PART TWO
The storm continued to rage on that night with thunder and lightning and wind and rain. The Vox sisters - used to the rainy winter storms on Crete - were lulled to sleep by the storm noises.
Baby Remie lay quietly on Martis' chest, having convinced her to let him 'sleep' on her by crying whenever she tried to put him down. It was good to be this close, even if he had the body of an infant. She was safe and warm and soft; without his werewolf aspect controlling his senses he could enjoy being held without wondering what kind of panties she wore and how he wanted to take them off.
He made a mental note to wish that he was laying on her when he changed back into his real age - then he might - well, maybe not - then again -
Baby Jimmy and Baby Sirie were fast asleep, huddled together in one corner of the pen with the blanket between them and Medusa. Marauder James and Marauder Sirius did not want to admit it, but they hoped Medusa would keep her attention on Pettigrew. It took them most of the evening to push that blanket into place.
Baby Petey was wide awake, staring at Medusa. She was coiled a few inches away from him, gazing at him with her hypnotic green-gold slit-pupil eyes. He always hated snakes - snakes were wiggly and slimy and shuddery and they always tried to eat him whenever he was in his rat form. They scared the hell out of him.
Medusa was highly amused, especially with the way he shivered when she flickered her tongue out to taste the air. She knew he thought she was saying 'Boo' in Snake, but she was merely checking to see if anyone needed a nappy changed as she had been taught to look for. (She did not understand the reasons for this, but she knew snakes and humans were completely different species and each thought the other had strange ways of rearing young.)
Medusa became aware of a presence that entered the hospital wing; she raised her head and flickered her tongue, tasting the entity's scent.
Male, soap, potions ... Oh, it was her mistress' soon-to-be mate. He was safe, and usually fun. They understood each other perfectly.
Severus Snape tiptoed up to the pen, crouching down to their level. The lightning illuminated his pale face, partially hidden behind messy black hair.
He reached in and began petting the snake. "Good evening, Medusa my girl," he breathed in a husky whisper. "Are you hungry?"
She nodded against his hand and long fingers, having an idea of what he was doing. Dominance routines were a part of serpent psychology.
He pulled a bottle out of his pocket and Baby Petey's eyes got wide as Marauder Peter read the label.
"How would you like to eat these little grubs, Medusa my darling?" Sev asked, swinging the bottle slowly back and forth before her eyes. Her head began to sway in time with the bottle. "You would? How nice - here's a bottle of 'Snake Sauce' for me to pour over them for you - "
By this time, all of the Baby Marauders were awake and staring in horror at what their arch-nemesis was doing right under the noses of the Vox's.
Baby Remie whimpered, trying to wake Martis up. This caught Sev's attention; he raised his face up slightly, making sure Baby Remie saw and heard him clearly.
"You know, Lupin, how you accused me of being a vampire last year?" he asked. "Well ... you were right ...!"
He suddenly rose from the floor with his arms wide and his mouth open, a bolt of lighting illuminating his face and glistening off the pair of huge wax-candy fangs, his hiss blending into the thunder which quickly followed the flash.
The babies shrieked in terror, waking the sisters up.
Martis grabbed Baby Remie before he slipped off her chest. Baby Sirie suddenly turned into a black puppy and struggled out of his nappy, yelping and whining the whole while. Baby Petey changed into a baby rat and crawled out from under his nappy and tunic.
Baby Jimmy changed into a fawn and leapt out of the pen and through the open doors of the infirmary, still wearing his nappy.
Sev faded into the shadows and ran out.
"WHAT HAPPENED??" Phaedra cried.
"The storm scared them!" Artemisia said as she lit a lamp.
The Animagus forms of the two Marauders surprised them, while Martis handed the still crying Baby Remie to Phaedra and dove for the pen.
"No, Medusa! Spit him out!" She grabbed the object hanging out of the snake's mouth. "I know you normally eat those things, but you can't eat this one! Medusa, let him go or you won't get any eggs for a month!"
Eventually, Medusa released the baby rat and Martis checked over its tiny pink squirming body as it shrieked in terror.
Artemisia held up the lamp. "You got Baby Petey?"
"Yeah," Martis answered. "Phaedra?"
"Holding Baby Remie," she replied. "Baby Sirie looks spooked."
The black puppy whimpered quietly, his big brown eyes wide as he shivered in the corner of the pen.
"Where's Baby Jimmy?" Artemisia asked.
