Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you enjoy! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Updates every Saturday!

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Five years after the second wizarding world war, Severus Snape remained a man of highly debated character.

It was true that Severus Snape had done everything in his power to protect Harriet Potter. He had even allowed himself to die at the hands of the Dark Lord's most trusted servant, Nagini, the snake.

Well, he intended to, at least.

To Severus's great annoyance, he had survived his wounds. After his body healed, he returned to Hogwarts as headmaster and continued numbly along. He performed his duties and oversaw the school skillfully to uphold the promise that he had made to his fallen friend, Albus Dumbledore.

What did that matter?

There were many others who could have filled the role of Hogwarts' headmaster.

Severus Snape had never been a particularly happy person, but he was even less pleased with his life after the war.

From the moment that his dear Lily had been put into her grave by Voldemort, the only purpose of his continued existence was to watch over her child and do what he could to save those in the path of Voldemort's destruction.

Since Voldemort had been obliterated, Severus felt that he had nothing of any real meaning left to do.

The stoic alpha saw little point in breathing.

There was no one for him to watch, no one for him to protect, and no one for him to love.

During his days, his full schedule allowed him to stay busy and run from the true void of his reality.

During the nights however, the abject horror of the vast emptiness in his life threatened to consume Severus while he brooded alone in his rooms.

Alone.

Severus had been alone for most of his earthly years.

Even during his childhood, his parents had been neglectful and aloof.

He would always be alone.

Had anything that he had ever accomplished really mattered?

Severus was no fool, he understood how life and death worked.

He knew the fate of the solitary.

He would be gone one day and there would be no one one to mourn him or remember him, except perhaps a fleeting thought from the occasional student who paused to study his portrait.

Severus hadn't expected anything different when he had been certain that he would die in the war, but he had been rather hopeful that if his life ended in such a tumultuous time, the actions he had carried out would hold more positive and vivid resonance.

Those mortal issues were not ones that Severus enjoyed musing over, the want for a legacy, the need to be loved….. but as vulnerable as they were, they were human, and Severus Snape was human, with human needs and human wants, whether he liked to admit it or not.

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Severus became more and more restless with his inner struggles as time went on. Desperate to find peace in his life, during his free time, which had actually increased since the conclusion of the war and his promotion to headmaster, Severus attempted to scrape together a fragment of comfort.

He looked for every news article, bit of gossip, and any other updates he could gather on those which he had managed to save from Voldemort's clutches.

It gave him a small sense of secret pride to know that those witches and wizards were, at least in part, alive because of his deeds.

Along with Lily's child, those were people he had protected.

It was worth it, then, it was worth the snake's bite, it was worth existing to be of such good use.

That was the fact with which Severus comforted himself so he could sleep easier at night.

He checked on his accounts at Gringotts, he pawned off his memorabilia from the time he had spent masquerading as a death eater. He had no need for any of it anymore and he was quite surprised at the high prices that several macabre history collectors were willing to pay.

Severus had to do many things during the years he served Voldemort, even after he had switched sides and began working as a spy for the Order.

Severus had had to do terrible things that haunted him in his nightmares and tortured him when he encountered dreadfully lengthy moments of reflective silence……...

It was a rare occurrence, but when those dreaded memories became too much to bear, Severus sometimes cast his Patronus to chase away the darkness.

One such evening, he did just that. Sitting in his chair by the fireplace in his quarters at Hogwarts, Severus could bear the unpleasant recollections of the past no more.

He expertly waved his wand and whispered into the room, "Expecto Patronum!"

A burst of blue light flew from the tip of his wand and he waited to see the silver doe appear in front of him………...but he frowned when the doe whispered away after that initial flash of bright light.

That was odd.

Severus scowled incredulously as the embers crackled in the fireplace.

He decided to try again.

With that scowl still marring his features, Severus called out much more loudly, "Expecto Patronum!"

He saw it again, the bright flash of blue, perhaps a silhouette of what should have formed into the doe, and then it slipped through the stone wall and disappeared.

Severus didn't understand.

He had been able to cast that Patronus flawlessly for…...years.

The silver animal produced by the charm had never fled from his side unless he ordered it to do so.

Severus immediately began to investigate why his doe, the last reminder of more pleasant days, failed to stay with him.

He spent the majority of the night scouring through text after text.

His dark eyes narrowed as he read over one passage in a newer scientific journal about organ donation.

Severus was frustrated.

That didn't make any sense….none of it made any sense.

The passages were vague and the article in the scientific journal didn't apply to his situation.

He hadn't donated any organs.

