Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's affiliates. The sole rights belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.
Quick Note:
"speaking"
thinking
flashback
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Warning: This chapter contains material that some would find offensive. I apologize in advance. Mentions human sacrifice in detail. If this bothers you then skip over the directions for the potion. It is, however, detrimental to the plot so please, no flames. ~Kiera
Chapter one: The Ultimate Sacrifice
Severus Snape awoke to his wife crying out in pain. He shot up in bed and worriedly turned his head towards her. She was lying on her side, her arms crossed over her abdomen. She let out another sob and he asked, "Hermione? What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"S-Severus...I think the baby's coming." she managed to speak through the pain.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes, unless I peed the bed and got stabbed in the stomach, I'm pretty sure that's the case." she said sarcastically.
"No need to get snarly woman," he said as he stood and magicked his clothing on. He hurried to the other side of the bed to help her up. "I was just making sure since we've had three false alarms already."
"I'm sorry Severus." Hermione replied. "It just really hurts..."
"I know Hermione," he reassured her. "Lets get you to St. Mungo's."
He waved his wand and shrunk her overnight bag and stowed it in the pocket of his robes. He left her in her nightgown since the Mediwizard would just have her change into the hospital robes anyway. He pulled her close to him and said, "Hold on. You can't apperate. I'll do it for the both of us."
"The three of us Severus." she said with an excited smile, before another contraction hit her.
"You're right dear." Severus agreed as he turned on the spot, and apperating them directly into the lobby of the hospital.
They immediately rushed to the information desk where an elderly witch was sitting.
"Hello dears, how may I help you?" she said in a weary voice.
"My wife is going into labor." Severus told her as Hermione gasped in pain.
"Oh my!" the witch said as she pulled out a book. Waving her wand over it caused the pages to flutter as they turned and finally came to rest somewhere in the middle of the book. She placed the wand tip to the healers name and spoke aloud, "Excuse me Healer Merry-weather? A wizard just brought in his wife who is in labor," she paused and looked up at Severus. "You name dearie?" she asked him.
"Severus Snape." he supplied.
"A mister Severus Snape and his wife need assistance immediately."
Several seconds later she closed the book, and directed them to the sixth floor with the promise, "The Healer will be there shortly. Congratulations."
"Thank you Ma'am." Hermione said through clenched teeth. She forced a smile through her contraction.
Severus hurried to get his wife to the room as fast as possible. When they arrived the Healer was just walking in. Severus helped him get Hermione situated while the doctor performed several diagnostic spells.
"Well Mr. and Mrs. Snape, it seems like we got it right this time. The baby is on the way." Healer Merry-weather said with a smile.
"When?" Hermione asked after her contraction left her.
"Soon by the looks of it." he told her. "You aren't fully dilated yet, so anywhere from a half hour to an hour."
"What time is it now?" asked Severus.
"About ten thirty."
"Thank you."
The doctor turned to Hermione and waved his wand again. "This is a charm to let me know when you are ready to deliver the baby. Until then," he flicked his wand at the table next to her where a cup of ice chips appeared. "Try to rest."
"Thank you Healer Merry-weather." said Hermione gratefully sliding an ice chip into her mouth.
"My pleasure Mrs. Snape." he turned and left the room to tend to another patient.
Hermione turned to her husband. "Severus, could you send a message to Harry and Ron for me? Tell them that the baby is coming?"
Potter and Weasley. The two who lived to make his life hell. Though, not so much now that he and Hermione were married. For her sake they were now on relatively good terms. "Of course love." he said to appease her. "I'll send one to the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall as well as Molly if you like."
"Thank you Severus." she kissed him before letting him leave the room.
"Of course Hermione." he said as he entered the waiting room. Before he did anything else he looked at the time, it was nothing more than red lights, charmed to float above the doorway and change accordingly.
Ten Forty Five. It would be close. Severus decided as he raised his wand and sent the first patronus. Potter and Weasley would have to wait. He needed to inform the Headmaster of this. When the silvery wisp formed an animal, he spoke. "Go to Albus Dumbledore and tell him, Hermione's in labor, and we need to speak, immediately." he watched as the patronus disappeared in a puff of silvery smoke.
