Ascending Darkness/Faltering Light

by AlbusSeverus

Summary: AU sixth year: Harry Potter had been missing for four months, two weeks and one day leaving the wizarding world in shock and fear. Captured by his enemies and tortured passed all reason he will find strength he never knew he possessed, friends in unexpected places and the secret of the 'power the Dark Lord knows not'. Can three former enemies and the Founders help him to regain what he lost, lead him back to himself and restore his fighting spirit before Voldemort takes over completely.

Author's Note: Here's a new story from me. The plot just sort of hit me over the head the other night. Hope you enjoy it. I will still be working on Beyond the Gathering Storm so don't worry. As normal, I do not own anything but the plot of this story. JKR owns the rest.

Part One: Rescue

Lost in the darkness, hoping for a sign / Instead there's only silence. / Can't you hear my screams...?

Somewhere- Within Temptation

A cold wind blew through the barred window, stirring the hair of the chained prisoner below it. A pale, waxing moon shown through the small window set high on the wall behind him. Ordinarily, the prisoner would have been glad for a little light in his otherwise dark existence but he was no longer lucid enough to notice. The chains made a feeble rattling noise as the prisoner attempted to shift away from the cold draft even in his unconscious state. All to soon he began to shiver uncontrollably at the combination of the current state of his clothing, the cold air coming in from the barred window and the slimy, cold stone of the wall he was chained to.

For a brief moment dull, emerald green eyes opened and seemed to take in their surroundings though the prisoner had long ago lost the power of sight and saw only darkness. The eyelids dropped closed again as if took to much strength for the boy to hold them open any longer. The prisoner continued to shiver in the damp, chill air and tried in vain to think of a way to warm himself but his thoughts soon scattered, his mind to broken to remember even his name. He couldn't even remember why he was here or what he'd done that was bad enough to warrant such painful and endless torture. He wasn't even sure of how long he'd been held here against his will or even where he was. He knew only one thing and he held to this thought desperately for it was the only thing keeping him alive. He must survive. He knew this even though he could not remember exactly why. He was important to someone, to some cause even if he couldn't remember anymore. He only knew he had to live, it was vital, even if he must endure the Hell he was currently in.

He held stubbornly to this last lucid thought, this last piece of his soul and he would not relinquish it no matter what 'they' tried to do to him. He had survived an eternity of torture because he still held on to this last scrap of his past, of the time before his imprisonment. It burned within him like a beacon and he followed it when all else seemed lost in the darkness that his life had become. He had nothing else left of himself and he knew that if he lost this last piece of his soul then he would surely submit to his torturers and thus die. He could feel death hovering nearby waiting for that day. He could feel it seeping into his heart and mind like a poison but he refused to let it end like this. He was not going to submit to the 'Other'. If he was to die he was going to do so on his own terms and he would go down fighting.

The dull green eyes snapped open again and the prisoner's mouth opened in a silent scream of agony, his voice having long ago been broken. White hot pain seared through his body and head, burning him from within and making all thought impossible. He could feel the 'Other's' mind touch his, forcing rapport with the monster in a violent and brutal mind rape that signaled the beginning of his torture for the night. He could hear the sibilant whisper, slithering through his mind, even has he could hear the clank of keys that signaled the return of his physical tormentors and he began to tremble violently.

:: Today you will submit to me. Your power will become mine. It does you no good to resist or refuse any longer. You body and will grow weaker by the day. Your so called friends have abandoned you and have even called off the search for you. No one is willing to come to your rescue this time. Surrender to me and let my darkness claim you and you may live. Refuse and... :: the cold voice made it clear what would happen and how painful it would be for him if he continued in his refusal to submit.

:: Never... :: The thought had escaped his mind before he was conscious of it being there. :: will...never... submit... ::

:: So be it. You will regret your decision. :: The burning voice grew silent though he could still feel the evil burning presence within his mind as the two masked and hooded men released him from his chains and dragged him deeper into the dungeon.

:: You know you deserve to be punished. :: the cold voice spoke again so softly that the prisoner was unsure whether he'd even heard it. For a brief moment he could feel his mind clear as the words echoed inside his head with a familiarity that suggested he had heard them before though the voice had been different. He felt his right hand tingle unexpectedly and felt a sick swoop of anger in his heart. His lucid moment was gone nearly as fast as it had come as a haze of pain washed over him. The day's torture had begun and his last coherent thought before the pain was increased was 'I must live.'

