Lacuna

luh-kyoo-nuh | noun

1: a gap or missing part, as in a manuscript, series, or logical argument; hiatus

"Severus!" came her voice from the fire. He could hear the panic in her voice and was on his feet in an instant, rushing up the stairs from his private laboratory in the basement without bothering with a stasis spell on his bubbling potion. Recently he had taken to warding the lab against her, as there was simply no other way to keep her out. The woman was bloody stubborn. At this late stage in her pregnancy, there was any number of ingredients down there that could send her into an early labor or cause harm to her or the baby but she had crossed her arms and declared that she'd simply avoid them. He, however, had no desire to risk an accident.

When she had first discovered the wards, her screeching could be heard from the back garden, which is where he had been at the time. Steeling himself from her anger, he had pulled her resistant body into his arms and firmly informed her that he simply cared for her and for their child too much to risk their health because she couldn't bloody well relax. She could live there after the baby was born if she so desired, but until then, she wasn't to set foot in the basement. He had promised not to lay a finger on her projects other than to suspend them with a stasis charm. She had grumbled and complained loudly but her body had relaxed against him.

Now his body was gripped within the influence of the vast amounts of adrenaline that pumped through his veins as he took the stairs two at a time to his wife. "Hermione!" he shouted, though he knew she would be in the living room, where the main fireplace was located. Barreling through the doorway, he laid eyes on her standing alone in the living room, one hand laid absently on her large belly. She turned to him, eyes wide and horrified.

Crossing the room to her quickly, he demanded, "Is it time?"

She ignored him, her eyes staring into space, trancelike. "I… I was reading this book that I found in the library at the Ministry," she said softly.

He could detect the distress in her voice and lifted his hands to run them along her arms, waiting for her to continue. She had been researching an artifact for her job in the Department of Mysteries and he knew that what she had found thus far was, put lightly, dark. From what she had told him, the golden statue hailed from ancient America and its creation had involved blood magic and ritual sacrifice. She held up the book that he hadn't noticed she had clutched in her other hand. The title leaped out at him. Weather Magicks of the Americas.

"Are you ok?" he asked gently, his panic beginning to fade a little.

She shook her head agitatedly. Holding the book in front of her, she let it fall open to a section whose pages had obviously been ripped from the binding. "It's missing pages," she wailed as tears sprung to her eyes.

He tried to suppress the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Are they the pages you needed?"

Biting her lip, she shook her head slowly. "No, but-"

Severus pulled her back against his chest, lowering his face into the crook of her neck. "Hermione, you scared me." He sighed and raised his head again. He planted a kiss to the side of her head. "I'm sure you'll find out who so defiled the book and punish them accordingly."

She huffed indignantly. "Severus, it isn't funny. This is an important work and now it's missing a chunk of information and-"

"I didn't say it was funny," he agreed lightly. "I fully agree with your assessment that the defiling of a book – any book – is a travesty."

She made an impatient noise in her throat. "I'm ready for this thing to be out of me already! I'm so emotional it's ridiculous."

"Any day now," he reminded her.

She turned in his arms and leaned forward to lay her head against his chest. "You know, there are things we could do to stimulate the process." Her hands trailed lightly down his back.

He chuckled lowly, knowing exactly what she was suggesting. "I am more than willing to help out a woman in need."

She went into labor later that same night.