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hp_bunintheoven2021-04-04 09:18 pm
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Entry tags:
Fest Entry: The Wonder of Bearing (Ginny/Luna, PG-13)
Title: The Wonder of Bearing
Author/Artist: paulamcg
Pairing(s): Ginny/Luna
Prompt: # S8
Summary: Luna's daughter is now also Ginny's, and perhaps Snorkacks can help them figure out how best to become a family of four.
Word Count: 3200
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Contains: Rainbow family, blended family, magic, labour pains, bisexuality, two little OCs, and one Remus Lupin
Notes: Thank you for the beta, L!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
"This is my brother."
The crayon snaps in half, and Ginny shifts her gaze from where she's been writing in block letters under the previous figure indicated by Amy – the one named mum just like the one before that. She looks at the five-year-old artist sitting beside her, and meets the eyes like noon skies widened further in an expression of tender compassion.
"Don't press so much!" Amy says, letting the tip of the long, thin and colourless braid slip from between her teeth. "Now you made a mess under your picture. But it's all right. I can draw a heart over the mess. And I can write 'mum' myself."
"But brother..."
"That's hard." Amy puts her right forefinger and thumb into her mouth and wiggles her first loose tooth while reaching for the box of crayons with her left hand.
No wonder the girl – her daughter, Ginny reminds herself to do her best to get used to thinking – has developed a wild imagination, not very different from Luna's, and also a way to express it in art. As a toddler she naturally started imitating her father, and she even uses the same hand as Remus does when painting and drawing.
Ginny leans back and tries to calm down when watching Amy choose the colour carefully and start drawing a dark purple heart under the delightful portrait of a witch with a thick flaming red braid and with a broomstick between the long legs. The picture's another proof that Amy has accepted her, and she herself knows now without doubt that this is the family she wants to have.
A year ago it was a lot harder for her than for Luna to admit what their friendship was turning into. After idolising one boy and trying to date two at school, Ginny had believed that she wouldn't want to be intimate with anyone, and wouldn't be able to love anyone romantically – that besides her parents and brothers, she'd always love only Quidditch. Only when, on another shared broom-riding trip to Yorkshire wilderness, Luna kissed her, did she realise that this had been her secret dream. But Luna was married, and Ginny could hardly cherish hopes of becoming even as much of a girlfriend as Cho had been. She was overwhelmed but bold enough to welcome the change in her life, when Luna declared that this would be permanent, that she would become another mother for Amy. And Remus approved and was happy for the two of them, who would grow old together and be able to take care of the child, and of his grandchildren, too, after he...
"What do you think?"
Amy's hopeful voice makes Ginny stare at the parchment.
MUM.
But Amy's tapping at the smaller figure that's holding hands with those two that have braids. "About him!"
There's a wide smile on the round crayon face, too, and that helps Ginny come up with something to say. "He looks... sunny."
"Ouch! Don't..." A smack of a kiss right on her ear has jerked Ginny out of her thoughts, and she now tries to soften her reaction by laughing.
It's not easy despite the cute image in the bathroom mirror in front of her. Luna's finished attaching the fourth origami bird, and seeing herself and her lovely partner with these peculiar matching earrings makes Ginny still wonder if they were a good idea.
Ginny doesn't doubt that Remus remembers Luna wearing enchanted paper birds the first time she insisted on holding her favourite teacher's hand. But will he be happy to be shown in this way that Luna and Ginny now belong together, and perhaps to suspect that this is a reminder of how like back then – at the age of twelve – Luna is out of bounds to him?
"You're not happy," Luna says, now stroking Ginny's eyebrow cautiously with her fingertip, then drawing a line across her temple and cheekbone down to her chin.
This caress brings back a vivid memory of watching Luna being touched in the same tender way by her husband.
"I am." Ginny stops Luna's hand by gripping it for a moment, and kisses the palm. "I just wonder if Remus really is."
