Disclaimer: Not mine.
AN: Dress compliments of Midnight Lily.
AN2: If you review and have a question, I will email a personal answer to you if you provide your email address either in your profile or in the body of the review. Thanks to all thous that review.
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Chapter 10 The Time Is Right
Alexis and Hermione limped into the Entrance Hall and parted ways. Alexis began to make her way down to the dungeons. She was leaving a trail of mud behind her.
"What do you think you're doing making a mess for me to clean up? Detention tonight. If the Headmaster would only allow me to flog you, then you students would think twice about tracking mud all over…" Filch's voice trailed off as the mud covered creature turned around: all that could clearly be made out were two eyes glaring out of the filth and grime.
"Argus, I apologize for making this mess," Alexis gritted out. "I will find some way to make it up to you."
"Madame Snape?" Filch stuttered out.
Alexis paused, "Yes, Argus, if you don't mind I would like to go get cleaned up. I am truly sorry about the mess," she resumed her journey leaving Filch staring after her mouth agape.
She was halfway down the dungeon corridor when classes ended. Alexis gave up trying to walk against the stream of students and just leaned against the wall and endured the stares and whispered comments while the mud started to dry. It was getting very itchy.
A few of the students stopped as if to say something, but Alexis' look quickly convinced them to move on. She continued on her way to her quarters determined to take a long hot shower followed by a longer, hotter bubble bath.
A hand in front of her face stopped her once again, "Am I ever going to be able to scrape this mess off of me?" she asked the hand.
"Alexis?" Snape asked surprised.
"Yes, darling, I could really use a hug about now," she gave him a pleading look.
Snape looked her from her muck-matted hair down to the gunk she was still dripping on the floor, "I don't think so."
"This is the second thing I owe you for," she said moving around him, not caring about the giant smear she had left on the wall.
"How is this my fault?" Snape asked as he walked a careful distance from her not wanting to get anything on his robes if he could help it.
"You insisted I learn to fly. Or was that someone taking Polyjuice Potion impersonating a tall, dark and dead sexy Potions Professor this morning who wouldn't listen to me?" Alexis sneered.
"You need to learn to fly for your own safety," Snape asserted.
"Well, you were not the one being dragged all over the quad and falling into mud, now were you?" Alexis hissed. "I felt oh so safe, let me tell you."
Snape realized that she was in no mood to be logical and admit that none of this was his fault so he held his tongue.
"AND, I owe you for telling me that you could not make the potion in chocolate flavor. Don't think I've forgotten about that one," Alexis was muttering more to herself.
"What potion?" Snape asked before he could stop himself.
Alexis stopped, flipped her hair over her shoulder, splattering him and the hallway with mud, then turned and faced him with renewed fire in her eyes. "The prenatal potion. Amber told me that you bribed her to help me with the sex ed class." Alexis took a step closer to Snape and began poking him in the chest leaving muddy dots, "I begged you to do that for me. Your wife, the mother of your children, the woman you occasionally profess to love and you told me the potion wouldn't work if you made it in chocolate flavor. Now suddenly, as if by magic, you have created exactly what I wanted, but for another woman! If I didn't know that Amber was totally devoted to Remus I might be jealous!"
Alexis swung around so fast her hair flew up in a clump of filth and hit Snape in the chest leaving a trail across the front of his robes. Snape rubbed his chest where it was stinging from the impact of her hair. It was so heavy and thick with the goop caking it that it had actually hurt when it hit him.
"Alexis, wait," Snape said hurrying after her.
"Severus, I want to be clean again," Alexis said not stopping.
Snape braced himself and reached for her arm fighting a feeling of revulsion as the mud squelched between his fingers, "The potion, let me explain one thing." Alexis looked up at him. "The chocolate flavoring does have one side effect that I didn't think you would like," at what he interpreted as a concerned look, "nothing that will hurt Amber or the baby. The only ingredient I could find that wouldn't stop the potion from absorbing into the body and still give the chocolate flavor," Snape paused briefly, "also suppresses the libido." He waited for the explosion.
