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A/N Okay, the last few chapters have been dreadful for Severus and Farid, but things are slowly getting better now so it is safe to read again! Thanks Kim for the amazing job betaing 8,000 words in one day - which means that the next two chapters will be up soon


Thirty-Six

Albus’ office was as crowded, for the Expulsion Hearing, as Severus had ever seen it. All the teachers were there, and even a couple of Aurors. They included a pretty pink-haired girl who was somehow related to Black and was currently in a relationship with Remus. Tall, handsome Kingsley Shacklebolt was the other Auror. He caught Severus’ eye and gave him a wink and a quiet smile. Shacklebolt and Severus had had a bit of a fling when Severus was in his early twenties. It had been a more innocent time somehow, after Voldemort had been temporarily defeated and before Severus had become bitter; he remembered it with fondness. He and the other man had retained a rather tentative, but nevertheless long lasting, friendship.

A number of the more senior pupils were there too; because they had asked to be, and Albus had thought them mature enough to attend. Two of their own had been attacked after all, the night that they were at a party, and it had unsettled them, made them angry, very angry indeed.

Draco was sat opposite Severus; his bruises were still in evidence. Right beside him was Seamus; looking a little worse for the wear himself, but holding Draco’s hand tightly as if he would never let the other boy go. Ron and Blaise sat close by. They appeared a little battered too, but nowhere near as bad as Nott and his cronies who looked as if they had gone several rounds with one of Hagrid’s larger pets.

One of the few people who were not here right now was Farid, who Severus had asked not to come. He was worried about the boy, so quiet, so withdrawn had he been since he had woken up. The other absent person was, of course, Sirius Black. Severus had Remus had decided between them, that it really would be best to keep Black away from the proceedings entirely, especially as Black had promised that, if he came across one of the boys who assaulted his godson, that he would tear their throats out with his teeth. And just for them he wouldn’t even transform himself into Padfoot first, since the teeth of humans hurt more than most animals and were far more likely to cause serious infection and permanent harm.

So, of course, they were together. It had taken quite some time to persuade Farid to go flying with Black. He had not argued. Farid had never argued with Severus, had he? But he had used humour and subtle persuasion to tease Severus out of his fiercer moods. Severus had always been irascible and Farid had never seemed to mind; he had put up with Severus’ temper and yet, somehow, Severus didn’t think that the boy had ever done anything that he hadn’t wanted to do – at least since their move to Hogwarts. Severus had loved treating him well and indulging him. It had only been in the last few weeks, when the bond had tightened inexorably, that jealousy and mistrust had started creeping in on Severus’ part; he had stopped seeing Farid’s exuberance as a joy and started resenting the friends that he had made.

But it was Farid’s talent for friendship that ensured the overwhelming support that the wizarding world had shown them both in the last few days. The hundreds of letters and gifts continued to pour in, supporting Farid and telling him that he was loved, and of all things, supporting Severus too.

No one seemed to blame him for what had happened. The fact that he was enthralled by a magical compulsion seemed enough for most people. Severus had feared Black’s reaction most; but his erstwhile enemy had simply pulled Severus into a rough, one-armed hug and suggested that any angry action on his part could hardly be justified.

“After the way I behaved around him the first few days he was here, I don’t have any right to criticise you, Sev. That really would be the pot calling the cauldron black, wouldn’t it?”

So, Severus had gotten off lightly, as far as the wizarding world was concerned; they didn’t blame him at all for what had happened to Farid. The trouble was, Severus blamed himself.

He blamed himself for the fact that Farid was biting his lip again. That he was as submissive as he had been when Severus first rescued him. That the flashes of happiness, the laughter, the sheer vivacity that so characterised Farid, was missing at present and Severus was seriously worried that it was gone for good.