"Don't worry. He's always been prepared for changes." Luna grins wistfully. "An expert at change, he's learnt to live with them. And he believes this is right, best for everyone. He's not losing anyone, he says, and he knows what losing is. Besides, I believe that his great friend Kingsley will soon become also something else for him."
Now Luna's drifting out of the bathroom as if the paper birds were pulling her along.
"All right." Ginny follows, but stops in the doorway to scan their only room, trying to see it through a visitor's eyes. "I am glad he invites us so often, and Amy can stay with him whenever..."
"And that he's agreed to finally come and stay for tea today when bringing her back, right?" Luna's already levitating plates onto her desk, which will have to seat the four of them at tonight's meal.
"Of course." A pile of Quidditch gear slides under the couch at a flick of Ginny's wand. "Although when he sees this bedsit, he must think it's no good for his daughter to grow up in."
"Our daughter. And he lived in crummier rooms when he was young."
"Not with a child, or..." Ginny suddenly decides to bring up what's her most serious concern. "Do you think we should have another?"
"Another flat?" Having Summoned some cheap paper napkins, Luna uses her wand to erect one of them in an elaborate cylindrical shape. "No, that doesn't look like a rooster, just the other kind of cock... No. House, I think. We can rent a small one with a garden."
"No. Or why not, but also another... child?"
"Yes. You know, after the visit to the Burrow, Amy says that she, too, wants to have a brother."
Luna's still humming the tune of the lullaby when she comes from behind the partition and bends over the back of the couch, reaching her hands down to cup Ginny's breasts.
"I can share the experience with you," she says in an airy tone, which is in conflict with returning to the serious topic so abruptly, "and you can still take your time to think about it."
Ginny listens to Amy's breathing, half hoping that the child will wake up, and she doesn't make her voice particularly soft. "You've already described to me..."
"I mean truly sharing how it feels," Luna whispers when clambering over to sit beside Ginny and starting to finger the hem of the oversized t-shirt that's all Ginny's wearing. "It's easy and real enough for a moment if we use the right kind of magic."
Ginny doesn't bother to interrupt her by anything but shaking her head. Even if they rented a Pensieve, she could only walk beside pregnant Luna or watch her give birth to Amy in the scenes of the memories.
Luna settles on her back, with her legs on the armrest and her head on Ginny's bare thighs, and she presses a palm and a cheek against Ginny's flat stomach. "It's primal magic I've observed in herds of Snorkacks."
Ginny can't help snorting. "Snorkacks!"
"Yes. This magic explains the crumples in their horns. It seems that when an individual has been through something singular and meaningful, it comes to rub its horn against another one's. And this transfers the experience to the other one's body. For example... The other one's muzzle becomes moist for a moment, and that makes it follow to where the first one has located water."
Ginny does find it exciting to listen to Luna's theories about magical beasts now that Luna's done research for years and teaches at Merlin College and has more detailed arguments – or perhaps just because Ginny loves her, imagination and all. And at the moment it's a relief to be sidetracked from the topic of whether Ginny would like to bear their second child.
"I've tried it with a colleague, and she's planned more experiments," Luna goes on. "Maybe some day the method can be used by healers at St Mungo's. You know, we can learn from animals, and it's turned out you don't need to be a horny creature to make magic like this work. I know it can work for us now, because I chose to use this experience, and my colleague's belly swelled perfectly."
"What?"
"It's simple. I just focus on how I was huge when expecting Amy, and we rub our wands together, and ..." Luna sits up and snatches Ginny's wand from the top of her pile of Quidditch gear, and thrusts it into her hand. "Or are you afraid?"
"Of fake pregnancy? No! Not even of real pregnancy!" She's a Gryffindor, and even among them known as fierce and fearless and decisive, but she is reasonable, too.
No, she doesn't even doubt Luna's ability in unusual magic. Now she manages to word it to herself: she doubts her own ability to love her and Luna's children. Perhaps she understands better than Luna does that loving two or more children equally enough isn't simple.
As Luna's now sitting still, as if gently giving her time to confess her fears, Ginny can't resist adding, "And not of childbirth! Giving birth sounds more painful than any Quidditch accident, but I know I'd manage like any other witch."
