Lionsnake Manor

Lionsnake Manor

*

Falling Deeper

*

It was a bright day, and thus, the inhabitants of the Lionsnake Manor were all in the garden of the manor. They weren't alone, though. At the moment, they were accompanied by a whole lot of Weasleys.

After they had established their relationship with Harry, even Lucius and Severus had managed to start being civil to the Weasleys. At first the Weasleys were suspicious, thinking that it was some elaborate Slytherin plan, but finally the redhaired army accepted them all with open arms.

So, now some Weasleys were visiting. This included, of course, a whole lot of children. Ron and Hermione had, despite still being young, managed to produce four children, two of whom were twins. Bill and his wife Fleur, on the other hand, had six kids already, the eldest being five. This included one set of triplets. Except for Ginny and Colin's little baby, however, the other Weasley children had managed to stay childless, but even these eleven caused definitely enough noise and life in the garden. At the moment all the Weasley mothers and Charlie's pregnant husband, Valentin, were talking with the pregnant men. The rest of the Weasley clan, this being their husbands, Fred, George, and Percy, and Percy's husband Oliver Wood, were eyeing them nervously while keeping an eye on the kids.

Sirius was very happy at the moment. He was three months pregnant with very healthy and well-growing twins, he had five loving husbands, and they had three more children on the way. The day was beautiful, and the laughter of the Weasley children made him think of the future summer days with their own children running around in the garden of the Manor. He could hardly wait to see that.

"Unca Siri?" asked a tiny voice from his side. Looking down, Sirius saw the eldest of the little redheads.

"Yes, Carol?" he asked with a gentle tone. "Is something wrong?"

"Why's Unca Sev asleep?" asked the tiny girl, frowning. "Unca Sev never sleeps at days!"

Sirius's eyes flew wide as platters with surprise and shock equally. No, Severus did not sleep in the evening. He never slept other than at night. Never. Trying hard not to panic -- that would do no good for the baby -- he asked as calmly as he could, "And where was Unca Sev sleeping, Carol?"

"In the hall. On the floor," replied the girl seriously. "Is Unca Sev sick?"

"Yes, Carol," said Sirius quietly, all colour escaping from his face. "I do fear that Unca Sev is indeed very, very sick." With this, he exclaimed, "Lucius and Remus, you keep outside!" Then, he rushed towards the door, Draco and Harry on his heels as they realized that something was wrong, something that probably involved Severus. The Weasleys, Lucius, and Remus were just left to stare after them.

They soon found Severus. The Potions Master of their family was lying on the floor of the entrance hall, obviously unconscious. A shaking hand holding the wand, Sirius whispered, "Enervate."

Nothing happened.

After waiting for a moment, Sirius again commanded, his voice now even more desperate than before, "Enervate! Enervate!" And again, there was no reaction from the darkhaired Slytherin.

"For the love of Godric, he can't be," murmured Harry. "Quick, Draco. What was the diagnosis spell?"

"Let me think," said the younger blond, frowning slightly. "Oh, yes. Let's see..." Drawing his own wand, Draco pointed it at Severus's chest and murmured a low, quick incantation. A moment later, a greenish blue light surrounded the middle Slytherin of their family.

"By Salazar, it is true," muttered Draco. "He indeed has the Dark Plague."

"We have to check Remus and Lucius, too," said Sirius gloomily. "Either one or both of them might have the inactivated form of the disease. If so, we'll have to close that one into the same place as Severus, but anyway, the 'clean' one or ones have to be kept away from him." With an even quieter voice, he continued, "Oh, sweet Merlin, let Remus not have it..."

*

"Well?" The question came from several mouths at the same time. Four pairs of eyes were locked at Draco as he entered the room where most of his husbands were. The Weasleys had left immediately after discovering what had happened, although not before making sure that none of them was going to panic or anything like that. After testing both Lucius and Remus and, to his great relief, discovering that they were safe from the Dark Plague, Draco had spent a lot of time trying to do something for Severus. Now, the four other men were all waiting to hear about his possible achievements.

The young blond sighed, shaking his head. "I'm afraid that I can offer only bad news at best," he said gloomily, sitting down on one of the free armchairs in the master sitting room. "It seems that he had caught Dark Plague just before he developed the antidote. The antidote kept it from activating as well as from spreading to Lucius and Remus -- they are safe at the moment. However, Severus has apparently drunk some kind of a counterpotion to the antidote, thus triggering the disease."

"That idiot," muttered Harry, his bright emerald eyes veiling with tears. "That stupid, dear idiot."

"Indeed." Draco sighed again. "There's even worse." Now, the eyes were even harder on him as he struggled to tell the worst news he had. "After being kept at bay for so long, the disease seems to be even more vicious than usually. He won't die, that much I don't know, but he might be seriously damaged because of this. I can't tell the final results until later, but I know that it won't be pretty."

Now, he looked at his healthy husbands. Remus was pale and shaking, Lucius's arm comfortingly around his shoulders. The older blonde himself looked very serious, casting concerned glances at each pregnant man in turn. Harry was now biting his lip, trying to keep tears away from his eyes, a task in which he was rather unsuccessful. Sirius looked merely grim, even though he, too, was a touch paler than usually.

"So what do we do now?" asked Lucius quietly. His silver eyes bore into Draco.

Draco met the worried and serious gazes steadily. "We try to heal him," he said levelly. "You're the next best with potions, Lucius; you'll have to brew the Wolfsbane as well as the antidote for you and Remus until Severus gets better. Neither of you is allowed anywhere near him; we don't know if the antidote can keep you from catching the disease when it's activated in him. Other than that, well, we just try to live on and hope for the best." He fell silent, waiting for the others to say something.

"This is definitely no good," muttered Sirius gloomily. "At least now the only way is up."

Oh, how wrong he was, indeed.

***