Chapter 14 - Battlelines
Theo didn't return to his dormitory that night. Blaise knew that because he couldn't sleep; at the slightest sound he sat bolt up in bed and turned to the door hoping to see his friend walk in.
Finally Blaise did get to sleep, but it was a restless sleep, and hardly long enough for a growing teenage boy. He got dressed and fed Gargoyle as if in a daze, and then plodded along towards the Great Hall, hoping in equal parts for a chance to make up with Theo and for breakfast.
Finding Theo proved to be ridiculously easy. As Blaise shuffled through the Entrance Hall he caught sight of Theo walking down the stairs looking lost in his own world. He fought off the feeling of nausea building in his stomach as his words from last night came back to him, and made his way over to Theo.
"Hey Theo" Blaise said as the taller boy almost walked past him. Theo stopped dead in his tracks at the sound of Blaise's voice and answered without turning to face him.
"Hey Blaise."
"Look Theo..." Blaise started, cursing his lack of experience with sincere apologises "I umm... I need to give you this."
Now Theo did turn to face him, and he wore a look Blaise unfortunately recognised. It was the same expression Blaise had seen his friend make when he left his father forever. What Blaise thought of as a mixture of 'you hurt me' and 'I failed'. It was a look Blaise had hoped he would never have to see again.
"Here you go, you take it." Blaise held the Prefect Badge out to Theo. "I think the Slytherin prefect should be someone who isn't a complete arsehole."
"I never said you were a completearsehole"
"I know you didn't. But I was."
"That's an understatement."
"Look will you take the bloody badge I'm sorry! Sorry. really I am. I don't know why I said what I said, but Theo, I'm sorry. You didn't deserve it."
Blaise thought he saw Theo's face lighten, but like a true Slytherin his body language remained cold.
"I guess it was just a bit too soon for me. You'll make a great prefect Theo. And I'm sorry I called you a mental case. I know that must of hurt, and it's not true. Please just don't hate me."
Theo seemed to think about it for a while, and then he unfolded his arms and started fiddling with his comm badge.
"Your actually sorry about this"
"Of course I am! I treated my best friend in the world like trash just because I didn't get the badge. Theo I... I truly would not have said what I said if I was completely sane at the time. Sorry."
"That's alright" Theo said, his face breaking out into that contagious gappy smile of his "I'm sorry too, I should have told you first. Are we friends again?"
"Of course we are!" Blaise said "you know, you give in too easy."
"What's that meant to means?"
"I would have done your homework for a month if you had wanted me to."
"But you already do more homework than me. Besides, I generally get better grades than you."
"Well forget about homework than. I would have done anything to make it up to you; even make you a life-sized chocolate Enterprise."
"Oh, that does sound good; but you don't have to do anything Blaise, I'm just glad we're friends again. I would have done anything to make it up to you too."
Blaise found himself laughing, and then he hugged Theo "you dolt, you're not the one that did anything wrong."
"Well actually...,"
"Actually what?" Blaise broke the hug and looked at his friend critically.
"Well I was pretty upset last night"
"I can understand that."
"So I decided to spend the night in the Room of Requirement."
"I see"
"And when I first came in there was an owl and some writing equipment there."
"You needed an owl?"
"I needed to vent, so I wrote a letter explaining what happened and how I felt."
"Ah-ah."
"And the owl looked eager to head out, so I sent it off with the letter."
"Sent it off?" Blaise said "sent it off where?"
Theo looked down and continued fiddling with his comm badge."
"Theodore, where did you send the letter?"
"... to Camille."
Blaise heard himself groan. Camille! Even though Theo was older than him and Camille, she still saw him as a little brother that needed to be watched over. Blaise could understand that, he saw Theo as a little brother too sometimes, but he knew that even though he was Camille's real brother, he would not get off lightly for making Theo upset.
"Oh who cares, what's the worse she can do?" Blaise said, putting his hand on Theo's shoulder "come on, let's go get some breakfast."
"Sounds good" Theo said as the two of them walked into the Great Hall. They both ignored the hourglasses displaying the house points; Slytherin had dropped so far behind the other houses that Blaise had lost interest in the competition. He was so happy to have Theo's friendship back that he didn't overhear the two First Years standing in front of them.
