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A blizzard. Wonderful. As if Severus Snape's life weren't hard enough.
He used to love snow, once he was living in the magical world with heating charms and the comforts of Hogwarts. Now that he had been living in the Forbidden Forest for the past four and a half years, hunting for every meal he ate and sleeping in the hollow of a tree, snow was an inconvenience.
Hunger gnawed at his guts. Failed hunt after failed hunt for the past two days, and now as he crawled from his meagre shelter, he saw the forest floor covered in snow. He tilted his head this way and that, hoping to see some furry animal moving about. His eyes had such limited ability to move within his skull, so he had to move his whole head to properly look around him. His vision was fantastic, though. Better than it had ever been. Within moments, he noticed a slim hare meandering in the distance, picking through the snow. He was too low to take off from his current position, so with claws and talons, he climbed the side of the tree until he was reasonably high up.
Severus envied birds with their powered flight and ease of taking off. He watched owls from the castle hunt in these woods sometimes. Unlike them, he had to get some altitude before he could properly take to the air. Once at a high branch, though, he was able to leap into the air and glide towards his intended prey. Feathers on his arms and legs gave him lift as he sailed through the air, long tail trailing behind him. Even if he couldn't fly as well as a bird, it still felt incredible. It wasn't quite like flight as a human. It came to him as naturally as walking or climbing in this body. This small, stealthy body that moved in silence as he approached the unsuspecting hair.
As he neared it, he stretched out his talons and latched onto the animal's abdomen, using his feathered arms to steady himself as the hare inevitably began to jerk and panic. If he could just grab onto it with his clawed hands, he'd have a meal. He'd have to start eating it alive. That was the sort of hunting this body was adapted for. It wasn't pleasant, but survival for Severus never had been.
Only as Severus started to steady his body and grasp at the hare's ribcage with his hands, he realized the error in his judgement. As hungry as he was, he had leapt before thinking. This hare was not so much smaller than him, and it was strong. Just as he started trying to bite the soft flesh of its neck, it began to buck and kick. Even with his talons and claws pressing into the animal's skin, Severus feared he couldn't hang on. He bit, but his teeth only caught thick fur, and the hare's movements knocked his face back from the vital flesh. In the shock of it, Severus' talons slipped loose from the hare's body, and he fell backwards into the snow. Even with his insulating feathers, the cold hit him hard. In a panic, Severus started wildly flapping, trying to find his balance, hoping against the laws of physics that he could somehow get airborne from the ground. The hare, not content to just escape, gave him one nasty kick before fleeing, and his body twisted unnaturally before slamming into a nearby tree trunk. Pain erupted through his body as he heard a sickening crunch. He shrieked in pain as he watched the hare retreat.
Dead. He was dead. His arm was broken. He couldn't climb. Couldn't fly. Couldn't hunt. Stuck on the ground in the snow. After everything he'd survived, he was going to die less than a mile away from his former home at Hogwarts because a hare had broken his arm.
"Merlin!" a voice cried out. That voice. Severus froze. A human had seen him. Not just any human. He turned his head sideways to line the figure up with his eye. No longer a gangly teen, Harry Potter, broad and muscular with a scruffy face, stood over him. Harry Potter who he had not seen since he lay bleeding out in the shrieking shack, supposedly dying. Harry Potter, who would have come back looking for his body but would only find blood and a few iridescent black feathers.
The man put his hands up as if to show he meant no harm and started approaching Severus. In order not to be found out, he had to act like a wild animal. It wasn't difficult. He had been a wild animal for years. He opened his mouth to show his teeth. Alternating squeaks and hisses that were meant to intimidate reverberated from his vocal chords. He lifted his arms and tail as high as they would go to make himself appear larger. Foolish Harry Potter actually walked towards him and crouched.
"Oh no, your wing is broken!" he said softly. Wing? Severus thought. He supposed it qualified with its flight feathers, but a more observant man might have noticed the clawed hand at the end of it. "Come on, I'll take you to my friend, Hagrid. He'll know how to set you right."
