Chapter Two- The Rescue
The two quickly finished bottling potions and left the dungeons. As it was only the last week in June, most of the teachers were gone for the summer, not due to report back until August, so they made it out of the castle unnoticed.
That was when their luck changed. They hesitated on the courtyards of the castle, seeing Professor Dumbledore down by the lake casually conversing with a mer there. They had two options at that point, and both involved going where he could see them. To their left, which would take them down into Hogsmeade, damned if Filius Flitwick wasn't on his way back to the castle.
While during the first few years at Hogwarts, their rivalry had gone almost unnoticed by everyone up to and including Sirius's best friends, that hadn't lasted long. Before they graduated, their rivalry had even gotten to the point where James Potter and Remus Lupin weren't comfortable with it anymore.
Everyone knew about their hatred for each other and, once they had reached Sixth Year, everyone went out of their way to make sure the two weren't alone together.
Merlin only knew what Flitwick was thinking now. And what Dumbledore would think when he saw them.
"The forest." Sirius said, gesturing, as Severus stood staring at the Charms Professor. "If we can get around the lake, when Dumbledore sees us, it'll be too late for him to stop us."
Severus hurried after Sirius, as he took off in the route he had just suggested. "You know what they're thinking, right?"
Sirius laughed. "Yep. But, you've got to admit- it is the perfect cover. Now if you want to stay for a few days and see Harry is alright for yourself, you can. They all know when we go off like this, not to expect us back for a few days."
"I suppose that's true." Severus admitted. "But there is no reason for me to stay with Harry. I'm sure the boy doesn't remember any of us, so it would do me absolutely no good to reintroduce myself into his life. While I have the free time though..."
He trailed off, wondering what he could do. There was that nearly-mythical plant growing in Athens that he had just about located before the start of the last school year. Or, he could head over to China, where another potions master was said to have created a better lycantrophy potion than his modification. Or even...
Oh no.
"Severus? Sirius?"
The Headmaster had spotted them. The two men looked at each other, darting the last few yards into the Forbidden Forest.
"Boys! Come back here at once!" Dumbledore sounded a lot closer than the other side of the lake, where he had just been a few seconds ago, but it was already too late. Sirius and Severus knew this part of the forest better than anyone.
"Hurry now." Severus said, as he was forced to walk behind Sirius on the trail that was invisible to everyone but the two of them. "You know he'll be in after us."
"For what?" Sirius asked, laughing, even as he picked up his speed. "We're both adults now...if we want to duel to the death, that's our business."
What had become more worrisome- the very first time their hatred for each other had become apparent to the teachers at large- was in fourth year, when the two decided for the first time to duel to the death. No seconds, no off-limit spells besides the Unforgivables, no time-limit.
They had disappeared into the forest, just as they were now. They had dueled fiercely, both being badly injured. They were found because of the sparks of light their wands had given off with each spell.
That first duel, they were found a mere few hours after they had disappeared. For their fun, they had each spent a week in the hospital and three months in detentions with the Headmaster himself.
None of which had stopped them. They had found a new hideout in the woods, and had quickly learned a spell to block their spell-light from being seen in the sky above them.
Three times in their fifth year, six times in their sixth year and a whopping ten times in their Seventh year, the two had decided to hold a duel. Each time they had been caught by the Headmaster, each time they had been sent to the hospital and each time they had had to go to detentions with him.
After catching them for the second time Seventh Year, the Headmaster had taken the rest of their free time for the year—assigning them detentions with him for the rest of the year. That hadn't stopped them, but by then they were no longer his students.
What would he do if he caught them now?
"What are you going to tell him?" Sirius asked, ducking under a low tree as he doggedly followed the intricate trail they had memorized. "He's going to wonder."
"You had better watch yourself. You know he'll be coming to visit you and give you a lecture." Severus shot back. "I, myself, will simply blame it on you. You were back to your old and obnoxious self and were long overdue."
"Ha." Sirius barked out laughter. "He has no sway over me any longer. I'm free, I've graduated and I'm the Black head of family. He can't even get into my manor if I don't let him- powerful though he is, even Albus Dumbledore can't match the brute strength of generations upon generations of paranoid, power-hungry Blacks. I'll just block him out for the next month or so until he calms down again."
Both men fell to the ground, exhausted, as they finally came to the clearing they had used all of their last two years. They had never been found here- after Sixth year, the Headmaster had given up dragging them
away, hoping that they would give up themselves. He had someone, probably the centaurs, waiting and when the two bloody, ragged boys finally gave up and began the long walk back to the castle, then he would intervene.
