Fic: In My Head
TITLE: In My Head
AUTHOR: abzurd
FANDOM: Harry Potter
MAIN CHARACTER: Gideon Prewett
Other Canon Characters: Fabian Prewett, Benjy Fenwick
PROMPT: 76 - Betrayal at 100_tales (x posted at first_order)
RATING: PG-13
WORD COUNT: 1336
SUMMARY: Gideon leads his team into what should have been an easy capture but ends up finding out something important about himself.
WARNINGS: Mind Control, OC Characters (to round out the group)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of, nor do I make any money from the Harry Potter franchise. I merely dabble in the shadows of the world of JK Rowling created.
The Death Eater mask gave nothing away but Gideon could feel the fear emanating from the cloaked figure walking down the deserted lane. Brilliant moonlight glinted off the silver mask, giving the still, tortured expression more movement than normal. No good would come from making this figure more human than it really was. He’d seen enough carnage from a Death Eater rampage to treat any of them with compassion when one of them got into his sights.
He mentally went through the movement of his team. The ever-present Fabian, his right hand man when it came to any mission, was directly across from him, covering the other end of the dusty lane. Benjy would be blending in with the trees at the edge of the track where they’d decided to set up the trap. Quinn would be backing him up, watching over his blind spots from the trees. They had gone over the plans numerous times. If anything went awry, it would be fate and not bad planning or poor execution.
The gleaming silver turned to gold for a moment, a play of the light prompting his memory to recall the golden tresses of his current amour. They’d spent much of the previous evening on a porch swing under these same stars, the same moonlight turning Tambre’s blonde hair into a wealth of silken waves that even a king would envy. For hours on end, they’d whispered their way through stories of their past. Each time he’d started to contemplate about the future, she’d stopped him with a gentle shake of her head.
“No. Tell me where you have been. Once we know each other’s past, we can begin to see the future.” Her crisp French accent lent a matter-of-factness to the words that her sad smile said she didn’t feel. He’d never met a girl more unwilling to tempt fate.
And so he talked of his childhood and time at school. Sometimes she even let him tell her his reasons for joining the Order but this normally set her face into a mask no kisses could crack through.
And spot of gold sent his mind spinning toward thoughts of her. The last thing he wanted to think about during the waylaying of a minion of the Dark Lord was the feeling of contentment he felt when stroking her hair. Any distraction could cost him valuable seconds when his whole being needed to be focused on this moment. He’d have had the head of any of the people under his command if they lost focus like this.
A whisper of sound echoed in the velvety evening. Someone laughed. It wasn’t one of his group. They wouldn’t dare break from the plan.
Gideon, where are you?
Her voice rippled through the air surrounding him. For a moment it was as if he could smell the soap she used to wash her hair with. Rose water and clover. And in this moment he knew fear. That splash of gold hadn’t been from the curving moonlight playing with his senses. It was truly Tambre’s hair. She was here.
His wand clattered to the ground. There was no way he could use it against the woman who was actively holding his heart. But neither could he stop the inevitable flash of red answered by a cry and flash of green. The battle waged below him but Gideon was frozen by fear and torment.
As the sides traded hexes and spells as colourful as a Guy Fawkes celebration, Gideon stood utterly frozen. It was odd to be a spectator of a macabre play but he still couldn’t bring himself to join in. Even when Quinn cried out in pain, he couldn’t bring himself to move.
Tambre’s voice continued to wrap around him Come to my aid, Gideon. They want to kill me. Why are you letting this happen? Please, Gideon. Spare me from these people who would separate us.
“It’s a trick,” he hissed as the rational part of his brain tried to make him move. Tambre would never don the cloak and mask of a Death Eater. He knew her too intimately for that kind of deception. But his heart ached as he heard her crying out to him.
There was one final cry and the torment of words ceased. In an instant, his wand was in his hand as he sprinted down the hill.
“Where have you been?” Fabian pulled him aside as he came to a halt by the fallen body, his voice low and angry “We nearly lost him because you weren’t there to close the gap.”
“Tambre,” he gasped. “I heard her in my head.”
“I heard Becca,” Benjy chimed in from his ever vigilance stance at the side of the path. His edges were still blurred into the background as he kept watch for any additional enemies that might come after them. “She told me we’d been wrong all this time.”
