35. The Battle Call
Harry Potter was not an indoor person, Astoria decided when summer turned into autumn with cold rain and harsh winds. After just one week where Harry couldn't enjoy the outside, he became as snappish as a hungry snake with a toothache, and much more dangerous. She wasn't entirely certain if his bad mood came from not being able to be outside or not being able to be as physically active as he obviously preferred. Because she knew that he did run or at least took a walk outside every day, no matter the weather, and used the duelling room with his cards, she tended to think it was because he couldn't be outside, more than the fact that he couldn't be physically active. Because the man decidedly was physically active.
Nevertheless, after weeks of bad weather and an even worse temper from Harry, she decided that a two-pronged attack was the best, before someone got cursed or killed, and moved their tea from their usual parlour to the big conservatory that was built directly up against the Manor.
She eyed Harry while the man slowly took in the gigantic space, filled with green plants, trees, flowers and even birds and butterflies. In the middle of a lawn there was a smallish table and four cushioned chairs.
"Extension Charm?" Harry asked after a few moments, watching a red and black bird in a tree.
"Yes," Astoria answered.
"Is that a brook I hear?"
Astoria smiled. "Yes, there is a small pool there too, with some fish. It's not big enough to swim in, though."
"I truly love magic." He looked up at the glass roof high above their heads, with grey skies filled with rain, and then he closed his eyes. "I don't like crowded or small places anymore," he admitted in a whisper. "I know the Manor's rooms are far from small, but I spent most of the war in a tent in the woods. The last place I lived, before this, was in an abandoned factory. I used a corner of a cavernous and completely empty room."
"I see," she whispered back. "We will take our tea here, from now on, and you are very welcome to spend as much time as you want in here, if it helps you at all."
"Thanks."
She wasn't sure if she imagined his shoulders relaxing or not.
"Come, the tea is served."
They joined their husbands at the table. The Dark Lord and Harry exchanged a nod, as usual. Voldemort filled and prepared Harry's cup and gave it to him. That was not usual, but it had happened before.
"Thanks." Harry sipped at his tea without any hesitation or animosity at all, before he took a scone from the plate Draco handed him.
"I have been thinking …" Astoria began, eyeing Harry.
"That sounds dangerous," Harry said without missing a beat.
The Dark Lord made a sound that Astoria would have categorised as a snort, if it had come from anyone else.
No, who was she kidding. Harry had made the Dark Lord snort.
"No, Harry, it is only you who are dangerous when you begin to think," the Dark Lord said affably.
"Tsk, says you." Harry waved it away, in the manner only he, as the Dark Lord's husband, could get away with. Astoria wondered if he realised that or not. "I'm sorry, Astoria, you were saying?"
"I have been thinking about enlarging the conservatory a bit more and installing a pool, one big enough to swim in. Do you believe we know anyone who could do that, and that would have some enjoyment of using such a pool?"
That was the second part of her plan to get Harry out of his dangerous mood. He used everything from some hours to a day each week in Diagon Alley to build houses, furnish apartments and decorate, and he had already made some changes in the wing where he and the Dark Lord lived, so she knew that he liked such work. Even in his new, generally foul mood, he could smile on the days where he could build and create.
Those green eyes grew wide. "I would absolutely love to do that! May I make a beach too?"
"Of course."
Harry grinned, already making plans in his head, she was certain. "I will begin right after tea. Should I make a new space beside the conservatory, or should I enlarge the charm you already have?"
"I would not try to enlarge the previously set charm," the Dark Lord said, before Astoria managed to open her mouth and admit that she didn't know. "Unless you know something I do not, you will not be able to expand the Extension Charm further and you will risk it collapsing the already enlarged space. Build a small conservatory next to this and enlarge that. And please, make certain that you know what you are doing prior to making that pool."
"Of course."
They continued talking and making plans, and before they left the table Harry and Draco agreed on trying out their brooms on the Quidditch pitch as soon as the wind and rain let up just a little, as it had been almost storming the last two days.
"Harry, it is a Break Day today. Would you still like a break?" the Dark Lord asked as he got to his feet.
That had been happening two times a week for weeks now, and Astoria found the question and the wording to be practically formalised. Even if Harry always answered in the affirmative, the Dark Lord made sure to remind him that it was a Break Day around tea and always carefully asked if Harry wanted a break or not. Probably because it was so much in that situation that Harry couldn't decide for himself.
She and Draco had seen Harry on his breaks at least once a week since that first time. It was almost like seeing another man. She couldn't deny that she liked seeing that side of him and that she hoped that he one day would be able to be that relaxed without outside influence.
Harry froze for a moment where he sat, while the rest of them stood around the table.
