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.
Severus had just administered the next doses of the potions, when his Master asked him to stay behind. It had been too long already that the boy had been unconscious. Every hour he began feeling worse about telling the boy where they were. While it was likely that Harry would understand given the whole story it was unlikely that he would be patient enough to listen to the whole tale before judging him and making a scene. It was exactly that which Severus feared would happen.
"Severus, the boy will be waking soon. I want you to turn him to our side", Voldemort said before threatening the man, " if you fail I might have to rip the horcrux from his body." Severus feared there was a thing that was left unsaid here. While it was likely the proposed method would injure the horcrux in the progress, it could just a soon kill Harry in the process, which Voldemort knew. Severus had no choice but to do the Dark Lord's bidding in this aspect, but it was this unfortunate moment that Harry awoke.
"I expect you to keep my horcrux safe", was the first thing Harry heard when he awoke. The severity of the situation he had landed himself in was immediately clear to him, he could never forget the sound of that voice and especially that tone. His hand reached into the pocket of his trousers, but there was no wand. Preparing himself for the worst, he kept his eyes closed and tried to keep him breathing even and look as much asleep as he could. The next voice though shocked him that much that all his previous attempts were futile.
"Yes, my Lord", Severus said, while eyeing the young man on the bed. He didn't miss the shock suddenly covering the boy's face and realized that he was no longer unconscious. Harry's face now covered both in shock and accusation and with eyes wide open looked directly at Snape. "Why here?", Harry said, voice full of hurt, "Why him?" Frantically Harry sat up and began looking for his wand or any weapon at all. As soon as he noticed that neither was available to him, he began looking for a way to escape.
Meanwhile the Dark Lord looked amused at the frantic boy and his shocked servant, while Severus quickly walked over to the bed and tried to calm his student, who kept sending glances at Voldemort. Severus knew that he would not be able to calm the boy down while his Lord was in the room and turned towards his Master.
Normally the Dark Lord would have enjoyed the awkwardness of the situation and would have liked to witness the unleashing of the boy's anger. Nonetheless the Dark Lord was able to realize it was in his cause's interest too to leave the room. With a last glance at the boy, he turned around and gracefully left the room. Harry still confused, now focused his complete attention on Snape, who immediately began explaining. "Please Harry, hear me out before you jump to your conclusions." Out of respect for his teacher Harry did so.
The door closed softly as Severus began explaining. "The Headmaster's spell hurt you dearly. The only one capable of healing you, other than the Headmaster himself, is the Dark Lord. It was not an easy choice, but saving you was the main priority." Harry looked thoughtful and still somewhat cross with his teacher. "Don't you have any other friends", then Harry reminded himself that they were in the Dark Lord's lair, "colleagues or relatives, who could have healed me?!", Harry tried again, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that they were within Voldemort's own headquarters. "There must be at least someone that could have healed the worst of my injury and then you would have healed the rest! You didn't have to deliver me to the house of the man who wants me dead!"
"I do not have many acquaintances and none of those few would have been able to heal you. And while I greatly appreciate the confidence you have in my abilities, you were beyond the help of even the strongest of my healing potions, not even counting the fact I had no clue which one to dose you with.", Severus explained, he did not like to downplay his own abilities, but this was the honest truth.
"While I know that you are less than pleased with me. I do believe that being here may prove to be beneficial. The Dark Lord is searching for a method to remove his horcrux form your body, while keeping both intact. We both have enough reason to doubt his every move, but trust me when I say that on the short run this is the better place to be and the instant that changes, I will get both of us out of here!"
Harry nodded, while he fully agreed with Snape's first statement. He was indeed less than pleased with his teacher, but he also knew that fighting in the Dark Lord's headquarters would not be a smart move, it would show Voldemort a weakness in their relationship and he wouldn't hesitate to exploit that. A bit of the worry on Severus' face was lifted before he addressed his pupil again.
"You should still be resting though", Snape said. Understanding that his student would not be able to sleep so soon after awakening, he handed the boy a book from one of the bookcases in the room, before he turned around and left the room. Since it was Snape that gave him the book, he had expected it to be potions related. He was surprised however, when he saw it was a book on the Dark Arts instead.
The book was, despite Harry's initial disapproval, quite interesting and had been full of information on bonding and healing rituals and of course curses and hexes, which was to be expected in a book titled Guide to the intermediate Dark Arts. Of course, the book had also contained a large variety of appalling spells. There were for instance about five different ways to neuter someone, three different unbreakable vows, including a marriage variant, that again would neuter the party that committed adultery, six ways to quarter a person and numerous ways to make them ingest poison.
While this leather bound book alone had taught Harry a lot of new ways to protect himself, he had also requested Snape to bring him more books. Depending on the mood Severus was in he would either bring the boy a practical book, like the first, or more theoretical books. If he was in a particularly foul mood, he would hand Harry a potions book, however that didn't seem to help for his satisfaction anymore as Harry read every book avidly no matter the subject.
"I doubt the Headmaster will allow either of us to return to Hogwarts next year, despite the fact I think you would finally meet the standard after all this reading you have done", Severus said as he walked into the boys room and noticed his student was again reading one of his books. A few days after Harry's recovery he had been moved to one of the more distant quarters, which however hadn't stopped him from begging Snape for new books every time the man had come to visit. Then again Harry hadn't had much company, since the Dark Lord had Severus brew almost constantly to stock up on every useful potion in his arsenal.
"You are right, sir", Harry said, looking up from his book to meet his teacher's gaze, giving a smile, "therefore I have decided not to return to Hogwarts and to become neutral in this war". The last was said somewhat absently, as if Harry was afraid Severus would retaliate for this statement. "If the Dark Lord will allow it of course." Severus nodded at his student's decision, it was a wise one as long as the Dark Lord agreed.