Boy-Snape

When the trees around them finally thinned and a field of yellow and brown grass came into view, Severus couldn't help but point at it. "Look!" he cried.

"Yes, it's a field," Sirius replied with a roll of his eyes.

Severus huffed and ripped his hand away from Sirius's to cross his arms. He thought it was exciting to finally be out of that stupid forest and away from the scary werewolves. Severus was brought out of his growing brood by a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see it wasn't Sirius, but Joan. She was smiling at him, her eyes kind and glittering with mirth. "I imagine it's pretty great to see a field after days of trees, aye?"

He nodded, happy she understood. Severus had decided he quite liked her. She'd saved Sirius and him from the bad werewolves and showed them out of the forest too. Joan also had only talked nicely to him from the moment they first spoke. He really hoped for her sake that her family didn't care she was a werewolf and would take her home and let her go to Hogwarts after she caught up to where she was supposed to be.

"Alright, yeah, you might have a point," Sirius relented. "Where's the village, though?"

Joan gestured to the horizon. "Just past this field here you'll see an intersection and a Muggle bus stop. Walk past that a bit and you'll hit the village's post office, which is next to its pub. I know the pub is owned by a squib's son. He should be able to get us in contact with someone magical, I reckon."

Sirius was looking at Joan as Severus resisted the urge to run right through the field and to the bus stop. He wanted to go to Hogwarts. He wanted to see Mum . After the last few days, he just wanted to see her, hug her, smell her and feel— Well, even with her he never really felt safe . But at least he didn't feel alone .

"How do you know so much about this bloke?"

Severus looked over at the girl to see she had her arms wrapped around herself and was looking off into the distance. Finally, she whispered, "He's got a young son. Looks to be magic, even. Greyback liked the smell of him a year back when we were passing through on some business or other. He's had us observing the kid and his family around the village the last couple of weeks. It's why we were in the forest. He was going to have us kidnap the son and make him our… prey for the night."

Severus's stomach flipped. He was glad that Sirius had killed the lady werewolf and hurt the other two as badly as he had. The other boy would be safe— At least for tonight. If Severus saw him at the pub, he wanted to try and tell him to be careful. There were bad things in forests and he needed to know to stay away from them. He didn't deserve the pain Joan had experienced or that Severus nearly had.

"Merlin!" Sirius muttered tone shocked and disgusted.

Joan just bit her lip. "I know," she muttered. "Can we please get going? Nightfall's just a few hours off from now."

"Yeah, let's hurry up," Sirius said. "Severus, let's move."

Severus, however, didn't. Instead, he scrunched up his face at them. "I think Sirius should clean his face more," he declared. There were some dried blood trails starting low on his chin and going down his throat. It didn't look too much like blood anymore, but somebody might still be able to tell.

Joan turned to face Sirius more fully. "You're right," she agreed. "Sirius, if I may—?"

He nodded. Joan pulled her sweater over the heel of her hand and began to scrub the teenager's chin. As she did, the girl asked, "How are you, by the way? I remember the first time I…" she lowered her voice to a whisper like she was trying to prevent Severus from hearing. He did, though, as she continued, "I killed someone. Greyback didn't let me cry about it, of course, but I still felt awful for ages."

Sirius didn't say anything right away. Instead, he let Joan finish getting rid of the dried blood and step back. When she wasn't so close, he said, "It was her or us." Sirius looked at Severus and he stared back, holding his breath. "I'm just relieved it wasn't us right now." Offering a smile to Joan, he reached out and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Thanks for asking, but I don't want to talk about it."

Joan blinked. "Okay," she agreed. "You look fine now, by the way."

"Thanks," replied Sirius, touching his throat.

As for Severus, he took Joan's words as a sign they could move on now and start looking for signs of the village. For signs of the pub that was owned by the squib who'd help them get to Hogwarts. Severus bound ahead of the pair, enjoying the feeling of the dead grass around his legs and in his good hand. He'd never thought he would miss something so simple, but he had. He was probably going to be over the moon when he set eyes on a real bed. And something even greater when he got to lay down in it to sleep. Who knew being forced to sleep on leaves for a couple of nights would make him want a bed so much?

When he spotted the bus stop a few minutes later, he laughed and yelled, "It's there! Just like Joan said!"

He stayed put, waiting for the two to catch up. Sirius laughed himself when he saw it. "You're right, kid! Just like Joan said!" Severus watched his friend throw his arm around the girl's shoulder and grin at her. "You're a Goddamn life-saver, Joan."

