Aftermaths, Part 109

by Geri ([email protected])

Rating: Mostly PG-13, but NC-17 for overall story

Pairing: Snape/Lupin, Theodore/Blaise

Warning: AU; events that occurred at the end of Order of the Phoenix were significantly altered from the book.

Sequel to: Always, Summer Vacation, For Old Time's Sake, Three's a Crowd, Return of the Raven, Phoenix Reborn, and Phoenix Rising.

Summary: The various characters deal with the aftermath of the war, and Snape and Lupin try to build a family together with Theodore and Dylan. However, some people are unable to let go of the past...

Author's note: {} Indicates character's unspoken thoughts.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to J.K. Rowling, except Hob, who belongs to William Mayne; no money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
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Everything had been quiet at the school since the Quidditch match, so Dumbledore decided to allow the students to go on their usual trip to Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day, with several chaperones to watch over them. To no one's surprise, Snape and Lupin elected to remain behind at the school that day. Lupin kept fluttering his lashes and giving Snape come-hither looks all through breakfast while the Potions Master flushed and glared at him.

"Knock it off, Lupin, or I'll turn you into a toad," Snape growled.

Lupin leaned over and whispered into his ear, "But then who will you sleep with tonight?"

Snape choked on his coffee and broke out into a coughing fit.

"Oh my goodness, Severus!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed. "Are you all right?"

"No," wheezed Snape, "and I'm going to leave the table before I kill the werewolf or he kills me!"

"You can't kill Remus," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "Then we'd be short a teacher."

"I've always wanted to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, anyway," Snape retorted, and left the table in a huff.

"Then again," Lupin said to himself, a lascivious gleam in his eyes, "why wait until tonight?" And he hurried after the Potions Master.

"Well, we won't see those two again for the rest of the day," Lukas muttered under his breath. Branwen just smiled, looking amused.

At the Slytherin table, several of the girls were giggling. "Don't the Professors make such a cute couple?" Yvonne cooed.

Aric pretended to gag. "Oh, please, I think I'm going to be sick!"

"I wasn't talking to you," Yvonne said coldly.
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Snape walked into his quarters and came to an abrupt halt, staring in shock. The walls were decorated with red paper hearts and red and white crepe-paper streamers, and there was a trail of rose petals strewn across the floor leading to the bedroom.

Lupin came up behind Snape, grinning proudly. "So what do you think, Sev?" he asked.

Snape snorted. "So this is why you were late to breakfast this morning. I think it looks like you're trying to compete with Madam Puddifoot's."

"Not quite," Lupin laughed. "No cherubs or confetti, after all." He took Snape's hand. "Come, perhaps this will be more to your liking."

He led Snape to the bedroom, which much to Snape's relief, was free of streamers and paper hearts. There were more rose petals scattered on the floor and across the bed, though, and there was a box of chocolates, a bottle of wine, and two wineglasses on the nightstand beside the bed.

"Yes," Snape said. "Much better." Lupin opened the bottle of wine and filled the glasses. "Isn't it a bit early in the morning for that, Remus?" Snape asked, raising his eyebrows. "We just came from breakfast, after all."

"You're right," Lupin said. "It's inappropriate to be drinking this early in the morning." He draped his arms around Snape's neck and leaned in close, growling softly. "So how do you propose we pass the time, Severus?" he asked huskily.

Snape wrapped his arms around Lupin's waist. "Would it be inappropriate to have sex in the morning?" he asked.

Lupin titled his head to one side, pretending to consider the question. "I'm no expert on etiquette, but I've never heard of any rule against it. What about you?"

"Oh, to hell with the rules," Snape said, and kissed Lupin hungrily. The werewolf growled and pushed his mate down onto the bed, sending a spray of rose petals flying up into the air around them.
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After breakfast, the students walked over to Hogsmeade, accompanied by several teachers, including McGonagall, Hagrid, Flitwick, Satoshi, and Diggory. Draco happened to overhear Diggory telling McGonagall that he was only coming because he had an errand to run, and he wouldn't be able to help chaperone the students.

"That's fine, Master Diggory," McGonagall replied. "There are enough of us to watch over the students without your help."

On the walk to Hogsmeade, Ron walked next to Daphne, close but not quite touching. Millicent winked at Pansy, then strode forward, brushing past Daphne, who instinctively took a step to the side, bringing her closer to Ron. Their hands bumped against each other and they blushed. Daphne did not move away, though, and that gave Ron enough courage to take her hand in his, and she smiled up at him shyly. Ron beamed happily, looking as proud as if he'd just been publicly awarded the Order of Merlin. Harry figured that if Ron was able to work up the courage to hold a girl's hand, then he ought to be able to do the same. So he took a deep breath and reached out and clasped Ginny's hand; she squeezed his hand and smiled back at him. Harry felt a wide grin spreading across his face that he knew must look rather silly, but he was so happy that he didn't care.

