Keep It Secret
Disclaimer: Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, and Poppy Pomfrey belong to JK Rowling. Hogwarts and its premises are also her lawful property. I only borrow them for this fic. Kyra and Moira Boyds as well as some professors's are OCs.
Chapter 2
Moira and Kyra shrieked as they saw the Slytherin boy bump head first into the trunk of a sturdy oak tree. Kyra's wand wavered and the boy fell with a thud to the ground.
The two girls ran toward the boy and knelt beside him. He was lying on his less injured side, moaning. Kyra glanced at her friend worriedly. "Now what do we do?" she mouthed.
The boy twisted against his confining bandages, groaning louder. His eyelids fluttered under his knitted brows and his eyes were suddenly open. He gazed, open-mouthed, at the two girls leaning over him. "What…" he croaked confusedly. Then he saw the bandages around his shoulder and arm and comprehension dawned in his eyes.
"What did you do to me?" he said in a surly growl. "Get these things off me!"
"You're injured," explained Kyra in a trembling voice, Moira nodding her assent. "A wo… Something … attacked you, and we found you in the woods. We're taking you to the…"
"You're not taking me anywhere," cut the boy shortly. "I'll tell Filch you're out of bounds this time of night if you don't get these filthy rags off me and be off."
Kyra frowned at Moira, who raised an eyebrow at the boy's sharp tone. "Well," said Moira, "go ahead. And while you're at it, why don't you explain the reason while you are nowhere near the Slytherin House in the small hours of morning?"
The boy shot her a venomous look out of his dark eyes. He tried to sit up with much difficulty, and Kyra looked at Moira, but the Hufflepuff girl only shook her head almost imperceptibly. Finally the boy gave up trying to move on his own and glowered at the younger girls. "Are you going to sit there and stare at me like that all night?" he said sullenly.
Kyra sighed and gave her friend another glance. "It's getting late, Mo," she said softly. "And he's not the only one wounded here."
"But if he's going to shout his way into the castle, there's no way we could sneak in without Filch swooping down on us," hissed Moira. "I'm thinking of knocking him unconscious so we can bring him to hospital wing without much of a fuss."
"You're not stupid enough to still think of going to the hospital wing, are you?" came the sarcastic query.
"He's right, you know," said Kyra. "We'll never be able to explain this."
"We don't have to. He's the one who has some explaining to do," said Moira, pointing at the boy. "We're going back to our Houses once we get rid of him."
"I don't think he will leave us out of his story, do you?" said Kyra.
"Well, if you two have worked it out in your limited brain cases that I am here, maybe I can hazard a suggestion," piped in the boy loudly. "Why don't we go our separate ways and forget…" The sentence was unceremoniously cut short by Kyra's hand firmly pressing over his mouth. The boy struggled, making muffled noises behind the girl's palm, but Kyra was oblivious.
"Did you hear that?" she whispered, leaning towards Moira.
Moira nodded silently. "Hide!" she murmured, grabbing Kyra's arm. Between them they managed to drag the skinny boy behind a leafless bush. They peered warily beyond the tangle of dead branches at the gloom, keeping the writhing boy between them.
"Ouch!" hissed Kyra suddenly.
"What?" whispered Moira.
"He bit me," said Kyra, glaring at the boy, who scowled back at her from above his clamped shut mouth.
"Will you be quiet! We can't risk you yelling," Moira said sharply to the boy. "It could be Filch out there. I knew we were making too much noise back there. That wolf positively howled when I …"
A sharp look from Kyra made her stop. They turned their gaze to the boy still pinned helplessly between them. He had gone still, his eyes wide.
"If you promise not to start yelling again, I'll let you go," whispered Kyra. The boy nodded frantically, but not without a fierce glower.
"There was a wolf?" he whispered immediately after Kyra lifted her hand from his mouth. His eyes traveled swiftly up, focusing through the intricate web of branches above him and finding the moon, pale gold and perfectly round. "A wolf," he said with a note of satisfaction.
"Yes, and he was attacking you," said Kyra.
The boy frowned; a sudden, uncontrolled panic flared in his eyes.
"You were a bird, I know," said Moira flatly.
"And what are you going to do about it?" whispered the boy with the desperate vehemence of one who was cornered. "You can't prove it. No one will believe you if you …"
The two girls exchanged glances and shook their heads sagely. "He's helpless, isn't he?" said Moira and Kyra shrugged.
Kyra reached and plucked something from the boy's cloak and brought it under the boy's nose for closer inspection. "Barn owl feather," she said, her lips echoing Moira's grin. "Should have been brown, except for the bit of blood."
The boy stared at the feather with large horrified eyes. "You're not going to…" he started, an odd pleading note in his voice.
But Kyra had suddenly put her finger on his lips, silencing him. Both girls suddenly stiffened, fixing their eyes beyond the bush, at a couple of small figures running swiftly over the frost-dappled grass.
"Oh, perfect," groaned Moira.
