ellid (ellid) wrote in lupin_snape, @ 2008-05-26 14:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | prompt: darkfic fest '08 |
Dark Side fic: Waking the Dead
Title: Waking the Dead
Rating: R
Warning: horror elements, grave robbing. DH-compliant.
Summary: The dead sometimes live, even if only during the full moon.
Note: this is for the Dark Side Fest. Thanks to lore and the Chat Room regulars for brainstorming.
He woke in a coffin, wearing a borrowed set of robes.
What air there was reeked of dirt and worms and cleaning products used to keep the artificial satin and wadding in a cheap coffin fresh during a viewing. He lay still, arms crossed over his breast in the way that Gotobed's Mortuary had used for centuries for their Wizarding customers, and did his best not to panic.
They hadn't obeyed his burial instructions; that much was clear. Whoever had buried him didn't know what would happen during the full moon, which meant it wasn't Dora or Severus. Had the Death Eaters won? Was this Voldemort's idea of revenge, letting him regenerate month after month underground with no hope of rescue until the wolf's natural lifespan ended?
His skin prickled with the surge of energy that always came a few minutes before the Change, and he tried to gather his magic for a wandless blast that would penetrate the lid of the coffin and however much earth lay over his grave. But before he could do more than wiggle a finger the fickle, beautiful, dangerous planet that ruled his life seized him.
The robes that had belonged to Ted Tonks and the pale pink deluxe art silk lining of Gotobed's Economy Special were in shreds when the moon set and he died for the second time.
The moon was still below the horizon as the sun set over the graveyard. Hermione Granger swiped her hair back from his forehead and stared up into the sky.
"How much time do we have?"
"Less than twenty minutes." Her companion checked the almanac, then his watch. "If you're set on doing this, we have to cast the earth moving spell now."
"All right." She sketched a rectangle of fire about the flat stone that read Remus John Lupin, beloved husband and father, 1960-1998 and began to chant. Neville Longbottom waited for his cue, then joined his voice to hers.
Neither looked at the thin, slightly stooped man who waited a few yards away. Andrew Prince, as he had called himself ever since the day Severus Snape had bled to death in Hogsmeade, did not move or speak as the young people moved first stone, then soil, then mud-caked coffin. He was here for a specific reason, and if he had brought more than the usual supply of nutritive potions and healing salves in his briefcase, it was purely because a bossy, infuriating girl had ordered him to do so. He was a practical man, and he did not believe for one minute that Hermione Granger was right.
"I know who you are."
"I’m not interested in a bargain deal on encyclopaedias, home repairs, or tattoos." He'd raised his walking stick and poked in the girl's general directin. Two years of a boring, Muggle, safe life, including plastic surgery on his neck and nose, had not prepared him for the sight of his bossiest student on his doorstep. "You have five seconds to leave my property or - "
"Or what? You'll call the Aurors?" Granger had the nerve to roll her eyes. "I checked with the MLE before I came here. There are no registered wizards or witches in Maetwrog, and no one has used your wand since 1998. You disappeared for a reason, and you're not going to risk it by using magic on me."
He was on the verge of showing the arrogant brat that the last thing he needed was a wand to hex her straight into the Dwyryd, but he hadn't managed to escape the Dark Lord and Shacklebolt's goons by losing his temper. "Magic? That's the rot that idiot Russell Grant peddles to the foolish and ill-informed. He lives closer to Portmeirion."
"Reficio vultus!"
The spell hit him before he could react, and for the briefest of moments he felt his nose snap and grow, his teeth lap over each other. His face was back to what it had been for the last eighteen months before he could do more than stagger back into the door jamb.
"I knew it was you. Neville thought I'd lost my mind, but - "
The man who had been Severus Snape grabbed her by the arm and all but threw her into the house. His own wand was free of his walking stick and jammed against the girl's throat as the echo of the door slamming faded.
"You have thirty seconds to tell me why you're here. Then I either obliviate you or kill you, depending on your answer."
She met his stare without blinking. "I'm here to ask you to help me save Remus Lupin." Her voice caught for an instant. "He's alive, and he's suffering, and only you can help."
