[Songs of Summer]: Dark Temptation, Harry/Theo, R, 2/2

[lomonaaeren]

Thank you for all the reviews! This is (currently) the last part of the story.

Part Two

Harry shook his head. He could just imagine what would happen if Hermione or Ron stepped into his kitchen at the moment and found the table covered with wood shavings and the book on wandlore Nott had given him.

But they wouldn’t be doing that, because his front door was firmly locked and his Floo was shut.

What are you doing, Harry?

Harry closed his eyes and sat there in silence for a long moment. What was he doing? Trusting Nott? Hiding things like this from his best friends? Acting as though it was for the best that he do everything by himself?

Hermione and Ron would have helped him with the Elder Wand and the side-effects of his carrying the Horcrux if he had asked. Harry knew they would have.

But instead, he was doing this all by himself, as he had performed the meditation techniques the book on soul magic had recommended by himself.

Harry bit his lip, opened his eyes, and reached for the hollow wand he had spent a painstaking few weeks carving out of holly wood.

The book on wandlore claimed that the goal wasn’t taming a powerful wand, but making sure that it resonated with your magic and didn’t spend all its time begging you to use it. To that end, it said that making a “sheath” out of the same kind of wood that your original wand had come in and slipping it over the more powerful one would work. It would, at least, “confuse the sending,” in the book’s words, and make the powerful wand clash less with your own magic.

Harry didn’t know if it would work. But since he had stopped having the nightmares and bursts of temper that the gap in his soul seemed to inspire, he had been more and more bothered by the Elder Wand’s constant buzzing and pushing. It seemed likely that it would become a bigger problem if he waited.

And he didn’t have any proof that this wouldn’t work.

He slipped the holly sheath carefully over the Elder Wand. He had measured and cut and measured and cut and started over and used spells and used his hands to create this—

It slipped into place, encasing the Elder Wand other than the very end of the handle, and Harry slumped back in his chair with a loud gasp.

The relief was immediate. He hadn’t even been aware that he was feeling that much pushing from the Elder Wand until it muted a little.

Harry stared at the holly wood covering with dazed eyes. It would pass for his ordinary wand to most people. Probably not Hermione and Ron, but they were both busy right now, Ron with picking up his own load of cases and Hermione with a research task given to her by the Unspeakables, to try and find some way past Nott’s fire more predictable than random bursts of will magic.

I can’t tell them about this.

Ron and Hermione would be most upset about Harry interacting with a Dark Lord and not telling them, of course, but they would also be upset that he hadn’t explained how much of a problem the Elder Wand was. Since the war, they had seemed convinced that every little pain or twinge or odd thing that happened to Harry needed to be investigated, just in case it was a sign that Voldemort was coming back. Harry had told them that he wasn’t sleeping well when the Horcrux moods had started to become a problem, just to escape the questions and the treatment plans and the “subtle” conversations that seemed to be about one thing and would turn out to be about that.

And that’s also a problem, Harry.

Harry took a slow breath. Following the instructions in Nott’s books was a long way from becoming a—whatever Nott’s Death Eaters were called. And after he gave the book on wandlore back, there was no reason to think he ever needed to see Nott again.

*

“Hello, Harry.”

Theo could tell his soft voice had an effect on Harry, from the way he checked and then glared at Theo. They were once again meeting just outside the barrier, and Harry had brought the book on wandlore back. He shook his head now and strode forwards with it held out.

Theo waited passively until he got nearer, and then reached out and grabbed Harry’s wrist, yanking him close. His fingers moved in gentle patterns on the underside of Harry’s wrist, over the pulse, while he took the book back with his other hand.

Harry glared at him. But his eyelashes fluttered steadily, and Theo could see how much effort it took him not to lean into Theo’s touch.

Theo swallowed a laugh. Harry hadn’t had anyone to touch him intimately in a long time, had he? Of course, there were always rumors about who he was dating swirling in the Prophet, but the paper lied almost always. Theo thought he would be able to inform Skeeter now, if he cared, that Harry hadn’t had sex on a regular basis even if he’d had a date.

Harry ripped himself away. Theo let him go. Small touches like this, small comforts and pleasures, were best dropped in on an unpredictable basis at first. Theo had certainly found that out himself when one of the seventh-year Slytherins had nearly seduced Theo to do his bidding that way.

Harry shook his head. “Good-bye, Nott.”

