Ch 29 Luna Rolf Scamander
I hope you enjoy this as much as FriendofMolly did. I enjoyed writing it.
The summer of 2015 was not all about Goblins and Elves.
The first Saturday in June Albus came back from band practice and said, "We have lost our bass player. Mac Paul wasn't very good, and he quit. I have agreed to learn how to play bass, but I need a bass guitar."
After more discussion about the band, Ginny and Albus, plus of course the Elves Mitzi and Frerin, went to the Magical Musical Menagerie. As soon as they entered the shop they spotted a Hofner Violin Bass, one very similar to the one Paul McCartney played on the early Beatle records. This one was a fraction of the cost of the guitar, and so Ginny gladly purchased it, a special bass amplifier, and even some magical enhancements.
The second Thursday in July, (it was after midnight, so technically it was the first Friday in July), Ginny got a phone call about three in the morning from St. Mungo's. The witch on the other end of the phone said, "Do you know Luna Lovegood? She wants to talk to you."
"That's fine," Ginny said, getting curious and hoping that Luna was all right.
"Hello Ginny, how are you?" a breathless Luna said. "Rolf and I, Oh, Ginny, I'm here with Rolf Scamander. He and I have been having the most fantastic time in South American finding and sketching magical animals. We have a whole chapter of interesting animals to add to his grandfather's book and I can't wait …"
Ginny heard a male voice in the background say "Luna, the wedding."
"Oh, … yes, … well, Rolf and I want to get married, and we want to know if you could find someone to marry us right away because we really …OH …"
"Ginny," a male voice said, "I'm Rolf. As Luna was going to say, we want to be married before we have children, and we thought we had a little time, but I think she's in labor right now, so, is there any way you could find someone to marry us right away?" There was a pause, and then Rolf said "We are in England. Should we come to your hours, or stay at St. Mungo's? I have no idea how long it takes to have human babies, so hurry please!"
Ginny heard a voice in the background saying, "There is NO WAY you are leaving now, Luna, Rolf!"
"How long does it take to have a human baby, Ginny?" Luna sweetly inquired. "I've only been having this tightening for about a day, and they have only gotten this hard the last couple of hours. Am I really in labor?"
"Let me talk to the midwife," Ginny said.
Ginny heard Luna say, "Ginny Potter wants to talk to you."
A voice on the other end of the phone said, "Ginny?"
"This is Ginny Potter."
"I delivered Lily Luna. Was she named after Luna Lovegood?"
"Yes, Lily was Harry's mother's name, and Luna is after the Luna you have at St. Mungo's right now. How far along is she?"
"Eight or nine centimeters, and she is progressing along nicely. She will probably have the first baby in an hour or so, two at the most, I would guess."
"The FIRST baby?" Ginny asked.
"Luna is pregnant with twins," the midwife said.
"Let me tell Luna to stay right there!" Ginny exclaimed.
"I would, unless you want another baby delivered in your drawing room," the midwife said, "like some idiot mother I know. Here is Luna."
"Stay at St. Mungo's. I'll meet you there, and try to find someone to marry you," Ginny said.
'I'll never live down having Albus in the drawing room,' Ginny thought.
"Luna wants you and Harry to be our witnesses, although we are going to try and get in touch with my parents, and her father," Rolf said. "I think Luna is having another contraction."
"I'll do my best," Ginny said as she ended the phone call. The first person to come to mind was Hermione, so she called her and said, "Luna is back from South America with Rolf Scamander, and they are pregnant, and she is in labor at St. Mungo's, and they want to get married, so can you marry them, like, right away!"
"Right now?" asked Hermione.
"Right now!" Ginny exclaimed.
An obviously exasperated Hermione said, "Ginny, it is three in the morning!"
"Luna and Rolf want to be married before the baby is born, and she's at eight or nine centimeters already," Ginny said.
"BLOODY HELL," said Hermione, and then, in a much quieter voice, "Well, that proves that I've lived with Ron a long time."
"Can you marry them?" asked Ginny.
"I AM the Assistant Minister of Magic, so I think I have the authority to perform marriages," Hermione said. "I'll get the book with the ceremony and documents and be right over."
Ginny said, "Harry and I need to go over to St. Mungo's to be their witnesses so, if you can, you ought to be able to marry people, I'll meet you over thereu right away!/u"
Ginny terminated the call, looked at Harry, and said, '"We are going to St. Mungo's right now to witness Luna's marriage to Rolf. She's in labor so we need to hurry." Harry slowly got up, and Ginny said with more urgency, "HURRY."
