Previously, in chapter 2:

"You may look at me. It is done." My voice was calm but inside I was in turmoil. Something momentous had happened to me; something wonderful, astonishing, intoxicating, almost fabulous. I did not know what it was, but I wanted it, all of it, and nothing but it. My life had changed. I had changed; every cell in my body had been tossed wildly in the air and had then floated back down to form a completely different pattern.

"At last Master. The years have been long." His eyes flickered towards Arthur and I hastened to reassure him.

"Yes Severus.I understand now; not all of it by any means, in fact very little of it, but enoughfor this."

Arthur was looking a little bewildered. "What languagewas that Harry? I didn't recognise it. It didn't sound like Parseltongue."

"Language?" I thought I'd been speaking English. "It sounded like English to me Arthur,so I don't know. We could ask Severus, but before we do that —SorryArthur...sorry to do thisto you my old friend...Obliviate."

Chapter 3 Beginning to Remember

In which our hero learns more, then something within him awakes and he seems to have misplaced his conscience. Severus has remembered a great deal and is starting to remember almost everything. Harry becomes inappropriately flippant and Severus rather emotional.

Arthur stumbled slightly and looked dazed. I stepped towards him, holding out my hand. "Arthur! How good to see you."

"Err, hallo Harry, er. . . this is a bit embarrassing; I've just come through your Floo and now I've got no idea what it was I had to come through to tell you."

"Some message from Molly as usual I expect," I said as I patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, no doubt she'll let you know directly you go back…but it is fortuitous that you decided to visit me today," I gestured towards Severus, who had been standing slightly behind me, and he stepped forward. "LookI Guess who's back from the dead!"

"Merlin! ...Severus! Severus? Is it really you? I can't believe it! How on Earth! But you were dead! We all thought you must be dead I mean. . . What happened? ... How could you stay away so long and not let us know you were alright?"

Poor Arthur did not seem to know if he should be delighted that Severus was alive or angry because he had told no one.

"I am indeed sorry Arthur. Somehow, after the final battle, I landed up in. . . France, and suffering from amnesia. I had no idea how I got there or even who I was until very recently when it gradually all came back to me; so here I am. My… er… Harry was the first on my list to visit, but I will get around to everyone eventually."

I grabbed Severus by the arm and pulled him into a one-armed hug. "Well, I for one am absolutely delighted you are back Professor," I said; I felt him shiver.

"I am no longer your professor… Harry, perhaps as now you are He Who After Much Dithering Around Has Offed He Who Must Not be Named, I think I shall give you permission to call me Severus." He was looking at me rather apprehensively as he spoke. I inclined my head very slightly and felt him relax.

Arthur added. "Yes Harry, all jokes aside, you should call him 'Severus' now you're an adult; you call everyone else by their first names so why not him too?" Then he smiled and addressed Severus, "After all, who's going to be brave enough to object to whatever the most powerful wizard in Britain calls him eh?"

Severus managed a smile and a nod.

"Thanks for allowing me to call you by your given name Severus, but I think I shall call you Sev," I said. His quickly masked look of distaste was a reward in itself. "Yes, Sev it shall be, I rather like that."

"Oh Harry, only you would dare to call him that. I certainly would not, even though I was too old to ever be one of the students he terrorised in his Potions classes."

Nothing was said for a few moments. I deliberately kept silent and hugged Severus more tightly…and it soon had the affect I was aiming for; Arthur, feeling slightly uncomfortable, as I had intended, started to fidget and thought he'd better leave, "Well, yes, I'd better go home—I have to get Molly to remind me why I wanted to visit you; she'll love that. Ah well, our sole purpose in life is to amuse our wives. Bye Harry," and as he threw in the powder and stepping into the fireplace he boldly added, "Bye Sev. Make sure you visit us soon," and he disappeared.

