Snape decided that it wouldn´t help to overexert the boy, so he kept their stages easy. As the youth felt better, he refused to be carried, so this wasn´t longer an option.
The bad thing about the whole matter was that it lenghtened their journey. Winter was nearing. Soon it would be even more difficult to feed them both. The peasants were bringing the harvest to a close, people picked their apples and pears. Soon they were going to be forced to find food in the villages.
The potions master hated the thought. Doing it in human form was dangerous as the Dark Lord could get word of their whereabouts and trying in cat form was going to be humiliating for the older wizard.
The boy was a gorgeous cat. He´d – undoubtably – have no trouble to miaow his way into a heart and a house, but Snape himself was a rather shabby beast. Who in their right mind was going to feed him? The boy had stolen a chunk of meat for Snape once, but the potions master´d rather not repeat the experience. Living of the scraps of Potter´s meal had been humiliating beyond measure. He´d have refused hadn´t it been for his hunger.
-x-
The third week away from home blessed them with rather warm and dry autumn days. Snape insisted they stay away from settlements and led the way through fields and woods. The younger wizard followed obedienty, though not thrilled. Harry Potter, Snape realised, liked to be in company. The boy missed the opportunity to talk to people and be it only for a brief ´hello´.
They travelled in cat form most of the time, but they transformed when it came to meals. Nature offered mainly edible plants and those were not desirable in cat form. Neither wizard wanted to think of traditional cat meals. Mice were out of question. It wasn´t so much that he hadn´t done it before – he had while in the service of the Dark Lord, back then before Dumbledore took him in – but he had no desire whatsoever to do it again.
"You know," said the boy as they were collecting the last blackberries of the year in a small forest, "I was thinking about something."
"Pray tell." Snape was a bit fearful what a hungry, bored Harry Potter would come up with.
The boy looked a bit hurt by Snape´s sarcasm. He must feel even worse than the potions master had thought, for usually the boy refused to show that his teacher´s cruel tongue had any effect on him. "Yes, I actually DO think from time to time," the boy snapped, "I thought, why don´t we go to the villages? Volde... He can hardly survey all the backwaters. We could find work. And get decent meals."
"Oh, and how are you going to explain to the muggles why you´re wearing a dress?"
Potter bit his bottom lip. "We could get ourselves muggle clothes."
"How?"
"Borrow?"
"You mean steal."
"It would look like stealing first," the boy admitted, "but when we´re back, I could pay for what we take."
Snape snorted. "Knock, knock, knock, who´s there? – Me, the guy who purchased a shirt from your clothesline three months ago. – You´ve got humour, Potter."
The boy looked taken aback. "Three months? Do you really think it will be that long?"
The potions master nodded curtly. "Not necessarily, but it´s quite possible. If we don´t find a magical means of travelling by chance, we´re likely to need several months. Unless Dumbledore comes to find us before."
"But it´s Oktober!" cried the boy. "It will soon be snowing. I don´t know about you, but I´m not wearing anything but my trunks under my robes."
"I´m aware of that," sighed Snape, "and I didn´t go for trousers for our trip either. I thought there was no point in having to take them off to try on clothes..."
"We´re going to freeze unless you know how to do a warming charm wandlessly, I for one don´t." Potter was upset. "We´ll need to get something to wear anyway!"
Snape bought some time by picking some more blackberries and chewing on them leisurely. "As much as I hate to admit it, you´re right Jim."
"So when are we going?"
"Tonight. People won´t leave their laundry outside once the weather is really bad."
-x-
"Explain it again, Jim." The potions master sat propped against the wall of a toolshed. "Why would anybody buy a machine when all you have to do is throw your laundry over a line and wait?"
"They´re called tumble dryers," the boy repeated patiently. "And muggles like them, because you can use them no matter how the weather is and it´s quick. That, and the neighbours won´t see your unmentionables."
"Bad for us." The potions master said tiredly.
"Not everybody has them. We just have to keep looking."
"We have been looking – and risking discovery – for nearly two hours."
"Perhaps in the next village."
-x-
"I look like a clown! – Don´t you dare agree!" The potions master looked even more disgruntled than usually.
They were back to the woods. Potter wore muggle jeans and a blue sweater. There was a weird muggle comic on the sweater – some sort of robot, Snape thought, but he wasn´t an expert – but it wasn´t too bad. At least not next to what Snape wore.
