If you can find it in the Harry Potter books 1-4 then I don't own it. If however you can't, it just might be mine. Thank you for reading and reviewing I get very excited every time I get an e-mail.

I also need to thank Ashley for substitute beta-ing while Sara A. is off doing… well what ever it is she does. -shrug- THANKS Ashley!

Chapter: 7

"Well, I guess I'd better get my stuff," Lupin said, turning from the hearth. "What did you mean by 'Guardrooms'?" Lupin was more than a little worried about his new quarters.

"I meant Guardrooms," Snape sneered. "It is a dungeon." Having said this, he headed for the door to the office and left. Lupin followed, a short way behind. They walked in silence until they reached the corridor.

"Wait here and I'll be right back with my things," Lupin said, sounding rather reluctant.

Instead of answering, Snape crossed the hall and leaned against the wall. Taking this move as his consent, Lupin hurried towards his rooms. Using a short cut that he remembered from his Marauder days, he quickly made his way to his room. In a very short time, he returned to the spot he had left Snape. To his surprise, Snape was still there, leaning back against the wall looking at the floor. As he drew closer Snape shrugged himself off the wall and slowly headed toward the entrance to the dungeon.


"You don't look twenty-nine," Lupin remarked conversationally. Receiving only silence, he tried again, "If you're twenty-nine, how come you look so much older? PMR doesn't affect the aging process."

After a long pause Snape spoke. He sounded distracted, like he wasn't thinking about what he said. "I take Plasti-juice."

"Plastijuice? Isn't that like Pollyjuice?" Remus asked, vaguely remembering a lesson that covered form-altering potions, from his seventh year.

"Pollyjuice is for short term use," Snape corrected, still not really paying attention. "For a period of anywhere between a few hours and several days, it's rather harmless," he continued. "With prolonged exposure, though, it will increase your metabolism until you auto-cannibalize to death."

"And Plastijuice?" Lupin prompted, very curious by now.

"It is relatively safe for long term use, but is rarely used because of the side effects."

'Side effects? He almost sounds like he's had some Veritaserum. Another side affect maybe? Hmmm. This could get interesting!' "Side effects, like what?" he casually pressed Snape.

Without glancing at Lupin or showing any other sign that he was knowingly participating in a conversation about himself, Snape recited a list. "Chronic depression, apathy, insomnia, there are a few others, too, I think. I had to take a dose while I waited for you to get your gear."

'Gear!?' They had reached the stairs that lead to the dungeon and Remus was forced to fall behind for a moment while he organized his trunk and two bags for the trip down. This also gave him a moment to absorb what he had just heard. 'He must have been on it for a long time, 'cause I don't remember him suddenly looking different. Could he have started it slowly enough that the change would go unnoticed?' He halted as a new possibility occurred to him, 'Or could he have started while we were in school? Well, the way he's been acting, I guess I could just try asking.'

He hurried to catch up with Snape. "So," Lupin said, trying to keep his voice calm and neutral. "How long have you been taking this Plastijuice?"

Having reached the bottom of the stairs, Snape took a left that Remus would have sworn hadn't been there the last time he'd been in the dungeon. They walked for a few minutes before reaching a 'T' intersection. Looking first left then right, Snape turned back to the left.

As he started walking again he answered Lupin without any inflection, "I started it a week before I came here.... Your door should be around here, somewhere..." Severus muttered into the dark corridor.

Just then a house elf came bustling down the hall and, because of the huge pile of linen she was carrying, almost plowed right into Snape.

"You were sent to clean and prepare the guard rooms correct?" He demanded of the overloaded elf.

"Oh! Yes, sir, I was, sir. By the Headmaster his self, sir!" she gushed, obviously realizing that Snape would not be pleased with the changes taking place. "Otherwise, I would never have shooed that nasty Bogart out of the bureau. I cleaned both sets of rooms, just like Master Dumbledore said I was to. I know-"

"Good enough, Fenny," Snape interrupted her. "You can show him to his room."

Having said this, he headed back toward the dungeon's main hall and was soon swallowed up by the shadows.

"Sir? If Master Professor Lupin would follow Fenny, she will show him to his new quarters."

She then took off back down the way she had labored with the old bedding. A short way from the point that they had met up, she stopped and nodded her head at a blank wall.

"Your door opens if you say 'Hopper-scotch' but you won't see it, sir. It just lets you pass through."

"Thank you, Fenny, was it? I can get my stuff set up on my own. Goodnight," he dismissed her before she could become too obsequious. As he once again gathered his meager luggage and drew out his wand to activate the door he muttered to himself. "Couldn't even see me to my room? This is a great way to start things off."

