Sacrifices Betrayals Love and Foolishness

Author: TheSiner
Title: Sacrifices Betrayals Love and Foolishness
Word Count: ~35,000
Chapters: 3/4
Genre: Romance, Drama, Hurt/Comfort
Pairing: Harry/Snape, Snape/?
Summary: Harry and Snape are forced to marry and it doesn’t really work out that well. Harry is depressed, Snape is stubborn, and everyone else is selfish. HP/SS, slash, mpreg, A/U
Setting: After The Order of The Phoenix and the Department of Mysteries. Harry has just turned sixteen.
Rating: Nothing too terrible, a bit of sex a bit of depressive themes.
Disclaimer: These characters are not my own and belong to J.K. Rowling and affiliates.
Warnings: slash (duh!), OOC, A/U, non-canon, angsty, emotional, dubious consent(somewhat), male pregnancy is more than just mentioned, not beta-edited, may seem disturbing, door-mat-ish Harry, some grammar errors, no graphic sex.
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AN: You have been warned already, that this is Mpreg, if you are not comfortable with it or have no idea, what it means – don’t read.

...Foolishness…

1.


Harry tightens his grip around the blade and walks over to the bed that stands against one of the walls. Harry takes off the dusty blanket. It is alright underneath, not dirty, just smells musty, but a bit of dust has never killed anyone.
At least as far as he knows.

Harry muses that it would probably be easier to do it if he was lying down. But first he has to make the cuts. He will probably have time to lie down after; from Hermione he knows that a wizard’s body can endure more damage as a muggle’s. Babies bounce off the floors when they fall out of their cribs, when someone’s intestines get liquefied by a dark curse, there is still time to save them and so on.

For a moment Harry wonders if he is setting himself up for hours of slow agony. Doesn’t matter. He has to do it.

He lifts the blade that surprisingly looks almost dull in the dusky cabin as if it has suddenly lost all the tempting glint. Can a blade look unhappy about what it is about to be used for?

No, Harry is quite sure that it is just the darkness. But it is all right that he can’t cast Lumos. Probably it will be easier to leave in the dark anyway. It will be like falling asleep. The darkness should be comforting, hiding most of the ugliness of the world.

Harry remembers being locked in the cupboard under the stairs. It is so dark in a cupboard like that, without a window, without even a gap between the door and the wall. One can’t see anything at all. One can imagine that he is almost anywhere, that when the lights will be switched up there will be a nice bedroom with a real bed, a mattress that will not be lumpy, with a loads of plushies and other things that belong to a child’s room.

When it’s so dark that it is impossible to see at all, there can be anything, anything when the lights are switched on… the only problem is that when none of the child’s dreams ever come true, the game stops being fun.

Well, nothing like childhood memories to cement Harry’s resolve.

Harry takes a deep, but shaky breath and lifts his right hand holding the razor in his left; he thinks that it will be easier if he will open the right wrist, first… the blade is impossibly cold against his fair skin, glowing in half-light. Just a bit of pressure and it will part for the unforgiving steel…

He will meet Mum, dad and Sirius again…

No! No! No!

His hand shakes and the blade clatters down on the floor.

He can’t do it… something inside his very being is screaming, pleading, begging, ordering… not to do it.

Harry doesn’t understand, but he knows. It is strange kind of awareness and Harry has no idea where it is coming from, but it is there. He can’t leave. There is something he has yet to do. There is something to hold on again. He suddenly knows that he is not alone anymore and that he will never be alone again.

2.

Days have gone by and Potter has not returned.

Weeks have gone by and Potter has not returned.

Months have gone by and Potter…

At first, Severus had not believed that the boy was really gone. He had decided that it had finally come to that. Inevitable, sure… why am I so shocked – Severus had asked himself. Still such a fool, scrawny, ugly, naïvely hopeful Severus. Ha!

Ha!

He should have known better.

In one way or another, the world has always mocked his feelings. When Severus had been a small boy, who had loved his Mama above everything else, his father had called him ‘mommy’s boy’, weakling, a pansy and other nasty words and beaten her until there had been no love in the woman left even for herself, not to mention anyone else.

When he had discovered his passion for Potions, Severus had been forced to watch the way his Potions professor, Horace Slughorn, had still favoured Black and James Potter’s charm over Severus’ skill and dedication.

Lily Evans, whom he had idolised and cherished as his best friend, has married the boy who had been the reason why Severus’ teenage years had been a living Hell. One awful word spoken in a moment of extreme anguish had been harder to forgive than years of humiliation and cruelty inflicted on someone who she had called a friend. (2)

All right, he is not being fair - there was more than that.

However, Severus is not in a very charitable mood at the moment and for once not willing to ponder on his endless mistakes.

Then the aristocratic, smooth talking and handsome Lucius Malfoy had started showing interest in Severus and his skills. The lonely, awkward teenager had been flattered. Only to find out that he had been lured in a trap he would not get out of for the rest of his life.

When the greatest Light Wizard of our time had offered him redemption, it had turned out that he would have to damn himself trice to earn it.

Every time Severus Snape has held something dear, has trusted someone it has turned out badly. Every time he has desired something and thought to be holding it in his hand, it has shattered in million little pieces and he has been forced to walk barefoot over the shards.

So, when Potter doesn’t return that night, Severus has no doubt that the boy was spending it in someone else’s bed, by someone else’s side, that he has finally seen sense and decided to put an end to their sham of a marriage.

However, Potter does not return the next morning.

And then he discovers that the razor from the bathroom is missing.

Severus doesn’t know what to think anymore.

His eyes stray to the bathroom cabinet where he used to keep the old razor. Long time ago it has belonged to his father’s father. It is his only inheritance, the only thing of some value Tobias Snape hasn’t traded for drink. It is ironic, really, that his family would find ways to hurt Severus even from beyond their graves.

Hurt… but why would it hurt? The thought of Potter and for what he has probably already used that blade.

Severus shakes his head. It is pointless, pointless to think about it.

He walks back into the bedroom.

Draco Malfoy is sprawled over his bed. Nude, and with the green coverlet on the background, it looks as if his lean body has been sculpted from moonbeams instead of mortal flesh. The boy is breathtakingly beautiful and he knows it and likes to flaunt it. No shame, no guilt, those are beyond a Malfoys comprehension.

Draco shifts, crosses his arms behind his head parting his legs slightly in a seemingly unaware, accidental manner as if he was trying to get more comfortable.
Severus knows better. Draco is a poser, a player. This is all one big game for him.

