Disclaimer: Not mine if you recognize it. The Potterverse belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: Timeline again. Harry pregnant in late April, Chapter One in late July, when Harry was three months along. He lost the child in the first week of school, at the beginning of September. Sirius was pregnant then, but just barely. Their child will be born in May sometime. It is early November now, and the week of the full moon, so Harry's child will be born in June.

Author's Note 2: All right, people. There's far more humor in this chapter, and practically no angst. So sorry for those who prefer angst, but I needed a break between bouts of Harry-torture, so I'm afraid you'll just have to put up with me. Anyhow, enjoy!

Chapter Seven: Second Chance

Harry groaned, cracking his eyes open and praying to all that was good in the world that the school had been shut down and he didn't have to teach the brats yet again. How the hell did Severus manage? Harry was fortunate—he was rather popular, despite his strict demeanor. Unfortunately, Sirius and Remus had let it slip to the students that he was friends with the Weasley twins, and was one of the new generation of Marauders. Of course, being able to turn into a legendary magical creature helped matters along. At least the students didn't try to kill each other in his class.

A deep chuckle sounded beside him and roused him from his semi-conscious state. Harry glared at his husband, growling warningly. Severus ignored him and slid out of bed. "No, school is not closed, yes you still have to teach, no I'm not going to come back to bed, yes you have to get up and come to breakfast in the Great Hall," he answered rapidly, and Harry grinned. His mate knew him well.

Sighing, Harry Potter-Snape finally dragged himself out of the extravagant bed, and paused, freezing. Something was different with him. It took him only a few moments to realize that he was pregnant again. Grinning wildly, Harry bolted across the room and skidded into the bathroom, kept from crashing to the floor only by Severus' arm, which had wrapped firmly around his chest, holding him close to the warm body of his husband.

Harry turned to face him, still smiling brightly, and said chirpily, "I hope that you can put up with me throwing up and suffering mood swings for the next few months…again." Severus looked down at him, blinking in incomprehension until realization dawned, and his dark eyes widened.

"You're pregnant? But how? I mean, it hasn't been that long, Harry. Not to mention that we haven't done anything since then until...last night," he said, staring down at Harry, who nodded.

"Last night, I decided that I wanted to try again to have another child...or two. Apparently, you want one as well, so it happened. I'm pregnant again. We'll have our second chance in another nine months, Sev. And this time, I'm going to avoid the Wormwood."

Laughter filtered out of the bathroom, breaking the tension, followed shortly by the sound of running water as splashing, moans and cries issued forth from the two lovers as they celebrated this new chance at expanding their family.

Harry strolled up to the Great Hall next to Severus, Salazar wrapped around his wrist, a smile firmly on his face and a delighted glow in his eyes. As he entered the room and moved up to take his place next to Severus, the other teachers smiled at him knowingly, and he just grinned inanely back at them, not denying a thing. Giggles went around the table, but both Snapes ignored them, sitting down and digging into their breakfast with relish, watching the students closely. After all, this was the one room where all the troublemakers were consistently thrown together at the same time.

Harry glanced over at the Slytherin table and found Nathan staring back at him, a small frown on his face. When Harry raised an eyebrow, the wereleopard flushed and looked down at his plate. Harry was puzzled, but he decided to not use mind-speak to question the young leopard just yet. If he did, he knew he'd have to tell Nathan that he wouldn't be able to run with him on the next half-moon, thereby accidentally informing the Slytherin that he was pregnant again, and he didn't want to do that just yet. After all, he wanted Remus and Sirius to be the first to know about his pregnancy. Speaking of which, they should be arriving later that day.

Harry smiled thinking of his godfathers. Sirius was pregnant, though he was only a little over a month along. Still, it was great news, and would eventually provide Harry with a younger sibling. And little Mitena would have a nephew or niece just a short month later. It would be perfect.

Breakfast proceeded to pass by in a daze for Harry, and when it was over, he headed for his classroom, not bothering to lecture the students on running in the hallway. It wouldn't stop them for long anyhow, and he was much too excited to bother.

Strolling into his classroom, Harry was pleased to note that all the students were in their assigned seats and facing forward. Since they were this year's graduating class, he decided to let them have a bit of fun for the day. Grinning, and knowing that it wouldn't harm the infant—shifting apparently wasn't a threat to the unborn child, as long as he didn't put too much of a strain on the Jachyra's body—Harry stood in front of the class and let Amarth out as soon as he had everybody's attention, permitting Salazar to climb around his neck.

