I'm A Slave For You-Chp14

I'M A SLAVE FOR YOU

The next day, as promised, the toy builders from Underhill Fine Toy Makers came to Severus' manor to start construction of the playhouse. With their tools and necessary material, they were led into one of the guestrooms in the manor and made it into Harry's personal playroom. After deciding the layouts on what should go where, Severus ordered the hired help to clear out everything that was in it to be sold out as secondhand or donated to charity or to be given away to whomever in the manor wanted it to make way for the builders to come in and do their job. Severus reminded them to make the playhouse a double-storey and watched for a while how they worked. He even called in some interior designers to overlook the room and figure out how to create the perfect playroom for Harry to have fun in. With the promise of high pay plus tips from Severus, they worked almost a week to put the playroom into completion. Right now, they were making the finishing touches to what would be the perfect playroom any child would dream to have.

Such is a man who would do anything for his little pet.

Harry, after doing his daily chores, peeked in to see the final construction, not wanting to alert anybody. He was raking up the fallen autumn leaves that morning when Severus' white owl Hedwig came in with an official letter from Hogwarts. Harry didn't know how to read, of course, but judging by the seal that was on the letter, he could tell that this was an important letter and must be given immediately to his Master. He passed the rake to Neville and bounded off inside the house to look for Severus, and with the help of Colin's direction, found himself standing in front of the door of the room where the toy builders and the interior designers were fixing up the room just for him. He couldn't help but sneak inside to take a look at what the other adults were doing hammering and sawing and talking away, doing what they did best.

After supervising the workers, he was about to leave when he saw Harry looking at the toolbox with interest. He smiled and walked towards him and was about to pick him up in his arms when he saw him pick up a mini-saw from the toolbox. His mind went into full protective panic mode as he made his way quickly to him, praying to gods of all religion that his beloved pet doesn't cut himself with it.

"Set that down," Severus said suddenly from behind, startling the poor boy into dropping the saw, scratching his foot with the tip of the jagged blade.

"Ah!"

"Shit," Severus was right by him in a flash. "Are you hurt?"

Harry shook his head and hid the scratch with the letter he was supposed to give Severus, not wanting his Master to get mad at him.

"You are not to touch those tools, you hear me?"

Severus sounded stern in his words, but his face was etched with worry, so Harry knew that Severus was more concerned about him than being angry about him playing around with the toolbox. Harry nodded and gave him a "I'm sorry" look.

"Now, are you hurt?"

Harry moved the letter away to show him the scratch.

"Thank goodness it is only a scratch. Let get it cleaned up. And what's that you're holding?"
Harry passed him the letter, remembering why he wanted to look for Severus. The older man took the letter and gestured Harry to follow him back to his room. Harry followed behind him obediently, not making any fuss. In the bedroom, Severus made a beeline to the bathroom to get a jar of instant cure cream from the bathroom drawer and went to Harry who was standing there waiting for him.

"Up on the bed, pet."

Harry obeyed, sitting on the bed with his feet dangling lazily a few meters off the floor. It seemed like throughout the half year he was in Severus' care, he hadn't grown much. Maybe a few centimeters taller, but not much obvious in difference. Severus knelt down and dabbed a bit of the cream on the scratch on the foot before rubbing it on, spreading the cream all over it. The scratch went away almost immediately and the foot soon looked like nothing had ever happened to it. He kissed it before standing up to put away the cream. When he came back, Harry was smiling at him, giving him a "Thank you" look. Severus smiled back and sighed. He couldn't stay angry with his lovely pet even if he tried.

"Now you go near those tools again or anything else that doesn't belong to you, I will paddle your behind. I don't want you to get hurt, Harry, you know that."

Harry kissed Severus' hooked nose, promising he won't ever do it again. Severus ruffled his head and sat beside him while he tore open the letter Harry gave him and read it.

"Hmm. Looks like I have to go to a meeting soon. I am summoned to the Ministry to discuss something urgent. Guess I'll have to leave you alone at home for a while," Severus rolled his eyes tiredly at the thought of having to discuss trivial matters with boring old hags and geezers. "Will you be a good boy while I'm gone and not go anywhere near those dangerous things again?"

Harry nodded, giving him a "I promise" look.

"After this meeting I want you in the bed—naked."

Harry blushed at Severus' seductive grin. So typical of his Master to think of pleasure before work.