The boy arches his back, a movement that pushes forward his slightly muscled chest and hard pebbles of his pink nipples.

Severus has no idea why the brat is doing this, what is that he wants. It is not like he is some kind of Prince Charming or George The Dragon Slayer. He has no idea, what a teenage boy could be attracted to in him.

He does not care either.

He doesn’t know why he is going along with it. Maybe, because he doesn’t care.

Draco parts his thighs again, this time obviously, deliberately.

Severus despises the boy as never before, but this is what he deserves, isn’t it? This is whom he belongs with. The likes of Draco Malfoy.

Severus almost welcomes the emptiness and coldness he feels.

3.

One day Harry wakes up and decides that it can’t continue like this. He rolls out of the bed… well, the fact that he ‘rolls’ already says something about the situation, doesn’t it? He is not even sure how far he is, precisely. It could be seven months, or it could be eight.

But he is big, that is for sure. The baby might want to arrive any day from now. What will he do then? Harry already feels a bit irresponsible that he hasn’t returned to civilization and has not found proper medical care, knowing of his condition.

Harry has known that he is pregnant since the moment the razor fell out of his hand.

But the days been passing, one after another and he hasn’t felt many ill effects of the pregnancy so far. He has gotten sick a couple of times, he has experienced some dizzy spells, but that’s about it.

It certainly does feel strange, carrying a child since Harry has never expected anything like this, but not in a bad way. Harry realises that he should be shocked and scared and spends days wondering why he is not.

Because he is a wizard? Because he has cheated death two times already? No, all of it doesn’t matter. The truth is simply that he is so happy to have a baby that nothing else matters and he doesn’t care why and how.

The little bump, that slowly but steadily grows bigger and bigger, until Harry develops serious problem with tying his shoelaces, is an inexhaustible source of joy. Being pregnant is like basking in constant sunshine that is coming from inside him.

For the first time in his life Harry is unconditionally, absolutely happy.

He has fallen in love with the strange, little hut in the middle of nowhere, the boy spends his days walking in the forest and sitting by the lake and evenings gazing into the fireplace and thinking.

It turns out that whoever has been using the house for whatever reason, has stocked it up. There are tons of canned food in the pantry – meats, fish, beans, sausages, pastas and pickles. Yes, the pickles are certainly worth mentioning, because they are one of the things Harry sometimes craves so much that he can swear he will die if he will not get some.
Harry almost can’t believe so many kinds of food can be bought tinned. And there are plenty of dry goods, like pasta, oatmeal, rice. And even dried bred and biscuits. Harry assumes that some kind of preservation charms is put on the food.

It is obvious that whoever has built the place has meant to spend some time there.
Harry suspects that it might have something to do with his parents and Sirius, since they are the ones who have showed it to him (kind of), but he is not sure, since there is no evidence. He has searched the whole house and found nothing besides some books on various subjects, like charms, transfiguration, Quidditch, dragons and various other topics.

He reads them all and after his seventeenth birthday starts practicing the spells from the books, because he has nothing to do otherwise and he feels really guilty for being so lazy sometimes.

But sooner or later he is going to run out of food and while it’s possible to conjure wood for the fireplace, it’s impossible to conjure food and probably illegal to try and summon it.(1)

And, anyway, while Harry could probably solve the food problem somehow, he has no idea, what to do if the baby suddenly decides that it wants out or rather when, because sooner or later the day will come. The boy is aware that he is getting bigger and bigger and some days he really feels like he is about to burst.

Harry is slightly worried, because he suspects, that what has happened is unusual even for the Wizarding World and he is probably lucky that there has not been any complications so far. But he knows that he needs help and can’t put off getting it anymore.

Harry stuffs his few belongings into the old school bag, not that there is much, his clothes are really threadbare, because they have been transfigured larger too many times, thus turning the fabrics thinner. Harry assumes that he must be look ridiculous, fatter than Dudley (even if in a bit different way) and wearing almost rags. But he has never been particularly vain.

The boy walks outside the house, through the woods towards the old, overgrown road. He has no idea, where it leads, because Harry has never ventured so far, but he hopes that he will be able to call the Knight Bus from there.

Harry squeezes his eyes shut and thinks about how much he needs to get from here to Hogwarts. He hopes that whatever spell is there, that makes the bus come when someone needs it, it wouldn’t sense that it is more like he needs to go to Hogwarts despite not wanting to.

However, his need is obviously enough, since a couple of minutes later, the bus stops in front of him and the door opened to reveal smiling Stan Shunpike. Harry is already not looking forward to the ride in his present condition, but there is no helping that.

The boy is a bit green when he stumbles out of the bus on the edge of Hogsmeade. That is apparently, how far Hogwarts wards allow the bus to go. Harry is a bit tired already, but he waddles towards the castle and is relieved when the gate opens for him. Maybe the school still thinks that he is a student.

It is late. Harry arrives shortly before the curfew, but he doesn’t want to run into any of the students, it is the way Harry has planned it.

The main door opens with a creak making Harry wince, when the sound echoes in the dark, empty halls. So much for arriving quietly. He takes a deep breath. It’s not as if he isn’t nervous about coming back. He is worried, but he doesn’t have much choise.

While Harry stands by the door, the decision where to go next is taken from him. He sees Albus Dumbledore strolling into his direction. The headmaster doesn’t look happy, angry, surprised or sad. There is no expression on his face at all, which is strange.

The man stops about three steps from the young wizard.

“Harry, my boy. You have returned,” he says.

Harry simply nods. Well, it is kind of obvious that he has returned, isn’t it?

The Headmaster asks the boy to follow him, turns around, and starts walking down the corridor.

“No,” Harry says quietly, then clears his throat and repeats much louder. “No. I am here to see Madam Pomfrey.”

He knows that it would not hurt him not to see the mediwitch right now, but he doesn’t want to set the rules.

The Headmaster turns around smiles at the boy and tells him that, of course, if Harry wants to see the nurse, he will gladly arrange that. After they have talked.

Harry wonders how he has never noticed before how domineering the man is, and patronising. He wants to go against the old man, because of sheer spite. A bit late for the teenage rebellion… but then, maybe it isn’t and maybe it isn’t just a teenage rebellion too.

“Talking can wait. Right?” the boy announces and when he sees that the Headmaster is about to object, Harry is suddenly inspired to do his own bit of manipulation and parts his tatty robe, revealing his huge belly, which has stretched his red t-shirt to the utmost.