"Snape, is your ward still up?" Sirius asked, pushing himself up into the tailor position and feeling his own ward. Both were rather powerful at warding, which might have been one of the reasons Dumbledore had left them alone. It's hard for anyone to break through someone else's ward, even a weak one. Sirius's ward had involved making sure they were the only two to be able to access this clearing, while Severus had made a ward breaching this clearing from the rest of the forest—making them able to Apparate from here if they needed to.
After the two had learned to Apparate, the Headmaster had never seen the true extent of their injuries. Both from pure-blood backgrounds, they had each Apparated to their family's private doctors and then met up to go back together.
"Of course it's still up." Severus snapped, not bothering to rise. He could feel his ward, strong all around them. "A more important question though- do we want to Apparate?"
"Well...yeah...I think." Sirius said, confused. "It's the quickest way to get there."
"And the easiest way to track." Severus said. "While we both were moderately good at covering our trail, we never tried to make sure Albus Dumbledore couldn't track us. If he finds out we went straight to Surrey..."
"Oh." Sirius said. "That's a good point- I haven't practiced that in years, I don't have any idea how effective I would be at that."
"Well, we could perhaps Apparate elsewhere," Severus decided. "To Diagon Alley, perhaps, and then we can enter the human realm from there. It could work."
"No it couldn't." Sirius scoffed. "Have you been in the Leaky Cauldron lately? Tom's as bad as ever- he sees everyone that goes in and out. You can be sure he'll tell Dumbledore. What about brooms? Remembering what I do about you, I'm sure you have the latest one around. What is it now? Nimbus 1000?"
Severus flushed. "I have a Nimbus 1100. But not here, I don't actually carry my broom around with me anymore. And I'm much too far to summon it. I should have grabbed it while still in the dungeons." He admitted.
Sirius looked the other man over, mentally evaluating. Neither of them were the men they had been just a few years ago. Both were thin and lean, though no less tough than ever. But it out to work. "We can use my motorcycle." He decided.
He pulled what looked like a child's toy out of his pocket and waved his wand over it. Instantly the motorcycle grew to just slightly larger than a regular motorcycle. "This was loads faster than the Nimbus 800 when I was imprisoned." He said, reaching into one of the specially-enlarged pockets and pulling out two helmets. "I'm not sure how fast an 1100 goes, but I know this can still get us to Surrey in about three or four hours."
"You actually enchanted a motorcycle." Severus said, absently catching the helmet tossed his way and putting it on. "I thought that was just another rumour that they had going around."
"A rumour?" Sirius exclaimed, highly offended. "Do you know how long I worked on this thing? It took me whatever free time I had Seventh Year plus a whole year and a half after that. And I had to get Lily, James, Remus and Hester Nimbus to help me."
"Hester Nimbus?" Severus was truly impressed. "That's quite a feat."
Hester was the youngest of the Nimbuses, the makers of the finest brooms to grace the market. She had gone to school with them, she was a year younger.
"I was dating her." Sirius pointed out needlessly. "I thought I was going to marry her."
"Really?" Severus asked, surprised in spite of himself. All he knew of Black's escapades with women was that he went from one to another with each passing week.
"Yeah, I was with her through the second half of Sixth Year and all of Seventh year." Sirius admitted, knowing how much Severus had despised gossip. "You ought to remember—she's that blonde in Sixth Year who hexed us both by the lake when we were headed out for our last duel."
"Oh, was that her?" Severus said, picturing the girl as Sirius put on his own helmet. "Why exactly did she feel the need to do that?"
Sirius waved the question away, climbing on the bike. "Get on, I'll explain then."
Nodding, Severus put down the visor of his helmet and instantly felt a small microphone by his mouth. "Well, go on then." He said, as he climbed on behind Sirius.
"Hold on tight." Sirius's voice crackled around both of their helmets as he started the bike up with a loud roar. "She didn't want me dueling." He explained as they shot straight up a hundred yards into the air. "She had this insane idea that if she could just get me to stay out of the forest, I wouldn't duel you. She convinced Lily it was a good idea- so whenever I'd appear out in the courtyard and you were there as well, she'd pull me away to the Quidditch field. Didn't you think it odd that Lily would pull you away to the library from the courtyard all the time?"
Actually... he hadn't. "Not really." Severus admitted, holding on tightly as the motorcycle took off. "When we first became friends, she would do that all the time. Just grab my arm and drag me wherever she decided to go. She never really got over that, though it had been toned down before Sixth Year. So it wasn't surprising."
Also, it wasn't that interesting. But, this cycle was. "This motorcycle is definitely faster than the 1100. The brooms for the past three years haven't been this fast." He said. "How on earth did you pull this off?"
