Ladyhawke

Title Ladyhawke
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 30K+
Warning(s): Violence and a lot of character death, but nothing that will make you feel bad.
Prompt: #24. Ladyhawke Snarry: Voldemort rules the Wizarding world. After finding out about his second in command's betrayal and love for his enemy, he cursed the lovers. Harry becomes a hawk during the daytime while Snape becomes a wolf during the night. They are eternally apart and only see each other for the briefest of moments during sunset and sunrise, and even then they do not have time to touch. When they come in contact with a third person (Teddy?) they have finally the chance to talk through an intermediary and form a plan to destroy Voldemort
Summary: Mouse always tried to keep safe. Until that option was taken out of his hands.
A/N: Big thanks for my beta Carpet_diemon, Torino10154 and Accioslash for all their hard work. This story is canon compliant for HP up to the Shrieking Shack Incident. Well, here we go. I hope you like my little Monster.

A/N2: In one of the reviews I was told the story shows ‘no signs of originality at all’. Well, for some it may very well be truth. My aim in writing this story was not to transform the plots of the books so that readers would exclaim “OMG! If she didn’t tell me, I’d never have thought it’s Ladyhawke/Harry Potter!”. No. What I wanted to do was to show of the similarities between the characters I saw and how the words could be merged without much change to either of them. So yes, 80% of the dialogue and situations is taken straight from the movie, BUT some things didn’t make it into the story, others were altered or put into a new perspective, and some things are entirely new. Consider Yourself warned.

Ladyhawke


Deep in the bowels of Hogwarts, deeper even than the lowest dungeons, a scratching, shuffling sound reverberated from the stones.


“Nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible. Keep going, Mouse. Keep going!” a voice muttered from behind a wall of cracked, crumbling grey stone. “Nothing’s impossible!”


A small piece of rock fell off the wall, bringing with it a small shower of grey dust.


High above, over the walls of the castle a Finite Incantatum set three figures plummeting from the sky, ending their short flight with the sickening sound of broken spines. A murmur rose above the small crowd gathered at the scene. The few angry voices, barely audible among the frightened ones, were quickly silenced with a sweeping glance from the executioner. Her rich, black skirts and silver embroidery made her look almost as one with her thestral as it turned to ride towards the quickly thinning crowd.


“Bring me another three, Goyle,” she shot over her shoulder. “This is fun.” A half-mad smile played over her lips.


The man grabbed a broom and flew back to the castle. A smirk played over his lips, turning his heavy features into a malicious mask. Soon, he was entering the lower dungeons. He breathed in the smell of unwashed bodies, taking in waste and misery with the same delight others might find in the smell of jasmine on a fresh spring morning. Two shadowy figures glided his way.


“Take two,” he barked at one of them as they went down the corridor, between the barred doors that once led into classrooms. “I want Ted Lupin,” he said to the other.


A clammy, green-blue hand appeared from the folds of black robes and pointed at a door further down the hall. Goyle strode in that direction and opened the door. The occupants of the cell barely stirred as he stood in the door.


He turned and said. “Wrong cell. I want Ted Lupin. The one they call Mouse.”


“The Mouse?” A voice screeched from the back of the room. “Mouse… He’s left our house.”

In two strides Gregory was kneeling down by the huddled figure of a man. “No Mouse today. He’s run away!” The man shook his head, a mad grin on his face. “To ease the pain… He– He–he’s down the drain!” He almost laughed as he pointed at a tiny square hole in the floor.


Goyle grabbed his wand and sent a stinging hex at the man.


“Where is he, Diggory?!”


“I’ve already told you!”


“Give him to Bellatrix.” He flicked his hand at the man and two shadows immediately dragged the screaming man away. He leaned over the hole. It was barely wider than his hand. “Impossible! No one could get through there. Not without a wand.”


At the same time, deep beneath the dungeons the crumbled stone finally rolled aside and a dirty, scratched up arm came out of the gap. It was soon followed by a thin shoulder and a head with brown eyes and mousy-brown hair.


“Ugh! It’s bloody wet in here! And tight.” He put a hand on the wall around him and pushed, trying to free another shoulder. “It’s alright, Mouse! It’s all right. It’s not unlike escaping a mother's womb. Ugh!” He tried pushing again. “God! What a thought!” He heaved again, finally freeing his shoulder.


He fell, propelled by the force of the shove and gravitation. His scream and the subsequent splashing of water drowned out the echoes of the bells tolling urgently high above him.


“Look at the bright side,” muttered Teddy as soon as he righted himself. “You’re waist deep in water, but at least you’re clean again. Or cleaner. Freedom is just around the bend.”


As it happened, around the bend was just another dimly lit, half-flooded corridor, with another bend at its end. He had travelled what seemed like hundreds of such corridors when suddenly a black shape drifted from behind one of the turns. Mouse screamed and climbed the nearest ledge, clinging to it like a leech.


“Please, please, please, let it not be a tentacle. Or a body! Please, God, I will never pick another pocket or steal anything!” The dark shape drifted closer and he whispered urgently, water dripping down his face. “But here’s the problem, if I die now, how am I to prove that I speak the truth? If you’ve heard me, that thing coming at me will not be what I think it is, and this ledge will stay steady as a rock. If not, there’s no hard feelings, of course, but I will be very disappointed.”


The shape drew closer and Mouse squeezed his eyes tightly. When nothing grabbed him, he peeked out of one eye, just in time to see an errant current turn the blackened branch around in the water.


“I don’t believe it!” An echo of a Latin chant drifted from up the the corridor. “I believe it!” He slid from the ledge and started waddling towards the voices. “If I could only find out exactly where I am…”


He spied a spot of light reflecting off the water before him. Up above was a vertical tunnel, with stones sticking out on every side – perfect for climbing.


“I don’t believe it… I could have sworn that this wasn’t here before,” he muttered and shrugged. “Thank you, God. You will not regret this. I’m a fantastic person.” And with that, he started the long climb up.


He slowly picked his way up the stone shaft, blissfully unaware that the grounds above him were slowly covered in black. Dozens of Death Eater robes mingled with thestral hide and dementors’ cloaks. The villagers scrambled out of the way of brooms and the ghostly horses.


Bellatrix, a flash of silver in a sea of black, cut through the throng and entered the Great Hall. No one in the circles of hooded, chanting figures stirred but for one set of narrowed red eyes that pinned her in place. She held that gaze and opened her mind, but before she could shove the memory of Goyle’s report to the front, a vision of the loggia surrounding one of the Dark Lord’s private cloisters flashed through her mind, accompanied by the feeling of mounting irritation. Recognizing a dismissal, she bowed and backed out of the room.


Mouse reached the top of the stone shaft and peeked out cautiously. He barely managed to stifle a groan. Two rows of people stood at either side of him. Their eyes seemed glazed and unseeing as their lips murmured rolling strings of Latin. Every hair on his body stood on end and his skin started tingling as a current of something swept over him.


Mouse turned in the direction it seemed to flow and his heart almost stopped. Between the rows of people he could see what could only be the Dark Lord. His red eyes and wand were trained on a tree growing in the centre of the room. If one could call something made up entirely of light a ‘tree’.


He was just debating attempting to sneak out, since no one seemed likely to notice him, when the doors in the far wall opened suddenly. The stones beneath his fingers suddenly became smooth and he plummeted down into the murky water.


Disoriented, he flailed his limbs, desperately trying to find surface when he noticed light shining through the water far before him. Finally surfacing, Mouse swam in what he hoped was the direction from which the light came. Soon after he was looking out on a big loch from behind thick iron bars.


“Well, God, you’ve taken me this far, I do hope you won’t leave me now.” He took a deep breath and climbed down the bars and into the water. It didn’t take him long to find a hole in the bars. The metal was bent out as if a giant had tried to rip the bars out and managed only this small gap. Mouse felt a frisson of warm feelings for the lake’s tentacled inhabitant as he swam through.


Back on the surface, he once again grabbed the bars and looked around. The lake was enormous and the water frigid, he had no chance of swimming to the other shore. And in any case the right side of it was far too visible from the castle. Left with no other options, Mouse swam for the rocky left shore.

Bellatrix has been pacing up and down the loggia for almost twenty minutes when the doors behind her opened. She whirled around and immediately bowed.


“What is so important Bellatrix, that you felt it warranted disturbing the ritual?” Bellatrix shrank inward when the Dark Lord walked past her.


“Bad news, My Lord. One of the prisoners escaped.”


“That’s impossible, Bellatrix. No one ever escapes from me. The people of this country accept this as a historical fact.” The skeletal hands smoothed down rich, silk robes, but didn’t reach for the wand and Bellatrix stood higher as she followed her master down the open corridor.


“The responsibility is mine,” she bowed again.


“Yes.” The serpentine quality of that word sent a shiver down her spine and she had to hurry to catch up.


“It would be a miracle if he managed to get through the sewers,” she said.


“I believe in miracles, Bellatrix. They’ve cost me too much to dismiss them.” With a sweeping gesture he sat on the ledge of one of the arcs lining the corridors. In the courtyard, a colorful bird flapped its wings nervously and hopped as far away as it’s cage permitted.


“At any rate, My Lord, it’s just one insignificant petty thief and a squib at that.”


“A single random spark can ignite the fires of rebellion, Bellatrix,” hissed Voldemort. “Do I have to remind you what the last insignificant boy cost us?”


Bellatrix knew better than to answer and only bowed her head. “If he’s out there, My Lord, I shall find him.”


“Yes.” The red eyes took in the shiver that went through her and the lipless mouth curved into a smirk. “And you’re going to like it. You haven’t had the chance to enjoy the hunt in a while, have you?”


“No, My Lord. Thank you, My Lord.” She bowed deeply and kissed the hem of one long sleeve. As she turned to go, she caught the twitch of a wand and her ears filled with a pained screech from the caged bird.


She swept through the castle, enjoying the way in which conversations stopped and people cowered before her. She mounted her thestral, all the while barking out orders.


“Nott, McNair, Dolohov, take your men and ride north, east, and west. I will take the South. The name of the one who catches Ted Lupin will be brought to the personal attention of our Lord – as will the body of the one who lets him get away!” With that she dug her heels into the thestral's sides. “South! Fly low!”


With one flap of leathery wings she was soaring through the courtyard, over the grounds and out the south gates. Ten men followed her as closely as their brooms allowed.


Teddy fought the urge to hold his jaws together with his hands. After all, losing a few teeth to chattering from cold was better than drowning. Especially since he was just two lengths from swimming into the little bay with little boats in it. And from there, it was just a stone's throw to the railroad tracks and freedom.


In one of the boats sat two cloaked figures and Mouse clenched his teeth to keep the chattering from giving him away. The divine smell of roasted chicken filled his nostrils and he almost did give himself away when his stomach gave out the most horribly loud growl.


“Seriously, Frank!” A booming laugh above him startled Teddy’s petrified limbs back into motion. “If you’re hungry, you could just have told me.”


“I’m not! But since you’re offering...”


A chicken leg exchanged hands above his head and the movement drew Mouse’s eyes to the nice, plump money pouch tied to Frank’s belt and the shiny dagger lying beside it. His sluggish blood pumped faster at the sight. With all the skills he’d ever learned, he picked up the dagger and cut off the pouch. Not a single knut jingled when he lifted both and slowly swam in the direction of the forest.


“I know I promised, God, never again. But I also know that you know what a weak-willed person I am,” he whispered but didn’t stop smiling. Luck was with him today and if the money was as good... well, maybe he’ll get himself a nice warm hut somewhere. Or maybe an inn, even!


The slightest of breezes ruffling his hair was all the warning he got to dive. Through the water above he saw his pursuers: Lady Lestrange herself and ten other Death Eaters!


*Huh... I guess escaping from un-escapable dungeons does bust your rankings after all,* he thought.


Unfortunately, what that meant was that following the tracks was not an option. Which left him with only one way: through the woods. It wasn’t a thought that he relished.


Far on the hills surrounding the castle, another cloaked figure observed the frantic mass of people milling around the courtyards and grounds. They were twirling around like leaves in the wind – with no visible method to their movements.


“Pathetic. Whoever escaped, they’ve just made it easier for him to slip away from the grounds. All he needs is a black cape with a hood.” The hippogriff shook its grey head and cawed. “Yes, I know what you mean. Don’t look a gift broom in the tail twigs.”


A high-pitched cry made the man turn his head. On the other side of the lake, a hawk circled in the air and dove suddenly, and he noticed a white shape disappearing in the Forbidden Forest. He put his hand out and the hawk flew back to him. He stroked his fingers over the black and grey feathers.


“Good job, spotting our runner.” He slipped the hood over the bird's head. “Now, we just have to get to him before they do.”


With that he delicately nudged the hippogriff's sides and soon the three of them were flying over the Forbidden Forest.

* * * * *

Teddy was sincerely through with walking. He’d been walking for a week now. It actually wasn’t as hard now as it was at first: soaking wet, barely clad and bare-foot in a dark forest that echoed day in and day out with howling. Now he not only had clothes but also shoes! Granted, he had to run quite a bit when the owner discovered him strolling away in his clothes, but it was worth it.


Now, he was far enough from bloody Hogwarts and he was going to rest! As soon as he found somewhere with real food and good drink, he was going to stay there for as long as the money would last. After all, he certainly wasn’t important enough for the Death Eaters to still be searching for him.


Mouse hiked slowly up a grassy hill, enjoying probably the last truly warm, sunny day. When he reached the top he whooped with happiness. Not two miles ahead was the most beautiful thing in the world: an open inn with tables set out on the deck before it and smoke coming out of the chimney.


“Thank you, God!” he called as he raced down the hill.


He barely managed to stop himself and not run all the way up to the innkeeper. Instead, he nodded at the patrons, bowed to the waitress, and strolled leisurely up to the man sitting on the doorstep.


“A drink of your most expensive!” he announced by way of introduction.


The portly man looked him up and down critically, before standing up. Mouse chose to interpret the sound he made as a huff rather than a snort. Nothing was going to spoil his mood today!


“Ooh, I’ve never heard that before,” snarked the man as he walked up to the makeshift counter set out by the front wall. “Show me the money first.”


Teddy showed all of his teeth in a wide smile as he reached back to his belt and jingled the money pouch. “A cupful, my friend.”


The man seemed in a much better mood instantly, taking out a solid, big glass. Teddy could feel his mouth water at the very thought of the wine that was poured out. He turned his back to the man to take a look at the other patrons sitting in the shadow of the grapevines climbing the scaffolding surrounding the decking. They were a sad looking lot. All Muggles, judging by the burlap capes thrown over roughed-up clothing and the weary looks on their faces.


*Ah, an audience!* He grinned.


“And the same for anyone who joins me in a toast!”


“Let's hear your toast first!” a female voice called out from under one of the cloaks.


Teddy cheered silently. This was just what he was counting on. In a minute, they would all be eating out of his hand. Or vice versa, as the case may be.


“We drink to a very special man,” he declared. He took his wine and stepped up onto the deck. “Someone,” he snagged a grape off the vine and popped it into his mouth, “who’s seen,” he bit into the grape and swallowed it. “Mm... who’s seen the dungeons of Hogwarts and lived to tell the tale!”


“Then you drink to me, little boy,” the woman’s voice sounded almost sing-song. “I have seen those dungeons. Many, many times.”


Mouse blinked, momentarily stumped, but rallied quickly. He turned to her.


“You carry the food for prisoners? Water maybe? But as a prisoner from inside Hogwarts?”


The people sitting around her stirred and the woman giggled. She reached into her cloak and put an ornate, white mask on the table before her.


“I didn’t say I was a prisoner.”


Teddy’s heart stopped altogether as all around him Death Eaters appeared from under Muggle rags or dropped disillusionment charms. He was rooted to the spot as a pair of mad, blue eyes raked over him.


“You should had stuck to the woods, little mouse,” she sighed. “Little mouseys don’t go looking for the big, bad snake. Now you’ve spoiled all my fun.”


That jolted Mouse back into motion. He took a cautious step back.


“You’re right,” he nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. So, I wouldn’t dream of spoiling the fun of such a fine lady. So, I’ll just go and...”


The woman threw back her head and laughed, before turning to her men.


“Get him.”


Two men, one blond, tall and haughty and the other with the appearance of a back-alley thug walked toward him. Teddy tightened his hand around his cup. He had just one chance. Two big hands landed on his shoulders and he pounced.


Slosh! He threw his wine into their faces and dived under the nearest table.


* * * * *


The man on the hippogriff groaned. He has been patrolling the edge of the woods for days now. And when his target finally emerged, he all but flew into a Death Eater trap!


“Merlin!” he groaned. “Haven’t I suffered enough already? Why do you punish me again with idiot teenagers?”


Though he had to admit that watching ten Death Eaters falling over chairs, tables and themselves was entertaining. He watched with quiet amusement as the boy ran, dived and jumped all around the exterior deck. He almost laughed when the imp dived under a waitress's skirts and the woman bashed the Death Eater who attempted to lift those same skirts himself with a serving tray. A moment later the boy was diving between the legs of two other men. Jumping over tables. Throwing plates.


He seemed to be slippier than a fish, wriggling his way out of every tight corner. He slipped out of reach every time any of the blundering fools managed to grab any part of him. He climbed the scaffolding, kicking off the idiot that tried to follow him. Unfortunately, not being able to grab the boy, the Death Eaters finally remembered that they were wizards. The kid evaded curses with ease, but with the odds as they were, his luck wasn’t going to last. Soon, he was left with no more places to flee. It was time to put a stop to this. The man whispered a word and the hippogriff landed.


He could see Bellatrix clapping her hands before she sent off an Imperius. The boy climbed down obediently before shaking his head. Bella was just a step away when he broke the spell. There was a commotion, a glint of metal and a sudden stillness.


A drop of blood dripped down Bella’s cheek.


The boy's eyes fairly bugged out of his skull as she touched her face and looked down at her bloodied fingers.


“I’m so terribly sorry.” He could hear the kid squeak.


A fire lit in the mad woman’s eyes and he knew he had to be quick. He jumped off the hippogriff’s back and ran. He grabbed the crossbow that stood propped by the inn’s wall.


“Kill him,” hissed Bellatrix.


One of the men grabbed the boy and Goyle leveled his wand.


“May God have mercy on my soul!”


“Avada—”


An arrow swished through the air and embedded itsef in the man's wand arm. All heads turned to the shooter. Bellatrix blinked and grinned slowly. Yaxley swished his wand but a second arrow embedded in his throat before he could even form the words. All stared as he slowly lowered the now useless crossbow.


