Chapter Forty-One of 'Winged Victory'- A Ring of Stars

[lomonaaeren]

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Chapter Forty-One—A Ring of Stars

“Thank you for coming to meet me, Mr. Nott.”

“Of course, Professor. Anything to keep Harry safe.”

Professor Sinistra grimaces as she turns away from the parapet of the Astronomy Tower to consider Theo. “I would wish you good luck for that, but it’s such a delicate situation that I’m not sure if my wish would do more harm than good.”

Theo laughs, because he feels that way himself, and lays the old bronze ring that he brought from home on the parapet near her. “I’d like to charge this with the power of the stars so that it keeps Harry safe.”

Professor Sinistra glances at Theo and waits for his nod before she picks up the ring. Theo is duly impressed. Of course, he would expect most adults to know that there might be a trap in an artifact as old as the ring, but then, many of the adults at Hogwarts don’t behave sensibly.

Snape and Dumbledore are the two prime examples.

“Ahhh.”

Theo looks up sharply. Professor Sinistra is turning the ring back and forth, a faint smile on her face. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of these.”

“So you have seen it before?”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Sinistra says casually, as if it’s not impressive that she recognized exactly what the ring is instead of its general dangerous nature. “My mother kept one in a glass case in her library that she prized highly, although it was made of silver and didn’t have the spikes. She told me all about it. I suspect the traps that her family placed on it weren’t exactly the ones that your family used, admittedly.”

Theo gives her a thin smile. She doesn’t intend to tell him all her family’s secrets, obviously, the same way that he wouldn’t tell her about the Nott family’s. “Well, I’m glad that you know. And it can be charged with the magic of the stars?”

“Oh, yes,” Sinistra says again. She places the ring back on the stone with a shallow nod to it, as if acknowledging its danger, then turns to Theo. “What kind of magic did you wish? A trap that springs when someone touches it? An offensive weapon that reacts to your will? A trap or weapon that reacts on a certain contingency?”

Theo hesitates, because the last offer is attractive. But he’s not sure that he could phrase the danger clearly enough for the spell to grasp hold of. Dumbledore can be subtle—when he wants to. “An offensive weapon that reacts to my will.”

Sinistra nods, her eyes already going distant. “Then we will have the best luck using the spell that calls starlight into the ring.”

“There’s such a thing?”

Sinistra blinks and glances at him, some of the distance disappearing from her face. “Of course. Why wouldn’t there be?”

“I—don’t know,” Theo mutters, a little embarrassed to feel his face flushing. “I suppose that I thought, because you relied on the mere presence of the stars above to enforce oaths, that it was just a passive process. That the ring would need to soak in the starlight.”

“One can do that, and it results in more power, but it could take months. And I’m sure that your meeting with Albus is sooner than that.”

Theo nods glumly. Harry pretended to be reluctant to meet with Dumbledore, and finally sent him a message today that they would come in two days. Or Harry would come. Theo will be under the Invisibility Cloak, and if Dumbledore knows he’s there, well and good. He still won’t know about the ring that Harry’ll have.

“All right.” Sinistra draws her wand and flicks it in a downwards sweep. Two mirrors appear over the ring, lenses angled down and glittering with the power of the starlight. Theo raises his eyebrows, a little impressed that she’s performed a conjuring spell so many times she can do it wordlessly. Making physical objects appear usually takes words. “I’ll teach you the spell. I can cast it, but only once, since the ring isn’t intended for my use. You can cast it three times.”

“If one of those times is the practice—”

“My apologies, I should have said that you can cast it on the ring three times. You can practice it before that, of course, although the effect won’t do anything to your weapon.”

“Can I watch you do it first?”

“Of course.” Professor Sinistra turns to the ring, and for a moment, she seems to shine with a subtle black flicker of power that Theo hasn’t seen before. The light turns silver around her face and head. “Potentia siderum!”

Light lances down from the sky.

