Let it be known that Eileen Snape was not a weak woman. At five in the morning on January 9th, 1960, she squeezed the soul out of her husband Tobias' hand. When he tried to pull away to save himself from broken fingers, she growled and clenched her teeth, squeezing even harder as another contraction hit.
From the moment she could walk she was taught how to act like the perfect pureblood princess. She was taught how to eat like a lady, walk like a lady, stand and sit like a lady, and how to be the perfect pureblood wife. From the day she turned eleven, she was promised to a man nearly three times her age and she was meant to go along with it. Only she didn't. The day she went to Hogwarts was the day she met her future husband and she never turned back. He was a muggleborn, a gryffindor, and a boy from a poor upbringing.
Tobias Snape was everything her parents hated and he was perfect. A gentleman and a scholar, he was only bold when it came to what he wanted and from the moment he laid eyes on Eileen he was as smitten as an eleven year old was capable of being.
It started out with her parents hearing rumours. That their perfect daughter was seen arm in arm with a mudblood. That their perfect daughter was distancing herself from her pureblood Slytherin friends. It worried them and when confronted she denied everything, putting up a front that would have made Salazar Slytherin proud, and her parents fell right back into seeing her as the perfect princess.
When Tobias told her his plan she spent a month putting everything in order. She looked into the terms of her betrothal and saw the loopholes. She saw what had to be done. The old lecher wanted a virgin, someone untainted from the touch of other men. He was the only one he deemed worthy of touching women, and boy did he have a history of women under his belt. So, the day she turned seventeen was the day Tobias proposed. They eloped, signing the needed paperwork, and consummated the marriage in the Room of Requirement.
It was a scandal. Howlers, Daily Prophet articles, and the like littered the Hogwarts gossip stream. Her parents disowned her, disgracing her in the eyes of the pureblood elitists and she was never happier. Of course they both got a detention from the current headmaster, Armando Dippet, for being out after hours but they also got a wink so they counted that as a win.
They moved into the Snape family home after graduating, Tobias's parents having moved to America following the aftermath of WWII. The two were happy, no matter that they had little money, no matter that the connections Eileen had were gone. After two years and settling into their new jobs, Tobias as a researcher and caretaker for Flourish and Blotts and Eileen as an apothecary's assistant, they decided they wanted children.
They tried off and on for eight years and after little success-the two 'successes' ending with a miscarriage early in the first trimester-they fell apart. Eileen into her work and Tobias into the bottle. He was one more hangover-at-work from being fired and she always got sent home earlier since her collapse from exhaustion from one too many overnight shifts.
Early May 1959 was a wake up call for both of them. A charm confirmed it and she sat there in disbelief-her arms wrapped around her legs, her knees tucked under her chin. Pregnant. They hadn't been really trying anymore. She hoped this one was the one. The one that would give them a child. The one that would bring them closer than ever. This was what they always wanted.
Against her better judgement she told him. She didn't want to tell him and get his hopes up only for it to be crushed by her screams of panic and pain. But she did. And the way he dropped the bottle, eyes as sober as she had ever seen them in the past couple years, the way he swept her up into a kiss as if they were sixteen again and under the tree by the Black Lake, was worth it. As she held his face in her hands and kissed him, she was reminded why she loved him and how much he loved her.
The next day, she woke to find empty bottles by the sink and a faint scent of whisky coming from the drain. She smiles as she put on her cloak and made her way to St. Mungo's for her appointment with her Healer.
The months dragged on, Tobias never resting between working at Flourish and Blotts and dotting on Eileen, who reminded him that she was pregnant, not an invalid, and that she was indeed a witch and could get the glass of water herself. Not that it stopped him at all and he loved doing it so her protests weren't really there.
The minute her water broke, Tobias was panicked. As she calmly put on her cloak he ran past her three times grabbing random things he thought they would need. As he went to run past her again, she grabbed his arm and apparated into St. Mungo's where the Healers went into action immediately, getting her into a room and onto a bed.
Contraction after contraction hit and here she was at five in the morning. Squeezing the life and soul out of her husband's hand. She loved this baby but oh how it was already giving her hell. The midwife stationed between her legs told her to get ready to push one last time and when that last contraction hit, Eileen pushed and strained. Finally at 5:02 on January 9th, 1960, their baby came into this world kicking and screaming.
The midwife fussed over the small wriggling mass, casting cleaning charms and quickly swaddling it, before pushing the baby to the new mother's breast. Both Tobias and Eileen laughed in delight and exhaustion, looking down at their child.
As the baby settled, it looked up in wonderment, completely silent, at the new parents hovering. Eileen laughed again and pushed a wet kiss to the baby's forehead.
"Oh, look at you!" She cried and tears of exhausted happiness streamed down her face.
Tobias pressed a kiss to her sweaty crown before settling slightly behind his wife.
"Look at our little gift, Eileen. Look at our Theodora."
A/N- This is the first fanfiction I've done in forever. This idea has been in my head for months and everything, but my OC's and noncanon moments, belongs to JK. Let it be known now that I know the Harry Potter world very well. So, any "mistakes" you see are most likely intentional (like Tobias being a wizard and Severus being a girl), unless its grammatical. That being said...anyone wanna be my Beta?