Chapter 34

Way to freedom:

Severus instinctively knew that he was back in his cell, even before he had wholly returned into consciousness. They had let him slip into unconsciousness this time. Sleep at last. The constant dizziness, the queasiness and the twisted half-reality which had engulfed his brain were almost completely gone, even if the various pains in his body were sharper to feel now, and his hands and back especially pained him.

At least his shoulders were only dully throbbing now, since he hadn't been hung up anymore, and he now lay on his belly on the floor and the chains, which still were attached to the manacles around his writs, lay limply on the ground in front of him.

He lifted his head from the floor and followed the chains with his eyes. No longer were they pulled through the ring. Now, they were attached to the wall besides Goyle, who sat slumped over on a chair, obviously fast asleep.

Why there was still a guard in his room Severus couldn't contemplate. They didn't seem to continually want him conscious anymore and he wasn't either still hung up, so they didn't have to keep an eye on him for when his shoulders dislocated Neither could they honestly fear that he'd escape. As if he really still had enough strength left to get out of the manacles, a closed cell and the building, which undoubtedly was swarming with Death Eaters… Ridiculous. Malfoy and his cronies were decidedly being over-careful.

Severus closed his eyes again and laid his head back down to the ground. He'd better make good use of the unexpected break to recuperate as much strength as possible, before the torture would restart.

The grinding sound of the stone door, when it moved over the ground, reached his ears again. The noise had in the meantime become so habitual to Severus that it would probably haunt him in his dreams for as long as he still lived, just like the reverberating "Clonk" that soundedwhen the door fell back into lock, reminding him in all clarity that he was a prisoner here.

So he knew, without opening his eyes, that someone had come into the cell. Maybe he would get a bit of satisfaction, if he could watch Goyle being reprimanded for having fallen asleep whilst on watch. Severus did his best to fake continued unconsciousness.

"Hey, Goyle," whispered Crabbe urgently. "Wake up."

Severus fought the urge to groan out loud. Crabbe and Goyle were too stupid and too good friends and to sneak the other on.

A grunting noise proved Goyle to wake up. "What are you doing here? It's not yet your turn to keep guard," he said, under a yawn.

"What about a little break? My wifehas packed me some of her famous stew and I don't feel like eating alone."

A deep groaning of Goyle's stomach, answered that proposition. Severus rolled his eyes mentally. Those two greedy idiots. They were thinking with their stomachs rather than with the little bit of brainsthat they possessed.

"Can't do or I'm in trouble with Malfoy. Sorry."

How sorry he really was, it was clearly audible in his disappointed voice, Severus thought with sarcasm.

"Aww, c'mon. It won't take long. You would be back in twenty minutes at most. Snape is still out cold and he will remain that way for quite a while longer, after what Malfoy did to him. That guy is completely wasted. No one will know anythingI'm sick of just sleeping, or guarding the traitor all the time.We have a life of our own and a right for a break now and then."

"I'm not sure."

"Come on. They won't notice a thing. Malfoy isn't even here, I think."

"All right," Goyle replied at last "but for no more than twenty minutes."

Severus could practically picture the broad, stupid grin on Crabbe's face. "You could do with a break, out of this stinking hole here."

Robes rustled and two pairs of feet walked out. The door moved once more with the same old groaning, and fell close with a … Snape startled. Just a minute, where was the "Clonk"?

He looked up and turned his head enough to see the door. There was a long shadow along its vertical outline, which looked as if thrown by a door, not entirely closed. If one didn't pay attention to it, then it could easily be overlooked and if one didn't pay attention to the missing noise, it could be easily overlooked

A shimmer of hope flamed up in Severus and he swallowed hard.

The fact that the door was open wouldn't really help him. The building, in which the cell was situated, was certainly heavily guarded, and he was still chained up as well.

He lowered his eyes longingly to the manacles around his chafed wrists, a memento from his last hanging experience. The manacles were locked magically and showed neither an opening nor a lock that he could have, perhaps, pried open.

