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

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Harriet and Severus left the specialist's office in a heavy silence, filled with uncertainty.

Harriet didn't want to be a burden.

Severus didn't want to appear overbearing.

They both knew that Harriet and the baby needed help…..help that Severus could easily provide.

It was already late in the evening when they stepped back out into the street.

Most of the shops were closed and the sidewalks were largely desolate, which left Harriet and Severus alone in the stillness of the night to face the question that both of them were anxiously pondering…...where did they go from there?

Severus was ashamed to admit he didn't have a home besides his chambers at Hogwarts that he would consider decent enough to invite Mother Hen to occupy.

Years ago, Severus had inherited his childhood dwelling at Spinner's End, but he loathed the place.

He had spent very little of his time and money to lift it from its dingy state of decay and he had no interest in doing so.

Since Severus considered Hogwarts to be his true home, he had never seen the reason to invest in real estate, why would he have spent his earnings on useless property?

"...I suppose I'll be off then." Harriet nodded to Severus, finally breaking that lengthy, uncomfortable silence.

"Absolutely not. Have you gone deaf, Potter?" Severus asked in his low, rumbling voice, "I'm to look after you, remember?"

"That's alright." Harriet said with a humorless chuckle and a shake of her head, "You don't have to do that."

"No…...I don't." Severus said as he took a step towards the omega when she turned to leave, "But I'm going to, regardless."

Harriet laid a hand on her little belly as she gazed up at Severus.

She could see from the anguished look on his pale face that he was trying very hard to come up with a viable solution.

"I'm the headmaster, I can have a guest in my chambers if I choose, even for months on end." Severus confidently declared.

"Thanks, but…….actually, I'd rather be in my own home, if that's possible." Harriet quietly replied.

Severus took her answer as a refusal at first until she added, "There's plenty of room for you there... I know it's small, but there's a spare bedroom that you're welcome to use for the time being."

Severus frowned down at Harriet for another long moment before he slowly reached his hand out towards her.

Harriet blinked and accepted his offer as she took his hand in hers.

She held on tightly while Severus pulled out his wand and apparated them both back to her humble cottage.

Harriet wasn't sure what she had expected, but she hadn't anticipated Severus to walk her up to her door and see her safely inside before he disappeared in a swirling flourish of billowing, black robes.

Harriet frowned to herself once she was alone.

Alone.

He had left her alone.

Harriet sat down on the small sofa in her living room and tried not to indulge the hormone-fueled tears that gathered in her green eyes as she brushed a hand across the small mound of her belly.

She knew it had been a mistake to invite Severus Snape to live in her house.

What had she been thinking?

Was an exchange of letters and a baby conceived without his knowledge or consent enough to undo the frigidity that had existed between them?

Harriet sniffed and tried to keep her head level as she thought.

Severus Snape kept his promises, she knew that well enough.

He would most likely be by to check on her every week or so and see how she and the baby were doing.

Harriet sniffed again and fought back a nauseating wave of excruciating loneliness and bitter rejection.

She raised a hand to rub her face when a short, powerful knock landed on her front door.

Harriet blinked and walked over to answer the sound. With a frown on her lips, she opened the door and saw Severus standing on her front stoop with a trunk clutched in his right hand.

"Oh……..You've come back." Harriet said with a soft smile of pleasant shock.

"Did I say that I wouldn't?" Severus asked her curtly.

"No. Please, come in." Harriet replied as she stepped to the side and let Severus sweep past her into her living area.

"Here, I'll show you to your room." Harriet went on as she closed the door and walked towards the stairs.

"Do you feel strong enough to use the staircase?" Severus asked quickly. The urgency in his voice caused Harriet to stop and look over at him in surprise as he worriedly continued, "I can help you, if need be. Don't push yourself, Potter. Fledgling's survival depends on you relying on me, not your own arrogant pride."

"I haven't felt weak, though, I've been nauseous at times, but not weak." Harriet replied honestly, "Thank you for your concern, Father Raven, but I can use the stairs."

"If you insist, Mother Hen~." Severus answered with an unreadable look on his face.

Silently, Harriet ascended the stairs with Severus walking carefully behind her. He dared not touch her, but he kept his hand hovering over the small of her back as a precaution.

Should Mother Hen lose her balance or feel light-headed, Father Raven was prepared to steady her.

Severus noticed that despite Harriet's bold assertion, by the time they reached the top of the stairs, she was breathing rather hard.

Severus watched her tremble while she raised a hand to her head.

He opened his mouth to speak but Harriet swallowed, collected herself, and looked at him before he managed to ask her again if she was alright.

"Right over there." Harriet gestured as she walked with Severus down the short hallway.

Harriet's cottage was not large by any means, the downstairs consisted of the living area, the dining table, and the kitchen, all in one room.

The upstairs, as Severus discovered, held the lavatory, Harriet's bedroom, and two others.

