AN: I'm sorry it's taken so long to finally update this! I'll try not to let it go so far next time. I made this chapter longer to make up for it though :-D (I actually gave this chapter a title because I was listening to song by that title while editing this and it seemed a little fitting, although to be clear they are not giving up on Harry.)

When they made their way to the beta's office, to their luck, he was just walking out for a coffee break between appointments when they arrived.

"We've never met before, but you're Ethan Robins, right?" Sirius asked.

"That I am," he answered. "What can I do for you?" he asked.

"I'm Sirius, and this is my mate Remus. We're Harry's parents. He was a patient of yours. Harry Snape, formerly Potter?"

"Ah yes, I remember him. He talked about you occasionally. Seemed very fond of you. It's very nice to meet you," Ethan said with a warm smile, holding a hand out to Sirius and then Remus to shake.

"Nice to meet you as well, although perhaps not under the circumstances," Remus replied.

"What do you mean?" Ethan asked, noticing that both of the men looked a little haggard.

"We've got a problem," Sirius said. "I hope we're not imposing. Severus, Harry's mate, went looking for Harry this morning, but found this instead, and I was wondering if maybe you could get some sort of reading from this, to tell us what Nathaniel might be planning, or where his head might be," Sirius explained, handing the note to Ethan so he could read it.

Ethan's brow drew together in concern as he read the note. "This is not good," he said. "For Harry to be back with him… But you wanted me to see what information I could gain regarding the man's mental state, yes? He's certainly very egotistical, thinks himself better than most… but you already knew that. He seems to know what he's doing though, as if he's been planning this for some time… It seems he feels entitled to the pup – Ivy I believe I heard her name was? He considers her his own, even though that is the farthest thing from the truth. I would say she should be safe from intentional harm, though he isn't stable enough to be fully trusted with child care in any form. I'm afraid I can't say the same for Harry. He thinks Harry should be punished for not giving Nathaniel what he feels he was entitled to. Nathaniel is a man who is beyond stubborn, and once he has made a decision, it is near impossible to change his mind. He believes he deserves something just because he desires it. I cannot guess where he may have taken the two of them, and I'm afraid I have told you nothing you couldn't have determined for yourselves, but I hope something I have said will somehow help you. Is there anything else at all I can do for you?"

"Not that we know of," Sirius said. "But keep an eye out for anything, and if you think of anything that might be helpful to us, let us know."

"Please let me know when you find them," Ethan said, promising to himself that he would think on this as much as he could to be able to help as much as possible.

"Of course," Remus said.

When Sirius and Remus got to the Ministry of Magic, it was an easy task to find Ron's office. They had visited him several times before. The first problem they ran into was when they saw he had gained an assistant. It was the assistant who opened the door for them when they knocked hurriedly on the door.

"Do you have an appointment?" were the first words out of the teenager's mouth.

"I'm sorry, what?" asked Remus.

"I asked if you had an appointment, and I'm guessing the answer is no. Mr. Weasley is a very busy man and—"

"Nicole, what did I tell you about asking people if they have appointments?" came Ron's voice from somewhere behind the door.

The girl's ears turned red and she responded, "Not to do it."

"Then why do you keep doing it?"

"Because you are a very busy person and you don't have time for people bursting in here left and right to ask you ridiculous questions."

"Nicole, I'm not exactly booked right now and visitors aren't particularly frequent anyway. Now why don't you let them in so I can see what they want?" Ron sounded quite exasperated with his assistant, but there was almost a hint of amusement there as well.

"Very well," Nicole said with a dramatic sigh as she moved out of their way.

"Sirius, Remus," Ron said when he saw the two of them standing there. "What brings you here?"

"Trouble I'm afraid," Sirius said. "We need to speak with you privately, please," he said with a significant look in the direction of Nicole.

"Of course. Nicole, why don't you take a fifteen minute break?"

"Fifteen minutes?!" she asked.

"Alright, take twenty then," Ron said with a small smile.

