Chapter Twenty-Four of 'Winged Victory'- Absorbing

[lomonaaeren]

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Chapter Twenty-Four—Absorbing

“Stop it, Blaise.”

“Hush, Theo. I’m looking for signs of insanity.”

Harry, the traitor, laughs. Theo rolls his eyes at him and struggles out of Blaise’s grip so that he can stand in the center of the classroom they’ve claimed as their own.

“I got away from Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy both, and I killed the snake. I am, by definition, not insane.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Blaise says at once, and turns to Harry with an eloquent little gesture of his hands. “You don’t think it proves anything, do you, Harry? I think we should take him to Pomfrey and have her look him over just to be on the safe side.”

“Is there even a way to diagnose insanity?”

“Several different kinds, actually. For example, my mother diagnosed me with a particular form of madness when I was seven and tried to pet a dragon at the reserve we were visiting. She called it Taking-Chances-Madness, and said Gryffindors were most likely to have it, but other people could, too. I think Theo does.”

“That might be my fault. I’m a Gryffindor, after all. I might have rubbed off on Theo.”

“You certainly have.”

Blaise waves his hands up and down through the air between Harry and Theo, as if he can stop them looking at each other with heat in their eyes. Theo hides an amused chuckle. Blaise should know better than anyone else that that won’t work.

“All right, all right, all right, no sexual innuendo, please! I get enough of that from my mother.”

Harry whips around and stares at Blaise. “She abuses you?”

“What?” Blaise probably flushes. “That’s—not what I meant. I just mean that she jokes about her relationships to her husbands, and I don’t need to hear any more of it. All right? No more of it.”

Theo just shakes his head when Harry glances at him. He’s pretty sure that he would know if Mrs. Zabini did abuse Blaise. But she seems like the kind of woman who would be pretty intent on exposing her son to the realities of life early on.

“Okay,” Harry says, still eyeing Blaise a little mistrustfully. “But in the meantime, I think that Theo isn’t insane. He achieved exactly what we set out to do—and even better.” He beams at Theo in a way that makes Theo wish, fiercely, they were alone.

“By confronting the Dark Lord?”

“I wish you’d call him Voldemort.”

Blaise flinches, takes a deep breath, and then says, “Fine. By confronting Voldemort and almost getting himself killed?”

“He didn’t know that Voldemort would be treacherous, but he survived, and he killed the snake.” Harry kisses Theo on the cheek and stepped back, much to Theo’s intense private disappointment. “I do think it would be good if Madam Pomfrey looked at you for any injuries, though.”

“How would we explain them?”

“Dueling,” Harry says promptly. “Some Slytherins don’t like that you’re my boyfriend, and they cornered you and tried to duel you to death.”

“You know she’ll want names, darling,” Theo says reluctantly. He would love to take this as a chance to get some of the idiots he shares a House with in trouble, but the truth would emerge as soon as Pomfrey questioned them.

“Not if you were ambushed in a corner going back to the common room and never saw your assailants.”

“Would Dumbledore believe that? Or Snape, or another Legilimens?”

Harry snorts. “They didn’t act when Umbridge was torturing people with Blood Quills, so why should they act out when one random Slytherin gets bullied?”

Theo has to nod at that. Snape and Dumbledore are singularly useless at all times, and although they might ask how he got any injuries because they’re also singularly inconvenient, he doesn’t think it would take that much effort to fool them. “All right. I’ll go to the hospital wing.”

“I could tell her about the charms my mother used to make sure that I wasn’t insane.”

“Uh-huh,” Harry says, slipping a shoulder underneath Theo’s arm, even though he doesn’t require support that way. “We might need your expertise, at that.”

Theo takes the chance to steal a kiss from his boyfriend, over Blaise’s loud complaints, and then they go off to make the mediwitch’s life a little more exciting.

*

“Thank you.”

Theo blinks and looks up. The last thing he expected was for Draco to approach him in the middle of the common room. If anything, he thought that he might have to expect a curse in the back from that direction.

“Why?” Theo asks, deliberately keeping his voice soft enough that the curious ears always aimed in their direction won’t hear.

