The Stork That Never Was (Invite Only)

Briony did not feel good today, she had been worrying ever since Friday because that was the day that she was due to have the baby, so she wondered why there was no child in her arms, of course you could be late by up to two weeks, but that didn't register in Briony's mind.

Biting her lip she paced the floor of her office, she had been doing some paper work when she felt an extremely painful kick, sighing she hoped that her child would come out soon, she was beginning to feel more like a whale with each day.

Unexpectadly Briony felt something splash at her feet, looking down her eyes widened at the water that was on the floor...her waters had broken? Now getting more and more frightened with each passing second, Briony hurried as fast as she could down to the Hospital Wing to try and find Lucia.

Richard had been doing some paperwork in his office when he felt a charm activate. It was the charm that healers put on a pregnant mother and then linked to whomever the mother wanted present at the birth. It was the warning system that told all of those who were linked in, just him he thought, that the mother's water had broken and she was going into labour.

Hurrying out of his office, the door locking behind him without a word, Richard flew along the corridors in a mad dash towards the hospital wing. When he reached the stairs they weren't in the right position for him and he growled in frustration.

Of all the times!

Using something that he'd copied the principle of from both Raven and Cobalt, Richard channeled magic to his legs before jumping as hard as he could. Sailing through the air, he moved himself with some more magic and landed on the right set of stairs. He sprinted down the halls towards the hospital wing, reaching the doors a few seconds later and calling out,

"Briony! Are you here?"

Briony turned around when she heard the voice of Richard coming from behind him, and it was something that made her relax automatically, not for long however as there was a swift pain, what Briony thought might be a contraction, and she bit her lip, making her way over to one of the chairs so that she could sit down and recoup herself while waiting for a healer to appear.

"Yes yes I'm here, just on this chair, sitting here, waiting for someone to help deliver this child out of me." Briony hummed with a hint of panic in her voice "I am so not looking forward to this..."

Moving to sit down on the edge of a bed, she held out her hand to Richard and she wanted him to come close to her to reassure her that everything was going to be okay, after all she had a rather big thing to come out of a relatively small hole.

"You got here quick." she smiled gently.

When he heard Briony, Richard rushed into the hospital wing and searched for her frantically until he saw her. He sighed a little bit in relief as he skidded to a halt close to Briony's side. He moved closer and held her hand in his tightly,

"Oh danke got... I thought I'd missed it..." he nodded and looked around, seeing no sign of the healer, and shouted out, "Lucia! Lucia a little help here!"

Richard saw Briony moving to the bed and held her hand tightly, helping to guide her to the bed without incident. He was by her side in an instant, holding her hand tightly as he looked into her eyes. If there was one thing he wanted Briony to know, it was that he was here for her. He chuckled in a slightly out of breath way,

"Yeah... the stairs were misbehaving so..." he scratched the back of his head, "I took a very raven-y shortcut. The jumping part at least. Godmother helps get the father to the birth... she's already showing she's a good choice in my book."

Briony smiled lightly, Richard was being so attentive and at any other time she would have paid more attention to it and rewarded him duly for it afterwards, however, now she was just more worried about the thing that was going to come out of her womb, and how much pain that she was going to cause on the way out, she just hoped that it wouldn't be anything that couldn't be fixed.

"Of course you wouldn't have missed it, would I have been so calm if you had missed the birth? No no you would be grovelling on the floor by now." Briony smirked, and she gently wove her fingers in with Richard's own, glad to have him here.

Raising her eyebrow, Briony had hoped that it would be something Richard could accept, not only having Raven as the godmother, but what her very strong idea about what she was going to be calling their baby, she had explained it to him...

But still she was nervous, he might not actually be accepting it after all.

"I'm glad that she can be of use to you, she'll be flattered to know that you have copied her spells I'm sure, where is the god-father anyway?" she asked, hissing slightly with another contraction.

