The burn of the mark was glorious in its pain. With no hesitation, none at all, he cracked into a new location, and found himself in a desolate foyer. The walls were done in a tacky paper that was a burden on the eyes. There was a closed door in front of him, and two voices – both of which he knew so well – drifting through it. He wondered how it was that these two men in particular had forgotten silencing spells.
"-called them just now, haven't you! When you know you're not ready yet! Don't lie to me, Tom, I can feel it every time. Ever since I was a child!"
"I have no reason to lie, as your opinion is irrelevant to the grand scheme of things anyway, Minister."
"Stop! Just – stop! Why are you doing this?"
He strained to hear, creeping closer to the door, even as he heard others appearing behind him. He cast his own wards, protecting the words – now being shouted angrily – from other death eaters that may not have had good intentions.
"Why are you rejecting me? I'm more loyal to you than any of those other tripe!"
"You, boy, are in love with me. And therefore significantly more foolish than the other tripe. Love doesn't do well with loyalty, Minister. You'd betray me in an instant if you thought it was for my own good."
"It was your bloody idea that I should even run! It was your stupid death eaters that nominated me in the first place! Stop being a retarded cunt and be happy! This is a good thing!"
He felt his cousin stepping up beside him, but hushed the woman impatiently, caught up in the conversation he was overhearing.
"It wasn't my idea! Don't give me credit for what the voices in your head tell you!"
"The voice in my head is you! It always has been! It's the part of you that sat by me as I slept when Evan was gone, and led me through the dark when I was lost, and taught me that not all change is bad, and kissed me when I was frightened, and made love to me when-"
"Enough!" The Dark Lord, for that is who the other man was, shouted. "I will not entertain this lunacy!"
"It's the reason you're alive now!" Harry, the first man, was shouting back, "Because I love that 'voice' in my head enough to help it take over the whole world. I'm not asking you to love me back. I never have. I'm not even asking you to understand why I love you, because you never will – but at least acknowledge that it's not all bad! At least know that the part of you that lives in me is just as much you as the rest of you is!"
"Hush."
"Stop dismissing me!"
"Hush now, Harry. We are not alone," The words were spoken in a tone that was oddly affectionate, and never before heard on The Dark Lord's tongue. It seemed to contradict their entire disagreement, and the tension that had been leaking into the foyer dissipated.
The door flung itself open.
Evan woke.
He woke with a start, feeling as if he had fallen back into his bed after running a marathon. He woke gasping for air, with a hand flung out beside him, clenching tightly to Lucius' arm, as the blond groggily opened his eyes to see what was the matter.
"Evan?" The Malfoy asked, mildly concerned for his companion, who was sitting up and staring with wide eyes at absolutely nothing.
"Luc?" Evan asked anxiously in return, "Recite the names for me,"
Lucius gazed coolly at Evan, his curiosity and concern rising. He reached out and pulled the man down close to him, holding him tight until he could feel his breath somewhat evening out.
"How far back would you like me to go?" He asked, petting his fingers through uncontained wiry tresses of hair.
"As far as you can," Evan encouraged, closing his eyes.
"We'll be here for weeks," Lucius responded with a somewhat proud snort. "Yours or mine?"
"Start with yours, but do mine," Evan answered, and his lover smiled, knowing that Evan was mildly fascinated with hearing how they were related.
"Draco Malfoy," Lucius began, closing his own eyes and relaxing, "Son of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy nee Black,"
He took a deep breath.
"Bellatrix Black, Narcissa Black, are we including blood traitors?"
Evan snuggled a little closer and Lucius knew that he must really be freaking out about something. They weren't exactly the most affectionate people, after all. "Just this once," He answered.
"Draco Malfoy," Lucius began again, as he couldn't do it properly with any interruption, "Son of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy nee Black.
"Bellatrix Black, Narcissa Black, and Andromeda Black, daughters of Cygnus Black and Druella Rosier."
He continued onwards, following the Rosier family back as far as it went, "Lord Thieny Rosier," He recited with a yawn, nearly forty minutes later, "Son of Lady-"
"How many generations back are we now?" Evan asked, sitting up again.
"Fifty two, and now I've lost my place. I refuse to start over again. You know I find the French ones difficult."
Evan closed his eyes and concentrated. He was probably reciting the names in his own head. After all, they both knew them. As the next heirs to their respective families either Evan or Lucius could recite the current standing of any true pureblood's lineage at any given point, especially if they were related. Which, if they were both true purebloods – they were.
