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FIC: Food Fight
Title: Food Fight
Author: geri_chan
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Snape/Lupin,
Word count: ~2,990
Challenge:
Author's note: Post-DH AU; Remus never married Tonks
Summary: Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
lupin_snape's Summer Fest challenge. Hogwarts has just reopened after the war, and a food fight turns out to be the perfect way to break the tension.
Hogwarts had just reopened for the first school term since the war had ended. Repairing the physical damage to the buildings and grounds had taken a few months, but healing the emotional trauma would probably take much longer. Many of the students still mourned fallen friends and relatives, as did Remus himself, but a memorial service held at the school helped to ease their grief a little. And there was also a sense of relief and closure in knowing that the surviving Death Eaters had been rounded up and sentenced to Azkaban, and that the Wizarding World was finally at peace.
Headmistress McGonagall made her welcoming speech and announced that Remus was both the new Head of Gryffindor and the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He was touched and surprised by the enthusiastic applause that followed. McGonagall then added that Severus would be resuming his old position as the Potions Master, and there was a spattering of more hesitant clapping.
Remus glanced over at Severus, who was seated next to him at the head table, but the other man seemed indifferent to the lack of enthusiasm. Well, it wasn't as if Severus had ever been overly concerned whether people liked him or not, something that Remus had secretly envied and admired. But still, he was saddened that Severus wasn't getting the acknowledgment he deserved for all the sacrifices he had made during the war--and also ashamed, that he himself had so easily believed that Severus had betrayed them.
He let out a little sigh that went unnoticed as McGonagall finished her speech with, "Now let the feast begin!" The noise level in the Great Hall immediately rose as the students began laughing and chatting with each other, and Remus smiled, his melancholy eased by sight of students acting like normal children once again.
Normal enough to even get up to a little mischief. After spending a year living in a state of fear and tension, perhaps it was no surprise that the students were now in a mood of high spirits.
It started innocently enough, with one of the Gryffindor boys, Jack Sloper, teasing his friend Andrew Kirke about a girl he had a crush on. The girl in question giggled, and Andrew blushed and tossed a dinner roll at Jack's head. Perhaps due to his reflexes as a member of the Quidditch team, Jack easily batted away the roll with one hand--but then the roll landed with a splash in Ginny Weasley's bowl of soup.
With soup running down her face and the front of her robes, she turned to glare at Jack, who hastily said, "Sorry, it was an accident--in fact, it was all Kirke's fault!"
"It was not!" Andrew protested.
"Well, if you hadn't thrown it at me in the first place--"
Ignoring their attempts to lay or shift blame, Ginny took out her wand and cast a charm that levitated a gravy boat into the air and then poured the contents over both boys' heads. The boys spluttered indignantly and it looked like things were about to escalate into a full-blown argument, while simultaneously McGonagall frowned and started to rise from her seat to hand out detention. Technically, that should be Remus's job now, but he supposed that old habits died hard, as the saying went.
Just then, Dennis Creevey burst into laughter, probably for the first time since his brother had died. McGonagall's stern expression softened and she sat back down, and Ginny and the boys forgot their argument, anger fading into startled but grateful smiles. Ginny flicked a spoonful of peas at Dennis, who laughed again and threw a handful of carrots back at her.
"Food fight!" someone gleefully shouted, and suddenly food was flying all across the Gryffindor table. Hermione, who had chosen to return for her missed seventh year, was shouting at her housemates to "stop all this nonsense!" Then she was hit in the face by a strawberry cream pie. Wiping strawberries and whipped cream out of her eyes with one hand, she flicked her wand with the other and sent the remains of the pie flying back at the student who'd hurled it at her, followed by an entire pitcher of pumpkin juice.
The mayhem soon spread to the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables as well. Remus noticed that Luna Lovegood was hurling tomatoes at her housemates with surprising accuracy.
"Perhaps she ought to try out for the Quidditch team," Flitwick mused.
McGonagall gave him an exasperated look. "Is that all you can say, Filius? While I'm willing to overlook a bit of...shall we say...high spirits after everything the students have endured, this is beginning to get a little out of hand."
"At least my students are behaving," Severus said smugly.
Over at the Slytherin table, Theodore Nott was regarding the Gryffindor table with disdain. "How childish," he said scornfully--just before a treacle tart came sailing over from the Gryffindor table and landed on his head.
