Stop the Noise [sevvy!]

[Remus John Lupin]

Burns like hell
Melt in your mouth
Twist and turn you
Into something else


It was only February, but thank Mordred the days were lengthening. There were a few good things about February: the first signs of plant life, his birthday getting nearer, there was often still snow out, and the Christmas exams were well behind them - nothing more to worry about until June!
Well, almost nothing. Nothing more than the usual little glitches of life - trying to stay out of detention, getting homework and essays done in time, surviving full moons. It had all become part of the routine by now, and Remus Lupin was right on schedule. So on schedule, in fact, that he had time left to get the measurements of the courtyard for Project Ice-Skating Rink. It was still chilly enough to get some ice-fun going, even if the lake was thawing.

Leaving his bag on a low brick wall, he pulled out his wand, a piece of parchment and a pencil, fumbling around until he had everything organised, and casting some measurement spells. The sky was starting to drip, threatening with rain or maybe sleet, but Remus ignored it - he'd spend too many days inside lately.


Bleed you dry
Against your will
Think you're running
But you're standing still

[severus snape]

IT was only February, but already, this year was proving to be as bloody awful as the last. THis sixteenth year of his life, in which he absolutely had to find some girl to sleep with or he'd be a joke, and in whihc he desperately wished for that girl to be Lily, was absolutely dire. Lily was still thinking of him as a friend, no matter how often he hugged her or put his arm around her shoulders while they were sitting. He was stumped. Utterly stumped.

He kicked a nearby rock. He watched it spin across a few frozen puddles and that was when he saw it. Him rather. Lupin. Prefect Lupin. Prefect Lupin of the MArarses clearly up to no good. This was his chance. A few curses thrown and he'd warn them off. And once they'd stopped trippijng him in corridors, he could show Lily how he'd become more at ease on his long limbs.

"Lupin. What are you up to?" He walked forward, noting with glee that this time, he had one of them on their own. "Where are your pitiful friends? Don't tell me they hit puberty and left you behind?"

[Remus John Lupin]

[Just to be sure, this is the antidated topic, yeah? So this is a year ago, right? (:]


Remus' attitude to Severus Snape was two-sided. On the one hand - yes, he was annoying and stuck his nose into their business, where it didn't belong. Especially the interest Snape sometimes had in his skipping of classes cooled his attitude to his Slytherin classmate. On the other hand, the way his friends constantly targeted Severus made his gut squirm. Sometimes he thought that if he had not made friends with Sirius and James, they might've dropped him like a stone in the same manner, and his aloof behaviour around full moons and lack of social skills would certainly have made him into a similar easy target. Remus really felt he should do something to stop it, he was a Prefect, after all, and should not tolerate this kind of behaviour. Then again.. these were his best friends, Remus would feel rather lost without them, and he didn't want to end up against rather than with them (especially being on the end of Sirius' anger was not particularly on Remus Lupin's to-do list). He knew it was spineless of him to feel this way - and yet he couldn't help it. Reaching out to Severus and trying to be friendly with him would only make him suspicious anyway. No, Remus resolved, the least he could do was try and get his friends off the Slytherin's back.

At the moment, however, the Gryffindor was fiddling around with a measurement spell, which would only give him results in centimeters, while he wanted feet and inches. Damn metric systems.
"Lupin. What are you up to?" Remus looked up. He hadn't noticed Snape approaching (too busy being annoyed with his own spellwork), but somehow, he wasn't quite surprised. "Where are your pitiful friends? Don't tell me they hit puberty and left you behind?" Getting up, he lowered his wand (after all, Severus would only need the slightest excuse to hex him into the hospital wing). Remus was, indeed, not as tall as Severus and not near as muscular as his friends (though he had lost his prepubescent look.. or mostly anyway).
“Inside, I guess,” he answered after a moment, not in the mood to be sarcastic or reprimand Severus about being insulting towards his friends. Remus wasn't planning to let this escalate - not this time. “As for what I'm up to, we're planning on turning the courtyard into an ice rink this weekend - I'm trying to get the exact measurements.” The truth, but no doubt Severus wouldn't believe him, anyway.

[severus snape]

[[yup we just need to decide if Siri wants to directly witness the Nosy Nose or hear about it later]]

Severus' attitude to Remus Lupin was one-sided. He disliked him. Greatly. THe boy was a prefect who aided and abetted rule-breakers, and revelled in the bullying of [relatively] innocent slytherins. Or one slytherin. Him. And now, Severus had caught the little gryffindor Mararse up to something. Red-handed and in the act and most importantly of all, on his own.

He took a few steps forward, wand in hand, though not yet pointed at the other boy. IF anyone was going to be responsible for him not making any new friends or at the least shagging someone, it was Remus Lupin. And possibly his three friends, but Severus preferred to direct his anger at the only one of those four who was curently an available target.

IT was a shame Lupin had lowered his wand, if he hadn't, Severus would have had a much easier time explaining away his curses to a passing teacher. PAssing teachers he noticed, were nowhere to be found. Today the universe appeared to have given him a chance.

Lupin admitted to some minor vandalism that the Foolish foursome were planning, but Severus didn't believe him. THey'd been planning something for months now. He'd been watching them. Every month they'd all disappear, running off somewhere secret likely. In fact, the length of time that he'd noticed this going on for matched almost exactly with the time required to brew felix felicis. Or Amortentia. Severus was certain that this little ice rink was simply a way to almost innocently explain away the real reason for taking measurements of the courtyard.

