***************HAPPY BIRTHDAY IMAGINATIVE LIGHT!*************

A/N: This story is a gift for my dear friend Imaginative Light. You're the best! Happy Birthday.

Chapter 1

"Owe, Sir! Sir you're stepping on my hand."

"What the devil are you doing down there?"

"Umph… Thank you. Where are we exactly?"

"I'm not sure. Where is that dunderhead Potter?"

(A tense pause ensued before the sound of muffled robes shifted) "Like I'd tell you Sir. You betrayed us. All of us! You killed Dumbledore after he trusted you for years. You…"

"Lets not get ahead of ourselves Miss Granger. We are both apparently trapped in some sort of hidden passageway. It would be in both our interests to rejoin those struggling above would it not? Now. Have you a wand?"

"You can try to take it if you like, but I won't just hand it over to you!"

"Lumos, Miss Granger. I merely thought it would be beneficial to have the ability of sight."

"Oh… What happened to your wand?"

"."

"Lumos!"

Snape blinked several times trying to adjust to the light emitting from her wand which had already been thrust in his eyes threateningly while she was viciously reminding him of his crimes. It's a wonder she hadn't mistakenly poked his eye out in the dark. "Miss Granger, kindly lower your wand."

She did so slowly and glaring.

He looked around with the enhanced light but found no enhancement in their perception. Miss Granger's oddly dim lumos charm was, like them, engulfed in seemingly endless black void. Even the floor looked nonexistent in its conformity with the eerie ebony surroundings. He took a turn about the spot they stood, trying to see anything, even a wall…no such luck.

While he was busy looking at everything he could not see, she was frowning at her wand light. "It should be brighter." she whispered worried.

He glanced at her sorry excuse for a lumos but didn't bother her about it passed a characteristic, and probably involuntary, eye-brow raise.

"Sir? Sir may I ask you where you were before you ended up here?"

There was a pause in which Severus pondered and blew out a deep breath. Hermione had given up on his answer, thinking that he was just being obnoxious as usual. Then he answered.

"I was speaking to the Dark Lord."

While Snape paused in thought again, she just couldn't help boldly snapping, "What about? How best to torture muggle-borns once you succeeded in taking Hogwarts?" There was venom in her voice.

"Don't be impertinent you silly girl."

She huffed and tried again. "So, what happened?"

Snape squinted and took his time answering. "It was imperative that I get to Potter…to tell him something…I turned my wand on Nagini. She was threatening me."

Hermione made a humourless noise in the back of her throat, "Figures."

Snape looked at her sharply, "What do you mean-"

"You give your loyalties to somebody like Voldemort…it figures that he would eventually betray you." she almost looked smugly satisfied.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

Her face suddenly fell and her expression turned to one of shame when she realized she was talking about a man's life. "What happened next?"

He raised a brow and continued, "I remember seeing something which is none of your concern before I suddenly lost my balance, and found myself dropping in on my least favourite Gryffindor know-it-all."

She rubbed the hand he had landed on as he fell on her. She couldn't help being slightly affronted at the fact that he was withholding a valuable little tid-bit because it was 'none of her concern.' "Well, that's not very enlightening," she grumble.

"Quid pro quo, Miss Granger. What's your story?"

She looked put out, but complied nonetheless. "I lost Ron and Harry while trying to help Tonks ward off your charming friend Dolohov. Then I remember Malfoy pulling me out of the way of his father's killing curse. I wouldn't have thought it (she shrugged and continued). Then… I…"

"Yes Miss Granger?"

"Oh, I don't even know why I'm telling you this!"

Snape sneered at her belated reluctance and turned to finish investigating their mute surroundings.

She sighed while fiddling with the tip of her dim wand and continued, "Then I thought I saw Sirius reaching out for me before I too 'lost my balance.'"

"Black? Tell me, how is the poltergeist of headquarters these days?" Severus asked viscously.

"Sirius isn't a poltergeist! He didn't choose to keep to this world: he moved on."

Snape rolled his eyes at the passionately defensive girl and continued walking about aimlessly.

"You don't think we're…dead. Do you Snape?"

"Where's your Gryffindor courage Granger? Is the notion really that terrifying to you?"

"I'm not terrified!" she countered heatedly.

Snape smirked. "Hardly Miss Granger. If we were dead, we would have the -choice- of moving on or -keeping- to this world (she glared daggers at his mocking of her words). But since we have not yet encountered a signpost pointing us one way or the other, I believe it is safe to assume that we are not dead."

"Well then where are we! Why don't you have your wand when I do! Why is my magical force ridiculously diluted! I have to get back! To help Harry… Unlike you, I have a world to save!" She was fairly shouting now, standing on tiptoe to face him off.

Severus only looked down on her as stoic as ever: not flinching as her hot breath struck his face in wisps. "Of course, your only concern in living is to aid Potter. How Noble." His comment was dripping with sarcasm.

