An American Professor

Erin awoke alone the next morning. Her body felt as if it had been through a war. Shoulders aching, she sat up carefully to look for Snape. Spotting a note on the side table, she rose from the bed anxious to read its contents.

We've gone out. Don't touch anything.

"What the heck?" she wondered out loud. Sitting back down on the bed she stared at the note thoughtfully. I can't believe he would just leave me to these goons. Can I really trust him? Then it dawned on her that his note said 'We'. That must mean that some of the Death Eaters had gone as well, if not Voldemort himself.

As for the 'Don't touch anything' he might as well have put a neon sign on the wardrobe. Trying not to run, she crossed to the wardrobe and opened it excitedly. Hanging limply inside were the robes that she had requested he find for her.

Looking back to the bed, she realized that it would be pretty obvious, if one of them glanced in to check on her, that she was gone. Pulling the pillows and blankets from the bed, she practiced a skill she had become rather adept at as a teenager, and shoved them into the bed to make it look as if she were still in bed.

Pulling Severus' socks over her boots she tucked them in carefully and tested them. Feeling relieved that the system still muffled the nose emitted from them, she paced the room for a moment, before pulling the robes on. They were much longer than her own and dragged along the floor. They'll work to get me out of here, she reasoned, as long as I don't trip on the damn things. Taking a deep breath she reached for the doorknob. It was unlocked, and as she turned it slowly, she decided it was now or never.

Walking carefully down the hall, she paused upon reaching a corner. Erin's hand went over her mouth compulsively to stifle a gasp. Apparently, Lucius Malfoy had not accompanied the others on their trip. Erin leaned back against the wall, still undetected. Malfoy wasn't stupid. It would be pretty obvious that the figure in black coming from this end of the corridor was her. She could not go the other way, as the hallway began with the room she'd been held captive in.

Sighing deeply, Erin realized that she was virtually optionless. She shrugged out of the Death Eater robes, and threw them silently into an alcove. Pulling herself to her full height, Erin held her breath, knowing full well that such a position made her cheekbones more prominent and thrust her breasts forward. Just as the butterflies were beginning to take flight she turned the corner and sidled up to Malfoy.

She was rather surprised when he didn't notice her until she placed a hand on his arm. "Lucius," she purred. He jumped at the sound of her voice and grabbed her arm roughly.

"What are you doing out here?" he snarled.

"I came to find you," she said softly. Clearly this was not the answer he had been expecting, as he loosened his grip on her arm. She used the opportunity to press on. "I couldn't stop thinking about you, especially last night," she said pointedly.

"Huh?" he questioned unintelligibly. Erin slid her hand up his arm to the back of his neck and pulled his head down to meet her gaze. Surprised steely gray eyes met seemingly enticing baby blues.

Her voice was low and sultry as she said matter-of-factly, "I'm a kinky bitch. I like it rough." His surprise turned to pleasure as he slid his hand over her arm to the small of her back to pull her closer. Erin fought the reflex to retch and instead smiled at him boldly. He pressed his lips to hers roughly, and when Erin gasped he used the opportunity to slide his tongue into her mouth. Erin attempted to respond in kind, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, and she was beginning to worry that she'd gotten herself in over her head.

Malfoy didn't seem to notice or care about her hesitation. Trying to collect her wits, Erin broke the kiss and began to pull on his robes drawing him back to her prison. Malfoy grinned at her stupidly and followed her easily. As she drew him into the room she quickly spun around so that her back was to the door and he was positioned facing the center of the room. He turned to face her and grabbed her by the hair to pull her into another probing kiss. Erin decided to go for it, and bit his lip. As he cried out in pain and backed away from her, she stepped forward and in one swift motion used her leg to take his legs out from under him.

He clearly was not expecting this, and thought it might be more foreplay. "Is this how you like it baby?"

Erin fought back a laugh at the man's idiocy. "I told you I like it rough," she sneered. Before he could respond she grabbed a heavy Potions volume from a nearby table and brought it down full force on his head with a dull thud. Praying that no on from below had heard the exchange, Erin shut the door and ripped a piece of sheet from the bed. Pulling Malfoy onto his back, she tied his hands behind his back. Thank God for dating a sailor and taking self-defense classes, she thought. But she pushed these thoughts from her head as she concentrated on tying his legs with the same tight knot, and shoving an old sock into his mouth before tying a gag onto him.

Erin began to shove him under the bed when she suddenly heard footsteps approaching the door. Using all of her might she shoved him the rest of the way under the bed, and had just enough time to jump onto her strategically placed pillows before the door burst open. A rather dense looking Death Eater stood in the doorway staring dumbly at her.

"What do you want?" she demanded.

"I heard a noise."

"I fell off of the bed. Got a problem with that?"

"Uh…well…uh…"

"Go away," she ordered, and he complied dumbly. That was easier than I thought. What a moron! Erin slid off the bed and straightened out the covers quickly. Sticking her head under the bed, she was startled that Lucius had already regained consciousness. Erin fleetingly wondered if she should knock him out again, but it just wasn't in her nature to hit a defenseless person. However, the look in his eyes made her consider this for a longer period of time than she would have under normal circumstances.