Alexis' lips started twitching, "You mean that Amber gets chocolate and Remus gets nothing?" At his cautious nod, "Did you tell either of them?" When he shook his head she started chuckling, and then laughing before throwing her arms around him, "That is too funny. Mean, but funny."
Alexis returned to her many times interrupted journey leaving a mussed and bemused Potions master to follow her. He desperately needed a change of clothes as well.
Snape entered his quarters and had to stop and look around to make sure he hadn't inadvertently entered his classroom, the pall in the room of gloom and despair was so thick he could be forgiven for wondering. Alexis was snuggling Nathair and Star as though trying to draw comfort from the warmth of their bodies. Remus was holding Amber who was snuggling Aleser. Remus looked up in relief as Snape entered the room, "I came in and found them like this," he told Snape. Both women just continued to stare blankly into space, a look of abject misery etched onto their faces.
"Did the kitchen run out of double chocolate, chocolate chip, fudge brownie ice cream?" Snape asked.
"There's some in the cold sack," Alexis said absently waving towards a large container sitting next to the couch.
Looking around, Snape could see evidence of a chocolate orgy: there were empty bowls with barely a smudge of chocolate ice cream left in the bottom; empty candy bar wrappers littered the floor around Alexis and Amber; the biggest box of Honeydukes extra rich, extra dark chocolate truffles Snape had ever seen was empty on the coffee table. As he moved further into the room he kicked a bottle that went rolling madly around on the rug. Picking it up he read the label aloud, "YooHoo." A quick look showed more of the strange drink bottles strewn haphazardly throughout the area, "Alexis, what is going on?" Snape asked a trace of worry in his voice.
Alexis looked up as if noticing him for the first time, "Severus? I am so glad you are here. You won't believe what those bast…" looking down at the baby in her arms, "those bottom feeding, blowhards at the Ministry have done." Snape walked over and settled beside her pulling her into his arms, "They refused to file Remus' and Amber's betrothal agreements."
Amber dipped a spoon into what Snape now realized was a bowl of chocolate icing and ate it slowly, "Yes, I'm pregnant and I can't get married."
"What are you going to do?" Snape wanted to know.
Alexis handed him Aleser and rummaged through the mess on the floor until she found a chocolate smeared piece of parchment, "That is what we were working on when Remus came in."
"What is that?" Remus asked craning his head.
"It is a list of curses, hexes and jinxes we thought appropriate for the Head of the Department of Magical Contracts and Marriages," Alexis explained, wiping a large smudge off the paper and then licking her finger.
"Is that Fudge's name?" Snape asked nodding at the list.
Amber replied, "Yes, we tried to get him to override the decision, but one of my friends at the Ministry told me that the actual order not to allow our marriage had come from Fudge. He thinks it is just a stage I am going through. He cannot imagine a nice Pureblood witch like me wanting to be shackled to a werewolf."
Snape had to suppress a shudder at the look in Amber's eyes. He would not want to be in Fudge's shoes when these two got finished with him. Snape continued to read the list over Alexis' shoulder, "Bribe him?"
"Amber won't let me buy Fudge or even rent him until he signs off on the marriage agreement," Alexis told him.
"I can't let you spend that much money," Amber said. "Fudge may be a cheap bastard, but he has a high price."
"Blackmail?" Snape read the next item on the list in surprise. "What were you going to blackmail him with?" he was curious.
Alexis rummaged some more in the debris on the coffee table and handed Snape some photos while Amber handed another set to Remus.
Snape looked at the first photo and started to sputter, "WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU GET THESE?"Remus' mouth was just opening and closing as he stared in stunned disbelief.
"We made them," Alexis said absently.
"Made them?" Remus managed to get out, "How did you make something like this?"
Alexis glanced over at him, "My attorney, Letta Gates, brought a product to me that her cousin, Bill Gates, no relation, invented."
Snape interrupted, "No relation, but you just said they were cousins?"
"Yes, they are cousins, but Bill Gates is no relation to THE Bill Gates," Alexis explained.
"Who?" came at her from Remus and Snape. She had already explained to Amber earlier.
