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 12 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 Twelve – Moving On

Severus appeared on the doorstep of a small, dilapidated cottage. He wavered for a moment, his hand grasping the knob tightly before regaining his equilibrium. He softly chanted the necessary spells to unlock the door, wiping sweat from his forehead with his free hand, then turned the handle. He barely managed to close the door behind him before he passed out.

When he awoke, it was to a dark room he didn\'t recognize. He started to panic before his memory supplied him with answers. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the pain shot through his heart. He should be free right now, flying with the clouds; his sins burned away, ashes to the wind. He would have died happy if the war had come a day sooner when he would have been able to hold on to the feelings of love and joy Harry had given him, the acceptance Albus had shown him, and friendship from Remus. He had nothing now, nothing left to carry him through the nightmares and memories.

With a groan, Severus rolled to his side, his exhaustion weighing him down, and a day spent on a hard floor leaving him stiff and sore to the point where every little move was painful and tiring. He slowly made his way to his feet and lifted his wand, calling \"Lumos\" to light the room. He swayed dizzily for a moment as he gazed around the small room.

It was a small home that had belonged to his grandmother. It rested in a shallow valley near a quaint old Muggle town. He had only visited her once, but had truly liked the old woman. She was a potions maker, supplying the villagers with simple curatives and medicinal herbs, with a tongue sharp enough to cut glass.

Severus wandered around the little house, acquainting himself with the layout. Tomorrow, he would begin cleaning and making it hospitable, but for tonight, he simply wanted a cup of tea and a decent sleep. He found what he needed in the kitchen, and after performing a freshening spell on the little box of teabags and mild cleaning spells on the kettle and a single cup, he then made himself tea and took his steaming mug into the master bedroom, which really wasn\'t much bigger than the other little room.

After a cleaning and freshening spell, Severus sank into the soft downy bedding, his body groaning at the unaccustomed comfort. He refused to think about Harry, the bond and the offspring he was now forced to carry, and let his mind wander into oblivion.

~*~


The first thing Severus was aware of early the next morning, was the ominous rumbling of his stomach. He groaned as he sat up, holding his stomach as though that would hold its contents in place when he moved. The next thing he noticed was the exhaustion that accompanied such simple movement. He cursed Harry\'s name as he stumbled to the bathroom to empty what little was in his stomach.

After finishing his morning ablutions, Severus made his way to the kitchen. With a fresh cup of tea, he proceeded to look around the tiny house, assessing what needed to be done in order to make it hospitable again. The house was in amazing condition given that it had been uninhabited for so long. There didn\'t appear to be mice or other rodents, only a few spiders who had claimed corners, window frames and lanterns for their intricate webs. It would be rather simple to clean, or at least it would have been if he weren\'t so drained of magical energy.

Severus sighed heavily and set down his cup. He pulled one of his shrunken chests from his discarded robe. Enlarging it in the middle of the living room floor,, he retrieved fresh clothes and went into the bedroom to change into what he hoped would pass for a Muggle-style outfit. With a few pounds of Muggle currency he kept stashed for emergencies, he left the little cottage, headed for the tiny town less than a mile away.

Severus found the general store easily and made his purchases, food and cleaning supplies, while giving as little information to the questioning shopkeeper as he could. He kept his answers short and curt, discouraging the friendliness of the older man. He clasped the bag to his chest and quickly returned to the cottage, avoiding the few people he encountered on the dusty streets.

The next few weeks were spent cleaning, with Muggle detergents and with magic when he had the energy. It didn\'t take very much to tire him out, mostly because he never had a chance to recover properly from the battle, but also because of the pregnancy, which he was trying desperately to forget.

Once his new home was livable, he started on the unkempt, over-grown yard. He weeded until his hands were raw and his legs and back were cramped, and then weeded some more. He ate light meals prepared on the old log-fire stove and sat on his porch watching birds and the occasional deer as it wandered in search of food.

He kept his mind in strict reign, refusing to think about Hogwarts and his life there. He didn\'t want to think about Albus and the sight of the old wizard being brought to his knees; he didn\'t want to care. He pushed thoughts of Harry away with anger and pain, calling himself foolish, arrogant, and stupid for ever trusting the young man, and for thinking, even for a moment, that someone would mourn him, could love him. Most importantly, he wouldn\'t allow himself to acknowledge the baby growing within him. It was a clear representation of just how foolish he had been to believe he could pay for his sins and be set free.

As the weeks rolled by, however, it became harder and harder for Severus to maintain his \'carefree\' attitude. He could no longer will his mind into a peaceful oblivion, away from thoughts of Hogwarts and his past life. His nights were full of dreams, touches and words he had craved for so long being whispered like the scent of flowers in spring.

