I'll Be Home For Christmas

I've taken a little "artistic" license, so to speak, with Minerva McGonagall's past. I checked the HP Lexicon thoroughly, and while it doesn't contradict, neither does it follow canon, mostly because there is no canon concerning her past. It's nothing important, but I just wanted to head off any objections cause...well...I'm that anal about stuff. (I can see SickPuppy nodding her head vigourously now!) Harry is now beginning his 7th month of pregnancy, just so we're all straight.


Liliana--Thank you for the cookies! Hope you enjoy this next chapter!

SickPuppy--Glad you liked the smut and felt it made up for Severus' harsh words.


This chapter is dedicated to Tribebohemian. Thank you so very much for the beautiful review. It meant more than I can say, and I'm very happy you thought the last chapter hit the right note. It was a great pleasure and very satisfying for me to read what you had to say about it. Hope you like this next one as well.


And now, on to...

Giving What It Takes

*******************************


"Severus. Severus! My back is killing me. Could you...?"


Pregnancy.


It overruled his life.


It permeated every aspect of it.


It wound it's insidious way into every conversation.


It stared him in the face every morning.


It followed him wherever he went.


He couldn't escape it and he wasn't even the one who was pregnant!


Severus rolled over, groaning, and drove his knuckles into the small of his husband's back, pressing and grinding as hard as he could.


"Oh...yeah....yeah!" Harry moaned beside him, "Oh yeah...right...there!"


After a few moments Severus' hand went limp and he asked wearily, "May I return to sleep now?"


"Oh sor-ry," Harry snapped back, "if I could have reached it myself I wouldn't have had to disturb your precious sleep. Not to mention that this is all your fault to begin with."


"Yes, yes, it is all my fault," Severus intoned wearily, "I shall lop my own cock off tomorrow in atonement, but for now, if your majesty requires nothing else, may I please return to sleep?"


"Fine," Harry grumbled, "go back to sleep. Must be nice to be able to."


Severus groaned loudly and said, "Harry, please. I have breakfast to attend and classes to teach in the morning.....in a few hours. I appreciate the fact that you are uncomfortable, but sitting at a desk directing visitors, answering paper aeroplane departmental memos, and letting all and sundry feel your stomach all day doesn't exactly compare."


He regretted it the instant he said it, and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the explosion. When it didn't come, he cocked an eye open and cringed at what he saw. Bright emerald eyes brimming with tears, a trembling lower lip.


Oh Merlin, not tears!!!


Severus sighed, wondering whatever had happened to the relentlessly cheerful man he had married, and resigned himself to the fact that sleep seemed a highly unlikely prospect now. He rolled over to catch a rigid Harry in his arms.


"I'm sorry, Harry. Of course your job is important. Why, everybody would be lost without you there to direct them to the proper place. And of course, everybody wants to touch your belly.."


"Oh, shut up, Severus," Harry snapped breaking free of Severus' arms, "and stop patronising me. Just go back to sleep."


Severus, however, wasn't that easily fooled. Harry would wait until he was just about to drop off, and then pounce. Severus was having none of that this time. He waited for Harry to say something.


And waited.


And waited.


Fine. Perhaps he really was going to let him go back to sleep. And he was so tired, his eyes felt like....big.....heavy....cauldron....lidssssssss...


"Severus," Harry said sharply, startling Severus awake again.


Drat!! Would he ever learn?


***************************


Severus peeked into the staff room and finding it empty, quickly stepped inside. He noted that somebody had spelled the coffee urn hot and gratefully drew a cup, sighing as he took it to the long table and sank into one of the chairs.


He took as sip of coffee, rubbed his neck to work a few of the kinks out, and slumped back in the chair with another heavy sigh. He was exhausted, and didn't know how many more nights he could take being jostled awake every time he managed to drop off.


Upon reaching his 6th month of pregnancy Harry had blossomed, to put it delicately, and seemingly overnight. He was now at his 7th month, enormously pregnant, and enormously cranky, along with being enormously uncomfortable.


And he never let Severus forget it.


Severus had sympathy for Harry, he really did. Harry looked uncomfortable, Severus couldn't imagine what he must feel like, but Harry was doing his damnedest to let Severus know.


