“Hey you two- Oh no, no you don’t,” a dark man said, as he quickly caught one by the shoulder as he tried to dash away, shaking the blackhaired boy softly to get him to stop wailing for his friend, who was halfway across the little prairie before he turned around, dismayed of finding that his friend was caught. Pierce stood, breathing heavy, hands shaking once more as he looked back towards the black man who was holding his fighting best friend by the shoulders.

HE waited for about a minute, the words which his friend was yelling not audible before he walked back a few yards, closing in enough to hear the shouting more clearly.

“LET GO!” Harry screeched, scratching at the hand that was holding his shoulder painfully tight, panic cursing through his body.

“Stop this,” the man said, shaking him once more, eyes on the other boy who had come back close enough to hear him talk.

“Why aren’t you in school, hm? And what were you trying to do, breaking into my church?”

“your church, sir?”

“Yes,” Father Brennan said, surprised when a look a relief washed over the blond boys face.

“Do you have any clothes for us?”

“What?” Josiah asked, frown on his face.

“Like the other churches, do you have clothes, and warm soups?” Josiah was slightly taken aback by the hope in the boys voice, the longing.

“Um, yes sure. I got some soup, god, stop this!” He finally snapped at the boy who was still pulling against his hand, knowing full well that if he let go, the blackhaired boy would take off, and the blonde was sure to follow.

“Here, follow me to the office.” He said turning his back on the blonde and pulling the blackhaired child with him, knowing that if he took one, the other would follow. The blonde only seemed to hesitate shortly before he followed the black man towards a small brick building lined up against the church.

Father Brennan didn’t let go of the boy until he had closed the door behind the two boys and turned the key, pulling it and stuffing it into his jacket, an act that didn’t go unnoticed by the boys, which he had hoped.

“Just so you don’t take off until you have showered, dressed and eaten.” Father Brennan explained when Pierce pulled at the handle a look of panic on his face.

“We don’t like being locked in,” Harry said glaring at the man who had only now let go of his shoulder.

“Well I don’t like chasing after two little boys, and I don’t like it to see two little hungry dirty boys. Now, who takes the first shower?” He asked, poiting towards a door, a door leading to his private rooms.

“We don’t split up, ever.” Harry said again glancing shortly at Pierce.

“Okay, you can take one together then, saves me water that way.” Josiah said, sounding unbothered as he led the way into his private quarters. “But that way you should take a bath first, you are really dirty.” He walked them towards the bathroom.

“There, strip,” he said as he pulled out four towels, two large and two smaller ones, not missing the look the two boys threw each other before finding a silent agreement, stripping down to their dirty stiff underwear.

“I trust the two of you can wash yourselfes? Get into the water and scrub real good. I’ll in the mean time go and find you some clean clothes in your size.” Josiah explained and before either boy could protest he grabbed their clothes from the ground.

“And I’ll wash these, no sense in throwing them away, even though they sure are garbage now,” he said almost pulling a face at the smell of them.

“And we’ll get food, right?”

“Yes, you’ll be fed as well,” Josia said a small smile on his face.

“You can’t tell anyone though, right? You gotta keep this a secret, right?”

“Well, I can’t tell anyone anything about what you tell me,” Josia rephrased, knowing what the boy was playing at, and hoping to keep them calm at least until he was able to call some services. But first it was time to get them clothed and fed.

He quickly relocked the door behind himself as he left his house, hurrying towards Mrs. Fishers house, a resident of Locksmith, the village who had had four boys, and he really hoped that she still had clothes that might fit the boys.

“Reverrent, what can I do for you?”

“Do you happen to have any clothes for nine or ten year olds?” He asked quickly and caused the woman to quirk an eyebrow at his request.

“You know I do, James had grown out of them long ago, and they are still too good to throw away, why, if I may ask?”

“I got two runaways in my house, taking a bath right now. They came to me, asking if I had soup and clothes,” he said frowning. “They must have seen this happen on the telly,” he added as an afterthought, considering the last question the blond had asked.

“Two nine year olds?”

“Yes, around that age. I can’t really tell, they were really dirty, and haven’t washed in weeks it appears.”

“You think they are from around here?” Mary asked as she led him towards a small storage room pulling out a few containers holding clothes.

“They don’t smell,” she noticed as she lifted a few sweaters to her face inhaling.

“Good, though I don’t think they’d notice much now. Any underwear?”

