Thrilled to be somewhere else besides Grimmauld place for the first time in months, Sirius couldn't even complain that he was forced to remain a dog or under Snape's watchful eyes for the stay of one night in Spinners End. They had traveled with Snape's things by floo powder and it took some careful restraint of his own not to transform the moment he saw Snape stagger upon entering the house, winded by the moment he had spent in the grate. He had barked loudly, leaping in the air as Snape had caught himself.
"Shut up!" Snape snapped, holding onto the side of a writing desk to steady himself, dropping the bag he had carried through the fire to set a hand over the swell of his stomach. "I'm fine just give me a moment!"
Sirius wasn't sure exactly how any pregnant witch would react going through the floo network, and so he was forced to put his worries aside as he stared intently at Snape, who regained himself after a few moments and then began to move about the house.
As grateful and pleased as he was for being able to leave however, he felt a little bad he was unable to spend Christmas Eve with Harry and his friends, concocting a lie that Dumbledore had summoned him for the night and how he would be away on Order business. The look on Harry's face was almost too much for him to bare as he fit the christmas gift in his hands.
"But, you'll be back for Christmas, won't you?" Harry had asked, his eyes flicking suspiciously up the stairs where Sirius had been spending an awful lot of time since they had all arrived.
"I should... hope so." Sirius said noncommittally, giving Harry a rather weak smile. "I'll see what I can do but you can go ahead and open that without me, right?"
"Right." Harry had said, trying to hide the bitterness in his face. Sirius knew Harry would understand if he knew the whole truth, Sirius hoped he could tell him soon enough at least. It was a lot to hope that Snape would agree to Harry knowing anything at all however, seeing as how he seemed to loathe the boy for no reason other then his father's mistakes. But still, Sirius thought, helping Snape take his bags back down the stairs again, Snape had sort of forgiven him, right? Perhaps anything was possible.
Snape was nothing short of guarded having Sirius in his own house however, as Sirius soon found as he started to look around the small home Snape had inhabited.
"Don't go in the basement." He had yelled from the kitchen, striding over quickly to slam the door in Sirius's face before he could see down it. "I keep all my potion ingredients down there. I don't need you bumping things and getting dog hair everywhere."
Sirius then tried to go upstairs and into the spare bedroom. He had expected Snape to let him sleep there as he had could only assume Snape kept to the master bedroom. All the doors were closed on the landing however, except for the cramped bathroom.
"Where are you?" Snape had yelled from downstairs. "Come back down here at once! I don't want you poking around!"
Reluctantly Sirius had bounded back down the stairs, his long nails clicking on the steps as he met Snape back in the kitchen, who looked at him sternly.
"If I find you going anywhere I don't want you I'll send you right back through that fireplace." He threatened, going through his shelves as though taking inventory of all the non perishable foods he had remaining in the house. Sirius sighed, only able to stare back balefully and lay on Snape's floor as he watched the man stride back and forth between shelves and drawers, taking out spices and measuring cups and old cracked bowls Sirius was sure were secondhand.
The two of them journeyed through the snow again down to a local market where Snape could buy food from a muggle grocery store to get them through the night. Sirius kept his watchful vigil outside, once again tied to a post, watching muggle families pass in a hurry to get things for their own holiday dinners, some muttering under their breaths about animal abuse.
Snape returned a quarter of an hour later with a bag and they made their way back in silence, Sirius wondered if Snape had at least found it in his heart to get him something to eat as well, his own stomach began to rumble as Snape set about to make dinner. He had purchased a chicken and Sirius watched him coat it with Paprika and Thyme. I seemed obvious that, with Snape the way he was with potions, the same skill must be carried over to cooking as well. But it was a sort of useless talent, seeing as how Snape never had any one to cook for.
"You can sit at the table like a human being as I don't much care to cut this up into a bunch of tiny pieces." Snape said after over an hours work of precise cooking, Sirius raised his head. "Dog's choke on bones, don't they?"
Snape jumped as he turned to see Sirius standing upright so suddenly. Sirius blinked, a little offended that Snape would imagine him choking on bones like a beast.
"Uh, yeah, I suppose they do. Do you want help with anything?"
"I'm fine." Snape sniffed, checking the progress of the chicken with a thermometer.
