I'm A Slave For You-Chp33

I'M A SLAVE FOR YOU

"Don't touch me!"

Severus winced, pulling his hand away at that bark. He knew that tone: he was in one of his ranting bad moods again.

"Kaleb, please. I just want to…" he tried to explain but the slave would not hear of it.

"You just want to fuck me blind, like you always do."

"You know that is not true, Kaleb. Pet, you know I love you…"

"I'm not your pet, you freak! I will never love you! You and your people make me sick!" the said Kaleb spat as he shoved the Potions Master away. "If you truly love me, you wouldn't keep calling me 'Pet' all the time like some sort of dog!"

"Kaleb, you know I would never treat you any less," Severus said, clearly hurt at the previous statement the younger man made.

"Oh? Is that why you always make me do all those things on bed when you know that I clearly do not like it? You know as well as I do that I never wanted to be in the business! If it weren't for my fucking father always getting into debts and my slut of a mother so high in drugs she couldn't even care less what happened to me, I wouldn't be in this shithole with a bunch of freaks! Being a gigolo at my world is much better than this. And just because you and I have a bad childhood doesn't make us even. It doesn't even justify it, more so you lording over me. You don't own me! You will never own me! I hate you!"

"Don't try to make it like you know me, Kaleb Iason," Severus leaned near him and spoke through gritted teeth. "You know less than you think you do about what happened to me."

"I know one thing," Kaleb gave him a challenging look. "You are not capable of love, ever."

Severus couldn't control his hand as it flew against the younger man's cheek. Time and time again, he had been behaving inappropriately towards him. Ever since he bought him, he was a bitter man. Nothing he did could satisfy or convince the Muggle slave that his feelings towards him were true. As his hand struck again and again, he couldn't help thinking back about the times he had to resort to violence like this to get Kaleb to do whatever he wanted, only to regret it after the deed was done and apologizing profusely, promising that he would not do it ever again until their next outburst. It was an endless cycle, and even though it was painfully evident to him that Kaleb would never return his feelings, he continued to cling on that glimmer of hope that one day, he would love him just as much as he did.

"M…Mah…?!"

Severus stopped hitting at that familiar small cry of pain. He looked down to see that it was no longer Kaleb Iason he was slapping, but his little beloved pet Harry James Potter. Tears of crimson red poured out of his eyes as the little boy who was held by the throat cried, holding to both his swollen red cheeks.

"No…No…Mah…!" Harry begged, crying and pleading for Severus to stop hurting him.

"Oh god, Harry, I…I…" Severus tried to hold the cringing little boy in his arms. "Wh…What have I done…?"

"Like I said, Snape," Kaleb appeared out of nowhere behind Severus and brushed his lips against his ear as he whispered maliciously, "You are not capable of love, ever."

--:--

"S'vrus?"

Severus awoke with tears in his eyes. The first thing he saw when he opened his teary eyes and looked up was a blurry vision of Hagrid the half-giant hovering above him. Quickly, he turned around and hastily wiped them away.

"Bad dream, S'vrus?"

"It's none of your business," Severus said grudgingly as he tried to will the rest of his tears away.

"I hears ye whimp'rin' 'No' ov'r an' ov'r agin. I tot ye havin' a nigh'mare or summat."

Severus didn't reply, his back still facing Hagrid.

"Ye miss 'Arry, ain't ye?"

"What time is it?" Severus decided to change the subject.

"It's almost 12 in tha' aftanoon. Afta we travels thru tha' Portkey, ye straigh'way headed 'ere an' dropped offa bed wit'ou eatin' dinner. Ye slept thru tha' day as well. I couldna wake ye."

"It has been a long day, I suppose."

