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Chapter Nineteen—Before the Throne

Theo pauses with Rosier's body floating in front of him. No, Rosier floating in front of him. He does have to remember that Rosier isn't actually dead, although not for a lack of trying on his part.

"Ready?" Blaise asks softly.

Theo nods, and then he flings open the door of the common room and strides in with noise and fanfare, not caring about the way that the door hits the wall behind it.

Conversation dies as people look at Theo, and Blaise, and the floating Rosier. Theo is glad that Draco isn't in sight at the moment. Theo might feel like killing him if he was, and honestly, it would take Theo more effort than he likes to kill someone he's known since childhood.

"Nott? What are you doing?"

It's Iphigenia Rosier, a sixth-year and Daedalus's cousin, who speaks. Theo turns and smiles at her, and watches the way that her hand inches towards her wand. She might not want to admit it when Theo is a year younger than she is and hasn't even been through his OWLs yet, but she's definitely afraid of him.

"Was it you?" Theo asks her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you the one who sent your cousin to assault my boyfriend? Who conspired to lure me back to the common room so that I wouldn't be right there when Daedalus came knocking on the ward?"

Iphigenia shakes her head, her dark hair flying around her face. "No, it was never—I never would have known something like that, Nott—"

Theo ends the Levitation spell and lets Rosier's body thump to the floor, stripping it of his hood at the same time. More than one person gasps, and one screams, at the sight of the burns on Rosier's face and hands. The scream comes from Davis. At least Theo is pretty sure she doesn't have anything to do with this.

Theo turns. People flinch before his gaze, but don't scatter.

"Who was it?" Theo asks. "Who came up with this plan? And who's going to hold still and let me look into their eyes and learn all about it?" He smiles and holds up his wand, juggling it lightly. "And who's going to be foolish enough to run?"

Someone near the back of the room breaks, pelting towards the girls' dormitories. Theo raises a shimmering barrier of will without saying a word. The girl slams into it and sits down hard on the stairs, dazed.

"I could do it," Theo says softly. "I could kill all of you except the ones of you who are my allies, and paint the walls with your blood. I would enjoy doing it. I'd enjoy laying your bodies at Harry's feet. Are you going to make me?"

"Fine."

It's Iphigenia who stands and walks towards him with hard, haunted eyes, and an expression that Theo thinks might break into a thousand glittering shards of glass at any moment. He waits with his hand on his wand. Iphigenia comes to a halt in front of him and gives him a look of hatred that Theo meets calmly.

She turns away from him, taking a deep breath and shaking her head as if she could shake loose the thoughts of how stupid she is. "We—we didn't know that you would react this way. Or have wards up that were capable of taking down Daedalus. But the Dark Lord promised to reward us greatly if we could bring Harry Potter to him."

"Of course he did," Theo says softly. At the name of the Dark Lord, all the other Slytherins are still. "And you didn't think once about the danger nearest at hand, did you?"

"You're only one fifth-year student, Nott. Not a Dark Lord like him."

"But I'm the one who's here now, and who has the most motivation to torture you."

Iphigenia stares at him with wide eyes for a moment, and then gives a jagged laugh that breaks in the middle. "You think your oh-so-righteous boyfriend would like it if you tortured people?"

"He would be grateful to me for protecting him."

Iphigenia actually moves back a step. Theo keeps watching her, letting his wide, wild smile spread across his face. It's a smile that Father said more than once made Theo look deranged, and he lectured Theo for wearing it. He wanted a pliable Heir who would always smile or speak on his father's command.

And look what happened to him.

"You—you wouldn't really torture us. Kill us."

"Yes," Theo says softly. "I would."

He lets the words fall into the silence, and looks around the common room again. No one else is coming forwards. It's possible that Iphigenia and Daedalus really did plan this by themselves, he thinks. Not that he's planning to trust them without confirmation from Legilimency—and really, he will never trust them again, or anyone else standing or sitting here except Blaise. This is the way things are.

He turns back to Iphigenia. "Show me what's in your mind," he says, "and I'll spare your life."

"I want you to promise not to torture me, either."

Her voices wavers back and forth, and Theo can see others noticing, people who are watching more to see the Rosiers fall than Theo succeed. That doesn't matter to Theo. They can watch for that. He lets his smile widen. "What power do you think you have, to demand that?"

"You—you shouldn't."

"Who says?"

"You shouldn't."

Theo decides, abruptly, that he's done letting people who tried to kill his boyfriend have a say. He raises his and rips into Iphigenia Rosier's mind without even casting the Legilimens spell aloud.

She gags and tries to tear her gaze free from his, but Theo is pressing inwards, inwards, and he finds the memory of her and Daedalus sitting on a couch somewhere that's probably deep in the dungeons. It certainly isn't the common room. They're whispering about what Daedalus learned from Granger's unguarded mind, how Harry almost always has Theo with him, but Granger has never seen Harry cast a Dark Arts spell.

