Dangerous Manipulation

Harry smiled down at the letter in his hands. He had finally heard from Dumbledore, and he was at last going to leave the Dursley’s. He had turned 17 a few days ago, and though he’d half expected something out of the ordinary to happen, it didn’t. It had been a normal birthday, with Dudley mocking him for having no friends, and his Aunt and Uncle forcing him to do endless chores.

And now, he was leaving for good. Dumbledore promised in his letter that he wasn’t ever going to have to come back. He hadn’t explained why he wouldn’t have to come back, but Harry wasn’t one to look at gift horse in the mouth.

According to the letter, Dumbledore would arrive any minute to take him to Grimmauld Place. His trunk was packed, and he had everything he owned ready to leave Privet Drive forever.

A sharp crack followed by a knock on the door alerted Harry to Dumbledore’s arrival. He shot towards the door from where he had been waiting on the stairs and opened the door. Hopefully his Uncle wouldn’t’ hear him at all and he could simply leave.

“Ah, Harry, so good to see you my boy!” Dumbledore said, eyes filled with their customary twinkle.

“Hello Professor.” Harry said, smiling. “Um… how are we getting to headquarters?” Harry asked.

“Oh, we’ll be apparating there, of course you haven’t taken your test yet, so I’ll be bringing you in side-along apparition. Have you said good-bye to your relatives?”

“Um… I don’t think that would be the best idea. I told them I’d be getting out their hair today, and I think they’ve been pretending that I’ve already left. So, we can just, er, leave now. They won‘t mind.” Harry said, hoping that Dumbledore wouldn’t make him talk to them again. Despite the fact that they had always belittled him and told him that they wanted to see him gone they had called him ungrateful when he said that he was leaving for good in an extremely happy voice. Though it wasn’t like he could have helped it. Who wouldn’t be happy that they were leaving the Dursleys’.

Dumbledore eyed him suspiciously for a minute, but he eventually nodded. “Well, grab hold of your trunk and we can be on our way.” The headmaster walked away quickly, not bothering to help Harry with his trunk.

Harry picked up the edge of his trunk and dragged it out of the house, following Dumbledore around the corner of the house.

“Hold on tight Harry,” Dumbledore said, offering Harry his arm. “And don’t let go of your trunk.” Harry nodded sharply, and sucked in a breath as the world around him disappeared.

Apparition was a sickening feeling, almost as if he were being ripped out of his body and off of the world. He didn’t know if he’d ever grow accustomed to the feeling, and though he knew he’d have to learn how to do it as it was dead useful in emergencies, he didn’t think that he’d ever get used to it.

As quickly as it had started, the feeling ended. As the world refocused around him, he saw that they had arrived right in front of Grimmauld Place.

Dumbledore finally cast a levitation charm on his trunk and together they headed into the house. “I believe most of the Order is still in the kitchen. Shall we join them?” Dumbledore’s voice was polite, but Harry could tell that it was not a request. Still, he nodded in answer and followed the headmaster.

“Harry!” was all the warning he received before he found himself with an armload of Hermione.

“Its good to see you too, ‘Mione! Mind letting go of me?” Harry asked, trying to catch his breath. Hermione blushed and released him from her hug.

“Oi mate! Finally got away from those muggles, hey?” Ron asked, smiling at his best friend as he clapped him on the shoulder.

“Yeah, and Professor Dumbledore said that I didn’t have to go back.” His friends both looked at each other, exchanging dark looks. “What’s wrong? That’s a good thing, remember?” Harry asked perplexed. “My family rather hates me, and anything magical really. Getting out of there is something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.”

“Oh! Of course it’s a good thing Harry! We’re just surprised. I thought that you’d have to go back at least once a year, you know, keep up the protection from Voldemort.” Hermione answered quickly. There was a definite, though slight, blush on her face.

Harry looked at her suspiciously. It was obvious that she was trying to hide something, but he couldn’t think of any reason for her to, so he let it slide. After all, they were his best friends, they would tell him if something was really wrong, wouldn’t they?

