Switching Sides

Switching Sides

*

PMS and Pregnancy

*

"Awww, that was cute," chirped Juliet, closing the book she had in her lap. "All ended so happily and well! I'm so happy!"

"What book is it?" asked Lily curiously. As Juliet showed her the cover of a fairytale book, she smiled. "Oh, so you've got to fairytales in Muggle studies. Yeah, they tend to be very cute, at least more so than the Wizarding ones."

"Don't remind me about those," Juliet muttered. "I have to compare this Muggle one with some Wizarding fairytale, but I'm not really willing to read about all those betrayals and murders!" Truly, Wizarding fairy tales tended to be pretty dark.

"Oh, let me see that," Remia said, plopping down on Juliet's bed next to her. In the month and half she had already spent as a girl, she'd got pretty friendly with her dorm mates. It still taunted her that they hadn't gotten any further about putting Peter up with Severus, but you could never have everything, right?

Starting to flip through the colourful pages of the Muggle book, she smiled. If you didn't care about the Grimm brothers -- who were Squibs anyway, she'd heard -- Muggle fairytales were truly very cute. Well, aside from the occasional cruelness against wolves, but that could be dealt with. This one, however, was merely a description of a couple of happy kittens and their life.

Halfway through the book, Remia found herself in tears -- not for sorrow, no, but because the story was just too happy and cute. The kittens were healthy and happy, and the sun shone to everyone, and everybody found a nice home in the end. 'Damn,' she thought to herself. 'I'm really too oversensitive.' As soon as she'd thought about that, she froze.

The previous month, she'd found herself in tears or giggling with joy over the most trivial of things. Always in the deepest valleys of sorrow or just too giddy to care about anything, she'd almost driven all her male friends crazy. The other girls, however, hadn't seemed to care much.

And a week after that, she'd got the first period in her life...

"Does anybody have any idea," she asked, trying in vain to wipe away the tears that just continued to fall, "how long it is to the Day of D?" No, not the Day of Doom. The Day of Dot.

"Unless my calendar is badly off, about a week or so," replied Chloe offhandedly, not raising her eyes from her Transfiguration textbook. "I've had the worst headache since Tuesday, so I guess that's about it. Why do you ask?"

"Because," Remia said, shutting the book loudly, "I'm currently crying because a little, cute kitty just found a nice home to herself at last, and now all Mama Cat's children are grown up!" She shook her head in exasperation. "This is one thing I'll never get used to about being a female," she muttered, glaring at the tiny kittens on the cover of the book.

"Don't say that," Lily said, laughing. "You have no idea what it can be, you're only experiencing it for the second time. It can be the hell at times, true," she admitted, "but I really do not mind certain symptoms."

"Meaning that she doesn't mind her unusually high sex drive," muttered Juliet while frowning at the cover of a Wizarding fairytale book, not opening it. "Not that James would mind, either."

Now, Remia blushed. Yes, she had noticed certain things changing in herself regarding that part of her relationship with Sirius, fair enough, but she never could have been as blunt about it as Juliet. Well, Juliet never was one to hesitate much about anything.

Of course, the other girls all startled giggling. "Awww," giggled Sarah, "Remia's blushing! I wonder whether that particular symptom is familiar to her, too..."

At this, Remia hurried out of the dormitory. Not to escape them, however, but to find Sirius.

*

It wasn't often that Sirius suddenly found his arms full of a giggling girlfriend. Well, actually, it was rather often, but at least it was very rare when he was just sneaking through the corridors to pull a prank. "Remia," he breathed, not wanting to be heard. "What the hell are you doing?"

The brunette pouted. "I'm hugging you," she replied lightly. "Why don't you like it?"

"'Cause I'm currently in the middle of pulling a prank, that's why," said Sirius back. "And because Jamesie will kill me if I manage to blunder this one."

"Aww, stuff the prank," Remia replied lightly. "It isn't like you haven't pulled enough already." And with this, she dragged her protesting boyfriend away. Well, not so protesting after he realized they were heading towards the nearest broom closet. Once they got there, things got -- well, naughty.

...Only that Sirius forgot something. More precisely, he wasn't quite concentrated on the fact that he should have used a different contraception charm now that Remia was a girl. So, out of old habit, he casted the one meant for interaction between two boys. They were both too excited to notice anything out of ordinary.

Bad, bad Sirius.

*

It was early on Saturday morning as Severus Snape made his way towards a particular boy's toilet. He was going to meet a very particular person there, as it was too early yet that they'd be disturbed. His boyfriend had sent a message that he had something to tell to him, and Severus was curious to hear what it would be.

However, when he entered the toilet, all he could see was a Gryffindor with dirty blond hair, kneeling and, well, retching. Seemingly the boy did not feel well.

