He had heard the room's door open again. Harry (at least, he guessed it was Harry - his eyes were closed) had walked in and grabbed something from his closet. Soon after the person had left the room, he heard a dog bark a few times, before everything was silent again for the rest of the night.

He didn't hear Harry come back to his room that night, but he was too exhausted to care.

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Severus sat ramrod straight in his chair. Voldemort was circling the Malfoys' expansive dining room that was filled to the brim with his followers and supporters. Something big was happening tonight, and he didn't have a good feeling about it.

The Dark Lord had a particularly odd glint in his eye… it was the type of gleam that did not bode well for anyone involved. Nights like this were always the most frightening. No one ever knew if the wizard was in a rare good mood, or an extremely bad one. What alarmed him the most was the fact that the Dark Lord had not once made eye contact with him. Usually, he was given a glance over in his direction that tipped him off to where the night was headed.

This time, there was nothing.

"Do any of you have an idea… why… we are meeting here today?" the wizard asked. Severus felt an inexplicable shiver run down his spine. He felt as if a spotlight was being pointed directly at him, even though they were in a dark room and no one was looking in his general direction.

A bead of sweat rolled down his neck when a few seconds of silence passed. "...Nobody?" the Dark Lord murmured. "It's a shame that nobody knows… why… we have assembled." By then, his back was turned on all of them.

Yet again, no one dared utter a word.

The Dark Lord chuckled. Severus had heard the dark wizard laugh before, and it was never a pleasant sound. However, this time, his laughter caused a chill of utmost horror and revulsion to rack his frame. He wondered what caused this extreme reaction, but he had a creeping feeling as to why. He just wasn't certain that he could completely wrap his mind around the fact that one of his worst nightmares was coming out to play.

Still with his back turned, the Dark Lord continued. "It has been brought to my attention, in these past few weeks, that we might have a few… traitors in our ranks." He looked over his shoulder, his stark red pupils almost gleaming in the darkness. Yet again, his eyes never met Severus.

"Let me give you all a bit of history. A few days ago, I decided to do an… experiment." Severus felt another shock of fear strike his spinal cord. Even though he was certain his fate was sealed, he had a faint, rebellious strand of hope remaining in his soul. Perhaps he wasn't speaking about the Hogsmeade invasion that never happened. Perhaps this "experiment" was something else entirely.

"The disloyalty I had seen in my ranks was… alarming, to say the least. To have some of my most steadfast followers run to Dumbledore… It made me question the trustworthiness of everyone here." The scarlet eyes slowly blinked once.

The Dark Lord began nonchalantly stalking the room once more. "I tested a great many of my disciples. I falsely informed each of them that there was going to be an invasion or an attack at different points, at different dates." His serpentine mouth twisted up into a gruesome smile. "Every one of my followers arrived at the set place, with no one else along with them."

"For that, I am very… proud of the ones who were tested." The Dark Lord abruptly stopped his pacing. "However…"

Severus could've sworn he felt his heart stop.

"There was one. There was one of my followers that did bring someone alongside them. A great many people. A host of Aurors and members of Dumbledore's special unit. This person was, in fact, the one I least expected to rebel." Almost all of the Dark Lord's supporters' eyes started flicking around, trying to pick out who seemed the most suspicious or likely. Severus felt one pair of eyes on him. He sought out the follower who was looking at him, and he found Bellatrix boring her haunted stare into the back of his skull.

Severus averted his eyes, fixing his gaze upon the Dark Lord once more. "Can any of you guess who the culprit may be?" he mumbled, sounding supremely dangerous and unstable.

People began shaking their heads slightly with murmurs of "No, my Lord," and "We cannot."

"I believe you will be as shocked as I was when I discovered the truth." The wizard's gleaming, sharp grin could be seen in the shadows as his blood red eyes met Severus's for the first time that night.

"... Severus, would you meet me up here?"