"Abbot, Avery, Black, Bulstrode, Burke, Carrow, Crouch, Fawley, Flint, Gaunt, Greengrass, Lestrange, Longbottom, Macmillan, Malfoy, Nott, Ollivander, Parkinson, Prewett, Rosier, Rowle, Selwyn, Shacklebolt, Shafiq, Slughorn, Travers, Weasley, Yaxley." Evan murmured, "Not Abbot, not Avery, not Black, not Bulstrode … can't say for Burke, who knows with Carrow, not Crouch, not Fawley, not Flint, not Gaunt, not Greengrass, not Lestrange… Can't tell anything much about Longbottom, but not Macmillan, not Malfoy, not Nott," He giggled, "Maybe Ollivaner? Hm.. Maybe."
"Might I enquire as to why you seem to be doing a checklist of the sacred twenty-eight, Evan?"
Evan looked at Lucius for a moment, "If you go in alphabetic order instead of order of birth it's easier not to lose your place, you know. Not Parkinson, not Prewett, most certainly not Rosier, maybe Rowle, probably not Selwyn, I don't think even I'm related to Shacklebolt or Shafiq, so I'll skip them, but not Slughorn."
"Evan! What's going on!" Lucius demanded, sitting up himself and trying to make some sense of his companion's drivel.
"I'm trying to see if I have seer blood," He answered, "I wouldn't have enough for regular visions or I'd have noticed by now, but I've just had the sort of dream that was either insane and pointless or prophetic and very, very enlightening."
Lucius glared hard and resisted the urge to slap Evan in the face. "My mother was a seer, you imbecile!" He shouted, "You just had me recite fifty two generations of your family over that!"
Evan pouted, "I know she was, but we're related on your father's side…"
"We're related on both sides, Evan! Did you even pay attention during primary school!"
Pureblood primary school consisted mostly of learning why it was special to be a pureblood. Lucius had no idea what half-bloods did in primary school. He'd have to ask Severus someday.
Evan figured that Lucius was just being testy because this was their last day together, so he didn't argue in defense.
"Would you like to hear about the dream, or not?"
Lucius shrugged, grumpily, but Evan knew that he was interested.
"I was standing outside of a door, in a muggle house that I don't recognize. I could hear our Lord and Harry talking. They were arguing with each other, because Harry had been voted Minister without our Lord's permission. Only, Harry kept saying that it had been the Dark Lord's idea in the first place, and I was given the strong impression that they were … quite smitten with each other."
Lucius was shocked. "Smitten?" He crinkled his brow, "How so?"
Evan didn't know how to say it except to blurt it all out at once, so that's what he did, "Well … Harry said that they had kissed and had sex and the Dark Lord didn't deny it at all he just kind of acted like it didn't happen but he mentioned that Harry was in love with him and I'm sure neither of them thought the Dark Lord loved Harry back because they were both very against the idea of that but then he spoke to him so softly in that way that you speak to someone you love when you know that they have the whole world on their shoulders but basically the point is that our Lord was back in the dream and Harry wasn't afraid of him at all because they were really going tit for tat as it were but then the door opened and I had been eavesdropping on the Dark Lord himself so for all I know I've just had a vision of the moments before my own death and it's kind of freaking me out."
Lucius was too stunned to focus on the Harry and Voldemort portions of the dream, so he focused on the end. "You have a horcrux, anyway," He said, using the very same tone of voice that Evan had just described, because he loved Evan, and Evan felt like he had the world on his shoulders, "Besides, you'd adore being killed by the Dark Lord,"
Evan sighed, relaxing, "That's true," He recalled, "It would be an honor."
Lucius, personally, put his own sense of self-preservation above his services to Voldemort. Still, he understood that Evan did not, and didn't let it upset him.
"It all seems a bit ludicrous, though. The Dark Lord always said that he didn't take lovers," The blond commented. He didn't have enough time to think on the slightly guilty but slightly proud look on Evan's face, because there was a loud knock on the door.
His head snapped towards Evan, immediately recognizing the magical signature that had approached.
"You keyed my wife into your wards!" He hissed out.
"She's my second favorite cousin, Luc, of course she's keyed into the wards. It'd be rude to exclude her." Evan replied, somewhat indignantly.
"If you don't want to be rude to her, maybe you should stop sleeping with her husband," Lucius retorted.
Evan kissed him, and got up, spelling on a loosely fit pair of satin pajama pants, "I'm only ever kind to the extent that I'm not inconveniencing myself. You know that… Come in, Cissy!"
The words 'come in' sent a pulse of magic through the room, and Lucius was awestruck at the genius of the Rosier wards, before he remembered that he was still completely undressed. He supposed that Evan figured they'd all seen him naked anyway. This was one of those moments – they happened often now and would only increase their frequency in years to come – where he wondered how much simpler his life would be if Evan Rosier had remained dead.
When Narcissa stepped into the room she didn't even look at Evan. "Lucius, Draco is waiting downstairs. He's quite excited for school, and I've assured him that you haven't forgotten it's the first day." She hissed out, clearly thinking that Lucius had forgotten.