Sébastien Deschamps looked at his friend Rick Tan and sighed. Seb's brother Guy had been made a Prefect this year and had gotten him all excited about winning the House Cup. Now it looked like there was no way Slytherin could ever catch up.
"Couldn't you ask your brother to stop docking points?" Rick asked "A lot of the points we've been losing have been taken from our own Prefects."
"He can't just ignore it when students are breaking the rules" Seb said "like with Jim." Seb said the name of their 'friend' in a very dark tone. They hadn't spoken to Jim Robinson since he lost twenty points for Slytherin after getting some older Slytherin's involved in some fight with a couple of Dumbledore's Army guys.
"I thought Jim was a pretty neat guy" Rick said "I guess what they say about Half-Bloods is true."
"Jim's a half-blood?" Seb asked "but aren't both his parents wizards?"
"But his father's muggleborn, so I think that makes him half."
"How does that work?"
"I'm not sure, you're the one with the older brother. Let's go ask him about all that Mudblood stuff."
"You shouldn't say 'Mudblood'"
"Why not? All the older kids do."
"Yeah but you know Jessica gets upset when they call her that. And the four of us did promise to look out for each other even if we got sorted into different houses."
"Yeah, but you know she was part of that whole thing that got Jim in trouble. She probably brought those Ravenclaw guys and egged them on. We don't need her."
"Yeah!" Seb agreed "I guess Guy was right about her. Stupid Ravenclaw Mudblood. It's really depressing here, want to go get breakfast?"
By now Blaise and Theo had both made a start on their breakfast and had already put the fight last night behind them. Blaise was amazed at how well Theo was taking it, and was so relieved by how well things were going that he didn't even get worried about the angry letter he was about to read when he saw Camille's owl Cher flying towards him.
"She must be angry, she's gotten the red stationary out" Theo joked as Blaise took the letter and patted Cher.
"That doesn't mean anything special, you know she likes colourful things OH SHIT!"
"What?"
"It's a Howler!"
Smoke was coming out of the red envelope, which had Blaise's name printed in menacing capitals on it. He gulped, and with shaking hands opened the corner of the envelop.
"BLAISE WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Camille's voice boomed through the Great Hall, stopping conversations and turning heads towards Blaise.
"I KNOW YOU HAVE A BIG MOUTH, BUT HAVEN'T YOU REALIZED THAT THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU JUST DON'T SAY! YOU REALLY UPSET THEO, YOU BIG JERK! THEO, YOUR BEST FRIEND! I KNOW YOU'RE UPSET ABOUT LEIA, BUT SHOULDN'T YOU BE LASHING OUT AT THE BASTARD'S WHO DID THIS, RATHER THAN THE ONE PERSON WHO DOESN'T THINK YOU ARE AN OBNOXIOUS GIT?"
"Surely you aren't the only one who thinks I'm not obnoxious right?" Blaise quietly whispered to Theo.
"STOP BEING JEALOUS BLAISE! JUST BECAUSE THEO GETS TO BE A PREFECT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO BE SUCH A DICK TO HIM! MAYBE IT'S A GOOD THING THEO GOT THE BADGE, SINCE YOU'RE BEING SUCH A LITTLE GIRL!'
'NOW YOU BETTER GO APOLOGISE TO THEO RIGHT NOW! BECAUSE IF HE SENDS ME ANY MORE LETTERS SAYING YOU'VE TREATED HIM LIKE SHIT, I'M GOING TO GO TO HOGWARTS, RAID YOUR LITTLE CLUBHOUSE, FIND THE LARGEST NOVELTY WEAPON YOU HAVE, AND THEN SHOVE IT UP YOUR ARSE WHILE YOU SLEEP!"
"Novelty weapons?" Theo asked over the snickers echoing through the great hall.
"Umm.. I don't know what she's talking about" Blaise replied.
"BLAISE YOU'RE A REAL NASTY PIECE OF WORK YOU KNOW, SAYING THOSE THINGS TO THEO. IF I WAS YOU I'D BE ON MY KNEES BEGGING FOR FORGIVNESS!"
