lomonaaeren

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Chapter Twelve—Various People’s Nonsense

“I challenge you to a duel, Nott!”

Theo looks up from his book slowly. Davis is standing in front of him in the middle of the common room, her fingers tucked tightly around her wand. Her eyes are wide and her jaw set.

Her eyes are also terrified.

Theo takes time in laying his quill aside. People are starting to pay attention, including Draco craning his neck, but that doesn’t mean that Theo needs to hurry.

“Do you?” Theo tilts his head towards Davis. “What kind of duel, where should it take place, and what kinds of spells are you planning on using?”

Davis is sweating now, openly. Theo isn’t the only one who’s going to notice that, but realistically, it might not change much. After all, Davis is making this challenge because of her father, or whoever else in the Death Eaters’ ranks is putting pressure on him, not because she really wants to. Just look at her. If she loses or wins, they’ll continue driving her to do what they want.

Unless Theo makes sure that they can’t.

He starts to smile, and Davis gulps back a first response before she snaps, “Of course we’ll duel in the middle of the common room, the way Slytherins have since time immemorial! And of course any spells are allowed!”

“Lethal ones?”

“What? No!”

“Unforgivables? Dark Arts? The Maiming Curses?”

“Ordinary spells used in duels, Nott!” Davis holds her wand up in front of her and waggles it back and forth towards him, a taunting gesture that would look better if she weren’t shaking so badly she almost drops it. “Unless you’re scared?”

“Blaise, if you would set up the wards so that no one else is damaged?” Theo asks softly, his gaze on Davis. “And the furniture, of course. It’s important to make sure that the furniture is preserved.”

“Of course, Theo.”

Theo smiles as he stands, and it’s gentle and merciless and makes Davis back up a step. But she continues to stand there, because she’s more afraid of whoever’s pulling her leash than she is of him.

That will change.

There are so many people paying attention now that Theo is sure word of this will make its way back to Davis’s father even before Davis herself can write to him. It doesn’t matter. As long as he understands why he won’t be able to send his daughter against Theo or Harry after this, that’s all Theo requires.

He steps into place across from Davis as the wards flicker into being around them. Davis darts her eyes back and forth and swallows audibly. Theo gives another pleasant smile and twitches his wand.

“Let’s begin, Davis. As the challenger, right to cast first falls to you.”

The way she fumbles for her wand would make Theo feel sorry for her if he were that kind of person. As it is, he simply watches, and snaps up a shield to block the simple jinx she gets off.

She casts others hastily, her face blazing in the light from the fire as the sweat slides down her cheeks and forehead. Theo shields, walking closer to her each time, until less than a meter separates them. She hasn’t made him dodge or flinch so far. From the way that Davis’s eyes are widening, she knows what that means, know that he can destroy her if he catches her.

She breaks before Theo thought she would, flinging all her power into the curse she chooses. “Ossa torqueo!”

This one, Theo can’t block with a simple shield. It’s too powerful. He takes a step to the side, and the Bone-Twister splashes against the wards and dissipates into nothingness.

Davis backs up another step. Theo pauses, watching her. In a way, it would testify to his power if she simply surrenders before he casts a single offensive spell.

But no, she’s snarling at him in a ridiculous show of bravado. Theo mentally shrugs. Very well, then.

He doesn’t verbalize the spell that he casts at Davis. He doesn’t have to. It’s one Father made him learn silently even before he came to Hogwarts. Theo had to be able to cast it on the animals Father conjured to avoid having it cast on him.

Davis screams aloud as she drops her wand and claws at her face. However, nothing appears on her head or hair. The Slytherins watching snap their eyes back and forth between her and Theo, seeking some answer.

Theo turns his pleasant smile on them, and they flinch and shiver. It’s about one in five who can hold his eyes.

“It’s a spell that cuts off all her senses,” he explains, in the same patient and gentle tone that his father used to use with him. “Right now, she can’t see or hear anything. She can’t smell anything. If she had been eating, she wouldn’t taste anything. She can’t even feel her fingers clawing at her face. One can do quite a bit of damage to themselves under the influence of this spell before one stops.

“I’ll be merciful and remove it in one minute. A minute and a half under the spell, total.”

He flicks his wand and conjures a tiny golden hourglass with enough sand for one minute, another spell that Father was so good as to teach him. Theo wonders idly as he watches the sand fall and listens to Davis scream if Father ever supposed that Theo would someday use his skill at magic to murder the man who had taught it to him.

No. He wouldn’t have thought that. He was too prideful for it, too arrogant.

The sand runs out. Theo, true to his word, gestures lazily with his wand and releases Davis from the curse. She collapses to the floor, moaning aloud, and then gets to her feet and runs towards the girls’ dormitories, leaving her wand behind. She bangs into the wall once on the way.

Theo watches her go, then faces his audience again. This time, the ripple of flinching that runs around the edges of it can’t be missed.

