Chapter Two

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Author's notes: Two songs yet again! They take very different tones, one is for the first half and the other the second. I suggest changing around the paragraph with the emphasis on the owl. That's where I did, at least. Again, an MP3 dot com artist, Paul Spaeth -- "Drowned Love" for the first and then "Brelia (The Wild Rose) Piano Verson" for the second.

Usual disclaimer: This is fanfic. I ain't gettin' rich off of it, 'cos I ain't Miz Rowling, y'all.

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Thunder rumbled.

The lightning flash that accompanied it was the only light in Severus' room save for a few feeble candles. Their light seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness. He didn't much mind.

He sat in a far chair, trying to rest although he was dressed. He knew that there would probably be a meeting of sorts later on that night, out on the wild and rugged moor that surrounded the castle, just so Voldemort could see them march around miserably in the rain.

For now he was comfortable, however... comfortable of sorts. The room was too big, too empty... it was nights like these when the emptiness pressed in around him and threatened to crush him.

With a shaky sigh, he sank deeper into the chair and closed his eyes.

A few moments later he awoke with a jerk at the sound of something sctatching at the door to his room. He had locked it - of course - but now something desperately wanted to get in. He rose slowly, taking his wand firmly in one hand before walking over and opening the door to see --

"Nikken!" It was not a happy cry as Lucius or many other occupants greeted the house-elf with, but an angry hiss. Nikken had been bought out to foil Severus one too many times.

The house-elf's sugary-sweet voice interrupted whatever tirade was to come. "Please don't be mean to poor, poor Nikken," he cooed. "Nikken has something for you. A good something. A lovely something."

Severus stepped back, raising an eyebrow as the house-elf groveled at his feet and tried to fish something out from around his frilly, minute belt. This has to be a trick, the Potions Master mused, glaring down at the house-elf as he quietly shut the door.

"See - see?" Frantically, Nikken produced the golden locket. "Isn't it -"

A clap of thunder interrupted him, and with it came the lightning. The little locket glimmered and sang out golden tones.

And all the memories attatched to the small thing came suddenly rushing back to Severus. He - he had given that locket to Ana - and she always wore it - he remembered - it had a picture of them in it... she never took it off... she always wore it...

"Isn't it... a good...?" Nikken's voice wavered and then died upon seeing Severus' face.

By the time the rumble and the light had faded, Severus was in motion, lunging for Nikken to grab the house-elf by the neck and slam him against the closed door.

"Where is she?" His voice, somewhere between a dull roar and a venemous hiss, left no time for Nikken to answer as he asked again more forcefully: "Where - IS - she?!"

The house-elf spluttered and gasped, unable to breathe but still unwilling to give in with no promise of a reward. Severus' eyes narrowed, and after a few moments more he flung Nikken roughly to the floor.

"You will take me to her." His voice was a firm command as he glared down, even though he was shaking now. Nikken glared back ruefully but said nothing, looking at the locket which was now clenched firmly in Severus' hand.

A few moments later, an owl flew out of a top window of the hulking, dark castle on the moor into the raging storm. It fumbled for a few feet before finding its path to fight against the storm.

It was heading south-west. To the south-west was Hogwarts, but few people knew that. One of the few who knew, however, looked out of the window at just the right minute to narrow his eyes and bite his lip and say, "My, that looks like Snape's owl..."

She lifted her head when she heard the footsteps. They didn't sound like the usual ones - belonging to perhaps a lackey, who bumbled down, or Nikken, who moved with light venemous grace. No... someone was in an extreme hurry to come down here. Two people... two people taking the steps, oh, two or three at a time, she mused to herself, and that was as far as she got before the door opened.

For a moment there was dead silence as they stared at one another. Neither had devoted much time to thinking of any witty rejoinder or sweet quote they could say for such an occasion as seeing your spouse whom you had thought dead - or worse.

There was silence. Severus gulped. Ana took a deep, shuddering breath, before inquiring in her smallest voice:

"Severus?"

"Ana?" he asked tremblingly back at her before rushing forward. "Ana!"

He collapsed to his knees as he reached her; somehow they managed to reach one another through the bars of the cell. After being able to feel one another and make sure that it all wasn't just a cruel illusion, Ana burst into sobs of joy, and Severus began to quietly weep. At that moment, it was all too overwhelming, and a few seconds later when Severus finally managed to gather his wits back together enough to fumblingly unlock the cell door with a spell, it was almost to much to bear.

He squished her intolerably hard in a hug, but she didn't seem to mind, too busy doing the same to him. There was a frantic flurry of kisses. Neither noticed Nikken's face souring, then the house-elf quietly sneaking out, a dirty plot on his mind.

As Ana finally relaxed into her husband's arms as she had longed to for so very, very long, he immediately began to quietly fuss, petting her bony shoulders and cheeks in almost disbelief. "Oh, Ana..." Even though most people would describe him as thin, compared to her, he was now almost portly. The fact that she had been starved for so long was evident.

She shook with sobs. "S-Severus --- w-we need to get out of here. How are we going to get out of h-here?" she pressed, rising up a bit to look into his eyes. Immediately he hugged her close in an effort to calm her down.

"Sssh, love." Ana snuggled up to him, closing her eyes at his reply. "It's all right. We just need to hold out a few hours - I sent an owl before I came down. Help's coming."

The soft murmur of his voice in her ear, his hands gently rubbing her back, and his warm arms wrapped around her made for a dangerous combination. With a sigh, Ana dozed a few minutes, feeling safe and content yet somehow giddy, as if she were dreaming.

A thought pierced her bubble and made her jerk up to glare at her husband. "Why are you here, anyway? If I find you've fallen in with them again --" Her voice carried the clout of a threat delivered by a wife as her eyes narrowed. "Them" obviously did not need translating.

For once, Severus looked scared. "I promise - I promise, Ana, that's not why I'm here - it's a ruse," he said, almost begging for her to understand, looking at her face searchingly even though her eyes were focused at something beyond his back and widening in terror. He continued on heedlessly, pleadingly, as if explination would make her understand. "Like we planned - I'm just spying... just for Dumbledore..."

Ana suddenly gave a groan, starting to shake. "Oh, love. Oh, love, you shouldn't have said that." Her eyes were still focused in the distance, and he finally turned around.

He saw, there, a lynch mob, headed by Lucius Malfoy. All of them had narrowed eyes and wands trained on his back. All of them had just heard what was just said.

And at the door to the dungeons was Nikken. He began to laugh wildly.