Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Twenty One

By the time Harry had made it out of Gryffindor Tower, and down to the main
floor, he was feeling a bit better. At least now he could see straight as he
walked down the steps leading out of the castle. It was still nice weather
out, and it really did feel good to take in deep breaths of the fall air.
His thoughts still were mostly centered on what Hermione had just told him.
Why hadn\'t anyone told him? Harry supposed she was right; who would have
thought he\'d turn out to be gay?

That was another thing; was he? Aside from Cho, he\'d never had an interest
in women, but he could think back and notice all the attractive features of
several men in Hogwarts. He\'d always watched the older boys when playing
Quidditch, and then never tried to copy their moves, since he had apparently
been looking elsewhere at those times. He sighed heavily to himself,
expelling the air air he\'d drawn.

Looking down, he noticed the grass had lost a bit of it\'s lush green color
due to the waning season, and it was just beginning to frost up a bit,
though it still looked very rich. Like you could lay down in it and feel
just like lying down in a nice soft fluffy bed. With little blades of grass
poking you. He wondered if he had felt them on his skin when Draco had
pressed him into the grass...

Perhaps everyone who had been responsible for teaching him about what he
really was had mentioned it in brief passing, but he\'d never listened. He
was sure his relatives hadn\'t told him, probably not having a clue, either.
Why should they, being Muggles? They\'d most likely think a male being with
child was as unnatural as with being a wizard, though amplified.

Harry kept walking, watching the grass. He had no particular direction in
mind, though he made sure he didn\'t walk straight to Hagrid\'s hut. Harry
wasn\'t really up for a talk with his friend. He barely realized when a
shadow fell into his path, and he was about to look up, careful not to run
into a tree. Harry trailed his eyes ahead as he tilted his head up. He saw
feet. Black, worn dragon hide boots, with an equally black robe cascading
over their tops, hiding them from view.

He grimaced as he thought of how high up the boots might go, but he decided
he really didn\'t want to think of that, especially on this particular
person. Harry looked up to see Snape standing before him, hands in his
pockets, looking for all the world like he was just out for a stroll
himself. \"Er,\" Harry let slip, confused at the look on Snape\'s face. He had
the sort of blankly amused expression Dumbledore got when he was playing
with his crayons, though Snape added a bit of a constipated look to it.
\"Professor?\"

Snape contorted his face at the prompt, now looking more like his usual
self, yet with still another unfamiliar feature. Harry would have guessed...
sympathy? Pity? He would assume the latter, since he didn\'t often believe
Snape of sympathizing with anyone, or thing, for that matter. Maybe his
favorite cauldron if he accidentally burned a hole through the bottom of it,
but that would be a bit creepy to see Snape crooning to a cauldron, rubbing
around the edges of the corroded hole.

The man cleared his throat, thankfully pulling Harry from more disturbing
thoughts about his least favorite teacher. Snape looked down at the boy,
still trying to figure out how to break this to him. Despite the time he\'d
spent thinking on it, he\'d seemed to find himself back at square one.
Straightening to his full height, almost six inches above the Gryffindor, he
started in as good of a place as any. \"I need a word with you, Mr. Potter,\"
he said, in a tone that let Harry know this was an order, not a request.
\"Walk with me,\" Snape added, turning on his heel.

Harry immediately looked in the direction Snape was heading. Towards the far
edge of the Forbidden Forest, the opposite side that he was at least
somewhat familiar with. There were undoubtedly certain animals that lived in
specific pockets of the Forest, and Harry really hoped Snape wasn\'t going to
take them inside. He hadn\'t even checked to see if Harry was following,
simply striding away, hands in his pockets, robe flowing smoothly behind
him.

The Gryffindor frowned after his teacher, and began to follow, though not
quite eager to do so. Harry knew Snape wouldn\'t do anything rash to him, at
least not in broad daylight. He sighed again, catching up with his teacher.
When he closed off the head start that Snape had gained, he slowed down, and
stopped just a few feet away from the Potions Master. Snape had stopped,
though not turned around before he spoke. \"Have you been feeling
drentrently, or unusual, lately?\"

Snape turned around slowly, crossing his arms over his chest as he did so.
He looked at Harry with a calculating look, as if he made perfect sense in
what he was asking. A moment went by, and Snape seemed to become more
annoyed as seconds ticked by, so Harry didn\'t really think he had a choice
but to answer, so he did. \"I\'ve been tired?\" he offered, and Snape raised an
eyebrow, daring him not to say more.

Harry frowned at him as he continued. \"Well, I\'ve had a lot on my mind the
past few days. Nothing odd about that, is there?\" he asked snidely, crossing
his own arms and staring back at his professor. That wasn\'t a good idea. Not
even ten seconds later, Harry uncrossed his arms and hung them to his sides,
and that wasn\'t good either. He started fidgeting. Harry had become vaguely
familiar with Snape when he\'d worked with him against Voldemort and the
Death Eaters, but they\'d never crossed this line into questioning on how
they felt personally.

It was almost like Snape dragged him out for a Sunday stroll and to have a
nice chat, and that certainly wasn\'t what brought this about. The only time
he could remember Snape asking how he felt was during his brief Occlumency
lessons, even though they hadn\'t gone over very well, especially after
seeing his father. He didn\'t blame his father and his friends for how they\'d
treated Snape when they\'d been in school together; he *was* an ugly git.

