The Raven II

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JKR, various publishers of the HP series. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Author's Note: Yes, I know I left you on a little cliff last chapter, but it wasn't as bad as some of the others I passed up before I found that one. I wanted to get out what I had already written.

Chapter 10 (uploaded 10/11/04)

Peter Pettigrew answered the knock on the door. "You got my letter," he rubbed his palms together. "You made the antidote?"

Snape nodded once, "It's not here yet."

"You were supposed to bring it with you."

"Someone flushed fireworks in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom again. I was interrupted, so it wasn't ready when I was summoned." Crabbe Sr., who had escorted the professor, pushed him from behind toward the opened door. "It will be delivered as long as I am alive to receive it." Snape hovered over the shorter wizard, "Do you understand me?"

"Yeh." Peter grumbled something under his breath about tricky Slytherins.

-----ooOoo-----

Dumbledore paced in front of his desk while Harry wrote out his homework assignments. The kid's tongue stuck out the side of his mouth while he thought out his potions essay. He idly tickled his ear with the golden phoenix feather he used as a quill.

"Need help?" Dumbledore smiled at the cuteness, thinking Harry looked young for his age at that moment.

"Well, I was thinking of the potion that turned me into a raven. It made me sleepy after taking it and seems to have a long delay. The same with the antidote. It's obviously effective, but it takes too long to kick in and the sleepiness makes it inconvenient."

"It sounds like the recipe simply hasn't had the time to meld. It probably wasn't simmered long enough. I would venture to guess that someone took shortcuts. Are you going to tell me who this someone is?"

"I can't, I gave my word and I'm not really all that angry about it. So...if it has been bottled already, can it be put back into a cauldron for more cooking time to fix it?"

"I wouldn't recommend it. It could turn wrong, very wrong, indeed."

"Oh. What chapter is that in?" Harry ruffled forward through the pages of the textbook.

Dumbledore looked over his half-moon glasses, "Fourth year, Mr. Potter."

Harry blushed, "I must have been busy with the tournament or something. Hey, I remember something about it! You can also allow it to mature in the bottle for a couple weeks and to make up for the time in the cauldron." Suddenly, Harry doubled over and fell behind the desk, and moaned loudly.

"Harry!" Dumbledore ran over to the moaning student. "What is it? Your stomach?"

"The band, cut it off please. Cut my toe if you have to. Make it stop!"

"I'd rather not resort to that. What's happening, lad?"

"Snape. He's being punished."

"Not the Cruciatus curse again?" Dumbledore looked up at Fawkes, who lifted his wings and shook his head.

"No. Everything but. The Death Eaters are doing it," Harry panted. "He's calling me. He's calling for Munin." Harry pushed himself off the floor and paused on his hands and knees.

"I can't let you go, Harry. Voldemort is looking for you."

"But you don't know where he is."

"Fawkes can find him."

"Then why isn't Fawkes going?"

"Harry, you were able to call Fawkes from The Chamber because you demonstrated true loyalty to me. I'm afraid he hasn't yet shown the same loyalty."

"Professor, he's practically unconscious!"

"I'm going to alert the Order and call Poppy. Stay right there. Do I have to tie you up to make you obey me?" Harry's answer was to fake another stomach pain and yelp. Dumbledore left him writhing on the floor and ran off to make his calls.

Harry saw his opportunity and ran to the chair where his invisibility cloak was bundled. He took Snape's pouch off the Headmaster's desk. But then he was at a loss. Covering himself up with the cloak, he ran to the storage dungeon.

"Alohomora!" Harry said softly. But nothing happened. "Damn!" He opened the peeper window and stuck the tip of his wand into the room. "Wingardium Leviosa!" A small vial floated above the shelves and slowly made its way toward the wizard. Unfortunately, the cloak had slipped and exposed Harry's head and hands as he worked.

