Disclaimer: The characters that look familiar to you belong to J. K. Rowling. The ones you cannot find in any of her books are mine. I don't intend to make any money out of this. I'm just having some fun.

To The Rescue

Snape was crouched in a very uncomfortable position, waiting for the signal. The night was cool and the air was very humid. They had been approaching the castle under the protection of the night. Voldemort wasn't with them -which Snape was grateful for-, but he had sent almost an army to rescue Lucius. Voldemort could be a monster, was a monster most of the times, but he was no idiot, he knew he needed Malfoy at his side, Lucius was a very powerful wizard.

They weren't sure if the other Death Eaters imprisoned were in the castle too, and they weren't sure about the wards protecting the solid stone structure, but they had to give it a try.

Since the Dementors had joined Voldemort, the Ministry couldn't use Azkaban anymore. The old prison had become Voldemort's sick playground. That's where the aurors captured alive were tortured for information. The Dementors were having a feast too often for Snape's taste. The Ministry had finally decided to use different buildings across the country as prisons. The idea was to keep the Death Eaters imprisoned in different places, so that it would make the rescue more difficult. If Voldemort decided to come looking for his captured followers, he would only be able to free one or two at a time.

Castle Heathcliff had been an imposing building many years ago, but since the death of the last Heathcliff, the building had been left abandoned and now it looked more like a ruin than a castle. Since the ghosts of the Heathcliffs still lurked around the area, the muggles didn't dare approach it, which had turned out to be a good thing for the Ministry, as they didn't even need to put Muggle-Repelling charms in the building to keep the non-magical people away.

On the other hand, the lack of apparent magical protection in the building had been successful in making Voldemort think that the castle was really empty, and thus the Death Eaters hadn't truly searched it. Only when the dark wizards had searched all over the country without finding a single trace of Malfoy had the Dark Lord decided that maybe Castle Heathcliff deserved some serious consideration. Pettigrew, in his rat form, had been the best prepared for scurrying between the fallen rocks and the broken glasses and get inside the now angsty looking walls. Then he had reported what he had seen: the building was almost empty, but in the top floor, there was light, and at least twelve aurors paraded the corridors. Pettigrew had checked all the rooms, and only one was closed and heavily warded. The rat had waited patiently, and finally his time had been rewarded: Lucius' voice had come out of the room, complaining that the steak tartar was almost burnt.

And now here they were, almost ready to storm the castle and rescue one of the vilest men in the world.

"Snape!" someone hissed from his right, "time to go!"

Snape nodded and started advancing to the castle, his back hunched and his wand ready. The mass of black shadows walking to the building would have looked innocently enough from the top floor of the castle if it weren't because the aurors had been warned a few moments ago and were frantically searching for any single movement.

"They are coming," Hestia Jones said from the south window.

Moody and Tonks nodded and went to alert the other aurors.

"Are you ready Shacklebolt?" Moody asked with a dry mouth.

***

Snape was still cursing himself for not having been able to alert Dumbledore in time. Now he would have to fight against the aurors and help rescue Lucius. And the worst of all was that the aurors guarding Malfoy wouldn't know he was on their side, so he would have to truly hurt them to make it alive out of the building. He hated these situations. He was completely alone. He had to fight with his enemies and against his own people. This was going to be difficult.

The Death Eaters had reached the top floor without encountering any opposition. They were starting to feel quite sure of themselves. Rescuing Malfoy would be very easy. It was lucky that the Ministry was in such a disarray at the moment, because nobody seemed to have taken the necessary precautions to ensure Malfoy wouldn't be freed.

Tonks paraded the corridor feigning complete boredom, but the truth was that she was very alert, straining to hear any noise, to sense the unwelcome presence of the enemy before they attacked. She knew they had to be there already, they had had time enough to get to the top floor.

The Death Eaters were indeed at the top of the stairs, each of them occupying a step down the staircase. Their backs against the rock. Snape was the first of them. Two corridors ended in front of the stairs. In front of them there was a long one. It was brightly illuminated, but completely empty. Snape chanced a look at the corridor to their left. There was someone there...

