Author's Note: I will not stop a chapter until it has about 2,000-4,000 words now, instead of my usual 1,000. My chapters are way too short, at least in my opinion. Well, with that said, read on for Chapter 4!

Chapter Four

"Professor Snape…what just happened?" Harry asked, glancing nervously at the three unconscious figures.

"Not now, Potter. Come with me." The Potions Professor, still feeling numb from the Cruciatus Curse, strolled through the empty tavern to the wooden door. "Do not wonder around." he added, slightly concerned that there would be another ambush outside. Lurking mysteriously in the shadows, the teenager shakily followed his professor's movements. "Visage Novoscious!" Snape whispered. Opening his mouth silently, Harry almost gasped at the unfamiliar spell. Slowly but surely, Snape's hair began lightening into a mousy-brown color, and began to bush out, taking the appearance of Hermione Granger's hair. His features softened, and his tall figure began shrinking into about Harry's height.

"H-Hermione?"

"It's a spell, Potter. I'd rather not be exposed as myself. Be quiet!" Harry twisted his facial features to portray a quizzical expression. The Hermione-lookalike's voice sounded exactly like Snape's snide tone. Annoyance flashed across Severus', or rather, Hermione's face, as an aggravated Bellatrixs' squeal broke the night's silence.

"Potter was there, Dolohov! We could kill him if he's still around! Alert the Dark Lord!" Bella shrieked.

"Morsmordre!" Dolohov muttered, wand pointed at the starless sky. Harry and Severus hid behind butterbeer barrels in unision, avoiding the gaze of the Death Eaters. They watched as a cloud began to melt into a haze of green mist. Suddenly, the mist formed into what looked like a deformed ball from their position. It rearranged itself into what appeared to be a colossal skull, eyes glittering with shining, emerald stars. Opening its glittering mouth, a colorless stream of smoke floated out, making the skull elaborate with small, but frightening details- enough to make a grown wizard run and hide at the creepy sight. Screams echoed throughout the unlit village.

"Potter?" Snape asked impatiently.

"Yes?"

"Run."

The boy wasn't about to disobey his professor's orders. Dashing around a corner, he quickly rolled forward on the ground, barely escaping the wrath of a Torture Curse.

"Bella! Antonin! I found Potter!" the recognized voice of Goyle Senior called. A fiery blaze of assorted hexes missed Harry as he ducked his head, still crashing throughout Diagon Alley. Mumbling a cutting hex, the young wizard aimed his wand at the fleeting figure of Mr. Goyle. A pained screech informed Harry that he hadn't missed. Jumping over a jet of green light, he fumbled over a crate filled with owl cages. Casting various shield spells, the Gryffindor student was dismayed to find them crushed back down only after a few seconds of Bellatrix's well-aimed Killing Curses.

"Engorgio!" Harry whispered under his breath, directing his holly and phoenix feather wand at the running Dolohov. A helpless, swelling Dolohov cast a shadow on the stone street that looked somewhat like a giant, expanding pumpkin. Great, two down, a crazy Bellatrix to go. Harry thought, leaping forward to avoid yet another vermillion blast of light.

"You can't run forever, Potter! Come to Bella!" the maniac cackled in the third-person. The younger wizard winced as he realized the truth of her statement. He couldn't run forever. Where was Snape?

"Harry Potter…" a familiar snake-like voice called. "Come to me and spare your life, Harry…" the Dark Lord taunted. Harry froze in his tracks for a whole half a second. Unfortunately, half a second was enough for Voldemort. "Stupefy!" the Dark Lord breathed, so quiet that Harry never got to hear him utter the words before rendering unconscious.

"Where will we be taking him, my Lord?" Bellatrix questioned excitedly. Red orbs piercing, Voldemort's eyes gazed at the sky in deep thought.

"Apparate to our usual place. I will take Potter." The snake-faced man hissed. And with a pop, Bellatrix disappeared. Voldemort quickly approached the fallen boy, snatched his arm, and vanished from Diagon Alley.

