pikkalam_sri (pikkalam_sri) wrote in lupin_snape, @ 2008-09-02 01:16:00 |
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Current mood: | exhausted |
Entry tags: | fic: pg13, fic: r, prompt: fantasy fest 08 |
Fantasy Fest Fic: Without Drug or Herb, 2 of 3 (PG-13)
Title: Without Drug or Herb
Rating: PG-13/R-ish, if you squint
Pairing: Severus Snape/Remus Lupin
Challenge: Fantasy Fest 2008
Warnings: Unbeta'd
Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling/her publishers. No infringement is intended and no money is being made.
Prompt: Long fic prompt #11 - Remus has a rare side-effect of long term lyncanthropy that isn't well documented and Snape finds out, and wants to use Remus has a lab rat. Remus uses it as his opportunity to get closer to his crush, oblivious!Snape a plus, happy end, 18+
Summary: “I will show you a love potion without drug or herb, or any witch's spell. If you wish to be loved, love.”
A/N: Firstly, I am made of EPIC FAIL and am not quite finished. The final installment will be short and will arrive soon! Secondly, heartfelt 'thanks' to hogwarts_today for selecting my wee little fic for Editor's Pick, and to whomever is responsible for alerting them of its existence. I heart this fandom.
--
Nightfall found Severus hunched in his father’s favorite armchair, puffing a cigarette and staring into the blazing fire. His grand experiment, failed. His chance at reclaiming his reputation, ruined. If he were the kind of person to numb himself with alcohol, this would have been the time.
In his earlier haste, he had let textbook after textbook fall where they may. The floor of his sitting room was a peculiar battlefield, littered with open tomes like fallen bodies. Here, a torn cover. There, a spine that was clearly broken. A black stain was seeping into the pages of the book nearest his left foot – he had dropped it next to his overturned inkpot. He felt a twinge of remorse for his literary comrades. None of them deserved this debasement. The fault was entirely Severus’.
He had been blinded by the novelty of the
Closing his eyes for even a moment allowed his photographic memory to taunt him with the damning passages.
Also known as “squaw root,” rattle root has an estrogenic effect.
Solomon’s seal, a potent aphrodisiac, is one of the eight root herbs used to treat infertility.
Try arimony to embolden the long-suffering man to express himself.
The synergistic effects of the first two explained Lupin’s dilated pupils, increased heart rate and labored breathing in Severus’ presence. This is turn reversed agrimony’s effect, as Lupin’s natural tendencies were supplanted by induced attraction. Even the known entity, wood betony, had betrayed him.
European wizards use wood betony as a simple nervine, but in Indian Love Medicine it takes on a different connotation. A man will carry these snapdragon blooms with him when visiting the one he admires, to make his intentions known.
Somehow, quite by accident, Severus had brewed a love potion.
With a sigh, he banished the butt of the cigarette and rose. There was no point in this petty sulking. He repaired the damaged books and banished the refuse of quills, scraps of parchment, and spilt ink. When the room was once again tidy, he set about cleaning up the even bigger mess – Lupin.
The restoratives were meant to linger in the werewolf’s system long after Wolfsbane had been metabolized. However, their effects should gradually fade to trace amounts around Lupin’s next transformation. Severus would put Lupin back on standard Wolfsbane, and by the morning after the full Lupin should be able to throw off the last effects of the love potion. But there was no sense in delaying the inevitable.
Pulling the tattered shreds of his dignity around him like a cloak, he fire called Lupin.
“Severus! What a delightful surprise.” Lupin’s face beamed at him from the flames.
“Lupin. There’s something we need to discuss.”
“Of course. Please, come through.”
Severus hesitated for moment, before reaching for the Floo powder. Best to do this in person – people under the effects of a love potion could be extremely volatile. In a moment he was bumping his head against Lupin’s low mantelpiece.
“So sorry,” Lupin said, reaching forward to help Severus out of the fireplace. “I keep meaning to have that raised.”
