Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

A/N: Sorry for the delay, my muse apparently decided that it was a bear and wanted to try hibernating, so I had to poke it repeatedly with a sharp stick to get any writing done.

Harry Potter and Death's Bargain

Chapter 6

The large black wolf lay in the warm grass of a forest clearing, his eyes were closed but he could nonetheless sense the presence of his mate lying next to him. As the wolf lay there a bird landed on his shoulder and began pecking him lightly. The wolf considered moving to teach the bird a lesson, but decided that it was too comfortable where it was, and that as long as the bird stopped soon he would spare its life. Unfortunately the bird did not stop pecking, if anything it became more insistent in its attempts to rouse the wolf, and then the bird began to speak.

"Master Harry, Master Harry yous must be waking up. Master Harry yous be needing to go to class soon."

Harry gave a large yawn and for a moment thought he was still dreaming, true he was no longer in a forest clearing, but he was definitely still a wolf. Fortunately before he could begin to panic the memory of the night before returned to him, unfortunately this memory was brought back by the unrelenting ache that permeated his entire body. Looking around Harry saw that he was curled up on the floor of the main room of his and Hermione's quarters while Roddy was standing at his shoulder and had apparently been attempting to wake him for some time Harry focused on returning to his normal form and the transformation back came as naturally as if he had been doing it all his life. The ache faded a little, but Harry was quite certain it would return if he tried to move too much. Hermione had brewed potions for them to drink to help with the soreness, but he didn't know where they were and he didn't want to go looking for them. So instead he rolled over on the floor to face the brown furred wolf lying next to him.

"Hermione," he said as he reached out and scratched her behind the ear "you need too wake up now Love." Hermione gave a cute canine whimper before burying her head under her front paws "If you don't wake up we'll be late for Arithmancy." That did the trick as her head shot up her eyes cleared of the last remnants of sleep. This sort of rapid movement was apparently a very bad idea as she immediately made another whimper, this one significantly less cute, before she transformed back.

"Uggh," She moaned as she reverted to her normal shape. "Good morning, can you go get the muscle potions off the desk in the spare room?"

Before Harry could respond Roddy popped out of the room and was back with two bottles of purple potion. "Here you go Master Harry, Mistress Hermione." He said as he handed them each a bottle of potion, which Harry noticed as he drank it that it tasted like grape and mint.

"Madam Pomfrey has given me this potion before, but it tasted horrible."Harry commented as he gave Hermione a hand up.

Hermione snorted "That is because Snape brews all the potions for the Hospital Wing. That man deserves his Potions Mastery just on his ability to make potions taste terrible."

After a quick shower Harry came back to the main room to find a full breakfast laid out, obviously by Roddy. Seeing the hard work that the little house elf had obviously gone to reminded Harry of how insistent Hermione had been about house elf rights at this time originally. This lead Harry to think about Hermione's entire crusade for house elves. Two things immediately caught Harry's attention, first was how suddenly and almost randomly the whole thing had begun. Hermione hadn't begun when she learned of Dobby's plight working for the Malfoys, but when she had met Winky who's biggest problem was that she had to perform a task that she strongly disliked. Of the two cases Dobby's was by far more severe, but it had been Winky that had started everything rolling almost two years after learning of Dobby's systematic abuse and torture at the hands of Lucius Malfoy. The second thing that Harry noticed was how suddenly Hermione had dropped the whole thing, for over a year and a half Hermione had been spending a large portion of her free time working on house elf rights, and then suddenly in fifth year she had stopped talking about it. She had hardly ever mentioned anything about it after that, true she had insisted that they be nice to Kreacher, but that was more a general insistence on common courtesy than any political view. Then she had kissed Ron when he suggested they warn the elves, but that was more a response to Ron thinking about any other living creature besides himself. Looking back on that kiss Harry could see that Ron had simply taken advantage of Hermione politely congratulating him for acting like a halfway decent human being.

