Like Father, Like Son

Seventeenth Chapter

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Surprises and Spying

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"You must be kidding." Remy stared at his Head of House, not believing what he'd just heard, no matter that he knew Remus would never joke about such a topic.

"No, I'm not," the werewolf professor replied calmly. "The fifth-year Ravenclaw boy Prefect has got one detention too much for him to continue in his position. Therefore, we need a new Prefect. And even though you have undeniably had a detention, you're on top of your class in every subject, although you tie with Hermione in some of them. You're the best choice for a Prefect."

"Just wait until my parents hear of this," Remy said, flashing a grin as he fastened the offered badge onto his school robes. "They'll maybe even forgive me for some of my stunts!" Before, he would have been happy for becoming a Prefect because it made him something else than just the Boy Who Lived. Now, however, he also was happy because he knew that his parents would be proud. It was an odd feeling, knowing that you had pleased your parents by your actions or achievements -- but it certainly wasn't unpleasant.

"Then you should go to tell them, eh?" Remus suggested, raising an eyebrow. "You were looking for Hermione and Samantha, I take it? Well, when I see the girls, I'll tell them to come down to the dungeons to search you, okay?"

"Thank you," Remy replied, giving Remus one of his rare smiles. True, he smirked often, and whenever his Marauder side got in charge, even grinned. However, his smiles were still rare, and anybody getting one should have been honoured.

Still a broad smile graced his lips as he hurried towards the dungeons, not quite running but certainly not only walking, either.

"Father? Dad?" he called as soon as he'd come to his parents' quarters -- he hadn't bothered to knock, if they had wanted to keep him inside, they would have locked the door. As he'd got in with merely the password, they surely wouldn't mind him coming further into their shared rooms. He spent most of his time there, anyway.

To his great confusion, however, he didn't find his parents in the living room, their studies, or anywhere else. If they hadn't been present, the door would have been locked. At last, he turned to the bedroom door, figuring that if they were up to some inappropriate actions they would have locked the door. As he opened the room, however, he immediately regretted doing that.

Oh, yes, he did see his parents. In fact, he saw far too much. Far too much skin, to be exact. And too few clothes.

The thing was, his parents were in their bed. Both of them. And they were just engaging in something that no child should see their parents doing.

The sight of two naked bodies moving rhythmically together in a sensual dance was almost enough to make him sick. The glint of light on cool metal certainly disgusted him. But what finally did it was a long, shuddering groan, and then the harsh words, "Merlin, Severus, harder..."

"Don't call me that, you slut," came a venomous hiss in response. "Didn't I tell you not to call me that?" A hand slapped viciously on the pale skin. Remy turned green.

"Yes, you did tell me that... Master..."

At that point, Remy's feet, which had been almost rooted to the floor, took to action on their own. Turning around, he banged the door shut, not caring if the men noticed that he'd been watching or not.

*

Hermione and Samantha stood behind the door to the two Professor Snapes' quarters, unsure about whether to enter. They were almost sure that Remy was inside already, but only almost. And they didn't want to be there without their friend, no matter how civil both Sirius and Severus had recently been.

Just as they'd collected enough courage to at least try entering, however, the door was banged open and Remy exited the quarters. The girls started to greet him, but then froze mid-sentence as they noticed that they would not be heard, or at least they wouldn't be understood.

Remy didn't seem to pay any attention to what they were saying. Instead, his hands were waving around frantically, and he was sputtering words and sentences that didn't make any sense. Most of it sounded like pure pig-latin anyway.

"Remy?" asked Samantha, confused. What on earth could have shocked her usually so collected boyfriend like this? What on Earth had happened?

"I think he's gone into hysterics," Hermione said, calmly observing her best friend. "I wonder what has happened. He's a Snape, he shouldn't be this easily shocked."

"Well, let's find out, shall we?" Samantha said then, winking at her. Then she stepped forward, pulled Remy a bit lower by janking the front of his robes, and slapped him on the cheek. "Back to your senses, you git," she muttered.

Truly, Remy stopped his incoherent babble. Instead, he stared at his girlfriend, his ice-blue eyes full of horror. "I'll never recover from this experience," he whispered.

"What? What happened?" demanded Samantha. "You look like you had seen something utterly horrible. Had your parents been murdered, or what?"

"No, not that," Remy replied weakly. "But I have a firm suspicion that they will murder me once they've recovered from their own shock."

