Master of All He Surveys (Chapter 15)
Title: Master of All He Surveys (Chapter 15, Blaise)
Author: princessteradia
Rating: R
Summary: The war was over, Voldemort was dead, and good had triumphed over evil. Only the terrifically naive and the frustratingly obtuse believed that would be the end of things. What comes next?
Disclaimer: I don't own J.K. Rowling's universe, I just like to do really evil things with her characters, on occasion.
Author's Note: This is being written for OWL's House Cup for the dark!fic-themed month of October, and is dedicated to all my fellow Slytherins on OWL. (And yes, I'm still working on it, even though it's now November.)
Previous | Next
When Theo arrived home that evening, Blaise was waiting for him in the library, seated in one of the chairs near the fireplace. The teacup set to one side was still steaming, suggesting that he hadn't been there long, but Theo knew better than to assume, given the house-elves' tendency to pay inordinate amounts of attention to such details as the temperature of someone's tea (particularly with Blaise, who could be damnably high-maintenance even by house-elf standards when he was in a mood). He crossed the room to sit in the other chair, picking up the teacup that had appeared for him even before he'd sat down; he'd been expecting a meeting with Blaise all afternoon, but issuing a summons felt too heavy-handed. Besides, it was a family matter, rather than a corporate one, and best dealt with at home, to maintain at least the illusion of privacy.
After several minutes of companionable silence, Blaise finally asked, "What did she find?"
Theo considered the question for all of half a second before countering it with another question, "Excuse me?"
"Don't jerk me around, Theo, it's insulting." It was rare to see Blaise express anger, and Theo was surprised by it, though he was careful not to let it show as Blaise continued, "I may not be anywhere near your class, or Tracey's, in the mental arts, but I'm not an idiot."
"The jury's still out on that one," Theo observed, his tone one of dry humor. "Just out of curiosity, how did you know she was looking?"
Blaise sat back, his expression calculating until he finally gave up and allowed the smirk to come back. "That new security artifice we got from that firm in Tokyo? I kept a few, for my personal space. So, what did Tracey find?"
"You're not going to like it."
"That's a given. If you're trying to spare my feelings out of some brotherly loyalty or something, don't. Give it to me straight. You owe me that much, at least."
"Fair enough," Theo agreed. It was easiest dealing with Blaise when he was being conciliatory, and he had to admit he appreciated it. "Someone's been in your head. Aside from Tracey and myself, of course."
Blaise went utterly still. "That's not possible."
"Apparently, it is," Theo corrected, his tone carefully bland. Blaise's distress was genuine, which meant that Tracey was right: he'd been completely unaware that he'd been compromised.
"Don't screw with me, Theo, it's not fucking /possible/." There was a slightly hysterical note to Blaise's voice, and Theo almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
"It /shouldn't/ be possible," Theo conceded, inclining his head. "We have all the local talent accounted for, and Tracey's done an excellent job of shoring up the protections in your head. So, to a certain extent, you're right, but we failed to take proper notice of the foreign talent, and you've been on the Continent recently, remember?"
This news did little to calm the distressed Blaise. "You think it was someone I ran into over there?"
"Tracey has presented it as the most likely scenario. Whoever did it is at least as good as she is, and they didn't leave any identifying markers." Theo paused, briefly, before adding, "She's fairly certain that they were behind what happened with Goyle, by the way. It may make it easier to narrow down, if you can remember what contacts the two of you might have in common."
Blaise snorted. "Not bloody likely, is it? Not much chance of me remembering them at all, and Greg's not exactly still around to compare notes with."
"I've already given that some thought." The bulk of his afternoon, in fact, though he didn't feel the need to enlighten Blaise any more than was absolutely necessary.
"Of course you have," Blaise grumbled. "Must be nice to be the Chessmaster, moving your pawns about the board, everything plotted and counter-plotted twenty steps ahead of everyone else."
"It has its moments," Theo agreed, smirking at Blaise's still-obvious irritation. They'd inadvertantly switched roles again, only this time Theo was enjoying himself. "The Ministry will, of course, have already been through the public faces of Goyle's home and office, but aside from that intrusion his things have been left untouched. There may be some sort of clue in his things."
"Greg wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, Theo, and I shouldn't have to be reminding you of that. You really think the Ministry wouldn't have found anything of importance?"
"Please. I didn't help Potter in the Minister's office because of his sharp mind and eye for detail," Theo drawled, his voice all but dripping with sarcasm. "In this particular case, I think Goyle's blunt way of thinking may have worked to our advantage. According to Tracey, he was always easy to nudge, but he was damn peculiar in that he could tell he'd /been/ nudged. He wasn't always able to articulate it well, afterwards, but that's where you come in."
"You think he might have left something for me, is that it?"
"Maybe not specifically for you, but you probably stand a better chance of finding it, and maybe it will trigger something. It's worth a shot, anyway." Theo leaned forward, his eyes intent on Blaise's face. "I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about mind magics, though I know more than most. If Goyle knew someone had been in his head, he'd have tried to leave some sort of word behind."
"Is this your way of pulling me off anything important in case there's other stuff kicking around in my head?"
The question was similar to the one Tracey had asked, earlier in the day, although Theo knew that neither Blaise nor Tracey would appreciate the comparison. "This is important," he replied, sipping his tea calmly. "If there's a new player on the field, we need to know as much as we can about them, and you're in the best position for that, right now." He waited for his words to sink in before adding, "I trust that won't be a problem?"
Silence, as Blaise sulked, beside him. Theo allowed it only because he knew that Blaise's defiant moments were always short-lived, as this one proved to be. "No. No problem." He set his teacup aside and stood up. "I'll get started on that now, then." He didn't waste time excusing himself, although Theo heard him apologizing to the elves before the telltale sound of Apparition signalled his departure.