Chapter Thirty-Six of 'Winged Victory'- Wielding the Orb

[lomonaaeren]

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Chapter Thirty-Six—Wielding the Orb

“I need to ask you a favor, Nott.”

“Theo.”

“What?”

“We’re both important to Harry.” Theo turns around and leans back against the hedge behind him, the one that surrounds the little meditation garden he and Harry used this summer to practice Occlumency. He came out to spend some time here in the cold and the dark, close to a kind of meditation that Harry can’t understand yet. “Call me Theo, the way that I should call you Sirius.”

Black stands behind him, staring with his mouth open. Then he snaps it shut, only to open it and growl, “I know that you think of me as Black.”

“So what? It’s what we call each other that matters. Harry doesn’t care about our private thoughts, only the way we act towards each other.”

Black treats him to some more mouth-opening and closing. Theo watches him, bored. He could interrogate Black if he wanted. But he would honestly rather turn around and go back to the quiet meditation he was attempting.

Black finally swallows and sits down in the dirt not far away, huddling in a familiar manner. “I wanted to ask you a favor.”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you have to stare unblinkingly at me like that?”

“Yes.”

Black looks up as if appealing to the stars for patience—which might not be far off the mark, given what Theo knows about his family—and then swallows and looks back directly at Theo again. “I want you to wield the orb instead of me.”

Theo lets his eyes flutter this time, in rapid blinks that don’t reveal anything about what he’s feeling. “I thought that you knew enough about it to feel comfortable using it.”

“I don’t—it was acting more than I was, when I showed you that illusion of Grindelwald.” Black is whispering, staring at his hands as if he can still feel the weight of the orb in them. “I don’t know why I put that ring there. If I even did. I think that you have more experience with Dark artifacts than I ever could.”

Well, that’s true enough, Theo thinks, even if Black grew up in a house that had more of them than Theo’s did. It’s one thing to see them, and another thing to know about them, handle them, not be afraid of handling them.

“Are you sure that there are no protections on the orb that would punish someone not of Black blood who tried to use it?”

“My ancestors tried to put traps like that on the artifacts they stored, but the next generation always undid them, or did them differently. There was always someone who had a bastard child they might want to sneak a gift to, or someone who wanted to make sure a Squib child could never touch them.”

Theo nods. He knows other pureblood families are prone to that sort of thing, although he comes from a long line of only children and never had to worry about it. “All right, but I’ll still want to test it myself before I use it.”

“Of course.” Black stands there a long moment as if he thinks there should be some other guarantee or explanation, and Theo cocks his head. “Thank you.”

Theo gives him a thin smile. “You’re welcome.”

Black looks as if he might say something else, but then just turns and leaves. That’s fine with Theo. They don’t have to like each other or get along well, as long as they manage to get along enough for Harry’s sake.

Harry is the really important person here, Theo thinks, and leans back with a long sigh to daydream about his boyfriend and mentally prepare himself for handling the orb.

*

Theo shudders a little as Black places the orb in his hand.

“Theo?”

Of course Harry has noticed, and he’s concerned. Theo leans against his boyfriend’s shoulder as he stares down into the dark blue depths of the thing. He thinks he can see something moving there, but he won’t allow it to control him, and he turns to smile into Harry’s eyes instead.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes. The magic of it is…heavy,” Theo says, after a moment of internally debating what kind of description he should use of it. “It’ll take me a little while to get used to it and the differences between it and other magical artifacts I’ve handled.”

Harry watches him with careful eyes, then leans his shoulder against Theo’s again. They’re in the dining room where Black cast the first illusion with the orb, and the sound of Black’s fleeing footsteps still echo against the walls. He left the moment after he handed Theo the thing. “Does it feel as Dark?”

“I don’t get that sense from it, not the way I do from some of the artifacts my ancestors cursed.”

“Like that wand Sirius tried to use not long after he first got here.”

Theo snorts. “Right.” It’s a memory of yet another time he saved Black and Black wasn’t properly grateful. But he doesn’t think he should concentrate on that kind of thing now, not with the orb already stirring eagerly in his hand.

“Do you think you can cast an illusion with it?”

“No time like the present to find out,” Theo says, and turns towards the far wall of the dining room. His mind runs for a second over the way that Grindelwald looked in his cell, and then he nods and throws that image down into the “water” of the orb.

The orb responds with such slow, stirring power that Theo grits his teeth against it. He knows already that he never wants Harry to touch or correspond with the thing. This isn’t Darkness, not exactly, and it isn’t a curse. It’s an artifact that knows its own mind and would try to seduce anyone holding it.

The heaviness spreads out until even Harry gasps as if there isn’t enough air, and then the far wall glows with the illusion.

