Thank you to anna may, Corgi1, Harry's Muggle Sister, Perry, Ms. Padfoot,
Illucia2, Starlina, Chaos Kid, athenakitty, Tenshi-Chikyuu, Madame Moony,
sparkle-2oo3, kangaroo, Barbara and Serpent of Light for reviewing.
Hold On
Chapter 5 - Hard Decisions
It was dead silent, the only noise that could be heard was the slight echo Severus' shoes were making as they hit the ground.
Harry, who had begun weighing basically nothing when he had started to run, was now starting to get heavier. He thought about putting him down and running himself, but he knew the boy wouldn't be able to keep up.
He had been running for a good two hours before he finally saw the end of the tunnel, only to see that it was a dead end.
Sirius hadn't said anything about that.
Severus slowed down and glared at the stone wall, willing it to just move and let them through. There wasn't any other way that they could have gone besides this way and he doubted Sirius would have led them down here to escape if there was no way out. Well maybe if it were just him, but not when Harry's life could depend on it.
Severus placed one hand up against the cool wall and slowly placed pressure on it, making sure it was indeed there and not an illusion of some sort.
Harry shuffled slightly in his arm that he was balancing him with and Severus quickly looked at him.
He had assumed that Harry had just fallen asleep again, he hadn't heard a word from the boy at all.
Severus bent down and placed him on the ground, and took out the jacket that he had been able to take before he left. He dropped it in front of Harry. He could tell the only reason Harry hadn't been freezing before was the fact that his body heat had been keeping warm, but as now he was already starting to shake.
"Put the jacket on." Severus then turned back to the wall. He would have just put a charm on Harry's clothes to keep him warm, but he felt it was best to not use magic unless it was absolutely necessary.
He stared at the cracks in the wall closely, thankful for the unnatural dull light that was coming from all around them. It was impossible to know what time it was, but Severus would estimate it at around six to seven in the morning.
Severus continued to look at each and every mark he could see on the wall, but everything looked normal. No clues as to what he could do to get past it. He noticed a square box on the ground that came up to his knees in the corner of the wall, almost hidden. But soon after carefully analyzing it, he couldn't see anything that could help him to get past the wall.
Using his wand could alert anyone that was tracking their magic, he was sure they would be in the middle of nowhere, especially since Sirius said they would end up in a forest somewhere, and in the off chance the Death Eaters were using a spell to track their magic, it wasn't safe to use it. Not yet anyway.
***
After staring at the wall for over an hour Severus' anger was barely controlled. Why had Sirius not told him what to do? They could have been out by now, been somewhere safe. But no, would he tell him something as important as this? Of course not!
Severus snarled and punched the wall in anger, and bit his lip at the curses that almost flew through his lips and he felt the pain pounding from his hand. But through the pain, he felt a bit of satisfaction, it was good to let some of his anger out. But finding a better way of doing it was definitely a good idea.
He stood rigid and tried to think of something that would help calm him down, anger would not help him find a way out. He needed to keep his head.
Finally Severus thought of something that would help calm his down, he pictured in his mind Sirius, smiling his absolutely goofy smile, and then Severus pictured his hands around his neck.
Severus almost smiled, that was definitely something he would have to do once he got out of this place.
He opened his eyes again and found himself staring at the wall. His anger started to return, but not so much that he felt like punching the wall again.
He turned and looked at Harry, seeing him staring wide-eyed back at him. "Don't look at me." Severus hissed at him, he turned away but could still feel his eyes on him, burning into his back. Seeing those eyes in his mind that reminded him so much of Lily.
Severus defiantly stared at the wall, willing himself to think solely on getting past the wall and not on the small boy beside him. Finally he quickly looked at him, and saw that Harry wasn't looking at him, but was oddly transfixed on the ceiling above them.
Severus cast one more odd look at Harry before looking up himself.
***
Sirius dodged a curse and was able to twist his body around and shoot his own curse off. He did a quick survey of the situation and found it wasn't quite as bad as he had thought. There had only been four Death Eaters, and currently two were unconscious on the ground.
Sirius heard the faint sound of a hushed spell and looked up to see ten razor sharp knifes coming towards him. He dropped to the floor, hoping to avoid most of them and tried to put a blocking spell up but he felt a knife slice through his upper arm.
Sirius winced, but didn't think about the pain as he went into attack mode.
After only another few minutes he was able to stun the Death Eater, and then there was only one left. With two onto one, Sirius and Remus were easily able to disarm and stun him.
They stood for a moment after the last one hit the floor, catching their breath and waiting for their heart rates to slow down again.
