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Chapter Twelve—Checking the Contract

"It's an interesting contract."

Harry nodded. He was sitting in the library with Granger and Nott, but not at the table that he and Nott usually took. It hadn't seemed—right, somehow, to meet with Granger there. And Nott had looked at him when Harry had guided them to a different table with a flutter of dark eyelashes and a flash of grey from his gaze that—

How I feel is stupid, Harry told himself, and turned back to Granger. "Is it as straightforward as it seems to be?"

"About his obligations to you, yes, that I could find." Granger's head bobbed as she bent over the contract, finger stabbing at certain words almost too fast for Harry to follow. "But not about the part where he mentions your obligations to him."

She glanced at Harry, her eyes wide and solemn. "There's no end date."

Harry hissed between his teeth. He couldn't believe he had missed that. Then again, Nott hadn't spotted it either when Harry had let him glance over the bloody thing. He sighed and slumped back in his chair, running a hand down his face. "So he could hold me under apprenticeship indefinitely?"

"Keep you loyal to him indefinitely," Granger corrected. "There's an end date for his obligations as your master. I said that."

Harry held back the impulse to hex her. He didn't want to, really. He wanted to take out his anger on Riddle, but the man wasn't here. "Does it say anything about obligations to him I have that would end?"

Granger shook her head. "No. Be loyal to him, share your secrets with him, live in his house…that's the oddest part, I thought, because even if he wanted you to stay loyal to him for the rest of his life, why would he invite you to live with him?"

"It's a standard part of apprenticeship contracts," Nott put in. "The master's expected to provide shelter for the apprentice." He craned his neck, and Harry caught himself watching it stretch. "Most of them want their apprentices nearby so that they can make sure they're not getting up to dangerous experimentation by themselves, especially if it's a Potions apprenticeship. But I thought that had an end date."

"No." Granger smoothed her fingers over the contract, something wistful in her face. Harry wondered if she was interested in warding and would have liked to be taken on by a famous wardmaster herself. "It's not entirely visible, because the language about the end date in the master's part of the contract is non-standard. But nothing about an end date appears in Potter's."

Harry nodded. "Well, now at least I know it was too good to be true."

"Going to refuse?"

Harry tipped his head at Nott. Nott just kept looking at him, his eyes bright and calm and curious.

"The contract as it stands, yes," Harry said. "But give up the chance to study with a renowned wardmaster? Hell, no."

Nott wrinkled his nose, presumably at the vulgarity. Harry wasn't sure if he found that gesture attractive, but he knew he shouldn't have stared the way he did.

He wrenched his attention back to Granger. "Was that the only irregularity that you found, or was there something else?'

"It isn't an irregularity, exactly, but…"

Harry waited, but Granger evidently had no intention of coming back to rescue her dangling words. Harry leaned forwards, smiling a little. "I wanted to look over this because I know you're intelligent, Granger, and you've already spotted one thing that we both missed. Don't feel that you need to hide your intelligence."

Granger stared at him. "Plenty of people in this school know I'm smart."

"But how many of them acknowledge it with respect unless they're begging you for homework help?" Harry asked, and nodded as he saw the way her shoulders hunched and her head dipped down. "I acknowledge it. I'll make another deal with you if you think that's fair and you should be paid more for your help, but I don't want you to hide because you're afraid of revealing how smart you are."

Granger drew in a slow breath, blinked at the middle distance, and then turned back to the contract. "I looked up some other standard apprenticeship contracts. Not ones that allowed the apprentice to live in the master's house," she added, with a glance at Nott, as if she thought she would need to defend herself against an attack from that direction. "But a lot of them. And most of them are focused on balancing the trading of knowledge with the passing on of secrets."

Harry nodded. Not that he had looked at those contracts himself, but that was about what he would have expected.

"They have an emphasis on loyalty, but not that much, compared to the teaching aspect. And some of them include provisions for the master to claim a share of an apprentice's discoveries if the apprentice makes them with equipment or ingredients the master lends them. Or even on the master's property. To take the example of a Potions contract again, an apprentice who uses the cauldron and ingredients a master lends them instead of ones that are a gift could be expected to share credit with their master."

"Do you want a Potions apprenticeship, Granger?"

She whirled to face him, one hand banging down in the middle of the table. "How do you know that?"

Harry blinked. He hadn't expected her to act as though it was some important, highly-guarded secret. "I just guessed," he said slowly. "You've mentioned multiple examples from that kind of contract, and—"

"I mentioned one! Theo mentioned the other one!"

"That's enough for someone like Harry," Nott said.

"What kind of person would that be, Nott?"

Nott met Harry's eyes without flinching, a small smile curling up the corners of his mouth. And where Harry would once have thought he'd like seeing Nott afraid—some small payback for all those years of torment—now he'd found that he preferred someone who would talk back to him.

