The Whomping Willow
It's much shorter than my other work. Sorry to those of you who asked for more about Sirius and Remus, that's coming later. I've had this written for a while, and I've redone it and edited it for posting.
Disclaimer: Yes, you know it already: they're not mine, more's the pity.
~
Severus Snape looked idly from the window at the dusky sky. On his desk lay his undone Transfiguration homework, but he did not think about it. Instead he watched the grounds. In the half-light, it was difficult to make out anything but the vaguest of shapes.
The flailing branches of the Whomping Willow caught his eye. There was someone there, but he couldn't quite see who or what. Not taking his eye from the shapes, he fumbled on his desk for the Skopos Glass he had bought for himself at Christmas. When he looked through it, the figures became clear as day.
A muscle twitched in Severus' cheek. That was where he was going! At last, an answer to that puzzle. The other figure he recognised by her flyaway hair and white robes. Madam Pomfrey, the matron. What was she doing there? He looked carefully from one to the other. They were talking, but the Skopos Glass would not let him hear from a distance. He looked at the boy with hard eyes. His face was pale and he seemed miserable and woebegone, but Severus felt no sympathy as he thought back to the last trick he and his gang had played on him.
The door to his dormitory opened, and Vincent Ugham came in. 'What'cha doing?' he asked. Severus whirled around, letting the Skopos Glass slide out of view.
'Nothing,' he said sharply. He looked back through the window. Only one figure was walking back across the lawn, and even without the Skopos Glass he could see the white robes of Madam Pomfrey. Bitter disappointment rushed through him.
'Hey, can you tell me how to do our Potions prep? I looked it up, but it didn't make any sense, and I though I'd ask you,' said Vincent, not noticing Severus' furious expression.
'No. Do your own work. I'm going out for a bit.' He swished past Vincent and out through the invisible door of the Slytherin common room.
As luck would have it, Sirius Black was coming out of the Great Hall. 'Black!' he called sharply.
'Oh, how lovely! My dearest friend!' said Sirius with heavy sarcasm. 'Now then, my friend, what can I do for you? I see you got those frog's brains out of your hair. And you've washed it, too. Well, that must be a first.'
Severus' lips thinned. 'Where's your friend Lupin?'
Black's expression closed. 'What's it to you?'
'I saw him,' Severus began in a dangerously light tone, 'going out by the Whomping Willow. I wonder what he might be doing there. I mean, it's a bit late to be going out, isn't it? What was he doing, do you know?'
Black glared impotently at him. Then, with a glint in his eye, he said, 'Why don't you go find out for yourself?' Severus raised an eyebrow. 'Go where?'
'Through the tunnel under the Whomping Willow. Or didn't you know about that? You have to touch the knot at the base of the trunk, and it'll freeze for a minute. If you've got the guts to find out, of course…'
Severus clenched his teeth, but did not rise to the bait. 'Well, then, I'll go ask Lupin how he's doing his vanishing act,' he said, and turned away.
~
Sirius Black grinned to himself and hurried up to the Gryffindor common room. James was scribbling on a piece of parchment in the corner where they always sat.
'You look unusually pleased with yourself,' said James as he entered. 'What's up?'
Sirius sprawled down on the sofa beside James. 'You'll never believe it. I was coming back from seeing Professor Flitwick – you know, after that little 'accident' in Charms – and I met Snape. God know how, but he'd found out where Remus went. So I told him how to get into the tunnel.' He chuckled. 'He's going to have fun, when he meets Remus, because sure as eggs are eggs he'll go down there. That'll teach him to snoop around after Remus. Honestly, I was so furious when I caught him teasing him last week.' His eyes glinted.
James was looking serious. 'Sirius, you can't do things like this. He could be killed.'
'Who cares? He's just a lousy Slytherin.' Sirius looked at him rebelliously.
'Well, apart from that, if Remus hurts him he'll be expelled for sure. I know Dumbledore wants him here, but if he kills someone when he's transformed … and there'll be an awful fuss. I think we should tell him not to go.'
'Well, I'm not going to look for some stinking Slytherin. You do it, if you care about him so much.' He stormed off into the dormitories.
