Chapter One

“Inside please.” Said Lupin, standing back and letting everyone filter through the staff room door. Some students chattered excitedly amongst themselves at actually being able to see the inside of the staff room while others tried to take in as much of it as they could.
As they all clumped together in the centre, Harry noticed Professor Snape sitting quite alone in a low armchair reading a book. A loud Snap! sounded as he closed the book shut, drawing everyone’s attention towards him and his particularly nasty sneer.
“Leave the door open, Lupin.” He said as Professor Lupin came in and made to shut the door, “I’d rather not witness this.”
When he reached the door, he looked back to survey the class and then turned his gaze to Professor Lupin.
“Possibly no one’s warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear.”
Professor Lupin raised his eyebrows. “I was hoping Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation” he said, “and I am sure he will perform it admirably.” Snape curled his lips at this and closed the door behind with a bang.

The Defence against the Dark Arts lesson went remarkably well and Lupin cheerfully made himself a cup of tea in the staff room after the class had left. He was just beginning to delicately nibble on a biscuit he’d taken from the plate on the table when he heard the door open rather violently. Snape strode in menacingly, black cloak billowing behind him, and made his way directly to Lupin who was lazily dunking another biscuit into his cup of tea.
“How dare you use me as a practical experiment.” He spat. His eyes were doing their best to bore into Lupin’s. “I see Potter’s influence still hasn’t worn off you or has it simply been rekindled?”
Lupin looked a little taken aback at this comment and paled slightly, looking as sickly as he did when he first arrived at Hogwarts.
“Severus please…” he sighed heavily.
The door opened again and several other teachers began filing in for their lunch break, seemingly unaware of the treacherous atmosphere in the room stemming from the two men in the corner.
Lupin glanced behind Snape and trembled slightly at the sight of more and more people filling the room. “Well, I really must be getting back to my classroom, I have an afternoon lesson to prepare for.”
And with that he shuffled around Snape and quickly walked out the door, taking his cup of tea and a third biscuit with him, feeling with every movement the glare behind him as he left.

