Author's Note: This is the 2nd Harry Potter fanfic I wrote. It too was written a very long time ago (again before the 5th book came out) for my younger siblings. After taking my siblings to see the first movie I got hooked on HP and devoured the first four books in less than a week. I was and will always be a major Harry/Hermione shipper and I never lost faith in Severus Snape (snarky and unpleasant as he was!).
I have written 11 stories in total for Harry Potter throughout the years and am only now posting them for the first time online. I hope you will enjoy reading them.
An Undesired Meeting
"A good deed is never lost." - St Basil
THE HUNTERS HILL.
The sign swung gently in the early evening breeze. Professor Snape looked at it in loathing, asking himself why on earth had Dumbledore asked him to come here and meet Black. He knew they hated each other, despite the fact that they both were helping him fight Voldemort. He took a deep breath, reached out a hand and pushed open the door.
Walking in he was met by the sight of at least twelve Muggles, either drinking beer or playing a game which involved using a stick to hit a ball, that would then hit another ball, which apparently you had to try and put into a hole on the table they were placed on. Snape wondered how did Muggles find that entertaining. It looked extremely boring.
As he walked up to the bar he was unaware that many of the people were looking at his appearance with raised eyebrows. Indeed, to a Muggle, his appearance would be considered strange. His hair was, as usual, greasy and hanging to his shoulders and he was wearing his usual black robes on top of his black top and trousers.
Six men sitting at a table and, who had obviously had too much to drink, started sniggering, saying in loud whispers, 'thinks he's a ruddy teenager, walking around like that,' and, 'could do with a haircut,' and one of them got up, walked over to him, grabbed his arm and with a foul, alcohol drenched breath, said in his face, 'where'd you get the outfit weirdo? Some Hollywood garage sale?'
Snape turned his head and the look in his eye made the man let him go at once. When he spoke his voice was quiet but deadly.
'Do not touch me again. If you do, you would soon regret it.'
The man paled, stuttered an apology and hastily backed away.
Snape, with a sweep of his robes, strode up to the bar where the tapster looked at him uncertainly.
'I'm expecting to meet someone here,' Snape said coldly. 'His name is Sirius. When he arrives would you inform him that Snape is waiting for him. I'll be over there.' He pointed over to a table that was in a dark corner, away from the people already there.
The tapster nodded his head.
'C-can I get you anything sir?' he asked nervously, for Snape's voice and his eyes, which had not blinked once, had quite unnerved him.
'Yes. I would like a pint of ale.' Snape paused for a moment and then forced himself to say, 'Thank you.' He turned sharply and strode over to the table to wait for Sirius.
Ten minutes and half a pint of ale later he was beginning to wonder if Black would even show up, when the door burst open and a man stormed in looking extremely dishevelled and with a trickle of blood running down his mouth. He was dragging in two teenage boys, both of whom were kicking and shouting.
The man stalked up to the tapster and demanded, 'Do you know these two boys?'
Snape's head jerked up.
It was Black.
The tapster looked at Sirius, then at the two boys. Their sullen faces stared back at him.
'Why, they're Tom and Robert Sullivan. What have they done now?' he asked in a weary voice as though this had happened many times before.
'I was on my way here when, two buildings down, these two boys attempted to rob me. This one,' Sirius shook the boy on his left, 'attempted to knock me out with a piece of wood and this one,' shaking the boy on his right, 'tried to push me to the ground.'
The tapster looked horrified.
'Sir, I'm so sorry,' he apologised. 'I'll call the Constable at once. This is such a small town, sir, I'm sorry this had to happen.' He had the phone in his hand and was dialling a number. When he next spoke it was to someone on the other end.
'Hello, Ed? It's Pete here. Listen a gentleman just came in. Tom and Robert have been at it again. The gentleman brought them with him.' There was a pause. 'Thanks Ed.' He hung up the phone and spoke again to Sirius who had forced the boys onto two seats. 'He's coming around now sir. I can't apologise enough for what happened.'
Sirius interrupted him, his voice now quite pleasant. 'My dear sir, it was hardly your fault. I don't blame you. It is unfortunate, but you find such troublemakers everywhere.'
Silence fell then and Snape, keeping his presence unknown to Sirius for the moment, looked on.
When the Constable arrived Sirius informed him of what had happened and dealt with the Constable's apologies in the same way as he had dealt with Pete's. Then Snape listened as Sirius turned to the boys and told them that if they weren't careful, one day they would pick the wrong target and wind up either badly hurt or, worse, dead as there were a lot of unscrupulous people in the world. The boys, were now, quite subdued and when the Constable took them away they obeyed meekly.
When they had gone Sirius turned to Pete and said, 'Now, my dear fellow, could I have a pint of ale and could you tell me if a fellow by the name of Snape has arrived yet?'