"But—"

"No buts. I insist. Take your time. I think I can manage without you for a few minutes."

"Alright. Call if you need me, I guess," Nicole finally consented.

As soon as Nicole was out of earshot, Ron told the other two men in the room, "She somehow had mixed the idea that I'm some sort of important higher-up in the Ministry with the idea that I can't function without her. I told Kingsley I was doing just fine without an assistant, but he insisted she could be helpful. Now, what's wrong, because judging by your faces, it's pretty bad."

Sirius began to explain things. "We need a favor, and we need you to be discreet. Harry's life depends on it. Of course, you've helped him plenty of times before so I'm sure you can handle this. Anyway, Harry and Ivy were taken this morning by Nathaniel, and we need to find them fast, but he threatened to end Harry's life if we go looking for him. We need Nathaniel's current address, because it seems like a logical place to start, and we came to you because you're the person we know the best and trust the most in the Ministry who might be able to get the information for us."

"Right, of course," Ron said, immediately opening a drawer in his desk. He muttered some spell and a slip of paper popped into the air near Ron's forehead before slowly beginning to flutter down. Ron caught it in midair. "They installed these new drawers that can allow you access to all information the Ministry has, except for restricted information, of course. Here it is. Apparently, he hasn't moved."

It was true. The address was the same as the one he used to share with Harry. "Is there anything else I can do at all? And I do mean anything?"

"Do you have any ideas for where to look for him? We're going to see if Nathaniel was stupid enough to take Harry and Ivy to his house first, and then we're going to check the house for any clues about where he might have gone. We might interview the neighbors. All that we can take care of though. It's after that we're unsure of, unless we get any breakthroughs in doing that," Sirius told him.

"Is there some sort of note?" Ron asked.

"Yes, here," Remus said, pulling the note from his own pocket where he had stowed it some time ago.

Ron skimmed the note. "Yeah, I'm afraid I don't really have any ideas either, but if at any time you think of anything I can do to help you in any way, even if it's getting you some food to eat or something simple like that, let me know immediately, okay?"

"Of course," Remus said.

"Obviously, don't go spreading this around, but you can certainly tell Hermione and if she had any ideas, we'd be more than thankful."

"Alright. We actually have a lunch date today, so if either of us thinks of anything, one of us will get back to you. How's Severus doing?"

"Not great. He's at his shop now – we told him that we need to keep up appearances because it seems like a possibility that Nathaniel is watching us all. We promised to keep him updated, of course."

"Well, good luck," Ron said as Sirius and Remus took their leave.

Before going to the house, Sirius and Remus paused in an almost deserted park. "Are you alright?" Sirius asked Remus once again, placing his hands on his mate's shoulders as he faced him. He knew for certain something was off.

"No," Remus answered shakily. "I'm just so scared for them – both of them. What if we're too late? What if we find them, but they're already – already—"

"Shhh, don't think like that," Sirius said, placing a hand against Remus's cheek. Remus leaned into it. "It's only been a few hours – much too soon to give up hope now."

Remus nodded slightly and allowed himself to relax for a few moments, trying to calm down the anxiety he was feeling. When he finally felt alright again, he stood back a little from Sirius and gave him a nod. "I'm ready," he said.

"Okay," Sirius said before taking Remus's hand and apparating the two of them to the front yard of the house Harry had once lived in with Nathaniel. "It still looks the same," Sirius commented.

"That it does," Remus agreed. "I'm ready whenever you are," he added.

Sirius nodded. "Let's do it, then." He and Remus both silently braced themselves, unsure of what they would find inside the house.

