Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Has never been. Will never be.

Rating: Hum. You know. Might go up and such. Also this features slight slash, so please be warned.

Notes: This fanfiction is a translation. The original is "Earl Gray", was published 2010 - 2011, and has 21 chapters. "Fire" follows the general story arc of "Earl Gray", but I had so much fun changing the previous piece while translating that both will not be identical. Plot and character developement will change. For you that also means that I don't have to write it up from scratch, so you know that there will be an ending and that it actually almost all makes sense. Yes.

Also I'd like to point out that, while "Fire" is the second part to "Smoke", it can be read on it's own. I try to explain things as I go along without repeating myself too much, but if you're keen on reading things, maybe read "Smoke" first. Or not.

And finally: I ignore everything that happened after PoA, so this is AU-ish, in a sense that the plotlines and character development are out of canon. That especially concerns Snape's background story, family and life ante Hogwarts, but also Remus' childhood and details. Sorry I'm not sorry, but I didn't like anything past PoA, seriously. So I ignore it. Yay!

Whenever someone speaks a language that is not english the quote will be translated and explained in the comment section underneath each chapter. Same goes for certain details, historical events and wizarding 101. I loved writing Earl Grey because I could think up lots of details and do some research, so there's much historical more or less accurate potion trivia, herbology and so much latin to come.

Last, but not least: read, review, have fun, don't kill me. Here we go.

Fire

That valley, dark and deep and filled with mist,

is such that, though I gazed into its pit,

I was unable to discern a thing.

(...)

Our path had not gone far beyond

the point where I had slept,

when I beheld a fire

win out against a hemisphere of shadows.

Dante: Divina Commedia, Inferno: Canto 04

(transl. Mandelbaum)

The best is yet to come

It was one of the world's absolute certainties that the Daily Prophet's prophecies were never right. They tended to sway between being utterly wrong and just slightly off the mark. Everybody knew that, even the most delusional loyal subscriber. It had been a big surprise, then, that for once the newspaper had been absolutely spot on.

And with something as important as the weather, even. Between all the political scandals, the Quidditch results and the conspiracy theories that always had everybody as a criminal who wasn't Voldemort or a Death Eater it had been the weather column, a small segment everybody knew about and nobody ever read. Early in June the Daily Prophet's very own weatherwitch, a rather peculiar Ms. Cumulus, had announced the coming month to be the summer of all summers, to bring everything the endlessly rain-soaked British Islands had been dreaming off forever. Nobody had listened. The number of applications for long-distance apparation licences hadn't declined even the in the slightest.

And then Ms. Cumulus had been right. It wasn't warm and sunny, it was hot and humid. Even the night barely brought coolness, hardly a breeze. It was warm everywhere, and even the highlands and northern parts of Scotland suddenly needed more sunscreen than anybody had ever used in the past ten years. Witch Weekly ran a highly successful issue with a decent number of sun protection spells as front-page story and sold more copies than they had even with their Exploding Christmas Pudding Special the previous year.

The heat wave hit Hogwarts just as it did every other part of Great Britain. Even the most tucked away rooms and corridors of the castle were filled with heat, and thick as a blanket it lay on the grounds and the Forbidden Forest. The castle sat upon its hill like a tired beast that had crouched down and decided to never move again.

But the heat brought more then just sweat, red skin and a unusal intense use of ice cubes. With it came the freedom to simply drop all work, declare that it was too warm to think anyway, and enjoy the suddenly free time. The lake saw more patrons than ever before, the Forbidden Forest was suddenly attractive as a lovely spot for a walk around noon, and several members of the still residing faculty had declared the dungeons to be the best living space in all of Hogwarts. Not that many of them went there.

Remus, at least, didn't. He knew that Severus had started to use certain parts of the student's laboratories for his own experiments which used heat-sensitive ingredients, and he knew better than to meet the Head of Slytherin per chance all alone in a darkened corridor.

