In the next instant Harry's foot landed on a cold stone floor, followed by the rest of his body; and then he found himself lying in a darkened alcove, staring into the torture chamber of his nightmares.

He got up and instinctively flattened himself against the wall. The tall arch of his alcove was in one corner of the room, and round the corner he could hear voice from the other end. His heartbeat accelerated on hearing his own name.

"Don't force me to give you more Veritaserum! I'll ask you again: where is Albus Dumbledore?" a man's voice demanded.

"I don't know, I've told you I don't," whispered a second man's rasping voice. "How do you expect me to know? No one tells me anything." He sounded bitter.

"You know he's telling the truth! You poured the damned Veritaserum down his throat, didn't you?" cried a woman whose voice lifted Harry's heavy heart. It was the weak but resolute Arabella Figg, and the rasping man must be Severus Snape.

"Shut up, old woman!" the first wizard said angrily. "Crucio!"

Harry jumped at Bella Figg's bloodcurdling scream. He started to move out into the light, but a grey speckled furball suddenly bounded out of the blue mist next to him and ran to rub against his shins, stopping him. Tibbles seemed to be advising patience.

"My wife will be down soon," said the first wizard. "She's been waiting many years for this day."

"So have I," snarled Bella Figg. "That unholy succubus-" and then used several words that Harry would not have expected an prim elderly witch like her to know. The angry wizard performed the Cruciatus Curse on her once more, and again Harry made to leap out into the open as his godmother's agonized scream rent the air; but Tibbles sat on his feet and looked at him severely. The wizard's wife was obviously Maldora Lestrange, so the wizard must be Derrick Lestrange. Both of them, Harry had learned in Defence Against the Dark Arts, were powerful and quick to anger. It would be a mistake for him to think he could overpower both of them, even if he did have the advantage of surprise.

In another moment light footsteps were heard coming down nearby stairs. Harry dared to peer round the corner. Severus Snape was pinned magically to the stone wall, his head held against the wall near the ceiling. Arabella Figg was shackled up like Marcus and Alberta. Both looked weary and in great pain. Bella winced every few seconds at some internal ache, and Snape's eyes were bloodshot. Derrick Lestrange stood before them with wand raised and his back to Harry's alcove, looking healthy and smug.

On Lestrange's left was a heavy oak door like the one in the passageway Harry had just left. The door swung open to admit Maldora Lestrange, who had come down the set of stone stairs Harry saw behind her. She grinned at the prisoners as she drew her wand.

"Well now, what have we here?" she purred. "A traitor," she smiled lazily at Snape, "and an old crone." Her icy gaze rested on her mother. Snape shook his head wearily. Bella stared steadily at her disowned daughter, saying nothing.

"What do you think we should do, Derrick?" Maldora said. "Kill them fast, or slowly?"

"Slow," said Derrick. "Let them writhe in terror."

"For once we agree, darling," Maldora said with a thin smile. Harry observed this curiously, sensing tension between the two Death Eaters. Derrick gazed worshipfully at his wife. Harry saw Bella smile a tiny bit as she noted the adoring look.

More footsteps were heard, heavy steps this time. The door swung open and Lucius Malfoy walked in. Harry froze. Where was this place?

"I thought you ought to know," Malfoy drawled, smiling nastily at Snape, "that less than an hour ago, Albus Dumbledore stepped off a Muggle bus in London." Harry's stomach turned to ice. Snape's eyes widened and the Lestranges grinned. Only Bella's expression remained neutral, though Harry could tell she was fuming on the inside.

"Now the Dark Lord has gone to meet his archenemy in London," Malfoy said, still smiling. "At last his plan is coming to fruition! We have Harry Potter in an earthen prison below his own school, and the great Albus Dumbledore trapped in Diagon Alley."

"The world will be at our mercy," Derrick whispered, sounding awed.

Harry sank to the floor, feeling crushed. Dumbledore would not be expecting Lord Voldemort to show up in London. What if he really was ambushed? Harry's imagination showed him Albus Dumbledore lying dead on the pavement, with Voldemort standing above him, laughing his high cold laugh. He shut his eyes to block it out. He had to pull himself together. Everyone said Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort feared- there had to be a reason for that! Harry had once seen a terrifying power in Dumbledore's eyes; hopefully that intense magical strength would save Dumbledore from Voldemort's surprise attack.

Malfoy glanced round the torture chamber. Harry withdrew behind the wall quickly. "I can see you have everything under control." Harry breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. "I shall see that you are not disturbed. Maldora- Derrick." He nodded to them in turn and swept out.

