Chapter 11: Another Knot and Shocking News

March fell upon the Castle. Albus was spending less and less time at Hogwarts and Minerva was spending more and more time with Severus. It was a Saturday morning and they were lying together in his bed debating on the importance of getting up for breakfast. They rarely spent the entire night in each other's rooms so it was a luxury to wake up with his arm wrapped around her waist and his chest laying flush against her back.

She rolled onto her back so that she was lying in his arms. Her movements exposed the Celtic knot tattoo that was peeking out of the hem of her nightgown. Severus immediately began to trace it with his fingers. She loved the feeling of his fingertips caressing her skin.

"I want you to tattoo me" he said in his sleepy morning voice which was even more sultry than usual.

She was surprised by his request, "Why?" she asked

He rolled onto his back and stared at his ceiling trying to find the right words. "I am a complicated man living in a complicated situation. There are things I can't share with you. Things that are too dangerous for you to know." He paused and turned his head towards her but she stayed mute and let him continue.

"I don't know how much longer I will be able to live in two worlds. I want proof, somewhere on my body that this is real" he said softly.

Minerva stretched an arm out to him and ran it up is bare belly to his chest. She traced an invisible line that mirrored her tattoo on his chest. She then cupped his check saying "I assure you that I am very real"

He rested his hand on her hip and in a pleading voice said "will you do this for me?"

She nodded her head yes and then placed a gentle kiss on his lips. When he got up to change a weird sensation came over her. It felt like closure. She suddenly got very cold and scared and she pulled the covers up to her chin and curled herself into a fetal position.

XXXXX

During the day Minerva made her way to Hogsmeade to purchase the tattoo ink that she would need. It was a special magical ink that when you placed the tip of your wand in the vial, your wand edge became needle sharp. Then you simply traced the wand tip along the skin and the needle edge and ink would cut into the skin to make the tattoo.

Severus was lying on his back in his boxer shorts as Minerva made the last minute preparations. As she sat on the bed next to him she asked "where do you want it to start"

He reached up to touch the spot on her chest where her tattoo began "Right here" and then he traced his finger over her nipple down to her pubic area.

"Let's see how the chest goes before you decide just how far down you want to go" she said with a smile.

Minerva took her time, not to hurt him but to make sure her design was perfect. Severus stayed calm and outside of a few grimaces, he didn't seem to be in too much pain. He kept his eyes focused on her the entire time and Minerva found the experience hypnotic.

When she was done she was happy with her handiwork. She rubbed a soothing potion on his new tattoo and she said goodnight. He would find it painful to move in the night so she wanted to give him the space, both mentally and physically, that he would need.

The next morning Poppy and Minerva were sitting in the staff room enjoying a tea break, she was still the only staff member to suspect a relationship between she and Severus.

"Where is Severus this evening?" Poppy asked.

Minerva knew that Poppy had witnessed the chaste kiss that Severus gave her in the infirmary last summer but she was still not comfortable sharing what she and Severus had with anyone else. For his safety and her sanity. "Probably in his lab, why do you ask?

"Just curious, he has been spending much more time in the staff room lately so I was surprised he wasn't here?" What Poppy was actually saying is that whenever Minerva was in the staff room then Severus seemed to appear as well.

Minerva gave her dear friend "the look" that said that she knew what Poppy was getting on about. Poppy gave her a look right back that said fine don't tell me but I know you two are in it up to your eyebrows. They both smiled at one another and moved on to other topics.

A few minutes later Flitwich busted into the staff room yelling for Poppy to return to the infirmary at once. Ron Weasley had been poisoned!

The staff moved into crisis mode. Minerva told Flitwich to fetch Severus and she headed to the headmasters office. When she returned to the infirmary Ron was unconscious in bed. Harry was on one side of the bed while Hermione was on the other. Hermione held Ron's hand and spoke soft comforting words to a sleeping Ron.

Thankfully Albus was actually in the castle that day and when he finished getting the story from Slughorn and Harry, Minerva saw him share a pointed look with Severus. They both knew that Draco had made another poor attempt to "off" the headmaster. Severus didn't need to use legilimency to know that Albus was reminding him that the time was near and he was relying on Severus to complete his mission. It felt like a needle being pushed into the happy bubble that he allowed himself to believe could exist in his world.

Before he could fall too far down that rabbit hole he was pushed from behind as Ron's girlfriend, some fifth year Gryffindor, came running to Ron's bedside. She and Hermione began to argue. Just what Severus needed to complete his mood, some Gryffindor teenage love triangle drama. He quickly returned to his dungeons and was not terribly surprised to sense Minerva following him.

She watched his gate and determination as he descended the stairs two at a time. She was about to follow but then she recalled that last time she tried to disturb him after a student accident and she didn't want to repeat the events from the fall. She turned away and headed back to her chambers.

Over the next few weeks she noticed that he was once again moody and gloomy. He still came to her bed and she to his but the visits became less and less frequent and the conversations briefer. They would trace each other's tattoo, make love, lay tangled in the sheets, but they had almost completely stopped talking. Severus was slipping deeper and deeper into a depressive state and Minerva was unable to pull him out of it.

By May they had stopped sleeping together entirely.

There was no colossal fight or a decision to purposely avoid one another but they had morphed quickly from lovers and friends, to something else that Minerva couldn't really describe. It was something akin to mourning.

They saw each other frequently enough with meals and Saturday Apparation lessons for the fifth years but the longing glances, the stolen caresses, the nights in each other's beds was a thing of the past.

Minerva was starting to feel old and run down. That is what she kept telling herself when she was having trouble finding the energy to get through the day. By the middle of May she started to get splitting headaches and finally decided to confide in Poppy how she was feeling.

Poppy ran some tests and asked Minerva to come by after dinner for the results. When she entered Poppy's office and Minerva saw the look on Poppy's face, she knew something was wrong.

"What is it?" she said

"Please sit, Minerva"

That wasn't a good sign. Minerva began to panic "just tell me, I need to know!"

Poppy's face turned from concern to a brief smile as she said "Minerva, you are pregnant."