The moon cast an eerie glow on the forest surrounding them as they finished setting up their camp. Severus had been trying not to use any sort of magic, in case they were being followed. He didn’t want anyone figuring out where they were. The layout of the camp was simple; a couple of blankets, and a small fire were really all they needed. Harry had started pulling food out of the bag Deliverance had sent with them, marveling at the amount she had managed to shove into it.

He was just laying out his own blanket to sleep on later that night when he felt someone watching him. He looked up just in time to see Jeb starring at him with that weird gleam in his eyes again. Harry was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable in this man’s presence. If only his Professor hadn’t limited his use of magic to emergencies, he could ‘accidentally’ hex the man and try to get away with it. He laughed inwardly at the idea. As the man seemed to have a staring problem, Harry looked away first. He couldn’t stand that look. He just wasn’t sure what it meant.

“Potter would you like to share the food, or do you plan on looking dumbly at the ground the entire night?” spat Snape, already in a fuming mood, due to the company he was forced to keep, mainly the psycho with the greed complex.

While looking right at Harry, Jeb snickered evilly, enraging Snape, and freaking out the boy.

“Shut your damn trap.” hissed Snape, startling the older man.

“Excuse me?!” he yelled, standing up from his crouching position. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I’m the man paying you an insane amount of money to lead me up a hill.” he said sarcastically. “Now, unless you would like to go home empty handed, you’ll mind your own business, stop staring at the boy, and shut the hell up!” he said, exasperated with the man.

Harry was surprised by his Professors impromptu yelling fit and even more surprised when he defended him, in his own warped way.

Jeb sat back down, eyeing Snape with a deep hatred in his eyes, which only Harry seemed to notice. Harry ended up getting very little sleep that night.

****************

The next morning, Harry awoke realizing he was freezing. Peering through slightly opened eyes, he saw the reason for this. Jeb was standing over him, smirking, and holding his blanket. “Time to get up, little one.” he said, faking a caring tone.

Harry eyes shot fully open, and he immediately backed away from the older, creepy looking man. Quickly scanning the area, he also realized that Severus was no where in sight. ‘Oh shit.’ he thought, quickly getting to his feet.

“What’s wrong? You act like I’m going to hurt you or somethin’.” he said, pulling something out from behind his back.

Harry started as he realized it was his bag. “Hey, that’s mine! Give it here.” he said, grabbing for it.

“No.” said Jeb, holding the bag just out of Harry’s reach. The younger man hadn’t realized just how tall Jeb was until he was standing right next to him, as he only reached the man’s chest. He had to look up into Jeb’s eyes, and was once again very disturbed by the look he was giving him. He went to step backwards when Jeb grabbed his upper arms hard. Harry had to clench his teeth as he fought back the urge to scream. He wasn’t some sissy, but the fingers digging into his sensitive flesh were sure as hell bringing on the urge.

“I noticed you were missing something from your bag, boy. Where is it?” he hissed, shaking the boy roughly.

Harry looked at him in confusion and pain. “What are you talking about?” but as soon as he said it he knew what the man wanted. His money sack. He had taken it out last night right before he had gone to bed and hidden it. Understanding dawned in his eyes and Jeb saw it.

“You know what I’m talking of, brat, now where…is…it!” he hissed, digging his fingers even deeper into the boy’s arms. Harry involuntarily let out a whimper, which only seemed to please Jeb to no end. “Don’t like that, do ya?” he spat, squeezing even harder, causing Harry to actually cry out. Suddenly they heard branches crashing as someone came rushing towards the camp. “Not a word, you little shit, or I will make this journey a living hell.” he hissed, pushing the boy back onto his bedding, and then acting like he was leaning over the boy with a fake look of concern plastered on his face.

“It’s gone now, son. Nothing to worry about.” he said, right as Snape came crashing out of the forest.

“Get the hell away from him!” he yelled, grabbing the man by the arm and pulling him away from Harry, who was breathing rapidly.

“Get your filthy hands off of me!” spat Jeb. “I wasn’t doing nothing to harm the little brat, was I boy?” he said, staring the boy down. “It weren’t nothing but a snake slitherin’ in his bedding.”

Harry saw the man meant it when he said he’d make the journey a living hell. Not wanting to jeopardize anything, as he knew this trip was important to his Professor, he decided to keep his mouth shut, as a raging Snape could be just as bad.

“What of it Potter, was there a snake?” he asked, with a look of undeniable doubt in his eyes.

“Yes, Professor. It just took me by surprise is all.” he stated, keeping eye contact.

“Obviously.” he said, taking in the boy’s disheveled state and rapid breathing. “If you’re certain.” he said, still eyeing the guide with mistrust.

“I am.” said Harry.

“Very well, then let’s pack up and get back on the trail. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover before the sun sets.” he stated, and started finishing packing up, which he had been doing earlier when the call of nature had sounded.

As soon as Snape was no longer looking at him, Harry rubbed his arms, trying to take away the agonizing sting that still remained from the guide’s rough handling. He knew that Jeb was boring angry eyes through him, but refused to look at him, and because of this he missed the sickeningly delighted look the older man’s face took on.

**************

An hour later and they were trekking up the damn mountain again, following behind the so called guide. Harry personally thought the man didn’t know a trail from a hole in the ground. The man kept changing course, backtracking at some points, before heading back towards the exact place they had been only minutes before. Harry could tell Snape was getting pissed.

“If you know this mountain so well, shouldn’t you actually know your way around the damn thing?” spit out Snape, glaring holes into the nasty man.