"Oh sorry," Andrew said with a grin. "Was that too childish for you?"
"I hope you know this means war," Theodore said, with as much dignity as he could muster with bits of treacle tart stuck to his hair. He took out his wand, and before long food was flying back and forth across the tables as the rest of the Slytherins joined in on the food fight.
Remus couldn't help but smile as the smug look on Severus's face turned to consternation. Severus noticed and growled, "Don't say it, Lupin!"
"Say what?" Remus asked innocently.
Severus just growled again and stomped away to presumably inflict his wrath on his hapless students.
"Will the rest of you also go and get your students under control?" an exasperated McGonagall told the other Heads of House.
"Yes, Headmistress," Remus replied, although he thought it was a shame to break up such a splendid food fight. But he kept those thoughts to himself because McGonagall looked as though her patience had run out, and he suspected she might give him detention if he dared to say so out loud. He walked over to the Gryffindor table grinning and thinking to himself that in some ways, he still thought of her as his intimidating Head of House, for all that they were both adults and colleagues now.
The uproar gradually began to subside as he and the other Heads warned the students to settle down. Unsurprisingly, the Gryffindors were slowest to give up the fight, and after a couple of gentle warnings, Remus had to say more sternly, "That is quite enough, Mr. Kirke and Mr. Sloper."
Jack reluctantly set down the basket of rolls he'd been using as ammunition, but Andrew tried to hurl one last spoonful of mashed potatoes at the Slytherin table. Remus knew he was a bit of a soft touch compared to most of the other teachers, but it still annoyed him to have his warning be completely ignored. So he physically wrenched the serving spoon out of Andrew's hand as he said sharply, "I said, that's enough!"
Except that he wrenched a little harder than he'd meant to, and his momentum sent a large glob of mashed potatoes flying off the spoon in the direction of the Slytherin table--where it hit Severus smack-dab in the middle of his face.
A dead silence fell over the room as all laughter and horseplay immediately ceased. "Lupin," Severus said in a low and quiet voice that somehow held even more menace than when he shouted angrily. "Aren't you a little too old to still be playing schoolboy pranks?"
The students shuddered and turned pale, and that low timbre of Severus's voice sent a little shiver down Remus's spine for entirely different reasons. Remus smiled in what he hoped came across in an apologetic rather than a prurient manner.
"I'm sorry, Severus. It was an accident."
"How convenient," Severus sneered, removing the mashed potatoes from his face with a flick of his wand.
"It really was an accident," Remus protested.
"If you say so," Severus replied skeptically.
Remus thought about arguing his innocence further, then shrugged, knowing it would be a futile effort. "Oh well...in for a penny, in for a pound," he mused out loud.
"What are you babbling about, Lupin?" Severus asked irritably.
Remus dipped the spoon into a bowl of cranberry sauce and then threw the sauce at Severus's face, noting with some satisfaction that it hit with as much accuracy as the mashed potatoes. "Now that," he said sweetly, "was on purpose."
This time, the students'--and the teachers'--jaws dropped as they stared at him in shock. Even Severus was too stunned to react for a moment. Then he raised his wand and said, "Just remember, you brought this on yourself, Lupin."
In retaliation, he sent an entire bowl of mashed potatoes flying at Remus, who raised his own wand and countered with a bowl of spaghetti. He couldn't help but laugh as the strands of pasta covered Severus's head like a wig. But his laughter ceased shortly after when a dish of trifle hit him in the face.
Remus licked his lips, tasting raspberries and custard. "Hmm, not bad," he said with a grin. He couldn't be sure with the bits of trifle obscuring his vision, but he could have sworn he saw Severus smile slightly for just a second.
"Take that, Lupin!" Severus shouted, and Remus had no more time to think as barrage of food from the Slytherin table came flying at him, and laughing, he gave as good as he got as pork chops, fruit and vegetables, more mashed potatoes, and assorted condiments flew back and forth between them.
He didn't dare take his eyes off the battle--he nearly got clocked in the head with an apple--but he could hear the students and even some of the teachers laughing and cheering them on.
Finally, over the all the other noise, he heard McGonagall shout, "STOP THIS AT ONCE, YOU TWO!" She must have used a spell to enhance volume, because her voice reverberated through the entire hall.
