“beyond wandpoint” 022 by gingerbred

[beyondwandpoint]

“11 09c Sunday - Managing Severus”

Severus, Albus

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Originally Published: 2017-11-27 on AO3
Chapter: 022

Pairing: Hermione Granger / Severus Snape
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con

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Just thinking about it makes him feel as helpless as he ever has.

Taking no prisoners, Albus pounces on Severus' weakened state. "We should speak of the bonding," he breaks it to him almost gently, but that's simply the deceptively soft touch of the velvet glove he wears on his ruthlessly iron fist. It may be desiccated, but it's no less strong for it. Having decided this is what needs to happen, he won't relent until it does.

Severus doesn't stand a chance.

In broad terms, Albus explains what he would like Severus to do and his reasons for the Fidelity Vow. He's tackling this in stages. The Potions Professor isn't some sixth year he can easily bowl over. This will require finesse and logic.

"I fear she's at great risk otherwise," he winds up, shaking his head regretfully and sounding almost heartbroken as he says it. It's a masterful performance, slightly wasted on his choice of a Slytherin for an audience, and a vaguely groggy one at that. "This should provide her with protection that is sadly needed, both at school and certainly elsewhere."

After Severus' horrific report, he's in no position to argue with the truth of the threat, nor has he any inclination, but the solution... Merlin. That leaves much to be desired.

Beyond the thoroughly distasteful idea of bonding anyone, let alone a student, and worse yet a close friend of Potter's and a model Gryffindor at that... It's frankly proving hard to think to muster any more objections; those were already so overwhelming. Nevertheless, the idea is absolutely rubbish, and he means to make that clear.

"And you honestly believe this wouldn't place her even more at risk? The Dark Lord would never stand for it, not to mention the Inner Circle. She wouldn't last a week, and it wouldn't be... pleasant."

"No, of course not, Severus, what are you thinking? She'd have to take a Loyalty Vow, naturally, or they'd never permit it." Severus has a brief, absurd mental image of a Loyalty Vow somehow managing to have her agreeing to never darken the door to his classroom again. No more frantically waving hands... It pulls a small huff of laughter from him that Albus completely misreads.

"I still highly doubt they'd allow it," Severus mutters in response to the Headmaster's small smile. He wonders fleetingly why everyone else's approval is apparently more relevant than his own in this affair.

"You'll argue that you had to do this to prove your loyalty to the Order. I'm growing nervous and flighty in my dotage. I panicked after the events of Friday and insisted upon this as well as immediate action in an impulsive and thoroughly ill considered response to the attack." Severus couldn't agree with that assessment more, but keeps that to himself. "Further, that you'll have to keep her safe to continue to do so. And that as she can in no way betray your interests, she poses no threat."

Severus can't help thinking that none of the Muggles from Friday had posed any threat, and that most certainly hadn't been sufficient to keep them from harm and ultimately death.

"My point is no less valid, Albus. It will only call more unwanted attention to her. Even worse, would she even be safe from the Order?"

"My dear boy, the Order knows where you stand." Albus manages to sound slightly scandalised at the suggestion.

Severus would argue the veracity of that in a heartbeat, but it doesn't matter. "For how long?" He simply asks the older man with a pointed look at his arm.

"Both of you need to last that long for it to matter, Severus, and right now the prognosis isn't good." It's a little waspish for his standards; Albus is slipping. He pulls himself together. "You're at risk without this. You understand exactly the protection a Fidelity Vow would provide you. Don't pretend otherwise."

Severus has the good sense not to even try to argue that. Albus is correct, the only question is if the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. As yet, Severus is far from convinced.

"And why wouldn't the Death Eaters just eliminate her if that were their goal? The Vow shouldn't be any kind of impediment, merely more incentive for her murder. At the latest, when you're... no longer with us, and I am no longer... proving my loyalty to you, her life would be forfeit, and I'd have no good excuse to interfere.

"In fact," he adds in a flash of completely probable insight, "you can rely on them demanding her death at the point of my wand. And how should I respond then? How would I justify my inaction, and how would that affect our plans?"

"I was quite serious before, Severus. We shall have to convince them there's a very real possibility that you'll be seriously... damaged if anything happens to her."

