Children of Mars: Chapter Two
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Summary: Despite James Potter's heroism, Severus Snape does not escape the Shrieking Shack unscathed.  When Remus Lupin bites him, Severus has to face a full share in Lupin's secret while whispers of a new Dark Lord grow louder every day.



Chapter Two: Irrefutable Evidence



A dull pain blossomed in James' chest and he groaned as he woke up.  Evans walked down the hall without looking back at him as he propped himself up on his forearm.  "You stepped on me!" he exclaimed indignantly.  She ignored him as she kept walking, not even glancing back at him.  "Hey!"

He heaved himself to his feet and stumbled through the portrait hole, which Evans had graciously left open for him.  a cluster of first year girls whispered as he passed by on his way up the staircase to the fifth year boys dormitory.  "Where were you?" Remus stood just inside the doorway, buttoning the last few buttons of his shirt and throwing his robes over his shoulders.

"The Fat Lady wasn't there, so I had to sleep in the hall."  James' legs and back ached.  Every muscle in his body seemed to remember the night before better than he did.  "You could've woken me up when you came in."

"Do you know who was in the Shrieking Shack this morning with a chunk taken out of his knee?" he growled, dismissing his friend's words with a shaking hand.

James nodded reluctantly.  "Yeah, I was there when it happened."  Suddenly, he was aware of how much more sleep he needed, and nearly dragged the covers over his head and pretended it wasn't morning yet.  "Sirius sent me after him."  he didn't mention that he had been holding Snape when Remus bit him.  "Moony..."

"I saw you," he hissed, "and smelled you, oh God."

"Moony..."

"What happens now?" he interrupted sharply.

"Sirius isn't expelled," he smiled tentatively, "and Dumbledore wants to keep this quiet, that's good, right?"

"Oh God," Remus dropped onto the bed next to him, "oh God!"

"It's going to be alright, Moony,"  James rubbed his back in circles.

"I bit someone!" he shouted, "That's not going to be alright, no matter what!"

"He's alive right?" James consoled, "It's not like you killed the little slimeball."  Remus shot up from the bed and fled the dormitory.

~*~

Severus drank the Blood-Replenishing Potion with a grimace and handed the flask back to Madam Pomfrey.  What color he had flooded back into his skin.  "That's the last. I think," she told him, "but I want you to stay here over the weekend for observation."

He swallowed a groan.  "If I'm not bleeding, I'm fine, and I want to go to class."

"Unfortunately, that's not possible, Mr. Snape, I don't want that leg to start bleeding again.  Those are cursed wounds, I don't want to let you go while they're still open and susceptible to infection," she pulled his sheet up around him and tucked it under his skin.  "I've had one of your prefects bring down some of your pajamas."  She bustled past him to examine the patient in the next bed, a slumbering lump of tangled sheets to which Severus shot nasty looks as he settled down sulkily.

Madam Pomfrey tapped the figure's shoulder gently, and it stirred, waking just enough to mumble, "no more potions," and pull the sheets tighter around itself.

Brandishing a vial of greyish orange liquid, the mediwitch pulled the sheets away, bringing a cry from their former inhabitant.  "Mr. Black," I'm afraid I can't let you go back to sleep until you have taken your potion."

He snatched it out of her hand and downed it all in one gulp, "Happy?"  She took the vial back and nodded.  As she sat back down at her desk, Black looked around and then stared stunned for a moment at the boy next to him.

Severus' hand scrambled across the side table to find his wand, but it wasn't there.  Black mirrored his motions frantically, neither taking his eyes off the other.  "Did I actually send you to the hospital wing, Black?"

"Don't look so smug," Black retorted.  "You're here too," and then, he looked momentarily sick, but he covered it.  Assured that his neighbor was as unarmed as he was, he rolled back over and mimicked sleep.  Something inside Severus envied his nonchalance.

About an hour later, Madam Pomfrey snatched Black's sheets away again and pulled him up to examine him and cast diagnostic spells over him.  "You're alright to go to your classes this afternoon, Mr. Black, if you take it easy for the next few days."  She pressed his wand into his hand.  "I thought it would be prudent to confiscate this from you before I left you in a bed next to Mr. Snape." he nodded quickly, perfunctorily, to hurry her along, and darted out of the room before she could tell him any more.  Severus noted that his pockets were untucked and there was a long grass stain on the back of his shirt.

