Chapter 3.
Plans and Elves
As Severus had been asked by his master to find out how Sara was settling in with the Weasleys and if there were any problems, he had spent the last couple of hours of Friday afternoon in visiting them.
Later that same day, after Harry had eaten a tasty but rather fat laden evening meal in the Great Hall, he walked down to the dungeons, and after lightly knocking on the door to Severus's rooms, strolled in and threw himself down onto the softer of the two dark green leather armchairs by the fire. Severus, who had been writing a few choice comments in scarlet ink across some unfortunate's excuse for an essay, stood up as Harry came in, walked forward a few steps, inclined his head slightly, and waited for Harry to speak.
Harry looked at him. "Hi, have you had dinner? I didn't see you in Hall."
"Good evening Harry. Thank you. I had a cheese sandwich earlier so I did not feel hungry enough to eat a meal."
"Hermione keeps telling me you're too thin." Harry looked Severus over carefully, but his robes covered everything apart from his hands, feet and head, so it was difficult to see if he was thin or not; his face did look rather gaunt though: it was all carved cheekbones, Roman nose, hollow cheeks and penetrating black eyes.
"You do look a bit thin I suppose. Please try and eat more; it's bad enough as it is, without making her think I'm not letting you eat enough. Why don't you get the elves to bring you something? The fish and chips were pretty good, if they've still got any left."
"I would prefer another sandwich if you will permit that. The fish and chips may be cold by now and they do not always reheat successfully."
"I've got to agree with you there, gone-cold chips are gross. Have whatever you like prof, but please try and remember to eat more."
Severus was about to comply with the suggestion to order more food—any suggestion from Harry had to be regarded as an order—but before he could call an elf, Harry continued, "How did the visit to the Weasleys go? Is Sara settling in okay and what did you have to tell Mr and Mrs Weasley? Is Sara still very upset? I should think she would be?"
"Sara seems to be reasonably happy Master, and they seem fond of her. I have taken the liberty of placing a copy of the memory in one of your pensives, if you would like to see it, or I can report verbally if that is your preference."
"Oh, just tell me; just your main impressions and things will do for now. I'll talk about it more with you later, or look in the pensive or something. How is she coping with being away from her mum?"
"They have been extremely kind to her and she appreciates it…and on the surface at least, she is coping remarkably well. I did not probe her mind, as, forgive me please, I forgot to ask you if you wished me to do that, so all I could judge by were her words and body language... She seems a sensible child, far more sensible than are most children her age, and remarkably well aware of her situation; I think her mother must have done her best to prepare Sara for the realities of life as a slave and perhaps told her much of her own history.
"Oh that's good that she seems happy; I was worried she'd still be crying all the time because of losing her mother." Harry knew how it felt to not have a mother.
"At least I can't remember ever having one; it must be a lot worse to have one and then lose her, and even worse for Sara too because her mum is still around if you know what I mean; she's still there but Sara can't be with her because of the rotten slavery...I've been thinking though; the headmaster says her bond's like yours, like all the slave bonds he said, and she can't ever be freed, so isn't there some way we could get her mother too, so they could be together? How much would that cost do you think?"
"The idea does you credit Master. However I fear that the sum of money needed to persuade her owner to sell her might be prohibitive—if indeed he could be persuaded to sell her at any price. He is unlikely to want to sell her when keeping her and selling her offspring will be a continuing source of revenue for him."
Harry stared, unseeing, at Severus. For some strange reason, although the horrible fact that slaves might be deliberately bred for sale had occurred to him before, he had not connected that with Sara and her mother.
"That bloody man! He's going to do just that!...Excuse me; I have to go!" and he ran out of the room, leaving a slightly bemused Potions Master in his wake.
Severus had intended to tell his master the details of his visit to the Weasleys, and after explaining Sara's bond to him, to ask him how much Sara was to be told about it. That would now all have to wait until his master returned.
Harry was becoming more and more agitated the more he thought about Sara's mother, but then he calmed himself by the thought: Hermione will be able to think of something.
What was the point of rescuing Sara if that man is just going to make her mother have more children, and well, yes, it saves her at least, but it doesn't change anything for any others... we have to do something! Rotten bloody people! But Hermione will think of something.
Where the heck had she got to? Hermione was not in the common room nor in the room they often used for studying, but after Seamus remarked, "I guess you've already checked the library?" Harry mentally kicked himself and hurried off to it.
Hermione was seated at her favourite table, the largest one, which had room for all the many books she consulted at any one time.
For once she was not concentrated on a book or writing so Harry did not have to interrupt her. She caught sight of him as he entered the room and immediately smiled and waved him over.
"Ah, Hermione..."
"That's me. What's got you so hot and bothered?"
"Er, nothing really; I've just spent ages looking for you and didn't even think of the library. I must be going mental."
"You're here now though, so you must have regained some of the few brain cells you once had," Hermione laughed.
"Not before Seamus asked if I'd tried here."
"...Okay… I guess that proves you must be right then: You've mislaid a few too many marbles. It must be your advanced age."
Harry grinned. Hermione was in an unusually happy mood apparently. She usually left the kidding around to him and Ron.
"Where's Ron?" he wondered aloud.
"I don't know; probably playing chess or talking about Quidditch with someone I expect. Do you want him? What were you looking for me for anyway?"
"No, I don't need him; actually it might be best if we kept this between ourselves, well, us and Sev I mean..."
Hermione interrupted him. "That reminds me—I keep meaning to tell you but keep forgetting—you usually call him professor or Professor Snape in front of other people, which is good because it makes sure people know how much you respect him, and people that don't already know he's a slave can't realise that he is one, but when it's just us, you, me and the professor I mean, you often call him Sev, and I don't think you notice it, but almost every time you do that, he winces; the tiniest little wince, so small that at first I did not realise what it was. I think he hates the shortening of his name, but of course he won't tell you that."
"Oh... Really?... Blast! I wish he didn't walk on eggshells around me like he still does all the time. It's as if he expects me to suddenly turn into Godzilla if he says just one wrong word. He could easily have asked me not to shorten it! Actually I thought he'd started to relax around me a bit but if he still can't ask even that, then obviously not."
"I don't think he can Harry, either because it's not in him to treat you any other way, or perhaps that's something he's learned with other masters, or maybe the slavery bond forces him to behave that way."
Harry thought about that... "He did tell me once that he can't allow himself or me to forget what he is, not even for a moment, because if we forget it could mean a lot of trouble for him... I'm not sure why it would cause him trouble or what sort of trouble he meant, but I suppose he must know...I must remember to ask him ...
"I didn't tell you this before, but when I first came to Hogwarts and found out about Severus, the headmaster gave me a book about slavery bonds and the Wizarding world's laws about slaves... The whole thing was awful, just disgusting, really really bad, just barbaric. Even apart from the bonds themselves the laws are unbelievably rotten and unfair."
"Why didn't you give it to me to read?" Hermione demanded indignantly.
Harry was amused that she was almost aghast that he, or anyone, could have to audacity to read a book and not offer it to her.
"I was afraid of how you'd react ... but if I can find it I'll lend it to you now ... now that you seem to have relaxed about it all a bit, about him being a slave I mean. But we've got off the topic of why I was looking for you; it's about Alice, Sara's mother, and the horrible man she belongs to... Sev... er, Severus, has just told me that he probably makes money by selling her babies."
Before Hermione could react he hurried on; "It's fine for Sara as she is mine now... well, no, not fine of course, no-where near fine, but at least Severus and I will look after her properly, but what's the point of just rescuing one person, one slave, when all he does is create more?"
"The poor woman!"
"Yes, exactly! and that's why we have to rescue her; get her away from him somehow. That's how I found out about it; I asked Sev...erus if we could buy Sara's mother so that they could be together but he said that her owner would probably not sell her however much I offered for her, as her offspring were a continuing source of income for him."
Hermione thought for a moment. "So it's true then; I already thought he was probably doing that. I've already thought about it quite a bit actually and what could be done about it and if you could be persuaded to… well it might be expensive whatever we do, and you…"
Harry shook his head. "I don't mind if it's expensive. It doesn't matter; I've got more than I'll ever know what to do with." Harry waved away her concern.
"Oh good, but it may also mean that we have to get her some other way... preferably a legal way of course, but, you know, possibly it might have to be, er, not exactly legal."
"You've already thought about rescuing her mum? Trust you to be one or more steps ahead of me…but not legal? That doesn't sound like you!"
"Well, the ideas I've been able to come up with have not all been exactly legal or perhaps even ethically defensible... Ron could help at thinking up a strategy you know..."
"Yes... maybe...probably... but he gets very upset whenever anything draws his attention to how much money I've got. The stupid thing is that I offered to give him and his family quite a bit of it and he got offended. He gets awfully envious, but the idiot won't let me give him anything!"
