"We have to get to the hospital," Hermione cried. She squeezed Theo's hand so hard he felt his bones grind together and she let out another scream of pain that tore through Theo like a bullet. "ROSE IS NOT OKAY!" she yelled. "THE HOSPITAL!"
"We can't," Theo said, his heart racing as he looked up and knew Severus had to understand the same thing. Hermione had been laying down during the meeting, Theo had planned on filling her in afterward. "If we go to St Mungo's…"
"We risk your arrest or the seizure of your daughter," Severus said bluntly. "I cannot apparate you to a muggle hospital as we risk a fatal injury through splinching."
"And Severus can do more than a muggle doctor," Theo assured Hermione before looking up at Severus, that still growing pool of blood always in the corner of his eye. "Right?"
"Correct," Severus said calmly. "Miss Granger, I am going to have to remove your clothes and Lupin will need to assist me."
Almost as if his name conjured the man, Lupin burst through the door in time with a heavy black bag that Theo knew carried Severus' medical supplies.
"What can I do?" Lupin asked Severus immediately.
"GET ROSE OUT!" Hermione screamed at them. "SOMETHING IS WRONG! SHE IS- SHE'S—" Hermione cut off with a scream followed by a sob. "She's- she's dying, Theo, I just know it," she wailed. "Hurry."
Severus gave Hermione a steady look as he magically conjured a curtain to block the bedroom doorway and vanished Hermione's soft leggings and Theo's shirt she wore.
"Nobody is dying today."
***
Someone was dying today.
Susan ignored the chaos happening upstairs, intent on her current job.
There was a traitor in their house, in their home, and Harry was counting on Susan to take care of it.
"Go help your brother," she had told Harry when he slid in the dining room and gave her a wide eyed look of panic after Hermione screamed. "I have never let you down and I won't now."
As soon as she sent Harry off, she ran through the short list of her most likely suspects. It was short, two names more likely than all the others-
Johnny. Sky Monty.
Harry might not trust many people, and Susan only trusted Snape with Harry's safety, but…
But the Weasley boys would not allow one another to go in the Ministry if they knew there was a risk of immediate death by Timmy. They simply would not. And if Susan knew anything about Narcissa Malfoy, it was that she loved her son and hated crop tops, so why would she give Timmy information then let Draco go on a mission for Harry with Harry's gang?
Narcissa wouldn't risk Draco. Bill wouldn't risk Fleur or Ron. Fleur wouldn't risk Bill. George wouldn't risk Fred.
So, while they stayed on the list, they were lower on Susan's personal list.
Johnny had no one, he cared about no one. He was the adopted child of drug addicts who cut himself off from others.
Sky had no one, she cared about her freedom only. She was the orphaned wolf child who was adopted by a pack of werewolves.
Susan bypassed her boys talking in the kitchen with stressed expressions and eyes that kept flicking toward the ceiling where Hermione's screams could be heard. Susan was scared for her friend just as they were, but Susan had to focus on her job first.
Everyone's safety depended on Susan getting it right on the first try, before the traitor had time to suspect they were caught and tried to take someone else down with them.
"Charlie…" Susan moved to Charlie's side, interrupting the conversation he was having with Sirius in the dining room. She took a brief second to appreciate his physique, then she leaned up to whisper in his ear, masking the move as a kiss to his cheek, "Do you trust me?"
Charlie, brilliant man he was, didn't answer out loud, he merely nodded.
"I adore you," Susan breathed. "I need you to laugh and tell me 'no, go away'."
Charlie chuckled, loud and deep. "Not a chance, go away, Susan," he said, perfectly hiding any confusion he may have had over her queer demand.
Susan truly did peck his cheek then and then turned away from him, scoffing and flicking her ponytail and feigning utter indifference as she locked eyes with Johnny where he was seated at the head of table.
Susan smirked and raised a brow, she tilted her head toward the office, a silent invite that they used to excel at when they were in school together.
Johnny's eyes lit up and he got to his feet with a lazy stretch of his back, always looking half-feline and ready to pounce.
Johnny shot a smirk at Charlie as Susan led him toward the office, her hips swaying slowly, his eyes glued to her as if she were the only person of importance in his world.
***
Theo's eyes were glued to Hermione, the only person of importance in his world, while Severus began pulling potion vials out of his bag.
"Theodore, let go of her so I can diagnose her," Severus snapped, shaking Theo from his terrified reverie.
Theo immediately let go of Hermione, feeling as if it were a mistake the second he lost contact with her, and watched as a parchment appeared in Severus' hands and numbers popped up above Hermione's abdomen, flashing too quickly for Theo to understand their meaning.
