Albus Potter, Friends and Foes

Ch 9 Maria Guadalupe (Lupin?)

Again minor but most helpful suggestions and changes by my Beta readers.

*

The morning of the fifteenth of March Pippa Lewis waddled into the kitchen of the New Burrow. It was just before breakfast. Molly looked at the middle-aged witch.

Pippa reached for her stomach, tension on her face, before relaxing some.

"Are you in Labor, dear?" Molly wondered.

"Real labor," Pippa replied. "This is not my first child."

"How many?" Molly wondered.

"I don't want to talk about it, and that perverted island," Pippa snapped, agony and sorrow on her face.

"I will call one of the two midwives who know of your existence," Molly advised, as she took out her mobile to place a very private call.

Pippa paced. "I want to walk this baby out," she informed Molly. "I'm better off standing than lying in a bed."

A short time later a midwife came through the Floo. She asked Pippa, "Do you have a private room we can go to?"

"I have a little apartment upstairs," Pippa answered. "I usually run up and down stairs, but it is on the third floor, and I think we ought to take the elevator."

Molly announced, "I will have the Elves fix breakfast for the household, and then I can be your labor coach."

"Thank you, Molly," Pippa replied, holding onto Molly's arm as another contraction hit her.

Maria Guadalupe was born the middle of the afternoon. The record of her birth was hidden.

*

Since everybody in the family had been vaccinated, the family gathered to meet their newest member the next Sunday. Everybody was there, including of course Charlie and his two caregivers, Caroline and Pippa. Pippa had her new baby, and they explained that Caroline was back to doing most of the caregiving, but Pippa was going to start helping a little right away, and that she could both take care of Maria and Charlie with help.

"I will help take care of my grandchild as well," Andromeda let the group know. "She does look like she is Teddy's child."

Everyone in the family knew who Maria's father was, but neither Pippa nor Maria's existence was ever mentioned outside of the family.

*

The middle of the week Victoire met with Harry at Grimmauld Place, and asked him, "What are the chances that Teddy will escape?"

"I cannot give you odds," Harry let Victoire know. "There is an all too real chance that he will not escape alive, and a very good chance that he will be wounded, body and soul, if he does."

"That is like the for better or worse part of a marriage, isn't it?" Victoire pondered, biting her lip. "Like mum and all the scars on my father's face. Like you and Aunt Ginny's injuries. I told Teddy that I would marry him no matter what, and if he escapes ... if he escapes, I'm just going to do my best to love the hurts away.

"And if he does die, well there is a little bit of Teddy in Maria Guadalupe to love."

Victoire looked both very sad and very determined. When Victoire left Harry thought that maybe it was better for Victoire to come to grips with some of the wounds Teddy would be carrying before he escaped, if he escaped.

*

It was Saturday, March twenty-seventh, and the students of Hogwarts were finally heading home for a long anticipated two week Easter break. It had been a year since most of the students had been home, but almost all the Magi had been vaccinated against Covid-19, and everyone was eager to get back to a more normal life.