Trouble Sleeping

I was inspired to write this after listening to the Talking Heads´ "Stay Up Late"... I was very much reminded of Serpentina´s wonderful story, "From This Day On", and thought a story about the new Snape-to-be was in order. True to Hermione´s wish in the original story, it is a little boy, who looks just like his father Sev. Please read that story before you read this one!

Tina belongs to Serpentina, Eli and Carrie-Anne are mine, and Severus and Hermione belong to J.K. Rowling, as do any other names you recognize from the original books.

Thanks also to Serpentina for the helpful hints.

Trouble Sleeping

"Why´d you wake me up?"

"´Cause there´s something you gotta see!"

"I´m tired."

"Come on, just this once!" Tina rolled her eyes as she watched her friend yawn. "Come on!" She took the other girl´s hand and dragged her along.

"Now shhhhh."

"Why?"

"Because you´ll wake up Mummy and Daddy, that´s why. Now be real quiet," whispered Tina as she stepped in front of the dark wooden door leading to her parents´ bedroom. She lost her grip on her friend´s hand, though, and quickly turned around. "Carrie-Anne?"

Carrie-Anne said nothing.

"Real quiet," said Tina, emphasizing the point with a zipping gesture across her lips. Carrie-Anne repeated the motion and allowed Tina to take her by the hand again.

The hall was nearly pitch black, but Tina led her friend through with remarkable sure-footedness. However, when she came to the slightly open door at the end of the hall, she tentatively pushed it and held her breath. No squeak pierced the air as the door slid further open, and she let out a sigh of relief.

The two girls stepped into a moonlight-bathed room, and Tina, her hand still clasping Carrie-Anne´s, pointed to the crib in the very center of the room. "Eli´s in there and I want you to see him!"

"Eli?"

"My baby brother!"

"When did you get a baby brother?"

"About a year ago."

"How did you get a--" Carrie-Anne was interrupted by the sound of laughter. Loud baby laughter.

"Oh, no," groaned Tina. "He´s awake! Shhh, shhh!" She let go of her friend´s hand and ran over to the side of the crib.

Carrie-Anne caught up with her a few seconds later and pointed to the dangling mobile with five snoring dragons. "I´ve got one of those. Mine has big birds on it, though."

"He´ll wake up Mummy and Daddy, and they´ll punish us," said Tina. "Shhhh!" She clamped her hand over his mouth and pulled away after a moment. He still remained very much awake, but had been reduced to soft giggles.

"Why do you have a baby brother? I don´t," said Carrie-Anne.

"Mummy and Daddy wished for him, because they love each other very much," said Tina, remembering what her Daddy had said. "That´s why they had me, too."

"What about me?" said Carrie-Anne, a little sadly, Tina thought.

"Your Mummy and Daddy had you because they love each other very much too. They just haven´t wished for a sibling for you yet."

"A what?"

"A sibling. A baby brother or baby sister. Hey, don´t do that!" She put her hand between his tiny, grasping hand and the mobile. "If he pulls on the dragons´ tails they´ll wake up too. And then Mummy and Daddy´ll wake up for sure."

"I hope my Mummy and Daddy wish for a baby sister. I don´t like boys."

Tina giggled. "You don´t know what it´s going to be until it´s born. It´s a surprise. Or... if you do the pink and blue spell."

"What´s the pink and blue spell?"

"You point your wand at Mummy, if she gets a blue cloud around her she´s having a boy, if she gets a pink cloud she´s having a girl."

"Can I do that spell?"

"No. But your Daddy can. Eli! Stop!" She moved to push his hand out of the way of the mobile.

"I wanna learn how so I can tell Mummy not to have a boy."

Tina giggled again. "I don´t think your Mummy´d like that. I think she´d want it, girl or boy." She paused and glanced down at her sleeping brother before saying, "Not all boys are bad. Eli isn´t."

Carrie-Anne leaned down for a closer look. "He´s so little."

Eli focused his large, round dark eyes on Carrie-Anne and giggled, as if in fascination that somebody right next to him was talking about him.

"Yes. He had to be in Mummy´s belly first."

"He was in your Mummy´s belly?!"

