Tea and Chocolate

A rap on the door so startled Remus -- who had nearly fallen asleep while reading -- that he fell off his sofa, dropping his book to the floor. A late knock at Grimmauld Place usually meant bad news, so Remus' heart was pounding before he was even sitting upright. Had someone made a worrisome discovery, or had a raid gone wrong? Had Severus...? "Come in," he called, wondering just how late it was; he'd been in the library for several hours in the evening, and reading in his room for longer still.

"Are you all right?" came a stern voice from the doorway as a figure stepped through from the dark hallway, taking in Remus' rumpled clothes and bleary expression. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"Oh -- come sit, Severus, please." Running a hand through the hair falling over his eyes, Remus smiled happily up at the black-clad wizard's wary face. "I had come close to falling asleep. I was woken quite early because two of the paintings got into a debate about how tall Caradoc Dearborn had been. Then Molly insisted that I come to breakfast..." Accepting the dropped book from Severus' outstretched fingers, he searched to mark the page where he had lost his concentration. "What brings you to Grimmauld Place at this hour?"

"I have business with Moody," Snape explained shortly, and from his tone Remus understood that he ought not to inquire further. "Mrs. Weasley is perhaps correct, however, that you spend too much time shut in here reading."

"I was in the library earlier. There is not a great deal to do when Dumbledore doesn't have me working on something."

"Then he has not spoken to you, either, about the relics the Death-Eaters are apparently collecting?"

Remus shook his head. "No, Severus, I'm afraid not." It seemed to him that Albus Dumbledore was keeping different members of the Order working on different problems -- raids, recruitment, study, defense -- rather than risking any one of them knowing too much, and thus becoming a potential target. But his companion was frowning, and Remus wondered if Severus suspected that the two of them had specifically had this information kept from them. Setting his book down on the table, he asked, "Do you need any help with whatever you're working on? Is that why you've come?"

Severus' eyes averted, and Remus had the impression that he was embarrassed. "No. I was merely passing by your door, and since I was not here for dinner..."

With a little smile, Remus interrupted him. "I'm glad to see you. I know it's late, but we could go down, if you like, to find you something to eat."

"That will not be necessary. I ate at Hogwarts. I only thought that I would see how you were."

Remus' smile broadened. "I'm quite well, Severus. And you?"

"As well as can be expected. I had to discipline a group of third-year Gryffindors for using their cauldrons to make an itching powder to use to torment the Slytherin Quidditch team."

"Itching powder?" That made him smile more, though the potions teacher was wearing his sternest professorial expression. "I hope that you weren't too terribly hard on them."

"I am certain that they will have finished several parchments on the probability of skin damage from the misuse of itching powder within a week," said Severus with a certain degree of satisfaction. Essays seemed like a rather lenient punishment for such a transgression, and Remus was not surprised when he added, "Of course, I also deducted fifty points from Gryffindor. For each student. I daresay they will not try it again."

A little teasingly, Remus warned, "I'm sure the entire House is very upset with you now, Professor Snape."

"Really? How devastating." Professor Snape kept his expression impassive, but his eyes flickered as he added, "My heart would break, if I had one."

On impulse Remus reached for Severus' hand and lifted it to his mouth, kissing his palm, while Severus watched with a mixture of surprise and curiosity on his face. "Heartless, Severus?"

"Every Gryffindor I have ever met has seemed to believe so."

"I'm a Gryffindor," protested Remus.

"And what a pity that is. Think what you might have accomplished as a Slytherin." Remus rolled his eyes but said nothing, instead tugging on the hand to draw Severus close. His glare offered a challenge, but Severus' voice was amused as he added, "You might have learned self-control from my House, Lupin, and not developed your weakness for these." From a pocket he pulled a box of Honeydukes chocolates. "I had to pass through Hogsmeade for some ingredients, and I thought..."

There was no holding back the delighted laugh that burst from Remus' throat, nor the impulse to throw his arms around Severus, who accepted the embrace with an awkward stiffness that only made Remus want to do it again. "How very *sweet*," he grinned, sitting back to open the box, finding a chocolate covered cherry and biting into it with a tiny noise of appreciation. "Thank you."

Snape, who had startling spots of color in his pale cheeks, drew his eyebrows together, forcing a stern frown. "Are they stale? Usually when you are enjoying chocolate, you're a great deal more vocal about it -- obscenely vocal, at times."

"Oh, they're quite fresh." Remus held out the box, but Severus held up his hand to indicate that he didn't want any. "Really, they're very good." Taking another, he closed his eyes as he chewed, allowing a moan to escape his throat. "Here, try one."