“Boy, out. Now.”


The kid moved automatically, his eyes still bugging and his mouth moving soundlessly. He shoved the crossbow into the boy's hands as he moved past. He flicked his cloak out of the way and took out his wand.


“Snape,” whispered Bellatrix walking closer. “One of my men told me you’d crawled out of your hole.” Her grin turned even wider. “I made him bite off his tongue for lying, because I knew you weren’t that stupid.”


He was about to answer when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned and looked into familiar, disbelieving grey eyes.


“Severus.”


“Lucius.” They slowly lowered their wands and a small smile stretched the blond man’s lips.


“Snape!” screeched Bellatrix and instinct took over his movements. Before he could blink she was slipping out of the way of his Sectusempra and pushing Lucius straight into it’s trajectory.


The man staggered forward and fell into his arms. Snape propped him up by one of the scaffolding’s poles and quickly checked the main arteries. Thankfully, they weren’t cut. He cast the counter-curse that would leave the man scarred, but alive.


Bellatrix was still cackling when his blow sent her reeling back, bowling her into her men. Whoever was still standing jumped into action. Severus took down one before an Expelliarmus sent his wand rolling off the deck. He noticed some horseshoes lying by the counter and, grabbing them up, threw them into the face of another Death Eater. He gave Goyle a good shake before throwing him through a window. The sound of breaking glass almost made him smile.


He turned and grabbed a flaming branch from under a cauldron of stew. He kicked one of the fallen Death Eaters in the face. Flint ran at him, and Severus whacked him over the head with the branch. He threw it away when Bellatrix made for her wand, launched himself at her and grabbed her throat.


“I’ve been dreaming about this,” he hissed. He relished the sight as she turned purple and her eyes bugged out. Just as he was about to crush her throat, a high-pitched cry startled him. Above him a hawk circled once before flying away. He looked back to Bellatrix and she sagged slightly in his hands.


“Next time,” he promised and threw her at the still burning fire.


Her skirts ignited instantly and Severus had to fight the urge to stay and watch her rolling about on the ground, shrieking as the half-wits around her tried to put her out. He knelt by Lucius’ slumped form and put a hand on his shoulder.


“I’m sorry.”


“You will be when Narcissa sees me,” smirked Malfoy. He handed over Severus' wand.


“Tell her to put dittany on it.”


Severus stood again but another Death Eater blocked his way. He recognized one of his last first-years in the quaking mass before him. With a sneer he swatted the wand out of the whelp's hand and watched him run.


He spotted the crossbow on the ground and grabbed it up on his way. He ran for Buckbeak as Bellatrix screamed his name in rage.


“Our prey is escaping again,” he told him and jumped onto his back.


They took off and flew over some assorted brooms. Some were just flying away on their own, and some twitched pathetically on the ground, their tail twigs bent beyond repair or broken.


“Smart boy,” murmured Severus. The hawk swooped down by his arm.


Soon Severus and the hawk came upon the boy running in front of them. Buckbeak flew low to the ground and Severus grabbed the kid and dragged him onto the hippogriff’s back.


“No, no, no, no... Aaah!...” The boy flailed around like a frightened chicken as they gained altitude again.


“Shut up!” barked Severus.


A spell shot by them and Buckbeak swivelled to the side. Two of the Death Eaters had managed to salvage their brooms and were hot on their heels. They fired another spell. This time the spell light was green.


“We have to lose them,” Snape told the hippogriff and held on as they all but plummeted from the sky.


“Oh no!” screamed the kid, putting his hands over his eyes.


The two others followed and almost crashed when they didn’t manage to get out of the dive as gracefully as Buckbeak did. Soon they were lifting up again but one well-targeted swoop from the hawk made them let go of their brooms. They fell to the ground like sacks of potatoes as their brooms sailed away.


* * * * *


Teddy was confused. The man now sitting before him on the hippogriff’s back saved his life and brought Teddy with him, but didn’t seem too happy about the company. They flew for hours before landing and then they continued riding on land through a forest for even longer. In all that time Snape didn’t speak more than two words apart from telling Teddy his name and demanding that he do the same. And all the other words he spoke were mostly variants of ‘shut up’. The fact that they appeared to no longer be pursued and under the protective shade of the forest was reassuring, though, so Mouse decided to wait and suss out the situation first, before he made any decisions.


This forest seemed more familiar then the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts. The trees were younger, growing over and into the ruined houses and roads. Teddy remembered growing up in such a house. One of his bedrooms had a wall made up entirely from the trunk and branches of an oak.


The shadows were already long and the evening set over the forest when Teddy spotted something through the trees.


“Look! It must be somebody’s home. There’s smoke.” The man nodded and asked the hippogriff to turn that way. “Are you sure you want to stop now sir? I mean, there’s still plenty of light. We could—”


“Stop your nattering. We’ll spend the night here,” barked Snape.


A plump woman ran out from behind a tree, shrieking some gibberish, and made a beeline for a house with a tree growing in it’s centre. A man came out of the house with an axe in his hands. They both cowered behind a stack of firewood.


“Good afternoon, Sir, Ma’am.” Mouse startled at the suddenly cultured, pleasant tones in Snape’s voice. “My comrade and I require lodgings for the night.”


The thin man hesitated before shaking his head.


“No, no. There’s no place for you here.”


Snape’s brows drew together in a frown. “We’ll pay, of course.”


The two looked at each other and Teddy could almost see gold flashing in their eyes. Teddy reached to his belt and jingled his pouch.


“We’re not above compassion for those in misery,” cajoled the youth.


The woman jabbed her companion in the arm and he shrugged her off.


“You can sleep there,” he nodded at a mostly wooden construction to the side of the house. “In the barn.”


“Thank you.” It looked as if the words pained Snape very much.


The hippogriff ambled to the barn and the owners sidled their way back to the house. Mouse stifled a laugh at the sight of the fat woman trying to walk sideways, all the time never turning her back on them.


“What do you think is wrong with her, sir?” He gestured with his head as Snape took the saddle of.


“Nothing. She’s Italian.” He took the saddle into the barn and Mouse followed him.


“She’s what?”


“Italian. A person who was born and brought up in Italy.” Mouse looked as the man opened and closed the stalls before setting the saddle in the last and cleanest one.


“What’s Italy?” he asked, confused.


“A country,” sighed Snape. “You have three more questions before my patience runs out.”


Mouse darted his eyes from the big sword by the saddle, to the sleeve where he’d seen Snape hide his wand and back to the man’s face. It was never good to anger wizards. On the other hand, the man said three questions. He fidgeted on the spot before blurting out.


“How did you manage to put a saddle on a hippogriff, sir?”


“I asked nicely.” Mouse had a hard time imagining Snape ‘asking nicely’ for anything. “There is a ladder to the loft. You should check to see if there is any space for you to sleep.”


Teddy wanted to argue that there was more than enough space in the stall, but he hadn’t lived as long as he did without learning to choose his battles. He nodded and went to look for his new bed.


The loft wasn’t bad, if you disregarded the fact that one wall was nothing but a lattice made up from sticks. On the other hand, there was lots of fresh, aromatic hay to burrow in. On the whole, it was better than some lodgings he’d had.


He went back down to ask Snape if there was anything more to do. It was always good to appear helpful. He walked to the stall’s door and was about to ask his question when he noticed that Snape was opening in his satchel. He stepped back into the shadows.


*Mouse, God must really like you,* he thought in glee.


The sword would be worth a good amount, but it looked far too heavy to escape with. Then there were little glowing bottles that decorated the saddle, but it would be hard to fence something so obviously magical. But whatever was in the satchel should be easy enough to lift. He waited with bated breath as Snape took something silver and shimmering out, only to slump again when he realized it was just a swath of fabric.


The way the man handled and looked at it gave Mouse pause. Snape ran his hand over it as if he was soothing a startled animal. His eyes looked sad, the first human expression Mouse saw on the man. Suddenly, anger sprang into his face and the fabric was crushed in his fist. Teddy strained his ears and caught the words ‘one day’ drawled in a voice that sent shivers down his back.


He backed up hastily and made sure to make a lot of noise as he neared the door again.


“Sir,” he called out. “Sir?” Snape came to the door.


“What is it?”


“If there’s nothing else to do, I’ll turn in.”


“You can take care of the hippogriff.” Mouse started; he didn’t expect that.


“Oo–kay...” They went back outside and Mouse moved cautiously to the side of the beast. “Erm... What, exactly, am I supposed to do?”


“Brush the feathers down with hay. After that, you can gather some firewood and turn in. Remember to sleep with one eye open. And do not disturb me. I will kill you before I know it’s you.”


Mouse blinked, ready to laugh it off, but the look on the man’s face stopped him.


“Right. Right then, come on, girl,” he turned to the hippogriff. “Let's go.” The beast only blinked at him. “Well, come on.” He tried to reach for it, but took his hand back when a huge beak snapped at it. “Stubborn little lady. What’s her name?”


Snape looked amused at his trouble. “His name is Buckbeak.”


“His name.” Teddy was suddenly happy to still have all his joints. “Pretty name.”


“Go with him, Buckbeak. This one truly didn’t mean any offense.”


“Yes, yes,” he added hastily. “Just an honest mistake, I promise.” The beast cawed and shook its head, but moved with him.


“I’d get him a nice ferret or rat if I were you,” Snape called after them and Mouse resented the amusement in his voice.


After brushing the hippogriff down and promising to look for some kind of a treat for him, Teddy moved deeper into the forest. It was already dark and damp and his anger grew by the minute.


“Comrade! Slave’s more like it! Brush down the hippogriff, Mouse,” he mocked. “See to the fire, Mouse. Gather the firewood, Mouse. Soon it’ll be wipe my arse, Mouse! Should have stayed in prison. There were dementors there and my roommate was a madman and a killer, but he respected me.” He tugged a branch out of a bush. “And Snape is weird. He has no facial expressions at all. He’s constantly angry. And he wants something from me. I can see it in his eyes.” A series of more or less unpleasant eventualities flashed through his mind and he dropped the wood to the ground. “Well, whatever it is, I'm not going to do it! I'm still a young man, you know. I've got prospects!” A branch broke somewhere close to him. “Who's there?”


When a low growl answered him, Mouse threw away the plan to try and pretend that there were more men with him in the woods and ran. All the while, he cursed himself for going so far into the forest. He had no chance to out-run a wolf. He tripped on a root and, suddenly, he was back by the house.


Not one to question luck, especially when it worked to his favour, he turned to warn the farmer and the Italian woman. He shouted at the sight of the man behind him with his axe in his hands. Before either of them could do much more a great, black wolf came barrelling out of the woods and launched at the farmer's throat.


Mouse turned and ran for the barn.


“Sir! Sir! Come quick! There’s a wolf! A wolf! A big one!” He crushed through the stall door but found it empty. “Sir?!” The farmer’s screams ceased and only growling could still be heard.


The crossbow was on the floor but there were no arrows in sight. Desperate, he grabbed Snape’s wand. He slipped on his way out, stumbling to the woodpile. He gripped the wand tighter and tried to recall any spells he’d heard that would get rid of the beast. For some reason the most obvious one wouldn’t pass his lips.


He was about to try out Diffindo when a hand covered his. He dropped the wand and turned to look into the greenest eyes he’d ever seen looking out at him from the shadows under a hood.


“Don’t.” The person lifted the wand from the ground and tucked it away in the cloak before tuning to the house.


“Don’t go there,” whispered Mouse frantically. “There’s a wolf! A big one! The biggest one you’ve ever seen! And a dead man!”


“I know.”


He watched in horror as the stranger glided into the small hollow between the house and the barn. The wolf startled and turned his head. Mouse steeled himself to witness another death, but the beast merely lifted it’s head to sniff a proffered hand.


“I don’t believe it,” he whispered and turned his back at the scene. “It can’t be real, but...maybe I’m dreaming,” he said hopefully. “But my eyes are open. So maybe I’m awake, thinking that I’m dreaming. Or better yet, I’m dreaming that I’m awake, wondering that I’m dreaming!”


“You are dreaming.”


The voice was so soft and quiet that it could have been a breeze, but it chilled Teddy to the bone and he scrambled back to the barn and his loft. He buried himself under the hay and willed himself to sleep.


“Please, God, please! I don’t want to believe what I believe! Those are dangerous, magical things and I beg you not to make me a part of them,” he whispered.


* * * * *


When he woke up the next morning there was neither body nor blood anywhere to be seen. Nevertheless, Mouse left the Italian woman the whole of his purse. He was rewarded with a bone-crushing hug, a steaming bowl of soup, a bread roll and a string of unintelligible words. Snape looked on dispassionately, declining the offer of sharing the soup with a glare.


As soon as Teddy finished, a cloak landed on his head.


“It’s going to rain,” said Snape before turning to walk into the forest. “We’re leaving now.”


Mouse threw the cloak around his shoulders and scrambled to follow the man. The cloak was only slightly too short for him and he wanted to know why Snape would carry such a short garment, but one look at the man’s face convinced him that it wouldn’t be a good idea to ask.


Teddy tried to walk silently, he really did, but there were so many things he wanted to know! He thought to start with something that had the least potential to make the man kill him.


“Sir?”


“What is it?”


“I was wondering...do you know where we might be now?”


“We are in what used to be northeast London, before the Dark Lord’s rule.”


“Before?” Every time someone talked about times ‘before the Dark Lord’, Mouse had trouble imagining it. “How did it look then?”


“It was a city then. Buildings, roads, people and cars everywhere. And far fewer trees.”


“Oh? So the forests were only outside the cities?”


Snape snorted. “No. There were only two forests in the whole of the United Kingdom. And only the Forbidden Forest could have been called a ‘true’ forest.”


“So where did the forests come from?” asked Mouse, now truly confused.


“When the Muggle cities were destroyed, he sent people to plant the trees and forced them to grow quicker with magic. They all appeared in one year.”


“Hm...” Mouse kept quiet for some time to let Snape cool his temper. “Huh. I wonder what he’s got with all the trees? I mean, planting forests I can understand. People need wood and werewolves have to run somewhere during the full moon, but the man prays to one, too!”


That got Snape’s attention. He didn’t stop, to be sure, but he did look at Mouse shrewdly. “What do you mean he prays to a tree?”


“When I was going through the sewers, I found this hole that led up into a great big room.” Mouse gesticulated as he remembered his escape. “There were lots of people chanting and he was in the centre with this weird tree that looked like it was growing straight from the floor. And it was all white and shone.”


“That’s proxy magic. He puts wards on a single representation of a group of objects, and they appear over all of the original objects. That’s how he warded the islands!” Snape sounded like someone who discovered an obvious answer to a long thought-out problem.


Keeping his eyes open for roots and other things he was likely to trip over, Mouse didn’t notice that Snape had stopped until he’d run into the man. He hastily stepped back and, grabbing his dagger, dived behind a tree.


“What...” he whispered. Through his watering eyes, he saw Snape nodding at him.


“You have good reflexes, Mister Lupin.”


“And you have hard back, Sir.” He hid his dagger and massaged his head.


“There are three good walls standing in the clearing ahead. Look for some long branches to cover them up. We’ll wait the rain out here.”


“Um... Wouldn’t it be easier to just...” He waved his hand mimicking casting a spell.


“A shielding charm this big would be equal to painting a big ‘We’re Right Here’ sign in the sky. A few impervious spells shouldn’t attract anyone’s notice.” Snape was already taking the saddle off Buckbeak.


“Oh. Okay, then.” Mouse was quickly getting sick of repeating that.


He took the dagger back out and started cutting branches from various trees while Snape did the same with magic. In a matter of minutes they had a good roof over a good part of what must have once been a sitting room. A part of the fireplace's brickwork façade was still intact.


A drizzling rain started to fall. Snape cast spells wherever leaks appeared and Teddy busied himself with starting up a fire. Soon, they were both sitting and observing Buckbeak enjoying the rain. The hawk sat on Snape’s arm.


“I had a weird dream last night.” Mouse could have bit his own tongue off the moment the words left his mouth.


“Oh? What have you dreamed of?” Snape didn’t sound particularly interested, but he did ask, so Teddy shrugged and answered.


“There was a wolf. A big black one. It ripped the farmer's throat out, but left me alone.” He still couldn’t quite believe how lucky he was. A ‘hm’ was the only indication that the other man was even listening to him, so Mouse blurted the part he really wanted to talk about. “And there was a woman.”


“A woman?” That seemed to finally startle Snape.


“Yes. She had skin like fine porcelain and the most amazing green eyes, almost like a birds'. No man could have such eyes.” Of that Mouse was sure. He saw a great many wizards, Muggles and creatures in his life, but never one with such eyes. “And her voice... The dulcet tones of an angel.”


“An angel.” Snape’s tone was equal parts disbelief and mocking.


“We’ll it was a really nice voice. Even if it was just a whisper,” he muttered.


“And what did she say?”


Teddy hesitated. “I was wondering if I was dreaming and she told me I was.” Snape hm-ed again and Mouse felt heat flush in his cheeks. “I’m not making it up!”


“Oh, I believe you. I believe in... dreams.”


“I see,” he sulked. *I see that you’re blowing me off,* he thought.


“This lady, did she perhaps have a name?”


“Not that she mentioned. Why?” Mouse was suddenly feeling rather defensive.


“Well, she might wander into my dreams.” Snape’s eyes moved to his hawk and an odd half-smile played on his lips. “Wouldn’t it be nice to call her by name and pretend that we’ve met before?” The man glanced at him and sighed. “I’ve waited a long time for such a lady. Now get some sleep.” With that he dragged his hood over his eyes and propped his head against the wall. “The bird will warn us if someone comes.”


For all that neither Snape’s tone nor words were mocking, Teddy still felt that he was somehow a butt of some kind of a joke in this conversation. He threw some more wood into the fire and gathered some moss to serve him as a pillow.


“I must be out of my mind. Out of my mind,” he muttered as he lay down between the wall and the fire. “Out of my mind.”


* * * * *


Bellatrix flew right for the east wing of the castle, landing just short of her Lord’s favourite gardens. She walked through the door and had to bite down the urge to growl. A girl of maybe eighteen was dancing in the garden as another spelled the instruments. The only thing that covered her were the feathers attached here and there to a sheer, white robe. As Bellatrix looked on, the girl craned her head, reaching up to take a bite of a fruit from the Dark Lord’s fingers.


She noticed Bellatrix then and stopped dancing. Her face filled with a look of haughty contempt. The blood fairly boiled in the witch and she had to remind herself that her Lord would tire of the bint quickly enough, and then she would have her fun with her.


