Aftermaths, Part 68

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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Meanwhile, Ron had other problems. He passed the written portion of his Herbology mid-term exam--not with flying colors, but he had passed. However, he failed disastrously on the practical portion, which had involved raising and harvesting a patch of nettles, as well as a Mimbulus mimbletonia plant. The class had been caring for the plants since start of term, and Ron's were withered and dying.

"Do you know how rare the Mimbulus mimbletonia is?" Sprout cried. "I thought I could entrust these to my advanced students, but I see that I was wrong!"

"Sorry, ma'am," Ron mumbled.

"And nettles!" Sprout continued. "It's an assignment a first-year could have completed! I only gave it to you because Professor Snape needed more nettles for his Potions classes! Do you know that Muggles consider them to be weeds? That they actually have difficulty killing them? Yet you seem to have managed it without even trying!"

"I guess I don't have a green thumb, ma'am," Ron said weakly.

"Are you trying to be funny, Mr. Weasley?" Sprout asked indignantly.

"No, ma'am!" he hastily demurred. "It's just...Herbology's not my best subject, and my other classes have been keeping me busy, too..."

Sprout frowned. The seventh-years were under a lot of stress, preparing for their N.E.W.T.s, and it probably wouldn't be wise to flunk the Minister of Magic's son. But still, she could not give a passing grade to a student who didn't deserve it. After some thought, she decided to offer Mr. Weasley a chance at redemption. "I think perhaps you need a little extra tutoring, Mr. Weasley."

"Tutoring?"

"Yes," Sprout said firmly. "Report here afterschool. I'll ask one of my best students to tutor you, Mr. Weasley. One hour per day, three days a week. That should get you up to speed."

"Extra lessons?" Ron groaned. "But what about Quidditch practice?"

"Do you want to pass or not, Mr. Weasley?" Sprout snapped. "Or should I tell your mother that you're planning to fail Herbology?"

Ron went white at the thought of facing his mother's wrath. "No, no," he pleaded, "don't do that! I'll work hard, I promise!"

"I'll try to rearrange the practice schedule," Harry said. "And it's just till you get caught up, right?"

"We'll see how he's progressed at the end of term," Sprout said. "But if you expect to get a passing grade, you had better revive that Mimbulus plant!"

"Yes, ma'am," Ron said in a resigned tone.

After class, he said, "Thank God we don't share Herbology with the Slytherins! Can you imagine Draco? He'd be laughing at me for needing remedial lessons!"

"Oh, Draco's not that bad, Ron," Hermione said impatiently. "And if you'd taken better care of your plants, you wouldn't need the tutoring."

"Gee, thanks a lot," he said sarcastically. "By the way, are you going to be doing the tutoring?"

"Sprout didn't ask me to," Hermione replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, she said her best student was going to do it, and I figure you're the best at everything."

"Maybe not everything," Hermione said, but she looked pleased. "I am pretty busy, what with all our homework and our N.E.W.T.s coming up, and..." She blushed.

"And finding a little free time to spend with lover boy," Ron supplied dryly.

"Well, Dylan and I are in different Houses and years," Hermione said, her face still red. "So we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like. But still, if you need help studying, I'll be happy to help you." Ron looked gratified by this. "But if Professor Sprout wanted me to tutor you, wouldn't she have said something in class?"

"I wonder who it is, then," Ron mused. "Maybe Lisa Turpin?" The Ravenclaw girl got high grades, nearly as good as Hermione's, and she was very pretty. That might not be so bad...

"Maybe it's Malfoy," Harry teased.

"Don't even joke about that!" Ron said, looking horrified. "Please Merlin, anyone but Malfoy!"

His tutor wasn't Malfoy, but was a Slytherin, and Ron didn't know whether to feel relieved or not. He went to the greenhouse, and found Professor Sprout and Daphne Greengrass waiting for him. "Oh...hi," he said unenthusiastically.

"Hi," Daphne said, politely but not sounding too thrilled herself.

"Miss Greengrass is my best Herbology student," Sprout said proudly, "and has kindly agreed to tutor you. I'll leave the two of you to it, then."