He moved back as if to Apparate, but Theo was hardly going to let him go now, not without establishing the next basis for a connection and conversation between them. “How did your wand sheath work for the—powerful wand you’re carrying?” He suspected what it was, of course, but revealing that knowledge would probably make Harry run. He seemed the sort to believe he had to “protect” other wizards from an artifact so strong.

“It works great.”

“And yet, you didn’t thank me.”

Harry glared at him again. If he had been a Kneazle, his fur would have stood on end enough to surround him like a corona. Theo smiled again. It didn’t matter. Harry was the sort who would feel as if he had to acknowledge a favor.

“Thank you,” Harry said between clenched teeth at last.

“You’re most welcome.” Theo winked at him and hooked an amulet that had been used once to get past the fire and so couldn’t be used again out of his pocket, tossing it at Harry. Harry caught it with one hand snapped out and stared. Theo knew it didn’t look like much, just a small carved circle of wood with the runes charred into it on the end of a plain iron chain, but Harry’s curiosity would, if piqued…

“What is this?”

“An amulet.”

“Arse.”

Theo tilted his head. “When I’m giving you a chance to look into how my organization works and how my people transport themselves back and forth? For shame, Harry.” Every caress of his first name made Harry twitch, but less than the time before. And it was a simple way of establishing intimacy. “At least you could take it to the Unspeakables.”

From the way Harry tightened and shifted his shoulders, that wasn’t going to happen. Theo held back his chuckle. No sense in giving the game away too soon.

“Why?”

“The Ministry keeps insisting on involving you in this game,” Theo said. He knew it was true. Aurors, although not necessarily Harry, had been landing outside his fire on a more regular basis, always outside the sections that Harry had dimmed with his will magic. “They’ll probably take you out of it if you don’t produce results at some point, however. And that would be a shame.”

“Why?”

“You’re fascinating. I like talking to you.”

Harry stared at him in what seemed to be genuine shock. Theo smiled, although he kept control of it to avoid looking as though he was happy about this. “What, did no one ever tell you that before?”

“Not in…so many words,” Harry said, and scowled at the amulet in his hand. “I’m not going to take this to the Ministry, Nott.”

Theo held back his laughter with difficulty. That was what he had hoped would happen, that Harry would keep it to himself to do research the way he seemed to have done with the books on soul magic and wandlore. But he spread his arms in a shrug. “If that’s the case, then don’t blame me when they decide that you don’t need to come back here again.”

Harry frowned at him and slipped the amulet into a pouch hanging from his belt, then Apparated away.

Theo sighed and Apparated home, too. Although he had plenty of people to talk to and plenty of subjects to study, lately everything that wasn’t Harry Potter and his issues with magic seemed much more boring than it had used to.

*

“The magic on this is really unusual,” Hermione said, holding up the amulet and letting it turn around on its chain. “You’re sure that you don’t know where it came from, Harry?”

Harry grimaced. “It showed up in a package with a note that had Nott’s symbol on it,” he lied. “I don’t know if it’s him taunting me somehow or someone who works for him wanting out. Or maybe someone who works for him and has been assigned to taunt us. I don’t know.”

In the end, he hadn’t been able to sense much in the way of magic on the amulet. It just felt dormant to every spell he cast on it or every magical sense he brought to bear. So he’d asked Hermione to his office to hear her opinion.

Hermione leaned back in the chair again and spun the small thing on its chain. Harry blinked and sat up. “Wait, do that again, Hermione.”

“What? Spin it like this?”

“Yeah.” Harry narrowed his eyes as he watched the amulet dance. There had been something, he was sure. Some gleam of light off the runes carved into it, although he didn’t know how that could be, when they were charred into the surface of the wood. That didn’t allow for much depth or faceting.

But just when he was about to give up, he saw it again. “There!” Harry froze the amulet with a quick Immobility Charm and floated it into the air.

Hermione shook her hand, where her fingers must be tingling from the backwash of the charm, and glared at him a little. “That stung, Harry.”

“Sorry,” he said. The amulet hovered above him, and yes, he could see it now, the remnants of what looked like a broken spiderweb inside the runes. It was a maze of slender black lines that were difficult to see from any distance other than the one the amulet was currently hanging at. “Have you ever seen anything like this before?” He seized a piece of parchment and drew the web as best he could, trying to include the lines of the runes it was inside, too. It was clumsy, he knew. He’d never taken Ancient Runes, and he didn’t draw them properly. But it was as good as he could make it.