The meal was after all amazing and Sirius felt it hard to feel anxious or uncomfortable as it was one of the best meals he had had in a very long time. Snape's mastery of all things chemical and scientific rivaled even Mrs. Weasley's knowledgeable kitchen skill. He was glad of it, even if it was stopping him from thinking of things to say, which he thought, could have been Snape's intention.
"You don't have any preference for a gender do you?" Sirius said through a mouthful of dinner roll. Snape wrinkled his nose a bit, shrugging as Sirius wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I suppose so long as it's got all it's fingers and toes, right?"
"Right," Snape murmured cutting himself an extra piece of breast meat from the chicken in the skillet, which sat steaming at the center of the table.
"Mrs. Weasley said if it's a girl, we can have some of Ginny Weasley's old baby things." Sirius added with a swallow. "I bet all of her boy's things are probably too used to pass off, you wouldn't be interested in that would you?"
Snape merely shrugged, not proud enough to refuse free things, but he still thought of his own childhood miserably. Of all the well worn shirts and shoes he'd try on at the muggle shops before his mother purchased things that were twice his size regardless. The dottiness of the Weasley family couldn't really appeal to him.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Sirius asked curiously, starting to remember all of the thoughts and questions that bothered him as he lay in Snape's kitchen, unable to speak. He was starting to get full anyhow, despite how delicious it all was. Snape blinked.
"No," He said shortly, filling his mouth with chicken before Black could build on the question.
Sirius was given a blanket and told to sleep on the floor after supper. He chose the spot on the landing near Snape's room so he would awake in the event of hearing anything going on in the night. It was rather quiet however, in spite of it all. The snow falling outside made everything quiet while the glow of christmas lights and the city streets came through the old windows in a light haze. Snape had marched straight up to bed after supper with a book in hand and Sirius had fallen asleep long before the dim light in his room went out.
Snape did make it all the way through the night, but woke sometime in the middle of the night, sweaty and over hot as he always was these days, he desperately needed to pee as the baby seemed to be lying flat across his bladder. He was also very hungry, despite feeling bloated and full not long before going to bed.
He went to the bathroom then ventured downstairs by wand light, trying very hard not to creak on the stairs as he made his way to the kitchen, thinking warmly of the biscuits he had bought at the store. The baby seemed to be annoyed with his night time wanderings however and was beginning to shuffle about.
Snape brought the tin of biscuits to the living room so he could prop his feet back up and see out into the darkness from the window. He rested the tin on the rise of his stomach, laying back to enjoy the familiar buzz of his silent house.
He was sometimes homesick, being in the castle, just for the silence. There was always something going on at Hogwarts, whether it was a constant shuffling of students or spells going off halfway across the castle. There was always a lot of noise and quiet time was something he valued at the end of a long day.
But he could only be sentimental now that his parents were both dead and the house was his alone to enjoy. He had very few fond memories of the place as a boy and there were times even now that he swore he could hear his parents voices a room or two away, or the familiar awful crying of his mother he could hear through the wall of his bedroom. There were some things that did not change not matter how many times he could rearrange the furniture or magic the walls a different color.
Snape turned his head as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs and raised an eyebrow as Sirius came bounding into the living room, back into his human form. His hair wild and his eyes wide.
"Thought you had... I..."
Snape raised an eyebrow, watching Black's shoulders fall with relief to see Snape fine if not startled.
"What?" Snape said simply, "I was hungry."
"I thought you had left... or something." Black said stupidly, rubbing his eyes in the half light. "I was just... never mind."
"I'm a fully capable wizard, Black." Snape said scathingly. "And this is my own home, you'd think I could walk around at my leisure."
"I just heard someone downstairs," Sirius grunted, sitting down in an opposite arm chair and watching Snape finish off another biscuit. He blinked, trying to adjust to being awake, "You're hungry?"
"Well," Snape said sarcastically. "Sometimes having someone inside me eating all my food tends to get to me."
"Yeah, but... never mind." He said again. Snape put the tin on the end table, stretching his back carefully, yawning widely as he did. The baby gave a long tiresome roll, kicking against his skin clearly angry it had to have been woken for something as stupid as biscuits so late at night. He put a hand to the spot, soothing the area carefully.
"Merry Christmas Eve," Sirius said lightly. Looking to the clock on the hearth which read two thirty in the morning, Snape rolled his eyes, reaching over the arm of the sofa for another biscuit.
