lomonaaeren

Part One.

Title: A Kiss Like a Blade
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing these characters for fun and not profit.
Content Notes: AU fifth year, violence, underage, present tense
Pairing: Harry/Theodore/Blaise, established Theodore/Blaise
Rated: R
Wordcount: This part 3900
Summary: AU of OoTP. Theo knows full well that Potter is doing something to teach Defense to other students—but Slytherins aren’t invited. So Theo sets out to make sure that he and Blaise are included. And Potter’s going to find out that no price is too high.
Author’s Notes: This is one of my Litha to Lammas fics for this year, a series of fics being posted between the summer solstice and the first of August. This is in response to an anonymous request for a fic where Theo and Blaise find a way into Dumbledore’s Army. It should have two parts.

Thank you for all the reviews! A special warning in this chapter for the off-screen suicide of a minor character. Also, this fic will now have one more part, making it three chapters instead of two.

Part Two

Like a collision of stars in the darkness.

It might be more poetic than sex with Potter really deserves, but that's the kind of thing Theo keeps thinking afterwards.

Potter snarled underneath them, bending back against the wall, turning his head from side to side as if he couldn't decide who to kiss in any given moment, and whether to kiss or bite. Theo was the one who placed his leg between Potter's, but Blaise was the one who reached down and twisted Potter's cock as if he'd been doing this for years.

Sitting in History of Magic and thinking about it now makes Theo shiver. Who knew that it would take sex with Potter to call up Blaise's confidence?

Potter shuddered beneath their touch and grabbed Theo's shoulders. His nails were curled, and pointed sharply enough to tear through Theo's robes. It didn't matter, Theo found. Nothing mattered except the driving, warm desire to get as close to Potter as possible.

They ended up sliding down the wall and fucking on the floor. Potter rode Theo's leg and Blaise's hand at the same time, and managed to work one free hand down between their bodies to touch the inside of Blaise's thigh and Theo's cock. Theo leaned against Blaise and rubbed himself off there, sometimes catching a scratching touch of Potter's fingers.

Theo is glad that Binns isn't a living professor to ask about the flush mounting in his face now. As it is, he's getting some subtle but interested sideways glances from Millicent and Daphne.

Blaise leaned against them both and squeezed himself in on Potter's hip, from what Theo can remember, which admittedly isn't very clear. It was fast and brutal, worlds apart from the way that Theo and Blaise usually like with each other. But wasn't that part of the point? That this is different, and Potter isn't part of the same bond that Theo and Blaise have with each other.

Theo thinks it was meant to be different. He thinks it was different. But only partial memories remain to him, like the twisted grimace on Potter's face and the arch of Blaise's neck as he came and his own thunderous orgasm.

Theo thinks he needs to experience it again, so that he can more fairly make a memory.

*

"Why do you keep speaking up in class, Potter? As long as you do, she's going to assign you detentions that tear your hand open with a Blood Quill."

Blaise's concern is muted, but there. Theo pauses in the entrance to their usual classroom, wondering if Potter knows how rare any expression of emotion from Blaise is, and bristling already with protectiveness. Potter had better not muck this up.

Potter utters a distinct barking sound that Theo probably wouldn't know was meant to be laughter if he wasn't watching Potter's face. "Because it happened. And if I went along with her and lied, then someone might die who isn't prepared for Voldemort coming back. And at this point, it wouldn't matter if I changed my mind. She would torment me anyway."

Potter prowls back and forth in the center of the classroom, the bloody words on the back of his right hand standing out. Theo catches his breath, and forces himself to approach slowly. Potter eyes him from beneath his fringe, not moving his hand out of Theo's reach but not making any move to offer it, either.

"You don't have to say that she's lying so loudly, though," Theo murmurs, drawing a jar of Murtlap Essence from beneath his robes. It was easy enough to get. Theo asked Professor Snape, and it was there. There are things Snape can't or won't do--and in the matter of intervening in Blaise's family, Theo has never been sure which it is--but practical and material things, he'll do for them.

