Severus' dark eyes looked at the unconscious man on the ground, then he waved his black wand and levitated him into the castle.
"How, Severus? How?" Minerva asked as she wiped her eyes and walked closely next to him as Lupin floated ahead of him.
"I have no idea. I need a hair sample from his son to confirm his identity. I will compare it to whatever body we buried, and to whomever is buried next to him. Perhaps Nymphadora is alive as well."
"Pomona, can you go to the Tonks'?" Minerva asked and when she nodded, Minerva said, "Do not tell them anything yet. We have no idea what's going on, and we do not want to traumatize them further."
"I will go with you, my friend," Filius said quietly, and they disapparated.
Severus floated Lupin to the nearest bed in the infirmary and Poppy rushed to them, "Severus... Severus! Is that... Remus?!"
"It would seem so," Severus said lowly. How, wolf? How?
"We need to heal him, Severus," She said, and began to run diagnostics on the unconscious man.
Minerva's mouth was covered by her fingers and there were tears glistening in her eyes. Severus and Horace busied themselves mixing salves and uncorking healing potions for the mediwitch.
She tapped her wand to his clothing and it disappeared. The sheet over him folded into a thick strip of cloth that laid across his pelvic region to preserve his dignity. His chest was bruised, discolored, and badly injured. Poppy's tests revealed many broken ribs, a punctured lung, a dislocated shoulder, torn ligaments in his knee, a concussion, broken fingers and a broken collarbone, and a fractured foot.
"What happened to him?" Minerva was crying openly now.
Severus opened Remus' mouth and dripped a healing potion into it, then massaged the werewolf's throat so that he would swallow the elixir. Slughorn and Poppy were massaging the salves into his skin. He was looking "better" by the moment, but better and well were far apart.
Remus stirred on the bed, "S... Snape...?"
Severus' eyes met the bloodshot blue eyes of Remus Lupin, and Lupin swallowed hard, then coughed, and Snape said, "Lupin."
All bitter and utter disdain for the man had faded the moment he had seen Lupin's body in the Great Hall, though he could feel the dislike he had felt for man, the fear of the werewolf, stir in his belly. No.
"Snape," Lupin's face darkened, "Dora? Where is my wife? My son?
Severus hesitated and then said, "We are, at the moment, unsure as to where your wife is. Your son, however, is safe with Nymphadora's parents. Where were you, Lupin? You were believed dead. Both you and your wife."
"Voldemort. Voldemort killed Harry. He won," Lupin struggled through the pain. What?
Severus' dark eyes narrowed, "No, Lupin. The Dark Lord was defeated. Potter lives." Well. Hopefully.
Lupin paled and then turned green, "No."
"Who told you Potter was dead, and that the Dark Lord was victorious?"
Lupin's eyes flashed yellow, "Greyback."
Severus' stomach turned, and, with his right hand, he unbottoned his jacket and shirt sleeves, rolled up the fabric, and brandished his arm at Remus, "Potter lives. He was victorious. The Dark Lord was defeated."
Remus' eyes moved from Severus' face to his arm where the Dark Mark had been branded into his skin, and where it was now faded. The werewolf's eyes widened and then looked back at Severus' face, "You betrayed Voldemort? You were with us all along?"
Severus sighed, weary of these types of questions, "Many years ago, yes."
"When?" Lupin asked sharply.
"July 1980," He said.
Lupin's eyes narrowed as he did the maths, "You..."
Severus cut him off harshly, "We will have time enough for this interrogation, wolf, but we must know where you have been. We believed you to be dead. We saw your body. I saw your body. We saw her body. We BURIED you both!"
Lupin blinked rapidly, "What... What?
"Where have you been?" Severus repeated. Irritation was thick in his voice.
"Greyback had me. Wanted information. Wanted me to join him... His pack..." Lupin spit out the last words, "He tortured... Tortured me. Threatened my wife. My son."
"How did you escape?" Severus asked as he eyed the man carefully.
"They left me with just one guard," The maurader in Lupin smirked and he looked, for a moment, a bit younger.
"One guard? Where were the others?"
"I'm not sure. They left in a hurry," Remus shrugged and winced as his body protested against any movement at all.
"What do you remember of the battle?"
Remus thought for a moment, and then paled, "Leaving the Great Hall and then... Nothing."
Pomona walked into the infirmary with a tiny vial, "Here, Severus!" She handed him the vial.
He looked inside. There were a handful of blonde hairs.
"What's that?" Remus nodded toward the vial. Severus looked from the vial to the werewolf and then reached up to Lupin's head, which jerked away from his hand, "What the bloody hell are you doing, Snape?"
Severus lunged, grabbed a several of Lupin's hairs, and yanked them free from his head. Lupin glared at him angrily as Severus chose one hair from his fingers and one from vial. He tapped his wand to one and then another and they sparked white.
"What is that?" Lupin asked again.
"Congratulations, Lupin," Severus said with heavy irony, "On living, and on being a father."
Lupin looked stunned, and then to Snape's wand, "That's... That's Teddy? That's my son's hair?" His eyes glistened.
"Indeed," Severus said. Son. He's a father. A bloody father. Severus rose to his full height and turned away from Lupin.
"I must check the grave," Severus said in a hushed whispered to Minerva.
"The GRAVE?!" Remus shouted, "Whose grave?!"
Fucking werewolf sense of hearing. "Yours," Severus said casually.
"And Dora's?" Remus asked, "I'm not stupid, Severus! I'm coming with you!"
Poppy and Minerva protested vehemently as Lupin pulled himself shakily out of bed. He rose and stood before Severus, standing half an inch taller than the black haired wizard, and he glared into the black eyes. The werewolf metabolism had him healing faster than any ordinary wizard.