"Don't worry Severus, you may let him know that he is not to call you Sev again. You may be your terrifying best if that is required, but in any case, unless Arthur is again in a position to make a fast getaway, I doubt that he'll ever be brave enough to call you Sev again… I, on the other hand, seem to have found a punishment for you that is more to be feared than the Cruatius." I knew he did not take me seriously. I pulled him towards me again.

"Come over to my rather too affectionate old sofa and sit with me." I gave the sofa a good thump on its left arm to remind it to behave itself, and then continued, "There is more to be done yet before you are completely recovered isn't there?"

I seated myself and Severus sank down to sit at my feet, his head against my knee. I felt as if I had come home at last, for the first time I could remember, I felt truly and utterly at peace.

"Severus? Answer me please." He seemed to have fallen asleep from pure exhaustion, but roused himself at my words.

"Forgive me Master I pray thee."

"Nothing to forgive."

"Master, I think the Bond must wish us to complete the ritual before anything else."

"What must be done?"

"I am not entirely certain Master, however I understand that the Completion or Consummation Ritual is basically the symbolic enactment of our bond."

Severus went on to describe what he believed had to be done and said to complete the bond.

"That doesn't sound easy. What if we forget something? Would Magic accept something like 'May this represent the entirety of our future Bond whatever we want it to be at the time,' do you think?"

"Forgive me Master, but doubt it. Magic always seems to need a bit of over-the-top purple prose to make Her feel like doing anything."

"Yes, but don't you think it would sound a lot better, fancy enough for Her I mean, if I managed to do it in that frightfully impressive Ancient Unknown Tongue that Arthur seemed to think I was speaking in the preliminary part of the Bond?"

"Even where you to utter it in that language, whatever it was, Magic might still not think you solemn enough or that you were not taking the ritual seriously enough Master. She is said to take umbrage very easily if she thinks one is too casual or even making fun of Her."

I was momentarily distracted by being reminded of my current extra-curricular little project; Umbridge Extermination.

"I wish Magic had taken Umbridge! - and lost her forever after that night in the Forbidden Forest. I still haven't managed to get rid of that blasted woman."

"Most amusing, Master. Although in the near future, should you permit me to do so, I will be able to assist you in the total destruction of Ms Umbridge."

I was pleased to realise that even as my slave, Severus was still able to convey the meaning 'you are totally lacking in even the slightest vestige of real wit' - even though he had found it politic to reduce it down to the bare bones of 'most amusing'.

"Thank you Severus. I will keep Magic's dignity in mind." (I was tempted to reduce Severus to Sev, but that might be too cruel and would also let him know I had not been fooled, so I restrained myself.) "And thank you for the offer to help me thwart and confound the repellent Ms Umbridge . . . but we had better get back on track here. What do you suggest for the wording?"

"Perhaps something along the lines of "May this"—he waved his hand in the air as if holding something —"whip or this .. . whatever it is you decide to hold, be the eternal symbol of my Will in this Bond between me and this lowly slave. My will shall so determine this Bond. So mote it be.' "

"Well, isn't that almost exactly what I suggested before? And as for 'so mote it be', isn't that a cliché? I think it's in virtually every oath or vow I've ever heard of."

"It does mean the same Master, except that it is your will only, not that of both of us, which by the way, Magic would probably not accept as part of any slave bond, and the language is very sightly more flowery. And yes, 'So mote it be' is in virtually every oath there ever was, but that is its power, it has been hallowed by constant use over many centuries. Even were it not a requirement once, by now Magic must expect it and might be annoyed if it were omitted."

"Um, probably you're right. Yes, I think you must be; it does sound rather more like a proper ritual the way you put it. If it doesn't come out in Ancient-No-One-Understands-Any-More like the first part did do you think that would be a problem? If Arthur had not been here we wouldn't have known I wasn't speaking English and so we won't know if I have achieved something a bit more impressive sounding with this next part. Unless we need a witness; do we?"

