Albus is married. Not only that, he has a daughter. This is her story.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that came out of JK Rowling's head.
Warnings: death (in this chapter and in future) rated M for future chapter.
Save me
Prologue: I can't raise this life alone
The halls of Hogwarts were solemn as day broke. Silence washed over the castle, not even Peeves dared to disturb the quiet. It was a cold December morning, much colder than it should have been. As the students slept soundly in their beds, all of their teachers sat impatiently in the great hall. They waited in silence till they knew whether to celebrate or mourn.
The headmaster, on the other hand, was loitering outside the hospital wing. He was sitting on the floor, with his head in his hands, right across from the entrance of the wing. The sounds of footsteps soon echoed behind the door. The headmaster picked up his head just as a young Poppy Pomfrey entered the hallway. The headmaster looked at her with hopeful eyes, but he saw sadness and sympathy in her face.
"I'm sorry Albus, we couldn't save Artemia…..she was too weak….." Professor Dumbledore stared at her, hoping she was lying. But he knew she wasn't.
"Nothing you could have done would've prevented this," Poppy continued. Albus stood up slowly to his full height.
"What about the baby?"
"She is fine"
"She?" Albus' eyes twinkled momentarily, but soon became cloudy again.
"Yes Albus, Artemia gave birth to a beautiful baby girl." Poppy moved to the headmaster's side. "Would you like to see them?" He nodded slightly as Poppy put a hand on his shoulder. She led him through the door to a room full of hospital beds. In the corner of the room, there were a few curtains that surrounded one of the beds, serving the purpose to at least imitate a private room. Poppy moved one of the curtains aside to allow Albus through. Without even hesitating, he entered after her.
The woman in the bed had a sheet pulled over her face, with bits of blonde hair escaping the confines of the sheet. Albus stood at the foot of the bed as Poppy passed him to exit through the curtain from which they came through. She might have said something like I'll be right back, but Albus wasn't sure. He grabbed a chair and pulled it to the bedside. He sat down for fear that his legs would give way. He looked up and down the bed. It was clean, too clean for his liking. It just added to his delusion that she was just sleeping. Any part that remained of that delusion was shattered when the shrill cry of an infant echoed through the room. A second later, Poppy came through the curtain, carrying a crying infant wrapped in a white afghan.
She walked over to Albus and handed the bundle to him. Albus took his screaming daughter into his arms. The infant stopped crying almost immediately, letting only small throaty noises escape her tiny lips. Big, dark, blue eyes stared up at older, bright, blue ones. The infant took her father's finger into her palm. This is why she left us, thought Albus. She gave her life to bring another into this world.
"Did you think of a name?" Poppy said, attempting to comfort him.
"Artemia did." Albus said, not taking his eyes off of his baby girl.
"What is it?" Poppy didn't want to cross a line, but her curiosity jumped to her mouth faster than her common sense did. Albus looked up at her, then to his wife lying on the bed. A few tears ran down his face.
"Evelyn Charmain Dumbledore"
TBC
Please read and review
