The Weasley's had stayed the night and fussed over Ginny in the Hospital Wing (where she stayed to avoid questions from other students while her parents were there) and then left the next morning to speak to a lawyer about taking Ginny out of school after she was 17.

Ron gave Harry a good kick as he passed the moment after his parents left and he and Ginny had gone to sit together at a table in the common room.

"He's taking it harder than my parents," Ginny said.

Harry nodded. "We can't let them take us apart. We've got to stick together. As soon as you're 17 I'll come and get you."

"What about the lawyer?"

"My dad says he doesn't think they can do that, even though there will be a baby involved because you'll be a legal adult."

"Good. I want to finish school here. And with you close by in Hogsmead taking care of the baby we can visit every day... maybe I can stay with you on the weekends or you can stay here in guest quarters with us!"

"Now there's a good idea," Harry said, trying to make her smile, but not smiling himself.

"Things will be ok, won't they?"

Harry nodded. "Of course they will. We were already going to get married... this just hurried things along a bit."

"I'm glad your father isn't as mad about this as my mum and dad."

"He is I think," Harry said, wrapping his arms tighter around her. "He's just more understanding about it."

"I guess he'll be my father in law then, after we're married. That's a good thing."

Harry nodded. "I don't think he's ready to be a grandpa yet."

"I don't think I'm ready to be a mother yet."

Harry sighed. "Guess that's just going to have to speed along too. I'm going into Hogsmead tomorrow to look for a job since it's a Hogsmead weekend."

"Mum has taken my permission form back so I can't go. She insisted I stay in the girls dorm too except for classes and dinner, but I won't do that."

"I won't have any fun without you," Harry said, "Promise."

"Oh, I'll try not to be too disappointed about not dropping applications around different businesses."

Harry smiled. "I'll find something, I just know it."

* * *

Harry headed out bright and early Saturday morning, the first of the students to leave the castle by special permission of his father.

He had already spoken to three shop owners and a seamstress by the time he spied any other students mulling about the small wizarding village. By noon his options for working close to Hogwarts weren't looking very promising because nobody needed help during the summer.

A small coffee shop he hadn't been into yet had just caught his eye when Harry felt somebody grab his arm and the world went black.

Suddenly in a different place Harry landed hard on his feet and spun to find an ugly man with several large moles on his face staring down at him in a toothy grin.

"Oh he'll be pleased to see you Potter, just pleased as can be."

Harry tried to grab for his wand but suddenly found himself forced down to the ground and being bound by ropes that tightened so hard around his chest that he felt his vision going black.

"No!" Harry struggled but the ropes only got tighter as the man laughed.

"Pleased with me he'll be, pleased as can be," he chanted in a demented rhyme, his voice rasping happily.

Harry tried to get a bearing on where he was but only saw dusty old boxes and cobwebs hanging off a high ceiling. He could have been anywhere, but a warehouse was his best guess.

"Can't have you escaping while I'm out now can we?" the man said stooping down to look into Harry's terrified and angry eyes.

He grinned and then Harry knew only blackness as he was hit over the head with something heavy and hard.

* * *

Ginny's hands ached from wringing them together repeatedly. Her eyes glazed over as her parents talked at her and as her brother said something about Harry having run off, afraid of responsibility. He had been gone all day and all night without a word, and she knew it in her bones that it wasn't by his own will.

"The town has been combed four times," Mr. Weasley said, having helped in the search himself. "I doubt he's anywhere nearby... probably all the way across the pond by now."

"Have they checked the long distance floo yet?" Ron asked, sure that his father was right, and that Harry had indeed run off, leaving his sister desolate and in an awful situation.

"Yes, and they found-"

"No sign of him." Ginny suddenly looked up, eyes not glazed anymore, and her family was startled that she had spoken at all.

"Yes, no sign," Mr. Weasley said. "How did you know?"

"Because Harry loves me, and he wouldn't leave me like this. We were already planning on getting married as soon as we were allowed, with our without the baby. A baby doesn't change our feelings for each other."

"It changes his life Ginny," Ron said, suddenly aware of the pressure Harry must have been feeling for the last week.

"Change isn't always bad, and I wish the three of you would see that. I can't believe how you've turned on him! You said you loved him like a son once, and now that he's about to actually become part of this family, and be a son to you, you hate him, as if this is all his fault! He's out there hurt or dying, or captured, and all you can do is bad mouth him and act as if he's at fault. And if that's how we treat people, family or not, I don't think I really want to be part of this family any more. If this is the way you'll act for the rest of my life, then you won't see me or my husband or son after I'm 17."

