Fic: Luke Snyder and the Pensieve Part 1
Title: Luke Snyder and the Pensieve Part 1
Author: hugocabret
Pairing: Luke/Reid
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 5,828/11,846
Summary/Prompt: Reid shows Luke his deepest memories
Author's note: After reading megf812's comment on the last part (and she was only one of many messages that I received), I feel like I should announce now that this story is not ending anytime soon! So enjoy this one :D
Also, additional thanks to traciamc for reassuring me this chapter wouldn't suck.
Disclaimer: I do not own ATWT or HARRY POTTER
Luke Snyder and the Room of Requirements | Luke Snyder and the Felix Felicis | Luke Snyder and Advanced Potion Making | Luke Snyder and Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop: Part 1 | Luke Snyder and Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop: Part 2 | Luke Snyder and The Mirror of Erised | Luke Snyder and the Hospital Wing | Luke Snyder and the Herbology Greenhouse | Luke Snyder and the Ravenclaw Quidditch Practice | Luke Snyder and the Three Broomsticks | Luke Snyder and the Adventures of Martin Miggle, the Mad Muggle | Luke Snyder and the Weird Sisters | Luke Snyder and Tessomacy (tealeaf readings)
Luke woke up Monday morning with knots in his stomach. He had spent the whole night dreaming of scenarios of what Reid was going to do, what he might say to him. He already knew it was going to be intimate, no grand gesture in the middle of the hallway or in the Great Hall, it was just going to be the two of them.
Luke didn’t want it any other way.
He didn’t want Reid to change who he was. Reid would never stand up on a table and announce to the entire school that they were together. That was not Reid’s style and Luke didn’t want Reid to do anything that wasn’t him. He just wanted a statement, not a grand statement.
Luke tried his best to pay attention during his morning classes but his mind couldn’t focus. Two months of pent up anger and lust along with confusion. Then there was more anger and more lust and it had finally built up and it was at it’s breaking point. It was going to happen today or tonight and whether they were going to have a relationship was going to be decided.
“Earth to Luke” Casey said waving his hand in front of Luke’s face. They were sitting in the Great Hall. Luke didn’t even remember walking there as he was so spaced out, preoccupied in his head. “What’s going on in there?” Casey asked as he leaned across the table to tap on Luke’s head.
Luke batted Casey’s hand away before answering.
“Just preoccupied about something.”
“Did you get a letter?” Casey asked harmlessly
“What?” Luke responded, shocked, he for sure thought that everybody had been asleep last night when he saw the owl at his window.
“From your family, I remember before the holidays you were telling us how crazy everything was.”
“No, no it’s not them. Just thinking about something.” Luke said, he looked around the Great Hall, he had a general idea of where Reid normally was during the days because while they had been sneaking around, it was always easy to know where the other one was going to be. Reid was usually in the Great Hall at this time as well, but he was nowhere in sight. Luke also realized that he hadn’t seen him as they were leaving potions which was usually when Reid was going to his Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
“You’ve been such a space cadet all day, is it Sam? I heard you guys ran into each other a couple days ago.”
“No, I’m fine, he’s fine. I think I am just going to go, I’m feeling tired.” Luke lied. In reality his mind was racing, he had just realized that Reid was going to wait for him all day. That Reid was going to be in the Room of Requirements in case he ever showed up. The note did say, whatever the best time was. He couldn’t believe that Reid was missing classes for this, that he was taking this so seriously. Luke felt his heart start to beat faster, knowing that Reid was waiting for him.
“Ok? Don’t you have Ruins this afternoon?” Casey asked, confused as to why Luke was going to skip his class.
“Yeah, I’m just going to go to the common room first and then go.” Luke lied again, he even shared this class with Ali but he didn’t really care. He could miss one ruins class, it wouldn’t kill him.
“Alright man, we’ll see you tonight to work on that potions paper that Snape assigned today.”
“He assigned us a paper?”
“Weren’t you paying attention?”
“Not really.”
“Yeah, 12 inches, due Wednesday. It’s on Hiccoughing Solution, he said we need to write about each of the ingredients and why we use them to make this potion…”
“…Okay, okay, I’ll just see you tonight.” Luke started to say before Casey could even finish talking. He only cared about one thing, and it wasn’t Hiccoughing Solution.
“Umm Ok, bye.” Casey said as he watched Luke leave the Great Hall. “Was he acting weird to you?”
“Luke is always acting weird.” Noah responded as he hadn’t been paying attention to either one of them.
“That’s true.” Casey laughed, brushing off Luke’s awkward weirdness. They had learned, for as long as they have known Luke, to just let him do what he needed to do and not question it.
Luke started making his way towards the Room of Requirements. He had no idea what to expect. He just kept replaying the line that Reid had written in his notorious messy handwriting, the line that said “it’s taken me awhile to get here, but I’m here.” Luke had read over that line fifteen times since receiving the letter. Every time he reached that part he felt this butterflies in his stomach start to flutter and his heart would beat faster.
Luke took the moving stairwells, as it was the fastest way to get there. He was feeling a mixture of emotions, nervousness, excitement, anxiousness, happiness, and everything that could possibly be in-between. He had no idea what to expect, he only hoped that in the end, they were back together. His body missed Reid too much and his heart had been aching.
Luke finally found himself standing outside of the vacant wall on the seventh floor. He looked around to make sure that nobody was watching and he quickly paced three times before the door appeared. Luke rubbed his hands together; they felt damp and clammy, as he was incredibly nervous. He took a deep breath before opening the door.
Luke entered the room and saw that Reid was sitting at the desk that was off to the side. He was reading a book, a sight that Luke had missed a lot. Sitting off to the side of the desk were four small vials that were barely glowing. As Luke inched closer, he recognized them as the mysterious vials that Reid had had on the desk a couple of weeks ago when he came to pick up his potions book.
Luke felt the nervousness run though his veins, as Reid had been waiting for him to not be with Sam, that he had wanted to fix this for almost a month, that Reid had never stopped caring about him.
Luke thought about clearing his throat to get Reid’s attention but instead he just found his feet carrying him closer to the desk where Reid was sitting. As he was walking, in true Luke fashion, his foot tripped up just a bit, causing Reid to turn around from the desk.
Luke stood still, not quite sure what to do or say. He knew his face probably looked like he had just seen a ghost, but he didn’t know what to expect. The ball was entirely in Reid’s court and he was just here to play the game.
“I didn’t know if you were going to show up.” Reid said as he stood up from the chair. Luke couldn’t help but let his eyes wander from Reid’s. Reid looked incredibly good, but then again, Reid always looked amazing.
“Why wouldn’t I come?” Luke asked as he looked back up to meet Reid’s eyes.
“Owls are kind of unpredictable.” Reid laughed. “Plus I didn’t know if you were awake or not when I sent Isle.”
