Snape In Love: Chasing Darkness Away

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Thanks for your patience. I know I normally try to update once a week, but I have been a little distracted lately and unable to devote any time to editing. I do hope you enjoy this chapter which is told from Remus Lupin's point of view.

Chapter11

Medication

The house elves had been only too eager to supply a comprehensive selection of savouries for their picnic luncheon, and Severus and Ella had made valiant attempts to do justice to their efforts. As a result, while Persephone gurgled and kicked beside them, Ella sat back against the gnarled trunk of the tree and groaned as Severus flopped down beside her and laid his head on her lap.

"Oof! Oh, not there! Move down a bit!"

"Well, excuse me!" he countered dryly, shifting down to rest his head further along her thigh and lifting a caustic eyebrow.

"I am so full! Why on earth do they always give us so much food?"

"It's their raison d'etre. They live to serve."

"Don't let Hermione hear you say that!"

"Not saying it wouldn't make it any less true. And perhaps they feel the need to prepare for every possible eventuality," he continued sardonically, lifting his head slightly to look across towards the rose walk, "Such as ravening werewolves on the loose...Good afternoon, Lupin! How delightful! Come scavenging, have we?"

"Hello Severus! Ella! Lovely day, isn't it?"

"We were enjoying it, yes..." Severus replied, settling back down into the indolent comfort of his wife's lap and closing his eyes.

"Mmm, that looks good!"

"Sit down, Remus, have some lunch!"

"Thanks, Ella, but I've just eaten lunch...well, maybe just a quick bite, it seems a shame not to."

Remus sat down beside Persephone and tickled her tummy before rummaging happily in the picnic basket.

"And where might Hermione be? Are we to be graced with her company, too?" rumbled Severus without opening his eyes.

"Nope, not today. She's just headed off to see Filius, armed with the latest issue of "Which Charm?" There's an article in it she wants to discuss, told me not to expect her before dinner."

Severus snorted derisively and smirked,

"Poor Flitwick. Ah well, his loss is our gain."

"Severus!"

"Oh, it's okay, Ella," said Lupin dismissively, helping himself to several sandwiches and a scotch egg that Ella had compared with incredulity to the size of a bludger. "I'm more than used to it by now."

"Since you seem determined to outstay your welcome, Lupin, perhaps you would like to regale Ella with the story of how you and Black found me near the Shrieking Shack that night and brought me back to the school...I was insensate at the time, and so I assume your recollection might be a shade more reliable than mine?"

"Hah! Well, since you ask so nicely..."

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Remus Lupin was ravenous again. He looked forward to mealtimes with immense eagerness and never more so than since his return to Hogwarts, for there he was guaranteed a repleteness that would last for up to three hours, at least three times a day. Years spent living from hand to mouth had accustomed his wiry frame to enjoying sustenance that was merely adequate for his needs, but the cornucopia that was the Hogwarts kitchen was a treat that went far beyond the mere satisfying of a physiological imperative, and he was of the opinion that to enjoy each meal to its fullest was the highest compliment he could pay to the ever-diligent house elves who prepared it.

However, his metabolism demanded not only regular meals but also regular work-outs, and so he had

taken to exercising two or three times a week in order to work off some excess energy and assure him of a restful night's sleep. He had had a particular female student much on his mind of late, and lying awake in the small hours, when all was quiet and thoughts of her had an unsettling tendency to fill his mind, was a very guilty pleasure that he felt more comfortable trying not to indulge.

Thus it was that on the evening of Snape's return he had chosen to run to Hogsmeade before dinner, visit Honeyduke's and have a quick butterbeer in the Hog's Head, and then return to the school via the Shrieking Shack in order to assure himself that all was secure there. On his arrival everything had been quiet, but as he looked back towards the school from a dirty casement window on the first floor of the dilapidated shack, he had seen movement. A dark shape was descending the steep, rocky slope, and his hackles rose as he pressed his nose against the glass, frustrated that he could not catch its scent. Experience told him that the interloper had surely not been paying a social call, and he watched suspiciously as the dark figure stumbled away. As it turned its head to the west, however, the pink and orange rays of the setting sun illuminated its face, and despite the consequent absence of its usual pallor, Lupin recognised immediately that it was, in fact, Snape. There was obviously something badly wrong, however, as his movements had none of their usual graceful economy.

