Harry's face immediately fell when Madam Pomfrey promptly snapped the curtain shut behind her and his parents. He wanted to know too! Frowning, he reached out to grab a bit of it. However, the second his fingers touched the material, he felt a sharp sting throughout his entire body, forcing him to release it at once. This wasn't fair! How was he supposed to know if he was going to be a big brother or not if they didn't allow him inside? Or even hear anything either? Sometimes magic sucked.

Huffing in defeat, he turned away from the closed curtain. They better tell him later or else. He crossed his arms and moved towards one of the empty cots to wait.

"Harry?"

His eyes darted upwards instantly at the sound of Hermione's voice. He found her just a few feet away from him, entering the hospital wing.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. Her eyes then narrowed on him. "You didn't hurt yourself again, did you?"

Why did she always think he was hurting himself? He wasn't a klutz after all. He just sometimes had trouble walking. And, you know, had trouble following him always. It wasn't his fault.

"Mum's in there with Dad and Pomfrey." He jerked his head towards the curtain as she continued heading towards him.

"Oh." She smiled softly. "Is everything all right with them?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Trelawney caught us down by the lake and told Mum that she's pregnant."

"She did what?" Hermione's whole body tensed.

"So Mum and Dad are, you know, checking to see if she was right."

"Well, Professor Trelawney better hope for her sake that she was," Hermione commented.

Harry snorted. "Mum and Dad said the same thing." His eyes then narrowed on her. It was strange to see her in the hospital wing. It made him stop for a moment and think. "Are you okay, Hermione?" he asked a moment later.

She laughed in response. "I'm fine. Madam Pomfrey just has a potion I need."

"Well, you could ask my dad—"

"No, Harry. It's fine. Really."

His eyes narrowed. She rarely, if ever, interrupted him. Something really strange was going on. "Hermione, are you sure everything's okay?"

She nodded. "Positive. It's just, you know, girl stuff."

"Oh." It was Harry's time to nod. "Say no more. I got it." He then glanced down at his hands that seemed strangely interesting that second.

"Are your parents excited?" When Harry glanced at her, she added, "About her possibly being pregnant?"

Harry shrugged. "I think so. At least, they seem more excited than last time."

"Last time?" She tilted her head to her side.

"Yeah." He gave a nervous laugh. "I guess I didn't tell you then or something. They thought she was pregnant last year, right before she was taken."

"Oh." Hermione glanced down. "No wonder Professor Snape wanted her back so much."

He nodded. "Yeah, but she wasn't. At least that was what I was told."

"Well, it takes a bit sometimes. My mother's best friend took years to become pregnant, and even then they weren't sure it would actually happen. She had to go through all these crazy tests and procedures. Mum always said how blessed she was that it hadn't taken that much to have me."

Harry didn't know what to say to that so he just nodded.

"A new baby will be exciting, though, won't it?"

"Definitely," Harry replied with a wide grin. He couldn't wait to hold his little brother or sister. To show them around Hogwarts. To tell them stories about all the crazy adventures he had.

"Though, if she's not . . ." Hermione sighed. "Professor Trelawney shouldn't play games like that with them. Your mother's wanted a child for so long. If it comes out that she's not, I can't imagine the disappointment she'll feel. But she's strong. We both know that."

"She is." Harry then cocked his head to his side for half a moment. "Wait a minute. How did you know that she's wanted a baby?"

Hermione forced a laugh and rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Harry, it's pretty obvious. She takes all of us under her wing whenever she can. You most especially."

"Well, yeah, just because she likes my dad."

"There's more to it than just that, Harry. She was willing to exchange her life for yours."

"I know. For my dad."

"Do you honestly think all of this was just for your dad, Harry?"

He frowned, his eyes narrowing on her. "What do you mean?"

"Had the Martyr's Gift worked the way it was supposed to, she'd have died. And she knew that. She wanted both of you, Harry, you and your dad to have a happy ending, to be a family together, to be happy for once." Hermione shook her head. "She knew the moment she picked you up and started, that the odds of surviving were slim. But she still did it anyway."

"I know all that."

"Then why hasn't it crossed your mind that maybe it wasn't just your dad that she loved but you as well? It may not be in the same way as she loves your dad, but she does love you, Harry. She's always treated you like her son. More so after she saved your life."

That didn't make sense. He couldn't recall her treating him any differently.

"After the Quidditch match, where Professor Quirrell jinxed your broom, she was one of the first ones to demand the broom be inspected. Her and Professor McGonagall."

