Chapter 55

Blood and Bonds Part 1

Severus had probably been generous in letting the boy sleep it off, because being hurt or in pain did not negate the looming fact that there would be another summons from the Dark Lord, and soon. With everything going on, there had not been large gaps of time where he wasn't called. Weakening Osiris more with more defending his mind did not seem wise either. There was simply no perfect course of action. If typical patterns played out, the Dark Lord would be far more interested in what sort of magical ability the boy had rather than repeated ransacking of his mind.

The more time he had to think about it, the more he thought that the strange memory fragment, the darkness, had something to do with the ill effects. One did not bleed from the nose without a fierce level of Legilimency, one he was fairly certain he could not achieve even if he wished, and an epic amount of resistance. Neither of those cases were satisfied.

And yet Osiris had bled profusely.

And it had happened before when he was younger. The fact that places had been closed off which produced those same symptoms for Osiris was strange to him. He wasn't aware of the ability for memories to cause those kinds of physical manifestations, but Osiris was far from a normal wizard. None of these Egyptians were very normal.

His eyes raised from his spot staring at the fire when he heard the door open and Osiris emerged, he still had blood crusted around his nose, and that meant it had not fully stopped.

"Good morning, sir."

"How is your head?" he asked, standing up.

"Better, sir. It still twinges a bit." He paused a few feet away.

"There's still blood around your nose, Osiris."

"Shit." The boy's hand shot up to his face. He touched it and then looked at his fingers, clearly seeing it wasn't still wet. "Er, sorry, sir…"

Those wary hazel eyes met his. He merely raised a brow and let it go. Osiris knew his feelings about the extraneous bad language. Cuffing him on the back of the head didn't seem appropriate. The boy was still squinting some, and it wasn't even that bright.

The realization that latitude was an attachment he had not had to anyone in over a decade hit him rather hard even though he was fully aware he cared for Osiris. The feeling of it was still unfamiliar.

"Do you want to amend your statement that it twinges a bit?"

"I…" Osiris shifted uncomfortably. "I mean, in comparison to last night it is just a twinge, sir."

His sigh held a barely contained growl in the background. "Your stellar pain tolerance is not a mystery to me, but I would prefer your honesty to your strength at the moment." He paused. "As in can you see straight?"

Osiris managed a small smile, tilting his head to the side some. "Yes, sir, I can see straight, just light sensitive is all, and yes, my head still hurts quite a bit, but I'm okay. I would tell you if I was going to, er, fall over or something, sir."

Chancing that the boy might be able to tell him more now that his head wasn't splitting apart, he asked, "You said yesterday that your family used to have to close places up when you were younger because you would get sick. Would they make this bleeding happen too?"

"They did, sir, and it would, yes." The small frown returned. It was clearly not a subject Osiris enjoyed speaking about either.

"What sort of places?"

Osiris shifted, rubbed his lips together, and said, "Certain places in the temples I couldn't go, but they couldn't be closed off. I don't know if they made me bleed per se. There were a few places in Khepri and at home that would give me a bloody nose and make me very ill when I was much younger, and they were mostly my father's spaces." He took in a breath and said, "Our magical bonds don't always end after death and can be very physically strong."

"Is that normal for your people?"

"I don't know, sir. I don't think so, but there are things about me I thought were abnormal that turned out not to be so abnormal on my last visit, with you. I never saw anyone else have that reaction."

"Not your brother?"

"He was born after my father died, so he would not have had the same bonding, but no he's not had that happen."

Nodding in satisfaction at the answer, he realized still needed more information than Osiris could provide. Memories from a young age were not the easiest to recall for either the person remembering them or through Legilimency, and while the boy's mother was not alive to ask, there were others that might give him more information.

"I need to be away for a few hours. My second and fourth years have an exam today. Are you capable of supervising that?"

Osiris frowned lightly.

That was expected. Severus rarely had a reason to leave the school, and the only time he had left without Osiris recently was over Christmas. The time where he had returned half dead, and Osiris had to get the headmaster.

"Yes, sir. I can do that."

The boy very obviously wanted to ask where he was going, but he had no intention of answering that beforehand. However, he understood the hitch. "It has nothing to do with the Dark Lord." He allowed a moment for that to sink in before he added. "Did you have anything you needed to do for Professor Slughorn this morning?"

"I did everything yesterday, master…before doing the floor."

"I will tell him that you will not be available to him today."

This revelation stunned Osiris some; he had very expressive eyes even with a mostly unreactive face.

"Is there something else you wished me to do, sir?"

"We shall see when I return. In the meantime, if you start bleeding again or your head worsens, go to Professor Slughorn or the headmaster."

