"What are you doing?" Lucius snapped referring to what he had just seen in the Ministry Atrium and the wild driving that Papa Odie was currently doing. He was a much worse driver than Potter had been and Lucius was extremely grateful for his seatbelt. Papa Odie was weaving in and out of traffic without thought to safety or laws.
There was a cigarette dangling from his lips and blue smoke was going out of the window. Lucius caught a whiff of something foul and couldn't tell where it was coming from. He hit his head on the window after a particularly sharp turn.
"Hey Lucius," Papa Odie shouted around his cigarette. "What did you see at the Ministry?"
"I have no idea!" he shouted back truthfully. He would let Papa Odie know what he had seen after Papa Odie explained what he had seen.
"Keep it that way," Odie responded. There were now Muggle police cars following them through the streets their cars flashing lights and making noises. Lucius knew-even with his limited experience-that they were supposed to acknowledge the Muggle authorities. Odie seemed content to ignore them all. "You want some?"
He passed the cigarette back, turning around, and even letting go of the steering wheel. The Squib-still with an unknown identity-lunged forward to grab the abandoned wheel with a look of pure terror on his face. He had no doubt that the Squib was regretting his involvement in this escapade.
Lucius took the cigarette in the hope that it would get Papa Odie focused on the road again. It worked and the man turned back around and took control of the car from the Squib. Lucius put the cigarette to his lips and took a long pull. He immediately started choking and coughing, blue smoke spilling out of his mouth as his lungs tried to reject what he'd given them. He shoved his hand towards the front and the Squib took the cigarette from him.
"How long will the police follow us, do ya think?" the Squib asked, sticking the cigarette in his mouth. Lucius watched Odie shrug but the sudden numbness in his mouth and arms was taking the priority. He was suddenly reminded of the fact that he did not have tolerance towards anything Muggle. He was fairly certain that what Papa Odie was smoking wasn't Muggle but Lucius still didn't have any tolerance to it.
"They'll follow us until we stop or get away," Odie said, speeding up to make the entrance of a motorway. Lucius recognized it from the first time he'd been forced into a car with crazy people. The Squib looked at him as if he wanted to say something but couldn't quite muster the courage to do so.
"Why exactly are they following you?" Lucius asked, knowing the question was stupid and that he should know the answer but the blue smoke was in his head now and it was making him numb.
"Well, I've murdered the traffic laws," Odie said demanding his cigarette back and stuffing it in between his lips again. "And this isn't my car."
"We're in a stolen car!" the Squib squeaked looking very alarmed indeed. Lucius knew he should feel worried or even perturbed but all he felt was a nice, floating calm. He shouldn't have accepted Papa Odie's cigarette.
"Borrowed," Odie corrected.
"We have to get away!" the Squib shouted. "I can't get arrested again!"
"Calm down," Odie said and handed his cigarette to the man, probably hoping that he would consent to a medicated calm. Lucius's head lolled around on his shoulder and while he was fully conscious he wasn't very aware of his surroundings. He could faintly hear sirens and he wished that they would go away because they were interrupting the calmness that had settled over him. The Squib grabbed the cigarette and threw it out the window.
"Focus on driving," he ordered finding courage in the face of something much less desirable than Odie's displeasure. However, at the look on Odie's face he did add, "Sir."
Odie spent the next five minutes expertly weaving in and out of traffic, the Muggle police desperately following on his heels. Lucius was still numb but the edges of panic started to creep into his psyche and he knew-knew-that the best course of action would be to Apparate out of this car and to somewhere much more sane and Muggle free. Like home; yes, home would be nice.
Lucius shook himself out of his thoughts and focused on what was happening up ahead on the motorway. There were a half dozen police cars parked up ahead, blocking the motorway. Odie had two choices. He could either stop or try to run them through. Lucius was positive he was going to run them through and so used his hands to tightly brace himself on the seat.
"What are you DOING?" shouted the Squib but all Odie did was reach over and place two fingers between the man's eyes. In the next instant, the Squib was gone, leaving nothing but an empty seat and a scream behind. Papa Odie turned his head to look at Lucius in the back seat and winked.
"Hang on there, pureblood," he said, a mischievous smile on his face and his golden eyes sparkling in his tattooed head. The diamonds embedded in his bottom teeth were sparkling, the lights of the police cars bouncing off of them. He turned back around, his shoulders set. "It's about to get rough."
