Mooning

Mooning

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Hermione's legs buckled as she landed. She crawled onto a nearby couch and lay down, her ribs and muscles aching, and her head thumping. Lying back against the cushion, she gazed up at the ornate plasterwork on the ceiling. As the swirling nausea of a dodgy Apparition settled, her mind cleared a little. She stared up more intently, focusing, then dragged her eyes down and looked around the room.

This was not where she had intended to go. When she had left, her only thought was to return home.

She looked around the large room with its high, corniced ceiling and bay window. Hugging her arms around her, she tried to work out what had happened. This was not her chic, little apartment overlooking the port at Marseilles, which had been her home for several years during her time as a Poisons mistress.

She had to admit the place she had arrived in felt more familiar to her than her French home. It was chilled, as if no one had been in the room for some time, but it felt homely. Even though it was unexpected, it made sense for her to be back here in the Edinburgh flat.

Her gaze drifted over the familiar clutter. Remus had never learned to pick up after himself, and it looked as if he had just left the room. Sadness welled up inside her as she realised he would not be walking back through the door, all smiles and hugs. He had left here for the final battle several years ago and had never returned. Having had contact with his younger self so recently, Hermione felt the loss acutely.

Sniffing back her tears, she rose from the sofa and limped around the room, touching familiar objects as she went. On the mantelpiece was the cheap, souvenir Scottish piper Remus had won at Lammas Fair. She smiled at the memory of his delight when he had won it honestly without using magic. When pressed, the bagpipes played Scotland the Brave, and Hermione hummed along to the tinny tune.

Standing next to it was a small plastic unicorn with a chocolate wrapper tucked under its hoof. She took the scrap of silvered paper and carefully smoothed it out. It still carried its message in Snape's spiky script. To warm your soul.

She sighed and held it close against her heart, as she had done on many previous occasions. It made her feel better.

Hermione drifted through to the kitchen, looking for something to eat. Grime and dust covered the surfaces. Nobody had been here for a long time, perhaps not since the final battle. She banished the contents of the fridge without a second thought and cast a Cleaning Charm on the bench tops. Opening the cupboards, she rummaged through the tinned food for something to eat. Cold baked beans, followed by canned peaches and condensed milk. Perfect.

Carrying the food back to the living room, she sat down in the window seat, looking down onto the grey, rain-lashed, cobbled street. Passers-by had their anorak hoods up or carried brollies, held low against the driving rain. The scene was a typical, dismal Scottish autumn. Hermione shivered, as if she too could feel the snell wind. Pulling her collar up did little to dispel the chill, and she was still too weak to maintain a Warming Charm.

Instead, she wandered through to a bedroom. Briefly, she considered lying down on the bed, but it didn't feel right. Taking a plump downie off the bed, she wrapped it around her shoulders. A pair of woollen socks hung out of an open drawer. Hermione picked them up, sniffed them, and, finding them not too malodorous, pulled them on over her cold feet.

Snagging a book from the bedside table, she shuffled back through to the living room, looking for somewhere to make herself comfortable until she felt strong enough to leave the house. The bars of Lupin's cage caught her eye, reminding her of the werewolf. She dragged a couple of large cushions into the enclosure and snuggled down to read, feeling secure and closer to Remus as she did.

Her mind would not stay focused on her reading and kept wandering off. Her eyes scanned the room again. Fondly, she recalled the time she had spent here with Severus and Remus. She realised those days had passed, and now she would have to look forward to her future alone, without either of them.

Hermione assured herself, she was relieved to be back in the present day. The threat of Voldemort was gone completely, but still an involuntary shudder ran over her. She had been certain she would die from his beating.

Severus had saved her, twice: once by sending her back, and the second time by healing her at his own home. How had she repaid him? She had demanded to touch him and forced her kisses on him. Groaning with embarrassment, she rolled onto her back, flinging an arm across her eyes.

She would have to thank him when she was strong enough to face him again. Not knowing where he lived might be a bit of a problem. She had only seen the inside of his bedroom. It would be highly inappropriate for her to Apparate back there thought Hermione with a grimace. Owling him would be wrong, too. What was the etiquette for thanking someone for saving your life in such a complex situation?

