This is now officially the longest story I've ever had on XD ... Chapter-wise, at least. The word count was technically higher with just chapter two. Applause? No? Ok, then, onto the story!

I was going to respond to viewers starting this chapter, but since they now have that ridiculous rule that it is against policy to do so, I'll have to thank you all as a group. So, thank-you everyone for your wonderful reviews! They really mean a lot!

Oh, and a quick author's note: This chapter will probably be revised later. I filled in some gaps, but haven't had the time to go over it in depth yet. I thought I'd update with something though, since this story has been dead on the rocks for a while.

CHAPTER THREE

Harry had awaken once again to the site of his dorm room. The night before came rushing back at him as soon as he was conscious and his face twisted into something between despair and sickness. Could he trust his memory that last night was real? It seemed like some kind of sick dream that Voldemort had sent to him while he was sleeping. Suddenly, he threw off his covers and ran to the bathroom. He forcefully hurled himself thorugh the doors. Without thinking, he automatically reached his hand back and slammed it shut. With a rush of movement, he lunged himself at the sink and gripped its edges until his knuckles turned white. His body spasmed with dry heaves. After a few moments, his eyes found the mirror in front of him and he stopped, staring at his own reflection with wide, frightened eyes peering back at him.

'Get a hold of yourself, Harry.' Was someone there? No, he'd just said that to himself. Harry mentally chided himself. He hadn't even recognized his own voice mothering him. He started coughing violently again and he bowed his head close to the sink. Once the fit had stopped, he bowed his head to rest it against the cool porcelain edge of the sink and willed himself not to think, just like under the tree where Snape found him. When he'd calmed himself, he once again raised his head to stare at the mirror. His eyes were red, somewhat swollen, and shining. He hadn't realized he'd been crying, but the sight of himself seemed to diminish whatever distance there was between himself and the barrier he'd tried to put up ever since he heard the news about Remus. The young man stumbled to the wall and placed his back against it and, not feeling the will to keep himself standing, slid down the length of it until he was sitting on the floor with his head tilted back against the wall and his eyes squeezed shut. This time, he couldn't stop himself from crying, so he did, harder than he ever had before.

III ... ... ... III

The beautiful morning sunlight from the charmed window had nestled itself against Severus' form. He was sitting at the table where Harry had sat the previous days. The man had much to think about. Albus had given him new information regarding the werewolf and his friend Black. It was now his job to tell Potter about the new lead. The other members of the Order were to be given that same information later in the day at a newly arranged meeting. Albus had been worried about how well Harry was taking the news and hadn't wanted to throw information at him so suddenly if he was in bad shape. He didn't understand why McGonnagal wasn't asked to do it, but he didn't bother to question Albus. There was probably a reason, and he figured it was as good as any, even if he didn't know what it was. After all, there was method to Albus' madness.

He decided on his course of action and rose swiftly, proceeding to the fireplace. He fire called Albus to let him know what he was planning to do. It was just after breakfast. Severus had taken breakfast in his quarters so he could think without the wild ruckus of the students ringing in his ears. With some good luck on Severus' part, Albus answered the call.

"You might want to check the boy's dormitory first, Severus. He never came down for breakfast. I'm afraid the news concerning Remus probably didn't leave him with much of an appetite." Severus had informed him of his intentions and had asked about Potter's whereabouts. Hearing that the boy hadn't come to the Great Hall set off a flicker of something in the back of his mind, but what that flicker was, he couldn't be sure, but it didn't strike him as something good.

"Thank-you, Headmaster. I'll inform you of the results of the conversation after the Order meeting." With that, he bid the Headmater farewell and set off for Gryffindor Tower. The more steps he took, the more he hated his destination.

The first class of the day had already commenced and luckily, he saw, nor was seen, by anyone in the Gryffindor area of the castle. And luckily for the students, noone had skipped class to hang around the common room. The cheery atmosphere of Gryffindor territory made him scowl. There was too much foolish pride lingering in the air and he felt like he was going to gag on it. Not to mention it tasted horrible.

He peered around the common room thoroughly and even though there were no unsuspected students lingering around who should be listening to teachers lecture at the moment, Harry Potter wasn't their, either, so that probably meant one thing–up to the dormitories.

As he hit the stair and placed his hand on the railing, an electric jolt coursed through his body and his mind seemed to flicker. Suddenly, he wasn't on the stairway anymore.

III ... ... ... III

The sight of stones, the feel of wood in his hand, the taste of foolish pride–he was still in the Gryffindor Common Room.

Severus shook his head a bit to try to get rid of the shell-shocked feeling from his senses.

He'd seen trees, it was nighttime, and he heard heavy footsteps like someone was running. Heavy breathing. In the distance, he heard a wolf's baying. It was light, like the moon was bright, and the presence of the wolf made him wonder if it meant it was a full moon. Suddenly, the person running cried out:

"Remus!"

And that was that. It was over as quickly as it started. He wondered...was he meant to see it? If someone had deliberately given him the experience, it put a lot of questions in the air. How? Why? Who? He couldn't worry about that now, though. He had been on his way to see Harry, so that's what he would do. He would confide to the Headmaster about it later in case it was relevant in any way, but until then, he wouldn't think about it. So, one after the other, he slowly climbed the stairs to the boy's dormitory.