Left alone, Severus found himself almost upset that Black got to leave, because even bickering with the disgusting specimen of humanity that had put him in this position was better than the crushing boredom of being stuck in the hospital wing with nothing to do and not even a book to keep him company.  When the knock on the door came, tentative as it was, he nearly tumbled off the bed.  When he moved, he realized something.  He couldn't feel his right leg, there was no pain, but there was also no sensation of the gauze bandages.  As Madam Pomfrey opened the hospital wing door, Severus yanked up the sheet, panicked, to make sure his leg was still attached.  He caught a glimpse of Lily's red hair, and dropped the sheet hastily.

"Severus!" she cried when she caught sight of him.  As she ran over to him, bits of lettice and mayonnaise splattered the floor from the tuna salad sandwich being crushed in her left hand.

"Miss Evans!" the mediwitch scolded, aghast, "what did I tell you about over-stimulating my patient?"

"She's not over-stimulating me," Severus assured her, wringing his hands, again struck by the way he couldn't feel the leg he had just seen swathed in bandages, jutting from his hip.

"No one will tell me what happened to you," she begged.  "All Slughorn would say when I asked was that you were hurt sneaking off campus, and you were lucky you weren't already expelled!"

"Well I'm not expelled," he grumbled.

"Aren't you going to tell me what happened?" she pressed, "Did you know Potter wasn't in the Tower last night?  I stepped on him this morning going down to breakfast."

"You stepped-"

Lily cut him off.  "And Black wasn't even in classes this morning, and Remus-"

Severus' head shot up, "Is he Remus now?"

Lily huffed, "Honestly, he's a prefect with me.  He's not nearly as odious as his friends, are, I don't know why he spends time with them."

He did his best not to growl, or snarl, or do anything else to remind him of what he had become.  His mouth worked as he forced himself to keep quiet and not spit that he knew what Lupin was, and he had been right all along, hadn't he.  "So?"

"Remus came down to breakfast all cut up."

"Not cut up," Severus corrected darkly, "bitten up."

"You're still on about that?" she said exasperatedly.  "He's not a werewolf, Severus, he's not."  He buried his head in his pillow and held back a scream. 

"What time is it?" he asked, trying to distract her.

"Lunch," she told him, gesturing with the sandwich.    His stomach took that as a cue to rumble, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since the night before.

"Do I get anything to eat?" he asked the mediwitch irritably while Lily took a bite of her sandwich.

"If you're hungry, I could make you some cream of wheat," she told him briskly, "Though milk and sugar I'm afraid are out."

"I'm not ill," came his indignant reply, "I'm injured.  I can eat real food."

She favored him with an amused sidelong look.  "I'm under the headmaster's orders to treat you as a prisoner, Mr. Snape, so your diet for the next few day is at my discretion.

Severus flinched.  He very badly wanted to tell her that prisoners had some rights to humane treatment including decent food, but he couldn't quite work up the nerve.  "So are you going to tell me what you did?" Lily prodded, plucking the edge of the sheet from the bed and starting to pull it down.

His mouth opened, but the words wouldn't form.  If he spoke, he would have to acknowledge what had happened.  It would be real then, inescapable, permanent.  It fell into the deep recesses of his mind where he didn't have to see it.  "No," he hissed, ripping the sheet out of her hands.

Lily relinquished it, wide-eyed.  "Sev..." she wheedled, a persuading smile eclipsing her face.  A rush of heat poured into his face, and he wished for a moment that she would sit with him like this on a bed somewhere other than the hospital wing.  He flushed.  "Did you go chasing after Black and Potter?" she demanded, her smile disappearing.  Severus ground his teeth together.  "Oh, you did, didn't you?  Did they do this to you?  They should be expelled!"

Severus heartily agreed.  "No," he snapped, "Leave it, Lily!"

"Yeah, well, you're going to tell me," she informed him through clenched teeth, "You always do."  Severus folded his arms sulkily and pulled the sheet over his head in reply.  "Fine," she burst out, "but you will tell me."  he pulled down the sheet, hiding a triumphant smile.

Taking a steadying bite out of her sandwich, Lily smiled breathtakingly at Madam Pomfrey.  "Am I allowed to bring him his schoolwork and some books to keep him busy?" she asked.

"Of course," the mediwitch replied with a matching smile.  Lily beamed.

Severus heaved a sigh of relief, taking her allowing him to do schoolwork as a signal that he would not be expelled come Monday.  "I'll come back after classes, do you want me to bring you anything specific?"

