Rihanna's Son

yay, new chapter, and a little longer. I'm writing with the flu. *(don't you love real life? if it's not one thing it's another lol) Hope you enjoy. two more chapters then finished!

and yay to the moderators for making it manditory to log in to leave reviews. ok, review number are probably going to go down, but no more idiotic anonymous flames. if you're going to flame me, fine, but leave an email so it can be personal. just my opinion :-)

marti



By the time lunch had been eaten, Severus wondered if his son had been sent to him to torture him for all the wrongs he’d done in this world. He’d overturned a cart of potions ingredients, picked up his father’s wand and somehow turned himself into a tea cozy (he was sure Minerva would be happy to know that since most of her students never got that right anyway), had decided that potion making was no longer fun and tipped the empty cauldrons over and used a stirring spoon as a drumstick. Severus had a horrid headache and wished Remus was there to hex.


“Isn’t it your nap time, Damien?” He yelled over the din. He’d never known that cauldrons could make that much racket. Of course his students didn’t normally use them as drums either. And where did his son get the idea that it was acceptable to do that to perfectly good cauldrons?


“No nap.” The almost-five year old yelled back over his drumming. The larger cauldrons were in the center, between his wide-spread legs and he was banging rhythmically on them, singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ to the beat. He had a fairly good voice, if he could drop the decibel level to something a human could withstand.

“I remember Molly saying something about a nap yesterday.”

“No nap, no nap, no nap, no nap!” Each word was accompanied with a loud beat of the largest cauldron. Severus sighed and closed his eyes, wishing for a large Firewhiskey and possibly an ‘Obliviate’ right now.

“I believe that a nap is definitely in order, then.” He reached down to pick his son up into his arms. Damien kicked out at his father and beat his arms with the spoon as he rebelled against taking a nap. “Damien Snape! Cease your fighting. If you do not, I will be forced to levitate you up the stairs and then you will not be allowed a dessert after your dinner tonight.” The boy stopped moving so fast, Severus wondered if someone had cast a full body bind spell on the child.

“No dessert?”

“If you don’t stop arguing, then no. But if you let me take you right upstairs and lay down quietly, I’ll allow you a piece of cake or pie, whatever Molly is making for dinner. Is that an acceptable agreement, son?” Damien loosened up and laid his head against his father’s shoulder as the potions master carried the child up the basement stairs to the first floor. He heard the thud of the spoon hitting the floor and he wondered if the child might already be asleep. With a smile he’d allow no one but Hermione to see before, he turned his head and kissed the child on the cheek, enjoying knowing that his son smelled like his lover.


On the second floor landing, he turned to his son’s room and pushed the door open with his free shoulder. He smirked at the soft snore against his shoulder. The child had certainly expended much energy. No wonder Molly looked so tired at the dinner table, if his son wore her out as easily. He wondered how she had raised her seven children without pulling out her own hair, especially those hell-spawned twins.

He put the boy on top of his made bed and pulled a small blanket over his little form. He really did look a lot like Severus had at that age, but without the hardness. Damien had been loved and coddled his short life, while his father had managed to destroy Severus’ faith in paternal love quite early. He vowed never to let his son know that feeling. He watched Damien roll over onto his side and tuck one hand between his drawn up knees and the other hand to his mouth, sucking his thumb like he had last night in Severus’ bed.

He didn’t know how long he stood staring at his son, a small miracle he’d not expected to be thrust into his life.

“Professor Snape?” Hermione was standing out in the hallway watching him.

“Good afternoon, Hermione. How was your shopping trip?” He asked without turning around, still gazing upon the child.

“Everything was fine. I came back a little earlier than everyone else. I thought you might need help cleaning up and such.”

“Only in the potions lab downstairs.” Severus turned to look at her. He stared at her as if for the first time. “I love you, Hermione. And when this war is over, I want to marry you.”

“Are you alright, Severus?” She frowned at him, dropping her shopping bag on the floor and coming in to check his forehead. He pulled her hand down to his lips and kissed the back of it gently.

“I’m fine. My son is a little devil, but I find redemption in his existence.” He whispered huskily against her flesh. She smiled at him, knowing he spoke the truth.

“Ran you ragged, did he?”

“Caused one of the largest Migraines I’ve ever experienced. But I’d not change this day for the world. Except maybe for when he changed himself into a tea cozy.” He laughed and pulled Hermione into his arms, bending down and kissing her slowly, deeply.

“What’s gotten into you?” She breathed when he finally released her.

“Fatherhood.”

“A tea cozy, you say.”

“Yes. It was the only quiet part of the day. I wonder if I should have let him remain as such.” Severus mused with a twinkle in his black eyes. Hermione slapped him playfully on his chest, earning her a slight grin when he captured her hand again. She hadn’t seen Severus like this in a long time, not since before he’d heard of Rihanna’s sickness and Damien’s arrival.

