Ficlet - Henry
Mar. 16th, 2019 12:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenni_robinsonAugust 26, 2009 HST
Nurse Edward Davies laid the squirming, six-month-old boy in Jenni's arms, and the world began anew.
"Oh," she sighed, stroking the downy black hair on the baby's head. "He's beautiful."
Edward exchanged a look with Christine, the senior Nursery worker overseeing the day's proceedings. Neither of them would have called this child beautiful. He was light for his length, and his face had an unusually pinched look. He wasn't unhealthy, the combined efforts of the Nursery and the Medical Department had seen to that, but, well, he was Severus Snape's child, sired on Harry Potter. Neither of them was much to look at, either.
Jenni was oblivious, lost in a moment that contained only her and the baby. Memories flickered through her mind. She was drawn to motherhood, and in her many lifetimes children had come and gone at the whims of circumstance. Some were painful to recall—Verin had left a permanent hole in her heart. Thinking of others still gave her joy—pretty little Abigail, quiet Esther with her sketchbook. But none of them had been hers.
Where she came from, the magical could neither create nor destroy physical reality, only manipulate it. Being what she was, an ethereal entity wearing a mortal form like the most comfortable suit, prohibited passing the spark of life to a new being. It wasn't as though her body was barren or incapable of sustaining a pregnancy—all the relevant systems functioned normally—but the ineffable rules of her existence ensured that it simply would not take.
Pern had let her break the rules. Once and only once, she had managed to bring a child of her own body into the world. Aidrian, later A'drin, was special. He had been conceived in the heat of a mating flight for her brown queen dragon, Beth, particularly hard-fought between two passionate suitors, bronze Saganth and bronze/brown Aidiarth. Saganth had flown Beth before, and his rider K'tet had been a particular favorite of Jenni's, but Aidiarth and K'lyr were determined, and Aidiarth had won that flight. Jenni named her son after the dragon and swore she didn't know which of the riders was his father—the three of them had all been jumbled up together when it was over—though privately she was certain it had to be K'lyr. It didn't matter. What mattered was that Aidrian was impossible, but he had happened anyway, and he was hers.
She could only guess that the intense progenitive energies of that flight had helped her along. Maybe because it was so often said that rider and dragon were one, especially during a mating flight, Jenni had been able to borrow some of Beth's potency at a time when their souls were at their most strongly commingled. Maybe. She would never know for certain.
It hadn't happened again in all the rest of her century of life on Pern. It certainly wasn't going to happen here in the PPC, now that she was living as her complete self, in possession of every aspect of her nature. In addition to the metaphysical rules of her universe of origin, there were metafictional rules dictating that great gifts must come with great sacrifice. She had so much love to give; her soul was a near-bottomless well of compassion and healing, but drawing on her nurturing spirit for the sake of those around her came at the cost of never being able to turn it inward. That was not her purpose.
She had been here six years now. The first three had been a turmoil of uncertainty, but she had finally found her feet. She knew who she was again, and what she was meant to do, and why, and—perhaps most importantly—how to do it properly. She was ready to have someone in her life on whom she could lavish a fuller measure of her affection.
When she had heard about this baby, she knew he was meant for her. Who else would look at the unlovely, unnatural spawn of Snape and find only joy in him?
People who knew her well enough might raise their eyebrows. Was she living out a fantasy from her previous life in that Potterverse AU?
Maybe. If she were totally honest with herself... maybe. Her time there had ended prematurely, with the near-shattering of her mind, just when she and her Severus had begun to explore a deeper side of their friendship. It was just as well, she knew that objectively, but she didn't stop loving the people who were gone from her life or regretting the loss of what might have been. She would never hold Severus again, and she was resigned to that... but now, she could hold his son, love him, and raise him to be as good and happy a man as she wished his father could have been.
This boy was beautiful.
"Would you like some time alone with him?" said Christine.
Jenni had almost forgotten anyone else was there. She didn't immediately understand the question. "Hm?"
"You don't have to make up your mind right away," the Nursery staffer elaborated. "Spend a little time with him and see how you feel."
