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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The fat rat had to scurry all the way around the outside of Severus and Lily's new house to find an entry point, but after a fair amount of scuttling, he succeeded at last, and crawled inside the walls of their humble dwelling.
Through a slender crack in the corner of their bedroom, Peter spied on the couple as they shared their final kiss for the night and settled down to sleep.
The rat waited for a moment in silent anticipation.
Severus put out the candle on the nightstand.
As he and Lily drifted off, their breathing gradually deepened and Peter noticed.
He hesitantly dared to emerge from his hiding place.
One paw…….
His nose……
His beady eyes……
Two paws……
Once Peter had completely slipped through the crack in the corner, he listened closely to Severus and Lily to ensure that they were truly asleep.
Cautiously, he crept across the darkened room and up onto their bed.
Their sheets wrinkled as the rat's dirty paws tracked mud and debris over the linen.
Peter let his filthy tail drag behind him as he soiled the bedding with the dingy grime and various diseases that he carried on his Animagus form.
Once he made it to the head of the bed, Peter crawled along the pillows, and sat up on his hind legs to look down at the unsuspecting couple.
Severus and Lily were peacefully asleep, entangled in each other's arms.
Lily lay on Severus's shoulder, with him wrapped protectively around her as they dreamed similar dreams.
Peter deftly moved over to Lily and bit off the end of one of her red hairs.
Although the action caused no pain, she sighed in her sleep at the slight pulling sensation that she detected on her scalp.
Peter instantly stiffened.
After Lily quieted, Peter moved over to Severus and bit off the end of one of his hairs, a single strand only.
The rat held those two hairs in his rotten mouth as he silently crept off of Severus and Lily's bed, squeezed under their cracked door, and skidded down the hallway.
When Peter came to the second bedroom, he took extra precautions to stay quiet.
The pink nursery had not been what he had expected to find, not that it mattered much, as he looked around while he stealthily shimmied up the bars of Harriet's cot.
Peter's long, eerie tail wrapped around each wooden rail as he went……
When he reached the top, he stared down at the sleeping baby for a moment and contemplated how he should proceed.
The rat's beady eyes stared at the patches of red hair that covered the infant's tiny head.
One of those hairs…..he had to have one, but how?
Harriet's fluffy tufts were nearly too fine to bite off.
Silently, carefully, the fat rat crawled closer to the baby.
Once Peter made it onto Harriet's small mattress, he scurried up to her side and placed the end of his disgusting nose against the crown of her sweet, innocent head.
He decided that he could scrape some of the baby's hair off into his mouth, that may be the best way to proceed…...
Peter opened his thin, rodent lips and pushed himself along the outside of Harriet's skull.
He carelessly placed one paw down on Harriet's shoulder and that small amount of pressure, combined with his foul smell, made her green eyes pop wide open.
"WWWWWAAAAAAA!" Harriet immediately screamed when she saw a monster attacking her, in her bed, with her mother and father nowhere to be seen.
She writhed to get away from her assailant, but the pounding footsteps that sounded down the hallway only made Peter work faster as he frantically scraped his yellow teeth over her head.
"WWWWWAAAA!"
Relief flooded the rat's system when a few of Harriet's downy hairs successfully folded into his wet mouth.
Peter quickly used his teeth to sever those hairs at their roots just as the door to the nursery flew open.
"SEV!" Lily shrieked from the doorway when her eyes fell on the large rat in her baby's cot.
"WWWWAAAA!"
Peter heard a curse shouted as he scurried up the wooden bars.
He leapt into the air just in time to dodge the burst of red light.
With a heavy thud, he landed ungracefully on the floor.
"WWWAAAAAA!"
The rat heard another curse be fired off as he fled.
He recognized Severus Snape's voice before the second blast landed next to his skittering feet.
Peter's beady eyes darted furiously as he raced towards the wall, desperate to locate a means of escape while he felt the vibrations in the floor as something or someone rushed towards him.
"WWWWWAAAA!"
A little hole in the wall proved to be the rat's respite and through it, he disappeared as another red flash from Severus's wand landed nearby.