“Your owl’s name is Isle?” Luke said, he smiled, and Reid matched it.
“I’ve had her since I was a first year.”
Then there was a moment of awkward silence.
Both stood there for a moment, not quite sure what to do next. Reid knew what he needed to do and he knew that Luke was waiting for whatever it was going to be. Reid watched as Luke looked around the room, he could sense that Luke was nervous. Reid tried to look confident but how the night was going to end was all up to Luke. Reid didn’t want to think about it too much as he didn’t think he would be able to handle a bad outcome.
“Umm…” Reid started. What he had planned might take awhile and he was actually thankful that Luke had shown up relatively early as he also knew Luke’s schedule pretty well and knew that he had Ruins this afternoon. “Luke.”
“Yeah.”
“I…You know…” Reid continued. “…ugh, God why is this so hard just to say what I want to say?”
Luke’s eyes widened. He could tell that Reid was struggling, but Reid was never good at talking about anything more than healing, chess, school, and Quidditch.
“Ok. I had a whole speech planned out, but you know me.” Reid kept going, he couldn’t help but let out a nervous laugh as he moved closer to Luke. “There’s just so much I need to say.”
Luke remained silent. His heart continued to beat faster.
“Will you just say something?” Reid asked clearly uncomfortable at being the only one talking, and talking about feelings nonetheless.
“No.” Luke said strongly, for them to move forward Reid was going to need to be able to do this. He couldn’t just skirt around their issues. “Just,” Luke sighed, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Reid started to back up, he moved away from Luke and over to the desk. He picked up one of the vials that were lined up in a perfectly straight line. He toyed with the one in his hand and Luke watched as he took a couple of deep breaths.
“Luke,” Reid said as he started up again, he continued to move the vial in his hand, lacing it through each of his fingers, “I…” Reid set the vial back down and he ran his hand through his hair. He knew he just needed to say it, but this terrified him. He was going to relive these memories with Luke and he had buried some of them so deep that he was scared he was going to lose control, that he would break down.
Luke moved closer to Reid and didn’t take his eyes off him. It was killing him to see Reid so closed off, about to shut down, he had hoped that they were past this. He had hoped that Reid had realized that he could tell him anything. He had hoped that Reid had trusted him enough with this, that he was willing to work through this, together.
Reid looked into Luke’s eyes and saw how kind and caring they were. He took another deep breath knowing that Luke wasn’t going to judge him. He was doing this, showing Luke, talking to Luke, so that Luke could understand why this freaks him out, why he fucks up when things get too heavy, why falling in love with Luke and being with him was so important.
“Ok…Ok…I obviously have trouble expressing how I feel. And I rely on magic because it is a great, no amazing way for me to make a point without having to say anything. Now, there is so much I need to tell you about myself. I don’t even know if you know but my parents died when I was young and I was raised by my uncle.” Reid spit it out, knowing he needed to just get the ball rolling.
Reid watched as Luke’s eyes dropped from his and met the floor.
“I didn’t know that.”
“I don’t talk about it, not to anybody, but that isn’t the point. Now, I could try to explain it to you, but I don’t have practice in talking about this with people. I would probably skip over the important details and you wouldn’t be able to understand. I’m good at that. I don’t let anybody get to close because it hurts.”
“So I guess I’ll just ask the obvious question, is what’s in those vials have anything to do with what you want to say?”
“I want to show you what I want to say. What is in each of these vials is a memory from my past. I want you to see them, experience them with me, because I could never explain correctly what each of these memories contain. I’ve never told anybody about what these memories are. But I want you to know me. Where I come from. Why I’m so fucked up.”
“You’re not fucked up Reid.”
“Do you want to see these?” Reid says as he brushes off what Luke just said. He feels like a fuck up and it is more apparent the more he thinks about what he did to Luke.
“Yeah.”
“I…” Reid can barely get the words out, he just isn’t used to ever talking about his feelings. According to Katie, it is supposed to make you feel better, but Reid has never felt more naked and vulnerable in his entire life. He feels so exposed and he is used to never letting people see him like this.
Reid is taken aback when he feels Luke’s hand slip into his. It’s so simple but it’s exactly what he needs. Luke knows him better than anybody (except maybe for Dumbledore) and yet….
“What I am trying to say, is that I’ve pulled four of my most life changing memories, the ones that I can honestly say have made me who I am. I want you to see them so that you can understand me, because since my parents died, I’ve never felt understood. I trust you Luke, more than anybody.”
“What do I have to do?” Luke asks as he feels Reid pull his hand gently towards the table. There is a large basin sitting next to the book that Reid had been reading before he had shown up. He knew that this was hard for Reid, but he wanted to be supportive. This was a huge moment for both of them, as Reid never talked about any of this and Luke had no idea what he was going to witness. Reid had already dropped a huge bomb about his parents, so Luke could only assume what was going to come next.
“What this is called is a pensieve and these,” Reid said as he let go of Luke’s hand and reached for one of the vials, “are the memories. It’s not sophisticated magic, but I could never…” Reid trailed off, he knew that if he tried he could tell Luke, but that could take days. He wasn’t too happy that again he was relying on magic, but in this case he thought it was the most appropriate way. “You can watch by yourself or we can go together.”
“What’s going to happen?” Luke asked, he was slightly scared, as he had never heard of this before, but he trusted Reid. He was willing to do what Reid wanted because he knew how important this was. “And I want to go with you.”
Reid took the vial that was in his hand and he uncorked it. Luke watched as Reid dropped in the misty, silvery, liquid smoke and watched as it swirled around in the basin. It looked like water but it floated like air.
“This, this is when my parents died.” Reid said, he reached for Luke’s hand again. “Now, I’m not showing these to you so that you feel bad for me, and forgive me for what I did. I know that what I did was probably the worst thing I could have done to us. But I want you to know me, and as much as I try to hide certain parts of myself and my life, this is who I am, this is where I come from.”
“Okay.” Was the only response that Luke could muster up. He could feel the energy running between the two of them, both of them nervous. But the longer that Luke stood there holding a vulnerable Reid’s hand the more in love he felt. He needed to know that Reid cared enough about him to truly let him in. There had been glimpses in the past, and it was in those moments when Luke had started to feel himself fall in love. As much as he had tried to fight falling in love with Reid, as he had never expected anything to ever come from their fun and flirty hook-ups, he couldn’t stop what his heart wanted.
He had realized a long time ago, right before Reid screwed up, how perfectly they fit together.
“It’s really easy; we just submerge ourselves into my memory.” Reid said as he gripped Luke’s hand tighter. He had never gone into a memory with another person but he had read that two or more people could watch. He was anxious to view his own memory from an outsider’s point of view.
Luke followed Reid’s lead as he slowly leaned forward, it felt awkward with both of them leaning forward into the swirling memory, but soon Luke felt his body being sucked in, and the only sensation that was making sense was Reid’s hand in his.
