Chapter 10

She lay in the uncomfortable hospital bed absolutely exhausted. He lay next to her gently stroking her hair. He had been right after all; the baby was a girl. Their beautiful baby girl. A healer had just taken her down to the nursery a few minutes ago to let both the baby and her mother rest, but he already missed her.

"Call her Lily." He whispered, not wanting to disturb the peace in the room.
"But we agreed on Daisy. It's perfect."
"I know. But Lily was his mother's name, wasn't it?" She nodded. "Then you should call her Lily. I don't want him resenting her, and maybe if she has his mother's name, it'll make things easier on him. And it keeps my silly family tradition going."
"Are you sure? You loved Daisy so much."
"I thought it was perfect, but then I saw her. No name is ever going to be perfect enough for her. All that crap you said about your life changing when you see your baby is true. Name her Lily." Again, she nodded. She was too tired to use her words. "Do you want me to get in touch with your family?" He asked. They hadn't bothered telling anyone before coming to the hospital. She had insisted they didn't. She wanted him by her side, and if her family had been here they would only have gotten in the way.
"Yes. And yours, if you want."
"Only my mother. There's as many Wood's as there are Weasley's. They don't all need to know." He stood up and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll be back soon."
"Olly?" She called him back when he was nearly out the door.
"Yeah?"
"I love you."
"I love you too."

When he left, she reached for her bag. She hissed in pain as she did so, but persevered. She pulled out a quill, a piece of parchment and an envelope before dumping the bag on the floor again.

Baby was born. It's a girl. Named her Lily.

She stuffed the note in the envelope and addressed it to her husband. A healer came in to check on her, and she asked the young man to take it up to the owlry. She had fallen asleep only seconds after he left, and was woken up by a commotion in the corridor. She could only assume that her family had now arrived. Her mother and father sat with her for a while. Her mother fussed over her, as it was her nature. They asked questions about why her husband wasn't there – what they actually wanted to know was why he was there. They didn't bother to lie, but she hid most of the truth. She told them that her husband wasn't her daughters father, but didn't tell them how unhappy she was in her marriage. She made it sound like she had had a one night stand with her friend. He added to her lie, saying that because her husband was away she had told him when she went in to labour. He told them he didn't want her to be alone. The rest of the day was spent telling her family varying degrees of the truth and playing pass the parcel with the baby. His mother arrived much later, after most of her family had left. She brought with her clothes, toys and his blanket from when he was a baby. She had cried, saying she never expected to have grandchildren – that he was always more interested in Quidditch than girls. She fawned over her hours-old granddaughter. She fussed over her son and his lover. She said the baby looked just like him, although her family thought the baby looked just like her. They told her the truth of the situation. He hadn't been happy about it and had tried to stop the mother of his daughter several times, but she couldn't help it. She felt like she owed his mother an explanation.

The day had been a happy one, a perfect one, until late in the evening. His mother had left and they were sitting alone in the room when they heard two young healers passing the door, gossiping about how Harry Potter, the boy who lived, was in the hospital. It caused the blood in their veins to run cold.
"Go, now." She told him. "He never has to know you were here."
"No. I'm not leaving you. Not today, not ever if I can help it."
"Oliver," the tone of her voice and the use of his full name made his blood run cold for the second time in a few seconds. "If he sees you he'll kill you."
"No he won't." He was standing his ground on this one. "Worst case scenario, he punches me. I'll just hit him back twice as hard, for the both of us."
"That's why you need to go. You're as angry with him as he is with me. I'm not having you sink to his level."
"I'm not leaving."
"Yes you are."

This continued on for several minutes until they heard two steps of footsteps in the corridor.
"Just this way, Mr Potter." They heard a healer say.
"You sit in that chair," she warned, "As if you so much as flinch I'm will use a full body-bind curse on you. Understood?"
"Yup." He forgot how scary she could be when she wanted to. He could live with their agreement though, as long as she didn't make him leave. They sat in tense silence as the footsteps drew closer and closer.
"Your wife is just in here Mr Potter. And congratulations."

Inside the room was silent. They heard the healer walking away again before the door swung open so violently that it really was a miracle it stayed on its hinges.
"Well," her husband spat venomously. "Where is it then?"