"Escaped," Martis said. "I'll look for him." She handed the baby rat to Artemisia and ran out of the hospital wing in her nightgown.
----------
Argus Filch and Mrs. Norris stalked the halls of Hogwarts looking for troublemaking students. Actually, any students out of bed at this hour MUST be troublemakers; it was the way of nature.
If he happened to run into Miss Cleopatra the security witch, so much the better.
The sound of tiny hoofbeats galloping down the hall grabbed his attention and he held his hand out as the object slammed into his arm, pulling up whatever he caught to shine his lantern light on it.
"A wee fawn?" he said aloud. "Wearin' a nappy? What kind of mischief are you?"
The fawn bleated wildly, trying to twist out of his hand.
"Oh, no you don't," Filch snarled. "You'd make a lovely tender venison stew -"
"Mr. Filch!" Martis called.
The fawn stopped struggling at the voice. Filch looked up. "Eh, what? A student out of bed?"
"Having to chase after another student," Martis replied as she appeared in the light from the lantern. "You have James Potter in your hands."
Filch looked at the fawn, then back up at her. "Funny. Don't remember that particular troublemaker being as four-legged."
"Animagus - I'm sure you've heard of them." Martis raised an eyebrow. Filch glanced down at Mrs. Norris near his feet, her big golden eyes staring at the fawn.
"Sure we can't serve him up for supper?"
"Mister FILCH!"
Filch snorted, releasing the fawn. "Don't go around putting other students in nappies, then. And get back to your dorms."
"Yes, Mr. Filch," she replied, picking up Potter the Animagus. Filch wandered off down the hall, muttering to Mrs. Norris. Martis turned around and carried the nappy-clad fawn back to the hospital wing. "I don't think he believed the part about you being an Animagus, but I know he wouldn't have swallowed the part about you being a baby."
----------
The next morning a package arrived from the girl-students of Hogwarts: within it were blocks, stuffed Fwoopers and Puffskeins toys, several rattles, and a small collection of pacifiers.
"Binkies!" Phaedra cried.
"Binkies?" Martis echoed.
"Binkies," Artemisia confirmed. "Never understood the need for them. That's why I kept taking yours and throwing them under the bulls when our brother Eusebius jumped."
Martis wrinkled her nose. "You were mean to me." She picked one up, looked at it, then popped it in her mouth and sucked -
Just as Sev walked in and saw what she was doing. "That wasn't a pre-existing condition, was it?"
Martis pulled the pacifier out of her mouth. "Artemisia threw my binkie under the bulls."
Sev nodded, not quite understanding. "All right." She popped it back in her mouth and he bit his lip, trying to ignore the sucking motions which caused strange connections to form in his mind. He flicked his half-braid back and handed Martis a bag. "A gift from your roommates; I don't know what it is, and I don't want to know. Especially after O'Shanahan said to tell you 'keep it lubricated when in use'."
Martis raised an eyebrow and opened the bag, then pulled out a thermometer. She rolled her eyes and spat the pacifier out. "I can't stand your culture, Snips." She shoved it back in the bag and set it aside, then picked up Baby Remie and leaned back on the pillows of her temporary bed.
"Me neither for the most part," Sev answered. Lupin was still trying to play innocent baby on his Martis while pawing at her breasts. Time to up the ante and freak out the Maraudiot.
Sev slid onto the bed next to her and brushed her hair aside to whisper into her ear, "Seeing you lolling on the bed like this makes me want to crawl all over you and do naughty things -"
Martis choked, blushed a brilliant scarlet, and clamped her knees together. "Snips!" she squealed quietly.
"It's the way your hair spreads all over the place," Sev whispered, his lips almost touching her earlobe while his fingers played with a long strand of ash-blonde hair. "Not to mention that lovely scarlet flush -"
"EEEEE!" Martis squealed with a strong undercurrent of giggling.
Artemisia and Phaedra chuckled, and grabbed up the other babies. "Oh my, we have an appointment far, far away. Come, sister."
Baby Remie had had enough of the Courtship of Miss Britomartis and ended it by burping up on Sev, thereby destroying the mood quite thoroughly.
The rest of the Baby Marauders threw stuffed Fwoopers at his head to round out the insult.
----------
"I can't leave him alone," Martis informed a classmate as they entered Professor Binns' History of Magic class. "Besides, Baby Remie will be all right in the harness."
Everyone noted Martis with the baby strapped to her chest, and then went back to their notebooks or sculpting their quill-tips.
