The Queen of Spades
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine; everything is J K Rowling's. Still.
AN: Time for a quick filler arc!
The Queen of Spades
The veil trembled; its surface flared forward to brush against Sirius's back as he crumpled to the floor, his mouth stretched in a soundless scream. Sirius shook and shivered on the cold stone of the dais.
Bellatrix giggled and twirled upon the top of the bench. "I win!" She cheered. "I win you mangy mutt! That'll teach you to sneak out of Azkaban without saying goodbye to me!"
Mad bitch. A tight, sharp cold closed about Harry's heart and he hurled a trio of banishing spells at her.
The first smashed the bench away from beneath her feet, the second hammered Bellatrix out of the air and threw her back into the wall, the third sent the bench after her.
"Sirius!" Harry shouted.
Sirius groaned and crawled across the floor toward his wand, then slumped onto his face. Harry summoned him with one hand, dragging Sirius after him as he leapt up the steps and sprinted for the lift, throwing spells at Bellatrix and Malfoy.
A barrage of yellow curses sprayed past him, shattering the tiles and ripping ragged holes into the walls around the lift. Harry dropped Sirius to the floor, deflecting any spells he recognised and jabbing his elbow into the button until the door slid open.
"Avada kedavra!" Lucius Malfoy's weeping, ruined face twisted into a vicious sneer.
"Papilionis," Harry whispered.
A single butterfly darted into the path of the curse and burst into a wisp of smoke. Harry hauled Sirius into the lift, then mashed the button for the atrium. Bella's vivid pink curses spattered against the back of the lift. He transfigured the pieces of broken tile and masonry into glass shards and banished them down the corridor, but Bella shrieked and a ripple of magic swept the glass away.
"Osassula!" Harry shot one last curse through the doors, then sagged against the wall and gasped for breath. A deep ache throbbed in his wand arm and a cold weariness crept into his limbs.
The lift jerked up, then the lower half of the doors exploded. Fragments of metal drew hot lines of pain across his legs and abdomen and steel shards jutted through tears in his clothes.
Harry tugged them out and tossed them away. "Rennervate." He jabbed his wand at Sirius.
Sirius's eyes snapped open, his chest heaved, and he scrambled through his robes for his wand.
"It's not there," Harry said. "I couldn't summon it and you."
Sirius nodded, then grimaced, cast an eye over himself, and started pulling out the pieces of the lift door embedded in his left side. "Any particular reason I feel like a pincushion?"
"They destroyed the door." Harry gestured to the gaping hole in the door of the lift. "I doubt we've seen the last of them, either."
"They'll come up the shaft once we're out of the way. We're not out of this yet."
"You should get out," Harry said. "Without a wand, you'll be an easy target. I'll cover our backs as we go."
"I'm not leaving you." Sirius pushed himself up on the wall. "I don't run away. I'm not a coward. The Order will be here soon, anyway."
Harry frowned and cast a quick tempus. It's been almost half an hour. Where are they?
"Are you sure they got your message?" he asked.
"They got it," Sirius said. "They should be here by now."
"Vulnera sanentur," Harry whispered, waving his wand at Sirius. The slim lacerations crept closed. "There you go."
"How did you come away unscathed?" Sirius poked his finger through the holes in his robes.
"Luck." Harry glanced at the thin pink lines beneath the tears in his clothes. "Mostly."
"You're worse than James." Sirius grinned and shook his head. "He always came out of scrapes like this without so much as a scratch."
"Atrium," the dispassionate female voice announced as the lift ground to a halt.
Harry stepped out and Sirius staggered after him. The lift shuddered, then crumpled like a crushed can and collapsed back into the dark shaft.
"Go," Harry snapped.
At least I can use more powerful spells here without bringing the building down.
Sirius threw himself against the wall by the lift entrance and shot Harry a thumbs up.
"Clever little Potter thought he'd escaped." Bellatrix danced out of the empty shaft with a giggle. "But you'll have to do more than that to beat me, only the Dark Lord ever beats me."
"No more games, Bella," Malfoy hissed. He pressed his leathergloved fingertips against the ruined side of his face.
She laughed and shook her dark curls out in little ripples. "It's all games," she cooed, her violet eyes shining like stars. "And we all lose in the end."
Sirius hurled himself at Malfoy, driving his fist into Malfoy's wounded ribs and hammering his elbow into the burnt half of Malfoy's face. Malfoy's wand snapped beneath him as they rolled across the floor.
"I guess I'll play with cousin Sirius later." Bella watched them wrestle on the floor. "It will be fun! Sirius is good, he won't be boring." You won't touch him or anyone else.
Harry slashed his wand forward. The faint form of the basilisk lunged, tearing the floor apart as it swept through the atrium.
Bella rolled her eyes and sighed. "Confringo."
Her spell dissipated and she flung herself across the floor with a squeak of surprise. The basilisk hammered into the lift entrance, obliterating the golden gates and the wall behind. Masonry and metal showered Sirius and Malfoy as they grappled across the floor.
"Potter knows how to play," Bellatrix breathed. A little shudder rippled through her and purple light danced in her eyes, then her wand streaked up and an array of coloured curses sliced through the air.