"No, he's too proud I suppose...you're probably right; best not to tell him about this unless we have to. We should talk about it with the professor though; he wasn't sorted into Slytherin for nothing I imagine."
Harry was both surprised and impressed at how quickly Hermione had agreed to his idea, no, more than that, she had considered the problem before he had even thought about it himself.
"What's that funny look on your face for Harry?"
"Funny look? Oh, nothing...I just didn't think you'd agree so quickly. I thought it'd take me ages to convince you, well, actually I thought you wouldn't agree at all, but you have already thought about it and have even suggested we might have to do it in a sneaky or illegal way. I'm just gobsmacked that's all."
Hermione smiled. "My vastly superior brain worked out in a flash that it was necessary to rescue her, and it was immediately obvious to me that strictly above-board methods might not be enough," she joked. "Well, no, not really, as I said, I've been thinking much the same thing for a couple of weeks now. I just wasn't sure how to suggest it to you."
"Oh good, I won't have to kneel in gratitude at your feet and worship you after all then," he grinned ... "but getting back on track; we should go and see Severus now 'cos I ran out on him in a big rush so he'll be wondering what that was all about. Do you need help putting the books back?"
Hermione waved her wand, muttered something, and all the books shut themselves and flew back to their places on the shelves.
"That's a good one! You'll have to teach me that."
"Yes, and you will have to come to the library more often to use it," Hermione lectured. Harry grinned at her.
It took them about five minutes to walk down to the Potion Master's suite. Harry knocked politely, murmured the password and when the door opened, walked in and Hermione followed him.
"I'm back Severus," he said unnecessarily, particularly as Severus had already stood up to greet him, "and I've brought Hermione. She's been thinking about our problem and has even had a few ideas already."
"Our problem Master?"
"Yes, you know, what we were talking about before: Sara's mother and how to get her away from that man."
Severus inclined his head respectfully to his master, and then turned to Hermione, saying in a more brisk tone than he had used when speaking to Harry; "What are your thoughts on the subject Miss Granger?"
"Basically sir, as you told Harry, it probably won't do any good to just offer money for her, so we might have to be more sneaky about it. I've thought of a couple of ideas, but they're not very good as they depend on him being not too bright; they depend on his being dumb enough that he could fall for them..."
She fell silent. Now she had to present her schemes to the professor they seemed much more feeble than they had just a few minutes ago.
"Well, may we hear them? Sometime in the not too distant future perhaps."
Severus caught a surprised and slightly disapproving glance from his master, which made him shiver and be thankful that Harry did not attend regular potions lessons; if that mild remark merited Harry's disapproval, Merlin knows what his reaction would be to the tone and sarcasm he used in class. Harry had twice now stated that he would not interfere in Severus's teaching, but it would not do to test his tolerance unduly. However, he quickly put those thoughts—and thoughts of what he would have to say to his master about it later—aside for the moment, as Hermione, his master's best friend, and, as he reminded himself, possibly even his future mistress, was starting to explain her ideas.
Well sir, do you mind if I quickly run through them all as they occurred to me, leaving aside for the moment if they have any practicality or are really silly...?"
"That seems an excellent idea Miss Granger. Please proceed."
Receiving a compliment from Professor Snape distracted Hermione for a few seconds... not a backhanded compliment or grudging faint praise either, it actually contained the word 'excellent'. Then she understood; Harry was standing right here and the professor had spoken impatiently to her just moments before. He was worried that he had angered Harry by speaking impatiently to his friend and was trying to placate him. Oh, the poor poor man...
"Hermione—the ideas," Harry prompted.
"Oh, sorry, yes, well...uh, here goes; I've already made some enquiries about That Man. It turns out our main advantage might be that Mr Monty Montgomery is in fact not very bright, not very bright at all, a bit of a moron in fact, and not only that, he's also both a dipsomaniac and a gambler...yes and very superstitious too it seems and..."
"A dipsomaniac?"
"A drunkard Harry. Anyway, that was probably the main reason he decided to sell Sara rather than keep her after the original sale fell through, despite the fact that in a few years she would be at an age where she could become pregnant. He needed money in a hurry to pay gambling debts."
"How on Earth did you find all that out?"
"My secret spy network... No, seriously, it was easy; I just asked Luna if they had a file on him at the Quibbler, and to my surprise, they did; it was on his whole family and its history actually, so it was a surprisingly thick file... It certainly makes you wonder just how much information is known about us all if a small paper like the Quibbler knows so much about even an unimportant man like Montgomery...anyway, although it was mostly about his forebears it did document a lot of things about him personally, such as: he's a bachelor, he gambles, that he has mortgaged his house to the hilt, that he drinks when he gambles and that he almost always loses, and even that he is so superstitious he consults a fortune teller who advises him what he should bet on... Apparently he's so incredibly stupid that he keeps going back to her despite almost always losing when he follows her advice."
"That is useful intelligence Miss Granger. I am impressed." This time Professor Snape sounded more sincere.
"What does he bet on? Horse races?" Harry asked.
"No, well sometimes, but more often he plays poker or just on whatever bets are proposed to him at his local pub. It's a muggle pub if you can believe that; perhaps he thinks that by betting in a muggle pub his reputation among wizards will not be put at risk... What he doesn't seem to realise is that some of the other patrons are wizards too. Some of them, a couple of them in particular, wait 'til he's drunk and then make bets with him about such things as who will win a bar fight. Of course, according to Luna, the bar fight, or whatever it is they're betting on, is staged, so he has no hope of winning; or if not that, then he even bets on such ridiculous things as for example which raindrop reaches the bottom of the window first, or what colour jacket the next person who walks in will be wearing, and of course, it's a friend of theirs who walks in wearing whatever they'd bet he'd be wearing. In other words they regularly cheat and fleece him... leaving him just enough to play again another day. It is a wonder he still has his home, but that's probably only because they see no point in winning a heavily mortgaged house."
"It may be necessary to move quickly, before he loses Alice too."
"Strangely professor, he never mentions her in the local. Well, perhaps he knows that British muggles don't have slaves so he doesn't mention her, or perhaps it's because he retains enough sense to realise what a disastrous financial loss to him it would be if he lost her. Anyway, the other wizards don't know about her apparently, as they seem never to have suggested that she be the stake. At least that's what our intrepid reporter Luna and her file tells me. She helps her father research all the stuff about him and other people; which must have take a fair bit of courage sometimes."
"It's rather a surprise too Miss Granger. I thought she and her father were more concerned with hunting down and reporting on imaginary animals, and not that sort of reporting or information gathering at all."
"Mm, me too, sir."
"It is also a surprise Master, that Montgomery is in such a parlous financial state. It is widely believed that he is wealthy. His family have certainly been so in the past."
"Gambled it all away I guess."
"Indeed Master, a cautionary tale indeed." Severus paused and then turned to Hermione. "You mentioned that you have some ideas as to how we may take advantage of his failings?"
"Hermione felt her face flush. "Well, yes, but not very good ones sir"
"Allow us be the judge of that... "
"The thing is, a couple of them depend on you to carry them out. I can't think of whom else we could use, who else could do it either, except..."
"Hermione! Please stop beating around the bush and tell us what they are."
"Sorry Harry... mm...well, the first idea I had was that first we find out who holds the mortgage on his house and then you buy it up Harry, and then foreclose. Of course we couldn't let him find out that you held the mortgage; we would have to buy it through the goblins or some other agent. At the same time, or preferably a week or so before, you could make an offer for Sara's mother, which he would no doubt refuse—but of course if he did happen to accept it then we wouldn't need to go any further, but I think he would refuse it—and then, to prevent losing his house, he might contact you to see if you were still interested in Alice. The downside of that is that it would be very expensive for you, and there's no guarantee that he'd sell her to save the house."
The next idea is that you make an offer for Sara's mum, that part is the same as in the last idea. Then sir, you could dress up and disguise yourself as a fortune teller or seer, and Harry and I, under glamours as two older people, could become patrons of the pub and start talking about this wonderful new fortune teller, how accurate she is and so on. Then once he's hooked, either just give him her address or take him and introduce him to Madam Delphinia or whatever we decide to call her; that'd be you professor. You tell his fortune, which would include something along the lines that he is dogged by misfortune because of the presence in his house of a 'bound woman' a woman of no importance who has recently been cursed so that she causes anyone close to her to have bad luck, or some other such description really, just anything to make him want to get rid of her and more amenable to the idea of selling her to Harry. However it still has the same drawback as my first idea; there is still no guarantee he would sell her or how much he'd want for her.
