How Do "You" Like It?

I'm not really thrilled with this chapter, but I think it's one of those fillers, needed but kinda boring.  Hope you don't agree.

Chapter Seventeen:  Maybe Baby?

By dinner, Roger was sure that the professor was sick of him, so he suggested they eat in the Great Hall.  Snape reluctantly agreed, helped Roger dress and then walked the boy to the edge of the dungeon.

"I’ll meet you after dinner,” Roger said before heading up the stairs.  Snape waited until he was out of sight before he finished the trek to the teacher’s section of the huge main hall.

From his seat he could see Roger surrounded by his classmates, which were obviously questioning him as to his whereabouts.  Snape grinned at the irritated look on his face as he tried to avoid answering.  The professor averted his gaze to the Gryffindor table where Harry Potter sat surrounded by his regular posse.  Since none of them looked out of the ordinary, Snape assumed that the golden-boy had not yet spread his ‘good news’.

Speaking of which, at the Slytherin table, a far different picture was painted.  Draco sat with a smug grin and several of his housemates looked rather green.  Snape was betting that he had chosen to bare all, from the gory details of his part of the Granger curse, as it had come to be called, to his happy event in the making.

Slytherins would not know how to take this.

At the end of the table, just past Hagrid, Lucius sat with his wife, having taken the job of “Wizard Lineage and Blood Traits” teacher, a job set up just for him by the current administration.  There was already a waiting list to get into one of the three classes he taught per week.  Mostly, it was filled with curious boys and girls of less than pure blood status.  Snape shrugged it off. 

On Severus’ left, Professor Flintwick was asking him a question. “Are you feeling better, Severus?”

“What? Oh, yes.  Just a bit of a cough.” the potions master explained.

“Oh, will you be resuming classes tomorrow, then?” Filius asked.

“Hm? I suppose that depends on how I feel in the morning, doesn’t it?” Snape said, wishing the little man would drop the subject. “Would you say there are any students that will greatly excel in charms in this years NEWTs, Filius?” he asked.  

“There are a few that show promise.  I was thinking of offering some extra lessons to any who want to take advantage of the opportunity.” Flitwick said, launching into an explanation of his pet project.

When Roger returned to his dorm, he was overly tired and happy to the core.  He had lived through Severus' pampering and now, as he changed his protection and climbed into his bed, he imagined the possibilities that this morning's news had brought.  If Harry and Draco had solved the problem of conception, then there was a possibility that Roger could one day carry a child of his own, no of his and Severus Snape's.

His pillow was soft and as sleep claimed him, his mind conjured up a vision of a tiny baby, with wisps of shiny black hair on top of its head, cuddling in the crook of his arm, sucking on its thumb and looking at him with wide eyes the color of the darkest brown there was. His dreams showed him a life of his future, the possibilities of his committing to the potions professor and that future could now include as many children as they wanted.

And Roger wanted plenty.

He wanted a brood the size of the Weasley's and in his dreams, he had twice that many, all just as beautiful as his beloved lover and as talented.  They would climb upon Severus' lap and beg him to teach them everything he could and then they would try their hardest not to fail and receive his patented glare.

A visit to the infirmiry, being prodded and poked by Madame Pomfrey, wasn't enough.  They had been subjected to Severus Snape's glare, Minerval McGonagall's tsking and a host of odd questions from Professor Dumbledore.  Harry had overheard him telling Poppy something about ways to intercede in such cases, which had not gone well with the medi-witch and she had pushed the old man out of the doors finally.

Harry had immediately told Draco, who immediately relayed this to his father and Snape.  The two Slytherin alumni set about some rudimentary protection spells to hold until something stronger could be set in place.  These babies were Malfoys and no one was interceding in their lives, if Lucious had a breath to spare.

As the man poured over his library, brought to the school by the eager, remaining Malfoy house elves, Harry and Draco went about their classes, meals and other schedules, hiding out afterwards in the prefect's lounge.  There, they made the most startling discovery of the entire bizarre year.

Draco was reading an old text, in search of the answers to his arithmancy assignments, while Harry stretched out on the couch, his feet on the coffee table, staring at his flat belly under his belt and trousers.  It was annoying the blond, who kept looking up and hoping to see the brunet do something new.

"It won't just spring up, you know?" Draco said, not turning from his book.

"Huh?  Oh, that's not what I was thinking.  I was just kinda . . .wondering what it would have been like . . to, you know, make it the other way . . .like with a girl." Harry stuttered pulling his robe over himself and dropping his feet to the floor.

"You wanted to have sex with a girl?  So, go do it!" Malfoy snapped with more force than he thought he felt.

"Not that!" Harry responded throwing up his hands in frustration.  "You are so dense for some kind of - smart, pureblood." and he stood and headed for the door.  Draco watched him, his mind finally catching up.

"You wanted to have sex with . . . me?" he finally got there, just as Harry closed the door behind himself.

Ron and Hermione had their own problems and Harry noticed that they had hardly missed him.  The two Gryffindors were trying to manage a night alone, without supervision, and it was hopeless.  Hermione had something to tell Ron and she wanted to do it without an audience. The room of requirement had become a hot spot of activity, what with special examinations, an occasional cure, and other adult activities, there was no chance of using it anymore. 

Ron knew that Hermione was getting upset, but what could they do?  Ever since his cure, the grown-ups around them had conspired to keep them either separate, monitored or occupied.  It was easier for Harry to get away with Malfoy, than for Ron and Hermione to get some time alone.

Hermione finally had enough, and she climbed the stairs to the boy's dorm, late at night, sneaking into Ron's bed and cuddling up next to him.  Ron slept so soundly that he never woke, and Hermione drifted off next to him.  They woke in the morning to a very angry Minerva McGonagall calling from the common room, downstairs.

They both received three weeks detention and the house lost three hundred points.  At the end of this, there would be a hearing to decide if they should revoke one or both of their prefect positions.

Next Chapter - Safety First (More Cedric, More Evil Adrian Pucey, and more Harry/Draco)