Harry flicked them away, sending them curving back toward her as they spiralled around one another in the centre of the atrium.
Sirius drove his fist into Malfoy's face over and over. "You. Worthless.
Fuck." He lifted Malfoy's head and smashed it against the floor.
"Cissy. Deserved. Better!"
Bellatrix cocked her head and glanced behind her. "You tell him, cousin Sirius! He made itty bitty baby Cissy all sad!"
"Lacero," Harry whispered, melding the wand motion into a small string of other spells, pushing himself as fast as he could go.
Bellatrix deflected a few, then threw up a faint, glowing bubble of white magic. Harry's spells tore through it and slashed her cheek open to the bone.
"You got me!" She giggled, then shuddered and pressed a finger to the cut, licking the blood from the tip of it. "I never could understand shielding." She sighed. "Why hide and be boring when you can just attack?"
A fresh volley of bright, yellow spells streaked from the tip of her wand.
I can deflect those. Sirius did. He sent all five hissing back at her.
The first three splattered into the floor, leaving deep, scorched craters at Bella's feet. She leant aside from the other two and they arced past her hip and shoulder, striking Sirius in the back. He slumped over Malfoy's prone figure.
"Ooops!" Bella giggled. "Were you expecting me to deflect them back?" She beamed. "This is the most fun I've had in years! "
Fun. The ice in his chest closed its fist. I'll show you fun.
Fiendfyre swirled past Bella, forcing her to the edge of the fountain. She poured her own against his and the inferno gushed across the floor, swallowing up the ground between them as it seared toward Sirius and Malfoy.
Harry extinguished them both with a grunt of effort. That was clever. "Don't worry little cousin Harry." She laughed. "We'll be nice to Sirius, won't we, Bell! Just give us the prophecy. Accept defeat. We'll only play with Sirius a little bit, tormenting people after they've lost gets boring, like pulling the wings off caged butterflies."
Harry wrapped his magic "round the golden centaur in the fountain. It shuddered, then drove its arrow through the back of Bellatrix's knee.
She hissed and shattered every stature with a swing of her wand. "Crucio," she shrieked, sending a crackling red beam at Harry.
A butterfly burst from Harry's wand, swallowing the red spell in a wisp of dark mist.
"Osassula," Harry whispered.
The curse tore through her desperate shield and struck her fingers, sending her wand spinning into the water behind her.
"Perhaps Bella would like a taste of her own medicine." Harry summoned her wand and snapped it in front of her.
She screeched and uncontrolled magic smashed into him, tearing across the atrium floor. A wave of violet flame crashed against his shield, knocking him back hard enough to drive the wind out of him, and guttered out. Shattered glass poured from his pocket onto the floor.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…" A hoarse, rasping voice echoed through the atrium. "Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies… "
"Equal?" Bellatrix bounced on her feet. "The Dark Lord has no equals, he's the best player in the game, but better safe than sorry, better to still be playing than to lose, better to play than to be dead, so no more little Potter, and no more little Longbottom either, Bella saw to that." She giggled. "That was a fun game. They clung on for ages." Cold fury streaked through Harry's veins. "Crucio," he spat.
A pale, red beam dissipated on the severed torso of the centaur.
"You've got to mean it, little cousin Harry." She cocked her head. "If you want to beat Voldemort, then you'll need to mean it. He always wins. Always."
A game. The icy thing in Harry's chest stirred. A bottomless, freezing hunger coiled beneath his ribs, baring a maw filled with a thousand, needle-like teeth. She's as cruel as all the children were at primary school, but capable of much more than words and bruises.
"Crucio," he whispered.
Bellatrix flopped and thrashed in the water of the fountain. Her eyes smouldered and her lips quivered as she clawed her way back to her feet, licking her lips. "That burnt so good."
"You're mad." The words slipped through Harry's lips. "No wonder Voldemort likes you. He just winds you up, then points you in the right direction and lets you go."
"You shouldn't try to beat him." Bellatrix screwed up her face. "We're going to get rid of all the boring creatures. The ones who've got no magic and just lumber around in their awful world of clay and dirt." She stuck her hand out. "Come and play with us! You're fun!" The violet in her eyes glowed bright as the full moon. "Andi wouldn't play with us. Andi died. Cissy's all sad and boring, like a little caged bird. But you're family, too! You can play with me instead! And we'll never be bored or sad or lonely again!"
Harry's stomach wrenched. Lonely…
"Voldemort," Bellatrix breathed.
Harry spun, half-crouching in front of the tall, pale figure.
"Bella's sorry." She waved her broken fingers in the air. "Bella lost. Little cousin Harry was better than Bella, and he doesn't want to come and play with us yet, but Bella heard the prophecy-"
"Avada kedavra," Harry whispered.
A bright green flash snuffed out the violet light in Bellatrix's eyes.
"Harry." Voldemort's crimson eyes watched the body of Bellatrix sink into the fountain. "Bella was one of my most useful servants."
"Not anymore." Harry glanced at the exit. "She lost."
"Yes." Voldemort's lips curled back in a cold grin. "She lost her never-ending game at last, but I'm sure she enjoyed every moment." He surveyed the ruins of the room, taking in the spell marks around the atrium, the shattered statues, and scorch marks.
