Disclaimer: Not Mine. I just own the idea for the plot and the Other Character(s), otherwise everything else belongs to JK Rowling and the people behind the Harry Potter movies.
Summary: He was on the run and needed someone to elude the people after him. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
PhoenixRae's Note: This is a completely AU story. So forget what you read in the third, fourth & fifth book. None of those events happened -- yet. winks Well, some of the events in the third & fourth book were used, but as for the events in book 5...well, it's AU so I might get to book 5 later on. grins So sit back, relax, enjoy and read on. Comment, criticize, review. I wanna read what you think of this first venture of mine at writing a story about this character and writing an AU fic.
II. You're Coming With Me!
Amidst the busy frolickers, mostly students, of Hogsmeade a black, bear-like dog sat scanning the crowd, its forehead drawn together like a man deep in thought, thinking up his next course of action. The dog was sitting very still, its tongue not hanging out from its mouth and panting like most dogs do; it was unnerving to see this giant of an animal sitting there on the corner of the street watching the crowd go by like any human being would.
Finally getting off its rump, the black dog padded along across the busy, crowded street of Hogsmeade until he was on the other end. He stopped outside the window of the newest shop, the first of its kind to open in Hogsmeade if memory served him correctly. It was a shop that sold robes and catered to the rich and...well, the rich witches and wizards who can afford to pay galleons upon galleons for a lousy piece of silk robe. If anybody bothered to ask the dog, which nobody would considering it was a four-legged animal who barks and pants, the dog would tell them they were paying hundreds of galleons for the name of the robe-maker and not the fabric.
The dog sat its rump again outside the newest shop's doorway. It made sure to get its tail out of the way of any intrigued shoppers coming and going into the store. A sore tail was something the dog did not want to deal with at the moment. It would've been the least of the dog's worries, but nevertheless it didn't want to chance having to tend to a sore tail later on. The dog was thinking; it was thinking very hard of what to do next; where to go; what to get. Most importantly, it was keeping an eye out for Ministry people out in search of a man called Sirius Black, an Azkaban prison escapee who has eluded the Ministry of Magic, as well as the Dementors of Azkaban, from capturing him.
The dog smirked, if such thing was a possibility, at the thought of how smart this Sirius Black person was. Nobody's escaped from Azkaban in all the years that it stood there; a massive fortress set in the middle of the ocean guarded by the most deadliest of all guards, Azkaban prided itself as an astounding building of power, terror, and fear due to the Dementors guarding the halls of the fortress. The Dementors of Azkaban were relentless in their pursuit of new souls to feed on; new meat to turn to nothing but crumbling, crying, skulking shells of the man or woman they once were.
Sitting there outside the store minding its own business, the dog's eyes were sharp. Every person coming and going to and from the store; every child that ran past by; every unexpected movement from somewhere not seen by its peripheral vision alerted the dog. But so far so good. No one working from the Ministry passed by Hogsmeade. The dog knew the Ministry people weren't stupid to think that Sirius Black would actually make himself visible in a crowded place.
The dog was about to release a sigh of relief and relax its stance when something -- or someone -- with billowing black robes caught his attention from the corner of his eyes. The black dog turned its head to the direction of the movement and saw a man in his late-thirties with shoulder-length greasy black hair, hooked-nose and a ghastly white complexion headed towards him.
Severus Snape. A Hogwarts professor. From the determined steps of the Hogwarts professor and the direction he was going, the dog knew the professor was headed towards him. Getting up quickly the dog didn't bother thinking and entered the shop, to the surprised shrieks and exclamation of the patrons of the store.
Moments later a blood-curling scream came from the patrons of the new shop at Hogsmeade. One by one the patrons of the store stormed out of the shop, their robes hiked up to keep them from stepping on it. Terrified cries from the almost a dozen patrons were incoherent, but one word was definitely uttered: BLACK.
"Black is here!"
"Sirius Black's in the shop!"
"Run! Black's made an appearance! He's taken someone hostage!"
Terrified shoppers, confused Hogwarts students who were there for their final Hogsmeade weekend before the end of the school year, and fellow shop owners lining the street of Hogsmeade headed for cover. Everyone except three fourth year students; a red haired boy, a bushy-haired girl, and a messy-haired boy with glasses. Their jaws nearly fell on the ground when they heard the name of the person that terrified the shoppers of Hogsmeade.
"Is he insane?!" fourteen-year-old Harry Potter hissed under his breath, turning to look at his two best friends. "What in the bloody blazes is he doing here? He should know better than that," the young boy was upset.
"Maybe it's not him, Harry," comforted Ron Weasley. "These people are so uptight about Sirius's escape from Azkaban they're starting to...see...holy mother of Merlin..." Ron wasn't able to finish his sentence when a movement from the new shop's doorway caught his attention.