"You didn't ever go hungry at my place did you?" Sirius asked, watching him chew the biscuit with an over long look of bliss on his face. "You never really woke up at night, did you?"
"Not too bad." Snape admitted. "I wake up plenty of times in the night now, whether or not I actually have the energy to get up and eat is another thing."
"How do you manage at Hogwarts then?" Sirius questioned. "Isn't it bad for pregnant people to eat really big meals? Isn't it more like you eat a bunch of little things all day?"
"House elves are pretty willing to get me anything I want." Snape swallowed, feeling over the same spot on his stomach where the baby was protesting still. Sirius smiled.
"Is he or she kicking again?" He asked, pointing to the spot where Snape was rubbing absentmindedly. Snape withdrew a little, but the baby kicked harder then ever.
"Y-yes." Snape sighed, now placing both hands over his stomach and rubbing harder, as though trying to compact the child. "I hate it," he said without thinking. "I can't get it to stop."
"You can't really hate it." Sirius sniggered in spite of himself. Sweaty, tired, pregnant Severus Snape was just too comical a sight. "It's your baby, isn't it?"
"You try sleeping with what feels like a melon across your gut and you'll see how much you like it." Snape's eyes flashed, but Sirius knew he wasn't really angry. A truly offended Snape would have cursed him or ushered him out of the room so fast he couldn't protest. Instead Snape bit down rather sharply on another biscuit, chewing dramatically as the baby continued to roll.
"May I?" Sirius asked, coming closer to sit by the side of the sofa, dangling his outstretched right hand gently. Snape said nothing but merely stared a Sirius and then back to the hand carefully, as though trying to quickly come up with a suitable excuse.
It was too much now to say no, not with him being the child's father after all. Snape wouldn't be able to do the same once the child was born either, wouldn't be able to validate any hard feelings he had toward the man and deny his child time with it's other parent. As much as he felt ashamed, sometimes unworthy even for admitting Sirius did have a part to play, he couldn't outright refuse the man so much as he could throw him out in the snow for the dementors.
Sirius lay a warm hand on the side of his belly, feeling carefully were Snape had tried to calm the child down unsuccessfully. Snape felt a sort of latent twinge in his chest and he clenched his hands carefully, resting them high on his chest while Sirius's hand explored his front carefully. Snape was once again overwhelmed by how gentle and calming it felt, that someone he had found so crude and arrogant actually had something sweet inside him.
Once again, the baby seemed to instantly shutter, it's movements slowed down as though it was being willed to stillness by the presence of it's other father. Snape closed his eyes, not noticing as Sirius had drawn up his shirt and had started to rub soft circles over the pale taut skin, sending shivers down his spine.
"Have you been using that lotion?" Sirius asked carefully. Withdrawing his hands from their massage to lightly trace over a particularly long and dark stretch mark creeping across his stomach.
"Pardon?" Snape said sleepily, looking down at his stomach which was now bare and peeked out from under Sirius's hands like a small mountain, "I-"
"I'll go get it," Sirius said quickly, stomping back through the living room and up the stairs, mumbling "Accio lotion" from the landing.
Snape blinked, heaving a sigh as he felt suddenly dirty again. The familiar unholy tickle between his legs striking a fever pitch as Sirius reentered the room, holding the expensive bottle in his outstretched hand.
"I read in this book that it's really good for the baby and the mother to get massages. Really calming and stuff." Sirius said gruffly, putting a liberal amount in his hand before rubbing his palms together and looking to Snape carefully again. "You don't mind, do you? I thought you liked it."
Snape's insides were screaming, warring with each other. Part of him wanted to kill Black for getting so close to him and calling him the mother,while the other, sleepier and dopey side of him was simply aching to be touched. It felt good, yes, but at what cost? Black couldn't have an ulterior motive, could he? Why was he suddenly lining up to touch his pregnant stomach?
What does it matter! The other part of him thought warmly. It felt heavenly, the baby loved it as well, what's the worst that could happen?
"You-" Snape struggled, clutching at the fabric of his shirt. "If you tell ANYONE,"
Sirius shook his head violently, keeping his lotion covered hands raised as he looked at Snape sincerely. Snape read his gaze and still he could not find any malicious intent behind his eyes. Snape bit his lip, feeling part of his pride crumble and die as he lifted his shirt high and let Sirius touch him.
