Work Text:
“Tell me you did not.” Severus’ office door is forced open without permission, and Remus limps his way in, cane long forgotten in face of his righteous indignation and arm full of essays.
“I am afraid you will have to be more clear,” He places aside his grading quill and steeples his fingers together, resting his chin on them with a raised eyebrow.
“I thought we were alright? I thought- Severus, you stayed the night in my quarters, you allowed me to invade your space. We had made up, moved on. And still you are risking my job by assigning them this essay?” The pile of scrolls is dropped unceremoniously on his desk, but he does not need to open them to know they all contain.
“ We are perfectly fine, I have forgiven you for what happened during our school years, I have allowed myself to be weak with you, indulge in you,” not even the way his voice drops and eyes lower is enough to distract Remus from his goal of answers, it seems, “but I am, ultimately, in charge of looking out for my students’ best interests. And it is in their best interests to know what threats are there in their lives.”
“Threat? I would never hurt a student, I would never do anything that would endanger any of them.”
“You cannot be certain. In fact, that is a bold faced lie. Twice already, you have forgotten a day of your wolfs-bane, once you did not enact the spells meant to keep you contained should something go wrong, and let us not forget your horrid habit of acting first and thinking later. What if something were to happen? And you forget your potion on the most crucial day?”
“These are all what if situations, you are catastrophizing, you are- you are being unnecessarily critical of me. Did I do something wrong? Are you trying to push me away?” Remus moves around the desk and stops just next to Severus, reaching out to touch his face.
Severus pulls just out of his reach and stands as well, wanting to be on equal footing with him. “No, I simply know you. I know how you act, how you think. I… enjoy having you around, being around you, but I cannot let that make me complacent. I told Albus it was unwise to take you on, not because you are a werewolf, not because I think you would purposefully hurt the kids or a fellow professor, but because you are you. And with everything happening this year..”
“You still think I am or will help Sirius..” Remus lets his hand fall between them and scoffs, “After everything we have talked about and worked through you still think I would choose him over everyone else.” The words taste like ash in his throat. He wants to believe that he would have sense, wants to think that if faced with the choice he would do the right thing and turn Sirius in. But he knows, deep down in his chest he knows that he would hear him out, try to find an explanation for everything that happened twelve years ago.
“Exactly,” Remus looks away when he realizes that Severus could all but read his train of thought on his face and sighs.
“You are being unfair. My entire career and reputation are on the line, for what? A possibility?”
“A possibility that has a high chance of happening. He has already broken into the castle once, and you just sat here and all but admitted to not being strong enough to turn away from him should he come to you. And we have already proven that you mess up when it comes to taking your potion. You are a liability-”
“Wow,” Remus pushes away from the desk and shakes his head, “honestly, Severus, I don't know why I expected more from you. Better. You cannot allow yourself to have one good thing can you? You are just reaching, searching for any reason to stop seeing me.”
“This has nothing to do with us,” Severus' voice is sharp. He will not allow his worries to be diminished to something as adolescent as fear of a budding relationship. “I was honest with you when I said I wanted to try again, finish what we never got a chance to explore when we were younger. But I have a duty to the students, and that will always come before any relationship, especially one so new.”
~
“..and that will always come before any relationship, especially one so new.” Harry had to fight to contain the squeak that wanted to break out of his throat. He had come down to Snape’s quarters for the weekly check in. It was sort of an arrangement they had. Harry checks in with Snape once a week, unloads anything he thinks is happening in the school, how he's feeling, and Snape will take all his concerns seriously and never brush him off. It was something Snape started after the chamber, in an effort to get Harry to stop doing reckless things.
And just because he has stopped doing reckless things doesn't mean anything. It just means its been a boring school year.
But that's not important, what is important is all this information harry had learned. Like the fact that Snape and Professor Lupin went to school together. The fact that they sort of dated, are sort of dating.
That Professor Lupin is a werewolf.
There was a long, heavy silence before the sound of footsteps echoed faintly in the classroom. The door clicked open and Harry had just enough time to throw his cloak over himself before Lupin stormed past and disappeared up the stairs.
~
Severus sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, wasting no time to brush the DADA scrolls off his desk and onto the floor. He didn’t have time for this, whatever childish argument remus was going to-
There was a creak as his door opened again and his head snapped up, ready to begin arguing with Remus once more. But instead of the tall man, he saw a shimmer in the air and then Harry appeared.
His eyes were wide with surprise, more than likely having overheard everything. Remus was long gone. Hopefully.
The silence stretched for a moment, neither one of them sure how to start this conversation. "I did not mean for you to hear that," Severus began, his voice softer now than when he had spoken to Remus. "But I will not take it back, it was the truth."
Harry stood still for a moment, letting the words sink in, and then nodded slowly. "I wasn’t going to judge you. I trust you, more than I trust him at the very least.” He glanced behind himself out towards the hallway as if he could still see Remus if he tried. “But I don't know if your..words really sunk in, with him.
"I know," Severus sighed, his shoulders dropping and his back bowing as he slumps in his seat, "but I’m done waiting for him to understand. I’ve said what needed to be said."
Harry took a step forward, offering a small, awkward smile before he took his usual seat across from Severus. "That’s all you can really do I suppose," they still hadn’t said it, what Remus was, what that meant for everyone in the castle.
“These meetings are about you, I apologize. Get on with it then.” Severus fixed his posture and then gave Harry his full attention, arms crossed gently over his chest and expression.. Not exactly soft but not severe.
“Well you won’t believe who Blaise Zabini was spotted with yesterday-”