Risk // Sebastian Sallow

ALTERNATE ENDING

Start this immediately after Chapter 69.

Warning: Extremely, EXTREMELY sad, includes major character death. Read at your own risk (then go back and read the happy ending, I beg of you). Also it is in 3rd person to get everyone's points of view. I apologise in advance. There's a reason this stayed in my head 🫠

The transfer from the custody of MACUSA to the British Ministry of Magic wasn't as smooth as Olive had hoped. She spent many weeks stuck in transit with miscommunications from both ends and she had hoped for a brief moment that they'd all just think it was too hard and let her go. But what a ridiculous thought that was.

Because in the end, she wound up in the cold, damp cells of Azkaban Prison.

Time there meant nothing. She tried to keep track of the days at first, lining up small rocks in the corner to mark the days went, hoping she'd be able to keep track of her pregnancy too, but that faded quickly when she became unaware of when a day had actually passed.

She quickly learned to stay quiet. She'd remembered from her classes at Hogwarts that Dementors fed on happy moments and when she screamed, they came closer to her, filling her with that dark and dreary feeling that made her hope that she would simply die.

She was sure months had passed now, and while normal expectant mothers would find joy in feeling their baby move around, Olive did not. When she thought of it, it brought the Dementors near again.

So, she ignored it. When a foot got particularly caught in a rib, causing a pain she could not ignore, she would slam her head back into the brickwork behind her cot, sometimes drawing blood, sometimes not. The pain was better than drawing a Dementors attention.

But Olive's tactic worked. At some point, she couldn't pinpoint when, she didn't feel the baby anymore. Whether that be that her ignorance worked or the baby was no longer there, she couldn't be sure.

Until one particularly rainy evening, she felt a pain like she never had before. Olive didn't like it. This didn't happen in her day so now her schedule was all off.

And it didn't stop.

In fact, it got worse. And the Dementors came.

They began to swirl around her cell, seemingly enjoying her pain. The pain that was getting so bad, she couldn't help but scream.

And every time she screamed, others would too.

The prison was filled with a symphony of wailing.

Olive writhed on the cold, damp floor of her cell, hands over her ears, as each wave of pain more intense than the last.

In the midst of the agony, a sudden realisation struck Olive. Baby Sallow was still there, Baby Sallow was coming, and there was no stopping it. Panic set in as she grappled with the harsh reality of giving birth in the darkest depths of Azkaban like she'd been sentenced to do months earlier.

Truthfully, she didn't even realise that much time had passed.

Olive's breaths came in ragged gasps as she clenched her fists, the pain becoming relentless and she felt a surge of pressure.

She had remembered a book Sebastian had made her read on this when she first found out she was pregnant. It scared her, so she put it to the side. But when she tried to picture the words she'd read now, they were scrambled and made no sense.

What did she need to do?

But thankfully her body took over her brain, automatically starting the process of bringing Baby Sallow into the world.

She gritted her teeth and bared down, tearing off her pants in fear as they became stained with blood.

And before she could even think for another second of what she might need to do next, the cries of a newborn joined the cacophony of the other screams.