The Half-Blood Princess

Chapter 43- A Star Is Born

With Lily promising to send money to a Muggle bank account in her name, every month, Sabrina felt a lot calmer throughout the rest of her pregnancy.
Since she was away from the rest of the wizarding world, Lily sent her a Daily Prophet each morning, so that she could stay in the loop.
Things in the wizarding world were not good, as Voldemort had started increasing his attacks.
Barely a week went by, without some poor innocent soul being murdered on Voldemort's orders.
Now that she was no longer a death eater, Sabrina felt extremely guilty every time she saw a dead person on the front cover, who had been struck down by her old colleagues.
But despite her absence, Sabrina's dark mark still burned every now and again, as if the dark lord expected her to come out of hiding and attend the meetings like nothing had happened.

Towards the end of April, Sabrina began feeling an intense pain in her stomach, that seemed to be getting worse and not better, which is why she summoned Lily.
Since a letter would take too long to arrive at its location, Sabrina decided to send Lily a message via her Patronus.
As far as she was aware, her Severus and Regulus were the only death eaters who could perform the spell, since it required good happy memories, and the others didn't have those.
With Regulus dead, and Severus being estranged from her, Sabrina ended up using a happy memory that involved Lily, to conjure her Patronus.

When she succeeded in performing the spell, her lioness Patronus exploded out of her wand and ran off to give the message to Lily.
The very first time she had ever conjured the spell, Sabrina had been annoyed that her Patronus was a lioness, since lions were associated with Gryffindor house.
But then she had remembered that Regulus was a star in the Leo constellation. So her Patronus reflected the love of her life, Regulus.
Similar to how Severus's Patronus took the same form as the love of his life Lily's Patronus.

Sabrina continued to push through the pain, until Lily apparated to her house several minutes later.
"It's me. I'm here" announced Lily as she used her spare key to unlock Sabrina's front door.
"Thank Merlin. I thought it was going to come before you got here" admitted Sabrina, who was curled up on the sofa, in incredible pain.
"Did you get the blankets and hot water set up like I told you to?" Asked Lily, as she took off her coat and hung it up.
"It's all on the table" pointed Sabrina.
"Right. Good. Now, how long have you been having these contractions for?"
"I don't know exactly. I was in pain when I woke up this morning, but it wasn't as bad as this. It seems to get worse every hour"
"Hopefully that means you don't have long to go"
"Yeah, hopefully".

Lily made her way over to Sabrina, and sat down on the sofa beside her.
"Have your waters broken yet?" Questioned Lily, as she began to rub Sabrina's back, to help ease the pain she was in.
"Yeah. They broke rather recently, which is when I decided to send for you" answered Sabrina.
"That's good. You're doing well" replied Lily.
"It doesn't feel like it, but thanks... Lily, I don't know if this is the best time to ask you. But I was wondering if you and James would be the baby's godparents"
"I would be honoured"
"Great".

"But do you really want James? I didn't think that you liked him all that much" admitted Lily.
"I don't. I can never like him after the way he treated me and my brother at school. But he has saved my life twice before, so I feel like it's meant to be. He is also your husband, so it just makes sense to have you both be godparents together. Not to mention the fact that it is his money that is helping to raise my child" replied Sabrina.
"So, you want me to tell him that I've been seeing you?" Asked Lily.
"Yes. It's time he learned the truth. If you trust him, then I guess I should too. Besides, we don't want him thinking that you are seeing someone else behind his back, when you actually just seeing me"
"No, we don't want him getting jealous".

****
Sabrina looked across the room at her newborn baby who was swaddled in blankets, and being held by Lily.
"Is it O.K?" Asked Sabrina, who was exhausted after going through labour.
"He is fine" reassured Lily, as she brought the baby over to Sabrina, once she had finished cleaning him.
"It's a boy?" Questioned Sabrina.
Lily nodded and placed the baby into Sabrina's arms.
"He's perfect" whispered Sabrina, as she looked down at her son.

"Do you know what you are going to call him?" Asked Lily curiously.
"Regulus, after his father" answered Sabrina, before kissing the top of the baby's head softly.
"That's nice. What about a middle name?"
"Severus, after my brother. I know he isn't here right now, and I haven't seen him in nearly a year, but he is still my brother. He was there for me at a time when no one else was. He did his best to keep me safe when we were children. So I want my son to be named after him too"
"Regulus Severus Snape. It suits him".

Sabrina looked up from her son and shook her head, "No. He will not be a Snape. I don't want him to have anything to do with my father. I know it is technically my last name, since I never got around to marrying my Regulus and changing my surname. But I don't want our son to have my name".
"So, Regulus Severus Black?" Quizzed Lily.
"No, I don't want that either. This war is going to end one way or another. And if I want him to have a normal life, he can't be a Black. The Black's have dark views regarding blood status, and I don't want my son to be like that".

"So what will his last name be?" Questioned Lily.
"He's a Prince, my Prince. I may not like my mother, but her maiden name was the one I pretended to have when acting like a pure-blood. It's a surname that I don't hate, that is still kind of mine. So my son is Regulus Severus Prince" announced Sabrina.
"He sounds like a member of the royal family" admitted Lily.
"Yes. Yes he does" agreed Sabrina, with a big smile on her face, feeling happy than she had ever felt in her entire life.