Harry threw on some clothes, and looked for Ginny. Mitzi was there, helping Ginny get some clothes on. The three of them went down to the kitchen and took the floo to St. Mungo's.
Old Xenophilius Lovegood arrived at St. Mungo's almost immediately after Harry and Ginny, followed by a witch and wizard that looked almost as frantic as Xenophilius.
"Luna," said Ginny.
"Lovegood," said Xenophilius.
"Scamander," said the witch.
About this time a middle age wizard with wild gray hair came rushing into the room. "Everybody is here but, who is going to marry us?" he said.
"I expect you and Luna are going to marry each other, Rolf," Xenophilius said.
Rolf looked at his soon to be father-in-law, and said in an exasperated tone of voice, "I know THAT! Who is going to perform the ceremony?"
Ginny said, "Hermione is trying to find the proper spells."
Rolf said, "Follow me," and took off at a run, followed by everyone else. "Who are you, and what are you doing?" the witch at the desk shouted at the small crowd of people running past her.
"Harry Potter, THE Harry Potter, and these are my friends, and we are taking care of some urgent business," Harry replied. Once in a while it was very good being Harry Potter, and from the shocked way the witch at the reception looked at him, recognized him, and then allowed all these frantic people to go rushing into the hospital, this looked it was one of those times.
The small mob trouped into Luna's room. Luna was half sitting up, her legs spread apart, with a witch midwife down between her legs. "You are fully dilated, Luna," the midwife said. "It won't be long now."
"Oh, hello Ginny, Harry," Luna said. "Daddy! Rolf, your parents are here! This is going to be SO MUCH FUN! Giving birth is really fascinating! It's like your body knows what to do even when you've never done it before. I've just found out the most interesting thing, Muggle women let men deliver babies! I think midwives are much better."
"Have you seen one?" the midwife asked.
"A man delivering babies?" Luna asked. "I have never seen any human babies being born. Rolf and I have seen lots of animal babies born, though."
"Have you seen a midwife?" the frustrated witch midwife asked.
"I've taken all my potions," said Luna. "The last time I saw her she said the twins were doing fine."
"When was that?" asked the witch midwife.
"Forty three days ago," said Luna. "I probably should have listened to her when she suggested coming back here a little sooner than we did, but everything was going so well, and I thought having twins might be a problem for field work."
"The wedding," Rolf said. "Please!"
"Oh, well we've been engaged for over four years, Rolf show the Potters your engagement ring," Luna said as she held out her hand. Both Luna and Rolf had the most unusual engagement rings on. They almost looked like bouquets of the tiniest flowers, multicolored covering a full joint of each finger. Somehow when you looked at them you could see they were a pair, and that Luna's was feminine and Rolf's was masculine.
"Luna," said Rolf with a little panic in his voice.
"Well, we both knew we wanted to get married before we had any children," said Luna, "but the research was going so well, and we just kept putting off coming back home."
Luna got a look on her face that Ginny had no trouble interpreting as a labor pains.
"Could you and Mr. Potter be our best man and maid of honor, please," pleaded Rolf.
"That's why we are here," Ginny said. "Although I have to be a matron of honor. After three children I can hardly claim to be a virgin."
Ginny looked at Harry, and said, "I wasn't all that thrilled to be a virgin even when I was one."
Luna said, "It was obvious at your wedding that you wanted to have sex with Harry. Was it fun? I like having sex with Rolf.
"What are we waiting for? I think we ought to be married as soon as possible now."
Ginny said, "We are just waiting for Hermione."
"Oh. Ohhhhhhhhh," Luna said as she grabbed onto Rolf's hand.
"It's time to push," the midwife said.
"I think I ought to wait until I'm officially married," Luna said in a sweet and rather unconcerned voice.
"You cannot stop labor NOW!" the midwife said.
"If I do not push will it slow labor down a little?" Luna asked. "I did tell Rolf that we would be married before the babies were bor … OOOOhhhhh."
A harried Hermione appeared, a large book in her hand. Ron struggled along behind, carrying a bag that apparently had more potentially needed things.
"Do you have the wedding spells?" Ginny asked.
"Yes," Hermione said. "It's Luna Lovegood and who?"
"Me," Rolf said.
"Who ARE you?" Hermione asked.
