[This Lordship Business]: I Have Been a Brother to O.W.L.S, 34/?

[lomonaaeren]

“I just don’t know if this is the best idea.”

“You agreed, Granger.”

Harry nudges Theo sharply in the ribs. He’s never really approved of Theo’s random choices to address Ron and Hermione by their last names, but especially after Susan and Theo went through and shattered everyone’s medallion and took Harry to Voldemort as part of their crazy plan, it’s even less appropriate.

Theo gives Harry an irritated look, and then turns to Hermione and sighs. “My apologies, Granger.”

“Theo.”

Theo tosses his head a little. “My apologies, Hermione.”

“I don’t want you to have to force him to apologize to me, Harry. Or use my first name.”

Harry snorts and doesn’t say anything, because he doubts that he could really explain to Hermione the way that Theo’s eyes shine when Harry gives him a command. Or that he really wants to.

They’re most of the way to the gargoyle that guards Dumbledore’s quarters, but Harry isn’t surprised when Theo stops him before they round the last corner. Theo’s voice is low and intense. “Are you sure this is the best plan, my lord?”

“Yes. We have to tell him the Horcrux is gone, or there’s no telling what he’ll do.”

“He might not believe you.”

“He should. He’s a Legilimens, he can tell when someone lies. And I’m willing to let him see the memories.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea at all!” Hermione exclaims, making Harry blink at her in surprise. He didn’t think she would have a problem with it. “What happens if he decides that he has to prosecute you because of something in those memories?”

“Do you really think that he would put me on trial before the Wizengamot, Hermione?”

“At this point? I’m willing to believe anything of him.”

Theo gives her an approving look. “It took you a while, but you got there.”

Harry rolls his eyes and walks up to the gargoyle, which he thinks is watching them with a slightly jaundiced expression. “Harry Potter, Theo Nott, and Hermione Granger to see Headmaster Dumbledore. If he’s available.”

The gargoyle sits still for a moment as though talking on an invisible telephone, and then slides aside with that grinding noise that always makes Harry flinch a little. Theo snorts and goes up ahead of him, all eager leg after leg. Harry shakes his head and follows. Hermione is almost tripping over her own feet behind him, her wand in her hand when Harry glances back.

Harry sighs, but doesn’t try to discourage her. In reality, he has no idea what Dumbledore will do when they tell him the truth.

*

“…And so Susan and Theo worked out that they could spread the Horcrux between multiple people and get rid of it that way. It’s not what I wanted them to do, it’s not like I would ever have wanted them tainted with a piece of the bastard’s soul, but they thought they’d do it. But it turned out they spread the Killing Curse over multiple people instead. And now the Horcrux is gone.”

Dumbledore stares at Harry. He welcomed them cheerfully enough, if a little warily, when they came in, and even asked after Ahalam (whom Harry would have brought, but he’s sleeping off his cheese coma). He offered them tea. But now he’s just staring at them with his mouth slightly open.

Harry sips the tea. It’s good. He does happen to be wearing a little device from Sirius that would tell him if the tea had any poisons or potions in it, but that’s all right, he thinks. Dumbledore doesn’t need to know.

“I…” Dumbledore clears his throat slowly. “Could you start over from the beginning?”

“Do you want to explain it, Hermione?”

Hermione actually does a better job than Harry did himself, Harry thinks. She understands all the magical theory, which he doesn’t, and she spits the words out fast, with eloquent hand gestures. And she sits back with a little nod of her head when she’s done, so she must be confident that Dumbledore understands.

“What?” Dumbledore whispers.

“You were going to kill him. Or maybe incite him to suicide, that’s more your style.” Theo's smile is bright and merciless. “You’re probably upset that we got to him instead. But now the Horcrux is gone, and I’ll kill you if you touch my lord.”

Dumbledore stares at Theo as Fawkes croons in concern from his perch. Harry actually thinks Fawkes might attack, and readies his wand.

But Dumbledore just whispers, “What?” again.

“We got rid of the Horcrux. Now you’re not going to kill him.”

“What—you claim to have done is impossible.”

“No,” Hermione says, and frowns at the Headmaster. “It’s not. It was crazy, but I explained the magical theory to you, and I’m sure that you understood it. Sir,” she adds a moment later, as though thinking that maybe she should pretend to have a little respect for Dumbledore.

Dumbledore turns to Harry. “And you believe them?”

