Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
—
For Mother Hen and Father Raven, the time until Friday passed by at a torturously slow pace.
Severus promptly sent a reply to Harriet's invitation, but he didn't realize that the grey owl who carried the parcel had flown through a violent storm on its way to Mother Hen's and mistakenly delivered the letter to the wrong address.
While Severus looked forward to learning more about his unborn child, Mother Hen was devastated that Father Raven chose not to respond to her last letter.
She tried to push him out of her thoughts after she spent far too long agonizing over what the chances were that he would attend her healer's appointment.
Harriet wasn't daft.
Their clever little game had ended.
Father Raven was Severus Snape, and Severus Snape could never love a child mothered by his least favorite student.
The evening before Harriet's appointment with the healer, as she laid down for bed and closed her green eyes, a single tear of lamentful sadness rolled down her cheek just before she drifted off to sleep.
If Father Raven had been anyone else, anyone at all, then things may have been so very different…..
—
The following afternoon, Harriet arrived fifteen minutes early to the healer's office.
She sat patiently in the small waiting area with a gentle frown of disappointment on her face.
There was only one other person in the room besides Mother Hen and it was another patient, not Father Raven.
Exactly at Harriet's appointment time, the door that led to the back opened and the healer's assistant called out the omega's name.
Harriet fought back tears that she didn't understand as she rose to her feet and followed the woman down the hallway to an empty examination room.
"Are you alright, Ms. Potter?" The healer's assistant asked as she led the pregnant woman into the room and frowned at how distraught her patient seemed.
"Don't worry, I'm fine, thanks." Harry replied with a quick nod and a clearly insincere smile.
Harriet felt ashamed about being as upset as she was that Father Raven had chosen not to accompany her.
What other outcome had she really expected?
The assistant nodded respectfully but as she left the exam room and went to find the healer, she wore an expression on her face that was similar to Harriet's.
The assistant didn't know Harriet's situation, her true feelings, or anything about her pregnancy, that was all confidential information between Harriet and the healer.
Still, the assistant couldn't help but be filled with sympathy whenever she saw a patient who was so upset.
—
The healer came in a few minutes later and by then, Harriet had managed to quell her emotions.
The healer handed Harriet a cotton examination gown and then she stepped out of the room to give her patient some privacy so that the mother-to-be could comfortably change into her temporary garment.
While Harriet was busy removing her robes and placing herself in the gown, she blinked as she heard the healer speaking with someone in the hallway.
Someone with a deep, low, languid voice…...
Harriet finished changing and crawled back onto the exam table just before the healer rapped on the door.
"Come in!" Harriet called.
The door cracked open and the healer stuck her head inside the room as she asked with a nervous smile, "Ms. Potter, there's someone here to see you…..He says he was supposed to meet you here, but his schedule has run behind all day."
"Is it Severus Snape?" Harriet asked bluntly.
She knew that despite her healer's tactful attitude, after the war, mostly everyone in the wizarding world knew who Severus was and could easily recognize him.
The healer seemed a little startled by Harriet's question and she hesitated a moment before she nodded and replied, "...Yes, Ms. Potter, it is."
"Let him in." Harriet quietly commanded.
The healer nodded and opened the door.
Harriet pulled the sheet on the table over herself as her healthcare provider walked into the room and Severus glided stealthily behind her like a large bat.
Severus walked over and respectfully sat down in the chair at Harriet's side while the healer gathered her records and prepared to begin Harriet's exam.
"Busy day, Father Raven?" Harriet whispered quickly to Severus.
"You have no idea." Severus responded in a dry, irritated tone. As annoyed as he sounded, his black eyes seemed to soften while he gazed at Harriet and added, "I hope that you can forgive my tardiness, Mother Hen."
Harriet was so relieved that Severus had come, she didn't think to ask him about why he had never responded to her invitation.
"Of course." Harriet replied. She laid a hand on the small swell of her belly and smiled as she spoke, "Fledgling's just glad that you're here."
An unreadable expression crossed Severus's pale face as he stared at Harriet's growing womb.
Severus almost looked like he was in great pain and it made Harriet frown to see.
Harriet opened her mouth to speak again but she was cut off by the healer as the woman turned to the unlikely couple, whom she never expected to see in her office, and gave them both a professional smile while she asked, "Right then! Are we ready to get started today?"
—
Having Severus with her at her healer's appointment was more awkward than Harriet had expected.