Ron remembered then that Daphne's family were florists, so he supposed it made sense that she was good in Herbology, but it still surprised him that the quiet, unassuming girl was "best" in something. Ron thought wistfully that it would be nice to be "best" at one thing, but so far he hadn't figured out what that was yet.

"Well, let's get started, then," Daphne said, breaking the awkward silence. "Let me take a look at your Mimbulus mimbletonia." She examined the plant, being careful not to touch the stinksap-spewing boils. "What have you done to it?" she cried in dismay. "The poor thing is dying!"

"I don't know," Ron replied irritably. "That's what you're here for, remember?"

The Slytherin girl seemed to forget her shyness, and questioned him in thorough detail about how he had taken care of the plant. He was a bit vague about how often he had watered it and such, but through careful questioning, having him go over his daily activities one by one, Daphne was able to get him to recall much more than he thought he could.

"I see," she said thoughtfully. "You tend to forget to water it for several days, then try to make up for it by giving it a lot of extra water. That won't work; it's a desert plant, and giving it too much water at once is bad for it. And it needs more sunlight; you need to remember to put it outside to get some sun every day, or if you can't, use an artificial light spell on it. Basically, you need to remember to tend to it daily. Write yourself notes, or set your alarm clock--whatever it takes to remind yourself not to forget about it."

"I can tell Hermione, then she'll be sure to nag me to death about it every day," Ron muttered, and Daphne actually smiled a little, though she quickly blushed and looked away when she saw Ron looking at her.

That puzzled Ron; none of the other Slytherins were so shy and timid. "So can we save the plant? Sprout says she'll flunk me if we can't."

"It's in bad shape," Daphne said, gently stroking the plant, still careful to avoid the boils, "but I think it will recover if you take good care of it. A little mooncalf dung fertilizer might help." Ron made a face. "Do you want to pass the class or not?"

"Okay, okay," Ron said. "Sun, not too much water, mooncalf dung. Got it."

"And...um..." Daphne hesitated.

"What?" Ron asked.

"You're going to think this sounds silly..."

"If it'll help me pass, I can handle silly," Ron said. "We Weasleys are very familiar with silly; my brothers are the ones who invented Canary Creams, after all."

Another quick, timid smile crossed Daphne's lips. "You could try talking to your plant."

"You're not having me on, are you?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"No!" she protested. "I know it sounds crazy, but it really seems to work, especially for magical plants. They like music, too--but soft, soothing music, not the kind of stuff the Weird Sisters play."

Ron gave her another suspicious look, but she seemed perfectly serious. On the other hand, she could be crazy like Luna Lovegood, but people like that usually didn't worry that other people might think they were crazy. Luna thought all of her loony ideas were perfectly reasonable. "Okay," he finally said. "You're the expert. Besides, I'm so desperate, I'll try anything."

Daphne went over in detail how he should care for the Mimbulus plant--precisely how much water, sunlight, and mooncalf dung it needed. The talking part, she told Ron when he asked, was subjective. "I should give you to Allegra," Ron told the plant. "She loves to talk. No--she might talk your ears off, except that you don't have any. Ears, that is. Still, if too much water is bad for a plant, maybe too much talking would be bad, too."

Daphne giggled. "I don't know. No one's ever tried to talk a plant to death before."

"If anyone can do it, Allegra can," Ron said with a grin. "But she's a sweet kid."

"Is there anything else we need to go over?" Daphne asked.

"Um...I did okay on the written exam, but not great. All these herbs have names that sound alike, and I keep getting them mixed up: sneezewort, soapwort, St. John's wort..."

"Okay," Daphne said. "We can work on that next time. See you Friday?"

"Sure," Ron said. "Listen, Daphne...thanks for helping me out."

"It's no problem," Daphne said with a smile.

"And...could I ask a favor of you?" Ron said hesitantly. "Would you mind not telling Malfoy and his buddies that you're tutoring me?"

Daphne's smile suddenly vanished, and that shy--except, Ron realized, that it was not so much shy as almost fearful--look was back on her face again. "You don't have to worry, Ron," she said quietly. "The likes of the Malfoys don't associate with the likes of me." Then she abruptly turned and left the greenhouse.