Theo laughs as he rips himself free. He'll still want to read Daedalus's mind before they turn him over to Pomfrey, but he has what he needs. "Your source of information was biased and untrue, by the way."

He doesn't think that Iphigenia really cares what he's saying, given that she's on the floor, whimpering, with her arms wrapped around her head. Theo turns, and meets the gazes of half the Slytherins.

More than half lean away from him.

"Anyone else who attempts to go after Harry Potter will learn what my father taught me," Theo says, and that's all the threat he really has to make. He uses a Levitation Charm to heave Daedalus into the air again. "Let's take him to Pomfrey, Blaise."

"We probably should, before he does something else that could get him killed."

Theo laughs, and people draw back from him. Theo meets their eyes again as he Levitates Rosier out the door of the common room, but they crouch and murmur and don't meet his.

It's victory. Victory that Theo knows how to manipulate and use.

He does get a moment alone with Rosier while Pomfrey is exclaiming and bustling around and fetching healing potions and the like, and he leans over and breathes, "She won't learn any differently from me than that it was a ward spell you were practicing that backfired on you. Will she learn any differently from you?"

Rosier shakes his head wildly, hunching his shoulders as if he feels the impact of an invisible lash from one of the more interesting spells that Father taught Theo. Theo steps back from him and smiles.

"I hope you get well soon, Rosier," he says, for Pomfrey to hear as she comes back from her office with the first course of potions for the wounded Slytherin. "I know that I'm worried about you."

Pomfrey finds the time to spare Theo a smile as she floats a vial over and places it at Rosier's lips. "What a nice sentiment, Mr. Nott. Do you see, Mr. Rosier, there are people who would like you to stop playing with nasty wards and return to the common room!"

Theo gives Rosier the very sweetest of his smiles and leaves the hospital wing with a saunter. Blaise goes at his side, although he waits to chuckle helplessly until they're well beyond the reach of the hospital wing and there's no way that Pomfrey can hear them.

"Do you think he'll actually stop going after Harry, if the Dark Lord is the one who threatened him into doing it?" Blaise asks, wiping tears away.

"He'll have to, because the next time, I'll kill him."

Blaise just tilts his head and nods. "And he would deserve it, for being as stubborn and stupid as he's being."

"You know, Blaise, if I weren't dating Harry, I might date you."

"And I would be flattered."

Theo smiles at him, and they leave the corridor in perfect harmony.

"It makes sense."

"It does. I just don't know whether we'll be able to use the spell in such a big building."

"But we don't have any other clues right now."

Theo nods reluctantly. It makes sense that Riddle would have left a Horcrux at Hogwarts, the place that mattered so much to him and rescued him from the Muggle orphanage he grew up in, and it also makes sense that they might have to cast the spell several times to find the Horcrux. But that's not really a problem. They both know the spell thoroughly now, thanks to practice with Tonks, and they can manage the magical drain of casting it.

He doesn't, on the other hand, want anyone to see them doing it.

"Theo? Are you all right?"

Theo leans his cheek into Harry's palm as his boyfriend comes to a halt beside him, and sighs a little when Harry strokes his skin. "Sorry, Harry. I just—I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that we'll have to search all over Hogwarts, and we might forget a Privacy Charm, and someone might see what we're doing."

"So what?"

"So they might report it to Dumbledore and Snape, is what."

"They didn't do anything when you told them about Umbridge using Veritaserum. Why should they do a thing about us using soul magic? If the student who sees it would even recognize it, which I doubt."

"You know we can't count on them for any kind of responsible or consistent behavior," Theo murmurs, and kisses Harry's cheek when he looks mutinous. "They could decide to interfere on this where they didn't on Umbridge. We'll just have to cast it a few times a day and remember to put up a Privacy Charm each time."

Harry's mutiny drains away as he sighs and nods. "Ugh. I wish this was easier."

"Do you think we would have got together if it was easy?"

"I don't know." Harry takes a step towards Theo with his eyes wide and clear and shining. "I just know that I don't ever want to part from you. And it doesn't really matter to me how or why we got together, as long as I never need to do that."

Theo smiles and bends to kiss him, and then stops at gagging noises from behind them. He twists around and sighs when he sees Weasley and Granger standing there. "You don't have to watch, you know."

"We didn't plan to watch! We just came around the corner and you were snogging—"

Granger hits Weasley in the side so hard with her elbow that he gags again. Theo would like to think that she might have broken one of his ribs, but unfortunately, she doesn't hit that hard, or Draco would have had a broken jaw a few years ago. "Honestly, Ron! Although you don't need to kiss your boyfriend in the corridor where anyone can see, Harry."

Harry shrugs. "Anyone who has a problem with me doing that can answer to me."

"And me." Theo drops his chin on Harry's shoulder and delights in watching them struggle to deal with it.

He does grunt a little when Harry directs his own elbow back into Theo's ribs, but that doesn't diminish the delight.

"You're ridiculous," Granger says crossly. "Harry, why did you ask us to meet you up here?"

"Because I need to know who your loyalty is to, me or Dumbledore."

