Severus jumped up, wand drawn when he heard the wounded roar echoing below.
"Lucius! Where is she?"
Lucius's eyes flashed briefly with fear as he steeled himself into his regal composure. "I assure you –"
Severus pushed past him, following the sounds, his heart in his throat. He already knew, he had known all along, where Luna was being held. He had only hoped that since he was the true target Lestrange's rage, she would remain unharmed, but now it seemed apparent he had overestimated the situation. He stormed through the manor to the kitchens and down into the cellar, Lucius on his heels.
He charged into the dungeon as Lestrange's screams echoed in his ears and slid to a halt as the wizard came into view, Lucius nearly colliding into his backside.
"Luna," he gasped as he saw the witch standing over the flailing form of Lestrange, dark energy crackling in the air.
She looked to him, and the energy in the room fizzled as she fell back, trembling.
Severus ran to her and kneeled, taking her by the shoulders. "I'm here now. Are you unharmed?"
She collapsed into his arms, her chest heaving. "I…I...I think his curse, it… I don't know exactly, rebounded from me to him. And then it was like I had control of it… and oh gods…" she buried her eyes against his robes. "I held it. I didn't let it stop. Somehow it became my curse. And all my anger about the war, and about being forced into hiding, and the stalking, and all of it… I just let it out into him." She took a deep breath and looked up at him, her silver eyes sharper than he had ever seen, a hint of dark magic still swirling within. "And I didn't want to stop." She fell into him again, her warm tears soaking through his thick layers.
Lucius bent over Lestrange's still form. "He is alive."
Severus could feel Luna's sigh of relief as he pulled her closer against him. She looked up at him, her body still shaking from the aftershocks of using the unforgivable. "I knew you would come."
"I promised to protect you. I failed." Oh Gods, he had failed. The serene, young witch once again faced terrible choices because of him. He felt suddenly hollow. What irreparable harm to her psyche could exposure to such dark magic cause? And what of the unborn child?
She shook her head, her hair wild about her shoulders. "No. I knew you would come. That's why I was not afraid. I think that's why I was able to … to protect us, even without my wand. I knew you would be here soon enough."
"Luna. I'm so sorry." He looked away, unable to look her in the eyes, not wishing her to see the shame within his own.
"Shh, Severus. Don't be. You are here now." She wove her fingers through his and gave him a reassuring squeeze.
He shook his head. What he would do to be able to go back and undo it all. "I thought it would be better this way. I thought I could –"
"Ugh," Luna groaned as she curled around her midsection.
"What is it?" His hollow chest filled with panic as he pulled away to scan her form for injury.
"I…I don't know." She rubbed her round form. "A contraction maybe?" She gasped.
He placed a hand over her abdomen. "But it is too early, isn't it?"
"I don't think he can tell time yet.." She smiled weakly as she took a long, deep breath and slowly released it.
His face tightened. "You know what I mean, Luna. Your baby is not due for another week."
She frowned. "Our baby, Severus. And yes, eight days."
Severus's breath caught in his lungs as he watched with eyes wide as another wave of pain overtook the witch.
"Let's go," she breathed.
"Yes. Of course." He swallowed as he took her hand. "I will take you anywhere. You no longer have to hide. Where do you want to have our baby?"
"Anywhere but here! Just take me away from here." Luna wrapped her arms around his neck then groaned. "Oh! That was intense."
"I believe I best get you to St Mungo's for an evaluation. You've been through hell."
"Yes. I think that is best." She moved to stand.
"Allow me," Lucius reached out to assist the witch.
Severus snarled at him. "Don't you dare." He flourished his wand and ropes entangled Lucius and Rodolphus. "Aurors will arrive soon to sort things out. I hope you can behave until then, Lucius. Maybe I'll put in a good word for you at your trial." He kicked their wands across the dungeon.
The wizard's pale features went gray. "Severus, please."
Severus did not respond as he turned to Luna. "Let us go."
He pulled her arm around her shoulder and led her up the dungeon stairs. He paused at the top. "Take a moment to rest. Magic like that takes a real toll."
She nodded as she sat on the stone floor. She held her hands out and watched the visible trembling.
He pulled her tight against his chest, wishing with everything within him to give her calm he could not find within himself, his occlumency walls crumbling, his clarity overwhelmed.
"Oh, do you think you can get my wand?" She asked in a tone as if she were asking for nothing more than for him to pass the jam at the breakfast table.
He nodded. Such a simple thing, yet as he silently called for her wand, the tightness in his chest started to loosen and the chaos in his head eased.