Lupin turned and ran to the door, scooting down the stairs and out through the battered and splintered front door which creaked loudly on its hinges as he slammed it shut behind him.

"Severus! Is that you?" he called after Snape's retreating back.

"Lupin. The very man," came a familiar, sneering retort. Snape couldn't be too badly hurt, then.

"You're back!" he said happily, knowing how delighted everyone would be, Ella in particular.

"So it would seem, yes. Your powers of observation are unparalleled."

"You've been gone for weeks!"

"Look, Lupin, is there a point to this conversation or can I just tell you to bugger off now?"

"Glad to be back?" replied Lupin, making a point of refusing to take offence and loping up to Snape. "Good grief, what happened to you? You're as white as a sheet!"

"I need to get back to Hogwarts. Is Ella there?"

"Of course! She'll be so glad to see you!"

"Somehow, I doubt that very much."

"No, really, she's practically lived in that pensieve since she got back. She says she understands why you sent her away now."

"All those wasted months, all for nothing. It all sours and spoils in the end. It's all rotten, everything he touches is rotten."

Snape was muttering to himself distractedly, as if Lupin was not even there, and clutched convulsively at the arm that bore the Dark Mark.

"Severus, are you alright?"

Snape raised pain filled eyes to meet Lupin's anxious gaze. Recognition flitted across his face and he took a deep, shuddering breath as he struggled to reply.

"No, Lupin, I'm far from alright. Help me get back to Hogwarts, I need - aah!"

He had doubled over in agony, and sat heavily on the stony ground, his legs shaking uncontrollably.

"What's happened to you?"

"Dark magic of the worst kind. I'm dying, man! Now are you going to help me or do I have to die here like an abandoned dog?"

Lupin looked down at him, aghast. Strong as he was, he did not relish the prospect of manhandling a man much taller than he, and with a far less equable temper, all the way back to the school. And Mobilicorpus was out of the question. He did not dare use magic when it appeared that Snape had just been subjected to Voldemort's most terrible curses.

"I'll get Sirius," he decided, fumbling under his fleece top for a small golden whistle on a leather cord. It would need the two of them to return Snape safely to the castle, and even then it would be a struggle.

"Oh, great!"

"Beggars can't be choosers, Snape!" he retorted sharply, concern now putting a rein on his patience. He put the whistle to his lips and blew, for several seconds. He knew that while neither he nor Snape would be able to hear the sound, Sirius would, transformed or not.

"A dog whistle!" said Snape highly amused and laughing derisively. "And you wear it round your neck! Oh, I've seen it all now!"

"I reckon you ought to just think yourself lucky I have it!"

"Lucky? Me, lucky? Oh, yes, I am the luckiest wizard alive, aren't I? Although that's about to change! I am so lucky that I've spent a lifetime alone, only to find a woman who seems, for some inexplicable reason, to not be repulsed by me and then I find myself in my final death throes before I've even had a chance to give her a bloody good fu - Aargh!"

His tirade ended as spasms wracked his spare frame, and his eyes rolled back in his head for a few moments as he passed out. Lupin caught him before he cracked his head on the rocky, uneven ground, and cradled him in his arms, half sitting, waiting for Sirius to come.

A few minutes later he made out a small black shape hurtling towards him across the fields. When at last the dog had reached them Sirius transformed back to himself, and said,

"Oh, so he's back again, then, is he? What's the matter with him?"

Grimly, Lupin told Black all that he knew, which was not much, and between the two of them they hoisted Snape up so that one of his arms was slung over each of their shoulders. The movement brought Snape back to his senses, and after another groan as he realised once more who his rescuers were, he leaned on them and with their help made good progress to the bottom of the slope. As they crossed the fields Black fired questions at Snape about his mission and about the poison Voldemort had used on him, and Snape answered in as much detail as he could, knowing that the information he imparted would probably be beyond his capacity to give by the time they reached Hogwarts. He had passed out twice more by the time they had made their way up to the great oak doors, and they had to drag him up the steps bodily. Panting with exertion now and supporting a dead weight between them, they hitched Snape up one last time and crossed the Entrance Hall to the Great Hall, where they swung open the double doors with a crash.

The attention of the entire school turned on them as if the students and staff alike were of one body. Lupin, exhausted and frightened beyond belief for the life of his colleague and, he hoped, friend, felt as if time stopped for a moment, and the air was heavy with the expectation of how the next scenes would play out. A stifled cry and the clattering of a chair as it fell to the floor broke the silence, and a great swell of sound rose from the Hall as students from all Houses craned their necks to see what terrible accident had befallen their fearsome Potions master.