Snape paused to consider. "I am uncertain my Lord, however on balance I think not: the only witness needed should be Magic Herself." After what seemed to be some deliberation he added, blushing slightly, "The completion may be something you would not like witnessed by anyone Master, even if you were to Obliviate the witness later, so I hope I am correct in my thinking."

"Me too. I guess Magic Herself or the Bond will let us know if we do need any human witnesses. By the way, what was it you were waving around in the air when you were deciding on the wording? What should we use as a symbol I mean?"

"Traditionally, with a. . .close slave bonding, the symbolic item is either a whip or the master's penis My Lord, or both," he said, apparently seriously.

I almost laughed aloud. "So, you mean I either have to wave a whip around or hold my cock and wave that in the air? Bloody Hell!"

"Yes Master, or both."

"Oh gods not…I think you are enjoying this too much," I said. "The git still reigns supreme I see."

He was still seated at my feet, and he twisted around and looked up at me, and his face was solemn, "Yes Master, I am enjoying this. This is the day of my final Bonding to You: one of the most important days of my life. A day I once thought beyond anything I could ever aspire to. A day that I was then Olliviated to forget, as were you Master. When I was young my ambition could aspire no higher than that I might be part of your household staff once you attained your majority. Then, after my Mistress, your mother, revealed my possible future to me, yes then that was a joy I had not even thought possible.

From then on my greatest fear was that this day might never come. It is everything to me. You are everything to me. You have been from the moment you were conceived. I felt the Bond's first stirrings into life then, it pulled me then, and has pulled me everyday of my life since, even when Obliviated of all knowledge of it, it still had a strong effect on my reaction to you. Then later, when, due to amnesia, I did not know anything at all about myself, I knew something was pulling on me, something was trying to pull my full consciousness back to my real life and back to you. Yes my Lord, I am enjoying this."

I felt humbled and reprimanded. I had been trying to lighten his mood with levity and all the while it must have seemed to him that I was devaluing something that apparently meant a great deal to him. I could say nothing for a moment while I pulled myself together. I did not deserve the devotion he seemed to have for me, and I struggled to know how best to reply.

"It wasn't really my intention to make light of a rite which obviously means much to you. I can't pretend to feel as strongly as you do, although I don't yet understand fully... but I assure you that even though this is all so new to me, something that until half an hour ago, I'd never been aware of, much less ever thought of, it already means a lot to me, you already mean a great deal to me – and it makes me very happy to think of our being bound together. I shall try to be less flippant… no, I definitely shall be less flippant from now on."

Severus turned his head away, but not before I'd seen what seemed to be a glisten in his eyes. To preserve his dignity I gave no indication that I'd noticed anything, but I felt even worse than I had before; very guilty and with a suddenly overwhelming need to comfort and care for him.

"Come Severus, sit with me up here, I can't hold you if you're down there. Come, that's it. Now lie down and put your head on my lap. I think that even though you look much better you are still weak from our separation all these years." I wasn't sure where those last words had come from exactly, but I certainly felt a strong sense of our being reunited after far, far, too long.

He laid himself down and put his head on my lap and I stroked his hair. For some odd reason I was surprised that it did not feel greasy at all. Why I should have expected his hair to be greasy I'd no idea.

Then I had a sudden thought; I had forgotten that I had told everything to Hermione.

"I'm an idiot!" I exclaimed.

"What is it Master?" Severus sat up, concerned.

"I told Hermione everything that Albert told me. I will have to Obliviate her too – Oh god, it was bad enough that I had to do it to Arthur!"

"Pray do not distress yourself M'Lord. Would not Ms Granger agree to a Wizards' Oath?"

"Oh - oh yes! Of course! Why didn't I think of that... cripes, I could have done that with poor Arthur too instead of obliviating his memories...I'm pretty sure Hermione will agree though; she told me not to tell anyone about it so we could work out some way of freeing you without anyone ever knowing you were a slave, so she won't have told anyone else." At Severus' slight blink I added "No need to look so appalled, of course that is not going to happen now."