Richard could tell that Briony was focused on something else so he just sat there holding her hand, being there for her. That's all he wanted to do after all. He gave her hand another reassuring squeeze, not knowing if it was actually going to help her at all,

"Ah that is true but you can fogive me for fearing the possibility, no matter how small." he chuckled a little bit and smiled as their fingers wove together, "And I would be very worried because I don't think I could ever do enough grovelling to keep you from killing me for that."

When the name had first been suggested Richard had been a little hesitant. After all it had only been two years since the woman had led germans into the castle with the express purpose of kidnapping, torturing and then executing Briony. Not to mention she'd tried to kill him, but that wasn't something he really worried about. But after Briony had explained it to him he had calmed down and was beginning to accept it,

"I'm sure she will be. If by 'flattered' you mean 'fly into a rage and try and gut me' then I'm sure she will." he joked lightly, not really meaning it. At the mention of the godfather Richard frowned, "Cobalt? Mmm I'm not entirely sure actually... I'd track him down but it seems I'm connected to you."

Briony smirked lightly, what Richard said was true if he had missed the birth she would more likely banish him from seeing the child until he had done enough grovelling to be able to win back her affections for him, it was a huge deal, and she was glad that Richard had been able to be here.

When he started to laugh about Raven and what she would most likely do if she found out that Richard had copied one of her signature moves, Briony couldn't help but agree with him, she probably would not be happy if she found out.

"That's how Raven says hello, you didn't know that?" she joked, before getting a little panicked when she heard no signs of Lucia coming into the ward.

"Richard. Where is Lucia? I am not having this baby on my own. She hasn't even really given me any check ups lately, how do I know that something isn't going wrong?" she asked, it was obvious that she was becoming more stressed as she sat up from the bed and resisted the urge to pace back and forth.

Seeing his wife give a ghost of her typical smirk he chuckled a little bit. He knew that he'd hit the nail on the head when he'd said that there wouldn't have been enough time in the world for him to grovel enough for forgiveness if he had missed the birth. By all accounts he'd probably be banging his head against a wall. Richard had his turn to smirk when he thought about the older Raven being ready to kill him for stealing her move, she already wanted to kill him so it wasn't as if it was going to make her hate him anymore than she already did,

"I gather that actually." he joked with a small smirk, "If that's so then she must have fun trying to greet meet, she does it every time we meet. Or every time we've met so far at least."

Richard had to admit to sharing some of his wife's panic. He was a man of many talents but delivering babies was not one of those talents! he coughed a little bit and tried to smile in a reassuring manner to his wife,

"I'm sure she'll be along shortly." he assured his wife before standing up and yelling towards the door that led to Lucia's office as the healer, "Lucia! Lucia get your ass out here! I doubt any of us want me to try my hand at delivering this baby!"

Briony couldn't help but smirk lightly when Richard told her that every time that they had met Raven had tried to stab him, although she was glad that there was no chance of Raven actually hurting Richard, she was just happy that Raven chose to aknowledge him at all.

"You know, in some cases that can be a good thing." she smirked slighty wider "I just think it's because she doesn't really like you and she takes out her dislike in the form of getting stabby...but anyway..."

Waving her hand Briony could tell from the frantic way that Richard was shouting that Lucia was still not on her way, another contraction began and Briony made a noise of discomfort, holding Richards hand tighter.

"Why, are, you shouting?" she asked, taking a breath after each word "She's on her way right? I don't think that she's going to hang on much longer." Briony bit her lip, looking panicked.

Richard noticed that Briony was smirking a little bit and couldn't help but chuckle a little bit to himself about the whole thing. He guessed some people were just stabby and Raven was definately a stabby kind of person. Naturally he had a slight aversion to being stabbed so he avoided being stabbed at all,

"A good thing you say?" he raised an eyebrow before chuckling lightly, "Oh I know she doesn't like me. She loathes me! Can't say I don't understand why but still, it makes for quite a tense greeting."

