A/N: Reviewer's notes at the bottom of the chapter.
Beta by Kristine Thorne
Chapter Summary - Harry and Sev reveal the existance of their Bond and announce their new jobs. Hermione and Ron decide that they have to do something to help Harry.
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Chapter Five - The Meeting
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Severus and Harry entered the castle once more, immediately feeling closed in by the proximity of the stone walls. Harry led the way to the Defence classroom and they both passed through virtually deserted corridors as lunchtime was now over and most people must have found themselves somewhere to settle, whatever they were doing to pass the day. They didn't encounter Ron until they had reached their destination.
Harry led the way into the old Defence Against The Dark Arts classroom, thinking briefly of how he would soon be teaching there himself if everything went all right. Ron looked up as Harry and Severus entered, looking a bit shocked for a moment.
"I wish you wouldn't keep doing that," Ron began, "It's creepy."
"Doing what?" Harry asked.
"THAT," Ron continued pointing to Harry as if that explained everything, "Striding."
"Oh," Harry responded, "I'm used to walking a lot now, must have got into the habit."
"Hmm," Ron replied, his voice sounding wary and the look he gave Severus, confirming his wariness.
Harry chose to ignore Ron's attitude to Severus for a while, he hoped to change all that very soon.
"Hermione was looking for you," Harry mentioned.
Ron rolled his eyes, "Well I'm here, she was the one who left."
"What has happened to you two?" Harry asked with concern, they had seemed so happy when he had left them the previous summer.
"You know what happened," Ron replied.
"With Oliver?" Harry continued, "I know what you said today but there must be more, Hermione didn't even like Oliver that much and he left school ages ago."
"He came back to help us defend the castle," Ron replied with bitterness in his voice, "And don't ask me why she went with him, I don't get it either."
"So that's it for you two then?"
"Pretty much." Ron replied. "Still want to stay?"
"There are some things we need to discuss, apart from the war that is, if all is well, yes, we intend to stay."
"We?" Ron queried, giving Severus another look.
"Yes, we," Harry replied trying to talk himself into remaining calm, "That is something else we need to discuss."
"You're telling me!" Ron continued.
Harry was very impressed with Severus, throughout all the insulting behaviour he managed to stay completely quiet and unmoving. Harry however, didn't want anybody to test his Kin's limits and he didn't want to have to comfort Severus every single night, he couldn't bare to see his Kin go through it.
"There you are Ronald Weasley!" Hermione said as she pushed past Severus and entered the classroom.
"Yes, here I am!" Ron replied.
Harry stole a quick look at Severus who looked very much like he wanted to kill somebody despite his inaction.
"Did you find out anything?" Harry asked Hermione quickly before her interaction with Ron turned into another argument laden with far too many truths.
"Yes, I have a few parchments, though I couldn't copy down everything," Hermione replied.
"Good, that will do to start with," Harry replied.
"Though I fail to see how this information is going to help us understand how you killed the Dark Lord."
Harry smiled, "It will." He answered, "Where is everybody?"
"They'll all be along soon," Hermione replied walking closer to Ron.
Harry felt Severus close at his side, "What have you got her to look up?" Severus asked, his lips close to Harry's ear, making him shiver.
"Kin Bond Swords," Harry explained, "I thought it might be better if at least some of the information came from somewhere other than us."
"I hope you've done the right thing," Severus responded, the doubt clear in his voice.
"Is this to do with them being a Dark Art?" Harry asked.
"You could say that."
"Well," Harry began to assert, "We killed the bloody Dark Lord, how can anybody quibble over how we did it? In any case, I will tell them the truth and we will take our positions here if they can accept us, but if they can't, then we will just have to leave. It wouldn't be right to begin rebuilding the school on a foundation of deception."
"True."
"However, if anybody even looks at you again I am going to kill them all," Harry said, although joking, he made sure Severus knew how annoyed he was becoming.
"Hmm, I don't think you drawing your sword in anger and slicing them all into pieces will help our case somehow," Severus responded, slipping an arm around Harry's waist. Harry leant into the comfort of his Kin, the attention had passed from them for a moment, as Hermione seemed to be giving Ron a lecture and judging from the look on his face, it was one he had had several times before.
One by one, the people who were to attend the meeting entered the room and took up a seat at one of the student's desks. Harry and Severus watched, noting the identity of everybody they knew. All the ghosts were present of course, they couldn't be killed, and they had arrived promptly, taking up positions at the back of the room.
Next, Professor Trelawney, as was, shuffled into the room, taking up a position near the front, in the row immediately behind Ron. Harry thought that he might actually like to have a conversation with her later on the subject of spirits, as long as she didn't predict his death again, they might get on quite well.
Professor Sprout gave Harry a smile as she entered.
"Well that's the Divination and Herbology lessons taken care of anyway. Plus we know Hermione has already stepped in to take over Potions." Severus commented. "Only this time I will have to mentor her for real."
"Don't forget Professor Binns' History lessons," Harry added.
"How could I?" Severus replied, the words loaded with memories, none of them fond.
Harry smiled, "You too?"
"I have never been a good sleeper but when it came to History…" Severus reminisced.
"You are a good sleeper."
"I am with you, I was referring to before," Severus said plainly.
"Oh," Harry said, feeling warm inside.
"Wonder where Minerva McGonagall is, I was expecting her to be our worst critic, considering that she might think the top job should be hers," Severus mused.
"Brave Gryffindor, probably dead," Harry replied.
"Don't let your little friends hear you say that."
"I don't intend to."
"Right, that appears to be everybody," Hermione suddenly announced.
Harry parted physical contact with Severus but stayed resolutely by his side. He could hardly believe that there were so few of them, a fraction of those assembled were teachers, the rest were either former students who Harry recognised or older people that he didn't, they could have been parents.
"Is this it?" Harry asked, he couldn't help voicing the query.
"There are some who are on missions at the moment, I thought it was best that we keep the invites inside the castle before we decide what we are going to do," Hermione explained.
"So, I suppose you all want to know how I killed the Dark Lord?" Harry began.
His words were met by a rather stunned silence; well it had been quite a silly question Harry had to admit to himself. "Or rather, how I killed the Dark Lord and several hundred of his followers too. Hermione?" Harry prompted his friend.
Hermione had sat down next to Ron but she now stood and took out a few sheets of handwritten parchment from within her robes.