Finally Sirius started to take off each Death Eater mask, hoping to find Pettigrew, but he didn't. He didn't even recognize one of them.
Sighing out loud, Sirius stood back up and looked over at Remus. "Come on, we should get out of here."
"Wait, do you hear that?" Remus held his hand up to signal for Sirius to stop moving.
After a few minutes without a single word from Remus, Sirius started to feel a bit anxious. "What is it Moony?"
"There's more."
"More?" Sirius' eyes widened.
"The second wave has arrived." Remus whispered, as if repeating something he was hearing.
"We should get out of here Moony, fast."
"Sirius..." Remus looked at Sirius, his face completely serious. "I heard him."
"You heard who?"
"Pettigrew, he's here."
Sirius took a sharp intake of breath.
"If we hurry, we can get out of here Padfoot, but if we stay-"
"How many are with him?" Sirius cut Remus off.
"I can't be sure, ten or twelve I would say."
Sirius looked down the hallway where he had sent Severus and Harry down, broken portraits and curse marks now covered the area. The decision that they had to make was almost overwhelming, leave now and remain safe, but losing Pettigrew. Or staying, fighting to what would seem like death and maybe getting the chance to give Pettigrew what he deserved.
Sirius looked at Remus and could tell the same thoughts were going through his mind.
Finally Remus looked up and they both stared at each other, silently agreeing to the same thing. They knew what they had to do, and even if they had to, they would die trying.
Both Sirius and Remus pointed their wands towards the slightly beaten open doorway, the only way through to where they were and prepared for the attack they were sure to get any minute.
Seconds past and Remus sniffed again, his body tensing was enough to tell Sirius they were close.
Sirius nodded at Remus, almost as if it was a goodbye, and Remus did the same. They already had injuries from the previous fight, and although there weren't life threatening, any good dueler would be able to use it to their advantage.
Sirius muttered a spell, strengthening the now weak shield around them and no sooner had he gotten the words out, had a curse come flying towards him from through the open doorway.
They were here.
***
Severus looked up and the ceiling was very dark, but he was able to make out an end of a spiral staircase.
He growled out loud in frustration, here he had wasted precious time trying to get past the wall, and he hadn't even looked properly at his surroundings. Why hadn't he looked up earlier? It seemed like an obvious thing to do now. And of course they were bound to have to go back up sometime, they were far underground now, and unless the ground level was severely low here, they would have to get higher.
Severus tried with as much dignity as he could to grab the end of the last stair, hoping that he could maybe pulled it down lower, but he was unable to reach it, even with his height.
He looked around again, his eyes resting on Harry, who was again watching him. He resisted the urge to snap at him again, and instead he looked away, but in doing so his eyes fell onto the square box he had seen before.
Narrowing his eyes, he walked over to it and dragged it over so that it was directly under the staircase. It seemed sturdy enough to hold him, so he slowly stepped on it, trying with just one foot at first before putting his other on there as well.
With the added height he was able to easily grab the bottom of the staircase and he was in fact right, it did come down. He pulled until he was unable to go any further as the box was stopping it and then he stepped down.
He pulled the box away and then pulled the staircase down the remaining length, feeling a smile wanting to grace his lips at hearing the soft bang against the ground as it roughly hit. He indicated for Harry to get up and start walking up them.
Looking up he could see that although it was quite dark up there, there was just enough light to make things out.
He looked back over to Harry and saw that he had only just gone up a few steps. Why must the boy try his patience now?
Severus thought about just passing him and continuing on at his own pace, but then he would end up waiting at the top for him, and the slow pace that he was traveling at now was enough to flare his anger up. So without warning Harry at all, Severus picked him up from behind and walked up the stairs, not as fast as he would be going if he wasn't holding Harry, but a lot faster then if he had to wait for Harry to walk it himself.
Luckily this wasn't nearly as long as what their first walk had been when they were going down the stairs, probably due to the fact that this time they were going straight up.
He saw a large open doorway and through it he could see the forest and the sun brightly shining out. It must be late morning by now.
He slowly stepped out from the stairs and onto the forest bed, careful to make sure nobody around was going to attack them. He then heard Harry gasp. He looked back over from where they had come from to see what Harry was gasping at, and all that he saw behind them was a tree. Feeling it, it was completely solid. There was definitely no going back now.
He looked down at Harry and saw him slowly looking around, squinting his eyes from the sudden brightness that surrounded them.
Severus thought about where he should go. Surely there would be people watching Hogwarts, and the places around it. It was an obvious place to go. He could think of only one place, and he just hoped that it would still be safe.
