Disclaimer – None of the characters herein belong to me, nor do I own Hogwarts and its associated paraphenalia.
Lost lamb.
It was she who found him lying out in the Forbidden Forest, crumpled like a discarded sweet wrapper where he'd fallen on apparating back from wherever he'd been. She squatted down, resting her weight on the balls of her feet and examined him carefully without taking her wand out or touching anything. She noticed the tracks around him and the signs that whatever it was that had prowled around him had fled, hurriedly. 'Hello Severus.'
His head turned and slitted eyes regarded her, filled with spite and pain. 'Wilhelmina.' She knew he wasn't planning on asking for help. She couldn't carry him or levitate him back to the school, she'd need all her magic to guard her passage back in this forest where a single misstep could kill.
'Change.'
He looked at her in well-feigned bafflement and if she hadn't seen it herself she'd have believed that he had no idea what she was talking about. She chuckled and shook her head. 'Don't look at me like that. If Sirius Black could manage the animagus process then you can too.'
Rage filled his glassy-eyed glare up at her and she laughed again, softly. She'd dealt with scarier beasts than he. Gradually the glare subsided as he realised she wasn't going to leave. 'Tell anyone and I'll make you regret it, Wilhelmina.' He gasped, the effort such a long speech bringing flecks of blood to his lips. She held herself back from forcing him to transform, in such a condition any extraneous magic or careless movement would do more harm than good. He managed the transformation, mercifully and Wilhelmina drew breath once more, relieved as his dark formed melted and shrank into a different one.
Gently she ran careful hands down the body of the small dark-furred weasel, then lifted it. tucking it in one of the large inner pockets of her outer robe. Her body quickly warmed the frigid mustelid and as she stepped back onto the path she'd taken from the gamekeeper's hut her step was lighter. That had been easier than she'd hoped. To comfort her colleage, who she surmised was probably plotting her demise for embarassing him thus she mentioned, 'It could be worse, the Headmaster nearly asked Hagrid to come out and see if you'd got back yet.'