At first, everything was normal. There was total silence, and the rooms looked clean yet lived-in. There was some ordinary food in the kitchen, a pair of shoes on the living room floor, some toothpaste stains in the bathroom sink, and the bed was unmade in the master bedroom, while the guest bedroom looked pristine. The attic was dark and cluttered, just as it had always been, so they finally moved on to the basement. That was where the horrors started. Pictures covered the walls: pictures of the house Harry and Severus shared, of the backyard, pictures taken from outside the windows looking in on different rooms such as the nursery or Severus and Harry's bedroom, pictures of Ron, Hermione, and Rose visiting (they had yet to have another child), pictures of Sirius and Remus visiting, and possibly hundreds of shots of Harry in town. Some of them showed him and Severus walking hand-in-hand, some showed Harry or Severus holding baby Ivy, others portrayed the small family playing in a park, and one showed Ivy walking between Sirius and Remus on one of the days they'd agreed to babysit for her parents.

Sirius and Remus both shared horrified looks at what they were seeing. This was obvious evidence that Nathaniel had been stalking Harry and his pup since the little girl was born. The thought of it made both of them angry. It had been suggested that it was premeditated, but they hadn't realized it was to this extreme. This was going to be harder than they thought. Nathaniel had years of planning under his belt, while Harry's family was working with absolutely nothing.

For whatever reason, Remus felt himself compelled to take a closer look at one of the walls that had been covered in photographs. He was glad he did. There was a picture there, in the very center, that didn't have any people in it. Instead, it was a small cabin. There was a dirt road in front of it, and the background was full of trees. After pulling it off the wall, Remus turned it over, and on the back was written one word: HOME. "Sirius, I think I know where he's taken them," Remus said.

Harry was about to panic. After waking up in a room lit only by a little daylight that filtered through a barred window, he'd almost forgotten what had happened, but then he'd noticed the bars on the window, the very sturdy looking door, and the lack of familiarity of the room. Then he remembered that Nathaniel had him. And as if that wasn't bad enough, he had Ivy, too. With that thought in mind, he quickly got off the bed he'd been placed on and made quick work of checking the room. When he verified it was pup-free, he went to the door to check if it would open, but he was met with much more than a locked door. When he got within five feet of it, an excruciating pain surged through his entire body. It was enough to send him onto the floor in a heap as he waited for the agony to abate.

Sev he thought. He needed Severus. He would come get him. Reaching out, he could feel when he connected with his alpha.

Severus was pacing the floor in the back room of his apothecary. He hated this. No, that wasn't strong enough. He loathed it. That still wasn't quite the word, but it was close enough. Severus was too anxious to worry about being literary at the moment anyway. His mate and his pup had been taken, and here he was working at his job like it was any other day. Much to his fortune, he had only had one customer that morning, so he didn't have to be too civil. He needed to know where Harry was, though.

Suddenly, he felt the bond he shared with his mate pick up on something, and he started to berate himself for not thinking of this connection sooner. If he'd had the brains to reach out to Harry before now, maybe he could have gotten him and their pup home already.

Then he felt despair. He wasn't just getting a come get me message. He was feeling pain. Harry was hurt, badly. Wanting to do anything to help Harry, he sent reassurance towards him.

Harry felt it when Sev responded to his pull. He immediately felt calmer. Focusing as hard as he possibly could, Harry tried to communicate a word to his mate. Words were a lot more difficult than feelings, but in certain situations, it was known to happen between strongly bonded mates.

Severus felt his heart break when he received a single word from Harry. Help. Oh, how he wanted to. He would give anything to be by his omega's side. Where? He answered after a struggle.

Harry was searching for an answer. Where was he? There were trees, but that would tell Severus little to nothing. He didn't even know the size or type of building he was in. He was scrambling for an answer so his alpha could come help him, but he couldn't figure out what to tell him. He has just said woods because it was better than nothing when the door opened and there stood Nathaniel with a knife in his grasp. There was something wet glistening on the blade of it, and Harry had a hunch about what it was. His communication with Sev was still quite strong, so he got another word in, his panic pushing his thoughts further toward Severus and somehow making the communication easier. Knife he said in fear.