"Chocolate covered cherries are too sweet for my taste." Yet Severus ate one anyway while Remus, licking chocolate from his own lips, encouraged him with a groan. He thought that Severus swallowed a smile along with the candy when the other wizard said haughtily, "Now you are trying to make me envious of chocolate."

"I most certainly am not." There was heat in Remus' cheeks, and what he suspected was a helpless grin pushing it back toward his ears. "I can't help it if I'm...enthusiastic."

"Your enemies would need only to feed you these and you would tell them everything."

"That's hardly true. I'd simply sit there moaning." At this the potions master gave him a wicked look, then abruptly held the box of chocolates high above his head, out of Remus' reach. "Severus!" He leaned across him to grasp at the box. "Just one more. Please."

The box remained high above the head of Professor Snape, who still looked amused. "And what will you give me in exchange, Lupin?"

The way Severus said his name -- rolling the L as if he were licking it -- must have been more obscene than any noise Remus made when he ate chocolate, for his entire body responded to the sound. He whimpered softly. "What do you want? A galleon? A kiss?" He had all but crawled into Severus' lap to get at the sweets, and Severus was not particularly struggling to escape, though he did move the box just out of reach again.

"There, you see? You would promise anything for chocolate." Severus tilted his arm slightly at Remus' tug, and one of the pieces fell. Picking it up with his free hand, Severus popped it into his own mouth. Unable to resist for another moment, Remus took Severus' face in his hands and kissed him, trying to steal the candy with his tongue; he was quite gratified to hear Severus' soft protest as his lips parted and he yielded up the melting chocolate.

"Now who's vocal?"

"You surprised me. That was cheating, Lupin. Two hundred points from Gryffindor." With a wide smile, Remus yanked the box from Severus' unresisting hands, settling fully in his lap to examine it. After poking through two layers of chocolates, he selected one and ate it, letting out an indiscreet moan and pressing close as he did so. Severus was delightfully aroused, and pushed up against him quite shamelessly, though he wore Professor Snape's sternest expression as he said, "I don't suppose that you can tell which of these contain caramel."

Remus offered him a piece. "Try this one." With an arch look, Severus took it, licking at the chocolate melting on Lupin's finger as he did so and making Remus groan again, though he had no candy left in his mouth at the moment. "Naughty, Severus. I assume you must like caramel?" He let the damp fingertip lightly stroke one flushed cheek.

The skin beneath his finger twitched in response as Severus replied, "I am very fond of caramel. It is the only reason I have ever been willing to risk encountering a mud-flavored Bertie Botts Bean." With an indulgent smile, Remus offered him another square, frowning when Severus took both candy and box from his hands, putting them down behind himself on the sofa. "But I believe that I have had enough. And you have chocolate smeared over your lips."

Sitting up straighter, he licked at Remus' mouth as if to clean it. Though he had whimpered as the chocolates disappeared, Remus kissed him, a feeling as warm and melting as the sweets when Severus' arms tightened around him.

"I wonder whether I will ever be able to enjoy chocolate again without thinking of you, Lupin," the dark-eyed wizard said thoughtfully before closing his lids and opening his mouth, offering Remus his tongue, sticky-sweet with caramel. Remus licked at it gratefully, his hand coming up to stroke Severus' chest and shoulder. After a moment Severus took the hand, lowered his head and sucked on Remus' fingers. "You've gotten chocolate everywhere," he chided, though there was no real displeasure in his voice, and a breathy moan escaped him when he added, "You taste absurdly sweet to me."

"You taste wonderfully sweet to me." Catching his mouth, Remus kissed him again, sucking on his tongue and rubbing against him so enthusiastically that Severus moved both his hands around his back and down, until he was squeezing him tightly. Breaking the kiss to gasp for breath, Remus rocked back and forth over him and was rewarded with another helpless sound of pleasure. "Also, you feel very, very good."

"Eager, are you?" Nodding, blushing faintly, Remus smiled as Severus licked at his lips again. "What brought this on? The chocolate? Or the phase of the moon?"

"You. You did. Just having you here..." He tried to catch Severus' mouth, and sucked on his tongue when he succeeded, whimpering softly. Somewhat aggressively, the other man pulled back, giving him a glare.

"I tell you now, I won't be a substitute for Black."

Was that all that had been keeping him distant for so many days? "You're not, Severus." The words carried all the conviction with which they were spoken. "I don't want you to be. I want you to be you." Remus stared at him, wide-eyed, feeling himself studied before Severus lowered his eyes, making a vaguely conciliatory gesture with his open palms.

"In that case, I apologize. I am not..."