While Harry was thinking Hermione sat down to join him for breakfast. Looking up Harry decided to confirm his suspicions "Hermione, why did you stop the whole S.P.E.W. Thing?"

"I..." Hermione stopped to think about that very thing for a few moments before she continued "I honestly don't know, when I started it felt like nothing was more important, and then when Voldemort came back that was the only thing more important, but then one day it suddenly wasn't important at all."

"That was a little while after Dumbledore left wasn't it?"

"How did you know that?" Hermione asked, clearly surprised by how well Harry had guessed the time frame.

"Just a guess." Harry hedged while he tried to piece everything together.

"I just wish the elves had been willing to tell me more about how they became enslaved. Every time I asked them about it they suddenly refused to say anything no matter how talkative they had been before." Hermione mused while Harry thought.

"That is because Mister Dumbles is ordering elves not to be telling Mistress Hermione about it." Roddy said as he cleared the dishes from the table, the little elf had clearly been listening to the entire conversation. "If Mistress wishes to be knowing about house elves Roddy would be happy to tell her all about it, but first Master Harry and Mistress Hermione must be getting to class."

"Roddy why would Dumbledore order the elves not to tell me anything? And why are you able to tell me if Dumbledore ordered you not to?" Hermione asked.

"Roddy is not knowing why Mister Dumbles is doing things, but Roddy is able to tell Mistress because Roddy is not a Hogwarts elf, he is a Potter elf."

"Wait, you're a Potter elf?" Harry asked, surprised "Why are you at Hogwarts then?"

"Of course, Roddy is being Potter elf for sixty years now. Roddy is working at Hogwarts since Master James and Mistress Lily died, Mister Dumbles said Master Harry had to be hiding, but that Master Harry would know to call for Roddy if he needed help when he was older."

Hermione could tell that Harry needed to be distracted before his rage at Dumbledore's newly discovered manipulation, so she decided to cut short the discussion "Harry we need to get to class, we'll need to talk more latter Roddy." She said as she she began pulling Harry toward the door.

Harry was sufficiently distracted by pretending to pay attention in class that he was only able to make a few speculations about what Dumbledore had been planning. So far he only had a couple thoughts that made any sense, but he needed to talk to Hermione and see what she thought, and she had pointedly stated that they should wait until their privacy could be assured.

So it was that as soon as Hermione had finished eating her dinner Harry was dragging her back to their quarters. "So, what do you think?" he asked as he closed and locked the door behind him.

"About Dumbledore not telling you about Roddy, or about him ordering the elves not to talk to me?" Hermione asked to buy herself a few moments to reorganize her thoughts from the day.

"Either... both... I dunno, the thing with Roddy makes sense I guess." Harry said as he took a seat on their couch.

"Well, he probably lied to Roddy to keep an eye on him so he didn't seek you out before you came to Hogwarts, and then forgot to mention him to you so you would still have to go back to the Dursleys. I mean if you knew about Roddy would you have ever gone back there?" Hermione asked as she sat down next to Harry. "As for ordering the elves to keep secrets from me specifically, I really don't know why he would do that. He must have had a reason, but what could it possibly be?"

"That's what I was thinking, but it does fit with a few other things. What if this was his first plan to try and keep us apart, going straight to love potions in sixth year was a bit extreme, but if he had already tried something else..."

"What do you mean, how would that have worked at all?"

"Alright think about what I asked you this morning, you said that suddenly protecting house elves was the most important thing in the world to you, in fact for the first couple of days it was so important to you that you weren't even eating. Up until Halloween you spent the majority of your free time researching house elves, and then after my name came out of the Goblet of Fire we spent most of our time trying to prepare for the tournament. What if Dumbledore put a compulsion charm on you, your behavior fits perfectly with what you would expect from someone who was being compelled."

