Snupin Santa 2006 -- Bonus features
I should have had this up in January, but February isn't over yet, so I'm not doing too badly. Decided to do a bit of housekeeping and get this posted already.
Snupin Santa 2006 Bonus Features, in the manner of DVD extras
Deleted scene -- the following was my original Chapter 1 for A Sea Change By Way Of A River. In the original version, I had four and a half chapters before Snape even showed up, and when my wonderful beta, summerborn, got to chapter 5, she said, "This might sound crazy, but what if you started it here instead?" She was absolutely right, and it was incredibly easy to work it out, which shows that the earlier chapters really weren't needed for the most part. BUT I did love my original Chapter 1 for its insanity, so here it is.
1. “I regret to inform you...”
Imogene ran back to her room the shut the door behind her. Her heart was pounding wildly beneath the starched shirt, and the breeches chafed uncomfortably. She wondered briefly how men could stand wearing them every day, but she pushed the thought aside and concentrated on the intelligence she had just gleaned from the Cossack. He had been drunk, but she still could not believe he had come right out and said-
“Remus?”
Remus grabbed his wand as his eyes jerked from the words he’d been writing to the green flare of the fireplace. He let out a relieved breath when he saw Percy Weasley’s head in the flames, then inhaled sharply when he remembered that he’d closed the Floo connection just as he always did before writing. The Ministry must have reconnected his fireplace remotely, as it did in cases of emergency.
“Percy. What’s happened?”
“Remus-that is, Mr. Lupin, speaking as a representative for the Ministry, I regret to inform you-”
“Oh.” Remus slumped in his chair.
“-that a wand malfunctioned during Auror training today-”
“No.” Remus’ eyes darted towards the hallway that led to the bedrooms.
“-and that Auror Tonks has been injured in the line of duty.”
Remus stared. “She’s alive?”
Percy coughed through the flames. “Yes, a trainee was casting a Memory charm, and-oof!” Percy’s whole body exited the fireplace as Remus grabbed him by the front of his robes and hauled him upwards, setting him not-so-gently on the carpet of the study.
“You. Idiot.” Remus punctuated the last word with a shake, causing Percy’s glasses to slip down his nose. “Don’t you know that ‘I regret to inform you’ always precedes the news of someone’s death?” Remus gave him an extra shake, much more gently than he felt like doing, and then let him go, striding back and forth across the room, taking deep breaths, trying to rid his body of the panic he’d felt when he’d thought that Tonks was dead. “Where is she? What happened, and how badly injured is she? What’s been done for her? And why wasn’t I contacted immediately?”
“The Healers tried your Floo and sent an owl; you didn’t get it? Must have gone off-course.” Percy shoved his glasses back up his nose and straightened his robes. “As I was saying, a wand malfunctioned. Auror Tonks’ long-term memory was damaged. They took her to St. Mungo’s.”
Remus lowered himself to a chair as visions of Frank and Alice Longbottom swirled in his mind and the panic rose again. “I. I should go, I should be there.” He glanced towards the second storey again. “I’ll need to find someone to come over,” he said, rising, but Percy stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“She’s not there anymore.”
“Where is she?”
“She left.” He took a hasty step back before Remus could grab him by the robes again. “The Healers checked her and determined that she was fit enough to leave, so she did.”
“But why didn’t she come straight home?”
Percy shifted. “Er. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but as far as the Healers could determine, she has amnesia. It’s not severe,” he hastened to add as Remus jumped up and moved towards him. “Her magic and short-term memory are intact, but she doesn’t remember much about her life. That includes you and your son.”
“Not severe? NOT SEVERE??” Remus knew he was shouting, but couldn’t stop. He saw Percy flinch back and sucked in a deep breath, trying to get himself under control again. “I’m sorry. It’s all just….Where is she now?”
For the first time since he arrived, Percy began to look uncomfortable. “Er. Could I get a glass of water?”
Remus scowled. “Where is she, Percy?”
Percy cleared his throat. “Quibbler Hall. She thinks she’s a Stubber.”
“A St-there are no Stubbers anymore!”