“May I sit?”

That Draco is asking permission, as if the couch that Theo and Blaise are sharing was really Theo’s, is new. Theo nods mostly because he’s curious, and taps his foot on the floor when Blaise starts to shift. He wants his best friend to keep his wand ready, sure, but Draco isn’t stupid enough to think that he can take them both at once.

Well. At least, Theo doesn’t think he is.

“You must know that the Dark Lord was a guest in our Manor for weeks,” Draco whispers. He’s staring at his knuckles, hands clenched in front of him, and Theo wonders how terrible it was for him to live with the Dark Lord. Theo has only confronted him a few times. “I thought we would never be rid of him. And now—now the Manor is gone, and he’s displeased with my father. So he’s gone.”

“Surely your father is in danger, then?” Theo wonders if Draco came to ask him for sanctuary for Lucius Malfoy with Harry’s side of the war. That’s something Theo won’t be able to oblige him in.

But Draco looks up with clear eyes and shakes his head. “The Dark Lord decided that he was so displeased with my father that was going to punish him. The punishment was stripping him of the Dark Mark. Father is weak, and he went through a period where my mother thought he was going to die. But he’s alive.”

And no longer a Death Eater.

“You’re thanking Theo for that? And for making the Dark Lord your enemy, and burning down your home?” Blaise is asking the questions that Theo is too stunned to ask right now. Theo slants a thankful smile at his best friend.

“Yes,” Draco says, and gives a little croaking laugh that makes him sound like a frog. “Because I’ve seen how bad it can get, and this is better.”

“You know that your parents might not want you associating with me?”

“Mother feels that we owe you a life-debt—or at least a debt for our freedom. She was the one who encouraged me to approach you.” Draco stands. “Please let Potter know that he can call upon us for aid, and we will answer. For your sake, though, more than his.”

And he walks away, leaving Theo struggling not to gape at his back.

“That was—unexpected,” Blaise says at last, cocking his head as though he thinks that he’ll get a better view from a literally different angle.

“Yeah.” Theo leans back on the couch and meets the gaze of a Flint cousin who could have better things to do. He turns away at once. Theo faces Blaise as if that were his intention all along, and smiles a little. “How do you think we ought to use this?”

“It’s your debt, not mine.”

“But I value your infinite wisdom.”

Blaise shoots a Stinging Hex at him, and they drop into a short duel to handle some of the tension buzzing around them. Theo’s smiling when he finally tucks his wand away and turns back to his homework. Everyone looking at him will see a calm, collected young man, not someone who was taken utterly by surprise when Draco made his offer.

But Theo still needs to discuss this with Harry as soon as possible.

*

“And he didn’t seem like he was lying?”

“I think it would have been noticeable.”

Harry stands beside Theo on the lakeshore, frowning. They sneaked out of the castle because they found listening charms strung all around the door of their classroom, and until they know who did that and if they dissipated them all, they need to spend time outside. Listening charms can’t cling to the very air.

Harry turns to face him, leaning into Theo for a moment. “I suppose we could have him bring us any information that his father knows about Voldemort and where he might have gone next.”

“We could ask. But Voldemort might have placed a geas or an oath on Lucius that would prevent him from saying.”

“Do you think Voldemort’s that sane?”

“It’s what I would do if I were a Dark Lord.”

“But you would be a much better and more efficient Dark Lord than Voldemort ever could be,” Harry says dismissively, making Theo’s heart warm. “I’ll ask again—do you really think Voldemort would be smart enough to demand something like that?”

“No,” Theo has to admit. “But we need to make sure to go slowly enough that we don’t cross some boundaries that Mrs. Malfoy wouldn’t be pleased to have us cross, even if Draco would never know.”

Harry nods. “I’ll write to her this evening.”

“Don’t you think it should be me? When I was the one Draco acknowledged owing the debt to?”

Harry smiles at him, relaxed as Theo almost never sees him in the school, even when they’re alone. In fact, he thinks the last time he saw Harry look that relaxed, they were at home. “Do you want to stand in between me and Mrs. Malfoy if she tries to send me a poisoned letter or something?”

