Chapter 03 - First Steps

About six weeks later, on a Friday evening, Severus was sitting in his sparsely furnished living room deep down in the dungeons of Hogwarts, staring fixedly at the vial on the desk in front of him.

The Wolfsbane Potion. Tomorrow night would be full moon, and Lupin would need to take the potion in order not to harm anyone while being in his canine form.

Four weeks ago, Severus had sent a house-elf to bring Lupin the potion, thus avoiding a confrontation with him. He still had been far too embarrassed about the incident at Grimmauld Place to feel able to face him. However, he knew he couldn't get around it forever; at least at the staff meetings he would have to deal with Lupin, and of course they had to eat at the very same table thrice a day. Some colleagues had already asked bemused questions concerning Severus's odd behaviour towards Lupin, which consisted of completely ignoring him.

But what else should Severus do? He felt almost paralysed with embarrassment every time he saw Lupin. That anyone should have seen him so weak, so vulnerable… it made Severus wish that he'd never have to see Lupin again. Of course this was no option, and sooner or later he would have to face him and start dealing with him halfway normally.

Severus frowned. Well, if he had to do this, he might as well begin right now. Better having done with it quickly, since the first time was always the worst. He would bring Lupin the potion this evening and just hope for his discretion, which he had appreciated very much during the past weeks, since Lupin hadn't tried once to bring up the matter. After all, there seemed to be some reason in the man.

When he arrived at Lupin's private rooms, Severus took a deep breath before knocking. The door swung open and he found himself in front of a smiling Lupin.

"Good evening, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"In fact, I'm here to do something for you," Severus retorted stiffly, holding out the vial with the Wolfsbane in it. At least his tongue hadn't frozen in his mouth.

"Oh, thank you. You know, I appreciate your help very much."

"It's not that I have a choice, is it?" Severus snapped. Albus had insisted that he had to brew the potion when Lupin had first begun his work as DADA teacher three years ago, and of course this time he had to do it again.

"Thank you all the same," Lupin said, still smiling a- to Severus's mind - somewhat impertinent smile. Severus wondered if he was inwardly laughing at him.

Having finished with his business, he was about to turn and leave - after all, this had not been as bad as he had feared – when suddenly he was confronted with the question, "Would you like to come in and have a glass of wine with me? I got this great claret at a wine store at London – an insider's tip. But I don't like drinking alone."

Far too surprised to catch a clear thought – he had never dreamt of Lupin inviting him to whatever kind of leisure-time activity and was still struggling not to be totally overcome with embarrassment and shame in Lupin's presence - Severus froze, unable to get out a word. What was Lupin planning?

Lupin opened the door wider, holding his arm out in an inviting gesture, and while Severus's normal instinct would have been to insult him and leave, he thought better of it. Could this be some gesture of apology? Making peace? Or was Lupin planning to humiliate Severus further? But if the latter were the case, there would have been more than ample opportunity already. Lupin would only have had to mention the incident at Grimmauld Place to their colleagues - Severus doubted he would have missed that happening.

By now, Severus was too curious to walk away, and so he ended up sitting in a large red armchair in front of Lupin's fireplace, a glass of wine in his hand.

What the hell am I doing here?' he asked himself as he took a sip of the wine, which was quite excellent. He shot a suspicious glance at Lupin, who now had poured himself a glass of wine and then went over to a closet on the other side of the living room. The man had taste, Severus had to admit, referring as much to the claret as to the furnishing – two of the red armchairs, a sofa and a carpet of the same colour, a cherrywood desk, cherrywood bookshelves, the cupboard and a small amount of pictures and indoor plants evoked a homely and comfortable impression, very unlike his own spartanic chambers.

When Lupin returned to the fireplace, he was carrying a large chessboard, which he carefully placed on the desk in front of them. Bewildered, Severus noticed that he was wearing what seemed to be thin, brown gloves.

"Do you play?" Lupin asked brightly, settling down in the other armchair and taking a sip of his wine.