When they reached Hogsmeade, McGonagall instructed the students to stay on the main street, within sight of the teachers, and not to wander out of the town proper.

Damien and Parvati decided to go to Madam Puddifoot's, along with several other couples, including Pansy and Justin, and Crabbe and Luna. "Want to go to Puddifoot's?" Blaise asked Theodore, who stared at him in horror until he realized that Blaise was joking.

"That's not funny!" Theodore said with a shudder. "If you want me to kiss you in public, I'll do it, but I wouldn't be caught dead in Puddifoot's!"

"I was just teasing," Blaise laughed. "Come on, let's go to Honeydukes; I promised Allegra I'd buy some candy for her."

"By the way, Blaise," Parvati said coyly, "your little sister is quite popular. She got several valentines this morning."

"What?!" cried Blaise. "From boys?"

"Some of them were from boys," Lavender giggled.

"Which boys?" Blaise demanded.

"Let's see, I think she got one from Jun Chang, and one from Patrick Parkinson, and--"

"Why, those little--"

Theodore took Blaise by one arm and Goyle grabbed the other before he could run back to Hogwarts to defend his sister's honor. "Calm down," Theodore said, as they steered Blaise in the direction of Honeydukes. "All they did was send Allegra a few heart-shaped pieces of paper, for crying out loud."

"Just tell your brother that he'd better not try anything funny with my little sister!" Blaise called out to Pansy as Theodore and Goyle dragged him away.

"You sure are overprotective, Zabini," Goyle told him. "I feel sorry for your sister's boyfriends when she starts dating."

"He said he's going to lock Allegra in a tower until she's thirty," Theodore informed Goyle.

"I know what boys are like," Blaise grumbled. "Especially Slytherin boys. Nobody's taking my sister into the rose bushes or under the Quidditch stands!"

"You're a Slytherin boy," Theodore pointed out with a grin. "Aren't you lucky that I don't have an older brother defending my virtue?"

"Ha ha, very funny," Blaise said. "Besides, I've never taken you under the Quidditch stands."

"Hey, none of that!" Goyle protested. "Whatever you guys do in private is your business, but I don't wanna hear any details about it!"

Draco felt a little uncomfortable surrounded by so many happy couples. Rosier and Granger, Potter and Ginny Weasley, and Ron Weasley and Greengrass were heading into The Three Broomsticks hand-in-hand. Greengrass was gazing up at Weasley with a particularly admiring and adoring look--Weasley, for Merlin's sake! What the hell was so special about Weasley? Not that Draco wanted Greengrass gazing at him that way; he found her timid, mousy, and boring. But Draco found it rather annoying that Weasley's lovelife seemed to be progressing better than his own. His relationship with Serafina seemed to be stuck in limbo at the moment. He had agreed that it would be best to remain friends for now, but he found himself growing impatient with the status quo, although he wasn't sure that he was ready for a romantic relationship, either. Maybe it was just that he felt dissatisfied with his life in general lately.

"Do you want to get a butterbeer?" Serafina asked, interrupting his brooding.

Draco was about to say "yes," when he saw Master Diggory heading down the street, away from the town, in the direction of the train station and the lake. There was a certain furtive air about the werewolf that aroused Draco's curiosity.

"Let's see what Diggory's up to," Draco said. "He told McGonagall that he had an errand to run, but he's heading away from town. Maybe he's sneaking off to meet his mysterious girlfriend." Following the werewolf should provide a harmless distraction from his worries, and perhaps provide him with some interesting gossip to share in Slytherin.

"We're not supposed to leave the town," Serafina said dubiously. "We're supposed to stay on the main street, within sight of the teachers."

"Well, technically we'll be within sight of Diggory," Draco reasoned. "But hopefully he won't turn around and see us."

"We'll get in trouble," Serafina argued.

Draco looked around; the only teacher nearby was Master Satoshi, who was flirting with Madam Rosmerta, and at the moment, his attention seemed to be focused more on her cleavage than on the students he was supposed to be watching.

"Quick, let's go before anyone notices," Draco hissed, and headed after Diggory without waiting for a reply. Serafina hesitated, then followed.

"We're going to wind up in detention," she complained.

"Shh, keep your voice down," Draco whispered. "You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"Someone has to keep Master Diggory from killing you if he catches you spying on him," Serafina whispered back.

