Summary: Remus leaves the infirmary, grabs a quote on the go from Dumbledore, blows up a Potion, and there's something watching in the dark. Plus, the 'big black cat' makes a cameo appearance.

Disclaimer: I hate these things. No one reads them. Heck, I don't read them! Blah. I own shit all, 'cept the plot and a couple of pets.

A/N: PLEASE READ! Sorry it took so long to upload! I lost my muse for a few days there, and even so, the writing's shit. Well, here you go, a five and a half paged chapter, and it's almost completely pointless. I'm kinda lost for ideas, 'cause my muse is stil being bad, so when you review, please, oh PLEASE, tell me what you guys think should happen in the next few chapters. I also need you guys to tell me when I should spark up the romance, as I'm an extremely impatient person by nature and am torn between making it happen in like, the next chapter, or waiting a while. So help. Thanks.

PS: Can any of you guess who the 'big black cat' (or black Jaguar, what ever) is? It's kind of easy…(grins).

PPS: Thanks to all my reviewers, I won't do personal thank you's this chapter, but I will in the next! Thanks! And by the way…how does the whole beta thing work? (blushes).

PPPS: MajinSakuko…You are the 20th reviewer! Yay! So…what do you want? Besides a whole bag of choco chunk cookies! (gives them to you) LOL.

Chapter Eight: Waking and Watching.

Someone was shaking him, it seemed, and he didn't like it. All he wanted was to sleep, sleep forever. He felt so tired, so drained…empty.

"Get up, Remus!"

He opened one groggy eye irritably and groaned as he saw who it was. Madam Pomfrey was standing over him and looking very stern. "It's about time!" She barked. "It's Nine in the morning already and you need to get up and out! You're perfectly fine, maybe a little sore, but nothing you can't deal with yourself. Besides, it's back to work with you today anyway, and wouldn't you like a fresh and early start?"

Remus glared at her and rolled over onto his stomach. "Not really, no." He mumbled against the pillow, "Can't say I really want to get a start on work at all. Ever."

"Remus!" She scolded, wagging a finger he couldn't see, as his head was buried deep into the pillow, turned only slightly so he could breathe.

"Fine," He grumbled, "Fine, I'll get up." He shoved her away clumsily with his hand and she turned angrily and headed back to her office.

He rolled back over onto his back and languidly threw his legs over the side and landed his feet to the floor. Standing up, he yawned and stretched, before opening a drawer in his bedside cabinet and taking out his clothing. He walked into the Hospital Wing's only bathroom (unisex, of course) and changed out of his charcoal pajamas and into them. After he was robed, he turned and made to walk out of the bathroom, but before he could, he caught sight of his reflection in the gold framed mirror above the sink.

'Ugh,' He thought.

His face was pale and slightly thin, his cheeks partially sunken in. His hair hung limp around his face and looked as if it needed a good washing; running his hands through it affirmed that assumption. His eyes were sunken in, but still held a sparkle. That was a good sign.

"I think you need to put on a little weight, Remus." He said to himself.

"I do too, dear," The mirror answered back, "But talking to yourself is a much bigger problem."

Remus scowled at the mirror before heading back out, touching his face. He grabbed his wand and book (including the paper) and looked around his temporary living quarters, making sure that he had everything he needed. Gaining affirmation, he headed out of the Hospital Wing for the first time in two days. He smiled around at the outside corridor and waved cheerily to a skeptical looking witch in a portrait near by.

As he entered his chambers, the first thing he saw was Diego, as he had barreled into him and began rubbing his head against his legs and jumping to rub higher, purring loudly. Remus looked over to Diego's water and food dishes, and smiled to himself noticing fresh food and water, knowing (thankfully) that the house-elves had been taking care of him.

But what about Ackley…

Walking into his bedroom, he was glad to notice that Ackley had been taken care of, as well. He walked into his bathroom and undressed again, before turning on the hot and cold water taps on his bathtub and climbing. As the tub was filling, he used the time to wash his golden-brown hair in the rising water. When he had finished, the tub was full, so he set to work washing himself.

