FIC: Addictions, written for subliculous, RL/SS, Rated R (Happy Birthday, Remus!)
Title: Addictions
Author: rose_whispers
Rating: R
Pairing: Remus/Severus
Summary: Remus is acting strangely so Severus puts two and two together, comes up with five, and won't give him the wolfsbane.
Word Count: 3302
A/N: I have nothing to say for myself. subliculous randomly suggested that Snape really should use the word "crackhead" in the next movie, and a silly, psychedelic little bunny bit me. Also written in honour of Remus Lupin’s birthday! Cross-posted to lupin_snape and remus_centric
ETA:Art by karasu_hime!
"Well, if you're sure, you're sure, Remus. I drink to your audacity, your teremity... er, temerity and... and... what was I saying?"
"I believe you were admiring my bravery. Or possibly my stupidity."
Bill Weasley clinked his third bottle of Liquefactious Lager against Remus Lupin's first and shook his head. "The mysteries of the heart."
"So you think I should tell him."
"If you want to pursue a relationship with the bactious frastard, go to it, I say." Bill got unsteadily to his feet.
"And you'll go make amends with Miss Delacour?" Remus pressed, rising as well.
"If you can admit to Snape that you're in love with him, I don't see why I can't go say the same to Fleur."
"Excellent." Remus patted his friend on the back as Bill spun dizzily toward the pub's fireplace. "Well, then, Godspeed. And do give my best to Fred and George. I'm so glad they've expanded their business to making alcohol as well. That beer packs a serious punch."
Bill hiccuped. "Doesn't it though? 'Night, Remus!"
The werewolf waved goodbye and apparated to 12 Grimmauld Place, buzzed but not quite drunk from the twins' lager. He'd need the liquid courage in order to tell Severus the truth. That he'd developed an... awareness of the man over the last few months. That the awareness had evolved into an attraction, which had emerged as a full-blown crush. Now, that crush had deepened to a point that Remus could no longer push it aside. He had to tell Severus. Even if the man laughed in his face, at least it would be something. At least Remus could move on. And in the unlikely event that he didn't laugh in his face, well, Remus would deal with that if it ever came up.
So lost in mildly intoxicated thought was he that he almost missed Mundungus Fletcher sitting at the kitchen table with a tray in front of him. He'd have walked right by if his preternaturally enhanced sense of smell hadn't caught the scent of chocolate.
"Evening, Dung," he said cheerfully, circling the table and seating himself across from the smaller man.
Mundungus looked up with a dreamy expression on his face. "Wotcher, Remus. Fancy a brownie? Baked 'em myself, my own special recipe."
"Severus will be here soon with the month's first mouthwatering dose of wolfsbane, so I really shouldn't," Remus declared, already reaching for a piece. Mundungus handed him a largish chunk and grinned at him.
Perhaps if Remus had been sober, he'd have wondered what on earth Mundungus of all people was doing baking. He might have stopped to consider the meaning of "special recipe". He might have connected it to the spacey expression on the man's face. His taste buds might have processed the fact that the chocolate was augmented by a peculiar flavour that didn't quite fit with the way brownies normally tasted. But none of that checked him and he shoveled the dessert into his mouth. He chatted with Mundungus for a bit before departing with the knowledge that somewhere in the house awaited a cranky potions master and a goblet full of wolfsbane.
~*~
Severus Snape was not a happy man. Being in the House of Black made his skin crawl, even if its last owner was undeniably deceased. He made his way to this odious estate only when necessity dictated. And necessity dictated that he had to appear three evenings each month to deliver the wolfsbane potion to Remus bloody Lupin, who always gave him that irritating smile and those bothersome words of thanks and then offered him brandy, no matter how nasty Severus was to him. Severus turned him down spitefully every time. As the months wore on, an evil, insatiable little voice in the back of his head kept asking him what the harm of staying for a brandy might be, pointing out that it wouldn't be especially vile to spend an hour or two in front of the fire in the werewolf's company.
Said werewolf was nowhere to be found this evening, and Severus had been waiting for ten minutes. He paced around the sitting room, muttering unmentionable condemnations under his breath that referenced Lupin's fleas, parentage, and taste in friends, as well as Severus' own idiocy for not simply washing his hands of the whole situation.
He was stopped mid-rant when the object of his animosity appeared before him, flashing him the goofiest smile Severus had ever seen.
