Keira stepped out of the fireplace and into the entryway of Potter Manor. It was cool in the room and she could already feel goosebumps popping up along her arms. Perhaps rushing away from the house had been a bad idea.
The Manor had always been difficult to heat so they had always had warming charms placed in their clothing. Now that she couldn't use magic, she couldn't use a quick charm and she had told Renato ages ago to wait a few minutes before going into the floo after someone, just incase they didn't move out of the way in time or something happened.
"Keira!"
Keira turned and saw Lily walk into the room, "Lily, it's been a while."
"You're telling me! I haven't seen you since early November. You've taken your sweet time coming to visit."
Keira blushed, "Yes, sorry about that. I've still been making changes with the house and I've been trying to find a job. Valentina and Cecilia come over a lot and Siena and Icaro are finally about to get married too. Siena was asking for my help with some of the wedding preparations. They're planning a June wedding."
"When did they get engaged? I haven't heard anything about it really. Granted, I have only met them once."
"They got engaged around the same time Renato and I did, they just took their time getting married." Keira said.
They heard the floo flare up again and turned to see Shamal fall out of the fireplace.
"Shamal? Renato sent you through first?" Keira asked, frowning.
"He had to grab something. Are you alright?" He asked as he stood up and brushed himself off.
"I'm fine. Lily, this is Shamal, he's my mist guardian. Shamal, this is my sister-in-law, Lily Potter." Keira said.
Shamal took Lily's hand and kissed the back of it, "A pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise. Keira's never mentioned you before."
"Ah, I met Keira near the end of November and Valentia moved me in. Since I'm the only other guardian, other than her asshole husband, it's best if I'm not extremely far away. It also helps that I'm more of a doctor than anything else so I'm not gone as often as Renato is." Shamal explained.
"Is it safe to introduce him to James and Sirius? I feel like they would get along too well." Lily said, chuckling.
Keira rolled her eyes, "Oh, they'll get along way too well. Shamal likes to irritate Renato when he's around way too often."
The floo flared up again and Renato stepped out.
"Renato, good to see you again. I hear that Icaro is finally getting married." Lily said, smiling.
"Yes, he likes to put things off as much as possible. I'm sorry that we haven't been able to visit more often but I've been taking more missions so that I can take a decent chunk of time off without going through all the money that is put aside." Renato said before turning to Keira, "I figured you would want this." He held out one of his suit jackets.
"You grabbed an extra?"
"You've been getting chills recently and I know you prefer my jackets to your sweaters." Renato said, smirking.
Keira smiled and took the jacket from him and put it on.
"So..." Lily started, looking between them, "When were you planning on telling us that you're pregnant?"
Keira blushed, "I was planning on telling everyone today since I haven't had the chance to tell anyone yet."
"I'm guessing you thought that we'd just miss the baby bump? James and Sirius might be dense enough to, but I doubt anyone else will be. It's a good thing that Alice is here, you look to be about as far along as she is. Maybe you'll have someone to talk to about it." Lily said before grabbing Keira's hand, "We should hurry though. Everyone is waiting for you!"
"Have they been waiting long?"
"Not really. James and Sirius are impatient because they want to ask Renato something and Mad-eye is here; he wants to discuss Renato's job though he's more curious as to how long he's been a hitman. The aurors may keep up with the muggle police force but not everything they hear from them is accurate." Lily said, rolling her eyes, "Some of the muggles are saying that you've been a hitman for twenty years and that's ridiculous, you're only twenty three."
"Twenty four now." Renato said, glancing around. He hadn't seen much of the home the last time he had been there. He'd been too distracted by James and Sirius along with Fleamont and Euphemia to really notice the house elves who seemed to pop up from no where, or how the paintings were pointing and whispering to each other.
"Oh, I apologize, twenty four. Even then, twenty years? You would have been four years old and that's just ridiculous to think that you've been a hitman for that long." Lily said.
She opened the door to the formal dining room, "They're here everyone!"
The people in the room turned around and shouted 'Happy Birthday' to a smiling Keira. She grabbed Renato's hand and drug him over to Fleamont and Euphemia, "Come on, we need to tell them the news."
Renato held his fedora down as he was pulled towards Keira's parents, "Don't you need to introduce them to Shamal?"
