Listening to The Remus Lupins "Fate of Severus Snape"
Lily walked towards the door, smiling at the different personalities, and unlikely friends, and then the door shut. James shrunk the suitcases, placed them in his pocket, and then reached out a hand to Lily.
As they apparated away Lily couldn't help but see that the expression on James's face reflected her own thoughts.
'What the Hell have we done?'
The men turned towards each other and all had one thought as they looked at the opposing side, and a burping Harry.
'What the Hell have they done?'
TEN MINUTES LATER…
"So Snape, or should I say, Snivellus, how have you been?"
"I am quite well actually. How have you been Black…rotting in your own vulgar existence, I presume?"
"You're still the bitter sour-faced git, I see."
"And you're still the thoughtless, bothersome, arrogant, torturing toe-rag I notice."
Remus put Harry down and walked over to the two quarrelling men. 'Did we really hate each other this much?' Remus thought about it. Sure they hated Snape and Snape hated them, but how far had the teasing gone? It wasn't really torture… was it?
Remus thought about something he promised he would never dwell upon again…the incident that almost made him a murderer. His thoughts drifted back to the Whomping Willow.
'Sirius almost got Snape murdered.' A voice in his head spoke up.
"But he didn't mean it," he tried in vain to defend his rebellious friend from himself.
"Who the hell sends someone into the jaws of a monster like you to be killed…and doesn't mean it?"
Remus shook his head, trying to make the voice in his head shut up. "Great," he thought sarcastically "now I'm hearing bloody voices in my head." Making a mental note to get that taken care, he strode up to the angry men, seeing that Peter was quite content on hiding behind the sofa. Remus would have to take matters into his own hands.
"Alright, that's enough you two!" Remus said with more confidence than he actually felt.
"Oh look, Lupin the cowardly werewolf has come to set us straight!"
"Leave him alone, you over grown bat!" Sirius growled.
"Sirius stop," Remus warned as Sirius's fingers twitched for his wand.
"As much as I would love to leave you two mutts rolling in your own filth-" Severus stopped in mid-sentence, his face had gone from sallow to devoid of color and life.
"Severus," Remus asked in sudden concern at the foreboding gaze on Severus's face and how he hadn't continued what was sure to be a witty affront. Had Sirius done something? He hadn't even touch his wand…"Are you-?"
"I am fine," Severus said mechanically "I will be right back."
Severus barely made it two steps before he fell to the floor in pain, clutching his burning left arm. Gasping, he struggled to get up, until two pairs of arms lifted him by the elbows and placed him on the soft sofa.
Remus's face emerged from Snape's blurred vision, hovering on the edge of the blurry lines was Sirius's face, sloping and rising like he was looking into a fun-house mirror. The image of Sirius's so-called 'perfect' face contorted into a disgusting form would have made Snape laugh, but now it just made him want to vomit.
"Severus what's-"
"Vial," Snape choked out "in my pockets…"
Remus quickly found the crystal vial in Snape coat pocket and lifted it to Severus's lips. Severus downed the light purple liquid in one gulp. He spluttered a bit, but the life in his moral fiber gradually returned and his glare steadied.
"Here, let me run a quick diagnostic spell to make sure everything's okay." Remus spoke carefully and quietly, as if he was talking to an injured animal. Severus remained silent. He knew what had happened. His mark sizzled lightly, but thanks to the remedy Albus Dumbledore himself had prepared and given him, it only somewhat made him want to scream in agony, curl up into a ball and die.
'Albus Dumbledore.' Severus thought with a sigh. 'Headmaster of Hogwarts…and the only one who has a chance of beating the Dark-no' Severus quickly reevaluated himself 'Voldemort.' Albus was the one Snape had run to, begging to be forgiven. Of course Albus hadn't believed him at first…but eventually the old forgiving, lover of loving, coot had accepted him to the Order of the Phoenix. No one else could know though, especially not Voldemort. The lilac concoction was one that Albus had been working on; it would silence the burning of the mark and protect him if he were to be punished by the Cruciatus Curse.
"Has it been tested?" Severus had asked the shrewd old man, dressed in lavender robes with gold and silver striped ribbons flowing around him. He looked over his half moon speckles, his bright blue sparkling.
"I believe dear Severus," He had begun, smiling "that you will have the indubitable honor of being the experimental factor. Isn't that exciting?"
'Indubitable honor?' Severus thought with a snort 'More like damnable sentence.'
The first potion had no affect on him whatsoever, the second succeeded in giving him a rash in a dreadfully…uncomfortable location; the third try only delayed the pain of the Cruciatus Curse, and the fourth only made the rash worse.
'Well,' Snape thought as he came back from his reminiscing and watched Remus search for his own wand '26th times a charm.'
Remus looked through his tattered pockets but couldn't find his wand. "I just had it…" He patted his thighs and chest looking all around for it.
"Uh, Remus…I think I found your wand." Sirius pointed to the giant wad of wrapping paper.
Harry was currently wielding Remus's wand around, giggling, he sent little sizzling red sparks whirling around the tip.
"LUPIN! You gave the Potter-spawn YOUR WAND!"
"He must've taken it out of my pocket-!"
Harry swished the wand at the couch, sparks hopped all over it, then sizzled and exploded. The couch itself shook then erupted into fire. Peter, who had been hiding behind said couch, took off running attempting to get to the safety of the kitchen. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending how you look at it) he never made it. Harry jabbed the wand in Peter's direction, it looked as though his feet were ripped out from under him, his legs dangled towards the ceiling as gravity abandoned him. His head bobbed around and his mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water.
"Harry," Sirius said sternly, Harry's head turned and smiled at his Godfather. "Put Peaty down."
Harry did as he was told.
Peter zoomed towards the ground, "BANG!" His head hit the unforgiving wooden floor. The rest of his body fell in a sort of sluggish manor, and then his limbs hit the floor with a 'thump.'
The three stared in shock and horror, and then gathering their wits, Sirius and Remus ran to their unconscious friend. Severus slowly followed, trying to stop the nauseous feeling in his head and the unwelcome lurch of his stomach.
He got on his knees next to Remus, as Sirius ran a diagnostic spell on Pettigrew.
"He'll be fine," Sirius heaved a sigh of relief. Then looked at Remus and smiled.
"Now where's that little heart-stopper?"
Remus looked to Severus, seeing that Severus didn't have Harry, he turned back to the pile of wrapping paper.
Nothing.
The three men looked at each other as a loud giggling bellowed off every wall in the house.
"Oh no," Remus put his face in his hands.
"Okay let's look what we're up against," Sirius said putting a hand on Remus's shoulder. "A little baby against three adult wizards."
"But Sirius, he has my wand…think about the harm he could do to himself."
Fire shot up from the floor out of nowhere. The flames gave a crackling "HISSSSSS" the men quickly jumped out of the way, only to be hit by gummy bears falling from the ceiling. The little flickering fire on the couch quickly turned into an inferno. Fireworks shot out from the cushions, exploding in the air then sputtered to the floor, only to come up again as bubbles.
It took the men over an hour to extinguish the fires and stop the raining gummy bears from pelting their heads. Eventually the fireworks ended leaving the room in an ashy mess.
They sat down on the burnt and torn couch, huffing and puffing.
Severus spoke first. "Think about the harm he could do to himself," Severus snorted as he repeated Remus's words. "Think about what he's going to do to us."