Forty-Eight

Sliver

When Laura got to the Owl Room after her meeting with her father, she was so exasperated that she sat down at the work table and laid her head down on it with a book over it to hide her defeated expression. At the other end of the table, Garvan, Natalie and even Maurice sniggered at her.

"You'd better hope Boulderdash doesn't catch you with that book on your head like that," Natalie said with a grin.

"I don't care. I hate this time of the month," Laura's muffled voice said. "My father is being a pain in my backside."

"I can't see how new moon could be any worse than full moon in your case," Garvan admitted. Laura pulled the book off her head grumpily and made sure the pages were in good order before she closed it.

"It's worse because when he's feeling his best all he wants to do is get involved," she grumbled. "He's obnoxious, nosy, and impossible."

"That's probably true," Maurice decided. "Although I doubt you should be saying that in front of students, seventh years or not. How about some tea?"

"Fine," Laura said, and Maurice set a cup down next to him. Taking the hint, Laura came and sat with them. She stared at the three students. They stared back.

"It's been a while since I sat down at this table," Laura commented.

"Once an Owl, always an Owl," Maurice said. "That's what Ambrose always says."

"He would," Laura snorted, drinking the tea.

"Sandwich?" Garvan suggested.

"No, I had lunch with my father," Laura said.

"That explains the drama," Natalie teased. "Why did you have lunch with him, then?"

"I'm going to be subbing Defense in two weeks and this is the only time he feels safe enough to talk to me about it," Laura explained.

"That should be interesting," Maurice said. "Are you going to have a guest with you as well?"

"Yeah, we've had everyone from Harry to the Professor and even Mr. Bael last month," Natalie said.

"Maybe, I was thinking of teaming up with Librarian Boulderdash for the second day," Laura said.

"That would be fun!" Natalie said enthusiastically. "Do you suppose he'll agree to it?" Laura shrugged, then looked up when she heard the door Boulderdash stepped in from his office, looking between them curiously.

"What are you doing over there, Miss Lupin?" he asked curiously.

"She was getting ready to help us study for the NEWT test," Maurice said smoothly, while Garvan got up and cleared her cup for her.

"Oh. Very well, feel free to continue, I'll have Miss York watch the desk for the rest of her shift so you can help them, Miss Lupin," Boulderdash said.

"Thanks, Boulderdash," Laura said, as he went out the front door.

She blew her hair out of her face in relief and turned her attention to the students, who dutifully opened their books and discussed where they were at their scores were. It wasn't long before Laura felt right at home, tutoring as she so often had when she had first sat at that table.

It was that Sunday evening, while Severus was in the nursery helping Quintin read his book, that one of the school owls swooped in and dropped off a letter. Severus caught it neatly, sticking it in his pocket until the two of them were done and Quintin was settled into bed.

"Can I have the Hat?" Quintin asked.

"No, just go to sleep," Severus insisted, covering him up.

"Please, Father, pleeeeease?" Quintin begged. Severus sighed.

"You are so much like your mother," Severus chided him but acquiesced, plucking the Sorting Hat off the shelf and letting it fall on the boy's head.

"Hello, Quintin. Do you want to hear nursery rhyme?" the Hat asked.

"Hickory Dickory Dock," Quintin said.

"Oh no. Not that again..." the Hat said as the boy giggled. "How about Wee Willie Winkie?" it asked.

"No," Quintin said with a grin.

"Wise Old Owl?"

"No," said Quintin.

"All right, all right. Hickory Dickory Dock," the Hat sighed.

Shaking his head at them, Severus dimmed the lamps and went into the study as the poor Hat softly repeated the rhyme. Finally he pulled out the letter he had gotten.

He sat down at his desk and opened it with a frown, pondering how he should handle it and the possible consequences. A few minutes later, Jennifer peeked in from behind the curtain and then stepped out with a tired smile.

"Is Quintin asleep? Do you have much left to do tonight?" Jennifer asked quietly, peering in the nursery to see that the both the boy and the Hat seemed to be out cold.

"No, I'm done in here, but perhaps you should read this," Severus suggested, handing her the letter. He double-checked the journal to see when his first appointment was, putting everything else away.

"So Ivano's son is in London?" Jennifer realized. "So much for waiting for next month," she added with a sigh.

"Yes, I was thinking the same thing, but it can't be helped. We should probably arrange a meeting between the three of you in town after classes are out tomorrow," Severus decided, moving the nursery door back to their rooms. "You are going to need to be extremely cautious during that meeting. On one hand, he may be a great help to us, but it is just as possible that his presence here is just a precursor to whatever it was the vision was trying to tell Remus about."

