I'M BACK! YAHOO!
*Disclaimer* I do not own Harry Potter.
Oh Damn! Oh Shit! What do I do? I couldn't stop the running reel of worry as I lead my wife to the fireplace, so I could floo her to St. Mungo's. She was breathing normally at the moment, but just a few minutes ago when her water had broken and her contractions had started she had had hitched breathing. I couldn't take it. She was in pain! Hermione stopped me before I could lead her into the fireplace.
"Ron, I need to change." I looked at her, feeling as though she had gone crazy. She knew she was having a baby, right?
"Mione, we- and- the hospital-"
"Will wait Ronald. I am not going to the hospital wearing uncomfortable wet underwear." She started heading towards our room, and I had no choice but to follow her. Hermione had just made it in the door, when she froze again with contractions. She closed her eyes, and gripped my hand, but stayed silent. I rubbed her back and held her, wishing I could make her feel better. When the contractions passed, she looked at the clock. "Good. Ten minutes." She started stripping out of her clothes. "Ron. Ron!" I brought my attention back to her face, rather than her nearly bare lower half. Now was NOT the time to get a hard on.
"Yeah?" Hermione rolled her eyes. She knew me far too well.
"Go get my jammie pants and a clean pair of panties." I walked over to the dresser and pulled out her Griffindor pants, the ones she hadn't worn since we had started spending the night together. Mostly because I preferred her naked. Easier access. My inapropriate thoughts were knocked out of my head as Hermione grunted in pain. I ran over to her and soothed her through the contraction, then helped her dress in the items I had grabbed. As soon as she was ready, I walked her to the fireplace, grabbed her baby bag, which had been ready for only a few days, and had her go through the floo. I followed behind quickly. At St. Mungo's, the nurses who knew us from all our past trips smiled, then noticed the way Hermione held her stomach.
"Oh dear, Hermione, is it time?" Hermione nodded, and Jannie lead us to a wheel chair for Hermione. One of the other nurses handed me paperwork to fill out, and Hermione was wheeled away, me following. As Hermione was settled in a room with a few other women waiting to have babies as well, I filled out the paperwork. I answered the questions quickly, and set the paperwork aside. I looked at Mione, who waas staring at all the other women in the "waiting" room. She had this curious little smile on her face, as though something was making her really happy, even though contractions rocked through her body every few minutes.
"What Mione? What has you so happy?" I still felt a tinge of worry that Hermione would hate me when the real pain started. Dad said that Mum threatened him endlessly through all of our births. That all too real dream reverberated in my mind. I knew she wouldn't leave me, but did that mean she wouldn't hate me for a little while, while she felt pain? My lovely wife looked at me with soft eyes.
"I'm not special here." I tilted my head in confusion. She had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling.
"Of course you're special, love. Always." I figured reasuring her was my best option. Hermione froze for a moment, and began the shallow breathing that we had learned to get her through contractions. I hugged my wife closely, and she squeezed my hand tightly. When they were over, she let out a deep breath and continued speaking as if there had been no interruption.
"I mean that I'm not part of The Golden Trio right now... I'm just another woman in labor." She smiled happily. "I miss annonimity." I sat on the side of her cot. We cuddled together, talking softly to each other, going through the contractions together. It was interesting to watch the other women. Some had lots of people with them, some had just a few, one had no one, at the moment because her boyfriend was making a bathroom run. Some women were crying, some were yelling. One or two were completely silent. The only ones who seemed happy most of the time were Hermione, and the woman in the cot next to us. Gabby and her husband Eric were old hats at this. They had three kids already, and loved each one of them.
"As much as it hurts," Gabby told Hermione when she commented on her happy demeanor, "I know I'm going to bring another life into this world, and that is just the most amazing honor in the world." Hermione had a little bit of a shocked look on her face.
"I feel like that too!"Gabby and Hermione talked incessantly after that, not that I minded. I was glad that Mione was taking the labor so well. After five hours in the room, the nurse came in to tell Gabby that she was dialated 10 centemeters. Gabby had been there about two more hours than us, but warned Hermione that it would be quite a bit longer for her. Hermione and I waved goodbye, and watched as she was rolled out.
