The Domino Effect

Title: The Domino Effect
Author: Dr. Jeckell & Mrs. Hyde (aka Taran & Magdelena)
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Harry Potter/Severus Snape, Ron Weasley/Draco Malfoy (secondary pairing)
Warnings: Non-consensual sex, Violence, Adult Language, Sexual Situations, Graphic Sexual Content, Rimming, MPreg
Summary: HP/SS – Slash – Chapter 11 of ?. Harry discovers that when he kills Voldemort, all of the Death Eaters will die as well because of the bond that they share with the Dark Lord through their Marks. Harry vows to do anything it takes to allow Severus Snape to escape that fate.
Disclaimer: We do not own any of the characters herein (only the plot). All the characters in the Harry Potter universe belong exclusively to J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, and anyone else JKR chooses to allow to play with them. We are publishing our fanfiction writings only for our own selfish desire to be a part of their world.
Authors’ Note: Thanks to the incredibly wonderful Sev1970 for betaing this story.

~*~


Chapter Eleven – The Final Battle

Harry couldn’t spare a glance at Severus as the spells began flying at him furiously. He heard the defiance in Severus’ tone, and knew that his only hope of saving the annoyingly protective git he had fallen for was to end the battle as soon as possible. He faltered a second in his casting when he saw the wand stopping before him and watched the shield materialize before his eyes.

Seconds later Severus stepped to Harry’s side, and the Gryffindor winced as he heard the Potions Master’s tone, knowing the older man realized the extent of his deception. Harry moved protectively in front of Severus, even though logically he realized it was Severus’ spell that was actually protecting them both. He fired curses as he attempted to convince his lover to return to the relative safety of the castle. “Yes, BOTH, Severus. You’re carrying our child, so will you please bloody fucking … Stupefy! …get your arse back to the castle… Expelliarmus! …so that I can… Petrificus Totalus! …kill this madman and gain us both back our lives?!”

Any answer Severus might have given was cut off as a hissing voice interrupted the two. “How delightful! It appears that my lovely traitor has become the bitch of the Potter boy. How quaint. And a child? Perhaps I might let the traitor live and raise the child as my own.”

Power and magic crackled along Harry\'s nerve endings, as he turned to face the most powerful dark wizard their world had ever seen. \"Over my DEAD body!\"

Severus remained emotionless as he heard the words between Harry and the Dark Lord, the sounds of the battle falling into a dull buzz around his head. He tuned out the shouted curses and counter curses, the screams of pain, triumph and anger. Nothing mattered now but Harry and Voldemort. This was where the true battle was taking place, the outcome deciding the fate of their world.

Severus listened as they spoke, both their voices rising in anger until they were shouting like a couple of school children over a ball, himself being that which they fought over. He heard Harry angrily telling Voldemort that Severus was now his and would never let anyone take him away. Likewise, the Dark Lord also attempted to lay claim, citing original ownership. He began to see that everything until now had been a power struggle, first between Tom Riddle and Albus Dumbledore, now between Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter. He had never imagined that he would be the prize to be won or lost. It had nothing to do with Muggles or Mudbloods, only domination over the weak.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Albus falter and fall to his knees, but couldn\'t work up the emotions he thought he should feel. There was no regret, no sadness, no sense of loss, not even anger. He supposed that was due to his high concentration on the protective shield that continued to stave off Death Eater attacks. The only thing he felt was the weakening of his magical strength. He couldn\'t hold the shield much longer.

\"Potter,\" he said softly, gasping for air as a particularly strong curse ricocheted off the shield and weakened him further. \"Stop your chattering and finish him.\"

\"I don\'t know how,\" Harry whispered over his shoulder, his voice heavy with desperation.

\"Yes, you do!\" Severus yelled back, flinching as more Death Eaters concentrated on breaking through his shield. He knew they wouldn\'t use the Killing Curse for fear of taking away their Lord\'s pleasure. \"Think, boy! What power have you had every bloody time you\'ve fought and defeated him?\"

Harry gave him a quizzical look, not comprehending. He turned back to throw an insult at the now laughing Voldemort.