Woods Severus heard. That didn't help much, but at least it was more than what he did have. He was just narrowing down the places not to look (such as Egypt) when another word came to him. Knife. Severus felt his heart stop. Knife? Surely that didn't mean…

Before Harry could do anything to defend himself, his felt his body frozen by a spell from Nathaniel. The spell was the only thing Nathaniel said for the time being. Then his left wrist was in Nathaniel's hand and the knife was poised over the back of Harry's hand. There was no denying his fate now. He was going to be cut off from Severus – literally. No, he thought. He needed that bond. Without that, he was lost. The knife then plunged into Harry's hand, surely deeper than necessary, and an excruciating pain swept over Harry's body, worse than anything he'd felt before. It hit more than just physical nerves. His emotions were going haywire, too. His hand was burning and he felt certain the end had arrived.

Nathaniel addressed Harry for the first time after withdrawing and wiping Harry's blood from the knife and onto Harry's own shirt. "Now you won't have another alpha to run to. It's just you and me again. Well, you and me and the pup - as it should be. She really is adorable, you know that?"

"Ivy," Harry murmured. "Where is she?"

"You'll see her soon. I was just introducing myself to her, but the two of you will be sharing a room. Pup raising is in the omega's line of work, after all. She's perfectly fine. Trust me, she's the last person I want to hurt right now, other than myself of course. Now, a few rules.

"First and foremost, don't leave this room. If you need to relieve yourself, there's a lovely hole in that wall over there that you can certainly make use of. Don't try to crawl through it, though, because I have it warded and you won't make it through. Also, in case you haven't noticed, there is a spell around the door that is specific to you. If you get within five feet of it, you will be hit with the Cruciatus Curse. Judging by your position on the ground – which of course is your rightful place – I would say you've already been foolish enough to try the door once.

"Second, do as I say or face the consequences. You already have weekly punishments set up and I'm sure you don't want to add to your pain. I'll tell you about those punishments later. If you don't follow every order I give you, when I give it to you, it will be painful for you, though I must admit I myself will enjoy it.

"Third, don't try to resist me. You have no wand, apparition inside this building is impossible, and I have full use of my own magic. Resistance is futile and will only result in more punishments.

"Do you understand all of these? If I see the need, I will add more rules later. I am not an unreasonable man, of course, so I will only punish you for breaking a rule if you break it after I tell it to you. I do expect complete compliance. Now, as for the punishments that have already been set in place. You denied me pups for years, only for me to find out later that you can bear pups after all. I do not appreciate this, so from this day forward, every Monday you will be given a lashing for every month you failed to get pregnant. Now, we were mated for two years and three months, is that correct? Of course it is. Now, there are twelve months in a year, so that's twenty-four. Add the extra three and we have twenty-seven. That really isn't a great number though, so I think it fitting we add three more. One for mating another alpha, one for having his pup, and another for that revolting story you had published about me. Does a total of thirty sound fair to you?"

"No," Harry gritted out, still fighting the pain in his hand.

"Well, it's a good thing I don't care what you think because then it really would ruin my fun. Now, why don't we begin?"

When the lashing was finally over, Harry could feel the blood on his back. Nathaniel had taken Harry's shirt off before he started, and now he walked back to Harry with it in hand. Before giving it back to the omega, he took the opportunity to allow his hands to roam freely over Harry's bare torso. Harry felt sick as the disgusting hands touched his skin, but he found it impossible to move away. He was grateful when Nathaniel left him to put his shirt back on.

Roughly five minutes later, Ivy was brought to Harry. The four-year-old looked a little frightened, and Harry felt angry at Nathaniel. What had he done to his pup? Before he had the chance to demand answers, Nathaniel had closed the door behind him, leaving the two alone. "Daddy?" Ivy questioned.

"Hey sweetheart," Harry said, holding out his arms to her. She quickly went to him and snuggled against his chest.

"Who's the bad man outside?" she asked softly.

Harry felt a little relieved that at least his pup recognized the danger Nathaniel posed rather than believing the lies Nathaniel had surely told her, but he also worried about why. "He's someone Daddy used to know. He doesn't like me very much."

"That's no good reason to hurt you," said Ivy.

