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batsutousaiTitle: Nose to the Wind
Series: Like a Ghost in My Town
Fandom: Harry Potter
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Teen
Pairing: Harry Potter/Lord Voldemort, James Potter/Lily Potter
Warnings: AU, violence, universe hopping/rebirth, Dark!Harry, werewolf!Harry, underage relationship (ish)
Summary: While Harry had been content with his second chance, that didn't keep him from thinking what he could have done different, how many people could have survived if he hadn't been set on the very specific path he'd walked. Third time is the charm, though, right?
A/N: I swear to fuck, the second task was never supposed to turn into this much of a clusterfuck, but I can only attempt to rewrite a scene so many times before I give in to the combined insistence of my muse and the characters. Ugh.
For ages at the start of this chapter, very little time has passed, so Harry remains 15. (Hermione is 16, Will is 14, and Chris is 11.)
Cross-posted to Archive of Our Own and LiveJournal.
Chapter Twenty – Keep Up This Charade
-0-
On the last day of the holiday, it occurred to Harry that, in his first reality, Barty-as-Moody had been the one to tell Cedric how to decipher his golden egg, but that had been more as a way to indirectly help Harry, and since that wasn't the case this time...
He took a brief jaunt through the Realm of Death to the small crowd of dead watching over the inhabitants of Hogwarts, stopping next to Albus, since he was the first one he recognised (and if someone was watching Cedric, it wasn't on his orders), and asking, "I don't suppose you know if Cedric's figured out the egg, yet?"
Albus frowned. "I don't believe so. Why?"
Harry shrugged. "School pride; not particularly interested in watching Hogwarts lose because no one on the staff could unbend enough to pass our champion a hint."
"Only a hint?" someone nearby asked, flashing him a distinctly Slytherin smile.
Harry chuckled and shook his head. "It's no fun if I tell him exactly what to expect."
Some of the spirits laughed, while others scoffed or made disgusted sounds. Albus just sighed and shook his head.
Harry checked in with those spirits he'd set to watching things at Hogwarts, since he was already there, then made his way home after discerning that the tensions between the Beauxbâtons contingent and everyone else were remaining relatively steady, save a brief spike after Rita's article. Which had been handled peacefully, thankfully.
Once back in his room, he pulled out his messaging paper and wrote to Will, 'You should try to mention where Cedric would hear that Mermish sounds like screeching above ground.'
It was a couple hours before Will wrote back, and Harry could only assume he'd been out with his friends. 'Okay. Why? Is it something to do with the next task?'
'It's related to the tournament,' Harry allowed.
'Does the next task involve the lake?'
'Just pass that on to Cedric.'
'ARE THEY GOING TO FIGHT MERPEOPLE? BECAUSE THAT COULD BE COOL'
Harry sighed at his brother and slipped his messaging paper away, then wandered downstairs to see if Lily needed any help with dinner.
Will would figure out he was being ignored eventually.
'This,' Will wrote the morning of the second task, 'is super boring. Who thought this was a good idea?'
'Someone in the ministry,' Harry replied before going back to the homework he was working on.
When he glanced back at the paper again a bit later, it was clear Chris had brought his paper, too, because the two had had an exchange about why fighting the merfolk would be a bad idea in terms of future relations between them and Hogwarts, Will had complained about Harry ignoring them, and then he'd suggested he and Chris go on an adventure into the Forbidden Forest, since it was so close.
Harry stiffened. 'WILLIAM HARROLD DON'T YOU DARE,' he quickly wrote back.
Harry was just about to call for Death when Will finally replied, 'I'm not.' And then, before Harry could fully relax, added, 'Yet.'
'If you're bored, go do homework,' Harry wrote back.
'Fred and George are always talking about the cool things they've found inside and I want to see too. You can come and then it'll be safe right?' Will wrote, before adding, in response to Harry's suggestion, 'Ew no way'
'If Fred and George jumped off the Astronomy Tower with no brooms, would you follow them?'
'No but that's why I'm asking you to come so you're my broomstick'
Harry made a face at his brother's attempt at a metaphor. Before he could think up a properly scathing response, Death informed him, "Your brother is already headed for the forest, Master. Chris went to Hermione and she's suggesting they find a professor to go after him."
Getting a professor's attention during the task wouldn't be easy, Harry could only assume, and he could almost see Will ducking into the forest to avoid a professor if he spotted one coming at him. Sighing, he wrote back, 'I will meet you OUTSIDE the forest,' then got up to pull out one of the sets of robes Tom had sent him that would change with him, since the nearest access to the Forbidden Forest was both a bit of trip through the Realm of Death, and inside the forest a ways, so travelling as a wolf would be his best option.
He took a moment more to leave a note for his parents that he was checking on something – he intended to be back before either of them came looking for him, but just in case, he'd rather they not panic – then stepped through to the Realm of Death, cast a point me, and grit his teeth against the pain of the change before running in the direction the spell indicated.
The doorway on the other end opened for him, and Harry sent a brief, Thank you! to Death as he paused inside the forest to orient himself. Once he was certain he knew where he was, he started for the edge closest to the lake, correcting his course once he caught scent of his brother.
"Harry!" Will recognised as Harry trotted to the edge of the forest. "I haven't seen you as a wolf in years. You got really big!"
Harry huffed and closed his eyes to focus on the change. "Imagine that," he rasped once he was human again, standing from his crouch. "In terms of wolf maturity, I'm almost an adult."
Will blinked a couple times, then grinned. "So you really will scare anything in the forest!"
Harry stepped forward and caught Will around the shoulders, twisting him so he was facing the stands surrounding the Black Lake again. "I'm not taking you into the forest, William. I don't particularly care to chance your life in a test to see how much of the forest is scared of a werewolf. And, besides, Hermione and Chris have already gone for a professor; if you go into the forest, you'll be in detention until the end of the year. And Mum'll probably ground you for the summer."