"Tonight you could just feel a moment of being pregnant. Another night a bit of the rest, if you want. After that we can still consider before looking for a donor."
"All right." Ginny lifts her wand. She'd rather try this than talk more now.
Luna nods, and smiling, she closes her eyes for a moment and rubs her belly.
As their gazes and wands meet, Ginny hears Luna mutter something that sounds as silly as "Sharecacklerium!" and doesn't dare believe this will help her in decision-making at all.
Luna's wand travels up and down the length of Ginny's, and moves sideways and at different angles as if soundlessly playing a violin, and something beyond music enters Ginny and keeps her spellbound... until a wave of nausea passes through her and leaves her with a new reality of her body...
Her body bloated, her belly rising to stretch her wide t-shirt, and her bosom more handsome than Luna's!
Struggling not to freak out, Ginny manages only to giggle uncontrollably.
"I need to pee," a bright voice says, and having barely rounded the end of the couch, Amy stops and strikes her palms together. "You have a baby in your belly! My brother!"
"No!" Ginny tries to sound gentler. "I'm sorry, but..."
"But you look like Luna Mum in Dad's painting, and they say I'm there inside the big belly."
"It's you. I just gave my memory of that belly to Ginny like this, and she can have it for some minutes more."
"Okay." Amy doesn't look baffled at all, only a bit disappointed, and she brightens anew at once. "Can I touch it, too?"
And her little hand joins Ginny's and Luna's to stroke this miraculous mound. There's a flutter inside of Ginny, and now she can feel a push against her palm, and now she can even see an undulating movement.
"That's you kicking," Luna says.
Amy sighs and presses her face against the belly, which sadly starts deflating.
If they decide to have another child and manage to find a donor, they'll be able to share nine months of expecting her brother or sister. And will Ginny inevitably have a closer connection to that child?
Amy in the bright yellow robes she's chosen for this visit flutters away towards Remus's orchard like the spring's first butterfly. Having set her free from his hug, Remus takes hold of the doorframe so as to stand up from the crouch.
As the light is behind his back when he turns towards Ginny and Luna and steps in without closing the door, it's hard to assess if his face, too, and not only his voice is serious and weary. "I wanted us to meet now here because I knew Amy would be eager to rush out and climb a tree and..."
Ginny draws a deep breath, glancing around in the spacious main hall of this ancient house, which is, of course, shared by a number of various creatures in Remus's brotherhood, but still... she can't help becoming defensive. "We're planning to rent a house with a garden, where she can play and learn to ride a broom. And paint outside, too."
"Sounds great." Remus gives her a small smile when sitting down at the large oak table. "But I meant that here she wouldn't be listening when I tell you... Sue's passed away."
"My condolences," Ginny says without quite remembering who that was.
Luna's already gone to wrap her arms around Remus.
"Second full moon after the childbirth," he's muttering. "After the unusual complications at the first one, we should have expected... Anyway, she hoped I could find a home for her baby. He's a double orphan now. Fully healthy." Remus turns towards Ginny with a wider smile. "Still now when fed with charmed sheep milk. And fully human. I wonder if you'd like to consider..."
"Of course. We'll get to sleep soon enough, because you can only have a very quick delivery." Luna rolls over, away from Ginny, and jumps down from the high bed, which must have belonged to Remus's parents, and to his grandparents before them. "Now I see why you wanted us to stay overnight and do our considering here."
"Yes, right here, where we can have perfect privacy. I'm glad you understand... everything. And I love you." At the moment Ginny loves how sure Luna is that whatever they decide will be fine.
Luna's standing in the middle of the floor, completely calm. "Of course. They all come together – our loves and understandings."
After doing the charm to stop the sounds she'll make from traversing the walls, Ginny lays back down. "All right. I'm ready for as much of giving birth as you can share. Are you ready to do your magic?"
"You'll want the earth's pull to help you." Brandishing her wand, Luna stares at Ginny and lifts her eyebrows.
