julesnoctambule (julesnoctambule) wrote in lupin_snape, @ 2008-06-02 21:27:00 |
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Current music: | Magnolia Electric Co., 'Nashville Moon' |
Fic: The High Cost of Living (15)
Title: The High Cost of Living (15)
Author: Jules Noctambule (werewolf_lib)
Rating: Hard R/soft NC-17 for sexual situations, language and referenced violence.
Pairing(s): Lupin/Snape, past Lupin/Black & Lupin/Tonks, Snape/others
Summary: After the war ends, a disgraced Snape turns to the world's oldest profession to make ends meet.
Disclaimer: If I owned them, the books wouldn't be suitable for children.
Warnings: Prostitution and some of the associated risks.
Notes: Written pre-DH, but I got a few things right so there are some minor spoilers.
Link to Part 1
Link to Part 2
Link to Part 3
Link to Part 4
Link to Part 5
Link to Part 6
Link to Part 7
Link to Part 8
Link to Part 9
Link to Part 10
Link to Part 11
Link to Part 12
Link to Part 13
Link to Part 14
*If you can't access some of the chapters on LiveJournal, just go to my journal here!*
Thanks to attic_plan for the beta! All remaining errors are either me being lazy or stubborn.
Lupin was halfway through breakfast when Severus arrived downstairs, his head muzzy and his mood sour.
‘Rather a nasty little trick you played on me, don’t you think?’
‘And a good morning to you, Severus!’ He pointed toward the kitchen with a corner of toast, then reached down to brush the crumbs from the lapel of the Muggle business suit he wore. ‘There’s a fresh pot of coffee on if you’d like a cup or three.’
It took effort, but Severus was able to resist the rich, tempting aroma of the coffee and keep the sneer on his face. ‘Go on, keep playing the indulgent host instead of owning up to being the trickster you are.’
‘I really don’t know what you mean,’ Lupin replied, looking puzzled. ‘Are you suggesting that I’ve somehow misrepresented the terms of your work?’
‘Or trapped me into it outright! If you hadn’t bought the contract, I’d not have had to worry about money. If I wasn’t worried about money, there was no way for you to be sure I’d take you up on your oh-so-convenient offer.’ Severus leaned against the counter, his arms folded in stiff formation across his chest. ‘You knew I’d never agree to either action unless I was in a corner.’
Lupin gave a small laugh and sat back in his chair, grinning in a most irritating fashion. ‘If you’d waited a moment longer before stomping off in a huff, you’d have discovered that I was prepared to make the same offer then. I only did it after I found you because you left me no choice.’
‘I did not stomp off in a huff! I left, as any person with an ounce of self-respect would have done under the circumstances.’
‘If you say so. Honestly, Severus -- would you have preferred that I left you out there to go hungry? Sarcasm might satisfy your emotional needs but it doesn’t fill the belly.’
‘I had planned to find work in the Muggle world,’ he returned in a sharp voice. ‘I’m not entirely devoid of manual skills, you know.’
Lupin looked as if he were about to comment on that, but he held his tongue. ‘And the Ministry would have found you out sooner or later, yet now you don’t have to worry about them. Accept that you have very little to get angry about, Severus, and do what you do best -- aside from biting off my head, of course. Speaking of work, if you’ll excuse me, I’m almost late for a meeting.’ He pulled some papers from his jacket pocket and handed them to Severus. ‘Take these. I’ll get back late if I manage to leave the office at all tonight, so make yourself at home. And just relax, will you? I have enough to worry about without you trying to turn every nice gesture into some kind of conspiracy.’
Severus waited until he was quite sure Lupin had gone before thirstily downing a cup of coffee and examining what he’d been given. Much to his surprise and satisfaction, he found the papers were documents allowing him access to Lupin’s accounts at the apothecary’s as well as several other businesses. On a scrap of parchment clipped to the corner of an envelope was written Buy yourself what you like, and inside was a small stack of Galleons.
It occurred to him that he didn’t have any of his belongings aside from what he’d brought when he last left Ella’s. There had been little there he cared for, but just the same, Severus wondered if it would be returned to him. In the meantime, as he had little to wear and even less to keep him occupied, he decided to accept Lupin’s generous offer. If the man was in a position to waste money on him, who was he to object? Documents in hand, he again Apparated to Market Close in entirely opposite circumstances from his last visit.
Using the same glamour he’d put on when he’d first come to the wizarding village with Lupin, Severus made his way from shop to shop full of a most curious sense of anticipation. Even when he was living at Hogwarts with almost no expenses, he’d never felt able to be free with money. There was always the what-if, always the feeling that every coin should be saved away just in case, always the same worry he’d had since childhood.
