Disclaimer: The characters and settings, including any sentences taken directly or partly from the books or movies, of Harry Potter are the property of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, AOL Time Link and Warner Brothers. I do not make money from publishing my story.
Sheer agony, was the only way Harry could describe it, as soon as the Headmaster's spell had hit him, he felt like he had been hit with a variation of the Cruciatus curse, but instead of his skin being on fire, it felt as if someone was tearing his heart out of his chest, as if some kind of beast had gone rampant inside of his torso and he could feel something move under his skin, painfully throbbing wherever it went.
He screamed and began clamming at his chest, anything to make it stop, the pain was worse than anything he had ever experienced and it seemed to go on for ages. His fingers bleeding from the extent to which he had gone to claw open his own chest, which too was covered in blood. Seconds felt like hours and the pain became no less. He was nearly unaware of someone grabbing on to him and apparating them away, the uncomfortable feeling of apparating lost in the sea of pain.
Severus had to make a split-second decision as to where to take his injured student. Yes, he was quite capable of healing even major injuries, it shouldn't have affected their plans, he could just have apparated them to the next safe house and treated the boy there. However this was not an injure he was able to heal, the fact that he didn't recognize the Headmaster's spell ,made him wary of what other effects it may have had other than the most obvious ones.
He had two options, take Harry to his own safe house and endanger the boy's health or take the boy elsewhere and risk both of their lives. In that split second, he didn't care about his own life, he promised Lily he would keep her son safe and now the boy was suffering. He would take the boy elsewhere and the only one who could possibly posses the knowledge capable of healing the boy, without handing them over to Dumbledore, was sadly enough the Dark Lord himself.
That was why they were currently outside the gate of Malfoy manor, bloody and beaten, but thankfully still alive, for now. Harry was still wriggling and screaming, but there was nothing Severus could do right now that could even lessen the pain, without possibly harming the young man. He knew he had to cast a silencing spell, but it still felt quite inhumane to quiet the boy down, when he was in so much pain. So quickly he picked the boy up and began making his way to the front door as fast as possible.
He knew that the wards around the manor would have alerted the residents by now, so they knew that Severus was not alone, they didn't know however that it was Harry Potter that accompanied him. It was risky going into a death eater infested house, carrying Harry Potter, so he hoped he could make it to the Dark Lord's quarters before any of them saw him.
Once he came to the front door, which opened by itself, he took the indirect route to his destination, hoping to avoid any of the Dark Lord's followers with this. It seemed that luck was on his side, that and the fact that most of his followers were trying to pinpoint the duo's last location, made sure that they were able to reach the Dark Lord's quarters without being detected.
Severus drew a deep breath and managed to knock on the door hard without letting go of his student. Waiting patiently, in spite that he would rather make haste, for him to be called in. Soon a voice called out to him, "Enter", and so he did, nerves on edge and wand still in his hand while carrying the legacy of his one true love, ready to protect him if necessary.
The door closed behind him heavily and he looked directly at the person in the centre of the room, who in turn looked straight back at him. For a moment he was afraid it was going to turn out into staring competition, but the Dark Lord soon composed himself and stood up from the large black leather armchair he had been seated in. He hadn't drawn his wand or even made a move to attack them, the only thing that had changed was that the Dark Lord now had this sinister smile gracing his snake-like face, it send fear into Snape's bones, further than any wand could have done.
The eerie feeling of the room did nothing to alleviate that feeling however. The fire that was slightly lit and the fact that very few other light sources were turned on gave the room a sinister dark feeling, whilst in daylight it would probably be a marvellous room with all the silvers and royal blues.
"My, my, Severus", he said, even though it was meant to sound like idle conversation, no one could have made that sound more threathening, "I believe you have some explaining to do." Severus made as much of a bow as he could muster with the boy still in his arms and walked towards the centre of the room, where the tea table was large enough to lay Harry down upon.
"Of course, milord", Severus said quickly, before checking Harry's pulse once more, before focussing his full attention towards, his Master, "I had hoped to have more time with the boy, to make him truly see Dumbledore's mistakes and make him more viable to your ideas, but we were ambushed by Dumbledore and his Order. The boy stood up against the old man, at which Dumbledore cast a spell meant to destroy your horcrux whilst it was still inside of the boy."
At this Voldemort started to look furious, he wasn't concerned for the boy, for goodness no, but he wanted his horcrux save. Snape quickly finished his explanation, "I don't think the spell worked my Lord, the way Dumbledore looked when the spell took effect made me think that he didn't want to physically hurt the boy, somehow the spell has failed, but I think you are the only one, who can assess the situation well enough."
Even though they say that flattery will get you nowhere, it certainly kept some of the Dark Lord's anger at bay, who quickly dispelled the silencing spell, that Snape had cast earlier, after which the screaming started again. Whilst Severus seemed somewhat taken aback by the screaming, it seemed to have none such an influence on his Lord.
Slowly the Dark Lord stepped up to the boy. He gracefully raised his hand towards the boy's head and touched it briefly, after which the screaming stopped and the boy seemed to go in a quiet slumbering state. The Dark Lord's hand went to hover above the boy's chest, only if one looked deeply into his eyes could one see the shock present there briefly before it disappeared again, just as quickly as it had appeared.
"I will require several potions, to repair the damage done to both my horcrux and its vessel. I will provide you with a list, but first you must take the boy into the next room and lay him down on the bed, after which I will have the list ready and require you to brew them immediately", as Severus walked away with Harry an laid him down in the adjoining room, Voldemort saw something in Snape's behaviour.
"You care for him, Severus", the Dark Lord stated as he handed the list of potions to Snape, together with a book which contained the recipes to some of the more archaic potions he needed, "you care for him a lot." Although Snape didn't want to admit any weakness to his Lord, it was now too late to hide any strange feelings he might have developed for the boy, "Yes, milord", Snape said, before attempting to leave the room, 'as I once cared for his mother.', Severus thought.
"You musn't, Severus", the Dark Lord said as Snape exited the room, "Caring is for the weak, it will make you vulnerable and can only come back to haunt you."