He should have obliviated her with the wand he'd bought at a Knockturn Alley estate sale in 1979, but instead he'd been weak. The mere possibility that Remus, or rather the wolf, was being revived every full moon only to suffocate in his coffin had brought all the old ambivalence churning to the surface. The man had been a weakling and a fool, and whatever they'd managed to build had been wrecked completely when Lupin had married and impregnated Nymphadora without so much as trying to find his erstwhile lover after Albus' death. Severus Snape had gone to his death wishing he'd never heard of Remus Lupin, and Andrew Prince had done his best to forget that he'd ever loved anyone, male or female.
But coming back to life every month for a few seconds, or a few hours, only to die of suffocation - no one deserved that. Especially not Remus.
The months blurred, one into the other. Fortunately the wolf had no long-term memory, but the man would always remember where he was and what had happened in those few seconds between the return of consciousness and the cracking and shredding as his body reshaped itself.
He could, *would* live if someone could free the wolf before moonset. But as time dragged on, it became more and more obvious: no one knew the moon revived him.
Or worse, no one cared.
"Two minutes, Hermione. If this doesn't - "
"It will work. The books all agree." Her hair was damp enough from sweat to frizz out in a weird halo. "He knew it, too."
Snape curled his lip. The girl's belief that any problem could be solved by a book would be her downfall. Had she ever had an original thought in her life?
"Professor Snape? We - "
"I'm not your professor, and my name is 'Prince.'" Severus joined them by the coffin. There were signs of rot at the corners, and one handle hung by a single screw. Either Andromeda had deliberately bought a cheap coffin to show one last bit of contempt toward her son-in-law, or the coffin had been damaged somehow.
"Have you prepared the spells? Immobulus and incarcerous?" Severus glared down at them. Longbottom might have decapitated Nagini, but that did not mean he could hold a spell against an unmedicated werewolf.
Longbottom glared back. "Yes. Incarcerous lupus. I can hold it for hours." He threw his head back, and it was something of a shock for Severus to realize that they were the same height. "How long can you hold a legilimens?"
"As long as I need to."
The twilight turned silver as the moon emerged. Granger's engagement ring glinted in the strange half-light as she aimed her wand at the coffin.
"Alohomora!"
The coffin sprang open, and a wolf, fur matted with blood and quilt wadding, staggered out with a deranged howl.
"Even if you're right about Lupin, it's been two years." It had been late enough in the day that he'd felt compelled to offer Granger tea and biscuits. Now they sat before his tiny hearth, awkwardly sipping PG Tips and nibbling chocolate digestives. She'd explained how she'd tracked him down and why she thought Lupin was reviving and dying each month, and he'd listened. Now he set his tea down and folded his hands. "He'll be utterly mad. It would be more merciful to cast an incendio and put him out of his misery."
"I can't do that." Granger's hair wisped at her temples. "His son needs him."
"His son is safe with Andromeda Tonks."
"Is he?" Granger chewed at her lower lip, then handed pulled out a ragged photograph of two coffins in a dimly lit church. The one with the Auror's badge shimmering on the top and sides was top quality bronze, while its partner looked like the thinnest pine. "Professor Lupin specified an above-ground burial exactly thirty-one days after his death, and a glass-fronted casket. Mrs. Tonks buried him next to Tonks a week after the battle in a wooden coffin."
Severus forced himself to drink the last inch of tea without reacting. "The dead do not care where they are - "
"Teddy looks more like Remus every day, even if he's a Metamorphmagus," said Granger. She leaned forward across the table, eyes alight in that familiar, righteous gleam. "She's boarded up her windows and won't let him outside to play. Even Harry isn't allowed to see him more than once or twice a month, and he's Teddy's godfather! He deserves better - "
"I daresay he does." The Blacks were mad, but even Andromeda would not consciously harm her daughter's only child. "What makes you think I'll help you?"
"Because you cared about Remus." Hermione Granger had been called the cleverest witch of her age. She'd also been called the most frightening.
"He tried to kill - "
"He loved you." She raised her hand before he could deny it. "Tonks told me, right after Teddy was born. She said she knew she wasn't what Remus really wanted or needed, but she hoped he'd stay until Teddy was ready for dame school."