\"Your mother helped you the first time. She gave you the power you need now. Love, you fool!” Severus yelled exasperatedly. “Love stopped him when you were a baby. The second time, the love you had for your parents, then it was Godric Gryffindor\'s love for his family that forged the sword you used and every time since, it has been your love for your friends!\" Severus was shouting to be heard over the din of the battle and the Dark Lord\'s self-righteous rant. \"Bloody hell, Harry! You wielded it against me like a sword, now use it against him!\"

Harry felt the pain in Severus\' words and stared at his wand. Somehow, everything suddenly made sense. Severus was right about everything. He stared at his wand for a moment, his mind clearing, his heart slowing. He thought about all the people he loved and cared for, Ron, Hermione, Remus, Hagrid, the Weasleys, Albus, teachers and acquaintances he had never really gotten to know, but cared about just the same, and Severus. He felt a warm smile tug at the corner of his lips as he thought about Severus and how much he had truly come to love the hard man. Now, there was a baby, and the thought of the life growing inside Severus made Harry realize how much he had to lose if he failed to kill Voldemort.

When he looked up at Voldemort, he saw fear in the reptilian eyes. Voldemort opened his mouth to shout the most deadly of all curses, but Harry was faster. With complete calm and serenity, he spoke, never bothering to raise his wand.

\"Avada Kedavra, Tom Marvolo Riddle.\"

Harry watched the blue streaks of magic jump from his body and strike the Dark Lord in the middle of his chest, spreading across his slithery form. He almost laughed at the sight of Riddle\'s body bursting into flames and slowly melting into a puddle of gooey ashes, reminding him of the witch in The Wizard of Oz.

Harry\'s triumphant smile shattered with the protective shield. He gasped as Severus\' wand spun off to his left, the glittering magic that had staved off Voldemort\'s Death Eaters sparking weakly, then vanishing. He spun around in time to watch Severus sink slowly to his knees just as howls of pain started up from all around them.

Ignoring the dying men and women who had given their souls over to a madman, Harry rushed to Severus\' side, afraid that the bond hadn\'t worked, that Severus was going to die anyhow. He dropped heavily to his knees beside his exhausted lover and reached out to touch his shoulder.

\"Don\'t touch me!\" Severus growled and twisted away.

Severus felt heavy, his body drained of all energy, his mind whirling around a thousand thoughts at once. He was elated by their victory, relieved to have it over with, and still felt cheated. What was to be his final penance for his crimes had been taken out of his grasp and left him feeling dispirited. As much as he wanted to hold Harry, to feel a sense of comfort and love, he knew he didn\'t deserve it, even if Harry had truly loved him.

Severus heard the cries of Death Eaters among the cheers of students, teachers, and others who had come to fight at the side of Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter. He knew that if it hadn\'t been for Harry\'s deception, that his own voice would be carried away in the wind as well and knew with certainty that there would be few, if any, to mourn his loss, not that he had ever tried to change that fact.

Without looking at Harry, he called for his wand and slowly got to his feet. Shaking off Harry\'s assisting hand and nearly falling back down, he looked around at the devastation that was once the lush green lands of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While the castle itself seemed to be unmarred, the grounds were stained with blood and fire. Trees were uprooted and broken, a good section of the Forbidden Forest was ablaze, Hagrid\'s little hut was leveled and still shaking, even the tall goalposts on the Quidditch pitch were gone. The smell of death lay heavy in the air like a dense fog, and the sun had disappeared behind dark, ominous clouds as though it didn\'t wish to witness the ruination of its third child.

Severus hadn\'t realized the extent of the battle, having been focused on protecting Harry, and was stunned by the number of people and creatures that surrounded them. He spotted Remus with what he assumed was his \'pack\' of fellow werewolves, the Centaurs from the Forbidden Forest, led by Firenze, teachers and students, and many others that Dumbledore had recruited to fight for the side of Light. He was relieved to see an apparently uninjured Draco as he ran from the main doors of the school to a sea of red-heads, a bright smile on his pale face.

He turned for a final look at the one who had taken his freedom and his heart, which he had tried so hard to protect. He didn\'t stop to inquire about Albus, or to count the list of fallen comrades. He felt dizzy and utterly exhausted, not even certain he could make the journey, but too hurt to stay. So, with a final sad sigh, he apparated away.

~*~


Harry felt himself go cold when Severus shook off his hand. He was momentarily distracted as Hermione embraced him fiercely, but he quickly struggled out of the witch’s grip just in time to see his future vanish into thin air.

Severus had gone, and had taken their unborn child with them. All at once the guilt of what Harry had perpetrated against the man he had fallen in love with overwhelmed him. Killing the Dark Lord didn’t even give Harry a moment’s pause, but his betrayal of a man who had done so much to redeem himself permeated his thoughts. Harry fell to his knees and screamed out his lover’s name. “SEVERUS!! NOOO!!!”

Tears streamed down his face, and he shrugged off his friends’ attempts to comfort him.

