Two Old Friends

Chapter 16

"You were an asshole, too," Adriana decides.

"Aw, thanks," I reply sarcastically.

"You most definitely could have treated that whole thing with a little bit more grace," Adriana continues.

"And you could have seen it from my perspective, also," I tell her. She rolls her eyes.

"The damage was done and we had to take care of it properly, not like it was something inconvenient and you could easily throw away," she says snootily.

"It was something inconvenient. I, for one, wanted to do something with my life and then, if I wanted children when I did something with my life, have a child."

"What would you have done with your life?"

"I don't know, that's the thing. If it weren't for you and your insistence on keeping the child, then I might have become something other than a bitter Potions Master at Hogwarts," I explain. Adriana raises her eyebrows.

"So, you're blaming me for what you did with your life?"

"No, I'm blaming your lack of perspective."

"You do know that when we were apart and when the Dark Lord fell that you had every chance to do something, right? And that you could have very easily gotten out of Hogwarts and done something with your life, instead of sitting back where you were comfortable?"

"Yes, you're right, but being the immature prick that I am, I am still blaming your lack of perspective," I say. She glares at me.

"I can very well blame you for what little I did in my life. If it weren't for you and your habit of knocking me up then maybe I wouldn't have sat back where it was comfortable for me, either," she argues. I shrug.

"That may be very well," I agree. "I'm tired of fighting, Adriana. We've done much too much of it and I don't want to start up this argument, it's too late to do anything about it."

"Well, you should have thought about that before you insisted I got an abortion," she says sulkily.

"You're raving, you know that, right?"

~*~

I dreaded the idea of having another child. It wasn't the idea of having my spawn running around, it was the idea of having a child at the age of twenty. I had one job and was barely able to afford the ground I was living on. It was the idea of living up to what I've been told all my life, that I'd never grow up to be anything. I'd be nothing but a cowardly Death Eater with a child I never wanted and the mother of the said child I would probably stop loving well before I finally die.

Thank the lord that the latter attempted to change. I'm not going to say that I ever truly loved Adriana in the full sense of the word before Joshua was born (and I definitely won't say it about after he was born), but we at the very least were able to be mature enough to try and amend it.

"Severus," Adriana said one stony cold and silent evening.

"What?" I asked, poking at my untouched dinner with my fork.

"We should try to make up," she said.

"Make up?" I repeated dully.

"Yea, if not for the baby's sake then for ours. If we're going to continue to live with each other and raise this child--"

"There was no 'we' in the decision making, Adriana. It was all you taking advantage of my trying to make the right decision."

"Severus, if I wanted to I could force you out of this house and live here to raise the child on my own. I have made the house payments for the past year and that makes it more mine than yours. But I'm not going to do that because I don't want to give up so easily on us."

"So I'm still here under your mercy," I summarized for her.

"Yes," she said unashamedly.

"Lovely."

"But I don't want to do that. I don't want my help to turn around and be a weapon. I want there to be something there for us. I don't want this baby to grow up knowing us only as a loveless couple only together because of him or her. I want us to be together because we want to be with each other. Because if you really are only going to help raise this child because I am being merciful, then I'll leave. I don't want that, I don't need that."

"Then go ahead. Leave," I said, already regretting it. She went upstairs without question and started to pack her bags. I put my plate down and sobbed into my hands.

Rosalyn started to stir in her cot as I tried to contain myself. I sighed irritably and stood up and stomped upstairs. I found Adriana in the other room trying to fit the mobile into her suitcase.

"Please stop," I asked. She looked up at me. She straightened up and looked at me expectantly. "Don't go. I don't want you to go, I'll help raise the baby. I'll be civil, hell, I might actually enjoy it. I need to get another job, anyway, and it'll all work out. It'll all just be... it'll all be peachy," I said in a monotone tone. I avoided looking at her and looked everywhere in the room except for at her. But I know her expression softened and her stature was less tense. She was relieved and I finally brought my eyes to her.