“Did you catch the criminal, Bellatrix?” asked Voldemort without turning away from the girl.


“Not yet, My Lord.”


“Then why do you invade my garden?” he demanded, turning. His eyes flashed with anger and Bella bowed her head on instinct, readying herself for the blow of Cruciatus. “Unwashed, with burnt clothes. Do you think to find him here?”


When the curse didn’t strike, she dared to look in her master's eyes again.


“Snape has returned,” she said. At once she could feel his presence in her mind and she opened to him, concentrating on the confrontation of the day before.


“Walk with me,” he said. Bellatrix cast one triumphant glance at the now forgotten girl and hurried to catch up with her master.


“Lupin is travelling with him. My men are combing the woods. They were heading for London.”


“And a hawk?”


“My Lord?”


“There must be a hawk with him. A spirited one. This hawk cannot be harmed. Do you understand?” She nodded. “See that you do. The moment it dies McNair will proceed with your execution.” They swept out of the garden and into the castle. “We live in difficult times, Bellatrix. People complain that the woods I use for the wards that protect them take too much space. Imagine.” Bellatrix scoffed at such audacity. “After all these years, they still whisper of the traitor and the whelp. But when I crush him, the insubordination will die with him. Go,” he barked. “And remember, to break faith with me is to court death.”


Bellatrix bowed and turned for the door. The moment she left, Voldemort clapped for a house elf.


“Bring me Fenrir,” he said.


* * * * *


Mouse woke up to sunlight shining into his eyes. Snape was still sleeping in his shady corner and the fire was almost out. His stomach growled and he added the last of the firewood to fire to keep it going. The hawk blinked at him as he stood up and he shushed it with a gesture.


He managed to find a pile of branches big enough that those closest to the ground were still dry. He dragged them to the clearing and stared at them. The smaller ones he could break by hand, but there were several almost as thick as his arm. At a loss, he looked around until he noticed the sun glinting on the great big sword Snape kept by his saddle.


Teddy thought that it was surprisingly light for something that was almost as tall as him. He dragged one of the boughs and started swinging the sword. He had the first branch done and was about to bring the blade down on another when suddenly someone snatched it out of his hands.


“Wha...” He turned around and almost squeaked like an actual mouse at the fierce look on Snape’s face.


“This is a priceless, powerful, magical artefact, not a wood axe! It belonged to one of the Founders!”


“I’m sorry, sir! I didn’t know. I—” Mouse watched as the man took a breath and released it very slowly.


“It’s no matter. But never touch my things again unless I tell you to. Some of them are cursed.”


*Now he’s telling me!* seethed the teen.


He had half a mind to sulk the day away, but Snape was too damn mysterious. There seemed to be a secret behind everything he did and said and Mouse could never win a battle with his curiosity.


“Sir? If you don’t mind me asking, why do you carry such a big sword with you when you have a wand?”


Snape’s smirk was a terrifying sight to see. “I have a mission. A quest, if you will.”


“Oh?” This was getting even more interesting. “And what is this quest?”


“I must kill a man.” Snape smiled at the sword, looking for all the world like nothing but it existed.


“So tell me – does this walking corpse have a name?” Teddy truly did not envy the man, whoever he was.


Snape blinked at him. “A walking corpse. How... appropriate. Yes, he has a name. The Dark Lord, Master of Hogwarts.”


Mouse stood rooted to the ground for a solid minute. *A mad man. Figures,* was the only thought his numb mind managed to produce before a resounding *RUN!* sung in his veins. He took a half step back. He desperately tried to think up a plan of escape. Unfortunately, in times like this, his mouth always seemed to switch off any and all connection with his brain.


“The Dark Lord. I see. Well... Well, then you have much to do. And I've already been enough of a burden to you. I do hope our paths cross again one day.” With no option but to try and go with the flow, he saluted the man and turned to walk away.


“I need you to guide me into the castle.” The tone told Mouse clearly that it was not a request. All the same, he was not going to just let the man lead him to his death.


“Not for the life of my mother! Even if I knew who she was.”


“You are the only one who has ever escaped from there since the Dark Lord took it over.” Snape ran his hand over the blade as if he was cleaning it, seeming entirely unconcerned with Teddy’s refusal to cooperate.


“Like that’s an argument!” shouted Mouse in frustration. “It was chance! Pure chance! A miracle! Once in a lifetime! I fell down a hole and followed my nose!”


Snape sighed and sat down on a moss-covered remnant of a chimney. He propped the sword on his leg. If he hadn’t already concluded that the man was off his rocker, Mouse might have wondered why he seemed exasperated rather than angry.


“There is no such thing like a ‘hole’ in the structure of Hogwarts.”


“A drain, then!”


“If you were actually able to turn into a mouse, then you might have stood a chance of defending this claim.” Mouse was just opening his mouth to protest, but Snape talked right over him. “I’ve spent almost thirty years as the master of those dungeons, before the castle was taken. The drain holes are barely wider than my hand.” He lifted his hand and Mouse blinked in surprise at how slender it looked. “If the castle didn’t rearrange itself for you, you would have been long dead. I have waited fifteen years for any sign of weakness. So when I heard the alarm bells over Hogwarts, I knew the moment of my destiny had come. The castle chose you to be its champion. You will be my guiding angel.”


“Me?” Mouse didn’t like the sound of any of this one bit.


“Yes.”


Teddy shook his head; to clear it as much as to deny everything Snape said.


“Sir, the truth is I talk to God all the time, and no offence, but He never mentioned you.”


“No?” Snape asked this in the same way as he would after hearing that one of his aunts never mentioned him to her friend.


“There are strange forces at work in your life. Dangerous, magical ones. I don’t understand them but they frighten me. You have given me my life, and the truth is I can never repay you. I have no honour and never will. I don't think you would kill me for being what I am, but better that than a return to Hogwarts.”


He turned with the strong resolution not to turn back again and started walking into the forest. He didn’t go more than two steps when suddenly the enormous sword flew by his ear and embedded itself in the tree to his left. He turned slowly and quaked at the sight of a smile he prayed never to see again.


“I’ll see how that fire’s going.”


Feeling like the victim of a jelly-legs jinx, Mouse walked back to the fire and looked unseeingly at the barely smouldering wood. Soon, Snape came alongside and brought the fire back up. Before Teddy had the time to recover, a plate of hot eggs was shoved into his hands.


“Eat.” He chewed obediently, even though he didn’t taste much of anything. “Do you really not know who your mother was, Mister Lupin?”


“Huh? Oh, no. I mean, yes. I mean, no, I don’t know who either of my parents were,” he shrugged, his eggs starting to acquire some flavour. “Of course, Mitsy, that’s the Muggle woman who took care of me until I was eight, told me once that she saw some madman rip me out of the arms of some middle-aged woman. But then, she also insists that the woman was holding a dented kettle and disappeared on the spot, so there,” he shrugged.


“That woman was not your mother,” said Snape.


“I’ve figured that much.”


“She was your grandmother.” Teddy looked up so fast he almost broke his neck. “She was your mother's mother. She was called Andromeda Tonks. You were named after her husband. Your mother was called Nymphadora, but she didn’t much care for the name. She was an Auror. Your father was called Remus. He was a werewolf. One of the few who joined the Light.” His lunch forgotten, Teddy hung desperately on every word. “I didn’t care much for any of them, too... optimistic for my taste, but I did respect them.”


“So they were wizards? What happened to them?” he almost didn’t want to know. What if they just didn’t want him?


“Yes, Mister Lupin, they were wizards. And no, they did not abandon you. They died in battle, trying to prevent the Dark Lord from taking over Hogwarts. Don’t waste food.”


Mouse thought on it all for a long time. He lifted the fork to his mouth obediently but couldn't remember if he ate anything.


“Thank you,” he sighed finally. “It’s good to know I really wasn’t one of those kids left behind because they slowed their parents down.” Snape nodded, not looking up from the little bottle he was twirling between his fingers. “But that’s just another reason not to go with you.” The man glared and Teddy willed himself not to shrink back. “They were wizards. They were trained. I’m just a squib. What chances do I have to live?” he said desperately.


“A squib?” Snape seemed genuinely incredulous. “Whoever convinced you of that?”


“Everybody always says that.” At this point, Mouse was numb. He didn’t think anything was ever going to surprise him again.


“Well then everybody must be blind. Magic is fairly oozing through your skin. But that would be expected in a child of a Metamorphmagus.”


“A what?”


“A shape-shifter. Since I’ve met you, your eyes have become at least a dozen different colours. And your hair changes hue constantly, even if it stays brown for the most part.”


Mouse lifted his hand to try and tug his short hair so that he could see it and yelped when suddenly he had a long fringe in his eyes.


Snape barked a short laugh. “Your mother’s tricks were never this amusing.”


Teddy glared and watched as his hair turned almost ginger. It was eerie. He closed his eyes and willed it back to his normal length.


“You can open your eyes now, boy.” There was mocking laughter hiding in that tone, Mouse was sure of that. “Don’t sulk. I can’t stand sulking teenagers.” Teddy bit back the urge to flip the man off. He watched Snape lean back into tree behind him. “Considering that, as you say, everyone believes you to be a squib, I can’t help but wonder why Bellatrix was so intent on catching you?”


Mouse felt his mouth move uselessly. He stood up suddenly. Snape watched passively as he walked back and forth.


“That was Lady Bellatrix?”


“Not much of a lady, but yes.”


Teddy gulped. “I don’t know! I’m just a simple thief. I pick pockets. I’ve stolen a goblet or two from some houses but that’s it! I swear! There’s no reason for her to chase me!”


“She seems to think otherwise.” Mouse felt the world wobble around him. How in the hell could this man act so calm and unimpressed? “Calm yourself, boy. I fully expect to have to kill her before I can get to the Dark Lord. You’ll be rid of her sooner rather than later.”


“If she doesn’t kill me first! No! No, no, no! I’m not going with you!” He was backing up rapidly.


“I hate teenagers. Stupefy.” Was the last word he heard before darkness claimed him.


* * * * *


When he woke up, the clearing was gone and he was sitting on a rock. He could see the forest to his right and the moon reflecting in a lake to his left. He tried to stand up, but his hands were tied behind the tree he was leaning on. He tried to unravel the knots, but apparently they had some kind of spell on them. He sighed.


“Sir? Hey, Sir! This isn’t necessary, you know?” There was no answer and he slumped back down. He thumped his head against the tree. “Great. I don’t have to worry about Hogwarts, since something’s gonna eat me tonight.”


He was almost dozing off again when suddenly there was the sound of running feet behind him.


“Gotcha!” Mouse recognised the whisper at once.


“Miss? My lady? Up here!” He called. There was a sound of crunching leaves. Some kind of small animal running for its life.


“Oh damn!”


“Do you remember me?”


A crunch in the distance and a dead rabbit flew past his face to land several feet away.


“Thanks, Buckbeak. Of course I remember you.” Now that it was louder, the voice didn’t sound all that feminine... But Mouse had more important things to think of just then. “What are you doing up there?”


“What am I doing. Ah, yeah. Might ask that,” he muttered to himself. A brilliant idea popped into his mind. “The Death Eaters! A dozen of them. We had a terrible fight.”


“Then why didn’t they kill you.”


Teddy cursed silently. *Damn women and their questions!*


Out loud he said: “Why didn’t they? It’s a good question. I’ve asked them that myself!”


“And?”


“And?!”


“And what did they say?” There was a distinct note of laughter in that voice and Mouse wished dearly that the damn tree didn’t block his view of what must be a beautiful smile.


“They said...” He thought very fast. “That they prefer to leave that honour to the Dark Lord!” Instead of the gasp he anticipated he heard a giggle. And a disbelieving ‘oh’. “They’re coming back!”


“They are, are they?”


“Please? Please, my lady? A giant owl examined me closely not two minutes ago.” There was a sigh behind him and he knew he was winning. “Please?” He could barely contain his smile. “Please?” he added a note of desperation to his plea and heard a huffing laugh behind him.


*Yes!* he crowed when the footsteps neared him.


“Dissolvo.” The rope disappeared from his hands.


“You are very kind,” he said.


Suddenly a wolf howled and she gasped. Before he could even glance at her face she had her back to him, seemingly looking for the beast.


*Move, fool!* he berated himself and was deep in the forest before she even turned.


“Listen—” he heard her saying and called back.


“Thank you very much, my lady! Tell Mister Snape that he ties a wicked knot!”


“He’s going to kill me.” He caught the sigh and felt instantly guilty but wouldn’t stop. He had to think about his own life.


* * * * *


Teddy reached the edge of the forest by sunrise. In the weak light of morning he noticed smoke rising over the hill before him.


Remembering all too well the last time he left the protection of the forest, he kept close to the ground, hiding in the tall grass. At the top he found a rock to hide behind. Before him a freshly scythed field littered here and there with stacks of fresh hay. Against this expanse of pale yellow the black of Death Eater robes stood out like a butterfly against snow.


The teen was just starting to back up when his back ran into something solid. He reached a trembling hand back to feel what the obstacle was. When he encountered cloth he looked up fearfully into a maliciously smiling face of a Death Eater.


Before he could do anything, the man grabbed him and dragged him to the others. The same man with the face of a murderer stood up at their approach.


“Well, well. Long way from the sewers, little rat. This time the drinks are on me.”


“They were the last time, too, Crabbe,” snickered one of the others.


“Shut up, Carrow,” he growled and turned back to Mouse. “Where’s Snape?”


“Snape?” The man holding him shook him none too gently. “Ah, Snape! Big man, strange clothes, rides a hippogriff? Yes. I saw him riding north, towards Hogwarts.”


“Then we ride south,” said yet another man and Teddy frowned.


“It isn't polite to assume that someone is a liar when you've only just met them,” he said haughtily.


“And yet you knew we would,” said the one called Carrow. “We ride north.”


Teddy’s heart fell and he looked to the sky. “I told the truth, God. How can I learn any moral lessons when you keep confusing me this way?”


Someone grabbed his hands and bound them before putting a gag on him. He was deposited on the back of Crabbe’s broom and watched helplessly as a willowy Death Eater the others called Selwyn mounted his and disappeared under a disillusionment charm.


He came back before the others even managed to entirely break down their camp.


“He’s riding this way. Looks like he's searching for the boy.” Selwyn grinned.


In a matter of minutes all traces of the camp were gone and all five of the Death Eaters and Teddy were under an assortment of camouflaging spells, wands at the ready, waiting.


The sun was already high by the time Teddy heard the familiar call of a hawk, he thought desperately of anything he could do to warn Snape of the trap.


*If I could only free my hands...*


Suddenly the conversation of the previous day flashed in his mind and he concentrated on his hands, willing them to become smaller. Soon the ropes slid from his wrists and he reached for the gag. Unfortunately, Crabbe must have felt him move because he turned and grabbed his hands. Without thinking, Mouse opened his mouth and set his now razor sharp teeth into the man's hand. He howled in pain and threw Teddy off, but the deed was done. Other Death Eaters were already charging at Snape but the man had his wand well in hand.


Selwyn aimed his first spell at Buckbeak, but whatever it was, it didn’t even make the hippogriff blink. Snape sent a Stupefy his way and the man plummeted to the ground.


He did the same with the man who had caught Mouse. Buckbeak kicked another from his broom with his hind legs as the man tried to get Snape from behind.


Teddy watched as Crabbe and Carrow aimed at the man and grabbed a stone from the ground. He managed to catch Crabbe on the arm just as he fired off his curse and it sailed into the sky.


Crabbe managed to fire off a curse. Mouse’s heart fell. Snape couldn’t notice the spell in time...


Suddenly, the hawk fell from the sky, right into the curse. It cried out and plummeted to the ground desperately flapping one wing.


“No!” Snape shouted, his eyes riveted to the bird. “Not now...”


Carrow managed to catch Snape in the shoulder with a curse, but the man didn’t seem to notice until the hawk landed safely on the ground.


Crabbe charged at Snape, casting the killing curse, but Buckbeak outmanoeuvred it easily. Snape retaliated by throwing some sort of liquid in Crabbe’s face.


The man choked and started falling to the ground. He screamed and clawed at his throat all the way down. When he hit, he convulsed a couple more times before stilling, bloody foam covering his mouth.


Carrow hesitated for a moment before raising his wand again and charging. Snape took one look at him and exchanged his wand for the Gryffindor sword. Mouse watched in amazement as the Death Eater turned tail and fled at the sight of it.


Snape however didn’t pursue him. He landed as close as possible to the hawk. As Teddy neared them, he saw Snape walking slowly to the bird and kneeling before it. Buckbeak nudged him slightly with his beak, and Mouse put his hand on his wing.


“Easy... Easy. You will be all right.” Snape was whispering soothingly to the bird.


It had what looked like an icicle protruding from its wing. Snape moved his wand over it, and it glowed blue for a moment, but didn’t disappear. The man looked around, seeming lost until his eyes fell on Teddy.


“Bring me a piece of cloth. From the saddle bag,” he called and turned back to the hawk. “Easy. It’s all right. You will be all right.”


Teddy turned to the saddle and peered into the bag, weary of touching anything he might regret later. Inside there were what seemed like thousands of smaller openings. He quickly spotted the one marked as ‘cleaning rags’ and took out the cleanest one and brought it to the man.


“Thanks,” said Snape automatically, the whole of his attention riveted to the bird as he delicately wrapped it in the cloth. “You will be all right. You’ll live.” He stood up cradling the bird in his hands and turned to Mouse. “Take it. Find help.”


“Me, Sir?” Squeaked the teen backing away.


Anger flashed in the man’s eyes and Teddy shrunk into himself.


“You’re the only one I have.”


“But Sir! The poor thing is done for!” Mouse regretted his words as instantly Snape grabbed a fistful of his robes and shook him.


“Don’t you say that!” Spittle flew into Teddy’s face before he was shoved away. Snape calmed himself with visible difficulty. “You will fly in that direction. You will find a ruined castle. There’s an alchemist called Slughorn. You’ll give him the hawk. He’ll know what to do.”


“But Sir!” Mouse had to try again. “You don’t understand that—”


“Get on the hippogriff,” growled the man.


“But you’re the only one who can ride him!”


Snape cursed and grabbed Teddy’s shoulder. His spidery fingers dug in painfully as he turned the teen to face Buckbeak.


“Bow to him. And mind that you look him in the eye. No blinking.” With no other way out, Mouse followed the barked instructions. “Now wait until he bows back.” The boy waited breathless minutes before the creature blinked and bowed back. “Now do as I tell you and get on the hippogriff! Now!”


