Harry had been shocked when Jeb had showed up right in front of him. He had been in a state of ‘what the hell’ when Jeb managed to disapparate on an island he had believed safe from this type of travel. Now he was just confused. Jeb had cruelly tied his hands together with rope over three hours ago and now he was tied to a pole in some friggin’ shack. All in all, he was literally quite bored with the situation, but in the back of his mind, the fear he felt was sitting idly, waiting to come forth in all its fury.

He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of his captor since he’d dumped him in this hell hole. His wrists were burning and he was pretty sure he could feel blood running down them as well. His hands were tied behind his back, secured tightly to the pole. He had tried many times, unsuccessfully apparently, to get out of his bonds, but no. Here he sat, waiting for psycho to come back.

To kill some time, he started daydreaming. He started to imagine how Severus had reacted when he suddenly disappeared. Or at least how he was hoping he had reacted. Harry hoped he was at least worried about him, and at the most looking for him, if only not to get killed by the headmaster when he died. That wasn’t the most pleasant thought to come up with, so he went in another direction. He wondered where his Professor was at that precise moment. Was he looking for him? Was he thinking up horrifying ways to wipe psycho off the face of the universe. What if he was thinking up horrifying things that Jeb could be doing to him? Would he care? And suddenly Harry thought that he would, just maybe, he would.

***************

Snape was pissed. He was beyond pissed, he was irate, and thinking up the most likely ways to kill that old bastard and still make it look like an accident.

“If he touches one hair on Harry’s head, I’ll rip his off and shove it up his ass.” he seethed to himself, since no one else was around. He was hurriedly making his way to Deliverance’s in hope she just might know where he was keeping Harry. She’d better know. He had to find out, and quickly. He was internally alarmed at how frightened he was about Harry’s safety, and what Jeb could possibly be doing to him. He started to realize he did care for Harry, even if he wouldn’t admit it to himself out loud, or to anyone else for that matter. But once he found Harry, he’d never let anything else happen to him. Even if he had to magically bind their wrists together. He’d never let that kid out of his sight again. Of course, a whole hell of a lot sight can do. Severus had watched Harry being ripped away from him and couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

“Stupid prick.” he said to himself, hoping to all that was good that he’d run into Jeb, the jerk, and rip him limb from limb.

He tried thinking of Harry to get his mind off of the prick, but all that did was make him madder at Jeb. A sudden image of Harry sitting by the creek just a few days ago, bruises littering his body, made him shudder. If he even found Harry in a similar state…he let the thought go.

Then he thought of Deliverance, and how he was going to kill her for sending them with ‘old, paranoid, and evil’ in the first place.

****************

Harry had taken to trying to get out of the ropes again, but decided it hurt to much to even put forth the effort. He was drained just by trying. He stopped short when he heard a door somewhere nearby open. He realized he was in a bedroom, but it wasn’t furnished at all, unless you called the pole a furnishing. He also had a few friendly spiders as company, but considering he kept stamping them with his foot if they came near him, he’d figured they’d learn by now. The damn things were just committing suicide. ‘Death by foot.’ he thought, and nearly laughed at loud. But stopped himself as the door to the room he was being held in opened, creaking very loudly.

The idly sitting fear of earlier came screaming to the forefront of his mind. He wanted nothing more than to become one with the pole, but didn’t think that was possible. If it were, he hoped it would come to him in the next two seconds. It didn’t.

“Hello there, youngin’.” sneered Jeb, stepping fully into the decrepit room. “Enjoyin’ you’re stay?” he asked.

‘Oh yeah,’ thought Harry, ‘it’s a regular Days Inn.’ Instead he replied, “What do you want?” as his brilliant comeback. Harry saw a black dog standing behind the man in the doorway, but with one movement, Jeb had kicked it, sending the poor thing whimpering into the next room.

Jeb smirked evilly. “Oh, to bring incredible torment to your person was what I had in mind. But we’ll see.” he said, laughing hysterically.

Harry briefly wondered if the man had read that line in a book somewhere, because he sure as hell didn’t think it was in his regular speech pattern. But when the words truly started to sink in, he shrunk away from his captor, and further into the pole. He wished he could will this freak away, he was a wizard, but didn’t think that amount of power was in his capacity to do, which was too bad, because he had to think of something. Continuing to stay in the hands of this psycho was definitely going to be a hazard to his health.

***************

Snape crossed the threshold of Deliverance’s yard and up the front stairs in record time. Perhaps breaking the front door’s window was a bit much, but he was in a state here.

