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Chapter 4
The Great Escape, Part 2 -- (Things are *definitely* looking up!)

It only occurred to Severus Snape once he was out of the cell and had already picked his way through the piles of rumble half way down the hall... wasn't Weasley *sick*? How the boy managed to find enough energy to take off on him like that, he didn't know... His mind went on a fuming little tangent about how this was always to be expected of Weasley, him and Potter went hand and hand when it came to such things...

Then he stopped. On the same subject, Weasley was no where in sight. Uttering a few choice obscenities under his breath, he gritted his teeth and picked up his speed.

The carnage about him was absolutely horrible, he decided, after having to step over several uniformed Muggle bodies along his way down the corridors. But his blood didn't chill until he suddenly heard the very familiar shout of a teenage boy and the equally familiar rat-a-tat of a Muggle weapon in the corridor ahead of him and to the left. Turning deathly pale, Severus *ran*.

Ron Weasley was slumped against the side of the corridor when Severus reached him, head down and in-between his knees. He was breathing hard... in shallow little gasps, but he was obviously still very much alive.

"Weasley!" Severus shouted at him, crouching down at his side and clutching at his arms. "You should have waited for me, you incredibly DULL-witted boy..." he hissed angrily. "Did you even stop to *think*..." He paused when Ron showed no indication of hearing him. Ah, bloody hell... "... are you all right?" He grated out from between clenched teeth.

Evidently not. Ron's face was flushed when he looked up, and it looked like he had tears running down his cheeks. He smiled though... grinned actually. "Almost... got... me." He panted.

It took Severus a second to realize that Ron was talking about a guard that lay dead several feet away... he balked. Ron had done a good job of riddling the man's face and body with holes... And his Muggle weapon only a foot or so from his outstretched hand where he had fell.

He turned his attention back to Ron, shaking him slightly. "Don't you ever do that again, Weasley!" He snapped, forgoing sarcasm for direct orders. "*Wait* for me next time!"

Ron continued to grin. "I know." He said softly. His eyes fell closed as Severus climbed to his feet. Shouldering the boy's death-stick Snape began to try to tug Ron to his feet with his free hand.

Ron tried to get up... but it didn't work very well as he was shaking fairly badly-- and he fell backwards again.

"Come on, get up!" Severus snapped, his patience wearing very thin.

After another failed attempt, Severus finally gave up and bodily *picked* up Ron, despite his weak protests; slinging him over his free shoulder. He balanced the boy as well as he could and continued to make his was hastily down the hall...

Surprisingly he was met with no other opposition as he made his way through the corridors as quickly as he could. Obviously the Masked Muggles had taken care of the rest of them. Now he just hoped he was going the right way and that one of the turns would lead him to the outside...

The sound of Muggle weapon fire met his ears after a couple of more turns and grew consistently louder as he progressed. He was seriously considering turning around and taking them both back the way they had come when he stepped around one last corner-- and stopped short. He had found the outside finally, as evidenced by the huge lack of a door at the end of this hall, and the view beyond it. It was very nice that he had finally found the outside, however he could see that it would be extremely unwise to try to venture out there. It was dark, and it appeared that there were trees in the distance, but between him and them lay some sort of large concrete pad. And on the concrete pad, there appeared to be some sort of battle going on, complete with blinding flashes of light and much weapons fire.

To make matters worse, the lights in the building chose that moment to flicker. Severus looked up, staring at the long thin Muggle devices that lit the corridor.

As he watched the lights flickered once again, then went out-- Severus cursed softly. Now the only light available was coming from the weapons outside. While immersed in darkness, Severus had to admit that the Muggle's battle was presently just as colorful as any wizard battle. If he wasn't *quite* as desperate to get both him and his young charge to safety he might have found it in him to admire it a little bit more. As for now he peered out into the carnage with distress, wondering how exactly he was going to get them across *that* in one piece...

His question was answered no more than a minute later. Coming from somewhere behind him he could hear the rather alarming sound of pounding footsteps and Muggle voices talking very rapidly. Feeling more than a little bit exposed, he backed towards the far wall of the corridor, shifting Ron's weight as he went. "I'm going to put you down now Weasley," He whispered softly.

Ron made a noise that sorta sounded like "ugghh..." Severus took it to be a positive sound and brought the boy to his feet, holding one arm around his waist to keep him upright. The voices came closer and closer, and Severus pressed against the wall as firmly as he could while holding the muggle Death-stick in his free hand. For a fleeting moment he wished he could melt into the wall as he wasn't very keen on the thought of having to use a muggle weapon he had never used before to try to defend them both...

