Zigzag

Zigzag

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Chapter 10

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When Siriuses and Harries got into the big hall, almost everybody was there already. Just as they were taking seats, Remus Malfoy walked in and headed right for Remy. The young werewolf was at first wary, but to his great surprise found himself pulled into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you like that," the eldest werewolf said softly as he finally released his youngest replica from his embrace. "I had absolutely no right to take my frustration and fears out on you."

"It's okay," the young boy said softly. "I know that you've had a hard time lately."

"But that's no excuse." Taking a step backwards, he flashed a slight smile. "Goodbye, little one."

Rem looked understandably confused. He was just about to ask what the man meant when his eldest replica just simply disappeared into thin air. A quick glance around told everybody that Cane Lucius, Wheelchair Sirius, Severus Black, and Harry Malfoy had disappeared as well. Therefore, it was clear what had happened.

"Oh, well," said Dumbledore calmly. "It looks like their story has come to its -- hopefully happy -- end."

"I doubt that," muttered Brewer Severus bitterly. "Rather, they just all died in some huge accident."

"Why such a cheerful mood, my dear boy?" asked Dumbledore calmly.

"What do you think?" the teen spat. "Lucius just fell into a coma because of a huge loss of blood!"

"Oh, well." Dumbledore sighed and shook his head. Then he gazed at the people in front of him. "Very well. If I have counted right, we now have twenty Severuses, nineteen Remuses, sixteen Siriuses, fifteen Harries, and five Luciuses. A wholly different matter, however, is the question of how many of them can be considered capable of participating in any conversation." Glancing at the list in his hands, he said, "So, Vampire Lucius and Vampire Sirius are both in a coma at the moment. Scared Remus doesn't want to be present, and Wemuz is mentally too young. Just as well, Danpa is incapable of comprehensible speech, and Jeremy, Hawwy, Baby Harry, and Harry Pettigrew are all too young. Severus Baby-Shacklebolt is in a rather bad condition, and Father Remus is seeing to him. So, that leaves us with eighteen Severuses, sixteen Remuses, fifteen Siriuses, eleven Harries, and four Luciuses. Plus the originals, of course."

"And?" asked the original Severus, raising his eyebrow. "What exactly is the meaning of all this, Albus?"

"Quite simple." The Headmaster beamed at him. "We'll put together everything you have found out about the differences between the universes and try to figure out what our Author is like."

"And why on Earth would we do that?" asked Father Severus dryly. He still didn't trust Dumbledore.

"Because the more we know about the Author, the easier it is to try to guess what happens next in each universe," Dumbledore said calmly. "Even though we can't pass that information to your counterparts in your universes, it might make it easier to you to prepare yourself for the updates."

"Well, I'd say that the Author is a teenager," said Werewolf Severus. As the others looked confused, he said defensively, "What? Whenever the alternate universes aren't around the time of this original universe, the main characters are usually teenagers, or at least some of them are. It would figure that the Author is a teenager, too."

"I think we can also safely say that the Author is female," said Severus Junior. "Not only would telling about pregnancy be much more natural to a woman, but also I can't think of many male people who would make somebody being turned into a girl the main point of any universe." At this, he flashed a smirk at Remia, who glared at him. "The anorexia issues would also seem to be much more characteristic to a female -- not to mention the topics of rape and family abuse."

"A teenager girl, then," the original Severus decided, "with a definite penchant for dark themes. And only the last thing is in any way important to us." As his two replicas now glared at him, he said irritably, "What? Can you really foretell anything just by knowing the Author's gender and age?"

"Yes, we can," said Remus Potter. "With that information, we can tell that if a baby's gender is not known yet, it is most probably a girl." With this, he put his hands on his stomach, glaring at Severus, challenging him to disagree.

"Well, a simple spell can tell you that," Severus said dryly. "So, was there anything truly useful?"

Just then, however, Remia gasped. "You bastard!" she exclaimed then, swatting Straight Sirius's head. "How could you just make a mistake like that? What were you thinking about, or did you think at all?!"

