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“We're dead!” Miles exclaimed as he and the others gathered around. “We're going to be thrown in jail, and we'll never get out!”
Pansy's way of shushing the Bletchley heir was by kicking him in the shin.
“Sshhh! Yell any louder, will you?”
“Miles' right though!” Jason Urquhart whispered-hissed, looking around nervously. “We'll be thrown into Azkaban for that.”
“It's a Death Eater, it'll be fine,” Blaise tried to positivise, but he wasn't very successful.
“Yeah,” Miles said with a pointed look. “A Death Eater that managed to avoid Azkaban the first time around, claiming to have been imperiused. We're screwed. They're going to ignore us if we try to say he's a Death Eater.”
“Guys,” Theodore Nott's quiet voice echoed behind them.
They ignored him out of habit.
“I don't see how we can get out of this. Pansy, why did you save Malfoy? The least you could have done was let him take the fall.”
The girl eyed Heir Vincent Carrow before rolling her eyes.
“Trust me, it's better that way. Draco would have inevitably panicked (“Isn't that what we're doing anyway?” Graham Montague mumbled, but she ignored him) and thrown us to the wolves.”
“Guys.”
“We're dead,” Miles repeated, quieter this time.
He was staring at the dead body lying in front of them, probably regretting all of the past life choices that led to this very situation. He was not the only one. Pansy was starting to think that she shouldn't have procrastinated. To be fair, it wasn't just procrastination; she knew that by going to the library today instead of going to Hogsmeade, she would have stumbled upon Granger devouring books for whatever research she was doing at the moment. While Pansy didn't outright hate the Muggle-born (not anymore, anyway), she didn't want to live through all the teasing that she was sure to get from her Housemates if they caught her staring.
“We're dead,” Miles repeated, yet again, as if they hadn't heard him the first time.
Pansy snapped and hit him (softly) on the back of the head.
“We're not dead. We just... need to get rid of the body.”
She was immediately the target of incredulous looks.
“Oh? And how do you intend to do that?” Marcus Flint asked her.
He, too, was staring at her. Surprising, coming from him. She had expected him to be one of the few who would remain calm, but he appeared to be just as anxious as the others. Obviously, he had never been in such a situation. Granted, it was her first time too, but she didn't want to end up in jail and waiting to be interrogated by the DMLE sounded tedious.
“Guys.”
This time, she turned around to face Theo, who looked... just as impassive as he usually did. Could nothing ruffle his damn feathers?! Didn't he realise that they were about to be jailed for murdering someone?! Would they end up in Azkaban? Most of them were still underage. Would that count for something? If they were lucky, they might be sentenced to a smaller wizarding prison that wasn't as horrible as Azkaban.
“I know someone who can help,” he said, as if he were talking about their latest school project.
Pansy didn't gape at him, but it was a close thing.
“I'm sorry?”
He gestured at the dead body of the Death Eater who had attacked them.
“I know someone who can get rid of the body. They won't ask too many questions as long as we do the same. With an oath of silence, of course.”
Of course...
Pansy exchanged a look with the others.
“Are you sure that you can trust this person, Theo? “
Theo nodded candidly.
“Oh yeah. They helped me get rid of my father's body.”
He said it so naturally that it took Pansy (and the others) a few seconds to register his words.
Miles choked on his saliva, and even Blaise gave Theo a look.
“I thought he was on a business trip?”
Theo shrugged.
“Well, yeah, that's the official version.”
Pansy blinked. She wanted to get out of her and report back to Daphne and the girls to gossip about this hot piece of information, but she knew she couldn't; this conversation was encompassed in a previous oath of silence they all made so that secrets would stay within this group. A bright idea that had been brought on by Theodore Nott himself. At the time, they had all thought it would be a good idea, because that meant that no one could snitch about anything illegal, but now, they realised that they might have bitten more than they could chew.
Nott kept smiling politely through the whole process. Pansy wanted to shake him like a tree.
“Okay,” Flint finally said. “Fine, call your contact. Do you need to send a letter?”
He was looking around nervously, as if he expected Hogsmeade inhabitants to stumble upon their murder party.
Nott snorted.
“No, that's fine. I already called him.”
Eh?
“Huh?”
“When?!”
“While you were all busy panicking and ignoring me.”
Well, someone didn't like being ignored...