Teddy glared back but valued his life too much to refuse. He climbed into the saddle and took the hawk into his arms.


“Now know this—if you fail, I will follow you the length of my days. And I will find you.” Mouse gulped, his head filled with gruesome scenarios. The man turned then. “Take him to Horace, my friend.” Snape addressed the hippogriff much more calmly. “Please hurry.”


The beast nodded its head and before Teddy could even blink he was flying away, wind howling in his ears. As he looked back, Snape was sliding to his knees by the sword he’d driven into the ground. Mouse remembered the curse that hit the man and wondered how he was going to heal himself since all his things were still in the bag by the saddle.


In two beats of Buckbeak’s wings the man was nothing but a dark dot, though, and with another he disappeared entirely.


As they flew, Teddy watched the landscape below them. Forests covered almost every bit of land. The few cities they passed were small and far between.


The sun was already low on the horizon when they left the cliffs behind them and flew over the sea. When the cold, wet air hit his face, Mouse tried everything he could think of to keep his hood from sliding from his head. After the umpteenth time he tugged it as low as it would go and growled.


“Stay put, damn you!” His fingers tingled and miraculously, the hood stayed on. Teddy stared at his hand. “Wow...”


Soon, there was a small, rocky island before them. The only thing standing on it was the small, crumbling, old castle.


“There it is, see, the castle. We’re almost there,” he told the bird and tried to pet its feathers. He was rewarded with a sharp peck to his finger. “Aw! Well... Well that’s gratitude for you! All right then! Let’s have this Slughorn fellow watch you die! I have my own life to look after!”


Soon, Buckbeak landed before the gate of the castle that was not as small as it appeared at a distance.


“Hello!” shouted Mouse, looking up. “Hello up there! For pity sake, hello!”


A fat man ambled to the bailey.


“Hello! Hello! What’d you want down there?!” He sounded distinctly drunk. An impression only strengthened by the swig he took from a big, clay jug. Whatever hair he still had puffed up around his head in wild tufts of white.


Teddy looked at the bird in his arms doubtfully, but had no choice. Buckbeak brought him here, so it had to be the right place.


“I was told to bring you this bird! It’s been wounded!”


“Oh! Good shot!” shouted the man joyfully. “Bring it here! We’ll dine together!”


“We can’t eat this bird!” The idea left Mouse aghast and he wondered if he would ever be able to eat any bird again.


“Why not? Oh Merlin, is it prohibited too?” moaned the drunk.


“This is not an ordinary hawk! It belongs to a man called Severus Snape!”


Even as far away as he was, Teddy could see colour draining from the man's face. “Oh, dear Merlin... Bring him in! Bring him in! Quickly.” He ran to open the gate.


Mouse dismounted as carefully as he could. As soon as he was far enough away, Buckbeak turned and flew back the way they'd come. Teddy crossed the gates and followed the only path there. Slughorn stood at the top of the rocky hill that made up the grounds.

“Up here! Hurry! Hurry!” he urged on.


As soon as Mouse reached him, the man began inspecting the icicle protruding from the bundle of cloth. Concern was painted over every line of his face.


“Here.” He turned and led the way a draw-bridge. “This way.” He turned slightly. “Careful! Walk on the left side. On the left.”


He led the way to a dark, windowless room. The walls were lined with bottles of potions and salves. A bed covered with bearskins was tucked into one corner of the room and a table with a cauldron on it in another. With a flick of the wand, Slughorn lit almost a dozen candles at once.


“There.” The man pointed at the bed and Teddy put the hawk delicately on it. “Gently!” admonished Slughorn when the bird cawed suddenly. “Now leave us,” he said as soon as it was settled.


“Can I help?” the boy surprised himself by asking.


The man didn’t even take his eyes off the hawk. “Get out, boy!” he snarled.


Mouse hesitated another moment before turning to go out.


Horace knelt by the bed and rearranged the linen to see more of the icicle.


“Don’t worry,” he told the bird. “Severus was right. I know what to do. But we have to wait a little.”


He stood up and wobbled slightly. “Sober. Sober,” he muttered to himself running his finger over the shelves until his hands hovered over a well-worn label, Sobering Elixir. He downed a double dose and shuddered as the pleasant haze of inebriation washed away.


“I have to gather some things,” he whispered. “I’ll be back soon.” He hurried out of the door and spelled the lock shut. “Now where have I... ah!” He took the silver scissors from the jar by the door. “Now what are we going to need? Lavender, mandrake, pansy root...” he muttered the list of ingredients that had to be fresh as he descended the steps leading to his greenhouse.


* * * * *


As soon as he disappeared from view, Mouse peeked out from behind the corner of the building. He tiptoed to the door and took out his lock-picks. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe that Slughorn was genuinely concerned, no, but he would not bet his life on him either.


The sun already set by the time he managed to open the door. He walked in, a joke about roasted hawk on the tip of his tongue... But there was no hawk. Instead a human lay there under the bearskin. Instantly he recognised the pale skin of the woman he saw before and turned back for the door.


“Wait!” The voice was weak, quiet. “Snape, is he?...”


“He’s perfectly fine, my lady.” He peered at his shoulder and blinked. That was not a woman’s shoulder. “S-sir.” He looked at the door and back to the miserable... man on the bed. He sighed and took a step into the room. “There was a terrible battle. He fought like a lion. The hawk. The hawk was cursed.” As he watched, one delicate hand touched the icicle protruding from the thin chest. “But you know that, don’t you?”


The green eyes looked away from him at that. “Yes.” The word was barely a whisper.


Teddy had gathered all his courage to ask the next question. “Are you flesh?” He took another step into the room. “Or are you spirit?”


The glossy, green eyes returned to him and they looked dead in the glittering light of the candles.


“I am sorrow.”


Mouse gulped and backed back into the door.


* * * * *


Horace ran between rows of magical and ordinary greenery. The setting sun had already painted the sky a blood red.


“Time, Merlin, I need more time.” His hand brushed a lush little bush of thyme. He chuckled to himself. “Yes, that too.”


A distant cry of a wolf startled him and his humour fled.


“Hurry. Yes, I must hurry. Pansy root... Pansy root...” He turned in a circle twice before spotting the pots of pansies. “Ah, that’s it!”


Ingredients gathered, he ran as fast as he could back to his workroom. All the way up the fifty steps he silently cursed Voldemort and his country-wide anti-apparation wards.


He opened the doors, out of breath, and found them open. He bolted into the room to find the boy that brought the hawk leaning on the inside of the frame.


“How did you...” The question died on his lips the moment he noticed what the kid was looking at.


Horace took several steps into the room, looking at the frail figure on his bed. His heart fairly breaking as he noticed the blood flowing slowly onto his sheets.


He felt more than saw the boy coming up behind him.


“Out,” he whispered. “Out, out, out.” He herded the lad out the door. “And this time, stay out.” He banged the door shut and heard the door creak, undoubtedly as the boy leaned on it.


“Give me just fifteen minutes. I have the bases for the potions you need, but I have to add the final ingredients.” He spelled the burners under two small cauldrons.


“Don’t worry. My shops are open twenty-four, seven.”


Slughorn sniggered slightly. “You have your mother’s sense of humour,” he sighed. “But this is not the time. The icicle is close to the heart. I can remove it, but... there’s risk. Great risk.”


“If I will die either way, shouldn’t we at least try?” Harry asked weakly.


“Yes. Yes, yes, of course, my boy.” Horace busied himself with finishing his potions.


Minutes later he was spooning the paste into a shallow bowl while the other potion distilled into a beaker.


“This will contain the curse, and slow the flow of blood when I remove the ice,” he explained while he painted runes around the icicle. His fingers were soon numb and aching with cold.


“Don’t you believe me capable of recognising any potion on sight any more?” There were traces of humour still in the voice.


“Not this one. Even Severus would have trouble recognising it. The cure for Ice Queen's Arrow is my own design.”


Far in the distance a wolf cried again.


“I think Severus would resent that.”


“He probably would,” muttered the man if for no other reason than to delay the inevitable. The runes were finished.


“Horace.” A hand covered his and brought it to the cursed icicle. He gulped and nodded.


“When I pull it out, you’ll have to swallow half of the potion, and the rest will go into the wound.” The younger man nodded. “Are you ready?” A hand grabbed his shoulder tightly.


“Yes.”


“One, two, three!”


He pulled the arrow. A terrible scream mixed with the howl of the wolf.


* * * * *


In the eastern wing of Hogwarts an inhuman scream echoed down the halls before a deafening silence suffused it.


The doors to the Dark Lord’s chambers opened with a bang and a naked girl ran screaming down the hall. The guards lining the hall startled and cautiously approached the room.


“My Lord?” asked one of them cautiously.


On the enormous bed the terrifying figure of their master lay slumped on the sheets. His silk robes were twisted around his skeletal body. His red eyes stared at the ceiling unseeingly, his mouth twisted in pain.


“My Lord!” one of them shouted, more in surprise at the sight before him than in any hope of waking the creature before them.


Nevertheless, the Dark Lord startled and sat up with a gasp. One of his hands went to his chest as if to stem the flow of invisible blood.


The men dispersed quickly, not wanting to incur their master's wrath. Only the two normally standing by the door remained. The Dark Lord's furious eyes took them in and one fell instantly under the Cruciatus curse.


A messenger ran down the corridor, stopping short of the man writhing on the floor.


“Forgive me, My Lord,” he bowed, ignoring the agonised screams. “Fenrir has arrived.”


Voldemort ended the spell and smiled as the werewolf approached the door. The guard crawled away, grateful to escape with his mind intact.


* * * * *


Teddy was almost at the end of his wits by the time Horace came out of the workroom. It felt to him as if hours had passed since he was thrown out. The wolf was howling constantly and the sound made his skin crawl.


When Slughorn did come out, he looked pasty and his skin was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. With a wave of his wand, dozens of lanterns and fires lit around the castle.


“Pour me a drink, boy,” he rasped. “There.” He waved his hand at a big clay jug standing near the door. “And get yourself one. You look like you need it.”


Mouse found a line of goblets standing by the barrow and filled two. He sniffed them on the way back to the man and almost fell down at the strong smell.


“What’s this?”


“Herbal vodka. My own brew. Not as good as a brandy or even Odgen's Old, but it’s potent.”


Teddy handed him one of the goblets as the wolf cried yet again.


“It’s him, isn’t it? The wolf. Somehow it’s him.”


“I drink to forget,” answered the man.


“An hour ago you were drunk and you remembered!” As exciting as secrets were, Mouse had much more than his fill of this one.


Slughorn hesitated before finally looking at Teddy. He frowned.


“What do they call you, boy?”


“Teddy Lupin,” he tried to sound patient, feeling that the man would tell him something.


“His name is Harry Potter,” sighed Horace and walked towards a bench set up by a big fireside. He gestured that Mouse should join him. “He was prophesised to be the Chosen One. The one with the power to kill the Dark Lord. But his parents were betrayed when he was only a year old. They died protecting him. He lived and the Dark Lord disappeared. Almost everyone thought for good.” He sighed and gulped a big swallow from his goblet. “When Harry was eleven, he came to learn at Hogwarts.” He must have noticed Teddy’s terrified face because he shook his head. “No, no, my boy. The Hogwarts I talk about has little to do with what you might know. The castle was once a school of magic – a beautiful sanctuary of knowledge, teeming with the energy of young people...” he trailed off, lost in his recollections. The teen tried to imagine the place the old man was describing.


“So what happened?” he prompted when the silence stretched.


The alchemist slumped again. “We were wrong. The Dark Lord was not dead, he merely lacked a body. He fought many a battle with Harry, and when the boy was fourteen, he created himself a new body in one of the darkest rituals. At first, he lay low, gathering his strength. That’s when I met Harry. I’ll never forget the first time I saw him. It was like...”


“Looking in the eyes of love,” supplied Teddy.


“Ah yes, those eyes. It’s hard not to love them. I think— But that’s neither here nor there.” Horace waved his hand around. “In the next two years the Dark Lord slowly gained power and took over the Wizarding World. Severus was his right hand man, or so we all thought until the last moment. You see, he was a spy and almost paid with his life for that.”


“Wow...” Betraying the Dark Lord and living to tell the tale was something entirely unconceivable to Mouse.


“'Wow' indeed, my young friend. Thanks to him, Hogwarts was the last to fall. After a terrible battle that revealed Severus' true allegiance, the Dark Lord fell into a terrible rage and cast a terrible curse, the effects of which you’ve now witnessed. By day Harry is the beautiful bird you’ve brought to me, and by night, as you have already guessed, the voice of the wolf that we hear is Severus’ cry.”


“But I’ve seen wizards turn into animals all the time,” blurted Teddy.


“Those are animagi–” Horace looked into his empty cup and Mouse gave him his own, almost full one, “people who can transfigure their bodies to look like those of animals, but retain their full human mind. When those two turn, they don’t merely change their shape. They literally become animals – poor, dumb creatures with no memory of the half life of their human existence. As long as the day and night won’t meet or as long as they both shall live.” The man sighed again. “He knew that without Harry, the resistance would soon break, and it did. But this story, you could have heard from any wizard or witch brave enough to say it out loud. What no one knows is that the Dark Lord was once a poor, if brilliant, young student by the name of Thomas Riddle. He hid his darkness very well – seeming just an engaging, polite child with a hunger for knowledge in any form or discipline. So his teacher thought nothing of answering his disturbing questions about a dark artefact he found an obscure reference to.” He stood and threw his goblet into the fire. “The young fool revealed the secret of creating a horcrux, a vessel for a fragment of a human soul that would ward off death!”


Teddy listened to the story with bated breath, his eyes wide and heart beating wildly. “And the Dark Lord created one?”


“He created seven,” said the man gravely. “Harry knew of six and he managed to destroy them. The last was the snake that was to kill Severus during the battle of Hogwarts. The Dark Lord didn’t anticipate Snape fighting for his life. A loyal servant wouldn’t.” Slughorn glanced at the teen. “Have you ever seen the dagger Severus carries?”


Mouse blinked. “I—No. But between the sword and the wand I had enough to look out for, thanks.”


“It is made from unicorn horn. Legend has it that Merlin had one of those as well. And probably only he knows how Snape managed to put his hands on one, too. He slit the snake's throat with it, but not before she bit him. He was bleeding profusely and barely breathing. He managed to tell us that there was another horcrux, but before he revealed what it was, the curse was cast and he transformed.”


They stared into the fire for a long time, both lost in their own thoughts.


“There were a lot of dead,” Horace started his story again. His voice was a quiet monotone. “Your parents were among them. Many children not much older than you. And with the curse—We had no other option. We evacuated those still in the castle. Within half a year anyone who could fled the country. The Muggle government tried to deny the problem for a few more months before attempting to evacuate. I don’t know what reason they gave. Many managed to get to the continent but then the anti-apparation ward was erected over the country. All Muggle technology had gone wild and then failed entirely. Planes fell from the sky. Buildings blew up. Fires raged for months... From that apocalypse the world you know now was created.” Watery, blue eyes bored into his and Teddy gulped. “You have stumbled into a tragic story, young Lupin, and now, whether you want it or not, you are stuck in it, with the rest of us.”


The wolf howled again and Mouse wished for his goblet of vodka as dread tied his innards into knots. He shivered despite the unnaturally warm air of the island.


“Forgive me, my boy.” The alchemist sighed. “I’m old and have lived too long in these dark times.” He summoned new goblets and a smaller jug of something golden. “A brandy. And a good one, so respect it.” He handed Teddy a cup with a small amount.


The brew was good. It warmed his insides and helped relax him. He tried to forget all that he’d heard in the past hour and sipped his drink again.


“Better?”


“Some,” admitted the teen.


“Good,” the man put his hands on his knees and leaned in. “Then tell me, young mister Lupin, how did you get into my workroom?”


“I picked the lock, of course,” smirked Mouse.


“Impossible! I’ve spelled it closed.”


Teddy shrugged. “That’s what I did. I picked it with these.” He took out the set of different coloured, gnarled little sticks.


Horace frowned at them. “Where did you get those from?”


“Different trees. Those where the wood pixies live.”


“You mean bowtruckles?” The man seemed incredulous.


“Do they look like insects made of wood and poke you in the eye?” When he received a nod, Mouse grinned. “Then yes, them.”


Slughorn started to laugh at that and Teddy, already slightly tipsy, giggled as well. “You’ll make a good wandmaker one day, boy.”


“I’d have to have a wand myself first!” He tucked his pick-locks back into his pocket.


“Pr’bably. ’M not sure.” Horace frowned. “I need to rest. ‘M starting to slur.”


Teddy nodded and the world tilted a little. “Me too,” he agreed, but neither of them moved. “Do you think they’re luv’sh? I mean, were they lovers?”


“Who?”


“They.” Mouse waved his hand between the doors to the workroom and the general direction of London.


“I don’t know. Why?”


The teen shrugged. “Jus’ some things Sh-Snape - says s’metimes. Like he looksh at the ‘awk, you know? Not all...” He waved a hand before his face and tried to glare. “Like he’s hum’n.”


“Ah...” Slughorn sighed. “It may be. May be.” He frowned. “But you never know with Sev’rus.” He peered at young man before him. “And I’ve let you drink far too much.” He stood and helped Teddy up. “I’ll give you a sh-sobering elixir. You’ll watch over him first.”


They stumbled slightly back into the room with all the potions. Mouse took the bottle of yellow potion he was given and obediently downed a swallow. The cold sobriety washed over him instantly and he shuddered.


The alchemist smiled at him. “If he wakes, don’t let him move. The wound can still open.”


“’Kay.”


“I will be in the room at the other side of the wall. Come wake me in a few hours.” With that he turned and left Teddy with the sleeping man.

* * * * *


In the one of the dungeon rooms at Hogwarts Voldemort set wolf pelts on fire, one by one.


“Useless. All of them,” he barked at Fenrir.


The werewolf bared his teeth. “My traps are full. It’s a plague. There are more wolves than men. They try to take over our woods. Scare off Muggle prey,” he growled.


Voldemort silenced him with a wave of his hand. He turned to the guard standing in the room. “Leave.” The man bowed and backed away, closing the heavy doors behind him.


“Potter.”


“My Lord?” Fenrir was confused to hear that name again.


“You have to find Potter,” hissed the Dark Lord walking to the door. “He travels by night, only by night. His sun is the moon. Find him and you find the wolf. The wolf I want. The wolf who... loves him,” he sneered the word. “A black wolf.” He opened the door and turned back again. “There’s a boy with him. You can do with him as you please.” With that he left.


