Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Summary: Remus observes Severus one evening when he brings him the Wolfsbane Potion and arrives at some surprising revelations. SnapeLupin, set during PoA, oneshot

I've been wanting to write this pairing for a while. It's nothing much. Just some observations, obviously, haha. I hope that everyone enjoys this little fic. I'd love to hear your opinions and whatnot on it. I've had a lot of fun writing it, I know that much. And thanks so much for clicking on this fic!

Observatory

"Professor Lupin."

The voice that meets Remus Lupin's ears is one very familiar, one heard so often that he almost knows it by heart. The voice itself is painfully devoid of emotion, flat and deadpan, yet there is something about it that interests the Dark Arts teacher. There always had been something that intrigued him about Severus Snape, and it wasn't just his voice.

"Yes, come in, Professor Snape," he replies, using the courtesy of his title - Remus didn't think Severus would like it if he'd just assumed he could call him by his first name after all these years. Though, the tempation still lingers as he remembers just how the name felt on his tongue.

"I've brought your potion."

Clipped, clinical, precice words. Not unlike the Severus he remembers from his days in Hogwarts. Yet somehow, there's a different tone to his voice, something strange and even more melancholy than spiteful - though the spite is still there, don't get him wrong.

"Ah, yes," Remus replies, looking at Severus for the first time since he arrived in his office doorway. His own voice sounds weary, even to him. "Thank you."

Yet Severus doesn't sit down the potion at once. He stands there, looking about, as if judging the place. It wouldn't be surprising to him if he were. Severus coveted this job, wanted it more than anything else.

Well, more than anything else he could realistically have.

Remus really looks at Severus just then, eyes raking over the thin man's appearance. He still has the same lank, greasy hair. Still has the same hooked nose, the same slight figure, the same sallow skin, the same eyes.

Those eyes, black as pitch, seem to hold something else now. Underneath the revulsion, underneath everything else, Remus senses that something within this man has changed since their days as schoolmates. It was a change that obviously had rattled him, something that had made him what he is today. Remus feels a strange, almost obscene curiosity as to what that event was.

You already know, a voice chimes at the back of his mind.

Remus fights the urge to scoff at his own obliviousness.

He looks at Severus with a sense of sympathy, which the Potions master doesn't seem to notice. He is too busy eyeing a grindylow in the tank next to him with a strangely perked interest. Very little seems to interest Severus nowadays, if Remus is a judge of anything.

Remus moves his eyes down to the cup of potion resting in Severus's thin hands, his fingers wrapped around it like it is something immensely precious. There are light smudges on his pale skin, black like the rest of his attire, mostly likely from making the potion itself. Those hands seem graceful, strangely so, considering the nature of the owner.

He feels a surge of gratitude thrill through him, and is almost taken aback by its intensity.

"Yes, well," Severus seems to be taken out of a trance, setting the cup of potion on the desk in front of Remus. "Here you are."

Remus eyes the potion before moving to glance at Severus once more. The man in question is halfway to the door, hand on the handle to close the door behind him, when the werewolf speaks.

"All right, Severus?"

Severus seems to tense up then, looking like he wants to go for his wand. Remus then knows that he's made a mistake by addressing him in that way. And, no worse, he had managed to slip up and use his actual name and not the moniker given to him by the school.

However, Severus turns and eyes Remus with a gaze that says too much and too little all at the same time.

"I'm fine, Remus," he replies stonily. It goes without saying that obviously Severus would rather Remus not be here at all.

Despite that, Remus gets an unusual shiver running down his spine at the way Severus says his name. It's a strange feeling, something like elation sprints through him, leaving Remus with the feeling of outright puzzlement by the end of it. He's not sure what is exactly going on with him, but the fact that he would like Severus to say his name again, which is a foolish concept in and of itself.

Remus closes his eyes tiredly, leaning on his desk with his elbows and rubbing circles at his temples.

"It's best if you drink that right away," the other man offers.

He looks up at Severus, surprised that he had talked to him. He'd thought he would have left after sneering at him the way he did.

"Yes, of course," Remus adds, watching as Severus purposefully walks to the door. "Thank you again, Severus."

If he isn't imagining things, Severus then gives a curt nod in response before shutting the door behind him.

Remus is left alone with his thoughts.

He stares over at the cup of potion, sitting as a reminder of the potion maker that had just graced his presence. Sighing, Lupin takes the cup in his hands, still warm from the hands that carried it before, and gulps it down.

As he swallows the vile liquid, he thinks that maybe he would like to see more of Severus Snape.

Just as he reasons this, a little voice in the back of his head pops in and calls him crazy.

Remus only smiles to himself at that, replying to that voice with only a few simple words (and ignoring the fact that this was a great deal crazier than his previous musings).

"Yeah, I know."

End.