The Potions Master's Baby

Chapter 2: Confessions of a Careless Healer









Minerva McGonagall stood behind her desk and stared up at the portrait of Albus Dumbledore. He was smiling down at her and she knew the old coot was getting a sadistic thrill at her expense over the current situation she was forced to deal with. She took a deep breath and turned around to face Madame Pomfrey who was wringing her hands nervously.





“How could you make such a mistake, Poppy?” Minerva asked.







“I don’t know, it was a really busy day in the infirmary that day and I just wasn’t paying attention.” She sobbed. She had been careless, plain and simple and now the lives of others were going to be affected seriously by her error.







“I hope this can be resolved, Poppy, because this is a very ugly situation.” Minerva looked up at the knock on her office door. “Enter.”





Hermione stepped through the door with Severus Snape close behind her.





“You sent for me, Headmistress?” Severus asked smoothly.





“Your message said it was urgent.” Hermione said, staring back at Professor Snape curiously.







“Have a seat, both of you.” Minerva gestured towards the chairs in front of her desk. Severus waited for Hermione to be seated before taking the chair next to her. He sat with his back straight and his hands folded in his lap. Outwardly he was calm and collected, but inside he was on edge, waiting impatiently for whatever information the headmistress felt was important enough to interrupt classes for.







“I called the two of you in here because there has been an…accident…that affects you both.” Minerva began, pacing nervously back and forth. “I don’t want to divulge personal information about the staff or their private affairs, but in this case I have no choice so I ask your forgiveness, Hermione.”







“Headmistress…Minerva…what is going on?” Hermione asked nervously as she glanced over at Poppy who was fisting her hands in her apron.







“There has been a mix-up it seems. The samples you were storing in the infirmary cooler were accidentally replaced with samples being stored by Professor Snape.” Minerva said, her cheeks flushing.







Hermione held her breath, bile rising in her stomach and threatening to make her vomit. She exhaled loudly and began to pant.





“Accidentally replaced? How do you accidentally replace….oh dear god!” Her hand fell to her abdomen.





“Maybe you could clarify just what the nature of these samples are; I store a great many specimens in the infirmary cooler.” Severus said, his stomach fluttering nervously though you couldn’t tell by looking at him. Minerva looked over at Hermione, a bright red flush creeping up her neck and flooding her cheeks.





“It was sperm…I was storing semen in the cooler. I have been trying to conceive using a donor.” Hermione said softly, her voice cracking.







“Let me get this straight, you confused the…specimen…Professor Granger was storing with the specimen I was storing?” Severus asked, swallowing hard as he tried to calmly process what he was hearing.





“It was an accident, I assure you! The vials were the same; the only difference was that one was capped with a rubber stopper and the other with cork.” Poppy said tearfully.







“Poppy…please tell me that the specimen you gave me was human.” Hermione said brokenly.







“It was human, Professor Granger. The specimen was mine; it was being stored for use in a contraceptive potion I have been testing.” Severus said, his voice vibrating with anger. “You have no idea what you have done!”





“We can get you another specimen, Severus, there is no need to bite Poppy’s head off, she feels horrid as it is.” Minerva said.





“You misunderstand, Headmistress, when I say the specimen was mine I don’t mean mine as in I own it, I meant mine as in it was MY DNA!” Severus’s voice was rising steadily, his face changing from his normal, cool façade to panicked.





“Yours?” Hermione croaked, her eyes wide. “Why were you storing your own…”





“I didn’t see the point in paying for something I already have in steady supply for free!” He snapped. “Why in the hell were you trying to have a child with a stranger?”





“I just wanted….oh god!” A hysterical bark of laughter slid past her lips. She leapt from the chair and stared down at him in shock. “Why were you keeping it in the cooler? You could just get it when you needed it with no problem!”





“My masturbatory habits are of no concern to you!” Severus snapped. “I wasn’t aware that I had to worry about my seed being used for the impregnation of insufferable know-it-all spinsters!”





“Enough!” Minerva shouted. “I have heard enough! This was an unfortunate accident but at least we figured it out before…”





“I’m pregnant.” Hermione said softly.