The girl flushed at the praise and gently shook off Sirius. "Come on," she urged them. "We're being silly stopping so much."

Severus supposed she had a point. They were so close to Hogwarts and Mum, yet they kept stopping now that they were out of the forest. But Severus just felt like they had to. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. It was all so open and the sky! It was so grey . He'd nearly forgotten what it was like to just look up and see it go on for forever. Even though he didn't want to move so quickly, he let his good hand be taken by Joan and swept through the rest of the field and down the road past the bus station and then further past trees and fences and more fields. When he spotted the post, he gasped, but the girl refused to let him slow and tugged him right along with her up the steps of the pub next door.

Walking into the establishment abruptly left Severus very shy and he went to hide between Joan and Sirius. From the relative safety of being between their legs, he peeked out to take in the pub. It wasn't a terribly big place. A little dimly lit and made out of a lot of wood, but it felt a lot warmer than the one Dad and his coworkers liked to drink in. Some elderly men at a table by the pub's fireplace were eyeing the three of them, but said nothing as Joan led them straight up to the bar.

"Is the owner in?" she asked the squat, blonde woman behind the counter. The woman paused in cleaning cutlery to look over the three of them. Her gaze was sharp, but it turned concerned and a little warm at the corners as she did so. Severus wondered if she was perhaps a mother. Maybe, given the fine lines around her eyes, to teenagers like Sirius and Joan. He liked that thought. It made her feel like she was a kind lady.

"You kids need help?" she asked.

Joan nodded for them. "Can we please speak to the owner?" she insisted for the second time.

The woman firmed her lips into displeasure a moment, but agreed nonetheless. "Yes. Let me call for him." Turning her back to them she walked over to an open doorway at the other end of the bar and called, "Daniel! There are some kids out here asking for you."

She returned over to them afterward and said, "Why don't you three have a seat. I'll get you something to drink."

Joan sounded relieved when she replied, "Thank you, Madam."

Severus was lifted off the ground by Sirius then and placed on one of the bar's high stools. He smiled at his friend when he sat down next to him and then at Joan when she placed herself on the other side of him. A minute later, the woman returned with three glasses of what looked to be fizzy drinks. Severus felt his eyes grow as wide as dinner plates. He'd heard of his primary school classmates drinking this stuff, but never had the chance himself. Mum just thought it was some silly Muggle thing not worthy of them and Dad said they weren't wasting their money on something that was just meant to rot teeth.

"On the house, kids," the woman said as she handed out the drinks.

Severus wasted no time putting the glass to his mouth and taking a gulp of the brown, bubbly liquid. He savored the sweet taste and marveled at the way the way it fizzed on his tongue. It was no wonder to Severus why people enjoyed this drink so much. He looked over at Sirius and Joan and saw them holding their glasses, but not drinking from them. In fact, Sirius was looking a little suspiciously at his drink. "It's good," Severus told them, taking another sip to prove it.

Hesitantly, both lifted their glasses to their mouths and tried a sip. Once they did, he hid a smile in his glass at their reactions. Sirius seemed outright offended at the drink from the way he was smacking his lips, while Joan was on her second sip and quietly humming her delight.

"That's too sweet," Sirius said. "Tastes like pure sugar."

Joan smiled over at Sirius. "Oh? I like it because of how sweet it is. I never got anything remotely sugary when I was with Greyback and his pack."

Sirius muttered something that sounded like a swear and tried another sip only to make a face and put down the glass altogether. Severus and Joan shared a look over their own glasses and chuckled. Over the next couple of minutes, they steadily sipped their drinks in companionable silence while Sirius watched for the pub owner to come out from the doorway. Finally, a tall, balding man with a strong cleft chin stepped out from that doorway the barmaid had called through several minutes earlier. He was wiping his hands of grime on an apron tied around his narrow waist and scanning the pub. Severus assumed for them. Finally, when his eyes landed on the three of them huddled at one end of his bar, he covered his mouth with his hand, recognition evident in his eyes.

"Jesus," he said. "You're that Sirius Black boy, aren't you?"

Sirius sat up a little straighter as he stared over at the man with an impish smile. "In the papers, are we?"

The pub owner glanced around. "Why don't you kids come in back?" he suggested.

Severus looked at his glass longingly. He had a third left to drink and he was quite sorry to leave it. The man appeared to notice his dejected look as he said, "You can bring back your drinks while we… discuss how you three got yourselves all the way out here."

