Sharp Teeth

Disclaimer: I do not. Own. Harry Potter.

A/N – A very short chapter but it ended where it wanted to. Please let me know your thoughts at the end, and remember, if you have questions, look me up and ask on Tumblr. That way you'll get an answer. :) Enjoy!

Jolting, Remus darted wide eyes to the man next to him, Peter's hand folding around the balled-up fist resting on his tense thigh and squeezing. "Yeah," he breathed, sucking in a shaky breath and deliberately squaring his shoulders, turning his hand over to squeeze back. "I'm good. I'm fine. Let's do this."

Chapter Six

The driveway seemed to have grown in size. Remus didn't say a thing as they made their way along it, Peter watching him almost as much as he watched where he was driving. If Remus had been able to think about anything but the four years he'd spent in the house he'd up until recently considered his permanent home, he might have scolded his best friend for not paying attention. But as they turned the last corner and the house loomed large out the front windscreen, all he could think about was Barty.

However much he'd ruled the roost and made Remus despondent much more than he'd liked, Remus couldn't deny that the man had changed his life. Not so much in big ways – although there were many people who'd said he'd changed from the moment he'd met Bartemius Crouch Jr. when he'd come to look at real estate in Remus's hometown, the summer after Remus had completed his A-levels – but having a man ten years his senior show interest in him had given him a much-needed boost in confidence. He'd been seventeen. And although nothing physical had happened until after his eighteenth birthday – a fact that he now knew had been deliberate on Barty's part and had him grimacing in distaste – it'd felt like to his young, hormone-riddled brain that they'd had a connection from the very first moment. Which had led to Remus being absurdly comfortable and more than willing to move in with Barty when the man had offered so charmingly.

It'd all been… he didn't know what it'd been. A game? Perhaps. He'd thought Barty loved him. He'd been sure Barty had loved him. But then he'd walked in on something he'd never in a million years thought he'd witness and everything had gone to shit.

Had it? Or had it always been shit and you were just determined not to notice?

"That horrid little prick isn't ever going to get any more attractive, is he?"

The rather nasty observation made in such a cheerful tone had Remus pulling away from his thoughts and looking over at Peter, before following his gaze and seeing Snape standing at the bottom of the front steps. Wearing an expensive three-piece suit, he stood, straight as an arrow, with his hands behind his back, the intimidating house his very large shadow. The sneer on his face was subtle, just visible in the pull of his mouth.

It screamed from his eyes. Remus gritted his teeth and gripped the door handle hard as the car pulled to a stop.

"I can do it," Peter murmured after a moment when Remus gave no sign of going any further. "I'll be in and out in a jiffy and you won't even have to talk to the fucker."

"I've already spoken to him, though, haven't I? Besides, I'm no coward."

"Sometimes cowardice is healthier in the long run," came the quiet reply. Remus blew out a breath and shook his head.

"Not this time," he said and pushed the door handle down. Peter didn't answer but his door opened at the same time and he was a step behind Remus when he climbed out of his seat and stood very briefly beside the car, his eyes on Snape. The man was as sallow-faced as ever, his nose a beak and his dark eyes wintery, and for some reason it was those tiny, unchanged details that got Remus moving.

Pillsbrook Hall was intimidating in its sheer size and grandeur. Barty had been intimidating when he'd first met him, and if he was being honest with himself, the man had never stopped making Remus nervous in one way or another. But the vile, pathetic little man in front of him had gone out of his way to tear down and alienate Remus from the moment he'd moved into the house. Remus had only very recently figured out that he hadn't been the only one out to destroy his self-confidence, deliberate or not, but he'd been the one who'd been the most obvious right from the beginning.

He had many, many mixed feelings about Barty, a lot of them negative. But Snape? He utterly loathed Snape.

"Lupin," Snape drawled icily, lip curling up just a tad when his eyes flicked to Peter. "Pettigrew."

"Tiny-pricked wanker," Peter returned in a bright tone, eyes wide. Remus stifled a snort.

"You have your five minutes," Snape continued after a withering look at Peter that should have turned him to stone. "Not a moment longer. I will be watching you the entire time and if you so much as attempt to leave this house with something that isn't yours, I will have you arrested for theft before you can leave the property. Do I make myself clear?"

Remus wet his dry lips. "As b-bloody mud. Can we get this over-r and done w-with?"

"Proceed," Snape said, inclining his head politely and stepping to the side. His smirk was minuscule. Remus gave a jerky nod and walked up the multitude of steps, catching Peter giving Snape a jaunty salute out the corner of his eye.

The inside of the house was a catacomb. Remus had always hated how precise and exact and completely devoid of life it was. It had an empty and unlived-in feel to it, not a speck of dust in sight. It was a showroom home and Remus moved through the cavern-like rooms with their picture-perfect accessories, trying his best not to linger as memories of happier times assaulted him.

He paused only once. Coming to a dead stop in the entranceway of the dining room so quickly, he swayed, his eyes locked on the large dining room table. It was polished to a gleaming shine and his heart slammed against his chest as his mind replayed him walking into the dining room on the day he'd ended his relationship with Barty and seeing the man he loved fucking Severus Snape into the table so hard, Remus hadn't been sure whether Barty's long-time personal assistant had been whimpering from pleasure or pain.

"We had it professionally cleaned. Don't you think it looks better for it?"

His lungs were frozen. It hurt very badly to see that, to remember that, and even though he was gradually beginning to grasp the fact that he was better off without Bartemius in his life, it still tore him to pieces. Four fucking years. He turned as if his bones were made of glass and the now full-blown smirk on Snape's face had his vision turning a violent red. His fists clenched.

"Rem."

"Fuck you, you absolute arsehole," Remus blurted, breathing hard. Snape's eyes glittered smugly and with Peter's gentle tugging, Remus turned away from the man who brought about the end of a significant period in his life and slowly continued through the house, his mind a mirror of his sickly churning gut.