Stocking up the wagon with as much as they could, including small crates that contained as many of the chickens as they could catch, and horse feed they could find, without pushing poor Teddy too far, they said goodbye to the farmhouse that had been their shelter, their balm to their souls and sanity, and with a click of Severus' tongue, began their journey once more.

Hermione was getting very large now, and the bigger she got, the more worried Severus got. It was hard for them to estimate how far along she was in the pregnancy, her periods had been sporadic at best anyway no doubt due to the huge amount of stress they were under, but being unable to accurately track time, compared with Hermione's naturally small build meant that tracking the progression of her pregnancy was exceedingly difficult as she became larger and larger.

At their best estimation, Hermione was now around 7 months along, which made Severus's gut clench in worry. From the books they found it seems it wasn't uncommon at all for women to give birth in their 8th month as by then all the 'essentials' had developed and the last month of gestation was usually just growth and weight gain of the baby.

Severus was living in constant fear that she'd go into labour before they reached muck. If she went into labour, no amount of horse dung and chicken shit would mask them from the immune and the screamers. She didn't speak of it, but he knew Hermione was afraid too. After what happened at Samuel's birth, how could she not be? Severus himself was a short - tempered ball of nerves even thinking about the events surrounding his birth and all he had to go on was second hand recollections, not the firsthand and front-row view that Hermione had.

Still, she soldiered on and never spoke of it, but inside Severus Snape was truly afraid.

It was this fear that caused him to push Teddy further each day. They were making more time than they ever had before, but still Severus pushed the good tempered beast harder each day. Ever willing to please, the horse did as he asked until one day Hermione noticed him sweating trembling and foaming around his bit when they finally stopped for the day and had promptly read Severus the riot act. She was so mad she made him sleep on his own near the chickens, while she laid down by the horse. He was once again glaring jealous daggers at the beast, that playfully curled up his top lip at Severus as though mocking him, while Hermione's soft hands gently massaged the beasts neck. She forgave him in the morning of course, but only once she'd emphatically, and with a bruising finger pointing painfully into his chest for emphasis, explained in great detail why it was a bad idea to push Teddy so hard. Though her anger at him was more than enough justification for him to see the error of his ways, along with the very real threat of being completely cut off from any type of intimacy until their child was old enough to have enrolled in Hogwarts. The nicker Teddy gave sounded so much like mocking laughter that Severus glared at the hairy beast, though wisely kept his mouth shut.

oOo

The great beast that Teddy was, surprisingly continued to remain obedient in the cart, despite the seeming rivalry the two males had over the attentions of the lone female in the group, though Severus was certain it was more to do with the fact that Hermione was in the cart with him, and the beast would no sooner hurt her than it would spontaneously turn purple. He once more reconsidered his thoughts that he was being cuckolded, when he watched how she would giggle when the beast would 'kiss' her on the lips for treats or scratches.

In a jealous fit of rage, the types of which he hadn't had since a teenager, that he regretted almost instantly, he even untied the horse from its tether one night in the hopes it would wander off and he'd not have to compete for Hermione's affections once more. Only to find the beast just wandered over to Hermione's side of the cart and went to sleep with his head over the side, nose touching her shoulder. Always half asleep, due to years of the need to be on guard, he even heard her move a few paces away from the cart in the night to go to the toilet, and the horse dutifully plodded behind her. Even allowing her to lean on him so that she could have a wee unaided, seeing as she could no longer get up from a crouch on her own. Until now, even that less-than-stellar job had been Severus's and as he cracked open one eye he watched her waddling back to the cart, one hand leaning on the monstrous beast as he matched her step for step like a giant guide dog. She giggled when his huge head once more appeared over the side of the cart and nudged her belly gently as Hermione stroked his head and cooed to him affectionately.

The baby was quite active now, and they had shared many moments together wondering over the movement of the life they had created, and once Teddy had noticed too, he had seemed equally as enraptured the by the strange movement in her belly, often pressing his nose gently to her stomach and snuffling it, ears pricked forward in rapt attention.

oOo

Things changed dramatically when Severus was gathering fresh water from a nearby stream and he heard Hermione's loud scream coming from the direction of the cart, followed by a familiar and terrifying howl. Abandoning his buckets and with terror gripping his insides, he'd thrown himself into a run until his eyes streamed and his lungs burned.

He arrived to see Hermione being dragged over the side of the cart by her hair and on to the floor, by a screamer. But Teddy...Teddy was magnificent.

With righteous squealing anger, the giant horse had immediately sank his large teeth into the shoulder of the screamer and yanked him backwards and away from Hermione. Quicker and more gracefully than Severus thought possible of the giant and lumbering beast, the horse had spun on his back feet, launching the screamer feet away whilst he put himself between the screamer and Hermione.

Severus flew between them, putting himself between Hermione and Teddy lest a misstep from him crush her.

Rearing up to his substantial height and angrily squealing in a noise he'd never heard from the gentle horse before, he landed a impressive 'punch' with his front hoof that brought the advancing screamer to the ground, after it had ripped a chunk out of teddy's neck with his teeth.

Now grounded, Severus's stomach rolled when the thing met their eyes and began to with determination drag itself along the floor towards them. Though was promptly stopped with a sickening crunch when the horse reared up and stomped with all his weight on the things head. The hooves larger than dinner plates made quick work of the screamer, and with a few well placed stomps the thing was truly dead.

Hermione was sobbing and taking one of her arms around his neck, he was shocked to find a large head there ready to support the other, as hermione held onto Severus with one arm and Teddy with another. With steps that seemed too cautious and gentle for an animal his size, they led Hermione back into the cart and sat her down. She was shaken, scraped and winded but assuring both concerned males that she was ok.

He had a hand pressed against her belly, his unasked question heavy in the air, and he almost started when he felt a velvety soft nose press alongside his hand, on the swell of her belly.

And Hermione started laughing through frightened tears, as she looked at two concerned faces and assured them both that she and the baby were fine.

oOo

That night Severus gave into Hermione's wishes to groom Teddy. She'd had been asking him for a while, she too short to do it properly in her condition, and Severus had always grumpily refused. That night though, without being prompted or told, he'd used a gentle healing spell and taken over the grooming items and silently begun to groom him by himself. He went through every process that Hermione had taught him, from cleaning his feet, getting all the burrs and snarls out of his mane and tail and brushing his coat until it shone. It was with some level of shame, the moment he started he felt the sensation of the horse mouthing his back, in what Hermione had previously explained to him about 'grooming him in return' and it was then he realised the horse had never played favourites, showering Hermione with affection to make him jealous. He simply returned the love he was given...and until now Severus had never given it, and when he did the horse had returned it without hesitation. When he was finished he regarded the beast eye to eye for a moment, before in a rare show of emotion wrapping his arms around its neck and hugging it tightly, face pressed into its warm neck.

"Thank You Teddy"

The horse just nickered softly and mouthed his hair.