lomonaaeren

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Chapter Twenty-Six—A Trap and a Temptation

“…And I hope that you’ll accept Theo and I wanting to court each other.”

Draco stumbled to a stop after he spoke the words, because Harry was just staring at him with frozen eyes. Draco swallowed. Given what he knew and suspected about Harry’s growing power, it was bad news if Harry demanded that this courtship between Draco and Theo cease.

But instead, Harry smiled abruptly, and it felt as if Draco’s whole day and the library where he’d gone to talk to Harry were drowning in light.

“I think it’s great,” Harry said softly. “I don’t want to lose either one of you, and I was coming to think that might happen, with how competitive you were over courting me.” He put down his book and leaned forwards. “I might have proposed your courting Theo or him courting you if you hadn’t done this.”

“So—you thought that Theo had feelings for me, too?”

“I wasn’t sure, but I thought that it was significant that you both tolerated each other courting me. I can’t imagine that that would have happened if it were Blaise Zabini or Pansy Parkinson or someone like that.”

Draco wrinkled his nose, his stomach heaving. “Neither of them is anywhere near worthy of you.”

Harry was smiling, his blue-hazel eyes a little closer to green right now, they were so bright with amusement. “But that’s my point. That you could accept Theo courting me in a way that you couldn’t have anyone else. You were friends with Theo more than you were any of the others. No matter what you might tell yourself.”

“I wasn’t denying that Theo was my friend!”

One of Harry’s eyebrows went up. Draco felt the flush creep up his cheeks and decided that he might as well give up the fight before he was too embarrassed. “All right. So—all of us will court each other, and we’ll, what, be a triad if things work out?”

“I certainly hope so.”

Harry’s eyes had gone bright again, and Draco was finding out that he would do anything to keep them that way. He bit his lip. “I—don’t have another gift for you right now, but there is something I wanted to tell you.”

“Yes?”

“You’re incredibly handsome. I mean, other people might not notice because we’re already courting you and they might not try to intrude on that, but it would be worth them intruding. I mean—you would be worth it. I mean—”

He stopped, because Harry was laughing softly, without sounding offended. Then Harry smiled at him again, and Draco honestly felt a little weak in the knees. Yes, Harry had changed a lot from the skinny little boy he had been just a few years ago, and Draco wanted to—

Do lots of things. But he didn’t have the words for them yet, so he just stood there as Harry got up and walked across the room to him.

“Thank you for the compliment, Draco,” Harry murmured, his hand coming to rest on Draco’s cheek briefly. “And for accepting that you can embarrass yourself in front of me and I won’t try to hurt you over it.”

“I didn’t embarrass myself!”

Harry didn’t even reply to that, just smiled at him and then stepped back. Draco swallowed, trying to decide if the way his cheek tingled was the same as when Theo had touched it, or more, or stronger, or different.

In the end, he didn’t think he could decide. Not without getting Harry and Theo to touch him a lot more.

Luckily, he thought as he watched Harry go back to his book and then turned and crept quietly out of the library so as not to disturb his courted, I think that’s not going to be a problem.

*

“I wonder why you have decided to court two boys, a pureblood and a Mudblood, instead of only the pureblood one. Or a girl.”

Theo lifted his eyes slowly from his breakfast to his father’s face. They were alone at the table, of course, the way they always were at breakfast. It was the only meal they ate together most days. And perhaps Father thought there was something special about this day since it was the morning Theo would return to Hogwarts.

Or perhaps not. It was hard to fathom Father’s motives at the best of times. Theo used to waste hours each day trying.

Now, though? Theo knew that one of the boys he had chosen to court was the Dark Lord’s apprentice. He knew that Draco had chosen Theo over his own family, or at least his own father, knowing the ring he’d given Theo. He knew that two people thought he was worthy and wanted to keep him without caring about his father’s political power.

It made it hard for Theo, in turn, to care about his father’s manipulations.

“I have made my decision, Father,” Theo said, entirely at peace, and watching the knowledge of that peace show up in his father’s eyes. “I won’t be argued or coerced into changing it.”

“Even if you cannot have future children?”

“There are ways,” Theo said, unperturbed. Those ways required magic or money, and he knew he would have plenty of both. Even if Father disowned him—and Theo honestly didn’t think that would happen when he was the only other living person of Nott blood—he would have the Malfoy money and Narcissa’s desire to make her son happy. “I will have children, Father.”

“You could have them in an easier way.”

“How fortunate that you have never raised me to take the easy road.”

Father took a long, long breath, and then focused on the porridge in front of him again. “I will not be sympathetic when this multi-pronged plan of yours fails.”

Theo just nodded and ate his own breakfast. He honestly didn’t know why his father insisted on spending meals like this with him. Victorinus Nott either said nothing to him, or they argued.

But he supposed that the cold clasp of his father’s hand on his shoulder when he went through the Floo to Platform 9 ¾ was acknowledgement of a sort. Theo certainly glanced back and nodded to his father before he vanished into the green flames.

