Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
—
Harry being gone in the evenings still afforded Severus and Lily some privacy.
Severus and Lily were a communicative couple. Since Lily's return, they had spent entire days just chatting with each other. But the Snapes both appreciated the quiet moments too, those wondrous, intimate times when no words were necessary and their bond as lovers was silently acknowledged.
One particular night, Lily tangled her fingers into Severus's soft black hair as their lips met passionately. Lying beside her husband, Lily allowed the candlelight to bathe them both in a soft glow.
Lily sighed into their kiss, enjoying the strength of Severus's embrace as he cradled her like she was the most precious thing in the world.
To Severus Snape, Lily was the most precious thing in the world.
Severus moved slightly and one of his hands slipped down, ghosting over his wife's swollen breasts to rest lovingly on top of her mounded belly.
Severus pulled back from Lily's lips and kissed across her jawline. He moved to her throat as he gradually nipped his way down her pale flesh, lower and lower….
Lily was expecting her husband to linger at her nipples but he didn't stop until he reached the heavy curve of her belly. Severus splayed his hands on either side of her full womb, leaned it, and gave it a gentle kiss. He pulled back in awe when his efforts rewarded him with a gentle ripple of motion.
Lily wasn't disappointed, she was more than willing to make love to her husband, but she was also extremely exhausted.
She wasn't going to complain if he wanted to wait.
"We love you, Sev." Lily smiled up at him, placing one of her hands over his as the child within her moved again.
Severus stared down at Lily with a gaze so full of unspoken, devoted reverence that he looked like he was in great pain.
Maintaining eye contact with his beloved, Severus moved back down and pressed another tender kiss right over the peak of her abdomen, only closing his eyes when his lips touched her skin.
His touching gesture made Lily sigh again and her fingers found the softness of his dark hair once more.
Severus had planned on spending the evening giving his darling some pleasure as a reward for all of her efforts, but when Severus felt Lily's fingers fall limp, he looked up.
Soothed by Severus's loving attention and his calming scent, composed of vetiver and crisp parchment, Lily had fallen asleep. A terse look crossed Severus's face and he moved up to cuddle his wife close, careful not to disturb her.
Lily's second pregnancy had been different than her first.
Not worse, not better, just different.
She hadn't been as sick as when she carried Harry and this time, her blood pressure was fine. Although she spent more time sleeping than awake, Severus was relieved that Lily's reproductive condition, which he had cured with an elixir shortly after Harry's birth, hadn't plagued her any further.
But the exhaustion she experienced…..
Harry and Severus could barely keep her conscious and as her due date approached, her fatigue seemed to increase.
Severus knew that some of it was normal but Lily could sleep for entire days and not wake to eat, drink, or use the lavatory.
That bothered him.
Severus kept pestering the healers with his concerns but they brushed him aside.
Lily was seventeen years older than when Harry had been born. Her body was recovering from the lasting effects of a curse she shouldn't have survived while it was also aging rapidly and growing a life.
The healers weren't worried that their patient was so tired.
Severus had little trust in medical personnel.
As he held Lily in his arms, Severus allowed himself the folly of glancing down to admire Lily's full breasts. Severus knew they must be quite uncomfortable to his lover.
What a shame she had fallen asleep so quickly….
Severus knew every inch of his wife's body, he knew what she liked and what felt best where.
Severus would have happily relieved the ache for his cherished flower~.
In her slumber, Lily moved against him and Severus's mind turned to more pressing matters.
The baby's due date was anxiously soon.
As a second time father and still processing the blissful reality of having Lily with him again, Severus felt prepared for the birth and the trials that new parenthood would bring.
As he stared down into Lily's face, though, he frowned.
He wasn't so sure that his wife was as ready for the challenge.
—
The week that Harry's sibling was expected to enter the world, Severus took a leave of absence from his post of headmaster after Professor McGonagall graciously arranged to temporarily resume his duties.
