A/N: Trigger warning for unfulfilled pregnancy wishes and the resulting heartache.
The Day After
The next morning – a Friday – started like every school day. The only difference was the absence of Professors Lockhart and Snape at breakfast.
Not that it was a surprise. The students just wondered which one of the professors would be the ugly one and which one would be the most handsome man of all handsome men.
The Gryffindor second years had to suffer through their History of Magic class first, but luckily had Defence Against the Dark Arts afterwards. Only, when they arrived at the classroom, a bored-looking prefect awaited them to tell them that, apparently, Lockhart had disappeared.
The students groaned.
"The one time I was looking forward to the git's class and he ditches us," Ron groused with many of his fellow students nodding along.
"And I so wanted to know which spell he used! I couldn't find anything in the library. Not even in the… you know…," Hermione added, looking shifty.
Ron and Harry nodded. If she hadn't found anything, not even in the Restricted Section, there was nothing to be found, they were sure of that.
"And no one will tell us even when they find something," Hermione mourned.
"Yeah, we just have to live with it," Harry groused. He was quite familiar with being kept in the dark. Sometimes quite literally.
"Well, nothing to it. Let's start our homework for History of Magic. We'll have more free time on the weekend then."
The two boys groaned but followed her obediently. Ron because by now he knew he had no chance to escape, and Harry because he secretly agreed with Hermione. He liked having his weekends free.
At lunch, the trio learned that Snape still looked like a Hollywood star according to Angelina Johnson, and that he was in a very bad mood, but no one cared. Moody Snape was eye candy according to her.
Ron was very confused by her tale. He had the feeling he was hearing a different language, where he understood some of the words, but they didn't make sense. At all!
"Muggles!" he huffed. "What does Mad-Eye have to do with wand-wood and with Snape?"
At least he had managed to confuse the Muggle-raised now, too.
Hermione blinked and for once decided to let it go, "She just said that he's still looking incredibly handsome and is not happy about it."
"Only Snape would be unhappy about being good-looking," Ron huffed.
The rest of the occupants of their table laughed.
"He seems to have taken to eating somewhere else," Harry noted. "No wonder, with all the staring. It takes time to get used to it."
Many blushed after thinking about Harry's experience at Hogwarts so far.
In another part of the castle, Severus Snape was slowly going insane. This just wasn't him! He was no brain-dead fop with shiny, always heroically fluttering hair.
He scoffed.
He had rather liked it when the students looked at him with disgust and hatred. That was what he deserved, he thought (again).
No one should look at him with honest admiration and affection! No. One.
Not even his mother had looked at him that way. Ever.
Well, maybe he was exaggerating just a bit. Lily had looked at him in a similar but non-vapid way. But look where it had gotten her, he thought, and tried to scowl.
Luckily, no one saw it, or they would have called it cute.
He just hoped Albus would be more successful in finding a cure for this awful curse Lockhart had hit him with. And maybe he should talk to Narcissa. She knew all about beautifying charms, light and dark magic ones. Yes, he would do that as soon as possible. She probably had been informed by her son already anyway and surely had an idea of what to do. It was obvious the older and prettier Slytherin girls had an idea so Narcissa must have one as well.
He just had to survive his last class. Unfortunately, it was the fifth-year Gryffindor/Hufflepuff class so there would be many doe-eyed looks – again.
He nearly wept at the thought. He deserved much, but he didn't deserve this!
At Malfoy Manor
That evening an exhausted Potions Master stuck his head into his fireplace, which was merely burning in bright green flames, and called for Malfoy Manor.
A downtrodden house-elf clothed in a dirty pillowcase answered, and soon Narcissa strode into the reception room smiling brightly at Severus. He noticed she looked a little worried, but that disappeared quickly when she noted his scrutiny.
"Severus! By Merlin, Draco was right! You look stunning. Please come through!" She waved her wand, opening the floo for travel.
Severus immediately complied and stepped out of the floo five seconds later.
"Oh my, look at you! He really did cast The Spell in front of most of the student body?"
Severus could actually hear the capital letters, "The Spell?"
Narcissa swallowed, and said, "Come, let's go to the drawing room. We can talk in private there. Lucius has friends over in his study."
Severus nodded and followed her. It seemed he would get answers now, at last.
As soon as they had sat down, he turned his awe-inspiring black eyes to Narcissa and said in his velvety dark voice, "Tell me." And added after a second, "Please."
Narcissa did something very uncharacteristic for her. She wrung her hands. "Severus, you must understand, this spell is normally not talked about, outside of a mother-daughter relationship. It's taboo."
"Not even Lucius or Draco know of it?"
"No. It's a dangerous spell if cast on someone else, the caster loses all of their good looks. Especially if they had cast The Spell on themselves beforehand, more than once."
