lomonaaeren

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

Title: Lightning and War (29/?)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Harry/Tom Riddle, a few het and slash background pairings mentioned
Content Notes: Established relationship, angst, violence, dimension travel
Rating: R
Summary: Harry and Tom are pursuing Harry’s cousin Jonquil Potter into Tom’s dangerous, paranoia-ridden world. In addition to finding Jonquil, they need to deal with Dumbledore, Tom’s associates, and dangerous fluctuations in Harry’s magic. Sequel to Jonquils and Lightning.
Author’s Notes: This story involves a lot of background that won’t make much sense without having read the prequel. At the moment, I don’t know how long this story will be or if it will be the last in the series.

Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Twenty-Nine—The Malfoy Duel

“You know that you can’t interfere to help Abraxas in any way, or the challenge isn’t valid?”

“Why did you assume that I would cheat to help Abraxas?”

Harry managed to roll his eyes without looking away from the breakfast in front of him, which he was tearing through at a steady rate. Tom assumed he was trying to accumulate strength for the battle they would have to carry to Dumbledore. “Oh, I don’t know. Because he’s your Knight and you hate the Malfoys and cheating is how you do things?”

“It’s not how I do everything. I didn’t win you with the help of cheating.”

“You would have if you thought you could get away with it.”

Tom paused for a second. “Well, yes, but only because of how much the goal mattered to me. You should be flattered if you think about it.”

Harry snorted and looked up at him. “I just want to make sure that you understand the rules. The Malfoys have to win or lose completely by themselves under the rules of the challenge, or the loser becomes a slave to the winners.”

Tom felt his fingers loosen their grip on the spoon. “You never said that,” he whispered. “How can—it’s already unbalanced in that Abraxas has to fight two people older than himself at the same time.”

“Abraxas knows. Do you think he would have made the challenge without thinking about what the consequences are?”

“He’s always been impulsive,” Tom muttered, his mind already spinning into ways to help his Knight. If he could launch one of the very mild mind-control spells that would be able to target a mind as disordered as Claudius’s before the duel—

“No.”

Tom rolled his eyes at Harry as Harry’s fingers clamped down on his wrist. “You have no idea what I was going to suggest, and no standing to say that it would be a good idea or it wouldn’t.”

“I know you were going to suggest something. What part of ‘the rules’ didn’t you understand?”

“An interference in the duel that no one could detect, something that could be a natural consequence of an idiot like Claudius or Martina getting ready to duel their only child—”

“The magic will know.” Harry’s voice was soft, but his pressure on Tom’s fingers nearing painful. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. There are certain rules that absolutely must be met, like the one about Abraxas challenging them rather than the other way around. Any interference, and he becomes a slave to them. That’s the way it is, Tom. I know you want to help him, but I need you to accept that you can’t.”

Tom flexed his fingers warningly, and Harry got the hint and pulled his hand back. But he didn’t take his gaze from Tom’s. “Are you going to listen to me and refrain from interfering?”

“What happens if I don’t?” Tom asked, mostly to get an answer.

“I’m going to Stun you right now and put you to bed for the duration of the duel.”

The infuriating thing about Harry was that he would absolutely do something like that. Tom snapped his head down in a reluctant nod, but kept his eyes locked on Harry. “I will pay you back for that insult,” he said softly.

“If you think of statements of reality as insults, you’ll be waiting a long time to pay me back,” Harry said, and returned to his breakfast.

Tom’s scowl appeared to have no impact at all.

*

Harry told himself it was ridiculous for his own breath to come short as Abraxas faced his parents across the dueling ring, an oval of seared grass that Harry had constructed with several spells from his wand in front of the Potter house. But Harry knew exactly what was at stake, and he had read a record of a Malfoy who had lost a duel in the past, in his first world. The description of the slavery that had fallen on that person, and that could fall on Abraxas, was heart-wrenching.

But on the other hand, Harry supposed, Abraxas might think it was no worse than what would happen to him without the duel. His father had nearly driven him insane ripping his mind apart with Legilimency. It was apparent that he was only a tool to them, and not one they could even be bothered to treat well.

“I ask if all are here for this duel that must be here.” Harry let his voice ring a little as he looked at the Malfoys. As far as he knew, the question was sort of useless; Abraxas was the only Malfoy child, and if Martina and Claudius could have brought relatives with them, they probably would have. But the rules mandated that Harry ask it.

“We are.” Martina Malfoy had bared her teeth in something that looked like a skull rictus. Harry hoped that was sort of prophetic.

“We are,” Abraxas said. He still didn’t look entirely well, his face pale from what his father had done to him, but he stared at his parents and braced his feet with his wand clasped in front of him. Harry supposed that was all he could ask.

“I ask if there is any chance of reconciliation.”

Claudius sneered, and Abraxas snorted. Harry stared at both of them. “I still need a verbal answer, no matter what you think.”

“No.”

“No.”