"Sir?" Fenny's voice quivered with emotion in the dark behind him.

"Yes, Fenny?" he turned to face the little house elf and was surprised to see, not fear but, anger in her large eyes.

"Master Snape, you should not be saying bad of him. You don't know how" she squeaked in horror at what she had been saying and ran from sight.

With more than enough to occupy his mind, Remus Lupin moved into the Dungeons, one night before the full moon.


Chapter: 8 @--'---,---------

'Lupin, Black, and myself.' Snape thought leaning on the wall across from the gargoyle that marked the Headmaster's office waiting for Lupin to return with his meager possessions. 'He's contacting Moody. He just told everyone that I would be starting Necratonin, but it's incompatible with the Plastijuice. What is the fool thinking? Well, he's obviously calling the senior members of the resistance together, but why? And why put Lupin and Black under my watch?'

He paused in his thoughts for a moment as a nearby clock struck six-o'clock. Without thinking (he had been doing it for so long it no longer required thought) he reached for the pocket in his shirt that held the serum.

Keeping it in his shirt kept it warm enough that it stayed active longer than it would have in a robe pocket, or on a shelf. A murmured spell released the stopper, and he swallowed a small amount of the blood red fluid. Reinserting the stopper and resealing it, he put it away for another six hours.

Leaning against the wall for support now, he let his head droop as he felt the drug start to take effect. He could feel it clouding his senses and mind as it worked its way into his bloodstream. When Lupin finally returned, Snape had trouble understanding what he said. Unable to maintain focus on what Lupin was asking him and keep on course to the 'guest rooms,' he answered more candidly than he normally would have.

After bumping (almost) into Fenny in the hall, he hurriedly passed Lupin on to her and headed back upstairs to finish the last of Albus' commands for the night.

'I just need to make it to McGonagall's quarters, give her the letter, and tell her that Dumbledore's already gone to sort it out. Then I can find a nice deep hole and not come out till morning.'

Having finished this line of thought, he looked around at his surroundings, and found that he had made it to the concealed door to McGonagall's room. Having a great deal of trouble focusing enough to remember her password he gave up and knocked on the bronze sculpture. 'A lion, typical. Gryffindors never were big on subtlety,' he thought with a shade of disdain.

Minerva quickly answered the unusual summons. She had clearly been expecting a visitor, but was surprised to find Snape at her door. Looking at him more closely, she was able to see a lack of focus in his eyes and relaxed somewhat recognizing the effects of the Plasti-juice. 'He must have had urgent business to send Severus instead of coming himself.' "What is it that you wish Severus?" she asked solicitously.

"I wish to hide in a hole until morning. First, I have to give you this, though." He handed her the letter that had caused so much trouble already and watched as she read it. His concentration wandered as she started reading it again. By the time she ushered him into her sitting room, he was once again lost in a familiar fog.

"- the school?" Minerva asked. She waited for a response. Finally looking up she noticed that he was looking at the air in front of the fireplace. She had long ago found that the best way to get his attention, was to do what Albus did at times like these. Gently she placed a hand on his upper arm. He immediately snapped back to attention and stepped out of her reach.

"I don't know, he seamed to think so. He left immediately to see if things could be recovered." He answered without thinking. Looking at her he could tell that whatever he had said had upset her, but he was unable to remember what he had just said.

These particular side effects didn't last long, only about half an hour, but they were rather strong, and he was loosing the battle to stay awake.

Minerva saw him sway on his feet and, deciding that she would get more out of him after he slept off the initial effects of the Plasti-juice, she sent him to get some rest.

Without being able to remember how, Snape found that he had made it to his private chambers and was standing beside his bed. Sluggishly, he stripped off the robe he had been wearing all day and lay across the large four-poster bed still clothed in his rather Victorian shirt and pants. Sleep claimed him quickly, as it always did when the serum was still diffusing into his system. It also (as usual) didn't last long. Twenty minutes later he woke, not quite rested, but not able to sleep any longer either.

Still, several hours from the start of first period (Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff third year), he headed to his private lab. His private lab was in one of the most unreachable sections of the dungeon. The room had been chosen because of its inaccessibility. It wouldn't do to have a student on a dare come tripping across the supply lab for the resistance.

'Brewing the industrial volumes of medical potions they ask for is probably what did it.' he thought, not without a bit of self-directed malice. Snape set to work, filling the most recent order that he had been given.