an: This is the penultimate chapter, I will post the last chapter tomorrow. A big thank you to everyone who is still with me in this story, and especially for those that review and encourage. As always, I do not own.
"Stupefy!" Harry yelled out, jumping away from the curse that shot at him.
The other wizard, clearly surprised at Harry's attack, was knocked down by the spell. Harry crouched against the wall to try and shield himself, and shouted, "Petrificus Totalis!" as he fired again.
"A half-grown child has no chance against a full-grown wizard," he said drily, picking himself off of the ground and easily deflecting Harry's spell. "Really, this is bad manners."
Harry fired off another Stupefy! with little effect, and he began to panic. He knew he was no match for this adult wizard.
"How does it feel to be so helpless, child?" the man asked. "I have wanted you to feel that for a very long time."
Just then a pop! sound distracted them, and Harry turned to look into the face of Lucius Malfoy. Hope welled up in him momentarily, but then with a flick of his wand and a silent mental casting, Malfoy took his wand. Harry felt it jump out of his hand, and with a cry he realized it was gone.
"Really, Bilious, could you not just disarm the boy?" Lucius asked.
"It was more fun seeing what could happen," the man answered. "I am surprised he can use a wand."
"Not effectively," Lucius told him arrogantly. "Or you would be in trouble."
"Let's see how he likes a slightly darker spell . . ." the man lifted his wand.
"Really?" Lucius told him with bored indifference. "Like that child is any challenge for you. Just put him in a body bind and we'll wait for the others to show up. I know a few who would be . . . disappointed to miss the show."
"Of course!" Bilious clapped his hands. "It will be like old times! We shall call them all!"
"I will wait here with our . . . honored guest," Lucius told him. "Make sure he stays out of mischief."
Bilious happily went back up the stairs, mentally deciding who to call.
"Snape knows I'm here," Harry blustered to Lucius Malfoy as soon as Bilious left the room. "I wouldn't want him mad at me if I were you."
Lucius rolled his eyes in contempt, and flicked his wand. "Rennervate!" he commanded towards the invisible figure of Snape. Slowly, Harry saw him move as the invisibility cloak shifted off of him. Soon his doppleganger was standing, and Harry felt as if he were going to cry in relief.
"Harry, get under the cloak," Snape told him quickly, and he jumped to obey. "Don't come out no matter what you see unless I or Mr. Malfoy tell you to."
Snape exchanged looks with Lucius, and took a swig of the polyjuice potion. "How long was I out?" he asked Lucius.
"Can't tell," Lucius answered. "Bilious is upstairs calling all the usual suspects. You owe me for this one."
"Perhaps you shall get back certain . . . sensitive documents," Snape smiled. "We shall see. For now, be ready. I assume portkeys out are non-operational?"
"Too good of wards," Lucius confirmed. "They're probably what knocked you out when you came in the portkey. I can leave because the wards allow me in and out privileges, but I don't know what would happen if I tried to take the boy out."
"Plan B then, but risk removing him if I fall. Be ready."
Lucius nodded, his glances quick and his wand ready. They heard the door open at the top of the stairs, and soon saw the small figure of Amanda Bulstrode make her way down the rickety steps. Snape scowled, but hid his wand up his sleeve.
"Hello there, Mr. Potter," she greeted him in her sweet sing-song voice. "I see you are visiting my family home."
He focused on occlumency and said in his most helpless voice, "Help me, Amanda! I'm trapped in here. I don't know what to do, call Dumbledore quick!"
"Why would I do that?" she asked sweetly. "After all the trouble I went through to extend the invitation."
"You did this?" he asked, sounding incredulous. "Were you the one trying to kill me all along?"
"It was," she giggled, and Snape realized she was clearly demented. "Aren't I clever? This was the best plan yet, Daddy is going to be so happy with me."
"What did I ever do to you?" Snape said, trying to sound like a petulant child about to cry. "Why did you do this?"
"Do you really not know?" she asked, her syrupy voice hardening just a bit. "You really don't know what you have done to traditional wizarding families? When you defeated Voldemort, you attacked our way of life."