"What the hell was that all about?" Ron asked the Mimbulus.
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Lukas went in to work at the werewolf clinic that weekend, and was pleasantly surprised to see Lupin drop by with some Wolfsbane Potion and boxes of clothing and toys.

"It's good to see you, Remus. Let me help you with those boxes."

Lupin smiled. "I'm glad to see that you seem to be feeling better, Lukas."

"Much better," Lukas assured him. "Being with my pack helped a lot. I've been spending too much time away from them. I should stop by more often, even if it's just on the weekends, or for a couple of hours in the evenings."

"Have you reached a decision yet?" Lupin asked hesitantly.

"Don't worry, Remus, I won't bite your head off this time," Lukas assured him, and the other werewolf laughed. "No, I haven't really decided yet. I promised Tristan that I would talk it over with him and his parents first; it's not fair to just take the title away from the boy. But I won't try to run from the past anymore. Whether I take the title or not, I won't hide the fact that I'm a Diggory, and if Amos doesn't like that, he can kiss my arse."

Lupin laughed again. "Does this mean that you're changing your name? Should we start calling you 'Cyril' or 'Master Diggory'?"

"I don't know," Lukas said. "Cyril seems like a totally different person, and Lukas really is my name; it's just that it's my middle name. I suppose maybe I didn't want to completely sever my ties to the past, after all. I don't know about changing my last name, either. 'Wolf King' sounds much more dramatic than 'Diggory,' doesn't it?"

"It's very descriptive," Lupin laughed.

"And it's not like people won't know that I'm really a Diggory," Lukas continued. "I'm sure the gossip has spread like wildfire through the wizarding world. Although I will have to change my name if I do fight for, and by some miracle, win the Lordship of the estate."

"I thought I heard your voice, Remus," Takeshi Kimura said, stepping out of the examining room into the hall.

"Hi, Takeshi," Lupin said cheerfully. "Severus and his Advanced Potions students made up an extra batch of Wolfsbane Potion."

"That's wonderful," Takeshi said. "I've just started a new batch, but we were running a little low. Is Aric here with you today?"

"No," Lupin said ruefully. "I'm afraid that it's highly unlikely that we'd get him to come here voluntarily, and he hasn't done anything to warrant detention recently."

"Oh," Takeshi said, looking puzzled and a little disappointed, which in turn puzzled Lupin and Lukas. "But he seemed to enjoy himself the last time, and it would be good experience for an aspiring mediwizard--"

"What?" the two werewolves chorused in surprise.

"Didn't he tell you?" Takeshi asked.

"Apparently not," Lupin said. "I didn't even know that he had confided in you. Did he mention something to you during his last visit, or has he been in touch with you since then?"

"He wrote to say that he was interested in becoming a mediwizard like his uncle and wanted my advice," Takeshi replied. "That was...let's see...about a week after his visit here. We've been corresponding regularly ever since. You really didn't know?"

"I hadn't a clue," Lupin said.

"Hmm," Lukas said thoughtfully. "So he wants to be a mediwizard, eh? A job that involves helping people seems a bit out of character for Mr. Dietrich. I'd have thought he'd want to go into the Ministry like most ambitious Slytherins."

"But he worshiped his Uncle Rafe," Lupin said quietly. "Both he and Theo did."

Takeshi nodded solemnly. "He never mentioned his uncle by name in his letters, but it was easy enough to figure out. Rafe Dietrich was very well-liked at St. Mungo's. I never knew him, of course, since I only started working there a couple of years ago, but most of the other Healers and nurses and mediwizards remember him. None of them really believed that story about Rafe running off with a girl. They say he was impulsive, but very responsible, and wouldn't have just quit his job without notice."

"I'm surprised that Aric has been writing to you," Lupin said. "He's never mentioned anything about wanting to become a mediwizard, but then I suppose I would hardly be the first person that he'd confide in."

"I think he's a little lonely," Takeshi said. "He doesn't seem to have made many friends in Slytherin."

"Well, insulting the Head of House's son and his friends on your very first day of school isn't likely to make you popular," Lukas pointed out sarcastically.