"That would explain Lockhart's looks after he hit me with it."
Narcissa nodded, "I understood he cast it wandless and silently?"
Severus nodded, "He did. Much to our surprise."
"That's the only way it's ever cast. No one's supposed to know. But I guess knowledge about The Spell will become common now," she sighed. "Women have kept it quiet for such a long time, and now this bird-brained, snooty-nosed little upstart male idiot has to show it for all the wizarding world to see. I heard that Muggle-boy, who annoys everyone with his camera so much, took pictures?"
Severus blinked. Narcissa was amazingly angry and outspoken just now. He had never seen nor heard her talking like this. "He did. I wouldn't be surprised if the Daily Prophet got their hands on them."
She sighed once more.
"Can you reverse it?" Severus asked with a rather uncharacteristically hopeful look on his face.
"I'm sorry, I can't. There are rumours that a counter-curse exists, but my mother didn't know about it. And should you cast the spell on someone else, you'll not only look like Lockhart does now, but something horrible will happen to you, as well. I don't think it's only hearsay. Until yesterday it was only a warning, told by my mother, that the effects would reverse themselves if cast on someone else and that turned out to be very true."
Severus's heart sank at the news, "Do you have a book about this spell?"
"No, I don't. Maybe in the Black library, but the house has been on lockdown since Walburga's death. Hm," Narcissa thought about it and then added, "I know someone working as an Unspeakable. Maybe they can help."
Severus looked startled and then nodded, "I would appreciate that. But I refuse to go to the Department of Mysteries like this. Could you ask if the Unspeakable would agree to meet me here?"
Narcissa nodded regally. Apparently, she had pulled herself together again. "I would gladly host a meeting here. Yule's coming up, so I hope they agree to meet tomorrow or on Sunday. I'll contact you as soon as I know a meeting date."
"Thank you," was the heartfelt answer. "Now another question. What can you tell me about this curse?"
"Not much. I'll not say the incantation, but I can tell you that it's Dark by nature, and it has to be cast on oneself, when in the company of at least one other wizard or witch. But no more than five." *
"You know that every dark spell has a price. What's the cost for this one?"
"It's assumed the cost is the possibility of becoming hideous if one casts it on someone else. I never noticed any other price being extracted."
Severus scoffed, "Other than the fact that Slytherin has the ugliest boys of all houses in its midst?"
Now it was Narcissa's turn to start, "You think the spell steals the good looks of others? No! It cannot be! Many men are and stay good-looking. Lucius is a prime example."
"Hm, maybe some are more susceptible than others? Or the toll is extracted differently from the others? Who knows. But I'm sure everyone close by is affected in some way or you wouldn't need others to be in the vicinity of the spell. What a frivolous way to use the Dark Arts!"
Narcissa looked rather pale now, "I never thought of it that way. Oh, Morgana, what have we been doing? I'll contact the Unspeakable first thing tomorrow morning."
Severus huffed and nodded, "I'll ask the girls in Slytherin, who obviously know more than they let on, to stop using that spell without further ado. My guess is, they are under a geas or oath not to tell anyone, correct?"
"It's possible. I never tried to talk about this to anyone, and my mother trusted me to keep quiet."
"At least there are only a few who know about it and if they have to cast the spell wandless and silent, even less will have been able to do so while still in school."
Narcissa nodded, "My guess is more than a few women know about The Spell but cannot cast it like that and so they don't. Maybe some cast it next to their sleeping husbands? Oh, and I think many women only start using that spell after having their first child, to get back into shape. I did."
Severus actually looked very shocked at Narcissa now, so she asked, "What?"
He soundlessly moved his mouth and then said quietly, "Narcissa, listen to yourself and think!"
She frowned, "What do you mean? Are you talking about the price?"
Severus nodded, still looking horrified.
What could he be talking about that made him so appalled? What had she said? She had started using The Spell after Draco's birth. Her first child. And unfortunately, she had not been able to get pregnant with anoth…, "Oh!" she gasped. "Oh nononono! That cannot be possible! I didn't do that to myself! No!"
The always so refined and collected pure-blood woman burst into tears.
Severus, who was scolding himself internally for opening his mouth, got up and pulled Narcissa into an awkward hug. She had always desperately wanted more children, but after Draco, nothing had worked anymore. "We'll find the counter-curse, Narcissa. I'm sure of that." He patted her back helplessly.
Just then, a Patronus flew into the room and Albus Dumbledore's voice could be heard, "Severus, please return to the school at once. A student has been petrified as well as a ghost."
* Lockhart's Grandmother said ten max. while the Blacks were more cautious with five as a maximum. So, since no one ever talked about this…