He left four minutes later, two pairs of jeans, underwear, socks, shoes, shirts, jackets and belts. He hoped his eye wasn’t totally off, but he assumed that most of them would fit at least a little.

When he got back to his office both boys were still in the bathtub, giggling every once in a while at something the other said. He had the clothes laying on the table as he quickly began preparing some light food, soup and some chicken, some potatoes and tea. Both of them had been way underweight and the faint bruises and welts on their chest and thighs had screamed abuse. He had never really dealt with abused children and felt at a loss for what to do. When he was sure that the food wouldn’t burn for a few minutes he walked towards the bathroom and knocked.

“I’ll be coming in, you can turn your backs if you wish,” he said before he slowly pushed the door open.

“There’s clean clothes on the toilet, and two new toothbrushed by the sink. I have the food warming up now and it should be done in a few minutes, so as soon as you have washed and gotten dressed you can come out.” He said softly eyes on both boys backs who were bruised severely.

“May I ask where you are heading to?”

“Scotland, sir,” Pierce said.

“You are in Scotland, where exactly?”

“We are going to Mr. Snape,” Harry said softly, though it was evident in his voice that he would say no more.

With only the few words the boys had spoken Josia had figured out that the blackhaired boy was more careful around him, more afraid, more fearful.

“Does Mr. Snape have a first name?”

Pierce turned slightly eyes on the man.

“Why do you know one?”

“No, but I could help finding him for you,” Josiah offered offering a small reassuring smile, which went totally unnoticed by the boy who turned back around.

“We don’t need any help,” the blackhaired boy said voice cold.

“Okay, just finsh washing up and get dressed so you can get some food into your system.

It was another ten minutes until the boys emereged from the bathroom, walking so close by each other that their shoulders and hips continuously bumped into each other.

“Food is almost ready,” Josiah said. “You can help setting the table, I already pulled out the plates and silverwear and glasses, they are right there on the counter, the table is around the corner right there,” he said. He normally never ate at the table, he ate on the little stool right by the corner, but as they were three he had to make use of that sturdy wooden thing.

Harry immediately grabbed the plates and silverwear, as if it was second nature to him to help out, Josia noticed, while the blonde boy hesitated before fallowing his friend. Josiah quickly pulled the peas from the microwave and gave them a final stir before he carried both the plate with the chicken, the bowl with the peas to the table.

“There is some juice or milk in the fridge,” he said to which again the black haired boy reacted immediately following him into the kitchen on silent feet, pulling the juice and milk from the shelf and carefully closing the door behind himself walking back towards the table with him as he carried the bowls with soup and the potatoes on a little tray.

“There, dig in, but eat slowly so you don’t get sick, I know you are hungry, but if you shovel it down it’ll come right back up,” he said remembering his fasting.

And the boys headed, carefully spooning the hot soup into his mouth. He filled their plates with the potatoes peas and chicken, making sure not to put down to much.

While the three of them ate in uncomfortable silence his head was swimming, thuoghts cursing around like crazy, trying to figure out what best to do.

“If you want you can crash here tonight,” he offered pointing towards the couch behind himself.

“We gotta keep going,” Pierce said even as he covered a yawn behind his hand.

“To where?”

“Edinburgh,” Pierce said before yelping, one hand rushing under the table to rubbing his shin and his eyes falling on the blackhaired child.

“He can’t tell anyone,” Pierce defended himself, accusatory eyes on the blackhaired boy.

“Still, the less  the better,” Harry said thin lipped.

“Your friend is right, I can not tell anybody what you tell me here,” Josiah said softly, “and maybe I can help.”

“you won’t, you are an adult and the right thing you think you have to do is call the police or the services so they can bring us back,” Harry replied, stabbing at his peas angrily.

“If you tell me where you are going and where I can find that someone, then I will help you get to that person, that way I don’t have to inform anyone,” Josiah said and then watched when Pierce and Harry exchanged a look.

“His name is Snape, he is a Professor at a school, my cousin, he goes to that school and mentioned him in a letter. We don’t know what the school is called, or where it is, but if we can find that snape, then we can find my cousin.”

“Snape?” Josia asked, head swirling, that was not much to go by. Snape, he thought.

“Yes,” Pierce said, not much hope in his voice either.

“And it is in Scotland?”

“that’s what my cousin said,” Pierce said.

“Is it a boarding school, or a public school?”