Theo pauses. “I’m fairly sure she wouldn’t do that.”

“That’s not what I asked, Theo.”

Theo steps forwards and gathers Harry into his arms. “Yes,” he whispers, and rejoices in the way that his soft, hot breath against Harry’s neck makes his boyfriend tremble a little. “Yes, I’d like to stand between you and the world, and keep you safe forever. But you’re probably right that Mrs. Malfoy needs to see you stand independently of me. There are still some people who would think that any Slytherin would control any Gryffindor. Or that the Boy-Who-Lived can be manipulated by someone who received more lessons in manipulation than he did. We need to disabuse them of that notion.”

“I love you, Theo. Do you know that?”

Theo bows his head, and his lips brush against Harry’s. Harry stands up on his toes to fling his arms around Theo’s neck, his tongue delving past Theo’s lips. Theo loses himself to the kiss, to the warmth and trust and honesty flowing between them, and draws back only reluctantly.

“Go and write to her before I change my mind.”

Harry gives him a smile that turns dark and vicious in a way that no one but Theo will ever get to see, and murmurs, “Don’t worry. I’m going to go right up those stairs to the owlery, send Hedwig, and then go and blast away all the listening charms.”

“We won’t be able to be sure that we got them all—”

“The force of my desire to going to be behind my power.”

Theo pauses. “You’re going to be waiting there naked for me?”

“Just for you.”

It’s a trial for Theo to keep his feet on the lakeshore as Harry saunters back to Hogwarts, but he manages. He wants to bed Harry in their classroom, to make him cry out for the sake of what he’s doing with the letter to Mrs. Malfoy and with the debt that the Malfoys owe him in general.

And he can’t do that if any listening charms remain. The mere thought of someone else listening to Harry in the throes of pleasure…

It’s intolerable.

So Theo waits, and manages to wait some more, until Harry’s Patronus appears in front of him to tell him it’s safe to come.

And make Harry come, at that.

*

Theo has been aware that Snape has been watching him with glittering eyes—not a shock, given that he probably heard about the burning of Malfoy Manor from either Lucius or Voldemort. But Theo ignores it until Snape barks curtly for him to stay behind after the second Potions class since the burning.

Harry gives Theo a quick, savage glance to ask if Theo needs defending. Theo smiles and shakes his head, and Harry departs with the other Gryffindors.

Not that he’ll go far down the corridor, not if Theo knows his lover.

“Yes, sir?” Theo asks, turning around and not bothering to hide his disdain, his amusement, as he locks eyes with Snape.

Snape’s mouth is as hard as a hammer, and so is the mask that locks down over his face. For what feels like countless seconds, he just stares at Theo. Theo stares back, and thinks soothing thoughts in Harry’s direction.

Not that he thinks the thoughts will actually reach their destination, but they could experiment with spells to give themselves telepathy next. It would be useful if they needed to communicate while separated or so Voldemort couldn’t hear. And if their thoughts could actually cross vast distances—

“You are doing exactly what I told you not to do.”

Theo cocks his head and looks as winsome as he can, as innocent and surprised. “What would that be, sir?”

“You are following along with Potter. And Potter is going to lead you to your doom in the war against the Dark Lord.”

“Do you really think the Dark Lord will win?”

Snape pauses. Then he says, slowly, as if seeking some answer that Theo doesn’t know how to give him, “You are a fool if you do not fear him.”

“I fear him. But not enough to cower in the corners and cling to the walls the way that you seem to want me to do.”

Snape watches him in silence. Then he says, “You really did burn down Malfoy Manor.”

“Yes.”

“And you destroyed the snake that always accompanied the Dark Lord. Nagini. He rages and mourns over her loss.”

“Yes.”

“His rage and mourning do not frighten you?”

“I believe I have already answered that question.”

Snape continues to study him with such dark eyes that Theo expects another silly question, or another pathetic attempt on Snape’s part to separate him from Harry. But instead, Snape just turns his back with a flutter of his robes like wings. “Go,” he snaps, and strides over to clean up the results of someone’s messy experiment.

