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Spontaneous Remembering

Chapter Seven.

"Sometimes, the hardest thing and the right thing are the same."

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It was all too much. First, moving to England and finding out about their relatives. Then, the house being attacked. Now, Dad in labor?

Pippa petted Teddy's hair, feeling sympathetic. He'd always been more high-strung than the rest of them, and it was no wonder this had shocked him to fainting. His head was in her lap, and they were resting outside of the hospital wing against the wall. The other children were curled up together, the younger ones with that lost little puppy-dog look on their faces. They didn't know where they were, or what was happening, or why Teddy had fallen down, and it scared them to bits and pieces.

"Everything is okay," Pippa said suddenly. "Pass it French."

Lanny, next to her, caught on, and murmured it in French. Soon they were passing this phrase up and down in a row, not playing it as a game. She saw Malfoy had come back, and was watching them with curious eyes. She held his gray-eyed gaze, and murmured, "Everything is okay. Pass it Italian."

Teddy came-to and seemed to think everything had been a dream. When he learned it wasn't, he went pale and nearly fainted again, but Malfoy supplied them with lunch and told Teddy to eat something, and that it would help.

He stayed with them all day, and sooner rather than later the children were hanging off of him, the adrenaline from their fear wearing off and making them tired. He didn't look like he minded, though, and hummed to them as they fell asleep. It made Pippa sleepy, too, but she refused to close her eyes until she saw both of her parents.

It was nearing dinnertime when a clattering of feet was heard rushing up the stairs. Bill, Fred, and Fleur Weasley showed up, looking pale and tired, but relieved.

"Oh, thank Merlin," Bill murmured, rushing up to them and touching their faces. "You're all well. Oh gods. I was so scared," he murmured, and then turned to Malfoy. "You. Draco Malfoy? Merlin, thank you so bloody much for calling the Aurors when you did. If you hadn't..." he shuddered.

"Don't thank me," Malfoy said, voice a little proud. "Thank Mr. Lupin," he said, nodding at Teddy. "For getting the children out of the house and to Hogwarts."

Teddy looked up at Bill, but he didn't want the thanks he was receiving. He was tired and scared and felt like a child again. "Uncle Bill," he said, voice strained. "Where's my Da?"

"St. Mungo's," Bill said, grasping Teddy's shoulder. "He'll be okay, but he wouldn't be if the Aurors hadn't showed up. The real question is – where's your Dad?"

Teddy nodded at the hospital wing door. "In there. Exactly when the Death Eaters apparated in, he started having pains so bad he couldn't move. Since he couldn't help them, Lanny dragged him down and Port-Keyed him out with us. When we got here, Professor Malfoy brought him up here and Madame Pomfrey kicked us out, saying that he was – that he was in labor."

Bill was silent, but Fleur piped up.

"But your father...he didn't look to be pregnant."

"He wasn't," Pippa said, voice bitter. "I mean, he's not. Or we didn't know he was, but how could he hide it? I don't think he knew, either."

Fred nodded his head a little bit. "It's possible that he didn't know. Some babies sit at the back of the womb, and the carrier doesn't gain very much weight at all – Angelina barely showed with Roxy and Freddie."

Fred, Bill, Fleur, and Malfoy helped the eleven children to the kitchens, where they ate dinner. Bill explained to Malfoy that Harry had lost his memory, and that he likely didn't remember their 'rivalry' during school. That was probably why he didn't show that he knew Malfoy, which was perfectly okay with the blond man, because he'd wanted to apologize to Harry anyways.

After dinner, they went back up to sit outside the hospital wing.

"I have to get back to St. Mungo's," Fred said. "I told the Healers I'd come back once we found you."

"And I need to get back to my children. I can watch over the little ones, if you'd like," Fleur murmured kindly, nodding at the sleeping triplets and Lily. A little reluctantly, Teddy allowed her to take them with her, and Albus and Alice, too.

"I can stay here," Bill said. "I'm not leaving you guys all alone. This must be terrifying for you. You can leave, if you want, Malfoy," he told the blond.

"I actually need to leave. I was supposed to be home hours ago, and my wife and son are no doubt worried," he said, standing and dusting his robes off. "I hope everything turns out okay. It was nice seeing you, Weasley," he said, nodding to Bill. "Goodbye."

Some hours later – Pippa had lost track of time – the hospital wing entrance opened, and Pomfrey peeked out.

"Where did everyone go?" she wondered.

