Replacing his shirt, Severus made sure his cloak was spread out to dry and turned back to the river. “Are you quite done playing?”

“Huh?”

Eloquent as always. “I suspect it is too late to make any more progress today, but we need to find somewhere up in the trees to sleep before it gets too dark.”

“Oh, yeah.” Potter emerged a minute later, with an armful of soggy clothes, and Severus turned his back while the boy redressed. “Can we try fishing?”

The idea of fish, even burned over a fire, sounding disturbingly good after nothing but leaves and fruit for over two days. “I suppose. There is certainly no shortage of sticks, and if you unravel some of that ridiculous sweater…”

“Mrs. Weasley made that for me!”

“I would never have guessed.” The woman was pleasant enough to him at the order meetings—one of the few who was—but why she insisted on inflicting those hideous garments on not only her own children but also her children’s friends was utterly beyond him. As was the reason they wore them. Potter had shed it in favor of the lighter shirt—oversized and ragged as it was—underneath when they’d needed something to carry the fruit in, and he rather wished he had a second shirt as well. They’d retied their cloaks to hang loosely enough not to catch the heat, but the humidity was steadily rising. I wonder if this is a daily occurrence and I just did not notice yesterday or if there is going to be a change in the weather. “I will attempt to come up with some form of a hook.” Potter was already picking at the edge of the sweater, and by the time he’d managed to carve a vaguely barbed shape out of a forked twig there was a short stick with a respectable amount of string hanging off it to tie the thing to.

“Here’s bait.” Potter stuck some form of crawling creature he must have dug up onto the hook.

Severus had no issues with relinquishing the rod. “I presume you’ve done this often?”

“Well…no. But Uncle Vernon and Dudley go a lot in the summer, and if they can bring back fish it can’t be too difficult.” He scrambled up onto a rock overhanging the river and tossed the line out into the water and sat down on the bank to watch.

This wasn’t the first time he had heard the brat make an unflattering comment about his relatives, and Severus sneered. “I don’t suppose your uncle ever bothered to tell you that you should be respectful of your elders? Or is it just that you pay as much attention to him as you do in classes? I’d think you’d be glad to be with them rather than in some orphanage… perhaps the orphanage sent you back?”

Potter shrugged, face blank. “Something like that. Hey, I’ve got a bite!” He jerked the rod up out of the water before Severus could say anything. “It got away!”

“Of course it got away; you jerked the hook right out of its mouth.” Idiot. “You have to let it settle first.”

“Do what? It bit the hook, didn’t it? The bait is gone.”

“Honestly.” He climbed up on the rock beside the brat. “Give me that. Have you ever been fishing?”

“No. Hang on a second.” A moment later he was back with another squirming insect to put on the hook. “So how do you do this?”

With a sigh, he tossed the line back in. It’s only been thirty years…. It sank quickly, and he gave the pole a jerk every once in awhile to make sure the fish would see the bait. Sure enough, after a few tugs, he felt the stick dip in his hands. “A couple light pulls first…set the barbs in its mouth. Especially since this isn’t a real fishhook. Then, when you know you’ve got it…” He pulled up sharply on the line, and a silver fish rose out of the water. It wasn’t very big, but then they weren’t very far from shore.”

“Brilliant!”

Severus rolled his eyes, stunning the thing against a rock before removing the hook. “I suppose I’ll be the one preparing them.”

“I can cook.”

“I’ve seen you in front of a cauldron. Only Longbottom is more incompetent.”

“Hey, I’m a good cook! And I bet I’d be better at potions if there wasn’t someone hanging over my shoulder yelling at me all the time and another someone tossing random stuff in my cauldron every time my back is turned.”

“Unlikely.” Eating something Potter had cooked would be more dangerous than letting the brat work spells on him. It was rather difficult to determine an antidote for poison if you were unable to move from your bed or having wild hallucinations. “If you manage to catch another two or three fish of that size that will be sufficient.”

“All right.” He disappeared off the edge of the other side of the rock again—presumably in search of more bait—and Severus took the fish and slid back down to where there cloaks lay. There were plenty of flat rocks…he took a moment to clear space for a fire and get a small blaze started. Firestarting is a small, localized spell...and what other options are there? Rubbing sticks together? Muggle rubbish. Gutting the fish took only a moment…there was less meat than he’d hoped, but if Potter could even catch one more it would give them something to supplement the fruit with. The sun was sinking rather fast…he surveyed the area and found a few likely trees. Probably better to get away from the water’s edge. Animals would be coming down to drink, and he didn’t have any desire to meet any of them.