Will slumped and didn't fight him when Harry started walking them back to the stands. "Stupid Hermione," he muttered.
Harry shrugged. "You realise someone would have noticed you were gone eventually and a point me would have been all it took to land you in detention."
"Shut up," Will replied. Notably, he didn't try to dispute that.
Hermione, Chris, and Barty rounded the edge of the stands not long before Will and Harry would have reached them, and both Chris and Hermione's shoulders relaxed at the sight of him, Hermione adding a heartfelt, "Thank Merlin."
"Will and I were just discussing whether detention or grounding was worse," Harry offered cheerfully.
Will groaned and shoved at him weakly enough Harry doubted he was trying to get away.
Barty sighed. "Where did you stop him?" he asked, looking more tired than anything else.
"Outside the forest, swear," Harry promised. "Although, if you still want to give him detention for causing an uproar, he'd deserve it."
"Harry," Will complained.
"Well you would!" Hermione snapped. "What if Harry hadn't shown up?! You could have got hurt! Or killed!"
"Harry wouldn't've let me," Will muttered, scowling down at his feet.
Harry sighed and turned Will to face him. "Hey, you, eyes up." He waited until Will looked up at him, expression mulish, before saying, "While I appreciate your faith in my omniscience, I won't always be able to drop everything and get to you when you're in trouble. You've got to do some of the work of keeping yourself safe for me, okay?"
"Okay," Will whispered, slumping.
Harry pulled him into a hug, unable to help a quiet sigh when Will clung to him in return. As much as he wanted to always be able to come to his brothers' rescue, he knew he couldn't. If he was in the middle of a test or class, leaving for long enough to get them out of trouble could prove difficult. Doubly so once he found a job, especially if he ended up playing quidditch; no way he could request a loo run while playing a match and expect it to be granted right that moment.
"Perhaps," Barty commented drily, "we'll not mention this little incident to the headmaster. However, William?" He was quiet until Will finally pulled away from Harry and turned to face his professor. "If I catch you near the Forbidden Forest, intending to go inside, it's not just the headmaster I'll have to tell."
"Mum," Chris commented quietly, "is terrifying."
Barty's grimace and nod won a laugh from Harry and the three Hogwarts students. To Will, he said, "Please don't make me tell your mum?"
"I won't, sir," Will promised quietly.
Barty sighed and shook his head a bit helplessly, clearly familiar enough with teaching teenagers to know that promise wasn't likely to last forever, then turned to Harry. "I can't even begin to imagine how to explain you being here."
Harry winced, while his brothers and Hermione all let out slightly nervous laughs. Barty, at least, knew about as much as Severus about his Death Magic and 'reincarnation', but Harry had a feeling that neither of them actually knew he was even passingly familiar with the dark lord; Tom had suggested as much while they were out on his birthday, and Lily had agreed that she'd never shared that with Severus. Which, well, if Harry stayed, they were both quite likely to find out.
"The headmaster did allow Harry to attend the Yule Ball," Hermione pointed out thoughtfully. "If anyone asks, you could say he gave you something of an open permission to attend the rest of the events? Will did introduce you to Diggory, right?"
"He did," Harry agreed, casting Barty a curious look. "But what's the likelihood of Severus giving me blanket permission to sneak in without an adult?"
Barty shook his head and shrugged. "Unlikely, but given how much he hates your father, I can almost see him telling you to escape here if you're sick of him."
"There is that," Harry agreed while Will snickered. He raised an eyebrow at his brother. "If I stay, will you remain in the stands and behave?"
"Yeah," Will agreed.
Harry shrugged at Barty. "Then I'll stay. Just through the end of the task. Saves on the owls, a bit."
Will snorted, while Chris ducked his head and Hermione cast a worryingly knowing look between Harry and his brothers.
Barty sighed. "Very well. I'll see if I can't warn the headmaster before he sees you and draws attention to your attendance."
"We'll wait a bit to go through," Harry offered, and Barty nodded and hurried back through the break in the stands. With the professor gone, Harry tugged Chris into a hug and said, "Thank you for trying to get help. Although, next time, maybe skip Hermione and go straight to a professor?"
"I will," Chris promised quietly. "She was just closer."
Harry snorted at that, then sighed a bit and met Hermione's sharp stare. "Hi?"
"You have secret paper to pass notes," Hermione said flatly.
Chris hunched in on himself a bit and admitted, "I had to tell her how I knew Will was going to the forest."
"And that I didn't, necessarily, know to stop him," Harry assumed, before reaching over and ruffling Chris' hair. "Well, I suppose you were bound to find out eventually," he said to Hermione.
Hermione rubbed at her eyes for a moment, then gave Harry a tired look. "You take being secretive to an art form."
"Sorry?" Harry offered without any real sincerity.
Hermione just shook her head and huffed out a helpless laugh.
"Speaking of my secretive ways," Harry said, eyeing the path between the stands, "Barty doesn't know to warn Voldemort I'm here."
The other three all choked out laughs, and Hermione said, "How are you planning to explain crashing this event?"
Harry sighed. "It'll have to be the tried and true Gryffindor skill of winging it."
"Yes!" Will crowed, doing a ridiculous little victory dance that Harry was nearly certain he'd learnt from Sirius.
Harry shot Chris a smile and stage whispered, "It's related to the Slytherin skill of bullshitting with a straight face."
Chris snickered at that, while Hermione made a show of huffing and rolling her eyes at all of them.
They snuck back into the stands not long after that, Hermione and Chris going one way, while Harry followed Will back towards his Gryffindor friends on the other side of the stands. He traded greetings with Geoffrey Hooper, Will's best friend, and waved at the various clusters of Weasleys when he spotted them. Somehow, he managed to avoid detection by Voldemort, who appeared to be otherwise distracted by listening to Severus and Karkaroff at the judges' stand.
