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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Elion snarled ominously at Severus.
The two wizards faced each other with their wands threateningly pointed at the other's chest.
"How did you find me, old man?" Elion asked Severus with an angry hiss.
"That's unimportant." Severus replied as he heard Harriet's chains rattle behind him while she moved on the bed, "Lower your wand, Dacre, and I'll be merciful enough to take you quietly to the Ministry. I attempted to show you and your father leniency, but you've overstepped your bounds…...for the last time." Severus drawled as he slowly enunciated the words.
"I'm not going anywhere…...this is my home." Elion said with a smug smirk, "...And my mate's home as well~." He added as he gestured over to Harriet while she lay chained to the bed.
Severus's dark gaze flickered over to the bed for a brief second before it centered once again on Elion.
"...A life spent in Azkaban may be enough to teach you what I have failed." Severus spoke as he stretched his hand out and held his wand closer to his enemy.
Severus didn't waste his effort arguing with Elion about his wife, he refused to give his darling's captor the satisfaction.
Harriet belonged to Severus, he was confident that everyone in the room knew that.
Elion cried out as he fired a burst of hateful, red light straight towards Severus from the tip of his wand.
Severus barely needed to move his arm to effortlessly block the unfriendly spell.
The irritation was plain on Elion's face that Severus had managed to avoid his curse so easily and with a great shout, he tried again.
A blast of sinister light hurtled towards Severus.
With another simple, smooth motion, Severus blocked Elion's second curse.
While the two wizards entered into their battle, Harriet grit her teeth as she struggled to find a position on the bed that didn't cause her any pain.
It would have been a great comfort to her if she could have at least held her aching belly, but the cruel confines that Elion had trapped her in made that impossible.
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While the wizards' duel raged on, the pain in Harriet's abdomen amplified.
She kept her eyes closed when the cramps sharpened, but the blinding light of the flying curses remained distractingly evident to her, even through her eyelids.
Severus's black robes billowed around him as he attempted to subdue Elion.
Murder would still be considered murder.
If Severus ended up killing a boy, especially the son of a wealthy, well-known wizard, there would be an investigation and a lengthy trial…..and those were complications that he preferred to avoid.
He needed to take Elion down to the Ministry and have him incarcerated, then there would be no crime that Severus had committed.
He could seek justice for Harriet and they could move on with their lives.
As Elion flourished his wand and sneered his way through another curse though, it vexed Severus that his enemy did not seem interested in such a simple solution.
The magic that flowed from their wands connected, broke apart…….connected again.
Severus threw disarming spell after disarming spell at his foe whenever he saw an opportunity, but Elion could block fairly well himself.
Between defending against his enemy's attacks and trying to land a hit, his mind had been so focused on the battle that Severus had nearly forgotten that Harriet was there.
He was reminded of that truth when a loud moan rang out from the bed.
Both men looked over as Harriet writhed in her chains and arched her back against the searing pain that spread across her tensing abdomen.
Harriet just wanted it to end already!
She was hurting, she needed help and Severus and…….
"Nevermind her for now." Elion scowled over at Severus as he dismissively waved his wand and bound Harriet's mouth again with the enchanted gag, "You and I haven't finished our duel yet."
"Release her!" Severus hissed at Elion as he gripped his wand tightly.
Harriet thrashed on the bed while Elion smirked, "Did you honestly think, old man, that you had the right to touch the one who touched the Dark Lord? For your treachery and your betrayal of our great leader, the least you could have done is bequeath her to someone who will treat her properly…...someone who can pull the last pieces of our esteemed lord from her veins."
"The Dark Lore was nothing more than a coward and a murderer, you insolent fool!" Severus hissed, "...A man who couldn't face his own death, couldn't comprehend his own destruction…...every part of him was eradicated in the battle. Are you too daft to understand that?!"
Elion scowled at Severus.
Severus took his opportunity and shouted, with a dramatic wave of his arm, "EX…...PELLIARMUS!"
Elion's eyes widened as Severus's spell slammed into him, knocked him back against the wall, and his wand from his hand.
Severus grit his teeth as he raced over to Harriet, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Elion move.
There was a certain type of Dark Magic that was so vile it could be performed using pure hatred and rage.
It required no wand, only emotion to cast, and by feeding off of those strongly negative feelings, it put a lethal grip of death on its victim in the form of an ominous, black cloud of smoke.
Severus saw the grimace of pure, unbridled loathing on Elion's face as he raised his hand and opened his mouth.
The swirling cloud of lethal black fog came flying towards Severus and Harriet as he reached the bed to rescue her.
Severus Snape's patience had run out.
He had shown Elion Dacre mercy, he had offered him ways of peaceful resolution.
He saw no other option in that moment to save Harriet, his baby, and himself.
Severus moved faster than the black cloud of certain death as he pointed his wand at Elion and cried, with punctuated meaning, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
A single burst of green light ended it all.
The smoke cloud vanished as quickly as it had formed.
Severus saw the malevolent light leave Elion's eyes as the dark wizard collapsed onto the floor with a heavy thud.
Elion's death allowed the enchanted gag and chains that he had placed on Harriet to dissolve.
The throaty scream that left her lips broke Severus's heart as his attention was called away from the body of the boy that he had killed and back to her.
"SSSEEEVVEERRUUSSS!"
Severus rushed onto the bed and crouched beside his lover.
His racing heart began to hopelessly pound when he saw the blood that stained the sheets on which Harriet rested.
"Hold on, my love, hold on…..." Severus whispered as he reached around to lift her into his arms, "...I'll apparate us out of here."
