Even though Hazel and Sev would sneak glances at each other at meals and in the hall, they hardly talked. Remus, on the other hand, would visit her classroom on occasion and she would drop by to see the creatures he had in his room. She made friends with the grindylow - as much as one could make friends with a grindylow - and wanted to give it a name, though Remus said that he didn't want to bother naming it since it would be released at the end of the year. Whenever he captured a ghostly creature, he would send her an owl and Hazel would head over to investigate. The two of them struck up a cordial friendship again, though both of them knew they had to keep each other at arm's length.
Remus didn't mind. It was nice having his old friend there with him. That's what they had been at first, before a couple of years of happiness and then a couple more of tumult. Friends. And he was happy with it.
Things began to change on the night of the first full moon. Remus bade her goodnight in the middle of dinner, heading to his office to securely lock himself up, drink his final Wolfsbane Potion of the week, and ride out the night as a harmless wolf. Hazel had offered to go with him, but he told her that he wanted to see what the potion was like alone, at least this month. So she returned to her rooms, intent on grading the first essays she'd set.
Muddling through the third-years' papers on banshees, she was nearly falling asleep when someone knocked on her door. Inherently suspicious, she drew her wand and cracked the door narrowly. Standing there in the sliver of light was Sev, who immediately apologized for bothering her so late at night. "I'm sure you're buried in work," he said, noticing the pile of parchment behind her, "but would you mind, if, er, just for a moment -"
"Come on in," she smiled, Sev stepping into the room. He looked around, noticing all of the blue and bronze furnishings, the glittering fairy lights that were nonexistent in the Slytherin rooms, and the cozy warm fire. It was a lot to take in. "I wanted to talk to you earlier, but you didn't seem too keen on it after I'd said hello the first day back."
"I was worried… It's been years since we've talked, and I assumed… especially with Lupin around..."
"Well, we can pick things up from here," Hazel resolved, conjuring cups of tea. She settled in on one end of the sofa, gesturing for him to take the other. "Where do we start? There's so much to tell you, and I want to ask you all sorts of things, about all of the years since we last saw each other, but… Why now? I've been back here for nearly a month and you've hardly said a word to me."
Sev took a sip of his drink, admitting, "I wanted to find you earlier, but half the time Lupin was there, and I had no idea if you'd just close the door on me. I know you two were… seeing each other for a while after..."
"I would never shut the door on you," she promised. "You're not answering my question, though. Why now? Why nearly ten o'clock at night? And in the middle of the week, when we have classes tomorrow?"
There was a long pause before he admitted, "This is the first time there's been a werewolf in the castle since we were students." The first time THIS werewolf has been in the castle. The one that nearly killed me. "And tonight's the full moon." His voice was lower than normal, as if he were trying to suppress the emotion behind it. There was no use hiding it. She would've been able to deduce it anyway.
There was no need for him to elaborate, not that he was going to. Both of them knew how worried he was, even with the miraculous invention of the Wolfsbane Potion. There were very few things Severus Snape was afraid of, and ever since their fifth year, werewolves were one of them. Not that he would have told anyone, and not that anyone knew, aside from her and Lupin, at least. But even towards Lupin, he acted as if the "werewolf incident" in their fifth year hadn't affected him. The only people who knew the truth were sitting in that room.
"It's going to be fine, Sev," Hazel said, instinctively reaching out to squeeze his hand. Both of them looked down, Hazel withdrawing immediately.
"It's alright," he told her. The reaction had been automatic. He wasn't used to it, not at all. "You… that. But Lupin too. He will theoretically be fine. The Wolfsbane Potion works. I should know," he smiled a bit, glowing with pride in the firelight, "Slughorn and I invented it, after all."
"Sev, that's amazing! Absolutely brilliant," she beamed. The Wolfsbane Potion had been revolutionary, and though it was labor-intensive to make and the ingredients were prohibitively expensive, it helped a lot of people. "I read about it when it was first introduced, and the papers all said it was Damocles Belby who did it, but I always wondered - he was complete rubbish at Potions. He blew up what, six cauldrons by the end of first year? It seemed a little too impossible to be true."
The two of them sat up talking until nearly one in the morning. When Sev finally headed back towards the dungeons, he was buoyed by the thought that Hazel was back in his life and that she didn't hate him, despite how worried he'd been. Both of them understood how things had been back then, how they had allowed their letters to taper off. But now they were back in the castle together.
