Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling and the legal licensees of Harry Potter books and products. I am writing this for my own pleasure and have no intent to make any sort of profit with it. The inspiration came from Severitus, the plot came from my warped imagination and everything else belongs to JKR and those to whom she's given the rights.
WHAT WILL COME, WILL COME. . .
(An Answer to Severitus' Challenge)
By RowanRhys Chapter Two July 1, 1995(Hogwarts)
"Severus?" Remus Lupin knocked on the frame of the open door to the Potions classroom. It was deserted, but the door leading to Snape's office beyond was partially open, so he repeated his action on that one. "Severus? Are you busy?"
"Come in, Lupin." The voice sounded distracted and when Remus rounded the door he found Snape with his hooked nose buried in a thick tome, one hand marking his spot on the page of tiny, crabbed calligraphy while the other scribbled madly with a raven quill on an impressively large roll of parchment. "I'll be with you in a moment."
Remus hid a grin as he sat down in one of the uncomfortable visitor's chairs, stretching out his legs and folding his arms across his chest. It was fairly obvious, now that the students were safely away from the school, the Potion professor's mood had improved drastically. Plus the fact that Snape was apparently involved in what was his first love--research--didn't hurt either.
Finally, Severus tucked a scrap of parchment into the book, marking his place and laid down his quill. "I thought you and Black were going out to find 'the old crowd' for the Headmaster." He sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers before him as he rested his elbows on the chair's carved arms.
"We were, but we don't expect to be back before the full moon, so I thought I'd see if you've had a chance to brew up some more Wolfsbane Potion for me. The Twelfth will be here before we know it and I don't want to be caught out."
Severus tried to stifle the automatic shudder that came with memories of his first encounter with Lupin in werewolf form. "No, I don't suppose you do." He pushed himself up from his chair. "There's some left, but not enough for an extended trip." He headed into the classroom/lab, then paused in the doorway. "I expect you to lend a hand, Lupin, since it is for your benefit?"
Remus got to his feet and followed the taller man into the torchlit room. "Well, while I never really got the hang of the mixing and measuring, I can chop up things with the best of them."
Hours later, the two men stood over the simmering cauldron, Remus holding a bowl of ground, dried wolfsbane while Severus sifted in carefully measured amounts of the critical ingredient, allowing every speck to be incorporated into the mixture before adding the next tiny spoonful. The werewolf shifted position to ease his back, aching from being on his feet in one position for more than half a day.
"Careful with that," Severus snapped, "We need every bit of that and if we have to grind up more we'll have to start all over."
"Sorry." Remus wrinkled his nose at the acrid smell arising from the half-done potion. "Have you had any luck in finding anything to moderate the taste that won't make it ineffective?"
Snape shook his head. "So far, nothing. I'm researching some Muggle biochemistry texts to see if there's any leads there, but it's not looking hopeful at this point."
"Ah, well. Perhaps it will burn off my taste buds soon so I can't experience that horrible flavor anymore."
"You could always hold your nose," the lank-haired man suggested and Remus snorted with stifled laughter. Had Snape actually made a joke?
"I've tried that, but, no, your concoctions always were more powerful than I was." His smile faded. "Stars, Severus, why the hell did we have to be sorted into different Houses back then? I've begun to think that we might have been friends if not for that blasted House rivalry."
Snape's voice was flat as he replied. "You can't change the past, Remus. Only live with the consequences of what you did then." Another spoonful of powder slowly disappeared into the mixture.
"But maybe one can atone for those actions. I know that I made some bad choices back then."
"It wasn't you who made the bad choices. It was Black." Snape looked levelly across the cauldron at the werewolf. "I'll be honest with you. I never understood how you could have forgiven him for that night he sent me into the Whomping Willow's tunnel after you." He gave the pot another six clockwise stirs and let another pinch of powder sift into it. "I accept that I was stupid to let him provoke me, but when you continued to be his friend after he'd done something that could have had you imprisoned in Azkaban or executed or even get the Dementor's Kiss--" He broke off. "It made no sense then and it makes no sense now, even after nearly twenty years."
