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Summary for this chapter: More dead people and *gasp* talking!

Talks

Sirius yawned as he sat at the table. Despite his protesting and saying that Remus had promised they wouldn’t go before noon they had ended up at Dumbledores house by eleven. Sirius had grumbled even more at the unfairness of it all as Remus enthusiastically went through room after room of books and ingredients, Sirius gloomily following behind.

By the time they had gotten back to a table they both were laden with all types of things to sort through. One of their most startling discoveries, at least in Sirius’ opinion, was in fact an Ouija Board. He was actually surprised that he had not expected the ex-headmaster to have something so completely random and seemingly useless in his possession. Sirius shook his head at the insanity of it all.

At the moment Remus was eagerly looking at the potion they had found the night before. As they had thought, it wasn’t too extremely complicated, but did seem to require certain finesse.

Thinking of what Remus had said last night Sirius began to ponder. He had said that there might be something worth finding out today, but he wasn’t sure. Now they were talking about potions. It all didn’t sit too well with the man.

He shot a wary glance at Remus, but his friend was still too caught up in what he was doing. He continued staring, hoping that the werewolves’ extra senses would kick in and he wouldn’t have to say anything. Luckily for him after a couple minutes he got the reaction he was kind of looking for.

“What is it Sirius?” Remus asked without looking up.

Sirius shook his head in amusement, “I was wondering when you were going to enlighten me on what you thought was so amusing last night.”

Remus finally looked up, “Well, I was kind of hoping that he would have showed up by now, seeing as we are looking at his favorite subject.”

“What are you-” Sirius started to question before he stopped, his eyes widening, “No! Not him. You can’t mean-”

“Why yes, he does mean me.” drawled a sickeningly familiar voice.

“Snape.” Sirius said turning around with a slight growl. He knew that the man was always on their side, but something about him had always rubbed him the wrong way.

Remus sent Sirius a warning look. “Behave.” he said, and then turning to Snape, “Hello Severus, it has been awhile.”

“Yes it has.” the potions master said with a slight sneer. “I was hoping that it would’ve been longer, but, death goes on.”

Sirius snorted without meaning to and said, “Well, it happens to the best of us!” he cowered a little at the glares sent his way.

Shaking his head in disdain Snape walked over to where their notes were laid out. After quickly looking them over he raised his eyebrows and said, “A communication potion? Why would you need one; And particularly one of this strength?”

“Well, actually this is only a last resort. As to why we want one in the first place, I might tell you later.” Remus shrugged noncommittally.

“I see.” said Snape. “Am I privy to the knowledge of who this ‘we’ would be? Besides you and the mutt, of course.” Sirius growled at his comment.

“James, Lily, Sirius and I are the ones that would like to do this.” Remus said, trying to still be polite. “I was wondering though, if you would be so kind as to brew this for us.” he pushed the paper with directions and ingredients toward the man from where he had set it down.

Snape paused for a minute, seeming to consider his options and reactions if he refused. He finally picked up the paper. “It has been a while since I have had the pleasure of having someone in my debt. I will do this on the condition that, if this works, you will tell me who you were contacting and why.”

Remus looked pained for a moment before he stuck out his hand. “All right, I guess it’s a deal then.” they shook hands.

-- -- --
Sirius sat pouting on the couch. Once they had gotten home he had tried to talk to Remus but he had been ‘too busy.’ Sirius sent a glare at the man sitting across from him looking through even more books than they had yesterday.

Finally he sighed and uncrossed his arms. “Would you care to tell me why you are looking through more books now that we know what we are doing?”

Remus looked up but didn’t reply right away. He sat staring into Sirius’s eyes and finally sighed, seeing that he wasn’t going to win. “I want to make sure we have all the possibilities. I don’t want to spend a long time doing something that could be done with little to no preparation.”

“But Moony!” Sirius said exasperatedly, “We have all of us working on it, plus Snape who, even though I really don’t want to admit it, is a big help. He didn’t say that there would be anything wrong with it, so why are you still worrying?”

“I don’t really know. I just have a weird feeling about this.” he said quietly.

“I don’t see why you would be feeling weird about this.” Sirius said and then a look of understanding crossed his features. “Could it be that you’re not sure you really want to do this.” when Remus looked away he knew he had gotten it right. “Why? You do seem to be truly worried about Harry, so I don’t think that’s it, but then what….” he paused suddenly. “It’s Tonks, isn’t it?”

Remus nodded slowly and looked up into Sirius’s eyes. “It’s not that I don’t want to see her, it’s just going to be kind of weird. We had only been married about a year, you know, so it’s not Tonks anymore.”

“Yeah, but it’s weird calling her something else. I think Nymphandora is too much of a mouthful anyway, and whenever someone says ‘Lupin’ people think of you.”

Remus chuckled. He did know how that worked. “I guess that’s true.” he looked at the clock. “It’s almost time for dinner. James and Lily invited us over, remember?” he said, abruptly ending the subject.

Sirius just smiled, knowing that he would just have to talk to him more later and there was something that he wasn’t telling them. “I know,” he replied, “I was just about to remind you it was getting late, but you beat me to it.”

-- -- --

After they had eaten the group moved into the sitting room to discuss what had happened that day. James and Lily had been more surprised than one would have thought being the keepers of the Zone to find out that Severus was now a resident.

Their reactions couldn’t have been more opposite. James had cursed and bemoaned the fact that his school time rival was even now ruining his life, never mind the fact that they were both dead now.

Lily was ecstatic; she had had time to forgive the man from all those years ago and now wanted to go over and talk to him and see what had happened in his life.

There was complete silence for a moment as the husband and wife paused to consider their companions point of view. Remus and Sirius could only sit there and try not to smile as the couple began to argue.

“How can you still hold on to that petty rivalry after all these years?” asked Lily glaring at James.

“Easily!” James replied, “How could you forgive that- idiot- after what he did?”

“It was along time ago!” she said forcefully, “You’re just showing how immature you are by not forgiving him!” at this Lily also looked at Sirius, who put his hands up in a defensive manner.

“Hey, leave me out of this,” he pleaded, and Remus tried hard not to chuckle.

“Yes well, this would be an entertaining conversation to continue,” he received glares, “I think we should work this out because we’re all going to see him tomorrow to get the potion he’s making for us.”

“Do we all have to go?” whined James.

“Yes, we do.” Lily replied before Remus could say anything. “So you all better behave yourselves.” she sent glares and James and Sirius.

“Hey!” Sirius protested, “I’ve already seen him! I can handle myself, right Moony?” Remus nodded, amused.

James threw Lily a disgusted look, “I can be a civilized person when I feel like it,” he stood up, “but there’s no guarantee I will want to be tomorrow. Anyway, it’s getting late, and everyone should go home and go to bed. We’ll probably need energy for tomorrow.” he wandered off into the hallway that led upstairs.

Lily shook her head. “No manners at all. I hope Harry didn’t end up like that.” she glanced at Remus and he shook his head, indicating that Harry did have manners. She sighed and said, “Well, I guess we all should go to bed. I would see you home, but it’s too late. Good night.” she said and went in the same direction as her husband.

Remus and Sirius said goodbye and headed home. Once they got there they got ready for bed. After they had said goodnight they lay in separate rooms, but neither could sleep.

Sirius was mulling over his earlier thoughts and conversation with Remus about Tonks.

Remus was also thinking along the same lines, but was also worrying about other things as well. He sighed and turned over in bed to look at his clock. It read 2:12am. He groaned. Remus could feel this was going to be yet another almost sleepless night.

End Chap 4