As they passed Harriet's room and came to the door beside it, Severus assumed that the third vacant room, which was directly across from her bedchamber, would belong to his son or daughter in a few months.

Harriet opened the door and waited for Severus to step inside, which he did after he threw her a cautious glance.

He was relieved to see that her breathing had steadied.

"The room isn't terribly large, but mine isn't either.." Harriet said as Severus looked around what would serve as his temporary lodgings.

Severus wordlessly sat his trunk down on the bed in the room and as he began to unpack, Harriet went to leave and give him some time to get settled.

"Where are you going?" Severus called to her just before she disappeared out of the doorway.

Harriet blinked in surprise and looked over her shoulder at Severus as she stammered, "Oh, I was going to-um…..I thought you might like a moment alone."

"If I wanted a moment alone, I wouldn't be here right now." Severus snapped, "Please get off your feet, but stay in my sight."

The only chair in the room looked uninviting to the pregnant omega so she walked over and crawled directly onto Severus's bed.

He watched her move around on top of the duvet until she was comfortable.

Harriet noticed that Severus kept glancing at her while he unpacked.

His black eyes glistened as he spoke, "If you tell me what you'd prefer for the evening meal, I'll prepare it after I'm finished."

"Oh, that's alright, really." Harriet said sheepishly.

She felt odd with Severus in her house, offering to cook food for her.

It was a bizarre situation to Harriet and after years on the receiving end of his abrasiveness, she didn't quite know how to handle the unexpected kindness that he was showing her.

Severus threw her such a brooding glare that Harriet felt embarrassed that she had spoken at all.

In silence, they occupied the same room while he finished emptying his trunk and then he promptly walked over and held a hand out to her again.

Harriet didn't know if he was going to help her up or what he had planned, but she laid her hand in his and watched as he took a deep breath in and closed his eyes while his fingers gently pushed across the bones in her hands.

Severus let out his breath, opened his eyes, and dropped Harriet's hand.

He cast her one last, annoyed grimace as he left the room.

When Harriet heard him walk downstairs towards the kitchen, she called out to him and declared, "Hang on! I can show you where the pans are kept!"

"Off your feet, Potter!" Severus growled back in reply.

The unintended roughness in his low voice quieted Harriet as her cheeks heated in spite of herself.

Severus didn't sound angry, but he did sound very…...dominant.

It was a thrill for Harriet, really, to have an alpha in her home that was so fiercely intent on protecting her and her baby.

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Harriet couldn't put her finger on exactly what that smell was as it wafted up the stairs and into her room.

She only knew that the scent was delicious and it was making her mouth water…..

When Severus came to retrieve her for dinner, he offered her both of his hands before he helped her stand to her feet and walk.

As they went down the staircase, Severus kept a hand hovering over the small of her back once again, just in case she lost her balance.

When Harriet reached the bottom of the stairs and looked at the meal Severus had prepared for them, her green eyes widened.

So that had been the source of that lovely smell…...

Harriet hadn't even known she wanted that particular meal until she saw it, but as she looked at the plates full of sausage, cabbage, and rosemary roasted potatoes, she found herself struggling not to drool.

Severus stood at her side and he smirked as he watched the omega hungrily eye the food he had worked to ready for her while she rested a hand on her small belly.

"Go on." Severus coaxed Harriet in a low purr as he led her over to the table and pulled out her chair, "Eat your fill, Mother Hen."

Harriet didn't have to be urged on twice as she readily took her seat.

As soon as Severus sat down and she was no longer under any polite obligation to wait, the pregnant omega zealously devoured the food on her plate.

Severus watched with the hint of a proud grin as Harriet greedily consumed her meal, which to her, tasted as good as it looked and smelled.

He couldn't help but inwardly congratulate himself on making the woman who was mothering his unborn happy. Pleasing an omega in any way was a victory for an alpha and as Harriet sat back once she was finished and sighed, Severus asked as his dark eyes flickered down to her tiny belly, "...I trust it was satisfactory?"

"Oh, yes…..." Harriet breathed with a satisfied gasp, "Thank you."

The intimate hitch in her voice sent an unwelcome pulse of arousal coursing through Severus's groin and he flinched at the intrusive feeling.

"How did you know that was exactly what I wanted?" Harriet asked Severus curiously.

"You're carrying my child." Severus replied and as he paused, Harriet thought back to the moment that he had taken her hand upstairs as he asked her, "...How could I not?"

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That night, Severus and Harriet retreated to their separate bedrooms, washed up, and laid down in their separate beds.

Harriet sighed as she crawled into the nest she had made, closed her eyes, and tried to focus on the soothing presence that she felt with the alpha in her home.

Across the hall, Severus frowned as he stared up at the ceiling.

Harriet hadn't meant to, he was sure, but because she had laid on his bed, the duvet was bathed in her scent.

It was an incomprehensible, foreign torture for Severus, to be able to smell the pregnant omega, yet not able to hold her close.