• • • • • • • • • •

Spinner's End was where the stunned Harry Potter and the red-eyed monster Apparated to. With a relaxed sigh that was much too smooth and low for the Dark Lord's usual voice, black lines appeared on Voldemort's head slowly. Rapidly growing longer and longer by the second, they transformed into the oily wig of Severus Snape. The thin face of the evil wizard hardened and wrinkled to match the Slytherin Heads' face. What used to be the Dark Lord was now healing the slightly wounded Potter.

"Ennervate…" Snape muttered as Harry's eyes fluttered open.

"Sir…what just happened?"

"The Dark Lord took his forces to Hogwarts after finding out that the famous Golden Boy was there," the man drawled, "and it just so happens that the headmaster lowers his defenses over the summer. And you know the rest."

"Professor Snape, where is the Voldemort now?"

"Are you trying to get yourself killed? Do not speak his name, Potter. He has found himself unconscious on the floors of a building I will not tell you the name of."

"But, sir…I don't understand…how could he be unconscious if he was just there in Diagon Alley?"

"He wasn't there, Potter. It was I who was there."

"So…you used that spell to transform into Voldem-," Harry coughed to cover his slip, "er, You-Know-Who? It was you all along?"

"Yes, it was me, Potter. A simple voice change spell and my own spell transformed me into the Dark Lord. I sent Bellatrix to find her obliviated, unconscious, master."

"That was your spell? Is it like a Polyjuice potion?"

"That much is not important to you. We must return to Hogwarts at once. Headmaster Dumbledore has told me that the Dark Lord's forces have been cleared. Grab my arm, Potter." Hastily grabbing his least favorite professor's cloak-covered arm, he forced himself not to vomit as they Apparated to the Forbidden Forest.

Following the Potions Master through the chilly mass of bare trees, Harry fiddled with his wand, ready to point it at any Death Eater that might be beyond the forest.

"Wand down, Potter. Ignoring when I said the Dark Lord's forces left, are we?" Snape sneered. A stream of moonlight lit the nonexistent path through the Forbidden Forest. Harry briefly wondered how his professor knew where he was going in the forest where everything looked the same: dry, cold, and empty. Deciding to trust Snape's apparent knowledge of the dreary forest, his boots crunched on fallen twigs and branches as he trudged through the forest behind the Dungeon Bat.

Squinting, the boy saw a faint, warm light in the distance. Very glad to be out of Earth's land of broken trees, his happiness was cut short when he saw the tragic state that the Death Eaters left Hogwarts in. Dancing fire reflected in Harry's verdant eyes as the destructive flames were still being put out by Dumbledore's efforts. The entire Boat House was in heaps of gray ashes, the lifeless color contrasting against the vibrant reds and oranges that were burning the path leading up to the Great Hall.

Ebony robes swirling behind him, Severus fleeted up the hill and to the Great Hall to assist the headmaster.

"They're cursed flames, Severus! Very dark magic! Do you know a counterspell?" Dumbledore asked loudly over the deafening roars of the dancing flames, which were approaching the Great Hall quickly.

"Aguamente didn't work?" the dark man replied, equally as loud.

"I'm afraid not. It seems like Fiendfyre, but in a different form."

"Have you tried the Aqua Erecto Charm?" Severus now yelled, the crackling flames getting even closer. Albus' piercing blue eyes widened. The other man took that as a no.

"Aqua Erecto!" the two men shouted in unision. Strong, powerful, ice blue waters emerged from both wand tips, swirling in the cursed fires. The thick, immense, jets of water drenched the flames, blasting through them with ease. Aquamarine sheets of glittering liquid flashed through the last of the fires, leaving lifeless ashes below the glistening waters, the streams so shiny that they looked like sapphires in a liquid form. The dancing liquids slowly decreased into they finally were mere wisps of sparkling, small, orbs. The glassy orbs flew slowly back into the casters' wands.

"Albus, what should we do about the damage done to the castle?"

"Leave that up to me, Severus. I would like your help, though, if you'd be so kind." the old headmaster replied, eyes twinkling.

"What are we doing? Elaborate."

"Reparo, what else?" The other man's eyes widened in disbelief at the spell name.

"Impossible! How are we going to repair an entire building with a spell that we teach first years?"

