"Potter."

Harry groaned as he lifted his weary head. He realized he must have drifted to sleep. The Brollachan lay off in the corner, snoring loudly. Aside from a few claw marks, their confrontation had gone well. The thing Voldemort seemed to have forgotten about this supposedly vicious creature was that it only fed on children. Faced with a grown man who fights back, it was easily overcome, and now merely shared Harry's cell. The Gryffindor smiled at the shifting, breathing shadow. The poor thing shouldn't be here, it needed to be in a forest.

"Why are you smiling?"

Harry gasped and jerked his head around. He hadn't imagined that voice that woke him. "Snape!" He crowed in relief.

The Potions Master smirked. "Your observation skills leave something to be desired."

Harry grinned. "Give me a break, I never expected you'd be captured, or that they'd put you in a cell with me."

"I wasn't," Snape answered, drawing his wand.

Harry gaped. "So… you…" He drew a deep breath. "You risked your life coming after me. Again."

"It seems to be the only way to protect you," Snape said. He moved closer and lit the tip of his wand, working at the metal cuffs on Harry's wrists. Harry had discovered that the bindings had been conjured. There was no key. "Just don't knock me unconscious this time."

Harry chuckled as the bindings loosened and he dropped to the hard floor on his knees. "To be fair, you were in the wrong on that particular adventure."

"Fair enough," The Potions Master agreed, picking him up from the floor. He slipped Harry's wand into his palm, and Harry felt a wash of magic to have the familiar branch in his hand.

"So, how did you find me?" Harry asked, his legs trembling. Snape tried to support him, but he pushed off and forced his legs to hold him.

Snape's hands hovered as Harry wavered before straightening. "I have suspected Irma was a Death Eater for some time. The disturbing thing is that Albus didn't, at least until today."

Harry tried to take a step, stumbled into Snape's arms, and righted himself, moving to the open door of his cell. "Don't tell me," He said, smirking over his shoulder. "You used me as bait."

"More or less," The Potions Master admitted. "I had thought our… arrangement, would keep me close enough to catch her before something happened to you. I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me."

Harry smiled. "Did Severus Snape just apologize?"

"I may have, not that you could prove it," Snape answered, smirking. He reached out and drew Harry into his arms.

Harry went willingly into the embrace. "I should have listened to you," He murmured. "You shouldn't have had to come after me." He wrapped his arms around the older wizard's shoulders and held tightly. "But thank you, for doing so anyway."

They both pulled away, and then Snape was leading him down the corridor. Harry followed silently. He could hear fighting going on above them. The Order was here. Of course they were. Snape wasn't a Gryffindor, he wouldn't have gone charging in without backup. The fact that he was here at all, when it could easily mean his death… Harry shuddered as he recalled the man's words a month back. He grabbed Snape's arm before the man could start up the stairs. Snape turned to him with a deep frown.

"You… you remember what you said," Harry began gently. "On our first date in Hogsmeade?"

"Of course I do," Snape answered uncertainly.

"Not this time, okay?" Harry said sternly. The Potions Master opened his mouth to argue, but Harry grabbed his face in his hands and looked into his eyes. "I mean it, Snape, you can't save me this time. This has to end, and that means I have to die. I don't know what'll happen after. He'll be weak, once I'm gone. Weak enough that somebody else can finish him, I'd bet. After that… after his reign of terror has ended, then you can worry about me. And, if I'm very, very lucky, you may even be able to bring me back. It's my turn, to give my life for somebody else, my turn to give my life… for you."

"Potter…"

Harry forced himself to smirk with false bravado. "Just promise me one thing, okay?"

Snape nodded, and they both pretended there weren't tears glistening in his black eyes.

"Promise you'll be there," Harry murmured. "I'm not afraid to die, but… don't make me die alone."

Snape surprised him by leaning forward and capturing his lips in a hard, insistent kiss. Harry melted into it. They leaned into each other. The kiss was chaste, a farewell which words could not convey. Harry felt tears slip from his eyes as the Potions Master drew him closer, as if afraid to let him go. Finally, he pulled away and moved past his professor, leading the way up the stairs. He was ready to face his destiny.