The werewolf’s lips stretched in a smile. He couldn’t remember the last time he tasted young flesh.


“Potter...” He murmured to himself.


* * * * *


In the end Teddy decided not to wake the alchemist. He wouldn’t have been able to fall asleep in any case. There was no reason for them both to be tired in the morning.


The enormous nightgown in which Harry was clad was twisted around him, making him look even more frail and small. Mouse observed all the similarities to the bird he saw for the last few days in the thin face. He wondered if it was always so sharp, or if it was a result of all the transformations. He wondered what it would have been like if this man won that battle, many years ago. He wondered what the last horcrux was. He wondered until he thought he would go mad.


It was just a few hours until dawn when the man started muttering in his sleep, a sure sign of waking, and he moved the armchair he was sitting in closer to the bed. Moments later the tousled head turned his way and bright, green eyes focussed on him. Harry tried to sit up and Teddy reached out a hand to stop him.


“Don’t! Don’t. You might start bleeding again.”


The man lay back down with a sigh. “Tell me your name,” he said quietly.


The teen smiled slightly. “Well, most people call me Teddy the Mouse.”


“You travel with him, don’t you?”


He didn’t seem too pleased about that and Mouse hesitated before answering. “Yes?”


The green eyes bored into him for an endless moment before turning away. The silence stretched uncomfortably between them, as Teddy tried to decide what feelings he’d seen in that gaze.


Deciding to go with what his instinct suggested, he said, “‘You must save this Hawk’ he said, ‘For he is my life, my last and best reason for living.’ And then he said, ‘One day, we will know such happiness as two people dream of, but never do.’” He swallowed, awaiting the response.


The man looked back at him slowly, warily.


“He said that?” there was disbelief in that soft voice.


Mouse smiled and tried to sound convincing. “I swear it on my life.”


A small smile played on the thin lips for a moment before disappearing. “You’ll have a short life, if you swear like that much. It is a nice lie, though.”


“Well, he did threaten to hound me to the end of his days if I let anything happen to you,” he pouted at having his nice lie pointed out so bluntly.


This time, the smile reached the green eyes and they lit up. “That sounds much more like him.” Teddy scratched his head sheepishly. Harry seemed to remember something then. “I was meaning to ask you, why did you call me ‘lady’?”


“Oh, that.” The teen could feel his cheeks flush. “The first time I saw you... Well I thought you were a lady. The eyes, you know.” He shrugged. “And then I told him and he played along with it.” Mouse frowned. “Why did he do that?”


The man chuckled. “You must forgive him. Severus enjoys mind games and he didn’t have anyone to play with in a very long time.”


“I’ll think about it,” he decided. He stood up and stretched. “I’d better go get the alchemist. In case you should take something else.” He pointed at the wall of potions with his chin. “Be right back.”


He didn’t have to look far. Their host was just outside the door watering the various potted plants littering the castle in the pre-dawn light.


Teddy sat on the bench of night before and asked, “Does he know that you are the teacher who betrayed the secret of horcruxes to the Dark Lord?”


The man looked up at the blunt question. “They both do,” he sighed. “But with Fate’s help, I will help them defeat him too. After fifteen years, she brought us together again!”


Teddy cocked his head to the side at the cryptic statement. “Make yourself clear, if you can.”


“I have found a way to break the curse,” whispered the man excitedly. “And the time for them to confront the Dark Lord and begin their own lives again.”


“Snape intends to confront him. To kill him with the Gryffindor’s sword,” Mouse told the old man.


“No! He can’t do that! Even if he can kill him, then the curse can never be broken!” said Horace urgently.


The unmistakable sound of many cloaks flapping in the wind cut their conversation short.


“Go! Take care of Harry! Make him swallow the rest of the potion,” Slughorn commanded as he ran for the bailey and Teddy ran back into the castle.


* * * * *


The Death Eaters landed by the edge of Horace's wards just as he reached the battlements.


“Open this door in the name of the master of this land, the Dark Lord Voldemort!” shouted a man whom he recognised to be Dolohov.


“Be off with you,” he shouted back. “This is an apothecary, not a brothel.”


“I said open this door in the name of the Dark Lord!” The man went purple in the face, obviously not used to defiance, especially in the face of all the younger men around him. Slughorn hoped he’d burst a vein with his next response.


“I've met the Dark Lord, you blasphemous lot. And you look nothing like him.”


“Break down those wards!” The man almost frothed at the mouth with rage.


Three young wizards dismounted from their brooms and started an assault on Horace’s wards. In a short time the protective fields shivered and fell. The young men ran into the castle’s rocky courtyard. As soon as they reached the bridge over one of its deepest clefts, he released the spell holding it up.


“Sorry! I’m an alchemist, not an architect,” he shouted over their screams.


He ran to the drawbridge and waited for the rest of them. In a few minutes, Dolohov emerged from behind a rock and Horace smiled his most benign smile.


“This way, my child. Straight through the big, main door,” he looked as the man marched arrogantly onto the bridge. “Just remember,” the planks of the bridge cracked and broke under the Death Eater and he didn’t even have the time to scream before he fell into the coils of the Devil's Snare below, “Walk. On. The. left. Side,” he enunciated every word loudly.


He straightened up to go after the rest of them but with a flash of purple light he was knocked unconscious and the two remaining Death Eaters ran over the bridge and into the castle.


* * * * *


At the same time, Mouse ran for the workroom. Harry was sleeping again and he shook him as gently as he could.


“Sir. Sir!” The man woke slowly. “Come with me!”


“What is it?”


“Don’t talk, just come!” He helped him stand up. “You have to take the rest of your potion.”


Teddy looked helplessly between the two bottles on the table and the shelves. Fortunately, Harry seemed to know what he needed as he reached for one of the bottles on the table without hesitation.


They left the room to hear a crash and enraged screams from the direction of the main gate. Whatever the old alchemist prepared for unwanted visitors must have been horrible indeed.


Mouse looked around desperately and spotted stairs leading further into the castle on the far end of the corridor.


“Here!” he whispered and walked as fast as the weight of the man leaning on him allowed.


By the time they reached the top of the stairs the castle was silent again. And that meant that someone had silenced the alchemist. Teddy looked around the corridor; there was a tower to the right and a crumbled wall with a rocky slope behind it to the left. With Harry’s wound still liable to open, that left only one option.


“Here! Here! Hurry!”


Mouse steered them right, trying to pass the part where the wall crumbled as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, just as they were to hide behind the next good piece of wall one of the Death Eaters spotted them.


“Look! There!” he called to his only remaining companion.


“Inside!” shouted Teddy and they ran up the stairs.


The top a makeshift ladder led to the open roof. Harry was already there when one of their pursuers caught Mouse by the leg.


“Let go!” Shouted the boy and kicked the man in the face.


His shoe slipped from his suddenly slim foot and the man fell down the stairs. A sickening snap of breaking bones could be clearly heard.


Teddy lifted himself onto the roof and closed the trap doors behind him. He ran around the crumbling battlements trying to find a way of escape as Harry caught his breath, leaning on one of the edges.


“Leave me!” he wheezed. “It’s me they're after!”


“Don’t flatter yourself,” snapped the teen.


The trap door lifted and Teddy jumped on it to close it again. He was thrown into the air again almost instantly and again landed heavily on the door. He spotted a large stone and blocked it. Someone swore loudly and then a curse flew through the crack in the planks.


Teddy jumped back, right into Harry, sending the man over the ledge. He managed to grab his hands but the man was too heavy.


“I’m slipping!”


“NO!” shouted Mouse as the thin fingers slipped from his hands.


The man screamed as he fell into the abyss below. Just then the sun rose over the sea and the man transformed before Teddy’s own eyes and flew away.


The curses stopped behind his back and he quickly clambered onto the tower's sole, stone gargoyle. He heard the trap door open and prayed that he was not discovered.


“You!” Unfortunately his luck seemed to have run out and he looked into the face of an enraged Death Eater. “Where is the man?!”


“He flew away,” answered Mouse truthfully.


“I said where is he?!” The man pointed his wand at him.


“God’s own truth! He flew away!” shouted Teddy covering his head with his arms.


“If you don't...”


An arrow swished through the air and embedded itself in the man's chest. He wobbled and fell over the battlements and into the precipice.


The teen looked around, startled to see Snape on Buckbeak’s back hovering not far from him. Giddy with relief, Mouse waved at the man.


“Always pays to tell the truth, God. Thank you. I see that now,” he sighed.

* * * * *


When Snape landed by the drawbridge the spell on Slughorn had already worn off and he was sitting on some nearby rocks. He smiled at the man and the hawk sitting on his arm.


“I thought you might be dead, old man.” The smile faltered at the words and the fierce glare sent his way. “There were times when I’ve wanted to kill you myself. But for this,” Horace looked in amazement as the man’s eyes softened when he looked at the bird and ran his fingers over its feathers, “I am grateful.”


“No. It is I who’s grateful.” The alchemist heaved himself up and walked slowly up to the hippogriff. “Grateful for the chance to redeem my foolish mistakes and help you and Harry regain your lives.”


“What idiocy have you come up with now?”


“In two weeks, the Dark Lord will be hosting a celebration of Samhain. You have to confront the Dark Lord in your true form – both of you as humans. The curse will be confounded – broken. And you will be free!”


“Impossible,” said Snape flatly.


“As long as there is night and day?”


“Yes. You’ve heard the curse yourself.”


“I did. And I was scouring old texts for any information on it for fifteen years. I found that the Dark Lord was not as fluent in Old French as he should have been when casting old French curses.”


“Get to the point, already!” The hippogriff squawked and the hawk flapped its wings agitatedly at the shout and Snape visibly tried to reign his temper in.


“The curse does not talk about night and day. It talks about sun and moon. And in two weeks there will be a total eclipse of the sun over Hogwarts!” exclaimed Horace joyously.


The stare he received was cold disgust. “Go back inside, old man. Go back to your drink.”


“You think I’m drunk? I swear to you! The books all say the same!”


“It’s decades still until the next eclipse will be seen in this country.”


“The last time I saw you, Severus Snape, you were a Potions Master, not a Master Astronomer.” He waved his fist at the stubborn man.


“The last time I saw you, Horace Slughorn, you were not mad,” sneered the man.


Horace slumped, defeated. He turned to go back into the castle and met Teddy’s wide brown eyes.


* * * * *


Mouse hurried down the path. He couldn’t believe that he was doing this!


“Don’t worry,” he whispered patting the old man’s shoulder as they passed each other. “Sir! Sir!” he called out and Buckbeak stopped.


Snape glared at the creature, but said nothing as the boy caught up with them.


“Um... How’s your shoulder, Sir?” he asked and waited for the man to chew his head off.


The dark man chewed his words instead, for a long moment, before gritting out, “I’m in your debt.” He didn’t look at Teddy as he said it.


“Me, Sir? No, no. Not at all,” he denied quickly before swallowing. “He wanted me to deliver a message.” He nodded at the hawk and hoped he got it right this time. “He said he still had hope, faith in you.”


Snape smirked slightly and turned away. “You are free to go.”


“I know that, Sir.” Unfortunately, it didn’t much matter, because as mad as he thought he was, he’d already decided to go with them.


“Do as you like.”


“Yes, Sir.” He bit his lip for a moment. “Then you and Ladyhawke will be going on to Hogwarts?” he blurted.


Snape turned to him and raised a brow. “Ladyhawke?” he asked with a smirk. Teddy smiled and scratched the back of his head. “Yes.”


The teen bit his nail for a moment, before saying, “Well, it just so happens that I’m heading in that general direction myself.” He waved his hand vaguely north.


“Really?” Mouse dragged up his most winning smile and the man shook his head. “Then you better grab your things, if you have any. I’m leaving now.”


Teddy nodded. “Right.” He smiled and bounded back to the castle.


“Mister Slughorn! Sir!” he caught up with the man quickly. “I’m going with Snape. Follow us,” he said, grabbed up his cloak and ran back again leaving the startled man behind.


Snape was waiting for him on the pebbled beach. He was holding the most beautiful broom Mouse had ever seen.


“You can fly on this,” said the man handing him the broom. “I’m sure Harry wouldn’t mind.”


“Wow...” he ran his hand over the polished wood. “I—I’d love to, but...”


“But what?”


“I don’t know how,” he said miserably.


“Ah. It’s rather basic. You put the broom on the ground, call ‘up’, catch the broom, mount and fly.”


Teddy was sceptical but put the broom delicately on the ground. “UP!” It jumped back into his hand. “Wow!”


Snape snorted. “Yet another mind lost...”


“Huh?” The man’s non-sequiturs confused Mouse to no end.


“Nothing. Come on, boy. We have a long distance to cover today.”


They flew over the sea, turning frequently, which Teddy assumed was to avoid patrols searching for those foolish enough to try to escape the islands by boat.


After a few hours he tried to casually bring up the subject of what Slughorn said.


“Sir? What is an eclipse?”


“It’s a cosmic phenomenon in which the moon comes between the earth and the sun, blocking its light.” There was a tone of warning in the man’s voice.


“Oh. So it doesn’t happen often, does it?”


“No.”


“But what if the old man was right? What if there is an eclipse in Hogwarts?” Mouse rushed the words out.


The man glared over his shoulder. “You will not mention this again. Not to me. And not to him. Understood?” The tone brook no argument.


* * * * *


It was almost late afternoon when they landed on the edge of another huge forest.


“I didn’t know there were this many damn forests,” muttered Mouse as he slung the broom over his shoulder.


Snape smirked and lifted an eyebrow and Teddy flushed.


“I mean, I knew there were a lot of them just not this many.”


“It’s just as well. A lot of good hiding ground. And I’m told that the scenery would be rather depressing otherwise.”


“I never thought about that,” said Mouse. “I don’t think I could imagine England without forests.”


The older man ‘hm’ed again and Teddy recognised it for what it was – another version of ‘be quiet’. *So much for conversation,* he sighed.


They walked in silence for a long time. Long enough that Mouse wondered if maybe they would be walking in silence all the way back to Hogwarts. When the sunlight had ceased penetrating the thick forest trees almost an hour ago, Snape took out a glowing, glass orb from the satchel. It immediately flew out of his hands to hover over their heads. It didn’t look like they were going to find anywhere to hide today. And as if sleeping with a wolf nearby, without any roof over his head wasn’t enough, the air was starting to get increasingly damp.


“It’s going to rain,” complained Teddy. “We’re going to get soaked.”


Snape looked at him distractedly for a moment then said, “Give me the broom.”


The boy did so unhappily and soon it was no bigger than a cloak pin and tucked away in the satchel. Severus took the hawk from its perch on the back of the saddle and told Mouse to get up on the hippogriff. As soon as he was seated, the man gave him the bird.


“The night is coming.”


Mouse looked around, but no, there was no sun. “How can you tell?”


“After so many sunsets?” Teddy met the black eyes and nodded. No it wasn’t strange that the man knew. “Ride on this way. Find some shelter. There aren’t many creatures that would attack a hippogriff, but if it’s possible, I would have preferred it if you had a roof over your heads.”


“Ok, sir,” nodded the teen. “Um... And how do I get the...” He gestured to the hovering sphere.


“Just open the satchel. It will take care of itself. You take care of him.” He ran his fingers over the black feathers.


“Yes, sir.”


“Go now.”


Buckbeak moved on and the hawk started to get agitated at once. A wind took up and Teddy thought he heard the words ‘tell him I love him’ over the rustle of leaves, but when he looked back, there was nothing but dark trees all around them.


* * * * *


Not long after they wandered by a road, and after that, an inn. It was already raining heavily when they arrived so there was no one there to see them entering the stable.


Mouse took the saddle off of Buckbeak and the creature settled in a freshly cleaned box. Every now and then a squeak could be heard and a mouse disappeared in the enormous beak. Teddy tried not to think too much of it.


The hawk settled back on its perch on the saddle. It seemed to keep an eye on the door.


Teddy’s stomach growled loudly.


“Are you hungry?” he asked the bird. “Do you understand me, Ladyhawke?” The animal merely puffed up its feathers a little and he stroked it as he talked. “It was once my favourite thing for dinner – hawk. You know? I’ve eaten hundreds of them. I used to kill one every night. More or less,” he muttered under his breath. He sighed and started pacing around. “Serves me right for getting involved in this nightmare. Nightmare? Daymare...” He waved his hands around. “And then this eclipse stuff. Makes about as much sense as the rest of it.” He stopped as he noticed the red line of the horizon. “Oh, oh. The sun sets.” He looked around and realised that there were no clothes for Harry to put on. “Hold on a minute!”


He dashed for the inn and the cart he saw parked in front of it. The trunk in the back wasn’t even locked. Mouse grabbed two robes, stashed them under his tunic and ran back to the barn. The hawk was still there, so Teddy left the bigger of the robes by the saddle.


“I can’t vouch for the fit, ” he said and was about to change himself when a gust of wind reminded him of the open doors. “I’d better close up,” he told the bird. Then as an afterthought he added, “And guard the door, too. Wouldn’t want anyone spotting you changing.”


He closed the doors behind him and quickly shucked his soaked outer tunic. The robes he'd nicked were an unflattering mud-colour with off-white trimmings, but they were spelled to fit, so it was an improvement over his previous wear. He waited a moment before calling out.


“Sir? Sir? Can I come in now?”


There was no answer, but the rain was picking up so he went in anyway. He instantly noticed the dishevelled mop of black hair behind one of the boxes.


“Sir? It’s me, remember?” He stepped into the light.


Harry stepped out from behind the wooden wall also. He looked good, if rather thin, in the powder-blue robes.


“You?” he asked tugging at a hem of his sleeve.


“Yeah.”


“Thank you.” Teddy nodded and sniffed. The man didn’t seem too happy, looking around the sturdy barn. Mouse understood why with the next question. “How is he?”


“He’s alive, like you. He’s full of hope, like you. He left you in my charge.” That got Harry’s attention. His brows rose and the teen smiled at the incredulous look. He leaned on a wooden post and continued. “He said, ‘tell him that we speak as one, and he will follow your instructions as my own’.”


“Really?” The voice was as amused as it was irritated.


“I swe...” Teddy rose his hand but the other man cut him off.


“No, don’t swear.” There was a smile on his lips though.


The hippogriff ambled out of his box and Harry bowed slightly before reaching out to pet his head.


“Good evening, Buckbeak.” His shoulders slumped and he leaned on the box wall. “He’s taking us back to Hogwarts, isn’t he?” Mouse nodded and looked as the man sighed and then seemed to force a smile onto his lips. “Well, what do you instruct? Although I must warn you I’ve never listened to anything Severus told me to do.”