“Meeting Madam Pomfrey might be more urgent than any talking right now. Of course, I can always go to St. Mungo’s, if there is a problem…” Harry is satisfied to notice that for once he has managed to surprise the old man. Even if it shows only for a moment, it is more than most have done.

Dumbledore shakes his head, says it is not a problem at all and escorts Harry to the Hospital Wing himself. The boy suspects that the old wizard is a bit unsettled after all, otherwise he wouldn’t have given in so easily.

Madame Pomfrey’s eyes widen when Harry enters the Infirmary. And then once more, when her eyes come to rest on his middle.

“Mister Potter!” The nurse exclaims. “What have you done to yourself!”

Harry founds her reaction amusing, but he simply shrugs: “It’s a baby. I am going to have a baby.”
The boy announces and can’t help the smile that is tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Albus looks at the boy with doubt and asks if he is sure.

Harry snorts. Of course he is. What else could it be? A tumour?

Meanwhile Pomfrey has recovered her bearing and she hurries towards Harry, takes his hand, leads him to one of the hospital beds, and helps the boy to get on it. That Harry appreciates greatly. He is tired and his balance is off.

Then the witch turns towards the Headmaster: “Excuse us, professor.”

Albus Dumbledore looks very reluctant to leave, but the stern mediwitch is having none of that, after all, there is such a thing as patient’s privacy. “Of course you can’t stay, Albus!” She exclaims indignantly. Harry just tries to relax and rest his back, he trusts Madame Pomfrey to handle the situation.

As soon as the Headmaster has closed the door behind himself, the mediwitch starts fussing over Harry. She casts a spell, swapping Harry’s clothes for a hospital gown, which is more like a nightshirt, than pyjamas, but the boy concludes that it is probably for the best, since trousers constantly slip off his extended belly anyway.

Then she starts casting spells on him, muttering to herself something.

“You are indeed pregnant,” the woman confirms, as if Harry has any doubts.

“Judging by everything you could be about thirty weeks along. At least. I can’t be sure, since I don’t know, what the norm is. Your condition is not that regular for the Wizards, Mr. Potter. Not unheard of, but not common.”

The boy just nods.

“Would you like to know the sex of the baby?” The witch inquires.

“No,” Harry shakes his head. “I don’t… that is, I know already, it’s a girl.”

Madame Pomfrey looks impressed: “You have good instincts, Mr. Potter.”

She doesn’t have to tell him. From the very beginning, the baby has felt not like a separate someone, a person growing inside him, but more like another limb, like a branch would feel if Harry was a tree.

Then the mediwitch asks Harry to lift his legs, bend and part them. At his horrified expression, she informs the boy, that it is necessary, she is not doing that to embarrass him, and that he has nothing she has not seen before.

That is not exactly true though, since after slightly uncomfortable examination, the mediwitch explains that Harry’s birth canal has just started to form and obviously he will be able to have the baby the natural way. Actually, she is very impressed that both Harry and the baby are healthy and developing normally and there is nothing to worry about. She can’t tell precise time of birth though and want to keep the boy in the Hospital Wing for at least three four days, to watch the forming of the birth canal.

Harry is not going to complain. It is not like he ha anywhere to go, right? Besides, he wants to be a responsible parent.

Then Harry asks how it was possible for him to get pregnant. Pomfrey looks at him beseechingly: “You haven’t used any potions or a ritual?” Harry shakes his head, of course not. She nods and explains that she has to ask, since the pregnancy has to be reported to the Ministry.
“I have to be sure that it’s a magical or genetic accident, not induced with a potion or spells. That is highly dangerous, hence, illegal.”

“But how then?” Harry prods

Madame Pomfrey just shrugs. She says that there might have been a magical creature in his line, Fae, most likely, or any other, without strictly defined sex and gender. Potters are an old pure blood family after all, aren’t they? No strictly defined sex… that sounds very weird to Harry and he wonders why it has never been discussed in the Care of Magical Creatures.

But while his thoughts have been wandering, Pomfrey had apparently called a house elf and a tray with warm milk and some oatmeal cookies has been delivered for Harry. The boy was really grateful, because it is exactly what he is craving right now. After Harry finishes eating, the mediwitch takes away the tray and orders him to sleep.

For a moment he wonders, why isn’t she calling Dumbledore back, the Headmaster must be dying to talk to him, but it is only moments before the sleep claims him and dispels all the turbulent thoughts.

4.

When Harry wakes up the next morning, he feels well rested. He is not sure about the reasons, but ever since the boy knows that he is carrying a life inside him, he has become much calmer; he sleeps better and can’t complain about lack of appetite. Besides, he is much happier. How can he not be? Harry is going to have a baby, a real, alive baby, someone that is not carrying only a part of himself, but also a part of his Dad and Mum.

For Harry it is going to be like getting to see them a bit. Parts of them will be there, in his daughter. Maybe she will have Lily’s eyes or James’ lips or Lily’s lips and James’ eyebrows. He has no doubt that there will certainly be at least something.
Besides, even if that is a bit selfish, Harry knows that unless he will do something very, very bad, his little girl will love him unconditionally, forever. She will never betray him. He will never be alone again; he will finally have his own family!

Still, the boy wonders if it is sane, the way he had been able to dismiss all the complications and weird things connected to his condition.
Like an extra hole forming in his body this exact moment, which he is becoming strangely aware of and can’t really pretend that it is a piercing in a strange place. Like the fact that a boy shouldn’t be pregnant in the first place. Like his baby’s father, who… no, Harry forbids himself to think about Snape. The man has no right, absolutely no right to take up so much of the boy’s thoughts.

Merlin, but some days Snape is the only thing Harry thinks about and it is not very cool.

Madame Pomfrey marches into the room shortly after Harry has returned from the loo. She looks awfully energetic. The boy suspects, that the meiwitch really likes having him here, more than any other time, when she treated him after one of his misadventures.

She checks his temperature, casts some kind of diagnostic spell, and is apparently satisfied with the results.

“Alright, Mr. Potter,” Madame Pomfrey doesn’t smile, but her expression is kind in her own, stern-ish way. “Now, you will have your breakfast and then I am afraid, you will be up for visitors.”

Harry nods and thanks her. He reckons that she is the one who has kept everyone away from him. he wonders about Poppy Pomfrey, Harry has expected her to be more disapproving. Not that she ever says anything, but usually it is hard to miss when she would want to give you a good trashing on top of your Quidditch scrapes.

