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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Tom Riddle's diary remained hidden amongst Harriet's belongings as the last honey-sweet weeks of that lovely summer drifted by.
Severus woke early one morning from a delightful dream with his left hand full of something that felt buttery soft.
He cracked his black eyes open and noticed that Lily laid half on his chest, half on the bed.
In her fitful sleep, her nightdress had slipped off of her shoulder and Severus had managed to gently grasp her naked breast in his palm.
He drew in a breath as he respectfully let go of his wife, but she spoke to him in a deep sigh with her eyes still closed, "No, Sev, don't stop."
Severus blinked in surprise as he studied the anguished frown of tension on Lily's pale face.
"My love.....?" He asked as he obediently cupped her warm breast in his hand, ".......Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Lily whispered as she cracked her brilliant, green eyes open to blink at him with a pout on her face, "Kiss me, won't you?"
Severus's breath hitched as he closed his eyes and moved to meet Lily's lips with his own.
It was as gentle as it was intimate while they clutched onto each other under the sheets.
As the sun rose in the late summer sky, Severus and Lily indulged themselves by reminding one another about the great love they shared.
Despite the sweet sentiment that had permeated their pleasurable endeavors, Severus couldn't help but frown at the way Lily kept her eyes closed as she lay on his chest during the moments immediately after their coupling.
"Lily.....?" Severus asked. Instead of pressing his wife with more empty questions, he phrased his inquiry as an order that he hoped she wouldn't ignore, "Tell me what's the matter."
".......I'm trying not to vomit." Lily whispered under her breath.
Severus gently slipped her off of his shoulder as he sat up with a scowl and exclaimed, "Lily!.......Are you ill?! Why didn't you mention anything before we-"
"-It's coming in waves, Sev." She sighed as she raised a hand to her head, "The worst of it was when I first woke, then it got a little better, lots better.......now it's all rushing back."
Severus's expression tensed as if he were in great pain as he stared at his darling and studied her closely.
His dark eyes widened as a possibility presented itself while he thought.
"Are your breasts sore?" He asked.
"No......." Lily replied with a sigh. The next statement that fell from her lips acknowledged the quiet fear they both held, ".........Not yet."
She slowly rolled onto her side and pushed herself up with one arm while she laid a hand on her pale face.
Severus frowned as he reached out and began to gently rub soothing circles into her back.
His voice trembled as he dared to ask, "My love, do you think it may be possible-"
"How can that be, Sev?" Lily questioned with a small gasp of exasperation, "After nearly ten years of strict Contraceptive Potion use? I know my cycle, I take a dose every night before bed......You watch me do it!"
Severus bent forward and gently placed a sweet, loving kiss on the side of Lily's cheek before he rose from the bed and went downstairs.
She lamented his abscense for the next ten minutes while she resisted the debilitating urge to lean over and retch onto the floorboards.
Lily groaned softly as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and put her head down in an effort to quell the spiteful nausea that churned her stomach.
She rocked back and forth while she contemplated if she should rise and seek the toilet until the door to the bedroom suddenly swung open before Severus glided back inside.
Lily glanced up and saw the small vial of purple liquid that he carried.
"What's that?" She asked hoarsely.
"Anti-Sickness Potion." Severus replied. As he saw the concern in Lily's eyes, he added quickly, "Don't fret, my love. It's the same formula I gave you when you carried Ellery. Should there be a hidden passenger in your womb, the mixture will cause neither of you any harm."
Lily sighed as Severus sat down beside her and offered her the glass vial.
He frowned as he watched the tension on his wife's face as she shakily took the small vessel, raised it to her lips, and cautiously swallowed its contents.
Lily closed her eyes as Severus clasped one of her clammy hands in his and reassured her in his low drawl, "The feeling will pass in a moment, my love."
"That's not what worries me, Sev." Lily sighed as she opened her eyes and pouted at Severus, "......What are we going to do?"
"The same thing we did with Harriet and Ellery." Severus said very matter-of-factly, "I'll see to it that you stay comfortable in the coming months......And when the day comes for our next son and daughter to enter the world, I'll be beside you as I was with the others, my hand in yours, urging you on."
"But we can't!" Lily cried as she raised her hands, "We can't, Sev! I-"
Severus's eyes widened as he watched his wife's face pale.
Lily reached a shaky arm out as she gripped onto the bed and stood to her feet.
"Lily.......?" Severus asked anxiously.
He watched in shocked horror as her hand flew to her mouth before she dashed into the lavatory.
After she rushed into the small room, she bent down and began to expel her stomach contents into the toilet.
Severus frowned as he crouched behind her, pulled her crimson hair away from her face, and thoughtfully rubbed her back.
In Severus's mind, a pregnancy was the only logical cause that could explain Lily's unfortunate bout of sickness.
Lily gagged as his thoughts raced while he contemplated what adding a third child to their family would mean until he heard another noise from outside the lavatory, somewhere down the hall.
"W-What's that?" Lily asked weakly as she flushed the toilet.
Severus helped her wipe her face before she looked up at him and furrowed her brow at the sound, "Sev?......Go and see what that is, I'm alright for now. I feel a bit better, actually."
"Are you certain?" Severus asked.
"Yes." Lily nodded as she leaned against the wall of the nearby bathtub and nodded, "Go on......."
Severus pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before he swept out of the bathroom and down the hall.
