Title: Chrysalis
Pairing: Harry/Theo, mentions of others
Content Notes: Angst, gore, violence, mention of past character deaths, AU after the First Task in GoF, present tense, underage kissing
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Sequel to 'Imago.' Theo and Harry kept Voldemort from rising in the graveyard. Now they have a difficult summer of keeping themselves safe, battling the Order's expectations, and foiling Death Eaters' expectations that Theo will hand Harry over to them.
Author's Notes: This is the sequel to "Instar" and "Imago," which you absolutely have to read first. It should update mostly on Tuesdays.
Chrysalis
Chapter One—The Escape
"It sounds right horrible, mate."
Theo is standing in the shadows of the hospital wing, not having moved yet to reveal his presence to Weasley or Granger. He manages to keep from rolling his eyes or coughing or sneering, but it's hard.
"It was." Harry's voice is subdued. "I'm glad Pettigrew's dead but I didn't want him to die that way, you know?"
That's probably even true, Theo muses. Harry is kind and gentle to a fault. He's learned from Theo how to defend himself and stand up for himself, not how to actually be harder.
"Oh, Harry, we have to tell you..."
Granger sounds heartbroken. Theo doesn't move, but all his senses come to prickling alertness, and he sees the way Harry turns on one side in the hospital bed. His hand has reached for his wand under his pillow, Theo knows. He wonders if Granger and Weasley know that Harry is never far from the wand anymore.
"Oh?" Harry's tone is neutral, if you're an idiot.
"Have to tell him what, Hermione?" Weasley asks at the same time, and Theo's eyebrows go up. Before, Weasley and Granger often acted as a united front against Harry or in their disapproval of Theo. It's new if she knows something that Weasley doesn't.
Granger stares at the floor for a long moment with her jaw working. Conflict between her loyalty to Harry and something an authority figure has told her not to reveal, Theo thinks. He doesn't like Granger much, but he knows her.
"Professor Dumbledore doesn't want us to write to you this summer," Granger whispers. "He says it'll be too dangerous with Death Eaters on the move and You-Know-Who's spirit out there. And he says that you could use a holiday in the Muggle world away from all—this." She doesn't wave her hand around at the hospital wing, but her fingers twitch like she wants to. "So we can't exchange letters after you get off the train."
"I see."
Harry's voice is low and flat and calm, much too much for it to be natural. Theo knows him, too. Harry is furious—at the idea of being cut off from his friends, at the idea of it being too dangerous to send letters when it wasn't too dangerous for Harry to compete in the Tournament, at the idea of being sent back to his horrible Muggle relatives. Granger and Weasley probably know that, too, or some of it, but they won't interfere to change things.
Theo will.
He waits until Weasley and Granger have exchanged a few more lame words with Harry about the necessity of going back to the Dursleys, and then melts out of the shadows as soon as they leave the hospital wing. "I would have expected you to start yelling," he murmurs, going over to lay a hand against Harry's cheek.
Harry sighs and leans towards Theo, slumping over in a way that he never does with anyone else. He trusts Theo with his back and his heart and everything else in his life. Despite how tired he looks like this, it makes Theo's heart both soar and sing. "It won't make a difference. They'll do what he wants anyway."
"Because they don't care about you?"
"At least you asked that as a question. No, because they care about Dumbledore too much and they don't have the wherewithal to stand up to him."
Theo could think of many different things to call "wherewithal," starting with a spine and a heart. But he knows it will only make Harry upset to hear that. Granger and Weasley are what they are, and Harry has repaired his friendship with them as far as it can come for right now. Theo never had any desire to be the only person in Harry's life, either.
Just the most important.
"You realize we're not doing what he says?"
Harry gives a low, exhausted laugh. "Sometimes you can compete with Hermione for bossiness."
Theo chooses not to answer that. There is such a thing as dignity. He sits down on the bed beside Harry and runs his hand up Harry's shoulder. Harry rolls towards him, nestling against Theo's thigh, and they sit like that for a few minutes.