“My scar bled black like the other Horcruxes did after they deflected the Killing Curse,” Harry says calmly. “And I saw the curse hovering in front of Susan and Theo, not striking them, while streams of green poured off their medallions and out of Malfoy Manor. I’m sure, sir. I’m sure it worked.”

“But it could not have.”

“Well, most people assume that I couldn’t have survived the Killing Curse either, sir, but I did.”

“It—there is no way to remove a Horcrux from a living being.”

“You haven’t been reading enough books, obviously,” Theo says in a bright, cheerful voice that makes Harry keep an eye on his wand hand. “Problems of the Purest Souls by Winnifred Alabaster talks about all this.”

“That book is illegal to own.”

“It’s not illegal to read, though. And I didn’t say that I owned it. I borrowed it from someone else.”

“Who, Mr. Nott?”

Theo starts to his feet. Harry stands at the same time, but Theo moves so that he’s between Harry and Dumbledore, and his voice is low and vicious, but he hasn’t actually drawn his wand. Harry remains still and watches him.

“There are ways to save his life. That would have been true even if Susan and I hadn’t come up with our plan. You didn’t look for any of them. You just resigned yourself to killing my lord. You never cared for him, did you? You don’t know what to do with him now that he’s no longer an innocent child or a weapon fit for your hand.”

“That is not true, Mr. Nott.” At the moment, Harry thinks that Dumbledore is more wounded than he’s ever seen him. “If you knew how I have cared for Mr. Potter—”

“Neglected him.”

“Ensured he could have a childhood!”

Theo laughs, hard enough that he has to lean against Dumbledore’s desk. Harry has never seen him do that before, either, and keeps watching him in concern, ignoring the Headmaster for the moment.

“Left him in the care of Muggles who hated him. Played an obstructionist part, and no more, in his efforts to remove himself from that situation. Assumed he would be corrupted by the power of Lord Slytherin and kept constant secrets from him until the last minute. Yes, Headmaster, I can see exactly how much you cared for him.”

“And if I had told him that I suspected he carried a Horcrux the moment I knew? If I had told him about the prophecy early on? What kind of childhood would he have had then?”

“I don’t know. Were you planning to help him deal with those things? Or just dump the burdens on his shoulders and walk away, congratulating yourself for your compassion?”

Harry moves then and lightly touches Theo’s shoulder. Theo lowers his head like a bull about to charge, and Harry wouldn’t be surprised to see him blow breath from his nostrils, too, even despite the warmth of the fire in here. But a second later, he gives a little irritated jerk of his head and nods.

“I’m all right.”

“Good.” Harry faces Dumbledore, who looks devastated and sorrowful and indignant all at once. “But I do find myself curious about the answer to Theo’s question, sir. What would you have done if you had told me about the Horcrux and the prophecy as soon as you discovered them?”

Dumbledore stares at him. Fawkes takes flight and lands on Dumbledore’s shoulder, but he’s silent and doesn’t sing.

“I don’t know,” Dumbledore whispers at last.

Harry nods. He thinks that’s the only honest answer right now, and he repays Dumbledore’s honesty with his own. “And I don’t know what I would have done if you had told me about them. Been in despair, probably. I was in despair enough when I learned about the Horcrux I carried through our own investigations.”

“What investigations were those?”

“Our own.” Harry ignores the way that Theo and Hermione both take tense breaths. He doesn’t need them to yell at him to know it would be a bad idea to tell Dumbledore more than this.

The Headmaster watches him with a deeply unhappy expression. “We should be allies in this,” he says. “We both want Voldemort gone.”

“I agree. But if you keep secrets from me, sir, how am I supposed to trust you?”

“I kept those secrets because I could not comprehend how to inflict the pain on a young child that telling them would have. I have no reason not to tell you the truth now.”

Harry leans a little closer. Dumbledore mimics him on the other side of the desk, his eyes wide and hopeful.

“I don’t believe you,” Harry whispers, and straightens up again.

“Harry—”

Harry shakes his head and turns to leave the office. At least Dumbledore seems convinced of the truth of the Horcrux Harry lugged around having been destroyed. But Harry remains alert for a possible curse at the back until they’re around the bend of the moving staircase again.

“He took it better than I thought he would.”

“Yes, he did.”

