AN: Dear Lord, I'm so sorry about this long wait. I'm hideous, I know. But, writing time is definitely fixing to pick up, as Graduation was Friday night. Yay! So, now that I've finished high school I've got nothing till fall semester out at the college.

In short, chapters WILL start picking up. I swear.

Disclaimer: If i really did make money from this, trust me--chapters would be muuuuuuuch quicker. xD

AN/2: Sorry, but this hasn't been beta'd. The friend that had been going to check it moved to Florida and 'found religion', so now he won't have anything to do with Harry Potter. rolls eyes

CHAPTER 3

Severus eased his eye open and watched as Roy was tossed into their dark cell. After the guards had left, he gently eased himself up to lean against the wall behind him.

"You okay?"

Severus managed to find the strength to scowl over to his old friend. "What do you think?"

Roy looked at teh blood-encrusted cloth covering his surly cell mate's eye and grimaced. "The guys sure are taking long enough to get us the hell out of here, aren't they?"

Severus merely scoffed. "They're coming. We just have to hold on until they get here."

"What do these guys want with the Philosopher's Stone, anyway?" Roy mumbled quietly to himself.

Severus, of course, heard him. "What?"

"The Philosopher's--"

"I heard you the first time!"

"Then what the hell are you going on abou--"

"He must have heard about your involment in the Ishvarlan campaign."

A silence descended following that pronouncement.

"That's...quite possible, actually," Roy agreed. If he has anyone stationed in Amestris, which he likely does, they'd have heard the rumors circulating."

"From the way our interrogators are acting, I would assume they haven't discovered the good doctor."

Roy frowned in concentration. "You may be right about that. After his dessertion, rumors started circulating that the state had him killed. Most civilians and military personnel believe him to be dead."

Snape sighed in relief. "Let us hope Dr. Marcoh remains undiscovered."

"His tracks have been well-covered. If he can hide from Amestris for this long, he'll not be found."

This pronouncement was met with a snort.

"What?!"

"How can you be so bloody cheerful?"

"Just because I don't perpetually have a raincloud over my head doesn't meant that I'm 'bloody cheerful'."

At his friend's sullen glare, Roy shrugged. "Sure, we've been beaten. You've probably lost an eye. Our lives hang in the balance. I forgot to set Death Note to record. At least things can't get much worse than--"

"SHUT UP!!"

Roy silenced immediately and stared wide-eyed at the homicidal gleam in Severus's eye.

"Don't you know better than to say that? You're practically begging the Fates to heap even more onto our plates! When things get worse--and believe me, they SHALL-- the fault is yours."

!#&!#&!#&

The Amestrian's camp was alive with the sounds of gunfire. The attackers, for all the soldiers could tell, seemed to appear and disappear at will, making it extremely difficult for even Lt. Hawkeye to make a good shot.

Hughes, whose back was currently against Hawkeye and Havoc to form a triangle, yelled over to the nearby Armstrong, "Major, you ever heard of someone using alchemy to teleport like this?"

Any answer he may have been given was stopped by the sudden appearance of the tightly bound ropes that wrapped around his torso and legs, causing him to fall to the ground.

When the last soldier had fallen to the ground, the unknown assailants converged on the camp. Hughes glared at the old man hobbling toward him. The man raised his gnarled hand and pointed a stick at Hughes' face and muttered something under his breath. The Lt. Colonel's eyes widened as a flash of red light left the stick and sped toward him.

!#&!#&!#&

Molly Weasly was preparing dinner in the kitchen of number 12 Grimmauld Place when she was startled by the violent entrance of Moody and Shacklebolt.

"Where's Albus?"

"Not here," Molly sniffed and returned to her cooking. "You should try the library. He was in there earlier."

Moody grunted and stormed right back out of the door.

"Thanks, Molly," Shacklebolt nodded and followed.

Down the hall, Moody slammed open the library door.

"Ah, good afternoon, Alastor. What can I do for you?"

"We got the buggers, Albus. They're down in the basement."