"Someone who puts together lots of pieces that no one else ever even notices," Nott said quietly. "Someone who doesn't always feel the need to act on that information, but can do what he wants with it, at any time."

The rest of the time and the room seemed to vanish as Harry stared at Nott, until Granger brought her hand down in the middle of the table again and said loudly, "Can you flirt or whatever it is you're doing when I'm not in the room?"

Harry felt his cheeks burn, and jerked his eyes away from Nott, who looked smugly satisfied. "Sorry, Granger," he mumbled. "You said that there were irregularities in this contract because it's not focused on secrets?"

"Or ingredients or equipment," Granger said, while she eyed Harry as if she thought he might explode. "But this one is focused on assuring your loyalty, and it has…vague terms about that. It keeps emphasizing loyalty and trust and confidence and all sorts of other synonyms. It's not even clear what he means to do to secure that loyalty."

Harry felt as though ice had invaded his veins. "So if I signed it, he could do whatever he wanted to secure it."

"Yes. The Imperius Curse, potions that blunt your will, potions that increase your trust in him. It wouldn't even be illegal, not if you signed this contract. You would essentially have given him permission."

Harry swore softly under his breath. Nott was looking at him grimly. Harry nodded to him, acknowledging that he had been right to suggest Granger look over the contract. His mind was whirling down more important tracks, though.

Why did Riddle feel the need to take such extreme measures? Why would he think Harry was set on betraying him? Harry was as sure as he could be that he hadn't done anything in his meeting with Riddle to indicate that.

It could be Riddle's personality, that of a famous wardmaster paranoid someone would steal his secrets.

It could be something else.

"You're not going to sign this."

Harry looked at Granger and shook his head. "No, of course not. But I will be interested in seeing what the fuck he was thinking."

Nott was sitting up across the table, eyes wide with something Harry didn't think was fear. Granger squinted at Harry. "Do you have blackmail on Riddle or something? Because I don't think you could find a way to compel him otherwise."

"No," Harry said, and he smiled. Nott's breathing quickened. "I intend to meet with him as if I were going to sign it, and then ask him what the fuck he was thinking."

"I don't think he'll like that," Granger said cautiously.

"I don't intend to give him a choice about answering," Harry replied.

Theo felt as if a thousand fiery winged horses were galloping through his veins.

Harry was magnificent.

Theo had half-feared that when Hermione found some problems with the contract—and he had known there would be some, just not what they were—Harry would be upset with her, or he would crumble under the knowledge that Riddle was another person trying to use him or bully him. But he hadn't yelled at Hermione. He had praised her and showed he understood her, and part of Theo was as thrilled by that as if he had asked for it and Harry had done it to please him.

Another part of him, admittedly, was dreading how the confrontation with Riddle would go.

But there would be one, instead of Harry crumbling. And Theo fully intended to be there.

"You're quiet, No—Theo. Why is that?"

Theo turned to face Harry. They had left the library and Hermione behind a few minutes ago, after Hermione had extracted the promise that they didn't intend to run off and confront Riddle right now. They were in the middle of a still corridor with no portraits. It was the safest place to talk outside one of their warded rooms at the moment.

"I want you take me with you when you confront Riddle."

Harry blinked. Tilted his head. Theo wondered if he would get contemptuous laughter and braced himself.

"I never intended to leave you behind," Harry said slowly. "Did I do something that made you think I would?"

Theo felt as though there was a sunburst in his chest, but he managed to hold his expression neutral. "No. I—suppose that both of us are stuck in the past, to a certain extent. I was thinking of what you might do. Not what you will."

Harry's eyelashes fluttered for a second, and then he said, "Yeah. I—get that." He moved a hesitant step towards Theo, then stopped again. Theo was aware of his breath coming loud and fast. This wasn't the best place for anything to happen, but if something did, then he would be incapable of regretting it.

"You've really changed."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you for weeks now."

"You understand why I had a hard time letting myself trust that."

"Of course I do," Theo said, and tried to keep his voice as gentle and calm as he could. Harry looked like he might bolt if confronted. "And that's why I was willing to keep trying as long as necessary to prove myself to you."

Harry watched him, then lifted a hand and cupped Theo's cheek. Theo tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes. It was perhaps more vulnerable than he should have been, but he was past hearing what his father would have said in his mind.

"Thank you," Harry whispered. "I—can't say what will happen after the confrontation with Riddle, if we can—do something like you appear to want or not yet, but—I'm thinking about it."

That is more of a chance than I deserve, but I will seize it with both hands.

"Thank you," Theo said softly, and watched Harry give him a smile all the more valuable for its uncertainty.

Harry had no idea why Theo appeared to have invested so much of himself into Harry's success, which made him uncertain of his ground with the other boy. But confronting Riddle and weaving the kind of wards that would mean he wouldn't get away with what he had tried to inflict on Harry…

That, Harry had no doubt about.