"What?" Harry asked. He had told himself he would be strong for his daughter, so she wouldn't get scared knowing her daddy was hurt.

"He told me he was gonna make you regret not being better earlier, and that means he was gonna hurt you," Ivy said sounding fearful.

Harry winced. Why did his daughter have to know about all of this? He would really have to be strong for her, perhaps more than he had originally thought. "Well, you're right about it not being a good reason," he agreed. "I'll be okay, though. It's not that bad."

"What did he do?" Ivy asked.

"Nothing much," Harry said, which technically wasn't a lie. He'd certainly experienced worse.

"Where's Papa?" asked Ivy.

"I don't know, sweetie."

"Are we gonna be okay?"

"Of course we are. Just wait and see."

When Sirius and Remus approached the apothecary early that afternoon to show Severus the photograph they'd found of the cabin, they passed a woman who was on her way out. "Don't bother," she told them. "The sign says 'open', I know, but there's no one in there. I tried calling out but I didn't get an answer."

"Thank you," Remus said before he and Sirius entered anyway. Something must have happened, they both knew. Without hesitating, the two went straight to the back room where they found a dazed-looking Severus sitting in a hard wooden chair that, up until this point, had largely gone unused.

"Severus, what's wrong?" Sirius asked. Remus noticed Severus was rubbing his left hand absentmindedly and feared what might have happened, but he waited for the man to answer Sirius.

"I heard from Harry this morning. He was in pain," Severus said in a detached voice. "I tried to calm him down, and I think it may have worked just a bit. Then he said 'help'. I asked 'where' and after a few minutes all he said was 'woods'. A few seconds later, his fear spiked and he said 'knife'. Then I felt our bond be severed, and my hand has been itching ever since. Our bond has been destroyed," Severus said in utter brokenness.

Sirius didn't know what to say to that. He could only imagine how Severus was feeling, and he knew all too well the pain Harry would be experiencing. Remus, however, seemed to know exactly what to do. He got a vial of potion from one of the shelves. Sirius recognized it as dittany. Taking a small rag, Remus applied some of the potion to Severus's hand. "It makes the itching go away," he said softly when Severus gave him an odd look. "You'll have to apply it for the next week," he added.

"Thank you, Remus," Severus murmured. Remus moved to put the supplies away, but Sirius stopped him, taking them from him.

Nodding his head in thanks to Sirius, Remus began to speak gently. "I know it's a bit different, but I do know a little of what you're feeling. When they took Sirius, I wasn't sure if I'd get him back again. I never realized they would break our bond, though – not until they did it. It devastated me to think about how alone it must have made him. I knew the itching was irritating to me, but I also knew the pain would be worse for him since he was the one who was actually stabbed in the back of the hand. Just the thought of it—" Remus stopped, his voice catching as tears hovered on the brink of sliding down his cheeks due to the combination of his own memories and his fears for Harry. "I don't know exactly what it's like in this specific situation, but I do have an understanding. You're not alone in this. We have your back, we have Harry's back, and you're both going to be okay. If you need anything, please tell us. Even if you feel foolish for asking for it, even if it is something as simple as reassurance, just ask."

"Thank you," Severus said again.

After waiting a respectable amount of time, Sirius said, "We did find something."

"What?" Severus asked expectantly.

"In the basement, there was evidence that Nathaniel stalked your family for years. Most of the photographs he had down there were useless, but we did find one that may be of some use." Sirius produced the picture of the cabin. "We don't know where it is, but there are trees in the background and Harry did say the word woods, so at least we have an idea of where we're looking."

"It's a start at least," Severus agreed, trying to be optimistic though he was frustrated that there wasn't more. He knew he couldn't let himself get down or he would start plumeting and then he would be no good for Harry and Ivy.

"We're not about to give up," Remus said.

"I think I know what we might do," Severus said. "It says 'home' on the back. There is a possibility he owns this under an alias, or perhaps he used to live there. Could you look into that?"

