The House
"No more trees at least," Lupin said as he peered into the distance, searching for the house they'd seen in the painting. "It has to be somewhere behind the hills."
Severus was barely listening. Instead he concentrated on the whispering voice that was calling his name again. This time though it sounded clearer and much too real for him to still believe that it was just inside his head. And it seemed to be coming from right behind those trees only a few steps away.
Slowly he turned around and started walking back towards the trees, following the voice. As soon as he'd entered the forest it became pitch black around him again with the mighty trees blocking even the slightest bit of moonlight from reaching the ground.
His eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness and suddenly he saw a tall dark figure standing right in front of him. Severus pulled out his wand and when he raised his arm the stranger turned around to face him.
Their eyes met and he froze.
"It's not there," Severus whispered to himself. "Not there, not there, not there," he repeated and closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, the man was still there, smirking at him.
"Seeing things, Severus? Hearing voices?" he asked in a cold voice. "Seems like you've turned into a full-blown lunatic after all. But that doesn't really come as a surprise to anyone, does it?"
"You're not there," Severus repeated, hoping to be able to make him go away by saying it once more. "You're dead and gone."
"Well, you've always been a bit slow," he replied. "Obviously comes from your mother's side of the family."
Severus felt his hand starting to shake and tightened his grip around his wand, keeping it pointed at the man in front of him.
"Don't you dare even think about using that wand against me, my son," the man said in a low and dangerous voice, his black eyes glittering with anger. "Don't you dare."
Part of him wanted to do just that, part of him didn't. Especially because he was quite sure that any curse he'd cast at him couldn't hit him anyway; because he wasn't even there. He couldn't be. He was dead.
"But no, you wouldn't," the man said and shook his head. "You're still the same little coward; never talk back, never resist. You'd better put that wand down now; I'm convinced you wouldn't want me angry at you."
"I'm not afraid of you," Severus said in a low voice, sounding a lot less convincing than he'd hoped.
"Oh, you're not?" the other man replied mockingly and slowly took a step towards him. All of a sudden he raised his left arm and stretched out his hand towards him. Even though he wasn't even carrying a wand Severus suddenly felt himself being hit by an invisible force strong enough to throw him backwards through the air. His right shoulder hit the strong branch of a giant pine-tree, he dropped his wand and landed on his back on the ground.
"Pathetic," the other man muttered.
"What exactly are you doing there?"
Severus turned his head when he heard Lupin's voice from his left and when he looked back to where the man had been standing, he was gone.
Lupin stepped closer and held a hand out to him. "Are you all right?" he asked.
"Yes," Severus replied curtly and got up from the ground without accepting the helping hand that had been offered to him.
"Do you think you could possibly explain to me why you're lying around on the forest floor?" Lupin asked as Severus set off to find his wand.
Of course I can explain it. I just met my father and had a little chat with him; which would already have been enough of a surprise if he hadn't been dead for quite a few years now. And that's exactly what I definitely won't tell you because if I did you'd believe I'd gone insane. And you'd probably be right.
He found his wand and picked it up again.
"So?" Lupin asked.
"Just forget about it," Severus replied.
"I definitely won't," Lupin said. "Did you see something? That man we saw in the forest?"
"There's no one else here, just you and me."
"Back in the forest I saw him too. In this darkness my vision easily beats that of an average human being. He was there. I know what I saw."
"Are you so sure about that? Then what about the rest of your overdeveloped senses?" Severus asked. "Did you hear him? Did you smell him? No. Because there was nothing there." With that said he started walking again. "Let's move on."
Lupin sighed and followed him. "And where to?" he asked. "There's nothing but grass and hills as far as the eye can see."
"Why don't you suggest the way and then we simply take the opposite direction?"
"You're not too familiar with the idea of talking to people without constantly insulting them, are you?" Lupin asked. "Let's take this way," he added and started walking without giving Snape the time to reply.
Severus didn't move. "Perhaps we should split up," he said.
