Where You Belong

The knock was soft, almost respectful. Clara MacKenzie walked to her front door and peeked through the peep hole. Her face drained of color and she unlocked the door with fumbling hands.

"Severus!" she cried as a tall figure fell forward. She caught him awkwardly, trying to avoid putting too much weight on her left leg.

"Close the door," her visitor wheezed.

Clara hurriedly complied, kicking the door closed with her bad leg and then helping him to her leather sofa. She helped him lie down and pulled away, her brow creased with worry. She glanced down at her hands and gave a soft gasp of dismay.

"You're bleeding," she whispered in her gentle brogue.

Severus Snape gave a huffing laugh that turned into a small bout of coughing. "That is the least of my worries at the moment. I've put you in danger. I just need immediate medical attention and then I'm on my way."

"The devil you are," she snapped at him. With one hand she pushed him down while the other brushed his lanky black hair from his face. "You will be staying right there," she ordered.

Rushing to her water closet, Clara grabbed various bandages and ointments, carting them back to the living area. "Sit down!" she ordered when she spied the tall, lean frame wobbling to a standing position.

"Clara, give me the bandages and start packing."

Clara couldn't help it, she could feel her jaw drop. "W-what?" she stammered.

"It's dangerous. They know about you and now they'll know where you live. I'll take you to Hogwarts, you'll be safe there." His tone brooked no argument but Clara felt inclined to give him one anyway.

"I will not!" she said stubbornly, dumping the armful on the sofa. "I have a job and -"

"You won't when they've finished," he interrupted, shoving his face down until they were nose to nose.

Severus Snape was tired, he'd been running from DeathEaters for almost twenty-four hours, blocked from escape until he got one lucky break. It was probably too lucky but he wasn't going to quibble facts at the moment. The closest place he could trust for help was Clara's flat and he'd taken it. As soon as he reached her door and knocked he'd known it was a mistake. A big mistake and now Clara was going to pay for his lack of judgement.

"But -"

"I'm sorry, my beautiful little Muggle," he whispered, kissing her forehead in an uncharacteristic display of affection, "but that's the way it has to be. I won't lose you. Now come on, let me bandage this cut and you pack. We have to move and soon."

Pensively, Clara walked into her bedroom and grabbed a duffle bag, shoving a week's worth of clothes and toiletries in it. She placed a weekend feeder tablet of fish food in the fish tank; it would more than sustained the single fish for a week or so. She picked up the cage sitting next to the bedroom door and walked back to the living room with both.

"Should I get food?" she asked worriedly, watching as the man she loved, a wizard with a dangerous and mysterious past, finished taping one side of a huge gauze patch.

"Yes, non-perishable and doesn't require cooking." The reply was curt but Clara didn't take offense; Severus was always curt.

Clara nodded and grabbed a plastic grocery bag, shoving some cans of fruit and canned tuna in it. She grabbed some crackers and a can opener and thrust those in as well. She'd been camping enough with her brothers to be able to rough it. For extra good measure she went to the hall closet and grabbed a blanket as well, shoving it in the bag with the food.

Thus with bulging plastic bag, hamster cage and duffle she went back into the living room where Severus was impatiently waiting for her. "What is that?" he asked in distaste, pointing at the cage.

"I canna leave him here by himself!" she protested.

He sighed. "Fine. Let's go. Put your jacket on, it's chilly." He took the cage and the plastic bag from her while she pulled her jacket on.

"Do I have time to call work?" Clara asked worriedly as she followed him to the front door.

"No."

"But -"

"We'll do it elsewhere." Severus paused. "To hell with this skulking about," he groused aloud. "Take my arm."

Clara, puzzled but willing to go along with his instructions, used her free hand. He put the plastic bag in her hand and pulled out his wand. With a wave and a muttered word, he Apparated them.

The door burst open in a blinding flash of white light two minutes later.

"Severus, where are we?" Clara stumbled on a tree root as she hurried to catch up with his long strides. When he didn't answer and she tripped again, Clara cried out, "Severus!"

He stopped, his black eyes glittering angrily before dulling in concern. "Are you all right?" he inquired, putting the food bag down on the mossy forest floor and helping her to her feet.

"Yes, you move too quickly. I can't move that fast with this leg, Severus," she told him in a low voice.

"I know, I'm sorry." Severus blew air out of his mouth. "We just need to get through the Forest before dark. The only way I could get us here was to Apparate on the other side from the school. The village is being too closely watched."