It was amazing, feeling every part of his body relax carelessly as Sirius began. He stifled a moan as Sirius rubbed every taut and stressed surface, relaxing the tension behind it while the baby settled peacefully, clearly enjoying the attention it got and laying in the most comfortable position. The unwanted twinge in his pants seemed to ache but he was beyond being ashamed of any arousal he felt as he was so tired and relaxed that he could feel nothing but uncontainable euphoria with every careful touch. Sirius said nothing at all, but did feel a little disappointed at the baby's sudden drop in movement.
Snape felt exhausted and let his breathing deepen, so unguarded that he felt he could be drifting to sleep. He felt in the back of his mind a knot coming undone and a feeling of falling as he felt he was existing in darkness.
There was a feeling of triumphant joy and lightness and he could not contain his pleasure as he seemed to writhe and tingle with the ecstasy of it. He felt warm, very warm and safe.
He jumped, as though reacting to falling from a high place. The typical sharp and angry part of himself jolting him awake out of spite. The blanket on top of him jumped a foot in the air and fell back over his legs, he blinked in the sunlight.
It was snowing again and it was hard to tell the time of day as the sky was gray with clouds, looking at the clock on the hearth however, indicated that it was half passed noon, had he really slept on the sofa all night long? It had been a night where the rest seemed to pass in a minute.
Rising up, he instantly knew it was true as he felt his shoulder crack and he winced, stretching carefully. He would regret this most in a few hours, when he was so stiff for sleeping out of bed. Why couldn't Sirius have taken the time to molest him in his own bed?
He did a double take as he realized his living room was slightly out of place. The corner of his living room which was taken up by a large wooden bookshelf and a square window was hidden by a large stained oak baby crib filled with neatly folded evergreen blankets, complete with a large silver bow tied to the corner post.
All the air in Snape's body seemed to diminish as he took in the sight. He rose carefully, setting the blanket down and jerking down his pajama shirt that had ridden up over his stomach. He inched his way toward the crib, reaching out his hands to the front high rail to look into it, feeling his belly lightly bump the side, he imagined the sight of his own child laying in the crib and sleeping peacefully.
It was perfect he thought, better then any crib he could buy in Hogsmede and probably cost twice as much. There were no cheaply cut decorations to the sides and all the edges seemed rounded down and precise, the stain of the wood even complimented the color and feel of his house.
Snape ran a hand over the silver bow which carried a tag, attached with a string which read For Severus and Baby, from Sirius Black III
"S-Sirius?" Snape choked, parting his hair carefully as it had fallen into his face. He waited for a moment listening, wondering exactly what Sirius had got up to in his house, but he could hear on the landing, the sounds of shuffling and the clicking of paws on the stairs as Sirius came into the living room, panting happily. The dog looked at Snape and the crib, simply sitting obediently between the two.
"You?" Snape gestured to the crib and back again, his face slack and dumbfounded, unable to believe. "You did this?"
The dog nodded wisely and Snape made a strange noise, something between a whine and a groan, looking back into the crib to pull up the sheets folded on top of the tiny mattress. Snape looked back to Sirius again.
"For heavens sake! Stop being a dog!"
Sirius barked and returned to his full height, beaming at Snape happily.
"I put it together while you were asleep." He laughed, his gray eyes twinkling slightly, looking strangely youthful, the darkness of Azkaban fading for an instant as he looked at Snape's pale face. "You like it then?"
Snape could only gape at him, half leaning on the crib as Sirius continued to beam at him, looking to the swell of Snape's stomach and regarding it with a loving glow.
"Merry early Chirstmas, Severus," He exclaimed, giving Snape a slight clap on the shoulder before heading out of the room. "I made some cinnamon rolls with what you had lying around if that's alright. They'll be ready in a few minutes."
An early Christmas with Sirius was ironically one of the best Christmas's Snape had had since his early years at Hogwarts where he was able to spend the holidays alone in the library, perhaps receiving a package of fudge from the Evan's family but relishing in the time he had to spend at his leisure in the castle. Since the end of his seventh year, he was lucky to receive a little something from his coworkers, but largely spent his time with Marciana, feeding her treats and keeping down his contempt and annoyance for the holiday as he created lesson plans.
