This is a short two part story taken from my interpretation of Lily's pregnancy and birth experience from a third person point of view. It is deeply emotional and romantic, but still a tale guys should read too. It is meant to break free of societal norms. I don't expect everyone to like it, but please read and review. This story is a year prior to the start of the first book. Lily is pregnant with Harry and Molly Weasley is pregnant with Ron(Hary and Ron are the same age)Chapter 2 is Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's birth experience with Ron. Chapter two is lighter and more funny than the first chapter.
From the Unofficial Portkey Archive: https://portkey-archive.org/story/3227/
I do not own these characters. Quote is from the quotegarden website(a friend to all students in a literature or writing class).
J.K. Rowling handles many topics that we’d rather not discuss in a different light:
Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. ~J.K. Rowling, "The Parting of the Ways," Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000, spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore
Not everybody will like my interpretation, but I can't come to any other conclusion. Molly Weasley hates Muggle medicine and has had 7 children. Therefore they were born at home without any sort of medical attendant, and this is considered the normal wizarding way. In some parts of Europe homebirth is still considered normal (such as in the Netherlands). From what I’ve heard in the UK homebirth is not as unheard of as it is in the US, but unfortunately it is still not a fully supported choice most of the time. Hopefully I won’t offend anybody because I don‘t mean to. Please feel free to speak your mind if you have any comments about this story.
To clarify: this story is before any of the books. Lily is pregnant with Harry and Molly Weasley is pregnant with Ron(as they are in the same year at school they are the same age). I may write a chapter for the Weasleys in this but that depends on what my reviewers want to see.
I also have a story going for Draco and Ginny and that needs a chapter. After that I'm going off this romance kick and writing something time travel, AU, parallel universe. Something not like these stories
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Lily Potter and the Birth of Harry
Lily Potter was sitting at her best friend’s kitchen table having tea with Molly Weasley who was sitting several inches from the table because of her huge pregnant belly. Lily was expecting too, but she was much thinner and looked more like she stuck a basketball up her dress. Molly chattered happily while Lily sat there looking distracted. Finally she asked, “Is something the matter, dear?” Lily sighed and said, “Well, I got a letter from my sister Petunia today. I had written and told her I was pregnant and how happy I am to be doing the birth in the comfort of my own home with no distractions and no crazy chemicals. She says I’d best get myself to a doctor and have the baby in the hospital or I’ll die a horrible painful death.”
Lily broke down in tears. Molly got up and put her arm around Lilly and said, “There, there, now Lily. It’s alright. You’re very healthy and if on the very odd chance something did happen a healer would be there in an instant. Muggle women have problems because their stupid physicians want to control nature. Arthur had to visit one of their maternity wards once when a witch was taken there accidentally and she had cursed one of their machines to spit paper at the nurse every time she tried to go near it. Did I ever tell you the story of Bill’s birth?” “No, I don’t believe so”, Lily replied with a sniffle.
“Fred, George, stop that!” Molly yelled to the two toddlers who were happily banging on pots and pans on the other side of the room. “Well,” she began finally deciding to ignore the clanging. “Arthur was so worried about me or maybe just worried about what curses I might come up with that he decided he would put me under a sleeping spell for the labor and birth so I wouldn’t have to feel anything. He never bothered to ask me what I thought about that idea. The time came and I thought I was handling it quite well. I was just sitting in my rocking chair with my knitting on my lap and he hit me with it. He must have carried me to bed because that‘s where I woke up. I was a bit lighter then. Anyway, Arthur must have paced the entire three days I was asleep his eyes were so bloodshot the day Bill was finally born. He later told me he had summoned a healer because he was afraid something was wrong. The healer told him I’d be awake if it was really time. When Arthur told her I was under a sleeping spell she just laughed and told him to wake me up and then Disapparated still laughing. Waking up to full force labor pains was quite a shock, but Bill was born fifteen minutes later so there wasn’t really much to it. It was a couple weeks before I even spoke to Arthur because I was so mad at him for putting the spell on me. He apologized profusely, but it still took some time to forgive him. Once I sorted my feelings out I started warming up to him again. Since then we’ve just let birth happen like all the other witches before me have. I won’t lie; it does hurt, but it’s a joy like you’ll never know”
Lily looked up at Molly and smiled, “I wouldn’t have guessed Arthur would do such a thing.” Molly said quietly, “You’d be surprised what Arthur would do when circumstances press him.” Lily finished her tea in quiet contemplation then got up and pushed in her chair. “Thanks, Molly. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Molly smiled and said, “I’ll see you, Lily. Try not to worry.” “I’ll try,” she replied weakly.
