[From Samhain to the Solstice]: Birds of Victory, Love in the Time of Eagles series, Harry/Theo, 3/9

[lomonaaeren]

“Make sure it completely covers you.”

Theo rolled his eyes, but Harry couldn’t see him anyway under the Invisibility Cloak that he had draped over Theo’s shoulders. In the end, Theo simply sighed and slipped out the door of the Tower after Harry, who had cast his own semi-expert Disillusionment Charm.

The Invisibility Cloak Harry had got for Christmas his first year was still a mysterious present, in Theo’s opinion, and not one that Harry had used a great deal. Harry had said that he didn’t trust the intentions of the person who had sent it to him, and even if it wasn’t poisoned or covered with tracking charms, there was no guarantee that it wasn’t a trap set by an enemy with patience.

Frankly, Theo thought Harry was a little paranoid, but it was the kind of paranoia Father and Black would have approved of. So he kept silent and followed Harry to the Astronomy Tower under the Cloak, with a charm to muffle his own footsteps.

Harry slipped out onto the top of the Tower and looked around. There was no sign of Malfoy, Theo thought, unless he was just as good with the Disillusionment Charm as Harry was. Harry still signaled for Theo to stay back, which Theo had expected.

Then Harry folded his arms and said, “Well? I’m here, Malfoy.”

No one answered for a moment, and then a wheeze from the stairs said, “I’m here, Potter.” Malfoy slipped into view, looking as if he’d been running, his hair sticking straight up. Theo bit his lip against the impulse to laugh.

Harry turned towards him and nodded. “What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?”

Malfoy again took a moment to respond, since he was layering the top of the Tower in charms that would prevent eavesdropping and also warn them if someone was coming up the stairs. Theo raised his eyebrows. Malfoy cast the majority of them wordlessly. That was impressive, when most students didn’t even start working on nonverbal magic until this year.

Harry narrowed his eyes, but waited until Malfoy spun to face him. “Yes?” he asked.

“The task is to kill Dumbledore.”

Theo barely managed to clap a hand across his mouth and not wheeze with shock. Harry stood staring at Malfoy with his mouth dangling open, something Theo was definitely going to tease him about later.

Then Harry wiped a hand down his face and took in a long breath. “He thinks you can accomplish this?”

“It’s not about accomplishing it, Potter. It’s about punishing me for my father’s failure.”

Good on Draco to know that. Theo had known Draco well enough when they were children, but five years in different Houses and not visiting during the summers and holidays had distanced them. Theo hadn’t thought Draco would really be smart enough to realize that he wasn’t just being special and chosen with the task that Voldemort had given him.

“All right. So what do you want?”

“Protection.”

“What?” Harry asked, blank and startled again, while Theo again had to hold in his attempt to wheeze.

Malfoy dropped to one knee in front of Harry, his hands extended in front of him so his palms were visible, and his wand resting on them. “I swear I mean no one near you harm, and do ask your sanctuary and protection,” he said clearly.

Harry gaped again. So did Theo, but under the Cloak, so it didn’t count, as far as he was concerned.

“I—I don’t have an army or anything like that to promise you protection,” Harry said at last, while Theo was still thinking how he would have tried to respond in Harry’s place.

“I know.” Malfoy bit his lip and raised his head. He looked younger than Theo thought he had when they were five years old, and Malfoy was still assured of his place in his parents’ affections and the ranks of the rich and powerful. “But I know that you and Nott combined Runes and Arithmancy to trap a Death Eater in fourth year, and that Professors Babbling and Vector will brag about your work to whoever listens. I know that you got almost all Outstandings. My father saw the Ministry records and was complaining about it. You’re smart. You’ll figure out some way to protect me.”

Harry blinked and then cast a half-panicked glance over his shoulder. Theo knew what that meant. It was time to reveal himself.

“I’m sure that we can work something out,” he drawled, as he cast the Cloak from his shoulders.

Malfoy sprang back to his feet, and then stopped and stared at Theo. “You would—you would actually help me?”

“Of course. And Harry doesn’t know all the details of the request for sanctuary or why you think he could protect you, so I’ll help him understand. Excuse us.”

Theo took Harry’s arm and towed him firmly into a corner of the Astronomy Tower, where Harry just looked at him blankly. Theo shook his arm a little and said fiercely, “You’ve got to wake up, Harry.”

Harry blinked, and blinked, and then seemed to recover his metaphorical balance. “Right.” He glanced over his shoulder at Malfoy, who was still watching them. “Do you think this is sincere?”