Richard was tempted to swear, very loudly, but he'd promised himself that he'd give that up when the baby came along and by the looks of his wife it wasn't exactly going to be long until their daughter arrived. He squeezed her hand back,

"Blind optimism?" he suggested without any real belief in it, "Yes she should be on her way... Little Raven wants out now does she?"

He swallowed nervously before taking a deep breath,

"Well then..." he smiled nervously at his wife, "You keep it up Briony, you're doing great. I'm going to try my hand at delivering our baby until Lucia gets here... squeeze my hand as hard as you can Briony."

Briony raised her eyebrow and she wanted to scream aloud for what she was about to have to go through, the only comfort that she had was the fact that it was going to be all in the presence of the healer, her supposed friend Lucia Henley, now that was not to be true and she didn't think that she was ever going to be able to forgive her.

When she heard Richard was going to try and deliver her baby she looked at him as if he was mad;

"Are you joking?!" she yelled "You're not a healer what the hell do you think you're going to be able to do?! You go and find her and bring her here NOW!" Briony screamed.

Closing her eyes she gave out a large groan and she felt the urge to push, she didnt' want to however because she was so afraid that something would happen to the baby on the way out without her friend here. Biting her lip, Briony pushed anyway and she screamed a little bit unhappily;

"AH!!!" she clutched Richard's hand tightly "I'm going to KILL Lucia when I get my hands on her!"

Richard had to admit that the look Briony gave him, the look that said he was mad, was much the same as the one he would probably be giving himself right now if he was watching. It did seem like madness, that he was going to deliver their baby. The limit of his healing experience was making new body parts, not helping women give birth for merlin's sake! He took a deep breath,

"I know I'm not a healer." he agreed with his wife, a slight degree of calm as he tried to wrestle with his panic, "But I am not going to leave you here so I can go running around the castle trying to find Lucia when I have no idea where she is! No, I'm staying her and I'm going to do the best that I can."

Moving towards Briony's legs, Richard made sure that they were spred open wide to give the baby slightly more room to come out. Why? Well it was what they did in the muggle films and that was all he really had to go by right now. He gripped her hand tightly,

"Come on Briony I need you to push! Raven is coming out now and she is not waiting for Lucia!" he told his wife before looking down, "God damn I am going to slap her when I see her... come on Briony! Push!"

Briony couldn't help but feel an impending sense of desperation when there was no other option but to let Richard at least try and help her deliver the baby, this was the least sexiest thing that he could ever have seen her do and she thought that it would more likely scar the man away from sex for the rest of his life, at least with her at least.

When her legs were spread open, Briony screwed up her face and she panted with the effort of pushing, looking at her husband with a glare on her face she growled;

"I am pushing."

Deciding that she would do so again, Briony took a deep breath and squeezed Richard's hand tighter, wanting more and more to punch something, hard. Pushing again Briony cried out in pain and stopped to take more breath before doing so again.

"F*cking hell. Is there NO SPELLS FOR THIS?!" she yelled.

Richard was not looking forward to when Briony started screaming even more, which he knew she would. He could tell that if it was going to get any worse he was going to have to regrow the bones in his hand. But right now he had neither the heart nor the bravery to tell his wife that she had broken one of his fingers already,

"I know you are love." he told her, very aware that the glare she was sending him promised him a lot of pain in the future if he tried to pressure her about this, "I just need you to keep this up."

When Briony squeezed his hand tighter still he could tell some of her magic was leaking into her muscles. Mainly by the way that the crack resounded through the hospital wing. He squeezed back gently, hating the fact that his wife was in so much pain,

"I don't know... Lucia would know but she's decided to be somewhere else." he replied, angry at the healer, "Just bear with it Briony, you can do this! Squeeze my hand harder to deal with it and keep pushing!"

Briony glowered at her husband, he could not even try to imagine the pain that she was in at this moment in time and with her other hand she brought it up to his head and whacked him hard about the head for him telling her to keep it up, how could he even tell her to do that when he himself was sitting there pretty?!