Luke felt his feet hit the hard ground and he blinked a couple of times allowing the scene to come into focus. The whole scene was a duller version of real life and as he adjusted to the memory, he realized that they were outside. It was barely raining but Luke didn’t feel as if he was getting wet.
Luke looked around and saw that they were in a cemetery. There were a couple of people standing around and then Luke spotted Reid at what appeared to be eight years old. His hair was slightly more auburn then it was currently, his eyes were wide, full of tears yet none had fallen from. He was standing there, strong and independent, and Luke could see that it was taking every ounce of strength to not let the tears fall. Not to crack right down the center.
Luke tightened his grip in Reid’s hand and he looked at Reid who had the same look on his face as his eight-year-old counterpart.
Luke doesn’t have much time to take in what he is viewing because the scene quickly changes, as the scene goes hazy and Luke feels the sensation as if he is being sucked in another direction. Again, Reid’s hand is the only thing that remains constant.
The movement stops and Luke again tries to get the scene in focus. After a couple of blinks he realizes that he is in Reid’s childhood bedroom. The walls are bare and he quickly tries to take in as much of the room as possible as he doesn’t know how fast the scene will change again.
Luke spots the eight-year-old Reid sitting on his bed and there is a book in front of him. Luke recognizes it as, Extreme Incantations by Violeta Stitch, a charms books he had to get during his third year. He isn’t surprised to see a young Reid. reading such an advanced book.
Reid is reading the book intensely, but he has that same look on his face, the look that says he is just trying to make it through the day. Luke can see that on the bedside table there is a picture of his parents. They are barely moving in the picture, Reid’s father has his arm around his mother and they are smiling. Luke can even imagine the pain of losing his parents.
Luke looks over at Reid who hasn’t said anything yet. Luke doesn’t even know if they can talk to each other, but he doesn’t want to break the moment.
Luke barely catches Reid’s eye and Luke can tell that he is having a hard time watching this scene. His attention is suddenly pulled away from Reid’s as there is a loud noise coming from outside of the room. Luke turns towards the door, he is startled as the door flies open, and a man that Luke doesn’t recognize comes in.
“Reid.” The man says, his voice is strong and disciplined and Luke notices that the man has his wand in his hand.
“Uncle Angus, you’re home.”
Luke is taken aback by Reid’s voice. He sounds so young and innocent and Luke can only imagine that a lot changed in the years that Angus raised him as the more Luke watched Reid’s uncle’s mannerisms, the more he saw Reid.
“What is this?” Angus demanded as he held out what looked to be a paper written for school. Luke had known that before Hogwarts Reid went to a Muggle primary school, like many other wizards, to learn the basics.
“I-” Reid started, he quickly looked down at the picture of his parents before meeting his Uncle’s eyes. “We had to write about an experience that happened over the summer.”
“Your teacher sent a note home saying you cried in class after turning this in.” Angus said, his voice demeaning and angry. “I’ve told you not to cry. It’s over. It’s done with. You’re parents are dead. No use wasting your time crying. I’ve told you that. If you want to be a great wizard you can’t cry over this. You will see this every day of your life.”
Luke watched as the young Reid swallowed hard, as to not cry in front of his uncle.
“This?” Angus said, “This is…”
Angus took the single sheet of paper and took his wand and he burst the paper into flames.
“Meet me downstairs in five minutes. We have chess practice.”
“But I’m almost done reading this.” Reid protested.
Luke watched as Angus took his wand and flicked it. The book flew out of Reid’s lap and into his hand. Angus looked over the cover, and Luke couldn’t decide if Angus looked impressed at how intelligent his nephew was.
“You’ll get this back if you beat me.”
“But I never win.”
“Well then I guess you’ll never know how to maximize your illumination.”
“I don’t even have a wand yet!” Reid said, before he covered his hands over his mouth, clearly realizing he shouldn’t have talked back and given attitude to his uncle.
“And I never wanted my brother’s kid.” Angus shot back. He took the book tightly under his arm, turned on his heels and walked out of the room. “Two minutes.” He said before flicking his wand one more time and slamming the door behind him.
Luke brought his attention back to eight-year-old Reid and watched as he tried to regain his composure. He was clearly seething on the inside but he was doing his best to remain calm on the outside. Luke couldn’t imagine living in a house like that. Being told to get over your parents death was something that you should never say to an eight-year old.
Luke had had to deal with false alarms of his parents deaths as well as other family members and during that time when he didn’t know if they were dead or alive were the worst days of his life. However, his family was there for him, and it was clear to see that Reid’s uncle never once let him forget that he didn’t want him in the first place.
“Luke.”
Luke was actually shocked to hear the eighteen-year old Reid’s voice, he hadn’t been sure if you could speak while in the Pensieve.
“Yeah.”
“This one’s over.”
Reid closed his eyes, and Luke could see that watching this memory had brought him back to those same feelings. Reid’s eyes remained closed as the scene slowly started to fade into black and Luke felt the similar falling sensation and soon they were back, standing next to each other, in front of a basin filled with Reid’s memory.
Reid grabbed his wand and he quickly siphoned up the memory. He didn’t want to hold onto them longer than he had to, but he hadn’t figured out how to dispose of them yet. There was just only memory that he wanted to keep, but that was the last one, and they were just getting started.
“My parents died when I was eight and half years old and my dad’s brother, my Uncle Angus, took me in. My parents died unexpectedly. They were at the Ministry of Magic, as they both worked there in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophies. They had just entered the building when some guy just started throwing out curses. There weren’t that many people there as it was relatively early so they were targeted quickly. They were both hit with a series of curses. They were quickly taken to St. Mungo’s after they had the situation “under control”, but my mother was hit with a spell that caused massive blood loss and my father was dead on arrival.”
Luke watched as Reid scrunched his face.
“They didn’t deserve what happened to them.” Luke finally spoke but he watched as Reid again ignored the comment, clearly so far in his head at the moment.
“I showed you this not to talk about my parents though.” Reid said quickly cutting Luke off. He didn’t need or want Luke to feel sorry for him. What had happened to him sucked, but there was nothing he could do about it. He didn’t want Luke’s love just because his parents died. “My Uncle Angus was not the easiest person to live with as you could see. At the time he was an Auror, the best that the Ministry had in a long time. He’s brilliant, tough, and didn’t take bullshit from anybody, especially not an eight-year old boy who was dropped off on his door step.”
Luke couldn’t help but notice the comparison between what he had seen in the memory to who Reid was now, although not to that extreme. Reid was arrogant but he wasn’t filled with hate or anger. Reid was brilliant, much beyond any student his age, and he didn’t tolerate bullshit. It made sense that Reid would slowly learn to mimic his uncle.