“Yes. I can’t see him getting down on one knee and speaking those words unless he was serious about it.”

“What’s so special about those words?”

“They’re like the words of welcome that Father spoke the first time you came to our house. They always connote a solemn promise, and there’s no way that someone would ever speak them if they didn’t mean them. The legend says that the person who lies with them will suffer a curse, and I don’t know if I believe that, but Malfoy probably would.”

“All right. Then what about—why does he think that I can protect him? Just because of my fame?”

“Some of it probably is that, but I think the rest is just that you’re intelligent, and he thinks you can come up with defenses to oppose the Dark Lord.”

“Voldemort is intelligent, too.”

“But mad. And whatever method he’s using to communicate with Lucius, I assume that it’s not one that hides his madness. Or Malfoy would be more enthusiastic about serving him.”

Harry peered over his shoulder at Malfoy. He was kneeling again, Theo saw, when he peered over Harry’s shoulder, and watching them with huge, hopeful eyes.

That kind of thing just looked wrong on Draco. Theo wanted to help him partially so that he would go back to normal.

“All right,” Harry said abruptly. “It’s possible that he could tell us information about Voldemort that most people wouldn’t know, anyway.”

Theo nodded and slid a hand up the back of Harry’s neck, smiling at the way he flushed. “Have I told you how hot it is when you decide to rescue one of my childhood friends?”

“Exactly how many of them have I had the chance to rescue before now?” Harry muttered, his ears steadily turning redder.

“None. But I wanted you to know.”

Harry’s eyes dropped to Theo’s lips, Theo saw with satisfaction, before Harry visibly tore himself away with a shake of his head and faced Draco again. Theo followed him, making sure to coil up the Cloak so that Draco wouldn’t be able to see it.

“All right, Malfoy. I accept your petition.”

Draco almost slumped over, his head dangling. Then he snapped his neck back up. “What do you need me to do in return?”

At least Draco is smart enough to know there will be something. Theo had met a number of Slytherins who would have assumed that there was no price because they were dealing with the Boy-Who-Lived, or a Ravenclaw, or the son of Gryffindor parents, or one of the combination of those.

“We need as much information on Vol—the Dark Lord as you can pass us without endangering your parents or your own position.”

Draco blinked rapidly. Then he nodded, before swallowing. “Done.” He hesitated. “Ideally, I would rescue my parents.”

“Ideally?” Theo asked. He couldn’t imagine circumstances under which any of the Malfoys would leave each other behind.

“The method that the Dark Lord is communicating with my father through—” Draco shook his head. “He can’t leave it behind, and he can’t escape from it. Both he and Mother told me to leave them behind and run if I have to.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I don’t want to,” he whispered, voice almost inaudible. “But I’m going to obey what may be parents’ last wishes.”

“We’ll do what we can to rescue them.”

“Thank you, Potter.”

“Thank me by telling me how the Dark Lord is communicating with your father in a way that he can’t leave behind.”

Harry’s heavy voice said that he might already have an idea. Theo squeezed Harry’s shoulder. He did, too, but the confirmation would make something settle in his stomach. The sooner they knew, the sooner they could fight.

“The Mark,” Draco whispered. “He speaks through the Mark.”

“You aren’t Marked, are you, Malfoy?” Theo kept his voice low. He couldn’t let Draco know how much sympathy Theo had for him, in case Draco used that somehow to undermine the bargain they were offering him.

“Of course not!” Draco looked revolted. “The Mark is supposed to be—proof of my worthiness after I complete my task.”

Theo nodded. At least that was a problem they wouldn’t have to deal with. “Then let’s begin the research and discussion necessary to bring both you and your parents to safety.”

The hope on Draco’s face was a painful thing.

*

“I wondered if you’d had much chance to take up the task that I gave you at the beginning of the term, Harry?”

Harry gave Dumbledore a bland smile. He’d waited until Harry was alone, moving between the library and Ravenclaw Tower. Theo was deeply involved in one of those plots with Padma that he thought Harry didn’t know about, and Harry had let him go on thinking that because it was amusing.

“Not yet, sir.”

“We really must have that information as soon as possible.”

“You could ask him yourself, sir. Or read his mind. Aren’t you a Legilimens?”

There was a minute flicker of hesitation. Then Dumbledore said, “I consider it impolite to read the memories of those who have not proven themselves to be a threat.”

“Have I proven to be a threat at any point?”

“Why would you ask such a thing, my boy?”

“Only that I’m pretty sure that you tried to read my mind at some point, and I couldn’t remember being a threat.”

