Triad of Mothers
Chapter 5: Visions
"Crucio," the loud, cold voice echoed around the room, alongside the screams from the platinum blonde man who was writhing on the floor.
"First you tell me, Lucius, that you can't find the three who are pregnant with my heirs. Our three hopes of taking over the whole world. Then you dare to tell me that you can't even find your own son, who is meant to be giving us all the inside details on what is going on at the school," Voldemort snarled as he stood over the panting man on the floor, glaring down at him with harsh red eyes.
"I-I'm sorry, My Lord. The traitor must have found a way to get him out of there. And my owls aren't finding either of them," Lucius said between heavy, shaky breaths.
"Then your owls are useless. No wards should be able to hide you from your own son, Lucius," the snake-like man said.
"The Fidelius Charm, among others, would be able to hide him from anyone, My Lord," Lucius said nervously.
And of course he was crucio'd again.
"Of course I know about those wards, Lucius. But the traitor shouldn't have a place where those wards are applicable. The only home he told us of is the muggle one. And why would he deem it fit to take Draco from the school?"
"Clearly he lied to us, My Lord. Like the traitor he is," Lucius said, "Or he has friends who can hide them. Though who would want to be friends with him, I don't know. He is Draco's godfather, My Lord, Narcissa's idea as she likes him. She also thought it would make us look better to name a half-blood as our son's godfather, especially since he is rather powerful and able to protect Draco,"
"And who would Draco need protecting from, Lucius, so much that the traitor would decide to remove him from school?" Voldemort said, "Especially when the boy has such an important task to do for our cause, to make up for your failures last year,"
"I don't know, My Lord," Lucius said meekly, only to scream again when he was hit with another torture spell.
"Well find out. I don't care how you do it, Lucius, but I need you, and anyone else you can get to work with you, to find your son, and to find my heirs. If you do not find them by the time they are born, then I don't care how loyal you and your family have been to me over the years, but you will all die. Starting with your wife and son. I think I shall have you watch as I torture them to death before I do the same to you. Maybe I should find a way to implant a womb into yourself and your son so that I can do the ritual on all three of you. We shall see, I suppose, if you fail me again,"
"Of-of course, My Lord," Lucius nodded.
"Go,"
Lucius scrambled up and hurried out of the room.
For Luna, watching Harry thrash around in his sleep, screaming as if he was in terrible pain, was perhaps one of the most difficult things she had ever seen. Her mother's death being the only thing that she thought could top it. And whatever Severus and her father were doing to try and wake him up wasn't working, if anything it was making it worse. It seemed to drag him into the nightmare more.
And then Harry sprang up, wide awake, breathing deeply, painfully as tears leaked out of his green eyes. When Harry's eyes focussed properly on what was around him he sunk into Severus' arms and let the older man hold him, and attempt to comfort him.
"Harry, what did you see?" Severus asked gently, "Was it a vision or a nightmare?"
For a second Luna was confused about what that meant, before she remembered that Harry's and Voldemort's minds were connected and Harry could see things occasionally. And based on the trembling of Harry's body, she would guess that he had had a vision, and that he had felt the cruciatus curse again.
"I'm going to get our healers," her father said softly, and Severus nodded in thanks.
"V-vision," Harry said, his throat clearly sore based on the scratchiness of his voice, "He was torturing Mr Malfoy. About Draco no longer being in Hogwarts. And about him not being able to find him or us. He said-he said if he doesn't find us before the babies are born then he would-he would torture the Malfoys to death, making Lucius watch his wife and son die. Or see about implanting wombs in Lucius and Draco to-to do the ritual on the three of them, too,"
"Okay, thank you for telling me, Harry," Severus said softly, running his fingers through Harry's hair, "We're okay, now. We're safe. They're more than likely not going to find us. Not with the wards that were already here, and the ones the Bill and the goblins added. And if they do find us then we have a hoard of very powerful, skilled people to protect us. And we are all very capable of protecting ourselves, too. Now, are you in any pain? Are you feeling anything that you shouldn't be feeling right now?" Severus said gently as her father arrived back with a worried Ted and Healer Greyclaw in tow.