"Yes. So was I, when I was littler. And so were you."

"Did you come into your Mummy´s belly... because she and Daddy wished for you?"

"Yes. And so did you."

"Wow," said Carrie-Anne, a look of awe and confusion on her face. "My Mummy didn´t say it that way. She said she lay down in a bed and wished for me to come out... and when I did, she was happy."

"That´s what happened with me, too," said Tina. "But before, she wished for you. She had to wish for you so you could get in her belly."

"Mummy´s belly was big and fat then, wasn´t it?" said Carrie-Anne.

"Yes. Mummy looked like this," said Tina, motioning the outline of a large rounded shape on her own belly. "But only for a while."

"Ohhh..." Carrie-Anne looked extremely awed. "What´s his name?"

"He´s got a really long name," said Tina. "I can´t say it, but I can spell it. Mummy showed me how." She took her tiny play wand out of her night-robe pocket and looked around for something to write on. Failing to find any papers or parchment, she fished around in the closet and pulled out a one-piece sleeper suit. She laid it on the floor, and turned her wand upside down--the opposite end contained a handy quill-point-- and began to write. After a few minutes the words Aemilius Elijah Severus Snape appeared on the garment in a childish scrawl.

"Mummy writes a lot faster than I do," she said. She picked up the anointed sleeper suit and held it down inside the crib in front of Eli. "See, Eli? That´s your name!"

"He can´t read," giggled Carrie-Anne.

"Well, maybe, you never know, he´s pretty smart!"

"May I see it?" said Carrie-Anne, and Tina handed the suit to her. "I can´t say that either. And I don´t think I can spell it."

"You´ll learn. They´ll tell you in school." Tina looked at the sitting Eli, still, to her relief, softly giggling; his eyes alight with joy. "You wanna hold him?"

Carrie-Anne looked bewildered. "He´ll cry."

"Oh, he doesn´t cry," said Tina, bending down to pick the baby up. "Not much." She linked her arms around him, putting a hand behind his head, and after getting herself situated she bent back and stood up, keeping a tight hold on him.

"And he´s not that heavy," said Tina. "In a few weeks he´ll be too heavy for me though."

"Let me see! Come closer!" said Carrie-Anne, practically jumping up and down with excitement.

Smiling, Tina sat down and nestled Eli in her lap like a fat cat, running her hand through the wispy black hair that covered his entire head. He opened his mouth to yawn, showing some small teeth and squeezing his already thick black eyebrows.

"He looks just like Daddy," said Tina. "Mummy says he looks like me, but his hair isn´t curly like mine."

"I wanna hold him!" said Carrie-Anne. Tina passed the baby to her friend, saying, "Gentle." Carrie-Anne´s eyes lit up as she shifted Eli in her lap.

"He´s so warm!" she said. "And you´re right, he´s not heavy."

"He´s getting bigger, though. He´s already learned to stand up. And he grabs things a lot... Uh-oh." Carrie-Anne squealed as the baby grabbed a lock of her hair and pulled.

"Eli! Don´t do that," said Tina, taking him out of her friend´s arms. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," said Carrie-Anne, rubbing her head.

"Did it hurt?"

"A little."

"I´d better put him back," said Tina. "He´d better go back to sleep..." She bent down and encircled him with her arms as before, lifting him up. This time, Tina felt more difficulty in lifting him. "Carrie-Anne? Can you help me?"

Carrie-Anne ran over to the other side of the room and brought back a round wastebasket. She turned it upside down and set it on the floor right next to the crib. Tina grunted as she stepped onto the basket and felt the baby start to wiggle.

"Stop it," she said. "Hold still." But Eli did not stop wiggling. Then he began to whimper, and a moment later, to cry; much to Tina´s dismay.

"Shhh! Quiet!"

But Eli did not quiet down, and Tina was helpless to cover his mouth again. To make matters worse, the dragons on the mobile awakened and started hissing.

"You want a toy? A toy will make you quiet!" said Tina, laying him down on the floor and running over to the other side of the room, returning with a large stuffed toy phoenix. Eli grabbed the bird´s wings and pulled, rocking back and forth. He let loose a loud laugh, which further awakened the dragons in his mobile. They made a ruckus, baring their fangs, hissing, growling, screeching and belching fake orange flames.

