Harry woke when the water hit his face. The pain in his head as he spluttered and choked on the water nearly knocked him out again, but another bucketful hit him just as he started to slip back into oblivion.
“Wake up, Potter! We haven’t got all night you know!”
Harry tried to raise his head, but dizziness overwhelmed him, and he slumped back down. It felt like he was lying on the ground on his side and for some reason he could not move his arms.
“You hit him too many times, Draco,” said a voice to Harry’s left.
“SHUT UP!” screamed the first voice, “OR I’LL HIT YOU TOO.”
Harry again tried to lift his head, but only managed to roll it around a bit. A hand grabbed his hair and roughly pulled his head back, so that he was facing upwards. The pain was excruciating, but he did not pass out. His vision was too blurred to make out anything except the broad outline of a face a few inches from his own, and his mind refused to make the connection between what he had last seen and just heard.
“Come on, Potter. WAKE UP,” screamed the voice, and then somebody started slapping his face.
“It’s no good, Draco. You’ll just have to wait a bit more if you want him awake for it,” said a different voice.
“Just do it now,” said a third voice to Harry’s right.
Then it seemed all around him, voices started talking and shouting, arguing about something, but Harry could not follow what they were saying. The hand holding his hair abruptly let go and, since his hands were tied behind his back, he could do nothing to stop his head from making painful contact with the ground.
Harry concentrated, forcing his thoughts into focus. He had been knocked out, he knew that. The festival, then Dumbledore, then home. No, he didn’t make it home. The grey tombstone, Tom Riddles gravestone, and then Draco Malfoy hitting him! It all came back in a rush. Harry felt panic start to rise, and his stomach felt sick.
“Just shut up all of you!” yelled Malfoy above the other voices. Obediently the other voices disappeared. “This is MY plan and it is going to be done MY way. If any of you have a problem with that, you can leave RIGHT NOW.”
Harry strained to look around without lifting his head. Without his glasses, he could not see clearly, but he could make out three or four black robed figures standing in a rough semicircle around Malfoy. All of them seemed to be wearing hoods and masks, except for Draco, whose white hair stood out against the black robes and night sky like a beacon. There was light coming from torches standing on top of posts, but Harry could not make out any more about the figures.
“And what exactly is your plan, Draco?” came another voice from behind Harry.
Draco spun around and pointed his wand in the direction of the new voice. Two of the black robed figures drew their wands too, but a third stepped backwards, as if about to run.
“Well, well, well,” said Malfoy. “Can’t say I’m surprised to see you here. You always did have the knack of showing up at the last second to steal my glory. How have you been, Severus?”
Snape! thought Harry. Snape was here. He and Hermione were right; Snape had been alive all these years.
Harry tried to twist his head, but was unable to see anything more. Desperately he started pulling at the ropes holding his hands together.
“I have been well, Draco, and how have you been? Last I heard you were hiding in a sewer, I believe. Make any new friends?”
“If I had done, I could be sure they would have been more loyal than some of my previous friends,” spat Draco, not lowering his wand.
Harry thought he felt the ropes start to give way at his feeble tugging. He doubled his efforts without making it too obvious. If they kept talking and ignored him, he might be able to get a hand free. Without any idea where his wand was he was not sure how that helped, but it had to be better than just lying here and letting them do whatever it was they had planned.
“Speaking of which, I see you have brought a few old ones along. Hello, Goyle. Hello, Nott.” said Snape, walking past Draco to talk to the robed figures behind him.
Two of the figures shifted nervously, obviously unnerved by Snape seeing through their disguise. The third one took another step backwards away from the others.
“Where is Crabbe, Draco? Couldn’t you tear him away from his job? I hear he is quite enjoying his employment at Azkaban. Who would have thought it eh? Who could have imagined the son of a notorious Death Eater, and best friend of another, becoming an Azkaban guard?” Snape suddenly spun to face Malfoy.
“Of course, I always figured he would end up there, just not as a Ministry employee,” he added.
Harry could feel one of his hands starting to slip free of the rope. Whoever had tied him had done a poor job. A few more seconds and he would be free, although he still wasn’t sure what he would do then.
“Funny, Severus, very funny.” Malfoy hissed with sarcasm. “Is that how you found us? Did you turn your vaulted mind reading powers on him and find out where I would be?”
Snape hesitated a second before answering. Harry could not make out faces without his glasses, but he could have sworn Snape was looking past Malfoy and directly at him.
Quickly Harry tried to block his thoughts. He had never successfully kept Snape out of his mind before, and his lessons were more than decade ago, but he had thought about it many times. If he had been able to block his mind properly, many things may have worked out differently. Harry raised his head off the ground and then dropped it back as hard as he dared. Pain flooded his thoughts and threatened to sink him into darkness again.
“No, Draco, I had no need to resort to such methods,” continued Snape, after a moment’s hesitation. “I had a much better guide!”
Although Harry’s sight was even worse after the attempt to keep his thoughts hidden, he saw Snape raise his right arm and pull back the sleeve of his robe. Draco suddenly grabbed his own sleeve and pulled it back.
“What is it, Draco?” asked the robed figure standing furthest away.
“And who is your new friend, Draco? Aren’t you going to introduce me?” asked Snape, turning to look at the Death Eater who had asked the question.
Draco mumbled something and kept staring at his arm.
With Snape no longer watching him, Harry started trying to pull his hand free again.
“It is the Dark Mark, you ignorant young fool,” Snape told the Death Eater. “The Dark Lord burned into the flesh of all of his worthy followers a hidden symbol that would bind us to him, and to each other. When he summoned us, it would turn black.”
“But what does it mean now?” asked the third figure, undeterred by Snape’s implied insult.
“It means I will succeed,” said Draco quietly, still looking at his arm. “It is almost black, which means tonight, the Dark Lord will return.”
The Return by bajab
Chapter Notes: Thanks again to Perfect Imagination for the beta work.
- I don't know why, but breaks keep getting added to this chapter, messiung up the formatting. It's looks good in the preview, but when I save it all these breaks suddenly appear.