Dreamless Sleep
by Sinope
Title:
Dreamless Sleep
Author: Sinope at (no spam!) gmail dot com
Rating:
PG
Pairing:
Snape/Lupin
Summary:
Lupin and Snape fall asleep every night to the taste of Dreamless Sleep.
Author's notes:
A birthday ficlet for Lunulet.
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work. No profit was made; no ownership is implied.
Some couples, Severus knows, share tastes and memories: visions of past pleasures together, rekindled by the taste of a favorite Merlot or the touch of a fur rug. He and Remus have shared memories, too, but their trigger is the taste of Dreamless Sleep potion. Every night, every year, they share the chalice before curling against each other and succumbing to darkness. The potion tastes of stale tea and lemon verbena, and Severus can still taste it when he wakes.
Poppy says that it's unhealthy to take Dreamless Sleep every night, that dreams are a necessary part of the mind's subconscious. Severus had to bite his tongue to keep himself from snapping that she was welcome to take over the position of holding Remus hard enough to absorb the shudders of his nightmares. Instead, every week he brews enough potion to serve the two of them, and every morning, the second thing he tastes, right after the lemon-tinged forgetfulness, is the sweat on Remus's skin.
Once, Severus tested the limits of his potion; each night he took a sip less, up until the morning he woke before dawn, gasping at vague memories of mottled serpent eyes and the white limpness of broken limbs. He'd clutched at Remus then, his eyes wide open to dispel the images, but the other man simply sighed and turned over. Severus doesn't like to think about those hours, about the sight of Remus breathing in unbroken slumber. He never drank a partial dose again.
Only on the nights of the full moon do Severus and Remus break their ritual; Remus cannot sleep, and Severus chooses not to. Instead, he drinks Pepper-Up Potion and marks papers, ever mindful of the wolf curled at his feet. If werewolves sleep, Severus has never seen it; and he does not wish to contemplate what they might dream.
Some couples, Severus knows, share tastes and memories. He smells Remus in chocolate wrappers and old books; the texture of coarse wool reminds him of their first night together. When he mentions this to Remus, Remus laughs and teases him nostalgically about how long it'd taken to unbutton his starched shirt. Remus loves to bring up those sorts of memories, and Severus lets him savour them. What he never mentions is that the taste that reminds him most of Remus, home, and safety is the muted mixture of lemon verbena and stale tea.
finis.
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