It's Just a Nightmare

It's Just a Nightmare 7

"Alex, where are you?" asked Voldermort in a singsong voice. "Come out, daddy's got lots of nice things to eat."

Harry didn't move, it was the most obvious thing to do but he couldn't. He sat paralised under the bed hoping that Voldermort might not find him. However it would only be a matter of time before he was discovered.

He had to move! And fast too. Harry got himself together and crawled at breakneck speed toward the end of the bed. He was nearly there, two feet... one foot. Suddenly two snake-like arms grabbed his waist and hauled him out. Voldermort obviously couldn't see him but being part snake he could sense where Harry was. The Dark Lord easily overpowered the struggling, invisible baby.

The intense smells of fear made his nostrils dilate and he reached for his wand to calm the child. One suitable calming charm later, Harry's struggles became somewhat more sluggish. Voldemort proceed to remove the invisibility charm that the potion had caused so that he could see Harry. The baby was still panting for breath, his puffy cheeks glowed red with exhaustion.

"Now, Alex, have a rest," said the Dark Lord as he place the baby in a conjured cot.

Snape hurried down the hallways to his lab. He needed to find out what went wrong with the potion. After all potion mistakes often had more than one side effect. He was so sure that he had done it right. The only thing that could possibly reverse the effects of belladonna, which he used to make sure the Imperius Potion, was lansumi-ushi a rare oriental potion ingredient used only to make Invisibility Potions. Snape's eyes suddenly lit up with a knowing look.

Someone wearing a leaky invisibility pendant was in his lab at the time he made the potions. That same person must have tried to wreck the potion by adding sugar but it destroyed the Proxium potion and not the Imperius potion. The perpetrator was no doubt Lucius Malfoy. Very few people could afford an invisibility pendant, even if it was leaking.

Snape's brow darkened as he stepped into his lab, he needed to make another Proxium potion for Harry. He somehow had to make sure that Harry acted like he had his memory modified after he took the potion because he needed to smuggle Harry out of the castle. The best thing to do was to make sure he got Harry alone sometime and explain to him. However he wasn't sure at was possible, Voldermort seemed to be very protective of his son. Well, he could obviously offer to baby-sit Harry but that would make Voldermort very suspicious.

Snape suddenly felt he had met a very ugly dead end. How was he going to get Harry out of the stupid mess? He sighed and started to work on his potion.

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At the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters Sirius Black stared out of the large rectangular window. It had been three weeks and not further news had come form Snape or any other sources about Harry and Sirius was beginning to think that maybe Snape wasn't as trustworthy as Dumbledore made him out to be.

The weather was bleak outside, the wind howled and snatched dying, browny-green leaves of trees. The ominous grey clouds hung over the tense countryside. A gust of wind surged through the open window and blew the paper soff his cluttered desk. Sirius didn't even bother to pick them up but continued to stare into the bleak sky.

Remus Lupin was seriously beginning to worry about his friend. Sirius hadn't eaten anything for days and he had acquired the haunted look of Azkaban. Remus was also worried about Snape and Harry. No news had come for weeks. Could Snape had been caught? He hoped not. However he knew just as well as everyone else that Voldermort was no fool and conning him was more dangerous than plunging your hand into a pond full of ravenous piranha. Voldermort wasn't the most merciful person on earth either and was probably torturing Harry right now. Remus didn't want to break it to Sirius but he knew that if they didn't rescue Harry quickly his chances of survival were non-existent. He really didn't want to think about what Sirius would do if Harry died, after all Harry was what Sirius lived for. Remus signed and found himself wishing that Voldermort didn't exist, life would have been so much better. What could have been was no more.

Professor Severus Snape, potions adept, potions master at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry was having a mental block. He wanted to escape with Harry from the hellhole that Voldermort called home. It wasn't the Riddle Mansion; it was a castle in the east midlands near Nottingham.

Snape need to get out and tell Dumbledore the new developments and rescue Harry but he hadn't been able to come up with a sufficient excuse yet. The Dark Lord was paranoid and any sign of inconsistent behaviour was enough to raise suspicion.