"Harry asked me to do a little research into Kin Bond Swords and he has asked me to present what I found," Hermione began, "Kin Bond Swords are very rare, only one pair of swords are known to have existed in this country and their location is unknown. The owners of the Kin Bond Swords become Bonded to each other and the Sword they each carry. The Swords gain their power by feeding off the love or regard the owners have for each other. In known cases where a Bond of this nature has existed between two people, one person was in possession of both swords until they chose to give one of them to another, thus creating the Bond between them. Although it is not certain how the Swords work, it seems that they themselves play some part in choosing who they become Bonded to. It is thought that some kind of mind interference may be responsible, although a genuine sense of regard must exist between the two people to be Bonded, it is likely that they may be manipulated to some extent by magic from the Swords themselves.
"It is worth noting that interference, by another regular wizard at least, magical or otherwise, seems to be impossible. This article was referring to a pair of Kin Swords and their Bonded, some time in the sixteenth century, in Russia I believe, there is every possibility that no two pairs of Swords behave in exactly the same way. The Kin Bond, once created is for life. The Swords seek to maintain their power at all costs and will eliminate any threat either to them or their owners.
"The power of a pair of Kin Swords is partially dependant on the depth of regard between the two owners but in all cases the wizards were very powerful indeed, the increased power only being evident when both owners held the Swords simultaneously. The Swords can be used to cast all the regular spells and some exclusive ones in addition; an exhaustive list of their capabilities had never been ascertained. Again, this is referring to the Swords in Russia during the sixteenth century. I still don't see how this explains how you killed the Dark Lord, Harry, if he had a pair of these he would be virtually invincible, not that he would find an ounce of genuine regard to Bond with."
Hermione eventually stopped to take a breath. The depth of her research impressed Harry, in such a short space of time too.
"I will now explain the relevance," Harry began.
"Oh!" Hermione suddenly called out, shuffling the parchments in her hands, "I forgot a page."
"Carry on," Harry allowed, not knowing what else she could have found, the bit about being able to become pregnant perhaps.
"This was a strange one," Hermione began, "I remembered reading about Kin Bond Swords somewhere before and I found the entry. It was in the Encyclopaedia of Dark Magic, an entry dedicated to Death Eaters and the origin of the term."
The origin of the Death Eaters, Harry thought, suddenly he didn't like where this was heading at all.
"The Death Eaters are a twentieth century group of wizards who are known to support the Dark Lord, this much we know. What is a little known fact, however, is that the modern Death Eaters are entirely different to what the original term implied, they merely adopted the term, perhaps with little understanding of the original meaning. Literally, a death eater is one who obtains power through the death of others; it is a wizard who consumes the magical power of a body at the point of death.
"This is where the Kin Bond Swords come into things. When a Kin Bonded kills with his sword, the Sword absorbs the magical power of the victim and it is partially absorbed by the Kin Bonded. This noticeably manifests in the Kin Bonded initially as pleasure in the kill and a feeling of lust and elation for a period afterwards. The more kills, the greater the pleasure. One who owned such a Sword would be a 'death eater' in the most original sense of the term, a ruthless and lustful killer who would seek to kill merely for the pleasure of it."
Harry suddenly wanted to pack all his things together and run back to Sgoil Dhubh Lodge without further delay, but he was trapped, he had promised them an explanation. What Hermione had quoted from the encyclopaedia had been a very biased and inaccurate view but Harry didn't know where to begin explaining the complexities of the matter. According to this encyclopaedia entry he and Severus were more faithful death eaters than Lucius Malfoy or any of the others that they had killed. The Dark Lord had been an impostor by comparison.
He had nothing to lose though, Harry thought, if he didn't explain himself at all, then the suspicion would remain anyway.
"I will now show you all how I killed the Dark Lord," Harry began, "It is better if I show you. You must all stand well back and not say a word, this is very important, you must all swear."
Harry looked around the room and bemused faces nodded their agreement.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Severus whispered to Harry, his lips once again close to his Kin's ear.
"I think I have to. Take out your sword, and please Sev, stop it for me if things get out of hand," Harry pleaded, "You have so much more control than I do."
Harry drew his sword; he could imagine the chaos there would have been if Severus had drawn his first, it didn't bear thinking about. While they were all still gasping with surprise, Severus drew his sword too and Harry could feel him through the Bond, feel the power of the swords flowing through him.
It was too soon after the big battle to expect the swords to be calm, as soon as Harry connected with the power it was screaming at him to kill. Harry knew that everybody present had hurt his Kin in some way; the urge to go forward and cast a curse was strong. Harry looked at each of them in turn, thinking of all the things they had done to his Sev.
Harry raised his sword and pointed it towards the group of teachers and former students before him. They all stood silent, he could tell they were frightened; they were, inch by inch, backing away from him as if that would help. And so they should be, Harry thought, a mischievous grin playing across his face.
Harry felt Severus let go of his sword and the power that he felt diminished. Harry let go of his sword too, feeling mildly breathless and a little exhilarated. The swords had, only the day before, filled up on several hundred doses of magical power from some of the most powerful wizards ever, it showed very much in feeling that Harry got from holding his. He had only lasted a minute or two before Severus had stopped it, a second or two more and he would have been in very real danger of killing them all.
"Were they?" Hermione began nervously after several minutes of silence.
"Yes," Harry replied, "The missing English Kin Bond Swords. Severus is that correct?"
"They are the Japanese Kin Bond Swords, the shape is similar to that of a katana," Severus replied.
"Oh Harry!" Hermione said, "Could you not have found a better way than this?"
"What else would have enabled me to kill several hundred Death Eaters?" Harry responded.
"A hundred?" Ron chirped up, "There can't have been that many."
"We did not count them," Severus spoke, "But I can assure you that there were at least two hundred."
"Really," Hermione said, glowering at Severus for speaking instead of Harry, "Did you take any prisoners, is there any proof that they are defeated?"
"Prisoners?" Harry asked, starting to feel quite angry, "There was hardly the time to fiddle about keeping some of them alive," He snapped.
"You killed them all?" Hermione asked in a self-righteous manner.
"Yes, we did what was necessary, and we have their wands, if you want to see proof, in any case it will come soon enough when the weeks pass and there are no more Death Eater raids." Harry continued snappily.