As if to confirm Harry‘s thoughts and fears, Hermione said, “We should go upstairs and talk.” all the while shooting suspicious and fearful looks at the adults in the room, all of whom seemed to be deep in conversation.

“I think Dumbledore wanted to talk to me or something, he said to come to the kitchen.” Harry answered, still confused. ‘What the hell is going on?’ he wondered.

“Oh, I’m sure he just knew that we’d be in here at this time of day after all its just a bit after dinner, he probably wanted you to meet up with us.” Ron said hastily. “Let’s go upstairs, quickly, they’ll be dead boring to listen to.” Sensing that something was definitely up, Harry nodded and the three made their way to the door. Ron and Hermione always wanted to listen to what the adults said, they were keen to catch every slip that might give them news on how the war was going.

As Harry attempted to follow Ron and Hermione out the door, a voice called out to stop him, for some odd reason filling him with dread.

“Harry, we are going to have an Order meeting, and it is important that you stay.” the headmaster’s voice called. Harry nodded and made his way back into the kitchen, Ron and Hermione following him in.

“Ron, Hermione, you two go back upstairs.” Molly Weasley called sternly. “You aren’t part of the Order yet!”

“But mum, Harry will just tell us later, wouldn’t it be better for us to hear the real thing from you than a garbled version from Harry?” Ron asked, desperately.

“Harry can tell you whatever he chooses, but Molly is right, you two aren’t members of the Order and as such you cannot sit in on our meeting.” Dumbledore answered in a grave voice, which simply screamed don’t argue despite the fact that he was talking normally.

“Harry isn’t a member of the Order either!” Hermione tried in desperation. “Maybe he should just come upstairs with us.”

Harry was confused. His friends obviously didn’t want him to hear what the Order had to say. But why? WHAT was going on…

“Harry will stay because he needs to know certain facts that are to be revealed at this meeting. He has my permission to stay despite the fact that he is not yet a member of the Order, and he has no guardians to protest this decision, unlike the both of you. If you would please head upstairs, it is imperative that we begin.” Dumbledore replied, somewhat less politely.

Hermione and Ron nodded meekly, giving Harry a look that clearly said ‘good luck mate, hope you don’t die’ and left the kitchen.

Harry turned back to the adults in the room, everyone from Moony, to Tonks, the Weasley’s, Moody and even Snape were there, sitting around the table. Their expressions were grave, and they gave Harry the feeling that he was about to go to his execution.

Dumbledore gestured to a seat next to him, and Harry sat quietly.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and began. “As you know Harry, we have found a way to ensure your safety without subjecting you to living with the Dursley’s. Sending you back to live with them after you left Hogwarts was simply not an option, and I’m sure you have no desire to spend more time with them than you have to.”

‘Astute as always Dumbledore, you’ve known for years how they’ve treated me, and you never once offered to help before now. What is up?’ Harry asked himself suspiciously.


Despite his inner turmoil, Harry knew that voicing that suspicion would only make them treat him even more like a child than they already did. Determined not to let that happen, he pushed those thoughts aside.

“I thought you just decided not to send me back there. How did you get new wards set up somewhere else?” Harry asked, honestly curious.

“We didn’t exactly get wards set up somewhere else. But we have found a way to sever your connection with the Dark Lord, as well as protect you.” Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled madly, causing Harry to shiver. He knew that whenever the headmaster’s eyes twinkled so brightly nothing good was going to happen to the person involved.

Harry, however wary, took the bait. “So what have you decided to do?”

“We have discovered that the best way to break the connection to Voldemort is to bind you to someone else. Someone who will be able to protect you from Death Eaters. Voldemort will no longer be able to influence your mind or use you to spy on the side of the light.”

‘What the hell did that mean?’ Harry wondered. He puzzled over the headmasters words for a minute before he stopped at one particular word, ‘Bond to someone, as in BOND!!’ alarms went off in his head. “Uh, Professor, what do you mean bond?” He asked, trying to calm himself, surely they didn’t mean bond in the way that he was thinking. Even if they were desperate to protect him they wouldn’t subject him to something so personal. ‘There’s no way they’d do that,’ he reassured himself. ‘Dumbledore is looking out for my best interest, and that definitely doesn’t include this.’

