Thank you once again for all your lovely reviews. I'm sorry for the gap between updates, but I've had essays and other such wonderful things to write recently.
You'll be pleased to know that I do actually know where I'm going now; I've already got the last two chapters worked out in my head, even down to the name of the penultimate one! Unfortunately, I still have to figure out how I'm going to get there…
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"It's a good thing Snape isn't female."
Harry, Ginny and Ron all looked up in surprise at this comment, which came seemingly out of the blue.
"Um, Hermione, are you feeling okay? Because that's a somewhat random and… strange thing to say."
"No, I mean it. I'm reading this book and… well, if he were a woman, any children he had would be in slavery too. The slave bond grows in the womb. As a man, he doesn't have to worry."
Ron snorted. "Can you really see Snape having kids? Who'd sleep with him?" He rolled his eyes at the glare from Hermione. "Well, would you?"
"I'm sure there are women out there who would, Ron." Ginny frowned. "I thought all children of slaves used to be slaves themselves?"
"By law, yes. I suppose they assumed that no free woman would sleep with a slave. And if she did, they could always cast a spell after the baby was born."
Harry winced. "I take it from that statement, that free men did sleep with slaves. And I doubt it was always consensual." His eyes widened as he realised, "That means some of them would be enslaving their own children!"
Hermione agreed with a grimace. "The more I read of these books, learning what slavery used to be like… well, I'm just so grateful for the abolitionists! And… well, I'm grateful to you too, Harry, and everyone who fought the Death Eaters. Voldemort obviously learned that spell for a reason. I think we narrowly avoided having slavery brought back as an institution."
"Unfortunately, Snape didn't manage to avoid it."
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It was the last class of the day, and some idiot Hufflepuff was once again completely messing up his potion. How did he manage to get to NEWT level potions and still make such stupid mistakes?
He strolled over to yell at the offender, and then froze as something snapped beneath his foot. He looked to the side, where his master was bent half way out of his chair, obviously on his way to pick up whatever he had dropped. He removed his foot, and closed his eyes as he saw the now-broken quill.
It wasn't his fault that was for certain. All he had done was walk across the room. If anything, it was his master's fault for being so clumsy as to drop the thing in the first place. And yet… he could already feel the slave bond at work, telling him that he had broken his master's property, that he must be punished… and that if his master did not do it, the slave bond would.
From Harry's eyes, he knew it too. He straightened in his chair and took a deep breath, then sighed. "Just get me a new quill. We'll sort it out after the lesson."
Snape murmured "Yes Master," and quickly retrieved a replacement from his desk. His own; but then, everything that was his was his master's anyway. After delivering it to his master, he returned to his original task of telling the Hufflepuff how stupid he was, and made sure to take out all of his frustration on the idiot. Although he managed to concentrate fairly well on the rest of the lesson, he could not help the undercurrent of worry he was feeling.
What would his master choose as his punishment? As trivial as he might have perceived the offense, the slave bond disagreed. He had damaged his master's property, and even if it might be fixable with a simple charm, that didn't matter. The bond would demand a fairly harsh punishment, and if Harry did not deliver, it would administer it itself.
During those weeks of Harry's convalescence, he had on a few occasions done things to merit punishment. The first time, his master had done nothing, and the pain he had felt as a result had been unbearable. On the second occasion, Harry had tried a simple caning on the hands, and although this had satisfied the magic at work, he had gotten the impression that it had hurt Harry more to perform the task than it had for him to receive it.
What would the punishment be today?
The end of the school day arrived, and the rest of the class hurried out of the room, Miss Granger casting a sympathetic glance in his direction before leaving. He had seen her whispering with his master, and suspected that the two of them had concocted together whatever torture was about to happen to him.
Once they were the only two left in the room, Harry stood, and sighed. "I'm sorry, Severus. This is just… wrong. It was only a quill. Hermione already fixed it. And it was my fault anyway."
He bowed low. "I will accept my punishment, Master," he said stiffly.
A sigh, and his master nodded. "Give me your wand."
Snape stared at him incredulously. What? But his master had given him a command, and as stunned as he was, he could not disobey. He slowly reached into his robes, and then reluctantly held the wand out for Harry to take.
"Thank you." His master pocketed it, shoving it next to his own phoenix-feather wand. "You can ask for it back at breakfast tomorrow."
The incredulity got worse. Potter was confiscating his wand? And the thought of asking for it back, in front of the entire school, the humiliation of having all of them know that this child had deprived him of magic… He closed his eyes. It was exactly the kind of punishment that the bond needed. And in truth, it would not inconvenience him that much; he had little need for his wand that evening. It was a good plan; hurting him without doing any real damage.
Fantastic.
"If you have an emergency need for it then come and ask me. Otherwise, I'll see you at dinner." Harry turned and left, leaving a humiliated slave behind him.