Well, only a little afterplay, to round it up:-) thanks for the reviews if there are any. Is Fanfiction only being lousy to me, or is it a problem for all?!
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Remus Lupin looked flabbergasted when he met the Professors Snape and Potter on his way to Hogsmeade. They were quite close together and talking animatedly. Until they saw him coming. Then stopped all conversation and they seemed to tear apart from each other. That was really, really interesting, Lupin thought. Those two together, in any way other than at each other's throat, was something nobody could have thought of.
Harry looked a bit flushed, thought Remus. It became him, even if he seemed to be ashamed of it. Severus glared as was usual, but Lupin smelled something like – well what? He couldn't make it out exactly. He had to get closer.
"Severus, Harry", he felt quite strange to put these two names together in one address.
Black eyes flashed at him, to which he was used, but the green eyes did the same. "Lupin", said Snape in a clipped tone. "Hello Remus", Harry was only a little more welcoming.
Remus Lupin looked from one man to the other. He wouldn't ask, no he wouldn't. But what for the love of Merlin were they wearing? Identical scarves, which were neither Gryffindor nor Slytherin. What on earth could that mean?
He looked really really puzzled and he knew it. It didn't vex him much, but he wanted to know. Harry was the godson of his mate, he had a right to know. Remus smiled at his own display of hypocrisy. Well, he was curious after all, what was wrong with that? The history of those two made it highly improbable that you would meet them on a Sunday afternoon, walking together as closely as that, talking in a way which seemed amiable enough, at least from afar.
A strange noise. Remus looked around for the source. Must have been Severus, laughing, even if that seemed completely weird.
"You look like a complete idiot, Lupin", the poisoned honey voice said. Well, that was more like what was to be expected. "So typically Gryffindor of you, being that nosy and showing it."
"I didn't say a thing", Remus Lupin protested.
Harry snorted which made Remus' head spin. Since when did Harry do that? "You don't have to, Remus, really, you look a big question mark."
"Well then", Remus tried not to think of his dignity and face colour. Werewolves didn't blush, it was physically impossible.
"Care to enlighten me, lest I die of heart failure, when I think about just what this might mean?"
The eyebrow which Severus had used even in school 30 years back, to intimidate everyone, went up. "This, Lupin? What exactly is it that you are asking of Professor Potter and me?"
There was a strange feeling in the air. Might have been the air, might have been the sudden shockwave of ideas, of recollections, of whatevers in the heads of the three persons standing still on Hogwarts grounds.
Harry looked at his dark companion with an air Remus couldn't make out completely. It was near enough his usual calm, enduring, yet underneath exasperated air. Yet there was something else. A strange familiarity. Remus gulped.
"Well, let's begin with these scarves you are wearing. Not your usual colour, Severus, is it?"
Harry gave that irritating snort again which earned him a dark glare of Snape. Remus felt good with that. Some things never changed.
Some did. That strange noise which must be the laugh of Severus reached his ear. Remus Lupin shook his head again, wondering. That was very very strange, something was not quite right. And he was going to learn just what it was.
"Would you believe it if I said I was ready for a change?", asked the honey-coated voice of the Potions master. Remus Lupin's face nearly hit the floor. Well, everybody could change, certainly, but Severus?
His mouth really fell open when he saw Harry nudging Severus in a way a wife would a husband of some years who had said something extremely stupid in front of others. His eyes went into the opposite direction, as did his eyebrows.
Husband? Wife?
Harry? Severus?
He must be roaring screaming mad.
Then again: The Potions master didn't draw his wand and strike his formerly hated student with an extremely vicious curse. He only rose that eyebrow and gave the offender his most deadly stare. Who tired to hold the gaze and then broke into giggles. The eyebrows of the Defence against the dark Arts Teacher and dark creature in one nearly hit his hairline. And that was not as low as it used to be. Surely Severus would do something extremely unpleasant now?
No, he didn't. He just deepened the glare for a second before returning the shine of his dark gaze to Lupin. "You must excuse our young colleague, but he seems to be exceedingly childish, even for him, after our little pastime."
Severus Snape excusing Harry Potter must be a first, Remus thought, but Severus Snape talking about pastimes with Harry Potter was – unthinkable.
"Pastime?", he managed to force that strange word out of his mouth. "Anything to do with those scarves?" To hell with his dignity if ever he had one. Werewolves weren't especially known for dignity. Curiosity killed the cat, but that didn't apply to canines.
"Actually, yes", said Severus who seemed to enjoy the situation more and more. Well as much as you could talk of Severus enjoying anything, which was a contradiction in terms. But then why not? He had always been famous for liking to play Gryffindors like a harp.
Remus Lupin thought longingly and not for the first time of throttling this long slender creamy white neck now covered with a blue and white woollen abomination. He decided to change his approach. "You seem to be completely healed, Severus. Took care of yourself, did you? That was a really nasty cold you had."
Both dark-haired men exchanged a glance that seemed to express amusement. It was infuriating and Remus was happy that Sirius wasn't here to experience this strange situation. He would have killed Snape by now, that much was sure.
Harry seemed to sense the fury in the normally calm man and took mercy on him, tender-hearted Gryffindor he was after all, might the company he was keeping lately have rubbed off on him or not. "We've been to a game of soccer."