Lucius felt the car begin to slow but Odie wasn't braking. He had simply stopped accelerating. Regardless, the car still went toward the blockade and they both saw the police run to the edges of the motorway, trying to get out of the way of the stolen car barreling down upon them.
They hit the first police car and Lucius was jerked forward on the seat harshly. He felt his seatbelt dig into his chest and he was fairly certain he heard his ribs creak as the pressure attempted to snap the bones. There was a terrible screeching noise and then suddenly the car was upside down, rolling, rolling, and skidding along the road. He was jerked around and finally when it stopped, he found himself hanging upside down, the seatbelt pinning him to the seat.
Papa Odie was on the roof of the car below him laughing like a madman and looking up into his face with pure glee, his teeth digging into his bottom lip as if he was a child that knew he had done something naughty but still thought it all in good fun. Odie reached up one tattooed hand and unclipped Lucius's seatbelt so that he fell to the roof beside him.
The pureblood looked out of the window and saw police swarming towards them cautiously, some of them screaming into little black boxes attached to their jackets and vests. Others were carrying things and others still were moving to get a better look.
"We should leave," Lucius said, the calm in his head was still there but he knew it was only a matter of time before it wore off. There was a stickiness on his forehead that he knew would be blood without having to investigate. He couldn't feel any pain. He suspected the cigarette was at fault for this. If one pull could last this long and be this strong, he wondered what an entire cigarette would do. And then he wondered what it was made out of. Certainly something Magical.
"You're such a pureblood," Odie laughed and then picked up Lucius's hand and held it pressed against his chest. Lucius didn't try to pull away. He was too fascinated by what he was feeling beneath his hand. He could feel Odie's Magic, thrumming strong and more complete than Lucius had ever known and would ever know. What he couldn't feel, was Odie's heartbeat.
"Do you have a heartbeat?" Lucius asked. Odie smirked but before he could respond there were hands on Lucius's shoulders and they were pulling him from the car, into the sunlight, and away from Odie and his moment of triumph on the roof of the upturned car. The Muggles were pulling him to his feet but he couldn't stand on his own. Whether it was the blue smoke or whatever had happened to his head in the crash that caused his legs to turn to jello, he wasn't sure.
He heard Odie's laughter behind him. He turned his head and saw two more Muggles pulling him from the car. Odie could stand on his own and the Muggles had bound his hands behind his back with some colored plastic that Lucius had never seen before.
"-you hear me?"
Someone shook him roughly and Lucius snapped back to the Muggles holding him on his feet. They were speaking to him; he should pay attention.
"What?" he asked, squinting into the face of the robust man standing in front of him and glaring.
"I asked, can you hear me? Do you understand me?"
"Yes," Lucius responded and the man seemed satisfied that he was finally paying attention. Although, the Muggle couldn't possibly know that there was a buzzing his brain and he could still smell the blue smoke and he could still taste the bitterness on his tongue. But most importantly, he could still feel the blood on his face. If the Death Eaters could see him now.
They would probably kill him first and then marvel at how deeply he had changed in such a short time.
"Are you high?" the Muggle asked him incredulously. Lucius looked at him through slitted eyes trying to formulate a decent insult. Instead, he just jerked both of his arms out of the relaxed grip of the Muggles on either side of him. They were so surprised by the sudden movement that they didn't even try to stop his escape from their grip. Unfortunately, Lucius still couldn't stand on his own and he fell to the ground with a thud and a groan.
"Ugh," he grunted with as little eloquence as possible.
"Someone get a paramedic," the Muggle with all the questions ordered. The two who had failed to hold him left and the Muggle crouched down in front him. "What exactly did you think you were doing?"
"What?" Lucius asked.
"What the hell was Papa Odie doing speeding doing the motorway in a stolen car? Did he kill someone? Did he blow something up?" Lucius stared at the Muggle in utter amazement. He was whispering to him know, trying to get him to focus long enough to answer his questions before they had an audience again.
"Who are you?" Lucius asked.
"Inspector Reyna," he answered. Lucius recalled-quite clearly-that this was the man Granger had originally suggested take over Lucius, Fenrir, and McNair when they were all still tied up at the dinner table. He felt proud of himself for remembering such a detail in his hazy state.