"Aren't you going to say something droll, Arabella?" Maldora enquired of Bella, who persisted in staring at her silently. Harry and Bella both enjoyed the shadow of annoyance and unease that crossed Maldora's beautiful, strained features. "Why are you doing that?" she demanded. "Trying to think up an escape plan? Don't bother. You won't get away from us this time. Lucius and I worked hard on this house, rigging up silent alarms for anytime an unfriendly hand touched an outer door or window. And we made this whole house a non-Apparation zone."

Of course, thought Harry, of course! This must be the secret chamber under the drawing room in Malfoy Manor in Inverness! The picture of a white snakelike face with red slitted eyes came unbidden to Harry's mind: Lord Voldemort had lived here in hiding, torturing people for his own twisted amusement; Harry had seen it all in his nightmares. The pale blue mist must have been devised specially to allow them access into Hogwarts via the secret underground passage. The Malfoys were a very old family; they could have built the secret passageway into the school eons ago without anyone noticing, and bided their time to put it to use.

"There's no way out this time," Maldora said haughtily.

Bella finally deigned to speak. "I admit that the likelihood of my escaping unscathed is scant to non-existent," she said quietly. Harry's heart sank. She couldn't have given up already! "Yet I remain confident that I can sow a few seeds of discord before you kill me."

Derrick snorted. Bella spoke before he could. "Be quiet, son-in-law!" she hissed.

Derrick choked on his own snickering. Maldora's eyes flashed. "He is not your son-in-law because I am not your daughter!"

"Then why do you want to kill me?" returned Bella. "Your ludicrous motives are still transparent to me. You seek revenge against the witch who bore you because you despise the life you now lead, and you believe it my fault that you went astray."

A shade of panic flitted across Maldora's face.

"Is this true?" Derrick demanded. "Do you regret joining Lord Voldemort? Do you- regret marrying me?"

"N-no!" cried Maldora, but the stammered hesitation told Derrick she was lying.

"So the truth emerges at last," Bella said blithely to Snape.

"Who knows if she ever loved him at all?" Snape replied faintly, with a weak smile.

His effort at levity was sapping the last reserves of his energy. Severus Snape had been in this room for nearly eighteen hours, being constantly interrogated and tortured. He was weak and harboured no secret hope of escape. But if Maldora and Derrick could be coaxed into arguing, then at least Bella Figg, who had remained grimly lively ever since she had popped through the blue mist into a roomful of Death Eaters clustered round Snape, might have a chance to live.

"And who knows what else she's been concealing?" Snape went on.

"Shut up!" Derrick shouted at Snape, raising his wand to use the Cruciatus Curse; but Maldora cried, "Stop!"

Derrick stared at her in wonder. "Stop it," said Maldora, trembling.

"It really is too bad you're not my daughter," Bella continued calmly. "My husband and I would have given anything to have Solange back."

Maldora's lower lip quivered. "You're lying."

"I'm telling the absolute truth," Bella said. "I loved my daughter, no matter how much trouble she got in. We would have taken her back at any time."

"Even now?" Maldora whispered.

"Maldora, what are you doing?" Derrick said, stunned. Harry watched in silent amazement. In only a few minutes Bella had managed to render one Death Eater helpless and confused, and completely demolish the other using only words. Even in high-pressure situations like this, the power of her mere words had astonishing effects. No wonder she had so easily swayed Cornelius Fudge: unlike Dumbledore, Bella Figg had no qualms with telling people exactly what they wanted to hear, and no one was the wiser to whether it was true or not.

Even now as Bella spoke, Harry could see her hands working furiously behind her back, wriggling this way and that. One hand was cut from the deliberate chafing, and the blood was lubricating her wrist. The hand slipped out of her manacle but she held it still behind her back. He smiled; so she hadn't given up yet.

"No, of course not now!" Bella was saying, shaking her head emphatically. "It was a deal offered by two people. When you killed my husband, the deal was off." Her voice turned harsh, and Harry began to see that the weapon of words had a sharper side that could cut deep. "No, I suppose you were right before, you're not my daughter. You're a madwoman on the lam, trapped in a one-sided marriage and counting the days until you can no longer tolerate life."

Maldora screamed in rage, making everyone jump. "You horrid woman! You haven't changed one bit! You bandy with words of promise and allure, only to tell me- tell me-" She began, astonishingly, to cry. "Only to tell me what I already know!"

"Maldora!" Derrick exclaimed, holding his arms out foolishly, but his wife moved away.

"Solange," Bella said with a smile.

