TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of abuse, physical, verbal, and emotional. Nothing worse than what was seen in Chapter 1 in terms of detail.
The entire world ground to a halt as Theo stared down the hallway. For an instant he was five years old again.
His father stood over his sobbing mother, two wands in his hand and rage contorting his face. Theo sat on his bed, the storybook his mother had been reading lying open on the bed. The little baby dragons flitting around the page, heedless of the strife going on around them.
"I warned you." His father reached down and grabbed his mother by her hair, yanking her up. She sobbed even louder and clung to his hand, trying to take some of the weight off her scalp. "The boy is a NOTT!!! Nott's DO NOT read storybooks! MY SON WILL NOT BE A PANSY!"
"I'm sorry!" Mother sobbed. "It-it-"
"Shut it!" His father gave her a hard shake and then threw her across the room, she slammed into the wall and crumpled to the ground in sudden silence.
"MOTHER!"
Theo sprang out of bed and attempted to reach her, but was stopped by a hard grip on the back of his pyjamas.
"I don't think so, boy. You and I, we're going to have a little talk." He yanked Theo up even as he leaned down a bit, so that their faces were level. Cold fury burned in his father's eyes, making Theo quake with fear. "And if you don't do what I say your mother will pay for it. Understand?"
Theo gulped and looked over at his mother, tears making his vision blurry.
He found himself nodding in agreement. Gaining a small, frigid smile from his father.
"Good. Now go to sleep. Tomorrow we'll start your real education. You're a Nott and it's time you learned to be one." He tossed Theo back onto the bed and waited until he had clambered under the covers before calling out, "Mitsy!"
"Yes, master?" The little house elf said as she appeared.
"Tend to your mistress. If she is beyond your capabilities notify me." With that he spun and stalked out of the room, his robes fluttering behind him, haunting Theo's nightmares for years to come.
Theo knew the man that sired him was good on his word. If he went with him then Blaise would be safe. But if he didn't....
His hands clenched into fists and tears pricked his eyes. Theo had behaved perfectly after that incident with the storybook. He'd done and said everything his father expected of him, all in fear for his mother. But even good behavior couldn't save her from Dragon Pox. After that, he'd behaved more out of habit. Three years was enough time to form habits, another three years had only cemented those habits. It had taken the return on the Dark Lord, his relationships with Blaise and Tracey, and five years to get over his fear of breaking those habits.
Could he do it? Could he go back to that? Go back to being the perfect Nott?
His real hand tightened on his wand as he shifted his left arm, feeling the weight of the silver hand where there had once been flesh and blood.
No.
Promises or not, he couldn't go back to being a Nott.
Not now, not ever.
"Well, boy?" The man who sired him asked, raising his wand and aiming it at Blaise.
"If you kill him, you'll never get your heir back," Theo said in a voice that was colder than he had ever used before.
Mr. Nott sneered, "I don't have to kill him. You can even bring him with you. The threat of torture works just as well."
"What? You honestly want me to believe you'll let my male lover live with me?"
Mr. Nott didn't even blink at the admission that his son had a boyfriend. "Male lover, female lover, pet monkey. You can have all three as long as you act as a proper Nott in public, marry a girl from a good family, and sire a pureblood heir. That means your little friend, Miss Davis, is not an appropriate spouse. No mudblood will ever taint our bloodline."
Rage fired through Theo's bloodstream, but he stamped it down. Mr. Nott was trying to rile him up, make him slip up.
"Tracey is a half-blood. Not that it truly matters. As for marrying and begetting an heir. Well, I think I'll pass. The Nott line will die with me."
Mr. Nott's face twisted in fury. "If you don't come with me willingly, well, we can work something else out. Imperio! "
Theo didn't know why he hadn't expected it. But as the calm fog fell over him he found he didn't really care.
"Come to me."
Theo moved down the hallway until he was standing before the man who had sired him.
"Give me your wand. Then pick up your lover."
He did as he was told, feeling pleasure at how easy it was to follow these directions. Why had he not wanted to do this before? It didn't make sense to him.
"Good. Now follow me. The Dark Lord will be winning this battle quite handily. I'll take you to a safe place and then return."
Theo happily walked behind Mr. Nott, cradling Blaise in his arms as they moved down the hallway and to one of the many staircases. As they rounded a bend in the stairs his father came to an abrupt halt, and Theo happily followed suit.
Through his haze he could hear someone approaching up the stairs. They weren't speaking, but their steps were rather loud.
Abruptly they rounded the bend and Theo's gaze locked with Tracey's. She gasped in surprise and tried to raise her wand, but Mr. Nott had been ready for her.
" Avada Kedavra !"
