Prophecy Child

Lucius had just directed the child to go to bed, when a thought struck him. He cast a disillusionment charm over himself and slipped through the door into the boy’s bedroom. His eyes fell to the bed first, before realising it was empty. He glanced around quickly, then more slowly, trying to find the child. He stepped further into the room, quiet on the thick carpet, and moved toward the bathroom. The light was off, so the boy must not have been in there. He stood there, perplexed for a long moment, before he heard a shuffling sound. He turned around and saw a glimpse of something in the closet. He moved closer and stared at the sight.

The child was laying on the floor, arm tucked under his head, a jumper with a pulled thread laid over him. He was curled up tight and small, eyes closed but forehead creased. Lucius watched as he shuffled again, then again, trying to get comfortable. Lucius thought of the bony hips and ribs on the poor boy, and how uncomfortable he must be. He hesitated, unsure what to do next. If he removed the disillusionment, the child would likely panic at finding someone suddenly right beside him.

He crept back out of the room, then paused in the doorway. After a moment, he called at elf, requesting his Lord’s presence.

Tom arrived a moment later, raising a quizzical brow.

‘My Lord, the boy is trying to sleep on the floor of his closet. I had intended to go back in and move him, but I thought this might be a good opportunity for you to further ingratiate yourself and have the boy start seeing you as a friendly, safe person.’

Tom’s expression dropped momentarily into something sad, then angry, then smoothed back to neutral. ‘Thank you, Lucius. I will see to the boy.’

Lucius nodded, then stepped back with a short bow and left, heading for his own bed.

Tom knocked lightly on the boy’s bedroom door, just below the sign with his name on it. When there was no response, he opened it slowly and called softly, ‘Harry? It’s Tom. I have come to see if you need anything before bed.’

He opened the door further as he spoke, letting the light from the hallway spill into the room and allow him to see where the boy was.

The child scrambled from his spot in the closet to stand in the doorway by the bathroom, head ducked and fingers twisting together.

Tom stepped into the room, and noted the way the boy’s head jerked, following his movement.

‘It’s rather dark in here. Would you like a nightlight?’ Tom asked lightly, holding out his hand and conjuring a small ball of gentle yellow light, then tossing it over by the bed.

Harry watched the ball of light, a look on his face somewhere between shock and fear and excitement. He looked back at Tom, then at the light, then back at Tom. He took a hesitant step towards the little light, watching Tom from the corner of his eye.

‘You can touch it, it won’t break.’ said Tom quietly, and Harry shuffled a little faster, reaching his hand out. He paused before he touched it, seemingly steeling himself. But when he touched the light, nothing happened. He poked at it more firmly, and the light wobbled like a ball, rolling slightly. Harry turned back to stare in open awe at Tom’s chin.

Tom smiled, trying to ignore the increasingly likely fact that child may never have seen magic before. His reaction to the ball, to the vanishing of his accident in the meeting, to his intense staring at mealtimes when someone cut a roast with careful diffindo charms…

Something else to consider later.

‘Come now, time for bed.’ Tom reached for the covers to pull them back, but the boy was walking away. He held his tongue and watched as Harry went back to the closet and laid down. Tom followed him partway, then stopped. ‘Come back out here, Harry. While you are in my home, you will sleep in a bed. Sleeping on the floor is unacceptable. Even a crup would have a blanket. I’m not sure who taught you to sleep on the floor, but that will not continue here. Come here.’ Tom patted the bed invitingly, but the boy stood in the doorway of the closet, eyes wide and shaking his head.

‘Come along, Harry. Hop into bed.’ He said a little more firmly.

The boy grew more tense, eyes darting around. His hands fidgeted in front of his chest strangely, and he glanced at Tom’s chin.

‘This bed is for you, Harry. I have had it specially prepared for you. It even has a sign with your name above it, see?’ Tom gestured to a simple wooden sign with HARRY carved on it. ‘Your name, your bed.’

