Chapter 4

Lupin fell to his knees and cried out in pain, but did not seek his wand or even to defend himself or break eye contact. Snape knew Lupin was more than capable of defending himself from such attacks, if he chose. Snape peeled at layers and layers of Lupin's thoughts, digging and tearing with rising fury now that he had the man at his mercy. Snape's suppressed rage was released and he tore in the manner of the Dark Lord, with neither finesse nor delicacy and no regard for the pain he caused. He would say he tore in the manner the wolf had torn at him and such revenge was justified. However, Snape was also hunting. He was hunting Lupin's wolf and its memories. He wanted to hunt the wolf; judge the extent of its depravity and whether it was true that only Snape was in danger or whether others were too; then he wanted to hurt it and to mutilate its memories so the wolf and the man could derive no pleasure from Snape's own pain.

As effective as the Cruciatus, Lupin keened as his mind was savaged; the two men's eyes locked and they swayed in their in their stances. Snape's eyes were black, hard and glittered with purpose and malice; Lupin's brown eyes overflowed with tears of pain and shame, but he did not look away.

For what seemed an eternity, Snape raked through Lupin's memories and thoughts, casting it all aside in his hunt. He clawed to the very recesses of Lupin's mind and there he found the cursed creature, heavily bound, snarling with rage and pain and animal terror. Snape had the creature at his own mercy now. He could see the lengths to which Lupin had sought to bind his wolf which paced as any brutalised beast would pace, craving freedom. If it were a natural creature, Snape would pity it. It was not a natural creature; it was the very stuff of Darkness and depravity created by the very Darkest magic from the dawn of time. Snape could see from all he had torn through that Lupin had done his very best to subdue and weaken the wolf, that much was true. However, Lupin, in his abstinence, had chained his own thwarted desires to the beast and unwittingly weakened himself and made the creature stronger allowing it to break early from its lunar moorings.

Finally, Snape's rage was spent. He becalmed himself now he saw that Lupin had not spared himself in containing the monster. Snape, so well-versed in the Dark Arts and their defences, including some magics so ancient they were from time immemorial, considered his armoury. The incantation he then used was one of the oldest and most intricate bindings, used since mankind could perform magic and since werewolves could be made from men. He bound and re-bound, tethered and chained, blocked and buried. This wolf was now re-bound to the moon, never to break through whilst Lupin was a man, not even as a shadow behind Lupin's eyes. He stripped the beast of Lupin's desires, desires made foul and depraved by their chaining to the beast. It was the very best that Snape could do with the wolf while the man lived.

He withdrew softly from the mind of the man and released the spell. Lupin fell to the floor, trembling and his breath hitching whilst he cried. Snape stood back and watched as the man raised himself on his hands to look at Snape. Whilst Snape's rage was gone, he could not feel pity and he did not want to assist Lupin further. He could have repaired some damage on this retreat, but no-one but himself had repaired the damage done by the wolf to him and he did not wish to remain in the mind of his assailant. Lupin nodded imperceptibly as if he had understood this and drew himself to a sitting position, still shaking, but his breathing evening out.

"I will send you a potion to help to heal the wounds from Legilimency. I have had cause to perfect it over the years. It will assist you. Go to bed. You will not be able to teach for a few days. I will tell staff you are ill and I will take your lessons. I have re-bound your wolf. It had loosened its moorings over the years. I have stripped it of the desires you appear to have fed it."

Snape took a step back and perched on the arm of the chair behind him, his hands on his knees still looking at Lupin dispassionately. "You need to shore up those moorings further. Your abstinence was the weakness your wolf exploited. You are an unusual werewolf, Lupin, because you seek the Light and to subdue your creature. If you behaved as a werewolf, you would not deny yourself so utterly and your wolf would remain lunar-bound unless you chose to unbind him, like Greyback." Snape noticed Lupin flinch. "You know of him?"

"My sire," Lupin whispered.

Snape nodded. "A Dark creature indeed, steeped in malevolence: no doubt why your wolf is so strong." Snape leaned forward. "Shore your moorings Lupin. You need to live and love in this world, albeit cautiously. I am no confessor but you understand what I am saying. There many magics in this world and they complement each other."

"Severus..." Lupin started. "No, Lupin. I am leaving now. I do not wish to discuss this further now. I will come to see you in a few days and we will decide if you are as safe as you can be or if more needs to be done and whether Dumbledore needs to be told."

With that, Snape swept from the room, leaving Lupin to tend himself.

On arriving at his quarters, he collected the potion, wrote instructions and despatched these to Lupin by house elf. He silvered his wards with old magic then took his pain-relieving potions and re-applied his own healing unguents. He pondered his own words, "you must live and love in this world" and wept quietly for himself that he could not.