Work Text:
Blaine grips his wand tightly in his right hand, and with nearly the same effort clings to the shard of mirror wrapped in cloth as he walks cautiously through the endless corridors of the Smythe manor.
Though cautiously is a euphemism. His heart is pounding so fast he’s certain someone will step out from a corner at any moment because they’ve heard it. His legs are shaking, far too much like the time he fell into the Black Lake in fourth year, when the ice had only just begun to thaw. And he’s sure that despite the cold that seeps into the place, whether from the high ceilings or the sheer number of Dark wizards within it, he’s sweating as though it were the hottest summer day imaginable.
Oh, summer. He would give anything to go back to it. To Sebastian stretched out in front of him, shirtless, Cooper’s stolen glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose as he read a Muggle book he’d bought when they went to the market together. Everything had been better then. Everything had been better when the war was only a possibility, a distant thought.
“Dear Sebastian.”
Lord Voldemort’s voice strikes every muscle in his body. Sebastian feels it in his stomach, like a kick meant to shatter his ribs, like hands wrapped around his throat, suffocating him, like a knife driven straight into his heart.
Sebastian watches as the Dark wizard opens his hands toward him, even smiles hesitantly. His father’s hand nudges him forward, and Sebastian has no choice but to step ahead.
He’s touched in a way that’s vile, wrong, unbearable, his skin burning as though a million embers are scorching him all at once.
When he’s finally released, he can’t even process the original intent. Because he knows, with absolute certainty, that this isn’t an embrace. He’s been hugged before, hundreds of times. But the warmth, the safety, the love and life he feels whenever Blaine wraps his arms around him aren’t here. There’s only cold, pain, and death. And he doesn’t know how he ended up here.
Or maybe he does. There are two reasons, actually. And he’s looking right at them.
His parents stand on the other side of the hall, waiting for him to return once the Dark Lord steps away. But Sebastian stays frozen for a moment, staring at everyone around him, unable to recognize them. Even when they all share the same name.
The Smythe family is the oldest, most powerful, and wealthiest wizarding family in the wizarding world, but also the cruelest, most corrupt, and most power-hungry. They don’t hesitate to do whatever is necessary to preserve their name and keep the wizarding world free of what they call poison.
That’s how Sebastian has heard them speak for as long as he can remember. He grew up hearing that theirs was the only path, pure, rich, and ruthless. His parents don’t care if you’re vile, a murderer, or a parasite. Your worth is determined by the purity of your blood. And every Smythe possesses that quality.
Blood purity is everything to them. That’s why they arrange marriages within the family. He himself is betrothed to his cousin Quinn, though he’d rather be dead than go through with it.
His soul, his hand, his heart can’t be promised to anyone. Because ever since he was thirteen, he gave them freely to that Gryffindor half-blood who lives in the Muggle world and walks among blood traitors. He supposes that makes him a traitor too.
Because here he is, taking one measured step after another. He’s played the spy’s game since the wizarding war began. Somehow his parents still believe he’s come to his senses, that the night in his fifth year, when they cast the Cruciatus Curse on him after discovering his friendship with Blaine, had been enough to reform him.
It hadn’t. If anything, it deepened his hatred for them. And when they threatened to do the same to Blaine, he learned what true hatred was.
As he walks along the platform, ignored by his older cousins at the front, he trips over his robes in his hurry to catch up. By the time he reaches a carriage, he realizes he’s alone. So he decides it’s best to find an empty seat quickly.
Many of the children, even the older ones, avoid his gaze because they know who he is. At eleven years old, his young mind can’t yet grasp the full scope of the power and fear his family commands.
Despite his parents’ clear instructions to associate only with family or with Slytherin, Sebastian is quietly excited to finally meet children his own age. At home, he has no one to talk to, much less play with. According to his father, the age of play is long past. Now his duty is to bring honor to his house, to become the next great Smythe.
The usual chatter about anticipation over which house one might be sorted into was never something discussed at home. For the Smythes, there is no option other than Slytherin. Their pure lineage, filled with Slytherins, proves it.
It’s as if the Sorting Hat works on autopilot, programmed solely for the Smythe family.
In all the centuries since their lineage began, no one has ever been sorted elsewhere. And Sebastian won’t be the exception. He can’t be.
So as he walks the length of the train car, the terror of being sorted into another house consumes him.
When he opens a compartment door, he doesn’t think. He’s too lost in his thoughts, filled with images of his mother screaming, his father standing in silence, and then… he supposes they might even kill him.
“Hi.”
The unexpected sound from the back of the compartment startles him so badly he stumbles backward and sinks to the floor.
