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**Draco’s POV** Hermione’s patronus fell through the ceiling of my office and I braced myself as the otter opened its mouth to speak. “I don’t know if you can feel this through the bond but the twins are coming,” Hermione’s voice sounded. I couldn’t help but chuckle at how droll she sounded, when in actual fact I knew very well that something was happening. Brushing my thumb over the infinity symbol I knew glittered faintly on my chest I tried to send my wife some calm as I summoned a patronus. “I knew something was happening love. I’m on my way,” I muttered. My cat wheeled its way through the ceiling and then I was moving, twirling my wand to sort my office into something that would make sense as I strode out of the door and banged on Blaise’s office door. I couldn’t help but cringe when I heard the soft moan and giggle of Luna Lovegood through the door. “The twins are coming… and learn to cast a fucking silencing spell!” I shouted through the door, not bothering to stop before I strode off towards the apparition point. I apparated into the main sitting room of our townhouse and looked around before I began moving through the rooms. Normally I loved all the space we had, but for the first time I wished for Hermione’s little two-bedroom house that you couldn’t get lost in very easily. The town house had been a wedding present for Hermione and me from my Mum after I’d caught her fretting over where the hell all of us were going to live and I went to my mother for help. Mum had fished out the deed to an old Malfoy property with a modest garden and enough rooms for us to raise a quidditch team if we wanted to. A month later we had moved in and started to get the nursery ready. Having mum on board with Scorpius had helped Hermione loads. She had been coming to the end of her tether with Scorpius’ disappearing act and there were only so many wards she could place to stop Scorpius from escaping which wouldn’t harm him if he tried. Mum had told Hermione to hire Tippy permanently as a nanny elf and then hire another one for the twins. I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face as I remembered the way Hermione had ranted and raved at me until Scorpius popped into the living room and she burst into tears and then relented. “Hermione?” I called as I reached the first-floor nursery and heard movement. “In here Draco,” Hermione called and I quickened my steps at the obvious strain of pain in her voice. When I rounded the corner I saw Hermione slowly moving around the room and I stopped to admire her briefly. She was wearing a large green t-shirt that I recognised as my own and grey sweatpants. Her brown curls were pulled up into a high ponytail that was a mess on top of her head but her eyes were bright and excited when she turned to face me. “Hey love,” I smiled. Hermione grinned back at me and continued in her slow movements to collect the things she would need. “You took your…” Hermione suddenly bent double and I moved to support her, rubbing a slow firm circle on her back as she began to breathe through the contractions. “Time,” Hermione finished a bit breathlessly as she looked up at me. “How close are the contractions?” I asked gently as I flicked my wand at the bag and watched it begin to pack itself, ignoring Hermione’s protestations. “About 5 minutes. That’s why I called you, but they’re getting quicker,” Hermione responded as I led her out of the room towards the floo. “Scorp with your parents?” I asked. “No,” Hermione murmured. “He’s with Ginny, James and Lily. Where’s Blaise?” Hermione asked. At the reminder of my best friend and his amorous wife who was very close to her own birth I couldn’t help but screw up my face in disgust at what I’d heard. “What?” Hermione questioned, reading my face like a book. “I called for him, but he and Luna sounded a bit...busy,” I smirked. Hermione mimicked my facial expression but then shrugged as she took a handful of floo powder. Carefully I stepped in with her and wrapped my arms around her as she threw down the floo powder and shouted our destination. As we stepped out of the floo and made our way over to the reception desk Hermione tensed next to me and gritted her teeth around a low moan. “Again?” I asked, my hands automatically moving to support her. “They’re coming faster,” Hermione groaned. Understanding immediately, I waved my wand to summon a hoverchair and gently helped her into it before guiding it over to the desk. “My wife is in labour,” I said quietly to the mediwitch who was sat there. “Name?” “Mrs Hermione Granger-Malfoy.” The mediwitch nodded as she scribbled on the notice parchment that duplicated itself and would appear on the notice board of