A/N: Please remember I'm not J. K., and don't own the rights to Harry Potter, or his wonderful world. This is an a/u, and in it I want to make sure Severus Snape gets a happy ending too. Please bear with me as I take you to my a/u, and forgive anything that is not canon.
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Chapter Four: The Great Escape; or I Love It When A Plan Comes Together
Harry and Draco stepped into the livingroom of 12 Grimwauld Place, followed by Hagrid, who had to bend low and squeeze through the mantelpiece to exit the floo-network.
"Hagrid, keep an eye on Malfoy," Harry said as he left to hurry upstairs to his bedroom to retrieve his invisibility cloak.
"Draco!" Hagrid exclaimed on a rising note, as Draco slowly drew out his wand.
"Relax, Hagrid," said Draco, turning the wand onto himself. "It pays to dress the part. That's one good thing Lucius taught me. If you look impressive, people are impressed," he finished as he spelled himself into a conservative dark blue set of business robes.
Just at that moment, the bright green flames of the floo-network flared again as Tonks stepped through, wand at the ready, shouting, "EXPELIARMUS!"
"What the bloody hell!" shouted Draco. "I'm on YOUR side!"
"Not sodding likely!" Tonks snarled back, her wandtip against a trembling Dracos' throat.
Harry calmly took in the scene before him with a guilty twinge of pleasure for a long moment upon coming back into the livingroom, then he sighed, "Tonks, let Malfoy go. It turns out that he's been on our side all along, according to Dumbledore.
Tonks slowly pulled her wand back, and put it away, as Harry continued, "Tonks, we need your skills. Dumbledores' last wish was for us, Draco and me, to free Snape and get him safely back to Hogwarts. Here's our plan so far." He proceeded to show her their document, and outline their plan.
"We can do this," she grinned sneakily. "I just need to pop 'round to my flat. Back in a trice!" she called over her shoulder, as she stepped into the fireplace and re-entered the floo-network.
"Bloody cow took my wand!" screetched Draco, with an indignant stamp of his left foot. "I was just dressing for the part, and the ruddy, bloody cow took my wand!"
"Oh shut up, Malfoy," Harry sniped back. "If you're pretending to be an adult, then ACT like one. She'll bring back your bleeding wand. She probally forgot she even had taken it."
With a 'Whoosh', Tonks stepped back through the fireplace, and said, "Sorry, Malfoy, no hard feelings, alright?" passing him back his wand.
Draco looked down at her hand. "That's not MY wand."
Tonks looked down, and blinked, "No, that's mine. Sorry again." She fished around in various pockets, while he steadily tapped his booted toe tip on the bare wooden floorboards. "Ah, here you go," as she finally came up with the right wand, which he quickly pocketed.
They all sat down, and Harry had Dobby fetch them a cuppa. Tonks pulled quill and inkpot, and a truly impressive looking embossier from her various pockets.
"Pass me your document, Harry," she said. She waved her wand over the quill and commanded it to 'Write!' Tonks then began to dictate, "By order of Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic," and the quill dipped its ownself into the inkpot and began to write in Fudges' own handwriting. "I hereby release into the custody of his cousin, Draco Malfoy, Head of House Malfoy, Professor Severus Snape,, to be placed into private, protective custody until such time as he is recovered mentally to be able to stand trial before the Ministry of Justice." She paused in her dictation to explain, "I nicked one of Fudges' used quills and embossiers after I came across a nifty little spell that causes the quill to 'remember' its' owners handwriting. Never can tell when something like that will come in handy."
Then she commanded the quill, "Signed, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic." The quill promptly signed and finished with a flourish, before laying itself down. Tonks then picked up the embossier and stamped the official Ministry seal onto their scroll right beside the signature. She passed the finished document back to Harry, and secreted her paraphernalia back into her various pockets on her robes. Then she left as quickly as she had come.
"Thanks!" called Harry. He then passed the document back to Draco, who was accustomed to proof-reading some of his fathers' Ministry paperwork.
Draco said with admiration, "Potter, this looks quite good! We may be able to actually pull this off without having to 'Obliviate' half of St. Mungo's. All right, here's our plan."
A full fifteen minutes later, after much heated argument and debate, the two boys shook hands in an uneasy alliance, finally sure of the plan. Hagrid, Draco, and Harry (who was wrapped in his invisibility cloak) exited the backdoor of Harrys' house, stepping into the back garden, which was Dobbys' pride and joy. It was also a safe apparate-point, which they used to get to St. Mungo's.
Harry poked his wandtip into Dracos' ribs, and whispered, "Just because you can't see me doesn't mean my wand won't work, Malfoy, so no tricks."