"Is that true?" He's appalled. This perfectly horrible idea is improbably becoming worse by the moment. He wouldn't have thought it possible.

"There are always possibilities, my boy. Who's to say it isn't?" He smiles beneficently, but Severus feels his blood run cold. There's something so incredibly wrong about all of it... "Either way, you'll have to tell her there is for it to be more convincing."

Severus thinks about it some more and hits upon yet another concerning aspect. "And how exactly would that be likely to happen? That's hardly the result of a Fidelity Vow." There's a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, and the fine hairs on the back of his neck have risen in an instinctive response to a threat.

"You'd need to take a Protection Vow for this to work."

"Albus! That's essentially a Geas!" He's utterly stunned. He has no words for this... No... No, he has many words for this, all of them bad, and none of them likely to be of much use. "Are Unbreakable Vows not enough for you anymore?"

"Now now, Severus. I hardly want you dead."

"No, only enslaved. Why do we need it?" He practically whines.

Albus bites back a smile. There's no point in further antagonising the man. Getting him to accede to his request is more than problematic enough as it is. "To convince them to leave her alone, of course. You can't believe they would otherwise."

"Couldn't we just forgo the Vow and claim it had been done?"

"Severus, it's just one more thing you'd have to simulate. If the resulting action needs to be the same in any event, it's easier if you needn't consider it. If it's automatic. Surely you see the sense in that? We can't have you caught in a lie for something so inconsequential."

"But you could have me turned into little more than a puppet for something 'so inconsequential'?"

"Severus, just two days ago you risked your life for her. That can't be of no consequence to you."

"That was your phrase, Albus, your words. I merely borrowed them. And I chose to come to her aid. I wasn't forced by some Geas. That's an entirely different matter."

When Albus doesn't respond, he continues almost petulantly, "I'm also unconvinced I risked my life. I survived."

"The fact you survived doesn't make it a given under the circumstances. It was a close call, my boy."

"Then I seem to have made the right one." He thinks about it some more. "A Protection Vow doesn't just come into effect when her life is threatened."

"That's correct, but you're both intelligent people, Severus. I'm sure you two could rise to the challenge and work something out. I feel strongly that the benefits of automating the response outweigh the drawbacks of broadening the triggering mechanisms."

"Well, as long as you feel strongly about it." He doesn't know where to start. The idea is mad. None of it is good. He doesn't understand why he can't make the man see sense.

The silence stretches and the Headmaster seeks to reassure the withdrawn man in the bed next to him. "This should buy you good will in both camps," Albus seems confident.

Severus is no more convinced by that argument than any of the others. "And ill will in both camps, ta."

"The Loyalty Vow will give you someone to speak to."

The huff of laughter is a good deal more forceful this time. "Because I'm so social? A student? And a bosom friend of Potter's at that?"

"Beggars... Needs must, Severus. Chin up. And a lifetime without sex is a luxury if there was no lifetime to speak of before." Severus' mortification makes it clear that's not the line to push. Albus regroups. "This should make us stronger, you'll be better able to communicate between camps."

"I've never had problems communicating."

"And when the Order no longer knows where you stand, will that still be true?

"Whether or not I'm believed is another issue altogether, and highly unlikely to be addressed by someone under a Loyalty Vow." He sighs and tries to get some perspective. As Albus' truly bad ideas go, this hardly makes the list.

"There's one other matter we need to consider," there's a flash of doubt in the Headmaster's eyes that now has Severus particularly worried. That he should somehow find whatever this is more of a problem than anything else he had suggested... The feeling in the pit of Severus' stomach grows worse.

"In light of the Protection Vow, and I'm afraid that really must happen, Severus, rendering this not at all optional... I fear she would need to move in to your chambers."

Severus doesn't answer, he merely sits there. Dumbfounded.

"Before you find yourself banging on the doors to the Gryffindor tower in the middle of the night... Were the protection Geas to demand action, you see." Albus supplies helpfully by way of explanation. "That wouldn't do. Not at all... You need to have unrestricted access..."

This is all because of Friday. Right now, what Severus wants more than anything else is to see Draco drawn and quartered. He pauses to mull over if the Unbreakable Vow will allow for it. Perhaps not that, exactly, but he thinks he sees a way around it. As long as it's for the boy's own good... Punitive measures need only be educational. Then it should work. Fucking hell.