He sees the other boy’s eyes go wide with fear, perhaps mirroring his own, before the boy rushes toward him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” the boy says in a trembling voice as he helps him up.
“I’m fine,” Sebastian replies quietly.
The boy helps him sit where he’d been moments before. Instead of returning to his seat, Sebastian realizes the boy sits beside him, studying him.
“What are you doing?” Sebastian asks, brow furrowed. Not angrily. Not like his mother. Just curious.
“Checking if you’re okay. You looked really scared.”
Sebastian looks at him, now slightly annoyed. “I’m not scared,” he snaps, offended.
The boy blinks, then nods. “Okay. Sorry.”
Sebastian knows he should leave, try to sit with his cousins, but he doesn’t want to. They’re older, and he’s always felt somewhat left behind by them. He’s tried to be cruel like his older cousins. He’s shouted at house-elves, called children Mudbloods in Diagon Alley. He does it when his parents are watching. But when he’s alone, he plays ball with the elves, or sneaks away from gatherings in Diagon Alley just to watch children run, shout, and laugh through shop windows. Those are Sebastian’s favorite days.
So he stays silent. He doesn’t speak, but he doesn’t leave either. This boy reminds him of the children he watches from afar in Hogsmeade, and it makes him feel calm. He knows there won’t be cruel words coming from this boy’s mouth anytime soon. And there definitely won’t be insults directed at him.
“My name’s Blaine,” the boy says, holding out his hand.
Sebastian’s eyes widen, eyebrows shooting up. He looks at the boy’s hand, dirt-smudged, perhaps because he doesn’t care about cleanliness the way his mother does, or maybe because he’s as careless as the children who play with the explosive gadgets sold in Diagon Alley. He knows he should say something cruel and leave. But he doesn’t. So, trembling slightly, he takes the boy’s hand.
The moment their hands meet, a current runs through him, making him shiver from head to toe. The boy seems to feel it too, but instead of being frightened like Sebastian, he looks delighted, laughing softly.
“Sebastian Smythe,” he says, expecting that to burst the bubble around them. But it doesn’t.
He expects the boy to recoil in horror and run. Instead, Blaine keeps holding his hand, shaking it far longer than necessary.
“Let’s be friends,” Blaine offers, as if it’s that simple. Because they’re children. Because that’s how friendships begin, apparently. You choose someone you like, someone who makes your skin tingle when you touch them, who makes you smile without effort, who makes you feel safe, as though no curse will be shouted, as though you don’t need to sink to the floor in fear at every sound.
And so Sebastian learns what friendship is for the first time, in that train car on the way to his first year at Hogwarts, forgetting that back home there are rules he’s meant to follow, that his destiny was written before he was born, that people will look at them strangely when they walk together through the castle. That even if they aren’t Dark wizards like his parents, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin being friends draws attention all on its own.
When they arrive at the castle, covered in candy residue, bags overflowing with sweets they smuggle and share with other children as they wait for Professor McGonagall, Sebastian feels so happy and accepted that he forgets the hardest part is still to come.
When his name is announced in the Great Hall, the room falls silent. The children who were laughing with him not five minutes earlier all step away at once. Sebastian stares ahead, biting his lip as it starts to tremble at the collective rejection brought on by his name alone. Hadn’t it been enough that he was kind? That he shared his candy’s? Apparently not, and it makes him sadder than he’s ever been. Even more than when his father struck him with his wand.
His lip quivers, gives way, tears burning in his eyes. And then someone takes his hand. Sebastian startles, slowly turning to see Blaine still standing beside him. The boy looks sad, but also wears that gentle expression Sebastian will one day learn to name.
Sebastian lifts the corners of his mouth, wanting to cry all over again, because no one has ever shown him such kindness before. The house-elves do, in their own way, but even they’re not allowed. So he forgets all the years of upbringing in the manor, all the lessons about controlling his emotions, and for the first time lets the child within him take over.
He finds courage somewhere, probably from Blaine, who looks at him with determination, and he steps forward. Then another step. And another. Until he’s sitting beneath the Sorting Hat, letting it decide his future.
“What do we have here? Oh yes, greatness. Greatness,” the hat murmurs, its whisper sending chills through him.
He sits still, staring at his only friend among the many faces watching him with varying degrees of rejection.
“You are different. I’ve had generations of your family here. I never questioned where to put them, but you… you overflow with bravery.” The hat continues, and Sebastian trembles. He just wants it to say Slytherin. He doesn’t want to hear that he’s different, even if it makes him feel better. “And that quality is the very hallmark of a Gryffindor.”
