A Strange Twist of Fate

TITLE: A Strange Twist of Fate
SERIES: Yup.
SEQUEL: Doubtful . . . unless i'm feeling majorly
AUTHOR: carol
EMAIL: duckies@bust.com would be for archival.
ARCHIVE: Mpreg. anyone else should ask.
FANDOM: Harry Potter.
PAIRING: Lucius/Severus, James/Severus, Lupin/Severus
RATING: It'll vary from time to time, but i consider this part G
CATEGORY: Mpreg, Angsty, possibly a bit saddish? I don't know yet.
WARNING: Mpreg, blatant butchering of the original storyline . . .
DISCLAIMER: Um, lemme spell it out for you: I'm a poor college student. I have no money. I am making no money. As much as i'd love to own Snape, the wonderful JK Rowling does. *sob*
SUMMARY: There's more to Snape's awful attitude, with a child included. Snape is linked to Harry in a way the young man could never imagine. What will be done?
FEEDBACK: It's a must if you want me to continue this story. I don't like writing stories that i get the impression are no good.

Christmas break passed just like the winter storms that bombarded Hogwarts. It still snowed, but there were no major dangers with each snow. No one wanted to be caught out in it. Not even Remus.

The problems Severus and Remus struggled with faded with mediation by McGonagall and things seemed to be getting better all the time. Remus allowed Severus the dignity of having some self-ruling. Severus allowed Remus to do things for him. There were still some problems here and there but most things seemed to happen fine.

Late February was still rather cool, but it'd lost some of the edge that surrounded those bitingly cold months. Severus thanked Merlin for that. He grew rather tired of not being able to walk anywhere because of the cold. Now he couldn't for an entirely different reason though.

Severus looked forward to ushering a new life into the world, but the entire prospect was quite daunting. It's one thing for women to have children but another thing entirely for men. He rarely let those thoughts enter his mind because he knew it would do little to ease the thick veil of tension that seemed to surround everyone more and more as the months diminished into weeks.

Since he'd finished all of his lessons for the year (there's little to do when one can only stay in his room except when he's allowed to go out) and now made frequent trips to the library. Any book that seemed remotely interesting was consumed with the fervor of some one within the tight grip of what muggles called "cabin fever."

He'd never truly understood the term because it was used for things that weren't even cabins. How could a castle even begin to resemble some blasted cabin? Not that he was entirely sure what a cabin was. It's one thing to see a picture of it and say, 'that's it," but another to say, 'oh, so that's exactly what they are." That was the difference between a picture and the actual structure standing proudly before its newest guest.

Some time late into the night, Severus found his way to the library. Filch watched his movements. Not because he was trespassing at the hours he visited, but because he also worried about the young Snape. One would have killed Filch before he'd have admitted it though.

While he browsed through the books, he found a book on curses, love charms and eternal curses. He read through the curses and love charms. When he began the eternal charms, he stumbled upon something.

His eyes widened in amazement. This was his curse! This was what one of his ancestors received so many years ago and caused him to carry this child! He read the passage over again:

"One of the more unusual, though potent, curses are the pregnancy curses. It is a curse to most because those afflicted with it are male. They have no choice in the matter, either. This curse is almost impossible to stop.

"There are two ways to enact this cure: incantation or potion. For safety purposes (it is outlawed by the ministry), neither the incantation nor potion will be listed in this book. Just know that to use one of them is a grave offense. One may not suffer to the degree of one who uses an unforgivable curse but it will be punished.

"It is also hard to remove this spell. If one does not know how the curse started in their family, they are encouraged to be cautious. If the person se eking to be cured attempts it, they must know which curse was placed upon them. If they do the one for the opposite, the curse will strengthen. It is unknown how the creator of this curse managed that."

He continued reading for the next few minutes. Severus felt faint and wondered if some one hadn't been playing a joke on him. That had to be the reason, right? That must have been the idea. Years without running into this book caused him to have no understanding of his situation. None of his family members chose to tell him even though it could have been important. It made him so angry…

…But it also made him happy. To think that he could have his on child! He was given such a great joy. This joy normally missed men and not all men really fancied women. He'd thought about that off and on for quite a while.

His family wanted him to marry some girl from their social set. Even though desire lacked in the relationship, he'd never complained. His parents required him to be a pawn in alliances and furthering their power. Severus was now freed of that. Or so he was told.