No one had seen him with Harry, therefore it was logical to assume that no one knew that he was now looking after Harry.
So without thinking about it any further, he apparated with Harry, to his own home, hoping that they would be safe there.
Hold On
Chapter 5 - Hard Decisions
It was dead silent, the only noise that could be heard was the slight echo Severus' shoes were making as they hit the ground.
Harry, who had begun weighing basically nothing when he had started to run, was now starting to get heavier. He thought about putting him down and running himself, but he knew the boy wouldn't be able to keep up.
He had been running for a good two hours before he finally saw the end of the tunnel, only to see that it was a dead end.
Sirius hadn't said anything about that.
Severus slowed down and glared at the stone wall, willing it to just move and let them through. There wasn't any other way that they could have gone besides this way and he doubted Sirius would have led them down here to escape if there was no way out. Well maybe if it were just him, but not when Harry's life could depend on it.
Severus placed one hand up against the cool wall and slowly placed pressure on it, making sure it was indeed there and not an illusion of some sort.
Harry shuffled slightly in his arm that he was balancing him with and Severus quickly looked at him.
He had assumed that Harry had just fallen asleep again, he hadn't heard a word from the boy at all.
Severus bent down and placed him on the ground, and took out the jacket that he had been able to take before he left. He dropped it in front of Harry. He could tell the only reason Harry hadn't been freezing before was the fact that his body heat had been keeping warm, but as now he was already starting to shake.
"Put the jacket on." Severus then turned back to the wall. He would have just put a charm on Harry's clothes to keep him warm, but he felt it was best to not use magic unless it was absolutely necessary.
He stared at the cracks in the wall closely, thankful for the unnatural dull light that was coming from all around them. It was impossible to know what time it was, but Severus would estimate it at around six to seven in the morning.
Severus continued to look at each and every mark he could see on the wall, but everything looked normal. No clues as to what he could do to get past it. He noticed a square box on the ground that came up to his knees in the corner of the wall, almost hidden. But soon after carefully analyzing it, he couldn't see anything that could help him to get past the wall.
Using his wand could alert anyone that was tracking their magic, he was sure they would be in the middle of nowhere, especially since Sirius said they would end up in a forest somewhere, and in the off chance the Death Eaters were using a spell to track their magic, it wasn't safe to use it. Not yet anyway.
***
After staring at the wall for over an hour Severus' anger was barely controlled. Why had Sirius not told him what to do? They could have been out by now, been somewhere safe. But no, would he tell him something as important as this? Of course not!
Severus snarled and punched the wall in anger, and bit his lip at the curses that almost flew through his lips and he felt the pain pounding from his hand. But through the pain, he felt a bit of satisfaction, it was good to let some of his anger out. But finding a better way of doing it was definitely a good idea.
He stood rigid and tried to think of something that would help calm him down, anger would not help him find a way out. He needed to keep his head.
Finally Severus thought of something that would help calm his down, he pictured in his mind Sirius, smiling his absolutely goofy smile, and then Severus pictured his hands around his neck.
Severus almost smiled, that was definitely something he would have to do once he got out of this place.
He opened his eyes again and found himself staring at the wall. His anger started to return, but not so much that he felt like punching the wall again.
He turned and looked at Harry, seeing him staring wide-eyed back at him. "Don't look at me." Severus hissed at him, he turned away but could still feel his eyes on him, burning into his back. Seeing those eyes in his mind that reminded him so much of Lily.
Severus defiantly stared at the wall, willing himself to think solely on getting past the wall and not on the small boy beside him. Finally he quickly looked at him, and saw that Harry wasn't looking at him, but was oddly transfixed on the ceiling above them.
Severus cast one more odd look at Harry before looking up himself.
***
Sirius dodged a curse and was able to twist his body around and shoot his own curse off. He did a quick survey of the situation and found it wasn't quite as bad as he had thought. There had only been four Death Eaters, and currently two were unconscious on the ground.
Sirius heard the faint sound of a hushed spell and looked up to see ten razor sharp knifes coming towards him. He dropped to the floor, hoping to avoid most of them and tried to put a blocking spell up but he felt a knife slice through his upper arm.
Sirius winced, but didn't think about the pain as he went into attack mode.
After only another few minutes he was able to stun the Death Eater, and then there was only one left. With two onto one, Sirius and Remus were easily able to disarm and stun him.
They stood for a moment after the last one hit the floor, catching their breath and waiting for their heart rates to slow down again.
Finally Sirius started to take off each Death Eater mask, hoping to find Pettigrew, but he didn't. He didn't even recognize one of them.