Potter shrugs. "Like I said, it wouldn't make a difference. And before you can ask, I did try to talk to McGonagall about it. She just says that I should keep my head down."

Theo captures Potter's hand and smears some of the Murtlap Essence on it. It probably stings, going into those enchanted cuts, but Potter doesn't make a sound. He watches, his eyes flicking back and forth between his hand and Theo's face, and doesn't grimace in relief when the cuts begin to seal up, either.

"What about Dumbledore?" Blaise asks. "I always thought you had a special sort of relationship with him."

Potter snorts bitterly. "So special that he won't even look me in the eye this year, and forbade my friends from writing to me all summer."

Theo blinks. It's not that he would really write to anyone except Blaise, and Draco if he wants to taunt him, but it seems strange that Weasley and Granger, whom Theo thinks of as fairly stubborn, would obey the Headmaster. "Why did they listen to him?"

"They thought he was right."

That's not really what Theo wants to know, but from the stubborn line of Potter's jaw, he's also not getting anymore out of him right now. Theo holds his peace, using a charm to dry the Murtlap Essence into a thick coating around Potter's hand. It ought to hold up to ordinary activity like spellcasting and writing with a quill. How much it'll help with a Blood Quill, Theo has no idea.

"We have to punish her," Blaise says, sounding eager.

Theo shoots him a look that Blaise ignores, focusing on Potter. Theo sighs. "How, though? Oh, calm down, Potter, we said that we would, we're just discussing how it'll work," he adds with a slight sneer, when he sees the shutter that appears to have slammed down over Potter's face.

"She talks about discipline all the time," Potter mutters, scratching absently at the dried Murtlap on his hand until Theo reaches out and slaps his left hand away. Potter glares at him then, but his eyes are blank in a way that Theo knows Potter isn't really angry with him, more the situation. "The most humiliating thing would be to give her a taste of that. But I don't know how to get her to write with a Blood Quill."

Blaise laughs softly. "I do."

Theo whirls around and glares at him. Blaise looks back, his lip lifted in a smile that Theo never normally sees outside their private interactions. "No," Theo says forcefully.

"No, what?"

"You're not casting it."

"You would stand in the way of my exercising my free will? And yet you didn't want me to sign Potter's secrecy agreement," Blaise persists, his voice gentle in the way that says he has an idea and he's going to do whatever he wants with that idea, Theo and caution and safety and his own peace of mind be damned.

Theo stalks up and grabs Blaise's shoulders. Blaise goes wide-eyed and still under his touch, but he doesn't say he won't do it. "You are not casting the Imperius Curse," Theo snaps.

He expects more reaction than a short gasp from Potter, but he doesn't get it. When Theo glances over his shoulder, he sees Potter standing still, watching them avidly, but not moving away from the far wall.

"I can if I want," Blaise says. "And you're right that it would be dangerous to cast on them. But I want to cast it on someone. Umbridge is the perfect target."

"Potter," Theo says tightly.

"What about him? He hasn't objected so far." Blaise flashes Potter a smile that startles Theo, as if he's remembering private moments from the sex they had last week, even though there were no private moments.

"He's a Gryffindor, of course he's going to--"

"You don't know me very well, Nott," Potter interrupts with a vicious laugh that makes sharp tingles of confusion run up Theo's spine. "I'm not going to object just on the grounds that it's an Unforgivable. I went through all three Unforgivables in the graveyard. I think I should be able to get back at my enemies with them for once, if they're going to toss them around all the time anyway."

Theo licks his lips, unsure what to say. Blaise is the one who takes the lead. "What do you mean, you were subject to all three? You're standing here, so the Dark Lord can't have used the Killing Curse on you."

Potter smiles, a pulsing crease of darkness across his face. "He did. He used the Imperius Curse on me, and I threw it off. He tortured me with the Cruciatus. He tried to use the Killing Curse on me, but I cast the Disarming Charm at the same time, and our wands locked." He shrugs.

