immortalautumn (immortalautumn) wrote in lupin_snape, @ 2008-04-10 17:44:00 |
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Entry tags: | family fest, prompt: family fest |
Fic: Family Attributes
Title: Family Attributes
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1350
Disclaimer: Not mine. . .well, the fic is.
Notes: Written for the Fest prompt, where Remus and Severus have to write responses to "What is a family?" in Muggle Studies class. They're older than I suppose they ought to be, and still be taking Muggle Studies.
“A nuisance.”
Remus sighed, but wrote 'nuisance' down on the form that Professor Grimston had handed out. “You might try cooperating,” he said mildly, “and then we'll finish it faster.” He started coloring in the large, block 'a' in the 'What is a Family?' title on the parchment. So far, they had written down their names, and Remus had put Severus' suggestion in the column marked 'Ideas!'.
“What about, a haven?” Severus snorted in derision at the idea and so Remus didn't write it down. He underlined the title, because Professor Grimston was looking at them.
“A haven for what, ravenous Dark Creatures?” The Slytherin boy flicked his wand, and Sirius's hair started tying itself quietly into knots. He looked back at Remus and lifted his chin, his angular face defiant, but Remus just shook his head. “What, you're not going to defend his vanity?”
“I'm just relieved I'm not his partner,” Remus responded, watching Sirius expound at length to Peter on the evils of family. Their paper seemed to be covered with sketches of house elf heads.
Severus rolled his eyes, but Remus had seen the flash of surprise in them. “Yes, well, he's likely less tedious than those two.” He flicked his wand to point at James and Lily, cuddling over their parchment, but didn't fire off any hexes. “A family is hordes of ickle, drooling brats, and a house all in red and gold.” Severus' impersonation of James was spot on, which was surprising because Remus could hardly imagine the Slytherin practicing that particular intonation.
“A family is tolerant,” Remus threw in, though his imitation of James sounded more like Flitwick. “There are always Muggles or Dark Creatures over for tea, and poor Uncle Remus is always welcome.”
He rotated his wrist and James's hair turned pink, but neither he nor Lily even noticed. Severus jerked around to stare at him. Remus bent his head and went back to coloring in letters. It was a ridiculously childish exercise for seventh years on the cusp of leaving school – none of them would even have taken Muggle Studies, if Dumbledore hadn't insisted – but Grimston thought that soon they would be raising their own families, and in times such as these it was important to -
“If your friend Black becomes any more hysterical, he's liable to start weeping on Pettigrew's shoulder.”
Sirius was gesticulating fairly freely, and either Peter had annoyed him or he was demonstrating that a family was founded in attempts at throttling. “My friend Black,” Remus mimicked, “is excited about being accepted into Auror training, and wearing the nifty apprentice robes.”
Severus's quiet exhale might almost have been a chuckle. “Magenta will do wonders for him,” the other boy agreed. “And is Pettigrew planning to eat his parents out of house and home?”
Food, Remus wrote down, and Severus's lip twitched. “He's apprenticing under Fortescue,” he replied. “There are quarters near the shop he can stay in.” He wove his wand between his fingers, and nearly knocked Severus's right hand with it when he tried to twirl it through them. There was ink on Severus's thumb, and dried newt's blood under his fingernails.
“Evans and Potter are already engaged.” Blue eyes met brown, and Remus swallowed. Severus lifted one shoulder, and dropped it. “I received an invitation to the impending nuptials.” He reached over, picked up the quill, and wrote cloying. His forearm was pressed against the top of Remus's wrist.
“Will you go?”
“Hardly. I have better things to do with my time.” Remus could feel his fingers clench down on his wand, and the movement made Severus pull away, slouching back into his own chair. “You're likely some sort of groom's-beast.”
“I'm an usher,” Remus corrected. “It's a small wedding, and Sirius is the only groomsman.” Severus's hair fell in front of his eyes when he cocked his head. Remus shrugged. “I guess I haven't better things to do with my time.”
“Donate your body to research,” Severus offered. “Go home and boast about your NEWTS.”
“I'm rather fond of my body.” Remus shook his hair back the way Sirius always did, and Severus' mouth thinned, but his dark brown eyes glittered with what the Gryffindor knew was amusement. I'm rather fond of your body, too, he wanted to say, but instead he set his wand down to add useless to the list. “And my mother's remarried – another Muggle.”
“Doesn't want her mongrel son around, pissing on the carpets?” Severus tapped it with his wand, and the quill scribbled prejdised and then twitched down the length of the table. The glower that followed almost made Remus smile.
“Something like that.” He toyed with the edge of the parchment. “Will you go home, then? Back to the mills?”
The indignant sound that Severus made was clear if not coherent. “I have plans,” the Slytherin stated crisply, crossing his arms.
“What? You'll move in with Malfoy?”
They glared at each other for a moment, until Severus broke away and scrawled nosy in letters almost as large as the title. Remus scratched it out and wrote curious.
“Malfoy has offered me a flat, yes, but I have job offers as well.” Severus squared his shoulders, the same way he did when Slytherin won at Quidditch or he proved Slughorn wrong.
“Malfoy can't be trusted!” Remus snapped, digging the quill into the paper. “And neither can Vol – your potential employer.”
The ink had soaked through the list, and so when Severus wrenched the quill away to write deceitful, the parchment tore and it ended up etched into the table instead. Remus pressed his right palm flat against it, his fingers trembling against the wood. When he pulled away, the word was printed backwards across his hand.
Cowardly, he clarified, because Severus had dropped the quill and was staring at Remus's hand. Idiotic. “I might see you there,” he said out loud, which was enough to make Severus scowl.
“I shouldn't think so, Lupin. It's not a Gryffindor sort of club.” He used his wand to underline idiotic.
“No?” Remus smiled self-deprecatingly, and lifted his right shoulder to remind Severus of it. “I'm not a normal sort of Gryffindor.” He flexed his right fingers, just to show that it was the middle of the month and he still could. “Besides, I wouldn't be working for your employer.”
Severus grabbed Remus's arm, his fingers digging into the skin near his elbow. “Then you're even more of a fool,” he hissed, putting his face inches from Remus's nose. Remus could smell the shampoo the other boys insisted that Severus never used. “You'll be exposed and killed.” Severus's hands were always cold on Remus's skin.
The professor had started collecting the assignment, so Remus moved his arm to write optimistic and unaware of reality. “Well, then, I'll go and sign up as an Auror, won't I? Or go work in Hogsmeade? Or take the fellowship in Defense at Durmstrang that I was nearly offered, until they read my files?” Severus hadn't let go of his arm. Professor Grimston was cooing over James and Lily's responses. “I'm already marked, Severus.”
“So am I.”
Remus could see his face in the reflection from Severus's eyes, and looked away. Severus had a spot up on his cheekbone that he kept trying to hide with his hair. The teacher broke the silence. “Are you finished, boys? Class is almost over, you know.”
“One second.” Severus let go of Remus's arm and wrote haven at the bottom of the list, then handed it up to the professor.
“I'll be around, Lupin.” Rosier was calling for Severus from across the room, and Sirius and Peter were coming over. Severus's black hair blended into his robes as he walked away, his fingers all ink stained.
Remus watched Severus leave with the Slytherins. Then he rubbed the word on his palm off against the warm spot on his left arm, and turned to help a distraught Sirius untangle the knots from his hair. When Peter said that he was desperate to leave school, Remus stretched his right hand and smiled.