Fic: The High Cost of Living (21)
Title: The High Cost of Living (21) 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. 1234567891011121314151617181920 Can't get to a chapter? Try here!
It was fortunate that instead of completing his intended task of the washing up Severus had chosen instead to linger in the library, contemplating Andrea De Spirini’s lavish illustrations of her herbal. Had he been in the kitchen he certainly wouldn’t have seen Lupin lose his footing on the ladder, nor would he have been able to get into the room fast enough to stop his fall.
As it was, his wand was out before Lupin was halfway down. Severus lowered him to the ground, then rushed over to assess the situation. ‘What happened? Did you slip? Did you faint?’
‘Dizzy spell,’ Lupin whispered, his disorientation still evident. ‘Bad one.’
‘So I noticed.’ Severus held out his wand again. ‘Here, let me get you to the sofa.’
‘No, no levitation -- makes me queasy.’ He sat up with some effort, pink blotches appearing on the pallor of his cheeks. ‘Just help me slide over there, will you?’ Lupin staggered as if drunk despite Severus supporting him and when they reached the sofa, he slid down like a dead weight. ‘I’ll be fine now, Severus. Just let me rest.’
‘The hell I will.’ He summoned several useful devices and a few bottles of potions to complement them and, ignoring his patient’s protests, administered as complete an exam as he could. On the whole, things appeared normal but Severus did detect a fluttering heartbeat and Lupin’s blood pressure was a little lower than was desirable. He told Lupin of his findings, noting that either of those things would have been enough to cause dizziness, adding ‘And if you honestly think I’m going to leave you alone on this sofa, you’ve gone mad as well. You need medicine and observation.’
He gave a complacent nod. ‘If you insist.’
‘I do.’ Conjuring a cup of chamomile tea, Severus measured out three drops of passion flower extract and two of valerian into the liquid, stirred it well and handed it to Lupin.
‘It could use a little honey,’ he said, sipping at the concoction.
‘You could use a little gratitude,’ Severus shot back. ‘If you’d been on your own, you’d have knocked yourself out at best and more likely cracked open your skull!’
Lupin gave a dismissive wave, jiggling his cup. ‘Caroline would have found me soon enough -- she’ll be in here dusting away before long.’
‘By which time you would have undoubtedly had a massive cerebral haemorrhage and required immediate medical attention, assuming that you weren’t already dead.’
‘Someone’s Polly Positive today,’ Lupin muttered. ‘Any more cheerful scenarios you’d like to suggest? Honestly, Severus, given that I’m looking at wasting away into a useless wreck of a man, a quick and easy demise is a rather attractive option.’
‘Exactly how many times do I need to remind you that you are not going to die as long as I have any say in the matter?’
‘Until I’m not dead when I expect to be, I suppose.’ He leaned forward and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I’m not exactly sure. It’s some kind of pain-relieving trick Daphne taught me; she told me I should do it whenever I felt light-headed or if I thought I felt a headache coming on. Don’t know what it is, but it does something.’
Remembering the voluptuous Daphne, Severus said ‘Will she be returning any time soon? I found her quite charming.’
‘You barely spoke to her!’ Lupin reminded him, laughing. ‘But I imagine you might fancy her just the same. She is awfully pretty, if you like that sort of thing.’ His amusement faded. ‘Is that what’s keeping your interest away from me?’
‘What, full-figured redheads?’ he replied, choosing to evade the question. In truth, the idea had not occurred to him nor did it really appeal to him as he considered it. Women, pleasant as they could be, had too often wanted more out of a relationship than Severus had ever felt it was necessary to give, such as offspring and life-long commitments among other complicated things.
‘No, women. I could understand if maybe you were more inclined that way these days.’
Severus sniffed. ‘It isn’t in my nature to rush off and marry the nearest female of the species just to assuage my own personal demons.’
‘Well, there’s me put in my place.’ Lupin summoned a pillow from the nearest chair, moving forward with caution before propping it behind his back. ‘I was only wondering if perhaps you don’t care for me in the least and are only humouring me until a better option comes along.’
‘I could again point out your own indiscretions, but I’ll confine myself to asking only if you and I would still be here if Sirius Black wasn’t dead.’
‘Not if he had his way, no. If I had mine, on the other hand, I’d find a way to make the two of you behave long enough to keep me quite happy. Surely, there are worse ways to die than exhaustion brought on by excessive sexual activity.’ He managed a salacious expression. ‘At this point in my life, I would have considered myself a fool to let the opportunity slip past no matter what other romantic obligations I had.’
