A/N: I'm very very sorry this took so long. -_-;; I started University in January, and found new interests, which put this on complete hold. Sorry again and thank you to all of you who e-mailed me to encourage me to write more. ^_^ As for now, this is the last part... but given the fact that the second movie is coming out later this month, who knows? Maybe I'll pick it up again at a later date.
Enjoy!

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Chapter 6
Back into the Fire --
(In which we discover that not all American government officials are bad guys... really they aren't!! ^_~)

The next morning Severus was up at the crack of dawn, (hours before Ron even thought about getting out of bed), to help the Muggles prepare packs of food for the journey. He noticed that the Muggles seemed fairly subdued, and accepted his help with a grim kind of silence.

Only Sam seemed willing to give him any sort of directions. When she did, she spoke in a low voice, barely above a whisper.

"Are you all ready to go?" She asked finally, after they had finished the food packs. At the same time she handed him two brown paper bags full of sandwiches and supplies.

He nodded. He had acquired his black Slytherin robes back from her several days before and, beyond Weasley, those had been his only possessions anyway...

"Then go get Ron," Sam instructed. She glanced behind herself at the room full of terrorists, before turning past Severus, walking deliberately close to him as she went. "And make sure you keep him close to you." She said out of the corner of her mouth, so quietly that only Severus could hear.

The walk to back to where the truck was kept was even more subdued. Even Ron tread beside him silently, his brown eyes wide as he glanced about nervously. The Muggles ignored him, seeming intent on walking grimly along the corridors.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that something was wrong. Severus also noticed that Ron and him were the only people in the party who hadn't been given weapons, a fact that concerned him, given Sam's cryptic statement earlier...

Reaching down, he lay long bony fingers on Ron's shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. Ron glanced up at him and he nodded at the boy, hoping that he would understand his teacher's silent command to stay close. From the nervous look on Weasley's face, Severus guessed that he didn't have to worry about that all that much.

They came to the garage soon enough, and in groups of two or more began to make their way up and onto the truck. Severus and Ron were near the end of the group.

Severus had a very bad feeling all of a sudden. As he gazed up into the darkened pit of the inside of the truck, already packed with silent and weaponed Muggles he was struck with the most uncanny feeling of fear. If he got on that truck

Hogwart's Potion Master glanced about quickly, keen eyes searching for some sort of escape. All he saw was Sam and Jack and the last couple of terrorists behind him, all who were holding weapons. There was no way out, he realized finally. Sam gave him a small smile and the tiniest nod of encouragement. Grimly Severus turned away. Despite himself he flexed his figures on the boy's shoulders, drawing him a mite bit closer to himself and led Ron up the trucks rampart.

The terrorists parted silently for them once they reached the top. Finding a secure piece of wall off to the side he sat.

Amazingly enough Weasley sat as well, quiet for once in his life. He watched out of wide eyes as they loaded the last of the Muggles into the truck and the back hatch was drawn shut with an ominous clang of finality. In the darkness Sam and Jack somehow managed to find the two of them. Sam sat beside him on one side, and Jack sat on the other side of Ron. "Hey," Jack whispered in the darkness. "How are you, bud?"

Ron didn't have the opportunity to reply. His answer was swallowed in the sound of the truck rumbling to life.

"What exactly is going on here?" Severus hissed under his breath at Sam as the loud rumbling sound evened out and the truck jerked to life.

Sam only shook her head. He watched her, in the dim light that filtered in from cracks along the corners of the truck, as she half sniffed and moved her hand up to cup it about her nose.

There was something in her hand. For a long moment Severus stared at it, trying to figure out what it was. Then he realized that whatever it was she was holding it over her nose and a small thrill of alarm coursed through him. He turned his head to discover that Jack on the other side of Ron was doing the same, crouched with his hand over his mouth.

He also realized that he was feeling very very sleepy.

"Ron!" he hissed. He was just in time to catch the boy as he slumped over onto his lap. Severus caught the boy, but even the basic act of moving his arms was very difficult for him. His arms felt like lead. He shook his head furiously, trying to shake the groggy feeling that was quickly clouding his mind. An overwhelming sense of panic accompanied it. He had to get out of here!

He didn't make it an inch. Before he knew it his head was falling towards his lap. He slumped over onto Ron as well. The last thing he remembered was Sam peering down at him with her cursed sympathetic eyes, one hand placed gently on his shoulder and the other one still cupped around her mouth and nose. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound would come out. His very last action before passing out was to curl his lip up to snarl at her.

