I'm A Slave For You-Chp35

I'M A SLAVE FOR YOU

"Wake up! Hag, wake up!!"

"Juz a few mo' minner, pa…"

"Oh, for crying out loud, Aguamenti!"

Hagrid coughed and spluttered as he felt water splashing all over his face. He immediately shot up trying to wipe the remaining water that got into his eyes.

"Charlie! Wat's tha' meanin' of dis, splashin' water on me face!" Hagrid bellowed, clearly upset. "I coulda drowned!"

"Well, you're gonna be dead if you don't get up right this minute and get going!" Charlie replied as he hurriedly packed up his gear. "Snape is gone!"

"WHAT?!" Hagrid was fully awake now and up on his feet. "What do you mean 'gone'?!"

"I mean as in gone off to fight that bloody Norwegian Ridgeback alone gone!" Charlie exclaimed as he made a mad dash out of the burrow, with the half-giant following suite. "I woke up to find the spot where he slept empty and my journal opened face down on the floor. The last page he read was the part where my senior and I finally apprehended the dragon. He even took my special dagger meant for cutting the dragon's hide. What the hell is he thinking, going out there trying to fight a dragon without even telling us, and when he is not an expert no less?!"

"Worse, he's gonna git me killed!" Hagrid screamed in horror. "I made tha' Unbrk'ble Vow fer him an' I'm too young tuh die! S'vrus, ye be'er not die on me, ye darn downrigh' foul git!"

While the duo tried to track down the Potions Master, the said downright foul git was skulking around near the sleeping dragon, trying to look for an opportunity to get close to him without actually alerting him. Truth be told, he had been around the area for quite some time now, wondering and pondering which best way to approach the dragon without getting himself killed was. That night, when the trio was supposed to have their hard-earned rest, Severus could not sleep. His body was as tired as a person who had just ran a marathon twice, but his mind was racing like clockwork. He tossed and turned in his sleep, barely even rested enough to enter REM state. Finally, giving up of ever trying getting into Dreamland, he sat up and stared blankly into space for 15 minutes flat. His eyes darted around and caught sight of the journal that Charlie was writing. Careful not to wake the redhead, he accio-ed the book onto his lap, quietly crawled out of the burrow and, using the Lumos spell, read the journal, specifically the part where Charlie had to put down his first dragon with his senior, over and over again until sunrise. Without wasting any time, he moved about packing his things as quietly as possible before treading out of the forest, retracing their steps until he finally found the dragon just about half a kilometer away from where he came from. He had been waiting there since then.

Since casting spells would not do him any good and the dragon's body size proved to be a disadvantage to him if he ever considered casting spells on him anyway, he knew he had to rely on stealth and the element of surprise to counter the fire-breathing reptile. According to what he had read from Charlie's journal, he and his senior had brought along brooms with them bring down the Horntail so that one would distract it while the other tried to fly closer to the soft spot to cut it open and aim the Killing Curse directly into the heart. Since he was lacking in the broom department, he had to figure out some way to try and get the dragon to fall on his back so that his vulnerable lower belly would be exposed long enough to allow him to reach the soft spot and cut it. He could try waking him and diverting his attention to some position where he could slip under him and slit him, but he would be in a risk where his presence may be made known. He could try accio-ing someone's broom over to increase his chances of getting the dragon's soft spot but the result would've been the same as well: he'd still be spotted.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Severus finally grumbled to himself. "I am the Potions Master of Hogwarts. If I can face a whole classroom of students that could blow up their potions and possibly the entire lab at any given moment, I should be able to face this."

Slowly, Severus sneaked out from his hiding position and stealthily moved closer towards the reptile monster. Occasionally, the dragon would snort, blowing out a short blaze of flames and a cloud of black smoke, forcing Severus make a dive towards the grass and lie as flat as possible so he wouldn't be seen, but he more or less went back to sleep without realizing the man coming close to him. He saw a huge boulder right near the dragon's face and thought that if he could use the levitation spell wordlessly to levitate and throw it at a far end to divert his attention towards it, it might just give him the edge to do a little swashbuckling on the dragon. He raised his wand and was about to say the spell in his mind when…

"Severus! Severus, you idiot, stop!!"