“I got three, Professor.”

“Give them to me, and go see if one of those trees isn’t a suitable place to spend the night.”

Potter handed over the fish, putting down the pole and slipping on the straps holding his broom. “Back in a minute.”

“I have no doubt.” When the boy returned, he passed over half of the strips of meat and a couple of the figs. “Was one appropriate?”

“That one’s got a fork, like the one last night,” he replied, waving absently. “There’s a lot more stuff here. I just saw a really weird looking monkey.”

“We are close to the river,” Severus replied with a shrug. “It is to be expected.” The refuse from the fish he tossed into the water before reaching for his cloak. Unlike his clothing, it was still damp from being washed, but by the next morning it would be fine. Standing, he kicked dirt over the fire, suppressing the flames. “We should climb up before it gets too dark to see.”

“Um…is it okay if I stay up first tonight?”

“As you please, but don’t wake me up in an hour because you suddenly decide you’re sleepy. Or keep me up with your nonsense rambling.”

“I won’t.”

I’ll believe that when I see it. But apparently the boy managed to amuse himself quietly, somehow, because the next thing he knew an insistent voice was saying his name, bringing him back to reality. “Yes, Mr. Potter, I am awake. Will you stop that infernal nattering? How long have I been asleep?”

“About four hours.” He gestured at the muggle device on his arm. “Enough?”

“That is fine. Go to sleep.” He gave the boy a bit more sleep than he probably should have…after all, he got very little sleep last night, and I don’t need him collapsing on me halfway through the day. The sun had been up for nearly an hour before he finally shook the child’s shoulder. “Up, Mr. Potter.”

“Hm? Professor?”

“Unfortunately. Come, we need to get moving.” Potter followed him down out of the tree and over to the river.

“Do we have time to get fish for breakfast?”

Tempting, but…. “Not now. Assuming we don’t meet up with anyone today, we’ll stop early again tonight. G—what is it?” The boy was staring past him, pale and wide-eyed. When he began hissing instead of responding, Severus turned to see what was frightening him. Sweet Merlin…. A large snake—a very large snake—was lying on the ground perhaps five feet behind him. He couldn’t tell how long it was, but it was nearly half a meter in diameter. The snake was hissing in response. “Kindly ask your new friend to move back a bit.”

“I don’t think she’d go for that. In fact…I think we should maybe run. She just called us ‘talking meat’.”

“Can you get on your broom?” The snake began to slide forward and he backed up, pushing his student behind him. “When I say so, fly.”

“I can’t just leave you!”

“My legs are considerably longer than yours, now do as I say.” The snake was large, and large usually meant heavy…if he could get up onto the rock behind him before it could strike, he might be able to keep it from coming up after him. His wand was already in his hand… “Now!”

Potter was airborne faster than Severus would have believed possible…the brat is good on a broom…but he didn’t have more time to spare for idle thoughts. The snake struck as he launched himself up onto the rock, but its weight made it slower than he would have thought and missed. The largest snakes are nonpoisonous, he considered. It has to get itself wrapped around me before I can become dinner. Now how do I stop that from happening…? It hissed and struck upward again, and he revised his previous statement. The largest known snakes are nonpoisonous. And since I don’t claim more than passing familiarity with nonmagical beasts—less with those from a continent I’ve never visited—I can’t be certain this is a known variety of snake. Best not to get bitten. He glanced up to see Potter circling a dozen feet above his head. Unfortunately, the rock he was on didn’t have any branches conveniently overhead…nowhere the brat could land temporarily and toss the broom down to him. The snake’s head appeared over the top of the rock. “Merlin, I do not need this now. Reparo evenasco!” It jerked backwards at the bolt from his wand, burning away into smoke. And then stopped, halfway dissolved. A cry from above snapped his attention to his student…just as he and his broom plummeted down to the rock Severus was standing on. Perhaps it was a good thing he didn’t go very high. But what…

“Professor?”

Potter’s eyes were wide, staring at something behind him. He turned slowly, to see a pack of enlarged black-scaled greyhounds, staring at them. “Wyrsa. Of course. Are you injured?”

“I…”

“It wasn’t a difficult question, Mr. Potter.”