Last night, after the hysteria had ended and Farid was quiet, Severus had taken Farid to bed and the boy had quietly lay there and spread his legs waiting for Severus to fuck him. So many times in the past he would have done just that, but Severus couldn’t anymore; he couldn’t use Farid just for his own pleasure as he had on numerous other occasions. Things had changed.

For the first few months that Farid was with him, Severus had seen the boy as his; his to get pleasure from, his toy to please him. But then he had discovered that seducing Farid, bringing him to an explosive orgasm, was so much better, so much more arousing. He found out that delivering pleasure to someone, who had been so starved of such a thing in his life, brought almost unimaginable pleasure to Severus too. Encouraging him to make friends, to develop interests had also brought him deep joy. Farid had always been more to him than just a willing slave, hadn’t he? But Severus noticed that most, now that it was gone.

Farid was haunted by what had happened. The recent rape had seemed to open a dam of memories and Farid was drowning in them. Remus suggested that such a thing might have happened anyway, sooner or later. That, in fact, after all that he had been through, Farid had to work his memories or he would have collapsed very hard indeed one day soon.

But seeing Farid this morning, paralysed with fear, had nearly caused Severus to become undone. He had found the boy standing in the sitting room, trembling madly and staring at something white on the floor ahead of him. He had, it seemed, been overwhelmed with terror. The offending object was a pair of underpants, just like the ones that he had been gagged with. Severus had removed them quickly and hidden them away, but Farid had not stopped trembling, or staring into space with a haunted look in his eyes, for at least an hour afterwards. He had stayed that way until Black had come and taken the reluctant boy flying.

And now, Severus sat opposite the boys that had caused Farid such pain and suffering. Nott seemed unconcerned and the other two, whilst worried about their own filthy skins, sat across from him, uncaring about the destruction that they had wrought in his life, in Farid’s.

Nott had a defiant look on his face and the other boys just looked scared. Of course Nott’s defiance was somewhat undermined by his black eye and fat lip. Since Ron sported a similar shiner, Severus was certain that the redhead had had something to do with it.

They had been arguing for more than an hour now, all of them. Whilst everyone knew what the boys and done to Farid, and indeed to Draco, there was no real proof. Nott insisted that Severus had given them the parchment that instructed Farid to allow them to do as they wished, whilst Severus vehemently denied such a thing to be true. But there was no way to prove that, was there? Whilst memories of something which had happened could be extracted from a person’s mind, how could one prove what hadn’t happened?

Nott and the other boys, Colburn and Johnson, were too young to be given Veritaserum and nobody could be forced to give pensieve testimony against their will. The only way to extract memories against the subject’s will was to use forced Leglimency and then extract those memories recovered from the Occlumens, but this method was considered completely unethical and, once again, they were too young and their supposed crimes were not considered bad enough for them to be forced, even if the subject of ethics could be surmounted.

Of course all of them denied hurting Draco.

Severus was toying with the idea of threatening resignation; since there was no way that he was going to subject Farid to the possibility of coming face to face with these monstrous children as he went about his daily life at Hogwarts.

But then, there was an almost inaudible knock at the door. Albus was also very frustrated; Severus could see he was very unhappy about what had happened, not only to Farid, whom the man was fiercely protective of, but also he was deeply angered by what had happened to Draco, something which had undoubtedly surprised the boy himself.

Nevertheless, everyone flinched when Dumbledore, who rarely raised his voice, barked out the command, “Come!”

The small, dark head of Esme Zabini peeked around the door.

“I am sorry to disturb you, sir,” she said in her whispery little voice, “but um, some of us were there the night that Draco and Farid were, um, er, hurt and we wondered if, we thought that perhaps, we ought to, um, come and tell you what we saw.”

Nott’s scowl deepened, but Dumbledore beamed. “Certainly, my dear girl,” he answered, “Do come in, we would love to hear what you have to say.”

Esme opened the door and came into the room. Severus was not the only one who gave a gasp of astonishment as she was followed into the room by two thirds of Slytherin House. All of the first, second, and third year, and most of the forth year Slytherin children crowded into the room in her wake. Interestingly enough, the small office seemed to increase in size to accommodate the extra numbers.

