Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft Wizardry (Challenges Assignments)
Assignment #5; Muggle Art: Masterpieces; Task #1
Word Count: 839
Warnings: Character Death
"Ma'am. Ma'am! You must calm down." The mid-wife was trying to calm down the irate soon to be mother.
"It hurts to- too much! Ah!" Short gasps followed the words whimpered by the woman in labor.
"Ma'am, you must tell me your name. Maybe we can call someone you know, or-" The midwife said, trying to calm the woman down.
"There is n- no on left." The woman, her breaths getting shorter and more infrequent.
"Can you at least tell me your name, ma'am?" The midwife asked while running a hand soothingly down the woman's matted and sweat-slicked hair.
"Merope Rid-, Merope Guant. My name i- is Merope Guant," the woman cried out, another contraction taking place.
The midwife gestured to the assistant midwife to write the information down. While the assistant midwife went to gather a pen and paper to scribble the information down, the attending midwife went over to the front of the table, on which Merope lay, and squatted down to see how far along the baby was.
The head was barely crowning the entrance, and the attending midwife knew that this was very bad. Merope was already losing a lot of blood and her body could not handle the stress of giving birth to a child.
Merope had suddenly shown up in front of the orphanage doors in the middle of the night, wearing only a thin cotton dress underneath a ragged sweater, which was falling apart at the seams. She had banged on the doors with one hand, crying out for help, while the other hand held the underside of her enlarged stomach.
The attending midwife had found her almost kneeling against the door whilst still banging. The attending midwife called out for assistant midwife while bringing Merope into the building. Together they hauled her into one of the empty rooms and laid her on top of the table.
The attending midwife told the assistant midwife to get the kerosene lamp and light it while she opened up the curtains to allow the moonlight to illuminate the dark room.
"You've got to push, Merope. Push harder!" The assistance midwife told her, grabbing her hands tightly. The attending midwife still stood at the front of the table, watching the babe's progression out of the womb.
"I'm trying!" Merope gasped out, wailing a second later as another contraction took hold of her.
The attending midwife captured the assistance midwife's eyes and shook her head ever so slightly. She then stood up and made her way to the assistant midwife. The assistant midwife moved away to where the attending midwife was previously. The attending midwife took Merope's hand in hers and squeezed. Merope looked up in confusion and opened her eyes from when she previously had them clenched shut.
"Merope, you're losing a lot of blood. If you keep going, you're going to die. You're going to have to make a choice right now, okay? We can only save one of you. It's either you or the baby, Merope," the attending midwife said softly, but firmly. Merope let out a heart-wrenching sob, wailing into the attending midwife's shoulder.
"Oh, Merlin. The baby! Save the baby! You have t- to save my b- baby!" Merope wailed out, anguish clear in her voice.
"Are you sure, Merope?" The attending midwife asked, ignoring the odd wording of Merlin.
"Yes! Save my baby! Please!" Merope cried out, another round of sobs wracking her frail body. The attending midwife nodded at the assistant midwife, letting her know that they were continuing on with the birth of the baby.
A short while later, Merope had given birth to her baby. She was barely lucid, having lost too much blood during the birth. The assistant midwife cleaned the baby off, and handed him to his dying mother, so she can have her last few moments with him in her arms.
"Congratulations, it's a baby boy," the assistant midwife whispered softly, putting the bundled up baby into the arms of Merope. The attending and assistant midwife went over to the corner of the room to give the dying woman and her newly-born son some privacy.
"Hey there, baby. Look at you, already so handsome," Merope whispered to her son, crying as she held him close. One of the moon's ray illuminated the pair, basking them in a warm glow.
"I've decided. Your name is going to be Tom Marvolo Riddle. That was your father's name, you know? And Marvolo was my father's name. I know you're going to grow up and be great. I love you, okay? Never forget that." Merope's words grew faint and her breathing slowed, until eventually the only sound heard was the short gasp's of the newly named baby, Tom Marvolo Riddle.