"Rolf … Rolf Scamander," Rolf replied.
Hermione had opened the book in her hand, and said, "Do you, Rolf Scamander, take Luna Lovegood to be your wife, to … in good times and bad, until we are parted by death?"
"I do," Rolf said.
"Do you, Luna Lovegood, take Rolf Scamander to be your husband, … in good times and bad, until we are parted by death?" she asked Luna.
"I do," Luna said.
Hermione muttered "That was about as short as I could make it."
Luna was not having a contraction at the moment so Hermione pushed a piece of parchment in front of her, and said, "Sign here." Luna did. Then as Luna's next contraction started Hermione turned to Rolf and said, "Sign here." Rolf did as he was told.
"You are officially married as of 3:25 AM," Hermione said, waving her wand over the couple. Usually gold or silver stars sprinkled over the couple, but what came out of Hermione's wand was a riot of colors. Hermione looked at her book again. "I do not think we need to say the spells for fertility. You seem to have succeeded in that department." She then said, "Harry, Ginny, we need to sign the certificate. Then I have to finish filling it out."
Hermione, Ginny and Harry signed the certificate as the midwife said, "I can see a head, Luna. Time to push."
"Ohhhhhhhhhhh" Luna said.
"Push. Love you. Push," Rolf said at the same time.
"This is so exciting!" Luna said. "Did you have lots of people with you when you gave birth, Ginny?"
"No, just Harry," Ginny said.
"I'm just so happy everybody is here!" Luna said. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh!"
"Push," the nurse midwife said.
Ginny whispered to Harry, "I didn't want to give birth to a big audience."
As soon as her contraction stopped Luna said, "They gave me something for pain, but I told them I wanted to feel everything. This is so interesting! The babies aren't moving much. I think sometimes they were fighting in there. Oh, I can feel another one starting. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh."
"Push," the nurse midwife said.
Rolf didn't say anything but held on to Luna's hands and kissed her cheek.
Everybody except Hermione, who was trying to fill out a parchment, introduced themselves. Hermione quickly introduced herself, and got some biographical information from Rolf and Luna's parents, while Luna had a couple more hard contractions in quick succession, and then the midwife said, "We have a boy, born at 3:31 AM."
"Six minutes to spare, Rolf," Luna said. "I told you we'd be married before I had the boys. I thought we'd have a little more time, though. Isn't this exciting!"
"Bloody Hell," Ron whispered, as Hermione turned toward him, her face a combination of total exhaustion and incredulity.
"Bloody Hell indeed," Hermione whispered, pushing her head into Ron and holding on to him. Ron kissed her head and put his arms around her.
"Name?" asked one of the witches assisting the midwife.
"Lorcan," Luna said. "L-O-R-C-A-N. And his twin is Lysander, L-Y-S-A-N-D-E-R Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
"I think Lysander doesn't want to leave his twin," the midwife said. "He's coming fast. Push again!"
A couple more quick pushes and Lysander was born.
"Lysander came out easier than Lorcan," Luna said.
"Small, just under 5 pounds each, but they'll be all right," one of the assistants said. "Time for their first feeding."
Luna threw off the gown that was over her and let the two witches holding the two babies help position one on each breast. One of the witches quickly covered up what she could of Luna. It took Luna a little while before both babies were firmly latched on and she was comfortable holding them. Then she looked at the babies like she was pondering the situation, and said, "It's a good thing I've got two breasts, so there is one for each baby. I wonder what you do with triplets, charm another one in the middle? That would be interesting."
"Triplets is six times the work of twins," one of the witches said. "You get help if you can."
"Oh, that is an interesting sensation," Luna said. "It feels like, like it's more than just an animal thing, like maybe some of your spirit is being fed to the babies, but not like you are losing anything. If anything it feels like the more I give the more I will get back." Luna looked at both babies hanging on her breasts. It was hard enough to nurse two babies, and no attempt was made at modesty. "It's a good thing I've got two of them," Luna said looking at her breasts, "or someone would be hungry.
Ginny said, "My mum said that the hardest thing to give up when she decided not to have any more children was the nursing. It does feel good, and sometimes, when I think maybe Harry and I ought to have another one, the pleasant feeling when you are nursing kind of makes me want to get pregnant again."
"First you're pregnant for nine months, and then they grow up. I'm not ready for another Hugo," said Hermione. "No more for me! I finally filled out the marriage certificate. It is a little irregular filling it out after the ceremony, but everything is legal."