She had? He didn't know that.

"And according to Draco, she spoke with several of the Slytherins before the match. To ensure that it was a clean game or else."

"But she didn't know I was . . ." Had she?

"She would point out your mistakes on your star chart a lot more than she would with us."

"But she didn't know I was Dad's, though, Hermione."

"No, but she likely saw how your father looked at you when he thought no one else was watching. She probably picked up on something. Some little tick of his." Hermione then shrugged. "Not to mention, she did have a history with your mother."

"They hated one another."

"Most girls do when it comes to a boy. Even some boys have that problem sometimes."

"Ron and Draco," Harry said with a slight nod.

"Yeah." She shrugged. "Professor Sinistra may have disliked your real mum, but I think at some point they did come to some mutual understanding of one another."

"Possibly." From everything Harry had heard, he wasn't so sure of that.

"She once told me that who we are right now is not always who we are later on. She told me about how she had gotten into a fight once with a student older than her in the girl's bathroom. She had been angry at how the girl treated someone they went to school with."

Harry waited and listened to Hermione speak. Without a doubt, he knew the older student had been his biological mother.

"She was so angry with how this girl had treated one of their classmates that she ended up in a physical fight with the girl. They both ended up with two months of detention for their actions."

His mothers had gotten detentions too?

"She had said at the time, she wanted nothing more than to hurt the other girl, to wish death upon her. And later on, when a few other things happened and boiled the cauldron of contempt again, she thought the same thing. But when the other girl later was murdered by Voldemort, taken from her child, she instantly felt horrible for ever wishing harm or death to the other girl. No amount of wrongdoing ever was worth hating someone or wishing harm to them. She told me that was a painful lesson for her to learn, but it was an important one." Hermione pause for half a moment. "She never said your mother's name, but with everything we've learned it's clear it was your mother she was talking about." Hermione then glanced at him. "Do you know that she lays a flower down on your mother's grave every year on your mother's birthday?"

"What?"

"She does. She stated it was the least she could do."

"I didn't know that."

Hermione smiled. "Now, you do."

"So what you're saying is that not only does she treat me differently because she likes my dad, but also because she feels guilty for what happened to my mum?"

"I don't know. I would imagine as she's gotten to know you, she's seen you more than them."

Harry nodded. Everyone he had ever met, though, only saw James and Lily. They didn't see him. His mum always seemed to see him, though. So maybe Hermione was right.

"But I think, ultimately, Harry, she's a natural caregiver in terms of personality. She sees us who are lost and wandering, and try to show us that we're loved and okay. I mean, when I first came to Hogwarts, I was so uncertain of myself. Books were one thing, but I felt so lost. Everyone else had been exposed to this world since birth, but not me."

"That's when you would talk to her, right?"

"We'd have a cup of tea and talk. She's the one who told me about James's medal of service."

"She told you?"

"She did. I had spent the night talking about you and your fears about Quidditch. She asked me if I had ever been to the trophy room and seen them. The next day, we went there, Harry." Hermione smiled. "She'd be a good mother."

"She is," Harry replied with his own smile.

"If she is pregnant, will you pass along my congratulations to her? If not, well, just be patient with them, will you?" Harry's eyes narrowed. "It's just we all know you want to be a brother badly. Moping around isn't going to help her feel better any." She then glanced one last time at the curtain before she turned back. "I think I'll come back later for my potion. Night, Harry."

"Night." He sighed as he watched her leave. Hermione was right. Being disappointed wasn't going to make his mum feel any better. He nodded once. If his mum wasn't pregnant, then he'd just wait and try his best not to mope. He could wait. His mum had after all.

At hearing the curtains snapping shut behind Madam Pomfrey and the feel of her privacy charm, Severus inhaled sharply. He knew it was coming, but that didn't make things any better. He watched numbly as Madam Pomfrey instructed Aurora to do something. He felt so out of it right then. Though, he blamed it solely on Aurora's anxiousness that was practically suffocating him as they waited.

"All right, dear. We have several options in terms of finding out if you are or aren't pregnant."

Severus sighed inwardly, feeling Aurora grab his hand. His eyes darted to hers at once. He caught her pointed look at him and smiled in return. He supposed she was right. There was no need to be annoyed with Pomfrey doing her usual matron diligence. But she could just do the quickest option.

"Which is the quickest and easiest?" he heard Aurora ask a moment later. That a girl.

"A spell," Pomfrey said. "Normally, it'd be a potion, but Severus hasn't brewed those lately."

