"Damn it! If only my ankles were undone. This would be a sight easier." Desi was grateful she'd decided to do something stupid and braid her hair back this morning. She hated doing it, but it was out of her face, which made this easier. Sweat dripped from her nose, and every sound of scurrying animals or insects made her jump.

Her students weren't doing too well either. Harry sounded like he was ready to have a minor heart attack every time he heard a noise, and Draco had been too quiet for too long.

Finally, her heel hooked on a wrist. Although she could feel the tearing pain in her left shoulder grow and whacked her jaw with her knee, she finally managed to bring both ankles through the loop in her arms. This put Desi's hands directly in front of her and within reach of her ankles. Within seconds, she'd managed to undo the simple knots in the rope. A minute later, and she had both students untied, with Draco finally undoing the knot on her wrists. Massaging both ankles so she could stand, Desi finally made her way to the low counter space by the door, hands stumbling in their search for a candle, matches, anything to light the room.

Draco opened a side cupboard door and handed her the desired materials. When she looked at him cautiously, he shrugged. "When my father had company, I came down here to hide. Since I couldn't do magic at home, I kept a supply of candles down here.

She could have kissed the young wizard.

Striking the match, she lit a candle and began to pour over the bottles in the apothecary. Ingredients and common potion bottles were everywhere. Some she had to open and smell to get an idea of what they were. Others were labeled clearly.

None of them were what she needed.

Her mind raced. The ingredients were there, but she had no way to brew it. However, she didn't have much of a choice. Or time to brew anything.

"Harry, get me one tablespoon of powdered root of asphodel from that cupboard there. Draco, I need about half a cup of dragon bile and six peeled shrivelfigs." She herself began clumsily grinding some crushed snake fangs in a mortar; doing things with only one arm was difficult at best. Within moments, the two students had the ingredients. Reaching for a bottle of mandrake juice and a container of leech juice, Desi began stirring the ingredients in a small dusty cauldron Harry found in the corner.

Please let this work.

After a few moments of stirring, she grabbed a bottle, filled it from the small amount in the cauldron, and brought it to her lips. "Here goes nothing."

The potion slid down her throat, coating her stomach as it went. The texture was vile, the taste was worse. She wanted to gag. Within seconds, the fuzzy spot in her head vanished.

"I'm not letting the two of you touch that," she declared, looking at the two pairs of eyes watching her in the candlelight. "Not until I know it's safe. Just because it's working now doesn't mean anything. Now, about this door..."

"Without a way to get into Malfoy's home, how do we even know whether or not Desi is even still there?" Snape had returned to pacing, this time with the Headmaster as a witness as well, wringing his hands with every step. The necklace sat on a table, where all three men in the room could watch it intently.

Lupin joined him, pacing on the other side of the room, running his hands through his hair absent-mindedly. "If she wasn't, I doubt the place would be sealed off from the network. Des is there; I know it. Someone's keeping her there, but for the life of me I can't think why. But blocking off a location from the Floo Network without going through the proper channels takes effort..."

Dumbledore raged inside his mind despite the serenity he showed both men. He should have listened to Severus. He shouldn't have sent Desdemona to the Manor. He shouldn't have sent the students, no matter how hard Harry had begged him to go. He shouldn't have gotten this insane idea in the first place.

However, moments like this were where the Mark would be useful.

He hated himself for that fleeting thought. Here he sat, his beloved granddaughter in trouble, and he was trying to rationalize a decision he'd made that she disagreed with.

Snape continued pacing, muttering to himself. "Well, let's think about this for a second. Lucius is in Azkaban and Narcissa's likely to be there with him, since visiting hours are far from over. Who could possibly be holding her there? Not Draco; he wouldn't know how to block the fireplace. Not Potter, for more reasons than we can list. I doubt the house-elves are sad to see Lucius gone; even the LeStranges treated theirs better than he did his own. Who's left?"

Dumbledore took a deep breath. "If Harry was correct, and Voldemort knew..."

