Author:bonfoi Rating: PG-13 Pairing: Remus Lupin/Severus Snape Summary: This story takes place in an alternate reality where Remus’ spine is a bit stiffer, Severus’ heart a bit tender, and they see something about the other that makes it worthwhile. Challenge: lupin_snape RetroFest 2009, Prompt #6 (see Part One for full prompt). Word Count: Part Three: 2,011 Genre: Alternate Reality; Romance; Angst; Humor Warnings: None Highlight for Warnings: * None * A/N: I wondered how Remus made contact with the werewolf clans, how Severus and Harry might interact when one of them wasn’t angry, and, now…I hope that I met the requirements of the prompt with what the Prompter needed, besides the Snupin Love! The speculations used are listed at the end of the fic.
Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter, its characters and settings are the copyrighted works of J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., her publishing companies and affiliates. No profit was made from the writing of this story nor was any malice intended in any way, shape or form to the author or the actors/actresses who so brilliantly have brought them to life.
This author is not responsible for underage readers. Please observe the ratings, warnings, and age of legal consent for your country.
The second time Remus appeared with information Harry was waiting by the door. He dragged the lycanthrope to the Library and slammed the doors behind them. He hugged Lupin and spoke directly into his waistcoat, “Are you all right? You aren’t bleeding anywhere, are you? You seem better than before!”
Smiling, Remus pushed him away slightly. “I need to breathe, Harry! I’m fine, now,” he laughed. “C’mon, sit down. Tell me the news.” They talked for half-an-hour until a knock on the door interrupted them. Tonks threw the door open with a flourish that had it bouncing back at her.
“Remus!” she cried. It was only by luck that Lupin didn’t end up with a lapful of Auror. “I was so worried. Come and get something to eat. You can sit by me.” She simpered and held out her hand, wriggling fingers that didn’t quite fit on it. Remus’ nose scrunched up and he stared at her, hard.
“Harry and I will be there in a bit, Tonks. We’ve got a few more things to talk about.” Lupin let his wand drop into his hand and he pushed her from the room with a soft spell. Harry was casting a few spells as well and the doors disappeared. “Well, well, young man. What have you been studying while I’m away?” he joked. They spent another twenty minutes talking about Harry’s research in the Black Library—with Hermione’s help, of course—and then the doors reappeared. “Looks like we have to go, Harry,” he said with a sad quirk to his lips.
“I’m glad you came tonight, Remus. I’m not a kid, not really, anymore, but…it helps, you know?” Harry ducked his head and then spun on his heel to open the doors. “I’ll tell them to serve, yeah?” he yelled as he sped down the hall.
Looking into the space Harry had so recently occupied, Lupin’s mouth watered as the homey smells of well-made food assaulted his nose. He didn’t miss the scent of someone in the hall either as he left the Library. He grinned at the thought of being watched over by Severus Snape. As he walked past a dark shadow in the wall, he paused. “Thank you, Severus. I appreciate it.” He got a low snarl in response.
Ω•≡•Ω♦Ω•≡•Ω♦
“Shnapesy…widdle Shnape…why don’ you wike me?” Bellatrix Lestrange should never drink. Never, ever! “I wash wond’rin’ if wose wips tas’e good…” she mumbled against his throat as she passed out. Severus had never been so glad of anything in his life!
He laid her down on the latest gift, a blood-spattered Persian rug with embroidered bats flying around its perimeter. He wrinkled his nose at the poke about the ‘Greasy Bat of the Dungeon’ in wool. “Truly horrid taste, Lestrange.”
Bellatrix’s hand flopped at him, hopefully a drunken response and nothing else. Severus Transfigured the rug into a utilitarian bench and snuck away. At the Apparation point, beyond the manor’s gates, he wiped his brow, surprised to find sweat there. “Damn, I must be mad,” he muttered.
Ω•≡•Ω♦Ω•≡•Ω♦
Lounging within the largest tub he’d ever seen outside of the Hogwarts Prefects’ Bath, Remus Lupin soaked in the Healing Potions he’d wheedled out of Poppy Pomfrey that morning. An ambush by another werewolf pack had torn him up and he didn’t want to shock Harry too much. “Ahh…so damned good….” he sighed as the warm waters caressed his bruised body and the vapours drove away the smell of rancid breath and dirty body. “Could get used to this….”
“Well, you are in the tub, Lupin! You already are used to it.” Severus Snape’s voice came from beyond the door, the faint light showing the shadows of two feet at the bottom of it. “I’m coming in, Lupin! I can smell the potions you’ve dumped in there, willy-nilly.” Severus’ nose was the first bit to pass the threshold, his sniffs making it quiver at the tip.
Lupin’s first thought was, I’m naked! His next thought was, I’m naked in front of Snape! At the second thought, his cock seemed to wake up and stick its head up to survey something of interest. Remus’ hands were covering his groin with a splash that slopped water over the floor and all the way to Snape’s boot tips.
“Ah…Severus…You see….” His tongue was swelled to twice its size with mortification. He curled his fingers over his filling cock and yelped. “Ow, ow, ow!”
Severus leaned back in the open doorway, arms across his chest, ignoring his wet boots in favour of surveying the other wizard. He would never have guessed Lupin was that well-muscled or that…that manly under all that tatty tweed. He took a leisurely look over the expanse of wet, glistening skin, noting a smattering of delectable curling hairs, faint lines and raised, red welts. Unconsciously, he licked his lips as he let his gaze wander down toward the hands covering….
