FOR SERVICES RENDERED

The next five days were the best that Severus could remember, having Farid around was wonderful, it almost made Severus want to smile, all the time, sometimes he did smile, frightening the house elves and for some reason making everyone else a little jumpy.

For the first couple of days Farid had been a little jumpy too, house elves had amazed him and he had sought their friendship almost immediately. He had been quick to learn that they were the only slaves in this world, but what he thought of that Severus had yet to discover.

When he was not Severus’ company he was usually to be found in the kitchens, talking to them, or helping them cook. He seemed to feel safer there than anywhere else in the castle, except of course when he was with Severus, who he stubbornly continued to call “master” even though Albus had explained to him that there was no such thing in the wizarding world as slavery, “at least not in this country Farid.” Albus had told him this in both English and Kazakh, but Farid just smiled at him, nodded his understanding and carried on doing what he wanted to do.

Severus wondered if this was how Farid had managed to survive as long as he had, by appearing to be compliant, submissive even, whilst hiding a core which Severus thought was as hard as tungsten as unbendable as steel. No one seemed to recognise Farid’s strength except Severus, all the other teachers, especially Albus saw him as a fragile, broken creature, ill equipped to deal with their world and went out of their way to protect him. Glaring at Severus even if he even raised his voice to the boy, or snapped at him occasionally. And apart from that first day when he had been completely exhausted, Farid seemed totally unfazed by Severus’ “irascible nature”. Severus supposed that the boy was used to being harshly, even savagely beaten regularly whether he had made an infraction or not, so someone snapping at him now and then must seem like arrows against the wind.

However he was indeed trying to curb his legendary temper as he always felt awful afterwards if he had snapped at Farid, who would simply smile his gentle smile and offer him a massage or a drink, or even a blowjob.

And that was another thing, Severus was feeling more and more uncomfortable about the relationship he was having with Farid. He knew that Farid was over eighteen and was very sexually experienced. But all of that experience had been due to rape, and of course Farid looked a lot younger than his chronological age. Now that Farid was here at Hogwarts, Severus wondered more and more what he had been thinking. Whenever Farid touched Severus, to put his hand in Severus’ larger one or to hug him as he sometimes did, he was scowled at by the majority of the teachers who had all been informed of his origins by Dumbledore, plus here in this environment Farid seemed more like a student than he had at the vampire stronghold and so to be having a sexual relationship with him just seemed wrong. Farid didn’t seem to understand though. It had taken him a couple of days to realise that Severus did not want him acting like a slave in public, so he stopped kneeling, or prostrating himself in front of Severus when they were with anyone else, but he still did that in Severus’ chambers and had seduced him every day since he had arrived.

And Severus did try not to be seduced. He had refused Farid’s attention on several occasions but he had woken to Farid’s mouth on his cock on three days out of the last five and the one night that he had tried to make the boy sleep separately not only had Farid seemed deeply hurt by being made to sleep on his own, but had woken up from a screaming nightmare, that had severely frightened Severus and nearly broken all the delicate possessions that Severus owned with the backlash that been generated from the release of magical energy that the boy seemed unable to contain.

It had taken him nearly an hour to calm the boy down from that, he had been quite hysterical to think that he might have damaged his master’s things and had told him everything that had happened in his dream, only not in English in rapid Kazakh, so that Severus had had no idea what he was saying or how to comfort him.

So this morning after so little sleep, he was tired and grumpy and not looking forward to his daily interview with Dumbledore, when the headmaster would chat to Farid in Kazakh, and Severus would worry about what Farid was saying about him, and whether he was unhappy or not.

And Severus really cared if Farid was unhappy for in just two short weeks he had come to care more about the boy than he had ever cared for anyone in his entire life before. Just as he had dreamed when he and Farid were escaping from the vampires, Farid had begun to join him in his potions lab, where he stood quietly beside his master and chopped and ground ingredients, and Severus was delighted to see that the boy showed huge aptitude for his favourite subject. He sat beside him in the evening, either on the sofa, curled against him whilst Severus read or curled at his feet looking at the picture books that Severus had acquired for him as a prelude to teaching him to read and this, almost more than the fantastic sex was what made Farid so precious to Severus, the quiet companionship that the boy offered.

Severus did not think he could bear it if Farid did not want to be with him anymore, and he was increasingly convinced that as soon as Farid met boys and indeed girls his own age, or even slightly older, he would realise that Severus was so old compared to him, not to mention ugly, and cantankerous and in fact in no way a good catch.

