Lily: Do you lot sense how much I love you? I don't think you can, because I love you enough to forego watching eps 5-7 of ISWAK2 and write this lovely chapter for you. How's that? Anyway, I'm warning y'all now, this chapter is heinously short. But that's because I felt bad for not having had anything in a while so I typed this out for you. I'm heading into my first round of tests too so I figured I wouldn't have enough time. This is just a little something to tide you over for a bit.
Chapter 28: Small Happenings
Sarah was a beautiful child, just shy of eight years old, she was as angelic as any painted cherub. Her skin was white and soft as petals, barely colored with a fading pink flush. Her flaxen hair fell in golden waves from her head, lying against her closed eyes and still throat. One little hand was curled around the slightly smaller hand of little Alex, her younger brother. Alex was blessed with similar cherubic beauty, his hair was shorter than his sister's and curled wildly atop his head. His eyes were open, they stared out at the world, a dazzling blue; one could only assume Sarah's eyes were the same beautiful color. Of course, now there was really no way to tell.
She was, after all, dead.
"You didn't have to kill them Fenrir", two adults clothed entirely in black gazed coldly upon the still bodies
"they made so much noise though, and they looked so easy to break" the werewolf licked his lips, the memory of their deaths playing briefly in his mind. His partner threw him a disgusted look,
"they were children, of course they were easy to break!" he snapped, Fenrir scowled at the other man,
"what's got your knickers in a bunch? They were just muggles!" he snarled.
"They were just muggles but muggles who will be missed you complete fool! Now their disappearance will go to the muggle papers and surely that old fool at Hogwarts will catch wind of it and then he will know we are on the move and alert his dogs. You've left a trail wolf!" Fenrir scowled deeper, unwilling to admit that the other man was right.
"Well…well it's only one disappearance, muggle children go missing all the time. There will be no need for that old man to feel suspicious" in a fit of anger, the werewolf kicked at one of the children's still forms. The body of little Sarah flew fifteen feet before hitting a tree and falling limply to the ground.
"ah" Fenrir said, grinning, apparently satisfied by the crunch of breaking bones "now, let's not argue. We should be on our way towards Hogsmeade, the Dark Lord awaits" he licked his lips and his partner rolled his eyes.
"Don't pretend as if you anticipate being reunited with our Master, you only anticipate the bloodshed" Fenrir didn't even try to deny this, he threw back his shaggy head and let loose a loud gravely laugh that echoed off the trees of the forest they stood in.
"That's the truth my friend, how well you know me!" he exclaimed, and began to walk.
His companion trailed behind him, lost in thought.
'Greyback is a fool' he mused, watching the werewolf slash his way through the brush 'the disappearance of two muggle children is common enough but once they are found, and with the smell and marks of a werewolf on them, Dumbledore will begin to suspect and then he will run his tests and discover the assailant and when that happens, he will surely be even more on his guard than ever'
Ahead on the trail Fenrir could be heard slaughtering then tossing aside an animal of sorts. The other death eater simply shook his head and walked on.
Severus Snape was drenched in sweat. His back and arms hurt and his feet were beginning to throb. The room was stifling, like a sauna with the heat on too high. He was sure he had sweated out about half of his body weight and he still had at least twelve batches more to go.
"Merlin save me" he groaned and stirred his cauldron eight more times, meticulously pacing his rotations. Why, why, why, had he agreed to make those contraceptive potions!? Thirty batches of contraceptive for St. Mungos, Four for the Potter brat, and a few for himself was entirely too much to squeeze into one weekend. Add brewing the "you know what" test to the mix and Severus knew he wouldn't be out of his room nearly at all that weekend. On Friday when classes were done, he had kicked a protesting Remus out insisting that he swore he would rest but not with the werewolf in the room with him, and had proceeded to brew potions until late in the night.
-Ding-
His timer went off, that meant that the "you know what" test potion was ready. Taking a deep breath, he waved his wand to bottle the stuff and waved it again to empty the cauldron. Waving his wand once more to lower the heat of the flame beneath the simmering contraceptive, he tucked the vial containing the test into his robes and hurried out of the potions room and towards his own rooms.
Remus was bored, too bored. He'd been sniffing around the potions room, in which Severus had locked himself on Friday and fro which he had yet to emerge, all day. Heaving a heavy sigh, he turned to go to his own room, giving up for the day, then the potions door opened and Severus rushed out.
"Severus?" Remus whispered, watching the troubled looking potions master look shiftily around before hurrying off towards his rooms. Remus looked after him for a minute before deciding to follow him. Severus did not look to good.