"Yes, I can see that. Don't worry, Severus, I'll be careful," Jennifer replied, waiting for Severus to move a chess piece onto the board before the two of them stepped into his sitting room.

Remus glanced out the window at the sliver of a moon before going to the closet to get his cloak, putting his wand in his belt and leaving the cane. He glanced around the classroom to make sure everything was put away.

"All ready?" Jennifer asked, peeking in the door.

"Yes. Where are we meeting at?" Remus asked.

"I thought the Leaky Cauldron would be wisest," Jennifer said. "It's neutral ground and we can borrow my father's table to be safe."

"Very well, let's be off," Remus said, and they walked to the gates, Disapparating just beyond. It was much damper and not as cold in in the city, the cloud cover making it seem later than it was as they stepped inside.

Remus watched curiously as several people slipped out at Jennifer's arrival. Jennifer barely noticed it anymore, concentrating instead on the warm greetings coming from around her. But Remus soon locked his gaze on a man at the bar with wild brown hair, his eyes drawn to the uneven fabric in his cloak and sleeves from material that had been magic mended again and again over time.

"It seems our guest for the evening is already here," Remus warned her, and Jennifer looked up and followed his gaze to the bar, nodding to him before the two of them stepped up.

"Good evening, Professors," said the bartender as they approached, startling the man and making him turn around curiously.

"Good evening Tom," Jennifer said. "House brew is fine for me."

"Same," Remus said, meeting the other man's gaze with a thin smile. "Good evening. I'm Remus Lupin."

"Matteo Disparte, good evening," he said in English with a thick Italian accent.

"This is Jennifer Craw Snape," Remus introduced.

"Yes of course, I have heard of you," Matteo admitted.

"Let's go to my father's table," Jennifer suggested, taking her drink. "It's cursed but it won't affect me or my guests and it'll be safe to talk there. This way," she said and lead them over there, sitting down. "Please."

"Thank you for meeting me. I had been hoping to meet with the headmaster about his potion research," Matteo explained as they sat down.

"Yes, actually, while his name are on the formulas your letter was inquiring about, I'm the one conducting the research going on right now, as Potion Master of the school," Jennifer explained. "The headmaster himself has been much too busy this year to offer more than the occasional suggestion."

"My father is Ivano Disparte. Has he approached you about this research?" Matteo asked.

"Yes, I can say that he has. You see, we met at a healer's conference last year," Jennifer admitted.

"Then I should tell you that it is very important that you do not allow him to get involved in it," Matteo said. "He gets obsessive and takes risks and I do not want to see anyone get hurt."

"Signor Disparte, I assure you there's really no reason to be worried. We do take this sort of research very seriously at Hogwarts, and I assure you, it's quite professional," Jennifer told him sincerely.

"Yes, as the resident participant in the study, I also have to say it's been done with every precaution," Remus said. "In fact, I have been kept informed of all the research step by step, and they've acted on every concern I have brought up. And as anyone who knows me can tell you, I would be very quick to speak up for myself if I thought it wasn't being done in a professional manner. On top of that, I have known Professor Craw for many years now, and I trust her as head of any research team of this nature, whether it's on my behalf or not."

"Team?" Matteo jumped up. "My father is already involved!" he exclaimed in alarm.

"He comes in as a consult on weekends," Jennifer admitted in a quiet voice, hoping to calm him down. "But he's mostly in an advisory position, and as I said before -"

"It doesn't matter what part he's playing! He shouldn't be anywhere near it!" Matteo growled. Remus stood up.

"Sit down, Signore," Remus said firmly.

"Matteo, please just listen for a moment. It's not anywhere near as bad as you think..." Jennifer began.

"No! You're the one who doesn't understand. I'm not going to let him get on this merry-go-around again!" Matteo shouted, his eyes flashing red in anger.

"Jennifer! The table!" Remus warned. Jennifer gasped and looked down. Green tendrils had whipped around from the curse and had wrapped around Matteo's hands. Matteo panicked, causing more tendrils to come up, while Remus jumped in to try to free him.

"Matteo, wait! You're making it worse!" Jennifer pleaded, taking out her wand to try and dispel it. But the werewolf was panicking so much that he upended the table causing others around the pub to notice something was going on and scramble away, and Jennifer found herself having to dodge upended chairs in her attempt to get a clear shot.

Suddenly a spell came in from the front entrance and disintegrated the table, and Jennifer looked up to see her father standing in the doorway. Freed from his bonds, Matteo immediately bolted to the back.