"Well there's no need to be so aggressive Harry," Hermione accused, "HE has got you like this hasn't he?"
"Severus is my friend and my Kin, if you insult him, you insult me. I don't recommend any of you make a habit of it."
"Harry…"
"I think this meeting is over. Till tomorrow," Harry announced. Maybe in the morning he would feel like continuing but he needed to get outside very soon.
Harry made for the door with Severus following close behind him, once out in the corridor Severus grabbed Harry's arm.
"I'm not going back in there," Harry insisted as he turned to face his Kin.
"We didn't tell them about Albus's letter," Severus reminded Harry.
"Shit," Harry responded, looking tentatively back at the Defence classroom doorway.
"I don't think we can leave it," Severus added apologetically, he took the parchment out from where he had placed it in his robes and handed it to Harry.
"Right, let's do this," Harry said making for the classroom door.
Harry swooped back into the classroom as the others were approaching the door in order to leave. The low chatter that had been filling the room as Harry reached the doorway fell to instant silence. Harry came to stand by the teachers desk at the front of the classroom as everybody else stood as if frozen and stared at him.
"One more thing," Harry announced holding the parchment up so they could all see, "Severus and I, following the outstanding victory for which you should all be deeply grateful, wish to help rebuild the wizarding world. If our world remains in disarray then the Death Eaters have won anyway. We wish to begin our work with the restoration of Hogwarts and plan for teaching to commence in the new school year in September, as would normally be the case. Severus?"
Severus was standing beside Harry and Harry handed him the parchment and a quill.
"Sign the parchment Severus," Harry instructed.
Severus looked to the teachers and students assembled as he took the quill but placed the parchment on the desk and added his signature to it without delay. Harry then took the quill from Severus and leant over to sign the parchment too. As he did so more writing appeared in the space that had previously been blank, confirming the authenticity of their acceptance.
Harry took the parchment and held it up so that they could all see.
"I want each one of you to file past and observe the declaration on this parchment as you leave," Harry announced, "Severus and I will jointly be taking the positions of Headmaster and Professor of Defence Against The Dark Arts, all other positions are open to applicants who may submit their application and references to us, either in person or by owl. All positions will be open to those who previously held them in the first instance and advertised externally if still vacant by July. We will be taking up residence in the Slytherin Head of House quarters until repairs to the Headmaster's tower can be completed."
"So you'll be Professor Potter," Ron spoke up then made a spluttering noise as Hermione elbowed him.
"I will be known as Professor Snape from this point on," Harry said snappily, he wanted no more argument and disagreement and it showed in his voice, "Another meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning at nine thirty sharp. That will be all."
One by one they all left, all looking at the parchment and most of them frowning as they went. Ron took Hermione's arm and stood carefully, Harry was sure that he heard Hermione hiss at Ron to 'leave it'; they both came to stand in front of Harry. They dutifully looked at the parchment and left the room without saying a word.
Once they had all gone Harry swooped from the room with Severus following and they were nearly back to the hall before Harry slowed down and Severus could catch up.
When Harry noticed that they were well clear of the awful meeting he stopped and turned to Severus.
"Nice entrance when you went back in," Severus complimented.
"I suppose I'll be getting some practice at it," Harry added trying to smile through the terrible day they were having, "Can we go out for a while?"
"I need to check the state of the wards," Severus said, "That should keep us by the perimeter of the grounds for some time."
"Good," Harry replied breathing a sigh of relief and taking Severus hand.
*****
"Professor Snape?" Ron said in disbelief as soon as he was well clear of the Defence classroom and heading back to Gryffindor common room, as was, "What is wrong with Harry? I mean it was bad enough when he said he was friends with the greasy git, but this…"
"Well it's obvious that Snape has done something to him, Harry would never behave like this if everything was all right, this goes far deeper than a couple of swords and a friendship. It has to be forced by magic, a tenuous friendship would be improbable enough but there's more to it, he's behaving too oddly."
"Bloody hell," Ron added, still reeling from the shock of the afternoon.
"I know," Hermione agreed, their argument had disappeared the second Harry had drawn his sword.
"Did you see the look in his eyes when he held that sword? Urgh, it was just plain creepy."
"I know, whether the sword allowed Harry to kill the Dark Lord or not, we have to rescue him from this, it just isn't right."
"It was like he was possessed," Ron continued, "And the way he was dressed this morning, I nearly fell off my chair, and he doesn't even seem to know that it was weird, it's like he's turning into Snape and he's happy about it. It's just too disgusting for words. It's sick that's what it is. And it isn't just us, nobody else knows what to say to him either, and they're all staring at him and he's completely oblivious. And there's bloody Snape standing there with that haughty expression of his, not saying a word, bloody git. He knows he has control over Harry and he thinks we can't do anything about it."
"Out in the corridor before, it was a cry for help," Hermione surmised, "He asked me to do that research when Snape wasn't there, no matter how much he defends him, Harry wants out and we are going to find a way."
"Your own research said it though, the Bond is for life." Ron pointed out.
"All Bonds can be broken somehow," Hermione confidently asserted.
"I hope you're right," Ron added, "You do know he asked Snape's permission before he followed you this morning?"
"I was using that part of the morning as my proof that our Harry is still in there somewhere," Hermione replied.
"He wouldn't have gone after you if Snape hadn't allowed it and that might only have been because I was there," Ron continued, "Really we don't even know if any of the Death Eaters are dead, not if Snape has control over Harry like that, who knows what else he is capable of, he's probably working for the Dark after all."
"Hmm, and they said that the other Snape was a Polyjuice version, but which one seems most like the real thing to you?" Hermione added.
"I can't tell the difference actually, this one has nicer hair I suppose. We could kill him," Ron said.
"What!"
"Snape I mean, the Bond is for life, not much left of it if Snape's dead."
"I can't believe you said that Ronald Weasley," Hermione replied, genuinely shocked. She looked around to see if anybody had overheard the conversation.
Ron shrugged his shoulders, "Just thinking out loud."
"Anyway, virtually invincible remember," Hermione reminded him.
"Even virtually invincible Death Eaters have to sleep," Ron added.
"I think perhaps we should try and get Harry on his own for a while, see if we can find a way to talk to him about this," Hermione suggested.
