PART 6

The timing of the other two's arrival and their manner with each other was enough to lighten the mood considerably. Harry backed up but made a conscious effort to not look away and offered her a smile. She returned it with much more fervour than she had done previously and surreptitiously pulled her sleeves down and wiped her eyes a little.

"Right - food," said Remus decisively.

"Yes indeed – you need to eat something before I can give you anything else," Severus added to which she scowled in reply. However she didn't object and Harry could see that now she was upright she was favouring her uninjured leg again. "Here you go," he added, producing the crutches from behind his back.

"You're too kind," she said slipping them on.

"Food?" Harry said again. He hated to admit it but he was starving now that he thought about it.

"Ok – how about we go to the supermarket then?" Minerva asked, her voice filled with mirth. "That way we can stock up on things to stop you lot from starving between pit stops." In yet another sterling example of the oddness of their current predicament Harry found himself greatly amused by how intrigued his teachers were over some of the things you could buy in the supermarket. Remus spent a good ten minutes in the chocolate and sweet section while after acquiring pastries and fruit, bread and crisps along with plenty of drinks Minerva seemed to come across something that she was more than pleased with. He didn't see what exactly it was until they were back at the car.

"As an apology for snapping at you yesterday," she said, leaning forward from the back seat to hand Severus a box. Harry leaned forward to, eager to see what it was that she'd bought him. He snorted into his hand when he realised what it was; a cake baking kit designed to look like a chemistry set. As she shifted back though she winced audibly and was met with stern looks from both the men in the front seat.

"I'm eating, I'm eating…" she said, pulling off the top of a stick of French bread.

When they had all eaten what was probably more than an elegant sufficiency, brushed as many crumbs off the seats as they could, and the Potions master had produced another, much smaller, at Minerva's own insistence, dose of his concoction they all settled back down into their seats to set off once more. Just as they were pulling out of the car park Harry noticed Minerva lean down as if to pick something off the floor. He was just going to offer to get it for her when all of a sudden she was replaced by the familiar black cat. He watched, slightly bemused as the cat leaned back on its haunches stretching its front legs out as it yawned and then turned in a circle before settling itself down. Then something dawned in him.

"I thought we weren't supposed to be doing magic!" he said, trying to keep the edge of panic out of his voice. Severus turned around to look at them and Remus glanced back into the rear view mirror.

"Oh – that won't be a problem," the driver supplied.

"The animagus transformation is like wand-less magic – it wouldn't even cause a blip on anyone's sensor," Severus continued.

"However – I really don't think this is a great idea. If I have to break suddenly Minerva's going to end up sailing over your seat and through the front window Severus."

"Good point," Harry agreed, and glanced over to the cat who had stood up on the seat again and seemed to be making a point of riding the cars movement with ease.

"How about you settled down in the foot well?" the Slytherin suggested. She didn't seem best pleased at the idea but as Harry had surmised he suspected she had to – the alternative was to sit on one of their knees and be held on to just in case. He watched with amusement as she nudged an assortment of jumpers off the back seat and onto the ground before jumping down after them and snuggling up in her new nest. Harry was convinced that none of his class mates would ever believe him if he tried to explain everything that had happened over the last few days.

"How about a pop quiz then Mr Potter?" Harry's attention, which had been happily distracted by the scenery, and the look on Hermione and Ron's faces when they next met and he shared at least some of what he'd learned, was drawn back to the present with a nasty bang.

"What?" he asked before his brain processed what he'd just heard. "Eh – do I actually have a choice in the matter?" he asked when finally his mouth caught up with him. Severus chuckled at this.

"What do you think Lupin?"

"I don't know. Maybe…" He sounded entirely serious for about the first five seconds before collapsing into laughter. "You should see the look on your face Harry!"

"Believe it or not Potter I had no intention of being un-necessarily depressed by your lack of knowledge," Snape pointed out lightly.

"You make it sound like I know nothing," Harry objected. "I bet there are some things I know more about than you." He wasn't sure whether he ought to have regretted being so impetuous once he had issued what was all but a challenge. Remus obviously spotted the upcoming confrontation though as he stepped in and re-directed their attention.

"How about for the sake of us all getting back in one piece we avoid that kind of competition? In any case I think the next instalment of that drama we were listening to yesterday should be on this morning."

A few hours later, a severe weather warning for the North East coast interrupted the drama.

"Where are we?" Harry asked, looking around the road for a sign, having completely lost his bearings some time ago.

"Just about to hit Newcastle," Remus replied. Harry's geography wasn't stunning but he knew well enough that Newcastle was definitely east and fairly close to the Scottish border so was likely to be counted in the 'North East'.

"Spectacular," Severus drawled. "If I'm going to be taking over driving again it might be an idea to it relatively soon," he added.

"Oooh look – a McDonalds. We haven't done that yet have we?" Remus suggested, taking a hand off the wheel to gesture towards a big sign indicating the direction of the fast-food joint.

"Joy to the World," came the sarcastic reply. Unconsciously Harry found himself humming the tune of the well known hymn until he was unceremoniously alerted to his slip by being hit square in the chest with an empty diet coke bottle. Looking up he was just in time to catch Snape turning back around to look forwards.