"I can do that later, he can go socialize with everyone." Keira said as they got closer to where Fleamont and Euphemia stood talking to a woman with a stern face and a tight bun at the back of her head.
"Oh, Professor McGonagall!" Keira said as they came to a stop a few feet away, "I didn't realize you were here."
"Of course. You and James were two of my favorite students so when Lord and Lady Potter invited me I accepted." McGonagall said, smiling, "And I'm assuming this is the husband your parents have been talking about?"
"Yes, this is Renato. I should have introduced you beforehand. Renato, this is Minerva McGonagall, she's the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts." Keira said.
Renato tipped his hat, "Pleasure to meet you ma'am."
"You as well. Did you attend a different school? I don't remember teaching you." McGonagall said.
"I'm a muggle." Renato said, "I've never attended a magic school but from the stories that Keira mentions every so often it sounds like it would be an interesting place."
McGonagall snorted, "Interesting. It's chaotic at times yet I wouldn't change it. Though I do wish more students had studied as well as Keira and James did."
"Yes, Keira has mentioned that you were the one who mentioned the animagus transformation. I suppose that the technique only works if you have magic in your veins." Renato asked.
"It depends on what the person is trying to achieve." McGonagall said, raising a brow, "If you are a muggle then the animagus transformation will not work for you. You could meditate and find your animal form, but you would never be able to transform into it."
"What if I told you that I have dragon blood in me. I don't have the magic that you have, but I have a form of magic which helps protect my body at times. Keira mentioned that the animagus transformation is more of a soul thing so I suppose that since she is still able to transform even without the magic that you all have that it would be possible for me to transform fully."
McGonagall frowned, "I suppose it could be possible. I would have to research it. I have never heard of a muggle having dragon blood before but I'm sure we could figure something out. Have you been able to transform at all?"
"My arms can transform and I can transform my lungs and esophagus enough to breathe fire but other than that not really. I have a permanent trail of scales on my back though."
"That seems like you are stuck in a state of partial transformation. I will look into the subject."
"Thank you."
Keira smiled, "Well, since you two are done chatting," She looked over at Fleamont and Euphemia, "I'm pregnant!"
Fleamont nearly dropped his drink while Euphemia gasped and McGonagall smiled, "Congratulations, Keira."
"Thank you, professor." Keira said, smiling.
"How far along are you?" Euphemia asked, pulling Keira into a hug.
"About six months now." Keira said, "We would have been by to visit but things have been a bit hectic lately."
"Yes, my brother is getting married sometime in June and his fiancée has been asking Keira for help with the wedding plans while my mother has been trying to help her with the side effects of the pregnancy." Renato said.
"Really, I'd just be happy if someone let me sleep in every once in a while." Keira said, rolling her eyes fondly as she placed a hand on her belly.
"Well, that's not going to be happening anytime soon." Euphemia said, laughing. "The party will be starting soon, why don't you go mingle with the others, we'll have time to talk later."
Keira nodded, "It would probably be a good idea to talk with Alice. Lily said that she was about as far along as I am."
"Yes, I believe she said her due date was near the end of July." McGonagall said, taking a sip of her tea.
"Shamal said the same to me. Oh! Maybe they'll be born the same day! Wouldn't that be amazing?" Keira asked, smiling widely, "I'm going to go talk to her!"
She turned and quickly walked towards where Alice and Frank were talking to Mad-eye.
"Alice!" Keira exclaimed as she got closer, enveloping the other woman in a hug, "I heard you're due near the end of July."
"That's what the doctors at St. Mungo's have told me. I'm not sure if he's going to arrive early or not yet. The way things have been going Augusta has said that he might be an early bird like his father." Alice said with a smile.
"Frank, you were born early?" Keira asked.
"Not extremely early, I was barely considered premature, but it was earlier than mother wanted. I believe she said that he water broke during a wizengamot meeting. It was just before a trial so not the opportune time." Frank said with a shrug.
"I'm hoping that our baby isn't premature…" Keira whispered, "When I was in my first month Renato was on a mission and I was stressed. Shamal has been keeping an eye on things but even then he said that there's a chance that the baby could come early because of the stress early on."