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Sixteen year old Harry James Potter had been missing for four months, two weeks, and one day and the wizarding world was in utter chaos. Their only hope to defeat Voldemort: the Child of Prophecy, the 'Chosen One', the one who had survived the Killing Curse as a baby was captured by the very people they had mistakenly believed to be gone. Voldemort and his Death Eaters had taken him from the Hogwarts Express at the very point that the dementors had attacked it several years previous in their search for Sirius Black. They had threatened to kill everyone aboard one at a time if he would not surrender himself to them at once and they had held a carload of first years as hostages knowing that Harry would not allow for anyone else to be hurt or killed on his account. He'd taken one last look at his friends and, with a sad sort of smile, he'd left their compartment and allowed himself to be the ransom for all their lives. They'd never seen anything so brave in their lives not even the events that had occured within the Department of Mysteries a few days prior to that. The first years that had been held hostage had commented on Harry's steadfast bravery when he had arrived in their car and it was burned into their memories. He'd stood tall before the Death Eaters and demanded they release the hostages now that he was here and there seemed to have been a power radiating from him that felt like warm sunlight. The Death Eater nearest him had grabbed him roughly by the hair but Harry had remained unafraid and they had vanished. His friends last image of him, of his pale determined face, his glowing emerald eyes and that sad smile, was burned into their minds forever. He'd left them without saying a word and without his wand, which now rested in the center of Dumbledore's desk.

Dumbledore stared at the holly and phoenix wand for a moment and sighed heavily. Four and half months... it seemed like an eternity to him and the others. At first both himself and the Order of the Phoenix had thought it would be easy to find and rescue him but now after six failed rescue attempts he could feel his hope dwindling. With every day that passed rescuing Harry became less and less likely. Every day there seemed to be news of attacks on the populace and with each defeat that Voldemort's forces handed the forces of Light in open battle people's belief in their cause faltered. Was there any reason to continue to fight? Hadn't Voldemort already proven his strength and superiority when he'd take the 'Chosen One' prisoner four months ago? What was the point of continuing to stand against him? Maybe they should just surrender before anyone else was killed or taken prisoner. But what of Harry then? He would never have given up hope so easily and would be ashamed that they had even concidered surrender as an option.

Dumbledore stared at the wand on his desk, willing it to give him a sign that there was reason to hope, that there was a chance that Harry still lived, but it lay there silent and unmoving. His frown deepened and he got up to resume his interrupted pacing. The portraits of former Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts watched him silently, not knowing what other advice they could give him. Their eyes moved as he paced from one side of the room to the other several times and the room seemed to tense as of expecting an explosion to occur. The power radiating off Dumbledore was vast and tinged with sorrow and anger. A few of the portraits looked at one another with concern. The war was beginning to take it's toll on the aged Headmaster and they wondered if he would even survive it.

He stopped his pacing and looked out the window that overlooked the grounds of the school not really seeing anything beyond it, his thoughts turned inward. Everything was his fault. He should have seen to Harry's protection now that Voldemort was moving in the open again. He knew how badly Voldemort wanted to know the full contents of the Prophecy and also how badly he wanted to remove the only one who might have powers that rivaled his own. He knew how powerful Harry was even though his full powers had yet to manifest and would not do so until his seventeenth year. He should have known how vulnerable Harry was after the events in the Department of Mysteries and how vunerable that made him to the types of attack favored by Voldemort and his minions. He should have made sure the Hogwarts Express had the proper wards and protections on it. Why hadn't he done something more to ensure not only the boy's safety as he returned home for the summer but everyone else's? If he had done only that then Harry would not have been put in such a position to begin with. Maybe he should have even allowed the Weasleys to adopt Harry years ago upon the murders of his parents. A blood adoption would have insured the boy's safety far better than his blood wards would have. Why had he not...

A knock on the door brought him out of his self-chastisement. He stared at it for a moment in confusion. " Come."

Severus Snape limped into the room, closing the door with a snap. His dark eyes took in everything from the portraits, to the holly wand on the Headmaster's desk, to the man himself in one sweeping movement. Neither his face nor his eyes gave a hint of the news that had sent him practically running to the Headmaster's office in the middle of class time. He had worked long and hard to get this important information at great risk to his own life. Just this morning Draco Malfoy had returned with confirmation that the information he'd received through his various contacts was in fact more than rumor. Draco had also secured the information they were most desirous of obtaining from a source placed highly within the ranks of Voldemort's inner circle. Snape felt the first stirrings of hope blossom in his heart at the news he was about to relay to Dumbledore. Maybe now they would be able to turn the tide of war in their favor. Dumbledore looked at the Potions Master closely, trying to learn what type of news the former Death Eater had for him but as always Snape's mask made it impossible to read the man or to learn anything he did not want revealed.

"Headmaster, we have found him." Snape said this without preamble or malice and the words had an instant affect on Dumbledore.

For a moment he felt his heart freeze in his chest even as the hope he's though lost resurfaced with a vengeance. "Is he...?"

