~~With Snape~~

Snape swirled around quickly when the bushes a few yards away from him started shaking, pointing his wand at them, he prepared to fight whatever was coming out of the forest. When Potter stumbled out though, he lowered his wand, scowling darkly at the little hellion. All the while, the brat's friends behind him were cheering loudly. Snape decided then to tear into the little rule-breaker until the brat was in tears. 'As soon as he gets over here,' he thought, watching the small Gryffindor start walking in their direction, suddenly the boy shrieked and Snape watched in horror, as the child was knocked down and dragged back into the forest by something he couldn't see.

"HARRY!!" Ms. Granger screamed and tried to rush after him.

"Ms. Granger, NO! You don't know what it is, nor if there's more than one!" Snape roared, rushing forward swiftly.

Snape had to grab her and order the others back all at once. As much as Snape wanted to go after Potter, he knew that the other students would try to follow him. Before he could decide though, the decision was made for him. The sound of Potter screaming echoed from a distance away, followed by the feel of strong wild magic that lifted the hairs on the back of Snape's neck. Quickly followed by the roar of what sounded like a large cat, shortly echoed by two other cries a slight distance away. Then the sounds of something clumsily rushing towards them from the forest.

~~With Harry~~

Harry was painfully dragged over the forest floor, with something big's teeth tearing his thigh up, not to mention his chest, since his shirt and robe was torn off somewhere back towards Hogwarts. Suddenly, Harry was dropped, and swiftly he turned around to see what had attacked him. What it was he hadn't a clue, it was a cat, as big as a tiger if not bigger, and it was all black, except a white star on its forehead, and white strips on the bottom of its legs and tail. A tail which was bladed, with twin blades, like two scythes laid side by side. The cat also had a stiff mane running down its back, ending slightly past its shoulder blades. The cat watched him for a moment, before lunging at him again, and instinctively Harry throw up his hands to protect himself, while letting loose a scream.

Only to knock the attacking cat away with a powerful blast of wild magic. The said cat landed some ten feet away, before struggling onto its feet and roaring at Harry in rage. Harry was already running back to the school as fast as his injured leg could carry him, when he heard the answering cries, he speed up faster then he ever thought possible. Crashing through the trees, bushes and undergrowth, Harry didn't stop even when he burst, limping, from the trees into the clearing.

"RUN!! ITS COMING!!" He cried shrilly, when he saw his friends and Professor still standing in the distance.

"PLEASE, GET AWAY!!" Harry screamed again as he neared the other frightened looking students.

Before Harry could pass them though, Snape reached out and caught him, like a snitch, pressing him into his chest and trying to calm him, but Harry was beyond calming. His mind was in the grip of an animal-like terror.

"PLEASE, ITS COMING, ITS COMING, RUUUNNN!!!" Harry bellowed, struggling to get out of his Professor's hold.

~~Snape POV~~

Snape held the struggling, terrified child (for indeed, right then Potter was nothing more than a injured and panicking child) to his chest, quickly he gently lifted the youth into his arms and ordering the others to follow, took off quickly back to the castle. All the while, the boy-who-lived was clinging tightly to him, and had his head pressed under Snape's chin. Snape's concern was growing quickly at how fast the boy's temperature was dropping and how much blood he was losing. Finally, rushing into the hospital wing with Potter starting to loose conscienceness, Snape bellowed for Madam Pomfrey, while he laid the Gryffindor on the nearest bed. To his horror, Potter started to seizure right then and he had to hold the boy down, and try to prevent him from hurting himself.

"Severus, what is...?" Madam Pomfrey trailed off when she say Potter, quickly she turned and ran for the necessary potions.

"Come on, Potter, don't do this. You've survived so many life-threatening situations, don't let this kill you now." Snape whispered to the convulsing child, and gradually the shaking stop, when Snape could stand up again, he helped Poppy administer the potions.

"I will return, Poppy, I must make a fire-call to the Headmaster and to Potter's do... Godfather, explaining what has happened as best I can." He said, before rushing away, and ushering the forgotten students out of the room with him.

~~the next night~~

"Albus, the boy's fever isn't getting any better and his wounds are not responding to any of the potions. There must be something else wrong."

"What do you mean, Poppy?"

"We don't know what bit, Mr. Potter to begin with, what if it had a disease?"

"A disease!?" Sirius cried, turning to look at the small, pale, and sweating form of his Godson.

"Yes, a disease, that's why I would like Severus to start taking blood tests. Unless we can find out what is wrong, than Mr. Potter will die."

"Isn't there anything you can tell us about the bite, Poppy?" Remus asked, sitting beside the young Gryffindor's bed.

"Well, judging from the size of the original bite...."

"Original bite?" Severus spoke up from he stood in the corner of the room.

"Well, this creature bit him only once, but the wound was torn further from it dragging him." Poppy explain, looking at the four others in the room. "Anyway, as I was saying, the size of the original bite is identifiable to an animal the size of a tiger if not larger, I believe the...ah... attacker was of the cat family, and strangely enough the cat didn't do half the damage it could have."

"What do you mean 'didn't do half the damage it could have'? I think it did quiet a bit of damage!" Sirius barked, pacing around in his anger.

"What I mean is, a cat this size could have easily torn Harry's leg off entirely."

After that everyone was silent for a long time, only to be brought out of their thoughts by Harry's mew of discomfort.

"Severus, you may take the blood sample needed for you tests." Headmaster Dumbledore stated, walking towards the small teen's bed.

Snape walked out of the corner he was standing in and ignoring Sirius' growl, he approached Potter's bed. Pulling out three small vials and sitting on the bed, he gently took the boy's thin arm in his hand. Poppy was already there and together they filled the three vials with Potter's blood, before Snape carefully placed those vials in his robes and excused himself to work on the needed tests.

~~Two Days Later~~

"Well Severus, what did the tests find?" Albus asked, the five of them were all in the hospital wing with Harry, who still hadn't woken-up yet.

"It's as we feared, there is some type of infection, but it's more than that." Snape replied, wishing that he had better news.

"What do you mean 'it's more than that', Severus?" The headmaster asked.

"The infection seems to be not only spreading through the boy's system, but its changing the boy's blood and possible body as well." Snape answered. "Its behaving like the werewolf infection, so I have reason to believe that the...cat... that bit Harry was some kind of Lycanthrope."

"But...but how, I thought werewolves were the only lycanthropes to be found?" Sirius questioned, shocked senseless by the news.

"Yes, so did all of we, but we could all be wrong." Albus stated, watching the comatose boy. "We will have to wait and see what this brings."

Everyone was silent for quiet some time, unable to believe this horrible news was real.

Harry Potter and all it's characters belong to J.K. Rowling, although I do own the Mastakos and maybe later a few other little characters.