This is written in response to ObsidianEmbrace's Challenge 'Whose Son'
Whose Son Challenge: Remus, Sirius and Snape (and James if you're so inclined) all take a paternity test to find out who Harry's father is. This is my take up on the challenge! My entry into the 2009 Challenge Fest over on Potions and Snitches!
His Son by November Raine
In a quiet wing of St. Mungo's, a tall, lanky young man skulked silently down the halls. The man had dark hair that hung limply to his shoulders, a pale complexion, and a long, skinny body that seemed to drift along on the air. At every doorway, the young man would pause to read the identification plaque which hung on the door, before he moved away again. The hallways appeared deserted but for the occasional nurse that would bustle in and out from one room or another, but none seemed to pay any attention to the quietly searching young man.
He continued down the long hall until he had almost reached the end, before he found the room he had been looking for. His long, skeletal fingers shook slightly as he reached for the brass door knob. He paused for a moment and curled his fingers into a fist. His eyes shut tightly for an instant before they snapped open again, resolve evident within their ebony depths. He reached for the door knob, this time without hesitation, and with a firm twist, pushed the wooden door open and quietly slipped inside.
On the other side of the door, the room was warm, both in coloring and temperature. The walls appeared to be a light creamy brown, with cream trim, but with the room still dark, it was hard to be certain. His eyes drifted past these details to the bed against the wall to his right. He stepped toward the bed, but stopped suddenly when a bedside lamp clicked on. The woman in the bed sat up, her long red hair spilling over her left shoulder, clashing brightly against the white cotton gown that she wore.
"Hello, Severus," she whispered. Her large, luminescent green eyes captured him and squeezed his heart painfully. He swallowed and calmly shoved his random emotions away before he stepped closer. Easily, and without a word, he positioned himself in the chair beside her bed, and ignored the voice in the back of his head that warned him that he was sitting in James's chair.
"Lily," he said. He had intended to say more, but as he looked at her, he lost the words. She shoved pillows behind her back and settled against them, but her eyes did not leave his face. A smile ghosted around her lips, but never quite settled there.
"You look…well," Severus said. Lily smiled, her green eyes lighting up in the way that had always made his heart pound.
"Do you want to meet him?" She asked, her face changing to an expression Severus was not sure he understood. Lily had always had very clear, light colored skin, but the way her eyes sparkled simply made the skin on her face just…radiant. His tongue seemed too big for him to use, so he nodded once. She twisted away from him, to the other side of the bed, and reached out toward a little rectangular container on wheels and pulled it toward her. She murmured something and carefully lifted a tiny bundle out of the container before she brought it gently to her chest. She turned back to Severus.
"This is Harry, Severus," she whispered. Carefully, she handed the bundle to Severus, whose heart had all but stopped. Awkwardly, Severus supported the warm bundle with just his two hands as he tilted the little creature upwards, to see his face. Severus flexed his long fingers, amazed that Harry's tiny bottom and head fit perfectly in his two hands. Harry's face was relaxed and peaceful as he slept, a few random strands of black hair peeking out from under the warm hat on his head. Severus slowly lowered the baby to his left knee, his black eyes still drinking in every detail of the little face.
"Lily," he breathed. He tore his gaze away from the baby in his hands to glance up at the baby's mother. He was startled to find her beautiful emerald eyes wet. "He's...perfect."
Severus pulled his right hand out from under Harry's bottom, leaving it to rest on his knee, and reached out for Lily's hand. He gripped her left hand gently, and just looked at her. After a moment, she seemed to regain her ability to speak.
"James is very happy," she whispered. Severus looked away and swallowed.
"Lily," he began, "you know that there could still be-"
"It doesn't matter, Sev." His heart sputtered weakly in his chest as Severus swung his gaze back to his only friend. She licked her lips as a crystalline tear trailed down her right cheek. She straightened and pulled her hand gently away from his, to cover his hand where it rested on the bed.
"Severus, you know that I am married now," she began. "I love James, Sev. He has grown up a lot since we left school, and he loves me, too."
Severus's mouth had gone dry, while the hand under Lily's felt numb and cold. Lily straightened her shoulders and smiled weakly at Severus.