It took all of Severus's courage to get up from his seat and gracefully walk up to where the Dark Lord was standing. He took a slow deep breath through his nose as he stood a few feet away from the wizard.

Voldemort set one clammy hand upon his shoulder, and it took incredible willpower not to flinch away. He could feel all of the followers staring at him. Some in shock, others in disbelief, and a few in disdain.

The Dark Lord had a mock disappointed expression on his face. "Severus…" he whispered. "Why have you done this to me?" Even though his tone was very low and quiet, his words echoed through the room like a clarion trumpet.

Severus schooled his expression into one of calm and acceptance, even though his emotions were running wild on the other side of his occlumency shield. This would probably be his last night alive. He had so many regrets. He never vocally said goodbye to Harry. He never apologized for the awful things he had done to so many people. He had an array of things he felt he needed to accomplish, but he never got any of them done.

"How did you manage to gain Dumbledore's trust?" the Dark Lord asked softly. "After all the things you had done to serve me, how did that old coot accept you into his ranks? Was it your obvious grief after I had killed that filthy mudblood - that Potter girl?" He narrowed his crimson eyes. "I thought you had finally gotten over her worthless death. Turns out I was… misssstaken."

The Dark Lord raised his wand suddenly, and Severus couldn't help but flinch and take out his as well. However quick he was, he wasn't fast enough. Strong ropes encased his arms to his side and buckled his knees. His wand clatters to the floor. Severus keeps his head bowed, staring at his way of escape slowly rolling away from his reach.

"I will give you one more chance, Severus. An option for escape, if you will." Severus's eyebrows creased in confusion. "Your services are invaluable for my cause. The potions you have created for us have saved us on multiple occasions. I will allow you to live, but you will have to agree to these conditions."

The Dark Lord smirked at the top of the potions master's head. "You will never go back to Hogwarts, never go back to Dumbledore. You will agree to have tracking and observation spells cast upon you, and you will have a guard watching you at all times of the day. I will add more precautions as I see fit in the future."

There were a few seconds of absolute silence as the Dark Lord let his words sink in. Severus's wand hit the leg of the dining room table, stopping its progression across the floor. The sound reverberated through the room like a clap of thunder.

"So…" the dark wizard hummed. "Is it a deal?"

The Dark Lord obviously thought he had won. He thought he had made a proposition that no one could refuse. His life would be spared, so long as he stopped working for the side of the Light. If he was being honest, the idea of living another day was very appealing. It would be for anyone. However, Severus had made up his mind a long time ago - if this situation ever happened, he had prepared a response.

Severus slowly lifted his head to meet the stare of the Dark Lord. His vermillion eyes were very smug, and the potions professor had the utmost privilege of wiping that expression right off his face.

Looking through the stringy hair over his eyes, Severus let his eyebrows go down into a scowl. "I'm afraid it's not a deal I can agree with. I will no longer work for you…"

"Tom."

The final nail was cracked into his coffin with the last, damning syllable he uttered. Voldemort's expression melted from poorly concealed glee to short-lived dismay, to, finally, roiling anger.

The room crackled with the energy coming off from the Dark Lord's enraged body. No matter how fearful Voldemort's face got, he kept staring directly into his eyes. Even when the wizard was raising his wand arm over his head, opening his mouth to scream a spell that was no doubt one of the unforgivables.

"Crucio!" He watched as the wand came down almost in slow motion, and the curse was shrieked. He could almost see the invisible stream of magic that was headed towards his body. Severus Snape closed his eyes, accepting his fate.

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Harry shivered under his cloak. He was soaring over London, silently regretting his decision to try and find Severus. The man knows what he's doing, he's probably okay. In his note, he had said specifically not to come after him. The spell he had placed on Nagini was about to wear off, and he wouldn't be able to re-cast it. Since he was outside the Haven or Hogwarts, the Trace would find him and he would be caught. He didn't trust the Ministry as far as he could throw it. Which was not far.

