Chapter 46 New arrivals
"But…but… what about a Sobering Charm?" Ruby said, looking at Penny.
"They don't work on me, sorry Rubes."
"Look Ruby, I don't like the idea of my niece looking at my…" Ginny glanced at her mother before continuing "…but, needs must, now find me a Pain Potion before I hex you."
"I…I…"
"Kingsley sent someone to get my Healer Bag, check how far dilated she is."
Penny sat on a chair next to Ginny's head and Ruby crouched down.
"Someone find Scorpius." She said, as Uncle Ron returned with Uncle Harry.
"I'm on it."
"And get Mom."
"Why?" Ginny asked as Ruby waved her wand to clean and cushion the floor beneath her.
"She calms me. I'm going to…look." Ruby said, she could her blush and Ginny laughed.
Ruby took a deep breath and lifted up her Aunt's robes.
"I…I can see a head…" She whispered, before repeating it slightly louder.
"That's good, shouldn't be too long then. What's next, Ruby?" Penny asked, looking at Ruby.
"Umm…I need to check the heartbeat, I mean beats."
"And then check the position of the other baby." Said Scorpius, as if appearing from thin air.
"Yeah, yeah, I need to do that." Ruby said, feeling better now that Scorpius was here.
"Scorpius, do me a favour and stay near my head."
"Of course, Mrs Potter." He said with a smile, moving so that he was above her waist.
"Yeah, and a pain Potion, F5 and we'll see how it goes." Ruby said again, she was more talking to herself that the others.
"My bag will be here soon, stay strong Ginny." Ginny nodded and then gritted her teeth against another contraction.
"Harry! Get here you moron!" She screamed, Harry edged closer, looking like he wanted to stay an arm's length away. His wife went to grab him but found Scorpius' arm instead and pulled him so close he was practically on top of her.
"Oh, umm…" Scorpius said, looking alarmed.
"Uncle Harry!" Ruby sighed, reluctantly he edged closer to his wife and then took the place of Scorpius and gritted his teeth against the pain she was causing him. Ruby heard her Uncle Ron snort from behind her.
"What are you doing here? I told you to go and find Mom!"
"I did, she just needs a minute."
"Why?" Ruby asked, looking at Ron.
"Just to… she's a bit foggy."
"I'm on it." Said Penny, standing up and going in the direction that Ron had pointed.
Ruby checked the heartbeats and when Kingsley arrived with Penny's bag she gave her Aunt a Potion and saw relief spread over her face.
"Thanks, right, can I push yet?"
"No, not quite yet. Just keep taking deep breaths."
As the minutes wore on Ruby became increasingly worried about her mother.
"Uncle Harry, is Mom okay?" She asked. Her Uncle nodded.
"Nearly, she'll be here in a minute."
"She shouldn't have come." Ruby's Grandma muttered.
"Some things have to be revisited." Uncle Harry said, looking up at his mother-in-law.
The moment was broken by Ginny screaming and Harry almost choking as she grabbed his neck.
"Rubes….help…" He muttered, struggling to breath.
"Scorpius, help him while I…oh, you can push now."
"NOW?"
"Yes, bear down." Ginny loosened her grip on her husband's neck and started to push.
"That's good, really good, keep going!"
"Give me a fucking Potion, now!" Ginny screamed.
"No, keep pushing!"
"Ruby, don't make me hex you!"
"Where's her wand?" Scorpius muttered, looking around, Ruby saw her Grandma hold it up with a reassuring wink.
"Harry, hex her!" Ginny yelled, her face red with stress.
"No, Eliza would…"
"The heads out, stop pushing." Ruby could see the baby's face, its eyes were closed and its face was scrunched up.
"How's it going?" Penny asked, from behind Ruby.
"Head's out, where's mom?"
"Oh, excellent, good work Ginny."
"Where's mom?" Ruby repeated, checking the heartbeats again.
"Just having a lie down with Fred."
"Seriously?" Ginny muttered, rolling her eyes. "Like fucking rabbits…"
"There's another contraction coming, get ready."
"Ahhh!"
"PUSH!" Ruby could see the pain on her Aunt's face but before she could even decide to give her another Potion the first baby slipped out into her waiting hands.
"Oh…it's here!" Ruby cried, half-elated, half-disgusted. She cast a few spells to clean and check the baby.
"It?" Harry asked, as Ruby lifted the baby up to pass to Ginny.
