Risk // Sebastian Sallow

ALTERNATE ENDING

Olive looked down and found a tiny, squirming and screaming baby on the cold damp floor.

"N... no, no... shhh." She whispered, the first words to come out of her mouth since the day she arrived in prison.

She didn't recognise it, it didn't sound like what she thought she sounded like before.

Olive scooped up the baby and held it close, realising that Baby Sallow was a baby girl.

"Yeah, it's been born."

That was another voice.

It wasn't Olive's.

It certainly wasn't the babys... was it? Babies couldn't talk, Olive thought.

The cell door opened and two large men walked in with blankets and without a word, walked right up to Olive.

One of the guards, the taller of the two, spoke in a gruff tone. "The baby needs to be taken. We can't have infants in Azkaban."

Olive clutched Baby Sallow protectively to her chest, her eyes flickering between the guards and the newborn. "No. Mine," she protested weakly.

The second guard, seemingly unmoved by Olive's plea, reached for the baby. Olive recoiled, a desperate maternal instinct taking over. "Please," she implored, tears streaming down her dirt-streaked face.

But her attempts to keep Baby Sallow with her were futile. She was weak and tired and she remembered this is what they said would happen.

Maybe it was for the best.

So she let her go.

With a heavy heart, Olive relinquished her grip on Baby Sallow as the guard took the newborn from her arms. The infant's cries echoed in the cold cell as the guard carefully wrapped her in a blanket, obscuring her tiny face from view.

Once Baby Sallow was sufficiently warm and settled, the guards left, the cell door slamming closed behind her like nothing happened, so she slipped her blood-stained pants back on and crawled onto her cot.

Baby Sallow was escorted straight onto a boat amongst the choppy waters as they headed back to the mainland to hand over the baby.

To the unsuspecting, grieving husband who was still forced to slave away at the Ministry of Magic despite the sentence his wife was serving under them. He needed to stay an Auror. Just in case.

Sebastian was bored, flicking through papers at his desk when there was a gentle knock at the door to the office.

"Yeah." He said without so much as raising an eyebrow.

"Mr. Sallow?"

Sebastian didn't recognise that voice.

He glanced up from the paperwork, his expression now pure annoyance. "What?"

The door creaked open, and a witch stepped in, carrying a bundle in her arms.

"I have someone for you." She said, extending her arms and holding out the baby.

Sebastian's eyes widened and he jumped up from his seat quickly. "I—what? Is this..."

"Olive gave birth."

The witch was casual. Too casual. It annoyed Sebastian even more.

"In Azkaban? They let her give birth there?" He said, scooping the baby from her arms immediately.

"Yes, Mr. Sallow. Those were the conditions of her incarceration."

"This is fucking barbaric! Where do you draw the line!? My newborn baby has been subjected to Dementors, things they don't even let most adults do!"