The house elf has just popped away with Harry’s breakfast tray when the door swings open and Mrs. Weasley rushes in and then she is already by the bed and is hugging him into her ample bosom: “Oh, goodness, Harry, we were so worried! Oh, Harry!”

The only thing Harry can think about is that he hopes his transformation will stop with the so called birth canal and he won’t grow any of those.

Dumbledore, Mr. Weasley, Remus Lupin and Professor McGonagall follow Molly Weasley in more sedate manner.

But Harry hardly sees them.

The boy curses his weak heart, because the traitorous organ still has gall to clench painfully as his eyes rest on the dark-hired man. Severus Snape, his husband. The one Harry… he is not sure, how he feels about Snape anymore. Harry would prefer not to feel anything at all and it upsets him that it doesn’t really work that way.

He looks away. At Dumbledore, Lupin, the ceiling above…

Ironically, Ron and Hermione are not there, because they are the ones Harry really wants to see.

“Oh, Dear, Harry!” Mrs. Weasley has spotted his stomach. “What…”

“Hi, Mrs. Weasley, I’m pregnant,”

The announcement turns out to be quite a stunner. For a long, awkward moment everyone is just staring at him. Not the face though. The boy starts wondering if this is what Lavender Brown feels like.

How nice of Albus Dumbledore to allow Harry to tell everyone himself. By the glare Snape sends in the Headmaster’s direction, the boy can tell that he would have appreciated some kind of warning. However, that is not the way Albus Dumbledore does things, is it?

Since this time, Harry is not the one who has just been taken by surprise, he does not mind.

The silence starts getting on his nerves though.

“Was there anything you wanted?” He inquires almost innocently and flattens his palms against his stomach.

It is probably very wrong, but he feels grim kind of satisfaction when for a moment he sees shock and explosive anger cross Snape’s face before the man manages to school his face into the usual mask of impassive hostility that he usually uses on his students.

“My dear boy,” the Headmaster steps forward, always the leader, and proceeds to explain that they have been very worried and that he wants to know where Harry has been for all this time and, blah, blah, blah…

“I have been safe and it’s not really your business, where,” Harry states very simply. He is being spiteful. The boy knows that. It is childish for sure, but Harry is only seventeen and has never been allowed to be a child. This might be his last chance, because when the baby will be born, he will have to be the adult in their little family, ready or not.
Besides, he has felt so angry, so betrayed and it is better to show a bit of petty spite than to start shouting and raving. He can’t really afford that. Harry must think of his little girl.

Remus Lupin looks like he’s about to cry, Mr. Weasley is apparently uncomfortable with the whole situation, McGonagall is disapproving, her lips thinner than a needle’s eye the boy would have to squeeze through if he ever wanted to get back into her favour. Molly is surprised, but her surprise is changing into excitement right in the front of Harry’s eyes. Albus Dumbledore is apprehensive and Snape is trying to hide whatever he is feeling, but the knuckles of his clenched fists are so white that Harry expects to see blood dripping down on the Infirmary floor any moment now.

“You have just gone too far, Potter—“

“Severus,” Dumbledore chides with fatherly gentleness.
“Harry we care about you deeply, you must understand. When you suddenly vanished without a trace, we were worried.”

“I am back and I am perfectly alright, so there is nothing to worry about, is there?” Harry sticks out his chin. Why would he tell them about his sanctuary?

“‘Alright’, are you?” Snape’s voice is like liquid ice that against all odds scorches instead of freezing. The man has always had very impressive voice. Harry thinks he could conquer countries with it.

“Everyone has been looking for you, Potter! And when I thought that I had seen the apex of your irresponsibility…” He gestures at Harry’s stomach. “And I can see very well, that you are ‘alright’, if one can call it that.”

“I am having a baby, a perfectly healthy baby,” Harry grounds out; he does not care for what his dear husband has just implied. There is nothing wrong with his little one.
“And it is not my fault that people are incapable of leaving me alone, isn’t it? I left a note. Didn’t you find it? If I remember correctly, it said, that I left, because I wanted to leave.”

It is not his fault, if people refuse to listen.

“Why Harry! Why!” Molly exclaims wringing her hands.

”Because I wanted to,” what else can Harry tell them without baring his soul, which he is not going to do.

“You selfish…”

“And what if I am?” Harry challenges the father of his child. He can glare too and can be selfish if he wants and can tell everyone to bugger off if he wants and Severus Snape is not going to be the one who will stop him!

“Let’s not argue,” Lupin interrupts. “What is important now is that Harry has returned and I think we should try not to upset him.”

The boy wants to snort. He I the least upset person in the room right now.

Molly Weasley takes Lupin’s words to heart and starts fussing over Harry, trying to assure him that everything is going to be all right and insists that everyone left now; because the ‘poor boy’ needs his rest and they could continue the discussion later.

“It’s fine Harry, we will support you, we will think about something…” she soothes.

Harry has just woken up and he does not need any tucking in, comforting, or anything at all. He doesn’t have heart to brush her off, because she means well and she is Ron’s Mum and the first time the Harry met Mrs. Weasley he thought she was the Goddess of Motherhood and Domesticity or something like that. But sometimes the witch is just too much.

“I just had breakfast!” Harry finally snaps when Mrs. Weasley inquires if he would like a snack.

She looks startled and Harry apologizes and asks after Ron and Hermione, before anyone can say anything else. He is informed that they have gone home this morning. The winter holidays have started. Harry is sure that his friends would have stayed if someone had told them that he was back. Apparently, no one bothered to. He shoots an accusing look towards Dumbledore.

“There are many things we still need to discuss, Harry…” the Headmaster tries somewhat sternly. He is wearing an expression of mild disappointment. Harry is relieved to realise that he doesn’t really care and doesn’t feel inclined to allow the old man to guilt him into anything.

“No,” he says. Not now. He is tired. It’s actually true.

The Headmaster shakes his head, not ready to back down. Snape also looks like he has more to say.

Harry is unyielding though; he accuses them of giving him a headache.

When everyone, but Mr. Weasley, look like they are not going to leave, he calls for Madame Pomfrey. Harry makes a complaint about the headache and she rapidly evocates everyone from the Hospital Wing, refusing to listen to their objections.