Pete looked at him in amazement. Surely this gentleman wasn't an acquaintenance of that strange fellow. This man had normal clothes and a very neat haircut and his face was certainly more pleasant. 'Yes sir, he's sitting over at that table.'
He pointed and Sirius turned, smiled and said, 'Ah yes. Thank you and would you be so kind as to bring my drink over.'
'Oh certainly sir. No trouble at all,' and he hurried to get the order as Sirius walked over to Snape's table.
Without waiting for an invitation, Sirius pulled out a chair and sat down, eyeing Snape with dislike.
Neither spoke for a minute, then, 'What's happened?' Sirius asked bluntly.
Snape looked at him for a moment and was about to speak when Pete came over with Sirius' ale. Sirius thanked him then pressed some Muggle money into his hand. 'Just in case I forget later,' he told him. Pete smiled at him and again wondered why such a nice gentleman would associate with such a strange man. He turned and walked away shaking his head.
Snape waited until he was out of earshot before he spoke. 'Dumbledore wanted to warn you. Your old friend Peter,' (Sirius' hand tightened on his glass), 'he's convinced Voldemort that you are really the one who should be got rid of first. In his opinion you are more dangerous to Voldemort's plans than anyone else.'
'How do you know this?' Sirius asked quietly.
'I know the right people,' Snape said, thinking of that moment when he had been accepted back as a Death Eater. He still shuddered sometimes when he thought that if Lucius Malfoy hadn't convinced Voldemort of how he hated Harry Potter he would be dead by now. He looked at Sirius and continued.
'Dumbledore said that you'd have to be extremely careful when you talk to people. Also, Voldemort has got the Dementors back on his side, so watch out for them.' He stopped, that was all he had been told to say and he wasn't going to say anything else.
Sirius was a bit paler than usual, but all he said was, 'So Peter thinks I'm more dangerous than anyone else does he? Well, where he's concerned I am,' his voice shook with anger and his eyes glittered strangely. 'The next time I see him I swear I'll make him sorry for everything he's done and I won't need magic to do it.' His hand clenched into a fist on the table.
For a moment, Snape was actually grateful he was not Peter Pettigrew.
There was a moment's silence as they both sipped their ale. Sirius swallowed his quickly, then said, 'I need to ask you something. You'll hate doing it, but I have to ask.'
Snape frowned. Sirius Black wanted to ask HIM something! He waited, then,
'How is Harry doing? I mean, I know you can't tell me full details, but how does he look? How is he managing?'
Snape looked as though he had just drunk a whole bottle of Polyjuice Potion. This was the last thing he had expected. He never paid much attention to Harry, unless it was to put him on detention or try and get him expelled. He forced himself to try and remember how Harry had looked the last time he had seen him.
'He's all right I guess,' he said reluctantly, he really didn't want to talk about Potter. 'He's got his friends who look after him; they're never out of his sight. He seems to feel pain in his scar a lot more. Madame Pomfrey told Dumbledore he's been in a few times to ask for something for the pain.' He stopped, glad that was over. He looked at Sirius whose face had tightened in worry.
'Why didn't he tell me? Or Dumbledore? He's my godson for heaven's sake. I need to know,' he whispered, his voice betraying his concern. 'I need to see him,' he continued, almost to himself. 'I don't care how, but I have to.' He gulped down the rest of his ale and sat very still for a moment thinking. 'I have to see Lupin tomorrow, it'll have to be Thursday then.'
Snape had continued to watch him as he spoke. When Sirius next spoke it was directed at him.
'Tell Dumbledore that I need to see him. When I come on Thursday I'll come and talk to him. What's the password for his office this time?'
'Gummi Bear,' Snape said reluctantly.
Sirius made a choking noise that sounded like a hastily covered up laugh. Snape had to agree. It was a rather ridiculous password, but then Dumbledore always had Muggle lolly names as a password.
By this time some more Muggles had come into the pub and were wondering about the two strangers in the corner. Soon they were whispering amongst themselves and when the man who had accosted Snape earlier told them what he had said, they began to feel that these must be "City Folk", trouble makers who came to peaceful towns and made mischief and in their inebriated state they began to mutter against the strangers.
Pete at the bar, hearing snatches of the conversation began to worry. Certainly, one of the strangers looked like trouble, but the other one was a gentleman and he wanted no fights in his pub, thank you very much. He came to a decision and began to walk over to where Snape and Sirius were, to tell them that trouble was brewing and they had better go, when five men stepped in front of him and staggered up to Snape and Sirius.
Snape was just finishing his ale and Sirius preparing to go when the men came to a halt beside the table.
Sirius looked up and seeing their expressions of drunken anger said, quite politely, 'May we help you?'