"Potter! What are you doing?" a familiar voice hissed. Harry lost concentration and dropped the vial onto the stone floor, shattering the vial. He turned angrily toward the source of the voice, "Malfoy!" But pain overtook him again. He clutched his stomach and slid down with his back to the door. Draco approached him slowly with eyes narrowed, dragging his broom. He looked like he had just come in from Quidditch practice.

"No, I'm bonded to Snape. He needs me," Harry gasped.

"Needs you? That's a laugh," the blonde boy smirked.

"Just shut up. I need a couple vials of the raven potion." Harry doubled over again, clutching his stomach and moaning. He recovered quickly and he clawed his way back up to the peeper window but he turned his head and looked Draco up and down. "Hey, can I borrow your broom?"

"No! You're serious! You think you're going to go rescue him, don't you. You're bloody mad. I'm going to tell Dumbledore." Draco held his broom out of Harry's reach. Without thinking, Harry punched him in the chin, knocking him out. He returned to his task of luring the vials he wanted through the window. Finally managing to attract three vials through the window, he stuffed them into the leather pouch. Harry was just working the broom out of Malfoy's grasp when he moaned and started to come to. When the Slytherin realized what was happening, he started wrestling back for control of the broom.

They rolled down the hallway as they fought. At one point, Harry was able to snatch the broom from the Slytherin seeker and run up the stairs and out the door with the broom. But Malfoy was hot on his tail. He caught up to Harry outside and did a diving tackle. Harry was mounted on the broom already and had started levitating a dozen feet in the air.

"Let go, stupid git!" Harry yelled at the blonde 16-year old hanging off the broom.

"It's my broom!"

Harry zigged and zagged his way over the lake to shake off his opponent, but Malfoy's grip was as incredible as his determination.

"Fine, then you're coming with me!" Harry rolled and turned such that Malfoy was forced into a sitting position behind him on the broom. He yelled back at the new passenger, "Cover yourself up with the invisibility cloak!"

-----ooOoo-----

Outside a basement window, in the dark, Malfoy said a bit loudly, "What have you gotten me into, Potter?"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry hissed. "If you must talk, keep your voice down. Look in the window."

"Hey, what am I supposed to do?" Malfoy whispered.

"Be quiet! Just have a look."

"But you get to be invisible. I'm exposed here."

"They're not going to kill you if they find you. That's your father stomping on Snape."

"No it isn't! Yes it is," Draco blanched as he watched his father taking his turn at kicking Professor Snape in the stomach as laid out on the floor. Then his Auntie Bella suspended him upside down, while her husband, Uncle Rodolphus took swings with a bludger bat on his back. Draco's face took a greenish tinge as he looked away from the scene. Bellatrix dropped Snape back on the floor when he threw up.

"Who'ssss nexxxxt?" Voldemort hissed. Harry got up and knocked on the front door, making sure he was completely cloaked before the door opened.

Laughter from the others, Crabbe, Avery, Rabastan resounded from the room. Bellatrix Lestrange's harsh laughter rang above the others. Wormtail walked out of the room, and within a few minutes, the front door was opening. The rat animagus stood on the porch, looked out into the dark and lit his wand. "Who's out there?" Wormtail peered into the bushes but Harry could see Draco had covered himself in the shrubbery and had pulled his Quidditch cape over his head. The Gryffindor student snuck up behind Wormtail to cover his mouth, spoke quietly into his ear, while jabbing a wand into his ribs, "Be quiet. I have your antidote, but you need to get Snape out of there."

Harry slipped his arm down into a choke hold. "Who are you?" Wormtail's eyes shifted back and forth. "I can't just go in there and get him. They'll take their turns on me next."

"I'll give you a distraction, you get him out of the room. Where do we meet? I'm warning you, if you're not alone with him, I'll dump out the antidote."

"No, don't! There is a gardener's shed is on the other side of the house. I'll bring him there, it's already set up for basic potions."