"You wouldn't have another Hugo!" said Luna.
"No, I guess not," Hermione said. "I just had the perfect daughter. It would be bad enough if Hugo was a clone of Ron, but I think he is trying to be a clone of George."
Ron grinned at everybody. "That's my boy!" he said.
Hermione looked at Ron and just shook her head. "Hugo is why there are not going to BE any more."
"Do you want to change your name?" Hermione asked Luna.
"I've always wanted a middle name," Luna said. "Rolf. Luna Rolf Scamander. I LIKE that. Rolf, you can be Rolf Luna Scamander. The boys can be Lorcan and Lysander Lovegood Scamander. Oh this is exciting, having babies and getting married and changing our names and everything!"
A horrified Hermione looked at Rolf, who said, "It HAS been an adventure." Then, very quietly, he said to Hermione, "It will be a lot easier to register the names than to argue with her."
Hermione wrote down the new names on the marriage licenses, and gave Rolf two copies.
Hermione said, "I will file the original Marriage Certificate at the Ministry."
"We are both going into work late tomorrow," Ron said to Hermione. "You need your beauty sleep."
"Thank you, Hermione, for doing this for us. It really means a lot to Luna, and me," Rolf said. "Thank you too, Mr. Hermione."
"You are welcome, Mr. Luna," Ron replied, as he ushered Hermione out of the birthing room.
Rolf looked at Luna nursing the babies. "It's like she's in a different world," he said. "I think she is going to be a good mother.
Soon the boys were cleaned up and had nappies on them. Luna was sitting up in bed, and they had finished cleaning up the afterbirth. "It will be a little messy down there for a while yet," the midwife said, covering everything up. "For your first, and twins, everything went surprisingly well."
For about twenty minutes, while Luna nursed the boys, had the afterbirth, and was cleaned up, she continued to talk animatedly with the assembled crowd. All of a sudden she said, "I'm tired. Good night." She promptly fell asleep. Rolf's parents and Luna's father excused themselves, saying they would be back in the morning.
Rolf sat down, obviously exhausted. Harry and Ginny sat down beside him. "Since grandpa Newt retired no one has revised his book, and it really needs to be done. Dad says I can do it, that he is interested in other things and has no skill at editing.
"Xenophilius is in bad health. He should," Rolf took a deep breath "He really should stay home. We are going to live there, in the tower, maybe add a room or two, and take care of him too. Luna and I agreed that we would stay here until the twins go off to Hogwarts.
"I really don't make friends all that easily," Rolf continued. "Luna was not worried about you at all. 'Harry and Ginny and Hermione, and even Ron and Neville, they'd do anything for me, and me for them,' she said. I can't imagine good friends like that. Could you be my friend too?"
"Any husband of Luna is our good friend," Harry said.
Rolf said, "Thank you, Ginny, and Harry, for coming."
"I haven't heard much from Luna for about four years" Ginny said. "Is that how long you two have been together?"
"Luna likes to classify things," Rolf said. "Her categories can be quite unique. I think she would say we were partners in research for a year, on two field trips. I'm a good naturalist, but no artist. Luna is excellent at art and drawing, and observing. After our first field trip Luna set up her art studio in my apartment and slept in there. When we were finished, after the second trip, well, it was like we talked about what we would do next, sort of like we knew we wanted to do it together. We'd held hands but never kissed or anything.
"I was trying to figure out if she liked me as a boyfriend, and tried to hint around at it, but Luna just does not catch those kind of clues. So finally I said to her 'Luna, would you like it if were not just business partners, but were boyfriend and girlfriend?
"'Oh, instead of just holding hands sometimes we kissed?' she asked. 'I guess we'd better kiss to see if we like it.' So we did. And we did like it. I think after the first time she said something like 'Oh, that's pleasant! I like that. We'd better practice some more.' Then she considered us boyfriend and girlfriend, and decided we needed to experiment with what that meant. Very peasant experiments!
"Luna's pretty uninhibited most of the time. One time she was walking around the house naked and I got really turned on, and she saw it, and said, 'Oh, that must be what Hermione meant when she said you could tell if a guy was turned on. Can I see it?' almost like it was an academic question, and not a sexually loaded one. So I took off my boxers, and she examined me quite thoroughly. Then she said, 'Are we going to stay together?' and I said something like, 'I'll marry you, and we can stay together for the rest of our lives.'
