Princess

For fraction of a second Severus froze, but then his lizard brain kicked in to action and he imedilately jumped up. It was bad, there was no denying that; he hardly ever had visitors and if he did it always boded excruciatingly bad, and taking in consideration the present state of things it was most likely that whoever came, came with an intention to deprive Severus of his life. Oh, the merry life.

He shot a glance at the still sleeping baby. He was tepmted to fully incapate her and hid her, for the sake of security, but he didn't dare to inflict any more magic upon the tiny creature. Though painfully uneducated on the matters of the whole baby magic meddle thing, Severus knew that exposing the little ones to overplus of magic ( not even necessirely in a harming way) could lead to permanent consequences. And taking in account all the spells he performed on the child so far, let alone the damn apparation, stunning or silencing the baby now could be very well the last straw for the fragile being to break down.

Instead he fastly silenced and locked the doors of the room, hoping that she will just sleep some more, and that in the near future neither of them dies.

With the mask of illusive calm he went to open the front doors. He had decided that whatever is going on, first he will try to figure it out in peace, instead of straight loosing his head and tilting at windmills.

When he unlocked the doors and gingerly pulled them open Severus was met with a sight of rather dishevelled looking Malfoy. "Lucius" he said, the tone of his voice rising as to make a question of the name.

Not waiting for an invitation Malfoy pressed himself inside and burted out "Where the hell have you been?"

Severus backed away, surrending to the idea of having highly unwelcomed convive. "What do you mean, I was in here" he retorted, the perplexion in his voice partly genuine.

"Well, how fortunate for you" Lucius growled indignantly. "Shortly after your departure Rokwood joined us with some rather disconcerning news" He muttered, betraying agitation very foreign to his usually superior self. There was nothing left of the self-satisfaction which was embodied on his face just couple of hours ago.

Despite the violent palpitation Severus asked quite innocently "What news?"

"They had a baby!" Lucius clipped "Rokwood digged aroun at the Ministry and found out those two dogs had a small girl. He was only too happy to point out that a toddler managed to escape the three of us" He fired out in consistent stream and then shuddered. "The Dark Lord is angry Severus. Really angry" He whispered and Severus finally noticed the telltale tremor of Lucius' hands. Oh indeed, very angry.

He felt his stomach fill with lead. That went south lot faster than he anticipated for sure. "But there was no children room, we searched the house" He rised the question that he still did not quite understand. The baby was there obviously, as she was now (hopefully) snoozing in Severus' bed, but the lack of any nursery room in the sea cottage was indeed confusing.

"Oh there was" Lucius groaned and ran his hand across his face roughly. Severus thought that seeing him this distraught was really disconcerning. "We went back there and found a hidden room. They were apparently much more aware of the danger than we anticipated" 

Severus noticed how was Lucius emphasing on the we. He was sure that should the mission be some wild succes instead of this fiasco, Lucius would be regarding it as his mission. Severus didn't felt any malice towards him though. If anything, he felt quite guilty for putting Lucius in to such tight situation.

"Alright, we will find her" Severus offered reassurance, because Lucius seemed in desperate need of some. "Is the Dark Lord still at the manor?"

"No, he left after he... granted the reprimand" Lucius shuddered again.

"Good, go home to Narcissa and Draco, I'll try to dig around, find some friends or grandparents" Severus said to buy himself more time, and the anxious expression on Lucius' face somewhat loosened.

Oh hell, he did even seemed grateful, and Severus was hit by another, much greater wave of guilt. He hadn't really think about the possible consequences his action might have. Hell, he didn't think at all.

And though he held nigh unto none love for Malfoy, really, it was never his intention to endanger this regal prick. Him and his family, that is. Because seeing the pale man all stressed and dejected Severus for the first time fully appreciated the fact that Lucius was not concerned only for his own well-being; he had a wife and little son, probably the very same age as the top-secret baby Severus had stole.

Lucius nodded and turned to leave, expressing some painfully undue thanks along the way.

As soon as the doors clicked shut Severus sprinted in to the bedroom, but the baby was still off. He went closer to see if she was breathing, even though the string of yarn around his hand still pulsed reassuringly.

He stood over the bed, feeling fervently sick to his stomach. It was astonishing to see how were the matters still esscalating in to even deeper shits.

Now it was what? Was he balancing the life of Malfoy ( whom he did not particulary liked) over the life of some baby ( that he had no particular reason to care about)? He had absolutely no desire to be in such position, yet here he was.

Severus just idly contemplated which of the practices would be more cathartic, whether crying or vomiting, when the baby started to fuss, and he knew that this time it was a real deal transmission in to the waking world.

"Hey, hello there" He hummed softly, kneeling next to the bed, as the girl lifted her head and blinked those blue bloodshot eyes in disorientated fashion. It took her exactly seven seconds to start crying. Ah, Severus certainly had a way with babies. 

Nevertheless, he noted that this was something which he supposed could be classified as an acceptable baby weep, not the bloody murder from before. "It's alright" he said again, alas to very little effect.