The boy squirmed to see behind his shoulder, but the movement made him wince in pain and he chose to glare questioningly at Kyra instead.
"Mr. and Mrs. Norris," whispered Kyra ominously. She glanced at Moira. "Should I?"
"I'll do the honor," said Moira with a mischievous grin. She crawled gingerly around the bush, and for a while all Kyra and the boy could see of her was the hem of her cloak sweeping the moist dead leaves and twigs. Then there was the sound of breaking branches and heavy foot falls.
"You should see this," Kyra whispered with a smile.
The boy scowled at her, and with an apologetic grin, Kyra helped him shift so he could see what was happening across the wall of branches they were hiding behind. The boy's eyes grew wider and wider with disbelief when he saw the massive bulk of a bear trodding away onto the grass, moonlight glinting silver on the tips of silken fur, muscles rippling gracefully with every thudding, powerful step. The boy blinked and looked speechlessly at Kyra.
"Watch," said Kyra, obviously enjoying herself.
The bear walked nonchalantly on a collision course with the pair of cats. The cats suddenly stopped dead in their tracks and, crouching low, started spitting and hissing ferociously at the bear, their tails erect, bushy as a pair of feather dusters. The bear sat on its haunches, lifting both of its forelegs, and the cat hastily turned and ran away, kicking frost behind them, screeching into the wind.
Kyra laughed, and beside her, the boy was smiling. A reluctant smile at that, but a genuine one nevertheless. They watched the bear plodded back with a look of almost humorous self-satisfaction on its face. The bear melted into the web of shadows cast by the trees, and for a while there was a bear's paws, a bear's torso, then suddenly there was a pair of hands clad in red jacket sleeves, a glimpse of a black cloak falling to brush the ground and out of the shadow came the freckled, chuckling face of Moira.
She came back to where Kyra was waiting to give her two thumbs up. "Excellent!" said Kyra with a broad smile.
Moira settled beside Kyra and looked into the face of the boy still staring at her, his jaw slack. "So you see," said Moira, "we're like you."
The boy swallowed hard. "We?" he squeaked. "She too?" His eyes gestured at Kyra.
Kyra nodded. "I'm a Siberian husky," she said helpfully.
"But…but," stammered the boy. "It can't be. You're only fifth years!"
Kyra looked at Moira. "Slytherins," she said with a shrug.
"Typical, I know," agreed Moira. "Never take kindly to people being better than them."
The boy gave both girls a deadly glare. "Spare me the insult and tell me how you can master the animagus transfiguration skills?"
"That can wait," said Kyra. "The important thing now is to bring you to the hospital wing. That shoulder needs looking after."
"I'm fine!" snapped the boy sharply. "I can take care of myself. Besides, are you deaf, or thick, or both? Didn't you hear me say that we cannot all of us come into the hospital wing with claw marks all over and no plausible explanation to offer."
Kyra's hand went up involuntarily to her neck. Now that the alarm had passed, she could feel the three streaks on her neck throb painfully.
"Ky," said Moira, reaching to touch her friend's hand.
"I'm all right, Mo," said Kyra.
The boy snorted. Moira whirled angrily at him, then sighed in exasperation. "What's your name?"
"What?" shot the boy, not expecting the question. "I see no reason…"
"I'm Moira Boyd," said Moira. "She's Kyra, also a Boyd, but not my twin and not a relation. Your turn."
"Severus," spat the boy. "Snape."
"Nice to meet you, Snape," said Moira. "Now that we know each other, here's the deal. We'll walk to the castle and we'll see you at least into the main entrance. You can go anywhere you like from there, and we'll forget this incident ever happened. But we know your name and we could as easily turn you in, as you could us. You know what they do to unregistered animagi."
Severus made to open his mouth but Kyra cut him short, "Still, if you faint, or drop dead …. then off to the hospital wing we go, explanation or no explanation."
"I shudder to think what Madam Pomfrey would think of me, should she see me in the company of … females … such as you," scoffed Severus.
"Well, think what you'd do to our reputation if our House-mates found out that we've spent the night behind the bushes with a Slytherin, and one with a foul temper at that!" countered Moira hotly. "They would at least forgive us if your face were … well-proportioned, but as it is…"
Kyra giggled at the sudden rush of color on Severus's face. "Oh, well, Mo," she said. "No need to keep him any longer here. It's getting chilly. Let's just see him to the castle."
The two girls rose as one.
"The bandages," said Severus, before adding, in a forced sort of way, "Please."
"They stay on," said Kyra firmly. "Until the castle."
*tbc*
A/N: There is no specific mention in canon as to who the caretaker of Hogwarts was when Snape and Lupin were still students there. But since Fred and George later found the Marauder Map in Filch's office, I hazard to guess that Filch was already a caretaker then. Mr. Norris-the-cat is an imagined character, and Mrs. Noris-the-cat might or might not be the Mrs. Norris in Harry's days in Hogwarts though I don't believe any "true" cat can last that long.