Jeb grinned lopsidedly. “Don’t you worry, I’ll get you there. My way to get there might be kind of loopy, but we’ll get there just the same.”

Snape continued to glare. Harry just kept to the back and tried to stay out of the way. Both of his traveling companions were in hateful moods, and he didn’t feel the need to bring down their wrath on himself. He absentmindedly rubbed his arms again, still feeling the lingering pain from earlier. He quickly pulled up his left sleeve, and saw that bruises, in the shape of fingers had wrapped around his upper arm. He sighed heavily. He was pretty confident he wouldn’t be sleeping at all that night, as he would be keeping a look out for the money grubbing disgusting bastard. He’d hidden his money sack in his cloak, which had a little slit torn into the seam, and as he discovered, it was a fine place to hide little things, such as his money. He meant to keep the cloak with him at all times, which wasn’t too hard, as it was growing steadily colder the further up the mountain they went.

He wondered how he was going to constantly stay away from Jeb. It was pretty easy, except for when anyone needed to use the bathroom. He had gone into the forest earlier for this reason, and had to speed it up when he heard footsteps crushing the leaves on the ground. When he got back to the trail, Snape was waiting by himself, looking altogether more pissed off. Then Jeb came back, claiming he had had to go too. He didn’t know how he was going to avoid the man, but avoid him like the plague he would.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t realize until it was too late that he was sinking into something. He looked down and realized it was mud, or at least it looked like mud. But more importantly, he was sinking fast. Harry looked up and realized he had strayed slightly from the others, and they were almost out of eye sight. He tried to scream, but no sound came out. Panicked seized him and he started struggling, which he never should have done. He immediately started sinking further into the mud. He was reminded of quick sand, and stopped moving. Looking up, he finally found his voice and screamed.

***********************

Severus dislike of Jeb had grown steadily since he first met him, but now he was just growing angry at the man. He thought if he looked at that boy one more time in ‘that’ way, he would have to kill him…or something. He wasn’t entirely sure he knew if he was right about that particular look, but he wouldn’t stand for it. He was also certain Harry hadn’t cried out about some stupid snake that morning earlier. He’s a parseltongue, for crying out loud. A snake would not have made that sound come out of his mouth. He had been in pain. But why would the boy lie about it? Perhaps the slimy bastard had threatened him. He honestly didn’t know. But he was going to find out.

He was jerked from his thoughts when he thought he heard someone scream, but it sounded distant, like the person was far away. He turned around and found Harry was not there. Facing Jeb, he saw the man smile sickeningly and snapped.

“What did you do?” he asked, suspicion seeping into his voice.

“He should have paid attention to where he was going.” stated Jeb, as if nothing was wrong. “He’s fine, we’ll just have to pull him out.”

Snape sneered violently at the man and ran in the direction of the scream. About a quarter of a mile away he found the boy. He suddenly felt his heart clench as he realized the boy was chest deep in mud that seemed to be sucking him in, rather quickly. Harry had kept still, hoping to stop sinking, but that didn’t help at all. He had read somewhere that quicksand wasn’t as dangerous as everybody played it out to be. ‘I guess mud has different guidelines.’ he thought, feeling the terror seeping back into his mind.

“Harry!” a yell suddenly pulled him away from the terror invading him, and he looked up into his Professor’s concerned eyes.

“Professor!” he screamed. “Hel..p.” the rest of his sentence was garbled as the mud started pulling his face under. He gasped for breath. He suddenly felt strong hands grab him under the arms and he was being pulled free of the clutching mud. Coughing and gagging on the mud, he struggled to breath in the fresh air. He was dimly aware of someone lightly hitting his back, helping him cough up the mud that he had accidentally swallowed.

“Are you alright?” asked Severus, holding Harry up against him.

Harry leaned wearily against his Professor, feeling suddenly drained of all strength and emotion. “Fine.” was all he could manage to sputter out.

Severus just smirked at the boy’s obvious lie. He looked up and saw that Jeb was standing there, looking pleased. Severus’s eyes grew fierce and cold. “Did it slip your mind that there were these kinds of dangers on the mountain, or were you hoping we’d figure it out on our own?” he spat.

“Well, that was the reason I kept looping around, so no one had a run in with those damn things. He should have kept with us. It’s his own fault.” said Jeb.

“He would have followed us more closely, I’m sure, if he had known the dangers of the mountain. Although, he was probably more worried about you.” hissed Snape. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but I would advise you, again, to stay away from him.” he said, motioning to the boy still leaning against him. Harry had long fallen asleep.

“And why would I want’a do that?” he asked, eyeing the boy in the man’s arms.

“Because I will kill you if you don’t.” Jeb looked into Severus’s eyes, and knew for a fact that the man was telling the truth. He had spoken quietly for the boy’s sake, but the certainly in his voice was unmistakable. He’d have to be careful now.

He nodded his head in acknowledgement and started for the trail. “There’s a little pond, if you want to call it that, if you want to get him cleaned up.” he said and walked away. Severus picked the boy up and just decided to carry him instead of levitating him. He didn’t want to use magic unless he absolutely had to; at least that’s what he kept telling himself. He didn’t want to admit that he might be starting to care for him. He hadn’t even realized it until it was almost too late. He never wanted to see that look of fear and desperation in that boy’s face again. He hadn’t known his heart could beat, let alone constrict with the thought that something had happened to the young man in his arms. With this confusing thought in mind, he also went back to the trail, heading for the pond.