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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Harriet ignored the low cramps that began in her belly as she and Severus returned home with their children.
She even managed to tuck both Maggie and Little Sev into bed before she climbed into her nest with a ragged sigh.
"My love, what's the matter?.....Are you in pain?" Severus asked as he gently rubbed low, soothing circles into Harriet's back while she sobbed into the closest pillow.
A soft groan came from her throat as the incorrectly-brewed potion sent her empty womb into tight, gut-wrenching squeezes.
"Sev........." Harriet whispered as she lifted her head from the pillow to speak.
Severus scowled as he listened to Harriet suck in a sharp breath.
Under his palms, her robes dampened with sweat as she struggled through the pain.
"I........." She gasped, "I......."
"If you're unable to speak, may I read your thoughts?" Severus asked.
His tone was sharp but his eyes were soft with worry as he frowned at his mate.
"I.....I've done something I shouldn't have." Harriet sighed.
She had been exposed by her own mistake.
Realizing that something must have gone wrong during the potion's brewing, Harriet knew it was only a matter of time before Severus discovered the truth.
If he invaded her mind, she wouldn't be able to conceal her memories of buying the ingredients or making the potion and he would surely-
"I bought some larindonan legumes." Harriet confessed.
Severus's frown turned into a scowl.
".......I beg your pardon?" He drawled.
"I bought them!....And I brewed it........The fertility potion.....A fertility potion, anyway." Harriet breathed.
Severus's mouth fell open for a moment before he asked, ".........Have you taken it?"
"Yes....." Harriet confessed in a shuddering gasp as the pain sharpened, "Yes, I have! I did! T-This evening, I.....I wanted us to-"
"-How much did you swallow?" Severus asked urgently.
He prioritized his wife's physical health over any emotions as a thousand unspeakable fears flooded his mind.
There had been good reason why Hogwarts offered no instruction to its students on fertility potions.
Severus knew that every year, dozens of women ended up dead as a result of consuming those mixtures.
"The.....The vial is in my robes, my old school robes." Harriet whispered as she pointed towards the closet, "The clerk at the apothecary.....She never said it'd be this painful!"
Severus glanced at the closet before he leapt from the bed and swooped over to throw open the door.
Before Harriet could turn her head, her mate had already retrieved the empty glass vial, uncapped it, and breathed in the clues offered by its scant remains.
"Sev.......it hurts!" Harriet cried, "G-Give me something!"
"Pain Potion will do no good in this instance." Severus wisely determined.
Harriet could hear the anxiousness in his voice.
As he watched his wife suffer through the effects of her own awry plan, he discarded the vial, walked over, and gently helped her get comfortable on the pillows.
"Allow me to reverse this and remove it from your body, won't you, my love? I can ease your pains faster than a healer, though I will gladly summon one at your request." Severus frowned.
"No, please, anything!" Harriet cried as she writhed on the bed and held her cramping abdomen, "Make it stop, Sev! Make it stop!"
Severus frowned as he gently laid Harriet's head back on the pillow and removed his wand from his pocket.
She gazed up at him with her emerald eyes wide and her brow furrowed from pain as he laid the tip of his wand against her tensing lower belly.
It wasn't often that Severus sang, in fact, Harriet couldn't remember a time when she had ever heard anything remotely like a song leave his lips since she had struck Draco with Sectumsempra in her sixth year.
Severus had thought Harriet had lingered in the lavatory that day out of guilt.
Really, she had stayed to hear the enrapturing melody of his velvet voice as he murmured the harmonious incantation to aid her wounded enemy.
As Harriet gazed at her alpha while she lay on the bed that night, a similar melody issued from his throat while he whispered a healing spell.
From the tip of his wand, a calming blue light wrapped around Harriet's lower abdomen.
Her chest heaved as she struggled to breathe against the pain while she listened to the melodic song her alpha whispered.
As the blue light encircled her body for a few moments, Severus watched while Harriet closed her eyes and settled once the pain finally eased.
His heart lifted as he watched her visibly relax and close her eyes.
Harriet sighed at the restful sensation she experienced that replicated the comfort of a warm blanket being pulled up to her chest.
Slowly, the danger of the erroneous fertility potion vanished as Severus ended his song in one last, low breath.
The blue light withdrew itself from Harriet and receded into his wand's tip.