In the inn a band started playing some cheerful song and the boy had a sudden idea.


“I instruct you to sit by a warm fire,” he stepped closer, “to drink a cup of sweet wine, and to listen to bright music cheerfully played, perhaps even dance.” He put on his most engaging grin. The other man looked away and chuckled silently. “Shall we, Sir? Dance?” He put out his hand in an exaggerated gesture.


“Don’t call me ‘sir’. Everyone always called me Harry.”


“All the same,” Mouse wouldn’t give up.


“I warn you. I’m a terrible dancer,” said Harry.


“So am I. Let’s call this practice!”


With that Teddy grabbed his hands and let the music lead him, jumping in mad circles around the barn and dragging a laughing Harry behind. Soon, they were both breathless and their heads were spinning. Harry’s hands slipped out of his and he fell back, landing in a stack of hay. Mouse spun once more and had to grab a post to avoid landing on the floor.


“Oh…oh, wow,” huffed the older man. “It has been a long time since I’ve laughed like that, Teddy. I’ll have that cup of sweet wine now.” He sat up.


“Okay.” Teddy let the post go and grabbed up his cloak and the sword.


Harry stood up, removing some stray piece of straw from his hair, and smirked at the sight of the sword. “So, you intend to be my protector as well, eh? I’m flattered,” he teased.


The teen snickered. “Actually, the truth is, Snape’ll kill me if I lose it. And it might be useful,” he added, arranging the cloak around them. “I had to steal our robes, and the owner might notice.”


The older man stopped in his tracks and the cloak slid off of him. “You stole my robe?” He half-laughed half-admonished.


“Well, it’s a wizarding inn, they wouldn’t let us inside in Muggle clothes. Or if we dressed like Snape,” he added.


“Huh? What’s wrong with how Severus dresses?”


“He wears Muggle clothes with wizarding ones, for one. And his cloak is lined in red.”


Harry looked blank for a moment. “Ha! I haven’t even noticed that.” He smiled. Mouse wanted to ask how he could have noticed anything since he haven’t seen the man in fifteen years, but didn’t want to ruin the night with reminders of the curse. “Severus is a half-blood and quite proud of it.”


“He’s a what?”


“A half-blood. His mother was a witch, but his father was Muggle.” Teddy’s eyes widened in horror. “Don’t look like that. It was once quite normal.”


“Ugh...” Mouse didn’t want to think about how things were before the Dark Lord anymore.

“So are we going or not?” he asked instead and lifted one corner of the cloak.


The man stepped under it and they arranged the sword between them.


“Let's go!”


They dashed out into the rain and almost immediately ran into something. Teddy threw the cloak off and they saw the gruesome sight of a horse almost as thin as a thestral, his back entirely covered in bloodied wolf pelts.


“NO!”


“Harry!” Mouse grabbed him as he would have charged at the man riding the other horse barring their way.


“Harry?” The man lifted his hood and the yellow eyes shined in the moonlight.


“Greyback!”


“Harry! Go back inside! Inside!” urged Teddy and sighed internally when the man did.


“Potter,” hissed the stranger and all the hairs on the boy's skin stood on end.


“If you lay one hand on him, you will find it on the ground next to your head!” he shouted brandishing the sword. “Now, ride on!”


“Easy, little man, you’re frightening me.” His pointed teeth, when he smiled, looked as bloodied as the pelts his horse carried.


“Are you deaf?!” Mouse was getting desperate, his hands holding the hilt of the sword in a vice grip. “Ride on!” The man laughed hoarsely, madly, and turned his horse around. He rode off, back into the forest and Teddy followed him for a few paces. “Turn around, and you’re dead!” shouted the boy, just in case, before lowering the sword. “What a terrible night,” he sighed and turned back towards the stable. The doors banged open. “Harry?” The man rode out on Buckbeak, wand in hand, and followed after the stranger. “Ha—Harry! He’ll kill me. He’ll kill me!” lamented the teen as he turned and ran after them. He dearly wished for a broom.


Fortunately, the trees slowed them down and Teddy never truly lost sight of Buckbeak. When he started getting nearer to the creature he realised, that they must have stopped. Harry must have gone further on foot.


Suddenly, a metallic clang echoed from the trees. Then again, and again, and again. Mouse recognised the sound of Muggle snares snapping shut.


“Show yourself, coward!” He heard Harry shout to his left and ran that way.


There was another clang, this time followed by a yelp of pain. Teddy slid down a slope and almost into a clearing just in time to see the stranger run his hand over a dead wolf.


“My beauty...” he whispered.


Just then Harry entered the clearing from the other side. His eyes shining eyen in the darkness of the forest. Suddenly, he looked to the side.


“Severus...”


“A black wolf...”


A wolf so black that it seemed to be made of the night itself walked into the clearing. It bared its teeth in a growl. The teen groaned: the animal was going straight into a snare. Without thinking he drew all of his strength and ran into the weird stranger.


The tall man slipped on the wet leaves, yelled, and crashed into his own trap. With a snap, the snare closed on his neck and wand. The wand snapped in half immediately. The werewolf convulsed, clawing at the metal, but with air cut off and blood flowing freely he soon stilled.


“Severus...” The green eyed man stretched out his hand, but the wolf already turned and disappeared into the forest.


* * * * *


The next morning, the smell of roasted fish, smoke, and apples woke Mouse from a restless sleep. Snape was looking down at him with a smirk Teddy started to recognise as his version of a smile.


“Good morning.”


“Oh... Goo’mornin’,” answered the boy.


“You look a little pale. I’ve got you something to eat,” said the man and left to rummage in his saddlebag.


He blinked and looked around. The man must have moved him as he slept, because he was lying under the makeshift tent he made for Harry out of his cloak, some sticks and moss. The other man insisted on sharing of course, but Mouse knew better than to let Snape think that they slept together.


He kicked back the cocoon he’d made for himself out of his old tunic and stretched. “Ugh... What a night!...” he muttered.


“What happened?” The black eyes seared him and he sat up, groaning at the pops in his back.


“Oh, nothing I couldn’t handle, sir,” he said as nonchalantly as he could manage. *I just killed a man, who wanted to make shoes out of your pelt.* He snorted as he imagined the face the man would make at hearing that.


A familiar call sounded from the distance and Snape lost all interest in him. Teddy sighed and stood up, stretching yet again. One of the knots in his back simply refused to loosen up...


Both men looked startled as the hawk flew over it’s master’s outstretched arm instead landed on Mouse’s.


Snape put the bag down and turned, arching an eyebrow. Teddy laughed nervously.


“That’s a good little hawk, nice bird. Go on now,” he moved his hand a little, “go to your master. Go on, Ladyhawke.” He glanced at the tall man and groaned silently as he saw his brows drawing together in a frown.


“Last night.”


“Sir?” he squeaked out.


“Tell me about it.” There was absolutely no inflection in the sentence and the boy gulped. He fought to keep on smiling.


“What’s to tell? Go on now, go on, go…” he waved his other hand in little shooing motions but the bird only squawked at him. “We ran into a bit of trouble on the way to an inn.”


“You took Harry to an inn?!” the man hissed. “Have you no brain at all? Didn’t Horace tell you who Harry really is?”


“Well, we didn’t get to the inn. First we had to go to the stable. Fly to your master, fly for the love of God.” Mouse held his hand as far away as he could, but the bloody bird only turned and stomped around stubbornly, shrieking.


“A stable?” that seemed to surprise the man for some reason. “What did you do in a stable?”


“We changed clothes,” he answered, too distracted by the bird to pay attention to what he was saying until it was too late.


“What?!”


“No,” protested Teddy. “No, no, no! Nothing of what you’re thinking right now!” He walked to the man and brandished the arm with the hawk. “Take him! Take him! Take him!” As soon as Snape coaxed the bird to his arm, he got as far as he could from the two without leaving the campsite. “He’s a really great bloke and I can’t say I haven’t had my fantasies. When you let me think he was a woman,” he added hotly as the other was about to say something. “But the truth is, all he ever does is talk about you!”


Severus let out a breath slowly and his shoulders slumped slightly. Mouse almost fell over with relief.


The man opened his mouth to say something, frowned and closed it again. His lips disappeared into a thin line but Teddy could see his jaws still working. Realising with a start what question the man was chewing on he thought over his next words carefully.


“He was sad at first. He talked about the day you met, and he cursed it.” The man winced at that. “But then I saw him remember some happier times and his eyes glowed. No, he glowed. He loves you more than life, sir. He’s had to.”


Snape ran his fingers over the bird’s greyish breast before sending it into flight.


“Did you know that hawks and wolves mate for life?” They watched the hawk circle for a moment. “Uh... You’re getting maudlin in your old age, Snape,” he muttered to himself.


Teddy cocked his head trying to guess how old the man could be to say such a thing. One could never know with wizards. He blinked, as he did every time he remembered that he too was, in fact, a wizard.


Suddenly, he was ravenously hungry and deadly tired. He plopped back down by the fire and snatched one of the arrow-pierced fishes hanging over the fire.


“Interesting fishing method,” he muttered around a mouthful.


“It’s effective.” Snape sat next to him and took the other fish. He poured something out of a vial over it. “Vinegar?” Mouse shook his head and bit into his food again. “Eat carefully. I have no wish to banish fish bones from your palate. Or your throat.”


Teddy chewed thoughtfully for a moment. “Couldn’t I just, I don’t know... make my skin loosen up where the fishbone is, so that it would just fall out on its own? With me being the meta-something?”


“I honestly don’t know. Nor do I wish to find out,” grumbled the man, looking disgusted.


Mouse shrugged. “’Kay.” He bit off another piece of fish and promptly choked on a fishbone.


* * * * *


They had already broken down their camp. Teddy was just about to mount Harry’s broom again when the rattle of wheels made them look around.


Mouse’s jaw almost hit the ground at the sight of Slughorn in green and grey pinstriped robes riding on a wagon harnessed to what looked like a dog-shaped bush. Behind him, a small tent was set up.


“On your way to kill the Dark Lord?” he asked as he climbed down from the cart. “Why won’t you listen to me?” he asked as he approached Snape. “In twelve days time, you can face him in the Great Hall with Harry by your side, and break the curse.”


“I will be in Hogwarts tomorrow, and in one way or another, there will finally be an end to it.” The man sounded final.


“You’ve waited fifteen years. A few days more or less, what can it matter?” asked Teddy.


“You, too? I warned you. Stay here then with the old man,” he jerked his head at Horace.


“No, I’m going with you,” protested the teen. “How can you get inside the castle without me?”


Snape smirked nastily, his eyes glowing maliciously. “I will get in without your help. Let's go,” he told Buckbeak and they flew away.


Mouse looked at their receding shapes resignedly. He started as a hand landed on his shoulder.


“Thank you for trying, Teddy, and for standing up for the truth.”


“I should have known better,” he said bitterly. “Every happy moment in my life has come from lying.” He went back to the broom and mounted it. He looked over his shoulder and sighed at the bleak look in the old man’s face. *You are too soft, Mouse. Entirely too soft,* he berated himself. “However you did it, follow us again. If he won’t listen, there is one more way.” With that he gripped the handle and flew at breakneck speed after the stubborn man.


* * * * *


It was already night when Teddy finally spotted the campfire in the snowy mountains. His hands were stiff on the handle of the broom. He wasn’t entirely sure that he would be able to stand up when he had to let go of it.


He landed some distance away and half-fell, half-dismounted the broom. He had to wait a moment before his legs and hands cooperated again.


“Have you found them?” Mouse jumped up at the sudden voice and looked up at Horace.


He grabbed his heart and glared at the man. “What are you doing here? How did you manage to get here so quickly?” he asked.


“Abraham,” he pointed at the dog-hedge. “There were a few of your hairs around the castle. That, a bit of an experimental potion, and a bush of Swedish Walking Yew, and voila. He will follow you everywhere.”


Teddy blinked at the beaming man. “And when this is over? When the Dark Lord is dead and you don’t have to follow me anymore? What will... he do then?”


Slughorn frowned. “I didn’t think about that. We’ll have to wait and find out.”


Mouse didn’t like the sound of that at all, but there were more important things to do for the time being.


“He’s not far. Follow me.” He started walking towards the fire he saw earlier. “Only wait a minute before you show yourself. Let me tell him what’s going on first.”


“Yes, yes. Of course, my boy,” panted the old man, already starting to fall behind.


Teddy reached the top of the hill and saw the fire-light just a few paces below. Harry was just tying his shoes. He started when Mouse came out from behind the trees.


“There you are, little Mouse.” He smiled at the boy. “Where is my wand?” He searched the ground around him.


“Harry?”


“I just had it, now what have I done with it?” the man muttered to himself. “Never displace your wand, Teddy. It’s such a pain to try and find it again. Aha!” He lifted the pale wand triumphantly.


“Harry, this may be our last evening together.” That finally got the man's attention.


“Why?” Harry stilled and turned around.


“I didn’t want to tell you until I believed, I mean, really believed.”


“Really believed what, Teddy?” sighed the man.


“I think we can break the curse,” he blurted out. “We have a plan.”


“You and Severus?” The hope in his voice was heartbreaking.


“No,” he looked behind him and Horace came slowly down the hill.


The two men looked at each other and in that moment, the tension in the air was almost tangible. Finally, Harry lowered his wand.


“Tell me about your plan.”


* * * * *


A few hours later, Teddy was covered in dirt and sweat.


“What is the sense of being a wizard if you have to do everything by hand anyway?” he groused.


“I’ve told you before...”


“Yes, yes. Too powerful. I know.” He pulled out another shovel of earth angrily.


“Aw! Must you keep punching me in the liver?!” complained Slughorn and promptly tripped the teen while throwing another shovel-full of dirt over the edge of the hole.


“This hole isn’t big enough for the two of us,” said Teddy.


“Well, let's hope it’s big enough for a wolf,” was the reply. “Let's get out.” He grabbed the edge of the hole and tried to pull himself up, but it did not have much effect. “Don’t stand like that, boy! Help me!” Mouse huffed a laugh and tried to push the man. “Aw! What are you doing?” yelled the man.


“When you kneel to prune your plants, how do you rise again?”


The man’s walrus-like moustache quivered in indignation. “You impertinent, young imp, you... Help me, I tell you!”


A wolf howled and Teddy looked past Horace and to Harry. “We’re just covering the trap.”


“Hurry. He’s coming,” whispered the man. He looked very worried.


Mouse ran back and tied a piece of rope to Gryffindor’s sword and gave that and his hand to the man. A great heave later they were both standing over the trap. Teddy covered it with branches while Horace used spells.


They finished just in time to hide behind a snowdrift. Harry was walking to and fro around the hole when the wolf ran down the hill. The man whirled around in the wolf's direction.


“He’s coming across the ice!” whispered the boy urgently.


Just then the ice snapped suddenly and the wolf yelped as it fell into the freezing water.


“Severus!” Harry ran a few steps but the ice started creaking again.


“No! Slughorn, do something!” yelled Mouse. “Firm the ice!”


“I can’t! He’d be trapped!”


Harry fell to his knees and crawled over the ice. The wolf yapped urgently as he tried to pull himself out, but the ice only broke further.


“He can’t get out!” cried Harry.


Not thinking, Teddy grabbed the sword and ran for them. He fell to his belly as soon as he reached the ice and crawled as fast as he could.


Harry was already by the wolf, holding him up.


“I can’t get him out! Hurry, Teddy! Hurry!” he yelled desperately.


“I’m going!” He plunged the sword into the ice and dragged the rope with him.


“Hold him still! And get out of the way so that I can levitate him!” shouted Horace, keeping to the edge. “Hurry! We’ll lose him!”


“He’s slipping!” screamed Harry. “He’s too heavy! No! Oh, God! No, no, no!...”


Mouse reached the break in the ice and took a deep breath before plunging into the icy water. For a moment all breath left him as his skin suddenly hurt as if a thousand needles were shoved into his skin all at once.


“Teddy! What are you doing?!”


He swam to the side and tried to push the wolf up. “Hold him!” he said urgently but he had no leverage and they both sank back into the water.


“NO!”


The wolf clawed blindly, trying to find purchase and searing pain pierced Teddy’s chest and thighs as its claws ripped through his clothes and reached skin.


“No! Teddy! No! What are you doing?” Harry was frantic, torn between trying to help them both. “No, no! Push, push! It’s all right!” He held the wolf tightly and almost fell into the water himself.


“Harry, no!”


“Wingardium Leviosa!” roared Horace, finally finding his aim, and lifted the animal from the water and onto the hard land.


Harry crawled behind the wolf, slumping to the ground next to him.


Teddy grabbed the rope and tried to haul himself up, but his muscles refused to cooperate any more.


“Hold on, Teddy!” called the old alchemist. “Just hold the rope! Accio Gryffindor's sword!”


The blade lifted and flew to the man, dragging the half-dead with cold teen behind. As soon as he was on firm ground Horace threw his own cloak over his shivering body and added a warming charm. “Hold on, my boy. Hold on.” He put a hand on his head and Teddy curled up under the cloak.


Harry slowly dragged his fingers through the wet fur on the wolf's neck.


“We have to live as humans or not at all,” he breathed. “Our lives are in your hands now, Professor.”


* * * * *


“I have to warm you up. All of you.” Horace looked around, dazed, until his eyes fell on the cart Abraham was just dragging down the hill. “The tent! Abraham, you are my greatest experiment!”


“Do you think it’s wise? Putting a wolf under a roof?” asked Harry doubtfully.


“I don’t think that either of them is in any frame of mind to protest,” said Slughorn, waving his hand between Mouse and the wolf. “Where’s your wand, lad?” The man dragged himself to the satchel and took out the pale wand. “That’s not your wand,” said Horace in surprise.


“No. It’s Malfoy’s. Mine was broken almost sixteen years ago.”


“No matter, no matter. Help me, child. Take Severus and I’ll take Mister Lupin here.”


Harry startled. “Lupin? Teddy Lupin?”


“Has he given a different name to you?” The alchemist was already levitating the boy to the tent and Harry followed with Severus.


“He said that people call him Teddy Mouse. I thought Mouse was his surname.”


“What does it matter what the boy is called.” Slughorn set Teddy on the couch in the main room. “You can take the bed. I’m afraid this is the only room in the tent adapted to people.”


Harry set the wolf gently on the bed. “It matters because I’m his godfather. I thought he was safe on the continent with his grandma.”


“This is not the time, Harry. Go and lie down. Rest a little.”


