Chapter seventeen; November rising

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Hermione was on watch a few nights later with the Horcrux while the others slept. She was due to wake Olivia in just under an hour so they could switch. They had moved again, this time to a more secure location back in a forest.

Inside the tent, within the comfort of her own covers Olivia slept. For the first time in weeks, she slept. And she slept properly. She had a dream that wasn't a nightmare, it was a vision. Nothing of the present however, but something of the past and it was what she needed at the time.

'Rain came down on the windows of the apartment but the sound of heavy breathing and screams overpowered it. Outside it was dark, almost pitch black and the only source of light was the occasional bolts of lightning scattering in the sky. Cecelia Black hadn't expected to go into labour so early, the day before her husbands birthday — her daughter wasn't due for another four weeks.

In the comfort of her own room, during the stages of her labour her help laid solely on her best friends. Lily Potter; dragged the wet cloth across her forehead as she blew out sharp ragged breaths following another contraction and Mary soon-to-be Warwick; pacing around at the foot of her bed.

'Where are they?' Cecelia snapped, gripping to the sheets of her bed.

'I'm not sure, I sent the patronus to them. I still think you should let us take you to St. Mungo's 'Lia it's unnatural for you to have the baby this early.' Mary told her, gripping onto the metal frame at the bottom of the bed.

Cecelia seethed as another painful contraction came, 'Just you wait, when I get my hands on them I will kill them. How dare they miss this? How dare Sirius miss the birth of his own daughter?'

Lily stifled a small laugh, 'Could you please at least wait until I've given birth before murdering my husband?'

'Yeah and my fiancé.' Mary muttered.

'Of course but after that they're goners.'

Just then a familiar 'crack' echoed throughout the flat. Too busy with her screaming, Cecelia paid no mind to the person who had arrived until they presented themselves in her doorway. Hope and Lyall Lupin looked beyond flustered and panic-stricken as they rushed to be around the mother-to-be.

'What happened?' Hope had asked suddenly, sitting on the left side of Cecelia.

'I—I don't know, it happened quickly. Sirius said she had been complaining of cramp since late last night and asked us to keep a watchful eye this morning before he left. Around an hour ago she said it got worse and then her waters broke.' Lily rushed to explain.

'Well where is Sirius, James, Jackson, Merlin Remus?' Lyall asked in utter confusion, 'out of them all I'm sure we can agree if they received the Patronus, Remus would be chasing them back any minute.'

Another powerful contraction came too quickly for Cecelia's liking and she screamed again with the sudden intensity. Hope's eyes widened in a panic and she looked to either woman, 'How far apart are the contractions?'

Lily allowed her best friend to squeeze her free hand while she placed the cool cloth to her forehead. Mary looked to Hope and shook her head, 'They started at seven minutes but that must of been at least half an hour ago. The last one was only seconds before you came .. so two maybe three minutes?'

Hope neared the blanket that covered Cecelia's legs and shooed her husband to take her place next to Cecelia's head, 'do you mind dear? I'm no doctor or nurse by all means.'

Cecelia frowned while her face contorted into pain. While Lily had understood what Hope had said, and to some extent Lyall, Cecelia was still confused and so was Mary. Lily saw their confusion and rushed to explain, 'A Healer, doctors and nurses are the Healers of the Muggle World.'

Cecelia nodded while seething, 'Then by all means look for as long as you please.' Her reply came somewhat sarcastically and Lyall couldn't help but laugh.

After a few minutes Hope dropped the blanket, 'I really think we should take her to a hospital Ly, especially if she's so early. She seems to have progressed quickly.'

'What are you talking about?' She snapped through her pain.

'It means don't push Cecelia.' Lyall said urgently, 'We're going to fetch you to St. Mungo's.'

'But Sirius—'

'Lily and I will both send a patronus to ensure they get the message. We can't have Sirius missing the birth of his daughter now can we?'  Mary asked.

By the time Sirius, James, Jackson and Remus had made it to St. Mungo's and rushed up to the Maternity Ward on the sixth floor, they had feared they had made it too late. They could hear Cecelia's screams of pain from the very top of the floor and it didn't take them long to locate the room she was in following those screams.

