-16-
All of the Dark Wizards are nervously standing further away, wands ready. My heart keep pounding fast inside my chest. The werewolf whimpers while keeping his head down. The whole atmosphere sends shivers down my spine. "...Remus?" my voice sounds like a whisper. Those yellow eyes with tiny black pupils looks up to me and I can feel this twist in my stomach. Every part of my body and soul tells me to run, but I can't move. I'm too scared. Then, the werewolf raises his head up high and howls. The Dark Wizards gets startled by this and takes a step back. Werewolf gets on all fours with those long, bony legs and slowly starts approaching me, hunger in his eyes. Remus..! Tightening the grip around my wand, wondering if I should use it. I don't want to..- All of sudden, one of the Dark Wizards behind me, uses a spell on the werewolf, thinking they can tame the beast. "Get back..!" the witch hisses. But it makes the werewolf angry, so his focus quickly goes to the witch.
Wasting no time, he attacks and makes a jump right above me. "Look out!" other Dark Wizards yell as they run out of the way. The witch who tried to tame the werewolf gets attacked cold blooded. Her horrifying scream echoes all over the Forbidden Forest and shakes me from the shock. Two other Dark Wizards who knows Apparate spell disappears right away. Other four stands there in fear. Quickly, I got up from the ground and start running. Time to go! "Hey!!" one of the wizards sees me escaping and tries to hit me with a spell, but it hits a tree near me. That catches the werewolf's attention and he starts attacking the four remaining wizards. Without looking back, I keep on running as fast as I can. Can hear how they are all screaming and trying to survive by using magic against the beast. Shit, shit, shit, shit!
The ground keeps rustling under my feet as I run. By every breath I take, some steam comes out of my mouth. Don't even know where am I running off to. All I know, that I just need to get out of here! Finally, when I have gone far enough, I stop to catch my breath. Taking some support of my knees:"..Haahh... haaahh..!". Still can't believe what I just saw. Remus is a werewolf!!! Why he never tell me that?! 'Oh, (Y/N). By the way, I'm going to turn into a cold blood werewolf this evening, hope you don't mind!' Now that I have the time to take this all in, my legs and hands starts shaking. Slowly, I start to feel some pain across my chest. Gently, I place my hand against it and look down to my hand. Blood. Realizing Remus's sharp claws had pierced thru my coat, therefor he had made a long, clean cut against the surface of my skin. It's not deep, but enough to make me bleed. "That son of a bitc..-", can hear some leafs rustle and I turn around towards the sound, wand ready. My heart starts beating fast again. Don't tell me he went after me. Quickly, I go behind a tree and lean my back against it. Oh, Merlin! I'm going to die, I'm going to die!
When it got all quiet, I dare to take a peek. No one is there. Huh... Maybe he walked right past me..? A hand grabs me by the shoulder and sharply spins me around, automatically I let out a shriek. "What in the Merlin's name are you doing in here?!" Snape hisses while holding onto my collars, pushing my back against the tree. I stare at the man for a quick moment in pure shock. "Wha..- what are you doing here?!" I whisper hiss back. He's clearly angry:"I..-", but then his eyes goes down to my bloody clothes. The anger from his face vanishes and turns into something else. Something I've never seen on his face before. "Did he bite you?!" he asks. Frowning at his question:"What? N..-", "Did his saliva ever get into you?!" he keeps asking, almost as if his own life depends on it. Then I realize what that look on Snape's face means. He is actually worried. Pushing his hands off of me:"No! I have never exchanged saliva with that man in any form!".
Snape relaxes his shoulders a bit, and lets out an exhale. Then both of our heads snaps at the direction as we hear the werewolf's howl further away. "Guess he got rid of the Dark Wizards..." I whisper to myself. Snape turns his head back at me with angry eyes. "What have you gone yourself into?" he hisses. "I..- We were supposed to safe Buckbeak." I explain. By the look on his face, he doesn't understand who am I talking about. "Hagrid's hippogriff. He was held on as a hostage by the Dark Wizar...-", "I know the hippogriff." he snaps annoyed. Then he continue:"I saw it stuck in the bushes by its collar.". "What?! Why didn't you help him?" I ask heated. Snape looks at me baffled:"So what you are saying is, I made the wrong choice for choosing you over that overly large bird?". "Yes!" I exclaim.
We hear how the werewolf is coming this way. "Hold onto my arm." Snape offers his rigth arm for me to grab it. Knowing he's going to use the Apparate spell to get us out of here. But I take a step away from him:"No. I'm not leaving without Buckbeak.". It pisses him off more:"Listen here yo..-", the werewolf comes in sight further away. Snape shuts his mouth quickly and tucks me behind him. The werewolf haven't seen us yet, but is sniffing to find us. "Take the coat off." Snape orders quietly. "What?" I whisper confused. He won't take his eyes off the beast:"Take. Your. Coat. Off.". Hesitantly, I take it off and he grabs it, keeping the eyes on the werewolf all time. "Now... When the coast is clear, run to find the hippogriff." he nudges his head the way where he saw Buckbeak last time. What is his plan?
