(Revised on the 10.08.2020)
Chapter 7: Meet the wrong Sentence
Unplottable location (Riddle's manor, Little Hangleton), 1996
"How was Russia, my dear cousin?" asked Lucius with a sneer on his face.
The question was asked so boldly that he could have been a Gryffindor, thought Harry, or maybe he was just a good follower obeying his master's bidding. Harry kept back a scoff, he couldn't understand why they would follow an insane monster? Compared to Voldemort, Thomas was regal, a great leader who still listened to his follower, but always made the right choices for their cause; he was the epitome of a Lord. Honestly, the death eaters needed glasses if they thought that Harry's beloved leader was less than Voldemort.
"Great!" cheerfully replied Lucian with sparkling blue eyes, which were the same color as Malfoy senior, but the fact that he had more emotions than the elder prick really made the difference. "It was so fun! Actually, we only visit it when we have free time or need to go there, we all live in England! Ouch! Trixy!" The blond boy glared at the dark-haired girl who glared back.
Harry discreetly winced, this was exactly why Lucian could never be Thomas' s right hand. He always got cocky and managed to let out important (but not really that important) information. It was one of the reasons why Trixy was always paired with Lucian, she always used any means available to stop the idiot for giving away medium-important information
"Why did you visit Russia so often?" promptly asked Rabastan Lestrange, his eyes were focused on his niece who smiled tightly.
"Hogwarts would have been too dangerous for me, what with my family name, and my resemblance to my mother. It is the reason why I go to Durmstrang, at least they teach us the Dark Arts there." answered Trixy with her chin up.
The Lestrange family looked with varied interest at their heiress, they all went to Hogwarts, and to them, it must have been it was a little sad that their girl didn't go to their school. But self-preservation was more important, of course, and the daughter of the House of Lestrange was right, without her family, it was a necessity that she learned the dark-arts any way she could.
"So, if we don't count Potter, you all went to Durmstrang?" asked the Nott heir.
"No, I know that Lucian goes to Beaubaton. " Answered Draco, before turning his eyes on the happy looking blond. "But I didn't know you lived in England, you could have visited me more often."
"Sorry cousin, but I would have disobeyed the Prince's order, it was too risky." The insincere smile on his face told them all another story.
"So why did you went more to Russia?" Continued Malfoy, Harry hoped that Lucian wasn't going to say something stupid or worse the truth.
"Ah... Well, we loved to visit our little Trixy who spent too much time there. Also, Vlad works there, and Rosey-posey too" Here Rosier glared at their blond friend, his cheeks going pink. "lives there. Instead of the three of them moving, we all have international portkeys to join each other in Russia, the Bonnefoi coffer has its use." he winked. "Or we use the floo." Or we use the floo."
"You liar. You always go dancing with Evans! I know you only come for the Vodka, and what did you say last week?" exposed Rosier.
Harry's cheeks also turned a shameful shade of pink, and he hoped that Trixy would keep her temper in check. Of course, she failed to understand the embarrassing mood he was feeling.
"That's right!" her screech was similar to her mother's. "His words were 'I love Russia! Love your Icevodka! Love your B*****!' It was so embarrassing! How could, Lucian? You said that right to one of my schoolmates! Do you know how she looked at me after that! Seriously, if you could think before you talk, the amount of work we have to do will lessen."
"Hey, that wasn't my fault! I was drinking and partying. I'm not some uncouth mudblood who gets drunk before the evening." sneered Lucian. "I didn't drink for seven months in France, the last drink I got was at the Malfoy New Year party. The fact that I listened to Evans when he told me to wait for all of us to be back was an exploit in itself. You were the one who changed the plans and asked us to come there instead of meeting at the orphanage!"
"You blubbering idiot. It was the initial plan! If you actually listened when we make plans, you'd remember that Thomas said that we weren't going to Russia the week after because of the Dark Lord's meeting week."
Their annoying spat was getting useless, thankfully a single cough from Thomas shut them both up. They gave him a small sheepish smile knowing that they would be scolded afterward, but they went back to their solemn position.
Both factions were silent for one second before Antonin Dolohov decided to question his younger brother, something he did only after his Lord glanced at him.
"So, what do you do in Russia?"
"I spend my time in our manor, doing the paperwork. I had to hide there. I'm a famous mind-healer." Answered the oldest man of Thomas' group. His voice always had a sleepy weary tone.
It was actually his normal tone, the man always felt tired and had pronounced dark circles. Dolohov junior always drank coffee as if it was water, it helped him taking care of his affairs and babysitting the gang. Though the severe case of insomnia he had wasn't helping. "I give some lessons to Trixy, here, she wants to become a healer you see." added the curly-haired man as an afterthought while pointing to Bellatrix Lestrange.