Takeshi looked confused, and Lupin explained, "Aric bears a grudge against the Nott family because Thaddeus Nott killed Rafe. And since Thaddeus and his wife are dead, all of Aric's hostility has become focused on his cousin Theodore."

"Professor Snape's new heir, who used to be a Nott," Takeshi said, nodding. "I see. Well, Aric hasn't mentioned anything about that. Mostly he asks me what sort of things he should be studying in order to become a mediwizard. And he talks about how he's doing in his classes--he was very pleased with how his Summoning project turned out, even though he complained about having to work with 'the so-called savior of the wizarding world' and 'that arrogant git Malfoy'. He also seems to enjoy your Physical Defense lessons, Lukas. But don't tell him that I told you that." Takeshi grinned at the stunned looks on the werewolves' faces. "And he complains a lot about Professor Snape, but I think he finds his Potions assignments challenging."

"My, Mr. Dietrich seems quite verbose in his letters," Lukas said, looking bemused. "He barely says a word in class, except to occasionally insult one of the other students. Mostly he just scowls and looks sullen."

"He's the same in my classes," Lupin said. "I think Takeshi's right; he must be lonely. Aric has made a few casual friends among the younger Slytherins, but I don't think he's close to any of them." Lupin smiled warmly at the young mediwizard. "I'm glad he's found someone that he can confide in. Please continue to be a friend to him, Takeshi."

"Of course," Takeshi said. "I've been enjoying our correspondence, and I welcome the chance to recruit a student into the medical profession, particularly one who's not afraid to work with werewolves."

"That gives me an idea!" Lupin said, clapping his hands together as his blue eyes lit up with enthusiasm. "I'll propose to Albus that we have a Career Fair at Hogwarts! We had one once when I was a student, but I don't think there's been one at the school in recent years, although various businesses do give pamphlets to the Heads of House to hand out to their students. You could come and represent St. Mungo's, Takeshi, and perhaps we could get representatives from Gringotts and the Ministry as well. Sirius is a Ministry official now; I'm sure he'd be willing to come, and maybe we could get Mr. Jigger to come and discuss Potions as a career. He's looking for an apprentice, and he mentioned once that he'd like to recruit Dylan."

"That's a wonderful idea, Remus!" Takeshi said, getting caught up in Lupin's enthusiasm. "I'll have to ask the Healer-in-Charge at St. Mungo's for permission, but I'm sure he'll give it. We're always looking for talented new recruits, and Chizuru told my parents that there's a girl at Hogwarts with a full Healing Gift, and several students with minor Gifts."

"Cassidy could come talk about his career as an inventor," Lupin continued, "and Severus knows many people in the academic world. Maybe Lady Selima could even get someone from the Bashir family to talk about their work as traders. Well, I don't think that they approve of me, but maybe Ali Bashir might be willing..."

"I don't know if there are any aspiring chefs at Hogwarts, but my parents could come talk about running a restaurant..."

Lukas scratched his chin, still looking bemused as Lupin and Takeshi eagerly laid out plans for the Career Fair. "Maybe Mr. Dietrich isn't a hopeless case after all," he conceded. "How do you do it, Remus? How do you manage to charm these arrogant pureblood brats? The Gryffindors I can see, but the Slytherins...? They normally despise creatures such as us."

Lupin grinned at him. "Well, perhaps Takeshi deserves more credit for Aric than I do, but to answer your question, Lukas...I am patient, persistent, and infinitely stubborn. I just keep being relentlessly nice to them until they finally break down and surrender. Merlin knows I've had plenty of practice--it took me nearly twenty years to win Severus over, you know. Next to him, the Slytherin children are a piece of cake."

Lukas threw back his head and laughed out loud. "True enough--taming the Potions Master was a miracle in itself! I swear, Remus, that if the pureblood elite bowed down and kissed your feet one day, it would not surprise me!"

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Lupin said with a smile.

Takeshi, who only a few years ago been one of Snape's Potions students and still found his old teacher somewhat intimidating, said, "And I certainly wouldn't tell Professor Snape that you think Remus 'tamed' him!" Then all three of them burst out laughing.
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"It's an excellent idea, Remus!" Dumbledore said when Lupin brought up the idea of a Career Fair. Most of the other teachers agreed, and made suggestions of their own as to which businesses to invite. Snape just shrugged and said, a little skeptically, "Well, I suppose it can't hurt."

