Work Text:
Severus is reading his students' essays while looking over some potions that he is making for Dumbledore and Poppy. He can hear the kettle whistling in the background but he is knee deep into Kathrine Bubblin’s potions essay when he hears a sharp knock at his door.
He ignores it at first, because who in their right mind would be knocking on his door at 4 in the evening. The knocking continues, which irritates him endlessly. He eventually does get up to see who would feel the need to stop at his door.
He opens his door to find Remus J. Lupin.
“Good evening Severus, I am here for the wolfsbane for the full moon on Friday.”
“Yes, hello Lupin.” Severus walks in leaving a confused Lupin at his door, wondering if that was an invitation to come in.
“Well what are you standing outside for? Come in. I would have thought you would be used to just walking in with how many times you have been here.”
Remus steps through the threshold of the door and starts to take in his surroundings. The kettle is whistling in the kitchen as he is passing by. He makes a quick stop to turn the stove off and remove the kettle. He walks to Severus's study. When he steps inside he sees potion essays laying all around the desk and books open for references, probably for Severus’s research. There are also a few cauldrons that have been placed under a stasis charm so that he can mark without worry, most likely for Dumbledore.
Severus is looking through his potions cabinet eventually finding the wolfsbane. Remus starts to notice the amount of essays and potions that have already been marked. “Severus, when did you start marking all of this?” Severus gives him an unimpressed look “Maybe an hour ago. I started just after my last lesson of the day.”
“Severus that was 4 hours ago it’s currently 7! Are you telling me that you have been marking students' essays the whole time without a break?” Lupin says exasperated.
“No, Lupin, I have also been making potions for the hospital wing as well as my personal storage and I will continue to do so until I have finished. Now is there anything else I can do for you or will you be leaving?” Severus says handing Remus the wolfsbane potion.
Remus rolls his eyes and puts the potion into his bag before he takes it off and puts it on the floor next to Severus's desk. “Okay this is not how this is gonna go.” Remus starts walking towards Severus just to pick him up and starts walking towards the couch “If you would please stay here for a moment.”
Severus grumbles a bit under his breath but remains on the couch without a fight.
Remus leaves to go and get a blanket as well as put the kettle on to boil again. He returns with a fluffy blanket and puts it over Severus’s shoulders. “You know this is not necessary. I still have to finish marking those essays.”
“I know, but I also know that they do not need to be handed back to the students until the end of the week, so you can do all of this tomorrow, because it is not going to run away while you take a short break.”
Severus grumbled something under his breath that sounded vaguely like “Stupid werewolf and his stupid need to help.”
Remus disappeared back into the kitchen when he heard the kettle finish boiling. The kitchen was rather plain as Severus does not normally have people over so there was barely anything in the cupboards. Remus took out the only two cups that sat in the cupboard above the sink. They were mismatched, one having a dark blue colour and the other being a plain white cup with the words ‘baby snake’ printed in bold.
Severus had once told him the story of the mug. Apparently Minerva had gotten it for him when he finally became a professor at Hogwarts. It used to say welcome to the staff, but Minerva and the rest of the staff wanted to make it unique to Severus especially because he was the baby of the staff.
Remus opened the cupboard in front of him to get the tea and sugar that Severus had stored, he had many different types of tea. “Severus, what type of tea would you like?”
“Jasmine.” came a soft voice from the living room.
He put the tea bags in and started pouring the water. He had noted that Severus does not like sweet things all that much, but he still thought he should ask. “Severus, would you like some sugar with your tea?”
“No thank you.”
Once Remus was done making the tea he walked out holding the mugs and placed the steaming white cup in Severus's hands and grabbed a coaster to put his own dark blue cup on, so that he would not stain the wooden coffee table that sat in front of them. Severus took a sip of his tea pulling the blanket wrapped around his shoulders closer. It was a rather cold night at Hogwarts.
“Thank you for the tea.”
“It was no problem at all, it is rather cold in the dungeons though, I can cast some heating charms.”
Severus gave a slight tilt of his head to say that he does not mind.
Remus took out his wand and cast a light warming charm on the room.
They fell into light conversation about their students and how their classes have been going. It was nice having this warm atmosphere to just talk with each other, without all the rushing, bustling and noises that came from working at a school as large as Hogwarts, even if it was much smaller than the other magical schools.
Soon however, Severus's eyes started to droop and Remus took the cup out of his hand before it could fall and shatter. With Severus starting to fall asleep he started to lean toward Remus, until his head lay down on his shoulder. All the pressure of the week finally left his body and allowed him to relax. Remus was content to stay there without moving.
Remus eventually started to fall asleep as well and pulled Severus just a bit closer. Severus would probably be embarrassed when he woke up, but that was a morning Remus problem, for now he was going to take a nap.