“Not for Stubby Boardman, obviously, but the term has come into more general use since your time.” Remus hissed through his teeth and Percy continued quickly. “WWN was on in the waiting room at St. Mungo’s. Apparently she heard a live broadcast, decided that she was a Stubber, and left to go to the concert.”
“And the Healers let her leave in that condition?”
“They couldn’t stop her. She Disapparated. I managed to grab her and was side-alonged, but I lost her in the crowd.” He pulled at his collar. “I was hoping she would come back here after the show, at least. As her Ministry-appointed representative I’ll need to get her full statement and discuss her options for-”
“How could she come back here when she doesn’t remember it?” Remus looked around the flat. He had moved in with Tonks at her insistence, just before the war had begun in earnest. Except for the addition of some extra bookshelves, the flat had remained much as it was when it had been hers alone.
“We told her the address, and she recognized it.”
He blinked. “She remembered the address, but not her own son? Or me?”
“No. I’m sorry.” There was genuine sympathy in Percy’s voice.
Just then, there was a cracking noise from the living room. Remus whipped around to see Tonks leaning on the arm of a tall, shaggy-haired person of indeterminate gender and laughing wildly. “Tonks!” Remus headed towards her.
“Wotcher, mate.” She grinned at him, then whispered something in the ear of her companion, who nodded his or her shaggy head and Disapparated.
“Tonks, it’s me, Remus.”
Before she could answer, there were two more cracking sounds, as Hermione and Ron Apparated into the living room. “…so it could have waited,” Ron was saying. He put a hand up to his eyebrows and seemed to be relieved that they were still there.
“Ow, Ron, you’re on my foot, and no, it couldn’t have waited,” Hermione replied, then moved quickly to Remus’ side once Ron stepped away from her. “Ron told me what happened, and if there’s anything we can do, anything you need….” She did a double-take as Tonks pulled a joint out of her bra and lit it with her wand. “Oh, dear.” Remus nodded in agreement.
Another crack, and the shaggy rock personage was back, an equally shaggy friend clinging to one arm and a woman with a shaved head hanging onto the other. The two new arrivals looked around, nodded, and Disapparated. Ron and Percy were speechless. Hermione bit her lip as she looked back and forth between Remus and Tonks. Tonks handed the joint to her new friend just as a toddler ran into the room and grabbed her around the knees.
“Mummy!”
Percy, Ron, and Hermione all froze as if they’d been Petrified. Remus sucked in a breath as Tonks bent down and picked up the child. “Wotcher, sweetheart!” Relief soared through Remus, only to be cut short at her next words: “What’s your name?”
“Sijay!” the boy shouted happily.
“C.J.? Well, Christopher Jonathan or Charles Jeffrey or whoever you are, I don’t know where your mummy is…” She turned to Hermione, who shook her head rapidly, then she looked from Remus to the child and back, and smiled. “But I’m sure your grandda here will be able to find her for you.” She handed the child off to Remus, who took him without a word.
“Oh, Remus…” Hermione began, but Remus shook his head. Tonks took the joint back and bogarted the rest of it with one strong drag, then addressed the others who were staring at her open-mouthed.
“Right. I don’t know who any of you are or what you’re doing in what’s apparently my flat, but you’re all welcome to stay for the party.”
“The party?” Ron whispered. There was a crack, then another, then the air was filled with them as band members Apparated into the room with their friends, then Disapparated, only to return with more people. Within minutes, beer and firewhiskey were flowing in the kitchen and instruments were set up in the living room. Microphones and amplifiers soon followed.
Remus held onto his son tightly and watched chaos expand around him. Sijay bounced in his father’s arms, chortling at the spiky hair and studded leather and the sounds of instruments being tuned. Percy was furiously taking notes, and Ron gulped a beer that someone had put in his hand. Hermione was trying to speak to Tonks, who was ignoring her in favour of peeling off the shaggy rocker’s shirt. Hermione took a step backwards, then nearly stumbled in her haste to get away when Tonks began to undo the now-clearly-a-man’s leather trousers. Percy and Ron whirled to face the opposite wall, faces flaming.
“I think it might be time to go,” Remus murmured.