The third possibility is that we force him at wand or even gun point to sell or give us Sara's mother, and then Obliviate him of all knowledge of her. Not exactly legal that one though, and the Obliviation needed would be huge, and neither Harry nor I know how to do it yet."
"What's Obliviation?"
"Oh sorry, it's a spell to remove someone's memories. Isn't that right professor?"
"Yes. That is correct."
Harry was thinking about the books he'd read onthe laws pertaining to slaves and was concerned about what they might affect Severus if he did anything illegal . "Sev, I don't want you to do anything you could get in trouble with the law for, so that'd probably rule out the Obliviation, unless you teach me to do it."
"Okay Harry, I don't want to get you into trouble either sir, so, well, another idea is that we all go to the pub ourselves, or rather just outside it—we would be disguised of course— then waylay the other gambling patrons as they approach the pub, stun them, and then you and Professor Snape go inside and get the man very drunk and then you or the professor propose betting Alice against something, a lot of money perhaps, and the bet would be that the next woman who walks in would be, oh I don't know, wearing a fur hat or something, and I would then walk in wearing whatever it was. Again, not exactly ethical, but that man is evil and needs to be stopped. But the main problem with that idea is that he'd probably find out once the bet was completed and Alice transferred to your name, that you were the one who had made the bet Harry, so I suppose that one might not work either.
"It might surprise you that I think so, but carried off with sufficient panache, a couple of those supposedly ridiculous schemes might work reasonably well, provided my master is prepared to spend a great deal of money of course."
Harry had thought of a problem; "With the betting ideas, what's the guarantee that he wouldn't welch on the bet?"
"I wondered about that myself, so I asked Luna about his previous bets and he seems never to have done so, not as yet anyway, even though he thinks they're muggles he was betting against."
"In that case we may be in error in thinking that he doesn't know they are wizards Miss Granger. If he knows that the people he bets against are wizards, he would almost certainly think that he would lose his magic if he broke what was, in effect, an oath. It's a commonly held belief, an erroneous belief, that with such so-called 'debts of honour' the penalty is bound by an unspoken oath. So long as he believes that to be true and knows us to be wizards, welching on the bet would not be a problem. Losing his magic, as he would think would happen should he welch on the bet, would seem even more disastrous to him than losing his slave."
"I've just remembered another idea I had, but it would need Harry to own an elf, and he doesn't, at least I don't think you do, do you?"
"No, not unless Dobby counts himself as being mine - but in any case he'd probably be happy to help out."
"Er, Master, what about one of the house elves at The Kiln, or from one of your other houses?"
"What? There are elves in all those houses? That can't be right can it? Why didn't the goblins mention them when they revealed the properties to me then?"
"I think they were included in the words 'contents and accoutrements,' I should have interpreted it for you Master, for which I must ask your forgiveness." Had Harry thought that the properties were looking after themselves?
"It wasn't your fault. I should've asked what was included in 'contents' and not just assumed it was furniture and stuff, and, yes, I know I should've visited at least one of the houses before now, the Kiln at least, like you suggested before, and then I would've found out about the elves anyway. How many do you think there might be?" Harry asked, with a sideways and apprehensive glance at Hermione.
"I am uncertain Master, possibly several dozen."
"Bloody hell! ... and it's no use you looking at me like that Hermione. I won't be freeing them unless they themselves want me to."
"Well Harry, we'll talk about that later!"
Severus thought he should intervene before there could be an argument. "May I suggest Miss Granger, that a campaign to free all house-elves, or indeed, any house-elves, should not be undertaken without having first done some in-depth research, not only into the reasons for their servitude and its conditions, but also their own views of it. That way you would have useful facts at your fingertips to aid you in any campaign. You would do any such campaign a great disservice were you to do otherwise... At the moment however, I believe that you were about to enlighten us as to how a house-elf could aid the current cause?"
Hermione was taken aback that Severus, himself a slave, could think that a campaign to free house-elf slaves could ever not be a good idea. Though thinking about it for a few moments more made her realise that he had really only said that she should do research about it first, which was obviously good advice; research was always a good thing, and researched facts would strengthen her arguments. She could do that...
"Earth to Hermione. Do you read us?"
"Oh, sorry. What? Oh yes, the elf idea... I thought that an elf could smuggle some birth control pills or potions to Sara's mother, and then, if she seemed to be infertile, That Man might be more willing to sell her, or, perhaps the elf could dose her with the Draught of Living Death and we could somehow rescue her from the graveyard.
"Unfortunately I do not believe she'd be able, knowingly, to take either a birth preventative or the draught. Her bond would prevent it as being detrimental to her master's interests. Even were we to somehow dose her with neither her consent nor her knowledge, the bond might be sufficiently aware of the dose effects of the birth control, to make her regurgitate it immediately, or it might even be able to nullify the effects of it. In the case of the Draught of Living Death, once she was given the antidote, the bond with her master would reinstate itself. No, I am afraid those two suggestions would not work. Let us re-examine the other ideas. I am quite attracted to the idea of posing as a fortune teller."
"I think you'd make a great seer or fortune teller Sev, er, Severus. You've got a great air of mystery about you even as yourself, but I'm not sure it wouldn't be too risky for you... Anyway, if we try one of those ideas and it doesn't work, we can always try to think of something else, or use the forced sale and Obliviation idea... but...oh… sorry... I've just realised, it's getting late and I've got some Transfiguration homework to finish for tomorrow, so we'll have to talk more about this again later."
"All right. I'll see you later then. Goodnight Harry, professor...Oh you're coming with me Harry?"
Harry and Hermione were about to leave, but a question from Severus forestalled them. "Master, do you wish me to walk Miss Granger back to her dormitory?"
"No, that's okay. It's not curfew yet. I'll go with her; I should try and spend more time in the common room anyway. I'll see you tomorrow sometime. Come on Hermione."
Harry shouldered his book bag and he and Hermione walked back towards the Gryffindor common room and dormitories; as they walked Hermione ventured to bring up something else she had been thinking about.
"I know you think the professor isn't much better than he was, but I do think he's more relaxed around you now, compared to how he was at first."
"You think so? I dunno, he still treats me with exaggerated respect..."
"I think that's the respect and deference his bond insists on, but I don't think it is you exactly that he's wary of now, just what the bond will do if he angers you or even says or does something the bond judges to be disrespectful to you."
"Well, if you say so, though I can't see that there's much difference if it's the bond or me, or both of us together, if it still means he talks to me as if I'm a little tin god."
"The difference might not be much in practice, but I think it means that he is starting to know for certain that you yourself are a good person, a good person whose behaviour is also restricted by the slave bond, not like his is of course, but to a small but definite extent."
"I hope you're right, perhaps he is a bit better, or at least I hope so, maybe he's starting to trust me—to trust that I won't start being rotten to him all of a sudden just because I can. I hate being his master, but as I am and seem to be stuck with it—for now at least if not forever—I am trying very hard to be a good one... You haven't found out anything yet about breaking the bond have you?"
"No, but don't give up hope yet; I'm still looking. It does look as if you may be bound together for a good while though, and that has made me think about something else."
"What?"
"Your parents bought him to save him from a cruel master didn't they, and you did the same for Sara, and we are trying to think of how to get Alice away from That Man?"...
"Yes, so?"
"What if something were to happen to you? Have you made a will?"
"Well, no, not yet; I'm young. I'm not going to die just yet."
"Really Harry! You know how foolhardy you are. It was a miracle you didn't die when we went after the Philosopher's Stone, and what about those insanely risky moves you make in Quidditch? You risk your life all the time and now Severus and Sara are dependent on you—and what about all those elves you've just found out about? What might happen to them if something happened to you? Without you having a will they could go to your nearest magical relative and that could even be someone like Draco Malfoy!"
Good point. Who should I leave them to though? You?"
"Well, maybe, but me or the Weasleys or someone you trust not to be a bad master. So long as you make a will...you should ask the professor what he thinks."
...
The next evening, and again after dinner in the Great Hall, Harry caught Severus' eye and motioned with his head for him to follow him and they walked down to the Slytherin Head of House's suite of rooms.
Severus walked in behind him, shut the door and inclining his head slightly, asked "You wish to speak with me Harry?"
"Yes… A couple of things. First; please tell me more about your visit to the Weasleys and Sara. I cut you off about it yesterday, and then we got talking about Alice and I forgot to ask you again. I think you said she's happy at the Burrow?"
"Yes Master, apart from a couple of worries she has, she seems to be so. They treat her very well indeed...however that causes her to worry that you might not approve of their leniency. They are, I believe, very likely to spoil her."