She turned away from him with a scowl. "Not everyone's Slytherin - Snape!"

He smirked at her change from a respectful 'Sir' (old habits die hard) to a disdainful 'Snape.'

Awhile whirled away in which they both refrained from speaking to each other. After an amount of time undetermined, Snape leaped up from where they had been sitting.

Hermione looked at him questioningly. "What is it?"

"I know where we are." he whispered earnestly.

"Where?" she asked sharply.

He looked down at her somewhat perplexed. "But…you Miss Granger should not have been able to follow me here…"

"I didn't follow you anywhere."

He rolled his eyes. "Pardon me. I forgot that you often cannot see the ingredients from the potion. Let me rephrase: You should not have been able to benefit from our present state."

"What are you on about?"

He paused thinking it over. "In my youth Miss Granger, I partook in complex experimentations with a fellow Death Eater who was gifted beyond measure in the art of incantation crafting. He was linguistically brilliant and very talented. His name was Regulus Black."

Hermione's eyes snapped wide open. "But!"

"He was a Death Eater like myself, and a Slytherin. Why would I not join him in his highly interesting investigations. I was only fortunate that the Dark Lord permitted him to take the mark a year early while he was still at Hogwarts. He was placed as my protégé."

"But you must have been only a year or two older than he at the time." Hermione argued completely confounded at this new information.

Snape raised an amused brow. "I was a spy Granger. A very good asset since I learned quickly and did not make mistakes. Regulus was placed young so that he might benefit from my example. The Dark Lord was starting a new policy of younger recruits, and Regulus was one of the first."

Hermione closed her mouth as she considered the scenario.

"Besides his ridiculously outspoken fervour for the cause, he was an adequate laboratory partner - and an even more than an adequate theorist."

Hermione was fascinated by this look into Regulus's person. She had long been curious about him, being that he had turned on Voldemort and sacrificed himself for the greater good. She listened with rapt attention.

"Together we discovered 'Frateris Tutela.'" At Hermione's confused look, he explained. "You would not find it in any printed text Granger. The Death Eater organization cannot go gallivanting about publishing spell patents. It means 'a brother's power of protection.' Though it's intended goal is admirable, it is too risky and involves quite too many questionable elements not to be considered Dark Magic. We fused a powerful stasis spell with our own magical auras. The purpose: if ever either of us encountered a life threatening injury, which we were too weak to cure or withstand on our own, the injured party's bodily reaction would be to draw on his chosen 'brother's' magic to effectively arrest the damage. We experimented on ourselves as the two theoretical brothers. The process entailed a blood potion to be drunk by both and a binding magical connection."

"But Regulus is dead! How come his body didn't draw on your magic to save him, and how could you be drawing on his magic now?" Hermione saw something shift in Snape's eyes.

"Regulus did indeed disappear many years ago." He paused, looking piercingly at his former student.

She suddenly realized Snape had no idea how Regulus had died. He probably thought someone from the first Order of the Phoenix had killed him. She frowned. Regulus had been Snape's protege, and she didn't relish the thought of being the one to tell him how he'd died. "Professor…" she started tentatively, "Regulus was killed by a mob of inferi, some eighteen years ago. He'd turned sides," she said with a hint of pride, "and was caught in a booby-trap set by Voldemort while on a mission. I understand he was drowned by them…they were in a lake setting."

"He joined the Order then?"

"No. He never got the chance. Very few people know what really happened to him actually. Not even Sirius knew. The only reason we found out is because his personal house-elf was his accomplice in his self-assigned mission."

"What was the mission?" he asked sharply.

Hermione looked pained but remained silent.

"I see. Well regardless… his body may have been effectively shut down on stasis by my magic, but a living thing can only withstand on stasis for so long. If he was left at the bottom of a lake, his stasis would have only lasted a matter of two days at the very most." Snape said quietly. "As for my being able to draw on his magic, it is entirely possible. Some of our greatest magical discoveries point to the notion that magic follows us beyond death. It does not matter 'where' my blood-brother is today: the binding magical connection is as potent now as it was then. It could only be dissolved if both parties magically renounced it. Since Regulus is no longer with us, we were never given the chance to reverse our experiment."

She delicately continued asking questions. "But if the spell was meant to 'effectively arrest the damage' why is it your magic wasn't used to cure his injuries instead of simply placing his body under stasis?"

"The spell was never perfected. He disappeared shortly after we invoked the initial trial."

"So you're saying that you've been fatally wounded, and that the magic of Regulus's soul is still out there somewhere being called upon to put you on temporary stasis?"

"Precisely. This must be some sort of coma state."

"But that doesn't explain why I'm here with you."

"As to that Miss Granger, I cannot possibly speculate. You must also have been fatally harmed, and are somehow intercepting our magical connection."

She slumped dramatically. "You do realise this means that if someone doesn't find us and cure us soon, we will be dead." She was quiet for a moment before an idea hit her. "It would make sense that you don't have your wand if you're in a coma, but if we're both in the same cauldron - then why do I have mine?"