"Severus! So good of you to come! Sit, sit, sit!"
Severus blinked rapidly as Remus weaved into the room and presented himself before the startled potions master. Remus waved his hand frantically in front of Severus' face. "Severus? Can you hear me? Is my voice invisible?"
Severus continued to stare in disbelief and Remus squeaked. "It is invisible! That means I can say all manner of naughty things to you, and you won't hex me. I love the way you glare, Severus. You have no idea how it turns me on."
"What in hell is wrong with you?" Severus demanded, stunned. He sniffed the air distastefully before glaring at the man who was swaying back and forth in front of him. "Lupin, you've been drinking."
"Just one little drink with Bill," Remus said, holding up one finger to emphasize his point. The hand wavered and seemed to catch his attention, and he began to gawk at his own finger in wonder.
"Lupin. Remus!" Severus' arm shot out and he laid his hand by Remus' temple, using his thumb to lift up the eyelid. "Look at me, not at your fingers."
Remus complied with a guttural laugh. "You've never touched me before, Severus. Not on purpose. Though this isn't the most romantic way to go about things-"
"Shut up, you raving idiot. Your pupils couldn't be more dilated. What the hell are you on?"
Remus shook himself free of Severus' clinical touch, looking hurt. "I'm not on anything. Well, I had the one Bill with beer so I could get my courage up. And Beer's going to go tell Fleur that you love her, and you're going to tell me."
Severus rolled his eyes and turned toward the fireplace. "I cannot believe I missed it before."
"Me too," Remus agreed, bouncing around Severus like a puppy happy to see its master. "I didn't know if you felt it, too. But you do. I'm so pleased. I love you, Severus!"
Severus suppressed a flicker of joy at hearing those foreign words. Remus, after all, was not in his right mind. "Yes, yes, you love me, you love Bill, you love the stovepipe."
Remus reached out, intent on sealing the deal with a kiss, but Severus ducked and then flicked his wand at the werewolf. "Petrificus totalus."
Remus froze mid-lunge, teetered, and fell backwards onto the couch.
"That's better," Snape grumped before swishing his wand once more. "Abrogomadidus! Now see here, you half-witted crackhead, you've put us all in serious danger. I don't know why I didn't put it all together before. The gauntness. Those shadowed bags beneath your eyes. The lassitude that you haven't been able to shake. I didn't realize you were a drug addict. Do you have any idea the effects narcotics have on wolfsbane? Do you? Of course you don't. Well, I shan't feed you a drop more until you clean yourself up. Until then, Dumbledore will just have to detain you somewhere that you cannot harm anyone. Good evening, Lupin."
Severus swept out of the house with an impressive snarl, leaving Remus frozen on the couch. His mind was racing. Lupin, stoned right off his rather well formed ass though he was, had declared his love for Severus and had been delighted when he thought Severus had returned it.
Which was ridiculous. He didn't love Lupin- he didn't even like him. The lingering feeling of grief that the werewolf had gone and hooked himself on some stupefacient was absolutely not contingent upon Severus' own feelings for the scruffy maniac. Not at all.
~*~
Being petrified did wonders for giving a man a chance to ponder things, Remus reflected as one hour passed, followed by another. The clock on the mantel across from him ticked away, counting down the moments he had left to drink the evening's share of wolfsbane. Stupid Severus!
Well, Stupid Remus, if he wanted to be fair. When he was unfrozen, he would murder Mundungus. Slowly. With an implement that was both jagged and rusty. Until then, he could only think about the evening past. He winced as he remembered his blurted confession. Winced harder when he contemplated Severus' reaction. The stovepipe indeed!
He'd been there close to five hours when Minerva McGonagall walked into his line of vision.
"Remus! What in the name of Godric Gryffindor has happened here?"
When it was clear no response was forthcoming, the matronly witch whipped out her wand and muttered, "Finite Incantatem."
Remus fell off the couch with a moan, his muscles protesting the sudden range of movement available to them. He breathed carpet for a moment before hauling himself up on his hands and knees. "Thank you," he managed.
Minerva stooped down to help him into a sitting position, his back resting against the couch. "Remus, who attacked you? Have the headquarters been breached?"
Remus shook his head. "The only thing breached is my dignity," he sighed. "And Dung's head, when I catch him. Severus and I had a misunderstanding."