Sirius helped him off his stool and Joan handed him his glass as they rounded around the bar to follow the man into his establishment's kitchen and then up some stairs hidden behind a curtain to a small, homely furnished lounge. Severus blinked when he saw there was a boy in it reading on the room's sofa. His hair was cut very short and he had strong cleft chin just like the man. Severus had little doubt he was the pub owner's son, the would-be victim of Greyback. The boy looked up from his book when he saw the three of them.

"Dad?" he questioned.

"Go to your room, Jimmy."

The boy, Jimmy, puffed out his cheeks. Putting down his book, he walked over to an open doorway behind the sofa and then closed its door with a hard slam behind him. Jimmy's dad put a hand to his forehead. "Thank God his Mum's out of town till tomorrow visiting her sister."

"Yeah," Sirius said awkwardly, "I guess she doesn't know about magic?"

"I reckon it'll come up in another year or two," the man admitted. "Jimmy's accidental magic's become harder to dismiss as tricks of the eye and faulty memory this last year and he'll get his letter in three."

That made him Severus's age. Well, maybe not really . But right now they were. He turned a curious eye on the closed door and wished he could go in and talk to him. See what it was like for him to be a wizard in this little village of Muggles. If he felt just as much alone among his peers as Severus did. But he knew he couldn't. There was no time— Not even to warn him to be careful like he'd wanted before they came. Instead, he raised his glass of fizzy drink to his lips and took a sip. Maybe he could leave the boy some kind of note if he could find loose paper and a pen.

"You can get us in contact with Hogwarts, though, right?" Sirius asked the pub owner.

The man nodded before he jutted his thumb toward the room's fireplace. "It's still connected to the Floo network from when my mum was alive and her siblings were visiting her all of the time." He turned away and swung open the door of a small closet. "Just have to find the— Here it is!" He brought out a wooden box and opened it to show that it was full of floo powder. "I'll call up my cousin," he told them. "She'll know how to get in contact with Hogwarts. She's mates with one of the professors there." He looked at the three of them. "Just— Do you know where that other boy is? Severus Snape? And can you tell me who these two are?"

Severus looked up at Sirius, who only shook his head. "That's a really long story. But this kid here is Severus Snape," he told the man, gesturing down at Severus. "And she, Joan, helped us out of the forest, so now I'm helping her out."

The man nodded, now looking between Severus and Joan in a confused, uneasy way. Severus wondered what he thought of them. Him, a kid who was supposed to be a teenager, and Joan an oddly dressed girl who'd helped them out of the forest when, really, she should have been at Hogwarts like the two of them. The pub owner coughed. "Er, right," he said. "Why don't you three go take a sit-down in the kitchen while I make the call?" he suggested while waving toward a closed door.

"Joan, you and Severus go. I'll stay here to help him with the firecall and talk with his cousin if anything needs clearing up," Sirius told them, nudging them gently toward the closed door opposite of Jimmy's bedroom door.

"Okay," Joan agreed for both her and Severus and she steered them toward the kitchen. Severus didn't really want to leave Sirius, even for just the next room, but he didn't think he had a choice. Shoulders stooped, he let himself be pushed into the kitchen and then a chair. There, he nursed the last of his fizzy drink and scanned the room for paper and a pen. He smiled when he spied a pad of notepaper hung next to a telephone on the wall and on the counter next to it, a jar of pens, pencils and other daily utensils.

He looked over at the girl to see her eyes were fixed on the doorway, watching for Sirius to come into view with news from Hogwarts. Putting his now empty cup on the kitchen table, Severus got up and quietly made his way over to the phone. Fishing a pen from the jar, he used it to scrawl on the bottom of the notepad's top page:

Jimmy don't go in the forest. It is dangerous.

Satisfied with his message that would surely be found by someone before the boy could even think about going outside again, Severus put the pen back in its jar and sat back down, causing his chair to squeak and draw Joan's none-the-wiser gaze. She grinned at him while, from the corners of his eyes, he watched her fingers wring the hem of her sweater nervously.

"Just a little longer," she promised.

Severus nodded. "Uh-huh and then I'll get to see Mum and Professor Dumbledore will find your family for you."

Joan reached over for his good hand, which he let her have, and when she squeezed it just a little too hard, he didn't so much as wince. He was sure she didn't mean it, she was just too worried to watch her strength. "That's right," agreed Joan, though, it felt as if she were saying it only for his sake and not because she believed herself. Severus didn't let it bother him. Joan would see the truth soon enough.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter :) While they're safe from danger, there's still some rough moments to come!

Thank you so much for reading everyone!