Harriet felt like it would be too rude to ask Severus to stand in the hallway, so she answered the healer's questions during the first portion of the appointment without a second thought.
Everything went fine at first.
Harriet had no issue discussing her exhaustion or headaches in front of Severus, but when the healer asked about Harriet's more personal issues, specifically her breast tenderness and vaginal dryness, Severus stayed stoically silent.
He looked as uncomfortable as Harriet did while she answered the healer's inquiries with brutal honesty.
Mercifully, the questions were over quickly and the healer moved on to the part of Harriet's exam that Severus had come to witness.
"Mr. Snape, if you want to watch just above her here, we're going to get a first glimpse at the wee one." The healer said with a smile as she pointed to the air above Harriet with a finger.
Severus threw the healer a distrustful glare for a brief second.
Instead of following the woman's instructions right away, he watched closely as she pulled the sheet aside and discreetly exposed Harriet's bare belly.
Harriet blinked as Severus looked on while the healer laid her wand over the place on Harriet's abdomen where their unborn child lay and murmured something under her breath.
A gentle light emanated from the tip of the healer's wand and Severus followed its path as it melted over Harriet and moved straight up in the air to form a picture.
Harriet's eyes followed the direction of Severus's gaze and they both stared in wonder at what they saw.
It was still very early, but the image formed in front of them was similar, although much clearer, to those procedures that muggles called "ultrasounds".
The healer's spell offered Father Raven and Mother Hen a peek at the little life that was forming.
Both of the baby's parents stared at its visage in disbelieving awe.
While they gazed at their baby as it squirmed ever so slightly in Harriet's womb, she and Severus glanced over at each other.
Severus gave Harriet a quick, jerky nod and she smiled at him wryly.
Perhaps they could do this, they could share the child peacefully.
Severus very much wanted to be involved in his son or daughter's life and that was something that Harriet respected, despite their past.
Unlike the mother and father in front of her, the healer was examining the image of the baby from a clinician's viewpoint.
It was not the healer's job to ooh and aah over the fetus, it was her job to ensure the health of the mother and baby.
Sometimes, that was a very difficult job.
"Oh….." The healer said with a frown as she stared up at what could be seen of the baby.
Harriet's heart instinctively clenched at the worried tone in the healer's voice.
"Oh…..?" Severus repeated as he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the healer.
Oh?
What did that mean?
Father Raven knew something was wrong by the dismay on the healer's face.
Severus watched as Harriet laid a hand on her belly after the healer ended the spell and spoke, "I'm sorry to tell you two this, but…..there's some…...irregularities….that I can see. I think it's best, Ms. Potter, if you see a healer who specializes in looking after the unborn. I provide prenatal care, of course, but it's not my specialty."
"W-What's wrong with my baby?" Harriet asked worriedly.
Her green eyes were almost wild with panic as she glanced frantically between Severus and the healer.
Severus's heart sank as he watched Mother Hen lay there on the exam table, helpless and desperate to defend her child….his child.
He had to clasp his hands together to avoid reaching out and grabbing Harriet's sympathetically.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Potter, Mr. Snape," The healer said with a polite nod of her head. "But I'm afraid I don't have the qualifications to determine that. Please stop up front at reception and my secretary will schedule an appointment for you with a specialist."
Harriet was going to ask more questions but the healer nodded to them both quickly and scurried out of the room before she or Severus had a chance to speak.
On the exam table, Harriet held her little belly in her hands as large, wet tears welled in her green eyes again.
As Father Raven looked at Mother Hen, his stony heart filled with pity.
Severus was unable to hold back any longer.
In one fluid motion, he reached out and grabbed one of Harriet's hands.
To Severus's surprise, instead of clutching onto him, Harriet brought his palm flat against her abdomen and looked up at him as her green eyes widened in a silent call for help.
Severus hadn't even seen that many pregnant women before, much less gotten to touch one's naked belly.
As he sat there, with his hand over his struggling fledgling, determination rose in Father Raven.
As he watched Harriet start to cry, he felt the stirrings of duty rise inside him as a ferocious need to shield her from the pain of the world gnawed at the edges of his mind.
Severus Snape had spent years watching over Harriet Potter.
To protect her, Severus Snape had placed himself in mortal danger and allowed himself to become seriously wounded.
If Severus was willing to go to such lengths for Harriet Potter, it was difficult to imagine what he would do to save his child…...the only family he had left in the world.