"What was so important about the prophecy?" Harry threw a look at Sirius out of the corner of his eye and dragged his magic up to summon him.
"The wards are still up." Voldemort released a soft laugh. "The only way out is past me, I'm afraid, and your chance of escape would be small enough if you were fresh to the fight." He spun his wand on his palm. "But I will humour you. The prophecy tells of a child born with the strength to eclipse me, a wizard I can't allow to live because he will always be a threat."
"Me," Harry said.
"Perhaps," Voldemort whispered. "But I never heard the entire thing and now I know you; I wonder if there isn't more to this prediction than I originally thought."
The pale, yew wand snapped into his hand. A trio of curses flashed at Harry and slammed into the floor, showering his feet in fragments of stone.
"Avada kedavra," Voldemort murmured.
Harry threw his butterflies in the way.
Voldemort smiled. His curses tore great, gaping holes through Harry's swarm. Harry deflected back all the curses he could manage, but some slipped through, carving long, deep gouges in the floor.
Let's turn him "round so I can get out of here. Harry retreated, circling past the fountain.
The golden statues melted and flowed across the floor into the shape of a vast serpent. It coiled before the entrance, a smoothscaled, shining wall.
Where the fuck is the Order of the Phoenix?
"Ardens flagello," Harry hissed.
A vast swathe of purple-edged, ebony flames lashed from the tip of his wand, melting the golden serpent as if it were butter. Voldemort conjured a swirling shield of silver snakes, then unleashed a torrent of red, raging tongues of fiendfyre. They swept across the atrium from floor to ceiling, obliterating the elegant golden runes and gleaming green tiles.
Harry clenched his jaw and slashed his wand forward. The fiendfyre swirled about, flowing into the form of the basilisk, then surged back down the atrium, maw agape.
Voldemort laughed, a cold, high sound full of genuine delight, then the floor shuddered and vast spires of stone burst forth, nailing the basilisk to the ceiling. The flames guttered out even as the stone melted, showering the floor in hissing droplets of glowing, molten rock.
"Ever you surpass my expectations, Harry." Voldemort levelled tip of his pale wand at Harry's forehead. "Legilimens."
Harry dragged the emptiness up from beneath the ice. He threw himself into it and let hollow teeth tear every flash and flicker of feeling from him.
Voldemort lowered his wand, a fascinated smile upon his lipless mouth. "Interesting. Even I cannot claim to exceed your gift for occlumency, not when you defend your mind as perfectly as I guard my own."
He still wants the prophecy…
"Then you know that the knowledge of the prophecy dies with me."
"If you die, I will have no need to fear it." Voldemort's wand flicked back up, tracing a small semi-circle in the air. "Contusio."
A scatter of bright, silver pinpricks flared from Voldemort's wand, soaring through the air. Harry mustered the dregs of his magic, sweeping the water from the fountain across the atrium to shield himself.
Explosions tore through the air, hammering at his ears as the delicate, silver drops of light exploded against the veil of water, spraying Harry with scalding liquid.
Green flames flared in all the fireplaces.
The Order?
"What if I told you the prophecy?" Harry watched the emerald flames flicker. "That's why you came, right?"
Voldemort watched them too. "I wouldn't need you alive."
"You would have no reason to kill me."
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord," Voldemort echoed, reforming the golden serpent Harry's fire had destroyed and sending it careening down the atrium, smashing through the fireplaces on the opposite wall.
"Power's directed by intent." Harry drew himself up and buried the dull throb and the ache in his limbs. The weight of his life hung on his tongue.
"I should trust in your intent, then?" Voldemort laughed. "A foolish risk to take; those who trust are betrayed, aren't they, Harry? Lord Voldemort doesn't forget his mistakes, he learns from them."
"A trade, then," Harry proposed as the fireplaces" emerald flames billowed and the floo network flared to life. "I'll take Sirius Black and leave, you'll learn the last line of the prophecy."
"Tempting," Voldemort mused. "You are interesting." He twirled his wand in his fingers, just as the shade of Tom Riddle had in the chamber. Silver sparks trailed from its tip and fountained down onto the ruined floor, then the wand vanished into his sleeve. "I accept."
Harry flicked his wand back into its holster and summoned Sirius to him. The last dregs of his magic tugged Sirius across the floor in slow jerks.
"The prophecy, Harry," Voldemort said.
As if I'd give you all of it. I'd be dead the moment you heard it.
"And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal," Harry said. "But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not."
"Interesting. It does not say if you're able to defeat me."
"No," Harry lied. "It doesn't, though I do wonder what the power you know not is."
Voldemort's wand appeared in his hand.
Harry tensed and raised his own.
"I was going to kill you anyway," Voldemort said. "But I'm curious, Harry, to see what you'll become. Someone once told me I should find an equal, though I never really believed it would come true. I wonder, though, if there might have been a chance after all."
Salazar… Harry kept a straight face.
"You did mark me as an equal." He ran his forefinger along his faded scar.
"Self-fulfilling prophecy," Voldemort murmured. "And now there is this power I know not. Until next time we meet, and I'm sure our paths will cross again, Dumbledore will insist upon it. He is the only other who knows the full prophecy."