He hadn't, of course. If he didn't escort Draco – and Evan – to the platform and get there before Harry Potter went through, Evan would be stranded without Harry for the entire school year. The train itself was too heavily warded for the watch, and Hogwarts was out of the question. Thus, they were going to levitate it just so in front of the entryway, so that when young Harry went through the wall, he ran straight into the watch. Evan could handle it from there, but it meant that Draco had to be wearing the watch as he went through, to make sure the watch was at a proper position to catch around Harry's neck. This made it absolutely imperative that Draco was one of the first people through, and thus, Lucius was well focused on punctuality.
"You've got Draco keyed into your wards as well?" He asked Evan, bitterly, getting up and waving his wand to put on his own impeccable robes.
"Fourth favorite cousin," Evan explained, buttoning up his shirt manually and making his bed with magic.
"Whose third? You put Bella lower than Narcissa?"
Narcissa snorted, unable to not hear their conversation. "Don't be an idiot, Lucius," She reprimanded with a careful smile, "Bella is his first favorite cousin. You're third."
Lucius was absolutely appalled. "I thought I was first!" He looked toward Evan for confirmation and saw the man grinning manically at his wife. "Why am I third!" He demanded to know, raising his voice childishly.
"I've known him longer," Narcissa taunted, and Lucius was reminded of the first time he met Harry Potter.
"When we were children, I made an unbreakable vow that Bella and Cissy would always be my first and second favorite cousins in the whole sacred twenty-eight," Evan explained with a chuckle, "It was my first unbreakable vow. I was eight years old. Bella was quite keen on them, though. She's always trying to get people to do it."
Narcissa nodded, and Lucius was finding a strange happiness in seeing them getting along again, "Remember when she made me make an unbreakable vow never to tell Auntie Walburga that she'd kissed Regulus?"
Evan threw his head back and laughed, "Didn't matter anyway. Sirius caught them and snitched," he reminded, gleefully.
Narcissa snorted, "Right, then she tried to cast an unbreakable vow on herself swearing that she'd kill him," She rolled her eyes, "She shot a stinging hex at your bollocks when you told her they don't work that way!"
Narcissa was giggling, and Evan cast a concerned glance downwards, wincing slightly at the memory.
"I wish Bella and Rodo had the chance to have children," Evan mused, "She'd be hilarious as a mother,"
Lucius didn't think that Bellatrix Lestrange would be a good mother at all, nor did he think that 'hilarious' was a quality that mothers ought to have, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he let Evan and Narcissa have their moment, and went downstairs to make sure Draco hadn't managed to lose a limb with one of the artifacts kept in this house. He was worried for his son, and didn't like that Draco was involved in this whole Harry Potter business. Being reminded of Evan's complete unawareness about what the proper way was to treat children didn't give him any comfort.
What did comfort him was seeing his son, seated as daintily as his mother yet as sturdily as his father on a black silk chair in front of the floo. Draco looked anxious to leave, and Lucius sat beside him, and assured him that just as soon as Mummy came downstairs he'd be off to Hogwarts.
"You're not Mummy and Daddy anymore," Draco insisted, "You're Mother and Father now,"
"Oh?" Lucius asked, "Why is that?"
"Because I've grown up. I'm going to be spending the next months without my Mother and Father, not my Mummy and Daddy. I'm not an infant, Father. I'm going to be the next Slytherin Prefect."
"First years can't be prefect's, Draco," He said, not bothering to mention that his son hadn't been sorted yet – because who was he kidding?
"They'll have to make an exception for me, of course," Draco answered, as if this was obvious.
Lucius settled himself in and listened to his boy's nonsense. He was glad to hear it. He'd miss Draco while he was gone. It seemed unfair to be losing Draco and Evan at the same time, but it had to be that way. Things had to keep moving forward.
XxBxExLxOxVxExDxX
Harry was literally jumping for joy. He was bounding through his mental living room, eyes glued to the television set. In an attempt to calm himself, he was bouncing on his toes, or running this way and that, or jumping from the sofa to the living chair and back again. He was trying to kill off spare energy so that he didn't absolutely pounce on Evan the moment he saw him.
"I can't see the Tele if you aren't still," A voice reprimanded, and Harry turned to see the red eyed man leaning over the back of the couch.
Harry grinned. "Wonderful! You're here!" He exclaimed, jumping up onto the couch and then jumping off of the back of it, landing with his arms around the man's shoulders, and hanging on for dear life, although the man made no move to support Harry's weight. "You'll get to see Evan! He comes back today! Remember?"
The red eyed man hadn't seen Harry so excited before. Usually, the boy was the type to be very … eleven. He behaved in a way that was perfectly matched with his age. Not today. Today he was stuck in a world of jolliness that was more associated with a six or seven year old.