Please. Severus thought with desperation. Please, let the child be born before midnight...
As he finished his silent plea, he heard the familiar crack of apparition as Albus materialized before him.
"Severus." Albus greeted.
"Albus." Severus said wearily. "This is cutting it too close for comfort." he was referring of course, to the birth of his child.
"I understand your worries Severus my boy, but you should relax. Let me worry about it for now. You should be in there with your wife shouldn't you?" he asked.
"I was told to send word that the baby was on the way. I am not allowed to be in the birthing room anyway once the delivery begins. Although you know that already don't you Albus?" Severus pointed out.
"Yes, but you should still be in there with her until it starts." Albus told him.
Severus sighed, worried to death.
His dark mark burned. He rushed to his rooms where he found Hermione sitting at her desk grading papers. She looked up as he strode past her and waved his hand over the wall, near the bookcase revealing the secret closet. He took out his death eater garb and slid it on quickly. As he swept past his wife, he knelt down to kiss her.
"I'll be back soon. I love you Hermione." he told her as he waved his wand to preform the incantation to allow apparition inside Hogwarts. The headmaster had taught it to him when he became a spy, so that he could reappear in his rooms and avoid being seen by any students who may or may not be roaming the halls after hours.
"I love you too Severus." His wife said. "Be careful. I'll be here when you return."
Severus always told her not to wait up for him, because most of the time he would return in the dead of night, but she never listened. He would return expecting to see his beautiful wife sleeping in their bed, but instead she would be in the black leather armchair closest to the fire. Several bottles of her pain potions and her wand close by in case he was injured. Which was more often than not. He had given up. He nodded his head. "If you get tired, go to bed okay?"
"Sure." Hermione said, knowing that she would wait up even if she got tired. "You have to go, Severus, he doesn't like it when you're late. You always come home bleeding."
Severus nodded again, and apperated. He felt the familiar feeling of being squeezed through a tube. When he could breath normally again he knew he had reached his destination. Striding forward he knelt before the Dark Lord, kissing the hem of his robes.
"My lord." he murmured before backing away and joining the circle.
The Dark Lord walked into the center of the circle, and addressed his death eaters. "My loyal followers, I have come to a decision concerning the prophecy child. There is a way for me to grow even stronger, and gain immeasurable amounts of power. If the process goes smoothly, I might even gain immortality." He began in a slightly eager tone of voice.
Severus listened intently, needing to retain every word for further use.
"I have come across a text that contains an ancient blood ritual. You must retrieve the child when it is a month old, around the time it shows it's first signs of magic, and bring it to me. Using a silver knife, Wormtail will slit the child's throat, and then gut it. He must then remove it's internal organs. They will be needed in the potion that Snape will brew for me. The child's blood will be the last ingredient needed, as the magic will be sealed inside of it.
Once brewed, I shall drink the potion, and finally gain what I have been striding toward for fifty years. When I am immortal I shall finally kill Harry Potter, once and for all. No one will be able to stop me! I will rule the Wizarding world with an iron fist!" The dark lord began to laugh. A dark, cruel laugh that sent shivers down Severus' spine.
The dark lord then beckoned Severus to his side where he proceeded to show him the ancient dark text he had mentioned. Severus read what he had to do, and frankly, it sickened him. He kept his face frozen in it's unreadable mask as usual.
Power Enhancement Elixir
Equipment you will need:
Gold cauldron
Silver stirring rod
Silver knife
Marble mortar and pestle
Pewter grinder
Heat the base until simmering, then add the crushed kidney. Stir three times counterclockwise then add the eyes. Heat until brew is light green in color.
Shred the liver into .5 centimeter slices then add slowly whilst stirring clockwise ten times.
Let it boil for fifteen minutes before adding the chopped appendix, ground pancreas, and liquefied lung. Stir clockwise for eight stirs then lower heat to a simmer for five minutes.
The potion should be a murky gray and should have black smoke radiating from the surface in spirals. Pour a mixture of intestines, large and small, spleen, and stomach. Heat to a boil for a half an hour.