It was a kindness for which Severus was very grateful.
Harry barely got a chance to sit with his mother in those final days of her pregnancy. He found it impossible to catch her out of range from Severus's watchful eye.
Harry had to admit, he was a little nervous. Especially when he watched Lily groan as she stood up and pressed a hand to the place his brother or sister rested, but he wasn't worried.
Harry knew that his father had everything under control.
Severus took over all of the cooking in the household and Harry noticed there were no sweets or fatty, rich foods prepared.
Severus cooked healthy meals for Lily and the baby, which benefitted himself and Harry as well.
If Lily got up to go to the lavatory, Harry always smiled to himself when Severus trailed closely behind her, pretending to be busying himself with something when he really was only trying to stay that nearby to his heavily pregnant wife.
Harry thought it was sweet.
Whenever he did, though, he blinked at his own thoughts.
Could Professor Snape…...stearn, cold, mean Professor Snape be…..sweet?
Towards the end of March, Harry walked downstairs, dressed in his auror's uniform, prepared to apparate for training. While Severus was in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner, Harry stepped into the living room and kissed his mother, who was sitting on the sofa, goodbye.
Lily hugged Harry tightly as he asked, whispering in her ear, "Was he like this when I was born?"
"No." Lily replied with a wide smile as Harry pulled back, "...He was even worse."
Harry and Lily both shared a grin at their private, good-natured amusement but Harry watched the mirth fade from Lily's face as she frowned and laid a hand against her side.
"Mum?" Harry asked worriedly as his own expression became serious, "What's wrong?"
Mum? What's wrong?
That was all Severus needed to hear.
His head snapped up immediately from his work in the kitchen. Severus was beside Lily so quickly that Harry could have promised his father had apparated across the room.
"What's the matter, my love? Are you in pain?" Severus asked urgently.
He practically swept Harry out of the way to kneel down in front of Lily and spread his hands across her belly.
"I'm fine. Both of you, really, I'm fine." Lily insisted, trying to smile.
As nervous tension rose in the Snapes' living room, Harry sensed that something wasn't right.
Severus's eyes narrowed as he heard the breathlessness in Lily's voice.
Lily shifted on the couch. When he watched Severus give Lily his hands and saw the way that she squeezed them back, despite his lack of experience, Harry knew.
He decided to skip his auror training that night.
Becoming a big brother was more important.
—
It quickly became obvious that Harry had made the right choice.
Lily tried to hide it at first, but as time passed, she couldn't silence the whimpers and groans that escaped her lips.
Harry worked with his father to try and help his mother get more comfortable but despite their attempt, Lily's pain only worsened. Eventually, Lily ended up with her arms draped around Harry's neck and her face pressed into his shoulder, rocking back and forth on her knees while Severus rubbed her lower back.
"Shouldn't we get her to the hospital?" Harry asked Severus worriedly, "She is going to the hospital, right?"
"Of course she's going to the hospital!" Severus snapped at Harry while Lily panted for breath, "You were supposed to be born there, not in the upstairs bathroom! Do you think we chose that on purpose?! You've always done things your own way! You changed our plans for us at the very last minute."
That didn't reassure Harry at all. What if his brother or sister had a similar idea?
"Then what are we waiting for, Dad?!" Harry shot back as Lily started to moan into his shoulder again, "Let's go!"
Harry had never seen or heard a woman in labor. Although he had fought and won death-defying battles that exhibited great courage, this was something entirely different.
Lily's cries of agony secretly made him want to put off his own nails in anguish but Severus remained outwardly composed. Having delivered Harry himself, Severus understood that his wife's pain was a temporary and necessary evil.
Severus gave Harry an irritated look while he kneaded the tense muscles in Lily's lower back, "I already told you, son, they're not close enough together yet. The only thing the hospital will do at this point is-"
Harry and Severus blinked at each other when Lily fell quiet as the gentle sound of liquid trickling onto the floor filled the silent room.
