AN: Thanks to all the new favs and follows. I'd really really really like to hear from some more of the people who've been following this story since the beginning. Talk to me people! Big special thanks to irezei, notwolf, and Gabbigirl for your reviews on the last chapter. Don't worry, this is not the end. This story will go all the way up to where the HP books ended.

A Slip of the Lip

When he got back to his rooms, Severus sat in the dark, staring into the crackling fire in the hearth. Earlier that night he'd been full of rage, hope, satisfaction, disappointment, and surprise, all rolling through him in rapid succession. Now he felt hollow. So much had happened in the last few hours, he felt like they had really lasted days.

When he'd run out of the castle that evening, the sun had been setting. It hadn't even come back up yet, but he'd already lost everything that had kept him going all year, the determined drive for revenge, his certainty of Lily's betrayer, and his best living friend.

As he listlessly watched the flames dance, he wondered to himself if that was really all he had. After a brief tally up of his life, he realized that, with the sole addition of his professorship, it really was.

'How pathetic can you be, Snape?' he asked himself with as much loathing as he'd ever injected into a question. 'Most of your motivation this year was inspired by a dead woman.'

'That's not new,' said the nastier voice in his head. "I think you were hoping for a bit of early redemption. You know that, until this is all over and the Dark Lord is completely gone, Potter will never be safe and you won't have fulfilled your promise to protect him for Lily. Your motivation to be the one to recapture Black was strong this year because that was something you could actually physically do, rather than the passive rubbish you've been involved in lately.'

Sure that there would be a day that he'd miss this passive rubbish, and unwilling to think about a time like that now, he pushed thoughts of Lily aside, and turned to thoughts of his living friend.

He'd done some hard thinking as he'd walked away from Brie after they had talked earlier, glad that she'd stuck around so that they could hash it out right away. Now he wouldn't spend days torturing himself with what-if and why-would-she, and how-could-she type scenarios.

He hated to admit it, but she was right. There wasn't much for her here in the wizarding world. If she was content to remain a professor for the rest of her days, she'd have been fine, but he knew that wasn't what she wanted long term. She had a life in her world to go back to and it wouldn't wait for her forever. Besides, in her world, she was pretty much the top boss, he'd always wondered how she dealt with coming here and just being another face in the work force. He didn't think it was something he'd be able to adjust to, if it was him.

Part of him wanted to be angry with her, but he couldn't bring himself to follow through on it. Of course he was upset that she'd chosen to leave, but could he really blame her? Brie didn't belong here. She belonged someplace where people would actually listen to her and take her seriously without her having to fight for their respect.

When she had first come to the school he'd also believed that she didn't belong here, but for entirely different reasons. He'd been narrow minded and wrong then, just as he'd, apparently, been wrong about Black all these years.

Those thoughts made him feel a bit ill. Was he really such a horrible judge of character? How, after all these years and all these lessons, did he manage to keep falling back into the same ugly habits that had lead him down such an awful path in the first place? What in Merlin's name was wrong with him?

He was still asking himself the same question the next morning as he made his way through the dungeon passages and up to breakfast. When he got to the base of the stairs that lead up to the entrance hall, he found his path blocked by almost the entirety of Slytherin house.

"What's going on here?" he snarled, in no mood for anything besides coffee.

"It's Peeves, sir," called a voice from the front, whose owner Severus couldn't see from where he was standing. "He's lobbing dungbombs and balloons filled with stinksap at anyone who tries to come up into the entrance hall."

"Oh, now really," he grumbled as he waded through the bodies. As he spoke, he started having the oddest feeling that, rather than uttering them on his own, the words were being pulled from him instead. "Did you all take a Befuddlement Draft this morning? Can none of you think of even one spell that may be remotely useful in this situation? Really, if it's not taming poltergeist, it's enduring idiotic student behavior, if it's not that, it's hunting escaped convicts, failing that there is always covering class time for a werewolf."

Hearing the words echo off the walls, he froze. He hadn't meant to say any of that. He'd planned on making a snide comment under his breath about how one would expect better from a house as noble as Slytherin. His brain suddenly felt sluggish.

"Sir?" several voices asked at once.

Draco was one of them. Severus didn't like the mean little glint in his eye. Briefly he wondered what had happened to the happy little tow headed boy that Draco used to be. Even though he'd never been overly found of other people's children, Draco had long been the exception.

Up until the Dark Lord's return had started to threaten at the edges of society again, Severus and Lucius had been relatively good friends, having shared so many memories of good times at Hogwarts when they'd been students. At the very least, Severus was able to tolerate Lucius, and his various quirks. Severus had watched Draco grow and had noticed the sly intelligence the boy possessed, just as he'd begun to notice lately that that same intelligence seemed to be suppressed by a layer of general self importance.

"One of the professors is a werewolf?"

"It must be Professor Lupin. He's the only one that ever needs someone to cover his classes for him."

"Wait till I write my parents about this."

"Do all the teachers know?"

Whispers spread like wildfire all around the little knot of students, pulling Severus out of his brief musing. His mind clearing, Severus suddenly realized the implications of what he had revealed. He continued to push his way to the head of the crowd. Once there, he mounted the steps. Turning around, trying to think of some way to fix the situation, he felt that same odd feeling again.