Nagini tightened around his body, obviously nervous that the invisibility cloak would fly off and they would be revealed to the entirety of the people below them. If Harry's calculations were correct, they had about five minutes before the feather-light spell wore off and the full weight of his companion's coils would weigh him down.

Making another split second decision, he started hovering above an alleyway, checking to see if there was anyone in it. Seeing nobody, he landed his broom quietly and removed his invisibility cloak. He wrapped it around his broomstick, hiding it from sight. He set it down next to a garbage can, and Nagini slid off his body.

"What'sss the plan?" Nagini hissed.

Harry paused. He honestly didn't know. In his frantic haze, he had completely disregarded the fact that he wasn't informed of the whereabouts of Voldemort's meeting. He had also completely lost his sense of direction on the way over. Harry had no clue where he was. It didn't help that he had very limited knowledge on the streets and sidewalks of London.

"Um…" Harry rummaged his pockets for something, anything. He felt the wood of his wand in his right pocket, and nothing more. He then focused on his left pocket, and he felt all the way down. He felt a slip of paper brush against his index finger, and he fished it out.

He squinted in the dim light to read what it said. It was a phone number. Suddenly, Harry remembered little Vickie's family, Gwen and Nigel. He had happened to grab the same robe he had worn when he met them.

Harry pursed his lips into a thin line. He really didn't want to bother them, but he may have no other choice. He couldn't contact Dumbledore or any of the Order, because to do so would be using magic. The Ministry would find him faster than they could.

"Remember that family I told you about?" Nagini lifted her head and nodded. As soon as they had gotten back from McDonald's, he had told the serpent all about their experiences with Vickie. "Well, I happen to have a way to contact them. I really don't wanna bother them, esssspecially at this time of night, but I think it may be inevitable."

Also, Harry had many possessions on him that were going to be… hard to explain. Not to mention his 'pet' snake who's species do not fit any muggle classification system. Also there were going to be questions about what he was doing out on the streets this late. Harry sighed deeply.

"Well, Army-Leader, you do know the… complicationsss that come with this, right?"

It was as if she had read his mind. "Yesss, I do. It'sss the only choice we have, at thisss point." Harry facepalmed heavily. Wow, was he dumb. His panic attack induced stupidity had caused this mess.

Harry peeked out of the alleyway and looked up and down the street he was on. Sure enough, a little ways down, there was a phone booth that was empty. A few people were walking quickly down the street, because no one out at this time of night was on a leisurely stroll.

Ducking back into the alley, he turned to Nagini again. "You ssstay here, with the sssstuff. I ssssee a telephone down the ssstreet, I'll be right back."

The serpent was obviously still confused about the plan, but she trusted him. "Alright."

Harry stepped out into the dimly lit street as inconspicuous as he could manage. Although, it probably didn't matter. The people in London had probably seen stranger things than an oddly-dressed adolescent popping out of a dark alleyway.

He headed straight towards the phone booth before he stopped in his tracks. It had just occurred to him that he didn't have any money to make the call. He patted down his pockets once more, in a desperate attempt to find any Muggle coins that he could use. As he expected, he couldn't find any.

Harry groaned quietly. Of course, he would be stranded in the middle of Muggle London with no way to call for help other than performing magic and making himself known to the Ministry.

Awkwardly, he rose up onto his toes before bending down to search for coins. It was better to possibly make a fool of himself than to put himself under the eyes of the corrupt magical government.

He found no spare change around the booth itself, so he ambled over to a bus stop nearby. It took quite a long time, but he eventually found enough to make a single 3-minute call.

The phone rang four times before someone picked it up.

"Hello?" a groggy feminine voice said.

"Hi," Harry said. "I'm so sorry to be calling you at this time of night, but I really need some help."

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Wow, I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it just as much! When I was writing the scene between Voldemort and Snape, I was listening to Atmospheric Gothic Horror Reading Music that was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and Edgar Allen Poe. It really set the mood! I totally recommend it if you're looking for a few spooks.

Thanks for waiting for this update!