Lupin shook his head. "How would you-know-who know they were going to be there? That doesn't make any..."

All three men were silenced and riveted as the necklace they watched faded from a glowing scarlet-red to a pale and pulsing yellow. "What does that mean?" Snape whispered, his voice echoing off the walls as if he'd shouted. "What in bloody hell does that color mean?"

Lupin gave a sigh of relief. Thank the Gods. "Whatever danger she was just in, she's not in as deeply."

"Well, that's a relief. Cryptic as hell, but a relief."

Five spells later, Desi was running out of ways to remove the Sealing Charm without her wand. All of her spells backfired. She'd especially loved being launched across the room and colliding with the stone wall. Did wonders for her left shoulder, which was screaming in agony. Besides blowing the door up, which she didn't think possible given the limited combustible material in the small room, she was running out of options.

"Great. Just great." Harry snorted, looking at Draco with contempt in his eyes. "Your father wouldn't happen to have any Dark Arts toys lying around in here, would he? He did kind of go for that thing, you know."

Draco came within a hair of hitting him. "Just because my parents weren't good little saints who managed to get themselves killed so righteously..."

Harry actually took a swing at his nemesis. "Shut up, Malfoy!"

"STOP!" Both wizards held their fists in mid-air and gaped at their professor, who just looked as if she'd had the greatest idea of her life. Seeing the pair of them about to go at each other lit a fire in the back of her pain-dulled mind. "The two of you, insult me."

They continued to stare, dumbfounded.

Desi groaned. "I mean it, you two. Insult me. Badger me. Get me angry. Do it!"

Harry stumbled for words. "Um...you're a lousy teacher?"

Draco laughed. "Yeah, right Potter. That'll work."

Harry looked ready to swing at him again. "Right, then. You do better."

Draco swallowed before opening his mouth. When would be the next chance he'd get to tell a professor exactly what he felt, right? "You have lousy taste in men."

Desi glared at him.

When he realized this was what she really wanted him to do, he kept going. "Well, I'm sorry, but Snape? Are you into guys who dress as if it's still the 19th century and spend all their free time reading archaic books on boring subjects? The man is a relic and a case study in angst; he hates damn near everyone and everything in this world. And you come along and get the hots for him? What are you into, boring guys who can cure your insomnia? You're not ugly, certainly you can choose someone with better looks. And you're not boring or annoying; definitely you can pull someone with a better disposition. But Snape? You have to be completely insane, or blind, or really twisted to go for him."

Desi glowered at her student.

Draco continued, getting braver every second, but out of things to say. "And I'm sorry, but scarlet red does nothing for you. It washes you out. Try wearing something deeper, like some green. It'd do wonders for your hair. Which, by the way, you should get cut. Long hair isn't working with you."

Harry finally felt brave enough to open his own mouth. Somehow, insulting her love life and fashion sense wasn't quite his thing. Besides, he knew things about her Malfoy didn't dream about. "Why were you such a coward to hide in America for twenty years, anyway? If you were so innocent, why run? If the Ministry believed you, why stay there? You think you're so powerful, so capable. How can we believe you? You were such a coward. You ran away from Slytherin, you ran away from Hogwarts, you ran away from the Order, and you ran away from your family. How can you even claim to be the granddaughter of the most incredible wizard alive today?"

Desi looked ready to hit him.

He continued, after seeing the look of respect and shock from Draco's face. Or maybe it was confusion, since he likely had no clue what he was ranting about. He couldn't tell. "You act so self-righteous all the time, like you know how to choose right and wrong. How many times have you made the right decision? From what you told me, you've screwed up one time too many. You tell your students we can change the course of our lives, but you're too scared to change much of anything. You act so perfect, so capable, when in reality all you do is hide behind your grandfather and cling to the past that you're too scared to face! You're no better than a little girl hiding behind your mum."

Draco had no idea whatsoever of what Potter was rambling on about, but it was severely pissing off their professor. "And coming on to the creep who tied us up and left us here didn't exactly help matters much." He laughed half-heartedly.

