Severus had his arms crossed and was peering down at her huddled form. Lynn's cheeks reddened at her own meek position, and she willed her hands to stop shaking (to no avail).

"S-Severus," she said in acknowledgement, and hated how much of a stuttering mess she sounded.

Bringing out his wand from his robes, Severus muttered a spell and the vomit disappeared. He then pocketed his wand and turned back to her.

"You told me this wasn't going to be a problem," he repeated, then looked pointedly at her, "Obviously, it is."

Lynn, with much more difficulty than she would ever be willing to admit, rose to her feet, and moved to take a step towards him, but instead swayed dangerously and almost fell right back onto the ground. She would have, in fact, if it weren't for Severus grabbing onto her elbow to steady her. Lynn coughed to clear her throat.

"Thank you," she said, taking her arm out of his grasp. "And truly, there's nothing to be concerned about. Just a bit of sickness, I'll be fine."

Severus looked at her sceptically. "Don't think I haven't noticed you haven't been eating. I cannot have you doing jobs mediocrely, especially not for the Dark Lord, because you are too stupid to rest. What is it?"

She paled, and felt even more sick, at the idea of having to tell Severus of what transpired the night before last. That was something between the Voldemort and herself, and she wasn't even sure if she knew what to say should she try to say it.

"Our Lord punished me for the lack of information I could give him," said Lynn, then cleared her throat. "I'm still… recovering. I will be fine."

Still, Severus' expression betrayed his disbelief in her statement. "What did he do," he said, "Anything- odd- in particular? There is likely I will have a potion or draught that will help it."

Lynn swallowed. "He—" She stopped. What was it that was stopping her? Her mind told her realistically, telling him what Voldemort had done to her that night would help, he would be able to give her something to ease the nausea and she could go back to being normal. But then another voice in her mind pointed out how weak it was, to lay there and let those men do that to her, and how foul what it was that they had done. It was gross enough to make herself physically sick, let alone someone else. "Just usual methods. Cruciatus, hexes."

It seemed no matter what she said, Severus was still very unbelieving of her. He sighed. "Fine. If you are refusing to tell the truth do not expect any sympathy from me, or any help either."

With that, he and his swirling robes turned and left her standing very shakily on the grass, alone.

Lynn took a deep breath in and stared at the patch of grass where the vomit had been. She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palms, pressing down until patterns played on her eyelids. The nausea in her stomach continued to swirl, and she swayed on the spot, before moving her hands from her eyes and blinking away the grainy splotches in her vision.

As she made her way to her first class, Severus' words echoed in her mind. What is it? What did he do? It was odd, really if she thought about it, the reaction that she'd been having to her punishment. Lynn had indeed been punished by Voldemort in the past, never the way he had most recently, but that had never left her with such an aversion to food, or such a volatile stomach. She really couldn't think of what it was that could be causing such a response. Of course, having the Cruciatus cast on you left you with similar aches and pains as she had now, and her feeling of exhaustion was the same, but the sickness that stayed in the pit of her stomach was something she had never experienced before. What could it possibly be?

And then it hit her. A deep hole formed in her stomach and she could've sworn her heart was laying at her feet. The word grew and grew in her head until it had pushed out all other thoughts and it was the sole thing left in there, the only thing she could think of. It made her want to curl into a ball, and stay there until the end of time, but at the same time she was filled with rage, she wanted to murder the men who had pinned her down at that tree.

And then she thought of Voldemort, how the punishment was his idea, that maybe this was his plan for her, perhaps it was on purpose. Lynn looked down at her arm, at the sleeve which she knew underneath was her Mark. She wanted to see him, to ask him for help, for some kind of clarity. And she almost did; her other hand had itched for her wand and before she knew it, it was hovered over her bare forearm, the black rose staring up at her. Lynn almost pressed her wand to it, almost zipped herself away to wherever it was that Voldemort had been and asked him for guidance. She wanted to look into his eyes, feel his strong presence beside her, hear him call her 'daughter'.

But she couldn't. She knew she couldn't. She knew in reality that the Dark Lord was most likely busy, and he did not like to be interrupted. She knew that it would only be disturbing him, she would be a burden. And besides, Lynn was not even sure she was right, she hadn't tested her theory, had no conclusive evidence that this was definitively what was going on. Taking a deep breath, she rolled her sleeve back down, and pocketed her wand. Lynn once again pressed her palms into her eyes, then opened them, blinking profusely, and pinched the bridge of her nose. She had to test it first. There could be no jumping to conclusions, no mistakes. As she made her way to her first class, instead of thinking of all the classes she had today, and the lessons she had to plan, the phrase was bouncing around her head, stubbornly refusing to leave her alone.

Am I pregnant?

a/n ...heyyyy... how y'all doing? sorry! i know every time i say i'll update regularly, i dont, and im not promising i'm going to start now, but hey, t least i updated! anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, see u all in the next one! xxx