Dumbledore took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. Then he sighed, “You are not a threat, Harry, but you are someone whose safety I am concerned for. If I read your mind, it was under that premise.”

“Pretense?”

“Premise, Harry. I’d think a Ravenclaw would be more careful about his language.”

“Oh, I’m exceedingly careful, sir.”

Dumbledore’s eyes narrowed a little. Harry stood there and smiled at him, avoiding direct eye contact as he did.

“Please concentrate on retrieving the information from Professor Slughorn as soon as possible, Harry. More is riding on it than you can ever know. And please let me know right away if you suffer any strange dreams.”

“Yes, sir.”

Dumbledore watched him go, Harry knew. Harry ignored the feeling of eyes on his back. It was something that was fairly used to, given that the firsties, if no one else, thought it was fun to gape at the Boy-Who-Lived.

And in the meantime, Harry would tell Theo that they needed to research dreams.

*

“Mother sent a letter yesterday.”

Draco’s voice was low. He’d sent a message with Hedwig that said only, I need to talk to you as soon as possible, which was the method of communication they’d agreed upon. They’d waited for Draco outside the Great Hall and managed to steal a few moments of time with him as soon as dinner was done.

Draco’s eyes were bloodshot, his hair ruffled. He might not be making a sincere effort to kill the Headmaster, but Theo knew he would feel pressure to keep up the pretense, in case the Dark Lord decided he wasn’t doing enough and punished his parents.

“What did it say?” Harry had cast charms around them that would warn them if anyone approached closely.

Draco closed his eyes. “It said that the Dark Lord wants to hold a sacrifice to create a body for himself. He’s planning to break out my aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange, from Azkaban. She has something that he needs for the ritual, and for some reason, he can’t access it himself.”

Theo almost choked. Of course he’d hoped that having Draco essentially play spy for them would produce results, but he hadn’t thought of this.

Harry met Theo’s eyes, his own eyes glittering, and nodded a little. He thought like Theo did, that they had a lead on a Horcrux.

“She didn’t say anything about where it might be?”

“No. Just that it’s in a place the Dark Lord can’t access.” Draco hesitated. “And I don’t think my father can, either, or he would have said something about trying.”

Theo could only think of one place that needed a particular person to be there to access an artifact, and so could Harry, from the way he was nodding.

Gringotts.

“Thank you, Malfoy,” Harry said quietly. “You’ve been helpful. In the meantime, I have this for you.” He dug into a pocket of his robe and took out an amulet that he’d asked Father to send him from the Nott cellars. Harry had worked on it to add protection spells as well as a hidden Cheerfulness Charm. Merlin knew Draco could use a bit of cheerfulness.

Draco accepted the amulet with shaking hands, which stopped shaking quite as much when he had the round, bone-ivory thing around his neck. He bowed his head. “Thank you.”

“And this.”

Theo’s eyes widened as Harry handed over a silver ring set with a piece of obsidian that definitely had not come from the Nott cellars. He leaned close enough to hiss into Harry’s ear, “What are you doing?”

Harry waved his wand, casting a Privacy Charm that would be localized on them as he said, “Passing on a gift from Sirius.”

Theo checked an exclamation. He had managed to forget that Black’s cousin was Narcissa Malfoy, and thus Draco was his cousin, too—his first cousin once removed, if Theo was remembering the genealogy correctly.

If there had been Nott cousins that Father had got on with, Theo didn’t know if he could have resisted the temptation to help them, either.

“Thank you,” Draco whispered, looking up. He had some life in his face again. Theo could admit, if only grudgingly, that it was an improvement on the dead way he had looked before. “This is a Portkey?”

“Yes. It will take you to an old property belonging to your family.”

“I don’t think there’s any property that my father wouldn’t have—”

“There’s more to a family than whose name you bear, Malfoy.”

Draco started, and then seemed to understand what Harry meant. He reverently tucked the ring down into a moleskin pouch that had appeared around his neck the other day. “I see. Thank you.” He hesitated. “Will one of my parents get one, as well?”

“That would need a secrecy oath.”

Theo sighed a little in sheer relief. At least Black wasn’t so mental as to just trust that Narcissa wouldn’t tell her husband.

“I see,” Draco repeated. He looked a little wistful, but also accepting. Theo wondered if he had given up his father for dead the minute the Dark Lord started speaking through the Mark—or at least not able to be rescued. “I owe you, Potter. Theo. I promise that I’ll come back with more information soon.”

