Chapter 43: The Potions Master's Lament

The Corridors, Hogwarts Castle, Wizarding World...

Professor Lupin had been making his way briskly through the corridors toward the Slytherin dungeons. He had not planned to spend much of his week venturing between there and Gryffindor tower but it couldn't be helped. The previous night, Severus had come to him with a distraught expression on his sallow pale face, he had been splattered with blood and his hear rate had climbed significantly as he raced toward the Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor's office. It didn't take Lupin long to deduce that something was seriously wrong, the dour wizard had come out without his shirt and coat of Merlin's sake.

For the first time since they had been children attending Hogwarts Severus Snape proceeded to shock the sheepish werewolf by asking for his assistance.

"Severus?" Lupin had said opening the door.

His inquisitive brown eyes taking in the weary sight of the Potions Professor.

"L-Lupin..." Snape paused as if he were willing himself to do the unthinkable. "I-I need your help."

The stunned DADA Professor simply nodded unable to get over the shock quick enough.

"W-What ever you need." he managed finally.

What Snape needed had to do with them rushing off to the dungeons where a frantic looking Hermione sat quietly on a green sofa as they entered the front room of Snape's Quarters.

"Miss Granger." said Lupin out of politeness.

She flashed him a weak smile in greeting as Snape dashed into the mysterious second bedroom of his quarters. Had Snape always had a second bedroom?"

Lupin shook himself from his thoughts and ventured with the Potions Professor into the room.

His brown eyes widened when he took in the sight of a kneeling Severus at the bed side of what appeared to be a sleeping Draco Malfoy. The teenage Slytherin's neat blond hair had been tinged with blood at the tips and he had been sweating profusely beneath a thin white sheet. He had looked more pale than usual and the spot that held his limp form had been pooled in sweat.

"Severus." said Lupin in disbelief. "What have you done?"

"It was an accident." said Hermione coming to her lover's defense. "We didn't know Draco was there...and then he made a noise...Severus couldn't control himself."

Snape looked rather wearily at the bushy haired witch. Lupin had never before seen the Potions Master so low, he had known first hand how it felt to be responsible for the curse of another and now here was Severus suffering from the same fate.

"What can I do?" he asked in a sorrowful tone.

Lupin sighed.

"There isn't much you can beyond this point." he replied in an equally sorrowful tone. "We'll just have to wait it out."

"And if he dies?" asked Snape through gritted teeth.

"We inform his parents." replied Lupin. "But should he live and become like us...you will be responsible for him, you are his godfather after all...and at that point telling his parents becomes his choice."

Snape said nothing but nodded in appreciation of Lupin's guidance. He may not have been anything special on the outside but he has lived with this curse far longer than anyone else in the immediate company. }

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Presently, Lupin had entered Snape's quarters and made his way into the second bedroom. It had been three days since Draco's initial infection. It was only a matter of time before he transformed at the full moon if he contracted the disease.

Snape had been at the sleek blond haired wizard's bedside.

A large glass of water with a bendable straw had been in his mouth as he proceeded to drain it indefinitely.

"I-I'm still thirsty Uncle." said Draco in a weary tone.

Snape nodded and again conjured more water for the boy.

Draco drank it down and smiled at the solemn faces that surrounded him.

"You can all calm down." he said finishing off the water. "I'm not at death's door."

Hermione said nothing as she looked down at the floor. Her feelings about Draco Malfoy had been put on the back-burner due to Severus being concerned.

"Not even a quip from you, Granger?" he said with a smirk. "Whatever is going on must be serious if you're quiet."

Snape turned his attention to Lupin.

"He's been awake for some time now." he said.

The junior Malfoy sat up revealing the strangely healed bite on his shoulder as the sheet slipped from his exposed pale chest.

"I-I was going to wait a bit for this but...do you have anything to eat Uncle, I'm practically starved." said Draco as if nothing had occurred.

Snape nodded and left the room.

Hermione and Lupin both watched the boy attentively.

"I don't much like Gryffindors staring at me." grumbled the young Slytherin wizard. "Haven't you both got puppies to cuddle or kittens to save from a tree?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. It seemed Severus wasn't the only Slytherin to remain a complete git even when hurt. She guessed Draco had gotten it honest with two Slytherin parents and Severus being his godfather and Head Of House.

Draco smirked noting her irritation and his face tensed as he caught a scent that had previously been unavailable to him.

"What smells like...wet dog?" he asked wrinkling his nose as his eyes went from Hermione to Lupin.

The sheepish werewolf tried not to take offense to the boy's comments. Though there was no doubt in his mind that Draco too was infected. Severus had transmitted the disease of lycanthropy via his saliva it seemed.

Draco perked up when Snape returned with a plate of rare steaks.

"Wow!" he said appreciating the delicacy.

Within moments of the meal being sat before him, the junior Malfoy began to tear into the bloodied steaks. Snape shook his head. It seemed Draco would be his permanent roommate now that he had awakened.

Lupin had stuck around to asked more questions and Draco blatantly ignored him. His issue with he sheepish werewolf being that he knew all about that little attack on his godfather and why Snape had been acting so strangely. What he didn't know was how Hermione Granger fit into all of this. She had certainly been no werewolf and yet she seemed at home with them.

