Snape's first thought as he approached Malfoy Manor was that it was quiet. Too quiet. Even the peacocks which normally littered the drive had scuttled off somewhere else. With a sick sense of foreboding he opened the grand front door. There was no turning back now.
He squared his shoulders and entered.
Inside was just as dim as he remembered. He could hear no movement. All of the doors lining the entrance hall were pulled shut. Snape ignored all of them in favour for the passage which headed down to the cellars. He knew of them from when Charity Burbage had been kept hostage over the last summer.
His straining ears finally picked up on some sound. He paused, trying to hear it better. It sounded like coughing, a pained violent retching. It didn't sound good, but on the bright side at least he'd probably found Viktor.
Slowly he crept forwards some more. He had to admit he hadn't really approached this with any semblance of a plan, more just making it up as he went along depending on what he found. Thus far his luck seemed to be holding, the manor was deserted.
Definitely coughing. It was horrible and wet.
At the foot of the cellar steps he stopped again to press his ear to the heavy door. Homenum Revelio Snape thought, scanning the room for people. He cursed silently when he saw that there were two occupants to the room. Maybe his luck would continue to hold, it could just be another prisoner.
Still, better safe than sorry. Snape raised his wand and prepared to fire a couple of quick immobilising spells. He pushed open the door and shot.
The first target he hit with no difficulty, the body on the floor seizing up rigid. The second person ducked however, and the wild witch turned on him.
Bedlam broke loose. Snape was giving as good as he got, but he had to admit Bellatrix was giving better. He forced his way further into the room. It smelt vile, the acrid smell of vomit and blood filtering into his battle focused mind. Between two defensive spells he managed to remobilise Krum.
Any hope of back up from the seeker quickly faded when he saw what a state he was in. He seemed too dazed to fully realise that there were spells flying over his head.
Bellatrix managed to sneak a curse past Snape's defences as he surveyed the pitiful heap he was supposed to be rescuing. He swore under his breath and clutched a hand to his side. He threw an avarda kedrava her way, narrowly missing.
"Come on you useless git, get up and save your damned self!" He roared at Krum, whilst side stepping a skin-shedding curse.
Something finally seemed to be seeping into Krum's dazed stupor. He looked up, with a confused expression. There was blood trickling from his mouth.
"Go!" Snape bellowed. He knew it already, he wasn't going to win this battle. The least he could do was die for a good reason. Krum had to live, so that Draco and Harry wouldn't come here.
On shaking legs, Krum got to his feet, using the wall heavily for support. Snape had to cast a protego between Snape and Bellatrix as she changed her target. Her face was contorted into a snarl of rage.
"Avada Kedavra!" Knowing a shield charm would do no good for Krum now, Snape cast the only spell he'd ever heard of defeating it.
"Expelliarmus!" Bellatrix's wand soared out of her hand before the damning green light could burst forth. It seemed Potter had really been onto something.
Snape pushed Krum towards the stairs and threw another body bind at Bellatrix. She dodged, and came at him, wicked knife in hand. Curse after curse Snape desperately fired her way, each she evaded or waved away with wandless magic.
At the base of the stairs, Snape cast a ward charm. It forced Bellatrix to stop short. She was enraged, inhuman. He hurried up after Krum, unknowing of how long it would hold against Bellatrix. He thought that they ought to start calling her Lady Voldemort and laughed, the strain of the battle was definitely getting to him.
Now that he had caught up to Krum, he pushed Bellatrix's wand into his hand.
"Get past the wards, apparate to the safe house. Go!" He nodded silently and pushed on. From the bottom of the steps Snape heard hissing and he felt his stomach turn to ice.
The front door had opened, and Snape knew he needed to get out of it too. He needed to be running. But his body seemed paralysed by fear. A huge black snake had slivered into his path. It was leaning back, preparing to strike. No. No, he wasn't going to die like this.