Theo pauses. He knew he and Harry would be meeting Weasley and Granger near to—not inside—their private classroom, but not what they would discuss.

After a moment of shock, however, he accepts it easily. After all, this is Harry's decision to make.

"What?" Weasley says, while he flushes a shade of red that looks unhealthy.

"I think you heard me."

"Mate—there's no conflict. You and Dumbledore are on the same side of the war, remember?"

Theo snorts. Weasley spins around to face him. "What, Nott? Do you deny that? Did you—convince Harry to join—"

"If you think Harry would ever join the man who murdered his parents, you're far more hopeless than I thought," Theo mutters, shaking his head. "I was snorting at the idea that one could only be on the same side as someone else if they agreed with everything the other person did. But I see I have even more lack of nuance from you than I suspected to mourn over."

"Theo."

Theo sighs and moves back with his hands raised. Honestly, he doesn't mean to antagonize Weasley and Granger. It's just that they show up spouting this sort of righteous idiocy and he can't resist.

"Thank you," Harry says, with a withering glance, but at least he turns the same one on Weasley. "You know there's a conflict, Ron. He didn't want you to tell me about the Order of the Phoenix or the reason that he wanted you to not write to me. So I wanted to know if you're keeping any other secrets from me, or if this is it and you're going to be loyal to me from now on."

"I'm loyal to you."

It's Granger who speaks. Theo eyes her temperately. She was an idiot last year when she was trying to reconcile Weasley and Harry against Harry's will, but she's not been an idiot other times.

And she wasn't as much of an idiot as Weasley himself.

"Are you?" Harry leans back against Theo, who grunts a little in surprise but then supports him, as he intends to do until the day he dies. "Would you mind swearing a vow to prove it?"

Weasley takes a long breath, but releases it without actually saying anything. Granger's gaze is steady as she removes her wand from its holster. "I suppose that you have some wording in mind?"

"Yes, actually," Harry says, and pulls a scroll of parchment from his pocket.

Theo blinks. He and Harry worked on the wording of the vow, but Theo thought it was something Harry was going to have Black swear. He supposes that it still might be. Weasley and Granger will just come first.

Granger studies the scroll and bites her lip. But she raises her wand without hesitation. "I swear on my magic, my life, and the blood that runs in my veins that I, Hermione Jane Granger, am loyal to Harry Potter above Albus Dumbledore. I will keep no secrets from Harry that Dumbledore asks me to keep, and I will tell Harry Potter the full and absolute truth concerning him and Theodore Nott as I know it." Her magic flares around her, and the vow glows white and silver for a second before it settles.

"Hermione."

"I can still keep secrets, Ron, just not ones from Harry."

"And if there are ones that we need to keep because they're—I don't know, about personal things?"

"Oh, have you started having sex, then?"

Theo asks the question in as innocent a voice as he can, because it's brilliant when they flush as brightly as they do. He laughs and leans back against the support provided by the wall and Harry while Granger's brilliant blush and Weasley's outraged spluttering answer the question for him.

"Theo."

"They're so fun, though."

Harry rolls his eyes and faces Weasley again. "I wouldn't ask you to tell me secrets about things like that, Ron. You'll notice that the vow is worded so that it only applies to secrets about me and only to things that Dumbledore told you."

"But—it's possible that he could tell us something we would really need to keep from you, and we wouldn't have a choice but to tell it to you!"

"Like what? What would fit that category?"

Weasley hesitates.

Harry nods. "I don't really think there's anything that would, which is why I worded the vow the way I did. Sure, he could still ask you to keep secrets from me. But now, as per the vow, you would need to tell me what they are."

"And we can't use our own judgment?"

"So far, your own judgment hasn't been great, Ron."

"What do you mean?"

"Last year."

"I really did think that you forgave me for that, mate," Weasley whispers, his eyes closing. "I'm trying. I wouldn't ever do something like that again. I know that it's stupid to be jealous of you now."

"Then you shouldn't have any trouble making the vow," Theo says helpfully. "Because this means that you'll be able to keep Harry's secrets and not have to rely on your own judgment, or even make a mistake when you're really trying not to."

Weasley glares at him, but says nothing for a long moment. Then he turns back to Harry. "It's possible that Dumbledore could—read our minds," he says reluctantly. "I think that he's a Legilmens."

"Yeah, he is," Harry says. "And he could read your minds, but we'll work on both teaching you Occlumency and teaching you how to avoid meeting his eyes in a way that looks natural."

"And will we learn your secrets, too?"

"I don't think you have any interest in how often Theo and I snog, Ron."

In Weasley's spluttering and denial, Theo can see Granger's eyes fastened on them. She thinks that they have more dangerous secrets, Theo knows. He can still remember the way she confronted him about Umbridge's death.

But she didn't have any hesitation about swearing the vow, either.

In the end, Weasley does the same, and Theo relaxes for the first time since the ward burned Daedalus Rosier.

Granted, it helps that Harry takes him to the private classroom for one of their more-than-snogging sessions almost the moment that his friends leave.