In no uncertain terms.


Harry had, as loath as Severus was to say it, become a ....well...... bitch. There was no other word for it. He was cantankerous at the best of times, and it seemed that nothing Severus said or did was right.


And Harry blamed it all on him.


Severus realised that the pregnancy wasn't easy on Harry. He seemed to have every horrible symptom and side effect that being pregnant wrought. From swollen feet and legs to aching back to terrifying mood swings that sometimes left Severus wondering if his formerly sweet and good natured husband weren't possessed.


He needed help to sit, help to stand, help to go to the loo at times, which then upset him. Getting upset made him fret, which all too often lead to a crying jag during which Harry would insist that Severus didn't love him anymore, thought him ugly and fat, or was disgusted by him.


He couldn't get comfortable to sit, to stand, or to sleep, which led to him tossing and turning constantly, all the while cursing up a storm and keeping Severus awake. And heaven forbid Severus should make the horrendous mistake of saying or doing anything that would make Harry think he was disturbing him. That was, of course, unless he wanted to listen to a tirade of how it was all his fault Harry was in this state in the first place. These tirades were often followed by tearful bouts of remorse by Harry, begging Severus' forgiveness for his ill-treatment of him, and Severus holding and shushing him and being the understanding husband, only to find Harry drifted off to sleep and Severus left wide awake.


And when Severus thought about there still being two months left to endure, he wanted to run and hide. And that made him feel guilty. And feeling guilty annoyed him. And his annoyance made him feel more tired than he already was. And the more tired he felt, the more annoyed he felt at Harry. And the more annoyed he felt at Harry, the guiltier he felt. And the guiltier he felt.....it was neverending!

Merlin, he wished this was over!

Or at the very least, he wished for a decent night's sleep.

*************************************


"Severus?" Minerva McGonagall's voice startled him and he realised he'd drifted off. "Why are you napping in the staff room? Classes are ended for the day, why don't you go back to your quarters?"


"Erm...yes, well...." a caught out Severus began mumbling, "I...actually, I was taking a break... for coffee....and I have some potions to brew..."


He knew it was hopeless. They'd known each other too long for him to fool her for very long. Sometimes he swore the woman channelled Dumbledore, only instead of that infernal twinkling, her eyes bore into him relentlessly.


"I simply...wanted a few minutes before I returned to our chambers," he admitted grudgingly.


"Have you and Harry had a row?" she asked, her expression softening.


"No, we have not had a row," Severus sighed, "things are a bit difficult is all. Nothing irreparable. I'm sure ......things will smoothe themselves out, Minerva. You needn't worry."


"I am not worried, Severus," she said. She sank into a chair across from him and spelled a cup to fill itself with coffee and bring itself to the table for her. "I have watched both you and Harry grow from the boys you once were into the men you are now. Long enough to know you both well, and to know that you belong together. I didn't need the Bond to tell me that."


Severus twitched his lips briefly in what passed for a smile, and looked at his own, now cold, cup of coffee. Minerva waved her hand and it was once again steaming.


"So, why then are you avoiding him?" she asked casually.


Severus knew it was useless to pretend he didn't know what she was talking about. Although never a shy woman, as she had become older, and particularly after becoming Headmistress, she had become even more forthright than ever.


"Well, Minerva, if you must know," he said somewhat sourly, "I am exhausted and I wished for a few moments of peace and quiet before going to face the harridan...erm...man I married."


There, he thought. He could be forthright as well, and she could make what she would of it, as long as she got the point and left him alone.


Not a chance, as he well knew.


"Says the spouse of the pregnant man," Minerva said with a chuckle. "It's my understanding that in a wizarding pregnancy the hormone surge that is experienced can wreak even more havoc than in a female pregnancy. You do realise, Severus, that it is the hormones that make Harry so unpredictable. He really isn't trying to torture you, you know."


Severus sighed heavily and rubbed his tired eyes. "Yes, Minerva, I do know that. That doesn't make it any easier to contend with however."


