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Part Eight

"What's wrong, Hermione?"

Granger had been quieter in their study session than usual that day. Theo had noticed, but he hadn't known if Harry would deign to. Harry mostly made casual conversations with his Gryffindor friends now and talked about fascinating academics with Padma. The real conversations were the ones that he and Theo had in private and couldn't share with anyone else.

But it seemed Harry had noticed, and the way that Granger stiffened and drew in on herself made it seem like an actual intriguing secret.

"Nothing."

"It must be something." Harry leaned across the table, his face open and coaxing. "You haven't talked about how much you're looking forward to those new Arithmancy squares that Vector is going to have us try all week."

Granger glanced around a few times, as though she thought someone might actually try to sneak up on them in the library when even Harry being a "cheater" and a supposed murderer had never prompted that. Theo twisted his wand, and the air around them sparked as a Privacy Charm went up.

"You're not supposed to do magic in the library," Granger hissed, sounding a little more like herself.

"Ask me if I care," Theo said lazily, and stowed his wand. "Now, out with it. Some of us are trying to study for our Defense OWL."

"That's exactly the problem!"

Theo blinked. He'd never heard Granger say that she had a problem with studying before. On the other hand, hadn't her boggart been something like failing an exam? Maybe those worries ran deeper than he'd realized.

"You want help in studying? Why Defense in particular? I thought you'd done well in that class. Or at least as well as anyone could expect given the professors we've had."

"Umbridge isn't teaching us anything!"

Theo was glad for the charm given both the volume and the tone of Granger's voice. Harry sighed a little. "Yeah, it's vexing. But the Minister is paranoid that people will overthrow the Ministry in some kind of armed rebellion. He's about decided that the Death Eater we had in Moody's position last year is the symptom of a much larger problem. Not so much connected to Voldemort, but to people training to attack because they're dissatisfied. At least he does mostly believe it's Death Eaters, not just ordinary people"

"And you're content to sit back and let him do that?"

Harry blinked and cast a glance at Theo. Theo raised his eyebrows. How exactly do you expect me to know what Granger's talking about when you're the one who's closer to her? he did his best to say.

It must have worked, because Harry just said, "What do you mean?"

"Umbridge's classes are reading and—and household charms, when she feels like it! Mostly because of something like Ron having a smudge on his nose!" Granger leaned over the table, all but breathing fire. "How are we supposed to pass our OWL when it's like that?"

"Self-study?"

Harry sounded so puzzled that Theo had to cough. Then he got glares from both Harry and Granger, but really, this was too funny. Theo was finding himself in the unusual position of understanding one of Harry's Gryffindor friends better than Harry did, this time.

"I don't understand your objection," Harry said.

"It's a matter of principle, Harry! We shouldn't be letting Umbridge sabotage our education just because of the Minister's imaginary fears!"

"Well, I mean, no, not really, but we've never had a good Defense education, except for some of Lupin's classes. So we've always had to study on our own, and so did the students who were taking their OWLS and NEWTS the years that we had other professors. So what's really changed?"

"At least then we learned spells in class!"

"I just don't think it's as different as you think it is."

Theo sighed a little, watching the way that Granger swelled like a bullfrog. That wasn't the way to handle her, and he'd thought Harry would have known that.

He leaned a little forwards, to direct Granger's attention to him, and said, as calmly and patiently as he could, "What's your point in bringing it up to Harry, Granger? Do you want him to encourage Umbridge to teach us spells in class?"

Granger glared at him. "If he has such a close relationship with her, he should!"

"But I don't want to get her angry at me, or make it seem like the Minister is right about people trying to learn spells that would allow them to fight the Ministry," Harry said with exaggerated patience. "So what should I do instead?"

"Stand up for what's right!"

"Yell at her?"

"Tell her that she should have to teach us spells! She has to listen to you! You're the Boy-Who-Lived!"

"And last year, all that got me was people wanting me to be expelled and reported to the Aurors and hexed." Harry slammed his book shut with a clap that made Theo once again glad for the Privacy Charm. "All that got me was entered in a Tournament I never wanted to be in. If you think I'm someone whom people treat better because of his fame, you really didn't pay attention last year."

"Then use your fame for good this time! Make Umbridge teach us something!"

"If you think she should, by all means go and say that to her. I'm not going to."

"Coward!"

Harry's spine snapped so straight Theo was a little surprised not to hear a crack. His eyes were wide and furious.

But a second later, he shook his head and simply picked up his books, not speaking, and left.

Theo put his hand over his face.

Granger spun on him. "I suppose you think that no one should stand up for the truth and a good education, either!"

Theo watched her in silence for a moment. He could just walk away and leave her to her delusion, and if he did, Harry would probably let their fight continue until Granger apologized, the way he had with Weasley last year, and after that, keep her at a friendly distance. That would be the outcome Theo would like best.

