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Chapter Three—Assaults on Decency

"I can't believe that you didn't want to read my letter to Sirius."

"I asked you if you wanted me to read it, and you gave me the sort of look appropriate to a house-elf who's being prevented from cleaning up a mess. So I rightly surmised that you did not want me to read it, and we sent it on its way."

Harry sits back in his chair at the dining room table, his hand restlessly playing with the teapot in front of him. Theo takes a certain delight in the fact that it's an earthenware teapot, the sort that his father never would have used with company. Well, valued company. He might have pulled it out if, for example, he'd ever deigned to let Weasley visit.

Theo likes using it. It puts more and more distance between him and his father, which is something he values right now.

"I wish I could know what the right move is," Harry whispers.

"What do you mean?"

"Sirius might get upset if I'm too honest about dating you and not wanting him to tell Dumbledore, but he might tell Dumbledore anyway. That's why I ended up putting in the bit about him not telling Dumbledore, because it would probably be what he just did otherwise. And he might show up and pound on the wards and scream at you because he has the impression that he's recognizing me from a seducer."

Theo chokes a little. He supposes one could apply that word to him, from a certain perspective, which might be the one that Black's inclined to adopt. And he might even have agreed with Black, back when he thought he was seducing Harry for his own purposes.

Now Theo knows that Harry was seducing him.

"I'll soon know the whole of the letter that you didn't want me to read, if you keep going on about it like this," he says instead of voicing his thoughts.

Harry glares at him a little. Theo smiles back, and Harry melts, of course.

"Will you let Sirius in the wards if he comes?"

"If I can check him first."

"Check him?"

"For Polyjuice Potion, the Imperius Curse, or anything else that might indicate it's not really him or he's operating under the control of someone else."

"You don't think Dumbledore would…"

Theo shrugs. "I think it's unlikely," he has to admit. "It's not the sort of tactic he's known for adopting. But he might do it if he's desperate enough to find out where you are." He glances pointedly at the Daily Prophet on the table between them, which has a picture of Harry taken at the First Task on the front page and a huge headline. BOY-WHO-LIVED STILL MISSING!

Harry gives a soft laugh.

"What?" Theo almost hates to ask. Whatever it is, it's making Harry's eyes sparkle. But that just means Theo wants to share it, so he can appreciate it.

"I was just thinking that you give Dumbledore more credit than he gives you. He probably thinks you do have me under the Imperius Curse. Or maybe that we had sex and you're blackmailing me to cooperate with you by threatening to release the gory details."

Theo blinks. "Would the details be gory?"

"I hope not. I hope they'd remain unknown except to the two of us."

Harry's face is flaring with patches of red, but he keeps his eyes on Theo. Theo smiles and leans across the table to put a hand on his. "I think I could promise you that they would stay between the two of us."

"Good," Harry whispers, and clears his throat. "Well, I suppose that we won't know whether Sirius got the letter unless he sends one back."

"Or pounds on the wards."

"Would he?"

"You know him better out of the two people sitting at this table. You tell me."

Harry looks pensive for a moment. "I've only got to spend a total of a few hours with him, if you don't count the time before my parents died," he admits. "I—he's really important to me, Theo, but I don't know for sure how he's going to act." He pauses, and looks so stricken that Theo starts to ask what's wrong, but Harry goes on before he can. "I never thought…we killed Pettigrew in the graveyard, and I didn't even mention that in the letter. Sirius could find his body and prove that he didn't kill him. He could be free."

Theo snaps his fingers, and the house-elf his mother named Cassie long ago appears next to him. "Go to the last place that you felt your former master's magic," he tells her. "Find the body next to the large cauldron there and preserve it with your magic. Bring it to me."

"Yes, Master Theo," Cassie murmurs, and vanishes, with only a fleeting glance in Harry's direction.

Harry is gaping at him. Theo tilts his head. "What?" He hopes this isn't going to be yet another argument about house-elves. Theo fully agrees that you don't want to mistreat them, in case they poison you or kill you with magic and make it look like an accident, but he also doesn't intend to give his up. They know far too many secrets for Theo to let them go.

