As the hours passed, the contractions got worse, meaning much more pain for Minerva, and therefore Albus, he hated to see her pain, not to mention that he could no longer feel his hand. He wished that there was something he could do for her, but there wasn't and he knew that, he just had to wait, and let the Healer do her job.
"Alright Minerva, on the next contraction, I need you to take a deep breath and push, okay?" The healer asked, and Minerva nodded.
The next contraction came and Minerva pushed, and screamed at the pain. Poppy counted to ten and the healer told her to breath. They repeated this a few more times, everyone telling her she was doing great.
Suddenly the room was filled with a cry, Minerva smiled and sighed a sigh of relief.
"Congratulations! Say hello to your new baby girl!" The healer congratulated them, and giving the baby to Minerva. Tears of joy were falling from her eyes, as she held her daughter for the first time. Albus kissed Minerva's head, tears of joy falling from his sparkling blue eyes as well.
"Welcome to the world, little Arianna!" Albus said as his daughter opened her eyes to revel sparkling blue eyes just like her fathers.
"Oh Albus, she's beautiful!" Minerva cried, not taking her eyes of her daughter.
"Just like her mother." Albus said.
"Alright, I'm going to ask you all to leave the room for a moment, while I show Minerva some things, I'll call you when were finished." Healer Jenkins told them shooing them from the room. Albus kissed his wife again and left the room smiling.
"Congratulations Albus!" Poppy said giving him a hug, once they were out of the room.
"She's beautiful!" She continued
"Thank you Poppy! She is beautiful."
They continued to talk until the Healer came out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her.
"Is everything alright?" Albus asked worried.
"Oh yes, everything is fine, Mother and Daughter are just sleeping is all, you can go in if you'd like, just be careful not to wake them." The healer said. Albus smiled and went into the room. He sat in a chair in between his wife and daughter, and just watched them sleep. He was so thankful to have them. It was the best day of his life.
It had been a month since Arianna Kendra Isobel McGonagall Dumbledore had been born on the 17th of September. Poppy had left a few weeks ago and Minerva had finally convinced her mother to leave as well. Now it was just the three of them, Albus, Minerva and Arianna.
Minerva sat in the living room reading a book by the fireplace as Albus played with Arianna. Albus had come up with a nickname for Arianna, Sherbet. Minerva shook her head every time he called her that. Arianna seemed to like it though, she smiled and waved her limbs, as her father as he shook a stuffed bunny and made funny faces at her.
"Ah, is that the time my dear?" Minerva looked up at the clock on the mantle, to see that is one o'clock. She knew that Albus had to go into work as school had started up again. He had gone to work for the morning, and while the students had lunch he had been coming home, then leaving again, and coming back after classes had finished and his duties for the day had finished.
"So it is, you should get going." She said standing and grabbing Arianna, and her bunny. Albus stood as well.
"Bye Sherbet, you be good for mommy, alright?" He said as he kissed his daughter on her head. He then kissed his wife on the cheek.
"I'll be back this evening." He said and walked over to the floo, and with green flames that Minerva shielded Arianna's eyes from, Albus was gone.
"Well, now it's just girl time isn't it, my Anna?" Minerva said looking at Arianna and sitting down on the blanket that was laid out on the floor. She laid Arianna down and gave her a muggle toy that her brother had given his niece.
After a few minutes Arianna began to rub her eyes tiredly, and Minerva put her down for a nap. When she came back downstairs, she sat down in the living room, picking up her book. After a few minutes of reading she got a fire call, standing, she went over to the fire place.
"Lily! What a pleasent surprise!" She said, smiling.
"Hello Minerva! I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time?" She asked.
"No not at all, I just put Arianna down for a nap, how can I help you?" Minerva replied.
"Oh, I was just wondering if I could bring Harry over, and we could have a cup of tea?" She asked, "I know it's short notice, and I'm sorry but I just need to get away from all these men, Remus, Sirius and James, they can be so immature at times." She said.
"Of course you can Lily! I understand, living with Albus, he must be one the most immature professionals I have ever met!" Minerva teased, "What time would like to come over?" she asked
"Well whatever time you would have us." Lily said.
"Alright, well how about in say half an hour? Does that work?" Minerva asked, excited that she would get to spend time with a favourite student of hers.
" That sounds lovely, thank you again for having us on such short notice!" Lily responded.
"No problem at all Lily, I look forward to it, see you in half an hour." Minerva replied, the two said goodbye, and Minerva began to clean up the house a little. She moved Arianna's things off to the side out of the way, and she had a house elf begin to make up some biscuits to go with the tea.
Just before Lily was set to arrive, Minerva went to check on Arianna. She smiled at her sleeping baby. She stood there for a moment before slilently leaving the room, shutting the door behind her.
