Angelinus

Chapter 5

The Unlikely Twins

Remus apparated to the gates of Hogwarts and began to run, the child cradled closely to his chest. His body was hadn't quite recovered from the full moon so he was much stronger and faster than any normal human as he sped up the paths and crashed through the doors into the hospital wing. Poppy Pomfrey snapped out a furious cry as the werewolf skidded to a stop, then she gasped when she saw the bundle in his arms.

"Oh my goodness! What has happened? Oh no! Is this Severus' new child? Oh good Godric, has he broken it already?"

Remus bristled indignantly but allowed the medi-witch to take the child from his arms and lay her down on the nearest bed. He stood back as she began to cast charms, her wand work becoming faster and even more precise as she discovered the extent of the poisoning in the child's tiny body. Remus could tell she was worried by the small, almost imperceptible tremor in her hands as she flitted around the high hospital bed.

Remus had some knowledge of medical magic having been a patient himself on more occasions than he wanted to remember. Now he was worried. Poppy was moving at the speed of light but her expression was not getting happier, if anything it was getting grimmer by the second. When she turned to him and said, 'get Dumbledore,' he knew it was very, very bad and he fled.

~~<*>~~

With his usual cat-like agility, Severus landed on his feet when the portkey dropped them on the path outside the gates to Hogwarts. Sandy was not so lucky and would have stumbled and fallen on her face if Severus had not caught her arm. She steadied herself with a breathless 'thank you' and looked around in interest that began to wane as soon as she saw where they were. There were sharp grey crags, scrubby bushes with small yellow flowers and instead of the lush grass travel posters touted, there was a sort of rough, low ground cover that had the faintest hint of purple about it. The sun was bright and cheery but the landscape seemed to leech any warmth or pleasure from it. Sandy shivered and pulled the collar of her jumper closer about her neck.

"Well," she muttered irreverently, "I either get murdered here or I discover the truth about the Hound of the Baskervilles."

Severus glanced down at her with a faint frown that morphed into a tiny grim smile when he realised the problem. Pulling his pale wand, he turned the tip onto himself and murmured 'Finite incantatem'. His Burberry raincoat immediately became his usual robe of linen and velvet with the pockets and hidden places in the lining all in tact. Ignoring the girl's startled 'wow' he pulled out a tiny vial and studied it carefully before glancing around. Spying a convenient pebble, he called it to his hand and transfigured it into a goblet.

"Holy Shit! That was amazing!" Sandy exclaimed in delight.

Snape sneered at her, causing her to sober slightly as he eyed her up and down. "How heavy are you?" He asked unexpectedly.

She blinked. "Fifty six kilos," she replied promptly.

"That would be eight stones and perhaps ten pounds," Severus mused as he broke the seal on the vial and added half a dozen drops to the goblet he had transfigured. Corking the vial, he muttered another incantation over the cup then handed it to her. "Say your name three times then down the contents of the cup."

"What is it?" she asked dubiously as she stared into the depths of the shimmering bluish fluid. Glancing up, she caught his expression and chose to follow his instructions immediately, gabbling her name before he burst a blood vessel. It tasted of rotting lemons and was really quite foul as it hit the back of her throat but she saw the supercilious man's eyes flash with amusement so she gritted her teeth and downed it in one. "Jeez! That was really foul! You really enjoyed watching me almost chunder, didn't you? You know, I should just up-chuck all over your nice shiny shoes... Oh My God!"

The last was breathed in awe as the potion took hold and her senses were cleared of the Muggle-fuddling magic. The barren landscape was suddenly alive with bright, flourishing gardens, the bleak, relentless crags were transformed into a fairytale castle of soaring towers and crenulated battlements. Flags and banners cracked in the breeze off to the far right and a huge lake spread out to the left. Sandy knew her jaw was hanging but she didn't care as she turned shining eyes on the tall, thin man at her side. Even he looked less like a normal person and more like a wizard to her new sight.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," he said softly, a faint smile curving his lips without the usual cynicism.