Professor Binns floated through the blackboard and gazed at his Third-Year class over the frames of his glasses. He adjusted them as his eyes rested on Martis. "Miss Vox, what is that thing?"
Martis smirked. "Oh, Professor, it's the latest thing - it's called a baby. You can order parts to make them bigger. Large ones can make coffee and clean house for you."
A few classmates giggled. Binns sniffed.
"Where did it come from, Miss Vox?"
Martis, unable to resist (possibly sprouting from Sev's flirting that morning), proclaimed, "I hope it wouldn't come to this, but I must confess - this is Severus Snape's and my love-child -"
The entire class broke up at that while Binns remained expressionless; the Slytherins laughed the loudest while the Gryffindors giggled into their hands. By this point everyone (living) knew about the infamous Marauders being infants, and the irony of them being looked after by their greatest enemy was the best joke of the year.
"Hey, Vox!" one of the Gryffindor boys called. "If he's Snape's and yours, then why does he look like Remus Lupin?"
Another called out, "Maybe he's Snape and Lupin's love-child?"
Martis almost choked on her own laughter, while Marauder Remus made a note of who said that for later vengeance.
"Enough," Binns said. "Two points off Slytherin for causing a disturbance in class." He sniffed in indignation (how else could he sniff, being dead?) "Two babies in two centuries - might as well open a nursery!"
"Sorry, sir," Martis said. She patted Baby Remie's back and automatically wrote notes as Binns began lecture, while the other half of her mind drifted in and out of domestic fantasies of her and Sev and their own little Snapelets.
She had a brief but intense vision-flash of a spiky-haired boy who looked like an olive-skinned Sev surrounded by younger girls, including three triplet-toddlers and an infant, a blonde who looked like one of her sisters, and a dusky girl with a sour face.
Great Mother, I must be mad!
----------
The abnormally warm autumn day in early October allowed the three Vox sisters and Sev to take the babies outside near the lake. A blanket was spread out over the damp ground and the girls settled down with their textbooks while the babies played with the blocks on the blanket next to them.
Sev and Martis were lying on their stomachs side-by-side, going over notes for their Charms classes. Phaedra ended up napping (a common activity in the afternoons as her pregnancy progressed) and Artemisia had her nose buried in her Herbology book. Medusa was sunning herself near the babies.
Marauder Sirius came up with the idea. He had managed to convey the idea to the other Marauders and eventually Baby Sirie, Baby Petey, Baby Remie, and Baby Jimmy spelled words out with the blocks.
It was only by chance that Sev looked up and saw what they had spelled:
SNAPE IS A GOIT
"What the - ?!"
Martis looked up and saw the babies throwing blocks at a wall of blocks. "What, Snips?"
"They insulted me with their blocks!"
"Oh, don't start this again."
Sev settled back down and read his notes. After a few more moments, he glanced up to see:
SCREW YOU SNAPE
Sev ground his teeth and continued with his studying. He snuggled closer to Martis and ran his hand down her back before reading again. A few minutes later, he looked up and saw the blocks arranged in:
SNAPE HAS A PIXIE PUTZ
"THAT'S IT!" Sev roared as he got up and towered over the babies. "Stop with the damn blocks!"
The Baby Marauders screamed, crawling away from him and against the awaken Phaedra.
The three Vox sisters stared at Sev.
"You finished acting nuts, Snape?" Artemisia asked plainly.
"They were spelling insults out with the blocks!"
Martis glanced at the pile of blocks. "Well, looks like they spelled 'snap' correctly. Sit down, Severus."
"But they - "
"You're being paranoid again. Sit down with me." She patted the blanket next to her.
Sev sulked as he sat down next to her and slammed his chin onto his fists. "Should I dance or sing when it comes time to say 'I told you so'?"
Martis sighed and poked his shoulder. "Bother."
He poked her shoulder. "Bother."
"Bother."
"Bother."
"Bother."
"Bother."
"Bother."
"Bother." Then he grasped her shoulders and pulled her down on his lap, looking down into her face where her sunglasses had slipped down to reveal her green eyes. "I win," he breathed in a husky whisper.
Martis felt her heart beating like a triphammer as she gazed up into his dark eyes. It was a Moment, a Moment that demanded something to be done, but all she could do was stare back at him and hope to the Gods that she did not scare him. Her mind screamed in random directions of anything and everything she could and could not do, and yet she remained frozen as her head lay in his lap and his arms held her.
A wooden block bounced off Sev's head.