Finishing up, he climbed out, dried off, and cleaned up the bathroom before he redressed and finished up with becoming 'presentable'. When he was done and his wand safely in his robes pocket, (plus the book, which he intended to give to Dumbledore) he climbed back out and made his way out of his chambers and down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Upon entering, his eyes automatically shifted up to the Head Table to search out a certain someone. To his great disappointment, the tall, dark, Potions Master had not yet arrived. He walked up the set of stairs leading up to the Table, and took a spot beside Professor Flitwick, who seemed to have just recently finished having a conversation with Professor Sinistra.

"Hello, Remus! Feeling better, are we?" He chirped, beaming widely.'

Feeling a little drained, Remus nodded exhaustedly, "I'm as good as I can be, for all it's worth."

Flitwick nodded and began discussing the coming Term and how Remus should deal with the children. Remus didn't listen too intently, however, as he didn't feel any need to be lectured on tings he already knew how to do. He concentrated on eating his food, even though his stomach felt as if it might heave it all back up in a short few minutes.

He swallowed a piece of toast heavily, and took a long swig from his iced pumpkin juice. Just as he speared a piece of egg, the sound of click-clacking shoes on the floor alerted him to someone else's arrival. He looked up and felt a strange surge of…something…from his stomach to his chest as swirling dark robes swished across the floor and around the wearer's legs and ankles.

Snape was trying to make a dramatic entrance as always, but the tired lines etched on his face and the slight sag to his walk, ruined the effect. He merely seemed to limp along. Remus guessed that he barely slept at all last night, if he did. He watched,, strangely intrigued, as the dark man crawled up the steps and plunked himself down to the right of him, in an empty space beside McGonnagal.

"Alright, Snape?" Remus asked, sounding tired as well.

Snape seemed to flinch, almost, at the sound of the Werewolf's voice. "As well as I can be. I didn't sleep much." Snape mentally berated himself for telling Lupin such a thing; he normally kept his own personal business to himself and Dumbledore, as nothing can get past that man.

Remus nodded. "Me either." As if punctuating his statement, he let out a wide yawn. Blushing he apologized to Snape for being 'rude', but he merely rolled his eyes.

Dumbledore, whom was sitting beside McGonnagal, made a move to get up, but Remus was quicker.

"Albus, may I have a word?"

Dumbledore looked round and smiled kindly. "Of course," He gestured to the door behind the Staff Table, "We'll go in here, shall we? Better make it quick, as I have a meeting with the Ministry in short minutes." He smiled grimly.

Remus nodded and fingered the book inside his robes, cast a quick glance to Snape (who had been watching him intently, and blushed at being noticed), then followed Dumbledore into the small, adjacent room.

"What is it you wanted to talk about, Remus?" The old man asked.

Remus withdrew the ancient volume from within his robes and held it out sheepishly. "It's this," Dumbledore raised and eyebrow and Remus elaborated, "It's a book on Lycanthropy. 'Lycanthropes of the Dark Ages and Their Ties to the Dark Arts'. It's apparently really old, and the only book Madam Pince could find. The catch is, however, that all the others were missing, and this one was the only one she could find, and she's never seen or heard of it before. Which is strange. She gave it to me to read for information about my transformation, but I couldn't find anything important. She wanted me to give it to you after I was finished so you could scour it. It does have some interesting tidbits about the Dark Ages, and some ancient Remedies. You might like it."

Dumbledore studied him and nodded, taking the book. "I shall examine it right away, once I return from the Ministry. But one thing, Remus. Are you sure their was nothing at all that might come in handy?"

Remus thought for a minute before he smiled and nodded, "Yes, there is one thing…" He elaborated on the segment about Romulus' heir, and Voldemort.

