Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.



In exchange for a lengthy weekend off, Emily had a complex work schedule the next week at St. Mungo's. Hope had been long abed in her room in the house on Spinner's End Monday night when Severus looked up from his desk to see his wife come through the Floo from the hospital. Without looking at him, Emily walked around the coffee table and landed on the couch, watching the fire with a bemused expression on her face.

“Emily?”

She didn't answer. Severus had seen that face before, but wasn't sure when. An old memory bit at the edges of his mind. “Emily, what happened?”

She waved her hand. “Some fool on the way to the Janus Thickey Ward hit me with a mild Stinging Jinx. It's no big deal.”

Severus dropped his quill and moved over to the couch, where he started examining his wife to assess her injury. “Are you all right? Was it serious?”

Emily shook her head. “Not in the least. They did a thorough exam on me anyway. It was a slow night. Severus...” She looked up at him then and he suddenly recalled the memory was of an evening in the park and now knew what she was going to say. He smiled encouragingly.

“I'm going to have a baby. After all this time, I'm pregnant. Is that okay with you?”

In response he pulled her into his lap and folded her into his arms. “Oh, Emily, you fill me with such delight. Nothing could make me happier.” He released her to kiss her face. “My dear, dear love. How is it possible? It doesn't matter. Are you hungry?”

She shook her head. “Just tired. Do you mind if I go to bed?”

“Not in the least. Come to bed, my pregnant wife. You can go right to sleep.”

“Well, I might not be quite that tired.”

“No?”

“I might want to celebrate.”

“Let me close up down here and I'll accommodate you.”

Severus saw her to the stairs and then carefully put away his quill and notes. He walked through the downstairs of the home, dousing lights and making sure all was ready for the night. Hardly believing the good fortune that had struck his family, he leaped up the stairs two at a time.

Emily was sitting in the middle of their bed, wearing a nightgown of teal blue lace. It was one of their favorites, in which the colors of their school Houses were blended. She had brushed out her hair, just a little longer than the shoulder length that she had worn it as a student at Hogwarts. In this light she looked as innocent and young as one of his seventh year students.

“It seems a shame that I have impregnated a mere child such as yourself,” he said.

“I'm no child,” she said. “I have a teenage daughter.”

He shook his head. “It's impossible. It seems like it was just the other day that you propositioned me and I decided I had to look after your virtue. How can it have happened that we have been married all of this time? Now you tell me we have conceived a third child. I tell you that it's just not possible.”

Severus removed his boots, robe and pants as he was speaking. He laid them all aside and then joined Emily on the bed. He slid his fingers through the satin of her hair and kissed her. He explored her entire mouth and then kissed her face. His hands tangled in her hair and cupped her head as he held it and his lips trailed along her hairline, following his whim.

When he tired of that, he kissed her throat, moving his hands to caress and then hold her shoulders. His thumb traced a pattern that his lips followed along her collar bone, sliding the strap of the nightgown out of the way as he went. After his lips explored the one shoulder, he started with the other collar bone and did the same.

He kissed the exposed portions of her upper bosom and then leaned back to admire her. He hadn't noticed it, but there was indeed a new fullness to her figure. He looked into her face and saw a touch of apprehension and smiled with his passion. “Beautiful,” he said as he leaned over to caress her again.

Emily sighed as her husband used his thumbs to slide the straps of the gown down her arms and the gown itself down her body. Where before she had been tired, Emily was now completely energized, eager for her husband's body to join with her own. She started unbuttoning his shirt and touched what she could reach underneath it.

“Will I ever get enough of you, Emily? I don't think it can happen,” Severus said. He knelt next to her lower belly and kissed where there the fullness was starting to show. He moved up to kiss her lips as he shed the remainder of his clothing. They soon came together and Severus couldn't decide between kissing Emily and staring into her eyes as they moved with each other. There was no rush and they savored the moment, eventually bringing each other complete delight.

Emily smiled luxuriously. “You are a magnificent lover.”

“You don't know that. Neither of us has ever been with anyone else.”

“I don't need to know anyone else. I can't imagine anything better than what we share.”

He rolled onto his side, never looking away from her eyes. “Have you told your mother yet?”

She shook her head. “I wanted you to know first. The other Healers might tell her, of course. Unprofessional, but there are no secrets at St. Mungo's.”

“When should we tell Hope?”

“I don't think we should wake her up with it now.”

“Would you like to tell her tomorrow?”

“Do you honestly think we would be able to not tell her?” Emily moved her hand through Severus's hair. “I am so completely in love with you.”

He took her hand and kissed it, nibbling on her fingers. “So when will this miracle child be born?”

“They think around the first of March.”

“When did we conceive, then?” He wasn't sure if he needed to ask.

“My last cycle was in May, so it was probably right around that night when Sirius escaped, when we made love all night. That timing matches the measurements they took. I knew it was right to stay up like we did. If I had to pick a night to conceive a baby, I would choose a night like that.”

“It was certainly a night of miracles, you know. A man my age shouldn't be able to do that, not that many times.”

“I thought we established that a quite powerful wizard was in the room that night.”

“Only because the most lovable witch in the world was in the room with him that night. I think if I was dying and you walked into the room I would pull you down beside me so that I could have your sweet body one last time.”

“I'm only lovable because you treat me the way you do.”

They debated delightfully about who was more loving until Emily's stomach growled.

“Ah, my pregnant wife is hungry after all.”

“It's all this extra exertion,” she said, slyly.

---

Severus woke the next morning to see Emily standing before the mirror, looking at her body. “You're beautiful.”

She turned and smiled. “You're biased.” She looked back in the mirror, running her hands along her figure. “I'm wondering how I missed it. With Hope and Marcus I noticed almost immediately that something was different and I knew I'd missed my cycle so I got tested for pregnancy right away. Lately, I assumed I couldn't get pregnant. I didn't want to trouble you with my worries and wishes, and I know you have been working very hard not to worry me with your disappointment, too, so I'd been ignoring my cycles. I completely ignored the fact that I missed two of them, getting close to three. I thought I was just getting middle aged and fat. Thank goodness for robes.”

“How did you know that I wanted more children so badly?”

Emily smiled tenderly. “You look at babies the same way I do, and I've seen the way you look at some of your students, as if you wished they were your own sons and daughters.”

“I have no secrets from you, then.” His scowl didn't go all the way to his eyes.

She looked at herself in the mirror again and patted her tummy. “Definitely getting chubby.”

“You're not chubby, you're lush and fertile.” Severus got out of bed and came up behind her. He pressed against her back, allowing her to notice that his ardor was rising, and put his hands on the roundness just below her middle. “This isn't fat, it's life. Our child, created through our love.”

He brought her back to the bed where they explored each other's bodies again. Very quickly they found themselves entwined together. They started moving slowly at first but with increasing intensity until they both were gasping for breath and glowing with love for each other.

End Notes: Some of you were expecting that, I think. You may now shower me with "I told you so."

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