Chapter Eleven
Two of the half-giants came for them. They opened the door and pulled Lucius Malfoy and Tommy Snape from the room, led them back through the maze and into a room that resembled a large well. It was circular, made of white chalky brick. Twenty feet over their heads, Harry could see a metal grid and open air. The sun had come up and sunlight was streaming down inside. It was also clean. Both were secured in iron manacles to the wall.
Snape was putting on a good act. "Tell Jeremy Potter the Dark Lord will hear of this and not be please," he complained. The half-giant pressed his hand into the chains and ignored him. There was no use struggling, they were outweighed by the half-giants. Both of them heard the laughter before they saw him.
Jeremy Potter stepped into the doorway, leaning against it, watching as his henchmen finished their tasks. "Oh I don't think he's going to mind too much, Lucius. You know how he feels about failure. Besides, I haven't made up my mind yet whether to kill you or let you live and just cripple you. I know how much you like your face, how handsome you think you are. It would take so little to ruin it," he said and then walked over to Harry, and said gently, "I haven't decided whether to kill too, son." The hand curled underneath Harry's chin and Harry stared back into an almost identical reflection of himself.
Potter pulled a thin black wand from his pocket and wiped it over Harry's face. The Charm was broken and Harry stood transformed into himself, the black hair, the green eyes and the scar; all revealed.
"Father," Harry said. He could hear Snape's chains rattle.
"Oh, so you know?" Jeremy Potter replied, smiling delighted in Harry's words. "Oh you do look so much like me- and your mother. You have her eyes," he crooned. The man examined Harry's face, gently touching his cheek with the back of his hand. "You know Lucius, I do think I have a little job for you. It could put you back in our good graces," he was talking to Snape but still looking at Harry. Potter walked over and waved his wand at Snape's manacles and they separated, freeing him.
"Let's see a little more of that muggle torture you demonstrated before," Potter grinned, "That was entertaining." Potter pointed the wand towards Harry and urged him to move, "Go on."
Snape stood erect, straightening his clothes. "You've had your fun with me Jeremy, now let me go," he snarled. Harry thought he looked and acted like the real Malfoy, arrogant and effusive.
"Oh no, not yet. Go on Lucius. You were in such a hurry to do it before. Beat him up." Potter raised his index finger as he turned away, "Ah, but you can't kill him. I do not want to deny the Dark Lord his treat in watching him die very, very slowly and very painfully." Potter turned back, glanced at Harry and said, "You see Harry, we know what you did to our Master and he is very upset with you." Potter leaned against the wall and put his wand in his pocket. He withdrew a black cigarette and lit it without the use of a lighter.
Snape walked over to Harry and hesitated. He stood in front of him so Harry was hidden from Potter's view. Harry was amazed at how well the Polyjuice Potion worked. He was thinking about that and about a plan to escape. He stood on tiptoe so he could glance at Jeremy Potter over Snape's shoulder and whispered as he rattled his chains as if he was trying to pull free, "There is a ring in my pocket. Hit me! Now!"
Snape slapped him and sent his head bouncing painfully against the wall. A red welt immediately appeared on his cheek.
"Take it out. It is a time turner. Hit me, again." Harry whispered and braced himself.
"Come now, Lucius," Potter said breezily, "where is all that energy you were showing me earlier? This boy has made a fool of you more than once. Hit him! I want to hear him scream."
Snape closed his fist and hit Harry in the nose, breaking it. His head dropped and blood gushed down over his shirt. Snape moved in close to grab Harry by the shirt and yanked his head up. Harry could feel a hand slip into his pocket and he gritted his teeth as the pain from his nose overwhelmed him.
Harry whispered through bloody lips, "Turn the inside of the ring once to the left. Hit me again." He screamed to cover his words. "Father no, please! Make him stop!"
Snape struck him with his fist and Harry's head flew to the side spurting blood across Snape's face and along his arm. Harry spit and drooped in the chains holding his arms.
"Oh very good Malfoy. Let's not bloody up that face too much, though. After all he does look like me and I kind of like that." The arrogant man giggled behind them. He had propped one foot against the wall and leaned casually against it watching the proceedings.
"Father, please don't let him do it. I'll do anything," Harry pleaded.