And that is when Severus wished he could cage the boy and tie him down and prevent Farid from ever leaving him, because Severus disbelieved the slavery bond that was supposed to exist between them. He thought that whilst the savage act he had performed on the boy may well have dissolved the previous bond, it had not bound Farid to him, Farid’s magic was just too strong, and whilst he knew that, Yusuf had not and so had just assumed that the spell had transferred. But Severus knew he knew in his very heart that as soon as Farid recognised this he would be off, and Severus would be so lost without him. And wasn’t that the problem with being so happy? That one day this happiness would dissolve and Severus would be all alone again.

So he made his way up to Albus’ office again, as he did every morning now and he wondered if today would be the day that Farid would leave, and what Albus might discover about his dream.

Each day the boy’s English had improved Severus knew that. But he also knew that Farid really loved chatting to the headmaster in the language he knew best, So they walked there together and because they were in a not much used corridor where no one could see them Farid slipped his hand in Severus’s and because they were in a not much used corridor where no one could see them, Severus let him.

As they walked Severus remembered the first night that he had taken Farid back to his rooms and tried to decide what to do with the exhausted boy, he remembered holding him, caressing him, undressing him and putting him to bed, and all whilst the boy slept on and when he held him in his arms the boy had snuggled against him like an injured child, and Severus had felt the last of the cold, cold ice with which he had covered his heart dissolve and he had slept beside him and held him the whole night long. In the morning he had shown Farid his world, and gloried in the boy’s wonder and felt strong and wanted when he sought Severus’s protection. But he sensed that Farid’s need of him grew weaker by the day and felt now that he was counting the length of their relationship in weeks rather than months.



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Farid was confused. He did not understand what his master wanted of him. He was used to clear unambiguous commands and swift and severe punishment for disobeying those commands. But this master was different. The grey beard wanted Farid to not call him master, but to him Severus was his master, he had looked after Farid and cared for him like no one else in his life had ever done. So Farid had chosen Severus, as his master, forever. He could do to Farid whatever he wished and Farid would not object, as long as he was kind to him sometimes and hugged him and soothed him and made love to him. Farid adored being made love to by his master, he loved the way that the man seemed to worship his body and he could not understand why his master had slept apart last night, because then the dreams had come.

When he had been with the vampires he had had these dreams. Of green light and screaming, a woman screaming, and cold, cruel laughter. And sometimes it was as if he saw through another’s eyes, wicked evil eyes, someone other than him whose thoughts chilled Farid to the very bone, and during these dreams the scar on his forehead, the one covered by the glamour ached and burned. When he had been with Yusuf he had been gagged when he screamed at night or fucked hard to shut him up or whipped, and so horrible, so awful had the dreams been that he had almost welcomed the physical pain that often been inflicted on him for waking his master.

But Master Severus had not beaten him, he had hugged him and kissed him and chased the dreams away. In this master’s arms Farid felt safe. He did not worry that those evil thoughts belonged to him. But last night his master had made him sleep in another bed, and when he had woken he had broken his master’s things and he was sure that he would be sent away and that scared him.

Because since Master had come, Farid had for the first time since he could remember felt safe, even in this place with its weird magic. The powerful glowing strands of magic that bound the castle and the grey beard Albus, the ghosts whose pasts Farid could feel and the pictures that watched everyone and reported to grey beard. With his master around Farid felt invulnerable, protected. He liked the house elves best in this place, because they understood how he felt.

He knew what grey beard had told him was true by now. That there was no slavery in this world, that he had been kidnapped, and raped and tortured that slavery was an aberration, that his life should have been different. But what Albus Grey Beard could not seem to understand was that Farid agreed with him, wished that he had had a different childhood and been able to come to Hogwarts to learn all about his magic when he was just eleven, like Albus said other magical children did, but that had not happened. Whether it was right or wrong Farid had been enslaved, he had been owned by someone who had the power of life and death over him, who had made decisions about every aspect of his life and he had had no choices, no power over his own destiny and no rights whatsoever.

He was scared to be on his own just yet, and he relied on his master to help him when he could not make decisions for himself, when he was worried by his dreams, when he felt overwhelmed by the world he had just entered. He knew that his master would help him to be strong and learn to control his magic and that maybe one day he would be able to make all his own decisions, but he had only been free of whips and cages for a little more than a week and Farid knew that he was just not quite ready for what they offered him.

But just these last couple of days Master had seemed to back away, at least at night and so Farid was frightened that he did not want him anymore and would send him away and Farid knew he would do anything absolutely anything to avoid losing this man’s love.

So today Farid would ask Albus sir to ask master to tell him what he had done so that he could be better and master would make love to him again like he used to and everything would be like it was in the past and maybe one day, when he felt strong enough he would be ready to be free like they wanted him to be, but Farid knew that whatever form that freedom took, he would not want, he would never want, to be away from the man that he loved with all his heart.