“I think I’m okay. Not like I’ve never fallen off a broom before.”

“There is that.” The creatures seemed inclined to stay where they were rather than attacking…probably hoping we’ll throw some more nice, tasty magic at them. “How long do you think it would take to reach a climbable tree?”

Potter glanced behind them. “Too long?”

“My feeling as well. However, if we simply back slowly away….” He suited actions to words, pushing his student behind him. They didn’t react at first, until the two of them were off the rock and past what remained of the snake carcass. Then three began to stalk forward, circling around the rock. “Keep moving toward the trees, don’t let them pin us with the river at our backs.”

“What happens when we get into the trees?”

Perhaps the brat had hit his head? “We climb, idiot, what do you think we do?”

One of the creatures suddenly sprang forward. “Ricto sempre!”

It didn’t faze the animal in the slightest…it twisted to land on its feet a dozen feet away with a look on its face Severus had to classify as satisfied. “Potter! They eat magic! Kindly refrain from making us look more appetizing to the beasts than we already do!”

“Sorry, Professor, I just…reacted.”

“Without thinking, as usual.” Several more animals came forward…there seemed to be seven in the pack, including the one who’d leapt at them. “How close are we to the trees?”

“Closer than we were?”

“Potter…”

“If we turn and run we might make it…if we climb real fast…”

“On my count, then. Leave your broom, it’s of no use to use any more.”

“But...”

“Mr. Potter! Do you or do you not wish to survive the next five minutes? If not, I assure you I am more than willing to take care of the problem myself.”

“But it…”

“Put. It. Down. Now.”

“I…” The broom fell to the ground.

Finally. “One. Two. Run!” They reached the tree trunk at almost the same time, Potter scrambling up faster than he, but not by much. Something tugged on his cloak but couldn’t take his eyes off his path to investigate.

“Can they climb?”

He glanced up the see that Potter had reached the fork. “If they could, I suspect we would know by now.” He climbed into the fork also and glanced down at the figures circling below. “Climbing does not seem to be a skill they possess,” he confirmed.

“Yeah, but how long are they going to stay there? Why did I have to leave my broom anyway? It’s not any trouble to climb with.”

“It’s worth nothing now. They have drained the magic from it. Better to leave it behind and allow them to waste time destroying it.”

“I don’t want them to destroy it! It’s mine!”

“Get a new broom,” Severus snapped in response, fed up with the brat’s whining. “We have more important things to worry about than a piece of wood.”

“It was a gift.”

“From one of your mass of admirers I’m sure.” He ignored the boy’s yelp of horror at the snap of wood below. “I believe if we’re careful we can move along the branches in the canopy and hopefully leave them behind.” There was no response. “Potter!”

“It was from Sirius.”

Under no circumstances am I going to allow him to go on about that mangy mutt. “I do not care about anything that flea-bitten cur has done. Whatever that thing once was, it is now a worthless stick of wood. Get moving.” Potter muttered something, but he didn’t waste time trying to decipher it. As long as he was moving forward, that was all that mattered. Unfortunately, a glance below proved that the wyrsa were not content with what remained of the broom…they were mirroring their path at ground level. And outrunning them was not going to be an option. The creatures had four long legs and a level surface to work with; he and the teenager had a relatively narrow beam and somewhat precarious footing. To make matters worse, the things didn’t seem in any hurry to tire…after three hours he and Potter’s dedicated followers were still below. At least Potter was remaining silent rather than filling the air with his inane conversations. It was a nice change. Two more hours, and they still had their shadows below…and the brat was still silent. It’s unnatural, he decided after a moment. Most of the time the only reason he shuts up is when Granger forces the issue, or the Weasley brat is running his mouth. “Must you continue with your childish play-acting? The loss of a broom is hardly the end of the world.”

“It was a present!” the boy snarled, whipping around. Apparently Ouidditch reflexes were good for something because even on slick bark and moss he didn’t waver. “’Cept for Hedwig the first real present I ever got. And just cause you don’t like Sirius isn’t any reason every one else has to hate him—you hate everyone!”

“My feelings are none of your concern,” Severus responded, anger rising at the brat’s tone. “Although I assure you that they have considerably more reasoning behind them than your childish rivalries.” As if the brat understands anything more complicated than ‘he called me names’. “I refuse to deal with your…moping. Grow up.”

“I hate you.”