"Never mind, he is a famous Muggle," Alexis sighed. "Anyway, Letta brought this invention to me," this time the interruption came from Remus.
"Your attorney's name is Letta Gates?" he snorted.
"Yes, her full name is Leticia Louise Lanell Gates. If that was your name, wouldn't you go by Letta?" Snape and Remus both nodded. "Letta asked me if I might be interested in backing the production of Bill's invention. She feels that it is going to be huge."
"What is it?" Snape asked impatiently, "and what does it have to do with these photos?"
"The name of the product is PhotoCharm. It allows you to cut and paste two photos and make them look like one," Alexis held up one of the photos, "See we took this photo of a drag queen in a corset, heels, fishnet stockings and holding a whip and put Fudge's head on it. We couldn't find one where he wasn't wearing that damn green bowler hat," Snape thought that was the least of the photo's problems as the body started strutting around in circles shaking its butt while Fudge's head wandered off to the side of the photo and began banging itself against the edge.
Remus was flipping through the pictures enjoying them now that he knew that while the Minister of Magic was a great, annoying, prejudiced, prat, he was not a drag queen fixated on S and M. He levitated a photo over to Snape, "Severus, take a look at this one."
Snape grabbed the photo out of the air and smirked, "Where did you get a picture of a dominatrix that looks so much like McNair?"
"We put his face on her body," Alexis explained watching the doctored photo as a whip was flicked knocking Fudge's bowler hat off. Fudge's head looked angry and seemed to be telling off the body it was attached to for not retrieving his hat.
"I can see that," Snape said as he watched the body turn too quickly, making it look as if McNair's face was growing out of the side of the head.
Another picture showed a man, dressed in a pink ballerina tutu that clashed horribly with the green of Fudge's hat, dancing en pointe. As he pirouetted, Fudge's head remained stubborn and wouldn't turn with the body. Alexis thought it had kind of a reverse Linda Blair Exorcist effect.
Snape looked up from the photos, "Why don't you get married in France?"
Everyone stopped and looked at him, "Why would we get married in France?" Amber asked.
"They are much more accepting of mixed marriages. You attended Beauxbatons?" at her nod, "Alexis has several properties over there, she can sign one over to Remus so that he will be a landowner. That will satisfy all the requirements for you two to get married. Once you are married over there, the Ministry over here has to recognize your union."
The last time Snape had been the recipient of so many hopeful looks was when he had started choking at dinner one night in the Great Hall. Three fourths of the students and several of the staff had waited to see if he would be able to dislodge the obstruction from his throat. Luckily Minerva had seen what was going on and had whapped him a good one between the shoulder blades. Snape privately thought she had gotten way too much enjoyment out of hitting him and had been a tad too enthusiastic about it. The bruise had lasted for three days.
"Do you really think that would work?" Amber asked.
"I admit that I fully expected the Ministry to make difficulties so I looked into alternate possibilities. Strictly to fulfill my role as best man," Snape hastened to add. "I had my attorney contact a firm in Paris and they just owled me the information. As long as one of you attended school in France and one of you owns property, the waiting period is waved."
"Which property are we giving them?" Alexis smiled at her husband.
"I had the Paris attorneys prepare paperwork to transfer title on a house just outside of Paris," Snape said not even trying to look modest.
Remus started to say, "Alexis, Severus we cannot allow you to give us…" when a sharp elbow jabbing into his stomach stopped him.
"I don't know how we can thank you, we will transfer the title back as soon as the marriage is recorded," Amber assured them.
"I don't think so," Alexis smirked, "It will be our wedding present to you." Snape nodded his agreement, "Now, Severus, since you have taken care of all of this, what about the wedding?"
"Actually, I did have a few people contacted, just as a means to expedite the proceedings," Snape defended himself as he got up and retrieved a thick folder and handed it to Amber.
Looking through the papers, she stared at Snape impressed, "A few people? You have everything arranged for the wedding. All the rest of us have to do is show up. You even have portkeys arranged for the guests."