His eyes widen in panic. No. No, this can’t be happening. He shakes from his smallest toe to the last strand of hair. “Please don’t,” he whispers.
“Hmm?” the hat responds slowly, curious. “You would make history in any house, but your traits are divided. It’s quite difficult.”
Sebastian begs. He looks at Blaine, who gives him a small, encouraging look, seeing how wrecked he is.
“Please don’t,” Sebastian whispers, eyes squeezed shut. “They’ll kill me.”
He’s not being literal. But he knows his parents would hurt him if he were sorted into Gryffindor of all houses.
“Well then, if you’re sure… you’ll do great things wherever you are,” the hat finally says, yielding. “SLYTHERIN!”
It turns out that even though everyone fears or hates him now, the fear his name inspires is enough to leave him alone. Blaine, as expected, returns to the Gryffindor common room each day, while Sebastian descends to the darker dungeon level, following close behind his cousins, who mostly ignore him.
His cousins Quinn and Santana don’t exactly welcome him, but they intervene when the rest of the family threatens to tell his parents about his friendship with Blaine. Both are as fierce as they are beautiful, and Sebastian is fairly sure he overheard something about practicing hexes on anyone who talked too much.
He doesn’t assume they do it purely for him. They don’t talk much. But soon Sebastian realizes the three of them share more than they think.
Sebastian sees Quinn kissing a boy with a yellow tie one night in the corridor. A week later, he sees Santana hooking pinkies with a blonde girl dressed in yellow.
He figures the risk is worth it if the reward looks anything like the huge smiles on their faces.
And eventually, Blaine hears things. He tells Sebastian. But by some twist of fate, by Merlin or whoever’s listening, he doesn’t pull away. So yes, the risk is absolutely worth it.
Their friendship begins like that, quiet and discreet, until people form their own bonds and seeing them together stops being the main source of gossip.
His cousins remain silent. He knows because otherwise his parents would’ve already dragged him back to the Smythe dungeons.
The problem comes when they turn thirteen. Hiding in a broom cupboard one night while fleeing Caretaker Figgins, Blaine covers his mouth to keep from laughing. Sebastian looks at him, part of his face lit by moonlight through the small window above. Sebastian smiles, and overcome by emotion once again, presses his lips to Blaine’s.
Just for a second. But enough to make his lips tingle well into the next day.
Blaine’s eyes fly open in shock, and Sebastian spins around, yanks the door open, and bolts. He doesn’t stop, even when Blaine throws caution to the wind and calls his name.
When they turn fifteen, no one knows. Only them. That they belong to each other, as friends, as family, and as something that will come with time. Their souls have been bound to one another until their very last breath.
“You need to stay away from him, Blaine.”
Blaine freezes in the middle of the corridor that summer before his sixth year. He looks at Cooper as if he’s lost his mind, as if his head has suddenly swollen to ten times its size.
It takes him a few seconds to fully register what his brother is saying. With every tick of the clock, Blaine’s brow furrows deeper, his eyebrows drawing together as he watches Cooper warily, his breathing growing heavier, making the rest of his body tremble.
“Difficult times are coming, Blaine. The war…” but Blaine doesn’t let him finish.
“War? What the hell are you talking about?” he shouts, making Cooper snap his mouth shut instantly.
His brother stares at him in disbelief, unable to process the fact that his little brother, always kind, always ready to talk things through and hand out hugs, is raising his voice at him.
“Blaine, his family is evil,” Cooper begins, stopping Blaine before he can protest. “And if you’re old enough to question things, then you’re old enough to understand that what I’m telling you is true.” Every word is firm, resolute, so much so Cooper can almost see the five year old little Blaine.
“He’s not like his family,” Blaine protests. He nearly begs, his voice small, breaking with every second Cooper refuses to budge.
“You can’t know that. And I’m not taking risks, Blaine. You’re all I have left.” Cooper’s voice breaks on a sharp breath, driving painful pins straight into both their hearts.
“I lo—”
A crash from the other side of the hall cuts him off, making them both jump. Cooper recovers so quickly that by the time Blaine thinks to reach for his wand, Cooper is already gone.
Blaine walks forward uncertainly, legs shaking, heart pounding. He steps over debris the closer he gets. His mind offers no explanation, not a single idea of what could be happening, until he reaches the room and sees the fireplace. His heart dies in that instant.
“A filthy half-blood, Sebastian!”
His mother’s voice spits the words from across the Great Hall, where they’re gathered, waiting for the rest of the Smythes for what Sebastian knows will be the beginning of the end of the life he knows.