Clara rarely fell into fits of self-pity but she knew whatever he'd been up to this past summer had been very dangerous and now, because of her, he was slowed down in reporting in and getting proper, wizarding medical help. Severus picked up on her meloncholy and tipped her chin up so they looked each other in the eyes.

"Hey now," he murmured, "none of this self-pity nonsense. Where's my firebrand Muggle?"

Clara leaned into him a moment and then pulled back. "We should go then, shouldn't we?" Severus searched her face, his black eyes seemingly boring into her, but he gave one nod and began walking again.

They had called her work from a small train station they had Apparated to yesterday afternoon. Clara had given the excuse that her mother's health was poor and she had to race up to Scotland and help out. The lie had been accepted, as Clara's mother had been in poor health the past year. She had then called her parents and told them what she'd done so they'd back up the lie should her work, or anyone else, call about her whereabouts. Her parents had been suspicious of the lie but had agreed when she said it was urgent that they follow her instructions.

They had spent the previous night in a cave about twenty miles from the Forest and then Severus had Apparated them the last bit of distance. He'd said he was loathe to Apparate them into the Forest because of the foliage. He didn't want to make a mistake and have them both Apparate in the middle of a tree. Clara had agreed it wouldn't be healthy and instead found herself dodging all manner of magical creatures and tripping over abnormally large tree roots.

"This path leads right to Hogwarts, Clara," Severus told her when he stopped. "I want you to follow it. There will be a small cottage on the edge of the Forest. Head there and tell the man inside, Hagrid, that you need to be taken to Albus Dumbledore immediately, that you have information concerning me. Once you get to Albus, tell him I'm in the Forest, warding off DeathEaters."

Clara was immediately alarmed. She knew very well what a DeathEater was, having had a foolhardy run-in with a DeathEater named Lucius Malfoy months earlier. She'd foolishly confronted the man concerning things he'd done and said to Severus and had been tortured for her trouble. Clara had not taken seriously Severus' warnings that wizards were more powerful than she imagined and paid the price for her disbelief.

"Severus," she began heatedly, "I don't want you to -"

"Are you going to argue with every word I say, Clara?" he snapped, turning her around and giving her back a shove between the shoulders. "Take the rat and move, quickly now."

"He's a hamster!" she grumbled at him as she moved down the slightly cleared path. He disappeared through the trees and she was left alone.

Very alone in a forest full of magical beasts that could eat her.

Clara swallowed, squared her shoulders and picked up her pace, being very careful where she put her feet. Her leg, even with the recent reconstructive surgery, wasn't in the best of shape. As a child she had foolishly played a game with other school children where they jumped from a platform onto a moving train and then leaped back onto the next platform. She had fallen, catching her leg on the platform and wrenching it horribly. So bad was the condition of the leg that she was now disabled, with a limp and numerous surgical scars.

The forest began to thin and she could make out a small cottage with a small wisp of smoke twirling from the chimney. 'Severus said the man's name is Hagrid,' she thought to herself and immediately began to shout, wanting to get help for Severus as quickly as possible. "Hagrid! Hagrid!"

A giant man stepped from the cottage's back door and peered through the encroaching gloom at her staggering form. He rushed toward her, his huge boots making a thunderous sound as he moved. "Who're you?" his voice boomed through a very shaggy and unkempt beard.

"My name is Clara MacKenzie and Severus, he's in the Forest! I'm supposed go to Albus Dumbledore and tell him that Severus is detouring some DeathEaters that are following us!" Clara squeaked in dismay as Hagrid scooped her up.

"Takin' care of, little lady," Hagrid told her. "Fang, Snuffles, go help Professor Snape while I get Professor Dumbledore." Two black dogs, one of unrecognizable shaggy variety and the other a boarhound, charged into the forest, growling and snarling as they went. "They'll give Professor Snape some backup until Dumbledore can get there, don' you worry 'bout that."

Clara gave a tremulous smile. "Please watch the cage, Mr. Hagrid."

"Cage?" Hagrid looked around, perplexed until he saw the metal cage dangling in her hand. "Ah, what's that ye got there?"

"A hamster. Severus calls it a rat, but its a Campbell Dwarf hamster named Derry." Clara felt suddenly foolish showing the giant man her hamster as if she were a child. "Sorry, I'm not usually so daft. It's been a very harrowing couple of days, what with dodging DeathEaters and Apparating all over the countryside."

