Slowly moving towards the source, he saw the door to one of the more…. secretive.. rooms opened, and silently swore. How the bloody hell did anyone manage to get into the castle? A spell ready on the tip of his tongue, he made his way towards the door. The door he normally kept hidden with a rather strong spell. The moment he saw someone hidden beneath a black robe, he casted the disarming and stunning spell in quick succession.

Two seconds later Snape grabbed the fallen person by the scruff of his neck and pulled him away from his place blockading the door.

Finally getting a good look at his face, he saw that it was Nathan Cardelus, a Slytherin that had left school about three years prior. Checking his forearm, Severus found that the boy was apparently a new recruit for the dark lord as well. Pressing a portkey into Cardelus' hand, he sent the boy off to a warded room behind the headmaster's office, confident that Albus would take care of it.

Severus' mind was reeling. How did he get in? He knew he would have to check the wards, and would even resort to checking the sealed door that led to the bottom of the black lake if he had to.

Then he realized that Cardelus was probably acting on his own accord since there was no backup whatsoever. Barely managing not to cringe, Severus then realized that the dark lord would not be happy with this, especially if he was forming some sort of plan with the opening somewhere in the wards. Cardelus would probably be safer in Azkaban anyhow, but with out doubt Severus knew the rest of the death eaters would pay for his mistake. Realizing he still hadn't entered the room to check for changes, he was snapped out of his thoughts.

Cautiously peering inside, all thoughts of his wand were forgotten as he unconsciously put it away. The anger he had barely managed to keep at bay expelled full force. His breathing heavy, he watched as the young man continued to look at stuff he, so obviously, wasn't suppose to see. He must've just realized that as he stared at Severus with shock, not even attempting to be discreet. He could see the boy go even more tense then he had been, after realizing that it wasn't just an object he was backed up against, but instead a death eater. As soon as the boy caught his eyes he was approaching, fueled by blind fury.

Too far out of it, he continued to back the boy up, heading toward the table with the half filled vile. Seconds before he would have crashed into the table, Severus grabbed him by the hem of his shirt and pulled him close. He started off in a whisper, though it didn't exactly help.

"What. Are you doing IN HERE?" his voice steadily rising.

Out of it, he continues to rant, anger consuming him. When he finally catches himself, his hand was raised as if to strike, and Potter was so lost that his eyes were dilated and he seemingly forgot where he was.

Abruptly Snape lets go, and Harry falls. Things happened in slow motion after that. Harry falls into the table, hitting his head and shaking the table roughly, causing the potion to fall over. The marble table starts to steam and burn away. Without thinking, Snape throws himself over Harry, knocking the air out of both of them. What's left of the potion dribbles onto Snape's robes, over his back. In seconds Snape was screaming. That particular potion would burn through anything and happened to be scorching the flesh on his back.

Snape blacked out, and knew no more.

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Opening his eyes, the first thing he notices is the amount of pain he's in. It hurt unbearably, which was really saying something, considering how long the man was able to stand under the cruciatus curse. Memories came back to him all at once and he was on his feet in seconds, attempting to ignore the dizzy spell that came over him. He was probably out for no more then 10 minutes.

His feet were unstable, but he managed to stagger over to a cabinet for a flesh restoring potion. There was blood all over the floor and he fell to his knees as it all started to grow back at once. Half an hour later the pain became slightly tolerable and the first thing he noticed was the missing Potter. Last thing he had remembered was landing on Potter, and when he woke up the boy was gone. Just like him to just leave me like that. Then he noticed slight moving in the corner. It was Potter, but he looked so much smaller curled up like that.

A new spark of anger came to Snape as he saw him.

"Get up! What were you thinking? Do you have ANY sense at all, just going into and an unknown room, in the dungeons of all places! Did you even think about what could be lurking behind closed doors? Potter! There was a bloody DEATH EATER behind you! Who knows what he could've done with you! I've never seen such blind stupidity before!"

His tirade was cut short and he realized the boy was muttering. He continued to repeat I'm sorry, over and over again. Potter had a cut on the back of his head from where he hit the table, and had Snape's blood on him too, but neither paid particular attention to it.

