Chapter 6: The Storm

            Neither Minerva nor Ginny showed up for dinner. A sense of ill took residence in the Headmaster's stomach and never one to ignore his feelings, he was about to call an end to dinner to start a search when Pansy Parkinson, a slytherin prefect came running in from the halls. She ran right up to the head table and over to Dumbledore. "Headmaster, Professor McGonagall and Weasley, their…unconscious….near the Slytherin Common Room…a Dark Mark….burned into the wall….behind them…" She managed to gasp out.

            The Head table stopped. Snape's fork clattered to his plate. Lupin and Dumbledore shared a look before running out the staff door, Madam Pomfrey on their heels. "Ms. Parkinson with me please." The Potions Professor instructed her softly. They too left through the side door.

            It was nearly midnight when Snape entered the hospital wing. Albus and Remus were there, standing vigil over the two comatose women. Poppy didn't know what was wrong with them, she couldn't wake them, and their rest was anything but peaceful, if the horrified look on their faces were any indication. Severus approached softly. He had taken Ms. Parkinson's report, then immediately begun the investigation. "I know what happened to them." He began softly.

            There was no way to wake them, Severus knew, and they certainly wouldn't mind being woken if there was, but something about the room made him whisper. "They were given a potion. The ingredients for it are missing from my supplies."

            "What potion?" Poppy asked coming over.

            "Nothing you can counter Poppy. Nothing anyone can counter. The potion is called Trapped Hell. When given with the proper incantation it traps one in a hell of their own making. Basically, it traps them in their mind in a world where they are trapped with their greatest fears. It can also be given with a supplement, the ingredients of which are also missing, that will bridge two minds together."

            "What are you saying Severus?" Remus asked, a chill climbing up his spine. "Based on what I know of the potion and the victims? Ms. Weasley and Minerva are trapped inside Hogwarts in 1945 with a 16 year old Lord Voldemort who knows them both and remembers what he's done to them, and who can continue to do whatever he wants to them."

            "Is there any way to rescue them?" The Headmaster asked finally, his voice hard as steel.

            "They have to defeat Lord Voldemort in their own mind. Once they defeat their fear then the potion will wear off."

            "Is there anyway to send someone else in to help them?"

            "Yes…" Snape answered Dumbledore hesitantly. "But it may make things worse." The looks on both Remus and Albus's faces demanded an explanation. "Well the first problem is there are very few documented cases of anyone even attempting what your suggesting. The other problem comes with mutating the fear. For example," Snape was in full teacher mode and a part of Lupin was amused by it, he probably would have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious. "Lets say that we send Remus in. Remus is afraid of the full moon, because it makes him change. Now, in order to defeat that fear Remus would have to accept and believe that he can force himself not to change. But his mind would have a hard time differentiating between the physical world where that's not possible and the mental one where it is. If Remus can't force his brain to accept that it is possible, he will change in the nightmare world and be unable to change back. Which means, not only do Minerva and Ginny have to deal with Voldemort, the have to deal with a werewolf, and either Remus kills them, or they kill him. If you die in the nightmare world, your brain dies in the physical world, and so do you."

            Remus straightened up and there was a determined glint in his brown eyes. "Well,  I guess I'll just have to believe it then." He straightened his robes and held the gaze of Severus and the Headmaster. "Because I am going in there to rescue them. They'll never manage alone."

            Albus nodded. "I'll go with you, to make sure."

            "What are you afraid of Headmaster?"

            Albus turned sad eyes to the potions professor. "Failing."

            Snape nodded, unsurprised. A man like Dumbledore, who had the weight of the world resting on his shoulders, if he was smart, would indeed be afraid of that. "That won't affect the world you find yourselves in, but it will affect you." He cautioned. "You're probably going to do a lot of second guessing in there Albus. You can't afford to. You have to trust you gut and believe that you will succeed."

            The Headmaster nodded and sat down on a chair next to his deputy's bed. "I'm going to go brew the potion." Severus informed them on his way out the door. "You two better do whatever you have to prepare yourselves."