I'm A Slave For You-Chp19

I'M A SLAVE FOR YOU

Harry swept the floor of Albus Dumbledore with Fawkes perched on his shoulder as usual. Albus was at his desk filing and writing in some paperwork to be sent to the Ministry for evaluation. Both of them did their thing in comfortable silence, neither of them bothering the other as they went about in their businesses.

"You can stop now, Harry. It's time for your speech lesson. Go meet Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley at their common room."

Harry nodded and ran off, but not before putting away the broom and allowing Fawkes to fly back up its stand. It had been a few months down the road since he had been separated from Severus and become Albus Dumbledore's charge. At first, it was tough. Harry was often afraid to sleep at night because he would have night terrors which would make him wake up screaming at night for his master and Albus had to issue him mild dosages of dreamless sleep medication he got from Madame Pomfrey just so he could slumber without fear. Despite being acquainted with Albus, Hermione and Ron, his body would still instinctively shrink away whenever they took the initiative to touch him, and at one point accidentally reach over and bit Albus' arm when he tried to hug him to calm him down from his tremors and bit Ron when he tried to give him a friendly ruffle on the head without alerting him his presence first. His timid smile and friendly nature was all for show in the beginning, and he wouldn't allow anyone to go near him unless he wanted them to. Fawkes, at the time, was the only living thing he was willing to have close body contact with.

Slowly, after giving him chores and menial tasks to do, he began to ease up around strangers. The daily dose of human contact especially with the other servants and slaves in the castle and the teachers and students when they asked him to run their errands made it easier for him to interact with people other than Severus, and the never failing attention he got from Albus, Hermione and Ron (despite the two men being bitten) gave him the ability to trust people again and allow him to behave like himself again. But still he was more interested in non-human beings than others. He made friends with Peeves the poltergeist and giggled whenever it was playing its usual practical jokes on people (which earned him a bit of a scolding as well for laughing at them) and was rather acquainted with the ghosts of Hogwarts, Nearly Headless Nick and Bloody Baron being his closest ghostly pals, to the point where he was invited to one of the ghosts' Death Days. They were not surprised of him being friendly with Nearly Headless Nick, since he was such a jolly fellow to begin with, but no one knew why he could tolerate Bloody Baron except Harry himself, because to him, Bloody Baron reminded him a little of Severus' behaviour: cold and icy on the outside, but actually warm and fuzzy on the inside. He even managed to make friends with the people in portraits when he was doing his sweeping duties along with the other servants. They would engage in animated conversation with him and tell him tales about their lives in the portraits and secrets about the original people they represent, making the boy laugh and giggle and their antiques, and even The Fat Lady and Sir Cardigan entertained him with her horrendous singing and his odd sense of knighthood. All in all, he had a really good time living his new life in Hogwarts and was secretly glad a little that he was here.

Oddly though, that despite him knowing that his ex-master Severus was a professor in Hogwarts, never once did he get to see him. He never had the chance to even catch a glimpse of him and every time he came to the place where he thought he might be, may it be the potions lab, his office, the staff room, the Great Hall or even the staff's lounge, he was not there. It was as if there was an invisible force or a crazy coincidental power at work that was keeping him from being able to see him. There were a few close calls where he almost thought that he saw him, but he was soon greatly mistaken, leaving him disappointed and dejected for the rest of the day.

A week after his stay in Hogwarts, Hermione and Ron, who had written to their parents about Harry's situation and their need for teaching aids, received them and soon got down to business in teaching Harry how to read, write and talk. As Harry weaved in and out of people and up and down corridors, he began to reminiscence the first day he had lessons with Hermione and Ron…

--:--

FLASHBACK BEGINS…

"Do you like living here, Harry?"

Harry nodded half-heartedly, not exactly agreeing, but not exactly disagreeing either. His heart was a little on the fence at the moment.

"It's great to live here. I'm sure if you try to get along with everyone and try to get used to this place, you might actually like it here," Hermione recited the password to the Fat Lady and went inside the common room. Ron took Harry's hand and led him in as well while Hermione went towards the table setting her heavy book bag down. It was a couple of hours after dinnertime and everyone else had retired into their dorms doing goodness knows what teenage witches and wizards do these days, with the occasional student here and there greeting them before going up their dorms as well. Perfect time for the couple to have a little privacy for their teaching lessons.

