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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Harriet and Severus spent the night in a blissful, sweat-soaked cuddle while they delighted in the aftermath of their exertions.
Down the hallway, Rabbie blinked her eyes open as she lay beside Maggie.
Her breathing grew deep and steady, while she floated through her dreams with a pleasant smile on her small lips.
Satisfied by the silence of the house and all its sleeping inhabitants, Rabbie hopped from Maggie's crib and landed on her feet before she smoothly transitioned back to Ingrid.
Knowing she could use the Resurrection Stone unhindered, Ingrid deftly left Maggie's room.
She glided through the hallway as she strode towards the front door, with the stone in her possession, waiting to be used once more.
As Ingrid walked through the quiet, dark house, she stopped and opened her hand.
Ingrid drew in a deep breath as she stared down at the Resurrection Stone in her palm.
She closed her eyes as she prepared herself to notice a surge of hope, to hear a whisper, to feel something…..anything…..but as she held the third Hallow in her grasp, the quiet of the night remained unchanged.
Ingrid frowned as the hope in her heart threatened to wither.
Determined not to be defeated by doubt, Ingrid slyly slipped out of the front door and walked into the Snapes' garden, determined that the stone would reunite her with long lost love once more.
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Early the next morning, Maggie's screeching cry of horror woke Severus and Harriet, along with Little Sev and Disencan.
As soon as her large eyes had opened, she had immediately noticed that Rabbie was not in her bed.
A disturbing panic overcame the young girl that sent her flailing and shrieking in terror.
Severus and Harriet rushed out of their room to their daughter's side.
As Severus pounded down the hallway and threw open the door to Maggie's bedroom, his black eyes widened in fear as he wondered what awful calamity could have befallen his little girl.
"RABBIE!" Maggie wailed as Harriet skidded behind him while she gasped for breath.
"RABBIE!" Maggie shrieked again as Little Sev whimpered down the hallway, eager to start his morning and have the noise cease.
Harriet sighed as Severus dove forward to scoop Maggie out of her bed and into his arms.
"It's alright, sweetheart! It's alright!" Harriet tried to comfort her daughter as she rubbed her tiny shoulder while Severus clutched her in his strong arms and bounced her gently while she sobbed against his chest.
"RABBIE!" Maggie shouted.
Through the window of Maggie's bedroom, Severus spied his ancestor in the garden.
"Hush, my little one." Severus drawled in his low voice while he nodded at Harriet to go and tend their son, "Rabbie will be back in a moment, she merely stepped outside before you woke."
Maggie quieted her wailing scream into a series of gut-wrenching desperate sobs as Severus cuddled her close.
He would have waited for Ingrid to return, but rage boiled in his veins as he watched her through the window while she sat on the ground with her head down and her hands drooped towards the earth.
"Come, my dearest." Severus whispered to Maggie as he pressed a gentle, reassuring kiss to her forehead, "Let us go and see Rabbie now……will that be satisfactory?"
Harriet frowned as she listened and watched her alpha try to console their heartbroken daughter.
Maggie continued to sniffle violently as Severus walked out of the house with her and carried her into the garden.
He had not appreciated being woken up by an entirely preventable cacophony.
Regardless, he appreciated even less the fact that Ingrid had gone out into the garden without alerting Maggie first.
Severus's patience with his ancestor had run out.
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Maggie continued to sniffle loudly while Severus approached Ingrid as she sat in her rigid position, unmoving and numb.
"RABBIE!" Maggie cried out to her, expecting her beloved friend to look up.
Severus's angry scowl deepened when Ingrid failed to react and Maggie's woeful sobs increased.
Without a word of introduction at all, Severus walked over and sat down in the dirt across from Ingrid, with his whimpering, inconsolable daughter in his arms.
"How dare you!" He began in a low hiss.
He stared into his ancestor's dark eyes, but he soon noticed that she did not stare back.
Instead, her vision focused on somewhere far away.
Severus's lips twisted into a grimace as he saw the Resurrection Stone in Ingrid's limp, open hand.
"Is this what I'm to wake up to?...A wailing, frightened child that's been left alone while you pursue your own desires?!" He snapped.
"Berate me all you want, son of my son." Ingrid replied, "My heart is already shattered….There is nothing you can say that will cause me further suffering…..Nothing you can do to wound me now."
"I can turn you out!" Severus snapped as Maggie pushed her face into the black fabric of his robes, "I can send you away as my mother did and my grandmother before her! It will be another lifetime before you're able to find the peace you so desperately seek…..perhaps that will be punishment enough for breaking your promise to my daughter!"