Jeanne André was the first of the champions to return, though she didn't leave the water with her hostage, the Beauxbâtons boy she'd attended the dance with, having to wait for the gillyweed she'd used to wear off. (Harry'd been required to explain her trick to Will and his friends, as none of them were particularly good at herbology, and probably couldn't see well enough to spot the gills in the sides of her neck.)
Cedric was the next, making it up with Cho just outside the hour mark, much to the utter glee of the mostly-Hogwarts crowd. He'd used the bubble-head charm, the same as he had in Harry's original reality.
They were made to wait another ten minutes before a group of six merfolk surfaced.
"What's going on?" Will asked, looking at Harry.
Harry frowned, trying to listen to the merfolk's speech over the sounds of others in the stands asking the exact same question. "I can't hear well enough," he admitted to Will.
"You can understand them?" Geoffrey asked, looking startled.
Will didn't give him the chance to come up with an answer, instead grabbing Harry's arm and dragging him down the stands to the bottom row, where the presence of the staff and a handful of ministry personnel kept the students from being so loud.
"It sounds like," Harry murmured to Will in Atlantean, "they've misplaced the Durmstrang champion."
"Misplaced?" Will repeated with a wide-eyed look. "Is she...dead?"
Death? Harry called, even as he looked back towards the ministry's translator, who seemed to be struggling a little with the Mermish, and caught Voldemort's narrowed gaze.
"Zofia Wojczyk is not dead, Master," Death informed him. "Likely, she's trapped underwater somewhere."
"She's alive, for now," Harry reassured his brother.
And then Voldemort let out an irritated noise that quickly had everyone shutting up, including the Mermish translator, who was stumbling over the request for the merfolk to slow down and only speak one at a time. The dark lord crooked his finger at Harry, a clear order for him to walk over there.
"Busted," Will whispered with none of the usual good humour that he and Chris had when they said that.
Harry sighed. "Go back to your friends," he suggested, before making his way across the beach and planks to where the dark lord was standing with the other judges.
"Am I correct in assuming you're fluent in Mermish?" Voldemort demanded once Harry had reached him, his voice tight.
Harry nodded. "It sounds like they're not quite certain where Wojczyk got to, but I don't think she's dead," he offered.
It was probably only because he knew him so well that Harry saw some of the tension ease out of Voldemort's form, and it was a struggle to bite back a reassuring smile. Instead, he stepped to the end of the plank, where the Mermish translator was staring down at a book, which looked to be some sort of phonetic dictionary, like it had betrayed him. "May I try?" he asked the man quietly.
The man let out a broken sort of laugh and waved his arm angrily towards the merfolk. "Be my guest, kid."
Harry nodded at that, then crouched at the end of the plank and said, "I'm sorry about all the trouble. Could you please explain what's happened to me?"
Whether in deference to his age, or because of the former translator's inability in keeping up with them, the merfolk took turns filling him in on the events underwater: As it turned out, Wojczyk had suffered a run-in with the grindylows on her way down to the village, and while she'd managed to fight them off fine, the merman keeping an eye on her hadn't been quite so lucky, and he'd lost her. They'd sent out a search party as soon as the merman had returned to the village, but had been unable to locate her.
"I understand," Harry said once they appeared to be done. "Let me report back to the judges and see how they want to handle things."
The chieftainess inclined her head in understanding, so Harry got to his feet and returned to group of judges, resisting the urge to make a face at the disbelieving looks all but Voldemort and Severus had turned on him.
He explained what he'd been told and waited as they debated options. Eventually, Voldemort snapped, "I'll summon her," and pulled out his wand.
Harry didn't really think about it, just stepped forward and grabbed Voldemort's wrist before he could cast, which resulted in a chorus of gasps from the crowd and narrowed red eyes glaring at him. Pushing back his urge to curse his own carelessness, Harry cleared his throat and said, "You can't just summon something from the lake without warning the merfolk. Give me a minute to let them know, please."
"Quickly," Voldemort hissed in a tone that had all of the nearby Death Eaters flinching back.
Harry inclined his head in understanding and hurried back to the end of the plank, dropping to his knees a little too hard and wincing. "The dark lord is going to try summoning the missing girl," he told them. "It shouldn't adversely affect any of your lands, though, unless she's hidden in one of your homes."
"She would have been seen," the chieftainess insisted. "Your dark lord may cast his magic."
"Thank you," Harry replied, making the particular hand motion that he'd learned in his last reality was a sign of great respect among merfolk.
The chieftainess looked momentarily startled, then flashed her teeth in a smile.
Harry turned and nodded to Voldemort's glare as he stood.
The dark lord didn't offer any response beyond stepping up to the edge of the dock and silently casting what Harry knew would be an impressive accio.
For one, long moment, it seemed like everyone in attendance was holding their breath, and then the missing champion shot out of the water and Voldemort hovered her over to the medical tent, where Madam Pomfrey was waiting with her familiar stern glower.
From the brief look Harry got, it looked rather like she'd been raked with multiple lines of thorns or spikes, and he frowned, trying to think of what in the Black Lake could manage that sort of damage. Grindylows, perhaps, though the worst of the cuts were the wrong shape for their claws.
Shaking his head, he turned back to the merfolk, kneeling on the plank again. "I don't believe she'll be collecting her hostage on her own," he offered.
The chieftainess nodded and motioned to one of the other merfolk, who immediately dove.
Harry rubbed at his mouth, then asked, "Are there any other than yourselves and the grindylow that would cut an invader?"
The chieftainess seemed to consider that for a moment, before saying, "The magical passage sometimes lets through strange fish. Recently, it sent us fish covered in spines. It is a game among our adolescents to safely kill one."
"Huh." He shook his head and offered her a grateful smile. "I see. I'll ask around about them, but if they're not causing you any real problems, we won't worry about removing them."