"I still can't picture Dietrich as a mediwizard or Healer," Snape told Lupin when they were alone in their quarters together. "He doesn't exactly have what you'd call a comforting bedside manner."

Lupin chuckled. "He's young; he has time to learn. Besides, believe it or not, there are some people who take exception to your teaching methods, yet they seem to have been effective."

"Don't presume to compare that child to me," Snape said, sounding a little insulted. "He may be arrogant and annoying, but no one is terrified of him the way the students are of me." He looked rather proud of that statement, and Lupin chuckled again. "Or at least they were, until you ruined my reputation," Snape added in a disgruntled tone.

Lupin just grinned at him. "A Healer can't be all sweetness and light, though, come to think of it. I think at times they have to be a bit of a bully; I've seen Madam Pomfrey order a reluctant patient to drink a dreadful-tasting potion or submit to a particularly painful healing spell."

"Which reminds me," Snape said sternly, "it's time for you to take your potion."

"Yes, Severus," Lupin said meekly, although his eyes were still laughing.

He started to rise from his seat on the couch, but Snape said gruffly, "Stay. I'll get it." So Lupin sat while Snape got up and headed over to the fireplace, where he had a cauldron already simmering. Snape ladled out the smoking potion into the ugly brass goblet he had bought at the Zabinis' junk shop, then handed it solemnly to Lupin, who smiled. The handing and accepting of the goblet of potion had become something of a ritual with them, ever since Lupin had returned to Hogwarts four years ago.

Lupin drank down the potion quickly, and as awful as it tasted, he savored it, not just because it helped him keep his sanity during the full moon, but because its very existence was a sign of Severus's love for him, because the Potions Master had created it for his sake, with the help of the Japanese wizard Naoto Kamiyama. So instead of grimacing as he normally did, Lupin smiled as if he were drinking down the finest vintage in the Snapes' wine cellar.

Snape gave him a puzzled look. "Does the potion taste different this month, Remus?" he asked, sounding a little worried.

"Why don't you see for yourself, Severus?" Lupin whispered in a husky voice, leaning in close with his lips parted. Snape covered Lupin's mouth with his, leisurely sweeping his tongue through Lupin's mouth, running it along Lupin's teeth and tongue and the roof of his mouth.

After a very lengthy exploration that left Lupin breathless, Snape pulled back and said with an air of professional satisfaction, "No, it seems to taste as awful as it always does."

"Then I suppose you don't want to kiss me anymore," Lupin said, giving him a well-practiced mournful look.

"I didn't say that," Snape purred, a wicked gleam in his eyes. He wrapped his arms around Lupin's waist, pulled him close, and kissed him hard. Lupin moaned into Snape's mouth, their tongues entwining together; the bitterness of aconite had never tasted so sweet.

With their bodies pressed so close together, it was impossible for Lupin to hide his rapidly growing arousal, and Snape broke off the kiss to grin at his lover. "Ah, that's right, the full moon is almost upon us."

"I don't need the full moon as an excuse to desire you, my love," Lupin whispered into Snape's ear, gently nipping at the lobe; the Potions Master gasped softly. "I enjoy making love with you any day of the month." He paused, his mouth moving lower to nip gently at Snape's neck, but Snape's high-collared robe was getting in the way, so Lupin deftly unfastened it, and the shirt beneath it, and pushed them aside. "Or night." Another nip, teeth gently pressing into soft skin. "Or morning." Another nip, harder this time, enough to leave a dark bruise on white flesh; Snape gasped again, a little more loudly. "Or afternoon. Or--"

"Enough, Lupin!" Snape growled, although a small part of him was curious to know how many different segments Lupin could carve a single day into. But not all that curious--not with an amorous werewolf nibbling on his ear and neck. "Lupin," he said impatiently, "have I ever told you that you talk too much?"

"Many times," Lupin said, then playfully leered at the Potions Master. "So why don't you give my mouth something else to occupy itself with?"