Snape recognised the woman's pink hair immediately. What was Tonks doing here? The Ministry never sent the top aurors to guard prisoners, they were usually in the city, ready to leave any minute if there was a sudden attack or an emergency. How strange that she would be there. Maybe Lucius was better guarded than they expected.

He thought hard for a moment, trying to find a way to warn her, but there were other Death Eaters behind him, and they would notice, he couldn't risk it. The best thing he could do is attack first -and fail, of course-, so that the girl had time at least to take some cover.

"What are you waiting for?" A Death Eater whispered from downstairs. Snape thanked him silently for his stupidity. Tonks couldn't have missed that. He nodded to the other man, and then jumped in front of the corridor with his wand raised and shot a curse at Tonks. As he had expected, the girl was ready, and sent a hex his way before throwing herself to the floor and disappearing around the corner. Snape took cover and signalled to the other Death Eaters, who came then running into the corridor, one by one, flying curses in front of them to free their way -although there was nobody there. When the first Death Eater turned around the corner where Tonks had disappeared, he stopped dead in his tracks, what made the Death Eater following him crash into his back. The other Death Eaters, not seeing what was ahead and not expecting to find an obstacle, all hit the back of the man in front of them, and in the end there was a little black hill on the floor.

Snape came last, having waited to give the other Death Eaters some back cover, and stopped astounded when he saw the ruin. What was going on? A silent grunt made Snape's breath catch in his lungs. He didn't need to know what was awaiting them around the corner, he would never forget that languid menacing grunt until he died. Slowly, he raised his eyes to face the terrible monster: a gigantic three-headed dog. Snape cursed his luck, he had fought Fluffy before, and he hadn't come out of the fight very well served. In fact, he still wore the marks of the beast's teeth in his leg.

"Up, you fools!" He shouted. "That beast is going to eat us alive!"

The Death Eaters tried to stand and run for their lives, but they were tangled in each other's robes. Snape took off his mask and would have gladly taken off his clothes too. He was sweating. Then he started sending blocking hexes at the dog, but to no avail. Two of Fluffy's mouths were already munching something and blood was dripping to the floor.

The still uninjured Death Eaters started running back to the stairs they had taken to come up, and found their way blocked by aurors. They were trapped between the dog and the aurors, and they didn't know what could be worse. A bark behind them helped them clear their minds. The dog was definitely worse. The aurors would arrest them, not eat them.

The chaotic army of dark wizards conjured up some objects to give them some cover, formed a thick wall in the corridor and started hurtling hexes at the aurors, trying to free their way. In their fear of being devoured, they had all forgotten what they had come here for in the first place.

"Snape, what are we going to do?" Caesar's terrified voice asked. "We cannot leave my brother here, the Master will kill us all if we fail!"

Snape knew Caesar was right. The Master wouldn't be happy if they didn't bring Malfoy back. The rest of the Death Eaters sent to the mission were expendable, but Snape, as the man in charge, had to ensure that at least the two Malfoys, Pettigrew and himself made it out of this trap.

"Pettigrew!" Snape shouted, "go back and get Lucius!"

"What?" Pettigrew's eyes almost popped out of his mouth.

"We have to get Lucius! You are the only one who can pass by that dog without being killed. He won't even see a small rat."

"You are mad," Pettigrew managed to say.

"Imperio!" Caesar shouted suddenly, pointing his wand at Pettigrew. The man was immediately under the effects of the Unforgivable. "Turn into a rat and get my brother," Caesar ordered, and immediately the man disappeared and the rat stood in his place.

Snape and Caesar, protected by the wall of Death Eaters fighting the aurors, followed the rat to the corner and watched the small animal pass by happily munching Fluffy unharmed, reach a closed door, turn into a man, blast the door away and enter. Pettigrew came back a moment afterwards, carrying a surprised and weak Lucius by the arm.

"What is going on here?" Malfoy demanded angrily, but didn't wait for an answer: Fluffy had just turned around, and was studying them with interest. Pettigrew seemed to be glued to the floor, and he had a dead grip on Malfoy's that wouldn't let him run away either.