Once inside the room, the children stood nervously in several rows, with the smallest of them, including Esme, at the front. There was lots of shuffling of feet and peering at adults through eyelashes and fringes.

Nott’s scowl grew, if anything, even darker, and he muttered, loud enough that Severus and the children could hear him, but quietly enough that most of the other people in the room might doubt what he said, “I’ll get you for this, Zabini!”

That comment though, seemed only to stiffen the little girl’s resolve, because she stood a just a tiny bit straighter, looked Nott directly in the eye and launched into her story without more ado.

The children’s testimony took ages to deliver; they got confused at times and contradicted each other. But not on the important bits of their story about what had happened to Draco and Farid, and who was responsible for it; on those facts every single one of them agreed. Theodore Nott, Alan Colburn and Stuart Johnson, had transfigured some robes, from Slytherin ones to those of Ravenclaw and assaulted Draco. Returning to the common room approximately one hour after they had left, covered in blood and boasting happily about what they had done to their hapless seeker.

Then, with apologetic looks from several of the children directed in Severus’ direction, they detailed the argument that had taken place that evening, one that had been directed and stage-managed by Nott to serve as a distraction. They interjected and interrupted each other and they went on to detail exactly what Severus had said to Farid when he had arrived, repeating how he had shouted and some at least of what he had said. Severus could hear the gasps of some of the others in the room, as the sheer cruelty of the scorn that he had poured on the defenceless boy in his drunken rage, was laid bare for all to see.

Then the children told what they had seen of what had happened next. Nott, it seemed, had brewed the memory potion two days beforehand. The three of them had planned the beating that they had given Draco, not caring whether the other children had overheard snippets of their conversation. The boys, it seemed, had been planning the rape for weeks. One boy told of how Colburn had produced the parchment; it had been a list of comments on a recent report that Severus had written. A third year girl spoke of how she had heard Nott boast to others how his father, who had apparently negotiated with the vampires on Voldemort’s behalf long before Severus had visited, had sent his son a list of the training words that the vampires used on their slaves. Farid had never met him, Severus thought, but Severus should have remembered; had Draco not warned them of the association after all weeks before?

Then the children went into detail of how Farid had been stripped naked, and taken into a side room, and Esme had gone seeking help from her brother and later from Severus himself. Finally, they told the assembled listeners how Severus had descended, dark with fury and dragged his boy away from Slytherin, and how they had all been very scared indeed for Farid and worried for Draco, and, because the older forms had been away at the Gryffindor party, they had not known what to do. So they had taken themselves to bed, resolved to discuss it after they had all slept. Later, finally deciding that they had to tell the headmaster what had happened, however frightened by events they had been.

Silence descended. For a moment, nobody spoke. The sheer horror of what Farid, and indeed Draco, must have gone through that night was apparent to every one. Severus wanted to run from the room and prostrate himself at Farid’s feet, begging his forgiveness. Not that he deserved it, he thought. But, as he looked up, he caught Remus’ eye and the werewolf smiled at him kindly and Severus felt simultaneously blessed and unworthy of such support.

But, all at once, Nott was on his feet hurling abuse at Esme Zabini.

“You fucking little bitch!” he spat. “Where’s your house loyalty? You fucking cun….” But whatever else he might have said was lost as Blaise reached him and laid him out flat with one well judged punch to the jaw.

But Esme was obviously not about to be cowed by Nott, because she turned to her brother and said, “It’s okay, Blaisie, I’m not frightened of him.” She walked over to the prone Nott and stood over him, glaring down at the ungainly heap at her feet.