"You will not want to do this, Remus!" Minerva offered, her voice motherly, "If it is her..."
"Then Severus will tell me," Remus said firmly, daring Severus to say otherwise, "She is my wife. If it is her, or if it is not, I will be there. It is my right."
Severus looked at him. If it were Hermione... if it were Hermione...
"Very well," Severus nodded, and Remus breathed a sigh of relief as Severus magicked clothing onto him, "Come, Lupin," Severus turned on his heel and walked from the infirmary.
When they heard footsteps behind them, Remus turned back to his former colleagues, "I do not need an audience," He growled. It would be better for him if this should go badly that he had someone there who would be capable of... comfort.
"We just want to help," Minerva said quietly.
"Help me by giving me space," Remus said in a shaky breath.
The group nodded and allowed Severus and Remus to travel alone together well ahead of them. Before the arrived at the cemetery, Severus turned on Lupin, "Lupin, I..."
Remus jumped, startled at the man's sudden movement, a trait of someone who had been badly abused, "What?" He avoided Snape's eyes. Lupin's reaction reminded him of his own toward his father.
"I do not know what it is we will discover," Severus' eyes were intensely focused on Remus' face.
"If it's my wife..." Remus stopped and then whimpered as his lip trembled.
"You are sure this is what you want to do?" Severus asked, "I am more than capable of discerning the truth on my own and would be obliged to inform you of the results as soon as possible."
Remus shook his head violently, "I have a right."
"Indeed," Severus acknowledged, and then continued toward the graves of "Remus" and Nymphadora Lupin.
He heard Lupin's breath hitched and shivered as he imagined how it would feel to see one's own name on a gravestone with both a birth and death date carved beneath it.
"I will not..." Severus struggled to find the appropriate words, "I will not desecrate the grave."
Remus nodded several times, and his mouth was twitching as he struggled with both exhaustion and grief.
Severus touched his wand to the Earth over where "Remus" was buried. A hair appeared, and Severus tested it against one of Teddy's. The sparks from his wand were black.
Remus looked at his wand curiously, "Well, I suppose that is not me. Officially. Unless there were two of me."
"Christ, no," Severus growled, "One of you is more than enough." Wolf. He moved his wand to the soil over Nymphadora's grave, and another hair appeared. He pulled another from the vial and tested the two. White sparks.
No.
No.
Nymphadora.
No.
Severus' heart wrenched in his chest as Lupin collapsed to his knees beside Snape, "No!!!!!"
Snape's hand tangled in his black hair as tears stung his eyes. Lupin has lost everything. And then he thought how it had felt to have lost everything once many years ago. Lily. Then, he thought of what it would be like to lose everything again. Hermione.
"Fuck," Severus spat as Lupin howled his grief and beat his fists into the dirt. Fuck. Fuck.
Severus kneeled next to Lupin, who had his forehead to the Earth. He hovered over Remus' back.
Wolf. Maurader. He nearly killed me. His passive allowance. Bully. Tormentor.
As he looked at Lupin, at how broken he was, he realized they were not so different - Remus had just been lucky to have had been sorted into Gryffindor, to have not earned the random and undeserved ire of James and Sirius.
Werewolf. Outcast. He lost all of his friends. His family. Jobless. Lonely.
His hand touched Lupin's shoulder and the werewolf jumped at his touch, "Lupin... I am sorry."
Lupin turned on Snape violently, and shoved at his shoulder hard, causing Snape to hiss loudly, curse, and wince.
"What do you care, Snape? What have you EVER cared?" His blue eyes flashed yellow dangerously and his teeth were bared - the wolf inside grieving for its mate, "You have nothing. No one! You never have! You hated us! All of us! James! Sirius! Me! Harry! You were a bitter boy who grew to be a bitter man - always hanging onto a grudge from the schoolyard!" Lupin's magic sparked down his arms as his voice turned to an inhuman growl.
Severus stood, his temper flared hideously, magic crackling across his chest and shoulders, "You know nothing, Lupin," He sneered dangerously.
"What have you lost then? What do you have to lose?" Lupin growled at him as he stood and approached Severus.
"Everything," Severus said, "I have lost everything once. And I stand to lose everything again." Snape's voice was venomous.
"Remus! Severus!" Minerva said as she approached the two younger men. Severus took a step back, his dark eyes penetrating hatred into Lupin's blue, and Lupin looked confused. Idiot. You know nothing. You have always known nothing.
"Severus, is it Nymphadora?" Pomona said as she too approached the wizards.
Snape's eyes burned Remus' and he nodded once sharply. Pomona cried behind him and Severus' eyes moved to the ground. Her Hufflepuff
With a final angry glance at Lupin, Severus stalked away He heard Minerva consoling Remus as he walked off quickly.
"Severus!" Remus shouted, and Snape stopped, but did not turn. Remus had approached, and circled around in front of Snape. Snape did not look at him, his anger and temper barely held in check.
"Lily?" Remus said quietly. Lily.
Severus' dark eyes flashed to Remus'. He found no malice in the blue eyes, only pained understanding. Severus' lip twitched, and he moved his eyes over Lupin's shoulder toward the castle.
"Then. And now?" Remus said as he pondered the possibilities and then realization dawned on his face, "Hermione... I saw how you looked at her, how she looked at you that night in the Great Hall."
Severus said nothing, and moved past Remus, but Remus put a hand to Severus' chest, "I am sorry, Severus," He whispered.
Severus swallowed hard, and said, "As am I, Remus," And then stalked off toward the castle.
As am I.
