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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On the morning of Harriet's Auror exam, she and Severus stood in their bedroom while they readied for the day.
Harriet had chosen to complete her test on Wednesday instead of Saturday.
She had wanted to get the process over with as quickly as possible, but her eagerness had agitated Severus.
"I'll be quick, I promise. You can't come with me though, your leave hasn't started yet…...Unless you intend to make McGonagall teach your classes this morning?" Harriet laughed as she pulled on her robes.
Severus abhorred the idea of his expectant mate being out of his sight.
As each day passed by and the arrival of their baby became more imminent, Severus's protectiveness only seemed to increase.
"...Your exam is scheduled to last for two hours." Severus drawled in his low voice. He glanced over at Harriet while he fastened the buttons of his robes, "I'll return during the first break between the morning's classes. However, I fully expect you to then accompany me back to the castle and stay there for the remainder of the day."
"Of course." Harriet replied with a nod.
Severus's leave of absence from Hogwarts would begin at the end of the week, but until that time came, Harriet had succeeded in constructing a very desirable second nest in his unused chambers.
Whenever she felt tired or a bit off during the academic day, she excused herself from her position as his assistant to go and lie in its soft layers for a while.
Severus's watchful, cautious care had served her well.
At each of Harriet's visits with her midwife, the healthcare worker proudly expressed to Mr. and Mrs. Snape how well mother and baby were doing and how smoothly the pregnancy was progressing.
Harriet knew it wouldn't be too much longer before she'd be receiving updates about her newborn and her recovery instead, but that morning she had other things on her mind.
Once she was dressed, she walked up to Severus and took a moment to press a deep kiss against his lips before she left for the Ministry.
Severus frowned once he stood alone in their bedroom.
He glanced towards Harriet's nest on the floor and scowled in eager anticipation.
Once his leave of absence started and his wife passed her exam, their situation would become much more relaxed.
Severus could devote himself solely to Harriet and their baby without having to worry about his duties at the castle.
Harriet would no longer have to contend with her training or her role as the headmaster's assistant.
Severus apparated out of his bedroom.
His scowl lessened as he thought while he journeyed towards Hogwarts.
Only a few more days until he could spend every waking second at Harriet's side……...
Only a few more weeks until he could cuddle his son or daughter…..
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Harriet had no trouble arriving at the Ministry a short while later or finding the room where her exam was being administered.
There were a handful of other program participants present who had also elected to test early.
Their program's final year wasn't up for several weeks, but by then, Harriet and the others present that day had logged enough hours in their assigned positions that they were deemed eligible to complete their last assessment, if they themselves felt they were capable.
After everyone had received their exam booklets, the program leader announced the beginning of the test and then fell silent while the participants did their best to work through the plethora of questions in the short amount of time that they had been given.
When complex, open-ended, problem-solving scenarios were involved and waiting to be answered on parchment, two hours was not an extensive amount of time.
Harriet tried not to let it make her anxious when she heard the other students in the room flip the pages of their booklets as they proceeded with their task.
She took her time.
She read each question twice.
She thought about each answer, planned it, mentally edited it, and then mentally re-edited it once more before she finally placed her words onto the parchment in decisive strokes of black ink.
The others had already finished, turned in their work, and left long ago, but Harriet kept scribbling in her booklet until the program leader at the front of the room called out loudly, "TIME."
Harriet had been so engrossed in her exam that she started violently at the sound.
Severus's son or daughter jumped inside of her womb in response to the jolt.
Harriet obediently sat her quill down and scowled at the two unanswered questions that she had left blank.
Two unanswered questions wouldn't decrease her score enough to cause a failing mark.
Harriet stood up from her desk, walked forward, and handed her booklet to the program director.
She took pride in the fact that she felt satisfied with the answers that she had provided.
"Thank you, Miss Potter." The program director nodded at Harriet while he collected her exam booklet from her.
"I'm sorry, sir," Harriet corrected him with a gentle smile as she laid a hand on her rounded belly. She grinned as his eyes widened when he noticed the swell that her heavy robes diminished so slyly, "...but it's Mrs. Snape now."
The program director blinked in bewilderment as Harriet walked out of the room and headed towards the Floo networks to return home.
He shuffled the exam booklets on his desk while he wondered if he was going mad or not.
Had Harriet Potter really just referred to herself as Mrs. Snape?
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When Harriet arrived back at the house that she shared with Severus, she found him waiting for her on the sofa.
She grinned at her alpha as she stepped out of the fireplace and crossed her arms.
"Well, it's done now." Harriet declared with a confident smile.
"...Is it?" Severus asked very quietly.
She blinked at the unreadable expression on his pale face as she laughed and walked towards him.
"I hope so! I answered everything as best I could…..I did leave two questions blank, but don't you agree that it's better to use what you know instead of making random guesses?" Harriet asked as her grin still curled her lips.
When she came close to Severus, he stood from the sofa, and towered over her in his trailing, black robes.
He gazed down at her while he purred,"...Perhaps."
There was an unusual darkness in his black eyes that made Harriet smirk.
"Well…...Are you ready?" She asked as her grin faded into a soft smile.
"...For?" Severus questioned.
