AN: It just occurred to me that a small timeline about what happened to Harry and when isn't a bad idea.
Harry meet Nathaniel - age 21
Harry is kicked out - age 23
Harry and Severus mate - age 24 or 25
Harry gives birth to Ivy - age 26
Now - age 30
Ivy went to bed early that night, saying she was tired. Harry and Severus had no objection to that and once their daughter was settled down, the two of them sat together on a settee in the sitting room. Harry curled up against Sev's side, and his alpha put a comforting arm around his shoulders. "How are you feeling?" Severus asked softly.
"Not too bad," Harry answered truthfully. (He had decided he didn't want to know what Sev had done to Nathaniel.) "There are some things I need to talk to you about, though."
"Go on," Severus said before tightening his arms around Harry, who relaxed into him further.
"First of all, I just thought it might help if I mentioned to you that the whole part where we don't technically have a bond right now is killing me. I miss being able to feel you like that. Even though you're right next to me, I can still tell that something is just missing, and it's horrible when you aren't with me, like earlier today. That was harder than I expected."
"I know, Harry. I feel the same. Perhaps you would like to remedy that tomorrow?"
"Please," Harry said. "There are two more things I can think of right now that we need to talk about. The first is that, I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that it might be wise for me to go back to having sessions with Ethan again. I'm having a little trouble dealing with this already, and it's sure to get worse if I don't get a handle on it. I know that you're going to help, as will the rest of my family and friends, but there's quite a bit at stake here, especially with Ivy…"
"Harry," Severus cut in, "I have no problem with you seeking professional help if that is what you need. I want you to heal from this, and I am not ashamed to admit that I am not perfect and cannot quite provide the help that a professional can."
"Thanks for understanding, Sev," Harry whispered.
"Always, Harry," Severus said with a tender kiss to Harry's hair.
"You sure are saying my name a lot," Harry teased.
"Yes, well, suffice it to say that I missed being able to say it to you," Severus intoned softly.
Harry didn't address that comment, knowing that any further attention being paid to that small admission would make Sev uncomfortable. "Then there's the other thing. If you don't agree, we can talk about it. I think I want to start taking suppressants again, but maybe just for now. I want to be able to look after the pup we have now as much as possible. As it stands, we both have to take a break one week per month. That's a fourth of the time. She's only going to be young for so long. I'm fine with her going to spend time with her grandparents or her aunts and uncles every now and again, but not for so long and so often. I'm not exactly dying to have any more pups at the present, and you haven't really mentioned wanting any lately. If we change our minds, I can always just get off the suppressants. But if you'd rather I not take them and have valid reasoning, then I'll listen to your side."
"Harry, it is perfectly fine if you do not want to have any other pups ever again. Although I love Ivy more than I can put into words, and can no more imagine life without her than I can life without you, I would have been happy with you even if we never had one pup. All I ask is that I am not separated from the family I have. I have no requirements regarding building on it. You have some very good points and I agree with you. I will check tomorrow to make sure I have some on hand, and if not I can brew some in a timely manner."
"Okay, Sev," Harry agreed.
"Is there anything else you wished to discuss?" Harry only shook his head. "Very well. Now, I don't know about you, but I am currently very tired. How does bed sound?"
"Beautiful," Harry said with feeling.
The following day, they re-formed their bond as planned. To the surprise of them both, the renewing of their bond ended the pain in the back of Harry's hand. Both Harry and Severus felt unspeakably better to feel the invisible connection rebuild between the two of them, and they both secretly thought it felt a bit stronger than it had only a week ago. Harry got in touch with Ethan, who said he would be happy to start seeing Harry again. They set up appointments for every other week, because they both agreed that would probably be all Harry would need. The first would be the following day.
Aside from attending to these matters, Harry and Severus spent the day with their daughter, making sure she was truly alright and wasn't suffering any negative effects from her ordeal. It seemed she hadn't understood much of what had happened, and she knew her daddy was okay now so she didn't really feel she had anything to dwell on. Both of her fathers were relieved, though they knew they should still keep two eyes out for nightmares and the like, just to be sure.