Well, he was going to have to do his best. Gritting his teeth, he leaned Ron up against the wall so that both of his hands could be free.

Severus raised his weapon, gripping and aiming it like Ron had, just as about five Muggles wearing masks over their mouths skidded to a halt as they rounded the corner. For a moment Muggle and Wizard stared at each other, then almost instantly several clicks went off as the Muggles raised their weapons as well. Among other things... some of the masked muggles were carrying some sort of Muggle Lumos device... he was blinded suddenly as several lights played over his face. Letting out a small cry of surprise he lowered the Muggle death-stick and instead shielded his eyes.

Looking back on that he decided that that had been a fairly dumb thing to do. Or it may have been a smart thing to do... either way the Muggles came very close shooting him all at once. Only the sudden cry of "NO!" Simultaneously from Ron *and* one of the masked men stopped them.

The lights dropped and he could *see* again. Glaring, he turned his gaze to Ron, who had, once again, spoken up and probably saved his life--

But Ron wasn't looking at him... he was looking apprehensively at the Muggles.

Severus turned his attention back to the Muggles as well. They were speaking in amongst themselves in the same rapid and foreign accent that Severus had heard from the masked man back at the room. The Muggles themselves appeared to be in the middle of an argument of sorts, complete with rapid hand gestures. The man who had said "no" was indicating to Severus' death-stick, and he appeared to be trying to explain something. He was rebuked with more questions, which he refuted; now making at motion at Ron. Finally the Muggles appeared to agree with him and backed off, turning their attention back to Severus.

There was one particular Muggle who was standing a step closer to Severus than the rest, and he spoke with an accent as well, though his accent wasn't quite as bad as the first Muggle. "Rashid say you not the enemy?" he demanded to know.

Snape's tongue darted out and he wet his lips cautiously. "I'm-- not an Agent, if that's the question..."

"We're just like you!" Ron spoke up from where he stood slumped against the wall. "We're prisoners here! He..." Ron indicated to Rashid with a trembling hand. "He killed the man that had us captured and let us go!"

Severus stared at Ron, lip curling slightly. For someone that was so *sick* he was shaking violently and could barely stand, Ron sure seemed to speak a lot at the most inopportune times... he glared at the boy through narrowed eyes. Ron caught his look out of the corner of his eye and gave him a half shrug.

It appeared that Ron's words had done the trick... The muggles looked at each other, some of them made a couple of comments in the same foreign language, and then they all turned back and nodded at Severus. "You come!" the lead muggle pronounced, moving past Severus and indicating him to follow.

"I don't think going out there is such a good idea..." Severus muttered, returning to Ron's side and threading an arm around his waist to support him. Outside the lights and explosions hadn't deminished at all.

The Muggles didn't seem to be too concerned. They all raised their weapons and continued forwards rapidly, stopping just short of running out into the open. Conversing rapidly between themselves they stood, their death-sticks posed and ready. Severus half walked half-dragged Ron forward to stand with them.

A Muggle turned then-- one that had been standing at the very back of the group and he drew his mask down to reveal his face. Or rather her face, Severus could see from the dim light originating from outside that the Muggle was most definitely female.

The female Muggle smiled. "Don't worry," she whispered in a completely American accent. "We're just waiting for the calvary to arrive."

"The what?" Severus repeated.

"Our ride. Oh there it is," She said, glancing over broad shoulders of the Muggles in front of them. "Here we go..."

Severus heard it then, as did the rest of the Muggles from the hoarse cheers that welled up in their throats. The rumble of what sounded almost like the Hogwarts Express was coming their way... but then Severus could see it was actually a very large Muggle truck with a large trailer haul on it's back. He could also see that it was coming towards them rapidly. It swung around when it reached the door, revealing a cavernous opening at the back of the truck with several more Muggles with guns standing inside.

The Muggles in front of him were suddenly around him, tugging him and Ron forwards. Amidst much chaos they all ran towards the truck and Severus was vaguely aware of Ron being pulled away from him. He opened up his mouth to protest only to find several sets of hands clamped around him, his arms and waist and then he was airborne. Seconds later his feet touched the metal flooring of the truck and then the chaos continued, hands were pushing him back, straight into the dark interior of the truck.

He couldn't see a thing in front of him, the interior of the truck was pitch black, but he was vaguely aware that there were a lot of Muggles about him, and all of them seeming to be talking at once. People kept on jostling him about, making it very hard to stand...

He was just about to call out for Ron to see if he was okay when Ron did it for him-- A "Professor Snape!!" reached his ears from somewhere in front of him in the darkness. He attempted to move towards his voice, but that proved impossible in the nearly obscene crush of people.