“Don’t take too many risks. You won’t be any good if the Dark Lord suspects what you’re doing and restricts your ability to pass us information.”

“Good point.”

Draco nodded to them and slipped away in the direction of Runes. They would need to go soon, as well, but Theo waved his hand up and down in front of Harry’s face. Harry was watching Draco go with an unhappy set to his jaw that made Theo worry what kind of action was going to follow this bout of compassion.

“Why are you feeling so sorry for Draco? You didn’t grow up with him, and he didn’t do anything to endear himself to you in the past few years.”

Harry sighed and turned around to look at Theo. “Because he’s in danger from Voldemort in a way that no one else is right now. Ron and Hermione are in general danger because of being a ‘blood traitor’ and a Muggleborn, but Voldemort isn’t targeting then specifically. I think—I can see myself in Malfoy.”

“You don’t have family he could influence to control you.”

“But I have people I love,” Harry countered, reaching for Theo’s hand, “and he could threaten them and try to control me that way.”

Theo caught his breath. “You would make him regret ever trying,” he said, to move past what he felt stuck in his throat when Harry looked at him that way.

“Yes. But in the meantime, you would be in danger.”

Theo stepped up to him and bent his head to kiss Harry. Harry buried his hands in Theo’s hair in response. Theo moaned a little into the kiss, and he felt Harry smile and deepen it.

Something sharp hit their Privacy Charm, and Theo started wildly and leaped back from Harry. He couldn’t help it. It was still the sort of reflex that Father had drilled into him to respond to sudden attacks.

“Stop snogging and get to Runes!”

It was Michael Corner, again, walking past them. He was shaking his head, and so were the rest of the sixth-year Ravenclaws, except Padma, who was smiling hard enough to split her face. She raised an eyebrow at Theo and made a little kissing purse of her lips.

Theo might have said something, but Harry was laughing hard enough to get rid of the shadows in his face lingering from when they had talked about Draco’s situation. Theo reached out and caught his hand, and they walked that way to Runes, where Babbling gave their joined hands one look and started calling on them for the names of the basic runes they would be building arrays from that day.

It didn’t matter. Not when Harry’s heart was obviously light enough for him to answer without resentment, and not when Theo’s heart was full.

*

“It’s a perfect plan.”

“It’s a stupid plan.”

Harry shook his head as he leaned back into the couch that was decorated with scraps and whorls of Christmas wrapping paper. Sirius and Eustace had been arguing about Sirius’s plan to sneak into Gringotts for the last half-hour.

Honestly, Harry didn’t know whose side he was more firmly on.

On the one hand, they did need whatever Horcrux it seemed Bellatrix Lestrange had in her Gringotts vault, and Gringotts was hard enough to break into. Sirius’s plan stood a decent chance of succeeding.

On the other hand, Harry thought there was a decent chance the plan would fail, and the goblins executing his godfather for attempted theft was not something he wanted to happen.

“Tell me if you have another bloody idea, Eustace. I don’t think you do. I think you’re arguing for the sake of arguing.”

Theo looked at Harry around the edge of the brand-new biography of several prominent Arithmancers he had received for Christmas from Eustace, and rolled his eyes. Harry lost himself in admiring the way that a dark curl of hair fell above Theo’s shining grey eyes, and lost track of the conversation for a moment.

“Ah-ha!”

Those words were never good ones when they came out of Sirius’s mouth. Harry turned back and found Sirius practically dancing among the leftover paper that had wrapped the book on the Animagus transformation he’d given Harry.

“You just admitted that you didn’t have a better plan! You admitted it! Ha-ha!” Sirius pointed his finger at Eustace and laughed in a way that made his resemblance to a dog all the more obvious. “I will treasure this day!”

Eustace closed his eyes in what seemed to be a prayer for patience. Then he opened them again and said, “As a matter of fact, I do have a better plan. And some reasons for why it’s the better one.”

“You should have explained them already!”

“If you will cease your juvenile taunting and let me explain—”

“Fine,” Sirius said, and folded his arms across his chest as he pouted at Eustace.

“Your plan of slipping into the bank in Animagus form cannot be as unprecedented as you think,” Eustace said. His voice was quiet and forceful. Harry sometimes wished that he’d got to see Eustace make speeches in the Wizengamot, back when he was more active politically. He had probably been a sight to behold. “The goblins are not stupid and would have wards up against such a thing.”

“But an Animagus in animal form is indistinguishable from an ordinary animal! They wouldn’t have wards up against all animals!”