the relevant ward. A second later Hannah Longbottom popped into the waiting area in the white and lime green robes of the maternity ward. “Healer Malfoy?” Longbottom questioned, raising her eyebrow at me. “I believe you remember my wife?” I smiled gently as I gestured to Hermione. Other than the announcement of our marriage in the prophet, Hermione had finally managed to get ahead of Narcissa Malfoy’s schemes and put a blanket ban on anything about our family going public without Hermione’s say so. As a result, no one knew we were expecting twins other than our immediate family, so Longbottom’s widened eyes of surprise when she looked down at Hermione were not unexpected. However, ever the professional, Longbottom took over from me and began to wheel Hermione towards the maternity ward asking her questions about her contractions, how frequent they were, how long they were, and I hurried after them. ***Hermione’s POV*** The twins gave me an easier labour than Scorpius did, but then Scorpius had been more difficult in general and this time I had Mum and Draco helping me through and Draco, to his credit, was amazing. Not once did he complain, or wince, or show any sign of faintheartedness, it was reassuring at the very least. “What shall we call them?” Draco murmured to me as he looked from our platinum blonde, curl haired baby girl to our little boy with straight brown hair as my mum left the room. “I want Aquila for our daughter, Aquila May Granger-Malfoy,” I murmured quietly as I nursed the boy in my arms.“The eagle constellation?” Draco murmured then nodded with a soft smile and nuzzled the tiny girl in his arms. “You hoping she’s going to end up in Ravenclaw?” Draco smirked at me. “No, I just like the name,” I muttered, too tired to snark back. Draco shifted next to me and I looked over at him to see a sheepish look on his face. “Can we have Leonis for our boy? Leonis Richard Granger-Malfoy?” Draco asked. At his words I let out a soft chuckle. “You… the self-proclaimed Slytherin Prince, want to name your second son after the Leo constellation?” I questioned, raising my eyebrows in surprise. “Well… yeah,” Draco sighed. “There’s no good ones for Slytherin or Hufflepuff and if you want to name our girl after Ravenclaw, the only other choice I have is Gryffindor.” Draco pouted like a petulant child and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay,” I said simply. Looking down I saw that Leonis had finished and I carefully unlatched him and made myself decent as I settled him more comfortably in my arms. “Do you want to send Harry and your mum in? I’m sure they’re going to be chomping at the bit to be the first ones in here.” Draco pouted at me as he clutched his daughter closer to his chest and I rolled my eyes. “You are going to have an infinite amount of time over the next few weeks to hold our daughter, our family, not so much, now go,” I smirked, waving my free hand towards the door. “Fine, but I want first dibs when I get you all to myself,” Draco said peevishly and I rolled my eyes. “Whatever you say love,” I sighed as Draco settled Aquila into the bassinette and then strode off through the door. With some time to just myself I scanned my baby boy’s features. He had my hair colour which was obvious, but he had Draco’s hair type and I almost winced as the images of my own childhood mop came to the forefront of my mind, the mop that I had obviously passed on to my daughter. Beyond the hair, Leonis looked exactly like Scorpius and Aquila looked like a female version of her father but with my lips, the only question remaining was what colour their eyes would be. I was lost in thought as the door opened but the sound of it swinging shut was enough to jerk me from my thoughts. “Ronald?” I gasped as I looked up and met cold blue eyes set in a freckly visage. “Nice to see you still remember me,” Ron hissed as he looked from my face to my babies. Ron took a single step forwards and I flicked up a shield to stop him getting any closer to the bed. “Leave now Ron,” I hissed. “Why. I came to see my wife. Came to see what she was doing on a maternity ward,” Ron growled. “Ron you and I divorced years ago. I’m remarried,” I responded quietly as I tried not to remember the mess of our breakup, but Ron wasn’t listening. “-out for my daily walk when I saw you being wheeled in by Hannah Abbott so I gave that stupid healer the slip and come to find that my wife is having some bastards twins!” Ron’s voice was quickly escalating but his words niggled at something in the back of my head and I looked at him a bit closer. He had the appearance of a man who had lost a lot of weight. He was wearing a loose white tee-shirt over some navy shorts that hung down on his waist and the