“How are they supposed to help, exactly?” Jason asked quietly.
“Do you know when they'll be here?” Pansy asked at the same time, easily talking over Urquhart.
“You're not very observant, are you?”
Pansy gasped and whirled around, only to be faced with a familiar face that had been haunting the pages of the Daily Prophet for the past year or so.
Potter. Potter was standing in front of her. Potter, who had failed to show up for their 4th year and hadn't shown for their fifth year either.
Harry Potter was standing in front of her and her Housemates, muscled arms crossed over his chest.
He had changed, she thought as she let her gaze drag down across his figure. He had grown taller, not by much; he only had a couple of inches over her, but he was taller, and stood taller. He didn't look like a waif of a child anymore. His hair had grown a bit, too, but it was his eyes that caught her attention. Although the way he stood said something about him, his eyes told a story of their own. What the story was, she had no idea, but the gaze that took on the new surroundings was surprisingly cool and detached.
“Potter? You called Potter?” Miles asked, bewildered. “How did you even – He's been missing!”
“I don't consider myself missing,” Potter interjected softly.
Behind him stood a boy around their age, with gravity-defying brown hair, fair skin and hazel eyes. The boy was cute.
Pansy saw him glance at the dead body and mentally prepared herself for the screech of terror that would follow, but nothing. The young man's gaze stayed a few seconds on the body before he turned away to observe her and her Housemates.
She shivered when his eyes caught her own. For a moment, she could have sworn his eyes turned amber.
“I was just where I was meant to be,” he continued before turning to face Theo with a raised brow. “I was actually on a date with my beautiful boyfriend before I got your signal. I hope it's important.”
Theo winced and smiled as he shook hands with the missing Potter.
“Yes, err... We... We have a bit of a situation.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
Ah, so Potter did notice the dead body. She would have thought he would have had some kind of reaction.
She would have been wrong.
“Yes, and I thought... It would be right up your alley.”
Potter grimaced and gave Theo a deadpan look before rolling his eyes, walking toward the corpse.
They all scrambled out of the way.
“You help hide a body once, and you never hear the end of it,” they heard him mumble as he crouched down next to the Death Eater's body.
Pansy pinched her left forearm, but the light pain told her it was real. She wasn't having a strange fever dream or anything like that (as far as she knew, anyway).
They watched him inspect the body and whistled in appreciation.
“Damn, you managed to off Jugson. Nice work.”
The other boy – the potential 'boyfriend'- walked to them and stopped behind Harry to lean forward and observe the body.
He mumbled something they didn't quite catch – it probably wasn't English, judging by the intonations, which made Potter laugh.
He said something back – and it definitely wasn't English- before turning to Theo.
“I hope they swore an oath to you, because if not, you and I are going to have to pay Viper for their silence.”
They both winced, and Pansy had to wonder who this 'Viper' they were talking about was.
“No, no. I did,” he said, extending a piece of parchment to the previously missing Potter heir.
The former Gryffindor inspected it, whistled in appreciation and grinned.
“Shouldn't have doubted you.”
He glanced at the corpse before looking at them again.
“Bletchley, for the love of Merlin, stop squirming.”
Miles froze, surprised. Pansy could clearly hear his thoughts as if he had been yelling them (“You know my name?!”).
She had to admit that she was surprised too. She didn't think Potter would recognise any of them, save Draco and maybe her. He never really interacted with Slytherins and only did so when Draco antagonised him. Oh, Merlin, Draco!
She internally thanked her instincts to boot him out of here, because she didn't want to think of the scene Draco would have caused if he had stayed there. His screaming would have probably gathered all of Hogsmeade on their murder scene.
“You can stop worrying. We're taking over,” Potter told Miles, gesturing at himself and Pretty Boy behind him.
Then he looked up again.
“I can't believe you called me before you called the number I gave you.”
Theo shrugged.
“I don't know them, and I've seen you in action. I trust you to do it well.”
Miles almost choked on his saliva when he heard the Potter boy repeat his earlier sentence about hiding a body.
“You will owe me,” the former Gryffindor said.
Theo pouted.
“You said I could call you if I needed help.”
“And I meant it, but you also have terrible timing and interrupted our date.”
At that, Pretty Boy with hazel eyes skipped forward.
“Oh, I don't know about that. What's more romantic than hiding a body together?”