Especially if he knows the whole thing. Harry smothered a grimace. Either must die at the hand of the other… No wonder he wants to make a martyr of me.
A pair of soft snaps echoed through the atrium. Voldemort flickered from one side of the room to where Malfoy lay, then vanished, ripping through the anti-apparition wards like wet paper.
Harry glanced around. A thick silence hung over the ruined room and Bellatrix's pale body floated among the shattered statues and rubble in the fountain.
If this doesn't convince the Ministry something's going on, then there's no point in continuing to try.
He took a firm grip on Sirius, then focused on the Chamber of Secrets and twisted the world back away from him. A flash of phoenix-red flame seared his eyes and Dumbledore's soft sigh echoed through the atrium as he vanished with a soft snap.
Harry staggered across the smooth stone of the chamber and dropped Sirius's body on the floor. Ragged gasps tore from his throat and he pressed his forehead into the cold stone wall. The Order of the Phoenix never came. Another of Dumbledore's attempts to make a martyr of me, no doubt.
"Don't say anything, Salazar!" Harry clawed a little magic up from within and forced the tongue bridge to sink into the pool and the study's door to close. "Rennervate."
"What hit me this time?" Sirius shot him a weak grin.
"Bellatrix tricked me. She manoeuvred herself between us and when I sent her spells back at her she let them go on to strike you."
"She was always dangerous," Sirius said. "What about the prophecy? And the Order?" He glanced around. "This isn't Grimmauld Place, either."
"I'll tell you the story from when you started your impromptu nap," Harry quipped, sagging down against one of the serpent effigies. He tried to blot out the deep ache and the weight tugging at his eyelids. "If I can keep my eyes open."
"Go ahead." Sirius rolled over onto his back. "I might fall asleep, too."
"After you were knocked out, I dueled Bellatrix in the atrium and disarmed her, but the orb containing the prophecy was broken and we both heard the words."
"So Voldemort will know what it says," Sirius said. "What did it say?"
"The birth of the one with the power to defeat Voldemort. My birth. And then, either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. Bellatrix heard the whole thing, but when Voldemort turned up, I killed her before she could tell him."
Sirius flinched. "You killed her."
"She deserved to die, if not worse."
Sirius's grey eyes darkened. "My favourite cousin died a very long time ago, I just didn't expect you to be capable of it. James and Lily never were."
"What choice was there?" Harry shrugged. "If I let her live, she might've cost me something much more important later." Someone… He stifled a groan. Fleur's going to be really pissed.
"So what happened then?" Sirius asked.
"We dueled again in the atrium, made a bit of a mess of it, actually." Harry grinned. "Somehow he knew the first lines of it already, but I told him most of the rest in return for being able to leave with you.
The Order of the Phoenix didn't turn up, though I'm sure I saw Dumbledore just as I apparated us away."
"I sent the warning," Sirius muttered. "They should've come, they all know what it means."
"The last line of the prophecy," Harry murmured. "That's why they didn't come. Either must die at the hand of the other…"
"But Dumbledore must know you're not ready to face Voldemort alone and kill him yet!"
"That's not very pure of heart," Harry whispered. "Surely a martyr's death to ensure Voldemort's end is preferable. A noble sacrifice, just like my mother's…"
Sirius's grey eyes flashed. "That absolute cunt! That's why he won't let me take custody of you, that's why he sends you back to your relatives, why he pushes you into acts of heroism and pretends you risking your life for others is the best you could ever hope to do!"
"He wants a malleable, naive child to throw into Voldemort's path,"
Harry said. "No doubt he believes that the power the Dark Lord knows not is something abstract, pure-hearted, and perfectly heroic."
"Love," Sirius snapped. "He has often made reference to your ability to love and risk yourself for others. He expects you to die like Lily did, only with a more permanent effect."
"I have no intention of dying."
If I die, I'll never see Fleur again. He shuddered. And the emptiness will have me forever.
"I'm going to tear that wrinkled shit-stain apart with my bare hands. I'm done with his Order of the Phoenix. I bet Snape knew about the attack tonight and poor Mundungus was just another sacrifice."
"No." Harry shook his head. "We need to know what he's doing if he intends to make a martyr of me."
"So I should stay and spy." Sirius took several long, deep breaths. "Like Snape."
"I don't trust Dumbledore or his Order and I don't need them, either,"
Harry said. "I was strong enough to defeat Bellatrix. I've survived Voldemort alone twice. We'll be fine without him."
"You can't stay with your relatives or come to Grimmauld. He'll be able to find you." Sirius glanced around. "What about here?"
"The Chamber of Secrets?" Harry chuckled at Sirius's gobsmacked expression. "It's one of two rooms in this castle not on the Marauders" Map and my backdoor in and out of the castle, but it's not very comfortable."
I promised Fleur, but I'm not telling him unless I have to. The longer nobody knows, the safer Fleur is.
"I'll sort something out," he said.
"Do you promise?" Sirius asked.
"I promise. I won't spend a single night with the Dursleys."
"I guess I should go back to Grimmauld Place, then." Sirius sighed. "What do I tell Dumbledore?"
"Tell him as little as possible about what really happened. It helps that you were unconscious."
