Blackmail

Chapter Nine

Three days had past since the rescue and Harry’s baby had been brought into the world. When asked what he wanted to call his son, Harry replied,

“Blake Tyler Potter.”

And when asked why he had chosen that name, Harry replied,

“I had a lot of time to think about it when I was… where I was, and I liked it. Simple and nice.”

Admittedly Severus didn’t really like the common muggle name, but when he though about what little Blake’s future was, he kept quiet.

That night when Harry fell to sleep, Severus remained by his boyfriend’s side while he built up the courage he needed to do what he had to do. It was decided that he was going to be the one to kill the baby, apparently it was because he had been with Harry through the whole ordeal.

What a load of Bullshit.

Severus knew that the real reason was because no one else had the guts to kill someone (a baby at that), and because he had once been a Death Eater, it was all right for him.

He just hoped that he didn’t loose Harry over this.

So, choosing not to dwell on the situation any more, Severus picked up Blake and left the hospital wind.

He still had yet to decide how exactly he was going to kill the babe – he didn’t want it to be too painful. There was the lake outside, and rumour had it that drowning was the ‘sweet death’, but Severus wasn’t sure it would be quick enough. Then there was the forest, something would eventually find the child as food, but then it might hurt a lot to be eaten alive. Finally Severus opted for his area of expertise – Potions. A simple, fast acting poison would be all he needed.

Making his way down to the dungeons, Severus looked down to the bundle in his arms. Blake was awake and looking up at him with big brown eyes. Come to think of it, when Severus had a good look, there was nothing that resembled Voldemort. It had Harry’s nose, mouth, ears and messy hair, but Blake’s eyes weren’t his, or James’, or Voldemort’s. Severus just presumed that those were to sort of eyes that Tom Riddle had before his transformation into Voldemort.

Severus carefully opened the door, making sure not to disturb the calm child, and walked into his potion store.

A bright orange, innocent potion was chosen and Severus lay both the vial and child down on his work counter. Looking around he noticed that he hadn't even been back in here since his return to Hogwarts, focussing all his time and energy on Harry and the baby. It was funny, but now that Harry had a child, it was much easier to picture the two of them with a family, living together outside Hogwarts with a backyard for the children to run around in. There was no doubt in Severus’ mind that Harry would be a good father, and it tore him apart thinking about what he had to do with Blake right now.

Mechanically, Severus unstoppered the vial and charmed it to float upright without spilling. He glanced at the child to see that Blake had wiggled an arm free of the blanket he was wrapped in and was waving it about. Severus unconsciously smiled. Next he transfigured the cork into a teat that would fit the vial and slipped it on. Holding the poison in his hand, Severus couldn’t help but hesitate and just stare at little Blake. It seemed so unfair that this person’s life had to be ended so soon after it began, just because of circumstances he couldn’t control.

For a fleeting moment, Severus was sure that this was how Lily and James Potter must have felt when they discovered the Prophesy about Harry.

Shaking the thoughts away, Severus switched his mind blank – the way he would during his Death Eater days – and lowered the poison to the baby’s lips. Just when he was an inch away from giving the child the poison his door slammed open and there stood a panting Harry Potter.

“NO!”

Harry launched for his baby but his exhaustion slowed him down, leaving Severus with enough time to pick up the infant and step back. Harry was almost crying.

“Why are you trying to kill Blake?”

Severus kept his face impassive, knowing that the end result will be a dead baby and lost love.

“Dumbledore ordered me to do it,” he explained, “We can’t allow Voldemort’s spawn to remain alive and possibly kill us all.”

Harry sobbed, a heart wrenching sob.

“Don’t call him that Severus-“

“That’s what he is, isn’t he?” he yelled back, trying to get Harry to understand.

“No! His not. Voldemort believed it was his, but Blake is yours.”

Harry fell to his knees crying. Severus froze in shock.

“You didn’t want a child, but I did SO MUCH. I snuck into you potions supply and stole the one that would make me pregnant. I did it two weeks before we were taken, and I had already known I was pregnant because I had already searched for the spell in Hogwarts library that would tell the caster the results.”

Harry continued to cry as the told the story. All this information was slowly beginning to seep into Severus’ confounded brain. Blake was his? He had a son?

“So why did you refuse to visit me after Voldemort found out? I could have helped you, cared for you…”

Severus didn’t know how to express any other emotion other than anger at the moment. Harry had lied. He had a son! He was a father!

“Don’t you understand?” Harry wailed, “You would have tried to get us out, done something irrational if you knew I was carrying your child. And if Voldemort knew he would have used Blake as extra Blackmail material. Don’t you see? It was the only thing I could do to protect you, keep you from getting killed.”

“So why did you stop talking to me? Stop being near me when we were together?”

Severus was still angry as he processed that information that Harry had done all this, carried the burden of pregnancy, while being constantly tortured, just to protect him. Harry had sacrificed himself! And now he had a family!

“I wanted you to think that I didn’t love you anymore. Merlin it was hard. And I was hoping that your temper would cause you to leave the castle and escape – then Voldemort would have killed me and I wouldn’t have had to endure any more pain… any more rapes.”

Severus watched Harry crumple in on himself and curled up on the floor to cry. The boy, his love, had done all of this just to protect and try to save him. Ignored the consequences for himself and tried to help Severus the only way he could.

Severus’ anger evaporated, he tossed the poison aside and he quickly made it over to Harry with Blake.

“Oh, Harry. I’m so sorry, I didn’t think. I though you were joining forces with the Dark Lord and become his willing sex toy. I thought you liked it better with Voldemort than with me.”

Harry continued to cry, “How could you think that, Severus? I love you and always have. I thought you knew that.”

“I did,” Severus smiled softly, “but a man can have his doubts.”

At hearing this, and Severus’ soft tone, Harry’s sobs began to fade away. He got up off the floor and Severus embraced him with his free arm and tucked Blake into Harry’s chest so Harry could see that his son was still alive and fine.

Black eyes looked down on the mob of dark hair and he asked, “So how did you know I was down here?”

Harry looked up at his boyfriend. “I still can’t believe Blake is real and I wake up so many times in the night just to look at him. When he wasn’t there, and neither were you; I raced down to your chambers. On the way I feared the worst – that you would kill something that came from Voldemort – and I was right. You almost did.”

Severus nodded his understanding.

“So why didn’t you tell me Blake was mind sooner?”

Harry’s eyes turned away and focused instead on Blake.

“Before, when I talked about having a family, you didn’t like the idea. I didn’t want to wait for you to finally decide when the time was right, so I drank the potion, thinking that if I was pregnant you would agree with me quicker. I guess I just had trouble telling you the truth when you believed the lie.”

Severus fondly smiled at his Harry and kissed the top of his head.

“What am I going to do with you, Harry?”

The boy smiled as well, looking up to his Severus.

Now that they had a family, all they had to do was tell the Wizarding world they were a couple, move into their own house, kill a crazed Dark Lord (who would be out for revenge) and survive the whole thing.

Severus smiled to himself. Well after everything the two had been through already, that would be easy!

The End.