"You should have seen him with Harry earlier, Sev. He already loves him so much. It will break his heart if we find out that you, or one of the others, is Harry's father." Severus shook his head to dispel her argument.
"He is not even being gracious enough to tell you that he is going to do a paternity test, Lily," Severus said, a pleading quality to his voice. Lily looked down at the bed cover, her deep red eyelashes brushing against her cheek. When she raised her eyes, her decision was firmly obvious in her eyes.
"It does not matter, Severus," she whispered again. Stung, Severus pulled his hand weakly from underneath hers and returned his gaze to the sleeping bundle in his lap.
"And if Harry belongs to me?" he asked softly.
"Harry does not belong to anyone, Severus," Lily replied sharply. Severus glanced up at her quickly.
"You would keep him from knowing his real father?" he asked, surprise clear in his soft voice.
"I will keep him safe." Lily reached out her hands for the baby, gesturing that Severus give him back. Stunned, Severus watched her for a moment before he looked again to the tiny person he held. Harry had begun to wriggle as the atmosphere around him charged with the electricity of the conversation. Weakly, he made a soft snorting sound, a mere warning of the scream that was to follow if his demands were not immediately met. Severus lifted him in both hands, and silently offered him back to Lily before he stood and turned away.
"Severus," she said from behind him. Severus stopped walking toward the door, but remained turned away. "You know that I will always count you as my friend."
Severus continued toward the door, but paused as he gripped the doorknob and replied. "We shall see what the paternity test will call me."
Without another word or a backwards glance, Severus Snape walked away from the only good person he had ever known. Within his being a firm resolve had begun that would change his entire life. If the child was his, Severus vowed that, although James Potter had his Lily, James Potter would never have his son.
********
"I told you that the bash was a bad idea, Padfoot."
"No, you said that Dumbledore would kill us if he found out; well, he hasn't found out, has he?"
"No," Remus admitted. "Not yet, anyway…"
Sirius flopped down onto the low, mostly ripped sofa, and narrowed exhausted eyes at his friend. "You, Moony," he began irritably, "are very pessimistic. Did you know that?"
Remus moved away from the door where he had been leaning and stepped over the various objects that randomly littered the rough wood floor of the Shrieking Shack, before he halted a mere two feet away from the dark haired young man.
"And you are entirely too optimistic to still be alive after nineteen—oh, excuse me, almost twenty--years on this earth," he snapped.
Sirius raised his head slowly at his normally calm friend. Remus's shoulders trembled slightly, while his lips were thinly pressed together. These were all reactions which Sirius felt should have been his first clue that he was about to receive a 'Remus Reaming.' Slowly, he moved to his feet to stand.
"Moony, it was months ago, don't you think you could let it go already?"
"No! I bloody well will not let it go, Sirius! We are all in this mess because you were relentless about that effing party! 'Come on, Prongs, Old Man, we have to have a party that will endanger our lives and most likely bring down the wrath of Dumbledore on our heads! It will be fun! We'll have it in the Shrieking Shack right under Albus Dumbledore's nose!'" Sirius bit his lip to hide the smile that was trying to form on his lips as Remus ranted in a high voice that sounded nothing like Sirius. Remus stopped and glared at Sirius.
"Because of you any one of us could be the fath—"
"No one got hurt, really…" Sirius whispered sheepishly.
"That is up for debate," murmured a different voice. Remus, with his face still flushed from his mini-rant, whipped around to face the door to the dilapidated old room that they stood in. Severus Snape stood with his long, bony arms hanging limply at his side. In his right hand he held his wand, but his fingers were loose against the dark wood. Sirius immediately sucked in a deep breath, and wrenched his wand out of his robes.
"What the hell do you want, you great bat?" Snape narrowed his eyes angrily at Sirius, but remained still. Remus shifted away from Sirius with a sigh that blew his bangs away from his face and drew the other two men's attention.
"Don't you see, Sirius? He is a part of this now, too." Sirius made a strangled, gagging sound and turned his back to Snape to approach the cracked window. His pants were wrinkled, and the deep blue shirt that he wore was half un-tucked in the back, but what made Sirius appear most distraught was the way his shoulders shook. Weakly, he tucked the first three fingers of his left hand into the pocket of his pants and brought the other hand up to cover his mouth. He seemed to be struggling to breath.