A small smile spread over her features and her nose grew red while she tried to stifle back tears. She finally let out a choked sob and started laughing. Tears were running freely down her cheeks while she laughed in between sniffles.

"We should probably write Penelope that we've got another on the way," I told her. She laughed harder. After a minute or so of her silent laughter and standing on opposite sides of the room, she approached me.

"And I've got to dig out those dreadful maternity clothes again," she said. "I just hope I didn't burn all of them." I gave a feeble smile and she charmed the trunk to open and regurgitate everything. All of her things flew back into their proper places.

"Let's go eat that ice cream," I suggested. We went back downstairs and did just that.

So I had to get another job. I started reading the want ads in the Daily Prophet obsessively and applied for every single thing I could find.

"Well, if you don't get a job then just whore yourself out," Adriana suggested. I ignored her and reread all the want ads.

Eventually I found a job at a bookstore. I liked it enough. It was quiet and I got to read when things were slow. I was put in restocking, so I didn't have to deal with too many stupid people. I was often the bloke pulling books off high shelves on the ladder. We didn't trust magic here, we were afraid of someone being overzealous and knocking everything over with a charm. The only magic thing in the store was the ladder that moved on itself, the coffee maker, and the Wireless. Everything else was labour. Although, I was soon proved to be competent and I was allowed to use magic to dust the books. Restocking them was easy enough because instead of hauling them up the ladder one by one I was allowed to summon them from the ladder and put them in place without reaching over and falling to my untimely death. Soon enough, I was able to pay for my house again and Adriana's inheritance went to schooling, which she reminded me, was to come to an end in only one more semester.

January came by and with January came my birthday. I expected nothing and only in my wildest dreams did I expect anything modest. But Adriana bought me something ridiculously wonderful. She got me an extra part of the house. In that extra part of the house was a room where I could put all my potions things and old books I'd steal from work that no one wanted.

"Oh, my god..." I said, looking around my mouth at agape. She grinned and hung onto my arm.

"Do you like it?" she asked excitedly.

"I think I just orgasmed," I said. She laughed.

"I'm so happy! And we can finally do something with that space you made into your lab by the bathroom. I'm thinking about putting the pen in the corner furthest away from the fireplace and moving the sofa back a little and putting a shelf or something where your little hideaway was. Or maybe a bookcase for the kid's toys and stuff."

"That's wonderful," I said, barely listening to her. I looked at the shelves of vials and ingredient racks all over the walls. Adriana quickly came to my aid to show something else off.

"And look here!" she said, opening one of the cabinets. She pulled on one of the shelves and it slid open to show slots where I could stash more things in.

"And over here is where all your books can go and be safe from any explosions," she said, showing me my book cases well away from the cauldron.

I felt like dancing. Of course, for my own well-being, I didn't.

Later that day, Adriana had an appointment at St. Mungo's with Penelope where her midwife had her office. Grudgingly, I came along.

"So, you two are expecting," she said, obviously trying to keep her voice devoid of judgement.

"Yep. We're here for a check up," Adriana said, patting the small lump of her stomach.

"Well, come along, then. You know the drill," she said, bringing Adriana to the bed and tossing her a hospital gown. Adriana changed into it and lied back onto the bed. Penelope put a blanket over her legs and Adriana pulled up the gown to expose her modest stomach. I stayed in my chair and watched the procedure. Penelope applied a generous amount of a gel-like potion on her stomach and put a detector over it to find the foetus. Metallic smoke formed itself against a blank sheet of paper held up by a wire and the image of a foetus in the womb formed itself. Penelope squinted at it through her glasses and her eyebrows knitted ever so slightly.

"Well?" Adriana asked, looking at the blob on the paper.

"Well... it's definitely there," Penelope said. "It might be too early to tell, but the heart beat seems a little irregular." She must have sensed Adriana's shocked expression because she then said, "Nothing to worry about, though. It might just be a little something, like I said, it might be too early to tell anything for sure. But... Just as a precaution, you ought to follow this routine to make sure the both of you remain healthy," she said, conjuring a roll of parchment with instructions. "And maybe take this potion every night before going to bed," she handed her a vial.

