For you, splotts. For you and your damn computer.

To everyone else, I am planning on making a prequel to 'Morbid Fantasy' in Snape's POV running from the start of his relationship with Remus to the end of Morbid Fantasy. How does that sound, huh? But need encouragement. I'm only a little girl after all and it'll be a looooooooooooooooooooooooong story.









Chapter 11



Remus was sitting with me in the staff room and we were drinking tea. I have always found that tea sounds very quaint. Rather ironic seeing as it comes in such a variety of quality. Like the shite the teachers get to drink. Like Severus warned me, you have to buy your own.

Or join one of the tea clubs.

How very quaint.

"I take it you haven't gotten round to meeting Sybil, yet?" Remus asked me.

"No.... why, am I missing out on something?" I took a sip. The tea was scalding. It really is an art form and they should teach you how to drink tea without burning your tongue at school. Could be one of your GCSE options: Tea-drinking: Intermidiate, Normal, Higher tier...

"Just a very entertaining experience..." Remus grinned.

I shook my head. "Do you all have something in for the poor thing?"

"Oh no... well... McGonagall does, I dunno, that can be funny at times... but it can otherwise be considered as bullying." I loved the look on Remus' face. He was a true teacher through and through.

"The perfect environment for Severus, huh?" I smiled. He chuckled.

"Don't..." he looked at me carefully.

"What?" I asked.

"Well..." he started, then frowned slightly. "I don't know how to deal with you to be brutally honest.... I mean, on the one hand, there's the fact that you're my ex's partner, then on the other, you're the famous Dr. Isaac Reuben, revealer of the Dark mysteries and History. I mean, I'm not saying that I hate you or that you're a very bad person or whatever," he trailed off. "But like I said, I don't know where to place you... and Severus obviously cares an awful lot for you."

I snorted. It was my immediate reaction and I don't know why I did it and why I didn't. Remus' frown deepened and his eyes seemed to glint confusion.

"Don't you think so?" He asked.

"Oh, well... I'm sure he does in the way that only Severus can..."

"And that's not enough?"

I blinked. Now that I came to really think of it, no, it wasn't. Remus could obviously see something else in my silence. The man is so perceptive, it's scary.

He sipped his tea thoughtfully.

It seemed quite typical that I wouldn't know how much Severus actually cared about me and that it would be someone else who would tell me, even if it *is* Remus, because that always seems to happen. I did always get the feeling that Severus appreciated my compay and din't just see me as a live- in shag, but not in the everlasting sense. It all seemed quite spontaneous at times.

"I know how it is," Remus sighed eventually.

"Oh? How was it with you two?" I asked, seemingly casual. Remus gave me the startled, guarded look that Severus had done when I had asked him about their relationship.

"More or less the same.. I think."

Now I wanted him to tell me more, which surprised me. I'm not actually a nosy person in truth, but Hogwarts is hardly a normality, is it. And maybe it had something to do with the case that we were on. Maybe it was Severus.

"You're a werewolf, aren't you?...." I said rather suddenly. "I'm sorry, I never got the chance to discuss it with you," I smiled, trying to put him at ease.

"Yeeees, student gossip?"

"No. I hardly hear any, now that you mention it. No, I just noticed by your eyes... and your reactions." I looked at the dark grain of the table.

"Of course," Remus flicked a spot of imaginery dust off his left knee. "You're an expert in those Mysteries."

Uncomfortable would be an understatement when it comes to describing how I felt at that moment.

"Remus, I'm trying to change the subject," I said through gritted teeth. He smiled slightly. "I haven't as much skill as someone like yourself would in that criteria, obviously. But my own technique usually works wonders on Severus."

He chuckled again.

"To be honest - and please don't be offended - I can never see why you split up with him in the first place," I remarked quietly and Remus' eyes clouded, though not with tears, just with some sort of emotion.

"A mistake." He answered shortly.

"Ah yes, of course... yours or Severus'?"

A pause.

"Mine," he whispered, suddenly reminding me of a Death Eater I had once questionned. It was quite worrying to be honest: you could tell Remus Lupin was a good man, the way you knew that sunshine is good, that rain is good. It startled me that he could remind me so vividly of a guilty conscience.

He isn't a guilty man... not of *anything* I had to keep reminding myself.

"Remus?" I murmured, leaning closer to him. "You must tell me... partly... because I want to know and partly... because I think," a frown began to crease its way across my brow. "I think it would actually be best for you."

He smiled, somewhat mischevously. "Aah, but, Isaac... he hates me." I tried to reply but he cut me off short. "And he loves you."

"He's never told me that," I answered, equally as quiet, my head lowering into Remus'.

"So? It doesn't mean he doesn't love you... God knows he does... you can tell by the way he looks at you... how he acts around you...." He began to laugh. "God, I wonder what we look like; if Severus comes in here, he'd probably think that the evil bastard werewolf is at it again!"

"Aha!" I whispered, leaning in closer. Remus was trying very hard not to laugh. "So you were caught with someone else!"

His eyes narrowed slightly, but not in malice. "Oh dear, it seems that Dr. Reuben has struck again."

"Yeah well... just don't tell Severus."

* * *

On the Sunday afterwards, Severus and I had decided to take refuge in our lovely Kensington home which meant a return to familarly smelling sheets and American style triple chocolate cookies.

We arrived at the house by 4:30, planning to take the Monday off - Remus would fill in for the only lesson I had that day and Severus had none, for some strange reason - and leave on Tuesday morning. At around five o'clock, we were both in the study, marking papers and drinking cocoa and Severus' mobile began to ring.

He looked up at me - I shrugged as intelligently as one can - and answered it. "Hello, who-? ...Remus?...What the fu-?... No, no... slow down ... what happ-... I got that, yes, what else - who? Oh, shit.... my God...where? ... Remus...? Listen to me... " Severus was answering frantically. It seemed to me at that instant that we'd have to go back to Hogwarts immediately, so I hurried off to pack a few things quickly and get our travelling cloaks.

And unlike before, I took with me a large binder I had made during my extensive studies.

Severus met me at the stairs, worried. "We're going to leave right now, Isaac... phone up Miranda... tell her to head straight for Hogwarts as soon as possible." I was carrying the case and flung a cloak at him. "Yake it you're ready?"

"Yes...."

We both left the house and hailed down the ever useful Knight bus to Hogsmeade."

*d(@)b*

Another short chapter. R&R!