Sebastian holds his breath, watching his cousin Santana lower her gaze. He’s sure his cousins talked. They must have.
“Mother, I was just having fun. He doesn’t mean—” he tries, but his father’s hand cuts him off, striking him hard enough to nearly knock him to the floor.
“I’ve had enough of your bullshit on its own. A Gryffindor. Of all the whores you could have bought.” His father’s incredulous gasp and the vile words hurled at Blaine nearly make Sebastian lose control, take a step forward, grab his father by the lapels of his ridiculous suit and spit in his face.
But Santana grabs his hand. Neither his father nor his mother notices, too focused on arguing with each other across the room. Sebastian tries to pull free, but she won’t let go.
“They’ll kill him.”
That’s all it takes to freeze his blood.
As he’s dragged away without care, he replays his entire life in his mind. And when his father speaks again, Sebastian makes a decision.
“I don’t even remember his name.” He scoffs, shrugging with deliberate disdain.
“That’s not what I was told,” his mother replies coldly.
“Then whoever told you is wrong,” he fires back on impulse, the words leaving his mouth the moment hers end.
A slap lands on his other cheek. This time, he feels the sting of fingernails digging into his skin.
“He deserves punishment,” his father says, pouring himself a glass of a horrid red liquor Sebastian hated the smell of as a child. He still does.
“I don’t believe you. But you’re staying away from him from now on. And for trying to deceive us, I agree with your father.”
He braces himself to be dragged into the dungeon, without food or water for a full day. But as he processes everything, his greatest fear is that he won’t be able to take the mirror with him to speak to Blaine. He won’t expose him like that.
But then…
His cousin Hunter appears in the doorway. Sebastian looks at him, and Hunter looks back. And he knows. He knows before a word is spoken. He knows it in his bones.
“He’s an Anderson.”
That’s all Hunter says before something red as hell ignites in his parents’ eyes.
It would almost be funny, if he had time to think about it.
But the last thing Sebastian hears before collapsing to the floor is Santana calling his name.
His body burns. His blood feels like fire, every fiber of him melting as though he’s being burned alive at the stake.
He knows, in scientific terms, that when this happens the body reaches a point where the muscles stop responding and the pain fades. That isn’t happening to him. Instead, he feels the beginning again and again.
He twists and thrashes, screaming, his cries making the massive windows and glass ceilings of the manor shake.
“Crucio!” his mother screams again.
The pain floods him, consumes him, as if his skin were being torn from his bones.
“This is what will happen to that little toy of yours if you don’t stay away from him,” his father says, his voice clear and terrifying.
And in that moment, Sebastian realizes he never knew pain until now.
Because the thought of Blaine being hurt hurts more than being burned alive, more than being flayed inch by inch.
By the time Sebastian slips so far into unconsciousness that he barely hears the distant echoes of the voices that were supposed to protect him, not harm him, he’s gone.
He drifts in and out of awareness. In his clearest moments, all he sees is Santana’s face above him, murmuring what he’s certain is an apology, before the green flames of a Floo fireplace carry him away.
He lands hard in a smaller space, stone flying from the fireplace with a crash. His eyes struggle to open. He thinks he might be dying.
Then he hears him.
Blaine is there, holding him. But Sebastian is too tired now. So he lets go, taking in what he hopes will be the last sight of his life.
Blaine is sitting at the foot of the bed, holding Sebastian’s hand as carefully as he can. His brother is in the sitting room with Professor Dumbledore, the Healers from St. Mungo’s, and more Aurors than Blaine has ever seen.
Sebastian will be fine.
He’s suffering, but it will pass. And in the meantime, Blaine wishes there were a spell that would let him take even a fraction of Sebastian’s pain. He’d take all of it, any day.
Later, when Sebastian is more conscious, Cooper explains that moving him anywhere else would be risky. That they don’t know who did this. Even though, in truth, they all do. Professor Dumbledore said he would handle it. That they were safe here. And there was no word heavier than his. So Cooper nodded.
“You have to stay away, Blaine,” his brother murmurs later at his side.
Blaine shakes his head, tears burning behind his eyes.
“Look at what they did to their own son,” Cooper says, breathless with anger.
“And that’s exactly why we can’t leave him,” Blaine argues, his voice steadier.
“Blaine…”
“I love him, Cooper.” Blaine turns to his brother, cutting off any other argument before it can form.
And Cooper knows he’s lost.
