Cursed

“Will anything be available, to help him cope with this, after?” Jack asked. 

“Yes,” Bill answered.  “The wizarding world has had to put support systems in place, to help those the death eaters have harmed.”

Jack shook his head.  “There’s more that you should know.”  He told them about how Ianto had rebuilt his life.  “He went to university, and caught the eye of Torchwood One.  He made a new life, met a girl.  He was going to propose to her,” he stared at the table, realizing for the first time how much Ianto had lost, again and again.

“She was Torchwood, as well?” Harry asked.

“She was partially converted by the Cybermen during the Battle of Canary Wharf,” Jack said, explaining how hard Ianto had fought to try to save Lisa.  “But she was gone, and…” he shook his head, still regretting how that night had unfolded.  “What was left had to be destroyed.”

“But you kept him on,” Ron frowned.  “Torchwood executes traitors.  Or retcons them, not that that would’ve worked.”

“Torchwood One did that,” Jack said, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest defensively.  “Torchwood Three is not like that.”

“Thank Merlin for that,” Hermione muttered.  “And clearly, you forgave him.”

“Life’s too long to hold a grudge,” Jack shrugged.  “Our friendship endured the betrayals, both his and mine.”

“Yours?” Ron asked.

“I failed him.  I failed all of the survivors.  We’re helping them now, but it was our initial neglect – my initial neglect – that made Ianto’s subterfuge possible.”

“Oh, I’d bet you two go round and round over who’s more to blame,” Hermione said with a funny little quirk to her lips.  “The burden of responsibility,” she added thoughtfully, remembering how Neville had matured from a nervous, forgetful, bumbling boy to a fierce protector, honing his skills through pure stubbornness and a commitment to avenging his parents and never allowing what had happened to them to happen to anyone else.

“He’s a good man,” Jack said, his eyes drifting back to the bed.  “We were friends, and we both own our parts in how our decisions early on damaged that friendship.  But neither of us gave up on it.”

“Forgive me, but you do have something of a reputation,” Hermione blushed.  “Are you saying you weren’t… involved… from the beginning?”

Jack shook his head.  “No.  We flirted, bantered, just had fun with the dance of it, and we became friends.  I don’t think he had it in him to betray Lisa, like that.  And I thought he was still mourning her, so I didn’t push.  But after…  It took a while, but he did convince me that the friendship was real and not just some distraction to keep me from discovering what he was up to.  We slowly rebuilt the friendship, and then one day…”  He grinned, remembering.  “One day, it became something more.”

“Does he remember the Year?” Harry asked.

Jack’s smile vanished and he visibly paled.  “What?”

Hermione looked from Harry to Jack.  “Something happened, and there was a year where the world was invaded.  A lot of people were killed.  We stayed in hiding, not realizing until too late that we should have tried to help the fight, because the earth was actually dying.”

“Time reset,” Jack said, beginning to shake.  “How do you remember that?”

“All of the wizarding world remembers,” Ron answered.  “Time reset, but we all remember the Lost Year.”

Jack’s head swung to Ianto.  “Does he?”  He stood and went to the bed, his breath coming in panicked pants.  “Does he remember the Year?  Does he remember what happened to him?”

“Jack, please,” Hermione took his hand.  “Please calm down.”

“You don’t understand,” Jack turned to her, pulling his hand from her grasp and running it through his hair.  “He was part of the resistance.  He fought.  He helped to foil the Master, so many times.  But in the end, he was captured, and…” he choked.  “Please, tell me he doesn’t remember.”

Hermione persuaded Jack to sit and drink a calming potion as Bill used legilimency to try to get an answer for Jack. 

“I’m sorry, but it looks like he does remember,” Bill suppressed a shudder.  Ianto had vivid memories of dying a slow and painful death before time reset.  In the next moment, realization hit like a thunderbolt.  “Oh, Merlin,” he muttered.  "The Daily Prophet ran an article about the muggle who led the resistance.  It reported on his capture and execution.  There was a picture…” he trailed off, looking at Ianto.

“You’re right,” Hermione said, looking stricken.  “It wasn’t a very good picture, but it was Ianto.”

Jack sat back, feeling numb.  “And there was no one he could talk to about it, when everything reset,” he whispered, realizing that he wasn’t surprised to find that Ianto knew.  He had handled Jack far too well, when the immortal had returned to Cardiff after the Year.  He hadn’t asked questions, he had simply taken care of Jack, anticipating the effects of Jack’s year of torture and captivity without ever asking Jack to explain anything.

Ianto had helped Jack.  So much.  But who had helped Ianto?

“I can’t even imagine the isolation he’s experienced,” Hermione whispered, looking around to Bill.  “What impact will that have had?”

