Harry Potter and the Alucinor Dicio

Chapter 23 – Mood Swings

The next few weeks slid by in a blur of activity for Harry. Between his advanced training with Lupin and his lessons with Rowen and Dumbledore, Harry barely had time to eat, let alone sleep or relax. He managed to see Hermione when he could, but all of his teachers seemed to be working him harder than before his February break. Harry was up at dawn everyday for physical training and fell into bed each evening after his lessons, exhausted.

His evening lessons with Rowen were his one particularly bright spot of the day, Harry remembered one such lesson, a few days after the Valentine's weekend. Harry had just strolled down to Rowen's quarters, and was waiting for her to answer the door. She jerked it open, flushed, relaxing when she saw it was Harry. She grabbed his sleeve, jerking him inside before shutting the door quickly behind him.

“ Harry! You scared me half to death!” she scolded , before turning to the door and muttering 'Praecipio'. Harry looked at her curiously.

“ What was tha-” he started to ask, but she cut him off.

“ Oh just a warning charm. Let's you know when someone is coming, quite useful actually, we can go over it this evening if you'd like.” she spoke quickly, turning to a table and picking a mug up from it. Lifting the mug to her face, she inhaled deeply. “ I put the charm up so I'll know if Severus is coming back. I swear Harry, he's driving me insane! You can't do this, you shouldn't have that... it's not good for the baby! No coffee, the caffeine is bad for you!” As Rowen spoke she clutched the mug in one hand and stared waving the other like mad, causing some liquid to slosh over the rim. Harry reached over and gently took the mug from her hands.

“ I mean, I can understand the necessity to eat well, and even eat, well, vegetables,” a slight shudder passed through her at the mention of vegetables. “ But no coffee?!!! The man is mad! He doesn't understand, I need the coffee, like, really need it, Harry!” she was starting to get really agitated now, and Harry instinctively placed the mug as far from her as possible. I hope she won't be like this for the next seven months.

“Well, Rowen,” Harry stated calmly, trying to calm her down, “he does just have your best interests at heart. Caffeine really can't be very good for the baby, and you could just switch to decaf..” Harry had no sooner spoken the words when Rowen whirled on him.

“ Decaf?!! DECAF?!!! The crap that's made from is probably worse for the baby than regular coffee! Honestly, you're going turn into one of them as well?! Really , Severus is bad on his own, but Remus was being nice to me yesterday. Remus! Nice! It's like I get pregnant and every male around me forgets who I am! ' Oh Rowen, no coffee for you, it'll affect the baby. Oh here. Have a pint of blood but coffee, well that's just absurd!'' Rowen was shouting at this point. Harry was beginning to really wish Snape'd get home, but it appeared he was on his own.

Without warning, all of the anger seemed to drain out of Rowen and she sat in a chair, looking exhausted. Harry sat opposite her, looking concerned, and a little afraid still.

“ Are you feeling alright, Rowen?” he asked solicitously. She smiled weakly at him.

“ Oh Harry, I am so sorry for that. My moods have been all over the place lately.” she spoke quietly. Poor Snape, thought Harry. “ Merlin, it wouldn't even be this bad if this weren't a hybrid pregnancy. You see Lamia pregnancies only last four months, and wizard ones are the usual nine. Madame Pomfrey is placing a guess that I'll carry for around six months.” she sighed as she spoke, looking into the fire. “ And I'm so worried about the war, Severus, you and Hermione... everyone really. I want to be able to fight, but now I might not, and on top of that I have this baby to worry about.” she trailed off, placing a hand over her abdomen protectively.

“ I don't know how Lily dealt with all of this Harry. She was so brave, bringing you into this world, knowing what might happen.” her eyes filled with tears as she went on. “ I just.. I worry that I'm not strong enough... can I really handle this? Merlin!” she exclaimed as the tears spilled over. “ I can't even control my bloody emotions!” she shouted the last part. Harry watched her warily, as he never was really very good at comforting upset females. So he did the only thing he could think of, and handed her the coffee mug.

Over the next weeks, Harry learned to prepare for lessons with Rowen. He found bringing an offering of chocolate usually worked, especially the chocolate covered coffee beans he had Dobby make for him. She particularly liked those, as they were easy to hide from Severus. Harry felt a bit guilty for aiding and abetting her, especially when Hermione scolded him, but he reasoned to himself, Hermione didn't have to spend three hours every evening locked up with an emotional pregnant woman. Harry tried to look at this as a learning experience for some point, far in the future. Really far, he thought as he had no desire to see an overly moody Hermione, she could be bad enough now.

He was bringing Hermione to one of his lessons one evening in mid March, at Rowen's request, but she had given no indication why. He and Hermione entered Rowen's rooms, making themselves comfortable, as Rowen bustled around. Finally Rowen sat across from the with a small book in front of her.

“ Okay, I asked you to bring Hermione, as Dumbledore felt she would be able to help with this lesson. We will be studying the Protean charm tonight Harry.” she stated. Harry slid a surprised glance at Hermione, remembering that she had mastered this charm last year, and used it for the D.A. Harry greatly missed the D.A. this year, but he had been too preoccupied with his studies and the prophecy to restart it.

“ Alright, so Harry, the Protean charm has many uses, one of which is to disguise things, even yourself. Protean means to change shape or appearance. You can use it on objects of value that you want to keep hidden. So, the trick with the spell is to clearly picture how you want the thing to appear to others. It will always look the same to you, but others will see what you project. So I want you to look at this book and clearly picture an old broken quill. The incantation is Proteus.” Rowen explained. Harry looked up at the end of this speech.