Harry looks after them and wonders if he is being too harsh. After all, he does not hate them, not even Severus. Hate is a very strong word; it has to be reserved for Dark Lord’s and Malfoys. It is a bit disturbing, to acknowledge that he hates Draco Malfoy. Nowhere as strongly as Voldemort during his fifth year, but enough. Still, for some reason Harry can’t really say the same about Severus, even if he feels, he should.

Harry has few hours of peace before his self-appointed guardians return ready to continue discussing ‘the situation’.

Molly is looking at him with a beaming smile.

It looks that she has been chosen to speak with him this time. She starts with declaring that they are oh so happy to have him back and have decided that if Harry is not ready to talk about his reasons for leaving or tell them where he has spent the last months, then they are not going to pressure him. For now.

Harry is graciously allowed to reveal everything when he is ready. When, not, if.

The boy can’t really believe the arrogance of those people. True, once he would have accepted the insinuation that he owes them something, but not anymore. Harry sees some things more clearly now.

He does not feel like he owes Dumbledore, because it has never been him who the old wizard had tried to keep safe, but the Wizarding World. It has never been him, whose mentor the Headmaster has been, but The Boy Who Lived. He is not that anymore. Now he is just Harry.

He owes Mr. and Mrs. Weasley for their kindness, but not as much as they are asking of him.

He doesn’t owe Remus Lupin for teaching him the Patronus, because it is the least the man could do for the son and godson of his best friends.

And Snape… well, Harry considers all his debts to Severus paid with interest.

Molly keeps talking, unaware of Harry’s growing annoyance. She explains that his situation really has been discussed.

“You have missed much of school, but if you work very hard, it will not be impossible for you to get ready for your NEWTs, the Professors could tutor you privately. You will catch up in no time, Harry. And for the little one… well, you don’t have to worry. Me and Arthur, we will take it.”

Now, the boy’s mouth really hangs open, he can’t believe what he is hearing.

“E-excuse me?”

“We will take him, until you finish the school, of course, or until you are ready to become a parent. It is a great responsibility and a full time job,” she chuckles and pats Harry’s arm.
“Oh, but it will be so sweet to have a baby in the house again! I understand what you must be feeling, being a boy and so young Harry, you have nothing to feel ashamed for. When the child will be older it will be easier…”

“What?” Harry gives her an incredulous look. “You think I don’t want my child? And it’s not him, it’s her.”

Then she starts assuring him that there is no reason to be ashamed if he is not ready to be a parent and it is all understandable and no one expects a teenage boy to be alright with this. And while it is not really natural, she thinks that the baby will be perfectly normal… and even if it will not, they will love him… err, her, anyway…

That is the last drop.

“Shut up!” Harry cries out and Madame Pomfrey immediately rushes to his side ready to remove whoever has been harassing her patient.

Harry shakes his head and waves her off. He is furious, but wants to have this conversation now and never return to it.

Mrs. Weasley looks as if she’s been hexed with something really nasty.

“I do not need your help. I am perfectly comfortable with my pregnancy and my child and more than ready to raise her. Myself. By myself,” he glances at Severus whose expression as often is unreadable. Harry tries to convince himself that he doesn’t care.

“I returned only to get help with delivery and because it wouldn’t be fair to raise her where I was staying anyway. Not because I thought, I needed someone to help me with the baby. Besides Madame Pomfrey, that is. I was happy enough to be away from everyone. I left, because it became too much, if you really have to know,” for some reason he can’t reveal what happened with Severus, but even if his husband’s betrayal has pushed Harry and made him leave, it isn’t all.

Those were much subtler betrayals.

Hell, he thinks, if they want to know his reasons so badly, why not to give them what they are craving so badly.

“You know, having a child puts everything into a different perspective. While I accept that some of the things that happened to me were necessary, I would never have wanted or allowed them to happen to my own child. Weird kind of double standard, but that’s how it is. You, Mrs. Weasley, of all people, should understand.”

He glances at the witch, who still has not recovered from the shock of being yelled at by their Golden Boy. Doesn’t matter, she deserves to get a dose of reality.

“I would never allow her to live with someone who was abusing her for years. I would never allow her to be in danger in her school, to fight giant snakes and face dragons and Dark Lords at the age of fourteen and… I would never allow her to marry someone who hates her and… “
“God, I would never sacrifice her life for anything. Not for the whole world, not for the greater good or whatever fantasy of yours! I would have found another way… I will go till the end of the world to keep her happy and safe! She will never go through what I did! Not while I am breathing!”

Harry is breathing very hard right now and purposely not looking at anyone, unwilling to see their expressions. He also doesn’t have to face anything he doesn’t want to, sod the unofficial Gryffindor code of honour.

“Of course not,—” Albus Dumbledore is cajoling, he looks appropriately sad and sorry, but it doesn’t make Harry feel any better and he doesn’t let the Headmaster to continue with the excuses that are about to follow.

“I don’t want to see you close to my daughter, Headmaster. Never. I don’t even want you to look at her. Excuse me if I can’t appreciate you trying to find new parents for her, but that won’t be necessary.”

Harry knows very well that he is being unreasonable and somewhat unfair, but there is this little, precious creature so close to his heart and he is not going to take any risks with her.

McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley look appalled and shocked and Remus Lupin incredibly sad. He can’t even look at Seve… Snape.

“I am seventeen,” Harry reminds them. “I am legally an adult and I don’t care if you don’t agree. I will buy or rent a house in Hogsmeade. After she’s born, I will move there and raise my daughter. You,” he points at Albus Dumbledore. “Are never coming close to us. With the rest of you, well, I guess time will show.”

“Harry...”

He doesn’t even care who is trying to placate him now. Harry is not going to listen.

“No, I have decided. If you don’t want me here, I will go to St. Mungo’s. And if anyone will try anything against us, I will make you regret it. I will use any means available. Even my fame.”

Before anyone has recovered from the shock Harry’s words have caused, Poppy Pomfrey ushers them out of the Hospital Wing.

Harry picks up one of the books on baby care that the mediwitch has brought him and starts reading. The boy has realised that he knows next to nothing about babies.

5.

For a moment, Severus thinks he sees the ghost of Lily Evans embodied in her son when he talks about protecting his child. It sends shivers down the Potions Master’s spine.
He has a vision of her standing by the crib, ready to take on even The Dark Lord
himself to protect her spawn.

Severus can’t describe his feelings the moment the Headmaster lets him know that Potter is alive and has just turned up at Hogwart’s Infirmary. And no words would really express what he feels the moment the brat announces that he is pregnant. As if, it wasn’t obvious enough.