"You underestimate our abilities, Severus."

"Even you have your limits, Albus."

"I'm sure with the help of Harry we could fix the damage."

"Potter?" he spat. "A second year? Surely you've gone mad. He'd just do the spell wrong-"

"Severus, you truly need to be more optimistic. You see the goblet half empty rather than half full. Come, call Harry over." Begrudgingly, the annoyed, younger man walked down the hill, disappearing from the older man's view. A few moments and a bemused Harry Potter later, the three wizards had their wands drawn and pointed at the rubble that used to be the Boat House.

"On my count, we go. Three, two, one-" Dumbledore counted.

"Reparo!" the three figures above the hill shouted together. Harry gaped in awe at his own work as the rubble pieced together, assuming the shapes of bricks and boats. They pieced together seamlessly, like a million puzzle pieces connecting, eventually completing the puzzle that was the finished Boat House.

"Wow." The Gryffindor breathed in amazement.

"Well, Harry, it's getting late. I think it would be best if you left for the castle."

"Okay, sir." Harry agreed, his boots crunching earth under his feet as his silhouette moved farther into the distance until it left the two men's sight.

"Severus…how is Harry doing?"

"Fine."

"He didn't look very well tonight," the happy twinkle left Albus' aquamarine eyes, "he looked like he was in severe physical discomfort. Severus, if you cannot care for him properly, then I suppose I will have to find someone-"

"The imbecile was battered severely when I retrieved him, Albus! I mended several broken bones! I gave him half of my healing potions! For Salazar's sake, Albus, why do you think me so low as to not do anything about it?" Snape snapped, silencing the old Headmaster. The bearded man gazed slowly around, as if he was at lost for words. Finally, the long silence broke.

"What happened when you left Hogwarts during the attack?"

"We were greeted by a few of the Dark Lord's followers. I suggest that we do not hold Order meetings at the Leaky Cauldron anymore."

"Alright, thank you, Severus. I have some matters to attend, and Harry is probably waiting for you. Have a pleasant evening, Severus." With a slight nod and a dramatic swish of his robes, Snape left the small hill, strolling towards the castle entrance.

• • • • • • • • • •

"Professor!" Harry gasped, startled as the shadowy figure approached him. A copy of "An Advanced Sorcerer's Guide to Dark Magic" clutched in his hands.

"Do not touch what is not yours, Potter."

"Sorry, sir." Placing the book back on its shelf, the second-year awkwardly twiddled with his thumbs. As Snape left his barely-lit living room to fetch dinner from the house elves, the boy quickly grabbed the book off the shelf again. Ripping out the page on Cursed Immortality, Harry quickly pocketed it after he heard the nearing footsteps of Snape.

"Dinner, Potter." The dark man said. After both wizards sat down at the somber table, it proved to be a very awkward first dinner in the dining room. Both forking food around the plates without eating, together they looked up at the other when the other wasn't looking, and then quickly looking away. A clearing of a throat ended the impossible attempt to stay silent.

"Professor," Harry managed, "could you explain how the spell you used the other day worked?"

"Visage Novoscious, or the Image Change charm, was created by…me. You just imagine what the living creature looks like that you're changing in to, and cast the spell. The closer the thing is to you in appearance, the easier." Snape explained in a rather annoyed tone, but gladly avoiding the unpleasant silence.

"Sir, is it just the Polyjuice potion…in a spell?"

"No, Potter," Snape sneered, "for every second you use the spell, it drains your…" the man trailed off. "That's quite enough, Potter. Back to your, ahem, my room." After the confused boy left, Snape almost slapped himself. Why did you almost tell James Potter's son that you're draining your light magic?

Why are you draining your light magic? The startled man wondered for a moment.

You're ruining yourself with darkness. Ruining yourself…ruining yourself…

A/N: Enjoy the other side to Severus Snape. Ahem, um, did you enjoy the long chapter? I'm going to start writing my chapters longer; like this. I'll keep slowly making them longer until I eventually have like 4,000 words in a chapter. Halfway there! Anyways, thanks for reading, reviews are encouraged.