"No, we should not," Lupin replied, coming to a halt again. "Because if we did it would render the whole concept of not going in here alone useless. So if you insist on taking a different way, I'll come along."
"I'm fine with whatever you decide," Severus replied, very obviously not meaning it, and set off into the exact direction Lupin had suggested.
Remus sighed deeply and then followed him out of the forest again and towards the hills.
As soon as they'd left the woods behind and climbed the first hill Lupin realised that the darkness around them had lost most of its intensity. He looked up and saw a nearly full moon hanging low in a starless sky. It couldn't be a full moon; he knew very well that it was still almost two weeks away. Nowhere near to a full moon.
"That's not a full moon, is it?" Lupin asked nonetheless.
"No," Severus replied after taking a quick look into the sky as well.
"Are you sure?"
"If it was I suppose I'd have noticed by now," Severus replied absent-mindedly while peering into the distance. "Whenever you're done marvelling at the moon though,you might want to turn your attention to this..." he added in a low voice.
Lupin followed his gaze and saw a small soft light shining through the fog and darkness from far away.
"That has to be coming from the house," he said.
"It might," Severus said.
"Perhaps we should give apparating there a chance now," Lupin suggested.
"Good idea."
"Watch it, you actually said something to me without insulting me," Lupin replied and pulled out his wand.
"I know. I'm tired."
Lupin smiled faintly. "I'll go first," he said and stared into the distance out of narrowed eyes for another second, focusing on the light. Then he disappeared from the spot where he'd been standing.
The very same second Severus heard the ominous crack of bursting wood, turned his head and couldn't hide a smile as he saw Lupin half falling, half jumping out of a dead tree not too far away.
"What were you looking for up there?" he called over to him.
"Very funny," Lupin replied as he started walking back towards him.
"You do know how to apparate, don't you?"
"Just go ahead and do it better," Lupin replied.
"That shouldn't be too hard."
Only a few seconds later he found out that actually it was. At least Fate had been kind and hadn't let him end up in a tree. But since he'd apparated only about a hundred feet away from where he'd been standing he couldn't have claimed to have been a lot more successful than Lupin either.
"I'm very impressed," Lupin said. "I suppose now we can both agree that we'll have to walk."
"That looks like a long walk," Severus muttered to himself.
"I'd never have thought that you're so lazy."
"I'm not lazy."
"Yeah, right," Lupin muttered as he set off.
"What was the reason again that we're searching for that house?" Severus asked as he started walking as well.
"No one's come up with a better idea yet, that's why."
"Then let me have another look at the book."
Lupin pulled the book from the inside pocket of his jacket and handed it to him. "Let me know if you should come across anything interesting."
Severus continued walking while he opened the book on the page with the drawing of the house. When he looked up at the landscape ahead of them again he realised that the drawing looked exactly like what he was seeing in front of him; so at least they should be heading in the right direction.
He decided to give his translation skills another try but soon had to admit that while not knowing what half of the words meant he wouldn't get far; not without a dictionary. He was beginning to regret that he'd simply dismissed the meaning of that incantation as unimportant and stuffed the book into one of his coat's pockets.
"Any luck?" Lupin asked a few minutes later.
"Don't you believe I'd have mentioned that? Or would you and your infamous Latin skills rather like to take a look at it yourself?"
"I'm just trying to talk to you," Lupin replied. "I'd have started a conversation about the bloody weather but most unfortunately there's no weather around to talk about."
"You might not have noticed it yet, but I'm not really the communicative type. Even less so in the middle of the night."
"Very well; if that's really what makes you happy I'll keep my mouth shut now."
Severus wasn't too sure if it would make him a lot happier. Actually right now the only thing that helped to lighten his mood was the thought that this time Potter would finally have to bear the consequences for his actions. Not only had he once again acted in a most irresponsible way but this time he'd also practised the Dark Arts. And that was something Dumbledore couldn't let him get away with.
They walked on in silence for at least an hour. Severus didn't even notice that he wasn't hearing that voice anymore; he was too busy keeping all those memories under control that were suddenly coming back to him. He hadn't even as much as wasted a thought on his father in years and he couldn't explain to himself why he had to start doing so right now.