“Aye. Me mam tried to talk me away from my post. Seeing as she’s on her death bed, I didn’t figure it was her in that cloak.“ Quinn was holding her side but didn’t appear to be affected by whatever spell hit her. The mask in her hand no longer glinted but sank dully into the darkness of the shadows . “It’s Dominic Pucey, sir.”
“And we’ve been aware since the beginning that he was well-versed in diversion and mind-control spells.” Fabian continued to glare at his older brother.
Gideon couldn’t feel any of the resentment he should have had at the look. His heart continued to beat in his chest; a cold sweat glazed his palms. “It was so real.”
“So was your whinging running through my head but we all pulled ourselves together, didn’t we? We all did our jobs. Oh, wait. One of us didn’t. One of us was so worried about his girlfriend that he let the team down.”
“Let him be,” Benjy murmured. “You weren’t exactly johnny on the spot, were you?”
The shame abated slightly as he realized how fallible his brother had been. Since there was no one he’d ever known about that Fabian had set his heart after, he had to wonder who had kept his brother from doing his job right away. “Who did you see?”
“None of your damn business.”
“Rose?”
Colour defused through Fabian’s cheeks. “No. Not Rose.”
“Who?”
Fabian turned away from the group so that his voice didn’t carry to them. In a small, thoroughly disgusted voice, he whispered, “You, you bastard. I heard you.”
“But I was right here with you.”
“And don’t you think I know that? I’m not daft. It just took me a minute to be reminded of that fact.”
Gideon walked over to stare at the fallen body of the powerful wizard. He’d always thought he was too strong to be duped by such a simple spell. He’d had nothing concrete to depend on to verify what his other fallible sense had determined must be the truth. Love had handicapped him when it should have only made him stronger. He’d doubted Tambre. For a moment longer, he let himself wallow in the shame and self-recrimination of his actions. With one final deep breath, he looked up at his team.
“I let you down but you did what you needed to do to get the job done. Do we need to take you for treatment, Quinn?”
“No, sir. One of Marlene’s potions and I’ll be as good as new.”
“Fine. Let’s finish this job and move on to the next one. We need to know what he used to get in our heads so that we can be ready next time.” Everyone nodded along with his words. All except Fabian. His brother’s trust would be harder to win back. Pretty words would never work. There was something else in his eyes. He’d let his brother down in numerous different ways today. It would take time to figure out just how to make it like it was.
AUTHOR: abzurd
FANDOM: Harry Potter
MAIN CHARACTER: Gideon Prewett
Other Canon Characters: Fabian Prewett, Benjy Fenwick
PROMPT: 76 - Betrayal at 100_tales (x posted at first_order)
RATING: PG-13
WORD COUNT: 1336
SUMMARY: Gideon leads his team into what should have been an easy capture but ends up finding out something important about himself.
WARNINGS: Mind Control, OC Characters (to round out the group)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of, nor do I make any money from the Harry Potter franchise. I merely dabble in the shadows of the world of JK Rowling created.
The Death Eater mask gave nothing away but Gideon could feel the fear emanating from the cloaked figure walking down the deserted lane. Brilliant moonlight glinted off the silver mask, giving the still, tortured expression more movement than normal. No good would come from making this figure more human than it really was. He’d seen enough carnage from a Death Eater rampage to treat any of them with compassion when one of them got into his sights.
He mentally went through the movement of his team. The ever-present Fabian, his right hand man when it came to any mission, was directly across from him, covering the other end of the dusty lane. Benjy would be blending in with the trees at the edge of the track where they’d decided to set up the trap. Quinn would be backing him up, watching over his blind spots from the trees. They had gone over the plans numerous times. If anything went awry, it would be fate and not bad planning or poor execution.
The gleaming silver turned to gold for a moment, a play of the light prompting his memory to recall the golden tresses of his current amour. They’d spent much of the previous evening on a porch swing under these same stars, the same moonlight turning Tambre’s blonde hair into a wealth of silken waves that even a king would envy. For hours on end, they’d whispered their way through stories of their past. Each time he’d started to contemplate about the future, she’d stopped him with a gentle shake of her head.
“No. Tell me where you have been. Once we know each other’s past, we can begin to see the future.” Her crisp French accent lent a matter-of-factness to the words that her sad smile said she didn’t feel. He’d never met a girl more unwilling to tempt fate.
And so he talked of his childhood and time at school. Sometimes she even let him tell her his reasons for joining the Order but this normally set her face into a mask no kisses could crack through.