‘Fat lot of good that did me,’ he muttered under his breath, causing a nearby shop assistant to turn and ask if he would care to see those boots in a particular size. Without hesitation, Severus said that he did.
Two new pairs of shoes, one set of robes and a new coat later, all courtesy of Lupin’s account at Billecarte tailors, Severus decided some lunch was in order if he was to keep shopping at this pace. Finding that none of the chic eateries in the area did any takeaway, he headed once more to Diagon Alley.
There, fortified by a curried chicken pastie and a pint, Severus found himself ready to take on that most worthy of opponents, the bookshop. From the moment he pushed open the door and breathed in the scent of the books, he knew the coins in his pocket were as good as gone. While most children saved their pocket money for sweets and trinkets, Severus had saved his for books. They were doorways to worlds he never imagined he’d be able to see and tellers of tales most enrapturing, all of which had been better than the life outside his bedroom door.
As he grew older, the love affair hadn’t waned, though he had moved on to more adult diversions such as weighty, scientific tomes and lavishly illustrated herbals. He went straight to his favourite section of the shop as if by instinct, sliding his hands over the spines of the books as if greeting a loved one. Lupin may have rescued his existing collection and even added a few choice volumes to it but oh, there were so many, many more. . . .
After half an hour, he no longer refused the clerk’s offer of a basket. After an hour, Severus accepted that there were really only so many books a man could expect to read in his lifetime as well as only so many loads the delivery owls could be expected to transport in a day and resigned himself to choosing only a small stack. He did augment those with a nice selection of all the latest potions journals as well as any back issues that remained in stock. If he was going to be back in the field, even tangentially, he would do well to keep up with any and all innovations.
From there, the natural destination was the apothecary. Severus lingered over the different ingredients, admiring the selection of several grades of Papaver extracts, the many varieties of verbena and the city’s best collection of dragon eggshells. New on the shelves this week were a set of top of the line, expertly calibrated scales and a set of handmade French glass containers. Severus thought he might have one of each.
When he presented the letter stating that he had full permission to access Lupin’s account to the cheerful witch on the other side of the counter, she asked ’Will you be wanting to pick up Mr Lupin’s prescription as well today, sir?’
He hesitated. The medicine intrigued him, naturally, but was Lupin’s health not his own concern? Then again, Lupin had made Severus’ circumstances his business. . . . ‘Yes, if you please.’
Outside the shop he removed a single pill from the bottle, placing it in his pocket before closing the container and returning it to its packaging. It would be easier to analyse the components of the medicine in his workroom than it would be to ask Lupin anything, after all.
Remembering the coffee shop down what used to be Knockturn Alley, Severus made his way there in the hopes that it would prove blissfully empty of people under the age of twenty. It did not, but it did happen to offer something that distracted him from the herds of children.
Alone at a corner table, sipping something steaming, was Lupin.
Making his way over to the man, Severus stood behind him. ‘How nice you see you so hard at work.’
He turned around, frowning, though the confusion only lasted a moment. ‘You’d do well not to wear the things I buy you when you want to keep me guessing, you know,’ Lupin told him, gesturing to the empty chair opposite his. ‘That fabric was only available by special order.’
He sat, only a little disappointed. ‘I thought you were expecting a hard day at the office.’
‘Yes, so was I. Lucky for me, one of the delegates from Croatia was delayed by weather and Milner said I might as well go home early. I’m not complaining, of course, as I could do with a bit of rest.’
He had to agree. The man looked exhausted; there were dark circles under his eyes Severus would swear hadn’t been there this morning and his usually bright complexion looked greyish. ‘Are you not feeling well?’
‘Just tired,’ he said, motioning to his coffee. ‘Not that this is doing much to help. I take it you’ve been out, buying nice things for yourself?’
He nodded, reaching into his pocket for the prescription. ‘I picked this up for you, by the way.’ Severus handed the bag to Lupin, who took it with a dry laugh.
‘And what did Margaret tell you about it?’
‘Absolutely nothing, as I didn’t ask.’
He gave Severus a look of disbelief. ‘Nothing? Not even one tiny question?’
‘Not a one.’ The lone pill he’d removed would tell him almost everything he needed to know with the possible exception of why.
‘How very unlike you.’
‘Perhaps you don’t know me as well as you think you do.’
‘Or perhaps you have yet another trick up your sleeve, Severus. Thank you for getting my medicine just the same. Now, tell me about the rest of the things you bought.’