“I can do other things,” Theo says. “I can be less than kind. I suspect you think about that, the next time you want to challenge me to a duel.” His eyes seek out dear Draco, who is already staring down at his lap as if he hopes that Theo won’t notice him. “Or the next time your family members want you to challenge me. Or Harry.”

The sound of Harry’s name makes them flinch harder than ever. Theo nods around, not pausing for applause, and then saunters back to Blaise’s side as his best friend takes down the wards. There is a silence as thick as cushions all around them.

“Some of them aren’t so much impressed with the spell as they are that you cast it silently,” Blaise murmurs to him, barely audible, as Theo picks up his book on blood curses again.

Theo shrugs. “Silent casting isn’t hard if you do it properly,” he says aloud, ignoring the way that some people who started to turn back towards his and Blaise’s corner of the common room flinch again. “If one is powerful enough.”

Silence, except for Blaise’s muffled chuckles. Theo smiles at him, and starts making notes again.

People who might have jostled him on his way out of the common room leave him a broad path. Theo has no ambition to control or cow other Slytherins the way the Dark Lord did, but he has to admit, it feels bloody good to know that they fear him.

Hatred is never far behind fear, Father’s voice chides him from inside his skull.

And that’s true, but anyone who strikes at Theo will hate him less than Father did. And for that matter, anyone who strikes at him or Harry will hate them less than Theo hated his father and hates Voldemort.

I rather pride myself on my power of hatred.

*

“Mr. Nott. If you would stay after class, please.”

Umbridge’s simpering fills Theo with disgust. But he nods and turns around with a variation of that pleasant smile he used in the duel with Davis. Umbridge isn’t intelligent enough to fear it. “Of course, Professor.”

Umbridge titters and waits for the other students to leave. Harry twists his head as he does, his eyes wide and owl-like as he stares at Theo.

It will be all right, Theo says with a nod, and Harry believes him enough to walk out.

Umbridge waves her wand to shut the door, almost catching Harry’s heels. “I wanted to give you the security of a few weeks back into the term before I talked to you, Mr. Nott,” she says, voice a singsong. “To ensure that you didn’t feel the kind of confusion I thought you might have felt before.”

“Confusion?” Theo asks politely. “Sorry, Professor, I don’t know for sure what that means.”

“What can we call it but confusion, when the only son of a very promising pureblood family takes up with a lying half-blood?”

“Oh, I didn’t realize Harry was lying about something specific.”

“Surely you understand that the photographs of You-Know-Who in the papers must have been a sort of trick?”

Theo blinks innocently at her. “Oh, but I was in the graveyard, Professor Umbridge. I know for sure that he tried to come back. It’s true that he failed, but I wouldn’t dismiss his existence out of hand.”

Umbridge’s nostrils flare. Then she says, very softly, “I am disappointed in you, Mr. Nott.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Professor.”

“I do not believe that you are.” Umbridge leans forwards and stares at him as if hoping to find the truth in his eyes, but Theo doesn’t feel any of the pushing against his thoughts that would imply she’s a Legilimens. He simply stands there, and Umbridge turns away with a sneer that’s like the stomping of a foot. “Detention. Tonight at seven, Mr. Nott.”

“Yes, Professor.”

Theo leaves, and finds Harry waiting less than a corridor away. He starts forwards the instant he sees Theo, his eyes wide. “What are you—did you—”

“She assigned me detention.”

“You’re not going.”

Theo shivers. He knows that the other Slytherins find him intimidating after his duel with Davis, but honestly, he almost wishes they could see the way that Harry’s eyes blaze right now, hear how his voice deepens as he steps towards Theo. Or see the way that his head swings as his eyes lock on Umbridge’s closed door.

A lick of flame appears near its surface.

Theo shudders with lust and jerks Harry deeper into the corridor, kissing him hard enough to subdue the incipient fire. Harry kisses him back, but pulls away with a certain manic light in his eyes. “If she uses a Blood Quill on you…”

“I don’t believe she would. I’m a pureblood.”

“So’s Ron!”

“Yes, but someone who has a certain reputation in the eyes of people like Umbridge.”

Harry pauses, then nods. There’s still a storm in his eyes, but he reaches out and lays a hand over Theo’s. “I won’t make a fuss about this if you promise me that you’re going to be safe.”

“I promise,” Theo purrs. “Now. I think there’s a classroom around the corner where we can Transfigure a bed and no one will come by.”

Harry’s eyes light up, and he’s the one who leads Theo there with impatient tugs on his arms. Theo is just as glad that no one from Slytherin stands a chance of seeing Harry like this, come to think of it.

Theo wants this miracle all to himself.

*

Theo knocks on Umbridge’s door at precisely seven. His mind is floating in happy memories of what he did with Harry that afternoon, and he steps forwards a second after the door opens.

“A minute late, Mr. Nott.”

“I’m sorry, professor.”

