Slowly regaining consciousness, Remus groaned sickly as the throbbing in his head increased to keep up a steady rhythm to match his heartbeat.  Cradling his head in his hands, he shifted into a more comfortable position leaning back against the parlour wall.  Slitting his eyes open, he looked around.  It was still fairly dark, due in part to the heavy curtains at the windows, and he assumed it must still be the middle of the night.  Remus wasn't surprised.  It had been many months since he had slept the whole night through.  Lately he was lucky if he managed two hours a night.  Most times he would just sit here in the parlour until he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer.  It wasn't often that he could face going up to the room - their room - because the bed always felt so empty and cold without Sirius wriggling and snuffling beside him.

It was then that he realised that the steady pounding wasn't actually in his head at all but someone knocking at the door.  An impatient someone, if Remus were to guess, which, with his brain feeling like mush, he really wasn't in any position to do.  At least he could be fairly sure it wasn't a Death Eater, as Remus doubted they'd bother with such social niceties as knocking.

He really needed to stop doing this.  This was no way to live.  But then, he said that every time he woke up with a hangover and splitting headache.  He was just rousing himself enough to try to stand up when the door swung open, and a dark figure filled the doorway.

Wait, he was wrong.  It was a Death Eater, former member though he claimed to be. 

'Obviously, you didn't learn anything in school, Lupin,' a smoothly sardonic voice said as the man stepped into the room.  'Only a complete gibbering idiot would neglect to ward his doors in times like these.  But that's you all over isn't it?  Even a first year could have gotten in with little more than an "Alohomora."'

Struggling to his feet, Remus panted slightly with the effort it took just to get himself upright.  'Snape,' he spat into the void between them.  'What are you doing here?  I mean, shouldn't you be off kissing the arse of your master?  Or is it not his arse you get to kiss?'

'I can see your disposition isn't improved any by the consumption of-' he glanced around the room, disgust evident in every line of his face. '-three bottles of the cheapest whisky a destitute werewolf can afford.'

Remus went red in the face but didn't answer.  Instead he tried to edge his way over to the relative safety of an armchair but didn't make it; his legs just wouldn't hold him up.  Pitching forwards, there was a long period of pleasant weightlessness before he managed to catch himself.  Standing in the centre of the room, he swayed unsteadily back and forth, like a sailor before he's gained his sea legs.

Snape's only reaction to this aborted movement was to step back, careful as always to maintain the distance between them.  He, of course, did not offer his assistance, not that it would have been welcome.  Instead he watched dispassionately as Remus struggled to regain his equilibrium. 

'Do pull yourself together, Lupin,' Snape said after a moment.  'Ever since that flea-bitten friend of yours finally did the decent thing and died like the dog he was, you've needed help to do everything.  When Molly Weasley starts having to take you outside and hose you down before meetings, let me know.  I do believe I'll sell tickets.'

Remus' head snapped up, his mouth gaping open in shock at Snape's audacity.  The hateful words hung suspended between them for long moments.  Seconds ticked by where Remus could do little more than blink dumbly.  He couldn't believe the bastard had found the nerve to say such a thing.

'Oh, did that cut too close to the truth?' Snape asked, not a bit sorry, as usual.  'Don't worry, I'm sure Black's not really dead.  Perhaps he's gone to live on a farm where there's lots of room for him to run around like a simpleton.  So there isn't much of a difference between then and now.' 

'Maybe you'd like to join him?'  Remus gritted out, his anger getting the best of him.  He always promised himself he wouldn't let Snape get to him but somehow the other man got under his skin anyway. 

'On a farm?'  Snape arched an eyebrow.  'I should think not.  I can't imagine anything worse than a lifetime spent with that filthy animal.'

The impact of his words was like a slap in the face.  It was typical that Snape would mock Remus' most fervent -  and now impossible - wish.  The man had always possessed an uncanny knack for homing in on a person's weaknesses and milking them for all they were worth, a skill that had most likely made him an excellent Death Eater.  Former or not.

'You have no feelings at all, do you?' Remus asked, his insides positively boiling with hatred.   'It should have been you that died, you sick, unfeeling bastard.'

Somehow Snape's voice became even smoother.  Folding his arms across his chest, he relaxed into the pose.  'Come, come, Lupin.  Let us not resort to profanity.' 

Remus' eyes flashed dangerously, and a low growl rumbled in his throat.  'I should kill you myself.'

