Professor Eglantine DeLanquar's Chambers (May 2036)

Finally they reached her chambers and she whispered the password in German for them to enter. Nearly collasping and gratful for Rossa and Kiara's presence, Eglantine barely made it into her bedchamber and into the bed. The thick scarlet and gold coverlet was topped with emerald, black stitched pillows and she sighed wearily as she sunk into them.

"Ewan and Ean are with Horatio aren't they?" she asked, knowing they were, but worried about her youngest children... so far any way.

Kiara nodded went to Eglantines bedside " Yes Ewan and Ean are with Horatio, Speaking of which.." she as she closed her eyes for a second and Saturn appeared at the window. She quickly wrote out a note for Horatio telling him what was going on and to get back quickly, she gave it to Saturn.

Saturn flew off in search for the old human.

Kiara then went back to Eglantine and summoned a basin filled with warm water.

"Rossa, honey can you go to the house elves and get towels and blankets?" she asked.

Rossa nodded "Okay Mum" she said as she patted her Grandmothers hand and got up and left the room momentary.

"Hmm you are already 6 cm dilated Eglantine, I think it was all that walking you did. You are doing very well.." she said as she muttered a spell to monitor the vital signs of the baby and Eglantine her self. She wanted to make sure both got through this healthly. She was a bit nervous, it had been ages since she dilevered a baby... never had she done it by her self. But she wouldn't let Eglantine see that.

Lifting her hand to her mouth, Eglantine covered it, silencing the scream that threatened to rip itself from her. As it passed she nodded, only partially hearing Kiara. Her chest felt constricted and she soon found herself labouring for every breath.

A flash of memory, laying in a small bed, in labour with her first child, came to her. It had been an easy birth, if there was such a thing; only lasting an hour and going without complications... the tiny infant had been so beautiful, with huge blue eyes and soft dark hair. His hair... his eyes...

Her body shuddered violently... no, she panted, she had to concentrate on the present and stop straying to the past. This was not Kiara's birth... it was her final son's birth. Horatio was the father, her loving husband; not a dark lord who had seduced her...

Maybe Esis had been right... although it had been said as a jest; maybe she was too old to have this child. As a witch she was going to live far longer, naturally than a muggle... and a pure blood at that. But she was older than the average witch especially to be giving birth. Maybe it had been foolish to attempt pardon through a child.

"Someday, perhaps you shall be my queen..." His voice haunted her mind as she battled to focus on Horatio's. His deep caring voice.

"My lord..." she whispered, perspiration dripping down her pale forehead.

Kiara had to stop her self from biting her lip, the tell tail sign she was nervous. She held her mothers pale hand with one hand and ringed a cloth in the warm water as she wipped her face.

She couldn't help but shiver when she murmered "My Lord"... but she shrugged it off as stress from the labour.

"Just breathe Eglantine, you are doing great" she said checking her mothers vitals.

Rossa returned with the towels and blanket setting them at the foot of the bed.

" She doing to be okay?" she asked.

Kiara nodded, "Your grandmama doing good Honey" she said as she brought her hand to Eglantines stomach. Remembering the problem from Ewan and Ean's birth.. she wants to make sure this one is in the correct position, another whisered spell would let her know it the baby wasn't in the right birthing position.

Breath.

The simple action irked her as she fought to perform it. Pain melted into agony and white light filled her vision.

Breath.

Slowly but surely she continued to take the life giving breaths. One by one... like with the pain it needed to continue.

The only blessing about her short breaths was the inability to scream; something Eglantine was suddenly terribly grateful for. She did not want to alarm and frighten Kiara and Rossa. Damn her, she should have tossed aside her petty feelings and gotten a healer...

Where was Horatio? Her thoughts felt muddled and cloudy as if she was looking at them through a fog of confusion.

Richard... he had held her when she had given birth to Eleutheria, gently holding her in his warm embrace as the pain had washed over her body. She had taken such comfort in his presence.

Her temperature dropped suddenly and yet she continued to perspire. For an unknown reason her body suddenly began to fail; her breathing became erratic and her pulse slowed to a faint beat.

Kiara started to look very worried at Eglantine's short breathing, it was to short and faint for her liking.

"Eglantine? you still with me?" she asked unable to keep the worry out of her voice.

"Grandmama?" Rossa asked worried as well... even she knew this wasn't right.

Kiara nearly felt her heart fall when she saw Eglantines Vitals drop, She swore, wishing she had insisted she get a healer for her mother.

Rossa started terrified, "Mum? Whats wrong?" she asked frantic.

Kiara wrapped a blanket over her mother, "Rossa wait outside now" she said as she franticly tried to think of something to do to help Eglantine but be safe for the still unborn baby.