He shook his head, "Potions and Defense."

Rolling her eyes, Lily snorted.  "I could've guessed that."

"Are you leaving now?" he did his best to keep his voice neutral.

She shifted uncomfortably on the starched white fitted sheet.  "Do you want me to?"

"No," he whispered.  He never wanted her to leave.

Bending low over him, she whispered in his ear, "Just for that I'll sneak some food up with me."  She grinned at him conspiratorially with a furtive look in the direction of Madam Pomfrey.

~*~

Sirius crept down from his hiding place in the empty dormitory, grabbing his own wrists to keep his hands from shaking.  Every head in the Great Hall turned his way curiously and his heart hammered against his ribs.  For one horrifying instant, he read fury and amusement in their expressions and wondered how everyone knew, but then he realized.  He was late, lunch was half-over.  James, Peter, and Remus sat near the head of the table, and as he walked between the tables, talking stopped.  His shoulders slumped.  His eyes caught Evans' for a second, and he could feel her watching him consideringly.  There wasn't any space for him to sit between Remus and James, and when he stood behind them, Remus glared at him balefully.  Even more palpable in that moment than the shame and disgrace he felt was the feeling of knowing he was in disgrace.

James didn't smile at him either, and Peter dithered a bit before he moved over to let Sirius sit next to James.  Shuddering visibly, he sank down between them, glancing from side to side.  "So what d'you think about Ravenclaw's new Beater?" Peter asked shrilly, "I mean, he's a little guy, but he trounced the Hufflepuff Chasers."

Sirius' lip curled, "A five-year-old could trounce the Hufflepuff Chasers."

James didn't smile, but he punched Sirius' arm instead.  "Our Beaters can handle him," James said confidently.  Peter smiled, openly thankful.

Weak with relief, Sirius might have slid off the bench if he hadn't dug his elbows into the table.  He seized an empty plate and loaded it up with corned beef sandwiches and creamed spinach, his stomach suddenly aware that he hadn't eaten since dinner the night before, and he'd vomited most of that up anyway.  He took the rubber stopper out of the bottom of a salt shaker and poured a lump of salt into the center of the creamed spinach and mixed it thoroughly.  He tried gamely to ignore the forced way normalcy persisted during the meal, with Peter chattering, and James cracking jokes, and Remus resisting, silent and shooting him dirty looks from around James.

Just as he finished his third sandwich, a lone owl glided serenely across the Great Hall to drop a familiar heavy parchment envelope into his creamed spinach.  Sirius sank low on the bench, rounding his shoulders around the letter as he tore the top off the envelope and shook the letter out.

When he saw the tall, narrow, loopy letters, he swallowed hard.

Mr. Black:

Your detentions will begin on the upcoming Monday and continue every school day evening until graduation.  You will meet me in my office immediately after dinner.  Madam Pomfrey assured me that it would be unlikely that you would remember our conversation last night in any meaningful way, so, once more, I'd like to impress upon you the gravity of your actions.  The only reason I have not already expelled you is that in doing so, I would have to reveal Mr. Lupin and Mr. Snape's status, and they would have to leave the school as well.  Mr. Lupin would have had to pay serious legal penalties despite the fact that his only crime was seeking an education and befriending you.  However, you are on notice.  Should you break another school rule, I will expel you.

I cannot tell you how profoundly your actions have made me question your sanity and my own for my lenient treatment of you and your companions for your perennial rule-breaking.  Consider very carefully precisely what your inability to keep your mouth shut could have done to both Mr. Lupin and Mr. Snape.  You could have easy had the deaths of two students on your conscience, including that of someone you claim to consider a good friend.  I hope this has more impact on you than the possibility that you will be punished, because thus far, that has had very little effect on your actions at all.

Disappointedly,
Albus Dumbledore

Sirius let his head sink into his hands, crushing the letter between.  He was wrong.  The shame was more palpable than anyone else's disappointment.

~*~

Lily pounded the water-slick stone, driving grit deep into her skin.  "Avery, get out here now!" she shouted at the door she knew was there, but it wasn't the fifth year prefect who opened the dungeon wall.

Evan Rosier glowered at her, pressing against the door frame with both hands.  "What're you doing here, Mudblood?" he hissed softly.