They climbed up hill after hill and then, all of a sudden, there it was – the house. It had been over half an hour since they'd last seen a weak flicker of light that could have showed them the right direction. Severus had already pretty much given up hope of ever finding it and now he was almost surprised to see it there right in front of him, quiet and peaceful, as if it had only been waiting for him.
It was a very old house and it seemed as if it had been many years since it had last seen a tenant – if ever. Somehow it didn't look like a house anyone would live in, it didn't even look like a house anyone could ever build. It seemed to be part of the landscape, something that had grown right out of the ground, just like the trees of the small forest it bordered on.
"Looks like we finally found it," Lupin said in a low voice while standing on top of the hill and looking down at the old house.
"And now?" Severus asked.
"Well, I'd suggest we go in and find out what mysterious secret is hiding in there."
Dust, spiders and mice most likely, neither secret nor mysterious.
"Agree?" Lupin asked.
"Now that we're already here..." Severus muttered and started slowly walking down the hill.
"Wait," Lupin kept him back. "Everything's dark, no light in the house."
As if by command two of the dark windows lit up, casting a flickering yellowish glow through the fog.
"Might be Harry, might be someone else."
"We'd better try not to be seen," Severus said. "Let's walk around there," he added, gesturing to his left. "From there we can approach the house in the cover of the trees."
They reached the house only a few minutes later. It was bigger than it had seemed at first and the cloud of fog hovering around the dark wood panelled building added to its impressive appearance.
Light was coming from three high windows on the ground floor as well as from a small window up in the attic. They saw a shadowy figure walking past one of the windows and both of them instinctively took a step backwards to make sure they remained well hidden in the shadow of the trees. A second person joined the first one, they stood next to each other for a moment and then vanished from sight again.
"It didn't look as if one of them was Harry," Lupin whispered. "And even if it was, who was the other one?"
"Let's find out who we're dealing with here," Severus muttered as he left the protective trees behind and walked over to the house. Lupin followed him.
Severus stood next to the rightmost window, took a quick glance into the room and saw two men standing at the bottom of the stairs, talking. It was enough to prove his first impression to be true that those shadowy figures had seemed quite familiar to him.
"Malfoy," Lupin whispered after recognising the man as well and stepped back from the window again. "Thought he was hiding somewhere."
"Perfect place to hide, isn't it," Severus replied.
"Do you know the other one?"
Severus nodded, turned away and went back to the trees, motioning Lupin to follow. Once he was sure they were hidden from sight he came to a halt, leaned back against one of the mighty trees and thoughtfully looked up into the starless dark sky. Lupin stood in front of him and gave him a questioning look.
"Zodec Thesdale," Severus answered his silent question. "Some moron, as officious as he is incompetent, works in the Ministry."
"So You-Know-Who has his hands in this," Lupin said.
"Most probably," Severus replied. "We had to expect that."
"Do you believe they have Harry?"
"If not yet then they're at least trying to get hold of him."
"And what do you think we should do now?" Lupin asked. "We'll have to find out what they're up to."
"We have two options; either we try to get in there unnoticed or I'll just knock on the door and ask them."
Lupin ran a hand through his hair, thinking about it for a moment. "We might be able to lure them outside and then get into the house to see if Harry's in there."
Severus shook his head. "No, trying to sneak in is not an option." He was convinced they'd be caught if they tried to and then there'd be no way out for either of them.
"You just said it was."
"Well, I changed my mind," Severus replied. "I'll go alone."
"They just might wonder what you're doing here," Lupin said.
Severus shrugged his shoulders. "Dumbledore sent me after Potter."
"Alone?"
"They won't doubt it. You'll best stay right here," Severus said and glanced around the surrounding trees. "Don't do anything stupid or heroic. Because if they get you, you're dead. And after they've killed you they'd probably start asking me some uncomfortable questions about what you were doing here."