Hermione and Ron made their way up the many staircases up to Gryffindor tower. Halfway up Ron suddenly gripped Hermione tightly and Hermione helped him lower himself to sit on the steps. Hermione sat also and Ron leaned against her, his eyes tightly shut.
Everything had suddenly started to spin and Ron had found that he could no longer stay standing, as the whole castle seemed to lurch from beneath him. It was what happened from time to time and the reason why Hermione never left him to walk alone no matter how good a day he was having.
"I suppose our research into getting rid of this curse of mine is going to have to wait until after we've sorted Harry out," Ron said, still leaning against Hermione.
Hermione didn't have the heart to mention that she had already, in the months since Christmas, been through every book in the library at least twice and found nothing of any help whatsoever.
*****
Harry and Severus spent the remainder of the afternoon checking the wards in the castle grounds. There had been several attempts to strengthen the wards since the Death Eater attack, Severus found. Most of the wards had been set by ex-students and the parents of current students, and were not up to the usual standard he might expect. They both held their swords and Harry walked round the perimeter with Severus as he strengthened their defences.
It was with great reluctance that Harry and Severus returned to the Hall for the evening meal. The atmosphere was tense but Harry was sure that the news that they were to be Headmaster had not spread. They were going to discuss the details at the following day's meeting then make an announcement over lunch. An announcement regarding the ending of the war would also be made once they had all had a chance to notice that there were no Death Eaters left to go on raids, since it seemed that nobody was going to believe it otherwise.
The only noise in the hall was that of low volume chatter, Harry once more sat opposite Hermione and Ron but no more was said. Harry might have thought they were prepared to be civil to Severus were it not for the tangible and nasty atmosphere of tension in the air.
Harry looked to Severus who sat picking at his meal without enthusiasm. To Harry he looked miserable and tired, he knew nobody else would see it, but he could.
"Harry," Hermione suddenly said in a pleasant voice as they began to eat their pudding.
"Yes," Harry tried to reply just as pleasantly even though he had immediately felt wary and on guard.
"Would you like to have a game of chess after dinner?" Hermione asked.
Harry tried to smile, "That would be nice, did you bring a board down with you?"
"Well no," Hermione replied looking a bit puzzled.
"Oh, well you can get it later," Harry continued taking another mouthful of sponge and custard.
"I thought perhaps you might like to come up to Gryffindor," Hermione persevered.
"We can play just as well here," Harry responded, "Or we can go down to Slytherin. Severus is that all right?"
Severus was not given a chance to respond, "I thought it would be nice, all of us friends together in Gryffindor, catch up on things, that nice sofa in front of the fireplace where we used to sit and do our homework."
"Where Hermione used to do our homework for us," Ron added cheerfully before looking nervously up at Severus and then going back to his pudding.
"So Severus isn't invited even though that would make a convenient two pairs?" Harry asked, his voice challengingly menacing.
"We didn't mean it like that," Hermione tried to defend.
"No?"
"No, we only meant to relive our school days for a while, we could have stayed up late playing chess then you could have slept in your old bed, save walking through the castle so late at night," Hermione persisted.
"No," Harry said plainly, trying to remain calm.
"But you can't be comfortable down in the dungeon."
"I am comfortable there, really."
"You can't be, I bet you were sleeping on an old crotchety sofa last night, I know there's only one bed in there."
Harry sighed and hoped with a sense of futility that Hermione would let it be sometime very soon.
"I was not sleeping on the sofa," Harry said.
"Then you won't want your 'friend' to be uncomfortable either."
"I can assure you that Severus was not uncomfortable, though I doubt the possibility that he wasn't concerns you too much," Harry responded, despite his resolve the anger was mounting within him.
"But it is only a two-seater sofa."
Harry smiled to himself, Hermione really was asking for the truth but he knew that she wasn't going to like it, "Neither of us slept on the sofa, after we finished talking we both slept in the bed, I usually prefer to be on the right and as it happens I got my wish and so both I and Severus were perfectly comfortable, thank you very much for asking," Harry announced.
Harry was pleased to see that Hermione couldn't immediately think of anything to say.
"It is what we are used to from sleeping in the tent out in the countryside," Harry continued.
"But that was a wizard tent," Hermione responded, the tone of her voice higher than normal.
"No, it was a muggle tent, for authenticity," Harry corrected.
"Oh," Hermione said, processing the information.
"Whether I have a game of chess in the Hall or not, I will be sleeping in Slytherin tonight and every night," Harry asserted, making sure to keep his voice calm but firm.
Hermione frowned and began to stare at her pudding; "Maybe we can play chess another night," She said.
*****
"Let's get Harry on his own for a while to talk to him," Ron goaded Hermione on the way back to Gryffindor tower, "He was making a cry for help, he would really love to talk to us so we can help him."
"Ronald Weasley, you are a git," Hermione responded, "It was a perfectly good theory, but unfortunately Snape seems to have Harry more thoroughly cursed than we at first thought."
"He doesn't look like a man who wants saving to me," Ron commented, "He only seems to get pissed off when you start having a go at him or Snape."
Hermione was instantly annoyed, as Ron had known she would be, "Are you now suggesting that we should leave him to this fate just because he doesn't seem to mind?" Hermione demanded in a tone that was meant to instruct Ron to back down.
"I'm just saying," Ron continued, taking an amount of pleasure in winding Hermione up, "He seems quite happy as he is."
"If you were in a similar situation would you want your friends to help you? Wouldn't you thank them afterwards?" Hermione challenged Ron.
"No, I wouldn't want to be trapped with somebody I didn't want to be with," Ron replied pointedly.
The tone of Ron's voice was not lost on Hermione and she tensed but she didn't want to let it turn into another argument. It was late and as they walked and talked Hermione could feel Ron leaning into her, his arm round her waist and a hand on her arm, as he had been doing since they had left the hall. No matter what Hermione had or hadn't done, they had remained in a state of awkward togetherness since Hermione had told Ron about the baby. Any other couple would have had the luxury of a healthy period of increased distance between them; Ron was almost touching the evidence of Hermione's infidelity every time he left a room. He was indeed trapped with somebody he would otherwise have left completely.
TBC very soon
Next chapter summary - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (see Sarah McLachlan song of the same name) - The wizarding world's acceptance must be won but the Kin just want to shag. A wee bit fluffy.
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A/Ns
Thanks to all who reviewed the previous chapter.