Theo raises his eyebrows at Snape’s back, but he does leave.

Incredibly, Weasley and Granger are waiting down the corridor with Harry. They both look tense and unhappy, but they’re there. Theo waits a moment, but neither speaks to him, so he leans over to kiss Harry. “I’m fine.”

“He didn’t look fine.”

“You know that he’s still convinced I shouldn’t follow you or love you because you’re a Potter. His own neuroses get in the way.”

“You know a word like neuroses?”

Theo casts a glance at Granger, amused. “I read widely,” is all he says, and tucks his arm around Harry’s. They have an appointment with Tonks to talk more about soul magic and the kinds of spells that will let them locate Horcruxes.

Except, when they start down the corridor, Weasley and Granger come with them. Theo sighs and looks at Harry. “Really?”

“They did swear to keep my secrets and tell me ones that Dumbledore tells them.”

That’s true enough, but Theo isn’t sure that he wants to test the power of that oath against any more than extremely limited circumstances. In the end, he just shrugs and keeps walking. If Harry feels Weasley and Granger can be trusted, they probably can.

If they can’t, then Theo knows plenty of spells to shut them up.

*

“Tonks, what are you doing here?”

“Er. Hi, Ron. Hi, Hermione.”

Tonks’s hair is cycling rapidly through blue and pink and black, and she gives Theo a desperate little look. Since she seems on the verge of fleeing into the Forbidden Forest, Theo decides to intervene. “She’s here to teach us some Auror spells.”

“What spells? Does Dumbledore know that you’re doing this, Tonks?”

And then Tonks finds a backbone, before Theo can even remind Weasley and Granger of the promise they made to remain loyal to Harry above the Headmaster. She stands up and fastens her eyes on Harry’s friends. “No,” she says. “Because he would try to stop us.”

“Maybe for good reason!”

“So you don’t want to fight V-Voldemort?” Tonks’s voice trembles a little, but her eyes are sly. “You just want to sit back and act like good little kids until Dumbledore tells you what to do and where to go?”

Theo wants to laugh as he watches rebellion spark to life in Granger’s eyes and then Weasley’s. Oh, she knows exactly how to handle them.

I know she doesn’t have younger siblings, but maybe they trusted her to handle younger Aurors?

“Of course we want to help!” Weasley says hotly.

“Then shut up and pay attention,” Tonks says, and faces Harry. “You think that you need to know some more spells?”

Harry nods. “We have some—ideas of where those artifacts are, but not how to get to them. And we need to make sure that we can defend ourselves from their defenses.”

“What artifacts? What defenses?”

“These are some of those things you can’t tell Dumbledore about, Hermione.”

Granger turns a little pale, but lifts her chin. “I do want to help.”

“Think you can be quiet and learn from Tonks?”

The magical world “learn” captures Granger, as Theo knew it would—as Harry knew it would. Honestly, they’re so in tune that they didn’t even need to discuss it.

“Of course we can do that!” Granger folds her arms and frowns at Theo over them. “You would be the one I would assume would get upset about learning from a ¬half-blood.” Her voice is high and mocking.

“Well, he isn’t,” Harry says, and grabs Theo’s arm before he can go for his wand. Theo wasn’t actually intending to, since he’s accepted Granger’s grating personality, but he does enjoy putting his chin on Harry’s shoulder and fluttering his eyelashes at Granger, who looks frustrated. “Tonks, think you can teach us a few more of those spells?”

Tonks flickers her eyes to Harry’s face, a question in them. Theo knows why. Granger and Weasley are going to have to know the names and incantations of some of those spells, which will help them figure out what they are.

But Harry just nods, his face calm, and Tonks ends up pulling out her wand. “Yeah, let’s go.”

They “go,” and learn more spells, and if Theo is waiting for Weasley or Granger to curse them in the back, it doesn’t happen. Harry is focused, attentive, and Theo makes himself be as well.

In the end, while it isn’t the most pleasant afternoon in the world, he’s pretty sure he can actually put up with Weasley and Granger if they keep behaving like civilized human beings.