"And he hexed you?" she clucked, patting Remus on the shoulder as though he were a very small boy. "Of all the hotheaded-"
Remus stood up with a groan, his joints creaking, his back popping. "He was within his rights," he admitted. "He was faced with a situation that didn't look particularly good."
"Do I want to know?"
Remus was reminded again of the years that Minerva had been his teacher. She'd been a strange mixture of comfort and foreboding to him back then, and little had changed. Feeling as though she'd hand out a detention if he even thought about being stoned, he shook his head. "No, you don’t. But I'd best go see Severus. I have fifteen minutes until midnight, and if I don't drink that potion-"
She gaped. "You've not taken your wolfsbane? Go to it, then!"
Remus nodded, took a handful of floo powder, flung it into the expiring embers in the hearth and announced, "Severus Snape's rooms."
When he appeared in the potions master's study, he hadn't expected Severus himself to be brooding in a chair two feet away. Remus' aching muscles chose precisely that moment to give way and he toppled over, landing in the startled Severus' lap.
"Lupin, have you completely lost your mind?" Severus cried as he stood up, dumping Remus to the floor without ceremony.
"Ouch!" Remus glared up into the scowling black eyes, but he didn't have time to quibble. "The potion, Severus. Now."
"No."
"No?"
"No."
Remus scrambled back to his feet. "This is ridiculous! You used the Abrogomadidus charm to purge me of any intoxicating substances when you bleeding left me on the bleeding couch."
"I do not give potions to drug addicts," Severus thundered.
"And I am not a drug addict!"
"Aren't you? What is it they say about the first step? Admitting that you have a problem, perhaps?" Severus turned his back on the werewolf with a huff.
"Severus, please," Remus said, prowling around the taller man so they were facing each other once more. The faintest flash of some emotion Remus couldn't identify surfaced on Severus' face before the stony mask fell back into place. "I can explain. I did have a drink with Bill Weasley this evening. He was lamenting his breakup with his girlfriend. And one thing led to another."
"Did it."
The ice in Severus' voice shocked Remus out of his confession. It sounded, he realised with a start, as though it was fueled by jealousy. Jealousy over Bill? Remus almost managed not to laugh. "Not like that, Severus, really."
"It seems everything with you this evening is not what it looks like," Severus snapped.
"Nearly everything," Remus admitted. "When I got back from the pub, Dung was in the kitchen, and he offered me a brownie."
Severus snarled, "you ate one of Fletcher's brownies? Everyone knows not to consume those things. He adds Cannabis mysticalis in concentrations no human being should ingest."
Remus nodded. "I realise that now."
"So you were reacting to a narcotic that you were too simple to have deduced was inside the chunk of chocolate you no doubt inhaled?"
Remus flinched. "Yes. I am not, as you so tactfully designated me, a crackhead."
"Therefore the things you said were brought on because you were high."
Remus didn't know if the out Severus was handing him was generous or self-serving, and he didn't care to find out. If he didn't tell Severus now, he wasn't sure he ever would. So, he reasoned, he might as well finish the grave he'd so happily begun digging earlier that evening. "Severus, when I said 'one thing led to another', I meant that after Bill went on about Fleur, I divulged some information of my own. I told him about my infatuation with you. That I think I’m falling in love you. I decided to tell you that tonight."
Severus' complexion drained of colour, leaving him an alarmingly anemic shade of gray. "Lupin, what are you playing at?"
"I just wanted to tell you the truth," Remus said sadly. "I understand that you don't care for me, but I had to let you know. Now the potion, if you please. I only have five minutes."
Severus seemed to latch onto the task Remus had offered, and stalked wordlessly from the room, reappearing minutes later with the full goblet. Remus snatched it from him and drank the obscene liquid faster than he ever had in his life. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand seconds before the clock struck midnight.
"Thank you, Severus," he sighed, more wistful than he usually was. He held out the goblet, already turning toward the fireplace. He was totally unprepared for what happened next.
Severus seized the goblet from his hand and threw it to the ground, then captured Remus' wrist with his thin fingers and jerked hard until Remus turned back around and looked into the taller man's eyes. He saw the fear displayed plainly now, along with the suspicion. But beneath it, he could see another emotion lurking, the one he hadn't been able to identify before.
"Do you mean it?" Severus hissed.
"That I'm not a crackhead?"
"That you love me, you fool!"
Remus swallowed his laughter. "Do you honestly think I'd give you fodder for mockery like that if I didn't mean it?"