As darkness fell, Hermione dozed, and the moon rose above the tenement roofs. Peeking from behind the dispersing, dark clouds, it looked like Snape's Blaze appearing from behind his Dark Mark. The full moon's cool, silver light shone through the open curtains.

Smoothly, the barred door of the enclosure slid closed and locked with a click. Jerked awake by the soft sound, Hermione scrambled to her feet. She knew before she even rattled the bars she was locked in.

A quiet snigger from the other side of the room startled her. Reaching for her wand, she found it had gone, and anxiety roiled through her gut.

"Whatever happened to constant vigilance, Miss Granger?"

Her wand twirled slowly between Snape's agile fingers. She closed her eyes, thought hard of her French apartment and spun on her heel to Disapparate.

At the end of her turn she opened her eyes, only to find herself still in Lupin's cage, looking out through the bars at an amused Snape.

"Have you forgotten the charms you set to stop Lupin from Disapparating, after that disastrous time he escaped?"

Kicking the bars hard, Hermione swore furiously. The Anti-apparition Charms meant she was stuck until morning. She sat down heavily on her cushions, drawing her knees up and folding her arms across them.

"What do you want, Snape?" She dropped her forehead down onto her forearms, sighing.

"I came to check on you."

"It took you a while. I can't have been high on your list of priorities," she grumbled without looking at him.

"You didn't exactly let me know where you were going. I've been to France and to your parents' place in Australia. I even endured a visit to the Burrow." Severus shuddered slightly. He gazed around the room. "I haven't been back here since Lupin died, so I didn't think of it straight away. I suppose this is in your more recent memory, rather than the other places. I should have thought of that."

Hermione nodded.

Approaching the cage, Severus put one hand on the bars and held her wand out to her with his other hand. She snatched it from him, quickly tucking it up her sleeve as she shuffled back out of reach.

"Are you all right?" he enquired.

"I'm fine. Temporarily incarcerated, as you can see, but fine. Thank you."

"What were you doing in there?"

"I just felt a bit sad and... lonely. This reminded me of Remus and..."

"Still mooning over the werewolf, I see," Severus sneered.

Hermione leapt to her feet, grabbing the bars and shouting, "Piss off, Snape. I can't believe you're still jealous of a dead man. You prat!" She slammed a hand against the steel.

"Well..."

"...and you know how I felt... feel."

"Actually..."

"...and you've got your own witch now, so just go away and leave me alone."

"I..."

"Please, don't do this to me. I'm confused enough as it is with the time travel. Go back to your own life. Go!" She leant her head against the cage.

Severus slipped his hand through the bars and, with a finger under her chin, tilted Hermione's face up. "Are you finished shouting at me, you stroppy bint?" he asked, his tone more gentle than she expected. She scarcely nodded.

"We need to talk."

Hermione huffed a laugh. "I've heard that before."

"Indeed." Snape smirked. "This time there will be no interruptions. No emergencies, no interfering bosses."

"Won't your witch wonder where you are?"

"She knows exactly where I am."

"She won't mind?"

Severus rolled his eyes. "As I was saying... nobody can interrupt us here. This place is still Secret Kept. Only you and I hold the Secret."

"After all this time? Why didn't you tell anyone else?"

"It was safer for Lupin that way. He led a dangerous life with one foot in each camp. Lucky he was a werewolf. It gave him more feet than the rest of us."

"I don't understand."

"Why do you think you were sent back?"

"To help you? To ensure Remus helped you."

"Wrong. It was to help Lupin. He was the lynchpin of the whole fight against Voldemort. It wasn't me or the Potter boy. Lupin was the man in every camp. He ferried information from the Death Eaters to the Order of the Phoenix and from the rogue werewolves to the allied werewolves. Did you never wonder why he looked so ragged? My role was to support him, help make his Wolfsbane, heal his wounds, and protect him as much as I could. A man like that needs a friend."

"You did an excellent job, Severus. None of your students ever suspected you were helping Remus before the Final Battle, let alone were friends with him. But why send me?"

"You were needed for your Potions and Poisons skills, to improve the Wolfsbane, and make Lupin's life a little easier. There were several possible agents, but Joanna thought you fitted the requirements best."

"I've done my job, now you can let me go."

"I can't."

"Let me go, Snape!" Hermione rattled the bars.

"I can't. The cage will stay locked until the moon sets. You know that."

"Then, you can just go now. I'll be fine. Go home to your life, Severus."