Snape knew what Harry would say, so he allowed himself to protest, "But I was a baby!"
"No excuse!" she snarled. "You and your mudblood mother had no right to raise a wand to the Dark Lord, let alone defeat him! And your betters suffered with your impudence. But now it will be set right, and the glory of the old ways shall return."
"Indeed," Snape answered, and then cursed himself for not sounding like Harry.
Amanda didn't notice, though, and adopted her sweet face again. "I thought to kill you quickly, but father wants to make it more of a show. To improve morale, as it were. I hope you can scream well, Harry Potter."
Snape would have loved to retort, "Likewise, Miss Bulstrode," but he knew Harry would never do that. So, he settled for simply looking scared. When he thought of that young child hiding under the invisibility cloak, the scared look was suddenly not fake. And he couldn't believe he was trusting the likes of Lucius Malfoy with Harry's safety, but he had been the best of the former death eaters. Lucius was, well, practical instead of ideological. And the blackmail he had for him was really an excuse - what Lucius really wanted was to play both sides of the field. He knew Potter would have power at some point and wanted to ingratiate himself at some level.
"Perhaps I should soften you up a little," she said, and flicked her wand to hit Snape with a stinging jinx.
Snape knelt down on the floor in pain, reminding himself that as a boy Harry would cry out from the pain and not occlude it. It was nothing compared to the Cruciatus, which Snape had endured several times, but he still tried to channel how Harry would act. It hurt about as much as he supposed a spanking would hurt, so he tried to imitate how Harry handled those - bravery, some kicking, and his face wet with tears.
"Stop! Ow!" he cried out convincingly. He only hoped the real Harry Potter wouldn't do anything to retaliate and realize it was a ruse.
Harry could see everything from under the invisibility cloak, and just hoped that people didn't hear him breathe. When he saw the stinging hex hit Snape, it was everything he could do to obey what Snape had said and stay under the cloak. I can't do anything without a wand, Harry told himself as he miserably watched Snape being tortured. He felt his hatred for Amanda grow as he saw the pleasured look on her face while torturing Snape. That should be me, Harry thought sourly to himself.
"This is all well and good," Lucius told her. "But really, Miss Bulstrode, would your father approve? You don't want to wear him out so much that he is just a blubbering mess and isn't together enough to be afraid."
"Oh, alright," Amanda reluctantly stopped.
"I believe that your father approaches now," Lucius nodded towards the stairs. Indeed, Bilious was making his way down the stairs with several people behind him. Lucius walked over to greet several of the new arrivals, but carefully kept Snape in the corner of his eye. It would be interesting to see how this would play out.
"See?" Bilious gestured towards the captive Snape. "He is here. The great Harry Potter, waiting upon our pleasure."
Snape looked at the death eaters gathering, and saw that he recognized quite a few of them. There was Goyle, Crabbe, Nott, and was that Barty Crouch Junior? This would be quite a coup if he could pull it off. And, as long as Lucius didn't defect, nobody here could beat him in a fight. A fair one at least.
"Let him out," one of the death eaters ordered. "Let us see him for ourselves."
Bilious unlocked the door, and Snape walked cautiously out. He looked around the room, trying to appear as a scared 9 year old but still assessing the situation. He knew he needed to give Dumbledore a little more time, and also keep the attention away from the actual 9 year old hiding in the cell. He just prayed that Harry obeyed him and stayed in there.
"Well, well, welcome to my home, Harry Potter," Bilious sneered. "It is not as fancy as what you're used to, I'm sure. We could have entertained you in style, however, if you had visited before the fall of the Dark Lord."
"Please let me go," Snape begged, trying to sound like Harry. "They're going to be looking for me."
"Try they might," he answered. "But they cannot get through the wards here. Only Hogwarts is more protected. You are stuck."
"And let's see if we can have some fun with him, then," Barty Crouch Jr sneered. "How many cruciatus curses do you think he can take before we kill him?"