"I'll tell him that I felt something was wrong, snuck in, and destroyed the prophecy when I found Voldemort coming to take it," Sirius decided. "Will he know you were there?"
"He will. If Voldemort didn't take the prophecy, it must've been me. Lie to him, though. He won't be surprised you're defending me and I can answer his questions myself when he comes to me."
"I'll say nothing I don't know he already knows." Sirius grinned. "It's like trying to avoid detention with McGonagall."
Harry laughed. "Only you would compare getting out of detention to lying to the strongest wizard alive."
"They're not that different when you get right down to it." Sirius struggled to his feet. "I should go. This Chamber of Secrets of yours is creepy, it's the sort of place my mother would dream about. You should go to bed," he quipped. "Don't you have exams this year?"
I actually do. Brief amusement flickered through Harry's tired body. And I better beat Fleur, or she'll never let me forget it.
Sirius stuck out a foot and closed his eyes. "What the…?"
"You can't apparate out of here." Harry chuckled. "You'll have to sneak out via Hogsmeade in your animagus form. I'll open the entrance into the castle for you, follow me."
AN: I was tempted, but the filler arc will have to wait for later… Discord is still a thing. Audiobooks are also still a thing. All the links are on my profile and on discord, including how to support me and read my original works!
But if you don't fancy hunting, there's always this one below.
discord. gg / 7D7dWjzKac
Forgive Me, Madeira?
Disclaimer : Nothing is mine; everything is J K Rowling's. Still.
AN: Enough action and drama, it's time for a nice peaceful trip to the bank.
Forgive Me, Madeira?
Harry staggered into the study and slumped into the chair, leaning his head back and releasing a long sigh. "I'm still tired."
"You slept for almost ten hours." Salazar cracked a broad grin and poked his snake's nose, snatching his finger out the way of its tongue. "But you did very well, Harry. Well done."
"Not well enough." Harry dragged himself out of his chair. "Fleur arrives in London today. I really need to find some sort of bribe to distract her until she's calmed down enough not to melt my face off."
Salazar snorted. "I like this girl of yours."
"So do I." Harry murmured. "Enough to stake my face on the slim hope her love of cake will outweigh her desire to immediately immolate me."
"My wife would've understood." Salazar cackled. "But she would've made sure I felt every iota of her anger all the same."
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"Yes," Slytherin snarked. "Now, tell me about this witch you killed? How powerful was she?"
"To use her own words, nobody had ever beaten her except
Voldemort. She was probably weakened, having only just escaped from Azkaban, but there aren't many wizards or witches I'd confidently bet could beat her."
"Good." Salazar ran a finger down his snake's spine. "Very good. You will need all that strength, cunning and skill soon. And you'll need that girl, too. You can't do it alone, Harry. Winning alone is meaningless. Don't lose her. "
"I know," Harry whispered. "I won't lose her."
Salazar's eyes bored into Harry's. "I do wonder why Voldemort let you go. Tom would've never fallen for a trick like that. He would've made an ally or a corpse of you."
"He wants to see what I will become." Harry recalled Voldemort's words in the atrium. "You told him to find equals too, didn't you?"
Shadows clustered in Salazar's eyes. "Everything I've told you, I once told him."
"He's curious, I think. About me. He remembers what you told him."
"I think you're likely right," Salazar murmured. "Voldemort is not Tom Riddle. The brilliant boy I taught has been twisted into something terrible. Was it me, I wonder? Or did something else gnaw at him until there was nothing left?"
"It's not your fault." Harry stretched for some words. "You taught me the same things and I haven't ended up like him."
"Not yet," Salazar whispered. "That's why it's so important you keep hold of that girl, Harry. She's the one thing you have I don't remember him having."
Harry crushed all thought of their similarities. "My soul's healing. I have Fleur. I'll never end up like him."
I have something perfect. Voldemort has nothing.
"Go to her, then." Salazar stroked his goatee. "I will muse about whether a prophecy that was told but never heard or learnt about would actually come to pass."
"Is the answer to that immediately important?" Harry asked.
"Just because it seems to have no relevance now does not mean it will not be useful later." Salazar crossed his arms. "And don't think I don't know your disdain for interesting pieces of magic is completely feigned."
"I'm going. Have fun." Harry pictured Diagon Alley and apparated into the doorway of Ollivander's.
A crowd of witches and wizards bustled back and forth along the street. Harry glanced toward Gringotts, then slipped through the hustle into a seat in one of the small cafes.
A slim, freckled witch walked to his table. Her eyes flicked to Harry's forehead and she gulped. "Er… What would you like?"
"Something sweet." Harry ran his eyes down the menu.
Madeira cake will work. She liked pound cake and they're not too dissimilar. He double-checked the menu. Nothing with plums or marzipan, unfortunately.
"Sure." She shuffled her feet. "Anything to drink?"
"Not for me, thanks." Harry put the menu down. "Do you have any cake with plums in it?"
She blinked, then shook her head. "Not today. The special's carrot cake."
"No worries." He flashed her a bright smile. "The madeira cake will do for me, then."
And now to have my face melted off. Harry pulled the acorn from under his clothes. "Azure."