Bill shook his head.  “I think it’s time to bring one of the Healers into our confidence.  Maybe one who knew him?”

“Susan Bones,” Harry nodded.  “I’ll go find her and explain.”

A half hour later, a young woman about Ianto’s age rushed into the room, Harry close behind.  She stopped short by the bed, staring hard at Ianto, frowning.  After a moment, she looked at Harry.

“Are you sure it’s him?”  She looked at him, uncertain.  “It’s just, a lot of people know that story, of Neville’s boggart being Snape.”

Ianto cried out in his sleep as a deep gash opened up along his left cheek.

Susan gave a startled cry but had her wand out and healed the wound before Jack could properly snarl at her.

“Please, Susan, no names,” Hermione admonished.

“I’m sorry.  I…” she sniffed.  “It just threw me.  I… I know this man.”

“What?” Harry asked.  “How?”

“I can’t tell you how many times security has thrown him out of here, or turned him away,” she put a hand over her mouth.  “Oh, no!”

“What?” Ron asked, resigned to hearing something terrible.

“It’s been years, now.  Almost every week, him trying to get in.  It’s been less often in the last year or so, but…” she sighed.  “Ward 49.  The Janus Thickey Ward.”

“Trying to see his parents,” Hermione said sadly.

“He’s a sneaky bastard,” Susan observed with a grudging smile.  “He got in and back out again fairly often there for a while.  They managed to catch him one Christmas, and after that, they warded the place against him, but he came up with some pretty ingenious countermeasures.”  She shook her head.  “Why didn’t we realize?”

“The curses have some pretty muddlesome qualities,” Bill conceded.

“He didn’t show up at all during the Lost Year,” Susan went on.

Jack scoffed.  “Like he’d chance leading his enemies to his parents.”

Susan gave him a perplexed look.

“He fought in the resistance,” Jack explained, his tone less than friendly.  He knew it wasn’t their fault, but he was angry for what Ianto had been through.  “Hell, he helped lead it,” he muttered.

“Well that’s what he does, isn’t it?” Susan smirked, still looking at Ianto, searching for something familiar.

This time, Jack looked confused. 

“He, Ginny, and Luna led the resistance against the death eaters at Hogwarts,” Susan explained.  “It got to the point where it was pretty much guerilla warfare, from within the walls of the school.  The school itself sheltered them, kept them hidden.  But as more and more students were endangered, they – we – were swept away.  Saved.”  She chuckled.  “Oh, the mayhem we caused, that year.  But he’s the one who took on more, risked more, fought harder than any of the rest of us.”

Jack was not surprised.  Nothing Ianto did surprised him, any more.  He had the overwhelming urge to go around the bed and place himself between Ianto and the Healer who had harmed him.

“I’m so sorry,” she sniffed as though hearing his thoughts.  “I do know better.  I just…  He looks nothing like… himself.  And who he does look like was a pain in my backside for a good number of years while I was assigned to that ward.”

“We’re sure it’s him, but we’re taking the impact of the curse when his name is uttered as additional confirmation,” Hermione said.

Susan nodded.  She began waving her wand and muttering incantations, and different runes began to appear, glowing and floating above Ianto.  Some were pale and difficult to see, others were vivid and gave off an air of urgency.

She put away her wand and pulled out a notebook and pencil, carefully documenting each rune in its place.  When she tapped on each of the more vivid runes, it expanded into another handful of symbols, providing more information. As she made note of each rune, she gave it a tap and it disappeared. 

Once she was done, she closed the book and sighed.  “You don’t have much time,” she said.

Jack tightened his grip on Ianto’s hand as Bill asked, “What do you mean?”

“Now that the curses have been discovered and are starting to break, they are taxing his system.  We can repair the damage, if you can clear the curses quickly enough.”

“I wanted to let him rest tonight,” Bill said.  “The capstone was punishing.  Took a lot out of him.”

“Yes, I heard about that,” she nodded.  “But I don’t think you can wait.  The remaining curses are weighing on him disproportionately.”

“That was their failsafe,” Ron said, looking at Bill.  “You told me about something similar, when you were working in Egypt, remember?  You took out what you thought was the biggest threat, but it triggered something hidden.”

Bill took out his wand and began muttering.  Ianto seemed to grow restless but settled back into sleep when Bill lowered his wand.  He looked around the room.  “Hope no one was set on sleeping, tonight.”

Everyone gave him a determined look.

“Good.  Next up is that failsafe that we missed.  Hopefully that will ease some of the stress on his system.  Then we’ll go after the others, then we all rest a few hours before tackling the binding.”

***