Werewolf
Chapter 12: Werewolf
Sasuke-
Side-by-side, Hagrid-san and Sasuke walked towards Hagrid-san’s cabin, leaving the school and Mister Prince behind. "Did your uncle do that to you?" Hagrid-san asked after a long, tense silence. Hagrid-san eyed Sasuke carefully, taking in the cuts and bruises and the torn robe.
"No. He didn't touch me."
"So, where did that," he waved a hand at Sasuke. "Come from?"
"Playing too rough, I guess." What good could it possibly do to admit that the damage had been done by those boys who seemed to hate Snape-san? It wasn’t as if any of it was actually dangerous; he’d had worse injuries sparing with his big brother when he was a child and his mother had always laughed when she’d bandaged him up, fondly saying what a great fighter he was growing into and wouldn’t his father be proud! Telling Hagrid-san, who was as gentle as a rabbit, that there had been a tiny little incident with some other students would surely only complicate matters and upset Hagrid-san. Besides which, Sasuke had to deal with them for only another day or so.
Once they reached his cabin, Hagrid-san held open the door for Sasuke to enter first. "You've got to take better care of yourself, lad. Sit." Hagrid-san gestured towards the chair by the fire and busied himself making a pot of tea. "Look," he said when he sat and poured the tea. "I know something's wrong. You ain't been yourself this past week. I know I'm not the kind a person folks goes confessing their troubles to, but I'm here… you know? I’ll listen, even if I can’t help."
"I know. You don't have to worry. I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me."
Hagrid-san laughed loudly and ran a hand over his head. "Nothing wrong? That uncle of yours turns up and you don't start frothing at the mouth? You act like a rabid dog when anyone so much as says his name. Now you meet him and just… walk away? No. I don't think you're as fine as you say you are. Something's wrong."
A knock at the door distracted them both.
Hagrid-san's face was grim. He motioned for Sasuke to stay seated and went to the door. It was not the uncle, but the headmaster who stood at the door. Hagrid-san's demeanor quickly changed from threatening to vaguely submissive. "Come in! Come in!" He welcomed the headmaster with a gracious wave of his arm.
The old man worried Sasuke.
He couldn't say why, precisely, but there was something about those sharp eyes that made him feel like an insect under a microscope.
"Hello, Mister Snape," the headmaster greeted him warmly. The old man was no warrior. He moved slowly, his body weakened by age. His voice, however, was strong. "Mister Prince came to me just now. He told me about your little encounter while we spoke about your marks."
Sasuke lowered his face a little - as he'd seen Snape-san often do - and let his hair cover his face.
"I'm very proud of how your handled your meeting with him. It gives me great hopes for the future relationship you’ll have with your uncle. May I ask the reason for your sudden placid temperament? The last time I invited Mister Prince to Hogwarts you had to be sedated - twice. What brought on the change?"
"Perhaps I didn't want to be sedated a third time."
Through the curtain of his hair, Sasuke was distinctly aware that he was being watched. He looked up just long enough to see the headmaster's eyes which suddenly seemed too bright - too intense.
Sasuke turned sharply from the headmaster. "Staring is rude."
"Forgive an old man," the headmaster chuckled and Sasuke felt, more than he saw, the eyes turn from him. "You've always been a rather… headstrong young man. This sudden compliance had piqued my curiosity. That's all." He stood. "Your uncle has not pushed for a proper meeting with you, though he was a bit disgruntled about our ground keeper’s lack of manners."
Hagrid-san gaped. "Me? Lack of manners? Me?! I'll have you know if I wasn't minding my manners, I'd have popped him right on the top of the head and knocked him into the ground! Got no business turning up here." His eyes darkened and he moved slightly to stand between Sasuke and the headmaster. "Severus don't lie - not to me. You don't know the boy like I do. You know I respect you, sir, but you… you're just wrong! This ain't right! You can't just give Severus to that slime. That man murdered his parents!"
The headmaster sighed and shook his head. "Hagrid… we've had this discussion several times. There's not even any proof that Mister Prince was anywhere near the Snape house when the incident occurred. Now, I have some work to do. Mister Snape, in light of your surprisingly civil meeting with your uncle, he has kindly signed your permission form. You may visit Hogsmead with the rest of your class this Saturday."
Sasuke kept his eyes on the floor and away from the headmaster's. "Yes, sir."