Ginny remembers well enough the descriptions of how Luna strolled around the house for a few hours after her contractions started, but she doubts there will be much time for that early phase. In any case she gets up and walks over to place her wand across Luna's.
Luna moves her wand first slowly, then faster and faster, making Ginny dizzy. This time when inaudible music enters Ginny's body and the mountain of the belly emerges, the sudden change makes it hard for her, standing, to maintain her balance. At least the rhythm is slow, and there's only a slight twist inside, similar to what she's felt regularly ever since her periods started. And now the pain – still familiar – in her lower back. No, it's going away and coming again, getting worse.
"Count... The seconds between the contractions get fewer and fewer, right?" Luna's walking backwards and beckoning to Ginny.
Hardly managing the few steps, Ginny's relieved to realise she's headed back to the bed. But Luna won't let her lie flat on her back. Now there are pillows behind her, and she's clutching Luna's hand. There's a huge pressure inside of her. She needs to... Shit!
"Crazy!" she hears herself roar. "This is crazy."
"Is it a bit too fast, or too real?" Luna's voice might be soothing, but the words are not. "Both, I guess. You must be almost open. Open your legs, like that... That's it. No need to worry. You know, Amy's head was not too big. It'll be over soon. You can push now."
Push? Where has so much of Ginny's strength gone – as if this had been going on for hours? For the second between waves of higher pain she could almost fall asleep. That's what Luna's described: the effect of the fey potions from Remus's cross-breed allies.
"Love, push!"
She does, doesn't she, and screams. In the middle of the hurting there's something... slippery sliding out.
And it's gone. She's empty, she's always been, hasn't she, and she will...
She can hear the baby cry.
Waking up with bright sunlight behind her eyelids, and with Luna's hair tickling her chin, and Luna's lips trailing her collarbone, Ginny can't remember how much she said aloud, before one or both of them fell asleep. In any case she knows what the conclusion must be, and she can rest assured that Luna, too, is happy about it. After what they have shared, each of them is a mother of two.
"Luna..." She's too impatient to say anything but, "Do you think it's too early, or can we...?"
"Your nightshirt's wet."
"No!" Alarmed, Ginny hesitates to reach down to touch the bed under her bum. "Is it? I thought it wasn't that real."
"Now it is. Just here." Luna takes her hand and places it gently on a breast, which is hard and aching under the touch. "Your milk's come in, and it's starting to leak. It's not too early at all. Wait here! No, wait. Let me help you take the shirt off... and pull the sheet up to your armpits. That's it."
Ginny's eyes follow Luna, who leaves the door open. She can hear the crying again, now more clearly, and a hoarse voice singing a repetitive tune.
And in a moment Remus appears on the threshold. His greyed head is bowed over a bundle, which he's holding close to his chest – and now handing over to Luna. There's a towel Luna unwraps to reveal... a perfect reddish brown doll with black hair.
A perfect warm little naked body now sneaked under the sheet against Ginny's skin. Her hands feel too clumsy to secure the baby up close to her breast, but Luna's hand is there, too, and now a small mouth latches to her nipple, and Ginny can't help gasping.
"Sue didn't choose a name." Remus's voice sounds as if from far away. "Just called him son."
"It is a boy. I knew it!" Amy's voice, too, is soft despite the excitement in her tone, and Ginny struggles to lift her head so as to see her holding hands with Remus, who hasn't come closer.
"Amy, my baby..." There's laughter bubbling in Ginny, and joyful love for the two children, unquestionable after the wonder of bearing them both. "Come and see your brother!"
Ginny shifts the sheet and looks down at the mouth that's letting the nipple fall out, and..."Did you see that? He just smiled to me. A perfect sunny smile!"
"I don't think I've seen... He's barely six weeks old." Remus certainly is smiling so much that Ginny can hear it in his voice while she can only take turns in looking at her son and at her daughter.
"It's rare that babies smile so early," Luna says, stroking Amy's head. "Not impossible."
"Perhaps I am imagining. So what?" That's the beginning of all the best things. "His name is..."
