Better Than You

[spinnersending]

"Better Than You"
Who:  Severus Snape & Remus Lupin
When: 6th Year
Chapter One:  Here


A pass to the Restricted Section was even easier than Severus thought it might be.  Dumbledore gave it to him without even glancing up, saying that he was looking forward to the results.  Severus could only imagine that he meant the Wolfsbane Draught paper he was going to submit, but who knew with the old wizard?  Dumbledore was not a man anyone ever underestimated.

When Remus did not show, Severus noticed and wrote it off.  That brief connection and near friendship had been enough to make him even more bitter about the whole idea of friendship and turned him off on it entirely.  Stupid git.  As if he might have actually found things in common with a creature like that!  Good riddance!

Too bad his breakthrough potion was going to help the mangy sod!  Severus groused as he found the book he was looking for and brought it back to the table.  This was not a potions book at all, but one on the animagi.

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Severus was a watcher. As quiet as he usually was, he listened and observed to make up for the lack of personal communication with anyone other than a few fellow Slytherin who happened to be a little more than curious in the Dark Arts. Even then, the contact with them was brief. They were idiots.

Still, he carried on those traits right now, studying the side of Remus's face. The way he bit his lip. Played with his hair. It was telling. Severus aimed to find out.

Remus had always fascinated him. Secrets, wandering around, hiding...always hiding. At least Severus did it in plain sight. He didn't answer Remus. He didn't do much of anything. He was too focused on the boy sitting next to him to even carry on a conversation.

Watching had officially turned into staring.

[hurleralalune.livejournal.com]

Remus was lost in his own world. Thinking about a life not so ailed with lycanthropy. He was staring at the scroll intently, not actually looking at it. If this works, things will get easier. Right? Maybe he can get a normal job. And equal rights. And he'll never have to report to that horrible Creature Camp. The mere thought of it made him shiver, snapping him out of his reverie.

He blinked twice and put his hand down, no longer playing with his hair. His eyes glanced over at Snape. He just noticed he was being started at. "Everything alright there, mate?" Remus asked, his hair suddenly pushing the bangs behind his hair. It was a nervous habit he sometimes had.

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Severus blinked, strangely long eyelashes gently kissing his cheeks before he turned his head away. He didn't flush this time or even look outright confused. He just shook his head. "What do you think? Just a rough draft. Haven't got all the proper citations yet, but..."

Hate and comfort, companionship and fear. Remus made his emotions run the gambit. He blamed it on having someone to talk to, or on having an insider man that happened to be able to help him in ways he never realized before. Patronus and now animagus transfigurations?

It was impossible and amazing. "I don't want it to come off too arrogant. You need to make a name for yourself, right? Otherwise you get laughed at and no one takes you seriously." That scroll was the most important thing in both of their lives at this moment.

And it was what was bonding them together in ways neither had foreseen.

[hurleralalune.livejournal.com]

Right. Before Remus got lost in the idea of having an actual future he was reading the scroll. He looked from Severus back to the scroll and continued to read.

"I think it sounds great. We just probably see if we can remake it. Like maybe it was a one time fluke." Because good things just didn't happen in his life. Remus always had this feeling like he was bound to lose everything. Not that he even had much, but it was just this feeling. Good things were a rare delight in his life.

He tried smiling, but it flickered, and the sadness returned in his eyes.

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"Keep some on hand in case they keep the whole sample. Brilliant!" Severus was already at the cabinet, jumping to reach his favorite iron stirring rod from the top shelf. "Just do the preparations as perfectly as before. Whatever you did before...whatever you were thinking before as you did the slicing... Oh, actually, write it down just in case that matters."

Severus stood as he conjured the cauldron to heat up, wrist graceful in the way he could manipulate the magical matrices of currents for simple spells without the focusing device of a wand. His fingers twitched lightly and the base water filled the cauldron to the proper levels.

He sat heavily beside Remus, and blinked at the other boy. "What's wrong with you now?" He sometimes forgot his rudeness levels.

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Remus half listened as he pulled out the ingredients that were needed. Everything was labeled, and he was paying attention. He was just back from his happy daydream to reality. The reality that while it would amazing if this worked, it wasn't a sure thing.

He shook his head as he started chopping up the bihorn. He wrote it down on the scroll. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it." He wasn't going to open up if he was snapped at, Severus. He rarely opened up to the Marauders and they actually liked him.

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"I'm not worried about you," Severus muttered. This was not helping the 'open up' factor but old habits died hard. He was protecting himself, just in case whatever this was came back to bite him. Give that he was seated beside Remus, that could be possible.

They continued on in silence. The work was slow. Severus was fine with that, and even with the quiet. He preferred it actually. It kept his mind clear.

It was Severus that gave the incantation when the brew was ready and the liquid flashed a cheery pearly white before settling into the proper shade.

Another job well done. Score for Severus Snape. He grinned at Remus openly, eyes glowing as brightly as the potion in the cauldron had. "Flawless."

[hurleralalune.livejournal.com]

He sat in the silence. He ignored the harsh remark. That was just Snape being Snape. Remus didn't even mind when Severus said the incantation this time. That was fine with him. Though when the potion turned the proper green-gray color, a flash of relief crossed his face. He had to remind himself that that didn't mean it would work.

Remus picked up the scroll and nodded. "And we have all the notes right here. Good job." He said, a small smile appearing and then disappearing on his face.

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That look that Severus had been studying before was gone. That smugness. Now he just looked -- He hated to admit it, but it was true. Remus looked how Severus so often felt. The slytherin sighed, inhaling for a long moment before he started to bottle the draught. He gave one to Remus, tucking it into his bag for him. The rest he kept for himself.

"I want to practice," Severus blurted out. "Patronus and..." Well, he couldn't just say it out loud here. Slughorn might have had little devices lurking around trying to catch intrigue or bits of genius. "Can you come tonight? My place. The one I showed you."

[hurleralalune.livejournal.com]

Remus noticed that he put the bottle in his bag. "Thanks." He muttered quietly.

Tonight? Well he was supposed to plan some prank for the boys lav with the Marauders, but it was likely he had nothing to say except trying to dissuade them. For two hours straight.

"Yeah. I'll be there. Say eight? I have to finish six more inches on the Giant Troll War of 1233." He said with a sigh.

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"Yes, dark enough then." He still didn't want anyone getting the wrong opinion about him and Remus. They were not friends. Severus paused. He really wasn't so sure anymore about the logistics of it. They worked together. And did so rather brilliantly, but otherwise they were seperate. Remus had his friends, his life, and Severus had his books and his dreams of being important.

They parted ways with little pomp and circumstance. Severus kept his head down at dinner, finished his reports, and went out to the lake in a dark sweater, threadbare trousers and his robes. If it wasn't for his face and his hands on that particularly dark night, he might have been invisible.

He stood on the banks of the river, grinning at the fox as it flitted about, dashing out onto the water, sneaking through the grass.

Severus was enamored.

[hurleralalune.livejournal.com]

The rest of the evening was filled with dinner, homework, and a lot of taunting about working with Snape. Even through dinner. Remus just shook his head and smiled through it all. He didn't care what they thought. Remus was the type of person that really didn't care what others thought of what he did, it was who he was that mattered (and what he was worried about).

He was a few minutes late. He had on a pair of wrinkled, old khakis, a worn sweater and his Gryffindor robes. He saw the Patronus and cast his when he was still at the top of the hill. His wolf ran down to greet the other Patronus and soon enough Remus was standing opposite of Snape, the two of their Patronuses (Patroni?) darting around each other.

"Evening, Severus. Well don't they seem friendly enough?" He said with a slight laugh, gesturing to the two light animals.

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