RP: Samples

[shh_severus]

Date: 23 February 2005
Characters: Severus Snape, Bill Weasley
Location: the library, after hours
Status: Private
Summary: A midnight rendezvous for the taking of bodily fluids
Completion: Complete

Comments

[shh_severus]

"You tried to stupefy yourself?" Severus sneered, shaking his head. "I thought you were the only one in your family with marginal intelligence. Of course stupefying yourself doesn't work. If it did, we'd have all stupefied werewolves for the last millenium and there would never have been the persecution they have been subjected to."

He held his palm out flat, the scalpel resting on it, and offered it to Bill. "Take it if you must. A small incision against the vena mediana cubiti. Here," He pressed his index finger against his own inner eblow, indicating the correct spot. "Find the pulse point and cut. I need at least five millilitres, so do try not to be squeamish about it or I will do it myself." His tone hinted that he did not expect anyone but himself capable of doing this properly.

"And while you do so, your dunderheaded associate Lupin did not inform me that you had sampled another potion. Hestia Jones? What did you take?"

[shh_bill]

Bill rolled his eyes. "It was right after I was turned. I didn't know that then but I sure as hell know it now," he said wondering why in hell he was defending himself to Snape, as if his opinion mattered much.

He rolled his eyes and lifted the scalpel to cut where he was told, but then Snape insulted his alpha. That would not stand at all, past relationship or no. Faster than Snape could blink, Bill had him shoved against the wall, his forearm pressed into his throat. He leaned in close to Snape, so close their noses almost touched and snarled softly. "What did you call Remus?" Bill asked softly, his voice low, deadly, and rough, his eyes narrowed in anger.

[shh_severus]

Oh for fuck's sake. At one time, this situation would have caused a massive rush of fear in Severus, and indeed, his heart was pounding, adrenaline rushing through him as it had not done in months. Perhaps it was twisted to admit it, but he rather missed face-offs like these. Now, because of war-honed reflexes and having spent full moons scratching the belly of a slavering werewolf, there was no real fear, only the intensity of confrontation. He rolled his eyes and dug the tip of his wand-- in his hand the moment Bill had advanced-- between the man's ribs.

"Deep breaths, Weasley," he said, sounding bored. "Do try to remember that I am your only hope to help control embarrassing outbursts like this, and that I can slice you in two faster than you can rip my throat out." Smirking slightly in the face of danger, he said, "Honestly, I didn't realise 'associate' was such a touchy word."

[shh_bill]

"I never did care for your sense of humor and I appreciate it less now," Bill growled softly. "You can be so immature, I have to actually wonder about your age at times. Remus is a good man and while you may have the advantage in potions, he surpasses you in so many other ways it makes that one advantage look small in comparison. And even though he may be a werewolf, he makes a better human than you do. Now next time, think about what you say about my alpha around me, yeah? At least have that common courtesy at least."

He eased away from Snape's neck and stepped back a safe distance. He took a couple of calming breaths and returned to the question at han. "Hestia was kind enough to try her hand at a wolfsbane derivitive. Both she and Remus fully warned me about the risks involved, but I had to try. The results are detailed in the last entry of my notebook, but suffice it to say it didn't work in a very big way."

[shh_severus]

He gritted his teeth, not backing off with either the tip of his wand or his expression. "How clumsy of me," Severus drawled as the man stepped away. "I did not mean to be funny. I meant to demonstrate that you are asking me for a favour and you would do well to remember it before you lose your head over an adjective. When Lupin brought this favour to my attention, he did not have the foresight to realise how important it is for me to know about Miss Jones' work with you. It could have been a costly mistake

[shh_bill]

Bill rolled his shoulders and neck trying to ease out the ache. Moving that fast had hurt a bit, but he'd be damned first (or had he already?) before he showed any weakness in front of Snape. He fed on weakness like a Dementor. "If you are so well versed, then why do you say such things?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, Hestia's recipe is in the notebook. I made sure to obtain it when I was able to function after this past full moon. I wanted to know what the hell was in the thing that would cause such a reaction."

