Sorry to take so long, but with school having started I haven't had much time to work on many of the fics, but here you are my dears.
The night was warm and quiet. Susan lay on her back with a hard back book propped up by her large pregnant belly, the doctors said she was due within the next few weeks, Severus was back at the school but every chance he would floo back to be with her. Around the sixth month mark, They moved into a new house and out of the apartment.
It was a good sized house in a modest neighborhood, but for Severus it bore a darker side, for the neighborhood of Spinner's End was filled with shadows around every corner.
"Honey, are you sure you want to live here?" Susan asked, "I mean there are other houses, we could always…"
"No." her husband cut her off, "No, this is it," he sighed, "besides, it's not like it's the same house, it's not even on the same block" Susan was unconvinced but let the matter be. After they moved everything into the house, Susan slept on the ground floor so she wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs. One night She awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of pacing on the porch.
Struggling out of bed, Susan wrapped her thin blue cotton robe around her and slid on her slippers. "Severus?" she called and walked out into the kitchen and out the front door where she found her distraught husband pacing the wood back porch. "Severus, Honey, what are you doing?" she asked, he seemed not to hear her.
Susan sniffed the air and gasped, suddenly filled with disappointment, "Severus!" she snapped, stomping toward his and grabbed his shoulder he looked at her, just realizing she was there and dropped a smoking cigarette. "You said you had stopped!" she barked. During Severus's seventh year, he had taken to smoke to cope with the stress of working for both the death eaters and Dumbledore, When Susan found out he feared she would leaving him. She was disappointed in him, but said she wouldn't leave him over something so minor. As soon as She got pregnant Severus vowed to stop cold turkey.
"What are you doing up?" he asked, oblivious to her rage. "Your pacing like a mad man woke me up now explain yourself." She crossed her arms and bent down to pick up the cigarette butt, "You should get back to bed he muttered, "Hey!" she snapped. Finally pulling his out of him daze, "I will decide what I should do, and right now you should explain to me why you are smoking"
Severus sighed, "I'm sorry, but coming back here, things just…" he sat on the window ledge. "Came back?" she finished. "Honey the deal isn't settled yet, we could always…"
"no. I'm not running." He stated firmly. "I just started thinking, what if it's genetic?" he asked.
"What if what's genetic?" she tilted her head and walked over to the ledge, "You know what, what if I become like him. What if it really is a cycle?"
Catching on Susan opened her mouth in understanding, "Oh Honey, no!" she shook her head, "No, no, no, no, no." she sat beside him and wrapped her arms around him. "you are going to be a wonderful father."
"How do you know?"
"I can feel it." She insisted, "that is not a valid reason." He shook his head.
"Here" She un tied her robe and took his hand, "What are you…"
"shh." She silenced his and pressed his hand to her bare stomach, "Just wait." She whispered, within a few seconds a sharp kick, "You feel that?" she asked. "This is us, this is our future, do hear me?" she took his face in her hands, "I promise you, you will be nothing like him."
She sighed, "Now" she held out her hand expectantly, Her husband sighed and dug in his pocket and pulled out a carton of cigarettes. "Cold turkey." She wagged her finger at him and pulled out her wand from her robe pocket. "Reducto" she muttered and destroyed the cancer stick. "I want you alive to see our baby grow up, okay?" she slid off the ledge, propping her hand on her swelled stomach.
"Come to bed, it's late and you have work."
In the following months, the couple found out the sex of their child, a girl. After many initial arguments on the first name of their daughter, (they had already decided that her middle name would be Lily) Severus wanted to name Her Grace or Sawyer, while Susan wanted to her Jade or Alice. They settled on the name Vera, meaning Faith, or Truth.
Resting on her back, she groaned, bored of staying in bed all day, for the majority of her pregnancy, Severus had hire a House Elf to watch over Susan, with strict orders that she was not to strain herself . The small person inside of her kicked fiercely, "you're going to be a fighter I know it." Susan smiled, "You'll beat up all the boys, just like I did." She smiled, knowing her baby could hear her, if not understand. The baby kicked once more.
Susan shifted slightly, attempting to ease the dull ache in her lowed back. In doing so she accidentally knocked over a small bell used to call the house elf, realizing her mistake she groaned loudly as the small elf name Pipen popped into the room, "You rang Missus?" it chirped merrily.
"Sorry Pipen, just knocked over the bell." Susan apologized. "Oh, Pipen will get it for you Missus!" the elf cried eagerly. "Thank you dear." Susan sighed. As the small elf stood on his tip toes to set the bell neatly on the bed side table. The dull ache grew stronger. A sharp knock at the door prompted the jumpy elf to skid or the door, leading in a pleasantly plump red headed woman a few moments later. "Susan honey!" Molly Weasley cooed, "Look at you, you're glowing."
