Finding Severus

6. Uninvited

"Hurry it up, Dawson!" the man growled. "They're gaining on us!"

The two men had been running like mad through the woods all night. The morning sun had risen and its rays were illuminating every shadow they were trying to conceal themselves in.

"I'm running as fast as I can, Mason," he said breathlessly. "It would help if we could use our wands. Blasted Harry Potter. I'd love to get my hands on him, I would. We've been running from the bleedin' Ministry for days!"

Harry had made it hard for the remaining Death Eaters to get away. It was a brilliant idea that he had come up with all on his own. There was someone monitoring it at all times during the day. (A night time representative had yet to be hired.) And since the wands were registered when a witch or wizard turned eleven anyway, it worked perfectly. Any wand use or apparating could now be traced. Someone had mistakenly printed the new development in The Daily Prophet though, alerting anyone who happened to read it. That was the only draw back.

Suddenly, Dawson stopped. Mason nearly ran into him.

"What are you stopping for?" Mason grumbled. "I nearly hit you, you half-wit."

Dawson pointed a shaky finger. After all this running, he needed to refuel. He hadn't eaten in nearly three days, him or his partner. Since they found out the Ministry was hunting down former followers of Voldemort, they had been on the move. "There's a house."

"So? You don't want to start breaking into people's houses, do you?" Mason asked incredulously. "Houses have people and people are witnesses."

"They can have victims," he argued with a menacing tone, "instead of witnesses. Let's go."

"You gonna use your bare hands? No wands, remember? Not unless you want the bloody Ministry to catch up with us."

Dawson snarled. "Let me worry about that, will you? I'm the brains of this outfit. Now come on."

Mason rolled his eyes. He had no idea why he ever put up with his crap. Dawson was his brother, but sometimes he wasn't too smart. Dawson was the one who had gotten them involved with Voldemort in the first place. If he is the brains, he thought, we'll be caught by sun down.

Nevertheless, Mason followed close behind as Dawson headed toward the house.

*******

Thea was up early that morning. By the time Severus came out of the bedroom and took a short shower, breakfast was ready. They sat down and ate together, then Thea magically washed the dishes. Severus offered repeatedly to help her, but she refused every time.

"I don't want you lifting a finger."

"You're too kind to me," Severus commented.

Thea smiled. He was beginning to like seeing her smile. Her smile was warm and bright and directed only at him. It was something he wasn't quite used to.

"It's about time someone was." She thought back to scenes of his life. Most of them were miserable. There were a few happy moments, but none since he had been an adult. He had no one and that saddened her. She quickly pushed that thought out of her mind. "Let's go have a seat."

Thea and Severus headed over to the couch and sat down facing each other, one elbow leaning on the back of the couch and their backs against the arms.

Severus sighed. "I feel like a heel for just sitting here. I should be doing something."

"You're injured," Thea reminded him.

"I know." He put his hand over the place where Nagini had bitten him, what seemed like, such a long time ago. The wound did not hurt, but he could still feel it. "Could you tell me how bad it is? I would look for myself, but I can't see it."