A/N: If you have read this before, read at least the end of the previous chapter again. I have added a bit to the end. Also I have gone through the whole story and tried to change spelling errors and messed a little bit with non-essential character stuff. So, if you want to read it, there are some changes. None really too significant.
Harry woke up and groaned. He looked around and saw he was in a cell of some sort. Grey walls surrounded him. In the center was a bucket to be used as a toilet he was sure.
He tried to sit up and winced in pain. He hurt. Everywhere.
He tried to get up again and failed. He leaned over the side and fell onto the floor. He groaned and scooted back to the wall. His 'bed' was a spring mattress bed with a ratty blanket placed over it in lieu of an actual mattress.
Harry was panting as he leaned against the wall. Trying to catch his breathe from moving from his bed to there.
He sat there for hours. With none of his strength rejoining him as his body spasmed and ached. He thought about getting back onto the bed off of the freezing concrete. But he didn't think he would have the strength to pull himself up.
After what felt like hours Harry was roused from his near sleeping by the sight of light moving outside of his cell. There was a stationary light that slightly lit up his cell but a new one was coming. The light stopped and he heard a muttering, most likely of a spell, and then his cell door opened.
He lifted his head to look at the intruder but that was all he was able to do. All thoughts of trying to escape were useless in his immobile state.
"Oh Harry." came the cry form the doorway. Hermione came and wrapped her arms around him. "I was so worried when they brought you here." She said crying onto his shoulder. "It's been near a week and you hadn't woken up." Harry tried to move away from the girl. Why was she acting like they were friends still?
"What's going on?" he croaked. "Why are you here?" he asked sharply.
"I'm so sorry Harry." She said softly. "I was under a spell of Dumbledore's before you had Snape check me. I didn't know what I was doing for so long this year. Then when you put the imperious on me, I got scared. I'm sorry. When you came to my house Dumbledore had removed your spell the last time I'd seen him and I was trying to figure out how to tell you what was going on. He accidentally removed his spell too, you see, when removing yours." Harry looked at her astounded.
"Do you truly expect me to believe you?"
"You must." She said moving back to the doorway. "I bought you food. The others were trying to stop me from helping you—but I had to. Please if they knew I was here they would take it from you. You must eat or you will never get better."
"How can I know it's safe?" Harry demanded. Hermione brought the try to him and he saw potions on one half and real food on the other.
Hermione noticed his gaze and explained, "You have been out for so long I've been giving you potions to help you. I didn't know when you were going to be up and I needed to do what I could to help." She then reached for the food. "I'll take a bite first if that will prove to you its safe." She offered hopefully.
"There are still ways to make it so the effects of the food don't harm you." Hermione looked at him distressed.
"What can I do?" she asked. Harry looked at her and then the food. He was hungry his stomach decided to tell him.
"Try it first." He decided. She did promptly. "Now help me get back to my bed." He requested. She was instantly at his side helping him. Harry hobbled over and then nearly fell down. "Thank you." He said softly.
"You're welcome Harry." She said with a smile. "Will you eat now?"
"Let's wait a few minutes. If nothing happens, then I will eat." Hermione nodded and sat next to Harry holding to the food quietly.
Harry felt how tense she was. He looked at her and saw her depression and anger.
"It's okay Hermione." Harry said. "I don't completely trust you yet." Hermione's breathe spiked, "but even if someone I did trust brought me food form an unknown source I would question it." He said simply. Hermione smiled lightly.
"At least you're not completely unwilling I suppose." Harry smile at her and leaned his head back against the wall.
After nearly twenty minutes Harry turned to Hermione and motioned to the food. Hermione happily gave it to him. Harry slowly ate as Hermione watched. When he ate as much as he could he stopped. Hermione looked at the tray dejectedly.
"Are you not going to have more?" she questioned.
"I can't right now. I might get sick." He responded. She bit her lip and nodded.
"Would you like to keep the rest for later?" she asked. "You could hide it and then if you get hungry tonight or tomorrow you would have something. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to come by." She confessed.
"That's a good idea." He said. He tucked the food on his bed next to the wall hiding in the blanket.
"I'll be back as soon as I can Harry." She stated. Harry nodded at her with a smile. She quickly left opening the cell door and murmuring the spell again as she left.
The entire time they were in here together the door hadn't been locked.
