T.C.O.T.P

Chapter 31

A/N- I must admit I have not made time for writing in the past couple of years. But lucky for you my daughter began reading my stories and NAGGED me continually to finish my stories. I have one more chapter to post and it is the final of this story. Please review!

Draco took care of the meetings with the barrister so that Lucius could remain at Ginny's side. Due to Ginny's health condition, there were special orders in place that meant everything would take days instead of months.

The Weasleys were trying to prove that Lucius didn't care about Ginny and were only trying to ensure an end to the curse, while the Malfoys had to disprove that and show that, as her husband, Lucius should be allowed to continue in his role as next of kin.

In the end, it was Professor McGonagall's testimony that won the case for the Malfoys. The case had shown that the Weasleys had not all turned their backs on Ginny, but on each other. Not one member of the family had realized that no one else was reaching out to Ginny; every single member thought the others had been reaching out to her.

It was after the judge ruled in favor of the Malfoys that Professor McGonagall arrived at Malfoy Manor to speak to Lucius. Minerva was led to Ginevra's room and was not surprised to see Lucius sitting at his wife's side. She took a second to recalculate what she was about to say. "Lucius?" His eyes didn't leave his wife to indicate he even heard their visitor. "You have been in a spot similar to the Weasleys'. Yes they were wrong, but they do love her and are scared to death now that she will die without knowing that they are sorry."

"Why should I care?" he lashed out.

She was almost taken aback by his comment. "You don't have to care! They have never meant anything to you, but Ginny would care! She loves them!" Professor McGonagall stammered.

"There has been no contact from them to her," Lucius replied curtly.

"Lucius, they have been … they all felt she sold herself for them! Every member of that family is guilt-ridden, but they do love her. Neither you or I can say what will happen between them, but knowing they are near and that they do care might give her the strength to pull through this. It gave her the strength to marry you."

Lucius looked up at Minerva and held eye contact for the first time since she entered the room.

"It can't hurt at this point. Remember during the final how you feared for Draco?" she reminded him.

He was silent for a long time before replying, "Not all of them. I can't risk her getting sicker."

"Molly and Arthur then," Minerva suggested.

"If any of these bells go off, they are gone!" he vowed.

"That's more than fair," she agreed on behalf of the Weasleys.

Stella remained in the corner of the room while Arthur Weasley held his daughter's hand and whispered his apologies to her. He had no clue if she could hear him, but he whispered and cried at the same time, telling her how sorry he was.

Meanwhile, in the next room, Molly Weasley was questioning Lucius on what the plan was for her daughter. "What happens now?"

"We will wait three more days and then the baby will stand a good chance after being removed from Ginevra. Once the baby is out, they can treat her for the illness, and if she recovers from all that, they can finally extract her incorrectly healed bones and joints and allow her to regrow them," Lucius said as if on auto-pilot.

The look on Molly's face told Lucius someone felt as he did: discouraged. "I- I didn't think she could be this stubborn."

Lucius' eye returned to the door leading to where his wife lay unconscious and unaware of the new temporary arrangement..

"May I ask why you agreed to this?" she continued.

"For five months, she has done everything she could to have this child. She put her life totally on hold for it and for our families, I only agreed because of what it means to her."

For three days Molly, Arthur, and Lucius took turns at Ginny's bedside. Finally, arrangements for the removal were made and all family members were forced out of the room so the team of healers could do their work. None of Ginny's family members spoke to each other; each wrapped up it their own thoughts and emotions. The room was deafeningly quiet.

Twenty minutes after they started, Nurse Stella and the healer that specialized in preterm babies came out with the baby wrapped in a blanket. The healer took the baby to a table that had been set up in the room and began working his magic.

"Ginevra has been closed up. For her, the next twenty-four hours will be hard." Stella paused, "The baby is a girl, and so far the healers tell me everything looks promising for the baby."

It was at that moment it became clear to everyone in the room that Lucius didn't know where to turn. He wasn't sure whether he should watch over the baby's treatment or go into the next room to be with Ginny. Arthur realized now that for Lucius, Ginny was more than a baby incubator.

Arthur walked to the new father. "Ginny would want you to take care of her daughter. Molly and I will sit with Ginny for now," he carefully offered.

Lucius realized that his old adversary was correct. "If anyone in there even looks like they think something is wrong, come and get me. And thank you."

Lucius then went over to see his daughter. She was extremely small. They had guessed she weighed about one pound. Lucius had been told this before today, but hearing it and seeing it were two totally different things. The fear he had felt about losing Ginevra was nothing compared to this.

"I know one is never expecting what they see," the healer explained. "But thankfully we are not living in the Muggle world. By this time tomorrow, your daughter's body functions will be the same as any full term baby. She will still be small, and might always be on the smaller side than her peers, but her lungs are already at 90 percent of what a full term baby's would be. She will be just fine. It's still too early to hold her, but you will be able to in a few hours. You can talk to her though, and you can gently touch her. Allow her to know you're here."