Severus sighed and got off bed to wash himself at the bathroom while Hagrid returned to his own room through the door that joined their room together. As he washed and brushed, he looked at himself in the mirror and his reflection made a comment on how bedraggled he looked. He felt that way too. He felt almost relieved that they were finally in Romania, and in a wizarding community, no less. After almost a few weeks of wandering around in Austria trying to locate the owner of the Portkey (who is a Muggle-born), they had discovered that he had already passed away due to a boating accident when he went on a cruise trip that he won from a Muggle lottery, and it took them almost 2 weeks to actually locate the Portkey itself, which was held by the state as he had no next-of-kin and had not written a will to leave his possessions behind. From here, Hagrid and Severus had no choice but to use their magic to break into the storage room that kept the Portkey and found it at the very far end of the room tucked away among other cardboard boxes that the Muggles couldn't be bothered to categorize.

The Portkey, which was an old worn silver trophy for some sort of golfing competition, took them to Hungary. Hagrid's cursed memory was no help as he couldn't remember where his contact here lived, just like he did with his previous contacts. The Potions Master found it odd that he remembered the people but never the place, and yet could still maintain a long distance relationship with either of them. When they have finally located the owner of the Hungary Portkey (a pure-blood), Hagrid had failed to mention that it was made a Portkey from a family heirloom in which the matriarch of the family held onto it like it was the Holy Grail and had never let anyone other than herself see or touch it. Even her own sons and daughters, whom Hagrid owled them to have a get-together tea for old time's sake, had never set eyes on it, let alone touch it. One of her sons who still lived with her offered them a place to stay so that they could have a chance to get to the Portkey but unfortunately she guarded it like a hawk and had all forms of wards and protection spells all over her room where she kept the heirloom that if Severus were to attempt to counter each and every one of them, he would be done by the age of 80.

Finally, it was the matriarch's love for feathered friends that gave him the edge. He spent 5 weeks becoming an Animagus, which was a black raven, and earned the old lady's trust before letting Hagrid and the curious son, who wanted to know how the heirloom looked like for ages, into the room after he cast a very powerful sleeping draught spell on her. The family heirloom turned out to be a bottle of crystallized pineapple that belonged to their goodness-knows-how-many-greats grandfather whose lifelong dream was to have a taste of crystallized pineapple before he died (back then, crystallized pineapples were a luxury only the rich can afford before it was finally commercialized as a common food item). The bottle of crystallized pineapple he ate from was then preserved with a spell and kept in a bell jar behind a red curtain situated in a hidden space behind the old lady's closet.

After bidding the satisfied son goodbye, they touched the Portkey and it sent them straight to Romania right smack in the middle of a wizarding community. Out of sheer fatigue and relief, the first thing Severus did once he got there was look for a place to rest his head. Ignoring Hagrid's protest of having dinner first, he went into the first inn he saw and paid for two rooms before falling onto the bed and fell straightaway to sleep without even bothering to undress or change. It was very uncharacteristic of him to be so sloppy, but now that he was in the country where he was supposed to get the item he needed to pay for the price of his beloved's freedom, he was beyond relief and joy. Smiling a little at his reflection in the mirror, he allowed himself a momentary bliss of happiness as he thought of how glad his little pet would be once he returned home with a contract in hand bearing the words of freedom for him.

"Ye done?" Hagrid asked, popping his head through the conjoined door. "We gotta hurry if we wanna catch tha' next train tuh tha' dragon reserves."

"Understood," Severus replied, wiping his wet face. "Give me five more minutes."

As he did his hair and put on a new set of clothes, he whispered a silent prayer that he would succeed in this quest.

--:--

Severus sat on a rock overlooking the reserve. A couple of trainers were seen wandering around the area, guarding the place from unwanted trespassers. He turned to the half-giant who was again munching a rock cake and asked, "How do you think we should ask them?"

"Dunno. I'm still comin' up wif a plan," Hagrid admitted, resting his chin on his lap thinking while eating.

