This Proud Blood [Ron and Hermione]

[Deleted]

He stared at the morning sun, noting that he'd woken up hours later than usual, and found that he did not care. This was the first time he could ever remember not waking up with the sun to begin his morning workout...at least, the first time that didn't involve injury. But he was injured, wasn't he? In spirit, if not in body. Nothing else could explain the sudden lethargy of the morning, nor the events of the previous night.

She had cried last night.

He knew it, even though they had been separated by miles and miles, even though he'd not seen her for a month since their fight in the locker rooms at the MMA arena in London. She had only ever cried after that night, and he'd felt it every time. And it had finally been too much. He needed to relieve the spiking headache in his head...he reached for a bottle of firewhiskey, three-quarters empty, that he'd used to make her stop crying last night, and raised it to his lips. He knew Muggles used a little alcohol to relieve hangovers—

Stopped.

Pulled the bottle away from his lips and held it up, staring at it like most people would a sea monster. What was this? What was he doing...? Sitting here, drowning his sorrows in alcohol, like a washed-up pureblood yearning for the times when a dark lord gave them power unearned? Was this the answer?! NO. He was Theodorus Nott, and his honor and pride reflected on all that he did. What he wanted to do, he did. What he wanted to have, he took. He worked for everything, and he earned everything. Was he to be reduced to a drunkard just over this?

No.

Never.

He would fight for what was his, for what he wanted.

Until the bitter end.

---

Just before noon at the Ministry, a large, muscular bald man with a great mustache and laugh lines around his eyes that did not match the serious expression on his face entered. With permission, he made his way down through the Ministry to the Auror office. Upon reaching the right place, he turned and closed the door, flicking his wand at it to make sure his words would not be eacesdropped on. Then he turned to the room of Aurors and grinned. “I want to speak to the people in charge here, privately. If I am not allowed to do so within the next five minutes, one of London's underground trains will explode and kill hundreds of Muggles.”

The whole room fell silent at his rather convincing bluff. Theo crossed the massive arms of the Muggle man whose form he'd stolen and smirked.

@ron
@hermionejean

[Deleted]

The summer had been one of the busiest Hermione had had in recent memory; she was quite glad that she and Ron had grabbed some vacation time with their family. She had barely seen Rose and Hugo since coming back from New Zealand, though that could account for the fact that they both had not so mysterious significant others.  Most of the time spent at work was devoted to finding out the mysterious group of people that had been behind the kidnappings and the attack on Platform 9 3/4 (for Hermione believed they were one in the same).  Still, Hermione never regretted accepting the position as Department Head of Magical Law Enforcement; she sometimes laughed with Ron how she had shrilly told former minister Rufus Scrimgeour how she would never join the department.  It was funny how things worked out sometimes.

Today had been blissfully uneventful until just before lunchtime, when a flurry of murmurs flew up in and around the office - someone was here demanding to see the Head of the Department, with a promise of an Underground explosion if his request was not met.  Knowing Ron would have heard of the whispers by now, Hermione left her office and strode up to the front, making sure her wand was still in the interior pocket of her jacket where she could easily reach it if necessary.  Seeing Ron out of the corner of her eye, she gave the teeniest shake of her head before addressing the stranger, a rather large and unfamiliar man.  "My name is Hermione Granger, and I am the Head of this Department, you wished to speak with me?" she stated plainly.  She said nothing else, but waited for him to speak; he had said he wanted to talk to the head of the department, and here she was.

@theodorus

@ron

[Deleted]

@theodorus && @hermionejean

“I want to speak to the people in charge here, privately. If I am not allowed to do so within the next five minutes, one of London's underground trains will explode and kill hundreds of Muggles. My name is Hermione Granger, and I am the Head of this Department, you wished to speak with me?" ron frowned as he watched his wife interact with the man who had just walked into the office. he stood up from his desk, ignoring the shake of hermione's head as he crossed the room to stand behind her, the rest of the aurors in the room readying themselves for action if need be. but the threat of people dying was keeping them still right now, they were there to stop people getting hurt so they didn't want to do anything that would put someone into harms way. though ron knew better than to jump in when hermione was talking to someone, he would wait till he needed to speak and put in his own two cents. he folded his arms over his chest, ready at a second's notice to grab his wand to defend his wife if it came down to it, not that she needed his protection.

