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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Regardless of the gratitude that Severus felt towards Disencan, the house elf vanished from his thoughts as the team of fast-working medical personnel admitted Harriet to a room and flurried around her.
The healers and nurses clad in white robes quickly pushed Severus to the side while they cut the cord and took the baby from Harriet.
He watched in anxious horror as the medical team administered a healing charm and two different elixirs in an effort to stop the bleeding from his wife's womb.
Severus felt like he was looking through an odd window into an alternate universe as his daughter, who was far too small, waved her minuscule limbs as the healers cleaned her with a hasty medical spell and swaddled her in a warm towel.
Harriet couldn't see Severus through all of the hubbub, but with what little strength she had left, she still tried to peer through the healthcare workers who tended her.
None of it hurt, the bleeding, the charm, or the first elixir that she had been given.
Her womb had cramped from giving birth, but Harriet felt so weak that she barely noticed when the healers helped her deliver the placenta.
Shortly afterwards, she consumed the second elixir.
Her cramps disappeared.
The urgent chatter around her ceased.
Harriet let herself surrender to the comforting warmth that started in her swollen abdomen and spanned out across her body as it enveloped her in a blanket of peaceful sleep.
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"Mr. Snape?"
The healer frowned as Severus stared at his wife and child with his dark eyes narrowed as a scowl appeared on his face that depicted mortal dread.
"...Mr. Snape?" The healer asked again.
When Severus failed to acknowledge the healer a second time, the man reached out and put a comforting hand on Severus's shoulder, "...Mr. Snape?"
Severus flinched violently at the unwelcome intrusion.
Both men started as Severus turned to stare at the healer with wide eyes.
"Mr. Snape!" The healer gasped, "Forgive me, I was only trying to get your attention. I'm the one who's been assigned to supervise your wife and daughter's care."
Severus hadn't even noticed that the man had been standing next to him.
Speechless, but ready to hear whatever news the healer had to tell him, Severus narrowed his eyes as he silently waited for the man to go on.
"Your wife lost a lot of blood, but otherwise, the delivery appears to have gone well for her. You did very well for a man in your position. She was quite fortunate to have you with her at such a perilous moment." The healer nodded.
Severus gnashed his teeth at the healer while he responded, "My wife was abducted and victimized……. Her labour began as a result of the shock…... I had no choice but to-"
The healer nodded as he cut him off, "-Yes, most likely, your hypothesis is correct. She was still lucky to have you, Mr. Snape, a lot of men in your situation would have frozen or fainted…….I'm afraid that your little girl will have a bit of a longer road to recovery, but I think with some help that she'll be just fine. Your wife will sleep for the next couple of days while that second elixir restores her, then we'll get her on regular doses of a blood-replenishing potion…...which means that you can take your daughter to seek care."
Severus's scowl turned from one of concern to one of disbelieving anger as he asked, "I beg your pardon…...May I ask what that phrase means? 'Take my daughter to seek care'? Is this not the best wizarding hospital in the country?"
"Well, yes sir, of course." The healer nodded, "Although…...premature birth is such a rarity in our world. I've heard the muggles are quite ingenious at dealing with this kind of thing. Their hospitals will be better equipped than we are to look after the infant. A colleague of mine said that muggle hospitals even have plastic boxes to warm babies who are born too early."
"...Are you suggesting that I abandon my omega to take my daughter away from her?" Severus asked the healer with a dangerous glare, "...And then leave my defenseless newborn helplessly alone with a group of strange muggles when I return to visit my wife?"
"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Snape." The healer said with an apologetic shrug, "But we don't have a unit here for premature infants…..I'm frightened that we won't be able to meet the child's needs."
Severus glowered at the healer as he snapped and demanded, "Tell me…...what are my daughter's needs?"
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Leave his wife to save his daughter.
Leave his daughter to visit his wife!
Severus was in awe of the healer's stupidity for even suggesting that he do such ridiculous things.
If Harriet had been strong enough, then Severus could have taken her and the baby both to the muggles for care, but as she lay sleeping while her body repaired itself and new blood cells grew in her bones, Severus refused to entertain the option of separating his little family.
Severus felt that it was cruelly unnatural for an infant to be kept away from its mother.
Besides, after everything that they had been through, Severus couldn't bear to have either Harriet or their new baby out of his sight.
Their baby……
The medical staff looked after Harriet well while she slept.
They nourished her with sustenance charms, vanished away her waste, and kept her clean.
Harriet had been frightfully pale when they had first arrived at the hospital.
Severus celebrated silent victories as more and more of her healthy color returned with each passing hour, but their small daughter remained largely in his care.
Under the healers' instruction, Severus had volunteered to act as a living incubator for his newborn.
Severus had been a bit uncomfortable about holding his baby girl against his bare chest at first, but once he had her settled snugly against his breast, tucked into the blankets that swaddled her and the comforting heaviness of his black robes, his qualms eased.
The pieces of cloth that diapered her were so desperately little that Severus could hold one on the tip of two fingers.
His small daughter nearly fit into his two hands and when he held her in his arms, she had plenty of room to stretch herself.
The baby whimpered occasionally, but Severus still hadn't heard her cry on her second day of life.
Harriet continued to sleep without waking although Severus had barely rested.
Hour after hour, his dark gaze flickered worriedly from Harriet to the brittle, tiny life that their love had created.
Severus watched over his little daughter vigilantly.
Each night, he cast a protective charm to hold his body in place and ensure that he wouldn't drop the baby during the brief periods that he did manage to doze off.