He saw Del come into the living room with a look of great annoyance and an undertone of fear. He felt slightly bad for making her feel that last emotion, but then it faded when he remembered who had Harry. However, he felt even worse when a look of utter concern crossed her face when she saw who was at the front door.

“Severus?” she called, quickly crossing through the living room and into the front parlor, swinging the door open with such force he was surprised the glass didn’t spray her in the face. “What wrong? Where’s Harry?” she asked.

“You didn’t tell me that the guide was a lunatic, Del!” he yelled, unable to control his fear and anger.

“What?” she asked, clearly confused.

“Jeb, the guide, the one you sent us to, he’s crazy.” he said, trying out his calm voice. “He hurt Harry, had been hurting Harry, but I didn’t notice.” he admitted. “When I found out about it, I took care of him, or at least I thought I took care of him. He somehow got out of my trap and the damn bastard got Harry.” he sighed, wiping a hand across his eyes, as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders.

Severus looked up to see Deliverance staring at him, partially scared, and partially hurt. “Do you think I would have sent the two of you out with him if I had known he would hurt Harry?” she accused, tears springing to her eyes.

Severus guiltily eyed his cousin. “I didn’t mean it that way. Well, yeah I did, but now I don’t. I was just angry. I can’t believe I let this happen.” he seethed.

“Now, don’t you go blaming yourself for this. Don’t you go blaming anyone, unless you intend to blame Jeb Corwin, he’s the only one at fault here, and don’t you deny it.” she pressed.

“Corwin?” he asked. It was odd finally knowing the last name of the man he had only known as Jeb, or the guide, or as he was frequently thinking of him now, prick.

“Yes, that’s his name. Why don’t you come inside so we can discuss what we’re going to do.” she said, turning into the house.

“There’s not much to discuss.” he bluntly remarked. “I’m going to find him, get my boy, and kill Corwin.” he said with such certainty that he knew Del would know he was serious. He was surprised, however, to see a raised eyebrow and smirk adorning his cousin’s face.

“What?” he bit out.

“Your boy?” she asked, not hiding her laugh at all.

“What?” he asked again, confusion etched clearly on his face.

“You just said you were going to get your boy.” she told him.

He blanched, probably for the first time in his life, and was at a loss for words. “I did not.” he exclaimed.

“Why, yes, you did.” she stated. “You care for him, don’t deny it.”

Snape said nothing, but thought long and hard for about two seconds before he realized she was correct. He knew it was happening, but having someone else point it out to him, from his own slip of tongue no less, was a little disconcerting just the same.

“Can we discuss this later?” he spat, growing angry just because he could. “We have to find him. There’s no telling what that prick is doing to him.” his face grew pale, at least paler than usual, at the mere thought of it.

He saw the drastic change in demeanor from his cousin and knew she had gone into strategic thinking mode. Otherwise known as: Find Harry, Kill Jeb.

“Alright, just give me a moment. I need to think.” she said, and promptly went into the house, not stopping until she had reached her favorite chair. She sat in it and continued to ignore her cousin, thinking deeply.

Snape watched all this with slight amusement. It was quite funny to see, but the situation behind the actions weren’t. He waited with bated breath for Del to come to some kind of decision, or at least get an idea. She had always had great ideas.

It didn’t take long. Before he knew what she was doing, the much older woman was on her feet, flying upstairs. “I’ve an idea!” she yelled back, and Snape just grinned.

*************

He was beginning to realize that becoming one with the pole directly behind him wasn’t exactly an option. But, he had no where to go, and Jeb was growing steadily closer, with that weird gleam in his eyes, that he had grown to deeply dislike.

The closer Jeb got, the more panicked Harry became. He just didn’t know how to get out of this situation. ‘Where the hell is Snape?’ he asked himself, knowing he had no answer to this question. He just hoped he was on his way.

Jeb walked right up in front of Harry, towering over the standing boy. Harry flinched when the older man reached out a hand and quickly lowered it onto his shoulder, letting it rest there. His skin crawled at the small lingering touch. He desperately wished he would let him go. Then the man’s larger hand squeezed Harry’s small shoulder with such force Harry thought it might break, it hurt so much.

Harry couldn’t stand it any longer, and kicked out. Jeb howled in pain, jumping away from the boy, and clutching his shin.