"Ow," he said, rubbing where it hit him. "I suppose they don't want us to get hot and bothered in front of them."
Artemisia groaned. "Severus, you made a pun. We have to kill you now."
The babies all gurgled in agreement.
"Technically, it was a word-play," Phaedra yawned. "Can't sacrifice him to the volcano yet." She reached for a baby (Baby Jimmy), and lay him on her chest as she drifted back to her nap.
"Guess not," Artemisia agreed. "He'll have to sacrifice to Baby Sister's volcano first."
"ARTI!" Martis squealed as she snapped up out of Sev's lap.
"What?" Sev asked.
"NOTHING!" Martis cried, turning a deep red. "Nothing at all!"
Sev knew the only reason she reacted like that is because she was thinking naughty thoughts. Perfect opportunity to really mess with Lupin's head with her help. (Somehow, it did not cross his mind of why she may be thinking naughty thoughts.)
"You know," he said intensely. "There's something I always wanted to do to you."
She made a moaning sound, her eyes locked to his and not wanting to turn away even though the attack of panic tore through her body.
"Something depraved and intimate, and something I'm quite sure no one else has done to you, my Martis - "
"Severus!" she breathed in a thin voice.
"I want to ... " He grinned and tackled her back to the blanket. " - LICK YOUR NOSE!"
Martis giggled hysterically as she tried to twist her face away from his, and Sev laughed while he attempted to lick her nose. The sisters looked up to see them rolling around on the blanket and laughing, then smirked to themselves.
"Sev! Get off!"
"Let me lick that nose!"
"No way!"
"I must have it!"
"Stop tickling!"
Phaedra rubbed Baby Jimmy's back and Artemisia murmured, "Let's leave them alone for a little while, small ones -"
But not before Baby Sirie crawled over and managed to throw up on the playing duo.
Martis sighed as Sev got up. "THAT ruined it," she concluded. "Here's a towel, Snips." She picked up Baby Sirie and cleaned his face. "Poor baby! Your tummy isn't feeling well, is it?"
Sev felt cheated for some reason, even though the intention to annoy the Marauders had succeeded. He rather ... liked playing with Martis like that, like they were little kids. They probably would have done something similar if they had grown up together.
He was going to annoy them again tonight. Perhaps once again with Medusa's help.
Sev snorted as he turned his back to the baby-occupied Martis and toward the snake. He stroked her head with long fingers and softly murmured to her, "You'll help me play with the babies again, won't you, Medusa-darling?"
Medusa slit her eyes and freely enjoyed his touch.
----------
The night was quiet. This was Sev's first mistake.
The second mistake was that Medusa was over-enthusiastic with 'pretending' to eat a Baby Marauder that Baby Petey's muffled cry woke up Martis.
"Lumos," she said, lifting her wand up.
The scene was there before her: Sev in his gray nightshirt next to the pen and holding a bottle labeled 'Snake Sauce'. Medusa was wrapped around Baby Petey and the baby's foot was in her mouth.
"What the - ?!"
Sev thought fast, and then got up and hurried toward her. "I needed to see you."
Martis swallowed the lump in her throat as he pressed her to the bed. "What - for - ?" Despite the excitement welling in her, she forced herself to push him away and focus on the matter at hand. "And why are you making Medusa eat the babies??"
"I was not," he answered indignantly, brushing his hair back from his face. "You know Medusa likes to take care of babies and keep them warm. She can testify that nothing untoward was going on; right, Medusa?"
Medusa's head appeared over the pen's railing and nodded vigorously.
"And I wasn't doing anything bad to the babies, was I?"
She shook her head just as resolutely.
Martis got up to pick up Baby Petey to make sure he was unharmed and Sev breathed toward the snake, "I owe you a vole."
Medusa's tongue flickered out.
Martis turned back to Sev, baby in her arms, and regarded him through dark blonde lashes. "I don't think Madame Pomfrey would allow ... And my sisters are here ... And not with the babies around ..."
Sev drew a complete blank to what she was implying. "Beg pardon?"
Still holding the baby, she moved closer to him, so that her nightgown and his nightshirt were brushing against the other. Her face flushed; Martis ran her hand up the front of his nightshirt, to his neck, and then rested against his cheek. "You better get back to bed. Before Pomfrey or Filch or Cleopatra catch you."
Sev nodded, her scent slamming into his brain; Gods, she smelled good. He quickly left without another word.
Martis paused, calming herself down before she changed Baby Petey's diaper and put him back in the pen again. She lay back down on her temporary bed and stared at the ceiling.
