Love and Parenthood

Love and Parenthood


Disclaimer: All canon characters are the property of JK Rowling and those with whom she has agreed contracts. This story is written for practice not profit.


A/N


This story is a sequel to Marriage Vows, which was inspired by the Mage Lge Law Challenge on WIKTT. For those people who don’t like MLC stories I am providing a brief outline of the plot here. The actual chapter follows at the end of this.

Marriage Vows was set after the defeat of Voldemort in Sixth year. A potion developed by Severus and Hermione aided his downfall. During their work they had grown somewhat used to each other and when the law is introduced Severus tries to help her find a suitor before eventually proposing himself. He tells Hermione that he wants to save her from the Malfoy family because he believes that Malfoy was involved in the murder of Olivia Snape, his first wife, who was Malfoy’s half-sister
It was the loss of his wife that was the final push to turn him against Voldemort in the old days.

The marriage takes place after Lucius is arrested for trying to murder Severus in a fit of rage. It gets off to a reasonable start although Hermione’s magical energies are disrupted and she has to purchase a new wand, which turns out to be the sibling wand to Severus’. Ollivander says it is a good omen.

There is uproar when a Muggle-born child is discovered to be among the Slytherin first year intake. When the Sorting Hat is questiont clt claims that the little girl is a Malfoy. Severus gets embroiled in collecting evidence against Malfoy and investigating the child’s origins. He finds a spell, which would have allowed Malfoy to steal Hermione’s power if Draco had given his consent.

The Marriage Law is suspended after it is realised that Malfoy bribed officials to get it passed and Severus is briefly imprisoned because he used the law to marry Hermione. The Wizengamot offers them a divorce but they choose to stay together after Hermione reveals she is pregnant. It turns out that she is not the only one and that when their binding spells were cast inside the castle wards it boosted the fertility of all the women present. Ginny, Molly, Mrs Granger, Melissa Graceworthy-Plank(Charlie Weasley’s wife), Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott are all pregnant, as are a number of others, including three Slytherin fifth years who were drug addicts and mixed up in the seedy side of life in Knockturn Alley.

The pressure is on as Malfoy’s trial gets closer and it is discovered that the Malfoy girl is actually another half-sister to Lucius from his father’s secret third marriage. Severus and Albus realise that Malfoy may have been responsible for the deaths of his father and stepmother and Severus is seconded to the Aurors to use Legilimency on potential witnesses.

Hermione, in her role of apprentice, takes Potions classes in his absence. There is an accident when an illegal abortifacient concentrate intended for the Slytherin fifth years is accidentally uncorked during a lesson but Draco acts quickly and manages to save some of the pregnant seventh years including Hermione but sadly Susan and Hannah miscarry.

Severus’ mission is successful and he has enough evidence for Malfoy to be involuntarily given Veritaserum. Severus briefs Draco on the facts and breaks it to him that if Lucius is found guilty of patricide then the estates will revert to his newly discovered aunt. Draco is disgusted at the idea that his father could kill someone of his own blood and reveals that Lucius was forcing him to marry Hermione because he wanted her to fulfil a prophecy. Severus offers to support Draco and pledges to acknowledge him as a member of his family.

At the trial Lucius admits attacking Severus but claims that he was acting to save Hermione from the fate of Severus’ first wife and pleads for clemency because he has just found out that Narcissa has died. Severus displays a Pensieve memory of Lucius killing his stepmother and the Muggle baby he had mistaken for hers. In the resulting confusion Lucius grabs Severus’ wand and casts the Killing Curse at his sister. Draco knocks her out of the way and Hermione uses her sibling wand to force the curse back into Severus’ wand. Instead of the usual effect of prior castings emerging, she forces the spell right back through the other end and ‘kills’ Lucius wand hand. When order is restored Lucius confesses to murdering his father, stepmother, Olivia, Narcissa and the Muggle baby. Draco disowns his father and announces he’s going to adopt the Black family name. Lucius is revealed to be dying as the deflected Killing Curse is spreading through his body but Draco refuses to speak to him.

A number of Wizengamot members resign because of links to Malfoy and Severus is elected to join. He is given a lengthy sabbatical from his duties as Potions master and Head of Slytherin to work part time at the Auror’s training centre in Hogsmeade and to establish a disused family property as a house and medical facility for married and pregnant Hogwarts students.

Glen Top Manor


“Dear God Severus,” spluttered Hermione. “Just how many elves do you have here?”

“I have no idea my love,” replied her husband. “I’ve owned this house for getting on for twenty years but I’ve never actually visited it. Why would I want to when Hogwarts is so close at hand?”

“Oh I don’t know… maybe a sense of responsibility for the creatures living here!” she proclaimed dramatically.