"Well of course I approve of their being lenient with her! That's exactly how I want them to be! It's so much better than them being cruel to her or even just being a bit distant with her. They probably feel sorry for her like I do; having been wrenched away from her mother and taken off to somewhere totally strange to her, and not knowing if they would be kind to her or not! I should think she needs quite a bit of spoiling... Okay, don't look at me like that. I can see you want to say something. I've told you before, you can say whatever you like to me so long as it's what you really think."
"Thank you Master. It is my opinion that if they continue to treat her as one of their family, and the Weasley family is extraordinarily permissive as I think you may be aware, then she will start to think of herself as being virtually free too, and so be very disappointed when reality sets in later in her life. More importantly, her bond will probably cause problems for her, perhaps even now but almost certainly once she is seventeen. At present they correct her for nothing, let alone punish her; and as a result, her bond might make her ill."
"Oh... No... Her bond's a pretty bad one then?"
"Bad? Well yes, I do know of worse bonds, but not many. It is very strong, very traditional and demanding in its standard of behaviour; it's an Absolutus slave bond, and they are both comprehensive and strict. I must confess that after I fire-called you from the Burrow, I took your permission to mean that I could tell Mr and Mrs Weasley of my concerns and to ask them to punish Sara; possibly a punishment such as time out or even merely a scolding, but including corporal punishment if that proved necessary, whenever she did anything of which the bond would disapprove."
"Oh no... do you really think that might be needed?... Well, if it is as bad or worse even than yours I suppose it might be. I did say that you were to say whatever you thought necessary, so that's fine—unexpected and rotten—but fine that you told them, well sort of."
"Thank you Master."
Harry was torn. He already knew from his reading that some of the Absolutus bonds were very nasty.
"I think you'd better tell me more about her bond," he sighed resignedly. "Will it affect her as much as yours affects you?"
"Yes Harry, I think it might even be a little worse. It's probable that its demands will become, from what I believe may be your point of view, even more intolerable, as she matures. For example, she may need to kneel every time you enter the room, or at least give a low curtsey or bow, whereas I need only to stand up and then incline my head... I also suspect that her bond is one of those that also try to influence the master, to make him into a far stricter disciplinarian than he would be without the bond's influence. Most slave bonds do that to a certain degree, but most are less successful than the Absolutus type of bond has often been."
Harry looked absolutely horrified so Severus hastened to add, "The effect, the influence, can be resisted to a great extent, even overcome, by a master who both strongly wishes to resist it and is of at least average magical power, and your power level Harry, is far greater than average. Also, as you now have fore-warning of it, you will be able to recognise any such attempt at influence and resist it."
"Gods! I hope you're right about me being strong enough! Thanks for warning me...but Sara won't be able to resist it though will she? I bet the bond will punish her if she even tries to resist... I wish Hermione was having more success at finding how to free you both!"
"Please do not depend on her discovering any way of freeing us Harry. Many clever, well intentioned and highly motivated people of strong power, including my late mistress, your mother, have sought a method of doing so and not one of them has had any success."
"None of them, not any? When I asked Hermione she said she'd had no success at all so far, but she doesn't wish to give up just yet."
"May I suggest an alternative objective for her research? She might have a little more success if she looks for a way to ameliorate some of our bonds' restrictions. That has been achieved, to a degree at least, with some slave bonds, and apart from the bonds themselves, looking into how the laws might be changed may prove to be of some benefit.
"Oh? Okay, I'll suggest that to her. Anyway, to get back to what you were saying about Sara; if you want to visit Mr and Mrs Weasley again to make sure they fully understand about Sara's bond then you can... Did she like the things I sent her?"
"Indeed she did; she was absolutely delighted. She informed me that she must have the best master in the world. The text books were taken as evidence that you at least wished her to study and led her to ask me if there might even be a remote possibility that you would permit her to attend Hogwarts."
"Well of course she can if she gets an acceptance letter. Why would she think I wouldn't let her?"
"Hogwarts tuition is expensive and far beyond what most masters are willing to pay to educate a slave. I doubt that her mother has more than a basic knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic and some household spells. Most masters would not be prepared to spend so much on a slave, particularly on a female slave whose prime purpose would usually be as a sex slave or from which to breed. Sara, no doubt judging from her mother's experience, assumed that was to be her purpose, and that even if you did allow her to come here, it would only be for a few years until she was old enough to become pregnant."
"She really thinks that? That I'm as bad as her old master?... I hope you told her that I would never do that to her!"
Severus hesitated... "Forgive me if I was in error Master, but I told her that I could not answer for you, our master, but that I thought it probable that you would have her educated and were unlikely to wish to breed from her for many years, if at all."
"But you must have known I wouldn't be like her old master!"
Severus bent his head, and then seeing Harry was so agitated that he was pacing to and fro, he knelt, but said nothing.
Harry immediately felt even worse, but in a different way; his anger being partly replaced by guilt. He paced around the room while he tried to work out why Severus's reply had made him so furious. Well, actually more hurt than angry; and now, added to the hurt he felt that Severus could possibly think him capable of breeding from Sara as if she was a cow or something, was that he now apparently expected Harry to punish him. He walked over until he was beside him.
"Please stand up. I'm sorry. I'm very sorry...I shouldn't have yelled at you. You did nothing wrong really... I suppose... no, actually I know you didn't. I know you couldn't tell her about what I would do without asking me first, and at least you did say that you thought I wouldn't ... Oh... and when you spoke to her I hadn't even told you yet how bad I thought what her old master was doing with Alice was, had I? I'm sorry."
Severus stood up again... "Thank you for sparing me punishment Master."
"I wouldn't punish you for that, for what you said and hurting my feelings I mean, and you defended me as much as you could...I didn't realise that at first; anyway, I now definitely do want you to tell Sara that I won't want her to have any babies at all if they were going to be slaves, let alone a lot of babies…though...that's not very good either as I suppose even my telling her that, is me ordering her about…but I can't stand the thought of her having children who would be enslaved…gods! I hope Hermione can find some way of changing all that… but at least you can tell her when you see her again that I don't like the idea of her having children and why... Oh, and when you talk to the Weasleys please make sure that whatever punishments they're giving her really are the absolute minimum her bond requires."
"Thank you Master."
Harry walked over to his favourite armchair again and sank down into it. It had been Severus' favourite seat until Harry had come to Hogwarts, but of course Severus never mentioned that, and in case his master should come in unexpectedly he now always sat in the other armchair even when Harry was not present.
"Sit down Sev..er..Severus... I'm trying hard to remember to call you that now because Hermione told me she'd noticed that you didn't like 'Sev'... You could have mentioned that you didn't like it you know; I can't always know what you want if you don't tell me."
"Thank you Master. It is not my place to complain to you, especially not about anything so trivial. It is your right to call me whatever you like. But I am grateful, very grateful, for your consideration."
"Well, in that case, what I'd like to call you will be 'Severus' from now on. You'll have to forgive me if I forget occasionally though."
Harry then sat back for a moment before saying, "I'm still feeling a bit hungry. Let's get something sent up from the kitchens... What about hot dogs? Do you like hot dogs?"
"Master, I have not tried it myself, and I am sorry but I am not certain that the elves will be able to supply dog meat. It is not generally eaten in the Wizarding world, and I hadn't realised that it was commonly eaten by muggles, not in the western world at least...oh, I see you are laughing; the dog meat was a joke?"
"No, I was laughing because hot dogs are not made from dogs... at least I jolly well hope they aren't. They're just a red pork sausage in a bread roll... Though I suppose eating pigs is just as bad as eating dogs, they're just as intelligent and friendly as dogs after all, it's just we're more used to eating pigs... You're probably right about the house-elves not having them though; if you don't know what hot dogs are then they probably won't either...so what else do you suggest? It had better be something fattening so Hermione gets off my back about you needing to put on weight. Well, me too, she thinks I'm too skinny as well."
Severus did not feel at all hungry and he still had several hours work correcting essays to do before he could go to bed. However, a suggestion from Harry was always to be regarded as an order. "May I suggest a baked potato with sour cream and cheese Master?"
Harry nodded. "That sounds good."
"Twister!" Harry called the elf who usually looked after Severus, and by extension, him too.
A couple of seconds later Twister, a female house-elf with startlingly pale blue eyes and scant, blond, rigidly-set curls on her head, was bowing in front of them. "What can Twister do for masters?"
"Would you get us some baked jacket potatoes with lashings of butter, sour cream and cheese please Twister? One medium sized one for me and a very large one, or two medium to large sized ones for Professor Snape please."
"Twister can, and Twister will gets two for Master Harry Potter too. Both youse will eats it all." She vanished with a pop.
"Well, I guess we both've been given our orders. What will she do to us if we disobey do you think? Not that I'd ever dare," Harry joked.
