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 14 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 Fourteen – Visitors

Severus sighed heavily as Remus puttered around the kitchen preparing breakfast. He had tried to convince the werewolf that he didn’t need a caretaker, that he could manage on his own as he had been doing all his life. Remus, however, refused to believe it, citing his lost weight and pallid, sallow complexion as proof that he needed help.

He was about to tell Remus that he only wanted a piece of toast for breakfast, when there was a knock on the door. He sighed again and started to struggle to his feet.

“That’ll be Liam,” he explained when Remus gave a questioning look.

“Sit! I’ll get the door,” Remus said, pushing Severus gently back into his chair. Before he reached the door, however, it swung open and a stout man not much older than himself, came in carrying a large paper bag over flowing with food.

“Good morning, Severus,” he called. “I brought - Oh! You have company! Hello, I’m Liam,” he said giving Remus a wide smile.

“Remus.” Remus returned the greeting as he reached to take the burden from the shopkeeper, but the man turned and set it on a counter and began unpacking it himself, placing everything in its rightful place. Remus was surprised by the way Liam knew the kitchen so well, shocked that Severus had let the man become so familiar with his home.

“Well, it’s good to see someone here to take care of Severus, finally!” He turned and gave Severus a stern look, appraising him and judging his fitness. “You still look awful, Severus. Have you been able to keep anything down yet today?”

“I only just got up,” Severus replied with annoyance.

Liam huffed and shook his head before turning back to his task of putting away groceries. “Well, at least you finally have someone here to help out. It’s about bloody time someone came to check on you!”

“We didn’t know where he was!” Remus defended himself. “I’ve been looking for him for the last six months.”

“Well you can’t be a very good wizard then, can you?” Liam asked irritably.

Remus looked at Severus in shock, wondering why he would have told a Muggle that he was a magic user, but Severus looked just as surprised as he, and a full two shades paler than before.

“What?” Severus asked softly, his heart rate accelerating and his hands lying protectively over his protruding stomach.

“Oh, please! Everyone knew your grandmother, and everyone knew she was a witch. Besides, that pregnancy of yours has gotten rather hard to miss,” Liam said looking pointedly at Severus’ stomach and giving a good-natured chuckle.

As Severus began to tremble slightly, Liam reassured him that everything was okay and that the townsfolk had no problem with magic users.

“So, anyway, I can tell Josephina that her sister doesn’t need to come look after the salon while she comes to look after you. Remus can take care of you now…” Liam’s voice trailed off in thought, then he turned to look at Remus. “You are staying, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Remus replied firmly at the exact same time Severus stated ‘No!’ Remus turned to glare at Severus, then smirked. “The moment I leave here, Severus, I will be going straight to Harry to tell him where you are.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Severus glared back, but he could see the conviction in his friend’s eyes.

“Oh, yes, I would!”

Severus tried to stare him down, but it was no use. Remus wasn’t going to leave Severus peacefully.

“Fine,” he growled.

“Ah, good! Wonderful!” Liam said clapping his hands. “I’ll tell Josephina that everything’s all set, then, and perhaps, you can treat him better than that St. Mango’s place he went to. They really didn’t seem to do him a bit of good there.” He gave Remus a hearty handshake and gently squeezed Severus’ shoulder before departing.

“I don’t need to be taken care of, Remus,” Severus said angrily after Liam had left. “I can take care of myself.”

“Severus, under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t question that, but these aren’t normal circumstances. You’re so weak right now.” Remus sat across from Severus at the little table and stared into his dark eyes. “I’m worried about you and after you fainted… Well, I’m not leaving you alone and that’s that.”

Severus looked down at his stomach, where his hand caressed light circles over it, and sighed again. He knew he wouldn’t win this argument and didn’t have the energy to try.

“Alright,” he whispered sadly.

Remus smiled and gave a gentle squeeze to the hand resting on the table, then returned to making breakfast.

“So, you’ve been to St. Mungo’s? What did they tell you?” Remus asked as he set a plate of sausage and eggs in front of Severus.

“That I’m pregnant,” Severus said dryly as he looked down at his food and grimaced. Remus watched in amazement as Severus actually turned green and he just managed to conjure a bucket before Severus could paint the floor.

Remus sighed and shook his head. He helped Severus clean himself up, then made him eat a piece of dry toast and sent him to bed. He sat next to the sleeping man and wondered what he could possibly do to make Severus feel better and regain his strength.