Slughorn set the fire blazing in the hearth and the younger man dragged himself to the bed. He peeled off the soaked clothes and climbed under the covers. He petted the wolf from time to time. They spent the hours before dawn in silence, listening to the crackling of the fire.


* * * * *


All too soon the reddish light of dawn was pouring through the crack between the flaps of the tent. Horace sighed and flicked his wand to open the flaps in preparation for the hawk that was about to appear.


Teddy sat up slightly, watching as the light slowly edged up the floor. The black wolf slowly became gradually longer as its fur and snout became shorter. Within minutes, in place of the animal lay a man. Snape blinked slowly and seemed to somehow feel another presence in the bed and turned.


Harry looked to be transfixed, gazing at the man before him. He reached out slowly, almost touching the other man, when the line of sunlight finally reached him. Within seconds, the man disappeared and in his place a magnificent grey-black bird flapped its wings. It called out and flew away through the open entrance. Snape’s outstretched fingers curled into a fist and he curled in on himself with a moan.


*Yes... This is not a life.*


Horace built a fire outside the tent and started preparing tea and breakfast. He declined all Teddy’s suggestions of help. So the boy sat, tense, waiting to see what the outcome of their plan would be.


Soon, Snape came out of the tent, fully clothed and ready to ride out. He couldn’t not notice the cage standing by the wagon, but only snorted derisively. He walked around the camp a few times, searching, before finally coming up to them.


“Tell me one thing,” he told Teddy. “Where is Godric Gryffindor’s sword?”


“It’s gone.” Mouse didn’t look up from his cup of tea. “It fell through the ice last night, crossing the river.”


“Damn you! That sword was the last bit of hope I possessed!” He turned and walked to the ice.


“That wasn’t hope! That was revenge!” spat the teen. “That sword has become nothing but the symbol of your meaningless death! But there is a chance for life now, a new life with him!”


“I needed that sword to kill the Dark Lord!” seethed the man, looming over the boy.


“Snape, listen to him!” pleaded Slughorn.


“Damn you!” Severus moved to pass them and Mouse stood quickly, blocking his way.


“Go ahead, kill yourself, kill him too! You never cared about him as much as yourself anyway!”


Snape grabbed his arms and pushed him out of the way. Teddy stumbled and fell, moaning as his wounds jarred and some of them reopened. He turned on his back, and his torn shirt fell open, revealing the claw marks on his chest.


“What is that?” Asked the man, his eyes wide as he realized the only possible answer.


“That happened last night, when he saved your life!” spat Horace.


Teddy winced again and tried to stand up. Snape offered him a hand and helped him up.


“Forgive me,” he said quietly.


“Will you listen?” challenged Mouse.


Snape snorted and set his hand on the boy’s head. “I’ll show you idiots how to cage a wolf.”


* * * * *


It took the two alchemists the whole day to prepare the ointment for Teddy’s wounds. Mostly due to ‘professional disputes’ as they called them. To Mouse they looked more like fights over the proper direction of cutting valerian leaves or some other ingredient.


Two days after that, they’d finally found a place Snape agreed was ‘acceptable’ enough to wait out the nine days left before the new moon. It was a little valley, closed in on all sides by hills covered by tall trees. It was warm and quiet. And when he climbed the trees at the top of the hills, he could see the lights of Hogwarts in the distance.


In that time, they had also discovered that Abraham was not at all inclined to go anywhere if Teddy was not walking before him and would not stay in place if he was moving. That had the unexpected benefit of providing the two adults with a suitably neutral topic of conversation and Mouse with a few hours to sleep when they were too engrossed in their theories to come up with things for him to do. Apparently, they were both, at one time or another, teachers and did not believe that teenaged boys should be left with too much free time.


Teddy himself was quickly becoming nocturnal and would have been happy to sleep the day away entirely. He spent his nights walking the forests with Harry. They looked for trees with bowtruckles in them that could provide Mouse with new lock-picks for his life’s greatest performance: breaking into the Dark Lord’s party.


Harry also showed him many tricks on the broom. Exclaiming over Teddy’s every good move. They practiced his metamorphmagus skills, too. Often times at the same time. Mouse would swoop in on the broom and try to scare or amuse the older man with the face he was creating.


Harry also had the best of stories. They were all of the times from before the curse, but all of them were interesting, and most were exciting. Some of them were about Mouse’s parents, too, and he didn’t know how to feel about that. ‘Parents’ were such a foreign concept to him. As was having a ‘godfather’ for that matter.


Every night, though, Harry took an hour or two for himself. Teddy noticed it the very first night. Admittedly, he was of an age to know exactly what a man might want some solitude for, but he didn’t think that was the case this time. On the third night, he followed his godfather stealthily. He found him sitting in a clearing not far from the camp, apparently talking to himself. Or to Severus, as his name figured prominently in his monologue. It didn’t look like something he had started to do recently, either.


When he finished, he set his wand to his temple and brought something thin and silvery out and put it into a tiny bottle. It glowed instantly and Teddy realized that he’d seen bottles like this before. There were hundreds if not thousands of them in everything the two men owned. Some adorned the ends of the jesses, together with a broken snitch. One was hanging on a silver chain around Snape’s neck, along with a strange, cracked, black stone. They were attached to the saddle and the saddlebag. And God knew how many more might be stashed inside it.


Mouse wondered what the silver stuff might be. What could be stored in bottles not much bigger than a pea grain? It wasn’t any magic he’d seen performed before, either. The list of questions grew and grew, every day. Finally, when the curiousity was too much, he decided to try simply asking one of the two outright since that method seemed to have worked best so far.


Two days before they were to set out for Hogwarts again, he found Snape feeding Buckbeak ferrets not far from the camp.


“Hi.”


“Mister Lupin,” the man became increasingly distant, the closer they got to finally entering the castle.


“Where’s Slughorn?”


“Working on Abraham.” It was obvious he wanted to add something else and Teddy guessed that the men had fought again.


“Mm... There’s something I’d like to know. Would you tell me about it?”


“That depends on what it is you want to know, Mister Lupin.” He threw the last ferret to the hippogriff and turned to look at Mouse. One of his brows was lifted again, an expression that was starting to irritate Teddy greatly. “Do not try to trick a Slytherin, boy. Especially not me.”


“Okay then. I was wondering what those are,” said Teddy bluntly and he reached out to touch the ‘charm’ hanging around the man’s neck.


Snape touched the bottle with a finger. “Memories,” he said and started back for the camp.


Mouse hurried to keep up with him. “What do you mean ‘memories’?”


“Memories can be extracted and stored with magic. They can be viewed by other people this way.”


The teen scratched his nose. “I can see how that might be helpful. Like when someone says you’ve stolen something you didn’t.”


“Your problem is, Mister Lupin, that in your case most of those accusations would probably turn out true.”


Teddy shrugged. “Haven’t stolen anything from you yet,” he pointed out.


“And it had better stay that way.”


“Just because I let you drag me into this scheme, does not mean that I don’t value my life, you know?” Mouse grinned at the man. They sat by the fire and Teddy fidgeted for a moment.


“Out with it, boy. We might as well get over with whatever’s stuck in your head now.”


“Why do you store all those memories? I mean, Harry makes one of those little bottles every night.”


The man sighed. “In the first months after the curse we desperately needed to relate information to one another. Who to trust and who not, what we need, whom do we need to warn and against what, what the Death Eaters did when one of us was in our other form. The list was long. There wasn’t always time to write, and letters are easy to misplace or lose. We couldn’t risk endangering others. That’s when Harry came up with the idea of these.” He took the little bottle into the palm of his hand. “He carved with runes and shrank some of my potions vials and added coloured glass into the stoppers, so that they wouldn’t mix up.” Teddy peered at the miniature flask and sure enough, there was a glint of red on the cap. “We’ve been multiplying them ever since. It’s the best means of communication we can count on.”


“Bu you’ve stopped answering him, haven’t you? He worries.”


“That is none of your business, boy.” The man stood up abruptly and left for the forest.


“Well, at least you’re still alive, Mouse. Be grateful for that,” he told himself.


* * * * *


Teddy didn’t see the man again until it was time to set out. He came out of the forest in the morning barefoot and bundled up tightly in his cloak. It became clear why when his clothes sailed out from behind him and settled in a neat pile next to the dismantled tent. He walked into the cage and sat in the corner. Mouse thought that completely swathed up in the cloak and glaring at them from behind a curtain of hair he looked like a wild animal already.


Teddy rode on Buckbeak, with Abraham, and thus the wagon, following him until they reached the western border of the Forbidden Forest. At that point, the teen watched amazed as the hippogriff let Slughorn cast a glamour on him to disguise it as a common horse and harness him to the cart. The old man spelled the cage shut, too, and covered the cage with burlap cloth. Finally, they tied Abraham to the back of the wagon and settled to wait for the sunset.


Once again Teddy observed the hawk expand into his godfather and he marvelled at the hawk-like aspects of his features. The man dressed quickly and lifted the cloth covering the cage. The black wolf padded up to the bars and let himself be petted for a moment. When Harry reached in for the cloak, the boy instinctively held his breath, but nothing happened. The man threw the cloak around his shoulders and called Mouse to him.


“Be very careful, Teddy,” he said. “Don’t do anything foolish. I want you to live through all this.”


“Me too,” he answered, and Harry laughed.


“Good. Now hop on, under the cloak.” He did and the other men sat on the front. “Take us to the bay, Buckbeak, please.”


Mouse thought that it must be already close to dawn before he heard Slughorn’s urgent whisper. “Now, Teddy.” The boy slid from under the burlap and into the shadow of the cart. “Remember, the path between greenhouse two and three,” whispered the man urgently.


He nodded. “Right, right, the path between greenhouse two and three... Go now.” The two turned back to the road leading to the main gate. “We have come full circle, God,” he said as he slid into the freezing waters of the Black Lake. “I would like to think there is some higher meaning in all of this. It certainly would reflect well on you.”


* * * * *


They rode up to the gates without any problems at all and Horace prayed that their luck held out until they could hide between the greenhouses. They barely made it two yards into the grounds though before a Death Eater called out to them.


“Hold on! What have we here?” He pointed at the cloth covered cage.


“A surprise gift, eh… my boy, to the Dark Lord, from.. from the people of the Isle of Man.” The guard flicked his wand and the cloth fell off. The wolf bared his teeth at the man. “A fine pelt for his wall,” concluded Horace.


“Hm...” The guard turned back to him and his eyes fell on Harry. “And what have we here?” He ripped the hood from his head. Fortunately, before he could recognize him, the wolf charged at him, snapping his jaws and growling. The Death Eater took his hand back quickly, only to take out his wand in another move. “I’ve never had the pleasure of killing a wolf before,” he said and Harry turned terrified eyes on the old alchemist.


“How strange,” he said, wonderingly. “That’s exactly what the Dark Lord said.” He chuckled slightly and the young man froze. “I’m sure he will understand you depriving him of that pleasure,” continued Slughorn. “He’s a very forgiving sort of man.”


The guard looked once more at the growling wolf before hiding his wand. “Very well, pass on,” he said and threw the burlap back into place.


Harry quickly pulled the cloak’s hood back over his face.


“Wisdom is beyond price, my son; be grateful that you have it,” Horace called to the man and rode on.


Soon, they crested the hill and, far from the prying, peering eyes of the guards and the circle of light from the castle, they made their way for the greenhouses.


“We'll wait for the day here,” he said. “Try to calm him, please,” he asked Harry and turned to release Buckbeak.


* * * * *


Teddy reached the barred cave just as the first rays of sun broke the horizon.


“H-here w-w-we g-go ag-gain,” he managed to mutter through his numb lips and chattering teeth.


He took a deep breath and started climbing down the bars. He found the hole quickly and tried to swim through, but his new clothes caught on the twisted metal. Mouse tried to tug at it but to no avail. He was growing frantic when he felt something pull at the cloth, and then he was free. He swam through and turned to check who helped him...and screamed as he encountered huge, yellow eyes. Surrounded by a sea of tentacles. He beat frantically to the surface.


“AH!...” He gasped for breath, coughing and sputtering. “’M n-never... ever... s-s-swimming ag-gain. In my l-life.” He shivered mightily. “N-never ag-gain.”


He trailed his hands over the wet stones as he went further under the castle.


“So, Snape says you like me. I do hope he’s right, you know, because we’ll need help with this plan. Do you want to know what the plan is?” He craned his head up in search of the shaft that led into the Great Hall. “I’m supposed to find the way to the room with the white tree? You know what I mean? I’m supposed to open the door for Snape and Harry to confront the Dark Lord together. To break the curse on them. And then they’re probably going to fight him.” Snape didn’t say anything of the sort, but it was obvious he wanted revenge. And not only for the curse. “If they win, I guess this place will become a school again. They might even make me attend.” Teddy didn’t know if he was all that happy about that.


What he knew was that he was not happy about the knot developing in his neck. He was about to stop and massage it when suddenly the stones over his head moved silently to the sides revealing the familiar passage.


“Wow...” He shook his head before looking, wide-eyed at the stones under his hand. “Thanks!” he told it and started climbing.


* * * * *


Horace paced up and down the path between the greenhouses as Snape checked out the path to the castle. He looked up into the cloudy sky once again. There was neither sun nor moon to be seen through the grey mass.


“It should be soon now, once the clouds break,” he insisted as Severus came back to the wagon.


“It’s day, old man. Like it was yesterday, like it will be tomorrow. An eclipse will occur over this country, but not in nearly forty years.”


The hawk squawked and Severus let it move from the post on the saddle and onto his arm. He fed it a piece of meat.


They watched silently as Death Eaters poured through the gates and gathered by the main doors of the castle. And still the clouds would not break.


“It’s too late. The warding ritual will be over soon. I can’t wait for you now. If they enter the Great Hall, I will have no chance. If Mouse has done his job, I can kill the Dark Lord now or never.” He slipped the leather hood over the hawk's head and tightened the draws.


“No, Severus,” entreated Horace, “this chance will never come again!”


“You’re right,” he sighed. “If the ritual ends peacefully, the bells will summon the Death Eaters in, and you will know I have failed.”


“But Harry…”


“I…” Severus transferred the bird into the old man’s hand, “I beg you— take his life. Quick and painless.”


“I can’t do that!” Exclaimed the man, aghast. “The curse...”


“Yes, you can! You must. I beg you. The cruelty would be to damn him to a half-life like this, that is not what he wants.”


“I couldn’t do it...”


“Have you ever considered, that this is what the prophecy was all about? Neither can live while the other survives,” he reminded. He ran his hand one time over the black wing, before turning and mounting Buckbeak.


Slughorn thought frantically as the man passed him. “Wait!” He shouted and Snape looked at him over his shoulder. “What of the last horcrux? Have you found it? Have you destroyed it?”


“When you removed the Ice Queen's Arrow, did his heart stop?”


“What does it...”


“Answer me,” barked Snape and Horace unwittingly stepped back.


“Yes.”


“Then you have your answer.” With that, Buckbeak spread his wings and they flew to the castle.


* * * * *


When Mouse reached the top of the chimney the same chanting he’d heard while running from the castle had already started and he peeked into the room. Yes! The same rows of people in dark, purple cloaks stood around the room. He reached into his pocket and removed the identical set Snape transfigured for him. He threw the cloak over his head and climbed out into the room.


He moved around the edge of the room, trying not to attract attention to himself, even though he was fairly sure that no one but the Dark Lord could do that now.


Soon he reached the doors and his heart fluttered. Two locks! And a great, big wooden bolt to remove when they were open. He gulped and fumbled for his pick-locks.


He had the first lock opened and was sweating over the second one when he heard a commotion start up outside the door. He turned to check if someone reacted and his eyes opened in horror when he encountered a pair of red eyes focused on him. Voldemort didn’t make a move to stop him, though, and Teddy turned back to his work.


“Open, damn it. Open! Come on, open! Come on! come on!” he whispered as the screams quieted and a staccato of hooves on marble came from the hall on the other side of the door.


Finally, he heard the longed-for snick as the spells on the lock gave out and he climbed up the door, using the whole of his weight to lift the gigantic bolt.


* * * * *


Severus gripped his wand tightly as he approached the large group of Death Eaters milling about in the main courtyard of the castle. They stilled as they noticed his approach and Severus raked his eyes over their faces. There were many of his ex-students among them and many of his old ‘friends’ but no Malfoys and no Bellatrix.


He looked up at the gargoyles lining the towers and bailies of the castle. God, he hoped it worked. If not, he was going to hunt Albus down in the afterlife and strangle him with his bare hands. He lifted his wand, letting his magic flow freely into the old stones.


“As the one who was once the Headmaster of this school, and through Merlin’s grace will be once again, I order you to help me pass,” he said loudly.


“He’s gone mad!” shouted the young Nott and many started laughing.


“Grab him, someone,” called Alecto from the back of the crowd. “We’ll have some fun after the feast!”


A woman he recognised to be Pansy came out of the throng. “Professor Snape, I can’t...”


She didn’t manage to finish as at that moment a deafening grating sound of beating stone wings filled the air. The Death Eaters shrieked and ran as the castle's gruesome ornaments swooped from the skies. The Death Eaters fired off curses and hexes, but to no avail.


They were grabbed up from the ground, one by one, and dragged up onto the towers and ledges where the gargoyles froze up again, keeping the struggling, swearing men and women in their vice grip.


When the commotion stopped, Severus turned to notice Pansy cowering under the hippogriff's belly. Her wand lay on the ground and she had her head covered with her arms.


“Miss Parkinson.” She didn’t react. “Pansy.” Wet, dark eyes peeked out at him. “If you want to live, go home,” he said gravely.


She looked at the broken wands littering the ground and then to the black shapes of Death Eaters, hanging like mourning flags from the castle walls. She grabbed her own wand and with a last glance at him, turned and ran for the gates.


“Let's go inside,” he told Buckbeak and the creature trotted into the main hall. “I do hope that our Mouse did his job,” he told the hippogriff and pushed at the doors with his magic.


They fell open effortlessly and they rode into the hall. Voldemort was glaring at him, but the ritual wasn’t finished and he couldn’t move for risking shattering the wards covering his kingdom.


Severus gripped his wand tightly. “Up,” he commanded. They rose into the air and he levelled his wand at the madman below him.


“Snape!” Bellatrix howled as she swooped through the doors on her thestral.


He turned just in time to avoid a slashing hex. It rebounded off the walls and sliced down the back of one of the chanters. Snape responded with a choking spell.