"I will take you fast after I get home from this Ministry summon meeting, so you better be ready when I get home."

Harry pouted as he went redder than a tomato, giving him the "Don't tease me" mock glare.

"Be prepared," Severus grinned as he pulled Harry's chin to him, kissing him hard. Severus ran his hand up Harry's leg, showing him a preview of what he would do to him once he came home after his meeting, making Harry's breath hitch as the boy shivered at the older man's touch. Somehow, as Severus pulled back to trace his pet's lips, a question began nagging within his heart ever since they got together with a sober mind, begging to be answered.

"Pet, do you like sex or do you just do it because you want to make me happy?"

Harry tried to answer him but didn't know how.

"Blink once for the first one and twice for the second."

Harry thought for a moment, then blinked three times.

"OK, what does that mean?"

Harry tried to tell him what he meant, but he could not form the words he wanted to get the meaning across. Frustrated, he grabbed a nearby pillow and threw it to the carpeted floor, letting out an exasperated whine.

"Stop acting like that, Harry, and act your age," Severus scolded as he picked the pillow up. "So what you're saying is that you're only doing it for me, but at the same time you like it as well?"

Harry nodded timidly.

"I was hoping it would not be that way," Severus sighed.

Harry gave him a questioning look.

"I want you to want it too, not just because I want to."

Harry shook his head hard, then pointed to himself aggressively and nodded, telling him that he wanted sex just as much as his Master did. He wanted to tell him that he would never do anything he didn't want and would never have let him do him if he didn't even want Severus to go anywhere near him. All that they have been through in bed was consensual. Nothing was forced between them. But seeing that Harry was in a vocal disadvantage, he could only hope that his Master was able to understand what he was trying to convey.

"But you do it because I want to."

Harry sighed, feeling upset and dismayed that his Master just didn't get it. If the speech teacher that Severus called to come over and teach him how to talk didn't call back in the last minute to say that he had a little delay in transportation and would only come around next month, he would've been smooth talking all the way and have a normal conversation with his Master by now. He flashed him a "Don't you have a meeting to attend to?" look on his face before lying on the bed, back facing him and blinking back his tears of disappointment and frustration.

"Yes, I need to go," Severus sighed as he ran a hand down Harry's back, knowing the tense situation between them due to Harry's speech impediment and knew better than to push the matter. "Be good, pet."

Harry waited until he couldn't hear Severus' footsteps anymore before pouring his heart out, sobbing on the pillows as Severus left the manor with a heavy heart.

--:--

"Ah, good afternoon, Severus. So glad you could join us."

Severus nodded and walked towards the round table where everyone was seated in the meeting room. Every higher member in the Ministry was there, including Albus Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge and Lucius Malfoy. According to the letter that was given to Harry, he had been summoned to the Ministry of Magic to attend a sort of official hearing and that he had to go there immediately without fail. To think that he would be summoned on a Saturday afternoon when he was supposed to be at home overseeing the finishing touches of Harry's playroom and shagging Harry senseless on the bed and stay on the bed all day doing nothing in particular, but who was he to disobey orders coming from the Ministry of Magic itself? He might as well brave it and get over and done with.

"May I ask why I was summoned?" Severus asked, not sitting down.

"That you will have to personally hear it from Cornelius himself," Albus said as he gestured Severus to sit on the chair, which seemed to be the only seat empty at the other end of the table facing Cornelius. He waited until Severus actually sat down before continuing, "Cornelius, if you please."

"I come to understand that you have purchased a slave," Cornelius voiced out. Everyone, including Lucius, sat and listened in silence. "I will not question the source of your purchase, since we have leniently allowed the upper classes to possess slaves as long as they stay within the Human Labour Rights Act jurisdiction. But as you know, according to some of the old laws that still holds true when it comes to slavery, Mr. Snape, slaves, especially sexual ones, are public property and should be treated as such. Regardless whosoever bought the slave, other people are allowed to use them as they see fit. You are either to not interfere or participate in their activities. That is the customary law of slavery."

"I am aware of that, Minister Fudge," Severus nodded gravely. "But it still remains that I bought him. Whether or not I wish to share him with other people is of my personal freedom and interest. They have no right to invade my property without my express permission."