Then he straightened his robes and walked briskly towards the train. There would be people here watching him, and he could not be himself until—

Until he reached the compartment with Harry and Draco.

Part of Theo wanted to laugh at the realization that his best friends and only confidantes were a Muggleborn boy he had once thought only about how to use, and a pureblood boy he had sometimes hated when they were growing up. But he didn’t need to laugh. He only needed to see their smiles when he slipped into the compartment.

And offer the gift that he had brought for Draco, a book on Astronomy—since he knew Draco secretly favored the class—and watch the joy and delight bloom across Draco’s face.

The same emotions were echoed on Harry’s.

No, this would not be the easy road, Theo knew, courting the Dark Lord’s apprentice and the son of a currently disgraced Death Eater, but it didn’t matter. Even if his father had trained him for that kind of road, he hadn’t been born for it.

*

Albus rubbed his fingers tiredly between his eyes. He had a headache more of the time than not, it seemed, to the point that Poppy had forbidden him to take more Headache Draughts. He was approaching the addiction stage.

But meanwhile, he had to focus on the announcement that he was supposed to make to the school tonight.

There hadn’t been even a whisper of this during the summer, which made Albus think that Cornelius had come up with it at the last minute. But even though disregarding the expense and the level of preparation it would take was Cornelius all over, the idea to revive the Tri-Wizard Tournament was not.

Someone else was behind this, Albus thought. He did not have to wonder for long who it could be, but he did dread that somehow Tom had slipped into the Ministry and put Cornelius under his thumb without even doing it in a way that Albus could track.

What I cannot track, I cannot counter.

Albus supposed he would have to let the farce play out and try to understand the implications in time to prevent Tom’s plan, whatever it was, from succeeding.

He stood up and looked at the clock. Yes, it was almost time for the Sorting. He wondered if he should look forward or not to the fact that the first—as far as the world was concerned—of the Potter children was getting Sorted tonight.

At least poor Lily would have her daughter here as a comfort to her.

But Albus had to think that at this point, there was never a chance that Harry and Arianna would get to know each other.

*

“GRYFFINDOR!”

Harry rolled his eyes as he watched Lily Potter’s daughter get Sorted into Gryffindor. Of course she would be. He refused to clap, even though some of his Housemates were doing it, the ones who thought it worthwhile to stay on good terms with Professor Potter.

Theo leaned over to him. “You don’t think that you need to worry about looking disloyal?”

“Disloyal?” Harry turned towards Theo, smiling a little as the warmth of his breath swept over Theo’s cheek, and Theo bit his lip. “You should know better than anyone else where my loyalties lie, Theo. Unless there’s something you’d like to tell me about yours?” He picked up his glass of pumpkin juice that Draco had shown him how to order the house-elves to bring him, even though the Sorting wasn’t over, and sipped from it as he watched the last few children assigned to Houses.

“That is not what I meant.”

“I know it’s not what you meant. Do you want to tell me?”

“Only that some of our Housemates think it’s politic to celebrate the Sorting of a professor’s child, and some of them might look down you for not doing it.”

Harry hid a snort as he turned to look down the table at his older Housemates. Some of them were indeed frowning at him as they touched their hands together. Harry thought them hypocrites given that they were barely doing the touching, but he shrugged and turned back to face Theo.

“You know better than anyone else why I won’t need to worry about them.”

Theo half-smiled and said, “I know, but they don’t know that, so there’s the chance they’ll try to make your life difficult.”

“They’ve tried that in the past, and they haven’t managed.”

Theo started to answer, but just then, the Headmaster stood up and spread his hands for silence. Harry accepted, grumpily, that he would have to listen. He didn’t dislike the Headmaster as much as the Potters or Black, but he didn’t have any particular fondness for him, either.

“I have the sad duty of announcing that Quidditch will be canceled for the coming year.”

“What?”

Other students were reacting, too, but Draco was the one who had yelped the loudest at the Slytherin table. Harry leaned over and gently pressed a hand down on his shoulder, reminding him of the kind of decorum he needed to maintain. Draco glanced at him, nodded, bit his lip, and slouched back in his seat.

In truth, Harry was also annoyed and disappointed. Quidditch was both one of the ways that he maintained his popularity in Slytherin despite his blood status and a nice way to relax. But they must have had some reason for canceling it.

“Instead, we will be reviving the Tri-Wizard Tournament…”

Harry listened to the announcement and blinked several times. The mere idea of letting teenagers, even if they were technically adults, compete for “gold and glory” was kind of stupid to him.

But on the other hand, he wouldn’t be forced to compete. So he could lean back and enjoy the speculation and the gossip and the way that some of the seventh-years and older sixth-years immediately started planning to enter.

There would also be foreign schools visiting Hogwarts. Idly, Harry supposed that could be fun. If nothing else, he would have the chance to speak with the Durmstrang students and learn if they really did learn Dark Arts in Potions and their other “standard” classes, the way the rumors ran.