Those periods were few and short.
After everything that had happened, combined with the scent of his injured mate and newborn baby, Severus's protective instincts wouldn't allow him to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time.
If Harriet or the baby rustled around, he woke immediately.
The healers had been worried that Severus's daughter would be too small to tolerate a nutritional charm. As Harriet rested, Severus cradled their baby in one arm and used his free hand to gently massage her full breasts until her nipples leaked a few drops of colostrum into a tiny spoon.
At each of the baby's feeding sessions, Severus's black eyes softened into molten ore as he gently held his daughter and pressed that tiny spoon up to her little pink lips.
It gave him hope every time he saw his pup's small mouth part as she swallowed that life-giving fluid from her mother with only a little difficulty.
Disencan stayed in the hospital with the Snapes and spent the majority of his time either in Harriet's room or the waiting area.
In the world beyond St. Mungo's, word spread swiftly about what had happened.
Elion Dacre had been found dead in his home.
Archichat Dacre had been arrested on several charges regarding his supposed conspiracy with his son to abduct and endanger a pregnant woman.
A pregnant woman who happened to be the Headmaster of Hogwarts' wife, no less.
Archichat had wasted no time in accusing the Snapes of every charge that he could possibly levy against them.
Severus would have to submit to questioning to prove Elion's death had resulted from an act of self-defense, but he didn't care about any of that while he sat loyally at Harriet's hospital bedside and helped their daughter survive her early exit from the womb.
He just wanted to bring home a healthy wife and child.
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Severus had grown accustomed to enjoying silence under normal circumstances, but the silence that echoed in Harriet's hospital room was almost more than he could bear.
As he sat in the chair, with his newborn cuddled against his chest while she listened to his heartbeat, Severus often took it upon himself to chat with her and let her know that her father was there.
Headmaster Snape and his daughter had come to enjoy their long talks during those long days.
The baby squirmed against him whenever he stopped talking. Severus took that as a sign that although she couldn't understand what he said, she took solace in hearing his voice.
"You've done well so far, little one." Severus purred to his daughter as he let her sip the beginnings of her mother's milk off of that tiny, silver spoon on their third morning at St. Mungo's.
The baby let out a whimpering little sniffle as she opened her lips and let Severus carefully feed her her miniature breakfast.
"I'd expect no less from a Prince woman." Severus told his small daughter in a low drawl, "Your grandmother and her mother before her were strong and determined……..I can already see those same traits in you."
The baby swallowed with a needy gasp and Severus's heart lurched for a moment.
His nerves stayed on edge.
Every breath that his fragile daughter drew brought him sweet relief but also filled him with worry that it may be her last.
It terrified him that his firstborn may decide that the world wasn't a place in which she wished to remain.
Severus's eyes widened as something unexpected and wonderful happened suddenly.
He had only experienced it twice before, but it was no less stunning the third time.
As he cradled that little body against his, his daughter cracked her eyes open and peered up at him blearily.
Severus grit his teeth against the sob that wanted to rise out of his heart and escape his lips as his baby blinked at him.
She held her father's gaze in hers for only a moment before she closed her eyes and snuggled against his chest, seeking out the soothing warmth and smell of her Daddy as she fell back asleep while her little body fought to thrive.
Severus was close to allowing the tears that glittered in his black eyes to fall when a dry whisper caught his attention, "...Severus?"
He turned suddenly and looked over at the bed.
An audible sound of gladness left his chest when he saw Harriet blinking at him from where she lay.
"Oh….." Severus breathed as he stood to his feet and rushed over to her bedside.
"My love…." He whispered as he bent down and pressed a soft kiss to Harriet's lips, then another one soon after, "My love…….."
Harriet returned his kiss as she smiled up at her alpha and raised a hand up to his face.
"...How do you feel?" Severus asked as he narrowed his eyes in concern at Harriet, "Are you in any pain? I'll call the healers in and-"
"-No." Harriet interrupted as she kept her smile, "I feel strong, Severus. So much stronger than I was…...how long has it been?"
"...Three days." He replied with a solemn frown.
"Three days……?" Harriet repeated with a displeased groan as she stiffly moved to sit up in bed.
Severus hastily used his free hand to help Harriet position her pillows into a little mound that she could lean back against as she went on and asked, "Did it all…...really happen…..that way?"
"...Yes." Severus confirmed in a voice barely above a whisper, "It pains me to say that it did."
"Then, no, I don't need the healers." Harriet said with a sigh as she glanced down at the arm that Severus kept crooked in his robes that were open down to his chest, "I need to meet our baby."
Severus's face relaxed as he looked at his wife.
The air was heavy with emotion as Harriet longingly eyed the end of the little bundle in his grasp.
She watched as the blankets twitched with the movement of her child's feet.
Severus slipped into the bed beside Harriet.
He carefully withdrew the baby from the inside of his robes and handed her over to his bride as he whispered, "...Our daughter."
Harriet couldn't hold back the tears that welled in her eyes while she took that precious bundle from her alpha's arms and finally met the little girl who had spent the last few months growing inside her belly.
As she stared at her baby in awe, she followed Severus's example and pulled her hospital gown down so that her little girl could lay against her breasts.
As their infant cracked her eyes open and snuggled against her mother's warm mounds of softness, mournful sobs of delayed joy wracked Harriet's chest, but Severus finally got to satisfy more of his instincts.
His embrace had never been more loving as he cuddled Harriet and the baby.
It had taken three days, but finally, the Snapes got to experience their first tender moments together as a family.