Chapter two – " Which is more interesting?"
Remus Lupin browsed the files at the information centre of his university. He had found five freelance research labs in the area, but only one conducting experiments that might be suitable subject matter for his thesis. The peculiar thing was that there seemed to be only one scientist operating there. Or perhaps the files hadn't been updated in a while. He decided to call a certain S. Snape, the name rang familiar in his ears, and inquire into perhaps visiting the lab.
"Yes" came the blank voice of a young man. This surprised Remus.
"Mr Snape?"
"Yes." Silence.
"My name is Remus Lupin, I'm a student at the faculty of Ethics at the University of Salazar. I'm planning on writing a thesis about the problem in dealing with the delicate subject of molecular psychotherapy. Seeing as you're the only laboratory listed in this field, I was wondering if I could interview you and possibly follow one of your employees in their progress."
"I am the only person working here." Came the somewhat annoyed reply.
"Oh." Pause "But, you will grant me an interview, won't you? At least that?" Remus tried.
"I'm afraid I have neither the time, nor the interest." Snape said and was about to hang up.
"No, wait! I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you really are the only lab that will do. Please at least explain to me what it is you are researching." Remus pleaded.
"Look here, sir…?"
"Lupin."
Snape froze. He hadn't registered the name the first time he had heard it. Warm brown eyes with rings under them came to mind. Lupin. The werewolf. Remus Lupin, the werewolf he disliked, but whom he had made a particularly intricate and fascinating potion for in one of his first trips with Lovex.
"Hello?" Remus said.
"Erm, pardon me. I'm somewhat confused. You said you are going to write a thesis?" Snape said, hoping that Lupin would speak long enough for him to see if he recognized the voice.
"Yes, that's right." Here Snape heard relief seep into Remus' voice "I need it to obtain my degree. I'm hoping to go into psychotherapy, but I've always had a fascination with the contents of medication for mental illness."
Snape felt a shiver run down his spine. It had to be the same person. The voice, the characteristics of speech were the same. He thought he could even picture the polite smile the student must me wearing.
Quite impulsively Snape decided that he couldn't bear not to find out if this was the same person.
"Right. Well, I'm a bit busy at the moment, but if you like you can ehm," here he heard Lucius saying he should entertain more " …have supper at my flat. I mean, if you don't think it inappropriate." Snape hastily added, not having ever invited anyone he didn't owe anything before. He felt quite foolish at the last sentence.
"Ha ha" Remus laughed nervously at this sudden and complete change of tone "Why not, yes, yes please. When?"
"This evening" and here Snape thought it would be best to not sound too eager "I'm afraid I won't be available for a while after that." He said, satisfied with what he thought had been a businesslike tone.
After having hung up, Snape collapsed into a decidedly uncomfortable metal chair at his work desk. His lab, not unlike the dungeon he "had" at Hogwarts was completely lined with containers. These contained various hallucinogens, sedatives, stimulants, psychotropic substances and raw materials, which they could be combined with. There was also a variety of apparatus ranging from ordinary centrifuges to a strange octopus-like contraption that registered brainwaves and brain activity. In the corner there was his desk, chair and a glass-fronted ventilated cupboard containing the white crows he experimented on. Lucius once commented that in his lab coat, Snape rather resembled them.
Presently one of the crows started cawing plaintively. Snape got up and saw that it was the crow he had given a sample of diluted Lovex to. The bird was coming to and probably felt as hungry as Snape normally did. Opening the door, careful not to let the others out, he picked up the convalescing animal and stroked its head. He had named him Lucius, out of spite.
He brought the crow over to the octopus contraption and adjusted it to bird-Lucius' head. Once he had started the machine and heard its gentle hum, he connected it to the printer. This device printed out the signals coming from the crow's brain and which were meant to go to the ocular nerve. Snape then modified the waves to pick up on the short-term memory. Once he was satisfied that he had gone back into the crow's memories as far as he could, he ripped off the paper and scanned it. While the data was loading, he fed the crow the remains of his breakfast, which he had intended on eating for lunch. He heard the signal coming from the screen connected to the scanner and hastily put away a somewhat grumpy Lucius.
He then watched the crow's most recent memories. He hadn't been certain that this experiment would work, so he was quite excited, not that this showed, as he sat down in front of the monitor.
He saw a mountainous landscape from high up in the sky, and then railroad tracks. The crow flew down and perched for a while a particularly old tree. Lucius-crow called out to a fellow crow and was answered. Snape, though being overjoyed at the success of his experiment was not very impressed, this could after all be what any crow could have seen anywhere, until he realized that Lucius had been bred in captivity. How could he dream of something he hadn't ever seen before? Snape fastforwarded. Then he stopped the image. He had just seen two somewhat disturbing things. One was Lucius' reflection in the lake he was flying over. It was black. The second thing was even more shocking. Out of the corner of Lucius' eye, Snape had seen the many turrets of Hogwarts.