Hagrid grinned at her, or at least his beard moved in an upward position. "You come to me cottage, set the hamster down there and then I'll take you to the Headmaster, how's that?" Clara felt immediately at ease with the big man and nodded. Hagrid set her down and she walked with him. "Yer limpin'! Did ye hurt yer leg in the Forest?"

"I always limp," she told him, suddenly shy. "My leg, it's bad." Hagrid merely smiled and lead the way.

The castle hadn't changed much in the past few months since Clara had last seen it. Hagrid again carried her, allowing them to move quicker. Dumbledore met them in the Great Hall, a giant banquet hall just within the front doors. Clara quickly explained the situation and Dumbledore vanished out the front door after a quick assurance that all would be well. All that was left for Clara to do was to impatiently wait and worry for Severus' safe return.

They brought him in, unconscious and slightly battered, his robes more tattered than when he had left her. His right eye was black and the side of his face was bruised and swelling. Clara let out a squeak of dismay and rushed forward but Dumbledore halted her.

"Let us get him to the infirmary, Miss MacKenzie," he soothed. Clara nodded her head shakily. "I promise you that he will be right as rain. Now you remember Sirius Black, don't you?" Dumbledore motioned to a tall, handsome, black haired man standing next to the boarhound.

"Yes," said Clara, giving Sirius a shaky smile. "You escorted me back to London."

Sirius grinned at her and gave a flirty wink, earning another smile, less shaky, from her. "How've you been?" he asked solicitously.

"Decent," she responded, turning her attention back to her unconscious love. "Are you sure he'll be all right," she murmured in her Scottish brogue, toying lightly with a strand of his long black hair.

"Quite positive," said Sirius, coming up behind her. "Fang and I got there just as he got hit with a stunning charm. We ran the DeathEaters off and I was bringing him back when Dumbledore found us."

Clara looked over her shoulder at him puzzledly, as the procession began moving up the stairs to the infirmary. "What happened to the other big dog?" she asked.

Sirius grinned at her again. "That's me, but you have to keep it a secret." Clara's eyes widened. Severus had talked about animagi, wizards and witches who could transform themselves into animals. "Not many people know."

"I'll keep your secret, Mr. Black," she assured him softly.

Sirius looked at her a long moment before continuing up the stairs after her. "I have no doubt you will," he murmured when she was out of earshot. "What do you see in a git like that?" he sighed.

Clara was curled up on a neighboring bed in the infirmary when Severus came to several long hours later. The moon was high in the night sky and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. He turned his head at her soft snoring and smiled to himself. "There's my fierce Muggle," he whispered to himself.

"Severus?" He jerked his head around to see Albus Dumbledore on the other side of his bed, straightening up from his own slumped position in a rather uncomfortable looking chair.

"Headmaster, you should be in bed," rebuked Snape with a yawn.

"I wanted to make sure you awoke alright." Dumbledore looked slightly anxious, causing Severus to arch a brow.

"I'm fine. It seems Madam Pompfrey knows what she's doing." He touched where he'd been wounded and bleeding, which was still tender, and gave small wince.

"Yes, but I worry all the same." Dumbldore seemed to relax considerably. "And Miss MacKenzie has been quite distraught over your condition. I finally had to give her a sleeping potion in a cup of tea to put her to sleep."

"She won't thank you for that," Severus said with a soft laugh. "I did that once after her surgery and she pitched quite a fit when she finally woke up."

Dumbledore smiled. "Indeed? Well, since you know how to handle her fits and starts I shall tell her you did it."

Severus shook his head. "Won't wash," he chortled. "She knows I was unconscious at the time."

"Ah well then, we'll blame Sirius."

"Works for me." Severus gave a laugh at Dumbledore's warning frown. "Don't worry, we're still allies, just allies that have agreed to dislike each other greatly." Dumbledore only shook his head in exasperation.

"Get some rest, Severus, and we'll worry about further details in the morning." Dumbledore stood up and stretched his long, tired limbs.

"If it's all the same to you, Headmaster," grimaced Severus as he sat up in the bed and looked back over at the sleeping Clara, "I'd much rather be in my quarters than here. I feel," Severus paused searching for the right word, "exposed."

Dumbledore frowned a moment as he thought and then shrugged. "I see no reason why not. Just take it easy. I will not be held responsible if you wind up back in here. Madam Pompfrey will be yours to deal with."

