Chapter 15

All canon characters belong to JKR.

Thanks as always to June for her beta work.

Chapter 15

Severus just barely heard Lucius screaming, when he felt the pull of the Portkey take him away. 'Damn my stupidity!' he thought. He should have known better than to expect Lucius Malfoy to be reading Potions Weekly. Lucius loathed potions; he needed tutoring often while at Hogwarts, and he never liked getting his hands dirty. Lucius would no sooner have a magazine on potions as he would have a magazine on how to run a Fortune 500 company, which Lucius had several of in the Muggle world. How would they ever find him now, Severus wondered.

As he tried to clear his head, he looked around the room he was now in, and immediately began to formulate a plan. There were windows, although they were ten feet above his head. There was no furniture, nor was there a door. 'Plan indeed,' he thought sourly, then realized his wand was missing. He frantically began to look for it, thinking it must have fallen out of his robes, only to be frozen in his tracks by what happened next.

"Looking for this?" asked Bellatrix, as she now stepped out of the shadows. Severus looked to his left, and saw the image of a woman he had thought long gone from his life, and this world.

"Bella, how good of you to have me," he said as he looked around the room. "I can see your stay in Azkaban did not go to waste. I love what you have done with the place."

She snarled at him and raised her wand. "Crucio!" she shouted. "20 years, Severus! 20 years I sat in that cell, biding my time. The only thing keeping me sane was knowing I would some day get out, and kill you."

Bellatrix had caught him unaware, which was his second mistake today. Yet even though Severus was not prepared, he was able to resist her curse well enough. Lucius had informed him that she had been out of contact for several weeks ... no doubt recuperating her strength, which he now felt in her spell. Bellatrix pulled back and walked closer to him. Severus was leaning against the back wall of the room, his breath somewhat labored.

"Your thoughts of me were of no use in keeping your sanity intact. It is obvious you are the same insane bitch I knew 20 years ago," he said.

She pointed her wand at him and yelled out the curse once again. She had held him under for almost half an hour. When she relented Severus started to laugh.

"I assure you, I have withstood this curse from far more powerful wizards. This," his breathing was very labored, "is but an inconvenient itch." Bellatrix walked towards him slowly.

"I told you that I would come for you. I told you that you would pay for betraying our Lord," she smiled as she came closer. "But, before I kill you, Severus, I have a little surprise She took out a mirror; judging from Lucius' description, Severus guessed it was the same mirror she had shown Lucius the day before. As she held it up in front of Severus' face, he could see his son Raven huddled in a corner, holding Odette in his arms. He looked at Bellatrix and made to lunge at her, only to be stopped.

"Impedimenta!" she yelled, and began laughing hysterically. "Patience, Severus, patience. You shall see your brat in due time." She leaned into him and whispered in his ear, "You shall see me tear his heart out of his body with my bare hands." She then backed away from him and tapped a pattern on the wall next to her. As she walked through it, she released him from the spell.

Severus ran in her direction, only to be met with the hard surface of the wall. He leaned his head into the wall, and wondered how he would get himself and the children out of there alive, when he didn't even have his wand.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Back at the Malfoy Estate, Lucius had informed Harry along with the others what had happened. He had not warded his home after Rosmerta had left, since he felt no need. All of his loved ones were safe from Bella, or so he had thought. It had not occurred to him that the woman might come in and sabotage his own home. He should have known better. Lucius and Harry left Remus and the other's working on tracing the Portkey. It was Lucius' hope that Bella would have been too anxious to get Severus in her hands to cast a non-tracing spell on the Portkey.

It was now up to Lucius and Harry to inform Hermione that her husband had disappeared. They Apparated just outside the Hogwarts grounds and silently walked to the dungeons. When they reached the door to Severus and Hermione's rooms, they stopped and looked at each other. Neither wanted to go inside, both not wanting to tell Hermione that they had just lost Severus.

Harry knocked, then opened the door. As he and Lucius walked in, they saw Hermione sitting on the couch, with Osiris perched on one shoulder and Crookshanks curled on her lap. The three looked up, and immediately knew something had gone wrong.

