Lionsnake Manor

Lionsnake Manor

*

Shocks and Self-blaming

*

When Severus got to the end of his explanation, Lucius cursed aloud. "Like the life wasn't already hard enough for him," the blond man muttered angrily.

Severus sighed. "Unfortunately, the life rarely gives a single thought to our current difficulties before handing out its so-called gifts," he said. "You'll just have to remember to cast a contraception charm -- and try to make sure he won't notice it. We'll tell him after the full moon is over, it wouldn't do to have him too upset right before the transformation."

"I know, and I'll try to do that without him noticing," Lucius replied. "However, I cannot help thinking that he might already be pregnant. After we made love when we'd left the kitchen, he had stomach ache. Of course it could be just the usual pre-full moon symptoms, but it seemed to be even more painful than usually. It could just as well be his body trying to adjust to carry a baby."

"And most likely it is so," said the other Slytherin gloomily. With another sigh, he added, "Harry would say that it's not so, and that there's a tiny chance for the baby to avoid cathing the Dark Plague even if it is you and Remus's. However, as I don't have his ever-damned Gryffindor optimism, I'm finding it rather hard to believe."

"Gryffindors are expectionally good on hoping," agreed Lucius. Then he bent down to kiss Severus lightly on the lips. "We'll do our best," he said. "Now, let's go to find Remus, Sirius, and Draco, before Sirius is bored to death."

With a dry smirk, Severus followed him out of the laboratory.

*

It was three days after the full moon, and Remus's mating instincts had already eased enough to allow him to act lovingly around all his husbands. However, he was very confused when they sat him on an armchair, serious expressions on all their faces. Then they just kept glancing at each other, like silently depating who would talk first.

"Remus," said Severus at last when nobody else seemed to be up to speaking. "I -- I've made a mistake."

This immediately gained him a couple of annoyed glances, and Sirius's huff, "It's not your fault, you prick." To this, all the others seemed to agree.

"But it is," argued the Potions Master. Then, again turning towards Remus, he said, "When I was checking all the cross-effective ingredients in the Wolfsbane Potion and the antidote... I forgot completely to check one important group of potions."

"And what's that?" asked Remus warily. It couldn't be anything dangerous, could it? Severus had checked every poison and harmful potion in his knowledge, and that was as good as any of those in existence!

At first Severus took a deep breath. Then he said, trying to be as calm as possible, "Male pregnancy potions."

Remus gasped. "You -- you don't mean --" he stammered, glancing at his husbands in horror.

"I'm sorry, but I do mean," said Severus sadly. "You practically drank a male pregnancy potion. As soon as I noticed my mistake, I of course informed Lucius of this, and he used contraception charms -- unknown by you, of course -- after that. But we still don't know whether you got pregnant from your first intercourse that day. And now, we have to test it."

Suddenly determined, Remus nodded. "Perform the test spell," he said quietly. In his mind, he silently prayed, 'Let it not be, oh, let it not be...' However, at the same time he already knew what would be the result. Nothing else could explain the stomach ache right after their lovemaking, it'd been so much worse than his usual pre-full moon symptoms.

At this, Draco raised his wand -- he was their Charms master, after all -- and pointed it at the werewolf's abdomen. After a quickly whispered charm, he gasped in shock as a slightly purple glow surrounded the tip of his wand. "I'm sorry, Remus," he said quietly. "You are indeed pregnant."

Now very pale, Remus bit his lip. "This baby," he said, "it won't live long."

"Maybe it will," Sirius argued. "It might not have the Dark Plague at all. And besides, it's not necessarily even Lucius's. Sperm cells live long enough for the father to be about any of us."

"That's maybe possible," the werewolf said with a bit bitter voice, "but it is highly improbable." With this, he placed a hand almost subconsciously on his still perfectly flat abdomen, caressing it slightly.

"I am so sorry, Remus," Severus said quietly. "I'm more sorry than I've ever been in my life. I should have thought of those potions and checked them, too. Really, I don't know what I was thinking by that time -- I really shouldn't have just forgot them --" In the end of this rant, his voice was getting alarmingly desperate. And Severus never sounded desperate -- never when he was in a normal state of mind, at the very least. What was truly alarming was that there had been times when he hadn't been -- and it'd never been pretty.

Sighing deep, Remus rose from his seat and crossed the room to the Potions Master. Closing him in a warm embrace, he said determinedly, "It sure as hell wasn't your fault, Severus. There was no way you could have known that this would happen. We all know that if you'd known, you wouldn't have allowed this to happen in the first place.

"He's right, you know, Severus," said Sirius, uncharacteristically serious -- no pun intended. "We've all already told you that it wasn't your fault. And we've told you that because it's true. Like Draco said, we aren't going to allow you to go down that road again."

"I know," the Slytherin said quietly, closing his eyes tightly as everyone's concerned eyes were now at him instead of Remus. "But it's not as easy for me to believe as it is for you to say."

At this, Remus just hugged him even tighter than before. The others just watched, not saying anything.