"How did—your house-elves just know where the graveyard is?"

"They can track people in the Nott family by their magic," Theo says quietly. "They know where Father died."

"Where you killed him."

"Yes."

"They know that, and—I don't know, Theo. They're still willing to serve you?"

"Father didn't mistreat them, but he did nothing to make them think kindly of him, either. And it's not unknown for control of the Nott family house and wards to pass by murder. This won't even be the seventieth time."

Harry stares at him very hard. Theo looks back, and tries to hide his prickling feeling of unease. He normally wouldn't care if someone disapproved of him, but it would mean a lot if Harry did.

"All right," Harry says, and slumps back.

"Just like that?"

"I wish you hadn't had to kill your father because I thought it would be fucking traumatic for you," Harry says bluntly. "But I know you did, and I know you did it for my sake. So as long as it doesn't put more stress on you to have the body brought here…"

Cassie appears with a partially decomposed body hovering behind her. Theo winces from the smell, but Cassie waves a hand, and the reek diminishes appreciably. Theo nods at her and studies the body for a second. Degraded, yes, but it's still recognizable as Peter Pettigrew, whose picture appears in the papers whenever they decide to go newly hysterical about Black's escape.

"Will this do?" Theo asks Harry, not glancing away from Pettigrew. He kind of wishes he could tell Cassie to unleash her magic in such a way that it strips the flesh from Pettigrew's bones and preserves the skeleton, but then someone in the Ministry would surely make a fuss about it not being him.

Harry doesn't speak. Theo glances over at him in concern and finds him turning a bright green, eyes locked on Pettigrew.

Theo sighs. Harry survived the graveyard and wasn't even too bothered by what Theo had to do to his father and Voldemort, but he was riding the adrenaline of battle then. Seeing a decaying body close at hand isn't something he's used to.

"Put that somewhere under the most powerful Preservation Charms you can cast, Cassie."

"Yes, Master Theo," Cassie says, and they both disappear.

Harry at least looks more normal when Theo looks at him again. "All right?" Theo asks gently. He thinks about Summoning an anti-nausea potion, but Harry's pride is touchy sometimes and he might take it as an insult.

"Yeah. I—sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about. Not everyone had a childhood where they had to be around decaying bodies until they got used to them."

"Your father—murdered a lot of people?"

"Animals," Theo reminds Harry. "Mostly not ones that he conjured or Transfigured, either. He saw that the smell and the condition of the corpses bothered me, so he made me be around them until I didn't gag or get upset about maggots anymore. He saw it as a weakness that he wanted to stop me from having."

"Um," Harry says. "Your father was messed up."

Theo sighs. "Tell me about it."

Black does indeed show up, hammering on the wards. Hammering on the wards and screaming. Hammering on the wards and screaming and shapeshifting back and forth between a man and a dog so fast that Theo is mildly impressed.

The image of Black transforming like that appears projected on the blank wall to the right of the dining table where Theo and Harry are eating dinner. Harry leaps to his feet, then sits back down when he seems to realize that it's only an image.

"I didn't know the wards could show something like that," he murmurs, glancing back and forth between Theo and the picture.

"Not everyone's can, but my grandmother thought we should be able to see our enemies before they made themselves known right in front of the gates." Theo blots his mouth with a napkin and puts it down. "Do you think he'll listen if I send a messenger to talk to him and check him for Polyjuice and the Imperius? Or will he just yell and scream until you come out?"

"I don't think he would hurt a house-elf?"

Theo has his doubts, but Harry is the one who knows the man. He nods and summons Cassie. She's probably the one he'll designate to talk with Black anyway, if this works out and Black needs to see that they have Pettigrew's body. "If you'll go to Black and tell him that he can come in if he stops hitting the wards and screaming? And check him for any means you can think of, potion or spell, that would disguise a person or corrupt his true intentions?"

"Yes, Master Theo."