"'I probably ought to get some birth control before we go any further,' she said. 'It's good to know we are going to get married before we have, well, kissing and the rest is sort of sex but it isn't really, like,' well, you know Luna. She was trying to articulate just how the relationship had changed, and she's not always good at human dynamics."
Ginny looked at Rolf. "Is that how you asked Luna to marry you?"
Rolf looked at Ginny like he was trying to figure out something, finally saying, "Well, sort of. After that we talked like we, well after that we both knew we were going to get married, eventually. And we intended to get married sooner, but the research was so productive, and being together so pleasant, that we kept putting it off.
"Then we went on a field trip, and ran out of birth control potion long before we ran out of things that we had to do, and Luna was pregnant by the time we got back. We tried to wrap up everything and get back, but it wasn't until this past week, when Luna was seven and a half months along, that we were able to get away. I think as we went through all the pathways to get here Luna was in labor, but she just wanted to get home. So we hit England, and Luna said, 'We need to see the Potters,' but I said, 'Luna, it is two thirty in the morning, and we really need to go to St. Mungo's to have you checked out first.' You know the rest."
"I'll be back to visit Luna tomorrow morning," Ginny said. "Where are you staying?"
"In Luna's room at first, and then eventually we are moving in with Grandpa Newt, and will be taking over the house and his collection of animals and documents," Rolf said. "Grandpa is not in the best of health, and he cannot concentrate well enough to edit his book anymore."
Harry said, "Get some sleep, Rolf."
Ginny followed up with. "We will be back in the morning."
Late the next morning, after some much needed rest, and after clearing her calendar, Ginny was back at St. Mungo's. Harry drove, and he was going to take everybody to Luna's house. As they were entering the hospital Ginny asked Harry, "How would you feel about having another child? I like babies!"
"They don't stay babies, Ginny," Harry said. "If you want to have another one, I have no objection to doing my part."
"It is a lot less work for you than it is for me, Harry. Still, after Albus goes to Hogwarts, but before Lily goes, I just might. I cannot see having all the children at Hogwarts and no one home. Maybe by the time our last one is at Hogwarts we will have grandchildren."
Harry asked, "Do you have the car seats for the twins?"
Ginny took the car seats out of the back, and handed one to Harry.
When they got to Luna's room everybody was seeping. The witch on duty said, "Everybody fell asleep about an hour ago. Could you wait a couple of hours? I don't think anyone got much sleep last night."
Harry and Ginny took the floo home, with a promise to come back as soon as the Scamander family was waking up. A couple of hours later a healer called them, and they took the floo back. Luna was nursing the twins again, and Rolf seemed to be sleeping.
"Ginny, how do you get a good night sleep when the babies want to nurse every three hours," Luna said.
Ginny said, "You don't get a good night's sleep. The first few weeks you may be constantly short of sleep, so you sleep when you can. It does get better."
Rolf stirred, and said, "We have a lot of luggage to take back to Luna's house."
Harry said, "We can take it to the car while the babies nurse."
Eventually Harry and Ginny got the new little family to the Lovegood home. Luna and the babies slept in the car, and Rolf was almost asleep most of the time.
"Let me check and see if Luna's room is ready," Ginny said. She and Mitzi got out of the car and went into the house. A short time later she came out, got back into the car, and said, "To the New Burrow, Harry. I don't think Luna's room has been cleaned since she left for South America. It looks like Xenophilius has been using Luna's room as a storeroom.
"I'm not sure Xenophilius has cleaned much of anything since Luna has been gone, Harry.
'We have a problem, Harry."
Harry thought back at how Vernon and Marge Dursley always complained if anyone was charitable towards anyone else. Vernon mocked The Christmas Carol story by Dickens. He was a disciple of Ann Rand, believing in nothing but selfishness. It didn't make Vernon a happy person. Responding to people's needs and helping others seemed to be the secret to happiness.
"I will call Fleur and Solon, and see what we can do for Xenophilius, and for the Scamander family," Harry said.
"I'm sure Mum will let the Scamander family stay with her for a few days," Ginny said.
Luna, Rolf and the twins ended up staying almost four weeks, as they arranged for Xenophilius to move to Newt Scamander's house, and expanded the house.
An Elf couple was acquired to help take care of the two old men. The Elves could have been owned by the Scamander family, but instead they were part of the Potter/Weasley house elves, and were just hired by the Scamanders. The Goblins objected to the arrangement, but couldn't do anything about it.