And spot of gold sent his mind spinning toward thoughts of her. The last thing he wanted to think about during the waylaying of a minion of the Dark Lord was the feeling of contentment he felt when stroking her hair. Any distraction could cost him valuable seconds when his whole being needed to be focused on this moment. He’d have had the head of any of the people under his command if they lost focus like this.
A whisper of sound echoed in the velvety evening. Someone laughed. It wasn’t one of his group. They wouldn’t dare break from the plan.
Gideon, where are you?
Her voice rippled through the air surrounding him. For a moment it was as if he could smell the soap she used to wash her hair with. Rose water and clover. And in this moment he knew fear. That splash of gold hadn’t been from the curving moonlight playing with his senses. It was truly Tambre’s hair. She was here.
His wand clattered to the ground. There was no way he could use it against the woman who was actively holding his heart. But neither could he stop the inevitable flash of red answered by a cry and flash of green. The battle waged below him but Gideon was frozen by fear and torment.
As the sides traded hexes and spells as colourful as a Guy Fawkes celebration, Gideon stood utterly frozen. It was odd to be a spectator of a macabre play but he still couldn’t bring himself to join in. Even when Quinn cried out in pain, he couldn’t bring himself to move.
Tambre’s voice continued to wrap around him Come to my aid, Gideon. They want to kill me. Why are you letting this happen? Please, Gideon. Spare me from these people who would separate us.
“It’s a trick,” he hissed as the rational part of his brain tried to make him move. Tambre would never don the cloak and mask of a Death Eater. He knew her too intimately for that kind of deception. But his heart ached as he heard her crying out to him.
There was one final cry and the torment of words ceased. In an instant, his wand was in his hand as he sprinted down the hill.
“Where have you been?” Fabian pulled him aside as he came to a halt by the fallen body, his voice low and angry “We nearly lost him because you weren’t there to close the gap.”
“Tambre,” he gasped. “I heard her in my head.”
“I heard Becca,” Benjy chimed in from his ever vigilance stance at the side of the path. His edges were still blurred into the background as he kept watch for any additional enemies that might come after them. “She told me we’d been wrong all this time.”
“Aye. Me mam tried to talk me away from my post. Seeing as she’s on her death bed, I didn’t figure it was her in that cloak.“ Quinn was holding her side but didn’t appear to be affected by whatever spell hit her. The mask in her hand no longer glinted but sank dully into the darkness of the shadows . “It’s Dominic Pucey, sir.”
“And we’ve been aware since the beginning that he was well-versed in diversion and mind-control spells.” Fabian continued to glare at his older brother.
Gideon couldn’t feel any of the resentment he should have had at the look. His heart continued to beat in his chest; a cold sweat glazed his palms. “It was so real.”
“So was your whinging running through my head but we all pulled ourselves together, didn’t we? We all did our jobs. Oh, wait. One of us didn’t. One of us was so worried about his girlfriend that he let the team down.”
“Let him be,” Benjy murmured. “You weren’t exactly johnny on the spot, were you?”
The shame abated slightly as he realized how fallible his brother had been. Since there was no one he’d ever known about that Fabian had set his heart after, he had to wonder who had kept his brother from doing his job right away. “Who did you see?”
“None of your damn business.”
“Rose?”
Colour defused through Fabian’s cheeks. “No. Not Rose.”
“Who?”
Fabian turned away from the group so that his voice didn’t carry to them. In a small, thoroughly disgusted voice, he whispered, “You, you bastard. I heard you.”
“But I was right here with you.”
“And don’t you think I know that? I’m not daft. It just took me a minute to be reminded of that fact.”
Gideon walked over to stare at the fallen body of the powerful wizard. He’d always thought he was too strong to be duped by such a simple spell. He’d had nothing concrete to depend on to verify what his other fallible sense had determined must be the truth. Love had handicapped him when it should have only made him stronger. He’d doubted Tambre. For a moment longer, he let himself wallow in the shame and self-recrimination of his actions. With one final deep breath, he looked up at his team.
“I let you down but you did what you needed to do to get the job done. Do we need to take you for treatment, Quinn?”
“No, sir. One of Marlene’s potions and I’ll be as good as new.”
“Fine. Let’s finish this job and move on to the next one. We need to know what he used to get in our heads so that we can be ready next time.” Everyone nodded along with his words. All except Fabian. His brother’s trust would be harder to win back. Pretty words would never work. There was something else in his eyes. He’d let his brother down in numerous different ways today. It would take time to figure out just how to make it like it was.