Author's note: Thank you all so much for the reviews, I have over 50 which I find very exciting…sorry, again, for being longer than I promised, but this chapter was much more challenging than I had anticipated and the next one promises to be even more so, but I have five whole days off work over Christmas so hopefully I shall get quite a bit done. For now here's the new chapter and please let me know what you think :0)

Happy Christmas!

Chapter Six.

Whilst the three wizards and one witch were busy trying to find out where he had ended up Harry was busy trying, rather unsuccessfully not to panic. When he had reflexively caught the stone that Remus – if that was even his real name – had thrown to him, Harry had had only the merest second to look at the smooth black pebble lying in his open palm, before he had felt a sudden jerk behind his naval and the ground had disappeared from beneath his feet. Several nauseating seconds of blackness later and he had crashed down onto an unyielding stone floor before quickly opening his eyes and scrambling to his knees in a futile attempt to make sense of his current surroundings.

He was sitting on the floor of what seemed to be a small underground cell of some sort. From what he could see by the dim light of the two flaming torches mounted on opposite walls, the walls themselves appeared to be carved out of solid rock and were glistening in the flickering light with a faint sheen of moisture. The floor was bare and slightly dusty and Harry could see no evidence of windows. The only way in or out was by the thick steel door fitted snugly into the wall in front of him. As soon as he had managed to get to his feet Harry had exerted all of his strength on trying to get the door to open but to no avail; it appeared to be locked fast, or was just very heavy. Either way he was not going to be able to get out and his calls for help had simply seemed to have been absorbed into the thick rock. So Harry had given up and now he was sitting on the cold stone floor waiting, and thinking.

Lupin had said that he knew him, well at least that he knew his parents and his godfather, but was the man really telling the truth? For years after waking in hospital Harry had waited and hoped for someone to come along and tell him who he was, but after time he had grown used to the fact that this was not going to happen and now this man. Harry had assumed the man was a liar, and a deranged one at that, what with all his tales of wizardry and magic, after all there was no such thing; although admittedly it was not every day that you were transported from one place to another with the aid of nothing more than a pebble. Harry sighed and rubbed his hand across his eyes, if Lupin was telling the truth about the magic, as absurd as that sounded then maybe he was telling the truth about all the rest as well. Harry lifted his head and studied the walls around him once more. All he had to do now was to find the man again.

His brow furrowed into an even deeper frown but before he had chance to again try and find a way out of his prison his thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt by the unmistakable sound of a key turning in a lock, followed by someone slowly easing the heavy door open. Scrambling to his feet once again Harry retreated to the back wall, as far away from whoever was going to come through that door as he could get and schooled his features into what he hoped was a blank mask. The door finally opened fully and three people entered the small room. They were all dressed in long flowing black robes, similar to the ones he had seen the night he followed the figures into South Park and Harry felt ice cold fear clutch at his heart. Two of the figures were also wearing black masks hiding their features and all three were holding thin sticks out in front of them. It was the middle figure however that Harry's gaze finally rested on. Unmasked, he could see that the features were unquestionably that of a woman. Tall and thin, with white blonde hair, hollow cheeks and glittering blue eyes that were surveying Harry with evident dislike; it was she who spoke.

"My dear Mr Potter" she said, her voice sending chills down his spine. "So nice to see you again after all these years"

"Who are you?" he asked, pleased that at least his voice was steady. He saw the woman frown as she stepped further into the cell.

"Surely you remember me Harry? After all it wasn't that long ago that you murdered my family."

Harry felt his mouth drop open as the woman studied him for several more seconds before nodding almost imperceptibly and sweeping from the room, leaving the other two cloaked figures to drag a still stunned Harry out behind her.

Twelve hours later Sirius rubbed his hand across his eyes and expelled his frustration on a long sigh. Raising weary eyes he locked his gaze on the young witch sitting in a chair opposite the fire.

"Explain that to me again" he said "More slowly and without the big words"

Hermione smiled softly and pulled her chair closer to his.

"We all have different magical signatures " she explained "that identify us in the same way that out fingerprints do." She looked at Sirius to check he was following and he urged her on with an impatient wave of his hand.

"Now during the war Voldemort devised a sort of tracking spell based on the one used to detect under-aged magic. All he needed was something which a person had charmed in some way to give him a copy of their signature and then once the spell was cast anytime they used a magical means of transportation, apparition, floo or port-key, they would automatically be transported to him, no matter where they were trying to get to."

Sirius sighed again "I remember now," he said "but I thought the spells were taken off of you all when Voldemort was defeated?" Hermione nodded. "They should have been ended automatically with Voldemort's death, but we worked the coulter-curse on me and Ron just to be sure, but Sirius, not on Harry. He wasn't there."

"It's the best explanation" Snape interrupted. "Evidently either the trace is still on Potter, or someone has the knowledge to re-produce it, which means we have to find him and quickly."