“I acted out for the first year I was with Angus. I hated him and he wasn’t too fond of me. He wasn’t my parents and although I think he might have loved me, he definitely never showed it. After the first year, I found myself slowly morphing into him. Angus actually appreciated my ability to learn and how I had my own quest to be the best, but he didn’t mind exploiting that either. He took me to flying lessons and from what you could see from the memory, he started me in chess competitions. Although he pushed me hard, I loved chess and flying. You don’t really know what it’s like, but knowing you are a wizard and not being able to do magic until your eleven is one of the hardest things to do, especially because I wanted any escape from the world I was living in. Flying was a great way because anybody can do that. I would leave, sometimes for days and I would just fly.”
Luke couldn’t take his eyes off Reid talking about his past. It was incredibly beautiful hearing him actually be honest with himself, and in doing so he was letting Luke in. So much made sense. How could Reid ever express love when he grew up in a home where that was never valued?
“Are you ready for the next one?” Reid finally asked after realizing Luke wasn’t going to say anything and he had nothing more to add on the subject. Once he turned seventeen he moved out of Angus’s house and he hadn’t spoken to his uncle in almost a year.
“Yeah.”
Reid reached for the second vial and he again poured the silvery memory into the basin. Reid reached for Luke’s hand again and this time he pulled the blond closer to him. “You’re the only person I would ever show these to.” Reid whispered into Luke’s ear before leaning down into the basin.
Luke didn’t have time to react to what Reid had said as he was soon feeling the familiar sucking feeling as his mind went into Reid’s memory.
Luke felt his feet hit the ground and he felt Reid’s shoulder up against his. They were standing close together and slowly the dull scene came into view.
“You can always get what you want Reid. If you want it enough, you can always get it. There are ways around laws, around moral laws.”
Luke blinked a couple of times, recognizing Angus’s voice. Luke quickly took in the surroundings and from what he could deduce; they were standing in Angus’s office. Reid was standing in front of the desk and Reid looked to be about thirteen years old.
“What am I?” Angus asked
“You’re an Auror” Reid responded.
“No, I’m the best Auror, I am the head of the whole department. I got here because I can figure anything out. I outsmart everybody. Nobody gets past me.”
Reid just nodded at his uncle.
“Now, you sit over there.” Angus said as he looked over at a simple chair just in the corner. Reid walked over there and sat down. Angus grabbed his wand and waved it in Reid’s direction. Reid who had been sitting in the chair was now invisible. “Just watch.” Angus said before reaching for the phone-like contraption on his desk.
“You can bring him in now.” Angus says before hanging up the phone.
Luke took this moment of silence to look around the room. There were awards adorning the walls and a bookshelf full of books. There were pictures with important people, the Minister of Magic, musicians, politicians, and not surprisingly, there were none of Reid or even Reid’s family. Luke could barely comprehend the disconnect that there was between Reid and his uncle and Luke couldn’t imagine being and feeling that alone while growing up.
The door finally opened and both Reid and Luke’s attention went to see who was coming in. A man entered the room and although Luke didn’t have much knowledge or experience in what Auror’s did, he knew what they were, just not how they conducted their business. He could only guess that this man was a person of interest for Angus.
“Sit, Mr. Wabble.” Angus said, his voice was strong and undeterred and even Luke felt nervous.
“You’ll never get it. What I have you’ll never know, “ the man, Mr. Wabble, shot back. Luke looked over the man and noticed that his feet were bound by magic. There was just a small silver chain that was keeping them together, so he clearly couldn’t run.
“We’ll make this easy. Just sit down.”
“It’s been altered, you’ll never know. You’ll die trying to find it.”
“I would advise you to stop talking.” Angus said as he raised his wand. The chair moved and forced the man to sit down. “I’m sure you’ve been threatened with enough kisses from a dementor already Colin.”
The man, now named Colin just laughed an evil laugh.
Before the man even stopped laughing Angus had waved his wand and Colin went silent, his eyelids fluttering. Luke looked at Angus who had a smug look on his face as Colin fell back into his chair.
“Next time you try to alter a memory, make sure it’s the right one.”
“What?” Colin stuttered.
“Tell your boss we are coming for him.”
“What? What did you see, what did you pull!” Colin said, his voice picking up, clearly nervous.
“On second thought, you’ll just have to hope he’s not your cellmate in Azkaban.”
“No..No…” Colin started to utter. Angus picked up his phone, he muttered a couple of words that he was done and then hung up. The door opened and two men came in and helped Colin out of his chair. “He’ll know it was me. You have to help me.”
Angus ignored the man’s pleas as he was taken out of his office. Angus flicked is wand in Reid’s direction and he came back into view, the invisibility charm removed.
“That was…” Reid started. He walked closer to his uncle, “Incredible. I didn’t know magic like that existed.”
“People will try to hide important things from you, but you can always figure them out.”
“Is what you did even legal?”
“Of course.”
“What did you even see?”
“I was able to pull out some information I needed regarding a high person of interest.”
“How do you do it?”
“It’s called Legilimency and it allows you to see people’s thoughts. There are ways to block it, but I can get past even the best.”
“Will you teach me?”
“Why? Do you need to know how to do it?”
“Why not?”
“I guess it couldn’t hurt for you to know.”
Luke noticed the excitement on Reid’s young face. Luke could tell that it wasn’t so he could dig around in people’s heads but it was the sheer excitement of learning something new.
“It will be good bonding time.” Reid said, and Luke could sense how hard Reid was trying to just even relate to his uncle, to have his uncle relate to him. Luke watched as Angus just brushed it off.
“Don’t you have Quidditch practice?”
“Yeah.”
Luke felt Reid grip his hand tighter and soon the scene started to fade. The flying sensation came back but soon they were back, standing in front of the basin.
“I think that one illustrated nicely where I got that idea from.”
“I don’t blame you, Reid. If that was me at thirteen I would have thought it was a good idea too.”
“But I’m not thirteen; you would have thought that by now I would have realized that what he was doing wasn’t intended to be used how I used it. I tried so hard for Angus to want me to be the son he always wanted. But he had a totally different view of the world. He was cynical and angry as he knew what evil could do. I want to say I tried to rebel against it, but it’s been engrained in me.”
“Reid.” Luke said, wanting to stop Reid from demeaning himself. It broke his heart to hear how damaged Reid thought he was.
“Wait, I just have one more that you need to see first.”
“Do you not want to talk about this anymore?”
“It’s just the beginning.”
“Your uncle, you are not him.”
“I wish I could tell you how hard I tried to get him to love me. I thought that after I was the best chess player that the country had seen in fifty years would have been enough. I would have thought that getting scouted at fifteen to be a professional Quidditch player would have made him love me. But it was never enough. I tried everything to get that man to love me. I let him teach me magic I probably shouldn’t know in hopes that he would think I was just like him. I let his ideals become mine.”