Trixy, Rosier, Lucian, Harry, and the elder Dolohov just face-palmed.
"Elf." Called Thomas.
A cup of coffee appeared near Vladimir who took it slowly but finished it quickly; his eyes focused again on his surrounding.
"You didn't change much Vlad." Commented Antonin. Vladimir answered with a "hm" that got their group sighing.
"What do you do besides partying in Russia?" asked Snape, he spat those words as if they were a curse, his lips curling into a sneer, intensely focused on Harry.
"Well Thomas did his plotting," answered the social moth of their group, his hands on his blond locks. Their young lord had a crisped smirk on his face, and Harry felt that their leader will throttle the blond, "Trixy and Vlad studied anatomy and poison." The other two kept a blank face "Rosier played with his canary, and ate 'secretly' instead of following his strict diet." Rosier blushed again" ...and Evans was being Evans. As I did all the funny things like sport, fashion and all."
The death eaters glanced at each other. Even if the blond boy was saying a lot, his words were empty of important information. Lucius silkily pursued the conversation, their Lord needed more than that.
"Ah, what does your friend 'Evans' do? Excuse us, but we do not know him very well. So 'being Evans' has no meaning for us."
"I take care of my garden." quickly answered Harry before his blond friend did
All the death eater's eyes were on him, but Voldemort's glare was the most dangerous of them, Snape's came nearly but he couldn't win against the Dark Lord.
"Really Potter? You only take care of your garden every day. It must be quite the garden." spoke coldly Voldemort.
Harry's heartbeat picked up, his palms were feeling sweaty, and he knew that what he was feeling was different from what he felt with his prince. Voldemort may be his Thomas's father, but he was the murderer who killed Harry's parents, he killed that Hufflepuff-boy, Diggory, there were many things that Harry still couldn't accept, even he had also become some kind of monster.
"He cooks." softly and quickly said Trixy. "He has created many recipes, and makes many pastries, cakes…"
"He cleans our home too." continued Rosier before another death eater could speak up. "Loves to sweep, clean the tables, do the laundry. He's a really busy person."
"He's sweet, loves to play with the small orphans, and takes care of them. He shops for meals and takes care of many things. He's quite helpful."
Woah. Who would have thought Vlad could say so much, thought Harry.
"He also takes care of his snakes, the whole lot of them are always hiding somewhere. I swear one of them was in my closet." uselessly added Lucian.
"Potter, the perfect petite housewife." commented Snape, his dark eyes laughing at Harry, who could only glare at the Potion Professor, the laughing Slytherins, and the death eaters. A smirking Voldemort opened his lipless mouth, his burgundy eyes cruelly fixed on Harry, but he was interrupted by a cold voice.
"He is also my right-hand.".possesively snarled Thomas.
Electric blue eyes met volcanic narrowed eyes, the tension in the room was high- and Harry, who was knowledgeable about explosive temper, and quite familiar with his lover's and the insane lord's tempers, decided that he needed to intervene. Maybe the hat had been right when it sorted him in Gryffindor, for what Harry said could only have been said by a blubbering baboon.
"..."
The silence that followed the bombshell he dropped was unbelievable, many death eaters lost their masks at his statement, even Lord Voldemort was looking at Harry with a bemused face. A bemused Voldemort! Harry's face turned a lobster red, Thomas was smirking arrogantly, and Harry wished that the ground would open up and swallow him or that he had a bat to hit his lover.
Trixy was cackling madly, the sound was so similar to Bellatrix's cackle that Harry didn't know what to think about the younger girl's future. The blond idiot was laughing so hard that he fell on the ground, but Dolohov and pinked-face Rosier were also laughing! Even Nagini was laughing at him, the only one who wasn't laughing was Severus Snape, however, the man was clenching his nose and his face was praying for patience. Suddenly Harry hoped that he would either never go back to Hogwarts, or that he failed his potion OWL; how will he look his professor in the eyes after that particular blunder?
Why couldn't Harry have said something cool and cold? Heck, even a quote from a movie would have been better, at least it would have been witty or badass. Even saying 'I'm not fond of bacon' would have been better, the sentence would have been qualified as normal, even if it didn't belong in the context. So why did he confess something that should have never been said in public? Who, except for him, had ever said something like that in the presence of dangerous unknown enemies, and their future in-law? It wasn't even the truth (well, maybe a tiny bit?), he could have said anything, but why in the name of Merlin did he have to say:
"I love playing BDSM with Thomas."