"Alive? Yes, but only just. In all honesty I am surprised he has been able to survive in the Dark Lord's company this long. I have never known the Dark Lord to allow prisoners to remain this long with him. I must warn you that the situation is most likely not a good one for Potter. I cannot guarantee there will be anything left to save or that he can even be healed from his captivity." It pained him to say it but it was nothing less than the truth and he knew honesty was the best policy in this instance.

Dumbledore's face paled and he nodded in understanding. "I will call the Order together but I leave the rescue to you and yours. We have lost so many that I cannot spare the few we have even for this. You are the best suited for this task. Try and sneak in and free him. Take him to the safe house in Devonshire and wait for me there. No contact is to be attempted once you have rescued him. I will come to the house in three days time." He gave Snape a deadly serious look and his voice dropped into a whisper."If things go badly do not attempt to fight. If it becomes necessary you know what you must do. I cannot bare the thought of him being punished again for another failed attempt at his rescue. Do I have your word on this Severus? "

Snape nodded sharply. "It would be better for him and I will do so. I will free him even if it is by death. He shall suffer no longer."

He turned a started to leave, his hand on the doorknob but then he turned to Dumbledore with a grave expression on his face. "I will protect him with my life. I made an Unbreakable Vow with Lily and then you. I will not break either of those. He is Lily's child and because of that I must protect him. I will do everything in my power to free him, you have my word as my bond. "

"I know you will, Severus. Good luck and may Merlin guard you all. " Snape was gone in a flurry of swirling robes. He gathered his group together in his office and together the three men headed for the apparition point outside the Hogwarts wards. They had very little time and their destination was many day away even by apparition.

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A cold wind swept through the cell again but the prisoner paid no attention to it or the chill it brought in with it. His eyes were squeezed tight shut, tears streaming from them and his body still twitching with the after effects of the Crutiatus Curse that had been set on him for half an hour without pause. 'Have to live. Have to survive. Musn't surrender.' These thoughts slide through his battered mind like a mantra but he was unsure of whether he could survive even one more day like this one. The torture had been so intense and the pain of it so all encompassing that he'd felt his fragile mind nearly shatter under the mental, physical and verbal assault. His strength was beginning to fail and his will was suffering for it. His thoughts seemed to scattered to ever collect in any semblance of order again and he had blank spaces of time now were he couldn't remember what he had been doing or what may have been done to him. When he had come back to himself in the middle of the torture session, he'd found his hands and face spattered with the warmth of blood not his own. The hissing words the 'Other' had spoken to him a few short hours ago still echoed in his mind: "See how easy it is to kill. You even seemed to enjoy it.There's innocent blood on your hands now and it can never be washed away. You can never be who you once were. You can never go back. "

He'd felt his mind splinter farther and had sat in the middle of the room rocking back and forth staring blankly had his bloodstained hands even through he could no longer see them. He had killed, spilled innocent blood. They had taken control of him and made him kill. Now he was no better than they were. He was merely their puppet to control and use. He felt revulsion and shame coarse through him as well as an intense desire to kill himself and take as many of them with him as he could. He had shaken his head in denial as the masked men laughed and began their torture anew.

Tears continued to fall, leaving tracks in the blood and grim that coated his face. He opened his mouth and let out a long, silent scream of anger and pain. His chains rattled loudly as he flailed about in his fury. After a few minutes his limited strength gave out and he hung limply in the chains again, tears still falling from his dull green eyes longing for death to take him. After a time even the tears faded into nothing, leaving him numb.

The nearly complete silence of the cell engulfed him and a chill that had nothing to do with the coldness of the cell enveloped him. They'd placed those silent, faceless guards around his cell once more. He shivered violently again as all thought and memory faded in the presence of the power the guards wielded. He could hear a woman screaming then saw a man fall through a ragged veil in a dark room and his heart constricted. There was nothing but the numbing cold that seemed to freeze his mind and no sound but the faint rattling breath of the creatures punctuated by a faint dripping sound as blood from fresh wounds on his back, shoulder and left arm spattered the floor below where he was chained. His head fell limply to one side and he made no other move or sound for a long time. He never made a single movement even when the cell door opened again and someone crept inside.

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Snape lead the two hooded and masked men down into the depths of the dungeon with trepidation. No one who was destined for these cells ever survived for long and his concern for the boy mounted. He must be nearly broken to have been placed here. Would he even be sane if they managed to free him from this place? Four months and now three weeks in the hands of the Dark Lord...What chance was there that he was even alive after today's round of torture? Snape eyed the other two men and saw his concern mirrored in their eyes.

"I can sense him...it's faint but he's alive. " The shorter of the two men had a hand on his forehead and he grimaced slightly. "His thoughts are...jumbled...very unclear. We need to hurry. I don't think he'll survive another day here."

