Planning and Preparations
The door into Severus’ quarters opened and Harry stood there, pale as a sheet, with Mister Weasley, Miss Granger, Mister Longbottom and the two terror twins around him. One of the twins had one of Harry’s arms around his shoulder and his own arm around Harry’s waist, helping him to keep his feet. The other twin held the cane. The other of Harry’s hands was tugging furiously at his hair, like he wanted to rip it out.
“We didn’t know what to do, sir, I’m sorry,” Miss Granger said in a low, dejected voice. “Nothing we have said or done has calmed him.”
Severus had last seen Harry less than an hour ago at the Welcome Feast for the two other schools and the introduction of the Goblet of Fire. He had been fine then, eating and talking and laughing with his friends.
Now Severus shot to his feet and came around his desk that was placed in his library nook and strode across the room with long strides before taking Harry from the twin that held him, George Weasley he surmised. He made a motion with his head to get all the children inside his quarters, and made the wards close and lock the door. Harry was whimpering in his arms, still tugging hard at his long hair.
“What has happened?” Severus asked Miss Granger while slowly guiding Harry to the couch. He went haltingly, but he moved.
“My name will come out of that bloody Goblet,” Harry said hoarsely while sinking down into the cushions. Now both his hands tugged at his hair, completely ruining the intricate braid he had had it in. “It will come out of the Goblet, it will.”
Miss Granger nodded. “That’s the problem, sir. Halloween has always been a bad day for Harry, and the worst thing that can happen tomorrow is if his name comes out of that Goblet and makes him compete in the Tournament, so Harry is convinced that that is what will happen.”
“I see.”
“It’s going to happen; I just know it will! Couldn’t they have chosen the names out of a hat or something that don’t involve magic!” Harry’s voice was nearing hysteria and his hands were full of long black hairs from all his tugging. Severus summoned a Calming Draught that he coaxed Harry to drink. Harry’s harsh tugging on his hair slowly abated before he soon leaned into Severus, almost boneless. A typical result when the drinker of the Draught was very distraught indeed.
“We … we have tried to tell him that he can’t be chosen, sir, because he won’t put his name in,” Mister Longbottom said in a low voice and swallowed hard when Severus looked at him, but he continued. “But he says that won't matter. His name will be chosen anyway.”
“We did manage to convince him that it would help if he was always together with someone,” Mister Ron Weasley said. “That way no one can claim he did it, because he was never alone to do it. Fred and George already put all of our beds together, with Harry’s in the middle.” He made a gesture between himself, Harry and Mister Longbottom. “But it wasn’t enough to calm him down.”
“It’s going to happen, there is nothing anyone can do,” Harry said, with the voice of the doomed.
“Apparently nothing can persuade you otherwise,” Severus said wryly, even if he did understand where Harry’s attitude originated. Severus looked at the other children in his quarters, they were all clumped together in front of his lounge table. “Very well, as he is convinced that his name will come out of the Goblet, we will work to prepare for what to do when that occurs. Our goal is to figure out how to get him out of participating in the Tournament.”
Miss Granger nodded fervently, eager to help. The twins exchanged glances.
“We did want to try to fool the Goblet and compete …”
“… but after Harry’s reaction …”
“… we think we probably should know more about the Tournament before trying to join.”
“So, we will help in any way we can.” They both nodded.
“Yeah, Harry deserves a good Halloween feast for once,” Mister Ron Weasley said.
Mister Longbottom nodded. “And a safe one.”
“Would you like me to go to the library to find and check out whatever books there are on the Goblet of Fire and the Tournament sir?” Miss Granger asked. “I don’t know how many are left in the library now, but I did find some at the beginning of the semester.”
“I have some books myself, but yes, please retrieve all the books on the topic,” Severus said.
