Cry Wolf

Chapter XXXVIII: Diagon Ally

The first week of school had not offered much excitement for Ginny. Classes were about the same as every year, except now there was even more pressure from the teachers since, being their final year, they had their NEWTS coming up in June. Ginny didn't really see the point of getting frazzled, it was an entire school year away, but most professors were acting like it was tomorrow.

The idea of graduation was a little stressful for Ginny. On top of Severus' disappearance, trying to avoid Harry (who insisted on sitting beside her everyday at breakfast), and keeping a good face on for everyone else, exams were the last thing she needed to worry about. The first week certainly didn't foreshadow the year as being very fun. It wasn't until halfway through the second week of classes that Ginny had something to be truly excited about.

"The Animagus club is back!" Anna-Rose exclaimed, bounding into their dorm room and flopping down next to Ginny where she lay on her bed. The sudden extra weight caused the two to seesaw back and forth for a moment before the mattress settled out.

"Really?" Ginny asked with excitement. Animagus club had been by far her favourite class from last year, even if it had really been extra credit more than a class. She had worked really hard, even studying the book McGonagall had given them, but had never actually managed a transformation. She was always in awe of McGonagall's effortless transition from human to cat, and the way Severus' body easily changed into that of a wolf.

Only one student had managed a transformation last year, a Ravenclaw seventh year that she didn't know who had changed into a short and stocky willow grouse, filling Ginny with jealousy.

"I want to transform so bad!" Ginny sighed, sitting up so she could properly talk to her friend. Endless possibilities of animal forms paraded through her mind, each more exciting and fanciful than the last. "Being something that could fly would be so awesome! Could you imagine what it feels like to soar through the air without a broom?"

"That would be amazing but I wouldn't get your hopes up." Anna-Rose said longingly.

"Why not?" Ginny asked.

"Well, I hear having a bird as an animagus form is pretty rare. There are only three wizards or witches listed in the whole text book McGonagall gave us that had birds for their animagus form." Ginny reviewed all the animagus she'd heard of in her mind, McGonagall was a cat, Severus was a wolf, James Potter a stag, Sirius Black a dog, Peter Pettigrew a rat, and Rita Skeeter a beetle. Out of seven the Ravenclaw girl was the only bird. "And on top of that," Anna-Rose continued, "That Ravenclaw girl, she may have turned into a bird, but she's a grouse, they aren't really known for flying long distances. I mean they can fly, but they like to pick around on the ground more really."

"Well I guess I won't hope for it too much then." Ginny sighed. "I hope I'm not something useless like a fish."

"I just hope I can actually achieve it, it's pretty advanced magic. I heard Grouse Girl practiced every day for like two hours non-stop. Plus I heard McGonagall and Snape talking last year," Anna glanced briefly at Ginny at the mention of Snape, checking for any signs of upset, but then kept going. "I don't think they knew I was listening, but I guess they only expect like two or three people in the class to succeed. I guess there's like a 97% failure rate or something like that."

"Well, I'm gonna be in that three percent!" Ginny said with gumption, trying to squash the twinge of loneliness that had pinched her insides at the mention of Severus. Quickly getting up and flinging open her trunk she found her book, ripped out her bookmark and opened it back to the first page. "Starting now I am going to read this book cover to cover at least four times, and then I am going to practice, practice, practice!"

"That's the spirit!" Anna said with a giggle as Ginny held her book aloft in mock triumph.

And that was how Ginny officially became a nerd like Hermione. Every day she read a chapter in her textbook, and focused on the exercises listed between the pages. She paid rapt attention at club meetings and, to her surprise, so did Ron, who had joined the club with bright eyes and high hopes. Ginny was eternally thankful that Harry had decided not to join. She would have liked it if Hermione had joined but her exact words had been…

"As truly fascinating and extraordinary as it would be to learn to be an animagus from Professor McGonagall, NEWTS are a far more important subject and are definitely what you should be focusing on at this point in your life, Ginny! You can learn to be an animagus any time, NEWTS only happen once. You know what, I'll make you a study schedule, come get it from me after lunch…"

Ginny had taken the first opportunity that arose to "lose" her study schedule, claiming that she dropped it when startled by the moving staircase. Hermione had thankfully refused to make her another one.

Time kept marching on and September grudgingly rolled over into October. The air was beginning to get quite nippy and frost on the grounds was becoming a daily occurrence.

Ginny never thought she would live to see the day, but Dumbledore had actually found them a potions teacher that everyone, absolutely everyone, hated more than they had professor Snape.

The general consensus was not that the new professor, Bibbally Turnrank, was mean, but he was possibly the biggest moron, and most unhelpful person Ginny had ever met. He never asked them questions in class, all of their assignments were book reading, they never brewed potions and if any of them ever needed help they were told to 'seek out the answer in their textbooks.'

"We are so going to fail our NEWTS!" Ginny had overheard a Hufflepuff girl complaining to her friend.

"Snape might have been a mean, prejudiced, git, but at least he knew what he was doing." Agreed a Ravenclaw. This had brought a small smile to Ginny's lips that lasted briefly before falling away.