Hermione leaned over the parchment and stared at it. Then she said gently, “Harry, that doesn’t mean anything.”

“I don’t know what it means. I saw it, that’s all. What do you think?”

“It doesn’t mean anything.”

Harry opened his mouth, but Hermione seemed pretty firm, and he was the one who had asked for her help, after all. “What does that mean?”

Hermione took a deep breath and pushed a curl away from her face. “Runes can only have certain kinds of shapes, because originally they were made to be carved into stone. That means that curves, for example, are very rare, and usually modifications made to the runic alphabets by more modern wizards and witches.”

Harry frowned. “Okay…”

“These shapes are too curved.” Hermione touched the web of lines. “And they would interact with the shape of the runes to prevent any magic from happening. It’s as if someone took a sheet covered with letters of our alphabet and scribbled all over it so that half the letters were scratched out. What was left might spell something out, but the scratches themselves wouldn’t make sense. They’re random markings.”

Harry nodded reluctantly. She was probably right. And it wasn’t like he could tell her he was sure that the web did mean something because Nott had tossed him the amulet. Nott was a wanker, anyway. He was probably just taunting Harry, trying to get him to play along in a Dark Lord game. It was the sort of thing Voldemort would have done. “Okay.”

Would Voldemort have made you feel good with the way he touched you?

Harry shoved the thought away. He knew the answer, and just because Nott was different than Voldemort didn’t mean he was any better for Harry’s life or sanity.

*

“What did you learn from the amulet? I’m somewhat surprised that Granger or someone else from the Ministry hasn’t managed to sneak through my barriers yet.”

Harry shrugged. Theo maintained control of his expression without effort, but he was disappointed that there didn’t seem to be much animation in Harry’s face. Theo liked being with him best when he snapped back, glared, and stood there refusing to move away from Theo’s touch because he didn’t want anyone to think he was a coward. That Theo wouldn’t think that in any case seemed not to affect Harry’s reaction.

“I made out a spiderweb of lines in the runes, but Hermione said that didn’t mean anything. And I never took Ancient Runes. Here, have it back.” Harry tossed the amulet lightly back towards Theo.

Theo let it crash on the grass at his feet, which was beginning to be frost-speckled. He stared at Harry. “You saw them?”

“Yeah, so what? Hermione said—”

“That’s the record of the wand traceries undertaken when making the amulet. The pattern the wand takes in the air above the amulet.”

“So?”

“You’re seeing back into the past,” Theo breathed. “Seeing the magic used to craft the amulet. It doesn’t leave physical marks like that on the surface or in the runes, Harry. This is like—using the Sight to see a combat that happened months ago and being able to explain the outcome of a duel based on it.”

Harry raised his eyebrows. “Well, I can tell you right now that I’m not a Seer. Did horribly in Divination.”

“I didn’t say it was the same thing, I said it was like the Sight.”

“Okay, and you’re like a wanker.” Harry beamed at him. “There.”

Theo didn’t take offense. Why would he? Harry had just proven yet another way that he wasn’t like the weak wizards and witches who worked for the Ministry and fought back against Theo because they didn’t understand the preservation and acquisition of knowledge. “Have you ever seen something like that before?”

“Don’t think so.”

Harry’s voice had gone cautious. Theo wondered why. He hadn’t moved even a step closer, as badly as he wanted to, and he had just told Harry something remarkable he could accomplish. “Not one magical person in a thousand can see those traceries,” he said softly. “It would be a lot easier for people to create spells and reverse-engineer old magical artifacts if it was a widespread talent.” Harry grimaced, and Theo added, “Why are you upset?”

“I just want to be—I don’t want another freaky thing.” Harry tapped the holster at his left side that held the powerful wand, then his scar. “These are bad enough. I just want to be normal, for once. No unusual magic. No gaps in my soul, or whatever. No dead family or illegally incarcerated godfather or—I don’t know. None of that.”

Theo smiled. “Did you know that I never tried to cast powerful Dark Arts spells until five years ago?”

“What? That’s impossible.”

“I simply assumed I didn’t have the power. And most of those spells require a fair amount of power.” Theo saw Harry’s gaze go to the fiery barrier, and nodded. “Yes, that is one of them. What made it easier was motivation. I didn’t want the Ministry to take the Nott library, and that gave me the strength to use that kind of magic to defend myself and my property.”

“It’s still bloody weird that it’s books that made you that motivated.”