"It's beautiful!"

"It is, and we are wasting time. Step into the gates before the potion wears off so that you will be recognised by the school." He took her elbow and led her forward, through the gate that gave her a strange, prickling sensation all through her body. "You are now able to live here for a period of time but once you leave the grounds, Hogwarts will disappear for you and you will not be able to find it again without the help of a wizard."

"You know," Sandy mused uncertainly as she eyed the curved and sloping path that meandered through flowerbeds and past fountains on its way up to the huge, double doors of the castle, "it's all very pretty but those doors must be all of a couple of kilometres away. How do we get there?"

"We walk, unless of course you have a broom somewhere about your person? I thought not. Shall we go?"

"Oh, you are a sarky old bastard, aren't you?" Sandy laughed ruefully. "Oh don't get your knickers in a twist," she replied as his face darkened again, "Lacky was just as sarcastic and sharp tongued most of the time, but she was also a very good friend." Her face clouded.

"You seem to miss her," Severus remarked, taking her elbow and urging her to begin the walk to the castle. "I remember very little about Lachrima, only that she was kind to a rather sullen and sarcastic younger cousin."

"Yeah, she said you were a sad case." Sandy paused then nodded resolutely. "Lacky was my best friend, closer than a sister despite the age difference, and she told me a lot about herself, her family and most of her inner thoughts. She told me about your father and grandmother, and how they were. Sorry." She winced, as the tall grim man beside her seemed to stiffen and pull away from her. "She explained that wizarding families still hid that sort of thing behind closed doors. Us Aussies tend to drag child and spousal abuse out into the sun and make sure it curls up and dies a death. But we are way off the track now. One of the reasons she named you guardian rather than anyone else was for just that reason. You'd been there and you were less likely to fall into the same trap as your parents, she knew you abhorred violence against a child."

Severus realised he had stopped walking to stare at the small woman who was blithely ripping apart the neat walls he had built around some of the most horrific memories of his childhood. He snapped his mouth shut and carefully unclenched his fingers; he had put a couple of his nails through his hands, again! "Lachrima seems to have lost all inhibitions, indeed all sense of propriety after her emigration."

"Actually, she was trying to convince me that you were a suitable guardian for the kids. Look, she warned me you would be hostile and probably out of your depth at this point but I promised to explain the kids, just the way she wanted me to. First of all, she married Graham Morecombe who is my cousin and also a Squib. They were married for twelve years, very happily I might add, making the family sheep station grow and prosper. At first they wanted children but there were complications. They were pretty much told that children were out of the question and to resign themselves to adopting at some point in the future. Anyway, when Lacky was almost fifty she found out she was pregnant and she was shocked to say the least. They hadn't factored children into their plans for obvious reasons, but it was as if their whole world had been waiting for the pregnancy to happen. I don't know if you know anything about our medical stuff but they take ultrasound pictures of the baby in the womb and Lacky was so thrilled, she kept showing everyone pictures of the baby. Graham was a good provider and Lacky was shrewd with their money so the kids are well provided for. I have the paperwork in my bag."

"Baby? But... Apologies please continue to explain." Severus nearly bit his own tongue trying to stifle the questions he had.

Sandy laughed and skipped a couple of steps to keep up with his longer stride. "Love those old fashioned Pommy manners! Okay, there were problems and complications all through the pregnancy. At one stage there was a threatened miscarriage and some nasty bleeding. Only bed rest and a bunch of pills stabilised the baby. The baby singular, was born, a little girl, six pounds ten ounces of bundled joy. Fifteen minutes later the newly born Angelina gave a newborn cry and turned into a seven pound two ounce baby boy. I'm not talking about a hermaphrodite or anything; I'm talking about a complete change of child. The doctor and midwife were completely flabbergasted and thought someone was pulling a scam but the baby kept changing from one to the other; sometimes right in someone's arms. Lacky er, oblivioused-" Sandy cocked her head and Severus grimaced, giving her the correct term. "-Right, Obliviated the doctor and put a set of memories in the place of just a boy being born because girls can wear jeans but boys can't wear skirts. Then they took the baby to Sydney to a Macquarie Street Medi-wizard to see what happened. Lacky told me the wizard was full of medical spells and charms but the bottom line was pretty grim. You know how some wizards have half a soul and have to find their soul mate to make it all perfect?"