[Deleted]

Theo was trained for one thing and one thing only: war. He was skilled at Low War, stealth, assassination, poisons and curses, but also at High War, leading and fighting on the front lines, power against power. For as long as he could remember, he’d been trained to fight. And for much of his life, he’d been given real opponents to face. So despite his young age, he was more of a combat veteran than most of the Aurors around here. And thanks to his experiences in the magical and Muggle worlds of combat, he could generally gauge someone pretty accurately by their bodies and stances.

So when Hermione Granger, Head of Magical Law herself, came up, Theo immediately got a good impression of her. Powerful. Highly skilled. Just by the look in her eyes, he could tell she was considering a dozen different situations for why he might be here, figuring out the most likely places this bomb might be, and calculating how best to take him down. To say she was smart was to say that dragon’s fire was warm. It didn’t seem to do her justice. But, he felt as though she was no active fighter. At the very least, Theo felt his draw speed would be faster. After the first spell, she might take him apart like an annoying puzzle—but she had to get past that first spell.

Her husband strode up as well, crossing his arms and making every attempt to look menacing. And he was—though not for his size. Theo had fought bigger, and he was pretty sure he was stronger than the ginger-headed blood traitor. No, the intimidating part was that this man had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Harry Potter for most of his life. Theo had never met the vaunted savior of magical Britain, but even observing the man at a distance had left him no doubt that he would be shredded in a duel. Ronald Weasley gave off that same vibe, if less intensely; but he had a similar look to his wife right now, a calculating air. It wasn’t quite the same: Hermione seemed to be assessing all possible situations, both here and elsewhere, but Ronald was focused on here and now, and not just assessing—Theo could practically see all possible scenarios flashing through the man’s mind and being closed off one by one, like this was a giant chess board and Ronald was twelve moves ahead of him.

And these two were Harry Potter’s followers. No wonder most of the Purifiers were too scared to face their enemy head on. “My name is Hermione Granger, and I am the Head of this Department, you wished to speak with me?”

Theo grinned, the expression twice as unsettling on a face it did not belong to. “In private.”

---

Ronald Weasley had a nice office back here. With the three of them gathered, Theo nodded. “I assume the second most important Auror in the Ministry has an office that is not easily eavesdropped upon?” he asked, but raised his hands in surrender without waiting for an answer. Slowly, deliberately, he reached into one sleeve and produced a wand, which he set on the Auror’s desk. He repeated the action with the wand in his other sleeve. Then he produced a small jar filled with a sea blue liquid. “Polyjuice Potion. I’ll need it to leave here unrecognized. And the antidote, here.”

He produced a smaller jar, the contents of which he tipped into his mouth unceremoniously. Theo then sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk, deliberately seating himself out of arm’s reach of his wands. After a moment, he felt the familiar sensation of his flesh bubbling and heating as it stitched itself back to its proper form.

A grinning blonde teenager now sat before them, still tall and muscular, but much more nimble-looking than the heavily-muscled man from before. “So I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that the bomb threat was a lie…though, naturally, you can’t take the chance that it’s a total lie, can you?”

Not with Theo, whose grinning, eager attitude was as much a poker face as the most stone-faced expression could be. “So let’s get into it, shall we? My name is Theodorus Nott, and I am affiliated with the Purifiers.”

@hermionejean
@ron

[Deleted]

Hermione's back stiffened slightly as the man changed form, revealing himself to be a mere young adult. Theo Nott; she remembered his father from school as he had been in their year; his father had been a Death Eater and Theodore had fought on the side of the Death Eaters during the Second Wizarding War as well. She knew her wand was in her pocket, and saw that Rons’ was already in his hand. She wouldn’t underestimate Theo though; he had already snuck into the Ministry of Magic and gotten his requested meeting with herself and Ron, and then there were the two wands now sitting out of his reach on the desk. “We take all threats seriously,” she finally replied to his jaunty quip. She didn’t question how he had obtained the Polyjuice Potion; from her records he had graduated Hogwarts this past year so it wasn’t unbelievable that he knew how to create it. 

