Disclaimer: Standard

A/N: Sorry about not posting sooner. Not my fault. Maybe Neville's last meltdown affect Fanfiction's server? Anyway here we go.

Slytherin vs. Ravenclaw ~*~

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The next few weeks passed quickly for the students and faculty of Hogwarts alike. Now that the term was in full gear, the students had lots of homework to do, and the professors had lots of homework to grade.

Lorien was busy as well during the day. Her hands were full with students suffering from everything from broken bones to a variety of ailments caused by misspoken spells. Occasionally she would have complaints from a staff member or student with symptoms of more mundane illnesses like stomach flu and headcolds.

She had a lot of paperwork at the end of the day, and she and Remus often kept each other company in the evenings as he graded essays, and she wrote up her charts.

It was one of the last days of September that Lorien realized the next full moon was about a week away. Remus had not mentioned anything about talking to Snape about the wolfsbane potion, and although she knew that Snape was unlikely to forget, she thought is would be best to check with him about it anyway.

After dinner that evening she departed from her usual routine of going to the hospital wing to finish writing charts, and walked down to the dungeon.

She figured she would check his office first, and Lorien frowned when there was no answer as she knocked. She decided to try the potions lab.

She found no answer to her knock at the second door but decided she would risk taking a look inside. It was not locked, and when she opened the door she found that Snape was inside, standing before a large table at the front of the room. A cauldron was beginning to steam next to the table, and he looked up when he heard the door click shut.

"Something you need, Mistress Lorien?" He looked impatient.

"I just came down to see about the wolfsbane potion," she said pleasantly.

"Always looking out for your patients, even the werewolves," he sneered slightly. "It'll be ready in time."

Lorien ignored his sarcasm. "This is it?" She indicated the myriad of potion ingredients along the table.

"Yes." It was an effort for him not to shout at her.

"Good. Thank you." She turned to go, and then hesitated. Turning back to the table she spoke again. "Professor Snape?"

"Yes?" His voice was dangerously low.

"I apologize for disturbing your work, but may I ask something else of you?" she asked.

"What is it, Miss Desjardins?"

"May I watch?" she inquired.

"You're going to supervise me? Are you quite serious?" He had stepped quickly around the table and now bore down on her. He loomed over her like a shadow.

She held her ground and then looked up calmly. "Not supervise. Observe. Period."

"Why?" He eyed her suspiciously.

She shrugged. "Curiosity. I'd like to see you work."

"I can't have you in here asking questions and interrupting." His voice was becoming less irritated.

"No questions. No interruptions."

"This takes quite a while." His tone sounded only slightly annoyed.

"I'm aware," She smiled.

"Very well. There." He pointed to a bench a short distance away, indicating that she should sit.

Lorien sat quietly to observe Snape work.

He looked at her curiously, and then spoke once more. "Not a word, Lorien." His voice was silk, his gaze was ice.

She merely nodded, once.

Snape began the potion, and Lorien quickly found herself absorbed in what he was doing. She could just see the surface of the cauldron's contents from where she sat, and the shimmering solution had just gone black. She kept her eye on each ingredient he added, sprinkled or poured. He passed his hand over the contents of the cauldron, stirring it, causing it to swirl clockwise nine times after the fifth ingredient. Another pass of the hand after the sixth, and the potion swirled away counterclockwise seven times. He added finely chopped root of some sort, and then two drops of something green.

He passed his hand over again, and the direction changed once more. Lorien lost track of how many components he had added to the cauldron when the solution went gray. She was watching his hands as he worked, mesmerized by the fluidity of their movement. She found herself looking past his slender fingers to his black robes, his black hair, his black eyes, focused in unwavering concentration.

She'd lost track of time ages ago. She studied the face of the man before her, and noted that he seemed relaxed, except for the slight furrow of his brow that marked his concentration. She was surprised to find, as the potion went milky, and the reflected light changed that he was actually quite handsome. 'He shouldn't scowl so much. He looks much nicer when he's working,' she thought.