He heard the door open and closed and only then did he look up. Hagrid-san was looking at him with pity.
"I'm sorry. I'm real sorry, Severus. He's got to follow the laws, I suppose, but… I'm sorry." He honestly looked like he would cry. "Your not really giving up, are you?"
"Would I do that?" Sasuke left his seat and went to one of the few windows in Hagrid-san's home. He watched the headmaster for a moment, then, certain that no one would see, he activated his sharigan. The world shifted until he saw the it was only an Uchiha could. The headmaster fairly pulsated with power, but it was nothing like any shinobi had. There was nothing Sasuke could interpret and no explanation why he should get such grave misgivings just from looking at the man's eyes.
The headmaster stopped walking, abruptly.
Sasuke blinked and the sharigan deactivated.
The headmaster slowly turned his head and looked right at the window Sasuke stood at. Sasuke knew he'd deactivated the sharigan before the headmaster had turned, but he had the unsettling feeling that the headmaster knew more than he should.
After a moment, the headmaster started back for the school.
Tenten-
"Keep your eyes on him. Find out how he knows what he knows," Gai-sensei had ordered Tenten when she'd reported that she believed a student had somehow discovered the mission. "Neji will shadow young Uchiha-kun."
Uzumaki instantly threw a tantrum. "I'll do it! Neji doesn't care one way or the other if Sasuke dies. I can do it!"
The idea of Uzumaki trying to carrying out the part of the mission that required silence was almost laughable.
"He's in charge of his own fate," Neji told Uzumaki before he'd left. "Isn't that what you told me? All he has to do is not fail. Of course, if he's found out already, perhaps his fate is sealed."
Uzumaki snarled and threw himself to get at Neji, but Hatake-san held him back and Haruno-san threatened to gag him for fear of him damaging his healing throat.
Free of shadowing Uchiha, Tenten found Lupin-san in the school's infirmary.
Lupin-san was a difficult customer, Tenten had to concede. He lay all day in the infirmary where he was pampered and petted like a spoiled child. He was pleasant enough with his visitors and the nurse who cared for him, but tired. He was more than tired. He was exhausted. Tenten had seen the same bone-deep weariness in shinobi freshly returned from missions.
All the while, he knew she was there.
Lupin-san said nothing. He didn't fly into a panic and start shouting that there was an intruder, but Tenten knew her presence wasn't a secret. She wasn't sure how he knew, but Lupin-san was stiff and wary. He glanced cautiously around the room and tensed whenever anyone walked in. The tiniest of sounds was enough to draw his attention. It wasn't until she'd spent hours watching him that Tenten noticed.
He sniffed.
It wasn't just a runny nose. He drew in long, deep breaths through his nose then held it for a moment with a curious expression. He let out the breath just as slowly as he'd drawn in. A short time would pass, but he would do the same thing over. It was as if he were tasting the air. He didn't do it at all when his friends had come to visit and even when he was alone he did it casually, as though he were afraid of being caught.
It wasn't until the old man appeared that Lupin-san voiced his thoughts.
"Sir," he spoke softly when the old man sat by his bedside. "We're not alone. There's someone else in this room. You've got to believe me."
The old man frowned a little and looked around. His eyes flickered over Tenten and she had to fight to keep still. The old man looked right passed her. She knew her illusion was perfect. Training with Neji and Lee did tend to inspire perfection. She knew that no one - certainly no one who was not shinobi! - could see her. She blended in perfectly with the darkness of the high ceiling.
The old man's eyes were sharp, as piercing as lightening. He looked around twice and spoke kindly to Lupin-san. "What can you tell me?"
"It's been about four hours… "
The same amount of time Tenten had been watching him, she realized, stunned. Had she truly been so poor a spy?
"…since I realized it. Sorry, sir, but I couldn't tell anyone else. Every time Madam Ratian came through, the guys were here or someone was here. It started with Snape. Well, not Snape, but someone pretending to be Snape."
"Who would pretend to be Mister Snape?"
"I don't know, but I know the one walking around here isn't Snape. He doesn't smell the same at all! I caught up with him this afternoon, after the quidditch match. Hagrid was there and he didn't smell like Hagrid. He didn't smell like earth and trees, he smelled like oil..."
Tenten oiled her weapons and the leather pouches for her shurikens and scrolls.