Lupin sighed. "And how long exactly do you want me to just sit here and do nothing?"
"'Til I get back."
"And what if..."
"Think about all that when it happens," Severus interrupted him.
"Very well; good luck then," Lupin said as he sat down on the ground and leaned back against a tree. "And make sure you don't forget that I'm waiting out here."
"I'll try to," Severus muttered in reply and set off towards the house again.
He had no doubts that Malfoy would buy his story – he always did. The only thing that worried him was that Lupin wouldn't do as he'd told him. Those blasted Gryffindors never listened; they always thought they knew better.
As he walked around the house and up to the front door he had that feeling again that there was someone watching him. And by now he also thought that he knew who it was. He'd felt that look on him many times before; those cold eyes, watching every move he made, patiently waiting for him to do something wrong, to fail. And he couldn't remember one time when that patience hadn't been rewarded.
He stepped up to the door, raised his hand and knocked. For a moment there was silence and he contemplated whether this had really been such a brilliant idea. Then he heard hurried footsteps from inside the house, accompanied by hushed voices. Suddenly the door flew open and he found himself confronted with Thesdale who was pointing his wand straight between his eyes.
"You?" the younger wizard said disbelievingly. "How did you... What are you doing here?"
"Would you mind taking that wand out of my face?" Severus replied.
Thesdale didn't react but was quickly shoved out of the way by Lucius Malfoy who'd been hiding behind the door until now.
"I should really have expected you to show up here sooner or later," Malfoy greeted him.
"And I should have expected you to be involved in this," Severus replied.
Malfoy gave him a smug smile. "Please, do come in," he said and stepped aside to allow him into the house. "This place is a bit run down, not quite what I'm used to. But then it's not much worse than your dungeons either, is it?"
I happen to like my dungeons. "Yes," Severus replied softly and followed him along the corridor into what had probably once been the living room, Zodec Thesdale still at his heels. There was a fire in the fireplace and compared to outside it was pleasantly warm in here.
"Thesdale, go and do something useful," Malfoy said and the younger man immediately obeyed and disappeared down the corridor again.
"So," Malfoy said, turning to Snape again. "Did the old headmaster send you after the boy then?" he asked and motioned him to take a seat.
"Yes, he did," Severus replied. He thought about taking off his coat but then remembered that he still had the book in his pocket and decided against it; he didn't want to leave it lying around, they might still need it after all. "Whom else would he send out searching in the middle of the night?" he added and sat down in an armchair that didn't look quite as dusty as the others.
"Yes, those are the things he got himself his little spy for," Malfoy said. "You'll be delighted to hear that your search is over now."
"You have the boy?"
Malfoy smiled at him. "Yes, of course we do," he replied. "Can I offer you anything? I happened to find some bottles of excellent wine in the kitchen."
Pity you're not drunk yet, it would have made things a lot easier. He didn't want any but still accepted the glass of red wine that was handed to him.
"I have to admit that I'd never thought it would be so easy. Basically all we had to do was to wait for him to walk in here," Malfoy said as he sat down on the sofa opposite from him.
"You could have spared me a long walk by letting me know what you were up to a little sooner."
"We didn't know much sooner either," he replied. "All this was Thesdale's little plan."
Severus frowned at him. At least that would explain what someone like Thesdale was doing here in the first place.
"I know what you think," Malfoy said. "But it seems that once in a lifetime even such a moron can come up with quite a brilliant idea."
"How did he do it?"
"He sent him a hexed book. By owl," Malfoy replied. "That little idiot Potter believed it was a birthday present and walked right into the trap."
"Yes; we found the book," Severus said. "But he wasn't the one who hexed it, was he?"
Malfoy shook his head. "No, he wouldn't be capable of that. That book had been classified a dangerous magical artefact and had been confiscated years ago. Apparently a few people who played around with it vanished and were never seen again."
"And Thesdale stole it from the Ministry," Severus said.
"Yes. Apparently he'd developed some interest in that book a while ago already. Now he'd finally figured out enough about how it worked to be able to alter a few details so he gave it a try and sent it on it's way."