Reid took a deep breath.
PART TWO
(cut due to length)
Author: hugocabret
Pairing: Luke/Reid
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 5,828/11,846
Summary/Prompt: Reid shows Luke his deepest memories
Author's note: After reading megf812's comment on the last part (and she was only one of many messages that I received), I feel like I should announce now that this story is not ending anytime soon! So enjoy this one :D
Also, additional thanks to traciamc for reassuring me this chapter wouldn't suck.
Disclaimer: I do not own ATWT or HARRY POTTER
Luke Snyder and the Room of Requirements | Luke Snyder and the Felix Felicis | Luke Snyder and Advanced Potion Making | Luke Snyder and Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop: Part 1 | Luke Snyder and Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop: Part 2 | Luke Snyder and The Mirror of Erised | Luke Snyder and the Hospital Wing | Luke Snyder and the Herbology Greenhouse | Luke Snyder and the Ravenclaw Quidditch Practice | Luke Snyder and the Three Broomsticks | Luke Snyder and the Adventures of Martin Miggle, the Mad Muggle | Luke Snyder and the Weird Sisters | Luke Snyder and Tessomacy (tealeaf readings)
Luke woke up Monday morning with knots in his stomach. He had spent the whole night dreaming of scenarios of what Reid was going to do, what he might say to him. He already knew it was going to be intimate, no grand gesture in the middle of the hallway or in the Great Hall, it was just going to be the two of them.
Luke didn’t want it any other way.
He didn’t want Reid to change who he was. Reid would never stand up on a table and announce to the entire school that they were together. That was not Reid’s style and Luke didn’t want Reid to do anything that wasn’t him. He just wanted a statement, not a grand statement.
Luke tried his best to pay attention during his morning classes but his mind couldn’t focus. Two months of pent up anger and lust along with confusion. Then there was more anger and more lust and it had finally built up and it was at it’s breaking point. It was going to happen today or tonight and whether they were going to have a relationship was going to be decided.
“Earth to Luke” Casey said waving his hand in front of Luke’s face. They were sitting in the Great Hall. Luke didn’t even remember walking there as he was so spaced out, preoccupied in his head. “What’s going on in there?” Casey asked as he leaned across the table to tap on Luke’s head.
Luke batted Casey’s hand away before answering.
“Just preoccupied about something.”
“Did you get a letter?” Casey asked harmlessly
“What?” Luke responded, shocked, he for sure thought that everybody had been asleep last night when he saw the owl at his window.
“From your family, I remember before the holidays you were telling us how crazy everything was.”
“No, no it’s not them. Just thinking about something.” Luke said, he looked around the Great Hall, he had a general idea of where Reid normally was during the days because while they had been sneaking around, it was always easy to know where the other one was going to be. Reid was usually in the Great Hall at this time as well, but he was nowhere in sight. Luke also realized that he hadn’t seen him as they were leaving potions which was usually when Reid was going to his Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
“You’ve been such a space cadet all day, is it Sam? I heard you guys ran into each other a couple days ago.”
“No, I’m fine, he’s fine. I think I am just going to go, I’m feeling tired.” Luke lied. In reality his mind was racing, he had just realized that Reid was going to wait for him all day. That Reid was going to be in the Room of Requirements in case he ever showed up. The note did say, whatever the best time was. He couldn’t believe that Reid was missing classes for this, that he was taking this so seriously. Luke felt his heart start to beat faster, knowing that Reid was waiting for him.
“Ok? Don’t you have Ruins this afternoon?” Casey asked, confused as to why Luke was going to skip his class.
“Yeah, I’m just going to go to the common room first and then go.” Luke lied again, he even shared this class with Ali but he didn’t really care. He could miss one ruins class, it wouldn’t kill him.
“Alright man, we’ll see you tonight to work on that potions paper that Snape assigned today.”
“He assigned us a paper?”
“Weren’t you paying attention?”
“Not really.”
“Yeah, 12 inches, due Wednesday. It’s on Hiccoughing Solution, he said we need to write about each of the ingredients and why we use them to make this potion…”
“…Okay, okay, I’ll just see you tonight.” Luke started to say before Casey could even finish talking. He only cared about one thing, and it wasn’t Hiccoughing Solution.
“Umm Ok, bye.” Casey said as he watched Luke leave the Great Hall. “Was he acting weird to you?”
“Luke is always acting weird.” Noah responded as he hadn’t been paying attention to either one of them.
“That’s true.” Casey laughed, brushing off Luke’s awkward weirdness. They had learned, for as long as they have known Luke, to just let him do what he needed to do and not question it.
Luke started making his way towards the Room of Requirements. He had no idea what to expect. He just kept replaying the line that Reid had written in his notorious messy handwriting, the line that said “it’s taken me awhile to get here, but I’m here.” Luke had read over that line fifteen times since receiving the letter. Every time he reached that part he felt this butterflies in his stomach start to flutter and his heart would beat faster.
Luke took the moving stairwells, as it was the fastest way to get there. He was feeling a mixture of emotions, nervousness, excitement, anxiousness, happiness, and everything that could possibly be in-between. He had no idea what to expect, he only hoped that in the end, they were back together. His body missed Reid too much and his heart had been aching.
Luke finally found himself standing outside of the vacant wall on the seventh floor. He looked around to make sure that nobody was watching and he quickly paced three times before the door appeared. Luke rubbed his hands together; they felt damp and clammy, as he was incredibly nervous. He took a deep breath before opening the door.
Luke entered the room and saw that Reid was sitting at the desk that was off to the side. He was reading a book, a sight that Luke had missed a lot. Sitting off to the side of the desk were four small vials that were barely glowing. As Luke inched closer, he recognized them as the mysterious vials that Reid had had on the desk a couple of weeks ago when he came to pick up his potions book.
Luke felt the nervousness run though his veins, as Reid had been waiting for him to not be with Sam, that he had wanted to fix this for almost a month, that Reid had never stopped caring about him.
Luke thought about clearing his throat to get Reid’s attention but instead he just found his feet carrying him closer to the desk where Reid was sitting. As he was walking, in true Luke fashion, his foot tripped up just a bit, causing Reid to turn around from the desk.
Luke stood still, not quite sure what to do or say. He knew his face probably looked like he had just seen a ghost, but he didn’t know what to expect. The ball was entirely in Reid’s court and he was just here to play the game.
“I didn’t know if you were going to show up.” Reid said as he stood up from the chair. Luke couldn’t help but let his eyes wander from Reid’s. Reid looked incredibly good, but then again, Reid always looked amazing.
“Why wouldn’t I come?” Luke asked as he looked back up to meet Reid’s eyes.
“Owls are kind of unpredictable.” Reid laughed. “Plus I didn’t know if you were awake or not when I sent Isle.”
“Your owl’s name is Isle?” Luke said, he smiled, and Reid matched it.