At this Snape made a sound that from anyone else would have been a snort.  'You don't scare me, Lupin.'

'No?'  Tilting his head, Remus sized up his opponent.  Snape may have had height - along with coordination and sobriety - on his side but Remus had the element of surprise.  That, and sheer bullheadedness.

Snape sniffed delicately, in a way that reminded Remus of potions lessons of old.  'Judging by the way you stink, I doubt you could see straight enough to hex a small child.  Did you bathe in a cauldron of Firewhisky, or are you merely trying a new cologne?  The stench of you reached me all the way outside.'

'With that huge honker, I'd be willing to bet you could smell bats shitting in Peru.'  Remus replied drily, blithely ignoring the look of death Snape shot at him.  'Oh, and I may not be able to hex you right now, but that doesn't mean I can't... POUNCE!'

Unexpectedly, Remus snarled and, surging forward, he leaped towards Snape.   Startled, Snape drew back a step or two, shrinking in on himself and wrapping his robe tighter around his body.  His face paled alarmingly, causing Remus to smirk in triumph.  It wasn't often someone got the opportunity to knock Snape off his perch.

Snape shook off his shock and straightened his spine.  Reaffixing the glare on his face, he infused it with even more malevolence than usual, his eyes boring holes in Remus' forehead.

'Very childish, Lupin,' he said haughtily, in an attempt to regain his dignity.  'Though I should have expected such a display from the likes of you.  Your sense of humour needs some work, but I now see why Sirius couldn't wait to get himself killed in order to get away from you.'

'You have to admit that was pretty funny,' Remus said, grinning a little in the face of Snape's discomfiture.  It was good to have caught the bastard offguard.  It wasn't a common occurrence, as the man was notorious for being closed up tighter than Azkaban.  'I thought you were going to pass out for minute there.  You went whiter than Flitwick's arse in the wintertime.'

'Those of us who are adults are not amused by such things,'  Snape said, heaving an exaggerated sigh, as if all this were beneath him.  But that was how he was with everything, except his stupid potions.

Remus's head was still spinning, protesting any and all movement, but he refused to give Snape the advantage by collapsing.  Forcing himself to remain where he was, he locked his knees tight under him, just in case.  'Yes, and some people aren't amused by anything.'

'Well,' Snape drawled, pausing for a moment, as if to check that Remus was listening.  'I must admit that I do find your homely little ways quite amusing.'

'Homely?'  Remus would have laughed, had it not been for the fact that his head would have exploded.  'Really?  This coming from the fellow voted Least Likely to Procreate in Seventh Year?  You never could get over the fact that we were popular and you were-  well, you.'

'Funny, Lupin,' Snape sneered, in a tone Remus was certain his potions students would be all too familiar with.  'I voted in that myself.  Besides, I thought everyone knew I was fucking Malfoy.'

Well, Remus hadn't exactly known that, although he'd always suspected.  'I'm surprised he let you.  But then, I suppose he'd have done anything not to have to look at your face.'

If he'd been hoping for a wince or a grimace from Snape, he was disappointed.  The only response he received was a coolly raised eyebrow and a derisive quirk of thin lips.

'Excellent comeback,' Snape replied.  'It just goes to prove an old dog really can learn new tricks.  Something that flea-bitten mongrel taught you, perhaps?'

'Don't you speak of Sirius that way!' Remus shouted, finally giving his temper free rein.  'He was ten times the man you are!'

'Oh.  Did I hurt your feelings?' Snape mocked.  'Such a shame.  Some of us can give it, while the rest -' he gestured at Remus, in his heavily rumpled state.  '- can only stand there and take it.  And I'll concede that my face is not my best feature.  Fortunately, it wasn't my face that Malfoy was interested in.'

'Like Malfoy couldn't have found better out back of the Hog's Head Inn on a Saturday night.'  Remus said spitefully.  All the anger he'd felt over Sirius' death was now aimed directly - if a little unfairly - at Snape.

It felt so good to finally get angry, to let out some of the pain and frustration he had been feeling for these long, lonely months.  He wanted to hit something - someone - to rail against whoever had decided to take Sirius from him.  It wasn't fair, it just wasn't.  They hadn't had long enough.  Why couldn't they have had more time together?  Why was Remus left here alone, with onlySnivellus for company?  He was on a train to Crazytown and there was nothing he could do about it.  All he wanted was Sirius, but Sirius was gone.  Forever.  Now, Remus was stuck here, alone and heartbroken.  He was destroyed inside leaving behind a broken shell.  And he would never be whole again.  That was reason enough to be furious.

