It took Severus every waking hour, and that was a lot of hours for an insomniac, to perfect his potion to cure Lycanthropy. He was meant to be staying with Remus for the summer holidays but he couldn't operate with Remus watching his every move so he told Remus he was staying with Lily and Lily that he was staying with Remus and then went to stay at Hogwarts and utilise the dungeons there to create his potion.

"Still here, Severus?" Albus asked amusedly from the doorway.

Severus stood stirring his potion, watching the contents of the cauldron with a furrowed brow.

"I'll have less free time during the school term to make this - it has to be now," Severus replied brusquely.

"You know the holidays are usually spent relaxing?"

Severus turned to face the irksome headmaster.

"I should be dead but I'm not so why don't I do something to help people? Isn't that a better use of my second chance?"

Dumbledore watched him calmly, his blue eyes betraying an emotion Severus couldn't detect. To his immense displeasure, he thought it could have been pride.

"Your old self would be impressed," he stated.

He was right. The old codger was proud of the person he was becoming. Time to ruin that illusion.

"My old self," Severus spat, returning to his cauldron, "Would be shocked to the core. Self-interest is easier for all concerned parties."

"It didn't help you," the professor pointed out. "Your students, your colleagues, they all saw it. It didn't help them and it certainly didn't help you."

He paused for a moment.

"Or Lily."

Severus spun round, anger visible in his eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, maybe the person who was actually there might know the real truth. I taught those students everything I knew; it was up to them to make good use of what I taught them. I gave Harry Potter an enemy to fight against and all the other Gryffindors a great reason why not to turn to the dark side. I think I helped many people."

"But not yourself," Dumbledore observed. "Was it self-interest or self-loathing?"

Severus made a show of fingering his wand which had suddenly appeared in his hands.

"You may not be aware but you are standing opposite the Half-Blood Prince and the dark lord's right-hand man. It may not be wise to antagonise me."

"I am trying to help you, Severus. If you know what you did wrong last time, you can work to do better this time."

Severus sauntered over to the store cupboard and rummaged through it to find the ingredient he was looking for, showing that he was not afraid of Dumbledore in the least and so had no issue with presenting his back to him.

"Maybe I could help us both," he stated clearly. "The flaw we shared and still share is curiosity. Get your big nose out of my business and I shall do what I do best - working alone."

"I think Mister Black would disagree," Dumbledore said idly. "Perhaps he should also be mentioned on the patent."

Severus turned back again with a swish of his cloak.

"His parents would kill him," he answered emotionlessly.

"Having his name on a patent might do a whole lot of good. It might be his... Learning curve."

"He's already learnt! He's not the same as he was before!"

"Consider it, Severus," Dumbledore advised him.

"Then you'll have two students you need to protect from Voldemort," Severus responded.

"I thought you wanted to be seen as an adult," Dumbledore commented. "My mistake."

And he left.

Severus simply stood there, knuckles turning white as he pressed them against the tabletop. He knew it may just be a matter of a tough love moment but he'd had his issues with 'tough love' in the past and it had ended up with his father dead at Severus' hands. And Dumbledore.

Taking a deep breath, he decided to ignore it. Dumbledore didn't have a point, or not a valid one anyway. He should focus on the potion. Redeeming himself, reforming himself, came before psychoanalysing everything Dumbledore said. That would take him a lifetime. He instead took the two-way mirror on the table beside the cauldron and lifted it up.

"Regulus Black," he told it.

Regulus instantly appeared on the other side. While it wasn't perfect, it enabled Severus and Regulus to talk and hadn't been hard to pick up on the black market. Regulus began speaking straightaway.

"I found a way to stabilise the potion and_ What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Severus replied, his inscrutable expression not giving anything away. "What were you saying?"

*

A week later, as full moon approached, Severus Apparated to Remus' home with a vial of the potion in his cloak.

"Severus!" Remus exclaimed, when he opened the door. "Where were you? Lily said you weren't with her!"

"Hogwarts," Severus replied shortly, bustling past him into the kitchen. "I need you to be a guinea pig."

"Er, why?"

"For a potion."

"Okay."

*

Later that evening, Severus accompanied Remus to the basement and sat down with his book. When Remus began to take off his clothes so that they wouldn't be torn to shreds and picked up the Wolfsbane potion, Severus stopped him.

"You won't need to do that, trust me. Take this potion instead."

Remus might be uncertain but he would trust Severus with his life.

Severus stood up and nervously paced up and down with Remus watching him all the while. However, after half an hour, Severus could not deny that it had worked. He turned to Remus.

"Today, Remus Lupin, is the day you stop being a werewolf."

"What?"

Remus stumbled, flabbergasted, and would have collapsed if it weren't for Severus holding him up.

"Look."

Severus cast the spell that enabled the sky to be seen in the Great Hall at Hogwarts and Remus pushed Severus away even as he saw the full moon rise in the sky.

"Remus, it's fine," Severus reassured him, getting back to his feet. "You're cured."

"What? No way."

Remus sat down heavily on the ground and Severus perched tentatively next to him. Remus began to cry, slowly at first but then they became great big gulping sobs.

"Thank you," he sobbed, throwing his arms around Severus. "Thank you so much."

"It's fine, Remus," Severus replied, patting him on the back. "Don't you want to show your parents?"

*

Seeing Remus race over to his parents even as they sat cautiously in the kitchen above, fearing the dreadful sounds of the transformation, made even Severus emotional. Watching as the recognition and delight dawned on Hope and Lyall's faces, seeing them embrace their son so incredibly tightly - it made it all worthwhile. Severus was doing good in this world.

"Severus, come over here," Remus said, drawing him out of his thoughts.

"You're part of the family now, son," Lyall smiled, tears glittering on his cheeks.

"You always have been," whispered Hope, overcome with emotion. 

And, as the Lupin family drew him close, Severus knew that this was where he belonged. With a family who loved him, cherished him, and appreciated him and his talents.

Families were meant to love and respect and help each other. There wasn't meant to be violence in a family or heartbreak or disagreement. Families were there for each other and always would be. 

Love came in all shapes and sizes but, after all, that was what a family was: love. 

And nothing could take that away.

*****

A.N. I'm back! And a special bit of familial acceptance to celebrate Pride Month - Happy Pride everybody!

I have finally graduated high school and so I now have four months to just write and do nothing else. :)

Thank you for sticking with me and my long-awaited writing and have a fantastic day! Keep commenting!