Sodalis

Chapter 21

Severus couldn't sleep. The sofa in his living room was comfortable enough, the fire was warm and he was exhausted. But the bond was throbbing around him. She was tucked in his bed, so close and yet he refused to go to her. They had already done more than enough to assuage the negative effects of the bond earlier at the Astronomy Tower. Yes, blush now while there is no one around to witness your fall from grace into a bumbling love sick fool. He could almost picture his younger self saying those words to him.

It was the bond that told him to go up to that tall peak despite having been in his rooms for an hour or so after the Order meeting. He had panicked for a moment realizing she was there, flashing back to that fateful night at the start of term. But thankfully, she was nowhere near that mindset. Her raging by herself would have been amusing if he didn't hold the same frustrations she did. It had become even more obvious that Dumbledore was playing the role of manipulative mastermind too well.

Severus rubbed his face and berated himself as the memory of her body pressed against his pushed his thoughts away from the war. You're taking it too far, old man. What of it if she harbored some crush on you before? You really think the Gryffindor Princess would have allowed you to ravish her on that parapet without the bond coercing her? Fool.

Sighing, he sat up, threw his robe around his shoulders and went to pour himself a glass of fire whiskey. He stared into the fire that burned low comparing its warmth to that of their bond. What makes you think that your bond will outweigh the other?

A frown marred his face as he remembered what Narcissa had told him that awful night he had been brought to his knees by the unfulfilled bond. The night that made him truly believe that Dumbledore, in all his righteousness, was flying too close to the sun.

"Ribbons Severus!" Narcissa had muttered frantically the moment the students had left his rooms. "Ribbons!"

She was flipping through the pile of books already knowing what she was looking for and once she found it she flipped the open book around showing him a passage titled 'Vittas Vitae'. "I had a feeling but I wasn't sure until she described how it looked to her. The way the bond felt was something I felt before, from my great grandfather. Severus it's a soultie. A Master's soultie."

"What exactly does that mean, Narcissa?" The Potions Master felt uneasy seeing the normally refined woman pacing and muttering to herself. "I know the nature of alchemy. It is rarely used and only in the most specific and powerful of rituals and potions. I recognize the name of the ritual from the Ministry list of banned practices."

"Severus, what is the core principle of Alchemy?" Narcissa stopped her pacing and turned to him.

"Equivalent Exchange...But Narcissa, not everyone can perform alchemy. There hasn't been a recorded alchemist in over a hundred years." Severus replied cautiously.

"The key there is recorded. Alchemy fell out of favor and use because of the high toll it can take on a caster. Too many attempted to use it in ways nature, the very magic itself rejected. But the trait, the skill to use alchemy is still present but latent. When was the last time you even thought of alchemy?" She paced the room.

He thought long and hard, "My apprenticeship."

"But never again, right?" He nodded in response, "One can only become aware of their ability to perform alchemy if they are able to attempt to practice it. Whether by accident or by trial, Miss Granger found out that she is an alchemist."

"But what is a soultie? Why was this one banned? There are a plethora of soulbonds that exist today without any issue. What is so different about this?" Severus was trying to reconcile this information with what they already knew.