"Fleur took the children home," Bill sighed. "Malfoy headed home, and Fred went back to the hospital. How is he?"

A smile burst over Pomfrey's face. "Come in, then, and meet the baby."

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Harry was laying, pale and sleepy, on a bed near the back of the hospital wing. Curled into the crook of his arm is a little pink being wrapped in baby-blue, asleep. Bill watches them both, quietly, and wished that Charlie had been here to see his son born.

He stays back as the five older siblings go to faun over their father and the baby. Harry was glad to see them, and asked about the other kids.

"It was getting late, so we let Auntie Fleur take them with her," Lanny murmured softly. "She had to go home to her kids, anyways, and it wasn't very healthy for the six of them to hang around where they were obviously scared and upset."

Harry nodded, sitting himself up. "I didn't even...know I was pregnant. But it makes sense, how I was sick a few months ago, remember? We thought it was a stomach bug. And then around a week ago, that memory came back and I got sick again. That's around the same time that it happened with the boys. But I never even thought I could be..." he trailed off, and nuzzled the tiny bundle. "He's smaller than any of you were," Harry laughed a little. "Except the triplets."

As it got later, Pomfrey offered beds to everybody, and slowly, they all took them. Soon it was only Bill and Teddy left up, and the soft sound of sleep-breathing surrounded them. Teddy was playing with his fingers, twisting them and clenching them and unclenching them.

"A lot has happened today, hasn't it?" Bill asked gently. The boy looked up at him with tired eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," Teddy nodded, chewing his lips as if wondering whether or not to continue. "It's just, we've all known something was weird, ever since the spontaneous remembering – er, that's what we call it when Dad has those flashbacks. He usually only has them when he's pregnant, but once he had one when he was sick. Pippa and Lanny and Jay and Daniel and I, we just knew something was up. It was like... there was just something there that was different, and we knew something was going to happen. And today, when G-Grandma Molly showed up, I was terrified. I didn't know why, because we had no reason to be afraid of her, but the other kids were scared, too. But when the house got attacked, it all sort of just made sense...as if this was all building up to that ending."

Bill nodded thoughtfully. "You know, Charlie is awful proud of you, for remembering to get the kids out of the house. I don't know what he'd do if one of you was harmed. I think he could even live if Harry went down, but if one of you kids were hurt... I think he'd go crazy."

Teddy wiped his eyes, and Bill pretended not to see. "I-I wanted to help, really bad," Teddy whispered. "I almost forgot that I was supposed to get them out. But I-I could hear everything that was going on upstairs, and the only reason I didn't go up was because I knew I'd just get in the way. And then I remember-remembered how I could help. But I almost just left them down there... and they would have gotten hurt.."

Bill reached out and patted Teddy on the back. "Hey. The thing is, you almost forgot. You almost left them. Almost. You didn't leave them, and you didn't let them get hurt, and that's what counts, alright? That helpless feeling, I've been there. Remember, your parents' generation and their parents' generation went through a whole war. We've all been helpless, or had to choose between two different kinds of helping, and people got hurt and died because we couldn't do both. We all know what that feels like, Teddy. It's okay. It's okay."

Teddy, shaking like a leaf, whispered, "Someone died?"

Bill hesitated, then nodded. "Mum died. She jumped in front of a Killing Curse for Charlie. The good news is, Teddy, that all twelve of them were in the house when the Aurors showed up. All of them were caught – half dead, half alive. The six that were alive have no doubt gotten the Kiss already."

Teddy bowed his head, suddenly so much more aware of what his Dad had gone through in the war. Losing people left and right, killing and getting hurt, having to make choices that might mean life or death for someone else. He was now so much more grateful to his parents – who'd died to make the world a better place. Of all the parents who had died to make sure their children saw a better world than they had known. Something in him snapped, and he cried, and for the first time in a long time he wished his real parents were there, because surely they'd know how he felt, wouldn't they?

Bill rubbed Teddy's shoulders silently, because there wasn't anything that could be said to console someone who had made the better choice but learned someone died because of it. There was no consolation for something like that, and Bill knew it.

The boy cried himself to sleep, and Bill moved him to a bed, and then sat up waiting.

Early the next morning, Fleur arrived with ten little ducklings traipsing along behind her. Six of them joined their siblings around Harry's bed, each so happy to see their Daddy that it was almost painful. Four of the little duckling nuzzled up to Bill, who was just grateful to see his own little ducklings.

