The Most Difficult Of All Our Tasks

As promised (or threatened, depending on your viewpoint) here are the notes. Jicky, these should answer some of the questions you had! SP



Author’s Notes



Chapter One – Henry James Greene: Someone made a comment about using concealer rather than magic. Well, the reasoning behind this, as best I understand it (from what Harry’s told me) is that he got into the habit of using it when he was living as a muggle, and also he never quite knew the right glamour to use to hide it.



Chapter Two – Special Reserve: Obviously Harry knows from the first that it was Snape, but he had to pretend, didn’t he? (Special Reserve makes an appearance in Areas of Expertise too!)



Chapter Three – The Wonder that is Alcohol: “brick wall” is a reference to “The Midwich Cuckoos” (the film was “Village of the Damned”). A character blocks a group of mind reading children by thinking of a brick wall.



Chapter Four – Not Good: Snape is so pissy in this because he feels like a fool. He’s spent so many years hiding what he is, yet a mere boy was capable of tricking him. Also, he really did just want a “no strings” fuck.



The stomach cramp is the sign that Harry’s “with child”.



Jack is clearly a Pirates fan!



Chapter Five – Not Dealing: I don’t think Harry was coping very well with the idea of being pregnant, but I think that’s ok!



Chapter Six – Doctor’s Orders: The delivery from “Dr Fetch” isn’t from Dr Fetch at all. It’s Lucius.



“That’s a bit terse for Dr Fetch, isn’t it?” She winced abruptly. Jack winces as she says something that might make Harry doubt that the potion comes from Fetch, and if Luc found out, he might call in the debt.



Chapter Seven – A proposition: Obviously, when Luc talks about Draco going off with some unsuitable girl he’s talking about Jack!



The potion from the previous chapter is now working, which is why Harry is such a wanton slut!



Chapter Eight – The Gratuitous (and Long!) LM/HP Sex Scene: Utterly gratuitous! It adds nothing to the story. As I read it, I noticed some similarities in Sev’s moves and Luc’s – clearly they both went to the Death Eaters’ School for Sex!



This chapter really was the most difficult to write. I’d written most of the story and had to keep coming back to it. It took me three different goes to actually finish the damn thing!



Chapter Nine – Should have thought of that sooner: Notice how Harry’s stomach cramps more when he’s not with Sev?



When he goes to visit Jack, she had Draco with her, which explains the ‘dishevelled’ appearance! He goes out the floo whilst she dresses.



Obviously her creditor is Luc, and his demands could get worse! She desperately wants Harry’s help, but can’t ask him. She wants him to figure out what’s going on, but he, being not too bright (Harry: HEY!) doesn’t.



Chapter Ten – When a Child is Born: Title is a reference to the song (obviously). Hopefully you got that Harry isn’t entirely comfortable with his relationship with Luc – he feels ‘hollow’ after sex.



And the potion continues to make Harry loopy for Luc. (Hmm, maybe I’ll write a fic with that title!)



And yes, Luc was spying on the pair to make sure no reconciliation took place.



Mycroft is a reference to Sherlock Holmes (as some reviewers got). Mycroft was Sherlock’s brother, and cleverer than him, but lazy. It’s also what I want to call my son!



Chapter Eleven – Sowing a Seed: The conversation at the start takes place between Draco and Jack (if you hadn’t already guessed).



Harry’s stomach hurts more because his body instinctively knows that Luc is not the right person for it.



Luc looks down at Harry in disgust because he doesn’t actually feel anything for him. He just wants a baby making machine trapped with him so that he can increase the Malfoy offspring.



Jack gets into the manor obviously because Draco opens up the wards.



Chapter Twelve – Conditions: Notice his stomach eases up around Sev? See, his body knows what it needs, shame he fights it so much! (Harry: the man’s a git!)



It took me AGES to work out the conditions properly, and then I had to go through later chapters to make sure they followed the rules – so, all the sex is technically instigated by Harry – even if Sev does chivvy him along sometimes!



I did also actually have a way for Sev to explain away the sex clause, but I forgot it before I noted it down. How annoying!