Severus shrugged. ‘Books, clothes; nothing spectacular, just things to replace the goods I left behind.’
‘I didn’t forget those, you know. They should be at the house when you get back.’
‘You planned this, didn’t you? For how long?’
‘Since I knew where you were,’ Lupin admitted, giving him an inscrutable look. ‘Ella knew all along who I was, you know. I never mislead her about my intention.’
‘Which was to purchase me like a fashionable toy?’ Severus hissed under his breath. Loud though the shop might be, he didn’t care to be overheard by anyone.
‘Which was to make sure you didn’t do yourself in with your pride. You might not know it, but she wouldn’t let just anyone see you as a client and she certainly wouldn’t have let just anyone buy your contract.’
So how did you manage it? Money, I suppose.’
‘A letter from Minerva helped, too.’
Anger rose in him, tempered with more than a little shame. Of all the secrets he would prefer to keep, this was very close to the top of the list. ‘You told her? How could you?’
‘I didn’t, not the whole story. Honestly, do you really think I’d say something like that to Minerva? It would be like cursing in front of my grandmother. I told her you were making potions, which you were, even if only sometimes.’
Severus’ ire subsided. ‘Fair enough. So what did it say, this letter of hers?’
‘That you and I are in fact friends and that I had only the most honourable of intentions.’
Thinking of the intoxicated night that had led to a moment far beyond friendship, Severus pursed his lips and said nothing.
‘I only ever wanted you to be free to do as you please. As far as anything else, well. . .that will be up to you. Anyway, I’m exhausted. Are you planning to keep shopping or would you care to ride back to the house with me?’
‘I’ll go with you.’ He watched Lupin finish his coffee, noting that the occasional tremble in his hands had returned. If he was ill -- and Severus would almost certainly wager that Lupin was -- he hid it rather well. He hoped the little pill in his pocket would tell him more of the story.
Back at the house, Lupin went to his room for a nap while Severus closed himself up in his workroom to begin analysis of the medicine. He first ground it into a fine powder, then spooned the powder into his cauldron and added enough fresh water to cover it before lighting the flames beneath and beginning his incantation. As the steam rose, so did a ghostlike shape of everything used in the pill.
Monkshood, hawthorn, phoenix down, lobelia, silver poppy, foxglove, mullein, devil’s claw -- nothing like the ingredients he would expect to find in a headache remedy, simple or otherwise. No, this was something else entirely, and Severus didn’t much care for what the combination of ingredients implied.
A quick check of his most thorough herbals indicated nothing to make him think that the concoction was meant as a restorative for werewolves, but then again, there was nothing to contraindicate the possibility, either. It wasn’t a widely examined field of healing, to be truthful, but could be a lucrative one and there was always the chance that this pill was a recent innovation, another in the line of treatments promising everything from a cure to simple relief. He would have to keep a closer eye on Lupin.
Only moments after he’d finished cleaning his cauldron, a light knock came at the door.
Expecting Lupin, he opened it but found instead that it was the housekeeper, bearing a box.
She handed to him, smiling. ‘This came for you, sir.’
It was surely his things from Ella’s, arriving just as Lupin had promised. He took it, then remembered his manners and asked how she was doing.
‘Oh, fine as usual, thank you for asking! And yourself?’
‘As well as can be expected.’
‘Remus tells me you’re to be staying with us for a while now, making potions.’
About to excuse himself, Severus had another idea. ‘Yes, I am. Tell me -- do you take the same medicine that he does?’
‘You mean those pills of his?’ Caroline shook her head, making her greying curls bounce beneath her headscarf. ‘Oh no, not me; I’m lucky enough not to need them. All the pain in my joints comes from years of perfecting my polishing! Do you think perhaps I ought to, just in case?’
Joint pain sounded somehow familiar and it certainly could be treated by a few of the ingredients. ‘No, I’m sure you’ll be fine as you are,’ Severus assured her, trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about. He thanked her and went back to his workroom, chasing an idea.
In a decently recent issue of Everyday Potions, he found the article on werewolves and early-onset arthritis. A few of the symptoms fit, but the recommended treatment wasn’t much more than the standard for any arthritis. Closing the magazine with a sigh, Severus set about the task of unpacking.
There wasn’t much in the box, just the few personal items he’d kept with him there. Clothes, a few books that were almost all gifts from Lupin, his French press, a toothbrush and a few vials of his headache potion. He’d had plenty of lives that had left him with even fewer reminders than this, not that Severus was ever able to forget any of them. Student, fool, spy, teacher, whore. . .and now what?