"Run, you fool!" Caesar shouted, and Pettigrew started to run, following his instructions, but to Snape's, Caesar's and specially Lucius' distress, he started running to Fluffy, not from him, and he was dragging Lucius along.

"Noooooooo!" Caesar shouted. "In the opposite direction! In the opposite direction!"

Pettigrew stopped and turned around like a robot. Then he started running away, this time from Fluffy. The dog, apparently thinking that this was only a play, started pursuing the fleeing men.

"Faster, faster!" Caesar shouted in despair.

Pettigrew run so fast that he could have won the gold medal in any Olympic race. Under the effects of the Imperius curse, he could do things that he wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. Lucius, though, was not under the Imperius curse, and he couldn't run as fast nor free himself from Pettigrew's iron grasp, so he ended up tripping and falling to the ground, taking Pettigrew down with him. Fluffy was almost on top of them.

"Get up! Get my brother and run! Run!" Caesar shouted once more. And then he added. "Snape, DO SOMETHING!"

"Shut up, I'm trying to concentrate!" Snape was trying to break the anti-apparating wards on the castle. They had Lucius. They had to leave. But the wards were Moody's, no doubt about that, Snape could recognise the old wizard's mark. To their right, the wall of Death Eaters was thinning at an alarming rate. The Dark Lord wouldn't be happy with this.

In front of them, Pettigrew had thrown Malfoy over his shoulder as if he was a doll and was running again, Lucius' long hair was sweeping the floor and the man had lost every ounce of decorum and was screaming like a banshee.

"Snape," Caesar shouted, "we have to follow them, quick!"

Caesar started running in pursuit of Pettigrew, Malfoy and Fluffy, who had reached the far corner of the corridor by now. Snape cursed. Caesar had broken his concentration once more. And then run after him, trying not to skip in the blood that darkened the floor or the pieces of bitten flesh left by Fluffy.

When they reached the corner, they could see Pettigrew turn the next corner, still carrying a screaming Malfoy, Fluffy in hot pursuit. Snape had the impression that the dog didn't really want to catch the running wizards. It was like a play for him. He was chasing them to have some fun and was in no hurry to catch them, because there was no other explanation for it. If Fluffy wanted to get the men, he would have done it by now.

Caesar and Snape sprinted once more along the corridor, this one shorter, and when they reached the end they thought things couldn't get worse. They had run all around the building, and in the other end of the corridor stood the aurors, still blocking the stairs and fighting the other Death Eaters. And Pettigrew was running straight at them! He was going to give them Malfoy back!

"Nooooo!" Caesar shouted once more. "Back, baaaaaaaaack!"

Pettigrew turned and started running back, to Fluffy.

"No, no, run from the dog, from the dog!"

Pettigrew turned once more, but he hadn't given a single step yet when Caesar's voice sent another counter-order.

"No, don't run to the aurors, don't run to the aurors!"

"Get ready to run, Caesar," Snape shouted before sending a flash of light and hitting Fluffy's hind legs. The dog stopped and turned back, mad at the two small black figures at the end of the corridor for hurting him. He forgot about playing and started chasing Caesar and Snape, this time in earnest. Pettigrew behind him, still carrying Lucius, who had almost slipped from his shoulder by now and was hitting his head against the floor with every step Pettigrew gave.

Snape and Caesar were not under the Imperius curse, and thus they couldn't reach Pettigrew's fantastic speed. They had to do more than run if they wanted to survive.

Snape noticed a small door that he hadn't seen before, and opening it with his wand took Caesar's arm and made him turn and crawl into the room just in time to avoid Fluffy's vicious teeth. The dog stooped at the door and introduced a gigantic paw, trying to catch the men. The door was really small, though, and Snape and Caesar could protect themselves in the corners for a while, trying to catch their breath.

"Why did you have to put him under the Imperius curse?" Snape said angrily.

"We had to get Lucius!" Caesar protested.

"Yes, and to get him we are going to sacrifice more than twenty Death Eaters. And let's hope we can make it out of here."

