Wherever the Road Takes You
By Toby Kincaid
Disclaimer: I don't own anything connected to the Harry Potter series, specifically, for this chapter, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Hogwarts or Albus Dumbledore. The Harry Potter series belongs to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishers, Scholastic Publishing and Warner Brothers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: What happens when a wizard is forced to leave wizarding society? What happens when that person wants revenge? A story about how the past can come back to haunt you and what happens when people are caught in the crossfire.
Authors Notes: This story is set immediately after The Prisoner of Azkaban. There's no romantic relationship between Lupin and Snape in this story. Sorry if that's what you were expecting.
Part 1
London could use another massive fire, a complete and utter conflagration. Something along the lines of what happened to Dresden would be wonderful.
That was Severus Snape's only thought, and a repetitive one at that, as he skulked the dirty, dank streets of London. He hated the festering, grimy, depilated hellhole on the best of days, which was usually safe within the clean confines of his manor or the dark corners of his Hogwarts dungeons, and utterly despised it on the worst. Rubbing the dusty grit from his eyes, the knuckles of his fingers throbbing from the unseasonably cold weather, Severus silently headed towards his summoned rendezvous. Barely two days had passed since the end of term, and he'd been looking forward to the solitude and quiet of his manor, away from the bumbling idiots and petty braggarts that tormented him at Hogwarts, and that was just the faculty.
Sighing as he passed under a flickering streetlamp, Severus found himself musing, for what was probably the millionth time this school year, exactly which student he hated more, since there were oh so many to choose from. One of the Weasleys perhaps, heavens knew there was an abundance of them, the Granger brat, Longbottom, Potter's arrogant fool, or Lucious' little bastard. All of them were either fingernails along a chalkboard annoying, hopelessly useless, or outright dangerous. Shaking his head absently, and feeling the edges of his hair tickle the back of his neck, he pushed the thought out of his mind as he neared the alley he was to enter.
A darkened alley, what a cliché, he thought. The message requesting his presence, however, had not been. A message written in blood using dried, paper-thin human skin as parchment had shown up for him during the teachers breakfast yesterday morning, the final meeting of all of Hogwarts professors until a couple of days before the start of the next term, where they would sort out whatever issues that faced them for the new year. Dumbledore had been unsettled by the letter, not liking either its contents or the materials used to write it. However, neither of them felt that ignoring the letter was a good idea either. Better to go and find out what it meant than disregarding it, and having it lead to an even bigger problem. A message written on human skin in blood could only lead to much nastier problems both had agreed.
Turning the corner into the shadowed alley, he slowed down and pulled out his wand. He was surprised at how far the alley went, as well as how wide it was. Limp, cardboard boxes and trash littered the lane, while either broken or boarded up windows stared down solemnly at him. 1950s architecture, such as it was, stood on both sides of him as he stalked down the street.
He hadn't gone far into the alley when he saw something moving at the end of street. Stepping silently to the side of a building, he watched the hunched shadow move slowly and methodically away him, quiet words whispering their way towards him.
"…no cold spot, but a puddle of water. Strange noises, but no sign of a ghost. The clues don't make-"
The person stopped, and turned their head slightly in his direction. Severus came to an immediate stop. Standing there, he watched the person turn their head completely and stare in his direction, their face blackened by shadows, a mass of ebony standing near a far wall.
For a long second, the shadow stood there, something long and thin in their hand, staring at him, before a quiet, exhaustion ravished voice asked, "What are you doing here, Severus."
It took Severus a moment to recognize the voice as his former classmate, and until recently, fellow professor, Remus Lupin. It had been at least three weeks since he's last since the werewolf, since letting the creature's little secret out to his Slytherins, who, of course, had spread it around the school.
"I should be asking you the same thing, Lupin. What are you doing sneaking around a darkened London alleyway?"
"What are you?" Lupin countered, leaving the shadows, entering a faint beam of light, the long shape turning out to be the creature's wand. The werewolf looked almost as rundown and exhausted as he had when he arrived on the first day of term. "I don't recall you ever being fond of the city, and at the moment, can't think of a reason you'd be here willingly, especially in a place such as this."
"Intelligence leaving you so soon, Lupin?" Severus' anger and resentment at the werewolf flared into petty taunts and insults. All the jealousies and distrust he'd harbored for years, and had nursed bitterly during Lupin's brief tenure at Hogwarts, bubbled to the surface. "That part of you you're always trying to hide starting to take over?"
There was no response and Severus felt his annoyance burn into fury.
"What are you doing here, Severus?" Lupin repeated patiently. Of all the Marauders, Lupin had always been the calmest and the least likely to respond to an insult. Severus had always assumed it was because the creature was determined not to draw attention to himself. Severus had to admit, grudgingly, that Lupin had remarkable self-control, and he despised the werewolf for it.