Jenni shook her head slowly, in rhythm with the steady, rocking sway of her body. The baby was a warm, solid weight in her arms. He made little fussing sounds, but he had begun to settle down, and he gazed up at her with cloudy-blue infant's eyes. A smile was stuck on Jenni's face. "My mind is made up. All I have to think about is what I'm going to call him. He doesn't have a name yet, does he?"
She and Christine both glanced at Edward.
"No," he said. Nurse Davies, formerly known as Healer Davies, had been recruited from the same fic as the baby and had, in fact, attended his birth. "The agents didn't give him one, and they, er, interrupted before the fathers could."
"Well, then." Jenni gazed down fondly at the baby—her baby. What did he look like? What name would suit his tiny little face? What of the man's face he would grow into?
She wasn't going to name him after either of his fathers, that was for sure. It wouldn't do to trap him in some association or expectation he could never fulfill. He needed the freedom to be himself, whoever that would be.
And yet, the temptation to do homage to them somehow was strong. The boy could never know them, nor they him, but he was their blood nonetheless. Potter and Snape; what an implausible combination. How could two such antagonistic halves combine to make a stable whole?
Hmm.
Jenni looked up at the nurse. "Your name is Edward, right?"
He nodded, looking puzzled.
A grin spread across Jenni's face. "Then that settles it: this little one is Henry. It's perfect." She looked down at him—at Henry. "Hello, Henry," she cooed. Her next words were sung: "Henry, I adore you / Always have done, always will do / And your dreams are mine. / I will always understand / However hard the path you've planned / Our lives will intertwine."
Christine blinked. "Ohhh. Jekyll!" She snickered and said to Edward, "I guess that makes you Mr. Hyde."
"No offense," Jenni put in, though her eyes were only for Henry. "I'm sure you're a nice man. In fact, I think it would make sense for you to continue as his pediatrician, if you'll agree."
"Oh—yes, of course," said Edward, who had no exposure to the strange Muggle amusement that was musical theatre. The reference had gone over his head. "My privilege."
"Wait," said Christine, "but if our Edward is the doctor, what does that make our Henry?"
Jenni spared her a smile. "I don't know yet, but I'm very excited to find out."
Christine chuckled. "If he turns out to be a madman, don't say I didn't warn you."
"Oh, that's not going to happen," Jenni purred to Henry. "It isn't as though I named you after the leading-man counterpart to 'Christine', now, is it?" Not that she had ever considered it. The eyebrows her closest friends would give her for doing that would be completely justified.
Christine the Nursery staffer didn't know that, though, and she laughed. "Good point. I'll get the paperwork."
That day, Jenni adopted Henry Dale Robinson.
Less than a year later, his eyes had settled on a clear, bright green.
He was hers, as much as any child could be.
Neshomeh's Notes:
Trivia - I started writing this in July 2015, responding to Jenni's complaints about not giving her any fluff with her son. Then I totally forgot about it for four years, until I came to make the last entry. ^_^; But now it's a thing!
More trivia - In his fic of origin, Henry was going to be called Jacob Michael Snape. Bleh!
I don't think I knew that Nurse Davies had a first name, let alone that it was Edward, when I decided to name Henry after Dr. Henry Jekyll, whose evil alter ego is Mr. Edward Hyde. Looking it all up again only to find that was just the cherry on top of my sundae. ^_^
I think Nursery-staffer Christine was an arbitrary choice of a name that only had one very old mention attributed to it, but it could have been deliberate. I have no idea. It worked pretty well for a joke, though. *g*
Edit (05.13.2021) - I've retconned Henry's middle name. It was originally "Rowling," but I no longer find it suitable to do that much homage, and it was kinda weird as a middle name anyway. I wanted to call him something after one of his rescuers instead, but there's not much to work with between "Oscar Henson" and "Iza." ("Henry Henson" is right out.) I considered "Heales" as in Trojanhorse Heales-Shadowfax, author of the mission, but that's also kind of a weird middle name. However, it turns out it's a topographic name indicating that the bearer lived in a hollow or valley, so I chose a synonym that I think sounds nice.
Since he eventually gets a little brother who also gets a middle name that's a nod to a PPC author, I guess this is just a cheeky, meta thing Jenni does!
