Chapter Twenty-Two of 'Winged Victory'- Awake, Alive

[lomonaaeren]

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Chapter Twenty-Two—Awake, Alive

“You could be walking into a trap tomorrow.”

Theo looks up. Harry’s voice is tight and raw, and he’s staring at the book on soul magic in front of him as if he wants the rip all the pages out. They’ve spent hours researching the spell that Theo wants to cast on Voldemort and making sure he can cast it. The trouble is, it won’t actually show the results except to the caster.

And except when it’s cast on someone who actually has the kind of broken soul that Voldemort does.

“Harry.”

Harry turns wide, miserable eyes to him. Theo puts down his own book and goes over to Harry. They’re in their classroom, and the soft, shimmering shades of ocean color on the wall cast blue and green shadows over Harry’s face. They can’t hide his fear, his love. Nothing can, Theo thinks, and he wouldn’t want anything to.

“I’m going to be all right.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know that because Voldemort swore on that parchment not to harm me, and he swore with the name he chose. And I know because nothing would prevent me from coming back to you.”

Harry is quiet for a long moment, staring at him. Then he leans forwards and kisses Theo so hard that Theo goes reeling back and lands on the end of the same couch Harry has been lying on, almost falling on his arse.

“You have to come back,” Harry breathes, his hands clamping on Theo’s shoulders and hauling him to his feet. Theo’s head reels like his body. Harry has never been this aggressive. “You have to come back to me.”

“I swear, Harry,” Theo breathes. “I swear.”

Harry pulls him harder and shoves him around while Theo is still too dazed to really realize what’s going on. Theo finally lands on the couch with his back against it and his legs spread. Harry kneels in front of him and stares up at him with dark eyes.

Then he opens Theo’s robes and pants and takes his cock in his mouth.

Theo had no time to prepare. He tosses his head back with a harsh cry, fingers digging into the couch. He can’t get his breath. He can’t get his balance. The whole world is formless and swimming with red and black and blue.

When he comes, it wrings all the breath and the pleasure right out of his body.

Harry is on the couch beside him when Theo recovers, crouched over him with his eyes huge. Theo reaches up and drags him into a kiss so hungry that it makes them both shudder. Harry lies down on top of Theo, his legs spread and his back arching.

“Please,” Theo whispers.

He has no ability to ask for more than that, but maybe Harry mastered Legilimency without telling him, because he leans down and kisses Theo and then gives him exactly what he wants. He presses his cock between Theo’s legs and rubs, skin on skin, crotch to crotch, blood rolling and streaming through their bodies.

It feels so good. It is so good. Theo is on his way to hardness again by the time that Harry stiffens and comes, soaking Theo’s robes. Theo turns his head and mouths at Harry’s knuckles, his eyes drooping shut.

“You’re mine,” Harry whispers, soft and fierce and slow, against Theo’s cheek.

“Yes. Yes, of course I am.”

Harry kisses him in a way that a stupider person might take as being satisfied. Theo isn’t stupid. They’ll never have enough of each other until the sun burns out.

He loops his arms around Harry’s neck in a silent renewal of his promise. He’ll come back from his journey to visit Voldemort, and they will experience this again. And other things, deeper, stronger, richer.

Theo will allow no less.

*

“Mr. Nott.”

“Mr. Malfoy.”

Lucius Malfoy looks Theo over, all polished smoothness and no sneer. It’s not an expression that Theo has ever seen on him before. He’s mostly encountered Draco’s father in the kind of environments where a sneer is natural. “Thank you for agreeing to come to this meeting. I do not think you will regret it.”

“I hope I don’t.”

They arranged to meet on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, the one place that Mr. Malfoy could come close to Apparate Theo without triggering the wards on the school. Now Mr. Malfoy extends his arm. “I assume that you will agree to Side-Along Apparition,” he murmurs.

“Yes.”

Theo says no more than that as he moves in, and smiles a little when he sees Malfoy’s foot twitch. He wants more of a reaction, wants to be able to look down his nose at Theo and find a reason to sneer after all.

Theo doesn’t intend to give him one.

They whirl away through darkness and land in a receiving room that Theo has been in a few times when Father visited Malfoy Manor. Theo angles his body so that he’s facing the darkest corner and bows.