Fleur's pitch-black eyes glared from the polished surface. "Bonjour, mon Cœur. I read a very interesting article this morning before I apparated to Gringotts. The atrium of your ministry looked like a warzone in the photo… Comment voulez-vous mourir?"
Harry grimaced. "I'm just down the road at that café with the blue umbrellas you told me about, so you can come and set fire to me now, if you like."
The mirror shrank back into a seed. Harry tucked it away and twisted around to watch the street. His stomach knotted and churned, sweat coated his palms, and his heart writhed beneath his ribs.
"Your cake." The freckled witch slid a plate of madeira cake in front of him.
"Thanks." He chuckled. "You're a lifesaver."
She flushed. "Let me know if you need anything else."
Soft, hot hands slipped into his hair and tugged to the point of pain. "Flirting with the waitress is not a good idea, mon Cœur," Fleur whispered in his ear.
Harry poked the plate of madeira cake toward the empty seat next to him with one finger. "I was actually being completely literal."
Fleur huffed and released him, dropping into the seat and stealing his fork. "This is mine now." Her eyes shifted from ink-black to midnight blue. "All of it."
A small smile crept onto Harry's lips. "It was always all yours. I'm trying to bribe you into forgiving me."
"It will not work." She jabbed the fork at him and slapped a copy of the Daily Prophet onto the table. "I am going to eat this cake. You are going to explain this."
Break-In at the Department of Mysteries. Harry skimmed the front page. Atrium Destroyed in Overnight Duel Between Intruders. Bellatrix Lestrange Found Dead.
"Things didn't go as we planned. Voldemort went after it too."
"Lestrange?" Fleur lowered her voice to a faint whisper. "Did you?"
"Yes." He managed a grin. "It was a close thing, getting out."
Fleur's eyes flashed black and she drove her heel into the top of his foot. Pain seared up his leg. "It isn't funny," she hissed. "I've been on the verge of panic. I had to sit in France and wait to hear if you were still alive to meet me today!"
She worried about me. Gentle warmth flooded Harry's heart. She didn't just sit back and wait for me to save the day.
"Now I know how Gabby feels." He nursed his foot and cast a glance at her red heels. "Did you choose the sharpest ones you own?"
"Yes." Fleur crossed her arms. "I did. You deserve it." She took a forkful of cake. "Now keep going, you have not finished your explanation."
"Right… Sirius and I dueled Malfoy and Lestrange after acquiring the prophecy, my godfather and Malfoy were unconscious, but Bellatrix and I both heard it. I killed her when Voldemort arrived so she couldn't tell him."
Fleur's eyes shifted to blue and she pulled her wand out and traced it over him. The tip drew faint, gentle lines down his neck.
Harry shivered and twitched away. "That tickles, Fleur."
"Stay still."
Harry let her run her wand over him. "Done?"
"No magic but your own that I can find." Fleur put her wand away and picked her fork back up. "So you know the prophecy now?"
He nodded. "Either I'm going to kill him, or he's going to kill me." Harry risked a glance into Fleur's eyes. "Dumbledore knows the entire thing. He believes it requires me to sacrifice myself and take Voldemort with me like my mother almost did."
Fleur's slim shoulders tensed and her lip trembled. She tugged his hand across the table and slipped her fingers through his. "I hope you're not even considering such a ridiculous idea."
"No." Harry shook his head. "It seems like he wants me to willingly walk to my death at Voldemort's hand, though, so he will at least not try anything beyond engineering opportunities for me to get myself
killed."
"Like your little escapade yesterday." Fleur's face tightened. "You hurled yourself right into his trap, Harry!"
"Maybe," Harry murmured. "Dumbledore did arrive just as I left and long after the duel should've ended based on what he knows about my skill. I'd wager everything but you that Snape, his Death Eater spy, told him that the prophecy was being stolen tonight and he intended to let me be lured there."
Fleur set her fork down with a sharp click and brushed crumbs off her cheek. "So get rid of Voldemort, then Dumbledore can eat a huge slice of humble pie."
Merde. Harry stifled a grimace. There's no way around it now.
"That won't work," he said.
"Why?" Fleur's grip on his hand tightened until Harry winced. "Why not?!"
"I told you about horcruxes," he murmured. "I didn't tell you that any object can become one, living or otherwise."
The life drained from Fleur's face like the sunset's light faded from Harry's dreams.. "You're a horcrux. Another secret! " The shape of her face shifted and her eyes swelled to near twice their usual size. Short white feathers sprouted from her bare arms.
Harry's heart twisted beneath his ribs. "I was. Not anymore. That's why I didn't tell you."
"But if you don't die, then Dumbledore won't believe Voldemort has," Fleur murmured. Her features shifted back. "I assume you've considered telling him."
"I don't trust him to stop." Harry stared into the grain of the table. "And if he knows I know, then who knows what he'll do. I'll have to try and trick him somehow, otherwise…"
Fleur dragged his arm into her lap, hauling Harry and his chair around the edge of the table. "Was that all that happened at the Department of Mysteries?"
Their reflections in the shining glass of the Mirror of Erised and the clear dream of a silver-haired, green-eyed girl swirled through Harry's head. Another perfect wish. He buried the image. One's more than I ever hoped for. Fleur might not even like it.
"That was pretty much everything."
