Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own nothing.


I'm in a room, made of stone. There is some water dripping in. There is a possibility that this cell is under the ground. Like…like a basement or something. But there is no light here. Well, a little… I can see Snape's silhouette, right? That means that there are light somewhere, if only a little… How did I end up here? I don't know… Oh great! I'm talking to myself! Isn't that a sign of madness?

After going from French to Germany and eventually to Japanese, Harry had lost the amusement of counting water drops. Instead, he tried to locate where he was. After the fight Harry didn't remember anything, except some white light and Snape. And then he woke up here.

"So you haven't any clue where we are, Potter?" Snape's voice startled Harry so much that he nearly jumped high in the air of shear surprise.

"How long have you been awake?"

"I heard your attempts to announce the Japanese numbers. You were failing miserably, like always." Harry hadn't a good response on that one, so he just kept quiet. After a few minutes Harry began to speak.

"I think we're in a basement of some sort…"

"And how did you come to that conclusion?" Harry hadn't known that, if you listened carefully, you could hear if the person that spoke was sneering.

"The walls are to smooth to be a cave, at least not a natural one. And I think we're under the ground, because of the water and the light comes from the ceiling." Snape was silent a few seconds before he talked.

"If you study the light enough, you'll see that it's vaguely green. That means that it's not daylight, but shining fungus. That authenticate the theory that we are under the Earth's surface. The question is how we can breathe…" Snape muttered. Even though it sounded like he talked to Harry, the later doubted that. His guess was that Snape was thinking aloud. And Harry didn't see a point to interrupt him.


Tap. Tap. Tap. Harry's throat burned. His tongue felt dried and sticky. Tap. Tap. Tap. He moved cautiously to the left, where the dripping seemed to be. Snape still mumbled under his breath. Tap. Tap. Tap. Harry lifted his hand to catch some drops in it. The movement caught Snape's attention, who with incredible speed lunged forward at Harry. The stone wall was pressed at Harry's back, Snape partly over him, holding his hands in a firm grip. His dark eyes glimmered in the dim light, and his crooked nose was awfully close to Harry's face. He could feel Snape's warm breath against his skin.

"Don't. Do. That. Again. Ever. Do you understand?" Harry could only stare at him with wide eyes. Snape's face came closer. "I said: Do you understand?" Quickly, Harry nodded his head. Snape didn't seem pleased with just that, but he leaned back, still with a firm grip around Harry's wrists.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was, Potter?" Harry tried to interrupt, but Snape just continued. "That 'water' could just as well be some fatal potion. We don't know. And until we do, you are not going to try to drink, or in any other form consume, this liquid. Am I clear?" Again, Harry nodded. This time, Snape seemed to think that it was enough. He slowly released the boy and moved to the other side of the room, still observing the teen. The thought to fight back never occurred to Harry before it was too late.

So, he was thirsty. That wasn't a real problem. He had been thirsty and hungry when he lived with the Dursleys. Some days he hadn't got any food at all. But he had got water. Not as much as he had wished for, but he had got it. And then, it wasn't dropping water from the ceiling. Tap. Tap. Tap. In that moment, Harry knew what real irony was. Tap.


"Who would give us poison?" Harry asked at last.

"Who would put us in this room?" Snape shot back. Harry would never admit it, of course, but the slimy git actually had a good point.

"You know", Harry said to no one particular, "I always thought that Voldemort would kill me. That I would die in the last battle, if I were lucky and lived that long. Not that I would kill him, and then after that get locked up in a small cell with the biggest prat on Earth."

"Don't tell me you're claustrophobic, Potter." Harry didn't exactly know why, but he began to giggle feebly. Snape gave him a strange look, but he didn't care. Suddenly he began to think of something.

"Hey! I survived, right? That means that I can do whatever I want now!"

"As you didn't do it anyway", Snape muttered. Harry just ignored him.

"Then I can live with Remus! ...Well… After we is out of here." Snape didn't answer to that. Strange. Otherwise he would say something mean, but now, the man just kept silent. Maybe the headache was still there. "And we're going to have a big house with a big garden. And…"

"It sounds like you are engage or something", Snape remarked snidely.

"Me and Remus? Engaged? Eew! He was one of my dad's best friends!" A sudden look of distress and regret crossed over his face. "He said that he promised Sirius to look after me", Harry whispered so softly that he wasn't sure that Snape heard him. Just as good. That sentence had brought back so many memories of his dead godfather. Sometimes, even this long after his death, Harry could still think Oh my god! He's dead. He's not coming back. He guessed that you never really got used to think about someone you knew, as 'dead'.