Severus spun round at the sound of Charlie's scream and saw the duo running towards him flailing their arms wildly to stop whatever they thought he wanted to do. The dragon's eyes immediately snapped open and the dragon himself got up, rearing his long, scaly head at the Potions Master, glaring him with murderous intent. Before Severus could get away, the dragon lunged forward to bite his arm, forcing him to let go of his wand. Luckily, the dragon only used the tip of his mouth, and only two upper teeth and two lower teeth clamped onto his arm, or he would've amputated Severus' arm right off, but it still hurt like a bitch. The dragon picked the man up high into the air without effort and shook him like a rag doll, causing his bag and whatever content was in it and the special dagger he stole from Charlie that he held in his left hand to fall everywhere on the grass. Charlie and Hagrid looked in horror as the creature continued to shake Severus, his arm already dislocating and threatening to fall off, and they were rooted at the spot, not knowing what to do to help the Potions Master.

"Sectumsempra!"

The dragon roared as he let go his bite on Severus, flinging him in the midair. Apparently, Severus had put one of his Dark Art curses into good use as the spell left numerous deep gashes onto the tender flesh of the dragon's nose, spilling his warm blood all over the place. Charlie, who finally found his voice and motor skills, quickly whipped out a wand and pointed at Severus and shouted the levitation spell so that Severus would not fall headlong onto the ground like a torpedo. Hagrid picked up a few other huge boulders lying around and threw them at the dragon to continue keeping him distracted while Charlie continued using spells to bring Severus slowly down onto the earth.

As soon as Severus was on the ground, Charlie quickly inspected his arm. Two huge puncture wounds were on his arm through and through, blood spilling out of it like a waterfall. The flesh and bones within were very, very visible, and if they weren't in the wizarding world, a Muggle doctor would've given it one glance and immediately schedule for an amputation surgery. Charlie knew that if he didn't treat it immediately, he could die just from bleeding alone. Quickly, as Hagrid got the dragon distracted enough to drag them both of them to a secluded spot, he pulled out a huge bottle the size of a keg from his bag and emptied its entire content on his entire affected arm. Severus couldn't help letting out a scream of pain as the solution stung him, but Charlie couldn't care less if Severus was crying for his dead mother to come out from her grave; he had to treat it before it got worse. Almost immediately, the solution created some sort of transparent layer around the affected arm to make an emergency blood clot and stop it from bleeding any further. The redhead knew this would not last long and that he needed professional medical help, or else Severus was going to have a dead arm.

"You alright there, Snape?" Charlie asked, while Hagrid looked at him worriedly.

"Yes," Severus said, the colour of his face contradicting his words. "I'm fine."

"We gotta git outta 'ere! We gotta take ye tuh a medi-wizard!" Hagrid exclaimed, shielding the duo as the dragon blindly blasted his fire at every direction, trying to hit his target while nursing his bleeding nose at the same time.

"I am not leaving without that eye!"

"It's not worth dying for, Snape!" Charlie scolded. "Just let me do my job and get the hell out of here! Do you want your death to cause Hagrid's death as well? Do you have any idea what your actions may cause on poor Hag here? You do remember that Hag has taken the Unbreakable Vow for your sake now, don't you?"

That statement suddenly triggered an idea on Severus. It may sound crazy but it just might work for him.

"Hagrid," Severus turned to the half-giant. "What was the Unbreakable Vow you made to Albus?"

"Well," Hagrid struggled to remember through his adrenaline-pumped brain of his, "Tuh accompany you at all times no matter how you protests, tuh keeps ye from dyin' in dis mission and tuh helps ye if ye canna do tha' task at hand. Why?"

"How heavy and how far can you throw something?" Severus probed again.

