Snape ran. If he had still been wearing his Hogwarts robes, they would have been whipping furiously behind him, but wearing robes made Snape feel conspicuous, and hiding had become his prime concern over the past week. He ran through the Forbidden Forest like a shadow in snug black clothing, cursing his boots for thudding so heavily against the damp ground.
The rumbling voice of a giant overpowered Snape's sharp breathing. It was deep and contemplative and Snape couldn't understand a word of it. He kept running, hoping he hadn't been caught.
Another giant voice, closer and more nasal than the first, said in English, "I could have sworn I heard something."
Snape had been watching these particular two for days. They usually spoke some form of giant, and Snape had never been interested in learning the language until now. By the look of it, they were guards. They were the only constants around the castle; many others came and went. It seemed to be a sort of headquarters. Snape was trying to discover some of their plan, who was in charge, or whether any other wizards had survived. He hadn't seen a single human since he'd apparated to Hogsmeade a little under a week ago. But all Snape had learned was that giants – or at least this smaller, nasally one – had an uncanny ability to sense Snape's presence, no matter how quiet he was.
The larger giant grumbled. Snape could only understand one word of what he said; stop.
The smaller giant, whose name Snape had gathered to be Sleer, pushed further into the forest, towards Snape. Snape didn't dare turn around, but he could hear branches creaking and sped forward in a burst of panic. Sleer stopped abruptly. "There better not be any varmint here in this forest," he said threateningly. And then Snape heard the suspicious giant turn and retreat to the castle.
Snape slowed to a brisk walk, breathing hard to catch his breath. Sleer had given him several scares before. The giant was built on a small scale, especially compared to his companion, but his hearing was terribly sharp. Sleer had once heard Snape cracking a knuckle and had come crashing into the trees, searching for intruders.
A twig snapped somewhere nearby and Snape froze. He'd managed to avoid the centaurs so far by keeping from their beaten trail, but spending so much time hiding out in the forest had been unnerving, and centaurs weren't the only problem. A young acromantula, only the size of Snape's hand, but still very frightening, had landed on Snape's shoulder the previous night, when Snape had been eating some of the fish he'd accio'd out of a stream.
The wind continued to rustle the leaves and birds squawked reassuringly, so he continued.
The sun began to set. He sat on a large log in a clearing. A flash of his wand and a modest fire began to heat up the cool air. Snape stared into it, thinking about the likelihood of other wizard survivors. There were plenty of people he wished dead and very few he hoped were alive. That there might be every chance the giants had done their job thoroughly, and that he was the only remaining wizard, was a heavy price to pay for the relief Snape felt.
Life had been so disjointed before the giants. Snape's entire existence had collapsed into meaningless, unconnected moments. It hadn't mattered whether he used his shredded conscience or flung it to the winds. Since Dumbledore, Snape had killed several wizards. He'd also sat back and watched many die that he could have helped, like Grawp and Hagrid. On the other hand, he had saved lives. He'd organized the raid on the Weasley hovel, but the memory of the youngest Weasley, and her acceptable Potions work, had kept him from taking any care with the family schedule. They were supposed to have been there. Snape had difficulty breaking the habit of protecting his students. But, like everything else, that botched raid hadn't mattered in the end. Snape had a purpose now, the same as he'd always had, but it wasn't clouded by any moral obligation or lust for power; he wanted to survive.
Another twig snapped. This time, the growing noises of the night – crickets, trampling little footsteps, fluttering owl wings – all stopped momentarily. Snape extinguished the fire with a muttered charm, letting his eyes adjust to his dusky surroundings as he searched for predators. The chirping redoubled.
Snape had learned quite a bit about the new giants in the last few days. They weren't as bent on violence and cruelty as they originally seemed. In fact, compared to the giants Snape had known of his whole life, this breed was relatively calm and civilized. But he wasn't actually sure they were all one breed. Many different giants had visited the school while Snape watched. Their size, shape, intelligence, and even their levels of attractiveness varied so much that Snape could as soon compare one giant to another as he could one type of dragon to another.
The tiny hairs on the nape of Snape's neck stood on end. He couldn't shake the nagging feeling he was being watched, but a quick glance in all directions only turned up a few bats hunting insects. It was nearly pitch black now. An animal somewhere far off howled. Snape lit the fire again.
