[From Litha to Lammas]: A Kiss Like a Blade, R, Harry/Blaise/Theo, 3/3

[lomonaaeren]

Part Two.

Part One.

Title: A Kiss Like a Blade (3/3)
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 3400
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 again for all the reviews! This is now the end of the story.

Part Three

"You stayed here for the Christmas holidays, Potter?"

Potter glances at Theo and nods once, before he goes back to casting Cushioning Charms and other spells on the walls of their classroom. Theo stands there, waiting for more of a response, and Potter finally mutters, "Would you want to spend one more minute around Muggle relatives who make you cook and clean endlessly than you had to?"

Theo takes a long, difficult breath. Blaise hasn't arrived yet; he decided that he wanted to taunt Draco about something and didn't need Theo around, and Theo tries to let him show every bit of confidence that comes to him. He watches Potter guiding blankets he's conjured into place, and decides he'll never have a better chance to say something.

"Do they abuse you?"

Instead of the explosive reaction he thought he might get, Potter turns to him with a blank face. He studies Theo for a long moment. Then he shakes his head and says, "Not in comparison to Blaise. No Imperius Curse. No endless lectures about how I should be out Muggle-baiting and making my family proud."

Theo stares at him. He wasn't aware Blaise told those things to Potter, but they speak to another level of confidence, and one of trust, that he hadn't known Blaise could show anyone besides him.

Potter has been good for Blaise.

That practically obligates Theo to do the best he can for Potter, in return.

"I wouldn't expect them to do those things, because they aren't magical," Theo says. He hopes his voice sounds gentle enough. Potter hasn't turned his back and gone back to his casting yet, so maybe it does. "But did they do something?"

"Chores. I told you."

"What else, Potter? There must have been something else."

He knows he's made a misstep when the silent mask on Potter's face cracks to let a sneer through. "Why? Because all Muggles have something wrong with them, and are dirty and filthy and ignorant and hateful?"

"I think these particular Muggles are ignorant and hateful," Theo says softly, leaning forwards to stare into Potter's eyes. "If I'm wrong, tell me. Am I wrong? I don't think I am."

Potter stands there for another moment, balanced between options Theo isn't sure about. Then he sighs and shrugs. "They can't stand magic. They used to call me a freak all the time, and they raised me utterly ignorant of the fact that I'm a wizard, that I would go to Hogwarts, that my parents were killed by Voldemort, everything."

Theo looks at him, and tries to imagine what that kind of knowledge would do to someone. He can't. He sometimes thought Potter ignorant, in the past, and spectacularly and unforgivably so, as he tries to navigate his fame and his Parseltongue and his godfather being an escapee mass murderer and all sorts of things that Theo is sure just about anyone would have handled better.

But for someone raised in absolute ignorance? And then coming to Hogwarts within a few weeks or months of finding that out, and being plunged into the cesspool of ignorance that frequently is the magical world?

Potter's been doing spectacularly well.

"Is that it?" Theo asks, when he realizes that Potter is watching him with a guarded expression and hasn't said anything one way or the other about Theo's silence.

"They had me sleep in a cupboard until I got my Hogwarts letter addressed to it, and then they thought someone was watching, so they moved me to a bedroom," Potter says quietly. "They called me a freak a lot. They told me I couldn't eat. My cousin chased me and beat me up a lot. My aunt's swung a frying pan at my head.

"Did I get tortured? Beaten up every day? Hexed? No."

Theo licks his lips. He feels detached, floating, and the last time he felt like this was so long ago that it takes him a moment to recognize it. Yes. He felt like that after he learned what Blaise's family had done to him.

He reaches out and takes Potter's shoulders in his hands. Potter watches him calmly. This close, though, Theo can't mistake the twitches under the surface. Potter is already thinking about what he told him and regretting it. Theo wouldn't be worth anything if he couldn't figure that out.

"We'll get you the help you need," Theo whispers.

He plans to go on and explain what he means, but Potter steps back and rips his shoulders out of Theo's grip. His eyes are narrowed, and he looks so displeased that Theo finds himself raising his hands in the air.

