_smoke_ (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} _smoke_) wrote,@ 2007-02-10 11:00:00 |
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I've grouped my drabbles a bit for posting. This first set is darkish, and features Snape and Lupin, or Snape or Lupin. Most were written to a prompt for lupin100, over the course of a year or so.
Rated G through R.
~~
"Morning Light" was written for the prompt "pink" at lupin100, but after I wrote it, I realized that Lupin wasn't even in it. Duh.
~Morning Light~
Severus Snape did not believe in the afterlife. He couldn't, not and do the things he needed to do. Why then, was he standing in the snow looking down at his own lifeless body? The rising sun made the world glow pink and sparkle with a million points of light, except where the black-clad figure lay like a void, the pool of crimson looking rather cheerful as it mixed with the pink snow.
"It's time to go." The translucent figure of Dumbledore stood close by.
"I don't believe."
The Headmaster held out his hand. "Trust me, Severus. Just once more."
~~
I then rewrote it slightly differently with Lupin.
~Aftermath~
Lupin didn't believe in an afterlife. He'd lived through almost 400 of his own private hells and all he wanted was oblivion when his time came. Which is why he thought it totally unfair that he was standing in snow, looking at his own lifeless, transformed body. The huge disk of the moon was fading, giving up its cold light to the warmth of the rising sun. The air glowed pink around him, mixing prettily with the red stains in the trampled snow.
"Remus?"
He turned to find the translucent figure of Snape.
"Are we in hell?"
Snape smiled. "We've done our time."
~~
Posted to my LJ.
~Apology~
Lupin downed the Wolfsbane, making a face.
“I appreciate you making this.”
Snape snorted. “The headmaster requested it.”
“You could’ve refused.”
“When was the last time you refused Albus something?”
Lupin chuckled. “You have a point. But thank you anyway.”
When Lupin didn’t move, Snape looked up. “Something else?”
“He’s not well, is he?”
Snape rose and removed the empty goblet.
“He’s encountered a lot of Dark Magic lately.”
“Is he dying?”
“We’re all dying.” Snape faced away.
“Yes.”
Neither moved.
“I’m sorry, Severus.”
“For what?” Snape turned.
They locked eyes for a long moment, before Lupin turned and left.
~~
Challenge #95: By the Lake
2 Drabbles
~At the Edge of the Lake~
Lupin stood at the edge of the lake, staring at the golden road stretching across the water to the wide face of the moon. Tomorrow it would be full, and once more his body would bend and twist and morph into the monster that had overshadowed most of his life. The Wolfsbane allowed him to keep his mind, but no potion helped the pain. Or the loathing.
If he just followed that road, maybe he could walk over the water to that moon. His clothes puddled on the ground, and eyes on the brilliant disk, he walked toward the water.
~~
The water of the lake was warm against his ankles, his knees, his thighs. Lupin shivered as it covered his genitals, but he kept going, the bottom firm sand under his feet. Maybe if he kept following that road of moonlight, he would find quiet, and darkness, and peace. Maybe the agony would end.
“Remus?”
He looked over his shoulder. A shape separated itself from the darkness, black on black but for the face, reflecting the light of the moon.
“Remus.”
Snape extended a hand. After a moment’s hesitation, Lupin let himself be drawn to the warmth of his sun.
~~
Challenge #85: Birthday Cake
~Birthday~
People were laughing and singing. Someone set a huge cake with candles in front of him, and there was a pile of presents in colorful paper and shiny ribbons. It was warm and bright with lamplight and paper streamers hanging from the doors.
Remus blinked and shivered. His naked body was crumpled on the floor, bruised and bleeding from a night spent thrashing about. The wintry dawn crept through the dusty panes of the attic windows.
The dream belonged to last year. He wondered if anyone would even remember his birthday this year. He wondered if there would be cake.
~~
Challenge: #105, Temptation
~Don't Look~
Oh, gods, why couldn't they just leave him alone?
"Levicorpus!"
Don't look.
Lupin heard the laughter, heard the curses.
Don't look.
Would they never grow up?
He heard Lily's outrage, James indignant response. Why didn't Severus do something? Something... useful? He could defend himself; he could. He didn't need anyone's help.
He doesn't need my help.
He heard the hooting and jeering.
Don't look.
"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?"
No, oh no. Not that. What in Merlin's name was wrong with James? It wasn't as though he knew. He couldn't.
Don't look.
He had to look.
~~
Challenge: #127 Something New
~New World~
"Hold still!" The words were a harsh whisper.
Lupin opened one eye, but saw nothing past the small circle of wand light. "Did we win?"
"We?" He could just see the curl of Snape's lip as his hands moved to clean and heal.