"Hey, Har, you will tell us if you have any problems, right?"

Harry nodded, smiling convincingly to the gullible Ron, although it was evident that redhead was still skeptical.

"Let's start on the picture cards, then," Hermione sat down and accio-ed a chair up for Harry to sit before digging through her book bag to produce a stack of thick cardboard cards tied together in a rubber band, "My mum just owled me these last night."

"Alright. You start teaching him first while I look for the teaching things I asked Mother to owl me. It has gotta be somewhere…" Ron muttered the last words as he rushed off to his dorm to look for it at his bed.

Hermione took off the rubber band and randomly picked out one card. She held it up in front of Harry and the boy saw that it was a splotch of red on the middle of the card.

"Red, Harry. Say 'Red'."

"R…R…" Harry tried to pronounce it but couldn't get the last sound out.

"OK, you have the R sound down," Hermione sighed pitifully at Harry. She tried other cards but Harry still only managed to get the first sound right. It was then she realized that she had totally forgotten that Harry had never ever even learnt to read or write, thus he wouldn't even know the sound of the word. Stupid unnecessary assignments, she thought to herself, then voiced out, "OK, different angle then. We need to teach you sounds first."

"I found them," Ron announced as he came down with an alphabet book the size of an encyclopedia and a mini chalkboard with a box of chalks to go with it. "Bloody hell, the stuff I used to teach Ginny are covered with dust and Mother forgot to clean them before owling it to me. This is ridiculous."

"Well, she's older now," Hermione smiled at Ron's complaint. "You can't blame her for being a little forgetful."

With that, he tried to sweep and blow the dust off, resulting in a fit of coughing and choking and watery eyes and a giggling little boy.

"Not funny, lad," Ron gave Harry a mock glare. He then turned to Hermione and asked, "So, how's it going?"

"Not good," Hermione shook her head. "I forgot that he doesn't know the letters or the words. His illiteracy is causing him to unable to form sounds."

"Well, I guess this comes in," Ron said as he put the alphabet book in front of them, causing the dust to flutter about them and making them cough as well. Ron grinned and teased, "Now you know how it feels."

"Can it, Ron," Hermione scolded, "and let's get started."

"Alright," Ron rubbed his chin proudly as he opened the book. "Let the maestro do his work. OK, Har, this is A. Say 'A'…"

With Hermione and Ron's help, Harry soon learnt to read and write his first few alphabets.

FLASHBACK ENDS…

--:--

Harry soon found himself standing in front of the stairs, but he didn't dare to go up. He decided to wait at the foot of the stairs for the Gryffindor couple. No matter how many times he came here to sweep the stairs, he was still not used to it moving around and it often got him lost. And the paintings and portraits were not exactly helping him when they were screaming and yelling out instructions and guides—disagreeing and arguing at each other in the process—as to how to get up, wait and get down the stairs, ending up with either one of the students kind enough to take his hand to lead him down.

While Harry waited, Hermione quickly made it past all the other students out of the Great Hall after their dinner to meet up with Harry for their usual nightly lessons. Ron quickly gulped down his last drop of pumpkin juice and chased after his fiancée.

"Hey, Mione! Wait up! I'm the teacher too, you know!"

"Have you notice that Prof. Snape looks like the living dead lately? I don't think he has eaten either. I saw him at the Great Hall with the other professors just now and he didn't even acknowledge either of them. He barely even touched his dinner and was kinda staring into space."

"Well, technically he has always looked like the living dead, but yeah, now that you mentioned it, he does look a little more like the Grim Reaper."

"Seamus and Dean both exploded his cauldron in Potions Class today and Snape didn't even bat an eyelid. Did you notice that?"

"Yeah, I thought he was going to either make them take detention or minus our points as usual, but he didn't."

"He just told them to clean it up and dismissed the class early," Hermione sighed. "I wonder what's gotten into him. Snape has never been this way…Oh, hi, Harry."

Harry smiled in relief at the sight of the 'Old Married Couple of Hogwarts' approaching him.

"Hey there, Har. Waited long?" Ron asked. When Harry shook his head, he continued, "So are you ready for your lessons tonight, lad?"

Harry nodded eagerly.

"Let's go up the common room then."