Once he got there, though, there was noone there. The room was completely void of any living being. Reluctantly, he entered the room and made his way to what he assumed could had to be Harry's four-poster bed judging by the trunk. He'd seen it in Potter's possession before. Sometimes, people left clues to their whereabouts without even realizing. He figured it wouldn't hurt to look for some. But as he searched through the area, he realized he didn't even know what to look for. With a sigh of frustration, he sat himself on the edge of the bed to think for a minute. Noone had spotted him so far, so he was either somewhere still inside the area, or he had waited for classes to start and carefully slipped out while noone was watching. He'd managed to locate James' cloak, so wherever Potter was hiding, he was at least visible to the naked eye.

He knew that sitting in the dormitory wasn't going to make the bound any more found than he already was, so he stood and exited the room. As he was leaving, however, an idea struck him–the bathroom!

He knocked once, noone answered. He knocked again and still there was no answer.

"Harry," he tried softly,"are you in there? Can you hear me?" Nothing. That didn't mean he wasn't there, though, so he wrapped his fingers around the doorknob and twisted until it clicked open. He shoved open the door and entered into the room.

The room was streaked with red. He was stricken with disbelief as he tried not to think about how much blood had been lost. His eyes stopped roaming when they froze at the sight on the floor near the sink. Although the hair was matted with blood and the robes had been ripped and slashed, he knew the still, unmoving body...he couldn't bring himself to call it a corpse...belonged to a wizard, whom he knew with every ounce of strong conviction he could manage, did not deserve to be lying there. The sight of Harry Potter, slain unjustly on the floor, was enough to make his insides twitch in disgust. The professor, hit too hard and fast with such an image, swayed and steadied himself with the doorframe. He instinctively closed his eyes as he winced from the sight. He hadn't expected something like this to happen inside of Hogwarts. Working as a death eater, this kind of thing wasn't new to him, but here...here, it was just too much. However, when he opened his eyes again, the sight had been drastically changed. The sight of the blood and carnage was gone and Harry Potter was sitting on the floor with his body slumped against the wall, fast asleep.

He walked over and kneeled by the young man. He could see by lingering redness around his eyes and nose that he'd been crying, but he decided to leave that matter alone. In the next minute, he reached his hand out and lightly shook the boy's shoulder, gently trying to will him awake. Soon, Harry stirred and let out a moan at the disturbance.

Slowly opening his eyes, Harry tried to gauge where he was. At first, all he saw was white and he thought for a moment that something had happened and he was in the hospital wing, but as the world came into sharper focus and he felt the wall behind him and the cool floor underneath him, he remembered that he must've fallen asleep in the bathroom. He was almost going to laugh at himself until he suddenly noticed the warmth on his left shoulder and saw the Potions Master kneeling beside him.

"Professor...!" He said as he jerked himself into a more upright sitting position.

"I'm not here to do you any harm, Potter. Stop looking like I'm attempting to murder you." Severus paled for a moment as the earlier vision flashed in his mind, but he quickly rid himself of it. Guess that wasn't the right wording to use right now, Severus.

"Something wrong, Professor Snape?" When the man's eyes narrowed in a suspicious glare, he added: "Your eyes glazed over for a split second." Snape stood, looking down at the younger man.

"Your weary state must be inviting the lights to play tricks on you. Now, come with me, we have something to discuss." For the second time that week, he held out his hand for assistance and, for the second time as well, Harry accepted it. When he was standing, the mysterious Potions Master turned on his heel and left quickly with Harry in pursuit. Harry wasn't stupid, and he knew his eyes had been seeing perfectly fine, but he decided to mention it no further and followed behind the billowing cape in silence.

When Severus was sure the boy was following behind him, he put his movements on 'auto pilot' and let his thoughts absorb him for a while. He wasn't sure if he had seen what he'd seen out of madness or some other force. The possibility that the Dark Lord had sent the image to him was a suspicious thought on his mind. If he had indeed given him the vision, he wasn't sure what it meant. Did he recognize Severus as a traitor? Had he done it to see his reaction? Or if it wasn't the Dark Lord himself, had it been a vision of some sort? A predetermination of the future, perhaps...

Dear Merlin, he thought to himself, if I'm turning into Trelawny...perhaps Dumbledore would be compassionate and put me out of my misery before I start ogling tea leaves. He knew one thing for certain: Dumbledore would have to be informed. The old wizard always seemed to have some sort of knowledge about what was going on with everything around him. Maybe he'd know what was happening now.


AN: Yeah, I know, it's probably a bit choppy at this point. I need to go back through and re-acquaint myself with this story (and possibly do some revisions) before I update more of this. (Is my vision failing me, or did I spell "tail" as "tale" in Chapter One? ... ... Um ... ... Yes, yes I did. How incredibly dumb of me P)

Well, anyway, I actually, have a new story started. I got the sudden urge the other day to write, so write I did. It's actually molding itself pretty well. This time, the story is writing itself. (Unlike with this one! Lol.) Okay, so, there's a little bit of an update about the state of this thing.