"The last time I disobeyed her my robes all mysteriously turned bright yellow overnight, every night for a month, and it took me a considerable amount of time each morning to turn them back to black. I did not think it a coincidence as other mysterious happenings have followed each time I have displeased her. I think I'd rather disobey you than her; her punishments are far more severe."
"Thanks for the warning Sev... Ah, back already Twister! That was quick! Amazingly quick. They look great...er...in all senses of the word... how on Earth did you manage to find such huge spuds?... If I can't get it all down would it be okay for me to take one back to the dorm with me and eat it later?" Harry asked meekly, and then added, "and the professor too, can he eat one later? I think we might both be sick if we try and eat them both all at once."
Twister held her head to one side and looked at Harry, apparently considering if he could be trusted. She nodded and then shook her forefinger at him. "All gone by morning! Twister knows if naughty masters hides good food!" Then she popped out.
"Do you think she'd know if we just banish half of it?" Harry asked, looking askance at his overflowing plate. Not only were the potatoes huge but there seemed to be almost half a pound of cheese on each one.
"House elves are very powerful magical creatures, far more powerful than the average wizard or witch, so I would not be surprised Master." Severus looked across at Harry who looked as if he could not quite make up his mind between grimacing and grinning.
Then Harry bust out laughing. "Oh dear! We're done for, definitely done for; it's yellow robes for both of us in the morning. Not a flattering colour for either of us."
"Perhaps Pomona might allow us to hide in the Hufflepuff sett with the other Badgers until Twister forgives us."
Harry thought for a moment. Actually, apart from it being rather amusing, this could be a nuisance, especially for Severus in his role as head of Slytherin House, and it was his fault, not Severus's fault, that they were faced with a small mountain of food and had been ordered to eat it.
"There's no guarantee she won't punish us some other way; a way that could be even more annoying than colourful robes... I've got an idea; I'm ordering you to give me one of those potatoes... That's right... Thanks... and you won't be getting it back I'm afraid. I'm going to give it and one of mine to the Giant Squid; she's always hungry."
"Master, although that's not hiding it, it is not eating it either..."
"True, but any punishment will come on me, not you...but just to be sure... Twister!"
As Twister appeared he continued, "Twister, I am not going to eat my second potato, not even later tonight, because so much at once will make me feel sick. I'm going to give it and one of the two you gave the professor to the Giant Squid. I forced Professor Snape to give it to me, ordered him to give it to me in fact, so for you to punish him for not eating it would be most unfair. You can do what you like to me, but if you do anything to him I shall ask the Headmaster to assign you to some other duty and ask Dobby to look after the professor and me from now on."
"Master Harry Potter look after his professor very good! Twister like! Twister not ask mystery colour come back. What Twister can dos for masters now?"
"That's all for now thanks," Harry said, the wind taken out of his sails, and the house-elf disappeared again. "Well! That was easy! Who knew?"
"A triumph indeed, Master," Severus congratulated, actually grinning. (Grinning? A grin on Severus' face looked so odd, so wrong, that it made Harry feel almost as if the Earth had suddenly shifted on its axis.)
Harry pulled himself together. "I won't go into it in detail about it now because I know you want to get on with marking those essays, and I got side-tracked yet again when I should have started to talk about it, but there's something else I want you to think about; Hermione mentioned something I should've thought of myself before now, and that's what would happen to you, Sara and the Potter house-elves, if I kicked the bucket? Okay, I'll have to make a will, but we have to decide who would be best to leave you to...or I wondered if there might even be some way we could work it so that if I die, you don't have to belong to anyone any more. Don't worry about it tonight as you've got all that marking to do, but next chance you get. Okay?"
Severus bowed his head. He appreciated the character of this master. Not one of his previous owners, not even Mrs Lily Potter, had given a great deal of thought to his future should they die. "Master, I feel a great reluctance to think of the possibility of your dying, but I am overwhelmed at your thoughtfulness. I shall do as you request and present my thoughts to you on the morrow."
"Mm, well, no need to thank anyone, but if you want to, then thank Hermione, not me. I probably would've got around to it eventually, at least I hope I would have, but she pointed out that there have been several times already where I might have shuffled off the old mortal coil if my luck or you hadn't saved me, so I might not get so lucky next time and so I should make a will as soon as poss."
"Master, I sincerely thank you both."
"Yes, but well, as I said, no need to thank anybody; we haven't thought of a solution yet. I mean, I could leave everything to Hermione as I think she'd treat you right, but who's to say she'll live much longer than I will? That's why I started to wonder if there might be some way of freeing you in my will. Anyway, please think about it. I'm going back now to all the racket of Gryffindor tower, eat my potato and then bed. See you tomorrow. We have a lesson in the afternoon anyway. Bye."
"Goodnight Master."
Later, Harry realised that Sev... Severus, he reminded himself, Severus, had probably still not told him the full story about Sara. That had been interrupted when Harry had raced off to ask Hermione what could be done about Alice, and then again later by him asking for the food. Ah well, he'd ask about it tomorrow.
At breakfast the next morning he set up a confidentuallity spell around himself, Hermione and Ron and then told them what the professor had said about what might be a more profitable area of research on slave bonds.
He then added, "You know what you were saying about how I must make a will Herms? Well, I've been thinking; might there be some way that I could leave Severus and Sara not to a person but to The Potters' Kiln and then make the house unplottable or use the Fidelius or something… or are they the same thing? Anyway, we could then make Severus the Secret-Keeper of it couldn't we?"
Then turning away from Ron, he mouthed to her, 'and hide all the elves too.'
The three of them were silent for a few seconds and then Ron gave his opinion. "I'm not sure that'd be legal to leave them to a house,, and anyway, they'd still basically be the property of whoever inherited the house... I think you can leave things to animals though, and animals are property like slaves are, so you might be able to leave Sara to Severus and him to her, and then put in the will that he and she are both to live at the Kiln, which you had already left to him or Sara and hidden with one of them as the Secret-Keeper. You might be able to add that if anyone tries to challenge the will then everything, including all your other assets, are to go to some sort of trust or benevolent foundation... which you've already set up with Severus and Sara as the heads of it, but if the will is unchallenged then your other assets would go to, well, to whomever you want to leave them to."
"Or I might be able to set up a foundation and leave the professor and Sara to it as a lifetime chairman and a lifetime member of the board... I'll ask the professor what he thinks."
"You should go to a lawyer because we don't know what's legal and what isn't. The Potters probably already have a family lawyer anyway."
"Yes, I think we do. I'll talk to the professor; he will know. Thanks Ron."
Harry knew that Severus had potions classes all morning, so it was not until after lunch that he signalled to him that they needed to talk. Severus caught up with him as he exited the Great Hall and they, in mutual consent, walked into a nearby empty classroom.
"Yes Master?"
"Do you have a free period now?"
"Yes, of course Master."
Harry grimaced. "No, I mean do you really have a free period? Not just one you create for me?"
"Yes Master. I really do have a completely free period."
"Okay then. I have one too, so can we go down to the dungeons to talk?" Harry did not wait for an answer and turned to walk down to their rooms, followed by his slave.
Once inside, Harry flopped down into his favourite armchair. "Ah, good, that's better; I want to tell you what Hermione and I, and Ron too, have been thinking," and he told Severus what the three of them had been discussing at breakfast. Then he added, "and I asked you last night too; have you had any ideas, and what do you think of our ideas?"
"I had not imagined you would be so generous as to, in effect, leave me, and Sara and your elves too, one of your properties, let alone The Kiln, the main Potter family seat...but Master, forgive me please, but I do not think it a good idea to do that as The Kiln should go to your descendants, as should your other homes."
"Well, there may well not be any descendants at all... especially if I die as soon as Hermione expects me to, and as Voldie seems to want me to as well, and anyway, you and Sara are my real family now... If you're concerned then we could make it one of the other houses, a couple of them are just as big and might be just as self-sufficient as the goblins say the Potters' Kiln is. . . Anyway, any child of mine who gets a few properties and resents you getting just one or two of them, doesn't deserve anything at all in my opinion!" Harry was full of righteous indignation at the very thought of any hypothetical future child of his being so mean.
"So, given that I want you Sara and the elves to have a house or three, what do you think of our ideas?"
Severus was once more astonished at how unusual a master Harry was proving to be. He felt genuine gratitude for Harry's kindness in even considering leaving a house to him, Sara and the elves, even though it would be foolish to allow himself to hope that it could actually be a real possibility.
He knew that the fulsome thanks he felt like giving Harry would only embarrass him; he blinked his eyes and then said, "You cannot know how much your thoughtfulness and generosity means to me Master... I did not think to say this to you before, but please know that I shall always do everything in my power to protect you and keep you alive. I vow that anyone or anything who tries to kill or hurt you, will only do so over my dead body...