Severus sighed to himself as he laid down in bed later that night and accepted the fact that along with his spirits, his magic must also be faltering.

As he slept restlessly with his face drawn, his mind retrieved and replayed a memory…….

It was an old memory that Severus had locked away with many others amidst the horrors of the war.

In his mind, Severus looked at himself as a much younger man while Voldemort loomed in front of him with a smile that was far too sweet and spoke…..

"Come now, Severus. Crabbe has taken a wife, Lucius has taken a wife, Regulus has taken a wife, even Goyle has married! Surely you can do the same?"

"If you insist, my lord." Severus nodded solemnly.

Voldemort sneered at his spy and crossed his arms, "You're a man of duty, Severus. I have a great respect for that…..I suppose if you remain unentangled, you're of better use to me. Regardless, my regime needs propagation in order to continue. I myself will never die, but I can't say the same for my most loyal servants, can I?"

"My lord?" Severus asked as he stared at Voldemort.

"I won't force marriage on you, but I do order you to spread yourself into the world, Severus. One day, perhaps, after you're no longer with me, I can recover your progeny to take your place at my side." Voldemort said with a delighted smile as if he had told a pleasant joke.

Severus vividly remembered the dismay he had felt as he walked through those doors in the basement of St. Mungo's…..

He remembered going into the room, sitting down, and waiting for the nurse to come and collect the piece of himself he had so reluctantly agreed to leave behind…..

Severus sat bolt upright from his sleep, drenched in a cold sweat.

His black eyes were wide and he panted for breath.

The sun was rising but Severus was so upset that he leapt out of bed, washed, dressed himself with two flicks of his wand, and scurried out of the castle.

As soon as he stepped over the Hogwarts' property line, he apparated straight to St. Mungo's and glided down the steps to the basement after he decided not to bother with the crowded lifts.

The organ and specimen collection lab was grimly situated beside the hospital's morgue but Severus paid that little mind as he stepped up to the desk and glared at the receptionist.

"May I help you, sir?" The heavyset woman asked as she glanced up from the records she was processing.

"I…….I need to…...retrieve something." The alpha murmured as he fumbled for words.

"I beg your pardon, sir?" The woman blinked.

Severus shot her a scowl as he replied, "A piece of myself…….it's been many years now, but I was forced to—-I left it here, and I'd like it back now, if you don't mind."

"May I have your information?" The woman asked as she pulled out a box full of records from her desk drawer.

"Severus Snape, date of birth January 9th, 1960." Severus replied.

"Alpha?" The woman asked.

"...Obviously." Severus said in a low growl of a whisper.

The woman pulled out an aged set of files and Severus watched as she shuffled through them.

His heart lightened when she seemed unable to find his record but he frowned when she abandoned the documents she had been searching through and turned towards a very recent-looking folder instead.

Her red lacquered fingernails shined as she flicked through parchment after parchment until she came to one that ended her search.

"Ah, yes, sir, I do apologize, but we're unable to release your…...sample." The witch nodded up at Severus as she peered at him over her glasses that sat low on her nose.

"Why? Was it destroyed?" Severus asked.

"No, it wasn't." The witch replied.

Severus's heart skipped a beat.

He had to swallow before he asked, "...Then may I ask why it is unable to be….returned…. to my possession?"

The woman looked down at the open page in the folder and peered closely at the words listed there as she stated, "I'm very sorry, sir, but we no longer have anything of yours. I can't tell you any more details beyond the fact that it is stated in our records that your sample was used….The resulting condition status was marked as 'viable'."

Severus's heart skipped a beat.

"What does that mean?" Severus asked tersely.

"It means you're a father, sir." The woman said as she smiled up at Severus warmly, "Congratulations!"

Severus's mind reeled and his stomach turned with crippling nausea.

So Voldemort's plan had succeeded after all?

What Severus had read in that scientific journal hadn't been a waste of his time after all.

His patronus wasn't disobeying him, it was going to wherever his child was.

His child……

Did he have a son or a daughter?

Had they died at birth?

Had he passed them on the street?

Had he spoken to them unknowingly?

Had they been one of his many students?

Another question pulled at the edges of Severus's sanity.

Which witch had come and claimed that fragment of himself?

That was the inquiry that burned in his mind.

"WHO?" Severus demanded as he leaned over the desk towards the woman.

The woman clamped the folder against her ample bosom and adjusted her glasses as she scowled back at Severus and replied, "I apologize, sir, but as I said, I can't give out anymore details. All donations and implantations are anonymous to both the sender and the recipient."

Severus didn't know what to think or what to feel.

