And now the story is being re-written. I have let this baby sit far too long, gathering cobwebs and dust. I ought to be ashamed of myself. But… I'll let you all be annoyed for me, kay?

Kiana

Eighth December 2005

...the wind that shakes the barley well it rattles in my bones. I wake up with a hunger but for what I do not know. I know somewhere it matters and there's got to be a reason why I feel this way with you... you've given me so much to believe in.

Chapter One

"Remind me again, Lupin, why I'm stuck here, and with you of all people?" Severus Snape sounded uninterested in the fact he was indeed stuck in a room with Remus Lupin, unable to leave and unable to request aide. Only his non-ending sea of sarcastic barbs and incessant pacing denounced his seemingly uncaring façade. That, and the fact he had asked the same question three times now in the last hour.

Remus merely raised a brow as he looked up from his book "Because your Slytherins decided to pull yet another prank on the teacher's room, third in a week, I might add, only to pull out at the last minute when remembering it was Friday the Thirteenth."

Severus stopped pacing and rounded on Remus, lips twisted into a snarl. "It was not my students, Professor, as we've already been through several times now. Perhaps when we finally are removed from this squalor you should have your hearing checked with Madam Pomfrey."

"If we've been through it several times, Severus, it would be your fault for asking the same question over and over."

"Once again you are mistaken Professor. Had your answer been satisfactory in the first place, there would be no need for me to repeat it. I certainly hope you teach your classes more articulately than you have displayed your ability to be so here."

"Good job for me then that most of my students aren't bitter, stubborn, self-important prats then, isn't it?" Remus said mildly, turning back to his book, staring unseeing at the words on the page. He hadn't meant to bite back, but it wasn't as though he enjoyed being stuck in this room, with Snape, anymore than Snape did.

Eyes narrowing, Severus made to take a step closer to Lupin, stopping suddenly as if being so near put him in danger of catching some affliction or another. "No, they are just foolish little children that take pity on the monster that would make them his dinner, should they catch him on a bad night."

Remus lifted a side of his mouth into a grin, giving up on the book, folding it closed and placing it on the table beside him. "Any night, Severus. Not just a bad one," he corrected, stretched his legs out on the floor in front of him. "Although I have found that children don't have much meat on them. Fully-grown adults taste much better, especially when flavoured with cliché."

"I'll be sure to inform the house elves of your preference. Perhaps they will be able to provide you it at dinner. After all, we all have such a lovely spread, it is only fair that you have your food of choice also."

"Most kind of you, Severus."

Taking a seat with a snort, Severus picked up a copy of 'The Daily Prophet' and began to absently flick through the pages, making great show of being far more interested in the latest stores at Diagon Alley than he was in one Remus Lupin. "The least you can do is try and think of a way to get us out if here. You are, after all, supposed to be an expert in dark magic. Opening a door shouldn't pose too much of a problem to someone of your expertise."

Remus glanced up, surprised. "You know as well as I that the spell will last for thirteen hours. Any tampering with it will only cause the spell time to reset. However, if you're that interested in spending time with me, I can certainly try." Remus couldn't help himself, teasing Severus as he was. Someone had to lighten the atmosphere in the room, they were, after all, in here for quite a while yet, and he well knew that Severus certainly would not be the one to do so.

Sighing, Severus threw the paper back down on the desk. "Thirteen hours. Wonderful."

Long moments of uncomfortable silence passed before Remus spoke again. "Are you done with that paper?"

Snape snorted. "If I wasn't, I wouldn't have put it back on the table, would I?"

"Accio paper," Remus said, ignoring Severus. And he meant to continue doing so, flipping through the pages of the Prophet slowly.

There were many things that annoyed Severus, and being ignored by someone he wished to ignore was one of them. That it was Lupin only added that much more to his annoyance and frustration. "There is an article there that may be of interest to you. A review of the Werewolf law I believe. I assume you are familiar with it but I doubt it would do much harm to read it regardless."

"Thank you," Remus said, not bothering to look up.