Severus glanced at the expensive-looking game of Wizards chess in front of him. The figures were made of metal, black steel and silver - therefore the gloves, he realised - their clothes and flags consisted of black velvet and white silk, both with skilful silver applications. The chessboard itself was made of ebony in which the white ivory pads were embedded, and its edges were decorated with baroque silver fittings. It must have cost a fortune.

Stunned by the exquisiteness of the game – in fact, he had never seen anything like it before – Severus nodded. The figures were floundering with excitement, as if eager to begin a game.

"I got it from my grandfather only a few months before his death. He always refused to sell it, regardless of how much we needed the money. I was nine years old by then, and he'd taught me how to play. You'll take the black ones, I suppose," Lupin continued and turned the board so the white figures were on his side and the black ones in front of Severus.

Well, why not? There seemed to be no plan to embarrass him – for now – and it had been years since Severus had played chess against a real opponent instead of charming the board to play against him. One game of chess, then this strange incident with Lupin would be over and they could go back to ignoring each other most of the time.

Soon they were involved in a tricky game, and Severus found that Lupin was an excellent tactician. They didn't talk much but instead were completely absorbed in their moves and counterattacks, trying for almost two hours to succeed in overcoming the other one. Finally, Severus's queen knocked down Lupin's king with a triumphant whoop.

"You're an excellent player," Lupin said, leaning back in his chair. "I always enjoy having a worthy opponent. Unfortunately, Albus is the only other one who could beat me so far, and he doesn't have much time to play."

Pleased with himself, Severus emptied his – for the second time refilled - glass.

"I wouldn't have thought that any of you Gryffindors could play halfway tactically intelligent. But that wasn't too bad," he replied.

Lupin's mouth was twitching as he obviously tried to suppress a grin.

"I think I should go now," Severus decided, getting up from the armchair and straightening his robes.

Lupin escorted him to the door. "Don't you think I have the right to challenge you to a return game? Next Friday, same time?" he asked.

Severus hesitated. He had only accepted the invitation because Lupin had caught him by surprise, otherwise he'd never have thought of spending an evening with him. Or anyone else. He wasn't fond of the company of other people, as he found most of them to be extremely annoying. They wanted to make small talk or, even worse, talk about personal things.

But Lupin hadn't done any of that. They had done nothing but play chess, talking only about their moves, and he had in fact enjoyed the game. Once he had overcome his first embarrassment, he hadn't even felt ithat/i uneasy in Lupin's presence, as he now realised with no little astonishment.

Lupin hadn't shown any interest in reviving the unpleasant scene at Grimmauld Place so far, so maybe Severus could stop worrying about it and they could put the whole incident behind them.

"All right," Severus finally said. "Maybe I should win another time. Just to show you how to play properly." And with this he made his way down the corridor. He didn't look back to see a wide smile spread across Lupin's face.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Remus was extraordinarily pleased with himself when he returned to his chair and poured himself the rest of the wine. He sat down and looked into the fire, letting his thoughts wander as they liked to.

Severus's visit had been a real surprise. He had ignored Remus during the last six weeks, and Remus hadn't tried to force a conversation on him, guessing that Severus was still too embarrassed to talk to him.

He had expected some house-elf to bring him his potion, like it had happened the previous month. When instead Severus had been standing in front of the door, actually talking to Remus – and be it only because he had to – Remus had seized the opportunity, hoping to make it clear to Severus that this was an offer of peace without actually having to say it. And it seemed that he had succeeded.

He had acted completely on intuition, proposing a game of chess because he supposed that Severus, with his sharp intelligence, was a talented player. To tell the truth, he was impressed with Severus's abilities, especially since he'd never met anyone who had been able to beat him, except for Albus. But this, as he thought with a slight prick of bitterness, might be due to the fact that not many people were willing to associate with a werewolf, not to mention play chess with him.

