Darkness Shadows Light

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO - A PAT ON THE BACK IS ONLY A FEW CENTIMETRES FROM A KICK ON THE BUTT

Far too soon the holidays were over and the students and teachers returned to the school. Harry now had only six weeks to go until the baby was due and was feeling every minute of it, his back hurt, his ankles had swelled up and he just generally felt fat.

\'Hey, Harry!\' called out a shrill voice behind him on the first day of term. Harry stopped and turned around.

\'Hi Ginny,\' said Harry. He was surprised that she was talking to him, after all they had barely exchanged a word since Ginny had found out about the baby.

\'You weren\'t at the feast last night. Everyone was a bit worried.\'

\'I\'m fine,\' Harry assured. \'It\'s just a bit difficult with me being neither a student or a teacher, so I just ate in my room.\' The truth was he was a little scared of his reception now that he no longer had his classmates there to back him up.

\'That\'s silly!\' exclaimed Ginny. \'You\'re still a Gryffindor and everyone can\'t wait to see you. I shall save you a place at lunch.\'

\'Okay,\' replied Harry, giving in. Still, it was nice to know he still had a few friend left at Hogwarts. \'Did you have a good summer?\'

\'Brill,\' she replied, smiling. \'How was yours?\'

\'Pretty quiet,\' he said. \'Not a lot was happening here. What about Ron? How\'s he?\'

Ginny grimaced.

\'Incredibly miserable. Even I couldn\'t stay mad with him any more, especially with mum going on about his responsibilities and the baby and so on. She just can\'t accept that you two don\'t want to be together anymore.\'

\'I know,\' replied Harry. \'She keeps on sending me letters and stuff for the baby.\' He felt incredibly guilty about having to keep up the charade that Ron was the father, especially with Mrs Weasley so plainly excited about being a grandmother.

\'Yeah, well anyway last week Ron got so fed up with it all he just walked out and we haven\'t heard from him since!\'

\'Really?\' Harry said, slightly alarmed. \'Your mum must be worried.\'

\'Not that you\'d notice,\' Ginny replied. \'She reckons Ron\'ll come back when he\'s ready.\'

\'I certainly hope so,\' Harry murmured, he wasn\'t quite as confident as Mrs Weasley that Ron wouldn\'t get himself into trouble.

\'So how long until I become Auntie Ginny?\' she asked cheerfully.

Harry suppressed a wince and the temptatio say say \'Never\'. Instead he sighed \'Six more weeks and it can\'t come soon enough!\' He looked at Ginny hesitantly, wondering if he dared say anythingut hut her unexpected change in attitude. \'I must say, you seem to be a lot better about this than you did last term.\'
Ginny blushed.

\'Well...I kind of spent a lot of time with Colin these holidays...and we get on really well.\'

\'That\'s great news,\' said Harry sincerely, at leahat hat was one less problem he had to deal with. \'Colin\'s a nice guy, if a little over-enthusiastic with his camera!\'

\'Well, he plans to be a photo journalist, so I guess he\'s got a lot of practice photographing you.\'

\'Just ask him not to take any photos of me at the moment,\' Harry replied, pressing a hand against his stomach. \'I just feel fat.\'

\'Harry, you\'re pregnant, not fat,\' protested Ginny. \'Um...I still think you\'re attractive.\' She blushed.

\'Thanks Ginny. Colin\'s lucky to have you.\'

She pushed his shoulder playfully.

\'Too late Harry, I\'m spoken for!\'

Harry laughed and then, suddenly remembering what he was doing up this early, looked at his watch.