“Note my devastation.” Judging by the quick glance the brat shot him, the comment hadn’t been intended for his hearing. How, precisely, do the little idiots believe I keep track of what my Slytherins are up to? Divination? Honestly, the things he was forced to put up with. Although…if it wasn’t for the presence of the brat, this trip might be something of a relaxing experience. The Dark Lord cannot reach me here—granted the summons are unpleasant, but given time I could find a way to negate the pain— no one is calling for potions, the Order can’t harass me…perhaps I should set up a vacation house. Strongly warded against dark lords, headmasters, and obnoxious students.

“They’re looking at us,” Potter reported, interrupting his thoughts.

“Brilliant observation. What, precisely, do you suggest that we do about it?”

Potter went silent for a moment. “Throw rocks at them?”

“Idiot child. Leaving aside the fact that we are meters away from any rocks; did you not understand what I told you before? If we injure one, the others will hunt us until either you and I, or all of them, are dead. And since our weaponry is at the level of spears and slings at the moment—neither of which we actually have, mind you—I submit that they are at something of an advantage.” He had the satisfaction of watching the brat’s mouth snap shut, and they once more fell into silence. This is ridiculous. He’s obviously planning some idiotic stunt…probably planning to go back for the thing as soon as he thinks I’m asleep. Obviously he had to distract the child, keep him from planning something stupider than normal—witness him and Weasley’s antics with a flying car in muggle London. At least when Granger is involved she managers to provide some element of sanity to the bunch. Of course, it would be more relaxing for me if he remained silent…. Never mind that the silence had been wearing on his nerves a few moments ago. “I was under the impression that your parents had left behind more than enough funds to see to your continued well-being. What, precisely, prevents you from purchasing a new broom when we return to civilization? ”

“Well…nothing, I guess. But it was a present.”

“And I’m sure the mutt would prefer you preserved his present over your hide.” Then again, knowing that idiot he probably would.

Potter seemed to take the matter under consideration, however, and reluctantly shook his head. “I guess not. So what do we do if these things don’t go away on their own?”

“Nothing, for now. We’ve established that we can find plenty of food up here in the canopy, and so far it looks as though we can keep moving from branch to branch as we follow the river.”

“So we keep walking and hope they go away?”

“Basically.” Unfortunately.

At the next junction between branches, Potter stopped and turned to look up at him. “Not much of a plan.”

“As you have yet to concoct a viable plan of your own, I hardly believe that you are in a position to criticize mine.”

“I had a plan!”

“I believe I pointed out the flaws in pitching rocks previously. Perhaps you remember—the first point was that we have no rocks. Unless you’re planning to climb down and get us some?”

“Well, you could distract them…”

“Mr. Potter, if you even attempt such an idiotic stunt I will have you scrubbing out Longbottom’s cauldrons with a toothbrush until you’re of age!” Apparently that came out a bit more vehemently than he intended, because the boy jumped back against the second branch. Severus decided that he might as well reinforce the response and glared as hard as he could. “Am I understood?”

“Yes, sir. We stay up here and do nothing.”

“For the time being,” he agreed. “Now if you would kindly continue?” Potter turned and began walking again. “I’m curious,” Severus heard himself asking, “you said Hedwig—your owl, correct?—was your first gift?”

“Yeah, and yeah she’s my owl. Hagrid got her for me right before I started at Hogwarts.”

“I assume you just count the things your relatives have given you as unworthy of you,” he sneered in response.

“Dudley’s old junk doesn’t make for really good gifts…they’d probably rather have thrown most of it in the rubbish anyway, but then they’d have had to get me real clothes.”

That was…rather disturbing actually. Likely the boy was exaggerating of course—‘woe is me’ is practically the brat’s rallying cry—but still, those clothes he’d been wearing back in the library certainly didn’t look like anything one would chose for himself. For that matter, neither did the shirt he wore now. “I presume your cousin is rather larger than you are?”

“He’s not that much taller than me, I guess—maybe Ron’s height—but he’s just as wide as he is tall.” The boy snickered at something. “There was this one time he and a couple of his friends were harassing me…Piers is kind an idiot too, but Aaron was dangerous. He moved away a couple years ago, but before that he was bigger than me and just as fast. Anyway, he surprised me and I didn’t have as much of a head start as usual so I ducked into this alley to try and get away. He—Aaron—saw me and yelled for Dudley and Piers…there was a missing board in the fence at the other end. I ended up crawling through it to get away from them. Dudley tried to follow me and got stuck. It was really funny, watching him try and pull through and the boards just wouldn’t give, and his shoulders were through so he couldn’t pull back very well either.”

