Disclaimer: I own very little.
A/N: I know, I know. It's been far too long. And now, though long, this chapter is rather rushed -- it contains the ingredients of what was originally planned to be two chapters. However, it is about the best I could produce between the long-term strike of my HP muses and the NaNoWriMo. I hope it satisfies you at least a little -- and that you can forgive me.
NOTICE: This story will only have a couple of chapters more. And no sequel.
Deepest Bonds
Misfortune
"Is he still not better?"
Madam Pomfrey glanced at Sirius and sighed. "I'm afraid not," she said. "He was wounded very badly. I doubt he will recover soon, even with magic. If it were anybody else, I could ask him to prepare a salve specifically designed to treat such wounds, but as it is Severus..."
"There isn't anybody else with such skill," Sirius finished, nodding. "I understand."
"Maybe it's just for the better that he hasn't awoken yet," the mediwitch then said. "If he had to experience what is going on around here at the moment..."
Sirius shuddered at the mere thought. Severus' slavery was the only thing anybody talked about at Hogwarts nowadays. The marks were too obvious to be ignored, and now everybody was just speculating about who was his master. It wouldn't take long, he feared, for the first Purebloods to notice his ring – and after that, nothing could keep the secret a secret anymore.
There was nothing that could be done to stop the rumours. The evidence was too, well, evident, and denying it all would have just been the last confirmation. All he could do was act unconcerned – and make Miss Lohawk's life as difficult as possible. Never let it be said that Sirius was above vengeance.
He just wished Severus would wake up. At least then, he wouldn't have to worry so much.
Severus indeed awoke eventually. They allowed him to recover for a couple of days in peace before revealing that his status had been discovered by the students. The Potions Master accepted this with almost frightening calmness. Something must be wrong if he didn't even complain about it.
Sirius, of course, questioned him about his calmness. Severus simply told he had always expected it to come out sooner or later, especially after Miss Lohawk's discovery. He would, naturally, resign without any further fussing. He wouldn't cause any trouble.
Thankfully others were more sensible than Severus himself. The whole faculty, Dumbledore first of all, announced that he had better not even imagine resigning. He was, they announced, the best Potions Master Hogwarts had seen in a while – which was undoubtedly true. They could not find anybody better than he was no matter how they looked. It didn't matter that he wasn't exactly free – to them, he was the same Severus as always. When even Trelawney joined the pleas for him to stay, Severus gave in; after all, he had nowhere else to go, really. However, he still seemed rather uncomfortable at the thought of facing the students.
This hesitation was not, as they discovered, without reason. As soon as Severus first entered the Great Hall for breakfast since his accident, everybody started whispering and chattering. Some of the more observant ones even noticed the concerned glances Sirius kept giving Severus, and after a minute or two there were several hands pointing at him, undoubtedly due to somebody noticing his ring. While the students spoke, the teachers all tried to talk to Severus. The Potions Master, however, did not react to any of this, instead concentrating solely on his plate. He was simply pushing his food around even though he could have eaten – Sirius, having arrived first, had already finished eating.
Finally, though, Sirius had got enough. He would not see his lover being humiliated like this. Glancing sharply around, he shot up from his chair.
"SILENCE!" Sirius bellowed. As everybody fell more or less silent out of pure shock, he glared angrily around the Great Hall. "Yes, the mastership of the slave Severus Snape has been given to me as an inheritance. However, if any of you are stupid enough to think that I would not demand a punishment for anybody who harms him, well, you're going to be really fucking sorry. If you as much as raise a finger against him, or say one word out of the line, I won't be satisfied with anything less than an immediate expulsion." Getting to the end of his rant, he sat back down, still fuming.
Severus was, he noticed, trying to avoid his gaze. Then again, the Slytherin was avoiding everyone's gazes. The students eyed him in half despise, half horror, and the other teachers were giving him simply pitying glances.
After another moment of this, Sirius turned towards the Potions Master, who was seated next to him. "Do you want to leave?" he asked simply.
Severus still didn't say anything. However, Sirius noticed a slight inclination of his head, which he interpreted as a clear answer. Rising to his feet, he abandoned his place at the table, heading out of the Great Hall. Severus walked behind him, his steps more hesitant than Sirius had ever heard them. This enraged him even further, but not badly enough for him to forget to address Severus while walking into the Entrance Hall.