Dropping the blanket back into place she heard Malfoy groan. She wondered if she should take a moment to check his restraints again, but decided not to waste more time. She left the room and retrieved her 'borrowed' robes and continued her escape.

Erin walked down to the hallway, now at the same spot where she'd abducted Malfoy. Attempting to remember which way they had come last night, proved to be futile. She had been fighting against Snape so hard, she just could not recall. She turned to her right and prayed that it was the right way. Finding a door, she opened it tentatively and found that it led to a front porch.

Her stomach dropped as she saw two Death Eaters outside. They turned to her and she lowered her head and muttered, "Ground patrol," in a deepened voice. They nodded and she realized that they bought it. Unsure of how many Death Eaters were still inside the house, she walked slowly away from the front porch towards a forest that seemed to come right up to the house.

Erin glanced over her shoulder to see if they were watching her, but they were engaged in their own conversation. Moving to the side of the house with fewer windows, she slipped into the forest. Erin tried to walk carefully in the forest so as to not make a lot of noise. She creaked and crunched her way about a thousand yards into the forest. She definitely couldn't even see the house anymore. She pulled the socks off of her boots and took the map out of her boot. Muttering, "Hogwarts," nothing happened on the map. "Shit," she swore, and thought for a moment. Coming up with an idea she tried again, "Hogwarts Entrance Hall." A line appeared from the south east side of the school. She took out her wand. Remembering the four point spell she muttered, "point me," to her wand and it shot to the north. She was thankful that she wouldn't have to back track. Checking her direction one more time before she began to run north, while veering slightly to her left.

Running intermittently for about an hour before she collapsed and pulled off her boots. This just is not going to work, she thought, I could go so much faster with running shoes. She took out her wand and concentrated on her boots, and saw them as sneakers. Erin waved her wand and then opened her eyes and saw that her boots had transformed into black running shoes. Pulling them on quickly, she checked her direction again and saw that she was going west too much, and needed to run due north. Tucking her map and wand away again, she began to run once more.

Stopping again fifteen minutes later she was frustrated by her robes getting snagged on branches. Debating for a few moments, she couldn't decide what to do. She was worried about leaving evidence, plus it was warm enough right now in the sun, and moving, but she feared that night would be a different story. If she left evidence, it might be easier to find her. Erin was wearing both her blue and the black robes. She'd lost her cloak somewhere at the Riddle Mansion, which made her want to hold on to both of these sets of robes. Finally, she decided to pull off the black ones and tucked them around her waist into her pants, and pulled her shirt over them to secure them. Returning to her running, she was able to go much more quickly as her blue robes weren't nearly as large on her as the black ones had been.

Not having a watch, she guessed she had been running for another hour. Erin stopped running, but kept walking steadily. She checked her direction again, and saw that she again needed to veer slightly left. The underbrush was becoming rather thick and her face and arms were getting pretty scrapped up, but she kept going as fast as she could. Climbing over and under the brush, the process was slow and tedious. As it started getting dark, Erin felt she better seek some type of shelter. Examining the trees she decided to pull a Jurassic Park, and sleep up there rather than on the ground. Finding a tree she could climb, she settled on one whose branches appeared as though they would support her, and scrambled up the tree. It didn't take much for her to fall asleep despite the extremely uncomfortable sleeping conditions.

The next day she continued in much the same way. She was beginning to ache all over and running did not come as easily. When evening fell, she again climbed a tree for the night.

Erin awoke the following morning to the sound of voices with a start. She was careful not to fall, and was very stiff from her night in the tree. She looked below her to see who was talking. The talking appeared to be coming from two men, but wait, on closer inspection, they really didn't seem to be men after all.

"Now look what you've gone and done, Firenze, she's awake."

"Don't get snippy with me Escobar, you were the one talking so loudly."

Erin cleared her throat. "Um excuse me, but could you let me know if you're going to harm me in anyway so I can be prepared? I've had kind of a rough couple of days, and I'd like some advance warning if I am going to have to kick your ass."

They looked at each other quite shocked. "We mean you no harm," the one called Firenze assured.

"Actually, we foresaw your coming in the stars. Usually we don't interfere with these things, but Firenze here felt we should, and he convinced me to come along." Escobar shifted nervously and glanced at his friend.

Firenze glowered at him and then asked, "Will you come down now? I'm getting a crick in my neck."

"Oh, ok, well, if you're sure you're not going to kill me. I guess I need to come down anyway." She drew her wand and came down the tree prepared to defend herself. "Not to seem rude, but are you two centaurs?"

"Yes, of course," Escobar said impatiently.

"Don't be rude, she probably didn't know," Firenze snapped.

Erin gave him a grateful smile. "Uh, can you tell how you plan on helping me?"

"We're going to take you to the Dark Forest."

"How is that helping?" Erin asked with panic in her voice.

"The Dark Forest is right next to Hogwarts, this forest leads right into it, and we're going to get you there without looking suspicious," Escobar finished impatiently.

"I think we'd better be going," Firenze said flatly.

"OK, well, so which way?" she asked. Escobar pointed and Erin began to walk. The underbrush was not nearly as bad as it had been the day before. After a few minutes she asked, "Can I run?"