"In any case Master, even though the idea of being freed did give me a momentary cold shiver, in fact the Bond is absolutely solid, even Ms Granger's remarkable research abilities would not have discovered any means of breaking it." He paused for a second then added "Master, I must humbly confess that when I told Arthur about what had happened, it was not the complete story. I did not have your approval to tell him all the facts so I told him a story that was rather misleading in some respects. Telling him something was necessitated by my need to present myself to you, and that I thought you might need preparation for that before I arrived. Forgive me please."

"What? What is the true story then? Oh, yes of course you're forgiven, you had a good reason for not telling him the exact truth I suppose?"

"I thought so Master. It is in the nature of false stories to be more easily Obliviated than are those that are factual, and had you decided to ask Arthur for a Wizards' Oath it would not have mattered that he did not have the correct version. Do you wish me to tell you, to remind you, of our history My Lord?"

"No, not yet ... well, okay, just a potted quick version of it perhaps, then we should try and complete the Ritual."

"Basically both you and I were once aware that we would, in the future, be bound by this Bond, although as you were only a small child your awareness of it was probably merely subconscious. However you were quite aware that there was a connection between us, a strong connection. That knowledge was removed from us, and only your father's death allowed me to remember it - and the initial part of the Ritual allowed you to start to regain your memory and to understand."

"So, someone Obliviated us – Hell, if it was my father's death that let you remember then it was him I suppose? I hope he had a good reason, he had better have had a good reason."

Severus was hesitating to reply, so I added "you didn't think the reason was good did you?... No, no need to say any more now, the Completion Ritual will help me understand it all, and we should be getting on with it. You can explain everything afterwards if it's still necessary. I feel an urgent need to complete it, and the sooner we do it the sooner you will feel more recovered."

However we continued to stay sitting as we were for several minutes before I ventured to talk more about the second and final part of the Bonding. Somehow I knew that the sooner that was completed the sooner he would feel recovered and I would understand much more about not only what was happening now but also what had happened in the past.

"Is there anything more you can tell me about the rite? I don't really have to wave my cock around in the air, do I?"

He started to try to sit up but I pressed him back down. "Stay as you are Severus, it is just as easy to talk this way, and you must save your strength for the ritual."

"Thank you Master."

"Err, so this ritual, it's a form of sex magic then? Do I have to be hard when we do this? I'm not sure I can get an erection while concentrating on remembering the right words."

"I do not believe that to be essential My Lord. I shall be erect from the moment I first kneel before you, if not before, and that is essential to our Bond, for the sex magic involved in it, but your erection or lack thereof should not affect the Bond in any way whatsoever. However, I may be in error, but my understanding is that once you start the incantation you will find that you become erect without even thinking of it."

"I hope you're right, I don't want to screw this up through being unable to perform."

"I am almost certain of it Master. The Bond will ensure it. I am aware of my ugliness Master, and after the Bond is complete you will never be required to use me sexually again, not unless you should wish to for some reason of course."

"You are not ugly! I know many of the students used to call you 'the ugly git' but I'm sure that was because they hated you because you were so strict and sarcastic, not because they really thought you were ugly! You're not handsome admittedly, but you are definitely not at all ugly; please don't let a bunch of silly children make you think that. Your looks are distinguished and your face is strong and the epitome of masculinity. You have a presence. I've always thought you looked very sexy, so did most of the girls and many of the boys. The girls were always mooning about how dark, mysterious and moody you were, and your black liquid eyes, and the way your cloak billowed around and behind you."

"You are kind My Lord."

"I will only ever tell you the truth Severus. Now, tell me about the rest of the rite; it follows the incantation doesn't it?"

"It was taking me a while to take this all in. This day was full of surprises. Some of them, until today, I would have thought most unappealing, even disgusting, but now they seemed both normal and exciting.

"I see. Well, before we get on with it, is there anything else I should know about the Bond? I don't even know what the name of it is."

