Severus woke up with a shooting pain in his arm. He looked at the clock. It was 1:30 in the morning, just a few hours after he'd finally fallen asleep. Voldemort calling at this hour was never good news. Severus threw on his Death Eater robes knocked on Sirius' door. He knew Sirius would be up, because he knew Sirius hadn't slept well since Azkaban. "Black, I'm being summoned. If I'm not back by the time Amelia Bones gets here, I'm probably dead."

"Alright. Good luck, Snape." Sirius' sleepy voice answered through the thick door and a pillow or two.

After apparating to what he termed as "the Lair", Severus tried very hard not to think about the possible reasons for this meeting, most of them including Harry. "Nice of you to join us, Severus… I've brought my nephew for a little visit."

Severus' heart nearly stopped. Lucius only had one nephew. Severus didn't trust himself not to kill Lucius right then and there, even though no one really would have minded, so he merely nodded and tried to get to wherever Harry was as quickly as he could. He found Harry crumpled on the floor of the large meeting room, surrounded by a circle of Death Eaters, curses being thrown at him from every angle. Severus tried to estimate how long Harry had been there, since Harry wouldn't have gone down without a fight, and he was unconscious already.

The possibilities for Severus to save Harry and still make it out of the house alive were minimal. He'd have to take a chance. When a Crucio came flying at Harry from Voldemort himself, Severus made his move. He swiftly moved into the center of the circle, took the surprisingly light almost fifteen year old in his arms, and ran, dodging AK curses, Crucios and several other spells that he'd only read about.

"You're going to meet the same end as his mother, Snape," Malfoy shouted as Severus finally reached the apparition point.

"Good. I always wanted an honorable death."

Harry whimpered in Severus' arms as Severus landed on the top step at Grimmauld Place. "You're not allowed to die on me, Harry."

Minerva, Sirius, and Remus were waiting at the door. "Harry's been…" Minerva took one look at her great-nephew and ran to the nearest fireplace to floo the Hogwarts Mediwitch. Sirius and Remus followed Severus into the sitting room, where the Potions Master gently set his godson on the couch.

"Lupin, I need two vials of Anti-Crucio potion, a Blood-Replenisher, and the strongest pain relief potion I've got. The potions will be in the locked cabinet in my room. The usual unlocking charms will open it. Black, as soon as Poppy gets here, you and I are going to pay a visit to the Dursleys. We need to know what happened tonight. I don't know if…" Severus didn't have to finish his sentence for Sirius to know exactly what he was going to say.

Sirius swallowed. "What did they do to him?"

"I saw several illegal curses that, even growing up in a family as dark as yours, I'm positive you've never even heard of, a few Crucios, and some milder pain causing curses," Severus' voice cracked in an unusual display of emotion as he poured the potions, which Remus had brought in record time, down Harry's throat.

Poppy's eyes were wide when she saw Harry. "What happened to him, Severus?"

"You're going to have to do a full scan on him, Poppy. I don't know exactly what hit him. There were at least four or five Crucios, and five or six stinging hexes. There were several spells that I've never seen the effects of before. I gave him two Anti-Crucio potions, a Blood-Replenisher, and the strongest pain-relief potion I could find."

"I'll do my best. We can't risk bringing him to St. Mungo's. Not with Voldemort back." Poppy started working right away.

"Minerva, Remus, could you please wake Molly and Arthur up? Black and I are going to Privet Drive to see if we can piece together how Lucius Malfoy got to Harry." Severus was having difficulty keeping his emotions under control, but he was doing much better than Minerva, who was sobbing in Remus' arms.

The two dark haired men were not going to chance apparition with their emotions so out of whack, so they decided to floo to one of the only places that they could floo from Grimmauld Place: Arabella Figg's house. She was used to people popping in and out of the house at odd hours, so she never even noticed them.

"Do you think he'll make it, Snape?" Sirius said quietly as they made the trek from the Figg house to the Dursley's.

"I wish I knew an answer to that, Black. I really do." As they neared Number 4, Severus noticed a man with long, silvery blond hair standing in the yard. He knew that it couldn't be Lucius, because there would be no reason for Lucius to stand in the yard.

"The wards on this house are quite interesting. They're set to let in only my son's family members and magical persons that are not doing physical harm to him. Too bad that old coot didn't think about my brother when he put these up."
Sirius snorted. "I believe he was thinking of your brother when he put these up. He wanted Lucius to be able to take Harry from the muggles. Must have thought it would be better for him to live with some magical family instead of them."

The silver haired man turned toward Sirius. "What do you mean he's grown up with muggles? I was under the impression that he had grown up with you."

"It's a bit hard to raise a child if you're in Azkaban, Malfoy."

Gawain's eyes widened. "I have a feeling that there's a lot that I don't know."

"You've got that right. Now is not the place for that though." Severus led the way into the house. "Petunia, if you're able, meet us down here. We need to know what happened to Harry."

A frazzled-looking Petunia Dursley appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. "Severus…Sirius, I had a feeling you two would show up here. If I tell you everything, will you promise that Harry will not have to come back? He isn't safe here."
"We'll do everything we can."

Slowly, Petunia began her story, and like everything else Sirius and Severus had heard in the past days, it completely shocked them.

A/n: Sorry about the long wait between chapters... I've been watching the Olympics during the time I normally write, so...and school starts on Tuesday for me, so that will change my updating frequency. I should get at least one more chapter out by Friday, though!