That leer, Snape would later claim, was the reason why they never made it to the bedroom that night. The normally obstinate Slytherin obeyed Lupin with commendable promptness, pushing the werewolf down on the couch, covering Lupin's body and mouth with his own. Snape's tongue teasingly darted in and out of Lupin's mouth, and the werewolf let out a muffled groan, his body arching up off the couch to grind his hips against Snape's. Snape responded in kind, their bodies writhing together--a little too enthusiastically, because they fell off the couch onto the floor, and Snape let out a yelp of pain and a sharp curse as his hip struck the edge of the coffee table and knocked it over. Fortunately, there was no chess set on it tonight, only Lupin's empty goblet. Snape shoved the table out of the way, and they ended up on the rug in front of the fireplace, where the cauldron of Wolfsbane Potion was still simmering. The unpleasant odor permeated the room, but Snape was too caught up in the moment to notice. Lupin, with his keen wolf senses, was well aware of it, but didn't mind, because that scent reminded him of his mate's devotion, and it only served to sharpen his desire and at the same time fill him with tenderness. Lupin laughed a little; this was probably the first time that aconite had functioned as an aphrodisiac for a werewolf!

That feeling of tenderness kept their lovemaking from being as rushed and frenzied as it normally was this close to the full moon. They struggled out of their clothes quickly, but once they were undressed, Lupin wanted to take his time and drink in the sight of the firelight playing against his lover's pale skin. He wanted to kiss and caress every inch of his lover's body, and set about doing so in a methodical yet unhurried manner. He nuzzled Severus's smooth, thick black hair, and kissed his forehead, the tip of his nose, and his mouth. He delicately ran his tongue along the curve of each ear as his hands traced the sharp lines of Severus's collarbone, then slowly ran down the planes of his chest. Severus's breathing grew louder, and more ragged. Lupin planted a gentle kiss in the hollow of his lover's throat, ran his hands down Severus's arms, then lifted fingertips to his mouth to be kissed.

Lupin kissed his way down Snape's chest and stomach, then lightly pressed his lips against the bruise forming on Snape's hip where he had struck the coffee table. As Lupin trailed his fingers up the inside of lover's thigh, Snape said, "Remus," in a low, urgent voice. There was a plea in his black eyes, but he did not voice it aloud. It had become a little game with them, for Snape to tease Lupin until he begged for release, a sweet torment in which Lupin was a willing participant. Snape, however, hated begging for anything, even in fun, and rarely said the word "please" in anything other than sarcasm--an understandable reaction, Lupin felt, for a former Death Eater who had spent more years than Lupin liked to think about kneeling in subservience at the Dark Lord's feet, not to mention the years spent growing up in Snape Manor without love or affection, only cold attention to duty with the occasional Cruciatus Curse thrown in as punishment for childish misbehavior.

Lupin liked to tease the Potions Master a little at times, but never to the point where he had to beg. Aside from not wanting to stir up painful memories, Lupin never wanted Severus--who, for so many years, had refused to believe that anyone could love him--to have to plead for love or pleasure. He wanted to give it freely and unstintingly, until maybe one day in the future, Severus would not regard it as a miracle that someone actually loved and desired him.

In spite of that, Lupin treasured the look of awe that filled his lover's eyes when he said, "I love you, Severus."

"I love you, too, Remus," Snape whispered, reaching up to caress Lupin's cheek gently and reverently, as if touching something incredibly fragile and precious.

{Precious, I hope,} Lupin thought with a touch of amusement mingled with tenderness, {but definitely not fragile!} He reached into the pile of their discarded clothing for his wand, and summoned a small jar into his hand. He unscrewed the lid and a sweet scent wafted out, slightly offsetting the bitter and acrid smell of the Wolfsbane Potion. It was actually a bit too sweet and cloying for the wolf's taste, but Lupin had come to associate the scent with their lovemaking, and he smiled dreamily and said, "I love the smell of lavender."