"I don't get it," Caesar said, "it was as if the aurors had been waiting for us. How could they have known we were coming?"

"I don't think they did," Snape said, and he really believed it, "they must have realised we would come sooner or later to rescue your brother, and they wanted to be ready just in case. There can be no other explanation for Moody being here."

Fluffy's big paw was still lashing about the room, trying to get them.

"What now?" Caesar asked.

"Now probably Pettigrew has reached the Death Eater's barrier and crossed it, running to the aurors, who will be probably welcoming him and Lucius with their arms open," said Snape exasperated.

"I don't mean that, I mean, how do we get out of here?"

"The wards, I almost had them when you interrupted me, I'll try it again. Maybe we can disapparate. Let me think for a moment."

Snape concentrated as hard as he could, searching for a way to dissolve Moody's anti-apparating ward.

Meanwhile, outside the door, Pettigrew was climbing on top of Fluffy, carrying a now unconscious Malfoy from an ankle, because the dog was blocking his way, and he couldn't obey the voice in his head that told him to run if he didn't reach the other side of this hairy mountain.

Snape opened his eyes. "Right, anti-apparating ward down, we'd better hurry and leave before the aurors realise and put it up again."

"But we can't leave my brother here!" Caesar protested.

"Fine," Snape said. "How about you find a solution for a change instead of whimpering like a little girl?"

Caesar glared at Snape, but didn't reply. There wasn't much he could have said anyway. The only decision he had taken so far was putting Pettigrew under the Imperius curse, and it didn't seem to have had the wished for effect.

Just then luck seemed to smile at them. It was a small smile, but it was there nonetheless. Something had distracted Fluffy and the dog had taken his paw out of the room, although he wasn't walking away either. Snape and Caesar approached the door carefully, each from one side, and looked outside.

"Oh, no!" Caesar cried out in disbelieve as he saw Fluffy's heads snapping at Pettigrew and Lucius. It seemed the dog had finally noticed the strange weight on top of him.

Snape stared too. That proved his theory that an idiot was always an idiot, under the Imperius curse or not.

Caesar stepped outside the room only to fall down immediately, struck by an stunning spell.

Snape stepped back immediately as an ear-splitting noise pierced his ears. If there was music in hell, it had to be this.

To his astonishment, Lucius Malfoy stepped inside the room as fresh as a rose, well, with some cuts and bruises, but definitely looking much better than the last time Severus had seen him: just a moment ago, unconscious and hanging from Pettigrew's hand, who was grabbing his ankle with one hand and trying to defend himself from Fluffy with the other.

"What the..."

"Shhhh! It's me, Shacklebolt!" The new Lucius mouthed, more than said. Nothing would have carried above the hellish noise outside the room.

"What?" Snape couldn't believe his eyes.

"I'm going to infiltrate the Death Eaters. You'll have to make the Polyjuice Potion for me." The auror said, and showed him Lucius' wonderful mane in his hand.

"Are you mad?" Snape shouted, all precaution forgotten. "Do you know the risk you are going to run?"

Shacklebolt nodded. "The war has started, Snape, and Dumbledore wants more men near Voldemort. I volunteered."

"Yes, you are mad," Snape answered his own question, shaking his head in disbelieve. "Even if you could fool the other Death Eaters, Voldemort will recognise you the moment he sees you. You don't have the Dark Mark!"

Lucius-Shacklebolt smiled at Snape and shoved his robes up his arm. The Dark Mark was there.

"How..." Snape was speechless.

"Dumbledore knows some very powerful people. Someone made an ointment. I just have to spread it on my arm once every two or three days, and the mark will stay. We are not sure yet, of course, but we think I should be able to feel Voldemort's summon. If not, I'll just have to run for my life." The auror explained as if he was talking about the weather.

Snape couldn't even react for a moment.

"Madness," he finally said. "This is madness."

Shacklebolt grimaced at him and shrugged. "We have no time for discussion here. You grab the younger Malfoy and I grab Pettigrew. He fainted when I stunned Caesar and broke the Imperius curse on him, I guess it must have been the shock of realising he was sitting on top of a three-headed dog."