"It's all true," Maldora said to Bella, wiping her eyes. "But you too made a mistake- Mother. You miscalculated how much I've thought about this, even if I've never voiced it aloud like you did. I'm still going to kill you, but Derrick will go too." Derrick started forward, eyes wide, and she quickly drew her own wand and held him away with it. The tears had been shed and dried, and she was very matter-of-fact now. "I'm sorry Derrick, but she was right. I don't love you anymore, and I resent having to wait all those years until we could arrange a false death for me so we could be together. You love me more than I love you. I want to be free!

"Just a few more killings, and then I can stop. I want out." They all stared at her. "Yes, that's right. I want to stop this! Once I would have helped your side, Mother. Once I believed that Dumbledore was the strongest wizard the world had ever seen. But Lord Voldemort began to gain power, and I wanted it, so much that I changed my whole life to become his servant. But I'm tired of being a mere weapon at the disposal of whichever side seems the strongest. I want a simpler life."

"Maldora, one doesn't simply walk away from the Dark Lord," Derrick said in shock. "We've spent enough time tracking down and killing deserters to know that."

"I can escape," said Maldora. "I've slipped through the fingers of the Aurors time and time again- I can get away from the Death Eaters. I know all their powers and their limitations. I'll settle down somewhere secret and peaceful, where Lord Voldemort won't find me. Who knows? I may even renounce my magic and try to live as a Muggle. I don't care anymore! You see?" she spat at Bella. "I don't want to be on your side and I don't want to be on Voldemort's side! I'm on my side. Solange looks out for herself!"

"Oh dear," Bella said, for the first time actually looking nervous. Panic began to rise in Harry. "This isn't working out at all the way I'd hoped. Solange- are you sure you don't want to think this over a little bit?"

Maldora grinned. "I have thought it over, for hours and hours. A better life awaits me; so I bid you farewell." Bella stared up at her in horror. Silently Tibbles II slipped off Harry's feet. "Avada-" Maldora began.

Harry leaped out from the dark alcove. "Expelliarmus!" he shouted.

Both Lestranges' wands flew to him and he stuffed them in his pockets. He regarded them challengingly, though he knew he had neither the confidence in his abilities nor the actual magical proficiency to support his attitude.

"Hello," he said, unable to think of anything wittier for the distractingly loud pounding of his heartbeat in his ears.

Maldora's hand flew to her heart. "Potter!" she gasped. "How did you escape? You- you didn't chain him properly!" she accused Derrick.

"But I could have sworn I did!" Derrick spluttered. Harry smiled. The less truth they knew, the better.

"Harry! Where have you been?" Bella asked mildly.

Maldora recovered quickly, and swiftly reached out her hand as Harry had expected. Two wands flew out of his pockets to their respective owners, but he managed to hold tightly to his own.

"You're looking well," Maldora said disappointedly. "Aren't you the least bit frightened?"

"Preposterous!" cried Bella. "I taught the boy myself- he fears nothing!"

Harry decided to not refute this grossly untrue statement. Derrick stepped forward. "What, then, would the great and fearless Harry Potter say to a little wizarding duel?"

"He would accept," Harry answered without hesitation. He wondered if they could hear his heart thumping inside his ribcage.

"Potter, you idiot, you'll die," Snape said irritably from the wall.

"With all due respect, Professor Snape, isn't that what you've always wanted?" Harry responded as he walked to meet Derrick in the centre of the room.

"Five paces only, since it's so cramped in here," Bella said. Maldora stood next to her. As Harry took his paces he saw Bella's now free hand poised behind Maldora's ankle, ready to wrench the witch off her feet. She winked at her godson.

"First the bow," Maldora said, smiling cruelly at Harry. The duellers bowed to each other, Derrick with a swaggering confidence, Harry somewhat more warily. "Begin!"

Suddenly Harry had a momentary crisis of self-doubt. "Expelliarmus!" he cried, and regretted it immediately; but fortunately for him Derrick resisted the spell and held onto his wand. The Death Eater grinned triumphantly, malice in his eyes.

He raised his wand. "Avada Kedavra!" he shouted- and was stunned when nothing happened, except-

They all stared at the rubber chicken in his hand.

"Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes," Snape murmured to himself. "I never thought the damned things would save my life."

"Stupefy!" Harry shouted. Derrick Lestrange crumpled to the floor.

Harry turned to do the same to Maldora, but she was already raising her wand. Harry felt a wand in his pocket turn into a wooden spoon, and too late he realized he had given Maldora a real wand by accident. But quick as a wink Bella seized her ankle and yanked hard. Maldora shrieked as she fell and Bella grabbed her wand and Vanished her shackles.