"He didn't have any help?" Severus asked and became aware how desperately he was trying to fit Eliza Dobberstein somewhere into the picture. He just couldn't stand the woman. And he'd always been able to rely on his instincts – he was convinced that there had to be something wrong about her. And it was not because he was jealous; he hadn't liked her from the moment he'd first set eyes on her.
Malfoy shook his head. "All on his own. More than anyone would have expected from him, isn't it?"
"Without our master's knowledge?"
"For most of the time, yes. And I'm convinced he'll pay for that little mistake once this is over," Malfoy replied. "Right now we'll just have to wait until we can hand over the boy to the Dark Lord."
Severus watched Malfoy out of narrowed eyes. "I assume you know how to get away from here again?" he asked.
"Not exactly," Malfoy said. "I'm not even sure if there is a way to get out of here without outside help. We're waiting for the others to set up a portal for us."
"I see," Severus replied and let his eyes wander through the room, trying to memorise anything that might possibly be useful. "So where is he? Potter?"
Malfoy smiled coldly. "I suppose you'd like to have a word with him too, don't you?"
"After five years of having to watch him strutting through the castle, of having to swallow his insolent behaviour – you have no idea how much."
Malfoy's smile grew even broader. "He's upstairs," he said and stood up. "I'll show you."
Severus put his glass down onto the table, got up and followed him back out onto the corridor and up the stairs.
"We put him up in the attic," Malfoy explained as he walked past paintings and wooden doors towards another staircase leading up from the ground floor and some narrow stairs leading further up. "He was making quite a fuss, broke the windows and took the furniture to pieces. But a little hit over the head took good care of that."
They reached the third floor and Malfoy pulled a silver chain with a key out of his pocket. He unlocked the door, let it swing open and stepped aside to allow Severus a look inside.
What he saw truly was a scene of destruction – there were shards of glass everywhere, a shelf had fallen over and scattered its contents all over the wooden floor and there were pieces of wood lying around.
And in the middle of it all, there was Potter. Not the arrogant, proud and insolent Potter; right now he was just a helpless kid, bound, blindfolded and obviously more or less unconscious.
"Are you sure you didn't kill him?" Severus asked.
"Not to worry, he's all right," Malfoy replied and walked past him across the room to stand next to the boy lying motionless on the floor. He looked down at him for a moment and then prodded him with his boot. He didn't show any reaction so he kicked him a bit harder, the boy groaned softly and Malfoy looked up and smiled. "See? He's fine."
"Good for you," Severus replied and slowly took a few steps towards him; he knew as well as Malfoy did that the Dark Lord wanted the boy alive.
"Otherwise I'd have blamed it on Thesdale."
Or on me. "Where is he anyway?"
"Outside, I suppose. Searching for intruders." Malfoy had said it in a way that made clear that he didn't expect him to find any and Severus just hoped Lupin wouldn't grow impatient and leave his hiding place.
"I'll go back downstairs to wait for our portal; it would be about time," Malfoy said and handed him the key on the silver chain. "Do with him what you want, just make sure he'll survive it," he added, winked at him and left, pulling the door closed behind him.
Severus waited and listened to Malfoy's footsteps on the stairs. For a moment he looked down at Potter still lying motionless on the floor, then he walked across the room to the window, the floorboards creaking softly beneath his steps.
He peered out into the darkness, hoping to see Thesdale somewhere out there but then was glad when he didn't; because if he'd seen him from up here it would have meant he'd gotten too close to where Lupin was. Although he'd have preferred to know where exactly Thesdale was he decided he'd just have to rely on Malfoy's word.
Severus turned around again and folded his arms. "Potter," he said softly, but the boy didn't react. "Potter!" he said again, louder this time, but still there was no reaction.
Severus stood looking down at him, for a moment undecided about what to do. "Stop faking, Potter, I know you can hear me," he said in a low voice.
