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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"WWWWWAAAAA!"
"WWWWWWWAAAA!"
Fledgling's cries rang out into the otherwise silent room as Mother Hen and Father Raven looked at their wriggling, new baby in awe.
The specialist had a satisfied smile on her face as she shuffled her supplies around.
Father Raven was so hypnotized by that small, screaming being that he didn't even hear the specialist when she first called to him, "Mr. Snape?"
Severus failed to answer and she tried again, "Mr. Snape?"
Father Raven's black eyes and attention remained solely focused on fledgling.
"Mr. Snape!" The specialist finally shouted.
By increasing her volume, the specialist finally succeeded in getting Severus to notice her as he started violently and glared in her direction with his brow furrowed.
"WWWWAAAA!"
"Would you like to sever the cord?" The specialist asked with a smile.
"WWWWAAA!"
Father Raven stared at the specialist with an unreadable expression for a moment before he stepped forward.
He thoughtfully sanitized his hands with a spell, not willing to leave a single safety precaution untaken.
He carefully followed the healthcare worker's exact instructions as he cut through the last remaining physical connection between Mother Hen and fledgling.
When Harriet groaned softly, fear gripped Severus's heart.
The specialist had commended his completion of the task.
……….Had he hurt Harriet somehow?
Severus watched her start to writhe on the bed and he hurriedly looked over at the specialist with grim worry in his dark eyes.
"WWWWAAAA!"
"Everything's alright." The specialist reassured them both after she took a quick glance at Harriet, "...But we do need to get things finished up. Mr. Snape, I'll have you hold the baby while I assist Ms. Potter with this last bit."
"WWWAAAA!"
Severus's pulse raced as he leaned over to Harriet and let her gently pass that amazing little bundle right into his waiting arms.
"WWWAAA!"
As supportive as Father Raven had tried to be to Mother Hen, he hardly noticed her head falling back against the pillows as pain echoed through her abused womb while her body began the final portion of the birth's work.
At that moment, Severus could have been standing anywhere and for once, he wouldn't have noticed anything or anyone.
All Father Raven could focus on was the soft weight in his arms while he cradled his precious bundle close.
The infant's wails had turned into soft whimpers and as the baby fidgeted in her swaddled wrappings, Severus moved the cloth aside just enough to get a better look at his tiny daughter's face.
When he saw the tufts of red hair that covered her head, the softness of her features, and the trusting way that she stared up at him, as if he were the most important person in the world, Severus's breath hitched and his mouth fell open.
What struck him in the heart most about his infant daughter though was her eyes.
Those green eyes, the same shape and color that he had seen twice before, those were the eyes with which his infant daughter stared up at him.
Severus was ashamed to admit that those innocent, trusting, emerald eyes made tears well in his own dark gaze of molten ore.
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Once the specialist had finished helping Harriet with the birth, cleaned mother and baby, and changed the sheets, the two women looked over at Severus, but he didn't seem to pay them much attention.
Severus was sitting at Harriet's bedside with fledgling in his arms as he continued to stare down at her in silent wonder.
Harriet glanced over at the specialist and the woman flashed her a knowing smile in return.
The specialist found it adorable whenever she saw an alpha instantly bond with his pup.
Bonding was easy for omegas.
Alphas, however, sometimes took quite a while to establish a connection with their offspring, for others, the process was immediate, primal, and unconditional.
Severus appeared to fall into the latter category.
When the baby began to nuzzle against his chest, he frowned and the specialist cleared her throat.
"Mr. Snape?" She asked quietly.
Severus glanced up with his jaw set, as if he had been rudely interrupted from a very crucial activity.
"Your daughter's getting hungry." The specialist smiled with a kind nod.
The specialist was well aware of the raging hormones and emotions that both parents were ensnared in right after a birth.
She was doing her best to be tactful with how she spoke to Mother Hen and Father Raven.
Severus glanced over at Harriet for a fleeting second and scowled at her as if her very presence were an offense.
Harriet frowned at him as she held out her arms to take her baby.
"Severus……..please?" She asked quietly.
That fleeting second passed.
Once Severus remembered himself, his instinctive scowl of overprotectiveness faded away.
Reluctantly, he leaned over and handed the baby to Harriet.
While Harriet settled back against the pillows of her nest, the baby could already smell the sustenance in her breasts and began to fuss impatiently.
"WWWAAA!"
Harriet glanced up at the specialist and Severus as a panicked look of uncertainty flashed across her face.
"WWWWAAA!"
Severus immediately responded to his infant's cries and Harriet's needy look of fright.
He was hovering over the omega before the specialist had a chance.
"WWWAAAA!"
Harriet juggled her crying newborn while the specialist moved forward to guide the new mother as Severus hurriedly exposed her full breasts.
"There you are, dear." The specialist nodded in approval as Harriet positioned her baby close to one of her fattened nipples.
"WWWWAAAA!"
Severus reached out to help, but the specialist laid her hand on his and pulled him back.
He looked over at the specialist with a scowl of angry warning but she shook her head as she spoke, "Mr. Snape, you have to let the mother learn how to do this herself. Are you always going to be here to help her?"
"WWWAAA!"
"I certainly will." Severus growled with a startling seriousness in his tone.
Father Raven was irked by the specialist's foolish question.
He was a teacher by trade, a dominant alpha, and a new father, of course he was going to help Mother Hen anytime that she struggled to care for fledgling.
The specialist blinked at Severus until the baby's fussy cries turned into sharp, rageful wails.
"WWWWAA!"
"She won't latch on!" Harriet exclaimed with more than a hint of panic in her voice as she looked up at her two assistants.