Hermione and I waited around in the room, not really making lots of conversation with anyone. Hermione's contractions were getting closer together, and judging by the look on her face, they were getting worse. By 5 in the morning, when we'd been there for 13 hours, I decided it was time to call in the reinforcements. You know, the ones who had been through this whole childbirth thing. I called my mother. She and dad were there within ten minutes. Mum soothed Hermione, and Dad grinned at me.
"Your parents will be here soon as well, dear." Mum told Hermione. "It's a bit more of a drive for them, but they'll be here long before the baby comes." Hermione's eyes widened and she glanced at me, looking terrified.
"They have a good two and a half hour drive, Molly." Hermione said.
"Well, dear, you said that you're only at four and a half centimeters after 13 hours? You need to hit ten. I'm guessing that you've got at least ten hours more." Well, Hell.
"TEN HOURS!" Hermione shrieked. All the people in the room with us jumped. Hermione's gaze flung to mine, and she reached for where her wand would normally be. I flinched slightly, and saw some satisfaction in her face.
"Hermione, you shouldn't yell." Dad said mildly. Hermione rounded on him, and Dad took an involuntary step back.
"I will yell if I want Arthur. I understand now why Ginny was so angry last time, and why Molly said that she nearly killed you with each of your kids, so don't tell me to do ANYTHING!" She was getting absolutely hysterical. Despite the danger to me, I sat on the side of my wife's bed and hugged her close.
"I'm really sorry Mione. You have no idea how bad I feel. This can be the last kid if you want. I promise. Just please, don't hate me." Hermione settled herself into my side, and hugged me.
"I don't hate you Ron. This just kinda sucks." The two of us stayed cuddled together, just holding on. Time seemed to pass quickly after Hermione's outburst. Her parents arrived, Harry and Ginny arrived, and various other family members, all coming at different intervals, and helping to take the pain off of Hermione's mind, for a little while at least. We were just hitting the 25 hour mark, an average time apparently, when the nurse, after another check on Hermione, decided that this was the home run. They wheeled her away, me following behind. Another hour of pushing, moaning and pain, we heard a cry. Hermione and I froze, me behind her, holding her while she pushed. We looked at the healer, and saw that she was cleaning our baby off. We waited for them to hand us our little bundle of joy. When they handed her to us, our little baby girl, I knew that Hermione thought it was so worth it. Her eyes were misted, and she looked so happy.
"Hello baby." Our little girl looked up at us, holding her together, me behind Hermione still, with my head on her shoulder. Our baby's cries quieted as she looked at us.
"She's smart." I told Mione.
"How do you know?" My love asked me, not taking her eyes off of our daughter.
"She recognizes her Mum and Dad already, and she's only a few minutes old." Hermione laughed, and I couldn't help but kiss her. "Thank you love." Hermione smiled at me.
"We both made the baby Ron." We gazed down at our little girl. "Ron,what should we name her?" Mione and I looked at each other. We hadn't really gone in depth about baby names. We had wanted to be surprised, so we hadn't settled.
"Annie would be a good name... Maybe." We looked at our baby. Annie didn't really fit.
"How about Ariana?" I glanced at our baby again. She was watching us in a peculiar way. Like she knew what we were talking about.
"That doesn't really fit either." Hermione sighed.
"No it doesn't." We stared at our baby again, and I was overcome with the need to kiss her. I leaned over Hermione's shoulder, and placed a kiss on our girl's forehead. Suddenly, she started squirming. No crying, just wiggling around. Alarmed, Hermione and I looked around for the healer, who was standing a bit away, watching. As suddenly as it had started, the wiggles stopped. Mione and I looked down to realize that our baby had dislodged her blanket. We looked at her exposed torso. I reached to cover her back up, but Hermione stopped me.
"Wait, Ron. Look." She pointed to our girl's left hip, right next to where her hand was laying. A rose shaped birth mark. Hermione and I exchanged a smile.
"Well, it looks like we have our name." I told Hermione. We smiled down at baby Rose. I chuckled. "See, she really is smart. She picked out her own name." Hermione, the healer and I all laughed together as little Rosie fell asleep in our arms.
So, one or two more chapters, of the family meeting Rosie, and then Rosie going home. I know that this chapter is kinda wordy, and may not be the best, but It's hard to fill 27 hours of labor. Isn't that crazy, that the average time is 24 hours? I think it's insane. Alright, next chapter hopefully tomorrow, maybe Saturday at the latest.