"...and there was a smell of ink. Sir, he smelled like a girl, too. I don't know how, but Hagrid was a girl! Snape suddenly started to smell like ink a little while ago. Not just a spill, but so much that he must have swam in it. The Hagrid impostor smelled of the same ink."
The old man patted Lupin-san's arm. "Are you certain of this? The smell of oil and ink? That Mister Snape is not who he says he is? No one else has reported anything odd."
Lupin-san sat bolt upright and spoke with great force, "I'm certain! Sir, you have to believe me!"
"Of course I believe you. Please, don't worry about it. I'll get to the bottom of this mystery."
Tenten waited all day while Lupin-san fretted until madam Ratian-san had to give him a dose of some liquid that forced him to sleep. She stayed where she was while students and teachers came and went on this business or that. It was nearing dusk when the old man returned and Lupin-san was woken with yet another drink that was poured down his throat.
He was groggy, slurring words that Tenten couldn't understand, and swaying when he was pulled into an upright position. Madam Ratian-san kept a hand on his back and arm to steady him while the old man spoke to him.
"It's time to go, Mister Lupin. Remus? It's time to leave. The moon will rise, soon. Can you hear me?"
Madam Ratian-san admitted, sheepishly, "My fault, headmaster. I'm afraid I made this batch a bit too strong while the antidote is too weak. Come along, Mister Lupin. Let's get you up and walking." Together, they got him to his feet and forced him to walk up and down the length of the room until he could stand on his own.
"Sir," Lupin-san clutched at his headmaster's sleeve. "What… sir, there's still ink. Ink and oil."
Madam Ratian-san frowned. "What's that? Remus, is something wrong?"
"Nothing," the headmaster assured her. "I don't know what you're smelling, Remus, but I have checked the school. I've even spoken with Mister Snape. There is nothing for you to worry about. We must go, Remus. We can deal with everything else later." The headmaster led the way out of the infirmary with the other two following behind and Tenten keeping a discrete distance.
She followed them outside to a wild tree that thrashed and fought of its own will. Tenten gaped at it, marveling at the thing's raw power. She wondered if it were truly alive - if it could think and feel.
The headmaster used a long stick to poke at a spot on the tree and suddenly, so abruptly that it made Tenten blink, the tree froze. Its long branches simply stopped moving wherever they were, several of them bare feet from the heads of the wizards.
Tenten watched as a passage opened and the three of them went in. As soon as they went in the passage closed behind them and the tree came alive, thrashing for all it was worth.
In the fading sunlight, Tenten watched the place where the passage had been. It was perfectly concealed. No shinobi could have done better.
Tenten drew one of her shuriken and threw, hitting her target exactly. The tree kept thrashing furiously, showing no signs of slowly.
With a fist on her hip, Tenten pursed her lips while she thought. She had hit the right place - there was no mistake. She never missed. Therefore the problem obviously lay in the method. The shuriken didn't work. The stick had.
She dashed towards the tree and managed to avoid the swinging limbs. She grabbed a stick from the ground and used it to hit the same spot the headmaster had hit. Instantly, the tree froze. Tenten smirked as the passage opened, again.
It was dark in the passage, but not entirely unpleasant. The walls were smooth and dry. There were no animals that Tenten could see or hear. It was tall enough for her to walk upright and narrow enough that if she stretched her arms out at her sides her fingertips would brush against the walls. All the way through the passage, she didn't stumble once.
After more than twenty minutes of walking in the darkness and feeling that it might never end, Tenten came to a door. It was a very ordinary, wooden door that ended the passage. Tenten put her hand on the door, but paused when she heard voices beyond. Then she heard footsteps moving closer to the door and hid herself by pressing her hands together and making the correct hand-signs that turned her virtually invisible. She stepped backwards and changed herself to look like part of the wall - the same way many shinobi would change themselves to look like other people or even innocent objects during a fight.
The door opened and the headmaster and the healer left, closing the door behind them.
"You have enough healing potions for him when the night is over?"
"Yes, sir," the healer told him. "I'm always equipped for him. Poor child. I wish there was more we could do for him."
Tenten started down the passage with the headmaster behind her. Just when she thought she was safe, the headmaster stopped. He sharply turned his head and looked directly at Tenten. "Interesting."
"Headmaster?" the healer asked. "Is something wrong?"
"No. I thought I saw something. Come along. It's best we go before anyone suspects. Remus will be fine."