Out of the corner of his eye he saw Teddy jump down from the door and run out into the hall. He silently praised the boy’s sense of self-preservation.


Bellatrix laughed maniacally and charged again. She cast a Cruciatus and followed it with throwing a vial of acid aimed at his face. It glanced Buckbeak on the wing and the creature cried out. Severus watched anger spring like fire to its eyes and sneered.


“Let's kill her, my friend,” he said and they threw themselves viciously at the mad woman.


* * * * *


Teddy ran faster than he ever did in his life.


“Path between second and third greenhouse... Path between—” He stumbled on the gravel path and almost fell as he saw their wagon.


“Abraham!” he panted running up to the odd hedge. “Give me the sword I asked you to hide!”


The leaves rustled and the ruby-covered hilt appeared in what Teddy assumed to be its mouth. He grabbed it gratefully.

“Oh, thank you, God,” he sighed. “Good bush, Abraham!” He patted the thing and ran back into the castle.


* * * * *


Severus was getting desperate. The ritual was drawing to a close and Bellatrix was still pursuing him. He managed to catch her leg with a bone breaking spell but her saddle must have been spelled to keep her seated.


She cast a stunner and Buckbeak rolled in the air to avoid it. Snape glimpsed the enchanted ceiling and he froze. “An eclipse,” he gasped. “Horace, wait!” he dug his heals into Buckbeak’s sides and the creature turned, flying for the entrance.


“Stop!” Bellatrix attacked again, the thestral’s hooves caught Snape on the back, knocking the breath out of him for a moment and sending the hippogriff crashing into the wall. “Oh dear... Ickle Severus run into a wall?” she cackled madly barring his way out.


Buckbeak levelled out his flight and Snape wiped the blood from his lip. “You’re dead,” he smiled at her.


He charged, aiming to kill. He sent off killing curse after a killing curse as he chased her around the hall. Buckbeak tore at the thestral’s wings and flanks with his claws.


Bellatrix howled in rage and urged her thestral to fly higher. Suddenly, the bells started tolling and Severus’ heart stopped – the ritual was over...


“No!” He slumped, his strength suddenly leaving him “Horace… make it quick,” he whispered.


An Expelliarmus caught him in the chest and hurled him to the ground. The wizards released from the trance of the ritual scampered out of the room.


Severus groaned and sat up. His wand lay by the entrance doors. Bellatrix landed in his way and jumped from her mount. Buckbeak immediately chased the beast from the hall.


“Oh, I will enjoy this,” she hissed. “Crucio!” she did her trademark brandish before casting her favourite curse and Severus used that second to roll forward, out of the range of the curse.


With a clang, Gryffindor’s sword slid to him and he grabbed it up. He spun, standing up, and cut her head off with one sure slash. It rolled over the floor, its features frozen in an expression of mad glee.


Snape turned and spotted Teddy by the wall. He nodded slightly at the boy and turned to Voldemort.


The creature levelled the Elder Wand at him. “You cannot kill me, Snape,” he hissed.


“That wand does not respond to you. We both know this,” he shot back and took a step closer.


“Crucio!”


Severus doubled over, but shrugged the spell off quickly. Voldemort’s red eyes widened and he took a half-step back. Snape stepped up to the monster.


“Ah! But kill me, Snape, and the curse will go on forever. You must think of Harry,” he taunted.


“Harry… is dead,” he hissed. “Damn you. Damn you to hell.” He raised the blade into the air.


“Severus?” He froze, disbelieving. He turned slowly, lowering the sword.


Harry stood in the doors in powder-blue robes. He had the Invisibility Cloak draped down his back and the Resurrection Stone hung on his neck. The glasses Snape somehow always expected to see weren’t there. He exuded power and determination as he stepped further into the room.


Snape turned and saw Voldemort glaring at the both of them. Both of them... as humans!


“It’s over. It’s broken.” Snape heard Horace’s whisper and the sword fell from his numb fingers.


* * * * *


“Potter!”


“You have a chance to show remorse, Tom. Save whatever is left of your soul.”


The Dark Lord laughed. “Malfoy may have fled beyond my grasp before I had the chance to kill him, but you’re still not enough of a wizard to kill me, Potter.”


“How did you...”


“Your little locksmith has a very open mind.”


Harry didn’t blink, his fingers clasped lightly around Draco’s wand. “All the same. It’s your last chance, Tom.”


“The years as a bird addled your brain, boy! I am Lord Voldemort! I rule this country! I’ve already won!” He pointed his wand with a mad snarl. “No man shall oppose me! Avada Kedavra!”


“Expelliarmus!”


The jets of scarlet and green met in a blinding flash and rebounded. The killing curse hit the Dark Lord’s thin chest and he toppled back, arms opened widely and face frozen in surprise.


The Elder Wand flew in the air and seemed to hover by the ceiling for a moment before falling back down. Harry reached up and plucked it from the air just as the moon moved and the sun shone brightly again.


Harry lowered his hand slowly and turned to look at Snape.


“Severus...”


The man slid to his knees. “I was sure...”


“I know,” whispered the younger man. “But we’re alive.” He stepped up to Severus. “So many years... all the memories, and I never...”


He reached out slowly. Hesitating just shy of touching Severus’ face. Their eyes met and he slid his fingers over the pale skin. They both shuddered.


“It’s real,” whispered Harry in awe.


“Yes.” Severus closed his eyes and stood up. “Call them. It’s time they came home.”


“Call with me.”


He summoned the ebony wand and handed it over. Snape nodded and they raised their wands in unison.


“Expecto Patronum!”


Two silvery shapes shot out into the room, filling it with their glow.


With a shriek like the wind howling in tree branches the dementors rose through the floors and dispersed in every direction, running from the powerful light.


The stag and the doe stomped their hooves silently then bounded out into the forest.


Horace and Teddy looked at each other and moved for the doors. The movement brought Severus' attention to them.


“You two!” he called. “Come here.”


They did cautiously.


“Severus,” started Horace but the younger alchemist stopped him.


“I never thought I’ll ever be grateful for your ineptness with a wand, but I am.”


“I told you I couldn’t do it.”


“I bless the day Fortune set you in our path again,” Severus said sincerely.


“May Merlin bless you both, from this day forward,” answered the old man.


“And you.” He turned to Teddy and stopped at the sight of the shock of bright blue hair over Remus Lupin’s gold-flecked eyes. “And you...”


“You’re the truest friend we could ever have. Thank you.” Harry hugged the boy. “Ah! You need a wand!” he exclaimed. “Here.” He set Draco’s light wand in the teen's hand. “Until we can get you one of your own.” The boy nodded and grinned.


“We’ll go to the wagon for potions and then to the dungeons. Maybe there’s someone I can still help,” said Horace and the two left.


Severus frowned at the Elder Wand in Harry’s hand.


“Only until I can repair my own,” assured the man, and Snape did his best to believe. “That leaves just one more thing.” He turned to the ghostly tree growing from the centre of the floor and levelled his wand at it.


“Don’t,” Severus covered his hand with his and brought it back down.


“Why?”


“We have to wait for the Order. We have to know what happened outside those wards. How did Muggles explain away the evacuation of a whole country.”


Harry sighed. “You’re right.” His shoulders slumped. “How long do you think?”


“Hours, maybe days. The castle is safe now, though.”


“Good. I’m tired, Severus. And you’re hurt.” He made a move to put his head on Severus' shoulder and stopped. “There’s still so much to do...”


“We’ll get there,” assured Severus.


“That’s... unexpectedly optimistic of you,” smiled the younger man and Snape mock-glared at him.


“Let's find out what happened to the infirmary.”


* * * * *


The infirmary turned out to be unchanged if one disregarded the lack of Madam Pomfrey and Severus’ superior potions.


“Sit down, Severus.” Harry unclasped his cloak and lay it on one of the beds as he went for the potions cabinet. “Look at that – perfect alphabetical order. Whoever worked here was your student.” He glanced over his shoulder and flushed slightly when he caught the sight of Severus slowly removing his shirt. He cleared his throat slightly and asked, “What do you need?”


“A bruise paste, a burn salve, and whatever there is for cleaning and sealing cuts,” he sighed and slumped on the bed feeling every one of his fifty odd years in his bones.


Harry came back with the potions bottles and some clean gauze. He set them out on a bedside table and kneeled on the bed beside Severus.


“Ok... So what do you want to start with?”


“I can do the burns, if you’ll get the bruises on my back.”


Harry giggled.


“I’m happy my pain amuses you,” groused Severus.


“Sorry.” Harry dabbed some paste into one of the hoof-shaped bruises. “It’s just that... we’re the singly least romantic people in the world.”


“I’ll give you all the ‘romantic’ you want, when I stop feeling like someone performed an Irish jig on my back.”


“I’m sure Bellatrix feels much worse, if that makes you feel better.”


“Much, actually.” Severus smirked and then hissed.


“Sorry,” murmured Harry. He smoothed a finger lightly over the rapidly receding bruises and set the paste away. “How are you doing with those burns?”


“Slowly. This salve is old.”


“I’ll get the cuts then.” He picked up a brown bottle and a swath of gauze. “I’ve found essence of dittany,” he said.


“Ah, so they did have someone I’ve taught run this place.”


“Mmm.” Harry dabbed a bit of the brown liquid over the slash on Severus shoulder. The man gritted his teeth as the wound sizzled and sealed. Harry took a clean bit of gauze and wiped away the rest of the elixir and the blood. “Perfect,” he declared and dropped a kiss on the newly healed skin.


Severus started and looked over at the other man, who was already treating another cut on his chest. The mop of hair was longer than he remembered, but just as unruly. The dark bangs fell over green eyes as he worked. He was biting the pale, thin, lower lip as he delicately dabbed at the wound with a swab of cotton. Severus was trying to remember if his fingers had always been so long when the man looked up at him unexpectedly.


“What?” Harry flushed and Severus tapped a finger on the side of his face, by the corner of one eye. Harry reached up to touch the spot and his eyes widened. “Oh.” He laughed huffily. “Who would think there would be benefits to being cursed for fifteen years? I guess you can’t be short-sighted if you’re a hawk.” He sat up a bit straighter.


“Indeed.” Severus let his fingers slide down Harry’s face – soft lines and pointed angles, just the barest hint of a stubble on his cheeks and chin. The thin lips fell slightly open and Severus ran his thumb over the edge of the lower lip.


“Severus...”


He gave in to the temptation and kissed the younger man.


The swab of gauze fell to the bed, forgotten, as Harry smoothed his hands up Severus' chest. He moaned quietly into the kiss as he felt Severus' hand move to his hip and urge him to straddle Severus' legs. He followed the silent instruction and Severus' hands moved up his back.


The tip of Severus’ tongue snuck out and touched his lightly before his lips moved to Harry’s chin. He left a trail of little, nipping kisses up his jaw and down his neck and Harry arched his head back to give him better access. Severus opened his lips over the hollow at the base of his throat, breathed out, and licked lightly at the salty skin.


He marvelled at the little breathy groans Harry made and at the fingers tightening in his hair. Whoever gave Harry the robe did such a good job, too. The almost medieval, traditional cut left so much skin open to be tasted freely. He ran his hands up the thin arms and tugged the robe a bit more open.


Harry’s fingers dug into his shoulder for a moment and then his hand moved back down his chest, fingers grazing over Severus' nipple. Severus ran his teeth over a collarbone and Harry’s whole body arched into him.


Sliding his hands under Harry’s legs Severus stood up and turned them around and laid the man back on the bed. He slipped his hands under the robe and smoothed them up Harry’s legs. He arched a brow.


“You’ve became very traditional, Harry.”


The other man huffed a little laugh. “Dressed in a hurry.”


“Mm...” Severus slipped the shoe off one foot and kissed the slightly hairy ankle. “I like it.”


He flicked the other shoe off and kissed his way up a slender calf.


“Severus,” mewled Harry. “Don’t loom.” He tugged on Severus’ shoulders. “C’me here.”


Severus snatched up his wand and flicked it at the riding boots, which obediently slipped off his feet. He kneeled on the bed and was immediately tugged down into a passionate kiss. Harry flicked his tongue over his, grazing his teeth over Severus’ lower lip as he leaned out of reach just to move back in a second later. His hands slid down Severus' back until they reached his trousers. They followed the belt back to the front and unbuckled it.


“Harry...” Severus breathed into the kiss.


“Want you...” answered the other man. He moaned as the nimble fingers undid his fly and delved in, cupping his length.


“Merlin!” he hissed. He had to break away from the kiss, lest he bite too hard. His hips moved of their own volition.


He almost sobbed when the hands left to slide his trousers off. He pulled at Harry’s robe frantically, trying to get it out of the way. He grabbed up his wand again to cast the lubrication spell and had to fight not to come undone at Harry’s moan.


“Please!”


“Slowly... slowly...” He touched a finger to Harry’s opening and the man canted his hips up, taking almost half of it in. Severus grabbed his hip to keep him still.


“Sev’rus!” This was not a good groan. “Hurts...” He massaged the hip under his fingers and dropped a quick kiss on the inside of he other.


“That’s because you're in too much of a hurry.”


“I’ve been waiting years,” complained Harry.


“I know.” Severus leaned up and kissed him lightly. “I know.”


The younger man relaxed and Severus resumed preparing him slowly. He watched carefully for any sign of pain but there were none. Harry opened to him easily.


Soon, there was a deep flush on the pale face. The green eyes were shut tightly and his whole body arched as Harry moved on his fingers. One fist clenched and unclenched in the fabric of his robe and the other never left Severus' hair.


“Enough. Please,” whinged the young man.


“Yes.” He was quite literally aching with need for this man. He moved one of the thin legs onto his shoulder and Harry wrapped the other around his waist. Severus groaned at the sight of him. “I could come just looking at you like that.”


“If you do, I’ll hex you,” panted Harry.


Severus laughed and lined them up. “Don’t worry. I won’t waste this,” he said and thrust forwards, sheathing himself in one, slow move. Harry grabbed his shoulders, his short nails biting into his skin.


They stilled for a moment, foreheads together. They were panting into each other's mouths.


“Move.” Severus felt the word against his lips more than he heard it.


They moved in sync, letting the heat and pace build slowly. Severus held one of Harry’s hips. The other man was sure to have the imprint of his fingertips on his skin.


Too soon Severus felt his orgasm nearing. With the rest of his will, he reached for Harry, tugging rhythmically at his member. With only a handful of moves his body seized up, lips open in a silent moan.


The expression of total bliss on his face and the muscles spasming around him brought Severus over the edge. His hips snapped a couple more times and he slumped forward, exhausted.


“God...” He moved cautiously off Harry and slumped onto his side.


Harry cracked an eye open and peered at him, a silly grin on his lips. “Yeah.” He looked at the ceiling. “I feel like I’ve no bones.” He giggled.


“Mm... a good thing. Can’t get in trouble with no bones.” Severus settled back into the bed. “Keep that way while I sleep.”


“’Kay.” Harry snuggled into his side and he moved his arm to accommodate him. “’M tired too.”


Severus pulled the covers up around them and drifted off.


* * * * *


Harry woke up devilishly uncomfortable. His robes were tangled around his waist and he had dried come in the most awkward of places. The memories of the night – or was it day? – before and the pleasant ache in his muscles were more then worth it, though.


He pushed up on one elbow and looked down into black eyes.


“Hi.”


“I’ve slept with my trousers around my ankles,” answered Severus, sounding dismayed.


Harry laughed. “I have dried come up my arse. Wanna change?”


Severus snorted and patted the bed in search of his wand. With two flicks they were clean and their clothes hung clean and pressed over the headboard.


“You never said you were so good with household charms,” said Harry, throwing his leg over Severus’ and settled on his chest.


“Mark of an old bachelor.”


Harry looked into his face. The frown line between his eyebrows was clearly visible and his eyes were distant.


“What are you thinking about?”


“Your friends will be here soon. This country will get as normal as it can, given the circumstances—”


“Severus.” The man looked at him briefly. “You’re not even middle-aged, for a wizard. I mean, if not for the war, Albus would probably still be here to twinkle at Teddy’s kids. And he was almost one hundred fifty.” The man opened his mouth and Harry put a hand over his lips. “Let me finish. I know that you loved my mother.” Snape’s eyes narrowed. “You gave me the memories yourself. You can’t blame me for watching them.” The frown didn’t disappear but the man didn’t try to talk so Harry removed his hand. “The important thing is that I got over it. It is kind of disturbing. I won’t deny that, but... I can live with it.” He held the black gaze, willing Severus to believe him. “I know you Severus. I know the worst and the best about you. And you know me in a way no one else ever did or will.”


“Miss Weasley—”


“Is a practical woman and moved on years ago, I’m sure. She probably hoped that I lived, but she must understand that after so much time there is no way for us to start again. And even if I’m wrong on this, I don’t want to be with her anymore. I want you.” he said fiercely.


“Harry—” The man tried to sit up and Harry used all his weight to push him back down.


“No! You will hear me out! You’ve been shutting me out long enough! I’ve come to love you, Severus Snape,” he talked right over him as the man tried to protest. “Somehow, during all those years, I’ve come to love the wizard in the memories you gave me and I’m not going to lose him because you’re... I don’t know! Socially insecure or something!” By the end, he had pushed up to a half-kneeling position over the man and jabbed his finger into his chest repeatedly.


“I’m a difficult person to live with on a daily basis, Harry,” sighed Severus.


Harry snorted. “You’re difficult to live with on any basis.” He cupped Severus' face with his hands and looked him in the eye again. “But I’m willing to try.” The man looked away. “Will you not even try?” Harry asked quietly.


Snape sighed. “I can’t promise to change.”


“I’m not asking you to.”


“You are infuriatingly stubborn, you realise that?”


Harry smiled broadly. “You like me that way. Keeps you from getting bored.”


“There’s other ways to stave off boredom,” suggested Severus and Harry shivered at the feel of the spidery fingers running down his back...


A sudden knock on the door reminded Harry where they were and that there were other people around them.


“Harry? Sir?” Teddy squeaked from the other side of the door. “Horace told me to tell you that there are other rooms and that he will be taking over the infirmary in half an hour.”


Harry sighed. “Okay, Teddy! We’ve heard you,” he called.


They cleaned up and dressed in companionable silence but before Snape could leave, Harry stepped into his way.


“Wait. I need to hear it, Severus. I need to have a memory to show you when things get tough. Please.”


“Harry, for some inconceivable reason, I love you. And I swear to try living together on a daily basis without us killing each other,” he said. “Are you happy?”


“Yes.”


Harry kissed Severus and they left the infirmary to start their new lives together.


-end-