A Pale Shadow

Harry could feel his hope rising for the first time since he had entered the room that contained so much death and pain. Gently placing the body, the dark voice spoke again, \"She died well considering all that happened to her but then she was always one of the brightest in her class. Personally I thought she had died two days ago, until last night when three of those butchers were near her and she gave them a message.\" There was a dry chuckle from the shadows before the speaker continued, \"She told them that you were coming and with the last of her strength took them with her.\"

Harry brushed the tangle bushy brown hair with tears in his eyes and moved towards the shadow only to find himself laying flat on his back. An angry hiss sounded this time, \"No, i will not fall for this, you are not Harry. He died during the last battle, he died.\"

Harry again went to his knees, tears falling down his face, “No I am not dead, I was in a coma but I did not die Severus. It is really me I am here to take you out of this place.”

“Lair,” The other man spit out as he moved further out of the shadow enough to be seen clearly. His hair, tangled and matted to the side of his thin face, making the angles stand out even more. Dark eyes that were always a mystery that seemed to beg to be found out, now held madness in their dark pools and his lips were curled in a snarl, “I don’t know who you are but Harry is gone from me, he wouldn’t have left me here. He wouldn’t have stopped loving me.”

“And I haven’t Severus.” Harry said as he let the tears fall down his face, “I came as soon as I could after I woke up to free you and the others. The only thing that kept me from going insane was the hope that I would get to see you again, to take you from here and bring you home with me.”

The man tilted his head as if judging what Harry was telling him and then smiled, “\"That is what you have told me before and it was a lie, so it is now. So what torture do you have in mind this time, going to beat me, burn me or maybe this time you will just go for the rape, hmm Fudge?\" Snape\'s face became confused as he noted the pain in Harry\'s eyes and then whispered, \"Alright if you are him then tell me where did we first kiss?\"

Harry smiled despite the overwhelming pain and hopelessness that he was feeling, “That is easy; we first kissed in all places, Albus’s study when he went to get tea. As I remember by the time he got back I was sitting on your lap, which you dumped me out of by the way when he walked back in. I remember he laughed and offered us not lemon drops but valentine hearts that muggles like.”

Snape crawled out as far as the shackles would allow him and looked into Harry’s eyes, “How do I know that you just didn’t take that from his memories?”

“You don’t I guess but here I think I can show you that I am your Harry.” Harry crawled forward just enough to press his lips against Snape’s dry, cracked lips and kissed him.

Severus broke the kiss by sobbing and Harry took that time to free him from his chains as well as wrapping his cloak around the man’s frail body. Whispering to him, he lifted Severus onto his feet and out of the room as others came pouring in to help.

Draco finally managed walk over to Harry as soon as he saw Snape in his arms and it took all of his Malfoy training not break into tears. The man looked nothing like he once did, his gracefully stride was broken and Draco could tell that Severus had lost weight he could ill afford to. Anguish touched him as he saw Severus look wildly at him and Draco spoke softly as Severus would when Draco was little and had a nightmare, \"Shh it\'s me, Draco your favourite little snake, let Harry and I take you somewhere to get some healing.\"

Snape shook his head wildly, \"Please no, I can\'t...no one must know, must not touch.\"

Draco raised his wand and placed Severus into a sleep before helping Harry, \"So who did this piece of work?\"

\"Fudge had a hand in it and they used me against him.\" Harry said trying hard not to get angry again, \"Did you find who you were looking for?\"

\"Yes a few healing spells kept McNair from dying.\" Draco said with a smirk and laughed as he saw Harry\'s questioning look, \"What you are surprised that Fudge pardon him? He is good at his job and he likes doing it, so he doesn\'t need paid.\"

\"After I know that he is alright and you get some information, i think that we need to say hello to our dear Prime Minister, don\'t you agree?\" Harry said with a flat voice that said it wouldn’t be a social call.

Draco nodded as well as a cold smile touched his face, \"I think we should do it at the Malfoy Manor, I know of a room that no one else knows of. Father so did love hearing people scream but not all the time.\"

Harry looked at the blond with some fear and then shook his head, \"I should be surprised but I am not and once again I find myself happy that your father and you switched to our side before I found out about that room.\"

Draco chuckled as the med wizards took Snape from them and pushed Harry after them, \"I am sure you are but you know we never really did hate you. Not that i wouldn\'t have minded seeing you tied up.\"

\"Prat.\" Harry shot back as he followed the one that he loved and began to pray to whoever would listen that Severus would live. He knew that it was going to be a hard battle to see the man return to something normal but he would stand by Severus no matter what, \"I will be here because I know that you would never leave me, just like you did when I nearly lost it because of Sirius\'s death. You were the only one besides Ron and Hermoine that didn\'t give up on me.\"

AN: Thanks to all that have reviewed it means alot to me to know that you are enjoying the story. I am sorry this is so short but I will make up for it, after all I have Fudge to torture and two damaged heros to put back together, well sort of back together.