Love To The Loveless Shown

Chapter III

`Oy, Remy?´

No answer

`Remus? You awake?´

Still nothing.

Sirius decided that the only plan of action would be to poke his sleeping friend. Poking, like all other excellent methods of communication, was quick, fun for both parties, and straight to the point.

Bogart would have understood this, thought the dark-haired boy. Bogart would have gone in there and poked hard and fast. He would know how effective the power of the poke is. If he had poked Ingrid Bergman properly, there would have been no sad ending for them in `Casablanca.´

Sirius suddenly came to the dreadful realisation how innuendo-laden his mind had become and therefore spoilt everything by giggling.

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`Whuhsasosapffff? s´not mornin´ yet......´

`Thought I´d pop over and say hello. Circulate if you will.´

Lupin´s pale face considered Sirius´. His friend was always more dangerous in the midnight hours, and with those dark eyes glittering with hidden daemons, Remus knew that he was up to something.

`Well bugger off and get to sleep.´

`Nope. Shan´t.´ Sirius crossed his arms and pouted. `Can I come in? It´s cold out here and I´m all lonely...´ A hopeful smirk flitted across his face. `You look lovely and warm and cuddly. Wanna cuddle Remy!´

`No.´ Lupin cursed his morals, who really wanted himself to have a lack of Sirius contact.

`Please? I will give you something...´

`What can you possibly give me that will induce me to let you come in my nice warm cosy bed and put your freezing feet on my legs to warm up. I know you too well, Sirius Black!´ Remus knew exactly what would convince him, but squashed the thought down very thoroughly.

`Ummmm....how about a Sickle, half a pint of Butterbeer and a pencil in the shape of a stick of dynamite?´

`Sod off.´

`Nope. Going to get in there if it´s the last thing I do.´

Remus swore. `Fine. Have it your way. My bed´s all yours.´ Grinning, Sirius climbed in. The latter was more than a little surprised when the werewolf hopped out the other side and pulled his robes on.

`Where are you going?´

`Don´t expect me to stay in there when you´re there. I have more sense than that!´ And with that Lupin swirled out of the room, hair silvery in the crescent moonlight.

Sirius shrugged and started to cuddle Remus´ pillow instead. It always smelled comfortingly of him.

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`Bloody stupid git!´ howled Remus to the moon. He loved his friend, but he just was too over the top at two in the morning, and apart from that Lupin hated having his precious sleep disturbed.

Rain lashed the Astronomy tower, flattening Lupin´s hair to his head and soaking through his thin, worn robes. The weather was empathising with his mood; lightning sparked and spat across the lake, hitting the impenetrable surface while thunder growled and wind screeched. Across the sky, purple and steel clouds boiled, their silver linings ripped and scarred.

`Bastard! Absolute bastardly git of hell and Hades and all other types of Underworld! You SOD! Why do you ALWAYS do this to MEEEEEEE?´

His words were torn from his mouth and tossed into the seething winds.

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`I hate that man,´ hissed James as he tried to persuade a rather large purple slug to go from a slime-crusted bottle into his cauldron without getting covered in gunk. The slug looked at him balefully, and he prodded it with his wand, trying to coax it.

Cue extra-fried crispy slug.

`Potter! You is not havin´ another! Ah´m tekkin points ofas you for you brekkin´ dat slug! Fahve points fram Gryffendah!´ James only just managed to stop his tongue from sticking out at the Doctor.

Tall, scrawny and dressed in ancient white robes, The Doctor was not a medical man. Of indeterminate age, he was universally disliked by every student he taught; the exception being, for some reason, Severus Snape. He was known by both students and teaching staff as a someone not to be crossed and it was rumoured he had murdered a student in the previous century for chewing, then used the corpse to show how the dead could be animated as zombies. The Doctor had a bizarre liking for the voodoo, which extended from his mother who had been the greatest practitioner of the art on Haiti. In 1793 she had been awarded a certificate to prove how talented she was, which now hung in pride of place over the Doctor's fireplace, and he polished it every day.

He flicked his scarred wand at the crunchy slug and it started to move again. At least the Doctor was useful for reanimating animals that had accidentally been killed in Care of Magical Creatures, but Professor Dumbledore did not allow him the liberty of, what The Doctor called, `having fun´ with the more deceased members of the school.

Sighing, James got back to trying to get slug to where it was supposed to be. At least it could be worse. At least he was working with Sirius.

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Remus was not the happiest person in the world when The Doctor, with a nasty glint in his cataract-greyed eyes, ordered him to partner Snape, but it did mean that there was more chance of a good mark on this experiment. The Doctor favoured Snape above all others in his classes, and he consistently received the highest marks. Part of Lupin had to admit that this was possibly because the Slytherin was extremely good at this particular class; Snape knew stuff about Potions that even The Doctor had to research before doing. However, as much as he tried not to dislike the Marauder´s nemesis, Snape never helped himself.

