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 saved Scorpius Malfoy's life that morning.
Professor Snape practically tossed him through the door of the headmaster's office before he slammed it shut and stalked across the room.
His black robes billowed ominously around his feet as he glared at Scorpius, "May I inquire…...Mr. Malfoy……about the accuracy of the despicable rumors I've heard?"
Scorpius's eyes widened as he stared at Severus.
While Severus interrogated his prisoner, Harriet emerged from the side room.
The triplets clung to her legs as they peered curiously at their father with mischievous grins of amusement.
"If this is about me and Maggie, sir, then I profusely apologize." Scorpius said quickly, intent on defending himself.
"What are you telling me, Mr. Malfoy?" Severus glowered.
Although Scorpius had gained quite a bit of height by his seventh year, Severus still stood taller.
A hideous sneer marred Professor Snape's pale face as he spat, "How…dare….you!...To think that you have-"
"-Please, sir! I haven't done anything!" Scorpius hastily interrupted, "I….I lied to my housemates to shut them up, that's all! They said some awful things about Maggie!...I'm sorry, Professor Snape, but I couldn't sit idly by and listen to that senseless drivel! Your daughter and I have no physical or emotional understanding between us…….We're friends…….only friends."
A quick swipe of silent Legilimency confirmed to Severus the validity of Scorpius's statements yet exposed the dangerous truth the boy harbored in his heart.
"Don't…..lie….to me!" Severus hissed as he slowly leaned towards Scorpius. His black eyes flickered over his victim before he met his captive's gaze once more with a menacing scowl, "It is your wish…..For that to change…..Is it not?...Mr. Malfoy?"
Behind them, a soft smile graced Harriet's fair face.
Over the years, she had come to accept the likely fact that one day, Maggie and Scorpius would become far more than friends.
Severus, on the other hand, had continued his unending struggle with their daughter's maturity, which increased by the day.
"I should hardly believe I could ever count myself that lucky, sir." Scorpius spoke honestly, with a stoic frown of remorseful resolution.
"...Get out." Severus murmured as he straightened his spine.
Scorpius blinked while he watched the headmaster turn his back.
He gingerly walked towards the door in case Severus changed his mind, but once he saw the headmaster approach his wife for a discussion, he knew his release had been ultimately decided.
Scorpius left the room and dashed down the corridor while he lamented the fact that he had missed the rest of breakfast.
It wasn't the food he mourned, it was the loss of a solid extra ten minutes in Maggie's company.
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"Sev……." Harriet said warningly as she stared at her fuming alpha.
"Daddy's angry!" Arthur giggled.
His two brothers joined him in a fit of laughter as they gawked at their scowling father.
"The boy's insolence is sickening!" Severus raged.
Silently, he turned on his heel and crept up to his desk to find a quill and parchment.
"You can't punish him for spreading a rumor." Harriet shrugged as she walked forward with the triplets following her steps, "He hasn't done anything wrong, not by Hogwarts' rules. Maggie would have told us if something else had happened."
"I shall write to Lucius and Draco immediately." Severus grouched while he dipped the quill he had scavenged into an ink well. He began to scribble his vexation down on a blank sheet of parchment while he added, "I'm certain they'll be interested to know that the next Malfoy heir is nothing but a liar."
"Sev, you're blowing this all out of proportion!" Harriet laughed, "You know how Maggie is……..She hasn't presented yet, she's a late bloomer like me. All the alphas in the castle are waiting for it, I'm sure!...They must be! Those boys were probably quite rude about it and Scorpius managed to hush them without a battle…….You're being ridiculous, Severus!"
Severus had stopped writing halfway through Harriet's speech to look up at his wife with a tense scowl of disapproval.
"...I beg your pardon?" He drawled.
"...What?" Harriet blinked.
"Explain what you meant by 'how our daughter is'?" Severus scowled.
"Sev……" Harriet chuckled. She glanced down at the triplets before she looked back at her husband and threw her hands up, "Will you force me to say it, then? She's quite……Well, she's quite endowed, you know that."
Severus visibly bristled as he found himself confronted with an unpleasant reality.
Harriet grew more frustrated as she scoffed, "Alphas like breasts, Sev…..Don't think for a moment the other boys haven't noticed."
It was a wonder smoke didn't pour from Severus's ears.
Harriet expected a lengthy rebuttal from her mate.
Instead, he surprised her by resuming the task of furiously finishing his letter to his godson, Draco, and his old friend, Lucius.
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Scorpius follishly assumed that the storm had passed.
He spent the rest of the day addressing the rumor he had started with Maggie.