"What about the dog and that horrible sound?" Snape asked, shaking his head in the noise direction.

"Follow me and you'll see," Shacklebolt said.

They stepped outside the room and Snape saw to his left Hagrid playing a flute. Fluffy was snoring peacefully at his feet. Hogwart's gamekeeper nodded in Snape's direction, but went on playing the flute without interruption.

"Remember me to tell the Headmaster to make Hagrid take some lessons before ever getting close to an instrument again," Snape said.

Dedalus Diggle was on the other side of Fluffy, keeping an eye on an unconscious Pettigrew while Hestia Jones levitated the unconscious and battered body of the real Lucius Malfoy, now with very short hair. Snape grabbed the young Malfoy and waited for Shacklebolt, who went to grab Pettigrew.

"What will happen to the true Malfoy?" Snape asked.

"He'll be kept here. Castle Heathcliff has proved to be a safe prison after all, and it's not as if Voldemort is going to come and search for him again, because if everything goes according to plan, they will think I am Lucius Malfoy, and you don't search for someone you think is by your side."

Snape shook his head, wondering what was going on in Dumbledore's head lately. Maybe the man was getting too old. His ideas were getting wilder and wilder everyday. The problem was that everybody seemed to be glad to follow his instructions without doubting them.

"Did you put the anti-apparating ward down?" Shacklebolt asked.

Snape nodded.

"Well, let's get out of here," Shacklebolt said, and with a popping noise disappeared to Malfoy Manor, carrying Pettigrew with him. Snape followed him.

Diggle and Jones hurried to bind Malfoy and hide him in a small room behind a portrait, and then alerted the other aurors that the plan had worked: they still had the real Malfoy and Snape had left with Shacklebolt.

"Now!" Moody's voice ordered, and suddenly more and more aurors started to come out of closed rooms along the corridor, with their wands pointed at the Death Eaters.

"Surrender your wands!" He shouted to the Death Eaters.

"Moody..." Tonks said to his right. "You want to get your eyes checked. Both. There is only one Death Eater standing."

Moody blinked rapidly several times and then looked again, in the middle of the corridor, a single figure stood, shaking, with his arms raised in surrender.

"Ah, right you are, Tonks, right you are. I was seeing double."

The aurors who had faced the Death Eaters together with Moody and Tonks let themselves fall to the ground, trying to catch their breath and checking their injuries. There were some aurors down, but it seemed none of them was dead.

The aurors who had just come out of their hiding places started separating the fallen Death Eaters and binding them before carrying them to a room where Dumbledore and the Minister would question them later.

***

Snape apparated a few inches from the fake Lucius, who was looking at Malfoy Manor with his mouth open. Shacklebolt let go a whistle.

"Well, that Malfoy knows how to live," he said, "I've been studying drawings of the house to be able to walk freely around without arousing suspicions, but I never thought it would be so impressive."

Snape was very nervous. This couldn't end well. "Listen, Sha-Lucius, if you don't find a room or someone finds you in a strange place, just say you got lost. I will tell them that you've suffered a slight commotion and you might have problems remembering some things. Caesar will confirm my words. He saw his brother's head bumping against the floor too."

Shacklebolt nodded.

"I'll give you another potion mixed with the Polyjuice, just to disguise the smell and the colour of the Polyjuice, Mrs. Malfoy could be familiar with it. It's a revitalising potion, but I'm not sure if it could have side effects mixed with the Polyjuice. If you feel bad, dizzy... or if you notice anything else, just let me know immediately, ok?"

"Right," Shacklebolt nodded.

"Ok, I'll stun you now."

"What?"

"I'll stun you now and then ennervate Caesar. It would seem a little bit strange that you could be able to walk normally to the house after what Pettigrew just put you through. We'll take you to the house unconscious and lay you in bed, and you'd better stay there a couple of days. Otherwise, someone could get suspicious."

"Right," Shacklebolt said.

"Give me the hair first," Snape said, extending his hand.

"What?"

"Malfoy's hair, it would be difficult to explain if someone found it on you," Snape explained in an annoyed tone.