His dark eyes narrowed to slits as he heard the sounds of vomiting echo through the hallway.
Severus dashed across the narrow corridor and threw open the door to the first small bathroom on his left.
His black eyes widened at the sight that greeted him.
"Dad......" Harriet croaked from where she sat huddled over the toilet.
"......I'll return in a moment." Severus murmured after he recovered from his shock.
He hastily slammed the door and rushed down the hallway to investigate the third lavatory as the sounds continued.
As he peered inside the third bathroom's cracked door, his dark gaze fell on Ellery who hunched over the toilet while he emptied his stomach too.
Severus sighed as a strange sensation of foreboding relief washed over him.
If Lily bore him a dozen children, he would care for each and every one.
Regardless, another child would have compromised their already precarious situation.
Though the possibility of a third pregnancy had not been officially disproved, Severus took his children's simultaneous illness as a sign that Harriet, Ellery, and Lily had caught the same ailment.
Wizards were not immune to all diseases.
A great many illnesses stalked the magical world, similar to those in muggle society.
Severus spent the next few hours lovingly tending his wife, son, and daughter.
Magic had helped him get clean rags to all of those who suffered in the cottage's lavatories, in addition to cleaning up the mess that came with the illness's violent nature.
By lunchtime though, it had become apparent that whatever calamity had befallen the Snapes failed to abate.
Severus intended to summon a healer.
He swallowed thickly as he took his wand into his hand and prepared to cast a summoning charm.
He lifted his hand.....
He closed his eyes........
A sickly sheen of sweat broke across Severus's green face.
His dark eyes popped open as his wand clattered to the floor.
Without delay, he ran into the lavatory and used Lily's momentary pause to lean over the toilet and vomit.
"Oh, Sev....." Lily sighed as she laid her hand on her husband's shoulder while he finished retching, "It's come for you too, love."
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Severus decided he would call the healer, as soon as he had a moments peace between episodes of his own sickness.
Hours passed.
All four Snapes endured that time in the lavatories of their humble home, too ill to stand.
By that evening, the fevers that accompanied the malady had set in, and having finished the most tumultuous stage of the sickness, Severus and Lily managed to crawl into their bed, where their two children joined them in a haze sometime later.
The family fell into a deep sleep as they shivered and writhed together on the bed.
Severus hadn't been able to call a healer.
He and Ellery were close to dehydration, though Harriet and Lily were not terribly far behind them.
As the family drifted through feverish visions of hideous nightmares, Harriet's teeth chattered.
Voldemort had the worst timing imaginable.
That evening, he called Severus to his side, eager to discuss a secret matter.
At Voldemort's command, the Dark Mark tattoo burned on Severus's skin, but he failed to rouse from his enfeebled sleep.
Irate by his most loyal officer's blatant show of disobedience, Voldemort apparated directly inside the Snapes' cottage a short while later and began to stalk through the darkened rooms in search of his general.
His serpentine eyes widened when he found Severus next to his wife and children, suffering on the bed, their bodies wracked with disease.
Irritation replaced what should have been sympathy in Voldemort's expression as he raised his wand.
Regardless of his previous errors in judgement and the foolishly blind trust he had placed in Severus, Voldemort was a more than capable wizard who could twist and turn the Dark Arts to his personal advantage.
A great cry escaped his lips as he waved his arm at the family.
With one frightening ripple of a black, smoke-like substance that shot from the tip of his wand, Voldemort removed the illness that had entered the house.
As the Snapes' breathing steadied, Voldemort waited patiently at Severus's bedside while he hovered his wand over the family.
Four bright strings of teal green magic slowly snaked from the tip of his wand.
One string of magic attached to Harriet, one to Ellery, one to Lily, er, Laima, and one to Severus.
Voldemort stood still and silent while he used his powerful spell to pump fluid, nutrients, and energy into each of the Snapes.
Once their bodies had been restored to a healthy state, all four sets of eyes opened as Laima, Severus, Harriet, and Ellery returned to consciousness.
Severus sat up first and blinked at his dark master in disbelief.
Lily followed him, before Harriet and Ellery did the same, chatting with their mother as happy, grateful smiles manifested on their faces, which they cast at Voldemort.
"My lord......" Severus nodded as he slid from the bed and bowed at Voldemort's feet, "Thank you for aiding us......I fear we were dangerously close to our doom......I had sought to call a healer, but I.....I failed before my own exhaustion set in."
"A healer is of little use when you have me, Severus." Voldemort chuckled darkly, "Why did you not send for me immediately? It is of the utmost importance to me that you and your family remain alive and well......so that you may be better servants to my cause."
"Thank you, my lord." Severus nodded as he bowed his head.
"Thank you, my lord." Lily echoed as she nodded too, along with Harriet and Ellery.
Voldemort smirked as he readily absorbed their grateful groveling like a greedy sponge.
"On your feet, Severus." He huffed with a wave of his arm, "Bella wrote to me this evening about an urgent matter I wish to discuss with you right away."
"Of course, my lord." Severus nodded while he deftly rose to his feet.
As Voldemort led him out of the room, Severus glanced over his shoulder at Lily.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Snape contemplated how fortunate they had been that night, for once, to be posing as Voldemort's loyal servants.
Despite the fact that his ultimate goal was to end Harriet's life, that particular evening, Voldemort had saved the entire Snape family.