Bond of Love

Chapter 4
Punishment


Severus and Remus walked silently up the street towards number 4. Severus’ face bore its usual emotionless mask, but those who knew him well could see the barely retrained hatred burning in his onyx eyes. Remus on the other hand, was a picture of silent fury. One look at him would be enough to know that the usually mild mannered man had unleashed the wolf that lived within himself. Some one had hurt the wolf’s cub, and they would pay. To an outsider, looking at these two handsome men in their flowing black robes, the first thought would be to get the hell out of their way.

As they reached the door, neither man bothered to knock. At the same time, they raised their wands and two powerful blasting curses shattered the door in one go. Severus was the first inside, and as he saw Vernon, he hit him with a very strong pain curse. Although it wasn’t as strong as Cruciatus but it also wasn’t an Unforgivable Curse. Within in moments, all three Dursleys’ were on the ground, begging the two wizards for mercy. Hearing Vernon beg him not to hurt him caused something inside of Severus to snap, like two brittle boards, and loose what little self-control he had on his anger.

When Severus began to speak, Remus felt a chill go down his spine. The last time he had heard such anger in his voice, was the night James and Lily had died. Not many knew it, but Severus and James were cousins and even though they didn’t get along together in school, both believed in looking after their family. Neither of them would allow any real harm to come to the other one. James had even stopped speaking to Sirius for 3 whole months after the Whomping Willow prank. Now some one had hurt Harry, and Remus knew Severus was more then capable of killing all of the Dursleys’.

“You dare to beg me not to hurt you? Did you listen when Harry begged you not to rape him?” Severus’ voice was filled with rage and anxiety, and the usually serene voice was now cold and malicious as he turned to Petunia. “And You! How could you hurt Harry? He is your NEPHEW. He is your blood. You abused a child. When I think of how many times I have heard Lily say she loved you, it makes me sick to my stomach. Your sister loved you, and this is how you repay your retribution to her. Lily and Harry are the only reason you and your pathetic family are even alive right now, and had they not stopped Voldemort, he would have killed all of you pathetic muggles a long time ago.”

The three Dursleys were sitting on the floor, trying to move back as far as they could from Severus. A red light seemed to surround him, growing stronger as he grew angrier. The very air crackled in the house and was filled with the electric power of a very powerful wizard who was about to loose control. Glass shattered, and the room shook with the power swirling around the dark man. Raising his wand, he began cursing Vernon. After several blasting curses, and a couple of pain curses, then he switched to Unforgivables. He cast the Cruciatus and prepared to cast Avada Kedavra, when Remus moved up beside him, placing a hand on his arm and whispered in his ear that Harry wouldn’t want them killed.

Hearing Remus say that Harry wouldn’t want this, cleared the red haze that had entered his mind. For a moment, a flash of Harry sitting in his bed in the hospital wing laughing up at him crossed his mind. With the image, came a sense of calm. Looking down at Petunia, his mask back in place he began to question her with his voice still dripping with a loathsome hate.

“Did you know Petunia, that your husband likes boys? Did you know he raped your nephew? How long do you think, he will go until he begins raping your son?”

Petunia sputtered angrily trying to pull Dudley closer to her. “He would never have raped that little freak. Besides if he did, the brat would have deserved it. He is unnatural, I tell you. Dudley found this book. He writes about being attracted to some man who teaches at that freak school of his. Then, whenever he is home, everything goes wrong. The little freak can’t even clean Dudley’s bedroom properly.”

Remus could no longer help himself, and hit the woman with the pain curse that Severus had used earlier. He could not hold himself back anymore, listening to the woman insult the boy he considered his adopted nephew. Harry had always been such a sweet boy. Even when he was just a teacher, and Harry didn’t know he was a part of the family he had lost, Harry had gone out of his way to be nice and to spend time with him. Remus could not understand how anyone could truly hate the boy, especially his family. After he hit Petunia with the curse, he looked at Dudley. He actually felt sorry for the boy. He had everything he could ever want, but what would happen to him when he was on his own and didn’t know how to take care of himself.
“Dudley, did you know what your father was doing to your cousin?” Remus asked in a soft voice.

“Yes, I knew, father said that he had to teach the little freak his place and that if he did that to him he would start to be normal. He wanted me to do it too, but I don’t like blokes, so I refused. As long as the freak did the chores, I really didn’t care what he did.”

Severus, who had been listening to the conversation, had to fight to keep himself from cursing the boy. After all, he just took his cue from his parents. Looking around the room, he noticed all the pictures of Dudley and all the expensive knick-knacks, cluttering the room. Seeing the signs, that they obviously had more then enough money, angered him more when he realized that the few times he had seen Harry out of uniform his clothes were torn and far too large for him.

Looking over at Remus, he could tell the man was thinking along the same lines. Both of them were angry, but suddenly neither wanted anything more then to simply get back to Hogwarts and Harry. Nodding at Remus, he walked over to the cupboard doors and opened them looking for Harry’s belongings, which he said would be in the cupboard. Seeing the empty cupboard, with nothing but a couple pure white feathers, to show anything of Harry’s had been there he walked back over to Petunia.

“Where are Harry’s things? His trunk and owl should have been in the cupboard.”

It was Dudley who answered, having realized that for some reason these people weren’t going to hurt him too.

“Dad burned it all, and then broke the bird’s neck. I snuck out last night and buried the bird, I may not have liked Harry, but he did save my life. I didn’t think he would have like to see what had been done to the bird, he really seemed to like it.”

Severus and Remus looked at each other each casting a final pain curse at the adults, as they walked toward the door. Once out on the street, they both reigned in their tempers, and disapparated. They wanted nothing more then to be back at home with Harry.