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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Mother Hen laid against Father Raven while she endured her first contraction, which was sudden but mercifully brief.
When Severus felt the rigidity start to ease from Harriet's belly he whispered with confidence, "Relax, Potter.......It's ending now."
"It wasn't that bad." Harriet said with a courageous nod after the spasm completely resolved, "Sorry, that wasn't unbearable, I was just......I was just surprised."
"I wasn't." Severus replied in his low, smooth voice, "You've been acting odd all day and your scent is far too sweet. Come, I need to get you back to bed and send for the specialist."
Harriet knew that she was trembling from nervousness more than anything else, but that didn't stop her from shaking slightly as she clutched onto Severus, with her arm draped around his neck, and let him escort her to her nest.
Once Harriet was situated comfortably on the soft blankets, Severus glided to a corner of her room and cast a summoning charm to call her healthcare provider.
Father Raven wouldn't have left Mother Hen's side for anything, not even if wild thestrals had come charging through the door and made an attempt to drag him away.
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"Y-Yeah........that's another one." Harriet bravely whispered.
She kept one hand on her aching side and clutched Severus's fingers with her other as the specialist examined her tensing belly.
Half an hour had passed since the first pain had struck.
The specialist was soothing and calm as she examined her patient.
Harriet swallowed anxiously and blinked up at the ceiling as Severus stared down at her worriedly.
"Excellent!" The specialist cheerily chirped after the pain ebbed away and the tension melted from Harriet's face.
The chipper enthusiasm in her voice made Harriet want to gnash her teeth.
Severus looked at the specialist with anguish on his pale face before the woman smiled and kindly informed the couple, "Your little one will be with us soon! Miss Potter, try to stay as relaxed as you can right now. I can linger or I can come back later? Most first time mothers tend to have a lengthier dealing with the process."
"But she is in labour!" Severus cried, his teeth grit as he reasoned, "You can't leave her like this! She's your patient! It's your job to-"
"-I'd prefer you to stay." Harriet cut in to silence Severus's outrage with a reply to the specialist.
Father Raven grimaced at Mother Hen but she just squeezed his hand in silent reassurance.
"Mr. Snape, I said that I'd be glad to stay." The specialist reminded the nervous, expectant father with an understanding smile before she looked over at Harriet and nodded, "I'll be here the entire time then, Miss Potter. For now, though, the most important thing is for you to be calm and comfortable. Distractions are helpful during the early stages......Is there anything that you'd prefer to do?"
"Actually," Harriet said as she passed a hand over her face. She enjoyed the warm covers around herself as she spoke, "I'd like to go back to sleep."
"Very well then." The specialist nodded, "If it's alright with you, I'll go downstairs and make some tea. Mr. Snape, if she wants you to join her in the nest, you're more than welcome too. Call for me whenever you need me and I'll come."
"Shouldn't we get her to your office?" Severus asked, "Or the hospital?"
The specialist looked at Severus and blinked as she replied, "Miss Potter and her baby have done extremely well these last few months. I can't identify any current risks that would make it dangerous to stay here for the birth. I assure you, sir, there's nothing I can do at my office that I can't do here. Besides, many omegas despise hospitals. If it's Miss Potter's wish to transfer, we certainly can, but she may prefer the comfort of her home and her nest at a time like this. Miss Potter," the specialist asked as she looked at Harriet, "Where would you like to be?"
"Please.........I just want to go to sleep right now." Harriet repeated with a yawn.
"Then try to get some rest. " The specialist nodded with a smile before she stood and left the room.
Severus glanced down at Harriet with his brow furrowed in worry as she pulled him down beside herself and closed her eyes.
Harriet began to drift off to sleep, but Severus remained wide awake.
How could he possibly rest when he knew what was to come?
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Attempting to get some sleep before fledgling's arrival proved to be more of a frustration than a success for Mother Hen.
She was terribly drowsy, but every time she managed to doze, another irritating pain radiated through her abdomen and shook her awake.
Once Harriet was able to completely relax after a contraction and make herself comfortable, she would close her eyes, fall into a void of dreamless sleep again..........then another pain would strike.
Severus was beside her the entire time.
He tried to provide gentle support without being in the way, which was more difficult than it sounded as Harriet clawed her way around her nest while she tossed and turned.
After Harriet spent a couple of hours fighting herself, in the middle of yet another aggravating spasm, she put a hand up to her forehead and hissed, "This isn't working!"
"Shall we try changing activities?" Severus asked quietly as he hovered over her.
Father Raven wanted very much to touch Mother Hen's aching belly, but he was frightened that if he did, she may liberate his hand from his wrist.
"I don't know what else to do!" Harriet sighed in desperate vexation, "Am I supposed to sit and stare at the walls?!"
"We could play a game of chess." Severus suggested as Harriet blinked up at him.
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By the time that Severus and Harriet sat at the table in her bedroom, deeply engaged in a match of wizard's chess, her contractions were coming regularly every twenty minutes.
The pain had increased but Harriet remained able to chat with Severus through each one, barely.
Severus watched her concentrate on the game and it gave him hope that by allowing her body to do some of the work without the hindrance of her mind, she may have a fairly easy delivery.
Every time Harriet tensed and put a hand on her womb, Severus stared at her worriedly until she managed to whisper to him, "I'm fine, I'm fine.......it's your turn."
Harriet would nod at the board and Severus would make his move, but as soon as he had finished sliding the chess pieces around, he resumed his diligent study of Harriet.
The specialist came in every hour to check her patient's progress.