Severus gave a nod.

"Well Angelinus had two souls in one body and he surmised that the threatened miscarriage was one of the bodies dying. Because of the intervention by non-magical medicine, the second baby was saved and the soul of the first baby was trapped with no-where to go except into the second baby along with the original soul. Fortunately or unfortunately the resident soul chose to allow the second soul to stay. So that's how come we have Angelina and Linus, Angelinus, as the kids call themselves."

Severus stared at the ground unseeing as he stalked up the path, deep in thought. "And what was proposed to try and cure the problem, do you know?"

Sandy bit her lip. "Lacky was furious!"

Turning, Severus stopped to stare down at the girl in surprise. "Why?"

"The medi-wizard suggested that the intruder soul be exorcised, that it was like a vampire on the body and was a hazard to the baby's health. He even tried a charm on Angelinus without permission and caused them to be ill for weeks. Graham punched the pompous bastard in the nose and I think Lacky said something about total petrification..." she broke off as the tall man beside her gave a bark of sheer amusement.

"She cast Petrificus Totalus on a medi-wizard? Lachrima always had a terrible temper. I would have liked to have seen that! Do continue," he offered cordially, still chuckling.

"Anyway, they decided that they could wait until the kids were older before they tried to do anything. The kids were happy, they were healthy enough and because of the isolation of the station, it wasn't obvious and other people's opinions didn't matter." Sandy sighed when she realised they were almost at the huge castle doors. "Then the drought caused all the creeks to dry up and other problems and finally there was a raging bushfire. They caught the idiots who started it but it was too late for Graham and Lacky by then. I got the letter naming me guardian and executor so I sent you the note and here we are," she said heavily as they approached the human sized entrance cut into the huge double leafed doors.

Snape hung back and bowed her ahead, allowing her to enter the huge hallway. She stopped in the doorway gaping. Vaulted and buttressed, the entrance to Hogwarts shamed some cathedrals with the grandeur of its stonework. It was all highlighted and showcased by candles and flambeaux around the walls. A graceful curve of marble stairs ascended to the shadowed upper stories and suits of armour stood guard in a number of niches around the walls.

Half a dozen kids in black robes were crossing the hall and turned to stare at the strange girl who was staring about with wide, wondering eyes. "Hoi you, where did you pop up from?" one of the boys yelled cheekily, their path starting to curve toward the stranger.

Sandy was about to answer in kind when the boy literally blanched and one girl bolted. "Professor Snape!"

"Missss-ter Horner, I would suggest you relearn your basic manners on how to greet a guest. To assist in what is obviously a lost cause, I think twenty five points from Ravenclaw and a detention with Mr Filch should act as a suitable aid to memory."

Sandy shivered, as a cold breeze seemed to blow through the huge space, driven by the cold, purring tones of her companion. Blinking nervously, she turned but the man was already grasping her elbow to lead her off down a side corridor, the children scurrying away furtively. "Did you have to be so mean?"

"Miss Solstein, I do not question your expertise in handling small children, do not question mine in handling adolescent dunderheads like Lucas Horner. He is nearly as bad as some of my Slytherins when it comes to bullying younger children. Ah, the Infirmary."

It was straight out of Victorian times, rows of iron bedsteads with starched white sheets and flambeaux in sconces around the walls. Small chests of drawers stood beside each bed and the floor was an uncompromising white stone. It wasn't dark, the tall narrow windows letting in the cheerful sunlight and adding some slight gilding to the fluffed up pillows on the beds. It smelled of potpourri and flowers, unlike the usual antiseptic stink of medical wards, odd but not unpleasant and nothing like the modern hospitals Sandy had worked in. At the far end of the small ward, a woman in a Florence Nightingale outfit was waving her arms and muttering over the tiny child who looked lost on the expanse of white. As they approached, the woman looked up distractedly, a glimpse of sheer relief tingeing her expression.