Snape frowned at him a question in his eyes.
"Do it!" Harry spit out. "Hit me again and then turn it."
"Hit him," Potter said quietly, "or I'll kill you!" The wall muffled the sound of Harry's screaming.
"Again," Potter said.
Snape lunged back and went to strike, turned the ring and stopped his forward strike by opening up his hand and placing his palm on Harry's chest so that they would have contact with each other when time stopped. Snape turned with his hand still on Harry and looked at Potter. He was frozen in a laugh, head bent. A cigarette burned in one hand and his wand was held lazily in the other.
"Don't turn lose of me Mr. Snape," Harry said through blood. We have seconds before it is inactive. For every turn, you get a minute." Harry said and struggled. "You have to get his wand. Reach for it!"
Snape reached out, and keeping his fingers on Harry, grabbed the wand from the frozen hand. He reached down, turned the ring a dozen times, and said, "That should give us a few minutes." With the wand, he unhooked the manacles with ALOHAMORA.
"Help me with him," Snape said.
The two grabbed each other by the forearms with one hand, pulled the frozen figure of Potter over to the manacles, and locked him in. They performed a fluid dance as they worked to keep contact between them.
Snape tucked the wand he had taken from Jeremy Potter under an arm and doubled up his fist. He hit the frozen Potter as hard as he could. Harry's wand fell out of the man's clothes where he had hidden it. "Here," Snape said and held it out to him, "Time is going start any minute now. Let's go! Run!"
Harry stood for a fraction of a second longer, staring at the man. He kept repeating over and over, You are not James Potter. He is dead.
"Come on!" Snape hissed, pulling him through the door into a hallway. They were running in the semi-darkness. Harry just kept moving, depending on the sound of Snape ahead of him to guide him. Periodically flashes of light from open doorways lit their way. The halls were empty.
"Do you know where we are?" Harry asked, almost blind by the swelling in one eye.
"Yes, but it's not going to help much. We are deep in the heart of Potter's lair and there is a lot between us and freedom," Snape replied, stopping for a moment in a dark corner and peering cautiously around. "Where did you get a time-turner and why didn't you tell me about it when we were spending such quality time down there in that hole?"
Harry thought of the conversation and Snape's confession and was not altogether unhappy he had kept the information about the time-turner to himself. "Well, I imagine Hermione got it when we were fighting at the Ministry, "Harry huffed. They were moving again and he was trying to speak at the same time, "She had a time- turner for classes. We used it to help Sirius escape on Buckbeak and I think she figured out what the ring was when we were in the same room with the time-turners at the Department of Mysteries. She stole it."
"You did what?" Snape panted and skidded to a halt to glare at him, "So that's how he got out! And she stole this?" he was looking at the silver ring on his hand.
Harry nodded, looking anxiously behind him. "Can we talk about this later, Snape?"
Snape glared at the ring on his finger. Coming to his senses he jerked his head up and stared around, and said, "This way!"
They ran full out up stairs and down a long corridor that had windows open to a courtyard.
"Can we apparate, Professor?" Harry asked, his voice muffled and nasal from his swollen nose and mouth.
"Not inside the grounds," Snape answered and glanced into the courtyard, then headed for a set of stairs; one leading up and one down.
Harry wiped his face with his sleeve and still could not stop the flow from his nose. "Remind me when we are out of here Professor that I owe you one, or two." He spit blood into a potted palm and felt the sharp edge of a broken tooth with his tongue.
Suddenly, they heard noises coming from behind them. Snape stared at Harry and then looked around a corner through open the doors. "He's free. Jeremy is free." They stopped at the head of the stairs and Harry almost ran into the man.
"Which way?" Harry asked looking back and pointing his wand.
"Don't know!" Snape replied. They stood immobilized while the sounds of pursuit grew louder.
"Well choose!" Harry hissed. Snape grabbed the stair rail and flew down the stairs with Harry after him. They were once again in a long hall and then running down more stairs. Harry lost sight of the sunlight streaming through tall windows lining a white stucco wall and followed Snape's disappearing black figure around a bend. Down more stairs they ran and through a large cavernous room to another bend.