He had a certain idea that he wouldn't survive such a lovely coincidence. After all he had come up with something like a blackmailing scheme, a rather exquisite plot to make Severus do - well. Something. Remus Lupin was rarely in possession of knowledge that was adequate to blackmail anyone. But what he had seen on his excursion with Severus to the opium den in a rather seedy part of London had suddenly provided him with ample material to stage a beautiful little blackmail affaire.

It was just that Remus wasn't very experienced with blackmail. Working as a spy he had acquired a nice set of unsavoury skills, could fight cleverly and creatively, could talk people into doing things or simply hide somewhere and observe the situation for days on end. But blackmail wasn't inherent to his personal arsenal of weapons.

His biggest problem was that he wasn't yet sure what exactly he wanted. Which, he had to admit, was slightly strange considering the fact that usually people came up with the idea of blackmail to get something very specific. In his case the blackmail had been there before he had come up with a proper reason.

If he was honest that wasn't a very clever plot. Yet. Wanting nothing in particular wasn't something one could cut out from newspapers and paste together. I have your cat and I want you to pay me five pounds my noon! Now, that was something one could arrange on paper and throw in someones' mailbox.

Just that Severus didn't have a cat. Or a mailbox.

And what Remus had wasn't an object, but more a rather interesting idea of Severus' line of work as a spy for the order. And, much more important, a lot of interesting information on the spy himself. Only days after their excursion to the opium den Remus had realized that what he had learned was actually - literally - vitally important. In his mind the image of Severus stretched out on the divan was still very present, opium pipe dangling from long fingers, strange smile painted to his face as he admitted to be suffering, to be dying actually.

If Remus was honest to himself all he wanted to do was to help. And then find a way to make Severus purr indecent things into his ear, but that was quite a different story.

But he had no clue how to achieve his first goal, nevermind the second. Or what actually was wrong. Severus hadn't quite listed his ailments. He briefly mentioned the Cruciatus and what it did to a human body, but he hadn't said what it did to his specific human body. And Remus knew he wouldn't ever confess anything. Severus wasn't the type to complain. He'd keep silent and die that way, rather than ever admitting that it was too much. That he couldn't do this any longer, not the way they were doing it right now.

But Remus cut a rather unimpressive knight in shining armour, and he knew it. It wouldn't quite do to rush into the lab on a white horse and sweep Severus off his feet, neverminding the fact that he didn't know how to handle a horse and that Severus wasn't really one of those half-naked beauties from the books his aunts used to read.

So he had come up with a different plan, and that included the blackmail.

There was also this very strange thing that was Remus' sudden sexual attraction to his lifelong antagonist. Somehow he had hoped that it had been the opium. Then he had hoped that it was just some weird idea the wolf had gotten into its furry head, that whatever Remus suddenly saw in the git would just go away, rather soon, if he just ignored it.

But nothing like this happened.

He hadn't exactly seen much of Severus in the past two weeks, and every time they had met at dinner or lunch they had skillfully and with years of practice ignored each other. But strangely enough Remus' fine hearing had picked up on Severus deep voice whenever someone was speaking to him, even amidst the general soundscape of conversations at a crowded dinner table, and it had reminded him of the silky purr he couldn't get out of his head anymore.

Great. He felt like he was fifteen once again, and it wasn't something he was particularly pleased with.

Sighing Remus dropped his head back and looked at the bright blue sky as if it could supply him with an answer. But only a few white clouds and birds were in view, and they weren't talkative.

He had been sitting on a small hill overlooking the lake for a while now. It was his usual spot for thinking, or relaxing, or reading. From here he could see the castle perched on the hill, overlooked parts of the grounds, and could think on the reflexes of light and sky on the lake's clean water. Or on the reflexes the small oil lamp in the opium den had thrown on Severus' pitch black eyes.

And then suddenly Sirius plonked down on the grass, and scared Remus half to death. How come he hadn't heard him coming? He really needed to get Severus out of his head. And find a solution for his blackmail problem.

"Hogwarts calling Moony. What's wrong with you? Are you brain dead or something?"