He tolerated Lupin’s hand on his elbow for a moment, before disengaging himself. This was not the first time he had been in Lupin’s home, but he took a moment to look around. Lupin’s modest flat was filled with bookshelves and worn furniture – much like Severus’ house on Spinner’s End. The key difference was that Lupin’s walls were lined with a multitude of wizarding photographs. They depicted everything from Molly and Arthur Weasley’s anniversary party to a group shot of Lupin’s NEWTs level DADA class. Severus’ own walls were filled with empty landscapes.
“Lupin,” Severus adjusted a framed picture of Lily and Lupin as sixth years, trying to collect his thoughts.
“If this is about what happened this afternoon, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to distress you.”
“I was not distressed,” Severus sneered.
“Oh? Good.” Lupin motioned for Severus to take a seat on the couch, and then settled next to him. “What did you want to talk about?”
“The Wolfsbane variant, of course. There has been a complication –”
“I’m happy to try a new formulation,” Lupin said, propping his elbow beside Severus’ shoulder and leaning his head on his hand. His expression was almost … fond.
“You misunderstand me. I am discontinuing the experiment,” Severus began, only to be startled into silence when Lupin extended his arm across the back of the couch.
“Come on, Severus. You’re the preeminent potions master of our time, you’ll figure something out.”
“Hmph.” It was absurd, but Severus could feel color rising to his face.
“Was that the only reason you came over?”
Lupin’s tone was curious, with a hint of desire. No had ever spoken to Severus in such a tone – well, who would? It was humiliating, but he found himself unable to protest as Lupin inched closer.
“Severus…” Lupin murmured, lips barely brushing Severus’ as he spoke.
“Stop –”
It was too little, too late. Lupin’s mouth, warm and slightly parted, descended. Severus could feel the flush of his face spreading through his head and neck as Lupin coaxed him to respond. Several minutes later, it took the feeling of Lupin’s strong hand clasping his knee to jolt Severus back into awareness.
Grabbing two handfuls of Lupin’s threadbare shirt, Severus pushed the werewolf away. He was distracted from an angry retort by the hungry look on Lupin’s face. Suddenly he realized that, if he allowed it, Lupin would take him to bed tonight.
“Let me up,” he commanded.
Lupin chuckled and gently tugged Severus’ hands off his shirt. He then stood and offered Severus his hand to rise from the couch. Batting him away, Severus stood and needlessly smoothed his robes.
“Can we– can I see you again?”
No. Leave me alone. “You’re free to do as you wish.”
“Wonderful,” Lupin smiled widely. He led the way to the fire place and chivalrously called up Severus’ destination. Just as Severus was ducking into the green flames, Lupin tugged him back for a long, smoldering kiss. A moment later, the Floo spat Severus back out onto his own hearth rug.
Severus sat there for a moment, his mind still awhirl. He brought a hand to his mouth to feel how tender his lips had become. He clenched that hand into a fist.
He had an antidote to brew.
--
“Dammit!”
Severus watched helplessly as the liquid in his cauldron turn into a black, frothy mess. Again. Barely restraining himself from throwing the whole apparatus across the room, he banished the dregs and slumped at his workbench.
Try as he might, he could not isolate the love potion. If he could not isolate it, he could not brew an antidote. If he had no antidote, there was no way of escaping…
“Severus? Are you down here?” Lupin’s scuffed shoes came into view on the basement steps, along with the cuffs of his patched trousers.
Severus leapt to his feet, flapping his arms to dispel the lingering potions fumes. “What do you want?”
“Oh, any number of things.” Lupin descended until the last stair, so that they were eye-to-eye. “World peace, a cure for lycanthropy … you, dipped in chocolate.”
“Do not say such obscene things.”
“My apologies,” Lupin replied, not sounding sorry at all. “What are you working on?”
“Nothing of consequence.” Severus tried to sound flippant. He shifted so that his body blocked Lupin’s view of the still-smoking cauldron.
“Then you won’t mind the interruption.” Lupin took hold of Severus’ wrist and tugged him up the stairs.
Lupin had thrown open the curtains, flooding the sitting room with sunlight. Severus blinked rapidly, trying to adjust. When he could see again, Lupin was standing directly in front of him, holding a small box wrapped in dark blue paper.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing of consequence,” Lupin pressed the box into his hands. “Open it.”