“I’ve had her since I was a first year.”
Then there was a moment of awkward silence.
Both stood there for a moment, not quite sure what to do next. Reid knew what he needed to do and he knew that Luke was waiting for whatever it was going to be. Reid watched as Luke looked around the room, he could sense that Luke was nervous. Reid tried to look confident but how the night was going to end was all up to Luke. Reid didn’t want to think about it too much as he didn’t think he would be able to handle a bad outcome.
“Umm…” Reid started. What he had planned might take awhile and he was actually thankful that Luke had shown up relatively early as he also knew Luke’s schedule pretty well and knew that he had Ruins this afternoon. “Luke.”
“Yeah.”
“I…You know…” Reid continued. “…ugh, God why is this so hard just to say what I want to say?”
Luke’s eyes widened. He could tell that Reid was struggling, but Reid was never good at talking about anything more than healing, chess, school, and Quidditch.
“Ok. I had a whole speech planned out, but you know me.” Reid kept going, he couldn’t help but let out a nervous laugh as he moved closer to Luke. “There’s just so much I need to say.”
Luke remained silent. His heart continued to beat faster.
“Will you just say something?” Reid asked clearly uncomfortable at being the only one talking, and talking about feelings nonetheless.
“No.” Luke said strongly, for them to move forward Reid was going to need to be able to do this. He couldn’t just skirt around their issues. “Just,” Luke sighed, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Reid started to back up, he moved away from Luke and over to the desk. He picked up one of the vials that were lined up in a perfectly straight line. He toyed with the one in his hand and Luke watched as he took a couple of deep breaths.
“Luke,” Reid said as he started up again, he continued to move the vial in his hand, lacing it through each of his fingers, “I…” Reid set the vial back down and he ran his hand through his hair. He knew he just needed to say it, but this terrified him. He was going to relive these memories with Luke and he had buried some of them so deep that he was scared he was going to lose control, that he would break down.
Luke moved closer to Reid and didn’t take his eyes off him. It was killing him to see Reid so closed off, about to shut down, he had hoped that they were past this. He had hoped that Reid had realized that he could tell him anything. He had hoped that Reid had trusted him enough with this, that he was willing to work through this, together.
Reid looked into Luke’s eyes and saw how kind and caring they were. He took another deep breath knowing that Luke wasn’t going to judge him. He was doing this, showing Luke, talking to Luke, so that Luke could understand why this freaks him out, why he fucks up when things get too heavy, why falling in love with Luke and being with him was so important.
“Ok…Ok…I obviously have trouble expressing how I feel. And I rely on magic because it is a great, no amazing way for me to make a point without having to say anything. Now, there is so much I need to tell you about myself. I don’t even know if you know but my parents died when I was young and I was raised by my uncle.” Reid spit it out, knowing he needed to just get the ball rolling.
Reid watched as Luke’s eyes dropped from his and met the floor.
“I didn’t know that.”
“I don’t talk about it, not to anybody, but that isn’t the point. Now, I could try to explain it to you, but I don’t have practice in talking about this with people. I would probably skip over the important details and you wouldn’t be able to understand. I’m good at that. I don’t let anybody get to close because it hurts.”
“So I guess I’ll just ask the obvious question, is what’s in those vials have anything to do with what you want to say?”
“I want to show you what I want to say. What is in each of these vials is a memory from my past. I want you to see them, experience them with me, because I could never explain correctly what each of these memories contain. I’ve never told anybody about what these memories are. But I want you to know me. Where I come from. Why I’m so fucked up.”
“You’re not fucked up Reid.”
“Do you want to see these?” Reid says as he brushes off what Luke just said. He feels like a fuck up and it is more apparent the more he thinks about what he did to Luke.
“Yeah.”
“I…” Reid can barely get the words out, he just isn’t used to ever talking about his feelings. According to Katie, it is supposed to make you feel better, but Reid has never felt more naked and vulnerable in his entire life. He feels so exposed and he is used to never letting people see him like this.
Reid is taken aback when he feels Luke’s hand slip into his. It’s so simple but it’s exactly what he needs. Luke knows him better than anybody (except maybe for Dumbledore) and yet….
“What I am trying to say, is that I’ve pulled four of my most life changing memories, the ones that I can honestly say have made me who I am. I want you to see them so that you can understand me, because since my parents died, I’ve never felt understood. I trust you Luke, more than anybody.”
“What do I have to do?” Luke asks as he feels Reid pull his hand gently towards the table. There is a large basin sitting next to the book that Reid had been reading before he had shown up. He knew that this was hard for Reid, but he wanted to be supportive. This was a huge moment for both of them, as Reid never talked about any of this and Luke had no idea what he was going to witness. Reid had already dropped a huge bomb about his parents, so Luke could only assume what was going to come next.
“What this is called is a pensieve and these,” Reid said as he let go of Luke’s hand and reached for one of the vials, “are the memories. It’s not sophisticated magic, but I could never…” Reid trailed off, he knew that if he tried he could tell Luke, but that could take days. He wasn’t too happy that again he was relying on magic, but in this case he thought it was the most appropriate way. “You can watch by yourself or we can go together.”
“What’s going to happen?” Luke asked, he was slightly scared, as he had never heard of this before, but he trusted Reid. He was willing to do what Reid wanted because he knew how important this was. “And I want to go with you.”
Reid took the vial that was in his hand and he uncorked it. Luke watched as Reid dropped in the misty, silvery, liquid smoke and watched as it swirled around in the basin. It looked like water but it floated like air.
“This, this is when my parents died.” Reid said, he reached for Luke’s hand again. “Now, I’m not showing these to you so that you feel bad for me, and forgive me for what I did. I know that what I did was probably the worst thing I could have done to us. But I want you to know me, and as much as I try to hide certain parts of myself and my life, this is who I am, this is where I come from.”
“Okay.” Was the only response that Luke could muster up. He could feel the energy running between the two of them, both of them nervous. But the longer that Luke stood there holding a vulnerable Reid’s hand the more in love he felt. He needed to know that Reid cared enough about him to truly let him in. There had been glimpses in the past, and it was in those moments when Luke had started to feel himself fall in love. As much as he had tried to fight falling in love with Reid, as he had never expected anything to ever come from their fun and flirty hook-ups, he couldn’t stop what his heart wanted.
He had realized a long time ago, right before Reid screwed up, how perfectly they fit together.
“It’s really easy; we just submerge ourselves into my memory.” Reid said as he gripped Luke’s hand tighter. He had never gone into a memory with another person but he had read that two or more people could watch. He was anxious to view his own memory from an outsider’s point of view.
Luke followed Reid’s lead as he slowly leaned forward, it felt awkward with both of them leaning forward into the swirling memory, but soon Luke felt his body being sucked in, and the only sensation that was making sense was Reid’s hand in his.