She inclined her head. "They're not yet a concern, though they may become one when they breed."
Harry nodded in understanding. "In case the judges ask, could you tell me how the other two champions did?"
The chieftainess was happy to do so, though there wasn't much to report, as both Cedric and André acquitted themselves well underwater. Cedric had suffered a minor brush with the grindylows, but had got through them with only a couple minor wounds. André had made the far wiser choice of completely avoiding the seaweed patches the grindylows favoured, thereby giving her her lead. Both had freed their hostages with no difficulty, then swam back to the surface.
By the time the chieftainess had finished telling him everything, the merman she'd sent down had returned with Wojczyk's hostage, a slightly older man who didn't seem able to swim, judging by the way he almost sank back under once the merman released him to swim towards where Harry was holding out a hand to help him out.
Karkaroff came to lead the man away after Harry pulled him out of the water – without werewolf strength, he never would have managed – and Harry traded another round of thanks and goodbyes with the merfolk before walking back to where the judges had again gathered. He filled them in about everything he'd learnt, then stepped back while they conferred.
Unsurprisingly, André was awarded first place, with Cedric coming in second, which left Cedric in first place, overall, and André a potential second place, as they had decided to hold off on awarding Wojczyk any points until she'd woken and was able to fill them in about the time she'd been missing.
The date of the final task was announced, as well as the fact that the champions would be given more information a month before it, and then everyone was dismissed.
Harry shook his head at his brothers and Hermione when he caught their uncertain looks towards him, silently telling them to just stay with their houses; better not to completely freak Severus out by involving his students. (Also, Harry honestly couldn't say how likely Voldemort was to curse the next person who annoyed him, and Will, especially, tended to be a little more familiar with the dark lord than was strictly wise in public. Although, maybe his snake-like form was warning enough for him to behave?)
"My Lord," Severus started once most of the stands were cleared, and Harry was admittedly a little surprised to realise the headmaster had moved so he could step between Harry and Voldemort if need be. He wasn't the only adult who'd stayed behind, as the other three judges – Maxime, Karkaroff, and the British head of International Cooperation, Rodolphus Lestrange – the Mermish translator, Barty, and a couple other Hogwarts professors Harry had learnt from during his first life were standing just far enough away to be out of the immediate range of Voldemort's temper, but Severus was the only one who'd stayed close enough to act as a distraction from Harry.
Voldemort shot Severus a particularly cutting look, which shut him up, but also made him take yet another step closer to Harry, close enough that their shoulders would have brushed if Severus wasn't half a step in front of him.
(Harry seriously considered telling his father about this, because James' expression at hearing Severus was so obviously willing to protect Harry from Voldemort was pretty much guaranteed to be excellent.)
Voldemort looked away from Severus and Harry, instead turning narrowed red eyes on the translator, who flinched and did his apparent best to make himself as small as possible. "Would you care to explain, Seabrook, what just happened," he said with a particularly violent edge to his words.
"M-my Lord," the translator, Seabrook, stuttered, "I am– I do not– I–"
"Crucio," Voldemort hissed, clearly reaching the end of his limited patience, and Seabrook collapsed to the ground, screaming.
All of the adults flinched, while the handful of students who'd lingered – including, Harry saw a bit helplessly, Will – let out noises of horror and ran for it. For his part, Harry did his best to look like the torture bothered him – though it really sort of didn't; he knew Voldemort far too well to expect he'd stand patiently through the translator's bumbling explanation – and didn't fight Severus when the man grabbed his arm and pulled him over to stand behind him.
Voldemort turned to Lestrange once he'd ended the curse, and Harry was admittedly a little impressed by the way the Death Eater stood firm under the dark lord's glare. "I hope, Rodolphus, that you have an explanation."
Lestrange swallowed and inclined his head. "I believe, My Lord," he said, sounding a little like he was barely managing to keep his voice steady, "that Mr Seabrook is the most fluent member of the magical creatures department in Mermish. Given the limited necessity to use it and the inherent difficulty in speaking it, I doubt fluency was something they would have looked to hire for."
Harry would totally buy that, since most wizards and witches of the Isles weren't likely to find occasion to speak to any merfolk. The sirens of the Mediterranean were far more inclined towards poking their head up and engaging in conversation with land dwellers than the Scottish selkies or the Irish merrows, and the tribe at the bottom of the Black Lake was the only one actually living in a body of water on magical land, besides. Even as Alpha Lord, Harry had only rarely had a reason to speak to any merfolk, as they were fairly good about settling their own disputes, and being the only fully sapient creature that lived underwater meant they didn't have quite the same issues with determining boundary lines that those species living on land did.
Voldemort clearly decided it wasn't worth punishing anyone for the ministry not turning up someone fully fluent in Mermish, because he didn't throw any more cruciatus curses around, instead ordering, "Someone ensure Seabrook makes it home." When no one immediately moved to do so, he let out a meaningless hiss of anger.
Lestrange hurried forward, then, and helped Seabrook stand, McGonagall moving to help when it was clear they would need it.
Voldemort looked around at everyone else standing around, eyes still angry enough that they all hurried to make their escape ahead of Lestrange, McGonagall, and Seabrook. Severus pushed at Harry with one hand, a silent suggestion that he make a run for it while he could, but Voldemort turned to glare at them both and Severus fell very, very still.
Only after the area had emptied of any gawkers did Voldemort close his eyes, his hard stance softening just enough that Harry made note, but he doubted Severus would. "Scythe," he said, tone edging towards tired, "do I want to know why you're here?"
"Probably not," Harry admitted, before lightly touching Severus' shoulder and saying, "The dark lord is familiar with my particular abilities, Severus."
"Evidentially," Severus bit out, still holding himself tensely.