The Howler seemed to take a deep sigh, giving Theo enough time to realise that he was being stared at and start twiddling his comm badge in response.
"Anyway Blaise, send me an owl when you've apologised to Theo." Camille said in a refreshing non-shout "If his still pissed at you - which wouldn't surprise me, I wouldn't forgive you that easy - then I'll try and talk to him. Anyway I sent Ma a letter explaining what happened, and umm... I guess that was probably a bit too extreme. Sorry little brother."
"I'm at least half-an-hour older than you" Blaise muttered at the envelope.
"But yeah... good luck. I hope she doesn't get too angry at you. And I hope you and Theo can work things out. Bye."
The Howler ripped itself up and fell to the table in pieces. Cher, who had been rattled by the extreme loudness of her mistresses voice, edged closer to Blaise with a confused look on her face. Meanwhile, Theo had gone bright pink and Blaise could hear some remarks and laughs that were certainly directed at him.
"So..." Blaise said "shall I get on my knees now? Or are you cool?"
"Oh I'm cool" Theo said "umm... can we get out of here, people are staring at us."
Blaise looked down at his half-eaten breakfast and for a moment wondered if there was any possible way he could still finish it. Not that it mattered, he had just regained his friendship with Theo and wasn't going to let a hungry tummy disturb that.
"Sure" He said, getting up and flipping the bird to a few fifth years who were pointing and laughing at them "let's blow this place."
They got up and marched out of the Great Hall. Blaise saw Hermione out of the corner of his eye running over to join them.
"What happened?" she asked as she caught up to them "Is everything -"
"Yeah we're cool" Theo said "nothing to worry about."
They left the Hall and with no destination in mind Blaise began leading them towards The Shop.
"No, Theo, you sent Camille a letter, and she sent Blaise a Howler." She said "what happened?"
"I was a douchebag" Blaise said "I was cranky, I said stuff to Theo that was completely out of line, but now we've sorted it out and it's all good."
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked him before turning to Theo "Theo what happened, are you sure things are alright? Want to talk about it?"
"Not really" Theo said "We're both over it."
"Okay" Hermione said, somewhat doubtfully, but thankfully she was smiling "well I'm glad you two were able to sort things out pretty quickly. So anyway Blaise... what are these novelty weapons Camille mentioned?"
"Erm... what novelty weapons?" Blaise asked. Damn needing to ask Camille for money to buy them. He would have rather have had no-one know about them. Not because he was worried about getting into trouble, but because this project was something he didn't want to unveil until it was perfect. And also, he wanted Theo to be really surprised on his birthday.
"The ones Camille threatened to sodomise you with"
"Ermm... she means sex toys"
"Blaise!"
"We'll why did you ask? And no, I will not tell you anymore; your both Prefects."
"Your sex toys are safe. we weren't told anything about them during the Prefect debriefing"
"There's a debriefing?" Theo asked.
"Yeah, we had it on the train" She said "hmm... I wonder if you'll have some sort of introduction during tonight's meeting."
"Introduction?"
"Oh Hermione don't scare the poor guy" Blaise said.
Just then the bell rang, and they all started making their way back upstairs to their classes. Hermione and Theo were both talking about Prefect stuff, and Blaise could see how much it worried Theo.
:Later that Night:
Harry was on his way back to the Common Room after an interesting but somewhat strange lesson with Dumbledore. The memory they had looked at this time had been Dumbledore's own; a memory of the first time he met eleven-year-old Tom Riddle.
Harry had to admit, Voldemort had been a somewhat creepy kid; he had reminded him of some sort of demonic kid from a muggle horror movie. Maybe he should describe him to Blaise and see if he knew what movie.
The strange part about the lesson wasn't so much seeing a child Voldemort, but the interrupted conversation with Dumbledore afterwards. The professor had been talking about Tom Riddle's school years, when suddenly the ashtray started shaking and growling from its new home on the shelf and Dumbledore shooed Harry out of that room as fast as he could, saying that he had a special meeting.