"Locked?" Theo asks.

"They're brother wands. The spells turned to a cage of golden light that locked us in place, and the ghosts of Voldemort's victims came out of his wand."

Theo has something to say, if he can find it. He stares at Potter, and says nothing, in the end.

Blaise is the one who smiles and murmurs, "Then it is right that the Imperius Curse should help punish Umbridge for what she did to you."

Theo has something to say. He does. But against the force of Blaise's smile and Potter's slow, answering one, it has nowhere to go.

*

"Are you sure that you can control it from this distance?" Theo whispers. He and Blaise are around the corner from Umbridge's office, but it's still a distance, especially with the closed door in between that means Blaise can't actually see his victim. Blaise has his eyes closed, and light drops of sweat stand out on his forehead.

"Yes." Blaise doesn't bother looking at Theo, but that settles and reassures him rather than getting him upset. He leans back against the wall and watches as Blaise murmurs instructions to Umbridge, moving his lips but not speaking aloud.

There's no shriek to tell them of their success. Then again, a shriek would probably mean that Umbridge broke free of the Imperius. Theo still shivers as he stands there, listening intensely and waiting for someone to come up the stairs and catch them.

He nearly shrieks himself when a small door seems to open in the air, revealing Potter's smirking face. "Come along," he murmurs. "I think you'll be pleased."

"What does that mean?" Theo demands, but the door flips shut and Potter's face vanishes again. Only when Theo catches a swirl of silvery, shadowy material does he realize that Potter is probably wearing an Invisibility Cloak.

"I think it went fine," Blaise says.

"It did," Potter says from ahead of them, his voice making Theo think of legends of dead family members who weren't strong enough to form ghosts. "Come and see."

It takes more courage than Theo thought it would to open the door of Umbridge's office, but the alternative is letting Blaise go in by himself. He straightens his shoulders and walks in to see Umbridge sitting in front of a piece of parchment, staring blissfully at the far wall with a bloody quill in her hand.

And there's blood all over the back of her hand, too. Theo gulps back his gorge. This happened to Potter, too, he reminds himself. He glances at the hovering head that's beside him again, and Potter's eyes are devouring every flicker of Umbridge's humiliation.

"What did you have her write?" Theo asks Blaise.

Blaise smiles. "I must not hurt children."

Theo swallows. Well, that would appeal to both Blaise and Potter. They've both been victims of abuse from Umbridge, and in Blaise's case, from other people in his family--

Is it really just Blaise?

Theo looks at Potter as he whips off the Invisibility Cloak, chattering his thanks to Blaise and his desire to make Umbridge pay even more. Theo can't believe that he never thought about it before, but--yeah, Potter is thin, and the Muggle clothes hang off him as if he's spent time hitting them all with Enlargement Charms. And he did say that he lived with filthy Muggles, no the naive and kind magical family Theo thought had him.

No, Theo thinks slowly, his mind going back to what Potter said about his friends' letters and his bitterness on the matter of Dumbledore not looking at him. I don't think it's just Blaise.

"What are you looking at?"

Theo studies Potter, the wary stance and the way he's gripping his wand already, and decides that this isn't the right time to bring up his insight. "Nothing," he says, with high insincerity, and looks away.

But he's already wondering if there's a way to protect Potter that would complement his protection of Blaise.

*

"You know the Shield Charm already." Potter's voice is calm and business-like, nothing remaining of the vindictive glee that he showed over Umbridge's punishment. "How well can you hold it?"

"I'm quite good." Blaise is smiling at Potter, and Theo feels a frisson of something move through him. He's not even sure who he's really jealous of, Blaise or Potter.

"All right." Potter backed up a step. "Raise the shield, and I'll hit it with some hexes and jinxes. We'll see."

Theo remains silent as Blaise waves his wand, and the air in front of him turns bright silver as the shield forms. He doesn't need to intervene. Potter isn't hurting Blaise. And practice is necessary if they're both going to learn the spells they promised each other and get good enough to pass the Defense OWL.