Nurse Edward Davies laid the squirming, six-month-old boy in Jenni's arms, and the world began anew.
"Oh," she sighed, stroking the downy black hair on the baby's head. "He's beautiful."
Edward exchanged a look with Christine, the senior Nursery worker overseeing the day's proceedings. Neither of them would have called this child beautiful. He was light for his length, and his face had an unusually pinched look. He wasn't unhealthy, the combined efforts of the Nursery and the Medical Department had seen to that, but, well, he was Severus Snape's child, sired on Harry Potter. Neither of them was much to look at, either.
Jenni was oblivious, lost in a moment that contained only her and the baby. Memories flickered through her mind. She was drawn to motherhood, and in her many lifetimes children had come and gone at the whims of circumstance. Some were painful to recall—Verin had left a permanent hole in her heart. Thinking of others still gave her joy—pretty little Abigail, quiet Esther with her sketchbook. But none of them had been hers.
Where she came from, the magical could neither create nor destroy physical reality, only manipulate it. Being what she was, an ethereal entity wearing a mortal form like the most comfortable suit, prohibited passing the spark of life to a new being. It wasn't as though her body was barren or incapable of sustaining a pregnancy—all the relevant systems functioned normally—but the ineffable rules of her existence ensured that it simply would not take.
Pern had let her break the rules. Once and only once, she had managed to bring a child of her own body into the world. Aidrian, later A'drin, was special. He had been conceived in the heat of a mating flight for her brown queen dragon, Beth, particularly hard-fought between two passionate suitors, bronze Saganth and bronze/brown Aidiarth. Saganth had flown Beth before, and his rider K'tet had been a particular favorite of Jenni's, but Aidiarth and K'lyr were determined, and Aidiarth had won that flight. Jenni named her son after the dragon and swore she didn't know which of the riders was his father—the three of them had all been jumbled up together when it was over—though privately she was certain it had to be K'lyr. It didn't matter. What mattered was that Aidrian was impossible, but he had happened anyway, and he was hers.
She could only guess that the intense progenitive energies of that flight had helped her along. Maybe because it was so often said that rider and dragon were one, especially during a mating flight, Jenni had been able to borrow some of Beth's potency at a time when their souls were at their most strongly commingled. Maybe. She would never know for certain.
It hadn't happened again in all the rest of her century of life on Pern. It certainly wasn't going to happen here in the PPC, now that she was living as her complete self, in possession of every aspect of her nature. In addition to the metaphysical rules of her universe of origin, there were metafictional rules dictating that great gifts must come with great sacrifice. She had so much love to give; her soul was a near-bottomless well of compassion and healing, but drawing on her nurturing spirit for the sake of those around her came at the cost of never being able to turn it inward. That was not her purpose.
She had been here six years now. The first three had been a turmoil of uncertainty, but she had finally found her feet. She knew who she was again, and what she was meant to do, and why, and—perhaps most importantly—how to do it properly. She was ready to have someone in her life on whom she could lavish a fuller measure of her affection.
When she had heard about this baby, she knew he was meant for her. Who else would look at the unlovely, unnatural spawn of Snape and find only joy in him?
People who knew her well enough might raise their eyebrows. Was she living out a fantasy from her previous life in that Potterverse AU?
Maybe. If she were totally honest with herself... maybe. Her time there had ended prematurely, with the near-shattering of her mind, just when she and her Severus had begun to explore a deeper side of their friendship. It was just as well, she knew that objectively, but she didn't stop loving the people who were gone from her life or regretting the loss of what might have been. She would never hold Severus again, and she was resigned to that... but now, she could hold his son, love him, and raise him to be as good and happy a man as she wished his father could have been.
This boy was beautiful.
"Would you like some time alone with him?" said Christine.
Jenni had almost forgotten anyone else was there. She didn't immediately understand the question. "Hm?"
"You don't have to make up your mind right away," the Nursery staffer elaborated. "Spend a little time with him and see how you feel."