“You knew the Dark Lord was here?”

“I knew,” Theo murmurs to Mr. Malfoy, and then concentrates as he watches the sinuous, serpentine figure stand up.

He looks liked a stretched-out, thin version of an ancestor from a portrait that Father tried to get him to pay homage to once. Theo waited until Father was gone and then insulted the man so badly that he never tried to get near Theo again. Voldemort is like that, so pale that he seems as if sunlight would crack his skin.

Although, admittedly, the Nott ancestor Theo insulted probably didn’t have a pattern of scales under his skin.

“Let ussss become more comfortable.”

Theo nods and uses the motion of walking towards the high, dense, dark table that stands near the back of the room to remove the little black stone Blaise enchanted from his sleeve. He carries it cradled in the crook of his palm, not quite out of sight, but not noticeable. He and Harry practiced to the point that Theo is sure he can cast the spell wordlessly, but he wouldn’t want to try it without the stone.

There’s a throne-like chair waiting for Voldemort, and one slightly removed from him but on his side of the table that Lucius takes. Theo waits for them to sit down and then takes the one chair on the nearer side.

It’s also the only chair with its back to the door, but that by itself doesn’t worry Theo. He knows exactly what kind of magic he’ll use to get out of this situation if he needs to.

“I have brought you here to disssscusss your…prossspects.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“You name me lord and yet you would ssstand at Harry Potter’s sssside?”

Voldemort is intimidating, this close up, where Theo can see that he doesn’t even have proper nostrils but just slits in his face. Theo looks at him calmly, though, and speaks the answer he and Harry have already agreed upon. “He gives me what I want.”

“Tell me what that issss.”

“Respect. Fame. Power, even in Slytherin. People didn’t challenge me before because I didn’t interest them, but now they keep trying to come after Harry Potter’s boyfriend, and I get to duel them and put them down.”

“With magic that your father taught you.”

“Yes. Harry gave me freedom from him as well. It might have been years before I got the chance to face my father in battle otherwise.”

“You wanted to kill him.”

Theo lets a cold smile drift across his mouth. It serves him to tell the truth, and Voldemort wouldn’t believe him even if he lied. “Yes.”

“Why is that?”

“He thought me weak.” A much easier answer than he never loved me. “He told me over and over again that I was a poor Heir and told me that he would kill me after I had sired a child. So I killed him first.”

Voldemort stares at him, his irises deepening in their red color. Theo looks calmly back. If Voldemort tries to make him do something or read his mind, he’s in for a surprise.

“I had no idea that he had been so carelessss.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“You wish to be with people who will ressspect you. Who will give you freedom and power.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“And you think that Harry Potter will give you that?”

“He doesn’t take advantage of the fame he has. He’s more than happy to let me manage it for him. And on top of that, I have far more protection from Dumbledore and the people who might seek to use me as long as they think that Harry cares for me.”

“He doesss not, in truth?”

“Oh, he does. But they waver back and forth between believing that and believing he could never care for a Death Eater’s son, so they will hesitate to attack me.” Theo lets his eyes flick to Lucius Malfoy. “I do not believe the same can be said for the people on your side, my lord.”

Voldemort makes a lazy little motion with his hand. “That kind of thing can be ssssettled easily enough. We need only ssswear a binding truce.”

Theo inclines his head as if agreeing, as if thinking it through, and taps his fingers on the table. It lets the stone slide forwards along his right hand without making it obvious. “You truly think that I could gain the same kind of fame and power at your side, my lord?”

“Of courssse, young Theodore.”

Theo doesn’t need Legilimency to know the Dark Lord is lying. The way his eyes gleam and the way he leans forwards a little say that he would probably be trying to put Theo under the Imperius if not for the truce holding them. He just wants to use Theo to get at Harry, nothing more.

Then again, Theo only came here to cast the spell that will reveal to them where the Horcruxes are and how many of them exist, so he can hardly object to the Dark Lord planning to use them.