“Oh dear lord.” Minerva gasped. “Are you certain?”







“I’m certain.” Hermione said as tears rolled down her cheeks.







“I don’t want a child.” Severus growled. “Especially not one conceived after the theft of my sperm!”





“I don’t care what you want, Severus Snape! I certainly had no plans on having your child; I had a nice anonymous donor picked out that met all my criteria….”







“Actually, Severus meets all your criteria as well.” Poppy offered. “High level of magical ability, high IQ, healthy, non smoker with no genetic issues in his history.”







“But he lacks the most important thing, Poppy, anonymity! I didn’t want to know who the father was! This was supposed to be MY baby, MINE, no father involved.” Hermione cried.





“Well you can simply terminate and begin again using your chosen donor and everyone will be happy.” Severus said. He knew he sounded cold hearted but he never wanted to have a child, ever.





“No.” Hermione said vehemently.





“No? What do you mean no?” Severus got to his feet and towered over her.





“I mean no. I am pregnant and I mean to stay that way. As far as I am concerned you are just a donor and need not have anything to do with me and my child.” Hermione said.





“I should have some say in this, it was my sperm that was stolen, that child is a result of theft and betrayal!” Severus was angry, the room fairly crackled with the force of his displeasure.





“Hermione…Severus…I am sure there is a compromise…” Minerva stood just as Severus and Hermione went nose to nose, Hermione teetering on the tips of her toes so that she was even close to being eye level with the dark wizard.





“This child has nothing to do with you!” She said through gritted teeth.





“The hell it doesn’t! It was created from my seed; it has every thing to do with me!” He growled menacingly as he glared down at her. “I don’t want a child.”





“It’s not your child! It’s MY child!” She snapped, tempted to poke him hard in the chest for emphasis but she figured that wouldn’t go over well with him. “How about this, how about I obliviate you so you don’t recall that it was your sperm that was used?”





“You will NOT tamper with my mind.” He said low. “You are being stubborn.”





“I am good at it.” She said. “Just forget that this child is related to you in any way shape or form and we can all be happy.”





“And how am I supposed to do that when this child will be living in the castle and eventually going to this school? How am I supposed to ignore my own flesh and blood?” He asked with a sharp jerk of his head.





“The same way you ignore everyone else!” She yelled. “You act like you are the injured party here! I am asking you for nothing, no involvement, no support, nothing! It isn’t MY fault that this happened but it is my body that it is happening to, therefore it is my decision!”





“You are the most insufferable…”





“Yeah, yeah I have heard this all before. I am an insufferable little know-it-all, we’ve gone over this before. Say what you like Severus, but I am having this baby. Hell if it makes you feel any better, look at it as retribution. Make up a story to go with it….we met up one night and screwed our brains out and in the morning you walked out leaving me all alone and knocked up, that should make you feel better.” She said rolling her eyes.







“I am not much on making up stories to entertain myself.” He glowered at the younger witch, desperation rising up inside him. “Nor am I in the habit of taking one night stands and being careless in the process! Why is it you all assume the worst of me? What does a man have to do to prove himself to you people?”







“Look, Severus….Hermione…this is unfortunate, but it was an accident. Now granted it will be awkward, but what is done is done, the child is coming.” Minerva said softly, hoping that by being calm she could diffuse the situation a little bit.







“A child I do not want!” Severus reiterated.





“Okay, we understand that. Ms. Granger doesn’t want your participation either so how about you look upon this as if you have done a favor for a colleague? A generous favor granted, but a favor none the less.” Minerva saw the storm building in his eyes and she shrank back from him.





“You are all bloody daft!” He shouted. He turned to Poppy and pointed a long, slender finger in her direction. “You are incompetent.” He said before turning to Minerva. “You are just like that meddlesome old fool above your desk!” He stared down at Hermione. “And you…you are too stubborn for your own good. You think only of yourself with no regard whatsoever for how I feel or what you are doing to my life by continuing with this farce!”







He spun abruptly on his heel and stalked from the room, slamming the door behind him so that the portraits shook on the wall.