Sighing, Snape briskly stalks towards the front of the room to get a calming potion. When he touches the boy though, attempting to give him the potion, he flinches violently and breaks off into a run. It was pointless though, as he just ends up in another corner. Taking an easier route, Snape stuns him and pours the potion down his throat, rubbing circles so he wouldn't choke. A few seconds later he unstuns him, only to have the boy once again curl into himself, still muttering nonsense such as "stop" and "Uncle Vernon" and "don't hurt me".

When the boy came back to himself he was still rather lost and shaken, so Snape lifts him up and was about to drop him off in the infirmary when he stopped. Someone really need to check the wards and the castle for other death eaters, but he remembered his agreement with Potter to keep the situation out of Poppy's hands. Although it didn't seem like it, Snape was a man of his word. He was pretty sure Dumbledore had taken care of the wards already anyways. Severus would never allow Potter into his rooms, so he just decided to go to Potter's own temporary room.

Walking, he realized that the boy was indeed too light for his age. Filing the thought away, he continued on, ignorant towards the large gap in the back of his robes, and the tender flesh being exposed from it. Reaching the rooms he said the password that Albus had given him and entered. Placing Harry on the bed, he was about to leave when he realized he couldn't. Sighing, he returned to the bed and muttered a cleaning spell on Harry's clothes. Then he sealed the cut on the back of the boy's head.

Finished with that, he summoned a pain numbing potion, dreamless sleep potion, and two blood replenishing potions from the currently opened painting on Harry's right, which led to Severus' own rooms. Shutting the huge painting of the whomping willow closed, he took a blood replenishing potion himself before returning to Harry's rooms. After giving Potter the potions, he makes his way up to the headmaster chamber to answer the questions he knew the headmaster had.

Knocking on the door with no avail, Severus was about to leave when the headmaster came up behind him. Inviting him in, the headmaster went straight to business. First question asked was where Cardelus' body was found. After explaining the entirety of the situation to Albus, silence was met. The headmaster was gazing at him sadly, and Severus could tell it was mostly because of all the people he they continue to loose to the Dark Lord. Putting it aside, Albus informs Severus that the wards were fully intact. Shortly afterwards, Severus left, making his way down to a place that wasn't visited for about 35 years.

After finally getting there, Severus pulled to a halt in front of a huge black gate. It was aged and rusted, but strong as ever. After removing the charm put on it, Severus pulled out the unique key from his pocket and crouched down. Using his wand for light, he unlocked the gate and continued down the stairs with seemingly no end. There were no torches down there, so he had conveniently borrowed the lighter from Dumbledore. Lighting up the place, he made his way to the back corner of the room where the door was, his boots noisily thumping as he walked through the murky remnants of water. It smelled horribly like seaweed and other… things….that lurked the lake.

By the time he reached the door he knew something was wrong. The water level continued to increase. Ignoring his disgust, he placed the bubblehead charm on himself to inspect the creases underneath the door. Just had he expected, there was a hole. A really small one, barely big enough for a rat to fit through, but a hole nevertheless.

After sealing it to the best of his ability, he made his way back up to the headmaster's office. Once out of the water he cast a cleaning and drying spell on himself, but knew it wouldn't be enough. He resolved that he would take a very long shower when this business was over and done with.

He continued to ponder the small hole as he made his way. If the dark lord had known, he would've acted already. Hmph. Maybe the dunderhead wanted to bring Potter back as a "surprise". He also wondered what could have caused the hole. Maybe it was that damn squid. Look where that got the boy, thought Severus, now following a different trail of thought. He would've been better off telling the dark lord. We were lucky though, that things went in favor of the light. We might not be so lucky next time.

After telling Albus of his findings, Severus found that the headmaster had postponed his trip for the order for at least another five days. He wanted to make sure the wards would remain intact and that everything concerning Cardelus being found in Hogwarts was sorted out at the ministry. Later that night, Snape uncharacteristically fell into bed with great exhaustion, not looking forward to getting up the next morning.

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