She also wasn’t surprised when he casually said he was affiliated with the Purifiers. The name had surfaced after the attack on Kings Cross, but nothing concrete that confirmed it had shown up until now, apparently. A part of her, the part that believed in trial and justice, wanted to arrest Theo on the spot then and there to put him in questioning, but something stopped her. The part of her that brewed a Polyjuice Potion her second year at Hogwarts, the part that had her drop out of Hogwarts for a year to find Horcruxes, the rebelliously inquisitive side of her stopped her hand. There was a reason Theo was here and telling them this and she had a feeling that strong-arming with the law wouldn’t get her the answers she wanted. “Well, you’ve admitted your affiliation with a group that we’ve been trying to track down for months, you concoct a bomb threat to get myself and Mister Weasley in a private meeting, I should arrest you here and now,” she started, her mouth set in a thin line. “But I’m not going to do that. Because you’re here for a reason, and I want to know why,” she finished, taking a seat across from Theo and folding her hands in front of her. 

@ron

@theodorus

[Deleted]

@theodorus && @hermionejean

“So I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that the bomb threat was a lie…though, naturally, you can’t take the chance that it’s a total lie, can you?” polyjuice potion. ron almost shuddered at the thought of it. he hated the stuff. he could still taste it from the last time he'd used it. it was the foulest thing he'd ever had and to make it was tedious. thank god hermione had the patience for making potions that took a long time. "well i did wonder why you were telling us about the leverage you might have had" ron said as he spread out his fingers to study them close, picking at some mark that was on one of his knuckles. “So let’s get into it, shall we? My name is Theodorus Nott, and I am affiliated with the Purifiers.” nott. well it was no surprise to ron that his son was caught up in the trouble that was happening in the world. like father like son it seemed. “Well, you’ve admitted your affiliation with a group that we’ve been trying to track down for months, you concoct a bomb threat to get myself and Mister Weasley in a private meeting, I should arrest you here and now, But I’m not going to do that. Because you’re here for a reason, and I want to know why,” the why was the curious part in all of this. he should have known that there was a very small chance they'd let him out of this office in something other than chains. it didn't matter what he told them, ron was fixing to arrest him as soon as he had spoken what he'd come here to say. the terror that the purifiers had caused his children and the children of his close friends, children that he considered family, wasn't something that he was going to overlook.

[Deleted]

Both of them still seemed to be calculating scenarios in their minds, but Theo was pretty certain he'd surprised them with his shift back into his true form. Red was more obvious about it, but he was pretty sure Brains had been caught by surprise as well. Neither of them were letting their guard down, either, which was a good thing, even though it might mean trouble for Theo. He had disarmed himself fully, but if they didn't believe that, he might have additional trouble getting through this...granted, he was still lethal without a drop of magic.

Theo grinned at Hermione's assessment of the situation. “You wouldn't get anything of value out of arresting me, anyway. As I said, I'm affiliated with them, but I am NOT a Purifier myself. I have had no foreknowledge of their activities, nor have I taken part in any of them. I didn't get kidnapped of my own free will, for example. The only thing I could be held for would be placing the Imperius Curse on Professor Eielson back around Easter—and given that I only forced him to keep information on the Purifiers secret, and that they originally intended to kill him, I could and would argue in court that I made the best choice of a bad situation. You'd be lucky to keep me in Azkaban more than a month.” He paused, thinking back to that night, and a sudden thought struck him. For the first time, Theo's face sobered up, and he looked Red directly in the eyes. “I also had no involvement with the Longbottom boy being attacked. I'm not stupid. Fighting your friend over in Hogwarts is suicide, and I rather like being alive.”

Not that Theo didn't love a good fight...but he knew from tales and now personal experience that Neville Longbottom fought by the rules of war at all times, and he had no problem with how one-sided that made things. Theo was good at combat, but he was not a walking artillery unit.

