Harry blinked, looking at his potions professor in shock. “You ran into them while you were shopping for baby things?” He couldn’t really imagine Snape shopping for baby things at all, but the man had been determined to raise his son himself, so he would have needed to do the shopping and things as well as going to the scans by himself. He couldn’t imagine doing it, in all honesty. He would have wanted the other parent to be there, if he was the one pregnant, and he would have wanted to be there every step of the way for his partner if he or she was pregnant. Granted, his dating life wasn’t the best right now, so he had awhile before he needed to worry about it, but he felt bad that Snape had gone through it all alone.
“I was five months pregnant, and I had a list of baby things I still needed to pick up. I had already browsed the muggle shops, and I planned to do the same to those in the wizarding world,” Severus replied. He planned on comparing the two, seeing where the best quality and the best value lay. He had decided that the child would have a mixture of muggle and wizarding things, not that the baby would have cared one way or the other at first.
Harry nodded, he guessed that would make sense. Snape was a wizard who had, apparently, been raised in the muggle world. It made sense that he would want to use things from both worlds for his son.
“There was a small shop, off the beaten track, that I had heard had good quality clothing for both parents and infants at a reasonable rate. I needed to find clothing that would be acceptable in the muggle world while also accommodating my growing waistline, as well as looking into some of the clothing,” Severus admitted. “What I did not know was that my former partner and his wife knew of the same shop, and had decided to go there to keep away from the press. They planned to keep the pregnancy secret until after it passed fourteen weeks. The owner of the shop respected her customer’s privacy and thus there was little chance of her running to the Prophet with the news.”
Severus browsed the pregnancy section of the shop, looking for clothing that would fit him as he continued to grow and would also tolerate the daily spells cast to hide his growing waistline. At the moment, he had the charms undone, and his black trousers and white dress shirt did little to hide the fact that he was, indeed, pregnant. His black robe did a better job of hiding it, but it was tossed over his arm for the moment as he assembled a few outfits that would be suitable for the muggle world while also being forgiving to his body’s changes.He smiled faintly when he felt the baby moving, pressing his hand to the spot. The child, a boy he had recently learned, was quite active, on the move from morning until night. He seemed to enjoy being spoken to, and Severus, although feeling a bit foolish, had taken to reading his books and potions journals aloud in the evening. He had read that babies enjoyed and were comforted by the sound of their parents’ voices, so he did his best, regardless of how foolish he had felt initially, to read aloud for at least a short time each night, as well as talking to the child when he was alone.
The bell above the door chimed as someone else entered, and Severus paid them no mind, finishing collecting the clothes that he planned to try on, but a too familiar voice, shock evident as he spoke, stopped him.
“Severus?” Lucius Malfoy, when Severus turned to face him, looked much the same as he had the last time they spoke. His robes were still extravagant, and there was nary a hair out of place. He carried a cane now, which he had no doubt was hiding his wand, and his wedding band gleamed on his finger. Beside him was the new Mrs. Malfoy, Narcissa. Her robes were equally extravagant, her hair perfectly coiffed, but she looked a little green still. Morning sickness was apparently still running rampant for her, he mused.
“Hello, Lucius,” Severus replied. “And Mrs. Malfoy, you are looking well.” He hated what had happened, hated that blood was all that separated them, her carrying the Malfoy heir and he carrying a child that would not be acknowledge by its other father, but he had heard that Narcissa was no more happy with this marriage than he was. He did not know the particulars, of course, he had never been one for gossip, but he’d heard that the former Ms. Black had been in a relationship with someone her mother deemed entirely unsuitable, thus the marriage to Lucius had been arranged.
He turned back to his shopping, pleasantries out of the way, but he was stopped by a hand on his arm. Long experience being touched by Lucius was the only reason he hadn’t pulled his wand. He hated when others touched him when his back was turned.
“Severus, the child…is it mine?” Lucius could only estimate, given by how far along he thought Severus was, but he couldn’t understand how the other had gotten pregnant. Unless he had been taking the potion secretly?
“There was a mishap when you retrieved my potions several months ago,” Severus said simply. “I inquired once I discovered the pregnancy, as I did not take the potion myself. As a result, the next time that I shared a bed with a man, I became pregnant.”
It was an out, Lucius realized. Severus didn’t plan to make a fuss, didn’t plan to force him to claim the child. He had made all of the preparations himself and likely would continue to do so, and hadn’t planned to tell him at all. If they hadn’t run into each other now, he possibly would have never known that Severus was pregnant.
“It’s yours, isn’t it?” Narcissa asked, watching Severus go to the back of the store and into one of the dressing rooms. “His child, it’s yours.” She knew that Lucius had been with Severus, just as she had been with another before their marriage. Neither of them were able to choose their spouse, to marry for love, as that was simply not done. They were told who they would marry, and they either accepted it or were disowned.
“It is,” Lucius admitted, moving with Narcissa to look at baby clothes. She had enough robes and dresses for now, she simply had wanted to see about things for their child.
“We could set up an account for him. Your father would believe that it is because he is going to be our son’s godfather,” Narcissa pointed out. She believed the child would be a boy, simply because it had been a few generations since there had been a female born to the Malfoy family.
“If he notices,” Lucius added. Abraxas’ health was slowly declining, a bad case of dragon pox shortly after the wedding had left him weak. Lucius didn’t think that his father had much time left. If the man lived long enough to see his grandson’s third birthday, Lucius would be surprised.
“Still, I doubt that Severus is able to work much at present,” Narcissa mused, picking up an outfit that was a brilliant emerald green. “He can use it to buy things for the child, or for himself. Children can be expensive.” That was one thing that neither she nor Lucius needed to worry about, the Malfoys had more than enough money and Lucius was a smart investor.
“If we can convince him to accept it, perhaps that would be for the best,” Lucius mused, watching Severus emerge from the dressing rooms and move to pay. The man was stubborn and proud, but Lucius had years of subtly giving Severus gifts even though the younger man hated when he was in someone’s debt. He had no doubt that they would be able to work something out, regardless of how stubborn he knew Severus Snape could be.