Alice frowned, "That's rather unfortunate that stress so early on affected you so late into your pregnancy. I had believed that it was the stress later that could affect it."
"Renato's been working so much here recently just to get a decent amount of time off. He doesn't need something like this distracting him from his work. I've told Shamal to keep it from him."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Frank asked, "If he's already working so much and you're at risk for a premature birth, shouldn't he be there for you more?"
Keira laughed, "He's already around so much. He has a mission almost every day, always within a few hours of home, and he barely sleeps. He's been baby proofing the house and the yard, for some reason. I'm pretty sure he's been talking with the goblins about getting window locks and door locks that will prevent anyone not linked to them from coming in and anyone not blood related from walking out of the house with the baby. And don't get me started on the nursery and the crib. He's making sure there's nothing that can possibly go wrong so if he finds out that there's a chance something could go wrong that he couldn't control then I'm pretty sure he'd give up sleeping completely just to watch me 24/7."
"Would he really?" Alice asked, the disbelief slipping into her voice.
"Without hesitation." Keira responded. "Of course, he'd probably end up passing out or annoying Shamal enough that he ends up knocked out."
Frank shook his head, "That's taking things a little too far don't you think?"
"Of course, but I wouldn't change it. It's something that has saved his life countless times and changing that could end up getting him killed. If he finds out then the only thing I'd have to do is call his mother over and she'd straighten him out. She knows about the risk and, for some reason, she has a way of getting things into his head that I still have no idea how to. She managed to convince him to continue taking missions until a week before the end of July, otherwise he'd be home all the time and that would drive Shamal crazy. As much as I love Renato, he's not made for lazing about. He has to have something to do, even if it's just busy work like cleaning. If he's inactive for too long then he'll start driving everyone crazy just to have something to do."
"Sounds like a handful." Alice said with a grin on her face.
Keira smiled widely, "He is but he's worth it."
XXX-July 31st, 1980-XXX
"I thought he wasn't going to take any missions for a few months." Shamal said into the phone. He had gone to the Sorrento hospital to get a few supplies and ended up getting roped into helping them with some patients while he was there, leaving Keira home alone.
"The mission is only an hour away. I told him I'd call if I went into labor. We do still have those portkeys that will transport him home quickly if anything changes. Besides, you said earlier that it didn't look like anything would be happening today so relax. I do have a phone and Valentina is ten minutes away. I will call you if anything changes Shamal." Keira said, rolling her eyes, "Now, you've been gone two hours and you've already called me three times, I would like to get a bit more sleep if you don't mind."
"Alright, just, if anything, and I mean anything, changes, even if it's just a hiccup or something, call me and let me know and I'll be there as soon as possible." Shamal said, sighing.
"Fine, Shamal. Now, since you woke me up at five for a check up, I'm going to go back to sleep. It's nearly nine in the morning, call back in a few hours to check on me, ok?"
"Alright, alright. I'll let you sleep. I'll call around noon unless something comes up so keep the phone near you."
"Yes mother." Keira said, "Ill talk to you later, Shamal. Ciao."
She hung up the phone and got comfortable on the couch, or as comfortable as she could get with her stomach in the way. "You better hurry up and get here piccolino. I'm ready to sleep comfortably again."
She sighed and pulled the blanket around her and drifted into an uncomfortable sleep.
XXXXX
Renato had just finished his mission and was reporting back to Timoteo when his phone, well, more like a glorified walkie-talkie went off.
"Chaos."
"Ren!"
"Keira, are you alright?" Renato asked, frowning as Timoteo gave him a concerned look.
"Ah, promise you won't be upset first."
"I won't be upset."
"My water broke…"
Renato froze, eyes widening, "When."
"Ah, around… ten hours ago?"
Renato pinched the bridge of his nose, "You didn't think to call me ten hours ago?"
"I was tired!"
"I'll be home momentarily, get your things ready."
"Renato-"
"Keira. Get your things ready. I'll be home soon." He said, hanging up and turning to Timoteo who was smiling in his normal grandfatherly way. "Keira's water broke, I will be taking the next few months off unless there is a mission that only I will be able to do."
"Of course, go take care of your family." Timoteo said, "Also, congratulations." With that Renato walked out of the office grabbed his portkey and went home.