Cassie vanishes. The next instant, the image on the walls and ceiling shows her appearing next to Black. He doesn't seem to notice her for a moment, too occupied with his loud and useless knocking, but a second later, he transforms back into a dog and whirls around, probably alerted by her scent.

Cassie bows and says something while waving a hand at him. Black snaps her jaws at her. Cassie reaches out and thumps him on the nose.

Black sits down, looking dazed. Harry gapes at Theo for a moment, then at the image. "How did she know that would work?"

"I used to have a Crup who was very interested in chewing through every piece of clothing and set of Potions ingredients available. Cassie did the same thing to him."

"Can I meet the Crup?"

"My father sacrificed him," Theo says shortly.

Harry gazes at him with clear eyes, ignoring Black's panting for a moment, and then reaches out and lays his hand across Theo's. "He deserved to die," he says softly.

Theo doesn't know why he needs to hear exactly those words at exactly that moment, or how Harry knew. But he turns his hand upwards and cups Harry's fingers, holding them. Harry just smiles, not wincing no matter how tight Theo grips.

Theo closes his eyes and sits there in silence for a moment, head tilted back. Then he nods and turns around to face the image on the wall again. He doesn't want to talk about what he's feeling right now, and Harry is wise enough to let him retreat.

Cassie is speaking to Black with her arms folded. Black appears to have recovered from his daze and is baring his teeth.

Theo's eyes narrow. Perhaps Black would harm Cassie. If he does, then Theo will have words with him.

But perhaps Cassie has got through to the idiot after all. She holds out a hand, and Black raises his left forepaw and rests it on her fingers. Theo tweaks the wards as Cassie looks up, so that Black is subjected to the same rules as a strange house-elf and can pop through if one of the Nott elves is leading him.

Should Theo revoke the invitation, then Black is going to find himself with problems.

The world around Theo shimmers and seems to dance to the right. Black and Cassie drop onto the floor in an undignified heap right in front of the dining table. Theo winces and massages his temples. Father never mentioned that was a side-effect of allowing someone to be pulled through the wards.

He probably thought it would be funny not to tell me, Theo thinks sourly.

Harry scrambles to his feet. "Padfoot!"

Black seems to have almost as many names as Dumbledore, Theo thinks idly as he watches Black shimmer again and transform back into a human. He hurtles forwards and scoops Harry up into his arms, spinning him around for a moment.

"I was so worried, Harry," he mutters against Harry's hair. "Why did you pull a disappearing act?"

"I was worried that Dumbledore would send me back to the Dursleys' and keep me from writing to anyone," Harry says, and leans back in Black's arms to beam at him. Theo stills his jealousy by reminding himself that he's spent a lot more time with Harry than Black has. "Hermione even told me that they wouldn't be able to owl me this summer. And you." His eyes narrow a little. "Why weren't you writing to me at all this year? I could have really used the support, Sirius."

Black swallows. "Dumbledore said it wasn't safe."

Theo nods. That confirms his suspicions.

Black looks to the side and seems to consciously see Theo for the first time. He scowls at him. "You," he says.

Theo can see from his expression why some people thought Black capable of being a mass murderer. But he grew up with someone much worse, and who was actually a mass murderer if you look at all his victims together, and he isn't afraid. He just nods and says, "Me."

"You're the reason I couldn't write to Harry!" Black stabs a finger at him over Harry's shoulder, nearly poking Harry in the ear. "Albus said that you would look at all his letters and learn things you shouldn't have!"

Theo shakes his head. "Harry kept your secrets. He didn't tell me that you were innocent or why you were special to him until just before we came here."

"But he couldn't have kept the secrets, if I was writing to him and he was showing you the letters!"

"I wouldn't have asked to see them if Harry didn't want to share them."

"Ha! But he might have shared them, and then we both would have been in danger!"