"Keep it up?! Keep it up!? I would like to see you trying to squeeze a baby out of something so small! It's all your fault Richard I'm so going to smack you if you say that again."

Glowering at her husband Briony pulled him close to her face and hissed dangerously; "You will do well to try and find some spells otherwise your hand will be completely shattered by the time I'm halfway through." she snarled, letting him go to go and get the book of spells to perform on her.

Smacking him again, Briony screamed again as she pushed hard, hoping that something might happen with regards to the pain lessening.

"I AM PUSHING!"

Richard knew that his wife was in pain, and hated it, but he had to try and encourage her to keep pushing so that the pain would lessen in time. It earnt him a hit to the head so strong it made his ears ring. Blinking his eyes to focus he looked up at Briony and winced,

"I know it hurts Briony but she's on her way! She's crowning!" he told his wife, having just noticed their daughter beginning to emerge, "The top of her head is showing! Come one Briony! You can beat me black and blue, just keep pushing!"

He couldn't help but gulp. His wife was going to kill him at this rate and the baby wasn't even past the head yet! Richard summoned up his knowledge of pain-killing and body numbing spells before he thought of one. It was a spell to make someone completely numb from the stomach area down, like a muggle epidural, but it was technically a dark arts spell as only the caster could undo it,

"I know a dark arts spell that can numb you completely from the stomach down." he told her seriously, "Do you want it, even though it's dark arts?"

Richard winced as his wife hit him again. Oh the students were going to have a field day when he came into classes covered in bruises across whatever area Briony could reach. Deciding that she needed the spell, he tapped his thigh and her body bellow her stomach area began to grow numb. He doubted it would totally get rid of the pain but it was better than nothing. He checked on the baby,

"Alright Briony the head's coming out now..." he told his wife, looking back up at her, "Squeeze my hand extra tight, take a deep breath and then give it one finally push! After that can basically pull her out."

Briony panted a little bit, barely taking in what her husband was saying to her, apart for the bit when he mentioned that there was some element of pain relief spells that he knew of, but at the mention that they were dark arts, she shook her head, she didn't want her baby Raven to be affected by Dark Arts on her way out, she didn't know what it would do.

When Richard performed the spell anyway Briony punched him in the nose and pulled him closer by his shirt again; "I said NO to the Dark Arts spell! If our child is effected by this it's YOUR FAULT." she growled.

Taking another deep breath, Briony whimpered slightly and she focused her attention on getting this baby out of her stomach, and she gripped onto the hospital wing bed instead of Richard's hand, pushing as hard as she could Briony began to cry a little from both the pain and the effort.

Imagining that she looked god awful, but not really caring Briony gave one last push and there was an odd feeling, and then there was no more pain, she was just left shaking rather badly and the tears were still coursing down her cheeks.

"Is it...is she?" she asked, and then hearing a cry she laughed happily "Oh thank Merlin, she made it."

Richard had taken a calculated risk when he ignored his wife's decision in favour of taking away her pain. After all, it was only a dark arts spell because the caster could make it permanent by simply not countering it but something told him that Briony wasn't exactly going to let him explain that. The punch to his nose, which broke, told him that he had been right in his assumption. He winced when she pulled him up to shout and growl at him but ignored her threats. It wouldn't affect Raven at all, it had been originally designed for this purpose anyway.

Thankful that Briony had decided to grab onto the sides of the bed instead of crushing the bones in his hand even more, he doubted he'd be able to help with this next part of the birth if he only hand one hand. As the head of their daughter managed to squeeze past, Richard was quick to take hold, pulling the baby out gently and in one smooth motion. Holding their daughter in his arms he smiled happily, ignoring the blood pouring down his face from the broken nose. He smiled even wider when she cried, showing that not only was she alive but that she had quite a set of lungs on her. Laughing happily, Richard was on cloud nine. He was a father! Little baby Raven was here, looking so beautiful. It was true what they said, the love was instant and unconditional.