Harry was struggling to get air. His nose was still bleeding and swelling. "Snape!" The man turned at a doorway. "Can you do something about my nose, before I bleed to death?" Harry noticed his shirt looked like he lived in a slaughterhouse; it was covered in blood.
"I can't fix the break but I'll stop the bleeding. Your nose may be a little crooked," he said, quietly.
Harry nodded and waved at him to go ahead. "Yeah, yeah, okay. Just hurry!" Snape pointed his wand at Harry's face and a thin light played over it. Harry immediately felt better. "Thanks, that's much better."
"Come on," Snape urged and once again turned and fled.
"Do you know where you're going?" Harry asked as they sped down a hallway that grew darker and darker. The musty smell of the street leaked through the walls as did a dark fluid with an indescribable foul odor.
"Unfortunately no. I had hoped we could find stairs leading up to the courtyard," he said, as he was opening a door leading to even darker environs. "Come on we'll have to try this."
They moved through this hallway more slowly. It was lined with open rooms. They had to peer into each before moving on. Suddenly, Snape stopped and Harry slipped behind him looking back in the dark.
"What is it?" he asked.
Snape groaned, and said softly, "What I was hoping we wouldn't run into."
Harry poked his head around Snape and looked into the room. He was surprised. They had found Cornelius Fudge and Percy Weasley. They were unconscious.
"We have to take them with us," Harry insisted, listening for noises behind them.
"Yes. Such a shame too. They're going to slow us down." Snape surveyed the scene without making a move.
"Professor Snape, we have to take them with us!" Harry insisted. He knew what Snape was thinking, he wanted Harry out more than he wanted to save Percy and Cornelius' lives.
"Very well." There was very little light in the hallway and the rooms and Harry had to squint to see the hallway. Snape bent over each one and then fashioned a stretcher in which he piled Percy on top of Cornelius and pronounced, 'MOBILICORPUS' , which lifted the stretcher from the floor. "Potter why don't you run along ahead of me while I take these two."
Harry glanced at him. Snape was looking very innocently back at him. "No, Professor Snape, I don't think so. We're going together or not at all. I watch your back you watch mine. That's how it works."
Snape smirked and growled, "You are the most stubborn, self-important…"
"I've heard this song before Snape, shall we get out of here and stop playing this tune again?!" Harry waved his hand to allow Snape to move the stretcher out the door. "By the way, what can I do if I run across one of those gorillas, those half-giants?"
"Aim for the eyes and blind them. They are really stupid," Snape mumbled as they moved down another flight of stairs. Harry followed, his wand pointed back the way they had come. He noticed they were in a tunnel, a sewer tunnel. Snape lit his wand, with LUMOS and they were making their way through foul, ankle-deep black water. The air was putrid with foul gases and air. Harry bent and walked to keep his head below the stench.
"Mr. Snape, we're in a sewer," Harry said in disgust.
"We probably should have taken the stairs up rather than down," Snape's voice echoed in the tunnel. "Too late now."
It seemed to Harry that they had walked a least a mile underground. He thought he would never straighten and stand erect again. The pain in his back was stabbing and he wondered at Snape's stamina; he was much taller.
They came to a bend and there was a faint light shining, a tiny beam of sunlight shining against the wall. Harry looked up and saw mossy, dripping metal rungs on the wall. They both stopped and examined the hole that went up. It gave them both a chance to stand up and they were very close together.
"This may be a way out, Potter. It could lead to the street," Snape said. "You go first and then call down."
Harry put a foot on the first rung and heard a voice in the dark, "Oh I don't think that's a good idea." Harry glanced back, one hand on a rung of the ladder. Demitri Kaldensky stood behind Snape, his hand in Snape's hair, head pulled back and his face leaning over Snape's neck. The eyes which seemed so bright to Harry before, gleamed red in the dark and Harry noticed three-inch fangs extending towards a pulsing vein in Snape's neck.
"Why don't you let me go Demitri," Snape growled, "for old time's sake?" He was bent so far back, Harry was surprised he wasn't breaking in two. It was obvious he was in agony.
Demitri laughed and the white fangs flashed for a moment in the single ray of reflected sunlight penetrating the gloom.
"Let the boy go," Snape said. "Keep these other two, keep me, but let him go." He struggled in the vise-like grip of the vampire.
