despair. He had been so sure that Snape would help him with whatever his sordid little problem was. Because Sirius had always one of those to whom everything came easily without struggle or hardship; the sort of person who others fell all over themselves to help. The sort of person to whom the world had been given, no questions asked.
But of course that wasn?t entirely true.
Not really focusing on where he was going, Snape walked into his kitchen and stared blindly at the opposite wall.
Azkaban.
That had stopped Sirius laughing, had shut up his laughter forever.
Sometimes Snape dreamed about Sirius in Azkaban, his laughter shattered forever into screams like bright shards of glass. And there was some pleasure in that imagining, but also a gnawing sort of darkness. It was strange — of all of them he would have said he hated James the most, hated James for what he was rather than what he did, because while Sirius liked to torment Snape, liked to hide his books and distract him during exams by humming rude songs, James just…ignored him. Looked at him as if he were less than nothing, certainly not anyone who mattered.
And then James had saved his life, and that had been worse. He remembered James dragging him back from the Shrieking Shack, throwing him on the ground, cursing Sirius under his breath, and Snape had thanked him, and it wasn?t like him to thank people but he?d still been shaking with fear and reaction, so he had thanked James for saving his life even though they weren?t friends, and James had looked at him out of cool gray eyes and said, 'I would have done the same thing for anyone.'
And he had hated James in that moment more than he had ever hated anyone in the world or would ever hate anyone again. But James was dead; there was no point hating James any more. James was dead, and Lupin was pitiable; there was only Sirius to hate.
Sirius, who had never been looked at in a way that told him he just didn?t matter; Sirius, who James had loved in a way that Snape couldn?t even imagine being loved. Not by a friend; not like that.
The Dark Mark on his left arm was burning as it sometimes did when he was agitated, and his hands were shaking. He sat down at the kitchen table and switched on the radio. The sharp sounds of the WWN announcer filled the room:
Further news has come from the Ministry regarding the disappearance of Harry Potter. Apparently, there is another boy missing with him, Draco Malfoy, son of the late Lucius Malfoy of the prominent wizarding family. Both boys have now been missing for a day, and the Ministry urges anyone with information regarding either of the boys to come forward as soon as possible. Meanwhile the wizarding world faces the awful possibility, 'Have we lost the Boy Who Lived?' In other news —
Snape got to his feet, switching the radio off as he did so, and almost before he knew what he was doing he had turned and walked out of the kitchen, had raced down the corridor to the front door and thrown it open, letting in the cold night air.
And there was Sirius, still standing in front of the door, head bowed, less like someone who was waiting than like someone who had nowhere else to go. His head whipped up as Snape opened the door, his eyes lighting with surprise and anger and — hope.
Snape clutched the knob of the door hard in his hand and snarled, 'All right, Black. Tell me why you?re here in ten words exactly, or I?ll activate the Repulsus Charm thats on this porch and it?ll hurl you halfway to Hogsmeade.'
Sirius looked as if he were counting to ten and finding it insufficient. 'Because I need your help,' he ground out, through gritted teeth.
'Thats five words.'
'Because I need your help, you very smug total bastard,' he snapped, losing his temper. 'You want me to beg? Is that what you want?'
'I know you?d rather die than beg me for anything,' said Snape.
'I would,' Sirius agreed. 'But I?m not the one whos going to die.'
There was a short silence. Then Snape stepped out onto the porch, and crossed his arms over his chest. 'Talk,' he said.
In several short sentences, Sirius told Snape about Lupin, and what had happened to Harry and Draco. 'If I can help Remus,' he finished, 'then he can tell us more about Slytherin — hes been being Called to a location, he must know where it is. Don?t look skeptical -
— I looked it up — no ones ever been brought back from being Called before. It could work. It might be my only chance to get to Harry before its too late. And I can tell by your expression that you don?t believe me,' Sirius? voice climbed several degrees in pitch, 'and I?m telling you, Snape, that if you send me away from here without even hearing me out, I swear to you I will hunt you down and I will make sure that you spend the rest of your life sucking all your meals through a straw — '
'That won?t be necessary,' said Snape.
Sirius paused, and blinked. 'What?'
'I was wrong about you once,' Snape said, taking a secret and surprisingly satisfying pleasure in the dumbfounded expression on Sirius? face. 'I?m not wrong often.' He swung the door behind him wide. 'I?m not planning on being wrong again.'
Sirius looked from Snape, to the door, then back at Snape, as if he couldn?t quite grasp what was happening. Then, with a sharp twitch of his shoulders as if he were shaking off some dark shadow that clung to him, he walked over the threshold and into Snapes house.
Harry felt a keen shock of disappointment as soon as they stepped through the door. They were outside the castle in a sense, but not really outside. He found himself in a space between two very tall walls that rose up and up, making a corridor that ran from where they stood to an open door in the far wall at the opposite end. It was thickly overgrown with long, prickly grass. He craned his neck back and looked up and around — the castle seemed bigger than he remembered, and much less tumbledown — the battlements were hugely forbidding in the darkness, and there were dark shapes ranged along them.
Guards, he thought, and Draco and Fleur followed his gaze upward, and nodded. Fleurs face was pale with fear in the moonlight. 'We must be very careful of those,' she whispered. 'Those are shapechangers. They are
