ROOTS ~~ dramione, hinny, bluna

11: baby

Dm

I watched in horror as Hermione's eyes closed and her chest stopped moving. I leaned over her and heard no breathing or heartbeat.

Numbly, I took my baby from Madame Pomfrey. A baby girl. Pomfrey told me to go sit with Potter and Weasley and Weaselette. I stumbled over to them and fell into a seat. I saw nothing but my baby.

At some point, Potter must have moved a few chairs over because suddenly, he said, "She's really cute. Bet she looks just like Hermione!" It would have been funny, if his voice hadn't cracked. I looked up from my daughter and saw that he was crying.

"What? I'm crying and I just insulted you! You have to do something!" He said, clearly annoyed.

I just shrugged as tears silently poured down my face.

"Malfoy. She's going to be fine! You said it yourself, she's the strongest person you know! She's been through much worse!"

"Well, was that 'much worse' things right after she pushed a baby out of her? When she was at her weakest point? Yeah, I thought so!" I snapped before getting up and walking back over to Hermione.

"Malfoy. She's breathing again, but she's still unconscious. Are you okay? Come, sit down. You look pale." said Pomfrey and she led me to another bed. I turned around and sat next to Hermione again.

"I'm fine! I'm not going anywhere!"

She nodded and went back to checking Hermione.

After checking everything, she said, "She's going to be fine. This is known, in simple terms, as pre-term pregnancy bleeding. It only happens in wizard pregnancies and is very rare, since even a month of being pregnant is to term. What happens is that even though the baby is fine, which she is, the mother is not. Her body, in this case, has only been pregnant for about two weeks so it wasn't ready to give birth. Also, it doesn't help that her age is so young. Her body wasn't physically ready to give birth, so it started bleeding right away. She will be fine Mr. Malfoy. I promise."

"H-have you ever seen it before?" I asked, tears crawling down my face and my voice cracking.

She looked sideways at McGonagall, who nodded. "Yes, one other time. Why don't I have Minerva explain." She ushered Potter, Weasley, and Weaselette out before leaving the room herself. McGonagall came and sat on the other side of Hermione.

"Mr Malfoy, the only other time Madam Pomfrey has seen this is on me. As you probably know, I am older than her. But, back when I was younger, around 30, she was a young woman, the assistant nurse at Hogwarts. I became pregnant. My husband did not want to become a father. And, although I wasn't aware at the time, he was a death eater. He was the ordered, by Voldemort, to do whatever is necessary to get rid of the baby inside me. When I was just around two weeks pregnant, he came here. He said he had decided to be a part of the baby's life after all. I was a foolish little girl and welcomed him back. That night, he used the cruciatis curse and other crueler methods of torture on me. Luckily, Albus heard my screams and came in. He stopped my husband and took me to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey, at the time, worked with another woman, who was older and more experienced. But on that day, that woman had gone out, I can't recall where or why, so Poppy was alone. She helped me birth my child, a daughter. But, she was stillborn. I was devastated and that, combined with everything else, caused me to bleed uncontrollably. Poppy managed to stop the bleeding and heal me. It took a few weeks, but eventually, I was fine. And look at me now, I'm in my 90s and still healthy. And no, my death eater husband was not Elphinstone Urquart. He was a good person."

I nodded quietly and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, did you ever name your daughter?"

"Ummm, no. I didn't, but had a few names picked out."