Severus performed a quick ‘point me’ spell and wasted no time following it back downstairs. The wand led to the basement. Remus was right behind him.

The door banged off the wall as it was thrown open. The two of them had a hard time keeping their balance as they raced down the stairs. They could hear the others stumbling down behind them.

The lit torches on the wall illuminated bloody handprints along its length. A long swipe showed that Harry must have fallen at some point and not been able to get up. The long stain on the floor led them to right outside the bathroom.

Remus tried the handle; it was locked. He rattled it. “Harry, open this door.” There was no answer, but they had not been expecting any.

“Potter, we’re coming in.” Severus looked at Remus who held his wand in front of him and waited for confirmation before he said the spell.

“Alohamora.” The lock clicked and Remus slammed the door open. They could see Harry on his knees, fingers gripping the sink. Blood dripped down his wrists to splash onto the floor. An aura of power was surging around him and both of them were thrown violently back as they advanced towards him.

“Remus! Severus!”

The entourage had arrived.

“Don’t!” Remus called out as Arthur was about to go in. “You’ll just get thrown back and we don’t want to startle him too much.” He managed to slowly make it to his feet, holding a hand out for Severus who ignored it and stood up on his own.

“Then what do we do?” They exchanged glances before looking at Severus.

“Try and get his attention. I’m going to try and break through the shield. Be ready to help him.” Arthur and Remus nodded and started calling out to the boy. Severus’ grip tightened on his wand as he waited for the perfect moment to break the spell.

“Harry, listen to me. Come on, Harry.”

“We just want to help you. Look at us, Harry.” Slowly Harry’s grip tightened on the rim and his arms strained as he pulled himself to a standing position.

“That’s it Harry, come on.”

Harry slanted his head upwards a bit and lifted his eyes. He was staring straight at Severus who had a moment to steel himself before he found himself being assaulted by a dizzying myriad of images.

The Dark Lord reaching out to stroke his face…spells flashing back and forth… the white walls of the hospital wing…Hermione…Ron…Severus’ own face staring down at him…Remus…the dark tiles of the bathroom...

Glimpses of the last few weeks flashed before Severus’ mind as he was sent tumbling down further and further.

The spiral came to an end as the last minutes played themselves out. Severus saw Harry stumbling into the bathroom, slamming into the sink. His head lifted to stare at the mirror and though Severus was sure this was a memory, caught his eye for the second time.

“Help me.”

Severus was thrown back into his own mind. Remus was shaking him.

It was then that Severus noted that Harry had fallen to the floor. The aura of power that had been surrounding him was slowly disappearing. He lay on his back on the floor, his head lolling to the side. He let out a small moan and Severus snapped into action.

Severus quickly slid across the floor. Conjuring a pair of bandages, he wrapped them around the bloody wrists. As he finished tying the material tightly, Remus moved towards his head. He brushed the sweaty black hair off the pale forehead, rested a hand on his cheek and slowly called his name.

“Harry…come on, Harry…” He gave his shoulder a light shake, but it resulted in nothing but Harry’s head rolling to the other side. “Is he going to be all right?”

Severus reached out a blood-stained hand and placed two fingers against the pallid neck.

“I don’t know.” He looked over his shoulder at Arthur. “Has Albus been called?”

Arthur was about to answer him when the headmaster swooped into the bathroom. “I’m here. Poppy as well.” He took in the sight of Harry and conjured a stretcher. “Let us get him upstairs.”

Remus took hold of Harry’s shoulders; Arthur held his legs; and Severus kept his hold on Harry’s wrists, not trusting the makeshift bandages to stop the bleeding. Slowly and delicately the three of them managed to maneuver Harry onto the floating cot and out of the basement.

The moment they stepped out into the hallway they were bombarded by the other children.

“Oh no, what happened?”

“Did Harry try to kill himself?”

Arthur shoved them out of the way. “Harry’s not himself right now, you know that. Make room.”

Poppy headed towards them from the other direction. She hurriedly reached out copying Severus’ move from moments earlier, placing her fingers against Harry’s neck. His pulse was fast and weak, his skin cool and clammy.

“Bring him in here.” She moved towards the kitchen. Albus hovered the stretcher next to the table and Remus and Arthur once again grabbed hold of Harry and hoisted him onto the table where Poppy had swiftly banished whatever had been on it. Severus still held his wrists.

“Here, you don’t need to do that anymore.” She took one wrist at a time and healed the rough gashes before placing a temporary bandage over them. She bustled around hastily checking the boy over.

Severus had moved to the side near Albus while Remus had moved closer to the table. “He’s going to be all right?”