After Peter escaped, Severus knelt down by that hole in the wall and peered into it while he tried to understand how a rat that large could have squeezed through such a small opening.
"It's alright, sweetheart, it's alright!" Lily tried to console Harriet as she cradled her daughter and bounced her in her arms.
"WWWWAAAA!"
Lily was nearly as distraught as her baby.
Her arms trembled while Harriet's inconsolable cries rang through her panicked ears.
The worry that Harriet sensed in her mother did not help at all to calm her down.
"WWWWWWAAAA!"
Severus accepted his defeat and realized that he had lost his foe for the moment.
In one quick motion, he stood, turned, and walked over to Lily and the baby.
His first thought was to check Harriet for bites.
Severus hastily looked her over and once he verified that she had endured the rat's assault without suffering any physical harm, he cast a simple spell to clean her as the terrified baby continued to wail.
"WWWWAAAAAA!"
"S-Sev! Did you see that awful thing?! I've never seen a rat that huge…...or that fat! What was it doing with her head?!" Lily cried in bewilderment.
"WWWWWAAAAA!" Harriet shrieked.
"Let me take her, my love." Severus offered over Harriet's cries.
Lily reluctantly handed Harriet over to Severus with a frown.
As Lily trailed behind them, Severus walked back to their bedroom while he murmured to Harriet in his low drawl and rubbed her tiny back.
When Severus walked through the door, he scowled down at the dirtied sheets.
He hurriedly cleaned them with the same spell that he had used on Harriet and carefully crawled back into the freshened bed with the baby.
Lily cuddled against him as they both held onto their frightened little girl.
Once Harriet had smelled her mother's scent and had listened to Severus's soothing, low voice for a few moments, her wild cries gradually calmed into fussy whimpers, which eventually subsided after she went back to sleep.
Severus clutched Lily against him as they both held the baby, until Lily's eyes started to close too.
While she battled her own drowsiness, Lily moved to stand and take Harriet back to her room, but Severus stopped her as he gently laid a hand on her arm.
"...No." Severus said in a voice barely above a whisper.
"Sev….I can't sleep with her, I'm frightened that I'll roll over and crush her. The rat's gone for the night, most likely…..We can keep the lamp on in the nursery." Lily said with a yawn, "...Or do you think that we should move her cot in here?"
"No, give her to me again and I'll watch over her." Severus ordered as he held out his arms.
"You can't sleep with her either." Lily said with another yawn as she passed Harriet to Severus.
"I'm not going to sleep." Severus replied very seriously as he gently accepted the baby.
"You need to rest too, Sev." Lily sighed as she cuddled into Severus's side once Harriet was safely nestled in his grasp.
Severus used his free hand to tuck Lily in lovingly.
Satisfied with how comfortable she seemed to be as she lay next to him, Severus bent down and kissed Lily sweetly on the lips as she let sleep overtake her.
Severus stoically held Harriet in his arms while he peered around the dark room.
If that rat came back and tried to bite his little gir-...well, Lily's daughter…..again, then Severus would splatter it to pieces with a single wave of his wand, even if he had to destroy the entire room along with the rodent.
Although, there were other issues besides the rat's potential return that kept him from sleeping.
Severus would have shrugged it off as his usual tendency towards paranoia, but considering his and Lily's current situation, he felt that there was little harm in exercising an overabundance of caution.
There had been something odd about that massive rat…….
It had put its vile mouth on Harriet's head, but why hadn't it bitten her?
……..And how had his and Lily's sheets become so filthy?
Severus remembered the nicknames that the Marauders had chosen for their animal forms very well.
Prongs, for James Potter, the stag.
Padfoot, for Sirius Black, the dog.
Mooney, for Remus Lupin, the lycanthrope.
And wormtail for……….
Lily's words echoed back to Severus as he thought.
"Did you see that awful thing?! I've never seen a rat that huge…...or that fat!"
Severus narrowed his dark eyes in a deep scowl of seething rage and utter loathing.
Wormtail…….for Peter Pettigrew, the rat.