Harry did encounter some issues in that his magic wasn't behaving properly. He'd been walking out of a room when he remembered he'd left a book on the coffee table. Instead of having to walk all the way across the room, he simply summoned it to him – or at least he tried to. Instead of the book landing neatly in his hand as it normally would, it hit him square in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him, before his eyes even registered movement. Later, when he was trying to help Sev cook dinner, his warming charm nearly caught the house on fire and his Aguamenti nearly flooded the kitchen before a slightly concerned, nearly amused Sev stepped in. "You alright?" he'd asked softly.
"I think so," Harry had replied. Throughout the day, the little spells Harry might use for everyday life all went slightly wrong. It was beginning to concern him and he really wished he could get a good handle on it. As he went to bed that night, he began to wonder if it might be a good idea to take a break from magic until everything calmed down a bit more. This was proved to be a useless idea during the night. . .
Harry was thrown into a nightmare that involved a lot of Nathaniel and very little Severus. Severus managed to wake him up, but not before every piece of glass in the room was shattered by Harry in his sleep. Was he out of control? It certainly seemed like it. "I'm sorry," he murmured to Severus.
"Don't be," Sev objected. "It's nothing a little Reparo won't solve. Would you like to talk about whatever it was you dreamt?"
"No. Can you just hold me?"
"Of course."
The next day was Harry's scheduled session with Ethan. It wasn't until the afternoon, though. Harry had decided to spend the morning with Sev in their apothecary. It was a great idea, until Harry apparated into the building and splinched himself. Severus had been extremely attentive in healing the skin on his right arm. It healed quickly enough, but it worried Harry. He'd never splinched before, not even when he was still a beginner at apparating. Throughout the day more accidents kept on happening that told Harry his magic was off, and he was worried. He didn't want to worry his mate, though, so he kept quiet, though he knew Sev could sense his inner turmoil.
"Harry, how are you?" Ethan asked when Harry came to his office later.
"I'm not sure," Harry sighed. He went on to explain what had been going on over the past few days, and he watched as the expression on Ethan's face changed from thoughtful to the expression of a man who's come to an idea.
"Harry, I feel I know the answer already, but I need you to tell me. How much do you trust Severus?"
"As much as anyone can trust another person, I suppose," Harry said. "I tell him everything, even if it takes me a bit of time to figure out how to do it sometimes. I know he does everything he can to protect me, but he still manages not to smother me. He always seems to know what I need, often before I even talk to him about something. He knows me better than anyone, even Sirius and Remus, at this point in time. He's one of the best things that's ever happened to me, even if I didn't know it when I was in school. That's another thing, too. Back when we were at Hogwarts and acted like the worst of enemies, he was still trying to keep me safe even then. He'd rather die than hurt me, I'm sure, and he's willing to kill anyone who does hurt me."
"I'm glad to hear it," Ethan said. "That makes this proposition easier. I know you're aware of this, but may I remind you that after an alpha and omega bond, the alpha has the ability to bind the omega's magic. In other words, Severus could 'put a lid on' your magic, so to speak. That would keep you from being able to use it, even accidentally, until you've calmed down and Severus let it go. Would you feel comfortable with asking him to do that, and would you feel safe if he did that? Keep in mind it would make you completely unable to use magic at all, even to defend yourself if something were to happen and you were attacked somehow, though I'm sure Severus would protect you more than adequately."
"I—how long would this be for, do you think?"
"Well, I think that's something you and Severus would need to discuss. I don't think it's something I can really set a time on. I can give you some tentative guidelines if you'd like?"
"That'd be great," Harry told him.
"Well, if you and Severus do agree on this, I would recommend that you both check in on each other about it. You should keep him updated on whether or not you still feel secure without your usual control of your magic and whether or not you feel you could control your magic again. When one or both of you feel ready, or don't want to continue for one reason or another, that's when I recommend you lift the bind on your magic. Of course, this is all up to you and you certainly don't even have to ask him if you don't really want to do this, but you could at the very least give it a trial run of no more than an hour if you discuss with him it and are both unsure."
"That sounds like it could be a good solution," Harry said. "Thanks."
"No need to thank me. You are paying me for this, after all," Ethan said good-naturedly.