“A boarding school, he stays there all year and comes home only for the summer break, sometimes during the Christmas break, but not often.” Pierce offered, hoping deep down that the man would have the answers.

“And you can’t remember at all what the school is called?”

“No, my cousin never said, he said it was a secret school for children who were gifted.” Pierce said softly.

“Is your cousin really good and something then, like maths? Or colouring?” Josiah asked, the secret school throwing up warning signals in his head.

“I don’t know, he never said anything about that,” Pierce said, fisting his hands angrily under the table. The blackhaired boy was silent.

“well, I will go and check the registers, and we can look at every Snape there is in Scotland, every male Snape.”

The boys were fast asleep on the couch two horus later as he sat with three thick books going through one register after the other, having written out 41 numbers of Snapes that lived in the near area. He had called around thirty by now, asking to be connected to Mr. Snape the teacher- where most men had simply denied rather quickly that they were teachers.

Two hadn’t answered at all, and those names he had circled with red, if the man was indeed teaching at a boarding school then he didn’t expect them to pick up the phone anyway.

It was only after he had covered the boys in a thick blanket and pulled off their shoes, hiding them in his bedroom did he dare to leave the house, locking the front door once more.

“Mrs Clearwater,” he greeted as he stood in front of the newest resident of their village offering a small smile as she eyes him warily.

“Mr. Brennan, how can I help you?”

“I have a little situation and wondered if you could help me?”

“I will try,” the red haired woman offered before opening the door wider inviting him into her house.

“What is the situation then?”

“I need to find a teacher, that teaches at a boarding school, and his name is Snape. That is all I know, I don’t even know which school, or in what country really, I am guessing.”

“Boarding school?”

“Yes, you always seem to find out things fast, everyone comes to you when they have questions and now it’s my turn I fear.”

“Sure, well, I am going to look into the matter, is there anything else you know?”

“It’s a school for the gifted, as far as I understood, but those aren’t certain facts, some of this could be utter nonsense.”

“Yes, well I’ll look for any boarding schools that have a Mr. Snape employed, should I drop by your office when I know more?”

“Yes, or just give me a call.”

“Oh you know I don’t use telephones,” Mrs. Clearwater laughed getting back up after having written down the few details the man had provided head spinning. She knew of one Mr. Snape that taught at a boarding school, a school for the gifted, that was true.

“How much time do I have?”

“The quicker the better, thank you so much Mrs. Clearwater,” the man said earnestly as he stood by the door, nodding in goodbye as well when Mrs. Clearwater waved it off and closed the door after offering a small nod.

He was back before either of the boys had woken up and sat down in his armchair again, picking up his phone to call another twenty or thirty Snapes, receiving more denies then he ever thought possible.

It was only after another hour of hearing things like “Well I am a teacher, but I don’t teach at a boarding school,” or “no, you have to have the wrong number,” or “who are you? No, not a teacher, bye.” That he finally just looked up the schools in the registers and began calling every single Boarding school in the country, asking for a Mr. Snape. While the name in itself wasn’t rare, there was only one boarding school with a Snape, but that Snape was a female.

He was ready to pull out his hair by the time there was a subtle knock at the door. “Please tell me you found something, I called twenty boarding schools and every snape household in Scotland,” he sighed when he saw the redhead standing in his doorway a little notepad in hand.

“Yes, I was able to reach a friend who indeed knew a Snape that teaches in a boarding house for the specially gifted.” She laughed at his stressed face.

“Oh thank god, how can I reach him?”

“That is where it get’s complicated. You can’t really call the school, they are the ones that call,” she laughed again at his confused face.

“but I was able to pull some favors and my friend offered to contact him for us if we could provide more detail as to why we need him.”

“I can’t you know that,” Josiah said, looking over his shoulder shortly towards the two boys that were slumbering peacefully.

“She needs something, or this won’t work.”

“I have guests that are looking for him, little boys,” he said softly, “and they have run a long way to find him, and I promised to help them. If that Snape doesn’t come to collect them, then I will have to call services and we all know how that goes.”

“They’ll be brought back home,” Mrs. Clearwater said softly, “and you are sure that that would be a bad thing?”

“I saw them shirtless,” Josiah said under his breath, scratching at this prickly face.

“Okay, that should be enough,” Mrs. Clearwater said with a clear shudder, she shook her head shortly.

“I will ask my friend to arrange for Mister Snape to contact you as soon as possible.” She said before turning around and walking away as quick as possible.