Finally the last students for the train were dispatched to Hogsmeade, the remaining handful vanished to their common rooms, and the expanse of the holidays stretched before Severus like a vast, luminous winter sky. Plenty of work, yes, but he didn't mind that so much, and (for the next ten days at least) as much solitude as he could wish for.
When he got back to his room, he found a sealed note waiting for him on the table in Lucius's handwriting.
Severus – you really are incomparable. Thank you for last night. L.
He was halfway through puzzling out how Lucius had got the note to his room – had he sent it up with a house-elf? before or after their disagreement in the corridor? did he still mean it? and could the house-elf be trusted to keep it a secret? – when he remembered to be pleased about the compliment. Yes, he was tired. His paranoia always seized hold too quickly when he hadn't slept. Time to rest.
He tucked the note into his bedside drawer, locked the drawer with his wand, then sat down on the edge of the bed to undress. But he didn't even remove his robes. Sleepiness rose up through him from the charmed bed, and with a groan of relief he lay backwards across the bed and fell asleep.
He woke just in time for lunch. After straightening his clothes, he went down to eat, wolfed some soup and bread, then took himself to the staff room, reasoning that a cup of tea would be a pleasant gesture towards the start of the holidays – and would satisfy Dumbledore that he was Doing His Bit. He ducked his head in, saw the room was mercifully empty, then went in and settled himself in the armchair in the corner. No doubt others would come down after their rather more leisurely lunches, but he might enjoy a quarter of an hour's peace.
He summoned the chessboard from its cupboard, set up the pieces, and began trying to remember a sequence he had found in a book a few evenings ago, when trying to distract himself from Lucius's imminent arrival. Pawn – pawn – knight – bishop – pawn. Yes, here were the lines and currents of power lacing themselves across the board, flexing and shifting as the pieces moved. Castle – queen out – then get this pawn up the board.
Slowly this morning's upset, the spat with Lucius, his strange nighttime offer of a house, the robes, the sex, the Feast, Lupin and Lucius's strange rapport, all receded into a far corner of his mind. There was much to think about, but just for now, he could forget about it.
He was granted nearly twenty-five minutes of quiet before the door opened and someone came in. Severus flicked his gaze upwards, met Lupin's tired eyes, and immediately looked back down at the board. Lupin was emphatically not the person he wanted to see just now, not after the werewolf's bizarre performance last night – how pleased he had seemed receiving Lucius's teasing enquiries – not to mention Lucius's startling suggestion that Lupin might want –
'I'm guessing you're suffering far less than me,' Lupin said, lowering himself onto a nearby sofa, closing his eyes, and pinching the bridge of his nose.
'I hardly drank anything,' Severus said flatly. 'You didn't think to take a Sobriety Draught before going to bed?'
'No,' Lupin admitted. 'I wasn't planning to drink very much, I didn't think to have anything ready. You don't have anything in your store cupboard, do you? Some kind of hangover antidote?'
'Hogsmeade would be your best option,' Severus said. He returned his attention to the chessboard and hoped Lupin would take the hint.
'I tried,' Lupin said. 'I went down before lunch, but Alfredsen's was closed – he's gone back to Denmark for a couple of weeks.'
Severus remained silent, merely picking up the black king and moving it one square forward.
'If you haven't got anything,' Lupin said, 'then – but I did also want to ask you about something, and perhaps the staff room wouldn't be'–
'Fine,' Severus said, cutting across him and getting to his feet, leaving the chessboard as it was. Clearly it would save time simply to give Lupin what he wanted. 'Come with me.'
In the dungeon, Severus looked out a standard pain relief draught, and, gesturing for Lupin to take a seat, tipped the contents of the vial into a small cauldron and lit a fire under it. Then he brought three long dried Mandrake roots from the cupboard to prepare and add to the standard dose. This had been his preferred remedy for hangovers in the old days, and one he had occasionally made for himself and Pyotr – claiming (at least at first) it was some Muggle drug he'd made from a packet.
As he began to slice the roots with his sharpest knife, Lupin said, 'I wanted to ask you about Lucius Malfoy.'
Only the tiniest hesitation in his chopping betrayed Severus's immediate wariness. 'Oh?'
'Yes, I – he wasn't exactly how I'd expected.'
'In what way?' He kept working, moving the knife in a perfectly steady rhythm, but his mind was alert, leaping ahead, trying to work out where Lupin was going.
'Well' – Lupin hesitated – 'he was much friendlier to me than – than I thought he would be. We'd never encountered each other before, so I wasn't sure …'
'Not even at school?'
'No,' Lupin said. 'I remember him gliding down the corridors and throwing his hair about. But he was older than me, I suppose he didn't have any reason to speak to a miniature Gryffindor. Not that we'd have given him the time of day if he'd tried.'
Severus noticed the shift from I to we. Yes, he saw what this really was.
'Anyway,' Lupin continued, 'I thought he'd be kind of perfunctory with me, but he was – well, as you said last night, he was very charming.'
Severus gave a snort. 'Lucius doesn't discriminate. He is unable to let someone go by uncharmed. Even his old enemies.'
'You like him then, do you?' Lupin said.
'Like him?' He kept his gaze down, gathering the chopped Mandrake roots on the chopping board with the blade of his knife. 'As you might well imagine, I don't have the luxury of wondering whether to like or dislike him.'
