Chapter 25 - Ah, intrigue

Somehow, school goes on. Ever since Draco destroyed the cabinet and they ran into Snape in the hallway, Theo's been waiting for the next crisis. But weeks pass and everything is fine.

All he does is go to class, and hang out with Neville, and maybe spend a little more time with his old Slytherin friends than he has in the recent past.

Although — when he says everything is fine, he's not really including Draco in that. Draco has been flipping back and forth between wallowing and fear and anger and guilt.

One moment it's: "I've lost her forever."

And the next it's: "I'm worried about my mother."

And then it's: "I'm gonna kill Snape/the Dark Lord/Harry Potter/etc."

And then the worst is: "I should just let him have me. All I do is fuck everything up anyway."

Theo listens. He provides tea and sometimes firewhiskey. He remembers the times when he was sad for no good reason and Draco was there. Draco, at least, has a reason.

The end of term is getting closer and the professors start talking about exams. Theo wonders what the odds are that Draco will pass a single one at this rate.

To that end, they study. He goes to the library, and he brings Draco with him. Or he brings books to empty classrooms and they study there — sometimes a whole group of them. Blaise, Pansy, Millie, Daphne, even Crabbe and Goyle show up occasionally. At this rate, they'll beat Ravenclaw in the exams.

Hermione's the only sixth year Slytherin who doesn't come. Which should seem odd, Hermione Granger missing a study group, but at this point, she's basically a Gryffindor again.

Theo sometimes forgets that he's the one in Gryffindor. It weighs on his mind, more and more, as they get closer to the end of the year. A part of him thought that by now something would have happened to explain this. Someone would have jumped out from behind a curtain and revealed a scheme, or a joke, or something, anything, that would explain what happened to him and Hermione on the first day of school.

It has to be connected, somehow, to all the other weird shit from this year — the crown, the sword, the dreams.

It's the waiting that gets him. The other shoe has to drop at some point. Or another shoe. There's a lot of things he's waiting for. A lot of shoes. Or something like that, it's a weird metaphor.

"I just want something to happen," he laments to Neville one evening in the common room, after spending all afternoon with the study group.

"Careful what you wish for," Neville advises, dropping his head against Theo's shoulder.

"Good point," Theo concedes, angling his own head to rest against Neville's. "Don't you think it's strange, though? We were all building up the cabinet as this huge thing, but when Draco destroyed it, nothing happened."

"It's only been a few weeks," Neville says reasonably. "I don't think it's over."

"I know," Theo agrees. "That's my point. I don't want to wait anymore. Or for the crown and the sword and everything. I want to know what the point of all that was."

"Is," Neville says. "The point of it is. I don't think that's over either."

"But what even is it?"

"What is what?" Neville asks, then chuckles. "We might be starting to lose the plot here."

Theo laughs too, slightly tinged with desperation.

"I want to go back to the Room of Requirement tomorrow," he says after a moment, his fingers tapping an anxious pattern against Neville's shoulder.

"Why?"

"In case there's a clue or whatever. I don't know. I just want to do something."

Neville nods. "Sure," he says. "If you want. I'll come too."

"To supervise me so I don't touch the crown?" Theo asks teasingly.

"Something like that," Neville admits with a grin.

"Good," Theo says. "I need that — need you."

Neville nuzzles his head a little closer against Theo. "Try not to worry too much."

Theo pouts. "What if I can't help it?"

"Maybe I can distract you," Neville says softly, a teasing lilt to his voice, lifting his head off Theo's shoulder and meeting his eye. He bites his lip and raises his brow in question.

It works. Theo is immediately, wildly distracted. He takes a look around the room and finds all their roommates are in the common room.

"If we go now we'll have the room to ourselves," he says, already standing up.

"For the record," Pansy says, announcing her presence in the dorm early on Saturday evening, "while I did say he should do something to show you he cared, I was thinking more along the lines of 'apologise and stop attacking her friends' rather than 'antagonise a Dark Lord'. Just so you're aware."

"Alright," Hermione says, setting down her book. "Any particular reason you're telling me this today?"

"He's still wallowing and it's starting to get annoying." Pansy drapes herself elegantly across her bed. "Also, he might die at any moment, so you should really consider how long you plan on keeping this up."

"Keeping what up?"

"The breakup thing. Surely you realise you'll cave eventually?"

"Pansy, we're broken up. It's permanent. I'm moving on with my life."

"Says the girl hiding in the dungeon with a book."

"I read all the time," Hermione says. "And this is my room. I'm not hiding."

"It's a lovely Saturday in May. Everyone else is out enjoying their weekend. You're hiding, not moving on."

"Well," Hermione says, unable to actually tell Pansy she's wrong, "I don't really see what that has to do with you."

"Draco has to do with me. And," Pansy hesitates, "you have to do with me."

"I do?"

"Don't let it get to your head."

Hermione sighs and picks at the edge of her bedspread, twisting it through her fingers.