Harriet gave him a quiet chuckle as she spoke, "...For us to return to the castle? Your first class must have ended early, I didn't expect you back so soon. Come on then, let's go, I don't want you to be late."
Severus looked down as Harriet reached out and grabbed his hand.
She watched his black eyes glisten at the contact and an instant later, he swept her into his arms and locked her into a rough, brutal kiss.
Harriet made a noise of disgust as Severus used the weight of his body to crush his torso painfully against her swollen abdomen.
After she abruptly yanked herself away from him, she reached two fingers up and gently touched her lips to check for blood.
"Sev! What was that for?!" Harriet asked with a horrified scowl as she glared over at her alpha once she saw that her fingers were clean.
"I'm terribly sorry, pet." Severus replied in a low, husky voice, "You look so devastatingly beautiful this morning that I simply couldn't help myself."
Harriet gave Severus an incredulous look as an intuitive feeling of foreboding swept over her.
Something was off.
Severus was a gentle, tender lover in every imaginable aspect.
Harriet knew that his kisses were meaningful and reverent, but never punishing.
His touch conveyed respectful admiration, especially when it came to her full womb.
Severus, Harriet's Severus, would only deviate from the gentleness that he treated her with if she requested him to do so and……..never had he ever called her "pet".
Harriet suddenly put her hands up to her head and pretended to stumble.
"Are you alright?" Severus asked as he furrowed his brow in concern.
"Oh…….yes, I'm fine." Harriet said as she clutched onto the wall as if she needed to find her balance.
His inquiry instantly confirmed her suspicion.
Harriet's Severus wouldn't have asked, he would have lunged forward and caught her, steadied her, cradled her.
Her pulse quickened with the grim understanding that whoever was in front of her was not her husband.
Across the room, whoever that was in Severus's form stared at her as his dark gaze lingered ominously on her heavy belly.
"Actually…….how silly of me….I need to take my elixir from the midwife before we can leave. Sorry, excuse me for a moment." Harriet said as calmly as possible while she yawned casually to allay any distrust.
Her footsteps were slow and sure as she walked up the stairs towards the bedroom that she shared with the real Severus.
Harriet paused and attempted to apparate away as soon as she was out of the imposter's sight, but her eyes widened when she found herself unable to do so for some reason or another.
As she swallowed thickly and continued her walk towards her bedroom at the end of the hallway, she wished that she had tried harder to master Legilimency and Occlumency.
If Harriet had possessed those useful skills, she could have called out to Severus, she could have told him, warned him, or she could have at least….
Harriet entered the bedroom, closed the door, and heard a loud pop from downstairs that she recognized as the noise that apparating produced.
She smelled his scent right away, the cozy comfort of her alpha.
That was him, her Severus had come!
Desperate to cry out to her husband for help, Harriet opened her mouth to scream, but she was too late, he had pursued her, whoever he was.
Harriet hadn't even heard any footsteps, yet there he stood in front of her, mocking her with the body of her own husband as his black gaze glimmered with a soulless coldness.
The imposter moved faster than her terror.
Her emerald eyes widened behind her glasses as her assailant clamped his hand down over her lips when they heard the real Severus's footsteps move across the floor beneath them.
"Mrs. Snape, are you home yet?" Severus called from downstairs, "It's well past the time that your exam should have finished. Are you in your nest? I'll come to you, don't trouble yourself."
Harriet thrashed wildly under the imposter's hand when she heard Severus begin to walk up the stairs.
She stilled when she felt the tip of a wand push into the sensitive flesh of her throat as the imposter whispered to her in her husband's velvet voice, "Move and die……..or cooperate and live."
Harriet heaved a silent breath as Severus's footsteps came down the hall.
The door to their room started to open and in a single, heart-wrenching instant, that door disappeared.
Their house vanished.
The promise of Severus gliding in to rescue her was ripped away.
Harriet felt herself whirl through the air, firmly in her abductor's clutches while she struggled to hold onto her nerve.
She had survived Voldemort.
She could survive whatever was to come, Harriet was certain.
She had to, for the innocent little one that depended on her for protection
That didn't stop her from wishing that Severus had walked into the room a split second earlier.
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The door to their bedroom opened and Severus stepped inside.
He scowled when he noticed that their bedchamber was empty and that Harriet's nest was cold.
As he looked around, he inhaled deeply and scowled at the distinct, intoxicating mixture of hormones and pheromones that he smelled in the air.
It was as if Harriet was right next to him, the scent was so strong.
She should have been home already, where else would she have gone and why would she not have told him first?
A low growl rumbled in Severus's chest as he began to search the room for a clue, a hint, or any kind of indication.
Severus Snape was no fool.
When he failed to find any sign about where his beloved may be, or who she may be with, he hurriedly sent an owl back to Hogwarts with a signed letter that ordered the cancellation of all potions classes for the rest of the day.
After the bird departed from the Snapes' house, Severus lifted his wand and immediately apparated to the Dacre estate.
He didn't intend to wrongly accuse….anyone…..about his wife's disappearance, but under the circumstances, he felt that he knew the right place to start asking questions.
Severus was impatient to secure some answers and to have Harriet back in his arms.