Desi finally exploded. "I was NOT coming on to him! I was not hiding! And I am not a scared little girl!" With a scream and a gesture, the door flew off its hinges.

Draco and Harry jumped. Desi sighed deeply, straightening her robes and composing herself. "Well, Papa always said my temper would one day be an asset." She pointed to the hallway. "Care to lead us out of here, Draco?"

"How in the bloody hell..." Draco's voice trailed off as he stepped through the charred remains of the doorway.

Desi just grinned. "The more upset I get, the stronger I get, and the less I need a wand. My mother was the same way. Figured it might work now."

As the two students walked by, Harry looked at his professor sheepishly. "I didn't mean what I said. I want you to know that."

She smiled weakly, taking a deep breath. "I know."

Draco called from halfway down the passage. "Well, I don't mind your long hair, but I meant the bit about Snape. You have horrible taste in men. The image of the two of you getting it on after hours will haunt my nightmares for years."

The three of them made their way back into the study, where they found their wands waiting for them on the mantle. "Idiot. Total and complete moronic idiot. Yes, let's leave the wands of three locked up prisoners where they could find them if needed. Twit. Imbecile." Desi continued to insult Pettigrew in colorful and impressive ways as she doled out wands and headed back to the fireplace they'd arrived in, where she grabbed a handful of Floo Powder and attempted to send herself back to Hogwarts.

Instead, she flew across the room, hitting her head on the stone wall behind her.

"What in bloody hell...?" She moaned as Harry and Draco helped her back on her feet.

The cryptic relief didn't last. The charm suddenly returned to its previous red glow with no warning whatsoever. All three men jumped at the sight.

"I'm going out there."

Lupin rolled his eyes at the man raging in the Headmaster's office. "Is that really a good idea? For all we know, you'd be walking into a trap. What are you going to do? Where are you going to go? Think, if only for a second! We know she's in trouble, but storming in without a plan is a sure way to get her deeper in it. Just step back and think."

"You want me to think at a time like this?" Snape roared.

Lupin began to wonder if the man only had two levels of speech volume. All he ever seemed to get was diabolical whisper and draconic roaring. "Damn it, Severus, yes I do! Don't scream at me because your lady love is in peril. Believe it or not, you're not the only person in this room who cares about Des. She's the closest thing to family I've had in years; don't you think I'm scared as hell for her? And for crying out loud, look at Dumbledore! Her own grandfather! Pull yourself together and THINK!"

Snape slid his eyes away from the man raging in front of him in time to see Albus Dumbledore wearily sink back into a chair, his face pale beyond belief. Somehow, the sight of the wizard he'd grown to respect over twenty years looking so frightened and incapable made him calm down some. Lupin, annoying though he was, was right. Rushing into something was only going to end up badly. "What do you propose we do?" He sighed in resignation, shoulders slumping as he braced himself on the table where the necklace rested.

Lupin shrugged, staring into the fire. "I don't know. I really don't know."

Dumbledore sighed loudly, causing both men to jump. "My granddaughter is still alive; that much we know. The charm would cease glowing at all if she were not. Also, transporting herself and Misters Potter and Malfoy would take a great deal of effort, so we can assume that they are still at the Manor. If they have been removed, however, the danger to anyone arriving there now would likely be gone. Regardless, going to Malfoy Manor is the place to start. Go to Hogsmeade; apparate from there. Severus, you know the grounds. Remus, go with him. Between the two of you, you should be able to find them." He rose from the chair with shaky effort, and both men nodded, looking at each other with none of the usual hostility on their faces. Dumbledore took a second to appraise the situation; it was a measure of how much each man both cared for and worried about Desdemona, watching them agree to work together and cooperate with such little effort, given their history.

The thought made his heart wrench once more.

"Gentlemen, please bring me back my granddaughter."

"Well, we're certainly not leaving the way we came." Desi made that intelligent observation after one more try with the fireplace. Her shoulder was not happy with her, and she was starting to feel somewhat queasy from flying across a room. With a heaving sigh, she looked at both Harry and Draco. "Well? Suggestions?"