"I just took the liberty of reserving the caterers, florists and a few others. Narcissa Malfoy was very helpful in providing me with the names. I had a special delivery to make to her and Lucius and was able to ask her then," Alexis and Amber smirked at the thought of what the special delivery was. The Malfoy's should soon be announcing the pending birth of a daughter, "The only item I did not even make an attempt to handle was the dress."
"Madame Coutrea," Alexis and Amber said at the same time.
When Amber and Alexis walked into Madame Coutrea's shop, they were immediately led to a private dressing room and the Madame soon appeared with her sketchbook in hand.
Looking from Amber to Alexis she gave a big smile and called to her assistant, "Bring the dress immediately. I knew that it would not be long before you would also be married," she informed Amber.
A linen draped rack was wheeled into the room. Madame Coutrea stood up and with a flourish removed the cover revealing a dress that was a true work of art. The underskirt and the bodice were satin. The bodice had clusters of pearls sewn to it with five pearls sewn around a center rhinestone.
The centerpiece of the bodice was a cluster of leaves. The trim that came across the shoulders and surrounded the centerpiece were bullion flowers. Bullion is tiny coils of wire or embroidery floss that are sewn down. This was very visible in the train. The trim met at the center front of the gown with a flower and ties that came out of the flower. The waist of the gown was trimmed with pearls.
The neckline of the gown was not smooth; it had large uneven trim around it. The gown was off-the-shoulder. The overskirt was a crinkly sheer fabric, like an organza it had some iridescence to it. The sleeves were a semi-sheer crinkle, and covered with gauntlets that are tied on at the shoulder. The gauntlets had antique lace and pearls sewn to them. Part of the upper gauntlet was English net with embroidered swirling vines. The lower gauntlet was also English net, but with large embroidered flowers. There were matching shoes on a shelf on the rack. The shoes were made of satin covered with Indian muslin and woven with silver thread, in a magical combination of iridescent materials embellished with rich embroidery. The transparent heels are made of hand-molded crystal and are decorated with refined silver beading.
Amber was staring at the dress and nodding. Alexis grinned at her friend and then looking at Madame, "We will take it."
"You had better since I made it in the young misses' size," Madame Coutrea sniffed.
Alexis looked up from the mail the next day. "We have an invitation to dinner with the Doffs," she told Snape. "They want to know if Wednesday night at seven would be convenient."
"Why didn't Amber just ask us when they were here yesterday?" Snape asked irritated.
"I guess she didn't know her parents were going to be inviting us all to dinner to discuss their wedding," Alexis replied. "So, are we free Wednesday night?"
"Amber's parents have invited us to dinner?" Snape grabbed the letter from her hand reading it over quickly.
"What is so surprising about that?" Alexis wanted to know.
"They were very involved in the first war against the Dark Lord. They have refused to socialize with anyone who was even suspected of being one of his supporters," Snape explained absently.
Alexis waited to see if he was going to say anything else.
"They are also reputed to be slightly odd," Snape continued after a moment.
"What do you mean by odd?" Alexis grinned. "Amber seems fairly normal." Thinking about that for a moment, "At least in public," she amended.
"I personally have never met them. I have just heard about them. She is a bit of a mystic and he is as enamored with Muggles as Arthur Weasley. In fact the two families are on very friendly terms."
"Do you want to have dinner with them?" Alexis was curious.
"We are free Wednesday. If you want to go, we will go," Snape allowed.
Alexis wrote a polite acceptance and sent it by owl.
Wednesday night found them standing at the door to the Doff home. It was a modest appearing town home in an area of London that had a fair number of wizarding families. Before they could knock on the door it was opened by an attractive witch in her late forties who said with a faint French accent, "Hello, you must be the Snapes. I am Aurora Doff, welcome to our home," she stepped back and waved them inside.
Snape helped Alexis off with her cloak, "I am Severus Snape and this is my wife, Alexis," he introduced. Before he could hand over their cloaks, Mrs. Doff had pulled him into a hug and used the collar of his robes to pull his head down so that she could plant a kiss on his check. She released him to turn and to give Alexis the same treatment.