Albus, obviously weakened, sat heavily on the ground in front of Harry. He raised a hand to Harry’s cheek only to have it batted away. His eyes were filled with tears as he tried to calm the young man. “My boy, I will find Severus, and I will make him understand that you only did this because I asked you to.”

Harry glanced around, and noticing that only Draco, Ron and Hermione were nearby, he turned back to Albus, glaring daggers through the older man. His voice hissed out low enough so only the four would be able to hear him. “I started this because you asked me to, but I finished it because I cared too much to watch him die. Now I’ll be bonded forever to a wizard who cannot stand the sight of me. He is having a child… my child… a child that I will probably never be allowed to even see, much less raise myself. Severus is never going to forgive me for this. None of your tea, lemon drops, or platitudes are going to help this situation.”

“Harry, I’m sure right now Severus is frightened, feeling like he is once again bound to a master. But as soon as he has some time to deal with…”

“Didn’t you hear me, old man,” Harry bit out. “I’m not talking about Severus’ bond with ME, I’m speaking of my bond with HIM. He’s as much my master as I am his.”

Albus’ tired eyes looked up at Harry speculatively. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“I fell in love with the insufferable git,” Harry snarled. He yanked his robe and shirt sleeves up his arm and exposed his marked skin to Albus. A green coiling serpent was clearly visible, wound around the initials ‘SS’ low on Harry’s left forearm. “And somehow it changed the bloody magic of the spell. I’m his forever, too, whether he wants me or not. I’ve just freed myself from the being who’s been obsessed with me since my birth, and now I’m bonded to a wizard who finally has reason to hate me for my own actions instead of my father’s.”

~*~


The black-robed, masked figure standing mere feet from Remus gasped in mid-spell, his left arm suddenly bursting into flames. Remus\' eyes lit up with the orange glow enveloping his opponent, his startled gasp lost in the screams of pain and anguish. Remus lowered his wand slightly and looked around. Everywhere he looked, Death Eaters were ablaze, their masks melting against their flesh, their voices rising into the air with the clouds of smoke billowing from the fires.

He suddenly understood what was happening. The Dark Mark all of Voldemort\'s followers had branded on their arms were connected to him in more ways than Remus suspected. It was not just a Domination bond that held them, but a Domino bond. When the dominant one died, he took his bond-mates with him, thereby creating a domino effect of death.

\"No,\" he whispered in alarm as he realized that the deadly curse would also be taking Severus with it. He was about to lose the only close friend he had left. In a blind panic, he began racing around the blood-soaked grounds, ignoring the stench of burning flesh. He pushed his way through the crowd of Lycanthropes that had joined the side of Light to protect the very society that had ostracized them, and finally spotted a small huddle of people near the largest ball of fire on the field.

He ran towards them calling Severus\' name. He stopped short when he saw Harry on his knees in despair. All hope fled until the words of Harry and Albus reached his sensitive ears. He shook his head in confusion as he tried to comprehend the meaning of their conversation. His shock turned to relief, but was quickly replaced with anger when he suddenly understood the mark Harry was showing Albus. Apparently, Voldemort wasn\'t the only wizard strong enough to cast a domination bond.

Remus stepped into the circle of people, his eyes ablaze with a fire hotter than that coming from the remains of the Dark Lord.

\"He trusted you, Harry,\" he said softly, his voice rough and hoarse from shouting curses and counter-curses, anger rolling off his tongue. He didn\'t care that Harry had, in the process, bonded himself to Severus as well, he at least had had a choice in the matter. \"Just another betrayer, another one who used him selfishly.\"

“You think I don’t know that?” Harry questioned, his words spat out angrily as he surged to his feet to face Remus. “Do you think I didn’t realize from the moment I agreed to this plan that he would hate me? That I would be nothing more than another on the list of people who betrayed him?”

“I am the one who asked Harry to do this, Remus,” Albus interjected, as he wearily climbed to his feet with Ron and Draco’s assistance. Leaning heavily on the two younger men, his own strength almost completely sapped, he pressed on, attempting to help Remus understand what had truly happened.

“It is I who you should be blaming. This was not some whim of a headstrong student. When Severus first told me that their bonds with Tom would have this affect on him and his fellow Death Eaters, I had to find a way to save him.” A lone tear slipped down the elderly wizard’s face as he met Remus’ eyes, his voice growing stronger and steadier as he continued.

