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Chapter Eighteen-Enlightenment

Have you solved the mystery yet?

Harry rolls his eyes a little. This is yet another letter from Regulus Black, and it says nothing other than that. Harry is tempted to write back asking why Regulus doesn't just tell them that he's a ghost and probably with werewolves, but he doesn't know how he would get Hedwig to carry it, when—

Then he sits upright.

"What is it, Harry?"

Harry can never get away with anything when Hermione is around. Now, he smiles at her and swipes a scone with marmalade from the table. "Tell you later," he says, and races out of the Great Hall.

"Harry, wait!"

Harry ignores her. He's eaten plenty, and he wants to do this as soon as he can, just in case his idea wouldn't work with more time passing.

He reaches the owlery in record time, gulping down scone as he goes, and glad that Ahalam wanted to sleep in on Harry's warm pillow this morning. He would be a distraction when Harry wants to get this settled as soon as possible.

"Hedwig!"

His owl swoops down from the rafters towards him and lands on his shoulder, giving him an affectionate little nip. Harry beams at her and takes Regulus's letter from his pocket. "Can you take a letter to the person who wrote this letter?" Maybe she can find the person who's helping ghost Regulus with the writing, even if she can't find Regulus himself.

Hedwig hoots and bobs her head, which is at least a good sign. Harry nods resolutely back to her and bends over the parchment, scribbling a hasty sentence down. I want to help you, I want to know more about allying with the werewolves, but it's difficult when you're only solid part of the time. Tell me who's helping you, and if you're a ghost.

There. That covers the contingencies he can think of. He holds out the letter to Hedwig. She promptly grabs it with a soft sound of excitement, gives him one more nip, and then soars out the window. Harry leans on the sill to watch her go.

"My lord."

Theo sounds like he's wheezing. Harry turns around, feeling a little guilty. "I'm sorry. Did you want to talk to me about something? I promise, nothing bad happened."

Theo shakes his head and straightens up, already having got his breath back. Harry supposes that that might be one thing he's better at than Theo, running like a mad thing. Then again, it only happened because of Dudley and Harry Hunting. "You ran too quickly for me to keep up with you, my lord."

"And…?"

"Someone could have ambushed you and hurt you."

Harry sighs. "But they would have had to know that I was going to run out of the Great Hall, run even faster down a different secret passage, and ambush me that way. And they would have had to know that I was going to the owlery. If you didn't know, why would they?"

"It's still dangerous."

"Is this going to be like the nonsense of bodyguards that we had in the past? You remember what the result of that was?"

"You were kept safe, some people who badly needed to learn respect for you did, and it was fun?"

Harry sighs again. Very well, he'll just have to concede that he and Theo remember those things differently. "Sorry for alarming you, but I had an idea, and it might have been affected by the passage of time, so I wanted to get up here and send Hedwig with the letter as soon as possible."

"Will you please explain, my lord?"

Harry hates when Theo goes all stuffy and formal. But it seems that he probably otherwise won't be forgiven for making Theo wheeze any time soon, so he explains, "I got another letter from Regulus Black. I wanted to see if Hedwig could find the person who wrote the letter, instead of the one who sent it, or Regulus Black. But for all I knew, the time since the letter was sent might affect her ability to find the person who wrote it. So I needed to send it as soon as possible."

Theo looks at him with his forehead furrowed. Then he said, "That's not how the magic that allows owls to find letter recipients works."

Harry shrugs. "Okay. Thanks. Then I'll know next time. If this even works. But at least Hedwig acted like she could deliver it and didn't just sit there the way she did when I asked her to deliver it to Regulus Black."

"I am happy that you're happy, my lord. May I escort you back to breakfast?"

Harry casts a Tempus Charm and winces at the time. "I actually need to go back to Gryffindor Tower and get my books if I'm going to be on time for class. Do you want to walk with me?"

"It would be my honor."

Harry scowls a little as he passes Theo. Theo notices, of course, and asks the question with an upraised eyebrow and judgmental silence. Harry pauses in the doorway of the owlery long enough to say, "Just remember that you're my friend too. You don't need to act like I'm going to snap at you for a lack of formal manners."

"I am not afraid of that, my lord."

But now Theo looks far too satisfied, which means he'll probably make cryptic remarks for the rest of the morning. Harry rolls his eyes and indulges in some stomping on the way down from the owlery.

At least it makes Theo chuckle.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Harry cheers as he watches a Patronus explode from Katie Bell's wand. Katie's expression is awed as she watches the delicate gazelle prance up and down the grass. Then it turns to her and nuzzles its nose gently against her hand, and Katie reaches up to pet it with shaking fingers.

"You did it!"

