Into the Fold

LILY, LUPIN AND BLACK

May 1976

Lily Evans should have been a Slytherin. She proved it to Severus by staying on the Veritaserum project even after their row. She had the single-minded ambition to go for top marks in Potions even if it meant partnering with someone she loathed.

Severus knew she loathed him. He couldn't imagine otherwise after the way she'd received his attempted apology--an apology which meant much more to him now than when he'd made it at the beginning of the term.

He'd overtaken her in a quiet hallway as soon as he saw her alone. "Lily, about the other night--what I said--I'm sor--"

"Don't put yourself through it, all right? It won't make any difference."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If you really want to be Ruskin's little half-blood hanger-on or the doormat Lestrange wipes his feet on, right down to making their filthy opinions your own, then I don't want to spend any more time with you than I have to."

Her face was the same colour it had been when she'd caught him watching her collect moon-shifting mushrooms. "You don't mind spending time with me on the Potions project," he said acidly. "You don't mind using me and what I know."

"Oh? If you don't like it, why don't you find another partner?"

Severus stared. He hadn't expected her to say that. And he didn't want to lose the cleverest student, Slughorn's favourite, as his Potions partner.

"Right," said Lily. "You don't mind using me. You don't mind having the filthy Mudblood's help in Potions when her marks are better than yours. You lot are all the same. People like me are no better than the dirt under your feet until you want something from us. And once you've got it, we go right back to being something you want to scrape off the bottom of your shoe."

"No--not you--"

"But don't worry," Lily said over him. "After six years at Hogwarts, I've grown a thick skin. So we'll go on using each other. We'll finish the Veritaserum project together." She turned her back on him and stalked off.

Severus didn't say anything, didn't try to stop her leaving. He'd never again try to stop her leaving him. He'd learned at last that there was nothing he could say or do that would ever make any difference.

****

Now that Severus was no longer wasting his time longing for Lily Evans and trying to think of ways to persuade her to spend more time with him, he could devote more of his attention to the problem of Remus Lupin.

It couldn't have anything to do with Lupin's mother or with lycanthropy, he kept telling himself. Whether she was sick or well, Dark creature or human, Lupin wouldn't travel home to his mother by way of the Whomping Willow. True, in the dark of night under the full moon, while watching the strange procession of Madam Pomfrey and Remus Lupin, he had almost believed that Lupin--but no. If he believed that Lupin was a werewolf, he'd have to believe that Madam Pomfrey, Professor Dumbledore and all of Lupin's teachers were in on the secret. They'd have to see nothing wrong with letting a werewolf run loose in a school.

It was impossible. Wasn't it?

Impossible or no, it was maddening. A great deception was being carried out. The wool was being pulled over a lot of people's eyes. And why should it centre around Lupin, of all people? What was so important about him?

Severus decided simply to ask him.

It had to be done properly. He wasn't going to risk being caught at it by Lupin's friends. But Severus knew how to keep an eye on people. For years he'd watched Potter to avoid him and Lily to catch her alone. And so, it did not take long for him to find Lupin alone one afternoon, unsurrounded by Potter's gang, studying under the beech tree by the lake.

Severus came up behind him. "Lupin."

Lupin started and turned. "Severus. Hello." he said, looking warily into Severus's face.

Severus sat down beside him. Ordinarily, he would have remained standing, but he felt quite relaxed, really, with no Potter, Black or Pettigrew around. It seemed more natural to sit.

Lupin eyed him. Severus took his silence as a cue to plunge in. Lupin's friends weren't there at the moment, but they might appear at any time.

"Look," he said. "There's no point in beating about the bush. A week ago, I saw you in the school grounds after dark."

Lupin said nothing. But he did turn slightly paler.

"On the full moon. With Madam Pomfrey. Near the Whomping Willow."

The last of the colour in Lupin's face drained away. "What were you doing on the grounds after dark?" he asked quietly.

"My partner and I were collecting moon-shifting mushrooms for our Potions project. With Professor Slughorn's permission."

"Lily--?" Lupin's voice caught.