"That's what other people said," Potter whispers. "The people who saw how thin I was and promised to help. None of them ever did it. The Dursleys are persuasive. If you tell magical adults, then they'll just say the same thing. I'm there for a reason, apparently. Something to do with being protected from Voldemort there."

Theo flinches at the name, but then he laughs. Potter narrows his eyes and stares at him.

"You thought we would involve adults? Potter, you do remember what we did to Umbridge, don't you?"

Potter smiles abruptly, and something in Theo relaxes at the sight. If Potter isn't too far gone to smile, this might be easier than Theo envisioned. "Of course I do. Best damn day of my year so far."

Theo nods to him. "We didn't ask the adults in Blaise's family for help, either. They believe in that insane idea of toughening him up by using the Imperius Curse. Or they are under the curse."

"We're going to get him out of there, aren't we?"

Theo feels as though his heart has unfolded with the we. "Of course we are. I have several ideas. And Blaise and I will get you out of there, too."

"I don't see how, though," Potter mutters. "You'd still have Dumbledore and apparently everyone else thinking that I need to go there for protection. And no one comes to watch how my relatives treat me."

"There are ways around that, too," Theo says, and thinks of the one good side of Blaise's mad family, that they've exposed him to unusual spells that can be implanted in an object instead of a wand.

Potter stares over Theo's shoulder for a minute, then turns and looks him in the eye. "I'm almost afraid to hope. I did, before, and it never happened, so I stopped hoping. I'll probably hate you forever if you can't make this work out."

Theo takes Potter's shoulders and holds them, shaking them a little. "Whatever we do," he says, "I promise that you're going to be in a different situation by the end of summer."

And that seems to be enough for Potter, who gives Theo a short nod, and turns to the door as Blaise enters.

*

"You have to strengthen your happy memory, Nott."

"How, though?" Theo tosses his sweat-soaked hair out of his eyes. He has no idea how Potter, who's just as soaked as any of them, keeps going. And honestly, sometimes he wonders if they should keep going, now that the real Auror Alastor Moody has been brought back as Defense professor. Potter has kept the D.A. going, and told Theo that he and Blaise can join when they like.

In the end, though, Theo has decided that the private lessons are a good thing. Blaise shines in them in a way that he doesn't in class, especially when Moody scowls at them suspiciously for being from Dark families. And there's the matter of the secrets they keep.

Potter studies him for a second, and then says, "You have to want it."

"I do want it," Theo snaps. "I want to be able to defend myself from Dementors, and Blaise from Dementors, and to get the extra points I've heard they award you on the Defense OWL--"

"That's not enough." Potter looks at Theo as if he's older and wiser and more experienced, and knowing that's not the case at all might be driving Theo mental, if he didn't feel completely mental already. "You have to want the Patronus Charm itself, the protector. You have to want what it is, not just what it does."

"And you can still create one?" Theo asks. "With all the lack of happy memories you have?"

"Of course I can." Potter faces the far wall of the classroom, where Blaise has been waiting and watching since he almost drove himself to exhaustion trying to attempt a sharper Shield Charm earlier, and lifts his wand. "Expecto Patronum!"

Theo swallows as he watches the silvery stag leap out of Potter's wand. The stag has antlers with many tines, and fierce eyes as he glares around and stamps his hoof. Then he steps up to Potter and lowers his head.

Potter's face transforms as he strokes the stag's head. And Theo knows what Potter means. Potter wants this stag, wants to interact with it, not just the abstract protection from Dementors that it inspires. That's why it's so easy for him to call it when no Dementors are nearby.

"Let me try again," Theo mutters.

Potter nods and steps back, and Theo lifts his wand and closes his eyes. He focuses on the memory of Potter and Blaise half-asleep in his arms after the first sex they had, here in this classroom. He sharpens the memory as he works on it, given that he can't remember everything about that afternoon: the scent of their sweat, the murmurs that passed among them without words after the sex was over with, the way Potter's cheek fit against his as he turned his head to the side and yawned.

"Expecto Patronum!" Theo calls when he feels he's ready, stronger and louder than he ever thought he could call.