`Anticlockwise, Lupin, otherwise the potion will separate,´ sighed Snape as Remus stirred the viscous pistachio liquid the wrong way. `How you were never kept down a year I do not know.´ He was busy carefully shredding Arrowroot into neat, exact lengths. `I mean, you can´t help being a little dim, but really.´ This was accompanied by another sigh, indicating how much he was suffering by having to put up with a werewolf, and a Gryffindor werewolf at that.

Lupin gritted his teeth and imagined he was stirring a deadly poison that he was going to force down the annoying Slytherin´s throat at the first chance he could get. On his other side he could see Jamie and Sirius having a giggle behind the Doctor´s back. Black saw his friend, saw he was looking over with general pissed-offedness in his eyes, and gave him a sly wink.

In the space between the flicker if Sirius´ eyelid and the next breath he took, Snape was *somehow* drenched in bright green liquid.

A small tic started to shiver next to the Slytherin´s clenched jaw as potion dripped off the end of his aquiline nose. Those who had witnessed Snape´s terrible anger knew that when the tic started jumping, you started moving. This, however, was rather difficult in the middle of a lesson. Remus sidled surreptitiously sideways to try and avoid the blast zone.

Snape´s usually pale cheeks looked as if they had been splashed with claret, ugly burgundy swept along his cheekbones and pooled around the curves of his flaring nostrils. Hard eyes had narrowed to obsidian slits of hatred framed by lowering black brows, and his fingers repetitiously flexed and clenched. Lupin was rather terrified when he saw that the Slytherin´s square cut, perfectly neat nails were incising half moons into the palms of his potion smeared hands; he had seen Snape livid on so many occasions, but there was a coldness about his anger, a terrifying calm that was far, far worse that his violent screaming matches with Sirius.

`Would you excuse me, sir?´ The venom was unmistakable under the icy bitter tones.

The Doctor nodded. `You be seein´ de nurse now, Snayap. You is gettin´ real baaad reaction if you aint gettin da antidote.´ The potion they had been brewing was a cure for chizpurple infestations, but on humans the undiluted liquid provoked a rather painful skin condition.

Snape gave the now snickering Sirius and James the most evil of looks, and swept from the classroom, the first pustules starting to develop on his spattered face.

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`I can´t believe you made that potion explode Sirius! If that stuff had got in his eyes...´

`S´only Snape. Don´t matter,´ mumbled Sirius as he punched his pillow, trying to get some respite from Remus´ sermonising. He adored his slightly uptight, sweet and gentle friend, but God did he get on his nerves sometimes ... come on - when did Slytherins ever count as real people anyway?

Lupin scowled at him, looking a little like a British version of a rather less cool James Dean. Straight eyebrows slanted over his steel and silver eyes showed his displeasure, as did the tiny vertical frown line just above his nose. He was more angry than he had ever been; not only had he been unable to finish the potion properly without the presence of Snape and had received a low mark, but also he was dreadfully afraid that Sirius might get punished severely. After the incident in fifth year, Black had been told that any more dangerous stunts would result in his expulsion. The werewolf was praying that these series of events were not as worrying as they could be.

`You could have blinded him! You could have been thrown out. Why did you do it?´

Sirius sighed, rubbing fingers across his tired eyes. All he wanted to do was have a nice, long and satisfying sleep, but Remus going on and on and on ...

`You were looking bored so I decided to liven things up a bit...come on! It was funny the way he almost went schitz in the dungeon - his face was such a picture. Aw, come on mate. It WAS amusing.´

Lupin shook his head, grey and light brown locks falling forward. `Of all the stupid, idiotic things to do, Sirius. You could be out of here if he´s hurt. Just because of a stupid prank - why do you always do something like this?´

The dark boy sat up, eyes blazing. Something had finally snapped - something had finally become fed up with his friend´s sermonising. `I know what could happen to me, so you don´t have to keep rubbing it in Lupin! I know I could be sent back home but you know what? I´m looking in the bright side - unlike you ... how can you be so bloody eternally pessimistic about everything? You are never enthusiastic about anything! Anything! Just because I get a bit hyperactive sometimes you have to attack me for it. It´s like living with a fucking priest! I am forever looking over my shoulder and seeing you standing there, Mr. I must censor my friend´s every move werewolf! Sometimes, Remus, you just get on my tits, you know?´ With that, Sirius yanked the curtains of the four poster closed and pulled the sheets up over his head.