"Why Sera, I didn't know that you cared," Draco said with a grin. Serafina tried to glare at him, but the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile, and suddenly Draco felt much better. He felt as if he was going on an adventure; almost as much fun as spying on Potter and getting him into trouble had been in the old days.

Fortunately, Diggory seemed intent on his errand, and didn't notice that he was being followed. He headed past the station down to the lake, and paused by the shore in a spot that was partially shielded by a dense growth of shrubbery. Draco and Serafina ducked behind a bush and waited to see what would happen. Diggory paced by the shore, looking impatient, and after a few minutes, they heard the cracking sound of someone Apparating, and a woman dressed in a hooded cloak appeared carrying a picnic basket in one hand. The woman pushed back her hood and smiled at the werewolf, and Draco gasped, because the woman was his mother.

Serafina quickly clamped her hand over his mouth, which was a good thing, because otherwise he might have screamed when he saw Diggory kiss Narcissa passionately. Diggory's keen werewolf ears might still have picked up the muffled, strangled noise Draco made if he had not otherwise been occupied, but he seemed to be too absorbed in shoving his tongue down Draco's mother's throat to notice anything else. Draco's first instinct was to grab his wand and hex the werewolf, but Serafina wrapped her free arm around him tightly, pinning his arms to his sides. She placed her mouth next to his ear and whispered in a barely audible yet fierce voice, "Don't do anything stupid, Draco!"

The sensation of Serafina's body pressed against his proved a little unsettling, though in a pleasurable sort of way, which disarmed him enough for him to regain control of his temper. He was still angry, but he relaxed slightly and Serafina loosened her grip on him although she still kept her hand over his mouth. Since that required her to remain in physical contact with him, Draco didn't object.

Narcissa pulled away from Diggory and asked nervously, "Are you sure this is safe, Lukas? It's so close to the town..."

"The students aren't supposed to leave the town," Diggory said.

"The students aren't supposed to do a lot of things," Narcissa said tartly, "but that doesn't always stop them. I should know; I was a student once myself."

"The other teachers are shepherding our little charges," Diggory said, sounding unconcerned. "But I'll cast a spell of obscurement, just to be on the safe side." He took out his wand and muttered a brief incantation, and the air around himself and Narcissa seemed to shimmer and blur. However, Draco rubbed his eyes and concentrated hard, and found that he was still able to see and hear his mother and his teacher. A spell of obscurement did not actually make someone invisible; rather, it employed misdirection, causing the eyes of any casual watchers to skip over the spot and look elsewhere, and causing any sound in the area to blend into indiscriminate background noise. But that only worked if a person wasn't actively trying to see through the spell. Because Draco and Serafina already knew where Diggory and Narcissa were, it was easy enough for them to see past the enchantment.

"Besides," Diggory told Narcissa, "it's not safe to meet at the Leaky Cauldron anymore. People have begun to take notice of my weekly visits there." He sneered a little and said bitterly, "And I'm sure that you wouldn't want a werewolf to sully the halls of Malfoy Manor."

"I know you have a townhouse in London," Narcissa snapped, "and you haven't invited me there, either!"

"Several of my pack members live there," Diggory retorted, "and I didn't think that you'd care to associate with any other werewolves. You've made it perfectly clear that you can barely tolerate my presence."

"That may be true," Narcissa said, "but that's not why you've never invited me over. You're ashamed of me, aren't you? You're constantly harping about your contempt for the purebloods, and you don't want your precious werewolves to know that you're actually sleeping with one!"

Diggory's face turned red and he snarled, "Ashamed? Hah! Who's the one sneaking around in disguise? You're the one who can't bear to be seen in public with a werewolf! What would all your pureblood friends say if they knew you were sleeping with a beast?!"

"I don't really have any friends left," Narcissa said quietly, suddenly looking tired instead of angry. "Except perhaps Aileen and Delia. So I suppose that my reputation doesn't matter very much. But Draco's does. He's already suffered enough because of his father and me." Diggory said nothing, just stood there with a brooding look on his face. Narcissa sighed and said, "Please, Lukas, we only have a couple of hours before you have to go back to Hogwarts. Let's not waste that time fighting."

Diggory was silent for a long time, then finally said, "I suppose you're right." Narcissa set the basket down on the ground, and Diggory raised an eyebrow. "A picnic lunch?" he said, a little sarcastically. "My, how romantic."

"It is Valentine's Day, after all," Narcissa said with an ironic little smile.

"I'm afraid that I didn't bring you any flowers," Diggory said.