It amuses Theo a little that even having said that, Umbridge still doesn’t take points from Slytherin. She makes little dusting motions around herself as if she’s clearing off a place to sit, even though there’s a desk in front of her desk already, with a chair in front of it. There’s a scroll of parchment resting on the desk, and a quill waiting next to it.

Theo stretches his magic forwards. He’s not as good as Blaise is at sensing magic around him, but he can sense enough to know that the quill isn’t an ordinary one.

She’s trying the Blood Quill after all.

Theo’s blood rises and pounds. He can’t stop smiling.

“I am sure I do not see what is funny, Mr. Nott.”

Theo turns and faces her. He keeps the smile on his face, but turns it into something softly chiding. “Professor, do you think I would really pick up a Blood Quill and inscribe lines on my own skin?”

Umbridge only pauses for a moment, but it’s enough to tell Theo that he hasn’t misread the situation. She leans back in her chair and utters a tinkling little laugh. “I would never expect something like that, Mr. Nott! What makes you think I have a Blood Quill here?”

“The way the light caught the nib.”

There. Umbridge can’t prove him wrong.

She pauses, and then stands up and walks over to the desk with the parchment and the quill. Theo turns as if politely to watch her pass, but really, it’s to keep her in his line of sight. She is holding her wand.

He has his in his holster, ready to leap out if she does anything.

Umbridge stares down at the quill and then lifts her hand and touches it to her lips with a delicate gasp. “It is! My apologies, Mr. Nott! I never expected this to happen!”

“It’s all right, professor. I think we all have something unexpected happen sometimes.”

She turns to him and simpers. “Perhaps you’ll just want to write regular lines, like a dear? Or you could do something else for your detention.”

“I don’t mind lines, Professor, if that’s what you want me to do,” Theo says, so earnest that she actually stares at him for a moment as though wondering who he is and what he’s done with Theo Nott.

But a second later, Umbridge shakes her head and returns to her desk, reaching for something that turns out to be a set of teacups and small saucers. “I thought we could have tea, Mr. Nott, and you could tell me about yourself.”

“Oh, I suppose we can do that,” Theo says, and feigns discomfort as he sits down in the chair. “But I’m not really that interesting.”

“The boyfriend of the infamous Mr. Potter? I can’t imagine that you’re not interesting!”

“Well, Harry is more interesting than I am.”

Theo narrows his eyes and tilts his head. And yes. She’s pulling out a vial of gleaming, clear liquid. She’s going to try Veritaserum on him.

Theo refrains from rolling his eyes, but really. How obvious and clumsy can one get?

He flicks his wand when she lifts the vial, and the three drops angle and stretch, clinging to the vial. Umbridge hums, seeming to miss the fact that none of the potion actually spills into his drink. Then again, with the low firelight in the office and the fact that the potion is transparent, it’s an easier mistake to make than it might appear.

Umbridge turns around with a disgusting smile and offers him a teacup she seems to believe is doctored. “Drink up, dear.”

Theo sips the tea. Veritaserum fails to wrap around his mind. He hides a smile. The tea is inferior to everything he’s ever had before, including the stuff that Narcissa Malfoy used to serve when Theo accompanied Father on visits to Malfoy Manor.

Umbridge barely touches her own tea, leaning forwards in anticipation. Theo thinks of a few different ways to play it, and then hits on the perfect one. He smiles at Umbridge and goes right on sipping the tea.

Umbridge looks baffled.

“It’s fairly good tea, Professor,” Theo says at last. “But not my favorite. I can give you recommendations, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

“How did Mr. Potter stage those photographs?”

“What does this have to do with tea, Professor?”

“I want you to answer my questions!” Umbridge’s voice is a little shrill, which makes Theo frown. “You must tell the truth!”

Theo just shakes his head. “I was telling the truth about the tea, Professor. Did you want recommendations for blends? Of course,” he pauses and looks down and shrugs a little, “I didn’t mean to insult your taste in tea. But I thought I could offer my services, if that’s why you wanted me to try the tea.”

“When did you begin dating Mr. Potter?”

“I say, Professor. That’s a bit private.”

“I insist on an answer!”

“You could probably find someone who would tell you the approximate time last year, but I don’t think I owe you one,” Theo says firmly. “Asking about students’ personal lives is beyond the pale, truly.”

Umbridge stares from him to the cup of tea in his hands. Theo raises his eyebrows and gives her a confused look, playing to the hilt the role of student who doesn’t know that he’s miraculously managing to resist Veritaserum.

“Get out of my sight.”

Theo sighs and sets the teacup down on the desk. “All right, Professor. I honestly didn’t mean to insult your taste in tea. But I think that you should know—”

“Out!”

Theo leaves the office with a headshake. Once he’s out the door and a few corners away and sure that he’s beyond the reach of any spying or eavesdropping spells Umbridge might have in place, he lengthens his stride.

They know that Umbridge has Veritaserum now. That means they have to change some of their plans.