"Severus! I'm desperate! The child is not responding to the usual remedies for morpheas malicia and I don't know what else to try!"

Snape glided forward, his robes billowing as he took a stance opposite the medi-witch. His short wand was all but lost in his hands as he cast a revealing spell over the child and sucked a silent breath. A long thin hand dived into the black folds of his robes and a tiny crystal vial was quickly opened. A goblet leaped to Severus' hand as he measured out a few drops of the potion then added three more vials before tapping it with his wand. Pomfrey helped hold and steady the child while he carefully coaxed a few drops of the mix into the little rosebud mouth. The child mewled and shuddered but Severus massaged his throat until he swallowed. A fleeting shadow of relief flitted across the long, sallow face then Snape straightened and turned to catch Dumbledore's worried blue gaze.

"The children are dying," he said flatly, wrapping his robes around his thin form with a movement that should have been flamboyant but was more like dragging on his armour as he straightened and stiffened, his whole being radiating solid indifference.

Albus watched the hard won relaxation drain from his favourite almost son and could see the internal walls re-knit themselves before his very eyes. Severus was boarding up his humanity and literally retreating into the war mentality he had adopted during the conflict. Sympathy flooded his soul and Dumbledore tried to convey his condolences but Severus was untouched as he turned away, refusing to accept any comfort in the cusp of the crisis. As they watch the little girl became a slightly larger boy. They all turned enquiring eyes to Sandy. A small mewl of distress made the old wizard smile sadly at the young woman who was covering her mouth with one hand.

"Angelinus is two souls in one body, their whole being is only sustained by the magic. Without the magic, one of the souls will die and then the other will die too," Sandy said thickly, tears making it hard to swallow.

"How remarkable," Albus said softly, a wash of understanding suddenly making the situation clearer. "Ah! Miss Solstein, I am Albus Dumbledore, and I am pleased to meet you, despite this troubling situation."

"Can't you do something?" Sandy demanded, turning to include everyone, even the hovering Remus, in her desperate plea. "You're wizards! You're supposed to be all powerful!"

A strangled snort of disgust from Snape made her flinch made them all flinch. Shaking aside Remus' detaining hand he strode away, slamming the door after him. Remus turned imploring eyes on Albus, an unspoken plea in his gaze.

"We are wizards but we aren't all powerful, more's the pity. What can you tell me Poppy?" Albus asked, casting his own acclaro charm over the child.

"There's more at work than the morpheas malicia, something that is destroying the boy's internal magic and for some reason, he is dying physically, not just magically."

"Can't we just put some more magic in, to compensate?" Remus asked, biting his lip in distress.

"No Remus, it takes Dark Magic to create that sort of loop."

"And only a Dark Wizard or a Dark Creature can cast it," a soft, cold voice purred in the shadows.

Sandy gasped and stepped back as a piece of the shadow detached itself. A seemingly bodiless head drifted into their midst as Snape glided forward, his feet silent. His whole aspect had transformed entirely although no physical change had occurred. Remus put out a hand to touch his husband tentatively but was ignored as Snape circled closer to Dumbledore, never breaking eye contact as they stared at each other.

"Its time Albus," he murmured, eyes narrowing. "We have the Dark Wizard and the Dark Creature, only your word is restraining us."

"Severus, you know I..."

"Cannot? Will not, more like. Release me or the child will die, you know it for a foundation truth."

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked, staring from one to the other, smelling the secrets sparking between the two powerful wizards, feeling cold currents of hostile magic poking and prying, trying to get in. He may as well have spoken to a wall as he was ignored totally while Severus wove a slow, slithering circle around Albus who refused to turn or acknowledge the taller, younger man who stalked him.