"Good," Potter murmurs, his tone detached and pleasant as he studies Blaise's shield. "I'm about to let the spells go. Are you ready?"

Blaise's eyes narrow. "Stop fussing already and do it, Potter."

Potter breaks into a terrifying grin. Theo opens his mouth to say that maybe this isn't as good an idea as they thought, but Potter spins in place as if he's about to Apparate and then unleashes a terrifying barrage of spells.

Theo flinches as they slam into Blaise's shield like crackling fireworks. There's a Stunner, a Jelly-Legs Jinx, a Body-Bind, and numerous others coming too fast for Theo to recognize. They're not the worst offensive spells Theo has ever seen, but they're fast, and this is much more like being in a real duel than any demonstration Theo has ever been subjected to by his father.

In seconds, Blaise is faltering. He bites his lip and struggles to hold onto the shield, but a long crack splits it like glass down the middle. The next second, it breaks, and Blaise flings himself aside from the following jinx.

"Good job," Potter says, his voice measured. "That's a good start."

"I had to run!" Blaise's hair is clinging to his temples, and he stares at Potter as if he thinks the bloke's about to go mad. Theo steps up to his side, trying to make sure that Blaise doesn't look weak. Blaise squeezes his hand, but doesn't look away from Potter.

"Well, yes." Potter nods as though he doesn't understand why that would make anyone upset. "But running when you can't face an opponent is better than getting slaughtered in battle, you know. And it shows that you have good instincts. I think it'll be much easier to train you to hold the shield than it would be to train you out of standing your ground when you shouldn't."

"Let me guess," Theo says. "The difference between training Slytherins and Gryffindors?"

Potter gives him a hard, bright smile. "Still not telling you anything about what happens in the D.A. under the secrecy contract."

"Does that really stand for Defense Association?" Blaise watches Potter in a way that makes Theo slowly let go of his hand. He can stand on his own, and he's not shaking with either fear or horror. That's better than Theo expected after a defeat like the one Potter inflicted on Blaise. "Or Dumbledore's Army?"

Potter sighs, and casts a spell that dries some of the sweat on his brow. "I don't feel the best about Dumbledore anymore, but I'm absolutely sure that he's not on the side of bitches like her." He spits the word, and his eyes flare with hatred in a way that makes Theo feel dizzy. "Or Voldemort."

"Do you have to say that word?" Theo snaps.

"Is the itsy-bitsy-little Slytherin scared?" Potter's eyes flare again. "Voldemort, Voldemort, Vol--" He breaks off with a sharp cry, and clutches at his forehead.

Theo draws his wand, and Blaise steps back. They exchange glances, and Theo nods at the silent plea he can see in Blaise's eyes for him to take charge. He moves forwards, and Potter turns away from him, eyes shut and hands still crossed under his fringe.

"Potter." Theo makes his voice coaxing, the way he does with Blaise when he has a nightmare. "Let me see."

"You'll make fun of me," Potter mutters.

That's an odd thing to come to the forefront of his mind, Theo thinks, but he can only assume that someone did make fun of Potter in the past. Maybe those Muggles he lived with. "Let me see."

Potter seems to make a sudden choice and turns around. As he takes his hands away, Theo sees that they're smeared with blood. It's less blood than the wound on his hand shed, or the one they made Umbridge inflict on herself with the Blood Quill, but it doesn't seem like that to Theo's stunned gaze.

"See? I'm weak. I can't control the emotions and impressions that he sends through the scar."

This time, the bitterness in Potter's voice is searing, but it doesn't matter. Theo has helped Blaise through harder things than this in the wake of his aunts and cousins using the Imperius Curse. He pushes Potter's fringe out of the way and stares as dispassionately as he can at the bleeding scar on Potter's forehead.

"Will Murtlap Essence help?" he asks.

"I don't know," Potter says, staring at him. "No one's ever tried to give it to me to put on."