Pushing that aside, Theo's smirk returned in full force. “I came here because I have options. The Purifiers...they prattle on about pureblood superiority, but it's all empty words. Just like the Death Eaters. Pure blood is superior, but only because of the advantage of raw magical force the person is born with. A pureblood who refuses to do without magic is no better than the Muggles they claim dominion over. We are superior because we can live in their world, but they cannot live in ours. To intentionally throw that superiority away by limiting oneself, and then claim to still be superior....it disgusts me.” Add to that how few of them believed it—Nikolaj did, because he needed to see himself as better than...who, Theo couldn't be sure. Desirae didn't. She only wanted an excuse to indulge in her sadism. Same with Alucard.

“Besides, I agreed to work alongside them so long as they provided me with a suitable challenge. I want war. This world is far too tame. There's no crucible left for people like me, people born to fight. Society forces me to chain my mind and body, the essence of who I am, because I am not acceptable. Can you blame someone for wishing to create a place where they can find out what they're truly made of?”

The smile had slowly faded away during his words, because part of Theo wanted nothing more than to take up his wands and leave. Because he did want to fight. But he understood now that the Purifiers would never bring a true fight. Draven would indulge him from time to time, Theo believed, to try and keep him loyal, but ultimately, they had bravado but no confidence. They would only fight when they had an overwhelming advantage. Pathetic.

Theo shook himself and looked up again, confident grin returning once more. “So. Options. I could walk away from them. They might send assassins after me, but other than that, it sounds rather boring to just walk back into the real world. I could stay with them, but I will not throw my pride away like they have. Those...were my options. Now, there are two more. You can send me to Azkaban. I'll stay there....what, three months if you can get the full Wizengamot to back you?”

Theo leaned forward, the grin on his face widening with excitement, giving him the predatory look that made most people shy away from him....except for one who had stepped closer instead. “Or I can put myself in the most dangerous position, and spy for the Aurors. And that sounds like a lot of fun.”

@hermionejean
@ron

[Deleted]

Hermione didn’t even flinch when Theo began talking about blood purity and how much better purebloods were, and so forth. He had identified himself as associated with the Purifiers; it was basically their motto. Hermione knew she had proven herself both in school and out of school as a skilled witch, though she wished sometimes she had the raw power Harry and Ginny seemed to have with some of their defense spells. Nevertheless, she couldn’t help but find herself more and more intrigued by this boy. He couldn’t have been much older than eighteen, barely a legal wizard, just fresh out of Hogwarts. Yet he exuded power and...almost a battle-worn aura about him. She’d heard the rumors about the Nott family, and what they trained their kids in. She had never put too much thought or energy into them; they had just been rumors. Now though, with the child in question in front of her, she wondered if perhaps she was wrong in dismissing them.

“You...spy for us?” she repeated back to him, eyebrow raised. She cast a glance at her husband, making sure he wasn’t about to curse the boy into oblivion. She turned her head back to face Theo, folding her hands together. “I think we can all agree sending you to Azkaban would not benefit anyone at this point in time,” she said carefully, leaning forward as she continued to speak. “A spy though, someone on the inside. We could use that,” she admitted. “However, as appealing a spy sounds for my department, I have some reservations. You’ve been forward with your current affiliation with the Purifiers; it is clear to me that the basic ideals they uphold are one in the same with your own. So I must ask you, how do I know you’re not a spy from the group themselves? How do I know that you won’t go straight back to the Purifiers with the insider information we have? There’s only been one double agent that was successful in almost one hundred years, and that was Severus Snape." She paused, letting that sink in for a moment. "Why should I believe you can pull off the double agent role; what can you give me that would make me say yes?”

@ron
@theodorus

[Deleted]