At that, they both sat there in mutual embarrassment and awkward silence for a few moments before Severus cleared his throat, "As to your question; I think your ideas have great merit... but you might be complicating things unnecessarily; it might be that all you need to do is use the goblin who is now in charge of Craigcleaver's old crew to cast the Fidelius on one of your properties as Craigcleaver did for all of them for your father, but this time allow Sara and me to be privy to the secret and order us to go there immediately upon your death. It would hide us as successfully as it hid your properties. That way no-one would know of its existence."
Harry looked conflicted. "After what he did you'd still use the goblins? Actually that idea did occur to me too, but I dislike Craigcleaver so much that I don't want to use him, and what would stop him tricking us as he did my parents?"
"Craigcleaver is no longer in charge of that team Master; there is a remote possibility that he might have been sent to their underground prison but it is far more likely that he has been beheaded. Goblin justice is both severe and swift. Their new team leader is Ironhand, and he is the goblin who reported his suspicions of Craigcleaver's betrayal to your account manager."
"Oh...well, he'd be okay I suppose...but somehow I don't like...are there no other options?"
"Yes Master. You could allow me or the headmaster to put one of your houses under the Fidelius—and make Sara and me the Secret-Keepers, and then order both us and your elves to go there immediately upon your demise, and to stay there in perpetuity. You could order us that none of us are ever to answer to any of your heirs or any other masters or mistresses. As our current owner your order should take precedence over any order from any other aspiring and later master. Naturally, once you have children you will probably wish to change that arrangement."
"No, I'm pretty sure that I won't want to change anything. Anyway that sounds good, and pretty easy too. We could do that and then investigate if there are any better ways of achieving what we want and could then switch to them, or use them as back-ups."
"There may be a problem with a Fidelius in that I believe it falls if the caster of it dies, so perhaps the caster should be someone who is likely to live longer than either I or Sara, and is also strong enough magically to cast the Fidelius, and that means someone other than the headmaster or myself, as although we are powerful enough, we are older than she is and likely to die earlier. We should also, as Mr Weasley advised, consult your lawyer."
"Do goblins live longer than wizards. Not much? Well then, that's another reason not to do it through Gringotts ... but what about house-elves, they live very long lives, longer than wizards someone told me. Could a house-elf cast it?"
Severus stared at Harry. Using house-elves was not something he'd considered... "That might work Master. They are certainly very powerful magical creatures and they do indeed live a lot longer than we do... And a Potter elf would certainly not attempt any fraud against you or your heirs. When you visit your estates you will be introduced to all your elves, or you could call the comptroller elf at The Kiln to you here and ask him if that is something an elf can do."
"Or Dobby, or even Twister."
"With respect Master, not Twister, as she is bonded to Hogwarts, and although I'm sure Dobby would be delighted to do it for you if he could, he is a free elf; I think one that you own would be better."
"Oh. Okay. Let's do it then, or at least find out if a house-elf can do it... How do I get one to come here?"
"Just call 'Head Potter elf. Come here,' or words to that effect, Master."
"Right. Head of Potter elves, come here please," Harry shouted.
An ancient grey-haired elf, clad in a black, gold-embroidered uniform, materialised into the room with no popping sound at all. He gave a cursory bow and then raised himself erect and glared at Harry.
"Why I declare, if it isn't Master Harry James Potter. And about time too Master! About thirteen years late! Pemberley lives to serve. We all live to serve, and do pray tell, how on Earth are we supposed to serve you if you never bloody call us and you never come home?"
Severus somehow managed to be simultaneously amused and outraged. It seemed his master's head elf was even less servile than was Twister. He started to say "How dare you speak to our..." ... but was interrupted by Harry holding up his hand to stop him, so he fell silent.
Pemberley turned from Harry to face Severus. "And you! You can take that glare off your ugly face. Taken you long enough to tell our master about us hasn't it? Hoping to be master's little pet before I could tell him what a nasty little pouf you are? What a dirty old shirt-lifter?" He turned back to Harry, "you should give him a few good hidings, that'd teach him his place, but I don't suppose you've got the balls!"
Harry had been amused until the elf had turned on Severus, and then he became angry, and unconsciously let a little of his magic flare.
"That's quite enough! I will not be spoken to like that by anyone, let alone by my own house-elf! And if you ever speak to the professor like that again it'll be you I'll be giving a good hiding to, just before I give you clothes! Understand elf? And I'd better not hear you spouting any more of your pathetically ignorant homophobic views either. Whether Severus likes men or women has nothing to do with you; that's his business not yours. You will not air any such opinions again! ... As for not telling me about you elves, he didn't know of the existence of my houses any more than I did until we were both informed at Gringotts, because until then they were under a Fidelius. It wasn't until they discovered what the secret-keeper was doing that it all came to light. After that Severus thought I knew about all you elves so he had no need to tell me...but why I'm explaining all this to you I don't know...just never speak to Severus again like that, understand?"
Pemberley lost his sneer. "Now that's more like it! That's what we like to see! You've got a bit of Old Master Charlus in you after all! Master Charlus knew how to treat elves and slaves. What a hand he had with a riding crop! ... Ah... the good old days... Still, you show a lot of promise, and power, oh yes, you've got more power than I've seen in generations, and that certainly makes up for your being so scrawny. Yes, you might do very well, very well indeed... so now...let's see...here we go... Pemberley is pleased to meets his Master at last, yes he is! All Master Sir's house-elvses be wanting to meets Master, yes they is! We bes so happy!" and he bowed low until his nose touched the ground before raising himself again.
Despite being called scrawny, which was rather a sore point with him, Harry's anger had drained away, replaced by amusement.
"Why are you speaking like that all of a sudden? You were speaking normal English until a moment ago."
"Pemberley be proper house-elf again now he gots proper master. Bloody moron wizards thinks house-elvses too stupid learn talk good even though elvses live hundreds years same house with wizards, so elvses talk Elf English to pander to masters' prejudices."
"Well, I don't want you to pander to me. I know house-elves are just as intelligent as wizards," not that that is saying very much, "I know you can talk properly, I want you to do that."
Pemberley looked appalled. "Please no, Master Harry Potter sir! Other elvses no respect Pemberley if Pemberley talk wizard-talk to proper master."
"Oh... Okay... Er, but...but…hold on...that's stupid...it doesn't make sense; I don't exactly understand the logic of that… well, not at all really, not even the slightest bit, it's quite back to front... Surely, if elves pander to wizards' illusions of superiority by mangling their English when they speak to us, wouldn't they then speak proper English when they have a master they respect?... but anyway you can talk how you like I suppose."
"Thank you Master! Master like thrash Pemberley for asking to speak elfy?" he asked, looking up hopefully.
Harry took a hasty step back, rolled his eyes at Severus, and then looked back to the elf again and drawled, "It is not convenient for me to waste my valuable time giving thrashings to impertinent house-elves at the moment, so I'm going to make you wait."
Pemberley bowed low, "Oo... thank you Master! Waiting very good punishment! ... What can Pemberley do for good Master?"
"You can tell me this; can house-elves make houses unplottable and put them under the Fidelius?"
Pemberley forgot his act as he thought about it. "Not exactly Master, the Fidelius and being unplottable, and all that, they are wizard magics, however we have elf magic that can do just as well, better in fact; a house, person or thing, even knowledge or an idea, can be hidden by us so that it is completely unknown by anyone except the family's elves and will remain hidden forever.
If you, as our Lord and Master, wish us to hide anything for you, then all you have to do is order us to hide it and then, after it is done, to tell you of it. If you should wish anyone else to know of it you would then have to order us to tell that person, and if for some reason you later wished that person not to know, then you would have to order us to 'un-tell' him and he would then lose all memory of it again. You could even tell us to hide it from yourself and then tell you of it again at some later specified date and time.
"Some of the previous heads of our Potter family have used that when they were about to be interrogated by Aurors or the Wizengamot. It is not generally known about house-elves, not even by most pure-blood heads of house, so it has been rather useful to us Potters. Only you can order us to do it and only you, because you are our Lord, will know about our ability to do it—though you can tell us to make it known to anyone else of course—but apart from that, anyone, for example, even he," he gestured towards Severus, "will forget about our ability within a couple of hours. You can tell him again yourself if necessary, but he will continually forget again. If you were to hide one of your houses but wanted him to know of it, you would have to order one of us to tell him. He would then remember the house but not that we were the ones who had hidden it."
Both Harry and Severus were interested. This might be the answer to one or more of their problems. Harry asked excitedly "So, this is great! Can you hide the fact that Severus is a slave?...oh and while I think of it, tell Severus now that it can be done, 'make it known' to him, so he doesn't forget it can be done."