(AN from 2020: What the heck did I write? I didn't see that one coming. I'm so sorry for my Harry.)
Lyra's orphanage, Surrey, 1985
The children were excited to meet their green-eyed friend. He was a wizard! At least they wouldn't have to lie to him. It was with renewed happiness that Lyra bought a delicious cake, juices, and candies. She was quite excited to inform the boy of the news, and she was so happy that her son wasn't crushing on a wimpy muggle; the good news needed a nice party. Actually, it was one of the things she missed from her childhood, her family was known for their New Year gala, however, her situation unenabled her to organize, plan parties.
After two minutes, they all heard the bell's ringing, Thomas quickly made his way to the door under the disturbed gaze of his friends who had never seen him so… excited, Lyra hid a tiny knowing smile behind her hand.
At least he fell for a half-blood, said her inner voice which sounded quite similar to her father's.
Thomas came back rapidly, his hand griping Evans' hand. Lyra nearly rolled her eyes, her son may have fallen for a half-blood as she did, however, he was as protective as his father. The shy green-eyed boy looked around at the balloons decorating the hall with confusion, of course, the grinning mischievous faces of the others didn't help. Lyra decided to take him to a corner and explain the situation.
"Hello my dear how are you?" started softly the Lady.
"I'm f-fine." quickly stuttered out the boy.
Her eyes looked sadly at the young child, the way he answered without a thought, and the way he stood spoke loudly to her. He was used to answering those three words.
"I have something of great importance to tell you." continued the Lady in a soft delicate tone, the young boy looked at her with curiosity in his jeweled look-alike eyes. " Have you ever done weird things, or did weird things happened around you?" he started to tremble but Lyra didn't touch him, he would react badly, she kept the eye-contact and continued with her soothing tone. "People disappearing or appearing out of thin air? Air colors changing in a few seconds without the need for a dye. Maybe, you've even seen people dressed in different clothes, unlike anything society accepts, colorful robes, long cloaks?" The trembling stopped, and the boy looked at her with hungry curious eyes, and Lyra continued as if she whispering a secret. "Have you ever felt something warm inside you? A small ball of energy comforting you with warmness when you feel lonely, and healing you when you feel pain. Or did this ball of energy explode when you felt angry? Ha- Evans, have you ever felt something like that? Have you ever seen unexplainable things happen?" The young boy nodded at her expectantly, he thought he was the only one who felt that. "Well, my dear, this power inside of you is called magic."
Lyra paused, watching the young one's emotions, every emotion passed on his face. He looked confused, lied to, but suddenly his eyes litted up with recognization, he wasn't a freak! He was magical! The final emotions that were on his face, were acceptance and happiness, if the Lady knew about magic, concluded the boy, she was magical too!
"-I-it meanss that I'm m-magical? And you are too?" She nodded, and the little boy hugged her.
She was frozen at first but returned his hug.
Her mind was screaming at her, she was hugging the half-blood who killed her husband. But her soul- oh Lord, her soul understood that this small child was innocent, he survived but for what? A hurtful family, they were tied by blood and they weren't treating him justly. She could not understand those despicable muggles, she who would have given everything to be blessed for children, and here they were, those dirty muggles, hurting a magical child. He was a higher being compared to them, she hugged tightly the younger child.
She decided right there, that she wouldn't tell the boy who he was. It was too soon to speak about those complicated things. They were all children, let them live in peace, this war shouldn't be their problem. Not now. She'll tell him before his eleven birthday, maybe his tenth, so he'll be ready.
After they finished their hugging session, they joined the others who were speaking about random things, and when Evans came back they spoke about the wizarding world.
"Aunt Lyra! Evans never went to Russia! He should come with us!" Said Lucian.
"Ooh! And he'll be able to meet Vlad!" Exclaimed Trixy.
"Mmmh, I do like that idea, I will first ask Vladimir if he's free, and we'll go to Russia." acquiesced easily the Lady
"Yay! You'll test some new dishes, the house-elves love to cook Russian specialties." Chirped Rosier.
"What about the Dursssleyss? They will never accept-"
"Do not worry about that dear child." interrupted Lyra. "I will take care of that."
"How are you going to that mother?"
"-Thomas, a witch never reveals her secrets." answered the Lady with mischievous twinkling eyes.
Voilà! I'll try updating tomorrow too. Thank you for the reviews. And yes, Black Shades of Red, Harry won't know about his real identity in 1985, he will of course hear the story of the boy-who-lived, but for now, he's only Evans. Mmmh, there was something that I wanted to say... arg! Maybe I'll remember for the next chapter. Well, see you in the next chapter!
