A/N: A slightly faster update! Yay! Congratulations to my fan girl slasherbabe (Mac) and a couple of others who worked out what I was going to do! You people amaze me, you really do! It's also a bit longer than usual for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!!
Chapter Twenty-Four - The Moral Of The Story
Severus dropped to the floor, successfully evading a killing curse from Tom. Tom Riddle laughed manicly at him. "Give up Severus! You can not defeate me! Give up now and I will see to it that you children die painlessly!" He pointed his wand at Severus and muttered another spell.
The skin on Severus' left cheek tightened more and more until it split from the pressure. Severus raised a fist to his face, wiping away a streak of blood. Tom smiled at him. "It has been far to long since I last made someone bleed. The last person I made bleed was.. why it was you Severus! What a coincidence!" He smiled. "It's almost as if you like to be in pain... Crucio." He said off handedly and pain ran through every inch of Severus' body.
"My... children and my... grandchildren... will not die... I am... going... to... kill you..." Severus said, though it took an awful lot to say it without screaming in pain.
Tom walked over and leaned over so that he was face to face with Severus. "Wots nasty Sevvy-Wevvy gonna do? Bweed on me?" He said, with a mock pouty face. "Spewls dont work on me... You can't kiww me Sevvy-Wevvy."
Breaking free of the curse, Severus looked up at the mocking face of everyones bane and smiled. "Wanna bet?" He said and a small flick knife was withdrawn from his pocket and thrust rather effectivly straight through Tom's throat. Severus stood up and dusted himself down, checking that Tom was well and truly dead. He checked for a pulse and there was nothing. He smiled to himself. "Goodnight sweetheart."
He withdrew the small blade from Tom's throat and flicked it shut, putting it back in his pocket. He looked down at the lifeless body on the floor and kicked him... just because he felt like it. "I can't believe that the whole wizarding world has been trying to kill you for years and all that had to be done was that and you're dead... unbelievable, isn't it."
"What's the matter darlin'? What's happening?" Harry said as Draco suddenly sat bolt upright. Draco smiled and bit his bottom lip, more tears flowing down his face, but no longer were they tears of sorrow as a smile washed over his pink lips.
"It's stopped... It's stopped, Severus must have got him... or found a way to stop it. I don't know, but it's stopped!"
Poppy confimed it and Harry too burst into tears, throwing his arms around Draco and kissing his all over. "You scared all hell out of me, I was so worried about the two of you!"
"Um... three..." Poppy muttered and the other three in the room looked up.
"What was that?" Lucius almost choked as he stared at Poppy.
"Did you not know?" She asked with a air of shock surrounding her. "Draco is expecting twins." She said, as if it were common knowledge. Of all the things she expected to happen, Lucius feinting was not one of them - but he did.
Harry and Draco just smiled at one another and fell into another warm embrace, which was aided my lots of kissing and general happiness. "What did I miss?" Asked a voice from the door and Draco's immeadiatly pulled back.
"Dad! You're alright!" He said, pulling himself out of the bed and stumbling across the room to hug Severus. He had never been more releaved in all his life.
"When did you start calling me dad?" Severus said with a smile.
Draco looked up at him, his eyes glistening with tears. "When I realized that you really do care about us. I'm sorry that I ever said otherwise. I love you dad."
"I love you too. Come on now, you should be in bed, we don't want to risk anything else happening to you." Severus said and picked Draco up, carrying him the few feet across the room back to bed just as Lucius stared and sat up on the floor, rubbing the back of his head. Severus bit his lip in an attempt not to laugh. "How are you lover?"
"Sev! You're alright!! What happened? What did he do to your face?" Lucius fussed, running over and trying to attend to the cut on his cheek, but Severus pulled away and pushed Lucius playfully off of him.
"Calm yourself woman, I'm fine." He smiled at Lucius' reaction to being refered to as a woman... It would seem that he wasn't too keep on the idea. "Voldemort is dead, everyone is safe again, and there will be no more nasty pain until Draco and Harry give birth."
"Draco's having twins!" Harry said excitedly and Lucius wobbled on his feet a little bit, taking a moment to sit down.
"I know." Severus said with a shrug. "I remember Poppy telling me. Lucius gives birth first and has one, then me and I have one, then you two will have your kids around the sime time, Draco has twins, Harry has triplets." He said with another shrug.
Harry's mouth dropped open and for a moment there was a long silence in the room. Draco forced a smile to his face. "So... Voldemort, how did you kill the unkillable man?" Draco said, eagar to change the subject. Poppy rolled her eyes and departed... this stupid family was just plain starting to get on her nerves.
"I stabbed him." Severus said simply, sitting on a chair. Lucius drifted over and crawled onto his lap, snuggling into his chest.
"What?" Draco said disbelivingly.
"Yeah I know. Every spell, curse, potion, everything to try and kill him, and all that he needed was a knife to the throat... silly really." He glanced down at Lucius. "Is he okay?" He whispered, seeing as the blonde was asleep.
"Yeah, he gets like that when he gets all emotional over something. He got pretty hung up on the idea of loosing his grandchildren. Bless him." Draco said, smiling at his father, who looked perfectly innocent, all curled up on Severus' lap.
"Well it's been a long night for everyone, so I suggest sleep... for everyone. Come on sweety." He said picking up Lucius and carrying him to the door, which Harry ran over and opened for him. "Goodnight kids."
"Goodnight." They chorused. Draco smiled at Harry. "You're freaked out now aren't you."
Harry tired to keep a calm face... but it seemed to be something of an impossible task. "YES!! Of course I'm freaked out!! There's going to be five of them Draco, FIVE!! How are we going to look after five!!"
Draco grabbed his wand and produced a paper bag. He handed it to Harry. "Harry, darling, you're hyperventilating. Breathe... that's it... breathe... well done. You shouldn't get yourself all worked up, you'll end up with pre-eclampsia or something, and that's not good. Sit down." Draco said calmly.
"BUT FIVE!!"
"You appear to have stopped breathing again love." Draco said airily and Harry returned to sucking on his paper bag. "We can handle it. We have our Dads, and everyone in the order, we'll be alright."
"Five... five babies..." Harry muttered to himself. "How come I have to have three?! That is so unfair!"
"Well I wasn't exactly planning to have two... I have to give birth to two of them... oh God..." Draco said, his calm repore vanishing. Harry handed him the paper bag and rubbed his back soothingly.
"There, there, love. It'll be alright. Think about it this way: I have to have three of them. Think yourself lucky." He said, and both glanced up as the door was pushed slowly open. Hermione's face appeared and she smiled at them.
"Hi... I thought I'd bring this little one in here for a bit because he seems to hate being in Severus' company... He's crying because he thinks he's a bad dad." She paused. "I didn't think Severus cried... it just doesn't seem like a Snape thing to do. He's going soft." She said, walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed next to Draco, rocking a moaning Kellan in her arms.
"Heya Kell, heyo..." Draco started, taking his little brother from Hermione. "Severus is really loosing it... what on earth have we done to him?"
Just down the hall...
"There, there Severus, he doesn't hate you..." Lucius said, rubbing the back of a very upset ex-potions master.
"But... he... I... HE DOESN'T LOVE ME!!"