“Why are you wearing your robes around the house?”

Severus growled and pulled his lover out of his son’s room and into his adjoining one. Once the door was closed and securely warded, he pushed her up against it and ravaged her mouth, his hips grinding into hers as his hands lifted her up from under her arms. She wrapped her legs around him automatically and pulled him closer. “That’s why.” He whispered huskily in her ear when he was finished. “I remembered the night you gifted me with the green shirt.”

“I don’t know when Molly and Ginny are going to come back, Severus.”

“Come to me tonight, then.” He thrust his hardness between her legs, growling at the heat he felt there, knowing that if he were to reach down and touch her, his fingers would be covered in her musky scent.

“What about Remus?”

“I don’t share.” He laughed at her expression. “Please, Hermione. I miss you.”

“I miss you too, Severus.” She sighed when his lips and teeth began nibbling at her neck. She arched her back and tightened her legs around his hips. “Alright, I’ll be here tonight, but if there’s a four year old in your bed, I’m taking a picture and posting it on the bulletin board in the Great Hall when we return to school.” She gripped his neck for a second then released her hold with her legs, dropping her feet to the floor just as they heard the front door open downstairs. She hurried through the attached door and closed it behind her, moving to watch the sleeping boy as she heard Ginny come running up the staircase. She left the child’s bedroom and met Ginny out in the hall, her finger to her lips.

“Gin! Professor Snape got him to nap. Quiet!” Hermione castigated the younger girl, pulling her away from Damien’s door with a gentle hand to her upper arm.

“Are you sure he didn’t give him a sleeping draught?”

“Ginny! I bet the professor’s pretty tired too after that.” Hermione laughed at the thought of Severus being too tired to participate in the day’s activities.

“I don’t see what the three of you witches have to complain about. The child was hardly a handful at all.” Snape came out of his bedroom, his black robes billowing around him. Hermione wondered how he got them to do that every time he walked. It was quite impressive of him, really. It was like show and tell ability. Maybe someday he’d show her how to do it too. She smiled and pulled Ginny down the hall to her bedroom.

“Did you see Harry?”

“Yeah.” Ginny blushed and started putting away the clothes she’d bought while in Diagon Alley with her mother. Now that her brothers were all gone, she was reaping the benefits as if she were an only child. “He found another one. He and Ron destroyed it with Moody’s help. There’s only one left before he confronts Tom.” Ginny was excited and worried for her secret boyfriend.

The only one to know of their continued relationship was Hermione, only because she’d caught the know-it-all and Severus kissing in the basement one day. Severus wondered how the Hat could sort the youngest Weasley into Gryffindor when she displayed such Slytherin characteristics. He had told Hermione he’d ask it when or if he returned to the school. That was when she realized how much he missed the school and teaching. From then on she’d been determined to return him to his rightful place at Hogwarts.

“That’s good, Gin. I can’t wait to see them. Did you tell him about Damien?”

“He was mentioned. Harry couldn’t believe it.” Ginny giggled and plopped down on the bed next to Hermione.

“I want to visit Severus tonight. Do you think you can keep an eye out for Damien’s room? I just don’t want your mother coming into his room while I’m in with Sev.”

“Yeah, no problem. I didn’t know he got out of bed at night anyway, not til last night anyway.” The red head grinned.

“He did a wonderful job with him, you know. Severus is going to end up being a great father.”

“Wishful thinking, ‘Mione?” Ginny made Hermione blush with her comment. Ever since Ginny had discovered her with Snape, she’d been the older girl’s sounding board.

“What young woman doesn’t dream of marrying the man she loves, at least for a moment, dreams it? I think he’s coming to love Damien, though. And that’s a good sign, right, that he really does love me, right?” It was difficult for her to understand why he’d love her when Damien’s mother had been beautiful and ethereal, her opposite or so she thought.

“You know he loves you; if anyone were to notice how much he watches you, they’d know too. Come on, we’re helping with dinner again.” Ginny grabbed Hermione’s arm and pulled her out of the bedroom and down the staircase.

In his room, Severus was glad he’d gotten some of the Weasley twins’ Extendable Ears. They were quite useful in his spying, on Death Eaters and young lovers.




At twenty after two, Damien scurried down the stairs and stood at the bottom staring at the portrait of Mrs. Black. She was sleeping, or appearing to be asleep, but he felt that she was watching everything while pretending, listening to everything that happened in her home. Damien stood staring at her, his head cocked to one side as he patiently waited for her to acknowledge him.

“What do you want, boy? If your traitor father sees me talking to you he will paint a muzzle on me.”

“How come you’re so mean? Is it cause your little boys is gone? I’d miss them too.”

“My son was a traitor much like your father is.”

