AN – Drum roll please…CONGRATULATIONS to Meaghan, or Meggie, who was the first to guess Professor Court's true identity at about 3 AM on April 19th. Oh yes, by the way, I do use the nickname 'Mione, despite the fact you don't see it in the books. But please take note of WHO uses it, and that should give you a hint as to the purpose of it's use. Also, when you reach the pronunciation issue, once I distinguish the different pronunciated spellings of Karen, I will then continue to write it different ways so you know which pronunciation I am referring to. Not that it really matters, but I'm a pronunciation freak.
Disclaimer – Still not a rich British woman…
Chapter 8
The Next Weasley Generation
"Push, 'Mione, push!" George Weasley yelped as his wife constricted her crushing grip on his right hand. "For God's sake, can't you get her another bloody charm to ease the pain? She's giving birth to three sodding babies!" he screamed at the nurse flanking him on the left. She stuttered something inaudible and hurried off. George immediately returned his attentions to his wife, whose face was red and covered in beads of sweat. He glanced across the room at the cradle bearing the first triplet and smiled. "Come on, love," he whispered to her as she breathed heavily and looked about the room thoughtlessly. "Only two more babes to go, and then you're done! You can do it, I know you can!" Hermione turned her head to regard him, breathing labored and eyes full of…weakness.
"It's so hard!" she said, a tear cascading down her cheek. George lovingly lifted his hand and brushed away a lock of hair that had fallen across her face. He looked into her wary eyes, projecting his own love and devotion into them.
"I know it's hard, baby, but you can do it. I believe in you," he whispered as he leaned into kiss her forehead gently. "You've got to push more love, you've two more to go. Come on, I'm right here. It's alright." She looked pleadingly into her husband's eyes to find a glow that inspired her to try harder. Giving him one last look, she turned her head back and focused on the ceiling determinedly. Hermione gripped his left hand as he held it out and nodded. A scream rang out through the maternity ward as Hermione pushed the second baby painfully through the birth canal.
Mothers covered the ears of their children as she screamed every curse word known to muggles and wizards alike. The doctors crouched before her and stared intently as she tried to use muscles she never knew she had. Just as Hermione was about to give up, she heard a shout, "I see a head!" George smiled at her and nodded encouragingly. He squeezed her hand for reassurance and kissed her forehead.
"Come on, just a bit more, a little more," he told her, his voice just above a whisper. Hermione smiled weakly at him. She all but crushed the bones in his hand as she pushed, pushed as if her life depended on it. But a life did depend on it. That of her child. With this thought, Hermione screamed and pushed once more, relaxing finally as she heard the wails of a newborn babe. "It's a girl!" George cried, kissing his wife gently. A nurse glided away before Hermione could catch a glimpse of the infant, taking the baby off to clean it.
"One more, Mrs. Weasley, one more!" the doctor exclaimed excitedly. She returned to her position in front of Hermione's spread legs and patted the woman's knee. "Alright, we need you to push more, to get this third baby out soon. Can you do that?" Hermione nodded, her entire body aching as she did so. George quickly switched hands, and gave hers a squeeze. "Alright, time to push!" Hermione screamed. She was pushing with all her might, working her muscles to no end. She paused occasionally to catch her breath, and was about to punch her husband when she heard the doctor proclaim the appearance of a head.
"Come on, 'Mione, I know you can do it baby!" George shouted encouragingly. "Push, love, push!" She did push. She pushed, rebelling against the fiery aches burning in her muscles. She was about to scream with another push when she heard everyone in the room sigh. She heard crying, shrill cries that could only be her child. Hermione relaxed against the bed, her knees trembling in the supports and her arms transforming to spaghetti. "You did it, Hermione, you did it! Three beautiful babies! I knew you could do it!" George cheered. Hermione smiled feebly.
"George," she wheezed, "If you ever—ever—make me give birth to three babies in one delivery again, then…" she trailed off into a very vulgar and vivid description of castrating him with a dull wooden spoon. George chuckled and nodded; he leaned over to kiss her softly, still chuckling.
"I love you, Hermione Weasley," he whispered as he withdrew from the kiss. "You are the bravest woman I know." She smiled halfheartedly, but he knew she returned the love. He was about to kiss her once more when the doctor interjected.