She threw away the letter from Petunia and tried very hard to look forward to the upcoming birth of her baby, but dread still loomed over her. As the weeks went on Lily got bigger as well as a bit uncomfortable. She could hardly stand the thought of being pregnant longer, but she still didn’t want to see how it would end. Finally the thing she was dreading happened.
She woke up in the darkest hours of the night; she was having labor pains no doubt about it. She tried not to wake up her husband, James; but she winced and he awoke with a start. “Honey, are you ok?” James asked. “I think I‘m in labor.” She replied in a whisper. James threw his arms around her and cried, “Oh, Lily honey, that’s wonderful!”
“It is?,” wondered Lily aloud.
James glowed at her, “Of course it is; we are finally going to see our baby!” “Oh yes, then I guess it is wonderful!” Lily had almost forgotten what she was feeling this way for. James piped in with a little nervousness in his voice, “Should I run a bath, get you something to eat, help you to your favorite chair in the living room?” Lily answered with a bit of confusion in her voice, “What, eat? Well maybe a milkshake, strawberry please. A bath? At this time of night?” James shook his head, “Don’t muggle men take care of their wives at all?”
Lily closed her eyes for a few seconds and then replied, “In the muggle world doctors, nurses, and sometimes midwives care for women in childbirth.” “Midwives? That’s dark ages stuff. I‘ll be right back.“ Lily laid down for a moment, but shot back up with a contraction. James came back in seconds with a frothy glass smelling of strawberries and cream. Lily took it gratefully.
James flipped his wand toward the bathroom and said, “Ok, the bath is running. Come on, it will help you relax.” As the tiredness of waking up in the middle of the night caught up with her she let James lead her into the bathroom. The tub looked somehow much bigger than it did yesterday.
Lily smiled at James and he kissed her then picked her up and sat her in the tub. She immediately started to relax. James sat at the side of the tub. He held up his wand and said “Accio milkshake.” He caught the milkshake and handed it to Lily who promptly finished it. Between the water and the back and belly rubs James was giving her, Lily was feeling only a slight twinge every few minutes.
Some hours later she started crying and moaning in pain. She breathed heavily, “I don’t think I can do this any longer.” James smiled at her, “You are doing it.” Her moans suddenly turned into small grunting noises. James yelled, “Yes, Honey! You’re doing it! You’re pushing!” Through panting breaths she asked, “Aren‘t you supposed to be counting?“ James thought she must be delirious, “Huh? Counting what?” Lily snapped, “Never mind!” Then seconds later with an earth shattering “OOOOOOOH” from Lily the baby was born into the water.
James picked up the tiny baby who started crying immediately. “Hello, Harry”, he said softly to the baby. Lily reached up and took the baby and stared at him with the deepest of love in her eyes. When they started to feel chilly James picked up Lily and Harry and put them in the bed. They all took a well earned nap as the new day dawned without their notice.
I was thinking about the 5th book when the Slytherins were singing “Weasley is our King” and they sing “He was born in a bin”. Wouldn’t that make even more sense if they actually could safely assume his birthplace was the run-down little house held together only by magic? Ok, this will be a funnier chapter. This takes you to whenever Ron was born(which would probably be before Harry, but anyway)
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at the Burrow…
Molly knew what was coming. She was an old hat at it by now. It was simply time to waddle over to the fireplace and floo Arthur. She threw the powder in and stuck her head through the flames. “Misuse of Muggle Artifacts” He was quietly sitting at his desk with his quill in hand studying a piece of parchment. Since he wasn‘t about to notice her head in the fireplace she yelled loudly, “Arthur!”
He didn’t even look up as he spoke, “Yes, Molly dear. Are we out of ice cream again?”
“No, Arthur honey, I’m in labor.” She spoke with her usual calm cheer.
He spoke in his calmest tone. “Right then. It’s about time. What is this almost three weeks past the date now? I’ll just take this report up to the Muggle Worthy Excuse Committee and come home. They’ll have to come up with a good one. You won’t believe….”
Molly suddenly lost her composure. “You will come home this instant!”
Arthur dropped his quill, grabbed his jacket, and headed for the fireplace as Molly’s face disappeared.