Concerned, Remus approached him from behind. Snape entered the room, a wary frown marring his pale features. Snape brought his wand up slightly, his dark eyes on Sirius's shuddering frame.
"Sirius? Padfoot, mate," Remus said softly, his earlier irritation evaporating slightly at Sirius's reaction. "Are you alright?" Tentatively, Remus reached up and placed his right hand on the other's shoulder. Sirius spun around so quickly, that Remus shouted and stumbled backwards, his arms cart wheeling out to the side, trying to keep him up right.
"Watch it!" Snape shouted right before Remus slammed into him, and sent them both tumbling to the ground. Sirius, his face red from the smile on his face and the tears in his eyes, suddenly burst out with a bark-like laugh that almost shook the windows. His face blossomed redder and tears made their way down his cheeks as he doubled over, his manic laughter echoing off the thin walls of the room. Snape, along with Remus who still lay heavily on top of his right kidney, simply stared, their faces frozen into identical visions of shock. Sirius, totally oblivious to the both of them, bent to kneel down, only to tumble backwards onto his rear, still laughing insanely.
Carefully, Remus pushed himself upward off of Snape, who groaned, and crept closer to his once-sane friend. Remus's eyes were wide, the brown coloring making them appear even wider than they actually were.
"Sirius?" Remus whispered, his eyebrows pulled down low over his eyes. Behind him, Snape picked himself up off of the floor and dusted off his dark trousers and robes before turning furious black eyes on the man laughing on the floor.
Sirius, some sense of calm beginning to return to him, allowed Remus to tug him up by his arms. Chuckles still gently reverberated in his chest, but the alarmed look on his friend's face seemed to sober him up quite a bit.
"Ah...so sorry 'bout that, Moony," he began. Another wave of chuckles over took him for a few second. "I just, I had this…vision…when you said that he was a part of it now…I just…"
Remus dropped Sirius's arm and stood, his head shaking from side to side as Sirius again lost his train of thought to chuckles. Snape's expression had darkened to the point of midnight in a glance, which seemed to cause a wave of merriment in Sirius's little world.
"SIRIUS. WHAT ARE YOU BABBLING ABOUT?" Remus shouted. Sirius, still snorting to himself, raised his head and took a deep breath.
"All I could see was this git," he gestured to Snape, "drunk off his rocker trying to entice Lily into having sex with him!" He allowed another burble of laughter to rise to the surface, before he could continue, ignoring the invisible storm clouds brewing above Snape's head.
"I can just imagine it! 'Evans, I desire you. Please, submit to some form of fornication with me!" Sirius mocked, his voice high and more squeaky than Remus's had been earlier. "It's just too much! Lily would never have anything to do with this-" Whatever Sirius would have said was cut off as Snape slammed his right fist into Sirius's cheek, his wand landing on the floor, forgotten.
"You bastard!" The dark young man snarled. Sirius staggered backwards from the force and the surprise, but quickly recovered and brought his arms up to block the punches crunching roughly against his flesh.
"Ugh," Sirius moaned. "A bit of help would be nice, mate!" Sirius shouted to Remus as he blocked another right handed swing aimed at his head. Roughly, he swung back, his fist glancing off of Snape's jaw. Remus backed away with his lips pressed together again, and watched the two would-be teenagers get after it as if they were back in school.
"Nope, you're on your own this time. You asked for it and I am staying out of this!" Remus crossed his arms and leaned against the wall beside the door, intent on watching the other two young men proceed to beat the tar out of each other.
Sirius had not had the upper hand to start with and was slightly off his game because of that, but still, when Snape stepped forward and lost his balance, Sirius dropped toward the floor and kicked out, knocking Snape's feet out from under him. In a half second, Sirius was on top of the other man, pummeling him.
Remus remained against the wall where he was and merely watched. He shook his head slightly, trying to remember what James's grandparents used to say about boys and the amount of brain a group of them had or did not have, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"There really is no end to this, is there?" A disgusted voice announced from beside Remus. Startled, Remus lunged off of the wall and turned to his left. James stood just inside the door, a black case about the size of a shoe box in his left hand, a look of extreme annoyance on his handsome face, and a dangerous glint to his eye. He turned his gaze back to Remus. "What, were you not going to get in on this?"