“In some ways, it would be a relief not to have to suppress parts of myself,” Theo says, speaking only the truth, as needs to happen in front of a Legilimens as skilled as the Dark Lord. “Harry has friends who irritate me. Sometimes I’m sure that he’s going to give me a blistering moral lecture on whatever I’ve done that he finds unacceptable. And he isn’t interested in all of the same things as I am.”

“You would find a welcome embrace in the darknesss, young Theo.”

Theo nods a little. “All right.”

“All right? Sssso you will bring him to me?”

“If there’s a sufficiently binding truce and guarantees that I won’t be betrayed and will indeed have the kind of fame and power I want.”

“Luciusss.” The Dark Lord turns towards Mr. Malfoy. “See to it.”

While they are paying attention to each other and only each other, Theo flicks his finger against the stone under the table and thinks as hard as he can, Invenio animam.

For a moment, he doesn’t think it’ll work. Then the air grows very slightly thicker around him, and Theo sees the beginnings of light playing along the edges of Voldemort’s blunt, noseless face. He holds his breath.

Voldemort turns back to him, and doesn’t notice the light. Theo does his best to breathe normally. Hopefully the bastard will think it’s just excitement at the thought of betraying Harry and supposedly getting “everything he wants.”

And hopefully the spell works exactly the way it’s supposed to, as it seems to have so far, and reveals the light only to the caster.

“You took up with Potter in the first place for fame and power?”

“Yes, my lord. And a way to get free of my father.” Theo shrugs a little and lowers his eyes to stare at the table in front of him. “I thought I would never be free until he died, but at least I could have a little more power than I did because I would be with someone who would protect me in his own right.”

“Wassss he fond of you so fassst?”

“Harry? Oh, yes. All he wants is someone to care for him.”

“Ridiculous.”

I could show you ridiculous. But Theo just ducks his head and murmurs something in reply that Voldemort is free to take as assent.

“I have it, my lord.”

Mr. Malfoy steps up to the table carrying another silky sheet of truce parchment. At the same time, the light from the spell wells up, and Theo can see the Horcruxes.

The ruined and twisted diadem and diary float in two bubbles of pure, shining white light. Harry’s face does the same thing in a third, and Theo’s gut twists in agony and anger so fierce and strong he wishes his father were alive to see it. We’ll get rid of it. I don’t know how yet, but I promise we’ll get rid of it, Harry.

In the four other bubbles are a locket and cup that Theo recognizes from old stories, a heavy ring with a black stone that has an odd symbol carved into it, and the snake Harry fought in the graveyard.

Theo is annoyed with himself for treating the snake as a lower priority then. They could have been rid of a Horcrux if they had known what she was. But, well, at least they know, and they can destroy her now. No wonder none of the spells Harry tried on her then worked to kill her.

“You have some dissssagreement with our truce?”

Voldemort has laid the sheet of parchment in front of him, and Theo realizes that he’s been staring at the floating bubbles instead of scanning the terms. He bows his head, even though the bubbles are also showing him traces of where the Horcruxes are and he really wants to look.

He still has time. The bubbles will last another five minutes.

Theo scans the list, and smiles a little. He didn’t expect to find anything concrete to object to, which is why he made up objections in his head, but there actually is something here. “The first truce said that you would not seek to harm me by Legilimency,” he says, staring up and into Voldemort’s eyes. “This one doesn’t include that.”

“I read the mindsss of all newly initiated Death Eatersss, to make sure they are loyal to me.”

“But you could tear the truth from my mind in such a way that it left me a drooling husk and claim that it was only because you were looking for proof of loyalty. And I didn’t agree to become a Death Eater.”

“You thought this truce had sssome other objective?”

Theo doesn’t miss the way Mr. Malfoy tenses. He’s kept from harming Theo by the terms of the truce parchment as well, but trapping him in one place, as long as they didn’t harm him, wouldn’t technically violate that.

“I thought that the objective was me bringing Harry to you. Not taking the Mark.”

“What elssse would you have me do? Have I not forgiven you for your actions in the graveyard against me? Am I not a generousss lord?”

“Yes, of course, my lord,” Theo murmurs, hanging his head and watching out of the corner of his eye. The bubbles are showing scenes flying back from the Horcruxes, and now he can make out—

The cup is in a bank vault in what can only be Gringotts. The locket is in a cabinet in a dingy house that itself seems to stand in the middle of Muggle London. The ring in a half-overgrown shack that looks on the verge of collapse.