"True, but according to the law of slavery, it is the master's responsibility to train and discipline the slave and make them behave in an appropriate manner. Your slave had acted out at Mr. Malfoy by striking back at him when he was making advances to him. He did not abide the law of slavery and you did not make him aware that he should abide by it. In fact, you have ordered him to bite Mr. Malfoy when it was clearly stated in the books that other masters are allowed to have their way with the slaves. Not only did you not abide to the rules of slaves being public property, you did not abide to the rules of disciplining and training your slave accordingly."

"Lucius should not have touched him," Severus replied simply. "Besides, you claim that it is my responsibility to train and discipline my slave, and I am training him as I see fit. I have done nothing wrong in that."

"I agree with Severus," Albus raised his hand to second the motion. "In fact, the boy was only acting upon his Master's command. Isn't that what slaves are supposed to do? Obey their masters?"

"Unfortunately, it was the wrong sort of order to begin with. It had clashed with more rules than one in the book. Firstly, the slave bit someone without abiding the public property factor. Secondly, the master did not train accordingly to what the public property factor clearly stated and thirdly, the master himself did not abide the rules of the public property factor. It is something that we cannot stand by and watch it happen without doing anything. Do you know the punishment of such negligence, Mr. Snape?"

"Allow me to refresh his memory, Cornelius," Lucius voiced out after a moment's silence. "Severus, failure to discipline your slave and allowing it to attack someone is punishable by isolation."

"Who? Me or my slave?" Severus asked, his heart starting to clench with worry while he tried to keep a straight face.

"Why, your slave, of course. He has to be taken away from you to be made example of to other slaves and masters so as not to repeat the same mistake."

"I very much agree with Mr. Malfoy. We believe it is best if he is put under the care of Hogwarts for the time being," a woman voiced out. Severus turned to that voice and saw that it was the dreaded, power-hungry and overly eccentric Ms. Dolores Umbridge. He had worked with her for a while when he was still a teacher trainee training under the Ministry office. It sickened him to sit all day helping her out with her paperwork in her creepy pink office with plates of mewing kittens as her wall décor and the way she spoke in that rather overly sugar-coated but full of pretense tone as she addressed her co-workers and her sadistic way of delivering punishment to her students while she became a substitute professor for Prof. Flitwick when he took a sick leave for a month was all he could tolerate.

"I concur with Ms. Umbridge," Cornelius seconded the motion. "You are not fit to be his master anymore. He must be put under another's care."

"The hell he is!" Severus slammed his hands on the table. "I bought him with my money. There is either you have to buy him from me or give me another!"

"That's the whole point of the punishment, Severus, for not disciplining him," Lucius said. "We will take him from you even if it means by force and you don't get another slave."

"I will not allow it! I do not want yours or anyone else's filthy hands on my Harry!"

"Excuse me, if I may intervene," Albus tapped his side of the table to get everyone's attention. "Aren't you all forgetting the other crucial reason why we are asking Severus to release Harry to Hogwarts' care?"

"Ah, yes, of course," Cornelius nodded. "If it would make Mr. Snape feel any better about his punishment, then you tell him."

Albus nodded and accio-ed a piece of paper from the secretary's table at the side to Severus, saying, "We've received this from Lucius the other day after he and a few other party members went through some personal belongings of your slave's deceased parents. Apparently he claimed to have received the late Potter couple's personal effects from an anonymous source who found it while doing a sort of onsite survey before building demolition."

"Sounds like our typical prying sneak Lucius," Severus grumbled.

"It is a will and testimony of James Potter and Lily Evans," Lucius continued from where Albus left off. "It was their express wish that they would want their child to be under the care of Hogwarts. My source told me that based arrest records, the place where he found this will, among others, was in fact the secret hide-out of Tom Marvolo Riddle after he escaped from Azkaban. Apparently the Riddle convict managed to locate this after assassinating them and took it with him, hiding it in his home when he was on the run. Probably for sentiment purposes, like a trophy of sorts."

"Your point being?" Severus sighed.

"Our point is," Cornelius butted in, "that he will be taken from you and given to Hogwarts as stated in their will and testimony. According to Legal Affairs, any will and testimony written by the deceased must be carried out to rule and in the strictest of procedures. You cannot deny a parent's wishes to have the best for their child now, can you?"

"But that's not fair!" Severus tried to protest. "You produced this at the last minute without notice! If credits about the Potters being school celebrities and good contributors of society were true, you would've found this will earlier instead of allowing Harry to live such a miserable life with his Muggle relatives and forced him into this life, not now! Who knows if Lucius had fabricated that will?!"