Waving his wand, her umbilical cord disappeared. He conjured up a blanket and carefully wrapped the crying baby up in the blankets. He smiled up at Briony,

"She's here... and she wants to see her mummy." he told Briony with a smile as he moved over, handing their daughter over to Briony, "Isn't she beautiful?"

Taking this time to tap his wife, removing the effects of the spell immediately, Richard covered Briony up with the covers of the hospital bed. Feeling as if he'd gone ten rounds in a boxing ring, he sat down beside his wife and child, smiling happily as he looked at the happy little family that had now grown to three.

Briony shivered and shook with the shock on her body and she felt as if she was going to throw up any minute, but she was also very glad that her stomach seemed to be going back to some form of normality, and was glad that she could now see her feet once more. Placing her hand on her forehead, she felt a slight tug as the umbilical cord disappeared.

Groaning a little, Briony closed her legs and was glad that the spell was now gone and she could feel again, even though ti ached like hell, it was a good ache, it was an ache that told her that she had managed to do the hardest thing she had ever done.

And that she had managed to do it right.

Tears stinging the corner of her eyes, Briony laughed happily and took the child from Richard's arms, holding her to her chest, and gently stroking the little mop of black hair she was already sporting, kissing her small forehead, Briony adopted the correct position, supporting Raven's head.

"She's so beautiful, isn't she?" Briony asked Richard "Uhm....I'm sorry...about the nose...and about the hand, I was a little bit distressed." Briony giggled.

Gesturing to Raven she asked; "Shall we wash her?"

Richard merely watched with a smile as Briony began to come down from her mixture of fear, panic and pain to be happy that it was finally over. He couldn't imagine how it must feel to have such a load taken off of you, literally as well considering Briony was now free from the weight of a child hanging in her stomach. If he knew Briony, and he did, his wife would be back into her peak physical condition within the weak, he knew how much she'd hated looking and feeling pregnant.

As he handed Raven over to Briony he couldn't help but smile even wider, even though the movement hurt his face. Briony looked so natural with baby Raven nestled lovingly against her. The two of them together like that made Richard's heart swell with happiness,

"She sure is Briony... the second most beautiful girl in the world." he told her with a smile before chuckling. He winced when his face hurt. His nose still hadn't stopped bleeding either but he was too happy to care. He waved it off with a smile, "Don't worry about it, I kind of asked for it. Not very good with motivational speaches it seems."

He nodded and smiled before smirking and holding a wet cloth in one hand and his wand in the other,

"The muggle way or the quick way?"

Briony did not like seeing Richard with his broken and brusied face, after all it was her who had done it and she felt very guilty, she did not like to see her husband hurt let alone when it was she that had done the hurting. Biting her lip, when he winced as he smiled, she couldn't help but laugh happily at the look on his face, he looked so happy, so content, even with the bloody nose.

Shaking her head, Briony chuckled and she patted Richard on the hand as he said that he wasn't good at motivational speeches;

"I think you were a bit freaked out having to deliver a baby when you'd never done it before, I wouldn't look for a career in midwifery though Richard." she joked lightly, before sighing, a feeling of betrayal setting into her heart with each beat "I do not wish to see Lucia, if she should come, turn her away."

When he asked which way they should wash Raven, Briony pointed to the cloth; "We should wash her the muggle way, its a lot more loving than just waving a wand, perhaps you should do it Daddy." she smirked a little "Let mummy recover for a few moments first okay?"

Richard saw that his wife was upset with the fact that his nose was still broken and bloodied so he smiled slightly before reaching up and grabbing his nose. Ignoring the pain he sets it back place and taps it with his wand, fixing it and cleaning the blood away. He would still have the black eyes in the morning but he was too happy to care in the slightest,

"Yes I think you're right... it's not exactly been an experience worthy of making a career change." he joked lightly before frowning a little bit, "I'll be sure to point her in the opposite direction... after I give her a punch for not being here."

