Loving Lily: A Snily Story

Chapter 20 - Tests

Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Severus looked at Lily like she had slapped him across the face.

"You.........what?" He asked as his brow furrowed in concern.

"My cycle's late, Sev." Lily confessed with a worried frown, "I've been so tired the past few days that I can barely keep my eyes open and my nipples ache.....I felt the same way when I first conceived Harriet."

The ring in Severus's pocket suddenly seemed insignificant.

He swallowed thickly as a rush of sudden nausea forced his focus to waver slightly.

"We've.......We've used contraceptive charms." Severus calmly reasoned, "........At every appropriate occasion."

"That's not true and you know it, Sev. There was no such charm cast on the night that you brought your...friend...home." Lily said as she tucked a stray strand of crimson hair behind her ear.

Severus drew in a silent breath as he looked at his beloved in horrified realization.

She was right, they hadn't used a contraceptive charm that night........

His double had barely been patient enough to get Lily upstairs and Severus had been too preoccupied with trying to maintain his place in his lover's arms to consider the need for  reducing the risk of a pregnancy.

The anxious silence that followed worried Lily.

She frowned as she pleaded with Severus, "Sev, please don't be angry with me. I haven't done this on purpose. I haven't-"

"-It pains me.....Lily," Severus began as he interrupted his lover in his low purr of a voice, "....That you believe I would be angry with you for bearing my child. If your suspicions are correct, then have I not been the one who placed the babe in your womb?"

"Well......yes." Lily said with a shy chuckle as she blushed slightly.

"Then you are no more to blame for the circumstances than I." Severus replied.

"I'm frightened, Severus." Lily confessed as she used his full name.

The uncharacteristic way that she addressed him sent him reaching for her hand. He squeezed her knuckles with his fingers as he nodded and replied, "It's certainly not the best time for a child to be born.......It's all we can do to look after Harriet and safeguard her."

Lily wiped away an unwelcome tear while Severus let his fingers drift over hers as he added, "Although, if your suspicions are correct......If you are with child, Lily, then I will care for him or her with the same ferocious sentiment that I hold for you and Harriet."

"Sev.......!" Lily whimpered as she looked at him with her cheeks red, unable to hide the tears that poured from her eyes.

In the glow of the crackling fire, Severus gazed at Lily reverently while he slipped off the sofa and sank down onto his knees in front of her.

"I love you so much......" Lily sniffed as she raised her free hand and combed her fingers gently through Severus's black hair, "I.....I made mistakes, Sev, and you've been generous enough to forgive me for them. I just....I just want all this ugliness to go away! I want to have a life with you!...With Harriet!"

Severus knew somewhere in the rational part of his mind that he should respond.

Yes, responding would be the proper thing to do......but as Lily hypnotized him with her bright, green eyes and poured her heart into his hands, she rendered him speechless.