Severus didn't deign to respond. Instead, he used his grasp on Remus' wrist to draw the werewolf closer and then descended, brushing his lips against Remus' as though he were trying to taste the truth upon them.
Remus decided not to give him any room for doubt. He wrapped his free arm around Severus' waist as he caught Severus' bottom lip with his teeth, a teasing bite before opening his own lips in invitation. Evidently, whatever reservations Severus might have held had disappeared. His tongue whispered into Remus' mouth and Remus sucked it in eagerly, dizzier than he'd been from either the beer or the brownies. Intoxicated by the taste that was uniquely Severus Snape.
Severus let go of Remus' wrist and tangled his fingers in the graying blondish hair, holding Remus in place while his tongue made languorous sweeps through Remus' mouth, touching and tasting every inch as Remus' own tongue stroked against it. The werewolf lost himself in sensation, his fingers of their own accord searching for the clasps of Severus' robes.
"Eager," Severus commented as he pulled back, gasping for air.
"Can't give you a chance to change your mind," Remus countered.
"How long have you wanted this?"
"Too long."
Severus swept him into another kiss, this one harder, more demanding. Remus heard a needy little moan emanate from one of them, though he couldn't positively identify which one. He just about floated off the floor when Severus' hands stole under his cardigan to trace patterns on his back through the insubstantial cotton of his shirt.
"Severus," he whimpered, breaking the kiss so he could do a little exploring of his own, nipping his way along the exposed skin of Severus' neck above the imposing collar, licking just beneath the earlobe, smiling at the gasp it elicited.
"Let's get this thing off, shall we?" Severus rumbled, stepping back to get at the buttons of Remus' cardigan. Impatient from the sudden loss of body heat, Remus yanked the sweater over his head and flung it aside. The gleam in Severus' eyes was unmistakable as he made quick work of the shirt and then stepped back to admire the view.
Remus blushed under the greedy, unwavering gaze, the flush spreading down his neck and across his chest. Severus traced the reddening skin in a manner that Remus would have described as playful if anyone else in the world had been doing it. Then those lips, so adept at wicked insults, plunged downward and sucked on one of Remus' nipples, extracting a groan from somewhere deep inside.
"Severus, Severuhhhhh," he gasped as the potions master chose that moment to bite down on the abused, aroused nipple.
"Enough," he panted. "More later. Now I need you."
Severus didn't need to be asked twice. He gathered Remus into his arms and walked him backward, peppering his face and neck and shoulders with kisses, the scratchy fabric of his robes rough against Remus' bare skin. The friction was driving Remus insane as he tumbled backward against something soft.
Bed, he thought indistinctly. I'm in his bed.
It was his last coherent rumination as Severus lowered himself against Remus' prone form. Thoughts disappeared in a flurry of flying fabric and tormenting kisses and maddening bites, of whispered spells and Severus kneeling between Remus' thighs, solid and present and wanting. Remus drifted in the sensation of being filled completely as Severus eased into him, as their mouths met once more in a frantic fracas that mirrored Severus' hard thrusts. The only thing better than friction, Remus reflected distantly, was the lack of it.
Remus fell naturally into Severus' rhythm, hips and heart moving in time with the potions master as pleasure flooded through him. They found release, one after the other, voices tangling together just as their limbs did. Severus collapsed against Remus, his face pressed against the werewolf's chest. As Remus gulped in air and carded his fingers through the professor’s dark hair, he found himself chuckling.
"What’s so funny?" Severus said in a tone that sounded decidedly more sated than suspicious.
"I think I might be addicted to something after all." To accentuate his point, Remus rolled them both until he had settled on top of Severus. He kissed him again, a decadent, leisurely, commanding kiss. He pulled back, running his fingers along Severus' jawline.
Remus smiled innocently. "My new addiction isn't going to interact with the wolfsbane, is it?"
"A good question," Severus said, deadpan. "We shall have to conduct experiments. Many trial runs."
"Many different ways," Remus agreed, kissing his way down Severus' chest, delighting in the way the sparse black hair tickled his cheeks before moving further down.
"Mmmm, Lupin, do you think we should commence immediately?"
Remus scraped his teeth along the pale expanse of Severus' inner thigh, delighting in the way the man quivered beneath him. "Well, one does want to be thorough."