Dumbledore nodded morosely as Remus finished. "I do not think it is so trivial to your Transformation as you do, Remus. There are many hidden secrets in this world, and some are hard to unearth. Try digging deeper. Good day." He nodded before walking out of the room and leaving a very confused Remus behind.

Severus was sitting, alone, in his chambers, on his living room couch, and pondering. All he could think about was him. Him, him, him, him, him. And it was driving him insane.

All he could see was his face, as was the case yesterday and all through the night. He kept finding himself thinking about him, trying to remember every detail of his face, his body, his voice, the way he moved….

Severus Snape was not supposed to feel this way. About anybody. But here he was, feeling. Which was definitely not good. He was torn between wanting to see him, and not wanting see him. He was also torn between (much to his chagrin) wanting to kiss him, and wanting to hex him into oblivion. Neither would do anyone any good.

Much to his disappointment.

Just as he decided he was going to get up to work on the potion, so that he might have some ready and less time to work with him, there was a series of knocks on the door. He glared at it and walked over to open it. Swinging the door open, he came face to face with him; Remus Lupin.

Or he did, until Remus tripped and fell on him.

For the second time, Snape caught him in his arms and steadied him. Remus looked up at him shyly and blushed, mumbling an apology. Snape's arms tingled all over, and little did he know that Remus' body was on fire from his midriff (where Snape's hands were) and up. Severus didn't want to let go, he wanted to hold him tighter and never let go. Oh, the stupid Werewolf felt so good in his arms… If only he could just….

He was rudely brought back to reality by a blushing Werewolf, whom had noticed that Snape didn't let go, "Uhhh….Severus…can you…?"

Severus' head jerked back a little and he automatically let go of Remus, a little too quickly, as the Werewolf stumbled back a bit before recuperating and straightening himself up.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

Snape mentally berated himself again for letting himself slip up. He quickly mumbled something close to an apology and motioned with his hand towards the entrance to his lab.

Remus nodded, studying him curiously, and wishing he didn't feel so….so….weird. He followed the dark man through the doorway and over to the cauldron, watching as Snape began to add a little hot water into it.

Work. How fun.

Remus squinted tiredly at the fine print, with were instructions on making the Wolfsbane that Snape had given him so he could stop barking out instructions every few seconds. It didn't help much though, as Remus kept messing up, or couldn't make out certain words.

He picked up a Wolfsbane flower and a handful of powder murk root, trying to make out which went in first. Knowing he couldn't read it, he decided to wing it and toss in the Wolfsbane flower. He made a move to dip it in, but before hi could, Snape, whom had been stirring again and staring at the opposite wall, avoiding eye contact, shot his arm out to grab it from him. Startled, Remus dropped it. Right into the potion. At the same time, Snape said loudly, "No! Not that one! If you do that you'll--Argh!"

The potion exploded.

The liquid shot straight up into the air like a fountain and pelted off of the ceiling before showering back down. Snape made a quick movement and grabbed his arm, pulling him backwards behind the bench, as the potion made contact to it and the floor where they had been standing.

Remus watched in shock and shame, as the potion burnt holes straight through the wood and scorched the dungeon floor. The cauldron, however, as it was magically protected, stood proud and strong on the floor, since it fell through a burnt hole. As the sizzling died down and the coloring of the lab area changed from sickening green to singed black, Snape turned to him, scowling.

"Why the hell did you do that?" He growled, low, and angry.

Remus gulped and squeaked out, "Oops?"

Snape made and indignant sound and lifted his wand to point at him. He moved his arms up and down agitatedly, as if trying to determine whether he wanted to hex him to last year, or let it go. His eyes bugged and he huffed, before redirecting his wand to the mess.

"Repairo!"

The singed desk and floor reformed and changed to it's original colouring, the cauldron back on the table and the ingredients back to their original state. Snape glared at Remus to cover up his surprise. If it were any other witch or wizard who had done that, he would have hexed them, but with Remus…he just couldn't. He was so confused. He'd only regarded him on a slightly friendly level for a couple days now, but he wasn't so sure that it was just messed up attraction he was feeling.