"That's all right, Lukas," Narcissa said, with that same ironic smile. "I didn't expect you to."

Diggory held out one hand and muttered a charm under his breath, and a flower suddenly materialized in his palm. It was a single, perfect, long-stemmed rose that looked as if it had been freshly picked: the petals were just beginning to unfurl, and were beaded with glistening drops of dew.

"How lovely," Narcissa said as he handed it to her.

Diggory's lips curved into something that seemed too sad and bitter to actually be called a smile. "It will vanish in an hour or two," he said. "It's only an illusion, something insubstantial--rather like us."

"Then we should enjoy it while it lasts," Narcissa said quietly.

"Yes, I suppose so," Diggory said, just as quietly. He conjured up a blanket and spread it out on the ground. Narcissa opened the basket, revealing a bottle of wine and some bread, cheese, and fruit. "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou?" Diggory asked with a faint smile.

"Shall we start with some wine?" Narcissa suggested.

"I'd rather start with thou," Diggory said in a low growl, pulling her into his arms.

Serafina tugged on Draco's sleeve and nodded in the direction of the road back to Hogsmeade. Since Draco didn't want to watch the werewolf shag his mother, he followed without resistance, although a part of him was tempted to leap out of the bushes shouting at his mother and Diggory that he had seen them.

"How could she?" cried Draco, when they were a safe distance away from the lake.

"She's a widow now," Serafina said in a reasonable tone of voice. "And Master Diggory is single. There's no reason why they can't be...seeing each other."

"She's only a widow because she murdered my father!" Draco snarled.

"She killed him because he was going to kill you!" Serafina retorted.

"I know, but..." The expression on Draco's face changed from anger into confusion. "But he was still my dad."

"I know, Draco," Serafina said in a more sympathetic tone. "But she did it to protect you, and what's done is done. I know it's hard for you, but don't you think it must be hard for your mother, too? You at least have your friends here at school, but your mother is all alone in Malfoy Manor. She must be very lonely."

"But does she have to comfort herself with the werewolf?" Draco wailed in an aggrieved tone of voice.

"Don't you like Master Diggory?" Serafina asked patiently.

"He's okay as a teacher, but I don't want him as a bloody stepfather! How would you feel if it was your mother?!"

Serafina paused to think. "As long as my mother was happy, I don't think I'd mind. Master Diggory seems like a good person. He wouldn't beat her or yell at her the way my father did. So I guess I would be okay with it."

"You wouldn't care if your mother was shagging a beast?" Draco shouted. "I can't believe that...that...animal has been putting his grubby paws on my mother all this time!"

Serafina gave him a contemptuous look. "Come talk to me again when you're ready to behave like a human being," she said, and increased her pace, continuing on to Hogsmeade without looking back.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Draco snapped, but Serafina did not respond. Draco followed her back to Hogsmeade in sulky silence.

Satoshi was standing outside The Three Broomsticks looking around nervously when he spotted Draco and Serafina. "Ah, there you are!" he said, sounding relieved. "You know you're not supposed to wander off like that."

"I'm sorry, Master Satoshi," Serafina said politely. "We just went for a little walk."

Satoshi smiled knowingly at them and winked. "Well, of course you'd want a little privacy, seeing as how it's Valentine's Day and all, but rules are rules." He lowered his voice and added, "And I'd be in big trouble if McGonagall found out I lost two students. So I won't squeal on you two if you don't squeal on me." He winked at them again. "Deal?"

"Deal," Serafina said.

"Good," Satoshi said. "Now, your mother was asking for you. Why don't you go in and say hello to her?"

"Yes, sir," Serafina said. "We didn't mean to cause any trouble for you."

"No harm done, Miss Avery. Just stay put for the rest of the day, all right?"

"Yes, sir," Serafina said, and went into the inn to greet her mother.

Draco remained outside, still looking sulky. "What's the matter?" Satoshi asked with a smile. "Your romantic walk with Miss Avery didn't go well?"

"You might say that," Draco muttered.

Satoshi sighed and slipped an arm around his shoulder. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I struck out, too," he sighed. "The fair Rosmerta was only toying with my heart, it seems. Come, Mr. Malfoy, I'll buy you a butterbeer, and we can commiserate together."

Draco gritted his teeth together, biting back an insult and fighting the urge to shove the tanuki's arm away. He didn't feel like commiserating with anyone--and especially not a shapeshifter--in his current mood, but he had already just barely escaped detention by being caught leaving Hogsmeade. Not that he really cared about detention or House points at the moment. He felt like screaming or crying--or both. But instead he let Satoshi lead him into the inn and buy him a tankard of butterbeer.

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