He revises his opinion of just how bad this idea is. It's climbing up the list quite steadily.

"Why, certainly," Severus finally agrees almost suavely. "I'll just put her in the box room, shall I?" Neither says anything for a while, and finally Severus snaps, "I haven't got a box room, as you well know."

"No, but you have an office and a study. Highly redundant, I'd say."

Severus eyes widen as though that were a greater affront than bonding the witch for life. It might be at that, given how he feels about his library.

"Am I asking too much of you? Really? Be honest, my boy. Tell me, how do you fancy your chances of survival?" Albus strokes his cursed arm demonstratively. They both know what it looks like under the Notice-Me-Not. The wizened man shakes his head sadly, "Neither of us will make it out of this alive, Severus. What sacrifice am I asking beyond a few months of celibacy?"

"When is this supposed to happen?" He sounds resigned. Beaten, actually, deadened, and Albus thinks he has him.

"Today, if we can agree on terms."

"Today!?" A spark of life seems to have returned. How quickly that goes.

"Oh, I apologise, Severus. Am I interfering with your plans?" The amusement in his voice stings. "Were you hoping to have a last go? Head down to the Three Broomsticks for a final pull?" He's practically chuckling, and Severus' face only grows redder. "Hoping to get your leg over? Really, my boy, if you need it that badly, I could send for someone. There are more than enough doxies to be found in Knockturn Alley. I'm sure one could satisfy your..."

"Enough!" He finds his voice. "There's no need to mock me." The muscles in his jaw tremble from the effort of trying to keep it from visibly clenching, defeating the purpose entirely.

"You can't be surprised by my reaction, Albus. Did you expect me to welcome this development? Even the condemned man gets a last meal."

"Do they? Do they really, Severus? Do your Death Eaters provide last meals?"

Severus goes incredibly quiet and his eyes seem almost lifeless. "They aren't my Death Eaters," he objects, his tone flat, affectless.

"They were," Albus responds smoothly, unconcerned by the hurt evident in the man's numb reply.

"Will you ever stop punishing me?" He demands, all the feeling absent just a moment ago returns in a rush. He sounds tortured; he's certainly had enough experience to judge.

"Now now, Severus. This isn't a punishment..."

"Isn't it?" He snorts. "For not for having Draco under control?"

"I assure you, Severus, it's not a punishment."

"It's hardly a reward," he spits.

The silence returns, each man sits chasing his own thoughts, neither particularly optimistic. But both are too pragmatic to leave it at that. Finally Severus resumes the negotiations.

"I refuse to consummate the bond." He's thrilled to bits to never have sex again, but that, that was taking things too far.

"I wouldn't dream of asking you to," Albus answers without missing a beat.

"But asking me not to have sex is perfectly acceptable..." Severus grumbles. Albus says nothing.

Severus finally remembers something about bonding that's been niggling at the back of his mind this whole time. "And I won't bond my magic." The petulance has returned with interest.

"I didn't think you would." Albus is quite unperturbed.

"Severus, I need you to do this."

The man is silent for a bit and then spots a ray of hope. "It's not just down to me, Albus."

"No, of course not," Albus agrees, carefully stifling his smile. He's been waiting for Severus to stumble onto this. It was only a matter of time. "But I need you to make this happen if at all possible. If she agrees," Severus' slight smirk gives him away, but Albus pretends not to notice. Much. He merely repeats, "If she agrees, I need you to make it happen. Can I rely on you to do that?"

He has no desire to do this whatsoever. He still isn't convinced it won't cause more harm than good, at the very latest when Albus is gone. But he agrees the threats to each of them are real, and that it... could help in the short term. He also believes it's so utterly unlikely she'd ever even consider it, that he chooses to appear... magnanimous. Compliant.

He nods once. It's a jerky motion that betrays just how unwilling he is, but it's all Albus needs.

"Then why don't we discuss this with her?" He asks, nodding towards the door where Miss Granger has inexplicably appeared, a cup of tea sloshing in hand which she's now trying frantically not to spill as she stares at them both in surprise.