The potions master sported a pair of muggle trousers in a greenish-brownish camouflage pattern and a brown sweater with another comic on it. Only this one showed a comic girl with an overly big head and a too short dress, which may have been red once, but had faded to pink after too many washings. ´Betty Boop´, gaudy once red, now pink letters said.
"It was the only garment that would fit you, Toby," said the boy. "It´s not my fault that the only muggles without a dryer we found have a bad taste in clothing."
"I didn´t say it was your fault."
The boy snorted. "At least it looks warm. You won´t freeze."
"It´s ridiculous. Perhaps freezing is not so bad an alternative."
"You can wear your robes as a coat over it."
The potions master snorted. He closed his robes tightly around his frame and transformed to sleep the day away as a cat.
-x-
Snape was woken by angry hissing and spitting. What he saw made his blood freeze. Harry Potter, only hope of the wizarding world, stood eye to eye with a polecat, a very angry polecat that was. The boy – in his catform – retreated step by step. His tail twitched nervously, his hair was bristled and his ears lay flat on his head.
The polecat ducked, ready to jump.
With an angry hiss Snape stood beside his charge. He didn´t get the desired effect however, but made the polecat jump at the boy. Snape threw himself in harm´s way without a second thought. Soon he and the polecat were rolling hissing and spitting on the forest floor. The animal made good use of its teeth, but so did the potions master.
Snape was just thinking that he was gaining an advantage over his opponent when he was grabbed around his middle and pulled out of the fight. He struggled, but stopped when he heard Potter say "Stop that or I´ll drop you," in a soothing voice. Amazed, he watched the boy kick at the polecat and the latter go flying with a last angry squeak.
Potter stroked Snape´s back twice before setting him down. The potions master transformed immediately. "Can´t you even stay out of trouble for five minutes? What did you do this time?"
"No, I´m not hurt, thanks for asking," the boy snapped back. "What I did is quite simple. I existed. I woke when that stinking ferret was biting my tailtip."
Snape half expected the boy to turn around and waggle his tail to demonstrate where the beast had attacked him, but of course he didn´t. Potter had no tail in his human form.
"Anyway, thanks for saving me again," the boy continued. "I was disorientated when I woke or I´d have thought of transforming earlier. Are you hurt?"
The potions master took his time looking out for pain in his consciousness, but there was none. "It seems not."
The boy exhaled in relief. Snape hadn´t noticed him hold his breath. "I´m glad about that," the boy admitted. "You saved my hide so often, I´d hate the thought you got hurt in return." He blushed.
Snape ignored the boy´s discomfort and looked up at the patch of sky visible between the tree tops. "Dawn will come soon, we can as well start today´s stage."
"You know, now we have muggle clothes we should really think about finding work. I´d like a decent meal for once."
They hiked in human form for a while, but when the next village came into sight, Snape transformed and the boy followed his lead. Working for muggles was out of question as long as they could find food elsewhere.
-x-
The prospect of spending a good part of winter hiking north seemed to motivate the boy to double his efforts. He walked faster than before and refused to rest until the sun was high in the sky the next day.
In fact the boy´d have continued still, but Snape just sat stubbornly when they passed another barn. At last the boy gave in and they found themselves a soft spot in the hay for the day. Before they went to sleep, they had a meal of carrots and tomatoes. Snape had learned his lesson from Selene and never failed to walk around a barn when they reached one. Many muggles, it turned out, had small vegetable patches by their barns.
"I wish it could be something warm for once," sighed the boy as he nibbled his fifth carrot. "Though I´d not say no to a nice roast either."
"Stop talking about things that are out of reach for the moment." Snape snapped and bit into a tomato.
"I´ve been thinking," said the boy.
"Again?" This time the potions master didn´t even try to hide his sarcasm, but the boy seemed to feel better as he didn´t react to the tone at all.
"Perhaps we don´t have to go all way to Hogwarts. Where do the Order members live? Isn´t there any of their homes nearby? Or at least closer than Hogwarts?"
"Probably," said the potions master, "but as we´re at war, neither of the order members knows about the others´ homes unless they´re close friends and have been for a long time. I, working as a spy, haven´t been told about any, both by Dumbledore´s order and my wish. It´s possible we walked past several homes of order members. If we did, I wouldn´t know."