A loud pop and they'd be at St. Mungo's, that was all it would take.
Forget the midwife, Severus wanted to take his wife to an entire team of medical professionals who could assist.
"Sev…..!" Harriet gasped in a choked sob.
Before she could protest any further, Severus grabbed onto Harriet and waved his wand.
When nothing happened and they stayed in that room, that chamber, or whatever it was…..his heart sank.
"...W-We can't leave!" Harriet wailed as tears of pain ran down her face.
Severus's mouth fell open as he watched her curl around her belly and close her eyes while she keened, "AAAAAAGGGGHH!"
"My love…." Severus said urgently as he hastily put his hands on his mate's belly.
The rigidity of her abdomen made his eyes widen.
Once the pain eased, Harriet's cry ended but she gasped for breath as her eyes opened and her stare met Severus's.
"W-We can't leave……." Harriet panted in shock, "W-We can't leave…..t-the baby's coming!"
"No!" Severus snapped before he could stop himself as he narrowed his eyes at Harriet in horrified disbelief, "That can't be! It's too early!"
Harriet groaned deep in her throat as her arms wrapped around her middle while she turned on her side and moaned, "SSEVVERUS……...IT'S TIME!"
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Harriet's cries of agony made Severus want to clamp his hands over his ears, but he forced his fear out of his mind and let his alpha instincts take over as he prepared to support his mate as best he could.
Severus and Harriet hadn't participated in any birthing classes yet.
He silently reprimanded himself for not using enough foresight to study books on the subjects of labor and delivery as he helped his mate hurriedly get comfortable on the bed.
Comfortable was a relative term.
Severus had just fluffed the two pillows on the bed behind Harriet when she spread her knees, grit her teeth, and curled forward.
"I-I HAVE TO PUSH!" She wailed as Severus scrambled to crouch between her legs.
"My love, I-" Severus started to say but he was cut off by the primal, guttural noise that came from Harriet as she bore down.
"NNNGGGHHHH!"
After Severus vanished her panties, his dark eyes widened as he watched Harriet's body open in front of him.
The amount of blood that spilled from Harriet terrified Severus, but as she gnashed her teeth and bore down again, he quickly reached forward and focused on the most pressing matter.
"HELP ME!" Harriet shrieked.
Severus's dark eyes were wide as he cupped her bulging entrance.
He watched a head of dark hair slip from his lover and slide right into his waiting hands.
"Focus……..Potter…...concentrate." Severus commanded Harriet with bracing words of encouragement as he looked into her panicked eyes while she gasped for breath.
It was far too soon to the birth, but as he cradled his pup's emerging head, Severus didn't know how to stop the quickly advancing process.
Harriet leaned forward and held her belly again as she closed her eyes and bore down one last time, "NNNNGGGHH!"
The baby arrived almost too easily.
Severus felt like the brief transition from the safety of Harriet's warm womb into his waiting, cold hands was an insult to his newborn daughter as he looked at her fragile, hairy body.
The bed was ruined.
Severus feared that Harriet was too as her blood continued to stain the sheets while she slumped back against the pillows with a hand to her head and whispered, "...Dizzy….."
Severus felt like he was being ripped in half as his black gaze darted between the baby in his hands and his wife on the bed.
Who did he help first?
What should he do?
A small, hissing sound rang out in the room and Severus turned his head to watch as the outline of a door appeared on the wall.
He felt the baby in his hands move slightly as the door opened.
Disencan stared into the room in shock.
Behind him, Severus saw the same hallway that he had been led down by the elf.
Disencan looked around the room for a moment.
His large eyes softened in sympathy when he glanced over Harriet, Severus, and the baby, but Severus noticed the gladness that flashed over the elf's face when he realized that one of his cruel masters had been killed.
"Help us!" Severus cried to the elf, "...Please!"
It was an indicator of a dire situation indeed, whenever Severus Snape said 'please'.
"Where does Severus Snape need to go?" Disencan asked as he slapped his feet against the stone and marched forward.
"St. Mungo's hospital, quickly!" Severus called out to the elf.
Before Severus could say anything else, the elf touched his shoulder and Harriet's ankle.
They were all lifted out of the room in a brief flash of light.
Seconds later, as Severus squinted his eyes at the bright lights of St. Mungo's lobby, he marveled at how often elf magic was underestimated.
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Gasps rang out.
Harriet lay beside Severus on the hospital floor as her blood stained the white tiles.
He held onto Harriet's limp hand while his other cradled their tiny daughter who was moving, but had yet to cry.
The cord between mother and daughter remained attached and Severus had never been more grateful for a team of strangers to swarm him than he was in that moment as healers and nurses surrounded his little family, eager to help.
Harriet was lifted onto a white bed with clean sheets and the baby was gently pulled from Severus's grasp to lie on her mother's chest.
"Don't worry!" One of the kind healers said to Harriet and Severus as they wheeled her bed out of the lobby and towards the door that the receptionist hurriedly held open, "We're going to take great care of you two here!"
Before they disappeared behind the door, Severus turned and looked at Disencan, who stood in the lobby without purpose.
Severus Snape had promised the elf his freedom and he would keep his word.
"Stay there!" Severus shouted to the elf, "I'll return for you shortly!"
"Disencan will wait for Severus Snape!" The elf cried in response.
Before the door closed, Severus saw Disencan walk over and sit down in an empty chair.
Disencan had saved the lives of Severus's wife and child.
It was difficult to determine between the wizard and the elf who was more indebted to the other.