They slipped out of the school again on the night Riddle had invited Harry to sign the contract. This was a different set of Apparition coordinates, and a wider, more open place. Harry cocked his head as they passed between a pair of stone pillars into what seemed to be an empty field.

"Standing stones," Theo murmured.

"Riddle's going to try something related to them?" Harry checked the two wards straining on leashes in the back of his mind. They were variants of the one he had used to take revenge on Snape. These were less visible, and one had a much more firm and certain purpose, but Harry had woven contingencies into them. It might be possible that Riddle would tell him the truth about the contract when asked and Harry wouldn't have to use his wards.

Harry knew exactly how likely that was, but the contingency still existed, so it existed in the wards, as well.

"I don't know." Theo frowned at the nearest standing stone, a shapeless dark lump about the height of Harry's shoulder. "Standing stones can make ritual magic more possible, but they have to be charged by either natural forces or spells. And in either case, we would sense their magic."

"They are not standing stones."

Riddle's casual voice came to them from behind a low, twisted tree with black bark and dead leaves. Harry shaped a ward in his mind, a crude thing that might not be necessary, and nodded to him. "Hello. What are they?"

"Cairns," Riddle said, half-smiling. "Necessary for the comfort of my associate, who, as I told you, is here to perform Legilimency to assure your honesty."

Harry smiled back. "I'm interested in your honesty, too, Riddle. Such as why you offered me an apprenticeship contract without an ending date."

Riddle paused. The air around them tightened. Harry's fingers curled into his palm.

"I wondered if you would notice that," Riddle whispered at last.

"So it was a test?" Harry's fingers curled tighter.

"A test and a binding," Riddle said. "I wanted to make sure that you would have reason to be loyal to me until the end of your days."

Harry experiences a brief flood of bitterness, hot enough that flickering magic danced on the surface of his skin and Theo shifted uneasily next to him. One thing. I wanted one thing that was sincere, one person who didn't want to use me or take advantage of me somehow—

But he cut off the flood before the magic could do anything. So Riddle wasn't what Harry had hoped. It didn't mean that he couldn't find someone who was, someday.

"So I won't be your apprentice after all," Harry said lightly. "I hope that you don't disappoint your associate too much. He must have had a hard journey here, unless he can take a cairn with him."

"You will be my apprentice, Harry Potter. The contract would have been the simplest way, and the way I would have treated you the best, but you won't leave here until you are bound not to act against me."

"You could have fucking asked me," Harry snarled, and the magic around him leaned forwards. Riddle didn't move, but Harry was sure he had shaped his own wards and held them ready for the moment of battle. "I would have sworn not to interfere with your plans or research or whatever you wanted, in return for a lesser commitment than an apprenticeship. And now you've fucked that up. Good fucking job, Riddle."

Riddle watches him with an odd half-smile. "I could never have trusted someone's word freely given, no matter how honorable you might think yourself."

"So you've committed us to battle instead."

"A grander word than I would have—"

Harry uncurled his fingers from his palm.

Riddle screamed as Harry's ward came to life, a crude but effective manipulation of ready magic in the area and air that turned all of Riddle's gathered power to fire in his veins. It only lasted a moment. That was all Harry needed.

He spun to shield Theo with a wanded spell, and then launched both the wards had been waiting on leashes at Riddle. They roared in happiness probably audible only to Harry as they landed, winding around Riddle and sinking into his skin with a flare of white and yellow light. Harry half-smiled. They were doing as he had designed them to do.

One was a truth ward, to compel Riddle to honestly answer three questions. Harry might have tried for more than that, but it would have weakened the power of the ward and perhaps allowed Riddle to slip free or to lie. Harry wasn't risking that.

The other one…

Riddle snarled, looking half-demented now, and slashed his wand down in a wordless motion, a purple curse fizzing at the tip for a moment. Then the light turned and streamed back into his wand, and he screamed again.

"What is that?" Theo whispered.

Harry moved a step back towards him without turning away from Riddle, who was staring at Harry in absolute stillness, his body half-hunched. "A karma ward," he said, loudly enough for Riddle to hear. "Everything he tries against me gets turned back against him."

Riddle bared his teeth, but said nothing.

"I didn't know you were powerful enough to create something like that," Theo said, voice low and reverent.

Harry didn't dare turn to face him even now, but smiled. "I am."

"My associate is still here," Riddle whispered. "And you will regret facing me without binding him."

Harry started to answer, but a dragging sound came from the center of the field. He turned so that he could keep one eye on Riddle while looking at the taller grass.

A figure was heading towards them, one that glided in such an odd manner Harry wasn't sure it was human. When it lifted its head, he was certain. The face was serpentine, pale, with a long, forked tongue darting out of the mouth as it hissed.

"Meet my associate," Riddle said, his voice light and mocking now as if Harry had never hit him with wards. "Lord Voldemort."