Thanks for reviews. On with chapter 8 . . .

Life at Grimmauld Place was rather dull and depressing, Harry concluded a couple of weeks later. Most of the cleaning had been finished, and so there was nothing but homework, which he finished in a few days, to do. Most of Harry's time was spent playing avoid Hermione and Ron, until they decided that they could go home because he was obviously okay and could live without them for a few weeks.

Fred remained at headquarters, as he was still assigned to guard Harry, Remus was also a permanent resident, although he was away often doing work for the Order that he 'couldn't possibly discuss'. So Harry's only company was the red headed mischief maker, unfortunately with no-one else to pull pranks on Fred's skills at causing havoc where pretty limited.

This meant Harry had had plenty of time to think. As one might imagine this wasn't exactly a fun experience. Trying to avoid the pain of thinking about Sirius, Harry had instead concentrated on Jasrene's betrayal, he went through all the time they'd spent together, everything she'd said and came to the conclusion that she was an amazing liar, having taken him in completely, making him believe she was his friend. The image of her in Death Eater robes was burned into the back of his eyelids, and as he dwelled on these thoughts his anger and hatred towards her grew and grew. With no-one to take it out on except Fred and Remus, his room had taken the punishment. His upended trunk lay in one corner, clothes and books spilling out from it, open books lay everywhere, a broken inkwell on the floor on one side of the room and an ink stain where he'd thrown it against the wall. And now he'd let it all out he back to apathetic and relatively indifferent and emotionless.

Harry looked at the mess and sighed, getting up to make some effort to tidy it up a bit. Once he'd put his trunk right side up he began chucking clothes and books in it unceremoniously when he heard the door downstairs slam. If it had been last summer that noise would have been accompanied by the screeching and wails of Sirius' mum, but Fred and Harry had managed to get rid of her, though the use of a lot paint stripper, and a variety of muggle and magical acids. That had been a satisfying day, Harry though happily.

His reverie was broken when Fred hollered at him from downstairs. Throwing one last book into his trunk he made his way downstairs.

"Harry!" Fred yelled again, urgently from the kitchen.

"I'm here, I'm here." Harry said as he stepped inside. His eyes widened with shock and he stopped dead in his tracks. "Bloody hell." He muttered.

"That's right Potter, just stand there and gawk, don't think about lending a hand of anything." Snape muttered his attention never leaving the person laying upon the kitchen table. Cuts and bruises littered her skin, and there was a substantial amount of blood flowing freely from her stomach, visible as Snape ripped away the clothing covering the area. "Weasley come here." He pulled Fred forward and placed his hands over the wound. "Keep pressure on the wound." He instructed.

Suddenly crystal blue eyes snapped open. "Sev'rus." She gasped. "Is he . . . did he . . ." she coughed violently, and Snape pulled out a vial of potion, from where Harry didn't see, and held it to her lips. "Did he get away . . . Sev'rus?" she asked desperately, grabbing his hand

"Yes he did, now drink this, reckless girl." He said sternly. Obediently she drank the potion and laid her head back on the table.

"Hurts." She muttered.

"I don't doubt it does." Snape muttered as he started applying a salve of some sort to the minor cuts that covered her, starting with a long gash on her cheek. Harry noticed his hands were shaking slightly. "Potter." He snapped. "Go and floo Poppy, she's at Hogwarts."

"I . . . er, yes sir." Harry stuttered and ran off to the living room to the fireplace. Hastily he grabbed a handful of floo powder from the pot on the mantle piece and called out "Hogwarts infirmary." and kneeling on the floor in front of it stuck his head in the flames. After experiencing the odd sensation of his head spinning around while his knees remained still upon the ground, he opened his eyes to the familiar setting of the infirmary.

"Madame Pomfrey!" he shouted loudly. "Madame Pomfrey!" She came bustling out of here office looking extremely agitated, but when she saw Harry's head in her fire place she instantly became worried.

"What is it child?" she asked worriedly.

"Jasrene Poliakov and Snape just turned up at Grimmauld Place, she's been hurt pretty bad, losing a lot of blood I think."

"Oh dear!" she exclaimed and hurried over to grab a small bag of medical supplies filled with everything she might need, and then back over to the fireplace. "Well boy? I can't very well get there if you're still in the fireplace can I?" she snapped.

"Right. Sorry." he said and pulled his head back out of the flames and back into the living room of Grimmauld Place. Seconds later the mediwitch was standing in front of him and hurrying him towards the kitchen.

When they entered Harry was taken aback by the scene. Fred was still pressing his hand's to Jas' stomach trying to slow the blood, which his hands were now covered in. Snape was standing near her head, stroking her raven hair trying to soothe her, it didn't appear to be working too well as she was muttering hysterically, tears streaming down her face.

" . . . he killed her Sev'rus . . . . . should have stopped . . . mother . . my fault . . . . . Made me . . . dirty . . . didn't want to . . . . . couldn't stop him . . . ."

When he saw them Snape looked extremely relieved. "Took you long enough." He snapped. "I've given her a blood replenishing potion, but it was all I had and couldn't think of anything else to do. I instructed Weasley to apply pressure to the wound." He spoke quickly as Pomfrey performed some spells on Jas.

"No significant damage to any organs, luckily, but there's a lot of blood loss." She said and pulled some potion vials out of her bag and handed them to Snape who immediately gave them to Jasrene. "Thank you Mr. Weasley, you can move aside for the moment." Pomfrey said to Fred. She waved her wand at the wound and most of the blood disappeared, to leave a three maybe four inch deep gash on the right of her stomach.

Pomfrey waved her wand again and Jasrene took in a deep breath. She closed her eyes, having ceased mumbling when the mediwitch had cast her first spell, muttered an almost inaudible thanks and leant further into Snape's touch as he continued to stroke her hair comfortingly.

"What happened?" Madame Pomfrey asked quietly as she began applying various salves to the wound.

"Lucious, wasn't to pleased with me." Jasrene said with a small tired smile.

"Understatement." Snape said. Pomfrey raised an eyebrow in question. "He stabbed her, after submitting her to Cruciatus a few times."

"And you." Jas muttered. Pomfrey's head snapped up and she glared at Snape.

"What's this Severus? Have you given yourself an opportunity to recover from having your nerve endings repeatedly set on fire yet? Of course you haven't! Sit down at once!" She commanded sternly. Snape looked like he was about to argue, but with a tired sigh relented and pulled up a chair and sat down heavily.

Fred and Harry were still standing in the doorway, watching the scene with interest. Snape looked up and glared at them.

"Do quit your incessant staring." He snarled half-heartedly.

"Sorry sir." they muttered in unison, Snape raised an eyebrow at this. They both turned to leave the kitchen and it's occupants.

"Thank you for your assistance." Snape said, Fred and Harry looked at him in shock for a moment and glanced at each other before Fred replied.

"You're welcome." And pushed Harry towards the door. Harry sent a final glance back to Jas and their eyes met briefly, before he allowed himself to be pushed out of the room.

To many thoughts not enough paper. Tell me what you thought of mine.