‘Missed the groin.’ thought Harry, as he had tried to kick him there. Harry shied away from the recovered Jeb, as he descended down on him. But he had nowhere to go; he wasn’t quite prepared when Jeb backhanded him violently across his face. His head ricocheted off the pole and he found he could barely hold himself up anymore. He felt something trickling down from the corner of his mouth and knew he was bleeding. Harry slowly started to slide down the pole, no longer able to carry his own weight, and fell blissfully into unconsciousness. He wasn’t aware when Jeb’s hand came down on him again.

******************

Severus’ patience was steadily dwindling. He didn’t exactly know what Deliverance was doing, but he didn’t think it should take so damn long.

“Del, it’s been ten minutes!” he yelled. “What the hell are you doing?”

It was a moment before the sarcastic reply was thrown back at him from upstairs. “I’m break dancing, what do you think?” she yelled.

Severus took a moment to gather a mental image before he started laughing, despite the serious situation. Then he was back to business. “Seriously, what are you doing? We’re wasting time just standing here and doing nothing.” he yelled back, impatiently.

“Fine, fine, I’m coming.” she said and quickly descended the stairs.

“What’s that?” he asked, eyeing the rolled up parchment in her arms. “Is that what took you so long? You were looking for paper?” he asked scathingly.

“Yes, Severus, I stood upstairs all this time looking for paper. And I thought I’d write a quick story while I was at it. It’s a map you idiot.” she spat right back.

Severus started to retort but a firm “Shut it.” from Deliverance kept him quiet.

“It’s a map of the entire island. There are secret passageways and other nifty things around, and this includes all of them. It also includes every house and hidey hole as well. If I’m correct, and I do believe I am, our resident prick is hiding your Harry, “she couldn’t help but add that line, “in this small house.” she concluded.

“Small house? It’s a shed. It’s not even a shed, it’s a shack, if that.” the picture illustrated on the parchment, which looked to be hundreds of years old, was standing out on the paper, like a 3-D effect. He noticed that when Del put her finger on one specific area on the parchment, the area would then pop out at you. It wasn’t like the Marauders Map, which showed the location of any person on Hogwarts grounds, but it was useful, none the less. “And what makes you think Corwin has Harry at this specific location?” he asked, eyebrow raised.

“I’ve seen him lurking about there on numerous occasions, of course, he didn’t realize I was there, but I’ve seen him, and that’s good enough for me. It’s hidden, as the door is in the ground covered by leaves and twigs. But, I fairly well know where it is, and the map will help. Shall we?” she asked, gesturing towards the door.

“Let’s.” replied Severus.

They quickly left Del’s Bed and Breakfast, heading in the shack’s direction.

*****************

Harry dragged his eyes open, just to close them again. The light that was streaming through one of the windows was nearly unbearable. He tried sitting up, but hissed in pain, his head was killing him. Harry realized the cause of his distress was from Jeb, and that he must have done further damage after he had passed out, considering it was difficult to move.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Harry pulled himself into a semi-upright position, and looked around. He figured he hadn’t been unconscious for too long, maybe a few hours, since the shadows on the wall had only moved minimally. At this new position, he tried to look out the window for the first time, only to realize that there was nothing there except blank space. It was completely dark, only there was sunshine coming through.

“Crazy head must have some type of charm on the windows to make it look like sunlight.” he muttered to himself, trying not to think to much as it hurt like hell to do so.

The next thought that entered his pain ridden mind was that he must be underground if the need for a sunlight charm was on the windows.

‘Great.’ he thought, despairingly. He didn’t think Severus would ever be able to find him then.

Lowering his head to look down, he resigned himself to his fate. He’d just have to wait to be rescued, or psycho in the other room was going to kill him. And what great choices they were, too.

It wasn’t long before the door opened again, but only slightly. Harry cocked his head at the door, wondering what the man was doing. He was therefore completely surprised when a dog came waltzing in.

‘What the hell?’ he thought, but then he realized with a jolt that it was that crazy Rottweiler he had encountered the day he and Severus met their guide all those days ago. Then he remembered the black dog he had seen earlier when Jeb had come in. It must have been this dog.

Harry once again tried to back up, but ran into the stupid pole instead. He was beginning to hate the blasted thing.

“What do you want?” he asked, shakily. The only response he got was a growl from the ferocious dog.

“Nice doggy.” he said out of nowhere, and then questioned his own idiocy. ‘What are you thinking?’ he asked himself. “Go away!” he yelled, before questioning his sanity again. ‘Oh yeah, Harry, egg on the crazy dog, maybe you can get yourself torn to little doggy pieces before you’re rescued. That’s a great idea, you moron.’ he chastised himself.