After a few more minutes of thinking about what he'd read, he yawned. "I guess that's the signal to go to sleep. Poppy will be quite furious with me if I don't go to bed now. I shouldn't be out to begin with." He placed everything away-except the books that he found so important with his situation. He held them close to his chest and snuck back to his room.

"What's he doing here?" The cold accusing look split Remus in half. Severus didn't really want to see the man that helped give him this child he would soon be delivering. This man was the last person Severus wanted to see.

"I," Severus' line of vision snapped over to James, "wanted to see you. To tell you I'm sorry," he paused, "Especially since I miss you."

"Did you stop to consider for one moment that I may not want anything to do with you? That'd I'd decided that I'd wanted nothing more from you the moment you left me because found out that something made things a bit more complicated? Did you stop to think about how hard it was for me without you while you went off to marry her? Did you think that I simply dismissed that fact that you didn't want to be a father to our child, but to hers and yours? You wouldn't believe how many nights I wished you dead for lying to me. You wouldn't believe it. You wouldn't think me possible. Well, guess what, it is possible and I am not going to sit here while you tear my heart out again, but I must know, why did you feel the need to come tell me that you missed me now? Why when you've wanted nothing to do with me since September when we found out that I was pregnant? I can't help but be intensely curious about this entire story." James could only wonder where this Severus had come from before he told his side of the story.

"I had no choice about marrying her, but I won't lie about loving her because I do. She's also pregnant. By me. She's due any day now. I didn't believe that she was at first. Not until we met with a mediwizard. He confirmed it and proved that the child was in fact mine."

"Am I to presume that you cheated on me? A month before we…were intimate," James inwardly winced at the term. No, 'made love' hadn't been used, and probably toward good reasoning, despite the fact that James always consider it so.

"It was quite accidental. She needed to talk to me about something so I went to see her. I'd feared she was pregnant because she and I made love frequently when we were together in the past. Well, then things just happened." He couldn't look Severus in the eyes so he settled for his shoes.

"Ah yes, it just happened. I'm so relieved that you had no intention of leaving me pregnant and alone. I'm so relieved that you were able to be sexual with your ex-lover and now new wife. I must say though that I'm dismayed at the fact you find you have to come disrupt my life." Severus crossed his arms over his chest and proved that he most likely wouldn't be giving any emotion away. "Please continue with your little story." Severus didn't intend on making this easy for James. James sighed.

"Well, I came back with the intention of leaving her out of my life because I now had you in it. You really were everything I wanted. And more. Especially since now I know that we could have had children-can have children." Severus raised one of his elegant eyebrows, "But you see, the same day you had me go pick up that book, she told me about how she was pregnant and had me go to the doctor with her. That was why I took so long-and I am sorry for worrying you." He hoped his ex-lover's expression would soften some but no hints were given of such an action. He sighed. "When I found out you were pregnant I realized I would have to make a decision. Her parents already tried to hex me for what I'd done. You seemed like you didn't want me around half the time. If only I knew what it would really mean for you not to want me around. I'd have reconsidered this possibility. I also considered her because she was able to give me a family. Something I'd never had as a child. You know, the mother, father, child kind of family. As much as I love-loved-you, I couldn't have gotten that with you. I couldn't have given up such a thing for my child."

"So you leave the child you conceived with me alone instead. Since we couldn't be a typical muggle family," sneered Severus. "How petty. How so very petty your actions were…and are. You got what you wanted so you were quite content with tossing your child and myself aside because I'm not a woman. If this is the type of person you are, it's better that you'll have nothing to do with my child. I knew some of you muggle-born could be just as ignorant as us purebloods but this is disgusting! You can't even own up to something you helped create in the first bloody place! You're such a child and you don't even realize it. You left a 16 year old boy pregnant and you can't own up to your own discretions."

"I didn't know at the time. I didn't know that you could become pregnant. If I'd known I wouldn't have…" He didn't have to finish the sentence for Severus to catch the meaning.

"That alone proves you never really loved me. If you'll excuse me, I am going to the library." Severus turned around and headed to the aforementioned location.

Inside his thoughts and hurt swirled angrily. No coherent thought could hold his attention because a thousand irrational thoughts hid the others away. He made his way to the library with a speed he had no idea he could reach since he was quite pregnant now.

Once inside the restricted section, he searched book after book for more information on his condition. He hoped, prayed, and cursed until he found it: a curse breaker.

Tomorrow would be the night to try it….