Never Surrender [ Snape x Lupin ]

Chapter Two

Snape woke up way after his usual time, it was probably close to noon. He looked down to find Remus still sleeping on his chest in a curious position, something about his hands still resembled a wolf sleeping. The Slytherin hated the idea of waking him up so he got out of bed slowly and started doing some things like taking a bath and putting some clothes on. Early baths on the winter weren't his thing but they were dirty from the woods.

Noticing Lupin couldn't be possibly awakened by anything less than a howler on his ears, Snape ate his lunch on the Great Hall and brought some things for his visitor, who was still asleep two hours later. Snape started and finished correcting the tests of the second year students and was about the check if Lupin was alive and breathing when he heard low howl coming from the inner chambers, where his bed and bathroom were. The sound molded with a human yawn and he knew Remus was awake.

Remus woke up confused, not recognizing where he was for the first moments. His memories came back all at once when he saw Snape's clothes on the other side of the bed and recognized the warming potion on the bookshelf.

"Merlin, what was I thinking?" he said out loud looking at his wrist that had a new cut and bruise, certain to find more bruises around his body. "How could I be so stupid?" he continued talking to himself

"Morning, Lupin. I bothered bringing you some things from the lunch table but maybe if you wait another hour you can go have dinner yourself" Snape said entering the room like a black shadow

"Snape! I don't even know where to begin with... Well... Maybe an apology is needed here. And a thank you" Lupin said organizing his thoughts

"Your memory seems to be affected, I already said there is no need to apologize. I... should have talked to you about this, it's my fault. Your wrist, let me take a look" Snape said approaching him as he spoke, his voice a rough silk as always

"I don't understand. I took only half the potion last night, for some crazy reason I thought..."

"You were learning how to control it," Snape said looking straight into his eyes

"This is the most stupid and irresponsible thing I've ever done in my life," Lupin said in a lament

"I came across some records regarding that behavior. It happens to be common after some months. I should have warned you about it, I could have asked what kind of side effect you were experiencing. When I realized you didn't give me the vessel back I went after you"

"Snape, don't you ever do that again!" Lupin said upset

Snape looked at him with questions on his expression.

"It's twice in my life I put you in danger when I transform. If you had arrived earlier I wouldn't recognize you, I could have killed you. Promise me you won't do that again. Please." Lupin's face was carved with sorrow. "And it's not your fault. I'm the one who did this, it was never your responsibility to learn more about my condition, I should have been the one doing all the reading and -"

"Enough, Remus. We're safe and if you kindly decide to be more open about your side effects I can help you with additional potions. Although I'm not good repairing injured ligaments, you might want to take this to Madame Pomfrey" He said examining the wrist with a closer look

"You still haven't made the promise I asked," Lupin said still upset in a demanding way

Snape sighed deeply. "I won't make promises I can't keep. If my potion ever fails I will go after you, so you better lock the doors properly in the house"

Lupin was on the verge of telling him that if he didn't agree he would find somebody else to prepare the potion for him from now on, but he knew that was impossible. No one around was as skillful as Snape and the idea of letting more people know and having his secret spread to everyone was a nightmare just to think of. Snape observed his conflict, wishing he knew how to be kinder to him in normal circumstances.