Chapter Four – Escape, or Kidnapping?
"Snape? What the-?" Sarah asked, just woken up on the bed after falling asleep on the floor as she was typing on her laptop in the early hours of the morning again.
"Fucking shit," he hissed, then turned around to face her, shutting the door behind him.
"You-you're real," she marveled, and her eyes lit in understanding. "You were using Carl as a mouthpiece earlier, weren't you?"
"Did I, or not?" Snape smirked. "You can prove nothing. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk quietly about this as civilized adults."
"What makes you think I'm an adult?" Sarah retorted quietly with a smile. "For all you know I'm sixteen with an early start on college."
"Please," Snape scoffed. "Even Granger couldn't pull that off, she couldn't test out of her OWLs."
"So it's real," Sarah said her eyes lighting up. "Wow, it's real."
"Shit," Snape swore. "Not a word to anyone or-!"
"I know, you'll use Obvliviate and I'll forget," Sarah said quietly, sadness in her eyes. "I meant it, though, what I said earlier."
"Oh?"
"About – here."
Snape chose to raise an eyebrow instead of talk. He wasn't going to incriminate himself any more than he already had.
"It's okay, you know," she said quietly. "I wasn't going to tell anyone. I knew you'd apparated nearby but covered it with a gunshot story – my mom gave me hell for that – and could tell that something wasn't right in Carl's voice earlier. You'd be surprised how well I know his voice and emotions considering I met him in January."
Snape kept glaring at her.
"Sorry. I'm rambling like an idiotic Gryffindor that you hate, aren't I?" she smiled softly. "Yeah, I guess I'm like the idiot version of Hermione Granger, only have Harry's lack of common sense, and Ron's lack of tact." Good god, he wanted to yell at that moment, seeing how she'd inherited the worst traits of the bloody Golden Trio. "Yeah, I probably got all the traits of the trio that you hate the most."
"How the bloody hell?" he whispered, and she looked up at him.
"I'm right," she grinned widely. "Wow, for once in my life I'm actually right about someone's emotions. Normally I'm worth crap at it, and am unfortunately blessed with being entirely oblivious unless they're my family…"
"Which you hate," Snape said, and wanted to Accio the words right back to his mouth. "Fine, I admit, I spied on you since you were the first Muggle in sight since I apparated to your school on accident. Happy?"
"Very, sir," Sarah blushed, he could almost feel it. "You're the first guy who – well, not exactly the first guy, but… you're the first one to go with civilized manners of getting to know me that learned this much without getting on my nerves."
"I don't annoy you? What the hell is wrong with you? You should be terrified of me," he hissed, putting his hand at her throat.
"No," she whispered, terrified. He could tell, but she wouldn't admit it. "I don't know, and right now I am since I'm at wand point. To be honest…you fascinate me."
"I what?" he hissed, shell shocked. This girl had some serious issues if she was fascinated by him, the greasy bat of the dungeons.
"You may be – and I quote Ronald Weasley – 'The greasy dungeon git' but that doesn't mean you're entirely heartless. Yes, you can be confusing, but you protected Harry all these years. Underneath that cruel exterior – I think there's just a man who wants nothing more than to be loved in his own way, no matter how twisted and demented that method may be," she said blushing and smiling embarrassed.
"Fine," he hissed, jerking back. "this is bad. You know, and I'm screwed. Minerva's going to kill me…"
"Why would Professor McGonagall kill you? You've done nothing wrong," Sarah said. "And before you say it, by telling Voldemort that you fancied Lily, you saved Harry's life by giving Lily the option. He told her to shove off and she refused. He gave her the option, and she made her choice. You saved the whole world by relaying that message. Everyone may think that Harry's the hero, and in his own right he is, but he'd never have had that chance if it weren't for you."
"How much do you know?" Snape hissed. This was bad, she knew he was a wizard, and all about the war, and worse, he was an open book for her somehow!
"Whatever the series said," she replied simply, and he glared at her. She cringed, adding quietly. "The seven – how – fine, I'll come out and say it. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was the seventh in the series, and the one where you supposedly died by Nagini's venom. Apparently J. got it wrong on that last one."
"Damn," he hissed. "And you Muggles know about all this?"
"It's portrayed as fantasy, but yes, those who read the series know," she replied, eyeing him. She knew she couldn't win a fight, even if she tried. "If you're going to get rid of me, can you use the killing curse?"
"are you daft? I'd go to Azkaban," he hissed, then realized something. "You're still upset. You want out of here, yes?" she nodded a quick affirmative. "You said you'd rather stay with me than with your family?"
"You'd treat me a lot better than they do, I think," she grumbled.
"Good," Snape smirked. "Because I believe that I'm going to kidnap you."
"You're bluffing," Sarah beamed. "You'd really do that? Sweetness, when do we start?"
Severus stared at her dumbfounded that she hadn't protested, but instead agreed with him about his insane idea. He smirked, "Now. Grab five sets of clothes, put them in a bag or something, and for the love of Merlin, I don't want to see a mess in my house, so grab some feminine crap."
"Yes, sir," she whispered excitedly, and ran to the end of her bed.
Sarah yanked the comforter onto her bed, opening her closet doors and throwing a large duffel back out onto the bed, and then a smaller one. She grabbed a bunch of shirts from atop a white dresser, which was far too small, and jerked open the top drawer to reveal undergarments. Grabbing all of her underwear and her remaining bras, she stuffed them into the small duffel bag, which Snape made a mental note to never open unless his life depended upon it. Five T-shirts, five pairs of shorts, five sets of pants, five long sleeve shirts, two jackets, and one bag of feminine hygiene products and toiletries later, she turned to him and nodded. He jerked his head, and she followed, her heart racing.
"I tried this once," she whispered as they crept through the house. "Two and a half years ago. I was sixteen, rash, idiotic, and crept home with my tail between my legs as I got to the end of the street. It was so fun, and worth the scare that I gave my parents the next day. They gave me hell for it though, but I put my foot down and threatened another escape. That snapped them to their senses."
"Dunderhead," he muttered as they got to the back door. "Do you want the dog to come with us, or can we leave it?"
"I'd rather we took her," Sarah said. "I paid for her myself, and she's a purebred, although dog shows would never admit it like the cowards they are."
"Get her cage," Snape hissed, and Sarah shook her head.
"I can't. It's in my room, buried under a crate and bucket full of stuff," she whispered back. "But, I might be able to get the cat's cage. It's smaller, and she'll be mad, but it's the only choice we've got."
"Forget it, I'll come back for her later," Snape hissed as they made their way back to the debris he'd landed beside. "Come, there's not much time. I'm not sure about how I want to do this… I've got enough for two more plane tickets, but I'll need to apparate us."
"Okay, I'm ready," she whispered after steeling herself. He turned, and they went with a louder crack than before.