"Here you are, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Three healthy babies. Two girls and a boy. Do you have any names yet?" The doctor's smile quickly changed to a look of confusion as Hermione nodded but George shook his head. "I see," she continued. "I guess I'll let you two meet your children now. Here you are." She placed one girl in Hermione's left arm and balanced the other girl and the boy in Hermione's right arm. "I'll leave you two to yourselves for a bit, but we'll have to get these three situated in the nursery soon. And you'll get a nice room soon, so you can rest. Triplets, my word, you'll be resting here for a few days, if I'm not mistaken…" she trailed off, leaving the couple with their newborn trio.
"Look, George, they're adorable," Hermione said, her face glowing with happiness. George smiled, admiring his children and wife.
"They are," he agreed, his tone completely calm and happy. They sat silently for several minutes, admiring and enjoying the antics of the infants. Once the nurses had whisked them away to the nursery and Hermione was on her way to her room, George Apparated about, quickly informing everyone of the event. Ten minutes later, everyone had Apparated to the hospital. The group consisted of Harry and Ginny, Fred and Angelina, the entire Weasley family, Ron's fiancée Lavender, Parvati and Padma, and the Grangers, who had been staying at the younger Weasley couple's apartment and arrived via Floo powder. They all crowded about Hermione, spouting out congratulations and questions.
"What are you going to name them?"
"Have you thought of Percy as a name for the boy?"
"What was it like?"
"You're so brave to give birth to three babies!"
"Welcome to motherhood!" The group continued until a nurse came in and insisted that they calm down and allow her to rest peacefully. They would have to leave when the babies came in for the first time. They could see the babies once they and Hermione were well-rested. Twenty minutes later, the children were reunited with Hermione and the visitors filed out of the room, Apparating or Floo-ing back to their homes.
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"I've been thinking about names, and I think I may have come up with some beautiful names for our girls, but I've not the faintest hint what to name our son," Hermione said abruptly, startling George out of his daydream of the triplets' first Quidditch game. He look startled, but soon chuckled, laughing at his own jumpiness.
"Really? What names would those be?" he asked, as if they were a huge secret. Hermione laughed at her husband and gave him a look daring him to tease her.
"Well, I was thinking Sona Riane for this little beauty here," she said with a shrug of her left shoulder to indicate the infant nursing on her left side. "And I thought maybe Sofia Karen for this one," she said with a nod to the infant sleeping in the cradle next to the bed. "What do you think?" George stood up as if to pace about in thought, but changed his mind and sat back down. He looked very deep in thought, the expression on his face enough to make Hermione laugh had she not been in a quiet mood so as not to stir the sleeping angel.
"Sona Riane…that's a beautiful name, 'Mione. I love it. Sofia, I love that, it's a perfect name. Now, I love the sound of Sofia Karen, but why do you pronounce it like that?" he asked, face full of teasing curiosity. The pronunciation in question was actually a Japanese pronunciation, but Hermione had toned down—or Englished, as she jokingly thought of it as—the sound. Pronounced "Kair-en" in English, Hermione's version was pronounced as "Ka-hren, with a short 'a' sound.
"I think it fits the name better. Sofia Kair-en just doesn't sound so beautiful. But Sofia Ka-hren sounds more beautiful. But that really doesn't matter. I was thinking of asking you what you thought it should be because I don't want our daughter to have too much trouble trying to tell people her name. In my fourth year, it was hell trying to explain to Victor Krum how to pronounce my bloody name, and I don't want our children going through that. So what do you think?" she said in a few big breaths. She wheezed a bit for air after that, having not breathed much while speaking quickly.
"I agree. And I've got a great idea. You know that Muggle invention you showed me, the computer? And that thing it has, the Internet? Well one day, I was surfing, as you call it, and I found this website devoted to baby names! So we could go there, and find the perfect name to fit with Sofia. Good idea, no?" he asked, a huge smile on his face.
"George, you're brilliant! Bloody brilliant! While we're there, we could also decide upon a name for our future Prince Charming!" she cried softly, leaving a smirk on her husband's face with the sound of her son's new nickname. George reached under her hospital bed and pulled out Hermione's laptop. Hermione was about to protest the fact that there were no phone lines to jack into when George whipped out his wand and muttered a little curse. Suddenly the Internet appeared, and George was at www.babynames.com in no time. First they looked at Greek names, seeing as Hermione was a Greek name itself. Next they considered the French, Italian, Latin, English and Spanish names.