Glaring at Lupin, Severus took his wand out of his robes and went about making great show in mock polishing it. Whispering a few words, he pointed it in the direction of the paper and watched as it promptly burst into flames. "My apologies," he drawled, smirking. "I should be more careful while polishing my wand."

"Not at all." Remus stood up and calmly shook the ashes off his shirt and hands before taking a seat on the other side of the room and picking up an old magazine to read instead; Severus' eyes narrowing. He'd been hoping for a reaction, preferably one of anger, so that he may make a point of ignoring the other man. Not this… ignoring of him by the bloody werewolf.

Giving Lupin a dirty look, Severus rose and walked towards the door, running his hands over it. "Where exactly to you suppose those Gryffindors learned a spell of this nature? Or is this something they picked up in one of your lessons?"

flip.

Remus turned a page before answering. "I couldn't tell you, Severus, but I'm sure you'll ask each and every one of them after we get out."

flip.

"Indeed I shall." Moving away from the door, Severus walked towards a table in the corner that had some refreshments laid out upon it. Pouring himself a goblet of pumpkin juice, he hesitantly turned his eyes towards Lupin, who was still only paying attention to the magazine in his hand. Lips thinned in annoyance, he paused for a moment before speaking. "Would you care of something to drink Professor?"

"Thank you but no, Severus. I'll pass for now."

Glaring hotly at the sandy-haired man, an effort wasted, Severus retook his seat and sat in silence, sipping his juice.

An hour passed before Remus put down his magazine. Pausing for a moment, he then stood and walked to Severus, offering him the magazine by setting it down on the table next to him. "In case you wish to read it."

Severus shook his head, declining the offer. "While it may be enough to amuse your mind for the hour you were engrossed in it, I hardly think it worth even several minutes of my time."

Remus sat again, taking a seat closer to Severus this time, with a grin on his lips that he wasn't quite able to hide from the other man.

Opening his mouth as if to speak, Severus paused and tilted his head. "You realise what day this is, of course?"

Remus twisted his mouth into a wry smile. "Indeed. Even if I had forgotten, the Slyth... Gryffindor students reminded me of such as they ran away screaming – quite loudly – about it after realising they had botched a prank on Friday the Thirteenth.

Severus raised a brow at the mention of his students, but relaxed once Lupin corrected his mistake. Secretly he couldn't help but feel that had he not been involved and that his House was responsible, he would have been rather amused. But he was involved, and his House wasn't responsible and he most certainly was not amused.

Sighing, he looked at the clock on the wall. Surely Dumbledore would have realised they were missing and attempted to contact them, or if not that, then at least the other Professors should have been wondering why they couldn't get into the staff room.

Something stuck him then as odd, the way that Lupin had emphasised that today was Friday the Thirteenth. It had never occurred to Snape that Lupin may be even remotely superstitious and as he gazed at him through narrowed eyes, he posed the question that he would ordinarily not have asked, had he not been so bloody bored. "I would have thought that you would have known better than believe in all that mumbo jumbo Lupin."

"'Superstition is the religion of feeble minds,'" Remus quoted with a laugh. "No, I'm not superstitious. It's just a childhood memory that tends to stick around, I suppose. There's always a few of those that stay, whether you wish to remember them or not."

Severus sat up, clearly intrigued despite his best efforts to hide it. What was the werewolf hiding? "Is that so?"

Clearly surprised by Severus' interest but wise enough to not show it, Remus nodded. "My brother died on a Friday the Thirteenth, and I received my bite the same day."

He spoke as calmly as one could given the subject, but he knew he sounded strained and he hated it. Giving Severus more fodder for his barbs was foolish, but Remus was an honest person. Honest, and obviously foolish. But Severus had asked, had shown more interest then, no doubt out of boredom, than he had in as long as Remus could remember. Since they were in school, and before Sirius, no doubt.

"I wasn't aware that you had a brother."

"Most people aren't, or weren't, aware," Remus shrugged. "I don't often mention it."

"I see. What happened?"

Remus pursed his lips, a habit when he was annoyed or thinking. And in this case, he was both, although annoyed to a lesser degree than he was thoughtful, and more at himself than at Severus. "I was told he died in the same attack that cursed me."