Ella was at Snape's side within seconds, heedless of the stares and the surprise her reaction caused. She fell to her knees along with him as Lupin and Black relinquished him to her tender embrace, and she cradled his head, crying,

"Oh, Severus, my love, what's happened to you?"

Filled with relief that at least Snape had survived long enough to realise his dying wish, Lupin reached for Snape once more as Madam Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore rushed up to them.

"We must take him to the hospital wing at once!" ordered Madam Pomfrey, and he and Sirius lifted Snape as Dumbledore drew Ella from him gently.

"Come on my dear, we must let Poppy do her work. I fear he has been the victim of some powerful dark magic," he said gravely, pointing at the Dark Mark, which was clearly visible through Snape's torn robes. Lupin had been uncomfortably aware of its glacial potency as he had carried Snape home, and he looked more closely at it now that they were indoors and it was illuminated by the plentiful wall sconces. The mark was inky black, and a livid purple bruise was spreading out from its centre, covering a large area of Snape's left arm.

"What is that?" he head Ella ask, horrified.

"I don't know," admitted Dumbledore worriedly, "but it is sure to be Voldemort's work."

They carried Snape directly to the hospital wing, his head lolling on his chest, arms draped slackly over their shoulders. Once they had laid Snape's insensible form on the nearest bed, they stood back in order that Ella could embrace him once more.

"Severus, can you hear me?" she pleaded, resting a tender hand on his shoulder while the other caressed his face restlessly, stroking his hair back and cupping his face while her thumb stroked his cheek.

"Ella..." he moaned softly, and opened his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Shh, it's okay, I understand. You're here now, you're safe, and that's all that matters."

"No, not safe...dying..." he whispered, and drifted into unconsciousness again. Ella looked up at Madam Pomfrey in horror, and she blanched, ripping off his tattered robes to reveal that the lividity around the Dark Mark was spreading further, until it would soon cover his arm completely. Lupin was stricken at the sight of it, and his heart wept when he saw Ella's face crumple in horrified disbelief.

Dumbledore turned to him then and said urgently,

"Go to my office. Inform the Ministry. Tell them to get the best people from St Mungo's here now. Sirius, go to the Potions classroom, see what Severus has locked away. Poppy, check your pharmacy, please. Time, I fear, will be of the essence."

After all their errands had been completed, Lupin and Black met with the Headmaster to apprise him fully of everything Snape had been able to tell them about the circumstances surrounding his poisoning, and the constituent parts of the brew. Dumbledore's reaction did nothing to assuage their fears, but they agreed nevertheless, in an unspoken accord, to pore over what tomes the library held in relation to creeping death potions and their possible counter agents, and not to sleep while the Potions master still breathed.

All their best efforts appeared to be in vain, however, for while the many possible antidotes and counter-curses seemed to slow down the spread of the lividity, still its progress across Snape's chest was inexorable.

Ella refused to leave his side, curling her body into his and murmuring to him ceaselessly of her love, and although Snape showed no sign now of knowing she was there, Lupin held on to the belief that he knew, now, how well he was loved, and that he would meet Death as a man more at peace than ever before. For it seemed certain that Death would indeed take him, and Dumbledore had informed Ella of the same that very hour. Exhausted and close to tears of frustration, still Lupin pored over arcane texts and searched dusty shelves deep into the night, until he had fallen asleep with a pile of ancient manuscripts as a pillow.

The next he knew, he was being shaken rudely awake by an agitated house elf.

"Mucky is sorry to disturb Mister Professor Lupin, sir, but Mucky has a very important message, sir!"

"Wha'? What is it, Mucky?"

"Mister Headmaster Professor Dumbledore says that Mister Professor Lupin has to go to the Infirmary, sir! They is all doing a special spell, sir!" the house elf called after Lupin as he leapt from his seat and left the library at a run.

He and Sirius arrived together, just in time to see the Headmaster usher Ella away from Snape's bedside and draw the privacy curtains. Madam Pomfrey was wringing her hands in agitation, Ron Weasley was there looking nonplussed, and Ella seemed numb. Only Hermione noticed their arrival, and she gave them both a nervous smile before turning her attention to Ella, putting her arm around the older woman's shoulders. Lupin felt a surge of affection swell in his breast and swallowed hard, forcing his eyes away from her as he heard Harry's low murmur and the Headmaster's rumbling reply as they prepared themselves for the incantation.