"Mummy and Daddy´ll wake up!" said Tina, jumping up and running for the door. After shutting it she pulled out her wand again. "Daddy had a spell for making it quiet. Ummm... ummm... Quietus? That´s it! Quietus," she said, pointing her wand at the door.

She ran back to Carrie-Anne. "It´s okay. Mummy and Daddy can´t hear us now."

"But that´s a toy wand."

"I can do a few spells on it."

Eli was now rolling over and over and laughing his little heart out.

"He´s so loud," said Carrie-Anne. "And so naughty. I still think I´ll tell my Mummy not to have a baby brother."

"Baby sisters can be naughty, too," said Tina. "I was naughty when I was littler, sometimes. Mummy and Daddy said so. I used to pull Daddy´s hair a lot."

"Oh--" said Carrie-Anne, and at the worried look on her face Tina said, "But they still loved me, even when I was naughty."

She crawled over and sat in front of Eli, picking up his right foot. "Look at his toes! I think he´s ticklish." She scratched along the bottom of his foot, and Eli laughed harder than ever.

"Hey! You wanna see him in his Quidditch suit?"

"Yeah!" said Carrie-Anne.

Tina placed the baby on the floor in front of Carrie-Anne, and walked over to the closet. She rummaged in the closet for a minute, pulled out a little navy blue Quidditch robe with red and white stripes, and then turned on the torchiere lamp.

"It´s a present from Mummy´s friend Harry. He plays Quidditch."

"Oooh!" said Carrie-Anne, as she began to pull the sleeping-robe off Eli. When he was wearing nothing but his diaper, Tina draped the tiny robe around his shoulders, and buttoned it up.

"He looks so handsome," said Carrie-Anne.

"And now he´s going to play Quidditch," said Tina, laying a toy broomstick on the floor and setting the baby on top of it.

"Where´s the Snitch?" said Carrie-Anne.

"Here it is," said Tina, reaching under the crib and picking up a fluffy yellow stuffed duck. "Here Eli! Get the Snitch!" she said, tossing the duck towards him. Eli picked it up and started to gnaw on it.

"Ew! Gross!" said Carrie-Anne, scrunching up her face.

"Eli! You´re not supposed to eat the Snitch. You´re just supposed to catch it!" said Tina, taking the duck out of his hands and wiping it on the carpet. Eli crawled over to the torchiere lamp and grasped it in both hands. He laughed again as he pulled himself up, trying to stand.

"Uh-oh," said Carrie-Anne, watching the lamp start to rock. "He´s gonna tip it over."

"Eli! Don´t do that!" cried Tina, reaching to pry his hands off the lamp pole. However, she was too eager; her motions caused the lamp to sway even faster.

"It´s gonna fall!" shouted Carrie-Anne. The girls cleared out just in time before the lamp fell with a crash. The dragons on the mobile spitted, growled and spewed their paper flames more angrily than ever. Eli sat in the middle of this chaos, babbling with laughter and blinking his big, black, sparkling eyes with their long black eyelashes.

"ELI! You bad boy. You bad, bad boy!" Tina cried as she ran to pick him up. She carried him back and sat in front of Carrie-Anne, placing him in her lap and shushing him. "Quiet! You´ll wake up Mummy and Daddy!"

"Because otherwise we´d be missing this," said a voice from the doorway.

An adult´s voice.

*****

Tina and Carrie-Anne both gulped and slowly turned their heads in the direction of the door.

"Having a little late-night party, I see," said Severus.

"Carrie-Anne, what are you doing here?" said Hermione.

"I... um, I..." said Carrie-Anne, her face going as red as her hair.

"Having trouble sleeping, Serpentina?" said her father sternly.

"Um... yeah?" said Tina, gulping again. "Yeah. I couldn´t sleep."

"Neither could I," said Carrie-Anne.

"Do you know what time it is?" His eyes bored down at her.

"No."

"It´s almost three in the morning. Three in the morning. What do you mean by waking your brother up at this hour?"