Amy shares a grin with Ginny, and they say together, "Sunny!"
Author/Artist: paulamcg
Pairing(s): Ginny/Luna
Prompt: # S8
Summary: Luna's daughter is now also Ginny's, and perhaps Snorkacks can help them figure out how best to become a family of four.
Word Count: 3200
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Contains: Rainbow family, blended family, magic, labour pains, bisexuality, two little OCs, and one Remus Lupin
Notes: Thank you for the beta, L!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
"This is my brother."
The crayon snaps in half, and Ginny shifts her gaze from where she's been writing in block letters under the previous figure indicated by Amy – the one named mum just like the one before that. She looks at the five-year-old artist sitting beside her, and meets the eyes like noon skies widened further in an expression of tender compassion.
"Don't press so much!" Amy says, letting the tip of the long, thin and colourless braid slip from between her teeth. "Now you made a mess under your picture. But it's all right. I can draw a heart over the mess. And I can write 'mum' myself."
"But brother..."
"That's hard." Amy puts her right forefinger and thumb into her mouth and wiggles her first loose tooth while reaching for the box of crayons with her left hand.
No wonder the girl – her daughter, Ginny reminds herself to do her best to get used to thinking – has developed a wild imagination, not very different from Luna's, and also a way to express it in art. As a toddler she naturally started imitating her father, and she even uses the same hand as Remus does when painting and drawing.
Ginny leans back and tries to calm down when watching Amy choose the colour carefully and start drawing a dark purple heart under the delightful portrait of a witch with a thick flaming red braid and with a broomstick between the long legs. The picture's another proof that Amy has accepted her, and she herself knows now without doubt that this is the family she wants to have.
A year ago it was a lot harder for her than for Luna to admit what their friendship was turning into. After idolising one boy and trying to date two at school, Ginny had believed that she wouldn't want to be intimate with anyone, and wouldn't be able to love anyone romantically – that besides her parents and brothers, she'd always love only Quidditch. Only when, on another shared broom-riding trip to Yorkshire wilderness, Luna kissed her, did she realise that this had been her secret dream. But Luna was married, and Ginny could hardly cherish hopes of becoming even as much of a girlfriend as Cho had been. She was overwhelmed but bold enough to welcome the change in her life, when Luna declared that this would be permanent, that she would become another mother for Amy. And Remus approved and was happy for the two of them, who would grow old together and be able to take care of the child, and of his grandchildren, too, after he...
"What do you think?"
Amy's hopeful voice makes Ginny stare at the parchment.
MUM.
But Amy's tapping at the smaller figure that's holding hands with those two that have braids. "About him!"
There's a wide smile on the round crayon face, too, and that helps Ginny come up with something to say. "He looks... sunny."
"Ouch! Don't..." A smack of a kiss right on her ear has jerked Ginny out of her thoughts, and she now tries to soften her reaction by laughing.
It's not easy despite the cute image in the bathroom mirror in front of her. Luna's finished attaching the fourth origami bird, and seeing herself and her lovely partner with these peculiar matching earrings makes Ginny still wonder if they were a good idea.
Ginny doesn't doubt that Remus remembers Luna wearing enchanted paper birds the first time she insisted on holding her favourite teacher's hand. But will he be happy to be shown in this way that Luna and Ginny now belong together, and perhaps to suspect that this is a reminder of how like back then – at the age of twelve – Luna is out of bounds to him?
"You're not happy," Luna says, now stroking Ginny's eyebrow cautiously with her fingertip, then drawing a line across her temple and cheekbone down to her chin.
This caress brings back a vivid memory of watching Luna being touched in the same tender way by her husband.
"I am." Ginny stops Luna's hand by gripping it for a moment, and kisses the palm. "I just wonder if Remus really is."
"Don't worry. He's always been prepared for changes." Luna grins wistfully. "An expert at change, he's learnt to live with them. And he believes this is right, best for everyone. He's not losing anyone, he says, and he knows what losing is. Besides, I believe that his great friend Kingsley will soon become also something else for him."