"In fairness to that translator, he'd probably have been okay if Wojczyk hadn't got lost and knocked unconscious," Harry commented, stepping out from behind the protective headmaster. "Mermish isn't easy to follow above ground, especially if you're used to the languages of land dwellers."
Voldemort opened his eyes and shot Harry a bland look. "If this is your way of telling me not to hold others to your particular language fluency, I'm already aware of that."
Harry shrugged. "Well, you didn't kill him, so I assumed you'd determined he wasn't a complete failure."
Severus breathed out something that sounded suspiciously like a curse, while Voldemort let out a hissing sort of laugh. "Very true," the dark lord allowed, before his eyes sharpened on Harry, a faint glimmer of concern in them. "I do hope you have an explanation for your fluency."
Harry shrugged. "Not really," he admitted. "I suppose I can go the same route as I used to do to explain my fluency in Atlantean."
"Atlantean," Severus hissed disbelievingly.
"Although," Harry admitted, ignoring Severus, "I don't know how likely the truly curious are to believe my saying I was just born knowing it."
"Given the number of other things you were inexplicably born with," Voldemort said in a bland, dry tone.
"I do wonder," Harry said, tapping his chin, "how many people assume Mum cheated on Dad and then they glamoured me so no one would know."
Voldemort closed his eyes again, an air of resignation around him. "How in trouble are you right now?"
Harry opened his mouth to say none, but then stopped, remembering that him coming to Hogwarts was going to be in the Prophet in the morning. "Ah. That's..." He grimaced and scratched the back of his head, then offered, "No one died?"
The look Voldemort shot him made it quite clear he was cackling on the inside.
Harry made a face at him. "I left a note for Mum and Dad that I needed to handle something. Uhm, considering how long I've already stayed, they're gonna be wondering, assuming they've found it already, but they probably won't freak out unless I fail to show for dinner. Why?"
"Given the entire school is now aware you're here, you'd be best served not leaving in your usual manner, which means floo or someone apparating you home," Voldemort replied blandly.
Harry grimaced at the thought of flooing, mostly because he doubted he'd get hit with a cleaning charm before being questioned on his whereabouts, then narrowed his eyes at the dark lord at the mention of apparation. "Was that an offer?"
Voldemort rolled one shoulder in a suggestion of a shrug. "I must remain through lunch, but I believe that will leave you with sufficient time to prove to your brothers and mudblood that I haven't cursed you for overstepping."
"Yeah, thanks for that," Harry allowed, because getting cursed for playing diplomat would have sucked, especially when Voldemort was the one delivering the curse. Still, Harry was too much the Alpha Lord to stand back and let any human – Voldemort or otherwise – ignore what few rights non-humans had. At least, not when he was capable of doing something about it. He sighed and rubbed his face. "Yeah, okay. But you know Mum's going to be a misery."
Voldemort raised one hairless eyebrow at him. "I don't remember saying I intended to step into your home, Scythe."
Harry laughed at that, because he was absolutely intending to hide behind the dark lord if the man took him home. Especially since that was the best way he could think of to keep Will from getting in trouble with their mum. He turned to Severus, then, and requested, "Could you tell me the Gryffindor password? Probably easier to catch each of them while they're still in their commons."
Severus raised an eyebrow at that. "No, but I will walk you to each of the common rooms; you may be familiar with the school, Harry, but you are still a guest and a squib."
Harry sighed at that reminder. He thought about pointing out that Severus had let him on his own in the castle in the past, but then it occurred to him that the headmaster might just be using this as an excuse to get away from Voldemort without looking like a coward. "I suppose someone would be a bit cross with me sneaking into multiple common rooms unaccompanied," he allowed, before turning to shoot the dark lord a smile. "I'll see you at lunch, Voldemort," he said, and Severus flinched next to him at the dark lord's name.
Voldemort inclined his head. "Plan to sit with me," he ordered, eyes cutting to Severus to make it clear it was his job to ensure Harry didn't sit with one of his brothers or Hermione.
Harry rolled his eyes, but didn't bother arguing, while Severus bowed and agreed, "I'll have the house-elves set an extra place, My Lord. Harry?"
"Coming."
Severus waited until they were well clear of the stands – which Voldemort looked to be in the process of vanishing – before saying, "You never mentioned you were acquainted with the dark lord."
Harry shrugged and shoved his hands into the pockets of his robe. "I'm the one who talked him into offering the Order of the Phoenix members amnesty," he admitted.
Severus breathed out a curse and grabbed Harry's shoulder, forcing him to stop. "You could have been killed," he hissed, eyes narrowed.
Harry scowled at him and somewhat lightly shoved a finger against his chest. "You did practically the same thing to save my mum, don't even start with me." Severus let out a choked sound. "Anyway, I had blackmail and magic he didn't even know about; the benefits significantly outweighed the risks."
Severus stepped away and roughly rubbed at his eyes. "You're mad," he said, sounding a bit helpless.
"Very likely," Harry admitted, and Severus shot him a flat look. "I'm also still very much alive, and so is my family. Speaking of, you were going to take me up to Gryffindor so I could assure Will that the dark lord didn't curse me?"
"James deserves you," Severus muttered, motioning for Harry to start walking again.
Harry did so with a laugh.
The post-task party was already well underway when Harry stepped into the Gryffindor common, Severus remaining outside the portrait to, he'd said, call a house-elf to ensure an extra place would be set for Harry, though Harry suspected he also hadn't wanted to put a damper on the party.
He didn't see Will immediately, but Ron spotted him and hurried over quickly enough, looking relieved. "Good to see you in one piece, mate," he admitted, clapping Harry on the shoulder. "The way you went and grabbed You Know Who earlier..." He drew a finger across his throat.
Harry winced. "My family's protected under the amnesty clause, so he couldn't have killed me, but I'm kinda surprised I didn't get cursed," he lied. "I guess he was cutting me slack because of my age?"