Which was for good reason. There was absolutely no reason to waste good ingredients when one could use his or her wand to find out such things.

"All right. Spell it is."

A baby . . . was he ready for such a thing? He watched Pomfrey draw her wand. He wasn't exactly young anymore. Neither was Aurora, but he wasn't about to tell her that. Would they be able to keep up with a newborn? To adapt to little to no sleep for the first few months and not manage to kill half of Hogwarts as a result? He swallowed as he saw the wand move over Aurora's abdomen. A baby. A screaming little terror bent of driving its parents up the wall. That was what he was facing. A baby.

He closed his eyes. He had missed all of Lily's pregnancy with Harry. Not to mention, it wasn't as if he had been around kids a lot in his life. Well, at least not around kids who weren't potty trained.

Money. Financially could they handle another mouth to feed? He was the main source of income right now as she was on an indefinite leave of absence. While Hogwarts paid decently, he wasn't certain it'd be enough. Babies were after all expensive.

"Breathe, Severus."

His eyes flew open the moment he heard Aurora's voice. Had he stopped breathing? He glanced at Pomfrey and saw the matron staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Normally, it's the new fathers that have this sort of reaction after they see their child the first time, not the ones who are trying to see if they will be fathers soon," Pomfrey remarked.

He glared at Pomfrey before he turned back to Aurora. A baby was a huge responsibility. They were still healing. What if this sent them back to before? What if it caused them to snap? What if—

"Severus," Aurora said softly, causing him to stop in mid-thought. "Do I need to ask Poppy to give you a Calming Draught?"

"No." He shook his head. "I'm fine. I'm just thinking."

"Obviously," both Pomfrey and Aurora replied.

"What if I'm a terrible father?" He sighed when Aurora reached up and caressed his cheek.

"You're not and you won't be."

"But . . ."

"We'll learn together. As a family. You, me, Harry . . . and if Pomfrey ever gets to it, the new baby if there is one."

"What if—"

"Not a what if," Poppy interrupted before she grinned at them when they both turned to her. "It would seem Sybill was actually right this time. You are pregnant, Aurora."

Severus's eyes fell to Aurora's abdomen at once. "It's mine?"

"No, Severus," Aurora deadpanned, "I didn't know how to tell you this, but I had an affair with Hagrid a few months back." She then lightly hit his chest. "Of course it's yours, you idiot."

He frowned and glanced at her. "Which potions should she be taking now, Madam?" he asked brusquely, making a note to get more ingredients when they got back to their rooms.

"I'm not reading anything that's setting off alarms right now. Her vitals and the baby's are stable. She's showing no signs of anemia, which is good. I'm finding just a few deficiencies in terms of vitamins, but a couple of doses of nutritional potion should fix that right up."

"All right. We can take that potion. I believe I have a few—"

Aurora snickered before she finally just started outright laughing.

"What?" He failed to see what was so funny.

"You're going to coddle me now, aren't you?"

"Coddle? No. I'm going to take care of you."

"There's a difference?"

"Of course there is."

She rolled her eyes. "Let me guess," she said, turning to Pomfrey. "Bed rest is in my future?"

"That is highly possible, yes," Madam Pomfrey started to say.

"Bed rest?" Severus repeated with a frown. "Why?" He caught both of them looking at him.

"Because I get stressed easily sometimes, and stress is bad for the baby."

"Exactly. And since she's had a history of miscarriages, we need to take extra precautions."

"Her first was due to a physical assault, though." A beating was a better word for it.

"Yes, and my second miscarriage was due to stress, Severus."

"Among other things," Pomfrey chimed in.

"Other things?" Severus's eyes narrowed. "What other things?"

"Perhaps it's best if I leave you two alone," Pomfrey said before she backed against the curtain.

"Thank you, Madam," Aurora replied sarcastically before sighing when they were alone.

"What other things? What is she talking about?" He hadn't seen anything in her medical file.

"With my second pregnancy, I didn't realize I was until a month before I miscarried. Unlike most women, I didn't slow down and take care of myself as I should have. I was solely focused on doing my missions for the Order, helping anyway I could. Which isn't going to be a problem this time as we have no more bad guys around."

Severus wisely remained quiet. He wasn't going to be the one to tell her that there was always the chance that someone with a grudge could always come after them still. He knew deep down she knew that just as well as he did.

"So I need to make sure you aren't overly stressed and are taking proper care of yourself." Severus nodded shortly as he made his mental note. "I can do that. Is there anything else?"