"Oh, don't worry. She wasn't with me when I saw you. She still thinks you were at home, tending to your sick mother." An inspiration struck Severus. "She was back at the castle by then, starting work on the...Veritaserum."

Lupin stared. His lips quivered for a moment, until he tightened them into a thin line.

"So," said Severus, "what were you and Madam Pomfrey doing at the Whomping Willow?" When Lupin, frozen-faced, didn't answer, he asked, "What are you so afraid of? You were there with the matron. How bad could it be?"

The mention of Madam Pomfrey, who should have been Lupin's ticket to respectability, seemed to frighten him more than ever. "It's-none-of-your-business!" he whispered harshly.

It couldn't be...but why, when he'd been with Madam Pomfrey, was Lupin afraid? "Unless Dumbledore--?" said Severus slowly.

Lupin leapt to his feet. "I said, it's none of your business, so keep your great greasy nose out of it! Leave me alone!" He snapped his book shut and strode off almost at a run, leaving Severus alone to finish his question:

"Unless Dumbledore doesn't know?"

****

Severus was on fire. Leaving the beech tree, his head in a whirl, his limbs feeling charged, he strode along the lake. There was still something going on here, the revelation of which must--by the way Lupin was acting, surely must--get Lupin and his friends into trouble. But Severus had nowhere else to turn to find out what it was. Even though she was Lupin's friend, even though she had disapproved of Severus's curiosity before, Severus might have tried turning to Lily to help him find out what Lupin was up to.

If, he thought with an uncomfortable twinge, he and Lily weren't the closest thing to enemies.

Dropping that thought, he flitted to the next. It couldn't be that Dumbledore didn't know. But then, why were Lupin and Madam Pomfrey skulking around the grounds after dark, well away from the castle, near a willow that the rest of the school feared? Why had Madam Pomfrey felt the need to Disillusion Lupin and herself, when she didn't seem to suspect Severus was there and no one else was in sight?

But it couldn't be that Dumbledore didn't know. And it couldn't be that the headmaster of Hogwarts was concealing a werewolf at the school. Whatever Lupin was up to had some other connection to the full moon. Or maybe his disappearances at that phase were coincidental?

That was absurdly convoluted. But the simpler reason was incredible, impossible....

Homework, project, even supper forgotten, the sun was sinking toward the horizon before Severus was back inside the school, wandering deserted corridors with his hands thrust in his pockets, still sunk in thought.

****

"Expelliarmus!"

The spell yanked Severus's wand from his pocket. He whirled, grasping for it, but, brushing the tips of his fingers, it eluded him. It arched through the air and into the hand of Sirius Black.

Things weren't as dire as they might have been. Black was alone. And though the corridor they were in was deserted, the hallway that crossed it at its opposite end wasn't: the sound of students talking and laughing floated from the hallway into the corridor.

Severus opened his mouth to yell for help. Black flicked his wand, and Severus's tongue, jerking to the roof of his mouth, stuck to his palate as if glued. He could utter nothing but inarticulate grunts. Black grinned, waved his wand again and as if pushed by an invisible giant's hand, Severus stumbled around a corner into a cul-de-sac off the corridor. A third movement of Black's wand hand threw a door open at the end of the cul-de-sac, and the invisible hand shoved Severus through it into a small classroom that, with desks, boxes and empty bookcases lining the walls, looked as though it was being used as a storeroom.

Severus turned to run back out if he could, to grapple with the hand if he must, but Black darted into the classroom, shut and locked the door and traced a spell around the jamb. Then he turned, folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the door jamb with a mocking smile on his face.

Severus balled his fists and grunted in frustrated rage. Without taking the trouble to unfold his arms, Black gave another flick of his wand. "You can yell now. I put an Imperturbable Charm on the door. Nobody'll hear you."

Severus's tongue was loosed. "Langlock!" he spat. "I invented it! It's mine!"

For a moment, Black look surprised. Then he began to laugh.

Severus's knuckles were white, he was clenching his hands so hard. How he longed to put those hands around Black's neck and squeeze. But he hadn't lost sight of the wand Black was twirling between his fingers.

"Where did you get it?" demanded Severus.