"Well, juz now wuz tha' heaviest boulders I carries tuh throw at tha' dragon's face, but why ye…"

"Do you wish to fulfill your vow and never be bound by it again?"

"Well, yes, but…"

"Throw me up to the dragon."

"WHAT?!" Charlie and Hagrid exclaimed at once, their eyes as wide as the saucers they used for their cabbage soup last night and their jaws threatening to drop on the floor as they looked at the Potions Master in disbelief. The dragon heard their shout and shot a mouthful of fire at them, causing Hagrid to yell bloody murder and picked both Charlie and Severus under each arms to even lower ground.

"Are you out of your bloody mind?!" Charlie hissed. "Has the loss of blood got into your head and made you hallucinate or something?!"

"I am perfectly sane, Weasley," Severus shot a dirty look at the redhead, then turned to Hagrid and said, "I cannot do this alone, that much I admit. I am going to need your help on this. You are going to have to trust me on this one."

"But…" Hagrid was hesitant.

"Do you want to fulfill your vow or not? Or you just want to die with me?"

Hagrid tried to find some sort of excuse to decline helping Severus at this outrageous task, but he knew he couldn't persuade the old bat not to forgo his quest to provide his little cute friend his freedom and he knew there was no other way around getting the eye he needed without doing this.

"Alrigh', I'll help. Juz tell me wat tuh do," Hagrid finally sighed, relenting.

"Are you going crazy on me too…" Charlie protested again but was stopped by a very cold determination on Severus' dark orbs.

"Summon my wand and your dagger, Weasley, now."

Charlie, after trying in vain to glare challengingly at the Potions Master, let out a loud groan of defeat and accio-ed both Severus' wand and his dagger back into his hand. He passed it grudgingly at Severus, who in turn nodded at Hagrid as a cue to do what he was told to do. Taking a deep breath, Hagrid rubbed his hands together before picking Severus up by back of the collar and the bottom of his shirt with both his hands and aimed him towards the dragon. One heave, two heaves, and Hagrid threw Severus high up in the air like a Muggle would at shotput. Casting the levitation spell on himself, he landed smoothly on top of the dragon right between his eyes. The fiery reptile could feel the man on him and shook his head, trying to shake him off, but Severus, despite his aching arm, held onto one of its scaly wrinkles on the forehead tight and not letting go. A few times, the dragon had almost succeeded in getting him off his face, but Severus managed to regain composure by using the levitation on himself and grab hold of one of the wrinkles again.

"Sorry, you big lizard, but I need you for my beloved."

So saying, he used his wand to cast the Lumos spell so that the light would stun it momentarily before he raised the dagger a split second later and plunged it deep into one of the dragon's eye, slicing the eyelid off while holding desperately onto that wrinkle for dear life. The dragon roared in pain and blew out his fire everywhere to get at Severus but his flames had a limit as to how far its projectile reach could go, leaving poor Charlie and Hagrid running helter-skelter like a chicken that lost its head as they tried to escape the wild fire. Reaching under and into the underside of the eye, he jabbed the dagger deep down into the socket to look for the veins that connected the eye with it. The blood was warm to the touch when it splattered on the grass and nearby them when the dragon's nose was bleeding all over the place, but having his whole arm into the socket where blood surged within it was like entering a hot tub. It did not burn him, but it was uncomfortable nonetheless. Seeing that his arm was not long enough to let the dagger hit the veins and slice them off, he knew he had to use the correct spell for it. Making sure that his arm was lodged deep enough into the socket so that he would not fall off, he let go of his other arm that held the wrinkle and brandished out his wand before jabbing it along with that arm entirely into the socket so that the wand touched the dagger.

"Engorgio!"

That did the trick. The dagger enlarged big enough that the blade stabbed and sliced through the veins, forcing the eye to slide out of its socket and sending long gushes of blood pouring out of it. The pain forced the dragon to roar in agony and fall back. Jumping off and grabbing the falling eye with one arm, he pulled out the dagger with the other and threw it at Hagrid, who caught it just in time.