But this was about Granger and Harry, not him.

"Both of you fucked up."

Granger jumped, maybe at the language. "What?"

"He shouldn't have acted so dismissive of your idea and treated it like an academic debate when it's more than that to you. And you shouldn't have acted like he owes it to you to make his life miserable on the slim chance that Umbridge would actually change her teaching style."

"If he can manipulate her, he should manipulate her for everyone's good!"

"And if he can't? What happens if he loses the Minister's favor and turns the whole Ministry against him, the way the school turned last year?"

"If that happens, then he should still fight for what's right! You shouldn't let fear turn you away from what's right!"

"He doesn't think it is."

"It is!"

Theo rolled his eyes and picked up his books. He had done what he could to help, and maybe Granger would think about his words later, when she wasn't burning with so much self-righteousness. She wasn't stupid, but she had a temper, and blurted things out without thinking about them, just like Weasley.

No wonder he's attracted to her.

"Nott! Don't walk away from me!"

Theo took down the Privacy Charm and walked away. If Granger wanted to shout after him in the library, that was perfectly fine with him. It would only cause Madam Pince to take notice of her.

Theo would have one conversation with Harry about the subject, and after that, he would wash his hands of it.

"I don't care."

Under Theo's skeptical look, Harry stared at the floor, his ears burning. The design on the floor of Babbling's office was currently a mess of runes and scribbled symbols that were shorthand for other runes not present. Harry was trying to combine two systems to take control of Fiendfyre, since just using one hadn't worked, and it was—not going well.

"Fine, I care," he finally admitted, tearing his eyes away from the runes to look at Theo. "But I don't see what I can do about it! Hermione's so bloody determined to stand up to something, she doesn't even see why Umbridge isn't a good target!"

"I've seen you manipulate your way around Fudge and Umbridge. I've heard you talk about how useful people are that you dislike."

"Yeah, so?"

"So show some of that cleverness with Granger. You could have talked her around. You could have manipulated her."

"I don't dislike Hermione!"

"No. But that should have made it even easier for you to talk to her and explain why she was wrong. Maybe she wouldn't have believed you at first, but you could have made her believe you."

Harry swallowed and closed his eyes. He hated fighting with Hermione, in a way that he hadn't with Ron. Ron had just believed a lie, but Hermione believed that he was really doing something wrong, if the hurt glances she'd given him across the Great Hall that morning were any indication.

"Do I need to apologize?"

"I don't know. It would depend on if she did. But at least, like I said, you could pretend to be sorry even if you aren't, and that would get you most of the way there. You still don't have to promise to stand up to Umbridge. That's an insane idea."

"Wouldn't you—wouldn't you like it if I wasn't friends with Hermione?"

Theo sighed. "Yes, but it would make you miserable. It's already making you more upset after three days than I saw you get after three weeks of Weasley's shunning. So it's better for you in the long run if you make up with her, and what matters to you matters to me more than what matters to me." He paused. "I think I said that right."

Harry felt wonder burn him up from the inside. He stared at Theo with his mouth slightly open, and Theo shifted his weight. "What?"

"I love you," Harry blurted.

Theo's face was the one that lit up this time. He reached out a hand, and Harry grabbed it and pulled Theo close, tilting his face up. Their kiss was hot enough to make his stomach flutter madly, and he started to slide an arm around Theo's waist—

"Ahem."

Harry jumped away from Theo as if scalded, and looked guiltily towards the doorway of the classroom. Professor Babbling was standing there with her hands on her hips. Professor Vector was behind her, gazing at the ceiling.

"I appreciate the virtues of being young," Professor Babbling said, in a voice so dry that Harry felt as though his skin was coated with dust. "But it won't help you master the runes that you said you wanted to learn."

"Or the Arithmancy," Vector added, and stepped past her colleague to put a roll of parchment down in the middle of Babbling's desk. "Now, Mr. Nott, I thought your particular inspiration of harnessing the Roman numerals to the Norse runes was brilliant, but it still needs more work…"

Theo went over to the desk, his head bowed. Professor Babbling nodded to Harry, and he stopped gaping at his boyfriend and turned hastily back to the runes in front of him.

And any embarrassment he'd felt faded under planes for the runes and plans for reconciling with Hermione without doing what she wanted.

And the wonder.

I love him so much. He loves me so much.

It was enough to make him so distracted from the runes that Professor Babbling had to speak to him again, but Harry honestly didn't care.

"I'm sorry, Hermione."

Granger's eyes, which she jerked up to meet Harry's, were red around the corners. Theo sighed and raised another Privacy Charm.

"You are?" she asked.