Harry wouldn't let anybody hold the baby – who still had no name. The children, though disappointed, didn't make too big a fuss.

House-Elves brought the large group in the hospital wing breakfast, and around noon Fred clomped in with Charlie's arm over his shoulder, the older man looking a little paler than usual and tired, the younger looking like his spine was going to snap. Charlie was a big man, and it would have taken a great effort for Fred to get him here by himself.

Now that the whole family was reunited, Harry handed the little blue bundle off to Charlie, saying that he was the second person to hold the boy. He didn't count Pomfrey, who had only handled the child enough to clean him up, weigh him, measure him, and hand him back over to Harry.

After that, the boy was passed around the little family, and then to Fleur and Bill and their family, and then to Fred. Fred soon departed, congratulating the little – er, large family on their new addition. Bill tipped his imaginary hat and the six of them were off, back to their home.

Charlie surrounded himself by his family, grateful to be back with them. He pulled Harry onto his lap, and they held the baby – who was to be named William Frederick Potter, 'Liam' – together. Their youngest boys climbed onto the bed with them, and then Lily, and even Albus and Alice made it onto the bed before it was too full. Pippa and Lanny squeezed as close as they could to the edge of the bed on the right side, and Jay and Danny on the left. Teddy leaned in close at the end of the bed, his chin resting on Albus' shoulder.

Before the day was out, they were allowed to head home. Fleur offered to watch the kids while Harry, Bill, and Charlie cleaned up the house (which, as you can imagine, was a total wreck after a dozen Death Eaters, two or three dozen Aurors, two angry dogs, Charlie, and Molly Weasley were done with it). But Charlie and Harry decided that, even after the house was cleaned up, they couldn't live there anymore, and moved all of their things to Potter Manor in Rowena's Corner.

By July 1, most everything was back to normal. The funeral was over, the children were all settled in to Potter Manor, and to their delight, they had a large yard again and their semi-injured pets could roam free out back without the limitations Grimmauld Place had had.

The Tutors started coming 'round again, and all in all, things were great. They were just one big happy family.

The Potters moved back to France at the end of the summer, and they were all much happier to be home. Liam had never been to France, but boy did the two-month-old love it there.

Teddy geared up to take his NEWTs and passed with flying colors. He was admitted into a St. Mungo's internship as a pediatrician – and who better to be a pediatrician than a boy with eleven younger siblings? Within a couple of years, he was out of his internship and had his own patients (most noticeably, nine kids with the surname Potter).

Piper and Landon moved into houses across the street from each other at seventeen, the same year that Teddy finished his internship. Neither of them did quite as well on their NEWTs as Teddy had, but both held steady internships. Piper decided she wanted to study the Veil of Death in the Department of Mysteries, and as such, became an Unspeakable. Landon went into Auror Training the month after he graduated, and both loved what they did.

James and Daniel, at fifteen, were the oldest children still in the house. While it was true that they missed the older three – as the oldest five had always been closest – it was nice to be the oldest, and it's not like they were home much anyways. Jay, Danny, Freddie, Roxy, Eon, Addy, and Austin worked at the WWW during the summer months when the Potters moved down into the Potter Manor, and the seven had plans to open their own WWW somewhere in America when they graduated.

Albus and Alice had a great First Year at Hogwarts, and were Sorted to Slytherin, just as their parents had thought. They became close friends with Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley, a fellow Slytherin and a Ravenclaw, and twins named Alice and Franklin Longbottom (a Gryffindor and Hufflepuff). They became known as Trouble around Hogwarts after blowing up the Whomping Willow, and by their Second Year, Minerva McGonagall had retired. Her parting words were, "I've dealt with the Marauders, the Weasley twins, the Marauder Reincarnates, and now Trouble. Someone else can handle it for a while."

Lily loved being at home during the school year with just Xander, Nicky, Zack, and Liam. She prided herself in being the best big sister ever, and became quite adept at caring for all four of the boys.

Xander, Nicky, and Zack couldn't wait to start Hogwarts and follow in the footsteps of Teddy – who they idolized. At seven, they were quick-fingered and subtle, which always makes a good healer. As they grew older, the differences in them became more pronounced. Xander's hair went fully red around age six, though it wasn't flame red – it was a dark, dark red that made him look divine. Zack's eyes lightened until they were hazel, which he'd inherited from Harry's father.

Liam became a happy toddler, with two doting parents and eleven older siblings who always wondered the same thing: would William Frederick Potter be the last of Harry Potter's children?