They left and Tenten opened the door and stepped in, keeping up the jutsu that hid her. She was struck at once but the absurdity of the room. It was a house. A one room house with absolutely nothing in it but Lupin-san. He sat on the floor in the center of the room - a miserable figure of dejection. His knees drawn up to his chest and his face buried in his arms. He looked up at the single window, then put his head down again.
"Who are you?"
There seemed to be little point in hiding, but all the same Tenten kept still by the wall.
"There's no point," Lupin-san didn't bother to raise his head a second time. "I know you're here. I can smell you. I told the headmaster everything. I don't think he believed me. Maybe he did. It's hard to tell. Will you at least tell me what you've done with Snape?" He laughed harshly when Tenten didn't answer. "Whatever it is, the headmaster will stop you. He won't let anyone hurt the students here."
And yet, they'd already kidnapped Snape-san.
"I can hear your heart's steady beat. I can smell that you're a girl and that you're drenched in ink. Stale, dry ink. It's been there for days, now," Lupin-san said, shakily. He stared up at the ceiling of the shack, transfixed. "In the darkness… you're there… hiding." He shuddered violently and curled himself into a ball.
‘He’s sick,’ Tenten thought. Badly ill. He looked as sick as someone fighting a curse mark.
"Fear," Lupin-san's eyes sprung open. He tilted his face up and inhaled through his nose. "You aren't afraid. They didn't tell you… you don't know. Oh, God…" His voice cracked and he moved, struggling to get to his feet. He moved slowly, but with painful determination. "Get out! You have to leave!"
Tenten knew she couldn't. No matter what the boy's sickness was, she couldn't leave. As far as she'd been able to gather, he didn't actually know anything. He suspected the truth, but didn't actually know. What she had to find out was why he suspected and she couldn’t give up her mission until she did.
"It's coming," Lupin-san's eyes shot to the wall opposite of the only window in the house. The setting sun had colored the wall orange, but Lupin-san wasn't admiring the pleasant color. He was pale and sweating. His lips trembled. He began shaking violently and wrapped his arms around himself. "Closer… it's almost time." The sun dipped lower and lower and all the while, Lupin-san watched it, transfixed. His shaking stopped. His eyelids dropped for just a moment before a high keening sound ripped painfully from his throat and he doubled over with his arms wrapped around his stomach. "Leave!" He bit the word out sharply without looking up. "Get out! You have to leave!" He rocked to and fro and fell to his knees. "It's dangerous. I don't want to kill you. Please, I don't want to kill you." When he finally looked up Tenten saw that his face was wet with tears. "Please…" But whatever he wanted to say was stopped by an awful choking. He grimaced and his body tensed. The shaking grew worse and worse until he tilted back his head and screamed.
Tenten actually flinched.
Her breath caught when she saw the transformation begin and she stood frozen in place, frightened for the first time in a long time.
Lupin-san's body morphed, like nothing Tenten had ever seen. The arms and legs grew longer and muscles emerged where none had been before. Flesh ripped and reformed, bones cracked, the whole body reshaped itself.
Tenten thought she knew what it must be. Only a demon could do something so terrible to a person. Like the horror tales the elders of the village had whispered of wicked animals that weren't animals, blood-thirsty creatures who hunted even the fiercest of shinobi.
Tenten's breath grew more rapid and shallow as she watched the thing raise itself to its legs. She couldn't fight a demon. She wasn't like Neji or Lee. She was just herself.
It towered over Tenten at nearly ten feet tall, standing on awkwardly bent legs. It had the face of an animal - a dog of some kind. Its skin was hairy in places and bare in others, but it was dark all over. The beast threw back its head and let out a howl that shook Tenten's bones. She gritted her teeth and trembled.
The thing looked at her and Tenten froze.
It's lips curled away from long teeth - a jagged, hungry smile. Saliva dripped from it's teeth and a low, pleased rumbled issued from its jaws. It raised its arms towards her, each hand crowed with five lethal claws. It stepped closer to her hiding place.
Tenten tightened her resolve. Hiding was obviously no good - the thing knew where she was. She drew her weapons and stepped out of concealment, ready and willing to prove she was no helpless rabbit to be trifled with. "Stop there," she ordered.
The thing didn't answer or respond. It stared fixedly at her. Its massive jaws were dripping with saliva. It stepped closer. She wondered if the prohibition against killing students applied to this creature and thought it better to take no chances. Escape was the most sensible option.