Taking the cloth, Richard dipped it in some luke warm water to prepare to wash his daughter. When Briony called him daddy his face lit up and he couldn't help but think that it was literally impossible for him to smile any wider,

"I'm a daddy!" he shouted with joy as he took Raven from Briony's tired arms and began to carefully wash her, grinning like a loon as he did so, "We're actually mummy and daddy... how surreal is this? It's unreal!"

Lucia had been in Diagon Alley to gather some new medicine that she had run out on. It seemed as if the students were being hit with a violently running nose, so the medicine had run out.

When she reached Hogwarts, she walked to her Deputy Head office to gather her paperwork and take it up to the infirmary. She walked quickly up the stairs, hoping no one had been at the infirmary at that moment. She had hung out a note on the door of her office, saying she was out. But when she reached the fourth floor, she stopped dead. A scream?

Lucia started running up the many steps and burst through the doors of the infirmary, stopping dead. A baby. A baby and Briony and Richard. She almost dropped the medicine. Her eyes stung, both in joy and in repulsion. After all those promises to Briony, she hadn't been there on the day she was giving birth. But she was overjoyed with the fact that they both seemed absolutely fine.

Lucia could feel the baby's aura, and it was calm and the lungs were strong, judged by the screaming. She was clean too. Lucia dumped the medicine on the bed next to them, tears in her eyes, now starting to feel like rubbish and completely a waste of space. She cursed herself; she should be bloody happy. This was Briony's baby!

She walked over and looked into their eyes. "I'm so sorry," she said in a ragged voice, "I'm so sorry for not being here." She looked apologetically at Briony. Then she tried on a smile.

"But the baby is healthy. She is very healthy indeed. Her lungs are really strong, her weight is perfect, and her aura fills the room," she said softly.

She looked at them, pretty sure they were angry at her, but decided that it didn't matter. Anger didn't matter now. She didn't care. Because every day a baby was born, new hope for mankind shone through the darkness of the day.

Briony smiled lightly at Richard and she watched him clean their baby girl, it was something that she didn't think that she would ever get to see, given what had happened the last time that they had tried to have a baby together.

But it had happened, and now that Raven was here Briony would do all that she could to make sure that she stayed here, with her and Richard, for as long as she could do.

"I know right? After those...times, I never thought that I would be a mother, but here I am, and here you are, being the father you've always wanted to be." she smiled gently.

Then however, her happiness was struck from her face when she heard someone coming into the Hospital Wing rather hurriedly, she saw that it was Lucia and her face dropped even more, gesturing for Richard to give her Raven Briony said cooly;

"Do you require to take some sort of register of the baby's birth? Or shall we do that afterwards?"

Lucia didn't react to Briony's cold tone. Her defenses picked up on the cold aura Briony was giving off too soon, and soon she was just a doctor that was going to make sure a baby would be fine. It wasn't her boss' baby, it wasn't her friend's baby. It was just a baby that needed to be checked.

Lucia accepted the baby from Richard and checked her temperature. "The baby has a wonderful stamina filled with magic. Her temperature is on 99.5 F, meaning a tad higher than normal temperature, but that is nothing to worry about. It is from the very strong screaming. Most babies have such a temperature when they're born," she said calmly.

She then measured the baby's weight and size quickly and gave a smile. "He is 23 inches long, a brilliant length, and weighs 8 pounds. That's perfect. And the temperature is already setting down to 98.5 F, which is a very normal temperature for a newborn baby," she said calmly, her defenses still up; it was almost like a multiple personality that set in when she felt useless, because she wasn't useless, she was needed, even though she might not be wanted, she was needed.

"Born five minutes ago, 10:36 pm," she said softly. While she spoke, a quill was writing it down on a piece of parchment. She then summoned it over to her and then gave the baby back to the father.

"She is most beautiful. You must stay here and relax for an hour, I have to fix some paperwork on the baby and send it off to the Ministry. I'll let you read them first before I send them. Then we will see if the darling is ready for some breastfeeding," she said softly.