Remus sheepishly lowered his wand, feeling about fourteen years old again as McGonagall glared at him the exact same way she used to when the Marauders had gotten themselves into a particularly egregious bit of mischief.
"Think we'll be polishing the silver in the trophy room?" Remus asked Severus with a rueful grin, although given the choice, he would do the food fight all over again.
"We should be so lucky," Severus replied in a dour voice, but the corners of his mouth turned up just the slightest bit. He quickly scowled again when Remus gave him a closer look.
"In my office now, both of you!" McGonagall snapped, sweeping out of the room without a backwards glance.
"Looks like it's off to detention," Remus said cheerily as they followed after her.
As they left, he heard Dennis ask in a worried voice, "Can teachers get detention?"
"Looks like we'll find out," Severus muttered under his breath.
They were subjected to a blistering lecture by the Headmistress in which she scolded them at length for their immature behavior and the example (or lack thereof) that they were setting for the students.
"What on earth were the two of you thinking?!" she demanded. "Or were you even thinking at all?!"
"I guess we just got a little carried away," Remus said with what he hoped was a contrite-but-winsome smile. "I'm sorry, Minerva."
"Getting 'carried away' was not an adequate excuse when you were a schoolboy, and it is most certainly not one now when you are supposed to be a professor," McGonagall replied tartly. "The two of you will be on night patrol for the rest of the month--perhaps that will teach you how to work together without throwing food at each other. Now go and get yourselves cleaned up before I have to clean my office as well!"
Remus and Severus were both still covered with various foodstuffs and unfortunately had left behind a trail of debris that would have to be cleaned up by the house elves. They hastily left McGonagall's office before she decided to give them another lecture and a worse punishment than patrol duty.
"This is all your fault, Lupin," Severus grumbled. "She gave us what amounts to detention, as if we were still students."
"It was worth it," Remus said with a grin. For a moment, it seemed that Severus almost smiled back before he caught himself and scowled instead.
"Hmmph!" he snorted, and stalked off in the direction of the dungeon.
Remus headed to his own quarters, but when he went into the bathroom, he found Dobby there wielding a wrench and doing something to the pipes that had apparently resulted in large puddles of water forming on the floor.
"Er...what are you doing here, Dobby?"
"Dobby is fixing the plumbing," the house elf replied. "Dobby is very sorry for the inconvenience. The Head...that is, Dobby was told that Professor Lupin should use the Prefects' bathroom for now."
"All right," Remus sighed. He would have preferred to get into a hot bath now without having to trek across the castle, but that was hardly Dobby's fault. So he gathered some clean clothes and headed to the Prefects' bathroom.
When he got there, a sign on the door announced that it was temporarily closed to students, which at least meant that he wouldn't have to share the bath. It probably wasn't good for his position as an authority figure to have the students see him naked.
Of course, there was one non-student that he would very much like to get naked with, but the chances of that were about the same as that of a snowball in hell.
He opened the door and much to his surprise, walked in to find Severus sitting naked in a bubble bath, washing spaghetti out of his hair.
"Lupin!" Severus shouted indignantly, hastily sinking deeper into the bubbles, which caused Remus to burst into laughter. "I hardly see the humor in this situation," Severus huffed. "And what are you doing here, anyway?"
"My plumbing is broken," Remus said, feeling much happier about that situation. "So I was told to use the Prefects' bathroom instead."
"Same here," Severus said, frowning suspiciously. "That seems odd..."
"It's an old castle," Remus pointed out. "It's no surprise that the pipes might be breaking down."
"Yes, but..." Severus started to reply, his words trailing off into another indignant squawk as Remus began to undress. "Lupin, what do you think you're doing?!"
"I'm going to take a bath," Remus replied in a reasonable tone of voice. "That is why I'm here, after all."
"But...but...but..." Severus spluttered incoherently as Remus continued to remove robe, shirt, and trousers. He noted with satisfaction that despite his protests, Severus's gaze remained fixed on him, as if he couldn't take his eyes off of Remus.
Perhaps the snowball stood a chance, after all.
"Oh come now, Severus," Remus said. "There's no need to act like an innocent maiden whose virtue is about to be besmirched. I doubt that I have anything you haven't seen before."
He removed his underpants, and watched as Severus's face turned bright red, but still didn't look away. Remus strolled unselfconsciously into the bath, slowly sinking into the warm water as Severus's eyes continued to track his every move.