Once Wormtail went back into the house, Harry jumped into the bushes and pulled a Weasley's Wheezes Basic Blaze Box from his robes, "Here, help me light these." He touched the tip of his wand to one of the fuses and sent it off into the sky where it exploded. Draco helped him light the rest.

When the room had cleared out, Harry tried to blast the window, as he had seen Snape and Lucius Malfoy do at the Dursley raid. Draco smirked at the puff of smoke Harry managed, "Is that the best you can do, Hero? You have to think of a bad experience."

Harry nodded and set his thoughts on the Dursleys and the closet he grew up in. His spell bounced off the window. Draco taunted again, "Ha, Snape is right, you have been coddled."

"Shut up, I can do this." Harry then set his thoughts on the time he was tied to a gravestone and on the receiving end of Voldemort's Cruciatus curse. He blasted through the window, leaving the frame smoldering.

"That was a bit much," Draco said, wide eyed.

Harry returned with a smirk and threw a portable swamp into the room. With his back to the wall, Harry lead the way around the house, toward the gardener's shed.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Draco kept repeating, as followed Potter through the shadows.

"You're not doing this for me, okay? It's for your godfather." Malfoy sighed at Potter's words.

When they were assured that the Death Eaters were occupied with either the swamp or the Weasley Whiz Bangs, they dashed into the dark shed and found Snape curled into a ball on the floor. Harry found a cauldron and started chopping ingredients as he found them. "Hey, what about my potion," Wormtail had been hiding in the dark in rat form.

"Potion, I made the potion," Snape mumbled into the floor.

"What are you doing, Potter?" Draco wrinkled his nose at the smell.

"This is the same potion that you made the other day after playing Quidditch in the dungeons," Harry replied. Just then, Snape stirred with a moan and threw up blood on the floor. The sight sent Draco over the edge, as he turned into the corner and threw up, too.

"Someone's coming!" Peter closed the door he was peeking out of.

Harry grabbed Draco by the arm and pulled him to the cauldron. "I can't," Draco said, while grabbing his stomach. Harry dug into his pockets and produced a puking pastille. He pinched off the half that cause the eater to vomit and gave Draco the other half. "Just eat it!" Harry pressed it into Draco's palm as he covered himself up with his invisibility cloak once again.

When the door opened up with a bang, Draco popped the candy into his mouth and turned to the door. A rat skittered across the floor and disappeared as Harry picked it up and pulled it under the cloak. "Father!" Draco exclaimed with wand light shining in his face.

"What are you doing out of school, Draco?"

"Professor Snape needed my help," he managed to squeak. He threw another handful of ingredients into the cauldron. "This is a potion for contusions and bruises."

"Yes, I know it well. Fine, take him back to Hogwarts with you." Lucius directed his wand light to all corners of the shed. He made a face of disgust when he saw the vomit on the walls and blood on the floor. Snape moaned again and stirred, "Munin, where are you? I know you're here."

"Munin?" Lucius asked.

"His pet raven. He's out of it. I saw you kick him. I thought you were friends."

"If someone you call a friend isn't good for something, you find another 'friend.' If your friend brings you down with him, you cut the tie. Get used to it. Don't stay too long."

"Does that apply to family too? I need a written excuse so I can get back into Hogwarts." Draco asked.

"You snuck out, you can sneak back in...on your own. And yes, it applies to family, too," Lucius said coldly as he backed out the door and shut it quietly.

Snape awoke again and heaved, but nothing came up until he coughed up more blood. Peter transformed back, "He's bleeding internally."

Harry pulled a Skiving Snack Box from his robes and picked out the Nosebleed Nougat. He cut it in half and threw away the part that gave nosebleeds. "Here, Professor, chew on this. It'll stop the bleeding."

"Munin, is that you?"

