Title: Practically Brothers – Epilogue

Chapter: 2

Author: ReeraTheRed

Date: July 26, 2007

Rating: PG13

Summary: Post Deathly Hallows. Lupin and Snape both survived. Friendship but no slash.

Disclaimer: Everything here belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Acknowledgements: This is all Mandrill's fault.

A/N: I thought the last chapter was it, and it fits with canon – it's pretty clear in the book that, if Snape and Lupin survived, they disappeared, so that everyone still thought they were dead. But while I can easily believe Snape would leave, Lupin is another matter.

So, those who want to think that Snape and Lupin disappeared can stop here. For those who don't mind leaving canon behind, read on:

Chapter 2

A/N: This starts immediately after Chapter 1.

The sun rose, clearing the tops of the trees. Lupin felt the warmth of it on his face, on his arms, flowing through him, and the despair of last night fell away like a shadow. Never make life decisions when you have just risen from the dead, he thought, and he almost laughed.

"No, Severus," he said. "I must stay."

Snape started, and stared at him.

"It will not be a new beginning if we run away," Lupin said. "We'd leave nothing behind, we'd bring it with us. And we'd bring shame and fear with us as well, always looking behind, afraid of being found out. Running away from what you fear won't help. You have to face it down, or it will control you forever."

Snape frowned.

"More important," Lupin said, "I will not leave the people I love, and who love me. I am proud that they care as much for me as they do, and they mean more to me than my own life." He looked at Snape. "That includes you.

"And as for my son," Lupin went on, "if I were a mere boy, I would agree with you, better to give up my child to a better home. Many young people face that decision and decide to follow that course, and for them it is an honorable one.

"But I am not a child. And if I live in poverty, I am not alone. I have his grandmother to help me. She dotes on him, and she has already agreed to take care of him, should anything happen to Dora or me. But I can still be there in his life."

Snape was frowning deeply now, but he did not interrupt.

"And he will need me, Severus," Lupin said. "We hope his case will not be as extreme as mine, but I will not let him face his transformations alone. Moreover, he will have to face all the prejudice against werewolves whether he is a danger or not, and I have a chance to do what I can, with whatever influence I have won, to make the world a better place for him when he's ready to enter it.

"I am needed, Severus. And I am wanted – you think to play on my old weakness, my own old beliefs that I am only a useless burden. But you and Harry and Dora all showed me that this is not so. I am wanted, and I could never hurt the people I care for by simply leaving with no word. I could not hurt them so.

"So, no, Severus, I will not go." Lupin's face was flushed.

Snape blinked at Lupin in astonishment.

"I've been married for nearly a year," Lupin said, with a shrug, "to a very strong minded woman. I've learned how to argue, and to stand up for myself a little better." A terrible sadness crossed his face for a moment, then it was gone.

"And you, Severus," Lupin said gently, "you must stay as well."

Snape sneered. "Hardly."

"Even if it's only to say good-bye. You owe the others in the Order that much."

"I owe them nothing," Snape said.

"And yet you did everything for them, risked everything."

"I did not do it for them!"

"You did it for Lily, I know."

"Don't you dare use her name with me!"

"And you did it for Albus. And me, I think," Lupin said. "Thank you, Severus."

Snape glared at him.

"But is your obligation over? You swore to protect Harry, didn't you? Lily's child? Your task is not finished. Harry is no longer in danger from Voldemort, but he's still only a boy."

"I think the Weasleys have taken on the position of surrogate parents," Snape said. "They will serve admirably."

"But they can't stand in for Lily and James, as you and I can," Lupin said. "Your promise is not finished. There are many kinds of protection. It is not just fighting monsters and evil wizards. It is living, each day. That they know you are there, even if they don't think they need you."

"Oh, I'm certain Potter will clasp me in his arms."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Lupin said. "You can tell him more about his mother than anyone else. And I think he's finally realized that you were always there, to protect him, to watch over him." Lupin smiled. "That's what I want to be for my own boy, as well as Harry."

"Your sentimentality is making me ill, Lupin," Snape said in a low growl.

"I'm not saying march openly back to Hogwarts, you know," Lupin said. "Though you are needed, of course. With all the injured, I know the potions stocks must be low. Madame Pomfrey is probably beside herself. And St. Mungo's has got to be overflowing – Hogwarts isn't the only place there has been fighting.

"You could go quietly down to the Potions dungeon," Lupin went on. "Or back to your own home, or to my cottage. You don't have to speak to anyone. I'll let everyone know you survived, you don't have to face that, I know that would be too much."

"I'd think you'd have blocked me from your cottage."