"Why did you send him away?" Artemisia's voice asked in the dark.
Martis turned over, her back away from her sister. "It's inappropriate."
"You do know we would have vacated the area for a few hours."
"Arti, there's more to life than breeding."
"There's also more to life than denying the obvious."
----------
The next morning had the Hufflepuff Photographer in the hospital wing at Adonia's request.
"Why?" Phaedra asked.
"Snape and I discussed it," Adonia answered. "We want to record this time for posterity."
"Speak for yourself," Sev interrupted. "I want to humiliate them when they turn back." He sat on the floor next to Martis and dangled a polished spoon in front of a baby's face. "See, Baby Sirie-werie-kins? Shiny!"
Marauder Sirius knew an insult when he saw one, and did not rise to the bait.
"Doesn't seem too interested," Martis observed.
"It means that he's not very bright - babies are attracted to shiny objects; shows intelligence." He picked Baby Sirie up and stated in a happy, patronizing tone of baby-talk, "Isn't he so precious? We're going to take him to a doctor to get him gelded and then sell him into some unhygienic Middle-Eastern brothel. And he can't be a eunuch-guard, no sir; he's too pretty for that -"
Martis giggled and elbowed him gently in the chest. Baby Sirie randomly threw his fists and kicked his feet at Sev, looking more like a squiggly baby than an offended Marauder.
"Do you think he's trying to hit you?" Martis asked.
"Of course he is," Sev replied as he deposited the near-tantrum-throwing Baby Sirie in the pen. "You know more than I that babies are savages that must be taught civil behavior. He's actually more mature now than he was as a Fifth-Year." He sniffed loudly. "Better smelling, too. Of course, now he has someone to change his nappies -"
Marauder Sirius' mind was briefly overwhelmed by Baby Sirie's infant hormones. "WAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Phaedra picked up the squalling infant and calmed him down.
Martis shook her head. "You can be awful at times, Mr. Snape."
"Thank-you, Miss Vox. I do my damnedest."
The Marauders did not know which was worse - Snape's smug superiority or Vox's giggling and blushing.
"No-no-no, Baby Jimmy," Artemisia said as she pulled her wand away from the baby. "Don't play with my wand."
Martis chucked his chin and she pulled him away. "You're not ready for such advanced motor-skills yet. Or Arti's wand, period."
"Those are lies," Artemisia insisted, tucking her wand into her robe. "I do not doctor-up my wand."
"Nobody said you did," Sev commented. "But now that you brought it up, I did notice you refribbing it during lunch yesterday. Where did you get the crabwick for that, anyway? I thought those were restricted to students."
"Sis, kiss his mouth shut."
Martis pretended to be busy with Baby Jimmy and Sev saw another opportunity to annoy another Marauder. Just to give the little pervert something to chew over (he had heard stories about the things James Potter had said to Martis on the pitch), Sev scooted closer to Martis and whispered, "I like it when we sit close like this and you get all perky."
Baby Jimmy choked about the same time Martis did, although her choking was accompanied by a brilliant scarlet blush and much sweating. Baby Jimmy's merely resulted in hiccups.
Sev pressed closer. "It makes me want to cause you to make moaning sounds -"
Martis - completely distracted - patted Baby Jimmy's head. "Snips ... stop it ..." she warned softly. "You're making my thighs ache ..."
"That's a good thing," he responded, a fingertip gently caressing her ear.
Marauder James decided that they were going too far for his delicate sensibilities, so Baby Jimmy decided to open fire on Snape.
The mood was quite utterly and thoroughly destroyed ... along with one robe and a nappy.
Both Sev and Martis had reduced appetites for breakfast and lunch, and spoke in length about the disgusting things babies emit. Admittedly, Martis was more clinical in her discussion while Sev moaned about finally understanding why so many geniuses were only children.
----------
It happened mid-afternoon, between classes.
The girls were changing the babies and discussing classes and none of them noticed Baby Jimmy tugging on the sleeve of Artemisia's robe.
However, they did noticed when fireworks began flying past their heads.
"HIT THE DECK!" Phaedra cried.
Sev pulled Martis down while Artemisia began yelling, "He's got my wand! The bugger is trying to use my wand!"
Marauder James was frustrated beyond all measure. His infant nervous system could not handle what his mature mind knew - he could not hold the wand, he could not aim the wand, he could not mutter a cancellation spell, and he certainly could not control what came out of this oaken monstrosity that did not behave like a wand, anyway.
