Love and Parenthood

Love and Parenthood

Disclaimer: All canon characters are the property of JK Rowling and those with whom she has agreed contracts. This story was written for practice not profit.

Taking Action


Severus was raging. Madam Minton could see that he was on the verge of a spontaneous outbreak of wandless magic.


“I haven’t seen any Aurors today apart from your pupils,” she said calmly. “Are you quite certain that no one’s taken the children for a walk in the gardens?”

“Of course I’m certain,” he spaThe The infants from our batch show as a different colour from the other children in residence. You can see the difference quite clearly!”

“What are we going to do?” she asked.

“I’m going down to the Gatehouse to see if my wife is still breathing. Are you coming or not?”

He grabbed his broom and made for the door without looking to see if she was following.

He left through the French doors in the ballroom and flew at top speed down to the Gatehouse. One of his pupils was lying unconscious on the ground just outside the gate. Severus barely gave him a glance in his haste to get inside and find Hermione.

A scene of disarray met him as he entered the house. Hermione was still in the sitting room where he had left her. She was lying on the floor. He dropped to his knees beside her and felt frantically for a pulse. In his emotional state he took longer to find it than he would have done under normal circumstances. It was there, and it was steady as though she were merely sleeping.

He sagged with relief and tried to calm himself enough to edge into the minds of the twins. They too seemed to be comfortable in sleep. He sat gasping for a moment and was then forced to turn away as he vomited up the lunch he had just eaten.

He cleaned up after himself with a wave of his wand and moved around the room checking on the others. They all seemed to be in the same state as Hermione.

He was startled by a noise at the door.

“Severus?”

It was Madam Minton.

“I informed Mistress Finch, in case she was needed,” she explained puffing quite hard. She had obviously been running. “She’s on her way. How are they?”

“Just Stupefied I think,” he said. “There’s another one outside… one of my pupils. Simon Franks. I should take a look at him.”

“I’ll go. He’s family. He’s my cousin’s child. You stay with your wife.”

She made her way out as Mistress Finch came in. She started with Ginny who was nearest.

“Any idea what happened Severus?” she asked as she worked.

“No! I was supposed to meet Hermione for lunch and when she didn’t turn up I looked for her on my map. It was then that I realised that everyone was still here but the babies were both gone.”

“Who was outside?”

“My pupil Simon. He was my second pupil. He left about an hour ago. I suppose he came out this way and happened upon it.”

“I have to say I think it’s going to be best to leave everyone to come out of this naturally. Are you picking up anything from the babies?”

“No, I did check when I arrived. They were all sleeping too but not dreaming.”

“Stupefied as well then. Quite powerful casting.”

“Let’s see if we can revive the Auror. If he can tell us what he saw it might give me some indication of how to proceed.”

Severus foreforestalled by the Madam Minton leading the revived Auror into the room.

“I tried to stop them,” he blurted as soon as he saw Severus. “They were just about to leave when I came back.”

“Who, boy?”

“The Death Eaters. There were two of them. I recognised the masks. They took the babies. When I got back to the Academy earlier I bumped into one of the Aurors who was supposed to be here. He told they’d been pulled away to an emergency and he was a bit worried about having to go and leave the place unprotected. I volunteered to come out to do the afternoon.”

“They sent a trainee!!” roared Severus.

“I’m not a trainee as such. I was… am a field Auror but I was given a sabbatical to do research when my sick leave ran out. When I came back I nearly Apparated on top of the men. They got me before I drew my wand. I’m really sorry I wasn’t quicker.”

Severus could see the young man’s hands trembling.

“It’s not your fault,” he said with an effort. “Your superiors are to blame. At least you can help me now, both of you.”

“What can we do?” asked Madam Minton.

“I need Dumbledore, Arthur Weasley, actually as many male Weasleys as you can find. Get Alicia and Angelina to help you locate them. I’d also like all the students residing here back from Hogwarts, especially those connected to the Order. You might also like to see if any of your seniors consider a double kidnapping by Death Eaters worthy of their attention.”

“What will you do Severus?”

“I intend to utilise my knowledge of the Dark Arts to find those babies.”

Shock was written over the faces of the two cousins.

“That would be a very dangerous thing to do sir,” said the young man seriously. “As an Auror it is my duty to warn you…..”

“I was not a Death Eater for nothing,” hissed Severus. “I will use all the means at my disposal to find those children. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly,” said Madam Minton. “Come on Simon. Let’s do what we can.”


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“Mike?”

“Severus? What happened?” Mr Granger pushed himself up into a sitting position, blinking and then rubbing his eyes.

“Two men came in, knocked you out with a spell and made off with Viola and Molly’s baby.”

“Oh God, the baby!”

“Try to keep calm. I need you to help me find them.”

“I don’t understand. Where’s Liz?”

“The women are with Mistress Finch. We tht iht it kinder to allow them to sleep. I am going to perform a spell to trace Viola but I need to use your blood to do it. Have I your permission?”

“Of course….. anything.”

