The stench of the half-decomposed bodies nearly made Harry gag, even as he sighted on an inferi closest to him and cried, "Sectumsempra!"

Large gaping wounds appeared upon the inferi's torso and legs and the undead thing staggered, but quickly regained its equilibrium and came on, its face twisted into an awful parody of a smirk, eyes burning hellishly with rage.  Harry quickly conjured a Shield Charm just as the inferi swiped at him with one long clawed hand.

A few feet beyond, Severus cast a hex that made the floor into a puddle of goo, sticking some of the advancing zombie creatures to it and then he summoned lightning and blasted them into pieces.  Harry wished he knew more offensive spells like that.  Severus looked over at his ward and noticed the inferi attacking Harry was dripping a viscous green sludge from where the Sectumsempra had struck it. "Harry! Aim the spell at their legs and arms!" he shouted. "Cut them off and they won't be able to move for a time! It'll slow them down!"

There seemed to be over a hundred of the undead things in the orphanage with them, though Severus knew it was probably only half that number. Still, even that number would be enough to finish them if they didn't fight back mercilessly. Inferi were a dark wizard's guardian of choice for treasure troves because they did not need to sleep, eat, drink, or use the bathroom. And they would fight whatever came near them to the death.

"Got it, sir!" Harry called back, then stepped back until his back was touching the wall, dispelled his Shield, and then cast Sectumsempra again, this time aiming the spell at the inferi's legs and arms.  No sooner had he cast it, then the inferi howled and fell over, all of its limbs severed.  Harry grinned.  "Take that, you bastard cousin to a mummy! All right, who's next?"

Several of the creatures clawed and shoved each other, struggling to reach the defiant wizard, who stood fast, hitting an inferi with Sectumsempra over and over until he felt dizziness wash over him. Coughing, Harry summoned back his Shield and paused for breath while the inferi swarmed over their fallen companions, uncaring.  Mindless and filled with the rage and hate their creator had given them, they knew but one thing, that which they had been ordered to guard had been stolen and they must fight the intruders until either they or the wizards were slain.

Harry, safe for the moment behind his shield, observed in a sort of haze that more of the inferi were going after Severus than himself.  The Potions Master was fending off over half of the zombie creatures, his face a mask of intense concentration, making each blast from his wand count.  But even the veteran Snape could not keep them all at bay forever, and Harry wondered why the inferi were not swarming him too, especially because he was the weaker of their opponents. 

Then he caught a flash of a ruby light and a glint of gold and suddenly he had his answer.

The Dagger of Discord.  Severus held the dagger, so they went after him.  Scores of inferi were closing in on his mentor and a sudden desperate gambit occurred to Harry.  "SEVERUS!" he screamed, trying to be heard over the unearthly shrieks and wails of the undead.  "Throw the dagger to me!"

"Why?" he saw Snape mouth more than say.

"It'll draw the bloody zombies away for a time!" Harry yelled, he could feel his hands start to sweat inside his gloves.  "Do it! I'll catch it and transform and then you can blast the lot of them!"

Severus had only seconds with which to act, he knew he would be overrun by the fetid creatures soon if he did not cast Firestorm or some other heavy hitting combat magic.  He had held off until then because he did not want to risk Harry being caught in the effect, but he soon saw that there was sense in his apprentice's suggestion.  Snape flipped the dagger upright, then spun and threw it at the boy, praying Harry's Quidditch-honed reflexes would allow him to catch the bloody thing.

The dagger soared overhead like a glittering golden comet, then slapped into Harry's gloved palm a second later. 

The Gryffindor Seeker closed his hand about the cursed artifact quickly, he had caught it left-handed, but as he grasped it, the gloves made his grip slip and the side of the dagger touched his cheek briefly.

It was a fraction of an instant, but the cursed object needed no further urging.  Harry felt a twinge of pain, as if a bee had stung him, but he barely noticed, he was too relieved that he had caught the dagger and he quickly shoved the cursed knife into his robes and transformed into Freedom. 

The red-tailed hawk shot upwards towards the ceiling, shrieking defiance at the inferi, who immediately swarmed over the spot he had been standing in.  Kree-aarr! Severus! Hit them hard, sir!

Severus bared his teeth in a triumphant grin upon hearing Freedom's battle cry.  Now we shall see who is a match for whom.  Gathering all of his remaining energy, Severus cast Firestorm.  "Incendia tempest!"

The column of fire that roared down from the heavens was like a bolt of divine justice.  It slammed into the inferi with terrific force and set the lot of them ablaze.  Their unnatural flesh smoked and shriveled, burned and blackened, and they writhed and felt death claim them at last.