"Facere bonus contra mortis!"

There was a blinding flash of violet light, followed by a crackle, and then Lupin heard a low, guttural cry that could have come only from Snape. Ella started towards the curtain, but Sirius stopped her, holding on to her arm and drawing her into a comforting embrace until Albus Dumbledore drew aside the curtain and Lupin could see Snape lying on the narrow cot, exactly as before.

"Did it work?" asked Ella urgently.

"I believe it did, yes. Look, the lividity is receding slowly."

Lupin closed his eyes in relief as Hermione and Ella embraced, and the Headmaster came across to where he stood with Sirius and Professor McGonagall.

"You might want to award a rather large number of House points to Miss Granger, Minerva, and Harry too, of course!" he beamed. "And I think we might overlook the little matter of students roaming the corridors after curfew, on this particular occasion!"

Lupin looked across to the narrow hospital bed where Snape's still form slept on, and felt a lurch in his stomach. His relationship with the irascible Potions master had always been a difficult one, but he had nevertheless held on tenaciously to the hope that he would live to make amends for the youthful folly that had made him follow his friends' example rather than his own better nature. An outsider ever since he had been bitten by a werewolf as a child, he had recognised a kindred spirit in Severus Snape on their very first day at school. The young Snape had hidden it well, and the mask he wore had become ever more impenetrable as the years had worn on, but even so Lupin had seen him for what he was; alone and lonely.

However, the young Remus had been befriended by Sirius Black, one of the most popular boys in their year, and his friend James Potter. The trio had been inseparable, and they had allowed Peter Pettigrew membership of their clique. One runt is more than enough in any litter, and the young Gryffindor cubs wanted nothing to do with a second, particularly a Slytherin who seemed to go out of his way to be unpleasant. Remus Lupin had been so grateful of their ready acceptance of him, even after they had discovered his shameful secret, that he found it all too easy to give up the battle to befriend Severus Snape before it had even begun.

How he had lived to regret that lack of moral fibre. Peter had betrayed them all and ruined their lives. Snape had been to Hell and back, helped on his way by all four Marauders, driven to take the Dark Mark and then prove his strength of character time and again after his renunciation of it. And now it had nearly killed him, as they had all known it eventually must.

Remus Lupin could not help but feel as guilty as if he himself had introduced the vial of poison to the Dark Mark and watched as it drank, and he thanked the Fates that had allowed the remaining Marauders, and one of their descendants, to make amends now.

Exhausted and elated, the small group of staff and students withdrew to the wide ante-room outside the entrance to the ward, to allow Ella to shed her relieved tears in private while Madam Pomfrey performed some routine checks on Snape's cataleptic figure. After a while people began to drift back to their quarters, mindful of the requirement of a good night's sleep before the next school day. Lupin found himself accompanying Hermione back to Gryffindor Tower.

They soon fell quite a way behind Harry and Ron, who were deep in conversation with Sirius, and Lupin felt that under the circumstances it would not be considered untoward to take her hand and link her arm through his as they walked. He felt rather than heard her sigh as she adjusted her step to fall in with his, and she squeezed his arm companionably. His head was spinning, and he knew that her nearness, the emotional drama to which they had both been party and their lack of sleep made a heady cocktail on which he was glad to be made drunk.

Hermione hugged him when they reached the portrait hole. She felt so warm and vibrant, and he ached with the recognition of his feelings for her. For long weeks he had been reminding himself that she was still a student, and far younger than he, but nevertheless here he stood, holding her close to him and breathing in the fragrance of her hair, warmth radiating from her and sending an unmistakeable message to the less scrupulous part of his nature. Reluctantly he took her shoulders and pushed her gently from him before she could notice the effect their close embrace had had on him. Wishing he did not have to say goodnight, he pressed his lips to her forehead in a chaste kiss that nevertheless inflamed the heat in his loins until he felt like howling his frustration to the moon.

"Goodnight, Hermione. And ...well done."

"Goodnight, Remus," she replied softly, his name whispering from her lips like a caress. He watched as she climbed through the portrait hole and only turned away as it was closing behind her.

He did not think he would sleep well that night, but he did.