Draco frowned. "Can we apparate close to Hogwarts?"

Desi looked him up and down. "Has the potion worn off?"

Draco shook his head. "No. But you've been fine and there's more in the apothecary and..."

"And you're not taking so much as a whiff of that potion and that's that, Mr. Malfoy. I didn't prepare that concoction properly; who knows what effect it'll end up having on me. I needed to drink it; otherwise we'd still be IN that claustrophobic room. Didn't Severus cover the risks of taking an ill-prepared potion? I could get sick at best and die at worse. I'm not risking the two of you. Now, other suggestions?"

Harry looked out the window behind Draco. "Couldn't we simply walk out of the house and hide in the thicket back there until the potion does wear off?"

Desi followed his gaze. Even though it was still daylight, the trees growing behind the manor were thick and overgrown; the darkness there could be enough to hide them for an hour or two. Just long enough. "Draco, please tell me your father didn't do something incredibly foolish and plant horrible Dark-created plants or trees out there." The last thing she needed was to walk into a batch of devil's snare while escaping from the rat.

He shook his head again. "The trees have been there for two hundred years. The rest of the plants would be my mother's doing. She's not as into the dark stuff as Father. She likes roses and lilacs and things like that."

Harry stared at Draco. A Malfoy that liked to putter in a rose garden? He shook his head at the thoughts in his mind.

"The potion could take another hour or so easily to wear off. We know that darling Peter plans to come back before then. It's our best bet. Alright. Stupid though it sounds, let's go on a nature hike." Desi gestured for Draco to lead them to a door.

It was sealed with a charm as well.

"Bloody hell." Desi was getting far more annoyed than she liked. With a wave of her wand, the door flew off the hinges.

Draco cringed. "My mother loved the stained glass in that door's window."

Harry simply rolled his eyes.

"I cannot believe you convinced me to go this route."

Lupin grinned in the darkness. "Trust me, this is the quickest route to Hogsmeade. The road winds too much; this is a straight shot. And the sooner we're off Hogwarts grounds, the sooner we can apparate, oh Prince not-so-Charming."

Snape growled. "I've never liked this tunnel."

"That's just because of that nasty prank Sirius and James played on you. You have to admit, Severus, you were asking for it."

"I was not."

"Sure, fine, you weren't asking for it. Happy now?" Lupin turned to look at the man following him. "For the record, they never told me before they did that to you. I wouldn't have allowed it to happen if I'd know, Severus. Not just because of Des; I wouldn't wish this private hell of mine on my worst enemy, let alone some greasy-haired pompous ass who couldn't understand that not everyone in the world was out to get him. And for what it's worth, James, Sirius, and I fought for weeks afterward about how underhanded and cruel that was."

Snape stood still in the dark tunnel.

Remus looked back toward the black silhouette. "Severus, it was over thirty years ago that this all began. Thirty long years. We were boys; we were young and stupid and rash and impulsive and immature and rude and cruel and everything that eleven year old boys are supposed to be. We all made mistakes, yourself included. I'm sorry, James was sorry after he thought more about it, and even Sirius was sorry in the end. Damn it, isn't it time to let the feud go?"

He turned his back on the silent man. That wasn't the best time to unload all that on him, but it needed to be said, and there was something safe and anonymous about the dark of the tunnel to Hogsmeade that made it easier to say everything he should have said years ago.

"Come on, Severus. We're almost there. Time to save your lady fair."

The rolling nausea that had plagued Desi as she slammed against walls in the Malfoy sitting room came back with a vengeance. Unfortunately, the timing wasn't good. The sound of broken glass and slamming doors signaled to the group that their former host had returned. A loud shriek a few moments later confirmed what they'd feared – Pettigrew knew they'd escaped. And from the sounds of things breaking in the Malfoy home, he wasn't happy about it.

