Severus Snape looked through the settling dust to ascertain his situation. The west wall of the room had completely collapsed in on itself bringing the ceiling down with it in that area. Severus could hear voices from outside, but he had difficulty making them out. He took a deep breath and decided to wait. The aurors knew that they were inside, so it would only be a matter of time before they were rescued. There was no use for him to waste his energy trying to get them out.

So now, nothing was left to do but wait. He did have to look after the wretched boy lying unconscious next to him. His leg looked terrible. Snape had to stop the bleeding, so he picked up his wand. He had learned some healing charms from Madame Pompfrey years before in case of an emergency. He tried the strongest one he knew but was shocked when nothing happened. His wand wasn’t working! He tried several different healing spells, but he all he heard was the sound of the spell bouncing off the wards, and nothing happened. That must have been it...did the wards limit his wand use?

“Lumos!” Snape said, and his wand lit. ‘Well at least there’s that,’ Snape thought. It was dark in the basement. Snape tried a couple other simple spells, and they worked. He tried to conjure a set of bandages so he could stop the blood from exiting the leg any further. When he tried to conjure more items it didn’t work. He groaned and examined his wand more closely. He noticed that the tip of it was chipped. That meant there was little more he could do.

Severus put his less than useful wand back into its pocket in his robes and walked over to the injured boy. Besides the obvious damage to his leg where it had been trapped under the bookshelf, one of Harry’s arms was also hanging at an unnatural angle. He had a dark bruise on his forehead that almost disguised his famous scar, and he had blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. He wished the aurors would hurry up. He didn’t have the training to diagnose all of Harry’s injuries. There were likely injuries that Severus couldn’t see and he didn’t want to do anything to aggravate those potential injuries. It would be dangerous to do much.

Snape kneeled close to the boy's leg and reached his hand in his cloak and pulled out his small bottle of firewhiskey that he carried with him at all times. He poured it over the leg to act as an antiseptic. He was glad Potter wasn't awake because the boy would surely be screaming in pain. Anybody would be. It was definitely true that he despised the arrogant Gryffindor, but he didn't wish pain on him. He let it soak in and dry up a bit, and then wrapped the injured leg as tightly as he could with the bandages he had managed to conjure. He watched the leg closely to make sure that he wasn't cutting off the boy's circulation completely, but he had to make the bleeding stop. He knew his measures would only work temporarily. What was taking the aurors so long?

Harry started to stir and tried to turn over, but Snape put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and held him down. Soon the movement stopped and Snape was glad for that. He didn’t want the boy waking up now. He didn’t have anything to give him for pain, and Harry would definitely be in pain when he woke up. If there was one thing that Snape didn’t want to deal with, it was Potter’s whining.

How could the stupid boy believe another vision, and why would he try to save his greasy git professor who has hated him since he came to Hogwarts? Of course Snape had saved Harry several times, but each time any thanks were left unspoken. They had ended last school year on terrible terms. Snape knew he shouldn’t be second guessing the boys motives. He obviously wanted credit for saving another person. What an arrogant, fame seeking Gryffindor!

The boy seemed stable enough for now. At least he wasn’t bleeding all over the floor. So, Snape left him there on the floor to try and discover what was keeping the aurors from getting them out.

Snape went to the crushed-in door that led to the rest of the house, and he tried to pry it open, but the door wouldn’t budge. He pulled out his wand and tried to implode the door. A small wisp of smoke and a red spark was the only result he got from the spell. He picked up the only thing within his reach, which happened to be an old Potions textbook, and he threw it at the door in his frustration.

Of course he didn’t expect the book to magically open the door, but he was surprised when he saw the wards that Potter had erected shimmer with the impact. There was something strange about the wards. They were affecting magic in ways that he had never seen before. Snape almost wished that Potter were awake so that he could ask him what he’d done to make the wards, but then again Potter probably had no clue.

There wasn't anything he could do thus far, so he went back beside Potter and sat down. He had to make sure he was okay at all times. He looked at the potions book and saw that it was a book for the first year students. Because it was the only book around, and he had nothing better to do, he opened the book and started reading.

‘Simple health Potion,’ Severus read. ‘This potion will give the drinker extended energy...’

Severus could hardly keep his mind on the dry reading. No wonder his students didn’t read the text, he thought. Of course none of his students knew how to make 212 different versions of this simple health potion. If they did, maybe then he would excuse them from the reading.

Severus put the book down and went back to the door and pressed his ear against it. Maybe he would be able to hear what the aurors were doing. They definitely should have been able to blast through the wall by now. That is unless they were being prevented from doing magic against the wards just as he was. He felt a chill go though his body as he entertained the thought of being trapped with Potter in this small room in his basement.

Snape kept his ear there for a minute and was just about to go back to reading when he heard distant voices.

"What a mess," someone said.

Severus heard footsteps crunching over gravel.

"I don’t think there’s any chance, Kirsty," a man replied.

Snape had to say something. "HEY, the door’s just stuck!" Severus said.

"I guess we should just make our report. I don't sense anything living inside anyway. What a tragic loss."

What? Nothing living inside? What was going on? "You dolt, there are two people in here!" Snape growled. He then started screaming forgetting all about the sleeping boy. It was no use. The footsteps faded, and they were still stuck in the room.

