Chapter 6

More Binding

Patience lay on the end of the large, heavily curtained bed, her face buried in the deep crimson eiderdown. She had fallen asleep after a prolonged bout of tears and had only just awakened. She did not want to look up from the heavily embroidered cover that she was clutching in her hands as she bit back a dry sob, because she didn't want to see the dreary room that would be her bedroom now. The prospect of spending the rest of her life looking at these dark walls covered with tapestries that Patience felt needed to be burnt immediately…of being trapped within this gloomy old house that hadn't had a stick of new furniture in over 200 years…of having to eat her meals looking at Severus Snape's ugly, cruel face across from her...it all frightened her because she didn't know how she was going to find the strength to bear it.

She could feel that the fire in the grate had dropped to a low glow. She knew that Professor Snape had both a house-elf and a housekeeper, so there was no excuse for her fire not having been attended. Perhaps this was a sign of what was to come if even the servants did not care about providing the basic comforts to her. She was very hungry, too. She had thought that she would never have the stomach to eat again when she had run into the bedroom after her surprising dismissal by her new husband. Yet Patience thought wryly that she could eat her way through a roast turkey at that moment.

She had long ago stopped being truly surprised by the betrayals and cruelty of her family. However, she had to admit to herself that this latest piece of work was rather complete. Bobby might have been a cheater, and Patience suspected that if that part of their relationship had been a lie that there had been more falsehoods on Bobby's part, but Professor Snape was much worse. As a Death Eater, he had probably killed people. She knew that he was a horrible, miserable, cruel man. She had first-hand experience with this from school and his performance earlier had only been of an escalation of the vicious persona she had come to know at Hogwarts.

Patience was not sure why she had expected anything different. Perhaps it was simply because he had seemed slightly less horrible that one time that he had fed her, when he had found her on his front steps. She had thought that he at least saw her as a human being, but she had been mistaken. Today he had made it perfectly clear that she was merely chattel.

Patience lifted her head when she heard the door to the room open with a long creak. She saw the grim looking old woman who had let her and her family into the house earlier that day. Patience thought that the woman looked very much like a hag, or at the least a half-hag, and she felt her flesh crawl as the woman stalked with a look of pure hatred on her ugly face over to where Patience lay.

"You will be ready. Master is waiting. Dinner is now."

Patience heard the strange cadence of the woman's unusual accent, but did not have time to analyse anything further than that the woman seemed to loathe her. Whatever had she done to make the woman dislike her already?

Patience slipped off the bed and moved to follow the woman out of the room, but she was stopped when the old woman put out a gnarled hand and said, "You will look your best for Master."

Patience stared at the woman for a moment thinking that she really did not care what she looked like for Professor Snape, but decided that it was best not to argue. The path of least resistance usually led to less pain.

Patience followed the woman, who was leading her into the adjacent room, which was obviously an old-fashioned lady's dressing room that had not been used years. The box of personal care items that she had brought from her parents' house had been placed on the top of a fearfully fussy dressing table, which Patience absently thought was somewhat incongruous with the dire old house.

She rummaged through the box and pulled out a brush, which she roughly tugged through her long straight hair. When she was finished, she looked into the mirror and shrugged. What was the Wrinkle-Releasing Spell? Hold it…no, that had not quite worked. Patience thought hard and then tried again. Now her robes were looking very dingy after two failed attempts. Perhaps she had better change them.

She looked over at the housekeeper, who seemed to have realised that Patience could not perform a simple Wrinkle-Releasing Charm. This had apparently pleased the old woman, who was smirking delightedly but did not offer to help. Patience walked over to a cupboard and opened the doors. Her robes were not inside. There weren't any other boxes to be seen, so where had the house-elf placed them?

"Madame's robes will be unpacked tomorrow."

Patience felt herself snap at this last piece of impertinence. "No, I'm afraid that they will be unpacked today. When I come back from dinner, I expect to find all of my things ready for me. Please be sure to let the house-elf know."

The self-satisfied look on the old woman's face had changed into an expression of absolute detestation. Patience stared at the old woman and felt the anger from her horrible situation strengthening her in this petty fight against the old housekeeper. She would not be beaten by a servant.

"Yes, Madame." The housekeeper's voice implied that there was a good chance that she would probably forget to inform the house-elf, but Patience did not choose to push the point farther. She had won the first battle, if merely by a tiny margin.

She walked past the woman to go back into the bedroom, so that she could go downstairs, but before she got to the door Patience stopped still and raised her wand. That had done it; she knew she would remember. Now at least her robes were smooth and clean, even if they did not fit. She had dropped a stone since she had bought them and it showed.

Patience lost her small burst of confidence the moment that she saw the expression on Professor Snape's face as she entered the dining room. She did not know why he was so angry. He was not the one that was going to be trapped in his stupid house and forced to do the bidding of an old, horrid man. He was the one with the power. He got to decide what happened, surely. Therefore, if he didn't want to look at her then he didn't even have to eat dinner with her. If he wanted to force her into bed then it was merely the wave of a wand and she would not be able to refuse. She knew that she was a nice looking girl, so he had not got a single thing to complain about there. He even had all the money that her parents had given him. So why he looked as if someone had taken away his favourite toy, she didn't know.

As she sat at the table picking at the rather surprisingly well-cooked dinner, Patience vacillated between anger at him and fear at what was to come. It was inevitable that he was going to drag her up to his room at some point, was it not? That was what men wanted and he even had the right of law on his side to make her comply. She looked at the sickening, lanky hair hanging down to frame his unattractive face that was further marred by an ugly scowl. No woman, no matter how mad, would ever want this man.