When the hour is up the potion will be a deep purple with silver swirls going in a counterclockwise direction.
Add whole thyroid, powdered testes or uterus cut in one inch pieces (depending on the sex) and the shredded pleura. Stir twenty times counterclockwise and fifteen times clockwise then heat until potion is royal blue.
Make sure to add the pituitary and adrenals simultaneously or the potion will become a deadly poison. Once added stir until potion is green then add the thymus and grated prostate or ovaries (depending on the sex)
Stir clockwise for five minutes, not a second more, or less.
Mash the brain until it is liquefied and mix with the ground esophagus before adding to the mixture. Potion will immediately turn a bright orange red as you pour.
Add the bladder and gallbladder when the smoke curling from the potion is a muddy brown.
Cut the heart into four pieces and add one after the other. Potion will be a yellow color and will have green spirals swirling on the surface. Turn heat on low and simmer for two hours.
For the last part of the potion, you will need blood from the donor, and the recipient. Add the donor's blood by pouring clockwise starting at the twelve o'clock point and making your way to the center of the cauldron. Doing so will infuse the donors power into the potion. This must be completed in thirty seconds.
Add the blood of the recipient starting from the very center of the cauldron and working outward in a counterclockwise motion and ending at the twelve o'clock position. Doing so will ensure that the drinker will receive every last drop of power there is to be had.
The finished potion can not be drunk until it has cooled to the point where ice crystals begin to form. Must be drunk at zero degrees Celsius, and should, (If properly brewed) be completely odorless. If there is any scent detected, DO NOT DRINK. It has turned to poison.
The infusion of power will not be immediate. From the moment it has been drunk, the recipient will be very weak. From then to the next full moon the drinker will steadily grow more powerful. On the night of the full moon, the incantation must be uttered under the moonlight to seal the power forever.
The incantation is as follows:
Vitæ antequam inciperet
Power furto apud concoquit
Da mihi virtutem mereor
Vita aeterna est quaesitum
Nunc dabis mihi
A bright light will surround the caster and the power will be forever infuse into the body.
When he finished reading, the dark lord took the text from him, and let his followers return home. Severus apperated directly into the headmasters office. He informed him of what went on at the meeting, and provided him the memory for him to review.
He had left the headmasters office, returned to his rooms, and had been thoroughly sick.
Severus' face went pale. What if it's my child? What if my child is the one the Dark Lord wants to butcher? I can't let that happen. I'll kill him myself before I let any harm befall my family.
"Severus?" he heard the headmaster ask. "Do you need a healer to take a look at you? You look sick."
"I'm fine Albus. But I think I will go and see to Hermione now. Please inform the others that the baby is coming now and for all of them to get down here." Severus requested as he looked once more at the time. Eleven Twenty. Severus sighed as he left the waiting room.
After sitting with his wife for five minutes the doctor declared it time for her to push, and Severus was booted from the room. He paced for thirty five minutes straight, while snarling at anyone who attempted to talk to him. He prayed that the child would be born before midnight, or at one o'clock. Anything but in the witching hour.
As the time flashed Twelve however, Severus heard an unearthly scream and the crying of an infant. He stood rigidly as his heart broke. What was going to happen now? Would the dark lord come bursting into St. Mungo's hunting his child? Severus saw his wife's doctor come through the waiting room doors.
"Mr. Snape? You can go in now." he told Severus with a smile.
"What time?" Severus whispered in shock.
"You can go in right now if you like." the doctor said misunderstanding.
"What time was the child born?" Severus repeated. "The exact time. Down to the minute." he looked at the healer.
"Twelve exactly." He said. "Why?"
Severus ignored him and slowly made his way to his wife's recovery room where she had been moved. How am I going to tell Hermione that the dark lord is after our baby because of a fucking prophecy? Severus thought to himself.
He entered the room with a soft smile at his tired Hermione. He struggled to keep his face cheerful as he looked down at the tiny bundle in her arms. "Hey, how are you feeling?" he asked her after he gave her a kiss.
"Like I just pushed a baby out of me." she replied with a halfhearted smile.