“Books, knowledge, the freedom to read and do what I wanted. Other people have joined me not so much for knowledge as for the freedom to do what they wanted.”

Harry held up a hand. “Spare me the recruiting pitch. Where are you going with this?”

“I was a person of no great talent or distinction, unlike you. It was hard on me to realize that I had that talent inside me all along, and had simply never had the spur that drove me to use it. Since then, I‘ve embraced it and never looked back. You could make things as normal as you want, Harry. You don’t have to pursue the kind of talent that lets you see the wand traceries in the runes—although I think it would be a waste not to. You didn’t have to become an Auror. You don’t have to fight Dark wizards.”

“What—what else would I do?”

Theo had been waiting for this, for the moment when the catch of longing in Harry’s voice broke through and he allowed Theo to hear it. He crossed the distance between them with slow strides. Harry watched him come, eyes hooded.

Theo trailed a hand down his cheek again, and fed a little of his magic through his fingertips. As he had thought might happen, it made Harry gasp and sway towards him. Theo’s magic felt matched to people who liked books and knowledge, people allied to him, but it felt best to people whose talents and power in some way complemented his.

Harry sucked in a breath so harshly that for a second Theo thought he might have overdone it and fed in enough magic to Harry’s skin to sting. Then Harry said, “Nott—I can’t—what are you doing—”

“Just touching you with my magic filtering through my skin,” Theo said, keeping his voice soft. “Why don’t you let yours out a little?”

Harry stared at him, and Theo wondered if he would have to teach him how. That could be—most enjoyable.

Then Harry’s magic began to shine through his skin, and pleasure jolted up Theo’s hand where it still rested on Harry’s cheek and through his body. Theo shuddered and stepped closer, winding one arm around Harry. Harry leaned on him, putting his chin on Theo’s shoulder and embracing him.

It was so much. It was too much. It was like a combination of discovering his power and finding the world’s rarest book at once.

Theo could Apparate behind his fire, and he thought of doing it. Of taking Harry home to his bed and laying him down there, and making sure he didn’t leave until he was thoroughly convinced that this sharing of pleasure and power was the best thing he’d ever felt, and worth defying the Ministry for.

Of course, Harry ended up breaking away, twisting his neck to the side and bowing his head. “It was never like this with anyone else,” he whispered.

“Good,” Theo said.

“You are trying to recruit me.”

Theo shrugged. “I haven’t pretended otherwise.”

“Would you—would you expect me to kill people?”

And that question, Theo thought, his heartbeat accelerating, is the first step down the path.

“No. I would expect you to do whatever you wanted to do, and figure out what that was.” Theo smiled. “Shall we discuss this a little more?” And he held out his hand.

*

Nott House was nothing like what Harry had imagined, nothing like Malfoy Manor or the glimpses he’d got of the Riddle house from Voldemort’s visions.

It was large, covered in bookshelves even in the corridor they stood in, and quiet. That was what struck Harry the most. Silence like in a Muggle library covered everything in a thick fall. The books on the shelves also looked as though Preservation Charms had wrapped them in gleaming shrouds.

“You really like books,” Harry said, a little dazed, and insecurity crept back over him. Hermione was the kind of person Nott wanted to recruit, not that she would probably ever give him a chance. Harry was just the sort of person who was good at Defense and not much else. It made sense that he would become an Auror. Nothing else did.

“Yes,” Nott said. “And rare magical phenomena. And people to talk about them with. And Dark Arts spells. And you.”

Harry blinked and looked away from the bookshelves. Nott was studying him with the kind of interest that, had Harry been asked, he would have said this Dark Lord would reserve almost exclusively for books. Harry swallowed back his nervousness and stood up. “Because I had the gap in my soul and the conflict with my wand? But those are resolved now.”

“And because you could see the wand traceries. And because I heard a rumor that you managed a corporeal Patronus at thirteen. And because you have will magic.”

Harry blinked. “Okay, but I’m not going to use those things to help you take over magical Britain.”

“I don’t want magical Britain. Just a piece of it.”

“And all the books in it?”

“I’m not greedy,” Nott said. “Copies of all the books in it would satisfy me.” He smiled.

Harry studied Nott in more detail, now that they stood in the light of gleaming chandeliers overhead instead of the unsteady light of the fire or the distant shine of stars. His skin was less pale than Harry had thought, not as much as Malfoy’s. His hair, on the other hand, was dark enough to have a blue-black sheen to it, and he had those light grey eyes Harry had compared to a storm.

