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Chapter Fourteen—Helios

Theo smiled a little as he looked down at the letter in his hands. He couldn't have asked for his father to contact him at a better time.

Theo,

Disturbing rumors have reached me about your involvement in placing a curse on Draco Malfoy and some incidents with Potter. I would speak to you this evening in the Forbidden Forest. Be prepared to meet me at eleven in the clearing where we once bargained with centaurs.

Theo nodded and folded the letter into a small packet to tuck away into his robes. No need to write back and bargain or hint or anything of the kind. Some purebloods found Father too direct for their taste. Theo was personally glad that he had been raised this way.

"What did he say?"

Harry was lurking near the door of the Owlery, probably thinking he was subtle. He made Theo's breath catch even just standing there. He was also glad that he would meet Father for the first time since the school year began without Harry. He wasn't sure that he could conceal all his reactions if Harry was there.

"He'll meet me in the Forest this evening."

"I wish I could go with you."

"You know why you can't. You would accidentally betray how important this is."

"Rather than just a favor that you're asking for a friend?"

"Or even something that could give Father an advantage in the future," Theo said, glad that Harry was exercising some of his Slytherin understanding more openly now. "I can sell it to him that way. But if you're there and you show that you would do so much for an introduction a wardmaster…"

Harry nodded. His eyes had gone steely. "The one thing that would make me regret this is if you come back hurt, Theo."

"Not if you don't get what you want from my father?"

Theo suspected what Harry's answer would be before he reached out and snagged his fingers in Theo's robe, pulling him closer. But his breath sped anyway, and he found that he needed to hear Harry say it.

"I can try and find what I need somewhere else," Harry said softly, one hand rising to touch and gently caress along Theo's cheekbone. Theo felt as if his heart would leap out of his chest. "I wasn't thinking that I could before, but I've got too used to defeat. If you got hurt, there's nothing that would make up for that."

Theo turned his head and did something he wouldn't have done if he'd been thinking. He let his lips come to rest against Harry's thumb.

Harry took a long, wild breath. Then he stood there and said nothing.

It was better, much better, than it could have been. Theo pulled back after a long moment and inclined his head. "I'll remember that, and I promise you that I'll take precautions going into and coming out of the Forest."

"Yes," Harry said hoarsely. His eyes rested on Theo.

It was pleasant, for once, to be the one to slip around Harry and leave him behind staring and reeling. Theo smiled all the way down the Owlery steps.

"Theo."

"Father."

Helios Nott stepped forwards to embrace Theo. Theo hugged him back. His father felt slender in his arms. He had always been that thin, he'd told Theo once, a dueler's build and whipcord endurance, although he needed the cane that supported him now rather than using it as a decorative emblem.

Theo stepped back and surveyed his father. He had dark hair like Theo's and all the others Notts Theo had ever seen in portraits, and had given Theo most of his face, but Theo's eyes had come from his mother. Father's eyes were a deep and brooding violet that Theo sometimes wished he had inherited.

"You had news for me?"

"Yes, Father. Voldemort is back, although he's a puppet of the wardmaster calling himself Tom Riddle."

Father stood as still as an oak tree. Theo watched him and waited. It was never wise to try and hurry Helios Nott along when he was thinking, and Theo could see the way that his words had gone home to his father like lightning.

"How do you know this?" Father whispered at last.

"Tom Riddle offered Harry Potter an apprenticeship contract," Theo said. "I was with him when he did, but the contract had no end date and essentially represented an attempt to enslave Potter—"

"And you cared about this? Why?"

"If you'll allow me to explain, Father."

Father took a step back and nodded. "Do forgive me, Theo."

Theo smiled. It wasn't often that Father yielded this way to a conversational partner, but he must have been able to see how important this was to Theo. "Thank you, Father. So when Potter and I went to question Riddle about it, he had an 'associate' with him. An associate called Voldemort, who had red eyes and looked half-mad and ran on all fours like a creature."

Theo himself didn't share all the pureblood prejudices against goblins and Veela and the like, but he knew that Father did. And he would use any kind of manipulation that didn't hurt his father to ensure he was on Harry's side.

Father's lips drew back from his teeth. "You could not have been mistaken?"

"I think Riddle had no reason to call that thing Voldemort unless it was," Theo said, watching Father closely. "I think that Voldemort has had at least two chances to return, after the theft of the Philosopher's Stone in my first year and after the sudden cessation of the Petrifications in my second year and the death of the Weasley girl. I don't know for sure which one spawned him or made him the way he is now, but I think it was one of them."

Father took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then he said, "You are right."

"I am?" Theo hadn't expected Father to confirm it outright like that.

Father nodded and opened his eyes. His gaze was distant, inwardly-focused, but steely. "Tom Riddle is the Dark Lord's true name. Tom Marvolo Riddle, Jr. I don't know—for certain how he could have split himself into two pieces, but it seems the saner part of him is controlling the part I knew as my lord."