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After Peter completed his mission, he returned to the grubby room that he had temporarily rented in Knockturn Alley.
On a crusted table, he laid the scarlet hair that he had collected from Laima at the dinner party months ago.
Beside it, Peter placed the second scarlet hair that he had collected from Laima.
A single tap from his wand sent out a tiny beam of light that ran between the two red hairs in one strong connection.
Peter's lip twitched.
Good, the hairs had come from the same woman.
Peter removed his wand from the table and laid Severus's black hair next to the two scarlet strands.
He had to open his mouth and run his dirt-splattered fingers over his slimy tongue to pull off the feathery-soft hairs that he had managed to steal from little Harriet.
Peter laid the baby's hairs, and a fair amount of his own spittle, underneath the samples of Severus and Laima that he had scrounged.
He placed his wand in the center of the table and murmured under his breath.
The tiny beam of light connected both of Laima's red hairs once more.
However, that small ray trickled down towards the baby's hair to illuminate the fluffy strands as well, but the black hair remained untouched.
Peter grinned to himself as he removed his wand.
He knew then that Severus Snape was not the father of Laima's baby…...which he found very curious considering the loving protectiveness that he had witnessed Severus display towards the infant.
Why?
Why should Severus Snape protect a child that wasn't his, the child of a foreign witch that he had supposedly taken to bed?
Peter's mouth fell open as an idea occurred to him.
Did Severus realize that he was not, in fact, the baby's father?
Peter put his long nails up to his lips as he contemplated the child's paternity.
He frowned as a possibility danced in his mind.
They were dead, they were buried, the notion was silly…….wasn't it?
Peter had no proof yet, but Laima did bear a terribly strong resemblance to Lily Potter…..
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Lily was grateful that Voldemort had unknowingly freed her from having to wear her disguise.
Since the Dark Lord believed that he had given Laima the face of Lily Potter, Lily had no need to conceal herself as she, Severus, and little Harriet arrived in Malfoy Manor's dining room, on one Saturday morning in mid-October.
"Thank you for inviting us, my lord, Lucius." Severus bowed to Voldemort before he nodded over at Lucius Malfoy.
He sat down at his dark master's side with Lily next to him and little Harriet in her arms.
Lucius sat directly across from Severus, with Narcissa at his side.
Their infant son, Draco, squirmed in her grasp.
"Severus, how could we proceed today if you hadn't joined us?!" Voldemort asked with a mirthless cackle. He glanced back and forth between Lucius and Severus as he went on, "We have several things to discuss and we-"
A fussy whimper from Draco cut Voldemort off.
Voldemort scowled over at Narcissa and she hurriedly bounced her baby.
She nodded at her leader before she shamefully lowered her head and apologized, "I'm terribly sorry, my lord."
Lucius shifted nervously in his seat.
Voldemort glared at Narcissa until she quelled Draco's whimpers into quiet, dissatisfied whines.
"As I was saying," Voldemort hissed as he turned back to Lucius and Severus, "We need to-"
A sharp wail from Draco interrupted the Dark Lord a second time.
"WWWWWAAAA!"
Voldemort threw Narcissa a warning scowl and under the ominous intensity of his unforgiving gaze, she hurriedly asked, "Perhaps Severus's lover and I may be excused to tend the little ones? Forgive me, my lord, I beg you…...please allow us to comfort the children in private."
Voldemort irritably waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.
Narcissa locked eyes with Lily and both women stood from the table.
Lily followed Narcissa out of the gothic dining room and down a lacquered hallway.
Harriet blinked up at Lily curiously while Draco continued to protest.
"WWWAAAA!"
Together, the two women and their babies stepped through an arched door at the very end of the long corridor just as Draco's cries threatened to sharpen.
Narcissa had cleverly stolen a moment alone with…….Laima.
"WWWAAA!"
"I'm terribly sorry about that." Narcissa apologized to Lily as she watched her look around the room in awe.
Draco's nursery was as large as the entire upstairs of Lily's house.
An impressive crystal chandelier hung from the inlaid ceiling.