She crumpled and a cold bucket of ice water dumped itself over Theo, washing away all of the haze.
Tracey. His Tracey. His friend. The girl who had decided on that first train ride that he would be her best friend. The person who'd always pulled him out of the depressions his home life constantly brought upon him.
And now she was dead.
His father stepped over the body and continued walking, not even bothering to look down at the person he had just killed. Nor did he turn to check on Theo, assuming that the death of a girl could not possibly break the imperius spell. But, like many of those that found personal connections impossible to make, he failed to understand just how strong the bond between two people could be. Even if he had always used those bonds to control others.
Ice cold fury burned inside of Theo and he set Blaise down carefully on the stairs.
He didn't have a wand, but he didn't need one.
Just as Mr. Nott reached the bottom of the stairs Theo reached him. Mr. Nott stopped there as if to listen for anyone in the hallway, and Theo took the opportunity. He was on a step above the older man and so it was no problem at all to reach over the man's shoulder with his silver hand and grab tightly onto the exposed throat.
Mr. Nott tried to screamed, but no air could make it's way out. He struggled, but the silver hand he had so kindly 'gifted' his son with did not care. Not when it was wielded by a mind steeped in rage and grief. Mr. Nott tried to raise his hand, the one holding the two wands, but Theo easily tore the wands from the older man's grasp, even as his silver fingers tightened their grip.
Eventually the struggling stopped, but Theo didn't loosen his hold for several minutes.
Just to be sure.
Releasing his grip he watched as the older man fell to the ground with a solid thump. The small part of his brain, not enveloped in rage and grief, made him search through the older man's robes until he found his personal wallet. The contents of which contained the Nott family ring, the vault key, and the keys to the Nott manor.
Theo would sell them all and then donate the rest to charity. Preferably one that helped muggle-borns.
That idea made him smile as he climbed back up the stairs to Blaise and Tracey. The smile only left his face as he closed his dear friend's eyes and settled her more peacefully on the stairs. He doubted anyone else would be coming this way.
Then he picked Blaise back up, finding this much more difficult when not under the Imperius, and carried him up the stairs and down the hallway to the room in which the map was lying on.
Theo glanced at the map, seeing Death Eaters and a few teachers down near a girl's bathroom. Glancing at the Hospital Wing he saw everyone they had left behind there, as well as a large number of ghosts. He could only guess what was going on in both places, but he didn't really care to.
All of his mind was focused on waking Blaise up and telling him what had just occurred. Hell, he could hardly wrap his own mind around it.
XXX
" Avada Kedavra! '
The jet of green light flashed through the air, hitting one of the many students fighting desperately for their lives beside Hermione. She ran forwards, dodging another jet of green light.
" Confringo! "
Fire exploded from her wand and the screams of Death Eaters filled the air. She smiled in satisfaction and then turned as the ground vibrated beneath her feet.
A giant came running through the incinerated Death Eaters. Heedless of the people he crushed beneath his large feet. His thick skin was covered in scorch marks, but they didn't seem to bother him at all.
She switched hands, moving the sword to her main hand and ran forward quickly, dodging a chunk of stone that came flying at her head.
The sword pierced the giant's calf, making it let out a loud scream of pain. She yanked the sword out and danced backwards, but the giant didn't fall. Instead he raised a large tree trunk he'd been carrying and tried to bring it down on her head. She scrambled out of the way, her heart pounding in her chest. She wasn't fast enough, with a great heave she threw herself out of the way, rolling along the ground.
A sharp branch scraped her face as the weight of the trunk barely missed her. The giant yanked it back up, aiming for another blow and she tried to stand up, but tripped over her robes, unable to manage them with her hands full.
She was struggling to stand, about to drop the sword and half believing this was the end when she found herself rather abruptly not alone anymore.
"Giants. Giants I can handle. Give me that. Lost my wand to the spiders" Ron yanked the sword out of Hermione's hand even as Harry, Draco and Ginny raised a shield together that was strong enough to stand up to the giant's tree trunk.
The giant let out a howl of fury when he raised the trunk again to find her and the other still standing, but he didn't have a chance to swing it again.
A bat bogey hex flew from Ginny's wand and the giant dropped his weapon to scratch at his face, attempting to stop the nasty things flying out of his nose.
And that was all the time Ron needed.
He had the body strength that Hermione did not. With two swipes he sliced through one of the giant's ankles. Slicing through the achilles tendon and sending him tumbling to the ground. After that it was only a moment before Ron had dispatched the giant.
An arm snaked itself around Hermione's waist. She looked up into Draco's face, meeting his silver eyes with her own amber ones.
"You alright?"
She nodded, but didn't reply, instead spinning around him and blasting a Death Eater that had been attempting to sneak up on them.