"...My reward is gone, son of my son." Ingrid said sadly as her vision came back to the present once her single, working eye moved over to look at Severus, "It is hardly any punishment at all to deprive me of something I can never receive……..Though my promise has hardly been broken. I kept the child in my mind's eye through the night, if the slightest danger would have come near her, I would have destroyed it in a moment."
Severus's dark eyes narrowed to slits as he asked his ancestor, "...What are you talking about? One hundred generations you have to help……before you can go to your grave…..and see your husband again……..is that not correct?"
Ingrid stared down at the ground with a miserable frown on her scarred face.
As Severus watched, she tossed the Resurrection Stone from her hand and closed her eyes as it fell to the earth with a dull thud.
Severus contemplated what he should say or do next while he listened to the sad little whimpers that came from his distraught daughter.
"...Rabbie?" Maggie whined as she used her chubby little hands to wipe the tears from her plump cheeks while she gazed at her friend.
Severus clenched his jaw as he reluctantly moved forward and placed Maggie next to Ingrid.
He looked on worriedly while his daughter frowned up at his ancestor, laid one of her small hands on her knee, and asked again, "...Rabbie?"
Ingrid remained silent.
However, as the morning sunlight beamed down from the sky, she reached down and deftly pulled Maggie into her arms.
Sadness crept through Severus's heart while he frowned and watched Maggie lay her head on Ingrid's chest, who cuddled the little girl close with her eyes closed.
Severus himself couldn't help but be moved by the scene of his daughter clinging to Ingrid as if she were life itself while heavy tears of burdensome pain ran down his ancestor's face.
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Eventually, Ingrid stood and carried Maggie through the garden.
Severus retrieved the Resurrection Stone from the ground and brought it back into the house once he returned to his wife's side.
Harriet stood waiting for him at the door, eager to learn what had happened.
She listened closely to her husband as he relayed Ingrid's words and the events he had witnessed that morning while she went to her nest and fed Little Sev his breakfast.
"I don't understand." Harriet scoffed, "What are you talking about, Sev? What do you mean you think the stone didn't work?"
"I am merely relating my suspicions." Severus replied with a shrug, "You are positive that is…..the true….Resurrection Stone….correct?"
"Of course I'm positive!" Harriet scowled, "I'd know it anywhere after everything I went through!"
"I do not doubt you, my love." Severus cautioned as he held a hand up to calm his wife, "I only asked a simple question……With Ingrid's great talents, it baffles me that she was unable to use the stone, especially to call forth the man that she claims to love beyond ordinary comprehension."
"May I borrow it for a moment?" Harriet asked.
"...The stone?" Severus frowned.
"Yeah." She nodded, "As soon as Little Sev has had his fill here, give it to me and let me try to use it."
Severus cast his wife an incredulous look before he reluctantly nodded.
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Harriet's own plan made her feel a bit uneasy.
Half an hour later, Severus watched vigilantly from the window as she marched into the backyard with the Resurrection Stone clutched firmly in her hand.
Once she made it into the center of the small clearing, she closed her eyes as a pleasant breeze blew past and rustled the trees.
She focused on the memories of her loved ones who had passed away and how badly she longed to see them again.
Harriet felt her chest clench with the exciting knowledge that they would all soon appear in front of her, one by one.
Her mother would be there, and her father, along with Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Fred, Dumbledore…….
Harriet drew a sharp breath as she opened her eyes, ready to see her lost family and friends.
Her mouth fell open in surprise as she found herself standing alone in her backyard.
There were no ghosts, no familiar faces, not even the slightest inkling of those who had gone.
Harriet swallowed as her emerald eyes narrowed to suspicious slits while she opened her hand and looked down at the stone.
For a moment, she wondered if she had lost her mind.
Harriet knew that she gazed at the Resurrection Stone, but she could not imagine why it had failed twice in one day……..
She whirled around to look at Severus who frowned at her from the window while they both silently pondered the same, disturbing questions.
Harriet held onto the stone as she began to walk back towards the house.
A sickening suspicion churned her stomach as her mind raced.
Severus greeted her as soon as she blustered back inside, but she pushed past him.
"My Invisibility Cloak!" She cried as Severus frowned, "We have to try my Invisibility Cloak, Sev! What if that doesn't work now either?!"
As absurd as the idea sounded, Severus trailed behind his lover while she hurriedly walked down the hallway, determined to retrieve the second Hallow from its resting place inside the trunk that stood at the foot of their bed.
The idea that a witch or wizard capable of shutting down the Deathly Hallows could exist terrified the Minister for Magic and his wife.