"Confrigo!" The burst of fire seemed to reflect off the shiny black scales, without leaving a mark. "No! Defodio!" Again, the snake was left unharmed. Snape stumbled backwards and tripped on his long robes. He landed hard.
Nagini slid slowly towards him. She reared up again, egged on by the hissing echoing up from the cellar. Lightning fast, she struck. Snape roared in pain.
He could feel the ward below him shatter as the poison flowed through his veins. It was like liquid fire, burning its way around. He sobbed.
"A traitor must die a traitor's death, Severus. You think you have been hiding it but I have suspected you for a while. The Dark Lord is never wrong. You have lost me a very valuable opportunity today. It is just for you to die in the pain they should have suffered." Bellatrix's voice had turned high and cold. She stood above him, gloating.
"Go to hell." Snape spat, as another wave of pain threatened to overcome him. He could feel his body shuddering on the floor, and the wet clamminess of his skin. This was it, the end of Severus Snape.
"There is a special place in Hell for liars and traitors Snape, I'm sure I'll see you there on the off chance I should ever die." Her laugh was humourless and chilling. It rang in his ears, amplified louder and louder. It was the last thing he heard, as darkness drew him in.
.
.
The harsh daylight stung Viktor's eyes after so long in the cellar. He stumbled out of the front doors and down the wide steps before them. The wand was clutched tightly in his hand.
His stomach and inners were rearing in pain, but that didn't matter. He was not going back in there, he had to run. Under foot, the gravel of the drive crunched. He lost his balance once, cutting his hand open. Without stopping to survey the damage, he was up again. One foot in front of the other.
A pained cry echoed from the open doors of the house. He pushed on.
The drive was coming into sharper focus, but Viktor refused to notice how long it was. He couldn't hear any sounds of pursuit yet. He would make it, he had to. He needed to see Hermione again.
With that thought in his mind, he forced himself on. He was in a bad state, he could feel the after effects of the potion he'd been forced to eat. That had been hellish.
There was a gate up ahead. He wasn't far off now. The screams had stopped echoing from the house now, Krum refused to dwell on what that meant. The man had told him to go so he had, there was nothing he could do now.
He stepped through the tall gates and immediately turned on the spot. The crushing of the apparation seemed so intense on his injuries that he thought he wouldn't make it out the other end. He hit the black door hard, groping for something to hold.
He slumped over the iron railings and heaved. Blood splattered the rose bush as the door was yanked open.
"Viktor? Oh my god! Harry!" The safety of her arms wrapped around his waist. Relief flooded him.
"Hi 'mione." Her face was so beautiful even contorted by worry. His smiled weakly, before giving in to unconsciousness.
.
.
Harry guided Krum's head as Draco carefully levitated him down the corridor to the kitchen. When they had heard Hermione's yells they had rushed down from the second floor landing where they had been falling asleep against each other.
To begin with they had tried to carry him, but despite only having a seeker's build, he was too heavy for them. Harry had always been on the slightly weedy side, and Draco hadn't been eating well for much longer than his time here. Harry had suggested Hermione levitated Krum, but she seemed too distraught it didn't seem wise. Harry said he'd always been rubbish at levitation charms so had passed his wand to Draco.
Draco had pushed away his anxiety of not using magic for nearly two months. It was so far working quite well. They managed to negotiate the door and get him onto the kitchen table. Draco kept the surrealism of it to himself – a fortnight ago he'd been the one bleeding out on this table and Krum had been the one saving him. His shoulder had healed remarkably well actually, the scald mark all but gone.
Krum groaned but didn't wake. Hermione was fretting, trying to cast diagnostics with shaking hands.
"I…I can't tell what's wrong with him." Her voice was strained. Harry put a calming hand on hers.
"We'll fix it. Do you think he might have splinched himself on the way back here?" Hermione seemed to pale further. Draco, realising he was still clutching Harry's wand, had a go himself. When he looked up again he had two pairs of anxious eyes on him.