After much careful deliberation, the couple had come to a decision. George and Hermione had awaken their sleeping beauty and disturbed the nursing babies several times with small arguments to the point where all three babies now lay asleep in the corner, far from them. Before deciding on a name that fit perfectly with Sofia, many of the names considered were Angelina, Leanne, Jinelle, Rianna, Isi, Melisa, and Amelia. However, the couple finally decided on the middle name of Justine. Hermione and George both agreed it had great rhythm with Sofia and formed a beautiful name as well. Now it was time for a hopefully easier task: naming their son, the youngest triplet.
By now, they had learned their lesson and opened a document program to type their arguments so the infants could sleep in peace. They reviewed many different names, in many different languages and versions, before actually naming the boy. Neither had any clue as to what they wanted to call their son—each had secretly been hoping for all girls. Hermione and George finally agreed on the name Ambrose Timothy. Hermione smiled and pressed the nurse call button. When the nurse popped her head in to see why she had been called, Hermione was already nursing her sleepy babes, and George informed her that they were ready to fill out birth certificates now.
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Two weeks later, Hermione had recovered enough to leave the hospital. Everyone they knew, even Hermione's Muggle friends, made frequent visits, dropping off gifts and inquiring on the condition of the trio. Molly and Ginny Weasley would often stop by for tea while George was off at work. Hermione had insisted that he at least work at the shop part-time so that they could continue having an income. Hermione spent most of her time walking the triplets around the neighborhood and sleeping. She was counting the days until the Naming Day.
That day arrived one week later. The ceremony was actually rather short, in Hermione's opinion, but it was beautifully done. Hagrid had again carried out the ceremony, beginning with the presentation of the three babies, each donning a cute little outfit. Sona and Sofia were dressed in white dresses while Ambrose had been dressed in a white shirt and very pale blue pants. The first thing that Hagrid did with the infants was pronounce the names that were to be given to them.
Next, he had dipped Sona's scalp in a small bowl of lukewarm water. He then pronounced her baptized by witness of those present and all holy. He then repeated the process with Sofia and Ambrose. Once each baby was baptized, he had used a borrowed wand to dry them. "By all witnesses here and holy, I thus confirm that you shall be known now and for all time as Sona Riane Weasley." "By all witnesses here and holy, I thus confirm that you shall be known now and for all time as Sofia Justine Weasley." "By all witnesses here and holy, I thus confirm that you shall be known now and for all time as Ambrose Timothy Weasley." Once he had returned the babies to Hermione and George, the guests had clapped and filed out to a reception that played nice instrumental music and served delicious refreshments.
The babies enjoyed the company of the mass of people. Sona quickly took to her Aunt Ginny while Sofia took to her Uncle Fred and Ambrose to his Aunt Angelina. The triplets were whisked about the room, teased, tickled, adored, played with, and sung nursery songs until the evening, when their mother declared that they had to be put to bed. The triplets became the only thing anyone cared about for a long time after that party.
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Two years passed by, and the Weasley apartment was filled with millions of objects declaring Baby's First Something. Hermione's favorite was Sona's "Baby's First Magical Accident", which was a pillow with a picture of Sona and the split couch cushion. Hermione smiled as she ambled about the apartment, waiting for George to Apparate home. He was supposed to go with her to the doctor's office. She could very well go by Floo, and pregnant women were supposed to have someone with them while Apparating. She sighed as she slowly lowered herself to the couch, relaxing against the soft, fluffy pillow.
Suddenly she heard a cry and lurched upward. Heaving herself off the couch, she stumbled toward the origin of the still going cries. Stopping in the doorway to the toddlers' bedroom, she smirked. She had left the kids asleep just a second ago, so why were their beds empty. Small, stifled cries could be heard from under Sofia and Sona's beds, but none from where Ambrose's bed was. She went to Ambrose's bed first, only to find him on the other side, with his monster mask from Halloween covering his face. Now she understood. Sona and Sofia hated that mask.
"Come on out, I've got the monster," she called. She reached down and pulled Ambrose into a standing position before motioning for him to sit on the bed. Hermione removed the mask from her son's face to reveal his large, uncontainable grin that warmed her heart. "Come on and get your sisters out so you three can be ready when Nana comes to take you to Diagon Alley. I think she might have mentioned something about ice cream…" she trailed off. Ambrose went crazy at the mention of his favorite snack, so he quickly ran to each of his sisters' beds and knelt down, apologizing to the scared girls beneath them. Hermione was glad that Molly could do this for her and George. She couldn't wait to find out if yet another Weasley was on the way.
AN – So? What'd you think? I had the most hellish time trying to find a name that fit. I didn't want to have first and middle names that have no rhyme. Please review guys, and do tell me what you think of the names!