“Why not? After all, it’s also not unprecedented that someone might have sent an owl, a Kneazle, or another creature sufficiently intelligent to spy for them and perhaps even attempt to steal items.”

“But you don’t know that!”

“You don’t know that they do not.”

“It’s up to you to prove that they do, because you’re the one making the argument!”

Harry raised his eyebrows. Logic from Sirius? Unexpected, but interesting, and enough to get Theo to put aside his book.

“You would still be taking an unacceptable risk.” Eustace spoke mildly enough, but his eyes glinted. “Do you not want to remain alive for your godson, if not for Theo? For your cousins you are attempting to save from the Dark Lord?”

Sirius paused. Then he said, “Sure. But I don’t know that I would die.”

“I know that I would.”

“Then you should let me go, because it would just be stupid to—”

“Father.”

Theo was sitting up now, and the look on his face made Harry stand up in concern and cross the distance between his couch and Theo’s. Theo accepted Harry’s hand on his shoulder, but he was still tense, focused on Eustace.

“You mean something specific,” Theo whispered.

Eustace closed his eyes, and then stood and faced them both with much the same expression Harry had seen on his face when they first put the diary into his hands. Resignation, acceptance, with a buried joy.

“The Healers have told me that I have no hope of survival, Theo,” he said. “The curse is beginning to cause me pain again. And look.” He drew back his sleeve to bare his right shoulder.

Harry sucked in a startled breath. Eustace’s entire shoulder except the part nearest his collarbone was black and looked as though it were cracked like lava, with red showing through the seams. And the black had begun a dive towards his chest.

Harry could imagine what would happen when it reached his heart.

“Father. No. No, please.”

Theo sounded so small. Harry swept him into his arms, but Theo’s eyes were locked on his father with mute appeal, and Harry knew he could do nothing but provide a little comfort as Theo went through the worst pain of his life.

“I have no hope left, Theo. But I can ensure that my death does some good. Retrieving a Horcrux from Gringotts, surely the most difficult of places to retrieve one, would let me do that, and go to my death in peace.”

“But—the curse is unusual. We could come up with an experimental treatment tomorrow. Why do you trust the word of one Healer? This is—”

“I have gone in disguise to multiple Healers, Theo, not only in St. Mungo’s but throughout Europe. None of them recognized the exact nature of the curse, but all of them were able to think of something similar. All hopeless.” Eustace let his sleeve drop back. “Let me go to death on my terms, not searching futilely for a cure and then perhaps dying when you are at Hogwarts and not able to come to my bedside.”

“I don’t—I don’t want to go back to Hogwarts if it means that—”

“You will be with me, Theo, I promise. Because we will go to Gringotts together before the Christmas holiday ends, and I will gift you with the power of my willing sacrifice. It will enable you to pass through any wards or barriers that the goblins could raise against you, any protections that the Horcrux might have on it.”

“We don’t even know for certain if it is a Horcrux,” Theo whispered. Harry pulled him further into his embrace. Theo’s skin was cold, and he was shaking. “What if you kill yourself and it’s a useless—”

“Then I will show you how to essentially capture the power of my death and use it when you need it.” Eustace smiled. This was a genuinely joyful smile, which Harry didn’t think he understood. He couldn’t face death that way. “I promise, this will be doing what I want to do.”

Theo said nothing for a moment. Harry wondered if he and Sirius should leave the room so Theo could have a private word with his father.

Then Theo broke free of Harry’s embrace and fled the room instead.

Eustace leaned back with his eyes closed. When he opened them again, they had gained the steely glint Harry remembered them having so many times in the past.

“This will not be easy on him,” Eustace whispered. “I knew that. But I had not anticipated how very much it would hurt, seeing him in pain.”

“Then stay alive!” Sirius sounded as desperate as Harry felt. “You—you could have years yet—we need you—”

“I do not wish to. I wish to give my son my power, to meet death on my terms, and to join my wife.”

Harry swallowed, and Eustace’s eyes turned to him. “You have no objections to raise, Harry?”

“I wish you weren’t dying,” Harry blurted. “But if it were me, I would want to go knowing that I was contributing to Voldemort’s defeat by dying, too.”

Eustace’s smile softened. He said, “Please help me explain this to my son. And be there for Theo. He will need you more than ever.”

Harry nodded and stood. “I’m going to find him.”

“Please do so.”

Harry left, but he looked back over his shoulder before he let the door fall shut. Sirius was sitting with his head buried in his hands. But Eustace was sipping from his mug and watching the fire with a peaceful expression.

Harry closed his eyes, and then went to find his boyfriend.