Challenge # 44 The entire story needs to take place within the boundaries of the Forbidden Forest.

Title: Accidental Meeting

Rating: PG

Characters: Snape and McGonagall

McGonagall ran swiftly through the trees, ignoring the limbs that tore at her hair and snagged her cloak. They were getting too close. Running away like this wasn't going to work. They were going to catch her as she tired, which she was beginning to.

When a root seemed to rise up out of the forest floor and grasp at her ankle, she went down on all fours, knocking the wind out of her and grazing her palms painfully. Once down on the ground anyway, she decided that now was the perfect time to transform. As she listened to the heavy footsteps crash through the undergrowth in her wake, she shrank down within herself and became the tabby.

For a moment, she was hopeful that they might not have been close enough to notice her transformation, but as she scampered off into the dim woods, she was disabused of that notion by the first words her pursuers uttered.

"We were right, it was McGonagall. She just became the damned cat."

"Well, don't let her get away. We could be in a lot of trouble."

The second voice was accompanied by a crackling sound and without warning a streak of crimson magic brushed by the fleeing cat's right ear to singe the fur and totally crisp the bush that she was passing.

The scared feline dodged hexes as she ran, plunging into any patch of thicker undergrowth that she could find along her way. Slowly, she began to outdistance her trackers as her fleet little feet began to eat up more ground than their larger and clumsier ones did. She was becoming exhausted though, and she knew that she didn't have the strength to outrun them all the way up to the castle. She needed a place to hide.

Suddenly a gully opened up under her feet, and she tumbled down an embankment trying not to yowl out her fear at the sudden precipitous drop. As she lay in a heap at the bottom of the small ravine, her chest heaving with exhaustion, strong hands seized her and lifted her up to cuddle her close to a black clad chest. Her first instinct was to hiss and claw, but recognition stilled her and filled her with relief. She wasn't alone.

Snape held the panting cat in his arms and frowned down at her in puzzlement, but as he opened his mouth to speak, his head jerked upright instead, and he went rigid as he listened to the crashing footsteps that suddenly broke through the foliage.

"Do you see her?" came the first voice.

"No, damn it, I don't."

"We have to find her. She can't tell anyone that she saw us here."

"Okay…okay…let's try that way."

The two men moved off, skirting the ravine and heading generally towards Hogwarts.

With a frown of concern and a comforting pat, Snape settled the tabby back down against the ground in a sheltering hollow next to the basket he'd been filling with plants for his potions and whispered, "Wait here." Then he climbed the ravine and vanished.

Naturally, McGonagall did nothing of the sort and immediately scrambled up the bank to follow, keeping well hidden in the close undergrowth. As she crept after the Potions master, her sharp little ears suddenly heard voices. He'd apparently confronted her pursuers, and they were talking together.

"…she saw us, and she can't be allowed to tell anyone that we were here," exclaimed an emphatic voice.

"Don't worry about that. I know a quicker way back to the castle. I can intercept her before she gets to Dumbledore and obliviate her. But really, all she knows is that she saw the two of you here in the woods. She didn't see what you were doing, did she?"

The two masked men glanced at each other and one of them shook his head. "No. There wasn't anything for her to see."

"What are you doing here so close to the school anyway, if I may ask? It's foolish to come here in broad daylight dressed as you are. Anyone would know that you were up to something just by looking at you." Snape waited patiently for an answer.

One of them began to reply. "We were sent by the Master. There was something that we had to do for him near…"

The second one elbowed his partner sharply. "It's none of your business, Snape. If the Master wanted you to know about it, he'd tell you. Now you need to go and take care of that snooping old biddy. The Master won't be pleased if she reveals our presence here too soon. You go do your job, and we'll go do ours."

Then both of the masked and cloaked men turned and vanished back into the darkness of the trees.

As Snape stood and watched them go, waiting to move until he could no longer hear them, McGonagall stepped up to join him. He turned and smirked knowingly at her. "I should've known you wouldn't stay in hiding."

"Did they tell you what they were up to?" She kept her voice low just in case they weren't completely out of earshot.

He shook his head regretfully. "No. Just that they were here on business for the Dark Lord. What did you see?" Snape eyed his companion curiously.

"Not much, unfortunately. I just stumbled on them as I was taking a shortcut back from the village. We need to tell Albus about this immediately."

"Yes," he agreed, and they turned together and began to head out of the forest. "Oh, by the way…consider yourself obliviated."

She smiled and glanced sideways at him. "I'll try to remember that."