Its magnificent light glistened off of the damask walls.
"WWWWWAAA!"
Narcissa sat in the elegant rocking chair by the large window as she pulled one side of her robes down, laid Draco against her breast, and soothed his hungry cries.
"Oh…...don't….worry." Lily stammered, her voice and accent obscured by Linguatorquin.
She had hoped to continue her ruse that she didn't understand very much English.
"Has Severus been teaching you?" Narcissa asked as her sharp, blue eyes scanned over Lily in a very scrutinizing stare.
Nervousness gripped Lily's heart as she thought back to the mistake that she had made in the dining room.
She shouldn't have risen from the table so quickly with Narcissa.
She had foolishly given the impression that she had comprehended the conversation too easily.
"A……..bit." Lily nodded.
"I'm certain that you'll be fluent soon, Severus is an excellent teacher." Narcissa nodded.
Lily slowly nodded in return.
That didn't take the judgement out of Narcissa's crystal blue stare as she smirked at Lily and said, "I suppose you'll have to be…...if you and I are to share a grandchild….or grandchildren one day."
Lily blinked at Narcissa as if she were confused, but she knew the real meaning behind Narcissa's snide sneer.
Truthfully, neither Lily nor Narcissa were thrilled about what would be happening momentarily in the Malfoy dining room, but Lily had resigned herself to doing whatever she needed to save her daughter's life, even if that meant agreeing that her little girl marry into the Malfoy family.
Narcissa's disdain for Laima was offensively apparent.
From Laima's red hair…. to her clothes…. to her relationship with Severus…..Narcissa detested the woman.
If Narcissa had known that her only son would be betrothed to a mudblood witch in her own dining room, she would have fallen out of the rocking chair and dropped Draco on the floor.
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On that same eventful morning, while Severus and Lily conducted their business at Malfoy manor, Peter went to visit someone as well.
He knocked sharply on another estate's intricate wooden door until it finally swung open.
James blinked out at his old friend as Peter frowned at him from the front steps of the Potter mansion and cried, "Oh, James! I came as soon as I heard!"
Peter opened his arms and James embraced him in a brief hug before he welcomed him inside.
James didn't notice that Peter's disgustingly dirty shoes tracked spots across the pristine carpets as Peter asked, "How are you getting on?"
"Well…….considering what I've lost." James sniffed, "I appreciate you coming, Peter, but Sirius and Remus will be here later today….. It's not everyone's responsibility to cheer me up."
"Oh, please, James!" Peter implored his friend as they sat down across from each other in the Potters' parlor, "I hope you won't think less of me, but I've actually come to conduct some research!"
"Research?" James asked as he scowled, "...What sort of research?"
"I'm investigating the murder of your wife and son." Peter boldly declared.
"...Murder?" James frowned suspiciously.
"Oh yes." Peter nodded with a mischievous grin.
"Lily and the baby weren't murdered, they died in childbirth." James scowled.
"...Did they?" Peter grinned.
"Are you saying…….Are you saying that someone killed them?" James asked incredulously.
"Please!" Peter cried dramatically as he raised a hand up and cowered in front of James while he sat on his friend's sofa, "I don't wish to give you false hope or inaccurate accusations, James, all I need from you is a single hair to confirm my theories."
Behind his glasses, James narrowed his eyes as he asked in disbelief, "A single...hair?"
Peter nodded.
"...Why do you need one of my hairs?" James blinked.
"So that I can learn the truth, which I will then gladly share with you~." Peter promised with a wicked grin disguised as a smile.
James raised a hand to seal his daughter's doom.
With a thoughtless pluck and a gentle stretch of his arm, James handed Peter the strand of hair that he had requested.
Peter scurried out of James's estate so quickly that he left James scowling to himself as he watched his old friend flee.
The bizarre visit made little sense to James.
He hadn't remembered hearing that his friend had started working in magical law enforcement and so, he certainly didn't understand why Peter Pettigrew had taken it upon himself to investigate the death of Lily and his son?
James shook his head as he wondered what had led Peter to believe that they had been murdered?