The aurors had left! They had left without even trying to get them out. Why had they left? Surely the room didn’t look that bad on the outside. There was just one wall that had fallen in and the door was smashed. Severus ran to the window and looked out. There was a pile of rubble covering most of the window, but through a small opening he could see lights fading into the distance. The aurors were really leaving. Severus picked up the book again, and this time he hurled it towards the window.

The book bounced off the shimmering wards and fell on the floor. These wards were bloody screwed up. What in Merlin’s name was going on? He could not be locked with Potter! How would they eat and drink? The boy needed health care immediately, and there was nothing he could do. Snape felt defeated.

He slid down the wall to a seated position on the floor. Nobody was looking for them. The aurors would go back and give their report that the house had been destroyed along with everything in it, and that would be that.

Then there would be the funerals and the world day of mourning – well, for Potter at least. Nobody would care that he was dead – in fact, they would probably blame him for Potter’s death. Snape picked up the book and threw it again. This time it didn’t even reach the wall and fell open right to the ‘Simple Health Potion’ page.

Severus growled and left the book were it fell. He got up to look after Potter again. He was going to do his best to keep Potter alive even if everyone outside was blaming him for the boy’s death.

Then Severus saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around towards the window. Fawkes was perched on a piece of wood just outside the window. Thank goodness Dumbledore didn’t just believe every report that crossed his desk.

Severus jumped up and started pounding on the window. The bird just twittered at him and then turned around and flew off his perch. Fawkes pressed his tail right against the window and then the tips of his feathers caught fire. Fawkes flipped his tail rapidly in succession until the fire was extinguished. Then he flew off.

‘What was that all about?’ Severus wondered. He was pretty sure Fawkes had seen him, but then his tail had caught on fire. Fire...

Severus glanced around the room and saw the empty fireplace next to Potter’s sleeping form. Fire! Of course. He would be able to communicate through the fire. Severus picked up the Potions text and threw it into the fireplace. ‘That should start a good fire,’ he thought.

“Incindio!” Snape said, and thankfully the fire started, but looking on top of the fireplace, he realized that he didn’t have any Floo powder. His only hope would be that Fawkes would be able to communicate his message to someone else so that that person could communicate with him.

Snape sat back and tried to get in a comfortable position. He would be here awhile, and he knew it. He looked over at the sleeping boy and cringed. His leg looked terrible but at least the bleeding had stopped for now.

An hour after they had seen to the Snape Manor rubble, the two aurors, Kirsty and Seltzer, had to report to Albus Dumbledore that one of Hogwart's professors was missing and there were no remains that could be found of him. It was a nasty job being the messenger but it had to be done. Dumbledore let the two visiting aurors in his office and showed them to a seat.

"Headmaster, we have some bad news. I know you have already heard about the attack at the Snape Manor. We have captured three deatheaters and they are now in Azkaban, but there is no one to be found in the house. It came to our attention that Severus Snape worked for you, and we wanted to inform you of this," Kirsty explained.

Dumbledore nodded. "I see," he said calmly. He knew that Snape was safe. He was watching over Potter at privet drive. He was actually just about to get off of his shift and Tonks would be on her shift. The aurors were dismissed and not but five minutes later Tonks unfolded herself out of the fireplace and was dusting herself off.

"Albus! They are gone!"

“What do you think caused Severus to take Mr. Potter from the house? Was there an attack?” Dumbledore asked.

“No, nothing. I even went so far as to talk to Mr. Potter’s relatives. They didn’t even know he was gone.”

“What else do you know of this situation?”

“Nothing. I came straight here after getting Bill to take over my shift incase they appear again. I thought you would want to know. I looked around carefully, and I didn’t see or sense anything magical in the area.”

“We know that deatheaters were waiting just outside the wards. Do you know what came of them?”

“They’re nowhere in sight—you don’t think they got them...”

“I don’t know. I just got word that there was an attack at Snape Manor. I dismissed it at first, but now I think it’s prudent that we take a closer look.”

“I’ll go,” Tonks said.

“No, I’ll send Fawkes. The aurors said that the place was completely destroyed. We should act like we believe that.”

“You don’t think it’s true?”

“I don’t know, but I would know if Harry were dead, and he is not. I can’t imagine Severus going anywhere without Mr. Potter while he was on watch. Something must have happened to them, now we just need to figure out what it was.”

Dumbledore looked over to where Fawkes had been and found him gone. Then he looked at the window and as he thought he would, he saw the bird pecking at the window. He let the bird in and it dropped something on the floor. It was the door knocker from Snape Manor.

Dumbledore picked up the knocker. It still had traces of magic on it. But the magic wasn’t what he expected. He could sense Snape’s magic and his wards, but there was something different; there were traces of Harry's magic too. If the two were dead or off the Snape grounds then the magic wouldn't be this strong. "They are still alive," Dumbledore stated and passed the item to the pink haired auror.

Tonks held onto it and immediately knew what Dumbledore was talking about. "They would have contacted us if they could Albus," she said.

Fawkes started fluttering his wings and making quite a racket causing both Tonks and Dumbledore to turn their attention towards the bird. Then Fawkes stuck his burnt tail towards them and sang a few high notes. Dumbledore instantly got the point and gave the bird a pat on the head. He pointed his wand towards the fire. “Incindio!”