Severus sighed, then shrugged. He swung his feets out from beneath the covers and stood up on the hard stone floor, shuddering slightly at the coolness of them on his bare feet. Severus carefully leaned over Clara and shook her awake. "Up and awake, sleepy Muggle."

Clara muttered something indistinguishable and rolled over, presenting Severus with her back. He rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. "I'll leave her here and collect her in the morning."

"As you wish, but again, it's your skin." Dumbledore chuckled at the sour look his Potions Master sent his way. Severus pulled on his black robes, and after the two men informed a protesting Madam Pompfrey of Severus' intentions, they quit the room.

The sun was shining brightly when Clara opened her eyes. Her mouth had a bad, yet familiar, aftertaste and was cottony. "Sleeping potion," she muttered in disgust. She stretched and rolled over to where Severus would be still sleeping peacefully, only to be confronted with an empty, made-up bed and no Severus Snape in sight.

Clara sat with a jolt and let out a exclamation of dismay that reverberated around the room. "Severus?" she called out worriedly.

"He's downstairs, dearie," called the school nurse, from her office some distance away. "He awoke last night and insisted on leaving. He was never one for staying in the infirmary." Madam Pompfrey stuck her head out of the office to show a disgruntled expression. "They are all having breakfast. Shall I take you down?"

"She can't go down," said a voice from the doorway. "Morning, Miss MacKenzie," greeted Sirius Black, leaning against the doorjamb. "Snape asked me to bring you to his chambers."

Clara tried not to blush to the roots of her strawberry blonde hair but was unsuccessful. "We're not...I mean...I don't want you to think that..."

Sirius laughed. "You are obviously a lady," he informed her graciously, "and I would never think otherwise."

Clara nodded uncertainly.

"You know, the way Snape and the Headmaster were talking, you're liable to be here for sometime. If it's not a problem, I'd like us to be friends."

Clara looked at him in surprise as she pulled on her shoes, which she had taken off before climbing into bed the night before. "Very well," she said, a smile spreading across her face.

"Call me Sirius," he informed her, handing her the small wool jacket she'd been wearing as well.

"Please call me Clara," she responded in kind.

"I could tell you stories about Snape that would curl your hair, but I'll refrain," he joked as they left the infirmary. They both ignored Madam Pompfrey's snort of disapproval.

"I know he'd fallen in with a bad crowd in school," Clara began hesitantly.

"You could say that," Sirius said noncommitally. What Snape had told his girlfriend was not Sirius' business, but Sirius felt oddly protective of this slip of a Muggle woman. He still had his doubts about Snape's motives in joining Dumbledore's side but had resigned himself to living with the happenstance. Snape seemed sincere enough, and was certainly taking enough risks to prove it.

"I understand the two of you don't get along," ventured Clara hesitantly. "You aren't going to use me to get under Severus' skin, are you?"

Sirius laughed. "I would never, and not just because it would be unethical. Dumbledore would hand me my head on a platter. Besides," Sirius said, tugging on a lock of her red-gold hair, "you're too nice. If anyone could turn Snape into a human being, it would be you. It's true we didn't get along at all," he admitted when Clara refused to respond to his teasing, "but we're allies now, albeit suspicious ones. To accomplish our mutual goal we're going to have to trust one another."

Clara nodded and silently allowed Sirius to talk as they walked. He gave her the tour as they headed for the staff quarters, talking about this painting or that classroom, telling funny anecdotes of pranks he and his friends played on Severus or vice versa. Clara laughed where appropriate but her heart wasn't in it.

Severus had sent someone he didn't trust very much to come get her. Was he that busy? Was he still that injured? Was he feeling guilty for involving her? What was going on?

Sirius finally stopped in front of a dark green door with a silver snake emblazoned on a crest decorating it. He rapped on the door twice and then stepped back. The door opened and there stood Severus, his black eyes glittering. "The love of your life, per your request," taunted Sirius lightly.

Severus glared at him and stepped aside for Clara to enter. "Thank you, Black," Severus ground out. "Now get lost." He slammed the door on Sirius' shout of laughter. "Rapacious git," he muttered under his breath.

"Severus-" began Clara worriedly but then she stopped. Severus pulled her into his arms for a tight, yet brief hug.

"My dear," he told her, "these are our quarters. Get used to them because you won't be leaving them for a long time."

Clara's jaw dropped open and she let out a confused squeak. "What?"

Severus shot her an impatient look. "You heard me. You're where you belong."