Severus sighed. They had spent almost four months and another hour of train ride getting here, now he just wanted to get the task over with. He was not about to give up on this now that they're here. But still, getting to the reserve was one thing. Trying to come up to the trainers and explain their quest was another. There was no way in hell they would allow just a man and a giant to just waltz into the place that held and protected the most endangered species in the wizarding world, let alone get an eye out of one of them. Try as he might, he couldn't figure out or come up with a good excuse.
Hagrid was still figuring out what to do when he saw someone familiar in the distance. He beamed and exclaimed, "Well, I'll be darned!"

"What?" Severus asked, looking back at the other man.

"Looky dere! Is Arthur's boy!" Hagrid pointed at the direction where he was looking, then stood up immediately and waved at him enthusiastically, shouting "Oy! Oy, Charlie!"

The said Charlie Weasley looked up at upon hearing the familiar loud voices of Hagrid and beamed just as equally as he did, waving back at him as he moved towards their direction.

"Charlie? That outdoor Weasley you loved so much?"

Hagrid barely even heard that comment as he bounded noisily towards Charlie and gave him a bear hug, crying, "Hullo, Charlie! So good tuh see ye!"

"Good to see you too, Hag," Charlie replied in a wheezy voice as he felt Hagrid almost crushing his spleen. He saw Severus following after him and waved barely with whatever was left of his arm, "Hey there, Sev."

"Hello, Weasley," Severus greeted. "I didn't know we were on first name basis."

"Well, I can see you haven't changed a bit with that nastiness of yours. It doesn't hurt being friendly really, now that we're not school children anymore. Uh…Hag," he turned to the giant who was still squeezing the life out of him, "you can put me down now."

"Oh, sorry!" Hagrid apologized as he put the redhead down. "Dinna know I wuz huggin' ye so long."

"You don't know your own strength, Hagrid," Severus sighed in defeat.

"So what brings you to this part of Romania?" Charlie asked as he massaged his arms to get some feeling back and get the blood circulating after being crushed like a walnut. "You're not the outdoorsy type to be wandering all the way here."

"I am freeing my slave," Severus replied briefly, not wanting to get into details.

"Oh?" Charlie was genuinely surprised. "I didn't know you had a slave."

"Oh yes, he does! He's juz tha' cutest lil' thin' yer ev'r seen! His name is 'Arry Potta an'…" Hagrid immediately chattered on and on about how cute and sweet and nice Harry is until he was cut off by a cold glare by the Potions Master.

"Yes, thank you, Hagrid, for the wonderful update," Severus said sarcastically, then turned to Charlie,
"Yes, I have one."

"Ah," Charlie grinned mischievously and folded his arms against his chest, pretty much getting the picture of what the history between Severus and this little slave called Harry was about. Judging by his tone, he was no stranger to the system of freeing a slave. "So you're stuck with retrieving the bill you have to pay for freeing him, eh?"

"That is correct."

"So what's the payment?"

"A Norwegian Ridgeback's eye," Hagrid blurted out, earning a raise of eyebrow from Charlie.

"I know," Severus agreed to that gesture. "The same thing I thought. But the price is no matter. If they asked me to get the molar of a Threstral, I'd get it too."

"They should know by now that it's illegal to even remove a scale from a dragon, let alone have an eye," Charlie commented. "What were they thinking?"

"They wuz not thinkin', tha's wat it is," Hagrid replied grudgingly.

"More like they want him back in their arms to pay the food on their table," Severus noted just as grudgingly.

"Typical," Charlie rolled his eyes. "People in the business are that way. They make their employees taint themselves so that they could feed their sorry ass."

"If I have to be put in jail for this, I will still do it," Severus declared like it was the most normal thing to say.

"You never fail to surprise me, Severus Snape. You used to be such an Ice Prince in school. What happened to the old one?"

"Luv 'appen," Hagrid pointed, glee written all over his face.

"Thank you for not minding your own business and keeping your mouth shut," Severus glared at him again, fighting the urge to hex him to next week.

Hagrid ignored that comment and patted Charlie's shoulder, saying, "Aye, yer intuh dragons, righ'? Kin ye help us out or somethin'?"