Severus looked down, adjusting the cuffs on his robe to hide any hint of the satisfaction brought by Lupin’s words. ‘What did I tell you about that morbid talk? I have no plans to allow you to die any time soon, whether from sexual exhaustion or other means.’
Lupin grinned. ‘In that case, perhaps I’d better stop putting off that sweater. Hand me my knitting, will you? It’s that bag under the end table -- no, the black one -- that’s it. Thank you.’
Severus watched for a few minutes while Lupin’s needles flicked in and out of the plush yarn. ’Are you ever going to show me how to do that or am I only allowed to watch?’
He paused, surprise clear on his face. ‘You mean you want to learn?’
‘Is there any reason why I shouldn’t?’
‘Well. . .I suppose I just thought knitting would be beneath you, given how you‘ve teased me about it. Too domestic, too feminine, not enough open flame.’
‘Then let us suppose I have come to the conclusion that being able to fashion my own garments would be a useful skill.’ If nothing else it might provide a different sort of employment opportunity should such a need arise, though Severus found it prudent not to mention such an idea.
‘All right, then. What do you want to make?’
Severus hesitated. He hadn’t thought that far into the process. ‘I. . .haven’t the faintest idea.’
‘We’ll start with something simple, then,’ Lupin said, digging around in his bag and pulling out a pair of needles and a ball of black yarn. ‘How about a scarf?’
Severus took the offered goods, handling the long needles with care. ‘These things look like something you could use to stab someone.’
‘I’ve never tried that, but I do hear it works.’ Propping himself up on one hand, Lupin inched into an entirely vertical sitting position. ‘Now, take the end of your yarn and make a loop like this -- now slide that on to the needle in your left hand -- good, good. I’m going to show you how to cast on and start knitting, then you get to take over.’
Severus watched him closely, noting how the needles moved and the direction of the yarn as it was wrapped around. It looked easy, but it felt a lot different when he took over from Lupin. ‘I feel like I’m rowing a boat,’ he complained, glaring down at the ungainly objects in his hands. ‘I look like I am, too. Why don’t I have round ones like you do?’
‘Because I’m out of that size in circulars and that yarn is the only black yarn I have. The yarn goes around the other way, Severus.’
He made it a few more rows before stopping again to frown at the stuff. The yarn was soft enough, but the action itself was going to be hell on his wrists. ‘Is there a spell for this?’
Lupin nodded, clicking away merrily. ‘Of course there is, but that defeats the purpose of doing it oneself as far as I’m concerned.’
‘You do quite a lot of things without magic. Is that how you were raised?’
‘Not really; my mother quite appreciated having my father and me around to make housework easy and put us to work every chance she got! I thought it best to keep my skills about me, though, since I never knew when the Ministry would pass a law banning people like me from using magic altogether. It helps when I need to spend time in the Muggle world as well. I’m always amazed at how many of us can’t manage so much as a cup of tea without a wand handy.’
‘No doubt there’s more than one pureblood around these days wishing they’d bothered to learn some manual skills.’ Severus felt little sympathy for his fellow outcasts who had enjoyed lives of complete luxury before their crimes caught up to them. Being able to pay someone to care for you was no reason not to learn to do it yourself, after all. As for this knitting thing, though. . . . ‘So the spell for this. What is it?’
Lupin showed no signs of any physical distress the following day, though Severus had insisted he have a cup of herbal tea in place of his usual coffee and made him promise to abstain from any intense physical activity for the day.
‘I’d make a joke about that, but it’s too easy.’ He grinned, giving Severus a rather saucy wink. ‘I’ll tell you what I would like to do, though.’
‘And what is that?’ Severus asked around the remains of his toast.
‘I want to do some baking. It’s almost Christmas, you know, and that means food. Well, come on! We have cookbooks to go through and staring at that plate isn’t going to make more bacon appear.’
‘You do think I’m putting on weight, don’t you?’ Severus asked him, frowning.
‘You say that like it’s a bad thing,’ Lupin replied, handing him a stack of books. ‘Take the one on the top, will you? If anyone can decipher my Gran’s writing, it’s probably you.’
As it turned out Lupin was right, and Severus managed to translate her recipe for tea cakes and get halfway through something called “Nanaimo Bars” before the morning was over. ‘Aha -- I think I’ve figured out the problem you’ve been having with this,’ he called over to Lupin, who was going through the post. ‘It says “pour ingredients over” not “flour ingredients over”.’ Picking up his quill, he scribbled the corrections on the parchment by the book.