"Pettigrew?" he asked hesitantly. As there was no answer, he crossed the toilet floor to the other teen. "Hey, Peter, what's wrong?" he asked softly.

"...I hate you," muttered Peter after a moment of silence. "I hate you," he said then again, this time sounding a bit more confident. "This is all your fault."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Well, it hardly is my fault if you've caught a stomach bug," he replied levelly. "Or do you perhaps claim that it's sexually transferrable?" he added dryly.

"This is not a stomach bug," whispered Peter. "Not at all." Then, before he could say anything else, he was again retching into the bowl. Severus sighed, kneeling down next to him, rubbing slowly the smaller boy's back.

At last, Peter seemed to get his stomach a bit under control. He leant a bit awkwardly back against Severus, allowing the taller teen to wrap his arms around his shoulders.

"And now," Severus said calmly, like he wasn't just doing something most of people would have thought impossible to him, like showing human feelings, "explain. Why exactly do you hate me? And how on Earth could your undeniably miserable condition be my fault?"

"I said already, it's not a stomach bug," replied Peter tiredly. "And this bloody well is your fault." At this, the Slytherin raised an eyebrow. It wasn't often that Peter swore. "This is your fault because," the Gryffindor continued, "as I haven't slept with anybody else but you, and as I still am pregnant, it's quite fucking obvious that you are the other father of the child that's making me sick."

Now, Severus froze. After a moment of awkward silence, he managed to utter, "...You're pregnant?" It was like his usually so sharp mind couldn't quite grasp on the fact.

"Either it's that, or I shall get Madam Pomfrey sacked for lying to a student on such a crucial topic," Peter said in a sarcastic manner that reminded Severus very much of himself. Most probably it'd been he where Peter had learnt it from, anyway. "Besides, I feel ill in the mornings, I tire easily, I eat odd foods. I'm the classic exemplar of a pregnant person."

"Merlin." For a moment, that was all Severus could force out of his mouth. At last, however, he said, very quietly, "What on Earth are we going to do?"

Peter sniffed. "I don't know..." he muttered. "She told me to decide whether I'm keeping it as soon as possible, and tell her my decision by the end of the week."

"Salazar. Look, Peter, I'm sorry, really." It was rarely that Severus apologized to anyone, never, to be precise, but he felt that now was as good time to start as any. "What do you want to do about it?" he then asked quietly, hugging the other boy against himself.

"I don't know," replied Peter again, his voice a bit muffled as he pressed his face against the front of his boyfriend's robes. "I know I'm too young, and my parents certainly will not like it, but still..." He sniffled, then finished, "I just don't think it'd be right to terminate it."

"Then you don't have to." Wiping some of the dirty blond hair away from the other boy's forehead, he continued, "Look, Peter, I can't promise you much. A lot depends on our parents, and how they'll take this. But whatever happens, I'll be there for you, okay?" He turned his boyfriend's head around to look him in the eye, obsidian orbs examining the pale blue ones.

"Thanks, Severus..." Peter sniffled. Then he said, "If I'm keeping it, though, we'll have to come out to the public. You do know that, don't you?"

Severus rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Well, that'd at least put an end to Remia's attempts on matchmaking," he said, attempting to get a light tone into his voice. "She's noticed that you're interested in me, but is yet to discover whether I'm interested in you."

"Well, that does sound like her," Peter said with a weak smile. "Would explain the weird glances I've got from the girls lately, though..."

"Well, do not worry about it now," Severus said then firmly. "You need to be calm, do you hear me? Distress will only harm the baby." With a smirk, he then added, "Now, as my father is the nearest of our parents around, what do you think, should we tell him first?"

"You must be kidding," Peter sighed. "Most probably he'll kill me for being knocked up by his precious son!"

"Oh, stop exaggerating," huffed the Slytherin, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling. "Look, I know he's playing all cold and bastardly to the outside, but in reality, he's just a big softy. If I give him the puppy eyes, he won't say a bad word about you, us, or our baby."

"Puppy eyes? You?" echoed Peter disbelievingly. "You know, Severus, as much as I love you, I will not believe that you are capable of making puppy eyes!" As the Slytherin immediately gave him a demonstration, big, bright black eyes shining through the strands of black hair that fell to the pale face, Peter groaned and closed his eyes. "Okay, okay, I believe! Just stop it, right now!"

"Fine." Severus returned his expression to his usual indifference. "What about we go to breakfast now?"

"Breakfast?" Peter echoed, his stomach lurching at the mere mention of food. Then, not waiting for Severus's response, he again turned to worship the porcelain gods.

Severus sighed, rolled his eyes, and started to rub the smaller boy's back again.