She gave him a weak but knowing smile as she grabbed it mid flight and twisted it into her disheveled hair. "Thank you. I'd hate to have to tell Mr Ollivander I lost another wand here."
He cringed. Another grim reminder of all she'd suffered already. "Malfoy Manor is not on the floo network. Lucius does not trust it anymore." He sighed.
"We can apparate, if you think you can do it."
His brow tightened. "That isn't wise." But what other choice was there? She deserved a professional healer and a proper hospital. He needed to ensure she had that at the very least. He had already failed in so much else.
She moaned as another spasm overtook her. "I trust you," she whispered through clenched teeth.
With a nod, he stood and offered her a hand. "We will need to get outside the wards."
She took his hand and stood with a deep breath. "I am ready."
He tucked her into his side, wrapping his robes around her shoulders. They moved through the manor, his pulse echoing in his ears.
She paused on the front steps, letting forth another pained groan and bent forward. "Yes. I definitely think that's a contraction." She straightened again, her chest heaving with effort, as she moved down the stone stairs. "I refuse to have this baby here."
Despite himself, he almost chuckled as Luna waddled her way next to him, her arm at her midsection, a fierce look about her usually serene features. He would never underestimate this witch again.
He felt the hum of the wards as they passed through the gates and instinctually scanned the area for threats, wand in hand. "Are you ready?"
She pulled herself close to his chest and tucked her head beneath his chin. "Yes."
Swallowing down the fire in his throat, he struggled to picture the entrance to the Emergency ward of St Mungo's.
Just as he prepared their side-along apparition, Luna grasped his robes as another surge took hold of her, momentarily disrupting his acute concentration. As they appeared in front of St Mungo's Emergency entrance clinging to one another, they both cried out.
"Dammit," Severus cursed as he lowered the witch to the ground and grasped his side. "Are you in one piece?" He ran a hand down her cheek, across her chest and onto her abdomen and when he found nothing amiss, he repeated the action to confirm she was uninjured before letting out his held breath.
Luna looked up at him, eyes intensely focused and full of concern as she nodded. "You're not."
"Never in my life…" he mumbled as he pulled a bloodied hand away from his flank. "Splinched."
He stood and pulled her to her feet, despite the stinging protest in his torso.
Luna reached toward his injury as her other hand searched for her wand tangled in her hair, her face twisted with concern.
He grasped her wrist. "Luna, I am fine. We are at St Mungos. They can manage it. Save your strength."
Her shimmering silver eyes pulled away from him as another spasm wracked through her abdomen. "I think he really is coming."
Severus led them into the lobby through gritted teeth. How could he have allowed himself to be splinched? What if it had been Luna? He should have called for help rather than risked the apparition.
"He's…not due until next week…" she cried as a nurse approached them inside the threshold.
"Oh Dear. Let's get her upstairs now." The nurse replied as she looked them both up and down and conjured a wheelchair.
"Healer Hughes, is she here?" Severus asked as they positioned Luna into the wheelchair and moved her into the elevator.
"We will alert her, Mr Snape."
Things moved quickly around him as he struggled to move. Luna's grip on his hand clamped down even tighter as she was moved from the chair onto a bed, and Healer Hughes appeared at her bedside. She quickly ran some sort of diagnostic charm.
Severus's lungs burned as he held his breath awaiting some information.
The mediwitch looked back and forth between them both and smiled. "Take a deep breath…both of you. Everything is fine for the moment."
Severus exhaled and Luna's grip relaxed on his hand as she smiled over at him.
"Baby seems perfectly healthy. Your labor is progressing normally."
"Labor?" Luna gasped. "But you said everything was fine."
"Everything is fine. Your heart rate is a little high, but nothing alarming at this point."
"But it's too early," Severus mumbled.
"Mr Snape, it's only a week, well within the realm of normal, I assure you."
Luna tensed beside him as another wave of discomfort came over her. "This is normal. Everything is progressing as it should. I am capable." She muttered to herself in a slow, even cadence.
He watched her, waiting for her eyes to meet his. When they finally did, he raised a brow in question.
"Affirmations. To maintain focus during the surges." She squeezed his hand tighter and she exhaled slowly.
"Very good, Luna. I will be back in a bit to reassess. Ring the bell if you need anything before." Healer Hughes placed a hand on Luna's shoulder and patted, before doing the same to Severus. "Nothing to fear, Mr Snape."
"How can I be of assistance to her now?" His jaw tightened as he thought of the ongoing suffering Luna was about to endure even after everything she had already been through.