"Lucius?" Hermione stood slowly. The unasked question lingered for several moments.

Lucius looked down and cleared his throat.

"Bella never showed up. It seems she placed a Portkey in my home and..." Lucius went no further, as he now saw Hermione on the verge of collapsing. He caught her as she swayed and eased her onto the couch. Harry was immediately by her side.

"Lucius, Severus is gone?" asked Osiris in disbelief.

Lucius looked at him and nodded. "I left the Aurors back at my home, although I doubt Bella will have left a trace of where Severus disappeared to." He bowed his head, knowing it was partly his fault, for not warding the grounds of his estate.

"We can't just sit here. We have to do something," insisted Crookshanks.

Harry turned to the cat and nodded his head. "We will, Crooks, but we have no idea where Severus is."

Hermione was fighting the nauseous feeling now coming over her. She needed to fight back the tears forming in her eyes; she needed to be calm. She looked at the two men, and squeezed their hands.

"I know how to find him," she stated firmly, then stood and walked to her cloak. She reached inside her pocket and pulled out the handkerchief Remus had charmed for her. She returned to the couch, sat between the two men, and splayed the cloth on the coffee table. She then tapped it with her wand, just as Remus had done. "Reveal, Severus Snape."

As she drew back her wand, the images slowly started appearing on the cloth. Curved lines, hills, caves, trees, all being drawn out as though by some invisible hand. As they watched the images form, Harry looked at her and smiled.

"You've been to see Remus." It was not a question, but a statement. Harry knew the only person who could have helped her create something such as this was Remus Lupin.

Hermione nodded, never letting her eyes leave the handkerchief in front of her, which was now forming the small image of her husband. She smiled as she noticed it was moving.

"There he is, and he's alive," Hermione exclaimed.

Lucius looked on in wonder, never before having seen anything like this. He had heard stories about the Marauders' Map, but knowing Harry had lost it several years ago, he never thought he would see anything even remotely similar.

"I know where he is. It is not far from my estate," Lucius shook his head. "She's been so close all this time." He stood and poured himself a drink, then turned to Harry. "We need to go now. I do not think she planned on contacting me right away. She most likely will have wanted to torture Severus on her own for a while."

"If you show up there now, she might get suspicious and think you've been working against her." stated Harry.

"I care very little of what she may think now. If I wait for her to contact me, who knows what condition Severus or the children will be in. No, Harry; we go now."

"We're going, too," Osiris and Crookshanks both said in unison, as Lucius made to leave. Harry and Lucius looked at them, as Hermione stood up.

"I don't think it would be a good idea, you two," she said.

"Oh, no, you don't," Osiris said as he flew onto her shoulder and flapped his wings wildly. "You aren't keeping me from this. Severus caged me up during the final battle and wouldn't allow me to help him. I am not just going to sit here and not try to help get him back," he looked towards Lucius and Harry. "Please, Crooks and I can help. You two will be too busy looking for the kids and Severus. We can watch out for anybody trying to get in, or maybe look out for Pettigrew."

Harry looked at Lucius. "Osiris is right. I don't want Pettigrew to escape either. If he turns into a rat again, he's going to be impossible to find."

Lucius looked at Osiris and Crookshanks. "All right, come along. We need to get hold of Draco as well. We can split up when we get there. Draco can look for the children and bring them back here." Lucius walked to Hermione, who was now standing in the middle of the room, wringing her hands and wiping the tears from her eyes. "Fear not, my dear. We will bring them all back." He kissed her hand and walked out. Harry smiled at her and nodded, then took hold of Crookshanks and Osiris and left.

Hermione sank down on the couch and turned to look into the fire.

"Please, please, bring them home safe."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The first time I posted this story I got a few people telling me that Hermione would never just stay behind while her husband and son were being held prisoner by some crazy woman.

Well why not? How would anyone know what she would do? It is my belief that the Hermione I have written about would. Yes her husband and son are in danger, but she still has a daughter to take care of. She can't take the chance of going and having her daughter lose possibly a father AND a mother. She knows that Lucius and Harry along with Draco can get them all back safe and sound.