Severus however, remained untouched by the maelstrom that raged about him, since he had created Firestorm to do no harm to the caster, making the caster impervious to heat, smoke, and fire, for the duration of the spell.  Flames licked about his feet, but not a stray spark ever touched his robes.

The fire ravaged the inferi like a spark in dry grass, sweeping through their ranks without mercy.  Soon the first and second rank had fallen, burnt to cinders, and the stench was awful.  Clouds of smoke drifted up, nearly obscuring the Potions Master from view. 

Freedom had to narrow his amber eyes to see his mentor through the billowing black smoke, and he was grateful that a hawk had no sense of smell.  But then his eyes fell on something else, the battered and burnt potions case that had held the last vial of Curse Dissolving potion.  The case was burnt almost to dust and the vial had cracked and the precious potion had dribbled out onto the floor, irretrievably lost.

No! Oh no! Bloody damn hell! Freedom screeched in horror.  Without the potion, how can we destroy the dagger?

Severus glanced up, saw Freedom hovering, then transformed himself into Warrior and flew up to join the smaller hawk.  Get clear of here, fledgling! This whole place is about to go up!

Unlike the time at Gaunt House, Freedom did not bother arguing, he obeyed without question.  The red-tail turned and flew hell for leather out of the inferno that had once been Wool's Orphanage. A red and brown streak emerged from the stairwell and flew straight out one of the ground windows, barely escaping a nicked wing from a jagged windowpane. 

Warrior was right on his tail, he closed his wings and squeezed through the hole in the window, opening them just in time to avoid crashing into the ground and flying about three wingbeats away before transforming into Severus. 

No sooner had the professor's boots touched the ground, Snape had his wand pointed at the orphanage and quickly chanted the cancellation of the Firestorm, knowing that all the inferii had been roasted like weevils in an oven. As the flames died, he could hear the wail of sirens in the distance and knew the Muggle law enforcement would be coming to investigate. 

"Freedom, change back and let me have the dagger!" Severus called, he did not want the ancient object in Harry's possession any longer than necessary. 

Freedom circled, strangely reluctant to obey his wizard, but then his common sense reasserted itself and he landed and shifted back.  Wiping his streaming eyes on his sleeve, Harry gasped, "Sev! You all right?"

"Fine, thanks to your quick thinking.  Now let me have the dagger.  Where's the potion?"

Harry reluctantly handed over the dagger, he felt oddly possessive of the object, though he couldn't fathom why.  "Uh, Severus, I've got bad news.  The one vial I had spilled when the inferi came out and I threw myself on the ground.  Then I couldn't get to the case with the other one and the inferi surrounded me.  When you torched the place, you burned up the other vial."

Severus swore profusely, then shook his head.  "Bloody damn bad luck."

Harry hung his head, feeling like it was somehow his fault. "Sorry, sir."

"Apologies won't help," Severus snapped, feeling exhaustion settle about him like an icy mantle.  "What's done is done.  We must try and reach Hogwarts so I can make more of the potion, all my ingredients are there." He quickly swathed the dagger in a piece of cloth ripped from his cloak and stuck it deep inside his pack, resisting the whispering voice that called for him to use it.  He shoved the seductive murmur away and Occluded firmly.

He was just about to tell Harry to Occlude as well when they heard the eerie howl of a hunting wolf close by.

Harry froze, he knew all too well what that howl meant.  "They've found us again, Sev!"

"I know. Look there!" Severus pointed, and Harry saw several shadowy shapes prowling outside the iron gate. 

Their eyes shown demonic red and their misshapen bodies sent a shiver through the young Animagus.  One of them flung itself against the gate, its muzzle worrying the iron bars, howling and snarling. 

"Transform, Harry!" Severus ordered.  "We must fly fast and hard."

Harry obeyed, and within moments, two hawks were flying away from the orphanage, and the lead werewolf let out a great howl of dismay and turned to pursue the birds across Cheapside. 

Hedwig, who had been napping upon a lamppost nearby, woke at the terrible cry of the werewolf and joined the hawks as they flew by.  So they have struck our trail again, the bloody nuisances! She hooted.  Was your mission a success?

Warrior gave an affirmative screech, then concentrated on his flying, for hawks did not have an owl's night vision, and it had become dusk while they had been searching the orphanage and battling the undead. 

Instinct drove him to seek a more lighted area of the city, but Warrior refused to endanger innocents by leading werewolves in a frenzy to them, and so he turned away from the bright welcoming lights and flew towards the outskirts of the city.