The dog only came closer to Harry, making him wish he could disappear. He was terribly frightened of this dog. He knew he shouldn’t show fear, or at least his cousin had said that once when they ran into a mad dog walking home from school. And it had worked, the dog just ignored them and kept going, only to come chasing after Harry moments later when Dudley had yelled ‘Sick ‘em boy!’ at the damn dog. So, he decided to go with his obese cousin’s idea of showing no fear. The dog continued to come.

“What do you want?” he practically whispered, not wanting to make the dog attack. He watched nervously as it came and sat down right beside him, curled up and laid its head down on his lap.

‘This is really weird.’ he thought. Sitting extremely still, he refused to move. The thought had occurred to him that maybe Jeb had trained this dog to attack him when he least expected it. It could happen.

*****************

“Are you sure it’s here?” asked Severus, trying to reign in his annoyance at his cousin. “I don’t see any hidden door in the ground, here.”

Deliverance glared at him. “Of course it’s here. I wouldn’t have said ‘Stop, its right around here’ if it wasn’t right around here!” she said, exasperated. Their worry for the boy and the constant bickering were beginning to get to both of them.

“Fine.” spat Severus, continuing to kick the snow, dead leaves, and mud around beneath him.

“Well if you’d exert a little more effort, Severus, this would go a lot faster.” she hissed right back at him.

“Effort?!” he yelled. “What do you think I’ve been doing the whole time, sitting on my ass?”

“Yes, Severus, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” she said, her sarcasm was obvious.

“Don’t get lippy with me, woman!” he yelled, taking a step forward, only fall from Deliverance’s sight.

“Severus!” she screamed, worried at his sudden disappearance. “Are you alright?” she asked. Stepping forward, she carefully crept to the edge of the hole her cousin had fallen into.

“I’m fine.” he answered flatly. “And I think I’m in a room.” he added.

“We found it!” she said exuberantly. “I told you it was around here.”

“Yes, you did.” he said. His next words were denied him as a fist came flying out of nowhere. He narrowly missed it, and soon found himself in a fist fight of sorts. One he was obviously winning. He had the man pinned in about three moves.

“Deliverance, a little light please?” he asked, as there was barely any light in this room. As his cousin lit up the room with her wand, Severus descended on the man. “Where’s Harry?!” he spat, anger radiating off of him in waves. “Tell me, or I swear I will not hesitate in killing you.” To emphasize his point, he wrapped his hands around the prick’s neck. “Tell me, now!” he yelled.

“There.” gasped Corwin, pointing to a nearby door that was currently standing open a bit. He was dimly aware that that room was where the light was coming from.

“Good. Now, maybe I won’t kill you.” he said, not hiding his malicious intent. He thought he heard Del snickering somewhere behind him.

“Watch him, will you?” he asked, and not waiting for an answer he walked over the door, and gently pushed it aside. He wasn’t sure what he would find, but he hadn’t expected what he was seeing.

******************

After Harry’s lap had gone numb from the dog’s weight, he started petting it subconsciously. He didn’t have anything else to do. Harry was beginning to worry about what would happen if Jeb came back in here. He didn’t fancy getting smacked around again, as his head was still killing him. He thought if he saw the old man one more time, he’d puke. The mere thought of him at this point was just nauseating. He knew the man was crazy, but he was tired, scared, and plain sick of being tied to a pole. He wanted to go home. This thought brought him back to where exactly he would go if he got out of this. He realized that even Severus’ sounded good to him.

“Come on, Severus, come get me.” he muttered to himself. It was at this precise moment that he heard a suspicious thud from outside his door. The dog in his lap brought his head up and snarled. Harry hadn’t realized he’d been petting it until that moment, and did it again in an effort to calm it.

“Shh.” he said, and surprisingly, the dog laid its head back down in his lap.

The next instant it sounded like there was a small struggle going on, and then it was silent. He could hear voices, but they were muffled and he couldn’t make out what was being said.

“Please be Severus.” he thought to himself. He didn’t think he could handle it if it was one of Jeb’s psycho friends. Who knew what would happen then.

He began anxiously petting the dog, who had become quiet in his lap. He didn’t know if this was a good or bad thing. At once the voices stopped, and he heard someone walking towards his door. He stiffened immediately, and as he did so, the dog stood up, taking a defensive stance over the boy. Harry’s brow shot up in surprise. ‘You’re protecting me?’ he thought, amazed.

As the door came fully opened he thought he would jump for joy if it hadn’t been for the ropes keeping him tied down.

“Severus!”