"Gotta be thirsty after all that crying of yours, huh?" He asked then and with Accio summoned clean glass from the kitchen. The girl made like two second pause in her clamor to wach that.

That was interesting and Severus noted the observation for future use and turned his attention to the tumbler. Though from obvious reasons again he never attempted to create a sippy bottle before, the handiwork he performed on the glass was flawless. Well, he did not got an Outstanding NEWT from Transfiguration without a reason.

He filled the bottle with water and tentatively handed it to girl. She stopped weeping again, apparently too distracted with the offer to consistently carry on with the din.

"That's right, here take a drink" he suggested again and the baby complied.

Oh, that was wild!

The chubby hands of her reached for the bottle, though Severus still supported it, as the glass was quite heavy. The girl was a sucker for a water, literally. Once the poufy lips engulfed the teat she all but attacked the bottle, clearly determined to down it at one go. The possible dehidratation smoothly added on to the pile of Severus' worries. And what a monumental pile was that. 

As the baby still contently chugged down on the water supply Severus checked his watch. It was two in the morning and they still had a comfortable stretch of time to catch the last train of the night heading north. But Severus was less sure than ever whether he wanted to carry on with that particular plan. He did not believed in Dumbledores' good grace anymore, and now with the whole Death Eater cohort acutely aware of the one missing baby the idea of simply plopping her down somewhere at the Liverpool railway station was unapologetic. Hell.

The girl finally separated from the teat and looked at Severus with surpising scrutiny. She was clearly unsure whether she should continue with the uproar which got suspended for the necessary water break or if it was enough of the wailing for the moment. Severus for sure had had enough.

He slowly rose his wand, trying not to startle the baby and then released number of rings of colourful smoke from the tip of it. The girls' mouth formed in to perfect 'o' by that sight and he couldn't hold back a chuckle. She turned to him. Severus sat still, hardly daring to breath as the girl stared at him, slight frown wrinkling the tiny forehead. Severus had a crazy feeling that she really tried to compare him to the entity of the previous nightmare, and when she didn't start to cry again, he silently congratulated himself, as the outfit and hairstyle change clearly had the desired impact.

"Hello" he said tentatively. It felt like holding a grenade with the safety pin pulled out.

The girl blinked. "Moma" she then said in tiny shrill voice.

Severus' heart dropped, and girl repeated that dreaded word couple more times.

"No, not here, sorry" He breathed softly and the baby pouted, as if she undertood him. Well she most likely did, he startled. He was surprised to hear her actually speak in the first place, but giving it more thought Severus come to the conclusion that it wasn't that surpising after all. She was old enough, toddlers were probably supposed to do such things.

As if to prove Severus' point about the many skills of an average toddler the girl purposefully crawled out of the bed and somewhat clumsily landed her tiny feet clad in pink fluffy socks on the floor. She then expectantly turned to Severus, as if asking for approval or praise of her proficiency. Unsure of what the correct reaction should be Severus offered a tentative smile. It seemed to be the right thing to do, the girl responded with drooly grin and set to march across the room, her gait unsteady yet funnily self-confident at the same time.

"Mum" she called as she reached centre of the bedroom and turned her head from side to side, as if expecting the nice woman with wavy hair to come and take her in to her arms at any second.

The faint smile on Severus' thin lips imedilately died away. He followed the girl, who now seemed about ready to cry again, as the object of her deepest desire was not coming. 

And was never going to.

This time Severus put much more effort in to his spell, so instead of the lame smoke ringles a handsome bunny of pinkish smoke erupted from the tip of his wand and started to bounce around the room. The girl let out delighted shriek and imedilately pursuited a bunny hunt.

The miscresant rodent Severus summoned to his aid escaped in to the living room and without a backward glance the girl excitedly followed it. Severus grimaced and joined them fastly. He had very little desire to let the kid wander around his house, as there were circa two hundred things that could kill her imedilately. And around four hundred of things which could lead to her gradual death, but alas, the girl seemed insistent about exploring the house, so the exploring of the house it was. It was still better than another tantrum.

Few minutes ticked eventually peacefully, girl and the bunny seemed to be engaged in some degraded version of tag game and Severus was racking his brain, trying to figure out a course of action which would result in the least possible number of death bodies.

He also thought that he should probably feed the kid. What could these things possibly eat though?

Just as was Severus mentaly going through his pantry, a subdued crash and then loud sound as of tearing fabric filled the air.

Oh hell, oh hell oh hell. He did not fully restored all the wards after Lucius had left. He could have killed himself on spot! Such a stupid incompetent cretin he was, honestly.

And apparently a very popular cretin, as tonights second unwanted visitor bursted in to the room with clear resolution towards violence.

Willkins in his all Death Eater glory froze for a second, his widening eyes darting from Severus to the toddler sitting on the hearth rug. "You" he growled with downing understanding, rose his wand and all hell proceeded to break loose.