Severus moaned and Remus grinned. He planned on being very thorough indeed, for many years to come.
Fin
Author: rose_whispers
Rating: R
Pairing: Remus/Severus
Summary: Remus is acting strangely so Severus puts two and two together, comes up with five, and won't give him the wolfsbane.
Word Count: 3302
A/N: I have nothing to say for myself. subliculous randomly suggested that Snape really should use the word "crackhead" in the next movie, and a silly, psychedelic little bunny bit me. Also written in honour of Remus Lupin’s birthday! Cross-posted to lupin_snape and remus_centric
ETA:Art by karasu_hime!
"Well, if you're sure, you're sure, Remus. I drink to your audacity, your teremity... er, temerity and... and... what was I saying?"
"I believe you were admiring my bravery. Or possibly my stupidity."
Bill Weasley clinked his third bottle of Liquefactious Lager against Remus Lupin's first and shook his head. "The mysteries of the heart."
"So you think I should tell him."
"If you want to pursue a relationship with the bactious frastard, go to it, I say." Bill got unsteadily to his feet.
"And you'll go make amends with Miss Delacour?" Remus pressed, rising as well.
"If you can admit to Snape that you're in love with him, I don't see why I can't go say the same to Fleur."
"Excellent." Remus patted his friend on the back as Bill spun dizzily toward the pub's fireplace. "Well, then, Godspeed. And do give my best to Fred and George. I'm so glad they've expanded their business to making alcohol as well. That beer packs a serious punch."
Bill hiccuped. "Doesn't it though? 'Night, Remus!"
The werewolf waved goodbye and apparated to 12 Grimmauld Place, buzzed but not quite drunk from the twins' lager. He'd need the liquid courage in order to tell Severus the truth. That he'd developed an... awareness of the man over the last few months. That the awareness had evolved into an attraction, which had emerged as a full-blown crush. Now, that crush had deepened to a point that Remus could no longer push it aside. He had to tell Severus. Even if the man laughed in his face, at least it would be something. At least Remus could move on. And in the unlikely event that he didn't laugh in his face, well, Remus would deal with that if it ever came up.
So lost in mildly intoxicated thought was he that he almost missed Mundungus Fletcher sitting at the kitchen table with a tray in front of him. He'd have walked right by if his preternaturally enhanced sense of smell hadn't caught the scent of chocolate.
"Evening, Dung," he said cheerfully, circling the table and seating himself across from the smaller man.
Mundungus looked up with a dreamy expression on his face. "Wotcher, Remus. Fancy a brownie? Baked 'em myself, my own special recipe."
"Severus will be here soon with the month's first mouthwatering dose of wolfsbane, so I really shouldn't," Remus declared, already reaching for a piece. Mundungus handed him a largish chunk and grinned at him.
Perhaps if Remus had been sober, he'd have wondered what on earth Mundungus of all people was doing baking. He might have stopped to consider the meaning of "special recipe". He might have connected it to the spacey expression on the man's face. His taste buds might have processed the fact that the chocolate was augmented by a peculiar flavour that didn't quite fit with the way brownies normally tasted. But none of that checked him and he shoveled the dessert into his mouth. He chatted with Mundungus for a bit before departing with the knowledge that somewhere in the house awaited a cranky potions master and a goblet full of wolfsbane.
~*~
Severus Snape was not a happy man. Being in the House of Black made his skin crawl, even if its last owner was undeniably deceased. He made his way to this odious estate only when necessity dictated. And necessity dictated that he had to appear three evenings each month to deliver the wolfsbane potion to Remus bloody Lupin, who always gave him that irritating smile and those bothersome words of thanks and then offered him brandy, no matter how nasty Severus was to him. Severus turned him down spitefully every time. As the months wore on, an evil, insatiable little voice in the back of his head kept asking him what the harm of staying for a brandy might be, pointing out that it wouldn't be especially vile to spend an hour or two in front of the fire in the werewolf's company.
Said werewolf was nowhere to be found this evening, and Severus had been waiting for ten minutes. He paced around the sitting room, muttering unmentionable condemnations under his breath that referenced Lupin's fleas, parentage, and taste in friends, as well as Severus' own idiocy for not simply washing his hands of the whole situation.
He was stopped mid-rant when the object of his animosity appeared before him, flashing him the goofiest smile Severus had ever seen.
"Severus! So good of you to come! Sit, sit, sit!"
