Part 1

Severus Snape slowly opened his eyes to a dimly lit room. Vaguely recalling his last experience in this enclosure, Severus idly scanned the room for his charge. His eyes first fell upon the familiar face of the man who had caused the commotion earlier. Fortunately, he seemed to be asleep.

Severus' eyes continued to penetrate the contents of the room until they finally found the object for which they were looking.

Harry's body lay where it had originally been when Severus had first woken in the small room.

Without another thought to his injuries or weakness, Harry's professor forced himself to roll over on his side. Once in this position, he allowed himself a short break and caught his breath. He hadn't expected that to hurt as much as it did. His chest stung and he could feel the warm, fresh blood seeping from his reopened wounds. His arms and legs ached so much that he didn't know how he was going to make it to the boy but he knew he must make it to him. His mind seemed hazy and he felt drunk despite the fact that he hadn't touched alcohol in months.

Bracing himself for the pain, Severus used his good arm in an attempt to push his torso away from the bed's comforting embrace. This, however, proved to be too much for him to handle in his weakened condition. He could feel the gashes in his chest tearing open. It felt like his ribs were broken and the arm that he has used to try to push up had given out on him. A shocked and pained gasp escaped his lips. His vision clouded over slightly before he felt one hand wrap itself around his arm and another hand take hold of his shoulder and ease him down to his back.

Through his blurred vision, Severus could see the man's wide, half panicked eyes surveying Severus' abused and broken form. The stranger was now holding Severus down by his shoulders.

Acting on instinct, the middle-aged wizard lifted both forearms in a futile defense. The man hovering above him merely transfered his grasp of him from his shoulders to the inside of his elbows, effectively pinning him down.

His breathing still labored from his thwarted mission to get to Harry, Severus let out a pathetic whine that came from the back of his throat.

"Calm down," Phaedrus implored.

But Severus had no thoughts of tranquility. He fought back to the best of his ability.

Though Phaedrus didn't really need to apply anymore pressure, he pushed down a little harder in the hopes that Severus would give up trying to struggle against him.

Severus' wide, desperate eyes stared back at the man above him. Giving up his futile stuggles, the wizard let his head fall on its side so that now he was looking at Harry.

Phaedrus, now confident that Severus would put up any further fight, let go of Severus' elbows, bringing one hand to the wounded man's shoulder incase he did trying anything and using the other hand to cup Severus' chin, forcing the man's gaze away from the boy and into his own eyes.

"Severus, please listen to me," he said looking straight into the man's eyes.

Severus, with very few other options, looked back at him.

Finally having Severus' full attention, Phaedrus spoke to him slowly and soothingly. "You need to rest now. You don't have enough time to properly recover before you must leave. Your body needs as much time as possible to heal."

Severus' eyes involuntarily closed. His mind was shutting down. Forcing his eyes open, he saw the now silent man looking back at him worriedly.

Severus' eyes closed again, then forced them open once more.

"It's all right," Phaedrus said. "You need to sleep."

Severus' eyes now seemed to have a mind of their own. As many times that he forced them open, they would only close again. He could see the man holding him down talking to him but he couldn't hear anything.

Phaedrus watched Severus as he tried to fight a losing battle with his exhaustion. A few minutes later, Severus' eyes didn't open again.

Part 2

"Yes, Draco," Hermione continued. "Did you know that his mother left a few nights ago?"

"Yes, we'd heard," Remus answered.

"Don't you think it a bit strange?"

"She just lost her husband, Hermione," Sirius said as he took a seat opposite the children.

"Yes, but she just left Draco here. Don't you think that she would've taken him with her?" Ron suggested.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other for a moment before Remus said, "Do you know where she went?"

"Her mother's," Ron said shrugging.

Remus looked down conspicuously at his lap and Sirius looked away.

"Where is she really, then?" Hermione asked pointedly.

Sirius, still looking away, crossed his arms. "Look, we don't know for sure. Some new information came up in the last Order of the Phoenix meeting. But what I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room, understood?" He said, now looking at both students to make sure they did understand the importance of secrecy.

Both Ron and Hermione nodded and sat up straighter in their seats in anticipation of any news that was related

to the order's business.