Maldora reached out but Bella quickly cried, "Expecto Patronum!" A golden lion bounded roaring from the end of the wand and charged at Maldora, who fell backwards with a screech as the lion ran over her and dissipated. Harry pointed his wand at Snape. "Finito Incantato!" Snape dropped to the floor and lay there, dazed.

Meanwhile Maldora had regained her wand with her hand tricks and was pointing it at Bella.

"Crucio!" she shouted.

Bella began to writhe and scream; but at that moment Tibbles the Kneazle pounced on Maldora's face, causing her to shriek and break the Cruciatus Curse. Bella grabbed for the wand, but Maldora threw it and Tibbles batted it into a corner. Maldora then fumbled for Tibbles' tail and hurled him bodily against the wall, where he lay unmoving.

Harry fired a Stunner at Maldora, but she rolled aside to dodge it. Bella began to crawl across the room to get the dropped wand from the corner while Harry struggled with Maldora. Even unarmed she was a powerful opponent. She made a fast open-handed gesture, slashing the air between them, and Harry felt an invisible hand smash into the side of his head- more wandless magic. He reeled, stars winking in his sight, and Maldora saw that Bella had almost reached the wand and that Harry stood between her and the oak door. Quickly she summoned her wand to her hand, then turned and ran for the darkened alcove.

"Stupefy!" Harry missed by a mere two inches. His spell cracked the wall above Maldora's head as she leaped into the blue mist.

"No!" Harry and Bella both shouted.

"I hope to God someone's watching that secret passageway," Bella said.

Back at Hogwarts Ron, Hermione and the two first-years had left the secret staircase unguarded while they went to fetch help. They had quickly located Professor McGonagall, who immediately went to call for reinforcements.

But in the brief interval of time it took Minerva McGonagall to round up a rescue squad, Maldora Lestrange emerged from the vanishing step and slipped stealthily into the dark halls of the castle.

She fled to the front doors. She was spotted several times on the way, but always managed to defeat her challengers. The Aurors sounded the alarm before they fell, yet by the time help came Maldora had already gone. So the Aurors followed her from one end of the castle to the other. Midway they realized her identity and her intention, and dispatched more Aurors to head her off; but she was too swift for them and slipped through their fingers.

Unluckily for her, however, she missed noticing Argus Filch, who was practising faint wand sparks in the Great Hall. Sitting idly at the Hufflepuff table, he heard a commotion in the Entrance Hall and got up to see a shadowy figure fighting off two other Auror wizards that Professor McGonagall had assigned to guard the front hall. Two strange bright flashes of red light, like the Stunners Filch had read about, took care of her Auror opponents; and the shadowy figure made for the door. Filch panicked, recalling the explicit instructions he had heard Professor McGonagall give to the two Aurors not to let anyone in or out the front doors.

It was all up to him now! He leapt up, raised his wand, and hysterically bellowed the first spell that came to mind.

"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!"

The hours of concentrated practice now paid off. Squib or not, the sheer power of Filch's command was enough to send an entire suit of armour flying through the air. It connected with the back of Maldora Lestrange's head and sent her sprawling. She lay motionless on the flagstones.

Filch screamed with glee. The tremendous crash brought Aurors running and roused most of the students. Filch was lauded as a hero by all. A Squib had brought down a Death Eater! And during the slaps on the back and the fervent congratulations, Argus Filch blessed Kwikspell Correspondence Course with all his heart.

In the torture chamber below Lucius Malfoy's drawing room, Harry felt utterly trapped. He could not follow Maldora down the passageway, because he knew he did not stand a chance against her. And Lucius Malfoy might come down into the secret chamber at any moment.

Bella called to him faintly, interrupting his frantic deliberation. "Oh Harry, do come here... I think I'm dying."

"What?" Harry stumbled over and knelt by his godmother, who was lying on the floor, her bleeding hand on her heart. "No!" Harry tried to shout, but his voice came out in a high-pitched stammer. "You can't die! We're- we're going to live in the cottage in Hogsmeade, you and Sirius and I- no- you can't- we- but-"

"Harry, shh, don't get upset. This is the best gift I can give you. All your life you've witnessed violent, abrupt deaths. Now you will see a slow, peaceful one- mine. I'm not going to live through this, Harry. I may be a witch, but an old woman like me can only take so many Cruciatus Curses before this body falls apart. But it's all right. I'm old and I'm tired. I've lived a full life. In death I shall be reunited with my dear husband Faustus."