At last she watched as he eyed the wolfsbane and cast it into the cauldron. There was a bright shimmer, and the potion swirled five times counterclockwise, before it cleared. A moment later steam began to rise off the surface.

She watched as he eyed it approvingly and stepped away from the table, running a hand back through his longish dark hair.

"Elixani Ator." Lorien smiled as she spoke under her breath. She spoke at last, softly so she wouldn't startle him. "Finished?"

He turned and gazed at her for a long moment. "Yes."

She realized he sounded tired as she stepped closer and leaned over the cauldron.

"Does it meet with your approval, Mistress Lorien?" He spoke quietly with only a hint of sarcasm.

"Of course. That was truly amazing. I'm not sure that you're aware of just how much this helps Remus, or just how much he appreciates it."

Snape snorted. "Lupin has adequately expressed his gratitude in the past."

She knew of the strained relationship between the two men since Remus had filled her in on a large degree of his past, and knowing she was on shaky ground she changed the subject.

"Well, it's late and I don't want to bother you any more than I already have. Thank you for letting me stay, Professor," she said politely.

"I'll have this bottled and in the hospital wing for you by morning," he said.

"That would be perfect. Thank you again, Prof..."

"Severus."

"Sorry?" She wasn't sure she heard correctly.

"My name, Lorien. It's Severus." He spoke in a soft, even tone.

"All right then. Thank you, Severus. Good night." She turned and walked to the door.

As she pulled the door open she heard him speak once more. "I do hope you own green robes, Mistress Lorien."

She turned quickly to look over her shoulder at him. He had turned back to the cauldron so she couldn't see his face. He was teasing about their wager on the weekend's Quidditch match.

"And I sincerely hope you own blue." She smiled and left the room.

Snape had watched her leave the room again and then turned back to the chores of cleaning up and bottling the potion into individual doses for the week.

He contemplated her comments on Lupin's gratitude, and realized that the werewolf must have said something to her. 'Interesting that Lupin would confide his feelings to her.'

He also realized that she sensed, or knew about the tensions between them. 'Lupin must have told her that as well.'

He snorted. "Hmpf! Keep in mind there are two sides to every story Miss Desjardins," he spoke aloud to himself.

His thoughts went back to her last comment at the door. 'Blue robes? It'll never happen, my dear.'

It was very late when Lorien made her way up from the dungeon to her rooms near the infirmary. She had hardly closed the door when someone knocked.

'Oh please, not a sick student.' She was tired, but brought herself to open the door.

"Remus? What are you doing? It's late." She let the brown haired wizard in.

"I wanted to see if you were ok. You disappeared after dinner. Is anything wrong?"

"No, not at all," she answered.

"Good." He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her to him in a warm embrace. "So," he began as he rested his head against hers, "where have you been hiding, Mistress of the Healing Arts?"

Lorien laughed at him. "I haven't been hiding."

"You could have fooled me. I looked everywhere for you!" he replied.

"You could have found me if you looked in the dungeon."

"The dungeon! What were you doing?" Remus took one step back and looked at her in a concerned way.

"I went to see Snape," she said matter-of-factly.

"Snape? You were gone a long time."

Lorien saw the worried expression Remus wore and laughed again. "I made it back in one piece. You'd think he was going to poison me while I was down there by the look on your face. Honestly, you don't need to worry about me. I just went to check on the wolfsbane potion."

Remus felt grateful that she had taken it upon herself to see Snape so that he wouldn't have to deal with the irritable Slytherin. "Thanks for doing that. You didn't have to. He never forgets."

"I figured he wouldn't, but it was too important not to double check."

Remus brightened. "Was he irritated when you asked?"

"A little. Mostly I think it bothered him when I asked to stay," she said.

Remus looked at her strangely. "Stay?"

"Yes. To watch him brew the potion," she explained.

"You watched the whole time?" He seemed confused about why she would want to.

"Yes. Remus, it was amazing. Severus is so talented. I could never do it."

The concern that Lupin felt for her safety was slowly being replaced by a feeling he couldn't quite place. He didn't like hearing that anything about Snape impressed her, and he definitely didn't like the fact that she used his first name.