"Yes, Professor. It's Munin." Snape chewed and swallowed the candy while Harry brushed the black hair from the professor's pale skin. Snape turned to his side and had a couple of dry heaves. He was left shaking and trembling on the floor. Harry gave him the recovery half of another puking pastille. Harry took the flask from the pouch around his neck and pulled out the flask. A note floated out of the pouch. Harry picked it up and read it out loud. "Dilute in a tub of water. Soak for at least a half hour." Pettigrew clapped his hands and took the flask and note from Harry.

After the rat animagus left, Harry threw a portable swamp out the door and another one out the window. "Hey, idiot, how am I supposed to get out of here now?" Draco scowled at the black-haired Gryffindor.

"We need some time for him to get stronger." Harry said, as he went through Snape's pockets. He pulled an unlabeled bottle and illuminated it with his wand. Not recognizing it, he set it down, but Draco picked it up, uncorked it, and sniffed. He put it to Snape's lips and said, "Pain potion."

"Draco? What are you doing here?" Snape sipped the potion.

Harry yelped as he pulled his hand out of another of Snape's pockets, but the wound healed before the solution had a chance to dry on his hand. "I guess that was murtlap solution. The bottle's broken." Harry got up and returned with a wet rag. He put it over Snape's bruises on his face, who, in turn, moaned in relief before passing out again.

Harry tugged on Snape's already shredded robes to expose his wounds. "Eww," Draco gasped as he got up and returned with more potion soaked rags to put on Snape's chest and stomach.

Harry moved toward the window, "I hear something." The teens peered though the window and, just past the end of the swamp, saw a small circle of Death Eaters around Voldemort and a small fire. Draco had a look of disgust as they took turns crawling up to kiss the hems of the Dark Lord's robes and apologized for their ineptitude. "What time is it?" Harry asked.

Draco looked at his watch and said, "Midnight."

"Has anyone checked the Gardener's shed?" Voldemort pointed toward the boys.

"I have, my lord. It was empty." Lucius volunteered.

"You lie, Lucius!" The Dark Lord kicked him in the face, sending him scrambling backwards to take his place in the circle. "Bella, find out who is in there. Someone find Wormtail!"

"Yes, my lord." She growled. Two shadows ran away from the circle.

"He was groveling. Damn, hypocrite," Draco whispered harshly. "Shit! She's coming here!" They ducked under the window.

"Ironic, isn't it? A bunch of purebloods groveling at the feet of a half-blood," Harry smirked, earning a scowl from Draco. "You know, Professor Dumbledore is the only wizard Voldemort fears."

"Shut up and do something," Draco hissed.

"Okay, hold your thestrals. Oh wait, you can't see thestrals, can you?" Harry dug into the leather pouch. He poured the small vial of transfiguration formula into Snape's mouth and took another in his hand. "Wear my invisibility cloak and fly off. If you're caught, there's one more vial of raven potion in case of an emergency. You also have the Skiving Snack Box. You might get some sympathy if you throw up or have a nosebleed or a fever. The directions are inside the box. You eat half to get sick. Eat the other half to get better. Just read to know what color to eat first."

Just then they heard Bellatrix sloshing in the mud and cursing her way around the shed. With a crack, Severus turned into a raven. Wearing just his boxers, and after stuffing his clothes and wand into the wizard's pouch, Harry gently picked up the black bird and crawled under the table and put boxes in front of him to block anyone's view. Draco was scrambling to collect Snape's robes.

-----ooOoo-----

"Draco!" Bellatrix exclaimed, as Draco stuffed Snape's wand into the wizard's pouch.

"Oh, hi Auntie Bella," Draco managed to vocalize, as her wand light illuminated the walls and floor. "It's just me."

"Get out here. The Dark Lord would like to meet you. "Where's Severus?"

Draco threw down Snape's robes. "He woke up and apparated." He hesitated as he left the threshold, "I don't want to step in that, levitate me, please Auntie Bella?" Draco resolved to put on his sweet face and charm his mother's older sister.

