"Sarah? That you?" said Hagrid, squinting at her as he stepped forward, his crossbow dropping slightly. Sarah couldn't see his features well enough by the lantern at his feet, but there was no mistaking the size of the Hogwarts gamekeeper.
"Yes, it's me, I swear. I once helped you find an augurey feather to make into a quill for Dumbledore and there used to be a secret quintaped in the forest only a few people knew about."
Hagrid let the crossbow down. "What's going on? What's happened?"
"It's Merula," said Sarah, stepping aside so Hagrid could see her. "She's been splinched. It's bad. She'll need a healer."
Hagrid's face blanched as he held the light over Merula's bloody robes. "Right. We'll take 'er to me hut." He slung the crossbow over his shoulder and handed the lantern to Sarah.
Merula gave a small moan in her sleep as Hagrid scooped her in his arms. Sarah had to run to keep up with his large strides through the forbidden forest.
"Why've yeh come 'ere?" Hagrid asked.
"We were running away from some Death Eaters," Sarah explained. "They'd set a trap for us. This was the first place I thought of."
Sarah hadn't taken them far into the forest. They'd landed near the grove where Featherfur lived; but, it still seemed ages before they'd reached the tree line. Sarah saw Merula's arm dangling as Hagrid carried her like a baby; fresh blood had begun to drip off her fingertips.
Hagrid paused at the edge of the forest, checking to see if anyone else was on the grounds.
"Alrigh', 'urry up now."
He led the way through his garden and to the back door of his house. There was only one bed in Hagrid's hut. It was so large that Merula looked like a doll laying on it, her bloodless face like a porcelain mask.
"Alrigh', I'll go find someone," said Hagrid.
"Hold on, you've got blood on your clothes." Sarah vanished the blood with her wand. "Don't tell anyone we're here."
Hagrid nodded. "If Barnaby comes back, tell him where I've gone."
"Barnaby?" she asked, but Hagrid had already strode the door and exited the hut.
Sarah watched him retreating across the lawns until he was swallowed by the darkness, then went to Merula's side and tried to heal the parts of the wound that had reopened. Once that was done, she washed the blood from her hands and put the kettle on, just to have something to do.
She sat in Hagrid's large armchair, her legs not long enough to reach the floor, and stared about the cabin, frowning. The lantern light revealed what appeared to be party decorations all about the hut. Buntings with red and gold flags had been hug all around the ceiling. Hagrid's table was littered with paints and brushes, and a banter that red, in rather clumsy black letters. "Supp--"
What was all this about? It couldn't be Hagrid's birthday; she remembered that being in December.
Hagrid seemed to take hours up at the castle. Sarah found herself rubbing her hands together and staring at Hagrid's front door, thinking that any second Snape or Barnaby might burst through it. She wasn't sure which one made her more nervous.
Surely, she'd heard Hagrid wrong. Barnaby couldn't be here. It would be too dangerous to hide this near the castle, especially with Snape as headmaster.
She relaxed when she heard the old but familiar sound of Fang's claws scratching at the wood. The door swung open and the boarhound bounded in, recognizing Sarah immediately and rushing forward to rest his head on her lap. Sarah smiled at his drooping eyes and scratched his head, then gasped at the sound of Barnaby's voice.
"Hullo."
Her head shot up. There he stood, frozen in the doorway and staring at her like she was a cornered chimera preparing to attack. How long had it been this time?
"Um, hi," she said. "You better shut the door. Can't let anyone see us."
He stepped forward and batted the door closed, without taking his eyes off her.
"What...what are you doing here?" he asked. "You're the last person I expected to find here. Well, maybe not the last, but I was really only expecting Hagrid."
"We apparated into the forest. We had to make a quick escape from some Death Eaters, but Merula wasn't prepared for it. She got splinched."
As she spoke, Sarah's eyes trailed over to the bed, and Barnaby glanced away from her for the first time.
"Blimey!" He strode over to the bed, his face going nearly as pale as Merula's. "She's not..."
"Not dead," said Sarah quickly. "But she is pretty badly hurt. Hagrid's gone up to the castle to get help."
Barnaby tore his eyes away from Merula.
"Where's Diego? And the others?"
Sarah swallowed. Her throat seemed rather tight.
"I left him not long after we separated from you. It's just been me and Merula for a while."
"Oh."
"What are you doing here?" she asked, move the conversation away from Diego.
"Returning Fang to Hagrid. We were looking after the mooncalves."
"No, I mean in general. Have you really been at Hogwarts this whole time?"
"For a while, yeah. Hagrid found me camping out in the forest, then showed me a better hideout in some caves not far from Hogsmeade. But I come here everyday to help Hagrid. We're training the creatures in the forest to fight for us if You-Know-Who shows up."
Sarah stared at him. He looked as healthy as she'd seen him in years. His muscles had filled back out and his skin had resumed its slightly tanned, rosy complexion. He'd even been able to shave his beard. She could have chalked it up to eating better or less stress, but she was sure it was mostly because he was back in his element--working with creatures.
"You look good," she said, then bit her lip, inwardly cringing at her own words.
"Thanks. You do too. Well, accept you have a lot of blood on you."
"Have I?" She looked down. Her robes were stained with great red blotches. She stood up and used her wand to clean herself up. That finished, she looked back up. Barnaby was still watching her with wide eyes.
"And Snape still hasn't realized you're here?" she asked.
He puffed out his chest, grinning. "I've gotten pretty good at keeping secrets."
She smiled.
He stepped forward, then seemed to think better of it and backed away again.
"Will you be staying here long?" he asked.
"I don't think so. Once Merula is healed, we'll have to go. We couldn't keep the secret as good as you." She grinned, and Barnaby smiled back briefly. "You'd be welcome to come with us," she added, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with him. "I mean, don't let me take you from your work here if you don't want....but if you, you know...wanted a change of pace. Merula's pretty sick of me as a travel companion." She gave a small chuckle.
