Chapter Three; Our Greatest Enemy
Later on that evening after all of Harry's guests went home, Lily brought Tobey and Eve with her out in the backyard just like she had promised so that they could burry Cosmo before they had to go to bed. Meanwhile, Harry sat on top of his own bed looking through his Hogwarts A History book while Cowboy laid down at his feet.
It wasn't like he wasn't going to miss Cosmo, but he was never really all that close to him and he wanted to study up on some of his knowledge about Hogwarts. There was everything from when the school was first created to all the different professors, (which Harry already knew about) and important magical artifacts. Some of them were considered muggle known, like the Fountain of Youth, and the Hand of Midas, but some of them Harry had never heard of before.
One thing was called the Resurrection Stone, which the other one was called the Sorcerer's Stone. The Resurrection Stone did just that in resurrecting lost loved ones, and the Sorcerer's Stone produced an elixir that made the drinker immortal. That's when all of a sudden his father opened the door.
"There you are. I thought you were still outside." He began.
"No, I'm just doing a bit of studying." Harry replied as Snape arched his eyebrows up at this.
"You're not even in Hogwarts yet." He began. "But I suppose a little extra studying couldn't do you any harm." He said.
"Yeah I know, because listen to what I found." Harry said before he slammed his book shut and picked up his Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them and turned all the way towards the end of it. "Dragons are one of nature's most feared beasts, although they generally seem to hide from humans inside their caves. Every once and awhile a muggle will report that he or she has spotted one although this is rare due to the fact that they are considered mythical in their world.
Dragons are very sociable creatures when they are born and a mother dragon will continually breathe fire on her eggs until they start to hatch. When their draglings are born, they usually stay inside their mother's pouch until their a few weeks old and big enough to join their herd." He read. "It also says here that they typically spend the rest of their lives with their mother's after their born. I guess that must mean that there's a pretty good chance that Diamond's babies are still with her." He said.
Diamond had been a female dragon that Harry had befriended a few years ago. After she had given birth to her babies, Harry had decided to set her free back into the wild where she belonged. Harry slammed his book tightly shut and took a deep breath and sighed heavily as his father sat down beside him and stretched his hand over to scratch Cowboy behind the ears.
"Oh I see what this is about. You're still thinking about Diamond aren't you?" he questioned him while Harry continued avoiding eye contact from him.
"I know it's silly. It's been a few years and she probably doesn't even remember me anyway." He told him.
"Now why on earth would make you think that?" Snape questioned him. "You were her friend. And she loved you I know it. Just because you can't see each other doesn't take away from the friendship that you had." Snape told him with a shake of his head.
"I know, but I just wish that there was some way to see her again and make sure that she was alright." Harry said.
"Well maybe you'll meet again someday," Snape began with a grin. "Who knows?" he questioned with a shrug. "Anyway the real reason that I came back here is I wanted to see if you wanted to say goodnight to Tobey and Eve." He explained.
"Oh, sure." He said before he set his book down on top of his nightstand and then hurried into his little brother's room with Cowboy racing after him.
…..
The next morning was very busy for Lily and Severus. Tobey and Eve went back to school, Cowboy and Katie had their vet appointments, (which Katie checked out perfectly fine but Cowboy had fleas) and most importantly, they would be finding out their baby's gender identity. Lily laid back on top of the examination table while a healer lined her belly with ultrasound gel.
"Alright Lily, let's see what we have here." The healer began before she turned to look up at the screen while Severus smiled as he looked at the picture. "Well guys, it looks like you can tell your daughter that she'll get to have a little sister after all." She said while Lily suddenly lit up with excitement.
"Really? It's a girl?" she questioned eagerly while the healer just simply smiled and nodded at her.
"Yep, so that would make your final total, two boys and two girls." She said.
"Oh my God I can't believe it! Oh Severus, we're having another little girl." She said. "I think I want to name this one Gianna if that's alright with you. You know after my mother." She added.
"I think it sounds perfect." Snape began before he walked over to her and smiled down at her while he moved her hair back and kissed her forehead.
"Gianna Crystal Snape." Lily said with a breath of astonishment and amazement. Later on that day when the kids got home from school, she sat all three of her kids down on the couch to deliver her announcement. "Well, Mummy and Daddy went to the healer's today and we found out the gender of our new baby. What do you think it is?" she questioned them as Harry grinned.
"I think it's a girl." He said while Lily simply smiled at him.
"Ah, I see, what about you Tobey?" she questioned him.
"Boy." He responded with a grin.
"So that's one girl and one boy, Eve honey, what do you think Mummy's baby is, a boy or a girl?" she asked her.
"I think it's a girl too." She said.
"Really? Well guess what?"
"What?" Eve asked her eagerly.
"You and Harry are right. Mummy has another little girl growing inside of her tummy. You guys are getting a new baby sister." She told them softly while smiling warmly at them. "What do you think about it?" she questioned them as Eve threw her tiny little fists up into the air.
"Yay!" she cried but Tobey just simply rolled his eyes and groaned.
"Awe man, I wanted it to be a boy!" he exclaimed.
"Well don't worry sweetheart, when baby Gianna gets here, she'll be too busy sharing Eve's toys and playing with her own little girl's toys and leave yours completely alone." Lily told him when suddenly the telephone rang. "Hold on a second, I'll get it." She told them before she went to go answer it. "Hullo?" she questioned.
"Hullo this is Mr. Granger, to whom am I speaking to?" he questioned.
"This is Lily Snape, may I ask how you got this number?" she questioned him back.
"Well you see, I am a distant cousin three times removed of your mother so it would make it four times removed with you. You see the reason that I'm calling is that I'm afraid that I have some very bad news. Your mother in-law was sent to the wizarding hospital late last night because she had a very bad case of magorespcorpus and her heart just couldn't take it anymore. So I'm sorry to have to tell you this but she passed away. I just got my owl and it shouldn't be much longer until you get yours." He told her.
Lily slowly turned back to look at her three innocent children back on the couch. For she knew that magorespcorpus (mag-resp-o-corpus) was a terrible wizarding disease that was like the muggle flu, but the only difference was the magic stones inside your body stopped working and got stuck on the inside of your throat causing you great difficulty breathing, and preventing anything else from getting to the lower part of your body eventually stopping your heart.
Lily thanked Mr. Granger and hung up the phone before she turned to face her children. "What happened?" Harry asked her.
"Yeah, what happened Mummy?" Eve inquired before Lily glanced worriedly over at her husband and then let out a deep breath. "Kids, I'm afraid that I have something that I've got to tell you." She began.
