Chapter 3

~~~~ At St. Mungo's ~~~~

Lily could tell her mother had not hit the roof yet because Mrs. Snape was still around. Mum was giving her the look though. The 'wait till I get you home' look that Lily had not seen in years.

The healer was trying some different charms to narrow down what sort of fertility potion Lily was given before they could do anything further except confirm that she was pregnant.

For the life of her, Lily had no idea why boys would find slipping girls fertility potion funny.

"Ah, there we go. It's Dark Arts alright. Nothing I can do about it, or it could kill you. It'll think you are being disobedient to your husband's will."

"I'm not married."

"A potion does not care if there's no ring on your finger. You said that it motivated you to seek out wizards. How many did you interact with?"

"If you mean shag, two."

"Okie doke, so let's see, it should let me do some diagnostic charms because the magic is interested in having a living baby at the end of this. So … let's see … yup, two. Congratulations, it's twins."

"What?" Lily exclaimed. "So if I was set loose to wander, I could have attacked more wizards and have a whole litter in me."

"If I recall this correctly, since it is not prescribed by certified healers, it is advised when administering such a brew that the witch be kept confined with only the company of other witches or house elves, besides her husband."

Mrs. Snape inquired, "Could you verify parentage now? Although Evans says two, perhaps it is twins with the same father."

"Hold on, let me get that quill out …" the healer replied.

Lily sneered at the ridiculous pink ostrich feather quill and the bottle of baby blue ink that went with it. This was serious business, not time for wizardly frivolity.

The healer confirmed that the twins had two different fathers, James Potter and Severus Snape. It was at that point that Mrs. Evans fainted, missing the colorful language that Mrs. Snape used to describe her son.

Once her mother was off the floor, and comfortably lying down, Lily explained, "I attacked Severus, Mrs. Snape. He had no choice."

"My son could have defended himself, if he chose to."

"He'd never hurt me."

Eileen Snape saw no point in continuing a conversation on this subject with Lily Evans. She was a moron that deserved to be in this mess, except she had dragged Severus into it. Why was he such a fool over this girl? One only had to talk to her for a few minutes to tell she was a waste of time. It was not that she was muggleborn, but that she was muggleborn and thought she was someone special.

"Before you contact Magical Law Enforcement, I suggest you think of someone that you can rely on to advocate you in this matter."

"Advocate?"

"Someone respectable. Who do you know?"

"Prof. Dumbledore."

"I've already told you that he may side with your attackers."

"Right, well Prof. Slughorn is fond of me. He ..."

"He's available to the highest bidder. He'll can be bought. Try to think integrity."

Lily did not know why Mrs. Snape was being so persistent. If she told the truth, then there had to be some sort of justice. Integrity. Her best subject was charms so she suggested, "Prof. Flitwick?"

"Try all human."

"What?"

"He's part goblin."

"Oh, uh, Prof. McGonagall?"

"Minerva McGonagall?"

"You know her?"

"She was Head Girl, a couple years older than I. She was in Gryffindor though, but she could think. Does she favor you?"

"Favor me?"

"The others are also Gryffindors. Who does she favor, them or you?"

"Me. Those boys are always causing trouble. She takes points, assigns detentions, threatens them with suspension and expulsion ..."

"Are you sure that's not just a show for the victims? Potter and Black are not the only well-to-do students at Hogwarts."

"Oh no, the headmaster usually steps in when he feels she's being too harsh."

"Can you floo her and ask her to meet you here?"

"Floo … oh, that green powder."

"Yes, there's grates in the lobby. I can floo on your behalf if you've never used it."

"You?"

"I'll only explain why I'm calling for you. I'll let you tell her all the details, if she comes."

"Are you sure?"

"You may not be allowed to return to school in your condition. I cannot recall any pregnant students when I attended. That may have changed since then."

Lily blurted out, "Not allowed, but I'm Head Girl."

"Where are your priorities, Lily?" Mrs. Evans asked from where she was resting.

"But mum, I've worked hard for six years, got top marks in almost all the courses I've taken, and ..."

"There's no need to panic. Your head of house will be familiar with the school rules. You can't be the first female student to be up the duff," Mrs. Snape chided.

Lily did not care for that term. Up the duff. Whoever thought of such a crass way of saying pregnant?

Mrs. Snape did not return alone. Prof. McGonagall was with her.

"Why are you in hospital, Evans?" she asked, scanning her student visually from head to toe.

"Professor, it's all due to a stupid prank. Potter wrote me a letter, inviting me to join his family for a seaside holiday because it's a Hogwarts tradition that the head boy and head girl spend time together over the summer holiday."

"There is no such tradition, Miss Evans."