Pemberley turned to Severus, waved one long-fingered hand at him and informed him, "You now know it can be done and you will remember it," and then addressed his master again.
"I am very sorry Master; after telling you we could do it for virtually everything, I must admit that that is not entirely the case. We could hide him and that would also hide his bondage, but if he himself is not hidden, we cannot separately hide the fact that he is a slave; slave bonds are very strong ancient magic, and ancient magic is one of the few things that we can't hide very well even when it's weak. Probably the most we could do is alter the bond itself slightly; for example, at the moment he has to call you Master in public but it allows him, with your permission, to call you Harry in private. We might be able to reverse that so that he has to call you Master in private but can, with your permission, call you Harry or Mr Potter in public."
"Mm, that might be better, less embarrassing for both of us; Severus and I will think about it. But actually, why I called you was because I'm worried about what might happen to Severus, Sara and you house-elves if I die, or even if I lose my mind or something. I don't want you to be inherited by someone cruel, er... I mean of course, by someone even far more strict and revoltingly cruel than I am myself ... so I was wondering if all of you could be hidden at The Potters' Kiln and some of the other houses should that happen?... If Severus and Sara, and you elves if you like, could be completely forgotten by everyone except the few people you yourselves judge should know, that would make it all a lot easier."
"We could Master. As I said, we cannot hide his servitude while he himself is known by all to exist, but we could hide him and ourselves so no-one, apart from you, remembers we exist, or you and only your specified other people know we exist or ever existed. However, if you want to do it now while you are alive and he is here with you, it might be awkward because he would be invisible to everyone except you and anyone to whom you have revealed his existence, and if you sent him to live at one of your houses his bond spell would start to object that he could be serving you but was wasting time hiding away from you."
"Thank you... Pemberley; you have given Severus and me a lot to think about. And thanks for talking in normal English to me this time. Perhaps when no other elves are around you could speak ... er...no... in future, when other elves are not present, you are to speak to me in proper English, that is an order. You may return to The Kiln now. I will be visiting many of my properties in the holidays so I will meet most, if not all, of you then. Tell everyone that I'm thinking of them...and that I shall be most seriously displeased if my houses and estates are not in excellent condition when I inspect them, and I shall inspect them thoroughly, very thoroughly indeed."
"Oo! Lovely! Thank you Master Harry Potter Sir! Pemberley be so happy have proper strict master! ... Before Pemberley go, may Pemberley ask Master something?"
"Yes, what is it?"
"May I take off the miasma now?"
"Miasma?"
"Yes Master, the one over your estates."
"What do you mean? What's a miasma?"
"Oh. Ignorant...er, a miasma is a mist like spell that hovers over an area. In this case it is the mildly anti-fertility one cast over your estates to reduce the number of house-elves born while awaiting your return. Too many elves means idle elves and that is too dreadful to contemplate. However now you are back and want the estates smartened up and kept that way, we will probably need more again."
"Oh. Okay... I suppose you all don't like not having a lot of work to do, do you? No. I know you don't. As for the miasma, just do what you think best."
"Thank you Master."
Pemberley popped away; as when he had arrived, he made no popping sound.
Harry stared at Severus, started to smile and then gave a disbelieving shake of his head. "Why is my life never normal? I can't even have a normal house-elf. Gods! I hope they're not all like him! Surely they can't be? But wouldn't he and Twister make a good pair? They both try to boss me around, and then get a very disturbing gleam in their eyes when I start to play the master...yes we should definitely introduce them; I think Twister might even be happy to give him the beating he's longing for...but...you heard what he said about my grandfather? Now that's something I'd rather not have known...and now I suppose they'll expect me to strut around the place like a Malfoy when we visit!"
"Undoubtedly Master, and brandishing a whip whilst you strut."
"Thank you so much! You're enjoying this aren't you? Go on, admit it; I can see you're laughing at me." Harry grinned at him. "You'd love to see me poncing around like Dudley with his Smeltings stick wouldn't you?"
"I admit that it does have an element of humour Master. But may I say that I was most impressed with how you handled him? Especially with the part where you told him that you did not wish them to be inherited by a master even far more strict and cruel than you are yourself."
"Ha ha. Very funny, I don't think... Really Sev...Severus, did you know my grandfather? Was he really like that? That awful bit about him having such a good hand with a riding crop! ...Oh, of course, you wouldn't have known him; he died before Mum rescued you..."
There was a crash and clatter as if something had fallen onto one of the side tables.
Severus jumped protectively in front of Harry and both wizards immediately spun towards the table, wands pointing.
Then, at first cautiously and then more quickly, Severus moved towards it. "It seems Pemberley or one of your other elves may have left a present for you... No Master, please stay back until I've made certain it is safe."
After a few more moments and some complicated and unexplained wand movements, Severus picked up the object, placed it on his upturned palms, and turning, presented it, with a small bow, to Harry.
"Your grandfather's riding crop I believe Master, and a very handsome one it is too, with a silver, rune-engraved handle."
Harry took the crop gingerly and looked it over. "I suppose it is rather handsome, if you like that sort of thing I suppose."
"And Pemberley certainly does like that sort of thing Master."
"Oh gods! He's going to expect me to give him a hiding at some stage isn't he? To him or even to one or two of the others as well. How do I get out of it? Any suggestions? Seriously, any suggestions?"
"The simple answer might be to order me or one of the house-elves to do it sir."
"You'd do that for me? Gosh, thanks... but no, I won't ask that of you. Anyway, if I don't do it myself he'll go back to thinking I'm too weak to be a 'proper' master, that I haven't got the guts... and what if I do it and Hermione finds out... No, please think of something else...
"If you were to say that it was beneath you to condescend to whipping so lowly a creature as a house-elf, a creature so far below you, then I believe that he would continue to respect you, in fact would admire you even more."
"In other words, the more of a jumped-up ignorant pompous arse I am, the more he will admire me. I'd better take lessons from Malfoy in how to be a completely disgusting arrogant prat."
"That idea certainly has merit. May I arrange the lessons for you Master?"
"Thank you. Not. You needn't enjoy this quite so much!"
"It seems to me that you basically have two options; either use this crop on one or two of them yourself, or be so superior that you have someone whip them for you; in either case you will then become the object of at least one of your house-elves' sexual fantasies."
"Severus! ... No! Urrgh! No... Now how am I supposed to get that thought out of my head?"
"You do not find it titillating My Lord?"
"Severus!"
"Yes, O'Strict and Cruel Master?"
"Stop laughing."
Severus did stop laughing. "Seriously, I imagine that all you really need to do is order him to punish himself. They all seem quite eager to do that.
"In other words, become like Malfoy was with poor Dobby!"
"To a certain extent, yes, however you could specify what the punishment was to be and say that you did not wish there to be any damage to your property, that is, to your elf or elves, to be more than transitory... Actually...no...you probably need not do even that; a punishment they would fear more than anything else would be to give them holidays or even merely threaten to give them holidays on which they would not be permitted to do any work at all.
"Yes that would probably work, I would like that far better...but the holiday idea might terrify them too much. I don't want them to hate me. I'll have to think about it some more, though it's probably the best solution so far. Meanwhile, please don't tell Hermione about it."
"Without your permission Harry I will not, actually can not, tell anyone about anything you have told me."
"Oh? Really?... Then unless I've expressly told you not to tell something or unless you think it is something I wouldn't like to be known, you have my blanket permission to tell people. I totally trust your discretion."
Severus inclined his head. "Thank you Harry."
After a few moments of silence Harry spoke again. "What did you think of the idea to try and reverse the bond's requirement from your having to call me 'master' in public and whatever we like in private, around to 'master' in private and Harry in public?... I think that would be great, well, great when people are around anyway, not to have to keep showing them that you belong to me."
"Yes Master, however Pemberley seems to have forgotten that calling one's master 'master' in public is not merely a requirement of the bond, it is also one of our world's laws. A reversal merely of the bond's requirement would mean I would then have to call you master both in public and in private."
"Oh. Bollocks!"
"Succinctly put Master."
"Alright, let's not give up. That's one of the laws we need to get repealed then... Er... how do we do go about doing that?
"Master, you greatly underestimate your influence as the Boy Who Lived and as the last head of a powerful and influential family, however I suggest that it might be better to postpone any such campaign until you have completed your schooling here, and at the moment that is years away. Even now, although your official school workload is not particularly heavy," (Harry thought 'not heavy'? What?) "there are your far more onerous private defence lessons on which to concentrate, and both your official and your secret training for your prime objective will become a great deal harder each year.
"In other words, I should wait until I've killed Voldemort you mean?"
