Lightning and War

a taking and a giving

"We have to do it in public. That way, the other Order of the Phoenix members will know what awaits them if they come after us."

Harry had rolled his eyes, but Tom had been insistent. Then again, in all the worlds, he seemed to like spectacle and notoriety and fame more than Harry had ever done.

So now Harry was standing quietly in the middle of the grounds of the Potter house, which he'd warded several times over before revealing it to the public. Tom stood next to him, prouder than any pale peacock that Abraxas might have brought for the occasion. And around them stretched snapping flags and delicate white fences of glowing magic that had been Tom's idea. They were going to pretend that the fences were necessary to protect the spectators from Harry's magic.

Harry had been utterly incredulous at the idea. "You realize after this they'll fear me more and some people will seek to destroy me even more?"

"It does two things," Tom had said, ignoring the expression on Harry's face as he'd arranged the gleaming blue dress robes (trimmed with gold because of course they were) over Harry's shoulders. "It scares some people enough that they'll never attempt anything against us. And it warns the rest of them. They can't say that they weren't warned when it came to attacking you."

Harry had agreed because of the second reason, not the first. His experience with every wizarding world was that people feared and hated anything they didn't understand—from a second-year student with Parseltongue who might be Petrifying people to a wizard with magic stronger than any of theirs.

But taking magic from a marked follower of Dumbledore wasn't exactly legal. This set up a sort of loophole outside the law for taking care of the Order of the Phoenix members that the Wizengamot didn't manage to capture.

So they had this circus on the grounds of his house, and all kinds of people were pressing eagerly forwards against the white fences. They would probably put some distance between themselves and the fences right quick once the draining began, Harry thought, and snorted a little.

"Something amusing?" Tom asked into his ear. He stood next to Harry, of course.

That was one of course that Harry felt good about. He turned his head enough to rest his chin on Tom's shoulder. "Only that I think they're too close now, but they'll back off once I began showing them what they came here to see."

"Terrify them."

Harry pulled back and blinked at Tom. That was advice he wouldn't have expected. After all, Tom was the one who knew these people and the price of not getting along with them best.

Tom put his hands on Harry's shoulders and shook them a little. His gaze was so steady that Harry could imagine balancing on it for the rest of his life.

"I want them to fear us and respect us," Tom whispered. "And leave us alone. I don't want to collect followers the way Dumbledore did. I have my Knights, and that's enough." He gave Harry another slight shake. "Nor do I want to run for the position of Minister or a post in the Wizengamot until I have the years and the record of power for people to take me seriously."

Harry had to roll his eyes. That was a law of nature just like the way Tom would always support him. "Not until then."

"Yes, not until then." Tom didn't seem to find it funny, or to be inclined to ask why Harry did. His hands gentled, his fingers smoothing down Harry's shoulder blades. "I want them to back off instead of following you around the way people did in your first world, or asking us for favors the way people always did Dumbledore here. And to bring your second world into it, I don't want someone to fall in love with me and think they can win me the way Jonquil did. Hold them at a distance, husband mine."