Beta by Kristine Thorne
Chapter Summary - Harry and Sev reveal the existance of their Bond and announce their new jobs. Hermione and Ron decide that they have to do something to help Harry.
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Chapter Five - The Meeting
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Severus and Harry entered the castle once more, immediately feeling closed in by the proximity of the stone walls. Harry led the way to the Defence classroom and they both passed through virtually deserted corridors as lunchtime was now over and most people must have found themselves somewhere to settle, whatever they were doing to pass the day. They didn't encounter Ron until they had reached their destination.
Harry led the way into the old Defence Against The Dark Arts classroom, thinking briefly of how he would soon be teaching there himself if everything went all right. Ron looked up as Harry and Severus entered, looking a bit shocked for a moment.
"I wish you wouldn't keep doing that," Ron began, "It's creepy."
"Doing what?" Harry asked.
"THAT," Ron continued pointing to Harry as if that explained everything, "Striding."
"Oh," Harry responded, "I'm used to walking a lot now, must have got into the habit."
"Hmm," Ron replied, his voice sounding wary and the look he gave Severus, confirming his wariness.
Harry chose to ignore Ron's attitude to Severus for a while, he hoped to change all that very soon.
"Hermione was looking for you," Harry mentioned.
Ron rolled his eyes, "Well I'm here, she was the one who left."
"What has happened to you two?" Harry asked with concern, they had seemed so happy when he had left them the previous summer.
"You know what happened," Ron replied.
"With Oliver?" Harry continued, "I know what you said today but there must be more, Hermione didn't even like Oliver that much and he left school ages ago."
"He came back to help us defend the castle," Ron replied with bitterness in his voice, "And don't ask me why she went with him, I don't get it either."
"So that's it for you two then?"
"Pretty much." Ron replied. "Still want to stay?"
"There are some things we need to discuss, apart from the war that is, if all is well, yes, we intend to stay."
"We?" Ron queried, giving Severus another look.
"Yes, we," Harry replied trying to talk himself into remaining calm, "That is something else we need to discuss."
"You're telling me!" Ron continued.
Harry was very impressed with Severus, throughout all the insulting behaviour he managed to stay completely quiet and unmoving. Harry however, didn't want anybody to test his Kin's limits and he didn't want to have to comfort Severus every single night, he couldn't bare to see his Kin go through it.
"There you are Ronald Weasley!" Hermione said as she pushed past Severus and entered the classroom.
"Yes, here I am!" Ron replied.
Harry stole a quick look at Severus who looked very much like he wanted to kill somebody despite his inaction.
"Did you find out anything?" Harry asked Hermione quickly before her interaction with Ron turned into another argument laden with far too many truths.
"Yes, I have a few parchments, though I couldn't copy down everything," Hermione replied.
"Good, that will do to start with," Harry replied.
"Though I fail to see how this information is going to help us understand how you killed the Dark Lord."
Harry smiled, "It will." He answered, "Where is everybody?"
"They'll all be along soon," Hermione replied walking closer to Ron.
Harry felt Severus close at his side, "What have you got her to look up?" Severus asked, his lips close to Harry's ear, making him shiver.
"Kin Bond Swords," Harry explained, "I thought it might be better if at least some of the information came from somewhere other than us."
"I hope you've done the right thing," Severus responded, the doubt clear in his voice.
"Is this to do with them being a Dark Art?" Harry asked.
"You could say that."
"Well," Harry began to assert, "We killed the bloody Dark Lord, how can anybody quibble over how we did it? In any case, I will tell them the truth and we will take our positions here if they can accept us, but if they can't, then we will just have to leave. It wouldn't be right to begin rebuilding the school on a foundation of deception."
"True."
"However, if anybody even looks at you again I am going to kill them all," Harry said, although joking, he made sure Severus knew how annoyed he was becoming.
"Hmm, I don't think you drawing your sword in anger and slicing them all into pieces will help our case somehow," Severus responded, slipping an arm around Harry's waist. Harry leant into the comfort of his Kin, the attention had passed from them for a moment, as Hermione seemed to be giving Ron a lecture and judging from the look on his face, it was one he had had several times before.
One by one, the people who were to attend the meeting entered the room and took up a seat at one of the student's desks. Harry and Severus watched, noting the identity of everybody they knew. All the ghosts were present of course, they couldn't be killed, and they had arrived promptly, taking up positions at the back of the room.
Next, Professor Trelawney, as was, shuffled into the room, taking up a position near the front, in the row immediately behind Ron. Harry thought that he might actually like to have a conversation with her later on the subject of spirits, as long as she didn't predict his death again, they might get on quite well.
Professor Sprout gave Harry a smile as she entered.
"Well that's the Divination and Herbology lessons taken care of anyway. Plus we know Hermione has already stepped in to take over Potions." Severus commented. "Only this time I will have to mentor her for real."
"Don't forget Professor Binns' History lessons," Harry added.
"How could I?" Severus replied, the words loaded with memories, none of them fond.
Harry smiled, "You too?"
"I have never been a good sleeper but when it came to History…" Severus reminisced.
"You are a good sleeper."
"I am with you, I was referring to before," Severus said plainly.
"Oh," Harry said, feeling warm inside.
"Wonder where Minerva McGonagall is, I was expecting her to be our worst critic, considering that she might think the top job should be hers," Severus mused.
"Brave Gryffindor, probably dead," Harry replied.
"Don't let your little friends hear you say that."
"I don't intend to."
"Right, that appears to be everybody," Hermione suddenly announced.
Harry parted physical contact with Severus but stayed resolutely by his side. He could hardly believe that there were so few of them, a fraction of those assembled were teachers, the rest were either former students who Harry recognised or older people that he didn't, they could have been parents.
"Is this it?" Harry asked, he couldn't help voicing the query.
"There are some who are on missions at the moment, I thought it was best that we keep the invites inside the castle before we decide what we are going to do," Hermione explained.
"So, I suppose you all want to know how I killed the Dark Lord?" Harry began.
His words were met by a rather stunned silence; well it had been quite a silly question Harry had to admit to himself. "Or rather, how I killed the Dark Lord and several hundred of his followers too. Hermione?" Harry prompted his friend.
Hermione had sat down next to Ron but she now stood and took out a few sheets of handwritten parchment from within her robes.
