Mara thought a church was the best place to hide from the Snatchers. Maybe they wouldn't think much of how sacred it was, but it provided a familiar kind of comfort. Not to mention the echoes – nobody would sneak up on her, not with how sound traveled there. She'd made herself a home in the bell-tower, locking it up tight day and night. Sometimes she had to listen to the priest grumbling about his key not working, talking about getting a locksmith, but he never did. Too little in the donation box, she oft heard him mutter.

Getting in and out was easy, too. She'd nicked some clothes, and some food, and she'd grown her hair out since she went on the run. It annoyed her, but it gave her something to do beside polishing her galleons. Some day, everything would blow over. That was a hope she had to hold on to. The Dark Lord would be defeated. The Snatchers would be taken off the streets. All of her friends would turn out to be okay. Her father would be released, her mother...her fingers trembled at the thought.

She'd thought about killing the Snatchers. A hundred times, maybe more. It wasn't something she'd have thought of, before she'd had to run for her life. She'd paled in Mad-Eye Moody's classes. She'd hated Defense Against the Dark Arts. And Dementors...they didn't even bear thinking about. But the thought of those mercenary magicians made her fingers tremble so much her wand would almost leap from her hands.

One day, she'd returned from a food run. Not much, just leftovers from the local bakery, and she hadn't been seen by anyone, or so she thought. She'd been creeping up the stairs to her room when the sound of a door creaking open echoed through the hallowed hall. People. All they had to do was talk for her to know what they were about.

"I'm thinking new boots." Came one, with the flippant air.

"Muggleskin?" Asked the other, their voice a rasp. They were practically stomping through the hall. Mara wouldn't have time to get back to her sleeping bag, but she carried the important things with her. There was a back door at the base of the tower; she could use that to escape, as long as she was quick and quiet.

"Ha! It'd make our jobs a good lot easier, eh?" Mara slipped out of her shoes and padded down the stairs as quickly as she could. The stone was cold against her soles, but she'd read it made one's steps softer. "One spell and we'd be done." Mara's stomach churned, her legs carried her faster. The door was in sight, but so were their voices.

"Problem there is, they'd know it, too. Wouldn't be able to split the reward three ways." It was the male voice again. The door would creak, Mara knew it. She quickly muttered a silencing charm and the door opened without its usual characteristic squeak. There was daylight and freedom and trees she could use to escape. She closed the door behind her, kept her wand in hand, and made a dash for the trees.

Then she ran into something. Something fleshy and muscled and revealed within seconds, a brute of a man with a shaggy beard and a velvet robe. "Too easy!" He bellowed, as Mara stumbled backwards with her wand in hand.

"Stupefy!" She cried. Her wand jerked in her hand and the man batted the spell to the side, where it fizzled harmlessly on the ground.

"Yep, that'll work. Never seen that one before. Ha!"

"Got her already?" It was the woman's voice, coming from behind her, and Mara span around to unleash a similar charm. A wand was already in the Snatcher's hand, batting it away as easily as her first had. "This is what's become of our children." She sighed, though a wicked smile was stretched across her face. An older man followed behind her, and he strode off to the side. "Like we're not clever enough to scout the building out beforehand."

"What you shoulda done is headed up." Said the older man. Mara's fingers were trembling, her wand almost vibrating out of her hand. She just gripped it tighter. "Hid in the bell, simple sticking charm. Or disillusionment charm, hid under the benches. Transfigure yourself into some boots." He narrowed his eyes. "Oi oi, we've got a hazel here. Feelin' a mite moody, are we?"

"Come on, love, drop the wand and we'll be off." Said the bearded Snatcher. "You'll never outduel us, not with a hand like that."

"M-Maybe I won't." Mara kept her wand fixed on one of them. The big one she'd run into. If she moved it, they'd have her. Just having them there made all of her anger bubble and boil. Every hate-filled thought she'd ever had was bouncing around inside her skull. "Maybe I'll kill you." Her voice had never been scary. It was soft, and she knew it, but that just made her want to hurt them more.

"Ha!" The bearded one laughed again. "How many times have we heard th-"

"Avada Kedavra!" Mara's wand almost tore right out of her hand as she said the words, but it stayed. There was a burst of green light, an outpouring of anger, and she stared as the glare faded and a large rock fell sizzling to the ground by the bearded man's feet.