He gently stroked the matted hair as a restless Severus tossed and turned, muttering Harry’s name in his sleep. When Severus finally relaxed into a deeper sleep, Remus kissed the pale forehead and crept out of the room. He sat in the living room and thought about calling Harry, but decided to give it a few days though, and see what happened.

~*~


Harry stirred from his restless sleep to the sound of a familiar voice. “So this is where you’ve been keeping yourself.”

Harry sighed, and reluctantly sat up in bed, pushing back so he could lean against the headboard. “Can I help you with something, Charlie?”

Charlie didn’t answer immediately, instead taking his time to observe Harry. Charlie had been out in the field, since before the Final Battle, helping to corral a group of dragons that had been discovered in the mountains of Liechtenstein. He had been desperately worried about Harry, and he knew from Ron’s increasingly anxious letters that Harry hadn’t been dealing with his situation well, but seeing the young man in person was a shock to his system.

Harry’s usually bright eyes, which used to be filled with warmth and emotion, were now rimmed with dark circles, and looked dull and lifeless. Harry had obviously lost weight, his clothing hanging on him as it had each summer when he had been retrieved from the Dursley residence.

Thus far, Harry had rebuffed all of his friends’ attempts at reassurance, and had refused categorically to search for Severus Snape. Yet still, he refused to sleep anywhere but Severus’ old bed in the Dungeons. Charlie was determined to get his young friend, and former lover, back on track.

Charlie finally answered Harry’s earlier question, crossing his arms over his chest and meeting Harry’s gaze unflinchingly. “Actually, yes, you can. I’d like you to get up off of your arse and start living again.”

“Look, Charlie, I…”

Charlie’s resolve to be tough with Harry melted as soon as he saw the hopeless look in the younger man’s eyes. He quickly crossed the few steps to the bed, and gathered Harry into his arms. “No, this is me you’re talking to. I’ll agree that these are far from the best of circumstances, but one day soon you are going to be a father.” Harry started to protest, but anticipating Harry’s reaction, Charlie forged ahead. “Whether or not you are a part of that little girl or boy’s life is not the issue right now. Either way, they are still going to know who you are. Do you want them to think of you like this?”

Harry’s shrug of indifference reawakened Charlie’s earlier ire. He moved his hands to Harry’s shoulders, pushing the younger man away from him rather abruptly, and forcing Harry to meet his gaze. “Oh, you do, eh? You want your child to think of you as some whiny fool who didn’t get things his way, so he just gave up and wallowed in self-pity? I should think you would want your child to understand, even if Severus never does, that you did what you did because you valued their other father’s life above all things.”

Harry sighed, knowing that Charlie wouldn’t be willing to leave unless he gave him some answers. “I’ve gone over it in my head a thousand times, Charlie. There’s no other way it could have worked. If he had known…”

“The spell wouldn’t have worked. I know.”

“He was ready to die. He had made his peace with that. Who was I to be selfish enough to take that choice away from him?” Harry asked brokenly, looking away from Charlie.

Charlie’s touch gentled, and he moved a hand up to cradle Harry’s face, bringing Harry’s teary gaze back up to his again. “Someone who loved him enough to want him to have a second chance at the life he never had. Why aren’t you out there fighting for him? Fighting for the love you’ve found?”

“If Severus wants or needs me, he knows where I am,” Harry replied softly. “I’m not going to burden him with my presence, or burden my heart with that kind of unrequited love.”

“What if he feels the same way you do?” Charlie offered, dangling the bit of information in front of Harry that he had obtained just earlier from Ron, Draco, and Hermione.

“He doesn’t, Charlie. He submitted to me only because he was frightened not to. He…”

Charlie reached for Harry’s arm, turning it over in his grasp, and pushing the robe sleeve back so that he could trace the Mark on Harry’s forearm. “If that were true, this Mark wouldn’t be here.”

“What the hell are you on about?” Harry demanded, wrenching his arm back from Charlie’s grip, a spark of his old self finally coming to the surface from under the layers of self-doubt and guilt.

“Hermione, Draco and Ron have been researching, and they found out some information about why you were marked as well,” Charlie answered honestly. “It seems that the Domino bonding spell was flawed in several ways.”

“How so?”