"Of course," Hermione continued finally picking up Harry's train of thought "He must have overpowered the charm at first and he had to dial it back after I stopped eating. He must not have expected your name to come out of the Goblet, and if it hadn't his plan may have worked. A compulsion like that would need to be renewed every few days, so that must be why he made sure I was at Grimauld Place almost immediately after school ended, and when he was thrown out of the school he wasn't able to renew it and I just stopped all my efforts. But if he ordered the elves not to tell me anything then whatever they have to say about it must be enough to actually have ended my entire search."

"I guess we'll just have to ask Roddy to tell us about house elves. Roddy" Harry called.

"Yes, Master Harry?" Roddy asked as he popped into existence in front of the teens.

"Roddy," Hermione began politely "Why are house elves enslaved by Wizards?"

"Well, Mistress Hermione" Roddy said slowly clearly deciding how best to answer "Enslaved isn't being the best word for what elves is. House Elves is being the last remnants of the True Fey."

Seeing that Harry was about to ask a question Hermione explained "The True Fey were a number of different races of faeries and elves of immense power. Historians have speculated on how much the True Fey interfered with early human civilization, but most of them disappeared around the fall of the Roman Empire. Most pixies, nixies, and faeries you see nowadays are descended from the True Fey and any of a number of lower creatures."

With Hermione's explanation complete Roddy continued "House Elves was the servant caste of the Fey, working for the High Elves and Faerie Lords. When the rest of the Fey disappeared from this world House Elves was left behind, without the Faerie Lords to provide elves with magic to sustain them elves sought out humans with magic so's they could survive. But House Elves is still Fey and are bound by our nature, and the first Law of the Fey is that anything received must be repaid, Witches and Wizards give magic so House Elves must be repaying them. Without magic elves is dieing, and so the bargain was made; House Elves would bind themselves to Wizard families, and would serve them in the way they served the Fey before them."

"But what about Dobby and Winky? They're both free, Dobby has been free for over a year and as far as I know he's still fine." Hermione asked.

"Dobby be playing a dangerous game, he is being free of Malfoys, but he is still bound to a Wizard but the Wizard is not knowing. Winky is dieing because she has lost the bond to her family, and nothing will be able to save her, she feels the obligation to serve her family still and will never be able to bond with another family."

"Why is what Dobby is doing dangerous?" Harry asked, concerned for the little elf.

"Because Dobby is receiving magic, but is not repaying it. Since Dobby is not serving his family in the normal way anything they ask of him he must do, no matter what it is. If Dobby had chosen a bad Wizard he could be forced to act as a spy or assassin or to throw away his own life. House Elves is making bargain so that they would be kept safe from doing things that would put them in danger and stop Wizards from using House Elves to harm other Wizards."

As Roddy explained what could happen to Dobby Harry realized exactly why Dobby had always helped him whenever he needed anything. "He bound himself to me, didn't he?" Harry finally asked aloud.

"Yes he did Master Harry." Roddy replied "If Roddy may, for Dobby's own good he must begin working for the Potter family properly, before he owes you too much."

"What could he do, Hermione and I are here at Hogwarts and don't need two House Elves working for us here."

"Roddy will take him to the Potter ancestral home at Eagle's Peak, he can begin restoring the house and grounds for now. It will be many months before it is ready for you, but I will take you both there when it is ready." Roddy explained. Harry nodded his consent and Roddy popped away.

As they lay in bed latter Hermione turned to Harry and spoke the thoughts that had been on her mind ever since Roddy had told them about House Elves "I can't believe how foolish I was about House Elves. They kept telling me they didn't want to stop working for Wizards and I just assumed that I knew exactly what was right for them without even knowing what was really going on."

"It wasn't your fault, Dumbledore made sure you wouldn't be able to find out what you needed to know, all you did was try to help those who you thought needed help." Harry reassured her as he held her close.

The next day was Friday, and it was an important Friday. It was the day of the Weighing of the Wands and the day Malfoy had cursed Hermione's teeth. Harry and Hermione weren't sure whether Malfoy was going to try cursing Harry this time, but both agreed if he did that Hermione would take the curse so that she would have a reason to get her teeth fixed by Madam Pomfrey.