Ron slowly shook his head, looking unconvinced. "Maybe," he allowed.
"Have you seen my brother?" Harry asked, both because he still wasn't seeing Will, and as a bid to refocus Ron's attention.
Ron blinked, then turned towards the stairway up to the boys' dorm. "Saw him come in and go upstairs. Don't know if he ever came back down."
Harry nodded and patted his shoulder as he stepped past him. "Thanks, Ron!"
Will was, in fact, up in his dorm room, huddled on his bed and staring down at his messaging paper. He looked a bit pale and completely miserable, and Harry felt his heart break, just a bit.
"Hey," Harry called, stepping into the room.
Will's head snapped up and around fast enough it had to have hurt a little bit, and then he was scrambling out of his bed and tripping over his bedclothes.
Harry took two quick steps forward and caught him before he could land on his face, utterly unsurprised when Will clung to him. "I'm okay," he promised while his brother gasped sobs against his shoulder, holding him as tightly as he dared. "I'm right here and I'm okay."
Once Will had calmed down and Harry sat them both down on his bed, he quietly said, "I thought– I didn't really think he'd do anything, not to you, even angry as he looked, but the others, they kept making bets on curses, and then I saw him–that translator–"
"Voldemort...doesn't suffer fools well," Harry offered carefully. "But he can be scary enough to make even the bravest people act a little slow, like that translator. So he loses his temper and compounds the issue. It's a failing of his."
As Harry had hoped, that last got a small smile out of Will, brief though it was before he asked, "But would he ever curse you?" And he looked so worried, Harry couldn't find it in himself to lie to him.
So he admitted, "I don't know. He has a certain persona he has to keep in public, but I think, like today, he'll be more likely to make everyone leave than curse me." Will relaxed a bit, and Harry offered him a tired smile before adding, "But, you know that argument we had a few years ago? About my wand?"
Will frowned in thought for a moment before nodding; he'd left before the argument, but Harry knew Chris had filled him in after. "Chris said he looked really, really angry. And Mum was scared."
Harry nodded. "If he gets angry enough at me, he might curse me. But he's a little bit scared of me, too, so I can threaten him if we're not in public. And I'm not really intending to make him that angry in public. Okay?"
"Okay," Will agreed, staring down at where he was worrying the cuff of his sleeve.
Harry ruffled his hair and offered him a fond smile when he peeked up at him. Before he could say anything further, though, there was a ruckus out in the hall and, when Harry looked over, he found Fred and George in a jumble on the landing outside the room, both looking a little bit relieved. "Do I want to know?" he had to ask.
The twins jumped to their feet, barely avoiding knocking their heads together, and opened their mouths to speak, but Ginny chose that moment to poke her head around the doorway and shoot Harry a relieved smile. "Ron said you were okay, but we had to come check."
"Ginny!" Fred and George complained.
Harry chuckled and, when Ginny flashed her brothers a sharp grin, Will burst out laughing next to him. "I appreciate your concern," he promised. "As you can see, however–" he held his arms out to either side, taking care not to hit Will "–I somehow retain all of my limbs and what little sanity has managed to survive the pair of you."
The grins the twins put on would have made any normal person want to run for their lives. Harry was, however, inured to such expressions, between living with the Marauders and having known the twins for three lifetimes, so he casually turned to Will to say, "Remind me to ask my partner to charm some pants to follow me between forms."
Will blinked once, then started snickering, ducking his head to avoid Harry's unimpressed stare. "Did you want to borrow a pair?" he offered, amusement in his voice.
"Yes, please," Harry agreed, as Ginny let out a huff in the doorway. "Don't you have a party to be causing mayhem during?" he said to the three Weasleys.
Ginny stuck her tongue out at him. "See if I ever worry about you again," she said, before following her brothers, who had grinned a bit madly and run off at Harry's comment.
"Hey, Ginny!" Harry called after her as Will got up to go through his trunk. When she poked her head around the doorway again, he offered her a fond smile. "Thanks, really. I promise to return the favour if you ever annoy the dark lord."
Ginny pointed a finger at him, scowling. "Some of us aren't that dumb," she snapped at him, then vanished back around the doorway, her feet sounding as she hurried down the stairs.
"Here," Will said, holding out a pair of pants that smelt clean. "I've enough extras, you can just leave them in my wardrobe once they've been washed."
"Thank you," Harry offered as he accepted them, then stepped into the floor's toilet to both relief himself and slip them on; he'd been a werewolf for long enough that he wasn't too bothered about running around in just a robe, but there was something rather off-putting about doing so while sitting at the head table, especially if he was going to be seated next to the man he loved. His lack of shoes was another issue, though his feet were bigger than his brother's, and wearing shoes around the castle and grounds was far less important, especially since he could easily toughen the soles of his feet.
Once back in the dorm room, he said, "I'm going to go check in with Hermione and Chris, make sure they both know I'm okay."
Will started nodding a bit fervently, and Harry couldn't help but look towards the messaging paper; it looked to have been wiped clear fairly recently, but he knew his brothers well enough to guess that Will had filled Chris in about Voldemort cursing Seabrook as soon as he'd calmed down enough to write. "I'll let Chris know you're coming," he promised, following Harry's gaze.
Harry ruffled his hair and offered him a smile. "Thanks. Let him know, too, that I'm going to stop past Ravenclaw, first."
"Of course."
"And then go enjoy the party; half the fun of victory parties is eating so many sweets, the thought of the next proper meal makes you sick to your stomach."
Will made a face at him. "Not gonna eat that much; I've gotta go to lunch so I can say good-bye."
Harry pulled him into a quick hug, so unspeakably grateful that he existed, then hurried back down to the common and dodged the twins when they tried to grab him to taste-test one of their most recent concoctions. Severus was still waiting for him out in the hallway, scowling, and Harry offered, "The Weasley twins," as his excuse for taking so long.