"I didn´t wake him up. He was already awake!"

"So this is his fault?"

"Yes!"

"Hmmm." Severus and Hermione looked at each other before he said, "Well then, what do you mean by waking your friend up at this hour either? Don´t you know that her mother will be worried sick about her?"

"Yes, Tina," said Hermione suddenly. "Her Mummy only came back a few days ago so she could teach Ancient Runes. How do you think she´d feel if she lost Carrie-Anne and couldn´t find her? She might never come back to Hogwarts again, and we´d have to find a whole new teacher."

"Oh..." Tina hung her head down. Then she snapped it up as she remembered. "But... but... I said Quietus!"

"What?" said her mother.

"I said the Quietus spell, so you couldn´t hear. You weren´t supposed to hear! It didn´t work!"

"No, it didn´t work," said her father. "That´s not a spell you can do yet."

"What! Oh..." said Tina, looking down, feeling utterly defeated.

"And were you thinking of getting your brother started on his Quidditch training already?" said Severus. Carrie-Anne giggled. Tina blushed redder.

"Well," said Hermione, reaching down to pick him up. "There will be plenty of time for that when he gets older." She smiled at Eli as she cradled him in her arms, and he giggled back. "Well, he doesn´t seem hungry, Severus."

"Good. It´s such an ungodly hour. So far this child has been very good about not waking up in the middle of the night." He glanced down at his daughter. "Unlike some people."

"What!" said Tina under her father´s still-stern gaze. "I´m not a bad girl!" At that instant, Severus burst out laughing.

"Oh, Tina," he said through chuckles. "I know you´re not a bad girl." He hugged her, then pulled away and assumed a firm expression again. "But I expect to see this room picked up and made exactly the way it was before, and your brother back in his crib, with his night clothes on. If you do this I won´t punish you, but I will be watching, and remember: Everything exactly as it was before."

"Okay."

"And I will take you home," said Hermione, gazing down at Carrie-Anne authoritatively. "I think she´d better go back to her room before Professor Clearwater-Weasley discovers her gone from her bed at three in the morning."

"And calls her husband all the way from the Ministry to join in on the talking-to," said Severus.

"Bye, Tina! See you later!" called Carrie-Anne, being led away by Hermione.

"Bye, Carrie-Anne!" said Tina, waving.

"Now, dear," said her father, standing in the doorway with arms folded. "I´m ready whenever you are."

"Now get to sleep," said Hermione as she tucked Tina into bed and planted a kiss on one cheek. Severus followed with the other cheek.

"If you still can´t sleep, we´ll make you a cup of chamomile tea," said Hermione.

"Why can´t I have one of Daddy´s potions?" grumbled Tina.

"Because you´re too little," said her father. "Sleeping potions are much too strong for young children to take." As he stepped out the door, close on the heels on his wife, he turned around to pull it behind him, leaving a crack for air. "Good night, Tina."

"Good night Daddy. Good night, Mummy," said Tina.

"Good night," said Hermione as she led her husband back through the pitch-black hall into the master bedroom.

As they closed the door behind them and turned on a soft light, Severus said, "Hermione. Did you have a look at this?"

"What?"

Severus produced the written-on sleeper suit from his robes. "Seems her spelling and penmanship is improving."

"Oh, Tina," said Hermione. "I´ll do a quick Erasing Charm." She turned toward the dresser, where her wand was lying.

"I don´t know... now everyone will know this outfit belongs to him. It kind of makes things easier," said Severus, shrugging.

"Oh, Sev..." said Hermione, reaching out a hand to affectionately stroke his cheek. He brought that hand to his lips and placed a kiss on it. Hermione smiled and pulled her husband in for a proper good-night kiss. They pulled away, got under the covers and turned the lights out. Hermione turned on her left side, facing the lamp, and closed her eyes.

Several minutes later she felt a pair of arms snake around her waist and warm breath on the back of her neck.

"Hermione?" He whispered in her ear, running his hands up and down her belly and hips.

"What?"

"I´m having trouble sleeping..."

Hermione turned around and felt her heart palpitate as their lips touched.