A Father's Love

A Father's Love

*

A New Life

*

"Papa! Papa!" called out a happy voice. "Come here, Papa!" A little boy giggled happily, his hair shining in the sunlight, golden and honey locks in happy disarray.

"I'm coming, Jeremy," replied the equally golden-haired man, though his hair was tainted with grey. As he reached the happy boy's side, a hand shot up to grasp his.

Remus basked in the warm sunlight, listening to his son's happy chatter. After only a year in Canada, Jeremy already spoke French as well as English. Even Severus was starting to learn, although he'd been very reluctant at first. If the country had two languages, Severus had said, why should he know them both? However, when Remus had "accidentally" let it slip that French was a very sexy language by his mind, the Potions Master had suddenly become a lot more eager to learn the other language of both his husband and their new home country. And, like Remus had come to notice, French sounded even more sexy when drawled on Severus's velvety tones.

With Jeremy Severus always spoke English, though. Thus the little boy had had no problems with settling into Canada. They often visited Remus's relatives, and he was the whole school's little pet. There wasn't a student in Maltedaux who hadn't loved the Potions Master's son from their first day there. Jeremy had even forgotten his overwhelming shyness by now, enjoying the attention.

Jeremy was a happy child nowadays, and healthy, too. Thanks to Severus's potions, he was no more smaller than other children of his age, despite the abuse of his earlier years. So, he was now just like any other little boy, only he didn't have a mommy but a papa and a father.

"Oi, Jeremy!" called a voice behind them. "Come here and play!" As both the son and the father turned around, they saw another little boy running towards them. He was Mark Grocer, the Charms Professor's son, and Jeremy's best friend. Behind him they saw his mother.

"Hi, Remus," said Emma Grocer as she reached his side, smiling as she watched the two boys starting to run around each other. "I thought I could look after Jeremy for a while and let you get some rest."

"Thank you, Emma," Remus said, smiling gratefully at her. "I truly could use some rest. Both Severus and all the students are busy now, what with the exams and all, and there's nobody who could look after Jeremy for me. He's a nice boy, but gets rather wild at times."

"I bet he does." The witch gave him a fond smile. "Now, get inside and see if you could tear Severus away from his work for a while. You need him more now than the brats' schoolwork."

Remus smirked, then headed towards the large building on the other side of the open field. His walk was not too fast, thanks to the bump on his waist. He was bigger than he should have been at five months along. The school nurse couldn't really tell whether he was having twins, and he couldn't very well go to a Muggle doctor, so he didn't know whether he was having two babies or just an unusually big one.

Either way, he was delighted. True, it would be harder to give birth to a large baby or twins, but now he didn't have to fear that his child or children would inherit his curse. If a lycanthropic carrier transferred the curse to the baby -- very unusual, but at times, it did happen -- the child was smaller than a wholly human baby. On the other hand, a zygote with werewolf genes could not become identical twins, and the chances of a male pregnancy resulting with unidentical twins were practically none.

So, despite the burden on his waist, Remus was on a good mood as he headed towards his husband's office. The werewolf had refused to raise Jeremy in dungeons, and so their quarters as well as Severus's office and classroom resided in a nice, airy tower. At first the Potions Master had protested against this change in his usual living conditions, but eventually he'd given in. After all, it wasn't like they had spent the school holidays in the dungeons even before. So why the school years?

They could no more go to the Snape Manor for the holidays. Well, so technically, they could have, but they had agreed not to go back to the British Isles as long as Albus Dumbledore was still alive. So, they would be spending the following summer half at the school, half at Remus's family home.

In fact, Remus was dreading the coming summer. Of course it would be wonderful to be able to spend time with his family, but being pregnant at summer was not a feat. The last month with Jeremy had been torture. Well, at least he had Severus to help him through it now.

The man in question was sitting in front of his desk as Remus walked into the office. "Where did you leave Jeremy?" he asked, seemingly cool but with affection shining through.

"Emma is looking after him," the werewolf replied. "She said I needed some rest."

"Sounds like Emma is a rather sensible woman." With this said, Severus returned to his papers.

Remus smirked at that. "She also said that I should drag you away from your papers for a while."

Now, Severus rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Oh, well. I guess you're going to force me out of my office if I don't come voluntarily," he grumbled, standing up from his desk. "It's not like I'm going to miss grading those papers. These kids know nothing about potions! With the younger kids, I can still fix some of the damage made by their previous teacher, but with the seventh years, this year was simply not enough."

"Speaking of teachers," Remus said as they walked slowly through the corridors, "this came today." He drew a letter from his pocket and handed it to Severus, who read it immediately. As the Slytherin had read it through, he frowned and gave the letter back to his husband.

"Well, I guess the Headmistress will agree," he said. "At least I don't see any reason why she wouldn't agree. But are you sure you can handle that?"

Remus shook his head in exasperation. "Severus, I'm not a porcelain doll," he said. "It's not like Albus himself was coming, now is it? Of course I can handle them. They've done nothing to us. The worst they could do is to remind me of the past, and that can hardly harm me or the baby, now can it?"

"Speaking of which..." Severus wrapped an arm around his waist, placing a hand onto his stomach. "Has the baby kicked yet?" he asked, half curious, half longing.