But now, sitting with Sirius in his own living room, he was unable to find complaint or negativity as he ate the warm cinnamon roll and glanced at the crib every few moments as though thinking it might disappear in a puff of smoke.
"I admit I feel rather sorry," Snape said after he had finished his cinnamon roll, setting down his plate and knitting his fingers together. "I haven't got anything for you."
"You think I care?" Sirius barked, licking his fingers of the sugary icing. "I'm out of the house and I'll be finding out about the baby now, won't I? That's enough of a Christmas for me."
Still Snape could not contain a strange feeling of guilt that crept over him as he imagined the price of the crib and it's contents. He had not expected to feel such an emotion for Sirius, even after he had sent him all the gifts before the end of term. Whatever ideas he had of his own rights to deny Sirius any contact with the child seemed to dissipate. There was no decent way he could accept all of this much needed help and then go into hiding just to have the baby to himself, he would feel to dirty, too uncomfortable knowing he would have to tell the child one day that he had run away from it's other father for his own pride.
Snape couldn't always understand his own thoughts, but he knew that he had to think of what was best for the child now. He knew now that something must be worked out, something had to be done.
He laid a hand over his stomach thoughtfully.
"When the baby is born," He began circumspectly, smoothing out the fabric over his belly. "I really will need a little bit of help."
Sirius stopped biting his nails for a moment to look up at Snape, his eyes widening.
"Well," Snape continued, not liking the hungry expression in Sirius's eyes "That book you gave me, the one on newborns, they're going to be..." He paused, trying to think. "Time consuming."
"Well yeah." Sirius said delicately, "I remember how awful it was when my brother was born, he had that thing where babies just never stop crying. Colic or something." Sirius strained to remember, "Anyway he had my parent's run ragged for months cause he was never able to sleep."
Snape tried not to imagine the horror of a constantly crying child he was unable to comfort, but focused instead on what he was trying to get at.
"In any case," He plowed on, continuing to smooth out the fabric as it pilled under his fingers. "I'll probably be rather diminished after giving birth but I'll still have to nurse the child. For that time, I think it would be prudent to-"
"When you say nurse," Sirius interjected "Do you mean like, breastfeed?"
Snape gritted his teeth, willing his good mood not to vanish simply because of the stupid look on Sirius's face.
"Yes," He breathed, his eyes growing slightly cold. "Madame Pomfrey informs me that I am able." He stressed the last word such that Sirius bit back any other questions that depreciated Snape's manhood any more.
"As I was saying," He sighed "I will unfortunately be very exhausted during the first weeks of the summer, so it would be wise to organize something that would be mutually beneficial."
"You mean?" Sirius's eyes widened "Like living together?"
"I didn't... mean that." Snape twitched. It was becoming harder and harder to find excuses for him to deny Sirius things he wanted solely on the grounds that it made Snape annoyed seeing his features so delighted. Truthfully, he wasn't sure what he meant, but he knew that there was no room for Sirius at Spinner's End and he was damn sure he didn't want to spend the rest of his life as a father half living out of Grimmauld Place. "There could be a temporary set up which would give us time to organize a more full time living situation while I am working and you are in hiding."
"You could always take time off," Sirius suggested, shrugging a little at the annoyed stare on Snape's face. "I mean it! Really! I have enough money so we could have you take a year off to recover and be with the baby and then maybe go back to work teaching or..." His voice trailed off.
"I have to work at Hogwarts," Snape refuted. Trying to imagine exactly what Dumbledore would say if he wanted to leave for a year and abandon his work in the Order of the Pheonix, as well as his commitment to watching over Potter. "It's... a matter of Order business. I can't just leave my job."
"It was just a suggestion," Sirius shrugged, racking his brains for more ideas. "Did Madame Pomfrey give you an approximate due date?"
"Late May," Snape said, his heart skipping a beat just voicing it aloud. "But she says I can't go by it for sure because I'm, well, not typical." He flushed red for a moment, feeling flustered. He was already half way through the pregnancy and it seemed to have blown by. He had thought it would go by much slower as he initially thought it would feel so detrimental to his life that it would make his year terrible. But as Snape thought, he felt happier then he had been in years. It was an up and down sort of happiness of course, it could accurately be described as an emotional roller coaster. But he could at least have something to look foreword to as his work sometimes was frustrating and unrewarding.