Harry shuffled closer, hesitant and ready to bolt, coming closer until he stopped out of Tom’s reach, near the foot of the bed. Tom casually stepped away, pretending to look at a book on the shelf nearby. Harry shuffled closer to the head of the bed, eyes fixed on Tom.

‘Would you like a book before bed?’ Tom asked lightly, holding up a children’s story book. Harry just stared at him blankly, standing by the head of the bed. ‘Perhaps another night. Go on, hop into bed. That night light will stay with you all night. It will also follow you to the bathroom if you need it in the night. Have a good sleep, I’ll see you in the morning.’ Tom half stepped back into the hallway, while Harry still stood uncertainly beside the bed. Tom wasn’t sure what else say to convince the boy. He was about to send for Carrick when he suddenly appeared at Tom’s side.

‘Lucius told me to come up, thought you might need help.’ Carrick said by way of explanation. Tom nodded gratefully.

‘I can’t convince him to get into the bed,’ he whispered to Carrick. ‘He was trying to sleep on the closet floor.’

Carrick nodded, but his eyes were already on Harry, standing by the bed and watching them both anxiously.

‘Hi Harry, I’m Carrick. I brought you here a few days ago, do you remember me?’

To Tom’s surprise, Harry’s expression brightened a little and he nodded.

‘I brought you to my L- to Tom’s house, because whoever you lived with before was not nice, were they?’ Carrick asked gently. Harry shook his head, eyes wide. ‘There are very different rules at Tom’s house than what you’re probably used to. I had to learn new rules too when I came to live here. In Tom’s house, everyone gets to eat as much food as they want. Everyone sleeps in a bed. Everyone gets to have warm baths, or they can use magic to make themselves clean if they don’t want a bath!’ Carrick’s voice was bright, but he kept it soft and quiet. ‘And in Tom’s house, we all look after each other. Nobody is allowed to hit at Tom’s house. If someone does something you don’t like, you can tell Tom and he can make them stop, because it’s his house and he makes the rules. Do you understand?’

Harry nodded again, turning his wide green eyes on Tom’s chin, then back to Carrick. He fluttered his hands over his chest, then slumped a little when neither Carrick nor Tom responded, just watching in confusion. Harry pressed his fingers to his chin, and then reached slowly for the blankets on the bed, pushing them back slightly.

‘Yes, Harry, this is your bed. Tom put your name above it so everyone would know that this is your bed, this is where you are supposed to sleep. It’s a very comfy bed. I hope you have a good sleep and nice dreams. If you need someone in the night, just clap your hands twice and an elf will come and help you, okay? Goodnight, Harry.’

Carrick and Tom watched from the door as the child clambered up onto the bed and gaped at the softness, brushing his hands over the soft sheets and warm blankets in wonder. He shuffled himself until he was leaning back against the softest pillows he could ever imagine, and reached for the little ball of light beside him, gripping it carefully in his hand as the door closed quietly.

Tom sighed heavily once the door was closed, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

‘You’re doing well, my Lord. He just needs time.’ Carrick said, a little hesitant at trying to comfort his Lord.

Tom gave him a wry smile. ‘I fear I am not doing nearly as well as I’d like. You were far more effective than me just now.’

Carrick shook his head. ‘He needs evidence, my Lord. So far, I have taken him away from whoever those awful guardians were, so I have some measure of trust from him. You gave him his name, and you let him eat at every meal. That will build more trust the longer it goes on. He’s probably had privileges like that taken away before, so while it’s building trust, that trust is a little shakier. So far, he’s had no indication that he’ll leave this place, so that probably feels more solid to him.’

Tom stared at Carrick for a moment, before grasping his shoulder roughly and tugging him into a one-armed hug. ‘I am sorry that you know these things, Carrick.’

Carrick shook his head. ‘You didn’t teach me these things, my Lord. You took me away from it all.’

‘But it was my neglect in my role as Dark Lord that led to you being left in such a situation in the first place. I may have helped you, but that help came far later than it should have.’

