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Once more, this is a just-in-case-I'm-away chapter (because I'm such a nice person!). This one is a Severus chapter…

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Severus knew he had to tell her, did not know how.

How does one tell a woman you barely know that she is carrying your child? he thought, closing his office door behind him and sinking into his chair with a sigh. How is it done?

He had no-one to turn to ask advice. Every prospective parent he had ever met had been happily married and beaming when they announced their imminent arrival. James Potter's smiling face came into his head. Well, he had said at a meeting of the Order, Lily and I have some news. We're going to have a baby.

He almost fainted when I told him, Lily had added, poking James in the ribs.

That was it. The mother usually knew before the father. He was in a sad conundrum.

To face facts, Severus thought, the person with the closest experience to mine is Sirius Black.

Sirius had had a child out of wedlock. Regina's child. A child that he did not know about.

Severus let a wry smile curve his lips. At least I know I am an expectant father, he thought. I am beating him in that department, at least.

But the truth was that he could never equal Sirius Black. Sirius had won Regina, and he had lost.

And my consolation prize? A child with a woman six years younger than me, whom I barely know.

Severus put his head in his hands. What am I going to do?

He could not just leave Helena. That he knew. He would not let her bring up a child all by herself - as Regina had seemed determined to do. And the child was - would be, anyway - his heir. He had not otherwise procreated, and the Snape estate had to go to someone.

But what relationship did he now pursue with Helena Seraphim? The father who dropped round every Sunday and paid child support? Did he offer to keep the child with him at Hogwarts? Did he offer to marry her?

And, moreover, would she accept him if he did?

She deserved more, he knew. Helena Seraphim deserved more than a broken-spirited Potions professor with a life as a double agent, the Dark Mark on his arm and his heart behind the veil with the mother of another man's child. He had nothing to offer her.

But he did have a duty to her. He had fathered her child.

I will do what is necessary, he thought. I must.

He picked up a box off his desk and opened it. He gazed at the contents for a long time before he took something out and pocketed it.

*

Half an hour later, he wrapped on Helena's door.

"Come in!" he heard her call, and he pushed the door open.

She was sitting in a chair by her fire, merrily chatting to someone. "Did he really - oh." Her voice took on a more sombre tone. "Hello, Severus."

"Hello," he replied. What else am I supposed to say?

"Well, Helena, I'd best be off," her visitor said, standing. He stooped and kissed Helena on both cheeks and his eyes lingered on hers a long time before he straightened. "I'll come by tomorrow morning after breakfast, and we'll finish our little chat."

Helena smiled. "I'd like that."

The man glanced at Severus fleetingly before going out the door and Severus saw suspicion in his eye.

It was Bill Weasley.

*

"What was Weasley doing here?" Severus demanded without ceremony.

Helena regarded him coolly. "It is not really your business," she said, "but Bill and I were in the same year at school. We were… friends, and we were reminiscing for old times sake."

Severus snorted. "You want to be more careful who you associate with."

He half expected Helena to shout at him. It was what most women would have done. But she merely considered him icily through her slate-grey eyes. "What is wrong with Bill Weasley?"

"He's ostentatious and pretentious," Severus replied disparagingly. "He's a living breathing affectation."

"And you aren't?"

"What?"

Helena calmly folded her hands. "You don't bother washing your hair, you habitually wear black and favour Slytherin. You refrain from kindness and compassion at all costs, particularly where it concerns Gryffindors. You spend your life acting like a complete cad so the students will believe you are. So the children of Aurors believe you are a Death Eater and, more importantly, the children of Death Eaters believe it too. But that is not who you are." Her grey eyes seemed to be piercing into his skull. "Compared to a ponytail, a fang earring and a pair of dragonhide boots, your affectations are great indeed."

Severus glared at her. "My affectations," he said from between gritted teeth, "are not a matter of choice." His fingers found something in his pocket and, surreptitiously, he stuck it on the underside of the table.

"Are you sure?"

"What do you mean, am I sure?"

Helena rose. "If you did not have to pretend to 'behave badly,' per se, would you not still behave the same way? Would you be fair? Would you still hate? - and I know you hate, Severus."

Severus turned away. "As well ask how many ripples a leaf will make when it is dropped in a puddle, Helena," he snapped. "I am shaped by my experiences."

"Your race has begun to learn, I see."

Severus chose to ignore this cryptic comment. "Sit down, Helena," he told her tersely. "I have something to tell you."

Helena sat calmly and steepled her fingers. "I am listening."

Severus remained standing. He could not bear to sit. "I have not the faintest idea what the accepted mode is in making this kind of declaration," he said curtly, "so I will be blunt." He took a deep breath. "You are carrying my child."

A normal woman, Severus reflected, would have thrown something at him, or fainted, or screamed. At least gasped. But not Helena Seraphim. She merely raised her eyebrows.

"And how can you be so sure this child - if a child there is - is yours?"

Severus opened his mouth. And shut it again.

"You don't know," Helena said. A statement. She stood, crossed the room, faced him. "There is no way you could know."

"I - I assumed -"

Her eyes grew hard. "The ego of a man. Always to assume, never to think." She turned away abruptly. "I suggest you leave, Severus."

"Please - Helena!" He caught her arm.

"Let go of me, Severus," she said quietly.

"Helena -"

"I SAID, LET GO!"

Her eyes were blazing now as she turned on him. Involuntarily, Severus took a step backwards. "Helena -"

"Don't you think you've done enough damage already?" she hissed. "Go!"

He stood his ground. "I want you to know," he told her quietly, "that I will support you. I will marry you, if that is what you want."

"What I want," she grated, "is for you to leave. Now."

Severus did not need to be told again. Without a further word, he stepped out of the door and, perhaps, out of her life.

*

Outside, he leaned his head against the wall, breathing deeply. He could hear her crying inside the room, great shuddering sobs that he imagined racked her whole body. "Helena," he murmured. "I'm sorry."

"I'm afraid sorry isn't good enough, Snape."

Severus wheeled. "Who's there?"

"Oh, just a living breathing affectation," Bill Weasley said dryly, stepping out of the shadows.

"You were listening?"

Bill's blue eyes were hard. "You made her cry, you bastard!"

And he punched Severus in the face.

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