The manacles moved a bit and rasped over the raw skin. Severus winced. This new pain was manageable, in face of the thirst and the pain originating in his neck and back, and the burning of his fingertips. Still, he moved the manacles a bit higher up his arms to relieve the painful areas. Only because they didn't hurt as much as his other injuries, against which he couldn't do anything, Severus didn't see any reason not to lessen the pain, if it was so easy to be done.

He was grateful to have relatively slim hands and forearms so he could push them up to almost his elbows. It was one of his trademarks, and his father had often taunted him about having hands like a girl. It was indeed true that he had quite elegant and skilled hands, and it was something that came in quite handy in good potions brewing. He had the necessary skill to handle and prepare delicate and rare ingredients.

Well, Malfoy had pretty much taken care of that by ripping out his nails. Now, his hands were blood encrusted and his fingertips were nothing more than an ugly piece of meat.

If he was not dying here, then the nails would re-grow, making his hands to be as elegantly as before. If…only if.

And then he had an idea. Turning over onto his back he brought his arms up in front of his face and inspected the manacles. It had been quite simple to move the iron rings up to his elbows…

He didn't want to get his hopes up too much, for what he had in mind would probably not work anyway, but if the manacles were destined for a man with average wrists, then he may still have a slight chance.

Severus took hold of one of the rings and pushed it back down, until the base of his hands blocked any further movement. Normally, the metal wouldn't pass over it, but if he positioned the ring correctly, drew in his thumb and used a bit of force, it could maybe
be done.

Suppressing the growing hope and excitement, he started to move the metal in twisting movements further and further.

It wasn't easy and Severus clenched his teeth, when his skin was scraped raw and the pain in his fingers intensified. But then, with a last, powerful pull, he finally held an empty manacle in his hands.

Severus could hardly suppress a loud cry of excitement. He was not out yet, but he felt more hope than he had since the beginning of his captivity.

The second manacle was a bit harder to take off, since his hands had started to shake in anxiety. But after another minute or two he was free of the chain. Without losing any more time, he rolled back onto his stomach and tried to rise on his knees and hands. It was soon obvious, however, that the torture and the absence of water and food had been hard on his body. He wouldn't manage to walk without support. So he crawled painfully slow towards the door. There he managed to pull himself, with the support of the wall, to his feet.

An intense dizziness took hold of him immediately and the cell started to spin and his vision to tunnel out, but he fought to stay conscious. Only after his vision cleared and he once more knew where was up and down, he pushed himself a bit off the wall, one hand still braced against it. Then he turned his attention towards the door.

Just as he had hoped, it hadn't clicked closed and when he laid his weight against it, it sluggishly moved open.

Severus thanked any deity that might care to listen. He had a real chance now. If he managed to get out of the dungeons, then he could hide somewhere until he had recuperated enough of his strength to return to Hogwarts.

His mind made up, he forced his weak legs to carry him through the door and out in the tunnel-like corridor in front of his cell.

"Sirius? I have great news. Where are you?"

Remus Lupin entered Albus Dumbledore's office almost bouncing with excitement, a wide grin plastered upon his face. Getting no answer, he walked over to the bookshelf at the left side wall and first pulled a thin, red book, and then a thick, leather-bound brown one halfway out, and waited for the shelf to move aside making the hidden entrance open up and give way to Dumbledore's private quarters.

He stepped into the small salon, from which three doors led to Dumbledore's private quarters, in a guestroom of which Sirius Black currently resided.

"Sirius?" he called once again, and through the door at the right wall strolled Black. Barefoot, the hem of his white shirt halfway stuffed into the waistband of his black trousers, the Animagus was in the process of rubbing his damp hair dry with a towel.

"What's the matter, Remus? I was just under the shower."

Remus' grin broadened. "Albus did it! The dementors are being pulled off of Azkaban. He finally convinced Fudge that the disaster with the dementors that attacked Harry was only the top of the iceberg and that there was no way of having completely control over those monsters."

"Finally!" saidSirius and hethrew his hands up. "That took like forever. I already started to think that we wouldn't achieve anything anymore."

"You know Albus. He's not somebody who gives up easily, and he always manages to get other people to do exactly what he wants of them. Now, we only need to
get the rest of the ministry's support. We need more men.