"Don't apologize. Just let it go, and let me touch you." Remus hoped his last words had not sounded like a plea. He tugged at Severus' hands as Severus shifted his weight, got his arm trapped by a sleeve caught behind his back, gave an irritated tug and yanked his robe open. When Remus pulled back to start pulling off his own clothing, the other man wriggled out from under him. With a soft wail of protest he cried, "Severus!"

But his fellow wizard had only removed his wand from the robe he was discarding, using it to put a locking spell on the door and a silencing charm on the room. Setting the wand on the table, he moved back toward Remus, who accidentally jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow while tugging free of his cardigan. Severus grunted faintly. "We are getting too old for this."

"Too old to make love?"

From the astonished, belittling glare Severus gave him, Remus thought he had made a great mistake in his choice of question, but Severus only replied, "Too old to do it on a sofa, Lupin. Though perhaps I am also too old to go through these awkward initial encounters."

Remus smiled gently. "If we keep practicing, Severus, it won't be awkward." This amused his companion, who sat back and made his long sleeves unbutton with a spell.

"How will we know when we have become experts?"

"When you no longer say that it feels awkward." The doubt in Severus' eyes as he stood, removing and folding his robes, made Remus sad. "Or, at the very least, when we can no longer say that we are having 'initial' encounters." Yet the other wizard's eyes remained wary, devoid of the caustic affection that had been present a few minutes earlier, and there was no mockery in his next question:

"How long do you expect that to take? Or is it foolish to discuss expectations?"

"I don't know, Severus." Remus held out a hand to him. "I would like it, very much, if you were...happy, with me."

Severus looked at the extended palm for so long that Remus very nearly let the hand drop back to his side, feeling humiliated and baffled at the change; but just as he was about to do so, the other man slowly reached out his own arm and closed his fingers around Remus' hand. In a low voice, he said, "It would be foolish of you to make my happiness a condition of your own."

"It's not a condition, just wishful thinking, perhaps." Remus tugged their joined hands to his mouth. "Do you want me?"

At first Severus declined to answer the question, which was hurtful -- perhaps more than it should have been, since Severus rarely bothered to answer questions to which he believed the answers should have been obvious, and when he did reply it was generally to deride the questioners. But Remus' growing distress must have communicated itself, because again Severus squeezed his fingers and dropped his eyes. "Do you believe I would be here if I did not?"

"No." And it was answer enough: enough to remind Remus that this man who had barely tolerated his presence, who put his own pride and dignity above happiness, had offered him chocolate and laughter and was standing half-undressed in his room, probably waiting to be taken to bed. Humbled, Remus smiled again, unable to muster the playful mischief with which they had wrestled over the candy, though as Severus stepped forward and they kissed with greater passion than they had before, he found suddenly that he did not want the humor that was equal parts defense and deferral. Taking both of Severus' hands in his own, he drew him over to the bed.

They removed the rest of one another's clothing, kissing and touching skin as it was uncovered and making Remus shiver when his scars were exposed. He knew that they would not shock Severus the way they sometimes upset strangers -- even trained Healers could not always hide their horror -- but the instinctual fear of being thought too ugly welled up, and he grew tense. Severus must have felt it in his muscles, because he was surprisingly gentle, stroking deliberately over the blemishes on his skin, and Remus thought he seemed self-conscious too, though he was reasonably fit and well-proportioned. Of course, if Severus had spent time with Lucius Malfoy, then no wonder if he felt unattractive by comparison. And, perhaps, no wonder if Severus did not mind what Remus looked like; Lucius was a perfect example of beauty that was only skin-deep.

He reached to kiss him again, the press of flesh on flesh luring a fierce, intoxicating desire to the surface, much stronger than the giddy arousal he had felt earlier. With a soft sigh Severus let himself be pushed back against a pillow, but he raised a hand to Remus' chest. "Do not hope that I will be able to see you, when...during the full moon."

"Shh..." Remus touched his mouth with a fingertip, then kissed him, and as Severus' lips parted under his, he reflected briefly that he was probably quite happy not to have to discuss the topic further. "Perhaps you should tell me what you'd like tonight."

"Perhaps you should tell me what you're accustomed to." Severus' eyelids lowered, clouding his expression, and a trace of bitterness twisted his mouth. "If you expect submission. Or to be taken. Or for me to read your mind and guess what it is that you want, or if anything that humilates me will be enough."

"I expect to give and take. That is what would please me most." Remus did not even want to imagine what events in Severus' past had prompted the last comment, biting his lip as the other man nodded guardedly. "But what do *you* want?" In the silence that followed, when Remus could very nearly smell the urgency and fear that pulsed through Severus, he stroked his cheek and smiled bashfully at him. "Why don't you show me. Show me what you like."

