irena_candy (irena_candy) wrote in lupin_snape, @ 2007-11-25 10:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | fic: g |
Fiction: Tinker Time
Title: Tinker Time
Author: Irena Candy
Pairing: SS/RL
Word Count: 1790
Rating: G
Completed: Yes
Summary: Here's a look at what actually happened in the Shrieking Shack on that fateful evening.
Disclaimer: Anything that you recognize is the property of J.K. Rowling. Everything else is the product of this fan's imagination.
Warning(s): none
A/N: Another bit of resurrection.
"How good are you at tinkering with people's memories?" Remus Lupin asked, fastidiously holding his threadbare robes away from the mess on the floor and considering the three inert shapes that were sprawled on the bare boards next to him.
"Right now, I could not tinker the skin off of a kumquat," his hook-nosed companion said weakly.
"I'm not surprised," Lupin said. "You look like you've been pulled backwards through a knot hole. What happened between you and Voldemort?"
Severus Snape, who was sitting up in a puddle of gore on the grimy floor of the Shrieking Shack, ran shaking fingers through his matted black hair. "Something I should have expected. The Dark... excuse me, that son of a bitch Tom Riddle... decided that he was not getting enough power out of the wand that he stole from Dumbledore's tomb... "
"Wait a minute!" Lupin looked horrified. "He actually stole Dumbledore's wand out of his tomb? How do you know that?"
"Oh come on, Lupin!" Snape pushed himself to his feet, staggered, almost fell, and caught himself against the cobweb-draped wall with one pale hand. "Right after he got to Hogwarts, Riddle told me to leave him alone in the grounds. Fifteen minutes later he showed up in my office with Dumbledore's wand. Where else could he have gotten it? It's not as if I do not know what the damned thing looks like! I've seen it often enough in the last eighteen years."
"All right, all right. Go on."
"The bastard blamed me when he was not getting enough power out of it. He decided that it was my fault, because I killed Dumbledore and the wand chooses the wizard and all of that thestral shit. So, he took the usual monomaniac's way out and told that damned snake of his to kill me."
"Do I detect a certain bitterness?" Lupin said, with a faint flicker of amusement.
"You sure as hell do!" Snape took a deep breath and tried to straighten up. He leaned back against the wall, gasping for air. "And I am not too happy about owing you my life either," he muttered.
"You'd rather be dead?" Lupin asked, as he drew his wand and carefully cleaned the blood and grime off of the other man's skin, hair, and black robes.
"At least I would not have the rest of my life to look forward to. What I have sampled of living so far has not been all that great." Snape closed his eyes for a moment, then shook his head slightly, as if to clear his mind. "What are you doing here, anyway?"
"I'd just seen Dora get hit with a killing curse thrown by a Death Eater, and nearly got hit myself," Lupin said, slipping his wand back into his sleeve. "I killed the bastard and was trying to decide what to do next when I saw these three sneaking off across the grounds toward the Whomping Willow." He nodded toward the limp forms of Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter. "I wondered what they were up to."
"A reasonable concern," Snape said dryly. "Should I say that I'm sorry about Nymphadora?"
"Only if you feel that way."
Snape nodded slightly. "I do, actually. She died young, like so many people that we used to know. It is a terrible waste."
"She was kind and devoted, and I was fond of her," Lupin said simply. "I shouldn't have married her, but that's neither here nor there anymore."
There was silence between the two for a moment, and they could hear the soft scratching of some small rodent in the walls of the dilapidated building.
"You followed the terrible trio," Snape prompted, pushing himself away from the wall. He stumbled over to one of the large boxes that obscured the tunnel entrance to the room and sat down heavily on it.
"I followed them through the tunnel, and stopped just behind Ron when I heard voices. I thought I'd better Stupefy the boy to keep him from doing something stupid after he saw me, and as soon as Voldemort left and I could get to you, I did the same thing to Harry and Hermione."
"Why?"
"Because it wouldn't do for them to see me save the life of a known murderer and traitor to the Light," Lupin said, with a rather crooked smile.
"Understandable. Why did you save my life at all?"
Remus took a deep breath and brushed a stray spider web off of his nose. "Because I trusted Dumbledore, and he never stopped trusting you. I couldn't believe that he could be so far mistaken in any man -- even if Harry did see you kill him."
"For the record," Snape said, eyes fixed on Lupin's face, "I have been spying for Dumbledore for years. I did what he made me promise to do. He said that he would much sooner go that way than fall into the hands of someone like Greyback or dear little Bellatrix."