"I never doubted you."
"One of the few." Snape snorted as he jammed things into his pockets and plucked his wand from where he had pushed it into the earth. "Nox."
The night was eerily still after the fierceness of the battle.
"It's a new world," Remus whispered.
"Then find me." Snape's words floated in the darkness.
~~
Not posted before
~No~
He'd thought his cover was safe, thought he'd blocked the screams from his heart. Had even administered a burst of the Crutiatus himself.
But then, after a halt, after the werewolf had stopped twitching in the dirt, Voldemort had signaled him forward with a jerk of his head.
"Finish him."
Snape strode forward with confidence, knelt down with ease. And then the werewolf had turned to him, had opened his eyes.
"Severus... please...."
He was on the Astronomy Tower again, another loved-one beseeching him.
No. Not again.
Grabbing Lupin's wrist, he Apparated away, Voldemort's scream of fury in his ears.
~~
~Raindrops~
Lupin lay awake in the darkness, listening to the patter of raindrops on the leaves of the big maple outside the open window of his bedroom. The sound reminded him of the falling of tears, so many tears. An ocean of tears, shed for all the loved ones who had fallen over the years. His loved ones. Not gone - dead. Lupin shifted restlessly, the sheets clinging damply. He hated the euphemisms. They were not gone, to return someday, they were dead, and he would never see them again.
There was the sound of more than raindrops falling in the night.
~~
Challenge #83: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
~Silence~
When James dangled Snape in the air that warm day in June, Lupin didn't see.
When they called Sirius a murderer and a betrayer, he didn't hear.
Now they were calling for Snape's life, decrying him as a worse villain than Sirius. They wanted Lupin's agreement, expected his agreement, looked at him oddly when he didn't join in their denouncements of the dark wizard. He could see Snape in his mind's eye, sneering at him as he sat silent. He would speak no evil, no, but neither would he speak what he knew to be the truth. He could not.
~~
Not posted before.
~Trust~
Snape came to gradually as a long, sloppy tongue lapped his face. He gave a grunt and batted the tongue away, pushing himself upright against the tree, doing an automatic assessment of injuries obtained in the scrimmage. He gasped as a bucket-full of adrenalin hit his system. The wolf backed off, whining and wagging its tail, a stick in its mouth.
Not a stick, his wand.
"Lupin?"
The wolf laid the wand down and sat, its huge triangular ears alert. Snape grabbed it and pointed.
"You always were too trusting."
The green flash made no sound in the night forest.
~~
Challenge: #133 Random Character Assignment (Portrait of Mrs. Black)
~The Portrait~
They were gone now, all gone: the Mudbloods, the Halfbloods, the traitors and the filth. She hadn't even seen Kreacher for weeks. The old house ticked and creaked and settled, slowly dissolving into decay. The only one who ever set foot here anymore was that dark creature with his shabby clothes and his scars. Sometimes he succeeded in sneaking past her, creeping up to Sirius' room to sit for hours, the filth. How she hated him, how she screamed at his passing. How had he done it? How had he stolen the love of her son and left her alone.
~~
Challenge: #95 By the Sea
~An End~
The sun made a dazzling display on the water, or perhaps it was just the tears in his eyes. The waves lapped at his feet, indifferent. Severus had hated the beach; groused about sand in his shoes, and the salt that made his skin itch. But he had always come for two weeks every summer to the little cottage nestled in the dunes.
Now Remus came alone, and the cries of the gulls mocked him. He had thought it might be healing, but at every turn something taunted him with memories of what was lost.
He would not come again.
~~
Challenge: #138: Nightmares
~Werewolf Camp~
They creep in with the darkness and seep into his soul. They flit at the edge of his vision, teasing his awareness with hints of fang and fur, the smell of blood and the gleam of an eye in the moonlight. He feels the hopelessness and rage thick in the air around him, and wants to slink away, wants to return to his lover and his warm, soft bed. There is madness here, and cunning, and Dumbledore thinks there is hope.
Lupin leans against the tree and closes his eyes. If only this could be a nightmare of his sleep.
~~
Challenge: #134: The Deathly Hallows (prior to release, of course)
~Waiting in the Wings~
They looked around the empty room; dust moats floating in the sunshine.
"I've lost everyone, some even twice." The corner of Lupin's mouth twisted in a grimace.
"At least you had friends to lose – and didn't have to kill the only one you had yourself."
"What do you think she'll do to us in this last book?"
Snape just shook his head.
"Severus," Lupin shuffled. "If we don't die... do you think...."
Snape gave him a sharp look. "I've learned not to hope, Lupin." He stared out the window. "But if we survive... I suppose... we could talk."
Lupin nodded.
~~