The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

A Place to Hide the Horn

A Place to Hide the Horn

Severus Snape was on the staircase when he heard the sound of quick-moving footsteps echoing through the well. He ducked quickly off onto the third floor and rushed down the corridor, hiding behind one of the suits of armor, pressing himself as far back into the darkness as he could go. He held his breath. The last thing he needed was to be caught sneaking about the castle on Lord Voldemort's business. He was waiting for something - anything - to happen when he heard the sound of running feet, and panting breath - three ragged sets of lungs gasping and sputtering what seemed mere inches from him... yet there was nobody there to see. The sounds approached and passed by without ever a sign of a person. Severus's eyebrows stitched together and he leaned out from about the suit of armor to investigate, following after the noise as silently as he could, sticking close to the wall.

Suddenly before him appeared the back of Sirius Black, his shaggy hair flying wildly behind him. He seemed to have emerged from something that Severus could not see, and he was carrying a huge horn of some sort, clutching it to his chest as he bolted further down the corridor. A sound on the stairwell behind him made Severus turn, afraid he was being followed, and when he had turned back around to find Sirius, he'd disappeared once again.

"What in the world --?" muttered Severus and he trotted the remaining length of the hall, looking 'round the corner to be sure there were no signs of Sirius Black down the corridor there. He glanced back over his shoulder. "Where could he have gone?"

Severus didn't have long to ponder the mystery, though, as he heard voices from the stairwell. He moved to hide as best he could in a shadow and covered his face with his robes. McGonagall's voice was annoyed and clipped, though he couldn't make out the words he recognized the accent and the tone of it, and it was accompanied by Slughorn's low rumbling. He stayed low until their voices had faded off completely as they moved down the stairs.

Once he was sure the coast was clear, he made his way down the corridor, carefully listening for any approaching footfalls. He wasn't sure where to go... He couldn't very well go back to his room in the dungeons - it seemed that something had gone on downstairs since he'd left, though he wasn't sure what exactly, since the coast had been quite clear when he'd come up the stairs.

Whatever it was that was going on down there must have something to do with Sirius - and probably the other second year Gryffindors, too. He scowled. He would have to be quite careful not to get caught or else whatever it was they'd been doing would be blamed on him. That horn that Sirius had been holding when he'd spotted him in the hall had seemed quite ominous. Whatever it was that they'd been into - Severus wanted nothing to do with it.

A thought occurred to him - had Sirius Black seen Severus going upstairs? Would he tell Dumbledore? Severus gnawed his lower lip, looking back the direction he'd seen Sirius Black disappear in... Maybe, he'd better keep looking for him, just in case. There was no way Sirius wouldn't throw him, Severus, to the fire, should he be caught for roaming the halls... So Severus turned back and snuck along the corridor, searching by the lighted tip of his wand for one of his deemed nemesis...

The Gryffindors meanwhile had made their way back to the sixth floor via the passageway, Sirius still carrying that blasted bicorn horn. "It's heavier than it looks," he complained for about the hundredth time as they neared the back of Scrimgeour's portrait in the trophy room.

"Well, don't go getting too tired, we've got to figure out where the bloody hell we're hiding the thing," James said, "It isn't as if we can go trooping through the common room with it!" He pushed the portrait open and they stepped out into the trophy room, which was doused in pale blue moonlight. The portrait frame was empty, as usual. James went to the door and pushed it open, peeking each way down the hall before ducking back in. "Alright, I don't see anyone around out there. Where should we go?"