Chapter Thirteen – Poisoned Dragon’s Liver: The title references ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’. As the little boy asks: “Do they poison the dragon, or just the liver?” I’m a punctuation geek, so it amuses me that one little hyphen changes the meaning of the sentence: Poisoned-Dragon’s Liver, is a dragon that has been poisoned and then the liver has been cut out. Poisoned Dragon’s-Liver (note the hyphen move) means a liver taken from a healthy dragon and the liver has since been poisoned. See how sad I am?



Severus doesn’t go to rescue Harry because he doesn’t realise he’s in danger. He sees the stuff but knows there are other things still to come through, he doesn’t realise that Harry stopped sending things a while ago (obviously once he speaks to Toffy – named after one of my cats – he does.)



Draco obviously likes Snape and wants him to be happy, which is why he helps, but that doesn’t mean he’s particularly fond of Harry (hence the “boy toy” comment).



Chapter Fourteen – Births, Marriages, and Deaths: Luc’s death came as as big a shock to me as it did to you! I really hadn’t planned him to die.



Harry has a hard time forgiving Jack as she betrayed him to real misery. He also believes it was all her fault – clearly he’s never made any bad decisions! Of course, she was pretty much stuck in an impossible situation. She could have told Harry everything and hope he’d give her the money, but he might not have done, feeling angry at her for lying to him (and, after all she was doing Draco – not exactly Harry’s number one friend!)



Obviously Daniel is a homage to Daniel Radcliffe. And I thought it really funny to give Luc’s son such a muggle name!



Chapter Fifteen – Truce: I find this chapter really funny – the idea of Sev crawling away from Harry is funny! Remember Harry IS a powerful wizard, and Sev (despite appearances) does love the idiot. (Sev: Do not!)



Sev’s speech is great – just the kind of thing I could imagine him doing. (God, what a stupid comment! Of COURSE I can imagine him saying it – I DID imagine him saying it!)



Notice Harry instigated sex.



Chapter Sixteen – D I V O R C E: Really easy song reference!



Harry thinks a divorce is the only way – he honestly believes they’re too different to ever get along. Luckily, the MoM rules insist that he makes an effort as I don’t think he’d really committed himself to the marriage.



And Sev comes as close as he’s ever going to in admitting love for Harry when he says why he married H – “For you.” See Harry takes that to mean protection for Dan (and his own reputation), but Sev means something else entirely!



Obviously, this chapter was revised in light of DH.



Severus looked as though he was about to add something else, but stopped. What he was about to say, but didn’t was that he didn’t have any choice anyway – the agreement had to be followed.



Chapter Seventeen – Hormones: They seem to get along better when they’re screwing, don’t they? (Notice, Harry instigated it again.)



Chapter Eighteen – Ingravesco: As reviewers got, ‘Ingravesco’ means to burden/become pregnant. Harry works out Sev is pregnant as he recognises the signs.



Poor Sev clearly suffered a bit at the Death Eater orgies!



The sex scene here was a late addition – so all you pervs should be grateful!



The only time these guys say “I love you” is during sex and then they say they love body parts. Idiots! Harry screams something incoherent when he comes. If anyone wanted to know, he was actually saying “I love you” to Sev, not that Sev would’ve been able to understand it!



Sev doesn’t want to go to the doctor as he is scared something important may be wrong with him, but also, I think he’s frightened in case, somehow, he is pregnant, and Harry learns that it could only have happened through a love bond. Sev doesn’t know how Harry would react to that, so is scared.



It seems odd that Harry is bitter about not loving Snape, but he did love him at the start, however Sev’s bastardliness (it’s not a word, but you get what I mean) hurt him. He also feels that their marriage was almost forced, so is upset that he hasn’t freely chosen the other man.



Dr Fetch knows they love each other. (It’s needed for a later chapter.)



Chapter Nineteen – Dealing: This is one of the chapters that got revised post DH. H’s convo with Mc was drastically revised after the last book came out. Obviously, so did Harry’s thoughts whilst he looked around the room.



When I first wrote this, Sev dived on Harry as soon as they’d had their brief convo, but I had to change it to make Harry the instigator (God, I hate having to follow my own rules!).



I tried really hard to capture Harry’s jealousy and upset about not knowing the child/ren. I’m not convinced I made it painful enough. It was much more gut wrenching when I was talking it through in my head as I cleaned my house one evening.



Chapter Twenty – Playacting: Again, Harry’s body responds to what it needs. He thinks of divorce, but his body hates the idea.