"I did it because of you," Katie says instantly, beaming at Harry.

Harry opens his mouth to deny it, and Fred coughs behind him. The twins have taken on some of the role that Theo and Susan are usually the ones to fill, telling Harry not to speak disparagingly of himself. The difference is that Harry knows Theo and Susan do it because they're worried about his image, and the twins do it because they think it's hilarious.

He inclines his head so that he doesn't have to get into an argument with Fred in front of Katie and smiles at her. "Well, either way, I'm glad you did it. You have to get the extra high mark on your N.E.W.T. now, right?"

"Yes, of course I do," Katie says, after a long pause that makes Harry peer worriedly at her. She turns away to speak with one of the other seventh-year girls, Gwen McLaggen, whom Harry doesn't know as well. Harry pushes away the worry that briefly pinches at him. He doesn't think Katie is in league with Voldemort, so whatever she does is fine.

"My lord!"

Blaise's voice is radiant. Harry turns around fast enough to make Ahalam grumble awake on his shoulder. "Yeah? You've got it?"

Blaise's hard, shining smile tells him that he does, but Harry still applauds as he watches the silver cobra rear and dance in front of Blaise. "You do have it!"

"And I wouldn't have been able to do it without you, either."

Harry only smiles and doesn't reply. He won't discourage them from thinking that if it would provoke irritation from his other friends, but he doesn't have to do anything to encourage them, either.

Being a lord really is a delicate balance, sometimes.

Hedwig takes forever to come back with the letter from Regulus, which worries Harry, but she lands on his shoulder with a happy little hoot at breakfast, finally. Harry breathlessly tears the envelope open.

At least this one is longer.

I am under a curse which means that I cannot clearly speak of the conditions of my survival. But you have figured part of it out. I have a werewolf assisting me who writes these letters, and I can offer you an alliance with them. None of them want to follow Fenrir Greyback. They do not strictly follow me, but they will do as I ask. We are allies.

Harry perks up. If nothing else, his dream about Voldemort speaking to Greyback and talking about werewolves moving gives this some independent confirmation.

I do not know if it would be wise for me to meet with you. At least, not until this summer, when both you and I will have more time.

Harry can't help the way that his eyes dart around the Great Hall, wondering if Regulus Black is a student in disguise. But no, he really doesn't think so.

If you would be willing to meet with me, send back another letter as you sent this one, and we will speak about a time.

Harry nods. At least he can talk to Sirius and see what he wants to do. He'll almost certainly want to come, but Harry doesn't know if Regulus would allow that. Maybe it would be different meeting with someone who never knew him before his "death" than it would be meeting with someone who did.

"Who's that letter from, Harry?"

Harry hands over the parchment to Hermione, and then sticks his hand out, just in time to block George from giving Ahalam a piece of cheese.

"You are a thief," Ahalam says in a heartbroken voice.

"I told you that you couldn't have it! No fair trying to sneak around my instructions and telling my followers you can!"

"You did not tell them that I could not have cheese, so it is their fault."

Harry snorts despite himself. Sometimes he thinks Ahalam's reasoning ability is getting better day by day. For all that they would still be pretty ridiculous arguments coming from anyone else, they're pretty good arguments for a snake.

"Oh, I don't like this, Harry."

"Because it might not be Regulus Black?" Harry asks, looking up at Hermione, who's chewing her lip. "I suppose that's possible, but copying his handwriting that way would be a pretty neat trick."

"No, it's because he's still not telling you everything." Hermione waves the parchment for a second. "I don't want to say that you should be distrustful of everything and everybody, but—he's not someone you really know."

Harry nods. "That's why I won't go visit him or do anything else without speaking to Sirius."

"And other people."

"Well, of course other people. Since Theo could be pulled along if I'm in danger, and I don't want to upset anyone—"

"No, I meant you won't go visit him without other people."

"Um. I never intended to?"

Hermione leans forwards and stares intently at him, as if she thinks that he's lying. Harry just stares back, baffled. He really never did intend to go without some others, although probably not the "entourage" that Theo or Susan would think was fitting.

"All right," Hermione says at last, reluctantly, as if she doesn't like that she didn't get to yell at Harry. "And in the meantime, you're going to study Charms beyond the Patronus Charm, aren't you?"

"Cheese!"

Harry whips around to see Ahalam with a triumphant lump in his middle, and George giving him a guilty grin. "Oops. It just sort of slipped out of my fingers."

"No more cheese for days," Harry tells Ahalam.

"That does not matter! There is cheese right now."

Harry rolls his eyes. It will matter to Ahalam in a few hours, but right now, he's as happy as can be with what he's feeling.

Come to that, maybe I should try to adopt that philosophy.

"Harry, can I talk to you?"

