Severus... Reformed / SNILY (COMPLETE)

Chapter Thirty

It was past midnight when Severus Apparated back to Spinners End. He and Remus had spent the afternoon playing Gobstones and Wizards' Chess, and obviously Severus had won every time. They had also helped Hope make cookies, which revealed Severus' talent in the kitchen formed from his first unpaid job as chef in the Snape household. Finally, they'd lazed upstairs and talked about nothing in particular; friends and hobbies, until Remus fell asleep, and Severus could get away. He wouldn't have been able to get to sleep anyway.

The house in Cokeworth was silent when he approached it. Tobias Snape would still be drinking his way into debt at the local pub, and Eileen was probably humming away in the kitchen.

And so it was. Severus waved a hand in front of her face to get her attention.

"Mother, have you eaten?" He asked. She gave him a vacant look.

"Have you eaten, at any stage today?" The same blank look.

"Mother?"

In the end, Severus made soup and spoon-fed her, making sure to leave out a portion for an inevitably inebriated Tobias. He then escorted the frail woman upstairs, and made sure she was tucked in, before leaving the house, and Apparating back to Devon. He slipped quietly inside the house (country folk never did lock their doors), scaled the stairs silently, and settled back onto his mattress in the attic.

"Severus?" Came Lupin's voice out of the darkness.

He gave a muffled sigh in response.

"Where did you go?"

"To clear my head, stretch my legs. I think it's one of those nights." His lying was flawless.

"Hmm, one of those? Luckily for you, I'm feeling that way myself."

Severus was sceptical.

"Fatigued beyond imagination, but knowing sleep is futile?"

Severus knew Lupin was blushing.

"Well, no. But close."

"Close as anyone would be to finding a needle in a haystack."

"Y-yes." Lupin finally accepted defeat.

Silence reigned for only a few moments, but then Lupin's voice echoed throughout the room again.

"What is it like? Not being able to fall asleep."

"Tiring."

"Be serious."

"I am. My sarcasm increases as exhaustion sets in."

Lupin sighed.

"Can't you take medication for it?"

"Yes." Severus had been strongly addicted to Dreamless Sleep during his school years last time. He'd only quit using it, partly because Poppy advised him to, and also because the nightmares soon became too strong for the potion to make any effect on them.

"Do you?"

"At... times."

"Do you despise me?"

The question took Severus by surprise.

"Only when your questioning wears my patience completely. Not all the time. Otherwise I most assuredly would not have accepted your invitation."

"Good point. But you are extremely deceitful. Perhaps you are lying to me..."

"Perhaps..." But Severus' mind was elsewhere.

Did Lupin guess anything? Was he suspicious? No, he was more likely envious. No twelve year-old would imagine an alternative universe. And especially no wizard, not even a Half-Blood like Lupin, would even think of the Butterfly Effect. Maybe the boy was merely confused. Severus did slip up on tenses now and again. And he knew a bit more than he should. He was thinking too much into it. As always.

*

Severus' suspicions had not disappeared by the next morning, but had eased slightly. Lupin suspected nothing. Or at least, not much. Nothing too substantial.

"I think we should go swimming after lunch," Lupin declared in the early hours of the morning. He saw Severus' stony face. "But maybe quite a bit after, because I don't think you would save me if I had cramp and was drowning."

"Hmm."

"What is it?"

"I actually," Severus sighed, "can't swim."

"What, really?" Remus was incredulous. "But Lily's always going on about that river you live near."

Clearly Lily hadn't mentioned that the water was muddied and brown, and would most likely give you toxic poisoning or something if you attempted to swim in it. Remus continued, clearly expecting his statement to be rhetorical.

"So Severus Snape isn't good at everything. What a surprise!"

"Shut up."

"Or what?"

"I'll do my worst."

"Oh dear, that is a threat."

And someday soon Remus would find that his worst was indeed very bad.

*****

A.N. Ah, I love writing for Remus - he's my favourite character in this, and one of my favourites in the actual series. Severus is obviously my favourite in the actual series. Obviously.

Thank you for reading and PLEASE COMMENT - anything's welcome. Even criticism, if you're that way inclined.