"Matteo! Wait!" Jennifer shouted, but he had already ducked out into the Alley.

"Should I go after him, Jennifer?" Remus asked.

"No, please... we need to deescalate this situation as quickly as possible. If he feels like he's being hunted, it's only going to make things worse," Jennifer said and felt a hand on her arm as her father attempted to help her up.

"Do you mind telling me what in craters is going on?" Thomas asked. Jennifer quickly put up a Sonorous Shield around the three of them, very much aware that the entire pub was watching them at that point.

"Matteo Disparte is a werewolf, Dad. When we were talking to him, he got really upset and he triggered the table..."

"Upset? Jen-girl, if he triggered that table, he was angry enough to kill..."

"He's not a bad person, Dad! He's just been hurt... badly hurt and it caused him to overreact, and I'm afraid the table kicking in just made things worse. We should never have sat down there," Jennifer said, aggrieved.

"You were only trying to be cautious, Jennifer. Perhaps the honest approach was a bad idea," Remus murmured.

"No, it wasn't. I'm very sure it'd have been much worse if we tried to have lied and found out later. Telling him the truth was the right thing to do, no matter how sour that went. He was turned as a child by his mother when she had a bad moon turn and went on a rampage so bad that the local authorities were forced to kill her," Jennifer explained quickly. "That's when his father... Ivano... got so obsessed with curing him so he wouldn't share the same fate. But I think he was too young to understand what all the experiments were about and I think Ivano probably did get a bit obsessed without considering how his son's feelings and mental state might be affected by all of the attempts. Matteo is still holding that grudge."

"Well, he may not be a 'bad person' by your judgment, Jen-girl, but a 'badly hurt' werewolf even at this moon stage is quite dangerous and he needs to be apprehended for both his safety and others until he has a chance to calm down and is put in a better mental state," Thomas said firmly.

"I very much agree," Remus put in.

"I'm going to head to the Ministry to talk to Charlie Weasley and make sure those in the Ministry who need to know about this situation know about it. Let me know if you hear from him, especially if he ends up at the castle," Thomas said.

"You're not going to hurt him, are you?" Jennifer asked anxiously. Thomas sighed with exasperation.

"We'll only use force if it's necessary, Jen-girl. Now, I suggest you both go back to the castle so I can get things rolling here. With any luck, we'll be able to catch him while he's still in town."

"All right," Jennifer said, releasing the Sonic Shield. Sound flooded back in, still somewhat subdued than it had been before the altercation. Ignoring the questioning looks they were getting, Thomas strode out the back door while Jennifer and Remus went out the front.

Jennifer sat in the high-backed chair in front of Severus' desk with her head propped up in on hand, looking quite glum. A moment later, Severus came back out of the sitting room, handing her a steaming mug of Subtle Slumber.

"I still feel so terrible about the whole thing, Severus. I only sat at that table so no one would be tempted to listen in and because we were meeting someone I didn't know," Jennifer said.

"There was no way you could have known, Jennifer," Severus said, handing her the mug.

"Remus thought I made the problem worse by being honest about his father helping, but I am quite certain that I did the right thing. Things would have been much, much, worse if we hadn't told him and he found out about it the wrong way and at the wrong time, and I certainly don't want to do anything that would give him a reason not to trust us," Jennifer said.

"I know. Drink your potion," Severus said, reminding her it was there. Jennifer took a sip.

"Do you suppose the divination warnings Remus was getting is about Matteo, Severus?" Jennifer asked, and Severus pointedly tapped her mug.

"I admit I've been wondering the same thing myself, but we can talk about it tomorrow after you've had a good night's sleep. Just two more sips, I believe you have a class first bell. I'll take Quintin down in the morning," Severus said.

"Thank you, Severus," Jennifer said with a warm smile. "This does bring back memories."

"Good ones, I hope," Severus said, taking the mug for her when she was done.

"You made one of these for me the very first night I taught. I think I was falling for you even then," Jennifer murmured.

"Come along, Jennifer, it's time you went to bed. I have a bit more to do in here but I'm sure I'll soon be joining you," Severus said, helping her up.

"No fair, I'll already be asleep," Jennifer teased flirtatiously.

"There will be other opportunities," Severus murmured, holding the curtain for her as she went into the sitting room.

Severus then wandered around the room for the moment, pondering the situation, then found himself glancing at the chessboard. Moving a white pawn to the seventh rank, Severus turned to finish his work so he could turn in for the evening.