Sirius's laughter came through the helmets. "I had three of the smartest students in our class helping me, along with a girl who grew up creating fast things. And I always did like Arithmancy—I souped this sucker up."
"This is amazing." Severus had to admit. "I want this bike."
Already they were away from the flatlands of Scotland and flying over a city.
"No way, Snape." Sirius said, laughing. "This baby means more to me than anything. I'm only glad she didn't get destroyed when they thought I was the traitor."
"If I had known this thing was as great as it is, I would've stolen it from Hagrid." Severus said. "I'll give you 25,000 Galleons."
"Not for any amount of money." Sirius said. "Make one of your own."
"You know I wouldn't be able to, not if it took that many advanced wizards. Just sell it to me." Severus said.
"No way. I was bored with brooms by fifth year. I can drive this anywhere. You just stick to brooms, Snape."
They drove on in silence, both deliberately refusing to think about what they were doing, until Sirius finally put them down in a small wooded area.
"Okay," Sirius said, the two got off the bike and pulled off their helmets. "They live on the street just north of here. I'll disguise you if you disguise me."
It was always harder to disguise one's self.
"Sounds good." Severus said, pulling out his wand.
The two tapped each other on the foreheads, murmuring their spell. Instantly, both man transfigured. Sirius grew several inches, his face growing more tan and ended up in jeans and a sweater. Severus grew out, so he didn't look stick-thin, his hair lightening to brown and his nose and eyes changed.
He was now dressed in blue jeans and a red and gold shirt.
"Black!" Severus said, looking down at himself.
Sirius laughed. "Sorry, couldn't resist." He said. "But you can't change it." He said, as Severus took out his wand. "Exactly how many wizards go around in all-black clothing?"
Damn...but the mutt had a point. "Fine." He said, flicking the wand and changing the shirt to a blue so dark it was almost black. "But not with that Gryffindor shirt."
"Fine." Sirius said cheerfully. "Let's go."
"Wait." Severus grabbed Sirius by the shirt. "What's the plan. We go in and grab the boy? Do we talk to the Muggles?"
"We're going to get Harry." Sirius said. "If I talk to those Muggles, I'll probably kill them."
"We have to tell them something. What if Dumbledore left them a way to contact us just in case?" Severus pointed out logically.
"Fine." Sirius said, sighing. "You can say whatever you want to the Muggles. I don't care. Can we go now?"
"Just one more thing." Severus said. "Why don't we go in secretly? Just to make sure you didn't hallucinate or anything. How soon after being in Azkaban did you go?"
"Three days after they released me from St. Mungo's." Sirius admitted, sagging. "The Healers said I was the sanest person they had ever seen come out of Azkaban after such a period."
Actually, Severus could privately admit that Black actually seemed a little- but just a little, mind you- more sane than when he went in. Not that he'd tell Black that. "I had my doubts as to your sanity before you went in," he said, as was expected of him. "So let's get a little more evidence for when Dumbledore catches up to us. You know, sooner or later, he's going to."
"Okay, we can spend a few more hours." Sirius said. "I went in the other day with an invisibility potion, I think I still have some left. Hold on."
He went back to the bags on his motorcycle, looking through it. "Aha!" He said, triumphantly pulling two clear bottles from the bag. "Here." He said, offering one to Severus.
"Who made these?" Severus asked, looking at the bottle. The vial was made of an expensive crystal, but that wasn't the important part. The stopper was. All potions masters were allowed to cork their vials with toppers that had their initials on it in gold. Only potions masters were allowed golden initials and anything without them were 'take at your own risk'. He rarely...in fact, almost never...took anything that he himself hadn't made.
This one didn't have golden initials, but to his surprise, it did have white initials. 'SOB'. He looked at Sirius, who was silently watching him. "You're approved?" He said.
"Yeah." Sirius admitted. "The year after Hogwarts, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do, so in between making the bike, I did this. I was never too bad at potions."
Actually, until their rivalry had really flared up, the two had been neck and neck for the top of Potions spot. When Severus had stepped up in studying Potions, Sirius slacked, refusing to like something that Severus did. Severus had been much the same when Sirius turned to Quidditch.
Neither had hidden their second loves very well, as the whole school had known about Severus sneaking out onto the Quidditch Pitch just as everyone knew Sirius had set up a lab of his own in an abandoned classroom on the third flood.
But no one really talked about it, especially not where either man could hear it.