"Stop hitting me, Remia," whined her boyfriend. "It's not like I did it on purpose!"

Everybody else looked confused, but Severus Junior's eyes widened. "Do not tell me that you are..."

"Pregnant, too? Yes, thanks to this irresponsible brat!" Remia glared at Sirius. "He messed up the Contraception Charm!" Then she glared at the Slytherin. "And you! Keeping that a secret! How could you do that to me?" she whined.

"Well, I hardly think my love life is any concern of yours," replied Severus Junior dryly. "If I decide to get engaged to my boyfriend, that's my problem, not yours. So is the said boyfriend's personality, and our possible future baby."

"What did your father say, anyway?" asked Straight Sirius, half out of curiosity, half for his need to get Remia's attention away from himself. "I can't imagine him just taking calmly the fact that he's going to be a grandfather!"

"Well, at first he was shocked, true," the Slytherin admitted mildly. "Then I just told him that it's Peter who I'm dating, that there's no way he'd abort the baby, and that if Peter accepts, we're getting married. After that and a bit more arguing, he finally just welcomed Peter to the Snape family."

At this, Severus Potter gave his son a serious gaze. "Don't you dare to ever do that to me and your dad, young man," he said sternly. "I'd rather not have any seven-month babies in the family."

"Well, there's no fear of that, now is there," snapped Remy, irritated. "Seeing that I don't have even a girlfriend, it's rather hard to me to knock one up, now isn't it?" Just then, his eyes widened, obviously at an update. Letting then out the most uncharacteristic whoop of joy, he suddenly hugged his father. "She accepted!" he shouted.

The said father, shocked at this sudden outburst, shook his head. "I know that, Remy," he said. "I was present in the Hall when you asked her, in case you managed to miss that. Well, at least you're not accompanying Minerva in the Ball."

"I'm coming there, too!" said Harry Lupin happily. "Hermione agreed to go with me!"

Everybody else looked now very confused. "Err... Excuse me, but what's going on?" asked Ziwiuz carefully.

Sirius Snape just shook his head in amusement. "There's going to be a Valentine's Day Ball in Hogwarts," he explained. "Remy's ex-girlfriend Samantha Green agreed to go to the Ball with him, so they're back together now. And seemingly Harry's going to attend, too, accompanied by our dearest Hermione Granger."

"Oh, and on the note of girlfriends," Severus Potter said levelly, "what I said earlier still stands, Remy. Even though you're with Samantha again, I do not want any news of future babies anytime soon."

"Fa-ather," whined Remy, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling. "Really, what do you take me for?"

"A son of a man who took his thirteen-year-old boyfriend's virginity in a broom closet on their fourth year," replied his father calmly. Then he gave his husband a meaningful glance, leaving nobody unsure of whom he meant.

Sirius Malfoy looked disgusted. "Please, stop," he pleaded. "It's hard enough to know that in some random universe I and Severus are together. I certainly do not need any mental images of one of my best friends and myself!"

"That can be quite fun, actually," said Innocent Sirius with a grin. "You should know all the fantasies I had of myself and James before I and Moony got together. Okay, so maybe you shouldn't," he added then at Wounded Remus's glare.

Before anybody could speak further, Remus Potter and Father Harry swayed as it was their turn to be updated. Neither of them could say anything, however, as just then one of the numerous doors out of the hall was opened, and Severus Baby-Shacklebolt stormed out. "No way!" he exclaimed. "The bloody woman must be out of her bloody mind!"

The others all watched with varying interest as then Father Remus followed him, looking very stern. "Severus Snape or whatever you are," he said, obviously on the last limits of his patience. "I have helped your counterpart through seven pregnancies this far, and Lucius through one. Severus has had twins twice. Everything that is worth knowing about risk multiple pregnancies and I don't know can be put into a nutshell -- a broken one. I certainly can keep your babies safe, and I do agree with the Madam Pomfrey of your world -- you should be in bed. And you won't leave it until after about four months! No sneaking off, either. That would only be bad to your babies."