"Then let's go to Gringotts." She stood. "I've drawn up a contract to purchase the small home in Budleigh Babberton for around one hundred and ten thousand galleons, since you decided to vanish for the whole morning. Once we've paid a certain percentage, it'll become binding, the house will be ours, and we'll have a decade to pay the rest off before the goblins get tetchy."
"Ah." Harry hopped out of his chair and took her arm. "You want me to empty my vault for you." He feigned a serious face. "You know this will greatly affect how much cake I'm able to buy you?"
"Not if you want me to keep forgiving you for doing stupid, reckless things, it won't," Fleur murmured. "It's good I'm here to keep a close eye on you now."
Harry rummaged for a handful of sickles and put them beside the empty plate. He gave the waitress a wave as they left.
"Really?" Fleur's grip tightened. "I'm right here."
"I was just letting her know we were leaving," Harry protested. "Are you secretly the jealous type?"
Fleur ground to a halt and tugged him "round to face her. "Not secretly. I am the jealous type." A pout crept onto her lips. "I do not share."
Harry laughed. "I guess it's a good thing I don't have loads of female friends."
"Just Katie Bell…" Fleur's eyes narrowed and darkened to ocean blue. "Who I would love to meet, now I'm in England, mon Cœur."
He grimaced. "Really? You're not just going to pick a fight with her?"
Fleur huffed and stalked toward Gringotts. "I'm just going to make sure she knows how things are. I doubt you've even told a single person about me. In fact, I'm certain you haven't." She whirled on him. "The painting doesn't count!"
She doesn't trust me? Harry flinched and a chill crept through him. What did I do?
"Not for that reason," he murmured. "I just-"
Fleur's brow creased and she pressed a finger to his lips. "I didn't mean it like that. I just want to make sure she's not up to anything devious. I know the sort of games some girls try to steal a boy's attention away from other girls. But nobody's stealing you from me." Her eyes darkened. "I will burn them."
Definitely the jealous sort. Harry tried to remind himself that it was supposed to be a bad thing, but warmth swirled around his heart and a smile crept onto his lips. Too late for logic, I suppose.
They strode through the door of Gringotts and looked about for an empty desk.
Harry spotted one at the far end of the line of closed desks. "There's one on the far side."
The goblin fixed them with a long stare as they approached. "What do you need, humans?"
"I made an inquiry about inheriting a number of vaults from different families not long ago." Harry glanced around him at the handful of other clients in the bank. "I'd like to know if anything came of it."
"Mr. Potter…" The goblin's grin widened to reveal a set of very sharp teeth. "You caused quite a stir with some of your claims; step this way and a spokes-goblin will be with you shortly."
The goblin ushered them into a small room in the corridor just behind his desk, then hurried off.
"I seem to have caused trouble," Harry remarked.
"You're quite gifted at it." Fleur leant her shoulder into his. "Even worse than Gabby."
Harry laughed. "That seems a little unfair. I've not stolen your cake, stained anything with chocolate, pretended to elope with your boyfriend, or hoarded an unreasonable number of shoes."
Fleur turned her nose up. "Perhaps, but my baby sister hasn't destroyed any centres of government in the last week."
"Give her a few years," Harry said. "She'll get there."
A wrinkled, iron-haired goblin entered the room carrying a file half as thick as Harry's waist. "I am Bodak." He dropped the file on the table with a loud thud. "The senior spokes-goblin for Gringotts in Britain; it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter. I presume this is Miss Delacour."
"The pleasure is mine," Harry said.
"Oh no, Mr. Potter." Bodak grinned. "The pleasure is ours, we've not had a request as interesting as yours in some time." He opened the file, pulling out the top piece of parchment, an ancient, worn thing covered in faded writing. It'd been torn in half, then taped together and stamped in gobbledegook.
I hope that's not our property deed.
"This is the marriage agreement between one Selena Slytherin and Rufinius Gaunt; it was annulled after the former had a child out of wedlock with another man, then died giving birth. Gaunt married Selena's sister under a separate agreement instead and the Slytherin name disappeared. The dowry has sat in a vault gathering dust since Gaunt refused it and there's never been a Slytherin not from the Gaunt line to accept his refusal, so that the Gaunt family could then inherit the money anyway." Bodak flicked through the paperwork beneath, showing off endless sheets of coat of arms. "Wizarding law is so fascinatingly obtuse, sometimes… It took some searching to find the bastard son to corroborate your claim, Mr. Potter, but it turns out he was quietly adopted by a member of the Potter family not long afterward. This wouldn't normally be enough to prove your lineage, but your ability to speak to serpents satisfies us and we'd much rather that gold was earning interest. Therefore, the dowry belongs to you. It's about sixty five thousand galleons, once adjusted for inflation."
So the link to Salazar is old, but the Potter family hasn't been able to speak to snakes or everyone would know about it. Harry frowned. Perhaps Salazar's blood magic requires more than just his blood. I'll ask him.
"And the other inquiries?"
"Unsuccessful." Bodak pulled a thin sheet of paper out from inside the cover of the file. "Though you would've had a claim on anything they had left, there's nothing to be claimed."
"Thank you."
"Should I transfer the money into the Potter family vault?" Bodak asked.
