Dolor Retractatur (Pain repeated...)

Prasaedo Vinculum

Notes:

Hello wonderful people! Please let me know what you think? This chapter hasn't been beta'd yet so please excuse my appalling grammatical skills. I don't own the characters but I seriously wish I did. Many thanks to JK Rowling for this fabulous world she created.

(edited in 2018)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

Praesidio Vinculum

"What bond did you have in mind, Albus?" Snape sighed, defeated. Dumbledore really was a piece of work. He pretended that he didn't know how to help the Potter brat and manipulated Snape into giving the solution. Did Albus really think this burden would weigh any less just because he let Snape think it was his own idea? Snape was not so easily fooled. "Manipulative old coot," he mumbled.

"What was that?" Albus questioned, smiling benignly.

"Answer the question, old man." Snape hissed "My patience wanes."

Mock hurt flashed across Albus's features – it infuriated Snape that Albus could always call his bluff. Albus was one of very few who truly knew Severus. He closed his eyes, fearing the answer.

"Praesidio Vinculum."

There was a sharp intake of breath from a few of the portraits that hung from the walls of the headmaster's office. Phineas Nigellus snorted and smirked, his eyes still closed in a parody of sleep. Severus began to massage his temples. It did nothing to prevent the oncoming migraine.

That particular bond was powerful and effective but it was a life bond. Snape wouldn't be able to leave the Potter brat even if the war did end. The rite hadn't been invoked in decades, because life bonds could have unexpected consequences. It was not fully understood and had come to be considered more myth than fact in recent years.

"As I am sure you know, the bond is strengthened with a strong emotional connection. You need to overcome the animosity you share for it to have any effect at all."

"You expect me to play nice with Potter for the rest of my life?" Severus snarled, gripping the back of the chair that he usually sat in, his knuckles turning white and his eyes, impossibly, darkening.

"It's time that you let go of childish school grudges. Harry is not her father."

"I can assure you, Albus, the hatred I hold for her is entirely her own. She is an arrogant, foolhardy, insufferable brat who goes prancing into dangerous situations with little regard for the rules." Snape hissed in a sibilant whisper.

Dumbledore gazed at Snape, unblinkingly; "You see only what you wish to see." he said sadly. "I see far more of her mother in her. She is wise and infinitely kind. She is hardworking and polite to a fault. Why do you insist on finding James in her?"

Snape ground his teeth together to avoid shouting at the man. Dumbledore asserted that Severus only wanted to see the bad in the Potter girl, but the hypocrite only ever saw the good in her, granting her every lenience. "When do you intend for us to bond?" Snape asked, diverting the topic as swiftly as possible. Alas, the new topic was not much better than the former.

"Ah, yes. Quite right, that is what we should be discussing." Dumbledore nodded. "I believe that the sooner this is done, the better. Within the next day or two perhaps? I'll get a message to Harry tomorrow and discuss things with her. But the morning is only a few hours away! I believe it is time for us to rest. Good night, Severus."