“Snape!” Remus shouted. He’d watched the Slytherin’s eyes mapping his body, stopping at certain scars and then dropping towards his groin. He’d panicked and shouted; it had worked, but he wasn’t sure if he was disappointed or not by Severus’ slow blink of awareness. “I…um…towel…behind the door.” He pointed with his chin, not daring to pull his hands away from his now painful erection.
“Nothing I haven’t seen before, Lupin. But, if it will soothe your tender Gryffindor sensibilities….” Severus pulled his wand from his sleeve and Levitated a surprisingly plush robe instead of a towel toward Remus. “You’ll have to use your hands.” Severus let the robe hover just out of reach, away from the water. “I promise not to look.” His smirk said it all, but Snape turned his back just as he’d promised, wand hovering over his shoulder.
The splash of water hitting the sides of the tub and the slip of feet on its bottom floated over Severus’ shoulder and he could picture Lupin climbing to his feet, hands now on the sides of the tub instead of covering what had looked like a respectable penis. He stored the image away and waited for Lupin. “Well, I haven’t got all day, Lupin,” he groused.
“I’m done, Severus.” Remus was a tad breathless as he’d smelled the whiff of arousal coming off of Snape. “I’ll…um…yeah, I’ll leave you to it.” He tried to sidestep Severus, but his robe caught on the doorknob and it gapped open. Snape let his eyes flicker once, the sight of springy chest hair and pebbled nipples burned into his memory.
“I told you I smelled those Potions, Lupin. You’ll go to your room and allow me to verify their efficacy for your…predicament.” Severus looked over the blushing lycanthrope’s shoulder as he retied his sash and stumbled toward a partially-open door just step down the hallway.
Once the two had passed through the door, Severus slammed it, delighted at the flinch Lupin tried to hide. “Sit down and let me see what those so-called potions have done to you.” Snape pushed Remus toward a chair near the cheery fire in the grate. “The heat will help, if nothing else.” The Potion’s master set down a pouch and began pulling out tiny flasks and pipettes; he enlarged what he needed as the lycanthrope sat, still covered by his robe.
“Tsk, tsk, Lupin, so reticent. So virginal.” Severus crossed the room and pulled the robe apart and over Remus’ arms, trapping them for the moment; unfortunately, the tie hindered him and the robe hid the lower portion of his body. A vivid wound stretched from right collar bone to just above his nipple—bright red and swollen—still oozed on Lupin’s lightly-furred chest, the inflammation in stark contrast to the other, healed scars. Severus’ gaze widened and then flickered up to stare into the other wizard’s dazed eyes. For a single moment, he thought of using his Legilimency to read what was going on in the dunderhead’s mind, but a quick look down and he had his answer.
“I could have told you that swill you were bathing in was worthless when mixed together.” Severus turned away to select two potions—one in a golden flask and another in a green pipette. “This,” he held up the pipette, “will not feel good, at first, but it is necessary to remove whatever quackery is infesting the wound. The other,” he indicated the golden flask with a smirk, “will speed your healing once the offending potion is removed.”
Feeling trapped—and finding he liked it—the lycanthrope sat still as cool, lean fingers pinched off the end of the pipette and squeezed a dab of glowing lotion onto his skin. He was pleasantly surprised to feel Snape’s fingertips rubbing it in over the most painful of his wounds, and then sliding over the others that littered his arms and back. “Thank you.” He didn’t know what else to say or do. Shock relaxed him under the spy’s hands, and Remus gave himself over to the very tender ministrations. That is, he sat still until the lotion began to burn, the heat making him wince even as he felt the poison drawn out.
Severus had felt the other spy relax under his hands, and felt a slight twinge of conscious for not telling him just how much the drawing salve would hurt. He watched Lupin’s body tense up as the salve did its work, unconsciously rubbing the other man’s chest and shoulder with gentle, soothing strokes.
When the salve had turned brown and dried, flaking off within a minute, Snape conjured a bowl of warm water and a towel to clear away the detritus. The skin on Lupin’s chest was once more whole, the wounds still raised but of a healthy pink. He dried the skin by blowing on it and saw the ripple of muscles contracting as his breath bathed it.
“The next one will be better, Lupin,” he said quietly. He was close enough to smell the bergamot concoction the lycanthrope had washed his hair with and he drew in a deep sniff before bending back to his ministrations. Letting a drop of golden oil fall to his index finger, Severus delicately smoothed it over the healing wounds, storing up the heat of his patient’s skin, the infinitesimal shudder as he pressed close to the other man’s areola, and then the brush of springy, thick, grey hair as his knuckles swept it aside from the collar bone. A rumbled groan that shivered through Lupin and up his arm made him blink.
Remus’ large hand was over Snape’s, holding it over his sternum and near enough to feel the pounding of the lycanthrope’s heart. “I think that I should thank you now, Severus,” he gritted out between his teeth. His eyes were touched with flecks of gold and amber, the blue-green of them fading fast as the wolf scented lust. “Please, take my thanks and go.”
The plea wove itself into Snape’s being and settled like a weight in his chest. He could feel the effort it was taking the lycanthrope to be still under his hand and he pulled it away, gently. “My pardon, Lupin.” Severus stepped back—cool but for the faint spots of color riding high along his cheekbones. “You are welcome. If you need anything, please let me know. I will be here overnight as well.” The Potion’s master gathered his things with a swish and flick of his wand and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
Harry didn’t move from his position down the hall for several minutes, letting Snape stalk down to the room he’d taken as his own. This time he would keep his own council and not tell a soul what he’d seen. Turning on his heel, the young Gryffindor went back from whence he’d come, leaving his own door ajar as he curled under his covers. Snape’s being nice? Why? What happened? Well, if Remus can do it, I guess I can too, he thought in a jumble as he drifted off to sleep once more.