Nothing Hidden

Harry emerged from a crevice behind a tall column. He was unnerved to discover that while he was navigating the complex underground passageway the sun had disappeared and the grounds were shrouded in a murky darkness.

He ran almost blindly toward the trees where he had first spotted his godfather.

Once there, he called out to him softly.

Hands suddenly grabbed his shoulders from behind, and forced him to turn around.

"Harry!" Contrary to Harry's expectations, Sirius' face was pale and frightened. "Why are you out here?"

"Snape wouldn't let you in! He is in there right now, arguing with Professor Lupin," Harry tried to explain, quickly becoming frightened himself.

"Come on, we have to get you back inside," Sirius grabbed him much the same way Snape had, and began pulling him towards the castle. He didn't need to have the hidden crevice pointed out to him; as one of the creators of the Marauder's Map he knew every passageway out of Hogwarts.

"Go on," Sirius gave him a push. "I'll be right behind you."

But just then a bright light exploded to their right.

"Go!" Sirius shoved Harry forcefully into the crevice, simultaneously whipping out his wand.

Harry staggered down the narrow tunnel, afraid to look behind him and terrified for his godfather. He stumbled out from behind the stone gryphon and ran through the empty Hogwarts corridors. He ran across the entrance hall, his feet slapping the marble floor, causing shrill echoes.

In the entrance to the staffroom he ran straight into Lupin. Snape was right behind him. Both men looked pale and rattled.

"Harry!" Lupin grabbed him by the shoulders. "What have you done?"

"Someone . . ." Harry began, but at that moment he felt the Marauder's Map being wrenched from his grasp.

Snape was staring at the piece of parchment with alarm. Harry knew he had not wiped it clean after his escape from the castle. But Snape was already familiar with the Map, he had seen it once before, so why . . .?

"Look," Snape shoved the map toward Lupin. Their eyes met over the parchment.

"Harry, return to your room, quickly," Lupin instructed. "Lock the door behind you, do not open it for anyone. We will come for you."

Harry nodded mutely, turned, and hurried toward the staircase leading down to the dungeons.

Snape and Lupin ran from the staffroom, wands out. They had no trouble finding the correct room, as Lupin knew where the passage was, and they waited, eyes locked on the stone gryphon. Should it move, they were prepared to blast it. Snape glanced at the Map once more.

"Now, Lupin!"

The gryphon exploded, along with a good portion of the wall. What was left collapsed, burying the tunnel under the rubble.

Snape pointed again to the Map, "I am the only one who can close the rift."

Lupin acknowledged him with a quick nod, and Snape hurried from the room. Several minutes later Lupin could hear explosions from afar.

Then the rubble at his feet began to vibrate, small stones skipping on the marble floor. Lupin readied his wand.

Snape reappeared, his robes covered in gray dust. From the look on his face Lupin knew that he had been unsuccessful. The shields around Hogwarts were falling.

Both men looked at the Map, where a crowd of moving dots was amassing in one corner. Their eyes met in wordless understanding.

"Go," Lupin said. "I will hold them off as long as I can."

"Albus is on his way, with reinforcements." Snape hesitated, knowing full well that reinforcements were unlikely to get there fast enough, but then he turned from Lupin.

Snape was already halfway across the room when the remnants of the wall exploded, sending shards of stone into the room. As the fragments showered them both, Snape whirled around, in time to see Lupin hit and thrown against the wall. He had blocked most of the spell, but barely.

Snape may have returned to Lupin's side, but Lupin waved him off.

"Go!"

Snape ran from the room.

Just down the hallway he was intercepted by a figure in dark robes. Not hesitating, he blasted it out of the way, taking out a section of the wall in the process.

The Map helped him navigate, to know what to expect around corners.

He made it to the Great Hall just as the something heavy hit the castle door, and into the stairwell behind the staff table just as it was blown apart.

He hit the panel with a strengthening charm before going down, knowing it would not hold but hoping that it would hold long enough.

He ran through the corridors, and as he rounded the final corner his one fervent hope was that the foolish boy had followed instructions for once in his miserable life.

His heart thudded in his chest as he pulled open the door.

Harry sat on the bed, all color drained from his face. Even here, far below the rest of the school, he had heard the explosions. The hardest of all was the waiting, the not knowing. He believed Sirius to be dead. And now, not seeing Lupin with Snape, he believed the same about him.

