While Jax was anxious to find out it was Thea had been keeping from him all those years ago, he was also anxious. What if it was something he should have figured out?
When they went inside, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all in the kitchen. They stopped talking when Jax poked his head in.
"She's upstairs with Ginny," Ron told him.
Jax headed up the stairs, fearing that Thea would be on the top floor—that's where she had been staying anyway, but he heard voices once he reached the next floor landing.
The girls trailed off as Jax came into the room.
"I'll see you downstairs," said Ginny, heading out.
Jax sat down on the couch next to Thea. "So, what's going on?" He asked her hesitantly. How many times had he asked her that over the years? At least now, he could reasonably expect an answer—or so he had been told.
Thea was quiet for a moment. "You have to understand that I couldn't tell you before, but now...now I'm afraid that it's going to come out anyway, and I'd rather be the one to tell you—I'd rather you find out from me, so you can take precautions."
"Precautions?"
Thea stood to pace away from him.
Jax stood but didn't follow her. He was about to ask her again what was going on when she turned back towards him.
"Jax, the reason I dropped my case against Liam is because the people behind him...the people who arranged it...they threatened you and your family," Thea told him.
Jax could only stare at her. They had threatened him? How had he missed that?
"They made me swear not to tell, and I was afraid they would hurt you or your parents if I said anything."
She was afraid they would hurt him or his parents. "So, this whole time...when I thought I was protecting you..." Jax frowned. "...you were protecting me?"
Thea sighed and sat down next to him. "I only let you get away with all that protective stuff because I knew it made you feel better."
Jax shook his head. She would have known. "You shouldn't have dropped it. We could have worked it out."
"No, we couldn't have."
Jax stood spun away from her. There had to be something that he could have done, some way he could have helped if she had just told him.
"It isn't your fault, you know," Thea said softly.
He turned to look over at her, still sitting there on the couch. She always did know too much-even before she had learned how to read minds.
"I made a choice," she continued, "your life over getting justice, and I would do it again."
Jax sank back down onto the couch, his shoulders sagging a bit in defeat. "It's not fair," he told her.
Thea sighed. "Of course, it's not fair, but that doesn't change anything." She put a comforting hand on his arm. "What's done is done. I can't get justice for my parents' murders, but I can stop Liam from killing more house-elves-so that's what I'm going to do."
Jax straightened and met her gaze. "Who threatened you?"
Thea shook her head. "I can't tell you that."
"Things are different now," Jax insisted. Though what was different, he didn't know. They were adults now instead of just kids, but somehow, he didn't think that Thea would see it that way.
"No, they aren't," Thea told him. "The only thing different is that now you know why I can't tell you."
A few moments later, Jax and Thea headed back downstairs to join the others at the kitchen table. The others all stopped talking when they came in, and Harry focused on Thea once she and Jax had joined them at the table. "So, what do you want to do?"
Thea shrugged. "I think you should be asking Jax that, but personally, I think he should stay here."
"Don't I get a say in this?" Jax asked her. The idea of being stuck at Grimmauld Place with Thea was only marginally better than being stuck in a hotel room, and that was because here, he wouldn't be alone.
Thea looked over at him. "Of course, you do. But I can't do anything unless I know you're safe. I would have been happy if none of this ever had to come up, but if what's happening now is connected to what happened before, then we need to do something, but we can't unless you stay here because they'll go after you." She turned toward Harry. "The fact is that everyone needs to take precautions. If they can't get to Jax, they'll go after anyone who they think might get to me."
"Why would you care if anything happened to any of us?" Ron asked.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous," she said. "Of course she cares about what happens to us."
"It's true," Thea said softly. "The fact is, if this is connected, they'll try to draw me out at some point. And when that time comes, maybe we should consider letting them."
Consider letting them? What, was she crazy? Jax turned towards her. "Why on earth would we do that?"
"Because they need me alive," said Thea. "I don't know why or what for, but I know that it's true...they've essentially told me as much. Letting them find me might be the best way to figure out what they're up to, figure out what their end game is, and then we can stop them. Besides, we aren't even there yet. I just know that some of us," she looked pointedly at Jax as she said it, "are going to need some time to come to terms with the idea."
"And what about the passes?" Hermione asked. "I suppose you've given up on them?"
Thea shook her head. "Of course not." She stood and went to the counter to retrieve a vial. "I'm ready to go whenever you are," she told George, who stood to go with her.
"Well, hang on just a minute," said Jax. "You still haven't told us anything about what happened back then."
"Because I can't tell you," Thea told him.
Jax rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, they'll kill me, but we've already established that I'm staying here, so how exactly are they going to kill me then?"
Thea sighed and sat back down in her seat, focusing on Jax. "I can't tell you because there's a taboo of sorts on the information."
"Of sorts?"
Thea turned toward Harry to answer his question. "It's not the same as the taboo from the war but similar. Like that taboo, it will wipe out protective spells, but they also have a means of tracking me." She lifted up her pant leg to reveal a small rune.
Jax opened his mouth to translate it, but Thea shook her head.
"I'm pretty sure if you say it, it will activate it—it's a tracking rune."
Jax sat back, examining the rune but also thinking back. There were so many things that hadn't made sense back then but that were starting to make sense now. "This is why you took Ancient Runes," he said softly. "You never liked the class—I could tell from your bored expression during Professor Babbling's lectures. You were more interested in exploring the text on your own—you wanted to know what this meant. You could have just asked," he pointed out. Ancient Runes had been his best and favourite subject at Hogwarts. He would have gladly helped her if she had just asked.
"That would have involved me telling you what was going on, and I couldn't, remember?" Thea dropped her pant leg.
Jax conceded the point, but he started considering all of the other choices she had made back then. "You knew. You knew that something was going to happen—it's why all those long nights and weekends in classrooms practising spells, making potions—and practising legilimency."
Thea nodded. "The person in charge of this is a legilmens—I was just trying to even the odds."
"And Christmas...our fourth year," Jax continued. It had to be. "That has to be when they threatened you...threatened me," he corrected. "Although, I don't know how they could have gotten to you without me knowing about it."
"Your mother had called you in for something, so I was outside alone—it was just for a few minutes, but it was enough."
"You've been preparing for this for eight years," said George, looking over at her almost admiringly. "And we've been running around trying to protect you when you were very clear that you wanted help, not protection."
Jax looked from Thea to George and back again. Something had happened—he was sure of it. The way George was looking at her wouldn't have concerned him, but Thea was looking back. The last time Thea had let a guy in in any sort of romantic fashion had been when she had dated Liam. The last thing he wanted was for her to get hurt again.
"We should probably get going," George continued, eyeing him warily. "They'll be waiting for me at the ministry."
Thea nodded, and everyone began to disperse, leaving Jax alone with Ginny.
"It's not your fault, you know," Ginny told him once they had all left.
Jax shook his head. "I should have figured it out."
"How?" Ginny demanded. "She didn't need someone to figure it out eight years ago-she just needed someone to believe her. I think that if you had figured it out back then, it would have made things worse for her."
Jax was quiet for a moment. She was right. How would she have reacted back then? Would it have broken her completely knowing that he could have been at risk for having figured it out?
Even so, he still felt some responsibility for this situation. "I should have figured it out now-after everything started again with Liam."
Ginny shook her head. "Why would you have thought of it? This isn't on you."