Snape grinned and dipped a finger in the jar, then reached up and ran it across Lupin's cheek, down his neck, lingering briefly at his throat, then down the center of his chest, along the breastbone, leaving a sweet, oily trail along Lupin's skin; the werewolf shivered with pleasure. Snape chuckled, in that low, wicked voice of his, and said, "I had a hard time keeping a straight face in my Advanced Potions class the other day; I've been teaching the students to distill lavender oil themselves instead of just using the ready-made supply in the Potions stores. And you must be right about Theodore and Zabini; I think I saw Blaise blush."

"You Slytherins blush so easily for such a cynical lot," Lupin laughed. Snape reached for the jar, and Lupin growled, "Let me." He dipped his hand in the oil and stroked Severus, who was already half-hard, to full erectness. Snape growled loudly, thrilling Lupin's inner wolf, and abruptly pushed Lupin down onto his back. Lupin tilted his head back and whined as he felt teeth gently close on the skin of his throat a moment later; unlike Severus, he found joy in submission--so long as it was to his beloved mate, of course. Snape reached for the jar again, and this time Lupin didn't stop him. He moaned loudly as he felt slick fingers sliding inside him, probing and stretching. "Please," Lupin gasped, and for once, it seemed that Severus was disinclined to make him beg. The fingers slipped out of him, and then he felt Severus pushing into him. He moaned again, lifting his hips and wrapping his legs around Severus's waist, pulling him in deeper. Their bodies rocked together slowly; Severus seemed to pick up on Lupin's tender mood without any need for words between them. His black eyes remained locked on Lupin's, and were filled with such love and intensity that Lupin's own eyes filled with tears. "Severus," Lupin whispered.

"Remy," Snape whispered back, and Lupin's heart filled with joy at the love and trust implicit in his use of Lupin's childhood nickname. "Remy, you're so beautiful."

"So are you, Severus," Lupin said with absolute sincerity. He remembered how, as a teenager, Severus had reacted angrily and defensively to those very same words, not believing that anyone could possibly find him beautiful. This time, Severus just smiled, with that look of awe and wonder in his eyes. He might find it hard to believe, and he might consider it a miracle, but at least he finally did believe that Lupin loved him and thought him beautiful.

Their bodies continued to move together, their desire slowly and steadily building, like a wave gradually growing from a mere ripple to a great wall of water as it moved towards the shore. With each thrust, Severus struck a little harder, a little deeper inside Lupin, sending ever-increasing surges of pleasure through his body until it was too much to bear...the wave crested, peaked, and crashed upon the shore...

Lupin felt his mate come with him, and the wolf howled with joy. Afterwards, Snape grinned as he gently brushed sweat-soaked strands of hair back from Lupin's face. "I can't believe how sexy it is to hear you howl," he said.

Lupin snuggled closer to his mate, laying his head on Snape's chest and nuzzling him affectionately. "When I was a boy, I never dreamed that there might be advantages to being a werewolf," he chuckled. "I never dreamed that I would actually be happy to be a werewolf one day."

Snape placed one hand under Lupin's chin and tipped his face up so that their eyes met. "Never wish to be other than what you are, Remus," he said, his expression suddenly turning serious. "Never doubt that I love you as you are, both man and wolf."

Lupin's eyes filled with tears again; his cranky, snarky Slytherin lover never ceased to touch and amaze him with statements like these, which seemed to appear out of the blue without any warning. He spoke with difficulty, as his throat seemed to constrict with emotion. "Once I wished to change what I am, but no longer. Even if a cure for lycanthropy became available, I don't think I would take it. The wolf is a part of me now, and I would not be whole if it were gone."

"Good," Snape said, kissing him. "Because I would miss the wolf." And then that snarky, sarcastic tone that Lupin had grown to love was back. "Even if you do shed fur and drool on my good robes."

Lupin laughed. "And I would miss being scratched behind the ears!"

They lay in each other's arms silently for a few minutes, then Snape asked, "Would you like to move to the bedroom?"

Lupin felt drowsy and content in his lover's embrace, and the heat from the fire warming his bare skin felt good. "Not really," he said. He didn't really feel like moving at the moment, and the wolf didn't mind sleeping on the floor. In fact, it found the rug on the hearth quite comfortable.

"I'm going to regret this in the morning," Snape sighed, but remained on the floor, wrapping his arms a little more tightly around Lupin, who growled happily.

 

Part 69