“ But the Protean charm Hermione used was different than that, it changed many objects not just one...” Harry spoke, glancing at Hermione in confusion.

“ Well Harry I used more of an Enchantment than a charm.” she blushed as she spoke. Rowen glanced at her proudly.

“And a damn difficult one might I say! Enchantments of any kind are extremely complex, Hermione. You should be very proud of yourself.” Rowen smiled at her as she spoke.

As Harry practiced the charm Rowen and Hermione discussed the baby and the upcoming wedding. Harry kept hearing snippets of conversation, such as 'simple hand fasting' and 'small ceremony', finally, when he thought he got the charm right he brought the book over to them to see if he had gotten it correct.

“ Very good Harry! You did that very quickly! Now I want you to practice overnight, and we'll try disguising yourself tomorrow. It's a bit more complex.” Rowen laughed as she spoke. “ Oh! But not tomorrow, it'll have to be the day after. I have an appointment with Madame Pomfrey tomorrow. We're going to find out the sex of the baby.”

“ Really? They can tell this soon?” questioned Hermione. “ I'd love to see how they do it!” Hermione spoke excitedly.

“ Well why don't you both come?” Rowen asked. Harry shook his head.

“ I wouldn't feel quite right.. it should be a family thing..” he trailed off.

“ Don't be silly Harry, you are family! Beside, we weren't going to tell you this until later, but you and Hermione will be the Godparents, so that makes you official family at the very least!” Rowen laughed. “ You will do it won't you?” she questioned softly.

“ Of course we will! We're really honored aren't we Harry?” Hermione answered for both of them. Harry nodded enthusiastically after she had spoken. So it was agreed that he and Hermione would meet Rowen and Professor Snape in the hospital wing the next evening.

As they were walking back to the Gryiffindor common room, Harry questioned Hermione about how they could tell the sex of the baby. Hermione, sensing his nervousness, laughed and explained it was a simple spell, nothing graphic. Harry let out a small sigh of relief, finally looking forward to the next night.

The next evening Harry and Hermione traveled hand in hand down to the hospital wing. When they arrived they saw Snape hovering about Rowen, who was sitting in a bed. Rowen was wearing an exasperated look on her face.

“ Well, Poppy could have come to see you! We needn't have walked all the way up here, she could have easily walked across the hall to perform the charm! You shouldn't be overexer-” Snape was saying as Rowen spotted them come in.

“ Oh! Look, Harry and Hermione are here.” she interrupted him loudly, rolling her eyes. “ Glad you could make it!” she bounced on her bed a bit as she spoke. “ I can't wait to see what we're having, then we can start discussing names!” she grinned.

“ What discussion? We'll use a family name, the Snape's always have!” Professor Snape protested. Rowen just rolled her eyes at him, chuckling.

“ Oh yes, and they are such lovely names, Severus!” she spoke sarcastically.

“ Are you implying that you don't like my name?” he asked.

“ No, I'm implying that I don't want my child's name to sound like a hex!” she replied. Harry decided to cut in before it got ugly.

“ Okay, Rowen, Professor! Don't make me send you to separate corners!” Harry chuckled. Snape looked up at this.

“ You know Harry, as I'm not your professor anymore, technically, and you will be my child's godfather, do you think you might start calling me Severus?” he questioned mildly. Harry was startled by this, but realized that Snape.. Severus had been calling him by his first name for a while now.

“ I can try Severus, sir. But it might take some getting used to.” Harry replied. Rowen and Hermione watched this exchange with large smiles on their faces. At that point, Madame Pomfrey came bustling in.

“ Well, a larger crowd than usual, but no matter!” she spoke briskly. “ Ready to see if this is a boy or a girl?” her eyes twinkled as she spoke. In fact, it was one of the first times Harry recollected seeing her demeanor so relaxed. I guess babies are a truly happy occasion, he thought.

Rowen's face reflected absolute excitement, Severus' looked slightly fearful, while Hermione's showed keen interest. Madame Pomfrey instructed Rowen to lay back, stood at the side of her bed.

“ Now just, relax, Rowen dear. It won't hurt at all!” Madame Pomfrey spoke softly. She waved her wand and spoke the words ' Fateor Infantia Sexus!'. Everyone held their breath for a moment waiting for something to happen. Finally a faint pink glow began to surround Rowen's stomach. Rowen simultaneously smiled and burst into tears.

“ Oh a girl! It's a girl! I wanted a girl.” she reached for Severus' hand as she spoke, gripping it fiercely. Harry smiled, as he thought of a little dark haired God daughter. He offered his congratulations, which was echoed by Hermione. They both left the room to give them some privacy, to celebrate.

As they walked down the hall, Harry and Hermione smiled as they heard the arguments floating from the room behind them.

“ You know, Sevilen was my mother's name...”

“ Oh Merlin, Severus! Don't even think about it!”

Harry and Hermione just grinned at each other, exiting the infirmary and planning the rest of his rare evening off.

A/N: Oops, forgot the disclaimer. I don't own him! There! Well, I had my weekend off, hope you guys had a great weekend as well! New chappy, Yay! Don't forget to review! Oh and if you've reviewed previously, I always make it a point to reply to my reviews, signed or unsigned, so if you've left one... check the review page!