"Oh shit..." Hermione's eyes widened. "You didn't walk in on them, did you?"

The boy just nodded mutely. Both girls gagged in disgust. "Aww, my poor dear," Samantha sighed. "That must have been so horrible to you."

"That's not even the worst thing," Remy said quietly. His voice still sounded shaky.

"Oh?" Hermione raised her eyebrows. "What could be worse than that?"

The young wizard swallowed. Then he said, very slowly, "...Father was using the handcuffs I gave to him at Christmas." At this, both girls turned rather greenish.

Just then, the door to the dungeon quarters was opened. Remy jumped in shock, then tried in vain to hide behind Samantha's much smaller form as he saw his carrier looking from the doorway. Sirius thankfully had some clothes on him, trousers and a T-shirt to be exact, and his cheeks were flushed. Whether it was in embarrassment or something entirely else, the youngs did not want to even guess.

"Erm... Remy?" he asked hesitantly. "Look, we're really sorry. I don't know how we managed to forget the locking charms, but I swear!"

"Do not remind me of it!" the boy whined. "Just promise that it will never, ever happen again! Or better even, just simply Obliviate me!"

"Better not trust your mind into his hands," a voice much more collected than either Remy's or Sirius's said from behind the Grim Animagus. "He's known of screwing with things before. Now, come inside, you all, we'll deal with this matter here, and not in the corridor where everybody can hear us."

Truly, mere moments later, Severus had the whole group sitting in the living room of his and Sirius's shared quarters. They were all sipping on some calming herb tea -- Remy had already had three cups -- and only the Potions Master seemed somehow calm. Well, he was the purest Snape there was -- Remy's blood, although pure enough to keep him calm in most situations, was so "tainted" with Sirius's blood that he'd almost panicked. The Gryffindor himself was still blushing heavily, carefully avoiding looking anybody in the eye, or even to the general direction of his son.

"I don't know how I'll never live that down," Remy muttered while he poured himself a fourth cup of the tea, his hands shaking quite considerably. "You're grown men, you should know how to use locking charms! And -- those handcuffs --" He shuddered.

Severus merely raised an eyebrow. "Well, you should not give a present if you don't want the recipient to use it," he said, his own Snapish mask firmly on place.

"If I recall right, it wasn't you using the handcuffs," Remy said, fighting to keep the blush from his face. "Instead, it was Dad, unless I need glasses again!"

Samantha groaned and covered her ears with her hands. "Please, Remy," she whined, "I have mental images bad enough as it is. Do not give any more details!"

"Have pity on the poor girl," Sirius sighed, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling. His cheeks were still more than slightly flushed, though. "And on us all."

"Very well." Severus rose from the chair and walked to the small cupboard on the nearby wall. The others watched curiously as he took out a small, clear bottle full of greenish liquid. Turning back, Severus suddenly snapped, "Hermione! What's this?"

"It's the Samarian Solution," replied the young witch quickly as her ready mind recognized the potion. "It's made of --"

"Enough!" The Potions Master held his hand up. "Remy, what's it made of?"

"Powdered Vendairoot, bat wings, newt tails, unicorn's water, crushed Saturnaloniac and elephant's toenails," his son answered. "It has to be brewed under the light of a new moon, on Saturday."

"Excellent. Now, Samantha, what does it do?" Severus asked from the last teen.

He hadn't really expected an answer -- Samarian Solution wasn't taught until the end of the fourth year -- but he indeed got one. "It -- wipes the drinker's all memories of the last hour," the tiny girl said. She sounded a bit unsure, yes, but was right.

"Five points to Ravenclaw for each of you. And now -- let's have a drink, shall we?"

*

"My loyal Death Eatersss," Voldemort hissed, eyeing the black-clad men in front of him, secretly enjoying their fear. Well, not even so secretly. "Do any of you have anything of importance to report to me?" he demanded. One form stepped forward, shivering ever so slightly. Voldemort locked his flaring red eyes at the man, immediately recognizing the familiar turmoil of his thoughts. "Ssspeak up, Percy."

"My lord," the Death Eater started, his voice wavering but clearly different from what it had used to be, "I've gained a way to get nearer to the traitor and his family."

"Really?" The Dark Lord raised an eyebrow curiously. "What is it? And why do you sound different from before?" he added then with a slightly dangerous tone.