Harry nodded and sat down in the chair opposite her. He completely ignored the books spread all over the table, probably the first time Theo had seen him do that since Father's injury, to lean forwards and give Granger his best wide-eyed, earnest expression. "Yes. I've been dealing with stress, and of course I'm used to studying on my own, but that doesn't mean I should take the neglect of Defense education less than seriously. I should remember that some people can't self-study, and that the state of education in magical Britain as a whole should matter to me, since I'm a Ravenclaw."

Theo stared desperately at the ceiling for a moment. Laughing would definitely ruin Harry's performance.

"Apology accepted," Granger said, and at least she wasn't shouting about it or crying again, so maybe Theo didn't need the Privacy Charm. "Does that mean that you'll ask Umbridge about us learning spells in class?"

"I think my fame wouldn't help with the real problem. When you think about it," Harry said, "the real problem is the curse on the Defense post that means Headmaster Dumbledore can't keep any competent teachers. And the prejudice against people like Professor Lupin who would be perfectly competent no matter what conditions they have. I think we have to convince Professor Dumbledore to get the curse on the post broken, first. Then he can actually find someone to hire, and that person can replace Umbridge. She's only here because there were no other candidates. If Hogwarts does have one, then she'll be sent home."

Theo bit his tongue. It flooded his mouth with pain enough that he didn't say what he was thinking, or laugh what he was thinking.

"You're right!" Granger was sitting up, her eyes sparkling. "It would be wonderful to have Professor Lupin come back, wouldn't it? I need to go see Professor Dumbledore right away!" And she bounced to her feet and ran out of the library.

Theo collapsed at the library table and was glad of the Privacy Charm after all, as he guffawed for probably the first time in his life. Then he sat up and grinned at Harry.

"Told you that you could do it," he said.

"And now," Harry said, with immense satisfaction, "she's Dumbledore's problem."

"I thought you wanted to work with Dumbledore."

"Oh, I do. It doesn't mean that he doesn't deserve a bit of aggravation. And really, having left the curse on the Defense post in place for so many years when he could at least get a Curse-Breaker to look at it?" Harry shook his head. "Tragically incompetent."

Theo decided that the real tragedy was that their table in the library wasn't private enough to snog, either, and pulled out his Astronomy homework. "I suppose we should do some studying so that we can pass an OWL that isn't Runes or Arithmancy."

Harry smiled and took out his own Astronomy chart, but his hand brushed over Theo's, and Theo took comfort from that and all the unspoken words it represented.

Harry knocked on Professor Sinistra's door and waited for a moment. It was never longer than a moment. Sinistra was prompt, something Harry always appreciated even if he didn't find her subject very fascinating.

"Who—oh, Mr. Potter! Is there something I can do for you?"

Harry smiled at her. He'd been extra-polite and attentive in her class for the past few months, waiting for the best moment to ask her about Tom Riddle. Eustace hadn't thought it necessary, since so few outside the Death Eaters knew Riddle had become Voldemort, but Harry had believed it best in case she had any suspicions about why he was asking.

"Yes, but it's not connected to class. More to the history of the school. Can I come in, Professor?"

Sinistra nodded and stepped back. She was tall, although not as tall as Dumbledore or Professor Vector, and wore her brown hair curled and pinned around her head in a style so severe it made Harry's own head hurt to look at. "Yes, of course. Most students don't realize I would be a better source than Binns."

Ah, a bit of a rivalry there. I can use that. "I only recently realized it, Professor," Harry said, and played up the shy way he lowered his eyes to the floor. "It's just that I came across a name on a trophy at school here, and also in an old diary I found, and it seems that there was a remarkable Slytherin student years ago who just vanished. I wanted to know what happened to him."

"Hoping to do some vanishing yourself, eh?"

It was as good an excuse as any. Harry fidgeted and tugged at the hair over his forehead. "It would be good to find some place where everyone doesn't recognize my scar…"

Sinistra nodded and escorted Harry towards the chair in front of her desk, whipping away a tapestry covered with stars and planets before he could sit down on it. "Of course. Well. Who was the person you were hoping to ask about?"

"His name was Tom Riddle."

Harry was watching Professor Sinistra as intently as he could when he was pretending to be mostly interested in the sound of his own voice, but she showed no guilty start or jump. Instead, her eyes widened, and she laughed in delight. "Why, it's been so long since someone mentioned him that I almost convinced myself I imagined those years! But he was brilliant, Mr. Potter, brilliant indeed. You could do worse than to emulate him."

"Because he was Head Boy?"

"Because he was brilliant," Sinistra said firmly, and sat down behind her own desk, crossing her legs and arranging her black robes with a fussiness Harry hadn't known she had in her. "Your favorite subject is Runes, I believe, from what Bathsheda has said?"

"Yes, Professor."

"I believe that Riddle's favorite was everything. He could make connections between different subjects that no other student I've ever had could. Why, he saw the patterns of Runes in the very constellations! Not every theory was as sound as some of the ones he had about Defense, for instance, but they were still fascinating."

