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The full moon bathed over Hermione's skin as she sat on the window seat, her forehead leaning against the cold glass in an attempt to keep herself grounded in some shape or form while her body felt like it was on fire. She hated that she knew that this was only the beginning, that it was only going to get worse from here on out. She didn't want to know that, knowing was the enemy here. And knowing that people did this more than once made her wonder if people were absolutely insane when she couldn't even bear to do this once.
"How you holding up?" Neville asked as he took a seat beside her, his hand on her back rubbing up and down gently in an attempt to soothe her. She didn't have the heart to tell him that he wasn't actually helping her, but as he wasn't making her feel any worse, she decided not to stop him.
"I'll feel better when this is over." She said quietly, moving to lean her head on his shoulder instead of the window so that she could look up at the moon and feel its soft glow on her face. She had never really cared about the moon much before tonight, but for some reason it almost felt as if she was able to take energy from it.
"Won't be long now." Neville said in a way that Hermione was sure was meant to be a comforting way but she was all too aware that this wasn't going to be over any time soon. Her contractions weren't even close enough together to send for Molly, let alone a healer, though Molly was already downstairs with her sons.
Hermione let out a sigh and allowed for her eyes to close. She was meant to be resting, or at least attempting to sleep, but she hadn't been able to lie down and feel comfortable at the same time. "I just want to sleep." She mumbled. That was a lie. It wasn't all that she wanted. She also wanted for one or both of her boyfriends to be the one that was holding her just then instead of her ex's boyfriend, but she didn't want Neville to leave her either.
"I know, Mione." He whispered, his fingers now carding through her hair gently while they sat there. "Want me to sit on the bed with you? Maybe you can doze some while leaning on me? Or I can get you a heat pad or something?" He offered.
Hermione paused for a moment before she shook her head. "Can you maybe just get Fred or George?" Ideally she wanted them both there but she knew that George wasn't exactly comfortable with seeing her in any amount of pain. He had struggled when she had woken in the early hours of the morning as it was.
"Of course." He said softly before he pressed a kiss to her temple.
Hermione let out a soft sigh as he left the room and let herself look up at the moon for a few moments before she moved to the bed, leaning against the pillows and rubbing her hand over her bump. She was on edge as she waited for the next contraction and she'd lost track of time since the last one which didn't at all help. She allowed her eyes to close as she let the pillows practically wrap around her before they were replaced by a pair of arms.
Hermione didn't need to open her eyes to know that it was Fred; her sense of smell was heightened and it had become one of the easiest ways that she could tell the twins apart lately. She let herself fall back against him and let his hands rub over her bump, over the baby that needed as much comfort as she did.
"Do you need a potion, Mione?" Fred asked softly after a few moments of silence in which Hermione tried to let herself fall asleep but found that she couldn't quite manage it.
"Not yet." She mumbled as she turned her head to look at him ever-so-slightly. She wanted to save the potions for when active labour started, hoping that they would have more of an effect then, though part of her was telling her not to hold out for that.
"Just say when, okay." He whispered as he pressed a kiss to her neck and Hermione let out a soft sigh. She knew that he meant well but she really wished that everyone would just let her rest and stop fussing.
"Is George still downstairs?" She asked after a few more moments of silence when she realised that she wasn't going to manage any sort of sleep after all. Her mind was racing far too fast for her to be able to keep up with.
"He went to the shop for a bit." Fred whispered, his fingers running through her hair but his words were anything but soothing.
"He doesn't want to be here?" She asked, a frown creeping onto her features. She knew that George was uneasy but she didn't think that he'd want to miss the birth of their baby.
"He just needed a few hours to clear his head, love. He'll be back in time, or we'll send for him if things start moving along a bit faster." Fred reassured her.
Hermione swallowed thickly. She knew that she couldn't blame George for putting some space between himself and the whole baby situation but she couldn't help but worry that this was him getting cold feet. The five of them had agreed to raise this baby together, but George could always decide to change his mind.
Hermione let out a sigh as she pulled away from Fred and paced the length of her bedroom instead. Moving seemed to be the way to go now as her body tensed up again. She could feel Fred's eyes on her but she couldn't look at him or else she would burst into tears.
"Love?" Fred's voice was quiet but it was easily heard in the room where the only other sound was that of Hermione's pounding heart. "Want me to get my mum?"