"How do we do that?" Remus asked quietly.
"It's surprisingly simple really," Hermione said, with a rueful smile. "All we need is a copy of Harry's signature and then we can manipulate the trace already on him so that instead of it bringing him to us it will take us to him. Then we remove the trace and bring him back here."

Sirius nodded and got to his feet. "Good" he said, "let's get started"

Three more hours and the use of one charmed birthday card later and they were ready to go. In a small circle Sirius, Remus, Snape and Hermione all stood with one finger on the edge of the card, wands at the ready waiting patiently for Snape to utter the incantation needed to activate the port key. Closing his eyes he lifted his wand and seconds later they were gone.

Landing heavily Snape struggled to retain his footing and barely managed to refrain from snapping at Hermione when he felt her clutch at his arm in an attempt to hold herself up. He felt his shoulder slam against what felt like a fairly solid stone wall, preventing him from falling in a rather undignified heap and gently but firmly pushed Hermione away from him as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Behind him he could hear Black and Lupin stumbling about and he turned to face them, noting that they were standing in what appeared to be a long rocky passage way lit by flaming torches fixed sporadically along one wall. The dampness of the walls told him they were underground and behind Black and Lupin he could make out an open door of some sort. Pushing past them he cautiously entered the small room only to find it completely empty. Turning back to his companions he signified with a jerk of his head and a finger to his lips that they should follow quietly and headed back up the passage away from the small cell.

Moving quietly Snape noted the gradual rise of the passage, the air was becoming drier and a faint glow of natural light was coming from somewhere above him. After what seemed like hours, but was likely only minutes the passage evened out and now there were small windows near the roof and in front of him he could see another open door. Approaching it cautiously, aware of the others close behind he peered round the edge of the doorway and discovered a second larger corridor with three more doors leading off from it, one which was standing slightly ajar with a soft glow of light seeping through the gaps. Motioning the others to follow with a quick flick of his hand he edged slowly towards the door, his ears picking up the sound of voices as he got closer, before he finally peered through the gap; and winced.

A man who was unmistakably Harry Potter sat slumped in the centre of the room bound hand and foot to a high backed wooden chair. His eyes were closed and Snape hoped that meant he was unconscious as he studied the black bruising rising on the left side of the young man's face. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead by a mixture of sweat and blood; his lip split and the fingers of his right hand were twisted in a way that Snape knew they were not supposed to be able to bend. His shirt was dirty and torn as were his trousers in a way that suggested he had been dragged some distance on his knees. Scanning the rest of the room he quickly took in the positions of the three thick set wizards who seemed to be standing guard over the unconscious man, and tried to calculate the distances of all from the door; before turning to face the expectant faces of his three companions. Grimacing he motioned them again to be silent then ushered them away from the door, speaking as quietly as he could.

"Potter is bound to a chair in the centre of the room, there are two men to the right, one to the left. Lupin, you see to Potter and hold onto him while Miss Granger removes the trace, Black take the man on the left, I'll deal with the ones on the right. As soon as Potter is free, we get out of here. No heroics, understand?" he added with a pointed glance at Sirius who was looking at him pale faced, fists clenched and fire in his eyes. The man nodded.

"Good." Snape said and they all crossed back to the room and on Snape's signal entered.

Hearing the door open Sirius lifted his eyes from his godson's still form to see Hermione enter the room closely followed by Severus Snape. Giving him a weak smile Hermione crossed the room and sat down in the chair on Harry's other side, gingerly picking up his now healed right hand and gently stroking the back of it. It had been over a day now since they had rescued Harry and thanks to several strong sleeping charms cast to aid his healing he had yet to regain consciousness.

"How is he?" Hermione asked, keeping her voice low. Sirius shrugged.

"He hasn't woken up yet." He replied, his eyes not leaving Harry's pale face. "Do you know what's wrong with his memory yet?" he asked. Hermione nodded.

"It's just a memory charm." She told him. "Quite a strong one, but Professor Snape should be able to remove it." Sirius looked at the other man.

"Well go on then." Snape crossed the room and looked at Harry.

"Don't you think it would be better to wait until Potter wakes up and ask his opinion on this?" he asked calmly. Sirius shook his head.

"He can't remember anything, how will he know what's the right thing?" he demanded. "Please, just do it now. It's time we got our Harry back." Snape studied him for long moments before looking at Hermione who was still holding Harry's hand, then at Lupin standing at the window with his back to the room. "Lupin?" he asked. Remus turned slightly.

"He wants to remember" he said "he's just scared to I think, this way might be easier for him." Snape sighed and then looked back at Harry.

"Very well," Sitting on the edge of the bed he gently placed the tip of his wand against Harry's forehead before speaking too quietly for the others to hear what he said. Sirius watched as the tip of the wand glowed white and a shudder passed through Harry's body. Replacing his wand back in the sleeve of his robe Snape stood and moved back from the bed.

"It's done; he should remember everything when he wakes." He told them and swept from the room.

To Be Continued……