\'Sorry Ginny, I\'ve really got to go,\' he said apologetically. \'Madam Pomfrey\'s waiting for me.\'

\'No problem,\' Ginny responded cheerfully. \'I guess I\'d better get to class or Snape will have my h I I can\'t believe my first lesson back is Potions.\'

\'Bad luck,\' Harry commiserated with a smile. \'Though at least you\'re better than Ron, I\'m amazed he even passed his NEWT.\'

\'Just barely. Not like you. Everyone was absolutely stunned that you came top. We thought Snape would fail you on principle!\'

\'I don\'t think Dumbledore would have let him,\' Harry replied truthfully. Not that his husband would have failed him, but he had been slightly dubious about awarding him top marks until Dumbledore had assured him that he knew he wouldn\'t give a mark that wasn\'t deserved.

\'God, now I really am late!\' exclaimed Ginny.

\'Just tell him I delayed you
\
\'Yeah, that would go down well!\' was her closing remark as she scurried off.

Harry carried on walking towards the hospital wing feeling quite cheerful. The encounter with Ginny had helped a lot. Half an hour later though, he was not so cheerful.

Madam Pomfrey was looking at him with a grave look on her face after his examination.
\'There\'s not wro wrong is there?\' Harry asked, the panic starting to rise.

\'No, the baby\'s fine,\' she quickly ass. \. \'However there is something I need to say...\'

Harry looked at her expectantly.

\'You really shouldn\'t be having sex any more. It could bring on early labour and that would be dangerous for both you and the baby.\'

\'But I\'m not even having sex!\' Harry quickly deniedadamadam Pomfrey looked at him with disappointment.

\'There\'s no point in denying it, I\'m a fully qualified mediwitch and I know you\'ve been sexually active through most of this pregnancy, including this summer.\'

Harry stared in horror as her words sank in.

\'You know, don\'t you?\' he said softly.

\'Yes, Mr Potter, I always suspected that Ron Weasley was not the father of this baby and now I know that it must be Severus,\' she replied composedly.

\'What are you going to do?\'

\'Why nothing of course,\' replied the mediwitch, looking surprised. \'I\'m disappointed that you didn\'t confide in me before, but I\'ve only brought it up now because of the danger to yourself and the baby. I assume the headmaster knows?\'

\'Yes, he knows.\' Harry assured, and then briefly explained why the secrecy had been necessary.

When he finally left, he felt slightly better, but was not looking forward to telling his husband this latest development.

It wasn\'t until late that evening that Harry finally got to speak to his husband.

\'Madam Pomfrey knows everything,\' he said flatly.

\'Everything?\' Snape queried in a dry tone. \'I sincerely doubt that.\'

\'No, I mean about ynd mnd me,\' Harry replied exasperatedly. \'She worked it out this summer as she could tell I was...involved...with someone. As you and Dumbledore were the only ones here, it didn\'t take much to work it out.\'

\'Ah, I see. I suppose I ought to speak to Poppy.\' His expression was surprisingly calm.

\'There\'s no need, she said she wouldn\'t tell anyone.\'

\'Well, I suppose we have little option but to trust her,\' Snape sighed. \'But there seem to be all too many people in on this secret now. One incautious word could destroy everything.\'

\'Oh that\'s cheerful!\' replied Harry with a snort. \'Remind me not to come to you if I\'m depressed!\'

Snape walked over and wrapped his arms around the younger wizard.

\'I\'m sure everything will be fine,\' he said reringringly.

\'There\'s one other thing,\' Harry said pensively, eyes cast down. \'Madam Pomfrey said no more sex because it might make the baby come early and that would be dangerous.\'

Snape put a finger under Harry\'s chin and tilted it up so he could look into his slightly worried eyes.

\'That wasn\'t totally unexpected,\' he replied.

\'So you\'re not upset?\' Harry asked anxiously.

Snape looked astonished.

\'Of course not. Why would I be?\'

Harry looked uncertain.

\'I-I guess I thought you\'d be upset that we couldn\'t be together for so long.\'

Snape sighed and dropped a kiss on Harry\'s forehead.

\'Of course I\'ll miss not being able to be that close to you, but you and the baby are the two most important things in my life and I wouldn\'t do anything to endanger either of you.\'

Harry smiled.