His attention captured by a letter, Lupin made an absentminded sound of agreement. ‘Were you expecting anything from the Ministry, Severus?’
His hand stilled. ‘No. I was not.’
‘They’ve sent something. It’s from the Department of War Survivors.’
Severus turned back to his writing. ‘You open it.’ He copied the writing on the page before him automatically, trying to fight off the feeling in his stomach that threatened to undo his hearty breakfast. It would certainly be impolite to vomit atop of Lupin’s grandmother’s recipes, after all.
‘Are you sure?’ At his assent, Lupin tore open the rectangle of parchment, scanning its contents with a quick eye. ‘They want you to come in this afternoon, but they won’t say why. I’m to appear as well, it seems.’
He set down his quill to keep Lupin from noticing that his hand was shaking. ‘You can’t possibly think there could be that many reasons, can you? Either they want to imprison me or it’s to do with my time at Ella’s.’ No matter what it was, Severus was certain things did not bode well.
‘This particular department of the Ministry is too used to getting what they want from people without much of a fight,’ Lupin said, his voice cold and his shoulders stiff. Turning toward Severus, he tossed the missive in the bin with an offhand gesture. ‘I suggest we make them work a little harder.’
Severus didn’t recognise the stout wizard behind the ornate desk, nor did he recognise the thin-lipped witch sat beside him, but Lupin appeared to be familiar with them. He gave them each a curt nod as they entered the room but extended no other greeting.
Lupin took one of the wing chairs opposite the oak desk without invitation and gestured to Severus to do the same. ‘Dalgliesh, Margaret -- care to tell me why my afternoon has been interrupted?’
The florid-faced Dalgliesh attempted to look jolly. ‘Well, it’s nothing personal, Remus, you know that.’
‘Actually, I know nothing of the sort. First you send those investigators of yours sniffing around my house and my staff, and now you call me in while refusing to reveal your intention. Very pre-war sort of behaviour, wouldn’t you say? I thought the Ministry was all about transparency and honesty these days.’
Severus watched as Dalgliesh turned a less healthy shade of pink and Margaret’s lips thinned almost to the point of disappearing. He found their growing discomfort quite an enjoyable thing to witness.
‘It’s less to do with you and more to do with your, er. . . .’ He shuffled some papers, peering at them over his glasses. ‘Potions-maker. I understand he is considered a war criminal?’
‘Who not only has a name, but who is in this very room with us now,’ Lupin reminded him. ‘Dalgliesh McMurray, Margaret Reed, meet Severus Snape.’
He mumbled, she frowned and Severus smirked. It was amusing to be able to discombobulate people simply by being present and he was beginning to think that Lupin’s plan to do most of the talking would in fact turn out to be rather entertaining.
‘Indeed. Well now, as I was saying, your potions-maker being a war criminal and all, he falls under our purview as far as the scope of his freedoms.’
‘Under their purview. Did you hear that, Severus?’
Margaret spoke up in a reedy voice. ‘Which means we can decide whether or not he is abiding by the terms set down by the court. I understand that he is assisting you with the creation of potions in exchange for room and board, Mr Lupin?’ Something about her demeanour reminded Severus of a stick insect version of the unlamented Dolores Umbridge. If this Ministry lackey hoped to make him feel uncomfortable or upset by ignoring him, her efforts were to go unrewarded; he’d managed far worse.
‘Severus, is that what you do for me? Yes?’ He turned back to his questioners. ‘It is what he does, yes.’
She wrote something down on a piece of parchment. ‘And the goal of this is what? Personal use, business purposes, or another reason?’
‘A combination of personal use and business potential, actually.’ Lupin leaned back in the chair, tossing a casual arm behind his head. ‘You see, I want the best potions one can have so naturally I brought in the best potions-maker. Severus makes all my own potions and in addition to those, he’s developing some for the pharmacognostic group I hope to assemble. Strictly proprietary formulas, of course.’
Quill at the ready, Margaret peered at Lupin. ‘Anything else?’
‘Sometimes we play card games,’ Severus offered, earning a snicker from Lupin and a glare from Margaret.
‘But you are not financially reimbursed?’
‘Not financially, no.’ Though Severus was compensated personally, emotionally and, on rare occasions, physically, it was honest of him to say he was not being paid.