Severus caught the hand on his face, put it on his chest and leaned up to kiss him again, putting his other hand on Remus' throat and stroking downward. While he returned the kiss, Remus stroked his thumb back and forth across Severus' skin, following the movements when Severus' hand swept below his own on his body and slid over to a nipple, brushing over it and then rolling it gently between two fingers. He gasped softly, feeling Severus twitch against his thigh, and heard the soft question, "Do you like that, or does it bother you?"

"Oh, they are very sensitive. But I like it." Severus' thumb moved in a circle, then straight across the hardening flesh, and Remus had to close his eyes as he gasped again, his own hands stilling for fear of scratching as his fingers curled in response to the delicious tension in his body. "Severus. Oh." He felt movement beneath him, Severus sliding downward, lowering his mouth to suck the nipple as Remus cried out softly and tangled his fingers in Severus' hair, trying to hold him there. "Oh -- oh, that feels... feels so good." He felt wiry chest hair, and a hand was rubbing his lower back, drifting over his buttocks and up. "Please, Severus, again. Your mouth...oh."

Somehow, from the vague request, Severus understood what he wanted, pushing him onto his side as he slid down and put his mouth just where Remus wanted it, bringing his hands around to stroke. Remus shuddered hard, trying to stifle a cry before remembering the vague disappointment when he had failed to show his enthusiasm for the chocolates in full voice. Then he wailed a little, clutching at a shoulder. "That -- so good, oh, *Severus*!"

Severus was licking and sucking as if Remus were candy, using his hands and nose and chin with enthusiasm that Remus would never have expected of him. He himself was moaning a great deal more loudly than he ever had while eating dessert or anything else, even the superb Muggle Belgian chocolate that Hermione Granger's parents had sent. The effort of not rushing Severus was making him shake, though apparently Severus could feel it, because he freed his mouth for a moment to murmur, "If you want something, tell me."

"Just...more. Ohhplease."

"Greedy, Lupin." Severus raised an eyebrow, and Remus swore he was smirking before he lowered his head again, taking Remus in deeper, stroking him faster, until he couldn't hold back anymore and surrendered his pleasure with a shout that would have been heard throughout the house without the silencing charm. He collapsed flat on the mattress, trying to catch his breath, as Severus lifted his head.

"Well? Do I taste like chocolate?" he asked to break the uncertain quiet.

"No," said Severus thoughtfully, touching a finger to his damp, swollen lower lip. "But I told you, most chocolates are too sweet for me." He crawled up when Remus tugged on his arm, a bit discomfited beneath the complacent smile. "And I'd no idea you would be so loud." Again Severus licked his mouth thoughtfully, while Remus blushed scarlet. "You present such a quiet face to the world. Most of the time." Leaning up to kiss him, Remus sucked at his lips and was amused when they parted for his tongue. "I suppose I'd always assumed that Black and Potter corrupted you."

"Oh, I'm afraid that's not entirely true." Remus slid a hand down his chest again, over his belly and lower, until Severus gave a soft distracted grunt. "I'm afraid I've always been somewhat..."

"Tell me later." It was Professor Snape's voice, the low dangerous order that would be dangerous to disobey, but his eyes were wild, and he was quickly, gratifyingly responsive when Remus moved down and made further conversation impossible. He would never have taken Severus to be a screamer, but perhaps it made sense that once his complicated defensive barriers were down, so were his restraints on expressing his enjoyment. It was delightful to know that, whatever Voldemort and the Death-Eaters and Lucius Malfoy had done to Severus Snape, they had not deprived him entirely of the capacity for pleasure...and to know that he, Remus Lupin, could give it to him so easily, now that Severus was letting him.

Afterward Remus held him, resting his forehead against the other wizard's shoulder. "Thank you," he told Severus quietly.

"No...thank you, Lupin." The cheekbone pressed against the side of his face warmed with a flush. "May I hope that you are content?"

"Oh, you shouldn't even have to ask! If it hadn't been for that charm of yours, everyone in this part of the city would know." Severus chuckled softly at this. "There is however one small matter troubling me, a blight on my happiness..."

The mattress lurched under him as Severus shifted to look at him. "What is it?"

Remus bit his lip. "I would like one more chocolate covered cherry."

With an amused snort, Severus leaned over the side of the bed for his wand and summoned the box of chocolates to them. Plucking out a cherry, he put it in Remus' mouth, then found a caramel for himself and pulled the candy in a long arc between his teeth and hand until it fell against his chin. Remus nibbled it off with a soft moan of pleasure.

