"Why don't you just let slip that you're in a serious relationship and have been, for what, twenty years now, Severus?" Lupin was advising his difficult friend.
It was late on a Sunday evening and they were seated comfortably at The Three Broomsticks, their table covered with drained tumblers. Both men were slightly drunk which explained their relaxed postures. Snape had one booted foot up on an empty chair, knee bent against the edge of the table, across the table from him the back of another empty chair supported most of Lupin's weight on a cocked elbow, his forearm pressed against the side of his face.
The famous black eyebrow slowly crept up underneath the shock of thick black hair that had fallen over its owner's face. "Ah, yes, brilliant suggestion that," Snape drawled. With the back of his hand he pushed the hair out of his face revealing the trademark sneer and then came the mesmerizing voice "Today we will be attempting to brew the illegal 'never-ending hunger potion' a known Ugrian starvation curse. Of course there are less lethal forms of this, students, like the one my own Hungarian lover hexes me with every time we go to bed. The woman makes me ravenous for every inch of her body." Snape gestured with an elegant hand, waving it at the imaginary class, "Miss Granger, what might be the base for this brew? Correct. As usual. 5 points for Gryffindor."
Lupin snorted into the glass of whiskey raised to his lips. "I suppose not, then."
"Most assuredly," Snape sipped at his own drink "not." He dropped his foot to the ground, sitting up and leaning over the cluttered table towards Lupin, "I should not have to disclose any details of my personal life to students, Remus. My privacy and my position should garner more respect. That is what is making me so damned," he paused, "frustrated about this. Her interest is inappropriate at best and downright ridiculous at worst. She already knows far more about me than I would have allowed…" he trailed off.
"And you're certain about her," Lupin paused "interest in you?"
Snape glared at him. "Yes, as wildly implausible a possibility as it appears to you, Lupin, the girl is clearly crushing."
"Mmm" he nodded. "I suppose it's not that surprising, Severus. I can see how she would project on to you. You're brilliant, she's brilliant. You're a misfit and she's, well, a misfit of a sort." Snape glared. "You know what I mean," Lupin said firmly and Snape looked away in a silent acknowledgment.
The man in black held up two long fingers at Rosmerta, the barkeep. Lupin swirled the last of the liquid in his glass and then downed it. Rosmerta appeared at their table with two more tumblers of whiskey and a tray for the empty glasses.
"Alright you two then." Rosmerta smiled down at both of them, "Last call, right?" Snape threw three galleons on the tray and just nodded at her to keep the change.
Lupin watched the woman thread her way back to the bar through now empty tables. He turned back to Snape who seemed to be studying his drink. "You know, Hermione is going to be an incredible witch," the wolf said quietly and Snape's mouth fell open a bit. "Well, she is, Severus. She's going to be gorgeous and brilliant and she's got a heart of gold, not to mention buckets of courage. You know as well as I that she will most probably be instrumental in the downfall of…"
"Enough!" Snape admonished him loudly. "She could be bloody well channeling Nimue herself! Those are all things I just do not consider. Ever. I do not deem students future friends, peers, equals, compatriots. Or lovers! They are children. They come to me when they are eleven years old and by Hades I take them through seven years of education. At the end of which I gladly throw open the doors to the wide world and wave them off. Future harbingers of peace notwithstanding. I harbor no sentimentality. As surprising as it may seem to them, and to you, Remus, I never think of any of them again."
"You stuff them full of worms and beetles, then give 'em a good hard shove out of the nest." Lupin grinned.
"Just as naturally as that."
"Tell me, Severus, have you encountered this before?" Lupin asked cautiously.
"Yes, Remus, I have. I think, perhaps, it is the bane of many male instructors. But the others were more, let us say, easily dissuaded." Lupin was staring at him. Snape had the good graces to press his lips together in a charming display of humbleness before continuing. "It certainly is not a yearly thing. Maybe three, four female students, well, and one young man, in the past fifteen years."
Lupin was nodding. "I guess I got off easy two years back, eh? Must not be as, irresistible, as you, mate." He was referring to the year he taught Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. "And I even had Granger in class."
Both men laughed at this. And settled into companionable silence. Since Sirius Black's terrible murder the year before, Lupin had somehow found himself more and more in the company of the Hogwarts' Potion Master. Although neither would admit to actively seeking one another out over the past months, they had, and the original fragility of their relationship was slowly but steadily strengthening into true friendship. As broken as his heart had been by Black's death Lupin knew that there had been something in it that had freed him. He no longer had to wear the past like a favorite but out grown and worn-out shirt.
But the cost of this freedom…
…all the Marauders gone, Lupin swallowed the thought. Why had he been the one left behind.
Snape was watching his friend closely and saw the clear signs of the emotional struggle on the other man's face. He raised his glass "To the Fates, Remus."
Remus looked into Snape's inscrutably dark eyes, "Yes, to the Fates then" he clinked the other man's glass then suddenly smiled broadly and winked at Snape "And to women instead of girls."
"I'll drink to that," the corners of Snape's mouth twitched upward.
"I've noticed that you'll drink to just about anything, Severus." They laughed.
"Alright, then, what are we going to do about your, er, problem," Lupin switched back to his role of advisor.
"I think you may be onto the only solution which I believe will help Miss Granger see the impossibility of her feelings without forcing me into the most unpleasant of dialogues." Lupin raised his eyebrows in question, Snape answered, "I have to arrange for Granger to find out about Tziganne."