Hagrid slipped the bottle of 'Compliance' potion to Harry, as he said, "They might search us before taking us down onto the mental wards. It's better if you hold on to this, Harry."
As they approached the lobby doorway, Draco went into full-blown 'Malfoy' mode, straightening his spine, along with his collar and cuffs. Standing with perfect posture, his nose superciliously tilted upwards, he snapped his fingers and ordered roughly, "Hagrid, the door!"
"Yes sir, Mr. Malfoy, sir!" Hagrid loudly answered, with a respectful bob of his head, but under his breath he whispered, "Now don't you go getting provoked, Harry. I don't mind pretending to be a servant. Draco has to appear in charge, and it's for a good cause."
On that comment, what appeared to be young Mr. Malfoy, and his huge manservant, entered into St. Mungo's and went straightaway to Director Harbison Fingars' office. Hagrid opened the outer office door, and stood aside for Draco.
"Draco Malfoy, to see Director Fingar. I'm sorry I don't have an appointment, but it is quite urgent," he sniffed, and looked around with all the superiority of Lucius himself.
"Yes sir, Mr. Malfoy," the chubby receptionist blushed, and smiled coyly at Draco. "I'll just pop in and see if he can see you for a moment." She slipped through the inner office door. A moment later she stepped back out to her desk, and grinned cheekily as she said, "Director Fingar will see you now."
With an answering wolfish grin, Draco entered the Directors office. "Draco Malfoy, Mr. Director," he said extending his hand.
Harbison Fingar did not appear to be as easily impressed as his receptionist. "Mr. Malfoy," he intoned as he shook Dracos' proffered hand, motioning him to take a seat. "State your business, please. I have a hospital to run."
Draco produced their carefully crafted document, and Director Fingar put on his horn-rimmed reading spectacles and perused the document for several long minutes. He gently ran his fingertips over the seal, to be sure it was genuine, then nodded his head.
"If you will come with me, Mr. Malfoy, we'll collect your cousin. Will it be agreeable to have all his records owled to you, or would you rather wait for them now?" Fingar asked.
"By owl will be fine, sir," Draco said respectfully, but he was thinking 'What a wanker!'
Hagrid hurriedly opened the door at Dracos' fingersnap. They exited Fingars' office, and walked down several corridors and staircases, turning left, right, left, left, so many times that Harry finally thought, ' Merlin! This place is worse than the Tri-Wizard maze!' as he hurried to keep up.
They finally came to a halt outside a dark, wooden door that resembled a vault door at Gringott's. Fingar drew his wand, and removed the various wards and charms that kept the door secure.
The door creaked as it swung open. There in the darkest far corner sat a filthy, straightjacketed Severus Snape, his black eyes glittering madly.
The stench emanating from the cell caused Draco to back-pedal into the hallway, a scented handkerchief pressed over his nose and mouth. He motioned imperiously towards the giant, and said, "You'd best handle him, Hagrid." Then he turned his furious gaze upon the Director.
"Yes sir, Mr. Malfoy," Hagrid responded, and he entered the foul chamber. "Professor Snape? We've come to take you home, sir," he said rather loudly. Under his breath he said, "The potion, Harry. Quickly!"
Harry slipped the bottle into Hagrids' hand with a smooth, unseen motion, and Hagrid swiftly tipped it into Snapes' mouth. It was duly swallowed, and the empty bottle returned to Harrys' unseen hand, as Snape closed his eyes.
Hagrid tried again, "Professor Snape, you know me don't you sir?" Snape slowly opened his eyes, and stared blankly at Hagrids' kind face. He nodded a small nod. Hagrid said soothingly, "Come Professor, we've come to take you home." Snape nodded again, and stood up with Hagrids' help.
Dracos' steely blue eyes were blazing with fury. "THIS is the care St. Mungo's provides its' inmates? I see I should have been here long before now to remove my cousin. Leaving him in his own filth! You shall be hearing from my solicitors!" Draco ground to a halt, overcome with a righteous indignation on Severus' behalf.
Director Fingar himself was appalled at Snapes' condition, and quickly cleaned him up as best as he could with a 'scourgify' spell. "My sincerest apologies to both your cousin and yourself, Mr. Malfoy. You have my personal assurance that a complete inquiry will be held on this case of neglect, and the guilty person or persons will be punished."
They had been steadily moving towards the main door, and fresh air, the whole time Fingar had been rattling on. Draco strode angrily across the lobby and out the door, followed closely by Hagrid supporting an obviously weakened Snape.
