They'd struggled to stack two tables on top of each other on the platform to have a dry space to sit when they'd first gotten into the room. It seemed like days ago to Harry, but it had only been yesterday morning. Harry had spent most of the day sleeping, wishing he had an apple, or a scrap of bread or anything at all to make his stomach feel full, but there was nothing, just like at the Dursleys. Thankfully Snape had left him alone for the day, taking the time to sleep as well. It had been cramped with both of them on top of one student table, but there was enough room for both to sleep head to foot, back to back without touching if they tried hard. That didn't stop Snape from complaining whenever Harry's foot touched his back or something, or from threatening to dump him off the table. It was Sunday now and Harry sat with his back to Snape and his head in his hands. He wished he had a place to stretch out at least, and had asked Snape to help him move more tables up onto the platform, but he'd nixed the idea, not wanting to get into the icy water that sapped all your energy again.

Harry looked over at Snape, who was frowning in thought, and Harry said, "You know if you do that enough your face will stick that way."

"Insolent child."

"Guess that's me," Harry said, feeling sullen. Uncle Vernon always said things like that to him too. He thought what he'd said to Snape was funny at least, but maybe the lack of food and the fatigue was making him lose his inhibitions. He was sure Ron would have given birth to a brick if he'd heard what Harry had just told Snape. Harry's thoughts drifted to his friends again then, and he wondered if they were all right... if they were warm and dry and if they had food. Harry had no idea just then that half of Slytherin house was living in Gryffindor along with a handful of Hufflepuffs, while the rest of the school was in the Library or Ravenclaw tower.

Harry dared not tell the Professor he was hungry again. He knew from his time with the Dursleys that this was a great way to get locked in a closet somewhere. Granted Snape had never done it to him, but they were surrounded by water and Harry didn't want to relive that one of Uncle Vernon's lessons again either.

"The corridor is pretty high," Harry said at about noon. "Maybe we can get out into it and get to higher ground."

"Or perhaps you can stop making juvenile suggestions," Snape snapped. Harry turned his back to the man again. His stomach ached now and he was sure Snape was hungry too. Maybe there was food somewhere up higher in the castle. Maybe help from the Ministry had already arrived and had taken everyone from the castle, Harry thought. They probably didn't even know he and Snape were down here, or alive at all.

"Will they come for us?"

"Potter, will you never be quiet?"

Angry, Harry slid off the table which was barely an inch out of the water, and swam to the other side of the room where he went under and tried hard to drag a table up off the floor and onto the platform. If all Snape could do was make him feel bad, then at least he could try to put some space between them. Harry was loath to admit it, but he didn't want to just make a break for the corridor and leave Snape behind in case he got in trouble again. With the flood and all that had happened, Harry was uncertain and didn't want to be by himself, even if that meant he had to be with Snape.

Snape watched with some amusement as Harry came up out of the water and went back down twice more trying to drag the table up. Good, let the brat tire himself out, he thought. Then he'd stop asking questions and give him some peace. Did the boy think he himself wasn't hungry? Did he think he wanted to spend another day there with him on top of a single table? Snape scoffed then as Harry went down for a fourth time, coming up only moments later and slapping the water in frustration with his hand.

Finally Harry gave up and swam not back to the table but to the door leading out into the corridor.

"Potter-" Snape warned, but Harry was ignoring him now. He'd seen him laughing and decided to risk being alone anyway. Besides, Snape had followed him before, twice now in fact. If Harry left then the logical conclusion was that Snape would follow.

"Potter I'm warning you!" Snape was standing on the table now as Harry fought to force the door open and then disappeared out of it, the door closing again with the weight of the water behind it.

Harry was surprised when the door slammed shut behind him, leaving him stranded in the dark corridor by himself. Worse yet, he reached down to his jeans pocket and realized he'd left his wand behind and couldn't see in the corridor in order to pick a direction to go.

"Potter! Potter!" He could hear Snape shouting on the other side of the door, and Harry swam to it to put some weight on it but realized there was no leverage for him. Snape would have to force it open from the other side if he wanted to open it, just like Harry had.

"I left my wand inside!" Harry shouted, feeling tired again from treading the cold water. There weren't even any torch holders on the walls for him to hold on to. He heard a curse from inside and then a splash. Good, he thought, the bastard had to get into the cold water himself. That would teach him to be rude to Harry and laugh at him.

"When I get this door open, you're going to regret the day you were born you little fool."

Great, Harry thought. He already did regret it. He doubted Snape would be able to do anything more to him than he'd already been through in the last few days. A flash of his uncle filling the bathtub with icy water shot through him like a bullet though, and suddenly Harry was fearful there in the water.

Hearing Snape on the other side of the door trying to get out, Harry decided to make a run for it. Even though he knew he was in the Charms corridor, he was disoriented and swam off in the wrong direction in total darkness. If he would have gone the other way he could have gotten into any number of other classrooms, but the direction he was going, the staircases only lead down.

When Harry's head hit the ceiling as it began to slope down, he panicked realizing his mistake and began splashing, head bobbing underwater. He didn't want to swim back past Snape and even if he did he didn't think he could do it. It was a long corridor. The only way was down however, and Harry was suddenly confused, uncertain about what to do. He went under again, and in the dark water became even more confused, not sure which way was up anymore. Something grabbed him around the middle and Harry was certain it was a creature trying to pull him down to the depths, but the next second and he was above water again with Snape cursing at him.

"What's wrong with you Potter? Do you enjoy drowning?" Snape was screaming at him, and if Harry had been paying attention to something other than his own panicked heart, he would have realized that his Professor sounded rather hysterical.

"Don't push me under again, please" Harry pleaded frantically, struggling weakly to get away from Snape.

"Push you- I never!" Snape seemed enraged, as if Harry was accusing him of trying to harm him. Hadn't he saved the little brat's neck numerous times already?

"Please, I don't want to go back under," Harry said now, his mouth dipping under water as Snape tried to hold him up, causing Harry to spit the water out again.

"Potter, stop spewing gibberish." Snape began to swim back down the hall with Harry in tow, but Potter kept babbling.

"I'll be good, I promise."

"Doubtful," Snape said.

Back at the Charms classroom door, Snape found himself unable to open the door again, even with magic, and cursed at Harry again for getting them into this situation yet again.

"Sorry," Harry said, and he kept mumbling it all the way down the corridor each time Snape tried to open a door and failed. Finally they found one of the many rooms throughout the castle that had an archway instead of a door, and Snape swam them inside, though there were no tables set up for them to sit on.

"Hold on to the blackboard," Snape instructed, bringing him to the blackboard on the wall where there was a little ledge at the very top for extra chalk and items that the professors usually confiscated from students during class.

Harry held on to the ledge and watched warily as Snape went under, and with the help of a charm Harry had never heard before, got two tables on top of each other and then a third since there was no platform in this room like the one in the Charms auditorium.

"Come here," Snape commanded, but Harry shook his head and buried his face in his arm against the wall.

"You are more trouble than you are worth," Snape complained as he swam back to Harry and then took him to the table. If what Potter had said was true about swimming Draco out, then Snape was beginning to understand just how much trouble that was, and why the Gryffindor had been so exhausted when he'd found him. His own arms and body felt like lead as he lay on the table on his back now with one leg still in the water, Harry on his other side lying there as well.

"Why must you run off without thinking of the consequences?" Severus asked, but a glance next to him revealed Harry asleep, but thankfully breathing.