“You look like a scholar,” Harry murmured.

Nott’s eyebrows rose. “Yes? I am.”

“A scholar is the last kind of person I thought would be interested in someone like me.”

“I have told you why I am,” Nott said. “Because you’re extraordinary. And your response to my magic doesn’t hurt either. Neither do your looks.”

“Is this going to be about my eyes, again?” That was the one physical feature Harry had that someone praised every time they asked him on a date. Sometimes Harry thought they spoke about that because everything else was of so little note. He knew that he still stood shorter than most other men his age, that his scar was too prominent on his face, that he had other scars more than one person had stared at in horror when he took his clothes off. It was one reason Harry hadn’t dated at all after his second year in Auror training.

“Your eyes are not the most interesting part of you.”

Well, Nott might be a creepy, mental Dark Lord, but at least he was honest. Harry found himself smiling. “Tell me what is.”

“Your fierce determination and will to survive.”

And once again, Nott’s honesty had left Harry speechless. He licked his lips and said, “Well, you have me inside your house now. You could try your recruiting pitch again.”

*

Theo made his decision, then.

Yes, he could have talked in more detail about what he expected from Harry. Or showed him some of the spells it was possible to practice here. Or gone on praising his beauty, which made Harry sway a little towards him. Praise was something he had had no more of than pleasant touch, it seemed.

But this was going to be a long seduction, and not one that needed to happen all at once, tonight. Theo murmured, “I would rather touch you. Would that be agreeable?”

Harry’s face went dark and rosy with desire. He whispered, “Yes,” and reached out, touching Theo for the first time of his own free will. His hand skimmed down Theo’s chest, and Theo exhaled harshly.

The feeling of Harry’s magic made silver shivers course through him even when Harry wasn’t willing it to shine through his skin.

Theo grabbed Harry’s wrist and pulled him in, until they knocked together, chest-to-chest. Theo kissed him, guiding Harry’s chin up to a comfortable angle, and Harry sighed, for a moment as pliant as he had been when Theo complimented him.

Then Harry leaned in and became more aggressive, and Theo let him. Everything about Harry was an exclamation. The way his tongue darted out to brush Theo’s, the way his hands curled into claws and raked their way down Theo’s shoulders. Even the way that he seemed to want to do this in the middle of a corridor full of books, instead of in one of the comfortable rooms Theo had here and had thought they might make it to.

Harry raised a leg and twined it around Theo’s waist, abruptly, forcing Theo backwards against the wall. The shelves behind him shuddered. Theo ignored that, and the spines of the books digging uncomfortably into his skin. He snapped his fingers, and Harry’s shirt melted from his shoulders.

“What the—”

“In this place, I can command reality itself,” Theo murmured, and did the same thing for his own shirt.

“Well, how about using that trick on a few pieces of clothing a bit lower down?” Harry commented, but he had ducked his head and his eyes were shuttered. He seemed to be bracing himself for the moment when Theo saw the scars on his chest and arms.

Theo looked. In fact, he let his eyes linger. There was an oval-shaped scar above Harry’s heart, a long scar on his forearm that looked as if it had come from an enchanted knife, and a puncture wound on the other arm almost certainly from the basilisk he was rumored to have killed. And there were older scars that might have come from bites, punches, or hexes. Newer ones, as well, gleaming silver lines on Harry’s skin.

“Yes,” Theo said complacently, when he raised his eyes and locked them on Harry’s again. “I think I can.”

He snapped his fingers, and Harry gave a harsh breath as his trousers disappeared. Theo left the pants. He rather liked the line of Harry’s cock against the cloth, thick and heavy and dampening the pants more with every moment.

He did vanish his own robes, and then held out his arms. “Come here,” he said softly.

Harry moved forwards, flinging himself into Theo’s embrace as recklessly as he had flung himself into the Apparition to the manor. But Theo no longer thought of Harry as the kind of impulsive Gryffindor idiot whom Draco had made fun of in school. Now, he understood. Harry would come to someone who praised him, who made him feel good, who handled him in the way that the Ministry and the Dark Lord should have handled him to get him on their side.

Theo kissed him and looped his own leg around Harry’s waist, drawing him closer.

*

Harry had never felt this good.