"That's...actually quite impressive." Severus said, absently studying the topper. Not many people actually became approved novices. Approved novice was a status that a person could test for if a person couldn't- for whatever reason- study the whole time it would take to gain a mastery and still be able to make and distribute potions to a single shop. It was a dastardly hard test that only one in every one-hundred fifty people passed, and which some people claimed was harder than the actual mastery.
"Thanks." Sirius said, grinning. "Still not sure why I did it, but it comes in handy. Let's go."
He tore off the topper and took his potion. He shimmered and then slipped right out of sight. Severus watched for a moment, but nothing happened, so he took his own.
Sirius grabbed Severus's shirt just before he disappeared and led him to out of the woods.
"Welcome to Privet Drive." Sirius said, as Severus stopped.
Sirius could practically feel Severus's disapproval, even before he spoke. "How can a wizard live in such sterility?" Severus demanded. "Only a Muggle could come up with something like this. Which one belongs to Petunia?"
Sirius led Severus to Number Four. Before they got to the door, they could hear a child screaming.
"Please tell me that isn't Harry." Severus said, half afraid of the answer.
"No, Harry almost doesn't talk at all." Sirius sounded disgusted. "That's baby whale. At least..." He added as Severus cast the spell that would allow them to walk through the wall. "It had better be."
"Too true." Severus mumbled, pulling Sirius quickly through. "Okay," he said, looking around. The walls were filled with pictures of a blonde child who really did have more than a passing resemblance to a baby whale. "How horrid."
"Focus, Snape." Sirius said, pulling Severus away from the pictures that had stunned him for a moment as well on his first visit and towards the kitchen, where the screaming was coming from.
The two men looked in and sure enough, it was the Dursley child. He was sitting on his mother's lap at the table, crying big crocodile tears that both men realized were false as the thin, horse-like woman glared at someone they couldn't see.
Severus pulled Sirius into the room, finally getting his first look at Harry in years. The four year old had looked better. He had been an adorable baby. Lily always picked out nice clothes for her baby and kept his hair short and neat so that it looked just like his father's.
His hair was longer than Severus would have imagined- James had certainly never worn his hair so long- but even so it still stuck up horrendously. His skin was horribly sunburned and there was a definite stench coming off of the child. Worst of all, he was wearing clothing that he swam in. They had obviously come from the baby whale and were horribly stained.
"He ruined everything, Mama." The little whale was moaning pitifully, turning his head to smirk at his cousin even as he spoke. "He made the teacher yell at me and messed up my drawing. I don't want him to go to school wif me. Make him stay home. I don't like nursery school!"
"How could you cause so much trouble?" Petunia Evans- now Dursley- snapped at her cowering nephew. "Destroying your cousin's work and pretending that yours was so much better. I don't know what lies you told this woman, but I won't stand for this nonsense. You just wait until your uncle gets home. Get in your cupboard, you disgusting piece of vermin."
"Sorry, Aunt Tunia." Harry muttered. He turned quickly, but didn't make it out of the room fast enough. A wooden spoon hit him just as he turned the corner. He winced and kept going.
"Aw, my poor little Duddy." Petunia simpered. "Ignore that little freak, Mama will make it all better. Let's have some ice cream, okay?"
The little whale agreed enthusiastically, the tears shutting off at once. Once he had downed a pint of chocolate ice cream, Petunia took him upstairs for a bath and then a nap.
"You see, Snape?" Sirius said, as they both retreated to the foirier. He turned Snape so that the other man saw the cupboard under the stairwell. "That's where Harry sleeps."
Severus shook his head, unbelieving. "They dare treat Lily's son this way. If the Dark Lord does return, I shall personally lead him to this house." He vowed.
"Hell, I'll lead him to the house." Sirius said. "They won't get away with this. I won't let them, I just don't know what to do right now."
"Should we wait until the uncle returns?" Severus asked. "It's not like we can't protect him and we could gather more evidence. It doesn't look like Petunia does much- not that that spoon wasn't bad enough."
"True, true." Sirius admitted reluctantly. "I guess we can-"
He stopped abruptly as the door to the cupboard opened and one green eye peeked out. "Is someone there?" A childish voice asked hesitantly. "Aunt Tunia? I sorry for bein' a bad boy."
The two men stood still, both forgetting that the boy couldn't see them anyways. When he got no answer though, the boy's whole head popped out. He looked around, confused. "Is someone here?"
Sirius stood frozen, unsure of what to do, so Severus took the initiative. He reached out and patted Harry's head. "Hey there, Cub." He whispered.
Now the boy froze. His eyes widened and he swung around, looking for a body to place the voice. "Uncle Sevie?" He whispered.
Both men gasped.