"Weasley!" Severus shouted as he fell, "Use the levitation spell to lift Hagrid up and the Bat-Bogey Hex to throw him at the dragon! Hagrid, slice the soft spot now!"

Without hesitation, while Severus used spells on himself to land gently on the ground along with the eye, Charlie screamed out the levitation spell and Bat-Bogey Hex and sent the half-giant flying towards the falling dragon. Hitting right smack onto the soft spot, his impact causing the dragon to fall on his back onto the earth with a loud crash, Hagrid, using his full brute strength, drove the enlarged dagger straight through it and sliced it right down, revealing the crimson red beating heart within. Charlie quickly ran up to where Hagrid was on and aimed the wand at the heart through the opening that Hagrid made.

"Avada Kedavra," Charlie whispered, its long tendrils of greenish-blue spark traveling from the wand towards the beating heart, stopping it in an instant. The light that the dragon held so dearly in his eyes and the life it clung so desperately dissipated in an instant, almost like in a snap of a finger, as Charlie finally sent the fiery reptile to his Maker.

"Phew!" Hagrid sighed in relief as he sat down abruptly, his legs feeling like jelly. "Dis is tha' biggest adventure I hav' ev'r had in me entire life! Boy, do I hav' a story tuh tell Ron an' Mione back in Hogwarts later!"

"Speaking of Hogwarts," Charlie quickly ran towards Severus who was now shrinking the eye to put it in a jar of preserving solution he had brought along with him for this moment and putting it into his robes. He checked the arm and could see that the blood-clotting solution was starting wear off as blood was starting to leak out from the hairline cracks. Charlie took out another bottle and emptied half of the contents onto that arm to strengthen the effects of the previous one.

"How's he doin', Charlie?" Hagrid asked as soon as he could feel his feet again.

"Not too good. C'mon," Charlie said as he took Severus' good arm. "Let's get back to my place. My fireplace is built to lead straight to Rosmerta's at Three Broomsticks. We can Floo there."

"Good idea, Charlie," Hagrid agreed, "We will hav' tuh app'rate tuh yer place tho'. I dinna think I kin walk another step nemore."

"Yes, I agree on that as well," Severus replied, feeling fatigue slowly setting in as soon as the adrenaline wore off and trying not to show the pain in his arm as he magicked all the disgusting blood and fluid that got onto his body with a cleaning spell.

After Charlie sent out a signal with his wand, he and Hagrid held onto Severus and both apparated to Charlie's home, which was like a mini bachelor pod's version of The Burrow. They had no time to tour the home and Charlie was not in a mood to take them around either as the trio ran straight for the fireplace. Charlie first went in, supporting Severus by the shoulder.

"I can do it on my own," Severus grumbled, hating the fact that he was treated like an invalid.

"No time for pride, Snape," Charlie said as he grabbed a handful of Floo powder and shouted, "Three Broomsticks!"

In a split second, they disappeared in a puff, and appeared next in the fireplace inside the staff lounge of Three Broomsticks where Rosmerta worked, only that unlike all other times when Severus came out perfectly, the man fell out, his legs giving away. Luckily Charlie pulled him out of the fireplace, or he would've been crushed by the half-giant who followed after them at the next second. Rosmerta, who was outside at the counter cleaning glasses, heard the commotion and peeked into the lounge to see the trio coughing and patting dirt off their bodies.

"Well, boys," she said in a quite surprised tone. "What brings you here? I haven't seen you in a long while, Charlie. Coming to visit your mother?"

"No, unfortunately it's personal business we're doing," Charlie replied. "C'mon, Hag, we have to go to St. Mungo's to have Snape's hand treated."

"No," Severus said as he quickly pushed past them and stomped past Rosmerta without letting them have a chance to hold him back. "I am going to Knockturn. My arm is fine."