She pointed her wand at his head, "Pick that up, boy." Draco gathered the shreds of black cloth. "Narcissa spoils you." She waved her wand, allowing Draco to float to the edge of the muddy swamp.

When she caught up, Draco kissed her on the cheek, "Thanks Auntie, so do you."

"This way, insufferable brat."

"You say that with such affection," Draco crooned with a fake smile. As soon as they were out of the shed, Harry, now a raven, hopped to the window sill to watch.

The blonde boy was shoved into the center of the circle, facing the Dark Lord. "My lord," Bella bowed deeply to Voldemort, "this is Draco Malfoy. He was in the shed. He says that Severus has disapparated. On your knees, boy!" His aunt pushed down on his head until his knees dropped to the ground. He dropped the black, blood soaked robes in front of him.

"Malfoy offspring, how nice. Your nephew, Bella? What were you doing in there, boy!?" Voldemort's high pitch voice made Draco's hair stand on the back of his neck and sent shivers down his spine.

"Uncle Severus needed help. I brewed the potion for bruises and administered other potions for pain and internal bleeding until he came around." Draco lifted his head to look into Voldemort's red eyes and got a slap on the back of his head, so he dropped his eyes again.

"Good at potions, are you?"

"Top boy in my class, sir. I could be Head Boy next year, on Professor Snape's recommendation."

"Then you should know, Head Boy, that Snape could not have disapparated from the shed, these grounds are warded against it. More than that, wizards do not leave their clothes behind when they disapparate. Where is he?"

"I don't know," beads of sweat grew on his forehead, "I heard a crack and then he wasn't there anymore. All I know is that he's gone, so I assumed that he disapparated. He was weak, maybe he got splinched." That caused the group to laugh, but it wasn't a laugh of glee. It made the feathers on Harry's neck quiver.

"Do you wish to join me, Draco Malfoy?"

"Join the Death Eaters? I've still got two years of school yet. I don't think I'm ready for friends like these. I don't deserve this kind of...friendship."

"You are correct, boy. You don't deserve it yet. But I like you. I'm going to keep my eye on you. Give me your arm."

Draco stood up, only to be slapped down again. He scooted backwards on the grass, away from the Dark Lord, who walked ominously toward him. Rabastan and Rodolphus picked him up under his arms and held out his left. "Come on, nephew. You either accept the invitation or die."

Draco struggled and kicked against them, "No! Don't! I don't want this! You just wait until Dumbledore hears about this, I know you're afraid of him!"

Suddenly, like a meteor shower, lights fell out of the sky. They were led by the flaming streak that was Fawkes and got bigger as they reached the ground, easily outnumbering the Death Eaters two, or three-to-one. "The Order!" Harry cheered. "Haha, Draco proved his loyalty to Dumbledore! He called Fawkes!" He was about to jump out the window to join them, but was snapped out of his reverie by Snape's weak croak. Instead, he went to the other raven, laying behind the table.

"Shh, it's okay now." Harry coo'd, "I'd have never believed it. Draco called Dumbledore!"

Snape looked up from where he was laying, "Munin? Why, you're so big!"

"No, Professor, you're a raven."

"A raven," Snape repeated weakly, "I've died and come back as a raven. Please call me Severus."

"Professor, you never died," Harry sighed, "We can talk about this when you're stronger, go back to sleep." Harry fell asleep and missed his opportunity to go home to Hogwarts when Order members searched the shed and missed the two birds hidden behind the boxes under the table.

----- ooOoo -----

To be continued...

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I hope you enjoyed this extra long (for me) chapter. Chocolate brownies and ice cream to everyone who reviewed and made my day: Wren Truesong, starangel2106, Silverthreads, Mystic Phoenix, Werinaya, ShadowedHand, Anna Taure, Manx, texasjeanette, gaul1, sakura saisaka, ataraxis, Vyxagallanxchi, Lucky, Sky, tall oaks, Persephone Lupin.