Severus smiled at her.
"Say hello to your son." she told him as she handed the tiny baby over to him.
He took his child into his arms and looked down at his perfect little face. With the light dusting of black hair, and the nose, the child looked like him. "He got my nose." he said a bit disappointed. "I never wanted any child to get this nose." he muttered to himself.
"I, for one, like your nose Severus." she told him. "He'll grow up to be just as handsome as his daddy."
Severus snorted. He highly doubted that. He was not handsome, despite his wife's continued attempts to get him to see otherwise.
"What do you want to name him?" Hermione asked.
"Tobias Sebastian." Severus said softly.
"I like that." Hermione told him. "Tobias Sebastian it is."
Severus stood. He kissed his newborn son gently on the forehead. "I love you. I'm sorry, but I have to do this." he whispered to his son, so low that Hermione couldn't hear what he said.
"Severus?" Hermione asked before he opened the door.
"Yes?"
"Could you send in Harry and Ron? I want them to meet Tobias."
Severus smiled at her. "Of course dear."
Once he was out of the room, Severus leaned against the wall and struggled to stop the sobs that were currently attempting to rip themselves from his chest. He was a Snape. That being said, Snape's did not cry. He'd never once seen his father cry, and it was unheard of to even think of his grandfather crying. Damn it, if he could take being tortured under the Cruciatus for twenty minutes straight without making a sound, when why couldn't he hold himself together now?
"Severus?"
He looked up to find Albus looking at him with a sad look on his face.
"Severus...are you-" Albus began.
Severus looked at his old friend and gave him a teary smile, "I have a son. He looks like me...and now the dark lord wants me to...to..." Severus struggled to breath. It took him a few minutes, but he finally straightened, and steeled his resolve.
"I'm leaving." he said.
"Where are you going?" Albus asked him.
"I'm going to protect my son the only way I know how." Severus said preparing to apperate. "I'm going to go and kill that son-of-a-bitch."
"Severus...even if you do manage to destroy Voldemort, his death eaters will kill you. Hermione will need you here with her." Albus told him.
Severus' shoulders sagged with the weight of indecision, and worry.
"Albus...the only other way I can possibly think of to protect my son is for you to take him, right now, and hide him where even Hermione and I cannot find him." Severus looked at him, looking as if he was going to be sick. "You have to do it Albus. Take Tobias and hide him somewhere safe. Then you need to obliviate both Hermione and myself. If we don't know we have a child, then he will be safe."
"Severus...this is a very big decision. You should talk to your wife and-" Albus started.
"No. Hermione doesn't know about the prophecy. It would kill her to know that the Dark Lord want's to butcher our baby. She can't know." Severus told him. "Look Albus, the longer we wait to do this, makes it easier for the Dark Lord to gain information about him. He is a very powerful Legillimens. I have been extremely lucky that he hasn't found out any order secrets yet, and if I have knowledge of my child as being the one in the prophecy, not only will I be killed, but Hermione and our son as well. Voldemort will find someone to brew the Power Enhancement Elixir, and he'll still become unstoppable. "
Albus looked as if he had been forced to swallow a live coal. He opened his mouth to argue, but Severus beat him to it once more.
"After you obliviate Hermione and myself, you'll need to do the same to everyone who knew about Hermione being pregnant. No one can ever know." Severus looked at his friend and colleague. His eyes pleading. "Please Albus...do this to protect my son."
Albus Dumbledore stared sadly at Severus. Severus, who never asked for anything, was asking him, no, begging him to help his family. He closed his eyes. Raising his wand, he pointed it directly at Severus' head. "Obliviate."
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Authors Note: Wow. This is a long chapter. Haha. Also, sorry about the long wait. Since it's not only me that's writing this, it's hard to update as fast as I'd like. We come up with the idea's together, she puts it in the order it should happen, and I type it up, adding small details here and there. It's a good system, but it takes forever. We'll try to update more regularly.
"We hope you enjoyed this chapter." Snapes only lover said with a bow.
Kiera-sama raised her wand and flicked it. "Accio Reviews!"