“I’m afraid I mean bond in the traditional sense. What we are planning to do bonds two individuals heart, soul, and magic. I believe that this will even have the added bonus of boosting your magical ability. Perhaps with your added powers you will be able to defeat Voldemort. At any rate, the more magic the better in this case, so there truly is no reason not to bond you in this manner.”

Harry gaped. “Professor, that kind of bond involves, um, you know!”

Dumbledore nodded gravely. Harry thought it rather ominous that his eyes were still twinkling. He obviously didn‘t care if Harry had any objections. “It does indeed involve sexual intercourse, but I believe that all of the less desirable aspects are countered by the benefits.”

‘No, there’s no way that I’m going to do this! I’m just not!’ Harry screamed in his head. He took several calming breaths.

“I highly object to this idea, but I suppose that you have already decided who you wish to bond me to, perhaps I should wait for that before I completely pass judgment.” Inside, Harry was fuming. How dare they believe that they could control his life?! They had no right to decide who he married, for in essence that was what it was: marriage.

Harry didn’t know exactly what he wanted in a spouse, but he had always had the typical dream. A kind witch whom he was in love with from the first day he met her, and who loved him dearly. Someone to have children with, and laugh with, someone to grow old with. But what mattered most to him was love. ‘Who ever I bond with will probably hate me because they’ll be forced into it too. And there’s no way they’ll even let me have a choice. I can see it in his eyes, this is about control. Agh! Bloody hell this couldn’t get any worse.’

“We have indeed decided who would be the best match. This person knows the way of the dark, has useful contacts with them and knows how to protect against them. He has proven his mind strong enough to withstand even Voldemort himself. He-”

“No!!” Harry screeched. “There is no way I’m bonding to that… THING! For starters, we’re both men! AND he’s my greasy git of a potion’s master! If you think that I’m going to have SEX with HIM then you are really out of your mind.” Harry felt like he was going to explode. ‘Ron and ‘Mione must have known, they were going to try and warn me so I could find a way out of this… God I HAVE to get out of this room. I can’t let them do this to me.’

Curiously, Snape did not reprimand Harry for his outburst, nor did he comment about Harry’s rather rude words to describe him. He merely watched Harry, somewhat surprised at how quickly the boy had caught on. ‘Hmmm…’ he mused, ‘Perhaps I can use this to my advantage, it will be quite useful if he blames the headmaster for his problems… Not to mention the fact that anger can be a very useful tool. Dumbledore is really making this way to easy.’

“I’m afraid you have no choice Harry. The only viable candidate is Professor Snape. There is simply no one else, though I assure you that I have made every effort to find an alternative.” ’Yeah right,’ Harry scoffed. ’You knew who you wanted me to bond to from the very beginning.’

“ I have arranged for your bonding to take place tomorrow.” Dumbledore’s eyes were still twinkling. ‘Damn that man, his eyes are still twinkling, he is up to something.’ Harry hissed to himself. ‘I’ve got to find a way out of this… THINK! That’s it! Get Snape to get us out of it. I hate to admit it, but he’s probably my only hope now.’

Desperately, he turned to Snape, “How can you agree to go along with this? You can’t possibly want to be with me like that?!”

“I wasn’t easy to convince Potter, but I had no choice in the matter. I will do what I must to ensure the war doesn’t get out of hand.” Severus’ voice and face were serious, but internally he was smirking. He saw no reason to inform Potter of the which way he truly wanted the war to go just yet. No, he wouldn’t need to know until after the bond, when Severus would already be able to control him.

Snape smirked, Dumbledore hadn’t exactly been forthcoming to Harry about the details of the bond they were going to use. It was an old fashioned one, meant to be used to ensure the proper behavior of one’s wife in the Dark Ages, and Potter was quite conveniently going to be playing the part of the wife. Which meant that Snape was going to have control over him.