I guess he is still keeping secrets from me Harry fumed after all that happened last year, after he promised to tell me everything... that lying old bastard! Well maybe I'll just stay quiet about Blaise's new treasure. We can both have secrets.
Harry was shaken out of his rage by a small figure coming down the stairs ahead of him with a green Slytherin tie. Harry grabbed his wand, preparing for trouble...
"Oh Hi Matt" Harry said as he recognised Matt Powers "what are you doing up here?"
"Hi Harry" Matt replied "I just had a detention cleaning the windows on the North Tower. Got in trouble for insulting Eugenie Crabbe."
"Really, what did you do to her?" Harry asked, expecting to hear about some cool prank Matt and Dennis had pulled.
"Apparently, my dirty blood is an insult to her" Matt sneered "so in other words, I'm on detention for being a Mudblood."
"How the hell do they get away with that? You need to tell someone about that!"
"Shall I complain to Snape?" Matt asked "he so cares about student's problems and stuff."
"Well no, but someone needs to know."
"Its fine; they'll get what's coming to them once the DA starts up again. Are you going to teach us that bat-boogie hex Ginny uses?"
"Ermm... I don't know how to do that one myself" Harry said, deciding that anyone capable of such an evil grin should certainly not be let loose with that kind of hex so young.
"Oh well. I know you'll teach us a lot of cool stuff. And you'll have a lot more people; this Slytherin inquisition is making a lot more people want to join up."
"Really? Is they getting that bad?"
"Yup. Tori's sister and her pals seems to be cracking down really hard on any non-Pureblood in our year, plus she always has Parkinson - whose a Prefect - at her side. All the Prefects are in on it. It'll be good having Theo as a Prefect."
"Yeah. Hermione and Ron want to help him out. It must suck being the target of all those bastards though. It's absolutely stupid that the Hat put you into Slytherin."
"What did you just say?"
"Huh?"
Matt looked as angry as Harry had felt while fuming over Dumbledore..
"What the hell is that meant to mean?" The younger boy replied with a whip-like voice "are you saying that just because I'm muggle-born I can't be a Slytherin?"
"No Matt, sorry, I didn't mean it like that. Your certainly ermm... Slytherinish?"
"I've always been ambitious, and a bit cunning, and well... what the hell do you mean by 'Slytherinish' anyway?"
"I know you are, I just meant well... Slytherinish, umm... I'm in Gryffindor alright? I don't really care what Slytherinish is, as long as I destroy it on the Quidditch Pitch."
Matt chuckled a bit and Harry felt the tension leave. "Well I'm not sure about your chances. Urquhart is training his team relentlessly. Though Malfoy seems to be a no-show. But still, with the way they're flying you'll be in trouble. Especially since you're going to be organising the new DA."
"The DA doesn't start until a bit later in November" Harry said "Professor Zabini wants to help me with it, but she needs to get some sort of tests ready. And when I talked to her after class she seemed more preoccupied with whatever was happening between Blaise and Theo anyway."
Harry was still on friendly terms with Urquhart, but he wasn't happy to hear how his rival team was going. Harry had enough worries about Quidditch with Demelza presently sick and Ron still losing confidence.
"You're just pushing it back because you're scared and want more time" Matt said.
"Of course not"
"Whatever. Just be prepared to be defeated in the next few weeks."
"Why do you even care about the Quidditch Team? Apart from Urquhart and Bletcherly their all Pureblood fanatics."
"I care because I'm a Slytherin"
"I know that... but, oh I don't know. Your certainly a Slytherin, but don't you just wish that sometimes you were in a house where people were nicer and no-one cared about your blood-status?"
"Yes that would be nice... but only if that house was Slytherin. Though if no-one cared about my blood-status at all, hmm... well in that case I'd just be a nobody wouldn't I?"
"A nobody?"
"Maybe. I wouldn't trade being the only muggle-born in Slytherin for the world. It's good to be unique."
"You actually like all the attention they give you?"
"Well as my Dad always says, these no such thing as bad publicity."
"You are crazy."
"Well, I'm not crazy enough to get caught out of bed this late by one of the Slytherin Prefects. I better get going."