The mist bounds out of his wand, and for a moment, forms a shape that has wings and brilliant eyes. Then it dissolves. Theo stares. It's gone, but he saw it for a second, he thought he did, he knows he did.

Potter whoops aloud and runs over to him. Theo finds himself bracing, not sure what's coming next and what it'll be, but Potter grabs the scruff of his neck and pulls him into a rough kiss.

It's different than Blaise's kisses, which are born of long familiarity, and it's wonderful. Potter's hands are roaming under his shirt before Theo can think to say anything, and he sags back against the wall as fingers work his nipples, his muscles, and then dive beneath his waistband. Theo catches his breath, and loses it to the slide and pull of Potter's hands.

Theo doesn't take long before he comes, astonished and delighted, but mostly astonished. He leans against the wall, panting, staring at Potter, who examines the liquid on his hand and then licks part of it off, before making a face and using his wand to clean up the rest.

"What was that, Potter?" Theo demands. His voice is shaky.

"Your 'I called a Patronus' celebratory wank," Potter says, and winks at him with a sharp grin that doesn't have the edge of madness to it that it often seems. "You didn't manage it fully yet, but when someone gets this far, I know they're going to be able to do the whole thing. So you deserved it."

"Where's mine?" Blaise asks from his spot by the wall. Theo glances at him in concern, wanting to make sure that he doesn't feel left out, but Blaise, guessing his mood the way he usually does, shakes his head in a slight motion.

"Have you called a Patronus yet? I don't think so."

"You didn't even have me try yet!"

"Well, try."

Blaise marches up to the front of the classroom with his wand out. Theo staggers over to sit where he was sitting, sliding down with his bones feeling Transfigured to water and a silly smile on his face.

Blaise manages the mist and gets the celebratory wank, too. Theo isn't sure which one's making him grin more.

Perhaps it's because he takes Potter in hand when Potter's finished with him, though, and the way that Potter is leaning his head on Blaise's shoulder and practically purring by the end.

This is the way it should be, Theo thinks as he watches Potter kiss Blaise with care instead of carelessness, calmness instead of wildness. We should be at our strongest when we're able to help each other.

*

"I just worry about you spending all this time alone with them, mate."

"You don't need to."

Potter's voice is light, but Theo still stops when he hears the note at the back of it. It astonishes him that Weasley and Granger could keep arguing with Potter when it appears, but they don't seem to know him and his moods as well as Theo and Blaise. Theo peers around the top of the stairs and sees Potter and Weasley on the flight below. Potter leans against the banister with his arms spread along it.

Granger, who's been standing on the stair below Potter, speaks up then (Theo didn't know she was there because generally, he would have heard her long before now). "But what are they having you learn and do? You go into that classroom, and shut the door behind you, and not even the twins' Extendable Ears can hear what you're doing in there."

Theo hides a sneer. Yes, that would be because his charms to keep sound from escaping a room were first tested on the Floo antechamber in Blaise's mother's house. No one can know that Blaise regularly escapes to Theo's house during the summer, or there would be more than threats of torture with the Cruciatus.

"I promised that I would keep their secrets," Potter says simply. "The same way that we keep the secrets of the D.A. under the contract. But you know that they're not hurting me. You can see that for yourself." He lifts an arm as if to show off the lack of bruises.

"It's just not safe or right, mate," Weasley says gruffly. "You disappear for hours with two Slytherins and won't tell us anything about them? That's not right."

Weasley does have rather a lack of vocabulary for the relevant situation, Theo thinks, and wonders idly if that's contributing to Potter not having been rescued from his abusive Muggle "family" yet.

"I can have secrets," Potter says. "The same way that you and Hermione have secrets about where you go alone for hours when you leave the Gryffindor common room."

Both Weasley and Granger turn bright red. Theo holds back a chuckle that might cause them to turn in his direction. Yes, Weasley and Granger would undoubtedly think their secrets harmless compared to Potter's, but so what? They gave up the chance to either tell Potter about their budding relationship--Theo assumes--or demand complete honesty from him already.

"You noticed?" Granger asks in a low voice.