‘Let’s not dwell on it, my Lord. You saved me, you’re doing the same for Harry, and you have plans to do the same for every Dark child, wix and creature in Britain. What’s done is done. We must keep moving forward.’

Tom gave him a sideways look. ‘Using my own words against me! The cheek of this boy!’ he grumbled, scruffing his hand through Carrick’s hair. Carrick ducked away with a grin.

‘Your words, my Lord? No – no, I believe someone wise and learned said them to me once. Couldn’t have been you…’

Tom gave a half-hearted swipe towards the young man, making him dodge away again, grin wide and eyes twinkling with mischief.

‘Get to bed, before I hex your shoelaces to tie themselves together.’

Carrick snapped to attention. ‘Yes, sir!’ he said smartly, before flicking his eyes to Tom’s belly for a long second. Tom paused, waiting to see what came next. He could see the intense concentration on Carrick’s face, before suddenly he couldn’t see much at all. His shirt had untucked itself and flown up and half inside-out, yanking his arms along with it and leaving him stuck, arms in the air and face obscured by his own clothing.

He quickly shrugged his shirt back down, a disgruntled expression on his face that faded to amusement when he saw the tears of laughter trickling down Carrick’s cheeks.

‘M-my… My Lo-‘ Carrick wheezed, laughing hard enough that he was nearly silent, sucking in uneven breaths as more tears ran down his face. ‘You – arms – it – !’ Carrick gasped, flailing his own arms over his head in a poor imitation of Tom’s predicament.

Tom rolled his eyes. ‘Yes, yes, very funny. You know that only worked because I gave you uninterrupted time to do it, right?’

Carrick was hunched over, hands on his knees as he tried to steady his breathing. He glanced up sharply, and suddenly Tom found himself trapped in his own shirt again.

Carrick burst out laughing once more, while Tom shrugged his shirt back down.

‘Alright, cut it out! You’ve had your fun, insolent little beast.’ Grumbled Tom, but Carrick froze suddenly.

‘Shit.’ Mumbled Tom. ‘Carrick, it’s alright. I didn’t mean that, Carrick, I am not mad. It was a slip of the tongue. Can you look at me, Carrick?’

Whole body tense and braced for impact, Carrick slowly lifted his gaze to meet the eyes of – his Lord. He sighed in relief. It was his Lord. He was okay. He was safe. ‘Sorry, my Lord. I went too far.’ He said, eyes dropping to the ground and fingers twisting together.

‘It wasn’t too far. I should not have said that word, it was an accident – one for which I am very sorry. Truthfully, I am very impressed at whatever spell that was. Wordless and wandless? Very impressive.’

Carrick straightened a little. ‘Er, I don’t think it’s really a spell, actually. Well, there probably is a spell for that, but I don’t know it. I was reading a book about magical theory, and it said intention is key, not incantation. So I just concentrated, told the magic what to do, and it worked. It was easier the second time, seeing as how I’d done it before and knew how to direct the magic faster.’

Tom smiled proudly. ‘Even more impressive, then. Perhaps I shall have to borrow this book when you are done with it.’

Carrick smiled, shy and proud at the same time.

‘Come now, time to head to bed. You’ve training in the morning, and my work is endless and no doubt mind-melting tomorrow.’

Carrick darted in quickly, giving his Lo- Tom, a quick hug. ‘Thanks for… I’ve missed this. I know things have changed and you have important work to do as Dark Lord, but sometimes I miss…’

‘You miss when we were holed up in that shabby little cottage waiting for the right time to come back, playing silly games and pranks? I do to, Carrick. I may have an important role, bestowed by Lady Magic, but I was also a boy who was… I have never had a family, and I am glad to have found it in you. Now, go to bed, before we turn into even more sentimental, soppy fools. Goodnight, Carrick.’

‘Goodnight, m – Tom. Sleep well.’

‘And you.’