What Are Friends For?

Disclaimer: JKR owns the rights to anything you recognize in this fic. I wish I did, but alas! Life is like a box of Bertie Bott's. Sometimes you get chocolate fudge, sometimes you get earwax.

AN: Only one more chapter after this one. I will upload it sometime next week. I've uploaded a new icon to my [user profile], I rather like it. Happy reading.

It felt as if a bucket of cold water had been emptied over his head. Don't panic... he told himself, maybe she had just followed him into the store when he was away for too long. He turned on his heel and swept up and down every aisle of the Apothecary.

She wasn't there.

He repeated the search. Maybe he had just missed her around the corner of an aisle. "Aurelia?" he called, resolutely ignoring the edge of panic in his voice.

"May I help you?" a junior assistant asked him as he started his third circuit of the shop.

"Have you seen a little girl? She was sitting on that bench by the door."

"No, I'm afraid not. My shift started ten minutes ago and that bench was empty when I arrived."

Severus stormed out onto the street, darting into the surrounding shops, asking if anyone had seen his daughter. On one such trip into Flourish & Blotts, he bumped into the last person he expected to see.

***

"Steady on there! Look where you're goi... Severus?" Remus' frown turned to wide-eyed surprise when Severus grabbed at his robes.

"She is gone. Gods, Remus! I just turned around for a few minutes and she was gone!" The use of his first name wasn't lost on Remus. The man in front of him seemed close to collapse, his face oddly pale yet flushed at the same time. He had never seen him like this, not even at the final battle.

"Who?"

"Aurelia! I left her on the bench. I told her to wait!" Severus moaned in despair. "I should have taken her with me. Oh Merlin."

"Don't worry, we'll find her. Take the left side of the street and I'll take the right. She couldn't have wandered off too far."

***

The two men scrambled up and down Diagon Alley, asking passers-by about a little girl in a pink and green striped sundress. Most shook their heads in the negative, but one or two leads brought them out onto Charing Cross Road in Muggle London outside the Leaky Cauldron.

Severus barged into the bookstore that flanked the Leaky Cauldron, moving swiftly between the shelves. His heart leapt into his throat when he heard Lupin calling to him from outside. He rushed across the street, barely avoiding a Muggle taxi, trading quite a few of his own choice expletives with the driver who'd nearly flattened him.

Lupin was grinning like an idiot when Severus reached him. "I am glad my near-demise brings you so much pleasure, Lupin," he growled.

Lupin rolled his eyes at him and pointed through the display window of the store. It was a Muggle electrical appliance shop by the looks of it. Demonstration models of many strange contraptions with 'mains leads' snaking into 'wall sockets' lined the display shelves, and there, in front of a wall of 'televisions', was a little bushy-haired girl, blissfully hopping and dancing along to the moving images on the screens.

"Gods!" Severus cried as he fumbled with the door. When he reached his daughter he swept her up in his arms, hugging her tightly to him. "Aurelia," he whispered hoarsely, relief muting his voice.

She was squirming in his grasp. "Look, Daddy! Look! It's the Teletubbies! Just like at Gran's house!"

His overwrought mind reeled. What the hell was a 'tellatubby'? His arms felt numb and he flashed Lupin a look of gratitude when he took Aurelia from him.

"Hi, Pumpkin!" Lupin smiled over-enthusiastically, twirling her around a bit. "How's my favourite girl today?"

"Uncle Remus!" she squealed in delight. "I got buttons! A nice lady gave them to me." She thrust the crumpled paper packet at Lupin.

"That was very nice of her." The corners of his pale blue eyes crinkled as he smiled at her, his greying goatee exaggerating the motion of his mouth.

With Aurelia still sitting on his arm, jabbering about her buttons, Lupin grabbed hold of Severus' elbow and firmly steered him out of the shop. The Muggles were starting to give the two oddly-clothed men curious glances. Had Severus not been so relieved at finding Aurelia, he would have snarled at Lupin.

Once they were back in the Leaky Cauldron, Severus took Aurelia from Lupin and sat her on the bar. "Why did you not wait for me, Aurelia? I asked you to wait."

She'd gone very quiet, her small packet of buttons clutched in front of her like a shield. "I... I'm sorry, Daddy."

"You scared me half to death. Why did you disobey me?"

Her eyes had grown large, tears welling dangerously. "I... I'm... sorry... D...Daddy." A small hiccough sent the first of them rolling over her cheeks.

He gathered her against his chest with a sigh. "Daddy is not angry, Aurelia... I was just very frightened when I could not find you... I thought I would never find you again."

"Would it make you sad, Daddy?" she whispered against his black robes, sniffling softly.

Severus thought it an odd question. He squeezed her tightly before he answered, "That would have made me very sad indeed."

Rubbing her back soothingly, he looked up at Lupin. He had no choice. By this time the base potion was ruined - he'd have to start over again. He had to ask him. "Lupin... I need a favour."