He lifted the scalpel to his elbow and made a small incision where Snape had instructed. He filled the phial with blood and gave the phial, the hairs and the nail clipping to the former potions professor.

He was silent a moment while he watched Snape place everything in his pockets in his robe before he spoke again. "No matter what happened between you and Remus or you and everyone else . . . thank you," Bill murmured. "For at least trying."

[shh_severus]

"'Alpha' or not, it was stupid of him not to give me the details of your situation, and so I say so," Severus said, only a little malice in his tone. "You and I do not know each other that well, Mister Weasley, but I suspect you know that I do not sugarcoat things. If someone has been a dunderhead, I shall call him such."

He handed over a pair of scissors next, and two more small glass tubes. "Hair sample, and place it in this phial. I need at least twenty or so strands. You may also place a nail sample in the other."

Replacing the blood and saliva samples, he froze at Bill's words, heart pounding once more. No matter what happened between you and Remus... "What the hell has Lupin said to you about what has happened between us?" He was battle-ready once more, wand again pointed at Bill's throat.

[shh_bill]

"Whether Remus gave you all the details or not, you got them right there in your hand. No need for names."

Bill didn't even look at Snape when his wand had been drawn on him, fairly confident that he wouldn't be hexed. Snape wasn't that brave. It had been a slip of the tongue, but Remus had taken him in his confidence and even though Snape was a part of that secret, Bill would not betray that trust. "Professor, with all due respect, you would have to be deaf, dumb, blind, and dead not to see that something had happened between you and Remus," Bill replied with a calm air and a coolly raised eyebrow.

[shh_severus]

Severus let a few glittering scenarios spin themselves out in his mind: cutting Bill's tongue out with a modified Sectumsempra,Bill writhing on the ground from a well aimed bat-bogey hex to the groin-- all right, so maybe the charge that he was times immature wasn't entirely invalid-- and best of all, Lupin hanging by his toenails for betraying his confidence. But now was neither the time nor the place, and so he lowered his wand hand again.

"We do not get along," Severus said, voice like cold steel. "We never have, from the time we were students at Hogwarts. It is not uncommon knowledge. Do not presume that anything further happened between us than that mutual distaste for one another." Do not imagine quiet Sunday mornings at number 12 Grimmauld Place, sharing a Daily Prophet and a plate of eggs. Do not picture heated kisses when Lupin appeared late at night in Severus' quarters, and a hasty stumble toward the bed. Do not hear the whisper of false, false promises. He wasn't sure if he was admonishing himself inwardly or

[shh_bill]

Other than the obvious animosity and agression, Bill caught a glimmer of . . . something on Snape's face and in his scent that flickered for such a brief moment that he wondered if he'd imagined it. It looked a bit like regret, or something akin to it, but Bill dismissed it. Snape hardly seemed the type to regret. Plot, scheme and revenge, but not regret.

He did as he was told while Snape looked through the notebook, clipping a clump of hair from near the nape of his neck and clipping his nails a bit thankful he hadn't had a chance to do so before. He placed both hair and nails in the phials.

[shh_severus]

Snape was pleased that the younger man didn't question him further. Perhaps he'd just been guessing at a situation he had no understanding of, rather than spouting off about something Lupin had told him. He couldn't imagine that Lupin would want to brag about their fiasco of a relationship to anyone.

He nodded his thanks as he took the phials back from Bill and placed them carefully in his bag. "I believe that is all I need from you, for now," he said. "I shall begin my comparison study between your tissues and Lupin's, and shall owl you either with questions or with a test brew. Have you anything further to add?"

[shh_bill]

Bill had already said his thanks even if they'd been ignored or dismissed and he wasn't about to be redundent. So he shook his head. "No, I have nothing else to add."

And because manners dictated it, Bill spoke up. "Thank you. Again."

[shh_severus]

Severus nodded sharply. "I'll be in contact," he said, and with a quickly furling of his robes around him, he Disapparated from the library.