"I can't really tell either, it seems mostly internal. There is some bad muscle damage to his shoulder, and lots of minor scrapes and bruises. But something else is up, and I can't tell what."
"Kreacher can help." Draco turned to look at the little creature who was loitering by Draco's knee. When he had entered, Draco had no idea, but he was immensely grateful. Hermione finally burst into tears.
"Thank you Kreacher." At the acknowledgment Kreacher ducked his head. Draco noticed Harry's puzzled expression and mouthed 'later' as the elf pulled out a chair. It clambered on and tentatively poked Krum's leg.
"Sir's insides are scrambled." He said after a minute. "And his shoulder has some sort of dark infection." Kreacher withdrew his hand quickly, as if scared the infection would spread.
"Scrambled? What on earth does that mean?" Harry said.
"It means," Draco said coldly "That my aunt has been at him. It was one of Bellatrix's favourites, a potion which breaks down organ membranes. It effectively scrambles your inners into a big mess of organ soup." Hermione had turned green, and Harry looked little better.
"Okay, we have a diagnostic. It's not good but we can work with that. What should we do?" It was clear Harry was trying to distance himself from the situation in order to deal with it. Hermione on the other hand was clutching onto Krum and sobbing loudly.
"Well he's not dead yet, so she didn't give him much." Draco decided to follow suit, he could pretend this wasn't happening. Krum's life wasn't really on the line, this is merely a test to see if he could do the right thing. "I don't think she ever bothered finding an antidote, she would have no need. We need something to heal, so try vulnera sanentur."
Draco passed back Harry's wand, who tried the spell. When he was done, Kreacher apprehensively touched Krum's leg again.
"It is helping his insides, but his shoulder is fighting it." Kreacher withdrew very quickly. Something about that wound scared him. Harry cast the spell twice more.
"We could try Dittany for his shoulder. I'm afraid I don't really know anything for infections." Draco interjected. Harry nodded and went to retrieve Hermione's bag from the side.
"Accio Dittany." He said, pointing his wand into it. A small bottle flew into his empty hand. "Hermione, we are going to need to roll him over, so we can get to his shoulder." She nodded and moved away slightly, trembling.
"On the count of three. One, two, three." Harry and Draco heaved, and managed to get Krum onto his side. He coughed violently and a small trickle of blood ran from his mouth. Harry pulled away the ragged shirt.
There were four deep scratch marks marring Krum's back. The blood around them was dark and dried, the scabs broken. It looked like they had half healed then been torn open again.
"I think we are going to need to clean some of the blood off first. Kreacher, can you bring us some clean water." Kreacher clicked his fingers and a bowl materialised. Any other time Harry would have been very impressed. He wrung a cloth in the water and tried to dab of as much as he could.
Without the dry blood surrounding them, they looked a little better. Harry unstopped the bottle and poured it onto the wound. Draco had to hold on tight to stop Krum thrashing and rolling back over.
"I think that's as good as we are going to get. It looks like it will scar. What now?"
"Keep casting the healing spell, and we wait. Only time will tell now." Harry nodded. Gently, he and Draco lowered Krum back onto his back. Harry sat down next to him and began casting.
Hermione was stood stock still. She looked like she was in shock. Her skin was pale and her eyes unfocused and reddened. It was like she couldn't fully comprehend what was going on in front of her.
Draco pulled up a chair on the other side of Krum and nudged Hermione towards it. She seemed startled for a moment, as if she'd forgotten Harry and Draco were even there anymore. She crumpled into the chair and took hold of Krum's hand. Knees drawn up to her chest, she sat watching him, waiting.
Kreacher busied himself making cups of tea.
AN: Sorry about the delay between parts! I was internetless for a week because I went away for my birthday, and my A Levels are starting to go crazy! Hopefully normal updating has been resumed. I'd really like to hear what you all think to the character development going on :)