On the Brink

"Should we check?"

"I don't know, the Dark Lord doesn't like to be disturbed."

"But he said he'd be back in a few minutes."

"Okay, just open the door a crack."

The door swung open slowly. Tentatively, Crabbe and Goyle Senior entered the room, their Death Eater hoods flapping uselessly in their hands. Within seconds, they had seen the lifeless body of their master; Crabbe letting out a bellow that brought the rest of the Death Eaters running. All of the hooded figures crowded round Voldemort, ignoring the boy crouched over the body of the girl in the corner.

Except one.

Severus Snape moved over to the steadily growing pool of blood, and prised a protesting Harry off Sally. Opening her lips and tilting her head back, Snape began to pour a few drops into her mouth from a vial he had extracted from his robes.

Harry snapped out of his stupor. "What…what are you doing? Leave her alone!"

Snape motioned to Harry to be quiet. "Blood replenishing potion," he muttered through gritted teeth. Once he had finished, he carefully lifted Sally into his arms and stood up. "Right," he said to Harry, one eye on the group of Death Eaters. "Let's go."

"Where?" asked Harry, confused.

"I don't know about you," whispered Snape, "but I don't want to be around when that lot realise what's happened. Okay?"

Once they had slipped out of the room, Harry followed Snape down a flight of stairs and back into another dark tunnel. Snape was moving as quickly as he could without jolting the girl in his arms.

Once Snape was certain that they hadn't been followed, he set Sally down gently on the floor and knelt beside her. Harry ventured forward and asked the question he hadn't dared to ask before.

"Is she…?"

"No, she's not dead Potter. Not quite, anyway."

As if to confirm this, Sally made a wet rattling sound in her throat. A trickle of blood trailed down the side of her mouth. Snape began to administer some more drops from the vial.

"Why do you have blood replenishing potion with you?" asked Harry, suspicious.

Snape sneered derisively. "What do you think we do here, Potter? Let's just say, it comes in useful once in a while." He took out his wand and began muttering spells; now concentrating on the stab wound itself.

Harry sat watching, curled up against the wall.

After a few minutes, Snape put his wand in his pocket and sat beside Harry. "That'll do for the moment, but we can't move her again until she's a bit more stable," he said.

Harry nodded. It occurred to him that this was the longest that Snape had ever gone without making a snide comment towards him.

Snape turned to Harry. "So tell me," he said, "what happened exactly?"

Harry described the events in the hall, up to and including Sally's attempted suicide.

Snape nodded, solemnly.

"She has a strong character. I had noticed that, of course, but fighting the Imperius curse – especially that of Voldemort – well, that's commendable to say the least."

Harry narrowed his eyes. "You had noticed that? What do you mean you had noticed that? When did you get a chance to notice that?"

"I got to know her over the last few weeks," said Snape. "She got lost in the dungeons quite a while ago and I gave her directions. A few days later she came back. She had become curious about the art of potion making and asked me if she could watch. While you were at lessons, she would come down, and if I wasn't teaching she would help me with little things – chopping ingredients, labelling and so forth – and we would talk."

Harry turned, his eyes ablaze with fury. "I knew that you were trying to find out about her, I just knew it! What was it, a little inside information for Voldemort?"

Snape glared at Harry. "Don't you dare speak to me like that Potter! Not that it's any of your business – but I saw a spark in her that I haven't seen in any of my students for some time. I regretted not being able to teach her the craft – she would have been very talented at it."

"Don't even try it!" said Harry. "It's well known that you hate anyone that isn't a pure blood, let alone Muggles. You're a bloody Death Eater!"

Snape sneered. "The legendary Potter arrogance rears its ugly head once again. One of these days you're going to learn that life isn't as simple as you have been led to believe. If I really hated Muggles, why would I be here now? I had every right to leave her to bleed to death."

Harry was about to shout back a retort, but stopped as he realised that what Snape had just said had a ring of truth to it. "Why do you hate Gryffindors then? It's because they aren't all pure bloods like Slytherins," he tried weakly, aware that he was probably going to lose the argument.

Snape tutted. "Just because I dislike you and your little friends, you assume that I hate all Gryffindors. I am indifferent to Gryffindors. As I am to Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. I dislike you because the self importance and flagrant disregard for authority that was so apparent in your father seems to have almost been distilled in you. Your sidekicks just serve to emphasise that, especially Granger. She is too clever for her own good."

Harry's felt another rush of anger flare up. "You can't hold it against Hermione that she's clever! In the same way that you can't hold it against me that you didn't like my dad!"

Snape waved his hand in the air. "I am not going to have this argument with someone who has such infantile thinking."

Harry turned away and seethed.

Harry wasn't aware that he had fallen asleep until he woke up with a jolt. Sally was going into violent spasms. Snape got up in alarm.

"She's gone into shock," he said, pulling out his wand. "Talk to her."

"What?" said Harry, still half asleep.

Snape sighed, exasperated. "Try and get her to focus on your voice."

Harry got up and went to Sally's side. "Sal, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can."

The hand that Harry was holding remained limp. Snape motioned to Harry to carry on, while furiously performing spells on the girl.

"Remember I said I was going to take you to Diagon Alley over Christmas?" said Harry. "You'll love it there. There are so many shops – Madam Malkin's sells robes, you'd like that, and Florean Fortescue does the best sundaes ever, and we'd have to go to Quality Quidditch Supplies since you like flying so much. In fact, if you get through this I'll let you have a go on my Firebolt – it's so much better than Ron's Cleansweep Eleven, although Charlie says it's on its way out because of the new Nimbus 2002. Charlie is Ron's older brother – my God, there are so many people you haven't met yet! You should meet the Weasleys, Mr Weasley would love you, he'd spend all day asking about televisions and washing machines, and you would really get on with Fred and George, they're hilarious. They would love you as well. Everyone would love you, like…like I do. Come on Sal, you can't leave me now, not now, not after everything."

Almost imperceptibly, Harry felt Sally squeeze his hand.

He looked up, and saw that her eyes were open and that she was looking at him. As he began to speak once again, her eyes became unfocused and her hand fell limp.

"NO!" screamed Harry, grabbing her by the shoulders.

Snape pushed him away roughly, the potion master's own voice becoming more agitated as he continued to chant spells. Finally he grabbed her wrist to take a pulse. He said nothing, but Harry could tell from the look on his face that he couldn't find one.

Snape stepped back and pointed his wand directly at Sally's heart.

"RESTITUO PECTUS!" he roared.

He leaned forward once again to take her pulse. Harry watched his face anxiously for any sign of expression.

Snape dropped her wrist, sighed and leant against the wall, his hand over his eyes. Slowly, he nodded. "She's back."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief, and promptly vomited all over the floor.

After a few hours, Snape decided that Sally could be moved. He levitated her in front of himself, and Harry followed him out of the tunnel. They walked straight out into the grounds of the castle, Snape counting each step they took.

"Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred. Right, we're past the anti-apparition wards. Hold on to me."

Harry was too dazed and tired to care that he was clutching onto the man he had hated for the past six years. Before he knew it, several arms were stretched out, hugging him.

He was safe. He was home.

A/N: Not much left to go now! Thanks to everyone who reviewed:

Rubber-duckiesofdoom: You are so incredibly sweet! I'm not sure, maybe it was Monty Python, I just happen to know the song. Glad you liked the monologue, it was quite fun to write!

Emma Barrows: Thanks for sticking with it!

Jamie Prongs: I was actually quite hoping that someone would react in the way you did, so I'm glad it came as a surprise! Thanks!

Junomalabre: YAY! You're back! My lovely beta! Mwah!

Amanda: I'm trying, I'm trying: )