The Dark Lord was angry. Upon receiving the news he didn't want to hear he lashed out at his followers', torture curses flew in every direction followed by any other nasty curses he could think of. Snape had already not been feeling very well to begin with. The recently dropping temperatures had brought on a nasty case of the flu. Only a few potions of his own devising and an extremely well-constructed glamor charm were getting him through the meeting. Merely sitting upright was becoming a challenge when the Dark Lord threw his tantrum.

Unfortunately, Snape had been directly in the Dark Lords' path and was hit with not only a cruciatus but upon trying to flee he was hit with a rouge electrification hex of great magnitude. Severus's head felt like it was going to explode with every irregular beat of his heart. By the time he had stumbled through the gates of Malfoy manor he was much worse than when he had arrived. Apparating to the manor had been hard enough now it would be nearly impossible to get away.

Against his body's wishes, he apparated thinking strongly of the gates of Hogwarts. The familiar tug was only the beginning. Almost instantaneously he was overcome with disorientation and pain screamed down his left arm. What he knew was a mere few seconds felt like hours before he landed face-down on the hard frozen ground. He took a moment to try and get his breath back. Snape gingerly rolled over onto his back which proved to be the mistake of the century. Dizziness and nausea overwhelmed him as his stomach flip-flopped uncontrollably. Blurred vision and immense pain then joined the chorus that plagued him. Snape lay there attempting to breathe through the pain that radiated from his very core. After a few minutes, his vision cleared enough for him to tell he was somewhere in the forbidden forest with enough canopy coverage that there was no snow and the silence was nearly deafening against the whine of fever in his ears.

For once Severus Snape just wanted to stay right there in the cold and dark where nobody knew he was and hopefully wouldn't be bothered to care. This was practically his only moment to rest in the past few years. A chance to rest and it's in the middle of winter on the frozen floor of the Forbidden forest. The cold of the ground felt glorious once it began to seep through his robes and into his fevered form. It wasn't necessarily good but it certainly felt nice. Nobody around to see him, pity him, or scold him for not taking care of himself. No medwitch to force him to stay down, not that he needed to be told that at this very moment anyway. Snape sighed a long deep sigh or at least tried to before what felt like lightning struck his chest and left shoulder. His breath caught and he coughed until his abdominal muscles ached just as bad as the rest of him.

Wonderful, the electrification hex of that magnitude has probably done something to my heart. Many people had conjectured over the years that I don't have one but apparently, they were wrong. He thought closing his eyes.

Settling his shaking right hand diagonally on his chest and resting his hand over his heart he could feel the abnormal beats pounding his ribs through his robes. Despite not running as fast as he could at high altitude it certainly felt like he was. The spell had obviously pushed the muscles into spasm and been strong enough to prolong the problem. Eventually, it would subside but it was currently in full force and there was nothing he could do about it.

The cold was beginning to bite at his fingers and face. Perhaps laying out in the cold with a fever wasn't the best thing to do. If he lived through this Poppy would give him a proper dressing down about using a warming charm on his robes. Finally, Snape decided it was time to try and make his way to the castle, wherever it may be. Gently he began to try and lever himself into sitting position.

Not a moment later something began moving far off to his right. Whatever it was it was still a ways off but the sounds carried farther in the hollow silence of the forest. Images of all the grotesque creatures that live in the forest flashed through his mind. Despite his condition, Snape began trying to drag himself toward the tree behind him having no wish to be found by anything that called the forest home at that particular moment. Snape had barely dragged himself less than a meter before his vision began to grey around the edges and could no longer draw enough breath to move. He lay there silently panting and straining his ears while forcing the urge to cough down.

The sounds were getting closer and unfortunately whatever it was sounded rather large. It had more than two legs and was capable of forcing rather than picking its way through the forest. A slight amount of panic began setting, which caused the deep-rooted pain to renew itself. Severus moaned gripping the robes over his heart and curling his left arm to himself. Suddenly he noticed his left hand felt wet. Snape rubbed his fingertips lightly together noting the slippery yet thick feeling of blood.

I've splitched myself, a vampire or werewolf probably caught my scent. He thought.

Snape knew he was in no condition to deal with either, so he slowly drew his wand and rested it on his torso. The sound was much closer now and several sets of footfalls could be differentiated. He may not be in the best condition but there was no way he was going down without a fight. Mind racing and hands shaking Snape prepared himself for what was coming next.

Whatever it was stood just on the other side of a wall of bushes. Just as they parted Severus threw a weak stunning spell at it. Not very effective but it was all he was capable of at the moment.

"Huh?" burst into the silence as the spell hit its mark.