Babies Petey, Remie, and Sirie had buried themselves under the blanket in the pen and whimpered. Medusa crawling on top of them to protect them did not help matters in their opinions.
Fireworks and bolts of energy continued to shoot from the wand, shattering the windows of the infirmary and burning marks in the stone walls.
Cleopatra burst in and yelled, "WHAT THE AVERNUS IS GOING ON???"
Adonia - right behind her - screamed as a ball of fire headed right for them. Cleopatra barely had enough time to grab Adonia and push her to the floor. She raised her forearm and caught the bolt on her strapped-on wand, dispersing it in a shower of scarlet flame.
Sev released Martis and crawled across the floor to the bed, standing straight up and grabbing for the wand from Baby Jimmy's hand -
But not before a bolt of magic slammed into his crotch.
Sev doubled over, pulling the wand from the baby's hand with his momentum, and fell to the floor in a heap.
The Vox sisters and Cleopatra looked up.
"Are the babies all right?" Artemisia asked.
Martis pushed her out of the way and crawled to Sev. "Snips! Severus! Are you all right???"
The pain made his response high-pitched and squeaky: "No ..."
Marauder James felt pleased with himself to at least get one in Snape's cods, and the other Baby Marauders gurgled their congratulations to him.
Martis gently held Sev as Madame Pomfrey came in.
"What happened to my infirmary??"
Sev raised a shaky hand, pointed, and squeaked, "He did it!"
The babies - exhausted from the excitement - were asleep. Only Cleopatra noted the huge grins on their doughy faces.
----------
A few minutes later, Pomfrey had diagnosed Sev's problem as 'muscle contraction caused by spell bolt' and prescribed 'let it run its course'.
Sev was curled up in a fetal knot on a bed in another part of the hospital wing while Martis sat next to him and rested her hand on his shoulder for support. Adonia sat across from them on the next bed, a huge medical textbook in her lap.
"Ah, here we go," Adonia said. "Madame Pomfrey lied - there is a treatment for such a problem."
"What is it?" Martis asked.
"Strong massage of the area with oil."
Sev's eyes got rather huge while Martis clumsily shoved her sunglasses back on and stammered.
"You're making that up!" Martis accused her.
"No, I'm not." She turned the book to show them. "Right here - 'For muscular contraction caused by impact from a magically propelled bolt, massage the area vigorously with warm ginseng oil until patient is relaxed'."
Appearing from practically nowhere, Pomfrey snatched the book from Adonia and stated quite sternly, "Allow it to RUN ITS COURSE."
Sev and Martis had the decency to blush while Adonia pouted. Pomfrey vanished as quickly as she appeared.
"But it could take HOURS if we let it run its course. That method could get it over with in minutes. A VERY few minutes."
Martis continued to blush up to her hairline. "You heard what Pomfrey said!"
"I'll do it if you don't want to - "
Martis' wand manifested in her hand, pointing at Adonia's throat. "We - will - let - it - run - its - course!"
"So you're going to let Severus suffer all this time?" her sister sighed melodramatically. "How terrible for you, Severus, to have to go through all those hours of pain and -"
"Shut up, Doni!" Martis snapped.
Artemisia ran around a privacy screen. "Guys! Remus Lupin and James Potter are back to normal, but they're still asleep in the pen in their nappies!"
"What about Black and Pettigrew?" Martis asked.
"Playing on the bed with a Fwooper toy."
Adonia clapped her hands. "Picture time!"
The twins left and Martis inhaled deeply a few times. "You'll be all right, won't you, Snips?"
Sev did not say anything, not quite sure what to say. Part of him was upset she did not want to help him with a speedy recovery, and another part felt disappointed that she panicked when she realized what the treatment entailed (even he figured it out quickly). She may as well not touch him at all!
Gods, what was he thinking? Did he really expect Martis to be as curious about him as he was about her?
These thoughts were fast and fleeting and he did not dwell on them long as the intense pain in his groin kept him occupied.
Martis did not want to think about the treatment and instead concentrated on the facts that her Sev was hurting and there were no more babies around to cuddle and hold and take care of.
No more babies around.
----------
Adonia and Artemisia did not notice Lambchop the inflatable sheep trot into the hospital wing, nor did they notice what she was doing to the babies on the bed as the girls snapped pictures of Lupin and Potter sleeping in the pen.
