A Song for Severus ~ (Not Update, but Edit)

Chapter 73 ~ Severus is Invited on a Jaunt

Eloise and Remus made love all through the night and stayed together the entire day of the Night of the Full moon, Rubin feeding them well as they readied themselves for transformation. As they sat at the outside table and ate, Rubin entered Eloise’s cage and collected a bit of the hay of their nest and put it inside of a box with a lid, carrying the rather pungent straw back into his house. He sat the box on the floor of his parlor, opened it and took some out. Whew, it stunk of essence of werewolf.

He picked up the shirt and pants he threaded with silver, placed them inside the box and covered it with the rest of the straw, sealing it and setting it in a corner of the room. Well, that was done. The clothing would stay in that box until the next full moon.

That night both Eloise and Remus transformed without the wizard taking his wolfsbane potion, and as Eloise thought, he definitely acted the Alpha, standing over her protectively as she chewed on the beef bones Rubin so thoughtfully provided, sharing his food and mating with her repeatedly. He wouldn’t be cowed by her and backed her up into a corner several times during the night, showing the bitch who was boss.

In the morning, for the first time since he could remember, Remus awoke from his transformation feeling refreshed, Eloise curled against him as they lay naked in the nest together. The first thing Remus did was look around to see what damage he had done to the muggle’s quarters. Other than the mattress of the bed being on the floor, everything was fine. So he hadn’t gone wild and destroyed everything. He only remembered Eloise transforming however and was anxious about how he might have treated her.

He sat up, Eloise stirring slightly. He looked her body over for scratches or bite marks, but other than the mark on her shoulder, her flesh was unblemished…well…almost. Her buttocks were rather red from all his slapping against them the past two days. Suddenly, he winced. His back hurt.

Remus reached around and felt a long scratch down his back. It was raw, probably from Eloise. Well, she was worth a little pain. Actually a lot of pain.

Eloise moaned then stretched, opening her brown eyes and looking up at Remus. She gave him a rather sexy smile.

”Good morning, wolf,” she purred at him.

Remus felt himself tightening at the husky invitation in her voice. She was still in heat.

”Good morning,” he said softly, “I see you survived me without the wolfsbane.”

She nodded.

“Barely. You were an animal, Remus. In a good way. Definitely an Alpha. You had me backed up in the corner constantly…I couldn’t bluff my way out. You were something,” she said to him sitting up.

”I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked Eloise, his eyes washing over her body as if checking for damage a second time.

“Hurt me? No. Not really,” she replied, kissing him softly on the mouth, “You just acted like a dominant male. It was fine, Remus.”

The couple sank back down into the straw, getting a bit of good morning nookie before exiting the barn. They were both rank of sex and natural odors, but Rubin was used to it because of his son and knew that the scent was pleasant to the werewolves, so he just served them their breakfast without comment. He knew the moment Eloise came out of heat, she’d bathe insanely. Remus would clean up as well. He didn’t like humans to smell he was a werewolf. He tried to stay as pleasant smelling as possible and did a good job of it. But right now it was just the two of them.

All seemed right with the world.

******************************************

Albus Dumbledore read the news of the werewolf attack in the Daily Prophet this morning, shaking his head sadly as he read how a family of four was attacked in their home. The mother, father and son were killed, and a little girl of four mauled and bitten. Dumbledore knew this could be the work of no other creature than Fenrir, who was getting revenge for the capture of the Death Eaters.

Of course, the entire werewolf village would descended upon, put on lockdown and every werewolf living within any of the city or town limits rounded up and questioned. Whenever there was a killing by a werewolf, they all suffered. Fenrir didn’t care and actually hoped that the mistreatment would make them rebel and fight back. But they never did.

Yes, Fenrir had murdered that family, creeping up on them while they prepared for bed, bursting through the door and slaughtering them, partially devouring the son as the little girl watched screaming, then turning on her and buffeting her about before biting her and passing on the curse.

