help his husband into a chair. Harry's girth had increased dramatically with this pregnancy and he found it difficult to do the simplest things like sitting down unaided. "Harry, are you sure it's just twins? You're eight months along and you're much bigger than I was at that stage."
Charlie shook his head. "Poppy said that there's only two...but one could be hiding. We've already picked out three of each name, just to be safe." He looked at Harry. "They turned it down...again."
A look of extreme frustration crossed Harry's face. "You would think that five, possibly six, children would be enough. They gave permission to Siri and Remy after two."
At Draco's confused expression, Charlie explained, "We've asked to be able to use the contraceptive spells after this pregnancy. Granted, Harry's only twenty-eight, but having four pregnancies in twelve years is a little much. I'm concerned about his health; this can't be good for his body."
"Indeed, it is not, Lord Consort Potter." Severus Snape walked up to the side of Draco's chair and laid a hand on his belly. "The male body is not really made for the whole process of pregnancy and childbirth. I've done some research into it and have found that four to five pregnancies is about all a wizard's body can take." He lowered his voice. "I may be able to...assist you...with your difficulty. I have a potion that, if taken on a regular, bi-monthly schedule, will prevent this circumstance from happening again. I planned to offer it to Draco after this is over. Would you be interested?"
Both Harry and Charlie jumped at the chance to give Harry's body a much needed rest. He loved the feeling of being a carrier of life, but was definitely ready to stop. Since the potion was not a contraceptive spell, there was nothing illegal about it; they would just have to be careful with whom they shared the information.
Harry relaxed against the back of his chair and thought about the years leading up to this point. After 'The Year of Bonding', as it was commonly known, a baby boom had happened. Harry and Charlie's bonding, along with Fred and Draco's, had been the first to take place; it was natural that they were also the first parents in the crop of newly-weds. Harry's first pregnancy had been relatively uneventful and, just shy of a year after the bonding ceremony, James had been born. Three years after that, Orion had made his appearance; Harry had experienced more of the morning sickness and dizziness that could sometimes plague a pregnancy, but he dealt with it. His third pregnancy had been more difficult yet and, after Lily's birth, they had petitioned the Ministry for the ability to use contraceptive spells. That first time, and subsequently over the last five years, they had been turned down.
Fred and Draco had welcomed their first child, Scorpius, only three weeks after James had been born. Their second and third children, a set of fraternal twins, were Fabian and Gwenna; they had just turned four in March. Draco had decided that the child he was currently carrying would be their last; he had also had enough. Fred seconded the decision; he wanted nothing to happen to his husband and would rather not risk his life.
Remus and Sirius had managed to get pregnant four times, but only two of those pregnancies had carried to term. They had a daughter, Cygna, born two months after Orion, and a son Jonathan, born just two years prior. The intervening years, after Cygna, were spent in heartbreak after heartbreak, watching and hoping, but never quite getting their wish for another child...until Jonathan. After Jonathan's birth, Sirius had told the Ministry that he was no longer going to comply with their edict; after two miscarriages and two healthy, full-term children, he was through. Fortunately for Sirius, the Ministry agreed and allowed them to use the contraceptive spells once more.
After her divorce from Lucius, Narcissa had received a letter from the Ministry stating that she needed to marry again and provide at least one more child. She had stormed into the Minister's office and thrown papers onto his desk. These papers were from shortly after Draco had been born, showing that her body had sustained severe damage from Draco's birth and she was no longer able to bear children. Amelia Bones had been called in and verified the papers as authentic and the Minister almost fell over himself apologising to Narcissa for the mistake. She was still unmarried, but Draco had a feeling that she and Severus were more than just friends. Severus had never received a letter; because of the torture he had received while posing as a Death Eater, his sperm count was so low it was almost non-existent.
Harry had known that being married while still at Hogwarts was going to be interesting, but nothing had prepared him for the sight of almost a third of the student population in various stages of pregnancy by the Easter holidays. He and Draco had been amongst the few male pregnancies in the school; Seamus Finnegan and Justin Finch-Fletchley were two more. He assumed that there were more, but they either used glamours to hide their condition or weren't pregnant yet.
Once he and Draco had graduated, Harry and Charlie had kept their promise to move into Malfoy Manor. They lived there for two years while renovations on the Potter mansion took place and enjoyed every minute of it; there was always something to do there and they were never short of options. Once the mansion had been completed, they moved in with Remus and Sirius, immediately making the huge house a home.