Barnaby frowned, thinking.
"What about me being too dangerous to travel with?"
"Well, I don't care much about that anymore," she admitted. "I mean, if the Andrels were still interested in us, you'd have heard from them by now, wouldn't you? For all we know, the Death Eaters got rid of them. And anyway, the whole world is dangerous now. I figured...if you want...we might as well face it together."
This time Barnaby did step forward, his eyes as serious as she'd ever seen them.
"I'd like that," he said. "But, there's something I should tell you."
Sarah jumped at the shrieking whistle of Hagrid's tea kettle.
"Tea?" she said, breathless.
Barnaby helped her lift the bucket sized kettle from the fire and place it on the table. Sarah busied herself with arranging the chairs while he reached up into Hagrid's tall cabinets for teacups.
While Sarah poured the tea into bowl sized cups--using her wand this time to levitate the kettle--the door opened again. She nearly dropped the kettle in surprise, sloshing hot water on the table as Fang bounded forward to greet his master.
Hagrid entered the cabin, closely followed by Professor McGonagall. The latter staggered slightly and pressed her hand over her heart as she surveyed the scene.
"Miss Spellman? Mr. Lee? What on earth are you doing here?"
McGonagall appeared to have dressed in a hurry. She wore her usual green and black robes, but she'd forgotten her hat and her hair, normally pulled into a tight bun, fell about her shoulders. The buttons on the front of her cloak were misaligned.
"Hullo, Professor," said Sarah, unable hide a grin at the look on her old head of house's face. "It's good to see you."
"Don' be fergettin' Merula, now," said Hagrid, gesturing toward the bed.
"My word," said McGonagall, going at once to the patient.
They all sat in silence while McGonagall set to work. Hagrid finished pouring the tea and passed around a plate of his infamous rock cakes as the professor conjured a few orbs of light above her workspace. She traced her wand along Merula's wounds, and pulled out vials of potions from a small leather bag at her hip. Once she'd administered several portions, both by mouth and directly on to the wound, she nodded in satisfaction.
"That should do it," she said, rising from the bed and going to wash her hands. "Madam Pomfrey would have done better of course, but I'm not inept at healing magic. She'll need to rest for a day or two, but she will be fine."
"I though' it better teh go to a direct member o' the Order, Professor," said Hagrid apologetically.
"You did perfectly well, Hagrid."
McGonagall looked down her stern nose at Sarah and Barnaby, and Sarah felt so much like she was back at school being scolded that she almost laughed.
"Now, that brings us to why you all are here. Surely, you realize that Hogwarts isn't safe for you? What you thought by coming here--"
"We had to escape--" Sarah began, but McGonagall held up a hand.
"Curious as I am, Miss Spellman, the less I know of this the better. I suggest that as soon as Miss Snyde is able, the three of you get far away from here." She stood up and surveyed the cabin. "And Hagrid, I told you this party business was too dangerous. You better take all this down before anyone hears what you're up to."
McGonagall began to head toward the door.
"You could come with us, Professor," Sarah said suddenly, standing up. "The Order needs more people out there."
"My place is here," said McGonagall, turning to face her. "I must do everything I can to protect the students under my charge. But, I wish you luck. Now, I must return to the castle before anyone notices I'm gone." McGonagall hesitated a moment as she opened the door. "It was good to see you all as well."
Then, she was gone.
"Well," said Hagrid, clapping his hands together. "Glad we got tha' sorted."
Sarah's stomach squirmed as a small moan reached them from the bed. Merula shifted on the blankets, her eyes fluttering open. She lifted her head enough to take in the hut.
"Oh, hell."
He head fell back against the pillows.
Sarah got up to stand beside the bed.
"You'll be alright," said Sarah. "But McGonagall says you've got to rest a day or two before you can travel again."
"If you think I'm spending another moment in this dingy hut, you've got another thing coming," she said softly.
"Hagrid saved your life," said Sarah. "If it hadn't been for him, you'd probably be lying dead on the forest floor, waiting for some werewolf to pick your bones clean."
"Don't forget this is all your fault, Spellman," she said. "If you hadn't dragged me away from that fight like a bleeding coward."
"There were too many of them. We walked right into their trap. I had no choice."
"There's always a choice," she gulped. "You took the easy way out. And as usual, someone else had to suffer because of your actions."
Sarah had no reply to this. "I'll get you some water."
"I'll do it," said Hagrid, rising to his feet with Fang at his heels. "Best fer you lot to stay out o' sight."
Sarah went back to her chair and sipped her tea while Hagrid went outside to collect water from the pump. She tried not to let Merula's words affect her; she knew she'd only said them because she was in pain, but Sarah was already emotionally drained, and this only added to her exhaustion. Barnaby placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she managed to smile at him.
Hagrid returned with a pitcher of water and poured some into a mug, but Merula had already fallen asleep again. He sat the mug down on the little table next to the bed and said, "Well, we better get some sleep. Sarah you can conjure yerself a bed in here. I don' mind bunkin' down with Grawpy fer a night or two."
"Grawpy?"
"Don't ask," muttered Barnaby.
Once he and Hagrid left, Sarah transfigured Hagrid's kitchen table into a small bed and climbed in. How strange, to be back in a place that was so familiar, but to be an outsider, even an outlaw. She was proud of her teachers, in the belly of the beast, doing what they could for their students. She smiled at the actions Hagrid and Barnaby were taking in the forest. It was like Hogwarts was a living thing, a being taken over by disease, but the good cells were still there, still fighting.
She worried about Lee and the twins, but she was too exhausted to stay up pondering their whereabouts for long.