Five Sickles - a Snily fanfiction (English Version)

Yellow eyes

"What are we waiting for? Let's enter the office quickly!", suggested Lily, hastily rubbing her eyes. She took a deep breath, held it for a brief moment, and looked expectantly at Severus. But just as Severus tried to open his mouth to agree with Lily, he fell silent.
Did he hear anything?
With a beating heart Severus turned and stared into the darkness of the long corridor.
Sweat wet his pale palms.
Was someone following them?
"Did you see anything, Sev?", Lily asked anxiously, gently stroking his back. Severus shook his head nervously. Probably all just imagination, he thought.
"Then we'd better go to the office before someone sees us!", said Lily, and stopped stroking Severus' back.
"No, not yet. We should get rid of this idiot here first", said Remus, pointing to the wizard, who stomped angrily in his painting, "He will surely tell a teacher that we are still sneaking around! And when he says that we have somehow illegally gained access to the Headmaster's office, things will get even more serious."
Severus closed his mouth. Remus was right.
His black eyes looked up at the wizard, whose face had become as red as his ruffled hair. Severus remembered sitting in Dumbledore office a few hours ago. There he had watched the wizard leaving his painting to jump into another painting somewhere in the castle.
"And what shall we do, Lupin?", asked Severus slowly and his gaze wandered down to Remus, "Are you going to cast a spell on the portrait or what?"
"I think I've read something about that once", Lily mumbled in and tilted her head to the side thoughtfully, as if trying to remember something.
Remus, however, pulled out his wand and pointed it concentrated at the painting. He pinched his green eyes, so that he could target the red-haired wizard. Focused, he quietly whispered a spell.
A flickering white light appeared at the top of his wand.
Severus looked intently at the growing light.
After a few seconds, the light became so bright and glaring that Severus' eyes began to ache. Remus quietly repeated the words again and his hands started shaking as the wand began to vibrate.
When Lily remembered and realized the spell Remus was casting, she swirled around and screamed:
"Stop, no! All the paintings are covered with Protective enchantments, the curse will bounce off!"
Under the screams of Lily, the red-haired wizard, who was leaning against the picture frame in his portrait, laughed.
"Oh Merlin, you really are a fool! No wonder you didn't get sorted into Ravenclaw. Anyway, I-"
"Shut up!", yelled Lily, looking angry into the wizard's old eyes, "Moony, you have to stop!"
But it was too late.
Remus' wand was already so full of energy and power that it would probably explode to death if he would stop the spell now.
"Bombarda Maxima!", shouted Remus, holding the wand tightly with both hands.
The bright white flash of light shot at incredible speed from the top of the wand. The light shone like tiny diamonds in the moonlight. And though Severus' eyes hurt terribly, he couldn't help but gaze at the spell.
"Moony, watch out!", Lily screamed hysterically.
But Remus was captivated by the beauty of the spell reflected on his scarred face. With a loud bang, the gleaming flash of light struck the painting, where the red-haired wizard still laughed mockingly.
But instead of destroying the painting, something completely different happened.
Something Remus didn't expect.
As prophesied by Lily, the spell bounced off and rushed straight towards him.
Severus had managed to detach his gaze from the flash of light and looked over to Remus anxiously. His eyes were burning. The light had blinded him so much that everything seemed blurred.
Remus didn't move.
He was in shock.
Paralyzed and in panic, his green eyes followed in the dangerous white light, which was getting closer and closer.
"Lupin!", cried Severus and stretched out his hand to pull Remus out of the trajectory of the spell. Severus had almost taken hold of his arm when the white flash of light crashed right at Remus and hurled him meters across the cold and gloomy corridor.
The darkness swallowed him up, so that Remus could no longer be seen.
As if Remus had become one with the darkness.
From a distance he could be heard thundering against a wall under the monstrous power of the spell.
A tormented groan of Remus echoed through the corridor.
Lily screamed so loud that there was a piercing and painful noise in Severus' ears.
And again, he had the feeling that someone was watching them.
Severus turned around and looked for the second time into the oppressive darkness of the corridor. His eyes were still blinded by the bright white light. As often as Severus rubbed his black eyes, his vision remained blurred.