Remus was silent for a few minutes while he to figure out the right way to respond to Snape's comments. Finally, staring down at the potion that steamed in front of him, he asked, "Have you ever heard the Muggle saying 'Hate the sin, but love the sinner?'"
Snape shook his head.
"The idea is that a single action does not define a person. A single bad choice does not automatically condemn them forever. That it's the action and choice that is irredeemably bad, not the person who made it." Remus laughed shortly. "I'm not saying Sirius was an angel--far from it! But he was my friend before he lost sight of the consequences of what he was planning. He didn't reject me when he found out what I was during First year. I don't know if it was James' or his idea to become Animagi so that I didn't have to suffer my curse alone, but he was the most enthusiastic about it. He was the first to succeed in the transformation, able to stay with me for several months before Peter or James were able to. Without them, I was nothing… no friends, no hope for my future. I didn't speak to him for months afterwards, though. I refused to let him be with me during my changes, just James and Peter. When I saw him laughing about your reaction, I wanted to kill him myself--but then, one night when I was in a position to do so, I looked into his eyes and remembered that they were the first eyes to look at me without terror when he learned I was a monster--and I couldn't destroy my friend."
Remus took a deep breath. "Severus, I hated what you did, when you took on the Dark Mark. But that's not all you are, no matter how much you try to believe it. When I learned, after James and Lily died, that you'd been a spy for our side, that you'd made new decisions and new choices, I couldn't hate you." He added, "And, after all you've done to atone for that one bad decision, you shouldn't hate yourself."
There was silence on Severus' side of the cauldron this time. When he spoke, he said quietly, "I see the point you are trying to make to me, Remus, but while you have memories of friendship and support to complement the stupidities that Black performed, all I have are memories of pain and evil and my own stupidity and jealousy. Nothing else."
"Surely you have something good in your life? Not even your memories of Lily? I knew you were in love with her during Seventh year, even though you tried to hide it."
"Lily went with James in the end, didn't she? Married him with indecent haste. His doing, I'm sure. When he wanted something, he got it, and he wanted her." He sifted and stirred again. "I sometimes wonder if he wanted her only because she had chosen me for that little while. And when I disappeared when that mission for the Headmaster went wrong and everyone assumed I was dead, he made his move."
"Severus--"
"Remus, it was seventeen years ago this coming October and even if I had a Time Turner, I couldn't go back and change things. Lily is gone along with James Potter, and their son is making my life miserable by being just like his father was. The spoiled son of a famous family who gets away with whatever he wants, capitalizing on his celebrity."
"Harry's not like that, Severus, if you would only look at him instead of the image of James you see," Remus objected without heat.
"I have two full months without the dubious pleasure of his company, and I don't intend to spoil them by discussing him now or even thinking about him over the next eight weeks--" As Snape stirred in the newest minute addition of wolfsbane powder, the door to the classroom slammed open, crashing hard into the wall, and Peeves, laughing so maniacally that neither of the two men could make out his nasty little ditty, swooped into the room, whirled about in mid-air and threw a handful of something that glowed yellowish-green into the cauldron.
Remus was thrown backwards by the force of the explosion, which was so strong that it put most of Neville Longbottom's inadvertent efforts to shame. The room went black as his head struck the stone wall behind him.
* * * * *
Severus, as coated with the spoiled potion as Lupin was, had managed to roll when he hit the floor and didn't black out, but he could feel the magic of the fluid seeping into the skin of his hands and face, and more slowly where the soaked fabric of his robes touched his body. He staggered to his feet and headed for the sinks to rinse it off, pulling his outer robe from him as he went. Only a few steps away from the basins, he stopped dead, clutching at his head as excruciating pain ripped through it. Body stiff, his knees gave way beneath him and he topped to the floor, a lean sprawl of black-clad limbs in a pool of reddish-brown elixer that continued to dribble from the side of the cracked cauldron.
The Bloody Baron, in pursuit of Peeves, swooped into the chamber and halted as he saw the two still bodies. Silently he shot straight upward through the ceiling, heading for the North Tower and the Headmaster's Office.
To be continued. . .