"Lupin," Severus said hoarsely, "do you live to torment me?"
"No, I don't," Remus replied. "Although I know that my friends did back when we were students, and I'm sorry for that. And I am sorry also that I believed you were a traitor. I know it's what we were meant to believe, but still, I should have known better. Whatever differences we may have had over the years, you've always been a man of your word."
"Talk is cheap, Lupin," Severus retorted, although he sounded more like he was arguing out of habit rather than real anger.
"Then maybe I can find a way to make it up to you," Remus purred, moving closer to Severus.
"And what did you have in mind?" Severus asked.
"Maybe I could scrub your back for you," Remus replied, running his hands down Severus's chest.
"That is not my back, Lupin," Severus said dryly, then gasped as Remus's hands moved below his waist and under the bubbles covering the bathwater.
"Oh really?" Remus asked coyly. "Should I stop what I'm doing, then?"
"Don't you dare, Lupin!" Severus snapped, and Remus laughed and let his hands continue moving beneath water.
Severus moaned and shoved Remus up against the pool wall, kissing him hungrily and grinding their hips together. Remus returned the kiss and wrapped his arms around Severus, drawing him closer as his body moved with equal enthusiasm against Severus's.
Their movement churned the water, sending bubbles flying and water splashing over the edge of the bath. They both cried out as they found release almost simultaneously, the water growing still again as they relaxed in each other's arms.
"I do recall that you promised to scrub my back," Severus said lazily as they floated in the bubble-covered water.
"I will scrub any part of you that you want," Remus promised. "Most thoroughly."
"I'll hold you to that promise, Lupin," Severus said, kissing him more gently this time.
Meanwhile, Dobby reported to the Headmistress's office, which was now empty except for the portraits covering the wall. "Dobby is done fixing the plumbing," he told Dumbledore's portrait. "Or should Dobby 'fix' it some more?"
"I think that will be sufficient, Dobby," Dumbledore replied with a smile and a wink before he closed his eyes and sank into slumber, snoring contentedly with a very satisfied smile on his face.
Author: geri_chan
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Snape/Lupin,
Word count: ~2,990
Challenge:
Author's note: Post-DH AU; Remus never married Tonks
Summary: Written for
lupin_snape's Summer Fest challenge. Hogwarts has just reopened after the war, and a food fight turns out to be the perfect way to break the tension.***
Hogwarts had just reopened for the first school term since the war had ended. Repairing the physical damage to the buildings and grounds had taken a few months, but healing the emotional trauma would probably take much longer. Many of the students still mourned fallen friends and relatives, as did Remus himself, but a memorial service held at the school helped to ease their grief a little. And there was also a sense of relief and closure in knowing that the surviving Death Eaters had been rounded up and sentenced to Azkaban, and that the Wizarding World was finally at peace.
Headmistress McGonagall made her welcoming speech and announced that Remus was both the new Head of Gryffindor and the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He was touched and surprised by the enthusiastic applause that followed. McGonagall then added that Severus would be resuming his old position as the Potions Master, and there was a spattering of more hesitant clapping.
Remus glanced over at Severus, who was seated next to him at the head table, but the other man seemed indifferent to the lack of enthusiasm. Well, it wasn't as if Severus had ever been overly concerned whether people liked him or not, something that Remus had secretly envied and admired. But still, he was saddened that Severus wasn't getting the acknowledgment he deserved for all the sacrifices he had made during the war--and also ashamed, that he himself had so easily believed that Severus had betrayed them.
He let out a little sigh that went unnoticed as McGonagall finished her speech with, "Now let the feast begin!" The noise level in the Great Hall immediately rose as the students began laughing and chatting with each other, and Remus smiled, his melancholy eased by sight of students acting like normal children once again.
Normal enough to even get up to a little mischief. After spending a year living in a state of fear and tension, perhaps it was no surprise that the students were now in a mood of high spirits.
It started innocently enough, with one of the Gryffindor boys, Jack Sloper, teasing his friend Andrew Kirke about a girl he had a crush on. The girl in question giggled, and Andrew blushed and tossed a dinner roll at Jack's head. Perhaps due to his reflexes as a member of the Quidditch team, Jack easily batted away the roll with one hand--but then the roll landed with a splash in Ginny Weasley's bowl of soup.