Severus blinked rapidly as Remus weaved into the room and presented himself before the startled potions master. Remus waved his hand frantically in front of Severus' face. "Severus? Can you hear me? Is my voice invisible?"
Severus continued to stare in disbelief and Remus squeaked. "It is invisible! That means I can say all manner of naughty things to you, and you won't hex me. I love the way you glare, Severus. You have no idea how it turns me on."
"What in hell is wrong with you?" Severus demanded, stunned. He sniffed the air distastefully before glaring at the man who was swaying back and forth in front of him. "Lupin, you've been drinking."
"Just one little drink with Bill," Remus said, holding up one finger to emphasize his point. The hand wavered and seemed to catch his attention, and he began to gawk at his own finger in wonder.
"Lupin. Remus!" Severus' arm shot out and he laid his hand by Remus' temple, using his thumb to lift up the eyelid. "Look at me, not at your fingers."
Remus complied with a guttural laugh. "You've never touched me before, Severus. Not on purpose. Though this isn't the most romantic way to go about things-"
"Shut up, you raving idiot. Your pupils couldn't be more dilated. What the hell are you on?"
Remus shook himself free of Severus' clinical touch, looking hurt. "I'm not on anything. Well, I had the one Bill with beer so I could get my courage up. And Beer's going to go tell Fleur that you love her, and you're going to tell me."
Severus rolled his eyes and turned toward the fireplace. "I cannot believe I missed it before."
"Me too," Remus agreed, bouncing around Severus like a puppy happy to see its master. "I didn't know if you felt it, too. But you do. I'm so pleased. I love you, Severus!"
Severus suppressed a flicker of joy at hearing those foreign words. Remus, after all, was not in his right mind. "Yes, yes, you love me, you love Bill, you love the stovepipe."
Remus reached out, intent on sealing the deal with a kiss, but Severus ducked and then flicked his wand at the werewolf. "Petrificus totalus."
Remus froze mid-lunge, teetered, and fell backwards onto the couch.
"That's better," Snape grumped before swishing his wand once more. "Abrogomadidus! Now see here, you half-witted crackhead, you've put us all in serious danger. I don't know why I didn't put it all together before. The gauntness. Those shadowed bags beneath your eyes. The lassitude that you haven't been able to shake. I didn't realize you were a drug addict. Do you have any idea the effects narcotics have on wolfsbane? Do you? Of course you don't. Well, I shan't feed you a drop more until you clean yourself up. Until then, Dumbledore will just have to detain you somewhere that you cannot harm anyone. Good evening, Lupin."
Severus swept out of the house with an impressive snarl, leaving Remus frozen on the couch. His mind was racing. Lupin, stoned right off his rather well formed ass though he was, had declared his love for Severus and had been delighted when he thought Severus had returned it.
Which was ridiculous. He didn't love Lupin- he didn't even like him. The lingering feeling of grief that the werewolf had gone and hooked himself on some stupefacient was absolutely not contingent upon Severus' own feelings for the scruffy maniac. Not at all.
~*~
Being petrified did wonders for giving a man a chance to ponder things, Remus reflected as one hour passed, followed by another. The clock on the mantel across from him ticked away, counting down the moments he had left to drink the evening's share of wolfsbane. Stupid Severus!
Well, Stupid Remus, if he wanted to be fair. When he was unfrozen, he would murder Mundungus. Slowly. With an implement that was both jagged and rusty. Until then, he could only think about the evening past. He winced as he remembered his blurted confession. Winced harder when he contemplated Severus' reaction. The stovepipe indeed!
He'd been there close to five hours when Minerva McGonagall walked into his line of vision.
"Remus! What in the name of Godric Gryffindor has happened here?"
When it was clear no response was forthcoming, the matronly witch whipped out her wand and muttered, "Finite Incantatem."
Remus fell off the couch with a moan, his muscles protesting the sudden range of movement available to them. He breathed carpet for a moment before hauling himself up on his hands and knees. "Thank you," he managed.
Minerva stooped down to help him into a sitting position, his back resting against the couch. "Remus, who attacked you? Have the headquarters been breached?"
Remus shook his head. "The only thing breached is my dignity," he sighed. "And Dung's head, when I catch him. Severus and I had a misunderstanding."