XXXXX
"You're overreacting." Keira said as she stood by the floo with her bag. "It's not that big of a deal."
"Keira, it's eight at night. That means your water broke at ten this morning. It is a big deal. You were in pain for ten hours!"
"I'm not in pain, Renato. The contractions aren't comfortable of course, but they're tolerable. Besides, I'd rather spend as little amount of time in the hospital as possible. The only reason I called is because the contractions are getting a lot closer together or I would have just waited until you got home."
Renato grabbed her bag and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose again, "I told you to call as soon as your water broke if it happened when I wasn't here and you didn't. And where is Shamal? He was suppose to be here with you."
"He had to go get supplies from the hospital and he ended up getting stuck helping some of the patients and then he ended up getting drug into surgery, which I have no clue why, and I haven't heard from him since." Keira explained, stepping into the floo.
"I'm going to shoot him when he gets back." Renato said, grabbing a handful of flood powder and throwing it down as soon as Keira had a hold on his arm. "St. Mungo's!"
They stepped out of the floo into the reception room of St. Mungo's and Keira continued, "Really Renato, it's not his fault that he was drug into things. He didn't expect that to happen to him. Anyways, it's not important now."
They went up to the desk, Renato still fuming, "My wife's water broke ten hours ago. She needs a room."
The receptionists eyes widened as she looked from Renato's furious face to Keira's smiling one, "I'll send a nurse out with a chair immediately. What's the name?"
"Angelo."
She turned and grabbed a note pad, jotting down a quick sentence, and waved her wand over it, folding it into an airplane and sending it down the hall. A few moments later a woman appeared with a chair.
"Mrs. Angelo, please sit down and I'll take you to your room."
Keira sat down and Renato followed them as they headed to the room, "I don't know why everyone is panicking so much. It's no big deal."
"Doctor Shamal sent us his files a few months ago and we've looked over everything. While you aren't in the danger zone for it there is still a chance for complications due to the amount of stress you went through in the first trimester. It's unlikely that anything will go wrong but the risk is still there.."
The nurse slipped into a room and cast a quick levitation charm on Keira to lift her into the bed and cast another to change her into one of the hospital gowns. "The doctor will be in in a few moments. I'm going to get an iv going for you since the potions won't be as effective."
As soon as she stepped out of the room Renato walked to the end of the bed and glared at her, "And when exactly were you going to tell me you were at risk for something going wrong?"
"I was planning to tell you after the baby was born if I'm being completely honest." Keira said, "Nothing happened and I already had Shamal watching me closely, I didn't need you hovering as well."
"So you just thought I didn't deserve to know about it at all."
"No, I didn't want you worrying at all! You're overprotective when you think someone is being hostile to me, I didn't want to see how you would be if you knew that your missions were stressing me out to the point of complications." Keira said, glaring right back at Renato.
"Keira, is it wrong for me to want to be by your side if something happens?" Renato asked, moving to her bedside where he could lean down and look her in the eyes, "Is it wrong that I worry about your health and happiness when I am not around?"
"No, Ren, that's not what I mean."
"That's what it sounds like you mean, Keira." Renato said, "We're married, we're not meant to keep things like this from each other so why did you keep it from me?"
"I just didn't want you to worry about something possibly happening when I knew it wouldn't…"
"Amore, ever since you told me you were pregnant I have been worrying. I mentioned months ago the issues I had with us having a child; the risk of us dying, or the child being kidnapped. Finding out now that the stress you endured, which I am assuming was caused by my missions, could have possibly caused the injury of you or our child? Amore, that was something I had feared and instead of telling me you hid it from me. You should have told me how things were, I could have taken less risky jobs; I wouldn't have hesitated to take less dangerous jobs had it helped ease your worries."
Keira looked down at her hands, she could feel the hot burn of tears in her eyes, "I didn't want to burden you with the thought. You were risking your life for us, for our child, to have a good life, I didn't want to tell you and put you at risk. You would have still had missions and you would have been worrying the entire time about whether or not it was causing me stress and you would have gotten hurt because of it. It would have been a distraction that you couldn't afford…"
Renato sighed and reached out to cup her cheek, "Amore-"
"Ah, is this a bad time?"