Ginny got up and left the guest quarters her parents had been staying in, angry at them and angry at herself for having let them just sit there and talk about Harry like that. He wasn't a monster, he was a loving man... hers to be more exact.

She was just about to take a seat on the stairs leading down to the second floor when Professor Snape came running around the corner, hair disheveled and looking panicked. He spotted Ginny and came straight over to her.

"What is it?" she asked, knowing by the look on his face that it wasn't going to be good news.

"He's been captured. The dark lord has called a meeting and I must leave immediately. Are your parents still in their rooms?"

She nodded, her heart pounding furiously as she did, wondering if she would ever see Harry alive again. He made to move past her, but then stopped and put his hand on her shoulder and said, "I'm sorry," before hurrying off.

This time Ginny did allow herself to sink down to the floor there in the center of the corridor, and determined herself not to move until Harry was back safely in her arms.

* * *

Harry lay there on the dirty, wet cell floor, weak blue light filtering in from someplace he couldn't decide. He didn't know how long it had been since he'd been captured there in the alley in Hogsmead. It could have been days or weeks, or only hours; he just couldn't be sure. He had been under the Crucio so many times already that it seemed to him that he'd been there for years.

There was a dirty taste in his mouth, and he wanted to spit to get it out, but couldn't make enough spit to do it. He hadn't had any water in a very long time and his mouth was dry and his lips were cracked. A door slamming closed in the distance made him shudder. Was that them, coming back for him yet again? After he didn't hear any footsteps he relaxed just a little. Just so long as it wasn't Beallatrix... it was always worse when she preformed the curse... it always made him feel so oily and dirty afterwards. It was strange to believe that every Crucio cast felt different, depending on the caster. Wormtail's Cruicio was softer than the rest, and didn't drain him as much, and Lucius Malfoy's cast of the same curse made him feel cold and hopeless. But Bealltrix... it was like she was dipping him in a vat of hot dirty oil and drowning him until he couldn't breath. He always passed out when she cursed him, and always woke up in the dank, dirty cell again.

Harry eyed the small amount of water pooled on the floor and wondered how safe it was to drink. Maybe they had poisoned it? Or maybe it wasn't water at all? He didn't know, but he was so thirsty that he had to drink it or die. Harry pulled himself across the floor weakly, unable to stand, and allowed himself to suck up the half inch of water that rested there. It was brackish, but he was able to keep it down, and hoped that there would be more of it there the next time they dumped him back in this cold cell.

He imagined that he was someplace miles underground, in some hidden, secret fortress of Voldemort's. He had no idea who the man who had taken him was, but it was obviously a death eater or someone who wanted to be in Voldemort's good graces... if there was such a thing with this man... this monster, he corrected himself. Three times Voldemort had tried to get into Harry's head, and three times Harry had fended him off successfully, not wishing him to know that Severus was his father, or that Ginny was his wife to be with a child on the way. Each time Voldemort had grown angrier and allowed his death eaters to hold Harry under their curses longer. The cursing sessions always started with Wormtail and worked their way up to Bellatrix. Today would be different however, as Harry soon found out.

The door to the dank cells slammed open and Crabbe Jr. and Senior appeared, as big as ever, Crabbe Senior's toothy grin making Harry feel nauseous.

"Seems you've been invited to dinner Potter," the younger Crabbe spat as his father unlocked the door and yanked Harry to his feet.

"Master wants you to look good for your first appearance at the table," Crabbe Senior said in a thick voice just before he shoved Harry to the ground and proceeded to rub Harry's face across the hard concrete floor. Harry's classmate laughed as he watched from the cell door.

"Missed a spot dad," he called. "I think he needs some bruises to go with it." His father stepped back and Crabbe Jr. came in and kicked Harry in the chest and face until he couldn't breath anymore.

"Master doesn't seem to think you're feeling enough pain when they give you the Crucio. So we've come to make it a little worse for you. The more injuries you have, the worse the curse will be." Harry heard one of his ribs break as the elder Crabbe kicked him hard, and he couldn't seem to recover the air in his lungs for a long time after that.

"Are you going to kill me tonight?" Harry asked, wondering if he'd ever see the birth of his child.

"Don't get so anxious Potter," Crabbe said, although he couldn't tell which one it was. "You've got to be trained as the Dark Lord's new pet first. Then when he gets tired of you he'll do as he pleases."

Harry struggled as a dog collar was roughly jammed around his neck and tightened and then allowed himself to be dragged from the cell and up the many flights of stairs. He hadn't yet been this far above the cell, and the higher they went the nicer the rooms... or the mansion seemed to become. Allowing his body to go so lax so that the two fat men having to carry him had to struggle to get him up the stairs, allowed him some amount of satisfaction, as well as time to conserve energy.