He knew that he was partly to blame for this. Twenty-eight days ago, he'd given Harry an assignment and told the boy that the task would take twenty-eight days, and that at the end of it, Evan would return. He was a man of his word. Rosier would be back today. Still, he was thinking that perhaps he should have let that be a surprise. Harry had already known roughly when his mentor would return, but not exactly, and when you give children exact facts, they tend to get a little crazy.
"Settle down some, child." The man insisted, shoving Harry off of him, "Sit down and be still. If you keep setting my nerves on edge like this, I'll go away again."
Immediately, Harry sat down on the sofa and stilled himself, smiling up at the red eyed man, who sat down beside him.
"What are the names you taught me, anyway?" He asked.
"Do you know them all?"
"Yes."
"Recite them."
Harry smiled brightly, eager to please. "Abbot, Avery, Black, Bulstrode, Burke, Carrow, Crouch, Fawley, Flint, Gaunt, Greengrass, Lestrange, Longbottom, Macmillan, Malfoy, Nott, Ollivander, Parkinson, Prewett, Rosier, Rowle, Selwyn, Shacklebolt, Shafiq, Slughorn, Travers, Weasley, Yaxley." He recited flawlessly, "I can do it backwards, too, see? Yaxley, Weasley, Travers –"
"That's quite enough, I believe you." The man interrupted. "They are surnames. The sacred twenty-eight families that are still of completely pure blood."
Harry frowned in thought, "What about blood-traitors?"
"They're still purebloods, just not the sort that's worth respect. I reserve my pity for them."
"Pity is for blood-traitors," Harry repeated, nodding his head, "Tears are for strangers. Regrets are for the damned. Deaths are for enemies. Lies are for the worthy."
"It's lives that are for the worthy," The red eyed man corrected, "Lies are for lovers."
That didn't make as much sense to Harry. "Why? Lies hurt people. Who would want to hurt their lover?"
"Lovers are the only people that one should ever bother lying to," The red eyed man insisted, "For it is only with a lover that you can truly be free to live every moment as if there is no past or future, and that is exactly when a lie is to be executed. Lies are what you whisper to your lover when you tell them that everything will be okay. Lies are to be said only if they are what a person wants to hear, and thus, if that person is someone whose opinion matters. After all, there is rarely anything so painful as the truth. A lie is a device that is used when you do not have the time to worry about what the consequences may be, so a lie shouldn't be wasted on someone who would not stand by you after finding out the painful truth."
Harry grimaced. "That doesn't make any sense at all. You've never even had a lover, I bet."
"And what, you have?"
Harry puffed out his chest, "If I did have someone that loved me that way, I'd never lie to them."
The red eyed man nodded slowly, truly believing that the boy was – at least for then – being honest. "If I had someone that loved me that way, I'd tell them the biggest lie of all." He said.
"What's the biggest lie of all?" Harry questioned, scrunching up his nose.
"I would say that I loved them back."
Harry thought about that for a while, and then changed the subject. "Are you one of those twenty-eight names?"
"Yes," The man said, "Gaunt."
"Like in King Richard?"
"Just so."
Harry was grinning again. "Tom Gaunt… it sounds odd."
The man looked mildly horrified, "Where did you get Tom from?" He hissed out furiously.
"It suits you, I think." Harry answered with a giggle, "And now that you're so upset, I can tell it's your real name."
Tom sneered, but had to admire the Slytherin tactics. He should have tried to play it cool, but the thought of his muggle father never did seem to inspire anything but calamity.
"I am not going to stay to see Evan," Tom said, "It's not because I'm upset with you," He explained before Harry got a chance to ask, "It's because I think it best that the three of us didn't have much interaction for now, and I will not be questioned on that matter."
Harry nodded, knowing that this was the man's serious voice.
"Is this goodbye for now, then?"
"For now,"
He nodded again, "Wait – Tom?" He paused, biting his lip a little, "I hope that you do find someone who loves you," He confessed, "I hope that they love you more than you can even comprehend, and I hope that they love you so much that they believe all your lies, if that's what makes you happy together."
"Thank you." He said; and he meant it.
Then, he was gone, but soon after, Evan was back, and they were boarding a train, and everything exciting was happening all at once – but Harry couldn't bring himself to continue jumping round. He felt like things were moving too quickly and he couldn't keep up.
Things started looking a bit upward when he recited the names for Evan, though – who was extremely proud and joyous. Maybe Evan could be happy enough for the both of them.
A/N: Thanks for reading this chapter! Hope you liked it alright. I'd love to get some feedback either way.
I apologize for all the dialogue. I know there's a LOT. I think this is the most talkative chapter so far, and I know that irks some people. Sorry!
You have my eternal love and thanks for reading!
-Beloved