"Then it does sound like his favorite subject was Defense?"

Sinistra laughed. "Yes, perhaps you're right. He could spend hours talking about it, and about how much he wished to return to Hogwarts to teach it."

Harry clamped down on his own desire to jump. "He wanted to be a professor?"

"Yes, and I think poor Galatea—Professor Merrythought, the Defense teacher at the time—thought him her natural successor." Sinistra sighed. "But Riddle left school and went to work in Knockturn Alley, at a shop, of all things. And the last anyone heard from him, he was going to Egypt to study ancient curses, when he disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"Vanished. No one seems to know a certain, specific place or time, but he was gone. And I think he must be dead, or his brilliance would certainly have made a mark on the world somehow."

Oh, it did. Just not the way you thought. "You don't think he could be trapped in some cursed tomb or something? Just waiting for someone to rescue him?"

"Now, there's a thought." Sinistra looked wistfully into the distance for a moment, then shook her head. "I really don't believe it, Mr. Potter, sadly, not with how many tombs the goblins have opened in Egypt now. I think he must have died in some way that left him unable to ever form a ghost. Because if he had been a ghost, he would have come back to Hogwarts. He said several times that the castle was the first real home he'd ever had."

Harry felt as though someone had just unleashed ants up his spine. It was an effort to keep his voice casual. "Really? That's too bad. Do you know why he felt that way?"

"He was Muggleborn, I believe. Or a half-blood? At any rate, he had grown up in the Muggle world. I believe it's considerably more welcoming of magical children now than it was at the time—"

You really have no idea what you're talking about.

"But he did not have a happy childhood. Hogwarts was definitely the place he loved most, the place where he was happiest."

"I see, Professor. Thank you. What was he like as a student?"

Professor Sinistra rambled on for a while more, and Harry listened to be polite, but he already had the most valuable information, and it was running around in his brain long before he managed to escape.

Hogwarts. Hogwarts is important to Riddle. There has to be a Horcrux hidden here, the way there was near that town where his relatives lived and—well, wherever the diary was originally hidden.

Theo and I can start looking. We can do something.

"Such a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter."

Theo wondered that Skeeter couldn't tell Harry's "public" smile was fixed and fake, but maybe she could and didn't care. They were seated around a table in the Three Broomsticks, wrapped in cloaks against the November chill. It had turned out to take considerably longer than Theo had thought to arrange for the interview with Skeeter, but that was because she was busy with some important project and the Ministry had wanted to wait until it was "propitious" to set up the interview with Harry.

Now Skeeter took out a violently green quill that Harry chuckled a little at. Skeeter froze at once, eager eyes locked on Harry. "Yes, Mr. Potter? What is it?"

"I hope that you don't expect me not to recognize a Quick-Quotes Quill when I see one, Ms. Skeeter. You know the conditions for this interview."

"Oh, Mr. Potter, it's really no different from an ordinary Dicta-Quill—"

"Minister Fudge does value my intelligence, you know, Ms. Skeeter."

The reporter blinked for a moment. Then she slowly moved to put the quill away in her bag. Her eyes were still locked on Harry, but there was a different expression in them than before. Theo settled back, sipping his Butterbeer, and prepared to enjoy the show.

"You're more interesting than I expected, Mr. Potter."

"Would that I could say the same."

Skeeter paused for a longer moment this time. Then she said, "I could still make you look bad, you know."

"Oh, would you?" Harry tilted his head in Theo's direction, although without looking away from Skeeter. "I wondered whether you recognized my boyfriend. I think he has the look of his father, but maybe someone else wouldn't. May I introduce you to Theo Nott? Theo, I think you already know Rita Skeeter."

"Yes," Theo said, with his own wide, fake smile. And it was true as far as that went. He had sometimes met Skeeter in passing at Ministry events he had attended with Father.

Skeeter's smile took on an even more fixed quality. "We are doing this interview at the behest of the Ministry."

"We certainly are. I'm so grateful to Minister Fudge for giving me a way to support him."

Skeeter let out an irritated little breath, seemingly because she'd figured out that she couldn't bully Harry on that axis, either. But she nodded and took out an ordinary quill. "What would you say is most important for the wizarding public to keep in mind right now, Mr. Potter?"

"That things might not always be what they seem, but that the Ministry definitely has their good in mind."

Theo settled back with a smile and watched as Skeeter asked the questions they'd agreed on between her, Harry, and Umbridge, and the reporter got woven into Harry's web even though she, unlike some other people, knew what was going on. It was probably just as well that Harry had no ambition to take over the world or abuse his fame, Theo decided idly.

Although if it was the only way to cure Father or really combine Runes and Arithmancy, maybe Theo would suggest that Harry become a Dark Lord. At least that would ensure Theo an endless supply of entertainment.