'Because of your – your history, you mean?' Lupin said.
'Precisely. And he is a school governor. His son is in my House.' He lifted the board over the cauldron and scraped the Mandrake roots into the liquid; a whoosh of steam rose as the roots began to release their juice. 'Whether or not I find him likeable is subordinate to all these circumstances.' Plus one more, he mentally added: that I am utterly intoxicated by him. He counted five more stirs, making sure not to look at Lupin, then removed his glass stirring rod, dipped a tiny ladle into the now dark blue liquid, and poured a dose in a thin trickle through a strainer into a small silver cup. 'Here.' He put the cup in front of Lupin. 'You can drink it, it should be cool enough.'
'Wonderful, thank you.' Lupin raised the glass between finger and thumb and swiftly tipped it down his throat, then gasped and laughed. 'Oh, Merlin, that's strong.'
'It should work instantly,' Severus said.
'It is working,' Lupin said with relief, leaning his head heavily onto his arms on the workbench in front of him. 'Thank you,' he said in muffled tones.
Severus decided to seize the advantage. 'You liked Lucius, then, I take it.'
'Oh.' Lupin raised his head, as if he had not expected the subject to be continued. 'Well, I – let's put it this way, I expected to utterly loathe him, and I didn't.'
'And you're trying to find out if that's an acceptable attitude?' Severus said coolly.
Lupin smiled. 'Not at all. I reserve the right to like people if I choose. He clearly likes you very much. He gave the impression you two were good friends.'
'I am sure that's what he wanted you to think.'
'But you aren't?'
'We are not,' Severus said shortly.
'Ah.'
'I am useful to Lucius because I'm the only person at the school he thinks he has any leverage over. That is all.'
Lupin looked thoughtful, and did not immediately reply, so Severus took the opportunity to gather up cup, knife, strainer and chopping board, and take them over to the sink for washing. He stood there, rinsing things under the purified water, noticing his own agitation. Clearly Lucius had been wrong about exactly which Slytherin wizard Lupin was interested in. And now Lupin was trying to find out if – and the two of them had had chemistry, that was undeniable – and now maybe Lucius would write to Lupin, and –
No, he told himself, placing the clean chopping board on the drying rack. Think chess. What was White's next move? That pawn, perhaps, or to double the rooks. And after the chess, Occlumency. And after that, a quiet dinner, a book, and bed.
He came back to the bench to find Lupin still sitting there. 'Did you need anything else?' he said coldly.
'You know,' Lupin said, apparently not noticing his hostile tone, 'I once met a vampire in Italy who could tell I was a werewolf as soon as he touched me.'
Severus blinked. This was an unexpected turn.
'I hadn't fully realised this,' Lupin continued, 'but many magical creatures, or even wizards with mixed ancestry – not werewolf, other creatures – can sense that kind of thing just by touch. Have you ever read Gondolini's theory of magical cadence?'
'No. What is it?'
'Well, it doesn't matter.' Lupin paused. 'It's just made me very wary of touching anyone who doesn't know about my condition. Are you finished? I heard Minerva and Filius agreeing to play tomorrow evening, will you join them?'
'What is Gondolini's theory of magical cadence?' Severus said, unable to resist the lure of something he didn't know.
Lupin laughed. 'No, really, it's too fiddly to explain. But I was wondering something else too. Why don't you ever wash anything up with magic?'
'What?'
'You could easily charm the brush and soap to wash up your equipment, or to chop ingredients, or stir cauldrons. But you always do it by hand. I was curious about why.'
Severus raised an eyebrow. 'It's too fiddly to explain.' He had never felt quite so much on the back foot in a conversation with Lupin, so taken by surprise by almost everything he said, and he did not like it one bit.
Lupin laughed again. 'Well played. Shall we go back up?'
'You can. I have more to do here.' He stood, waiting for Lupin to go, not wanting to finish cleaning up while he was still here and have to walk back up to the staff room with him.
'All right.' Lupin's smile as he got up made it clear he knew his own advantage. 'Well, perhaps I'll see you up there if you want to finish that chess problem. Or play with one of the others, even. Oh, one more thing.'
Severus raised an eyebrow in enquiry.
'Dumbledore has suggested that I try to teach Harry the Patronus Charm. We'll start next term.'
'Why are you telling me?'
'No particular reason,' Lupin said. 'One Defence expert to another, I suppose. I may need your advice.'
'My Patronus Charm is rather lacklustre,' Severus said. This was not untrue. Was it wise to admit this to someone like Lupin, he wondered. He reverted to open hostility. 'Are you leaving, or will I have to force you out?' He drew his wand. 'I am perfectly willing to use magic for that, I assure you.'
Lupin held up his hands in mock defence. 'I'm going, I'm going. Not that I think I would lose, mind you. See you on Christmas Eve for the Wolfsbane?'
'Fine.' Hardly sensible to admit this either, that he would be at Hogwarts on Christmas Eve, with nowhere better to go. But there it was.
'Thank you – and thank you for the hangover remedy,' Lupin said. 'Oh, and also' –
'Enough,' Severus snarled, suddenly losing his temper and raising his wand. 'You have wasted enough of my time for one day. You have five seconds before I Stun you.'
And Lupin, still smiling, was gone.