@theodorus && @hermionejean

“I think we can all agree sending you to Azkaban would not benefit anyone at this point in time,” ron frowned and folded his arms over his chest as his wife conversed with theo. he might think somewhere in the very back of his mind that she was right but everything in him screamed to lock the kid up, something about him seemed off to ron. but then ron was always a little biased of people who came in and threatened people. even if it was an empty threat. "i don't know, throwing you in azkaban would feel pretty bloody good but if they didn't send you .. there are other places to put you" he said with a slight scowl toward theo. “A spy though, someone on the inside. We could use that, However, as appealing a spy sounds for my department, I have some reservations. You’ve been forward with your current affiliation with the Purifiers; it is clear to me that the basic ideals they uphold are one in the same with your own. So I must ask you, how do I know you’re not a spy from the group themselves? How do I know that you won’t go straight back to the Purifiers with the insider information we have? There’s only been one double agent that was successful in almost one hundred years, and that was Severus Snape. Why should I believe you can pull off the double agent role; what can you give me that would make me say yes?” a spy, get him to spy for them? while the thought of knowing what was going on in the inside of the purifiers the thought of sending someone affiliated with them to spy on them just didn't sit well with him. there was every chance, no matter how much theo said he didn't want to throw his pride away like the others had, that he would tell them what he heard in the ministry. "if we do this hermione, veritaserum. we'll see what that can get out of him. if he does become a spy though .. the unbreakable vow. to keep his mouth closed about things he shouldn't say" he said to his wife before looking at theo again. he wasn't going to let her do any less. too much was riding on them winning this war, their children, their nieces and nephews and everyone they cared about. he wasn't going to risk any of it.

[Deleted]

The woman was proving to be surprisingly open-minded with him. Her husband, of course, had the typical reaction: make the same sweeping assumptions about their enemies that they believed their enemies made about Muggles and Mudbloods. How very interesting.

Hermione’s words, however, brought Theo up short. “No.” he said with a tone of finality, hand slashing through the air in front of him in a noble’s gesture of dismissal. “They claim to want war, but they only ever do things where they are in no danger themselves. They would not choose to enter a battle unless the odds were overwhelmingly in their favor—and I think they would wait until the surrender. They don’t want war, they want a massacre that leaves them in charge. They want to be considered superior without testing themselves to prove their superiority, and they cannot handle others disagreeing with them. They are not true Purebloods, not like me. I have pride. All they have…is arrogance. And the gap between those two ideals is immeasurable.”

Theo’s grin crossed back over his face. “As to why I can do it successfully…I’ve been trained since before you sent your children to Hogwarts in the arts of combat and assassination. I’ve been taught to resist pain, to not give my emotions away no matter who or what is at stake, even if my own parents were tortured right in front of me. And I passed those tests. If I cannot succeed, you have nobody that stands a chance. Although, I am curious—if I’m spying for you, what information would you give me that the Purifiers could exploit?” Theo said all this matter-of-factly. Something he’d been through—and, he assumed, so had Vi—was seeing his parents tortured by the Cruciatus Curse, while a masked man asked him the simplest of questions, trying to probe his mind for the answers. When he couldn’t even get Theo’s middle name, he pronounced the test over. Turned out to be a couple of Muggles, force-fed Polyjuice Potion to look like his parents during the torture. But he hadn’t known it at the time, so the test was very real to him.

At Ronald’s words, however, Theo’s face grew deadly serious for the first time since he’d entered the Ministry. “Why does everyone thing I’m just dumb muscle, to be commanded and thrown away like a chess piece? I brewed that Polyjuice Potion, Red, and I’m far from stupid. There’s enough Veritaserum antidote running through my veins that it won’t work on me for at least a week. And I am not forming an Unbreakable Vow. As I told the leader of the Purifiers after the kidnapping event, my will is mine, and it will stay that way. I make my decisions, and I accept the consequences. Nobody will take that away from me. If that’s not acceptable to you, then we’re done here.”

He steepled his fingers in front of him for a moment, contemplating. “There are some things you need to know. I can’t give names or locations, and I don’t know plans unless I’ve been included in them. Information is given out as late as possible. But I can tell you that Elaine Dupree is not the leader of the Purifiers. I’m guessing you expected that, though.”

@hermionejean
@ron

[Deleted]

Hermione’s face remained the same as Ron, then Theo spoke. Though she had been inclined to agree with Ron, Theo’s remarks about Veritaserum antidote did not surprise her. He was proving to her that he was indeed trained far beyond anyone they had on their side, and it was becoming more and more of an attractive option to her. But still, she had her reservations. “I think we both already knew that I knew Elaine was not the Mastermind; the girl just left school, and while she does seem to possess that conniving and manipulative quality, she is no Voldemort,” she said simply, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“You ask, Theo, what I can give you that the Purifiers cannot. You and I both know what kind of question that is, and I think you know some of the answers. There are protections I can offer, obviously, but I know that’s not all that you want.” She leaned forward, her dark brown eyes never leaving his. “So, why don’t you tell me Theodorus Nott. What is it you really want?” she asked, seeing how forward he dared to be around her.

