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Coming of Age (Female Potter)	By : stargazer67 Category: HP Canon Characters paired with Original Characters > Het - Male/Female Views: 11694 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Some weeks later, Ron and Hermione are close to finding another Horcrux at the school, the Ravenclaw Diadem; and Dumbledore tells Snape that he must steal back the Sword of Gryffindor from them so they cannot destroy it yet when they do locate it.
Snape asks why, and Dumbledore tells him that Evie’s pregnancy means the final showdown between her and Voldemort must be delayed - they don’t want to attract any more of Voldemort’s attention than necessary right now. Snape assumes that it’s merely because she’s pregnant and would not be at her best if trying to protect her child as well as herself; Dumbledore has not yet given him the final, terrible secret about that showdown.

As Evie’s delivery date nears, she contacts the same midwife again, and Snape arranges to have McGonagall take another leave of absence to impersonate him while he stays at Grimmauld Place around the clock.
Evie delivers him a son, and the joy on his face as his son is placed into his arms is greater even than Sirius’s was. He holds his son carefully, as if he might break at the slightest movement; and asks Evie if they can name him Albus Phineas. Evie smiles and says she thinks that’s very appropriate. The midwife also tells them before she departs that Remus and Tonks have had a healthy son, Teddy.
Severus proves himself a devoted, loving father – anytime he is there, he is holding Albus, changing him, even singing to him softly. Albus seems completely fascinated by Severus and especially captivated by his voice; even when he’s fussy he will still stop and listen whenever Severus speaks. Evie is amused by this, apparently it’s not just intimidated Hogwarts students that he can command so easily with his voice, without ever needing to raise it. She wonders if she can ask Arthur Weasley if he has a Muggle tape recorder she can borrow, there have been a few days it would have come in handy.
Evie is proud of Severus; she wasn’t really sure how active a role he’d take with a baby despite that he did want it so much, nor how much he’d bond with one this early on. She had half-figured that he might not be quite as involved until Albus’s personality began to develop a bit more, but he’d surprised her by his immediate devotion and she loves him all the more for it. She wishes that all this was over, so she could marry him and they could build a life together with the twins.

The next half-year or so actually proceeds fairly quietly; not much happens on either side. Dumbledore had a lot to do with that; he’d had a feeling early on that because of Voldemort’s belief in the twin-core issue with his own wand, that he’d seek the Elder Wand before engaging in another confrontation. Even before going to retrieve the Horcrux in the cave, Dumbledore had set in motion an elaborate shell game with Gellert Grindelwald’s location, breaking him out of Nurmengard and enlisting both Durmstrang and Beauxbaton’s help in moving him around and hiding him.
Dumbledore knew that only Grindelwald knew where it was (and thus, who had it now), and that eventually Voldemort would discover that and pursue him. Keeping Grindelwald’s trail alive but always a few steps ahead would slow Voldemort down while making him think he was always just on the brink of discovery; giving them more time to find and destroy Horcruxes.
And apparently it’s still working quite well. Dumbledore would just have someone retrieve the wand from his crypt and destroy it at this point, but he’s counting on the fact that Voldemort doesn’t understand it well enough (and never will) to be able to make full use of it even when he actually does obtain it; and thus will have a false sense of confidence in it that he wouldn’t have with another wand.
Snape and Evie have enjoyed the quiet as well, enjoying each other and son Albus. Snape has also appreciated Voldemort’s long absence for another reason; he has no trouble keeping other Death Eaters out of his mind, but he’s still afraid that having opened himself so completely to Evie could have left a chink in his mental armor that Voldemort could find and exploit if he’s forced to be around him too often.

Voldemort eventually gets much closer to finding Grindelwald, and McGonagall gets a coded warning from Madame Maxime when Albus is around ten months old; and they know they’re fast running out of time. Evie says she needs to rejoin Ron and Hermione in the hunt for the last Horcruxes – they haven’t found Hufflepuff’s goblet yet (nor are they completely sure that it is a Horcrux; without Evie’s sensitivity to them they can only guess), nor have they been able to destroy the Ravenclaw Diadem since they haven’t had the sword.
She says confidently, “I’ve already arranged to leave Albus with Remus and Tonks. When they can get a message to Ted and Andromeda they’ll come and get him.”
Snape does not want her to go, and is affronted that she’s made arrangements even before talking to him; and they have their first real argument.
“So am I to understand that I have no say in this? I am Albus’s father, but I guess you didn’t feel it was important enough to consult me on.”
“You know it’s not like that; I just knew that we didn’t have any other choice, and assumed you’d see that for yourself without needing to be told.”
“We do have a choice, Evie. You don’t have to go. Despite whatever doubts I may have displayed about Ron’s abilities or Hermione’s insufferable know-it-all tendencies while you all were at school, I have every confidence that they can manage this without you. They have so far.”
“But they haven’t, Severus. They’re kind of at a standstill at this point, and we’re running out of time.”
“So you have to go running to save the day, I understand. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything different.”
Finally, as they are glaring at one another in angry silence, Snape crumbles and comes to her. He reaches to take her hand but she’s still angry and pulls it back. He says, “Evie, please…”, and reaches for her hand again, and this time she lets him take it.
He says, “I am sorry. I just don’t want to lose you, Evie. You mean everything to me, and I cannot protect you where you are going; and that is going to be hard to live with. And I’m even just being a little selfish; I don’t want you to be out of reach, nor Albus either. I don’t want to not have that to look forward to at the end of my day, seeing both of you, holding both of you in my arms. I’ve gotten far too used to it.”
She begins to cry and stammers out, “I’m sorry too, and I love you, so much…” before her throat closes up and she can’t speak.
He caresses her face and says, “I will miss you both, more than you can possibly imagine. Just remember that my heart will be with you, always; even if my body is not.” He pulls her close and she sobs against his chest.
After a long sleepless night, cycling between holding one another and making love, and a tearful parting the next morning, Evie catches up with Ron and Hermione. The two of them have clearly become a couple during her long absence from them, and the tales they have to relate keep them from inquiring too closely about what she’s been up to herself. At night, she misses Severus fiercely – both in a physical way, and an emotional one. She wonders how he’s holding up.

During the search, they end up having to make a side trip back to Grimmauld Place; and it’s tough for her, seeing all those rooms without Severus or Albus in them. On impulse before they leave, Evie grabs Phineas’s portrait and shoves it into Hermione’s bag. Ron asks what they want that for, and Evie says – he can spy into Hogwarts for us if we need it. She doesn’t add that he can also pass messages to Severus for her…
She doesn’t really get any opportunities to talk to Phineas unobserved, but it’s a comfort to her that he can at least tell Severus that she is all right; and she also knows that if anything happened to Severus, Phineas would find a way to tell her even if it meant giving everything away to Ron and Hermione in the process.
And her confirmation that Phineas is passing things along comes when Snape stealthily returns the Sword of Gryffindor to them, and Evie recognizes his Patronus when Ron is telling how he found the sword.
She smiles at the thought that Severus was nearby, and wishes she could have seen him just for a few moments. But, she realizes that was probably why he waited until Ron was the only one awake, because he couldn’t trust either of them to just make it a ‘few moments’ together, and it would have made it harder to continue to be separated, for both of them.
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Coming of Age (Female Potter)