James sighed. Now he was angry, and it would be a nightmare trying to calm him down. Well, there was nothing for it. He went out of the common room and downstairs.
~
Severus Snape scanned the corridors around him, but he was definitely alone. He slipped from the door, and crossed the lawn, little more than a shadow in the dim light, for the full moon was veiled in cloud. The Whomping Willow was thrashing angrily at an unusually daring bird, and Severus paused to watch. With a squawk, the bird escaped out of reach, and Severus smiled. There was a long stick lying on the ground, just out of reach of the tree. He scanned the trunk with keen eyes until he saw the knot, and poked at it with the stick. The tree froze.
Severus darted in under the branches. The opening of the tunnel was at his feet. He took out his wand.
'Lumos!' He squeezed down through the narrow opening, and looked around carefully. The walls were gouged with claw-marks, and there was a strange, wild smell. Curious and alert, Severus crept along the tunnel. Probably Lupin and the others had some kind of hiding place down here. But then, what was Madam Pomfrey doing going with him? As he walked along, hunched uncomfortably under the low roof, he pondered this.
~
The Slytherin girl James met in the corridor told him that Snape was not in the common room. An icy finger ran down his spine. He ran back up to the common room and into his dormitory. Sirius was not there, and neither was Peter. He pulled something silvery from his trunk, and tucked it under his robe before racing down to one of the side doors. As he draped the Invisibility Cloak over his head, he stepped out onto the lawn.
His heart racing, he ran over to the Whomping Willow. If only they'd worked out the Animagus spell, it would all be so easy. He prodded the knot with the stick lying there, and leapt into the tunnel. Perhaps Snape would not have reached Remus yet. He dared not shout, for fear the werewolf's keen ears might catch the sound. James took out his wand, and in the dim light he ran through the tunnel, his head bent to keep it from cracking on the low roof.
It seemed to take forever, as he ran through the darkness towards the end of the tunnel, where the werewolf was. He set his jaw and tried not to think about what he would do if Snape had already met Remus. A howl that echoed eerily through the tunnel turned his blood cold, and he ran faster. Then he saw a gleam of light ahead. 'Severus!' he hissed. 'Stop!'
He took the last few strides, and grabbed Severus' robes. 'Get out – you mustn't go any further,' he panted, his breath sobbing in his chest. The howl was repeated, and they both turned to look as if pulled by an invisible string. Framed in the distant moonlight was the werewolf.
Severus gave an inarticulate cry of horror, and in the same motion, they both turned to flee. James was already exhausted, and Severus caught him by his robes as he nearly fell. 'Thanks,' he gasped. They ran and ran, and finally in a flurry of robes and flailing branches, they tumbled out the end of the tunnel and were hurled by the Whomping Willow in a heap onto the lawn.
For a moment, both lay there, gasping and rubbing their bruises. Then Severus pulled himself to his feet. He was shaking all over. He looked down at the person who'd come after him, and his eyes widened. James was still gasping for breath, sprawled on the grass. Uncertainly, Severus bent down. 'Are you … all right?' he asked in an strangely gentle voice. James sat up, rubbing his head.
'Yes … are you?' Wordlessly, Severus nodded. Their eyes met.
'Thank you.' Both spoke at the same moment.
A furious bellow made them leap up.
'WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING OUT HERE?'
Professor McGonagall was standing over them, clutching Sirius' robes with her free hand. 'I don't believe it! Both of you, come up to the school at once. I've never heard of anything like it! First Mr Black here trying to sneak out the door, and now this! You are going straight to Professor Dumbledore!'
Severus seemed to recover himself. 'A particularly stupid trick, Black, don't you think?' he snarled.
'You asked,' Sirius shot back. 'It's not my fault what you do in your spare time.' Inside him, he squashed down the beginnings of guilt.
'Silence, both of you!' Professor McGonagall's face was almost as white as Severus' and her lips were very thin. 'We will discuss this with Professor Dumbledore.'
Sirius tried to catch James' eye as they followed Professor McGonagall's long strides through the castle, but James was trying to conceal the Invisibility Cloak in his pocket without anyone noticing. They were led up past the staff-room, to a part of the castle where none of them had been before.
Professor McGonagall was still furious when she led them into Dumbledore's study.