"No," Fleur said. "There's a contract drawn up under our names for a property in Budleigh Babberton, we'd like to make the first payment
on it."
I suppose we might as well.
Bodak looked between them, then nodded. "I'll transfer the money straight from the dowry account to the former owner's. If I pay the rest of the cost of the property using the money from your trust vault, Mr. Potter, you will have the house in your name before the stamp duty law changes. That will shave a few thousand galleons off the final price."
Harry raised an eyebrow at Fleur. She nodded.
"How much will be left in my trust vault?" he asked.
"Approximately three thousand galleons," Badok replied. "It will be topped up in a few months" time, though, and it remains impossible for you to exhaust more than half your inheritance until you come of age."
"Do it," Harry said.
"It will be done, Mr. Potter." Badok extended one long-fingered hand in his direction.
Harry shook it, hiding his distaste at the cold, leathery texture of the goblin's skin.
"I assume Gringotts will take its brokerage cut," Fleur said.
"The commission is included in the initial price on the contract, Miss Delacour," Bodak said. "The property will be yours in no more time than it takes me to walk from this room to my office." Badok scooped up his enormous file and swept out.
"I'll pay you back half the cost of the house when I can afford it," Fleur murmured. "We can do it officially through Gringotts to ensure we have half each."
"I don't mind," Harry said. "As long as you're safe."
Fleur pouted. "I don't like being in your debt."
"You're so proud." Harry fought the smile that threatened to spread across his face and lost horribly.
Fleur stuck her chin in the air and pushed her lower lip out a little further. "You love me."
Harry pressed a gentle kiss to her pout. "I definitely do."
"You'd better." Fleur dragged his mouth back to hers when he pulled away and let out a quiet moan. "The fidelius charm isn't easy to cast and Gabby's price for being the secret keeper is a small mountain of sweets and a private talk with you."
"A what with me?" Harry grinned. "Does that mean Gabby and I finally get to run away together to enjoy our forbidden romance?"
"I would be able to find you in less than five minutes." Fleur's soft laugh echoed through the room. "She'd take you straight to Paris to buy her clafoutis again." The smile faded from her face. "I must go and finish my paperwork for my job, mon Cœur." Leaving me. Harry's stomach knotted.
"Don't flirt with any waitresses, mon Rêve," he said.
She disappeared into the corridors with a quiet laugh.
Harry sighed as the cold crept in to take her place and strode back out to the street, twisting the world back past him until he stood in the Chamber of Secret's study.
"Well, your face seems fine. Better than mine, anyway." Salazar pushed his serpent's tongue away from his cheek. " Get off, you wretched creature."
Harry snorted. "I avoided a fiery death with some tactical application of cake and now own a house for the summer."
"Congratulations." Salazar yawned. "Make sure you ward it. You don't want any uninvited guests."
"I will." Harry paused. "Well, Fleur will. She's probably going to enjoy showing off how good she is."
"She's living with you?" Salazar ran his fingers through his goatee. "Good. That's very good. I don't want you spending the whole summer alone."
"I don't dislike you quite so much as to avoid coming here for the whole summer," Harry quipped.
Darkness crept into Salazar's eyes. "Be careful with your wards, Harry. Don't leave any loopholes."
Harry nodded. "I won't." He collapsed into the chair. "I discovered how we're related, too. One of your descendants had a child out of wedlock with a Potter."
"That explains why you didn't know." Salazar wound his snake "round his arm, then unwound it again. "I guess they tried to be discreet."
"Nobody seems to have been able to speak Parseltongue until me, though." Harry raised an eyebrow at the painting. "Why's that?"
"Magic." Salazar sighed. "All my blood have the ability, but only my family can speak to serpents. I was careful with my intent; I didn't want my descendants to be abducted and used for that power. At least one person of my blood with the ability must consider you family, or the gift never awakens when you start to learn to speak."
"Tom?"
"His mother would've considered him family. Merope Gaunt."
Harry frowned. "And me?"
Salazar's lips twisted. "I'm unsure, but I suspect it may have been the horcrux within you. It is Voldemort's will and magic, but the fragment would've known you were family the moment it possessed you. Blood magics are not an easy thing to conceal from your own kin."
"And he considered me family." Harry's eyebrows shot up. "I highly doubt that."
"Tom considered his muggle father and relatives family too." Salazar's tone turned bleak as the stark stone floor of the chamber. "I'm fairly sure he killed them all."
"I suppose it doesn't matter." Harry toyed with the golden hourglass. "There's something else I've been meaning to ask you… If I use this, what sort of side-effects might happen?"
Salazar frowned. "Besides growing old a little bit faster? Your mind needs to sleep every so often to cope with the mental strain of everything you do, a little like resting after doing a lot of physical activity. Using the time-turner increases the mental strain between periods of rest."
"Could it cause dreams?" Harry asked.
"Having nightmares, are you? Mental strain can present in all sorts of ways, as far as I know, but it's not my area of expertise. You're already under plenty of stress, Harry." Salazar pointed his wand at the time-turner. "Use it sparingly. I said nothing and let you abuse it last year, because a bit more strain and stress was worth risking. This year, it's not."
AN : It actually is a peaceful trip this chapter, sorry all! Maybe next
time…
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