‘And before this, you made potions for Ella Queen at her, er, establishment?’ Dalgliesh cleared his throat in a most nervous manner while Margaret‘s cheeks pinked.
Severus wondered if the man was perhaps a little more familiar with the place than he would be inclined to let on. ‘That is correct.’ He had, after all, made potions when time and necessity allowed.
‘And for this, you again received no wages?’
‘That is also correct.’
She added more to her notes, pausing now and again to eye him with a curious expression.
‘Well now, Remus.’ Dalgliesh folded his beefy hands across his generous chest. ‘I hate to deprive you of your superior potions, but the Ministry has needs as well. We also supply potions to werewolves free of charge, you know.’
‘Forgive me for being blunt, Dalgliesh, but those potions are crap.’
‘Not for long. You see, as Mr Snape’s continued freedom is more or less at the discretion of this department, as is that of all war criminals, we have the choice to decide how his talents are best put to use.’
Severus exchanged an uncomfortable look with Lupin. He did not care for the direction this seemed to be going.
‘Which means what, exactly?’
‘Well, that we intend to have him placed in the Ministry’s potions-making facility to serve out the remaining term of his restricted employability.’
Only years of self-restraint and a desire to see how Lupin would react kept Severus from experiencing either a profound loss of temper or a partial attack of nervous vomiting. As it was, he felt like engaging in the latter swiftly followed by the former and the sheer audacity of the demand left him longing to pull out his wand and show off a few of the spells the Ministry hadn’t thought to inhibit.
‘Did I or did I not just tell you that he is currently engaged in the creation of proprietary formulas?’ Had Lupin’s tone been any icier, the tea in Margaret’s cup would have frozen over.
‘Indeed you did, indeed you did. . .but Ministry rules allow for this sort of action under these circumstances, unless of course you have a contract. Removal is prevented in the event that a written agreement requires fulfilment, after all.’
Lupin glanced at Severus, and though his use of Legilimency might be restricted the meaning was so clear he could read it off Lupin’s face with no magical assistance. The contract Lupin had might be in ashes now, but Ella never met a piece of paperwork she didn’t like and Severus was certain that if one copy existed, that meant there were at least two more. He moved his head in an imperceptible nod.
‘As a matter of fact, we do have a contract.’
‘Well now, that does change everything!’ Dalgliesh’s voice was even but his faint frown belied his feelings. ‘I don’t suppose you’d happen to have it on hand?’
‘It’s in my solicitor’s vault, actually,’ Lupin told him, all confidence and calm. ‘However, she is out of town through the weekend, so gaining access will be all but impossible. Shall we say next week, maybe Tuesday? I’m afraid that’s the earliest I can manage.’
‘Tuesday it is, then,’ he agreed, rising to shake Lupin’s hand. ‘Until we meet again, gentlemen.’
Lupin’s unease became evident as soon as they left the Ministry. Back out on the Muggle streets, his first course of action was to proceed to the nearest tobacconist and purchase a pack of cigarettes, after which he stood outside and lit one.
‘I thought you said you quit that years ago.’
Lupin coughed. ‘I did.’
‘And it isn’t the smartest thing to do, given your health.’ Severus waited for a moment, then asked ‘Well? Are you going to give me one or not?’
Lupin lit a second cigarette off his and handed it to Severus. ‘They’re vile.’
‘I shall consider myself warned.’ He took a drag, matching Lupin cough for cough before he’d even finished inhaling. Lupin was right; they were absolutely horrid. ‘I think they’re stale.’
‘They’ll do.’ Lupin smoked half the cigarette, coughing intermittently, before saying anything else. ‘I am not going to let them take you.’
‘I appreciate your concern.’ Not wanting to discuss the matter, Severus concentrated on smoking. The motions of handling the cigarette were familiar and soothing to his strained nerves. If Severus picked up the habit again, he would know where to place the blame.
‘There’s no contract, Severus.’
‘You don’t know Ella. She makes copies of copies; I know she made at least two of the one I signed with her just for her own records. Even if she only has her own copy of the one you and she wrote up, I don’t doubt that she’ll be happy to make another if you ask her.’ What it would say remained to be seen, and that troubled him.
Lupin tossed the rest of the pack into the nearest bin. ‘Come on, then.’
Severus balked. ‘We aren’t going there, are we?’ The idea of returning, even if only to talk to Ella, ignited a silent spark of dread inside him.
‘No, just to Diagon Alley. I’ll send her an owl and if we’re lucky, that contract will be waiting for us by the time we get home.’