look was completed by the navy dressing gown and thick woollen slipper socks. It struck me as I looked at him that Ron was a patient at St. Mungos. “What happened to you?” I muttered quietly. “Oh, now she cares!” Ron yelled, making me jump and then he was pacing in front of the shield, regaling me with the tales of how his own mother and father locked him up in the loony bin, his voice getting louder and louder until the twins jumped awake and started screaming. As I tucked Leonis into my other arm and turned to scoop Aquila from the crib Ron shot a spell at the shield which smacked against the shield with a deafening boom and fizzled out. I turned back to face him with my twins tucked into my arms, attempting to conceal the rage I felt as I tried to shush them. “Get. Out.” I snarled. Ron went to respond but then the door whipped open and Draco, Harry and Narcissa rushed into the room. Draco froze for a beat, his eyes wide as he took in my shield, my face and our babies, and then Ron’s wand in his hand, before he turned and, punched Ron square in the face, sending him reeling back against the wall. “Draco!” Narcissa cried as she reached to stop him but Harry pulled her gently to the side as Ron rugby tackled Draco to the floor. “WHAT IN SEVEN HELLS IS HAPPENING HERE?” Hannah was back in the doorway, wand gripped in her hand as she took in the brawl happening at the end of the bed, the screaming children, the horror-struck expression on Narcissa’s face and the grim look on Harry’s. Draco pushed Ron away from him and wiped a small speck of blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. “I don’t know Longbottom, why the fuck is Weasley in here attempting to harm my wife and new-born children?” Draco snarled as he marched towards Hannah. To give the witch credit, Hannah Longbottom nee Abbott just glared at him, her wand trained on Draco’s chest as his anger deflated under her icy stare. “This is a maternity ward Healer Malfoy, you do remember that, don’t you?” Hannah asked quietly. “Of course,” Draco muttered, rubbing his hands over his eyes. “What I want to know is why is he in here?” Draco asked, poking a now restrained Ronald with his foot. “I don’t know. Maybe he escaped his healer,” Hannah shrugged, looking defeated. Just then a healer in pure lime green robes appeared in the door. “Oh Merlin, I’m so sorry Healer Malfoy, Healer Longbottom. He said he was going to the loo and got away from me,” A small mousy healer apologised as she took in the scene before her. “No need for apologies… Just get him away,” Draco growled as he walked to the mirror over the sink and began directing his wand at the bruises that were already appearing. The mousy healer, helped by harry, hefted Ron to his feet and then she led him from the room where he went without resisting. As the door closed, I felt the tension break and burst into tears. Draco was at my side in an instant as was Narcissa, all murmuring words of comfort, trying to reassure me that everything was okay, and my babies were fine. Looking down at the mention of the twins, I realised they were both staring at me with identical looks of bewilderment and then I was crying for a whole new set of reasons when I saw that their eyes looked to be brown. “Baby brain,” Narcissa smirked to Draco, who just sighed and comforted me further. Eventually I pulled myself together enough to fix Harry with a look. “What happened to him?” I asked quietly. Harry scrubbed his face and sighed deeply. “After you split from him, he started getting reckless, started sleeping around, drinking a lot and when he wasn’t doing that, he was just festering in negative thoughts really. When you started showing, he got really nasty with everyone and blamed it all on you, a lot of the time Molly went to bed in floods of tears because of him. Then one day he took it too far. He was drinking in the morning and Ginny had gone to see her mum and Dad, she was nearly 8 months pregnant with James at the time. Ron and Ginny got into a screaming match and he pushed her.” Harry shuddered and I gasped, but he shook his head and kept going. “That was the final straw for the Weasleys. Ginny was fine, she caught herself before she did any lasting damage, but Arthur searched his room and found loads of empty bottles, and then he found a whole case of Elixir to induce Euphoria and that was that. Molly and Arthur had him carted off to rehab here and he exists in a constant state of getting clean, then coming out, then getting hooked again,” Harry explained. “Did you know?” I asked Draco, who was now gazing at Leonis while Narcissa held Aquila. “I saw him when he was checked in a few months ago, but I didn’t care enough to ask and I didn’t want to bother you with it love,” Draco said softly as he looked sheepishly at me. Sighing deeply, I stretched both arms above my head as I ordered my thoughts. “Well there’s no point thinking about him now. Let’s enjoy the birth of our twins a bit more shall we,” I said eventually, levelling a gaze at Draco before I turned to Harry. “Would you like to hold Leonis?” I asked. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Draco pout and I rolled my eyes as Harry nodded and moved towards Draco to take the boy. “You drop him Potter and you’re dead,” Draco growled as he placed our boy in Harry’s arms. Harry just rolled his eyes at Draco as he fit the boy into the crook of his arm and bounced him carefully. “I’ve got two kids of my own remember,” Harry drawled and Draco pouted again. “Don’t pout Draco, you’re not a child,” Narcissa admonished from my left and I hid a smile behind my hand as Draco turned to face her with a carefully blank expression that crumbled as soon as he saw Aquila in his mum’s arms. “But I wanna hold my babies,” Draco whined and at that I started laughing. ***** We were released from hospital two days later, but in that time, we’d had an influx of visitors, including Ginny, who brought Scorpius to us, Blaise and Luna, who eventually ended up in a room of their own as their own little girl Zuri, decided to make an early appearance, and surprisingly George, who had been a bit off the radar since I married. I was most definitely grateful to be home but I was rather surprised when a Hogwarts letter came for me one morning as I nursed Aquila while I lay in bed.
Hermione
Congratulations on the twins, I do hope you’re settling in comfortably.
I would like to offer you the position of Transfiguration Professor, starting next September, to give you time to raise your children. You would not be required to live in and we could set up a secure floo connection from your home to your office, if that sweetens the deal.
Please consider my offer
All the best
Minerva
“Draco!” I called. Aquila jumped but settled instantly as I stroked her curls that were getting thicker every day. “Yes my love?” Draco answered as he appeared around the corner with Scorpius attached to his leg and Leonis in his arms. “What would you say if I said I wanted to go and teach at Hogwarts next year?” Draco looked thoughtful, head cocked to one side as he watched me. “I’d say go for it. I know you love your writing but if I’m honest I feel like your talents are wasted. You’d get a kick out of teaching too, my bossy little know-it-all,” Draco smirked. I smiled at him softly as I unlatched Aquila and laid her down on the bed before holding my arms out for Leonis. “Minerva has offered me the position of Transfiguration Professor, to start next year. I wouldn’t have to live in either,” I responded, very matter-of-factly. Draco’s eyes widened and then he swooped in to kiss me. “Honey, I’m so proud of you,” Draco said as he pulled away and bent to help Scorpius onto the bed before he sat down next to Aquila. “Mummy?” Scorpius questioned and I resisted sighing as the inquisitive tone I knew so well from my own voice bled into the voice of our two-year-old. “Yes Scorpius?” “Why is Leo doing that thing Daddy did when Leo and Keela were still in your belly?” Scorpius questioned. For a beat I just absorbed what he was asking and then I felt my face flush bright red as Draco spluttered a laugh. The question was far too grown up for a child of two, but as soon as Scorpius had learnt to speak in more than screeches, the child seemed to excel and Narcissa surmised that his magic was helping him communicate. “Erm. You shouldn’t have seen that Scorpius did you use magic to get out of your room?” I asked. “Yes mummy,” Scorpius said quietly. “Should you be doing that?” I asked sternly. “No mummy,” Scorpius shook his head, but he didn’t look sorry at all and I glared at his father who was still silently laughing, his face buried in a pillow. “Daddy wasn’t doing what Leonis is doing. Leonis is eating-.” “Yes he was I saw it,” Scorpius interrupted and finally Draco saw fit to pull himself together. “Scorpius. Don’t interrupt your mother. I wasn’t doing that… now go and find Tippy to help get you dressed and I’ll be down in a second to get you breakfast,” Draco’s voice and face were stern but I could feel his humour resonate through our bond and I rolled my eyes as I looked down at Leo who was almost asleep. “Okay,” Scorpius said and then with an angelic smile, he climbed off the bed and ran from the room screeching for Tippy. For a second Draco and I just watched the empty doorway, then I felt Draco’s lips on my neck. “I think we need some stronger wards on our room… maybe an automatic obscuro?” Draco suggested and then I laughed.