For: Ellid
Title: The Hunt
Author: Erika
Email:
Pairing: Lupin/Snape
Summary: Challenge number 5 - Post DH AU xover with Billy Elliot
***
Remus picked up his pace, and soon his walked turned into a run.
Did they think him so blind? Did they actually believe that they could fool a werewolf? He let out a growl.
Severus should have known better, should have realized that one could not easily tame a wolf.
He ran back to Spinner's End and to his fool of a husband.
***
It had all started innocently enough. For their anniversary, Hermione had given them tickets to a ballet and he had been looking forward to getting away from the wizardry world, even for a few hours.
Ha!
Biggest mistake he'd ever made.
They had attended an all-male performance of Swan Lake. What the bloody thing had been about Remus did not know. He had been too busy paying attention to Severus, to how his lover had sat up in his seat, leaning forward, and the attentive way he had watched the dancers. Severus's eyes had followed the dance and the wolf within Remus had started to circle inside him, warning him that something did not seem right.
The wolf had rarely ever been wrong, so it had been easy to give in to the impulse to reach over and apparate away with Severus. To drag his protesting and angry Slytherin to the bedroom and re-stake his claim on that long pale skin, to feel those long legs wrap around his waist.
That should have been the end of things.
But it wasn't.
No.
He sometimes felt like he was being driven mad, as his wolf senses picked up hints of scents that did not belong to his world and definitely had no business surrounding his lover.
He pushed open the door to the house he shared with Severus. Neither his husband nor the man with whom he was having an affair were here.
He tore through the house and stopped; in the living room was a pensive and it seemed to have been recently used.
Was Severus such a fool that he'd stored away the memories of his affair?
Had being under cruciatus during the war rattled his brain?
Remus would get to the bottom of this and then come back and reclaim his lover. Mark him in ways that would proclaim to all who neared him that he belong to Remus. To the wolf.
He stepped toward the pensive and dipped his head in. Feeling its pull, he gasped and fell to his knees. Ignoring the dizziness, he looked around gingerly.
He was in a cemetery on a bright sunny day. There were two boys sitting in front of a gravestone, each holding wildflowers in their hands.
The older blond boy was talking. "I feel like a right sissy," he told the younger boy. "It's not like my mum is going to miss me. She's dead, you know."
The younger, black-haired child just sat there, eyes downcast, hand gripping his flowers tightly.
"Are you ever going to talk to me," the other child asked.
Silence greeted his question.
"I'll come back, you'll see." The older child grinned, but again received no result for his efforts. He frowned and then asked in a thoughtful voice, "You don't think they'll force me to wear a tutu, do you? I don't think I'd look good in it. I mean, having chicken legs, and all."
"Idiot," the younger child said.
"See, I knew you talked."
The scene changed; the boys were a bit older now and they were shouting at each other.
"I'm not a pouf!"
"Jesus Christ, it don't fuck'n matter."
"You don't understand." The way the child held himself, as if preparing for a blow, reminded Remus of someone, of a little boy he'd once met on a train before the sorting separated them and made them enemies.
God, Severus, could you ever truly forgive me for all the pain I've cost you?
"You're a bloody idiot, that's what you are. We're mates, and that's not going to change."
"We're not the same, Billy."
"I should hope not," Billy retorted. "See, this is what you get for hanging around with girls. They think everything needs to be spelled out. Next thing you know they'll want to be kissing you and showing you their fanny."
"You don't understand." The boy's lower lip trembled.
"Severus."
"No."
"You are one stubborn git, you know that."
"I won't be able to see you after this."
"Sevvie, you're just going off to school."
Severus shook his head. "Billy..."
"Aye, I know you're nervous. I'll be fine, you'll see." Billy smiled. "Oi, you better not come back prissy and all."
"Piss off."
And their laughter echoed throughout the cemetery.
Remus did not understand any of this.
The boys had been friends. Good friends, and then Severus had gone off to Hogwarts...
There was another scene. This time of Severus, older, broken.
It had probably happened after the first war. Again, they were in a cemetery.
Someone else was there and soon they began to approach. "Sevvie?"
Severus turned around, whipped out his wand and pointed it at the stranger.
"It is you," an older Billy said as he walked toward Severus. "God, what the hell happen to you?"
"Go. Go, before I hurt you. Get the hell out of here!" Severus shouted as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground.
Billy rushed over. "I've got you."
"No, you don't understand."
"Fuck, stop squirming around, you bloody fool."
"She's dead," Severus cried out.
"I've heard. Came back to town, hoping I'd get to see you." Billy hugged Severus closer to him. "Let it out, just let it out."
"It's my fault."
That was the final scene. Remus got out of the pensive and sat on the floor.
Was this person, Billy Severus's first love?
More importantly, was Severus leaving him?
He shook his head. No, he wasn't going to let him walk away.
He knew were to find them; after all, they seemed to spend most of their friendship hanging around cemeteries.
He apparated to the cemetery and walked around, following the voices talking at a distance.
"You love him?" he heard the other man ask.
"Yeah."
"He loves you?"
Remus was hurt to note the pause that followed that question.
"I...yeah, he does."
"Good."
"...that's all you're going to say?"
"What? I'm not your bloody keeper."
They shared a look.
"You've been a good friend, Billy."
"And I'll be a better friend once I meet that husband of yours. Come on, it's time we went to visit our mums. Don't want them to come back to haunt us, nagging that we've been bad sons."
"You go on ahead. I have something I need to do first."
"You'd better not disappear again; I know where you live, now."
Severus waited until the other man was far enough away before he turned and said, "I know you're here, Remus."
Damn.
"You might as well step out."
"Severus." Remus walked toward his lover.
"Why are you here?" Severus asked, a frown forming on his brow.
"I...thought you were having an affair." Finally saying it aloud, Remus realized how silly it sounded and from Severus's expression, he seemed just as dumbfounded.
"Gryffindor." Severus shook his head.
Now standing before him, Remus took Severus's hand. "I've never been able to think straight when it comes to you."
"Good."
"Severus!" Remus couldn't hide his shock, for Severus rarely teased.
"We'll talk about that later. Come on, there's someone I would like you to meet."
"Your friend."
"My mum."
"It would be an honour."
"It had better be."
As they made their way toward the grave containing the remains of Severus's mum, Remus could not help but ask, "Sevvie?"
"Say that word again and, next full moon, I'll skin you."
"Severus."
"Quit whining, wolf."
And Remus laughed.