“How long was he stuck there?”

Potter shrugged. “Don’t know…Aaron jumped the fence so I couldn’t really stick around and watch. He made it home in time for dinner so probably not that long.”

“You didn’t find it rather cruel to leave him stuck there?”

“Not considering how many times they dumped me in rubbish bins. At least he didn’t get back to the house smelling like old cabbage.”

The brat did have a point there. “I assume you were the one who enchanted Mr. Malfoy’s robes to emit that particular odor during his History of Magic exam the week before last?”

“He charmed all of my quills to write in invisible ink,” Potter responded with a shrug. “And he kept re-enchanting them as fast as I could get one back to normal…had to find some way to distract him.”

“Indeed. Ten points from Gryffindor.”

“Hey, you can’t do that! We aren’t even at school—and he started it!”

“I believe we’ve discussed the fact that you have no say over what I can and cannot do previously. I also believe the penalty is perfectly acceptable, unless you’d prefer to make it fifteen points.” After all, it had taken him almost an hour to figure out how to get the stench out of Malfoy’s robes, and the smell had lingered in his office for two days. Potter grumbled something but didn’t press the issue. Perhaps common sense is slowly seeping into that brain of his.

“What if we throw something else at them?” Potter offered.

“Excuse me?”

“Old figs or something. They won’t really hurt them, and I’d go away if someone kept hitting me with rotten fruit.”

“Indeed? I’ll remember that should I ever have the urge to remove you from my immediate vicinity.” Not that he generally needed help to do that…Potter—most of the students, to be truthful—avoided him whenever possible. Thank Merlin; if they didn’t, I’d never get any research done. “I suppose there’s some merit in the idea. I suspect you are more familiar with the technique than I am.”

“Mostly I catch things, not throw them,” the boy admitted. “But…” He crouched, reaching down underneath the branch they were standing on to pull a likely looking fruit off a smaller branch. “Here goes.”

It splattered rather satisfactorily, Severus had to admit, on the back of one of the larger wyrsa. And while their faces weren’t precisely designed to show emotion, he could almost swear the thing looked annoyed.

“Take that!”

“It’s not a sporting match, Mr. Potter.”

“Come on, Professor. Take a shot.”

Severus sighed and knelt, selecting an appropriately squishy fruit of his own from the branch below. Mentally replacing the image of one of the black-scaled creatures below with that of a certain Grim, he let the thing fly. His shot caught one on the head.

“Nice!”

“Indeed.” He glanced up at the sky. “It seems to be getting rather dark out.”

“It shouldn’t.” Potter looked down at his watch. “It’s only mid-afternoon. Hey, we missed lunch.”

“Far be it from me to have interrupted your sulk.” He ignored the glare the boy shot him. “We’ll stop at the next tree we see with a fork and have something to eat.” Lunch was leaves and figs again…his stomach rumbled in protest, remembering the fish from the night before, but at least it was full. A rumble from above drowned out the sound of his stomach, and he glanced up just as the sky opened.

“I guess this is why they call it a rainforest,” Potter observed, pressing himself against the side of the trunk to try and avoid the water.

“Brilliant observation.” It would be suicide for them to continue to walk along the branches with the rain coming down…one of them was bound to slip. “I suppose we’ll be staying here for the night.” Severus settled himself into the fork, pulling his cloak up to form something of a shelter from the rain.

Potter did the same opposite him, but water continued to drip through. “My waterproofing spells aren’t working!”

“Precisely what part of ‘wyrsa eat magic’ is unclear to you? Of course the waterproofing spell isn’t working—nothing you have that was spelled will be functional.” His own cloak had been treated with potions to prevent liquids from seeping through—some of the more delicate preparations he worked on couldn’t have ambient magic near them while they were being mixed. Not without unpleasant consequences, anyway. But he could hardly allow the brat to develop pneumonia… “You’d best come over here, I suppose. There’s more than enough room under here for us both to huddle.”

The boy didn’t seem any more thrilled with the idea than he was, but he clearly wasn’t enjoying getting dripped on either and after a moment of silent deliberation traded sides and pulled a section of Severus’ cloak over his head. “How long do you think the storm is going to last?”

“I have no idea. Best make yourself comfortable.”