James Sirius Potter: Birth Story

The Agonising Wait

Ginny let out a hoarse scream, which was inaudible to the ears of Harry, Molly and Arthur, as the flashes of cameras, yells from photographers, reporters and admirers alike, and the sound of footsteps racing forwards, distracted all of them. There must have been at least twenty people there, but to Ginny, it felt like a hundred.

Arthur had left first, followed swiftly by Harry and Ginny, with Molly a moment later. More and more people seemed to be appearing by the second.

Ginny felt her knees buckle, and face loose it's colour, as she broke into a sweat. She really shouldn't have been surprised, her friend Mila had warned her only a few days beforehand, but with all of the mayhem that ensued, the fact that there was a media frenzy had slipped out of her mind, when really, it should have been at the very least near the forefront of it. 

The silver lining, was that the security wizards and witches drew up a transparent invisible shield, Harry assumed they had caught wind that they were coming, and had put in a lot of preparation, in order to assure no harm was done to Ginny or the baby.

The crowd were trapped like caged animals, 

"Come on," said Harry gruffly, taking Ginny by the arm, whilst looking around the crowd, for something that Ginny was oblivious too.

The silver lining was that several security people had stopped the vast majority of the crowd, by drawing up a fence, caging them like animals, keeping them away from the flu powder stations.

"We're looking for Francessca, she's supposed to be around your height, blond hair in a high ponytail,"

"Um.. okay," said Ginny, still looking on in confusion, at the bright flashes of light.

"Molly, Arthur," said Harry, turning to Ginnys parents.  "Can you--?"

"Of course," said Molly, and Arthur nodded, and they hurried towards the welcome witch. 

"What're they--?" began Ginny, feeling rather dazed, feeling as though everything was closing in on her. What had Harry sent her parents off to do?

But she was cut off by a flustered looking young witch, in a red uniform, with long blond hair tied up in a long ponytail; Francesca. 

"Mr. and Mrs Potter?" Francesca said rhetorically. "I'm Francesca, I work with Padma, I'm very sorry about this, it certainly wasn't something we had planned,"

"That's okay," said Harry, but Ginny could tell he was lying, and was trying to remain calm, as the constant clicking and flashing of the cameras went off like clockwork.

"If you'll just follow me, I'll bring you to the ward, to meet Padma," she said quickly, before, with a flourish of her wand, a wheelchair zoomed over to them. "If you would like to take a seat miss, I imagine it will help us get out of here quickly,"

Ginny looked at her bemusedly. Snap out of it, she told herself fiercely. 

"Yes, of course." With one final look behind her, at the desperate crowd all huddled together in one section of the large reception, all craning to get one final picture. Ginny pursed her lips, and with some assistance from Harry, sat in the wheelchair, grabbed the maternity bag off Harry, and placed it on her lap.