@ron
@theodorus

[Deleted]

Theo laughed out loud at Hermione's description of Elaine. Frankly, the girl was more like a cat than anything; sure, she could be sneaky and manipulative, but she was only out for her own immediate satisfaction. The longer vision belonged entirely to Draven. That did, however, make Elaine more dangerous. Draven planned things out in advance, considering moves and countermoves, before he acted. Elaine wanted to do something and immediately did it. That made her less threatening long-term, but far more dangerous short-term. Frankly, he was surprised she still hadn't tried to cut anyone down among her followers. And he was convinced it was only a matter of time before she got bored enough to do it. Not Desirae; Elaine was actually attached to her. And likely not himself, as he was too well-versed in killing and surviving to risk her life on a whim. But anyone else? He wondered how long until she snapped on them.

Theo arched an eyebrow at Hermione's request. What did he want? He laughed again, longer and louder this time. “Tell me, Brains, do I seem like the kind of guy who wants to be GIVEN anything? You have nothing that interests me. Protection? Protection is boring. If I wanted safety, I would simply walk away from the Purifiers and go into hiding.” He leaned forward in his chair, feral grin firmly in place. She didn't understand him, probably never would. But he would wager she knew others like him, and understood that she didn't understand, at the least. “I do not want safety. I want adventure, excitement, fun. That's why I've come here. Simply leaving the Purifiers affords me no entertainment. But spying on them? Knowing at least one of them has successfully tracked and spied on me since I met her, and not knowing how? Walking the blade's edge of life and death? That...that is what I want.”

He sat back in the chair again, expression sobering now. “There is one problem. I'm not a blunt club, to be thrown with the others at buildings and Muggles to cause property damage. I am a blade, honed for killing and combat. And they intend to use me. For me to maintain my cover...I may have to carry out assassinations.”

He paused for a moment, considering his next words. “The leader likes to personally deliver killing blows, and has a penchant for planning. Very important targets, like the Minister, would be preceded by elaborate plans on their part, involving multiple Purifiers to entangle the target and set up a place of safety where the leader could come in and finish the target in complete safety. For those kinds of targets, I can warn you in time for you to provide an emergency change in plans that ensures they are not where they were intended to be. But for lesser targets, when I am called on to locate, infiltrate, and set things up for the leader....I do not fail, Brains. And they know that.”

@hermionejean

||MAZE DIRECTION:RIGHT TURN||

[Deleted]

Hermione watched Theo with an appraising as he spoke, first about what he wanted, and secondly about his role in the purifiers. Her face never changed during his passionate speech; he clearly had thought long and hard about what he had to say and she could respect that. “The Minister is my niece, and I fully expect to see her through to survive this ordeal,” she said coolly, folding her arms in front of her. She watched him again, silent for a few minutes before standing up and crossing over to him. “You want adventure and excitement, I can give that to you easily. Fun though, well that depends on definition. Do you revel in the chance of toeing that line between one side and the other? Then sure, I can give you fun too.” She took another step closer to him.

“What I’m going to need from you then is a confirmation of who your targets are within the Ministry. I can’t have myself agreeing to let you turn spy for us only for you to murder one of my colleagues; I’ll be ousted from office faster than you can say Mudblood. You tell me you don’t fail, and I don’t expect you to. But if you have Purifiers on your tail when you’re instructed to assassinate someone, I expect you to take care of them however you see fit. Blame them for the botched assassination, I don’t really care how you do it. I will not risk the safety of dozens of lives just for you,” she told him, then gave him a half smirk and a small scoff. “If you agree to my terms, then you’re hired.” She crossed back to her desk and sat in her chair, still watching him. “Oh, and Mr. Nott?” she added, her dark eyes flashing. “You ever call me Brains again and I’ll have you thrown into a dark four by four cell cell, no windows, no light, nothing. You will address me as Hermione or Ms. Granger,” she warned him.