He was vaguely aware of the fact that the truck was moving again when he was thrown back suddenly, causing him to land against several warm bodies. Hands grasped and pushed him upright again instantly and without protest. There were a couple of more lurches of the truck, as well as some more shouting, and then a large explosion-- one even larger than the explosion that had shook the Muggle prison room back in the complex-- rocked truck violently. The Muggles about him screamed with fear. For a sickening moment his sense of balance tilted and he was sure the truck was going to turn over, but then it stabilized out and kept on moving.

Severus had fallen again. This time he had gone down front wards onto his knees. Grateful he hadn't landed on anything warm and human, he decided quite logically to forget about trying to get back up. Instead he began to continue to make his way towards where he had heard Ron's voice in a crawl.

He had nearly made it when a loud bang reached his ears and then his world was plunged into complete and utter darkness.

He stopped moving for a moment, wondering if he had perhaps passed out, since he couldn't see and the Muggles about him had all fallen silent at once. After a moment he decided he hadn't passed out... he could hear the truck was still moving... a constant thrumming was coming through the cold metal floor.

He gave up with a sigh and merely sat, completely disorientated.

There was a click and a sharp cutting beam of light swept over him and the rest of the muggles about him. He could see then, in the tiny beam of light, that most of the muggles about him, had made it into sitting or crouching positions on the uncomfortable floor. More beams of light followed bring it so that there was at least some light in the truck's interior. He glanced about, but most of the Muggles were still bathed in indiscernible shadow.

And then, "Professor!" Ron called again, his voice extremely close.

He turned his head and looked behind him. He could barely make out the boy, sitting cradled against a Muggle. Making a face, he climbed past the muggles around him, and settled in an uncomfortable sitting position beside the boy. "Are you all right?" He whispered at him after a moment.

"Mmm..." Ron mumbled. He lay his head against the Muggle's shoulder with his eyes half closed. Snape recognized the Muggle... she was the woman from the group before.

She smiled at him kindly, reaching down to stroke Ron's damp hair away from his face. Ron just looked like he was about to fall asleep again, despite the fact that the truck was jostling them all quite badly, and didn't offer up any protests to the mothering.

"He's sick." The muggle woman whispered at Snape.

Snape glowered. "I'm *aware* of that," He whispered fiercely at her.

She merely shrugged, and continued to stoke Ron's hair. "Don't worry... we'll get him something for the fever once..." She stopped as a Muggle... the one Severus recognized as the apparent "leader", stood up a good ten feet away from them. With his Muggle light stick trained on his face he began to address the lot of them, speaking in a foreign language again. Sometimes his speech was punctuated by cheers from the muggles sitting about him.

"He's telling us that the mission was a success," The woman muggle explained to him in a very low whisper, her voice still kind. "Despite the surprisingly high security, they have freed their comrades and distroyed information..." She paused, listening a bit before translating more to Snape. "And now they have distroyed the building as well-- That must have been the explosion," She added half to herself. She continued, pausing at intervals to listen more. "A huge victory has been won against the evil American empire which surpresses us all..." She paused again. "That's about it... now he's giving out compliments to some of the comrades..." The Muggle man was making motions at some of the men with great flourishes of his hands.

Snape nodded sharply, but was instead thinking about what the Muggle woman had said. Though Muggle affairs didn't usually creep into the Wizarding world, it occasionally did and he happened to know a couple of American wizards who were... concerned about the affairs of the Muggles in America. He didn't suppose that this "huge victory" was going to go over especially well in the wizarding world... or do much to calm nerves... especially not with Voldermort running around causing havoc across the sea...

A soft snore beside him brought him out of his thoughts. He jerked his head and looked down, only to find that Ron had fallen asleep on the Muggle woman's shoulder-- his face as blissful as a baby's.

After the lead Muggle had stopped talking the rest of the trip continued on in relative silence. Most of the Muggles appeared to be more than a little uncomfortable on the cold and hard metal floor of the truck, he could tell by the constant shuffling about, but apparently had chosen to suffer in silence as opposed to complain about it. This was a fact Severus was intensely grateful for.

Ron slept.

About a half an hour later the truck hit some rocky road, (or at least seemed to from the amount of jostling that they went through.) A minute or so later the truck came to a halt and turned off.

There was another loud bang and the back of the truck swung open, bathing them all in the artificial lights of the Muggle world. Severus gave the muggle next to him a questioning look.

"This is where we all split into groups," She explained in the same whisper as before. "There should be about four more trucks waiting... we all split into teams and take off in different directions—" She paused as Severus pulled a face. "It confuses the authorities," She explained.