"I don´t know about any either," mumbled the boy. "Ron´s house is the only wizarding home I´ve ever been to apart from Grimmauld Place. And I have no idea where that is exactly."
The potions master snorted.
"So that isn´t an option either." The boy sounded defeated.
"I thought of it, too," Snape said softly. Why was he comforting Harry Potter of all people? "I didn´t mention it as the idea was entirely useless."
The boy sighed.
"We´ll return home safely," Snape said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. "It may take a little longer, but we will."
Potter smiled weakly. Then he transformed and curled in a ball.
-x-
The pleasant autumn weather turned into early winter storms without much warning. One day the country glowed golden in the sunlight and the next morning it was covered in frost and the first snow.
The potions master and his charge had retired to another barn in the small hours. There was no trace of snow then and so Snape was taken by surprise when he opened the barn door and stepped outside to look for vegetables behind the building.
"Crap!" he swore when he saw the snow-covered landscape. He stumbled to where he hoped to find some vegetables. The tomato plants looked miserable under their snowy caps, but at least they still bore fruits. The potions master picked several frozen tomatoes. He tried to pull up some carrots, but had to give up. The frozen ground wouldn´t let him get any.
"Did I hear you shouting?" Potter asked when his teacher reentered the barn. He sat half hidden behind a heap of hay.
"You can come out, there´s no danger," Snape said matter-of-factly. "It snowed last night." He placed the tomatoes on the floor.
The boy turned up his nose. "I swear, I won´t touch a tomato for a year when we return home."
"You´d rather be grateful we have those," Snape scolded. He tried to look cheerful as he bit into one of the red fruits, but Potter´s amused grin told him that he failed miserably.
-x-
There was no point in wasting time. The weather wasn´t going to improve. So Snape transformed when he had finished his meal and beside him the boy followed his lead. Side by side they left their shelter and started further north.
"You can´t be serious," Potter complained five minutes later.
The potions master started. The boy had transformed in broad daylight. What if he had been seen?
After looking out for onwatchers and not finding any, the older wizard resumed his human form too.
"What are you talking about?"
"This!" Potter gestured at the snow at large. "My paws are frozen!"
"Jim," Snape hissed through gritted teeth, "millions of cats all over the world run through snow every day. And it doesn´t hurt them a bit!"
"Well," snapped the boy, "perhaps it´s because I´m not really a cat. I´m a boy, who´s pretending to be a cat. Can you see the difference?"
Snape felt his temper rising. "For your information, JIM, I´m not a born feline either and I can walk perfectly well through the snow. My PAWS are not frozen. Perhaps it´s not that you´re pretending, but pampered."
"What?" Potter stood his ground. "Whom do you call pampered? Haven´t I followed you over the past three weeks without a word of complaint? I´ve been living of tomatoes and corn without ever voicing my disgust and don´t you dare tell me it isn´t disgusting! I saw your face back there when you had breakfast!"
The potions master pinched the bridge of his nose. "Jim," he said with a calm he didn´t feel, "the circumstances of this journey are beyond our influence. Things won´t get better by complaining and quarrelling."
"Can´t we just stay in human form?" The boy asked. "At least as long as we are in the open country?"
"I guess it wouldn´t hurt," replied Snape as he turned and marched on.
The boy followed quietly.
They walked all day. There was no lunch as the snow covered what little they would have picked up from the fields so far.
"What will we eat?" asked the boy as the sun sank towards the horizon. "I don´t mean to complain, but it won´t help if we are too weak to walk."
"You´re right. I guess we´ll have to try and get food from the muggles as the snow prevents us from finding anything ourselves. Can you miaow pitiably?"
"I guess I can manage," grinned the boy. "Shall I put on my best kitty eyes?"
The potions master snorted and proceeded towards the village. When he thought that transforming any closer to the settlement would be unsafe, he resumed his cat form and soon the boy was tripping in his furry self beside Snape. Every few steps he stopped and shook his paws.
-x-
They found shelter in a farm-house. The farmer´s wife, a plump, but friendly elderly woman opened her door for them after Potter had pulled all the stops, including miaowing, yowling, looking miserable, kicking his heels – Snape hoped he wasn´t going to rub his paws to emphasise he felt cold for it would be most un-cattish – and rubbing against the woman´s legs.
