Snow Harrie 1/6
My Snarry Games fic

Title: Snow Harrie 1/6
Author: Eriador117
Team:Snitch
Genre(s): Literary/Historical, Crossdressing/Genderbender
Prompt(s):Secrets and Lies
Rating/Warnings/Kinks: AU, sexual situations, crossdressing, genderbending, slash and het sex.
Word Count: approx. 16,600
Summary: Lily has always wanted a baby girl with hair as black as ebony, skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood...
Author Notes/Disclaimers/Betas Loosely based on Snow White with a side order of inspiration from The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling. JK Rowling owns the Potterverse, I just play in it from time to time.
Beta'd by Rakina, thanks so much! Lots of thanks to team_snitch for all their help in wrangling this bunny to something manageable and special thanks to our fearless leader, Joanwilder/Raewhit.



Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Snow Harrie: Part One

Lily stabbed the needle through the fabric as though she wanted to kill the cloth rather than embroider it. With each stitch she was imagining that she was pricking her stepmother's flesh. Lily hated embroidery and her stepmother knew it. The whole household had been stuck indoors over winter, but now that summer had finally arrived Lily was still stuck inside with her stepmother and two of her ladies-in-waiting.

Heavy with the swell of their first child, Lily couldn't even accompany James on a simple ride through the countryside. Her gown was melded to her flesh with perspiration and Lily lost concentration on her task for a second. A drop of blood welled up on her finger and dropped onto the pristine cloth. Lily stared at the ebony frame of her embroidery hoop and the crimson rose blooming onto the white cloth. She smiled to herself. Yes, that was what she wanted, what she and James had been trying for all these years: a daughter with hair as dark as ebony; skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood. Lily could almost imagine the weight of her daughter in her arms.

Narcissa glared hard at her stepdaughter. "How are you supposed to take care of a child when you can't even do a simple thing like sew?" taunted Narcissa with an exasperated sigh. She made a drama of putting aside her own work in order to inspect Lily's. The scent of rosemary wafted up from the rushes as she walked across the floor, her blue skirts swirling after her like the wake of a ship. The other women had stopped working and held their breath, waiting for the next battle in the war between wife and daughter. Lily sighed. The spats between Lily and her stepmother were the only entertainment on offer while they were confined with her.

Narcissa took hold of Lily's embroidery, squinting a little in the poor light and shook her head. "No, no, Lily. How many times do I have to tell you? Small stitches, refined, not coarse like that. A peasant woman could do better than you! Unpick it and do it again... what's this?" she demanded, hauling Lily up by the shoulders and thrusting the linen close to her face. It was so close that Lily couldn't actually see what Narcissa was referring to, but she knew what it was just the same. Hadn't she been sewing it all morning?

"It's a tree," said Lily, looking Narcissa square in the eye.

Narcissa was only a few years older than Lily and they hated each other with a passion, each jealous of the other's claim on King Albus' affections. Lily had never known her mother, who had died in childbirth, so Lily could not compare her stepmother to her real mother, but she resented Narcissa all the same. And Albus always seemed to take Narcissa's side no matter what.

"A tree?" Narcissa shrieked, her silvery blonde hair catching the firelight. "This is an altar cloth and you desecrate it with a heathen symbol!"

"Aren't trees God's creations too?" asked Lily. "I wish the baby was already here so I could actually go out and see some of them rather than be stuck inside with you!"

Narcissa flushed with anger, grey eyes flashing like a stormy sea.

"And how can you dislike trees?" Lily continued. "Isn't that how you met my father? At the Beltane Rites?"

Lily should have seen it coming, but all she was aware of was a pink blur and a flash of rings before she felt the sting on her cheek. Lily stared at Narcissa in surprise; the two women attendants had their hands to their mouths at what had transpired.

"You're an evil, evil child! How dare you spread such lies about me! Your father will hear of this!"

"Tell him!" Lily retorted. "Tell him that you hit me! He will disown you!"

"Princess Lily, please calm down," said Lady Amelia. "Think of the child."

But Lily was beyond calm now. This fight had been brewing all the months of her pregnancy, for it was the one thing that Narcissa could not give to Albus: an heir. The Kingdom of Gryffindor would pass to Lily and her husband and Narcissa didn't like that, not one bit. Lily had heard that Narcissa had sought out midwives and herbalists, even witches and sorcerers in order to conceive, but none of them had been able to help. They all seemed to think the fault lay with Narcissa, but secretly Lily wondered if her father was too old to father a child any longer.