Only for a moment, Severus considers possibility that it could be his. He simply can’t believe that he could have created something like a child. A child with Potter is even less plausible. No, it is impossible.

When he sees the boy, Severus commands all the other emotions besides fury drain away and the fury that takes over is great.

Severus keeps scowling, when Albus asks for his opinion and insists that he doesn’t have one. Stubbornly. Lupin sighs in exasperation; Minerva keeps giving him disapproving looks. Molly appears to be truly miffed that someone can be so callous; that is what she probably thinks of his attitude.

They continue to discuss ‘the situation’ without Severus’ input.

He doesn’t say anything, when Molly Weasley insists, that Harry must be distraught by everything and offers to take the child. It is probably her youngest son’s offspring anyway.

He personally thinks that Potter is nowhere near distraught. Severus has seen the boy distraught. This is just not it. The brat seems to be almost proud as a mother-to-be. Furthermore, Potter looks happy or at least content.

Potter dares to be happy when Severus hasn’t had a good night of sleep for months! He wants to scream when he looks at the boy, but keeps silent. They are not entitled to know his inner thoughts and feelings. Severus doesn’t make a habit of advertising his vulnerability.

When they gather to pay Potter another visit in the afternoon, Severus is in a much fouler mood than previously. He has made it perfectly clear than he wants nothing to do with the brat, but naturally the Headmaster insists.

Whatever, while Severus can’t stand the sight of the brat, he is curious about the outcome of the whole affair.

It never goes the way he has expected with Potter, Severus should have learned that lesson already, shouldn’t he? He has never heard anyone talking to Albus Dumbledore the way Potter does. No doubt, some of the adults in the room have wanted though. Severus almost staggers under the weight of his jealousy and shame. He is the one of those who has never dared.

The boy turns into a snarling lion protecting his cub. He is unrelenting. Potter stops the Headmaster from placating him before the old man has even opened his mouth, which is a smart thing to do, without doubt.

Severus is involuntarily impressed and hates Potter for it.

He takes some comfort in ignoring Albus, when the old coot voices his concern and urges Severus to try reasoning with ‘his husband’.
Reason to what end? For once Severus doubts the Headmaster really knows what is that he wants of his Golden child. It looks more as if he is trying to re-establish control over Potter with everything he does and says. Implying that the boy ‘might be distraught and might not know, what would be the best for him’ and trying to ship Potter’s spawn off to Molly Weasley.

Dumbledore’s concern is probably genuine. He has kept a tight rein on Potter, it is questionable if someone who is used to be controlled in almost every aspect of his life, can manage on his own.

But Severus’ refuses to make it his problem.

He is not going to assist the Headmaster in harnessing his renegade pet Hero.

What should he do? Go to Potter and tell him to do as the Headmaster says, as soon as the old codger decides what is that, he wants the boy to do? Ridiculous. Albus should let the boy be.

Oh, but Severus wants to go to Potter, to talk to the boy face to face.

He wants to vent his anger, to make the brat feel at least some of the fury, desperation, worry Severus has been experiencing since he has realised that his young husband was not coming back. He wants to make Potter’s heart clench the way Severus’ did, when he started up in the middle of the night after seeing the boy bloody, lying in a ditch, dead. Or cut open with his razor.

Merlin, but it took The Potions Master some time to figure out, why would the boy want to take that with him. Not as a token of remembrance, of that he was sure. Then Severus remembers the way Potter acts after defeating The Dark Lord. Remembers the boy’s dull, lifeless eyes after Black’s death. It suddenly makes so much sense.

But he doesn’t tell anyone. Severus lets them look for the boy, even if a part of him, the rational one, which is obviously much smaller than he had always believed, knows that there is probably nothing to look for. Because there is another part of him, that refuses to accept that Potter is no more.

Then the boy comes back. No warning, nothing and it’s not even Severus whom he returns to, not that Severus has expected that, but, but there is always that ‘but’ and there are always fools and will always be, but the Potions Master has never considered himself as one of them, but probably is the biggest…

Yes, but Potter returns and lies there content, happy and so very protective of another man’s brat that he is carrying so merrily!

He is not sorry at all; the damn boy doesn’t show the slightest regret. Severus want to make him regret, to make Potter pay for all the anguish his disappearance has put him through!

But he doesn’t. Even if Severus knows that the boy is right there in the Hospital Wing, he doesn’t seek him out. He can’t let Potter know of his weakness, he can’t allow the boy to know, how much power Harry has over him. How much whatever Potter does affects Severus, how much suffering Potter can bring him.

The Potions Master is afraid of what could happen if he was let alone with the boy. Even pregnant with another man’s child Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, his seventeen years young husband is the most beautiful creature Severus has ever laid eyes on. Still. Such a small, brave, innocent looking, treacherous creature.

Severus curses the day James Potter was born. Would the man be proud to know that he is responsible for creating the perfect torture for his school nemesis, despicable Snivellius?

But despite everything, he is still glad that Potter is there, that he has returned alive and breathing. How sad is that?

6.

Of course, no one asks Harry to leave Hogwarts. They probably don’t want to let him out of sight.

He stays in the Infirmary, under Madame Pomfrey’s sometimes-overbearing care and studies books for young parents.

Harry also owls Gringotts to inquire about his finances. The boy is afraid that he might not have galleons to back his independence. He is realistic enough to realize that independence costs and babies do too.

Harry is immensely relieved, when he finds out that he has inherited what seems enough money to support both of them at least for some time.

About two days later Madame Pomfrey announces that she really doesn’t think it would be wise for Harry to leave the Hospital Wing, because with an almost fully developed birthing canal, he could go into labour any time.

The boy winces. Labour. He is not going to admit it, but that part of baby-having is making his feet a bit cold.

“You wouldn’t want it to happen in the middle of Hogsmeade, would you?”

The mediwitch looks very surprised when the boy doesn’t protest at all.

Harry simply shrugs, he really wouldn’t want it to happen in the middle of Hogsmeade.

“How unexpected, Mr. Potter,” Poppy Pomfrey smiles and pats his arm. “You have become a model patient.”

Harry’s blushes at that.

Later that day Harry owls Remus Lupin and asks him for a meeting.