Rossa bit her lip but did as her mother asked and waited in the hall outside her Grandmothers room. Tears filled her eyes desperately hoping her grandmother was alright.

Kiara rapidly tried to think of something... She summoned a Oxygen mask charmed to give her Oxygen.

"Come on Eglantine don't do this, you can do this, you are stronger then you look I know it. Come on... for your baby" she side wipping her mother's forhead. She seriously was conciderng calling Esis to help anyway if Eglantines vitals didn't improve quickly.

She wished she had the liquid Oxygen potion, it would help stablize here at least. But she didn't have it on her. She again looked at the Vitals hoping the babies still held normal and Eglantines imporved.

Eglantine could hear Kiara, even as she felt her life slowly begin to fade. Despite her strong attempts to control herself, her breathing continued to get tighter, her lungs refusing to take in the needed oxygen. Tears leaked from her closed eyes as her body shook, each tear slipping into her already soaked hair.

"K...K..." she finally mouthed her daughter's name, battling desperately to save herself, if only to save her son.

She could hear laughter and saw memories of Rossa, Edan, Greta, Beagan all playing together... along with Ewan and Ean. Their light lilting threads of laughter echoed through her mind.

Ava's curses in verbal form thrown at Horatio, crushing his heart and bruising his soul. Her vain attempts to silence her daughter; begging her to leave... something no mother should ever have to do...

Kiara's miscarriage suddenly came to mind; the tiny babe begging for life breaths only to die in her arms. Ciaran and Kiara's sobs at the loss of their child...

Richard's death... Remembering Eleutheria... Severus' betrayal and his death... Remembering Tom... Learning Kiara was her child... bitter memories with streaks o good within them...

And now, after an eventful and full life; she couldn't take a bloody breath. She had defeated death in Excessum... but now suffered in attempting to deliver a single life...

Her hand weakly reached for her wand... a spell coming to her mind that could save her son; risky but workable. But she lost the strength and the wand remained out of reach.

Her blue tinted lips paled further and blood unexplainably began to pool in her mouth, slowly making a thin thread down the corner of her chin. Still the pain continued.

Panic began to flood Kiara as she saw Eglantines vitals drop, and her struggled attempt to say her name....

Kiara cramed her mind for something anything to save Eglantine and not harm her child. Merlin she wished she had a less paritail person in the room. Someone who could think clearly.

As Eglantine started to fade even more, Kiara gathered her mother into her arms and cast a spell force her lungs to inflate. As she did so she called for Rossa.

"Rossa! don't come in, but got to the floo and go home. Get my Oxygen potion and call the famly Healer to get to hogwarts as soon possible you hear? Go quickly!" she told her daughter.

Rossa dashed to the floo trying to calm her self enough to say anything clearly.

"Mc...McConn Residence!" she said and ran in and in to her home.

Franticly she ran to her parents bed room, not even bothering to see if anyone was home. With shaking hands she grabbed her mother's potion kit that had the oxygen potion.

Then she ran back down and tried to call the familly healer... the same one that delivered Greta..

"This is Rossalyn McConn Please, My Grandmother is having a baby and she isn;t doing very good... she is in trouble! please she needs help" she cried into the floo.
_

Kiara gently held on to Eglantine, using a spell to help siphon the blood out of her mouth. And help her breathe better eaier hopefully, she only wished she knew why this was happening.

"Come on Eglantine... Mama.. Please" she whispered as she held on to her mother and glanced at the monitor, and for a moment she wondered if she would need to do a C-Section to Save the child.

She was trained to do one, she just wasn't comfortable with how weak Eglantines vitals were. The surgery would likely save the baby but kill then mother.

"Please..." she pleaded as she cast another spell to make Eglantine's lungs inflate.

Eglantine saw rather than felt Kiara wrap her arms around her; she felt strangely numb suddenly... the pain vanished and a oblivion replaced it. Her lungs filled with air, but the oxygen refused to filter on into her bloodstream.

This was not how she had always pictured the end; numb and bleeding in her daughter's arms as her granddaughter rushed for help. But strangely it was fitting. That she would die with those she loved the most; giving life to her son. A life for a life; was it not logical and poetic.

--

The healer quickly gathered her stuff together and hurriedly told the frightened girl she would be at Hogwarts within the next few moments.
"Which room is she is, lass?" she asked, hoping there was someone with the woman as well as someone to calm young Rossa. It wasn't healthy to be as upset as she was.
She had no doubt that the grandmother was Kiara's mother, Eglantine McKevin. She had read about the blessed promise of addition in the paper. But having never actually met the woman; she could only hope that whatever the trouble was it wasn't as dire as Rossa was making it sound.
"Do ya know what's wrong with her?"