"Harry asked me to do a little research into Kin Bond Swords and he has asked me to present what I found," Hermione began, "Kin Bond Swords are very rare, only one pair of swords are known to have existed in this country and their location is unknown. The owners of the Kin Bond Swords become Bonded to each other and the Sword they each carry. The Swords gain their power by feeding off the love or regard the owners have for each other. In known cases where a Bond of this nature has existed between two people, one person was in possession of both swords until they chose to give one of them to another, thus creating the Bond between them. Although it is not certain how the Swords work, it seems that they themselves play some part in choosing who they become Bonded to. It is thought that some kind of mind interference may be responsible, although a genuine sense of regard must exist between the two people to be Bonded, it is likely that they may be manipulated to some extent by magic from the Swords themselves.
"It is worth noting that interference, by another regular wizard at least, magical or otherwise, seems to be impossible. This article was referring to a pair of Kin Swords and their Bonded, some time in the sixteenth century, in Russia I believe, there is every possibility that no two pairs of Swords behave in exactly the same way. The Kin Bond, once created is for life. The Swords seek to maintain their power at all costs and will eliminate any threat either to them or their owners.
"The power of a pair of Kin Swords is partially dependant on the depth of regard between the two owners but in all cases the wizards were very powerful indeed, the increased power only being evident when both owners held the Swords simultaneously. The Swords can be used to cast all the regular spells and some exclusive ones in addition; an exhaustive list of their capabilities had never been ascertained. Again, this is referring to the Swords in Russia during the sixteenth century. I still don't see how this explains how you killed the Dark Lord, Harry, if he had a pair of these he would be virtually invincible, not that he would find an ounce of genuine regard to Bond with."
Hermione eventually stopped to take a breath. The depth of her research impressed Harry, in such a short space of time too.
"I will now explain the relevance," Harry began.
"Oh!" Hermione suddenly called out, shuffling the parchments in her hands, "I forgot a page."
"Carry on," Harry allowed, not knowing what else she could have found, the bit about being able to become pregnant perhaps.
"This was a strange one," Hermione began, "I remembered reading about Kin Bond Swords somewhere before and I found the entry. It was in the Encyclopaedia of Dark Magic, an entry dedicated to Death Eaters and the origin of the term."
The origin of the Death Eaters, Harry thought, suddenly he didn't like where this was heading at all.
"The Death Eaters are a twentieth century group of wizards who are known to support the Dark Lord, this much we know. What is a little known fact, however, is that the modern Death Eaters are entirely different to what the original term implied, they merely adopted the term, perhaps with little understanding of the original meaning. Literally, a death eater is one who obtains power through the death of others; it is a wizard who consumes the magical power of a body at the point of death.
"This is where the Kin Bond Swords come into things. When a Kin Bonded kills with his sword, the Sword absorbs the magical power of the victim and it is partially absorbed by the Kin Bonded. This noticeably manifests in the Kin Bonded initially as pleasure in the kill and a feeling of lust and elation for a period afterwards. The more kills, the greater the pleasure. One who owned such a Sword would be a 'death eater' in the most original sense of the term, a ruthless and lustful killer who would seek to kill merely for the pleasure of it."
Harry suddenly wanted to pack all his things together and run back to Sgoil Dhubh Lodge without further delay, but he was trapped, he had promised them an explanation. What Hermione had quoted from the encyclopaedia had been a very biased and inaccurate view but Harry didn't know where to begin explaining the complexities of the matter. According to this encyclopaedia entry he and Severus were more faithful death eaters than Lucius Malfoy or any of the others that they had killed. The Dark Lord had been an impostor by comparison.
He had nothing to lose though, Harry thought, if he didn't explain himself at all, then the suspicion would remain anyway.
"I will now show you all how I killed the Dark Lord," Harry began, "It is better if I show you. You must all stand well back and not say a word, this is very important, you must all swear."
Harry looked around the room and bemused faces nodded their agreement.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Severus whispered to Harry, his lips once again close to his Kin's ear.
"I think I have to. Take out your sword, and please Sev, stop it for me if things get out of hand," Harry pleaded, "You have so much more control than I do."
Harry drew his sword; he could imagine the chaos there would have been if Severus had drawn his first, it didn't bear thinking about. While they were all still gasping with surprise, Severus drew his sword too and Harry could feel him through the Bond, feel the power of the swords flowing through him.
It was too soon after the big battle to expect the swords to be calm, as soon as Harry connected with the power it was screaming at him to kill. Harry knew that everybody present had hurt his Kin in some way; the urge to go forward and cast a curse was strong. Harry looked at each of them in turn, thinking of all the things they had done to his Sev.
Harry raised his sword and pointed it towards the group of teachers and former students before him. They all stood silent, he could tell they were frightened; they were, inch by inch, backing away from him as if that would help. And so they should be, Harry thought, a mischievous grin playing across his face.
Harry felt Severus let go of his sword and the power that he felt diminished. Harry let go of his sword too, feeling mildly breathless and a little exhilarated. The swords had, only the day before, filled up on several hundred doses of magical power from some of the most powerful wizards ever, it showed very much in feeling that Harry got from holding his. He had only lasted a minute or two before Severus had stopped it, a second or two more and he would have been in very real danger of killing them all.
"Were they?" Hermione began nervously after several minutes of silence.
"Yes," Harry replied, "The missing English Kin Bond Swords. Severus is that correct?"
"They are the Japanese Kin Bond Swords, the shape is similar to that of a katana," Severus replied.
"Oh Harry!" Hermione said, "Could you not have found a better way than this?"
"What else would have enabled me to kill several hundred Death Eaters?" Harry responded.
"A hundred?" Ron chirped up, "There can't have been that many."
"We did not count them," Severus spoke, "But I can assure you that there were at least two hundred."
"Really," Hermione said, glowering at Severus for speaking instead of Harry, "Did you take any prisoners, is there any proof that they are defeated?"
"Prisoners?" Harry asked, starting to feel quite angry, "There was hardly the time to fiddle about keeping some of them alive," He snapped.
"You killed them all?" Hermione asked in a self-righteous manner.
"Yes, we did what was necessary, and we have their wands, if you want to see proof, in any case it will come soon enough when the weeks pass and there are no more Death Eater raids." Harry continued snappily.