She did not, at once, turn for the passageway. It seemed to her that it would only trap her if the creature turned out to be faster than she was. She went to the window, but the beast was there before she was. It charged without warning and it was all Tenten could do to slip out of its grasp. She spun and twisted to worm her way out of those snapping claws and the ravenous jaws.
At each turn she made away from the beast, Tenten pulled another weapon from her clothes and threw it. Shurikens, kunai, and senbon needles all flew with perfect accuracy. Each one hit the mark just as she'd meant it to, but not a single one slowed Lupin-san. The beast ignored the weapons protruding from its body and the few that seemed to irritate it, it simply brushed away.
Tenten would have gone for the passageway, but Lupin-san was in the way. In desperation, Tenten threw herself at the wall she was closed to. She balled her right hand into a fist to smash through it, but the wall easily withstood her blow. Her fist, however, shattered. She could feel the bones break under the force of her punch. She saw stars just long enough for the beast to gain control.
Those massive hands took hold of Tenten by the throat and left arm. It lifted her off her feet and she felt its breath on the back of her head.
With her broken hand, and the panicked vision of herself dying, Tenten reached into her free pocket and pulled out an explosive tag. She managed to curl the fingers of her broken hand around the paper, though the pain was almost too much to stand, and slapped it onto the beast's arm that held her. Without wasting time, she took another kunai and sunk it as deeply as she could into the beast's arm that held her. Instead of just sticking it in, she slashed down, severing the muscle away from the bone. This time - luckily - it had an effect.
The beast dropped her and Tenten instantly rolled away, covering her head with her arms.
The explosive tag ignited and the whole house shook. The beast was thrown against a wall and it shrieked in pain the moment it touched the wall.
Magic.
That was what had stopped Tenten's attempt to smash through the wall. They were reinforced with magic to keep the beast in. Just touching the walls had caused the beast more pain than Tenten's many weapons. The whole house was a cage.
The beast fell limply to the floor, but it was quickly regaining its senses. Tenten rushed for the door to the passageway. It wouldn't open. There was no handle to pull it open and it wouldn't push open. There had to be a key or some other system to open it. Tenten hunted urgently around the door pushing and striking different places on the door itself as well as the surrounding wall in hopes of finding a hidden switch.
The beast was on its feet and staggered towards Tenten.
"Magic," Tenten muttered. "Damned magic. A spell or a word?" Time was gone. Now or never time, as Lee would say. Tenten turned and, in the hulking beast, she saw her own death. A messy, undignified death that she wasn't ready for. Tenten took a step back and her elbow - completely by chance - struck against the wall.
The door swung open.
Whatever she had hit, Tenten didn't care about. She dashed through the door and sprinted down the passageway as quickly as she could. All the while, her mind burned going over ideas. She knew many jutsu, but each took time even if it was only a brief moment. The beast was only steps behind her. She couldn't slow down. She couldn't even turn to aim at it.
Tenten emerged from the base of the angry tree and kept running. The beast was still right behind her. She ran into the forest and there, with the familiar surroundings of trees all around, she stopped the chase to fight. They were deep into the forest by that time.
The beast gave very little time for Tenten to think. She made a clone of herself and sent it towards the beast, but even that was no good. The beast batted away the clone and kept staring at Tenten.
‘That's how he did it. The beast can smell the real me. Even when he looks human, Lupin-san can still smell. That's how he found out Uchiha!’
The beast was persistent. No illusions could deceive it. Any damage Tenten's weapons did healed quickly and pain, if there was any, was ignored. The beast pushed and pushed at her, moving Tenten backwards. She hadn't even had a chance to go on the offensive - it was all she could do to keep away from its hands. Tenten cursed the client for forbidding serious damage and death.
She needed a shield.
There was a surge of power that rushed through her veins. Like electricity jolting her whole body, Tenten was left breathless. Calling. Something was calling… pulling. Tenten started running again. This time, she didn't listen to the heavy tramping of the beast's feet behind her. This time, she could only hear the call that tugged at her blood. The calling became a shout when she neared the river. When she ran into the river, the shout became a joyous song in her mind. She skid to a halt and turned to face the beast. She knew what to do. It was like breathing - natural.
The beast stepped into the water and Tenten froze the water.