Everything was happening so quickly, it was a blur of words and movements, and Theo understood none of it except for Hermione's screams.
***
Everything happened quickly.
Susan slammed Johnny against the office door, their lips already entangled, and waved her wand at her side, silencing the room.
"Naughty girl," Johnny murmured as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it toward one of the green chairs in the room. He flexed his hips against Susan's, "What's wrong, babe, Charlie wouldn't help you scratch an itch?"
Susan made a show of backing up and slowly pulling her jumper over her head, she took her tank top off with her jumper, distracting Johnny with her bare chest as she so slowly, so carefully, did what she needed to do.
She stalked over to Johnny with her top off and placed her mouth on his, scratching her nails down his chest, eliciting a gasp from him that gave her the opening to pour some of the Veritaserum from her mouth to his. She slammed one hand over his nose, kept her mouth on his, and held her golden hand over his throat, forcing him to reflexively swallow.
"The fuck was that, Susan?" he gasped when Susan pulled back.
Susan flexed her fingers on his throat and smiled so terribly sweetly.
"It's nothing personal," she told him, "but did you betray our group?"
***
Narcissa ran in the room, her face pale and her wand brandished. "Do you not require assistance, Severus?"
Severus turned and jammed his wand in Narcissa's neck before Theo could even blink. "Did you betray the group?" he snarled.
Narcissa drew herself up to full height. "I vow on my magic and my life that I most certainly did not."
Whatever odd interaction that was, it seemed to satisfy Severus.
"Assist me," he snapped. "I believe it was a uterine rupture. If you are lying to me or hinder me in any way, Narcissa, I will slit your throat in front of your son."
"Theo," Hermione cried. "Please, our daughter… she's- something is—" Hermione screamed again, her back arching up off the bed, then she went silent and limp.
"HERMIONE!" Theo slapped her cheek. "HERMIONE! LOVE! WAKE UP!"
"She is unconscious, not dead," Severus told him. He shed his robes and placed the tip of his wand just beneath Hermione's belly button. "Lupin, stun her, she cannot move while I make the incision."
"Theo, talk to her," Narcissa said as she raised her wand and stood beside Severus. "Keep her calm, we cannot give her potions until we can visualize her stomach and assess any internal damage."
Theo couldn't talk, he was so seized by fear. Luckily, his brother was there, right beside Theo in the most terrifying moment of his life, with his hand on Theo's back.
"Hey, Mione," Harry spoke softly and gently, "this is going to hurt like hell, but it's for Rosie. We have to save Rosie, keep her safe, that's what you want, yeah?"
Severus began cutting slowly, precisely, and Hermione's facial muscles twitched in what had to be utter agony even through the spell Lupin placed on her.
***
Johnny's facial muscles twitched, trying to fight through the Veritaserum.
Susan tightened her fingers just enough to remind him where her hand was without impeding his ability to respond.
"Yes," he finally gasped.
Susan felt a twist in her chest, relief at being right, disappointment at being right.
"Why?" she asked him, leaning her body against his, keeping him trapped against the door.
Johnny's entire body twitched. "Why what?"
Susan scoffed and then bit his earlobe hard. "Don't play word games, darling, it's petty. Why did you tell the Minister of Magic about our plan?"
Johnny's voice was turning raspy when he finally responded. "He found my parents," he rasped out. "You- you know I've always looked for them."
Susan wasn't unsympathetic to his plight, but she didn't condone it either.
It was blood in, blood out.
And Johnny was out.
***
There was so much blood pouring out of Hermione as Severus cut and Harry talked.
"Mione, remember when we were twelve and you got petrified? Sev took care of you then, didn't he? And he will now too. It's going to be okay."
Theo looked away from Hermione to where Severus was cutting and felt his head spin, his body flashed with heat, and he was certain he was going to faint.
"You'll kill her," he groaned quietly. He had to shut his eyes to make everything stop spinning.
"It has to be this way to get the baby and repair the damage," Narcissa murmured. "Miss Granger and I will have similar scars, Theo."
It wasn't closing his eyes that stopping the spinning, it was the knowledge that Narcissa had her son cut from her body and survived.
"Hear that, Mione? You're going to wake up with a brill new scar and a daughter."
Theo's lips curled up and he opened his eyes to smile at Hermione. "You're going to wake up to a daughter, love," he said, awestruck.
"Lupin, are you able to take the infant? I am about to cut the uterine wall. Narcissa, be ready with blood replenishers."