That... was not the sort of thing he expected to come from Pretty Boy's mouth.
Potter snorted.
“You spend too much time with your tutor.”
“And you with Xanxus.”
Theo twitched, Pansy noticed. She wondered if the name 'Xanxus' was supposed to mean something. Was he famous or... but considering the context, perhaps it was best not to know.
Potter smirked at his boyfriend (and woah, it's too bad she can't talk about it because she would have loved to gossip about that at school. The shock that would have followed would have been delightful. She could already hordes of guys and gals weeping in distress).
Pretty Boy leaned forward to give Potter a quick peck on the lips before moving backwards and instructing them to do the same.
Pansy and her Housemates eyed them in bewilderment, but obeyed as Potter stood up and observed the corpse. Then, he pulled something out of the pocket of his trousers, and his pockets must have had something like an extension charm because it was far too big to fit in it.
“What... What's that?” Montague asked, eyeing the object with suspicion.
“Miniature flamethrower,” Theo replied with a casual wave of his hand.
Pansy blinked.
“I'm sorry?”
Now, she wasn't completely ignorant. She had seen flame-throwers before, back when Terence (they were cousins and had known each other since they were toddlers) had dragged her to an Exhibit in Muggle London about World War I and the weapons used. Admittedly, she didn't remember everything, but she did remember that. It did, after all, spark a small fascination for fire.
Still, this thing looked way too small compared to the photographs and replicas she had seen at the exhibit.
Then, the boy aimed the mini flame-thrower at the corpse and pressed a button.
Pansy was not proud to say that she jumped back in fright, but at least she wasn't the only one to do so. All of her Housemates – yes, even Theo- jumped backwards as fire erupted from the weapon. Bright, red flames surged forward, devouring the body of the Death Eater. Pansy had never seen a fire of this colour. She had seen a Fiendfyre in action, once. It had been green and fierce-shaped, but that was something completely different. She could feel it.
The red fire completely disintegrated the unsuspecting corpse until there was nothing left of it, not even ashes.
Nothing there showed any sign that anything happened apart from the large darkened patch on the ground, but even that Potter managed to vanish it with a wave of his wand.
“Wha – the Trace!”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, we don't have that at home. I mean, we do, but the Trace is retired when we're sixteen,” Potter explained as he put away his mini flame-thrower.
Pretty Boy walked to him and took his hand in his. They looked like any couple going about their day, enjoying a Hogsmeade outing before going back to Hogwarts.
“Alright, we're done here,” Potter said before glancing at Theo. “I'll hold you to your word. If I even hear a whisper that I was involved in whatever happened here...”
He trailed off, smirking as he eyed each Slytherin present.
“I'll make everyone's life hell.”
Somehow, Pansy didn't doubt it. She could see it in his eyes. He was not the same Harry Potter who had left Hogwarts after their third year. Whatever this guy had gone through, wherever he had been, that had changed him.
Pretty Boy tugged at his wrist.
“Tsuna?”
Oh, so that was Pretty Boy's name.
“Can we go to Honeydukes? We could bring back souvenirs for the others.”
He was making a cute pouty face that, of course, made Potter melt. She would have too, had she been in his place. Unfortunately, Pansy was hopelessly single.
Just like that, Potter switched from his 'I mean business' persona to 'boyfriend' persona – so quickly in fact, that it gave them whiplash.
“Of course. Let's do that,” he replied, offering his arm like a gentleman.
'Tsuna' giggled and hung onto his arm, as if he had done that hundreds of times before. He might have.
Just before leaving, Potter turned his head to look at Theo.
“I'll catch up to you later, hm?”
“Sure.”
Potter then nodded at them – first Pansy, then the boys:
“Lady. Gentlemen.”
With that, he and his boyfriend walked away, towards the busy streets of Hogsmeade.
Pansy could only stare at the departing couple, stunned. Did... Did all of that just happen? Ten minutes ago, they were all panicking, freaking out at the thought of being sent to Azkaban and now... Now there was no dead body to prove that a crime had taken place there.
She heaved a sigh of relief.
“What the fuck....” Miles whispered from behind her. “No, seriously! What the fuck?!”
What the fuck, indeed, she thought as her lips twitched.
When she started cackling, she told herself it was the nerves, not excited delight. She was not about to join Theo's brand of craziness.
She refused!