Rolling down the stark white hallway of St. Mungo's, Hermoine clasps onto her best friend, Harry Potter's, hand so tightly her knuckles turn white from the strain. The band of nurses accompanying the magical gurney turns sharply in an equally bleak looking room. Setting the various magical monitors and devices to track the long process of child birth most of the nurses leave, a rather short one left who positions extra blankets at the end of the bed.
"Ms. Granger, we'll be back to check on you soon, dear. We'll be here if you ever need anything." the kindly nurse says before departing.
Settling himself near the head of her bed, Harry brushes the stray hairs away from her forehead. "Ron should be here soon, I'll just help you be brave until then." He says in a low whisper, responding to the fear in her big doe eyes.
"I'm not so sure I can do this, I mean all of this, what if I'm a bad mum, my mother obviously wasn't that great, and I just don't think I can…eep" letting out a low squeak and grabbing for Harry's hand again as the pain seems to rip through her very pregnant abdomen.
"You'll be great, I'm here, we'll get through it, all of it. Promise." He manages to say as his hand is nearly broken from the near super-human force placed on it by his friend in labor.
From down the hall they suddenly hear quite the commotion, first a crash and then a myriad of raised voices. Looking at one another, concerned, Harry ventures into the hallway to see what's going on. Finding his red-headed companion, in a rather disheveled state after apparently crashing into a cart of medicines, Harry rushes down the hallway. In the midst of all the chaos, Ron seems to be accosting all nurses in range trying to find his friends.
"Ron, calm down!" Harry yells above the rest of the voices, grabbing his best mate and pulling him aside. "Listen, she's fine, she's doing well, we're just down the hall."
"Oh, I'm calm, I'm perfectly calm" Ron responds running hands nervously through his hair and adjusting his clothes. "Lead the way"
After apologizing to the staff, he leads his anxious friend into the hospital room. Hermione sitting up slightly in bed, her hands resting on her huge stomach, smiles brightly as she sees the father of her child enter.
"I'm sorry it took me so long, this hospital is impossible." Ron says, perching on the edge of her bed, and kissing the top of her head. "Ready to have a baby?" he asks jokingly his face a glow with anticipation.
She looks up at him and whispers "I'm just glad you're here."
Approximately 4 hours later
Screams erupt from the small room, obscenities flying through the clean white air of the hospital. Inside, the two boys stand at either side of the bed, cringing in pain as their hands are clenched by those of a young girl, the source of the screaming and cursing. Her hair matted with sweat and face red from the strain of child birth, Hermione finally relaxes as the loud cries of a child replace the agonizing yells.
A tiny infant squirms and cries in the doctors arms as he pronounces,
"Congratulations, it's a girl" and proceeds to clean of the still screaming child
"Ron, we have a daughter," Hermione says quietly laying back in exhaustion
"I know, she's beautiful, she like her mother," He replies, letting his guard down as he strokes her matted hair.
As the baby is cleaned and swaddled in a soft pink blanket, a tuft of red hair appears along with big brown eyes looking around curiously. Harry slips out of the room, leaving the young parents alone with their newborn.
After holding her baby, Hermione drifts off to sleep after the exhausting process and Ron settles into the nearby rocking chair, his tiny daughter slowly drifting to sleep in his arms.