"Better behave yourself pet," Lucius Malfoy said as Harry was dragged past and into a grand dining room with a tall ceiling painted with a grand mural. Harry caught glimpses of many gold things in the room, including high gold backed chairs as he was lifted to stand on the long dining room table, and then lifted by magic into a golden bird cage just his size hanging over the very center. The door was slammed shut by magic and locked tight.

Harry felt even more cramped in this cage than in the tiny one eight floors below. This one didn't even allow him to sit up all the way, although it gave him plenty of room to spread out sideways if he curled up a little. Just like a pet curled up on its side by a fire, he thought to himself, hating the idea of belonging to someone else.

Out of habit he looked at the wrist his watch was usually attached to, but couldn't tell the time because they'd taken the watch the moment he'd arrived there. Just another form of taking control of his life away from him, he thought.

After what had to have been an hour, servants began to bring food into the dining room and placing it on the table directly below Harry. The smells wafted up to him and he gave a begging look to one of the servants, but only got a sneer in return.

Once the food had all been placed, various death eaters began to filter in. Mostly the ones he already knew like the Malfoys and others who had been there torturing him, but also death eaters that he had never seen before, or whom he hadn't known were death eaters. Stan Shunpike from the Knight bus was there, looking very pleased with the spread of food before him, as well as Fortescue from the ice cream shop on Diagonalley, although when he caught sight of Harry in the cage, clothes torn and dirty face, he looked away with disgust and guilt.

"His last pet was a Muggle Potter... didn't last for more than a day before he keeled over and died... how long will you last?" Harry glared over at the woman speaking to him... it was Bellatrix, and he tried to fight off the dirty feeling that he had come to associate with her presence.

"Depends on how long he obeys." Harry's head snapped up at a familiar voice, and his heart leaped and fell at the same time seeing his father there. Was he there to help? Would he also be made to torture Harry?

Bellatrix sneered and said, "Yes, unfortunately you were invited to this affair, weren't you?"

"I come when called upon," Severus said with an air of distaste in his mouth. "Perhaps you are only jealous because your given seat isn't right next to our Master's."

Their master? Harry tried to tell himself that Severus was his father and not a servant of Voldemort... a spy for Dumbledore, but his tired, hungry mind was confused and he wasn't sure what to think anymore.

The larger door at the end of the long dining room opened once again and this time every other person there hit their knees, heads bowed as Voldemort entered, looking smug and pleased with himself.

"Rise faithful servants, I am well pleased with you. Come and sit at my table and take part in the glory of me."

Harry frowned. Part of what he had said sounded familiar... had he been quoting scripture? Harry had read the Bible since he was a child... it was the only book the Dursley's had that they didn't read, and so they didn't notice when Harry had snuck it into his room from their bookshelf and poured over it's pages when he was locked inside his tiny cupboard. Even that morning when he had once again found himself in the cell, he had prayed for strength and escape.

Suddenly Harry was surprised that everyone around him was seated and eating, because he hadn't been paying attention. He had been lost in thought and he was sure his eyes must have been glazed over.

"My lord, your new pet is so... exotic. What have you named him?" Harry watched as a scrawny death eater sitting near him gnawed at a chicken leg and waited for Voldemort to answer.

"I have not decided yet. Since he is the new... family pet, I will take suggestions."

The others seated around him seemed gleeful. "I say we call him scruffy... looks like a mutt to me... good thing you saved him my lord."

The others laughed and Voldemort tipped his head, as if he was just that generous kind of a person to save a mutt off the streets.

"What about scoundrel?"

"Maybe scrawny!"

"How about Spike? See how his hair sticks up all spiky like when it's dirty?"

Voldemort held up his hand to stop the suggestions. "Spike then... a good name for a dog of this breed." He looked up and caught Harry staring at Snape next to him, and then laughed and said, "Yes of course you would be surprised to see your previous owner here Spike... he was so good at concealing his loyalty to me. Even now the Headmaster of your previous kennel believes he is here spying for him."

Harry couldn't help the wounded look from splaying across his face, and Snape turned away.

"Are you hungry Spike? I don't give food to those who don't earn it. These around me have earned their keep, what about you? What will you do for sustenance? Will you beg?"

Angry at being treated this way Harry thought of spitting through the bars at those sitting nearest him, but suddenly his father's words came to mind about his survival depending on whether or not he obeyed. Let the monster think he was being trained, he told himself, he would kill him when the time came.