Theo watches intently, ignoring the way that his eyes water. He has to make sure that what’s happening won’t actually be dangerous for him or Harry.

The light swirls and eddies above the ring, poking smooth tendrils at it as if trying to find some way in through the bonze. And then it settles and flows in. The lenses are taming it, Theo thinks, leaning forwards in fascination. In seconds, all that’s left is a subtle silver glimmer like the light that was shining around Professor Sinistra earlier.

“Fantastic,” Theo breathes.

Professor Sinistra gives him a little smile. “Yes, I like to think so.” She steps back and gestures at the stone next to the ring. “Try it on your own now.”

Theo takes a second to settle his mind and think about Professor Sinistra’s wand movement and the way she pronounced the incantation. Then he thrusts his wand out in front of him and snarls, “Potentia siderum!”

There’s a flash of white light from the stone, but nothing like what Professor Sinistra pulled from the sky. Theo scowls down at his wand.

Sinistra gives a delicate cough. “The spell isn’t one that responds well to aggressive intent, even if that intent is focused on protecting someone. Try to use something gentler. A gentler means of incanting it, perhaps.”

Theo focuses his mind again, this time trying to think about how he wants to keep Harry safe because he loves him. He makes the motion of the wand less forceful, too, and almost whispers the words of the spell, “Potentia siderum.”

There’s a boil of light along the edge of the parapet, but nothing more than that.

“Now you need a balance between force and gentleness.”

Theo strangles his own impatience that’s moving inside him like Voldemort’s snake, and goes back to practicing. Just because it’s been a long time since he got challenged by something like this doesn’t mean he’s going to fail at it.

*

“Wow, Theo. It’s beautiful! How many tries did it take you to enchant this?”

“You don’t want to know,” Theo mutters.

Harry gives him a curious look, but slips the ring onto his hand in the meantime. There’s a little flash of silver light, and then the power of the ring settles. Harry smiles, turning his hand back and forth. “It’s so protective that it feels like going to sleep in a warm blanket.”

“But you don’t feel smothered by it?” Theo asks anxiously. That was something Professor Sinistra told him, that if the magic feels like it’s going to smother Harry, that’s a sign it’s too strong and they’ll have to try something else.

Harry smiles. “No.”

Theo nods, sighing. “All right. Remember that you can use it as a weapon.”

“To do what?”

“To defend yourself.”

“I thought you said it was an offensive weapon?”

“At the scale that you’ll be using it, defense and offense often mean the same thing,” Theo murmurs, and leans close to kiss Harry. They’re in their classroom, their private shared one, before they go to meet Dumbledore, and Harry leans up and slides into the kiss easily. Theo draws back, gasping a little. “Promise me that you’ll use it if you need to?”

“Of course.”

Harry’s eyes are a little glazed. Theo smiles and squeezes his boyfriend’s hand, careful not to come too close to the bronze ring that glimmers with the starry power. He doesn’t want Harry’s motivation to protect Theo to interfere with how it works.

“Let’s go speak to Dumbledore,” he says, and pulls Harry’s Cloak over his head.

*

“Hello, Harry. Mr. Nott, I don’t recall inviting you.”

They did know it was a long shot that Dumbledore wouldn’t sense him beneath the Cloak, Theo reminds himself as he takes it off. He keeps it wrapped around his shoulders, though, grinning a little at the way Dumbledore’s eyebrow twitches. Watching one of your guests “sit” in a chair when they’re only visible from the front and the waist up must be annoying. “And yet, here I am.”

“Regardless, I must speak to Harry in private.”

“Has that ever worked, sir?” Harry’s sitting in the chair beside Theo, vanishing a little as Theo stretches to put his arm around him. Harry’s eyes are tired, and he keeps his hands folded so that the bronze ring is hidden beneath his arm. “You wanted to talk to me privately about any number of things, and yet Theo heard them. And he was the only one who could give me comfort after things like the revelation about the Horcrux.”