"I think someone's caffeine levels have slipped bellow the prescribed measures for human interaction." Having said that, Remus made a big show of ordering two large coffees first when they got to the desk.

"Make that three please," Minerva added, coming up behind them after visiting the bathroom. "Unless you want one?" she added. Harry made a face, which seemed to amuse her.

"I'll have a coke thanks," he said trying not to look at the young girl serving behind the counter.

Once they were all fed, watered and had changed their clothes they literally ran across the car park, the dark clouds above them and rising wind heralding the approach of that 'severe weather'. Luckily for them, they were all inside the car and had pulled back out onto the motorway before the heavens opened. Opened and poured down the equivalent of a small ocean on them. All the traffic slowed down to a crawl and despite the windscreen wipers working at ten to the dozen, the visibility level was ridiculously low. There was a quiet tension in the car, Severus was hunched over the wheel and snapped at Minerva when she propped up her feet against the dashboard.

"Do you want to crush your pelvis, again, if we run into the back of somebody, or somebody runs into the back of us?" She didn't reply to this but took her feet down. Over the next three hours they seemed to crawl their way into Scotland but despite crossing the border into a new country the weather was as bad as ever, and it was sheer luck it seemed that the rain seemed to have eased up a little when the engine began to splutter pathetically and smoke began to rise from beneath the bonnet. Remus who was asleep in the back next to Harry began to stir as Snape coaxed the car over onto the hard shoulder before it died entirely.

"Anybody would think we were cursed," Minerva sighed as they sat there in what seemed now just to be a pervasive mist, but one that surrounded them so densely that the lanes of traffic next to them were identifiable only by the blurred lights that moved past them at some great speed.

"One might suggest that at least one of us is," Severus replied coolly, though he couldn't quite decipher which of them he was referring to…

"We need to get out of the car," Remus said as Severus made ready to get out and check the engine. "All of us. It isn't safe to sit inside a car on the hard shoulder – especially not in weather like this."

"Harry – get out our side, away from the traffic," Minerva said, with a hint of the teacher about her. He did as she suggested and pulled on his jumper as he made his way clumsily across the seat.

"Dammit it's cold – I wish I'd thought to bring a jacket with me," Remus said as he hopped from one foot to another. But his cussing was nothing in comparison to Severus's as he slammed the bonnet back down.

"I have no bloody idea what the matter with it is – but it's beyond my expertise," he said once he had all but stomped over to them.

"Well we can give it a few minutes and then try again. If that doesn't work then I guess we'll just have to call the AA."

"Harry – have you got a coat with you?" Minerva asked, wrapping her cardigan tighter around herself and sticking her hands under her arms.

"Ummm – I have a cloak," he told her, moving closer while Remus and Severus talked 'car stuff'.

"Not quite what I was aiming for," she said, seemingly more to herself than to him. "Get it out and I'll see what I can do," she said shaking off her distraction. He opened the boot and leant into the shelter that it afforded him from the wind, opened his trunk and ferreted around for his winter cloak. Pulling it out he handed it over and watched with interest as she turned it over in her hands, unfolding it, seeming to examine it before closing her eyes. Harry was about to ask what she was doing till he noticed abruptly that the material was shifting in her still hands After a few moments she opened them again and blinked as if she was trying to wake up and handed it back to him.

"Try that," he said as he took it and realised what it was she had been doing. What had, up until a few moments ago been his school cloak, was now a thick, waterproof muggle coat. He pulled it on and revelled in the immediate warmth and protection it afforded him.

"Thank you," he said.

"Hood up," she said, pulling it up for him, nullifying her spoken request. "Now, think we can find a couple of spare jumpers for those two?" she asked, heading into the boot and rummaging around the three much smaller bags that they had brought with their own changes of clothes. She did and Harry was glad to hold the spares while she used wandless magic to transfigure them into coats for Remus and Severus. As he did he watched her though and it became plain just how much it was taking out of her.

"No luck," Remus said as he walked towards them. "Severus is calling the recovery service." Harry handed him one of the jackets as the Deputy Headmistress worked her magic on one of her own cardigans. "Where… oh no. Minerva you didn't?" he asked looking at where she was standing, now leaning against the car. Harry watched as she offered him a tired smile as her only reply. Snape joined the group and quickly cottoned on but before he could say anything, Minerva spoke.

"I'm fine. And now we won't all catch pneumonia," she said that as if it was the end of the discussion, handing the Slytherin his jacket. But even Harry could see that the last transformation had left her looking as if a strong wind would blow her over. Severus stepped forward to take it and shrugged it on before helping her with her own.

"Harry – there are a couple of blankets in the back seat of the car," Remus began.

"I'll grab them," he offered, already pulling open the door to the car as the other two men and his Head of House started to make their way up the embankment and away from the disturbingly fast traffic.

A/N: Only one or two chapters left

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Thanks again to Rachel

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Linds

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PS – the AA the Automotive Association the UK's biggest breakdown service.