One of the men shouted, 'yeah, you can help us by getting out of our town you bloody Londoners, before you make trouble.'
Sirius immediately recognising the danger ahead began to think of something that would pacify them and Snape put his hand inside his robes, preparing to get his wand out if necessary. Stunning them and then performing a memory charm would minimise the damage that could happen. He looked up to see Sirius calmly trying to tell the men that they had no intention of causing trouble and were in fact about to go. Pete was adding his voice to Sirius', saying that, in his pub, no fighting was allowed.
The five men paid no more attention to him than they had to Sirius.
One of them grabbed Sirius by the shirt and pulled him up out of his chair. Sirius immediately grabbed the man's wrist and twisted it until the man whimpered in pain and released him.
Before Snape could get his wand out, one of the men had pulled him up and was shoving him up against a wall, with another punching him in the stomach.
Sirius, meanwhile, was trying to deal with three men who were determined to break every bone in his body. One of them picked up a bottle off a table and came towards him. As the man started to bring his arm down, Sirius ducked to the side, grabbed the man's arm with his left hand, threw his right arm across the man's chest and threw him to the ground. The other two then came at him from both sides, each yelling abuse.
Sirius jumped up onto a table and got down on the other side.
Many of the other patrons of the pub had disappeared, not wanting to be involved, some had stayed, however, including some of the men who had jeered at Snape when he had first entered.
One of them came up behind Sirius and struck him over the head with a bottle. Sirius fell forward onto the table in front of him, his head spinning. Turning his head he saw the man swinging his arm again, this time towards his face, and quickly dodged the bottle. As he turned to face the men again, he whipped his wand out of his jacket sleeve and pointed it at the man nearest him.
'Stupefy!' he shouted.
The man stopped suddenly, then fell to the ground.
The three men behind him stopped immediately, their eyes were wide with fear.
'What the hell are you?' one of them gasped before Sirius also hit him and the others with the stupefying charm.
Sirius turned around now and saw that Snape was dealing with not only two of the original five men but another four men who had been amongst those who had jeered at him when he had first come in. He was no longer against the wall, having punched one of the men in the face and by using his leg to kick the other in the kneecap. He was in serious trouble though as, since he was surrounded by six men and trying to dodge their punches, he was unable to reach his wand.
Sirius moved closer, lifted his wand and took out one of them. The others were slightly distracted for a moment, which allowed Snape to finally get out his own wand. He stupefied two of them, and then seeing that Sirius was about to be hit from behind by another patron who had just walked in and had obviously thought Sirius was the starter of the fight, yelled out, 'Black, behind you!' as he stupefied another of his attackers.
Sirius, hearing Snape's warning, spun around and stunned the man behind him and then turned around again to see Snape stunning the last two men.
They both stood still for a moment. Blood was trickling down both their faces, coupled with a few bruises and they were both breathing hard.
Each suddenly realised that they had helped the other.
They looked at each other and then at the other patrons who were sitting in shock at what they had seen. Pete was standing petrified next to a chair, gripping its back as though desperate for something to hold on to.
Sirius looked at Snape who nodded. They both lifted their wands again and stunned all those who were there. As soon as that was done they moved them all into one area. After they had arranged all the men, they each took half of the group, pointed their wands and cried, 'Enervate.'
The men opened their eyes immediately, but before they could think or say anything, Snape and Sirius had performed their memory charms.
The next instant all the patrons were talking and asking, 'what are we doing on the floor? What happened?'
Snape and Sirius discreetly put their wands away and then quietly walked to the door, stopping to see if anyone was around and then quickly stepped outside.
They turned and looked at one another, each looking extremely uncomfortable, knowing the other had probably saved his life.
Finally, they both muttered, 'Thanks,' before each turned away and walked in the opposite direction, unknowing that they were being watched by a strange looking cat sitting on the wall of the pub.
xxxxxxxxx
'Well, Minerva? How did it go?' Dumbledore asked as Professor McGonagall walked into his office.
McGonagall looked at him and said, 'they both came, reluctantly though I must say. Not surprising though considering their history.'
Dumbledore smiled. 'What happened when they met?' he asked.
McGonagall then proceeded to tell him everything that had happened, including the fight and its outcome.
'So, they saved each other's life, did they? Well, well. This will certainly complicate things a bit,' Dumbledore said with a smile. 'As you said before, Minerva, with their history this will cause quite a bit of an upset for both of them.' He chuckled quietly. 'Poor Severus, I wonder how he'll handle this?'
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THIS STORY. THEY BY RIGHT BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING, CREATOR OF THE HARRY POTTER SERIES. THE SITUATIONS MENTIONED, HOWEVER, ARE MY OWN IDEAS. I AM NOT MAKING ANY PROFIT OUT OF THIS STORY.