"It is one that is peculiar to the Potters, My Lord. It is called 'Semper Fidelis' which means "Forever Faithful. It is totally unbreakable; we who are bound by it to the Potters, we and our descendants, are slaves for life. The details are very much like those of most other strong slave bonds used by other families, but the one for the Potters has some important differences: for example, it allows the master some independence from whatever the current laws of the wizarding world happen to be. That is why, because Lord Potter permitted me to go to Hogwarts and because he did not wish it known that I was a slave, he was able to hide the slave tattoo I have on my wrist. It is why I can, with your permission, call you Harry in public instead of always having to call you Master. It is also what allowed Lord Potter, your grandfather, to maintain his slaves in secret, without anyone other than those in the family, knowing that he owned any at all; they may have suspected but they could not know for certain. The differences from all other slave bonds that I've ever heard of, are therefore considerable as you can see, and benefit both master and slave. They have certainly been of great benefit to me, and I am very grateful for those differences.

"There is one other thing Master. It may be that during the ritual you will be drawn to do something or to say words other than those I have described. Your mother who was my gentle Mistress, and Lord Potter your grandfather, after I had exhibited unusual behaviour for a slave, tested me for Prime. I passed that test. I will be your Prime, you will of course have other slaves, other favourites, but we will always be connected, not just until death as with other slave bonds, but in the afterlife too. I will be, exactly as I vowed to be, your devoted slave forever. That may alter the ritual in some way of which we are not yet aware."

"Has it done so with other Master/Prime-slave bonds?"

"That is unknown Master; the records are not clear on that point, and it has been several centuries since the Potter slaves produced a Prime.

His voice held a note of pride and I had the distinct feeling, no, I knew, that there was more to this Prime thing than Severus was telling me at the moment, but I let it go, he could tell me about it later. We needed to complete the Bond.

However, I was mindful of Hermione's order to let her know how the interview with Severus had turned out, "Before we go ahead I'll call Hermione, otherwise she's likely to get worried and decide to come over right in themiddle of it. I could block the Floo of course, but that'd make her even more worried. Sit back on the sofa, this shouldn't take too long. I hope."

Throwing a handful of powder in the fire, I yelled "Hermione! You there?"

"No need to deafen me. I've been sitting right here beside the fire; as you would have seen if you'd looked before you shouted. I'll come through."

"Oh, you've come through already. . . Well, I was going to say not to come over as Severus is not at all well and he needs to go to bed... and... not be.."

Obviously I should have thought this through before I called her. Hermione had always had this effect on me. These days most people deferred to me; 'Boy-Who-lived-to-Defeat-You-Know-Who', scarily powerful wizard and all that rot; not Hermione; to her I was always Sweet-But-Not-Particularly- Bright-Harry-Whom-One-Cannot-Help-But-Want-To-Give-A-Good-Shake-To.

She ignored me and walked straight past me and over to Severus, who was now lying prone on the sofa and seemed to be having trouble gasping for breath; he was doing his best to look as ill as possible.

"Hello professor. I'm absolutely delighted to see you again; that you are among the living! How wonderful that you are alive after all, after all this time too. Harry, well a few of us really but mainly Harry, found it difficult at first to believe that you were really dead, especially as your body had disappeared, but there was so much confusion at the time, and then after a while, when we couldn't find any evidence of what had happened to you, and you didn't reappear as we'd half expected, well, we...

At that moment she caught sight of my face. I was amused at how her tongue was running away with her, and I guess it showed. She took a breath and continued slowly. "Um, sorry, I did not mean... well..."

"Good, I'm glad you've slowed down. Severus and I have been talking about what has happened and we've decided to keep it all a secret for now; meanwhile you can investigate if it's possible to break the bond…if you still wish to do that for us."

"Of course I shall!" She turned back to professor Snape. "Once you start to feel better perhaps we can collaborate on the investigation. Don't worry professor, we will break it somehow," she reassured him, or rather, thought that she reassured him.