Hermione came frequently to Harry's room. Bringing food with her every time. Usually she came every other day. As not to seem too suspicious, but some times she was able to go by daily while other times she was missing for several days in a row. She always came back apologizing and Harry forgave her.
As the days went by though Harry noticed something off. He still felt as weak as the first day after waking up. There was no return of his strength. Nothing happened to show that he had been eating regularly. After what he guessed was two weeks he tried to use his magic and failed miserably. He hurt to such a degree from the strain of trying to do a simple lighting spell that he was wheezing and coughing out tiny drops of blood. Not enough blood to die from but enough to make him worry about doing magic again, in any form, before being completely better.
One day the footsteps leading to his cell notified him that it was not Hermione. The spell to open the door was murmured and Severus walked in.
"Severus?" Harry whispered. "How did you get here? Have you found Draco? Are you safe? I can't really move, do you have a plan as to how we are getting out?" Severus sneered down at him.
"Do not address me. If that idiot girl was not quite so bothersome I would not be down here for any reason."
"What?" Harry asked confused. "What are you talking about?" Severus glared down at the boy and looked him over. He pulled out a few potions and handed them to Harry. Harry looked at them uncertainly.
"If you do not drink them it will in no way hurt me." Snape informed him. "But they will make your stay down here that much more bearable." Harry watched as Snape turned to leave.
"What's going on?" Harry asked. "What are you doing?"
"Are you really that daft boy?" Snape asked curiously. "Do you really think that we all followed you because we truly believed in you? No. We wanted what you could provide, and you allowed for such a well placed weakness. Draco. Did you honestly think he cared for you in anyway? You deluded yourself and now we can move forward with making a world that is only for the strong." Snape swept out of the room locking the door easily and walking away.
Harry laid back in his bed. The potions Snape brought him clinking together next to him. What he said wasn't right. Harry knew it. He had looked into everyone's minds and knew what they were thinking. How there allegiance lie. Something was wrong. He turned to lie on his side and something in his pocket dug into him. He reached into his trousers and pulled it out. A note? From Severus? But he was just in here, why not just tell him. Harry opened it up and read the contents. And saw red.
And to think he had trusted that girl. Harry crumpled it up and lay back in his bed.
When the door next opened to admit Hermione he smiled brightly at her. She smiled back, the pretty image of the friend he had grown up with. Only a few more days and he could fix it to she could never look pretty, in anyone's sense of the word, again.
Malfoy Manor, After the Last Meeting with Silence
"Lucius I am going to go and look for Draco as well. There some haunts that I know that might turn up something. Are you going to go looking or stay here?" Severus asked after they fixed the Death eater meeting and everyone had gone of to look for Draco.
"I am going to stay here for a time. This is where we told people to come if anything is found." He said. The only give away that he was nervous of his son's whereabouts was his constant drumming of his fingers along the side table he was standing next to. Severus lifted his hand and kissed his fingers.
"We will find him." Severus said. "You know Harry won't let us stop till we do."
"Yes." Lucius agreed. Severus pulled the other man to him and kissed him. "I will be back and this will all be behind us." He promised. Lucius nodded and Severus floo'ed off.
Severus woke up and looked at the room surrounding him. It was lovely in dark reds. He knew he should recognize the and that he was in a non-threatening environment. One he was welcome in. He smiled and got up. He walked to the wardrobe and pulled out a set of robes. He showered, got dressed, and left his room. He had a vague feeling that he had never actually been in this house before, but that was silly. He knew where everything was. Like there, he had just come upon the dining room for breakfast. And just in time it would seem everyone else was already sitting.
"Sorry I am late." He said by way of apology for holding up the meal.
"Do not worry my dear boy. It happens to all of us at sometime or another." Dumbledore said from the head of the table. Severus smiled down at him and a Bellatrix Lestrange at his right side. Lucius and his love Narcissa were across from him with Draco sitting by Narcissa only a chair down from Dumbledore's left. Hermione walked in then and sat rigt between Draco and Dumbldore lightly clasping Draco's hand. They smiled at each other and Severus looked at Lucius amused.
The way Lucius was looking at Narcissa caused a twinge of jealousy? to go through Severus. Which didn't make much sense to him. He always wanted the best for his dearest friend.
"Shall we eat then?" Dumbledore asked pleasantly. Food appeared on the plates in front of them and everyone ate. Soon Severus was chuckling to himself about the very notion of ever being jealous of his best friend's wife.
It's not as though he had any designs on Lucius.