Poppy glanced up at him for a moment as she pulled potion vials out of the bag she had brought with her. “He’s in shock from the blood loss, but he should be alright after a few doses of the blood replenisher.”

Remus gently took hold of one of the bandaged hands and softly ran his fingers over the blood-stained knuckles. Poppy gave him a reassuring smile as she began to pour out dosages from the vials.

Arthur had gone to let the others know that Harry was going to be fine while Severus and Albus talked over to the side.

“I need you to tell me exactly what happened, Severus. As I understand it, you experienced something the others did not.”

Severus nodded. “I did.”

“Can you explain to me what you saw?”

Upon finishing his short account of what happened in the basement, Severus noticed in his peripheral vision that the boy on the table was beginning to become restless. Beside him, the headmaster was stroking his beard, deep in thought.

“What are you planning, Albus?”

The old wizard let out a sigh and crossed his arms. “I have been in contact with St. Mungo’s.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “You think that’s wise?”

“We have no choice. Regardless of the skills you and I possess, we cannot deal with this on our own. There are too many repercussions if something should go wrong.”

Poppy’s voice pulled Severus’ attention away from the headmaster and back over to the table. Potter had grown progressively more restless, and while he was not yet conscious, he was mumbling unintelligibly under his breath.

“I want to give him the potions while he is awake.” She was explaining to Remus as she leaned forwards. “Mr. Potter, can you hear me?” She reached out to give a gentle shake to the fidgety boy.

Immediately upon contact, his eyes flew open. Poppy stepped back and clapped a hand to her mouth stifling a gasp. Severus’ feet propelled him a few paces forward. Albus moved with him and when Potter turned to face them he felt him recoil sharply.

His eyes were red.

Sitting up, he slowly began inching his way off the table. A gust of cold air swept through the room. Remus glanced at the cabinets as they began to rattle.

Harry was heading towards the headmaster in a gait that was so unlike his own that Remus couldn’t help but call out to him.

“Harry?”

The headmaster shook his head. “No, Remus, it’s not Harry anymore.”

“Dumbledore…”

Albus stood his ground, holding his wand tightly in his hand. He aimed it at the boy as a low hiss emanated from Harry’s throat.

“Going to kill me, old man?”

“That’s what you want, isn’t it Tom, for me to kill Harry while you possess him?”

A dangerous snarl crossed Harry’s face. “Do not call me that.”

“I will not harm the boy.”

“I will not leave him.”

He was inching closer and closer. Remus could see Severus pull his wand out, and he swiftly did the same. Harry seemed to sense his anxiety and quickly spun to face him.

“Will you kill me, wolf?”

Remus gripped his wand tighter, not knowing what to do. A sneer flitted across the boy’s face at his hesitancy.

“He’s here, you know. I can hear him screaming; begging for someone to save him. He sounds quite like his mother.”

Without thinking, Remus lunged. There was a loud bang, and he felt himself being thrown across the room. He slammed into Severus, knocking them both to the floor.

Stars danced in front of Remus’ vision and through the haze he could see that pandemonium had erupted in the room. Pots and pans were flying about the room as power radiated from the center of the room where Harry stood.

Poppy and Albus were casting spells at Harry hoping to incapacitate him. He was easily deflecting them despite having no wand.

Remus started to scramble to his feet, but Severus pulled him back down. “We need to do something!” Remus whispered fervently.

Severus yanked him to the side, helping him to narrowly avoid a cauldron making contact with his head.

“Spells aren’t working. If you run at him now it’ll do no good. He’ll see you coming. If his concentration stays on them, we can get him from behind.”

“That’s your plan? Tackle him?” They both ducked as a knife went sailing over their heads.

“Not quite.” Severus reached up and grabbed the frying pan that followed it. Because of their position near the table, Severus was able to slip under it, and Remus lost sight of him with all the spells and utensils flying around.

Remus could see Albus falter slightly as one of the deflected spells hit him. Before any advantage could be taken of the headmaster’s moment of weakness, a noisy clang resonated through the room, and Harry crashed to the floor.

The potions master stood behind him, breathing heavily, the pan clutched tightly in both hands.

“Severus!” Poppy did not look pleased that her patient had just been smacked over the head by a frying pan.

“He did the right thing, Poppy.” Albus held her back when she would have run to Harry. “Not yet, he needs to be bound.”

Remus stood up as Albus aimed his wand and quickly muttered a binding spell. A golden rope of light settled itself over the bandages on Harry’s wrists and slowly dissolved. “What now?”

Albus glanced at him, then at Severus. “We will need his powers to be bound as well. Severus, I need you to prepare the potion.” He received a nod and Severus headed off. “It is not safe for him to be here with the other children. I want to bring him to Hogwarts.”