Ah, the wonders of the Jachyra. Or any predator for that matter. Amarth thoroughly enjoyed the gasps and cries of surprise and delight that erupted around the class. Casually, he prowled around the room, occasionally stopping at a desk to let the student there pet him, purring the entire time, a deep rumbling growl that seemed to thrill and amuse the students.

About halfway through the class, Amarth lifted his head. Canines were in the school, and his purr intensified. He stuck his head out the classroom door and gave a very toothy grin at the wolf and his canine companion, which were standing just outside. With a nod of his head and a flick of his tail, Amarth invited Harry's godfathers into the room. This elicited more gasps and cries from the students. Both Moony and Padfoot dropped to the ground, tails down and ears back, non-threatening, and it didn't take long before the students were petting them too, exclaiming on how pretty the werewolf's coat was and how friendly the Grim-like dog seemed to be.

As class ended, Amarth retreated and Harry instructed the class to write three papers—only one foot apiece—one on werewolves, one on animagi, and one on Jachyras. He recommended a few books for the Jachyras, since they were rather uncommon and difficult to find in the Hogwarts library, and then he dismissed them. As the last student left, all of them talking excitedly about Amarth, Moony, and Padfoot, Harry turned to his godfathers, grinning as they reverted back into Remus and Sirius.

The two men immediately enveloped their godson in a bone-crushing hug and Harry laughed as they released him, grinning at the two lovers fondly. "Missed me, did you?" he teased lightly.

"You betcha we did," cried Sirius, grinning right back at him, his eyes lit with happiness and his face glowing. Harry shook his head lightly. He knew exactly what Sirius was feeling, the awesome knowledge that you were carrying life, no matter how small, inside of you, and that it was both a part of you and of the one who you loved.

"I'm really glad you two came back today. I have something to tell you, but you'll have to wait until all my classes are done. Since I'm in such a good mood, I'm thinking about just having an easy class today, letting the students examine our animal forms and then write a short paper on each of them. I doubt Hagrid'll teach them about animagi, werewolves, or Jachyras. Not that he'd object to trying, I'm sure," he added, much to the amusement of his godfathers.

They agreed to stay with him that day while he taught classes, and Sirius also promised to try and drag Harry's secret from him. Harry vowed just as strongly that he wouldn't say a word, and that if they wanted the good news before the day was over, they'd have to figure it out on their own. The challenge caught Remus' interest, and Harry saw the familiar gleam in his godfathers' eyes—they were about to wreak havoc in his classroom. Knowing there wasn't anything he could do to stop them, Harry just turned towards the door and greeted the students coming in—fifth year Slytherin and Ravenclaw.

The classes passed smoothly, as all the students were positively delighted to finally meet Amarth, Moony, and Padfoot. While most of them had known Remus as a teacher, they had never met Moony in wolf form. He was truly a beautiful creature, all brilliant moonlight silver and the velvet black of a starless night, with bright amber eyes that reflected his feral nature.

Then there was Amarth, with his brilliant violet orbs and their silver irises that pierced through the souls of the students, evaluating them. Amarth, with his honey-gold fur and silver highlights, slender face, long flowing silver mane, and the black blaze on his forehead, quickly captured the attention and admiration of the students.

When compared to the two magical creatures, poor Padfoot didn't stand a chance, plain as he was, but the students made sure that he was never lacking in attention for the duration of the classes. Of course, he was incredibly demanding of their attention, as well, and he most assuredly made up for his lack of beauty with outright exuberance. Even Salazar had gotten stroked, much to his pleasure, once the students had been assured that he wouldn't bite them. By the time classes ended for the day, all three animals had been reduced to boneless puddles on the floor of the classroom.

When they finally managed to regain enough energy, they shifted back to human form and dragged themselves out of their blissful euphoria, silently heading for the Great Hall. Upon entering, they grinned to hear the noisy chatter, all revolving around the three of them. The Headmaster was sitting at the Head Table beaming, his eyes twinkling like small stars gone nova, carrying on a lively conversation with tiny Professor Flitwick.

Harry allowed his gaze to travel down along the tables until his eyes came to rest on Severus', whereupon he smiled brightly and flowed up the aisle towards him, stopping to chat briefly with several of his students on the way. Sirius and Remus beat him to the Head Table, and Harry grinned upon noticing that the Headmaster had left the three seats next to his husband completely empty. One for him, and then two for his godfathers. Harry toyed briefly with sitting Sirius and Severus together and seeing if their friendly banter couldn't cause some heart failures among the students, but one glare from Severus, who always seemed to know when he was thinking of doing something he shouldn't, efficiently quelled his desire to do so.