They did, however, notice the gasp of horror and turned to see a fifteen-year-old nappy-clad Sirius Black sitting on the bed with Lambchop bent over his knee and him spanking the inflatable sheep and yelling, "SPIT HIM OUT, YOU RUBBERIZED GIT!"
"Quick, get a pic!" Artemisia ordered. Adonia obeyed, disbelieving the sight.
Lambchop finally spat the fifteen-year-old nappy-clad Peter Pettigrew on the floor. More pictures were taken, especially of the embarrassed Pettigrew pretending to still be a baby by curling up and sucking his thumb.
All four Marauders had turned back by this point and Madame Pomfrey took over post-spell details; she discharged the Vox sisters from baby duty which gave the twins a chance to run to the school's darkroom to give their film to the Hufflepuff Photographer.
After knocking at the dark room door, Adonia asked, "Do you remember his name?"
"Um ... Leonardo di Bozo ... "
"No wonder he just wants to be called 'The Hufflepuff Photographer'."
He opened the door a crack. "What is it?"
"We got more blackmail pics of the Marauders. Five galleons if you develop them by tomorrow afternoon."
He held his hand out. "Done."
----------
It was not until nine that night that Sev was able to move without being incapacitated. Martis had left his side to go to dinner and had not come back. He slowly climbed the dozen odd staircases to the Conversation Room, half-praying that Filch would not catch him and half-praying that he did not pull anything to prevent him from ever having children.
Heh. Him fathering children. What a laughable concept.
He knew she would be here. Anything relating to her ideas of being a female resulted in her hiding out there. Considering how female she got in relation to having babies around, he may not be able to draw her out this time.
Indeed she was there, sitting on the floor next to the lantern and absently stroking Medusa's back and staring into nothing.
Sev crawled in and sat next to her, studying her face. The sunglasses were off, so it allowed him to see her face and eyes unhindered. In lantern-light, her face seemed darker than it was, and the moss green of her eyes appeared nearly hazel.
Although the shadows perfectly outlined the curves of her upper lip and made her skin look quite warm and inviting.
When she did not acknowledge his presence, he reached out and poked her forehead, saying, "Bother."
She finally looked up, the expression of sadness seeming to make the lantern-light dim even more. "I miss them."
Sev shrugged by twitching a lip. "They're back in Gryffindor Tower and telling everyone lies of how horrible it was being babies."
Martis looked down at Medusa in her lap. "Perhaps I should have kept Medusa out of the pen. I miss babies."
"They were still Marauders. Remember? They tried to kill you you First-Year?"
"They were babies. I miss babies."
"Why?"
"I really am meant to take care of babies. I need to. I need babies, Severus. I want babies."
He regarded her coolly, checking his reaction; a brief mental image of Martis and himself holding triplet infants crossed his mind. He immediately struck it from memory.
"Well," he admitted. "I'm in no condition right now to help you make any."
Her mouth flew open, then closed, then opened and closed again as she blinked. Her instincts pounced on the statement, dragged it in, and encased it within the deepest well of her hopes and dreams.
He wants to. He promised me someday he would.
It brought her state of mind into focus enough for her to laugh a little. "Too soon for babies, eh?"
"For now," he agreed.
"I still miss having them around."
"I know you do." He reached for her hand and squeezed, holding hers tightly. "Shall I dress in a diaper, suck my thumb, and say 'goo'?"
She paused, saw the threat of a smirk at his lips, and laughed. "No, thank-you, Snips. I like you as you are."
"Good. I think I'd look terrible in a diaper."
"A loincloth would be better." She scooted closer and laid her head on his shoulder.
"A loincloth and a pacifier then," he concluded.
She giggled again, raising Medusa's head by the snake's chin. "Well, Medusa, it's going to be a little while until you have babies to take care of again."
Sev sat up. "That reminds me." He dug a small rodent out of his pocket. "Here's your vole, Medusa."
Medusa clutched the vole in her mouth and slithered away to eat.
"What's that for?" Martis asked.
"Medusa being a good girl, that's all." He hugged her and kissed her forehead, then allowed his lips to draw down the bridge of her nose and across her cheek where it lingered for several seconds.
Martis turned her face away, afraid she would lose control and scare him. She knew if he stumbled innocently into the vague waters between Friends and Lovers, she would pull him so fast into the latter that he would hate her for it.
Damn, damn, damn. Scaring him was worse than anything else. If she acknowledged what he had said, what he seemed to be doing, he would retreat back.
So. She had to reply non-verbally and non-threateningly.