Miss Granger tugged Mister Ron Weasley with her and left. The four teens left in his quarters began to read, even Harry seemed to be able to focus now. Maybe because of the potion or maybe because he now had a plan on how to solve his problem. The twins took one book on the Tournament together, and Mister Longbottom took one on the laws surrounding the Tournament and Harry took another, while Severus began to page through a book on the Tournament he had already been reading, in preparation for this year’s utter disaster. At least this year, he would be certain where the disaster would originate.
Hours later, even hours after he had sent Harry’s friends back to their dorms, Severus went into Harry’s room, conjured a chair and sat down. Harry abruptly sat up in bed with a small gasp, as he had done several times already, since Severus sent him to bed to try and sleep. Harry had absolutely refused to take any kind of sleeping potion, no matter how badly he slept. Severus had originally meant to just sit there to watch over him for a bit, and wake him if another nightmare occurred, but now that Harry was awake, big eyed and sweaty, it might help him to know what Severus had found, in the end.
“Severus?” he mumbled and rubbed a hand over his face.
“I found something, Harry, but a discussion is required, and I want you to have some time to consider it, because it’s not a minor decision to make, and it’s quite final.”
“Alright.” Harry took his glasses from the bed stand and sat up properly in the bed. The long, wavy hair that had been the result of a visit to the hairdresser was braided again in what Harry called his sleep braid. Andromeda had taught him several braiding and hair care spells when he got his new looks. “I’m awake.”
Severus nodded. “My information does not stem from any of the books concerning the Tournament. I located it in one of the books regarding Alphas and Omegas. Less than an hour ago, I remembered reading something about it at an earlier occasion, and I spent the last hour to locate the information again and assure myself of its validity.
“As a courting pair, even if we only are on the first step of courting, I have the law on my side when it affects your life and safety, our relationship, and my access to you. To assure myself of your safety and to guarantee that I can reach you whenever either of us please, I may do whatever I want and anyone standing in my way …” He hesitated. “The romance novels I generally do not care for are accurate on one account, there truly are a term in our laws for such an instance: suicide by Alpha. It isn’t deemed murder if I kill anyone after they try to keep us apart, or hurt you, or even frighten you.”
Harry swallowed. “Severus, you once told me that Warders and Wyrds no longer are exactly human, that we change. Do you have any idea about what … what I … what we … will become?”
“I’m sorry, Harry, truly. But I have yet to read a text with that information spelled out in clear words. I assume that it can be terrifying, what we will become at some point. Or at least terrifying to everyone else, as I generally get the impression it will seem at least somewhat normal and natural to us. Just consider your own instincts, do they seem terrifying to you?”
“No, not really. A bit weird sometimes, if I think about it, but not … not bad.”
“Nor do my instincts seem dangerous to me. Nevertheless, my rational mind has reminded me that I cannot resort to violence just because some adolescent jeer at you in the corridors. My instincts, however, tell me that ripping them apart is an entirely suitable punishment.”
Harry giggled and slapped his hand over his mouth, his green eyes growing big in the darkness.
“Indeed,” Severus drawled. “I believe you see my point exactly. Our instincts and natural reactions are changing, but we still have a rational mind that can put us on the right path, the socially acceptable path, once more. No, the horror stories about Warders and Wyrds are no doubt accurate. It does not follow that the story about our courtship and bonding have to be such a story. That, I believe, will be up to us. And the people around us, as how they interact with us naturally will influence our reactions to them.”
Harry nodded. “Yes, that’s true, I suppose. Thank you, Severus. I get … I get worried sometimes, I guess.”
“You are not alone, Harry, that is the most significant part. You will not ever be truly alone again.”
Severus imagined that Harry’s answer to that statement would have been very different a couple of months back, but now he got a relieved and grateful smile.
“Yeah, that’s great. What more did you find?”
“Only the fact that we have begun to court give me the aforementioned right to assure myself of your safety, by law. Unfortunately, that does not extend to magical contracts, such as the one the Goblet of Fire will employ. No, listen to me, Harry,” he hurriedly added when the boy slumped in his bed, misery written all over his face.