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Later.....

Hermione had been near asleep when night fell finding her sharing Snape's sitting room with the dour wizard passed out on the large green sofa with his head in her lap and Draco curled up by the fireplace looking ever comically like a proper little dog. She sighed as she continued to gently run her fingers across The Potions Professor's sleeping face. She wondered how the Malfoys were going to take being informed that their precious baby boy was quite possibly a werewolf or like one it seemed.

Snape further stretched causing her hand to move down his cheek.

"Severus." said the bushy haired witch softly in a bid not to wake Draco.

Although, that had been easier said than done with Draco's apparently acute sense of hearing. She wondered just how the cheeky little snake was going to use these new found "gifts" to his advantage, given that he was still very much a Slytherin.

Snape shifted once more clearly unable to find comfort on the sofa.

His obsidian eyes opened and met the amber ones of Hermione as she watched him.

He offered her a weak smirk before sitting up and stretching. His eyes landed on Draco curled up on his rug.

"Draco, got to bed." he said in a gruff tone.

Draco simply sat up and did some stretching of his own then proceeded to make his way to the secondary bedroom that had become his by default.

Once the junior Malfoy had gone she turned her attention to Severus.

"H-How did you know he wasn't sleeping?" she asked him.

Snape smirked.

"If you were Draco and as nosy as he, would you be asleep when you can possibly witness your Head of House and a rival house member..."snogging" as your friend Weasley aptly puts it?" he asked.

Hermione thought for a moment.

"No." she replied.

"Good answer." he replied. "Spoken like a Slytherin in fact."

Hermione narrowed her amber eyes at him.

"If I do speak like a Slytherin then that just means you're a bad influence on me." she said in her own defense.

Snape chuckled at this.

"Maybe." he replied suddenly scooping her into his arms.

Hermione giggled a bit before she found herself with her back pressed against the sofa. Snape captured her lips in a series of heated kisses and she returned them.

"W-What about Draco?" she asked feeling the familiar sensation of intoxication from his overwhelming passion.

Snape let out a low growl.

"Sod Draco." he said with his eyes ablaze with that familiar wolfish glow.

"Severus." said Hermione stopping him briefly. "I've got to get back...it's late and Professor McGonagall will come looking..."

"Sod McGonagall." replied Snape digging his fingernails into the green sofa's cushions.

He proceeded to kiss the now whimpering witch about the neck. It seemed the beast that resided within him had been hell bent on reclaiming it's mate, of course the floo call he had received telling him of Headmaster Dumbledore's incoming visit had been the only thing that restored the Potions Master's rational mind.

Hermione tried her best to stifle her giggles when Snape immediately snapped to his feet and ventured toward his desk. He quickly wrote the bushy haired witch a hall pass and she was out the door before the Headmaster came stepping through the floo.

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"Severus...my boy." he said in a jovial tone. "I'm afraid I have some news concerning, Mr. Malfoy."

Snape rolled his eyes.

"Well, get on with it." replied the irate Professor. "I am a man that insists on hearing bad news first."

Dumbledore's blue eyes held their usual unsettling twinkle.

"Draco Malfoy, is bunking with you indefinitely." he said. "And The Malfoys will be here come morning to speak of his condition...I've taken the liberty of filling them in."

Snape's obsidian eyes widened.

"YOU DID WHAT!?" he shouted annoyed beyond reproach.

"I said I've taken the liberty of informing them of their son's condition." said Dumbledore as if it had merely been a trivial thing. "So all you need to concern yourself with is speaking with them come morning."

Snape knew there was no point in telling the Headmaster how much of an idiot he was being. Draco's situation should have been explained to them with tact and a bit of conventional black mail. Now the ball had been in their court so to speak, if they wanted to retaliate all they would have to do is inform the dark lord of his lycanthropy.

Dumbledore sighed.

"There is just no pleasing you is there Severus?" he asked sounding a bit disappointed.

"On the contrary Headmaster, I enjoy having my head on the chopping block allowing more risk is sure to make it more memorable once my execution is at hand." he replied bitterly.

Dumbledore sighed.

"Don't be so dramatic." he said.

"Look who's talking." replied Snape bitterly.

With that, the Headmaster took his leave of the now visibly irate Potions Professor.

Draco had apparently heard the conversation and noted the impossible situation his uncle had been put in. He felt very badly for disobeying him, it had been abundantly clear that if he had only listened then they would not be in this mess.

Snape downed nearly the entire bottle of fire whiskey and grabbed a handful of floo powder.

"Malfoy Manor." he said bitterly.

The emerald flames danced and in an instant he had been gone.

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Draco had hoped his father had not been too harsh on the dour Professor. He had been going through quite enough as it was struggling with his werewolf status. Taking a moment to gather his own courage, the sleek blond haired Slytherin grabbed a handful of floo powder and made his way to Malfoy Manor as well.

When he stepped through he could hear the sound of angry shouting. It didn't take long to note that the voices had belonged to his mother and father.