But Severus had accepted, and it was only now that Remus realised that he didn't see this evening merely as the first step on the way to establishing some kind of relationship with Severus to fulfil his task, but also as something he himself had enjoyed quite a lot. He'd been deprived of human contact for so long a time - yes, there had been the year as a teacher and, after that, Sirius, but that had been something different - that he'd actually enjoyed the company of a man who usually behaved as if suffering from indigestion.

This evening, Severus had been rather civil, Remus thought. There had been no attempt to allude to his werewolf nature, which was quite stunning.

Remus had not expected the evening to be that agreeable. It had been a real success.

One week later, Remus was waiting for Severus in the evening, shifting uneasily in his chair in front of the fireplace. He had already prepared the chessboard and put a bottle of wine and two glasses on the table.

Would Severus come? Remus wasn't quite sure of it. At least Severus had not completely ignored him during the last week. He couldn't ask for more at the moment, especially because Severus still did not seem to be in the best conditions. He was even more pale and taciturn than usual and, if you wanted to believe the students' chattering between classes, more strict and unfair than he had ever been before.

Every time he thought of Severus's poor condition, Remus was reminded of the incident at Grimmauld Place, and just like then, he felt the vague need to do something about it. But of course it was out of the question at the moment. All he could do was hope that Severus might meet with him more often, and maybe, given time, there would be an opportunity.

At eight o'clock Remus heard Severus knock at the door, and when he entered the room, Remus was pouring them some wine.

"You came," he said somewhat sheepishly, not knowing how to begin the conversation.

"Of course I did," Severus answered irritably. "I told you so last week."

"Er… yes, you did." Remus decided they should begin playing, since he could absolutely do without making a fool of himself. Thankfully, Severus made no objections.

-.-.-.-

The game had taken about two hours, and it hadn't been easy at all to gain the upper hand. When he finally checkmated Severus, Remus asked, pleased with himself: "What did you say about 'showing me how to play properly'?"

Snape scowled. "I was playing well below my standard," he mumbled.

Remus raised his eyebrows.

"I've got a headache," Severus said. "If it wasn't for those unnerving Gryffindor first-years in my last class, I would have won."

"Oh, of course," Remus replied, trying hard to suppress a chuckle.

"One of them managed to blow up his cauldron with only two ingredients in it," Severus went on, ignoring Remus's muffled coughing. "As it looks, he'll become Longbottom's worthy successor." Severus looked positively disgusted at the thought of the boy. "I'd never have thought there could be another muddlehead like him."

"Oh, I don't know about Neville. He's doing quite well in Defence," Remus said. He suppressed the urge to point out that no wonder Neville had always found some way or other to blow up his cauldron or at least ruin his potion when he had still been taking Potions classes - with Severus scowling at him and only waiting for him to make a mistake. He'd had it in for Neville, and the boy was so self-conscious that he'd been responsive to his teacher's taunting.

"Just waving about with wands and pronouncing a simple incantation- there's no comparison to Potions. Potions is a science," Severus said. "More like an art, actually."

Remus felt annoyed at Severus's arrogance. Waving about with wands, indeed,' he thought. 'So why does he keep applying for the Defence position every year - if that's such an inferior kind of magic?'

But before he could blurt out something along these lines, Remus caught himself. He'd better not show any sign of irritation, he admonished himself. He didn't want to ruin this at the first little disagreement.

"I suppose both are necessary and useful," he managed to say in a calm voice before pointing at the chessboard. "So, will you have your revenge?"

"I most certainly will. I'm not going to accept tonight's outcome."

Remus smiled inwardly. Maybe he could make this a fixed arrangement: chess with Severus, every Friday evening.

"Next Friday, same time?" he asked.

Severus nodded. "I'll go now. There are some essays I've got to correct for Monday. It will take me hours, considering their doubtless substandard quality, so I'll need my sleep."

"Good night," Remus said as Severus stepped through the door.

Severus turned around and shot him a suspicious look. "Good night," he replied, and was gone.