Survival Bonds

Chapter 54: The third king

It feels painfully familiar and yet also abnormally dissimilar. There was a time not to long ago that Severus sat beside me and we pressed our shoulder together to show the world that we were in fact together. To prove his innocence. It wasn't very long ago. Yet here I am alone. Alone. And it's so achingly familiar that I had almost forgotten who I was before Severus.

Rita was very excited to meet with me for an interview. It had to be under very specific terms that my house elf Niffy set up. No others could be present aside from her, me and Niffy, and not one aside from the three of us (and those back at the safe house but she didn't know that) knew about this interview.

Severus said at the last interview that we will both maintain our secrets, or we will both confess. Those were his words. I am not looking forward to this interview, but I feel all the secrets... all the ones that I can confess at least need to come to light. I feel it's the only way, and I can only hope that Severus will forgive me. I'll do my best to omit the worst of it while still retaining honesty.

"I want your word that everything I say is written just as I say it. I want your word that you will not leave anything out. And I want your word that this will be on the front page for everyone to see. If you cannot agree to those terms, then I will find someone else." She wags her finger and the quill springs to life.

"I stake it on my magic." She says solemnly. She knows nothing of what I'm about to tell her. This will be an uproar. This will be a tipping point. Once friends could become enemies and enemies, friends.

"Then I suggest we get started. There is a lot to cover."

I started with my upbringing making sure to restrain my pride. These are things I never wanted another soul to know.

"I don't care to go into graphic details, but my muggle family was very much abusive. I spent the first eleven years of my life living in a cupboard under the stairs. Sometimes I would be locked in there for days with no food or water. When I was taken out, it was only to clean, cook, or satisfy for uncle's unsavory desires. Sometimes striking me was enough and other times he would defile my mouth. It became a habit. If I did a good job then sometimes he would let me eat the table scraps that were to be thrown away."

Her mouth is open agape at the start to our interview. The quill even pauses as if it's owners stunned expression were affecting it. She looks as though she wants to say something but before she can I continue.

"I was the virgin when Severus and I consummated the soul bond. Severus however was not." I take a deep breath and hold it. How is it harder to talk about his past than my own? "Severus was also abused as a child. His mother abandoned him at a young age and his father emotionally and physically abused him. At some point the abuse also turned sexual. I forget how old Severus says he was when his father raped him for the first time, but it was before he became a student at Hogwarts."

The quill is shocked into action and begins hastily scrawling out all that I've said. Word for word. Again, she looks tempted to ask a question, but I hold up my hand to stop her. She can wait until after I've finished telling her everything I plan to tell.

"Both Severus and I have told Headmaster Albus Dumbledore about the abuse that we experienced and very little was done. Severus was eventually taken into Hogwarts, but do not think for a moment that it was because of kindness on Dumbledore's part, but I will get back to that in a bit. I was told to remain with my family because my aunt- my mother's sister- is able to protect me through a bond because she and my mother were related. Because that was home. I broke that bond when I refused to accept that as a home. That is why my muggle relative's home was raided by death eaters, and that is where Severus saved me."