"Sadly, the papers are legit," Albus said regretfully. "We have done all testing and asked all relevant people regarding the making of this will and they all confirmed that it is genuine. I cannot explain why it took so long to find this will, but the will clearly states that your slave's parents wished him to be at the care of Hogwarts. As much as I pity your plight, I'm sorry to say that I have to comply on that. It is the law after all."

Severus wanted to retaliate but once Albus had fallen in synch and in line with the meeting's motives, he knew he was fighting a losing battle. He lowered his head and asked quietly, "Is there…anything I can do…?"

"I wish I could say there is, but my hands are tied on this matter. You can, however, choose who you would like your slave to be under the care of."

"Severus doesn't have the right to choose! He is being punished here!" Lucius protested.

"Shut the hell up, Lucius!" Severus snapped back at him as they both sported the same cold angry glare at each other.

"Ah, but I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts," Albus reminded the blonde, "and as long as I run it, I can call the shots. Wouldn't you agree, Cornelius?"

"Yes, that is true," Cornelius agreed grudgingly. "What do you say, Mr. Snape?"

"I…want him to stay with me, his Master."

"No, Severus. What I meant was you can choose who to look after him while he is in Hogwarts. You have to abide to the will, Severus."

"Separation, remember?" Lucius looked at him smugly. "You don't get to keep that boy anymore, Severus. That's what the whole punishment is about."

"Then I choose you, Albus," Severus said after sending a death glare to Lucius. "You will take my place as his Master. I trust you would call the shots enough to accept it."

"Well I am flattered," Albus smiled. "What say you, members of the Ministry? Cornelius?"

"I am fine with that," Cornelius replied, with the rest of the members either nodding or muttering their agreement.

"Lucius?" Albus turned to the blonde.

Lucius grumbled, grudgingly agreed.

"Well then, I will come to your house personally this weekend to take the boy off your hands."

"No, Albus," Cornelius objected. "You will go and pick him up today in one hour."

"Why so soon?" Severus asked, fighting the urge to strangle the old fat coot who calls himself a Minister.

"Why give you the pleasure of keeping him any longer than you should?" Lucius raised a sarcastic brow.

"Not another word from you, Malfoy, or I swear…" Severus wanted to retaliate but was stopped by Cornelius raising his hand.

"The sooner the better, Mr. Snape, or it wouldn't be punishment at all."

"Unfortunately I have a little urgent business to attend to in school," Albus noted. "You know how it is with the children. Besides, Severus needs to explain things to the slave and give him a proper goodbye. How about a day? A day should be fine at least."

"Well…I suppose that will do," Cornelius replied after much consideration. "But not an hour more."

"Very well, a day it is," Severus stood up, smiling gently at Albus, who in turn smiled back at him kindly. "I will return home to break the news to Harry."

"I'll see you tomorrow then for the boy, Severus. Meeting adjourned everyone?"

Everyone nodded and started getting off their seats to leave the room. Severus nodded, acknowledging Albus before getting out of the room quickly. Lucius followed behind Severus, an aura of gloating following behind his wake.

"Well, how does it feel being reprimanded? It's been a while since I seen you cower like this in a meeting. The last time I saw you cower was when you had that brawl with Kiaran Featherworth, Senior Head of the Information Department and was being told off right at your face at last year's Ministry AGM."

Severus stopped but didn't turn around as he replied him in an icy cold voice, "Away, Malfoy, or you will not be seeing another day."

"Touchy, aren't we? I think the statement should be reserved for your slave, Snivellus."

Severus immediately took out his wand and brandished it dangerously at Lucius' jugular, holding the blonde's gaze in a death look. "I hope one of your slaves snuffs out your pathetic life, Lucius, because it is not worth existing."

"Temper, temper," Lucius said as he took out his wand to push away Severus'. "You're not worth my breath anyway. Just remember who you have to be grateful for that got you that slave while it lasted."

With that, the blonde walked off, leaving Severus standing there alone trying to regain control. He took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. One false move and he would've have fallen into the temptation of killing Lucius with his bare hands. Quickly, he stomped out of the Ministry of Magic building, got on his carriage and told the horseman to send him home.

He half-wished that his ride home today would last forever, instead of having to face what was coming for him once he was home.