"Oh, right, and I must take his wand too." Shacklebolt took Malfoy's hair out of a pocket and handed it to Snape, and then took a wand out of another and put his inside. "Secret pocket," he said smiling.

Snape shook his head. How strange was it to see Lucius smiling like that. Shacklebolt would be discovered in less than an hour. At least the Master couldn't blame him for rescuing an impostor, although he wouldn't be happy with it, and even less with loosing a good part of his new army of young Death Eaters... Well, the Dark Lord would make Snape pay sooner or later, no sense in worrying about it now.

Shacklebolt was looking at Snape, waiting for him to come out of his musings.

"Sweet dreams," Snape said in a not very convincing tone, and stunned Shacklebolt. Then he ennervated Caesar.

"What... what happened?" The young wizard asked, rubbing the back of his head and looking around with a pained expression.

"We are back at Malfoy Manor," Snape explained, "but I'm afraid the others have been captured by the aurors."

"Oh, no!" Caesar cried out, "the Master is going to kill us for loosing him his new precious soldiers."

"It's not our fault that he sent us with a bunch of kids," Snape said, "if he had let some of the other older Death Eaters come with us, we might have come back in a better shape and maybe even have captured some aurors. Those kids panicked, and I don't blame them. If my first mission had been like this, I would have probably been captured too. And it's not as if we took the time to give them orders, we were too busy running after that dog... of from it!" Snape run a hand through his tangled hair in despair.

Caesar just nodded, and stood slowly, cleaning his clothes of the earth settled there. "What about them?" He asked emotionless, pointing at Pettigrew and Lucius.

"We'd better levitate them into the house," Snape said, "I'm not sure they will be up to much walking."

With a tired nod, Caesar took his wand and started levitating the impostor Lucius back to Malfoy Manor while Snape followed, wondering if he could let Pettigrew fall a couple of times along the way without arousing Caesar's suspicions. He could always say that he was too tired to concentrate properly.

*****

Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks all for reading and reviewing!

Sorry about this chapter. I don't know why, but yesterday I was in a very strange mood. I seemed to find everything funny. :D The scene of Malfoy's rescue should have been only two or three pages long, but when Fluffly suddenly appeared into the story, I lost control on things. If you've laughed just a bit while reading this chapter, I'll be happy for the rest of the week!

In the following chapter, we'll go back to Yamiko's house and we'll attend -finally- the promised duelling class with Lupin.

Iniysa: Thanks for reviewing again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter too.

Lupin: Aaaaaaah! Yes, chapters have to end somewhere, that's the problem. But you have no reason to complain: in this chapter there has been finally some more action. :D

dweem-angel: Thanks! I haven't been very busy at work lately, but that could change, so I try to write as much as I can now that I have the time. ;-)

violet_yukina: Thanks! What did you think of this chapter?

IhateCho: Thanks for your flame, it was very inspiring. The moment I read it, I had an idea for another fic! It will be short and I'll try to have it up this week. It's about the new sweet little innocent Umbridge -as you suggested. :D As I've said before, I'm not trying to guess what will happen in the 6th book. I'm just using Rowling's characters to have some fun, and yes, I take the liberty of changing them a bit as I see fit. I don't think Cho and Harry will end up together in Rowling's books, but in this fic, they probably will. If you don't like my fic, nobody is making you read it.

Kadi Rilla Wholi: Ok, ok, chocolate frogs for you then. :-) Well, if Bantu's prophecy is right, yes, I'll have to kill my girls. But don't worry, I'll let them have some fun first. :D I'm telling nothing about the baby yet. ;-)

Makalani Astral: Harry hasn't really found the moment to speak with Sirius and Lupin. To tell you the truth, he doesn't really want to. It's hard for him to admit he will have to kill Voldemort or be killed by him in the end.

hermionegreen: Yes, the Chosen Five know about Bantu's prophecy. Yamiko would have wanted to warn them, just in case. And yes, Yamiko has told them everything she knows.

LyssasPen: Thank you! Some more humour in this chapter, I hope you liked Fluffy's short appearance. ;-)