Snape inclined his head, looking down his hooked nose at Harry. \"Hmm,\" was
all he intoned. He supposed Potter wasn\'t very far along, or he may have
voiced a few more symptoms. Of course, each pregnancy was different, and
even more so for wizards. He made a mental note to look that up one of these
days. Meeting the boy\'s eyes again, \"Po - Harry,\" he began, correcting
himself. He ignored Harry\'s surprised look at the change. \"Did you happen to
notice anything at all different about yourself?\"

Harry shook his head slowly as if he was still combing through his mind for
anything else. Snape frowned, but soon the amused look was back, though not
as strong as it was earlier. \"You\'re pregnant,\" Snape blurted out, glad to
have said it, but annoyed at himself at the inarticulate way he\'d done it.
It was true he didn\'t particularly like the boy, but when it came down to
it, this was too touchy of a subject to add even a bit more of his usual
harassment to it. Bluntly was the only way he could brooch the subject
without the two of them standing outside all day long.

Harry\'s eyes widened suddenly, almost before his mind even managed to
comprehend what Snape had said. He simply stared incredulously at his
Potions Master. He took a breath, \"I...\" and the breath came right back out
again, carrying no words out with it at all. \"What... how?\" He started to
stutter, trying to ask or say too many things at once, ending up with his
mouth working like a fish\'s.

What an amazing bit of timing Hermione had for breaking the possibility to
him only half an hour before Snape confirmed just what she\'d said. How would
Snape have even found out? He really didn\'t want to think about that,
either, hoping to Merlin that his teacher didn\'t have some twisted
perversion of watching his students\' sex lives.

The professor gave a drawn out sigh. \"Mr. Potter, I\'m quite sure no one\'s
told you of the possibility that this could happen, especially living with
those Muggle relatives of yours...\" he trailed off, shaking his head at the
thought of any wizard being able to co-inhabit the same dwelling as Muggles.
\"But believe me, Harry,\" he said, starting to sound almost angry, \"it is
true. Someone even had the audacity to, shall we say, leave evidence of
their sexual activities on my desk.\"

Harry\'s jaw went completely slack now, and he knew how Snape had found out,
but - how did he know *who* it was? He seriously didn\'t think Snape would
ask Harry, who was not even close to the top ten students in Potions, to
help him find out. No, he knew it had been Harry. \"And,\" he continued, \"I
had wanted to know who would be so crude as to do such a thing.\" He narrowed
his eyes and looked expectantly at Harry. Harry closed his mouth and
swallowed, looking away from his teacher.

\"You see, Potter,\" Snape drawled condescendingly, \"There is a little spell
that upon when whomever passes through the perimeter, allows the brewer to
see the sexual auras of those who have entered.\" Harry paled at that, again
finding himself staring at his teacher. He opened his mouth once again to
deny... something. He hadn\'t forgotten, his thoughts simply decided to go on
vacation at that exact moment, and he was left with nothing to say, though
wanting to swish his fists through the air if nothing else.

\"Do not insult my intelligence by claiming you have no idea what I\'m
speaking of, Potter.\" Harry looked away and closed his mouth this time, just
in time to stifle a small dry heave. After that, he felt another wave of
dizziness wash past his eyes, and thankfully his senses came back in time to
tell him so helpfully that he might be sick in the next few minutes. Snape
either didn\'t notice his predicament, currently spouting on about the one
he\'d unfortunately found out about, or chose to ignore it. \"As I was
saying,\" he went on when Harry seemed to recover slightly, \"the potion
allows me to see exactly who, or *what*,\" he paused, pursing his lips and
hoping he didn\'t become ill himself after drudging that thought up again.
\"Yes,\" he started again. \"It shows me whom, the person in question, whose
sexual essence they\'d taken into their bodies originally belonged to.

\"I know about you and Malfoy, but that is not why we\'re here today.\" Snape
frowned, creasing his brow as he tried to keep himself to bluntly explaining
this to the boy. \"I saw inside you, a second aura.\" Harry looked blank, and
not quite focused, but the attentive look on the boy\'s face expressed that
he was, indeed, listening. \"Now, I thought that you were taking after Ms.
Parkinson and going through the student body like a fish through water, but
the aura you are currently carrying had no name or identity whatsoever.\"
Harry began to sway at this, feeling even more dizzy. Snape pressed on,
foreseeing what kind of turn Harry was going to take very soon.

\"The only way an aura could be titled so, was if it was a brand new being.
The only way that could happen is if it was in the process of growing.\" He
looked at Harry, no ulterior emotion laid upon his features for the moment,
and decided to go on. Harry looked like he\'d stabilized and that he wasn\'t
going to regurgitate his breakfast over Snape\'s boots. Or, at least that\'s
what Snape hoped. \"Now, what you\'re going to need to do from now on is...\"
It was Snape\'s turn to stop in mid sentence, mouth open. He never got a
chance to finish his sentence, because, at that moment, Harry went down like
a ton of bricks much sooner than Snape had anticipated.

Severus sighed and shook his head at the lump of robes on the grass. \"Oops,\"
he said to himself under his breath, almost letting out a small chuckle, and
covering it with a cough instead. He stooped down and worked his hands under
the boy\'s knees and back, lifting him up. Snape carried him to the infirmary
where he deposited him on an empty bed, completely ignoring Madam Pomfrey
when she came bustling over, asking him a million questions at once.

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