He heard himself utter, "Yes, yes, it's Professor Lupin, and frankly I am disappointed in every single one of you for not realizing that. The clues have been in front of you all year long."

Horrified, because he hadn't planned to say that at all, he turned, before he could blurt out anything else that he hadn't contrived, and rushed up the stairs, blasting Peeves with a Full Body Bind while he floated in midair, waiting for his next unfortunate victim. The spell caused the poltergeist to crash down to the floor of the entrance hall, stiff as a board.

Turning rapidly, Severus tried desperately to think of some way to stem the tide of damage that his unexpected and totally unplanned outburst had just started. The students had all heard him blast Peeves and were starting to cautiously peek their way out of the dungeons. He could still hear the new school rumor being passed through the crowd.

No ideas would come to him as his brain had gone sluggish and dumb again. Short of Obliviating every single one of them, an act that was frowned upon -and had a pretty decent chance of being witnessed if he did it anyway- there was nothing he could do. The damage was done. They were all trickling into the Great Hall even now as he frantically racked his dull brain for a plan.

He stood in the Entrance Hall next to a still stiff Peeves, and watched the students backs as they walked off. Not wanting to go into the hall and watch the news spread further, Severus decided that he wasn't very hungry after all and made a beeline back to his rooms so that he could try to figure out what had possessed him to say the things he had.

The words had really and truly come out of his mouth of their own accord. Besides the time when he'd almost told Brie for her own safety, he'd never even momentarily, seriously considered telling anyone Lupin's secret.

With a moan, he dropped down into a chair and held his head in his hands. He would have suspected that someone had slipped him some Veritasirum, but he hadn't had anything to eat or drink yet today, so that wasn't a possibility. There were certain spells that would cause someone to blurt out secrets, but again, no one had hit him with any spells today. Besides, although he'd certainly felt like he'd been under some kind of spell, that kind of magic was beyond the mastery of even the seventh year students.

He came up with, and quickly rejected, a handful of other far fetched reasons before the flames in his fireplace suddenly turned green and Albus' extremely angry voice rang through the room, "Severus! I'd like a word!"

Severus knew the old man was furious, otherwise he wouldn't have used the floo to call. With a sigh, he grabbed a pinch of Floo Powder from the dish on the mantle and tossed it into the fireplace. The flames roared up and turned green and Severus stepped into them with dread growing in his stomach. This wasn't going to be pleasant and he knew how everything looked, given his usual reputation for crossness at best, vengefulness at worst.

When he appeared in the grate of Albus' office fireplace, he noticed that Lupin was already sitting there. Severus cursed as he climbed out of the flames and brushed soot off his robes.

"I assume that you know why you are here?" Albus' frosty voice broke the tense silence immediately.

"I do and I don't," he answered honestly, eliciting growls from both Albus and Lupin.

The latter shot to his feet. "Now see here, Snape," he began, "I understand that there was a lot of tension between us as students, but we're adults now and considering the bit of progress we had made with each other over this year and the fact that you were dead wrong about me and Sirius..."

"Now you see here!" Severus cut him off. As sorry as he was for his unplanned and unexpected outburst, he was in no mood to be lectured. Especially if that lecture was going to try to glance over and downplay the actions of Lupin's precious childhood companions. Black might not be the murdering bastard they'd all taken him to be these last twelve years, but he was far from a saint.

Now you both see here!" Albus roared, quieting the both of them.

"No," Severus said quietly. "I'll say my piece first, Albus. I have no intention of sitting here and enduring a lecture as if I was a student and not a professor. Yes, I'm afraid that I let the werewolf information slip earlier this morning."

"Slip," Lupin snorted under his breath.

"Yes, for Merlin's sake, I let it slip. Literally. It came out of my mouth without plan or malicious intent. I barely even knew I had said it before it was over. I tried to find something to say that would fix the damage, but when I opened my mouth to speak again, I simply confirmed the information. Again, without plan. The words that came out of my mouth were not the words that I had waiting in my brain."

"Oh, now, really." Lupin scoffed. "We're not children anymore, Snape. You expect me to believe you? Especially after that essay you assigned. And even more especially after everything that happened the previous night and your obvious resentment that I am here?"

"I don't give a thestral's arse what you choose to believe or not believe, Lupin. Just as no one cared, all those years ago, to see Black's 'joke' as the murder attempt that it was," he snapped, satisfied by the look on Lupin's face.

"Enough, both of you, or I'll take points from your houses!" Albus bellowed. "Now, Severus, is that really, precisely what happened?"

"Exactly what happened, Albus," he answered, stunned that the old coot was taking his explanation into consideration for once.

With a furrowed brow, Albus held up his hand for continued silence. He appeared to be thinking quite hard. "I am inclined to believe you," he began before being interrupted by Lupin.

"Headmaster!"

Albus cut him off. "No, Remus, I do believe him. He spent much of this year extremely agitated by your presence, but he still kept the information a secret. I'm afraid that Severus was most likely simply a vessel this morning."

"A vessel?" both Severus and Lupin repeated as a question.