"We'll see if Ron can get the information," Sirius said. He checked the time. "We've still got several hours before dinnertime. Why don't we go ahead back to the Ministry to speak to Ron, and then let's all go eat a bite somewhere? I don't know about the two of you, but I certainly don't feel up to cooking right now."

"Agreed," said both Remus and Severus at the same time, though truly none of them knew if they could find it in themselves to eat.

When Ron saw The very drawn pair of Remus and Sirius enter his office again, he hoped they would have some new information. "Anything?" he asked them.

"Possibly," Sirius told him before explaining the scene they'd found in the basement and producing the picture of the cabin. "Can you look and see if Nathaniel owns any other properties, possibly even under an alias?"

"I wouldn't be able to find it if it's under an alias, but I can see if he owns properties other than the one he lives in," Ron said before going back to the newly installed drawers. "There aren't any other properties that he owns under the name Nathaniel Morgan, but I did find a list of all his previous residences. It seems he moved around a lot as a child. He's lived in four different cabin-type houses, all of which are abandoned now," Ron said.

"Are any of those close to any woods?" Remus asked.

"Yes, two of the four have woods nearby, but the other two are in empty fields."

"Can you give us the addresses for the ones near the woods?" Sirius asked.

"Of course," Ron said, handing them over. "Good luck."

Sirius, Remus, Ron, Hermione, and Severus all met at the house Severus shared with his family that night to compile their ideas. "We went to all the houses we could connect to Nathaniel that fit with the picture we found and with the fact that we know there are woods near to Harry, but we came up empty-handed," Sirius said dejectedly.

"Is there any way for us to determine if he has any aliases?" Hermione asked hopefully. Ron had caught her up on everything.

"Not unless we just start making guesses," Remus said.

"Suppose we made a more thorough search of the house, looking for any possible papers he might have with addressed written on them?" Sirius mused.

"As large as that house is?" Ron questioned.

"What else are we going to do? We don't have any other leads," Sirius said.

"Fair enough," Ron agreed. "So, is that our plan, now?" he asked.

"Unless anyone else can think of anything else?" Sirius asked.

Everyone else shook their heads. Hermione spoke up. "I can help search. I took off work for a few days so I could help you find Harry."

"Thank you, we can use all the help we can get," Remus said. "Now, why don't the two of you go on home and the three of us can meet at Nathaniel's house around 8:00 tomorrow morning, okay?"

"Sounds good," said Ron.

Remus and Sirius shared a look after the other two had departed. Severus had sat silently throughout the entire meeting. "Severus?" Sirius asked softly.

Severus finally looked up from his lap. He met Sirius's eyes briefly before looking slightly away. He seemed so much more broken than either Sirius or Remus had ever seen the man.

"Will you be alright in this house by yourself?" Sirius asked. "Our door is always open to you, if you'd rather spend the night in our home."

"Thank you for the offer, but I decline."

"Is there anything at all we can do to help you?" Remus asked.

Severus sighed. He knew that they were being sincere, and this couldn't be easy for them either. Their pup and grand-pup were missing. He just wanted them to leave him in peace, though. It was becoming a struggle not to lash out at them. "No, thank you," he said.

Sirius and Remus decided it was time they leave Severus in peace and were on their way to doing so when they heard an intake of breath from Severus, causing both of them to turn around. "What is it?" Sirius asked.

"Harry – if things go normally, his heat will start tomorrow," Severus said shakily.

Sirius and Remus shared a wide-eyed glance. Remus knew from experience that going through a heat without an alpha or… other instruments was misery. When experiencing a heat, an omega was rarely in his or her right mind and would be willing to do nearly anything just to have a knot. The fact that Harry would be in close proximity with Nathaniel during this heat caused a chill to run down the spine of everyone in the room. They had to get Harry out of there, pronto.

AN: I'm going to try to get the next chapter up soon, but school's getting crazy so no promises. Things should get better by the end of May. Favorites/Follows/Reviews are the best!