A/N: Thank you sooooo much for the reviews! They make me very happy hugs everybody . Sorry this one is kind of (okay, REALLY) short. That's just kind of the way it fit in. I'll have another one up soon.

Werewolf, Chapter 9

Remus stared morosely out the window of his office. Normally he would have enjoyed such a beautiful sunset, but not this one. Not tonight.

Where's Snape with that damn potion?

As if on cue, there was a sharp rapping on the door. Remus opened it and Snape pushed roughly past him into the room, a steaming goblet in one hand. He looked irritable.

"Why you can't just come down to my office and get your own stinking potion, I'll never know," he complained, thrusting the goblet at Lupin. "Here."

Remus took it carefully, with a murmured word of thanks. He downed the green potion in the goblet with a grimace.

"It tastes funny," he commented, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. He gave it back to Snape, who cleaned it with a wave of his wand. "Funnier than usual, I mean."

"I assure you, it is the same as it always has been," the Potions Master said condescendingly. "Maybe it is you who is funny."

He laughed shortly at his own joke and made for the door.

"Goodnight, Remus," he said over his shoulder, and slammed the door shut. The panes of glass rattled disconcertingly.

"Git," Remus muttered under his breath.


It was dusk, and Severus Snape was in the dungeons cleaning his cauldrons.

That's another problem with this bloody Wolfsbane stuff! he griped. There's always too bloody much of it!

He was about to whisk the excess potion away when something caught his eye. It looked like… he leaned closer to the cauldron. There! Floating freely in the green liquid were little white specks. Little white specks that were not supposed to be there.

How did they get in there?

There was only one possibility.

"Litnor!" Snape shouted. There was no answer.

"Litnor!" he bellowed. Still nothing. Cursing fluently, Snape strode across the dungeon to his assistant's office. Banging open the door, his stomach dropped like a stone at the sight that met his eyes.

The office was bare. There was no sign that anyone had ever been there, save a small note pinned to the wall over the desk. Snape snatched it.

Dear Severus, it read,

My master has told me much about you. About how you betrayed him. How you are too scared to face him now. But I have gotten to know you over these past months, and I believe that you still have it in you to be a great Death Eater. A legend. Take my advice. Leave now. This very instant. If you come back, I will vouch for you. Heed this message, my friend, for death is closer to you right now than you can possibly imagine. With most of the staff at Anstierre to fight the ferals, this school is virtually unprotected. But then, even without the distraction, it would be nigh impossible to protect the students from their own teacher, wouldn't it?

Suddenly it all clicked into place. The white specks in the potion. Lupin's comment about how it tasted. Litnor bending over the cauldron, wand in hand.

He fiddled with it, Snape realized with horror. Put something in that canceled it out, made it useless!

Severus never even thought about it. The next thing he knew, he was running, running faster than he ever had in his life, up the stairs, down the hall, past the Great Hall where the students were still enjoying their dinner, unaware of the danger they were in. But even if he had been on a Firebolt, Snape never would have gotten there in time. The howl cut through the night air like a knife, stopping him in his tracks. It was too late.

His breath hitched, and he was momentarily blinded by tears of fury. He should have seen this coming! He should have been able to take a hint! He looked at the note still clutched in his hand fiercely, half expecting it to say April Fools on it somewhere. But as he stared at it, he saw near the bottom words that were forming before his very eyes. Through a haze of rage, he managed to make out one sentence:

You can run, you can hide, but no one escapes the big bad wolf.

With a howl of fury, Snape ripped the note into confetti and let it fall to the floor. Then he turned and sprinted toward the Great Hall to warn the others.