"You cannot replace the blood until we repair the damage, if you spell it into her stomach it will spill in the rest of her body. We have to wait until the tears are repaired."
"If we wait until the tears are repaired, she will bleed out. She has already lost too much blood."
Theo must have made a sound of absolute misery, because Harry suddenly had his arm right around Theo's waist, pulling him to his side.
"Hermione isn't going to die," Harry whispered confidently.
***
"I hope finding your parents was worth it," Susan told Johnny coolly. "Because now you're going to die."
Johnny didn't beg, he probably couldn't as Susan slowly put more pressure on his throat.
It was… almost surreal.
Susan wondered if Johnny's lungs were burning, trying desperately to get air that she was blocking. Were his ears ringing like hers were? Would his face just continue to turn blue or would it go pale soon?
"Does it hurt, darling?" Susan asked him softly, curious. "Are you regretting betraying us? Trading information like you used to cigarettes? You should have kept your mouth shut, Johnny."
***
It was… almost surreal.
Severus sliced his wand tip down Hermione's abdomen and the suddenly the focus of the room was on the tiny, so tiny Theo didn't know people could be so little, body being lifted from the bloody mess that used to be Hermione's stomach.
"APGAR four," Severus yelled. Narcissa looked toward Theo, but Theo was stunned as he stared at the still and silent infant. Narcissa moved her wand, severing the baby's last tie to its mother, and Severus handed the baby to Lupin.
"Theo, stay with Mione, I'm going to check on Rosie," Harry murmured before the comforting arm around Theo's waist disappeared and the numbers above Hermione went haywire.
"She isn't breathing!" Narcissa yelled. "Severus, she's suffocating!"
"How?!" Severus snarled.
Theo knew how.
He knew that all his crimes, all his wrongs, were coming back now.
The baby was dead- babies were meant to cry when they were ripped from their mother's, that's what all the books said.
And Hermione… Theo smoothed the hair out of her colorless face… Hermione was dying.
It was karma. It was Theo's fault.
***
"This is karma," Susan told Johnny, applying hard pressure to his windpipe and then releasing it. "This is your fault, Johnny. Harry would have helped you find your parents, if you asked him. Where are they now? Did your precious Timmy kill them?"
Johnny shook his head and Susan pulled her hand back enough so he could speak, though she kept her body pushed against his so he couldn't move.
"I did," he said, his voice wrecked."Lovely," Susan murmured. She squeezed her golden fingers hard, causing Johnny to ineffectively kick out at her. "You understand revenge then, don't you, darling?"
Johnny couldn't nod, but if he killed the parents who abandoned him, left him behind in their addiction, then he understood how some wrongs could only be resolved through death.
Susan tilted her head to his mouth, listening for his breathing to begin slowing, his lungs to give out entirely.
***
"Narcissa, get her on a ventilator! Her lungs cannot keep up with the strain!"
"THEO! She's going to be okay!"
Harry was an idiot.
Hermione was dying.
Narcissa put a mask on her, and Theo heard the whoosh of air being forced in Hermione's lungs.
"Baby, please, please," Theo moaned, clutching at every bit of Hermione that he could. "Please, baby. Fight."
"THEO!"
Theo couldn't look away from Hermione, he had to memorize every eyelash on her eyes, every dark freckle on her nose that only appeared in the summer…
Then there was a cry, loud and high pitched.
Hermione's baby, the baby she wanted so badly, the baby Theo had been willing to get rid of, was crying.
Their baby.
"Wake up, love," Theo sobbed. "Please, baby, please. Wake up and meet your daughter."
Above the noise of the cries of Hermione's daughter came a beeping that seemed to match Theo's heart rate in tempo.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
"Get back," Narcissa snapped, not unkindly, but briskly. "She's going into shock, I need you to get away."
"Get away," Theo repeated, dazed and his attention now focused on the blood staining Hermione's body and the bed beneath her.
A pair of strong arms abruptly grabbed his shoulders, pulling him backwards against them.
"APGAR score of seven, Severus!" Lupin yelled.
"What's a perfect score?" Harry asked.
"Ten," Severus said. "Narcissa, why is the bleeding not slowing?! I repaired the uterine wall, but her heart is giving out!"
"It's tore through her abdominal walls, she is bleeding internally. Her body cannot handle the strain."
Theo was going to lose Hermione and the baby both.
"Sev's going to save them," Harry whispered. He sank to the floor, pulling Theo with him, and leaned them both back against the wall. "Mione can't die. Rosie is going to be fine. They're survivors too, Theo."