“Give me your wrist.”

Mr Granger held out his arm.

“I’m going to cut you. Bleed over this… and I will recite the incan… Arthur.”

“Dark Arts Severus?” said Arthur, taking in the scene before him. Candles were lit and Severus was wielding an archaic looking knife.

“It’s necessary.”

“Count me in then…”

“Are you sure about that?”

“There’s nothing I could not do for one of my own.”

“You’ll have to follow my example. Mike is my blood… you are not. I can’t help you. You do understand there may be repercussions?”

“Do you think I’m going to break it to my wife that our child is gone when I passed up the chance to find him?”

“At your own risk then. You’ll need some of this to pour over the blood you spill.”

“Do I want to know what it is?”

“Beyond being highly illegal? Probably not! If it’s any comfort I don’t think the Dark Lord paid cash for rare ingredients. Let’s begin…. Corpus, Animus….”


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“Well, we have the location,” said Arthur, as he applied pressure to his wounds.

“You two will have to see Madam Finch for those cuts. I’ll need you both to stay here with the women. I’m going out with a team to see if we can rescue the infants.”

“I want to come,” said Arthur.

“I know you do. Stay here. You’ve both lost too much blood already and I may have to bleed you again if we don’t manage it on the first strike.”

“Who’s going?”

“Albus, Harry, Draco, Neville, Tonks, Remus, Ron, Charlie, Percy, Fred and George. We couldn’t find Bill. The rest of the students will stay here in case anyone comes back whilst we’ve g I d I don’t know how much longer the women will sleep. Molly’s going to need you if she wakes up before we get back.”

“You’d best get going. The sooner you find them… the more likely…” Mike broke off on the verge of tears.

“I’m going now… if Hermione….. never mind. I’ll be back soon. He strode out of the room.

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Madam Finch cleaned and healed the cuts without comment and dosed them with aion ion to help their bodies reproduce the blood cells they had lost. They sat beside their wives in the ward full of slumbering women.

“Why kidnap babies?” said Mike.

“Any number of reasons,” responded Arthur. “Wizard babies are not as plentiful as they ought to be.”

“Severus told me once that they can be used as potion ingredients.”

“Sweet Merlin man! What kind of thing is that to sa
“
“Isn’t it true?”

“I imagine it is. Severus would know if anyone did.”

“I thought the Death Eaters had gone.”

“The principal ones have. It is difficult to weed out those who merely sympathised. Voldemort only called and marked those who were capable of great acts of service.”

“Severus being one.”

“Yes. He’s still considered young for a Wizard, for all that he’s so much older than Hermione. He’s very strong and very intelligent.”

“And practical.”

“He does what needs to be done. He’s not a man to think too highly of his own convenience or safety if it comes to that.”

“He wasn’t keen for you to do the spell we did.”

“The spell involved bloodshed, ritual and unethical ingredients. Those are three very dodgy areas for wizards. Severus knows too much of that kind of thinr hir his own peace of mind. He knows I’ve never sought to follow that path and that ordinarily I would be against it.”

“But every man has a price?”

“It would seem that I do. Although I wouldn’t have known it before today.”

“He said there would be repercussions.”

“He was performing a dubious ritual and demonstrating his possession of potent banned substances.”

“He could go to prison?”

“Both he and I could but I don’t think he meant that. I rather think he meant that once I had taken that kind of step I would be more likely to do it again for a lesser reason. Wizards can do many things but a good wizard wille cae care to consider what he does.”

“So there could be something wrong in our wanting to rescue the children?”

“I think child locating was probably not the original purpose of the spell and he adapted it. It was probably a way for the head of the family to exert control over his bloodline and deny their freedom. Some of that Latin was quite suspect in places. He wouldn’t harm them… Ginny’s restless. I think they’re moving towards natural sleep. I would say they’ll be awake very soon.”

“Let’s hope we get the babies back first.”

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Ten minutes later Severus and the Weasley brothers walked into the ward bearing two screaming little bundles.

“Why are they crying?” demanded Arthur. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing,” said Severus. “They need feeding and cleaning and such but otherwise they’re completely unharmed. Here you are Mike. See what you can do with her.”

“Is anyone hurt?”

“There was no fight. We spent the bulk of the time outside the building trying to work the best means of storming it and when we got in there the babies were on their own. I gave them a cursory check and we came straight back. Albus, Remus and Tonks have stayed behind to give the building a once over. Whether the kidnappers had seen us or not I don’t know.”

“Any clues?” asked Arthur

“No, not that I saw. I’m bringing you all into the main house tonight. The Gatehouse is too exposed. I’ll put some of the birth attendants down there to free up the space. I’ll see what we can do about the Auror situation tomorrow.”

Mistress Finch poked her head round the door.

“Gentlemen, I think you ought to take this gathering back to the main house. Mr Weasley and Mr Granger you may stay and look after the babies. Off you go. Professor Snape are you in need of attention?”

“No.”

“Off you go then.”

Severus allowed the woman to bustle him out.