"I don't know what Papa Odie did," Lucius said finally, his instinct to lie still strong though he doubted he could come up with a good lie anytime soon. Simple denial would probably be alright in the meantime
"Did you smoke something?" Inspector Reyna asked. "Something that Papa Odie gave you?" Lucius looked over his shoulder and saw that Odie was being put into the back of a police car. Odie wasn't laughing anymore but he was definitely still grinning and Lucius was definitely still dizzy. He didn't feel it when he fell down the rest of the way.
And the last thing he saw before he fell unconscious was blue sky and Muggles bending over him frantically asking questions about the date, what his name was, and if he knew where he was. He couldn't answer these questions. He was too busy being calm.
00000
When he woke up, he didn't know where he was. But there were lights overhead and they were going in and out of view. He groaned and a hand was clamped tightly over his mouth and he felt the tendrils of panic creep up on him as he remembered what had happened on the motorway.
He didn't know where Odie was; he didn't know where he was. Wherever it was, was most likely somewhere in the Muggle world. And that thought made him panic even more. He didn't want to die in the filthy Muggle World. Of that, he had never been more certain.
"Stop moving," someone commanded harshly and Lucius recognized that voice and that tone. The hand went away.
"Severus?" he asked, his voice scratchy. His throat hurt and he wondered how long he had been out. He reached up to touch the wound on his head and felt nothing but bandages.
"Stop moving."
Lucius moved again. Trying to locate Severus and he immediately came to a couple of conclusions. The first was that he was on a bed and it was moving down a corridor. The second conclusion was that the corridor was in a Muggle hospital (hospitals looked the same no matter what world you belonged to). The third conclusion was that Severus Snape was in a very bad mood.
"Lucius, if you don't stop moving I'm going to knock you out."
"Severus," Lucius continued.
"Quiet," Severus responded as he loaded him-bed and all-into a lift.
"Where am I?"
"You follow direction about as well as Potter," Severus commented sardonically. He pressed a button and the lift began to move. "Be quiet and stop moving. You're still injured."
"What happened?"
Severus heaved a put upon sigh. He was clearly annoyed.
"You did something incredibly stupid," Severus scolded. "Do you know what happens when you burn Calming Draught? I will give you a hint. It gives off a blue smoke."
Lucius groaned as the full force of what Severus was saying hit him. That had been Calming Draught inside Papa Odie's cigarettes. He was lucky he hadn't taken more than one pull. He had no tolerance to calming draught (very few people did) and it was very easy to take too much. If he had taken any more he would have been dead.
"You are lucky to be alive," Severus finished as the lift doors opened. He wheeled him through another corridor and out into a level that was nothing but concrete, cars, and harsh lighting until they arrived at a car. In the front seat was a bleary looking Arthur Weasley and Lucius was honestly surprised as to his presence.
"What are you doing here?" he asked reaching out from his bed to try to open the back door of the car. He had a vague notion that he was going to crawl straight into the backseat without ever setting foot on the ground. Severus beat him to it and yanked open the door to the back seat.
Then he grabbed him around the chest and pulled him back into a strong embrace. Severus was much stronger than anyone gave him any credit for and he easily dragged Lucius off the bed on wheels and managed to hold him up. Lucius could barely walk, his legs still feeling as if they were made of jello. He had no idea what injuries he had but he was very aware that he had no shoes and the only clothes he had was a gown that reached his knees and most likely didn't close in back. He was thoroughly embarrassed.
Severus kicked away the hospital bed and heaved him into the back seat. Lucius landed on a thick blanket that felt like heaven and he squirmed his way under it, delighted when he found a pillow. He pulled his feet in and Severus shut the door. Arthur peered at him in the backseat.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Horrible," Lucius replied as politely as he could. There was no reason to antagonize Weasley at this point. In fact, it would be thoroughly detrimental. "How did we get out? Without the Muggles noticing I mean?"
"Notice-Me-Not," Severus replied shortly as he got into the front passenger seat. He nodded at Arthur Weasley.
"What are you doing here?" Lucius asked again remembering that Arthur had not answered the first time he'd asked. Arthur smirked at him.
"Very few wizards know how to drive a car," he responded and started the machine. His driving was smooth. Lucius would go so far as to say it was perfect. He did not talk but focused all his attention on the road. Severus stared determinedly out the window, his arm dangling outside to enjoy the air. There was silence; not even the radio was on.
He preferred this car ride to any he had had thus far. There was captivity, no threat of dying. Everything was calm and for the first time in days everything was quiet. The vibrations and the fresh breeze sneaking into the backseat quickly lulled him back to sleep.