Remus rolled his eyes and raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I spent our entire school career trying to not only keep myself out of you two's scrabbles, but also keep the two of you from tormenting others, just to jump into it now. Hah! Not likely, Prongs." Remus again leaned against the wall and continued on with his scrutiny of the two sweaty young men in the center of the room. James sighed and handed the case to Remus.
"Keep this safe for me; I'll be right back." James shrugged out of his robes and withdrew his wand from one of the pockets. He dropped the brown robes onto the floor in a heap and strode across the room to his best friend and best enemy.
James raised his wand and muttered darkly the first spells that came to mind. Snape and Sirius sprung apart as if they were opposing magnets and landed in heaps on either side of the room. Sirius, his bottom lip swollen and leaking tiny droplets of blood, pushed himself up on his elbow and glared across the room.
"You could have helped out, Prongs!" Roughly, he swiped at his lip. James turned around and moved back to Remus.
"Gee, Padfoot, I thought I did," he replied. Sirius climbed to his feet, favoring his left hand. He lifted it up for inspection as Snape pulled himself up off the floor. Snape had a hand against the wall to steady himself, his left foot ached and a ragged cut along his temple stung. Annoyed, Snape shook off the pain in his limbs and limped toward James.
"Let's get this done with, Potter," he spat. He brought his right hand up to probe gently the already bruised flesh of his right cheek when a mark on his forearm caught his attention.
"YOU BIT ME!" he shrieked, his furious gaze seeking out Sirius's satisfied one.
"Yeah, and you taste like bat goo, by the way! You should really learn to bathe properly, you nasty—"
"Sirius! You're not helping the situation right now," James shouted. Sirius hushed, but continued to glare daggers at the pale man across from him. James ignored the nasty looks and instead, stood with Remus, the black case in his hand again.
"Remus, would you…" Vaguely, James waved his hand in the air at a bare spot on the floor. Remus seemed to get the idiotic sign language, and levitated the sofa to sit limply where James had indicated before he transfigured it into a simple wooden table. James cleared his throat.
"Right, since the…get-together a few months ago, there has been some question as to whom…" James seemed at a loss for words, and instead shut his mouth, his jaw bone rippling the skin of his cheek as he clenched his teeth together.
"That wasn't a get-together," Sirius intervened. "That was supposed to be an awesome party, but Snivellus ruined it by showing up and being alive at the same time."
"It just kills you that Lily invited me, doesn't it?" Snape spat.
"No, I think it would have been an awesome joke if I had only let everyone else know that a life-sized bat was going to be there," Sirius muttered darkly. Snape's eyes took on a life of their very own and seemed to grow sharper. He would have retorted, but at that moment, James slammed his fist on the table top, effectively capturing the other three men's attentions.
"My wife has just given birth to a baby boy who may or may not be mine! You will both be silent and give me your blood!"
For once, all the men present were quiet.
"I still say that had Snivellus not shown up, we never would have gotten into that drinking contest," Sirius muttered. James shot him a wide-eyed look of death.
"Well, whether or not it would have happened isn't the point, the point is that we all got extraordinarily drunk and one of us had...you know…with, uh, Lily," Remus said weakly. He was staring at the table top, his skin almost as pale as Snape's.
"Er, Remus, I don't think it's that bad of a thought, really. Lily is a sweet, beautiful, sexy—"
"Eh! Sirius, do ya mind? That's my wife you're talking about!"
"Well, you should take it as a compliment, Prongs! And she wasn't your wife at the time—"
"I don't care! Ugh…just shut up."
"I was just trying to get Remus to see that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if he had—"
"SHUT IT! Wait, Moony, why do you look like you're about to blow chunks?"
"Prongs! I might have slept with Lily!"
"And you think that would be horrible? Just what are you getting at?"
"Prongs, I—"
"No, be honest now, Remus. Do you think it would be 'horrible' to sleep with my wife?"
"Um, James, I think he's going to be sick—"
"SO YOU DO THINK IT WOULD BE BAD! HOW DARE YOU—"
"OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!" Snape shouted, finally ending the conversation in exasperation. He reached up and covered his eyes with both of his shaking hands. "Let's get this over with."