Hermione felt the tears pricking at the backs of her eyes. She didn't want his mum, she wanted her own mum, but they were no closer to finding out where her parents were. They were now going to miss the birth of their grandchild all because of a spell that she had cast years ago. At the time she had done it to protect them, but she had always assumed that after the war was over she would be able to find them. For a pair of muggles they had proved very tricky to locate. She found herself deciding in that moment that she was going to dedicate more time to looking for them.
But whether Hermione was ready or not, this baby was coming. She let her eyes flicker towards the window, towards the moon that was still glowing outside. She felt somewhat reassured that it was the same moon that her parents could look up at, even if they had no idea who she was currently. Her own child would look up at the same moon as well - the same moon that they were about to be born underneath.
"Maybe you're right and it's time to get your mum." Hermione whispered. If nothing else Molly would be able to reassure her that she was doing the right thing in just waiting.
**
Hermione couldn't take her eyes off the precious bundle in her arms. Her daughter was fast asleep and she knew that she should probably try to sleep herself but she didn't want to miss a single moment of this little girl's life. She knew that was a ridiculous thought, that her daughter had so many more moments to come and she needed to rest, but even as George wriggled in behind her on the bed and wrapped his arms around her securely, she didn't think that she was ready to lose any of them.
"Well done, Mione." He whispered as he pressed a kiss just beside her ear. Hermione felt her heart speed up as she realised that he was praising her for bringing the most perfect little girl into the world. "Sorry I couldn't be here."
In the end Hermione had only had Molly with her. Mrs Weasley had all but kicked two of her three sons out and Neville had swiftly followed, though Hermione had kind of wished he'd stayed - at least until she was in the thick of it and then all she had cared about was getting the baby out of her.
And now she was here and in Hermione's arms. George was the first to have been allowed up by Mrs Weasley who was doing her best at being crowd control to the baby's fathers. Hermione appreciated that they weren't all being allowed up at once but she had to wonder how George had managed to wrangle getting up here first.
She didn't ask though, just leaning back against him instead and letting him see the beautiful girl that they were all going to raise together. "Still in this with me?"
"Two hundred percent." George whispered, his fingers gently brushing against the baby's face. "Mum says we have a girl? A daughter?"
Hermione nodded with a soft laugh. "Yes, we have a daughter." A still nameless daughter, but that was a task to be tackled at a later time when she wasn't so exhausted. The subject of a name was a hot topic in their household and she didn't think that she had the energy to hear everyone argue about it tonight. She wouldn't have the baby's birth overshadowed by their inability to come to an agreement.
"She's beautiful, Mione." He said softly before the bedroom door opened again and Hermione looked up just in time to see the other fathers make their way in. Her quiet moment with George was over, but she knew that they were all excited to meet their daughter and she couldn't blame them. They had all been waiting for this moment for what seemed like far too long, after all.
Hermione let them all fuss over the baby and herself, though she could feel herself starting to drift off and as she curled up in George's arms. She couldn't make herself follow the conversation and while she knew that none of them would hold it against her, she still didn't think that she was ready to go to sleep. She didn't protest, however, as Ron took the baby from her. It made sense that he would be the first person to hold her, even if he was no more of a father to her than any of the others.
Hermione felt George shift so that the pair of them were lying down and while she didn't want anyone to take her daughter away even just so she could catch up on some sleep, she found that her body wasn't giving her much say in the matter. The smell of George was soothing enough that Hermione's anxiety about being separated from the baby so soon all but melted away as she lay there, though just as she was closing her eyes, she noted that Ron was only sat in the chair in the corner of the room and hadn't actually gone anywhere.
When Hermione opened her eyes again the moon was bright in the sky again and as she glanced over at the chair where Ron was still sitting she could see their daughter being bathed in the moonlight. She let a smile flicker across her lips before she shuffled herself in George's arms so that she could get comfortable. She felt as if she had been hit by a train, but not in a bad way, which was a strange way to think about her body. She wasn't going to question it though, especially when she took into account the fact that she had just given birth.
George hummed something incoherent but she figured that he wasn't saying anything all that important anyway as she turned her attention back to the baby. Ron hadn't even noticed that she was awake, but that was perhaps a good thing. She wanted him to be as in love with their daughter as she was; she wanted all of her baby girl's parents to love her as much as she did. There was nothing better in this world than love and they had all learned that the hard way during the war.
Hermione let her eyes close again for a moment before she heard the baby make a small sound and she remembered that it was probably time that she fed her. Hermione found her herself looking forward to the idea of feeding the baby in the light of the full moon. There was something magical about that, though she was aware of the irony that she and the baby already had magical blood in them.