From now on, he decided, they would not eat in the Great Hall.
One may have thought that Severus had faced more than enough hardships now. However, Lady Luck was clearly not on the Potions Master's side. Only a few days after he had returned to teaching, Severus – along with Sirius – was called into a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. This nowadays fairly unusual occurrence was due to rather extreme circumstances.
"There is a Death Eater on the loose," Dumbledore announced. "This is hardly any surprise, but it is indeed surprising that this Death Eater has already been captured once. Somehow, he has managed to escape – and being handling by Dementors has hardly made him any more sane, not that he ever was that to begin with."
"Who is it?" asked Kingsley Shacklebolt. "I guess we know them already. There are only so many madmen even among Death Eaters, after all."
"The escaped Death Eater," the Headmaster told them, "is Thomas Manger."
The name told nothing to Sirius. The others, however, looked shocked. At Sirius' questioning glance, Severus spoke. "Thomas Manger joined Voldemort publicly towards the end of the war – a sign of his insanity if anything," the slave told dryly. "He mainly targeted women and children. If he indeed is on the loose, Hogwarts will be his first target, so we will have to be on guard."
"Not only because children are there," commented Mad-Eye Moody. "He has a specific grudge against you, Snape, doesn't he?"
Severus nodded slowly. "I may not have exactly made him happy by poisoning him," he admitted mildly. "Especially as it led to his being arrested at the first place."
"Well, as long as you stay within Hogwarts, you don't have to worry," Dumbledore said. "We have enough wards to keep anybody outside, especially the likes of Manger."
"But I can't stay at Hogwarts all the time," Severus shot back. "At the very least I will have to go to Hogsmeade to get more supplies."
The Headmaster tried to convince Severus, with little success. Sirius listened to this for a while, until he got enough of it all. He'd be damned if Severus got slaughtered by some psychopath without him even trying to prevent it.
"Severus," he said firmly. As the Slytherin raised his eyes at him, he continued, "I, as your Master, hereby firmly prohibit you from leaving the Hogwarts grounds for any amount of time after you get back there tonight. No excuse can justify going against this prohibition."
For some time, Severus just stared at him with cold, angry eyes. Then he let out a defeated sigh. "I shall do as you wish, Master," he hissed through clenched teeth.
"Good." Turning towards the rest of the stunned Order, Sirius said, "Now, where were we?"
The others, however, didn't seem to be up to continuing the meeting. They simply stared at Sirius. Then at Severus. And then again at Sirius.
Then they all started to talk at once. It seemed they had managed to push the revelation of Severus' status aside for now, but this reminded them of it rather directly. Unlike the students, instead of being despising towards Severus, however, they seemed to approve of Sirius' actions. Accusations and demands were thrown at him at an ever increasing rate, not leaving him a chance to even defend himself. A couple of times he even got accused of rape – something he definitely had never expected to hear from Molly Weasley.
Suddendly, a sharp, angered voice cut through all the other noise. "Shut the fuck up, you bloody idiots, and LISTEN!"
Shocked to silence, everybody turned to stare at Severus. Well, everybody but Sirius was shocked. He watched in something akin to amusement as the Potions Master stood with blazing onyx eyes glaring at every individual around the table. At last some of the old spark was back in Severus!
Severus surveyed the Order with cool black eyes, apparently completely ignoring his unusual use of profanities as though it hadn't even happened. As he spoke again, his voice was calm and silky as ever, even though his language may not have been up to its usual refined state all the time. "Now, let's see. Yes, my Master did give me an order. No, I cannot go against it, and no, I don't like it. However, even though I dislike it, I also understand that he gave it because he is concerned about my wellbeing -- something you lot obviously do not understand.
"Sirius is my third Master, the two previous ones being Stephen and Lucius Malfoy – who just happen to be my biological father and halfbrother, not that anybody would ever acknowledge those bonds." Ignoring their even more shocked expressions, the Potions Master pressed on, "Yes, I sleep with Sirius. So what? At least he asks for my consent every single time, which is a lot more decency than I ever got from either of my previous masters. I sleep in his bed – not chained to the floor beside it. To me, that's one hell of an improvement in terms of the treatment I receive from my Master. He's never raised a hand against me, or tried to use our bond to in any way harm or hurt me, rather to the opposite. Any time he has caused me discomfort has been because he's too bloody innocent and kind to even think about the horrors my previous Masters inflicted upon me. You're all so fucking concerned about me, the poor mistreated slave, and attack the only decent Master I've ever had the fortune of having. And what did you do when I was truly suffering? You didn't lift a finger! Sorry, no way, can't do anything, you're their property. Well, now I'm Sirius' property! How's the situation any different from the time I was owned by the Malfoys?"
Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak, but Severus silenced him by lifting a hand. "You keep your bloody mouth shut for once, Albus Dumbledore. I've got enough of your futile reassurances. If you and those other idiots really want to do something for me, then shut your bloody traps and fucking let me be! Everything that can be done to help me has already been done – by Sirius here!"
As he stopped, there was a stunned silence for some time. Then Sirius, who had stood up at some point during his rant, walked to his side. "You done yet, love?" the Grim Animagus asked gently with a hint of amusement in his voice, wrapping his arms around Severus' shoulders.
Now, Severus sighed a bit. "I believe so, Master," he replied mildly. "That covered the main points, I think."
"Excellent." Sirius smirked, then gave the rest of the – quite shocked – Order a mild glare. "You heard him," he said. "Just let him be."
After the two were seated again, it took the others still a moment to recover. Not surprisingly, Dumbledore was the first one to manage to speak.
"Ah. Yes. Well. Okay. Now, if we would resume the meeting..."
"You surprised me quite badly today," Sirius commented later as they had finally again reached the safety of their rooms. "I do believe, though, that you shocked the others even worse."
"It may be so, Master," Severus commented mildly. "And I do apologize. It was not my intention to shock everybody so badly."
"They needed it," Sirius stated confidently. "Besides, if you hadn't done that, they would have stoned me to death before the meeting is over. Interesting, how much readier they are to attack one of their own than a known enemy."
"Perhaps because they think that from you, they don't have to fear revenge," Severus pointed out. "Nor do they believe you would actually kill me to get rid of their complaints. Would you?" he then asked, appearing completely serious.
"I do hope that was your version of a joke, Severus," Sirius huffed. "I would never kill you, for any reason."
"I'm glad." That was all that Severus said – aloud, anyway.
His kiss conveyed quite a lot, too, despite lacking words.
Disasters often prefer to come in groups, it seems. It was so this time, too. Not too long after the Order meeting, Sirius was shocked in the middle of a class by an announcement.
"All students are to move into their dormitories immediately," Professor Dumbledore's voice echoed through Hogwarts. "Prefects are to supervise this under the command of the Head Boy and Head Girl. All teachers are to gather in the Entrance Hall. No tardiness!"
There was only one reason that could have caused such an announcement, Sirius decided. And that reason meant immediate danger to Severus.
Thomas Manger was somewhere within Hogwarts.
Somehow he managed to escort the class out into the corridor in something vaguely resembling an order. In his head, however, everything was in a chaos. If Severus were to get hurt...
Suddenly, he heard a sound from one of the side corridors. Telling the two prefects in the class to take their classmates where they belonged and to alert some of the other teachers, he got his wand at ready, prepared to investigate the source of the sound. If Manger was there, he was going to regret it.
Nobody posed a threat to Severus and got away with it.
"The students are panicking," Kingsley Shacklebolt told Dumbledore. "We're also still missing a few teachers. Severus reported there was something suspicious in the dungeons, too, so the Slytherins can't go to their dormitory. We led them to the Great Hall, but, well..." He nodded towards the doorway, through which there were students walking to and fro. "They are spilling out. Apparently they want to know what is going on."
The Headmaster sighed. "Who are missing?" he asked, worried. When Thomas Manger was around, "missing" might mean much worse than just "impossible to contact".
"Well, Pomona for one," Kingsley replied. "Nobody's heard of Filius ever since Ravenclaws got to their dormitories, either, and... Sirius is missing, too. And I don't know where Severus is at the moment, either."
"So all the Heads of Houses," muttered Dumbledore. "And especially Severus. This is bad. We've got to do something to –"
He never got the change to say just what they had to do. Somebody had appeared into the staircase.
"I'd advise you all calm down," Thomas Manger said, grinning like only a madman could. "I've got three of your teachers captured and secured. If you try anything funny, they'll be hurt."
A couple of teachers went for their wands, but Dumbledore raised his own hand, halting them. "Don't," he said. "We are not taking risks with this man. And with most teachers patrolling, we have to concentrate on protecting the students."