“What I have to tell you today will not be comforting, Harry.”

“All the more reason for Theo to be here.”

Dumbledore stares at them and then gives a long sigh, settling back in his chair as he shakes his head. “On your shoulders the burden will rest, then.”

“Because it’s two of us, we’re sharing the burden,” Theo says brightly. “Didn’t you ever have anyone to share your burden, sir?”

Dumbledore gives him a sour look. Theo beams back. His left hand being curled around Harry’s shoulder is the perfect distraction from the fact that his right one is down near his wand holster.

“In between searching for Gellert,” Dumbledore says heavily, “I’ve been researching one of the Horcruxes’ resting places. And we do have it, at last. The ring is in the shack of the Gaunt family near the Muggle village of Little Hangleton.”

“He chose a Muggle place to hide a Horcrux, sir?”

“The Gaunt family were magical, although their last members were almost Squibs and never attended Hogwarts. I believe their loss of magic was due to their fanatical obsession with marrying relatives—which, of course, preserved their Parseltongue and their ‘pure blood’ at the cost of much else.”

Theo grimaces. At least he can be glad that his father never thought inbreeding was the path to power. Maybe some of his ancestors might have married relatives, but never closer than second cousins.

“You look disgusted, Mr. Nott.”

“Because I am. Not everything is the same even between Death Eaters or purebloods, you know.”

Dumbledore opens his mouth, then closes it with a long sigh and pays some attention to the lemon drops scattered on his desk. Finally, he mutters, “So I wanted to invite Harry to travel to Little Hangleton to find the ring with me.”

“But not me.”

“No, Mr. Nott. Frankly, I don’t trust you not to take the Horcrux and use it against Harry.”

Theo stares at Dumbledore with his mouth open. Then he leans back, although he doesn’t take his arm from around Harry’s shoulders, and give in to the choking laughter that’s been wanting to bubble up his throat for the last few seconds.

“Why are you laughing?” Dumbledore asks, so coldly that Theo tries to repress his snorting.

And fails. He leans back and laughs harder. Harry’s laughter joins his for a few seconds, and then Harry pokes Theo in the shoulder and shakes his head. “You ought to answer Dumbledore’s question, Theo. Especially since he doesn’t seem to understand even with all the exposure he’s had to us.”

Theo wipes away tears and sits up with an earnest expression that he thinks is probably ruined by the escaping snickers. “Sir, you’ve been mourning the fact that I love Harry too much to turn on him or let him commit suicide even knowing that he’s a Horcrux. Why did you think that I would change my mind now? That I would ever use a Horcrux against him?”

“I know that you think you love him, Mr. Nott.”

“If not love, what is it?”

“Obsession.”

Thoe rolls his eyes and leans back with a wave of his hand. “If you want to try and convince him, Harry, you can.”

“Sir,” Harry says, in a gentle voice that sounds all the more terrible for its gentleness, “people don’t defy their families, kill their relatives, put up with people asking them stupid questions, and choose a side in a dangerous war because of obsession. Theo might have tried to lock me up in his bedroom if he were obsessed with me. Or hide me away so that I couldn’t get into trouble or face Voldemort. Or enlist his father to find some way to slip me a permanent love potion. But not what he’s done.”

“People can indeed kill their relatives because of obsession, Harry.”

“Personal experience with that speaking, Headmaster?”

Dumbledore turns such a harsh expression on Theo that Theo sees Harry’s hand move as if he’s going to trigger the ring. Theo lets his hand fall on Harry’s arm and shakes his head a little. “It was just a simple question,” he adds, as Dumbledore acts as if he’s going to reach for his wand.

“You have no right to ask such questions, young man.”

“It doesn’t compare to some of the ones you’ve asked, old man.”

Dumbledore stares at him again. At least he’s sat down and doesn’t seem to be reaching for his wand. Theo supposes that might not mean much, if Dumbledore has another way of attacking.