Harry quickly got up and took one end of Hermione's robe and one end of Ron's robe—a habit he developed since he started hanging out with them—and was ready to go. Many teased them that they looked like they have already been married for years and looked almost like a family, but after hearing it for the gazillion-th time, they were used to it. In fact, whenever the thought cross their mind about getting married and having children of their own, the couple would blush and smile secretly as if they shared the same thought, making Harry giggle at their flushed faces.

A few hours later, their lesson was done. Harry had finally learnt to read the entire list of alphabets from A to Z without fail, and could write perfect alphabet lines as well. He even learnt a few simple words from the picture cards. Ron gave him a chocolate frog and Hermione gave him a colouring book and a box of colouring pencils as rewards.

"You learned well, lad," Ron said when Harry gave them the "Why the gesture?" look, "I think you finally deserve a reward. It's getting late now. Let me walk you down the stairs. I'm sure you can find your way back to Dumbledore's office from there, right?"

Harry nodded, then gave a goodnight smile to Hermione.

"Night, Harry," Hermione smiled and waved, putting the books away. "Same time tomorrow, OK? We'll learn some more new words soon."

After Harry waved goodbye to Hermione, Ron took his hand and led Harry down all the way to the foot of the moving stairs. As soon as Harry set foot to the solid floor, Ron let go off the boy's arm gently.

"Alright, here we are. This is where I leave you. Sorry I can't walk you back to Dumbledore's office, but I'm kinda tired. Tomorrow is gonna be a long day. Besides, I heard the teachers are having some sort of late night meeting and they won't be over until," Ron stole a look at his pocket watch, "probably ten minutes later. If you hurry, you might just catch Prof. Dumbledore at the staff meeting room. I'd tell you the password now, but you're still new to words and I'd hate to have prying ears hearing the password and enter the professor's office unannounced."

Harry shrugged, giving him an "It's OK" look.

"Well then, good night, Har. See ya tomorrow."

"Bai-bai," Harry giggled as he tottered off.

As he quickly made his way to the direction of the staff meeting room, Severus was walking back to his room from the meeting at the opposite direction. His eyes were unfocused, deep circles embedded underneath it, and his face going sallow and sunken in. One glance at him you'd think he just came out of a crypt. Everyone had been asking him whether he was alright, but he didn't seem to hear them. He had gone by his days mechanically and his teaching didn't seem as alive or cynical or sarcastic as it used to. In fact, his students almost wished that he was back to his usual vindictive self, Draco included (even though he knew the exact cause to this). Even during the meeting, he wasn't really listening. His eyes were distant and his mind was pretty much far away in La La Land, and no one was able to get him back on track. Only Albus seemed to know his plight and allowed Severus' lack of participation.

Harry, on the other hand, was rushing towards the direction of the meeting room, hoping that he could catch up with Albus and be able to return to the office and to the room connected to his office. The last time he missed Albus was when Hermione tried to teach him to remember the password because she had to go off on a student council meeting and couldn't send him back to the office, but when he got there, he could barely remember the words and had a hard time pronouncing it that he ended up sleeping in the corridor instead. Luckily, Rubeus Hagrid was doing his rounds that night and found him there. He quickly picked the sleeping boy up, said the password and entered the office to pass him to a worried old Headmaster to be put into his room. He didn't want that to happen again. In fact, he was so determined to get there as quick as possible that he accidentally bumped into someone.

"Ah!"

The person he bumped into was none other than Severus Snape, his beloved master he had not seen for so many months. Of course, being the lost soul he was, Severus barely noticed him. He just moved to the side and kept walking. Harry didn't realize it at first, but when he smelt the familiar scent of mixed potions on his robes, he almost immediately recognized to whom the scent belonged to. He spun round and saw the familiar back of the master that he had been denied visitation ever since he had come to this huge medieval castle of a school.

"Mah?"

Severus still walked on, zoned out and barely hearing him.

"Mah!" Harry chased after him and pulled at his robe, calling him in an almost begging tone.
Severus turned, blinking absentmindedly. His eyes were still hollow, not even registering who was in front of him. Harry gasped in horror to see his beloved master looking like a zombie. Had it been so long since they seen each other? What happened to his one and only love? Why did he look like that? Has he been eating properly or sleeping well? Why didn't he recognize him? It was he, his little pet! Why wouldn't he call his name or call him 'pet'? Harry immediately cried pools of tears and hugged him, desperately calling him "Mah!!" over and over again, trying to get him back into his senses.