But he thought he could see something.
Two glowing eyes.
Yellow, glowing eyes.
And suddenly it smelled like a wet dog again. Just like Remus smelled when he entered the Slytherin Common Room.
The unknown beast with the glowing eyes plotted out of the darkness towards Severus. His black and shaggy fur shimmered in the faint glow of the torches.
It was a dog.
Severus knew this dog.
He'd seen him before. The dog had tried to kill him on the way to the infirmary. Severus remembered the first encounter with him well.
The long, grey claws that slid across the dusty ground like a blade.
The pure anger and hate in the glowing yellow eyes.
The menacing growl when the dog had set to jump.
How Severus had to cause an Impediment Jinx to protect himself.
And how Remus kept yelling the dog's name. How it echoed through the whole corridor.
Yes, Severus remembered every detail.
He took a deep breath and said:
"Are you Padfoot?"
With a growl, the dog stared deep into the black eyes of Severus. Did Padfoot just wink at him? Or did it just happen in his head?
Suddenly the dog began to bark loudly and caused Severus to shake. He saw how Padfoot rushed past him and headed straight to the painting with the red-haired wizard. The wizard opened his old eyes in shock when Padfoot started to jump and pushed himself off the ground with his strong hind legs.
The dog raised its huge paw and the grey, long, sharp claws slid across the canvas of the portrait. Many large cuts cut across the entire painting and now fell off the wooden plate on which they once stuck. A small part of the canvas remained intact, but the wizard was gone.
"Where did he go?", Lily shouted confusedly, pointing to the empty portrait several times.
"A dog just jumped through the air and don't you think that's strange?", Severus commented, apparently surprised that Lily didn't find the sudden appearance of Padfoot surprising.
"Where did he go?", repeated Lily, stepping closer to the shattered painting. She scratched her head, laid her head back, and muttered something to herself.
Severus occupied himself with Padfoot, who was sitting next to him on the ground. The dog wagged its tail and panted happily. Severus had never spoken to a dog before. But he wanted to say thank you to Padfoot. Because of him, the annoying wizard had been banished from his painting.
"Excuse me", Severus said shyly, kneeling down to the dog. Padfoot licked his paws, on which small scrabs of the canvas hung.
"Hello, Padfoot, I wanted to thank you", Severus stammered quietly and felt quite stupid. Was it normal to talk to animals? Did the other students do that with their pets?
"He won't answer you", giggled Remus, kneeling beside Severus. Blood dripped from his mouth and colored the dusty ground dark red.
"Remus! Are you all right?", Severus asked anxiously and saw Remus wipe the rest of the blood from his face with his sleeve.
He nodded.
"Fortunately nothing happened to me. Just a broken nose, nothing else", said Remus calmly, stroking Padfoot between his big ears. Lily hugged Remus, glad he wasn't hurt worse. The dog barked cheerfully and threw himself playfully on his back. His yellow eyes switched their focus between Lily and Remus, as if he were asking them to play with him.
"How did Padfoot know we were here?", Severus asked after a while. It was really strange that the dog knew where they were and that they were trying to gain access to Dumbledore's office.
A red blush appeared on Remus' cheeks.
"He's just a clever dog", he said dryly and stroked Padfoot lovingly on his stomach.
Severus stood up and looked at the destroyed painting.
No, it couldn't have been a coincidence.
Something was wrong here. If only Severus would've known what was going on.
"And how did Padfoot know that he had to destroy the portrait so that the wizard would disappear?", he asked, crossing his arms while looking directly at Remus.
Now Remus had also stood up.
His green eyes sparkled in anger.
"You ask far too many questions, Snape", he growled.
From the tone Severus realized that he had hit a sore spot. Padfoot's tail stopped wagging and he sat up again without making a sound. The black fur was covered in dust and blood that had dripped from Remus' nose. Severus knew Remus was hiding something from him. He sighed angrily, his arms still tightly crossed. Severus would have liked to know what kind of secret Remus was hiding. But he decided not to ask more questions. It was neither the right time nor the right place for a discussion.
Severus pressed his thin lips together and accepted the uncomfortable silence.