"You are, as always, free to refuse," the Dark Lord added.
"I'm still worried that I will become addicted," Harry admitted.
Astoria hesitated and looked at her Lord who saw her glance and nodded at her.
"The end of the war is just a few months back, Harry," Astoria said. "It will take time, for you and for everyone else, to realise that it truly has ended, and be able to move on. Time and work. At some point you will be able to relax in your everyday life. So even if you become addicted to that special kind of calm, in time, you won't need it as much as you do now.
"Look at it like you look at the use of the Dreamless Sleep potion or the milder sleep potion. Right now, you need it to sleep, to get through the night and function in the day. In a few months, maybe you only need it now and again, and in a year, maybe not at all. This situation is extreme, all around. That does not signify that it will always be that way."
Harry looked at her with a small smile. "It shows that you went for the Mind Healer studies."
She sniffed. "I should certainly hope so, with all the work I put down. And I haven't given up working on curse breaking, I only decided to put it on hold because Mind Healers are very much needed."
He nodded. "Good choice." He looked away before looking at the Dark Lord. "Yes, please, I would like a break today. After dinner?"
"After dinner." The Dark Lord nodded at Harry and left.
Even if Astoria and Draco had gotten to their feet when the Dark Lord did, they didn't bow. Probably because Harry had used the weeks since they came to the agreement, reminding them that they didn't have to, every time they did bow. And he wasn't nice about it either. Even now, those green eyes shone with a teasing glint.
"Yes, yes, we don't need to rise when our Lord does. We know," Astoria met the green eyes and rolled hers.
He snorted and she knew she was free to continue, so she did.
"Now, get up and go get started with the pool. Shoo!" She flapped her hands at him in a shoo-ing motion and he got up with half a laugh. Already it seemed like her plan worked. She was a genius.
"Yes, my Lady!" He disappeared into the trees.
Draco put a hand on her arm, and she turned to see his worried silver eyes.
"Be careful, please," he whispered.
She put her hand on top of his. "I am, I promise. I have noticed that he does like banter and some kind of bickering, in the right situations. And that he isn't one to stand on ceremony, not one to enjoy stiff words and bowing and not one to choose his words with exquisite care. That just isn't him, and I think it's better if he has someone that can respond in kind. Other than the Dark Lord."
It was still so strange, almost shocking, to hear when those two began bandying words around. But it was good too, to know that Harry felt safe enough and comfortable enough with the Dark Lord to do so.
One should be that safe with one's husband, Astoria thought and looked at her own husband with a small smile.
"Besides, I find it fun," she admitted. "I have never had a friendship where we … communicated … like that. I'm not certain I can call us friends yet, but I do hope we will be, Draco, I do hope that. Because I think that having Harry as a friend would be great fun and … well, probably quite educational too."
"As long as you know what you are doing," Draco said.
"I'm careful and don't push more than I think Harry is comfortable with, on any given day. We are all … not as strong and stable as we should be; as we one day will be."
And I always know what I'm doing, she added silently while she heard Harry finally move out of hearing range.
XXXXX
Astoria was just about to cut into her juicy dinner steak when she felt the wards around the property quiver as someone ran through them. Someone that was allowed on the property, but running … She put down her knife and fork and began to turn towards the Dark Lord when Harry got to his feet across from her and turned halfway towards the door, his face a mask and his wand at the ready. The Dark Lord followed suit, wand at the ready and his magic flowing from him in invisible, dark waves.
"Incoming," Harry hissed, not taking his eyes from the door.
Astoria and Draco got to their feet and Astoria pushed her magic to close down the estate completely. Now, no one could arrive or leave without her permission.
They heard the double doors to the outside being slammed open and then running feet, an all-out sprint. Someone shouted through the house:
"Elf; the Dark Lord, get me to the Dark Lord!"
A pop later and Prim arrived with Germain Bandini, his robes askew, ripped and bloodied, his face ashen and his dark eyes wild. He almost crashed to the floor in front of the Dark Lord, breathing hard.
"Report," the Dark Lord said icily.
"Attack on the tent camp outside of Hogsmeade, my Lord. On the builders and the new residents; families! They went straight for the children!" Bandini looked up at their Lord and the fear and hatred, the despair, in his face made Astoria queasy. "I believe I was the only one there with free access to Malfoy Manor, but I'm also one of the best fighters." He whimpered at the thought of having left a fight where his expertise might have been crucial.
A shimmering mist coalesced in front of Harry and the magnificent stag that was Harry's Patronus tossed its head and stood still.
"Badger, attack on Hogsmeade. Likely the child-murderers. Bring everyone you safely can, as fast as you can."