Of course, the most important part of the headmaster’s plan was that Snape was a spy for the light and would tie Harry to their side, but, unfortunately for him, that wasn’t even close to the truth. In trying to win a war Dumbledore had ensured that he lost. ‘Well,’ Snape rationalized, ‘the man has to learn sometime that manipulation often backfired.’

Dumbledore did his best to look stern, but the twinkle in his eyes let Harry know that there was indeed something more to the plan. Damn the man! He probably was simply doing his best to control him. ‘Better prepare for some more manipulation…’ Harry turned back to the headmaster and looked at him with an expectant glare.

“Harry, my boy, Severus is doing his duty to the war, and you must do the same. The light needs you to be safe, and I fear that the only way that is going to happen is if you are bound to someone. Severus is the only one able to do the job. Now, you may be 17, and you are an adult by wizard standards, but you are still subject to our laws and decrees, and I have the Minister’s backing on this. You have no choice Harry, either you do this willingly or you do it by force.” He smiled kindly at the young man. “Now, why don’t you head upstairs and think things over. Try to get a good night’s sleep, as tomorrow will be a busy day, your bonding will take place at 5 p.m., after all.”

Dumbledore placed a slight inflection on will, and Harry knew that he had lost. Not that there had really been a chance of escaping this ludicrous bond, but any hope that he had had was now gone.

Nodding angrily at the occupants of the room, he made his way out of the kitchen, balling his fists to keep from letting out his anger and magic, both of which seemed to have bubbled to the surface to protect him. ‘I should just let it all out and blow them up,’ he mused. ‘Too bad I’m not Voldemort…’ Harry trailed off from these thoughts. It was no use. He wasn’t going to become a mass murderer over this. He’d find another way, channel the anger into the war or something.

He tried his best not to scream once he was out in the hall way. While screaming would definitely have helped release some of his rage, now was definitely not the time to listen to a screaming portrait. Shaking, he made his way up the stairs, scarcely paying attention to where he was going. Finally, he made his way into the room that he always shared with Ron.

Ron, Hermione, and surprisingly Ginny were all waiting there for him, faces grim. ‘They know’ was the only thought on his mind. ‘Well, at least I don’t have to tell them,’ he thought, chuckling weakly to himself.

Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. Harry looked near hysterical, his expression one of incredible anger and disbelief. “Harry, mate, I guess they told you. I’m so sorry mate, we tried to get you up here to warn you, give you a chance to come up with an argument against it…” Ron trailed off. Harry was nodding at his words, he’d suspected as much. At least his friends cared.

“Are you ok Harry? I’m sure that must have been a shock, them asking you to bond to some witch, but they’re at least letting you choose right? So it won’t be that bad.” Hermione ventured. Harry’s eyes snapped to his friends. They didn’t know everything. His eyes crackled with anger, but still he remained silent, trying to hold in the rage that was so desperately trying to flood out of him.

“Harry,” Ginny said gently. “Are they not letting you decide or something? Can’t you just say no?”

At these words Harry lost any semblance of control he had had. “NO I BLOODY WELL CAN’T SAY NO! AND DO YOU KNOW WHY?” He screeched, louder than the portrait of Sirius’ mother even on her best day. “BECAUSE DUMBLEDORE BLOODY WENT TO THE BLEEDING MINISTRY TO GET SUPPORT! EITHER I DO WHAT THEY WANT ON MY OWN OR THEY‘LL FORCE ME TO DO IT!” Gulping in air, Harry finally managed to stop screaming.

The three other teens in the room were terrified. What did someone say to a friend being forced into a marriage?

Hermione, ever the logical one, knew there was more to it than that if Harry was so incredibly angry. It usually took a lot for Harry to lose complete control like this. “Harry, what witch did they want to bond you to? Surely if you really had a problem with her they’d find someone else. They won‘t force you to bond to someone you hate.”

“How much did you actually hear from them? Did they tell you that I had a choice in the identity for my bond mate?” Harry asked, much calmer, though this was perhaps even scarier to the other three occupants of the room.