Luke felt his feet hit the hard ground and he blinked a couple of times allowing the scene to come into focus. The whole scene was a duller version of real life and as he adjusted to the memory, he realized that they were outside. It was barely raining but Luke didn’t feel as if he was getting wet.
Luke looked around and saw that they were in a cemetery. There were a couple of people standing around and then Luke spotted Reid at what appeared to be eight years old. His hair was slightly more auburn then it was currently, his eyes were wide, full of tears yet none had fallen from. He was standing there, strong and independent, and Luke could see that it was taking every ounce of strength to not let the tears fall. Not to crack right down the center.
Luke tightened his grip in Reid’s hand and he looked at Reid who had the same look on his face as his eight-year-old counterpart.
Luke doesn’t have much time to take in what he is viewing because the scene quickly changes, as the scene goes hazy and Luke feels the sensation as if he is being sucked in another direction. Again, Reid’s hand is the only thing that remains constant.
The movement stops and Luke again tries to get the scene in focus. After a couple of blinks he realizes that he is in Reid’s childhood bedroom. The walls are bare and he quickly tries to take in as much of the room as possible as he doesn’t know how fast the scene will change again.
Luke spots the eight-year-old Reid sitting on his bed and there is a book in front of him. Luke recognizes it as, Extreme Incantations by Violeta Stitch, a charms books he had to get during his third year. He isn’t surprised to see a young Reid. reading such an advanced book.
Reid is reading the book intensely, but he has that same look on his face, the look that says he is just trying to make it through the day. Luke can see that on the bedside table there is a picture of his parents. They are barely moving in the picture, Reid’s father has his arm around his mother and they are smiling. Luke can even imagine the pain of losing his parents.
Luke looks over at Reid who hasn’t said anything yet. Luke doesn’t even know if they can talk to each other, but he doesn’t want to break the moment.
Luke barely catches Reid’s eye and Luke can tell that he is having a hard time watching this scene. His attention is suddenly pulled away from Reid’s as there is a loud noise coming from outside of the room. Luke turns towards the door, he is startled as the door flies open, and a man that Luke doesn’t recognize comes in.
“Reid.” The man says, his voice is strong and disciplined and Luke notices that the man has his wand in his hand.
“Uncle Angus, you’re home.”
Luke is taken aback by Reid’s voice. He sounds so young and innocent and Luke can only imagine that a lot changed in the years that Angus raised him as the more Luke watched Reid’s uncle’s mannerisms, the more he saw Reid.
“What is this?” Angus demanded as he held out what looked to be a paper written for school. Luke had known that before Hogwarts Reid went to a Muggle primary school, like many other wizards, to learn the basics.
“I-” Reid started, he quickly looked down at the picture of his parents before meeting his Uncle’s eyes. “We had to write about an experience that happened over the summer.”
“Your teacher sent a note home saying you cried in class after turning this in.” Angus said, his voice demeaning and angry. “I’ve told you not to cry. It’s over. It’s done with. You’re parents are dead. No use wasting your time crying. I’ve told you that. If you want to be a great wizard you can’t cry over this. You will see this every day of your life.”
Luke watched as the young Reid swallowed hard, as to not cry in front of his uncle.
“This?” Angus said, “This is…”
Angus took the single sheet of paper and took his wand and he burst the paper into flames.
“Meet me downstairs in five minutes. We have chess practice.”
“But I’m almost done reading this.” Reid protested.
Luke watched as Angus took his wand and flicked it. The book flew out of Reid’s lap and into his hand. Angus looked over the cover, and Luke couldn’t decide if Angus looked impressed at how intelligent his nephew was.
“You’ll get this back if you beat me.”
“But I never win.”
“Well then I guess you’ll never know how to maximize your illumination.”
“I don’t even have a wand yet!” Reid said, before he covered his hands over his mouth, clearly realizing he shouldn’t have talked back and given attitude to his uncle.
“And I never wanted my brother’s kid.” Angus shot back. He took the book tightly under his arm, turned on his heels and walked out of the room. “Two minutes.” He said before flicking his wand one more time and slamming the door behind him.
Luke brought his attention back to eight-year-old Reid and watched as he tried to regain his composure. He was clearly seething on the inside but he was doing his best to remain calm on the outside. Luke couldn’t imagine living in a house like that. Being told to get over your parents death was something that you should never say to an eight-year old.
Luke had had to deal with false alarms of his parents deaths as well as other family members and during that time when he didn’t know if they were dead or alive were the worst days of his life. However, his family was there for him, and it was clear to see that Reid’s uncle never once let him forget that he didn’t want him in the first place.
“Luke.”
Luke was actually shocked to hear the eighteen-year old Reid’s voice, he hadn’t been sure if you could speak while in the Pensieve.
“Yeah.”
“This one’s over.”
Reid closed his eyes, and Luke could see that watching this memory had brought him back to those same feelings. Reid’s eyes remained closed as the scene slowly started to fade into black and Luke felt the similar falling sensation and soon they were back, standing next to each other, in front of a basin filled with Reid’s memory.
Reid grabbed his wand and he quickly siphoned up the memory. He didn’t want to hold onto them longer than he had to, but he hadn’t figured out how to dispose of them yet. There was just only memory that he wanted to keep, but that was the last one, and they were just getting started.
“My parents died when I was eight and half years old and my dad’s brother, my Uncle Angus, took me in. My parents died unexpectedly. They were at the Ministry of Magic, as they both worked there in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophies. They had just entered the building when some guy just started throwing out curses. There weren’t that many people there as it was relatively early so they were targeted quickly. They were both hit with a series of curses. They were quickly taken to St. Mungo’s after they had the situation “under control”, but my mother was hit with a spell that caused massive blood loss and my father was dead on arrival.”
Luke watched as Reid scrunched his face.
“They didn’t deserve what happened to them.” Luke finally spoke but he watched as Reid again ignored the comment, clearly so far in his head at the moment.
“I showed you this not to talk about my parents though.” Reid said quickly cutting Luke off. He didn’t need or want Luke to feel sorry for him. What had happened to him sucked, but there was nothing he could do about it. He didn’t want Luke’s love just because his parents died. “My Uncle Angus was not the easiest person to live with as you could see. At the time he was an Auror, the best that the Ministry had in a long time. He’s brilliant, tough, and didn’t take bullshit from anybody, especially not an eight-year old boy who was dropped off on his door step.”
Luke couldn’t help but notice the comparison between what he had seen in the memory to who Reid was now, although not to that extreme. Reid was arrogant but he wasn’t filled with hate or anger. Reid was brilliant, much beyond any student his age, and he didn’t tolerate bullshit. It made sense that Reid would slowly learn to mimic his uncle.