“They’ve come to no harm,” he replied indignantly. “In fact they’ve been pretty much free. I would have thought you’d have been all in favour.”

“How can they be free when they’re trapped in your house?”

“In what sense are they trapped? They can visit Hogsmeade. The senior elves are able to charge necessities to my accounts. They can maintain the Manor and the grounds to their hearts’ content with no interference from me. It’s almost as good as being their own bosses.”

“Puh,” she snorted.

“All right,” he said resignedly. “Can we at least wait until we’ve explored the house to see what we’re dealing with before we go into allshorshortcomings?”

“I suppose so,” she conceded. “Lead on.”

Severus took his wife’s hand and led her through the swarm of house-elves milling around on the front steps of the Manor.

ter ter that evening the two of them had their first meal in their new home. The house-elves culinary skills had not suffered over the years and the meal was the most spectacular Hermione had ever eaten.

“We shouldn’t have put them to all this trouble,” said Hermione ruefully. “I’ve no idea how they managed to put this together with that amount of warning.”

“Hermione you know as well as I do they will have enjoyed doing it. You’ve lived with house-elves for years and you should know that you cannot force them to go against their natures.”

“Dobby did.”

“Dobby was a personal servant of Lucius Malfoy. It took a lot of abuse to make him act in the way he did and as soon as he found a good home he works as hard as anyone.”

“I’d be happier if I gave them a choice about working for me or not. I’d like to give them the option of clothes.”

“No,” he said firmly. “They will be insulted and distressed. There are few things I would deny you but that is one. You may give them free time, holidays, whatever luxuries it pleases you, but you will not threaten them in that way.”

“I see what you’re saying. I remember how devastated Winky was.”

“They’ve provided champagne. Would you like a drop? We are celebrating you finishing your NEWTs after all.”

“Do you think I should?”

“I think half a glass will do you less harm than all the stress during the NEWTS.”

“Perhaps we should wait until I get the results before celebrating. I know I could have done better. Perhaps I shouldn’t have tried to do them early.”

“Hermione, if by some incredible fluke, you have failed to achieve more marks than are technically available in a subject you can re-sit it next year.”

“I just really wanted to become an animagus by now. I know the theory but Minerva said I couldn’t try it until Seventh year and now I’m not allowed to learn because of the baby.”

“As soon as you are recovered you can try it. I may join you at it.”

“I didn’t know you were interested.”

“I wanted to do it when I was your age but I was too proud to seek Minerva’s assistance and too cautious to try it solo. I’m sure she would help us but there are a lot of things we have to do before we get there. Organising this house for the influx is just the first of them. Have you had any ideas?”

“We’re going to have to use the ballroom as a refectory I think. I don’t imagine this house will be as amenable to us adjusting rooms by magic as Hogwarts is.”

“No. That’s always the downside of living in a Muggle-built dwelling. There is always the option of a magical extension to the house if we really need it. There are a number of cottages around. You should be able to use magic for the plumbing at any rate.”

“How did you come to have a Muggle-built house in the family anyway?”

“It was inherited by my great great grandmother from her family but I don’t know how they came by it. She was the last person to live here and she died when I was an infant. Part of the Cornish estate is Muggle-built too but I do know how that came about. The wizarding part had been in the family since the sixteen hundreds but like a lot of our property had been left uninhabited for a time. When my great –aunt decided that she couldn’t bear her brother any longer she decided to adopt it as her primary residence. He was as keen for her to leave as she was to go so he handed it over. When she got there she found that a larger grander Muggle house had been built right by it on what we claimed to be our land. Somehow they decided to vacate shortly after she arrived. Then there was a ‘mysterious’ fire and my aunt acquired it for a song and lo and behold the house was magically restored.”

“So she ran them ou the their house and cheated them?”

“Well it was our land,” he said placidly. “I can’t really blame her for trying. Life gets very difficult when a Muggle claims what belongs to you. It’s not possible for us to fight on their terms. Actually, speaking of the Cornish estate I had thought about set Dra Draco up there in one of the houses when he’s ready to live independently.”

“Well that won’t be for a while yet will it?”

“No, he’s doing as well as we could have hoped but I am expecting him to need to live here with us for a while.”

“After his NEWTs do you mean?”

“I thought from Easter. If we’re going to open up the house then for the girls and the couples he can go back and forth with Longbottom, Thomas and Creevey for classes. I don’t want to leave him behind in Slytherin when we’re not there. He’s protected by his relationship to me now but that will go when we leave.”

“You’re right. They’ll go for him now he’s not top dog won’t they? Even I had noticed he doesn’t mix with them anymore. He’s always in the Library or the lab with Maria.”

“I wondered if you’d picked up on that.”