"To the organized mind, death is but the next great adventure," Harry whispered.

Bella Figg smiled with effort. "Wise words, Harry, but now I need you to listen. I have precious little time- I must pass on some things before I go.

"I've failed Dumbledore- I couldn't catch any of these Death Eaters. Tell him I'm sorry. But remember this, Harry: if you ever need help Dumbledore is the one to ask. I'd have followed him into the very mouth of Hell- we all would. He's the greatest wizard I've ever known- possibly the greatest in history. Just remember that, Harry, when enemies try to convince you otherwise.

"And Sirius, I daresay, will now have plenty of Death Eaters whom the Order will persuade to confirm his innocence. He'll soon be cleared- but he'll have to find himself a home. But I left our cottage in your name- I didn't expect to die so soon. And the law demands that you receive legal ownership of the property only on your eighteenth birthday. Until then- I don't know where you'll live..." Her voice was getting weaker.

"I'll figure it out," Harry said, clutching her uninjured hand tightly. "Sirius will find a place for us." Arabella smiled and touched his face.

"Harry, you're so good. You can't imagine the joy I experienced watching you grow from that tiny scarred baby into a real man. I hope you'll forgive me, but I used you. I used you to convince myself that I wasn't a bad parent, that it wasn't my fault my last girl went the way she did... Was I right? Who can tell? But I know you'll be a powerful wizard one day. Only- pick the right side, Harry. Get your O.W.L.'s, study Defence Against the Dark Arts, become an Auror like your dear parents. Oh, Lily and James would have been- been proud..." She winced at a spasm of pain.

"My time is running out. Now listen carefully. You have no escape plan, do you? Just as I thought- simply barged in here with no thought to how you would leave... Don't you know escaping is the most crucial part of a rescue mission? It's all right. For my last act as your godmother, here is my escape plan."

Her frail hand went to her pocket and she drew out a small purple kidney bean- a Mile-A-Minute vine-pod. Harry, confused, slowly took the vine-pod.

"No one upstairs has heard us, or they'd have come to look," Bella whispered. "You still have the element of surprise. Be as quiet as you can- Lucius Malfoy would kill you soon as look at you. If you touch anything Malfoy will be alerted to your presence, but you'll- you'll manage. Once you're out, run like the dickens. Understand?"

Harry had no idea what she meant him to do, but he said, "Yes." His heart was like lead in his chest. "Thank you, Mrs. Figg. But-" He found he could not continue. What could he say to a witch who was dying in his arms, whose pain he could not mitigate, and whose life it was not in his power to save?

Bella looked at him tenderly. "Don't worry about me, Harry, I'll be with Faustus in a moment." She squeezed his hand feebly. "You'll survive, Harry. I know you'll do well in life. Do you forgive me for deceiving you all those years?"

"Yes."

"And Potter-" Her voice became inaudible. He bent over to hear her.

"Harry- never start a duel with an Expelliarmus. Bad form, you know. Good-bye- I love you." She closed her eyes. The wrinkled white hand went limp. Arabella Figg had died.

Harry wanted to stay and mourn; but every living fibre of his being screamed for action. Bella was right- she had given him a great, albeit peculiar, gift by dying peacefully in his arms. This was the healthiest death Harry had ever seen. It enabled him to contain and control his grief.

Moving as if in one of his dreams, Harry went to wake Snape. "Professor? Are you awake?" he whispered, reaching to touch the inert wizard's shoulder.

Severus Snape was awake, but not alert. He was half-conscious, trapped in a dark and terrifying realm where past and present demons taunted and menaced him; and in the midst of his shadowy turmoil something hazy swam into view before him: a pair of round glasses, a head of tousled black hair.

Snape's havoc-racked mind connected these things with James Potter, a ghost from his past and one of his worst tormentors, and his anguished heart forced forward his hand. Snape suddenly found new strength in his horror at being confronted by this phantom, whom he believed to be the angel of death come to acquire his soul.

"James!" he cried in terror, and took a hard swing at the apparition. The spectre was thrown across the room and hit his head hard on the stone wall. Harry slumped to the floor, blood pouring from the newly opened wound above his ear.

Snape stared blankly. Then as his senses returned he recognized that the being he had hit was not James but Harry Potter. Struggling to his feet, he quickly surveyed the room. Derrick Lestrange was unconscious on the floor. Maldora was nowhere to be seen. A ball of fur- the Kneazle, Snape remembered- was lying motionless but breathing, near Lestrange. And Bella- Snape fell to his knees by her side. She wasn't breathing, and she had no pulse.