Once they had brushed off the last nosy busybody after classes had concluded that afternoon, he laughed, "You've been very sporting about all this. I'm surprised you're not angry with me."
"Mum told me at lunch that you said it…..You know, that you and I…..to stop other boys from saying nasty things about me." Maggie said as they moved down the hallway side by side. She glanced over at her friend as she smiled, "Thanks, Scorp."
Scorpius unintentionally mimicked her sublime expression out of his own joy.
He became so preoccupied with admiring her fair face that he nearly ran straight into a stone wall as they rounded a corner.
Maggie politely pretended not to notice.
As he recovered from the shock, Scorpius cleared his throat and held onto what dignity he had left, "After today, I'm sure you'll probably say no, eh?"
"Say no to what?" Maggie frowned.
"Well, I've been thinking…….." Scorpius shrugged.
His tone sounded nonchalant.
His heart pounded in his chest.
"...That perhaps if you don't have anyone else in mind to take to the ball, maybe you and I could go together?" He casually suggested.
"Oh!" Maggie gasped.
Scorpius braced himself for the blow he wasn't sure he could withstand, "Although I realize, you know, like I said……that after today, you probably don't want people to see us toge-"
"-I'd love to, Scorpius!" Maggie chirped. She treated him to another sweet smile as she nodded, "That'd be quite nice!"
"...Brilliant!" Scorpius managed to croak.
Their conversation drifted onto other subjects as they went down the hallway.
Scorpius had to actively resist the urge to leap into the air and let out a triumphant shout.
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While Scorpius completed his journey home next to Maggie on the Hogwarts Express, his father and grandfather busied themselves by discussing his future.
"I know you disapprove of the match, Father." Draco sniffed as he placed Severus's letter down on the lacquered table in Malfoy Manor's parlor.
"It's true, Draco. There are other girls better suited for the Malfoy heir." Lucius mused as he stared out the window at the gray afternoon, "However, our profits continue to decline, as they have since the war. Perhaps if your son married the daughter of Harriet Potter, it may place our family back into a more favourable light with the public."
"Our losses must have been even more abysmal than my last research revealed, Father." Draco scoffed as he rose to his feet. He cast Lucius a hateful scowl before he left the room, "...For you to willingly compromise our family's blood integrity."
Lucius brooded to himself as Draco walked down the hall with a smile on his face.
The elder Malfoy coupled fretted over wealth and notoriety.
The younger Malfoy couple sought to see their only child happy, above all else.
Draco couldn't wait to find Astoria and let her know the good news.
Finally, he had gained his parents' approval of his son's darling.
Draco prided himself knowing that he had even been sly enough to convince Lucius it had been his very idea!
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Severus was less than pleased when he learned Scorpius had asked Maggie to the Winter Ball, but Harriet had silenced him by stepping on his foot when she had congratulated their daughter on that exciting announcement.
Little Sev and the triplets stayed home with their father one morning during autumn recess while Harriet took Maggie shopping in Diagon Alley.
Finding a suitable dress that fit proved to be difficult.
After trudging from one shop to another in a fruitless search, Harriet relied on her past to aid Maggie's future.
The same enchanted seamstress who had made Harriet's ball gown the night she had first mated with Severus was eager to assist.
"Would you like to add a little something special for your alpha, dear?" The seamstress asked Maggie, "As your mother once did?"
Maggie didn't even have time to reply before Harriet quickly answered, "No! No, that won't be necessary today, thanks."
The enchanted seamstress nodded.
Maggie blushed.
She declined to show off her new dress to Severus and her brothers that night in favour of going outside to the garden with Ingrid for another session of intense practice.
"I'm still weak from yesterday." Maggie complained as she sat in her chair while Ingrid walked a short distance ahead.
"A new step each time will grant you the endurance you need for the upcoming night." Ingrid nodded, "Go on, daughter of my son. I will be here waiting."
Maggie sighed.
Casting a spell with a wand and making potions under Slughorn's watchful eye seemed like simple tasks compared to using ancient magic.
She closed her eyes as she sat in her chair and looked deep within herself, through the soil, through the earth, through her own sense of time and space.
Maggie gripped her chair's arms.
Slowly, shakily, with her eyes still closed, she stood to her feet.
Her underdeveloped legs trembled wildly beneath her as Ingrid watched her take a staggering step.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
One more and one more and one more, Maggie Snape walked towards her great-great grandmother until her body refused to obey her waning concentration.
She fell forward with a great cry as Ingrid caught her in her strong arms.
Maggie panted for breath, exhausted and weary.
Ingrid grinned as she gazed down at her young student, "You have done well, daughter of my son……..You have done well."