The thought after they DON’T have sex is actually both of them thinking it about the other: Harry gets pissed that Sev brings up the agreement so blatantly, Sev is cross because he thinks Harry is subtly rubbing his nose in the limits on their marriage.



The painting is actually quite important. Sev, to find out how to keep Harry for longer, talks to painted Harry. Mini Harry tells Sev that he doesn’t actually want to leave, so make it a request for Harry to stay until the youngest child is eleven. Mini Sev gets happy at this and starts screwing mini Harry. (Which is why they’re fucking like bunnies when Harry sees the picture). Proper Sev is “smiling gently” as he now has a way for Harry to stay.



Chapter Twenty-One – News: I love the idea of the Slytherins accepting Harry as one of ‘theirs’.



I’d originally intended for Sev to have twins, but didn’t want people to think they were going to be female versions of Fred and George so I decided triplets would be a nice way to re-dress the numbers. (Did you notice Harry always has boys?)



Note the deal they strike is: Can’t you wait until our youngest is going to Hogwarts? Not “til the girls go to Hogwarts” but “the youngest”. So if Sev got Harry preg again, he’d have to stay until THAT one was eleven. Sneaky!



Chapter Twenty-Two – Nerves: Sev gets nervous because he is feeling his age, and obviously, he is worried about the girls making it out allright.



“He must be … his husband … often happens … never expected …” What Harry zoned out of hearing was: “He must be Linked to his husband. It often happens but I never expected it of this pair.” (Yes, I had worked it out! And just left certain bits out.)



Chapter Twenty-Three – Deaf and Dumb: Dr Fetch is a bright boy! He knows that Harry’s and Sev’s troubles don’t stem from a lack of love, just from an unwillingness for either to open themselves up to the possibility of being hurt. So Sev won’t speak what he knows to be true (he loves H and H loves him), and H won’t see the truth (Sev loves him and he loves Sev). Idiots! (Sev and Harry: HEY!) At the end of the chapter Sev wants H to see that all of the Linked couples love each other, but he won’t say anything as he’s scared.



Chapter Twenty-Four – Honesty: I was watching a film and was idly going through the credits (Harry: Stop lying, you were singing along to the credits!) OK, I was singing along to the credits, and one of the people involved in the film was called Acacia. I thought what a pretty name that was and decided to have all the girls named after natural things, I also decided, for no good reason, that all three girls would have vowels for the start of their names.



Kreacher has worked out that Sev and Harry belong together, but he won’t speak as he wants Harry to work it out for himself.



Would he have the nerve to go to the Ministry of Magic and declare that there was no reason for a divorce? Obviously Sev would (at that point, if necessary) tell the MoM that actually they were Linked which would make it clear to the Ministry that they were in love, and thus a divorce wouldn’t be granted.



I think Sev’s “We’re together for the right reasons” is utterly adorable. And I think it is how Sev would go about telling someone he loved them. I’ve always had problems with fics where Snape suddenly becomes a hero of romance and declares his undying love for someone. It’s also a personal thing – I have issues with those three little words.



I worried I’d pushed Sev out of role too far by having him cry, but I figured he’d just had Harry’s kids – he’s allowed to be upset!



Hopefully you realised that Kreacher was telling the boys Harry’s story.



Chapter Twenty-Five – Sight and Sound: Yes, I deliberately kept pulling Sev away from opening the boxes, as I wanted you, dear reader, to feel the same nervousness and tension he was feeling – plus, I’m evil.



The pink pillow is that bright baby pink that girls seem to love. Plus it has pink mohair round the edge. The idea of Sev looking at that is just too funny!



As I said before, I REALLY have issues with “I love you”, and I felt Harry’s “I saw” managed to convey that the two were going to be ok without me having to have a big reconciliation (although I’m sure some of you would have wanted the sex that would’ve gone with it!). I was quite surprised that some readers didn’t work out that that “I saw” meant everything was going to be fine. It just seemed really obvious to me – but then I don’t have a heart!



Epilogue – Yes, deliberately following JK’s format for DH! I liked the idea of jumping over those years to show they were in a good place as a couple.



The Weasley twins belong to Ron and Hermione by the way.



Character wise Dan is obviously the trickster of the family, Mycroft is the carer, Ebony is the quiet insightful one, Acacia is most like Sev (but less snarky), Opal is smart and quite sarcastic, and Jez is going to be another trickster.



