Severus’ jaw clenched. Had Potter gone round the twist completely? This had better not be a prank. “Get inside,” he snarled, then whirled and swept towards his fireplace, calling back, “And close the door behind you.” He flung a handful of floo powder at the grate and watched the green flames shoot up. When he turned, he saw Potter approaching with his head bowed, having left his belongings near the entryway. Severus grasped his hand, shoving him into the flames before stepping in himself and calling out “International Floo Connector!”
Three whirling trips and one exorbitant fee later, he was stepping gracefully out of the fireplace of the Headmaster’s Office at Hogwarts, pulling Potter along behind him by his arm. He released the arm to brush soot off himself, then straightened as he saw Dumbledore enter the room.
“Ah, my boys! What brings the two of you here?” Dumbledore beamed at them.
Severus glanced at Potter and spat out, “Potter might need medical assistance. He appears to have been confunded; either that or the events of the recent past have caught up to him at last and he has cracked. I leave him in your capable hands.” He inclined his head towards Dumbledore, then spun and began to head towards the door to the office, intending to Apparate home.
“Severus!” Dumbledore called after him. He paused and turned his head, noticing that Potter had begun following him, a few paces behind. He sneered at the boy, then noticed that Dumbledore’s face looked mildly concerned.
“Severus why don’t you accompany us to the infirmary? You can give Madam Pomfrey the full story and while we wait for her diagnosis you can tell me all about Rennes.”
Severus crossed his arms but jerked his head in a nod, and waited for Dumbledore to precede him out the door. Dumbledore shot a patronus out of his wand as they headed towards the revolving staircase.
They trooped through the empty halls of Hogwarts in silence, both adults glancing back on occasion to see Harry following a couple of paces behind Severus with his head down. When they entered the hospital wing, they found Madam Pomfrey waiting for them. She bustled over and attempted to lead Harry to a bed, but he dug in his heels.
“I must present myself to Severus Snape,” he said.
Out of the corner of his eye, Severus saw Dumbledore blanch. He watched Madam Pomfrey force Potter to swallow a sleeping draught, levitate him onto a bed, and begin casting diagnostic spells, then spun to face Dumbledore.
“What is it?” he demanded. “What do you know?”
Dumbledore shook his head, an expression of disbelief on his face. “It can’t be…” he trailed off, then his eyes snapped to Severus’. “What exactly happened?”
Severus crossed his arms irritably but replied, “I heard a knock on my door this morning, and I answered it to find Potter… bowing… in front of my door. He said, ‘I present myself, Harry James Potter, to you, Severus Tobias Snape, as your slave. Please accept my service.’ He is clearly… mental, so I dragged him inside and brought him here for you to deal with.” He frowned. “I have no idea how he even found me.”
Dumbledore ran a hand wearily through his hair. “This is most unexpected,” he mumbled to himself.
“Albus, fill the rest of us in, will you?” Severus snapped impatiently.
“Severus, Harry is your slave.”
Severus stared at Dumbledore, dumbfounded, for a moment, before beginning to protest. “That is impossible, Albus. Slavery was outlawed in the 1500’s. And besides, slaves are born. Neither of his parents were slaves, and he certainly has not been my slave for the past sixteen years.”
Dumbledore shook his head slightly. “You never were much of one for history, Severus. I am afraid it is entirely possible, though highly improbable.” He looked suddenly thoughtful for a moment, then asked, “What is the date today, Severus?”
Still whirling over what Dumbledore had said, it took Severus a moment to process the question and answer, “August 6th.”
Dumbledore nodded. “We have a bit of time then. Not much, but a little.”
“Albus--” Severus began.
“In a moment, Severus. I will explain everything,” Dumbledore interrupted.
Just then, Madam Pomfrey finished with her spells and turned towards the two men. “I can find nothing physically, or mentally, wrong with him, Albus.” She looked slightly puzzled.
“Thank you, Poppy. Would you excuse us, please, for a moment? Harry will be fine, but there is something I need to discuss with Severus that concerns Harry. If we require it, will we be able to wake him?”
The matron looked a bit startled at the headmaster’s request, but she answered, “Yes, it is only a mild sleeping draught. You will be able to wake him with Enervate, and there is an antidote in the cabinet. Severus will recognize it.” Then she returned to her office, a confused look on her face.
Dumbledore faced Severus again, who was looking distinctly unhappy and impatient. “Listen carefully, Severus, and I will explain. This is very important for you to know, now.”
Severus only nodded as Dumbledore continued, “Slavery was indeed outlawed in 1554, or at least the practice of breeding slaves was. The intention, I believe, was to allow the practice to die off. However, by the late 1570’s or early 1580’s, wizards had found a way to slightly modify the spell. They began using the geas as a way to pay back serious offences or debts. It was originally used for quite major offences; it is actually the ancestor of our modern version of a life debt, although at the time it was used, one could say, in reverse. For example, if your neighbor killed your son, you could demand his own son as a slave in repayment. However, as you stated, a slave must be born and so they could not take a son already in existence, and as you may or may not know, wizards would only accept true slaves, often called servant slaves, who were male wizards. They would not accept females or squibs. So once the spell was cast, it essentially became the next magical male descendant who would be accepted as the slave.
“By the mid-1600’s, the practice had turned into a way for more powerful nobles to take advantage of the less powerful nobles, forcing them into a debt bond even for minor debts. At around the same time, the spell was modified just slightly to allow for a continuation of service even if the slave died young. The first magical male descendant became a slave for life, no matter how long they lived, but if they died before they had served for seven years, the next magical male descendant would serve, but only for the remainder of the seven years, and so on until a full seven years of service was received.