"But these still an hour to go before your curfew."
"Try telling that to Pansy Parkinson. Night Harry."
"Night Matt. I'll keep you updated on how the DA is going."
"Thanks" The young Slytherin said as he walked off with a parting wave. Harry thought about what Matt had said and placed his hand on his forehead, feeling his scar.
Your wrong Matt he thought being unique like that isn't all that good. Crazy kid.
:Meanwhile in Dumbledore's Office:
Deepvoice could not believe what Dumbledore was proposing to do. Wasn't this old man supposed to embody all that was "good" in this war? Why the hell was someone like this allowed to work with children?
"You cannot seriously be considering this" Deepvoice said "I thought your kind despised Dark Magic on principle?"
"I despise the Dark Arts on principle" Dumbledore clarified "I've always believed that nothing good can come from perverting magic so much."
"Perverting magic. That's foolish thinking. If you seriously believe that there is only one proper way to use magic than you have no hope in this war!"
"So you agree that there is nothing wrong with what we have been discussing?"
"Of course not! What you people are planning... it's wrong!"
"So now a murderer is teaching me about morality?" Dumbledore's words were harsh, but his tone was more curious than judgemental.
"Do you have any idea what Imperio Pins can do to a person's mind?"
"It is slowly turning Pius Thicknesse into a loyal follower of the Dark Side." Dumbledore said "and it did so without causing him any harm. There are those within the Order that say this technique would be in our best interests to master. Think about it, would you rather be killed in battle, or simply change your mind about which side you're on?"
"I'd rather be my own man with my own mind!"
"Yet you had no qualms about using the Imperius Curse during the last war?"
"That was different! I had to... and even so, you only control a person's body with the Imperius Curse. Their mind, soul and will are still their own."
"So you want people to believe in your cause, yet you oppose changing their minds? It sounds to me like you just want to justify murdering those who oppose you."
Deepvoice felt rage bubbling up inside him, but he controlled it. Despite his anger at this old Half-Blood, He had to wonder if what he was saying was true. The war wasn't the same this time around.
"We aren't trying to change minds, we're trying to save the Wizarding Race; and remember, just because I have turned to you it does not mean I agree with your muggle-loving crap."
"I know that Deepvoice. I know you are still the same bigot you always have been. Yet I suspect that you don't disagree with me as strongly as you did during the first war."
Deepvoice considered saying what he usually did about muggles and muggle-lovers, but decided he may as well tell the truth. After all he was betraying everything he has ever stood for to this man, so why not be completely honest?
"It's different having children" He explained "you notice, similarities. Wizard children and muggle children are pretty much identical, and when you see the muggle parents interacting with their children the same way you do... it's easy to forget the differences. Seeing muggle children playing like normal children makes you humanize them."
"You make it sound like a bad thing."
"IT IS!" Deepvoice insisted "I've never understood how you of all people can encourage muggle rights. I read about what those beasts did to your sister. How can you deal with seeing their children in your school?"
"I have never seen their children in my school" Dumbledore said. "What happened to my sister was terrible, but I can't imagine all muggles are like the boys who tortured her. Just like I can't imagine that all wizards are Death Eaters."
Deepvoice sighed and shook his head; he should have known that there was no way of getting through to Dumbledore. Not for the first time, he wondered if he had made the right choice by turning to this crook.
"Our different views are not the main issue here" Deepvoice said "we're talking about your people using the Imperio Pin. And I have to say that if you use it, I'll be going back to the Dark Lord. Back to the sane side."
"Voldemort uses the Imperio Pin as well." Dumbledore said "or is it alright for the 'sane' side to do that?"
Of course it isn't He wanted to scream, however he couldn't show any weakness in this matter.
"Deepvoice," Dumbledore continued "we are not committed to using the pin, it is merely one option on the table. I personally am against it, but before I do make a final decision I wanted your opinion on the matter. You have more experience with the procedure and long term effects than anyone else I know, so even though you are biased against it due to the failed pinning attempt on - "
"It wasn't a failure" Deepvoice said. "We got what we wanted; his a perfect Death Eater and he believes in our cause. The Pin worked... we just didn't realise the consequences. Didn't realise that he would never be able to connect with any other human being in a meaningful way ever again. Not even his own parents."