The only cloud on the horizon had come when Lucius had been released from Azkaban and he tried to gain access to both the Gringotts' vaults and the Manor. Aurors had been summoned both times and he had been escorted back to Azkaban for another two years for attempting to impersonate Lord Malfoy. When those two years had been up, his memory was erased, his magic was bound and he had been settled into a muggle village as far away from Malfoy Manor as the Ministry could arrange. Harry assumed that he had acclimated himself, as he had not been heard from or seen again. Draco, however, was not taking any chances; the Manor was now under a Fidelius Charm and only a few people held the secret.
On the whole, Harry was very happy with how his life had turned out. When the whole mess with the bondings had started, he had thought his life was over; he would be bonded to some stranger and be forced to carry children for him. What he got was the love of his life and children that he loved to distraction. Had he known then how it would turn out, he wouldn't have been so worked up about it. But, of course, hindsight is always 20/20.
Harry shifted slightly on the chair; the ache in his lower back just wouldn't go away. It had been plaguing him for the last two hours and he was getting mightily sick of it. He looked over at Draco and found his brother-in-law asleep on his chaise lounge. Harry smiled; Draco was having almost as hard a pregnancy as Harry had had with Lily and he slept most of the time. He was only six months along, compared to Harry's just over eight months, and he was already complaining about wanting his baby out.
The nagging ache in Harry's lower back became full-fledged pain and he tried to control the gasp that accompanied it. He obviously wasn't successful by the way Charlie's eyes shot over to look at him from the table where he sat with Bill and Ron. He stood and almost ran to Harry's side.
"What is it?"
"I think..." Harry had to stop as a recognisable contraction crawled across his belly. They were prepared for this; Poppy had told them that twins were notorious for coming early, as the body was only able to carry so much girth before it decided it was time.
Charlie signalled Bill and he came over to help extract Harry from the chair he had been resting in. By this time, everyone had started to notice something going on with Harry and began to run to the patio. Draco was gently shaken awake by Fred, so that he could move out of Harry's way. Ron had run inside the house to fire-call Poppy; they wanted these children born at home, as none of the other three had been. As Harry stepped over the threshold, Poppy stepped out of the floo and quickly had him set up in the ground floor room that had been made into a bedroom for Harry and Charlie until the babies were born.
Ten minutes later Charlie was handed his third son; his name would be Michael. Shortly after that, Poppy handed Sirius his second granddaughter; her name would be Meghan. Harry thought he was done, until he felt Poppy delve back in for another baby. His eyes met Charlie's and they both nodded; they were definitely going to be using that potion. Arthur was handed his fourth granddaughter; her name would be Tabitha. Harry knew she would be nicknamed Tabby, but he had loved the name ever since he had seen re-runs of an old American sitcom called Bewitched.
Poppy looked at her patient and smiled. "Well, Harry, I have been known to be wrong before, and now is another time. Were you prepared for three?"
Harry laughed a little. "Yes, we were almost sure that there were three. I was just too damn big for it to be only two. We were assured by the store that, if there were only two babies, we could return the extra items."
As Poppy cleaned and healed Harry's incision, Charlie, Sirius and Arthur took the triplets into the next room to show them off. Draco looked at Fred and held out his hand. "Told you there were three...pay up!" Fred counted twenty galleons into his husband's hand and then leaned in to kiss him.
"I should know better than to doubt you. For some reason you always seem to know."
Everyone laughed and gathered around to see the new babies. The first in the group to hold them, however, were their siblings. Charlie had them sit on the sofa and gently placed Michael into James' arms. Once he was sure that the children were settled, he went back into the room with Harry. He crawled onto the bed to lay next to his husband and carefully cradled him in his arms.
"I love you...have I told you that today?"
"At least twice, but I never get tired of hearing it. What did they think of them?"
"Fred owed Draco twenty galleons. The kids were holding them when I came back in here. I think Mum, Dad and Sirius can handle them all for a little while. How are you feeling?"
"Tired, worn out...but happy as hell! We need to talk to Severus about that potion. I'm not going through this again."
"No, Harry, you are not going through this again." Poppy bustled back to the side of the bed. "I will be making a report to the DMLE about your physical health. You cannot go through another pregnancy; I'm not sure your body could take it. Once that clears, you should be able to use whatever method of birth control you wish. I will also be sending the same report again when Draco has his baby. You two have given enough, both before and after the war."
Harry held out his arms and pulled the older woman into a tight hug, pressing a kiss on her cheek. "Thank you, Poppy!"
As she left the room, Sirius, Molly and Arthur stepped in with the new arrivals. After placing them in their enlarged bassinet and kissing Harry and Charlie on the cheek, they found their way out to take care of their other grandchildren. Harry carefully turned in Charlie's arms and placed a gentle kiss on his lips.
"Thank you for choosing me."
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Love."