In the safety of his bathroom, Severus took out the potion. It was a slightly glowing blue that seemed reminiscent of summer days or cool forest ponds. But none of those came to his mind as he peered at it in the gloom of the bathroom.
"this is ridiculous" he said to himself, giving the vial a slight shake,
"let's just do it" he gave a deep breath and swallowed the potion.
It tasted pleasantly like fruit and went down his throat smoothly. Briefly he smirked to himself, another perfect Severus Snape potion. Then he remembered what the potion was for (and why he had to take it) and sobered quickly.
"Now," he murmured "to wait"
He walked out of the bathroom and came face to face with a worried looking Remus Lupin.
"What are you doing in here!?" Remus flinched at the snapped question and tried to answer but Severus interrupted him,
"never mind Lupin, I suppose you got worried or something foolish like that" he said and sidestepped the other man to continue into the room. Remus turned to follow him into the bedroom,
"well, that was mostly it, but I also wanted to just see you. You've been locked in that potions room since Friday" the werewolf said. Severus flinched as he felt the potion becoming increasingly colder in his stomach.
"Well Lupin, as you can see, there's nothing wrong with me. You may go now" the potion's chill was becoming unbearable, he needed to lie down, but if he did then Remus would know something was wrong.
"Don't lie to me Severus, you look like…well, like you've been run over by a hippogriff and then hung out to dry" Reus said dryly. Severus scowled,
"not all of us have the time to primp themselves to apparent attractiveness in the mornings Lupin" he snapped. Remus, used to Severus' prickliness, only smiled at this,
"I'm just saying Severus, you look terrible. You should lie down" Severus decided to use this opening and, with a careful blend of impatience and unwillingness, flung himself onto the bed.
"There Lupin, I'm on the bed, does this satisfy your incessant need to mother me?" he said. Remus raised an eyebrow and smirked, Severus' stomach did an odd little flip,
"oh, when you're on the bed, it's not mothering I have the need to do to you" he said. Severus scowled to hide the sudden burst of pleasure that rushed up inside him,
"well, there's no need for that kind of behavior just at the moment" he said. Remus leaned over him on the bed and slid his hands up Severus' body. The other man stiffened,
"are you sure about tha…" Remus began to say but stopped when his hands touched Severus', by now icy cold, stomach.
"Merlin Severus! Your stomach is like a glacier!" he exclaimed, his hands covering Severus' narrow navel and feeling the unnatural cold there. Severus shivered, but not because of the cold in his stomach, because of Remus' hands on his, currently sensitive, stomach.
"Are you sick? Why is your stomach this cold?" Remus was still worrying, his hands felt extremely warm against Severus' skin. The potions master looked down at his stomach, the skin exposed as Remus had pushed his shirt away. Both men's eyes widened upon seeing the normally pale skin start to glow a faint blue.
"Thank Merlin!" Severus breathed. It was blue, the nice blue which meant that there was no Little Lupin making its home in his body.
"Alright, do you want to tell me what's going on?" Remus asked. Severus suddenly found his situation funny and chuckled,
"I took a…a….well, a pregnancy test" he explained. Remus stopped breathing for a minute then he grabbed Severus by the shoulders,
"A p-p-pregnancy test!?" he gasped, his eyes wide. Severus nodded, suddenly nervous.
"The results?" Severus took a deep breath.
"Well, you're not going to be anyone's father anytime soon" he said. Remus let out the breath he seemed to have been holding,
"that's good" he said, before realizing what he said and hurrying to correct himself "I mean, it's not that I wouldn't love to have little ones with you. Just…just not now" Severus nodded,
"don't worry" he said "I had nightmares about it. I'm not ready for that kind of thing either. There's still too much to do"
Remus resumed running his hands along Severus' navel, moving in comforting circles,
"but from now on, you'll have to take that contraceptive potion and tell me when you're not…you know…on it" he said, looking uncomfortable at having to talk about it. Severus gave him a small smirk,
"of course, I don't want a houseful of brats running around because someone couldn't control himself" Remus swatted him lightly and they both laughed.
Lily: Like I said, this chapter is SHORT! Um, I'll try hard to write the next one, but there really won't be much time. Tests and all (and my BIRTHDAY!!!!!) I would like to extend a particular thank you to one reviewer, malfoy harry. I think you have the longest review streak on this story and you were also, I believe, my 600th review! Your questions and comments are really nice to read after a hard day in class and all and I really like that you've stuck with this story. I love your reviews and I hope you'll stick with me through the end.
And, as always, the rest of you reviewers, watchers, anonymous readers, I thank you and love you all! I hope you keep on enjoying my fic.