"What does the potion do?"

"It just helps monitor the foetus between visits. I hope to see you again next month. When is a good time?"

"Any weekend, I guess. What does it need to monitor?" Adriana asked.

"Like I said, it's just a precaution. Don't get yourself tied up about it, it might not even be needed."

"What if it's not needed, then? It won't have some weird side effect, will it? My baby won't be born with a fin or anything, will it?" Penelope laughed.

"No, no. There won't be any fins. But I want you to come in the first Saturday of next month," Penelope said, opening her planner.

"Okay. Is that all, then?" Penelope nodded while writing in her planner. "Well... Can you tell if it's a boy or a girl?" Penelope looked up at her and handed her a warm cloth to wipe off the gel from her body.

"The two of you will be having a son," she said, looking over at me. I raised my eyebrows and Adriana smiled. Adriana dressed while Penelope rattled off random little pieces of trivia and anything we might want to do to make a safe environment.

"And make sure you have lots of rest," Penelope said as we got ready to leave. "Do not let her move around anymore than she needs to," she said, turning on me.

"Wouldn't dream of it," I replied.

We left the hospital and Adriana was beaming. She started going on about all the little boy things we can get the child and how Rosalyn will be pleased to have a little brother to take care of. She started going on about how she always wanted a boy and a girl and how she had always wanted a brother for herself.

"I remember when I was little, though," Adriana recollected, "it was a very, very long time ago, though. My mother told me that she was pregnant - I think I might have been four or five - and that I was going to have a little brother. I was so excited because I was tired of being picked on by my big sister and I would be able to have someone to treat decently - I wanted to be what Lupe wasn't. But a little while later, she miscarried. I didn't understand it at the time, but now that I think back on it I know what it was. For the longest time I thought it was just a cruel joke they were playing on me..."

"Fascinating." Adriana was quiet for a little while as we walked down the uneven pavement.

"What if I miscarry? Penelope just said that he has an irregular heartbeat--"

"She also said that it might be too early to see."

"I'm five months along, it's not too early to see," Adriana said.

"Well, if there is something wrong, then you're taking the precautions and taking the potions and you'll do everything on that scroll, so there's a good chance that the kid will be fine," I said. Adriana sighed.

"It's a boy," she said quietly. I looked down at her and I saw she was smiling. "What will we call him?"

"How about Bob?" I said dryly.

"I've always liked Joaquín - that was what I prayed every night for my mum to call my brother," she told me.

"Let's call him something that isn't impossible to pronounce. He's in England and the children will most definitely make fun of him for his silly Spanish name," I pointed out.

"You just don't want to ask me how to spell his name," she countered.

"That, too."

"What do you suggest? Joaquín can be his middle name."

"I don't know. How about..." I randomly pulled names out of the back of my head. "How about Joshua?"

"Okay. Joshua Joaquín Snape de la Rodriguez," she trilled. "It has a ring to it."

"Uh huh," I said dully. "Where did the 'de la Rodriguez' come from?"

"That's how you name a child. The first name, then the middle name if it'll have one, then the father's name and the mother's name. De la means of the. I guess it's short for 'of the Rodriguez family'. Because the kid isn't just a Snape, you know. He's a Rodriguez, too. My name is Adriana Rodriguez de la Galena."

"Hm. Interesting," I said, completely unconvinced. But I didn't feel like arguing the point, so I let her carry on with that way of naming. As he grew older, people would cut off the de la Rodriguez part, any way, so I really didn't care.

"Let's go get some boy baby clothes!" Adriana suddenly suggested.

"Uhm... Okay," I gave in. I didn't have anything to do and I figured that we might as well get it over with. So we went to a few baby depots in some hidden stores that she found when pregnant with Rosalyn.