"Ah." Said Severus shortly.

In a distinctly orderly fashion the Muggles in front of them had begun to stand and file out of the back of the truck. Trusting that it was safe to do so, Severus cautiously stood as well.

"You two are probably with me," The woman Muggle said from beside him, and Severus turned back to find her standing with her arm around Ron-- who was at least awake now but looking completely out of it.

And so they were. Severus walked down the ramp of the truck, (noting that the truck looked rather *charred* on the outside), to find that he was standing in what appeared to be a VERY large Muggle wearhouse of some sort. The moment they were out of the truck and on the floor, they spent only a moment looking around, (Ron made some sort of hazy comment about how it didn't *look* at all like Hogwarts), when more Muggles waved them forwards-- towards a ramp leading into the back of another truck.

Severus surpressed a groan under his breath. The woman Muggle laughed softly and made a sympathetic noise in the back of her throat.

Luckily this trip didn't appear to be cut out to be quite as horrible as the last one for Severus... there was a lantern sitting at the very back (or rather front) of this truck, illuminating a rather cozy looking cargo area. A large pile of blankets lay in a corner along with some bags that looked like they may have contained food.

The Muggle woman set Ron down in the corner, pulling down some blankets to cover him with. Settling down beside the boy, she motioned for Severus to join her.

He did so, partly because more people were crowding into back with them and there wasn't much room.

They were joined a moment later.

"Found a new friend Sam?" Laughed a male Muggle, who had broke off from the rest of the Muggles and make his way over to them. He plopped down beside Severus and gave him a friendly whack on the back.

Severus winced and gave him a not too friendly look back. The Muggle didn't seem to notice at all and continued. "Hey there!" He said amiably, "M'name's Jack." He grinned at Severus, proffering his hand.

Severus reluctantly took it, only to have the Muggle damn near shake his arm off. It was bloody worse than shaking hands with the likes of Hagrid! He jerked his hand away quickly, clenching it to his chest, his teeth bared.

A bang from the back of the truck momentarily distracted him from the Muggle man. They all turned their attention to the back as a few more Muggles crowded inside and the hatch was drawn closed. After a moment the now familiar lurch of the moving truck rocked them were they sat.

Once they appeared to be moving smoothly again, the man turned his attention back to the female Muggle; at the same time unhooking what looked like a large canteen from around his waist and taking a swing from it. "So who are your friends Sam?" The man asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

The female Muggle smiled. "Just some comrades we broke out as well," she said. "This one not doing to well though, he has a fever..." she said, turning to look down at Ron with concern.

"I'm okay," Ron said weakly from where he half sat, half lay beside the woman. He was giving Jack a particularly fascinated look, and Snape rolled his eyes. He could already see the signs of hero worship developing in the boy's eyes-- proving once again, that the boy had absolutely no taste whatsoever...

"Eh, well, this'll make you feel better!" The man said, grinning hugely and holding out the canteen towards Ron. The hero-worship look grew.

Severus reached out and intercepted the canteen before Ron could, jerking it away and sniffing it. Lip curling, he handed it back to the Muggle.

"All right-- no whiskey," Jack agreed amiably, taking another large swing from his canteen. "So, Sam?" he asked, nodding towards Severus.

Sam's eyes twinkled. "I don't know Jack," She said. She turned her attention to Severus. "Father?" she asked.

"EW!" Ron said suddenly. Snape gave Ron a lethal scowl.

"Nope, guess not," Sam laughed out loud. "Well then who?" she asked again, once she had gotten her chuckles under control.

Snape was still glowering at Ron. "School teacher," He replied stiffly.

"Ah..." Sam said.

"Must be a heck of a story behind that!" Laughed Jack.

"There is," agreed Ron, deciding, once again, that he was sick enough to look incredibly flushed, with his red hair sticking every which way, but definitely not too sick to talk. "You see, Professor Snape is a Deatheater really, when he isn't teaching..."

"Weasley," Snape began warningly.

"Which isn't all that surprising, seeing as he's the meanest teacher we have... absolutely horrid. Once he..."

"WEASLEY!!" Snape roared.

Ron shut up and gave him a wide-eyed look. So did the rest of the Muggles around him for that matter. Snape glowered with absolute loathing for a moment, then slumped back against the wall with a hiss of displeasure. He closed his eyes, determined to ignore them ALL and sulk for the rest of the trip to... where ever it was they were going.

"... He's just upset that he can't give me any detentions right now," He heard Ron whisper conspiriously a moment later.

The Muggle woman muffled another giggle. Severus gritted his teeth. He was beginning to wonder if it were *really* worth it doing his all to keep Ron alive...