minnow // sirius black

fifty-one

51  ;   welcome

Arlo was being the most annoying person he possibly could be.

I told him, over and over, that I was fine - and if anything happened, I'd come back to the hospital immediately. Yet he still forced me to stay, long after Lily and Alice had been permitted to return home. He kept me on bed rest for an entire week, then restricted me to twenty minutes of movement a day for almost another week before he relented to not be so damn overbearing.

I knew he was doing his job, but even Genevieve said that he was taking it a bit too far.

James and I knew it was because he still held the notion that our parents had entrusted my life to him. None of our friends truly understood how closely connected to me Arlo really was, how important he was to my survival from the very beginning. My parents trusted Arlo with my life, and from the start he did absolutely everything he could to ensure I had the best chances of surviving.

I guess he still felt as though he was solely responsible for my health.

Lily and James were forced to move house once again when a nearby town was attacked and raided by Death Eaters. It was too close to their safe-house for comfort, so they were ultimately moved to Northern Germany. The move was extremely stressful with a newborn son, but Lily and James managed. Alice and Frank were moved to a safe-house in Italy while Sirius took Esme home.

Two and a half weeks after Aubrey was born Arlo finally agreed to let me go home, only if Lily and James stayed with Sirius and I for a week while they monitored me.

My family immediately agreed even though James was annoyed that Arlo waited to mention this idea until after he and Lily had settled Harry into the new house. He complained that my Healer could have mentioned that a week ago, when Lily was released.

Dean was permitted to go home for a little while since Remus was also coming over, planning to stay for a bit longer than Lily and James. He had agreed to the request when I gently explained that it would be hard for Sirius to try to take care of both of the girls in addition to me. Once Lily and James went home, Remus would take over the duty of keeping me from over-exerting myself and taking over my duties when I was pushing it.

Granted he would never be as forceful with taking over for me as Lily or James was, but that is because Remus just can't say no to me.

The last day I was in the hospital was the longest. Arlo, Genevieve and Robin were in and out of my room more often than usual, monitoring me throughout the day as they forced me to get out of bed and walk around over and over. I walked more that day than I had in the previous three months.

Aubrey got the all-clear from Robin after four days, her oxygen levels were vastly better than they had been when she was born, and the Healer could see no signs of any potential problems arising.

I was cleared by Genevieve just a week after, my cervix was responding well, and by the time she thought it was safe to go home, it was barely 3 cm.

Arlo was being stubborn for the sole reason that I had extremely low iron levels. That was his 'justified' reason for keeping me, even though we all knew he was just overly worried. He was afraid that if I went home, I'd overexert myself like usual.

But I wouldn't. When I didn't have two daughters to worry about, maybe I would have, but Aubrey and Esme needed me. I was not going to do anything to jeopardize that, not anymore. I loved them too much.

So, finally, Arlo gave in. My iron levels had recovered, my cervix was under two centimeters, my blood was responding well to the new clotting agents, and Aubrey was perfect.