"Distract her. And when that fails, join her in her discomfort. Remind her it will pass." The mediwitch then left, closing the door to the private room behind her.
As the door clicked, Severus took a deep breath and forced his growing panic, his guilt, and his anger back behind what he was able to rebuild of his mental walls as he looked down at the witch in the hospital bed. She looked spent already but for her soft smile. How was she still smiling?
He moved to sit beside her, pushing the hair from her face. "Let's get you changed." He reached for the hospital robes and damp washcloths left at the bedside by the nurses earlier.
She nodded and allowed him to pull her free from her dress. She squirmed and mumbled her affirmations as another wave of pain moved through her.
He looked down on her, now in just her bright blue leggings and her white cotton bra as he wiped her face with the cool cloth. Despite her tangled hair and dirt smudged features, she was truly glowing as she watched him watch her. He ran his hands over her exposed midsection, and she jumped at the suddenness and then smiled.
She reached for his hand as he wiped over her forehead. "Severus, please get yourself tended to."
He pulled his wand from his sleeve and waved it over his side casting a silent rudimentary healing spell. "I promise to have it addressed properly soon enough."
She nodded. "Okay then, distract me," she whispered and flashed him her dimple as she took his hand.
He raised an eyebrow. "Tell me the twelve uses of Dragon Blood."
She snorted. "That was not exactly what I had in mind."
"Do tell then, Luna." He leaned in closer, casting a cleansing charm over her.
She planted his hand on her inner thigh just as another contraction took hold.
"Yes. Well I can see how that might be more effective." He traced his fingers up her thigh to her waist and slid her tattered leggings down her thighs, past her knees, and over her feet, placing soft kisses down the same path, feeling a momentary relaxation of her muscles in his wake.
Luna giggled when he arrived at her right foot and touched his lips to her great toe. "That is nice. But I'd much rather have you up here." She beckoned him upward with a finger.
He crawled up her body, stopping to graze his lips along her navel, feeling the power of the contraction within.
Her fingers twisted into his hair as he reached behind her to loosen the hooks of her bra. She relaxed as he pulled the garment free. He replaced it with the nondescript beige hospital robe, pulling it over her head and smoothing it over her form.
She leaned closer and pressed her lips to his. "Do you think we can just snog through this?"
"We can certainly try." He pressed back.
She giggled again and the sound reverberated in his core, stoking some foreign sense of ease within him.
With a deep sigh, he allowed that feeling through his occlumency barriers, into his most private mental spaces.
"Isn't that better?" She murmured against his lips.
"I thought it was I that was supposed to be comforting you?"
"Shh, Severus. Just let me in." She took his face in her hands.
He nodded. "I will try."
Luna pressed her lips to his again before groaning loudly as an especially strong surge wracked her body and clung longer than the previous. "Oh, I think this means he will be here soon," she groaned through clenched teeth.
"Are you sure you don't want to take anything to dull the pain?" He massaged her shoulder and watched as her body slowly released the tension.
Luna exhaled and laughed. "I've been through worse. At least I know this will end."
Severus choked on his breath as the visual of Luna at the hand of Bellatrix filled his mind followed by the vision of Lestrange writhing on the dungeon floor. The aching emptiness returned to his chest as the sour taste gathered in his throat. How had Luna managed not to collapse under the weight of the cruelties she had experienced? How had she avoided the bitterness that so easily crept into him?
"Come back to me Severus," Luna whispered as she pulled his chin back toward her, her other hand crushing his in her grip. "We are all safe now."
As per usual, Luna saw his thoughts plainly and seemingly effortlessly. "How do you do that?" he murmured.
"Do what?" She smiled, her thumb caressing his jaw.
"Know exactly what I am trying not to think."
She shrugged. "I can see the darkness build in your eyes and just know you must be thinking the worst. And it is such a shame to dwell on those sorts of thoughts."
"Indeed," he huffed. "I wish I had your everlasting ability to not."
"That's lovely. You could learn." She smiled as she pulled him down to kiss him, lips soft and full of understanding.
He gave into it, returning the tender kiss, and deepening it, wishing he could take some of her suffering from her with it.
Luna's eyes grew wide as her body tensed beneath him, and she closed them as she inhaled and exhaled with slow deliberation. "Ooo, I think we should ring that bell now."
He engulfed her in another embrace, his lips against hers, as he reached for the bell.
A/N: One chapter left - please leave me your thoughts. Any artwork or music come to mind? Thank you all for the ongoing support. Happy New Year!