"Is that so," Severus drawled, tilting his head slightly, sizing the other man up. "You don't remember, I take it?"

"Not... exactly." Remus did remember parts of it, but what he had been told contradicted what he knew, and that wasn't exactly a story he wished to go into with someone that he was friends with – and one could hardly call Severus Snape a friend.

"Exactly?" Not one to be easily fooled, Severus sensed that Lupin was holding back, not that he could blame him of course, however he was driven more by his desire to know than his regard for whether Lupin cared to talk about it or not. Frankly, he didn't care at all if Lupin wished to share his experience with him. He wanted to know, and one way or another he would find out.

"Exactly, completely, absolutely, explicitly, wholly, and or for certain. Etcetera, and so forth." Remus rarely spoke with haste, but wanted to call the words back as soon as he said them. It wasn't that he wanted to irritate Snape, but speaking of Matt was not exactly Remus' idea of a Good Time.

Snorting, Severus scowled. "Thank you for that lesson in synonyms, Lupin, but I do know what 'exactly' means. Mind you, I should have known better than to expect anything other than derisive reply from you."

Which meant that he had indeed irritated Snape further. Thirteen hours of this... God save him. Now, preferably. "You're correct, of course, my apologies. It is surprising though, I would have thought of all people, you would enjoy sarcasm." A weak apology, he knew, but it was the best Remus had.

"Sarcasm has a time and a place Lupin, and that place is not when I ask you a question."

"Of course not, Professor. Again, my most sincere apologies." If Remus was anything but sincere, he certainly didn't sound it. His tone and face pledged his apology, almost eager in his half-hearted attempts to soothe Severus and try to make the next several hours go by as smoothly as possible.

Severus appeared to accept the tone of remorse as he stood and went to refill his goblet. "Are you going to answer my question or not?"

Remus glanced at the clock before answering; they had only been in the room for two hours. That left them eleven more to go. It would not hurt, much, to be somewhat honest with Severus, hopefully. Remus had always held Severus in a high regard as far as intelligence went, and being on speaking terms with the man might actually prove enjoyable, even if the subject was painful. Perhaps it would encourage Snape to be - be what? Remus wondered. Perhaps more cordial, he supposed, which was as much as he could expect from the other man.

And he knew even that was asking for overly much.

"I remember very little of the night I was attacked, most of my memories are from that day. My mother was an intelligent woman, but had a fondness for superstitions," Remus laughed quietly as he said this, his fondness for his mother and her quirks apparent. "My father was a Muggle, and if there was one thing he would have changed about my mother, it was her little idiosyncrasies in regards to those superstitions. Quite backward from what I understand, Muggles are usually the superstition ones. Fearful of the mere mention of magic, witch, or wizard."

Remus paused and glanced at Snape, gauging for a reaction. Severus said nothing, only stared back at Remus with an expectant expression. Remus took the cue and continued. "We went camping that weekend. My mother felt it was bad luck to start our trip on Friday the Thirteenth, but my father scoffed at her and told her it was foolish to live by superstitions, and he wasn't going to let any false belief ruin the weekend he had planned for all of us. She insisted he listen to her fears only once more before giving in. I remember he laughed and hugged her, and told her he would protect her and us and should anything happen he would take her beating like a man. They both laughed then, and we left that morning." Remus smiled slightly at the memory.

Severus nodded, his face rapt with attention, silently urging Lupin to continue. So he did.

"We made camp not far from the Point of Ness that afternoon. The day passed enjoyably; it was unseasonably warm for that time of year, especially for that area. My father teased my mother about that too. Said if anything, it was a sign of good luck.

"Not long after supper, Matt and I set off to explore a circle of stones we thought to be a portal tomb. We had no warning. I remember feeling my skin prickle, and at the same time, Matt was shouting at me. The next thing I truly remember is waking up at St. Mungo's, and wondering why no one would look at me nor talk to me."