"Good, good." Dumbledore placed the book he was holding back onto the shelf and stepped out of the room. The three headed down into the basement.

"This one seems to be the leader," Moody growled as he nudged Hughes. "His name is Maes--"

"--Hughes."

"Do you know this man?"

"Of course. The others I do not, but if Maes is associating them then they are not evil." He waved his wand at the officer.

Hughes groaned and rolled his head on his shoulders. "The hell..?"

"Hello, Maes."

"..Albus? Albus Dumbledore, you old coot! What the hell is this? Why am I bound to a chair, dammit!"

"Easy there, my boy, we just need to ask a few questions. Answer them and then we can release you. Sound fair?"

"Nothing's fair where you're concerned," Hughes scowled back at the twinkly-eyed headmaster. "How are my people?"

"They are well. No harm shall come to them. Who are they?"

"Roy's been captured. Intel says that it was someone out this way."

"Oh? Any idea who is behind this?"

"I'm afraid we don't have any definitives. Hey, sure it wasn't you guys?"

"No, not this time."

Moody growled, "Albus, who the bloody hell is this?"

Dumbledore smiled benignly. "A friend. Come, Maes, let's get you upstairs. I'm sure Molly would love to feed you something."

"I don't think it's wise to release him."

The old headmaster, of course, merrily ignored the auror and released Hughes from his bonds and escorted the young soldier back up the stairs.

Mrs. Weasly smiled at them when they marched into the kitchen. "What's all this, then? Are you hungry? Sit down, I'll grab you a plate."

As she quickly fixed a plate for them, Dumbledore sat down across the table from Hughes.

"You wouldn't happen to have any ideas 'bout who would wanna kidnap Roy, eh?"

"What do you know so far?"

"Not much. All we really know is that someone here in Great Britain wants 'im. That, and he's got a rather large fan base."

"'Fan base'?"

"Yeah, you know, followers. A lot of them."

"You know what they're after?"

"Not known for sure, but we think..."

"Yes? What do you think?"

Hughes glanced at the others in the kitchen and hesitated.

"It's all right, my boy. They're part of the Order."

"Order?"

"Of the Phoenix. What do you think?"

"We think they're after the Philosopher's Stone."

Mrs. Weasly gasped loudly, Shacklebolt startled, and Moody glared suspiciously.

"What do you know of the Stone? You aren't the typical Muggle."

"No, he isn't." Dumbledore then turned back to Hughes. "Why would they think Roy has such information?"

"He was in Ishvar. You know what went down there. Everyone does."

"Yes. I think we may know of someone who would be interested."

"Who? And none of your damn riddles either, old man. We've not got the time!"

"Ever heard of Death Eaters?"

"...kinda morbid, don't ya think?"

"I do believe that is the point."

"I think I'd remember something like that."

"I'm sure you would. The man that leads the organization is one Lord Voldemort. He very well may be searching for the Stone. If he heard that Roy has any knowledge of it, then he would definitely go after him."

"So, what do we do?"

"We have people already searching for Voldemort's keep. We are close to discovering it."

"Already searching for it?"

"Yes. He has Severus."

"Sev? No way! Why the hell would he want Severus? Sure, he's smart, but--"

"He was our spy. He infiltrated the ranks and was passing intel to us. He...was discovered."

"Oh god...is he ok? I mean, he's still alive, right?"

"We believe so."

Hughes sighed heavily. "That's...well, not good, per say, but better than it could've been."

"Yes, it could be worse. We can only hope that the two are kept together."

"Why is that?"

"We've heard rumors that they are preparing to move a couple of prisoners. If they are in the group being moved, we'll be able to rescue them during the transfer. If, however, they are split up..."

!#&!#&!#&

Drip...drip...drip...

Roy cracked open his eye. A low moan escaped him when he attempted to rise from his position on the floor. Realising that he probably shouldn't be moving about before finding out just how severe his injuries were, he glanced around the small dark cell.

He was alone.

AN: Yep, that's it. Sorry it's short, but at least it's something. Working on the next chapter already. Review and let me know what ya think.