Harry reached the NICU as they were taking his daughter through the doors and he was ushered to the little bed that his son was in, and a medi-witch dressed in purple scrubs picked the small boy up, being careful of the tiny oxygen cannula that had been placed in his tiny nose, and handed him to Harry. She showed him how to support his head without crimping the oxygen hose and covered both father and son in another blanket, to ward off any chill from the room.
Harry looked into his son's pale blue eyes and wondered how long they would stay that beautiful color.
A beep sounded from a machine across the room and he looked up in time to see a healer administering a blue potion directly into his daughter's blood stream, with a needle. His heart ached, knowing that even if she was in pain, she couldn't cry out because of the tube in her throat.
The healer finished giving his daughter the shot and came over to speak with him. "In about an hour, we'll come and check her vital signs, and see if we can remove the tube. She's not in any pain at all, we've made sure of that. She's completely relaxed, so the tube in her throat doesn't choke her, and we've given her pain potions, so even with all the healing and internal growing her body will do over the next hour, she won't feel a thing. I promise you that," the healer explained.
Harry nodded, tears still in his eyes as he watched his baby girl lying alone in the isolet, surrounded by tubes and monitors, with no comfort, as his tiny son was snuggled into the crook of his arm.
"Can I...touch her?" he asked the healer.
Looking sympathetic, the healer nodded. "I'll have one of the medi-witches come in and help you put your little guy back into his bed, and suit you up so you can put your arms in there and sort of hold her. You'll have to be careful though."
Harry sat back in the chair, moving his son so that the baby boy was laying on his chest, and kissed the top of his head. "I'm going to do everything I can to protect you and your sister, but you see how little she is? It's your job to protect her too, so you've got to grow up and be a big strong boy and protect your sister too." Harry said, speaking quietly to his son. "You're going to be a wonderful slightly bigger brother, I know you will."
The nurse came in the room, and took Harry's son, and placed him back in the bed. "Before we get you all suited up, do you want me to take some pictures so you can take them and show them to their mother? She should be waking up in a few minutes and I know she's going to want to see you and know what's going on." The medi-witch asked him.
Harry agreed and the medi-witch got her instant camera and took a few short wizard pictures for Harry to take to Hermione.
Once that was finished, the medi-witch came back into the room and helped Harry into a yellow coat and purple nitrile gloves. She opened the tiny doors on the isolet and guided Harry's hands toward his daughter. "Gentle now," she said. "Just like that. You can cup her little head in your hand, but leave it just like it is on the blankets."
The medi-witch observed Harry for a minute, to make sure he understood her directions, and then left him to have some privacy with his children. "I love you sweetheart," he whispered to his tiny daughter. "Your big brother and I are going to make sure nothing ever happens to you. And your mama? She'll be the fiercest protector of all. She's beautiful and smart and you'll be just like her."
Harry sat with his daughter for a bit longer before he called for the medi-witch and she came and helped him put everything just right, so that he could go and show the pictures of the babies to Hermione.
Casting one last glance at his children, Harry left his children to sleep while he went to be with their mother as she woke up.
Hermione was just starting to stir, and called out for Harry.
"I'm right here, love." He said as he walked up to the edge of the bed, still dressed in his borrowed scrubs and the little booties.
"The babies?" Hermione asked weakly, still woozy from the potions.
"He's just fine. Has a little oxygen cannula in his nose, but other than that, he's perfect." Harry paused to let that sink in and was pleased to see the small smile grace Hermione's features.
"What 'bout my girl?" She asked.
"She's having a bit of a time of it. We've got about 15 minutes before the doctors will check to see if she's taking to the potions that they've given her. She didn't take to the potions that they gave you the way that our little prince did."
Hermione's eyes snapped open. She was still a little glazed, but her attention was focused on Harry. "Take me to her. I want to be with her when they test her."
"You need your rest," Harry tried.
"No, Harry. I want to be with my daughter." Hermione insisted.
Sirius went to find the healer, while Hermione's mother tried to calm her down.
The healer came back into the room and checked Hermione over. He called a medi-witch into the room, and they helped Hermione into a wheelchair.
Harry was given permission to take her down to the NICU to see the children, and they left, leaving the grandparents sitting in the delivery room.
They reached the NICU just as the healers were going into the kids' room.
"Wait!" Hermione called to them.
The healers stopped and turned to face them. He waited until they got down the hall before heading into the room. When the healers and the parents were all in the room, the healer explained that he would cast a diagnostic spell on their daughter and depending on the results, they would take out the tube and release the relaxant spells to see if she could breathe on her own, with or without oxygen supplementation.
Harry held Hermione's hand as the healer preformed the spell, and the watched as the results were recorded on a sheet of parchment in the healer's hand. Both mother and father held their breath as the waited for the healer to tell them the results.
"This test looks good," he healer said, smiling as Harry and Hermione both let out a relieved whoosh of air.
"Next is to take the spells off and the tube out, and keep an eye on her for a few minutes until we know for sure if she's going to breathe on her own." The healer explained.
"Thank you," Hermione said. "Thank you for helping her."
The anxious parents watched as they released one spell, then removed the tube from their daughter's throat, and then released the rest of the spells. The room was completely silent as everyone watched the little girl's chest to see if she would breathe.
After a few agonizing seconds her chest rose and she gave a tiny cry, and everyone in the room cheered.
Harry pushed Hermione's wheelchair up to the bed after the medis and healers stepped away, and for the first time, Hermione met her tiny daughter.
"She weights three pounds, four ounces, and your son weighs three pounds, twelve ounces." The medi-witch who was still in the room told them. "They're both tiny, but you're lucky that your Professor got you here when you did, because those potions really helped your boy a lot, and we were ready for your daughter when the healer let us know what was going on. Everyone's going to be just fine," she reassured the couple, before leaving them.
"I had an idea for their names while I was sitting here holding our son earlier. I know we never decided anything for sure, so I didn't tell the medis anything when they came around," Harry told his fiancé.
When Hermione heard Harry's suggestions and his reasoning behind them, she knew the names were perfect.
"Let's get the worried grandparents down here and let them meet their grandchildren, since we know everything is going to be ok now," Hermione suggested.
Harry called for the medi-witch to bring Sirius, Remus, Jean and Jonathan down to meet the children, who would be moving to the step-down nursery in a few hours, if their progress continued, and settled their son into Hermione's arms, and then took their son into his own, and sat in the rocking chair in the corner of the room.