Even his trips into town were becoming more difficult. He had learned the shopkeeper\'s name, Liam, as well as his wife’s, Josephina, who ran a beauty salon. He also found a baker and butcher just down the street from the little shop. He had been forced to explain that he was the old apothecary\'s grandson and was a professor on sabbatical. He exchanged pleasantries with other townsfolk when they passed, but kept mostly to himself. He didn\'t want friends and really didn\'t need anyone poking their nose into his affairs. It was the long walk, though, that was becoming so difficult. He found that by the time he returned to his little home, he was exhausted. What strength that had started to return, was quick to leave, and he was sleeping far more than he could remember doing ever before.

He found himself jumping from mood to mood, and getting upset at the most minor of things. He growled at the shopkeepers for not having what he wanted, and glared at happy young couples walking down the street. He even yelled at a deer once for walking through his view of the land.

He tossed and turned at night, fighting off memories and dreams, calling Harry\'s name as he woke. He hated himself for being weak and letting Harry past his defenses, and for allowing himself to \'need\' anyone. Mostly, he hated that he didn\'t want to be alone anymore. There was a time when that was all he wanted, to be left alone, to not have anyone to answer to or explain himself to. Now, he found himself missing the company he had at Hogwarts; Remus, Albus, and even Harry. He missed Harry\'s soothing voice, his comforting touch, even his laughter. He felt lost and alone like never before.

Coming to terms with the baby taking space in his stomach was taking longer. He blamed the baby for everything that went wrong. He woke up every morning feeling nauseous and spent his first waking hours in the bathroom, emptying his stomach of meals from the day before. That, in turn, left him feeling weak and drained, making him lose his appetite until late into the morning, when he would suddenly find himself ravenous. He tried to curb his appetite, worrying about gaining weight and being noticed by the villagers, but just couldn\'t seem to stop eating once he started.

The cravings were the worst part. He resisted buying sweets in town, but would wake in the middle of the night wanting ice cream or chocolate, or any sugary substance. He would have a piece of fruit and go back to bed, where he would lay for an hour desperately not thinking about candy apples, peach cobbler, and Honeydukes, the sweets shop in Hogsmeade.

It was two months after the fall of the Dark Lord, and the night he had been bonded to a new master, when the cramping started. Severus awake with a jolt in the middle of the night, pain twisting his stomach into knots. He sat up gasping, his arms wrapped tightly around his waist. He was nearly in tears from the pain, but forced himself to stand and walk around the little cottage, hoping to work out the cramps. When the pain only seemed to get worse, he started to panic, thinking there was something very wrong with the baby… his baby.

He was about to start up the floo in the living room fireplace, when a surge of immense pain shot through his stomach like a firecracker. He fell to his knees with a gasp and fainted. When he woke up, the sun was streaming down on him and the pain had subsided, leaving only a dull ache. He decided to wait to see if the pain returned before contacting Poppy Pomfrey, the medi-witch at Hogwarts. He used his wand to convert an old chair into a comfortable rocker, then sat down rubbing his stomach soothingly and humming softly to the baby he hadn\'t wanted.

~*~


Every available spare moment between revising for their NEWTs, found Hermione, Draco, and even Ron, diligently searching for answers to the questions that had plagued them about Harry and Severus’ bond. The weeks after Severus’ disappearance had seen a flurry of activity. Dumbledore and Remus had been searching for Severus everywhere, to no avail. Harry had drifted further and further into a deep depression which would find him one minute sobbing out his grief and loss and the next his white-hot blazing temper erupting without warning. The three friends had tried to approach Harry to help him deal with his loss, but Harry closed himself off from even those closest to him.

For the first time, Harry had used his fame to his advantage. When the Ministry had offered to grant him anything, Harry’s only request was that he would be judged on his work thus far in his years at Hogwarts, and not forced to sit for his NEWTs. The Minister had readily agreed to his request. Therefore, while his friends were busily studying, Harry would be holed up in the Room of Requirement, or in Severus’ empty, deserted rooms reliving the events of the past months in his mind and viewing his every action from both his and Severus’ points of view.

But thoughts of the past were not the only things that plagued Harry. Whenever he would begin to think about the future that lay ahead of him, a future free from Voldemort, his heart would clench, the knowledge that he would likely spend that future alone, killing him slowly. Rationally, Harry knew that Severus had every right to flee, and not trust that Harry could have possibly had sincere feelings for him, but each night as he went to bed, he prayed to whatever gods might listen that Severus would remember his declaration of love, and would understand that if everything else had been a machination and a lie, which had taken away Severus’ freedom of choice, that Harry’s care, concern, and love had been nothing but the truth.

~*~


Hermione, Draco, and Ron had researched the bond exhaustively in Hogwarts’ library, and had found nothing. As the weeks wore on, Draco resigned himself to the fact that there was only one place that they could likely find the information.

“This place is enormous!” Ron exclaimed as he stepped out of the floo into the library at Malfoy Manor. “I think it’s almost as large as Hogwarts’ library.”