Now Luna's drifting out of the bathroom as if the paper birds were pulling her along.
"All right." Ginny follows, but stops in the doorway to scan their only room, trying to see it through a visitor's eyes. "I am glad he invites us so often, and Amy can stay with him whenever..."
"And that he's agreed to finally come and stay for tea today when bringing her back, right?" Luna's already levitating plates onto her desk, which will have to seat the four of them at tonight's meal.
"Of course." A pile of Quidditch gear slides under the couch at a flick of Ginny's wand. "Although when he sees this bedsit, he must think it's no good for his daughter to grow up in."
"Our daughter. And he lived in crummier rooms when he was young."
"Not with a child, or..." Ginny suddenly decides to bring up what's her most serious concern. "Do you think we should have another?"
"Another flat?" Having Summoned some cheap paper napkins, Luna uses her wand to erect one of them in an elaborate cylindrical shape. "No, that doesn't look like a rooster, just the other kind of cock... No. House, I think. We can rent a small one with a garden."
"No. Or why not, but also another... child?"
"Yes. You know, after the visit to the Burrow, Amy says that she, too, wants to have a brother."
Luna's still humming the tune of the lullaby when she comes from behind the partition and bends over the back of the couch, reaching her hands down to cup Ginny's breasts.
"I can share the experience with you," she says in an airy tone, which is in conflict with returning to the serious topic so abruptly, "and you can still take your time to think about it."
Ginny listens to Amy's breathing, half hoping that the child will wake up, and she doesn't make her voice particularly soft. "You've already described to me..."
"I mean truly sharing how it feels," Luna whispers when clambering over to sit beside Ginny and starting to finger the hem of the oversized t-shirt that's all Ginny's wearing. "It's easy and real enough for a moment if we use the right kind of magic."
Ginny doesn't bother to interrupt her by anything but shaking her head. Even if they rented a Pensieve, she could only walk beside pregnant Luna or watch her give birth to Amy in the scenes of the memories.
Luna settles on her back, with her legs on the armrest and her head on Ginny's bare thighs, and she presses a palm and a cheek against Ginny's flat stomach. "It's primal magic I've observed in herds of Snorkacks."
Ginny can't help snorting. "Snorkacks!"
"Yes. This magic explains the crumples in their horns. It seems that when an individual has been through something singular and meaningful, it comes to rub its horn against another one's. And this transfers the experience to the other one's body. For example... The other one's muzzle becomes moist for a moment, and that makes it follow to where the first one has located water."
Ginny does find it exciting to listen to Luna's theories about magical beasts now that Luna's done research for years and teaches at Merlin College and has more detailed arguments – or perhaps just because Ginny loves her, imagination and all. And at the moment it's a relief to be sidetracked from the topic of whether Ginny would like to bear their second child.
"I've tried it with a colleague, and she's planned more experiments," Luna goes on. "Maybe some day the method can be used by healers at St Mungo's. You know, we can learn from animals, and it's turned out you don't need to be a horny creature to make magic like this work. I know it can work for us now, because I chose to use this experience, and my colleague's belly swelled perfectly."
"What?"
"It's simple. I just focus on how I was huge when expecting Amy, and we rub our wands together, and ..." Luna sits up and snatches Ginny's wand from the top of her pile of Quidditch gear, and thrusts it into her hand. "Or are you afraid?"
"Of fake pregnancy? No! Not even of real pregnancy!" She's a Gryffindor, and even among them known as fierce and fearless and decisive, but she is reasonable, too.
No, she doesn't even doubt Luna's ability in unusual magic. Now she manages to word it to herself: she doubts her own ability to love her and Luna's children. Perhaps she understands better than Luna does that loving two or more children equally enough isn't simple.
As Luna's now sitting still, as if gently giving her time to confess her fears, Ginny can't resist adding, "And not of childbirth! Giving birth sounds more painful than any Quidditch accident, but I know I'd manage like any other witch."