"WWWWAAA!"
"WWWWAAAA!"
His daughter's desperate cries of hunger rattled Severus down to his bones.
Between Harriet's hormones and the scent of his newborn, Severus struggled not to lose control.
His alpha instincts screamed at him to correct the total disaster that had developed.
His little pup was hungry and he didn't know how to help her take her meal.
He didn't-
"Hold still, Miss Potter, hold still!" The specialist cautioned Harriet.
Severus watched with narrowed eyes as the specialist put one hand on Harriet's plump breast and one hand on his baby.
He grit his teeth so tightly they nearly shattered as he hissed, "Be careful with them!"
"Mr. Snape, they're just fine." The specialist calmly but firmly reassured him.
A sudden surge of unmitigated rage threatened to overtake Severus for a horrible moment until the baby's woeful cries were silenced and replaced by a quiet, suckling noise.
Harriet sighed in relief.
As the specialist moved away, Severus frowned when he realized that his small daughter had found her target and was busy enjoying her first taste of her mother's milk.
"She's doing well, Daddy." The specialist laughed as she placed a comforting hand on Severus's shoulder and gave him another understanding smile, "They're both doing perfectly well."
It amused the specialist that her gentle words didn't seem to give Severus any peace at all.
If anything, after the specialist declared both Mother Hen and fledgling healthy, Father Raven moved closer to them.
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Severus paid the specialist several extra galleons to remain with the new family until the evening.
It appeared that things had gone well, but what if the situation took a turn for the worst?
What if Harriet suffered a spontaneous hemorrhage?
What if the baby had some sort of underlying health problem that had gone undetected and demanded emergency care?
Severus's paranoia didn't improve as the hours passed.
By that evening, after the specialist had left and Father Raven sat with Mother Hen in their bedroom, alone with their tiny, sleeping infant, it was difficult for him not to get caught up in the coziness of the moment.
Outside, the snow fell again as the fireplace crackled invitingly while it filled the room with its welcoming warmth and bathed everything in its radiant glow.
Harriet kissed her sleeping baby's fragile head and glanced over at Severus with a smile.
She couldn't have asked for a better alpha.
Severus had brought Harriet her meals that day, along with anything she requested.
He had changed the baby at every available turn after the specialist educated him on the proper technique.
Severus had gently but thoroughly slathered Harriet in the many creams and lotions he had made for her breasts and belly.
After he had obtained the specialist's permission, he had also given Harriet a dose of the unique healing tonic that he had prepared to ease her soreness and aid in her recovery.
As they sat together that evening in Harriet's nest, her eyelids were growing heavy with sleep, but she knew that Severus would gladly hold their daughter while she rested.
"She needs a name……." Harriet whispered through her exhaustion as she glanced at Severus.
The stare that he gave her in return nearly broke her heart.
When he was silent, Harriet shrugged, "I have a suggestion…..."
Severus gave her another look until Harriet announced with a smile, "Lily."
It was a subtle motion, but Harriet still saw it, the way Severus drew in a breath at the mention of her mother.
For a moment, Harriet was afraid that she'd irritated Severus.
After a quiet pause though, his velvet voice curled from his throat as he spoke, "I think that's a very fitting name….. We'll sign the documents soon."
Harriet yawned and resisted the urge to stretch as she asked, "Do you mind holding her? I really need to-"
She blinked when she felt the baby being pulled from her arms.
Mother Hen chuckled at how swiftly Father Raven reclaimed his fledgling.
It wasn't all selfish though, once Severus had the baby securely in his grasp, he bent down and pressed a long, loving kiss to Harriet's lips while he used his free hand to help tuck her into the warm covers of her nest.
Harriet smiled up at Father Raven for a moment before her eyes closed and her tired body found respite in a deep sleep.
She felt confident that Severus would protect her and her baby.
Protect indeed.
Severus moved so deftly that there were no detectable footsteps as he carried his sleeping daughter and sat down in the chair at Harriet's bedside.
His black gaze was soft as he stared down at his baby with a careful frown.
A sudden crack rang out in the cottage and Severus immediately looked up, ready to battle whatever peril presented itself.
When Severus determined the sound had come from the house settling as a result of the cold, he glanced back down at his little one.
His dark eyes widened when he noticed that his tiny Lily gazed back at him.
The baby didn't cry or fuss or whine, she just stared up at her father inquisitively, awake and fully alert, as if she were waiting on him to speak.
There, in the stillness of the winter night, Severus made his daughter a solemn vow in his low purr of a voice, "I'll always protect you, Lily."
The baby blinked at him and he went on, "I'll always love you, Lily."
The baby made a quiet noise, in between a squeal and a coo, as if she were asking Severus about his sincerity.
"Always~." Severus reassured his small daughter with a purr.
The baby closed her eyes and made an adorable, soft noise as she pressed her cheek into the back fabric of the robes that covered Severus's chest.
Severus knew it was impossible.
Lily was an infant, only hours old, she couldn't understand him, she didn't know what he had said or what he had promised.
Regardless, that didn't stop the tears of raw emotion that began to pour from his black eyes for the rest of the night while he held his newborn close.
After years of struggling, fighting, loneliness, and torment, Severus Snape finally had something good, pure, and meaningful in his solitary life.
He was ready to go and battle all over again, if need be.
Through his silent tears, he looked over at Harriet as she lay sleeping.
Father Raven would do anything that it took, anything at all, to protect Mother Hen and fledgling.
It amused him, in a way, the irony of that thought.
Amusing or not, the truth was the truth.
Severus Snape was an alpha in love.