Snape wasted no time. As he ran, he had thought out what he must do. He threw open Harry's trunk and found his invisibility cloak. Pulling Harry off the bed, he threw it around both of them.

"Don't make a sound," he warned. Unnecessarily, as Harry was temporarily mute.

They had just made it from the room when a shaft of light penetrated the gloom of the dungeon corridor, then a tall shadow fell upon one wall. The path out of the dungeons was blocked.

Snape's fingers dug painfully into Harry's shoulder as they walked through the maze of passageways. Footsteps were now following behind them, moving faster than they were, and Harry was afraid to look back.

Finally they entered a room, a classroom that had long been abandoned, by the looks of it. Snape barred the door before illuminating the room. He threw off the cloak and seemed to look wildly around for a moment. Harry was terrified to think that there may not be a plan, that they were both trapped in this desolate room, which seemed to offer little protection.

There was a trunk in one corner, and Snape rummaged through it. He turned to Harry, holding out a small glass bottle, topped with a cork. It rattled slightly and Harry realized that Snape's hand was shaking.

"As a last resort, open this and take the stone," he shoved the bottle toward Harry and Harry saw that the object contained in the bottle was a rune. "It's a portkey."

Harry took the bottle.

"Remember," Snape warned, "a last resort."

Harry was about to nod, when a thud at the door made them both jump. Time had run out.

Snape moved to the wall and pressed hard on the stone surface. For a few moments nothing happened, then, much like the brick wall that revealed the entrance to Diagon Alley, the stones disjoined and moved apart.

Snape pushed Harry through the opening, stepped through himself, then turned to close it. Harry's ears rang as the door exploded, and he watched in horror as the stone wall began to close — much too slowly — even as hooded figures rushed into the room. Wands were pointed in their direction. He saw a flash of blinding green light, the same as he often saw in his nightmares, but the wall seemed to close a split second before the wave of light reached the opening.

Then, a blast took Harry off his feet and threw him headlong down the corridor.

He landed on his back. It was pitch black, the light from Snape's wand had gone out.

Where was Snape? Harry got up, and tripped over the rubble. Someone grabbed him and held him up, and Harry cried out, trying to twist away. The hand that had touched his bare forearm was wet and clammy.

"Quiet!" came a command through the darkness. Harry had never been so glad to hear Snape's voice.

A dim light appeared around them as Snape pulled him along the corridor. Turning to look behind them, Harry saw that one end of the corridor was buried under massive piles of stone.

For what seemed like hours they walked down the winding tunnel, the ceiling sometimes coming down so low that Snape had to bend down to avoid hitting his head.

The shock was wearing off, and Harry had to fight his emotions. He had seen Hogwarts attacked, two people he cared about were most likely dead, and Harry himself was the cause of it.

They had to stop to rest, and for the first time Harry noticed that Snape's left arm was bloodied from shoulder to hand, his robes torn in numerous places. Harry recalled that Snape had stood between himself and the wall as it was blasted apart.

Snape's thoughts were racing. The situation at Hogwarts had been beyond anything he had prepared himself for. There hadn't been a few Death Eaters. There had been dozens. More than he knew to be walking free, unless . . . Unless Azkaban had been liberated. If that were the case, and he had to assume that it was, where could he turn? If Voldemort's supporters had overrun Hogwarts, thought to be one of the most secure sites in the country, how likely was it that there were simply no safe havens left?

Beside him, Harry Potter was slumped against the wall. Snape looked him over, finding him basically unhurt. The terror had left his face, but something else had replaced it, a numbness or detachment that Snape knew could not be allowed when sharp reflexes were needed.

"Potter!" he barked, but softened his tone when Harry startled and he realized how rough his voice had been. "I need you awake. Pay attention. There's no time to explain everything, but I will tell you this . . ." Snape paused for breath, and to collect his thoughts. "The plan has always been to get to Hogsmeade. That's where we are going now. If everything goes right, Dumbledore will meet us there."

If he is even still alive, Harry thought, feeling that if Hogwarts had been breached, Dumbledore must be gone, or he would never have allowed harm to come to Harry there.

To Snape, he simply nodded.