"Was…...was that her waters?!" Harry gasped, looking over his mother's shoulders, "...Like they talk about?!"
"Pick up your wand." Severus commanded Harry. His voice was still calm but a sense of nervous urgency clearly punctuated his low tone, "We've got to get your mother to the hospital."
—-
That was the fastest apparating that had ever taken place in the Snape household. Harry helped Severus get Lily into a wheelchair and then his parents were whisked away behind St. Mungo's heavy maternity ward door, surrounded by a group of nurses.
"You're going to do great, Mum!" Harry shouted encouragingly just before they disappeared.
Severus was completely focused on Lily but Harry watched his mother turn her head and he smiled, knowing she had heard him.
After the ward door slammed shut, Harry walked over to one of the empty waiting room chairs and sat down.
He wondered how long it would be until he got to meet his little sibling.
Harry knew very little about babies but he realized they came on their own time.
However, from the state his mother was in, Harry didn't think he would have that lengthy of a wait.
He had only been sitting a few minutes when the door to the waiting room opened and Ginny stepped inside, smiling when she saw Harry.
A happy grin lit up Harry's face.
At least while Harry waited to meet his new brother or sister, he wouldn't be lonely.
—
While Harry was having a nice, leisurely wait, Severus and Lily were frantically busy. Lily was nearly beyond the point of words as Severus aided the nurses in hastily stripping off her clothing and hurriedly placing her in a hospital gown.
Severus raced alongside the medical staff while they practically threw Lily into a white room with bright lights.
Nurses and doctors piled in the room and Lily regretted coming to the hospital.
As Lily was poked, prodded, and stretched, she wished she was back home in the bathtub with Severus, instead of being gawked at by a room full of strangers.
Severus moved to gently hold her leg but Lily clutched onto him and cried into his shoulder.
"I can't…...I can't, Sev!...Not again!...Not here!...Not like this!" She whimpered pitifully.
Severus frowned as he listened to her take a pause between breaths, but his black eyes widened when he felt her body move against his as a deep, guttural growl escaped her throat.
"She's pushing." Severus declared, looking at the medical staff warningly, daring one of them to say something in protest.
He and Lily were not treated very well by St. Mungo's personnel during Harry's prolonged arrival.
While he was much happier that Lily was in the hospital and not relying on him alone in their bathroom, Severus was determined to see that his wife was not improperly treated again.
When Harry had been born, Severus was still very young and somewhat timid.
Now after seventeen years of teaching, spying, fighting in the war, and bitterly grieving his losses, Professor Snape was not a man whose wife you wanted to mistreat.
"I CAN'T!" Lily screeched as her knee jerked.
Severus gently helped his wife to sit up and kept one hand on her back, helping her hold onto to him, while he carefully cradled her thigh in his other to keep her secure.
"Lily, listen to me." Severus whispered to her in his deep rumble of a voice, "You're doing just fine…..we've been through this before. We can do it one more time, can't we? Come on, once more….once more, my love."
Lily screeched so loudly that Severus was certain his eardrum would rupture but he clutched Lily tightly to silently coax her on, knowing she wouldn't be able to hear him over her own vocalization.
Lily curled forward around her belly and Severus instinctively looked down between her legs.
He recognized the look on her face. He had seen it before on July 31st, 1980.
Severus looked just in time to watch the doctor pull his second child from his wife's womb and place the little one onto her heaving chest.
Lily gasped as tears of happiness gathered in her eyes while the baby looked at her and Severus curiously.
Severus's brow furrowed as the baby whined. His dark eyes melted into molten coal as he reached out and delicately touched the child's black tufts of hair, which looked exactly like Harry's had the first time Severus met him.
"Beautiful…" Lily breathed, wrapping her shaking arms around her new baby, "Hello, little one! Hello! It's nice to meet you!"
"It's…" Severus struggled to find words through his own surprise, "It's a girl…"
Severus Snape reeled at the fact.
