Auction: Mother
Astrology: Narcissa Malfoy
Character Appreciation: family
Disney, Mother's Intuition: Write about a mother
Amber's Attic: quote below
Days, World Health Day: Write about a Healer
Word Count: 424
"We all have different reasons for forgetting to breathe."
-Andrea Gibson
There is only pain and darkness. Narcissa thinks she might be screaming, but she isn't sure. All she knows is her body is being ripped apart, and the world around her seems to be fading to black.
This is how she dies, she realizes. She had hoped for old age, peacefully in her sleep. Instead, she is still so young with so much life left unlived. Killed by childbirth, by her own baby…
Her baby…
Is he okay? Has he made it?
Even as pain burns through her body, what's left of her mind turns to her son. It seems cruel that the child she has grown to love more than anything else in this world would be the one to kill her. Maybe she laughs. Maybe she screams. She isn't sure about anything anymore.
"Cissy. Stay with me, Cissy."
The voice drifts through her consciousness. Narcissa tries to cling to it, but it seems to slip through her fingers. She is falling deeper and deeper into darkness. Voices swim through her head. Something cold is pressed to her lips.
Dark. So dark. So cold.
She shudders, her eyes wide as she bolts upright, gasping for breath.
"Cissy," Lucius sighs, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "We thought we lost you."
"My baby?" Her voice is raw and raspy, and the effort stings her throat. She is sure she should rest it, but panic grips her. Where is her baby. "Can I see him?"
At first, there is no answer. She notices the midwife exchanging an uncertain glance with her assistant.
The room suddenly becomes devoid of air. At least, it must because she suddenly cannot breathe.
"Draco!" She winces as her voice raises, but it doesn't stop her. "Let me see him! What's wrong? Answer me!"
"Calm down, Narcissa," Lucius whispers, brushing his fingers through her sweat saturated hair.
Finally, the silence is broken by a baby's a cry. Her baby. Her sweet Draco.
"Here we are," the Healer says, making her way closer. The tiny infant in her arms squirms and fusses. "Such a good boy. A fighter just like Mummy, huh?" She offers Narcissa a bright smile. "We thought we lost both of you. But not on my watch, no ma'am."
Narcissa nods absently as she takes her son from the other woman. It amazes her how something so small and fragile can be so strong.
Again, she forgets how to breathe, but now it's for the best possible reason.