Snape contemplated her speculatively. "Though not as apt as you claim you usually are (Snape's lip curled maliciously), you can do magic with it effectively as well, ergo it is not a figment of your imagination. It most likely is a symbol of our magical abilities at the moment. I may be too damaged even to do the simplest spell. You still have some strength left, but it is waning." he said as he examined her diminishing wand light. "Perhaps… Miss Granger, know you any adequate healing spells?"

"Yes!" She said haughtily. "I would have to, seeing as how I've been curing all the boys' injuries for months!"

Snape tried to have the forbearance not to snap at her quick vanity and lack of speed on the uptake. "Miss Granger I thought you were the brightest witch of your age? Can you not realize that, if you act swiftly while you still can, you hold a possible reprieve for the both of us in your hand?" he motioned towards her wand.

Her mouth formed a small 'O' in comprehension. "I would have to know what ails us though."

"Use your mind girl! It is reasonable to say that you were hit by that killing curse of Malfoy's since it is the last event you can recall before the 'Black' apparition. I was undoubtedly overcome by Nagini. I will need far more attention than your slim skills can afford before I am awakened from the stasis due to the poison that surely has invaded my bloodstream: I will need the antidote Healer Pie developed for Arthur Weasley. But you have absolutely no lasting damage to your body - unless Greyback decided to defile a prize already won. This is unlikely since he prefers moving targets. The stasis will have protected you from the curse's effects which indicates that all you must do is relieve your own stasis. Can you do this?"

"But, if I'm intruding on your stasis, won't that revive both of us?"

"Perhaps. But it is a risk we must take. I was in the Shrieking Shack when I spoke to the Dark Lord. If you find me soon enough to apparate me to St. Mungo's I will at least have a better chance of survival than either of us do in our present state."

"You're a Death Eater! How can I leave the battle to apparate you to St. Mungo's when I could use that precious time to help Harry!"

"Perhaps I am mistaken, but there is little you can do for your precious Potter now. If I am correct as to why you are here, that would indicate that if not for me you would be dead at this point in time. Are you willing to take my stasis protection purely for your own gain Gryffindor? Besides, I am a very useful ally. The time it would take to apparate me within the walls of St. Mungo's and feed me the antidote would use only a fraction of what the duration of the battle encompasses."

"Harry could need me immediately!"

"All I would need would be the antidote and a blood replenishing draught. All I would need from you Miss Granger is five moments worth of transportation and your prior knowledge of the antidote I need to be imparted to the healers."

She furrowed her brows in anxiety. It was the only honourable thing to do. How could she steal his stasis protection and leave him to die while she lived off it's benefit? No matter who he was, that would be despicable. On the other hand, if he survived because of her and lived to murder more people she would never forgive herself. "How can I trust you!" she gasped with emotion.

Snape sighed. "Miss Granger there is something I must inform Potter of. It could mean the outcome of the war not just the battle."

"Are you saying you've switched sides - again." she shot shrewdly.

"If you can believe me, I never did switch sides." At her incredulous look, he continued. "Dumbledore was marked for death long before the night I laid wand to him; not by the Dark Lord, but by his own hand. (he suddenly gave a mirthless chuckle) Do you honestly believe that the greatest strategist of all time was hoodwinked by a power-hungry madman?"

Hermione looked dazed trying to process what he was telling her. "Wait! You're saying Dumbledore committed suicide?" she asked unbelieving.

"Essentially, that is exactly what I'm saying. I was to commit the act since it was I who was in desperate need of prolonged stability in the face of constant treachery and danger. There's only so much a spy can do to keep his master's trust, and my actions were progressively becoming less useful to him. Quite a dangerous thing Miss Granger."

"So you want me to believe that Dumbledore would sacrifice himself so that you might continue living after you stopped helping the Order?"

"Who claimed I ever stopped helping the Order? There's much to be done on 'both' sides by the hand of an adequate blockade runner. Dumbledore was terminally cursed Miss Granger. Don't tell me you didn't know that his blackened hand was more serious than he published? Any learned individual could see that a curse which could cause that sort of damage should have killed its target. It was only because of my secretly brewed weekly potions that he withstood as long as he did."

"But!"

"Miss Granger, precious time is being lost. Look at your wand light!" It had the intensity of a candle now. "I must speak to Potter Miss Granger. The arrogant little idiot will never believe what I must tell him, unless he has the proof of my memories. I must get them to him at any costs. It was one of the lasts and most important instructions Dumbledore left me, and I will NOT die until it is done!"

For the first time Hermione saw his emotionless exterior fade. She saw the impassioned man beneath the mask. She couldn't stand the thought of his death if what he was saying was true. She could not take the risk of disregarding him if Dumbledore really had wanted him to tell Harry something. Slowly and with the morbidity of someone terribly unsure, she raised her wand…

Again Happy Birthday IL- Thanks for reading…