NO! Severus wanted to shout, but it came out as an indignant little chirp. Of all the people who could have come across him, why did it have to be Potter. A smarter person would have left the obviously dangerous wild animal to die. But Harry Potter took his cloak off, threw it over Severus' face, and picked him up. Severus kicked his feet wildly, hoping that his talons might graze Potter and convince him to give up this ridiculous endeavor.
"Calm down, buddy. I'm helping you," Potter said in a soothing voice. Severus couldn't believe it. Did Potter even have any idea what he was? Why was he not shocked by his appearance?
---
"Hagrid!" Potter called out. Severus had stopped struggling, but his heart pounded. He couldn't see anything. "Oh good, you're still here. Listen, I didn't find the hippogriff you were worried about, but I saw this poor bird break its wing."
Bird!?! Was Potter that oblivious? Birds didn't have tails! They didn't have teeth! Had Potter really not noticed his hands?
"Let's take a look, then," Hagrid said. Severus hadn't heard Hagrid's voice in years. He felt a confusing surge of emotion as the cloak was removed from his body and Hagrid's huge hands were on him, restraining all the pointy bits of him. "Hm, can't say I ever seen a bird like this one, Harry."
Oh, really? You haven't? Severus thought, wishing he could roll his eyes.
"Yeah, he's... kind of strange, isn't he," Harry said, seeming to really look at Severus for the first time. "I just kind of figured he was some kind of magical bird I didn't know about. But if you're not familiar with it, either..."
"Well, a bird's a bird, far as I see it. I can set his wing, no matter what kinda bird he is."
I'm NOT a bird! Severus would have screamed if he could. Unfortunately, all he could do was chirp angrily.
---
It was all well and good that Hagrid and Potter thought he was just a strange bird. His anatomy was close enough that Hagrid did indeed successfully set his arm right. A very small part of him was relieved his broken arm didn't spell his death, but that part was overshadowed by the fact that Harry Potter was now carrying him into the castle.
"I'm going to set up a little infirmary for you in my quarters," Potter said cheerfully. Severus decided that the war must have caused Potter some kind of lasting psychological damage. Potter was true to his word, though. He set up a little habitat for Severus in his quarters, which were high in a tower. He guessed that Potter was a professor now, though he wasn't sure of what subject. He found he didn't much care as he rested on a bed of straw with a belly full of chunks of raw meat that Potter had carefully served to him on a dish. He looked around Potter's spacious quarters and noticed a small fir tree in one corner decorated with red and gold baubles. They reflected the firelight from the fireplace. Severus' life was already irrevocably changed, he decided. Until his arm healed, he found himself in the outrageous position of being Harry Potter's pet. He may as well make the most of it. Picking himself up from his straw bed, he walked over to settle in front of the fire.
"What a sweet little guy," Potter said, approaching Severus carefully. "You've calmed down, huh?" He crouched next to him and reached a hand out slowly. Severus eyed the hand warily, but Potter, who had no common sense whatsoever, set it on Severus' head and gently ruffled his feathers. And damn it. It felt fucking wonderful. Severus chirped and chittered, letting his eyes close in bliss as Potter scratched his head. No one had touched him with any kind of affection since Dumbledore had died, and that had always been a proprietary touch of his arm or hand. Never something as blissful as this. Severus supposed he could tolerate being Potter's pet for a little while.
"You won't know this, but I used to have a bird," Harry said, his voice growing thick. Severus opened his eyes to see Potter gazing into the fire, his lower lip trembling. "Her name was Hedwig. I wonder what I might call you..."
Oh great. Potter was going to cry. Severus had forgotten about Potter's owl. Perhaps that was why he was so keen to rescue Severus, whom he had dubbed a bird. Whatever. There was no point in arguing the matter. Not when Severus couldn't speak. He could be a bloody bird if that's what Potter wanted, so long as it meant warmth, comfort, food, and safety. Idly, he wondered if Potter would actually try to use him as an owl once his arm had healed.