Reaching the table, he bent down and Severus allowed him a kiss before he seated himself and dug into his food. The students were used to these mild shows of affection, and it was well-known that it hadn't affected the potions professor's reputation in the least. Being married to Harry Potter might have changed him a little, made him softer, but in the face of the younger Potter-Snape's teaching method, nobody dared to contradict either of them, which suited the two professors just fine.

After dinner, Severus and Harry excused themselves and led Sirius and Remus down to their quarters, with Sirius baiting his arch-nemesis the whole way down. This proved rather unfortunate for him, since Severus had been restraining his sharp tongue and vitriolic words around Harry, and was itching for a new target. Once he had ascertained that Harry felt his godfather had it coming, and would do nothing to stop him unless he felt that it went too far, he verbally lashed Sirius the rest of the way down to the dungeon, taking great enjoyment from it.

Harry hung back a ways with Remus, and the two lycanthropes chuckled quietly over watching their respective mates. "He's never going to learn, is he?" Harry asked, amusement dancing in his eyes.

Remus just shook his head. "Probably not. He's a bit stubborn, and the fact that he and Severus hated each other for so long doesn't really help matters any. Besides, he's easy to provoke."

Harry grinned, "So is Sev. I know; I used to provoke him into a screaming fit just by looking at him wrong. When I spoke back to him, he got rather...hysterical." This elicited another round of soft chuckles from the two wizards, which was interrupted as Sirius let out a loud yell and they looked up to see him with his wand out and pointed at Severus. Harry just rolled his eyes and summoned his godfather's wand—as well as his husband's, just to be safe. It was about this time that Salazar stuck his head out and complained rather vociferously that they were much too loud and he was trying to get some sleep. This kept all four men occupied for the rest of the way to Harry and Severus' living quarters.

Once inside, Harry seated himself between his two godfathers while Severus prepared some tea for them. The two older wizards looked at him expectantly, but he kept his secret, instead hugging them both again tightly and telling them how truly happy he was to see them. Once Severus had come back out and they were all nursing hot cups of tea, Harry and Sev shared a look, smirking mentally to themselves, and the Potions Master inclined his head ever so slightly in a nod. As both Remus and Sirius took a sip from their hot tea, Harry said calmly, "I'm pregnant."

As they had hoped, both men ended up spitting out their tea. What they hadn't counted on was that their hands would then proceed to drop the tea, straight into their laps. Only Harry's quick reflexes saved him from getting splashed. Laughing outright at his godfather's shouts of surprise and pain, Harry negligently waved a hand and their robes, and laps, were cleaned and cool. Both older wizards sighed in relief before glaring simultaneously at Harry, who just shrugged and murmured, "Sorry," unrepentantly.

Remus was the first to recover, smiling at the young man that he was so very fond of. "That's great news, Harry. Really, it is. Do you know if it's a boy or girl? Do you have a name for him or her yet?"

Harry winked slyly at his two godfathers and said calmly, "I'm having twins — both boys," just as Severus took a sip of his own tea. It was promptly spit back out and the tea cup shattered on the floor, fortunately missing Severus' lap.

Severus stared at him in shock. "Bloody hell, Harry, how do you know that? You didn't even know what the last one was."

Harry smirked at his mate and replied, "Yes, I did. The last one was a boy. I just wanted to surprise you, is all." Turning back to his godfathers, he said, "I'm thinking of naming them Aric James and Ebon Severus Potter-Snape." Sirius and Remus both nodded and congratulated them once more on their newest attempt at child- bearing.

After that, the conversation strayed, bouncing from topic to topic, with no real aim. They talked late into the night, and Harry sighed contentedly as he dozed against his husband, his hand pressed gently against his abdomen, over the place where the children were growing even now. Now he just had to get the Weasleys to impregnate Draco, and talk Ron and Hermione into getting married and starting their own family, and he'd be set for life.

Author's Note: All right, let me try to explain how shifting isn't a threat to the child. Most of the time, Harry shifting into Amarth is like Sirius shifting into Padfoot. It is a conscious decision, and the body uses its own magic to shift. It's the same with Remus now. However, on the nights of the full moon, the change is violent because it acts more like a disease, which it is, and the magic of the body tries to fight the magic of the lycanthrope, thereby making it dangerous for the unborn child. Does that make sense? I hope so.