Like Legilimency. Theo lowers his eyes, hoping that he didn’t make a mistake looking into Dumbledore’s face.

“I am not going to tell you that,” Dumbledore finally announces in a stiff voice. “And I am not going to share any other knowledge of the Horcrux, such as what traps protect it, if Harry doesn’t accompany me alone.”

“No.”

“Do you always let your boyfriend speak for you, Harry?”

Harry laughs and stands up. Theo comes with him, leaning against his side. “We’re at one in this, sir. As in so many other things. There’s no reason that you couldn’t share your knowledge with me and Theo both. We could even go Horcrux hunting for you if you didn’t want to do it for some reason.”

“Of course not!”

“Is there a particular reason that you want to be involved?” Theo asks. “It seems against the way that you usually do such things.”

“What exactly do you mean by that, Mr. Nott?”

“I mean that you prefer other people to get their hands dirty instead of you. Or you just hold problems at a distance. The way that you kept Grindelwald imprisoned in Nurmengard without any creature comforts.”

This time, Dumbledore’s hand does fall to his wand. “What do you know of Gellert?” he asks softly.

“Oh, I know what my father did. He did some research into trying to resurrect the Dark Lord after Harry defeated him the first time. And he tried to research other Dark Lords to see if there was someone else he could serve. He told me several facts about Nurmengard that are—fascinating, considering you’re the one who imprisoned Grindelwald there.”

“You are responsible for his escape.”

Theo clucks his tongue. “Your Legilimency would have told you if I were lying just now, about where I got my information from.”

“There are other ways to lie.” Dumbledore prowls towards the edge of his desk, but stops when he sees Theo’s wand pointed at him. “Young man, if you believe that you can defeat me in a duel, you’re sadly mistaken.”

“I’ve made some mistakes. This isn’t one of them.”

Theo doesn’t say what he thinks should be obvious, if Dumbledore just thinks about it. He can defeat the man because he would dare to use Dark Arts that Dumbledore would shun. From the way the Headmaster’s eyes darken, maybe he knows it.

Dumbledore chooses to turn to Harry instead, shaking his head. “Harry, what have you become? Why did you ever let Nott involve you in his plans? Freeing Gellert? Honestly, why would you do that?”

“Why would you keep him in a cold prison with hardly a blanket or any human company?” Harry’s eyes are very dark and very wide. “If you could answer that, maybe I’d answer your question.”

“I don’t need to answer to you.”

“And I don’t need to answer to you, either.”

“But that’s exactly what you’re going to do.”

Dumbledore has an expression of terrible sorrow on his face, and he’s leaning heavily on the edge of the desk. Theo promptly sweeps the Invisibility Cloak over Harry and pulls his boyfriend close, leaning over him. The Cloak is powerful old magic, and ought to shelter them from whatever Dumbledore means to cast at them from this angle—

Except that the magic flares to life under their feet and over and down the legs of their chairs, illuminating the floor.

Shit. A ritual circle under us. I’m an idiot.

Harry screams abruptly. Theo pulls back the Cloak—it’s not like Dumbledore doesn’t know where they are or needs a spell flying through the air to strike them—and stares into his lover’s face.

Harry has tears pouring from his eyes, Harry who barely ever cries at anything, and blood pouring from his scar. He screams again and pounds his fists against Theo’s chest, and Theo knows that the pain must have carried him away. Harry would never do that if he were in his right mind.

Theo grabs Harry’s right hand and turns it towards Dumbledore, pushing it forwards. Harry has to be the one to trigger it, not Theo himself, but he hopes, he thinks, he wishes—

And either Harry does have part of his attention still on the world around them, or his wanting the pain to stop is enough.

A blast of starry, silvery light strikes from the ring towards Dumbledore in a narrow beam.

Dumbledore screams and collapses.

And the magic of the ritual circle around them goes mad.