"Yeah." Potter shrugs. "And if you're dating, I'm happy for you, and if it's not that, you still don't have to tell me. Because friends don't. Friends can trust each other to keep secrets without stumbling into danger."

"Not you, mate. The Headmaster said--"

"For you not to write to me last summer?"

There's a long, awkward, embarrassed silence. Theo is delighted to see that Potter evidently isn't letting it make him uncomfortable. He still stands and smiles at his friends with an edge that Theo recognizes. It's the way that Blaise smiles at other people he's nominally friendly with, but who aren't Theo. Or, lately, Potter.

"Can you at least promise that you're not doing something dangerous?" Granger finally sighs.

"I'm still here, aren't I? And in a better mood than I was at the beginning of the year?"

They assent to it with loud relief. Theo rolls his eyes. That "moodiness" made sense to him once he learned about Potter's home, summer, and connection to the Dark Lord, combined with the shit everyone's piled on him since, like Umbridge and the judging stares, but Weasley and Granger just seem relieved that he's stopped.

When they leave, Potter shifts and looks up the stairs. "I knew you were there."

"Did you?" Theo takes his time about coming around the corner, but Potter really doesn't look surprised. His lip wrinkles when he smiles. Theo tries not to stare at it too much.

"Will Weasley and Granger interfere?" Theo asks, because he has to.

Potter snorts. "They'll probably come back and ask me more questions, but I'll just put them off. I know you can do the same thing, and so can Blaise." He walks up to Theo and slings a casual arm around his shoulders, turning them towards the classroom. "Why don't we go along and practice some more?"

Theo appreciates the way that Potter won't speak the name of the Patronus Charm outside the classroom, to defend their privacy. He appreciates that Potter holds to that rule of secrecy even with his closest friends.

He appreciates the way Potter arches his neck, too, and how green his eyes look from the side when he's staring forwards and thinking about something else.

If this is falling, Theo isn't lying when he says that he doesn't particularly want to climb back up.

*

"Expecto Patronum!"

The silvery mist coming from Blaise's wand has a defined shape, now. Theo applauds along with Potter when he watches it turn into a stalking tiger, turning its head back and forth and snarling at the corners of the room. Then it paces over to Blaise, but it fades halfway there. It's not as strong or solid as Potter's stag.

It doesn't matter. It's still something Theo thought neither of them would do at the beginning of the year, and it's still a source of Blaise's shining pride and Potter's narrow, approving smile.

Then Potter turns to Theo, and says, "Now you."

Theo readies his wand and closes his eyes. The memory that prompts his Patronus is no longer that of the first sex they had, which is a blurred one, anyway. Instead, it's Potter and Blaise plotting together about what to do about his Muggle relatives, heads close to each other, eyes intent on the book between them, and Potter laughing aloud when he realizes how simple it will be to take care of the problem.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The words echo in Theo's head as well as the classroom, and he opens his eyes when he hears Potter's loud gasp. The creature in front of him doesn't look familiar until it turns its head, and Theo sees the blank eyes and long, narrow jaws.

A thestral.

After thinking about it for a moment, Theo decides that's appropriate. He's always accepted the presence and necessity of death, from the passing of his mother when he was young to the knowledge that someday he'll be able to kill Blaise's abusers. And Umbridge counts in there, too.

"Wonderful, Theo."

Theo turns around and looks at Potter, who looks back at him with more pride than anyone except Blaise ever has. Blaise is standing behind Potter, clasping his shoulders and smiling at Theo with more confidence than he's ever shown. This year has been good for him so far.

Theo looks back, and he sees the future unwinding before them, or part of it. He's sure that all three of them will be able to perform their Patronus well during the OWL practical exam. He's equally sure that the three of them will spend time together, become closer, and perhaps turn into a true triad.

He's surest of all that the small device Blaise has been showing Potter how to design, a magically-charged stone that holds the Imperius Curse, will function as it's supposed to, be built before the end of the year, and go back with Potter to the Muggle house for the summer, where it will function to allow Potter to control his relatives, protection and revenge both at once.

Theo smiles, and looks from the future to the present, standing before him, both of the people he wants.

He says, "Thank you, Harry."

The End.