"But you know something."

Father grimaced in a way that told Theo how serious this was. Father was rarely that expressive. "I once swore an oath."

"But an oath that would not cause you to be on the Dark Lord's side now?"

"Tell me what he did."

Theo described the way that he and Harry had escaped from Voldemort and Riddle, while Father's eyes grew darker and darker. He stared over Theo's head into the woods, and his hands tightened on his cane several times. Then he took a deep breath.

"Why do you think that you were able to escape?"

"Harry's wards and my knowledge of the Blood Wall. If you think that Riddle was holding back because I'm your son, Father, I assure you that isn't the case."

"I did not think that." Father lifted his head, and Theo took a step back, a weakness that he would only allow himself in private like this. Father was not killing, and he wanted to kill, and the obvious effort he was exerting to hold himself back was impressive. "I think that you are extraordinarily lucky, and if you had died, I never would have known what happened to you."

"Probably not."

"This Potter…is he worth it?"

"There would be no way that I could ever follow the Dark Lord, not now. And Potter has power, yes. His wards are things of legend. I'm sure he would give you a demonstration if you asked."

"I would see it another way, Theo. I would see your memories."

Theo took a deep breath. This was something he had been afraid of. There was no way that he could hide his adoration of Harry if his father used Legilimency.

But he also knew that it was probably the best way to make sure that his father understood how serious Theo was. How Harry had changed him.

"Yes," he said, knowing that no more than a flicker of a second had passed, but that it was still enough to make his father's eyes narrow suspiciously on him. He stepped forwards and tilted his head so that his father could meet his gaze.

Father's hand gripped his chin. Theo's head became filled with memories being rifled through, like gently falling leaves. He set himself and endured.

Helios Nott had lived long in the world. He had learned early on that the best way to survive intact, in soul and heart as well as body, was to love few and guard those few with all his strength.

He had thought Theo would go long years without finding someone he loved strongly outside his family. The early death of his mother had scarred both Theo and Helios.

But as Helios traveled through Theo's memories, and saw the shining wards, the way that Potter had confronted his son, the way that Theo had flushed with shame and a new purpose both, the way that he had lent his magic to Potter without hesitating…

Helios drew himself out of Theo's mind with a long sigh. He had thought it would be years before Theo found someone to love like this, yes. He had hoped it would be, because then Theo would be out of Hogwarts and back safely beneath the Nott roof, where Helios could easily protect anyone Theo fell in love with. That was not the case while Theo still resided at school.

But it had come, and Helios would not deny Theo the prize he had already chosen and devoted himself to.

"I will introduce Harry Potter to wardmasters," he said, meeting Theo's eyes. Theo nodded and started to say something else, but Helios tilted his head, and his wise son fell silent. "And more than that. I will send him the pendant that was intended for Mariah."

Theo paled. "I never—Father, I never would have asked you for that."

"I know," Helios said wearily. "But I always intended to gift it to the lover you chose, Theo. Earlier than I thought, but what of it? Nothing will change the fact that she is dead."

Theo stared at the ground. Helios looked over his head into the forest. There were no images of Mariah in his mind's eye, because she was the daughter who had died with his Eloise when Eloise was cursed by one of the Unspeakables. Mariah had never been born, never worn the pendant that should have protected her from all dangers.

But that made Theo, the one surviving legacy of the woman Helios had loved with all his being, the one he would fling his heart into the abyss to defend. And that made Harry Potter worthy of wearing the pendant.

"Father…"

"If you value him this much, then I do not mind giving the pendant up."

"I just don't want you to regret it because you don't value him the way I do."

Helios reached out and cupped Theo's cheek. Theo went still and still, staring at him. Helios tightened his hold.

Has it been this long since I have shown my son affection like this? I should remedy that.

"How can I not value him when he wrought such changes in you?" Helios murmured. "I might not know him yet, but I will. And for that knowledge to come about, then he should have protection from Riddle and the Dark Lord."

The weight of the vow he had sworn never to speak of Horcruxes burned on his tongue, but then, neither Theo nor Potter needed to know of Horcruxes right now. Helios would begin working on their problem from that end.

"I thought—because you had the Dark Mark, I thought that you might need more persuasion to protect us from the Dark Lord."

Theo's voice was strangled. Helios let him go and shook his head. "I gave up on him when he took so long to return. And now he has threatened my son and my son's betrothed."

"I—what? Father, I haven't asked Harry to become engaged to me yet."

"And will you simply stand aside if he finds someone else he wishes to wed? If he takes another follower as a lover?"

Theo's throat bobbed; his eyes darkened. But he surprised Helios. "Not willingly. I would do everything I could to make him see me the same way I see him. But—in the end it would have to be his free choice, or I would destroy everything I value about him."