Their early classes passed quickly and soon they found themselves walking down to the dungeon corridor with the other Gryfindors in their year. Apparently Malfoy had in fact gotten up the courage to make his badges as Harry could see them when he first entered the corridor and Malfoy broke away from the gaggle of Slytherins to have a go at Harry.

"Like them Potter?" Malfoy asked as he flashed his badge at Harry with it's vibrant letters proclaiming SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY – THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION "And this isn't all they do," Malfoy sneered "Look!" as his badge changed to read POTTER STINKS.

Harry looked down at the badge and said, his voice dripping with sarcasm "How insultingly... mediocre. Honestly Malfoy I've heard better insults from muggle four-year-olds." Harry shook his head with mock disappointment "I really expected better of you."

Malfoy had expected Potter to get angry, then he could just wait a couple of seconds for Professor Snape to come out and punish him for some stupid little thing, but Potter hadn't gotten angry, instead he had dared to insult him. This could not be allowed to go unchallenged, so Draco Malfoy, the seventh worst student in his year, pulled his wand on Harry and Hermione Potter, the sixth and first best students respectively. This he would decide later, while convalescing in the Hospital Wing, had been a serious mistake.

What started as a surprise attack quickly degenerated into a straight-up beat down on the blonde Slytherin. Malfoy raised his wand so it was pointing straight at Harry's face and nearly shouted "Densaugeo". Unfortunately he had stupidly waited until his wand was fully raised before beginning his incantation, thereby giving Harry ample time to raise his left arm to push Malfoy's wand away, sending his first spell over Harry's left shoulder where it hit Hermione in the face and caused her teeth to begin to grow. While Malfoy was realizing that he probably shouldn't have gotten as close as he had Harry was drawing his own wand, however unlike Malfoy he didn't wait until it was fully raised to start casting spells and managed to get off four spells during his wands trip to pointing right between Malfoy's evil little eyes. The first spell was a simple piercing charm, originally designed as a utility spell for putting holes through objects with minimal effort, it had been used as a basic combat spell for centuries due to its simple incantation and minimal wand movement, the charm hit Malfoy in the foot causing severe pain as it drilled a neat half-inch hole through his foot. The second spell was a bone breaking jinx which impacted with his kneecap, instantly shattering it and further increasing Malfoy's discomfort. The third spell was a punching hex to the stomach, another basic combat spell that was commonly used by Aurors since it was considered a non-lethal spell. Finally as Malfoy's legs collapsed under Harry's assault Harry finished off with a highly overpowered stinging hex to the face, which left Malfoy looking as though he had been stung in the face by a bee the size of a medium sized dog.

As Harry was finishing his last spell Snape came billowing out of his classroom and demanded to know what had happened. The Slytherins all began to explain loudly how Harry had attacked Malfoy without provocation while the Gryfindors proclaimed Harry's innocence. When someone, Harry thought it might have been Seamus, stated that Malfoy had started it by hexing Hermione Snape, who had already seen what effect the spell in question had done simply sneered at Harry and said "I see no difference". Unlike last time Hermione didn't run off crying after having been insulted by a professor, instead she stood by her husband as Snape launched an assault against Harry's mind with legilimency.