From the tone in Theo’s voice, that’s a reason for him to spend his time staring at Dumbledore creepily in preparation for cursing him. Harry sighs, but he claps Theo on the shoulder when his friend turns to him.

“With you protecting me, I’ll be safe until we can get the medallions working again.”

Theo beams even harder, and Harry thinks that any eye he has to keep on his most fanatic follower is worth it.

*

“I still can’t believe that you took him to the Dark Lord.”

“Be a man, Draco. Call him by his name. Voldemort.”

Draco flinches and squeaks, and Susan looks triumphant. Harry rolls his eyes.

Just as he thought, the rest of his followers think Susan and Theo’s plan was both brilliant and insanely stupid. They’re not upset about their medallions being destroyed once they know it was the medallions or Harry, but they’re basically universal in thinking Susan and Theo could have come up with another way to do it. Susan is just as loud in insisting that this was the only way to make sure Harry lived through the destruction of the Horcrux.

Theo doesn’t bother defending himself. He just looks at anyone who tries to complain at him, and they back off.

“And you said my father helped you?”

That’s the part that Susan and Theo didn’t plan and couldn’t have counted on, and it’s a question Draco has more than earned the right to ask. Harry nods. “Yeah. He distracted the Death Eaters while he was pretending to cast spells at me. And he made it easier to escape than it would have been.”

“Why?”

“I have a theory, but I don’t know that you’ll like it.”

Draco blows out a breath. “I don’t really like anything that happened, Harry, because I don’t understand it.” He waves Susan away when she opens her mouth, probably to give another explanation of magical theory. “But this I at least have a chance of understanding. Please explain.”

Harry nods. “Your father’s only real experience of lords is the Dark Lord. I think the Dark Lord probably threatened you to get your father to keep cooperating. And also…your father might have thought I’d mistreat you, or other people would, if he didn’t help me.”

Draco’s mouth hangs open a little. “But you wouldn’t.”

“Do you think your father knows that? Or would believe it?”

Draco hesitates, then shakes his head. “He’s always sort of been—he’s taught me to follow power,” he mumbles.

That means it’s even more of a departure than Harry knew for Draco to follow him with no visible authority over other people or promise of reward. He smiles at Draco, who looks flushed, and murmurs, “Then I think that was his motivation. If that’s not it, then I couldn’t guess if you don’t know.”

“Yeah, I suppose not,” Draco says, and goes back to his spell practice with a frown.

At least the rest of the questions seem to be dying down now, as other people accept that Susan and Theo aren’t exactly going to apologize and they can learn more by practicing the spells they came here to learn. Harry throws himself into drilling a bunch of fellow fifth-years for spells that will probably be on the Defense practical, and then Sirius comes over and adds himself, and even the seventh-year students are having fun.

Susan and Theo are still looking too smug for a mental plan that barely worked, in Harry’s opinion, but what is he going to do? Punish them for being smart?

*

“What is that?”

Harry pokes cautiously at the large, red-ribboned box that a black eagle-owl delivered to him this morning. If it were nearer Valentine’s Day, he would think it had something to do with that, but it’s a random morning in May. He finally shakes his head and begins casting detection charms on it.

Hermione and Ron help. Hermione also stops to praise Ron for mastering a few charms that he struggled with earlier in the term. Ron’s ears turn red.

Harry smiles as he finally decides the box is harmless and removes the top. Maybe Hermione and Ron will start dating soon. That would be—

He stares down at the things inside the box. It’s a scroll with a red ribbon around it that echoes the one on the top of the box, and a cluster of—black roses? Harry thinks those are black roses.

“What is that?” Ron asks, snapping his gaze away from Hermione’s to lean forwards and stare down inside the box.

“I have no idea,” Harry says, truthfully, and uses his wand to float both the scroll and the flowers out of the box.

In the back of his mind, he’s wondering if this is some new gambit from Olive Hornby in their ongoing feud, if she managed to convince some old witch that Harry liked her, but he only thinks that until he unfolds the scroll and reads.

Dearly beloved,

I never realized how precious you were to me until I had to see the moment when you almost destroyed yourself. You were so radiant, shining beneath the blackness dripping down your brow, and I realized then that a living Horcrux who can communicate with me, who can think and feel, is the one person I could love.

Darling, come back to me. All is forgiven. Join my side of the war and keep the Horcrux safe. You are all I want in this world.

Your loving
Lord Voldemort.

Harry puts his hand over his eyes.