~@~







Hermione canceled classes for the rest of the day and crept back to her rooms. She dropped her teaching robes on the floor as she walked slowly through her sitting room to her bedchamber. She kicked off her shoes and crawled up into the center of her large bed and curled her body around a pillow she clutched tightly in her arms. How had the best thing to ever happen to her turned into something so horrible over night?





Was it too much to ask to just let her be happy? Every time she got close it seemed that the fates would be waiting at the gates of nirvana to smack her back down again. First with school, she had been so relieved to be going somewhere that would teach her how to control her gift, where there were others like her so that she would feel less like an outcast. Her dreams had been shattered when school turned out to be a fight to prevent the end of the world and genocide year after year.





Then it was Ron, years of frustration as she loved him in secret, then finally they found their way together. And after only a few short years of loving each other it was ripped away just before they could find forever. Now, after a year of researching and sorting through the files of potential donors, narrowing them down and finally selecting one it was all shot to hell once more because of a mix up. Instead of carrying the child of a nice, anonymous donor she was pregnant with the child of her former teacher, death eater, spy and current colleague.





Tears began to seep from the corners of her eyes, sliding down her cheeks and wetting the pillow in her arms. She had been so shocked by the situation that she hadn’t really known what to think. At first she was just scared to death that the sample had been goblin, troll or house elf. Her relief to discover that it was human had short circuited her brain a little bit.







Finding out it was actually Severus’s sperm had been both a punch in the gut and a massive relief. On one hand she knew that she hadn’t gotten second rate or damaged DNA. Poppy was right about that, Severus met her criteria. He was highly intelligent, magically he was at the top of the spectrum and according to Poppy he met her health requirements, if only he were anonymous.





She suddenly began to imagine what a child of theirs might be like and she couldn’t help but laugh at the image of a little girl with bushy black hair and a hooked nose.





“Oh you poor baby!” She laughed softly, laying her hand on her abdomen. The looks didn’t bother her so much, she actually found Severus rather attractive in a severe, unapproachable sort of way. She was more concerned that at some point in her child’s future it would recognize Severus and wonder why he or she had been rejected all their life. Of course that was years away, she shouldn’t worry about that now, but she couldn’t help it.





There were so many things that could go wrong in this situation. So many issues that could come up and none of them were good. All the things she had hoped to avoid by going with an anonymous donor were now going to be front and center. There was going to be an actual father, reluctant though he was, present in her child’s life. Things just couldn’t go as planned for Hermione Granger.









~@~







Severus paced in agitation across his study, a glass of bourbon held by his fingertips at his side. He couldn’t believe the turn his life was taking. Finally things were calm, peaceful. He could teach the little idiots during the day and spend his evenings reading quietly and enjoying his life of solitude and peace.





Now that peace was threatened by a tiny witch and the child that now grew within her. His child, even if he hadn’t planted the seed himself it was his child that filled her. He had always been so careful in his interactions with women. Not that they were frequent occurrences or anything, but he always made sure to protect against any unwanted repercussions.





It was almost funny when he actually thought about it. So many years of being careful only to get caught by a witch he never laid a hand on. He wanted to scream, to rip Poppy’s careless head off of her shoulders and hex her into the next century. He wasn’t angry with Hermione necessarily, she had no idea she was getting anything other than the specimen she had acquired, but her reluctance to even consider ‘fixing’ the problem had upset him.





He hadn’t expected her to be so vehement in her desire to keep the child. She didn’t even like him, her classroom was right next to his and she sat beside him at mealtime every day in the great hall yet she never spoke to him about anything other than an occasional comment on the weather or to ask him to pass the salt. Now she was pregnant, with his child.





He took a long drink from his glass, emptying it. A child of his was coming into the world. He didn’t want to be a father, accidental or not. His childhood had been pure misery, why would he wish that on a child? She said she wanted nothing from him. Hell, he had an easy out, nothing was expected of him. He could just turn a blind eye and ignore everything. But he wasn’t as cold as they all thought him to be. He couldn’t stare at that child everyday, teach that child, knowing it was his, and feel nothing. Why did the fates insist on mocking him?