“I acted out for the first year I was with Angus. I hated him and he wasn’t too fond of me. He wasn’t my parents and although I think he might have loved me, he definitely never showed it. After the first year, I found myself slowly morphing into him. Angus actually appreciated my ability to learn and how I had my own quest to be the best, but he didn’t mind exploiting that either. He took me to flying lessons and from what you could see from the memory, he started me in chess competitions. Although he pushed me hard, I loved chess and flying. You don’t really know what it’s like, but knowing you are a wizard and not being able to do magic until your eleven is one of the hardest things to do, especially because I wanted any escape from the world I was living in. Flying was a great way because anybody can do that. I would leave, sometimes for days and I would just fly.”
Luke couldn’t take his eyes off Reid talking about his past. It was incredibly beautiful hearing him actually be honest with himself, and in doing so he was letting Luke in. So much made sense. How could Reid ever express love when he grew up in a home where that was never valued?
“Are you ready for the next one?” Reid finally asked after realizing Luke wasn’t going to say anything and he had nothing more to add on the subject. Once he turned seventeen he moved out of Angus’s house and he hadn’t spoken to his uncle in almost a year.
“Yeah.”
Reid reached for the second vial and he again poured the silvery memory into the basin. Reid reached for Luke’s hand again and this time he pulled the blond closer to him. “You’re the only person I would ever show these to.” Reid whispered into Luke’s ear before leaning down into the basin.
Luke didn’t have time to react to what Reid had said as he was soon feeling the familiar sucking feeling as his mind went into Reid’s memory.
Luke felt his feet hit the ground and he felt Reid’s shoulder up against his. They were standing close together and slowly the dull scene came into view.
“You can always get what you want Reid. If you want it enough, you can always get it. There are ways around laws, around moral laws.”
Luke blinked a couple of times, recognizing Angus’s voice. Luke quickly took in the surroundings and from what he could deduce; they were standing in Angus’s office. Reid was standing in front of the desk and Reid looked to be about thirteen years old.
“What am I?” Angus asked
“You’re an Auror” Reid responded.
“No, I’m the best Auror, I am the head of the whole department. I got here because I can figure anything out. I outsmart everybody. Nobody gets past me.”
Reid just nodded at his uncle.
“Now, you sit over there.” Angus said as he looked over at a simple chair just in the corner. Reid walked over there and sat down. Angus grabbed his wand and waved it in Reid’s direction. Reid who had been sitting in the chair was now invisible. “Just watch.” Angus said before reaching for the phone-like contraption on his desk.
“You can bring him in now.” Angus says before hanging up the phone.
Luke took this moment of silence to look around the room. There were awards adorning the walls and a bookshelf full of books. There were pictures with important people, the Minister of Magic, musicians, politicians, and not surprisingly, there were none of Reid or even Reid’s family. Luke could barely comprehend the disconnect that there was between Reid and his uncle and Luke couldn’t imagine being and feeling that alone while growing up.
The door finally opened and both Reid and Luke’s attention went to see who was coming in. A man entered the room and although Luke didn’t have much knowledge or experience in what Auror’s did, he knew what they were, just not how they conducted their business. He could only guess that this man was a person of interest for Angus.
“Sit, Mr. Wabble.” Angus said, his voice was strong and undeterred and even Luke felt nervous.
“You’ll never get it. What I have you’ll never know, “ the man, Mr. Wabble, shot back. Luke looked over the man and noticed that his feet were bound by magic. There was just a small silver chain that was keeping them together, so he clearly couldn’t run.
“We’ll make this easy. Just sit down.”
“It’s been altered, you’ll never know. You’ll die trying to find it.”
“I would advise you to stop talking.” Angus said as he raised his wand. The chair moved and forced the man to sit down. “I’m sure you’ve been threatened with enough kisses from a dementor already Colin.”
The man, now named Colin just laughed an evil laugh.
Before the man even stopped laughing Angus had waved his wand and Colin went silent, his eyelids fluttering. Luke looked at Angus who had a smug look on his face as Colin fell back into his chair.
“Next time you try to alter a memory, make sure it’s the right one.”
“What?” Colin stuttered.
“Tell your boss we are coming for him.”
“What? What did you see, what did you pull!” Colin said, his voice picking up, clearly nervous.
“On second thought, you’ll just have to hope he’s not your cellmate in Azkaban.”
“No..No…” Colin started to utter. Angus picked up his phone, he muttered a couple of words that he was done and then hung up. The door opened and two men came in and helped Colin out of his chair. “He’ll know it was me. You have to help me.”
Angus ignored the man’s pleas as he was taken out of his office. Angus flicked is wand in Reid’s direction and he came back into view, the invisibility charm removed.
“That was…” Reid started. He walked closer to his uncle, “Incredible. I didn’t know magic like that existed.”
“People will try to hide important things from you, but you can always figure them out.”
“Is what you did even legal?”
“Of course.”
“What did you even see?”
“I was able to pull out some information I needed regarding a high person of interest.”
“How do you do it?”
“It’s called Legilimency and it allows you to see people’s thoughts. There are ways to block it, but I can get past even the best.”
“Will you teach me?”
“Why? Do you need to know how to do it?”
“Why not?”
“I guess it couldn’t hurt for you to know.”
Luke noticed the excitement on Reid’s young face. Luke could tell that it wasn’t so he could dig around in people’s heads but it was the sheer excitement of learning something new.
“It will be good bonding time.” Reid said, and Luke could sense how hard Reid was trying to just even relate to his uncle, to have his uncle relate to him. Luke watched as Angus just brushed it off.
“Don’t you have Quidditch practice?”
“Yeah.”
Luke felt Reid grip his hand tighter and soon the scene started to fade. The flying sensation came back but soon they were back, standing in front of the basin.
“I think that one illustrated nicely where I got that idea from.”
“I don’t blame you, Reid. If that was me at thirteen I would have thought it was a good idea too.”
“But I’m not thirteen; you would have thought that by now I would have realized that what he was doing wasn’t intended to be used how I used it. I tried so hard for Angus to want me to be the son he always wanted. But he had a totally different view of the world. He was cynical and angry as he knew what evil could do. I want to say I tried to rebel against it, but it’s been engrained in me.”
“Reid.” Luke said, wanting to stop Reid from demeaning himself. It broke his heart to hear how damaged Reid thought he was.
“Wait, I just have one more that you need to see first.”
“Do you not want to talk about this anymore?”
“It’s just the beginning.”
“Your uncle, you are not him.”
“I wish I could tell you how hard I tried to get him to love me. I thought that after I was the best chess player that the country had seen in fifty years would have been enough. I would have thought that getting scouted at fifteen to be a professional Quidditch player would have made him love me. But it was never enough. I tried everything to get that man to love me. I let him teach me magic I probably shouldn’t know in hopes that he would think I was just like him. I let his ideals become mine.”
Reid took a deep breath.
PART TWO
(cut due to length)