"What are you?" he sneered. Lupin had no reason to know his business, and the sooner he could get the werewolf out of the way, the better. If the message was from who he thought it was, the last person he needed there was Lupin.
Lupin said nothing for a moment, before sighing. "A family in the building over there," he pointed to one of the buildings he'd passed on his way down the alley, "asked me to come and see if I couldn't get rid of what they thought was a ghost."
"Ah. So this is what you were doing before Dumbledore hired you last year." Motioning at the worn and darned clothing the werewolf wore, he remarked, "Obviously you weren't doing that good a job of it."
As with his previous barb about his lycanthropy, Lupin said nothing. Anger flaring at the lack of response, Severus snarled, "Well, hurry up, Lupin. Either find the ghost and dispatch it, or admit how inept you are and leave."
Glancing behind him, a frown creasing his tired features, Lupin said, "It's not as simple as that. There's something not right here, something in the alley. I don't know what the family has seen, but there's nothing here to indicate a ghost, however, there is something very wrong about this place."
"Seeing things in the shadows, Lupin?" he sneered. "Trying to give Moody a run for being most paranoid?"
Closing his eyes for a moment, Lupin took a deep breath and sighed before turning his back on Severus and heading towards the area he'd been searching.
Severus glanced back over the alley behind them, seeing nothing, including the person he'd been called to meet. Pulling his silver pocket watch from within his robes, he felt a wave of uneasiness creep up his spine as he noted the time, and the fact that it was rapidly approaching the hour he was supposed to meet the sender of yesterday's message.
Snapping the watch shut with a click, he hissed, "Hurry up, Lupin."
Without turning around, crouching near a highlighted area near the far wall, Lupin mumbled, "You can't rush this, Severus, nor am I going to. There's something other than a ghost here, and I'm not about to charge into an unknown situation just because you're in a hurry."
"Lupin," he snarled, heading towards the werewolf, not paying any attention to the spell the creature had murmured over the area he was studying, nor really noticing the strange array of lights that suddenly appeared in, as well as leading away from, the lighted section of alleyway.
"What the…" Lupin mumbled, turning his head, following the lead of the lights, his eyes going wide at something in front of him as he jumped up from his crouch. "Severus, stop!"
Surprised at the force of the werewolf's voice, Severus did find himself coming to a stop, and stared at Lupin. "What?"
Motioning at the area in front him, where Severus now noticed bars of light, Lupin said, "Have you ever seen anything like this before?"
Severus frowned, and looked at what was causing the werewolf such concern. After looking at it for a moment, he shook his head. "No. It's probably some kind muggle set up, just someone trying to scare the locals obviously. Go tell the family who hired you that someone was playing a trick."
Shaking his head, Lupin studied the area some more, peering closer at the wall in front of, and directly next to, him.
Feeling his internal clock warning him that the time of his meeting was almost upon him, Snape moved toward the werewolf and snapped, "Lupin-"
Lupin turned his head and opened his mouth to say something when a roar of thunder exploded in Severus' ears while a riot of bright, white light blinded him, a rush of air knocking him down. Everything became hazy for a moment, and when he could finally see again, there was still a horrid ringing in his ears, Severus found Lupin nowhere to be found. All there was to see was small piles of rubble and gaping holes in the walls around of him. However, there didn't seem to be any sign of Lupin, dead, unconscious, or otherwise.
"Oi, what are you doing down there?" a voice shouted through the din in his head.
Turning his head, and seeing a couple of large, burly men heading towards him, with what looked like weapons of some sort on their hands, Severus disapparated, not caring that he wasn't supposed to do magic in front of muggles. He'd deal with had happened after everything quieted down, including whatever had happened to Lupin. Getting himself caught by some stupid muggles wouldn't do himself, or Lupin, any good. Not that he really cared what happened to Lupin, but knew Dumbledore would be less than pleased if anything happened to his pet werewolf.
Standing at the far end of the alley, near where the one called Lupin had been, stood a tall, densely built man. His greying black hair was stylishly cut, matching nicely with the expensive overcoat hiding his £200 suit. His light blue eyes studied the scene before him, as well as the spot where until a moment ago, Severus Snape had been sitting. There was no joy in the man's face; the night's events had not gone as planned. Nodding up at one darkened windows above him, the scene in front of him shimmered for a second, before being instantly replaced with a still dirty and littered alley, but also an unconscious figure lying face down in a heap in front of his meticulously shined, hand-made Italian shoes. Carefully, the man pushed the figure over a bit so he could see the person's face. It wasn't the person he'd expected, but he'd do just as nicely, for now.
Motioning at the two men who'd come down the other end of the alley, the man stepped back into the shadows and left.
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