Helios nodded slowly. He could see feeling the same way about his Eloise, if she had truly chosen someone other than him. But they had committed to each other so early on that he had never had to fear that.

"See that you do everything you can to make him yours. I would not have our family owe a debt to an outsider."

Theo's eyes grew bright at the bottom, in a way Helios had not seen them do since his son was a small child. "Yes, Father."

Helios nodded to Theo, touched his face once more, and stepped back. When he Apparated, he was looking at his son.

He stood a moment when he arrived in his study, leaning on his cane, before he opened his eyes and looked up at the portrait of Eloise.

"What happened, dear? You look…complicated."

Helios reached up and let his hand rest on the surface of the portrait over the widespread fingers of she whom he had lost and would never see again. Eloise's hand trembled for a moment, and she bit her lip.

"Our son has found someone," he said simply. "I have much to do."

"Potter!"

Harry pivoted slowly around. He'd planned to wait in the Slytherin common room for Theo to come back from the Forest, but he'd got too restless, and he didn't want to chance the other Slytherins discovering something was going on from watching him. He'd gone out to pace in the corridors.

It was after curfew, but Harry didn't think for one moment that was why Snape was approaching him now.

"Careful," Harry breathed.

Snape came to a halt and stared at him. Harry glanced towards Snape's right hand, which looked shiny and waxen, as if the new hand the Healers must have given him hadn't finished growing in yet. Harry wondered how competent he was with his new wand.

"You are telling me to beware of you?"

Harry lifted his gaze to Snape's face. "Do I need to destroy your left hand or your new wand before you get the message?"

Snape stood still. There must be some sense of caution left to him, then. But his breathing was getting faster and faster, and Harry didn't think he was getting out of this one without a confrontation.

Good, hissed something low down inside him. Good.

"You are presumptuous," Snape whispered. "Arrogant. Destructive. Deceitful. Stupid."

Harry laughed. "And here I was thinking that those first four qualities were ones that you valued in your students."

Snape did draw his wand then. Harry snapped up a hand, and coiled a ward around his fingers with a twist of a thought. It wasn't a complicated one, and wouldn't defend him against all the curses that Snape might cast, but it didn't need to. Snape went an awful, cheese-like color at the sight of it and stepped back.

It was Snape's fear that had become Harry's best shield.

"You would truly try to harm me with a ward again?"

"Why not? You were about to try and cast a spell on me again."

Into the charged silence between them fell the sound of footsteps. Harry tilted his head towards it without taking his eyes from Snape.

It was interesting that he could tell it was Theo even without seeing him, just by the quality of his silence. He was utterly prepared to charge to Harry's defense, Harry could tell. His breathing had quickened.

And maybe I know him by the sound of his breathing, too.

"What are you doing, Professor Snape?" Someone who was an idiot might have thought Theo sounded pleasant.

"What are you doing out of bed, Mr. Nott?"

"I do believe that I asked you the question first. Sir."

Theo came to a halt at Harry's side, and his magic writhed out and intertwined with Harry's, making the ward Harry had been cradling in his hand flare with brilliant and intimidating light. Harry was so startled that he nearly lost control of it. But then he steadied it, and he and Theo stood together in the light and looked back at Snape.

Snape had lowered his wand, at least. He looked badly shaken. His eyes actually darted back and forth between Harry and Theo one time before his face locked into an impenetrable mask.

"I wonder what your father will say about your taste in acquaintances, Mr. Nott."

"I have told him."

Snape hissed under his breath. Harry watched. He didn't think he was getting all the nuances here—probably something to do with Snape and Mr. Nott both being Death Eaters and Snape assuming that Mr. Nott would hate the Boy-Who-Lived—but it was enough to make Snape turn and walk away, the sound of his footsteps echoing loudly off the corridor walls.

Theo immediately spun to face Harry. Harry checked him over the same way Theo was checking him over, although Harry was sure that Mr. Nott probably wouldn't have left obvious wounds.

"You're all right."

They said it almost simultaneously, and paused. Harry smiled first. Theo inclined his head and did the same.

"It went well?"

"Father looked at my memories of you."

Harry tensed, but Theo reached out and pressed a hand lightly on his arm. "He's going to send you a pendant woven with protective charms."

"He—has that sort of thing just lying around?" Harry asked to cover his shock.

Theo had gone as unreadable as Snape a moment later. "It was one that my baby sister would have worn. If she had been born. If my mother hadn't been pregnant when she died."

Harry swallowed. He knew less than nothing about his parents, but for the first time, he wondered if that might have been a blessing.

"Thank you," he said.

Theo bowed his head and let his lips brush against Harry's fingers for an instant, the way he had before he'd gone out to talk with his father.

Harry turned slowly, and they walked back to the common room together. The whole time, Harry listened to the beat of his heart, and Theo's footsteps, and wondered that they seemed to match so well together.