"He, Scorpius help them cut the cord."
"It's a boy." Ginny said, taking the baby and hugging it to her chest.
Ruby sat back slightly and took a deep breath before checking for signs of the other baby. She could already see the top of the head.
"Aunt Ginny, you've not got much time. Grandma, can you take the baby?"
"Of course, oh he's beautiful." She cried, taking her new grandson from his mother's arms.
When the contraction came Ruby told her Aunt to push and within a few seconds the baby had arrived, as if sliding down a waterfall.
"Here…oh my God, you did it!" Ruby said, casting charms on the baby.
"What is it?" Harry asked, looking over Ginny's legs.
"A girl, it's a girl." Ruby looked around and saw her mother standing behind her, looking at the new arrival and smiling broadly. Her mother looked pale but the happiness shone through.
"A boy and a girl, Eliza, one of each." Uncle Harry said, looking up at his sister.
"Like us." Eliza said softly, before moving to sit next to Penny.
Ruby passed the second baby to Ginny. The next half an hour seemed to fly by, Ruby helped Ginny recover and then cleaned her up and sat her in a chair. Ruby's mother conjured cribs for the babies and her grandmother summoned blankets that she had already prepared.
When Ruby sank into a seat next to her mother she felt like she could laugh, cry and pass-out all at the same time. Scorpius had gone off to announce the births and Penny sat down next to Ruby.
"Well done, Ruby that was excellent."
"I can't believe it." Ruby muttered, her eyes staring ahead but seeing nothing.
"You did very well."
"I'm gonna be sick." Ruby said, before leaning forward and throwing up into a bucket that Penny conjured. Her mother stroked her back.
"You alright, Rubes?" She heard her Uncle Ron ask. Ruby didn't reply. When she looked up Scorpius was just returning with his parents. His father looked absolutely delighted.
"Cheers Weasley, I mean Potter, my father's probably going to have a coronary when he hears about this!"
"You're welcome." Aunt Ginny said, looking up from the crib and smiling.
"Are you alright, Ruby dear?" Mrs Malfoy asked.
"I…I…" Ruby looked at Scorpius and he laughed slightly.
"Reality check was it, Rubes?" He said, with his arrogant smile.
"I'm not doing that!" Ruby said, pointing at the spot where her Aunt had given birth.
"Bit late for that, isn't it?" He said, coming and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"I won't do it!" Ruby said, indignantly.
"You will and when it's over you'll forget all about the pain and we'll have our baby." He said, kissing her on the forehead.
"Do you really forget about the pain?" Ruby asked, looking at her mother.
"Pretty much, don't worry about it." Her mother replied, putting her arm around Ruby and giving her a reassuring squeeze.
"Are we missing something here?" James asked, from next to his new sister.
"We're having a baby." Scorpius said, his eyes fixed on Ruby's and smiling widely.
"What?"
"What?"
"WHAT!"
"Oh, this is wonderful!" Gushed Mrs Malfoy, skipping over to them and hugging her son tightly.
Ruby looked at Mr Malfoy and saw that he had the same smile as his son.
"This is without a doubt the best night of my entire life, I blew up the Manor, Potter gave birth in the grounds and my son has knocked up a Weasley!"
"Well put, Malfoy!" Ruby's father laughed, clapping Mr Malfoy on the back.
"You're pregnant, Ruby?" Albus asked, looking unsure if he was understanding the situation correctly.
"I'm not doing that!" Ruby repeated, still pointing at the place where her Aunt had given birth.
"Why don't you hold one of the babies, Ruby?" Her mother suggested, pulling Ruby's hand down to her lap.
"Have they got names, Harry, we've got a betting pool to sort out?" Ruby's father said, pulling out a notepad.
"Well, we decided on choosing new names, didn't we Gin?"
"Yep, time for some new names in the family."
"The boy is called Sam." Harry said, leaning into the crib and looking at his sleeping son.
"And the girl…Harry, you tell her." Ginny said, nodding towards Ruby's mother and smiling sleepily.
"Okay, come here." Harry said, picking up his baby daughter and walking over to his sister.
"Let Ruby hold her, she's traumatized." Ruby's mother said.
"You first, Auntie Eliza." Harry lowered the baby into his sister's arms.
"We're going to call her Elizabeth, but Lizzie for short."
"But…you said you wanted new names." Ruby's mother replied, looking at his brother.