Sirius seemed to realize the close proximity to spring and blinked, heaving a sigh as he stared out the window, deep in thought.
"Harry?"
Ginny had knocked on the door that Harry was currently hiding behind. Half bored and half annoyed, he had come into the empty room with Buckbeak and was feeding him dead mice. Ginny pushed the door open and frowned.
"Are you feeling ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Harry said, trying to command a convincing half smile as he patted Buckbeak's enormous head. Ginny still frowned, coming into the room and shutting the door behind her, giving a short nod to Buckbeak, who nodded back. "How is your mum doing?"
"Getting kind of annoying actually." Ginny admitted, taking a dead mouse from Harry to offer to the hippogriff. "Seeing as how dad isn't here she's worrying left and right that we won't have a proper christmas. Keeps asking us all if we've got our gifts for him ready, as if we'd forget." She rolled her eyes and Harry smiled.
"What did you get him?"
"Well nothing, I just signed a card that Bill got for him." Ginny laughed. "Fred and George are the only one's that actually have money at the moment, but Hermione said that the hat that she made him could be from the both of us, so technically, I made him a hat."
Harry snorted, feeling a little bad that he had not thought to buy anything for the Weasley's except for Ron. It had slipped his mind since being banned from Quidditch and he couldn't honestly think of a weekend he had free to go shopping in hogsmede with all of his O.W.L practice work.
"You're sure you're feeling alright Harry?" Ginny asked carefully, looking to Harry's pensive face. He nodded carefully, still feeling the jealous aching twinge in his stomach that had led him up to the empty room.
"Is it because of Sirius?" Ginny questioned knowingly, a line appeared between Harry's eyebrows, slightly unnerved by her ability to read him.
"Yeah, well," Harry sighed, his fingers leaving Buckbeaks feathery face to pick up the large wrapped present Sirius had left him before leaving. "It's just that he was so excited to be here for Christmas and now he's off doing stuff." He felt stupid and childish for saying it, but felt better nonetheless having it said. Ginny nodded understandingly.
"It was rather weird," She agreed, petting Buckbeak in Harry's stead as the creature looked up to see why the attention had ceased. "I mean, he's on the run, isn't he? It wouldn't make sense to send him off on Order business when this is the only real safe place for him to be, right?"
"Yeah," Harry agreed. Thinking now, it really didn't add up, Sirius was annoyed all summer he had to be trapped inside, but now he was just allowed to do Order work as freely as Kingsley or Lupin? Harry thought carefully back to Sirius's words on Snape, but couldn't dwell on them.
"Still though, it's just one night, right?" She picked up the gift Sirius had wrapped for Harry, feeling the corners. "I'm almost positive it's a book."
"No kidding." Harry smiled, it was heavy and clearly had pages and a spine just from the way it was wrapped. "It's awful that I probably won't have any time to read it."
"I'm dreading next year." Ginny shook her head, handing the gift back to Harry who set it on the floor. "O.W.L's just sound like torture the way you all have to go through them. I think the only people who stayed mentally intact were Fred and George."
"If you could call them intact to begin with." Harry laughed, Ginny smiled and Buckbeak raised his head, annoyed.
"Wasn't this the room you and Ron stayed in over the summer?" Ginny asked him carefully, feeling the aging carpet and drawing up small bits of dry wall and dirt. I wonder if Kreacher did something to it?"
"I doubt it," Harry said, looking to the stripped wallpaper along the walls. "It's not as though he showed the house that much care anyway. I wonder why it's like this."
Madame Pomfrey arrived promptly at three o clock and Sirius had transformed back into his Black dog form with the instruction to 'behave himself' from Snape. The story was that Snape was dog-sitting while the neighbors were out of town for the holidays, something that wasn't exactly convincing as the neighbors on each side of him had all the lights in the house turned on and company arriving as the sun had began it's slow decent. Snape had out right refused to even lie about owning a dog, not attracted to the typical nature of over nurturing pet owners. So Sirius assumed the name Snuffles for the short time Madame Pomfrey would be visiting and lay in the corner, waiting.