Dear Merlin, he hoped that was all it was.

But now he wasn't so sure.

After an hour, they had finally completed the Wolfsbane and decided to take a break. Remus went outside, but Snape went back to his bedroom and laid down on his bed, staring again at the ceiling. He was thinking about his oh-too-good-looking plague, when he felt a sudden funny prickling on the back of his neck. Looking around his room, he frowned, not sure what it was that was bothering him. Everything appeared to be in order.

He turned back to the ceiling and thinking, not noticing a soft padding of little feet across his floor. Only when he felt the funny prickling again, did he look around his room again. He knew that feeling; it was the feeling of being watched.

That's when he saw them.

Two, little yellow eyes were watching him from beneath an armchair to the left of his bed. His eyes widened and he grabbed his wand, sitting up. The eyes realized they had been spotted and took off in a flash. Severus stood up in alarm before he realized it was gone. He had though he saw a long, skinny tail dash through the ajar door leading to his bathroom, but wasn't sure. He shook it off and laid back down after shutting the door, just in case. He set his wand aside and a sudden though flashed through his mind.

Is Remus alright?

Maybe I'd better go and have a look…

Remus was walking down the side of the lake, waiting to see if he could catch a glimpse of the Giant Squid, when he felt a funny prickling on the back of his neck. He looked around, but saw nothing, even though he was overcome with a funny feeling of warmth that accompanied the tingling.

Ever since he had left Snape's dungeons, he had been thinking about the dark man, and how his robes swirled and changed to shadows…

He had already admitted to himself that he was attracted to the man, but wasn't sure if it could be anything more. He didn't really know the depth of his feelings, which irked him to no end. When he though about it, he had always held a certain respect for him, and had always felt twinges of something near him. He had always been alluring, Remus had admitted, but I'd never noticed before….Well, that or I never noticed that I noticed…

He felt a strange feeling again and looked around, then stopped dead.

A large shadow lurked in behind a strip of wall next to the lake that was part of the gardens. It was darker, and shifted different from the shadows surrounding it, and it's eyes flashed silver in the dark. Remus drew his wand, which must have startled the shadow as it turned and Remus caught sight of a long, black cat tail before it slipped away.

He sighed edgily, and tucked it away, hoping against hope that it was just some creature that had wondered out of the Forbidden Forest and not what he dreaded it to be, even though he had an inkling that it was.

A spy for Voldemort.

Snape entered his dungeons and locked the door.

He had checked up on Remus, and he had seemed startled, and withdrew his wand. He knew what had startled the man, and left before he could be noticed as well, and have to explain.

He didn't know what it was that was watching them, but he thought it might be for the one he hoped it wasn't.

Voldemort.

He also thought he might know who it was, but wasn't about to think more of it. It was too risky too assume too much. Of course, then again, they may not even be being watched at all. It may have just been a coincidence. Which he hoped it was.

It was awfully hard to get past the wards at Hogwarts without permission, so he hoped that it was nothing. Nothing at all.

Which, in retrospect, was probably bullshit.

But instead of worrying and fussing, he decided to ignore it.

He didn't actually see anyone (or anything) watching Remus, so he couldn't prove it. Besides, it may very well have been him that had startled Remus, even though Remus himself didn't know it. His wand had been pointed in his general direction…

He shook his head and let it drop. Later on that day, Remus would be coming back and they would be working on the Potion again. He needed to be emotionally stable and prepared for that intrusion on his senses.

That, and the fact the new Term started in two days.

Oh what fun.

A/N: Heh heh. School starts up soon and the Trio's back in action! Sort of…they're not really going to be that big of a thing in my story…sorry! Well, actually, that depends on how many people want them to be…you never know. But there's only one way to tell me what you think! (winks). You know it. Please REVIEW, but NO FLAMES! Thanks!