Confused, Harry followed his best friend's gaze and his green eyes widened like a pair of flying saucers. There stood, on the doorway of the new shop at Hogsmeade, was his godfather; the notorious Sirius Black. With him was a young witch, about his height, with long dark brown hair and tanned skin complexion; she looked like she was fighting with her captor to set her free.
"Oh my God...he is insane!" exclaimed a dumbfounded Hermione Granger when she finally found her voice.
"He's definitely been knocked off his rocker, Harry," agreed Ron without taking his eyes off the man and woman standing at the doorway of the shop.
"Why does he have to do this now?" groaned Harry.
"Should we approach him?" inquired Hermione.
"Are you crazy?" hissed Ron, "He's already gone over the edge--I doubt he'll be happy to see us go up to him right now and plead with him to go back into hiding."
"But we have to--" the rest of Hermione's words weren't finished when a pair of loud, cracking sound made her jump. She turned towards the shop doorway where, seconds ago, Sirius Black stood with his hostage held in front of him. Now both the man and the young woman he held hostage were gone. "Oh no..."
"Oh yes," Harry and Ron nodded in unison, staring at the very spot Sirius stood moments ago.
"This is not good. This is not good. He just condemned himself to a death sentence by taking a hostage."
"Well, for his sake, let's hope Sirius doesn't get caught or he will be served the Dementor's Kiss," gulped Ron, the thought of seeing Sirius being given the most crucial punishment in the hands of Dementors made him shiver in fear.
A pair of loud cracking sound echoed in the dark, empty cave concealed from view by the long, thick branches that hung low on the cave's entrance. A sleeping Hippogriff, a half horse, half eagle creature, woke up with a start at the noise of two cracking sounds. It raised its massive head and turned its bright orange eyes at the direction of the noise.
"Let me go!" demanded the young woman with waist-length wavy dark brown hair and fierce dark brown eyes. She swatted the hand of the man holding her captive from her arm and nearly lost her balance when he let go of her abruptly.
"Will you just shut up, woman?" growled the dark haired man. "You're driving me crazy with your whining."
"Me, whine?" the young woman looked at her captor incredulously, "I am not a whiner!" she practically yelled. "And how do you expect me to react to all that has happened to me in the space of the last ten minutes, huh? I was just busy minding my own business looking for a nice robe to purchase when suddenly, you materialized out of nowhere and grabbed me by the arm, terrifying half of the people inside the shop and almost gave my mother a heart attack!"
"Just be lucky I didn't kill," the man spat and walked away from the still agitated young woman.
"You wouldn't dare," the woman challenged.
The man stopped from taking another step and slowly pivoted to look back at the woman he had with him. Raising an eyebrow, he assessed his captive slowly, his dark brown eyes traveling from the tip of her shiny dark brown hair to the toes of her black shoes before slowly raking his gaze upward and settled on her pretty face. She had a pretty, oval-shaped face with high cheekbones and a sexy mole just below her left cheekbone. Her beauty was exotic. Her accent neither English, Scottish nor Irish. She had fire spewing out of her fierce dark brown eyes. Her cool demeanor, her spunky attitude, and the presence of authority about her told the man she wasn't easily intimidated...or was she?
Taking one slow predatory step at a time, his eyes not breaking contact with his prey, the man approached her. Each step he took was more menacing than before. Intimidation. He needed her intimidated, and scared. He needed her to be both.
He stopped right in front of her, towering over his prey, but not by much. She came up to his nose, the slight difference in their height gave him the edge he needed to shake the headstrong young woman.
"If you think you can scare me, you're wrong," she said bravely, her shoulders squared, her chin thrust out in the air. Her composure didn't indicate any sign of fear, and he almost applauded her for her bravery until he noticed the dilating of her pupils; she was terrified of him!
"Am I?" his voice dropped to a menacing crescendo. He lowered his face until his nose was just a breath away from hers. He watched fear take precedence over her earlier bravado and couldn't help from curling his upper lip. "I thought so," he snarled and moved away from her.
Quivering in fear from head to toe, the young woman expelled a huge sigh of relief before crumbling like an aged pillar on the dusty ground.
"Why won't you let me go?" she sobbed quietly.
"Because you know where to find me," he snapped and tended the curious Hippogriff who was aroused when he returned with his unwanted guest.
The woman snapped her head up and glared at the back of her captor's head. "You could've abandoned me in London when you had the chance.
"I could've," he agreed, petting the Hippogriff's head.
"Why didn't you? I wouldn't say anything to the Ministry officials if they asked me what I know if that's what you're afraid of."
"I'm not afraid of that, silly girl."
"You're not? Then why did you not leave me in London when we apparated there before heading of to...to wherever the hell this place is!"
"Because I still needed you as a safety net in case those lunatics at the Ministry decided to ambush me," he replied non-chalantly.
"What made you think they wouldn't ambush you even if you had me with you as your safety net?"
The man waited a couple of heartbeats before replying, "Because, sweetheart, you're from a powerful family."
to be continued...