He left St. Mungo's in such a whirlwind that he was back in his chambers in Hogwarts before he realized.

Filled with an anxious energy, Severus sat down at the writing desk beside his bed.

He sat in silence for a long time before he picked up a quill and began to pen a letter.

He could follow his patronus and find his son or daughter, but perhaps he should try a more subtle approach first.

His dark eyes followed the tip of the quill as it scratched across the parchment:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I apologize if you find this letter in error. I'm only a lonely raven looking for his fledgling. My robes are as dark as my world and I'm sending this in hopes of seeking out what little light is left in it. Many years ago, I left a piece of myself behind and I learned today that a mother hen carried that piece of me back to her nest and used it to hatch an egg. I would appreciate meeting you, fledgling. If this is something you're willing to consider, please reply to this message by sending your response with the same owl. I will interpret your silence to mean that you have no interest in such an arrangement and if so, I will trouble you no further.

Father Raven

Severus picked a nondescript gray owl from the owlery and sent it that same night to follow his patronus, which he cast once more by the crackling fireplace.

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"You've always been so bossy! I don't know what's stopping you now, Hermione!" Harriet Potter laughed as she sat across from her friend in the kitchen of her cottage.

The two omegas had just finished sharing a few cups of peppermint tea.

"I can't tell you what to do about this! Don't be ridiculous!" Hermione replied with an exasperated gasp of amusement.

Harriet looked down at the letter in her hands as she asked her friend, "Alright then….what would you do? Father Raven, that seems a bit ominous, doesn't it?"

"It's actually rather brilliant, Harriet. I think it's almost... poetic…….If it were me, I'd write him back." Hermione shrugged.

Harriet looked up at Hermione and asked suspiciously, "How has he found me?"

"There's loads of tracking spells, you know that. The letter said he was looking for a piece of himself, perhaps he changed his mind about being a donor and wants to be more involved, perhaps he's just curious." Hermione mused as they sat together.

Harriet sighed as she thought.

Hermione reached out and took her friend's hand in hers as she looked into the other Gryfinndor's eyes and went on, "I know you're brave and you want to do this on your own, but motherhood is…….difficult, Harriet. I don't think it would hurt to at least write him…..You know you have Ron and me, but you can't have enough support as a parent. Trust me, Harriet, it's an entirely new sort of war some days. Besides, what will you say one day when the baby asks about their father?"

Harriet took a moment and considered Hermione's advice.

She knew that her friend already had two little ones of her own at home and so, Hermione spoke from honest experience.

"Alright," Harriet nodded, "I'll think about it. It's not that I want to do it on my own, though...I chose to do it this way because I was tired of waiting for the right person, remember?"

"You always were fairly stubborn. Who knows? Maybe 'Father Raven' is the right person?" Hermione replied with a smirk.

"This isn't one of those romantic muggle comedy films, Hermione." Harriet laughed, "He's probably only curious, like you said."

"You'll never know if you don't reply to him……" Hermione teased.

That evening, after Hermione had gone back to her family and Harriet was alone in her home, she sat down and penned a reply to the mysterious message:

Father Raven,

I was quite surprised to receive your letter. I myself am also looking forward to meeting fledgling but I regret to inform you that I haven't yet hatched the egg in my nest. I'm certain that the life growing inside me would be interested in knowing his or her sire, though it pains me to hear that your world is so empty. I am an orphan myself. I have many friends but lack a family and was hoping to remedy that with the generous donation you unwittingly provided. Perhaps I'll hear from you soon?

Mother Hen

Harriet sent her letter back with that same gray owl from Hogwarts as she placed a hand over the small swell of her belly and exhaled.

The pregnant omega hadn't seen the silvery doe that had appeared outside of her window several times and she hadn't taken the time to contemplate the handwriting displayed in the letter.

If she had, she may have felt something besides excited anticipation about learning the identity of her unborn child's father.

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Severus's black eyes narrowed to slits as he read over the reply that the gray owl delivered a short while later.

He sucked in a breath as he looked up and stared off into the distance.

Instead of a response, Severus had really only received more questions.

Somewhere out there, a witch was wandering around, carrying his child.

Mother Hen.

Who was she?

...Was she alright?

………….Did she have everything that she needed?

Fledgling.

How was his child doing?

…...How soon would the birth take place?

Severus found himself longing to meet the woman that was mothering his baby.

Her reply had been kind and compassionate, Severus didn't yet know what he would write back in response yet, but he knew he would send his reply within a day.

Perhaps the mother of his child had enjoyed reading his letter…...perhaps she would enjoy his next one as well……..

Perhaps Severus's life may finally find meaning.