"Easy enough to change," Lupin said. "We can go together, if you want to stay there for now." He studied Snape. I never did know where his home was, he thought.

"Or did you plan to leave in a blaze of glory?" Lupin asked. "The dead hero, knowing everyone would mourn you and blame themselves, and say how sorry they were? Is that what you wanted? You could listen in at your own memorial, hear the speeches."

Lupin noticed Snape's fists clench at that. Of course it's what he wanted, Lupin thought.

"Come with me, Severus," Lupin said. "The day has finally come. It is all over, just as we talked about. You can still travel the world, if you finally decide that is what you want to do. But finish things here. Or they will haunt you forever, and you'll never be free."

Snape looked at Lupin, but Lupin could read nothing in his eyes.

Lupin held out his hand. "We can go back to my home. Or back to Hogwarts. I'll go with you, either way. I'm sure we can find a spare room at Hogwarts. And you'll know, better than I, the state of the Potions stocks. If you think you could help Madame Pomfrey out."

Snape stared at Lupin's hand, and sniffed. "Don't treat me like a child, Lupin."

Lupin put his hand down. "Well, I'm going back." He gave a lopsided smile. "I'm going to have to face them realizing I'm alive, too. I understand why you want to avoid that." And Dora, Lupin thought. I've postponed facing her loss.

The image of her still form, lying besides his, flashed in his mind. His head spun, and he stumbled. He would have fallen if Snape hadn't caught him.

"Sorry," Lupin said, weakly. "I've never come back from the dead before. I think I've exhausted my strength." He looked wistfully up the road. "I'm not sure I can manage the walk." He tried to step forward, and stumbled again. An onlooker might have wondered if the motion weren't somewhat exaggerated.

Snape shot him a look of exasperated annoyance and heaved an outraged sigh. "All right, Lupin, I'll help you back. We can't have you fainting on the road, can we?"

"Thank you, Severus," Lupin said meekly.

"Just to the gates, and no farther," Snape growled. "After that, I'm turning around and heading back."

"I appreciate it," Lupin said, as Snape pulled Lupin's arm over his shoulder. Lupin leaned on him gratefully, and they walked slowly back up the road.

"So," Lupin said, conversationally, as he tried to match Snape's long stride, "all this time, you told me you couldn't do a Patronus."

"So Harry announced that to everyone, did he." Snape still radiated annoyance.

"How much else was a lie?" Lupin asked. "I'm not criticizing, you understand, I'm just asking. I know you had to deceive everyone to survive."

Snape merely grunted as Lupin knocked against him as they walked together.

"You're a half blood," Lupin went on. "So all your talk of being ignorant of Muggle ways was smoke."

"Not so much as you'd think," Snape said. "We didn't even own a television, and my mother knew next to nothing about Muggles. I really had little knowledge of Muggle culture until you showed it to me."

"But you did wear jeans," Lupin said.

"Oh yes," Snape said. "What a dreadful memory. I always hated going back home."

Lupin turned his head to look at Snape's face, but all he could see was the lank curtain of hair.

They reached the two pillars marking the gates to Hogwarts, and Snape stopped. "There," he said, nodding at the school ahead. "It's only a bit further."

Lupin pulled his arm from around Snape's shoulders, took a step forward, and fell down to the ground. He looked around helplessly at Snape, who glared back.

"Um, if you could just get me to the infirmary," Lupin said. "It's so early, there won't be anyone up and around yet. Not many, anyway. You could just sneak in, no one will see you."

"I'm leaving," Snape said, as he pulled Lupin up. "You understand that. As soon as I get you back to Madame Pomfrey, I'm leaving. You can tell them what you like." He got Lupin's arm back around his shoulder again.

"Madame Pomfrey will want you to check over the potions stocks -"

"Madame Pomfrey can go to blazes," snarled Snape.

He'll look, Lupin thought. He won't be able to stand it. He's very proud of his potions skills, and he won't have been able to show them off all year. Just let him get back, to his familiar places.

I never did play him any Wagner, I'll have to do that.

And, accompanied by muttered curses against all idiot werewolves who insisted on overdoing when any sane person would have stayed in bed, the two figures, one black and one ragged brown, lurched together up the path to the towers of Hogwarts.

TBC

A/N: It's easier to kill characters like these two off, rather than have to deal with their lives. These two have severe problems, after all. But I love them, and I want them to survive, in every sense of that word.

I don't have any plans to re-write my other fics to make them HBP and DH compatible (if nothing else, I'd have to take out Dumbledore, and I refuse to do that ), but I guess this is sort of a strange, multi-universe bridge between Practically Brothers and The Wounded.