With soup running down her face and the front of her robes, she turned to glare at Jack, who hastily said, "Sorry, it was an accident--in fact, it was all Kirke's fault!"
"It was not!" Andrew protested.
"Well, if you hadn't thrown it at me in the first place--"
Ignoring their attempts to lay or shift blame, Ginny took out her wand and cast a charm that levitated a gravy boat into the air and then poured the contents over both boys' heads. The boys spluttered indignantly and it looked like things were about to escalate into a full-blown argument, while simultaneously McGonagall frowned and started to rise from her seat to hand out detention. Technically, that should be Remus's job now, but he supposed that old habits died hard, as the saying went.
Just then, Dennis Creevey burst into laughter, probably for the first time since his brother had died. McGonagall's stern expression softened and she sat back down, and Ginny and the boys forgot their argument, anger fading into startled but grateful smiles. Ginny flicked a spoonful of peas at Dennis, who laughed again and threw a handful of carrots back at her.
"Food fight!" someone gleefully shouted, and suddenly food was flying all across the Gryffindor table. Hermione, who had chosen to return for her missed seventh year, was shouting at her housemates to "stop all this nonsense!" Then she was hit in the face by a strawberry cream pie. Wiping strawberries and whipped cream out of her eyes with one hand, she flicked her wand with the other and sent the remains of the pie flying back at the student who'd hurled it at her, followed by an entire pitcher of pumpkin juice.
The mayhem soon spread to the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables as well. Remus noticed that Luna Lovegood was hurling tomatoes at her housemates with surprising accuracy.
"Perhaps she ought to try out for the Quidditch team," Flitwick mused.
McGonagall gave him an exasperated look. "Is that all you can say, Filius? While I'm willing to overlook a bit of...shall we say...high spirits after everything the students have endured, this is beginning to get a little out of hand."
"At least my students are behaving," Severus said smugly.
Over at the Slytherin table, Theodore Nott was regarding the Gryffindor table with disdain. "How childish," he said scornfully--just before a treacle tart came sailing over from the Gryffindor table and landed on his head.
"Oh sorry," Andrew said with a grin. "Was that too childish for you?"
"I hope you know this means war," Theodore said, with as much dignity as he could muster with bits of treacle tart stuck to his hair. He took out his wand, and before long food was flying back and forth across the tables as the rest of the Slytherins joined in on the food fight.
Remus couldn't help but smile as the smug look on Severus's face turned to consternation. Severus noticed and growled, "Don't say it, Lupin!"
"Say what?" Remus asked innocently.
Severus just growled again and stomped away to presumably inflict his wrath on his hapless students.
"Will the rest of you also go and get your students under control?" an exasperated McGonagall told the other Heads of House.
"Yes, Headmistress," Remus replied, although he thought it was a shame to break up such a splendid food fight. But he kept those thoughts to himself because McGonagall looked as though her patience had run out, and he suspected she might give him detention if he dared to say so out loud. He walked over to the Gryffindor table grinning and thinking to himself that in some ways, he still thought of her as his intimidating Head of House, for all that they were both adults and colleagues now.
The uproar gradually began to subside as he and the other Heads warned the students to settle down. Unsurprisingly, the Gryffindors were slowest to give up the fight, and after a couple of gentle warnings, Remus had to say more sternly, "That is quite enough, Mr. Kirke and Mr. Sloper."
Jack reluctantly set down the basket of rolls he'd been using as ammunition, but Andrew tried to hurl one last spoonful of mashed potatoes at the Slytherin table. Remus knew he was a bit of a soft touch compared to most of the other teachers, but it still annoyed him to have his warning be completely ignored. So he physically wrenched the serving spoon out of Andrew's hand as he said sharply, "I said, that's enough!"
Except that he wrenched a little harder than he'd meant to, and his momentum sent a large glob of mashed potatoes flying off the spoon in the direction of the Slytherin table--where it hit Severus smack-dab in the middle of his face.
A dead silence fell over the room as all laughter and horseplay immediately ceased. "Lupin," Severus said in a low and quiet voice that somehow held even more menace than when he shouted angrily. "Aren't you a little too old to still be playing schoolboy pranks?"
The students shuddered and turned pale, and that low timbre of Severus's voice sent a little shiver down Remus's spine for entirely different reasons. Remus smiled in what he hoped came across in an apologetic rather than a prurient manner.
"I'm sorry, Severus. It was an accident."