"Sirius!" Harry yells, cutting in. "Theo is not evil! He saved me in the graveyard when Voldemort took me there!" Theo has to admit he finds it hilarious when Black gives a whole-body flinch at the name and nearly jumps away from the hug Harry is holding him in. "He's protected me all this year, and he took me to the Yule Ball, and he helped me expose Crouch, and he killed his own father for me, and he gave me a safe place to stay—"

"This place isn't safe, Harry! The Dursleys' is safe!"

"You mean, the place where Harry gets abused on a regular basis?" Theo asks brightly.

Black gapes at him. Harry steps back and wraps his arms around himself. Theo yearns to go to him, but he knows, with the kind of cold knowledge that coping with Father taught him, that it's best for Harry to stand alone right now.

"He's—you're not, are you, Harry?" Black spins around, as if suddenly realizing that he's talking to the wrong person about this. "You're not?"

"Yes, I am, Sirius," Harry says, and if only Theo hears the indrawn breath before he plunges into the confession, that's all right. "I—I didn't want to call it that, for a long time. But they made me sleep in a cupboard until I was eleven, and they called me a freak, and they took food away from me, and they lied to me about how Mum and Dad died despite the fact that Aunt Petunia knew all about magic. I think that's abuse."

Black closes his eyes, his lips moving as if in prayer. Theo wonders if it's the part about the Potters that got to him. After all, Black responded so strongly to the death of Lily and James Potter that he got himself locked up for twelve years.

"I'll kill them," Black says, and his eyes pop open.

"You can't, Sirius!"

"Who's going to stop me? They deserve to suffer. More than bloody Peter—"

"Pettigrew is dead," Theo casually interjects, and makes sure to be leaning back in his chair with his arms folded behind his head when Black turns on him. "I killed him in the graveyard as part of stopping the ritual they brought Harry there for. We've kept his body preserved so that you stand a chance of being pardoned once the Ministry sees that he was still alive until recently."

Something flickers in Black's eyes, and Theo gives him a cold smile.

Yes, he tells Black without words. While you were running around uselessly, I not only kept Harry safe but took the vengeance you could not.

Not only that, I obtained the evidence to set you free, something you couldn't do. Who's better for Harry now, Black? What do you think?

Theo won't say that kind of thing. He can accept Black in Harry's life, because Harry needs him. But he won't be driven away because Black thinks he's evil, and he won't tolerate Black's whispered insinuations, either.

He plans to prove how valuable he is. Harry loves him. Black will come to see that he can't dare to hurt Theo unless he wants to lose Harry.

Black finally grunts and tears his gaze away from Theo's. "What about the blood wards at Petunia's house, then?" he asks. He's staring halfway between Harry and Theo, as if he doesn't know which one of them he hopes will answer the question. "Albus swore up and down that the wards protected Harry from Death Eaters and they're powered by love."

Harry gives the kind of bitter laugh that Theo might have under different circumstances. "Maybe they do protect me from Death Eaters," he says, when Black stares at him. "I wouldn't know. But she never loved me, Sirius. She hates me, and she hates magic, and she hates the memory of my mum."

Black looks almost adorably shocked. "But Lily was her sister."

"It doesn't matter." Harry's voice is scraped thin with tiredness. "She never cared. She never told me I was a wizard, and she didn't want to let me go to Hogwarts. Dumbledore had to send hundreds of letters and then Hagrid to escort me."

"And Nott…?"

"He stood by my side. He was loyal all the time, when even Ron and Hermione got angry about the Goblet and then because I wouldn't accept Ron's apology right away." Harry exhales noisily and runs his hand through his hair. "He loves me."

Theo nods when Black looks at him, although the words make his chest feel tight.

"I'll—we'll see," Black says, and steps forwards to hug Harry again. "I'm glad you're all right. I still don't think you should stay here. But if the Dursleys' house isn't safe for you, either, I suppose you sort of have to."

Thank you for your gracious opinion, Theo thinks, but he keeps the words clasped tightly to himself. It's worth it to see Harry's beaming smile.

And to see that smile directed first at Black, and then over Black's shoulder at Theo.

No matter how much Harry cares about his godfather, Theo will not be forgotten.