"You are so dramatic," Severus said when I came to. He was sitting on the couch with me on his lap. I had long since accepted that being carried about and being held by everyone was part of the package of being a four-year-old. Well truth be told I quite liked it. "A true drama queen," the Dungeon Bat continued.

"It's the age," Arthur said from the opposite chair, where he was having tea, nibbling away on what looked like a cucumber sandwich. No cake. I nearly died and they were having tea? "He'll be five tomorrow, right?"

"After tomorrow."

"That's good, then we can sort him today and he'll be right as rain for the party. Harry needed a day in bed after we removed You-Know-Who from him. Of course the younger they are the quicker they recover. Why, I remember my lot was never sick for more than a day, Molly would barely have time to pamper one before they were off climbing the rafters again, getting into all sorts of mischief."

I had not heard anything said about Harry and him being a horcrux. After telling the Unspeakables that Voldemort had made some—having pretended that I had overheard him and Quirrell talk—I had left it in their hands and concentrated on having as much fun as I could have in a magical castle. What? I was four, did you honestly want me to go on a horcrux hunt?

"I'll be lucky if I get a day's rest out of him," Snape said. Oh unfair, I am not that hard to manage! I tried to wriggle off his lap but he held me fast. "Stay right where you are, Albus, I'm not running after you."

"I'll just go to my room." And pack a jumper and maybe clean underwear and slip off. I didn't want to be exorcised! I was supposed to get more time! Now Dumbledore will get my birthday and the surprise cake, it was so unfair! I'll be some ghost in King's Cross station with my bad luck! I didn't have my wand or Harry's cloak, Severus having hidden both, but maybe I could make it to the Forbidden Forest before they missed me. To my consternation, Severus stood up with me and started walking to and fro, patting my back.

"Stop thinking whatever you're thinking, Albus, breathe."

It was unfair to expect them to keep me over THEIR Dumbledore. If I wasn't going to be given the chance to run I would have to be the better person and let them kill me. Maybe they will give me time to write a letter to Percy first? And Severus's Aunt, she can say goodbye to the rest of his family for me—

"Breathe, Albus."

"I'm breathing! If I wasn't breathing I'd be dead already then no need for you to kill me! And why are you touching me! You shouldn't touch horcruxes your arm will rot off!"

"Nobody is going to—" Severus started to say but was interrupted by the portrait opening and Minerva and Poppy entering. Lockhart on their heels.

"Is it true? My little fan is a horcrux?!" Lockhart called out, pushing past the witches. I honestly don't know how Severus can still call me dramatic after having met Lockhart. He swept into the room in a flow of plum coloured cloth and accosted me where I was still trying to gasp for air. "Oh dear! Look at you, my poor darling! I know just what to do!"

"Noo!" I cried out and tried to climb over Severus's shoulder. "I don't want to die!"

Someone seemed to be choking but I was just four and they couldn't really think I was going to save them so I continued to try and save myself by climbing Snape like a tree.

Lockhart misunderstood my desperation. "No one will die from any horcrux while I am near, darling! Have no fear!"

"Albus, if Mr. Lockhart knows what to do then we can sort this issue right now," Minerva said, earning my enmity for the next year. If I survived that was. She turned to the Mediwitch. "Poppy, do you have something to calm Albus down?"

"Perhaps we should wait for the Unspeakables," Arthur said, and I decided that if I somehow survived this bloody circus then I would request to go live with him, no one else seemed to be having my welfare in mind.

"If I may say so myself, I might be able to teach the Unspeakables a thing or two on removal of sticky spiritual fragments," said Lockhart while I continued my desperate bid to escape, my elbow connecting with something hard. Severus's jaw if I was not mistaken. He said something that—for the life of me—I could not make out, only Lockhart's voice as clear as a bell. "Last summer I went horcrux hunting in the Hague, you might have read about my exploits in The Wizarding World News." Oh my God, his wand was out! "Hold him still, Severus."