"You and your precious curses!" Black spluttered with laughter. "You're such a show-off, Snape. Why do you think your spells are all over the school? I'll tell you why: it's because your magic tricks are the only way you have of proving you're anything more than a shitty little half-blood, as my cousins and my dear brother would put it. I got this one--" he straightened, raised his wand and glued Severus's tongue to the roof of his mouth again "--and this one--" he upended Severus with Levicorpus "--off Reggie."

Hanging in midair, clutching his robes around his midsection, Severus remembered teaching those spells to a common room full of admiring Slytherins, Regulus Black among them. But Regulus hated his brother. He'd never have given those spells to Sirius.

"Stole them, you'd say," said Black. "But Reg is a show-off too. Couldn't wait to try out his new gags on me."

After hearing the incantations, seeing the wandwork and feeling the effects a few times, Sirius Black was clever enough to have learned the spells. And to have taught them to Potter.

So it hadn't been Severus's fault that he'd lost his spells to Potter's gang, it wasn't because he'd yelled the incantations, it wasn't only the blood rushing to his head that made it pound, but rage at Black (did it matter which one?) who'd stolen from him, rage at everyone who stole from people who were better than they were in every way but blood and then mocked them for being victims yet again.

Liberacorpus--another of Severus's spells--coursed through his body and dropped him to the floor with a thud. His tongue popped loose from his palate. With a cry of anger, he leapt to his feet and lunged for Black. He skidded to a stop inches from the wand Black pointed at his chest.

"Missing something, aren't we?" said Black, patting the pocket in which he'd placed Severus's wand.

Severus stared at his wand. Almost of themselves, his hands reached for it.

Black's wand jabbed him in the chest. "What do you say, Snivelly? Think you can grab it before I tie those sticky fingers of yours into knots?"

"Give it to me!"

The wand jabbed harder. "Back off!" snarled Black. Reluctantly, his hands itching in no particular order for his wand and Black's throat, Severus stepped back.

"That's better," said Black. "Now we can talk about why you stalked Remus and Madam Pomfrey to the Whomping Willow."

So that was it: Lupin had lost no time in telling the tale to his friend. Black's eyes were smouldering the way they'd smouldered when he'd returned from the Christmas holiday with curse-wounds on his face. Severus was close to whatever it was Lupin and his friends were hiding. Very close. He just knew it. "What was he doing there, then? And what's it to you and Potter and Pettigrew? Why do you care? What's wrong with him, anyway?"

"There's nothing wrong with Remus. It's you that's got something wrong." Black raised his wand from Severus's chest to Severus's face. "Or will, if you don't lay off. You'll have Remus's friends to answer to if we hear so much as a whisper that you're still harassing him. Your life will be a lot easier once you figure out that what Remus does is his business, not yours."

Black turned to leave, reaching the door with Severus's wand still in his pocket. He lifted his hand to the knob.

"I hope whatever Lupin's up to is harmless," said Severus, as much to stop him as anything else. "That there's no good reason to hide it, that, if it were found out, it wouldn't get him or any of his friends expelled. Because I am going to find out where Lupin goes every month. One more full moon, you know," he added casually, remembering how Lupin had reacted, "and the Veritaserum'll be ready."

Black went still. He stayed still for several seconds. Then, releasing the doorknob, he turned. The smouldering in his eyes had become volcanic. But the corners of his mouth curved upward in the appearance of a smile.

"Do you want to find out where Remus goes every month? Do you want to follow him, find out what he does?"

Severus didn't answer. Was it a trick? Or had he cornered Black at last?

"Oh, yeah. You want it." Black's smile showed teeth. "Here's what you do, then. You ever see that knot at the bottom of the Whomping Willow's trunk? You take a long stick, long enough so you can stay out of the branches' range, and you poke that knot. The tree limbs'll stop waving and the knot opens up into an underground passage. That's where Remus Lupin goes every month on the night of the full moon. You do what I say, and you can follow him."

Still smiling strangely, Black pulled Severus's wand from his pocket and tossed it at him. Then he turned his back--arrogantly, as if he dared Severus to hex him--opened the door and left.