They turned to see the nurse standing in the doorway with an IV and a syringe.
Renato sighed and moved out of the way, "No, forgive us, please take care of her."
The nurse didn't seem that sure but she walked in anyways and hooked up the IV and set the syringe off to the side. "This is the epidural. With how long ago it was since your water broke, I'm not sure we will be able to give it to you. After the doctor checks things out and gives the ok I'll give it to you but if he says we can't then you're going to have to do this birth naturally. We can help heal things a bit to speed up your recovery after things are over but we can't do an extreme amount since you no longer have magic."
"Why is that?" Renato asked.
"People with magic take to the healing spells a lot better than those without it or even squibs because their magic latches onto the foreign magic and reads what it's trying to do and amplifies it. Without that, it's up to the casters magic to do everything. Most healers don't have a huge magical core because there's not usually a need for it. The ones with the biggest magical core are the ones who work in the magical accidents ward or in the surgery center. Those of us here in the birthing wing tend to have small magical cores. You don't really need a big magical core when none of your patients will be dying on you."
"But what if something went wrong during the birthing process?" Renato asked, "She has a risk of complications, shouldn't there be someone with a bigger core on standby?"
"Typically there would but the most that we can do magically for her is heal a bit magically and fix the rest of it the muggle way, the magical way just wouldn't work."
"Is it because of her lack of magic or is it something else?"
"Well, we've talked with Madame Pomfrey over at Hogwarts and she explained that during the last few years that Mrs. Angelo attended the magic cast on her seemed to be burnt away. It's nothing that I've ever come across but if it comes down to it, we do have doctors here who trained in the muggle world and will be able to help. Since you were originally a witch and your parents have done so much for the hospital through the years, we'll be bringing in one of the muggle trained doctors to help you through the delivery process. Doctor Kelman is one of our best muggle trained doctors so there should be nothing to worry about."
"Thank you nurse Carmen." A man said, walking into the room. He stepped over to the bed and held out his hand, "Hello, I'm Kenneth Kelman and I'll be your doctor during your stay here."
"Hello, doctor." Keira said, shaking his hand for a moment.
Kelman turned to Renato and shook his hand as well, "I assume you're the husband?"
"Yes." Renato said, "Could you proceed with checking my wife. I don't want her to be in pain or even a bit uncomfortable until it's time for her to give birth."
Kelman grinned, "I'll do the best that I can." He then walked to the foot of the bed and grabbed the clipboard, reading the information the nurse had written on it. "So your water broke nearing eleven hours ago?"
"Yes, the contractions weren't too bad and they were far enough apart that I wasn't too worried. I don't care for hospitals-"
"Yes, Madame Pomfrey mentioned how often you had been in the hospital wing at Hogwarts."
Keira blushed, "Most of that wasn't my fault. Anyways, I want to spend as little amount of time as possible in the hospital."
"I see." Kelman said, placing the clipboard back at the end, "Okay, I'm going to check things out and see how far along you are and depending on that we'll either give you the epidural, wait a little while, or, if it has happened, not be able to give you one at all."
"Wait, why wouldn't you be able to give her an epidural?" Renato asked, moving to Keira's side.
"Well, there's a certain amount of time between when a woman goes into Labor and when the baby is born that we cannot safely give the mother an epidural because it would adversely affect the baby." Kelman said as he waved his wand, causing a small hazy image to appear over Keira's lower stomach. "It looks like you're dilated to 8cm. The contractions should be more painful than what you seem to be experiencing. When you get to 10cm you'll be ready to start pushing but that could be anywhere from twenty minutes from now to a few hours. I'll have a nurse keep an eye on you and check in every ten minutes or so. Unfortunately though, it's too late to place the epidural. Typically we place it between 4-5cm dilation but with you at eight it could cause problems if we placed it now and with you already at risk for complications I can't allow the epidural to be placed. I can give you some pain medication that will help with the contractions, but as it continues, the medicine will become less effective. But it's your choice whether to get the pain killers or not at this point."
Keira looked up at Renato for a moment before looking back at the doctor, "I'll take some pain killers. But the closer it gets to time, I want less. I don't want to risk anything and I can handle the pain if it means that the baby comes out healthy."