"Well, some names deserve using twice." Harry said, kissing his sister on the forehead.
"Thanks Harry." She whispered, looking down at her niece.
"Right, this is all very touching, I'm going to find some champagne, most of the guests have gone home but as we've got family news to celebrate…"
"We're not family, Malfoy." Uncle Ron said, with narrow eyes.
Mr Malfoy gave a laugh and disappeared to find the wine.
"Ron, don't be such a killjoy." Aunt Hermione said, moving over and hugging Ruby. "Congratulations Ruby."
"I'm not doing it." Ruby muttered into her Aunt's shoulder.
"Hold the baby, Rubes." Her mother said, passing baby Lizzie over to Ruby.
Ruby took her carefully and looked at her new cousin. She already had the Weasley hair but she also had Uncle Harry's emerald eyes.
"She's got your eyes." Ruby said to her Uncle.
"Yeah, looks like Al's not the only one who got them now. Sam's got blue eyes though."
"She's beautiful." Ruby said, a prickling at the back of her eyes telling her that crying would soon occur.
"Someone needs to tell Teddy." Ruby said, looking up at the family.
"I'll go if you want, I want to see Hamish anyway." Harry nodded at Scorpius' words and the two walked away as Harry scribbled a message on some parchment.
Mr Malfoy returned with enough bottles of champagne to last the night.
"Longbottom and McGonagall are outside the charm, can I bring them in?"
"Of course, Neville needs to meet his new god-son." Ginny said, yawning.
When Neville arrived Ruby was struck by how much younger he looked, he was beaming with happiness. Ruby looked at her mother and saw that she was also smiling at Neville.
As Ginny told Aunt Minnie and Neville about the new arrivals Kingsley walked over to Ruby.
"Congratulations Ruby, Alistair will be ecstatic."
"Thanks Minister, I'll write to him tomorrow, and I need to find Alice."
"Eliza, the Ministry have deemed your project a success. Well done."
"Thank you, that was fast, there's still lots to do."
"Well, Neville can tell people if he wants. Oh and Patterson wants to give you a bigger office again."
"I don't want a bigger office."
"How about a pay rise?" Her mother grumbled and grudgingly accepted the praise and the pay rise.
Ruby was eventually relieved of holding Lizzie and the trainee Healer stood up and walked over to her Grandparents.
"Is that why I haven't seen you for more than two minutes for a couple of months?" Her Grandma asked, beaming at her.
"Sorry Grandma." Ruby said, sheepishly.
"You've got nothing to be sorry about, I'm so happy for you." Ruby was pulled into a bone-crushing embrace which was loosened considerably when Ruby's Grandpa reminded his wife that Ruby was pregnant.
"Congratulations Poppet." He said, kissing Ruby on the cheek.
It was almost three in the morning when Ruby, Scorpius and Victoire returned to Grimmauld Place. Ruby was so tired that she stumbled on landing and Scorpius caught her before she could damage herself.
"Night guys." Victoire said, yawning and walking towards the drawing room.
"Aren't you going to bed?" Ruby asked, pulling off her shoes.
"The stairs are like a mountain, I'll transfigure the sofa." Victoire disappeared and Scorpius lifted Ruby up as if she weighed no more than a baby and carried her into their bedroom.
He placed her gently on the bed and undressed and redressed her as she drifted in and out of sleep.
"Scorpius?"
"Yes."
"Thanks for helping with the babies."
"No problem, you were amazing."
"It was disgusting." Ruby said, snuggling up to him as he lay next to her.
"It's worth it in the end." Scorpius replied, kissing her on the neck.
"It better be." Ruby replied, drifting into sleep at last.
A/N So the babies are here! What do you think of the names?
Sorry for the delays on all my stories, the reasons are as follows;
1) I have recently acquired a boyfriend and spend all weekends with him.
2) I have become obsessed with crochet.
3) I read the GONE series by Michael Grant and it's so amazing that I keep re-reading it.
4) My hip is getting stronger so I'm able to escape the house a bit more (although I won't know until the middle of May if I need more surgery).
5) I'm still trying to write a proper book that might make me rich!
Please review and let me know what you think of this chapter.
xXMizz Alec VolturiXx- The announcement is made!
Reading Dorkk- No cliffhanger in this chapter, hope you enjoyed it.
LUG-14- Thanks, the babies are here!
Karlien- Sorry for the delay, life gets in the way!