"Bloody hell, Kit." The woman shook her head, her wand raised. "You'd be dead if I weren't so swift."

"She tried to kill me!" Kit accused, a scowl marring his face. "She actually went and tried to kill me!" Mara knew it. She knew it hadn't worked. There was no way she was escaping, and she'd just tried to kill him. "Right, I'm stupefying her! Stupe-" There was a sound like the air tearing, a blur of feathers, and suddenly the bearded man had four gouges right across both of his eyes.

Mara heard the woman curse from behind her, but she kept her eyes on the blur. Before she could so much as focus, it had shifted into the shape of a woman, whose speed carried her foot right into the crown of the older Snatcher's forehead. He collapsed in a heap, a wand was in her hand, and the door behind the woman suddenly slammed shut. It caught her in its wake, and her head was caught between heavy wood and stone in the second before she collapsed.

Mara gaped. The person who'd attacked the Snatchers was clad in jeans and a hoodie, which only made them more bizarre.

"Snatchers." The woman's voice was heavy with accent, and her dark nose wrinkled as she tucked her wand away. "What a bunch of bastards, eh?" She asked, as a little smile came to her lips.

"H-Hello." Mara greeted the stranger. It was a stupid thing to say, but it was a reflex. "My name is Mara. I'm..." On the run? That was obvious. Half-blood? Well, why else would she be hunted by Snatchers? "I'm a Hufflepuff."

"Good for you." Somehow, it seemed earnest. "You can call me, hang on," She pointed her wand at the man whose eyes were bleeding and silenced him with a stunning spell. "Mazzi. I'm here to help."

"Help?"

"Help." Mazzi nodded. "The international wizarding community isn't as blind as you people might like to believe. Some of us have been trying to help, especially people like you."

"Oh...so you're an Auror, then. A..." Mara hesitated. "A foreign one."

"Ugandan, actually, and...not quite. Aurors are decidedly more official than I am." Mazzi pulled down her hood and her age became that much clearer. She was old enough to be a Professor, Mara could tell that much. And that made sense, considering how she'd cleaned up the Snatchers without breaking a sweat. None that she could see, anyway. "I'm trying to help people that are on the run, just like you. It's not as hard as you'd think. These Snatchers are always bragging about how much money they're making, how cool they are for capturing mostly children running for their lives." She nudged the arm of a fallen snatcher with the toe of her sneaker. "Pathetic, if you ask me."

"I-I'd like help." The adrenaline was starting to run out of Mara. The shock was still there, but for the moment, she felt safe. Safer than she had been, anyway.

"Good. First thing: Find some shoes. You'll find running a lot harder if you lose your toes." Mazzi smiled warmly and Mara blushed. She pulled her shoes out of her pack and slipped them on. "And what I usually say: Would you like me to apparate you elsewhere? There are families willing to take in fugitive in France, Germany, Ilvermony is willing to shelter students. Or I can take you to family, if you have any."

Mara went silent as she considered it. She wanted to be safe. She wanted to go somewhere that made sense. But her friends and her parents and everyone else were still in Britain. But she was hiding anyway, doing nothing, so what would it matter if she went somewhere else.

"That's...what you usually say, isn't it?" Mara peered up at the woman. "Does that mean there are other options?"

"Clever girl. Yes, it does." Mazzi tucked her hands into her pockets. "You may have noticed I'm an Animagus? It's very good for dealing with Snatchers. I know a few fugitives who prefer to stay here. I've been teaching them the process. Some use it to hide, some to fight. Most of them have avoided the Snatchers."

Mara looked down at rock that had blocked her killing curse, then at the fallen Snatchers. Maybe the old man was dead, although she couldn't tell. Mazzi was blocking her way.

"Do you show them how to kill?"

"Would you distrust me if I did?" Mazzi asked.

"I don't know." Mara shrugged helplessly. "People say it makes you as bad as them."

"Whether it does or not is for the person to decide. I show them how to become an Animagus and what they do with it is their choice. Some can't kill, like an otter. Some are very good at it, like the bears. At least it's an option the Ministry doesn't know about, and that's an advantage for anyone they're trying to hunt, is it not?"

Mara nodded slowly.

"So, would you like to be spirited away, Hufflepuff Mara? Or would you like me to teach you?" Mazzi's smile promised no judgment for either choice.

"...I want to learn." Mara's wand twitched.