--

Slowly Eglantine hand brushed against Kiara's cheek. A weak smile curled her bloodied lips. Her dark eyes cleared and her body went limp, lack of oxygen, despite Kiara's best efforts finally causing unconsciousness. Alive but barely, Eglantine floated within a blissful sleep.

Kiara's eyes filled with fear, beyond panic, just cold dark fear. It all seemed a blurr when Eglantine lost concecisousness. She had no magical method left until Rossa returned with the potion and healer.

"Come on Mama... don't die on me now" she whispered as she started doing CPR, and also glance to check on the baby.. Eglantine was fully dialted, she had to get the baby out.. bye herself or they would loose both of them if the worst happened.

She cast a spell, making her contraction harder, it was the only thing she new how to do.

"Hurry Rossa..."

__

Rossa strugged to form complete sentence to the healer, "She is in her... Quarters, Professor Delanquar's quarters.... with my Mum.. Headmistress.. I am not exactly sure what is wrong with her, but my Mum asked me to get a Oxygen potion... So I don't think she can breathe and before I was sent out, her life signs droped.... I don't know... Please hurry!" she cried to the healer.

Not wasting another moment, in her panicked state "hung up" on the healer, and flooed back to her Grandmothers Quarters.

__

Rossa ran into her Grandmothers Room in a blur, she stared in horror at what she saw..

Blood

Her mother giving her Grandmother CPR and try to deliver her baby at the same time..

"Mum!... The potion.. Healer is on her way.." she huffed out as hand the potion kit to her mother.

Kiara breathed out and opened her potion kit, and conjured a IV she hooked it into Eglantines vain in her arm.. Praying it did the trick and at the very least brought life giving Oxygen back in to her mothers body.

Rossa stood shaking like a leaf... praying everything would be okay...

Nodding to Rossa, the healer soon found herself in Hogwarts, hurrying toward the quarters.

Couldn't breath... hmm...she pondered, entering the chambers with a healers' password.

The healer rushed to the bedside, casting several diagnosis spells as she did so. The child was healthy and the proper size... the dilation was complete, and although the mother appeared to have suffered grievous wounds, by her scars, there was no medical reason for the sudden trouble.

Noting the blood and the obvious lack of oxygen, despite the IV and the oxygen potion, she casted a spell at Eglantine's chest to reveal any lung complications... none. Oxygen deprivation without a cause. Trying to keep a clear head despite her confusion, the healer took a deep breath.
"Does she have any illnesses? or anything?" she asked, trying to explain why a healthy patient was dying.

She checked to be certain the spelled contractions weren't causing the damage, and then stopped them.
"Headmistress..." she stated, calmly. "We need to be calm about this." Casting another diagnostic spell, the healer's mouth dropped open.

"What the hell?" she stammered, reading the falling runes traced in the air. "What's this?" The ancient Rosier runes melting with Excessum's fading ones became lit on Eglantine's pale flesh. If the spell was correct... the healer's eyes widened.
"The baby is killing her." she murmured. The infant's magic had begun to seep into it's mother's creating a magical void; resulting in her brain and body's inability to use oxygen.

Deftly, the healer cast a healing spell, designed to specially cut and levitate at the same time. Slowly and with expert precision, the infant was removed from Eglantine and the damage healed.
"Here..." She handed the whimpering boy to Kiara and moved to Eglantine's side. With the infant's magic no longer making a void... there was a chance normal breathing, especially with the oxygen potion, might return.

A shallow breath lifted Eglantine's chest and the healer sighed with relief.

Kiara held on to her new baby brother, an cleared his air way.

"Rossa honey, could you grab a blanket?" Kiara asked softly as she cleaned the crying child off.

Rossa nodded still trying to calm her nerves after the terrifing experince. As she passed the soft blue blanket to her mother she looked at the healer. "Is she going to be alright?" she asked worriedly as she looked her Grandmother.. How long had she gone without oxygen? had it damaged her?.. she hoped not.

The look on Kiara's face said the samething as sat on the other side of her mother holding her baby brother in her arms. She motioned for Rossa to sit beside her, wanting to calm her daughter down as well. Rossa had done so well in getting help despite the scare expirenece.

Horatio burst into the room only moments later, breathing heavily and looking as though he was close to having a coronary.
"Is she okay?" he asked, softly, knowing that Eglantine had not wanted a healer and that the room was terribly quiet. The soft whimpers of the child escaped his immediate notice, but as he entered the room further he smiled. Disappointment, that he had missed the birth rose within him, but all appeared to be well. His joy paled however when he saw the IV, the stained blood and how pale and worried Kiara and Rossa looked. "What happened?"

The healer, figuring he was the father, allowed his family to tend to him and continued casting various breathing charms to help her patient. Eglantine's breathing became deeper and the bleeding stopped.