"Indeed. I'm sure you've both noticed that for quite some time now the Defense Against the Dark Arts position has been... let's say, hard to staff."

"Well, when you look everywhere but at who is already at the school and more than willing to take the..." Severus started to grumble.

Albus cut him off with a warning look. "Don't press your luck, Severus, just listen. For quite some time now, I have suspected that the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts may have some sort of curse or jinx on it."

"Well then, thanks for seeking me out for it," Lupin said sarcastically, looking both hurt and surprised at the same time.

"You'll have to forgive me, Remus," Albus said, "but, given your rather singular circumstances, it was unlikely that we'd have been able to keep your secret for much more than a year. I'm afraid I had to take a calculated risk when I decided to approach you about the position."

The look on Lupin's face told Severus that he didn't like what he was hearing. A part of Severus felt a bit smug. Now someone else could share in the feelings of being manipulated by this master of deceptions and half truths.

"Why would it be jinxed, Albus?" he asked the obvious question while Lupin was metaphorically licking his wounds.

"I believe it was Voldemort. Many many years ago, not that long after I'd taken the Headmaster post here, he approached me and applied for the position. Even then I had suspicions about his ultimate intentions and goals, having known him as a student here, so I rejected his application. Put mildly, this upset him and ever since then I've been unable to keep a DADA professor for longer than one year. I believe that it was not only an act of revenge upon me for daring to reject him, but that it was a strategic move as well. Having to find a new professor each and every year did, unfortunately, cause a sharp decline in the quality of education for the students taking the classes. I believe that Voldemort hoped that this would eventually give him a heavy advantage as he built his ranks and planned his war. When the staffing problem persisted after his apparent defeat, it was one of the first confirmations that all may not have been as it seemed."

The news washed over Severus, causing a dozen questions and realizations to pop into his head. Why hadn't Albus told him this before? Why had the sod allowed him to believe that he himself had never been awarded the position because of a lingering distrust for his zeal for the Dark Arts? Was he absolutely sure the position was cursed? How did he reconcile himself with assigning anyone the position, ultimately knowing what would happen?

"I can see that you're both lost in your own thoughts," Albus' voice cut through his mental monologue of questions.

"I'm sorry, Albus, that's just... a lot to take in," Lupin said. "I'm not sure how to proceed from here."

"Don't worry, Remus. When dealing with Voldemort, this kind of thing is quite normal. Right Severus?"

"Being thrown completely off guard?" he asked, slightly amused. "Just your everyday occurrence when the Dark Lord is involved."

Glancing sidelong at Lupin, he wondered if he should apologize, even though his actions, apparently, hadn't been his own. No doubt this slip up on his behalf was going to make life much harder for Lupin.

"Lupin, I'm..." he started to say.

"You apparently don't owe me anything like you're about to say, Severus." Lupin cut in.

"Still." he muttered, hunching his shoulders.

"Well, accepted then, I suppose." Lupin muttered back, staring at the floor.

"That was moving." Albus said sarcastically. "I suppose it's the best that can be expected of you two, though."

They both nodded in silent agreement.

"Well, if you'll excuse me," Lupin said after another minute of silence, "I'd better go pack. I think it would be best if I left quickly."

Albus rose as Severus looked over at Lupin, surprised. "Are you sure I can't convince you otherwise?" Albus asked. "I'm quite sure that we could find another position here, Remus. Something a bit less demanding than everyday teaching, where absences at the full moon are less noticeable. I think perhaps Hagrid could use some help with the groundwork, now that more of his time is taken up with class planning."

"No," Lupin answered sadly. "The owls will be here by this time tomorrow. No rational parent is going to want me here with their children. I've grown too weary of fighting, Albus. I've found it best that I simply move on when something like this happens."

"I'll have Hagrid bring one of the carriages around and I'll come see you in a bit then," Albus said sadly as Lupin left.

Severus continued to sit in his chair as he tried to sort out the jumble of feelings that were running through his head at that moment. Although he still considered it a very large danger to have Lupin at the school with his condition, for some odd reason Severus was sorry to see that he was indeed going to have to leave. He wasn't sure where that sympathy had come from.

"Knut for your thoughts," Albus interrupted his wondering. "You have the most contemplative look on your face right now."

"It's nothing," he grumbled.

"Doesn't look like nothing," Albus needled.

"I'm just wondering what he might do now," he gave in grudgingly. "It can't be easy for him out there."

Albus' eyes began to twinkle maddeningly as he went back behind his desk and offered up the bowl of lemon drops there. Severus actually contemplated taking one for the first time ever before Albus said, "I had hoped that Brie might change your opinion of Remus over this year."

"Why you conniving..." He started, forgetting the lemon drops.

"I said hoped!" Albus exclaimed. "Honestly, you all think I scheme much more than I do. I didn't say I'd lead her toward anything. Or you, for that matter. Once we found out that she wasn't frightened of him because of his condition, I simply made the safe assumption that she'd react to Remus almost exactly as she did and that her opinion of him might rub off onto you."

"You are simply too maddening to endure sometimes," Severus huffed as he turned to storm out.

"Don't call the cauldron black, Mr. Pot," Albus called after him.