The one time Harry had ever successfully thrown off Snape's mental attack he had reversed it and gained a quick glimpse of Snape's mind, this time though things were very different. When it had happened in Harry's fifth year had, at least in theory, been teaching Harry occlumency, even if his methods would be considered both idiotic and barbaric by anyone who had received any training in the art. Therefore Snape had been at least a little prepared for the possibility that Harry might reverse the attack and had maintained some defenses. Also he had been using a wand which gave him a greater level of control. This time though Snape had no real control after he had launched the attack, and in his arrogance and hatred had left no defenses behind in case Harry was able to block him. The moment Snape's mental probe reached Harry's mind it was stopped instantly as if it had run into a solid stone wall. In that instant of confusion Harry was able to push back, metaphorically steam-rolling the disoriented Snape right back into his own mind and giving Harry another look into the Potion Master's mind. In a matter of seconds Harry had ripped through every single passive defense Snape had like they were wet tissue paper, and unlike last time he was not met with a few snippets of memory, he was met by a profound understanding of Severus Snape, and what he understood disgusted him. Snape's childhood had been rough, there was no denying that, but it was still better than Harry's by a wide margin, and where Harry had striven ever since to prove his family wrong in every way Snape had decided to take revenge, for the wrongs his father had heaped on him, against the entire world. Harry had seen Snape's memory of first meeting a young Lily Evans, but when he saw it within Snape's mind he understood the thoughts and motivations behind the actions, he had seen a young girl who had power she didn't understand and he could explain to her, in exchange he would take her devotion and in the process he would take the one thing she had that he could never have, a happy family. Snape had systematically isolated Lily from her sister rewarding every step away from her family with some new tidbit of information about magic. When they received their Hogwarts letters he had gone on about the wonders of Slytherin and how all the other houses were less prestigious, knowing all the while that Lily would never be allowed into Slytherin with her muggle heritage. After the sorting Snape had remained friends with Lily while pushing away anyone else who would be her friend. With his indoctrination of her before school had started and his continued isolation of her afterward it took her three years for her to make any other friends at Hogwarts, and even then it was only because Snape had already begun down the path to joining the Death Eaters and had to devote time to them and not to keeping Lily isolated. Finally in their fifth year he had been at her because she had been studying for the OWLs with the friends she had made in Gryfindor instead of with him, which led to the outburst following the DADA OWL which had ruined their friendship permanently. Snape of course had not seen it this way, he saw it as Lily, who by all rights belonged to him after so much work cultivating her devotion, betraying him. When he had asked Voldemort to spare her it had not been for love as he had told Dumbledore, it had been in hopes that the destruction of her family and life would leave her broken and defeated so she would be easily controlled as she had as a child. His hatred of James Potter stemmed from the fact that James had dared to pursue that which Snape saw as his property, Lily. James had not sought out a conflict with Snape he had simply retaliated against Snape's attacks. His hatred of Harry was due solely to the fact that Harry was a physical manifestation of his greatest defeat, that he had lost Lily to James Potter. Snape was a user and a traitor, he had used Lily at great cost to herself and he used the Headmaster to take his revenge on Harry, he had betrayed Voldemort the moment he didn't get exactly what he wanted and the only reason he hadn't betrayed Dumbledore yet was that the opportunity had not yet presented itself.

In looking into Snape's mind Harry also learned every single sore spot in Snape's psyche, every emotional wound left to fester in resentment or scabbed over and scarred by rationalization. He knew everywhere to poke and prod to cause the man pain, and if it had been anyone other than Snape he probably would have never used any of it, but this was Severus Snape, and he deserved every ounce of suffering that was coming to him.

Snape didn't notice the spell that Harry cast, creating a small bubble of privacy where only the two of them could hear what was said. He also didn't realize exactly how much Harry had learned in his brief sojourn through his mind. "Detention, Potter" He sneered still so self assured even after he had been mentally curb stomped by Harry.

"No." was the only response he got.

"What did you say?" Snape snarled back.

"I said no, you worthless, disgusting worm." Harry replied, before Snape could respond though Harry continued "You think you're so tough and powerful, waiting behind corners to take points or give detentions, like every petty little act of childish vengeance somehow makes your life a tiny bit less pathetic. You Severus Snape are an evil disgusting little boy who has refused to ever grow up. You think the world owes you for your pain and suffering? That it owes you for every bruise, every broken bone your father gave you? The truth is you deserved it Snape. Your father was right, you were a worthless, useless, disgusting parasite and look how well you've proved him right. Every time you've taken your revenge on the innocent you've only proved how right he was to hate you. I have taken the measure of your soul Severus Snape and you disgust me. This is your only warning, if you ever cross me or mine again I will destroy you, I know every secret you hide in that cesspool you call a mind and I will take great pleasure in using every single one of them against you." Before Snape could respond Harry had take Hermione's arm and was leading her to the Hospital Wing.