Freedom matched his mentor wingbeat for wingbeat, quivering slightly every time he heard the spine chilling cry of the hunting werewolf.  He was careful to stay near Warrior and Hedwig, who showed up against the darkening sky like a white ghost.  

None of the avians spoke, each of them was too busy trying to fly as quickly as they could away from the werewolves who dogged their tail feathers.  They flew away from London proper and to the north and west, seeking a place with plenty of trees and cover so they could rest. 

Unfortunately, the commercialism of the present day era had left very little trees and such around and so they had to fly for over an hour before they came to a scrubby excuse for a wood near a tiny stream.  Both hawks were exhausted and their wings were like lead, but Hedwig declared that this was as good as a cover as they could find this close to city limits.  They could no longer hear the werewolves and supposed they had shaken the mangy beasts for now.

Once he had changed back, Harry felt his legs fold up beneath him and he would have landed hard on his bum if Severus hadn't caught him. 

"Easy there, fledgling.  Last thing you need is to get a bruised posterior on top of your other cuts and exhaustion." Severus eased Harry down to a sitting position.

"Huh? What did you say?" muttered the other, he felt half-asleep, and dizzy.

"Never mind. Rest now." Severus soothed, kneeling down and removing his potions kit from his pack.  He took out a clean cloth and began washing his apprentice's soot-blackened face and neck, which had a few small cuts from splinters on it. After anointing the cuts with some salve he gave Harry a Calming Draught mixed in some cool water in a cup.

"How do you feel?"

"Tired.  And . . .odd," Harry replied.  "Where's the dagger?" For some reason, he longed to hold the dagger again.  Take me. Use me.  And I shall make you master of all you desire.  He blinked and shook his head, he felt all muddled and weary.

"Here," Severus patted his pack.  "Don't worry, I shall hold onto it until we reach the school."

"I can carry it some of the time," protested Harry, a slight whine creeping into his voice.

Severus ignored it.  "No. It's best if you do not, young one.  The dagger is very powerful, it lives to corrupt young souls like yours.  It will have a harder time with me." Severus chuckled grimly.

"But Sev-"

"No, Mr. Potter, and that is final. Finish your water and get some sleep." Snape began, then thought better of it, and took out a slightly smushed ham and cheese sandwich and gave it to Harry. "Eat that, you need to replace the energy you burned up casting.  Then go to sleep."

Harry took the sandwich, staring at it as if it were cow dung.  "I'm not hungry."

"Eat anyway," his mentor ordered implacably. He took out another sandwich, this one was chicken with pickles and lettuce and forced himself to eat it as well.

Harry took a nibble and as soon as he had tasted the sandwich, found he was ravenous. He devoured the sandwich and the Potions Master wordlessly handed him another.

When they had eaten their fill, Severus again told Harry to sleep.

"But what about you? Aren't you going to sleep?"

"Don't worry about what I will be doing, Harry." Severus began abruptly, then halted at the crestfallen look the boy sent his way.  He is only concerned over your welfare, Severus, his conscience rebuked.  "I will sleep when I have cast a few wards and concealment charms over the dagger."

"How can you have anything left after all that battle magic?" Harry groaned.

"I did not use all of my reserves, the way you have done," answered the professor. "And I am older, my reservoir of magical energy is larger and deeper than yours right now."

"I don't get it."

"You are too tired for me to give you a lesson on how a wizard stores power, fledgling.  I shall explain tomorrow when your brain is functioning again. Now, Occlude your mind, Harry James Potter, and go to sleep."

Harry closed his eyes and began to do the meditative breathing and find his center. He was strangely distracted, thoughts of the dagger kept intruding upon his thoughts, bringing with it a sharp longing. He pushed those thoughts away and started to concentrate on breathing. 

Severus watched for a moment, then slipped the wrapped Dagger of Discord from his pack and began casting several concealment charms about it, for the dagger had a history of summoning unsavory characters to it, and Severus wanted no more battles this night.  He finished and thrust the dagger back inside his pack.

He had just enough energy left to cast warning wards about the small clearing before dragging out his bedroll and falling down upon it.  "Hedwig, please keep watch," he called to the snowy owl, who was perched overhead.

She hooted back an affirmative.

Severus curled up on his blanket, weariness hitting him with the force of a sledgehammer.  He looked over at Harry, who had finished Occluding and was now asleep upon his bedroll.  Good.  At least he is protected from the dagger's influence, the Potions Master thought just before falling asleep.

Little did he know that while Occluding kept Harry safe from any outside influences trying to get inside his mind, it could not protect the Animagus from something that was already within him.