----------
The next day was quite tense between the Marauders, the Vox sisters, and Severus Snape. The Marauders were being especially annoying with various insults, while the Vox sisters had no idea what was wrong with them except the fact they were just being stupid British boys again.
Cleopatra found Sev after breakfast and cornered him in a nook in the hallway. Without preamble, she asked him, "Do the girls know about the Gryffindor boys being conscious during the affair?"
Sev lowered his brows over his dark eyes. "No. Why?"
"Adonia told me about the pictures they took. I'd prefer to not have to break up any more attempted murders, so I suggest you give them a warning shot across the bow. Here."
She shoved a packet of photographs in his hand, then turned and left.
Sev raised an eyebrow, watching the tall, willowy woman with the vaguely familiar face walk away. He looked down at the photos in his hand ... and a demented leer crossed his face. Blackmail enough to keep the Drooling Menagerie at bay until Christmas!
----------
By midmorning break, Sev caught the Marauders as they left their shared Arithmancy class.
"It would interest you," Sev stated in a painfully disaffected voice. "To keep your comments and insults to yourselves."
Black chuckled, raising his hands in the air. "What's this? Snivelly telling us to bugger off?"
Sev smirked coldly. "I'm sure you'd like the halls to be plastered with poster-size pictures of these -" He slapped a photograph in Lupin's face.
Remus Lupin moaned in horror, holding the picture of him and James Potter at their normal ages, still in the nappies and sleeping peacefully in the pen.
"You bastard!" Black growled, stepping forward menacingly.
Severus whipped out a photo which appeared to show Sirius wearing a diaper and spanking an inflatable sheep. Peter Pettigrew's head was out of the sheep's mouth.
Sirius Black came to a dead halt.
"You bastard," he snarled in a low voice. "I will get you for this."
"Do and be damned," Sev answered, holding up several more photographs of them being bathed, diapered, and smearing food on their faces and hair. "I know you remember all this in vivid detail - and I'm sure you don't want everyone to share in these intimate moments."
"Name your terms, snake," James Potter spat.
"Leave Martis and me alone. You leave us alone, these won't get scattered all over the school. We have the negatives and the means to blow them up to poster-size." Sev scowled. "The Quaffle's in your goal area."
The Marauders looked at each other, and then Black turned back to Sev. "All right, we accept. But this doesn't mean you and Brito-tart-is can prank us."
"Sneerius, the only reason we pranked you is because you pranked us. Even infants can figure out the connection." Sev tucked the photos into his book bag. "Have a good day, gentlemen."
Sev walked away, allowing the smug smirk to cross his face. He flicked his braid back behind his head and skipped down the stairs amid a group of Slytherins.
"Snips!" Martis called from a lower landing.
Sev craned his neck and saw her climbing up to meet him. "Yeah, Spirals?"
She weaved through the throng of students, and then stood before him; she suddenly whipped a bouquet of red roses from behind her back and handed them to him.
Sev gazed at her. "Wha - ?"
She blushed, grinning. "Yours." She quickly kissed his cheek and trotted down the stairs to her class.
The Slytherins around him had stopped and stared at Sev holding the bouquet of red roses.
"The males of Hogwarts now hate you, Snape," one of the guys muttered.
Evan Ryper chuckled. "Move it, folks, class starts in three minutes." He grinned and winked at Sev as the students left him standing on the stairway.
Sev - alone now - continued to gaze at the roses in his hands.
The thorns had been cut off.
Martis gave him roses.
And she cut the thorns off.
Sev wandered slowly down the stairs, wondering what the hells happened, but feeling elated for the first time in ages. It was scary but it felt wonderful.
The Marauders ran down the stairs, keeping to the other side away from Sev, as Artemisia walked up the stairs.
By pure reflex, Pettigrew held his arms out to her and impulsively called out, "Nanny!"
The rest of the Marauders stopped and stared at him in horror, while Artemisia and Sev drew their wands and gave the idiot a hexing he would not forget for at least a week.
"Should you have put those antlers on him?" Artemisia asked afterward when the Marauders had scrambled down the stairs. "Especially there?"
"After what he did to me, he needs something to plug up that end." Sev inhaled the scent of the roses. "Besides, you weren't too nice with the jelly-ankle curse."
"The blue urine won't show up for two days yet." She leaned close to inhale the roses, then smirked and left him.
Sev continued down to his class and ignored the smirks and knowing smiles from everyone as he placed the roses on his desk.
Things were finally looking up.
-End-