Jenni shook her head slowly, in rhythm with the steady, rocking sway of her body. The baby was a warm, solid weight in her arms. He made little fussing sounds, but he had begun to settle down, and he gazed up at her with cloudy-blue infant's eyes. A smile was stuck on Jenni's face. "My mind is made up. All I have to think about is what I'm going to call him. He doesn't have a name yet, does he?"
She and Christine both glanced at Edward.
"No," he said. Nurse Davies, formerly known as Healer Davies, had been recruited from the same fic as the baby and had, in fact, attended his birth. "The agents didn't give him one, and they, er, interrupted before the fathers could."
"Well, then." Jenni gazed down fondly at the baby—her baby. What did he look like? What name would suit his tiny little face? What of the man's face he would grow into?
She wasn't going to name him after either of his fathers, that was for sure. It wouldn't do to trap him in some association or expectation he could never fulfill. He needed the freedom to be himself, whoever that would be.
And yet, the temptation to do homage to them somehow was strong. The boy could never know them, nor they him, but he was their blood nonetheless. Potter and Snape; what an implausible combination. How could two such antagonistic halves combine to make a stable whole?
Hmm.
Jenni looked up at the nurse. "Your name is Edward, right?"
He nodded, looking puzzled.
A grin spread across Jenni's face. "Then that settles it: this little one is Henry. It's perfect." She looked down at him—at Henry. "Hello, Henry," she cooed. Her next words were sung: "Henry, I adore you / Always have done, always will do / And your dreams are mine. / I will always understand / However hard the path you've planned / Our lives will intertwine."
Christine blinked. "Ohhh. Jekyll!" She snickered and said to Edward, "I guess that makes you Mr. Hyde."
"No offense," Jenni put in, though her eyes were only for Henry. "I'm sure you're a nice man. In fact, I think it would make sense for you to continue as his pediatrician, if you'll agree."
"Oh—yes, of course," said Edward, who had no exposure to the strange Muggle amusement that was musical theatre. The reference had gone over his head. "My privilege."
"Wait," said Christine, "but if our Edward is the doctor, what does that make our Henry?"
Jenni spared her a smile. "I don't know yet, but I'm very excited to find out."
Christine chuckled. "If he turns out to be a madman, don't say I didn't warn you."
"Oh, that's not going to happen," Jenni purred to Henry. "It isn't as though I named you after the leading-man counterpart to 'Christine', now, is it?" Not that she had ever considered it. The eyebrows her closest friends would give her for doing that would be completely justified.
Christine the Nursery staffer didn't know that, though, and she laughed. "Good point. I'll get the paperwork."
That day, Jenni adopted Henry Dale Robinson.
Less than a year later, his eyes had settled on a clear, bright green.
He was hers, as much as any child could be.
Neshomeh's Notes:
Trivia - I started writing this in July 2015, responding to Jenni's complaints about not giving her any fluff with her son. Then I totally forgot about it for four years, until I came to make the last entry. ^_^; But now it's a thing!
More trivia - In his fic of origin, Henry was going to be called Jacob Michael Snape. Bleh!
I don't think I knew that Nurse Davies had a first name, let alone that it was Edward, when I decided to name Henry after Dr. Henry Jekyll, whose evil alter ego is Mr. Edward Hyde. Looking it all up again only to find that was just the cherry on top of my sundae. ^_^
I think Nursery-staffer Christine was an arbitrary choice of a name that only had one very old mention attributed to it, but it could have been deliberate. I have no idea. It worked pretty well for a joke, though. *g*
Edit (05.13.2021) - I've retconned Henry's middle name. It was originally "Rowling," but I no longer find it suitable to do that much homage, and it was kinda weird as a middle name anyway. I wanted to call him something after one of his rescuers instead, but there's not much to work with between "Oscar Henson" and "Iza." ("Henry Henson" is right out.) I considered "Heales" as in Trojanhorse Heales-Shadowfax, author of the mission, but that's also kind of a weird middle name. However, it turns out it's a topographic name indicating that the bearer lived in a hollow or valley, so I chose a synonym that I think sounds nice.
Since he eventually gets a little brother who also gets a middle name that's a nod to a PPC author, I guess this is just a cheeky, meta thing Jenni does!