Theo studies it carefully. This illusion has some of the same features that Black’s did, with the cleaned-up but aged Grindelwald and the fine robes. And the ring with the black stone on his hand.

You didn’t put that there only because it appeared the first time, Theo thinks at the orb with what he knows is wrath, even though the dull weight of the air keeps it from feeling that way. Tell me why you put it there.

A whirl of dark blue in front of him, cutting through the air as though it doesn’t exist, echoed by Harry’s shout of alarm—

And Theo is dropping down a tunnel that glows with dark blue as well, faster and faster, into the heart of a confined ocean—

*

Theo lands with a bump and a grunt, reaching out to snatch his wand free of its holster even as he spins to take in this place he’s in now. That method of travel was worse than a Portkey. He never wants to do it again.

He appears to be in a small room that rather resembles the sitting ones at home, although bereft of doors and furniture. Even as he thinks that, though, a silver couch pops up in front of him, with fine arms and lacy cushions on it.

Theo narrows his eyes at it and remains standing.

“So suspicious,” says a fluting voice behind him, so sweet that Theo sways and has to fight to keep standing and keep his mind free of its influence. “And after I gave you such a clue, as well.”

Theo turns. Behind him is a silver chimera, although with a unicorn’s head in the middle of its back rather than a goat’s. The serpent is a bright creature with swirling white marks on its hood like a cobra’s. The lion’s head is sleek and sly, eyes glinting.

“I did tell you the truth,” the chimera goes on, prowling towards him. Theo turns slightly to the side so that he isn’t backed against anything but can keep the chimera in sight. The creature leaps up onto the couch and lounges there with a long-suffering sigh. “I gave you a gift for free. Did you have the wisdom to pursue it? No.”

“You’re talking about that ring.”

“I am.” The chimera lifts all three heads to regard him, and shines as it does so. Theo has never seen anything so beautiful—

No, wait, yes he has. The way that Harry’s eyes have shone when they made love, or destroyed a Horcrux, or did something similar that made him want to laugh aloud.

“What are you feeling?”

The chimera sounds so disgusted that Theo nearly laughs. But it’s interesting that the creature can feel his moods. He gives it a smile. “The love I experience for my boyfriend.”

“Love. What does that matter?” The chimera’s unicorn head tosses its horn, and now it speaks through that mouth. “It isn’t powerful, it imprisons one’s heart, it keeps you in one place. I can offer you all the riches that you would ever dream of.”

“I’m wealthy enough that riches aren’t tempting.”

“You know very well that wealth can mean other things than coin. I can give you glimpses of the future. I’ve already offered you knowledge that you’ll need to conclude your quest to destroy that foul thing’s Horcruxes.”

“I would have expected you to want that foul thing for a master.”

“He knows nothing anymore but his own hatred and suffering,” the chimera says dismissively. Its three pairs of eyes are fastened on Theo, and the snake’s tongue is darting out more and more often. “I find you much more interesting. Acquainted with Dark magic but not mastered by it, and not weighed down with guilt the way that Sirius Black is. For a long time I found willing partners among Black’s relatives, but that time is past. Shall we discuss what I can offer you?”

“No.”

“Why not?” The chimera’s claws flex, and part of the silvery couch puffs into the air and comes back down as withered fluff that looks like it might be from a dying dragon’s wing. “You won’t complete this quest by yourself.”

“I don’t intend to. I’ll have Harry by my side, and our other allies, as well.”

“They can’t offer you as much as I can.”

“I’m not interested in the notion of numbers or weight, or however you would calculate the help you can offer. I’m more interested in what it would cost me.”

The chimera pauses and looks at him slyly. Its tufted tail is twitching. “Other people have thought the cost well worth paying.”

“I notice that you keep skirting around it, the same way that you keep skirting around telling me what knowledge you could offer me.”

The chimera purrs. “I did tell you directly. Help locating his Horcruxes. I’ve given you a picture of the last Horcrux that you have to find, besides the one in your darling’s head. You wouldn’t have found it without me. And I can even give you a means to remove the soul-shard from your darling, if that’s something you would be interested in.”

Of course it is, but Theo knows better than to show that. He examines his fingernails in boredom instead. “You promise that, but how do I know you can deliver?”

“The picture of the Horcrux.”

“A picture isn’t a location.”

“Oh, now you insult me.” The chimera leaps from the couch and stalks towards him, eyes fastened on him so directly that Theo can imagine how compelling he would have found this creature if he’d never fallen in love with Harry. His father didn’t pay him the same kind of attention, the one that sees him. “I know very well the value of what I have. I won’t give it up for less than the same value.”

“And that is…?”

“You bond with me. With the orb that contains me. You’ll be able to transform into me, and in return, that will give me access to the open air beyond the orb and the ability to breathe in it and fly through it again. It’ll be a bargain that you never regret.”