Kelman nodded and grabbed the chart to write it down, "I'll alert the nurse to your decision. If your contractions start coming every few minutes, please tell the nurse and I'll come check how far you're dilated."
"Thank you doctor."
Kelman smiled once more before he turned and walked out the door, closing it behind him.
"It looks like it's still going to be awhile until we have our baby with us, Ren." Keira said, leaning back into the pillows.
"Seems like it." Renato said, sitting down in the chair beside the bed, "Amore, promise me that you will not hide anything from me, at least nothing like this."
"Ren, I didn't want it to distract you. You could have gotten hurt if your mind had been on that instead of your job."
"Amore, I'm not the worlds greatest hitman for no reason, I can multitask. I would have liked to have known no matter what. Perhaps Timoteo could have given me less risky jobs. There are information gathering jobs that pay very well that I could have taken."
"There may be but those would mean you would be away from home for longer periods of time…" Keira said, sighing, "I'm just not sure which is worse. I know you can handle things but I still worry."
Renato sighed and gently grabbed her hand, kissing the back of it. "The day you no longer worry is the day you no longer care, Amore."
XXXXX
"Ok, Keira, it seems that you're fully dilated now so we're going to have you start pushing," Kelman said, looking over at Renato, "you may want to let go of her hand. She may break it."
Renato glared at him and Kelman sighed in response.
"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you. Nurse, what is the time?"
"Its 23.42 doctor."
"Ok Keira, you need to start pushing. On three, one, two, push!"
Keira took a deep breath and pushed as hard as she could before groaning in pain. She had thought the contractions had been bad but this made those seem like mosquito bites in comparison!
"Don't give up yet Keira! I can see the head!" Kelman said after the fourth push. It had been about ten minutes since she had started pushing and the birth was going by much quicker than the labor had. "A few more good pushes and he should be out!"
Keira groaned, "I can't, I can't do it…"
Renato gripped her hand tightly in his, "You can Amore, just a few more and our piccolino will be with us. You can do this."
Keira looked into his eyes and nodded before taking another breath and pushing.
At 23.58 on July 31st of 1980, Hadriano Jiovanni Potter-Angelo was born. He had a head of messy black hair and bright emerald green almond shaped eyes.
"He's beautiful…" Keira whispered as Kelman placed the baby in her arms.
"That he is." Renato said, sitting on the edge of the bed so he could see his son better. "He has your eye color."
"And your hair color. Merlin, we can only hope he doesn't get your hair as well!" Keira said, laughing.
"I thought you liked my hair." Renato said, frowning.
Keira leaned forward and pecked a kiss to his nose, "Of course I do, but no ones hair should stand straight up like yours does naturally."
Renato huffed, "We'll just have to see when he's older. Hopefully he doesn't get your father or brothers birds nest for hair."
Keira laughed, "It is in the Potter genes."
"Well, hopefully the Angelo genes will trump the Potter ones this time." Renato said, moving a bit of the blanket aside so he could run a finger down the side of Hadriano's face. "I have a feeling we'll have a handful with this one."
"You don't say?"
"Your mother told me all about you and James when you were this age and I can only imagine what my mother had to deal with when I was this small…"
Keira hummed as she leaned back, still looking at Hadriano's face.
Renato reached over and gently took Hadriano into his arms, "Sleep Keira. I'll keep an eye on you – both of you."
Keira smiled softly before covering a yawn with her hand.
Renato chuckled, "Sleep."
"I love you, Ren." Keira muttered as her eyes closed.
Renato brushed her hair from her face and placed a light kiss to her forehead, "And I you, Amore."
He moved to the chair beside the bed and laid Hadriano on his chest, wrapping his arms around the small baby, "I'll never let anyone hurt either of you."
AN:/ So…. I'm not dead. It's been like, almost a year since I updated this? I'm really sorry but life gets in the way and I've just not felt like doing much of anything the past few months. Hell, I don't really even read anymore and I loved that more than anything for years. So, even though I know it doesn't make a difference to any of you, I am sorry that it's taking do long for this story to progress. There's one more chapter before we move into Hadriano's Hogwarts years so things should start picking up. Thank you all so much for being patient with this story up til now.