Authors Note: I really wish I owned them, but I only own Jane at the moment.. Shame really... Thank you Sara for being my first ever reviewer. I had decided I wouldn't continue if I didn't receive a review by the end of the first week. But now I have no choice. I will do my best to be regular but make no promises. I have a high workload at University and don't really want to drown. Sorry this is only short.

Jane watched the man with the strange clothes from a safe distance. Sure, he was ill and incapable of hurting her, but you could never be too careful. That was one of the first lessons she had had to learn. She would care for the stranger who had invaded her world without warning as best she could, but she would watch him carefully too as his condition improved.

The man groaned. Jane moved cautiously forward and touched his face, then fell back startled when he opened his eyes. "Sick," he croaked. Jane studied him, he was indeed paler than he had been while asleep. She moved quickly back to him and moved him gently onto his side, stroking his face and rubbing his back as he vomited. She waited until it eased then wiped his mouth.

Snape rolled back so he could look at the girl. She was watching him with pale blue eyes that tried to hide just the barest hint of fear. Surely she couldn't fear him, surely not. He could barely move and was in no fit state to hurt anyone.

"I'm Severus Snape. Are you Jane?" Snape was unsure if her name was Jane or if it had simply come to him in a dream.

The girl nodded. "Yes."

"Jane, where are we?"

"London."

London! Gods! He was hundreds of miles from the safety of Hogwarts, with no effective method of getting back there. "How long have I been here?"

"Nearly four weeks."

Snape looked up, shocked. "Four weeks?"

The girl nodded. "Nearly. For the first week you didn't wake up. I thought you would die." Snape nodded. He still thought it was a possibility. It would be a certainty if the Death Eaters managed to find him before he got back to Hogwarts. "After that you drifted in and out of consciousness, but still weren't too with it."

Snape nodded at the information. He remembered so much, but he realised that most of it must have been the dreams of a tormented mind. All he could remember for certain was this girl. Jane. She had cared for him. He would remember her gentle fingers and soothing words. Yes, she had been real, the pain had been real, but the continued torture had probably been a figment of his imagination. He closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.

He woke later, startled to find a body curled up beside him. He stiffened involuntarily and the small body stirred, sighed and rolled around. Snape found a dirty face and two clear blue eyes looking at him sleepily. Jane.

"You woke me up," the young girl's sleepy voice accused. Snape thought she sounded even younger as she was, somewhere between asleep and awake. He wondered how old she really was.

"Sorry." He apologised, abashed.

Jane shook her head. "No, I'm sorry for using you as a pillow, but you were shivering so much last night I was worried you would get sicker." More awake now, she pulled away quickly.

Snape watched the girl, standing nervously just beyond reach. "Thank you then." She looked stiff and uncomfortable, eyes drooping with sleep. "I'm still cold now," he added as an invitation.

She looked at him suspiciously.

"Really." He added.

She relaxed and nodded. Moving back to him she laid down, pulling the blanket back up, and curled into his body. "It snowed. I guess it is January, so that's no surprise. I'm sorry I can't give you more blankets," she apologised guiltily. Snape felt the girl's shoulders shaking. She was crying at her perceived inadequacy.

"Don't cry child. You have done more to care for me than I deserve." Uncomfortably, unused to consoling children, especially young girls, he put his arm around the small child and joined her in sleep.

When he awoke again he was disappointed to find himself alone. Somehow that made it worse.