“Whoever will put your name in the Goblet has to use your magical signature, not only your written signature. There are not many magical objects which permit for the creation of magical contracts from such a flimsy position, but the Goblet will and it will bind you tight. The only thing that possibly will get you free from it, is a stronger magical contract, or a magical bond. Like a mating bond between a Warder and a Wyrd. If we have that bond you are allowed to relinquish any and all contracts, including magical contracts, that you feel unable to complete, to me. You don’t require a justification that anyone else will approve of. In truth, even I do not have to agree to it. If I’m your bonded Warder, then I protect you, I shield you, and that is all.”
“Then let’s do that, please!”
Severus held up a hand. “Harry, do let me finish, please.” Harry subsided. “Thank you. As your name has yet to come out of the Goblet, I want us to wait until it actually does occur. In addition to that, I want us to discuss it and I want you to think about it on your own too. Not because I aim for you to attempt completing the Tournament on your own, I decidedly do not intend that, but I mean for you to be able to look back at this situation and recognise that you went into it with all the information you both needed and wanted to make the correct decision for you.
“For the bond to be secure enough to make you able to relinquish a magical contract to me, I have to give you the first bonding bite. You do not have to reciprocate. That can wait indefinitely, until you are entirely certain that it is what you want.”
Harry nodded slowly.
“Do you remember what we discussed, regarding our bonding and bonding bites?”
This time Harry nodded more confidently. They had had several discussions on the topic, as he wanted Harry to not only feel that he knew as much as he needed to feel secure in his situation right now, but also so he would know something about how his future could go.
“I have further information that I want to provide you, regarding that. It might be helpful and it might answer a few questions that you have asked and that I had too little information on, previously. Or, that I had the wrong information on. My search for sources has increased dramatically these past months, naturally, and as such, I have found new material.” It hadn’t been easy nor cheap, but at this point in time it had been necessary for Harry and for himself, so he had managed it. “First, about your question back when you asked if I cared about you, if my instincts cared about you as a person or if all they, all I, saw was an Omega in distress that I could bond to.”
“You said that the courtship was to figure out if we were suited to bond or not.”
“Yes, and while that is not exactly wrong, the new sources informed me that it is not as correct as I was led to believe either. When you were in distress and I found you, you released some quite potent pheromones that told any and all Warders in the area about an unbonded Wyrd in grave danger. There is a very good chance that it was those pheromones that made me walk that particular route in the dungeons that night, and not any of the several other routes I walk in the dungeons. When close enough I was able to catch a trace of actual scent, but anyone not a Warder would not have reacted to either pheromones or the scent. I was led to believe, both by my instincts and my sources, that what happened that night, us beginning the courtship because I’m a Warder and you a Wyrd that has begun to present as such, would have happened between you in that situation and any Warder that came across you.”
Harry nodded, because that was exactly as they had discussed it on previous occasions.
“My instinct insisted that we had begun the courtship that night, there was no doubt whatsoever about it. But my new sources informed me that it would not have been so between you and any and all Warders. Another Warder would absolutely have helped you and protected you to the best of their ability, but there might not have been any courtship, even if they, and you, might have wished it so.
“Even with Wyrds so rare, even with you so hurt and exposed, there was a subconscious choice in what kind of pheromones you emitted. If I have the proper information now, and if I have not misunderstood it, we were always a Warder and a Wyrd, even before we presented as such. There is a very real chance that if we both had survived to your natural age of presenting and had met after that fact, we would have begun the courtship upon meeting, even without any outside forces. There might be other Wyrds out in the world that would have suited me. There might be other Warders that would have suited you. But your subconscious, your instincts, would not have begun the courtship with me that night if we also weren’t suited to each other.”
The smile that filled Harry’s face made Severus relax to the point of almost melting back into the chair. Harry was almost radiating pleased smugness.
“So, on some level, I chose you for you and you chose me for me, not just because I was there,” he crowed.