Theo laughs. “So all I have to do is let you possess and corrupt me, huh?”

“It is not corruption, nor possession.” The chimera halts in front of him and looks sincere in a way that Theo assumes is probably painful for it. “I’ll grant you the abilities that come with me, including flight and strength and a life far longer than any wizard’s. And in return, you’ll give me freedom. That’s all that it is.”

“I already have someone who values me the way you’re promising to do. Someone to share my days and my body and my life with.”

“Another chimera found you first?”

Theo rolls his eyes. “No, I mean my boyfriend. Who’s probably had enough of me being here.” He starts to take a mental step back, to reach for the confines of the room and thus the orb that hold him.

“You shall not.”

The chimera’s snarl is soft, but it makes pulses of fear and disgust travel through Theo. He’s starting to think that Black reacted more rationally to the orb than he believed.

Theo’s reaching smashes into old, powerful magic. The chimera tosses its heads. “I hoped that you would agree because you’re rational, but as it is, I can hold you here until you say yes. It’s nothing personal. I’ve been imprisoned too long. Anyone would grow desperate when as much time has passed as I saw in Black’s mind.”

Theo laughs at it. The chimera gives a quiet growl and paces across the room to leap up on the couch again.

“All I have to do is wait until you grow desperate. With thirst or hunger or desire for freedom, it doesn’t matter. I’ll have what I want, and I make good bargains. You’ll never want for anything again when we’re—”

And the walls of the room dissolve. Theo values the experience of seeing astonishment on the triple faces of a chimera as he vanishes.

*

“Theo!”

Theo comes bursting back into the open air that the chimera talked about, gasping and clawing at it for a second before he slumps back. The chimera is right about one thing, he thinks as he takes those deep breaths. Being outside the orb is pretty brilliant.

“What happened to you, Theo?” Harry shakes him a little.

Theo reaches up and clutches his boyfriend’s hand to show that he heard, even though he’s a little too breathless right now to talk. Luckily, Harry understands, sitting back on his heels and clutching Theo’s hand even though his eyes remain wide and watchful.

“Your standard contract,” Theo finally croaks. “Someone who wanted to possess my body and corrupt me in return for knowledge about the Horcruxes. And it claimed that it knew something about how to get the Horcrux out of you, too.”

“It?”

“It took the form of a chimera with a unicorn’s head instead of a goat’s, but I doubt that’s what it really looks like.”

Harry raises his eyebrows and nods, without taking his eyes from Theo. Theo smiles back. No focused gaze from a chimera will ever compare with this. “Fine. Does that mean that you won’t be able to wield the orb?”

“It wishes.” Theo takes a moment to assess his strength, then pushes himself to his feet. “Will you hand me the orb?”

Harry does, but his eyes remain watchful, and he hesitates for a long moment before he drops the orb into Theo’s hands. “I reserve the right to take it away from you if you start acting strange again.”

“What made you strike me with the spell that brought me back?”

“You stopped breathing.”

“It’s a wanker,” Theo mutters, not really under his breath, and Harry laughs. Theo grins at him and turns to face the wall where the orb projected the first illusion. “Let’s see what it makes this time.”

The illusion this time isn’t as fine or as in-depth. Grindelwald also has a sneer on his face that doesn’t resemble the one he sometimes wore in pictures Theo’s seen of him. But he still has the ring on his hand, and this time Theo can make out the symbol of the Deathly Hallows etched thick and bright on the black stone.

“What is it, Theo? You whistled.”

“I think that that ring is going to attract Dumbledore’s attention even if he doesn’t suspect that there might be a Horcrux like that,” Theo says, but only shakes his head when Harry looks at him in puzzlement. “I don’t think it matters that much. What really matters is that we can make this illusion and manipulate it.”

“And the orb will let you?”

Theo raises the dark blue thing and stares into the depths again. Once again, the swirling colors try to snatch him away, but all he thinks is, I could be persuaded, but not if you try to take me from my partner, or corrupt me like this, or make me stop breathing.

The colors gentle at once. The chimera has the same weaknesses as all the other beasts of this kind Theo has read or heard about. It’ll be content with the implication that it could seduce him if it’s patient. And in the meantime…

New knowledge appears in Theo’s head like the bursting of a firework, and he whistles again.

“What is it, Theo?”

“The last Horcrux the Dark Lord created on purpose,” Theo says, and nods at the ring on the fake Grindelwald’s hand. “It’s the ring of the Gaunt family, but that symbol on the stone belongs to the Deathly Hallows. And that means the stone is the Resurrection Stone.”

“Uh, what does the stone do?”

“Calls back the dead to life. It’s a legendary artifact. And now,” Theo says, as he revels in the knowledge flooding his brain, “I know where it is.”