Seeing little alternative, Severus complied. Inside the box lay a metal disk, about the size of his palm. When Severus picked it up, a circular hand mirror swiveled out.
“Two-way mirror. I’ve got the other one,” Lupin explained. “In case you ever need to contact me.”
“I am capable of placing a fire call, or sending a patronus in an emergency – why would I ever need a thing like this?”
“I don’t know,” Lupin plucked the mirror from his hands and began to fiddle with it, swinging it in and out of its metal case. “Maybe, late at night, when you’re in bed and you want me to –”
“Lupin!”
“– tuck you in.” Lupin smiled innocently.
Severus snatched the mirror back and shoved it into his pocket. He turned to go back downstairs, but Lupin seized him from behind. Trapped by Lupin’s superior strength, he grudgingly permitted himself to be manhandled.
“Or,” Lupin continued in a low growl. “If you’re laying there, briefs around your ankles, you can call me to come over and...” At his whispered suggestion, Severus began struggling to get free.
“Get a hold of yourself,” Severus said, wincing at the unintentional innuendo. “I mean, get off! No, I – blood well let go.”
Lupin’s arms around his waist went slack, but did not release him entirely. “Severus, it’s been months – months of this cat-and-mouse, of late-night conversations and those maddening physical exams. Are you saying you … don’t want this?”
“Of course I –” don’t. I don’t want this. The words caught in his throat. He turned slowly in the loose circle of Lupin’s arms.
“What do you want?” Lupin’s face was earnest and handsome in the sunlight.
He wanted out of this ludicrous situation. He wanted the Wolfsbane variant to work as it should. He wanted a time-turner, so he could undo all the damage he had done. He wanted the cautious friendship he had built with Lupin to be salvaged from the wreckage of this thrice-damned experiment. He wanted Lupin to come to him, to say all these things without a love potion addling his mind.
He wanted.
Lunging forward, he caught Lupin’s mouth in a bruising kiss. Lupin allowed this for a moment, before pressing his weight advantage and driving Severus backward. In the span of one gasping breath, Lupin had him pressed against the bookcase, his hands roaming everywhere.
“Been waiting…too long!” Lupin mumbled against Severus’ collarbone.
“Careful, idiot.” Severus fisted a hand in Lupin’s shaggy hair. “Some of these books are cursed.”
The only response he received was a vague nod, as Lupin opened the long row of buttons down the front of Severus’ robe. When he was bared to the waist, Lupin bent to run his nose from Severus’ navel to his nape, inhaling deeply. He let out a low sound, animalistic and incredibly erotic. Severus felt his knees give, just a little.
“Mmm, Severus … I just can’t – can’t seem to control myself.” Lupin licked behind Severus’ ear and tucked the fingers of Severus’ right hand into his belt buckle.
He could do it. The new potion was completely undetectable. With regular doses every month, even Lupin would never know. They could – it would be –
“No. Not today, I’m afraid.”
“Huh?” Lupin blinked stupidly. Severus was sickened to realize that he found it endearing.
“I have an appointment.” Stepping out of Lupin’s grasp, he redid the buttons of his robe. The more distance he put between them, the safer he felt. Soon he was watching Lupin warily from halfway across the room.
“Wh– when will I see you?” Lupin took a tentative step towards him.
“I’ll be away for –” twenty five days, seven hours and approximately thirty minutes until the next full moon “– a few weeks.”
“Weeks?”
“I may have to Owl your next dose of Wolfsbane to you.” Draco would shelter him, no questions asked. The little twerp owed him that much.
“Severus, what is going on?”
“It may shock you to know, Lupin, that my world does not revolve around you and your libido.”
The words had their intended effect. Lupin looked stunned, and hurt. He opened his mouth as if to say something, only to close it again. With one last angry look, he disapparated.
As soon as he was gone, Severus reconfigured the wards keep him out, and then collapsed against a nearby wall. It could be a matter of hours or mere minutes before the love potion reasserted itself and Lupin would be compelled to come again. Either way, he didn’t have much time to gather clothes and prepare the essential Wolfsbane ingredients for transport.
There would be plenty of time later to worry over Lupin, and what he must be feeling. He had the rest of his life for regrets. Severus hurried upstairs to start packing.