As soon as he stepped out of Three Broomstick, he immediately apparated, leaving a worried Hagrid and an exasperated Charlie, who was rolling his eyes in defeat, behind.

"Well, Hag, at least you fulfilled your vow and sent him back here in one piece, and not dead," Charlie shrugged. "I think it's best you go back to Hogwarts and give the old geezer a heads-up."

"Sure," Hagrid sighed, glad that it was all over. "You not comin'?"

Charlie shook his head, "Nah, gotta report back to tell them that I've done my job putting down the dragon and also help out with cleaning up the body. See ya!"

With that, Charlie returned back into the fireplace and Floo-ed back to Romania and Hagrid, hoping that Severus would not have to run into anymore trouble, trotted excitedly back to Hogwarts to relay the good news to his favourite teacher of all times.

--:--

"Hey, you can't just come in here without an appointment!"

Severus, ignoring Illust's shout, walked past her and made his way towards the office where the man who held the deed that spelt his beloved's freedom. The guard who patrolled the corridors tried to stop him at Illust's command, only to be flung away with a flick of a wand. He barged into the office without knocking and sure enough, saw Jefferson Underhill sitting there smoking his Cuban cigar looking at him with a flicker of shock and surprise in his eyes before leaning back at his seat.

"I'm sorry, sir," Illust apologized profusely. "I tried to stop him…"

"It's alright, Illust. I'll take it from here," Jefferson said as he dismissed his bartender woman cum secretary. As soon as the female warlock closed the door behind Severus, Jefferson put on a professional smile, "Ah, Master Snape, you have returned! What a pleasant surprise! For a while, I thought you wouldn't make it. You preceded my expectations."

Severus took out the eye from the preservation jar he kept in his robes, returned it back into its original size and threw it onto the desk, not caring whether he splattered the solution all over the man's papers, stationeries and the desk itself. Jefferson jerked back in shock, looking at the bloody mess that is the eye and narrowed his eyes in contempt at Severus, all professionalism and fake sincerity gone.

"I see you've succeeded. How…chivalrous and courageous of you."

"A deal's a deal, Mr. Underhill," Severus replied, breathing hard as he tried to hold the pain of his arm in. He could feel the solution failing him; he had to solve this quick.

Jefferson hesitated for a while. He tried to find some sort of way to delay or make an excuse to dissuade Severus from taking one of his prized slaves, but he couldn't, not with Severus actually fulfilling the deal and coming back alive with the Norwegian Ridgeback's eye dripping on his desk. There had only been one person so far that succeeded in fulfilling deal back then that he knew of, but he was a common man who clung to the illusionary feeling called love for his slave and had no mentionable connections to back him up, so he was able to delay and trick the man into waiting for the paperwork while he went back downstairs to force the slave to hang himself using the Imperius curse and then pretended that it wasn't his fault. The man did not know what hit him. He couldn't prove that it was his doing and he was in critical shape after almost dying trying to get the heart of the primitive trolls in New Zealand, so Jefferson got away scott-free while the poor man lost all will to live and died of a broken heart in St. Mungo. But the person standing before him right now was Severus Snape, one of the most powerful aristocrats in the wizarding society and probably one of the most astounding practitioners of the Dark Arts (though no one could prove he did it). To fool around with him was to fool around with Death, and he was not ready to meet his Maker yet.

Finally, after a long silence between each other (with Severus glaring at him challengingly), Jefferson sighed in reluctant defeat and materializes the contract out of thin, "Here is the deed to Harry," he accio-ed a quill and signed his side of the agreement before passing the quill to Severus, "Here, you sign your part."

Severus nodded and signed with his good arm on the dotted line. It was not a good signature, since he was a righty, but the last thing he wanted to show this cunning and artful man his vulnerability. It ached every time he moved, and he could feel the effects of the solution getting weaker and weaker, but he had to keep a straight face. His beloved's freedom depended on his strength.

"Now," Jefferson used his wand to make a double copy of the contract and passed one of the copies to Severus grudgingly, "you have a free slave. Do you wish to retrieve any of his belongings that still remained here in this place?"