"Uncle Sevie?" The boy repeated. "Are you really there? Is Mama with you? Is Daddy?"
"Will I do?" Sirius asked, hardly daring to believe. The boy had remembered one of his adopted uncles, would he remember another?
"Uncle Paddy?" The boy's eyes filled with tears. "Where are you?"
Sirius reached down and took Harry's hand. "Here, Cub. We came to get you. We're gonna take you to see Uncle Moony. We all missed you a whole lot."
"No!" Little Harry pulled his hand away. "Not real. Aunt Tunia says her an' Uncle Vernon are the only ones left to take care of me. Says I'm a freak with no one else."
"Harry James Potter, don't let me every hear you talk about yourself like that again." Sirius said, voice authoritative. "We love you and we came to get you."
"Uncle Vernon says no one can love a freak." The boy sniffed, running a hand under his nose.
"Cub, I won't have you talk about yourself that way." Severus stepped in, handing a handkerchief to the boy. As soon as Harry touched it, it became visible, shocking the boy out of tears.
"How'd you do that, Uncle Sevie?" He asked, mouth open.
Severus didn't answer. He tapped Harry's chin, making his mouth close and then retook the handkerchief. It stayed visible as he wiped the boy's eyes and then nose.
"Harry, are you alright? Are you injured anywhere?" Severus asked.
"My arm hurts." The boy admitted. "Uncle Vernon threw me in my cupboard yesterday. Me and Dudley are testing for nursery school and Dudley said I cheated offa him. But I didn't Uncle Sevie! I promise. But Uncle Vernon didn't believe me. He dun't like me."
"That's because he's an idiot." Severus said fiercely, even as he pulled up the billowing sleeve of Harry's arm. A full hand-print was visible on the child's tiny bicep, showing a much larger hand.
"We can't stay any longer." Severus abruptly decided. "Now you aren't the only angry one. Undo the potion."
Sirius nodded a nod Severus couldn't see and took out his wand. He tapped Severus on the head and the Slytherin shimmered into sight.
Luckily, Severus clamped his hand over Harry's mouth, so the boy's shout didn't carry.
"Easy, Harry James." Severus said. "Stay still." He added, while tapping Sirius with his own wand.
Sirius shimmered into view as well. "Harry, we have, uh... something on us to hide who we are." He tried to explain. Though they had changed physically, they hadn't bothered to change their voices. "Stay calm. We'll be back to normal soon."
"You take him out to the woods." Severus said, handing Harry up to Sirius. "Gather up anything he wants to take with him and go. I'm going to have a word with Petunia."
"Don't attract the Ministry's attention." Sirius said.
"Mm-hm." Severus doubted that was possible, but it was better to reassure Black. "You get out. I'll be right there."
He found Petunia upstairs in the master bedroom, brushing her hair. Her mirror on her vanity was opposite the door, so she saw him as soon as he entered the room.
"Who- who are you?" She demanded, swinging around and brandishing the brush.
"Petunia Evans, I am a wizard." Severus said, knowing no other explanation was necessary. She neither cared nor wanted it. "How dare you think you can treat Harry Potter that way? Did you never think we would find out? You will pay for this."
"What are you talking about?" Petunia sputtered. "We work our fingers off trying to provide for that ungrateful brat and get no compensation for it."
"Work your fingers off?" Severus exclaimed. "You have him sleeping in a cupboard!"
Her eyes grew wild as he turned his wand on their sidetable and destroyed it. "Stop it!" She begged.
"We're taking the boy." He said, vanishing the shards before they could hit him. "You'll never see him again until he can fight back against you. And if there really is a God, you'll be punished. I'll make sure of it myself. As soon as the Dark Lord returns- and you can damned well expect him to be back- I will personally lead him back here."
"No!" Petunia said. "H-he's gone. They said so. The little freak destroyed him."
"No way, Petunia." Severus said gleefully. "He'll be back- I don't think that man will ever die. And I will bring him by the hand back to you. He'll delight in killing Harry Potter's only remaining family and so will I. I only hope he kills your little beast of a son first, with you watching."
He grinned happily. "And lets me watch. And maybe if I'm lucky, he'll let me have a crack at your fat husband. I'll have to settle for that idiot, because I know he'll want you for himself. Lily Potter's blood sister. I can't wait."
"I shouldn't expect anything else from you people." She said, clasping her hands to her chest. "You're all horrible people who are on your way to hell."
"We'll be sending you there first." Severus said. "That's a promise. I will not rest until I have the pleasure of wiping out your husband's line, beginning with his darling little heir. You enjoy every day like it's your last. It just might be."
He patted her head condescendingly before turning and leaving.