Outside they found Mary, Hope and Lyall Lupin both pacing back and forth worriedly. Immediately the four men skidded to a halt in front of them and they both looked up. They were sodding wet, absolutely drenched to the core with the torrential weather outside. Hope walked forwards and clipped all four of them around the back of their heads, 'Where in God's name have you been? Do you not realise how many times we've tried to contact you?'

'Mum, we're sorry. We got all of your messages at once and we rushed here immediately.' Remus explained quickly.

'Where's Lily?' James asked suddenly.

'She's acting as Cecelia's birthing partner, something you should be in their doing,' Mary said irritably, pointing to Sirius, 'she looks like she's seen a ghost. The poor woman looks like she's been swayed from the idea of childbirth. Merlin, even I'm having second thoughts.'

'She's four weeks early, why is she four weeks early?' Sirius rambled quickly.

'Some babies are born early.' Hope said.

'What?' Sirius exasperated, 'There's no mention of that in any parenting book!'

'You didn't even read the parenting books!' Remus reminded him.

'I still know that babies don't come this early! They're not supposed to come when they do please!'

Another agonising scream of Cecelia's followed, 'Where the hell is he!' Was heard from behind the closed door, 'I'm going to bloody kill him!'

Sirius face gave a new definition to the shade 'pale' as he became a loss for words. The door to Cecelia's room opened and a Healer stepped out, 'Has the father arrived yet? I'm afraid we can't wait much longer, she's arriving a lot quicker than expected. We can't delay anymore without becoming a risk for baby and mum.'

James and Remus pushed on Sirius' back. He forcefully stepped forwards and looked to the Healer in shock.

'Are you the father?' She asked of him.

'Is he here?!' Cecelia shouted through the semi-open door.

With no words Sirius nodded his head and allowed the Healer to guide him through into the room. He noticed first that what Lyall had said about Lily was right, she looked beyond terrified as Cecelia clung to her hand. He then noticed his wife, in a position that looked like she would be delivering any second. Through her pain he could only see her beauty and when reality hit that he was minutes away from becoming a father, he broke out of whatever trance he was in.

Sirius made it just in time to welcome his daughter into the world. He couldn't thank Healer Rhodes enough for delivering his daughter safely, and in full health, four weeks early. Born at twenty-three minuets past the hour of ten o'clock where instantly the torrential rain had disappeared into clear air.

Around the new parents and their daughter sat her godparents. Named by Cecelia, Lily and named by Sirius, Remus and James. Lyall and Hope and Mary and Jackson were there also. In the arms of Sirius sat his exhausted wife, who he could not be prouder of, and in the arms of his wife sat his newborn daughter. Her bright blue eyes brought a new meaning to the word 'light' as she truly lit up Sirius' once dull life. Her wide eyes looked around curiously before she sneezed out of the blue.

In the corner of the room a glass fell off a table and shattered to the floor with a loud noise following her sneeze. Around her, everyone's eyes widened as they expected her to cry. Only they were surprised when she gurgled and started to giggle.

Cecelia caressed her fingers over her daughter's soft cheek and laughed heartily when the door opened in front of her. She looked up from her daughter to see her old headmaster stepping through the door with a small smile on his ageing face.

Behind him Minerva McGonagall stepped in and closed the door behind her. Albus Dumbledore clasped his hands in front of him and smiled down on the small infant before looking back up to the new parents, 'I take it this is Olivianna?' He queried quietly.

Olivia cooed and giggled again hearing her name. Her father nodded, 'Olivianna Grace Black'

McGonagall smiled, 'Well if she's anything like her father, or any one of your three for that matter, I'm sure we're to have another seven interesting years heading our way.'

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Olivia sat some short distance away from the tent one cool morning. She perched on a tree stump that they had moved to form a seat outside. It had been backed up against a large, thick rooted tree where its scarce leaves fought to remain on its branches. She leaned against the bark as her boots supported her feet and her thick, wooden socked folded in half just above the shoe.

She exhaled in content, a faint smile gracing her lips as she listened to the morning tune of the birds chirping off in the distance, the small waterfall close by. The morning sun, only having just risen, fought for dominance over the thick clouds lining the sky.