Madame Pomfrey seemed completely unbothered by Snape's last collapse that he was almost stunned by her typical casual air. He supposed it was because she was a little sour, having to be summoned so close to Christmas time, but at the beginning of the appointment she explained it was not very uncommon to feel faint during pregnancy.
"You just need to keep eating and taking your vitamins on time," she sighed, marking off notes on her clipboard as she took his pulse and asked him the usual string of questions.
It wasn't until he had to take off his shirt that he started to realize the full implications of having Sirius in the room while Madame Pomfrey had him sit on the side of the sofa where she put a hand down his back to feel his spine. His eyes followed her progress eerily, almost a little greedily and he resolved to shut his own as she asked him about his health.
"Your spine is looking good for now, has it been bothering you much?"
"Only a little if I'm on my feet too long," he said quietly, feeling her cold hands press into his lower back, right over a knot.
"And your hips?" She tutted, moving to the tight and stretched skin of his sides and outline of his small boxed pelvis.
"Not too bad."
"You will need to tell me the instant it becomes more painful." She said, very seriously. "If I suspect your hips may break or separate from the pressure, it would be much better if we were able to anticipate it, rather then have you misstep one day and find yourself in a considerable amount of pain."
"You think that's really likely?" Snape asked, a slight pang of fear in his voice. Madame Pomfrey shrugged.
"You're just too small Severus," She said, marking off notes on her clipboard again. "If only you had the sense to make broader hips to fit that uterus in." Snape turned a rather violent shade of pink.
She measured him in the usual way and he was shocked to find you had grown an extra 6 inches around his belly since his last appointment. Madame Pomfrey again, found this average.
"You're really going to start feeling the weight soon as the child is going to actually start growing instead of maturing it's internal systems."
"I can't wait for that to happen." Snape said sarcastically, rubbing the bump rather astounded. The fact that the baby itself still weighed under a pound made him feel quite bloated and exhausted.
"Be happy now," Madame Pomfrey said wisely, "Third Trimester is typically the most agonizing and tiresome of the three. You'll have until February to enjoy a good mood before you're too achey and hungry to appreciate the baby much." Sirius's eyes blinked from the right of the sofa.
"How had your libido been?" Madame Pomfrey asked, checking off Snape's measurements. Snape's face went entirely red, very aware of the strangeness of Sirius's gaze as she looked back at him. "Well?"
"In... what manner do you mean?" He tried to to make it innocent but his voice shook. He would only have been slightly more comfortable if Sirius wasn't in the room. He couldn't think of what bearing his answer might hold.
"Do you find yourself sexually aroused?" She asked, an unhelpful darting glance to his genitals. He shook his head sharply, she wrote something down. Snape didn't feel like lying was the best thing to do to his doctor, but he did not want to say anything remotely sexual while Sirius was in the room. It would be too odd if he had only let Sirius come in once they did the gender test, and so he was forced to become flustered and pink anytime Madame Pomfrey asked anything of any private nature.
"So I assume you would like to know the baby's gender then?" Madame Pomfrey asked finally, setting down her clipboard and looking to Snape. Sirius, or Snuffles rather, gave a strange twitch. "Unless you have any more questions of me?"
"I'm healthy and everything then?" Snape asked. "Nothing to be concerned about yet?"
"Your weight is good, you say you feel well. Baby is moving a lot?"
"Too much," Snape moaned, feeling it shuffling around that very moment. Madame Pomfrey smiled at him.
"I think you'll make a great father Severus," She shook her head as though picturing the scene in her mind. "I really do."
Snape was unsure exactly what to say to this, but felt touched regardless. He was glad someone did, as every conversation he had with Dumbledore seemed to infer that he was somehow a little too unwholesome to be a parent alone.
"Well," Snape murmured, "I really would like to know the gender if that's what you can do for me."
"Of course," She said, drawing out her wand and a few sheets of the same paper she had used to give Snape a picture of the child weeks before. Snape laid back over his sofa and she began to feel and palpate his stomach gently with her hand to get a better idea of where the baby was. From the corner, Sirius quietly got to his feet and crept closer to the sofa, his cold nose touching Snape's trousers.
"He's curious, isn't he?" Madame Pomfrey laughed, giving him a little pat on the head. "He's very well mannered, didn't even bark at me when I arrived."