They looked surprised and nodded. Erin began to run and they trotted alongside her. She picked up the pace and they galloped a little ways in front of her, and stopped until she caught up. As she began to tire, she gradually slowed down to a walk. Firenze walked next to her and they began to talk.

"Can't you please run again, human?" Escobar demanded impatiently.

"I need a few more minutes of cool down," she explained feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Would it help if you rode for a while?" Firenze asked and Escobar snorted his disgust.

"I couldn't do that, you're a person, not a horse," she began.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but this will be faster."

"Alright," she agreed reluctantly and climbed on Firenze's back. She grasped around his man-waist and they took off. They galloped for a while and Erin enjoyed the steady rhythm, and began to feel sleepy. They came to a stop and Erin was jerked awake. "Oh, are you too tired, Firenze? I'll get off," Erin slid to the ground.

"No, child, we're here. This is where we must part. We cannot be seen with you inside the Dark Forest. If others of our kind see us we will be severely reprimanded for interfering," Firenze explained regretfully.

"Oh," Erin breathed. She turned to Escobar. "Thank you." He nodded looking around nervously. She then turned to Firenze and felt tears in her eyes inexplicably. "Thank you so much," she sighed and hugged him. He seemed surprised at first and then returned the hug. She turned and checked her direction and continued on her way waving good-bye before they turned to go.

Erin watched them disappear into the Forest and then turned to go the other way. She had rested quite a bit upon Firenze's back, and decided to run. Hour after hour passed, but Erin continued to convince herself that she was close and continued at a steady pace, running sporadically. She felt as if she'd been following this routine for hours when it began to get dark again. Feeling very discouraged Erin began looking for a tree to sleep in. After all of the stories she'd heard about the Dark Forest there was no way she'd sleep on the ground.

Spotting a suitable tree, she sighed and was readying herself for the ascent wondering if giant spiders could climb trees, when a familiar bark broke into her thoughts. She looked around and saw a huge black dog bounding towards her. At first glance she thought it was Fang and hoped that Hagrid wouldn't be far behind. As the dog drew closer, she realized it was the black dog she'd been feeding.

"Hey! I'm glad to see you. Any ideas for shelter for the night?" Erin figured it couldn't hurt to ask the dog, as ludicrous as that sounded even to her.

The dog barked once and then trotted off. Erin hoped that the bark meant yes, and began to follow him. They came to a rocky outcrop and he began to climb up easily. Erin had a lot more trouble. "Dog! Where the hell are you taking me?" she gasped. He barked in answer.

As he reached a ledge, the dog turned to wait for her. When she arrived on the ledge panting, the dog turned and walked into a cave. Erin followed and sank to the floor exhausted. Her legs cramped and her ankles hurt, especially the one that she'd sprained earlier that year.

Touching her face, she realized it still ached from where Malfoy had slapped her, not to mention the many cuts and brushes from her trek through the forests. Not having thought of her appearance the previous night or this morning, she pushed up her shirt sleeves and saw in the rapidly dimming light, dark purple bruises from being held by Malfoy and the other goon.

Wondering how close they were to Hogwarts, she began to talk to the dog. "Thanks for bringing me here. I just wish you could talk," she said wistfully. "I wonder if Dumbledore's fired me, yet. He probably doesn't have the slightest clue as to what happened to me. He probably heard from Ginny that I went out with Charlie. He must think we've run off together. What if he doesn't believe me when I tell him what happened?" She sighed and looked at the dog with a smile. "Maybe you're good company because you can't talk," she said sighing again. Pulling the black robes from her pants she laid them down on the cave floor. She took off her blue robes and laid down on the black ones pulling the blues over her body. Wadding up the hood of the black robes to use as a makeshift pillow, Erin settled in for the night. It was already quite cold and the blue robes didn't provide much warmth. Feeling the dog lay down next to her as if sensing that she was cold, Erin reached over and scratched him behind the ears before falling fast asleep.

At the first signs of light, Erin awoke and found the dog standing at the cave's entrance. Her body ached all over, but she realized that she had to get back to Hogwarts, no matter what. "Do you know how to get to the school from here?" she asked the dog. The dog barked and Erin chose to take that as a yes. "Well, lead the way."

They made their way back down the rocks and through the forest. Erin still couldn't see anything but forest. She realized that it had been days since she'd eaten when her stomach growled for the first time. Feeling tired already frustrated Erin, and she scolded herself inwardly.

Stopping to lean against a tree, Erin looked apologetically to the dog who sat down next to her. She looked at him, and he looked back at her. "So, hmm, you've got awfully blue eyes for a dog. I wonder if you're part wolf." The dog put his head down and put his paw over his nose. Erin laughed at his gesture, "OK, OK, wolves stink, oh, wait, maybe I stink. Yuck, three days without the benefit of running water." The dog stuck his other paw over his nose and she laughed harder. "OK, OK, we should get going. Which way?"

The dog began to trot off, and she followed close behind at an even pace. After another hour she could just make out the stone walls of the castle. "Thank goodness," she said, "we're almost there!"

"Almost, but not nearly close enough, daughter."