"Keep it," Severus replied, keeping the copy of the contract in his robes. "Or better yet, burn it. I don't want to bring home anything that would remind him of this god forsaken place. Thank you and good day."

With that, Severus walked out of the room, leaving the very upset-looking slave manager behind with his bruised pride. Pulling out a pain-killing potion out of his pant pocket, he downed it till the last drop before using whatever strength he had left to apparate back to the castle gates, eager to see his beloved and the look on his face when he brought him the good news.

Meanwhile, Hagrid had already returned to Hogwarts and reported in to Albus about the success of the quest. Albus reprimanded the half-giant a little for not following after the Potions Master to Knockturn Alley and accompany him while he gave the payment to the slave manager, but overall, seeing Hagrid coming back home in one piece—and alive—was relieving enough for the old man to know that his favourite member of the staff was alive as well. While Hagrid left the office to go back and fetch Severus, Ron had just came back from cleaning up Hagrid's hut and feeding Fang along with Hermione and saw Severus appear out of thin air at the castle gates and coming in.

"Bloody hell!" Ron gasped. "Is that who I think it is?!"

"We better tell Har!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly and rushed off, with Ron following behind.

Just a bit longer… Severus thought to himself, struggling to search for his beloved while he held his arm, clenching his teeth together as the Apparation wiped out most of the pain-killing effects of the potion.

Hermione, with the help of the Marauder's Map Ron gave her as her last birthday present when Fred and George gave it to him but found not much use for it, found Harry's name at the dungeon areas and quickly rushed towards his position. The boy was sweeping the floors of the dungeons with Draco leaning against the wall making small talk with him. Hermione and Ron made a mad dash towards the both of them.

"Har! Malfoy!" the Old Married Couple shouted simultaneously. "Prof. Snape's back! Hurry! Prof. Snape is back!"

"F…For real?!" Draco shot up from his leaning spot.

"Do we look like we're lying?!"

Harry, shocked and speechless, dropped whatever he was doing and ran, with the Old Married Couple and Draco running behind his wake. They swore they had never seen Harry run that fast before, not even when he was chased by Filch accusing him of shaving the butt of his Mrs. Norris the cat. Severus was on the front steps when he fell to his knees, shaking in pain as the solution finally lost effect and the pain-killing effect was no longer doing its job. Blood began to seep out of his sleeve and dripping like rain onto the stone floor, scaring some of the students who just so happen to pass by or just so happen to be at the area. Harry, seeing Severus on the floor, tripled his speed and was right by his side, kneeling and crying, not caring about discretion and the eyes that were looking at him curiously.

"Master! Master!" Harry wrapped his arms around Severus' neck, cradling his head and resting it on his lap. Severus opened his eyes slowly and smiled.

"Harry…" Severu breathed. "You're…You're free…"

"No, no, no! Master!! Master!!"

Harry wailed as Severus passed out, thinking that he was dead. The trio finally caught up with him and Ron and Hermione froze at the spot in horror, seeing the pool of blood leaking out of Severus' sleeve getting larger. Draco quickly knelt beside Severus and checked his breathing.

"It's OK, Har," Draco sighed in relief. "He's still alive. He just passed out. But he has to get to a medi-witch or medi-wizard soon. He's bleeding really bad…"

"Wat's tha' commotion 'ere? Oh!"

Hagrid, after leaving the office, pushed his way through the crowd when he saw them gathering around, blocking his way and preventing him from going out to fetch Severus, and soon saw the old bat unconscious in Harry's arm as the boy sobbed and hugged Severus' head protectively. Seeing Draco nod showing that his signs were still good, Hagrid hurriedly picked Severus up and brought him to the Hospital Wing, ignoring the rest of the surprised and horrified people that passed by. Ron, Hermione and Draco followed him at his wake, hoping that the Potions Master would be able to make it.

Not once did Harry let go of his hand.