Hogwarts (Challenges and Assignments.
Assignment 5 — Muggle Art: Famous Artworks — task 2 — Starry Night — write about something good happening on a starry night
March Event — Mother's Day — write about holding a newborn for the first time
Narcissa cannot push anymore. The midwife is telling her 'one more time, one more time,' over and over, and Narcissa is tired of hearing it, tired of the mantra that never seems to end.
It's late at night at the beginning of June — the fourth, to be exact — and Narcissa has been in labor in the Labor and Delivery ward ar St. Mungo's for nearing seven hours now. Lucius is on a trip, and she isn't expecting him back for at least another day.
"Almost there," encourages the midwife. "I can see the head!"
Narcissa wants to yell that if the head is barely visible, it could still take many more hours. She's tired and sore, and her face is red and covered with a sheen of sweat, and all she wants is for the torture to be over.
She wishes Lucius were here; husbands should be present for their child's birth. She knows that he is worried about the gender of the baby, for he needs a male heir, and Narcissa had refused to learn what they were having, but that by no means excuses what he had done. He left, knowing full well that Narcissa was due. She can't forgive and forget that easily.
Her son is born at 2:17 a.m. on June the fifth, 1980. He has platinum-blond fuzz covering his head and a squished face. Narcissa loves him at first sight. The midwife begins casting diagnostic spells to make sure the baby was healthy. Narcissa watches her and doesn't notice the door swinging open.
The midwife catches the action, and, without looking away from the diagnostics, she says, "You can't be in here…"
She looks over at the person and gasps. "Master Malfoy!"
Narcissa's head shoots up. "Lucius?" she asks blankly. "I thought you were on a trip."
He strides over to his wife. "A certain house elf popped into my bedroom — nearly scaring the daylights out of me, by the way — and grabbed my hand to Apparate me here. I knew what had happened as soon as I landed in the waiting room." He sat down on the chair beside Narcissa's bed and looks down at her with fondness. She is overwhelmed with love at that moment, and her throat closes up from the emotional tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
The midwife swaddles the baby boy tightly in a blue blanket and hands him to Narcissa, who props herself up on her pillows and cradles him in her arms. He snuffles cutely and Narcissa's heart melts. She peeks up at her husband from the corner of her eye, and his eyes seem suspiciously damp.
"Would you like to hold him?" She offers her arms toward him and he stiffens.
"I-I don't know," he says slowly. She shows him how to cross his arms, and she gently places her son — their son — into Lucius's hold.
"What is his name?" Lucius asks.
Narcissa smiles. "Draco Lucius Malfoy."
He stares down at the infant with a soft look on his face she rarely saw.
The stars twinkle and the moon shines through the window as the new addition to their family falls asleep in his father's arms, his mother watching on in rapture and adoration for the tiny human being that is her son.
And Narcissa finds that she can forgive Lucius for not being there.