The Godmother

38. the infection

Remus sat back, frowning with concern. Elizabeth folded her arms, staring back out of the window.

How did they not see it? It was some parasitic virus inside of her. If it was an official disease, they'd cut it out. What was the difference between a disease and a dark, unwanted pregnancy? She could feel the way that it was effecting her already. The hate that she suddenly had. The heightened feelings.

A few minutes later, nutrition doctors came in and set to work on creating a diet plan for Elizabeth. High carbs, fat and protein intake for the next two months. They wrote out a list of things for her to eat and handed it to Remus.

She was 50 pounds underweight. To put it simple, she was starving. She set to work eating a fry-up. Eggs, bacon, toast, tomato and baked beans. She ate the egg and tomato, but felt too sick to eat the rest.

Remus watched her as she stood up and to stare out of the window. Holding herself. Getting sick of herself.

How could she have been so defenceless? How had she been so careless? Wandering around a dangerous place without thinking to set up some form of barrier or alarm to alert her if someone tried to enter? How stupid she had been for exhausting herself to the brink of sleep. She should have rested more. Travelled less. The mission wasn't going away. Neither was Sirius.

Why didn't she just stay in her apartment? Attend Order meetings as usual. Maybe then, she wouldn't have been beaten, raped and supposedly impregnated.

"I want to see Sirius", Elizabeth said. She turned to face Remus. Dumbledore was at the door, Harry beside him.

She was surprised to see Harry and Dumbledore. She hadn't seen them come in. She hadn't heard them. Was it because of the damned foetus? She felt herself shrivel slightly, seeing Harry. She didn't know why. He was supposed to be her one and only focus. It was Harry. Only him. Not another baby. She didn't have room for another child. How was she going to tell him? How was she going to tell the people that needed to know?

Elizabeth felt frozen. Harry crossed the room and hugged her. The touch was frightening at first. He was taller than her. Or maybe, had she shrunk? It took a second to ingest, but she slowly slivered her hands around his back. Calmly. Emotionlessly.

He stepped back. Speechless. No one was speaking.

"I thought a visit was in order", Dumbledore said, finally.

Elizabeth nodded. "Thank you", she said. She felt her face dry up. The way she said it, she certainly didn't mean it. She couldn't have Harry around if she went to see Sirius, that was all. He turned to her to speak.

"Dumbledore says he's back. For good", he spoke quietly.

Elizabeth nodded again. "He's not leaving without a war, Harry. This is it."

Harry swallowed, like his mouth had suddenly become sour. "Did you see them, too?".

Elizabeth looked up at him. The innocence in his eyes. Why did people always have to leave him? Hurt him? There was nothing left of the boy, yet the world kept stripping.

"Yes", she answered, even more quietly. She looked over at Dumbledore and Remus, who had begun a quiet conversation that she was almost certain was about her. "They told me that they were going to distract Voldemort so that you could grab the cup and save me", she said.

"I should have killed Regulus while I was at it", Harry tusked.

"What? No, Harry. Don't be silly. A killing curse is much more powerful than you'd ever think. It takes a lot. The power inside that you have to muster is incredible. Even if you wanted to, you wouldn't have been ready, and no one can blame you for that", she said, smoothing her hand over his shoulder.