"Ouch!" exclaimed Harry, rubbing at his scar. "We've got to hurry. Danger is coming."
They looked up into what had been a perfectly clear bright blue sky, to see swirling dark grey clouds rolling across the horizon in a most un-natural manner. That's when they saw the Dementors swooping in and out of the thickening clouds, coming nearer and nearer to St. Mungo's.
They bundled Snape as rapidly as they could to the nearest ward-free point, and immediately apparated back to Harrys' garden. They wasted no time, but rushed inside and instantly floo'd back to Hogwarts, mission accomplished.
While everyone else had been occupied with the Great Escape, the Weasley trio had led the remaining four girls to the Room of Requirement to practice dueling. Once they were inside, the door magically disappeared.
Fred and George began in their unique 'twin-speak', "We've been thinking about it for quite sometime now, and come to the conclusion that we've got to 'fight fire with fire' when it comes down to the final battle." One twin stopped speaking as the other took up the thought, "The enemy is not playing by the rules anymore. You can bet they will be casting 'Unforgivables' at you. The Ministry says we can't use them." The first twin resumed, "It's against 'the Rules'. I say we'd better be prepared to cast them back ourselves. It's self-preservation. And it's WAR!" The other twin finished up, "And all is fair in love and war."
Erika Bonham, the golden blonde Slytherin, stared into Freds' eyes with her own aquamarine ones, and Fred was lost. With a wink over his shoulder to George, he walked over to ask her to be his dueling partner.
Ron moved next to Luna, who was smiling the sweetest smile he'd ever seen. Yeah, she was slightly daft, so what? He loved her melodic sing-song way of speaking, and the gentle way she had about her. In fact, in his eyes she was perfect, he just didn't know why. It made his head hurt to try and figure it out, so he'd just decided to not even try. He'd just roll with his gut feelings, thank you. Maybe, with any luck, he'd eventually screw up the courage to try for the snogging session he fantasized about with increasing frequency.
George looked from a pocket-Venus of an auburn Ravenclaw, Miranda Waverly, to a fellow Gryffindor with spikey tufts of silver hair and the most amazing willow green eyes framed by jet-black eyelashes, Amanda Godwyn. 'The eyes have it,' he thought.
He ambled over with a, "Hi ya, Mandy! Glad to see that your hair's growing back. Did you really breakup with Seamus? I mean, I'm on your side and all. It had to be a real pisser having your hair blown off by your boyfriend, after all."
"Great opening line, George," laughed Mandy.
George was shocked. "How'd you know I wasn't Fred?" he asked.
"Oh, I don't think I'll tell you. But I've always known which of you was which . . . , even when you pretend to be the other," she said mysteriously.
Miranda volunteered to be the monitor of the duels, as she was partnerless. This suited her just fine, she was stalking bigger game anyway, so she could bide her time.
Much later after all three couples had dueled several times apiece, a table appeared set for luncheon. They realized the room was right, they HAD worked up an appetite.
Over lunch, the subject returned to learning to cast the 'Unforgivables'. Luna was adamant about it being wrong to torture and kill innocent things 'just to learn things we're not supposed to do anyway'.
"So how are we supposed to learn them properly then?," Erika asked snarkily. Being the only Slytherin present, she felt the need to 'represent'.
Fred was fastly becoming enamored of this girl, and her wicked sense of humour, not to mention those glorious eyes! They were the color of the Caribbean Sea that you find in all those travel guides. Merlin! He'd dive into them, and swim in them if he only could.
They all appeared to be deep in thought, pondering their conundrum. Ron suddenly broke the silence. "Well, I once saw MadEye Moody, well it wasn't really Moody. Turned out to be Barty Crouch, Junior, after all, polyjuiced into Moody," he rambled on.
"Get to the point sometime today, Ronald," Fred urged.
Ron cleared his throat, as his face flamed as red as his hair, and he summed up, "Well, the point is he demonstrated all three 'Unforgivables' on a wicked looking spider."
Everyone looked around the room, smiling and nodding in agreement. All except Luna, who said, "All spiders are not evil! Some even make webs that are very useful in potions. Try again."
Ron shuddered, and said, "I know where there are thousands of great, hairy, man-eating spiders. Bloody buggers tried to EAT Harry and me in our second year. It's only a matter of time before first-years start going missing if Hogwarts ever re-opens, that is."
Luna thought for several long moments, with her index finger tapping gently against her bottom lip, "Alright, but we'll not hunt them into extinction," she finally said on a mournful note.
Fred and George looked at each other, and exclaimed, "Wicked!"
End Chapter Four