"Well there's no need to be so aggressive Harry," Hermione accused, "HE has got you like this hasn't he?"
"Severus is my friend and my Kin, if you insult him, you insult me. I don't recommend any of you make a habit of it."
"Harry…"
"I think this meeting is over. Till tomorrow," Harry announced. Maybe in the morning he would feel like continuing but he needed to get outside very soon.
Harry made for the door with Severus following close behind him, once out in the corridor Severus grabbed Harry's arm.
"I'm not going back in there," Harry insisted as he turned to face his Kin.
"We didn't tell them about Albus's letter," Severus reminded Harry.
"Shit," Harry responded, looking tentatively back at the Defence classroom doorway.
"I don't think we can leave it," Severus added apologetically, he took the parchment out from where he had placed it in his robes and handed it to Harry.
"Right, let's do this," Harry said making for the classroom door.
Harry swooped back into the classroom as the others were approaching the door in order to leave. The low chatter that had been filling the room as Harry reached the doorway fell to instant silence. Harry came to stand by the teachers desk at the front of the classroom as everybody else stood as if frozen and stared at him.
"One more thing," Harry announced holding the parchment up so they could all see, "Severus and I, following the outstanding victory for which you should all be deeply grateful, wish to help rebuild the wizarding world. If our world remains in disarray then the Death Eaters have won anyway. We wish to begin our work with the restoration of Hogwarts and plan for teaching to commence in the new school year in September, as would normally be the case. Severus?"
Severus was standing beside Harry and Harry handed him the parchment and a quill.
"Sign the parchment Severus," Harry instructed.
Severus looked to the teachers and students assembled as he took the quill but placed the parchment on the desk and added his signature to it without delay. Harry then took the quill from Severus and leant over to sign the parchment too. As he did so more writing appeared in the space that had previously been blank, confirming the authenticity of their acceptance.
Harry took the parchment and held it up so that they could all see.
"I want each one of you to file past and observe the declaration on this parchment as you leave," Harry announced, "Severus and I will jointly be taking the positions of Headmaster and Professor of Defence Against The Dark Arts, all other positions are open to applicants who may submit their application and references to us, either in person or by owl. All positions will be open to those who previously held them in the first instance and advertised externally if still vacant by July. We will be taking up residence in the Slytherin Head of House quarters until repairs to the Headmaster's tower can be completed."
"So you'll be Professor Potter," Ron spoke up then made a spluttering noise as Hermione elbowed him.
"I will be known as Professor Snape from this point on," Harry said snappily, he wanted no more argument and disagreement and it showed in his voice, "Another meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning at nine thirty sharp. That will be all."
One by one they all left, all looking at the parchment and most of them frowning as they went. Ron took Hermione's arm and stood carefully, Harry was sure that he heard Hermione hiss at Ron to 'leave it'; they both came to stand in front of Harry. They dutifully looked at the parchment and left the room without saying a word.
Once they had all gone Harry swooped from the room with Severus following and they were nearly back to the hall before Harry slowed down and Severus could catch up.
When Harry noticed that they were well clear of the awful meeting he stopped and turned to Severus.
"Nice entrance when you went back in," Severus complimented.
"I suppose I'll be getting some practice at it," Harry added trying to smile through the terrible day they were having, "Can we go out for a while?"
"I need to check the state of the wards," Severus said, "That should keep us by the perimeter of the grounds for some time."
"Good," Harry replied breathing a sigh of relief and taking Severus hand.
*****
"Professor Snape?" Ron said in disbelief as soon as he was well clear of the Defence classroom and heading back to Gryffindor common room, as was, "What is wrong with Harry? I mean it was bad enough when he said he was friends with the greasy git, but this…"
"Well it's obvious that Snape has done something to him, Harry would never behave like this if everything was all right, this goes far deeper than a couple of swords and a friendship. It has to be forced by magic, a tenuous friendship would be improbable enough but there's more to it, he's behaving too oddly."
"Bloody hell," Ron added, still reeling from the shock of the afternoon.
"I know," Hermione agreed, their argument had disappeared the second Harry had drawn his sword.
"Did you see the look in his eyes when he held that sword? Urgh, it was just plain creepy."
"I know, whether the sword allowed Harry to kill the Dark Lord or not, we have to rescue him from this, it just isn't right."
"It was like he was possessed," Ron continued, "And the way he was dressed this morning, I nearly fell off my chair, and he doesn't even seem to know that it was weird, it's like he's turning into Snape and he's happy about it. It's just too disgusting for words. It's sick that's what it is. And it isn't just us, nobody else knows what to say to him either, and they're all staring at him and he's completely oblivious. And there's bloody Snape standing there with that haughty expression of his, not saying a word, bloody git. He knows he has control over Harry and he thinks we can't do anything about it."
"Out in the corridor before, it was a cry for help," Hermione surmised, "He asked me to do that research when Snape wasn't there, no matter how much he defends him, Harry wants out and we are going to find a way."
"Your own research said it though, the Bond is for life." Ron pointed out.
"All Bonds can be broken somehow," Hermione confidently asserted.
"I hope you're right," Ron added, "You do know he asked Snape's permission before he followed you this morning?"
"I was using that part of the morning as my proof that our Harry is still in there somewhere," Hermione replied.
"He wouldn't have gone after you if Snape hadn't allowed it and that might only have been because I was there," Ron continued, "Really we don't even know if any of the Death Eaters are dead, not if Snape has control over Harry like that, who knows what else he is capable of, he's probably working for the Dark after all."
"Hmm, and they said that the other Snape was a Polyjuice version, but which one seems most like the real thing to you?" Hermione added.
"I can't tell the difference actually, this one has nicer hair I suppose. We could kill him," Ron said.
"What!"
"Snape I mean, the Bond is for life, not much left of it if Snape's dead."
"I can't believe you said that Ronald Weasley," Hermione replied, genuinely shocked. She looked around to see if anybody had overheard the conversation.
Ron shrugged his shoulders, "Just thinking out loud."
"Anyway, virtually invincible remember," Hermione reminded him.
"Even virtually invincible Death Eaters have to sleep," Ron added.
"I think perhaps we should try and get Harry on his own for a while, see if we can find a way to talk to him about this," Hermione suggested.