"Anyone would have known that that marriage was doomed. He was almost old enough to be her father." He had kept his mind and memories blank against the Dark Lord, and Albus. Surely he could meet a twenty year old girl's eyes. "She had no cause to blame me."
Granger cocked her head slightly. "Tonks told me that the only way they could have sex was if she grew black hair and a crooked nose. Remus didn't touch her at all after she started to show because she couldn't pretend to be you any longer."
A square of damp peat hissed on the fire. What could one say?
"What do you need?"
"Neville and I have it all planned out - we need to be at the grave on the full moon just after his birthday - "
The moon was setting, its silvery disk sinking low behind the hills. Severus took an involuntary step backwards as the stuff of his nightmares growled at him. One leg dragged from a huge, old wound that could have been there for a month or a year.
He barely heard Granger and Longbottom shout their spells. The wolf had had two years to tear at itself in a confined space, and it was clear that Remus would not survive if Moony's injuries were not treated immediately. He snapped on his gloves and dropped to his knees by the shivering creature, antiseptic and healing potions uncorked and ready.
Pour the Wolfsbane down the throat, even though it was less effective on a transformed werewolf. Apply potions directly to the worst wounds, salves to the scraped paw pads and broken nails. Watch as the creature lapped up every drop of nutritive concentrate, then all but inhale two bowls of water. Listen as its breathing became less raspy, its heartbeat steadier. Hold its head as convulsions broke through the immobulus, whisper nonsense in the rasp that was all Nagini had left of his voice.
Breath again as the wolf quieted and the old, clotted scrapes closed and healed. The body would live. Severus had ensured it. But what about the mind?
He'd come to treasure those lucid moments before and after the change. Sometimes he remembered Harry, naïve and determined, or Sirius before alcohol and Azkaban destroyed him. Sometimes it was Dora, warm and sweet and oh so happy to be bearing their son. Sometimes it was Teddy (and what was he like? Had he lived? Was he happy? What had happened?). Sometimes it was those last, frantic seconds before Dolohov killed him.
And often, too often, he dreamed of dark hair and a crooked nose and the lover he had abandoned only after he'd betrayed Albus. Learning that Severus was on the Order's side all along had burned, and still did.
Not that it mattered any more.
"Moonset coming, Professor. Do we need to hold the spells?"
Severus jerked as Granger spoke. The wolf had slept most of the night as the healing potions did their work, but it was starting to rouse now that dawn smeared the horizon. "Drop them when he starts to change. He'll need to thrash about."
He leaned closer, nodded as the wolf's skin began to twitch. "Now!"
He scarcely heard the finite incantatum as the creature arched backwards with a scream of pain. One newly healed wound tore open as the fur withdrew, the limbs twisted into human shapes, and the head reshaped itself from wolf to man. Severus cursed and yelled for Longbottom to hold Remus down while he poured the last of his medicaments directly into the bleeding gash.
The wound closed for good as the tail withdrew into the spine and the last few inches of pelt morphed into filthy grey hair. Severus breathed through his mouth at the stench and took his old lover by the shoulders.
"Remus - look at me. Look at me."
Remus twisted away, screaming in a voice that was not human. Severus lunged forward and pinned him to the ground. He grabbed the hollow face in both hands and stared down into the madly rolling eyes.
"Look at me, damn you. Remember what you are!"
battle
dolohov, wand blazing green
nymphadora sobbing
potter shouting
a newborn child
radio equipment
coffin
waking and changing and struggling and howling and dying month after month after month
Severus yanked himself free from a vivid memory of the night Albus died and dug deeper.
"Remember. Hold on."
sex
Severus
Full moon
"I love you. Tell me what's wrong."
"Nothing is wrong except your obsession with me. I have work to do."
"For God's sake, Severus - "
Cold eyes that had been warm. Sneering lips he had just kissed soft.
"Go to her, Lupin. Have a mess of brats. Be normal."
Not normal not not not
"You should have been, you stupid wolf." Severus raised himself on both arms. Remus' eyes fluttered, and his breath caught in his throat. "Oh no. You're not dying. Not after this, not again!"
There was a tortured squeak from somewhere behind him. He ignored it and rolled back into a sitting position, Remus limp in his arms. He snarled and forced the hazel eyes open. "Look at me. Look at me!"
You made me leave.
I'm here now.