"Exactly so. It is to your credit of course, but it seems to me that you are worrying about too many projects at once. I am pleased that I was able to persuade the Headmaster to tell you the prophesy as I do not think you would have liked to be uninformed, however it does mean that the burden on you, a young man, is far greater than it ever should be."
"Well you're right about that; I always hate being left in the dark about things, and anyway even if I didn't know I had that hanging over me, it would still be hanging there, and not only that but I wouldn't have even known how important it was to start training as early as possible."
"Indeed, it is important to cover all eventualities, however your other idea might work to defeat him, once I have perfected the required potions."
"Severus, you know very well that was your idea! …your idea and your potions. I cannot take any credit for it at all."
"Indeed you can Harry. As I am your property, it follows that any ideas originating in my head are yours."
"Very funny…you're determined to laugh at me today aren't you? Anyway, how are you getting on with the potions? Any success at all with that yet?"
Anyway, how are you getting on with the potions? Any success at all with that yet?"
"I'm not certain that the potion-based solution to Voldemort is our best idea. Basically if we do that then we need three potions, one for a very short term power boost, one to drain his magic either during that boost or immediately after and a time delayed potion to drain the Death Eaters's magic after a few weeks. One of the problems at the moment is delivery of immunity to the initial power drainage element for whatever Death Eaters test the power booster out for their master while at the same time making certain Voldemort does not also receive that immunity.
What I would prefer to be able to do is combine the power-boosting and power drainage potion and the antidote to the drainage component into a single dose for anyone testing it out, while dosing Voldemort with only the poison or even a combination short term boost and then the lethal, er, drainage element, but how to deliver one sort to the testers and another to him is the problem."
"But didn't you say that if using the combination power and poison dose, you could keep the antidote completely separate and spray it on the sheets or clothes of whoever tests it out for Voldie? That all that's needed is skin contact?"
"Yes, I did say that, however I have now concluded that it might be difficult to achieve—for several reasons; at present the antidote gives whatever it's sprayed on a distinctive aroma, and it's not a pleasant one, also we don't know for certain who will test it for Voldemort, so even if we use house-elves to spray their bedding or clothing, we cannot be certain whose sheets or clothes to spray. I would also need to find something to eliminate or at least mask the smell, and which also does not affect its potency and also which makes the antidote long lasting after a single contact…there is also the problem at the moment that whatever I use to negate the initial power drainage also tends to have the same effect on the long term drainage, although I have several ideas about how to get around that.
"Don't worry; if you are set on the potion idea, it is merely a matter of experimentation and elimination to find the best combination of ingredients and I have several ideas that could work. I am hopeful that it will not be very long before I find something... If we had a spy in his inner circle we might have been able to exchange, at the last minute, a power booster for one which drains their magic without any prior boost in power, but unfortunately we have no such a spy, or at least Albus has not informed us of one and is being close mouthed about it whenever I ask him if we have one... Unless I were to take polyjuice to become Malfoy, but that would entail the prior disappearance of the real Malfoy.
"Meanwhile, are you having any trouble hiding how powerful you've become at wandless magic and how practiced at fighting?"
"No, no trouble at all; it's been ridiculously easy as no-one expects me to be able to do any wandless casting at all, and so I do everything with my wand and make sure I get even that wrong most of the time too, or so it looks weak at least, so when everyone knows or thinks I've taken the potion and am suddenly far stronger than before, I think everyone will fall for it… Somehow we have to make sure that Draco and his friends then find out as soon as possible where we've hidden the potion so they can steal it."
"That's good Master, as it means that merely by demonstrating some of your hitherto hidden power we can make them believe you have taken the power booster."
"You don't think I should take even the power element then?"
"No I do not; as you'll be able to show an apparent sudden increase in your power without it, it seems a completely unnecessary risk to take it yourself. Also, may I suggest that when everyone thinks you've taken the power booster that they'll think I've created just for you, that you pretend to be trying to hide your very apparent sudden power boost as well as pretending to be trying to hide what we want everyone to believe has caused it. If it is all a secret then, as the Headmaster is wont to say, everyone will know by bedtime."
"How much do you think it would boost the power of anyone who tests it out for Voldie?"
"Considerably. When I tested it on myself it seemed to increase the magic available to me by over half. It does not work immediately, in fact not until about half an hour after imbibing it, and the effect only lasts up to ten minutes, but long enough to make it worth taking…particularly as we could start the rumour that taking it regularly once a week builds up one's power gradually but permanently.
The main problem would be the pre-preparation of not only all the junior Death Eaters but some of the senior ones as well. We don't want Lucius Malfoy et al trying it on themselves before presenting it to Voldemort without their having already taken the antidote, or, alternatively, without the antidote having been included in the doses they take; if they died or became squibs before the time came for Voldemort to take his dose then he would not take it, obviously. Nor do we want more than one or two Death Eaters at a time to become even a little more powerful."
"What about if we let them get hold of only a tiny amount of it but somehow let them think that in future there would be an opportunity for them to steal the formula? That way they wouldn't want to use all of it before their Dark Lord had a chance to try it..
"Yes Harry, good idea, that would be feasible. We should also inform the Headmaster of our plans, although I doubt that he will be impressed by the method."
"I'll just tell him that the 'power he knows not' is having a potions genius working for me!"
Severus allowed the left corner of his lip to twitch, which served him as a smile.
"Heck! I just had a thought...what's to stop his minions taking it for themselves and not telling their master anything about it?"
Severus smirked."I suggest that a letter, purportedly from one of his young adherents here at Hogwarts, excitedly telling his Lord of the booster, would handle that. I am not totally unskilled at forging handwriting."
Harry grinned. "I won't ask you why you're skilled at that."
"Thank you Harry."
They smiled at each other. Harry yawned and stretched and then tried to pull his thoughts together. "Okay then. Back to what you were saying earlier; If you think I am trying to do too much at once, then what should our priorities be? ... Look, I'll tell you what I think and you can tell me where I'm wrong, okay?"
"Certainly Master."
First should be that I continue the secret combat and spell training in case the 'Perdition Potion Solution' to the Voldemort problem doesn't work as we hope.
Second, and at the same time, I consult the family lawyer about my will and ways to protect you, or perhaps just go with Pemberley's suggestion.
Third, we extract Alice from Montgomery's clutches... Wait, what Pemberley said about the miasma has given me an idea. Could a really strong anti-fertility one that would stop any conceptions at all, be cast on Alice? Then it wouldn't be so urgent to rescue her so soon, and anyway, if she doesn't get pregnant he might be more inclined to sell her to me."
"I do not know if it would work on a human, Master, I believe the miasma to be eleven magic, or at least I have never heard of it before."
"I'm going to have to summon him again to find out aren't I? Oh damn... Where did I put that riding crop? Ah, thank you. I think we should hide it before he comes... Twice is enough, we don't want him coming three times."
Schoolboy humour from Harry? Severus thought it good to be reminded that his master was not always striving so hard to be an adult. It reassured him that Harry's difficult life had not totally killed the child in him. He smiled indulgently.
"Pemberley!"
"Master calls! What can I do for you Master?"
"The anti-fertility miasma you were telling us about; can it be strengthened so that no conceptions at all can take place, and does it work on witches as well as elves?"
"Certainly Master. Yes, it works on witches. That is an excellent idea sir! I can cast that for you over all Hogwarts or any area in which you might wish to sow your wild oats. Congratulations on both reaching manhood so exceptionally early and on being so responsible. We certainly don't want any little Potters with a bar sinister in our family! Do you wish me to cast it over the school now Master?"
"You have misunderst ... Well, forget that for now. No, I will call you when I need you. Thank you, you may go."
Pemberley obediently popped away.
"What a good idea Harry. Let him cast it for you and you can be totally unrestrained and sow your wild oats in any fields you like. I am certainly starting to appreciate the quality of that elf!"
"When we stop laughing I'm going to show you what a cruel master I can be."
Severus did stop chuckling. He said seriously, "Harry, all jokes aside, you may not yet wish to 'sow your wild oats' as Pemberley put it in so quaintly an old-fashioned a manner, but there will soon come a time—you will soon be experiencing the heightened hormonal activity of puberty—when you may wish to have sexual relations with some witch or wizard; there are already far too many of them who would be only too delighted to have your attention. Also, you will have to be careful that you do not inadvertently compromise some witch's reputation and be virtually forced to marry her. A pregnancy with a pure-blood witch would almost certainly do that, or at least make avoiding such a marriage difficult and hideously expensive. Not to mention those witches unscrupulous enough to deliberately try and trap you into marriage by becoming pregnant, and there will be plenty of those..."
If your godfather was not so conveniently incarcerated, The Talk would have been within his purview, even whatever odd slant Albus gives it will be preferable to that.