Potter started to sniffle softly as his hand moved lower, down onto Severus' back, stroking the feathers there. Oh, Severus thought. That felt delicious. Never had he been preened like this. There was no living member of his species anywhere on earth to do this for him, but the stroking of his back awakened some deep instinctual knowledge. He looked to the being beside him. Bipedal. Black plumage, at least on his head. Close enough. And he was so large! That must mean he was a suitable and healthy mate!
Severus backed up, standing in front of Harry. He began moving his one good arm and his tail in an elaborate dance that he somehow knew all the moves for. Harry blinked at him in confusion. That was no good! He should be impressed, not confused! Severus spread his feathers and moved them such that the light could catch the iridescent blues and greens of his black feathers, such that he could impress his mate.
Oh good, now he was smiling. His human mind, having been supplanted by primal instinct, remembered that smiling was a sign of approval. Yes. That meant eggs. Brooding. Chicks!
"What on earth...?" Harry said with a bewildered laugh. "Aren't you something!"
Severus stopped his dance and tilted his head.
What the fuck am I doing? he thought.
There had been plenty of times he had lost himself in his animal mind in the years of living as an animagus, but never once had it been so embarrassing. It had meant ripping into living flesh with the same delight he'd reserved for curry and chips. Soaring from tree to tree, surveying the section of the forest he called home, forgetting that he had ever been human. Never had it meant putting on a mating display for Harry Bloody Potter. Ashamed, he walked back to his straw bed and curled up, facing away from Potter.
"Aw, come on! Don't be like that!" Harry said, unable to keep himself from laughing. "I'm sorry I can't be your boyfriend! But I'm a human, not a... whatever sort of bird you are!"
---
Apart from that one very confusing and embarrassing incident, life as Potter's pet proved to be downright luxurious. Severus had fresh meat daily, a soft place to sleep, warmth, and plenty of attention and preening from Potter.
"Hermione told me I mustn't stroke you anywhere but your head," Potter explained as he patted Severus' head after giving him a nice meal of pork liver chunks. "It will set off your hormones and breeding instincts."
Granger? Potter had told Granger about him? When had this happened? Had he fire-called her while Severus was sleeping?
"She'll be coming by with Ron later for Christmas Eve. We were all going to the Burrow tomorrow, but I think I'll stay here and look after you," Harry explained.
Shit. More people were coming and would see him. If anyone recognized what he was, it would make a lot of trouble for him. So much trouble, he might as well come clean about being Severus Snape, alive and well. It would be better than being passed around by enthusiastic palaeontologists trying to figure out how the hell his species had managed to show up in present day Scotland instead of early Cretaceous China.
There was a chance that Granger wouldn't realize he wasn't actually a bird, but someone eventually would if he stuck around with Potter. Not for the first time, he cursed the inconvenience of his animagus form. It had served its purpose for a time, but now...
If he turned back, would it mean Azkaban? If he tried to escape while his arm was still broken, that meant certain death.
Heart racing, he made his choice.
One moment, Harry Potter was stroking the head feathers of his new pet microraptor. The next, he had his hand atop the head of a very nervous, very human Severus Snape.
Harry shouted and scrambled back, his eyes wide as if he'd seen a ghost. How ironic. The microraptor wasn't any less extinct than Snape himself was supposed to be, but Potter had not minded that.
"S-snape!?!" Harry blurted, having fallen on his arse on the floor. "How... you're... alive!?!"
"I'm not a bird, Potter," he said simply as he stood up and crossed his arms.
"You... what?"
"You thought my animagus form was a bird. It's not. It would have been very bad for me if Granger had shown up and recognized me as an extinct dinosaur."
Harry's mouth was hanging open as he blinked dumbly. A bizarre stand off.
"I don't mind continuing to be your... pet. But you can't show me to people."
Harry nodded, mouth still hanging open.
Severus nodded once and, within an instant, he was once more Harry Potter's feathery little friend.