Snape went to Harry and gingerly prodded him. "Potter. Potter, wake up."

Harry groaned and opened his eyes. The large green eyes stared at Snape uncomprehendingly through cracked glasses; then he remembered where he was and recoiled from Snape, desperately groping on the floor for his wand. "You!"

"Stop, Potter," Snape said, seizing his arm. "I didn't mean to hit you. It was an accident. I- I'm sorry." He avoided the boy's gaze as he said this. Harry glowered at him angrily. "It was an accident," Snape repeated icily. "What happened to Professor Figg?"

"She died," Harry muttered, touching his bleeding wound. "Maldora did Cruciatus on her and she couldn't take it anymore."

Snape bowed his head and turned to reach for the cold hand of his mentor. "Professor," he murmured.

"What do you care anyway?" Harry snapped as he sat up. "You don't care about anyone!"

"It may come as a blow to your inflated ego, Potter," Snape said coldly, turning back to glare at Harry, "but you are not the only person who viewed Professor Figg in the capacity of parental ideal. She was my mentor, my-"

Harry exploded, "You didn't care about her, you don't care at all what happens to anyone else! You only ever think of yourself, you traitor!" His voice was rising as his anger swelled. Snape had hit him, really hit him with intent to brutalize, and Harry was in a rage such as he had never known before. "You're sabotaging me!" he shouted. "You hate me, you want to see me dead-"

"Be quiet!" hissed Snape, eyes wild. Harry swore and turned away, still furious.

Snape said through clenched teeth, "It's no secret that you have never been my favourite student, Potter, nor has your father been my closest friend; but on no account am I trying to sabotage you or itching to see you hit with a Killing Curse! I want the same thing you do: to see Lord Voldemort fall, for good. If achieving this end means I must work alongside you and your friends, I will do it." Harry glared at him and frowned. Snape seemed sincere if enraged. Snape took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "Turn your head, Potter, let me see this horrific injury you've sustained at my hands."

"Why should I?" Harry demanded, holding the side of his head to stem the blood.

Snape was exasperated. "You are not listening! You are never listening! If we must be allies so be it, but that must be a mutual collaboration. We both have to get out of this place quickly and quietly, and to do that we will have to work together." Harry scowled. "Did you happen to hear Lucius Malfoy while you were huddling in the shadows in the corner? Dumbledore is in real danger. I've- we've- got to warn the Order. Now let me see the cut!"

Harry reluctantly took his hand away. Snape reached out to lift the hair away, but suddenly Harry felt a blinding fire slash across his scar. His face went white and he suppressed a scream. Snape drew back quickly. "What?"

"My- my scar," Harry gasped, clasping both hands to his forehead. "It hurts- a lot." His heart was racing. "V- Voldemort is getting angry!"

Snape stood up. "He must have found Dumbledore. They must be duelling at this very moment. Get up, Potter! We've got to get out of here." Harry gasped at another flash of pain searing through his head. "Never mind that! Pain in your scar is a good sign, don't you see? It means Voldemort is losing. That's why he's angry, Potter. Now stand up. Do you have another wand? Lestrange snapped mine."

Harry found Derrick Lestrange's real wand in his pocket and gave it to Snape, who Transfigured Bella, Lestrange and Tibbles II into coins and put them in his pocket. Then, with one hand gripping Harry's elbow, he guided the boy out of the torture chamber and up the stone steps. At the top of the stairs they found a door of polished dark wood. Snape cautiously turned the doorknob.

They stood in the only doorway of an opulent wood-panelled drawing room. Across from the door was an massive fireplace, around which were arranged plush red satin love seats and armchairs. A liquor cabinet stood by the wall to their left, opposite a writing desk. In the wall on either side of the desk were set large windows framed with rich purple drapes. Oil portraits lined the cherry wood panels. To Harry's relief, they were the non-moving sort. Numerous flickering candles from a golden chandelier above their heads illuminated the whole scene.

Snape silently shut the door and moved warily into the room. Harry stumbled to a window and peered outside. He saw rippling grassy moors, wide and green and broken here and there by short green hedges; stretching to the far-off horizons of the enormous star-pierced inky dome. Snape whispered from behind him, "Don't touch anything. Malfoy and Maldora rigged the entire house with magic alarms."

"I know," Harry started to say, but a fresh wave of pain overtook him and he fell to his knees, clutching his scar.

Snape went back to the door and opened it a crack to peek through, then in surprise opened it wide to reveal an wide empty red-carpeted hallway. "What-? Where did those stairs go?" he muttered in bewilderment. He closed and opened the door, to the same puzzling scene. Then he shut it again and turned to Harry, brow furrowed.