"No. That's it."

"You're certain?"

He caught her smile and felt himself relax a bit more.

"Fairly certain, yes. But please don't try to coddle me to the point where if I breathe wrong you go haywire. I don't think that'd be good for me, you know? I'll already have Minerva fussing over me."

"Not to mention my mother," Severus stated.

"What?"

He glanced at her. "My mother. She's wanted grandchildren all her life. Harry is one thing, but a new baby is going to send her into a frenzy."

"Oh."

The look on her face reminded Severus of a person who had just witnessed his or her own death.

"Aurora?"

"Maybe Pomfrey was wrong. Maybe I'm not . . ."

He grabbed her hand instantly and squeezed it. Why was she so unsettled by that? She had to have known that others would treat her differently now. It wasn't exactly her first pregnancy.

"What if I lose it?" she whispered, staring at him. "Like the others? She wouldn't forgive me. I wouldn't forgive me."

He stared back at her at a loss for words. "It'll be different this time," he stated a moment later.

"Why?"

"Because you're not alone this time, Aurora," he replied simply. "You have me to watch over you. To ensure that both you and our child are safe, healthy. And I'll do everything I can to make certain you don't feel that heartbreak again. That's why."

"But what if that's not enough? What if we do everything possible, and I just can't have kids? Like there's something physically inside me that is unable to have them?"

"Then as I've told you before, we'll adopt. That doesn't matter to me. But we'll cross that bridge if we have to. And right now, we don't have to cross it." He sighed quietly. "You're pregnant, Aurora. You heard Madam Pomfrey just as I heard her. What happened in the past with the other two . . . that doesn't dictate this pregnancy." He rubbed the back of her hand. "I never thought I'd love again, but here I am giving my heart to you openly. It's not anything close to your fear of losing another child, but I've learned where there is love there is hope . . . and all you really need is hope. Hope brings us love, brings us risk, and brings us together. You had always hoped to be right here with me. And look where you are. So don't let the doubt wiggle inside. Not when you have hope and love on your side with me."

"Since when have you become so optimistic?"

He half-laughed. "If I were a different man, I might say" he shrugged "since you came into my life." He heard her loud laugh instantly. "But I'm not that man. So, likely a result of a very dark curse."

"Yeah, that's probably it."

"Luckily, though, I know the countercurse."

"Oh?" Her smile reached her eyes once more. "And just what is the countercurse exactly?"

"I can't tell you that." He shrugged, enjoying their little back and forth. They had used to play this game with one another a long time ago, usually to the point where their coworkers would become annoyed with their antics. It was only recently that it had turned into something playful instead of snarky. He laughed inwardly as he thought about it for a moment. They had likely been engaged in verbal foreplay for years with one another and not even known it.

"And why not?"

"Because a good wizard never gives away his countercurses."

"Sounds like a bunch of bull to me."

"Possibly." He then glanced at the closed curtain and sighed. "We should tell Harry. Harry would be overly ecstatic after hearing it. "Think of it as practice," he suggested. "For when our second child is clapping and carrying on over some foolish bunny she saw."

"She?"

"Or he," he added with a shrug. "Trelawney always could have gotten that wrong."

"Just like our wedding."

He nodded. "Indeed."

"Because she's wrong. A lot."

"She is."

"So just because she said it's a girl, it doesn't mean it's actually going to be a girl."

"Right."

"It could be a little boy."

"It could."

"She reads people and tells them what they want to hear. I've always wanted a child. And she probably assumes that because I have Harry, that I would want a girl next."

He nodded, wondering why she was going over this with him.

"So, it doesn't mean it's true and that we should start buying little girl clothes yet."

"Precisely. Fate can go either way on this."

"It's not like it's set in stone. It can always change."

He nodded again.

She sighed in return. "All right. Let's tell Harry now."

"Are you certain?"

"If we put it off any longer, he's going to start to worry something's wrong. And I don't want that. He's been through so much lately. He needs some good in his life too."

Severus could understand that. He had been thinking the same thing. "Shall we?" She nodded once more and stood up. Once she came to stand beside him, he opened the curtain, Pomfrey's earlier spell dispelling instantly.

"Well?" Harry asked, glancing at both of them nervously as he stood from his own cot.

"You're going to be a brother."

"YES!" Harry yelled, jumping up into the air. He then raced towards them before throwing his arms around them both. "Thank you!" he muffled against them as he hugged them. "Thank you!"