"My dears, Amber and Remus have told us so much about you that I feel I know you already. Everyone else is in the parlor, why don't we join them?" She took the cloaks from Snape's unresisting hand and gave them to an elderly butler who had materialized from the shadows, "Farthley will take care of your wraps," and she led them down into a room immediately off of the entrance hall.
"Darlings, I told you they were on the doorstep just waiting to come in, my sixth sense is never wrong about these things. As you know I see many things before they actually happen," she said with a regal air.
Amber had walked over to greet them. Whispering in Alexis' ear, "That is because she peers out of the front windows." In a louder voice, "Come and meet the rest of the inmates," leading them toward a tall grey haired wizard sitting in an armchair and talking with Remus.
Drawing near they could hear what was being discussed, "So Remus, what is the purpose of Department Stores? I cannot believe that they would have departments for sale, although I sometimes feel that some of the Departments at the Ministry, if they aren't for sale, are at least for rent," he said wryly. Looking up he smiled at his daughter.
"Daddy, these are my friends, Alexis and Severus Snape. This is my father, Steven Doff," after introducing them, Amber walked over to sit on the arm of Remus' chair.
Mr. Doff had risen and was holding out his hand to Snape. "Professor Snape, Mrs. Snape," he offered in greeting.
"Please, call us Alexis and Severus," Alexis offered with a polite smile.
Mrs. Doff hurried up, "And you must call us Aurora and Steven," patting Snape on the arm as she walked by him to stand next to her husband.
Remus who had also gotten to his feet at Alexis' arrival, leaned over and kissed her check, "Alexis," and offered his hand to Snape, "Severus."
"Remus," Snape briefly shook the proffered hand.
"I tell you it is the same Professor Snape," a tall gangly youth said to his female counterpart as they entered the room.
"How would Amber know the premier Potions master in all of Europe?" was the sarcastic question.
"And these are my brother and sister, Darien and Darla," Amber said with a twist of her lips.
"No, we are not twins," Darla said with a weary sigh of one who has been asked the question way too many times.
"Obviously not," Snape said. "You are the older by about fifteen months."
Darla grinned at that, "I think I'm going to like him." Looking at her sister, "Can I keep him?"
"It is you," the blonde boy said with a note of awe in his voice. "I read your paper on the Solidarity Potion. It was brilliant. How you explained the interaction of the arrow root with the tincture of sliver nitrate was so clear and well defined. I have all of your papers saved in a binder in my room. Would you have a chance to autograph them for me?"
Alexis had a possessive grip on Snape's arm and was glaring daggers at the younger girl who was trying to flirt with Snape.
"Darla, Darien, stop it," Amber ordered, "Darla, sorry dear, but he is already taken by the witch on his arm. Now if you do not want to get hexed seven ways to Sunday, you will pull back and shut up. Darien, give the man a chance to sit down before you start in on him."
"Children, you heard your sister, you have been taught better manners than you are currently displaying," their father scolded quietly.
At his words the two grinned, "Yes, daddums," Darla walked over to her father and hugged him.
Darien came over to stand beside Snape almost bouncing in his eagerness to be noticed, "Sir, if you have a moment, I was wondering if you would perhaps be willing to look at a potion I am working on?"
Before Snape could respond to that, Darla came up, "Dar, leave him alone. At least let him eat dinner before you bother him with your boring and stinky concoctions. If he goes up to your room before dinner, the smell will kill his appetite." Darla reached for Snape's hand, "Professor, why don't you come over here and sit with me? You can tell me all about yourself."
Before she could take his hand, Alexis stepped between them and hooked an arm through hers, "Why don't I tell you all about our twin sons? I even have pictures here if you would like to see how much they look like their father. You know, we were just talking the other night about how much we needed to find a young, but responsible, child to baby-sit the boys on the weekends," Alexis was dragging the protesting young witch over to a love seat.
Snape smirked as he turned to the young man standing at his elbow, "Perhaps after dinner, if your parents do not object, I will have time to look at your work."
"Thank you, sir," Darien said respectfully.
"Professor, can I offer you a drink?" Steven Doff asked.
Snape nodded his acceptance as he joined the other two men in a pre-dinner drink.