"I've wised up to that now."

"I went, and found that the location was a big house overlooking the water. Rather than Potter and his parents, it was Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin along with a bunch of women. Drinking and basically having a nonstop party from the mess that was all over. It took me close to a half hour to get a straight answer from anyone as to what was going on, and I thought I wanted to leave, but then it was too late. I stayed and joined in, and Potter had his way with me repeatedly and it was due to some potion they kept giving me."

"Had his way?" Prof. McGonagall asked for clarification.

"Shagged me rotten. Nonstop. Day and night."

"Oh."

"I was crazed. It was horrible."

"Undoubtedly."

"When the week was up, I apparated home, but they had given me more potion that day, so I got home and was still all fired up so I somehow tracked down Severus because he lives nearby. He asked me at least a dozen times what was wrong with me, if I received anything in the mail, if I saw anyone that could have cast a charm on me, but I ignored him and just kept going after one thing."

"Severus Snape?"

"Yeah. So today, I went to talk to him because he seemed to know I was odd yesterday. I wanted to explain that I thought he was right and his mum suggested I come here for some testing to try to find out what they had given me."

Minerva nodded.

"It wasn't some goofy love potion, but some Dark Arts fertility potion."

"Fertility?"

"Yes, so I'm pregnant with Potter's … bastard, and they thought it would be funny for me to have more so I'm also carrying Severus' baby too. If I lived closer to more wizards, who knows how many it could have been."

"They were giving this potion to all the women at the house?"

"I think so. I was told that the big pitcher of pumpkin juice was squeezed fresh by the house elves every morning, but I definitely saw Pettigrew doing something with it before breakfast, and he brought his two girls huge glasses of it every morning."

"So what do you intend to do, Miss Evans?"

"Intend to do? Isn't it illegal to do something like that? I did not agree to get doped up with potion. Before they gave me a glass of it, I had already told Potter I was leaving."

"Definitely, but I meant about the babies. Since you are already at St. Mungo's, are they going to sort it for you so you can return to school?"

"They can't because it's Dark Arts. The healer said this potion would interpret that sort of thing as a wife disobeyed her husband or something like that."

Minerva nodded and agreed, "Yes, I was afraid you were getting to that. Well, I can support your decision to report this incident to the authorities, but you cannot attend Hogwarts in this condition."

"What?"

"Unmarried pregnant students are not allowed."

"But it's not my fault."

"Unfortunately, that is not a consideration regarding that rule."

"What about unmarried fathers?"

"It is unfair that both Potter and Snape would be able to attend."

"Not Severus, I meant Potter. He's the one that did this."

"I will speak to the headmaster regarding this situation," Minerva told her. She fully intended to see that Potter was no longer head boy.

"I guess that'll have to do for now, but as I said, I dragged Severus into it. He shouldn't be the one getting into trouble."

Arnold Peasegood offered to go over to St. Mungo's to take a complaint since Alastor Gumboil only had a few minutes left on his shift. It was not going to be a quick one, the healer said some Hogwarts student claimed a male student slipped her a potion to soften her up and rape her without a struggle. These always turned into 'she said, he said'. Once a love potion faded, it only left memories. Since teenage witches always acted in the most outrageous manner when they fancied a boy, it was hardly evidence if they recalled swanning about after a bloke.

When he arrived and went upstairs to visit this student, he was surprised to see Minerva McGonagall present. Arnold was not worried, he followed the letter of the law but he noted that he should be careful. McGonagall became volatile when angered, but she was a reasonable witch who had years of experience with these teenage melodramas.

He questioned, listened, took notes, and felt that this was actually turning into a very interesting case. There was proof that there was a potion administered because for some reason this Potter chose a fertility potion rather than a love potion. Unfortunately, it was a dark potion, so he'd have to refer this to the auror squad. They didn't usually handle something this trivial, but Minerva McGonagall's explanation about how this pack of boys probably found this all highly amusing, got Arnold thinking that having a pair of aurors turning their homes upside down might stop the laughter, or at least make their parents cautious. Children did not simply wake up one morning and throw a few ingredients in a cauldron and come up with something like this.

In addition to that, there was the letter from Potter that Mrs. Evans pulled out of her handbag that show Potter preyed on the muggleborn student by suggesting traditions that did not exist to lure her to the crime site, which he had prepared in advance for this purpose.

Arnold also had a list of names of other female victims and descriptions of others. Evans did not know how they were lured to the crime scene because with all of them on this potion, the girls did not talk to each other, and just focused their attentions on the four accused.