"Tonight you could just feel a moment of being pregnant. Another night a bit of the rest, if you want. After that we can still consider before looking for a donor."
"All right." Ginny lifts her wand. She'd rather try this than talk more now.
Luna nods, and smiling, she closes her eyes for a moment and rubs her belly.
As their gazes and wands meet, Ginny hears Luna mutter something that sounds as silly as "Sharecacklerium!" and doesn't dare believe this will help her in decision-making at all.
Luna's wand travels up and down the length of Ginny's, and moves sideways and at different angles as if soundlessly playing a violin, and something beyond music enters Ginny and keeps her spellbound... until a wave of nausea passes through her and leaves her with a new reality of her body...
Her body bloated, her belly rising to stretch her wide t-shirt, and her bosom more handsome than Luna's!
Struggling not to freak out, Ginny manages only to giggle uncontrollably.
"I need to pee," a bright voice says, and having barely rounded the end of the couch, Amy stops and strikes her palms together. "You have a baby in your belly! My brother!"
"No!" Ginny tries to sound gentler. "I'm sorry, but..."
"But you look like Luna Mum in Dad's painting, and they say I'm there inside the big belly."
"It's you. I just gave my memory of that belly to Ginny like this, and she can have it for some minutes more."
"Okay." Amy doesn't look baffled at all, only a bit disappointed, and she brightens anew at once. "Can I touch it, too?"
And her little hand joins Ginny's and Luna's to stroke this miraculous mound. There's a flutter inside of Ginny, and now she can feel a push against her palm, and now she can even see an undulating movement.
"That's you kicking," Luna says.
Amy sighs and presses her face against the belly, which sadly starts deflating.
If they decide to have another child and manage to find a donor, they'll be able to share nine months of expecting her brother or sister. And will Ginny inevitably have a closer connection to that child?
Amy in the bright yellow robes she's chosen for this visit flutters away towards Remus's orchard like the spring's first butterfly. Having set her free from his hug, Remus takes hold of the doorframe so as to stand up from the crouch.
As the light is behind his back when he turns towards Ginny and Luna and steps in without closing the door, it's hard to assess if his face, too, and not only his voice is serious and weary. "I wanted us to meet now here because I knew Amy would be eager to rush out and climb a tree and..."
Ginny draws a deep breath, glancing around in the spacious main hall of this ancient house, which is, of course, shared by a number of various creatures in Remus's brotherhood, but still... she can't help becoming defensive. "We're planning to rent a house with a garden, where she can play and learn to ride a broom. And paint outside, too."
"Sounds great." Remus gives her a small smile when sitting down at the large oak table. "But I meant that here she wouldn't be listening when I tell you... Sue's passed away."
"My condolences," Ginny says without quite remembering who that was.
Luna's already gone to wrap her arms around Remus.
"Second full moon after the childbirth," he's muttering. "After the unusual complications at the first one, we should have expected... Anyway, she hoped I could find a home for her baby. He's a double orphan now. Fully healthy." Remus turns towards Ginny with a wider smile. "Still now when fed with charmed sheep milk. And fully human. I wonder if you'd like to consider..."
"Of course. We'll get to sleep soon enough, because you can only have a very quick delivery." Luna rolls over, away from Ginny, and jumps down from the high bed, which must have belonged to Remus's parents, and to his grandparents before them. "Now I see why you wanted us to stay overnight and do our considering here."
"Yes, right here, where we can have perfect privacy. I'm glad you understand... everything. And I love you." At the moment Ginny loves how sure Luna is that whatever they decide will be fine.
Luna's standing in the middle of the floor, completely calm. "Of course. They all come together – our loves and understandings."
After doing the charm to stop the sounds she'll make from traversing the walls, Ginny lays back down. "All right. I'm ready for as much of giving birth as you can share. Are you ready to do your magic?"
"You'll want the earth's pull to help you." Brandishing her wand, Luna stares at Ginny and lifts her eyebrows.
Ginny remembers well enough the descriptions of how Luna strolled around the house for a few hours after her contractions started, but she doubts there will be much time for that early phase. In any case she gets up and walks over to place her wand across Luna's.