'I'll bow to your superior knowledge of the back alleys of Hogsmeade,' Snape said coldly, each word grating on Remus' already frayed nerves.  'I'm sure that you and that overgrown puppy of yours became more than familiar with the merchandise.'

'Funnily enough,' Remus said.  'Some of us - namely the more attractive members of society - don't have to pay for a quick fuck.'  He desperately wanted to wipe that smarmy look from Snape's face.  The smug bastard needed knocking down a peg or two. 

'How would you know about that, Lupin?' Snape retorted, his eyes flashing like flint.  'Did homeliness suddenly become the fashion?'

'Homeliness?'  Remus parroted back at Snape, using the same disdainful tone.  'No.  But not looking like a dead vulture sure has.'

Snape didn't say anything for long, drawn out moments.  He just stared at Remus like he was a bug under one of those "Michael's crows" that Arthur Weasley had shown Remus a few weeks ago

Then, 'It's all becoming clear now.'

Remus thought better of it, he really did, but against his better judgement he went ahead and asked anyway.  'What is?'

'How Black could have been so inanely stupid as to get himself killed.'

That Snape could say such a thing so blandly was every bit as shocking as hearing the words themselves.  For a second or two Remus couldn't breathe.  His chest ached like it was being crushed, and he blinked back tears.  He would not cry in front of this man.  He. Would. Not.  Cry.

Grabbing hold of his anger and frustration with both hands, he fumed, 'Don't you fucking dare, you fucking overgrown bat!  Sirius was not stupid!'

'Dare?' Snape threw back at him.  'Dare? Might I remind you that you have been hurling insults at me since I arrived.'

'You started it.' Remus pointed out, though he wasn't as sure about that as he should have been.  It was all a little hazy.  But then, the last few months were all a little hazy, too.

'Oh, have we reached the immaturity portion of the evening?  I'm sorry-' but Remus could see that he was as far from sorry as he'd always been,  '-but I  really don't have time for your pathetic attempts at belittling me.'

'Belittling you?'  Remus should have known that Snape would find some way to twist the facts in his favour.  It was obvious to Remus that the greasy fucking bastard had been spoiling for a fight for weeks.  Months.  Years, even.

Snape's baleful glare was answer enough.

Remus forced out a scathing laugh past a dry throat.  'You really are deluded, aren't you?'

'No more so than anyone else in this room,' Snape said with a dismissive wave of his hand, as though Remus were a bothersome fly.  Snape's infamous icy aloofness had returned with a vengeance, and it was clear that Snape had now lost interest in the conversation.

'Now, if you're quite finished,' Snape continued, 'I'd suggest you get yourself cleaned up.  You stink worse than that flea-infested friend of yours ever did, if that's even possible... and, while you're at it, either brush your teeth, or keep your mouth closed.  You have even worse dog-breath than Black ever did.  It truly is disgusting.'

'Wow,' Remus muttered.  '"Dog-breath."  That's original.'

'And do hurry yourself about it, the others will be here soon,' Snape finished.

'What?' Remus was baffled, his brain still working on whisky-time.  'What others?  What are you talking about?'

Snape gave him his patented 'you are a lesser life-form' look.  'I'm sure you were too busy marinating in self-pity and cheap liquor to have heard but Albus has called a meeting.'

Somehow, somewhere, Remus had lost track of the conversation.  Damn it.  'What?  Now?'

Snape all but rolled his eyes at Remus.  'No, next week, you half-wit.  Of course, now.  I realise that stupidity is inherent with Gryffindors but you've obviously been practicing.'

Ignoring Snape's latest gibe, Remus moved sluggishly towards the stairs.  It sounded like he was going to be inundated, and he wanted to be presentable before Molly Weasley took it upon herself to make him so.

He only wished they would all just leave him alone to wallow in his pain.  Remus didn't need, or appreciate their pity.  The pain may not have been much but it was better than nothing.  And it was all he had left of Sirius.

So lost was he in his despair, Remus never noticed Snape watching as he mounted the stairs.  Never saw the thoughtful expression on the stoic man's face, a faint softening to the sharp edges, nor the shaking of his head at the dejected slump of Remus' shoulders.  He would have been surprised if he had seen, and a little perturbed.  But at least he couldn't have mistaken it for pity, as that was one thing that Snape didn't do.