“What? Are you mad?” Hermione screeched. “You can’t leave her like this!”
“Tonks?” The music had begun and Remus had to lean forward to shout in Tonks’ ear. “Have you got condoms?” Tonks stopped on the second to last button and dug through the pockets of her jacket until she pulled out a handful of bright foil packages. She winked and handed them to Remus, who opened his mouth to refuse, but ended up stuffing them into his pocket without a word. “All right, then,” Remus said as Tonks went back to what she was doing. “She seems to know what she’s doing.”
Hermione’s mouth dropped open. “No, she doesn’t! She’s ill; she doesn’t know what she’s doing!”
“Yes, she does. I’ve seen-she used to-never mind. Just because she’s got amnesia doesn’t mean she’s crazy. I mean, look how happy she is.”
Percy, Ron, and Hermione all turned to look at Tonks. Her face was flushed and lit with a smile, but it was her hair that caught their attention. It was an ever-changing mix of colours, shimmering in rainbow waves across her head. “I haven’t seen that since….well. She’ll be alright.” Remus frowned. “But I’ll have to try to talk to her again once all these people leave and we’ve got some quiet.”
“I’ll stay,” Ron volunteered. He was already on his second beer and his eyes were glued to the two women in the corner who were kissing passionately. “I’ll let you know when everyone’s gone, so you can come back.”
“I don’t think so,” Hermione snapped. “Percy can do it.” Percy looked horrified, but spluttered agreement when Hermione elbowed him in the back.
“Thank you,” Remus said, clasping Percy’s shoulder briefly.
Percy pulled out his quill and parchment again. “Where will you be?”
Remus hesitated, and Hermione stepped in. “Our place. At least for the night,” she insisted firmly, when Remus looked like he would balk. He nodded, Summoned a bag and a few things for his son and himself, then Disapparated with Ron and Hermione. The last thing he saw was Percy attempting to politely decline a tab of acid.
* * *
And a ficlet that goes along with the main fic:
Title: Sniffing Out The Truth
Summary: Snape discovers the source of Lupin’s enticing scent.
Rating: PG-13 for making out
Word count: 649
A/N: I’d meant to include an explanation in the fic, then I forgot, but I don’t think I could have found a good place for it to go, anyway. Then I meant to write it up as a drabble, but it came out a bit longer than that. Anyway, it’s just something I wanted explained.
Thanks to summerborn for the beta. If there are mistakes, it’s because I can’t stop changing things, even after she sends them back.
“God, what is that scent?” Snape buried his face in Remus’ throat and inhaled deeply. Sijay was asleep in bed, and the two men had settled themselves in the living room, ostensibly to get some work done, but as had happened every evening, proximity led to casual caresses, then to less casual ones, and tonight it was Snape lying on top of Remus, who was flat on his back on the sofa, hands fisted in Snape’s jumper and hair. “I still can’t figure out what it is.” Snape gave an experimental lick and Remus moaned.
“There is no scent, it’s all in your mind, and please do that again.”
Snape licked the other side of Remus’ neck. “It doesn’t taste like it, but it’s got to be some kind of cologne or aftershave.”
“I don’t use them.” Remus turned his head to give him more room and began working his hands under Snape’s jumper, but Snape pushed himself up on his arms and scowled.
“If you’re not going to use depilatory charms, you really should apply some kind of lotion after scraping off the top layer of your skin.”
“Severus! Don’t stop!” Remus propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at Snape, who seemed to be waiting for a response. Remus sighed. “I can’t use any kind of creams or lotions. They give me a rash.”
“You haven’t got a rash from the lotion we’ve been using.”
“Hmm?” Remus thought for a moment, then went red, a small, embarrassed smile on his face. “Ah. That’s because you made it. Top quality.”
“Flatterer. But if that’s true,” Snape said, considering, “then I’ll make something up for you to use after you shave.”
“Thank you.”
“And it’s not cologne?”
“I couldn’t afford it, not until recently, and now I can’t find any I like. Except what you wear, and I suspect it only smells good on you.” He lifted his hand and ran his fingers down Snape’s throat.
“My own formulation.” Snape smirked and bent towards Remus’ neck again.