"And he hexed you?" she clucked, patting Remus on the shoulder as though he were a very small boy. "Of all the hotheaded-"
Remus stood up with a groan, his joints creaking, his back popping. "He was within his rights," he admitted. "He was faced with a situation that didn't look particularly good."
"Do I want to know?"
Remus was reminded again of the years that Minerva had been his teacher. She'd been a strange mixture of comfort and foreboding to him back then, and little had changed. Feeling as though she'd hand out a detention if he even thought about being stoned, he shook his head. "No, you don’t. But I'd best go see Severus. I have fifteen minutes until midnight, and if I don't drink that potion-"
She gaped. "You've not taken your wolfsbane? Go to it, then!"
Remus nodded, took a handful of floo powder, flung it into the expiring embers in the hearth and announced, "Severus Snape's rooms."
When he appeared in the potions master's study, he hadn't expected Severus himself to be brooding in a chair two feet away. Remus' aching muscles chose precisely that moment to give way and he toppled over, landing in the startled Severus' lap.
"Lupin, have you completely lost your mind?" Severus cried as he stood up, dumping Remus to the floor without ceremony.
"Ouch!" Remus glared up into the scowling black eyes, but he didn't have time to quibble. "The potion, Severus. Now."
"No."
"No?"
"No."
Remus scrambled back to his feet. "This is ridiculous! You used the Abrogomadidus charm to purge me of any intoxicating substances when you bleeding left me on the bleeding couch."
"I do not give potions to drug addicts," Severus thundered.
"And I am not a drug addict!"
"Aren't you? What is it they say about the first step? Admitting that you have a problem, perhaps?" Severus turned his back on the werewolf with a huff.
"Severus, please," Remus said, prowling around the taller man so they were facing each other once more. The faintest flash of some emotion Remus couldn't identify surfaced on Severus' face before the stony mask fell back into place. "I can explain. I did have a drink with Bill Weasley this evening. He was lamenting his breakup with his girlfriend. And one thing led to another."
"Did it."
The ice in Severus' voice shocked Remus out of his confession. It sounded, he realised with a start, as though it was fueled by jealousy. Jealousy over Bill? Remus almost managed not to laugh. "Not like that, Severus, really."
"It seems everything with you this evening is not what it looks like," Severus snapped.
"Nearly everything," Remus admitted. "When I got back from the pub, Dung was in the kitchen, and he offered me a brownie."
Severus snarled, "you ate one of Fletcher's brownies? Everyone knows not to consume those things. He adds Cannabis mysticalis in concentrations no human being should ingest."
Remus nodded. "I realise that now."
"So you were reacting to a narcotic that you were too simple to have deduced was inside the chunk of chocolate you no doubt inhaled?"
Remus flinched. "Yes. I am not, as you so tactfully designated me, a crackhead."
"Therefore the things you said were brought on because you were high."
Remus didn't know if the out Severus was handing him was generous or self-serving, and he didn't care to find out. If he didn't tell Severus now, he wasn't sure he ever would. So, he reasoned, he might as well finish the grave he'd so happily begun digging earlier that evening. "Severus, when I said 'one thing led to another', I meant that after Bill went on about Fleur, I divulged some information of my own. I told him about my infatuation with you. That I think I’m falling in love you. I decided to tell you that tonight."
Severus' complexion drained of colour, leaving him an alarmingly anemic shade of gray. "Lupin, what are you playing at?"
"I just wanted to tell you the truth," Remus said sadly. "I understand that you don't care for me, but I had to let you know. Now the potion, if you please. I only have five minutes."
Severus seemed to latch onto the task Remus had offered, and stalked wordlessly from the room, reappearing minutes later with the full goblet. Remus snatched it from him and drank the obscene liquid faster than he ever had in his life. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand seconds before the clock struck midnight.
"Thank you, Severus," he sighed, more wistful than he usually was. He held out the goblet, already turning toward the fireplace. He was totally unprepared for what happened next.
Severus seized the goblet from his hand and threw it to the ground, then captured Remus' wrist with his thin fingers and jerked hard until Remus turned back around and looked into the taller man's eyes. He saw the fear displayed plainly now, along with the suspicion. But beneath it, he could see another emotion lurking, the one he hadn't been able to identify before.
"Do you mean it?" Severus hissed.
"That I'm not a crackhead?"
"That you love me, you fool!"
Remus swallowed his laughter. "Do you honestly think I'd give you fodder for mockery like that if I didn't mean it?"
