RP: Little Child

[rar_fleur]

Date: 28 April 1999 | Morning
Characters: Fleur Weasley, Bill Weasley, Healer and St. Mungo's Personnel [NPCs], Genevieve Grace 'Gigi' Weasley, Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, George Weasley, Lee Jordan
Location: St. Mungo's Maternity Ward
Status: Semi-Private [Weasley family and friends]
Summary: Fleur and Bill give birth.
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[rar_arthur]

Molly had been gone for a few minutes, and Arthur expected it would be a few more yet; he was impatient to go meet his granddaughter, but it wasn't something to be rushed, after all, and Molly had missed having little ones around.

Well, so had he, come to that, but he didn't begrudge her getting to go first. He absently took a bite of the sandwich he'd been mostly holding and occasionally eating for the last hour, and glanced again toward the door through which they'd gone.

Granddaughter. Huh. There were so many boys he'd somehow not actually thought that could be, but then, perhaps it would also feel odd to have a grandson. He'd likely find out eventually, but then, the first one had to be special. He wondered what she would call him. Maybe she'd think of a ridiculous nickname for him, as some children did for their grandparents, and he'd be stuck known as Pop-pop or Bee-dit for all time. He thought he'd like that. She could teach her cousins and everything. Or maybe it would be some nonsense in French.

He thought about that for a while, smiling, then contemplated what Muggles did to pass the time in hospital waiting areas. Probably something clever involving devices with knobs and plugs--they had so many! He took another bite and set the sandwich aside. He wasn't really particularly hungry.

He had just cleared his throat to ask if anyone else would be interested in a game of cards when the movement out of the corner of his eye attracted his attention. Oh! They were back. He stood up, trying not to actually jump off the floor in his enthusiasm. "I assume she's perfect?" he asked, his grin widening.

[rar_bill]

After he got Gigi settled back into the cot, he walked with his mum back to the waiting room. They'd barely entered the room when his father was standing up and walking towards them. He smiled at the question. "Of course she's perfect, but I think you should see for yourself," he said with a nod back at the door.

"Come on, Dad. You can see her before Fleur wakes up and scolds me for letting so many people visit the room and disturb the baby."

[rar_arthur]

Arthur beamed and followed Bill back through the door. "I think she might have to just get used to the disturbing. The baby, not Fleur. Or, well, her too. We're not the smallest or the quietest family that ever lived."

Still, he slowed his steps a bit, moving more quietly than was his inclination, so as to be a little less disturbing.

When the arrived, he looked at Fleur in the bed. "I'm glad she can sleep," he said to Bill quietly. "I always found it so difficult to know how exhausted your mother was, and then the baby, or too often, a baby, a toddler, and a four-year-old, would need her." He shook his head. "It's a bit beyond imagining, isn't it, that they can do this?"

[rar_bill]

"No, we're not," he agreed. "Gigi takes after us. She was noisy and squirming around not long after she entered this world." He was proud of that, that she took after his family even if he was just imagining things.

They entered the room, and he listened to his dad as he walked over to pick up Gigi again. "It's bloody brilliant, though I have to admit that I'm glad I wasn't going through it." He looked down at Gigi and grinned. "She's going to end up resenting me when she's older without knowing that it's because I kept picking her up when she was born."

He held her carefully and showed her off to his dad. "Isn't she beautiful?"

[rar_arthur]

"I don't think they resent being held," Arthur said. "At least, not yet. I recall a period when you were perhaps three when any time we tried to hold you, you saw it as a restriction and fought to get loose, but at this age, I think they mostly like it."

He reached to stroke the downy hair on the baby's head, then held out his hands to take her. "May I? I don't think I've quite forgotten how, though I admit my experience with girl babies is limited."

[rar_bill]

"Oh, that's good to hear. I don't plan to put her down very much in the next few days or, well, years, probably." He smiled sheepishly before touching Gigi's hand again.

"Of course. I think you'll be okay. Now, if Ron asks to hold her, I'd have to consider it," he teased before he carefully handed Genevieve over to his dad. "Gigi, this is your grandfather. Don't worry. You don't have to learn everyone immediately. There's a lot of us."

[rar_arthur]

Arthur took the baby carefully and shifted her so she was held securely, but still free to look up at him, or not. "Hello," he said.

She stared.

"I've never had a granddaughter before," he told her, whispering conspiratorially. "I've heard they're like daughters, only with more spoiling. What do you think?"

She wrinkled her face up and flailed a little fist for a moment before pulling it back against her, then went back to staring.

"Excellent. We're agreed, then. Your grandmother and I are in charge of spoiling. Don't tell your father, though; he thinks his old dad is strict and stern."

She seemed content to listen to him talk, so he went on, explaining that she was going to be the oldest, so she'd get to be first for all sorts of things, and they'd just have to learn about grandbabies and grandparents together. "Just like your father and I learned about babies and parents," he said as she yawned at him. "It's a tradition."