Lupin looked both surprised and perturbed. "We're staying where?" he asked Snape.

"You live somewhere, Lupin. And unless that somewhere is a shared flat teeming with Ministry underlings on the Tottenham Court Road, which I doubt, it should do for the night."

"Why should I take you to my home?" Lupin asked, still taken aback by Snape's presumption.

"You'd rather stay with Malfoy?" Snape sneered. "Maybe you would, but I'd rather not hazard that just yet. Malfoy seems very taken with you - frankly, I'm shocked he adapted to your presence as quickly as he seems to have done. But until we know whether Malfoy is keeping his son close at hand, we can't risk more time at the Manse than is absolutely necessary."

"Draco? What does he have to do with this?"

"Nothing, I hope." Lupin was relieved to see that Snape seemed sincere. "But if he is there, I'd rather he not have an excuse to spend the next day or two filling his father's ears with fresh stories about your year at Hogwarts. Of course, if Malfoy chooses to ask Draco about you in our absence, there's nothing to be done about it, but I'd rather not spend all of tomorrow spontaneously generating acceptably dark motivations for an entire year of your life."

"Will Draco follow Lucius' path, Severus? Has he already made that choice?" Lupin asked, concernedly.

"I can't say. Dumbledore and I hope that he won't, but I'm not, at this point, optimistic." This possibility disturbed Snape a good deal, but the head of Slytherin House did not permit Lupin's question to distract him for long. "Now, unless you'd prefer to spend the rest of the evening skulking around this charming neighborhood. . . ?"

"Oh, right," said Lupin. "It's not much to look at, but it is out of the way. We can Apparate if you'll let me lead."

Snape jerked his head toward the sheltered doorway of Borgin & Burkes and Lupin followed him off of the street. "Lead away. I'm quite certain you won't find yourself able to go anywhere else." Snape put a hand on Lupin's shoulder as they both disappeared.

~*~*~

Lupin looked around the familiar room, searching for signs of any visitors since he had last been there himself. He knew from Dumbledore that Sirius and Viviane should be much farther south than his corner of Derbyshire, but he couldn't be sure. He had hoped to find either or both of them there, remote though that possibility was. With their help, he might be able to throw off Snape's compulsion, although someone - likely Snape - would doubtlessly be hurt in the process. But Remus could not properly appreciate the mental image of Sirius leaping to his rescue; Snape's mission, so successful so far, would be for nothing, and Dumbledore's fury and disappointment at the results of their squabbling would be more than Lupin could bear. And I don't know enough about Snape's relationship with Viviane to predict whether it would make her more or less likely to kill him should she find him holding me captive, he thought. I wonder how long I'll be able to keep it that way.

Lupin quickly realized that this was all idle speculation as it was clear that no one had visited his tiny cottage since he and Sirius had left together the night of the Hogwarts Leaving Feast. The books they had been reading still overflowed the small table and the tea tray upon it, weeks old copies of the Daily Prophet were still piled by the edge of the sagging couch, the fire was cold, and the bed in the corner was still a heap of rumpled linen and tattered comfort, just as he had left it.

He became suddenly aware of Snape's presence again, expecting to hear some snarlish comment on the shabby state of his home. But he was disappointed.

"Where are we?" Snape asked.

"Derbyshire, not far from Ashbourne. But there's nothing close by, so you needn't worry about any, er, interruptions." Lupin saw Snape returning his wand to his pocket.

"No, not now," said Snape. "No one will be able to see that we are here."

Lupin fought his customary urge to be hospitable, but thinking of his own comfort, he lit the fire and began to gather up the abandoned tea things.

"You wouldn't have anything stronger on hand, would you?" asked Snape, looking at the pot.

"I might," said Lupin, "if, over a glass, you'd be willing to tell me what you expect to have happen during the next few days."

Snape glanced at the clock on the mantel and dug a flask out of his pocket. "Drink this first, Lupin."

Remus was suddenly furious again. "Make me."

"As you like. But this isn't what you took this morning. You don't need another dose of that, anyway. This is another variant on Wolfsbane that I expect will mitigate some of the physical pain if you fit in three doses between now and the full moon," Snape explained.

"Why would you do that?" asked Lupin, thinking of the work that Snape must have done to produce such a potion - no other Potions expert in Britain had ever done it, although several were trying.

"I didn't stop working on Wolfsbane after you left Hogwarts, Lupin, although not having a subject to test my compounds has slowed my efforts to some degree. It has remained a promising line of research, I assure you. Go on," said Snape, offering the flask again, "it will help."

Lupin took the flask and drank it in one fast gulp. "Still haven't been able to do anything about the taste, have you?" he asked, grimacing. Snape just looked at him, as though judging the potion's immediate aftereffects. Lupin put the flask down on the table and rummaged through a cabinet until he found a half-full bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

"Right," said Lupin. "But let's get back to Malfoy, shall we? What have you learned this evening, and what do you expect we shall have to do?"