It’s Christmas, when the ex-professor comes, looking even more haunted than usually, but Harry refuses to worry. He asks Remus for a favour, he can’t go gallivanting around Hogsmeade and he needs someone to find him a house. Lupin looks doubtful and wants to know, if Harry is sure, is it wise. It is apparent that he wants to ask even more, but doesn’t quite dare.

Harry has decided. He wants to move as soon as the baby is born. The boy implies that if Lupin can’t help him, he should just say so and Harry would ask someone else.

He doesn’t say that aloud, but Harry actually ant to have the man in his life even if he doesn’t quite know, where Lupin stands in all of this. Yes, Harry admits that this is kind of a test.

“I am worried about you,” Remus reveals, before he relents with a sigh and then pulls a parcel out of his sling bag.

He has brought Harry a Christmas present. At first, the boy is a bit wary. But when he opens the box and lets his fingertips run over the softest light pink baby blanket he has ever seen. Harry hugs the werewolf as tight as he can manage with the enormous stomach between them and forgives Lupin for everything, even before the man asks Harry to forgive him for not being there and even sheds a couple of tears.

It’s Christmas after all.

Harry hopes that it is a good present to his friends, when he writes them. He tells Ron and Hermione that he has returned and looking forward to seeing them and that he is alright and sorry.

They reply him the next day insisting that they will return to Hogwarts as soon as possible. Harry is a bit baffled that Mrs. And Mr. Weasley hasn’t told Ron before. He doesn’t want to ruin their holidays with their families, but can’t help being a bit selfish. The boy has tired of being alone or having only Madame Pomfrey for company.

Not that Harry is gagging for the Headmaster to visit him.

Harry is surprised that Snape hasn’t stopped by. At least to yell at him, if not for any other reason. Of course, someone like Severus Snape would not find a child they have created together worth discussing!

It is really infuriating and something beyond his comprehension.

Harry tries to be reasonable. He is ready to accept that the man doesn’t care for him, that he is not what Severus wants. It even makes sense. After all, they have nothing in common, Harry is a Gryffindor who has been forced on the other man and… yeah, there is Draco Malfoy, who is aristocratic, gorgeous, smart and a Slytherin.

It is harder to accept that the man hasn’t been honest with him. That he toyed with Harry’s feelings, made him believe that…

However, it is not his daughters fault. She is going to need both of her parents. Harry who has had none can’t begrudge his little girl her other father. He as even decided to buy a house at Hogsmeade for that reason, to stay close. But what is the point, if the damned bastard has not even had decency to come and talk to him?

Doesn’t he care at all?

***

However Ron and Hermione obviously do care. They burst into the Hospital wing completely ignoring Madam Pomfrey’s protests and almost smother Harry in their arms. He is not complaining though.

Ron and Hermione are upset with him and shocked about the pregnancy. Hermione lectures him and Ron broods, but they forgive him very fast. Apparently, they are too happy to have their friend back and in good health.

Ron thinks Harry’s pregnant belly is the weirdest thing he has ever seen. He looks to be having hard time deciding if he wants to touch it or doesn’t.
Hermione is not that easy to please, she keeps eyeing Harry’s pregnant belly and chest with frightening degree of curiosity.

“Oh, no, ‘Mione, don’t even start,” the boy shakes his head. “No questions, research male pregnancies if you want, but I am not going to discuss this with you! No details, alright?”

The girl pouts, but Ron grins and gives him thumbs up.

Then he grows serious and tells Harry that his Mum is kind of upset with him. As if Harry has not noticed, the lack of the Weasley sweater on the Boxing Day, rather made him suspect that not everything was alright.

“She didn’t even tell me, you were back mate. Until you wrote though,” after Ron had received the letter, he confronted his parents and found out exactly what Molly Weasley thought about Harry.

“Mum says she doesn’t recognise you anymore, that you are disrespectful and ungrateful and so on and maybe you are really sick and need help, if that’s the case, she says, she will forgive you, after you get treatment, that is. I think she’ll come around, though.”

Harry snorts. So someone has been implying that there is something wrong with him. Not for the first time. He has lived with worse.

Ron has had a fight with his mother about coming to see Harry and apparently doesn’t agree with her. That worries Harry, but Ron simply shrugs and says that it is going to be alright.

“I am a big boy, you know? Can’t be hanging off my Mom’s apron strings forever,”

When they get to asking him, why, why did he leave, the boy is not sure what to say. The words accusing Severus of betrayal simply refuse to come out and to simply say, that everything got too much for him, doesn’t quite describe what happened.

“I just have to,” Harry finally says after babbling for five minutes without making much sense or point. “I had to get away for a while.”

Surprisingly it satisfies his best friends. Hermione squeezes his hand and changes the topic.

She asks Harry, what is he going to name the little girl.

“Claudia,” Harry answers with a smile. “Her name is going to be Claudia Lily Potter … Snape.”

He has no idea, what is the meaning of the name, he doesn’t even remember, where he has heard it. However, Harry likes ‘Claudia’ and it is common enough name and surely can’t mean anything too bad. But if Hermione likes, she can research that as well.

7.

Harry has his first contraction early in the morning on the January 2, three days after Madame Pomfrey announces that his birth canal is fully formed. The mediwitch immediately contacts St. Mungo’s and two more healers arrive through the floo. Harry calls Dobby and asks him to inform Ron and Hermione.

Both of his friends arrive five minutes later and Harry has to tell them, that everything is just starting and probably it will be hours before the baby is born. Nevertheless, they don’t mind, they stay by his side for six hours, until the baby is finally ready to arrive and while Ron goes pale and leaves to wait outside, Hermione out-glares Madame Pomfrey and Mungo’s Healers and stays by his side allowing him to clutch her arm.

Harry will be grateful forever. Hermione is never going to give birth herself.

It hurts. It hurts like hell and feels like his body still hasn’t adjusted enough for the ordeal, even with all the subtle and not so subtle changes the boy has endured. His hips still feel too narrow and the birth canal too tight.

Harry swears this is going to be his first and only child.

everyone keeps assuring the boy that it is alright, that everything is going as it is supposed to go and then Harry looses his temper and shouts at Pomfrey, the Healers and Hermione to shut up. He is feeling nowhere alright!

No one minds him though. One of the Healers even encourages Harry ‘to let it out’. Whatever ‘it’ is.

It seems like hours of pain, sweat and blood and Harry almost comes to giving up and demanding that they sedate him and just cut her out, but then, feeling a bit dazed from exhaustion he hears a cry somewhere in the background, His child’s first cry, and knows that it is over.

