Mrs Eileen Snape sat in an elegant, high-backed chair in Headmaster Dumbledore's office and tried to make sense of a world that had just turned off kilter. Her son, her baby boy, had presented as an omega. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought that possible; there had not been an omega in her family since her great grandfather thrice removed. Or was it his father? She couldn't remember, and it didn't matter anyways. Severus sat in the chair next to hers, scowling like he had just been informed that he was going to have to resit his OWLs. Not that he had taken his OWLs yet, but that was the distinct impression his surly silence gave.

Dumbledore's eyes hadn't lost an ounce of their usual twinkle as he looked at the witch in her outdated, worn robes. He assumend they were n old pair from before she had married her muggle husband, since the style was one he remebered very fondly. His husband had looked stunning in it on their ten-year anniversary celebration. Eileen Snape née Prince hasd dark hair that was already greying, and lines in her face that were not from laughter. Life had not been kind to her, nor was it cvery kind to her son, who shared his mother's intense dark eyes and the unfortunate tendency to have constantly greasy hair.

Dumbledore looked at the young omega in question. Severus was sitting in his other guest chair, arms crossed and glaring at the floor as if he was trying to make a hole in it by will alone. In the five days since his revelation, his hormones had started working overtime to make up for the lost years, and the alpha in Dumbledore could not deny that the smell of ripe, unmated omega was rather exciting. But since he was also mated, that excitement mostly made him cross that his own darkly radiant omega was away on his yearly retreat for another two days. What he wouldn't give to spend a few hours in his husband's bed… But that was neither here nor there. This was about the boy.

"I expect it won't be long before you start receiving courtship gifts" Dumbledore said as he poured himself some tea from the ornate silver pot. "Ginger cake?" he offered Eileen who shook her head. Her stomach was too done up in knots for her to eat anything, much less a decadent cake.

"Mr Dumbledore-" she finally said when she conceded that Severus would most likely prefer to have his teeth pulled to say anything.

"Please, call me Albus" Dumbledore interrupted and she gave a curt nod.

"Albus. I am afraid I do not know much about what presenting as omega entails. Being a beta myself, I never paid much attention and since marrying my husband, well…" she didn't want to say that Tobias tended to have conniptions whenever anything even remotely connected to the wizarding world came up in conversation at home.

Dumbledore shot her a sympathetic look.

"Well, first and foremost we need to get Severus on repressants. His body, coming awake and becoming ready for mating, is already starting to produce what we refer to as the omega hormone. This basically means that he will be irresistible to any alpha in his vicinity and in a school with teenage alphas, well." He didn't finish his sentence, but Eileen heard the implications loud and clear. Teenage alphas, who themselves were awakening to their true natures, might not be able to stop themselves even if the omega they were after was unwilling. It could end very, very badly for Severus.

"Of course we have the alphas on repressants as well" Albus said placatingly, "but there is always a risk. Some alphas are not at scrupulous as we would like them to be." He helped himself to more of the delicious ginger cake. It was made just the way he liked it, and so far he'd had two slices.

Eileen looked down at Albus hand, where a thin gold band showed him to be married.

"What class are you, headmaster?" She asked, without really knowing why she was asking. Albus smiled at her, and it felt a bit like when she was little and her mother brought her to see Santa Claus in town.

"I am alpha, Mrs Snape. Don't worry, I have been happily mated for nearly thirty years." He chortled to himself, "caused quite a scandal in my time."

"Oh? How come?" She looked at him, curious.

"As it turns out, the suppressants don't work on anyone with creature blood" he said, amused. "And my mate is what is known as a tri-omega: he is the perfect match to two alphas. His other husband, also an alpha, is a werewolf. That would have been alright if it weren't for the fact that he - my omega - was fourteen at the time and I was his teacher." He had long since ceased to be embarrassed at the whole thing and just felt happy at the blessing he had received in his two loves. For he loved not only his dark, luscious omega but his fellow alpha as well. They made an odd trio, true, but one that made sense in the most wonderful of ways. But before he could sink into daydreams of what he could expect to happen when Tom got back from his retreat, he focused the attention back on the young omega who was now staring at the teapot as if willing it to explode.