"The way my voice has changed is just a part of the way," announced his servant. "It seems that I never was a Weasley to begin with. Instead, I was adopted -- my biological parents being Remus Lupin and James Potter." After a moment of pregnant silence, the man continued, "My name is now Harry Potter, my Lord. I'm a family friend to Snapes, they'd never suspect me of anything."

"And how," Voldemort drawled, "how can I be sure that you are still loyal to me? After all, if you fathers were both Gryffindors," he said the word with a tone of disgust, "wouldn't you want to disengage yourself from anything... Dark?"

"My Lord, they've lied to me all this time," the no-more-Weasley replied steadily. "It doesn't matter if Lupin is my biological father, he doesn't deserve the name of one, at first giving me up and now trying to tear me from the home where I grew up. Those Gryffindors abandoned me as soon as I was born, they never did anything for me. They do not deserve my loyalty."

"Well, isn't that just great," Voldemort mused. "So I now have Harry Potter in my ranks." He let his mind again examine the young wizard's. All he could find was loyalty to himself, and hatred towards his lying parents, the adoptive ones just as well as the biological ones. "Tell me, can you get near to the Snapes?" he asked.

"Not enough to harm them, I'm afraid, my Lord," sighed Harry. "Dumbledore is protecting them with heavy wards, and the traitor as well as his husband and son are beyond my reach. However," he added then, "it should not be hard for me to tempt some information from my father. He's a good friend to the Snapes, I might find out something useful."

"Very well." After a moment of thinking, Voldemort said, "You have pleased me greatly, Percy -- oh, forgive me, Harry. Do your best to find out something about the Snapes -- and be ready to strike," he added then.

The man bowed deep. "I will, my Lord," he promised, then stepped back to his place in the row.

*

"Well, how did it go?" asked Remus quietly, eyeing his son carefully. "He didn't torture you, did he?" he then continued probing, now rather worried.

"Nope," Harry replied to his great relief. And yet another difference from Percy could be seen -- or, rather, heard. Percy'd never used the word "nope". "Seemingly he swallowed the whole story our dear cunning Snapes cooked up." He nodded in acknowledgement at the small family, who was also gathered into the room, along with Hermione and Samantha. The tiny girl had been let into more information about spies and Voldemort, although not before Severus had interrogated her with Veritaserum. They could not risk losing yet another spy, especially as this time it could have meant the spy's death. And you could never be too careful.

"Well, that's a relief," Severus said dryly. "Now we'll only have to work out how much information you can pass to him without being accused of not doing your job and without revealing anything really important. That shouldn't be too hard, though -- I managed to survive that game for several years."

"Although not without several touch-and-go situations," commented Sirius with a low grumble and a meaningful glance at his husband's direction.

"Oh, shut up, Sirius," sighed the Slytherin. "I did return alive every time, now didn't I? So what the bloody hell are you complaining about?"

"Severus, mind your language," Remus said with a frown. "There are young ones present, don't you forget that."

"Stuff it, Moony," Sirius said carefreely. "It's not like we could say anything they haven't heard before -- in fact, I'm quite sure that they all, or at least Remy here, know more swear words than I do." Fixing them a stern gaze at his husband, he continued, "You might have returned alive every time, Severus, but it really wasn't by far at some of those times. I still remember --"

"Enough of these oh-so-encouraging comments," Harry interrupted. To everyone's surprise, Sirius indeed did shut up -- well, Harry did have a point, after all. The young man eyed his father and his father's friends. Well, they were his family in the end, too -- after all, Severus was in essence his uncle, having originally been the brother of his dead father. "Now," he said, "let's discuss this spying thing some more. I'm still new in this, and I'm sure you could give me a few pointers, Severus."

"What, James's son taking any advices from me?" Severus raised an eyebrow, amused. "Well, I surely cannot let an opportunity like this pass without trying to plant at least some twisted Slytherin ideas into your poor, innocent, uncorrupted mind."

"A son of two Marauders, innocent?" Remy asked with a smirk. "You must be kidding, Father -- just see how I turned out!"

"Right," muttered Remus. "Maybe I should have been more careful with saying your name aloud, Harry. As nice as it is having my son finally with me, I'm already fearing what will happen once you and Remy can affect each other for a longer time..."

At this, they all laughed. Some of the laughter, however, was very nervous.

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