No, it is not over. This is just a beginning.

Hermione props the glasses back on his nose, so Harry can not only feel his little girl lying on his chest, but see her as well. Glasses don’t really help though, because his eyes are full of tears and everything is blurry anyway.

“Claudia,” he whispers in wonder, and despite the ache in the back of his neck and almost everywhere else, leans to press a kiss against the furry top of her head.

8.

Madam Pomfrey corners Severus on his way back to the Dungeons right after lunch. She looks irritated beyond measure or upset in that particular matron-y manner of hers. The Potions Master is not sure which one it is, and does it matter?

Politely he inquires if she wanted something and that causes the mediwitch to compress her lips into an even thinner line.

It is ‘I am at my wits end with you’ expression and apparently, Severus has been wrong thinking that Minerva holds the copyright for that particular look. He would never accuse Poppy Pomfrey of plagiarising expressions.

“When are you going to see your child, Severus?” The mediwitch demands with all the sternness accumulated during the years of dealing with naughty schoolboys.

Severus’ temper flares up and for a moment, he is very tempted to remind her that he is long past the schooling age and tell her to mind her own business! But that would be showing weakness, besides grown ups are capable of controlling their tempers.

“She is nineteen inches, six and a half pounds. A bit small, but healthy,”

And why would Severus care? Why would he want to know about the reminder that Harry isn’t his and he never really has been and and never will be?
But of course, it has never mattered, what Severus wants and what he doesn’t. The infuriating woman just goes on, on, and on… well, she actually doesn’t, she just keeps staring at him!

“I don’t care!” Severus has finally had enough.

She looks as if she has been slapped.

But recovers fast to demand to know, how he can be so cold, so indifferent to his own child!

“My child? Mine!” Severus sneers. “Does Potter really have the impudence to claim it’s mine!”

He feels smug satisfaction when the mediwitch looks really taken aback and at the loss of words for once. But not for long.

“Merlin, Severus,” she sighs. “You are unbelievable… but you know; I have never seen so dark eyes or such a big nose on a little girl. Poor thing,” and with that she spins around and strides away in the direction of Hospital Wing.

***

At first, Severus refuses to believe the meddling, old witch. It can’t be his child, after all Weasley is the one who comes from the most progenitive family in the Wizarding World. It is only logical that after consorting with Snape and a Weasley, it would be a Weasley, who would manage to knock the little slut up!

But of course, logic takes rest, when it comes to Potter!

No, Severus has no reason not to believe Pomfrey. Why would she deceive him?

Once again, destiny proves its cruelty when it comes to Severus. It is already too hard to get Potter out of his mind, no matter how hard he tries and now his wicked luck ties them together with another tie.

Their daughter. His daughter.

Merlin, but he has a daughter, he and Potter, they have a daughter.

However, it is another day until Severus finds himself at the door that leads into the Hospital Wing.


Severus decides that Potter looks calmer and much more content than any male who has given birth wee three days ago should ever look.

Their eyes lock the moment Severus crosses the threshold of the private room that has been given to the boy. And the baby. There is a crib right next to the bed. The Potions Master can’t see the child from where he is standing, so he can’t avoid reducing the distance between him and the boy.

Why couldn’t Potter be more like Narcissa Malfoy, who refused to look at Draco for more than a week after giving birth? Then he would have plenty of opportunities to see the child without seeing his… other father.

The calm, green eyes are boring into his in a very unnerving way.

“So,” the boy is the first to break the silence. “You want to see your daughter after all.”

The calmness, the complacence, the cheek of the boy, it is finally more than Severus can stand for.

“I couldn’t be sure if it was mine, could I?” He turns against Potter his nastiest sneer.

The green eyes widen.

“Wha-a-at?” The boy splutters. Then slowly the realisation dawns upon him.

“How dare you!”

Severus just keeps sneering, he is sure, and Potter is capable of accusing himself on his own. But the boy is no the one to play by the rules. Two red blotches adorn his pretty cheeks.

“You are accusing me of infidelity,” the boy lets out a hysterical laugh. “That’s rich… that’s really rich.”

Whatever he wants to say next is interrupted by a sound that comes from the crib. A very quiet mewling noise, barely audible. However, Potter’s attention immediately shifts, it is as if Severus ceases existing as if the whole world ceases existing for the boy and all that is left is the tiny bundle he is now holding in his arms.

“Shh, don’t fret, princess, your bottle will be here any minute now,”

The baby obviously really can wait as long as he is held and cooed at.

“You wanted to see her,” Potter lifts his eyes to look at Severus. “I doubt you see much from there.”

It is annoying, to be beckoned like that, but Severus’ feet are already carrying him closer. Potter shifts the pink bundle to give The Potions Master a better look.

She is so tiny… it is the first thought Severus has. A tiny face, a tiny, toothless mouth… Pomfrey is right; the nose is a bit prominent for the tiny, round face. She also has tuft of dark hair and long black eyelashes enclose eyes as dark as Severus’ own.

No red hair, and not a single freckle in sight.

There is no denying that the little thing is his. Damn, but she resembles Snape more than Potter. The firstborn more often takes after the father… Severus remembers his mother’s words.

Salazar… he is a father.

TBC

Notes:

(1.) The Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration -there are five magical objects that are an exception to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration—objects that cannot be created by magic: food, love, life, and information, money.

(2.) Here, Severus means the time he calls Lily a mudblood. I think it was revealed in the last book – how Lily and Snape stopped being friends.

* It is not being revealed in the story, but I imagine that Harry’s hut in the woods is some kind of old Order Safe-house that has been stocked up and probably used by Harry’s parents and Sirius long time ago. When Harry dies and meets them, they probably give him a hint for when he would need it.

* I had to find about the meaning of name, Claudia, even if Harry doesn’t care, since he just likes what it sounds like. Some of you might be curious as well. Guess what I found out:

Claudia is a variant of the masculine Claude, which in turn has its origin in the Roman Claudius. It comes from a Roman family name which was derived from Latin claudus meaning "lame, crippled". This was the family name of several Roman emperors of the 1st century, including the emperor known simply as Claudius. Although it is usually pronounced as 'Claw-dee-ah', many people named Claudia have their names actually pronounced as 'Cloud-ee-ah'.
The name Claudia is one of the ten most popular female names in many Spanish-speaking countries and regions.


A/N: Sorry, didn’t really have time to write review responses this time. But, thanks to those, who reviewed.