The Aurors did not go to Rubin’s farm however. They knew Eloise was in heat and Remus was with her. Besides, the surrounding area was enclosed by silver fencing. It was unlikely either of the werewolves had left the farm last night. They had better things to do than murder a family.

Albus sighed. He felt responsible because they didn’t capture Fenrir the night they retrieved Voltaire. The Ministry would look for him, but the werewolf had been avoiding capture for years. The wizard’s thoughts shifted to Remus and the muggle woman Fenrir had turned. He looked thoughtful.

The Headmaster tossed some floo powder into the fireplace and called down to Severus’ rooms. The wizard was wrapped around Hermione and snoring loudly. But he still heard Albus and woke quickly…Hermione muttering as he untangled himself and climbed over her, grabbing his housecoat and tying it around his nude body. Yawning, he walked into the study.

“Yes, Headmaster?” he said sleepily, blinking down at the fireplace. Albus smiled at him.

”Severus, are you up for a small outing today?” the Headmaster asked him, “To the country?”

Severus scratched his ass through his robes. Hm. Hermione had work to do…she was already late and was going to be pissed at him for not waking her up earlier. It might be best to get out of Hogwarts for the day.

”Certainly, sir,” the wizard said, “I will be there in a few minutes.”

”Excellent,” the Headmaster beamed, then he let out a grunt and scowled, “Oh dear. I’m really getting too old for all this bending. Maybe Miss Granger could come up with a way to project the image of a face for a floo conversation without requiring a person to get on their knees.”

”Maybe she could, sir,” Severus replied with a small smirk, “I will see you soon.”

He walked back into the bedroom stealthily, tipping over to the nightstand and picking up his wand. Hermione was still sound asleep. Severus walked into the bathroom and cast a silencing spell around it, so Hermione wouldn’t hear him showering and wake up. He took a piss, then quickly showered.

He exited the bathroom, gathered his clothes out of the wardrobe, got his shoes from under the bed and dressed in the study. As he buttoned the last button on his robes, he heard Hermione call him.

“Severus,” she called sleepily.

He was about to enter the bedroom when he heard Hermione squeal, “Ten o’clock! Severus! How could you let me sleep so late! Oh….I’m going to kiiiiill you! I’ve missed breakfast and you know I had to…”

Severus quickly threw a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and bolted for Albus’ office. Hermione was most violent in the mornings, especially before coffee and breakfast. He wasn’t up for it. By evening she’d be sufficiently calmed down…he hoped. Him disappearing wasn’t going to help though.

“Ah Severus, good morning my boy,” Albus said to him jovially, his blue eyes twinkling.

“Good morning, sir,” Severus replied, “And where are we off to this morning?”

”Ah. To pay a visit to a friend of mine…a Mr. Rubin Fezwig,” the Headmaster replied.

“Is this a social call?” Severus asked.

Albus’ eyes stopped twinkling and he picked up the paper off the desk, opened it and handed it to Severus, pointing at the headline.

Severus quickly read the story. Gods, a murder by werewolf. The way the scene was described…only one werewolf would have done such a thing.

”Not really,” the Headmaster said darkly, “ Mr. Fezwig has something on his farm that belongs to Fenrir, at least as far as Fenrir is concerned. Something he will eventually return for. Something Remus Lupin took from him.”

Severus looked up at Albus sharply.

“What is it?” he asked the wizard curiously.

“A fertile, female werewolf,” Albus said, “Her name is Eloise Hedgeberry.”

Severus looked a bit shocked at this news. All werewolf females were sterilized immediately as far as he knew.

“A fertile female, Albus? How could that be?” Severus asked him.

“She’s a muggle and not under wizarding law. They can’t arbitrarily sterilize her. But the Ministry is responsible for her since a wizard turned her,” Albus said.

“And Remus took her from Fenrir? Remus?” Severus said with disbelief in his voice.

“Yes. Apparently, he is much more courageous than others give him credit for…and if he is with the lady, I imagine he will be even more so now. No doubt he has overridden the wolfsbane potion because of the strength of his attraction to Miss Hedgeberry,” Albus said, putting on his traveling cloak.