"Maybe you over-estimated your son's treacherous nature" Dumbledore said "He was six at the time right? Even with the emotional deficit cause by the Pin, who's to say his beliefs aren't his own? You did raise him, and you did say it didn't work."
"You still just don't understand!" Deepvoice said, putting all his rage in that last word "It worked perfectly, we got the son we wanted... but it's still just not him! After all these years I can still see it! After all these years it still hasn't sunk it! And I know what type of person he really is, my brother was... oh you know all this."
"I do, and I think I understand. I was thinking of it the way a Legilimens would approach the mind... but the way you say it... it seems to be just as much about the soul too."
"You would have to ask Cissy."
"I don't want to force people to become like your son" Dumbledore said "even if they agree with us, even if they stop fighting us... there is a price. And I'm not sure I'd want that heartlessness amongst my people. I will not allow Imperio Pins to be used by the Light Side."
Deepvoice felt relief flood through him. If Dumbledore had insisted on going down that path, he had no idea what he would have done.
"Thank you" he said "I... I know it must be a very tempting option to look at."
"Very tempting" Dumbledore agreed "thank you for advising me on his. I think you'd better get going now; a few of the other teachers will be coming around here for our weekly card games... and not all of them know about you."
"I understand. Thank-you... thank-you for listening to me about this."
"I appreciate being advised by those who know what they're talking about."
Deepvoice reached for the ashtray portkey, but decided that he couldn't leave the old man without one more word of warning.
"If you do use an Imperio Pin, I will betray you!"
"I know that."
Deepvoice snorted, then grabbed the porkey and disappeared.
:Meanwhile:
Theo's first Prefect meeting had so far been blessedly uneventful. He had gotten up as the Head Boy - a non-descriptive Ravenclaw named William Fu - had introduced him to the other Prefects. As soon as he saw all those eyes on him, Theo had felt that familiar urge to run away. The only thing that stopped him was Hermione's reassuring smile looking up from the crowd.
"Well Theodore, would you like to say anything?" Fu asked.
"Ummm... Hi."
"Well, okay" Fu said after about ten seconds of awkward silence "let's leave it at that. You can sit down now."
Theo made his way back to his seat. Under normal circumstances he would have been happy to escape the spotlight. But this time Theo actually wished he had been able to think of something to say just so he didn't have to go and sit down with Pansy Parkinson again.
Fu was joined by Head Girl and cheery Gryffindor Sally Puckle, and they began talking. Theo tried to pay attention to them, but he could feel Pansy's hate-filled eyes boring into the back of his head. He saw her hand move closer to his side of the desk and then pull back. he looked where her hand had been, careful to avoid looking at her face. She had left a note for him. He grabbed it, and opened it behind his desk so no-one would see him reading.
I think you are an even worse choice of Prefect than Zabini. He possibly could have done some of the duties without fucking up. Why don't you put away your muggle toys, stop hanging out with filth, and start showing some of that Pureblood supremacy? I doubt you can; you're nothing compared to your mother.
Stay in the corner and be quite. You can't replace Draco, and if you get in our way, you will be hurt. Badly.
Nothing compared to your mother. How often had Theo heard that in his life? Theodora Nott, nee O'Powell, had been a loyal Death Eater, leading some of the bloodiest attacks on muggles and the Light Side during the first war. While doing that, she had also managed to give birth and raise four Pureblooded daughters. She was so dedicated to the cause, that she had even fought in a battle against the Order of the Phoenix while seven months pregnant with him. He had always heard that he was a disappointment from his elder sisters. Especially from Gabriella.
Theo had never realised it before, but Pansy actually was a lot like his eldest sister. He turned to look her in the eyes. For a second she looked surprised - maybe she had been expecting him to get upset and run off? - but she returned his fierce glare, with a smirk that was very much like Gabriella's.
I will not stay in the corner and be quiet he thought I will stop you. I'll stop all the Gabriella's in this world. I don't know how, but you'll pay for everything you've done Parkinson!