"Damn." She whispered to the pair of students, both of whom were riveted to the door they'd just blasted through. "Get in the trees. NOW."

They darted through the foliage, both of them too afraid to do otherwise. She was right behind them, trying to keep an eye on them as well as the house as she ran. While she didn't see any sign of Pettigrew following them, that didn't mean anything. Apparating didn't take much effort, unless of course you were drugged out of comprehension. The house kept growing smaller and more distant the further into the foliage they crept.

As soon as they were out of sight of the house, however, she couldn't keep the nausea away any longer. Desdemona grabbed a slender trunk to hold herself upright as she began heaving. Both Draco and Harry stood by, uselessly, as their professor began throwing up the contents of her stomach which, thankfully, were limited only to the potions she'd consumed within the last hour or so. Finally, the heaving died down, leaving Desi with a foul taste in her mouth and a painfully fuzzy spot in her head.

"And that is why I didn't let you two take any of the potion." She spat out, trying to wipe the taste from her lips. "Now we're all screwed. I can't do magic any more than you two. And we still have that complete psychopath looking for us. Medusa's hair, I should have listened to that annoyingly-protective man and his 'bad feeling'. So screwed."

"And the fact you're wearing bright red won't help matters much," Draco pointed out dryly. Looking down at herself, Desi suddenly realized she was still in her robes. She reached in her pockets and grabbed the parchment with the bespelled information and her useless wand. Within seconds, she thrust the document into Harry's hands, her wand into Draco's, and then she'd yanked the scarlet fabric off and kicked it underneath leaves, leaving her clad now only in her yoga pants, shirt, and sneakers.

Why didn't she wear a sweater today?

"Thanks, Draco. Now, the two of you run like hell. Draco, I'm sure you know where to go. Hide somewhere safe until the fuzziness in your heads goes away and then apparate to Hogsmeade. By then, I'll either have found you or I'm too screwed for the both of you to help me. Draco, don't lose my wand; I'm going to need it again, someday. I hope. And Harry, keep that parchment safe. It has to get to my grandfather; if Peter finds it, he'll tell Voldemort and he'll know. Do you understand? It must get to Papa, otherwise I've gotten myself sick and injured for no good reason, and I would really hate knowing I've gone through this for nothing."

The boys stared at their professor with wide eyes and wider jaws.

Harry set his jaw and summoned what courage and nerves he had left. "We're not leaving you, Professor." Amazingly, Draco took an identical stance, nodding alongside his normal, everyday nemesis.

"How cute, Harry. Yes you are. You're not getting yourself killed for me."

"We can't leave you like this."

"Damn it, Harry, yes you can. You have to. I'm not going to be able to do magic for a while; I can tell from the pounding in my head. All I'll do is slow you down, because ten galleons says I'm about to be sick again. Besides, think about it for two seconds. If Peter gets his hands on me, it's not the end of the world. You heard him; he plans on holding me hostage. If he gets his hands on you, he'll turn you over to Voldemort. Last I remember hearing, every member of the Order is supposed to protect your life with their dying breath, Harry. Myself included. You're hiding, with Draco, and then you're getting back to Hogwarts and there is no arguing with me about this. Got it?"

Harry gaped at his professor as she clung to the tree, visibly trying to not be ill again, a resolve in her eyes that scared him. She knew what she was doing; he was sure of it. "I'm tired of seeing people sacrifice themselves for my safety, Professor. Not this time."

Desi rolled her eyes. "Draco, please hit him with a rock and drag him into some safe hiding place if he doesn't go willingly. Harry, please. I'm older, I'm wiser, and I'm paid to be your superior. The two of you run. I'll be fine. Hide, get to school, send help then. Alright? I swear, I'll be fine." The sound of breaking twigs behind them shocked them all into silence. Desi stared hard at them, shooing them with her hands and mouthing at them. "GO!"

They ran, Draco leading Harry as he kept looking over his shoulder at Drecorum, who looked over her own shoulder.

Seconds later, Peter Pettigrew caught sight of the woman he was searching for.