Did he really have….did he really have a daughter?
—
Harry looked awkward, sitting there in the stiff chair, but Ginny caught his eye and gave him a nod.
Not more than a couple of hours after Harry had sat down, the door that led to St. Mungo's' maternity ward opened and Severus rushed out, the look on his face bittersweet, nervous, and elated at the same time.
Harry and Ginny's eyes fell on the small bundle in Severus's arms and Harry stood to walk over and meet Severus in the middle of the waiting room.
Ginny stayed in her seat, allowing Harry and Severus a moment of respectful distance.
Severus clutched onto the tiny bundle tightly and Harry bent his head to peer inside the blankets.
"Wow." Harry smiled as he gazed down at the small, sleeping baby, noticing the little tufts of black hair that stuck out of her miniature cap.
Severus remained silent but the immense pride he felt was clearly evident by the expression on his face.
"Mum's alright?" Harry asked, stepping back and keeping his voice low to not wake the baby.
"She's doing well." Severus nodded in reply, then he nodded towards the bundle he held, "So is your sister."
Harry's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, "My…...my what?!"
—
Maybe Harry had been expecting a brother.
Maybe actually seeing Severus holding the baby was still a startling dose of reality.
Whatever the reason, it took Harry a while to get over his shock.
While Harry resumed his seat in the waiting room, Ginny went and saw the baby, congratulating her former professor on his daughter's birth.
Later that evening, Severus sat beside Lily and their newborn daughter, watching in fascination while the little baby nursed.
"This is our second, Severus. You've seen this before." Lily chuckled when she saw how wide Severus's black eyes had become.
"That doesn't make it any less lovely." Severus replied quietly.
Lily chuckled and blushed at her husband's loving words.
"We're a family again." Severus whispered. "We didn't get the chance to….raise Harry at all. They sent you both into hiding….then the Dark Lord came…...you were gone….and the next time I saw my son he was sitting in my classroom mocking me."
Sadness drifted over Lily's face as the baby finished and started to cry softly.
"WWWWAAAA!"
"We did all that we could, Severus. I'll admit though, in our position, that wasn't much." Lily sighed, rocking the newborn back and forth as her shrill cries escalated.
"WWWWWAAAA!"
"Let me take her." Severus offered, opening his arms.
"WWWWWAAAA!"
Lily blinked, but she complied and handed their wriggling bundle over.
"WWWWAAAA!"
Severus wasn't irritated by the crying baby, he was in love.
Lily watched as the baby's cries quieted as soon as Severus held her close to his chest.
Severus smirked in amusement as his little daughter frowned up at him questioningly.
"She needs a name, darling." Lily said with a yawn.
"Zinnia." Severus decidedly stated.
Lily scowled in disgust. "...What?"
"Zinnia Snape." Severus repeated proudly.
Lily cracked a smile and broke out into a fit of laughter.
"You've got to be joking, Sev! What about Sarah or Amelia?" Lily asked.
"You're named after a flower." Severus answered Lily, "Harry decorated our…..vow renewal….with zinnias for a reason, you could say he unwittingly chose his sister's name. Zinnias convey remembrance and endurance. If there's a better suited name for a member of this particular family considering its previous history, then I'll gladly hear it…..?"
Severus looked at Lily and Lily thought for a moment before she settled back against the pillows in defeat.
Severus presented a good argument.
"Very well, Sev. We'll name her Zinnia, then." Lily acquiesced with a languid yawn.
Severus walked over and lovingly kissed Lily on her forehead as he whispered, "Rest, my love."
"The nurses can take her….." Lily sighed as her eyelids started to close.
"She's fine where she is." Severus replied, clutching his baby close.
Just before Lily drifted off, she saw Severus holding onto their little girl for dear life.
Thinking about that, Lily smiled to herself in her dreams.
Severus had lost out on being with his son through the early years of his life.
Severus was not interested in allowing anyone to rob him of the same opportunity with his daughter.