"You think Zabini and his mum would welcome you bringing a tagalong to their house?" Harry finally asks.
Theo blinks, his eyes widening, and then realizes that the hints he dropped must have been too subtle for Harry. He frowns down at his annoying boyfriend. "We're not going to Blaise's house for the summer."
Harry jolts against him. "But you said—Theo, to be safe you said you would go with them—"
"That was when my father was alive, and I had him to hide from," Theo interrupts. "And when he could have made a stink in front of the Wizengamot demanding me back. One of the reasons I asked Blaise for sanctuary was that his mother is strong enough to protect me from something like that, but another reason is that she would have made my father regret it and would have embarrassed him in public if he tried the Wizengamot route. My father is dead now. There's no reason that we can't both live in my house for the summer."
Harry trembles a little. Theo strokes his hair and wonders if Harry is intimidated at the thought of living in a house once owned by a Death Eater, by one of the men who came to the graveyard attempting to sacrifice and kill him.
Then he realizes that Harry's tears are soaking the side of his robe. Theo bows his head over Harry's body and hopes that no one comes through the door into the hospital wing at the moment, because he would kill to protect Harry's privacy.
"That sounds wonderful," Harry says at last, with longing so thick in his voice that it lodges in Theo's bones.
"And you sound as if you're about to say no," Theo whispers back.
"Dumbledore will probably have people tracking and watching me. He'll come after me if he realizes I'm not at the Dursleys'. And what will happen to you then?"
"I can withstand him, you know that."
"I mean, mentally, spiritually, I know that," Harry says impatiently, and Theo's heart sings again at the utter confidence in Harry's tone. Harry will never have reason to doubt him, Theo promises himself, never have reason to think Theo is less than committed to him. "But legally? Magically? Theo, you can't."
"I'm not thinking of going into direct battle against him, Harry, either in the courtroom or in a dueling ring."
"You're laughing at me."
"A little," Theo apologizes, and smooths the hair back from Harry's forehead to touch the scar that it seems he alone in all magical Britain has no fear of touching. "But I think it's sweet of you to worry about me. We're just not going to confront him at all, Harry. We'll go behind the wards at Nott House and not have to worry about him until our fifth year begins."
"But how? He's sure to have me followed to the Dursleys', and I don't know what everyone he might ally with looks like."
"We're leaving tonight."
Harry's jaw drops, and he stares at Theo as if he has grown extra heads and horns like a Goat-Hydra. Theo smiles at him and waves his wand lazily. A packed bag soars from behind the bed where he was standing when Granger and Weasley were in the room. It contains his robes, books, and everything else in the shrunken trunk, plus some delicate things it's not advisable to shrink. He slings it over his shoulder and raises an eyebrow at Harry.
"I—my things are in Gryffindor Tower—"
"This," Theo says, tilting his head a little as the door opens, "is one reason it's advisable to have other friends in Gryffindor."
"H-Hi, Harry."
Neville Longbottom is stuttering when he comes into the hospital wing, but he's still there, and he's carrying the bag Harry usually uses for classes, complete with books and parchment enough to look as though he's just transporting homework or the like. Harry is still opening and closing his mouth like an adorable fish when Longbottom holds out his hand and reveals Harry's shrunken trunk on it.
"Wow, Neville," Harry says at last. "Thank you. I had no idea you were so good at Charms."
Theo briefly resents that he's on the bed at an angle which makes it impossible for him to subtly kick Harry. The last thing they need is to undermine Longbottom's confidence. But Longbottom glows as though Harry has lit a candle and put it in his belly, so—Theo shrugs to himself. Who can understand Gryffindors and what they take offense to?
"You—you deserve better than just going back to a place Ron and Hermione aren't going to write to you during the summer," Longbottom says.
"They told you that?"
