Time Goes By

Chapter 4

Severus watched as Harry left, furious with himself; he should have reached out to the boy more... but honestly, he don't know how much longer he would be able to go without killing Remus, or Albus, or himself. He sighed. Damn you, Black, you're not even here, and you're still ruining my life.

He cleaned up the classroom and went to his stores to get a cauldron and ingredients that he would need; then, he cast locking and silencing spells around the room so that no one would be able to interfere with his work.

He worked in silence and marveled at the fact that his mind seemed to clear, his anger and resentment went away, and he could fully focus on the task at hand. Potion making had always had a claming effect on him, and it never ceased to amaze him just how much he needed to calm down. He sighed and thought, this is my true calling; I don't know how I'd survive without working closely with potions.

* * *

Once he finished the potion, he put it in a locked cabinet for safekeeping. He would give it to Lupin in three days time, on the night of the full moon.

He looked around the room. What would life be like if Sirius hadn't used you, Remy? I should have believed you when you said that nothing had happened; that it was Sirius being... well... Sirius. There was no use trying to figure this out; he yawned and went to bed.

* * *

Severus knocked on Remus's door three days later. No answer. He knocked again. Nothing. He sighed. "I'll just have to leave the potion on his desk."

He slowly opened the door. "Hello? Are you here, Lupin?" He sighed again. He went over to the desk and put the potion down, looking for a quill and parchment with which to leave a note; what he found, instead, completely astonished him.

"A pensieve? How, in the name of Merlin, could Lupin afford a pensieve?"

As he wondered about this, he saw the thing come to life; he took a step forward. "I shouldn't," he whispered, but his legs had other ideas; before he could stop himself, he was directly in front of the thing and looking into it.

He saw a young girl who looked about fourteen or fifteen.

"Lils?" he heard a very familiar voice call out.

"I'm over here, Sev," Lily answered.

"Hey, you wanted to see me?"

"I, um, need help with something,"

"Well, you've been a really good friend to me; whatever you need, I'm sure we can figure out a way to get it."

"Oh, this shouldn't be too much of a problem for you--you see, a friend of mine needs help in some of his classes to pass the year. One of those is Potions; do you think you could find it in your heart to help a friend of a friend?"

Severus was a bit confused; how would this be in Lupin's pensieve? Unless, of course, he got it from Lils.

"Only if it's not Potter or Black," said fifteen-year-old Sev.

"Oh, it's not, no worries! Actually, it's Remus."

"Lupin?"

"That's right."

"Well, that shouldn't be too much of a problem, then."

"Good!"

"Well, I've got to go; I need to owl Lucius about something."

"Okay, thanks again!" she called out as Severus ran off.

Just then, modern-day Severus saw a fifteen-year-old Remus Lupin walk out of the shadows.

"Wow, Lils, you are awesome!" he said.

"Thank you, Remy, thank you. Now it's time to activate faze-two of my plan," she said with a grin.

"Faze-two?" Remus asked cautiously.

"Yes, faze-two! I have it all figured out--no worries!"

"No worries? How could I bloody well not worry? What I signed up for did not include a faze-two!" he yelled.

"Calm down, Remy. It's foolproof, I assure you."

"Lily, do you remember what happened the last time you had a 'foolproof' plan?"

Lily laughed slightly. "Hey, you have to admit, James had it coming," she said.

"Yes, he did, but I, on the other hand, do not!"

"Chill out, we won't be doing anything illegal, against school rules, or in any way putting us in physical danger."

He looked at her in shock, "And you came up with this plan? What's the catch?"

That was going to be my next question, Severus thought with a smile on his face.

"Well, we'll be lying to the whole school and our friends," Lily said.

"Oh?"

"Well, what do you do when you like someone, but they barely know that you exist?"

"Make them know that you exist?"

"Exactly!" she exclaimed.

"I don't get it..."

"Jealousy! It's the root of human emotion! The way you get someone to notice you is to make them jealous!"

"Like... how?"

"You date someone else and shove in their face the fact that you're not available."

"Are you saying that we have to date?"

"No, I'm saying that we have to pretend to date."

"I don't know, Lils, this sounds really iffy in my opinion."

"Don't worry, Remy, we're not going to be hurting anyone, and this is your chance to see if he likes you," she said with an evil grin.

Remus sighed. "I guess."

"Great! I knew you wouldn't let me down!"

"Hey, Lils, before I agree to this, what's in it for you?"

Blushing, she said, "Oh, this is my chance to see if Siri likes me,"

Remus rolled his eyes and sighed.

Severus shook his head, "You were quite an idiot sometimes, Lils."

"Yes, that's true."

Severus turned around in shock. "How long have you been standing there, Lupin?"

"Long enough to be intrigued," Lupin said with a small smile.

"You pretended to date?" Severus asked.

Lupin nodded. "The only person we ever told was James, and that's only because he would have killed me otherwise."

Snape chuckled, "I remember. By the end of that day, the whole school was sympathising with you because first, James gave you a black eye, then - in front of the whole entire school--he made out with your ex-girlfriend of, like, two seconds."

Remus smiled softly. "Yeah, and most people didn't believe me when I said that I was happy for them."

Snape smiled and looked at Remus's chaotic desk. "You never could keep things organised; what is this?" he asked, and picked up a picture which had been knocked over.

"No, Sev, you don't want to look at that, really," Remus said nervously.

Snape gazed at the picture in shock. "You still have this? After all of these years?" Severus looked up with tears in his eyes. "So, nothing did happen that day with Black?"

"No, Sev nothing happened.