WARNING: MISCARRIAGE IN THE NEXT CHAPTERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Chapter Twenty Six
As the days blended together into weeks and then a month, Elaine had no hope left. It had been shattered within the first week, after listening to the repeat torture of those with her. For some reason, Elaine herself was never dragged upstairs to undergo the cruciatus, but this was never explained. Elaine wondered if Narcissa had told her husband about Elaine's pregnancy, but she wasn't sure how this would prevent Bellatrix from torturing her; the crazy witch didn't seem to care about anyone but herself.
Severus was weak from the constant torture and the lack of food. The dark lord himself had come back that afternoon to torture him, to perhaps get information out of him that Bellatrix hadn't been able to, but Severus kept his secrets locked so far down it would take a miracle to get them away.
He was drifting in and out of consciousness when the door banged open and Narcissa Malfoy marched in, tossing a plate of food in their direction. A single plate, for the four of them to share. But she looked at Elaine, her eyes softening as her eyes drifted to her abdomen. "The dark lord has allowed you to have a lantern," she said, her voice cold as she conjured one and, using magic, attached it to one of the cold walls. "Davies." Elaine looked up at her. "Your presence is required upstairs."
"My ..?" Elaine began, but Narcissa narrowed her eyes, effectively shutting her up. The blonde witch jerked her wand in Elaine's direction, silently ordering her to stand, and she did so, not daring to look at the others as she was escorted out. They made it halfway down the hall when Narcissa shoved her into a room, casting a quick privacy charm.
"Merlin, Elaine, you look awful," the witch clucked, eyeing her figure. "How are you feeling?"
"How am I- I'm a prisoner in your home, Narcissa," Elaine said coldly, not caring that she was without a wand and that Narcissa did have one. "How do you think I feel? Severus is -"
"Yes I know, Bella has been very vocal on what she's been doing to him," Narcissa interrupted. "Listen. We don't have long, they really do want you upstairs."
"For what?"
Narcissa looked at her for a moment, then pursed her lips. "My sister is giving birth."
Her words took a minute to register in Elaine's mind. "I'm sorry, what?" she said finally.
"Bella."
"B-" She stopped, staring at the blonde. "I thought the Lestrange brothers were sterile?"
"They are." Elaine could only stare as Narcissa confessed that Bellatrix had gotten pregnant - from the dark lord himself. The child wasn't due until May, but was coming now, and they required as much help as they could get, for this was the dark lord's heir, and none of them wanted to tell him that the child had died. "I think I can get you some leeway," Narcissa finished. "If he should win."
"And Severus?"
Something flashed in Narcissa's eyes. "I don't know about that," she admitted. "You, I can play off as not knowing anything - he still maintains that he did it all on his own, you know," she added. Elaine wasn't surprised.
The baby was a girl. After eight hours of labor, Bellatrix had given birth to a girl. Elaine stood with Narcissa, the latter holding the newborn out to her sister. But Bellatrix wouldn't look at the child, so ashamed at having given birth to a girl.
"What good is a girl?" she'd said, after Narcissa had announced the gender. "My lord was expecting a son."
"If you would just hold the child-" Narcissa tried.
"No. Take it away." Bellatrix glared at Elaine. "And take the traitor away too."
Elaine followed Narcissa out of the room, up the stairs, and into a room made up as a nursery. "She is right," the older woman mused. "The dark lord will be angry at this." She settled the baby into the crib, and turned to Elaine. "If it had been a boy, I might have been able to use his pleasure to help Severus, but as it is-"
"I understand," Elaine said, her voice cracking as she thought of the man she loved beneath her in the cold cellar. "Could you just - Could we-" The door slamming open made the words fade from her lips as she took in the dark lord himself, his red eyes flashing with an emotion Elaine couldn't place.
"I hear my child has been born," he drawled, and Narcissa nodded, gesturing to the crib. "This is him?"
"It is - it is a girl, my lord," Elaine said, earning his attention, drawing it away from Narcissa. The woman was still her friend - it wasn't under Narcissa's orders that they were locked away in the cellar, Narcissa didn't torture Severus every chance that he got.
"Is it indeed," he said calmly, striding over to the crib and looking in. A smirk crossed his face. "Delphini," he declared. He eyed Narcissa. "Make sure my child is well taken care of." And then he was gone, and Elaine let out the breath she'd been holding.
"I have to take you back, Elaine," Narcissa whispered, and Elaine nodded, walking ahead of Narcissa, back to the cellar, back to the prison.
It was just as she'd left it, Severus was awake now, however, and looked surprised to see her returning. "What did they want from you?" he wanted to know, concern evident in his face. She just shook her head, sitting next to him and bringing her knees up to her chest. She couldn't tell him. She just couldn't.
Time passed. One day a commotion startled Elaine awake, and she immediately looked around for Severus, who was napping along the wall. The lantern Narcissa had given them made the lines in his face look like deep gouges, and not for the first time since their capture, Elaine noticed how much he'd aged in however long they'd been in that dungeon. It could be days, or weeks, more until they got out. Or were killed; she would never discount that as a possibility.
Luna too was woken up and the two women's eyes met from either side of the mostly dark room. Elaine stood and stared at the cellar door as footsteps sounded from the other room and she wondered which one of them would be taken up this time. The death eaters had mostly stuck with the men, but that could always change. Things had not changed for them that much with baby Delphi's birth. But when the cellar door opened, Elaine was startled to see two figures shoved in, the door slamming again behind them. The figures were tied together, but Elaine recognized one of them around the same time Luna did.
"Dean!" The dark skinned boy slowly lifted his head as Luna looked for the nail they'd found a few weeks prior. "Aha!" she crowed, and crawled over to Dean and the goblin, using the nail to saw through the ropes binding them together. The goblin collapsed sideways, unconscious, but Dean was alert.
"What's going on out there?" Elaine demanded at once to know as the muggleborn took in his surroundings. "Dean, please."
"You - Professor Davies?" he scooted back, spotting Severus. "Snape!"
"It's okay," Luna assured him. "Severus won't harm you. He can't, really, you see-"
"Luna," Elaine hissed, as Severus stirred slightly. The blonde clamped her mouth shut. "Dean, please, what's happening out there? What - what day is it?"
"It's the fifteenth," Dean said softly.
"Of what month?" Ollivander croaked. Dean eyed him.
"March."
March. Elaine sank back, the words feeling like they'd slammed into her. Three months. She and Severus had been locked in this cellar for three months, which meant-
"Oh Merlin no," she whispered, her hand going to her stomach.
"What's wrong?" She wasn't sure who spoke, her head spinning around in a giant circle. Five months. She should be five months along by now, her baby should have been moving, but there was nothing under her hand, just stillness. She hadn't bled, but she knew in that moment her child was dead regardless. She'd suspected, hell, she'd expected it, but - "She's going to pass out," Elaine heard, before the darkness took her.