I yelled fit to raise the roof. Lockhart cast a spell that burned the air grey and Severus twisted us out of the way, swinging me in a wide arc, but it was too late. A sickening crunch was followed by the awful smell of burning flesh and Severus nearly dropped me. I felt no pain. "Oh, dear," Lockhart said, sounding very far away. "Let me fix that."

The dreadful smell was coming from Severus. Suppressing a groan he switched me to his other arm, and I had a clear view of his back. His black robe had melted into his skin and he stood at an odd angle. Behind him, Lockhart was raising his wand yet again and I screamed. This time I wasn't the only one.

Lockhart never got a chance to cast anything. Minerva, Poppy and Arthur's spells hit him in a roil of colour that blinded me better than any magical camera flash. Through the rainbow of sparks I watched as the wizard went rigid, his eyes bulgedand he fell forward with an unearthly groan, toppling face first into our coffee table, the teaservice and cucumber sandwiches scattering everywhere.

"Severus!" Minerva called out. "Your back—"

"I told you!" I shouted at her.

"Not now, Albus." Severus lowered me with a hiss to the floor. "Can someone take him?"

"I don't need to be taken!"

And I wasn't going to be taken at all. I grabbed his good hand and held fast while Minerva and Poppy converged on us. They did not try to make me let go. Poppy cast something at his wounds that made it glow with a pink sheen, and Minerva transfigured his favourite armchair into a stretcher. He grimaced, but I think it was more from pain. Behind us Arthur knelt over Lockhart.

"Leave him, Arthur," Minerva said, her voice pure acid. "Come help us get Severus on the stretcher, his leg—"

"Yes-yes. Oh my goodness, what on earth had he been thinking." Stopping next to us he settled his hand on my head and I clung harder to Severus, but Arthur just gave my hair a comforting rub. "Move one inch to the left, there's a good lad, we'll get your daddy to lie down. Shall we take him through the Floo, Poppy? You'll need him in the infirmary or do you want St Mungo's"

"The Infirmary will be fine. Severus, do you want me to cast a Somnum or can you manage five more minutes?"

"I prefer being awake," he said through what sounded like clenched teeth. His eyes sought me out as they raised him horizontally before putting the stretcher under him. "Get on the stretcher, Albus, we will go through together."

"So you can keep an eye on me?"

"Yes. That."

Minerva wanted to protest, but Arthur resized the stretcher and picked me up next to Severus, while Poppy hurried everyone on. Sweat had started to bead on Severus's brow and his face was turning an alarming shade of grey.

When we stepped out into the Infirmary they wasted no time in transferring him to a bed. Poppy scooped me up and handed me to Arthur, surprising me into letting go. "No, Albus. I am going to need space to clean his wounds and cast spells, no one can touch Severus now, stay aside."

I looked to Severus for help but he was unconscious, and Arthur quick-stepped smartly back from the bed before I could grab on. He did the same back patting thing to soothe me, telling me to breathe, but I didn't know why, I wasn't the one hurt? And why the bloody hell did they keep telling me to breathe!

It was terrible. The most awful thing I had ever seen. Severus's whole left side had been burned from shoulder to hip, his robe fused to his skin in acrid patches. The crack had been his hip, his bones deformed by Lockhart's spell and the ever serene Poppy swore viciously under her breath when she examined it.

She had managed to wake Severus long enough to give him a plethora of potions to sedate him which made absolutely no sense. "You won't want to be awake for the next part," she had told him firmly, ignoring his weak protests. "Albus is watching," she had said, and for some reason this made him do as told.

"If you don't kill Lockhart, I will," Poppy told Minerva, not taking her eyes off Severus, casting spell after spell.

I didn't care one iota for Lockhart at that moment and had no energy to spend any thought on him. What Poppy was doing to Severus's wounds was frightening, and I couldn't look away. There were going to be a lot of nightmares in my future but perhaps the Unspeakables would kill me yet and it won't matter.