"My daughter," Lucius said as he realized he had no clue what to say to a newborn baby. He finally spoke to Nurse Stella, "Would you please go and tell Draco and Miss Parkinson that the baby is a girl." He knew the two were downstairs waiting for word on Ginny.

When Ginny finally woke up, Lucius was in the other room feeding their daughter. Arthur was sitting bedside, holding Ginny's hand. "Daddy?" Her voice was raspy.

Upon hearing her, Arthur started crying tears of joy. "Ginny, I'm so sorry! I should have demanded to see you."

Then Ginny remembered, "My baby!"

"She's fine. Small, but fine, and just as pretty as her mother." Arthur assured her.

"Where's Lucius?" The words almost didn't come out due to how dry and sore Ginny's throat was.

"He's with the baby."

When Ginny heard this, she felt as if her heart broke. Lucius' only care had been for the baby all this time, she thought to herself. Her father and her nurse were talking to her, but she wasn't registering what they were saying. She couldn't pin down the moment when she fell in love with Lucius, but knowing he didn't feel the same for her hurt so much more than the fall and broken bones had ever hurt.

Ginny had no idea her husband hadn't left her side, other than when he had to appear in court and for the brief amounts of time that her mother and father were allowed to be with her.

When Lucius was told Ginny had finally awakened, he wanted to run to her, but the baby had just started taking her first bottle from him. Because of her size, he had to be very careful about handling her and she couldn't just be passed off to someone else He had to remain until she was done feeding. However, to Lucius, it felt like it took her hours to finish the few teaspoons that would fill her stomach.

While Lucius had allowed Ginny's parents to come and be with her, he still didn't trust them and he feared what her father was telling Ginny in these moments alone with her. Then the door to the nursery opened, and Molly came over to look down at her first grandchild. Someone had told Molly that Ginny had woken up. "Do you want me to take her so you can see Ginny?" she offered.

"I can't," Lucius replied.

Molly smiled. "Funny how they are in control of our world from the moment they arrive."

Lucius broke for a second, "I truly want to, but I can't."

Molly saw the break and took pity on him. In that second, she knew that Lucius loved her daughter and that remaining here with the baby was killing him. "I'll go explain to Ginny that you'll be in as soon as you can."

"Thank you."

Arthur and Molly took the time to explain how the Weasley family had shut down to each other after Ginny had married, and that none of them realized that they weren't the only ones to not communicate with her, and that they all knew they were in the wrong and were truly sorry for their lack of action.

Once Lucius finished feeding the baby, whom he would not name without Ginny, he finally was able to go to his wife's side. Molly and Arthur had left the room to allow them some privacy. An odd feeling hung in the room as neither knew what to say. Finally, Lucius spoke, "How are you feeling?"

"It hurts, a lot!" Ginny said in reference to the Skelegrow.

"I remember. She's so tiny! Smaller than I expected."

"How small?" Ginny couldn't really recall what the healers had said to expect about the baby's condition

"15 ounces this morning."

Ginny panicked. "They said she was 1 puond 1.5 ounces at birth!"

Lucius came closer to Ginny, but took care not to sit on the bed itself, not wanting to cause it to move and increase her pain. "All babies lose weight after being born," he assured her.

"Is she beautiful?" Ginny asked.

He smiled. "I think so, but it's hard to say when she is the size of a kitten when it leaves its mother." He wanted to give her some point of reference for size so she would be ready when she saw their child for the first time.

"I want to see her," Ginny demanded.

"Ginevra, you're missing a hip and arm right now. You can see her tomorrow when your bones have finished regrowing," he gently ordered.

Ginny protested. "But they said she was just small; that they had gotten everything functioning."

He nodded. "But they have to allow the skin to develop on its own as she gets bigger and gets her subcutaneous layer of fat. You have done so much for her; just a bit longer, I promise. If we brought her in here, you would want to hold her. With your body's painful and unpredictable spikes you're going through, she could be hurt. 23 and a half hours more. Then, very carefully, you can hold her."

Ginny choked back a sob, then said, "She needs a name."

"I know, but I think we can hold off until you have met her," Lucius decided.

"What have you been calling her?" Ginny asked. She was hurt that Lucius wasn't trying to hold her hand or touch her in any way.

"Princess seemed a good fit. Your mother has already begun shrinking down clothing for her once she is allowed to wear some."

"Mum is a doer," Ginny stated.

"Are you alright with them being here?" he cautiously asked.

She shrugged. "Dad said they took you to court."

Lucius nodded." They did. If it was not for the Hogwarts headmistress, they might have won," he explained. "If you want them to leave, I will send them away."

"I don't know. I'm still hurt, even with what Dad said."

"You all have tempers. I have had a lot of time to think, but I can't say how I would react if I was in your father's place. A daughter is special. I would hope our daughter would understand me being a fool," he carefully advised.

While Ginny was surprised, she was also hit with a spike in pain from the Skelegrow bone regrowth.

Lucius wanted to say many things, but this was not the time.

Ginny hoped Lucius would tell her he had been worried about her.