“First off, people who are lovers already aren’t supposed to enter into that particular bond. If they do, it can create a reciprocal bond.” Charlie shared with Harry all that Hermione and Draco had explained to him just earlier that day.

There was a glimmer of hope in Harry’s eyes, which was quickly doused as he muttered his next words. “But Severus and I weren’t… I mean that was the first time…”

“It was the first time that you had intercourse, but not the first time that you engaged in sexual relations with him. Harry we had sex for nearly a month before the first time you penetrated me. Did that mean we weren’t already lovers before then?”

“True. So, couldn’t that have been enough…? I mean, there’s no way that he can possibly have feelings for me.”

“Harry, listen to me. Your friends were reluctant to tell you this because they didn’t want to raise your hopes falsely, but personally, I don’t think there’s any doubt that Severus loves you too. I honestly don’t think he would have been as devastated by what he saw as your betrayal if he didn’t love you, not to mention the fact that the bond wouldn’t have been reciprocal if there hadn’t been love there on his part as well. He didn’t make love to you because he feared your power; he did it because for the first time in his life he felt safe and loved.”

Relief flooded through Harry’s frame, his eyes sliding shut as he blew out a breath. “Which is why he felt so much more betrayed when he thought that everything on my part had been an act.”

“I think so.”

Harry’s eyes reopened, and when they locked with Charlie’s, they were as full of light and determination as Charlie had remembered. “I want to see this book.”

“I thought you might.”

~*~


After a quick shower, and a change of clothes, Charlie and Harry had set off for Hermione’s room. They had found only Draco and Ron there, lounging in the small sitting area, but the two had quickly retrieved the book Harry was interested in from its hiding place.

Draco, Ron and Charlie sat quietly as Harry perused the ancient tome. Finally, he lowered the book to the desk, and looked up to meet his friends’ worried gazes. For the first time in months, he allowed himself a slight smile. “I’m so sorry for how awful I’ve been. I had no idea that you all have been working so hard for me.”

“Don’t thank us yet,” Draco advised with a snort. “Just because Severus loves you doesn’t mean that he’ll be willing to accept you back. Or even be willing to listen to you.”

“I know that, but it does mean that I didn’t rape him,” Harry said quietly.

“Harry, you didn’t…” Ron protested.

“I know I didn’t physically force him, but all this time I thought that the only reason he really gave in at the end was because he was fearful of what I might do,” Harry stated emphatically. “Taking a broken man is rape to me.”

“So what are you going to do now?” Charlie inquired.

Harry stood from the chair he had been occupying, and ran a hand through his hair as he stared out of the tower window. “I’m not sure. I mean he doesn’t want me to find him, obviously, so I suppose I’ll just try to get on with my life, be the best person I can be, and be here if he wants me.”

“Oh no, you won’t,” Hermione interjected harshly. Harry whipped around just as the outer door to the Head Girl’s rooms clicked shut. He could tell by the set of Hermione’s jaw, and the worried look in her eyes that she didn’t bring good news. “Not unless you intend to sacrifice both Severus AND your child.”

“What?” Harry’s knees almost buckled from beneath him as he stumbled back into the chair that he had just vacated. Hermione wasted no time in opening the book she had been carrying with her in front of him, and opening it, pointing to a passage for Harry to read.

“I was worried that perhaps we hadn’t found everything, and I was right.” Hermione glanced at each occupant of the room worriedly as she summarized what she had found. “If the bonded pair is separated for an extended period of time during the pregnancy, there haven’t been any recorded cases of the parent or child surviving the birth.”

~TBC~

~*~


Authors’ Notes: Thank you also to all of our reviewers: alliekatgal, Aracale, marie, NightOwl, Katie K, quashi, Anon, abbi cee, roxy, koki, Selene S. Snape, moondancer, eternity_101, Abyss, and Nelver. Answers to specific questions are below.

allikatgal - you\'ll just have to wait and see about that letter - possibly in next chapter. Severus hasn\'t told us his plans yet for the birth either - *giggle* but we\'re sure he\'s made them.

quashi - you were right - there was something you were missing - *snicker* *points up to Hermione\'s information*

abbi cee - Nope. It wasn\'t normal at all. *points up to Hermione\'s information* :D

Nelver - We think a semi-annual visit from the girlfriend is MUCH more important than our little story. It\'ll be here whenever you\'ve got time to read it.

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 here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/magdelenas_menagerie/