Lightning and War

Confronting the Order

Tom’s hand shot out and pressed against Harry’s chest as they were about to leave Gringotts. Harry gave him an exasperated glance, but then the diadem pulsed on his forehead and he felt the odd sensation of taking wing.

For a moment, he seemed to be a hawk, swooping above the bank and around in a circle. His eyes locked on the threat, the prey. There were several wizards and witches with a phoenix brand on their cheeks moving down Diagon Alley. Ordinary wizards avoided them and averted their eyes.

“Dumbledore’s people coming,” Harry murmured, opening his own eyes.

Tom stared at him.

“The diadem let me see them from above,” Harry said. He didn’t know for sure how that worked, and it wasn’t a specific power that the diadem had mentioned. As much as he could, he glared at his own forehead. Was he always going to have something there that would give him weird, unexpected powers?

After a moment, Tom nodded slowly. “Very well. I sensed their magic, but I couldn’t tell where they were coming from or how many there are.”

“Six,” Harry said quietly. “Moving openly. But then again, you said they were Dumbledore’s Aurors. Everyone else in Diagon Alley is desperately trying to pretend they didn’t see them.”

Tom tilted his head. “I didn’t want to declare myself openly yet. I wanted to spread more rumors to discredit Dumbledore and keep my own name out of it,” he murmured, drawing his wand.

“But you intend to declare yourself now?”

Tom kept his head tilted. “It depends on what else we can do. Can you think of any way out of this? The goblins aren’t going to help us, and announcing that you have that diadem isn’t going to save us trouble.”

Harry closed his eyes and forced his whirling mind to slow down and think, not bolt through different scenarios like a runaway horse. The diadem could help, but Tom was right; then everyone would probably know that someone was opposing the Order. Tom didn’t have any Knights here and couldn’t fight back. A battle would damage Diagon Alley too much anyway. Retreating inside Gringotts was out of the question—

Harry opened his eyes. “The rumors we spread about Dumbledore are our way out of this,” he said, with more conviction than he really felt, walking down the steps of Gringotts rapidly and towards the Order members. The diadem was tracking them with faint thrums, pulses that Harry understood without knowing how he did it. There were seven pulses, so a seventh wizard had probably joined the ones on their way. “We need to do this in public and keep the focus as much on Dumbledore as possible. You did this for the good of the wizarding world, right?”

Tom caught on. “Keep them from making us martyrs, but play the martyr?”

Harry grinned. He wouldn’t have phrased it that way, but that was one reason he liked being with someone who could. “Exactly.”

Tom’s eyes narrowed, cold and precise, but his face was already taking on an expression of deep shock and sorrow. Harry wondered for a second if he had ever seen the real Tom, the one who hid behind all the masks and expressed what he really felt.

Then Tom glanced sideways at him with the shadow of a grin, and Harry firmed up his resolve. Yes, he thought he had. He might be proven wrong someday, but that was always a possibility with every relationship. He reached out a hand. Tom took it.

“Ready to play a part for the good of the wizarding world?” Harry whispered.

“You have no idea how ready, or how much good,” Tom said with another tilt of his head.