"You are a very licentious eater," Professor Snape informed him. "You groan. You lick your fingers. I have watched you suck icing from a fork in a manner that was very nearly pornographic."

"How kind of you to notice," said Remus, blushing. "I like chocolate, Severus. I've gone through rather long periods of loneliness, but chocolate has always been there for me."

"Ah. That explains why you more than like chocolate. You make a fetish of it." With wide, innocent eyes, Remus looked at him and gasped, but Severus continued, "When was the last time you went an entire week without chocolate?"

"...I haven't," admitted Remus, blushing more.

"You have not at some point in your adult life gone an entire week without chocolate?"

"No. But I can stretch it out very well, having, say, one chocolate covered almond a day, after dinner..."

Severus rolled over to look directly at him, face pinched with what looked to the world like meanness but Remus now recognized as a sort of contained glee. "Do you believe you could give up chocolate for a week?"

"Yes, if I was given incentive."

"What would constitute 'incentive?'"

"Some...other kind of dessert."

"I see." Remus had never thought of Severus as a gambling man, but he did enjoy the rivalries of Quidditch and had always been quite competitive with his peers. Now his eyes held the flash of triumph of a man about to play a winning move at wizard's chess. "Would you rather go a week without chocolate or a week without..." Severus' eyes dropped to the mattress. Remus looked at him speculatively.

"Whichever I gave up...would I be guaranteed to have the other every day of that week?" When Severus stared at him impassively, he smiled brightly and attempted to clarify: "You'll stay with me, every night for a week, if I give up chocolate?"

"Must it always be at night? My schedule may make that impossible." Snape flicked his tongue between his teeth where Remus could see it, wiping chocolate from them, very nearly licking his lips. "But I do suppose that I could arrange to visit at other times."

"Oh, if you wanted to do it in the afternoon, or after breakfast, I certainly wouldn't object. When would you like to start, seeing as I've already had chocolate today?"

"What a disappointment. Of course, we've already..." He indicated the bed with an inclination of his chin. "I suppose that means I'll have to wait until tomorrow to offer to distract you."

"We could keep practicing in the meantime." Remus smiled sweetly.

"No, Lupin, that would be cheating. And then I would have to take more points from Gryffindor." Sighing, Remus had another chocolate, moaning aloud and letting his head fall back; unfortunately Severus watched this display impassively before he, too, fished around in the box for one of the sweets.

When they had finished, Remus lifted Severus' fingers and licked at them, though there was remarkably little melted chocolate anywhere on Severus even though neither of them had yet uttered a scourgifying spell. "Please tell me you can stay," he said.

"At Grimmauld Place? I had not planned to return to Hogwarts until tomorrow. It is essential that I speak to Moody." His expression was almost apologetic as he added, "I'm sure you recall that phial he asked you to deliver to me. I have analyzed the contents, but I have no context for understanding their purpose."

"What was in it? If you can talk about it, that is."

Severus hesitated, but then he moved closer to Lupin and spoke in a low, confidential tone. "I'm not entirely certain why the Aurors insist on secrecy even within the Order. If they fear a spy, I would imagine that I would be the first person they would suspect, but they continue to send me work. The ingredients in that phial were ancient -- mostly herbs and chemicals used by the Egyptians to mummify human remains."

The news sounded as though it might bear some link to the artifacts in the museum they had investigated, yet Remus could not immediately come up with a connection. "If the Death-Eaters are experimenting with ways to cheat death, preserve bodies or bring back the deceased..." he began, but the logic eluded him. The only thing that seemed clear was that Voldemort's interests, and his reach, evidently extended outside of Europe. "Have you asked Molly and Arthur? They took a family vacation to Egypt a few years back, didn't they?"

"No, I have not." The potions master frowned again. "And I am not certain that I should involve them. I will ask the headmaster in the morning."

Severus made a curious habit of calling Dumbledore "Headmaster," even when they were not at Hogwarts. It was oddly endearing, one of the few signs of unquestioned deference displayed by Professor Snape to anyone, and Remus smiled gently at it. "Then stay tonight," he repeated.

Once more wary, Severus looked at him. "Did you mean, stay here?"

"Yes. That is, if you want to."

His -- lover, thought Remus, he could call him that now -- gave him a shy glance as he touched his hand. "Will you...share your caramels?"

"Of course I will. They're yours, now. No chocolate for me, remember?"

"One can't be too certain with you, Lupin." The look on Severus' face had grown warmer, though he was blushing again. "I know what value you place upon chocolate."

Remus returned his smile wolfishly. "Given the choice, Severus...I would rather eat you."