"Ha…Harry…?" Severus breathed, finally stirring as he felt the familiar grip he had been missing for so many months. With a trembling hand, he reached out to touch the boy's hair. I must have been dreaming, he thought, his mind unable to believe what his eyes saw. But…but his hair is right here. If this is a dream, dear gods of Merlin, I never want to wake up.

"Mah!" Harry continued to cry as he wrapped his arms around the poor man's neck, trying to get him to notice him.

"There, there, pet," Severus said as he picked him up, brushing his hair out of his jade-green eyes. "Your hair has grown."

Harry struggled to try telling him that he missed him so much, and that he was a little angry at Severus for not visiting, but he couldn't say anything. A few months of learning was not enough to get all the words he needed to say out of his mouth. Frustrated by his inadequacy, he hit out on Severus' shoulders, venting out his upset feelings. He wanted nothing more than to go back and live the life they used to, but he couldn't even express it. He cried even more bitterly as he reached up to kiss him, while his hands continued to hit at the broad shoulders that was his only solace he ever wanted in the whole wide world. Oh! what he'd give to have those broad shoulders near him and the wide protective arms around him again.

"Don't hurt yourself," Severus said, barely batted an eye. Running his hand over Harry's hair, he said sadly, "I am no longer your master, pet."

"No, no, no, no!" Harry shook his head desperately, screaming in a muffled tone the new word he only knew how to express such denial over Severus' statement as he kissed him desperately.

Severus kissed back, but he kept the kisses light. He knew that if he kissed him like he wanted to, the dream would come to the end—and that was the last thing he wanted happen—resulting into Harry hitting his shoulders again, whining, his tear-filled eyes seeming to ask "Why don't you kiss me like you used to? Why? Don't you love me anymore?"

"Let's just enjoy this dream while we can," Severus said, his hands tightened around Harry's shirt. A tear slipped out of his eye as he whispered in a choked voice, "I miss you very much, Harry."

"I…ere…I…ere…" Harry whined and hugged him tight. It seemed that he was trying to say "I'm here" to convince him that this was not a dream, but his words could only go that far.

"I love you, pet," Severus kissed his hair, rocking the sobbing Harry back and forth. "Shh, love. I am here."

"Harry. There you are."

Severus tensed as he looked up to see Albus standing there with a serious face. Apparently, Albus was wondering why Harry was late and went out to search for him. He was worried that he would end up leaving the boy stranded outside the office again, since he didn't have the vocal capacity to recite the password, but he didn't need to look any further. He saw Severus hugging Harry at a rather secluded corner and smiled. About time they met, the old man sighed in relief, but he was worried that if anyone saw them like this and noticed Albus not doing anything to stop them, he/she might go off tattletale this to the Ministry, resulting to an ugly end to their reunion. Better put up a front for now, he thought as he approached them with a pretend serious face.

No, not yet. Dear gods, please, just a bit longer, Severus begged inwardly as he held Harry protectively in his arms. How could you be so cruel as to end my dream like this?

"Severus, you know the rules. Cornelius said 'See but not Touch'," Albus said, still pretending to look serious.

Harry cried and shook his head, hugging Severus tight. Severus took a deep breath and nodded. The last thing he wanted was to get things ugly between him and the Ministry.

"Yes, you are right, Albus," Severus set Harry down, half-heartedly pushing the whining Harry off.

"But," Albus' serious facial expression turned into a fatherly smile, "since we had such a fruitful meeting tonight and I'm going to be a little busy in the office to look after Harry for the moment, why don't you baby-sit him for a while? You haven't really had dinner yet, have you?"

Harry shook his head. Indeed he hadn't eaten. He always waited for Hermione and Ron to finish his lessons first before having his dinner. That was his habit.

"You must have a long day studying. You go have dinner with Severus. I'll vouch for you. Go on, before I change my mind."

"Yes. Thank you very much, Albus," Severus nodded. He quickly took Harry's hand and walked to his room, not wanting to waste this precious moment of chance. His face may look calm and collected, but inside, his heart was leaping with joy, sprouting daisies and burning out wondrous imaginary fireworks.

As Harry smiled through his tears as he waved goodbye to Albus who was smiling back at him kindly, he was ultimately glad that he was being so nice to let them spend time together after so long.

If he had thought Albus was a nice master, he clearly underestimated him.