Severus snorted and turned without a word to lead the way to Ravenclaw.
Hermione hadn't been as worried as Will, admitting that she'd seen enough of Harry and the dark lord interacting that she didn't think he would actually hurt Harry. "Although," she'd added, having stepped out into the hall to talk, since Harry couldn't go up to her dorm, and Ravenclaw was having their own, far less rambunctious, party in the common room, "I don't think you should make a habit of questioning him in public. Someone is eventually going to start asking why he's so lenient with you."
"I know," Harry admitted with a slightly helpless shrug. "I honestly didn't even realise I'd done it until everyone gasped."
Hermione eyed him for a moment, wearing that expression that said she was fitting another piece of a puzzle together, then stepped forward and hugged him. "Creature rights," she whispered, and Harry couldn't help the way he tensed. Her smile, when she pulled back, was absolutely victorious.
(She was as bad as the dark lord, when it came to catching him with unfortunate questions about his past. Harry's saving grace, it seemed, was that the pair of them would never compare notes.)
Chris, like Will, had wasted no time in claiming a hug as soon as he saw Harry, but he'd looked far calmer and didn't start crying, so Harry assumed Will had managed to sufficiently assuage any fears. Severus seemed content to leave Harry to his own devices in the dungeons, so he got dragged into the Slytherin celebration – far safer than in Gryffindor, given the lack of prank sweets – and then made his way up to the great hall with Chris and his Slytherin friends, laughing off the occasional questions as to his knowledge of Mermish.
In the great hall, he walked with the Slytherins to the point along their table where they usually sat, then gave Chris a quick hug before continuing up to the space left for him between Voldemort and Severus.
"Your brothers are sufficiently assured as to your good health," Voldemort assumed in Atlantean, taking care with each word, as though not completely certain he was pronouncing it properly.
Harry bit back a smile, helplessly charmed; given that he'd learnt the language from books and what little he'd heard Harry speak with his brothers, his pronunciation was really good, though he'd sort of expected that, familiar with how much of an overachiever his partner was. "They are," he agreed. "And Hermione reminded me that I should probably not make a habit of grabbing you in public."
Harry understood the hiss Voldemort let out to be a noise of slightly amused agreement, but if the way Severus stiffened and Karkaroff dropped his utensils was anything to go by, he was the only one who did. "That would be for the best," he agreed in his careful Atlantean. "If only for the sake of those who worry about your safety."
Harry hummed in agreement and turned his focus to eating and – when they entered the great hall – looking up to flash smiles at Hermione, Will, and the Weasleys.
As Harry finished his plate and sat back to wait on Voldemort, Severus turned to him and asked, "Should I save us all a bit of trouble and simply invite you to the next task?"
Harry couldn't help but look around Severus and Madam Maxime at Barty, who was carefully not meeting his eyes. "Rude," he said to Severus, who cocked an imperious eyebrow at him. "Don't tell Mum."
"I shall avoid sending any owls," Severus allowed. "This time."
"Yeah, okay," Harry agreed, because that was really about as much as Will could expect, after making a bid for the Forbidden Forest while all the professors were otherwise occupied. He rubbed at his nose, considering Severus' offer, then shrugged and said, "I guess so, sure. Assuming it's going to be as spectator unfriendly as this task was."
Severus shot him a look that made it clear he knew – or suspected, at least – that Harry already knew quite well what the third task would be. "I'll send you an owl at the end of May, either way. Until then, please do recall you were given the password to my floo in the case of an emergency, not as a way to avoid walking up from Hogsmeade when you feel the need to avoid homework with your brothers."
Harry ducked his head to hide his approval at that cover story; as a squib, both his ability to protect himself and get to safety in the event of an attack would be severely hampered, so giving him the password to the Hogwarts floo was an excellent way to ensure that he could both retreat and request help, should such be necessary. "Yes, sir," he said in as quietly ashamed a voice as he could manage.
"Harry," Voldemort said after a beat of silence, and Harry grimaced at hearing his name from the dark lord. Still, he obediently got up without any further prompting and followed him from the great hall.
Voldemort had his hand on the door out of the castle when a hauntingly familiar voice called, "Harry!" Harry spun almost without thinking about it, and watching Cedric jog up to him was the best/worst kind of déjà vu. "Cedric," he managed, hoping his voice only sounded odd to himself.
Cedric stopped within arm's reach, cast the dark lord behind Harry a slightly uncertain look, then leant in a bit and quietly said, "Thank you."
Harry blinked and took a moment to debate pretending he had no idea why Cedric would be thanking him. But he'd sort of let that cat out of the bag when he'd proven to the entire school that he was fluent in Mermish, so he put on a slightly helpless smile and shrugged. "Just because I don't attend, doesn't mean I want to see Hogwarts losing face to those self-important French lot."
Cedric flashed him a quick, easy grin, before he seemed to remember the man standing behind Harry, because his smile took on a strained edge. "I'll do my best," he promised, holding out a hand.
Harry took Cedric's hand and offered him a smile that ached, even as he said, completely honest, "I have every faith in your abilities."
Cedric looked briefly startled, before quirking a grateful smile and hurrying back into the great hall.
Voldemort was quiet as they left the castle and started across the lawn towards the gate to Hogsmeade. Only once they could see the gate, the castle well behind them, did the dark lord ask, "What foolish thing did your brothers do?"
Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair, because of course the dark lord would have caught that. "Will decided he was bored with the task and wanted to go snooping in the Forbidden Forest. I ended up coming to persuade him otherwise."
Voldemort snorted. "Gryffindors."
Harry laughed and cast him an amused look. "Oh, come on. You never felt the urge to go exploring?"
"The urge?" Voldemort returned blandly as he pushed the gate open. "Perhaps. But I was never suicidal enough to actually go into the forest."