'Ah, Minerva, my dear. Is there a problem?' he asked mildly. He glanced from Severus' tense face to Sirius' guilty expression and at James, who had set his chin and was gazing at him with as steady a face as he could muster.
'There certainly is a problem. I was locking up downstairs, when I caught Mr Black here attempting to sneak out the kitchen door. Now, I know full well that wherever Mr Black is, Mr Potter isn't far away. And so I caught these two outside by the Whomping Willow, and I suppose they've been fighting.' She turned eyes filled with disgust at the three boys.
'Well. So, what happened? Why were you outside?' Dumbledore turned stern eyes on the boys standing around his desk.
Sirius wanted to sink into the ground. 'Um … well, I was – I was …' he began hopelessly.
'I suppose you got cold feet, did you?' said Severus frostily. 'Professor Dumbledore, these two attempted to play an exceedingly unamusing practical joke on me. Black suggested to me that I go along the tunnel under the Whomping Willow, and so I did, and then Potter came down after me to stop me.' Professor McGonagall gasped, and sat down rather too quickly on the chair opposite Dumbledore. He shot her a quick glance of concern before asking, 'Is this true?'
'Yes, sir,' said Sirius in a voice barely more than a whisper.
'James?'
'Yes, sir.'
'You went after Mr Snape here, did you?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Might I ask why?' Dumbledore's piercing eyes fixed upon him, boring into his skull.
James hesitated. 'Well, sir, I was worried that he'd meet Remus.'
Dumbledore was silent a moment.
'And, Mr Snape, why did you go down in the first place?'
It was Severus' turn to hesitate. Now he was going to look as much of a fool as that Black. 'I – I thought they were doing something against the rules, sir, and so I decided to go and find out.' This was true, in as far as it went. 'But it turns out Black was trying to get me killed. I don't believe it, sir, that you have a – a werewolf in the school.'
Dumbledore frowned. 'That, Mr Snape, is my concern. I am most disappointed in your behaviour, all of you. You do not take the rules of the school into your own hands. Should you have a concern, you must speak to one of the professors. I will be taking thirty points from both Slytherin and Gryffindor for this, and all three of you will have a detention. Mr Snape, I also have to ask you to refrain from mentioning what you saw under the Whomping Willow. If you do not abide by this, I will be forced to take further action.'
He turned to Sirius and James. 'That goes for you as well. No more of this running around at night. Now, Sirius and Severus, you may leave. James, I'd like to speak to you privately.'
Both looking extremely humiliated and angry, Sirius and Severus left Dumbledore's office, escorted by Professor McGonagall.
'Now, James. You went after Mr Snape. I assume you were already aware of what was happening?' Dumbledore peered at him over the rims of his glasses.
'Yes, sir. Sirius told me what he'd said to Severus, and I've known Remus is a werewolf since the first year.' Dumbledore nodded.
'Displeased as I am by this entire incident, I can only be proud of you,' he said, and the coldness was gone from his voice. 'Your actions were extremely courageous. You earn forty points for Gryffindor. However, I hope I will not have to suffer a repeat of this incident. Off you go, now, James, to bed!' James grinned at Professor Dumbledore before leaving the room.
~
In the Slytherin dormitory, Severus lay awake. The intensity of his embarrassment and shame made him feel physically sick. Black had prepared a trap for him, and he had walked right into it. And then to be rescued by James Potter! Now there was the irony of it. James Potter, whom he hated more than anyone else in the school. James Potter, perfect Quidditch player, top of every class, beloved of the entire school – everything he was not.
James Potter, who was such a good person that he would risk his life for his detested enemy. That was what shamed Severus. Would he have done the same? The agony of doubt in his mind kept him awake until the sky began to lighten.
~
Have you ever read The Lord of the Rings, where Gollum almost turns nice and helps Frodo and Sam? I had it in mind when I was writing this – the same idea of the 'evil' person almost repenting, and then being distracted by some interruption. Don't think I'm trying to rival JRR Tolkein ( I'm not that hubristic) but I love the idea. Does it work?
God (or who/whatever else you believe in) bless all wonderful people who review stories. A special Paradise awaits you.
Blaise.