"Well, I dunno…" Charlie hesitated, rubbing his chin, not sure whether he should allow them to do such an illegal act.

"Please, please, please. Pretty please…" Hagrid clasped his hands together, begging the redhead. "We reli need tuh 'elp ou' lil' 'Arry 'ere."

"Anything that would help, Weasley," Severus persuaded, which was something he rarely did.
Charlie, feeling flattered and his ego inflated seeing Severus actually asking help from him, finally decided it was worth a shot. After all, he was always in for a great adventure. He took out a long parchment from his backpack and looked through it, saying, "Well, let see…I have here the list of dragons that exist in this reserve. One of them is about to kick the bucket. In fact, I was called here yesterday to put him down because dying dragons are the most vicious despite their failing bodies. Maybe if I told them you're my associates…"

"It ain't my lil' Norberta, innit?" Hagrid asked worriedly.

"Norberta? Sounds familiar."

"His dragon pet he had from years ago," Severus explained hastily. "Now do you think that will work?"

"I've been a regular presence in this reserve," Charlie replied. "I think I can convince them just nicely. But I'll have to warn you, like I said, dying dragons are still vicious. Be prepared to get a faceful of flames."

"I have plenty of burn salve in my bag; I believe I will be fine."

"Good," Charlie smiled. He stole a look at his pocket watch and said, "Let's go have some lunch before we get on our way. I haven't had a decent meal since I got here."

Hagrid clapped his hands with glee at the mention of food. Severus wanted to groan. He didn't want to wait any longer, but he had to keep onto Charlie's good side if he were to get what he wanted. To be honest, he didn't exactly have a filling meal because of his eagerness to come here to the reserves and the fact that he woke up in the middle of the day with only one thought in mind. And since he came here, he had not taken a bite out of anything, not even have a light snack when he was in the train on the way here, and seeing Hagrid eating his rock cakes was not helping either.

The trio, led by Charlie, soon went to a nearby small wizarding town which was like the Romania version of Honeydukes that has everything edible. Instead of stopping by to the usual food stalls, Charlie led them to a tiny food cart that bore Japanese words on it. There were a few customers here and there since it was already slightly past the lunch hour, so Charlie came up to the cart and sat in front of the steaming counter, parting the curtain for Severus and Hagrid to enter.

"Konichiwa, Challee-san," the owner of the food cart greeted Charlie with a very thick Japanese accent. "You flens?"

"Yeah," Charlie replied. "Got you some new customers," he turned to the both of them and asked, "You guys do know how to use chopsticks, right?"

Severus raised a brow before replying a sarcastic 'No'. Hagrid shook his head so hard, his facial fur was fluttering like a woman doing a shampoo commercial.

"Alright," Charlie shrugged, then turned to the owner and said, "Forks for my friends please."

The owner nodded and prepared the utensils for them: a bowl and a pair of chopsticks for Charlie and bowls and forks for Hagrid and Severus. Hagrid took a long whiff at the compartment that boiled the soup while Severus eyed the weird-looking Asian ingredients that looked like it had been taken directly from the bowels of some unknown animal.

"Wassat he sellin'?" Hagrid asked.

"It's called Oden, a Japanese winter delicacy," Charlie replied, then pointed at the things before them and explained, "The soup over there is called dashi broth, which is light and tastes like black soy. All these stuff here are like steamboat food the Chinese love to eat. There's boiled eggs, chikuwabu or gluten tubes, daikon, suji or beef tendons, ito konnyaku or just plain konnyaku, carrots, shiitake, kabocha or Japanese squash, potatoes, tsukune—which is fish or meat balls, by the way—and then there's octopus and tebichi or pig trotters, and a number of tofu and surimi products. You just pick whichever you want Hiroshi-san here to boil and cook and he'll do it for you, then you eat it with karashi—Japanese mustard—as a condiment. You gotta try them. It's pretty nice. And it only costs a Knut a bowl. The first time I tried it when I came here to do my studies on dragons, I fell in love with it straightaway. I've become a regular ever since. I might just move into Japan if Japanese food tastes so nice like this."