"Um. I overheard them in the common room yesterday." Longbottom still looks terribly bashful about admitting that he spied on Weasley and Granger even accidentally, but he came and told Theo right after it happened. He has Theo's blessing to eavesdrop all he wants.
For some reason, that makes Harry go quiet, alternating his stare between the trunk and the bag Longbottom brought him. Longbottom immediately turns pink and says quickly, "I-I'm sorry, Harry, I know they're your friends! But I couldn't just sit there and listen to them."
"You're my friend, too, Neville," Harry says absently, and doesn't even seem to notice the way that it makes Longbottom look like he would throw himself off a cliff for Harry. "I'm not angry at you. I just—they told me it was about security, and then they just sit around discussing it in the open? In the common room?"
He catches Theo's eye, and Theo nods a little. Yes, that's the kind of thing that Weasley and Granger would probably defend if they were there, and the kind of thing Theo thinks is indefensible. He thinks that Harry isn't there yet, but he seems to be shaken, and he's biting his lips in a way that tells Theo he's trying not to swear.
"Um, I thought it couldn't be that sensitive."
"I might be exaggerating a little," Harry says, even though Theo knows perfectly well he's not, not with the way that Dumbledore thinks Harry's supposed best friends writing to him is too much of a risk. "I'll send you an owl once I'm settled, okay?"
"Not in the Muggle place?"
Longbottom is smarter than Theo thought, to pick up on the implications of Harry's words like that. But he straightens his shoulders before Theo can decide what kind of threat will keep Longbottom silent and still pass muster with Harry.
"I'm not stupid," Longbottom says, and there's more than a hint of anger in his voice. "What I know is that they shouldn't be doing this, and I want to make sure that they don't get away with it. I would have talked to them right away if I'd thought they would l-listen. I'm glad that you're going somewhere where you can live with Nott and write letters back and forth. It matters."
Harry blinks at Longbottom, looking utterly astonished. Theo doesn't feel so far from that emotion himself, but he blinks and doesn't let it show on his face. Instead, he inclines his head to Longbottom a little.
"Thank you," Harry says hoarsely a minute later. "For doing what you did, Neville. For saying what you said."
"You're welcome," Longbottom says. "And don't tell me where you're going. G-Gran says that Dumbledore might be a Legilimens. So I don't want him to be able to read my mind and know where you went."
"But he might know that you brought my things to me in the hospital wing, right? Are you going to get in trouble?"
"I brought you your things. That's not a crime."
Theo revises several of his judgments about Longbottom, starting from first year, in the next second. Including the worth of an ally that he can be next year. He nods gravely, and Longbottom nods back a second later.
"Thanks," Harry whispers, and gets off the hospital bed to hug Longbottom, which Theo does not approve of, mostly because he's limping and still magically exhausted. "Thank you so much, Neville."
Longbottom clings to Harry for a second, as though he assumes he's going to let go and never see Harry again. Then he steps back and scowls at Theo. "Take care of him, Nott."
"I will," Theo says, and sinks all the weight of a promise into his voice. It seems to be enough for Longbottom, who scrutinizes him a minute longer before he turns and leaves, his footsteps soft enough to make Theo wonder how often Longbottom has crept around somewhere—the greenhouses?—and no one has noticed.
Harry stares at his things for a few moments more with wide eyes, and then shakes his head and turns around to look at Theo. "So what are we going to do?"
Theo smiles.
"I'm kind of unimpressed that Dumbledore doesn't have any wards up that can detect Invisibility Cloaks," Harry mutters, as they walk out the front doors of Hogwarts together, pressed under the Cloak. It's a fairly tight fit, but Theo thinks it's far better than attempting to fly brooms off the Astronomy Tower or whatever Harry would have suggested.
"He probably didn't think he needed them," Theo murmurs, scanning the grounds alertly. He wouldn't put it past Dumbledore to have guards of some sort watching, but there truly does seem to be nothing. "You're the only one in the school who has one, aren't you?"
"As far as I know."