Snape had remembered something on his second day of hiding out near the giants' operation center. The Prime Minister had mentioned the Bahamas. It hadn't seemed much to go on, but Snape had had to know more than he did about what was happening. He'd apparated to an island he'd seen once, in a flash of Muggle advertising, hoping the image hadn't been tampered with. It might have been, for Snape arrived with an acute headache and aching joints, but he had managed not to splinch himself. And then he'd seen something that wiped all thought away.
A rustle of cloth and a whiff of tobacco. Snape had definitely heard it. It sounded slippery and silken; an invisibility cloak. Snape drew his wand out slowly. He saw the sparse grass near his fire flatten under a heavy, invisible foot and focused his wand on the spot. "Who's there," he asked.
As the cloak slid off the wizard's head, Mundungus Fletcher emerged, filthy and disheveled. Snape scowled. "What are you doing here?"
"Just seeing what's happening," Mundungus said, taking a seat at the end of Snape's log. He was still wearing the invisibility cloak, and his shabby head bobbed in midair.
"Why didn't you show yourself?"
"Oh, you know," Mundungus trailed off, suggesting he'd been out to see what he could take without making his presence known. "It's my first time using this cloak."
"Did you steal it?" Snape asked sneeringly. Of all the people to survive and to find him, it had to be a dirty, thieving coward.
Mundungus feigned indignation. "Why, of course not. I earned it."
Snape's eyebrow rose as he turned to look into the fire.
"You got any food?" Mundungus asked, his disembodied head shifting closer to Snape.
Snape reached reluctantly into a pocket of his trousers. Mundungus was one of the people he'd least like to share the apocalypse with, but probably one of the only people who didn't give a damn about what Snape had done. He threw the package to a point a bit below Mundungus's chin.
Mundungus's hand shot out of thin air to catch it. "What's this?" He held the bag up and squinted at it.
"Dried cranberries, dugbog, and almonds," Snape said. It hadn't been too difficult to find food, actually. Snape would occasionally visit one of the stores in Hogsmeade that had been damaged, but still held a good amount of edible food. He timed his trips to when he knew the two giant guards he'd been watching – Sleer and the larger one – were on the other side of Hogwarts.
Mundungus opened the bag and sniffed it. Then he threw it back to Snape. "All right, just checking," he said, and a second later, his hand appeared holding a small, thin haunch of meat.
"What is that?" Snape asked incredulously.
"Rabbit," Mundungus said as he ripped off a hunk. "I cooked it this afternoon. A bit gamey, but okay, especially considering," Mundungus grinned at Snape.
"Considering?"
"You're living off rabbit food." Mundungus quickly wolfed down the rest of the meat, picked the bones clean, and tossed the remains behind him. "Say, do you got any whiskey? I ran out three days ago."
"No." Snape took in Mundungus' appearance and was immediately repulsed by the man's slimy mouth and matted hair. "What happened to you?"
"You mean when they came?" Mundungus smiled at Snape and turned to the fire. "I was in Azkaban, you know, when all the guards left, just like that. A bunch of us managed to get out of the fortress, but they were there already. They were smashing wizards left and right. I think I was one of the few to get to London. I went to the Ministry – "
"Didn't they throw you out?"
"They don't know what's going on. No one's got control. There's no organization. By the time they got around to taking count of everyone, I was gone. I only spent two days there. I just couldn't stand it anymore. All those witches and wizards, and a few Muggles, too – the family of some of the wizards. There weren't many people left, but they were all cramped and underground, because the top few levels had been smashed in the beginning. People kept getting desperate and leaving, saying they were going to fight the giants or find people they'd lost. I left too, even though not many came back. So, I've just been wandering, seeing what's up and then I found you."
"And you decided to follow me around in an invisibility cloak," Snape finished dryly.
"What about you?" Mundungus asked, facing Snape expectantly.
Snape reflected on his escape from the giants. After facing that giant on the street, he'd apparated to Hogsmeade. The trees and the hostility of the forest offered some protection, and he knew enough about the forest creatures to feel reasonably well-prepared. He could have found a bed somewhere in the village, but didn't want to risk the giants' finding him while he was asleep. He'd been there a week, watching, but on the second day, "I saw where they're coming from."