Severus was unable to keep from smiling, not that he wanted to. “Indeed.” He drew a breath. “That night your instinct chose me. The first bonding bite is me making my acceptance of our courtship and bonding official. After that it is all up to you, I have accepted your claim upon me, by claiming you. The second and last bonding bite will happen once you accept my claim on you, and claim me in return. If your name gets chosen by the Goblet, I will claim you by biting you, to keep you safe. Do not fear that I will not, I swear to you that I will, Harry. You will be safe from this accursed Tournament.”
Harry nodded jerkily.
“That said, in other circumstances I would very much have preferred to wait. At the very least until you came of age, or even until you graduated. As such, I want a promise from you, Harry.”
“What do you want me to promise?”
Severus caught his gaze and held it for a long moment. “Your presentation was forced due to desperation. Our first bonding bite might be forced due to danger towards you. I wish for you to promise me that the second bonding bite will not be forced for any reason. I want that bite and our final bonding to happen because you wish it to, and not for any other reason. With the initiation of our courtship and the first bite, nothing can hurt you with me in the vicinity and nothing can permanently come between us. Our magic and powers will see to it. You will be safe. Thus, I want our final bonding to happen only because you wish it to, and not because of desperation or fear.”
Harry nibbled on his lip.
“Harry, even before knowing that our instincts and magic considered us suited, I wanted to give you all the time and all the freedom to find information, to think, discuss and to make your own choices in your own time. Knowing that we are suited only makes that wish even more prevalent. I need to know that my partner, my bonded, chose me. Just as you wanted to know that I chose you for you, I want to know that you chose me for me, and not out of any kind of fear.”
“Nothing regarding my safety or anything will change after the second bite? I mean, you can keep me just as safe and help me just as much after just one bite?”
“As far as I can tell, yes. I cannot guarantee it, seeing as I still obtain new information, but I have several sources from different parts of the world and from different time periods that all claim the same. Your claiming of me will seal our bond, but nothing will change, or get better or more powerful, regarding my ability to keep you safe, after that second bite. That all happens when I bite you.”
Harry looked him in the eyes. “Then I promise you that I will only bite you, claim you, when I feel ready to. Not before.” Severus nodded appreciatively, but Harry hesitated for a moment before continuing. “You said once that it’s possible to end a courtship, will that still be possible after the first bite, or is that just before the first bite?”
“I’m afraid that it can only happen before the first bite. I’m sorry, so very sorry that your life might force you into it.”
Harry shook his head vehemently. “Two months ago, I would have believed I was going completely bonkers, thinking this, but … I’m … I’m pleased about it now. Strangely enough. Very pleased by the thought of you claiming me, and not only because of the protection against the Tournament either. Even more pleased by the fact that my instincts seem to have told me the truth the entire time. It always felt slightly wrong to bond to someone who just happened to come across me when I needed help. My instincts didn’t agree, but I didn’t quite understand. Now I do. You were always my choice, somehow, and my instincts have tried to tell me that.”
“I’m very happy to hear you say such, Harry. Very happy indeed. Furthermore, I concur entirely, knowing that we truly are suited and that there was no accidental courtship is much more agreeable.”
Harry grinned at him and held out a hand towards him. Severus took his hand in both of his and stroked the pale skin.
“I truly wish that we could have met and begun courting under better circumstances,” Severus said in a low voice, “and at the same time I’m unable to regret this happening. Truly seeing you for yourself, getting to know you, earning your trust and being able to help you when you needed it. It filled a hollowness in my life, finding you, helping you, having you in my life and in my quarters, and I’m grateful, so very grateful, that you were able to come back to Hogwarts this year and that I found you when I did.”
And not the next day when it might have been too late to save your life, he didn’t say.
Harry’s smile became softer, and he leaned back against the pillows, still watching Severus, as if he attempted to memorise everything about him. Only a few minutes later, Harry fell asleep. Severus didn’t have to wonder if he would sleep through the night this time. He knew he would, because this time Harry had no reason to be afraid of what would happen the next day.