The Most Difficult Of All Our Tasks

-- Hi. As the title of this chapter should hint, there is a character death in this chapter.

-- Thank you again to all you lovely reviewers! Celestialuna - thank you for your enthusiasm, dannigrrl, thank you as well. Jicky - some answers to your questions in this chapter ;) SP



Chapter the Fourteenth – Births, Marriages, and Deaths.



“Lucius, stop, please, you’re hurting me!” Harry sobbed, a note of panic creeping into his voice. He’d begged the other already, but it had made no difference. Behind him Malfoy thrust hard into the other’s body, grunting with the effort.



“You’re mine, Potter. Get used to this. I expect plenty of little Malfoys.”



“No!” Harry panted. “Oh, god, no!”



Lucius shivered and stilled. Harry closed his eyes, grateful for the break.



“What the?” Malfoy began, half turning at the sudden scuffling noise coming from the fireplace. Still entangled with Harry, he could only snarl inarticulately as he saw the intruder.



“You!” He ground out. “He’s mine, Snape. Get used to that fact. You had a chance with him, and, like almost everything you touch, Snape, you ruined it.” Whilst he had been goading his old friend, Lucius’ hand had been creeping towards his wand. Now he gripped it and swung it wildly at the dark haired man.



“Ava –” but Severus was quicker.



“Avada Kedavra!” Snape screamed, wand pointed straight at Lucius’ back.



Harry screamed as he felt the dead man collapse onto him, penis still erect and forced into his body.



“Get him off! Get him off! GET HIM OFF!” He shrieked, completely hysterical.



Snape rushed over to the corpse and tugged it free and pushed it to the floor. “Sorry,” he muttered as Harry turned over and glowered at him.



“You sick fuck!” Harry hissed, “You trying to give me a heart attack?”



Snape glared down at Lucius. “I rather thought,” he responded coldly, “that I was rescuing you from your captor. Perhaps I mistook your cries of pain for those of pleasure. Or perhaps you enjoy a bit of S and M. But somehow I doubt it.” He paused. “I suggest you get dressed, we will be leaving shortly.”



“We?”



Snape raised his ever mobile eyebrow. “We. Myself, Mycroft, and you.”



Harry nodded. He pointedly didn’t look at the body sprawled on the floor. Ignoring the corpse, he dressed as well as he could avoiding any bending as his ass was too sore, and determinedly didn’t meet Snape’s eyes.



***



“…but we don’t need to bond now,” Harry interrupted for the sixth time.



Severus could feel a headache coming on. He’d tried to explain what would happen but had, so far, not even managed more than ten words. He rubbed the creases between his eyebrows.

“If you’d just let me finish,” he began, teeth clenched, but Harry interrupted again.



“We don’t though, do we? We don’t need to bond. Not anymore.”



The potions master sighed. “We do still need to bond. Once the news breaks that you have my child and are carrying another, the wizarding world will demand a marriage, especially as it’s already been announced and as we’ve got less than two weeks to go.”



Finally! I’ve managed to tell him!



Harry squeaked in distress. “I can’t do this,” he moaned, hyperventilating. “It’s all too much.” He looked pathetically at Snape. “I… I can’t do this,”



“You don’t need to, idiot boy, we’ll do this.”



Two weeks later…



“What’s he doing here?” Harry ground out as he spotted Draco Malfoy exiting from the glittering purple marquee.



Snape rolled his eyes in irritation. “He is my godson, plus he’s dating your friend.”



Harry was just opening his mouth to reply when he saw Jack following, holding two glasses. She handed one to Draco before kissing him softly on the lips.



“WHAT?!” Harry shrieked.



Quite a few heads turned and stared at him, before turning away at Snape’s glower.



“Oh, for goodness sake,” Snape muttered, before dragging his heavily pregnant fiancé over to the couple.



Jack saw them approaching and looked unsure, especially as she had spotted Harry’s frown directed at her and her boyfriend.



“What’s going on?” Harry snarled.



Severus tried to pull his partner away from Draco. The blond smiled gently.



“Severus, Harry, congratulations. I think Jack needs to tell you something.”

With that the slender man left, his walk graceful and unhurried.



Jack swallowed and took one of Harry’s hands in hers. “Harry, I didn’t want to do this today, this is your and Severus’ day. It shouldn’t be about the past – especially a painful past.”



“Will someone tell me what’s going on?” Harry growled, teeth gritted.



Jack took a deep breath and began in a rush, “You remember I said I’d borrowed money from someone to help me with the pub? Well, it was Draco, but the money really came from Lucius. He said I had to pay it back within two years. I was running out of time, when he told me that he’d forget the debt if I did some jobs for him. So I did.”



She stopped, eyes filling with tears.



“I didn’t know what he intended to do. I just did it. I swear, Harry, had I known what he’d intended I’d have refused.”



“What did you have to do?” the green eyed man asked quietly.



“Those potions from Dr Fetch. They weren’t from him. They were made and sent by Lucius. I think they were lust potions. I kept one bottle to give to Severus so that he could work out what it was.”



“You knew?” Harry snapped at the taller man.



“I knew that Jack was dating Draco, and yes, I had guessed that Lucius was drugging you, but the exact nature of the potion and its effects were, and still are, a mystery to me. Jack has not yet presented me with the bottle.”



“I’ve got it at the pub.” Jack said before continuing, “Lucius had sworn me to secrecy. If I told or hinted to you what had happened, he would have known and would have called the debt in. So I kept quiet. But once I realised what was happening I made Dray help you. He opened the floo so that Severus could get through when he needed to.” She stopped and looked anxiously at her friend.



“I am so sorry, Harry, about what happened. But at least you’re happy now, right?” Jack looked from one man to the other, desperate hope shining in her eyes.



“Yes, we are happy, now,” Severus said, taking Harry’s shaking hand and pulling him away. “Excuse us, we need to prepare for the ceremony.”



The potions expert pulled Harry along behind him before dragging him into the seclusion of an arbour. Around them the guests smiled indulgently.



“It was all her fault.” Harry spoke blankly. “Everything.”



“Not so,” Severus corrected. “We’ve all made mistakes: Jack, me, you, and Lucius. But it’s over now. We have a son, and another on the way, and are about to marry. Can’t you let it all go and forgive her?”



“No.” Harry’s tone was resolute. “Not right now.”



***



“He’s beautiful, Harry, what will you call him?” Jack was smiling tentatively at Harry’s newly born (blond) boy.



“Daniel James Snape-Potter,” Severus answered, a slight smile lifting the corner of his mouth. He leaned over and brushed a soft curl away from the child’s head with an elegant hand that was adorned with a simple gold wedding band.



“Daniel? But it’s so, so, muggle!”



“That’s the point.” Harry said, with a look at Jack that she nodded at, looking grateful. “I just know it’d drive Lucius mad to know his son, his precious Malfoy son, was called something so ordinary.”



Jack grinned. She looked over at her own Malfoy. He grinned back at her. She raised an imaginary tumbler. “To Harry, Sev, Mycroft and Daniel! And thank god the bastard is dead!”



“Thank god the bastard is dead!” The two men echoed before ‘chinking’ their glasses.



-- Phew! A busy chapter! Lemme know what you think. Was Jack's collusion obvious? (There are some hints earlier on) SP