Harry could feel Tom stirring restlessly behind him. Without looking back, Harry used his heel to tap the inside of Tom’s leg and make him stand still. “Very well. Then you understand that none of you can leave the circle until the duel is decided and there is a clear winner.”

“Or winners.” Martina had altered her rictus back to something more like a smile. Harry was a little surprised by how much he hated her, and she didn’t actually look anything like Aunt Petunia or Bellatrix.

“You understand it.” Harry let his voice get a little heavier and his gaze pass back and forth between them. Honestly, he was surprised that he was reacting more to the heavy magic of the challenge in the air than they were. Unless Abraxas’s drawn face and sweaty forehead were the signs of his reaction to it.

“We understand,” they said at the same time, and Harry was glad that he found it easy to tell their voices apart. He nodded and stepped backwards, lifting the wards around the edge of the circle that would prevent them from leaving early and other people from interfering with a flip of his wand.

Abraxas struck first, because his parents were standing there as though stunned by Harry’s spell. He sent a sharp curse from his wand, and Martina moved to block it while Claudius cursed in return. Abraxas had to dodge it. He was already breathing hard, which concerned Harry. Had the Legilimency attack hit him so much?

“We could—” Tom muttered from behind him.

“No.” Harry didn’t turn. Honestly, he was almost wishing at the moment that Tom had chosen a Mark more like the one the Voldemort in his first world had used. That had spared Voldemort any emotional connection and certainly meant that he didn’t try to interfere in magical duels to spare his followers.

“You don’t know what I was going to say.”

Harry didn’t bother to respond. He was watching as Abraxas staggered back towards the wards, a long rill of blood already spreading down his right arm. Harry swallowed. It was much earlier in the duel than he had thought anyone would be injured.

Martina laughed. “Perhaps you shouldn’t have challenged us, son.”

Abraxas replied with a wordless spell that made her shriek, and at least caused a bruise to blossom on her face. Harry was familiar with that spell, though, and knew that it had been meant to do much worse. He thought his swallow was loud in the quiet.

At least Tom had stopped talking. He put a hand in the crook of Harry’s elbow, and Harry extended his arm for Tom to hold while not taking his eyes from Abraxas and the duel.

God, he wanted so badly to help. Abraxas hadn’t always been kind to him since Harry came to this world, but no one deserved to face their parents in a duel like this for their lives and freedom.

But he couldn’t. So he clenched his hands and held still.

Abraxas, three minutes later, was limping and bleeding and coughing from a curse that had conjured a cloud of blue gas that appeared to exist simply to burn his lungs. Harry’s throat was raw from swallowing his shouts back.

“Are you ready to give up?” Claudius was breathing fast, but didn’t look nearly as wounded as his son. Martina had healed the bruise on her face and had a confident sneer as she spun her wand between her fingers.

Abraxas shook his head, but then abruptly crouched down and shook. Harry was moving before he even knew what he was doing, but he was moving to restrain Tom, who had lunged madly forwards. Tom snarled and clawed at his arms, and opened his mouth to say something. Harry was never sure what it would have been.

Claudius and Martina had both charged Abraxas at once. Harry found himself turning his head to watch the end. He thought he owed Abraxas that much.

And then Abraxas tossed what looked like a mixture of blood and dirt in the faces of his parents and spat, “Sanguis meus!”

Martina was the first one to scream, but Claudius joined her a second later. Their fingers spasmed open and dropped their wands, and they writhed in place, held upright as though by a strike of lightning. Harry stared, became aware that his mouth was open, and had to struggle to close it. He honestly had no idea what Abraxas had done.

In his arms, Tom laughed, deep and satisfied. Harry let him go, glancing back and forth between him and Abraxas. “Do you know what happened?”

“He claimed the ground,” Tom said. “I’m sure he could only do it because you created the circle and separated it from the rest of your estate, which essentially gave him permission. But that’s what he did.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Tom glanced at him, eyebrows rising a little in a silent stare of pity that Harry returned impatiently. Tom sighed and waved his hand. “Oh, very well. If you must know, what it means is that he bonded with that little patch of land by shedding his blood on it. He certainly shed more than either of his parents. And then he invoked the blood as protection. They were on his land, and they shared the blood that he’d shed, and they were the ones that wounded him. That combination of factors meant that his parents are considered enemies by the land itself.” He smiled as Claudius fell over and then screamed again, arching his back from the earth. “The soil will not welcome them.”

“So he got wounded as much as he has on purpose?”

“Yes.”

“That’s so bloody…Slytherin,” Harry said, shaking his head, and then faced Abraxas with a sigh. “So what’s going to happen when I remove the dueling circle? Will he still retain the bond with the land?”

Tom shrugged. “Unlikely, when your family’s bond with it is so much older. But you only need to maintain the circle until Martina and Claudius surrender.”