“Of course it is,” Remus murmured, lying back and moving his hands down to grip Snape’s arse.
“So if it’s not aftershave...then it must have been your soap.”
“Jasmine.”
“No, it’s not flowery. It’s something....” He slid further down Remus’ body so he could press his cheek against Remus’ chest and inhaled again. “Impossible to describe, but it’s how a man should smell.” He opened his eyes again. “If you’d just tell me what it is, I could duplicate it, and we’d be millionaires.”
Remus grinned. “I wish I knew, truly!”
“So, not cologne, or aftershave, or soap. Shampoo?”
“The strawberry stuff?”
Snape shuddered. “No, definitely not. Laundry soap?”
“Cleaning charms,” Remus muttered.
“Ah, yes.” Snape smirked, then turned his mind back to his question. “You don’t smoke. And other werewolves don’t have that scent, so I doubt it’s lycanthropic in origin.” He stretched up and, pressing his lips to Remus’ neck, took another long sniff. “But it’s there.” He sniffed across his collarbone and chest, and when he got to an armpit, he shouted “Ha!” in triumph. “Deodorant!”
“I don’t use any.”
“You’re joking,” he said, taking another long, satisfied sniff. “What adult male doesn’t use deodorant?”
“It gives me a rash, like aftershave does.”
“I’ll make some up for you, then.”
Remus grinned. “Are you saying I stink?”
“No, but you must....” He trailed off as the wand lit in his head.
“Severus?”
Snape blinked, and lowered his head to Remus’ chest again. “It’s you. It’s just you,” he murmured, pressing his nose into Remus’ armpit.
“Stop that, it tickles!” Remus laughed, squirming, but Snape pressed him down into the sofa.
“It’s you,” he said again in a bemused voice.
Remus stopped laughing and reached up to touch his cheek. “Is that so odd?”
“That you smell like my definition of desire? I suppose not.”
~ end ~
There may have been a few other things I forgot to include, or that didn’t quite fit into the story. If you have any questions about “A Sea Change....” please post them here and I’ll try to get them answered, either in a drabble/ficlet like the one above, or by Snape or Lupin directly. kthx. :-)
Snupin Santa 2006 Bonus Features, in the manner of DVD extras
Deleted scene -- the following was my original Chapter 1 for A Sea Change By Way Of A River. In the original version, I had four and a half chapters before Snape even showed up, and when my wonderful beta, summerborn, got to chapter 5, she said, "This might sound crazy, but what if you started it here instead?" She was absolutely right, and it was incredibly easy to work it out, which shows that the earlier chapters really weren't needed for the most part. BUT I did love my original Chapter 1 for its insanity, so here it is.
1. “I regret to inform you...”
Imogene ran back to her room the shut the door behind her. Her heart was pounding wildly beneath the starched shirt, and the breeches chafed uncomfortably. She wondered briefly how men could stand wearing them every day, but she pushed the thought aside and concentrated on the intelligence she had just gleaned from the Cossack. He had been drunk, but she still could not believe he had come right out and said-
“Remus?”
Remus grabbed his wand as his eyes jerked from the words he’d been writing to the green flare of the fireplace. He let out a relieved breath when he saw Percy Weasley’s head in the flames, then inhaled sharply when he remembered that he’d closed the Floo connection just as he always did before writing. The Ministry must have reconnected his fireplace remotely, as it did in cases of emergency.
“Percy. What’s happened?”
“Remus-that is, Mr. Lupin, speaking as a representative for the Ministry, I regret to inform you-”
“Oh.” Remus slumped in his chair.
“-that a wand malfunctioned during Auror training today-”
“No.” Remus’ eyes darted towards the hallway that led to the bedrooms.
“-and that Auror Tonks has been injured in the line of duty.”
Remus stared. “She’s alive?”
Percy coughed through the flames. “Yes, a trainee was casting a Memory charm, and-oof!” Percy’s whole body exited the fireplace as Remus grabbed him by the front of his robes and hauled him upwards, setting him not-so-gently on the carpet of the study.