To everybody's surprise, the Severus he'd been lecturing at just sighed and nodded gloomily. "Fine," he grumbled. "But I'm only doing that to keep my babies safe, not because you and Pomfrey are telling me to do so."

"Of course not, Severus." Father Remus rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Now, to the bed with you."

Severus Baby-Shacklebolt grumbled to himself, but was surprisingly obedient as he let himself be led towards his room by the werewolf. Everybody else just stared after him for a moment after he had disappeared from sight.

"That was not me," said Severus finally, "nor was it any of my copies. That spell must have done something wrong and got my evil clone or something. I will absolutely not accept the fact that I am in any way related to that man!"

"He is indeed your replica, Severus," Dumbledore said calmly. "He just has different priorities than you. His children are all he has left of his lover, and he'd die rather than let any of them get hurt in any way."

The Headmaster had hardly even stopped speaking as Spy Severus swayed a bit. As the others gave him questioning glances, he said, "Nothing important has happened in my world. The time's only gone forward by about a month, Remus is showing, and everybody knows that we are together. Oh, and of course they know of a baby being on the way."

"Awww," breathed Remia. "That's wonderful!" She was now all happy and cheery. If you hadn't known better, you could have thought she'd never been angry in her life.

"I'm sure it is," said Severus dryly. "However, I think we were gathered here for some purpose, as useless as that purpose is. So, perhaps we could at least try to discuss that now?"

However, it seemed that it hadn't been meant to be so. Just as he had closed his mouth after stating this rather well founded question, five people simply appeared out of thin air, falling then to the floor, unconscious. For a moment, everybody was startled. Then, however, Rem realized something. "It's Remus Malfoy!" he said.

Truly, it was. Now the others, too, recognized the werewolf and the other people of his world. They'd hardly changed at all, although the shadows under Remus's eyes had mostly faded away. Wheelchair Sirius was still sitting in a wheelchair, although he was not even nearly as pale as before. All in all, they looked rather good.

"Ah, well," Dumbledore said. "It seems that the Author wanted to return to them. Enervate," he said then, waving his wand over the five men. After a moment, they all sat up, well, except for Wheelchair Sirius, who was already in a sitting position. Blinking, they glanced around themselves.

"Okay, so we are back here," said Severus Black dryly, looking at the other people in a rather calculating way. Like the others noticed, however, he no more looked as worried as he always had before. In fact, he looked rather happy.

"So it indeed seems," Remus Malfoy admitted. Turning towards his nearest replica, which was Remus Black, he said, "In our universe, it's been about three months. It doesn't look like it was that long here, though. So, how long was it?"

"A few hours, I'd say," the other werewolf replied, shrugging. "You look happy," he then noted.

"Well, that might be because I am happy," replied the older man with a grin. Turning towards the crowd around them, he announced, "Olivia's with us, we have no worries, and all our friends are well, too. After the moment we left this place, our life has been just wonderful. Nothing bad has happened at all!"

"Well," Sirius Lupin said with a small smile, "that at least tells us one thing about the Author." As the others gave him questioning glances, he explained, "Our lives turned good just before we left from here, too. So, we now have a pretty good suspicion that the Author likes to give people happy ends."

At this, however, Severus Snape-Black snorted. "I'd truly like to see how she's going to give us that," he said bitterly. "You have gone forward for years, but in our universe, nothing has changed. She's probably going to keep me a freshly turned widower for the rest of my existence. Existence, not life, as my life is obviously not getting forward at all."

"Well, thank you for your positive input," said Lucius Snape dryly. "I really don't think --" Just then, he swayed a bit, as did the others of his universe. Everybody else leant forward a bit, curious to hear of the changes in their universe.

To their great surprise, Severus Malfoy turned really pale. "I think I'm going to be very sick very soon," he muttered, then immediately headed towards the bathroom, uncaring about the other people's inquiries.