You said -
Deep cover. Think for once.
Oh God. Dora -
Her son needs his father.
His grandmother?
Mad. Like all the Blacks.
Like me. Like me.
Not unless you choose it.
Severus -
Come back with me.
With you?
Yes.
Only if you mean it.
I mean it. Come back. Your son needs you.
Severus - ?
All right, I need you. Are you satisfied?
Truth?
What do you think?
I can't -
He jerked free from the other man's mind. Remus groaned at the lack of contact, then sighed and collapsed against his shoulder.
"Severus?"
His voice was thick from lack of use. Granger held a canteen - and just how had she carried that in her little reticule? - to the cracked lips. Severus cautiously eased away enough to get his weight off Remus as the revenant drank and drank and drank.
He looked dreadful: hair matted with debris, body emaciated and slashed with red and purple scars, hands shaking and filthy. But his eyes were clear and blessedly human, and they fixed on Severus as soon as Granger dropped the canteen and drew a robe from her seemingly bottomless handbag.
"Severus? Did you - "
"We can talk later." Severus made a face out of habit at the stench of blood and fur and voided sphincters. "You stink, Lupin."
"So I do." Remus did not move as Granger and Longbottom cast enough charms to justify putting a clean robe on his wasted body. "Thank you all. I thought I'd been forgotten."
"We're sorry, Professor Lupin." Longbottom looked apologetic, God only knew why. It certainly wasn't his fault that Andromeda had stuffed her son-in-law into the ground too soon. "We didn't mean to leave you so long."
"You didn't know." Remus shivered, whether from shock or the frosty night air Severus could not tell. He watched as Granger aimed her wand at his grave and all the debris fell back into the hole. "Why - "
"You'll have to ask your wife's mother that," said Severus. Remus was no legilimens, and Severus was determined to be there if there was even the slightest question about the premature burial being inadvertent. "Right now we need to get you out of here."
"He's right, Remus." Hermione Granger helped support Remus as he staggered upright against Severus. "You'll need a few days to recover before we tell anyone. Professor - Mr. - "
"Prince. My name is Prince." It was horrifying, how light Remus was. He would need more than Granger's "few days" before he was strong enough to venture out. "Inform Professor McGonagall. She can be trusted. No one else."
"My son - "
"He's safe and well," said Severus. "You need to rest before we tell his grandmother."
Remus nodded. "Yes, of course." He shuddered again and burrowed against Severus' shoulder with a quiet whimper. "Please get me out of here."
"My cottage, Granger. Give us a few hours."
She looked them over, man and werewolf, then nodded and took Longbottom's hand. "We'll be by at noon to check on him." She hesitated.
"Thank you, Mr. Prince. We couldn't have done this without you."
"Go back to Hogwarts, or London, or wherever you and Weasley are living these days." Severus visualized his neat little cottage, the banked fire, the gleaming tub he'd filled and charmed to stay hot just before he'd apparated to the graveyard. "Bring some beef tea if you can find it. He'll need the protein."
"Right," said Granger. Severus ignored the faint sound of imploding air as she and Longbottom vanished.
"Beef tea?" Remus tried to laugh and coughed instead. "Severus, I'm not - "
"You most certainly are that bad." Severus steadied himself, Remus a limp weight against his torso. "Why didn't you have your last instructions portkeyed directly to me? Sending them to my solicitors when I was presumably dead was useless."
"I didn't think you and Dora would both go down," Remus murmured. "You know how we died? Arguing. I told her to go back to Teddy, and she gave me some nonsense about being by my side. Never noticed Bellatrix aiming at her until it was too late."
Now was not the time to point out that arguing was almost all the newlyweds had done, if the intelligence Severus had received was any guide. "You need a bath, and food, and then sleep, in a real bed, not a bloody coffin."
"Glad you're alive." Remus tilted his head back and lifted one bony hand to cup Severus' cheek. "Will you be in the bed?"
Severus pursed his lips. "By it, not in it." His tone softened at the flash of bewildered pain in the hazel eyes. "Tonight, perhaps, but only to sleep. You need your strength."
"It's enough for now." Remus took a last look round the graveyard, then nodded. "Please get me out of here."
"With pleasure," said Severus, and apparated them to his home.