The muscles in her jaw jumped as she peered around him into the gloomy common room.  "Severus's in the hospital wing, I told him I'd bring his books.  Get Avery for me."  Rosier sneered at her and started to close the door, but Lily blocked it.  "I'm a prefect," she said pointing at her badge and speaking very slowly, "I can take points."

"Yeah, a whole five points," he mocked, moving to close her out again, but Lily blocked him again and leaned into the common room.

"Yeah," she told him, jabbing her wand into his Slytherin tie, "a whole five points, from you," she raised her voice and bellowed into the common room, "and from every single one of you who doesn't run downstairs right now to fetch Avery for me!"  She smiled coldly and counted the students.  "That's one hundred and fifteen points."

All twenty two students scattered for the staircase at the same time, wedging themselves between the walls in their haste while Rosier seethed.  Finally, a third year boy that Lily didn't know wriggled through and shot down the steps first.  "Can't figure out how to use a table and chairs, Mudblood?" Rosier asked, pointing at the shrunken parcels of food tucked into her bag.

"Five points from Slytherin," she snapped, feeling the familiar fury that this toerag and his friends were the people Severus chose to spend time with.

Avery marched through the common room and pushed Rosier out of the way, the third year boy following behind him, arms full of Severus' books.  He gestured with his thumb, and the boy tipped the books onto the floor in the corridor at Lily's feet.  "Leave," he ordered.  Lily scowled as she crouched down to gather the books and drop them into her bag.  "And Mudblood, tell Snape I want my camera back," he let the wall grind shut.

~*~

"Do I get a last meal?" Severus spat, when Madam Pomfrey finished emptying his bedpan.  She cast a scouring charm on it and sat it in a cabinet amongst its fellows.  He flushed, mortified, furious that she wouldn't even let him get out of bed to use the toilet.

"Don't be rediculous, Mr. Snape, if he were going to expel you, he would have done it already."  As the headmaster strode into the hospital wing, Severus sat up in the bed and Madam Pomfrey pushed him back down.

Dumbledore pushed one of the hard, wooden hospital next to Severus' bed and folded himself onto it.  "She's right, I'm not going to expel you, though your actions certainly warrant it."

Severus clutched the sheet and glared defiantly.  "I've done nothing-"

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and peered over his half moon glasses.  "Haven't you?  You have been telling your fellow students for months that you were certain that Mr. Lupin was a werewolf."

"And he was, wasn't he," Severus snapped back.  "I was right, and everyone should know."

The headmaster sighed heavily.  "Yes, you were right, Mr. Snape, the point was, you knew what you would face in that tunnel, and you went down there anyway, risking your life and the life of Mr. Lupin simply to prove you were right and to punish school rivals.  Had you succeeded in photographing Mr. Lupin and distributing the results among your classmates, a perfectly innocent student would have had to leave."

"And he should have!"  Severus shouted, his nails biting through the fabric.  "He's a werewolf, he's a danger to everyone here!  I did it because of that!"

"Don't try it, you're not even telling yourself that excuse," The smile that spread across the headmaster's face was far from pleasant, "and students are only in danger if they do blatantly stupid things like invade a werewolf's place of confinement during the full moon," Severus felt his face heating.  "Besides, that works both ways.  You're also a werewolf now, I'm sure you don't want to leave any more than Mr. Lupin does."

"No," Severus said definitely, "I'm not."

Dumbledore shook his head sadly and pointed to Severus' bandaged leg.  "That, and Mr. Potter's witnessing your transformation, would say otherwise.  You are a werewolf, and if you feel so strongly that Mr. Lupin should leave because of his curse, you should leave yourself."

His mouth opened and then closed again before he figured out what to say.  "If I deserve to be expelled so much, why haven't you?"

"That would reveal Mr. Lupin's condition and he would be forced to leave."

A sudden idea pushed itself into Severus' throat, choking him before it came out.  "You'd have to resign, wouldn't you," he muttered, "if everyone found out you'd let a werewolf into Hogwarts, and Lupin could be arrested."

Dumbledore inclined his head.  "He could be kissed, or sent to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures and beheaded."  Severus flinched and Dumbledore conjured a clip board with a form attached to it and a quill.  "You will have to fill this out to register with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.  Fortunately, they have yet to check the Werewolf registry against the student lists.  There's a copy of the Werewolf Code of conduct there too."  Severus nodded and took the quill unable to find his voice.  "Your parents will have to be notified about your condition."  He forced down the tears prickling at the corners of his eyes and nodded again.

Chapter Three