The Patronus hadn't left before a new one stood in front of Harry, awaiting its orders. Astoria cast a look at the Dark Lord, he didn't seem inclined to interfere with Harry.
"Dragon, attack on Hogsmeade. Likely the child-murderers. Assistance appreciated. Valar Morghulis."
Harry turned to the Dark Lord. His green eyes were shining eerily and Astoria was sure that the moment he let down his shields, his magic would storm through the room and drag everyone with him.
"Astoria, when we have gathered …" the Dark Lord began, only to have Harry take a step closer to him and interrupt.
"I married you so that the attacks on children would be stopped," Harry stated calmly, far too calmly. "That was the only reason. Adults are free to exterminate each other as they please. I do not care. Children are innocents and to be protected. I want this command."
Astoria had never seen Harry like this. Not while he had been at Malfoy Manor, and probably not in battle either, because she believed his annoyance when he had told her he never got to lead, or even much of a say, in the battleplans during the war. She didn't know if he truly knew how to lead, but she had enough faith in him to realise that he wouldn't ask for a command that was this important, if he didn't know how to do it. Or ask … she wasn't entirely certain she could call what he had done for asking …
The Dark Lord looked at Astoria and she realised that he actually wanted her opinion on this, because she was the one that most often led his forces into battle, if the Dark Lord had other business or wanted to split his forces. Or if he wanted to go in on his own, as he sometimes did, to her everlasting frustration. She couldn't protect her Lord if she didn't know where he was!
Astoria bowed towards Harry, ceding her right to command to him. As she should. He was the Dark Lord's husband, his equal, after all.
"The command is yours," the Dark Lord told Harry, and made no other comment on Harry's words.
Astoria herself felt just a bit aghast. If Harry hadn't got to know about the group, or groups, that targeted children on the same day that he had gotten the offer of a peace treaty and marriage, the war would still be raging. Harry had never stated it before, had never hinted at it at all, but she believed him. If not for this group and their horrible, despicable doings, the magical world would still be at war, because Harry didn't care about what adults did to each other.
"We will capture if we can," Harry said, "but if the choice is that they escape or we kill them, then there will be no mercy."
"It is your command, Harry, and I agree that it is better that we kill them, than that they escape and get to try yet again. Astoria, lower the wards and give me your arm." The Dark Lord held out a hand towards her, and she bared her Dark Mark and held out her arm the moment after she had lowered the wards to let people enter. A moment later a sharp blaze of pain scorched through her body and ebbed into pleasure before it disappeared.
While that happened Harry told Bandini to return to the fight and defend all he could, before he got Dobby to fetch him a beaded handbag. When the elf gave him the bag, Harry hesitated for just a moment before meeting those huge, yellow-green eyes.
"Dobby, I want you to get all the elves at Malfoy Manor that would be willing to go into a battle to save the children that are being targeted. Understand; no one is asked to do anything they don't want to do, because it will be very dangerous and you will basically be kidnapping children on my command, but still … ask them if they are willing. We need to get those children out."
"Dobby will be doing that at once, Master Harry! And Dobby be volunteering to help Master Harry save children!" He popped away.
Harry met Astoria's gaze with steel in those green eyes. "I won't be ordering them into the fray, but neither will I ask you for permission to save children in any way possible, even if that will cost you, us, elves."
"Of course not, my Lord." Astoria bowed from the neck. "If I had thought about it, I would have asked the Manor's elves myself. They have the right to decide what they are willing to sacrifice their lives for."
Harry gave her a nod before he began dragging things out of the beaded bag. She saw him strap two holstered wands onto a wrist and an ankle before she realised that she had to change too.
"Prim, please get our fighting gear, no masks." Harry really didn't like those masks, which she could understand all too easily. While she did like them, and appreciated the safety the mask with its runes gave her face, it was more important to give Harry the opportunity to see those around him.
She got out of her shoes, her expensive and inconvenient jewellery and her long, dress-like robe that had no place in a fight. As always she stopped caring about modesty the moment she knew she had to fight, even if that left her in her undergarments for all to see. Granted, her underwear was covered by a grey, almost knee long dress with small sleeves, but there was no doubt about the fact that the dress was an undergarment. Draco began changing too, and Prim gave them their boots and robes and cloaks and extra wands in holsters when they were ready for them, so when Harry was done changing, Astoria had only to stash her Healing gear and potions in her deep pockets and Draco had to put away his knives, before they were completely ready.
The Dark Lord had transfigured his usual robes to dark green fighting robes and that was most likely all he felt he needed. He had always been invincible in a fight and in the last few months he had become even better, even faster and with an even bigger repertoire of spells. Besides, she was quite certain that he had his own hidden defences that she knew nothing about.