***

And that was how Lupin ended up sitting on his living room floor, entertaining his freshly bathed and pyjama-ed daughter while Severus brewed the Wolfsbane potion for him. Lupin had been kind enough to make them an early dinner, although Severus doubted that spaghetti bolognaise was the best meal to serve a four year old. She had been covered in sauce by the end of the meal because of her and Lupin's 'sketti slurping contest'.

The door to his lab stood open in case Aurelia needed him, but he doubted whether she would with 'Uncle Remus' around. The sandy haired man wasn't afraid of playing the fool for his daughter, leaving her in peals of laughter with his antics. The odd quiet that had descended on the adjoining room made Severus perk up his ears.

"What's Daddy doing, Uncle Remus?"

"He's brewing me a potion, Auri."

"Are you ill?"

"Not all the time... but I do get very ill every once in a while."

"Does Daddy's potion make you better?"

There was a pause. "Your daddy's potion saves my life. I am very lucky that he is clever enough to make it for me."

"Yes, my Daddy is very clever, isn't he, Uncle Remus?" Severus could hear the childlike pride in her voice; it clutched at his heart.

"Oh, very clever indeed," Lupin agreed. Severus wondered how he had ever hated that kind-hearted and soft-spoken man. Yes... there had been that whole 'trying to kill him while being a murderous monster' episode, but they were boys then and it hadn't been Lupin's doing. Through their work for the Order and their fighting side-by-side during the final battle, the two men had developed an indefinable relationship. Severus had stubbornly refused to call it 'friendship', but he could tell from the knowing smile whenever Lupin greeted him, that they both knew that was exactly what it was. It came as no surprise when Lupin was best man at their wedding and only certain... health issues, had kept Severus from insisting that Lupin be Aurelia's godfather. The honour had passed to Potter, to his immeasurable irritation.

"Mummy!" Aurelia's squeal made him start.

"Hi, Sweetie! How are you? Mummy's missing you so much," Hermione's voice rang out from the living room. "Hi, Remus – what a pleasant surprise! What are you doing there?" There was a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Hi, Hermione. I'm just helping out a bit while Severus is busy."

"Speaking of which... where is Severus?"

He marched out into the living room like a doomed man. "Here I am. How is the convention?" he asked, kneeling in front of the hearth where Hermione's head was floating amidst green flames. Lupin had discreetly vacated the room, taking Aurelia to the bathroom to brush her teeth before bed.

"My...? Oh, yes, it is going well. I've been meeting a lot of interesting people. It is wonderful to be among people who are passionate about my work. My lecture is tomorrow afternoon." Hermione's eyes sparkled with barely suppressed excitement. "So... why is Remus there? I thought you said you could 'handle a four year old'?" She smiled impishly up at him.

"I... There was a slight miscalculation on my time. I had to restart the base potion. Lupin was kind enough to watch Aurelia while I worked."

"A miscalculation?" Her smile faded. "What happened?"

Severus drew in a deep steadying breath. She would find out sooner or later; far better to tell her himself. "Aurelia wandered off in Diago-"

"She... WHAT!"

Severus Snape, who had stood unafraid before the Dark Lord many times, cringed. "She was only gone for about fifteen minutes. She did not even know she was lost."

"That's it, I'm coming home." She made as if to pull back in order to step through the hearth. "I can't believe you lost her. I'm not leaving her ever again. I do-"

"Hermione!" His annoyed voice cut through her muttering and she froze. "There is no need for you to come home." His scowl softened. "I want you to stay and give your lecture. Aurelia is fine. The potion is fine – Lupin will be able to take it with him when he leaves."

She looked up at him for a long moment and then gave him a shaky smile. "I'm just missing you both so terribly. I can't wait to come home."

"I miss you too..." he murmured. She blew him a kiss before the hearth went dead.

***

"Auri's in bed, dropped straight off to sleep." Lupin was standing in the doorway of the lab. "Was she angry?"

"Livid," Severus sighed, adding the aconite to the gently bubbling potion. "This needs to simmer for two hours. Join me in a drink?"

The two men talked over several snifters of brandy, reminiscing about the past and wondering about the future. The time passed quickly, much to both's dismay. Severus decanted the potion into phials, ready for use.

"Are you sure you will not stay, Lupin? It is late, and Hermione has gone to a considerable amount of trouble decorating the guest room we never use."

When Lupin unstoppered and drank down one of the phials immediately, he had his answer. "Not tonight... I don't think it would be..." his eyes flickered down the hall to Aurelia's room, "...safe."

"As you wish... old friend." Severus squeezed Lupin's shoulder. "You must visit when you are well. Aurelia loves having you here."

"But you don't?" Lupin's pale blue eyes twinkled with mischief.

Severus sighed theatrically. "If the women in my life require me to tolerate your presence, I will of course have to acquiesce or have a mutiny on my hands," he drawled, but his eyes glittered with suppressed mirth. "I... am very grateful for the help today, Lupin."

Lupin smiled. "What are friends for?" He shook Severus' hand and declined the offer of accompanying him to the Apparation point. Severus nodded grimly in understanding and securely locked and bolted the door once Lupin's shadow had disappeared up the stairs.

My work will always show up on the Petulant Poetess first (if not exclusively).