"I can see his point," Lupin said. "He was a remarkably rational wizard, even if he did put on that show of being eccentric."
"You put a lot of faith in him," Snape observed, and his voice was so weak that it was barely audible.
"I put a lot of faith in you," Lupin retorted. His crooked smile was back. "I never forgot those afternoons we spent together in Seventh Year, you know."
"If you're trying to make me blush, forget it. I haven't got enough blood left."
"You need some blood replenisher, and a dose of Bobbin's All-Purpose Detoxifier wouldn't hurt. We've got to get you out of here and find some. Which brings me back to our current situation. We need to do some memory tinkering with these three. If you're not up to it... "
"I am not," Snape said flatly. "Considering the state that I am in, they might remember that they had been watching Pettigrew frigging in the shrubbery at Malfoy Manor."
"You were watching him? Whatever for?"
"I kept hoping he would accidentally pinch something off with that silver hand of his."
"Ouch!" Lupin grimaced and then laughed a little reluctantly. "All right, we'd better get on with things. You think you'd be better off dead?"
"I'm sure of it!"
"It's a damned shame. You really should be recognized for your undercover work."
"So I can get a posthumous Order of Merlin?"
"First class!" Lupin said, with a sudden boyish grin. "Have you got some memories that you'd be willing to give the kids?"
"Do I really need to do that?"
"Come on, it's in a good cause," Lupin said in a cajoling tone of voice. "Think of it as adding verisimilitude."
"To an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative," Snape said wanly. "I never did understand your obsession with Muggle entertainment."
Lupin drew his wand, conjured a small flask out of nothingness, and handed it to Snape. "Give!"
Snape sighed, pulled out his own wand and began siphoning off silvery memory threads and dropping them into the glass container. "As it happens, there is something that Dumbledore told me, which Potter needs to know, and I suppose this is as good a way as any of telling him."
"Especially since he's not likely to listen to you if you're still alive," Lupin said, dragging the unconscious teens over to the dirty wall and propping them up against it.
Snape held out the flask full of memories and Lupin fitted Harry Potter's limp fingers around it. "It's going to work like this," he said, leveling his wand at the unconscious teens. "They will remember that Hermione conjured that flask, that Harry filled it with the memories which you gave him with your dying breath..."
"How noble of me!" Snape said sarcastically.
"... and that you died. They will go back to the castle and remember leaving your lifeless body on the floor."
"But there will not be a body here, if anyone comes looking for it," Snape objected.
"I don't think that's a problem," Lupin replied. "Everyone will assume that someone else removed your pathetic and mangled remains." He concentrated, and a soft flare came from the end of his wand, bathing the three unconscious teenagers in golden light. "I'll revive them as we go out."
"And then what?"
Lupin considered him for a moment. "We need to get you to some safe place where you can rest and take restoratives, but I want to go back to the Hogwarts grounds for a few minutes first. There are a lot of dead men on the grounds and I can transform one of them to look like me. The Order should have someone to mourn and a body to bury, you know."
"Not to mention another candidate for a Ministerial medal. You are not going to fight to the bitter end?"
Lupin slowly shook his head. "No. I don't think that what I do, or what any of us does, matters anymore. It is all up to Harry. Everything hinges on him."
"The Chosen One," Snape said, with a wry twist of his lips. "Don't you want to go back to the castle and give your life up in a noble cause?"
"Not when everything I care about is right here." He reached out a tentative hand, and Snape slowly lifted his own to grasp it.
The two wizards looked into each other's eyes for a long moment.
Snape nodded and his lips curved into a gentle smile. "I remember those afternoons too, Remus. You know, I think I am in the mood for a long, long holiday and I would not mind having some company -- of the right sort."
"We can go to Capri," Lupin said. "I understand that the afternoons there are about as close to paradise as a wizard can get." He carefully helped the other man to his feet, and slipped an arm around Snape's waist to steady him.
"The fate of the wizarding world is in that kid's hands," Snape said, looking at the unconscious form of Harry Potter. "That is a disturbing thought."
"True, but we've already played our part. There's nothing left for us to do." Lupin frowned slightly. "Still, maybe we should stay around for just a little while longer and keep an eye on Harry. In case he needs some kind of nudge at the appropriate time, you know."
"He is going to believe that he saw me die, and if you do that transformation, he is going to think that you are dead too."
Lupin smiled. "I can always pretend to be a ghost."
They slowly made their way to the door. Lupin turned back at the doorway and waved his wand. As the three young people began to stir, the door swung softly closed and the two wizards were gone.