As beautiful as the morning was, her hot breath was visible to her eye and she shivered further into the comfort her thick clothes had to offer. She, as usual with the up and coming winter, had layered up — on her top half especially.

Ron, not wearing his sling, approached Olivia on the tree trunk and sat down besides her without a word. The two of them sat together in a comforting silence for minutes until Ron nudged her with his elbow, "Happy birthday."

Her eyebrows drew together in a frown and she looked to Ron in confusion. She had lost track of the days long ago and didn't bother to keep up with them after either. If she had to, she would've hazarded a guess to say it was mid-November with how cold it was. Although snow was still yet to fall. But hearing Ron say that, 'Happy birthday' stirred something in her. A sense of nostalgia as to what she was doing this time last year, when he father was cleared of charged against the Ministry.

She remembered how she'd spent her previous birthdays, from her fourth year to her sixth.

"Draco, is my birthday over yet?" Olivia asked.

"Why would you want it to be over?"

"I just want today to be over."

"It's eleven-thirty which means—"

"It's still my birthday." She sighed.

"I was going to say I could still give you this." Draco said pulling a box out of his pocket, "your birthday present."

"You didn't have to."

"It's not every day you turn fifteen." Draco replied.

*

Olivia smiled brightly and shook her head before she jumped off the bench and was scooped up in a hug from Draco, "Happy sixteenth love." He whispered as he kissed her temple.

"You sly git." She mumbled, laughing into his shoulder.

"Happy birthday you shithead." Blaise shouted as he caught the girl in a head lock and began ruffling her hair.

"It's not everyday you turn sixteen." Alexis smirked as they all sat down at the table.

"You said that last year."

*

"Happy Birthday!"

Seeing her house on their feet for the her caused an emotional smile to form on the girl's face. She caught Blaise, Serena and Alexis stood on the table with Theo and Graham on the benches, all with their arms in the air as they cheered for one of the first turned seventeen year olds in their year group.

Moving to the group she thanked everyone who had wished her a happy birthday before tackling Blaise off the table as the boy pulled them all in for a group hug, "You absolute shit heads." Olivia said, fighting off the tears.

They pulled away and took their seats at the table, exchanging gifts as Draco slipped in with a 'happy birthday' and a small gift in his hand. She unwrapped the envelope to find a moving photo of them both some time ago. The girl lifted a hand to her mouth, covering it as a laugh left her, looking up to Draco she smiled. "I can't believe you found the photo."

Draco mustered a small smile, "Had some help from mum, you've no idea how long it took me to find."

Olivia looked back down to the photo of eight year old year and Draco, the younger version of the girl had her arm swung around Draco's shoulders wearing a goofy smile. Draco stood in a similar fashion except his platinum blonde hair was falling into his eyes.

"Thank you, so much." She spoke truly.

A pile of letters and gifts had landed in front of Olivia along with an edition of the Daily Prophet, delivered by numerous owls. The Great Hall, for an unbeknownst reason, fell quiet as Olivia picked up the paper from underneath the mount of letters. She found a small note attached to the corner of the edition, 'Happy Birthday Olivia.' It read as she looked to see her father on the front page.

"SIRIUS BLACK WRONGLY ACCUSED OF MURDER AND BETRAYAL AND IS HENCEFORTH FORMALLY EXCUSED FROM ALL CHARGES."

"Am I really eighteen?" She echoed in disbelief.

Ron chuckled, "It is the Second of November, so yeah Liv." He nudged her elbow, "We'll throw you a huge party for your nineteenth when the war is won."

She looked to him with a blank expression before nodding faintly to herself. She looked back to the forest they were taking residence in and released a small breathy laugh, "Time flys when you're having fun, right?"

Ron chuckled under his breath and turned to her after it died, "I thought we would've made some progress by now."

Olivia nodded, "So did I, but that pesky little thing obviously wants to keep torturing us for longer."

"There's four more of these left to find and destroy." Ron said hesitantly, how are we gonna manage it when we can't even kill one?"

Still staring out in front of her she shook her head slowly. The very thought consuming her mind, "I have no idea."

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Essays and work and personal statements and universities, bloody hell i'm exhausted.

I hope you enjoyed this update, no matter how different it was! I loved writing it and so I hope you enjoyed reading it!

'til next time!