"I've been to this house before. I- I confess I knew the torture chamber existed and Voldemort was hiding there." Harry turned on him in outrage, and Snape was only saved from a terrible jinx by a slash of fire in Harry's scar that made him collapse again.

"I know we're in the drawing room at the opposite end from the front door; but the front door might as well be located in Zaire for all the good it does us now. How are we going to escape if we can't touch the external doors or windows? Explode a hole in the wall- that would bring them running. Back through the passageway- Maldora went that way, she could be plotting an ambush..." He ran to the fireplace that dominated the room and searched the ornaments on the mantelpiece. "Blast! No Floo powder."

Harry slowly put his hand in his pocket and drew out the purple vine-pod. Snape frowned. "What is that?"

"Mile-A-Minute vine-pod," Harry murmured. "Grows a hundred metres in sixty seconds."

They looked at each other, then at the fireplace.

"Up the chimney," Harry whispered.

Snape hissed, "Wait!" They both froze. Footsteps sounded behind the closed door. "Someone's coming!"

Instantly they sprang apart, Snape moving behind the bookcases in a flurry of black robes, Harry throwing himself headlong under the writing desk and pulling the chair in behind him.

The doorknob turned and Lucius Malfoy strode into the drawing room from the red-carpeted hallway, shutting the door securely behind him. He turned back to the door and drew his wand, and his cold pale gaze furtively swept the room. Harry shrank down into the shadows. Snape flattened his back against the bookshelf and closed his eyes. Satisfied that he was alone, Malfoy tapped the doorknob three times with his wand and intoned, "Biforis."

When next he opened the door it was to the stone steps going to the torture chamber. Harry stared. Malfoy called down, "Are they dead yet?" Snape shuddered visibly.

Malfoy frowned when there was no answer. "Maldora? Derrick?" He hurried down the stairs, shutting the door behind him with a clap.

Harry and Snape ran to the fireplace. Harry dropped the Mile-A-Minute vine-pod in the grate and held up his wand. After a moment a giant green stem exploded with a rumbling from the ashes and shot straight upwards through the chimney, broad green leaves spangling out on all sides. Snape jumped back, astonished, and stared as Harry muttered "Stirpoterminus" to stop the growth. Then another bout of blinding pain attacked Harry's scar and he fell down with a gasp.

"Come on, Potter," Snape whispered, hauling him to his feet and pushing him into the fireplace. "Malfoy will come looking for us in a second. Start climbing!"

"I am, I am," Harry said, grabbing for a sturdy leaf. He began to climb, and Snape followed closely behind. It was black and stuffy in the chimney; Harry could hardly breathe and could not see anything ahead of him.

Then there came a bellow of rage and a thundering of footsteps that up inside the chimney were muffled and seemed to come from far away. Harry and Snape climbed faster. The two-way door banged open.

"SNAPE!" Malfoy roared. Then he saw in his fireplace the fat green stem that shook with Harry and Snape's movements.

"Oh no you won't!" Malfoy shouted, running to the fireplace. He craned his neck to look up the black chimney. "Snape! Come down here! I shall have to kill you!" He drew his wand. "Snape!"

"Go on, Potter, go on," Snape whispered desperately, "we must be nearly halfway to the top by now-"

"Snape! And-" Malfoy sucked in his breath. "There are two of you in there! It's- it's Potter! He escaped! Lestrange should have just killed him when he had the chance! Avada Kedavra!"

Thankfully at that moment a leaf jogged Malfoy's arm and the jet of green light missed. He wanted to magically fly up and grab them, but the thick stem of the vine took up most of the space in the chimney shaft. Hysterical with rage, Malfoy crawled into the fireplace and began to climb after them. Fortunately, he was a much slower climber, hindered by his apoplexy.

"He's coming," Snape hissed to Harry, "he's coming up below us-"

"I can hear him!" Harry hissed back; and then he gave a muffled scream, because the pains in his scar were splitting his head apart again. Snape shoved him bodily.

"Climb, Potter, just climb, pain in your scar is good, it means Dumbledore's still winning, keep climbi-" Snape suddenly grunted in surprise; a white jet of light had grazed his shoulder and drawn blood. Malfoy was still hexing them from below as he struggled up the vine.

"Stupefy! Stupefy!" he cried. He missed, unable to see in the black sooty air.