Hazel cast a passing glance at the papers on her desk, but something else caught her eye. She smiled at the photo Pandora had taken so many years ago of her and Sev in Hogsmeade. It was good to see him again. They'd both changed a lot. War changed people, Auror and Death Eater alike. But it was good to see him again, and good to think that they might be able to be friends again. She'd missed him, and as much as he hated to admit to any emotion whatsoever, he missed her too.
From that day forward things were a lot less frosty between the two of them. They would sit next to each other at staff meetings, and he would grab a seat next to her at meals. Remus didn't mind. He was glad to see that she was happy - they'd talked about how she worried Sev might have decided to shut her out - and had plenty of time to catch up with her in the corridors, since their classrooms were practically next to each other.
One afternoon Hazel sat in her classroom, flipping through a book on dementors. She'd been met with their chilling presence the moment she set foot on campus. As one of the best people to defend against them, she was brushing up on their species when Remus stuck his head in the door, asking if she was free. "We're tackling the boggart in the staff room, if you've time to meet us down there. The third years are going to have fun with this one."
"I'll be down there in a bit," she promised. She arrived just in time to see Neville Longbottom turn a boggart version of Sev into his grandmother, stuffed-vulture hat, red handbag, ruffled dress, and all. She couldn't help but to smile a bit, even though she knew he would hate it. Given how fast gossip traveled around the castle, Sev would know by lunchtime.
"Want to try?" Remus asked, the two of them leaning on the wall as the students lined up to take their turn facing off with the boggart. "I'm sure you'd be able to banish it for good, once all the students have had a go. You'd probably be able to frown at it and scare it off. Not that that's a bad thing," he laughed, applauding one of the Slytherins.
"I don't think you'd want to see it," she told him, clapping for Pavarti Patil as she successfully banished her boggart.
"I don't think I ever have. We had Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins that year if I remember right. Excellent job! Ron, you next!"
As Ron stepped up to face a giant spider, nearly the size of a fully-grown Acromantula, Hazel shook her head. "It's Voldemort, with all of my closest friends lying dead at his feet. The last time I ran into one… well, I don't think the students should have to see him."
Remus nodded, applauding and motioning one of the Slytherins forward. "And Snape's?" She frowned, but he explained that, "I remember you telling me about the one in Astronomy Tower when we were in school. I assume that's how you two mastered the spell so early."
"You're not to breathe a word of this to anyone," she warned, Remus promising that he would keep it a secret. Hazel lowered her voice even more, saying, "I hope you don't take it personally. It's not your fault, remember, but it's a werewolf. The Greyback kind. That's how - he still sees all of them like that, like the… the one he saw when he was fifteen. And I imagine the ones he, uh, worked with, later on weren't very nice either. He can turn it into the friendliest puppy without much thought, but it's still stuck in his head, even after all these years."
With a sigh, Remus motioned for Seamus to step up. "I'm still sorry that ever happened," he answered, his eyes trained on the students and the boggart, which had suddenly taken the shape of a banshee.
"You don't have to blame yourself. It wasn't your fault."
"After all these years and everything he's seen, that's still one of the things that terrifies him the most." Remus shook his head, thinking back to the morning he'd run from the Shrieking Shack to Dumbledore's office, knowing that something was wrong and praying all the way there that he hadn't hurt anyone. He hadn't felt the pain as he ran, only knowing that he'd run into someone, that something bad had happened.
"I think, given the time, he'd see Voldemort or his father, but werewolves are the most… flashy, I suppose? The most fun for a boggart to turn into. It's not always your greatest fear, it's the embodiment of the concept behind it. Like yours," she clarified. Hazel politely applauded for Seamus, watching as Dean swapped places with him. "You know, he's started - the last full moon he came to find me. At first I thought it was a coincidence, that he came to say hello then, but he was back the next night. He's done so much and he's still afraid. You can't tell anyone this, of course."
"I'm sorry," he offered.
"It's not your fault. It was Sirius who did it. You said it yourself, you didn't know that's what he was planning. He doesn't blame you," she assured him, checking her watch. Not too much. "I've got to get going. My sixth-years should be arriving soon. Catch you at dinner, though?"
Remus nodded, a heavy look of worry in his eyes.