Pleasure sparking through him, and Nott holding him close, and Nott’s mouth on his, and Nott simply looking at his scars…

And Nott’s hips rocking against his, slow at first, then more insistent, and Harry hissed and pressed closer as Nott angled his hips, and their cocks brushed, and—

Harry came embarrassingly fast, and with the hisses of Parseltongue ringing in his ears. He buried his face in Nott’s shoulder, mouthing at it, and Nott shuddered and followed him with what seemed to be a groan of surprise.

It was good. It was so good.

Harry stood in Nott’s arms for a long moment afterwards, as their breathing calmed back towards normal, and bit his lip. He wondered what Nott would say when they stepped back, and if there was a way to explain this to Ron and Hermione.

Why do I need to explain this to Ron and Hermione?

Maybe he didn’t need to. It wasn’t like they told him all about their sex lives, either.

Holy shit, I have a sex life, Harry thought the next second, in wonder.

*

Theo stroked Harry’s back once and then moved so that he wasn’t leaning against quite as many knobbly books. “Thank you,” he said softly. “That was the best I’ve ever felt.”

Harry swallowed and met his eyes. His own were bright and dazed, but he was already drifting back towards the man Theo had met outside the fire, self-contained and wary. “Me, too,” he said hoarsely. Then he abruptly tossed his head and stirred like a restless Granian. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to help you take over everything.”

“I believe I’ve already told you my goals don’t include that.” Theo trailed his fingers up Harry’s arm again. “If you give yourself to me, then I should be very glad, I think.”

Harry had a lovely blush, particularly like this, when Theo could see how far up and down his body it spread. “I’ll have to think about it,” he said, and then pulled away and looked around, obviously for his clothes.

Theo was beyond tempted to tell him that they had been Vanished permanently and wouldn’t come back, but that would be cruel, at this point. And he didn’t want to do anything that would drive Harry away from him. He snapped his fingers again, and Harry’s trousers and shirt pooled on the floor in front of his feet.

“Thanks,” Harry said, eyes cast down in what seemed to be shyness, and started getting dressed. He did wave his wand to Vanish the mess in his pants first.

Theo watched him, calmly. The scars Harry had been so eager to hide, or maybe so convinced Theo would think were ugly, gradually disappeared under his shirt. Harry shook his hair out and ran a hand through it, and touched his glasses as though surprised to find them still on his face. Then he glanced at Theo.

“This doesn’t mean I’m joining you.”

Theo wanted to argue, but instead, he smiled. “Of course not.” It would be less fun if Harry didn’t snap and fight back and struggle. And Theo, while he wanted to be glad, didn’t want to be bored.

He regathered his own robes and reached into the deepest of the pockets. “Take this,” he said, holding out the amulet in it to Harry.

“What is it? Another one to study?” Harry hesitated, eyes flicking back and forth between Theo and the amulet.

“One that will bring you back behind the fiery barrier at any time you will it, from outside.”

“Does it work multiple times?”

“One time only.”

“Then, when I’m here…”

“You’ll need to ask me if you wish to leave again.”

Harry shivered. He might have thought he’d hidden it, but he hadn’t. Theo smiled at him, and kept the amulet extended. “I’ll Apparate you out this time,” he added. “But you’ll need this if you want to come back.”

Harry grabbed at the amulet. Theo stifled his disappointment that he wouldn’t get to hang it around Harry’s neck while Harry bowed his head to him. They would get there. Someday, it would be an amulet that could take Harry wherever he desired, whenever he liked. When Theo could trust him.

Harry stuffed the amulet into a pocket and then paused. Theo waited.

“Thank you,” Harry whispered, head bowed. “I’m still not saying I’ll join you. But.”

“Many things can come after but,” Theo murmured, and stepped forwards to clasp Harry’s hand for the Apparition.

He could wait.

*

Harry stood outside the fire staring at Nott. Nott bowed his head and whirled on his heel, vanishing.

Harry touched his face, his lips, his hair. Then he reached down and let his hand rest over the bulge of the amulet in his trouser pocket.

He didn’t want to join a Dark Lord who would run a massive and nasty campaign across Britain. He didn’t want to fight his friends. He wasn’t even sure that he wanted to quit working for the Ministry.

But he knew he wanted more of the man who had touched him like that, who had looked at his scars and made them a badge of survival instead of shame.

His heart pounding, sure only that he would see Theo Nott again, Harry Apparated.

The End.

Comments

[drarryfangrrrl]

Oooo...I'd like to read more from this story arc...