"How convenient," Severus sneered, removing the mashed potatoes from his face with a flick of his wand.
"It really was an accident," Remus protested.
"If you say so," Severus replied skeptically.
Remus thought about arguing his innocence further, then shrugged, knowing it would be a futile effort. "Oh well...in for a penny, in for a pound," he mused out loud.
"What are you babbling about, Lupin?" Severus asked irritably.
Remus dipped the spoon into a bowl of cranberry sauce and then threw the sauce at Severus's face, noting with some satisfaction that it hit with as much accuracy as the mashed potatoes. "Now that," he said sweetly, "was on purpose."
This time, the students'--and the teachers'--jaws dropped as they stared at him in shock. Even Severus was too stunned to react for a moment. Then he raised his wand and said, "Just remember, you brought this on yourself, Lupin."
In retaliation, he sent an entire bowl of mashed potatoes flying at Remus, who raised his own wand and countered with a bowl of spaghetti. He couldn't help but laugh as the strands of pasta covered Severus's head like a wig. But his laughter ceased shortly after when a dish of trifle hit him in the face.
Remus licked his lips, tasting raspberries and custard. "Hmm, not bad," he said with a grin. He couldn't be sure with the bits of trifle obscuring his vision, but he could have sworn he saw Severus smile slightly for just a second.
"Take that, Lupin!" Severus shouted, and Remus had no more time to think as barrage of food from the Slytherin table came flying at him, and laughing, he gave as good as he got as pork chops, fruit and vegetables, more mashed potatoes, and assorted condiments flew back and forth between them.
He didn't dare take his eyes off the battle--he nearly got clocked in the head with an apple--but he could hear the students and even some of the teachers laughing and cheering them on.
Finally, over the all the other noise, he heard McGonagall shout, "STOP THIS AT ONCE, YOU TWO!" She must have used a spell to enhance volume, because her voice reverberated through the entire hall.
Remus sheepishly lowered his wand, feeling about fourteen years old again as McGonagall glared at him the exact same way she used to when the Marauders had gotten themselves into a particularly egregious bit of mischief.
"Think we'll be polishing the silver in the trophy room?" Remus asked Severus with a rueful grin, although given the choice, he would do the food fight all over again.
"We should be so lucky," Severus replied in a dour voice, but the corners of his mouth turned up just the slightest bit. He quickly scowled again when Remus gave him a closer look.
"In my office now, both of you!" McGonagall snapped, sweeping out of the room without a backwards glance.
"Looks like it's off to detention," Remus said cheerily as they followed after her.
As they left, he heard Dennis ask in a worried voice, "Can teachers get detention?"
"Looks like we'll find out," Severus muttered under his breath.
***
They were subjected to a blistering lecture by the Headmistress in which she scolded them at length for their immature behavior and the example (or lack thereof) that they were setting for the students.
"What on earth were the two of you thinking?!" she demanded. "Or were you even thinking at all?!"
"I guess we just got a little carried away," Remus said with what he hoped was a contrite-but-winsome smile. "I'm sorry, Minerva."
"Getting 'carried away' was not an adequate excuse when you were a schoolboy, and it is most certainly not one now when you are supposed to be a professor," McGonagall replied tartly. "The two of you will be on night patrol for the rest of the month--perhaps that will teach you how to work together without throwing food at each other. Now go and get yourselves cleaned up before I have to clean my office as well!"
Remus and Severus were both still covered with various foodstuffs and unfortunately had left behind a trail of debris that would have to be cleaned up by the house elves. They hastily left McGonagall's office before she decided to give them another lecture and a worse punishment than patrol duty.
"This is all your fault, Lupin," Severus grumbled. "She gave us what amounts to detention, as if we were still students."
"It was worth it," Remus said with a grin. For a moment, it seemed that Severus almost smiled back before he caught himself and scowled instead.
"Hmmph!" he snorted, and stalked off in the direction of the dungeon.
Remus headed to his own quarters, but when he went into the bathroom, he found Dobby there wielding a wrench and doing something to the pipes that had apparently resulted in large puddles of water forming on the floor.
"Er...what are you doing here, Dobby?"
"Dobby is fixing the plumbing," the house elf replied. "Dobby is very sorry for the inconvenience. The Head...that is, Dobby was told that Professor Lupin should use the Prefects' bathroom for now."
