Boy-Snape

"I think it's going to be another night of sleeping in the forest," Sirius said with great reluctance. Their surroundings were growing darker by the minute and he knew he couldn't keep walking safely for much longer. Especially if he was carrying the kid while he did so. The last thing Sirius needed was to trip over a rock or root and have the kid fall from his back and hurt his broken arm even worse or break the other one too.

Boy-Snape's breath hitched like he was upset at the news and Sirius feared he would start to sob at any moment. Thankfully, instead of crying, however, he warbled in a miserable tone, "Okay."

Sirius's mouth pulled in a frown as he decided to let the kid down and look for a good spot to sleep near their current location. With night probably no more than an hour away, Sirius wanted a place for them to sleep made up while he could still see what he was doing. "Trust me, kid," he said, "I'm no happier about this than you are."

Snape gave a dejected nod of his head as Sirius started to build up a pallet of leaves and other semi-soft brush between two smaller trees. He was hoping, with the way he could feel the wind blowing through the forest, sleeping between the two would block out the worst of the bite from the breeze. Once satisfied that he'd built up a comfortable enough bed for the night, he took off his robe and laid it out on top of the pile. Sirius shivered a bit. He'd have to wait until Snape was asleep to take on the shape of Padfoot, but, until then, he figured he would be alright. The kid had to be exhausted after a day of hiking through the forest and should pass out in no time. Flopping down on the bed, he patted the spot beside him. "Come on, lay down," he told boy-Snape. "Faster we sleep, faster it'll be tomorrow and the faster we'll find a village."

The kid gave him a mulish look. Sirius stole himself to deal with a strop, but, then, it entirely disappeared and Snape's lip started to wobble as he came to lay down beside Sirius. Instead of staying on the other side of their pallet, he pressed himself right up against Sirius's side and asked, "Do you think anyone's looking for us?"

"Of course they are!" Sirius reassured. Though, he had worried the same a time or two over the course of the day. Surely they couldn't be too far from Hogwarts? They hadn't taken the class on apparation yet, which meant Snape couldn't have taken them that far from Hogsmeade. Or that was what Sirius had been hoping. Maybe he was wrong and that's why they hadn't crossed any search parties. Sirius shivered a little. He knew Snape was powerful, the show of wandless magic had proven that today, what if he'd managed to carry them clear across the country? Hell, what if the kid had taken them across the channel and they were now lost in some French forest? Fuck, he couldn't think like that or he was bound to break down and scare Snape into some kind of meltdown of his own.

"I miss my mum," murmured Snape.

Sirius sighed. "Yeah, and I miss my friends," he replied.

For a little while, the kid was quiet. Sirius was almost sure he'd fallen asleep and was going to extract himself so he could transform into his animagus form, when the kid mumbled, "The moon's almost full. What'll we do if we're still lost then?"

Sirius lifted his head and craned his neck to look at the top of Snape's head. He knew what the kid was implying and it almost made him want to scoff. He wasn't feeding Snape to any werewolves. Not that there were any out here. Probably. One never could be sure, he supposed. But that was the last thing he was going to tell Snape. Sirius needed him to sleep. "We won't be."

"How do you know?" demanded boy-Snape, stretching his own neck so he could meet Sirius's gaze.

"Because!" he snapped as he had no better answer to give. What the fuck did he need to do to make the kid go to goddamn sleep so he could stop shivering and turn into Padfoot? Choke him till he passed out? Sirius felt bloody close to doing it too— Consequences be damned.

The kid's dark gaze only turned deeper in the moonlight and Sirius felt suddenly very exposed by it. Yet, for the life of him, he couldn't look away from boy-Snape's stare. Finally, the child blinked and a great sorrowfulness overcame his features as he laid his head back down. He scooted a little ways away from Sirius and from his new distance, he whispered, "Don't let them get me, Sirius."

Sirius bit back a groan and threw an arm over his eyes. He felt guilty, though, he didn't know why. He had no reason to be. Okay, maybe he'd just considered strangling Snape, but Sirius had only half-meant it. Even so, he let his arm fall away from his face and reached over to give the kid's good hand a squeeze. "I won't, Severus."

Severus didn't look back at him, but he squeezed his hand back.

When the kid finally drifted off a few minutes later, he let go of his hand. Standing up, he shifted into his animagus form and then walked in circles around Snape before settling flush against his side. Sirius almost went to curl his nose beneath his tail before deciding to rest it atop Severus's stomach. The extra warmth they would share through the night would make them both sleep more comfortably.

Just as he was to fall asleep, Sirius's nose twitched. He smelled something familiar in the air. Something almost distinctly… Moony. Yet he knew that couldn't be. There was no way Hogwarts's professors would allow students to go looking for him and Severus, or so late. It had to be his nose playing tricks on him. Sirius did miss them, after all. Sure in his belief, he soon drifted off into the same bone-tired slumber that had claimed Severus some minutes before.

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