An hour later Harry and Hermione were sitting in the Hospital Wing waiting for Madam Pomfrey's permission for Hermione to leave. It had taken all of twenty seconds for Madam Pomfrey to fix Hermione's teeth, but she till insisted that Hermione wait in case there were any complications. Suddenly Colin Creevey came bursting through the doors to inform Harry that he had to go to the Weighing of the Wands. Harry kissed his wife goodbye before following the excitable third year.

The room they entered was the same one as before and the scene was almost identical, with the only exception being that Rita Skeeter immediately came right at Harry asking for an interview before dragging him off into a closet. As she pulled out her acid green quick-quotes-quill Harry stopped her. "You won't be needing that." Harry informed her "In fact I'm quite certain you won't want any record of this conversation ever having taken place. Did you know that the penalty for being an unregistered animagus is a ten thousand galleon fine? And that if you are unable to pay that fine you could see as much as two years in Azkaban? Worse yet, due to the way the laws are written if you had ever used your form before registering it to make money you could be charged with the 'use of illegal magic for personal gain'? The sentence for which is five years per offense. And if they can prove malicious intent the penalty increases to ten years per offense. Of course proving malicious intent would also open you and the Prophet to charges of libel and defamation which could result in hundreds of thousands in damages being awarded. And let's be honest, with all the enemies you've made in the Ministry all they need is an excuse to come after you. So, if you don't want to die in prison you will keep your nose out of my business or I will crush you like a bug, and tell your editor that he better not send some other reporter after me or I'll finger him as an accomplice to your crimes and he can join you in Azkaban." Harry then left a thoroughly stunned Rita Skeeter in the closet.

The rest of the Wand Weighing ceremony went exactly the same, though with slightly fewer pictures being taken as Rita urged her photographer to hurry up so they could leave. As the ceremony ended Dumbledore pulled Harry aside, Snape obviously hadn't had a chance to tell Dumbledore what had happened as Dumbledore didn't immediately tell Harry off.

Dumbledore had been trying to talk to Harry for days, he needed to understand what had changed so suddenly and what it would mean for his plans. In the immediate aftermath of Harry's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire Dumbledore had pushed off a lot of work and questions to adjust his plans for Harry being in the Tournament, just as he was deciding on the best course of action McGonagall had come to inform him that Harry had somehow gotten married to Miss Granger. This of course had caused him to set aside his entire weekend to adjust his plans again, only for those plans to be ruined by the youngest Weasleys' reactions to the news of their marriage. He had ended up planning and re-planning until midweek, by which time everyone involved in the Tournament was demanding answers for a number of complications that arose from having four champions instead of three. This on top of all his other work had prevented him from taking any action in regards to Harry Potter until now.

Before Dumbledore could say anything though Harry laid his trap "Oh good Professor, I've been meaning to come talk to you. The other night I had another dream about Voldemort. He was telling Wormtail to go to some shack, he said that 'because of Lucius's mistake' he would need to 'make sure the others are still safe'. He said that Wormtail was to look for a ring there, he said that the ring was a gold ring with a simple black stone in it that had a triangle with a circle and a line in it engraved on the stone. He said something about having to move it as soon as his plan was complete. I have no idea what he was talking about, but I figured you would want to know."

"Thank you for telling me this Harry." Dumbledore said as a wistful look came over his eyes at the thought of finally being able to claim the resurrection stone. Deciding that his other plans could wait for a while he sent Harry on his way.

A/N: Again, I'm really sorry to all of my readers who have been waiting for me to update my stories, hopefully I will have another chapter of this or a new story for the Vault in the next week or so.