One: An Unexpected Double Surprise
Eileen
The fluorescent lights above the operating table where the dour faced witch struggled and writhed on the table flickered on, and off with annoying regularity. This was not St Mungos, where a pregnant witch, no matter how poor, could be given the best of care. No, this was a poor welfare clinic on a bad side of muggle London, and the fetid quality of the hospital room in which the black haired witch struggled to give birth reflected it. The tiles were were a dark, Slytherin green, but filthy, the room stank of neglect, and moth balls. The only thing clean were the crisp white lap coats, and uniforms of the Nurses, and Doctors who were laboring just as intensely as the pregnant woman on the hospital bed.
Eileen screamed in agonizing pain. A doctor got in between her legs as more blood poured out from between her legs. "Mrs. Snape, I need you to push now!" The doctor ordered.
Eileen did, and a quiet, almost silent baby boy was born. The witch relaxed slightly as the placenta, and the rest of her baby was delivered. The Nurses tried to bring him as is, but she nearly growled, "Take it and wash it up before I touch it. Now!"
The Nurses fled in terror of the black eyed young woman on the operating table. The Doctor checked his patient again, and he poked his head up from between her legs. "You've got another baby in here."
Eileen's eyes went wide. "Whaat?! Impossible. You told me by the way I was carrying that I was having just a boy. What is this nonsense?"
"No nonsense, Mrs Snape," The Doctor tried to reassure his patient, but she wasn't falling for any of that tripe. "Ah. The head is about to crown now. Get ready to push in three...two...one...Push now!"
Eileen pushed with all of her might, and a squalling, screaming baby came out of her. She was checked, and cleaned up after delivering this second placenta. Two babies were brought to her, two boys. She knew that Tobias, if he had stuck around, that was, would not be pleased having three mouths to feed, rather than just himself.
They were both dark haired, and dark eyed just like her. But they were both like night and day in their personalities. One was quiet, and subdued, the other was fussing for her breast. She took turns feeding them both until her breasts could lactate no more. Two hours went by, four. On the fifth hour, a Constable was shown into her room, and the straggly haired muggle that was Tobias Snape entered the room, stinking of booze and cigarettes.
"Two more mouths t' feed, eh?" He drawled. "Well, good thing they're boys. I wouldn't want no sissy girls in m' house."
"Tobias, these are our sons, Severus, and Julian," Eileen said, trying to hide the pride in her voice. "Aren't they lovely?"
He spit on the floor, and looked over each infant son. "Yeah, if you call two pound suckin' vampires lovely, then go right ahead, Eileeny."
"Ma'am, we've got to put him in the drunk tank now," The Constable announced. "He has a DUI that we need to process him for down at the Yard. Do you need us to stay with you?"
She looked up at the beefy, bald officer with complete disgust. He can rot in a ditch for all I care, officer. Take him out of my life. But she couldn't do that to the man, rapist though he was. "No, thank you, officer. Please make sure that my husband gets properly sobered up. He is a father twice over today, after all."
The Constable tipped his hat to her. "Yes, ma'am. I'll see it done."
The Constable led Tobias Snape out of that hospital room, and if she knew the future, she would have told the man to throw her husband in jail, and throw away the key. But as it was, she could do nothing, it would be his word against hers, after all.
She played with her sons for a bit, before dozing off. It would be a long, long recovery, and one she would never completely recover from, or so she was told later on by the doctors. But in the meantime, she rested, and recovered her strength, because even in her weakened state, she knew full well that she would need it more than she knew in the long run...