"Please, can I have some food?" Harry asked quietly.

"What's that Spike? I didn't hear you all the way down here? Speak louder!"

"Please, can I have some food?" Harry said it a little louder.

Voldemort laughed, and then said, "No, but thank you for asking so kindly. Say it one more time for me, and remember, I am your master!"

Harry stared at Snape for just a moment, and felt like his father's eyes were encouraging him to do as he was told, so he said it again, adding master on the end, but instead of words, it was barking that came out of his mouth, and for a second he wondered if he really had been turned into a dog.

At the confused look on his face the death eaters around him broke out in laughter and with a nod from Voldemort a few of them threw scraps of food up to Harry, who stuffed them into his mouth eagerly, which only made Voldemort and the others laugh that much harder.

Harry barked again and again, and twice more little scraps of fruits or veggies were thrown up at him, but never enough to make him feel full.

"Very good Spike," Voldemort said, "Very good indeed. And for your obedience you will only suffer one hour of the Cruciatus before you go to bed tonight."

He snapped his fingers and pointed at a death eater Harry didn't know, and before Harry knew what was happening he was writhing on the floor of the golden cage in pain, knowing the change in the caster of the curse only by it's feel.

For the briefest of moments he saw his father lift his wand and then felt a much weakened version of the curse hit him, but he continued to writhe on the floor, howling in pain and barking as if he were really being tortured, and then the caster changed again, and he felt that oily all encompassing feel come over him again, and he blacked out.

* * *

Severus sat by Voldemort's side in the large study in the smaller of the two velvet green chairs. Several other of the more faithful servants also sat around them. It had been three days since he had arrived and seen his son hanging from the ceiling in the cage being taunted.

"Unfortunately there's just no way to know when he's been trained," Voldemort was saying to the group of them. There were nods of agreement.

"Perhaps when he comes back to you master," Severus said smoothly.

"Explain yourself Severus."

"Dogs come back to their masters after being let loose. It is then that masters know that their pets are trained."

"You suggest I let him loose? I think not."

"Of course not Master," Severus said, bowing his head in false submission. "I only meant it as an idea, that perhaps we could release... Spike, within the confines of the mansion and see if he comes to you. There is no possible way that he can escape with so many of us around... watching him constantly. If he comes to you, then we will know that he has been trained." He had watched for days as Harry barked and begged for food and water, and as he crawled around on all fours when called upon to do so.

Voldemort seemed to be thinking for a moment, and then said, "Very well then. Leave his wand on a table near the door on the table outside my study. If he is not trained, then I will be rid of him for good, and we will just have to find another more worthy pet."

"Who shall go my Lord?" Bellatrix asked, hoping she could get one more good Crucio in on Harry if she were the one allowed to go and release him.

"It was Severus' idea, let him see to it. And if he was wrong, then he can also deal with the consequences. You go with him Lucius, in case you have to hand out punishment for a bad idea."

Both men said, "Yes my Lord," and stood and moved off.

* * *

Harry had just finished lapping up water out of the dog dish that had been glued to the cell floor by magic when the door opened and he moved to the back of his cell, wishing they would just leave him alone. They hadn't placed a barking spell on him in a couple of days, but he had barked out of obedience anyway in order to get food. His green leash hung on a nail just outside his cell door, and he expected to be lead out of the cell on all fours yet again. But this time it was his father and Lucius Malfoy that appeared.

"It seems you are to be released Spike," Lucius said with a sneer as Severus unlocked the door.

Harry gave a questioning look to his father, and in the span of a second he was overwhelmed with the images of things that had been said that his father had sent him through his eyes. Harry was uncertain, but felt from his father's mind that this was part of a plan and was in his best interests, so he crawled out of the cell, even though his hands and knees ached. All those weeks of scrubbing dungeons on his hands and knees had paid off at least, it seemed, because at least he was used to this kind of pain.

From the floor Harry gave a questioning look up to Lucius, who motioned with his hand to the stairs that lead out of the deep basement.

Harry crawled off and up the stairs. He wasn't exactly sure where Voldemort's study was, so he crawled out of the stairwell on the first landing and continued to crawl around the mansion until all the rooms on the floor had been exhausted as possibilities. He moved on to the second floor, and then the third, noticing strange orbs hanging in the corner of each room and the hallway. He would have to remember to ask his father what those were, although he had the feeling he was being watched and it had something to do with the orbs.