Theo shook his head, his eyes watching Hermione's face as it contorted in pain even through the heavy droughts Severus spelled in her once the baby was out.
Harry was wrong.
Everyone could die.
***
Everyone could die.
So many good people died, people who should still be there, but their numbers were called and they were taken.
Johnny presented his number the instant he traded their secrets for his own purposes.
Susan watched dispassionately as Johnny struggled to breathe. His eyes bulged up at the ceiling, his face began rapidly turning red.
"It's a shame," Susan murmured. She leaned against his body, nostalgic at the times they had been in that exact pose for much more pleasurable reasons, and placed her mouth beside his ear so he had no choice but to hear her. "You were my first, and I'll always remember it fondly, but now? Now you'll be the first person to die at my hands. Don't get it twisted though, darling, it might be my hand on your throat, but it was your choice that put it there."
She leaned back so he could see her amused grin. "And you can believe me, as I took the same Veritaserum you did, Johnny dearest."
Susan placed a tender kiss just below his ear, feeling his pulse racing beneath her lips, then pulled back to see Johnny had closed his eyes, hidden his those ice blue eyes that once interested her so much, and the desperate chokes for air were diminishing.
He didn't have long, Susan just held pressure and waited.
***
She didn't have long and Theo was trapped in a nightmare watching Hermione struggle to breathe even with the ventilated mask Narcissa had on her.
He could hear Hermione's daughter crying somewhere, her cries thin and pathetic and sad, did she know her mother was dying? Did she know she was going to be stuck with just Theo? Theo who would never be Hermione? Theo who could never replace her mother?
Theo who was useless as he watched Severus and Narcissa work to keep Hermione's life from escaping her.
Was this Theo's punishment? Was this his karma for taking a life? A life for a life. Theo took Dolores Umbridge's and now he was going to lose Hermione.
He'd rather it were him.
He killed Umbridge.
He stood by and let Harry kill his father. Asked him to, even.
Theo was the one who fought in battles with death in his every movement.
Theo was the one who deserved to die a painful death, not Hermione.
Hermione was everything good about the world.
She was brilliant, beautiful, loving, and… and she was Theo's first and only everything. She was meant to be a mother who could teach Theo how to be a father.
Theo saw Hermione's face go slack, the pain rushing from her body and leaving her limp, and he knew.
"Lupin, the baby," Severus said. He touched Narcissa's arm and shook his head. "Cover her and leave. Give them this moment."
Severus knew and Theo knew.
"Theodore."
Theo looked from Hermione's beautiful face to Severus' solemn one.
"No, please…" Theo whispered. "Please, please."
He didn't know what he was begging for, but he knew the look of pity in Severus' eyes meant he wasn't going to get it.
"Come," Severus said. He held his hand out to Theo. "Sit with her, Theo."
Theo couldn't.
He couldn't put himself through the pain.
He had no idea he could feel so much pain.
***
Susan thought she would feel more pain.
She worried that she might feel badly about taking Johnny's life. She wondered what kind of person it made her that she didn't feel badly at all.
Susan looked Johnny over, from the pot leaf tattoo on his shoulder, down his chiseled and bare chest, dotted with scars from the fights he used to get in, and then back up to his lax face and she felt nothing at all.
She felt numb and she embraced it.
***
Theo felt a numbness spread through him when he moved to Hermione's side and he embraced it.
He heard the cries of their daughter, her daughter, as she laid in the crook of her mother's arm, he saw the way Hermione's chest rose and fell as the mask forced air in her lungs.
And he just felt numb.
Theo smoothed back Hermione's dark curls from her forehead, memorizing the feel of the texture beneath his fingers as he knew he would never feel it again.
"I love you," he whispered. "I've loved you for so long. All- all I have for you is love, Hermione. Don't leave me, please, baby, please. Please."
Theo thought maybe his most desperate wish was being granted; Hermione opened her eyes and looked over at him.
***
Johnny had just enough life left in him to open his eyes and look at Susan.
His eyes were cold, filled with hate, and Susan smiled winningly at him.
She leaned down so she could hear the weak whispers coming from his mouth.
"B-bitch," he said.
Susan pulled back and clicked her tongue at him and squeezed his throat harder, impatient now for it to be over.
"You never should have tried to sell us out," she said softly. "I'll remember though that your last word was 'bitch', darling. And when I think of you, something I doubt I'll do often, I'll remember that the last thing you ever did was call me a bitch."
The hate in Johnny's eyes dimmed- the very life inside him dimmed- and they flickered once, twice, thrice.
A soft pant of air left his lips and Jonathan Abbott was gone.