Snape nodded and the three of them fanned out to begin their search, the short man in the lead. All to soon they felt the touch of several Dementors congregating in front of one cell and the short man moved behind the other two wizards as soon as he felt the familiar touch, though being a muggle he could not see them. The two wizards pulled out their wands and two silvery Patronuses shot from them, lighting the otherwise murky corridor in a silver glow. The doe and the fox drove the Dementors away from the cell door and down the corridor holding them there as the three men made their way rapidly down the hall. The doe looked back at Snape and nodded while the short man put his hand on the door sensing who was inside it. he gave the Potions Master a sharp nod to indicate that the prisoner was alone in his cell at the moment.

"Draco..." Draco Malfoy nodded and tapped the lock in a complex pattern known only to members of Voldemort's inner circle. He'd managed to get both this combination and the exact location of Harry's cell from his own father when he'd Imperiused him and forced him to reveal them. Only the highest level Death Eaters could open this cell without the key at any time they felt they wanted private sport with Harry or so his father had told him. He'd been sick when he discovered what was meant by 'private sport' and vowed vengeance on anyone who had hurt Harry in that way. He was going make them pay for hurting him. The lock clicked open and Snape pushed open the cell door as quietly as he could before sliding inside the room and shutting the door behind them.

The stench that assailed them reminded Snape of a garbage dump mixed with a murder scene. The three of them gagged and felt sickness almost overcome them but they remained in the room and Draco tapped the lock again so that it locked. Briefly he wondered what the Death Eaters and Voldemort would make of that and he grinned. They turned as one to approach the prisoner chained to the wall on the room's far side. Snape and Draco lite their wands and Harry moaned softly, his eyelids flickering for a moment but he did not wake. There was an audible gasp behind them and they turned to look at their wide eyed companion.

"Bastards!" Dudley Dursley's voice and body shook with pent up rage and the other two could feel his powers reacting to the sudden surge of rage.

"Steady, Dursley. Your anger will not help your cousin and could very well kill him." snapped Snape coldly.

Dudley made himself calm down though it took all of his powers of control to do so and he grimaced as he looked at Harry. He'd never seen anyone who looked as bad as Harry did who was still alive. Not even his own mother and father had looked that bad when the Death Eaters were through with them. Dudley knew he was lucky to be alive himself and that he would be dead if his latent powers had not chosen that precise moment to manifest themselves. Dudley was not a normal wizard as his powers were those of the mind rather than magic but he'd chosen to ally himself with the wizards he'd once despised because his cousin had once saved him even though he didn't deserve to be saved. Harry was the wizarding world's only hope for defeating Voldiethingy and he was going to do whatever he could to help his cousin do so. Looking at Harry now though, Dudley wondered if there was any chance for them. Would he even be strong enough or even willingly to fight? Had he already given up hope? No, Harry would not have given up so easily. The fate of both of his worlds were at stake. He would not give up on it so Dudley would not.

Snape and Draco had seen plenty in the roles as the Order's spies within the Death Eater ranks but even that had not prepared them for the condition of Harry's body nor the various tortures that had been inflicted on him. Harry's bruised and battered body was oozing blood from about a dozen different wounds. There were infected wounds all over his body and the marks of various dark curses covered him from neck to ankles. He clearly had several broken bones and more that had started to knit incorrectly. He was covered in dried blood, puss, dirt and other less than savory fluids. He was clearly running a dangerously high fever by the redness of his cheeks where there was no blood or dirt on his face and by the shivering his body was doing. His clothing was in tatters and barely covered him at all. He hung limply in the chains, so limply that Draco was sure he was already dead but a quick diagnostic spell proved him to be alive though he was a hairs breath from dying. The spell also told them that he was fighting off several infections and that he had several internal injures in addition to suffering a severe and continued power drain on his magical core. His mental shielding was completely gone and the few thoughts Snape could pick up seemed disjointed and unfocused.

"Shit." Draco said softly as he checked the spells again and turned to Snape.

"I quite agree."

Dudley's head whipped around as he sensed several Death Eaters headed their way and he made a frantic motion with his hand. "We need to leave now!"

Draco leapt into action at once and threw a potion bottle at the stone wall behind him. The entire wall where the potion struck melted before their eyes. Snape unlocked the chains holding Harry in place with a wave of his wand and Dudley caught the limp form of his cousin as he fell, trying to be as gentle as possible with him. Harry moaned very faintly and his breathing became labored but he still did not wake.

"Come. " Snape lead the other two out into the foggy night where they turned on the spot and vanished without a trace leaving behind nothing to mark their passage except for the escape of the prisoner from a seemingly locked room. Harry, though he was unaware of it, was safe in the hands of friends once more.