"My whole body h-hurts," Harry said.
"Okay, we'll help with that," Severus said, turning to look at the two healers who were running their wands over Harry, "He'll need a pregnancy safe pain reliever and a cruciatus aftereffects potion. Do we have those on hand?"
"Yes," Ted said, opening his bag and pulling out those potions, letting Severus help Harry to drink them.
Luna was relieved as her friend's shaking slowed, though her heart was still breaking. They had all been through too much in their lives, but her friend was still experiencing visions, too. At a time like this.
"Is my baby okay?" Harry whispered.
"Yes, sweetie," Healer Greyclaw said, "From what we can tell the baby is fine. Though I will, when you have rested, need to do some in depth magical scans on you to see what the nature of this connection between you and the supposed Dark Lord is. It will be best, if possible, for us to break this connection as soon as possible. The baby is fine now, but if this were to happen later on in the pregnancy, I'm not sure what the result would be with the longer period of time away from its donor's magic," she said, a fierceness in her eyes.
Harry just nodded, snuggling into Severus even more, and the man held him tighter, though still gently.
"Would you like a potion to help you get some more sleep?" Ted asked Harry kindly.
"Please," Harry nodded.
It wasn't long before Harry was succumbing to rest in Severus' arms. Ted and Healer Greyclaw left the room, promising to check on Harry again when he wakes.
Her father went back to the couch he had taken to sleeping on and she moved closer to Harry and Severus, needing to be closer to them and their magic as her chest continued to tighten in worry.
"We'll be okay, Luna," Severus whispered, and she looked into his worried eyes and knew that he was trying to believe it for himself, too, but finding it difficult.
"I hope so," Luna breathed.
Everything was too much lately, and she really just wanted peace. For her mind and heart to quieten enough for her to not be overthinking all the time. She wanted to not think about what had happened, what was going to happen, what could happen.
She just wanted peace.
She wanted her mum.
She gently latched onto Harry's hand, hoping to provide her friend with some more comfort and rest. Although she was sure that she herself wouldn't be getting any, or much rest any time soon.
Her mind was far too busy for rest.
Her heart too achy.
She thought Severus felt much the same based on the pain in his dark eyes as he looked between her and Harry worriedly. And as he reached out to gently rub her arm, providing her with some form of comfort and warmth that she desperately needed.
"We're going to get through this, right?" She said quietly, "Together,"
"Together," Severus nodded, the corners of his lips twitching slightly even as he still looked rather pained.
It did, in fact, take them both a while to go back to sleep. But they did it, though it wasn't particularly restful. And Harry, when he woke up, looked like he hadn't rested all that well either.
But they were okay, or as okay as they could be, for now, and that was all that mattered.
Hiya, I hope you are well!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, despite the short length. What do you think? Are they going to make it through their pregnancies relatively intact? Are the babies going to be okay? When are the babies going to be born; early, late, on time? Boys, girls, twins, triplets? Are they going to be found? Who by? What do you think is going to happen? Is there anything you would like to see? Feel free to share your thoughts with me.
Anywho, I posted an essay/petition where I (un)officially explain why I think I should be cast as my favourite character, Severus Snape, in the new HBO series, despite the fact that I am a woman. It would mean a lot if you went and read it, but no pressure. It isn't going to lead to anything, unless, by some miracle, it goes viral, but it was fun to write. It is on my AO3, Maraudering_Paige. Feel free to go and check it out.
Also, I am working on some Spotify playlists for my fanfics, so if you can think of any songs you think work with the stories as they are so far, or where you think they are going, or songs that give you the vibes you get from the stories, then please do let me know and I will give them a listen, then potentially add them to the playlists. If you would like to go and give them a listen as they are now then you can find me on Spotify under the name Maraudering_Paige. They aren't that long at the moment, but we are making progress and I will continue adding to them the more music I listen to and when I have the time to do so. But still, if you can think of any relevant songs then do let me know.
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Kind regards,
Paige xx