Finally, on the fifth floor Harry found a door that seemed like the one he had seen in his vision. He also found his wand on a table outside. He was very tempted to grab it and run, but remembered the feeling conveyed to him to just obey one more time, and so he left it there. Sitting on his knees he barked until the door opened, and he crawled in quickly, tongue hanging out of his mouth and sat at Voldemort's feet. Voldemort looked both surprised and pleased.

"See now, it appears that my most faithful servant was right." Harry looked around and found that one wall of the room was covered in different images of other rooms, and suddenly understood that he had been watched, and that the orbs were some kind of wizarding camera system.

"Did you miss me Spike?" Voldemort looked down at him, and Harry barked and moved his butt back and forth as if he was wagging a tail, and Voldemort smiled again. After a few minutes of sitting there next to Voldemort's legs, Lucius Malfoy walked in with his wand out and aimed at Voldemort. Thinking that he could care less if Voldemort died, but that this was probably all still a test, Harry began to growl, and when Malfoy didn't put his wand down, Harry stood up and lunged at the man, biting him hard on the wrist until he dropped his wand. Harry then picked the wand up between his teeth and carried it to Voldemort where he dropped it on his lap, and sat back down by his feet.

Lucius gave Harry a dirty look as he tried to stop his wrist from bleeding out, and Voldemort patted Harry's head. "Good boy Spike, good dog." Harry stuck his chin out in the air as if he was proud, and laid down on the floor as any contented dog would do.

After a short while Severus appeared again in the study and bowed to Voldemort. "Master, Bellatrix has brought urgent word of an impending attack on the fortress by the Ministry."

"What!?" Voldemort spat and kicked Harry as he stood up. He scanned the wall of rooms and when he saw Bellatrix standing in the entrance to the fortress looking anxious, he stormed off, Malfoy and the others with him except for Snape and Harry.

When the wall of rooms showed that the way was clear, Severus held out a wand to Harry, who took it and stood up.

"Are you strong enough to make a run for it?"

Harry nodded.

"We cannot apparate directly off the premises. We must make it to the property line before we can apparate."

Severus lead off, but Harry stopped him before they left the room, and said, "What about the refrigerator?"

"The what?"

"I saw the fridges... they're huge. And they have the same charm on theirs as we do ours... unwanted things leave the fridge by apparation, and new food comes in... that's how I was going to escape. We can apparate from wherever we end up."

Severus thought about it and then said, "We will be thrown into Knockturn Alley."

"But you can't go with me! He'll know you helped me!"

"My life is forfeit either way. Come, we must hurry."

By some miracle they met no one on their way to the kitchens, and with help Harry climbed into the largest fridge. Severus cast a spell that put some mold on the bottom of Harry's shoe and shut the door.

Harry sat in the darkness for a moment before he felt himself falling, and then landed on a large trash heap in the back yard of some old brick building. He hurried to move out of the way, and a few moments later, his father appeared out of nowhere and also landed on the trash heap. Without hesitation he grabbed Harry's arm and they were gone once again, appearing on the edge of Hogwart's grounds.

"Run Harry," Severus told him. "They will notice us gone before long and come after us, knowing we will come right back here." Together they ran up the front lawns, Harry having a hard time because his knees ached and because sucking in deep breaths felt like it was going to kill him with his broken ribs, but finally they made the castle and hurried inside.

"Where's Ginny?" Harry asked. "Is she ok?"

"I do not know. I left shortly after I told her you had been captured. She was with her family in the guest quarters on the third floor."

Without hesitating Harry sprinted up the stairs, Severus close on his feet, not wanting to let his son out of sight now that he was temporarily safe again.

Without knocking Harry threw open the doors to the Weasley quarters, startling the four gathered there. In an instant Harry and Ginny were wrapped up in each other's arms, Ginny sobbing hard and Harry trying to comfort her.

"I thought you were dead. I was never going to see you again. You were never going to see our son."

"Shh... it's ok. I'm here now. I'm not going anywhere. I shouldn't have been out alone looking for a job. Are you ok? Is the baby ok? I didn't mean for you to be stressed over all of this. It must have been awful for you."

She nodded and held him tighter. "Don't go anywhere Harry... don't go anywhere ever again."

"I'm not. I'm not leaving you again."

The other three Weasley's stared as Harry comforted Ginny, even though he could barely stand and looked as if he'd gone through a meat grinder to get back to her. Mr. Weasley looked over at Severus, who stood in the doorway looking worn.

"Is he ok? Should he be in the infirmary?"

Severus nodded. "Yes."

When Harry and Ginny refused to let go of each other, Severus gently pulled on Harry's arm to get them to separate. Harry gave Ginny one last loving look, and then allowed himself to collapse right there on the floor, Severus barely catching him in time.