“You are the one with no house loyalty,” she said calmly. “We didn’t know that you were planning to beat up Draco when we staged that fight; we thought that you were just going to play a trick on the Gryffindors. Draco is our seeker and he flew his best on our behalf; we should have been sympathising with him, not kicking the shit out of him.” Several people gasped at that, but Severus thought it was probably at the incongruity of such a word being said by the dainty, ladylike Esme. He was sure that there were very few people in that room right now who did not agree with the sentiment of her words.

“And as for what you did to Farid,” she continued, “That was unforgivable; you raped him. Because he is normally more powerful than you are, you manipulated him and the Professor so that you could hurt him and that is despicable as far as we are concerned. We have all decided that you are no longer members of Slytherin House!”

She was supported by murmurs and shouts from the assembled children and, leaving Nott curled on the floor holding his jaw, she turned and rejoined her housemates waiting for what would happen next.

Albus thanked them. He thanked the children for standing up and telling the truth and doing what was right, he told them how proud he was of them and he awarded each child present ten points each and Esme, fifty. As there were approximately seventy or more children in the room at that moment Severus knew that they had won the house cup already as surely such a score could not be beaten?

Things moved quickly after that. The younger Slytherins filed out and the fate of Nott, Colburn and Johnson was quickly discussed. Shacklebolt suggested that he should go and speak to Amelia Bones about the situation and what might be done; as he thought what the boys had done deserved a far more severe punishment than expulsion and that he would be recommending a prison term on both the assault and the rape charges. He also said that the boys should be returned to the Room of Requirement with enhanced protection for tonight, as what had been used until now was obviously not enough.

Severus almost laughed when he heard Ron mutter to Neville that the room had worked just fine and that he and the others had had a requirement to have a little word with the boys who had beaten Draco and raped Farid. “We were fair though,” he continued, “we took one each, Me, Seamus and Blaise. We didn’t gang up on them like they did to Draco and Farid.”

“How come they don’t remember, then?” Neville had asked voicing a question that Severus had wanted to ask. “Well, we had a requirement that they would forget who had a little word with them,” Ron answered, “Dumbledore might know that we did it, but he has no proof, and I think he wouldn’t search too hard to get any anyway. It was Hermione’s idea, how we used the room. We had to keep her out, though; she threatened to remove Nott’s balls with a blunt, rusty spoon. I am not even sure that’s possible, but if anyone could do it, Hermione could. She can be right scary, that girl, when she wants to be!”

Severus couldn’t help wishing for a little of Hermione’s ingenuity right now, and he also wished he could take a little visit to the Room of Requirement and wait for the boys to return. He rather thought though, that Albus would have sealed up any loophole that Hermione might have found by now; which was a pity.

But Severus could wait.

Someday, somehow, he would make those boys pay for what they had done. His feelings must have shown on his face, because his eye caught Johnson’s and he saw that the boy had paled and started to shake. He had nudged Colburn and gestured in Severus’ direction a look of naked terror on his face. Severus smirked back at them, and ran a hand across his throat in a cutting gesture. He was very gratified indeed when he saw that their terror intensified. It wouldn’t hurt them to spend the next few years wondering when he would be coming for them, and what he was planning to do when he finally caught up with them.

Finally the meeting ended. McGonagall, Flitwick and the two Aurors escorted the three Slytherin boys from the office, but Severus wondered whether they would make it back to their room completely un-hexed, and whether the adults protecting them would bother to deflect every curse that came their way.

What had happened to Farid and indeed, to Draco, had incensed the whole school. Severus had escaped the wrath of many, he suspected, because he had been seen as someone who had been manipulated into behaving the way he had. It was a supposed secret how powerful and controlling the bond was; which meant, of course, as Albus was fond of saying, that the entire school knew all about it. However, he still found it difficult to meet anyone’s eye. He was, after all, deeply ashamed of what he had done and now, with the Expulsion Hearing over, the time had come to return to Farid. Severus felt the shame of his behaviour, which had been laid out starkly before him for examination by a group of children, gnaw at his gut like a living thing as he left as quickly as he could with out speaking to anyone at all..