“However, by the early 1700’s, this began to turn into a practice of breeding slaves again. Masters would order their slaves to breed in case they died young. Around 1750, the practice evolved so that masters would order their slaves to mate with a woman who was carrying the geas, causing their years of service to stack if the slave died young. It did not take long for this to begin to devolve into all-out slavery once again, although many of these slaves would become free as older men, when they were less valuable anyway. In 1810, the breeding of slaves was outlawed once again, more specifically preventing any slave from participating in sexual relations or reproducing this time, and the forging of a new debt bond of slavery was also outlawed. But due to the nature of the spell, the wizarding world had to wait quite a long time for slavery to completely die out.”
Severus was scowling by the end of Dumbledore’s explanation. “I still do not fully understand, Albus. What do you mean by a ‘servant slave,’ and how could Potter possibly be a slave? You yourself said they must be born, and that the practice has died off. If this is your idea of a joke, you have a sick sense of humor.”
Dumbledore sighed. “It is a very complicated subject, and difficult to explain fully. But even before 1554, only male wizards acted as servants for their masters. At the time, they were sometimes called ‘servant slaves’ while women were called ‘breeding slaves,’ and squibs were often killed off. They did not realize at the time that the descendants of squibs could prove magical, or perhaps they did but did not have the patience. Servant slaves were ordered to breed with the women when the master desired more slaves, and the servant slaves were traditionally kept separate from the women and children to prevent over-breeding. Children were raised by the women until they turned sixteen, when the magical men were taken as servant slaves, undergoing the Servitude Ritual, and women were considered old enough to breed. The geas would lie dormant in women and children, and only awaken when a magical male turned sixteen, fully coming into effect after the Servitude Ritual.
“When slavery turned into a debt bond, the same basic principle remained true. The spell was cast onto the offender, or occasionally their son or daughter if the offender was too old to bear more children. The geas would be passed on to their offspring, but remain dormant until a magical male was born. This did not usually take more than a generation, perhaps two, and the owner of the debt bond could sometimes insist, to a degree, that the family of the offender continue trying to have children until a wizard was born. An additional complication was that only a magical male could own the slave, so even if a wizard was born who could fulfill the terms of the debt bond, if no wizard was born to the owner’s family within his lifetime, the geas would remain dormant. If a wizard was born to the owner’s family, the dormant geas would activate in the wizard once the child turned five rather than when the slave himself turned sixteen. Although if the master died without male relatives, ownership would pass to a female relative; only if the master’s line completely died out would the slave be freed.
“However, these rules made it more difficult for slavery to fully die out. Some families had only females or squibs for several generations, forcing great-grandchildren to pay off the debts of their forebears. In my childhood, it was an uncommon occurrence, but not unheard of, for new slaves to be born. Actually, the elder brother of one of the boys in my class at Hogwarts was a servant slave. And it was only a few years before I was born, in 1875, that the law forbidding slaves from reproducing was amended, allowing them to have children but only if they desired to, protecting them from being forced by their masters.
“Once a wizard was born, he usually remained in the care of his family until he turned sixteen, although his future master had legal power over him as a parent or guardian would. The night before his sixteenth birthday, his family would bring him to the master’s house, because once he turned sixteen he would begin to feel the ‘calling’ or the ‘pull.’” As he said this, Dumbledore looked over at the sleeping Harry, and Severus followed his gaze. “They would wake with an uncontrollable desire to find their master and present themselves to him. It is similar in a way to the Imperius Curse, but twists the desires and causes the thoughts to follow, rather than emptying the mind and inserting thoughts. And it cannot be overthrown, not by one born under the geas. It would grow stronger the longer it took the slave to find their master, and begin to cause… unpleasant consequences if the Servitude Ritual was not performed within a week. It took Harry six days to reach you, which means the ritual must be completed today.”
Severus stared in shock for a moment as he processed all that he had just learned. “Albus, it cannot… he cannot--”
“Severus, it is true. It is the only reasonable explanation. It is a highly improbable occurrence -- slavery is considered eradicated in Britain at this point -- but it is not impossible. Lily likely had a squib somewhere in her ancestry.”
Severus crossed his arms, his mind churning and searching for a way out. “Then why was I not his guardian all of these years?”
Dumbledore frowned. “Legally, you were, at least in the Wizarding world. There would be a record in the Ministry somewhere saying as much, along with your ownership papers, but it was never pertinent, and there was certainly never any reason to check such a document. The Dursleys were Harry’s guardians in the Muggle world, and the Wizarding world recognizes such claims unless there is a reason not to, particularly for blood relatives. It would be too complicated if every muggleborn or muggle-raised child had to file papers at the Ministry giving their parents or guardians legal guardianship over them in the Wizarding world. He was living in the Muggle world when away from Hogwarts; it was not necessary.”
“Fine. Let us check this document,” Severus finally said through gritted teeth. He strode towards the door, then turned back towards Dumbledore. “Well?”
“Severus, there is not much time. The ritual must be performed today. And if Harry wakes while you are gone, he will--”
“I know the draught that Poppy used, we have at least three hours.”
Dumbledore sighed, then followed his younger colleague.
They returned to the infirmary two and a half hours later. Severus was clutching an official-looking parchment in his hand and his expression was unreadable, while Dumbledore looked sad and old.
“It is worse than I had hoped,” the Headmaster said as they took seats by Harry’s bed. “I had hoped that he may be finishing the remainder of the seven years, that one of his ancestors died young. The circumstances are so terribly improbable, that he would be the first wizard born to the family since the spell was cast in 1799.”
Severus’ unfocused gaze suddenly bore into Dumbledore’s eyes. “You need to tell me exactly what this means, Albus. Leave no detail out.” His eyes were flashing with barely-concealed anger.
“Of course.” Dumbledore blew out his breath and began.
Chapter 2