As the pudding course appeared on the table, Patience saw that it was, in fact, her favourite. It was not possible that he would have taken the trouble to find this out, was it? Patience looked nervously over at the man seated at the head of the table, who had not spoken a word to her the entire meal, and decided that it was highly improbable that he had done anything so thoughtful. Perhaps by some odd coincidence Professor Snape had a fondness for nut tarts, as well.

Patience took a large bite of the tart and allowed herself to look round the room as she chewed. There was a giant tapestry hanging down above the mantelpiece. The scene woven onto the jet-black background was that of four wizard hunters from the 16th century, who had captured a strange white beast. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what the weird looking creature was when she suddenly came to her senses and looked back down at her plate.

He had not taken any of the tart, however. In fact, she could see that he was now glaring at her from underneath fiercely drawn together brows, as he lounged back in his chair. Patience had never flourished under scrutiny and, at that moment, she felt as if she were afraid even to chew. She put the fork down and stared down at the plate waiting for him to make the next move.

"Are you finished?"

"Yes, sir."

"Come then. I have something for you."

Patience looked up at him nervously, but with the hint of a flush on her cheeks. What did he mean? He wouldn't be going to give her a present.

They climbed the stairs in silence, Snape leading the way and Patience hopping up the stairs as fast as she could to keep up. When they reached the second level, Snape walked down the corridor towards the room that he had pointed out earlier as his library. She watched him as he placed his hand on the door knob, which she noticed had the same shape as the face of that beast in the tapestry, and turned it first to the left and then to the right before pushing the door inwards.

Patience followed him inside the room, which was filled with innumerable books and strange objects piled on the shelves that lined every surface of the walls except the fireplace and one tall, narrow window. Snape indicated that she was to sit on a slender, white cushioned chair in front of the fireplace. As she started to sit down, a fire suddenly roared to life in the grate of the large fireplace, causing Patience to cry out softly in surprise. She looked up at Snape to see him in the act of lowering his extended hand and peering at her with annoyance.

When Patience had settled back into the chair, she could see that he had lifted a narrow black box from the heavily carved desk and was bringing it over to where she was sitting. He placed it on the large mantelpiece and then proceeded to touch the surface with his wand in a distinct pattern of taps and thumps before opening the lid and pulling out a hard, dragon skin covered case. Patience thought that it looked much like a jewellery case.

She watched as he placed the case next to the box on the mantel and then began a series of brisk taps along the side of the box before opening the lid again. This time he pulled out two short knives with jewelled handles. Patience took a deep breath and thought fearfully that this did not bode well.

"Come here."

She stood up and walked over to him.

"Give me your hand."

Patience extended her right hand and waited for the inevitable. However, he placed the knife that he was holding in her palm and then picked up the other knife with his left hand.

"The contract that we signed this morning was legally binding. However, this is a ritual that my family has performed for generations, which is magically binding. Do you understand?"

Patience nodded her head and wondered what nasty thing she was going to be expected to do next. She saw that he turned his knife and then watched as he touched the point lightly to his palm. Then he looked at her and she knew that she was supposed to mimic his actions. Without any idea why she was voluntarily doing what he wanted, Patience pointed the tip of the knife at her palm and felt a burning sensation as blood seeped out onto her hand. She was surprised, since she had not actually cut herself with the knife at all, but, just then, her hand was tightly grasped by Snape, who held their hands forward over the flames.

She watched as their mingled blood dripped down into the fire and heard him speak a few words aloud and then felt his cold gaze burning into her. She looked up and realised that he was waiting for her to speak. What was she supposed to say?

"I asked you, do you commit to bind yourself to me?"

Patience blinked and stammered, "Y-yes."

"Then speak the words."

"I bind myself to you."

The blood continued to drip into the fire and the pressure of Snape's bony hand on hers was painful.

"And I bind myself to you."

He pulled their hands back and then released hers. She looked at the palm of her hand, saw that there was no cut or scar, and then glanced back up at him to see what she was supposed to do next.

"You are now magically bound to me and to my family. Do you understand what that means?"

Patience had a dim memory of her grandmother explaining the old customs from her generation; how her grandmother's marriage had entailed a magical promise of fidelity and obedience. She wondered if she had just been stupid enough to make this promise.

"Is it…no."

"It means that you cannot do anything to harm me or the family without the consent of me or someone else from the family."

Patience nodded and thought that he had phrased that oddly. Almost as if she could betray him if she could get the permission of another family member.

"Is it like the Unbreakable Vow?"

"No, girl, you won't die." He handed her a yellowed square of cotton on which he had just wiped his hand. She did the same and then handed it back. He dropped the cloth into the fire and then opened the green dragon-skin case that he had taken from the black box earlier. He pulled out a very heavy gold ring and indicated that she should hold out her hand. Patience allowed him to slip the ring onto her left hand and saw that it was carved to look like a wyvern curling round her finger. There was a large egg-shaped ruby in the centre of the wyvern's mouth held in place by the wyvern's sharp teeth. It was not precisely the wedding band that Patience would have chosen for herself.

She could feel that the ring was several sizes too large for her, but Snape had already gripped her hand in his, tapped the head of the wyvern with his wand, and said clearly, "Anulus."

The ring felt very warm as it shrunk to fit her finger. She could see faint writing on the edges of the ring and asked carefully, "What does that say?"

Snape released her hand and turned back to the box on the mantelpiece. "It is a charm that binds you to me and me only."

Patience was not surprised that there did not appear to be any charms or magical promises for him. That was how it always was. Wizards liked to leave a door open so that they could do whatever they wanted.

"That is all. Do you understand what we have done?"

Patience nodded and wondered what the next step in the process would be.

"Then we are finished. You may go."

Patience could not help showing her surprise. Did he mean she was going to be left alone that night?

"To my room?"

"Unless you wished to remain here with me, yes, to your room."

Patience did not need to be told twice. She turned and walked as quickly from the room as she possibly could.