Harry turned towards them, his magnificent, warded robe flashing once with power while he closed all the small, warded buttons with a movement of two fingers up his chest, hiding his protective amulets underneath. He stuck his hand down into the beaded bag again and dragged up a short sword in a scabbard that fastened itself to his back when he swung it over his shoulder. His shining green eyes held a new kind of light, a wild light, and then his power suddenly pounded through her. Wild, yes. Feral and ferocious, raging and utterly glorious. She gritted her teeth; it was all she could do not to embarrass herself by moaning. Beside her Draco gave a small gasp.
"Astoria, would you like to play with fire with me?" Harry's voice was different now, it held an ethereal sound, from deep grottos and silent groves, and it came in a sing-song croon.
Astoria met his green gaze, felt his power swirl around her, and knew that he had stopped fighting his rage and violence, he had stopped trying to keep himself in check. He was one small step away from true insanity, and she wanted nothing more than to smile at him, smile and yield to his every wish.
The kind of power that now was flowing around him was truly intoxicating and dangerously addictive. She wondered if she would have reacted the same way to the Dark Lord's power, if he didn't have most of it unleashed all the time. She wondered if she ever would get used to Harry's power, if he would ever stop shielding it.
"What would that entail, my Lord?" she asked, as steadily as she could. She thought she managed fairly well. "My Mother always told me not to play with unknown magics."
"She sounds like a smart woman," Harry said, still with that sing-song croon. "I have a rune array that will make it possible for three additional people to use the Fiendfyre I cast; we will make a net of it. I'm the caster and control it, no one can lose control over the curse, but me. To dissolve the fire, you let go of your wand for a moment, that's all, and your part of the fire will be gone, without any possibility to return. That's the failsafe. Setting up anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards will take too much time. Scaring the shite out of the bastards might make them forget for a moment that they can get away, and we might get to them."
Astoria nodded, but she had to be absolutely certain that she understood it right, because she knew that she wasn't capable of controlling the Fiendfyre Curse herself. "There is no chance for me to lose control of the curse and doom us all? All I have to do is let go of my wand for a second, and the fire will disappear?"
"Yes, I have the ultimate control of the curse, and I will cast it, all you have to do is to form and lead it."
"Then I very much want to play with fire with you, my Lord." She gave a shallow bow.
"You truly did "mess about" quite a bit with that curse, did you not, Harry?" the Dark Lord asked, his ruby eyes gleaming hungrily.
"Quite," Harry said with a nod towards his husband, turned on his heel and stalked out of the dining room. "Where are the rest of your forces called to?" he asked, drew his wand, turned the tip into a very thin and sharp knife, pulled up the sleeve on his left arm and began slicing up his arm.
"Harry?!"
Astoria was fairly certain she heard both fear and outrage in the Dark Lords voice when he saw what his husband did. Harry turned towards him and gave a maniacal grin.
"What? Don't come here and tell me you never tried out blood-runes? They work a right treat." Then he continued to cut into his own arm with fast but precise movements, while still walking.
The idiot.
"Besides, if anyone tries to harvest the blood to use it against me, it will burn about as badly as Fiendfyre, just not as fast. Hermi made sure of that failsafe on all the blood-rune arrays we made."
All of the arrays, Astoria thought, a bit dazed while she followed her two Lords, all of them. As in several. Maybe many.
She had never tried to work with blood-runes, they were too dangerous, too powerful, and simply too easy to make fatal mistakes with for her liking. They were also labelled as Dark, almost as Dark as Necromancy, and had been outlawed in Britain for just about two centuries. And here was Harry Potter, the Light's Golden Boy, the Saviour of the Wizarding World, openly admitting to not only using blood-runes, but making new arrays with them, and apparently combining them with curses.
Harry continued on down the hallway with dripping behind him as he cut into his own flesh. Heeding his warning, she took care not to step in his blood, just in case it could burn right through her boots.
Silently, Astoria followed in her two Lord's wake. The war was over, but now there had been yet another call to battle and she would never shy away from her duty to her Lords or to her people.
A/N:
I'm now trying to find suitable endearments for Voldemort and Harry to use on each other. They sometimes use "husband mine", but I want something else for when the time is right. Harry abhors general endearments like dear, darling, love, sweetheart, honey and similar, and I don't feel that anything like that will suit either of them. Do any of you have any suggestions to suitable endearments to both or either of them?
Thank you so much for the comments, the favs and the follows! Seeing that you like the fic makes my so happy and knowing that someone reads it and are looking forwards to more, helps me through though parts of the story. Some chapters put up a fight. I love to hear what you think about the story and the characters! Each and every comment makes me smile!
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