“Well, they didn’t want us to know, we sort of listened at the door with the extendable ears like we did before. But we only heard that first little bit about their plans to bond you before someone remembered to charm the door so we couldn’t hear in. I don’t even think they really knew all the details at that point, and we weren’t ever able to hear anything more, they started to be really careful about things like that.” Ron answered slowly.

“I’d imagine they would. They wouldn’t want you to be able to get a message to me about it. And they knew you’d try harder if you knew the truth. You see, that bloody git of a headmaster-”

“HARRY!” Hermione scolded.

“Decided to bond me to a wizard, being the insufferable idiot that he is-”

“You really shouldn’t talk about the headmaster like that Harry! Even if you are angry at him, he still deserves a measure of respect.”

“And that particular wizard, a matter over which I have absolutely no say, is the greasy git himself: Snape.”

“That bloody arsed fool!” Hermione hissed as Ron bellowed “No bloody way in hell!” Ginny paled considerably but kept silent. Harry simply nodded and sat down on his bed.

“He did it on purpose you know.” All three heads turned to look at him. “He knew that you guys knew about the bonding. He didn’t want to give me a chance to come up with a logical argument as to why this wasn’t a good idea, or illegal or anything like that. He’s doing everything as quickly as possible so that no one has a chance to get out of doing this.” Harry paused and took a deep breath. “That’s why I’m being bonded to Snape at 5-o-clock tomorrow.”

“THAT soon!! He’s not even going to give you time to get to know Snape or anything!” Hermione yelled. “Not that I approve of Snape or anything, but even still, bonding involves sexual intercourse, surely you should get to know the man before that. Other wise…” She looked sadly at Harry. “Otherwise its rape, Harry. Maybe you can get out of it with that… that they’re basically raping you.”

“I know ‘Mione… I tried to get out of this, but they do have the Minister on their side. As Dumbledore saw fit to remind me, I’m an adult by wizarding standards. I can’t disobey the word of the Ministry, and they all want this. Dumbledore would say that they want me safe, but I know that’s not it. This is a way to control me. Snape will be able to tell me to do something and I’ll have to do it or something. I don’t know a lot about bonds, and they didn’t even tell me exactly what type of bond it will be… but its got to be something like that.” Harry mused.

“I agree.” Hermione went into full research-and-destroy mode. “As much as I don’t like to disrespect the headmaster, I believe he’d do anything to win this war. Even if it meant hurting you now so you could save everyone later.” Hermione looked extremely thoughtful, and Harry had a feeling that she was going over the different types of bond that she knew in her head. That was Hermione, knew everything about anything and only had to think for a minute before she could tell you all you wanted to know, and some stuff that you didn’t want to know, about a particular topic.

A sudden gasp from Hermione drew his attention back to the matter at hand again. “Harry, bloody hell, they’re probably going to use the old type of marriage bond! It makes sense!” Hermione trailed off, mumbling things, most likely about the bond, under her breath.

Harry, on the other hand, was staring dumbstruck at Hermione. As much as he hated to admit it, he actually remembered something from History of Magic. They had had to write three feet on this particular subject, including examples of how the bond had been used to influence different brides throughout the Dark Ages and why that had led to the new and current form of the bond.

“No,” he whispered. Snape would have almost complete control over him with that type of bond. “They wouldn’t be that stupid, that evil, would they?”

Ginny looked at Harry, baffled by the conversation, but as realization hit Ron, he paled. “Blimey, they’re going to let SNAPE control Harry?! I still say the bloody bat is a Death Eater! Forget this spy nonsense! The git is evil, and they’re going to let him, well, OWN you!”

“Would someone please tell me what’s going on?” Ginny asked quietly, almost afraid to know the truth.