Severus didn't deign to respond. Instead, he used his grasp on Remus' wrist to draw the werewolf closer and then descended, brushing his lips against Remus' as though he were trying to taste the truth upon them.
Remus decided not to give him any room for doubt. He wrapped his free arm around Severus' waist as he caught Severus' bottom lip with his teeth, a teasing bite before opening his own lips in invitation. Evidently, whatever reservations Severus might have held had disappeared. His tongue whispered into Remus' mouth and Remus sucked it in eagerly, dizzier than he'd been from either the beer or the brownies. Intoxicated by the taste that was uniquely Severus Snape.
Severus let go of Remus' wrist and tangled his fingers in the graying blondish hair, holding Remus in place while his tongue made languorous sweeps through Remus' mouth, touching and tasting every inch as Remus' own tongue stroked against it. The werewolf lost himself in sensation, his fingers of their own accord searching for the clasps of Severus' robes.
"Eager," Severus commented as he pulled back, gasping for air.
"Can't give you a chance to change your mind," Remus countered.
"How long have you wanted this?"
"Too long."
Severus swept him into another kiss, this one harder, more demanding. Remus heard a needy little moan emanate from one of them, though he couldn't positively identify which one. He just about floated off the floor when Severus' hands stole under his cardigan to trace patterns on his back through the insubstantial cotton of his shirt.
"Severus," he whimpered, breaking the kiss so he could do a little exploring of his own, nipping his way along the exposed skin of Severus' neck above the imposing collar, licking just beneath the earlobe, smiling at the gasp it elicited.
"Let's get this thing off, shall we?" Severus rumbled, stepping back to get at the buttons of Remus' cardigan. Impatient from the sudden loss of body heat, Remus yanked the sweater over his head and flung it aside. The gleam in Severus' eyes was unmistakable as he made quick work of the shirt and then stepped back to admire the view.
Remus blushed under the greedy, unwavering gaze, the flush spreading down his neck and across his chest. Severus traced the reddening skin in a manner that Remus would have described as playful if anyone else in the world had been doing it. Then those lips, so adept at wicked insults, plunged downward and sucked on one of Remus' nipples, extracting a groan from somewhere deep inside.
"Severus, Severuhhhhh," he gasped as the potions master chose that moment to bite down on the abused, aroused nipple.
"Enough," he panted. "More later. Now I need you."
Severus didn't need to be asked twice. He gathered Remus into his arms and walked him backward, peppering his face and neck and shoulders with kisses, the scratchy fabric of his robes rough against Remus' bare skin. The friction was driving Remus insane as he tumbled backward against something soft.
Bed, he thought indistinctly. I'm in his bed.
It was his last coherent rumination as Severus lowered himself against Remus' prone form. Thoughts disappeared in a flurry of flying fabric and tormenting kisses and maddening bites, of whispered spells and Severus kneeling between Remus' thighs, solid and present and wanting. Remus drifted in the sensation of being filled completely as Severus eased into him, as their mouths met once more in a frantic fracas that mirrored Severus' hard thrusts. The only thing better than friction, Remus reflected distantly, was the lack of it.
Remus fell naturally into Severus' rhythm, hips and heart moving in time with the potions master as pleasure flooded through him. They found release, one after the other, voices tangling together just as their limbs did. Severus collapsed against Remus, his face pressed against the werewolf's chest. As Remus gulped in air and carded his fingers through the professor’s dark hair, he found himself chuckling.
"What’s so funny?" Severus said in a tone that sounded decidedly more sated than suspicious.
"I think I might be addicted to something after all." To accentuate his point, Remus rolled them both until he had settled on top of Severus. He kissed him again, a decadent, leisurely, commanding kiss. He pulled back, running his fingers along Severus' jawline.
Remus smiled innocently. "My new addiction isn't going to interact with the wolfsbane, is it?"
"A good question," Severus said, deadpan. "We shall have to conduct experiments. Many trial runs."
"Many different ways," Remus agreed, kissing his way down Severus' chest, delighting in the way the sparse black hair tickled his cheeks before moving further down.
"Mmmm, Lupin, do you think we should commence immediately?"
Remus scraped his teeth along the pale expanse of Severus' inner thigh, delighting in the way the man quivered beneath him. "Well, one does want to be thorough."
Severus moaned and Remus grinned. He planned on being very thorough indeed, for many years to come.
Fin