Rossa got up and ran over and hugged her Grandfather, "It was so scarey grandpapa... Grandmama almost... almost.." she tried to say but sobs soon over took her. Too overwhelmed with the events that happened, for her to deal with Rossa simply sobbed on her grandfather.

Kiara still held the baby seemed, reluctant to leave her mothers side, but nonetheless she slowly got up and went over to Horatio.

"We are still waiting to hear if she will be alright..." Kiara said still worried.. " Horatio the birth almost killed her, For some reason the baby's magic and hers caused her blood to stop taking in Oxygen..." she said her gaze still on Eglantine.. worried but slightly relieved she was breathng again.

She rubbed her hand through Rossa's hair in a attempt to calm her as she held on to the baby. She looked down at her baby brother in her arm. "Your son is healthy though" she said softly.

Horatio caught Rossa as she ran to him, holding her tightly. Comforting came naturally to the cheerful wizard and he gently rubbed her back.
Almost...what?
He looked to Kiara and then to her arms.
Tears came to his eyes as Kiara's words sunk in... the birth had nearly killed Eglantine. It sounded surreal; how could he have gotten her back just to nearly lose her.
Slowly Horatio registered Kiara had mentioned his son and his eyes opened, sparking with unshed tears. He not only missed the birth; he very well have missed his wife's last breath.

The healer took a deep breath as she finally deemed the professor's vitals to be stable.
"She'll need complete bed rest for the next few days." she murmured, looking at the Headmistress and smiling to signal the all's clear.

"But she'll be all right?" Horatio asked. The healer nodded.
"Aye, that she'll be."

Kiara and Rossa both breathed a sigh of relief when the healer said Eglantine would be alright.

"Oh thank merlin... and thank you, I will be sure she gets some rest" she assured already making plans for someone to take over her classes as she was now offically on materity leave.

Rossa wipped her eyes of her tears, very relieved her grandmother would be alright.
Kiara went back to her mothers side and held on her hand gently.

Rossa hugged her grandfather a moment longer, before she sniffed and looked up at him.
"Where were you Grandpapa? Mum called the museum but they said you already left.." she said curious what took him so long.

Smiling softly, Horatio let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.
The healer smiled.
"Good. Also try to be certain she gets plenty of fresh air. Perhaps a pane-less window charm or something of that nature." She patted Eglantine pale hand and gently tucked the blanket over her till it draped snugly over her chest.

Horatio kissed the top of Rossa's head.
"We were on our way back, love. Stopped to help someone with a flat tire." Apparently the trip to the magical museum, despite its magical position had meant a way for Horatio to use muggle transportation.
His eyes lit suddenly and he held his arms out for his son.
"Little Sevastyan..." he murmured, looking down at the baby. "Welcome to the world..."

"Horatio..." Eglantine whispered, her eyes fluttering between open and closed. Her husband smiled, going to her side.
"I'm here, darling. Everything's alright."

Rossa smiled waterily at her Grandfather, only he would take muggle transportation to a magical place.

She went to the end of the bed still taking deep breaths and calming her racing heart.

Kiara gladly handed the newly dubbed Sevastyan over to his father and smiled at softly at Eglantine. "Hey.. welcome back Eglantine, we have someone you would like to meet" she said raising form her seat at Eglantines side and let Horatio sit next to his wife.

She went to the end of the bed with Rossa and hugged her, she was so proud of her daughter for her quick action for getting the healer. She had saved her Grandmother's life.

"I am so proud of you honey..." she said softly as she kissed Rossa on the forehead.

Eglantine blinked, focusing the blurry images before her. Her chest felt as if someone was sitting on it and her head was light, but she was alive; her son was safe and Horatio was there.
"Kiara..." she whispered softly, not having the strength to thank her daughter fully. She felt the bed's mattress dip as Horatio sat and turned her head slowly to see him hold up their son.
"Sevastyan Dracovan..." He murmured, smiling as she weakly reached to touch the infant's cheek. The child looked perfect...

Happy to hear that Horatio had decided to use the names she had liked, Eglantine sighed as Sevastyan was laid in her arms. Horatio kept a hand under the infant to add additional support, but she felt better already, just holding her son.

Looking up sharply, she looked for Rossa, knowing the girl had played a vital part in the present. She smiled as she spotted her with Kiara at the bed's foot.
"Danke..." she sighed.

Kiara sent a smile to her mother and nodded "Glad to have you back Mama, but be sure to get some rest eh?" she said quietly, not bothering to tell her how scare they had been. She was sure Eglantine knew that already.

Rossa nodded as well and went to her grandmothers other side and kissed her cheek.

"Love you, Grandmama" she said softly, then she bent down and kissed Little Sevie as well.

"Love you to, Uncle Sevie" she said with a small laugh. it was still funny she had a newborn uncle.