\'How did I get so lucky?\' he said softly.

\'Lucky?\' Snape queried with a sardonic look. \'You\'ve saddled yourself with an ex-Death Eater for a husband - and who\'s twenty years older than you - and you\'re having a baby that could make Voldemort look as powerful as Neville Longbottom in comparison! And yet you feel lucky?\'

\'I have you and that\'s all that matters. And if this baby does turn out to be as powerful as everyone thinks, I\'m sure between us we\'ll be able to keep him or her on the straight and narrow.\'

\'I hope you\'re right,\' Snape replied with a touch of sadness. He had never been an optimist, always believing the worst would happen, which it frequently did. Voldemort was back and though he hot tot told Harry - not wishing to stress him at this advanced stage of his pregnancy - he knew he was planning something major, though had not been made privy to the details. He was desperately trying to find out, but Voldemort was being incredibly tight-lipped this time.

In fact it would be in a little over two weeks that Snape would find out first hand exactly what Voldemort\'s plan was...

********

\'Four more weeks to go, four more weeks to go...\'

This had become Harry\'s new chant and it was practically the only thing that was keeping him going. He was ecstatically pleased that this would be the first and only pregnancy he would ever have to go through and he had no idea why women would voluntarily go through this more than once!

He was not sure how he would have got this far without the support of those around him, especially his husband. He was astounded at how loving and supportive Severus was. What had started off as frankly a very sexual relationship, had become deeper during the long summer holidays and had now deepened into something much more solid now that they couldn\'t make up in the usual way. To Harry\'s slight astonishment, he realised he liked his husband as much as he loved him. Somewhere along the line they had become friends as much as lovers.

One of the best part of the two weeks for Harry had been Severus accompanying him to his chep wip with Madam Pomfrey. At first the mediwitch had been a little off with the older wizard, but she soon mellowed when she saw the way they acted together. It was obvious to her that this was a true meeting of two souls and she wondered whether they had ever considered bonding. She made a resolution to mention it once the baby was born. Her belief was strengthened when she had showed them the baby and she saw a look in the Potion master\'s eyes that she had never seem there before - a look of hope and joy.

Another enjoyable part of the two weeks had been the transformation of the room that both Sirius and Ron had stayed in, into a nursery. Harry and Snape had spent a good deal of time bickering amicably over colour schemes (Snape agreeing grudgingly that black wasn\'t *entirely* suitable, but refusing to give up on green and totally refusing to even *think* about red or gold). Eventually they had decided on a sunny yellow - still too close to gold for Snape\'s liking - and soon the room was full of the usual paraphernalia that every baby needed.

Harry took to wandering in there every time he felt the pregnancy getting on top of him, just to remind himself why he was going through this. The room also contaimanymany little gifts from the Gryffindors, mainly in the shape of cuddly toys from Hogsmeade - in fact Snape had remarked dryly that their child was already horribly spoilt and it wasn\'t even born yet!

There had still been no word from Ron and Harry was starting to get a bit anxious about him and even Mrs Weasley had sounded slightly worried in her last letter.

It was two days later that found Harry sitting in the nurser a d a depressed state. Snape had been summoned by the Dark Mark and Harry had felt a strange foreboding that something was not right. Despite begging him not to go, Snape had been determined, and eventually they had parted in anger.

Then Harry heard a fluttering of wings and the small form of Pig flew into his room carrying a small package. Instantly Harry\'s hopes were raised, if Pig were here that meant that Ron was okay surely?

Eagerly he untied the package from the owl\'s leg, there was a tag on it which read,

*\'I\'m sorry, please accept this gift as a token of our friendship.
Ron\'*

Harry carefully opened the soft parcel and found a small teddy with emerald green eyes. But as he finally took it out of its wrapping and touched it for the first time, he felt a familiar sharp tug at his stomach and the sensation of falling.

*A Portkey* he realised in dismay, just before the world went black...