Viper's Office [April 2019]

Viper entered her office slightly out of breath, gripping the edge of her desk for support before collapsing unto her chair in a maelstrom of dizziness, nausea, and exhaustion. She clutched her head, begging and pleading for the room to stop spinning. It took a good amount of minutes but luckily she was not denied, as the spinning room came slowly to a halt. A sigh of irritation blended with exhaustion escaped her before she leaned slowly back into her chair. What was with her lately? This was a question constantly ringing through the Potions Mistresses mind the past few days. Although, if truth be told, Viper had a rather strong idea just what was going on…

A part of her desperately wanted to ignore the signs, shut off the logic in her mind and go about her merry way. This type of scenario didn’t happen to her. No. These situations were generally reserved for the younger generation, her students: careless teenagers who got caught up in the moment. No, Viper was a responsible adult. Surely there must be another answer.

Yet at the same time her mind uttered that response, another part of her loudly protested, urging her to move past the guessing zone and into the Answer Alley. She was a Potions Mistress, for crying out loud! She lived her life searching for answers, solving riddles. This time was definitely not an exception.

With a shaky hand, Viper reached into her desk cabinet, rummaging around through various oddities until the object of her search was within her grasp: a small, circular phial. Looking deceptively innocent, though she knew her future lay within that clear, aqua-like orb. After pricking her finger with her silver dagger, she watched as the crimson tears meddled within the phial, formulating her answer. As she waited, Viper couldn’t help keep her mind wandering to a moment lost in time, back in ECHO’s glory days, when a fellow employee found herself in the position Viper likely was now.




Viper’s reverie had ended mere moments before the potion started glowing luminously, signaling it was near completion. She took a deep breath, before uncapping it, watching with bated breath as a small puff of smoke escaped the phial and the liquid turned into a myriad of colors before settling on one.

“Oh Merlin…”

- - - - - - - - -

Viper couldn’t be sure of the passage of time between revelation and reaction, whether ir was a few minutes or few hours that had passed since the potion had confirmed all her suspicions. At some point, however, her hand had made its way to her abdomen and lingered there. The answer seemed so obvious now, as she could distinctly feel another aura of magic other than her own coursing through her.

Once she had overcome the initial shock of it and allowed the news to truly sink it, she had done a lot of thinking. There was never a moment in her life when she thought of having children. After all, she’d always been a career-driven, ambitious woman, determined to rise in the ranks so high she could never fall. Not to mention she really couldn’t stand children and saw them as nothing more than little nuisances, little mistakes made from carelessness and irresponsibility.

But now… well, it was all different. Time had changed both her surroundings and Viper herself, molding her into a different person than the one she was a few years back.

She was scared. It was rather amusing to think that Professor Amaranth Viper, ECHO’s Ice Queen, and Slytherin’s snarky Head of House was afraid of something that at this point couldn’t be any bigger than the size of a plum, but it simply couldn’t be helped. From this moment on, every word and every action she said or did would impact someone else. Until she breathed her last, someone else would always be looking to her for guidance, advice, and love. Who wouldn’t be terrified of such a notion?

But yet… beneath the shock, fear, and anxiety was an overwhelming, almost unexplainable amount of love. Granted, she only knew about the baby for an hour or so at most, but… this was her baby. A part of her, and a part of Sevastyan, the man she loved with every fiber of her being.

Sevastyan…

What would he think when he finds out?

Viper was aware that Sevastyan wanted children someday. The keyword in that sentence being someday. Not in a given number of days, someday. She had yet to find out how exactly to tell him.

The sound of the bell loudly echoing through the halls made Viper start slightly as she glanced at the clock. Her 5th year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff class was up next so she had to get a move on. Conjuring a sheet of parchment, she jotted down a quick note asking Sevastyan to meet her in their shared quarters before dinner, and sent it off with Drakon. Before exiting however, she glanced at her reflection in the large, ebony mirror in front of her door.

She couldn’t stop the soft smile from appearing on her face as she glanced at her abdomen, one hand making its way to rest gently on top.

“Our baby...” She whispered, the emotion thick in her voice.