“My daddy didn’t like your son. So if they was both traders, then they might ha’been friends. I don’t like seeing Daddy scared and angry.”

“Go away, child. I need my beauty rest.” Mrs. Black closed her eyes and turned away from Damien, ignoring the child as he asked another question. Damien sighed and stuck his thumb in his mouth. He turned around and went around the stairs to the kitchen, hearing before he opened the door the voices of his father and uncle. There were yelling at each other. Again. Of course, he’d gotten used to the sound, but he didn’t like it. He wanted his family to like each other.

“Telling a four year old that his mother is dead isn’t very considerate.” Remus snarled at Severus. Damien stood on the other side of the closed door and listened curiously.

“He deserves to know that his mother is gone, Lupin. He’s four years old, but he knew his mother was ill and that she had spoken to him about her dying. Don’t think he doesn’t know what’s going on. Hiding Rihanna’s death from him will only make it harder when you have to tell him.” Severus glared at the werewolf over the letter he’d laid flat on the table before him. It was a notification of Rihanna’s death from her friend Anne. He didn’t look away from Lupin, afraid he’d catch Hermione’s gaze watching him so sympathetically.

“He’s four years old.”

“He’s more intelligent than you give him credit for. He’s had to watch his mother fade away from him before he came here. Don’t take that away from him, Remus.” Severus stood quickly and rushed out of the kitchen, the door swinging open and knocking Damien down onto the carpeted floor. He cried out and fell on his bottom, tears in his dark blue eyes as he looked up at his father. His lips quivered from the tears: Severus wasn’t sure if they were from the accident or what he must have heard before he’d come storming out of the room. He bent down and picked his son up into his arms, cradling him against his chest.

“Mommy’s gone.” He sniffled against his father’s robes.

“Yes, she is. She died this morning, your mother’s friend Anne wrote to us.”

“I wish I could sees her ‘gain.” He rubbed his face against his father’s robe, drawing a frown from him, but no further reproof.

“I, too, little one. Are you hurt from the fall?”

“No.” Damien shook his head hard and pulled his head away from his father as the man carried him into the library. It was the one room in the big house he was not allowed to enter unless with an adult. He tried to tell his father that he’d never hurt the books, that Mommy had taught him that books weren’t to be ripped or torn, but his Daddy hadn’t listened. Sometimes it wasn’t fun to be four years old.

Severus closed the door behind him in the library and brought the child over to his favorite seat, the window seat that showed him the view of the backyard his son played in usually.

“Now, cry, Damien. I know how you feel.” Severus whispered into the black hair so much like his own. He brushed some of it away from his son’s eyes and let the boy see the pain in his own. He’d lost Rihanna five years ago and the news just received was like losing her again. It was even worse in a way: now he had a son to console when he wasn’t sure how to help himself.


“She went to Heaven. She said that’s where she was going to go when she died.”

Severus wanted to believe in a Muggle Heaven, but having grown up with Tobias Snape, all he’d ever learned about as a child was Hell and Purgatory.

“She’s my garden angel now, she said. And that she’s always gonna look out for me. Is that true?”

“If your mother said it, little one, then I’m sure it’s true.” Severus whispered huskily. The idea that Rihanna’s spirit was there now, watching over their son didn’t seem as ridiculous as it might have a month ago, before Damien. Knowing she was there keeping him safe and out of trouble consoled him.

“She’s not a gnome now though, is she? Cause I don’t want her to be ugly like thems. I want my pretty mommy angel.”

Then Severus realized how his son had mispronounced ‘guardian’ earlier. He smiled at the boy and laughed a little, the misery relieved a little by what was said. “Guardian angels, son.” He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and continued smiling at the child.

“Oh. Okay. Damien wrapped his arms around his father and hugged him tightly. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I…love you, also, Damien. Did you have a good nap?”

“Uh-huh. Can I get a kitty of my own?” Severus rolled his eyes. The child had begged him most of the morning with the same question, usually in time to his drum beats on his cauldrons.

“Maybe when things are better and we live in our own home.”

“Gotta kill the bad snakey man.” Damien nodded his head and plopped his thumb back into his mouth, lying quietly against his father again. Severus started rocking him in the age-old motion of parents everywhere.

Remus found them a few minutes later; Severus leaned against the side of a bookshelf with Damien in his arms, rocking his son gently. Severus turned to look at Rihanna’s brother.

“He was outside of the kitchen and had heard the news, Remus.” Severus said gruffly, his head turned away from the werewolf before his emotions were found out.

“Damien, do you want to come with me for a little while?”

“Nuh-uh. Want Daddy.” He muttered into his father’s shoulder. Remus shrugged and left the library. He had known that bringing the child to his father could mean less time for him with the boy. He hoped severus would let him have time with Damien once things were straightened out and the final battle fought.

Poor Remus feeling left out when he was the one who took care of Damien before...sigh....