"Not before you give me some answers."

Hermione ran a hand through her unruly locks. A faint, silver glint caught Snape's eye. His hand snaked between the bars and grabbed her wrist.

"What's this?" He held her wrist firmly as he examined the silvered whorls on her thumb pad.

"I've had that for ages."

"I never noticed it before."

Hermione drew her hand back, looking closer at her thumb. "It's brighter than usual. Maybe it's the moonlight catching it."

"Remus had the same, but his was fainter."

"I've had it ever since you got the Blaze. I suppose it's staining from touching the Unicorn's blood. Did Lily have it too?"

"She never really touched me afterwards."

Hermione swallowed and looked away. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's old history."

"But Voldemort has just ordered the Potters... Gads, this time travel really screws with my head." Hermione scrubbed a hand over her face. "I wonder why Remus had the silvering on his thumb."

"He put his thumb on the Blaze to soothe the pain, soon after it happened."

"Really? He cared for you after you had the Blaze? That means he probably had some sort of bond with you, which would explain a lot. The old texts said you should be cared for by your mate in order to start the sealing."

"How do you know so much about my Blaze?"

"I was there, remember."

"No, I didn't remember."

Hermione chewed her lip as she thought. "Your memory loss must have something to do with the protection of the Blaze. It protects the Blazed person and their mate."

"That information wasn't in the old parchments."

"No. That came straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. I went back and spoke with Douglas."

"Douglas?"

"Douglas... The unicorn." Hermione smiled at Snape's sceptical look. "What did you expect? Something pseudo-latinate or a faerie name? He was Scottish."

"That doesn't explain my memory issues... or, perhaps it does." Severus raised an enquiring eyebrow.

"You're aware that unicorns mate for life? They're immensely protective of each other, and should one die, their mate will perish also."

"That's O.W.Ls level knowledge," Snape replied tersely.

"Bear with me. What if the Blaze gives the same kind of bond?"

"You mean, whoever cared for me afterwards should be my life partner?"

Hermione nodded.

"That means Lupin?"

Hermione nodded again. Snape sat down hard on the floor.

"Are you really saying the wolfman was my mate, bonded for life?"

Another nod.

"Now, that's where your theory falls down, because he's dead, and I'm not. Explain that, Miss Know-it-all."

"He died protecting you."

"He did not. The daft wizard gave me a hug in the middle of a battle..."

"Putting himself in the line of the fatal curse intended for you, you ingrate."

Snape frowned, shaking his head slightly. "But he died, and I didn't."

"In order to seal the bond permanently, the relationship must be consummated. Did you... um... did you ever... you and he?"

"No. We never did."

"Remus would have, you know. He loved you dearly, Severus."

"I am aware of that, but it never felt quite right for me. There was always something missing, as if I was waiting for something more, or someone else. He and I were mates, not mates. Besides..." His voice hitched a little. With emotions churning inside his chest, Severus covered his face with his hands as his shoulders started to shake.

Hermione crouched down to his level, laying a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Besides which," Snape continued, snorting, "he would have wanted it doggy style!" Laughter escaped from behind his hands.

Hermione slapped his arm. "Grow up, Snape! You're so childish. That's not funny," she admonished, an unexpected giggle bubbling up within her.

As he calmed himself, Severus wiped a tear from his eye and smiled at her ruefully. "I haven't laughed like that since Remus died. I miss him. We had a couple of decades as the closest of friends, and it has been very lonely for the past few years without him."

Pulling a hanky out of her pocket, Hermione handed it through the bars.

Severus stared at the small scrap of material, before taking it from her. "How many times has this passed between us now?"

"Don't you remember, Severus?"

"So many memories returned in a rush last night. I've not had much sleep, waiting for you, then looking for you, so I haven't had time to sort it all out in my head."

Summoning a sofa closer with a quick wave of his wand, he stretched out and made himself comfortable. "This is like déjà vu. I wonder how often I've sat on this couch, waiting for the cage to open. I'll keep you company until it does."

Tiredness encouraged his eyelids to droop, and Severus was soon sleeping, lulled by the familiar surroundings and the low hum of the caged witch muttering to herself. She wasn't going anywhere in a hurry, and they could talk in the morning.

A/N: Thanks for the beta work go to Sunny33.