Theo nods and then freezes in place, reaching out a hand to rest on Harry's shoulder. Harry has already stopped. They watch as a shape slinks across the grounds. Theo thinks at first it's Fang, Hagrid's boarhound, and wonders why he's wandering around by himself. Harry told him that the dog is a coward and always spends the night in the hut with Hagrid.
But then the dog trots into the moonlight, and Harry makes a desperate little noise. Theo lets his hand rest on Harry's back. "What is it?" he whispers.
"My godfather."
Theo stares at the dog and makes some rapid calculations in his head. He knows that Sirius Black is Harry's godfather, on the run, and somehow slipped past the Dementors multiple times last year. He must be an Animagus. And from the way that Harry is trembling next to Theo, his eyes fixed yearningly on the huge, shaggy black shape, he must be innocent, too.
Theo is a little irritated that Harry didn't tell him, but as far as Theo knows, Black didn't try to get in touch with Harry during the school year, either. He puts aside the argument he wants to have and murmurs, "Can he smell us, do you think?"
"He probably can. But I don't know if he can do it with all the other scents around and the way the wind is blowing."
Theo immediately tilts his head back. He's no dog or Animagus, of course, but he thinks, from the breeze's pressure on his cheek, that he can sense it blowing in the wrong direction for that. He squeezes Harry's hand once.
"I wish I could tell him," Harry whispers. "He offered to let me live with him last year."
Theo knows why Harry would place a premium on that, but all he can do is lean against Harry's shoulder for a moment. He doesn't want to let Harry go running across the grounds to his godfather, not when it would ruin their escape. "Could you trust him to stand up for you against Dumbledore?" he whispers.
"I don't know."
"Do you want to go to him?"
Theo trembles with the urge not to let Harry do it, to just grab Harry in his arms and run away. But that will only break the trust that lies between them, and Theo loves Harry too much to lose it.
Harry finally sighs out. "No. I wish I could, but right now I can't. Maybe we can write to him once we're firmly settled in Nott House and see if he can visit or write to us without dragging Dumbledore along."
Theo nods, trying not to show how relieved he is. From the way Harry leans his shoulder against Theo, he probably knows anyway.
Theo bangs on the door of the Three Broomsticks, ignoring the sleepy grumbles that come from Madam Rosmerta as she opens it. "Have a very sick friend here," he says firmly, bustling Harry in, half-wrapped in an ordinary cloak and stumbling along. A firm tone and confident air will give Madam Rosmerta less time to question them, and even if Dumbledore and the rest figure out the route Harry and Theo fled by, by then it'll be too late. "Have to use your Floo."
"It's gone eleven, dearie," Madam Rosmerta says reproachfully even as she guides them over to the large fireplace Theo has watched numerous people enter and exit from before.
"Sorry, sorry, emergency situation," Theo says, channeling his best example of bustle, which is Cornelius Fudge during the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Madam Rosmerta sighs and hands them the Floo powder without even glancing at his face, which Theo appreciates. He draws out a couple Sickles from a pocket and drops them into her palm. Meanwhile, he fusses with Harry as if worried that he might vomit, which makes Madam Rosmerta step back further.
All to the good, Theo thinks, and casts in the Floo powder. "Receiving room!"
It's the code name that his father used for Nott House for years, and sounds conveniently like a room at St. Mungo's. Theo clasps Harry close to him as they whirl through the fire. Harry confessed he wasn't very good at the Floo, and Theo doesn't intend to drop or lose him.
In the end, they stumble out of the Floo together, nearly collapsing on the rug that covers the floor of the sitting room at Nott House, and Theo holds Harry up. Harry's eyes are round as he shrugs off the cloak hood, and for a moment, there's pure silence.
Then they start laughing simultaneously, and Harry grabs Theo and kisses him soundly enough to make Theo's head spin. "We're free," Harry says, his grin fierce.
Theo will remember that grin, through all the days and nights that follow.