Mundungus stared at Snape in disbelief. "Where?"
"Between Florida and the Caribbean., from a stretch of sea."
He stood on the white beach, staring at the sea. Waves smashed angrily onto the sand, spraying foam into Snape's face. He turned his back on it cautiously and clambered through the wildlife to the highest point on the island. He took a deep breath, as if breath could help him comprehend what was happening, and faced the sea.
Miles out, water gushed upward and rippled across the surface. Great globs of water were forcing their way through the ocean from somewhere underneath. And then a dark speck appeared in the center and grew as it broke the surface. It started swimming toward a distant island. It swam freestyle and it swam with purpose. Snape watched it disappear on the horizon.
The water was calm and smooth for several minutes. When it started to pulsate again, Snape left.
Snape finished his story. Mundungus stared blankly at him. "Who survived?" Snape asked him.
"Oh, no one in particular," Mundungus said carelessly. "Fudge, I suppose, but not Scrimgeour. I think I saw ol' Madeye, but mainly there was a bunch of Ministry parchment-pushers."
Snape eyed Mundungus thoughtfully. "Did you manage to steal anything interesting?"
Mundungus glanced around warily, and pulled a dully glimmering object out of the invisibility cloak. "I nicked it from a case in one of those rooms in the Department of Mysteries." He tilted his hand so the firelight illuminated his palm.
"You haven't tried it on, have you?" Snape stared in fascination. It was a thick, perfectly round bracelet, made of murky silver. On the inside, there was an inscription, written ridiculously large in some language Snape didn't recognize.
"Of course not," said Mundungus. "I'm not stupid." He brought the bracelet back inside his cloak. Snape could hear it clanging against something else as Mundungus stored it away.
Snape heard an owl hoot complacently and noticed that the stars were out completely. "I suppose you'll be sleeping here."
"Sure, why not," Mundungus agreed. "I'll bet you're a shake at transfiguring. Do you think you could conjure up some comfortable cots? Mine are always lumpy."
XOXOX
The next morning, Snape woke up to a high-pitched scream from Mundungus.
"Why here they are, the little varmint."
It was Sleer. He was standing between tall trees at the end of the clearing. He shoved the trees aside and surged forward just as Snape rolled out of bed. Snape pulled out his wand and yanked Mundungus to his feet. Sleer yelled something over his shoulder. It wasn't English, but Snape was sure he was calling the other giant.
Just as Sleer turned back to his prey, Snape lifted his wand. "Stupefy."
Sleer's narrow eyes widened in anger, "Ah! You disgusting little human!" He started stalking quickly toward Snape.
Mundungus groaned and began running. Snape followed. "A stunning spell?" Mundungus panted. "Come on."
Snape glanced over his shoulder. Sleer was so close; they hadn't had much of a head start. Snape doubted they'd make it into the cover of thick trees before Sleer caught them. Snape stopped running and turned around. This time, he took careful aim at Sleer's eye. "Stupefy!"
Sleer's right hand went up to cover half his face as he bellowed. He'd stopped moving. "You blasted, pathetic insect!"
Snape heard Mundungus continue running for the trees, but stood watching Sleer, now taking aim at the eye Sleer hadn't protected. But before Snape could decide on another spell simple and powerful enough to tear through giant hide, Sleer's partner came crashing through the trees behind Sleer. Sleer retreated, going to stand slightly behind the other giant.
Snape directed his wand at the bigger giant, and yelled "Avada Kedavra." Most of the clearing stood between them, but the flash of green hit the giant directly between the eyes and sent him sprawling backwards.
Sleer was stunned. He looked at Snape calculatingly, and as Snape brought his wand back toward Sleer, he took a step back into the forest. Sleer continued to back up slowly, pushing trees out of his way, and then he turned and ducked out of sight.
Snape turned in the opposite direction. In a few moments, he was in the shade of the trees. Mundungus was nowhere to be seen. He could have been hiding under the invisibility cloak that he'd worn all night, but Snape didn't think that was the case. Snape was sure Mundungus would be miles away soon, and Snape couldn't blame him. Snape didn't feel it was a good idea to stay in the forest much longer.