He took a breath, releasing it slowly before continuing. "When they did speak, they told me first that Matthew had died. A werewolf had attacked us, they told me, biting me and then Matt when he tried to save me. They said there had been nothing left of him, nothing for us to bury, or to even find. However..." he paused, concentrating, "however, I remember looking up and seeing Matt running after the werewolf. The werewolf was limping, crying. They found his body, but never Matt's."

Severus' eyes narrowed. "And this didn't strike anyone as being particularly odd? A werewolf does not just die following a brutal attack, especially not one on two defenceless young children."

"I'm sure it did, but not many people seemed to care. My parents tried, but given my condition, few would help them. Those that tried only met with the same resistance." He shrugged again. "I'm certain people thought Matt would also be cursed, probably rightfully so, and they felt it better to leave him to fend for himself and die than to help and risk bringing another of us into society." The rancour in Remus' was missing, although his emphasis had not gone unnoticed by either man.

"And what about you Lupin? You, too, were content to leave it at that?"

"No, of course not. I have looked, asked, searched. All to no avail. The same people that wouldn't speak to my parents because of me certainly won't speak to me," he explained. "I have tried, I just haven't been able to get very far."

"Spoken like a true quitter." Severus shook his head in disbelief at what he was hearing. He found it incomprehensible that Lupin wouldn't use whatever means necessary to obtain the information he wanted, as Severus himself would do if the occasion called for it.

"However did you make Gryffindor? Aren't you all suppose to fight valiantly till the end for what you believe in?" he snorted, never before feeling that his disdain for the Gryffindor house was so completely justified by its pitiful students, present or past.

"If thinking that makes you happy, don't let me change your mind," Remus replied mildly.

Severus merely reclined back onto the sofa, and continued sipping his pumpkin juice. Remus was unsure if more was expected of him to say or if he had already said enough. Snape looked angry and annoyed… again. Not much from the norm, but it wasn't as though Remus had expected sympathy or understanding either.

Not, either, that he could help the bit of hurt, on more than one level, to know, so unquestionably that after all this time, after everything they had done together, during the War, before, after, and for each other, that Severus still despised him to the level he did.

He tilted his head and gave voice to his thoughts. "You really do dislike me, don't you." It wasn't a question, and Remus didn't really expect an answer.

Severus' gaze was fixed firmly on the wall in front of him, apparently finding it somewhat fascinating, as he was unable to draw his eyes away from it. "You speak as if you already know the answer to that, so why ask?"

Remus wasn't certain that he had an answer to that, beyond more honesty, he supposed. Why stop now, after all? "Because it would be nice to think otherwise."

Sighing, Severus stood and made to walk back towards the door. He had never been a claustrophobic man, however his need to escape from the room was increasing rapidly with every word that Lupin uttered. Why did that intolerable man have to keep asking questions that were only matched in their ridiculousness by this whole situation? "If it would give you comfort to believe otherwise, then please do so. Anything for some peace and quiet."

Of course, Remus thought dryly. He should have known better than to expect civilised conversation out of the other Professor. Severus Snape? Civilised? And Remus wasn't a werewolf. Silently, he continued to watch Snape.

Inspecting the door, Severus shrugged as he moved his hands towards the knob in a futile attempt to open it. "It shouldn't matter to you one way or another if I liked you. I really don't see why you are making such a fuss, other than your intolerable and unrealistic ideals that everyone ought to like you."

Remus watched with a growing sense of horror and amusement as Severus continued to play with the door, a clear sign, and the only current sign, of the other man's annoyance and discomfort. "Because I rather like you, Severus, although most days I have utterly no idea why. I'd hardly say I'm making a fuss, though."

Pulling hard, Severus shook the door several times before heaving a sigh and slumping back against it. Slowly, his face took upon an expression of puzzled bewilderment as Lupin's admission finally dawned on him. "Well don't."

Remus raised a brow and shrugged in reply, as though to say What's it to you? before he his faced cleared and he leaned back in his chair, following the hazy green smoke as it waffled up from beneath the door, and watching as realisation dawned on Snape's face. "Thirteen hours from now, then?" Remus asked cheerfully.