"Of course," Harry says, concerned, putting aside his Defense book despite the way Hermione glares at him. The only time Katie has sounded as urgent about something is when it involves Quidditch, and, well—Harry hasn't joined the Quidditch practices in a while. He's been too busy with O.W.L. study and everything else.

(He doesn't intend to tell Oliver that he hasn't been attending the practices. Harry doesn't want to cause the world's youngest ever heart attack).

Katie walks with him over to one of the windows that's cracked a little in a way no magic seems able to repair. It's a draughty corner of the common room and not one that's popular because of that. She turns to look at him, and yeah, her face is ashen and her hands are shaking. Harry wonders what's gone wrong.

"I need to know if you would protect me if I became your follower," Katie whispers.

"Of course," Harry says, even though part of him sighs. People shouldn't have to become his followers to feel safe. They should just be able to. But that's not the way the world is, even if it's the way he'd like it to be. "Who do you need to be protected from?"

Katie bites her lip. "I've received an offer to play for the Falmouth Falcons."

"That's fantastic! Wait, are they stalking you or something? Do you not want to play for them?"

Katie half-smiles. "I'm actually a sixth-year, you know, not a seventh-year? Most of my friends are seventh-years, and I know I talked about learning the Patronus for my N.E.W.T.s, but I won't turn seventeen until July."

"All right…"

"I want to leave school early and play for the Falcons. But that would mean not sitting my exams. Not finishing Hogwarts. My family wouldn't be happy about that, even though it's not a disaster and I could sit my exams any time I wanted. But they won't understand."

"And your family would hurt you?"

"Not in the way that you're probably thinking of." Katie makes a helpless gesture. "They would just—get upset. Cry. My aunt would tell me over and over that I've broken her heart. My father would whinge. I just don't want to listen to it."

Harry thinks for a moment. Then he says, "If you want me to pretend that I've commanded you to do this, then I can't do that. It would make me look tyrannical and not like a good Lord, and that would damage a lot of other plans I have in progress. So if that's what you want me to do, I'm sorry, but I can't."

Katie shakes her head, eyes wide. "No! I just want to be able to swear to you and have you protect me from my family if they start complaining about it. Technically I would still be under their control until I turn seventeen. But if I'm sworn to a Lord, then you can say that I can leave school and live wherever I please."

"Oh. So it would only be for a few months, until you turn seventeen?"

"Yeah."

Katie looks a little shifty, but Harry ignores that. He thinks she's probably going to use this as a test period to see if she even likes being his follower, but that's fine. He'll still protect her no matter how long she stays with him.

"Then you can write to your family, and have them write to me, and I'll say that I'm your Lord—what?"

Katie is shaking her head. "That won't work. The legal protection would be shaky. I need to swear an oath, and then there's no way that they can force me to come back home no matter how hard they try."

Harry conceals a groan. "Katie—"

"What's wrong with an oath?"

"Someday I'm going to take one from someone who regrets it, that's all. And I'd rather that you not make a commitment you can't break. Who knows what would happen if I, I don't know, turned evil and—why are you laughing?"

"Harry Potter, Lord Slytherin, evil!" Katie says, and dissolves into giggles.

Harry scowls at her. "Well, I might. You don't know." He almost wishes he could tell her about the Horcruxes and his connection with Voldemort, because maybe then she would believe him that it could happen, but of course, he can't.

"I'll take my chances." Katie smiles at him as she takes out her wand. "I'll make a simple oath on my wand, all right? And you can tell me if you think it's too much or something."

"All right," Harry says, with reluctance that he doesn't have to feign. He just doesn't want anyone to regret this, that's all.

Along with keeping them safe and happy, that's all he's ever wanted.

Katie holds her wand out to him, and Harry takes it uncertainly. No one else who swore an oath to him did it exactly like this. Katie places her hands on the wand, atop his, and looks directly into his eyes as she says, "I, Katie Anne Bell, swear on my wand to be true to Harry Potter, Lord Slytherin, until the first of August of this year, to follow him in good faith, to support what he says when he says it, to place his interests above my own."

There's a flash of golden light from between their joined hands. More than one person in the common room yelps, it's so bright. Flushed and triumphant, Katie lifts her hands and takes her wand back, smiling at him.

"That's a serious oath," Harry tells her, a little appalled. "And I didn't make one to you in return."

"You don't need to," Katie says simply. "I trust you."

Theo and Susan are smug when Harry tells them about Katie's oath, because of course they bloody are.

Harry does his best to scowl intimidatingly when he's practicing Transfiguring Sickles into golden rings for Salazar to store in his pouch. More people in the common room are watching him with consideration that they don't even bother to hide.

This had better not start a trend.