Snape uses magic to float the bloody coat in the air and makes it go opposite direction from us. It does make it seem like someone is running in the forest. The werewolf sees this and goes after it. That's brilliant! "Now go." Snape whispers without looking at me. Knowing the trick won't fool the werewolf for too long, and I start running. Sure, there are millions of questions on my mind, for example how Snape found me and such, but the only thing that matters right now is that we all get out of here. Alive. After running couple of minutes, I ran into Buckbeak, who is indeed stuck in the bushes by the chain collar. He tries to fly away, but the long chain has got tangled so badly, it's impossible for him to break free. "For a smart creature, you're not very bright..." I whisper to myself and approach him. Buckbeak sees my approach and lands on his feet. Slowing my steps and put my hands up. "It's alright. It's okay... I'm here to help you." using soothing tone to calm him down.
Even he's nervous, he lets me come close. Calmly, I take out my wand and release him from the muzzle and the collar chain. "There we go..." I let out a shuddered exhale. Surprisingly, Buckbeak lowers himself a bit, gesturing for me to hop on his back. That's when I hear fast steps coming towards us. I take a quick glimpse over the shoulder, worried about Snape. Then, I climb up hippogriff's back. It feels unbelievable to sit here. Just when I look deeper into the forest, I see Snape. He's running this way with his long cape smoothly floating right behind him. The beast following twenty meters behind him. Oh, no! "What are you still here?! Leave!" he orders. I can't leave him here. Reaching my hand towards him:"Hop on.". Snape looks surprised, but turns around to see the werewolf running right at us. Quickly, I raise my wand:"Arresto momentum!". It makes the werewolf run in slow motion to buy us more time. "C'mon!!" I order.
When Snape takes a step towards us, Buckbeak takes a step back. Then I remember; Snape hasn't bowed to him. Knowing someone like Snape has to swallow his pride makes me smirk. "Bow to the bird, Severus." I tell him. He glares at me for a moment, not sure if it's because I told him to bow or is it because I called him 'Severus'. But then he bows down to the hippogriff with gritted teeth. Buckbeak bows back which almost makes me fall off of him. After gaining the balance back, I smirk at him:"See? Was that so hard?". Snape rolls his eyes annoyed. The spell starts to worn out, so I offer my hand again:"C'mon!". Snape holds on to my hand and gets on hippogriffs back, right behind me. The spell worns out and the werewolf keeps on running fast towards us. Buckbeak wastes no time and does couple of running steps before he hops on to his wings. "Woah!!" I exclaim and hold on tight around Buckbeak's neck. Snape is about to reel back, but quickly wraps his arms around me.
Soon enough, we are flying above the Forbidden Forest in the moonlight. Feels like I'm holding my breath when I see the view. Stars are shining in the clear dark blue sky, the castle further away with tiny lights on, the lake surrounding it... Even the cold wind is blowing against us, I don't mind it. Then, I wake up to the feeling how Snape's hands are wrapped around my waist. How his torso is resting against to my back. There is a warm feeling in my heart. "...land!" Snape says something I couldn't quite hear, so I glance over my shoulder to see him. His face is so close to mine. A blush raises on my cheeks when I realize this. "We should land somewhere safe!" he repeat. Looks like he isn't fond of flying. "Right!" I nod.
Won't take long before we land on the Greenhouse's backyard where the garden is. It's pretty dark in here. The only light that is coming, is the moonlight and from the castle's windows. Snape is the first to jump off of the hippogriff. Can feel how my hair is all big and puffy from the wind, but I can't help but smile. Guess it's all the adrenaline in me. "Wow! Did you see that?!" my eyes are sparkling. "Unfortunately." he mutters. I throw my leg over to the other side, so I'm now sitting like a lady on the hippogriff:"Oh, c'mon! You must admit that was amazing..!". Snape reaches his hands towards me to help me get down:"Let's get you to the Hospital Wing.". Without any hesitation, I place my hands on to his shoulders and he holds on to my waist.
I keep on smiling:"And you..- You were amazing too how you lured the werewolf away by using my bloody coat like that..!". Even we are looking straight into each others eyes, I won't realize that Snape is blushing. Then, I land softly to the ground and keep my hands resting against his chest. Being so overwhelmed by everything that happened, my whole body starts to tremble, but I keep on smiling nervously. Snape feels this and leans a bit away to see me better, giving me the 'is everything alright?' - look, in his own way. Guess I'm in somekind of shock after everything. Seeing my friend turning into a werewolf right in front of me... Talk about how he attacked that witch cold blooded.
Tears starts to raise on my eyes:"Re-Remus. He..- I didn't..- know that he would..-", Snape realizes I'm in shock, and pulls me into an embrace. Huh? My heart skips a beat. For a moment we stay like that and I try to lean away. "I'm... Fine. Really." my voice cracks. He ignores my words and just keeps me still. The way he has folded his arms around me... Actually makes me feel warm and safe. My body keeps shaking, even I try not to. What's wrong with me? I should be braver than this! I can feel how the long scar starts aching more and more now. "Stealing potions, from my own classroom... Do you have any idea how much I want to yell at you at the present moment?" Snape's voice is smooth and calm.
Tears starts slowly roll down on my face. I really thought we were going to safe Buckbeak without any complications. How could I be so foolish? All I ever wanted is to help a friend. "I..-" I shudder, but the words gets stuck on my throat. I wanna tell him that I'm sorry. Snape closes his eyes and presses me closer against him:"Perhaps another time then.". The smell of him lures into my nose. I... Actually kinda like it. We stand there quite sometime in silence. The hippogriff is standing right beside us, with no care in the world.