"Severus, I cannot exchange your soul for the child's. It has taken you years to recover from the last time you walked in Darkness. I cannot take the risk of losing you again. Besides, there is Remus to consider. He is tied to you Severus by the mating bonds you both created a mere week ago. You know they weren't limited bonds, that you both exchanged half your souls and now you are both inextricably linked. If you fail to care for your own welfare then think of Remus'!"

"Refuse this and you have lost all of us," Severus murmured, a threat wrapped in a silky black whisper. "Tell me Remus, how does a wolf react to the threatened destruction of his cubs?"

Remus sucked a sharp, involuntary breath, his eyes narrowing and his posture becoming predatory. For the first time, Sandy could see the wolf in the small, light boned man, and it was an angry, alert beast. "No-one threatens a wolf's cubs, and gets away with it. Which is why they dare not let werewolves breed freely." If Severus' tone was controlled ice, Remus' was barely leashed savagery.

"For the sake of the exercise, how would you go about it?" Poppy asked without expression, breaking the stalemate.

"A warded space, a transfer of magic between myself and the children..."

"Wouldn't work, you have to cast it, you need a donor."

"A donor of what?" Sandy asked impatiently, not understanding the currents or the tension in the room. "If you need blood, their group is O positive."

All four wizards turned to stare at her as if she was barking mad. "Blood is only one aspect of the magic. They would need a magic donor too," Poppy muttered in disgust.

An epiphany suddenly struck Remus and he gasped, turning a wide-eyed stare on his mate. "Merlin protect us! You are thinking of blood magic and... Sev, you are talking about vampire spells, having one soul feed on another, aren't you? And that's why you ...... you need me as the magic donor."

"You are the only Dark Creature I have access too at this time, except myself," Severus said flatly, no warmth, no encouragement in his flat onyx eyes.

"And you think a transfer of magic will help keep the cubs, I mean children alive?"

"Long enough to find out what is killing them and counteract it."

"What he isn't telling you is that he risks activating his own genes, and you risk being drained to exhaustion and eventually death." Albus said disapprovingly.

"And if we don't, the twins will surely die," Remus concluded flatly. "What are your chances of success Severus?"

"I am a Potions Master, the best in Britain," he said with unconscious arrogance.

Albus looked from one to the other, his normally twinkling eyes flat and opaque with worry. Severus was like a son to him, even if the younger man would not admit to such a relationship. He had watched Severus almost destroy himself in defence of the Light and had sat more than one vigil by the potion master's bed when his life and sanity hung in the balance. To allow him to deliberately court Darkness was a repudiation of everything they had ever worked for, but in a way, the practice of Dark magic was Severus' birthright. The main hazard was that in resurrecting a Blood Rite, Severus could activate the recessive genes handed down to him by his mother's family and truly become a vampire, of sorts.

"Albus, please. These are our children we are trying to save, our only chance at a family," Remus pleaded softly, his amber eyes wide and worried, pleading.

'Damned puppy dog eyes!' Albus shook his head and stared at the mates, assessing their sincerity and commitment to each other and the cause. "Poppy, what are the children's chances if nothing is done, or if we wait until the research is complete before we attempt a treatment?"

"No chance. The children are rapidly succumbing to the drainage and will be dead by nightfall, a matter of four or five hours at most," Poppy Pomfrey pronounced grimly as the form changed sex again. Sandy sniffed back more tears before turning begging eyes on the very old wizard who seemed to grow older before them.

"Very well, but if something goes wrong, I may not be able to protect you, either of you."

"It's a chance we are willing to take," Remus said flatly, his eyes sliding to his partner who was still wrapped in his own personal black cloud. "Severus, what do we have to do?"

~~<*>~~

The ward was empty except for the main participants in the Rite. The child, female again, lay flat on a gurney, her feet pointing to the castle's magical centre, her arms spread at ninety degrees to her body. Poppy had been slightly horrified when Severus had asked that her torso be bared and washed with a potion he provided to cleanse and sanctify the skin over her jugular vein. Remus laid on a similar gurney with the top of his head pressed against the child's, his arms also spread at ninety degrees, his torso cleansed and treated in the same way. Severus hovered over the pair, staring deep into Remus' eyes for a long moment before he drew his black wand, tapping it to the side of a golden challis he held in his left hand.