"I will, sir."

When he stepped into the foyer of Khepri, he felt somewhat out of place without Osiris, but there were some things adults tended to keep from children. With the secretive nature of these people, he did not doubt that it was possible they knew what was wrong with his apprentice and had been keeping it from the boy and from anyone else.

The same elder gentleman was found in the same place as the last time they had come.

"Master Snape. Good morning." There was a very brief pause before he said, "You wish to see Amsu Shai, yes?"

He was not going to grow used to their bizarre abilities for reading him. "Yes," he answered simply.

The man turned to the side and said over his shoulder, "Sami, come, take Master Snape to your grandfather." The boy he spoke to was about eight or nine.

Said boy looked up at him wide-eyed. It was akin to the look many had given him when they had entered that coffee shop last trip. It was also akin to the look eleven-year-olds from other houses gave him at Hogwarts.

The elder man said quietly so the child couldn't hear, "His English is not the best, but it's some distance, and he'll get you there."

Something was said to the boy in Egyptian, and he promptly said, "Come follow, Master Snape, please," in that childish tone that most would have found cute.

They passed through several rooms and hallways before Severus asked, "How old are you?"

The boy kept leading but held up 8 fingers and then clearly tried to count them in English in his mind before he said, "Eight, Master Snape?"

He could not help it. He snorted in amusement. "Do you come here often?"

"Here, sir?" the boy asked, pointing to the very place they were.

"No, Khepri."

They were passing through a long corridor with many doors and archways. Having dwelled in a dungeon for a long time, he could tell they were underground.

"Oh. No, Master Snape. I make boxes for today," he said proudly. "For T'Ata. Er, mine grandfather." Then he pondered his words more and added, "And make books A, B, Cs."

Clearly, Osiris had not exaggerated that there was something to be done there, even by young hands.

"Alphabetize, you mean?"

"Yes, master, alphametice the books." He smiled in that guileless fashion that generally ended by the time a child hit Hogwarts age. Children turned far more crafty around eleven or twelve.

"Alphabetize," he repeated. Then he wondered why, precisely, he was holding a conversation with a barely English-speaking eight-year-old. Generally, he would not have the patience for that, but as before, this place had its own magic, it's own way of making you feel…differently.

"Al-pha-bet-eyes?"

"Yes," he replied, because honestly it was close enough with the boy's accent.

The kid stopped at an archway and pointed. "Here, Master Snape. I'm not allowed. T'Ata does not like bothered when do working."

"I felt you coming a long while ago, Sami," came a voice from inside. "You can come inside, both of you."

This seemed a very exciting prospect for the eight-year-old, who fought the desire to bound through the archway admirably for his age. He went right up to his grandfather and started looking at the cauldrons cautiously.

The sight was not what he was expecting. In fact, it made him blink and then blink again. This Amsu had at least four cauldrons going with potions without any physical work at all. No stirs. No knives. Nothing. Two had mixtures hovering and combining some inches above the rim, one turning from green to purple as he walked in, the other becoming more red as something powdered trickled into a tiny tornado-like swirl of liquid.

As if reading his shock, as he'd never seen a person work this way, Amsu said, "I am more than four times older than you. Perhaps when you are my age, you will do it this way too."

It was a strange sensation to feel like he was better fit in the company of the eight-year-old in comparison to this display of both skill and wandless magic. Skill far beyond his own.

"It isn't wandless magic. At least not Outsider sort of wandless magic," Amsu added, before addressing his grandson, "Did you finish the boxes and the books?"

He could apparently hold a conversation while working four cauldrons that way.

The boy started answering in their language, and Amsu said, "English, that's rude."

Sami looked up at him again, wide-eyed, then frowned, looking back in confusion at his grandfather, "Master Snape doesn't speak us?"

"No, and it's doesn't speak our language…or speak like us…either works."

"Oh…" This seemed to not compute for the boy. "Yes, done. I reat out…orders…in the Latin with Bakhu."

"Read, Sami, read, and I'm sure you're tiring Bakhu. You can go play now, and don't run in here or I will know."

Once the boy left, without running, Amsu finally turned to him, "The boy can tell you aren't an Outsider. It is strange to him you don't understand our language." There was a pause as he turned his attention back to the cauldrons for a moment. "I'm a bit surprised you came to see me and not my sister."

Severus said, "It is about Osiris, and you seem to be the one who knows him best."

AN - Thank you so much for your story favorites and follows as well as your reviews! Still going through a rough time personally and when it rains, it pours, so more of a shit-storm keeps getting piled on top of me. Your reviews and reactions really help keep me going and also help keep my motivation for writing!