@theodorus

[Deleted]

Theo shook his head in silent negation of her demands. “I don’t find out about these targets ahead of time. And the only one trailing me is usually the one in charge. Thing is—I can’t be sure it’s them and not a possessed conduit of some kind. I could turn on them, kill them, and it might do nothing but get me caught out. If there’s preplanning, I can and will warn you. If they come to me and say ‘we’re going to kill this person’ though…there will be no opportunity for me to warn you or head it off. So far, that’s only happened once, with the warden of Azkaban. Which should give you an idea of what I can do, and what is expected of me.” That kill had been clean and efficient, with no obvious method of entry and no witnesses, despite clear evidence that the office itself had been shredded in a massive fight that should have drawn attention. And the murderer appeared to have killed the warden with a spear, though no such weapon could be found. Naturally, Theo had cleaned away the water and ice he’d created during the fight before he and Draven had escaped.

Theo shrugged. “The best I can do is offer my targets the chance to fight back, as I did with the warden. Killing doesn’t interest me, but fighting does. And the Purifiers know that. They have accounted for my preference to let a target fight back. That’s your only chance. Key, medium-to-high-profile targets. Teach them ways to call for help and survive in a duel against a much more skilled enemy. If you can manage that—you may be able to save them from me.”

He grinned and stood up, stretching. “As to the latter, very good. That would have been intimidating, if I could be intimidated, Brains. Either lock me up or accept it.” Theo laughed for a bit, the sound hardly matching the frame of the man he was impersonating. “Don’t feel too bad. The head of the Purifiers isn’t particularly fond of their nickname, either.”

Theo raised his hands and turned around to put his back to her, to show he had no intention of attacking, before he slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a third wand. This one had been taken from one of the dead mercenaries that he had killed upon awakening in the Purifier base. “Surely you didn’t think I would completely disarm myself.”

He turned around and laid the wand on the desk, then picked up the blue bottle of Polyjuice potion and downed the rest of it, wincing a bit at the flavor. Then he picked up the two wands that were his own and slipped them back up his sleeves. “You’ll have to send ‘me’ to Azkaban, of course. Make up whatever details you need and hand that wand over as mine. I will escape en route, change back to myself, and return to the Purifiers.”

He paused for a moment, then bowed to the Head of Muggle Law Enforcement, grin still in place. “My name is Theodorus Damocles Nott. My every action reflects on my honor and the pride of my blood. I will neither run, nor hide, nor deny the truth. The good, or the ill. When the time comes to be judged, I’ll say loud and clear everything I have done. I may refuse the judgment of others, but I will not deny my actions. Or inaction, as the case may be.”

He grinned at her now. “We will never be friends. I’m not a good guy. But I am no coward, either, to hide from truth or consequences. That will have to be enough, no?”

@hermionejean

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Hermione nodded and stood up as she watched Theo transform into the man he had shown up as, and walked over to him with magical handcuffs. “I trust you know how to get out of these,” she told him, more of a statement than a question; it had already been proven to her what he was capable of. Yet, she tightened the handcuffs around his wrist perhaps a bit more than she would normally; he had to remember who was in charge here after all. “Alright, I’ll send you along with two of the Aurors who have been sniffing around for a chance to prove themselves. Try not to send them into the sea when you escape,” she told him, raising a brow at him. As they marched towards the door, Hermione stopped; she had spotted the letter from the Headmaster on her desk and an idea came from him.

“Desirae Rousseau. I need information on her. I expect something the next time we meet, and then I will explain why,” she said, her voice low so only Theo could hear her. She opened the door with her wand and beckoned the two Aurors, young and eager to please, who were standing nearby hopefully. “You two, time to prove your worth to the office. Please transfer the prisoner to Azkaban where he will await sentencing,” she told them abruptly. As they took Theo in his transformed state away, Hermione crossed her arms and watched them go. Had she made a mistake in trusting the young Slytherin? She wasn’t so sure, but she supposed time would tell. With a sigh, she turned and went back into her office, giving them all a warning glance as to not disturb her. There was plenty of work to be done.

END THREAD