"All right," Remus sighed. He would have preferred to get into a hot bath now without having to trek across the castle, but that was hardly Dobby's fault. So he gathered some clean clothes and headed to the Prefects' bathroom.
When he got there, a sign on the door announced that it was temporarily closed to students, which at least meant that he wouldn't have to share the bath. It probably wasn't good for his position as an authority figure to have the students see him naked.
Of course, there was one non-student that he would very much like to get naked with, but the chances of that were about the same as that of a snowball in hell.
He opened the door and much to his surprise, walked in to find Severus sitting naked in a bubble bath, washing spaghetti out of his hair.
"Lupin!" Severus shouted indignantly, hastily sinking deeper into the bubbles, which caused Remus to burst into laughter. "I hardly see the humor in this situation," Severus huffed. "And what are you doing here, anyway?"
"My plumbing is broken," Remus said, feeling much happier about that situation. "So I was told to use the Prefects' bathroom instead."
"Same here," Severus said, frowning suspiciously. "That seems odd..."
"It's an old castle," Remus pointed out. "It's no surprise that the pipes might be breaking down."
"Yes, but..." Severus started to reply, his words trailing off into another indignant squawk as Remus began to undress. "Lupin, what do you think you're doing?!"
"I'm going to take a bath," Remus replied in a reasonable tone of voice. "That is why I'm here, after all."
"But...but...but..." Severus spluttered incoherently as Remus continued to remove robe, shirt, and trousers. He noted with satisfaction that despite his protests, Severus's gaze remained fixed on him, as if he couldn't take his eyes off of Remus.
Perhaps the snowball stood a chance, after all.
"Oh come now, Severus," Remus said. "There's no need to act like an innocent maiden whose virtue is about to be besmirched. I doubt that I have anything you haven't seen before."
He removed his underpants, and watched as Severus's face turned bright red, but still didn't look away. Remus strolled unselfconsciously into the bath, slowly sinking into the warm water as Severus's eyes continued to track his every move.
"Lupin," Severus said hoarsely, "do you live to torment me?"
"No, I don't," Remus replied. "Although I know that my friends did back when we were students, and I'm sorry for that. And I am sorry also that I believed you were a traitor. I know it's what we were meant to believe, but still, I should have known better. Whatever differences we may have had over the years, you've always been a man of your word."
"Talk is cheap, Lupin," Severus retorted, although he sounded more like he was arguing out of habit rather than real anger.
"Then maybe I can find a way to make it up to you," Remus purred, moving closer to Severus.
"And what did you have in mind?" Severus asked.
"Maybe I could scrub your back for you," Remus replied, running his hands down Severus's chest.
"That is not my back, Lupin," Severus said dryly, then gasped as Remus's hands moved below his waist and under the bubbles covering the bathwater.
"Oh really?" Remus asked coyly. "Should I stop what I'm doing, then?"
"Don't you dare, Lupin!" Severus snapped, and Remus laughed and let his hands continue moving beneath water.
Severus moaned and shoved Remus up against the pool wall, kissing him hungrily and grinding their hips together. Remus returned the kiss and wrapped his arms around Severus, drawing him closer as his body moved with equal enthusiasm against Severus's.
Their movement churned the water, sending bubbles flying and water splashing over the edge of the bath. They both cried out as they found release almost simultaneously, the water growing still again as they relaxed in each other's arms.
"I do recall that you promised to scrub my back," Severus said lazily as they floated in the bubble-covered water.
"I will scrub any part of you that you want," Remus promised. "Most thoroughly."
"I'll hold you to that promise, Lupin," Severus said, kissing him more gently this time.
***
Meanwhile, Dobby reported to the Headmistress's office, which was now empty except for the portraits covering the wall. "Dobby is done fixing the plumbing," he told Dumbledore's portrait. "Or should Dobby 'fix' it some more?"
"I think that will be sufficient, Dobby," Dumbledore replied with a smile and a wink before he closed his eyes and sank into slumber, snoring contentedly with a very satisfied smile on his face.
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I'm glad you liked it, and I think Severus does appreciate Remus's Gryffindor side even though he'd never admit it. ;-)
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and dumbledore was just so right
and food fight- i never want to do one but they are always so good to read and watch!
awesome!
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In real life, I think a food fight is a waste of good food, but I love reading/watching them in fiction. ;-)
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