What he didn't know was that Snape was watching him all the time. And therefore, decided the Professor not to tell him what he knew about the werewolf. He could always tell later, when he needed an upper hand.

"So the Dark Lord really is dead?" He asked instead.

"Yeah… I think so…" The teenager answered hesitantly. His fingers touched his forehead where the scar, formed like a lightning bolt, used to be. "My scar is gone… That wouldn't happen unless he was gone, right?"

"Thank Merlin for that!" Snape exclaimed. "I haven't endured seven years of Potions classes, three years of Occlumency training and two years of fencing and duelling practise unnecessarily."

"You have endured!"

"Yes, you are quiet dense, Potter. If Professor Dumbledore hadn't insisting how important those lessons were I would've not even considered learning you." It felt like Harry's blood was boiling inside the body. His magic wanted to come free, to fry the bastard and his abnormally large nose. His knuckles turned white of the effort to keep the hands off Snape's throat.

"It didn't help", he snarled instead. "I couldn't keep him out. So I let him in."

"What are you talking about Potter?"

"The Occlumency didn't help, neither did the duelling. I let Voldemort into my mind." There was a silence and then:

"You did what?" It was kind of funny that Snape sounded very much like a snake when he was really angry.

"He broke my defences, so I thought the best thing I could do was to let him in."

"Do you even realize that he had a better chance of winning if you let him in? Didn't you listen when I told you that! Don't you get anything?"

"No, it's you who don't get it! I broke him by showing him my memories!"

"Memories of what?" bellowed Snape. "Idiotic actions? Believe me; if he saw half the stupid things you and your little friends have been doing during the years, he would have died of shock! The hope that the humankind would remain reasonable must be just a dream as long as you live, Potter!"

"You… you weren't even there! You don't know anything! If I had done what you had said, then we would be dead. But with a later thought, I think I would prefer to be dead instead of being locked up here with you!"

"You are too emotional Potter." Was it just him, or did Snape sound disgusted? "You should be thankful that I agreed to teach you Occlumency after the accident in your fifth year. Without me, Potter, you wouldn't be prepared for the mental battle." Harry didn't answer to that. There was no use; Snape would never listen to him. No matter what.

It wasn't like Snape thought. Harry had tried to keep Voldemort out, but the Dark Lord was too strong. So instead Harry had let him in, to show a few collected memories. The Dark Lord didn't seem to appreciate them, so therefore Harry showed him some more. And some more until Voldemort had gotten a heart attack or something like that, and died. It was kind of terrible to see him, the person that once had been Tom Riddle, lying there dead, unseeing, with a trickle of blood in the corner of his mouth. Harry shook his head, trying to clear it from his friends, his family. And then everything seemed to be fuzzy. He remembered Snape coming, shouting something. Harry wasn't in a particularly good mood, so he cursed him with the strongest non – deadly spell he knew. Someone screamed of rage, and the next thing he knew, he was in a white light with Snape… and then he was in the room. But who screamed? It was high. It could've been either a man or a woman. But most of the male persons had gotten over the voice changes… So it was more likely to be a woman… that supported Voldie…

"I think I know who sent us here", Harry croaked. Snape looked up, his face unreadable.

"Oh, do you Potter?" Why did the man always make him feel stupid? Harry hoped that the headache hadn't gone yet.

"It's the cow Bellatrix L…"

"I know", Snape interrupted. A smile without happiness broke out in his face when he saw Harry's expression.

"You… know…"

"Of course I know", snorted Snape. "I tried to warn that she was behind you, but you sent off that spell." He gave Harry a pointed look.

"You… tried to… warn me…"

"Shut your mouth Potter. You look like a fish." Harry abruptly closed his mouth. "I believe that we are in cells of Lestrange Manor. One of their most secret cells, that is."

"And how many know about this cell?" Harry guessed that Snape gave him an impatient look, but it wasn't worth that much in the dark.

"Well, obviously the Lestranges. There are not many wizards or witches outside the family that know about the 'inner cells' like this one. I doubt that any living wizard on our side knows about this."

"Can't they track the spell? Or the cell itself?"

"It would be possible, but the tracks disappear after a day or so, and the risk is that our companions may not have figured out that both of us are missing."
That was the problem of wars. People went missing. Everything, everyone, was just a mess. And in most cases were the people missing never found again.


A/N: Thank you for those who reviewed!

magGE: Thank you. That means a lot!

necromann666: Well, the chapter's up now. What do you think about it?