Severus leant in closer. "I'm on to you, Lupin. Don't think you can put me off with some cock and bull story about an ice-rink." He let his newly settled voice take on a lower more overtly menacing tone, glad that it was no longer in the habit of squeaking or cracking every time he opened his mouth. "I know you've been skipping lessons. Not proper behaviour for a prefect, is it? But then, neither is permitting attacks on other students." He threw out this last offhandedly. Or as much as he could, as though it barely affected him that he was singled out, what was the problem was the hypocrisy of a prefect watching and doing nothing.

[Remus John Lupin]

Remus was not unaware of the silent threat that Severus was giving off, he would've smelled it from miles away - but that didn't mean he was backing down. Straightening his back and crossing his arms, he frowned a little at the other (taller) boy, standing his ground. He could understand Snape's grudge against them, against him personally even, but why did he keep trying to get into a fight with them? Sure, part of it was admirable - because in a way, Severus did not seem to lack courage. Then again, now he had chosen to face only Remus, with no one else around - and even if Remus didn't tell his friends about it, Severus would surely know that James or Sirius needed no more excuses to torment the Slytherin than they already did.
He had lowered his wand because he'd known Snape would use any excuse to hex him and he wasn't in the mood, preferring to keep this a verbal sparring of sorts, so he could then go back to sorting his metric systems out.

As Sev leant in closer, Remus could smell him more distinctly - cigarettes on his breath, ingredients on his fingertips, slumbering aggression underneath all that. Trying to seem impassive, Remus shrugged. "I like ice-rinks, personally," he muttered, just for the sake of saying something, though, and it was only a half-hearted reply. Very different from what he had to say to Severus' other accusation. Remus knew he shouldn't let it get to him and that showing his annoyance would only make Severus more determined and sure of his case, but the Slytherin's relentless attempts to land him into trouble were actually getting to him. There was only so much patience a person had - and even Remus' could run out.
"If you have complaints about my Prefect duties, I advise you to take those up to the head master - I'm sure he can decide what to do with such complaints," he hissed. Rem's voice wasn't as deep as Severus' yet, nor did he look particularly threatening. How looks can be deceiving.
Sending Snape a last glare, Remus turned away to scribble something about metric systems on the parchment he'd taken out earlier. He was just going to try and ignore the Slytherin, maybe that would work best. It was probably not a great idea, turning your back on someone who'd gladly jinx it into oblivion. "As for missed classes, I can assure you I have been given clearance by the teachers." Refusing to look at Sev and half struggeling with his ink-bottle, he added: "If I miss classes, I have good reasons."

[severus snape]

Lupin was displaying gryffindor traits, something that would have been grudgingly admirable in anyone else, but in one of the four Mararses? Not a chance, it was an insult and a blatant attempt to use his prefecty popularity to get him to mocve on. Well he wouldn't. HE had them now and all he needed was proof.
Severus' lip curled. like ice-rinks? did the other boy think he was an idiot?

Severus was going to find out just what they were doing, and why Lupin missed LEssons, and he knew just how he was going to do it, Complaints to the headmaster be damned. The Headmaster was a gryffindor for pete's sake.

Slytherin to the core, severus lowered his wand and stepped back and to the side a little, re-entering socially acceptable space. "Alright." He folded his arms, though the tip of his wand was still pointing vaguely at the ground near lupin's legs in a non-threatening manner. LEgilimency wasn't especially violent anyway. By it's nature it was like the Imperious, sinewy winding slyness...Unless you were a self-taught, over-confident-when-angered, determined fifth-year Slytherin with an especially prominent nose.

In a split second, he had raised the wand square with Lupin's chest and spoken the incantation. A moment later, he found himself in what must be Lupin's mind, or the periphery of his thoughhts. HE also found that his head hurt obscenely and any attmept to seek memories seemed to wake up a brass band. Inside his own skull. He wasn't even sure anymore if the fuzzy shapes he could see were part of Lupin's mind or his brain rebelling against the splitting migraine.

He would try to fight through the pain. He needed some proof.

[Remus John Lupin]

For a moment there, he really thought that maybe Severus would back off as he lowered his wand and turned away a little. Remus breathed a quiet sigh of relief and continued converting centimetres into feet - but arithmetic had never been his strong suit. Thus, he was distracted and although he recognised the spell Severus used and saw the flash of a wand in the corner of his eye, he was too slow. Besides that, the sheer feeling of someone in his head was rather unlike anything he'd ever experienced before.
Severus was, by no means, subtle. He was there and that alone shocked Remus into stillness for a few seconds. He could hear his ink well hit the ground and break and had no doubt his shoes would be stained beyond repair if he didn't move to clean it all up, but he couldn't bring himself to move. He was sure he could move if he wanted to, but he didn't particularly want to, right now, the sensation in his mind so harsh that it seemed to push the external reality into the background.

The first coherent thought he managed was 'I thought eye-contact was needed for legilimency' before he suddenly realised what this situation implied. Severus could possibly see his thoughts, catch bits of them - that was bad, very bad.
You know how it is when you tell yourself not to think of pink elephants? Yes, you do: what happens is you think about pink elephants. So when Remus panicked about Severus possibly finding out about his true nature, he couldn't stop snippets of memories seeping through - flashes of forest and running and the exhilerating of being freenotconfinedortrapped and runningrunningchasingpouncingjumpingoverfallentreesrollinginsnow - before he managed to think of something else, something that would need his entire concentration - converting metric systems.
He had read about legilimency a little, but didn't know as much as he would've liked now. Remus had no idea of this would be effective. He had no idea how advanced Severus was, either, if he could only see what Remus offered him or if he could actually search and find - and how would the Slytherin interpret what he saw in the first place? In fact, the more he considered this, the worse he felt.
Then again, that might also be the throbbing in his head increasing and the faint nausea coming on.