Not Quite so Stern
Summary: Severus, a masculine name meaning 'stern'. Canon shows a man who lives up to it. We know his story, the tragedy of life and love, loss and sacrifice, pain and pressure. This time, Eileen Snape gives birth to a baby girl. Will she do any better?
Chapter One
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Eileen Snape was not your average woman. She was brilliant, brave, and, if you squinted a certain way, rather beautiful. (She was also a bitch, sometimes, but who could blame her?) She was also a witch, a woman capable of casting magical spells.
Or, rather, she had been a witch. She still had magic, of course, nothing would take that away, but being a witch was more than just having the ability. Having the potential to write lovely stories didn't make anyone a writer, now did it?
Magic was the same. Eileen hadn't picked up a wand in ages, and the last time she had even been near a potion was at least five years ago, when she had left the Wizarding World to marry Tobias Snape.
They'd met in the very village they now lived in, one summer night while Eileen was on vacation from Hogwarts. He'd called her beautiful, and given her flowers, and she was smitten.
It was a whirlwind romance, in all sense of the word. She had been too swept up to realize she knew really nothing about him, beyond the fact that he liked beer better than brandy, and that he could be very sweet.
Her parents disapproved, of course; the only daughter of the Prince family, marry a common Muggle? Heresy! He was trash, and she was a Pureblood!
But Eileen had been in love, and defiantly married Tobias anyway. Her parents disowned her, but what did that matter when she could be with the man she loved?
Of course, that was the reason Eileen Snape, née Prince, was now giving birth in a tiny little Muggle clinic just outside Cokeworth. Tobias hadn't wanted to drive to the hospital, said it was too far, and anyway, there was a pub across the street, wasn't it perfect?
Eileen gritted her teeth, as the contractions started again. This inner monologue was, at least, helping to distract her from the cacophonous noise of inexperienced nurses shouting at her.
"Push! Push, Missus Snape, you've got to PUSH!"
"Won't be too long now, Missus Snape, don't you worry! Your baby will be healthy as a bird!"
"That's great, really great work! Keep going, you're almost there now!"
It was one of the most irritating things she had ever experienced. Perhaps her temper wasn't helped by the pain of trying to push out a seven-pound baby out of her body, but the nurses were absolutely useless.
If she'd wanted to give birth the natural way, she griped, she would've done so at home, and then at least Tobias might be less drunk tonight! No, Eileen wanted to go to St. Mungo's, she wanted the comforts and securities of magic, she wanted to go back to the World she knew and loved, and damnit, she wanted it now!
...
(I apologize for the interruption, my dear reader, but before we go on there is something that must be explained.
In another time, another world, or whatever it is you would call it, Eileen Snape would have conceived and given birth to a baby boy. She would have named him Severus, to give him the strength and sternness she believed he would need in his life, and that was that.
In this story, however, Eileen's would-be-child was a girl. As this is storytelling and not science, I won't go into detail about what this changed inside our currently-main-character, but suffice to say that things were changed. Hormones that would have been one thing were another, and this in fact made our next scene much more possible than it was...)
...
Just as Eileen could feel the start of another of the blasted contractions, she felt herself squeezing far more than she had been squeezing before. In fact, it wasn't even her this time -
She had enough sense of her surroundings to wearily take note of the blackness, the compression of her body - oh, her stomach felt like hell had crawled out of it, then tried to crawl back in!
She couldn't even shout, her teeth were shaking so badly... And then it stopped, and she couldn't see anything but bright white light, and she couldn't hear anything but her own screaming.
Author's Note:
I've finally decided to start working on another story! I was looking at some fantastic fanart by viria13, on deviantart, and her HP drawings are amazing. This soon-to-be story was inspired by her Marauder stuff, especially, and I'm incredibly excited about it. :)
I couldn't let go of the idea of a fem!Snape. She'll definitely still be friends with Lily, but what would change? Would James ++ still be such horrible bullies? ;) I'll do my best to update soon.
Omake:
"Mmmm," Eileen smacked her lips happily, and reached for another piece of fruit.
It had been such a long time since she'd been able to eat watermelon. Tobias didn't like them, and he didn't tolerate what he didn't like. Nevermind the fact that it was the middle of summer and bloody hot.
Noooooo, all the fruit Tobias would even consider eating was apples. Apples, apples, apples! If she ever saw another apple again, she'd throw up!
"No, Eileen," the heavily pregnant woman muttered to herself, patting her stomach absently, "Don't think about the bastard now. Let's just enjoy this lovely watermelon."
Eileen reached for the remote under one of the sofa cushions, and flipped the tv to the Kids' Channel. She smirked.
"Hahaha, Tobias hates the Kids' Channel," she chuckled deviously. "Says it's too stupid - who's he to talk, the bloody idiot?" She heaved herself to her feet, and turned on the stereo, humming evilly as she tuned it to the Childrens' Songs Station.
(And that, my dear readers, is how Eileen ended up giving birth to a girl instead of a boy. Just kidding. Any The Sims 3 players out there that get the reference? No? All right, then, just leave me to wallow with no reviews.)