"No. I am certain it doesn't," she said agreeably, "but you know, just as you feel guilty for your annoyance at Harry, rest assured he feels the same way for what he's putting you through. He cannot help himself, however. For the time being, he is as ruled by hormones as he would be if he were imperioused. You, on the other hand, are not governed by hormones, and must not let your temper get the upper hand. Especially now. If Harry's pregnancy is as female pregnancy, he is feeling particularly vulnerable right now, and will be extremely sensitive. Being the size of a whale and having no control over it is hard enough on a woman, not to mention the very real physical discomfort. The aching back, swollen feet, something you cannot see using you for a kicking post at all hours. Hating being fat and feeling ugly, hating having no control over your emotions, hating not being able to do this or do that. It all must be doubly so for Harry, being a man. And then of course there's the guilt at feeling that way when it's getting you what you want most. Your children."


'You speak as if you had experienced it yourself," Severus said quietly, his gaze intense upon her.


"You are not the only soul Albus has saved, Severus," she said evenly. "Albus had been my Transfiguration professor, a sort of mentor really, and it had always been my strongest subject. Albus encouraged me to become an animagus, to test my abilities, and he recommended me for my first post school job in the Ministry. I married and when I became pregnant, I left my job, but remained in contact with Albus, who had by then become a friend as well. When my husband and son were killed, I was consumed by grief, and then I was numb. I did not care about anything anymore, I felt nothing. I was apathetic. Albus had become Headmaster of Hogwarts by then, and offered me his vacated post of Transfiguration professor. I did not want to accept, did not want to be surrounded by children when I had just lost my own child. In fact, I was quite hurt and indignant that he could possibly be so insensitive, but you know Albus. It was my outrage that ousted my apathy. I refused at first, but eventually I could no longer resist the lure of feeling needed again, and accepted. Hogwarts has been my home, my family, and my salvation eversince. So, in answer to your observation, Severus, yes, I have experienced it for myself, and I am sure I was horrible to my husband during it, although I never meant to be, just as Harry doesn't mean to be to you."


Severus nodded, then said thoughtfully, "I don't believe Harry and I will be joining you in the Great Hall for dinner tonight, Minerva.......I had no idea about....why did you never.."


"He was my soulmate. Just as Harry is yours. There could never be another," she said gently as she rose. She was back to her usual stern self, however, by the time she reached the door.


"Get some proper rest, Severus, and not here in the staff room."

*****************************

Severus warily approached the entrance to their chambers, bracing himself for the unexpected.


"Been rather quiet," the portrait informed him, and Severus wondered if it weren't just the calm before the storm.


As quietly as possible, on the offchance that Harry had perhaps fallen asleep, Severus entered and went towards the living room, glancing about cautiously for his spouse. As he did, he kept in mind Minerva's words about Harry not meaning to torture him, and his own guilty feelings over his annoyance, determining to keep his temper.


A low voice, Harry's, made him stop, listening intently, trying to gauge Harry's mood. He peered around the corner, and saw Harry attempting to seat himself on the sofa. One hand was rubbing over his protruding stomach as he muttered seemingly to himself.


"Alright, girls. You can stop wrestling with each other anytime now. My stomach can only stretch so far, you know, and there's only just so much room in there, so you're going to have to learn to get along," Harry was saying affectionately, finally managing to seat himself. "Ah...that's better. We'll just sit here and wait for your other daddy to return. That is if we haven't finally scared him off for good. We've been kind of hard on him lately, girls. Well, I have anyway, but you've had a hand in that too. As I'm going to be doing for you both for quite a few years to come, d'you think maybe you could do something for me? Like, not hold another party in there like the last few nights, so maybe I can get some sleep? Then I won't be the bit....erm.....nasty person and chew your other daddy's head off again. Not that I'm blaming you two or anything, but it would help. What d'you say, girls? Is it a deal? Can we be nice to your poor old dad?"


But poor old dad was caught between laughter and tears. And thinking that poor young dad could probably use some nice himself. Starting with some pampering from poor old dad.

"How would you like a nice candlelit dinner, a nice warm bath, and a nice foot massage?" he asked as he went in to kiss his husband.


************************************


As always, your opinion counts! More than you know! Please review!!