"Mr and Mrs Weasley, you have a baby daughter!" said the Healer as he handed Molly her new child. She was absolutely perfect, with big, brown, sparkling eyes and a small tuft of soft red hair right on top of her head. As Molly took her in her arms, she felt the usual glow of motherhood, but this time it was different. She loved all her boys exactly the same, but as she gradually got used to the glow, she stopped noticing it. When Mrs Weasley had been handed Ron, as much as she loved him the moment she saw him, her mind couldn't help thinking 'Been there, done that.' This new baby girl had induced as much a reaction from Molly as Bill had done, eleven years previous. Molly Weasley gazed down into her daughter's beautiful face with eyes now glazed over with happy tears. Arthur was standing behind her, and he had his hand on her shoulder. Both of the new parents felt as though their family was somehow complete.
"Look at her Arthur," murmured Molly softly, "Look how beautiful she is. The daughter I dreamed about."
Arthur nodded his agreement, too choked up to say anything. He lowered his hand to stroke his new daughter's face, then uttered a gasp of delight when she suddenly and unexpectedly grabbed hold of his long finger with her own tiny ones. She looked directly into his eyes with a curious look on her angelic face, and then her cherubic features slowly broke into a large smile. Molly gasped.
"Babies aren't meant to smile until they're at least six months old!" she told her husband wondrously. "That's really unusual!"
Mr Weasley cracked a grin, "She's our own little miracle!" he told his wife. Arthur felt a surge of love for his aged but still beautiful wife. Molly was radiant at having what she had dreamed about since she was a little girl, and she smiled blissfully up at her bespectacled husband.
"She already was."
¨
"Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron. You have a new baby sister," Mr Weasley told his sons as he held out their new sibling. Fred and George, only 3 years old but with quite a large range of vocabulary looked their father in the eye, then Fred said,
"A girl? But we wanted a boy, Dad! We need someone to play games with. Ron's boring, he only wants to play tea parties with his teddies." Fred protested. " And girls are stupid." George muttered.
Both the twins folded their arms and glared defiantly at their father with an identical, far too familiar gaze. Arthur winced. He had seen that look on Molly's face far too often, and it often meant that he had done something wrong and was about to be severely chastised for it. Ron, having heard his name mentioned, promptly burst into tears, clutching his teddy bear. Percy was sitting down reading, obviously totally uninterested in the baby. Arthur looked desperately at his sons, then at his new daughter, now fast asleep. He sighed, wondering if the new Weasley baby would ever be accepted by her countless siblings. He slumped his shoulders and was about to turn around, heading for the double doors to hand the baby back to her mother, when he felt a soft tug at the back of his shirt.
"Dad, can we see her?"
Arthur turned to see his two eldest sons, aged eleven and nine looking hopefully at him. His tired face broke into a wide smile and he gladly held out the baby for Bill and Charlie to see. They looked at her, and Arthur could see the love in their eyes.
"She's beautiful, Dad." Said Bill quietly. "Do you think it would be all right if I held her?"
Mr Weasley looked worriedly at the precious bundle in his arms, then at the loving look in his eldest son's eyes. He softened, then cautiously held out his newest child to her brother. Bill took her gingerly, then extremely carefully and tenderly held her close to him. Arthur could see that Bill was not going to drop her. He felt a huge surge of pride for his first-born. After a few minutes, Arthur said gently,
"Bill, I think I'd better take her back to your mother now, she'll be getting worried." Bill slowly and reluctantly nodded, then kissed his sister on the forehead and passed her back to his father.
"I'm proud of you Bill," said Mr Weasley. Charlie looked at bit put out so Mr Weasley hastily added, "And you Charlie. You'll both be great wizards one day." Charlie's expression slowly changed into one of triumphant happiness.
Then he turned back to his wife.
¨
When she had her daughter back in her arms, Molly said contentedly "All we need to do now is think of a name. What names do you especially like?"
"Well, your aunt Muriel," Arthur grimaced, "would probably like it if our little girl was named after her." Molly considered for a minute, then slowly nodded her approval. Little baby Muriel then wailed hugely and loudly, as if protesting her new name.
"You know, Muriel could always be her middle name," said Arthur, quickly.
"Or, not at all?" said Molly hopefully. "Oh come on, the old bat may be mad at us but when has anyone ever cared about what Muriel thought?" she added savagely. Arthur would have told anyone who was listening that it was just the post-birth hormones, but unfortunately that wouldn't have been true.
"Hmm, sounds good to me! Although, now we're back to square one. Wasn't your great-grandmother called Ginevra?"
"Yes, but she was an old hag. It is a nice name though." They both looked at their beautiful new baby. "And it suits her," said Mr Weasley thoughtfully. "It's quite long, but we could shorten it to, um, 'Evvie'?"
"We don't want to kill our daughter's prospect of friends before she's even a day old, Arthur."
"Ok then. How about Ginny?"
Molly thought for a second, then said confidently, "Ginny it is." Baby Ginny looked at them intelligently, then blinked. She liked it.
