Severus Snape And The Marauders

Chapter 7

Exchanging Secrets in the Middle of Nowhere

Severus regained consciousness slowly. There was water in his mouth, on his face; it felt deliciously cool against his skin. He swallowed greedily before opening his eyes. Lupin was kneeling over him, face concerned and hands dripping water.

"Lupin... what happened?" Severus tried to sit up but doing so unleashed a savage headache which convinced him was best to lie still on the moss. His head was on fire; maybe it had been used as a Bludger during Quidditch practice? The sun was too bright and the silence too loud.

"We got out of there and you hit your head on a rock when we landed. We tried to wake you up but couldn't... and honestly, Snape, you don't look good at all. So we let you sleep. Sirius and James finally found a stream, but it takes the better part of an hour to get there." Severus blinked in surprise-an hour? Stream?

"How long was I out? Where are we?"

"James thinks it's late afternoon-so today is tomorrow, if you're thinking from yesterday's perspective. It's been about a day since... you know. And I don't know where we are, except that it has trees. We were hoping you knew."

"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking you, would I?" he sneered. "Where are the others?"

"At the stream. We were going to sleep there tonight, assuming we're still here-think you can walk?"

Severus was doubtful, but he let Lupin pull him onto his feet. He swayed for a moment, still trembling from the Cruciatus and rubbing his arms where bruises had already started to form; eventually his headache diminished to an almost bearable level and he followed Lupin into the forest. They began a long, slow trek through the brush, following a trail of twigs someone had stuck upright in the ground. After an hour of walking-stopping often to rest-they reached their goal.

"Padfoot! Are you trying to set the forest on fire?"

"I said I was sorry!"

Between the trees and the stream were Black, Potter, and one huge, raging inferno of a campfire.

"Sirius, you are hereby banished from messing with the fire. Go find something edible." For once Severus agreed with Potter-any more wood on that blaze and Black would have burned the forest to a crisp. Black turned around.

"Hey, Prongs-they're here!"

"Hi. I see you finally managed to get the fire going," Lupin said, sitting down beside the creek; Severus collapsed closer to the fire, appreciating the warmth.

"Yeah, well, it took us long enough. Um... feel better, Snape?" Black glanced at Severus before crouching beside Lupin, peering into the stream, a stick in his hand. Severus noted a large bruise on his face-but then I don't look so nice myself, according to Lupin.

"Yes," he replied, then jumped as Black slammed the stick into the water, which flew into the air and splattered his robes. Black cursed and wiped his hands off on his sleeve. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to stab a fish. They're too quick-there's no way I'll get one, but it's the only way we can think of to have dinner. So we'll probably starve."

Potter snorted and threw a twig onto the inferno.

"Okay," Lupin began, "now that we're all here I think we need to talk about what we're going to do. Snape says he has no idea where we are-"