"Not yet," Remus said, smiling at him. "Don't worry, soon they will. I think that the later he or she starts kicking, the better -- Jeremy certainly mutilated my ribs enough back then."

"Poor you." Severus placed a light kiss on his temple. "Would you feel better if you had a bath?"

Remus smirked slyly at him. "Only if you were there with me," he replied.

And of course, Severus was delighted to make his husband feel better.

*

Two days after the end of the term, family Snape got some guests. To be exact, several Hogwarts professors, who had come to see how their former colleague was faring abroad.

"You look wonderful, Remus," Poppy Pomfrey praised as she saw the pregnant werewolf. Then, with her tone turning motherly, she asked, "You have been taking care of yourself, haven't you?"

Remus chuckled. "Of course I have, Poppy," he replied. "And even if I hadn't, Severus's care would have certainly been enough. It's been all I can do to keep him from stopping me from being outside. He seems to think that because I am pregnant I might break if the wind gets too harsh."

"And is this Jeremy?" asked Minerva, looking at the grinning boy by Remus's side. "My, my. He seems to be such a big boy already. Are you a big boy, Jeremy?" she asked then.

Now, Jeremy smirked very Severus-ly. "Oui, je suis," he replied. ["Yes, I am."]

"Oh, my," laughed Filius. "He truly is your son, Severus." Then, his expression turned into one of suspicion. "By the way, Severus," he said, "you wouldn't know anything about the headaches that have been disturbing Albus lately, would you?" Ah, yes. He wasn't a Ravenclaw for nothing in the end.

"What, me?" The Potions Master acted innocent. "How could I know anything about those? I haven't been to Hogwarts for a year now, if you remember. Perhaps, if you described his symptoms better, I could try to detect what exactly is wrong with him." Remus gave him a suspicious glance, but didn't say anything.

Minerva raised an eyebrow. "Ever since Christmas, he has been suffering of random headaches," she told. "They are becoming more and more frequent, and every time is worse than the previous one. Lately, he has been also experiencing problems with his eyesight. It's not a migraine, though, Poppy's already checked him for that. So, do you have any idea of what might have caused that?"

"Oh, well," Severus said with a mock-sigh. "Poor Albus. It seems that he has somehow managed to be poisoned with Marivetas." He smirked evilly. "Your dear Headmaster can expect headaches that just keep getting worse, and eventually, he will become blind. He won't die, though. Pity."

"You don't seem too sad about his unfortunate fate," observed Poppy levelly.

"Why would I be?" asked the Slytherin, raising his eyebrow. "He took our son from us and let us think that he was dead for four years. That almost drove Remus to suicide. I most certainly won't mind anything bad that somebody decides to do to him. Of course I have no idea how anybody could slip such a vicious poison to him, although I do have to suspect that he isn't as suspicious as he should when it comes to chocolates he receives at Christmas. Not all people have his best interest in mind."

"Of course, this is all just a guess," added Filius. "You have no idea of what has happened in reality."

Severus smirked broadly. "How ever could I?"

*

Filius, Minerva, and Poppy stayed for a couple of days. Jeremy certainly did not have time to miss the students as these three gave him all the attention he could ever want. Severus enjoyed talking with his former colleagues, while Remus just had a good time resting and collecting strength now that Jeremy had somebody to look after him all the time.

At last, however, the visiting members of Hogwarts staff had to leave. The following day, the Snapes headed for the Lupin Mansion in Quebec.

"You look thoughtful," noted Remus as they said together in a comfortable silence. "What is it?"

"Oh, it's nothing," replied his husband nonchalantly. "Just something Minerva said."

"Oh?" Remus raised an eyebrow. "And what did she say?"

"She just noted that if Albus becomes blind, he hardly can fulfill his Headmaster duties," Severus said. "Then, she will become the Headmistress. And as they haven't been able to find a proper Potions Master, and they'll also need a Deputy Headmaster when Albus retires, well..."

"She offered you the position?" Remus asked. He already knew the answer.

"Yes." Severus sighed a bit. "I said that I'd think about it. There are so many things to consider. Jeremy's been really happy here, what with the friends and all, but on the other hand, I would like to see him attend to Hogwarts. So, I told her that we would see with the time."

"Right." Remus snuggled up to his husband, resting his hands on his rounded abdomen. "We'll also have to see what this little one or ones think about moving." With a chuckle, he added, "My dearest aunt wouldn't like it too much, however. Never mind my grandmother."

At that, Severus grimaced. "That's it. We're going back," he said half-jokingly. Remus's grandmother, Marié Lupin, and his aunt, Amelié Lupin, who were running the Lupin Mansion, had been absolutely delighted to have Remus and Jeremy visiting them so often. They most certainly wouldn't like them moving away. And, as they already disliked Severus for some reason, it would be clear whom they would blame for it if they didn't see dear "Remie" and Jeremy as often in the future.

"Well, that'll come later," the werewolf decided. "You're right, though. Maltedaux is good and all, but I would like to see our children in Hogwarts." With a grin, he added, "Hogwarts needs more Marauders."

"Merlin forbid that," was the only reply he got.

*