"Hello Molly" Susan pushed herself up a bit. Molly didn't bother trying to touch Susan's stomach after Remus Lupin received a warning from the expectant mother which took the form of "Touch my stomach and you'll be pulling away a bloody stump."
"How do you feel?" Molly asked, "Tired, sore." Susan shrugged and grimaced as another ache hit her lower back. The two friends chatted about anything but children for a few hours while Susan folded a basket of laundry by the bed before Susan sighed. "I can't do this, help me up." She reached out her hand.
Molly helped pull Susan up out of bed so she could stand up, Pipen squeaked " said you should stay in bed."
" can shove it." Susan muttered and waddled around the room a bit. "Do you already have the bag packet just in case?" Molly fretted. "Have for weeks now." Susan responded as she walked to get feeling back into her legs. "Any cramps?" Molly asked.
"Yep, since this morning." Susan nodded, having done her research . "Have you told Severus?" Molly said expectantly, "I'll tell him when I have to get to the hospital, until there is no need to worry him." Susan explained.
"Crap" She leaned on the counter as a sharper pain hit, "and that might be now." She corrected herself . "Pipen!" she cried the elf popped in, "I need you to go to Hogwarts and Professor Snape his wife need him at the hospital." The elf nodded and snap his fingers as Molly grabbed the small suitcase and helped Susan hobble over to the fireplace. "Let's go dearie."
The green flames transported them to 's. "Susan Snape, and it's kind of an emergency." Susan leaned on the counter as another contraction hit her. "What kind of an emergency?" a distracted desk clerk asked. "I'm in labor." Susan state plainly, in no mood to sugar coat things. The nurse looked up and called over another nurse, "Right this way," she waddled down the hall with the nurse, denying the need for a wheel chair.
With in five minutes Severus rushed through the green flames, "Susan Snape's room please?" he asked the same desk clerk, "Relation?" the nurse asked, "I'm her husband." He stated. "Room 543B just down the hall"
He never moved faster as he entered the room to find Susan in a lavender hospital gown, pacing the floor. "How do you feel?" he rushed over and kissed her quickly, "oh peachy, can't complain." She said in a chirper tone then gasped as another contraction hit, the painful cramps grew stronger every few minutes.
"Hello Mrs. Snape." A female doctor with brown spiked hair and horned rimmed glasses, "And how are we today?" she grabbed Susan's charts and skimmed over it, "If you will just climb up here please." She patted the hospital bed.
The doctor inspected her on the table before pulling away satisfied, "You should get in to stage two in an hour, you are currently hovering between the first and second stage of labor, try to walk around a bit, it might ease the pain."
Susan slid off the bed, "I'll do that." Severus was at her side instantly, "babe, I can still walk" she leaned on him shoulder none the less. The sound of heavy footfall approached the room door and soon Remus Lupin, looking haggard in his patched, tan robe was peeking through the door.
"Is this a private party or…" Severus was about to say something before Susan cut him off, "Come in Remus." She smiled at one of her last remaining friends from school. Severus frowned slightly as Susan glanced at him, "You be nice." She whispered, "Fine, fine, fine."
Another contraction hit her as a sign that she was entering the second stage of Labor. "Holy shit." She cursed and made her way over to a chair. Soon Molly arrived in the room, offering encouragement
A few hours went by with Susan cursing with each painful contraction that grew until they were almost unbearable. That bad thing about Wizarding hospitals is that they look down their nose at muggle technology, so there is no epidurals available.
Once things got really bad, they asked everyone but Susan's husband and the doctors to leave the room. "Alright, it's almost time to push." The doctor informed the barely coherent woman who clutched her husband's hand so hard it was almost a purpleish color.
"Three, two, one, Push." Susan screamed as she dug her chin in to her chest, "You're doing great Honey. How are you feeling?"
"Do I have to answer?!" she gasped as another contraction hit, "Right, stupid question." He muttered
"Push!"
This went on four thirty minutes before the air was pierced with the cries on a healthy baby girl. The doctors handed a nurse the baby, who quickly cleared her of blood as they cut the cord. "Hear that?" Severus asked his exhausted wife, mimicking her tone from months before, "That's our future."
Susan was assisted into the sitting position and a Nurse placed a small bundle of sniffling person wrapped in a small pink blanket in her arms.
"Oh my god." Susan whispered, "Hi there." She smiled and the baby scrunched up her face, clearly unimpressed with her new situation, "Was that you causing all that trouble?"
Susan turned slightly, "Here." She whispered as Severus awkwardly held the child, barely the size of a loaf of bread. "See that Vera," Susan whispered to the infant, "That's your daddy."
"Do we have a name picked out yet?" the nurse asked, holding a clip board
"Vera Lily Snape."