“You. Idiot.” Remus punctuated the last word with a shake, causing Percy’s glasses to slip down his nose. “Don’t you know that ‘I regret to inform you’ always precedes the news of someone’s death?” Remus gave him an extra shake, much more gently than he felt like doing, and then let him go, striding back and forth across the room, taking deep breaths, trying to rid his body of the panic he’d felt when he’d thought that Tonks was dead. “Where is she? What happened, and how badly injured is she? What’s been done for her? And why wasn’t I contacted immediately?”
“The Healers tried your Floo and sent an owl; you didn’t get it? Must have gone off-course.” Percy shoved his glasses back up his nose and straightened his robes. “As I was saying, a wand malfunctioned. Auror Tonks’ long-term memory was damaged. They took her to St. Mungo’s.”
Remus lowered himself to a chair as visions of Frank and Alice Longbottom swirled in his mind and the panic rose again. “I. I should go, I should be there.” He glanced towards the second storey again. “I’ll need to find someone to come over,” he said, rising, but Percy stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“She’s not there anymore.”
“Where is she?”
“She left.” He took a hasty step back before Remus could grab him by the robes again. “The Healers checked her and determined that she was fit enough to leave, so she did.”
“But why didn’t she come straight home?”
Percy shifted. “Er. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but as far as the Healers could determine, she has amnesia. It’s not severe,” he hastened to add as Remus jumped up and moved towards him. “Her magic and short-term memory are intact, but she doesn’t remember much about her life. That includes you and your son.”
“Not severe? NOT SEVERE??” Remus knew he was shouting, but couldn’t stop. He saw Percy flinch back and sucked in a deep breath, trying to get himself under control again. “I’m sorry. It’s all just….Where is she now?”
For the first time since he arrived, Percy began to look uncomfortable. “Er. Could I get a glass of water?”
Remus scowled. “Where is she, Percy?”
Percy cleared his throat. “Quibbler Hall. She thinks she’s a Stubber.”
“A St-there are no Stubbers anymore!”
“Not for Stubby Boardman, obviously, but the term has come into more general use since your time.” Remus hissed through his teeth and Percy continued quickly. “WWN was on in the waiting room at St. Mungo’s. Apparently she heard a live broadcast, decided that she was a Stubber, and left to go to the concert.”
“And the Healers let her leave in that condition?”
“They couldn’t stop her. She Disapparated. I managed to grab her and was side-alonged, but I lost her in the crowd.” He pulled at his collar. “I was hoping she would come back here after the show, at least. As her Ministry-appointed representative I’ll need to get her full statement and discuss her options for-”
“How could she come back here when she doesn’t remember it?” Remus looked around the flat. He had moved in with Tonks at her insistence, just before the war had begun in earnest. Except for the addition of some extra bookshelves, the flat had remained much as it was when it had been hers alone.
“We told her the address, and she recognized it.”
He blinked. “She remembered the address, but not her own son? Or me?”
“No. I’m sorry.” There was genuine sympathy in Percy’s voice.
Just then, there was a cracking noise from the living room. Remus whipped around to see Tonks leaning on the arm of a tall, shaggy-haired person of indeterminate gender and laughing wildly. “Tonks!” Remus headed towards her.
“Wotcher, mate.” She grinned at him, then whispered something in the ear of her companion, who nodded his or her shaggy head and Disapparated.
“Tonks, it’s me, Remus.”
Before she could answer, there were two more cracking sounds, as Hermione and Ron Apparated into the living room. “…so it could have waited,” Ron was saying. He put a hand up to his eyebrows and seemed to be relieved that they were still there.
“Ow, Ron, you’re on my foot, and no, it couldn’t have waited,” Hermione replied, then moved quickly to Remus’ side once Ron stepped away from her. “Ron told me what happened, and if there’s anything we can do, anything you need….” She did a double-take as Tonks pulled a joint out of her bra and lit it with her wand. “Oh, dear.” Remus nodded in agreement.
Another crack, and the shaggy rock personage was back, an equally shaggy friend clinging to one arm and a woman with a shaved head hanging onto the other. The two new arrivals looked around, nodded, and Disapparated. Ron and Percy were speechless. Hermione bit her lip as she looked back and forth between Remus and Tonks. Tonks handed the joint to her new friend just as a toddler ran into the room and grabbed her around the knees.