"You were what?" Remus Lupin must have got that wrong. His gaze wandered from Harry to Severus and back. Well, that explained the scarves, but how on earth had Harry got Severus to go there? And why would he? He shook his head. Obviously getting one question answered only left him with more to wonder about. That must be meaning something, he thought, but he would be damned if he knew what.
The return of the eyebrow. "You added deafness to your many mishaps, Lupin? Professor Potter spoke completely discernible, in straight and easy words, for once. What is there not to understand?"
Remus had the distinct feeling his eyes were rolling in the same motion his brain was performing. "Everything. And please don't call him Professor Potter, it gets on my nerves."
A smirk. "Professor Potter made it quite clear to me just lately that that is the way he wants to be addressed by me. Why shouldn't I cater to his wishes?"
Indeed. "Well, why would you?" Remus Lupin couldn't believe this conversation was really happening. Severus showed him an exceedingly infuriating innocent face. "I always try to accommodate new teachers as much as I can. For some I even prepared and still do prepare one of the most challenging potions known to the wizard world. Not that I expect to be thanked for it. So why shouldn't I fulfil a wish so small if a little childish and immature if it makes a- colleague – feel more at ease at his new task?"
Remus saw that Harry's eyes had clung to the face of the Potions master as well as his own. He seemed to have difficulty taking them away, as it was. Not that he himself was far better off. To see this new Severus was really – haunting. He had a very strange feeling. A feeling that Harry Potter was just about to press these lips he was unconsciously licking onto those of the Potions master, clamped together as usual after his speech, and was deterred from doing so just by a flicker in the dark eyes and a minuscule movement of the head, barely visible to someone without the heightened sense of awareness the werewolf had to thank his condition for. Strangest of all was possibly the fact that the thought didn't strike him as completely outrageous, idiotic or otherwise foolish, simply as strange.
The moon must be coming soon this month, thought Lupin. Or how else was he to explain that this perception, of lips wanting to meet other lips, and the owner of the lips in question just reminding the owner of the first pair that they were not alone, and not flaring him alive for just the idea, did seem to be the answer to all the questions that had lately arisen in his mind. Questions out of things slightly off. Things which aroused his curiosity and brought him here, standing like an idiot looking at two men he thought he knew. And who looked at him in precisely the way he would have thought they'd do under the circumstances.
"Ah, yes", was all Remus was able to utter. He looked at the two smirking faces and away. He gave in. He had not the slightest. He longed to see Dumbledore about this. He had a feeling he would turn mad if he didn't. But just now he had an all-consuming need for alcohol. Fast and lots of it. No alcohol never was a solution.
He waved his hand, trying his best to not look on the two other men again. The stars might fall down if he did. "I'm off to Hogsmeade", he mumbled. "See you two soon". He shrugged his shoulders at his last sentence and turned without his usual friendly smile. He seemed to be in rather a hurry.
The men with the scarves watched the retreating figure of the Defence against the dark Arts teacher as long as it was to be seen. When it was around the corner they turned to face each other. Dark eyes in a face not showing any emotion glared. Green eyes in a face showing too many emotions sparked a fire.
"You really are bad", said Harry with some conviction. "I never saw Remus run like that".
"Serves him right for being that nosy", said Severus with equal conviction. "You were not too good, either, if I recall correctly".
"Nosy is rich, coming from you", said Harry, holding the dark gaze of the man. Which now deepened and a hand came out to grab Harry's arm faster than he could say "harassment".
"Come", the dark velvet voice growled in a manner that was entirely too seducing for Harry not to shiver all over. He looked around.
"Here?", he asked, not entirely hostile to the idea. "Remember your age and health status, Professor. It might get you a cold again, to get one or both of us off in the field".
The hand grabbed even harder, definitely leaving bruises. "How endearing of you to remind me, Potter. I recall quite clearly that it was you who brought me into that undignified position in the first place and therefore have to take the blame for my cold".
Harry raised an eyebrow, although he felt his body react to the sheer mentioning of the event in question. Gods, to get that hard only thinking of the things Severus could do ... "I only flew us to that forlorn field after the Quidditch match because I had the – impression that you wanted to talk to me in private. You surly felt like you would from behind".
Another dark glare. "And you were all so willing to cooperate, if I recall that right."
Well, Harry couldn't exactly say anything against that, not with the man brushing oh so inconspicuously against him and feeling all to well how Harry reacted to his talk alone.
"Well yes, but I was not exactly the one who lost that bet, was I?"
"Idiotic little bet as it was", growled Snape, his fingers digging into Harry's hip quite hurtfully.
"I wouldn't contradict that", Harry said as cheerfully as he could with his throat constricting. "But you didn't seem to mind then."
"And so you won".
"And so I won".
Harry gulped under the dark gaze and the grip. He grabbed a handful of dark hair and pulled the face of the other man near. "Not again, Professor Snape. I will not take advantage of your age again. Your rooms, now." And with that Harry took hold of the hand of the older wizard and ran for the castle.
- The end –
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That is of course not really the end. I have something nagging me to write about the incident that started this. Well, see you then, when it decides to come out:-)