The boy moved his head a little and then tried to move his arms, obviously not aware that his wrists were bound behind his back. Reluctantly Severus knelt down next to him and reached out to remove the blindfold from his eyes. The boy flinched at his touch and as soon as the blindfold had been taken off, his eyes snapped open and he stared at his unexpected visitor, for a few seconds seeming to not even realise who he was.
"Good morning, Potter," Severus said. "I don't have much time so better start your brains going again now."
"You..." he whispered and blinked a few times.
"Yes, me," Severus replied. "Malfoy's downstairs so I can't simply take you out of here without risking my own well-being which is something I definitely don't intend to do. That means I'll have to leave the heroic rescue to Lupin."
"He's here?" Harry asked in a raspy voice and slowly tried to sit up.
"Do you know if they used any sort of charm to guard you?" Severus asked instead of answering his question. "Did you see either of them using any magic at all?"
"No," he whispered and shook his head. "They can't. No one can, it... it doesn't seem to work here."
"What about this?" Severus asked, gesturing at the room. "Wandless?"
"Yeah... I sometimes do that when... when I get angry," Harry replied and flinched at the sudden pain that shot through his arm and shoulder.
"Where's your wand?"
"I... lost it, outside," he replied. "There was... I saw him. He was there. He spoke to me. Sirius."
Under normal circumstances Severus would probably have declared the boy insane, but after what he himself had seen in the forest, he wasn't so sure.
Severus simply nodded. "Now Potter, for once in your life simply listen and do as you're told: I'll go back downstairs now. Give me about twenty minutes and then make some noise, shout or destroy something, just make sure someone has to come up here to look after you. Once they know for sure that you're still up here I'll arrange for Lupin to be able to get inside the house and fetch you. Understood?"
Harry nodded. "Yes, Sir."
"Good," Severus said more to himself while examining the piece of black fabric in his hand that seemed to have once been part of Potter's cloak. "What's the blindfold for?"
"They believed I could control it, the wandless magic. They thought if I didn't see them I couldn't do anything to them."
For a moment Severus just stood there, staring at the floor and thinking; he truly hated having to rely on others, especially on someone like Potter. "I'll have to put that back on," he said and Harry nodded and allowed him to tie the blindfold over his eyes again. As soon as he was done with that Severus stood up again and cast another glance at the window. "Now lie down on the floor again, try to look as miserable as you can and pretend you didn't even recognise me."
Harry hesitated for a moment. "They know that if I escaped," he said slowly, "I'd tell Dumbledore that you were here..."
"Let that be my worry," Severus cut him off. "Now just do as you're told. Twenty minutes." With that said he turned around and strode across the room, not giving the boy the chance to say another word. He pulled the door closed behind him, locked it and walked down the stairs again.
-
-
-
AN: Thank you to everyone for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
Silverthreads: Thank you for your review :) I'm glad you liked it, I hope you'll keep enjoying it
Snape Girl1: Thank you for your review :) I'm glad that you think I succeeded it making it seem spooky, I hope you liked this chapter too
duj: Thank you for your review :) I'm glad you liked the last chapter, I hope you liked this one as well. Harry's found and I'll probably explain about the Hogsmeade issue next chapter so I hope you'll keep reading ;)
PPP: Thank you for your review :) I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter. I think you're right about Lupin calling Voldemort by his name but as you said I suppose he's polite enough not to do so in front of Snape.
mg08: Thank you for your review :) I hope you liked this chapter as well.
IntelEwok: Thank you for your review :) I'll explain what they have in common in the next chapters, you're quite right about the permission form. I hope you'll keep enjoying the story.
Magi: Thank you for your review :) I'm glad you liked it, I hope I'll be able to keep you interested.
Makrillit: Thank you for your review :) I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter, I hope you liked this one as well.
DietCokeLemon: Thank you for your review :) (the other one as well) I'm glad you liked the story so far, I hope you'll keep enjoying it. The simple reason it took me so long to reach my plot is that I didn't really have one for quite some time, I'm glad that you enjoyed it nonetheless. Best of luck with your exams, I have mine coming up as well...
