Summary: "This isn’t magic — it’s logic — a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven’t got an ounce of logic; they’d be stuck in here forever." What if Remus, who has being trying and failing to befriend Severus for several years, learned of Severus’ affinity for logic puzzles? What if after befriending him, he fell in love and decided that maybe the only way to Severus’ heart was through his brain?
Timeline: Post war, both lived, the Tonks train wreak never happened and thus no Teddy.
Pairings: Friendship and eventual Snape/Lupin Pre-slash so far, but it might eventually become full blown slash. Background Harry/Hermione.
Disclaimer: If you think any of these characters are mine please tell me what world you live in so I can move there posthaste! Also all of the puzzles in this story are real and actual logic puzzles that I have solved in various computer games with the obvious exception of the Rubik’s cube which I played in reality. None of the puzzles mentioned hereafter are my intellectual property and at the end I will give credit where credit is due for each in order of appearance.
Rating: pg?
Warnings/kinks: none yet unless mind games, both literal and metaphorical, count. Sneaky Remus, sneaky Severus, courtship, drama. Also I switch POV between the boys; hopefully it will be simple to tell whose head you’re in. This is a WIP, but I have most of the beginning and about half of the end done, I just need to do the middle and the very end. I suspect I will post a section a month without any real breaks as I've quite the backlog. :)
AN: This installment features a brief foray into the perspective of Minerva. Why? A: Minerva is awesome, B: Severus required the application of a clue-by-four and Minerva kindly volunteered to wield it and C: Because I could! :D
I’d known him since he was a scraggly little boy with hand-me-down robes and an unfortunately large, but at that point unbroken, nose that he never quite managed to grow into, poor boy. I wasn’t very close to him then, it wasn’t proper for teachers to show too much favoritism after all, especially not if one is a head of house. My little Gryffindors never took well to me paying too much attention to students in other houses, but that minor jealousy was magnified ten-fold when the child was a Slytherin.
Once he became a colleague we were significantly closer. We had to be, not presenting a united front to the students would have been disastrous. I would even go as far as to say we got along well. We shared a dry, subtle humor that others didn’t always appreciate. When I was told he was a traitor I was shocked, unlike so many members of the Order. Looking back the only other person who was equally shocked and, like myself, insisted that there had to be some kind of misunderstanding was Remus.
I knew Severus and something was going on between him and Remus. He had taken to being nearly cheerful, well, by his standards anyway. He frequently had a tiny smirk playing around the left corner on his mouth like he couldn’t help it and, quite possibly, was entirely unaware of its presence. It had to be somehow related to Remus and his visits as the mood improvement started then, it only started after they began meeting several months ago, though the smirk was relatively new.
No one ever saw Remus leave but the portraits and they all agreed that the hour was always positively indecent when he finally did. Remus’ visits ran like clockwork, every Friday he arrived for dinner and chatted quite merrily with all who were amicable until Severus finished eating. Without fail Remus would follow even though Severus rarely said a word to him aside from a brief, slightly teasing comment in greeting such as, “back again are you?” or “My first mistake was feeding you wasn’t it? I’ll never be shot of you now.” Always said with a little smile I hadn’t seen for years curling his lips.
It was almost fond.
Deciding that the only way to confirm my suspicions was to talk to Severus on the topic I asked him to stay after the next staff meeting. It wasn’t an unprecedented request, though usually such a request was due to concern about a particular student, so Severus neither objected nor looked particularly surprised.
After the others had left we made ourselves comfortable and I set about acquiring information from Severus in the only way I knew how; by pretending I already knew what was going on.
“So, I understand congratulations are in order.” That got his attention. On anyone else that expression would merely be attentive, but on Severus it was shock.
“For what?” He managed to keep his voice even, but I could see he was nervous. No matter how good he was at fooling most people I could still read him when I tried.
“Come now Severus, there is no need to be coy.” Why was it so fun to tease him? I’d never quite worked it out. Maybe it was because he managed to appear so in control most of the time. Perhaps it made my inner feline feel the need to ruffle his fur.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” And there it is, the slight twitch his shoulders give when he wants to squirm guiltily but refuses to let himself.
“Of course you don’t, Severus, it isn’t like you’ve been wandering around for well over a month now smirking to yourself, nor has there been any change in the number of students that insist you are clearly evil despite what Harry Potter has to say on the subject.” I watched him carefully even as I smirked and teased. Severus is great fun to nettle, but doing so isn’t known for being perfectly safe.
“What do you expect me to say, Minerva?”
“I don’t expect you to say anything, though I would like to know that you are happy with Remus.”
“I-” Severus cut himself off and for a moment I saw half a dozen emotions flit across his face, too quickly to identify with any real confidence. He seemed to struggle with a decision for a few beats before he answered, “I do enjoy his company.”
“I’m glad, Severus, there is no reason for you to not find your own happiness now that things have settled some. Now,” I said standing up to signal an end to our talk, “you tell that man of yours that if he hurts you, Gryffindor or not, I’ll not only help you curse him within an inch of his life, but I’ll help you hide the evidence.”
Severus smirked rather conspiratorially at me before replying, “I imagine he’d be more afraid of your displeasure than mine in such a scenario, Minerva.”
“Only if he’s not as bright as I always thought he was; if he’s smart he’d run from both of us.” With a final exchange of amused looks we parted company; Severus to his dungeons and me to my tower, much reassured.
*****
I’ve gotten complacent. It is the only explanation that makes sense. I allowed myself to live day to day as I haven’t since I was in school as opposed to viewing absolutely every action and reaction through the lens of long term goals. In a way I am both grateful and furious that Minerva pointed it out to me.
Grateful because a Slytherin that isn’t self-aware is asking to be taken advantage of, yet I was much happier floating along, oblivious to my own feelings. More importantly how they had changed regarding a certain werewolf. Knowing about them made them almost painfully obvious as I re-assessed my recent behavior.
I was in a better mood for no good reason, I had lead my students still firmly, but more gently than before, enough so that they noticed and were bewildered enough to draw Minerva’s attention to the change in my behavior. Merlin, I hope I wasn’t literally wandering around with a pleased smirk on my face as Minerva had claimed!
What should I do about all of this? Clearly I was already attached to Remus, extricating myself at this point would be, well, messy. Despite my misgivings I didn’t want to cut ties with him even though that was likely the best thing I could do for myself. I enjoyed his company, rather more than I had ever guessed I might, and I wanted to continue to do so.
Would that be an option though? Was it a good idea to stay friendly with him now that I realized that wasn’t all I wished for? Would keeping my peace save me from pain or would it merely grant me a front and center view when Remus eventually took a lover?