Dan was going to get told off by Sev as Sev asked that when they were in company of other students that he was referred to as Professor. He still teaches potions, and Harry is DADA as it says. Neither live on site, as they still have Jez (and their next two kids) to care for. Their kids DO live at Hogwarts during the term (not because they don’t want them at home, but because Harry knows so much of life at Hogwarts takes place outside lessons!)

Hope you liked the link to DH – Draco’s boy is Scorpius (hey, he could be with someone like Jack – JK never said who the mother was!)



I thought it’d be fun to see how the kids respond to their parents and Dan’s “they’re being gross again” is how most kids would respond to their parents getting mushy.



Croft’s “not before nine o’clock” is actually a private joke. In my family we have a rule that my parents can’t hug or touch before nine o’clock. Don’t ask me where it came from (I know, the watershed, but why it has to apply so strictly I don’t know!)



I’m still worried the ending is twee, but I did want to link back to the original quotation (and the title) and end it with the same sentence as DH.



In case you wanted to know, the kids were (eventually) put in the following houses:



Mycroft (13/14): Gryffindor

Daniel (12/13/): Gryffindor

Acacia (11): Slytherin

Opal (11): Ravenclaw

Ebony (11): Gryffindor

Jeremiah (8): Gryffindor



After they have the next two, they finally start using Protection Spells full time!



Final notes: All the children have the surname “Snape-Potter” (some were changed after the marriage). Harry is the only Potter-Snape – just cos it’d be too confusing having two Professor Snape-Potters!



The Bonding agreement was amended (well, actually, it was ripped up, with consent from both parties).



Notice when Harry calls Severus “Sev”, it tells you something about how he feels for the man at that moment in time. It’s used sparingly, but for a reason.



They did get a new painting made, to celebrate the birth of their youngest son (and daughter).



I know I never stated in this where they live. Well, they bought a nice house in the country, connected to the floo network. After the war, Harry agreed to turn 12 Grimmauld Place into a museum about the Order, and Kreacher stayed there to help care for it. Once he had the new house, Kreacher came to live with them and care for the kids (bloody good job, too, as Harry and Sev are usually too busy screwing to look after them).



Finally final notes: Below is the original idea (before Harry and Severus changed everything!)



Harry out of school – defeated V, has issues with trusting people so virgin.

Living in London under assumed name, uses makeup to hide the scar. Meets and befriends SS. Sleep together. SS finds out it was H, (make up comes off scar) gets pissed and leaves him. H finds out pregnant. Has child – boy Mycroft.

Lucius meets up with H, sleeps with him when H feeling low. LM just using H for a child, wants another heir (DM dead?). H fertile so gets preg again. LM visits SS, thanks him for dumping on H. SS visits H, finds out about second preg. Offers to bond/commit to H to protect child from LM – the child will have two parents. H agrees, guidelines agreed between them of what will happen/be allowed.

H has second child. Boy - Daniel. LM tries to get his son but fails. SS and H begin to trust each other. H goes to SS one night, asking if he did right thing in keeping LM from his son. He feels vulnerable. They share a bed. In morning, H wakes up to find SS having wet dream about him. H pretends to be asleep when SS wakes up and encourages other to continue. SS makes comment that he wishes H was awake to say these things. H replies he is. They sleep together.



That, people, is how I type when I need to get an idea down! Be grateful I force my brain to slow down sometimes!



It’s so weird to see how different it ended up being. And that out of that garbled mess I managed to write something I’m quite fond of! The whole bit of sight and speech at the end was a late addition, and had I known it was going to be so important, I’d have re-written earlier bits to fit the theme and called the story something linked to that idea!



And, really finally final…



Thank you all for reading this fic, and for the incredibly supportive comments you’ve made. This is the first fic I’ve posted on AFF (obviously you’ve hopefully now spotted “Areas of Expertise” and my Weiss Kreuz fic), and the support and encouragement from you guys was fantastic! I now need to go to my parents and find the HP/DM story I wrote a long time ago (I know, I know, not HP/SS, but it does feature a Snape sandwich in it!) and post that! Plus I need to finish Areas and start the sequel (wah!) and the other ideas I’ve got buzzing in my head. Someone lend me a shot gun to murder some of these plot bunnies!



Stay sick!



Sick Puppy



Thank you all again!