She walked down the stairs and into the living room just in time to see Lily and Harry arrive through the floo.
"Oh Lily! It's been too long!" Minerva said hugging her.
"And who do we have here, would this be Mr. Harry Potter?" Minerva said, making silly faces at him.
"Yes, the joy of my life, a pain sometimes but still a joy!" Lily said handing him to Minerva's open arms.
"Well if he is anything like James, then I'm sure he would be!" Minerva said.
"And where is your little one?" Lily asked looking around.
"She is still napping. She should be up soon though." Minerva said giving Harry back to Lily. Lily set him down on the floor, taking out some toys that she had brought for him.
"So, how does parenthood feel? Congratulations by the way." Lily said with a smile.
"Thank you! It's wonderful, she has changed my life so much, and in a good way. I love her more than anything in the world." Minerva said, as she heard a cry from upstairs.
"Oh speak of the devil, excuse me" Minerva said with a wink, and left to go and get Arianna. As she walked in, she saw Arianna lying down, tears coming down her face in her crib.
"Oh my sweet girl, no need for tears, Mommy's here." She said walking into the room and carefully lifting her daughter up out of the crib. The minute Minerva walked into the room the child stopped crying. Minerva smiled and changed her daughter's diaper and clothes before going back downstairs.
"Sorry about that." Minerva said sitting down with Arianna.
"Oh she is just precious!" Lily said smiling to Arianna.
"She is that." Minerva said smiling down to her baby. Minerva set Arianna down in a muggle bouncy chair, and called a house elf to bring the tea. As the two drank their tea, they talked about how thier lives had been since they had last seen each other, sharing stories, and watching their children play.
Lily looked at the clocked and gasped, "Oh is that the time!? Goodness, time sure goes by fast, I had better be going, I need to feed Harry, and start dinner for James and I." Lily said noticing it was already four o'clock in the evening. Minerva glanced at the clock, and stood with Lily. Lily gathered all of Harry's things with a flick of her wand, and picked up Harry and headed to the fireplace.
"Thank you again Minerva, I had a lovely time." Lily said as Minerva picked up Arianna
"Oh it was no trouble Lily, I enjoyed it. We should do it again soon!" Minerva said, Lily nodded and they said good-bye before the two disappeared in the floo. Minerva shielded Arianna's eyes from the green flames that had erupted when the Potter's left.
Sighing, Minerva sat down with Arianna, making faces at her, which made her smile, and that made Minerva smile. As she started playing "peek-a-boo" with her Albus erupted from the floo. Looking up Minerva smiled as he walked out of the fireplace.
" How was your day?" Minerva asked as she stood to greet her husband. Albus gave her a kiss and lifted Arianna from her arms and into his.
"Quite trying really, the Minister needed my help again." He explained while rocking Arianna back and forth.
"Don't rock her, she'll fall asleep now, then she wont sleep later, and she will be cranky when we have to wake her up to eat." Minerva scolded and Albus stopped rocking her.
Later on that night they ate dinner, and put Arianna to bed, before Albus was called to an Order meeting. Minerva wanted to come with him, but Albus wouldn't let her. He forced her to stay, even though she wasn't happy about it, she put Arianna before herself and stayed with her daughter.
Over the next few days it was determined that the Potter's would go into hiding, because of a prophecy that had been made of Voldemort and their son. Albus was now constantly busy, but made time for his wife a child. They meant more to him than all the candy in the world, and nothing could keep him from them.
And even in this time of utter sadness and worry, there was light and happiness. Many of the Professors even Professor Snape, had come by to congratulate Minerva and Albus, and to see the baby.
It was Halloween night and Albus and Minerva had already put Arianna to bed, and were now cleaning up after an eventful day, when Albus suddenly got a fire call.
"Albus! We've got a tip, we must act quickly!" The man said, and both Minerva and Albus knew it was about Voldemort and that Albus had to leave.
"Be careful." Minerva said giving her husband a tight hug.
"I will, I love you, and I love Arianna. I will see you soon." He said hugging her back.
"We love you too." She said and he apparated away. Minerva sat down staring at the spot from which her husband had just left. Little did she know that that night was a night of devastation, a night of joy for some, and a night of horror for others.
Hey everyone! Sorry I hadn't updated in FOREVER but here we go two chapters in about a week! That's pretty good, you have to admit! Well anyway hope you like it, it's more of a chapter just to get the story moving along a bit more, I have already started working on the next one so hopefully it will be up soon as well! Then after that, I can work on next chapters, but I will be going to London on Tuesday, That's right LONDON! I'm so excited! But I wont be able to update until I get back, but I can work on the chapters so I'm hoping you wont have to wait too too long for an update! Thank you for being patient, and hanging in with the story! I love you guys! :) R&R, I really appreciate the feed back so I can improve :) THANKS Again! :)