"Aiya," the owner named Hiroshi looked both awkward and flattered. "You too nice to me, Challee-san."

"I'm serious, Hiroshi-san! One of these days, I'm gonna bring my entire family here to taste your wonderful cooking!"

"And why does it look…Never mind," Severus wanted to say it, but decided against it, even though it looked mighty odd to him. The last thing he wanted was offend the enthusiastic Charlie right now.
Letting Charlie help them pick which one they should try and gave them to Hiroshi to cook, while Hagrid watched the process in fascination, Severus eyed the owner curiously. There was something very odd about this Hiroshi who was now putting all the ingredients one by one into the pot with his chopsticks. His features looked very cunning, and the way his eyes were slanted inwards were not exactly very normal, and he noticed that for such a thin man, he was quite hairy. Light brown hair covered considerably around his arms and chest as he went about his work, and he could see a little bit of facial hair here and there on his face, and his hair alone was a natural dirty blonde despite the Asian look on his face. Normal people may just think of it as the usual mismatched pigmentation certain warlocks or half-breeds have, but for a trained eye like Severus Snape who relied on observation to govern his students, he could tell that he was more than just a half-breed.
Charlie noticed Severus staring intently at Hiroshi and grinned, "Guess the gig's up, eh?"

"What gig?" Hagrid asked while Hiroshi looked at Charlie knowingly.

"You may not notice, Hag, but our owner of the stall here is actually a kitsune, a Japanese fox demon. Isn't that right, Hiroshi-san?"

"Hai," Hiroshi grinned and removed the glamour spell by tipping the headband off his head to reveal them his true form as a tall, thin and lanky walking and talking fox with dirty blond fur. Hagrid dropped his jaw in fascination while Severus did nothing but stared at the kitsune, blinking blankly as Hiroshi showed them his true form for another 5 seconds before replacing the headband on, concealing his foxy nature with its glamour spell and continued cooking. Was everything here so weird? Severus thought, which was kind of ironic, since life as a witch and/or wizard was weird enough for everyone else.

"Wow! But why all tha' way tuh Romania, an' in tha' wizardin' world no less?" Hagrid asked after getting over the initial surprise.

"Wizard money more than Japanese yen," Hiroshi replied in his not-so-fluent English.

"Did you know that a Knut is equivalent to 10,000 yen in Japan?" Charlie asked. "That is about 100 American dollars. Imagine a bowl of simple Oden like this costing 100 American dollars. That alone is enough to motivate anyone, Muggle or not, so set up business in here."

"I can see that," Severus replied. "But why don't you just do it in Japan, Mr. Hiroshi? Surely there are witches and wizards in Japan alone and their academies, since we have Durmstrang in Bulgaria and Beauxbaton in France. And I'm sure their wizarding community would be happy to buy from…"

"The wizard world in Asia alone is a very tough one," Charlie explained as Hiroshi gave him his bowl of Oden. "Because of its priority towards the supernatural realm and them being big in superstitions and whatnot, the thought of someone who is a mere mortal having the same powers as the gods are either too dangerous, not worthy or sacrilege as they believe only the gods are allowed to have high power. That and also the fact that magic there is almost always view as a demonic trait and that Muggles there who try to dabble into magic always end up worse off than it should, giving it an even more bad name.

"Now, in Asia, anyone who is born with magic powers is immediately branded as children of the Dark, and they usually, ironically, end up being tortured by the very local wizards and witches themselves who hide in seclusion and can only be reached through certain contacts. They were put under numerous cleansing spells until they forced the magical entities out of them, turning them into a being that was lesser than a Squib and forcing their bodies to turn Muggle. Very few actually make it out alive, and those who do end up becoming the very Muggles that dabble into Dark Arts because they all want to cling to the glimmer of hope that they could return to their true nature. It got to the point where they have no choice but to become refugees in other wizarding world in other countries in order to survive, and families who cannot afford to migrate into our side are usually forced to give their children away to be adopted by foster families here. Almost all Asian children that you see studying among us are refugees from the Asian countries."