Harry snorted, because suicidal was about right, then let out a quiet, surprised sound when Voldemort caught his hand and drew him forward, against his chest. The publicness of their position was the only thing that kept him from making a comment, and he held still as Voldemort apparated them to the darkened corner of Godric's Hollow that had been saturated with enough muggle-repelling charms to serve as a safe apparation point for visitors.
The dark lord's form melted into his more human appearance, then he leant down and brushed his mouth against Harry's. "Hello, my Scythe," he murmured.
A chill went down Harry's spine, the endearment reminding him of the similar way another Tom had addressed him, equally as determined to avoid using his birth name.
He leant up to kiss Tom, letting the familiar act distract him from memories of a world and a man that he'd long since left behind.
"So," he said after settling back onto his feet, having decided Tom had been suitably kissed to distraction, "you're going to let me blame you for my disappearing act, so Will doesn't end up grounded, right?"
Tom snorted. "You don't think he'd deserve it?"
"I think, if he tries to go in there again, I'm going to let Severus give him a month's worth of detention and ensure Mum grounds him for the whole summer. But I'm inclined to let him off lightly this time," he admitted.
"You're far too lenient."
Harry shrugged. "It's my experience that some people learn better from guilting them into good behaviour, then torturing them."
"Was that a comment?" Tom asked, his mouth twisting like he'd tasted something particularly vile.
Harry sighed and reached up to trace along the dark lord's lips. "Not particularly," he said. "Torture certainly has its benefits, and does serve as an excellent outlet when you've suffered one too many idiots, but I'm quite fond of my brothers, so I'd rather not go that route with them. Even if I do, occasionally, want to toss them into the nearest dark hole."
Tom's mouth quirked with a sardonic smile. "Of course."
Harry made a show of rolling his eyes, which won a more honest smile, then leant up to kiss his partner one last time before stepping back, catching their hands together and tugging lightly to imply the dark lord should follow him.
Tom let out a loud, put upon sigh, but did follow him, twisting his hand in Harry's until their fingers could fold together.
Harry absolutely did not flush with pleasure.
James stepped out of the living room to meet them, expression tightening when he saw Tom. "This promises to be good," he muttered, before inclining his head in the barest show of deference. "Voldemort."
"Auror Potter," Tom returned blandly.
Harry rolled his eyes at them and motioned for his father to lead the way into the living room, where Lily was sitting with a book in her lap and a slightly strained expression on her face. James sat on the sofa next to Lily, while Harry led Tom to the other sofa, pulling him down next to him.
"I do not expect," Tom said before Harry could fully arrange his thoughts to decide how to approach the lie of where he'd vanished off to, "that you will be particularly surprised to discover that the ministry lacks anyone fluent in Mermish."
The comment was directed at James, and he frowned for a moment, looking a little confused, before turning a helpless look on Harry. "Really? Mermish?"
Harry shrugged. "You're going to have an extremely difficult time finding a language I'm not fluent in," he admitted.
James sighed, while Lily said, "I assume this task involved the lake somehow, then?"
Tom gave a brief nod. "The champions were required to collect a person they cared about from the merfolk village. Miss Wojczyk suffered an altercation with some grindylows and was unable to make it back to the surface before falling unconscious." He cast Harry a quick glance. "I do believe Scythe came to keep me from killing the pathetic attempt at a translator the ministry turned up."
Harry shrugged. "Well, and to make sure you got Wojczyk out without starting an interspecies incident with the merfolk."
Tom sighed.
"I suppose I can't ground you for stopping someone from getting killed," Lily decided, and Harry let out a slightly relieved breath. "However," she said, clearly having waited for him to relax before continuing, "next time you decide to make a run to Hogwarts, we would appreciate something a bit more descriptive than, 'I'm checking on a thing'."
"Whoops."
Tom snorted and stood. "If you're done hiding behind me, I have work to return to."
James let out a slightly strained laugh at that, covering his face with one hand.
Harry jumped to his feet and motioned for the dark lord to precede him out of the living room. In the entryway, Tom turned and leant down for a brief kiss. "I will see you next weekend?" he murmured, after pulling back an inch, the words tickling against Harry's mouth.
"Yeah," Harry promised, and went up on his toes for another brief kiss, then stepped back so the dark lord could apparate away.
When he turned to return to the living room, he found his dad leaning against the doorway, watching him with a helpless sort of smile. "So," James said while Harry tried not to flush at the realisation that his father had watched that goodbye, "how are we going to explain this particular ability of yours?"
"I was born with it?" Harry suggested.
James snorted. "That's going to stop working eventually."
Harry considered that for a moment, then shrugged. "If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears."
James sighed and turned to return to the living room. "Born with it it is," he offered over his shoulder.
Harry rolled his eyes and made for his room and his abandoned homework.
Stand Against the Moon Chapters:
Pro | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05
06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12
Nose to the Wind Chapters:
1 - Death Once Again || 2 - Bring Out All the Good Inside Me || 3 - Death and Living Reconciled
4 - Orphan Man || 5 - Using Gentle Words to Shelter Me || 6 - Living on Your Breath
7 - You Just Might Get it All || 8 - Never Want to Come Down || 9 - Only the Silence Remains
10 - Love is a Doing Word || 11 - Nothing Sacred || 12 - The Heart Yearns
13 - Mirrored in Your Stare || 14 - Camouflage Denial || 15 - Precious and Fragile Things
16 - Perfectly Reckless || 17 - Your Arms Feel Like Home || 18 - The Sun Will Set For You
19 - Your Love Has Always Been Enough ||
22 - Give Yourself a Try || 23 - Done Pleading Ignorance || 24 - Your Razorblade Caress of Love
25 - Summer's Scent Still Lingers || 26 - Burn Out the Stain || 27 - Final Masquerade
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