Hey! Sorry this took so long to get out. I've been really busy lately. In fact, one night last week I didn't even go to sleep. I just napped between classes the next day.

I'm also sorry that this is so short. I hope to make the next chapter longer though. And I was able to give it an especially cruel cliffhanger. ::grins evilly and looks around, wondering if she should get bodyguards to protect her after this chapter::

Tidmag: I said I'd have it out by Sunday night and just barely made it. Enjoy!

Enjoy everyone!!



Snape knew they were being stalked. He could practically feel the dark creature as it followed and waited for the moment to attack. He allowed Harry to catch up with him and finally pass, so that the creature wouldn't have a chance to harm the boy.

Even if Harry was a ghost, Snape found he couldn't stop protecting him. It had become a habit that wouldn't be easily broken, no matter how much Snape wished he could break it. He didn't want to love the boy, he really didn't, but it seemed his protectiveness of James Potter's son in Harry's first had sealed his fate. The harder and longer Snape fought to protect him, the more he became attached to his student.

Harry finally noticed his teacher's absence at his side and stopped to wait for him. Snape hurried forward, having decided it unsafe to stop, "What are you waiting for, Potter? Keep going. We don't have time to-"

Snape stopped short as he watched Potter's eyes widen and his mouth drop open in an expression of shocked fear.

"MOVE," Snape shouted as he grabbed Harry and darted towards a clear piece of stone wall. He realized his instincts had been correct as he finally turned to see a claw clap down on the stone labyrinth, breaking it and sending debris flying.

Snape pulled out his wand and stepped in front of Harry, and out of the way of its next attempt to hit him. The wall crumbled under its fist and fell in an obscuring dust cloud that, combined with the dust from the first crash, flew into Snape's mouth and nose, choking him.

"Professor," Harry called, obviously as blinded as Snape, though not as choked. Snape was thankful for that and pushed aside all his lingering sadness at the reminder of Harry's condition and his concern for the boy to raise his wand to his face and choke out a spell.

Immediately, a mask shot out from his wand, covering his nose and mouth to filter out the dust in the air. After a moment, Snape began to catch his breath and, just as a clawed hand-like paw reached out to grab him he screamed, "Avada Kedavra!"

The creature screamed as it died, being too magic bound for the curse to have an immediate effect. Snape smiled in triumph as he heard it thump to the ruined labyrinth floor. He turned to find Harry and did, but only because of the flashing that gave away his position.

Snape cursed and rushed toward the flashing, "Harry!"

"Professor," Harry called as he came into view. His eyes were wide and he seemed to be calling for Snape out of instinct as his eyes were unfocused and glowed eerily a steady dim, almost non-existent, glow. Harry closed them just as Snape reached him and reached out to grasp his arm.

His hand closed on nothing as Harry blinked out of existence.

"Harry..." Snape said, stunned. "Harry!"

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Albus Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Poppy Pomfrey, Remus Lupin and Mr and Mrs Weasley all stood around Harry's bed. Their faces were grim and tired, drawn back to look pale and gaunt. Their eyes held defeat and, for most of them, despairing tears that they refused to allow fall.

"I can't believe..." Lupin said in a quiet, sad voice.

"...it didn't work..." Sirius finished for him in an identical voice after a moment. He winced as Mrs Weasley finally gave into her sorrow and screamed out a sob.

Dumbledore stepped up to Harry and began waving his wand over the silent boy, whispering quick spells in a determined, though tired, voice. The rest watched in silence broken only by Mrs Weasley's continued sobs.

Mr Weasley hugged his wife to him in an effort to comfort her and Mrs Weasley turned her face into his chest as hugged herself as close to him as she could manage. A tear leaked out of her husband's eye as her tears pierced both his robes and his heart. He hoped Harry would survive, for everyone's sake, not the least of which was Harry's own.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Dumbledore straightened, his face somber and his blue eyes grave.

"He's alive, but barely," he said in a voice that spoke of an anguish no one in the room could ever hope of knowing. "His condition has worsened, but something is holding him to our world. We can only hope and pray that what ever it is that holds him to us will be enough to return him to us."

As Dumbledore's words vanished into where ever words vanish into when they have been spoken, the five stood and stared in horror at his words. Even Mrs Weasley looked up at him, her sobbing momentarily suspended. Then Sirius sunk to the floor, his face hidden in his hands, his shoulders quaking violently.

He seemed to break whatever spell held them all as Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey stepped closer to each other and began to whisper fervently. Lupin knelt next to his friend as pulled him into his arms to try and calm him with soft words of assurance Lupin only wished he could bring himself to believe.

Mrs Weasley looked up hopefully into her husband's sad wet eyes, "That means he'll be ok, doesn't it, Arthur? He'll come back to us then, won't he?"

Mr Weasley sighed and pulled her back to him before whispering so softly only she could hear, "I hope so, Molly. I hope so."



Next Chapter: He Worries Over Its Silence