Snape spent the rest of the week in a particularly foul mood, bullying Neville more often and deducting as many points from Gryffindor as he could. Harry and Ron assumed it was because the rumour about Snape in Neville’s Grandmother’s clothing had spread through the school like wildfire and had no doubt reached the ears of the staff and while Snape had not taken kindly to this news, it was not the only thing to affect his temperament.
Throughout the week, Snape had busied himself with his class preparations, rearranging his potions stock cupboard and overseeing detentions. Yet, despite his best efforts, he was still unable to forget Lupin’s unexpected reaction to his harsh words. Snape had not expected them to affect Lupin to the degree that they did, assuming that he would have shrugged it off with a snide comment about his hair like they always had when at school together. Instead, he had looked shocked, guilty and almost hurt. What an earth had prompted Lupin to become so placid? Why did he not retaliate and defend himself and his friends? Snape thought back to his school days spent wondering the corridors of Hogwarts alone, trying his best to avoid his tormenters who insisted on calling themselves ‘The Marauders’.
One day that he remembered vividly in his fourth year, he had run from the courtyard to the library in an attempt to escape Potter and Black who had kept shoving stink bombs down his back and jinxing his legs to keep tripping over as he tried to get away. Puffing like mad he quietly slipped into the library and made his way to the back, trying to find a secluded spot that was free of people. He found only one table that was hidden away enough from everyone else but it was not empty. A boy with light brown hair was resting his head on top of the table, seemingly having fallen asleep while reading. Snape would have preferred a table of his own but as there were none available he quietly sat down opposite the boy on the two-person table, trying not to wake him. The boy stirred and turned his head but slept on. In disgust, Snape suddenly realised that the boy was Remus Lupin, a tall, lanky boy in his year who was the particular friend of his biggest nemeses and one of the Marauders. Snape thought about leaving but decided against it when he remembered that Potter and Black were still roaming the corridors. He’d just have to hope he wouldn’t wake up.
He opened his potions textbook and began to plan an essay that was due next week, careful to keep his quill from scratching too much on the parchment. As he was readying himself to start writing the essay someone with particularly loud footfalls walked past their table and tripped on a bag that was left out, falling quite spectacularly onto the floor. The loud Crash! jerked the boy awake and Snape inwardly cursed the person who had fallen.
Remus jumped and immediately looked over at the source of the noise that had woken him. Seeing a crumpled mess on the floor he walked over to the person and helped them up. After gathering their books together, which had been strewn across the floor and returning them to their dishevelled and grateful owner, he made his way back to his seat. He blinked as he sat and saw that he had company.
“Hullo Severus.”
Severus froze as he heard his name and kept his head down, staring at the work in front of him.
“Remus.” He grunted.
“Funny seeing you here” Remus continued, “I was just thinking that I needed help with some potions homework.” He smiled gently across the table. Severus could detect no malice in his face but knew better than to trust outward appearances of the Marauders. He shifted in his chair.
“Maybe in a bit” he replied somewhat timidly, “I’ve got homework of my own.” Remus kept smiling at him. “Of course, I’ll carry on reading in the meantime.”
With that, the table fell silent once again; Severus writing his essay and Remus quietly reading and occasionally taking notes.
Some time past and Severus put down his quill and stretched his arms out, relieved at finally having finished his essay. He glanced over at Remus who seemed engrossed in his book, though Severus thought he caught him looking at him every now and then only to quickly look away. Severus yawned.
“Finished already?” Remus nodded to the piece of parchment in front of Severus. He shrugged.
“Still needs checking over but I’ll do that later.” He replied.
Remus looked over at the textbook Severus was using and a look of mild confusion crossed his face.
“Which essay were you writing?” he asked, “I don’t remember getting a textbook like that.”
Severus shied away a little from the question. He wondered if telling Remus might have terrible repercussions on himself in the future if the rest of the Marauders found out but he didn’t see how things could get any worse so he decided to chance it.
“You wouldn’t have got this textbook, it’s for sixth years.” He closed the textbook and slid it across the table for Remus to have a look. Remus raised his eyebrows when he saw the cover.
“Taking your N.E.W.Ts already, Severus? That’s very impressive.”
Severus tried to detect a hint of sarcasm in Remus’s voice but found none and was beginning to doubt that Remus was one of the Marauders at all.
“Only potions. Professor Slughorn thought it within my capabilities.” Remus nodded as if acknowledging this to be the right decision.
“You were always very gifted at potions.” He replied, sitting back in his chair. “What was the essay about?”
Severus very much wanted to reply with a sneer and a ‘none of your business’ but it would be so out of context in such an oddly civil conversation that he couldn’t bring himself to say it. Instead he mumbled “Wolfsbane.”
The table went quiet. Severus looked up to find that Remus had gone very pale and looked a bit ill.
Snape had always assumed that that was because the Wolfsbane potion was very difficult to brew and Lupin was only ever average at potions so the thought of such a high level potion was off putting but now, of course, he knew different.
“Wolfsbane.” Remus said after a while, “that is… that’s really very impressive Severus. I wish you luck.”
Severus was very unsure of what to say to that so instead he grunted and looked over at Remus’s book.
“What did you need help with?”
“Ah, well… Do you know anything about the Wit-Sharpening potion?”
Severus scoffed and even Remus chuckled at the irony. They spent the rest of their time in the library, Severus in awe of how little Remus knew compared to himself and Remus desperately trying to scribble down everything Severus said, because everything was remarkably useful.
Snape shook himself out of a rare moment of reminiscence. He supposed that Lupin had always been a bit of an odd one. Despite being a member of the so-called ‘Marauders’ he never actively picked on Snape, though he never tried to stop it either, and in rare moments where they found themselves alone together he was always civil and treated him the same as he would any other student – with kindness.
Snape came to the realisation that Lupin was annoyingly neutral.
Just then a knock sounded on his office door and Professor McGonagall walked in.
“Ah, Severus I’m so glad I caught you” she said, “would it be possible for you to brew a batch of Wolfsbane for Professor Lupin? I told him he should ask you himself but he said that he didn’t want to bother you. ‘I wouldn’t wish to add to his workload’, I think he said.”
“Surely” said Snape slowly, “he is not in a position not to ask?”
“Well, that’s what I said to him but he simply refused so now I’m here asking you on his behalf, not that he knows mind.” Professor McGonagall huffed.
“I’ll bring it to him tomorrow evening.” Snape drawled.
This would be the perfect opportunity, he thought.