The Unknown of the Order (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

New Arrival

Barnaby saw Sarah's face go as pale as Talbott's. It wasn't often that Sarah lost her head when under pressure, but the panic was written clearly in her eyes. "Oh my gosh! What're we going to do? We can't take her to the hospital!"

"What's going on?" said Diego as he stumbled from his room, his eyes bleary.

"The baby's coming!" shouted Talbott again. He sounded almost as if he didn't believe it.

"Talbott!" Penny cried from the bedroom.

"We're coming!" Talbott called in a high shriek that sounded like the screech of a distressed bird. To Sarah, he said, "Get Chiara! Bring her here!"

"But the fidelius charm--"

"My baby is about to be born and none of us has a clue what to do! We need a healer!"

"I might be able to help," Barnaby offered.

For a moment, they all forgot their panic and stared at Barnaby.

"You have experience delivering babies?" asked Talbott.

"Well, not human ones," he admitted. "But, I've helped plenty of hippogriff mothers deliver their foals. It's usually pretty simple. On occasion, we have to get the chains and--"

Talbott grabbed fistfuls of Sarah's robes and pulled her so that they were nose to nose as he yelled, spit flying in her face. "Get Chiara here, now!"

Sarah obeyed. In the next instant she was out the door and they heard the faint pop of her dissapparrating.

"Talbott!" Penny wailed again. He ran back into the master bedroom.

Diego and Barnaby looked at one another awkwardly. "Do we go help?" Barnaby asked.

Diego looked almost as terrified as Talbott, but he said calmly, "I don't really want to."

"Me neither," Barnaby admitted.

"Talbott can probably handle it."

Barnaby nodded. In the end, the two men sat on the couch and watched the television. It wasn't long before Sarah returned with Chiara. Chiara strode into the house with determination. "Where is she?"

"Back there," Sarah pointed, and she ran after Chiara to the back room.

It took the rest of the night for the baby to be born. Sarah had joined Diego and Barnaby in the living room. Diego patted the spare cushion between them on the couch, but Sarah frowned at the pair of them and shook her head. Instead she took to pacing in front of the television. This might have bothered the men, but they weren't focusing much on the screen. Everyone was doing their best not to hear the disturbing sounds coming from Penny's room.

Finally, after the house had been quiet again for a time, Chiara emerged. She had bags under her eyes and her shoulders sagged with weariness, but she was smiling. "The baby's here."

Sarah clapped her hands together and gave a little hop of excitement. "How's Penny?"

"Very tired, but she's doing great. Better than Talbott. Thought he was going to faint on me."

Sarah gave Chiara a hug. "Thanks so much for doing this, Chiara," said Sarah. "Will you get in trouble at work?"

"No, you caught me right at the end of my shift," said Chiara. "I suppose I shouldn't say anything to anyone about seeing you all?"

"You shouldn't be able to," said Sarah.

"Right. Well, I'm going to go snag a couple hours sleep. I wish you all well with whatever you're doing. Barnaby, how are you feeling?"