To Cap It All

The heels of his shoes clicked along the corridor and his robe billowed in his wake, almost giving him the appearance of an avenging angel. Almost, on account of the black locks that were plastered flat to his head and the cruel smile that graced his lips. Once back in his office, he sat on the corner of his desk and examined the trophy in his hand. Powers of confiscation were wonderful things which he regularly took full advantage of. But his slightly twisted happiness was spoiled by a knock on the door preceeding professor Lupin's entrance.

"Afternoon Severus," he began, Snape neglected to acknowledge the 'man'. "The, er, thing that you took from Harry. He needs it back."

"I'm sure he does, Lupin."

The reply was curt and could barely be classed as a response. Snape, after all, was not known for his verbosity.

"Oh come on, Severus, you know the boy didn't mean any harm by it and he was only showing it to his friends."

Snape's brow creased as his look darkened. When had Potter ever done anything that wasn't an attack against him, the boy's elder and better?

"The fact that you know it is a gift for you has nothing at all to do with your interest in seeing it returned I expect."

Snape took pleasure in knowing that this posed a major flaw, even if only for a moment, in Lupin's argument though he was quite adept at hiding. Practise makes perfect but Snape had much experience in spotting his triumphs, rarity denotes necessity.

"Severus, please just return it. Put him in detention or somethng if you must but..."

"Oh, I shall be doing that regardless."

Lupin struggled not to let his eyes roll back in their sockets.

"Let's not have to take this higher; that'd make us both look childish."

"On the contrary, if your reasoning will follow as I expect then the only person looking childish would be yourself." Lupin's intake of breath to speak was cut short as the Potion Master continued, "Let me see, how would it go? Oh yes, 'Please sir, Severus has taken my birthday present and I really, really want it because its from the amazing Harry Potter and I knew his dad.' Is that how it goes, Lupin?"

"Severus..."

"Oh you can have the silly thing, it's hardly of any interest to me. But both you and I know Potter will get his just desserts eventually and it won't be over such a trifling piece of garbage."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Severus."

Lupin's final words irritated him, but Snape was in no mood to draw him into a lengthy conversation. Instead, he tossed the box to Lupin and turned his back on his colleague, relishing in the fact that he could do so. The sound of the door closing seemed to please the professor and a smirk spread across his face. His left fist was clenched tight as he leaned on the desk but as he rocked back he opened out his hand. On his palm lay the little stone with the moon engraved onto it. He wondered what Lupin would think when he opened the present and discovered, of all the things Harry could have given him, a chain of silver and a carefully engraved bullet as its crowning glory.

FIN