"It's done, Pansy. It was… special while it lasted, and I hope Draco will be okay, but it was never going to work out. It's better to end it now than later, isn't it?"

Pansy sniffs. "You're impossible."

Hermione nods with determination, hoping to put an end to the probing. "It was the right thing to do."

Pansy sits up and hangs her legs off the edge of her bed, leaning forward towards Hermione. "It really didn't change anything at all for you? The cabinet? I mean, I don't approve of his decision, but it was a pretty telling gesture, don't you think?"

"Yeah, a gesture that he waited to act on until he decided he benefited from it. If he was willing to do it like this, he should have done it ages ago."

"That's funny," Pansy says, narrowing her eyes, "because you used to be supportive. You understood that he had no choice."

"Yes," Hermione concedes. "But it's become pretty clear he did have a choice all along. And anyway, once I took a step back and looked at it objectively without everything else clouding my judgement…"

Pansy just lets out a breath of exasperation. "Impossible."

"And honestly," Hermione continues, "how do I even know he destroyed it? Or that he's changed sides? Because it's not like Draco's never told a lie before."

Pansy stands. "Get up."

"I'm fine here, thanks."

"Now."

"Why?"

"We're going to the Room of Requirement. Get up."

"Oh, Pansy, that's — We don't need —" she stutters.

"Yes, we do. Whatever else you want to believe about Draco, go ahead. But I won't have you doubting that he's risking his life for you. That's not happening."

Pansy grabs her by the wrist and drags her off the bed. She doesn't let go until they're in the hallway outside the common room.

She doesn't want to think about it, she doesn't want to go to the Room of Requirement and witness Draco's grand gesture. Despite what she said, she really doesn't think it was a lie, but seeing it… She refuses to be moved by it. She refuses to allow her feelings for and about Draco to cloud her judgement once again.

Because Pansy might be right. She might cave. She might forgive him and take him back and let him do or say anything he wants. That hasn't changed.

Not yet.

It will. She just needs time, separation, space in her head to focus on other things.

Things that matter, like helping Harry and fighting Voldemort and exams.

Theo stands next to Neville in front of the broken vanishing cabinet. More than broken. Demolished. Eviscerated. Gone.

"Huh," Neville says. "It really is gone."

"Yeah."

"No one can get in. The castle is safe." Neville says this like it's a mantra, something to remind himself of. "I was worried, you know."

"I know," Theo says.

"More than that," Neville tells him quietly, staring reverently at the pile of cabinet shards. "More than I let on, I think. I just kept picturing it. Bellatrix Lestrange walking the halls, torturing first years. Professors dying trying to fight them off. I couldn't stop thinking about it, especially at night."

"Oh," Theo says. "I wish you told me that. I mean, I knew, a little bit. But I didn't realise…"

He lets his voice trail off. He wonders, not for the first time, at how adept Neville is at keeping his worries to himself. He's always so strong and supportive, never expecting the same type of care in return.

"I didn't want it to get in the way," Neville says, shrugging. "We needed to come up with a plan without feelings taking control. And anyway, you were right about giving Draco a chance. Look what he did." Neville gestures to the pile.

"Yeah," Theo says. "You still could have told me. I don't want you to feel like I don't care about how you feel. Or like I won't be able to handle it if you tell me things, even the harder stuff."

Neville's quiet for a moment, thinking it over. "It's not that," he says. "I know you can handle things and that you care. But, well. I guess I'm not used to talking about it. I mean, if I made a big deal out of everything I worry about, we'd never get anything else done."

Theo frowns at the pile of rubble. "Okay," he says slowly, "but if you do want to talk…"

"Okay," Neville says. "I can try to share more."

Theo nods, casting a somewhat forced smile at Neville. Somehow, he feels like he's still the one being taken care of, even when he purposefully tried to make it the other way.

"Anyway, do you want to look around? Or something?" Neville asks, changing the topic conspicuously.

"Right. Yeah, let's do that."

The two of them wander up and down the aisles of the Room of Hidden Things. They stop every so often to carefully examine things that look old or shiny or valuable — anything with similar energy to the cup and the crown and the sword.

Nothing has a founder's symbol on it, nor does anything do anything weird when they touch it.

They flip through a few books, but they don't find anything more interesting than 300-year-old textbooks, a box of diaries that belonged to a girl who was a third-year in the 1920's, and quite a few pornographic magazines. Somehow he'd gotten it into his head that this was a room full of hidden treasures, but Theo shouldn't have been surprised at the mundanity of things people wanted to hide.

"What are we looking for again?" Neville asks after a while.

Theo sighs, and pushes aside the pile of letters he's been perusing — love letters between a pureblood from the 17th century and a muggleborn. Fascinating perhaps, some other time. But useless, currently.

"Anything useful," he says. "I don't know."

"I'm not sure we'll find anything," Neville says gently. "And even if there was something useful in here," he gestures around the vast room. "We could look for weeks and still not find it."