Severus awoke slowly to the gentle loll of a moving Muggle vehicle. He moaned very softly to himself, wondering why, exactly, his limbs felt like they were in the process of recovering from a good bought of Crusio'.

The he remembered. He blinked, taking in all that he could see-- which was exactly nothing. It was dark.

Alarmed he tried to move his hands, only to find them pinned somehow in an awkward position, somewhere behind him. It felt like he was tied to a chair again.

Agitated, he thrashed.

"Hey there!" A VERY familiar voice said it him. The cloth was removed from around his eyes. Severus blinked as sudden light flooded his vision. It took a couple of moments to adjust to the light, and then he looked around desperately. He *was* in the seat of a moving Muggle vehicle, of that much he had figured out before. He watched out of the tinted windows of the vehicle as trees flew by. They were traveling somewhere rural then, and by the fact that it was daylight out, he assessed that it was still the same day as the day that he had passed out in the back of the truck. What happened after that, he had no memories of, like how he had gotten here... where ever *here* was...

It appeared that he was tied to front seat. What surprised him was the fact that Jack was sitting besides him and driving the vehicle. The man was also dressed in a grayish-green uniform of some sort that wasn't familiar. The uniform was endowed with odd rounded patches on the sleeves.

"Hey Professor!" Ron spoke up cheerily from somewhere behind him. Severus twisted around to see that Ron was sitting in the back of the Muggle vehicle beside Sam, who was also dressed in the uniform that was decorated with those odd round icons. A quick once over told him that Ron appeared to be fine and unbound... but that didn't explain why *he* was tied to a seat.

"What is the MEANING of this?" Severus demanded to know, whipping his head back around and glaring for all his worth at Jack.

"Whoa big guy!" Jack afforded him a glance, before placing one of his partially gloved hands on his gun, which sat on his lap.

Severus stilled appropriately. He understood the silent threat of the muggle death sticks.

Sam spoke up from behind them. "It's okay sir," She said quickly to Jack, before turning her attention to Severus. She caught the lethal look on Severus' face as he twisted as best he could in his chair to see her. "We can explain to them about us..."

Snape sneered at her. "I most certainly hope you can!" He snapped. He had *trusted* the blond Muggle woman-- apparently that had been a mistake.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Hey!" He said quickly. "We saved your butts back there! They were going to kill you!"

Snape's eyes narrowed, ignoring the fact that Ron was now giving him a particularly alarmed look. "And how do I know you wouldn't do the same?" He hissed.

"Well we could," Jack drawled. "But we're not going ta."

"Oh?"

"We're not," Sam said from behind him. Out of the corner of his eye Severus could see her shaking her head.

Jack sighed. "Look," He explained. "We're undercover agents. We work for the United States Air Force. Three months ago we received information about an escaped..." He hesitated giving Severus a sidelong look. "*Interest* of ours..." He signaled and turned the vehicle left.

Sam picked up in the telling of their story. "Our search for him led us to the organization that you have now spent a week with. We infiltrated it fine and found our target and even managed to extract some information we needed from Area 52..."

Jack was shaking his head. "What disaster that was..."

"Yes sir. Everything went off without much of a hitch... but you two presented a little bit of a, uh, problem for us." Sam paused significantly. "We didn't expect innocents to get involved."

"If we can even call you guys innocents..." Jack cut in. "To tell all truth, we have no idea *what* on earth you two are."

Snape closed his eyes briefly before opening them again. "I told you," he said, his voice low and tired sounding. "I'm a school teacher."

"Yeah, yeah," Jack said, continuing to drive. "I'm sure. Luckily my friend back there seems to believe you," He glanced at Severus briefly. "That's the only reason why we're doing this."

There was silence as Severus digested that. "And what," Severus asked, slowly and deliberately. "Is it that you're doing exactly?"

"They're taking us home!" Ron piped up.

Sam let out a little laugh and ruffled the boy's orange locks of hair fondly. Ron wrinkled his nose and moved his head away, even though he was grinning.

"Well not really," Sam said in reply to Ron's comment. "We're going through the northern half of Montana anyway before looping back to Colorad..." She paused as Jack made a vague cut-throat gesture before turning his attention back to driving.

"Back to our base." She completed after a moment. "So we thought we'd just drop you off on the border."