At last they found themselves in a warm and cosy kitchen with a bowl of milk in front of them. When they had lapped up the last drops the woman sat beside the tiled stove and pulled Potter onto her lap. She stroked his fur and scratched his ears.
Snape jumped onto the bench beside her. He had to stay close to the boy to be able to protect him and that the stove was warm didn´t hurt.
"You are friends, aren´t you?" the woman said softly and tickled the potions master´s ears.
Snape had to use all his willpower not to bite her. Beside him Potter purred like a little engine. Reluctantly Snape had to admit that the boy was the better cat.
"Don´t tell me you took in some strays again!" The farmer, a tall, slender man, entered the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. He looked at the two cats angrily.
The potions master stood and hissed, arching his back. Potter hopped from the woman´s lap elegantly and approached the man. He sat beside him and rubbed his head against the man´s leg only to be kicked aside lightly.
"Stop that!" grumbled the man. "Fluffiness won´t buy you anything here. This one," he approached Snape and lifted him by the neck-fold of his skin, "seems to be vicious. Maybe he can help us get rid of the mice in the stable. – What´s for dinner?" He sat the potions master back down on the bench and took a seat by the table.
"Shepherd´s pie, dear," said the woman and placed a plate in front of her husband.
The food smelled great. Unfortunately the farmer wasn´t ready to share and all the two wizards got was a watering mouth.
Potter tried to move the farmer by miaowing, but Snape wasn´t going to join the humiliating act. He sat there and glared daggers at the farmer while the man ate. This, it turned out, was the right course of action.
"You´re a tough one," the farmer said to Snape, the cat, when he stood after his meal. "You´ll work for your keep, won´t you?" He grabbed the potions master and his student around their waists and carried them outside to the stable. "We have an infestion of mice in here. Catch them and you will be fed." The farmer sat the two cats on the floor.
Snape stepped away from the man cautiously. He pricked up his ears. There, a faint rustling told him where to find the mice. He ducked and slid closer. As soon as he saw the mouse, he jumped.
The rodent squeaked, but it was defenceless against the potions master´s claws. Proud of his quick success, Severus Snape, potions master at Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry, took the mouse by its tail and carried it over to the farmer. He dropped it at the man´s feet and looked up.
"Well done," cried the man, "you´re a clever one!"
All the while Potter had sat quietly beside the man and watched.
-x-
The farmer left the two cats in the stable with a soft "I´ll get your reward."
Snape put the waiting time to good use by catching another mouse.
"Look at you!" cried the muggle when he returned. "Good cat!" He set a bowl down in front of the potions master. It contained some scraps of shepherd´s pie and Snape started wolfing it down hungrily.
"Not you, lazy!" scolded the farmer when Potter approached the food. He shoved the boy aside with his foot.
Snape miaowed. How was he to communicate to the man that he was willing to share with his companion?
Potter understood and approached again, only to be pushed aside again.
Snape stalked over to the other cat and rubbed his head against it. Then he went back to the food, the boy in tow.
The muggle wouldn´t have it. "You´re a good one, but I won´t feed a useless cat. He wants food, he has to earn his keep."
Potter retreated to a corner and watched the potions master finish his meal.
-x-
Snape sat on the window sill and watched the house. When the lights went out and stayed out for half an hour he was sure that the farmer and his wife had gone to bed, so he dared to transform.
"I´m sorry about the food," he said softly when the boy had followed his lead. "Why didn´t you catch a mouse? He´d have fed you, too, or at least let me share mine."
"Catch a mouse?" the boy snorted. "How would I know how to do that? How do YOU know?"
"Don´t be stupid, Po... Jim. It´s easy. You find the mouse, you creep up, you jump. No big deal."
Potter sighed. "You make it sound easy."
"I can show you." Again, images of him killing Potter, if he told about their journey, popped up in Snape´s mind. "If you manage to learn, we can stay for some days and get propperly fed."
"That sounds enticing. Was the pie as good as it smelled?" The boy´s stomach rumbled.
"It was. Now sleep. We´ll start your lessons in the morning."
They retransformed and curled up on a patch of straw for the night.
The potions master was woken by his companion poking him in the side with a front paw. He hissed. The boy retreated, but looked at the window reproachfully. The first lights of dawn bathed the sky in a greyish red. Snape had to remind himself that the boy hadn´t shared the delicious meal he´d had the last evening. Probably the child was hungry, so his eagerness to learn was understandable. The farmer had made it perfectly clear what was required to get food.