There could have been further problems when these young men sent Evans home to her muggle neighborhood where the second victim also lived. Miss Evans mentioned that she first assaulted him in a muggle store, and harassed him persistently on the streets in full view of passerby. Although it was not unusual to see teenagers acting in an indecent manner, it could have turned quite a profane, public display if the other victim did not accede to her demands privately.

He instructed the victim, and the other victim's mother, that they and their families were not to make any contact, threats, or retaliate while the investigation was ongoing.

Returning to the Ministry, Arnold was surprised that Mr. Crouch had already left for the day. It was not even eight yet. However, they were under strict instructions to never turn a case over to another department, even the aurors, without consulting with their boss. If there was one kind of wizard Mr. Crouch hated, it was a dark wizard. The Black name was no surprise, but Potter was, and Arnold thought there was a Pettigrew that worked in some junior position in the Ministry.

Arnold threw some floo powder in the grate, and spoke, "Mr. Crouch, it's Arnold Peasegood."

The answer was almost immediate, "What is it, Peasegood?"

"I have a new case that I'd like to turn over to the aurors."

"What's it about?"

"Four male Hogwarts students lured at least a dozen females to a rented vacation house and plied them with a fertility potion to drastically lower their inhibitions in order to rape them without a struggle. The potion has been identified as a Dark potion by the healers at St. Mungo's. The first victim turned up a day after being released by the perpetrators after being held for a week. She is pregnant and due to the nature of the potion, the healer in charge of her case deems it to risky to terminate it without causing her death."

"Four students? Is there any indication yet if they brewed it, or is it suspected they bought it somewhere, Peasegood?"

"That has not been determined yet, sir."

"Which students?"

"Sirius Black ..."

"Another Black, tsk … go on."

"James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew."

There was an outburst of background noise on Mr. Crouch's end of the floo. It sounded like wild cheering.

Trying to ignore his son, Mr. Crouch asked, "Pettigrew? Is he related to Pettigrew in Ludicrous Patents?"

"Not sure, sir. I have not contacted any of the accused, who may be seventeen, or their families once I heard it was a dark potion."

"Excuse me, Peasegood. My son seems to be having some sort of fit."

Within the Crouch household, a jubilant Barty Crouch, Jr. was whooping, cheering and dancing around. At last, the Marauders had gone too far. Next year was going to be wonderful. His underpants would not be stretched out the back of his trousers and over his head. He could use any lavatory in the school. He could use stairs without getting knocked off. He wouldn't even be beaten about the head with his own books. Barty could walk to Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures like a normal person, rather than having his neck hurt from spinning his head around, and racing in a crouch from one bush or tree to another, because he needed to be ready for an attack at any time from these older boys. The only reason he even spoke to Regulus Black was for mutual protection. Black, and his older brother, were conceited gits, and now he'd be able to tell Black off the next time he caught him standing in front of the bathroom mirror shirtless and admiring himself while he flexed his muscles, smoothing and petting his luxurious growth of chest hair. This was almost as good as scoring twelve OWLs, one more than his father.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"Huh?" Barty, Jr. replied, and then put his arms down. "At last they've been caught, and the headmaster isn't in charge of their punishment now, is he?"

"You know these four?"

"Know them? Of course I know them, they're my archenemies! Don't you ever listen to me, father? Why don't you ever listen to me? Can you arrest them quick so I can watch their trial? Or if it takes time to build up a great case so they'll never see daylight again because they'll be rotting in the bowels of Azkaban, get me excused from school so I can sit right in front where they can see me smiling at their misfortune?"

Crouch looked at his wife to get a clue as to what the boy was raving about now.

"Barty dear, those are the four who attack the younger Slytherins in the lavatories, stairs and lawns. Remember I showed you that scar on young Barty's shoulder, and I told you I wrote Albus Dumbledore and did not receive a decent reply to my concerns?"

Shaking off this trivial nonsense, he replied to his wife, "Vaguely."

Sighing at her husband's lack of concern, Mrs. Crouch summed it up before she lost his attention entirely, "They bully and attack younger students or those they find alone. Barty even told me they undressed another boy in front of the whole school last year. It was only a matter of time before the carte blanche that Dumbledore gives them at Hogwarts spilled over into your jurisdiction."

"Dumbledore?"

"He encourages them. Thinks they're witty and clever," Barty Jr. sneered. Even at school he was ignored. He'd show them all one day.

What did a Gryffindor know about witty or clever? Barty wondered to himself as he turned back to the grate.

"Peasegood, I want to be kept informed of any developments and at least hear from the auror that takes over from this case daily. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, sir."

In the nearby auror office, the name Black was noticed and Sirius' address was confirmed. Twelve Grimmauld Place was somewhere they'd love to search, turn upside down and inside out. They would need more than this one girl, a letter and a healer as proof though, Orion Black could get quite nasty both with a legal and magical defense.