Hermione looked up, rambling stopped for the moment. “Oh, that’s right Gin, you haven’t gotten to that yet in History of Magic. Uh, well, in the Dark Ages the bond that wizards used for weddings bound the bride to the husband. The husband controlled his wife almost completely. It eventually got out of hand and they changed it, but the spell for the original is still around. Its very dangerous, for obvious reasons so the actual spell is kept quiet, but I’m sure that Dumbledore knows it. And, well, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, but doesn’t it seem like Voldemort uses a form of the bond on his Death Eaters? Obviously its different, because I can’t see Voldemort having sex with every one of his followers just to create a bond, and obviously the control isn’t as complete or no one could ever go against him, but still… they seem rather alike…. Hmmm, perhaps he substituted the part of the bond that’s supposed to be about protection with pain, that’d be why the mark hurts when he calls them-”

“err, ‘Mione? You’re rambling again.” Ron said, a slight blush on his cheeks. He had a decidedly disgusting image of Voldemort in his head thanks to Hermione’s words. He shuddered. There were some things that young boys just weren’t meant to have to think about. A Dark Lord, who was incredibly vicious and hideously disfigured to boot, having sex with his minions was one of them.

“Sorry about that.” Hermione said, having the grace to look embarrassed.

Harry’s head was in his hands. “So I’m going to be controlled by Snape. So much for ever having fun again, ever. I bet the git will stop me from playing Quidditch too, or force me to let Slytherin win. He’ll probably make me study all the time as some sort of torture, keep me from seeing any of you. Gods my life is going to hell!!” Harry was near hysterical. The thoughts of what someone who hated him could do when he was under that type of bond terrified him.

“Harry,” Ginny said softly. “Are you sure he said the Minister was behind him? The law can’t allow this can it? This is awful, and while I know our government isn‘t perfect, I can‘t believe that they‘d let this happen. Its sick!”

Harry shook his head dejectedly, not wanting to speak, not wanting to do anything but make this go way. Sensing that Harry was in no place to explain things right now, Hermione answered for him.

“Gin, in our society, the Minister has a lot of say over the individual, especially when he believes that what he does to that individual will benefit others. He can force Harry to do anything, either by threat of Azkaban or-” She stopped, afraid to say it in front of Harry.

“By Imperious.” Harry said bitterly. “I know, ‘Mione, its ok. Our lovely government has given itself the right to use Imperious on people to force them to carry out government mandated tasks. Apparently those now include forcing a student to let himself be raped by his teacher. And it doesn’t matter that I can throw off the imperious, because when they cast it they use a task force to ensure that the ’victim’ complies. I can go up against one person’s spell, maybe even two if I was lucky… but a trained Ministry task force? Forget it, I’m stuck, and I can’t do anything about it.” Harry swallowed, feeling tears about to break free.

“I- I’m going to go to bed now… I just can’t handle this anymore. Its too much.”

His friends were reluctant, but they knew that Harry simply did not like to cry in front of anyone. They nodded, and together left him alone to mourn the loss of his life. Because that was what was happening. Once bonded to Snape, the most controlling man they knew, Harry wouldn’t be Harry anymore. Who exactly he would be they didn’t know, but if Snape was anything to go by, they didn’t want to know.”

“So much for having a good summer, a good year. Its all gone now. I can’t believe I was so naïve that I thought leaving the Dursleys so early was a good thing.” Harry whispered into the dark of his room. He hadn’t bothered to turn a light on when it got dark, it suited his mood. He had never been more miserable in his life. “What am I going to do? I don’t think I can live through tomorrow, let alone a life with Snape. And that’s really the worst bit. If I could get out of this after the war was over I’d do it, but there’s no way to reverse the spell. Its for life, no such thing as divorce.” This time, Harry didn’t even try to stop the tears that were flowing down his face. He deserved to cry, forget that boys weren’t supposed to be emotional. ‘Besides,’ he thought with a humorous chuckle. ‘I’m going to be someone’s wife by this time tomorrow anyway, might as well start practicing for it.’

A/N: So do you like it? It has a lot more angst than my other fics… which is why I wanted to write it. I really wanted to write something that was dark and kind of creepy… and if I continue this is probably going to be like that. Should I continue? Let me know if I should finish this story or drop it! That means review!! Lol.