“Mummy!”
Percy, Ron, and Hermione all froze as if they’d been Petrified. Remus sucked in a breath as Tonks bent down and picked up the child. “Wotcher, sweetheart!” Relief soared through Remus, only to be cut short at her next words: “What’s your name?”
“Sijay!” the boy shouted happily.
“C.J.? Well, Christopher Jonathan or Charles Jeffrey or whoever you are, I don’t know where your mummy is…” She turned to Hermione, who shook her head rapidly, then she looked from Remus to the child and back, and smiled. “But I’m sure your grandda here will be able to find her for you.” She handed the child off to Remus, who took him without a word.
“Oh, Remus…” Hermione began, but Remus shook his head. Tonks took the joint back and bogarted the rest of it with one strong drag, then addressed the others who were staring at her open-mouthed.
“Right. I don’t know who any of you are or what you’re doing in what’s apparently my flat, but you’re all welcome to stay for the party.”
“The party?” Ron whispered. There was a crack, then another, then the air was filled with them as band members Apparated into the room with their friends, then Disapparated, only to return with more people. Within minutes, beer and firewhiskey were flowing in the kitchen and instruments were set up in the living room. Microphones and amplifiers soon followed.
Remus held onto his son tightly and watched chaos expand around him. Sijay bounced in his father’s arms, chortling at the spiky hair and studded leather and the sounds of instruments being tuned. Percy was furiously taking notes, and Ron gulped a beer that someone had put in his hand. Hermione was trying to speak to Tonks, who was ignoring her in favour of peeling off the shaggy rocker’s shirt. Hermione took a step backwards, then nearly stumbled in her haste to get away when Tonks began to undo the now-clearly-a-man’s leather trousers. Percy and Ron whirled to face the opposite wall, faces flaming.
“I think it might be time to go,” Remus murmured.
“What? Are you mad?” Hermione screeched. “You can’t leave her like this!”
“Tonks?” The music had begun and Remus had to lean forward to shout in Tonks’ ear. “Have you got condoms?” Tonks stopped on the second to last button and dug through the pockets of her jacket until she pulled out a handful of bright foil packages. She winked and handed them to Remus, who opened his mouth to refuse, but ended up stuffing them into his pocket without a word. “All right, then,” Remus said as Tonks went back to what she was doing. “She seems to know what she’s doing.”
Hermione’s mouth dropped open. “No, she doesn’t! She’s ill; she doesn’t know what she’s doing!”
“Yes, she does. I’ve seen-she used to-never mind. Just because she’s got amnesia doesn’t mean she’s crazy. I mean, look how happy she is.”
Percy, Ron, and Hermione all turned to look at Tonks. Her face was flushed and lit with a smile, but it was her hair that caught their attention. It was an ever-changing mix of colours, shimmering in rainbow waves across her head. “I haven’t seen that since….well. She’ll be alright.” Remus frowned. “But I’ll have to try to talk to her again once all these people leave and we’ve got some quiet.”
“I’ll stay,” Ron volunteered. He was already on his second beer and his eyes were glued to the two women in the corner who were kissing passionately. “I’ll let you know when everyone’s gone, so you can come back.”
“I don’t think so,” Hermione snapped. “Percy can do it.” Percy looked horrified, but spluttered agreement when Hermione elbowed him in the back.
“Thank you,” Remus said, clasping Percy’s shoulder briefly.
Percy pulled out his quill and parchment again. “Where will you be?”
Remus hesitated, and Hermione stepped in. “Our place. At least for the night,” she insisted firmly, when Remus looked like he would balk. He nodded, Summoned a bag and a few things for his son and himself, then Disapparated with Ron and Hermione. The last thing he saw was Percy attempting to politely decline a tab of acid.
* * *
And a ficlet that goes along with the main fic:
Title: Sniffing Out The Truth
Summary: Snape discovers the source of Lupin’s enticing scent.