Luna moves her wand first slowly, then faster and faster, making Ginny dizzy. This time when inaudible music enters Ginny's body and the mountain of the belly emerges, the sudden change makes it hard for her, standing, to maintain her balance. At least the rhythm is slow, and there's only a slight twist inside, similar to what she's felt regularly ever since her periods started. And now the pain – still familiar – in her lower back. No, it's going away and coming again, getting worse.
"Count... The seconds between the contractions get fewer and fewer, right?" Luna's walking backwards and beckoning to Ginny.
Hardly managing the few steps, Ginny's relieved to realise she's headed back to the bed. But Luna won't let her lie flat on her back. Now there are pillows behind her, and she's clutching Luna's hand. There's a huge pressure inside of her. She needs to... Shit!
"Crazy!" she hears herself roar. "This is crazy."
"Is it a bit too fast, or too real?" Luna's voice might be soothing, but the words are not. "Both, I guess. You must be almost open. Open your legs, like that... That's it. No need to worry. You know, Amy's head was not too big. It'll be over soon. You can push now."
Push? Where has so much of Ginny's strength gone – as if this had been going on for hours? For the second between waves of higher pain she could almost fall asleep. That's what Luna's described: the effect of the fey potions from Remus's cross-breed allies.
"Love, push!"
She does, doesn't she, and screams. In the middle of the hurting there's something... slippery sliding out.
And it's gone. She's empty, she's always been, hasn't she, and she will...
She can hear the baby cry.
Waking up with bright sunlight behind her eyelids, and with Luna's hair tickling her chin, and Luna's lips trailing her collarbone, Ginny can't remember how much she said aloud, before one or both of them fell asleep. In any case she knows what the conclusion must be, and she can rest assured that Luna, too, is happy about it. After what they have shared, each of them is a mother of two.
"Luna..." She's too impatient to say anything but, "Do you think it's too early, or can we...?"
"Your nightshirt's wet."
"No!" Alarmed, Ginny hesitates to reach down to touch the bed under her bum. "Is it? I thought it wasn't that real."
"Now it is. Just here." Luna takes her hand and places it gently on a breast, which is hard and aching under the touch. "Your milk's come in, and it's starting to leak. It's not too early at all. Wait here! No, wait. Let me help you take the shirt off... and pull the sheet up to your armpits. That's it."
Ginny's eyes follow Luna, who leaves the door open. She can hear the crying again, now more clearly, and a hoarse voice singing a repetitive tune.
And in a moment Remus appears on the threshold. His greyed head is bowed over a bundle, which he's holding close to his chest – and now handing over to Luna. There's a towel Luna unwraps to reveal... a perfect reddish brown doll with black hair.
A perfect warm little naked body now sneaked under the sheet against Ginny's skin. Her hands feel too clumsy to secure the baby up close to her breast, but Luna's hand is there, too, and now a small mouth latches to her nipple, and Ginny can't help gasping.
"Sue didn't choose a name." Remus's voice sounds as if from far away. "Just called him son."
"It is a boy. I knew it!" Amy's voice, too, is soft despite the excitement in her tone, and Ginny struggles to lift her head so as to see her holding hands with Remus, who hasn't come closer.
"Amy, my baby..." There's laughter bubbling in Ginny, and joyful love for the two children, unquestionable after the wonder of bearing them both. "Come and see your brother!"
Ginny shifts the sheet and looks down at the mouth that's letting the nipple fall out, and..."Did you see that? He just smiled to me. A perfect sunny smile!"
"I don't think I've seen... He's barely six weeks old." Remus certainly is smiling so much that Ginny can hear it in his voice while she can only take turns in looking at her son and at her daughter.
"It's rare that babies smile so early," Luna says, stroking Amy's head. "Not impossible."
"Perhaps I am imagining. So what?" That's the beginning of all the best things. "His name is..."
Amy shares a grin with Ginny, and they say together, "Sunny!"
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