Theo takes out the small bottle, and reaches towards Potter's forehead. Potter watches him come with cautious eyes, and jerks away after just a second of rubbing. The scar on his forehead is bubbling like a pot.

Theo stares at him. It looks agonizing, but Potter isn't screaming. He just wipes away the Murtlap and the blood and shakes his head.

"I don't know why it isn't working," he mutters. "I don't know anything about this fucking scar."

Theo lets his hand drop back to his side. An odd, hollow feeling drums in the middle of his chest. He wants to help, and he can't. It's a long time since that's been true. Most of the time, the only one he cares about helping is Blaise, and he's always managed that.

"You need to focus on something else, Potter," Blaise says bracingly. "Teach me how to hold a stronger shield. Or let us teach you some offensive spells."

Potter stands there with his back to them long enough that Theo wonders if he's about to change his mind and walk out on their bargain. Then he turns around with his head proudly uplifted and nods. "All right. Teach me some offensive spells. That's the only thing this mood ought to be good for."

Blaise's face clears as he spins his wand between his fingers, and he says, "This is the Lightning-Calling Curse." He turns, and lightning leaps out from his wand with a soft incantation, slamming into the wall and scorching the stone.

"Brilliant!" Potter says, and starts trying to imitate him. He doesn't manage more than a fat spark, but he looks determined instead of discouraged.

Theo watches, and hopes that he'll find his place, his ability to help, soon. At least Potter's hand looks better since they put Murtlap on it.

And since Blaise commanded Umbridge to never use the Blood Quill on another student again, to never tell anyone what they did to her, and to do something special on the day before the Christmas holiday is scheduled to start.

*

"Students. I am afraid I have some terrible news."

Dumbledore looks pale as he stands up at the front of the Great Hall. Theo doesn't feel sorry for him. He notices the way that the man keeps his face averted from the Gryffindor table, so that he won't look at Potter even by accident. Potter is staring into his glass of pumpkin juice, and seems neither to pay attention to Dumbledore's behavior nor to anticipate what's going to happen next.

Theo finds himself wanting to tell Potter that he was the one who came up with the idea, even though Blaise is the one who executed it. He manages to still his tapping foot and looks up at Dumbledore again as he clears his throat.

"Professor Dolores Umbridge took her own life last night by leaping off the Astronomy Tower." Dumbledore looks down at his food and then back up, bracingly, as if trying to get the students through shock and horror. Interestingly, the only one at the Slytherin table who looks horrified is Draco, but he did rather hitch his wagon to her Abraxan. "I hope that none of you have any insight into what prompted this horrible action and kept quiet, as doing so will make you party to an action that could scar so many young minds..."

Theo tunes the man out with a quiet snort. Yeah, right, spread the guilt around, when it belongs to Dumbledore in the first place for letting Umbridge teach in the school and not doing anything about the Blood Quill.

He glances at Potter, unable to help himself, and encounters wide, startled eyes. Theo inclines his head in a deep nod. That's the only thing he'll do to confirm Potter's suspicions in such a public place, but yes, they're the ones behind it.

Potter laughs.

The sound cuts through the mutters and half-shouts and loud chatter, and people turn to stare at Potter. It's the same kind of judging stare that says he's mental which Theo has seen all year.

This morning is the first time that Potter doesn't seem affected by it. He winks at Theo and Blaise, and lifts his cup in a salute that wouldn't seem directed at them unless you already knew about the time they were spending with Potter.

"To Dolores Umbridge!" Potter says, strong and clear. "May she rest. Forever."

A few of Potter's friends copy him, but most of them seem too stunned to do so. Theo smiles at Blaise, and they touch their cups together below the level of the tabletop, where most people in the Great Hall won't be able to see them.

It's a victory. And at least as much for the fact that Potter's eyes are bright again, and the way he sits relaxed, as for the fact that they might get an actually competent Defense professor in place of the toad.

Theo feels very, very good as he sits back and finishes his breakfast.