"I prefer not to be walled up again, Severus. The last time I made Jeremy angry, I sat in a hole behind a brick wall for a month. I became very thirsty my friend." The vampire retracted his fangs. "Now drop your wand and tell your young friend to drop his. These two aren't going anywhere soon. I'll dine on them at my leisure later."
Snape was urging Harry with his eyes but Harry was immobilized. He knew there was no spell that could harm the vampire and if the vampire bit Snape, it would take him seconds to exsanguinate him. The vampire's teeth were like hollow tubes; they would sink in and pump the blood out with each beat of Snape's heart.
"Tommy, climb the ladder and leave me here," Snape said calmly. A button on his vest dazzled briefly in Harry's eye.
"Severus, my friend," Demitri purred, "you must do as I say. He cannot escape me, nor can you. I do not want to kill you. The Dark Lord wants you alive. But he would forgive me for taking the boy and I will do it." Demitri gave Snape one wrenching jerk. "Tell him to drop his wand."
Harry saw the flash of light on the brass button and knew what to do. Fumbling in the dark with one hand, he found the mirror. He jockeyed for a place where the mirror would be useful, letting go of the ladder rung and moving cautiously forward.
Snape was beside himself. The vampire had forced him to his knees and was bent over him staring at Harry. "What are you doing?" Snape groaned. His arm was so twisted behind his back by the vampire, Harry was sure it was going to snap at any second.
"Young master," Demitri grinned. He was extending his fangs again. "Shall I teach you a lesson about vampires?" He glanced at Snape and then back to Harry.
Harry took the opportunity to pull out the mirror and extend his arm until it caught the one beam of sunlight streaming in from above. In a second, he had redirected it at the vampire. It caught him in the eyes.
He screamed and turned lose of Snape who dropped to all fours in the soupy water and then back against the wall. Harry redirected it at once, finding the vampire with his hand over his face, standing in the corner. Demitri screamed again and then disappeared.
Harry was left with Snape and the two unconscious figures of Percy and Cornelius Fudge lying in the water. He quickly turned them over so that they wouldn't drown and bent over Snape.
"Professor, are you all right?" he gasped, glancing around to gaze into the dark.
"Yes, I am," Snape grunted and shrugged his hand off. "Keep watch and don't let go of that mirror for an instant." He remained still. Harry slipped back against the wall beside him, his energy almost spent.
"I've read about vampires," Harry commented, sucking in a great lungful of foul air, "They are really dreadful creatures aren't they?"
"Potter, when are you ever going to follow my orders?" Snape asked, weakly.
"When it doesn't involve one of us dying, I guess," Harry said. He said LUMOS, lit the end of his wand, and examined the round tunnel and its other occupants. Cornelius and Percy looked as if they were sleeping. Harry glanced at Snape. He wasn't attempting to move. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, now worried at the man's immobility.
"Potter, I want you to listen to me..." Snape began.
"Oh no, not another 'I want you to listen to me' story." he said interrupting him, "What's wrong?" Harry turned to him. Snape returned the stare.
"I can't move," Snape said. "I want you to go up the ladder and see what's up there. If you're on the street then I want you to apparate to the Order's headquarters and find Lupin. Can you apparate?"
Harry ignored the question. He wasn't at all sure that under duress he could apparate and wasn't about to tell Snape. "What's wrong?" Harry looked over Snape's body and could see no blood. "I'm not going anywhere…"
"Potter," Snape grabbed him and said weakly, "I have a broken back and I can't move my legs." His fist was twisted into Harry's shirt.
Harry sat back and gaped at him. Is this a ploy to get me out of here? he wondered. Snape had not yet transformed again from the body of Malfoy and it was disconcerting to be talking to DeathEater.
"You must save yourself. Demitri will bring Jeremy and we will all be caught," Snape whispered, frowning and in pain, "We have a chance if you can reach some help."
"I…I can't leave you," Harry gasped. "Can't you heal it, or do something….?"
"Listen, he won't kill me. He'll want to torture me for information. It will give you time to get help," Snape whispered weakly and let go. He pulled his wand from his cloak. "Besides, remember who he is, he'll enjoy keeping me alive and I can defend myself for a time."
9