Sighing out loud, Sirius stood back up and looked over at Remus. "Come on, we should get out of here."
"Wait, do you hear that?" Remus held his hand up to signal for Sirius to stop moving.
After a few minutes without a single word from Remus, Sirius started to feel a bit anxious. "What is it Moony?"
"There's more."
"More?" Sirius' eyes widened.
"The second wave has arrived." Remus whispered, as if repeating something he was hearing.
"We should get out of here Moony, fast."
"Sirius..." Remus looked at Sirius, his face completely serious. "I heard him."
"You heard who?"
"Pettigrew, he's here."
Sirius took a sharp intake of breath.
"If we hurry, we can get out of here Padfoot, but if we stay-"
"How many are with him?" Sirius cut Remus off.
"I can't be sure, ten or twelve I would say."
Sirius looked down the hallway where he had sent Severus and Harry down, broken portraits and curse marks now covered the area. The decision that they had to make was almost overwhelming, leave now and remain safe, but losing Pettigrew. Or staying, fighting to what would seem like death and maybe getting the chance to give Pettigrew what he deserved.
Sirius looked at Remus and could tell the same thoughts were going through his mind.
Finally Remus looked up and they both stared at each other, silently agreeing to the same thing. They knew what they had to do, and even if they had to, they would die trying.
Both Sirius and Remus pointed their wands towards the slightly beaten open doorway, the only way through to where they were and prepared for the attack they were sure to get any minute.
Seconds past and Remus sniffed again, his body tensing was enough to tell Sirius they were close.
Sirius nodded at Remus, almost as if it was a goodbye, and Remus did the same. They already had injuries from the previous fight, and although there weren't life threatening, any good dueler would be able to use it to their advantage.
Sirius muttered a spell, strengthening the now weak shield around them and no sooner had he gotten the words out, had a curse come flying towards him from through the open doorway.
They were here.
***
Severus looked up and the ceiling was very dark, but he was able to make out an end of a spiral staircase.
He growled out loud in frustration, here he had wasted precious time trying to get past the wall, and he hadn't even looked properly at his surroundings. Why hadn't he looked up earlier? It seemed like an obvious thing to do now. And of course they were bound to have to go back up sometime, they were far underground now, and unless the ground level was severely low here, they would have to get higher.
Severus tried with as much dignity as he could to grab the end of the last stair, hoping that he could maybe pulled it down lower, but he was unable to reach it, even with his height.
He looked around again, his eyes resting on Harry, who was again watching him. He resisted the urge to snap at him again, and instead he looked away, but in doing so his eyes fell onto the square box he had seen before.
Narrowing his eyes, he walked over to it and dragged it over so that it was directly under the staircase. It seemed sturdy enough to hold him, so he slowly stepped on it, trying with just one foot at first before putting his other on there as well.
With the added height he was able to easily grab the bottom of the staircase and he was in fact right, it did come down. He pulled until he was unable to go any further as the box was stopping it and then he stepped down.
He pulled the box away and then pulled the staircase down the remaining length, feeling a smile wanting to grace his lips at hearing the soft bang against the ground as it roughly hit. He indicated for Harry to get up and start walking up them.
Looking up he could see that although it was quite dark up there, there was just enough light to make things out.
He looked back over to Harry and saw that he had only just gone up a few steps. Why must the boy try his patience now?
Severus thought about just passing him and continuing on at his own pace, but then he would end up waiting at the top for him, and the slow pace that he was traveling at now was enough to flare his anger up. So without warning Harry at all, Severus picked him up from behind and walked up the stairs, not as fast as he would be going if he wasn't holding Harry, but a lot faster then if he had to wait for Harry to walk it himself.
Luckily this wasn't nearly as long as what their first walk had been when they were going down the stairs, probably due to the fact that this time they were going straight up.
He saw a large open doorway and through it he could see the forest and the sun brightly shining out. It must be late morning by now.
He slowly stepped out from the stairs and onto the forest bed, careful to make sure nobody around was going to attack them. He then heard Harry gasp. He looked back over from where they had come from to see what Harry was gasping at, and all that he saw behind them was a tree. Feeling it, it was completely solid. There was definitely no going back now.
He looked down at Harry and saw him slowly looking around, squinting his eyes from the sudden brightness that surrounded them.
Severus thought about where he should go. Surely there would be people watching Hogwarts, and the places around it. It was an obvious place to go. He could think of only one place, and he just hoped that it would still be safe.
No one had seen him with Harry, therefore it was logical to assume that no one knew that he was now looking after Harry.
So without thinking about it any further, he apparated with Harry, to his own home, hoping that they would be safe there.