Loving Lily: A Snily Story

Chapter 95 - Harriet's Answer

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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Long after the Death Eater meeting was over, the Dark Lord no longer seemed like a formidable enemy as Harriet found herself fighting an entire swarm of adversaries.

Lucius, Ellery, and Narcissa sat on the sofa in the parlor as Severus, Lily, and Draco paced around her.

Voldemort had gone out on a raid with a few of his drunken elite.

Malfoy Manor had been mostly abandoned in his wake.

"What on earth did he mean?!" Draco spat at Harriet, "Have you gone and gotten yourself knocked up? Spent too long lying about with your darling Tom on your 'mission', whatever it is?!"

"That's ridiculous!" Harriet shouted, "Mum! Dad!" She cried as she turned to Severus and Lily.

Severus frowned.

"Sweetheart, are you certain, completely certain, that he......was wrong?" Lily asked with a frown, "It's alright, we'll.....we'll sort it all out, my darling, but you need to tell us."

Harriet scoffed.

"Of course I'm certain!" She cried, "This is ridiculous! You told Tom to teach me and he did! He taught me well! Were my thoughts read tonight?!"

Severus swallowed dryly before he let out a breath and spoke, "It is a waste of everyone's time for you to continue this ridiculous ruse. Perhaps we should take you to a midwife for confirmation......The Dark Lord would have seen the truth in Draco's lie.....if it had been one at all."

Harriet's eyes widened as her father took her by the shoulders and stared into her face as he demanded, "Safety is becoming more and more of a rarity, my daughter, I beg you to tell us.......What....are.....you hiding?"

"Nothing!" Harriet blanched as she roughly shrugged Severus off, "If you don't mind, now that I've gotten this out of the way, I have to go....I....I have to!"

Harriet's face turned into a mask of forlorn melancholy.

The frantic need to escape overwhelmed her as she slipped her wand from her pocket and hurriedly apparated away.

Left to worry in her absence, Severus, Lily, Ellery, and Draco were nearly beside themselves.

Lucius and Narcissa left the room when a noise erupted from down the hallway as Bellatrix let herself back into the mansion in a stomping march to find her sister.

"What is she doing out there?!" Draco hissed at Severus and Lily, "In the woods, all alone with those imbeciles? What are they up to?!"

"Draco, please....." Lily said as she gave him a sensible nod, "She has her friends......She has her snake, she has what she needs. She'll be safe, I have to hope that she will anyway, we all do."

"Is she really-" Draco asked as his voice trailed off.

Lily leaned her head against Severus's chest in weary exhaustion.

His long, black robes billowed as he enfolded her in his comforting grasp while he looked at Draco and nodded, "I am not the Dark Lord, of course, nor do I possess his many talents and frightening skills, yet I sensed nothing when I placed my hands on her shoulders tonight. A single heartbeat, not two. The Dark Lord has been.....troubled.....recently......It seems difficult to imagine, though perhaps he made an error in judgment........Perhaps he could not see the truth itself and instead, believed your lie."

"Please....." Draco frowned, "Isn't there anything you can tell me? You sent me to her once, do it again! I'll gain her trust, report back to you, let you know what's going on! How she's doing!"