| INTIMACY | - HPxTMR

Chapter 15 [Rising]

This chapter took a while to write out, simply because its contents weren't as dramatic as I wanted :( I'm trying to put more drama into this story, but I prefer my main characters not to suffer, so It's hard. I only managed to get it up to 3k, so I'll try to write more next chapter ^-^

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

TW: Miscarriage, non-graphic depictions of birth [Two separate instances]

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15th January 1998- Thursday

Unexpected news, so soon after welcoming in the new year, rocked the harem and put the Court on lockdown yet again. Primary Noble Erin Witt had miscarried once more, her fourth time in total, and nobody had known that she was pregnant before the news of this broke.

Well, the Emperor had, which had been the reason for promoting the woman weeks prior, and Harry along with some others had guessed, but that didn't lessen the shock.

Having received this news early in the evening, Harry, previously settled down in his library to read a book, went to his room instead, staying in there for the rest of the evening, thinking about the situation without any of his maids to witness it.

Was this a natural occurrence, or was it a sabotage from someone who had found out? Had Jasmine's been caused by the same perpetrator, or was this just a coincidence?

It could mean that there was a threat to himself, and any possible children he had, in the harem, and the thought that all of his plans could come crashing down before he even had a chance to enact them worried him.

At the current time, he had a middling standing in the harem, and only a tentatively close relationship with the Emperor to keep him in his position. He needed more powerful allies, and Jasmine and Erin's children would have created them into those strong allies, as unfortunate as he felt to use the women and their children to make his standing more secure.

They were his friends, if he could even call them that, but his life and family mattered more.

Now, that plan was gone, and his only hope was Regulus, with his steady presence as a block between Harry and Bellatrix, and Penny, who was surely soon to be a Consort within the next couple of months, for the time being.

He hoped nothing drastic would happen in the meanwhile.

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16th January- Friday

The next day marked the start of the one-week of mourning, so Harry stayed within the walls of his part of the palace, his maids somberly drifting around like ghosts, all still shocked about the sudden news to begin their usual gossiping.

All apart for two of them.

"I heard the lady was screaming at her maids this morning, the Eunuch who brought over the fresh linen told me he had witnessed it himself."

"Well, the lady must have been shocked, Noble Erin hadn't told her a thing about being pregnant!"

"I know, how impudent of her! The lady is fair and would have ensured that she would have gotten the correct treatment for her delicate condition. Perhaps, then, she wouldn't have lost yet another child. Such a shame for his Majesty."

Harry frowned at their disturbance of the peace, and at the contents of their conversation. Who were they, to gossip about a woman who had lost her child?