"We think she might have returned to Voldemort. She couldn't very well take Draco with her there," Sirius said. "The good news it that it seems something has gone wrong with Voldemort's plans and he's calling his Death Eaters back for help. Otherwise he would've acted by now."

"We also think this means that Harry is no longer in his custody, if he ever was in the first place," Remus went on.

The two younger Gryffindors smiled. This was, indeed good news.

"Voldemort is no fool, but to wait this long to unleash his plans seems unnecessary and risky," Remus finished.

"The only problem is that if Harry isn't with Voldemort, then where is he?" Hermione said, more to herself than to anyone.

"Who cares, as long as he isn't with You-Know-Who," Ron said eagerly.

"It's getting late," Sirius said, suddenly standing. "You two had better get back to your dormitories."

Not really wanting to leave, but also not wanting to argue with Sirius, Ron and Hermione stood to leave, said their good-byes, and returned to the cover of Harry's invisibility cloak. Within ten minutes, they were stepping through the portrait's portal into the Gryffindor common room.

Part 3

"How do you feel?" Harry asked his professor for what seemed to Severus for the umpteenth time since he had woken and felt good enough to sit up in bed.

Phaedrus, the man that had taken he and Harry in, had told him that he had been sleeping solidly for about five days. "I'm fine," he answered shortly.

"Do you want anything?"

"No."

"You should probably eat something."

"I'm not hungry."

"He's right," came Phaedrus' voice from the kitchen. "I'll have something ready in a few minutes."

Severus let out a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes. It didn't appear as though he would win this argument with both of them ganging up on him.

Harry tried to hide a smirk at Snape's response but realized he had been unsuccessful when the Potions Master shot him a glare.

Severus knew that he should eat but he had never had much of an appetite and being bedridden did nothing to help that. Because of the wounds that he had sustained from the attack, he couldn't move much. Every movement hurt. The only reason that he was sitting up at the moment was because Phaedrus had helped him into that position on the premise that he was going to eat something.

The sooner he was able to leave, the better. He needed to get Harry back to the safety of Dumbledor's care as soon as possible. Harry was looking considerably better after a few days of rest and steady meals but they couldn't linger here. No doubt, Voldemort was looking for them. There was also something strange about Phaedrus. Although the man had improved Severus' opinion of him considerably, there was something that Severus didn't like about him that he just couldn't put his finger on yet.

"Here we are," Phaedrus said, carrying two steaming bowls. He handed one bowl to Harry.

"I'm not really hung-" Harry started but then didn't finish when he saw the same look on Snape's face that had undoubtedly caused nightmares for many first year Potions students. Taking the bowl, he hastily began downing the contents.

Phaedrus sat the other bowl in Severus' lap and headed back to the kitchen.

Severus started picking at the food in the bowl, occasionally finding something that he would eat.

A few minutes later, Phaedrus returned and surveyed what remained in Severus' bowl. "Watching your girlish figure?" he quipped.

At that, Harry quickly got to his feet and headed to the kitchen with his emptied bowl. He never imagined that he would hear someone say something like that to Snape and he didn't want to witness Phaedrus being melted down on the spot by Snape's glare.

Surprisingly, however, he didn't hear any shouts coming from the room. Though Phaedrus did make a hasty return to the kitchen a few minutes later.

"I think you're lucky to still be walking," Harry said smiling.

"Yes, lucky for me, he can't walk for the moment," Phaedrus said smiling back. "I do think he just attempted to make me erupt into flames, however."

Harry laughed. "I wouldn't doubt it."

Harry and Phaedrus took refuge from Severus' mood in the kitchen until he had fallen back asleep. After that, they occupied their time with a few games of chess until Phaedrus told Harry to go to bed.

Phaedrus covered Harry with a blanket once the boy had fallen asleep and then moved his attentions to Severus. Fortunately, the man seemed to be making a quick recovery. He and the boy could only stay for a couple of weeks before they would need to leave.

Author's Note: Wow, thanks for all of the encouragement! My theory about the 6th book is that there is definitely more to it than meets the eye. I hope so, anyway. I'm still a loyal Snape fan and I can make him exactly what I want him to be in my story in any case. Again, thank you for all of the reviews!