"Hai, hai," Hiroshi confirmed the history Charlie told them. "No witch, no wizard, no wizard wold. No wizard wold, no customer. No customer, no money. My people velly poor. All come here make money."

"I see," Severus noted as he got his bowl of Oden, unable to contain a slight shiver down his spine. And he thought the Salem Witch Hunt back then was worse. He secretly wondered whether the Ravenclaw girl Cho Chang or the Japanese-decent girl that he had confiscated the magazine from came from the same refugee background.

Hagrid, who finally got his bowl of Oden, blew at a steaming hot fried tofu and took a bite. His eyes immediately widen with delight and exclaimed enthusiastically at Severus, "Mmm! Delicious! Ye shou' try it, S'vrus!"

"Come on. It won't kill you anymore than a dragon would," Charlie joked as he popped a crab stick in his mouth, earning an annoyed look and a raised brow from the Potions Master.

"That was not funny, Weasley."

In the end, the trio spent an hour having their lunch, ordering bowl after bowl, Hagrid ordering the most. Severus, even though he had to admit that this new delicacy he's eating was quite interesting to the taste despite its mediocre looks (at the same time thinking whether Harry would enjoy this or not if he were to bring home some), was not really in the mood for eating as his mind was more occupied on the task at hand. He stopped at two bowls, his nerves getting to him as he watched the gluttonous half-giant literally trying every single Oden item that there was on the counter, much to the delight of the kitsune Hiroshi. After having his fill, Charlie stole a look at the time again and paid the tab for all three of them.

"Well, I guess it's about time we get going. Hag, stop eating. We got work to do!"

"But I ain't full yet!" Hagrid protested with his mouth full of tofu and fish cakes.

"You have had enough," Severus stood up, returning his bowl to Hiroshi.

"You're never full, Hag," Charlie laughed and tugged at his sleeve to urge him on. "C'mon! We're gonna be late! Any longer and that old dragon will have burnt down half of the neighbourhood!"

Reluctantly, Hagrid gulped down the last of the broth and returned the bowl to Hiroshi. The Japanese kitsune returned the change and bid them farewell and good luck by tipping his headband and showing them his true form one more time. Hagrid hastily took a picture of the food cart for remembrance while Severus followed the redhead, leaving the half-giant to lag behind them, yelling for them to wait for him. Severus couldn't care less whether Hagrid was 10 feet far back from them or had tripped on his own shoelaces.

He just wanted to have it over and done with and get back to his beloved Harry.

--:--

"Enter."

Hermione and Ron entered at the voice of Albus. Their faces were wearing expressions of grim and dour proportions. Albus could tell at first glance that whatever they were about to say was no trivial laughing manner.

"Yes, children? What seems to be the problem?"

"We believe that Harry's safety may be at stake. We have yet to speculate the direness of the situation but…" Hermione paused for a while, then gestured Ron to pass her something. The boy took it out from inside his robes and handed it to her. She then put it onto Albus' desk and continued, "Here, it is best if you read it yourself, sir."

Albus picked up the Daily Prophet that was handed to him. One glance at the headlines and immediately the message sunk in.

"Oh dear, this does seem to be a problem."

"What should we do, sir?" Ron asked worriedly.

"Watch him. I know you have your studies to attend to, but please, watch him whenever you can."

"We will do it right away," Hermione said before taking Ron's hand quickly and jogged out of the office.

Albus stared at the headlines once more and sighed worriedly, "I guess I better get started with the paperwork before Severus comes back."

Discarding the newspaper, he quickly made his way to the fireplace and Floo-ed himself to the Ministry of Magic. The impact of the Floo powder blew at the desk, sending the newspaper fluttering off it and onto the solid floor, with its headlines face up, reading:

TOM RIDDLE ESCAPES AGAIN?!