Snape signalled the boy to stay where he was and approached the corner where he had spotted the mice in the evening. He ducked. Something touched his shoulder. With a start Snape turned, only to find himself nose to nose with the other cat. Potter tried to see what Snape was doing, but of course his – clumsy – approach had warned the rodents.
The smaller cat set his teeth and retreated. The boy followed closely. When Snape sat and faced his companion, the boy sat too and looked at him questioningly. They needed some kind of sign language, the potions master decided.
"When I whip my tail twice, you´re to follow. If I whip it only once, you´re to stay behind," he said, glaring at the boy.
"But I can´t see when I stay behind," the boy complained.
"If you scare away the mice, there´s nothing to be seen," the potions master grumbled.
"Why is it me who scares them away?"
"Because we saw yesterday that I´m perfectly capable of stealthy movement."
"Oh."
"So, stay here and watch. Then you can try." Snape didn´t wait for the boy to acknowledge, but transformed back and approached the corner again. Luckily mice were stupid. They´d left their hideouts as soon as the cats had withdrawn.
The potions master ducked and crawled back to his victims. They had been warned, so he had to be extra careful. He waited until one of the furry little beasts came near enough to be easy prey. Then he jumped and covered the unlucky mouse with his paws, claws extended. Immediately after hitting the creature, he bit it. Seconds later he returned to Potter with a mouse in his mouth and a smug look on his face.
Potter returned the gaze with awe before he followed his teacher´s lead. He ducked, he crawled, he slithered towards the mice and – what was the boy doing?
Snape was sure he was going to have nightmares. The big fluffy tomcat was wiggling its behind before jumping! Of course all mice were gone by the time the boy actually attacked.
"What is this supposed to be good for?" Snape snapped after spitting out the mouse. He had transformed so quickly and without giving it a thought that he had it still between his lips when he resumed human form. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Disgusting! "Stop showing off! Who do you think you´ll impress? The farmer´s wife won´t watch you catch mice and she already thinks you´re cute."
The big cat hung its head.
With a quick "Try again!" the potions master resumed catform.
The boy obeyed.
Snape could see how much the boy was trying, but his backside wouldn´t remain still. The potions master tiptoed nearer and smacked the boy´s behind with his front paw.
Potter jumped – and landed on a mouse. Rely on the Golden Boy to succeed by sheer luck.
When the farmer came to the stable a while later, he found both cats waiting for him with a mouse. Breakfast was milk, some sausage-ends and a bit of shepherd´s pie. Snape left the latter to the boy as he hadn´t gotten any in the evening.
-x-
They stayed at the farm for three days. The farmer´s wife spoiled them, especially Potter, whenever her husband wouldn´t look. The boy was slowly getting a hang of how to chatch mice. He still wiggled his behind before jumping, but he learned how to do it without alerting his prey.
Snape´s suspicions proved correct. He had nightmares. In them, Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Was-Supposed-To-Kill-The-Dark-Lord, wiggled his backside in the Final Battle while aiming at the Dark Lord. Why hadn´t he noticed this whim during duelling lessons?
They both regretted leaving their stable, but they had to. Not only in order to return home, but also because the weather improved enough to melt away the snow. Snape wasn´t going to waste time when they could come closer to home relatively comfortably.
The boy followed him away from the farm without complaint. They left the village and, as soon as they had put some distance between themselves and the muggles, transformed. Walking on two feet was pure bliss after three days in catform.
"I couldn´t but notice that you developed a habit of hesitating before attack."
"What?" The boy sounded taken aback.
"Uhm, you keep wiggling your backside."
"Why didn´t you tell me?"
The potions master´s jaw dropped. "Why didn´t I tell you? Why do you think I smacked your buttocks these last three days?"
There was a short silence. "To encourage me to jump?"
The potions master kept his eyes fixed to the ground. If he looked up and the boy blushed, he´d have to kill him there and then.
"Uhm, Toby, I´m not doing this during duels, am I? You would have told me?"
"I never noticed it before."
"Good. It would be dangerous when I face Vol... you know."
"You have to be more careful with his name," Snape scolded. "I told you he can locate you when you speak his name."
"I´m trying."
"Trying may not be good enough."
They walked all night in silence. When morning dawned, they found themselves a dry spot under some bushes and curled up to sleep the day away.