Hermione and Ron made their way up the many staircases up to Gryffindor tower. Halfway up Ron suddenly gripped Hermione tightly and Hermione helped him lower himself to sit on the steps. Hermione sat also and Ron leaned against her, his eyes tightly shut.
Everything had suddenly started to spin and Ron had found that he could no longer stay standing, as the whole castle seemed to lurch from beneath him. It was what happened from time to time and the reason why Hermione never left him to walk alone no matter how good a day he was having.
"I suppose our research into getting rid of this curse of mine is going to have to wait until after we've sorted Harry out," Ron said, still leaning against Hermione.
Hermione didn't have the heart to mention that she had already, in the months since Christmas, been through every book in the library at least twice and found nothing of any help whatsoever.
*****
Harry and Severus spent the remainder of the afternoon checking the wards in the castle grounds. There had been several attempts to strengthen the wards since the Death Eater attack, Severus found. Most of the wards had been set by ex-students and the parents of current students, and were not up to the usual standard he might expect. They both held their swords and Harry walked round the perimeter with Severus as he strengthened their defences.
It was with great reluctance that Harry and Severus returned to the Hall for the evening meal. The atmosphere was tense but Harry was sure that the news that they were to be Headmaster had not spread. They were going to discuss the details at the following day's meeting then make an announcement over lunch. An announcement regarding the ending of the war would also be made once they had all had a chance to notice that there were no Death Eaters left to go on raids, since it seemed that nobody was going to believe it otherwise.
The only noise in the hall was that of low volume chatter, Harry once more sat opposite Hermione and Ron but no more was said. Harry might have thought they were prepared to be civil to Severus were it not for the tangible and nasty atmosphere of tension in the air.
Harry looked to Severus who sat picking at his meal without enthusiasm. To Harry he looked miserable and tired, he knew nobody else would see it, but he could.
"Harry," Hermione suddenly said in a pleasant voice as they began to eat their pudding.
"Yes," Harry tried to reply just as pleasantly even though he had immediately felt wary and on guard.
"Would you like to have a game of chess after dinner?" Hermione asked.
Harry tried to smile, "That would be nice, did you bring a board down with you?"
"Well no," Hermione replied looking a bit puzzled.
"Oh, well you can get it later," Harry continued taking another mouthful of sponge and custard.
"I thought perhaps you might like to come up to Gryffindor," Hermione persevered.
"We can play just as well here," Harry responded, "Or we can go down to Slytherin. Severus is that all right?"
Severus was not given a chance to respond, "I thought it would be nice, all of us friends together in Gryffindor, catch up on things, that nice sofa in front of the fireplace where we used to sit and do our homework."
"Where Hermione used to do our homework for us," Ron added cheerfully before looking nervously up at Severus and then going back to his pudding.
"So Severus isn't invited even though that would make a convenient two pairs?" Harry asked, his voice challengingly menacing.
"We didn't mean it like that," Hermione tried to defend.
"No?"
"No, we only meant to relive our school days for a while, we could have stayed up late playing chess then you could have slept in your old bed, save walking through the castle so late at night," Hermione persisted.
"No," Harry said plainly, trying to remain calm.
"But you can't be comfortable down in the dungeon."
"I am comfortable there, really."
"You can't be, I bet you were sleeping on an old crotchety sofa last night, I know there's only one bed in there."
Harry sighed and hoped with a sense of futility that Hermione would let it be sometime very soon.
"I was not sleeping on the sofa," Harry said.
"Then you won't want your 'friend' to be uncomfortable either."
"I can assure you that Severus was not uncomfortable, though I doubt the possibility that he wasn't concerns you too much," Harry responded, despite his resolve the anger was mounting within him.
"But it is only a two-seater sofa."
Harry smiled to himself, Hermione really was asking for the truth but he knew that she wasn't going to like it, "Neither of us slept on the sofa, after we finished talking we both slept in the bed, I usually prefer to be on the right and as it happens I got my wish and so both I and Severus were perfectly comfortable, thank you very much for asking," Harry announced.
Harry was pleased to see that Hermione couldn't immediately think of anything to say.
"It is what we are used to from sleeping in the tent out in the countryside," Harry continued.
"But that was a wizard tent," Hermione responded, the tone of her voice higher than normal.
"No, it was a muggle tent, for authenticity," Harry corrected.
"Oh," Hermione said, processing the information.
"Whether I have a game of chess in the Hall or not, I will be sleeping in Slytherin tonight and every night," Harry asserted, making sure to keep his voice calm but firm.
Hermione frowned and began to stare at her pudding; "Maybe we can play chess another night," She said.
*****
"Let's get Harry on his own for a while to talk to him," Ron goaded Hermione on the way back to Gryffindor tower, "He was making a cry for help, he would really love to talk to us so we can help him."
"Ronald Weasley, you are a git," Hermione responded, "It was a perfectly good theory, but unfortunately Snape seems to have Harry more thoroughly cursed than we at first thought."
"He doesn't look like a man who wants saving to me," Ron commented, "He only seems to get pissed off when you start having a go at him or Snape."
Hermione was instantly annoyed, as Ron had known she would be, "Are you now suggesting that we should leave him to this fate just because he doesn't seem to mind?" Hermione demanded in a tone that was meant to instruct Ron to back down.
"I'm just saying," Ron continued, taking an amount of pleasure in winding Hermione up, "He seems quite happy as he is."
"If you were in a similar situation would you want your friends to help you? Wouldn't you thank them afterwards?" Hermione challenged Ron.
"No, I wouldn't want to be trapped with somebody I didn't want to be with," Ron replied pointedly.
The tone of Ron's voice was not lost on Hermione and she tensed but she didn't want to let it turn into another argument. It was late and as they walked and talked Hermione could feel Ron leaning into her, his arm round her waist and a hand on her arm, as he had been doing since they had left the hall. No matter what Hermione had or hadn't done, they had remained in a state of awkward togetherness since Hermione had told Ron about the baby. Any other couple would have had the luxury of a healthy period of increased distance between them; Ron was almost touching the evidence of Hermione's infidelity every time he left a room. He was indeed trapped with somebody he would otherwise have left completely.
TBC very soon
Next chapter summary - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (see Sarah McLachlan song of the same name) - The wizarding world's acceptance must be won but the Kin just want to shag. A wee bit fluffy.
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A/Ns
Thanks to all who reviewed the previous chapter.