The spell he invoked was as old as time and usually used to consecrate a child to serve as cattle to a vampire, a walking blood bank. Because Severus was not a vampire he had to use a rather illegal decoction he had purchased in Knockturn Alley many years before and for quite another purpose, to simulate the saliva of a vampire. He had quite adequate canine fangs if he chose to use them but they were not hollow and he could not puncture precisely enough to make the neat bite required. Instead, he chose to use the tip of his wand, dipped in potion to make a pair of tiny, free bleeding punctures in Remus' jugular vein, catching the resultant flow in the golden challis. A second touch of his wand sealed the punctures and he repeated the process with the child, taking a little less blood, as she was to be the receptor, not the donor.

In a slight twist to the original ceremony, Severus bared his own throat and drew his own blood in slightly less quantity to Remus' contribution but greater than Angelinus'. He could feel the strength draining out of his knees even as he sealed the wounds and carefully held the challis above the two heads touching below him. The spell was complex and one slip would kill a participant, but Severus had learned the language and the ceremony at his Grandmother's knee, and had the scars to prove he had learned it perfectly. His back and throat throbbed painfully as he formed the syllables, emphasis here, sibilant there, turn the challis three times clock wise. A pinch of myrrh. Stir anticlockwise with the index finger four turns; suck clean, tongue to curl twice. Ambergris, one gram and pixie skin, three square inches, powdered, ground together with a granite pestle then folded into the mixture until it is thick enough to stick to the fingers.

Transfiguring his wand into a brush, he drew the symbols on Remus' chest, opening a gate to allow a magical conduit to form. Remus gasped once as the magic was drawn to the surface of his skin, not damming the flow around his body but diverting a portion of it, and as a consequence, gathering a portion of his strength, ready. The receptor on the child's chest was also drawn in blood, much smaller but equally potent and ready to accept the flow of magical energy from Remus.

Before activating the conduit, Severus opened his own robes and drew a small control sigil on his own chest, connecting him to both participants. If something went wrong, the sigil would alert him in time to sever the connection so he could at least save Remus from any consequence of this folly. Because, and the tiny fraction of his soul that was not ruthlessly controlled cried out for Remus' forgiveness, if anything went wrong then the child would be sacrificed, not the werewolf!

Holding the challis with the small fraction of blood that was left above his head, Severus finished the spell, dripped the necessary drops on the two participants' foreheads, eyes and tongues, and quickly drank down the dregs, licking the inside of the challis clean before he slumped. Remus' eyes were now open and he looked so sad and worried as they stared at each other, as if asking for forgiveness for some unknown misdeed. Severus half smiled at his husband and for a moment he wondered if he had done something wrong, almost anticipated the cut of his grandmother's riding crop across his shoulders but then the spell took hold and ripped his guts out.

He screamed soundlessly, his mouth distended even as Remus cried out and the child gave a high-pitched gargle of protest that brought the three people hovering outside the door in at a run.

Remus and Angelinus were gasping great gulps of air, almost lifting off the bed at each horridly deep breath. Severus slumped to his knees, head hanging. He too gasped as if drowning before painfully clawing his way up the bedstead to check the punctures on his mate's and his child's neck. They were sealed and healed, the flow of magic between the two a steady throb in his chest. He paused and bent to kiss Remus gently, fleetingly, before straightening and pulling his robe closed over the bloody marks on his thin chest.

"It is done, we have bought twenty four hours," he said without looking at the small audience. "Do not remove the sigil or the conduit will be broken. Where is the original Muggle medicine? Thank you Poppy. I will go straight to work."

"Are you alright Severus?" Albus asked softly, laying a hand on one thin, black clad shoulder.

Severus hissed at him, baring his fangs then controlled himself mercilessly. "What do you think, Albus?" he sneered as he stalked away.