A/N 28/11/15 I have altered parts of this explanation so that it is more in accordance with the scenes that follow and also because some people might think that it is going to be strict continuation of Lanta's story and then may be disappointed. The first few chapters—or scenes, or whatever the heck they are—do read rather like a continuation from of her story but that is merely because they are set in a post 'An Unwilling Ownership' time frame.

PROLOGUE. (Or rather, an EXPLANATION and then below that is an OUTLINE of Lanta's story to serve as a prologue to this fic.)

EXPLANATION

This is an AU Fanfiction of the abandoned AU Harry Potter fanfiction 'An Unwilling Ownership' by Lanta s/2896200/1/An-Unwilling-Ownership.

It is NOT a continuation of it; it is merely a series of scenes/scraps set in a time subsequent to that of Lanta's story.

(BTW, Not that I really needed it to write a fanfiction of her story, but as it happens I do have Lanta's approval to write this—she probably wouldn't have so blithely said 'go ahead' if she'd had an inkling of what a dog's breakfast I was going to make of it!)

Please read 'An Unwilling Ownership' before reading this fic so that you have an idea of what happened in the past—and also, if you read it, then if you don't like my fanfiction of it, at least you will have read one good story today.

WARNINGS—PLEASE READ

I'm not sure if there's a plot—believe me I have searched high and low for one so it's not for lack of looking, but have had no success in finding it so far.

Slavery. Master Harry/Slave Snape, Master Harry/Slave OC.

References to abuse and CP, including CP of children.

Some OOC characters.

Any future pairings may include either or both slash and het.

This fic is not a 'proper' story, instead it is a collection of scenes, it is not the whole of their lives during the time frame it covers, just episodes from it..

The events of the HP universe are in the background and are usually merely referred to, not expanded upon and are often not the events or even the time frame of book canon.

The main warnings probably should be for too much inappropriate and weak humour—and also that as time goes by Harry gets further and further carried away/obsessed with a variant of 'his saving people thing'.

As an AU fanfic of an already AU story, this universe varies in several ways from the universe of Lanta's story, and also of course from HP canon; for example, Sara is nine when Harry buys her, not seven and the slave bonds are even more restrictive.

The scenes are almost entirely dialogue. Sorry, but I will not profusely apologise for that since writing description bores me—and I'm writing this almost entirely for my own amusement, though of course if anyone else is amused by it too, that would certainly be a very great bonus—and also I'm certain that reading something that it had bored me to write, would definitely bore you to read too—probably even more than the excessive dialogue may bore you—and of course, it is also true that I'm utterly hopeless at writing descriptions of people, places and action, so lazy old woman that I am, I avoid it.

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MAIN CHARACTERS: HP, SS, female OC (Sara) HG, GW. OC and extremely overly powerful elf (or maybe he just imagines that he is and manages to convince Harry and Severus of it for a while.)

No Pairings— as yet anyway, Harry is still too young.

PROLOGUE

A VERY BRIEF OUTLINE of the universe which Lanta created in 'An Unwilling Ownership' follows for those who have read that fic in the past but need a quick reminder—but it would be so very much better to re-read it as it is an entertaining story.

When Harry arrives at Hogwarts he is horrified to be informed by Albus Dumbledore that he has inherited a slave, Severus Snape, from his parents. Severus had been bought by Lily and James to rescue him from his previous cruel and disgustingly abusive owner, Lucius Malfoy.

Slavery is now uncommon but is still legal in the Wizarding world and the slave bonds are unbreakable, so slaves can never be freed—and any child born of a slave is itself a slave.

Abolitionists, unlike in muggle Britain and the rest of Europe, have not been successful at making slavery illegal, however they have had some partial success in that it is now illegal to enslave any free person and human-slave ownership has become slightly unfashionable.

Unfortunately, apart from it now being illegal to enslave anyone who was born free, that is the only change; the remaining laws governing slaves and their behaviour and the penalties should they breach any law, are cruel. Legally, slaves are non-persons, mere chattels and possessions of their owners—who have life and death power over them. Laws to protect slaves from whatever their masters choose to inflict upon them do not exist.

A while later, the Headmaster tells Harry that a seven year old slave has become available for sale and as it is possible that she will be bought by a person or family who will be cruel to her, and as Harry is the only one on the side of the Light rich enough to afford her, he asks Harry to buy her. Harry is already appalled and mortified that he now owns a slave and almost overwhelmed by the responsibility that burdens him with, and protests that he is too young to look after a child, but Dumbledore explains that she would be able to live with the Weasleys, so, as Harry too fears what her fate might be otherwise, he agrees to buy her. That is done, and the girl, Sara, is given to Molly Weasley to look after.