Rating: PG-13 for making out
Word count: 649
A/N: I’d meant to include an explanation in the fic, then I forgot, but I don’t think I could have found a good place for it to go, anyway. Then I meant to write it up as a drabble, but it came out a bit longer than that. Anyway, it’s just something I wanted explained.
Thanks to summerborn for the beta. If there are mistakes, it’s because I can’t stop changing things, even after she sends them back.
“God, what is that scent?” Snape buried his face in Remus’ throat and inhaled deeply. Sijay was asleep in bed, and the two men had settled themselves in the living room, ostensibly to get some work done, but as had happened every evening, proximity led to casual caresses, then to less casual ones, and tonight it was Snape lying on top of Remus, who was flat on his back on the sofa, hands fisted in Snape’s jumper and hair. “I still can’t figure out what it is.” Snape gave an experimental lick and Remus moaned.
“There is no scent, it’s all in your mind, and please do that again.”
Snape licked the other side of Remus’ neck. “It doesn’t taste like it, but it’s got to be some kind of cologne or aftershave.”
“I don’t use them.” Remus turned his head to give him more room and began working his hands under Snape’s jumper, but Snape pushed himself up on his arms and scowled.
“If you’re not going to use depilatory charms, you really should apply some kind of lotion after scraping off the top layer of your skin.”
“Severus! Don’t stop!” Remus propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at Snape, who seemed to be waiting for a response. Remus sighed. “I can’t use any kind of creams or lotions. They give me a rash.”
“You haven’t got a rash from the lotion we’ve been using.”
“Hmm?” Remus thought for a moment, then went red, a small, embarrassed smile on his face. “Ah. That’s because you made it. Top quality.”
“Flatterer. But if that’s true,” Snape said, considering, “then I’ll make something up for you to use after you shave.”
“Thank you.”
“And it’s not cologne?”
“I couldn’t afford it, not until recently, and now I can’t find any I like. Except what you wear, and I suspect it only smells good on you.” He lifted his hand and ran his fingers down Snape’s throat.
“My own formulation.” Snape smirked and bent towards Remus’ neck again.
“Of course it is,” Remus murmured, lying back and moving his hands down to grip Snape’s arse.
“So if it’s not aftershave...then it must have been your soap.”
“Jasmine.”
“No, it’s not flowery. It’s something....” He slid further down Remus’ body so he could press his cheek against Remus’ chest and inhaled again. “Impossible to describe, but it’s how a man should smell.” He opened his eyes again. “If you’d just tell me what it is, I could duplicate it, and we’d be millionaires.”
Remus grinned. “I wish I knew, truly!”
“So, not cologne, or aftershave, or soap. Shampoo?”
“The strawberry stuff?”
Snape shuddered. “No, definitely not. Laundry soap?”
“Cleaning charms,” Remus muttered.
“Ah, yes.” Snape smirked, then turned his mind back to his question. “You don’t smoke. And other werewolves don’t have that scent, so I doubt it’s lycanthropic in origin.” He stretched up and, pressing his lips to Remus’ neck, took another long sniff. “But it’s there.” He sniffed across his collarbone and chest, and when he got to an armpit, he shouted “Ha!” in triumph. “Deodorant!”
“I don’t use any.”
“You’re joking,” he said, taking another long, satisfied sniff. “What adult male doesn’t use deodorant?”
“It gives me a rash, like aftershave does.”
“I’ll make some up for you, then.”
Remus grinned. “Are you saying I stink?”
“No, but you must....” He trailed off as the wand lit in his head.
“Severus?”
Snape blinked, and lowered his head to Remus’ chest again. “It’s you. It’s just you,” he murmured, pressing his nose into Remus’ armpit.
“Stop that, it tickles!” Remus laughed, squirming, but Snape pressed him down into the sofa.
“It’s you,” he said again in a bemused voice.
Remus stopped laughing and reached up to touch his cheek. “Is that so odd?”
“That you smell like my definition of desire? I suppose not.”
~ end ~
There may have been a few other things I forgot to include, or that didn’t quite fit into the story. If you have any questions about “A Sea Change....” please post them here and I’ll try to get them answered, either in a drabble/ficlet like the one above, or by Snape or Lupin directly. kthx. :-)