"I know," Theo admits. "I was hoping that something would spark… something. A memory, or a vision, or whatever."

"But nothing has?"

Theo shakes his head. "This was probably a dumb idea. We can just go."

"It was worth a shot," Neville says, setting down the book he was looking at, getting to his feet. He reaches out a hand for Theo. He takes it, and lets him help him up.

"Thanks for coming with me," he says, gripping Neville's hand tightly and pressing a kiss against his lips.

He pulls him closer, letting the contents of the Room and his disappointment at their failure disappear as he deepens the kiss. Theo treads his fingers through Neville's hair and flicks his tongue across his lips, thinking that if he can't do anything real to take care of Neville, he's damn well going to show his appreciation for the care that he himself receives.

"You're welcome," Neville grins when they pull apart. "Sorry we didn't find anything."

"Me too," Theo says, and they wander towards the exit.

They're just a few feet from the door when it opens.

"Hermione? Pansy?"

"Theo? Neville? Were you in here?" she asks stupidly.

"Um?" Neville says. "Yes?"

Theo nods and Pansy rolls her eyes.

"Do we need to stand in the doorway or can we come in?" Pansy asks.

Theo and Neville step back from the door and Hermione steps forward, Pansy behind her, and they close the door.

"What are you guys doing here?" Theo asks.

"Granger needs to see the cabinet in person," Pansy tells him. "What are you guys doing here? Or do I want to know?"

"We were, uh, looking for clues," Theo says vaguely.

"Ah, intrigue," Pansy says airily. "Well, we do have things to see, so." She starts walking away, still dragging Hermione by the wrist.

"Clues?" Hermione asks, pressing her feet firmly against the floor. She will not be dragged around any further today.

"Just about some weird things that happened," Theo doesn't explain. "But we were leaving anyway, so we'll just…" He steps towards the door.

"What weird things?" Hermione presses. If weird things are happening to Theo, it could affect her, couldn't it? After what happened at the start of the year, she's felt the two of them have to be linked in some way, and whatever else has been distracting her, that's still vitally important.

Theo shoots a questioning glance at Neville, who shrugs. "Hermione might be able to help," Neville says.

Theo nods slowly, three times. Pansy huffs impatiently.

"So," Theo says, "I keep having these weird… interactions with objects related to the Hogwarts founders."

Hermione frowns. That is not what she was expecting to hear. But founder's objects…

"Like, I had a couple of crystal visions and some dreams about the sword of Gryffindor," Theo says.

"Crystal visions?" Hermione asks, voice skeptical. Perhaps this is nothing, after all.

"Yeah. And another crystal vision about this Ravenclaw crown thing. Which is in this room, by the way."

"In this room? Right now?" Hermione's voice rises sharply.

"Yeah, it's over that way," Neville says, pointing as he takes over. "Don't touch it. It put Theo in a weird trance thing."

Hermione sucks her lip into her mouth and bites down.

"It was fucking creepy," Theo says. "And I heard something about Hufflepuff's cup too, around the same time as this other stuff. You — you look like this means something to you?"

Hermione realises belatedly that she's practically bouncing up and down, she's vibrating with so much energy.

The Horcruxes. Harry said Dumbledore told him they were likely to be founder's objects. The sword of Gryffindor isn't one, but Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's cup, and a previously unknown object belonging to another founder, probably Ravenclaw — along with the diary, the ring, and the snake. Seven in total, including Voldemort himself, according to the memory Harry retrieved from Slughorn a few days ago and what Dumbledore told him.

"Yes," she whispers. "Yes, that means something to me."

Silence settles over the room as Hermione and Theo stare at each other. Theo looks like he's poised to ask the obvious question, just opening his mouth, when Pansy sighs dramatically.

Hermione glares at her. Pansy purses her lips. She suspects if she takes one more second to start speaking Pansy will start tapping her foot.

"I can't say what," she says. "But I'm going to tell Harry about the crown. And he's seeing Dumbledore tonight, so he'll tell him. It's… really important. I can't believe — it's really right here in the Room? It's been in the castle the whole time?"

"What whole time?" Theo asks. "What does it mean?"

His eyes burn with curiosity and Hermione almost wants to tell him about the horcruxes, if only to assuage the intense curiosity she recognises as so similar to her own.

"It's not up to me to say," she tries to explain. "But it's good. It's really good that it's here. Brilliant, actually. Assuming the cabinet is really gone." She pauses for a moment, as a thought occurs to her. "I wonder if that's why…" Why Voldemort wanted to get into the castle so badly –– to protect or move his horcrux. She shakes her head. "Sorry, Theo."

Theo nods, his expression a bit flat and pinched with disappointment. "Well," he says, "I guess we will go for real now."

Theo and Neville begin to turn towards the door when it bursts open.

"Does this door never fucking lock?" Theo barks.

Hermione's gaze snaps to the newcomer and her breath catches. It's Draco.

It only takes her a second to notice him clutching his arm, and another second after that to process what that means.

Draco is being summoned.