The Burrow was in quite a state. Toys were strewn around the living room some making odd noises as they were stepped on. Dishes were stacked to the ceiling. Arthur had to set about doing the cleaning spells Molly had neglected. Within a few minutes pots and pans were washing themselves and toys were flying upstairs to the children’s bedrooms. Molly was nowhere to be seen. Arthur walked outside and saw her in the garden yelling at gnomes and having no luck convincing them they weren’t supposed to be digging up her potato.
“Alright Molly, mustn’t catch chill out here.” Arthur shook his head and smiled.
She sat down in her rocking chair for a few minutes and decided that wouldn’t do so she got up and paced alongside her husband. He turned on the old wizard’s radio and one of her favorite songs was playing. He bowed to her and asked his formal question without the apprehension of the first time he‘d asked it, “Shall I have this dance?” Molly smiled and held out her hand. They danced until the song was over. He turned the radio off to avoid hearing the DJ talk about some new cream or ointment.
He suddenly noticed that the house was quiet. “Did you already send the children to your sister‘s house?”
“Where else would they be!” Molly hissed.
“Anywhere out of the line of fire” Arthur muttered under his breath. It didn’t take long for what he was expecting to happen, but he was prepared with his wand in his pocket well within easy reach.
Molly suddenly pointed her wand at the pots and pans which were now clean and hanging over the stove. She yelled “Waddiwasi” and all of them dutifully shot towards Arthur. He ducked as the pots and pans hit the wall and fell to the ground. He stood up and Molly was pointing her wand at his abdomen. He tried to talk her out of it while trying to move out the way. “Molly, you really shouldn’t…” He didn’t move fast enough and the blue light hit him. She once again had her eyes closed and was holding her midsection tightly, but now so was Arthur. He was yelling “Damn it” and many other explicatives she’d never heard him use before. When the minute of torture ended she pointed her wand at him again and broke the hex that had given him the ability to truly feel her pain. “Now you know how I feel.” she said smuggly.
Arthur could barely reply, “Bloody hell that was painful. It felt like my whole midsection was in vice grip. I don’t know if I will be losing my lunch or not.”
Molly agreed with his description. “Yeah, and that isn’t even the worst of it.”
She was very soon being gripped with another contraction, and she once again pointed her wand at his abdomen.
Arthur pointed his wand at her hand and said, “Oh no you don’t. Expelliarmus!” She fell slightly back into her chair and her wand came flying at Arthur. He took it and put it in his pocket with his own saying, “Now that we’ve had our little fun and games I think we can wait for our baby without going into a full fledged duel.”
Day turned into night as it usually does and Mrs. Weasley was gaining contempt for her husband. She was by no means composed, but still quite capable of speaking her mind. “Arthur Weasley, did you tell your baby to face the wrong way just to make things harder for me?
“Yes, Molly dear, whatever you say. Like I told the twins to turn upside down and be born breech. Sure, I wanted an engorgement charm to make my stomach grow so big I couldn’t even get my wand out of my pocket. I wanted my hand crushed.”
Without her wand Molly had limited hexing capacity, but still managed a few. Arthur’s hair was undecided between it’s current shade of purple and the blue it had turned an hour ago. He had worn a pink dress earlier, but now he was wearing his un-hexable robe so that no magic could change it from it’s slightly faded black. He had bought it because his toddlers, Fred and George, were making him late to work with their new found magic. They were constantly changing his robes into horrible plaids or even making his robe disappear completely leaving him standing in his kitchen wearing only polka dot boxer shorts.
Tomorrow Molly would be apologizing to him, but for now she would be mad at him. He decided to make some chamomile tea in the hopes it would bring her a slight bit of calm. The teapot broke at her scream before it got anywhere near her. That was a sure sign the time was drawing near. Molly had long since stopped shouting obscenities at him, but he still approached warily. She was sitting on the floor on one of their children’s bean bag chairs. He sat down beside her and took her hand in his. With his other hand he wiped her forehead. Molly did what her body told her to and within minutes they were holding the newest member of their family. Molly took a long at her new baby, “The next boys name on my list is Ron. I can’t remember which one of our great-grandparents was named that, but it seems right for him. I can figure out who he’s named after later.” Ron nursed heartily and fell asleep. As soon as mother and baby were in bed Arthur went to the fireplace to floo his sister-in-law. Two minutes later all the rest of the children came running out of the fireplace and up the stairs to greet their new little brother.
The love of belonging to a big family is never more evident than in those first hugs and kisses. The Burrow was one of the very lucky homes to always have that love even on days when it was less than evident.