"Yes, dear Lily," Narcissa said in a sickly-sweet voice. "Think of the child. Think of that longed-for daughter. But what if it is a son you bear?"

"Then Princess Lily will love her son just as well!" snapped Amelia, but Lily couldn't reply as the pains ripped across her abdomen. It was early, far too early!

"You've cursed me!" Lily shrieked. "You and your witches!"

"Lady Adelaide, fetch the midwife! Fetch Dame Poppy! Quickly, now!" said Amelia.
Adelaide, a girl of no more than fourteen, bobbed a curtsey and rushed out to fetch the midwife. As the birthing fluid rushed from her, Lily wondered if, far from being too early, it was already too late.

***

James threw the reins of his horse to one of the stable boys, beyond looking after his horse as he normally did after every ride. Sirius, his best friend and King Albus' head huntsman, had ridden hard to give James the message that his child was on its way over a month early and Princess Lily was not expected to survive the birth. Both of their horses were sweating hard and panting for breath. James ignored the greetings of the servants and men-at-arms as he dashed up the stone staircase leading to his and Lily's apartments.

He was stopped outside their shared bedroom by Lady Narcissa (oh, and how she hated that she would never be called a queen!), who smirked at their misfortune. "You cannot enter the birthing room," she said snidely. "It is no place for a man."

"Out of my way! I will see my wife!" James protested, his heart faltering. Lily, oh Lily! She couldn't die, she couldn't! James could not bear it. He pushed Narcissa out of the way and entered the room where Dame Poppy was bent over the abdomen of his wife, a sharp knife in her hand. Lily was so pale; her red hair damp with so much sweat that it looked brown now. James closed the door behind him and slid the bolt home so that Narcissa and her bile would have no effect here.

James stared hard at his wife's flowing hair and that of the midwife; normally a man would only see his wife's unbound hair while they shared intimacies and he did not know where to look.

"Your wife was very distraught and the child was in distress, a natural birth would have killed her." It was only then that James noticed the incision in his wife's womb and he gasped in horror at the midwife.

"What have you done? What sorcery is this?" he demanded.

"Not sorcery, sire, another method of delivering the child. He is well, but will need constant tending if he is to thrive. He came out of the womb too soon; but he is strong despite being so small."

"Lily? How is my wife?"

"As I said she was distraught, I have given her a calming philtre. She will be fine, but she will never be able to bear another child. It is why the child was so early; her womb is damaged and it was a miracle that she even carried children this long."

James' heart ached for his wife. He knew how much Lily wanted a daughter; she had expressed no interest in wanting a son, but a son was what they had. "Children?" he echoed.

"It was twins, Prince James. The girl died."

"Twins?" James sank down on the clothes chest at the foot of the bed. If only the daughter had lived instead of the son! Lily would have been so happy then and James loved his wife so much that her happiness was more important than his own.

"If only it was the daughter who survived," James began, as if he was talking to himself, but in reality, he was watching the midwife and wondering if he dare asked what he wanted to. Dame Poppy pretended to ignore him, but he saw the flush of recognition in her cheeks. "Isn't there something you could do? Some magic?"

"You do not know what you ask of me!" Dame Poppy protested hotly. "I will not meddle in such unnaturalness!"

"But there is something, isn't there?"

"What you ask of me is magic of the darkest sort."

"But there is a way?" He kept pressing her.

"Aye, there is. But I pray you; do not ask it of me."

"Please. My wife has always wanted a daughter and you say she cannot bear another child. Please, do this for her. I would see her happy again."

"No, sire. I cannot."

"Do it, or I will have you hanged for a witch," James said calmly. The midwife dropped the bloody knife on the floor, her face as pale as that of Lily.

Dame Poppy bowed, but James knew it was no mark of respect, not after what he had threatened.

"Very well, sire. There is a spell, very Dark, that will enable the boy to take on the form of his dead sister. This is a form of necromancy that has been forbidden for hundreds of years. If anyone else knows of this, both of us will be executed. No one must know."

James nodded his agreement, as if he would tell anyone what he had done!

"The magic will not last forever, it will be only temporary."

"How temporary?"

"Ten years? Twenty? It is impossible to say, but one day his form will revert back to that of his birth and he will become male again. Are you sure you wish to put your child through such a thing? To be brought up as a girl, to be a girl until the spell can no longer keep up the pretence? To then suddenly turn into a male?"

James stared again at the pale, still form of his wife. It was worth it.

For Lily he would do anything. Anything.

Continue to Part 2