"Exactly," cackled the Death Eater. "Your precious, precious students. You know what, Dumbledore? Let's make a deal. You give me the traitor and I'll spare your students."
"We're not making any deals with you," the Headmaster replied coolly. "We both know that even if I did give Severus to you – what I would never do – that wouldn't stop you from attacking the children."
"Your loss, then," replied the criminal with a horrible grin, waving his wand threateningly. "Then I'll just say a spell that rids you of three little annoyances called professors."
"I wouldn't be so sure." They all looked further up into the staircase to see Severus standing there. The Head of Slytherin stood unfazed, his arms raised above his head, the sleeves of his robes falling down to reveal the black metal guarding his forearms and hiding his tattooed wrists. In his hands he was holding a faintly glowing glass sphere.
"What do you want, Snape?" snapped the man. "And how do you expect to stop me?"
"Why, with this, of course," Severus smirked, tapping his fingertips against the sphere. "Have you ever seen one of these?" As the criminal shook his head, he said, "This is a potion sphere... a potion turned into mist and imprisoned in glass. When it's broken, the mist will spread... In this case, the Warlock's Wails."
Now, Manger seemed taken aback. Warlock's Wails was one of the Darkest potions known to the Wizardingkind. It caused immediate madness – not the madness already present in Manger, but actual loss of all sensible thought, never mind self-control – and its damages were considered incurable by any means known to the current Wizarding science.
However, the criminal would not be that easily subdued. "You don't dare to throw it," he spat. "You don't want to risk infecting yourself or your precious students, so you don't dare to break the sphere."
"I don't, do I?" Severus smirked. "For your information, the mist is so light that it will not go down to the students. And as for myself, the amount of mist is small and will not reach me -- and even if it does, that's a risk I'm willing to take." Tapping the sphere again, he said, "Now, drop your wand."
"Oh, I don't think so," Manger said, his voice still as smug as ever. "Or is this a risk you are willing to take?" And with this, he grasped at something that looked like thin air. Drawing away something -- an Invisibility Cloak, apparently -- he revealed something that made everybody gasp. To be exact, a bound and gagged Sirius. "Well, Snape?" shouted Manger. "Are you willing to risk his sanity, too?"
For a moment Severus hesitated. Then he started to slowly lower the glowing sphere with seemingly no intent to throw it. However, suddenly he stopped for a moment. Then he drew a deep breath and threw.
Everybody watched the sphere as it spiralled down through the air. Nobody could move; they were all frozen in shock. Manger had just enough time to open his mouth in a scream before the sphere fell right at his feet, shattering into billions of tiny fragments. A cloud of purple mist enveloped him instantly.
Snape now fell to his knees, shaking visibly. "He told me to throw," he said, his voice quiet but still well audible in the suddenly very silent hall. "He was there and he told me to throw the bloody sphere!"
Dumbledore frowned. Apparently Sirius had created a link with Severus through Legilimency. A mental command was as binding to a slave as a vocal one. It was just like Sirius to sacrifice himself – but now his sacrifice also meant that Severus had an insane Master as his burden.
Suddenly they saw a human form within the mist. A moment later Manger stumbled into sight, a look of horror on his face. Seemingly not even considering stopping, he rushed right over the railing, falling down to the floor below. The students turned away in disgust and horror. Wizarding folk could indeed take a lot more damage than Muggles, but a fifty feet fall to a stone floor head first was too much even for a wizard.
While everyone had turned away to avoid seeing the bloody mess, Dumbledore's eyes were still locked at the shaking man far on the highest plane. Mostly hid by the purple mist between them, Severus was still on his knees. Then, however, a black form departed from the mist on the other side, going to Severus' side. The Headmaster's heart leapt as he recognized the large black animal.
Now the Potions Master flung his arms around the Grim, hugging him tightly. Even from where he stood the Headmaster could see the animal's tail waving around happily.
The memories of a Potions lesson from well over a hundred years ago returned to him. "The Warlock's Wails," echoed his own Potions Professor's words in his mind. "This is one of the Darkest potions known to ever have been brewed. I won't tell you even the ingredients, leave alone the recipe. It causes immediate insanity in any human being nearby. –– However, it leaves animals unharmed."
Next chapter: We discover something new about Sirius' past.