As morning melted into afternoon, Severus began to worry.
Father Raven didn't want fledgling's arrival to evolve into a terribly lengthy affair for Mother Hen.
The hours slowly passed by and outside, the winter twilight signaled the approach of nighttime.
Severus was in the middle of his turn when his thoughts were called away.
He saw Harriet hunch over, staring at something only she could see as she clamped a hand to her belly, ten minutes after her previous pain.
"Potter?" Severus asked worriedly as he watched the color drain from her face.
"T-This one's worse....." Harriet gasped as a gentle whimper escaped her throat.
Her green eyes met Severus's black stare and he saw the startled fear in her gaze.
Father Raven frowned in grim concern when Mother Hen laid her head back against her chair and groaned, "T-This one's worse! Ohhhh!.....OHHHH!"
Father Raven immediately leapt from his seat and crouched in front of Mother Hen.
Gently, Severus rubbed Harriet's quivering tummy while he guided her on how to breathe.
Once the pain ended at last, Harriet let Severus help her stand to her feet.
As she leaned against her alpha and clumsily reached out to the table for added support, she accidentally knocked one of the chess pieces off of the board.
Severus paid little attention to the pawn as it clattered to the floor.
Their game was over.
Mother Hen had a lot of work ahead of herself.
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As the silver moon beamed down over the blanket of snow across Hogsmeade, fledgling seemed to accelerate their journey into the world.
Severus was surprisingly adept at helping a partner in active labour.
When Harriet's pains increased to the point where she became nonverbal, Severus used a moderate form of legilimency to gently peek inside her mind and discover her wants and needs.
From backs rub, to the steadiness that she received by clinging to his shoulders, to his deep, velvety voice coaching her through the vice-like grip of contractions as she entered transition, Father Raven's stoic support was as imperative to Mother Hen while she fought to hatch their fledgling as it had been during her battle against the Dark Lord.
After a night of walking and rolling, keening and weeping, Harriet ended up back in her nest.
"If you've ever cared about me at all...if you've ever cared about anyone......LET ME PUSH!" Harriet wailed from where she rested against a mound of pillows on her bed.
Severus was there with Harriet, holding one of her thighs in one hand and letting her clutch his other as the specialist crouched between her legs.
Severus let go of Harriet's slick fingers for a moment to reach over and pull the cool, wet rag from the bowl of cold water on the nightstand as she panted for breath.
Gently, Father Raven blotted the perspiration from Mother Hen's forehead and chest.
Across the room, her harmony ball necklace lay on top of the dresser.
That was the first day it had gone unworn in Harriet's possession.
Severus glanced from the specialist, who was working between Harriet's thighs to free the umbilical cord from the slowly emerging head, to Harriet's face that was twisted in a horrible grimace, with her eyes tightly shut.
"Breathe..... breathe.....look at me, Potter, look.....at.....me!" Severus tenderly but firmly commanded her.
Harriet sobbed in a dry, cracking gasp, but her eyes snapped open and she gazed up at Severus with tears streaming down her flushed cheeks.
Severus's heart ached in sympathy for Harriet as he stared down at her with his brow furrowed and a tense expression of determination on his face.
Outside the window, the sun was rising.
More than a full day had passed since Mother Hen's pains with fledgling had begun.
Severus could see the exhaustion in Harriet's emerald eyes.
He could hear the defeat in each heavy, gasping breath that she drew.
The specialist had allowed Severus to give Harriet a few doses of pain potion, but there was a low limit to how much of the substance an expectant mother could safely consume.
Harriet had reached that limit hours ago and the pain potion's effects had worn off shortly afterwards.
"Potter, look at me....." Severus commanded again.
His voice was full of warm gentleness but its rumbling tones remained authoritative to give Harriet direction.
She helplessly stared up at the alpha holding her hand as he instructed her, "Breathe through your mouth.....There, that's the method. Bear it a moment longer and-"
"Go ahead and push Miss Potter!" The specialist declared over Severus once she had safely prepared mother and baby.
The hardest part for Severus about Harriet's labour was the sound.
In his life, he had heard the cries of so many people as they met their end.
That's what the pained omega's groans reminded Severus of, the wails of the dying, not to mention that he hated to see her suffer.........
The noises that Harriet had made over the last day were nothing compared to the deep, guttural growl that left her chest and bubbled in her throat as she bent forward, tucked her chin to her chest, and pushed.
"NNNNNGGGHHH!"
Severus looked from Harriet's face, past her rigid belly, all the way down to her center just in time to watch fledgling slip into the world.
"Well done!" Severus praised Harriet absently as he watched in awestruck horror as fledgling's tiny head glided into the midwife's hands, followed by shoulders...... hips.......
Harriet fell back and panted for breath as the midwife placed the squirming baby on her chest, wrapped loosely in a towel.
Severus's black eyes were wide as he looked reverently at Harriet and the newborn that she held in her weakened arms.
His newborn.
Their newborn.
"Congratulations!" The specialist beamed, "You two have a beautiful new daughter!"
Harriet sobbed tears of triumph as she clutched her little one close and gazed at her baby girl.
The infant stared back and cried right along with her mother.
Severus's heart tightened with paralyzing fear and swelled with inexplicable joy as he gazed at Harriet and the baby.
He longed for the moment when he would be able to hold his newborn, but at the same time, he wished that he could look at that unbridled display of pure love forever.
It was done.
Fledgling had hatched in Mother Hen's nest.
Father Raven officially had a....had a......family.