Suddenly, everything seemed to be exploding. Distracted by the thought of the cruciatus, the Death Eaters didn't see as Snape discreetly removed his wand and began flinging wordless curses. By the time they saw what he was doing, he had moved onto flinging verbal curses, and had half of them in a body bind before anybody knew what was happening. He could feel the wards begin to fall, and knew that the dungeon would be flooded with professors and aurors in the next few moments. They were going to win.
Then, just as Snape felt sure of himself, he saw Bilius back into the cell while firing curses that were easily deflected with the Protego charm. Snape tried to maneuver the man away from where Harry hid, but the man wouldn't cooperate! Suddenly, his food struck Harry, and he looked down in surprise. Grabbing the cloak off of Harry, he gasped in surprise to see the boy there. Looking back at Snape, he put the pieces together. Snape, the polyjuice losing its powers quicker because of the fight, began to morph back into Snape. Bilious cried out in rage, grabbing Harry by the scruff of his neck and hauling him up. Snape, feeling the wards drop finally and hearing the pops! of several people apparating in, glared at Bilius. He ran towards the two of them, leaving Lucius to his own devices. Harry had the sense of a bat descending upon him, and felt as Snape grabbed him and they apparated away.
They landed in the clearing outside of Hogwarts, just outside the Hogwarts wards. Harry found himself being shoved roughly away from Snape, as Snape spun around to find Bilious. Just as he had suspected, the man had held onto Harry and apparated with them.
"Maisie, fetch Harry!" he yelled, implementing his backup to the backup plan. Bilious was finally far enough away from Harry to have Maisie rescue him and apparate him onto Hogwart's grounds. Before Bilious knew what happened, the small elf appeared, grabbed Harry's hand, and popped! him away before he could blink. Maisie took Harry to the other side of the wards, knowing that Bilious couldn't enter without permission.
"Stupefy!" Snape commanded, brandishing his wand and taking advantage of the momentary distraction. Bilious flew back, and then fired "Cruciatus!" at Snape. Snape easily deflected, and then silently cast the body bind. Suddenly, he saw a flash as Harry yelled, "Expelliarmus!" from the other side of the barrier, and Bilious lost his wand. Snape followed with another "Stupefy!" which sent the man flying. "Petrificus Totalis!" he called out, and the man's body went rigid and froze.
Snape, keeping his wand trained on the now frozen body of Bilious, called out, "Harry? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, professor," Harry answered.
"How did you get your wand back?"
"He dropped it for me, and kicked it to me under the cloak," Harry explained, not sure if he should use Mr. Malfoy's name.
"You did well," Snape told him, still panting from the efforts he made in dueling. "You did well, Harry."
An Auror popped into view then, and Snape wearily motioned him over to the frozen wizard. He hoped that the Auror would ignore that Harry had a wand, he didn't want to deal with unanswered questions at that point. That Auror was followed by Dumbledore, who quickly told them of the defeated Death Eaters.
"We captured eleven of them," Dumbledore told him happily. "Twelve if you count the one you caught."
"Good riddance," Snape breathed out. "Anybody we can take out now will be one less to fight when the Dark Lord returns."
"I see the polyjuice has worn off," Dumbledore smirked. "I would have loved to see you as Harry."
"I am relieved," Snape growled. "I was entirely too short."
"I'll bet you were adorable," Dumbledore teased.
"As cute as a boy with messy hair can be," Snape replied dryly.
"Yes, yes," Dumbledore told him. "But now I think you want to take Harry home, he's had an ordeal. We will discuss everything that happened and the implications tomorrow, shall we?"
"Thank you," Snape told him, gathering the boy in his arms. "We'll talk tomorrow."
Once back at Hogwarts, Snape felt ready to collapse into the nearest chair and drink a shot of firewhiskey. He had never been through such a day, and he couldn't begin to unpack everything that had happened in his mind. He needed time to sort it out. Harry followed beside him silently, reaching out to take his hand. That hand felt reassuring, and Snape squeezed it back.
As he strode to the door of his quarters, he heard a familiar "hemm, hemm" sound and felt his blood run cold. The pink toad waited for him outside his quarters.
