The Purple Blankets: A Snarry Tale

Chapter 15 - The Midwife's News

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Harriet's knuckles were milk white as she leaned over the toilet and heaved up what little was left in her stomach from the previous night.

".........Mummy?" Albus blinked behind her as he stood in the bathroom doorway and watched worriedly. The bright light of midmorning streamed into the bathroom around him, reflected from the hallway window.

"Mummy's fine, sweetheart." Harriet choked hoarsely as she spit the last of her vomit from her lips.

Down the hallway, Harriet heard Lily cooing in her crib.

Harriet flushed the toilet and cleaned herself off before she turned around to look at Albus with a wry smile of reassurance.

"Mummy's alright. Come on darling, I'll make your breakfast." Harriet promised Albus as she laid a hand on his small back and led him away from the bathroom.

Harriet knew it wouldn't be long before she'd be back over the toilet so she wanted to move quickly.

On the first day of her illness, she had convinced herself that her symptoms were the result of eating something spoiled. The following day, when her ailment continued, she was sure that she had contracted an intestinal infection.

After a week passed though, and Harriet's daily nausea didn't abate, she resigned herself to the grim possibility that her spontaneous heat hadn't simply been a good time that she and Severus had shared.

Harriet was hiding away from Severus until she was certain. She was fortunate enough that her symptoms didn't begin each morning until he had already left for work. She carefully applied scent blockers to cover any hormones that her body tried to release as a signal to her mate.

It nearly made Harriet weep to deconstruct her nest, but to allay her alpha's suspicion, Harriet had no choice. With a heavy heart, she packed away the purple blankets that Severus had bought for her and folded the rest of the soft things of which the place she felt safest was composed.

Harriet had gone out of her way to hide what she feared was another pregnancy.

She and Severus hadn't discussed the possibility of having any more children. If she had conceived again, what if he became angry at the news? Or disappointed?

Harriet wasn't even going to mention her potential condition to her husband until she knew if it was factual or not.

"We're going to see the midwife today, Mummy?" Albus asked as he ate his breakfast a few minutes later while Lily sat at her high chair and wriggled her tiny feet.

"That's right, darling." Harriet said as a metallic taste flooded her mouth again, "But remember, you can't tell Daddy, alright?"

"Why?" Albus asked. He blinked in confusion as he waited for his mother to detail her reasoning for the secrecy she asked of him.

"Because it's going to be a surprise, from Mummy." Harriet croaked before she dashed out of the kitchen and raced down the short hallway into the powder room to wretch over the toilet once more.

Severus didn't have enough anti-nausea potion in supply for Harriet to take some without him noticing it had gone missing.

It was a difficult chore to hide something, anything, from Severus Snape, but Harriet was doing her best.

Harriet groaned as her stomach finally settled and she sighed to herself.

She silently hoped that she did have some easily explained, gastrointestinal issue and there was no real surprise for Albus's daddy after all.