“Well I was pleased to see them getting on so well. Maria’s always going to be an oddity in Slytherin. He’s tutoring her as well. She’s come on really fast in all her subjects. She’s head and shoulders above the other first years.”

“As was her sister. Did you know he’s started her on Arithmancy?”

“Gosh, I didn’t even start to think about that until my second year…” She broke off as she noticed the expectant look on his face. “You’re telling me more than you’re saying aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You think there’s something between them? Severus, she’s twelve and she’s his aunt! You have to put a stop to it!”

“I have to do no such thing. When I say that there is something between them I mean nothing more than that they have a natural accord and respect, which may well develop in the future when Maria is old enough to have that range of emotions. Draco has come to care for the child. He will not hurt her. I am satisfied that the friendship is not inappropriate for a child of Maria’s age. The majority of witches and wizards will meet their future partner at school. Look at us. In fact I have done it twice. As to her being his aunt, that is not an insurmountable obstacle in our world.”

“No wonder there’s problems with inbreeding. In the Muggle world that would be unthinkable.”

“Maria was only a half-sister to Lucius. Given the fact that she is the senior in the bloodline whilst being the younger in age the law would regard the marriage as the equivalent of being a marriage between cousins. Not the wisest of actions with so many families being closely bred already, but common enough. If they had a more standard uncle/niece or aunt/nephew relationship then marriage would not be allowed. Indeed, if by some chance Louis had taken on the responsibility of being her trustee in her minority, he would not be allowed to marry her despite the fact that they are technically cousins at a remove.”

“I have to say that I’m not comfortable with that.”

“It’s the way things are. I’m not in any way implying that Draco lusts after the child. I am merely being honest about the possibilities of the friendship. Many Slytherin children have parents who have already made informal arrangements on their behalf with families they know. It’s no more unnatural than Neville and Ginny or Charlie and Melissa. Ninety per cent of the UK’s witches and wizards attend Hogwarts. When they attend they will come into contact with every witch or wizard up to six years older and up to six years younger. Chances are they will marry one of them. If they don’t they’re looking at marrying a foreigner or someone much older or younger.”

“Will you be like this with our children?”

“Yes and so will you.”

“I will not!”

“I guarantee that when this batch of babies is born you will be laying our child on a blanket with another child of the opposite sex and cooing with your friends about how they react with each other. If we go on to have several children some will wed Weasleys, Longbottoms and Potters. It’s how it works in a closed community. Muggles are the same. If you find members of a small religious group you will find that they have a rule about not marrying out of the group and the devout will want to have as many children as they can feed. It’s how we survive.”

“It strikes me you could feed an awful lot of children.”

“Meaning?”

“No, it’s something Ron said before we married. He said ‘How do you know he won’t lock you up so you can have a string of little Snapes?’”

“Coming from a Weasley I find that statement rather ironic. You may have as many children as you wish, as far as I am concerned. I asked for one, which you are in the process of providing. If you enjoy motherhood and you remain in good health you may choose to have more and hopefully we can create them between us. Some women do not adjust happily to motherhood and if you prove to be one of them we will have no more and do our best with the one we have.”

“So if it’s a girl you won’t try to talk me into having a boy?”

“I would be content to have a girl as an heir. The only thing I can see which might make me want a second child when you didn’t would be if this child were a squib and therefore unable to carry on the line. The oddsthatthat are incredibly remote.”

“I feel like you’re making me responsible for it all and at the same time I have to try and guess the decision that will make you happy. I wish you wouldn’t.”

He grasped her hand across the table and raised it to his lips.

“When I was young I wanted a string of children. I recognise now that I wanted them as a means of reinforcing my ownership of my wife as well as building a dynasty to control. I will always regret that she was married to the man I was t Sh She deserved so much better than I ever gave her. When she died that ambition died too. I didn’t have a life, a future. I existed to accomplish my task and I never thought about what would happen later. I expected to be dead. Then when the war was over I suddenly found myself married to a brilliant powerful young woman and then I find that we love each other and before I know what’s happening I’m about to be a father. It’s all quite overwhelming. I want you and I want the child but I know that events have pulled you off course. I can afford children, as many as you want, but it’s important that you are happy. You don’t have to give me any more than you already have because as long as I have you in my life and in my bed I will be happy whether we spend our days researching and arguing politics, or caring for a multitude of offspring.”

“That makes me feel a little better. Draco can move in here as soon as we open up the house. Shall we ring for coffee?”

“I think so. Perhaps we could ask for a bed to be prepared? We might continue our celebrations there,” he suggested silkily. “We do have the night off after all.”

“I think that’s an interesting plan,” she said in a mock prim tone, as he smirked at her.

“I think so too.”