Without another word, James pulled out four corked glass bottles with a slightly yellow tint to the potion within and set them on the table. The potion fizzed and burbled contentedly within the confines of its clear glass home. Around the table, James passed four small pen knives with grooved, silver handles and blades that glinted in the dim light. Next, he pulled out a small vial with a black stopper in it. Inside the vial was the bright crimson blood of the newborn in question, the one innocent in the whole affair. James held it up and stared into its depths, as if willing the blood to match his own and no one else's. A wistful expression of tremendous doubt clouded his features briefly before his eyes refocused on the other men around the table.
"Add your blood, first," he ordered. Gently, as if handling the child instead of just his blood, James set the vial on the table top and retrieved his own knife. He looked up and found that the other men had already un-corked their bottles and were busy gouging themselves with the provided knives.
Sirius looked terrified. His eyes were much too large and were blinking more often than James really thought was necessary, but the action that attested to his friend's fear the most was the fact that his battered bottom lip was captured firmly between his teeth. Absently, James shuddered as he realized that his friend was probably sucking his own blood.
Remus, on the other hand, looked much like he did when he was about to take a test. The skin between his eyes was puckered in concentration, while his sharp, intelligent eyes watched everything that his hands were doing. James realized that this friend of his was most likely the most attentive of all of them, although he would never stoop so low as to claim he was 'sensitive.'
Snape's expression was the one that bothered him the most, if he was completely honest with himself. He was just so blank. The man looked much like he did when they were in school, except he was more reserved. He appeared to always be on his guard, which was probably a learned behavior, James supposed. After all, they had all put each other through quite a lot in school.
He realized, suddenly, that his was the only bottle that had not darkened to the color of pee yet, so he quickly sliced the tip of his middle finger and allowed the flowing redness to drip into the bottle. Soon, all four men had bottles that held what looked like urine sitting on the tables before them, and almost reluctantly, James realized it was time to add Harry's blood. He picked up the little vial, but made no move to un-cork it.
"We named him 'Harry James Potter,'" James murmured. "Lily was in labor for about twelve hours before he was finally born. I think she actually may have bent the bed rails and damaged my hearing at the same time." No one made a sound at the attempt at humor.
"He's so little. He has this black hair and these dark blue eyes that just…" James stopped, unsure how to put into words the things he felt as he had held his new son. Even as he had looked into his child's sweet face and wondered if the child he held was truly his or not, he could not seem to convince himself to care.
The morning after the party, all those many months ago, when everyone had awoken with severe headaches, rolling stomachs, and the need to escape the too-bright world they lived in, they had discovered that most of their clothes had been randomly strewn about. Then Lily had begun to cry. James had been mortified when he had realized that no one- including Lily- could remember the previous night, but Lily's evidence was simply too obvious. Something had happened, and no one could remember who it had been. Desperate to protect his future bride, James had lied and sheepishly announced that he could remember pieces of the night before.
Lily had still been upset, but they had already planned to be married a mere two weeks later, and since James had claimed that it was he—she did not seem to dwell on it. James swore he would keep his secret till the day he died if it kept her safe, but then Sirius had called his bluff and had suggested this alternative. They had never spoken of the results and what would come of them.
"Prongs, any day now," Sirius prompted from beside him. James blinked and turned to look at Sirius and then to Snape and Remus. A surge of protective instinct told him to dash the vial of blood into the wall and be done with the whole charade. His hand trembled slightly with the urge, but he stilled it and took a deep breath. He pictured his son's face as he un-corked the bottle and dropped two drops of blood into each glass bottle, and suddenly, he did not care which bottle turned a bright red, and which changed to a dull grey.
Harry was his son. He had been there for every kick in the womb, every cry of agony his wife had uttered until the moment that Harry had entered the world, and nothing and no one would change that. He would be there when his son took his first steps, smiled his first smile, laughed, got onto the Hogwarts train, and every other major life moment that was to come. No matter who it was that had given Harry life, James had already given his heart.
The four bottles on the table bubbled and swirled while the room around them was still. Not a word was spoken as three of the bottles turned a dull grey, while the forth became a brilliant red. There were no words of shock, or expressions of congratulations, or accusations, just silence until a firmly murmured spell broke the silence.
"Obliviate!"