Lucius Snape just shrugged, looking a bit worried. "Severus is pregnant again," he said quietly. "Two months along -- I don't know how he's managed to keep that in secret from me this long. Anyway, he's with triplets -- and there are already some problems with them." He sighed deep, then finished quietly, "He'll survive, though. He has to."

"Don't count on that," muttered Remus Lupin. "In life, you know nothing for sure, definitely not somebody's survival."

"Well, enough with the gloomy talk," said Laugher firmly. He was obviously getting uneasy at all the unhappy talk. "Doesn't anybody have any good news to tell? Anything at all?"

As if on cue, Severus Potter and the others of his universe were updated again. As soon as Harry Lupin had got over it, he broke into a broad grin. "I have a girlfriend!" he announced. "A real girlfriend!"

"Poor girl," muttered Sirius Snape as he heard this. "But who -- oh, no. You did not."

"Yes, I did," the honey-haired young man replied with a grin. "I asked Hermione, and she accepted to be my girlfriend."

Just as the people around were starting to get relaxed, however, Brave Severus simply collapsed. His face and hands were covered with cuts and wounds, and blood started to soak his robes. The others of his universe looked startled at first, then swayed again at another update. Now, Brave Severus regained his consciousness.

"What on Earth happened?" asked Remus Lionsnake from the teen, horrified. "You looked horrible just a moment ago!"

Brave Severus, however, did not reply. Instead, he just pointed at his throat and shook his head, looking sad.

"He can't speak," Mated Remus told quietly. "Some Slytherins attacked him because he'd helped me and Sirius. As an unfortunate combination of a Silencing Charm and a Cutting Charm, they managed to cut his vocal cords off. Now, he can't make a sound -- and Madam Pomfrey can't heal it. It's permanent."

Many people looked rather sick as they heard this. "That's horrible," whispered Dark Harry. "How can somebody do anything like that?" He shuddered at the mere thought.

"Well, this at least tells us another thing about the Author," said Dark Remus quietly. At their questioning glances, he explained, "She obviously finds it interesting to give people disabilities or injuries. We already have a limping Lucius and another sitting in a wheelchair, and of course one wheelchair-ridden Sirius and one lacking a lung. Then there areWounded Remus and Wemuz, and an anorexic Remus, an anorexic Severus, another with Lycanthropy, one mute, one blind, one a slave, and one a panda. Of course, we must not forget all those who have problems with their pregnancies."

"You're right," said Ziwiuz. "Of course, let's not forget Vampire Lucius and Vampire Sirius, who are both in a coma."

And now, Slave Severus swayed a bit. He glanced around, then said quietly, "In case anybody's interested to know, I and my Master are... in a relationship now." After saying this, he fell silent, his eyes intently on the floor.

"Indeed, we are," Master Sirius confirmed. Then, he simply drew the slave into his arms and placed a slight kiss on his lips. "You are gorgeous," he said quietly to the pale man who avoided his gaze. "Simply gorgeous."

"Get a room, you two," complained Remy, furrowing his brows. "It's certainly bad enough to see my parents kissing. I really don't want to see their clones doing the same!"

"At first, Son: They are not our clones," Sirius Snape said calmly. "And then, at second, you're really one to speak. As long as we still occasionally find you in our living room making out with your girlfriend, you have no right to complain."

"Why do I detect embarrassment around here somewhere?" asked Teddy with a bit of glint in his eyes.

"Most probably because it was very embarrassing, at least to my dear cousin," Harry Lupin said, grinning. "From what Hermione told me, I figured that he was just snaking his fingers under Samantha's shirt as his fathers walked in..."

At this, most people laughed, Remy looked extremely embarrassed, and Severus Potter just shook his head. Then, however, Father Harry spoke up. "We still don't know enough about all the universes," he said. "What do you think, could the Room of Requirements show us those? It's just a thought," he said defensively as everybody else turned to look at him. "It most probably won't even work, but it might be worth a try."

"In fact," Dumbledore said with a broad smile, "I think it just might work, and rather well on top of that..."

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