It had been so long since she'd sent Teneberr away, and there had been no sign of the bird at all. All of Ginny's hopes were beginning to fade into sorrow that made her chest ache with longing.

Where are you? She thought desperately, glaring at the desk where Severus had once sat and glared back at her, seemingly, eons ago. Now there was only an oblivious Professor Turnrank, sitting behind Severus' desk, doing the only task he was outright required to do, mark their assignments from the answer key in his professor's guide of the book.

What a nitwit Ginny thought with annoyance. How she'd like to see Turnrank and Severus go head to head about potions. Ginny was pretty sure that Severus would be spitting mad if he saw how his class was being run now.

To say that Severus was frustrated would be an enormous understatement. Having finally made it to the correct part of London, he'd spent his time hanging around the leaky cauldron in his stolen muggle clothes, trying to look as inconspicuous as you can when you have been unable to shower for quite some time.

He truly felt disgusting; he'd never gone this long without bathing in his life. But what else was he to do? He had no money, no wand, no place to stay, and apparently no luck at sneaking into Diagon Alley.

Truth be told, he was beginning to panic. He knew from the snippets of conversation he caught listening to muggle news programs, that it was midway through October.

If the dark lord can find them he'll surely kill them on Halloween… He thought to himself, knowing how superstitious the Dark Lord was, and that Halloween was an especially magical time of year.

Exasperated, he was standing outside the Leaky Cauldron's entrance, where he had been debating with himself whether or not he should make another attempt to sneak into Diagon Alley, when a familiar voice materialized behind him.

"You there, move out of the way, filthy vagrant," they drawled. Snape spun on his heel and came face to face with Lucius Malfoy. He froze; time seemed to come to a standstill. Survival instincts kicked in and all tiny details around him were suddenly noticeable. The sheen of light on Malfoy's slick blonde ponytail, the glint of light on the end of his silver cane, the smell of fumes from muggle cars as they rushed by, the deep clang of a far off clock striking two, the rustle of feathers as a burly raven landed on a street lamp nearby and let loose a angry 'caw' all flooded his senses.

The panic in him clawed its way up into his throat, he had no idea if it had been death eaters, order members or Aurors that had put him in the hospital and now he was face to face with Lucius Malfoy! What if Malfoy had given him all those terrible wounds? The spell that had done it made it far more likely that a death eater was responsible.

With some difficulty he forced his face to remain neutral, and stared blankly at Malfoy, as if he did not understand.

Play up your stupidity, don't say anything! He thought frantically, hoping desperately that the shabby clothing, homeless appearance and the short hair that he hated would keep him disguised.

"Move I said!" Malfoy snapped, and to his great relief barely even gave him a sidelong glance as Snape stepped aside and Malfoy rushed passed him into the Leaky Cauldron, almost as if he were afraid poverty were contagious. Snape waited a few moments, the Raven stared at him as if to say 'Well? What are you waiting for?' Quickly, he whirled back around and followed Malfoy into the pub; trailing Malfoy could finally be his chance of getting into Diagon Alley.

It was much darker inside the pub. After living outside for so long, it took his eyes a long moment to adjust to the dimness. Once he'd gotten used to the gloom he stepped further inside, his eyes searching the sparse crowd for Malfoy.

He spotted him across the room, seated with a few others in the corner table. Malfoy had the seat directly in the corner, he was assuming so that he could keep watch on the entire room.

'Damn' Snape thought. He was hoping that Malfoy would be going straight into Diagon Ally, not socializing. What was he to do now? He couldn't hang around in this bar, waiting to be recognized. Besides, he had no money, it's not like they would let him hang around if he wasn't buying anything.

"Yes I have some business to take care of at Gringotts, and then Borgin says he has something I might be interested in." Malfoy drawled to his companions in the corner.

Snape felt his lip curl slightly. Malfoy was always such a bigoted git, practically announcing to the entire room that he was going to Borgin and Burke's to look at dark artifacts. At least now he knew that Malfoy was for sure going to Diagon Ally. He would just wait out back in the ally and slip through when Malfoy went through.

"Can I help you sir?" The waitress asked. Pausing in her trek to whichever table she was taking a platter of butterbeers.

"No." He said curtly and then headed for the back door and out into the ally. He squinted in the afternoon sun and set about to the arduous task of waiting for Malfoy. It was nearly twenty minutes of pacing back and forth before the door finally creaked open and Malfoy stepped out, along with Burnolt Binnetly.

'Shit, another death eater.' Snape thought. The two shot him disgusted glances, as if he were something gross to be stepped in, and then walked past him to the brick wall.

"I'm telling you Malfoy, he's alive!" Binnetly hissed.

"Don't be ridiculous, he's dead. The ministry searched for him for weeks, he is not alive." Malfoy said with the boredom of having said it many times before. Snape felt his heart quicken, were they talking about him?

"I told you what I saw, you know what department I work in. He is alive!"