If we all fight together, only then can we vanquish He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named without help of the poison.Maybe all would still end up all right and Snape's failed mission hasn't cost us the last possible chance."

Sirius' face instantly grew grave and sad. Harry had had a very hard time that he had shattered the mission out of a false sense of loyalty. He still blamed himself and it took a lot out from Sirius to diverse his godson's solemn thoughts, but during the day he unfortunately couldn't do much becauseHarry was being kept away in classes. Remus had taken over the job of keeping an eye on Harry, whenever Sirius could not.

"And how was Harry today?" he asked worriedly.

"He has calmed down a bit, I think," answered Lupin, with a not mindfully worried looking frown.

"Do you think that he finally understands that Snape's failure isn't his fault?"

"Oh, he does understand, but that's not the question. Guilt hardly ever listens to logic, especially if it concerns a sixteen year old boy."

It was silent for a minute, and Sirius gnawed absently his lower lip.

"Do you think that I'm a bad person to still hate him?" he asked finally.

"Who do you mean?" asked Remus softly.

Sirius sighed and turned away from his childhood friend, facing a painting in a faded, massive frame, on which two horses grazed peacefully. "Snape. I know what he has risked for us; that I should be grateful because he helped change the future, but I just can't get myself to mourn his death. Everything I feel, when I think of him, is rage over the fact that Harry has is now loaded with such a heavy guilt"

Lupin chuckled. "It is humane, Sirius, nothing else. To feel gratitude towards someone, it means to accept and even respect the other person to some extent, so you can accept the other's actions. Severus and you have too long of a bad history together to admit such a
respect. I strongly suppose that Severus didn't feel very grateful either, when Prongs saved his life.

"In order to regret his death, you would first have to stop picturing him as the basic incarnation of all that which you have always loathed and fought against. You would have to start seeing him as a human being."

Sirius spun around to glared in offence at the werewolf. "What nonsense are you talking about? Of course I know that he was a human being, but of the worst, inhumane and most awful kind that wander this planet. He has destroyed too many lives as a Death Eater and one good deed will not wash him from that guilt. With all due respect for the risk that he took, and for the life that he lost, that life is still the smaller price than the lost chance. Well, but then again, the chances had been slim from the start. That bloody house elf could have well done more than give simple information and the recipe too. The fact that it travelled one year to the past shows clearly that there is more behind the magic of these creatures."

"Every wizard with eyes in his head knows that there is more to the house elves than meets the eye.Only, those little guys keep it well hidden, what they are really capable of. But that they are very powerful is out of question, I guess."

"I only ask myself, why they let their masters treat them this way then and why they let themselves be ordered around like this," Sirius snorted.

"It's their nature. Just like a bird's is to fly. Or a werewolf's to kill. And I must say that I'm glad that they don't have more aggressive ambitions. In any case, Dobby has proved to us how loyal he is to Harry, even though he has been set free."

"Loyalty isn't always everything, as you too had to learn," growled Sirius.

Lupin waved him off. "Don't be so bitter. Dobby did warn us, didn't he? Which reminds me; why are you still here anyhow? Albus has informed the other members of the order of our plan. You don't need to stay imprisoned here anymore."

Sirius snorted. "If I'd go to the headquarters, then I'd only change one prison for another. Snape isn't the only one who has lost in this plan. I can't hide behind Snuffles anymore and here, I at least have Harry, you and Albus around me all the time. And some of my best memories lie in those rooms and hidden passages of the school. Albus has promised me that I could go into the forbidden forest from time to time, to get some fresh air. There I'll hardly ever meet anyone who knows of my Animagusform and could thus endanger me." He paused momentarily. "If only the Aurors would finally get lost..."

"Severus' message has helped to convince Fudge about the Dementors. That the Aurors are lurking around now is unfortunate, but in a few weeks at most, they will certainly be pulled off again, when no attack has occurred until then," Remus said.

"I just hope that you are right. Harry has enough worries as it is. He doesn't need some Auror breathing down his neck all the time, only because he is the Boy Who Lived."

T.B.C.

Thanks to Slytherin's silver snake and Sadistra for betaing this :-D