Although, come to think of it, Harry would have a hard time believing that there was any Darker potion than the one he had brewed to cripple James Potter.

“Potter’s glaring at you,” Draco said into his ear.

Harry looked up automatically at the professors’ table, but for once, Professor Potter was paying him no attention. She was talking animatedly with Professor Flitwick about something that carved tense lines into her face.

“No, the little one.”

Harry looked back at the Gryffindor table and found that, yes, Arianna Potter had decided Harry’s life wouldn’t be complete without a scowl from her. Harry shrugged. “I’ll deal with her if she becomes a problem.”

“Is that the wisest course, when Professor Potter is already weirdly interested in your life?”

“What else would you have me do, Draco? She’s a firstie. What can she do to hurt a fourth-year?”

Draco’s face said he could come up with a few things. Harry shrugged again.

“I’ll deal with her if she becomes a problem,” he repeated.

They walked away from the table as the feast came to an end and joined with the stream of students heading for Slytherin. The older ones were either still talking about the Tournament or groaning about Quidditch being canceled. Harry ignored them both. He was wondering how to make the letter he would send the Dark Lord about the Tournament more interesting and amusing.

He did happen to glance over his shoulder when Theo made a motion, and saw Arianna Potter glaring at him before she stomped up in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

Harry rolled his eyes in a way that made Theo laugh, and returned to his more important thoughts.

*

“Are you all right, James? Did you need any more food or blankets?”

“No, thank you, Lily-Flower.”

Lily sighed as James reached out and squeezed her hand. She squeezed right back. His voice had improved since he was in hospital, but his blindness had become total.

It had been Albus’s idea that Lily move James into her quarters at Hogwarts, and Lily might have kissed him for it. The quarters had more stairs, true, but Lily was tied into the wards and could exercise privileges as a professor that made James float lightly above the steps and kept the ones leading up and down from their quarters in place. And the wards themselves could anchor more powerful healing spells than they could have either at home or at St. Mungo’s, where the power was split between too many patients.

Patrick was currently asleep in a room beside Lily’s. He would continue attending his Muggle primary through a Floo connection and Sirius meeting and Apparating him there and back.

We have such thoughtful friends.

“You said Arianna was glaring at Harry?”

Lily nodded and sighed, returning perforce to the subject that she had known James would be the most interested in hearing about. “Yes. She seems to have taken it badly that we’ve paid so much attention to Harry over the years.”

“I wish we could have told her the truth.”

“Of course.” Lily sat on the bed beside James and smoothed his hair. “I wish that, too. But in the end, the geas has held us back. We can only watch and see if we can do something to help.”

“If Harry would even tell us he needed help.”

This time, Lily’s nod was gloomier, she knew. Severus had been like that, concealing every secret he could and pretending even to Lily that everything in Slytherin was fine, until he couldn’t anymore.

But they could only involve themselves in Harry’s life as much as he would permit, and with a daughter in her first year of Hogwarts and a husband to tend to and try to help recover, Lily’s life was full.

“I’ll speak to Arianna about staying away from Harry,” Lily said. “I think that will probably make them both happier.”

“Not as happy as they would have been if they could have been brother and sister…”

Lily merely pressed her husband’s hand, and didn’t answer.

*

Sirius shuddered a little as he opened the door of his cottage. He still sometimes suffered shivers and random attacks of coughing because of the Polyjuice he’d taken, and he didn’t want to slump in front of Lily if she’d come knocking.

Or James, if he was well enough to get out of bed.

But it wasn’t one of them or even Albus or someone from the Ministry standing on the other side of the door, who would have been Sirius’s next guesses. Instead, it was someone he hadn’t seen since the war ended.

“Remus?”

“Hullo, Sirius.” Remus ducked his head, shuffling back and forth on the doorstep. “Can I come in?”

“Of course you can come in,” Sirius said, and managed to almost lift Remus off his feet with a hug. Remus was gaping at him a little as Sirius settled him back on the doorstep, but Sirius ignored that as he watched Remus smooth down his robes. “How are you? Did you come to talk about returning to Britain?”

“Oh, I’ve been in Britain for a few months now, actually.”

“You have?”

Sirius couldn’t keep the sharp hurt out of his voice, and Remus stared at him for a second, then cleared his throat. “Yes. I have—things to tell you.”

“Of course! Let me make tea.”

Sirius turned to the kitchen, straining his memory as he did so. Remus didn’t like some kinds of tea, he remembered, but surely Earl Grey was fine?

Then he stopped as Remus’s hand came to rest on his shoulder. No, wait, it had moved so that his fingers were against Sirius’s throat. And those fingers had claws on them, even though it was nowhere near the full moon.

Sirius let himself be turned around slowly. Remus was smiling at him with far too many teeth.

“Lots of things to tell you, Sirius,” Remus said, and Sirius didn’t think he was mistaking the red glow in his eyes that might have come from a wolf’s reflecting the firelight. “So many.”