Severus frowned as he looked at his mate and silently hoped his attempt would prove to be as successful as it had seemed.
When Harriet opened her emerald eyes to give him a soft smile, he sighed audibly as he clutched her hand in his.
"Sev......." She whispered, "You stopped the pain."
"You no longer suffer, my love?" Severus asked with great concern as he frowned at Harriet.
"No, the cramps are gone, the ache is gone, it's all gone." Harriet yawned as she stretched herself languidly.
Severus's black eyes glimmered as Harriet smiled up at him while she spoke, "........And I have you to thank."
"You've wounded me." Severus replied as he forced himself not to give into the tempting seduction offered by his mate as she waited to be pulled into his arms.
Harriet frowned while he went on, "Did I not warn you about the dangers of the risk you took? And yet, still, you defied me, disobeyed me......You even had the audacity to purchase the ingredients, brew the mixture, and swallow it! How would you have expected me or the children to go on if that wretched concoction had ended your life?!" Severus spat.
"Sev, I......" Harriet reached out, but Severus turned away from her.
A remorseful frown manifested on her face as she explained, "I......I never meant to hurt you. Yes, I heard what you said about the dangers, but I don't think you listened to me."
Severus scowled at Harriet as he glanced over his shoulder.
"I'm desperate." She confessed with a mirthless chuckle, "You know it, Sev. I'm sure you can read my thoughts and see, if you haven't been able to tell from my words....I'd do anything to give you another baby! Anything!"
Severus narrowed his dark eyes to slits as he bent down so they were nose to nose as he glared at her and hissed, "Including gambling with your own....life?!"
"Yes!" Harriet cried with a defiant frown, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I would! That's how badly I want to carry another one of your pups, Severus Snape! I-"
Severus cut her off, "-How am I supposed to protect you if you won't allow me?! You are my mate, my omega and-"
"-And I'm tired of being empty!" Harriet furiously snapped, "Yes, I am an omega! Yours, actually! I'm tired of seeing all the other women with their hands on their bellies while my body betrays me! Do you have any idea what I've gone through these last years?! Then all of a sudden, a solution arrives and you won't let me near it! Yes, I heard your warning and yes, I bought the legumes! The apothecary clerk herself used them to conceive, why shouldn't I?!"
Severus softened his expression as Harriet gnashed her teeth.
The heartbreak evident on his wife's face filled his heart with sadness as he took her hands.
"I never meant to hurt you, Sev." Harriet sighed as she lowered her head for a second. She sniffed as she raised her chin, looked at her husband and spoke, "I thought it might be a rather nice surprise, you know, if it would work. You wouldn't be expecting it and then I could tell you....."
"My love." Severus whispered as he rubbed the back of Harriet's knuckled with his fingers.
".......Then I could tell you....." Harriet tried to say as her voice trailed off while she shut her eyes.
Severus leaned in and pressed his forehead against Harriet's.
"I'm sorry." She whispered as Severus kissed her lips softly.
While Severus was still displeased, he mercifully bore his anguished wife no grudges as he moved to press a much more languid kiss against her lips.
Harriet sighed as she enjoyed the comforting embrace of her alpha while she wound a hand into his hair to stroke his scalp with her fingers as he bathed her in affection.
Their gentle kiss lasted a moment too long.
As Severus's hands slid over Harriet's waist, they found themselves tumbling backwards on the bed until Harriet's back touched the soft mattress.
"Take me, Sev." She whispered as her alpha pulled back to look at her.
In her elegant robes from the party with her dark hair fanned behind her and her emerald eyes half-lidded, Severus was powerless to refuse his wanton omega.
"Take me like we know it'll work this time." Harriet implored him with a bittersweet smile.
"Oh, my love......" Severus sighed as he bent down and nuzzled into Harriet's neck, "Oh, my love................"
She gasped as his lips found the most sensitive spot on her throat before he moved down to her collarbone.
He tugged gently on the bodice of her robes, eager to reach her breasts, though he had no intention of rushing their lovemaking.
Harriet closed her eyes and sighed as she imagined exactly how Severus would claim her as he began to consume her with his gentle, skillful touches.
Ashamed of herself, Harriet entertained the fantasy that the potion still remained inside her, that after that night, she'd be an expectant mother once more.
Neither Harriet nor Severus realized the magical removal of the potion from her body had not negated the amount her system had already absorbed during the hours beforehand.