Jack turned the vehicle onto a rather bumpy gravel road. The occupants of the Muggle vehicle continued on in silence for a bit, as they were jostled about.

"Then would you mind untying me?!" Severus exploded, after giving another good little struggle against his bonds. He still had no idea *why* he was tied up in the first place. It didn't make any sense... unless Sam had felt threatened by his lovely little snarl he had given her before passing out.

Jack gave him a serene look out of the corner of his eye. "In a moment," He replied. "Where almost there."

Severus growled under his breath, muttering something about Muggle incompetence. Hunching his shoulders, he slumped down in his seat and glared out of the window, appearing, to the entire world, to be sulking. Instead he was mentally weighing his options. He didn't trust these people. No matter how friendly Sam was, the Jack guy still had a gun that was serenely nestled in his lap. There was no telling if he would even use it, but the fact remained that chances weren't really heavy in his favor. He was tied up and helpless (YET again), and they were presently traveling along a road that was obviously not often traveled...

Needless to say Severus was more than a little agitated when the truck finally rolled to a stop along the side of the road. He watched warily as Sam climbed out of it, along with Jack and Ron. A moment later his door was pulled open and Jack leaned inside. A flash of metal told Severus that he had a pocketknife in hand. He jerked away instinctively, his eyes wide. Bloody hell! He knew it...

His actions caused a soft chuckle to well up from Jack. "Relax," He instructed. At the same time he reached behind Severus with the knife, and a few seconds after that Severus could feel his hands again. He brought them forward and flexed his hands, mildly surprised. Besides a small amount of chaffing on his wrists, they were fine.

Jack actually chuckled at him. "When I said we weren't going to hurt you, I meant it," He said, stepping off of the foot pad and reaching up to offer Severus a hand down.

Snap stepped down on his own, and glanced further up the road where Ron was walking away from the truck and along side of Sam, obviously nattering her ear off about nothing in particular. He hesitated and glanced back at Jack.

Jack nodded in their direction. "Go on," He said. "Go."

Severus hesitated for a moment more, then said something that came extremely hard to him. "... Thank you."

Jack smiled and shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets and nonchalantly leaning up against the side of the truck. "It's what we do," he replied, grinning.

Severus nodded and managed a thin smile back before sweeping off in the direction of Ron and his friend.

"You go up this road about a mile until you hit the border," Sam was explaining. "A couple of miles after that there is a small town. You should be able to find a ride from there." She smiled. "Will you be able to find it okay?" She asked.

Severus nodded once sharply. It didn't appear to be too hard. He glanced down the length of the dirt road, noting that it curved off around a bend not too far up.

"Oh yes," Sam said suddenly, reaching down and fumbling in the pocket of her fatigues for something. A moment later she straightened again, with a folded handful of muggle money. This she pressed into Severus hand.

"Take this," She instructed. "It's not much, but it'll be enough to get you to the airport in Lethbridge. From there you're on your own, but I'm sure you'll be able to think of something."

"I..." Severus found himself in a difficult situation for the second time in a matter of minutes. "I have no way to repay you." He said finally. He deliberately ignored Ron, who was uttering such things as "oh cool!" and "I bet my dad would love to see that!" in regards to the money.

Sam grinned. "Don't worry about it," She said, chuckling as she ruffled Ron's hair again. "Call it payment for the wonderful meals over the last few days." She glanced back at the truck, only to see Jack waving at her to go.

She nodded. "Coming sir!" she called back. She turned to Severus and Ron one last time. "So," she said.

"So." Severus repeated, feeling like an utter dolt. He managed not to sneer.

The Muggle woman smiled up at him. "Do you think you'll be okay then?" She asked.

Severus glanced down the road and back again. "We'll be fine," He said briskly. He hesitated. "... Thank you." He added rather stiffly. Oh how the mighty have fallen he thought to himself sourly. It was the second time in a matter of minutes he was actually thanking a Muggle for their help.

Sam nodded. "No prob!" She watched as Severus lay a hand on his student's shoulder and then they turned and began down the dirt road. "Take care of your teacher Ron!" She called after them suddenly.

Ron turned and waved back at her. "I will!!" He said cheerily. Severus gritted his teeth and snarked something under his breath, which only made Ron laugh when he turned back again.

Sam watched them go until teacher and student walked around the bend and disappeared out of sight.