Severus scowled.

“You say that like it’s a good thing, Albus. That potion is the only thing that keeps Remus under control,” the Potions Master said, then he frowned.

“Remus didn’t come for his potion this month, Headmaster,” the wizard said darkly, “He had to have transformed without it last night.”

Severus thought about the murdered family. Could Remus have done it?

“That potion does more than keep Remus ‘under control’ Severus. It keeps him sick, weak and unwilling to confront situations that he needs to confront,” Albus said, looking Severus directly in his eyes, “It is that potion that made him not confront James and Sirius concerning their treatment of you. He came to me, you know. Asking me to do something about how James and Sirius targeted you. I asked him why he didn’t say anything to his friends himself and he said he couldn’t do it. He was afraid of what they would say. He had been taking that potion since his third year, Severus.”

“He’s needed it,” Severus replied, thinking about how he himself was almost killed by Remus because of Sirius Black playing a sick joke. Actually it wasn’t a joke. Black meant for him to be killed.

“I’ve thought about that a long time, Severus. The werewolf village is full of men and women who don’t take wolfsbane and don’t go looking for blood during their transformations. True, it’s not safe for a human to be in the vicinity, but they don’t actually go looking for trouble. It is as if they know people are not supposed to be prey. And they are neither sickly, weak and most are not withdrawn. They are social and happy as far as they are allowed to be happy with the Ministry constantly baiting them. I believe Remus could live a better life without the wolfsbane potion. It’s time he accepted who and what he is,” the Headmaster said.

Severus had never even considered the rest of the werewolves. Fenrir was enough to taint anyone’s attitudes about werewolves. Severus suddenly realized that Fenrir was the exception and not the norm. It was true, the werewolves did live fairly decent lives, but much of it was attributed to the Ministry’s tight rein on them. But if they were truly complete beasts, they would constantly slaughter humans, because in that form they would have no inkling of what the laws were. That they didn’t break them showed there was something happening here. Could werewolves reason in their animal forms?

Dear gods. Hermione better not ever get hold of this one. She loved Remus Lupin, in a platonic kind of way of course. She’d throw herself into proving werewolves could be safe as house elves.

Severus shook his head as he imagined Hermione putting herself in a cage full of transforming werewolves with pork chops tied around her neck for added dramatics. Circe.

”Albus, would you do me a favor and not talk about ANY of this to Hermione? I’d like to keep her around a bit longer,” Severus said to the Headmaster soberly.

Albus chuckled non-committally.

”We’ll see,” he said opening the office door.

Severus scowled.

He didn’t like the sound of that chuckle.

They had just come to the shifting stairwell when Severus looked down and saw Hermione stalking through the main hall, her wand in hand, looking about murderously. She walked over to the Great Hall, opened the door and looked in. After a moment, she closed the door, scowling. Suddenly she looked up and Severus darted back. She only saw the Headmaster standing there, smiling at her benignly.

”Headmaster, I will meet you outside. I am going to take a…a shortcut,” Severus said, dipping behind a tapestry hurriedly and disappearing.

“Headmaster, have you seen Professor Snape?” Hermione called up to him.

”I…I did see him earlier, Hermione, but he’s gone now,” the wizard replied, adjusting his glasses a bit.

Well, at least Albus didn’t lie.

The Headmaster watched as Hermione stamped her foot and stormed toward corridor leading to the Dark Arts class. Severus sometimes sat in on the classes, much to the chagrin of the students. Hermione seemed to want to speak to Severus quite badly.

He descended the shifting stairs with a smile on his face as he thought about the couple.

“Ah, to be young and in love,” he thought.

Little did he know Hermione was so pissed off at Severus for not only letting her oversleep but then disappearing without a word that it was quite likely she’d be young and incarcerated if she caught up to him.

Luckily for Severus, she didn’t.

*****************************************
A/N: Hmmm. Albus visiting Rubin eh, and bringing Severus along. This meeting ought to be interesting. Lol about Severus imagining Hermione in a cage of transforming werewolves. Thanks for reading.