"Thank you Mrs Weasley. Your investigative skills are unparalleled. I am exceedingly grateful."

Somehow, in his inimitable way, Severus had managed, merely by the tone of his voice, to make the compliment sound more like an insult, but Hermione didn't seem to notice anything amiss .

I decided to interrupt. " Hermione, I'm sorry to have to ask you this, but for reasons I can't tell you about right now, it's really important that not even a hint of this gets out to anyone, anyone at all. So you're going to have to give us a wizards' oath that in no way whatsoever will you ever tell or indicate to anyone or anything, what you have learned or will learn, about this bond."

"Oh, for Heaven's sake Harry, don't be so ridiculous. I'm not going to say anything. For the gods' sake, I was the one who told you to keep it secret!" She turned to Severus. "I won't say anything about it, I promise. This was all Harry's idea I suppose; he probably still doesn't realise how dangerous such oaths can be..."

"No Mrs Weasley; it was at my instigation that my master is asking this of you. As of this moment there are details, both about the bond that binds us to each other and about our personal histories, to which only I am privy. My master will learn and understand more soon, and in due course, with my master's permission, I may tell you more, but at present that is not advisable."

"Oh." She frowned and turned to me again. "You've told him to say this haven't you? This is ridiculous!"

"Mrs Weasley," Severus interrupted her only to be interrupted himself.

"Oh do call me Hermione please."

"Thank you Hermione. However, I repeat, I am the one who requires the oath, not my master. Please do me the courtesy of not intimating that I am a liar"

Hermione looked conflicted, but before she could say anything, Severus continued. "The oath I am requesting you to take is not dangerous, there would be no possibility of your losing your magic or life by accidentally revealing something of the secret it hides. It acts more in the manner of a permanent spell than of an oath as it prevents any 'saying' of the secret at all. You would be unable to reveal it in any way whatsoever, completely unable, either deliberately or accidentally, to say or do anything that might possibly reveal the secret or even give a hint of it. So, there is no danger, there is no threat, either stated or implicit in the oath, of loss of magic or life, because to break the oath is impossible."

"Oh, well, that is not quite so bad I suppose, but why is it necessary? What could there possibly be about the bond or your history that cannot be revealed on pain of death? You are just being melodramatic. Surely, if I just promise..."

"Hermione," I said; I was becoming annoyed. "You have a choice. Either agree to the oath or be Obliviated. I am happy to do that right now... Looking for this are you?" I showed her the wand in my left hand; it was hers.

"Harry! How did you get that?" She held out her hand for it but I did not give it to her. "You wouldn't Obliviate me!" She looked at my face for a few moments, and then dropped her hand and looked apprehensive.

I could see that it was occurring to her that at least, with the oath, she might eventually find out what the other 'secrets' were. Then a new thought occurred to her, "but Arthur already knows. I suppose you made him take the oath too?"

"No."

"What? You're going to make me take..."

"I Obliviated him."

She stared at me, astounded. I think it was starting to percolate through to her that the Harry she knew might have suddenly changed, and more than slightly at that.

She turned to Severus and straightened up. "I apologise for what I said before. I didn't intend to infer that you were not telling the truth. They are your secrets, not mine, and so you have a perfect right to defend them as you see fit. Tell me what to say, and if Harry will let me have my wand back, I will take the oath."

Well, that was a quick turnaround. The threat of Obliviationworks wonders indeed.

However, although she had now agreed to take the oath I still had half a mind to Obliviate her. I didn't know the oath Severus was thinking of using, although I did know that if he said it was watertight then that was exactly what it would be... however this new ... what was it? a feeling, a drive, a need, that I had, not only for total privacy and absolute control of this thing, whatever it was, between Snape and me, was urging me to Obliviate her of all knowledge of his survival and return. Yes, and extend the Obliviation of Arthur too, so that he wouldn't know of Severus' return either.

For a second or two I wondered what had happened to my conscience. Just yesterday I would never have considered committing mind manipulation of anyone, let alone of my dearest friend, but then I dismissed that thought.