"Surely a mistake or a prank of some kind. He has been missing for months, I was at the battle for Merlin's sakes, I saw how he was injured, and there's no way he survived." Malfoy whispered, clearly becoming suspicious that Snape was just loitering behind them. Quickly he pulled his wand out of the top of his cane and tapped the appropriate brick. The wall began to unfold into a brick archway and the two stepped through with Snape sneaking in behind them. "Besides, even if he's survived, hunting him down will do no good. You'll only land yourself in Azkaban…" The rest of what Malfoy was saying was lost to the crowd as he and Binnetly drifted away from him.

Wary of being recognized, Snape felt very out in the open. With his hair gone his face was out in the open for anyone to spot.

"Never, ever, again will I ever have short hair." He growled at himself before setting off towards the public owlery. Hopefully he could bum enough change off of someone to send a letter.

"Mummy I want an owl!" A brat whined as he approached the pet store. The child was staring longingly at a bird in the window, his hands and face pressed against the glass.

"I told you sweetie we can't afford it." The mother said sympathetically. "Start saving your allowance and you'll be able to get one eventually."

"That will take forever." The child groaned over the ding of the shop bell. Severus stepped around the mother and child and was promptly bumped into by the enormous person exiting the pet store.

"Sorry bout that," A gruff voice said, Snape rubbed his face where he'd apparently been struck by an elbow. "Didn't see ya – Blimey!" the man exclaimed. Snape looked up to see the wildly bearded man that was Rubeus Hagrid staring at him in shock. "Professor Snape! Yer alive!"

The crowd around them went into a hush as everyone within earshot turned to see what was the commotion. Professor Snape? He thought, very aware that many eyes were now fixed on him. Shit, shit, shit!

"Where on earth have yeh been?" Hagrid continued.

"Merlin's beard, it is him!" The brat's mother exclaimed. The crowd erupted into excitement and began to press closer to him.

"Mummy, is that the man who killed the snake?" He heard the child ask in awe.

"Now hold on! Get back!" Hagrid barked over the murmur of the crowd. "Give him some room!" But the crowd wasn't listening, people were shaking his hand, women were fanning themselves in disbelief, others were bowing to him. "That's enough." Hagrid shouted, that and his enormous size was enough make the crowd back off a little, but they were still staring at him, transfixed with admiration, despite his unkempt state. "I think we better be getting yeh out o' here. C'mon, I'll get yeh back to Hogwarts, Dumbledore will be wantin' to see yeh."

Snape hesitated a moment as Hagrid pushed his way through the crowd but quickly fell in step behind the half giant rather than be left behind to the crowd.

"What was that?" He hissed, unnerved by the people waving to him as they left the crowd behind.

"Thank you!" A woman shouted after them. "For everything!"

"Just folks payin' their respects I guess." Hagrid answered.

"For what?" Snape asked. Hagrid stopped and looked at Snape questioningly.

"Well fer what yeh done o' course." Hagrid said simply, at Snape's blank stare he continued, "You do remember what yeh done don't yeh?" Snape shook his head no and Hagrid looked worried. "You are Severus Snape aren't yeh? I mean yer hairs short and yer kinda on the rough side but yer him right?"

"Yes." Snape said warily. He didn't like admitting who he was to a known order member but Hagrid had said he would take him to Dumbledore.

"And yeh don't know why them folks are so excited ta see yeh?" Hagrid asked.

"No." Snape said. Hagrid looked worried.

"I think we better get yeh to Dumbledore soon as possible." Hagrid glanced back at the few stragglers from the crowd that were following them. "Right then, this way."

Snape trailed after Hagrid, walking fast to keep up, but his mind was working even faster.

What the hell was going on?

It was suppertime in the Great Hall and Ginny was not happy about the menu.

"I hate chili." She groaned.

"Have the casserole then." Anna-Rose said, pointing to a dish filled with noodles and what she expected was tuna that did not look much more appetizing.

"I think I'd rather choke this down, thanks." Ginny replied, curling her nose at the offending casserole.

"You could always just fill up on garlic bread, that's- Jeepers!" Anna-Rose shrieked as a black bundle of feathers nearly landed on her plate. Ginny stared in amazement as the Raven situated itself and croaked angrily at Anna-Rose who was trying to push it away from her plate.

Teneberr

"Don't bother it!" She said sharply to Anna-Rose. She held out her hand and the Raven gladly hopped on, hissing in Anna's direction. A few people were around them were staring but Ginny was oblivious, her mind was focused on only one thing. "Did you find him?" She asked the bird.

"Yes." It croaked. An explosion of happiness erupted in Ginny's chest, she felt tears of joy prick at her eyes and looked at Anna in astonishment.

"What is going on?" Anna asked. Ginny thought the grin on her face must be the widest of her life.

"He's alive."

A/N: Finally! A new chapter! I apologize for how long it has been, but my laptop was being a complete piece of crap. Utterly useless, stupid, worthless Dell piece of shit. But now, I am broadcasting live from my brand new Macbook! I love it sooooooo much!

Thanks a lot to Masterdeeds, who was gracious enough to beta this for me

I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I am very pleased with it and am excited to get started on the next chapter.

I am going to try to keep up with this, as best I can, but I start University in September. I'm a bit of a late bloomer having my first year at 22, but I am tired of working retail so it's off to get my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I am definitely NOT going to quit this story, but there may be long breaks between chapters. I apologize!