"Yes..." Snape said carefully, a little irritated that Sirius felt he had to be up close in the action. He only sat panting however, his eyes looking from Madame Pomfrey to Snape and to his belly carefully, waiting. Madame Pomfrey nodded after a minute of feeling and raised her wand around the area, tracing and outlining around the skin.
Snape could feel his heart pounding very hard now, it had been difficult to keep his excitement down throughout the day, but now he was here, at this very moment. He would know within minutes if the baby was a boy or a girl. Thoughts flashed through his mind, excited merry imaginings of what could be. It was what he had craved all month long, the ability to refer to his stomach, his baby, as something more then an it or a fetus.
Sirius was having trouble holding it in as well as even as a dog he was licking his lips and looking to Madame Pomfrey more carefully, as though willing her to hurry up.
Then, she gently tapped the paper and the slight outline of a baby began to appear, still slightly ambiguous and difficult to understand, but certainly larger and more defined then the picture Snape and Sirius alike had been staring at for weeks. Madame Pomfrey held it up to the light, her eyes narrowed as she studied. Snape's heart was beating so fast he felt it might be audible to all in the room.
"Well," Madame Pomfrey said, bringing her finger up to the photo and tracing a small area. "I think it's obvious now."
"Really?" Snape could not contain himself, the greedy longing in his voice was strong and strained, not like his usual voice at all, Madame Pomfrey smiled back.
"It's a boy," She laughed, the joy and rapturous excitement in Snape's heart threatened to overwhelm him as he gave an audible cry of mirth, tears leaking down his face before he could wipe them away and sure enough the baby kicked strong and hard, a boy. Sirius gave a very strange whining bark and then proceeded to chase his tail.
"He's a big boy so you're going to be in for it for the next few weeks." Madame Pomfrey nodded, giving him the picture to study and patting the dog on the head again. Sirius licked her whole hand graciously and she swatted him away as he began to bound and bark. Snape didn't even care, too fixed on staring at the new picture he had to hold, proof of his baby, his son.
Madame Pomfrey made duplicates of the photos by tapping a few pieces of paper in turn and promised to mail them out as soon as she used the fixative potion on them. She waved, disappearing into the grate and returning to Hogwarts, not but a second later Snape heard a pop and a joyous cry.
"A BOY!" Sirius roared, pounding his fist in the air. There were tears in his eyes as well but he did not try to wipe them away as Snape merely sat, overwhelmed by it all, on the sofa. "A BOY!"
It was now more real then ever, he thought, cradling his belly with closed eyes as the baby moved inside him. It was now a real life human being, no longer a sea monkey or simply a group of cells. It was his son, his unborn and active son. To be born in late spring.
"A SON!" Sirius continued to roar, now in the kitchen, shouting as if to tell the whole neighborhood as he stomped upstairs and down, unable to do anything with himself but be excited and proud.
Snape felt relieved now, not as though he would have mourned a daughter, but simply glad to be done with the whole ordeal of waiting and wondering. Having all the information meant he could start to plan and figure out the rest of the outline for preparing his life for the baby.
He felt great, better then great. Unstoppable as he thought not of the Order of the Pheonix or Voldemort and the death eaters, but solely the future of his son. He would go to Hogwarts and Snape would take him to Diagon Alley to buy his books and wand. He would be sorted at Hogwarts, surely a Slytherin, he thought blissfully, imagining how proud he would feel watching from the staff table as his son sat to accept the sorting hat.
It wouldn't matter if he was a Gryffindor, Snape thought proudly. Sirius's words echoing from around the house. "A SON! I'M GOING TO HAVE A SON!"
It's a miracle! More words!
These chapters have been dreadfully easy to write so it hasn't been too hard to push it out. I typically write bits and bits with each review I get from the chapter proceeding it, but this time I got like three reviews and was like FUCK IT and wrote eight pages. I hope it doesn't feel too rushed. The ending feels sorta like the ending to a shmaltzy Christmas movie.
Again, keep reviewing and all that junk, I might take a few days off just to sort of collect my thoughts. I need to think through the rest of Snape's winter break before I try to write much more down or else I might screw up the plot later on. Have any thoughts? Suggestions perhaps for where this should be going? By all means give me your two cents. Regardless of how thought out this sorta feels, it's really not. I think everyone who reviewed this wanted Snape to have a boy and I wrote him having a boy. Your opinion is power.
Review and stuff.