"Reduc- no, dammit, I can't use the Reductor Curse to blast a hole in the chimney," Snape muttered. "It would blow us to bits as well. Agh!" A red jet of light whistled through his oily hair. "Missed again, Malfoy!" he shouted.

Harry dug in his pockets and threw down everything he had besides his wand. The end of the wooden spoon smacked Malfoy in the eye and he yelped, but quickly recovered and continued hexing.

At the two-way door Narcissa Malfoy was anxiously rattling the doorknob. The door was locked to her because it was still open the other way. "Lucius? What's happening?" she demanded. Muffled screams and crashes were her answer. "Lucius!" she cried, in vain.

Meanwhile, Harry had nearly lost his grip on the vine when Snape began to throttle the vine, trying to shake Malfoy off. Malfoy slid down a few leaves but hung on tenaciously. He pointed upwards at Snape and shouted, "Crucio!"

Snape swung himself aside, and the curse hit Harry instead. Instantly, on top of the blinding pain in his scar, Harry felt like a million stabbing knives were piercing him all over, digging under his skin, attacking every cell in his body. He screamed and scream at the intolerable agony. Harry let go of the vine, and would have fallen on Malfoy had Snape not been blocking the way.

Snape struggled to hold up Harry, cling to the vine, and fire spells at Malfoy at the same time. Luck was with him; his curse hit Malfoy's wand hand and broke the Cruciatus, breaking Malfoy's thumb as well.

Harry was limp and weak. Snape shook him and rasped fiercely in the boy's ear.

"Potter, at any other time I would love to see you grievously injured, and maybe even inflict some of the damage myself. But not now, not now! Forget the pain: pain is fleeting! But death is forever. Keep climbing!"

He was right, Harry thought. Now that the Cruciatus Curse was off, some of the pain was subsiding. His scar stung excruciatingly, but he strove to ignore it. He focused all of his mind on getting out of this stifling black chimney, on fleeing far, far away, and on seeing Ron and Hermione and all his friends again, at Hogwarts. His exhausted arms finally reached up and caught the vine.

"Yes, Potter, climb!" Snape whispered between the curses being exchanged with Malfoy. "I think I see a pinprick of light."

Harry looked up as he dragged himself upwards. There was indeed a minuscule pinprick of light above his head, and another near it, and another. Harry climbed faster towards that square of the night sky. Below him Snape still fought a vertical battle with Malfoy, most of their curses missing their mark in the virtual obscurity. Finally Harry's head came out of the blackness and he looked in weary gratitude across the dark moors of the Malfoy estate. He scrambled up over the lip of the chimney and called down to Snape, "Come on!"

Snape screamed out loud, having been hit with a Cruciatus; but Harry managed to reach down and grab a handful of his robes, and he hauled Snape, gasping and filthy, up onto the roof. Snape scraped at his face, which was coated with a veritable black mask of soot. Harry realized that he himself was also covered in filth. The chimney soot had mixed with the sweat in which he was drenched to create a gritty black mud. He wiped it off his cracked glasses. "What are you waiting for?" he rasped at Snape. "Do a Severing Spell!"

Snape leaned over the edge of the chimney again and pointed the wand straight down, aiming carefully.

"Desectum!" He uttered the spell with grim delight. Malfoy roared, "No!" but the spell hit the base of the Mile-A-Minute vine and hewed it through instantly. Snape magically moved it a little to the side, and the entire vine slid out the fireplace, taking Malfoy down with it. As he wished he had thought of that, the Death Eater hit his head on a protruding brick on the way down and was knocked unconscious.

Snape turned back to Harry, and found him doubled over, being sick on the singles. The pain in his scar had reached its peak and was overwhelming him.

Snape suddenly realized something. "You can't Apparate!" he said, almost accusingly. Harry looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. "But I can't leave you here," Snape muttered frantically. "A Portkey? There's nothing to use..."

"Motorcycle," Harry choked out.

"What?" Snape stared at him blankly. "What are you talking about?"

Harry shook his head mutely. He whistled, through cracked and soot-blackened lips, the first notes of "Torquatus Died of Cheesecake Consumption". After a few seconds in which Snape had a sinking feeling that Harry Potter had finally gone mad, a single beam of strong light cut through the clear night sky. Harry smiled. With a rumbling that shook the countryside, the flying motorcycle soared through the sky at an unimaginable magical speed, descended towards them and landed on the roof.

"How- how-" Snape began, and shook his head. "That contraption is Black's, isn't it? No matter. Let's get out of here before that beast flies up the damned chimney." He threw his leg over the motorcycle and helped Harry on in front of him. Then without a backwards glance, they fled into the night.