"You actually get along with him, don't you?" he asked at last.

"I guess I cause him minimal irritation." She laughed, but Remus didn't.

Saturday morning brought with it a great deal of excitement that swept through the students and faculty alike. The first Quidditch match of the year, between Slytherin and Ravenclaw would be taking place shortly.

The students were heading in groups down to the Quidditch pitch, and Lorien watched them while she waited for Remus. He was meeting her to walk down to the faculty box together. She smiled to herself as she noted that even the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students wore blue or carried blue and bronze flags. She herself was clad from head to toe in Ravenclaw blue robes.

"Good morning, Mistress Lorien." Snape's voice came from behind her and she turned.

"Good morning, Severus." She smiled slyly. "Lovely day for quidditch, don't you think?"

He nodded and spoke with a touch of arrogance. "I believe you would find it a lovelier morning if you were cheering for Slytherin today."

She laughed. "We'll see about that!"

He gave her a hint of smile. "Indeed." He turned and strode off.

Remus spotted Snape before Lorien did and he walked quickly toward her. Snape got to Lorien just before he did, and he saw her turn to speak with the dark robed wizard. That same odd feeling was creeping up on Remus as he saw her smile, and it latched onto him firmly when he saw her laugh at something Snape said.

"Hi," he said when he reached where she was standing. His eyes flicked past her to where Snape was walking , and then back.

She followed his glance and then looked back as well.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"Well? Are you going to escort me or what?"

The cold feeling in his gut was gone when she smiled at him.

"Absolutely." He bowed to her and indicated the way with a dramatic wave of his hand.

She rolled her eyes and turned to head to the match. Remus fell in next to her, walking with his hands clasped behind his back.

"So what do you think, Remus? Does my team stand a chance?" Lorien sounded a little worried.

"I don't know. Slytherin has a powerful team this year," Remus admitted reluctantly.

"Really?"

He tried to be positive. "Yes, but the Ravenclaw team has been practicing hard, and Cho Chang is an excellent seeker, so who knows?"

They joined the rest of the Hogwarts staff in the faculty box just as the game got under way.

It was an exciting game and at first it looked like the two teams were going to be pretty evenly matched. They alternated scoring for a short while, but it soon became clear that the Ravenclaw keeper was being overwhelmed. It was going to be up to Cho Chang, and with the way the Slytherin chasers were scoring she was going to need to catch the snitch soon.

It suddenly appeared as though the female seeker was going to get her chance. The snitch had appeared, zipping across the pitch, and she aimed her broom in the same direction.

Draco Malfoy saw her make the move and hurtled across the field to catch her. He was a foot away as she banked and closed on the snitch. He was inches away as her hand reached for the golden orb. He was close. She was closer. She reached a little further and closed her hand.

Whump!

A well misplaced bludger caught her in the shoulder, and she could not avoid the uncontrolled swerve. A second later Malfoy closed his hand on the snitch.

A cry of anguish rose up from well more than half the spectators, while the Slytherins cheered and thumped each other on the back.

Lorien cried out along with Lupin, Flitwick, and McGonagall nearby. Subtle foul play had granted Slytherin the victory.

Lorien walked slowly back up to the castle with Remus. It had been a disappointing loss for the Ravenclaw team even though they had fought valiantly.

Remus tried to console the blonde Ravenclaw witch. "Don't worry. Gryffindor'll kick the snot out of them."

"That's all well and good if you're a Gryffindor." She placed the back of her hand on her forehead in mock anguish.

He was laughing at her when he saw Snape approaching. "Hmpf. Just like him to come over to gloat," he said under his breath.

Snape eyed the Gryffindor werewolf as he walked past Lupin, but said nothing. Remus thought it unusual until the black robed wizard turned and spoke to Lorien casually over his shoulder.

--

"Until tonight, Miss Desjardins," he said with a smirk, and then walked away.

A/N: Nemorosi vocab. update. Elixani Ator = ? Anyone? Anyone? (Of course it's Nemorosi for Potions master)