Snape knew that Harry was fine, after all Voldermort did seem pretty fond of his son. Snape sat stirring another batch of the potion Malfoy had wrecked. He need to get Harry alone when he drank the potion or else the stupid boy would probably started blabbering about how nasty his father was. Snape decided that he would tell Voldermort the effect of the potions and persuade him to leave Harry with Snape so that he could "fill" the boy's mind.

Harry hissed in parsletongue at his father,

"You cheating scum! I never thought you would sink so low! All because you can't stop the order! You are totally pathetic! I hate you!"

Voldermort, however was unmoved by all this because plainly, he wasn't listening. He was thinking about the effects growing older would have on a person's memory. If he left Alex as he was now than the baby would probably forget everything by the time he was two. Natural memory modification would be a lot more effective than any spell or potion. Besides Voldermort felt that he already had enough support to hold the order at bay and he could easily outsmart those fools at the ministry.

He would tell the world that he had killed the famous Harry Potter and present them with the fake head of their "saviour"; that would dampen public moral. Meanwhile he would raise Alex to be his heir. Voldermort knew quite well that the road to immortality was a very long one and he might not reach the end so he needed Alex to carry on his work, to make the Slytherins rule supreme. It was the perfect plan and of course only his most trusted servants, Snape and Malfoy would know, as he didn't want some meagre spy to report it to the order.

"Summon Snape and Malfoy," said Voldermort to Nagini. The poisonous green snake slithered off into the vast labyrinth of corridors. "So Alex how are we?" Baby Harry gurgled and spat at him. "Ah, I see you can't speak parslemouth unless you are within hearing distance of a snake. Well, you need more practise," cooed Voldermort. Harry continued to spit and Voldermort decided that he would rather have Alex spitting at him than cursing him in words. Suddenly two consecutive knocks were heard. "Come in," commanded Voldermort. Snape in his usual bat suit stepped in followed by a splendidly dressed Malfoy who was wearing silk robes of Slytherin green, decorated with silver snakes.

"Master," they both mumbled as they knelt down.

"Rise men. I have a mission for you. I have decided that I shall keep Alex the way he is and let him grow out of it so Severus there is no need for you brew any more of your potion. Your task is to broadcast to the entire world that I have killed Harry Potter. Make sure the order and ministry know. Be ready with any proof they might want such as the body or head. Do not fail me!" instructed Voldermort.

"Yes master," they both said in unison and hurried out of the room.

"So, looks like we're stuck together again, Severus," commented Malfoy with a smirk.

"No Lucius, I will go my way and you go yours," snapped Snape.

"My, my you're very antisocial today. What's up old friend?" laughed Malfoy.

"Mind your own business Malfoy," hissed Snape, his nostrils quivering.

"Alright Severus, alright. You proceed with your fit and I'll go get things started. See you around," with that Malfoy strutted down the hall.

Snape made a dash for his dungeons, now that he had got rid of Malfoy he could talk in peace. He rushed down the cold stone corridors while paintings on the walls gave his apprehensive looks. Snape kept his eyes peeled and his ears pricked for any noise but he didn't hear or notice the black shadow that stalked him as he flew down the steps.

Snape ran into his dungeon and opened his last pot of floo powder. It was very dangerous to talk to the order here but it was his only chance. His hand shook as he undid the lid, spilling some powered as he did so. He silently cursed himself for being so stupid. There was no one here, so why did he have that horrible feeling that someone was watching his from the shadows.

Snape looked around wildly but there was nothing out of the ordinary there. He turned back to the fire and through some floo in. The fireplaces in Voldermort's castle were talk only ones, which meant that no one could use them to come in or get out.

"The order's headquarters," whispered Snape. Immediately he saw Sirius' head, Dumbledore's head and Remus' head appear in the hearth. " Harry is safe here because..." Snape was cut off as a thin white, manicured Hand grabbed his shoulder.

"I always knew you weren't as loyal as you made yourself out to be!"