“He is the son I never had, and I would not let him die. Moody, Shaklebolt, and I exhaustively researched, but could find nothing to break the Mark except to have a stronger wizard take Voldemort’s place in Severus’ bond. Would you have rather seen him consumed in flames like all of those around you simply because he made the wrong choice when he was a mere child himself? Thank the gods that Voldemort thought that Percy Weasley was more valuable remaining unmarked, or we would have had two spies to save from a certain death.”

“You could have told him…” Remus protested, beginning to understand Dumbledore’s position, but still steadfastly refusing to believe that such a deception needed to take place in order to achieve Severus’ safety. “Given him a choice…”

“But that would have made it far too easy, Remus,” Harry stated quietly, again drawing the attention of the group back to himself, his usually vivid green eyes looking cloudy and lifeless as they gazed at the spot where Severus had disapparated from. “No, that had to be one of the bloody essential parts of the bonding ritual. He had to completely and utterly subjugate himself to me for me to be able to wrestle the bond away from Voldemort. There’s no way he could have done that if he would have known what I was doing. I don’t know how I ever thought this could turn out anyway but horribly wrong.”

~*~


Hermione, Ron and Draco stood together watching as Harry walked forlornly into the castle, Dumbledore being levitated to the Infirmary by McGonagall, and Remus stalking off to gods only knew where.

Suddenly, Draco broke the terse silence. \"Something about this just isn\'t right. Why does Harry have Severus\' bond-mark? Hermione, we\'re going to need to take another look at that research you started when we first found out that Dumbledore had asked Harry to do this. Somehow, I don\'t think just the fact that Harry dominated the Professor out of love, instead of out of want for power, would have been enough to create a reciprocal bond.\"

\"What are you thinking?\" Ron inquired.

Hermione\' eyes widened as she answered for Draco. \"He\'s thinking that for Harry to receive a mark as well, the Professor would have to have feelings for…\"

\"Don\'t even finish that statement, Hermione,\" Draco warned. \"We can\'t let Harry know any of this now. It would be cruel to get his hopes up after what he\'s endured. We\'ve got to find out for sure before we tell either of them.\"

\"So…\" Ron, scratching his head, staring up at the slowly clearing sky with a look of deep thought on his face. \"Would that be something like…? I don\'t know, like a sublimation bond, maybe? I mean, if Harry bonded Snape to him with domination, could Snape have done the same in reverse?\"

\"I just don\'t know, Ron\" Draco said softly. \"We\'ll just have to look it up.\"

The three sighed in unison and slowly followed the path Harry and Dumbledore had taken, leaving behind the still smoldering battlefield, and all the fear and pain that went with it.

\"So… um, does this mean Harry\'s pregnant, too?\" Ron asked as they entered the school.

\"No, you twit. Of course, he\'s not pregnant! Only Severus is,\" Draco replied, looking at Ron like he was off his rocker.

\"Just checking.\"


~TBC~

~*~


Authors’ Notes: Thank you also to all of our reviewers: the zedmeister, lilith, melodydemort, pink panther, Marie, Natalya, alliekatgal, miyuki, Barbara, DBZVelena, takkycat_n_AidenRaven, BelledonnaSnape, angel, mirage, harryhollow, Selene S. Snape, Quashi, Nelver, Katie K, nesscafe, antipyro, Angel, and Colene Creevey.

the zedmeister - OMG we\'re so sorry we missed your review last time! To answer you now... the bond they were supposed to share (that of a master/servant) yes, would have forced Severus to not be able to refuse Harry\'s demands, etc. It would not have forced Harry to be dominant, but Severus\' will would be completely subjugated to Harry\'s. However, as you saw in this chapter, something went a bit wonky with the bond. We\'ll just have to see where that goes in the next several chapters.

Nelver - The mark is only in its very first stages. Stay tuned. :D

antipyro - The main trick to Harry\'s wards were that they would only be able to be opened from the outside. He didn\'t truly do any complicated magic at all. He never anticipated anyone else coming looking for Severus. Yep, the shield protected all three of them. Harry automatically assumed that the magic had worked and so yes, he knew that Severus was indeed pregnant. His comment about protecting \"both\" of you was what made Severus realize that he was with child.

Quashi - I think this chapter pretty much answered your question, but yes, all the DE\'s did die with the exception of Severus. Those who were unmarked, like Percy for instance, who was working undercover for Dumbledore and pretending to be on Voldie\'s side, did not die.

A few people have asked us to email them when we update. So, if anyone is interested, Magdelena has a yahoo group to update you on when and where you can find her stories. She also uses it to update the group members on this co-written tale. Sign up at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/magdelenas_menagerie/ .