The Dark Lord leans forwards, and Theo has to tear his gaze from the snake before he sees where she is. All he catches is a glimpse of white walls.

“You will come to me,” the Dark Lord whispers. “You will replace the ssservant you ssstole from me. You will be my Death Eater, as your father wasss before me.”

“And I’ll have freedom along with my power and fame?”

“The freedom to cassst Dark Arts, to be known and feared.” The Dark Lord smiles with his lipless mouth. “Yesss, Theodore Nott, I can give you much.”

But not as much as Harry.

Theo shakes the truce parchment a little. “I still wouldn’t be comfortable with you peering into my mind and harming me by Legilimency, though.”

“I will not harm you. I will look.”

“But isn’t the invasion itself going to be painful?”

“Only if you resssist. Do you intend to resssist, Theodore Nott?”

Theo wants to tell the Dark Lord to stop calling him Theodore, but he has to admit that probably isn’t the biggest thing to worry about right now. He calls up a smile. “I want to defend my secrets, my lord. But not to resist you, no.”

“Then there should be no problem with thisss part of the truce.”

Theo doubts that very much, but he bends over the parchment and pretends to read it studiously. He sighs and looks up at last. “This is very tempting, but I really need to read it over and think about it more, my lord.”

“Then you will not sign tonight?”

“Not tonight. But I can remain in contact with Mr. Malfoy and let you know if there are any provisions of the contract that I feel uncomfortable with. Or when I feel comfortable enough to sign.”

“I am not comfortable, myssself, with letting you leave unlessss you ssswear an oath.”

“There was nothing in the treaty provisions for that!”

“I shall merely keep you here until the time hasss passsed. We could have a debate about the necessity of Legilimency.” The Dark Lord gives what might be a charming smile, except that it would have lost all charm the first time he tried to kill Harry. “Lucius, if you would?”

Theo doesn’t bother to wait and see what Mr. Malfoy intends to do. They’re in Malfoy Manor, and that means that he knows the corridors and rooms and how to escape. He turns and runs out of the room before Malfoy can make a move.

Apparently Mr. Malfoy does fire a spell, because it hits the wall and makes it crack, but he screams a second later. He’s as bound by the truce parchment as Theo and the Dark Lord are—or were.

It might be that the Dark Lord will be punished, as well, for commanding his servant to hurt Theo, but Theo doesn’t intend to wait around and find out. Maybe he would have had to sign the parchment as Tom Marvolo Riddle to be bound by it after all.

Theo dodges right, dodges left, and makes his way to the front gates of the Manor. He sees no elves or sign of any other humans on the way. It seems that Lucius Malfoy really did clear them out so that they could meet in privacy.

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Nothing does except the sound of a heavy body moving behind him, and the sound of scales scraping against the floor.

Theo wheels around and casts a Stunner at the snake.

She doesn’t even slow down, instead hissing something at Theo that Harry could no doubt translate. She rears up in front of him, and Theo raises his wand and channels all his anger and fury and determination to return to Harry as he spits the incantation for Fiendfyre.

The flames immediately spread and rage out of control, and Theo can tell without even looking that they’re going to consume him. And there’s a faint pulse of pain inside him, too, probably because he did break the truce parchment to hurt something belonging to Voldemort, even though the punishment isn’t great because Mr. Malfoy broke it first.

The snake screams.

Theo runs, and runs, and runs. Only when he reaches the outskirts of Malfoy Manor and feels the anti-Apparition wards slide off his skin like water does he even try to close his eyes and summon the will to Apparate.

I need to get back to Harry. I need to get to Hogwarts.

The sky and the ground and his own body shudder around him, and Theo vanishes into the terrible squeeze of Apparition. When he opens his eyes, panting, he’s on the ground near the gates of Hogwarts.

Harry is already running towards him, although Theo has no idea how he knew. He falls, shuddering, on Harry’s neck.

It was worth it, to destroy a Horcrux and learn something about where the others are. But Theo never wants to do anything like that again.

From the way that Harry’s hands clench on his shoulders, he’ll never ask him to.