Ron barely was able to hold back a snort of laughter when he saw that Hermione was staring at the rows and rows of tomes, practically drooling in her eagerness to absorb new information. He apparently wasn’t the only one who had noticed.

“Down, Granger,” Draco warned as he laid a hand on her sleeve. “Remember where you are. Most of these books are teeming with Dark Magic. I don’t think that even your curiosity goes that far.”

Hermione sighed and nodded sadly. “You’re right, of course. Sorry, just the thought of all those books…” she said, her voice trailing off wistfully.

Ron rolled his eyes and shifted his gaze warily about the room. “Let’s just get this over with, this place gives me the creeps.”

“Try growing up in it,” Draco muttered under his breath. Almost immediately he felt Ron’s arm slipping around his waist, and the warm, comforting presence of his boyfriend conforming to his back. Draco let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

Ron whispered an apology against Draco’s neck, and a promise that he would never let anyone hurt Draco ever again. Draco squeezed Ron’s hand in thanks, but quickly separated himself from his lover in order to complete their task. More than anything, he wanted the man who had been the only positive role model in his life to be able to find the same happiness that he had found with Ron. There was no question in Draco’s mind that Harry’s love for Severus was reciprocated, though he doubted that Severus himself even knew how he felt about the Gryffindor.

Draco chanted a summoning spell and several tomes flew off the shelves surrounding him to cluster in a pile on the desk. In the end, they had four books to peruse. The trio quickly gathered the texts and flooed back to Hogsmeade. They hurried up to the castle, and stayed secluded in Hermione’s Head Girl room until late in the night. Finally, they found what they were looking for.

“Bloody hell, I think this is it!” Ron handed over the book he had been reading to Draco, who held it so that both he and Hermione could read the passage that Ron had highlighted.

\"The Domino bond was originally created to bind the Master/Mistress of the house to his/her servants, slaves, and concubines,\" Hermione quoted aloud from the text. \"Unfortunately, the spell was flawed. If feelings of love and devotion were shared between the Master/Mistress and the one they were bonding to themselves, a reciprocal bond would form instead. The Master/Mistress would still be the Dominant of the pairing, with the subordinate\'s will still subjugated to their Master/Mistress. However, the fact that the subservience was willingly accepted out of love and need, rather than fear of the dominant partner\'s power, would alter the magic of the bond, therefore also Marking the Master/Mistress as well. The type of bond created instead was, in each of the cases recorded, the equivalent of a Marriage bond.”

Draco took the text from Hermione’s hand and continued reading aloud. “If the Domino bond is to be used, it should be used with extreme caution. The Dominant should be certain that he/she has no personal feelings for their potential supplicant, other than the desire to subvert the other’s will to their own, before casting the spell. It is strongly suggested that sexual intercourse between the two partners should be limited to the one sexual act which completes the bond.\"

Silence reigned in the room for several minutes as the three friends tried to absorb all they had learned; that their suspicions had finally been confirmed.

“Do you think Snape has any clue that he…” Ron started quietly.

“That he loves Harry?” Draco finished, his eyebrow arching in question. At Ron’s affirmative nod, his lips twisted into a wry smile. “I don’t think he has the slightest clue.”


~TBC~

~*~


Authors’ Notes: Thank you also to all of our reviewers: Jaima, Katie K, antipyro, jademerald, marie, SilverPhoenix, Barbara, NightOwl, Jacob, Elamenta Haven, chantalmalfoy, Nelver, Quashi, Melody deMort, madwriter, Purple Raveness, and Hazel. Answers to specific questions are below.

antipyro - Sent you a link to join the group for updates. We hope it worked. *frets* LOL - and we know! There\'s only so much you can put on a forearm though. Hmmm... perhaps we should have gone with hippogriff Marks?? *smirk* You\'ll just have to see what develops with the bond, but we\'ll just leave you with one thought. Submissive doesn\'t necessarily mean weak. Severus is an extremely powerful wizard, who has made choices throughout his life to give himself over to men in positions of power. Not a sign of weakness, in our humble opinions, just a desire for someone to direct his life for him.

jademerald - LOL! Well, actually, the funny thing was, that we were sort of worried, because Harry was marked too that people would think both were pregnant, so we HAD to clear that up in the silliest way possible. ONLY Severus is pregnant! For sure!

SilverPhoenix - HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!! We hope it was enjoyable.

Nelver - *sigh* (Maggie here) I sooo agree with your thoughts on that line. That was purely Taran\'s writing genius coming through there. He\'s got such a way with words. He took the whole battle scene and just made it into this fabulous imagery.

Hazel - More sex to come! *wink*

A few people have asked us to email them when we update. We\'ll try to remember, but if anyone wants to make SURE they are notified, 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 here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/magdelenas_menagerie/