"Where's Voldemort?" Harry asked, grabbing Ginny's free hand and moving so that neither of them had a back to an enemy.
"Inside. I think." She answered, following suit with Draco as Ron rejoined them, covered in Giant blood.
"I need to get there. The Order is on the road. They're coming. Everyone should be alright here." Harry said, each sentence punctuated by a spell from his wand.
Hermione had to fight the urge to turn and scowl at her brother. "Alright here? ALRIGHT HERE?!?!? Don't you know how FUCKING DANGEROUS giants are?!?!? LOOK AT THE BODIES!!! We're NOT alright!!!"
"Point," Ginny and Draco said.
"MERLIN DAMN IT! Okay, so we're NOT ALRIGHT! But if I don't stop Voldemort, then-"
"THEN WHAT?!? You're not a horcrux anymore!!! Besides! You know what Luna said!"
"Prophecies hold only the power you give them," Draco said calmly, even as he set fire to a group of inferi.
"ARGGH!!! Yes! But HE believes the prophecy! And the teachers are good, but none of them are Dumbledore! They don't stand a chance! He likes to talk! I can get him talking, slow him down, til the Order gets here!"
"Point," Ginny and Draco said again.
Hermione let out a scream of anger, blasting a group of Death Eaters and sending them straight into the Whomping Willow's tender embrace.
"FINE! GO THEN! Leave your classmates to DIE!"
Draco's arm snaked around pulled her to him, he pressed a small kiss to her neck before whispering in her ear. "He needs to go. What if Voldemort is doing something to the castle's defenses from inside? There are lots of nasty things in the Forbidden Forest. Right now everything brought in is a follower of the Dark Lord. But if dark creatures can come in easily...."
His voice trailed off, but she didn't need to hear more. Just his touch and the calm tone of his voice calmed the fiery rage burning inside of her.
"Harry, let's go. Ginny, you come too. Draco, Hermione, stay here until the Order arr-" Ron's words cut off with a small gasp and Hermione looked up to see what he did.
In fact, the entire battle froze in shock as the doors of the castle were thrown wide open to reveal Luna standing there, looking as ethereal as the ghosts surrounding her.
She raised her right hand, revealing a shiny black stone shimmering with an unworldly light.
"CHARGE!"
The ghosts let out a variety of war cries as they charged, some so old Hermione only knew them from reading ancient texts in her free time.
Professor Binns led the charge, a wicked little dagger in his his hand, one which showed it's lethality when the usually quite boring professor dove it into the foot of one of the remaining giants.
She couldn't believe her eyes.
How had Luna given the ghosts the ability to interact with the physical world? For that's exactly what they were doing.
The students all stood there for a moment, watching as ghosts attacked Death Eaters and dark creatures with wild abandon.
"You really should go, you know."
"W-w-what?" Harry said, looking at Moaning Myrtle.
Hermione couldn't blame him for that look. She didn't think Myrtle had ever left her toilet before, but she could be wrong.
Moaning Myrtle sighed, "You should go. That bad boy that killed me came back. Invaded my toilet and brought out his nasty pet. The one with yellow eyes. Now he's killing the teachers. Almost got me again, but I know better than to look at the eyes. You're a hero. You're supposed to stop him, right?" She flashed him a smile, "Besides, if you die trying you can share my toilet. Just don't bring her." Myrtle pointed at Ginny and then whisked off to the lake where she began gleefully pulling any Death Eaters in and drowning them.
"Bad boy? Nasty pet?" Ron asked. "Just what was she blathering on about?"
"I don't trust her," Ginny said, scowling after the departed ghost.
"I don't know what the pet is, but Myrtle said something about the eyes. And the bad boy has to be Voldemort." Hermione said, her mind racing.
"Has to be a basilisk. The Dark Lord loves snakes. And that is the King of Snakes. Plus, my father said once about someone dying mysteriously about fifty years ago, back before my second year," Draco said.
Hermione frowned, second year....
Why did the second year seem so important? What had-
Fuck.
The diary.
The first horcrux.
It had wanted her to give it to a muggle-born or a blood traitor. To release this creature? The basilisk?
Think, what was a basilisk like?
Killer gaze, chicken egg, hatched under a stone, death by-
"Draco! Come with me! Everyone else, go try to slow Voldemort down, wear a blindfold or use mirrors! DON'T look at the basilisk's eyes directly!"
She grabbed Draco's hand and raced through the continuing battle to Hagrid's Hut.
Hagrid would have a rooster, he had to. Because it would be terrible if they had to slay the basilisk with a sword while fighting Death Eaters and Voldemort at the same time.
Really, really terrible.