***
Hermione's lips were moving beneath the mask, tiny movements, nearly indistinguishable.
"It's alright," Severus said. Theo hadn't noticed him, his attention solely on his best friend, but Severus stood on the other side of Hermione's bed and held the baby in place. He reached over with one hand and wandlessly vanished the mask on Hermione's face. Severus hesitated and then brushed a gentle hand on Hermione's cheek. "There, speak now, Hermione."
"Th… Theo…"
Theo swallowed back his tears and his heartbreak and the endless abyss of misery that he was facing.
"I'm here, love, I'm here," he said thickly. He stroked her hair softly and stared in her brown eyes that were usually so warm and filled with intelligence. "I'm here."
"R-Rose?" she whispered.
"She's here," Theo assured her. He moved one of her hands stained with her own blood to the baby's head. "She's- she's fine. Healthy," he lied. "You did good, love, so good."
Hermione looked away from Theo, leaving him bereft, and stared down at the softly crying baby in her arms.
"Rose," she whispered reverently, a woman worshipping the one true religion. She bent her head, and Severus must have known what she wanted because he lifted the baby to her, and Hermione pressed her lips to the baby's face, leaving behind a blood stained kiss in the center of her forehead.
Her eyes were so filled with love, with life, then they flicked- once, twice, thrice.
"Rose," Hermione whispered again as she laid back against her pillow and closed her eyes.
A soft pant of air left her lips and Hermione Granger was gone.
***
Susan stared at Johnny's blank and soft face and thought about how they first met.
Susan had been young, eager to explore the world of sex and romance. Johnny had been a willing partner, an eager teacher.
She told him from the start that it was only sex, not to get attached.
'I won't love you,' she warned him.
'And I won't love you,' he'd smirked back.
It was an unwritten promise between them.
Johnny broke it, of course, which should have been a red flag even then.
The night before his graduation, the two of them lay in his bed in the Hufflepuff dorms, sweaty, naked, wrapped up around each other, and he whispered ideas to her of running off together and other mad ideas. Ideas of love, of romance, of possibly even marriage one day.
Susan never slept with him again after that.
Even at fifteen Susan knew she would never marry Johnny Abbott, but it was never meant to end this way.
***
Theo knew at fifteen that he would marry Hermione Granger.
He knew that Hermione was it for him. Hermione was his best friend, his soul mate, his perfect match, and his one true love.
Theo planned to ask her to marry him after their daughter was born. They were going to plan a wedding for after the war, before they dedicated their minds and lives to their daughter and their studies.
Now he'd be planning a funeral alone.
It was never meant to end this way.
***
Hermione gasped, her voice echoing in the Hogwarts Library.
"Theo," she whispered. "Theo!"
Theo looked up from the Arithmancy book he was reading, his soft brown eyes sparkling with amusement. "Yes, love? More pickles and lemons?" He stuck his tongue out, causing Hermione to laugh.
"No, come here," she said. She kept one hand on her stomach and held the other one out until Theo got up and moved to her side of the table, kneeling down beside her. "Feel."
Hermione grabbed Theo's hand and slid it beneath her untucked shirt, placing his warm palm right above where their baby was moving. She watched Theo's face until the baby moved again, kicking her stomach, and causing Theo to gasp as well.
"I can feel it!" Theo's eyes were wide and shocked. "Baby, I can feel it!"
"I know!" Hermione was so happy, so incredibly happy and full of love that she thought her heart may burst.
Theo reached up with his spare hand and wiped a tear off Hermione's cheek. "Is it hurting you?"
"No," Hermione said. She let out a half-sob, half-laugh. "I'm sorry, I'm just- I'm just so happy!"
Theo leaned forward until his forehead touched hers. He flexed his hand on her stomach slightly and let out a soft sound.
"I'm so happy too," he whispered. "I love you, Hermione."
"And I love you," Hermione said. She smiled even as the joyful tears spilled down her cheeks. "And I love our little family so much."
"Our family," Theo repeated, his voice sounding wondrous. "I never thought I'd have that."
Hermione's heart ached for her poor lost boy who never got the family he deserved with his parents. She lifted her chin until she could place a soft kiss on the tip of Theo's nose.
"We're your family," she assured him. "Our baby and I will always be your family. We'll always love you, Theo."
***
Theo moved on autopilot. He kept his eyes on Hermione's blank and soft face as he fumbled in his bedside table for the small black box he'd been waiting to present to Hermione for months, for years, really.
He took out Christina Nott's engagement ring and slid it on Hermione's limp left hand, the fourth finger, where he envisioned it resting for her eternity.