"Dear Severus here has as of this morning been given his first dose, and will be taking the suppressants weekly until he finds an alpha that he deems suitable. This is done through a courtship, which then leads to a meeting if Severus finds the alpha a suitable contender for his hand. At this meeting, if the two are compatible, they will feel the urge to bond even though they will both be on suppressants. The bond will not allow itself to be averted if they are compatible."

Eileen's head was swimming with information, but she held onto the bit that was most important to her.

"He will be courted?" she asked, nervously.

"Yes. Expect fine gifts reasonably soon. At this point all the students who have presented have been registered at the ministry, both with their status and the expected level of said status. Severus' potion turned a very vivid emerald, suggesting that he will very easily become pregnant with his mate. He will be highly sought after, even if... " Dumbledore stopped hiself just in time. It wouldn't do to insult the delicious-smelling omega's looks. Or lack of them.

Eileen turned to her son in an attempt to cheer him up.

"You can have them jump through hoops, honey" she said. "Wouldn't that be fun?"

Severus rolled his dark eyes at her but remained stubbornly silent. Eileen sighed deeply and finally accepted a piece of the scrumptious looking ginger cake.

It proved to be every bit as delicious as it looked.

The first courtship gift appeared the following morning. It arrived with rather a lot of pomp and circumstance in the middle of breakfast, carried by two large, elegant tawny owls. Severus sank into his chair, wanting nothing more than to disappear as the snickers of his housemates made his ears burn bright red from embarrassment, but the owls would not be deterred and kept hooting until he had accepted the parcel.

Having fled the great hall for the relative security of his dorm room, he discovered the newly acquired gift to be an elegant ornate purple robe. It was enhanced with gold embroidery that clashed dreadfully with his sallow skin and made him feel like a sickly peacock when he looked himself in the mirror. Lily, when she saw him in it later that day, had no qualms about erupting into slightly hysterical laughter after having taken one look at the blasted thing.

"You look like a peacock!" She shrieked, mimicking his thoughts exactly. "A molting peacock!"

"Thanks" he grumbled as he ripped it off and threw it to the floor like where it lay in a rejected heap, looking rather like he felt at the moment. Honestly, what use did he have of a robe like that? And purple, too! He looked terrible in purple.

The second, third and fourth courtship gifts - all from different alphas - didn't prove much better. Fancy clothes that he wouldn't be caught dead in a ditch wearing, all of them. He sent them to Madam Malkin's for resale.

But on the tenth day after he had presented as an omega, something changed. He had spent most of the day avoiding Black and Potter like the plague (Black had presented as alpha and apparently his mother was most insistent that he put a baby in Severus as soon as possible, preferably yesterday), and was so fed up with everything he wished he had never been born. Not even Lily could cheer him up, even though she tried rather desperately. She couldn't know that part of his foul mood stemmed from the reluctant acceptance that there was no chance of her ever wanting to marry him now. Like the rest of the world, she was expecting him to marry one of the moronic alphas vying for his hand. As if he wanted some prat who clearly hadn't done their research on him at all.

He threw himself onto his bed, ready for a good sulk, when he saw it. Lying on his bedside table was an elegantly wrapped gift, rather on the small side. The wrapping paper was a dark grey, so dark it almost appeared black at first glance, and it was topped with an elegant purple bow. Attached to the gift was a scroll, and before allowing himself to tear off the paper to see what was inside he unrolled the parchment. He admired the elegant hand for a moment before reading the brief missive.

Severus,

I am not a man of words.' Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,I will be brief. '

Please accept this gift that I hope will prove of great use to you in your further studies.I wish also to let you know that the most appealing part of you is, in my admiring eyes, your keen intelligence.

L.

Severus smirked a the clever use of the Shakespeare quote, before returning his attention to the gift. Hands shaking, he ripped off the paper and the bow and stared at the book that lay revealed before him. One hundred poisons and how to brew them the cover stated, the words embossed with gold on smooth black leather. It was a very, very rare book that he had barely dared to dream of someday maybe getting to read. And here it was; his own copy.

Trembling with excitement, he opened it up and began to read.