Abraxas spoke as if on cue, or maybe he really had been listening to them; that wouldn’t surprise Harry as this point. “Do you surrender, Mother, Father? Are you ready to give in?” His voice was thick, and his hand shook on his wand.

Martina tried to say something, but relapsed into helpless screams. Claudius was the one who rolled over, maybe hoping that the earth would be easier on his chest than on his back, and nodded frantically. “Yes, yes! We surrender! Malfoy Manor and the Malfoy inheritance are yours!”

Abraxas smiled, a vicious look that made Harry sigh. Then he turned and gave a half-bow in Harry and Tom’s direction. “The Malfoys are at your service, my lord.”

“Remove the circle,” Tom murmured. “He needs Healing before he collapses. I wouldn’t put it past one of his parents to try to attack him once they’re freed from that spell even if it would also mean their deaths.”

Harry nodded and waved his wand, dissolving the circle. Martina and Claudius stopped screaming, but still trembled as if from that nonexistent lightning strike. Abraxas carefully put away his wand and limped towards them.

“You didn’t really fear for me, did you?” he asked, gaze passing slowly back and forth across Harry and Tom. “I had it under control.” Then he started to fall in slow motion, and Tom was the one who moved to catch him, lunging out of Harry’s arms.

“I will always fear for you.”

Harry found himself glad, as he saw the intense way that Tom’s and Abraxas’s gazes connected, that he knew Tom was devoted to him. Otherwise he would have been jealous.

And he was also glad that Voldemort hadn’t had the same kind of devotion to the Death Eaters in his first world. Otherwise, Harry really doubted that he would have been able to kill the bastard.

*

Tom sat by Abraxas’s bed and watched him breathe.

Martina and Claudius had been healed roughly of their wounds and sent back to Malfoy Manor to prepare it for Abraxas and the other Knights who would take shelter there. Tom had wondered about the wisdom of that, but Harry had pointed out that they were bound to Abraxas by magic. They couldn’t rebel without being punished for it, and although they might try, they also weren’t the kind of people who could resist physical pain or humiliation for very long.

Tom had asked Harry how he knew that, since he didn’t know the elder Malfoys well, and Harry had shaken his head. “Some things don’t change between worlds.”

With that reassurance, as poor as it was, Tom had gone back to watching over Abraxas.

His Knight already looked better than he had during the duel, but then, Blood-Replenishing Potions poured down his throat had helped. Tom still kept seeing the way he had bent towards the ground and coughed when the conjured cloud of lung-gas had attacked him, and kept wanting to hurt his parents.

Revenge is always my strongest motivation.

But he remembered what he had felt when Abraxas was in trouble, and then Harry, and wondered. Perhaps it might be love or devotion? If he could use those words about his feelings towards anyone but Harry.

It didn’t mean he was willing to forget and forgive when it came to Dumbledore, though.

Abraxas coughed and abruptly woke up. Tom reached for the glass of water standing ready next to the bed. Harry had left a potion to ease coughing and pain, as well, but Tom didn’t know if Abraxas needed it yet.

“My lord?”

“Yes, I’m here, Abraxas,” Tom murmured, watching as his Knight swallowed the water. Perhaps Abraxas wouldn’t want vengeance on his parents, Tom thought as Abraxas settled back against the pillow and sighed. Or perhaps he would take it in his own way, and there were other services Tom could provide him.

It was an odd thing to think.

“I want you to know,” Abraxas said, and coughed one more time, “that I’ll keep my parents away from your husband. You don’t have to worry about them hurting him or ever serving him food or potions.”

Tom nodded. “I would appreciate that, Abraxas.” In truth, he had already planned to do it himself, but Abraxas’s oversight was an additional layer of protection to keep Harry safe. He started to ask if Abraxas wanted the pain potion or something to eat, but his Knight turned his head.

“And if I had died today,” Abraxas said softly, “my only regret would have been that I did it instead of dying in the war.”

Tom squeezed Abraxas’s wrist in silence, and felt something soft and warm move in him. He knew that he would only embarrass Abraxas further if he attempted to name it aloud, however, so he murmured, “Rest. I will never demand anything of you that you cannot fulfill.”

Abraxas smiled and seemed to fall asleep between one breath and the next.

Tom sat there, thinking, watching his Knight, and made another private, vow to himself. Other than the promises he had already had Harry make, he wasn’t going to demand anything of Harry that he couldn’t fulfill, either.

He looked up when Harry came into the bedroom, and didn’t protest when Harry caught his eye and pointed towards the door. Harry wanted to have his chance to watch Abraxas, and Tom needed to rest.

But he did stop to lean his hand on Harry’s shoulder for a moment, and kiss him firmly on the mouth, and then tighten his grip when Harry gasped. He stepped back with a long look that let him memorize Harry’s face, then nodded to him and said, “I love you.”

“I love you, too. What brought this on?” Harry was blinking, and he looked pleased but startled.

“Thinking,” Tom said, and left his husband with his Knight.