Sirius waved a hand in front of Remus' face, and poked him into the shoulder. Remus shock his head and boxed back.

"I was lost in thought, sorry. Didn't hear you coming at all. Were you creeping up on me?"

Shaking his head Sirius stretched, and then lay back on the grass.

"Of course I wasn't, you're jumpy as it is. Whatever it is you're thinking about, it must be fascinating. You haven't been yourself these past days. What's the matter with you?"

Remus sighed. For a brief moment he considered telling Sirius the truth, but then he'd probably be thrown in the lake and dunked underwater for the next hour or so, in what Sirius would probably call a purification ceremony.

"What would you ask for if you could have anything?"

Sirius propped himself up on an elbow and regarded Remus with an expression that clearly betrayed how strange the question was. Sometimes he wondered whether heat wasn't bad for werewolves, in general.

"Like, what? Why?"

Shrugging Remus started to pull out bushels of grass.

"Theoretical question. Do you know what that is?"

Sirius snorted.

"Yeah, as if. That's like those my-friend-thinks-you're-hot schemes. I'm not stupid, you know. Anyway. If, in your very theoretical and at all not implying that you're thinking about something rather weird scheme I could ask for anything I'd want a new broom. Or sex. I guess freedom isn't an option, right?"

It seemed rather fair that Sirius was thinking about sex. At least Remus wasn't the only one with a dirty mind.

"I guess not. Okay, thanks."

Sirius shook his head, black unruly hair flying everywhere.

"Really, you don't want to tell me? Come on, I'm your best friend and personal pet and all that emotional stuff. Well, you know, if you want to talk just tell me."

He was rather sure he didn't want to indulge Sirius with his recent sexual fantasies concerning Severus, his very long fingers and a rather - Merlin, he wouldn't go there right now! Gritting his teeth he shock his head again.

"Okay. In any case, I meant to tell you that I'll be gone for the next weeks, on and off. Albus wants me to look after Harry a bit, you know, wander the neighbourhood and such things. He isn't sure Harry is safe there anymore, but I've been telling him forever that he should take him in during the summer. Hogwarts would make a proper vacation spot for him. But Albus insists on the Dursleys, for whatever reason. In any case I guess I'll be back before the next full moon, but if I'm not you'll be okay alone, yes? Do you have your potion? And did that opium thing work? And where's the bat currently, haven't seen him around for days."

Remus followed the monologue with nodding and shrugging.

"Harry will be happy to see you, of course. I'll be fine, don't worry. The potion is there, I guess the opium worked and I haven't seen Severus for a while either. Does that answer all you questions?"

Sirius let himself fall back on his back again and nodded.

"Sure. Glad to hear you're feeling good. It was dreadful watching you being in so much pain. I know you really need that potion, but I could kill the old berk. And aren't you really tired of being dependent on the git for brewing that stuff every month? I'd be bugged by that."

The things that happened in Remus' brain in the next ten seconds felt as if someone had put the final piece of a gigantic puzzle into his hand, patted his shoulders and then turned on the light. Everything suddenly made sense.

"You're a bloody genius, do you know that?"

It was beautiful. It was perfect, made sense in every possible way, was absolutely innocuous and so easy. Remus could see it in front of his eyes, a fine panorama glittering in the morning light of a bright new day.

Sirius stared at him as if he had suddenly lost his mind. Heat and werewolves, he should have known. It didn't go together.

"What? Are you off your rocker?"

Remus smiled, the broadest possible, delighted and slightly mental smile, and nodded.

"Absolutely."

With more energy then he had shown all day he pushed himself off the ground and brushed the grass from his shorts.

"What's for dinner tonight, do you know? I'll see you later."

Then he waved and almost jogged back to the castle, all the time feeling Sirius' slightly disturbed and very surprised stare in his back. Remus had lost his mind, and the heat was to blame. Oh yes. It was time to look for a cooler place in the castle. Maybe the dungeons. There were potion's labs down there, after all, and someone who just had acquired a rather tangible problem.

(c) Fayet - 24/7/2010 - 1/9/2014