"Harry! Stop woolgathering and pay attention. If I'm going to take this oath, we may as well do it now. Severus will have to..." Hermione sounded impatient.

I interrupted her. "Excuse me for a moment."

I erected a privacy charm and silencing barrier around Severus and myself, wordlessly cast an immobilising and silencing charm on her, and then turned my back to her to prevent her reading my lips as I spoke to him.

"I think it would be easier just to Obliviate her completely so she has no idea you're still alive. Same for Arthur; I could call him back and do the same to him. What do you think? Somehow I don't seem to have the qualms of conscience about Obliviation that I've had up to now. Well?"

"Whichever you decide Master, although perhaps no one being aware that I have survived might be the better option. In any case, even if you left Arthur's mind as it is, Obliviation of Hermione would make the farce of her investigation into breaking the bond unnecessary."

"But if you wish to have any public life at all people would need to know you are back from the dead. I shouldn't keep you all to myself I suppose, though that idea is very appealing to me at the moment."

Severus was breathing audibly. "I too would prefer that whatever you decide to do to with me or to me was not interrupted by anyone Master."

I was glad of the robes I was wearing. "So you wouldn't mind our being alone together for a while at least?"

Severus shook his head. "No, indeed Master, actually I would prefer it. If at some future date you should wish my existence to be known, then it could be 'discovered' at that time."

"Good. Get out of sight while I attend to it. Go into the kitchen," I ordered. He turned and walked out of the room, but went through the bedroom door.

I palmed the Elder wand and then turned to Hermione who was still standing immobile and silent.

"Obliviate."

Simultaneously with the Obliviate I cast a silent and wandless Legilimens, and surprisingly easily located and targeted all the memories associated with Severus' return. The orderliness of her mind-scape actually making the task far more simple than it would've been with the more muddled brain of a less intelligent or less organised person. Having done that, I implanted a false memory of her having just recovered from a nasty viral infection that had affected her memory and was still making her feel rather wooly minded.

She came-to, and smiled at me brightly. "Where was I? Oh yes... As I was saying, the healers, well doctors actually, said that I'll probably still feel a bit fuzzy for a week or so. It is virtually unheard of for us wizard-kind to suffer viral infections, the healers at St. Mungo's were stumped, so I tried Muggle doctors; not that they were all that much help either, but at least they had some idea what it was.

In the end I just had to wait it out, painful as it was, though I did go back to the healers for some painkilling potions as they are far more effective than any Muggle pills. It was rather like meningitis the doctors told me. In fact at first they thought that it was meningitis, but it wasn't: it had a lot of the same symptoms, but not exactly the same ones apparently. Anyway, enough of that, I'd better get home and try to catch up on some paperwork. I just came over because I wanted to explain why I've not visited lately and that I won't have time to visit for a while."

I was surprised and amused. The implanted memory seemed to have several extra details in addition to those I'd implanted. I'd been relying on the fuzziness that usually resulted from Obliviation to be explained by the unidentified viral infection memory, but apparently Hermione's brain had explained it to itself and to its own satisfaction by inventing a few more details —which was all the better for a complete Obliviation that she would not start to question.

I said "See you," to her as she stepped into the fireplace and disappeared.

For a minute or two I stood there thinking about what Severus and the bond had revealed to me so far. I was very keen to find out more about the Bond and about the Potter and Evans families. I wasn't surprised that the Potters had been wealthy as I already knew that, but until I was twenty six I wouldn't know the full details of it, of my inheritance, however once this bond-ritual thing was completed it seemed I would understand or remember far more, not only about exactly what the bond was, but also about Severus himself, and how this had all come about. At least that's what I felt, and was what Severus had indicated, although how it would be possible for me to remember anything from before I was about two years old I had no idea.

AN: The description of the sex magic ritual has been deleted from this chapter but will be included when I upload the fic to AFF.