When the beast found that it couldn't move, it grew enraged, but even its impressive strength wasn't enough to break it free. Tenten held the beast there all night. It never tired. It never weakened. All night it fought and bellowed and all night Tenten held it steady.
All night, Gai-sensei kept watch nearby. He didn't interfere or speak until dawn approached. "My dear kunoichi, it will be over soon. Hold him a little longer."
"Sir, is it a demon?"
"No. A demon could not be held by a bloodline limit. This is a boy." Gai-sensei said, sadly. "Lycanthropy is a terrible condition. It is good that you remembered the stipulations of the contract and didn't kill him. He didn't really want to attack you. When he wakes, he won't remember anything that happened while he was like this."
Slowly, painfully, the boy reverted back to human when the full moon had gone. Bones cracked and flesh re-shaped itself until the boy, naked and pale, stood frozen in the ice almost up to his knees. Tenten turned the ice back into water. It was so easy. Lupin-san panted heavily, his eyelids drooped. Like a great weight had been taken from him, Lupin-san collapsed to his knees, then fell face down into the water. His body was covered in bruises and scrapes, but there was no damage from Tenten's weapons.
Gai-sensei pulled Lupin-san from the water and lay him on the dry banks of the river.
"He's strong, sir. Fast. Very dangerous. He was able to smell Uchiha-san's scent. That's how he knew the difference. Uchiha-san didn't do anything to give the mission away." Tenten's mind turned back to the mission. "Lupin-san is definitely a threat to this school."
"It will be noted in the report." Gai-sensei brushed her dripping wet hair out of her eyes with his thick fingers. "And now we must tell the Hokage of your talent. The power of the Mist shinobi was thought to be lost with your father's death and your mother's… depression. The Hokage will be pleased."
"That's good."
"Are you pleased?"
Tenten looked away. "I'm happy to serve my village." At least her mother would be pleased… for once.
Sasuke-
Surprisingly, though Hagrid-san warned Sasuke that there would be trouble from his encounter with Snape-san's uncle, no trouble came that day. Everything was quiet. Sasuke feigned illness to get out of several classes - particularly potions, which he wouldn't have been able to bluff his way through. As Snape-san was well-known to everyone as being proficient with potions, Sasuke knew that any little mistake would have been the end of the mission. So he played sick and spent those days observing the school, students, and teachers.
Sakura took her turn watching him at night and told him about what Tenten had discovered and that Naruto, while doing better, still wasn't entirely well. Kyuubi, for whatever reason, wasn't helping him to heal. Naruto adamantly refused to talk about why Kyuubi had refused. "He's fine, though," Sakura reassured Sasuke. "He's healing like a normal person so it'll take days instead of minutes. In fact, he's almost entirely healed now. You're going to that village tomorrow?"
"Yes," Sasuke told her. "Malfoy-san said he had to buy some things from the village and mentioned that I could go with him if I wanted to get some more hard to get potions ingredients so long as I didn't mention to anyone where we were going."
Sakura chuckled. "Ah… so he knows where the black market dealers are."
"I expect so. I thought it would be interesting to see what kinds of illegal things wizards sell. The village is close to the school, so threats might come from there, also."
They were silent for a time and Sasuke took off Snape-san's robe. That, too, made Sakura smile. "Have you dared to try any of those potions, yet?" She took the robe onto her lap and looked at a few of the little glass vials. "You've got to admire the guy for being prepared."
"Prepared for what, though?" Sasuke liked the idea of carrying around such a vast array of weaponry, especially if all the little bottles could explode like that first one had, though explosive tags were more practical. "There are different colored potions here. Different weapons?"
"Maybe. What about that bag?"
Snape-san's book bag was amazing. Sasuke still hadn't managed to get to the bottom of it. "I want one."
Sakura laughed loudly. "Who wouldn't? No more carrying around heavy backpacks for a hundred miles only to find out you left the one scroll you need at home. I'd give my front teeth for one of these." Sakura reached into the bag and pulled out a photograph. It was still, unlike many of the photographs and paintings they'd seen in the school. There was a young Snape-san in shorts and an orange t-shirt; a tall, brawny man with a bright smile; a skinny woman with ink black hair. The man and woman each had a hand on young Snape-san's shoulders and the other arm around each other. "He's an interesting kid, isn't he? I wonder how he's doing at the village."
To be continued…