For the last two years of school, they manage to evade anyone who might expose them. His cousins are gone, so the final year isn’t as bad. Still, everyone believes that as time passes, Sebastian has aligned himself with his family. Only Blaine and Cooper know the truth that lives in Sebastian’s heart. And that’s fine. If Sebastian has to pretend he belongs with them, to be rejected again like that first day of school when his name was spoken aloud, so be it. He will never do anything that puts Blaine in danger.
When the war breaks out a year after leaving Hogwarts, Cooper insists again. He tells Blaine what he already knew, whispered for years. That the reason Blaine’s parents were killed by the Dark Lord was the Smythe family.
For the first time, Blaine fears something might finally tear them apart. How could he ever choose between his family and Sebastian, when Sebastian is his family too?
“Marry me,” Sebastian says one afternoon. In the middle of the war, but on one of those days that almost feels like before.
They’re lying in the grass, Blaine between Sebastian’s legs, his back against Sebastian’s chest. They watch the clear sky of a summer afternoon in Paris. Perks of being graduates, perks of being an Auror in Blaine’s case, and perks of being a Death Eater in Sebastian’s.
“I don’t want to keep doing this,” Blaine replies without thinking about the question.
Not until he feels Sebastian tense beneath him.
He sits up quickly and turns to face him. “I mean the double life. I don’t want you to go back to them. Come with me.” Blaine pleads, taking his hand.
Sebastian gives him a sad half-smile and reaches up to touch his curls.
“We’re so close,” he says quietly, almost begging himself. “Once we uncover their secret, I’ll leave.” He reassures Blaine, tilting his chin, forcing a defeated Blaine to believe him. “I want a safe life for both of us. A future where we don’t have to hide or be afraid. And we’re so close. I can feel it.”
Blaine nods. Sebastian rubs their noses together before kissing him.
They rest their foreheads together, weighing reality, their options, their future.
“I’ll marry you,” Blaine says suddenly, more certain than he’s ever been. “I’ll give you everything I am.”
Sebastian smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkling in that way that makes it unmistakably real. His eyes shine as he finally accepts the truth. That he has belonged to Blaine, every part of him, ever since the day he took his hand. He’s carried that electrifying feeling with him ever since.
In truth, they do not need to marry to know they belong to each other, or that they would do anything to save the other. But there they are anyway. That same afternoon, with the sunset spilling over them in shades of pink, orange, and blue. The weather is so perfect they almost believe it is over, that they are free. And for a moment, they are.
The wind blows with just the right strength, enough to make the longer curls on Blaine’s head move. Sebastian’s hair, longer now as well, shifts with the same precision as the leaves in the trees.
Their hands are joined, and both of them speak the words, the vows to swear love and loyalty beyond this life. And then the woman lifts her wand as they place the ring on each other’s finger.
Blaine trembles when he feels the cold metal settle around his finger. Sebastian mirrors the reaction. They feel both impossibly heavy and impossibly light, like their hair, tangled together from how close they are standing.
Sebastian takes Blaine’s hand and bends to kiss it, right where the ring he has just placed now rests.
Blaine holds his breath, fighting the urge to break down in tears. He looks at him with watery eyes and does the same in return.
They kiss. They do not know for how long, because no one interrupts them. It is as if they are alone again. But when they finally pull apart, it is there. The moment when they know they must continue.
Sebastian gives the older witch a look, and she raises her wand.
Blaine and Sebastian share a glance where each sees the certainty reflected in the other. As they bind their arms together firmly, there is not a single drop of doubt or hesitation. Nothing but love, devotion, loyalty, and resolve. And that is exactly what a war needs, because even knowing that tomorrow they might no longer be here, for now it is enough. For now, they are unbreakable.
White light bursts from the wand and coils around their joined grip.
“Do you swear to live for one another, even when everything is against you? That darkness itself will rebound from the bond that joins you?”
They both nod without breaking eye contact and answer in unison. “I swear.”
“Do you swear to protect one another to the very limits of your abilities, making it your priority to survive together?”
“I swear,” they say again, resolute.
“Do you swear never to turn against one another? That the power within you exists for no purpose other than to protect your love?”
“I swear.”
“Do you swear that there is no power on this earth, light or dark, capable of separating you?”
“I swear.”
“Do you swear to follow one another blindly, wherever the other may go, trusting with every fiber of your being?”
“I swear.”
“Stay away from him, Blaine.”
His brother is telling him one afternoon. Clouds cover the sky, as they have for months now. Tension is at its breaking point, and though none of them will say it out loud, they fear the war may already be lost.
“He’s on our side, Cooper. I thought you knew that.”
“I won’t take risks. Stay away from him.” His brother steps closer, practically growling the warning.
But Blaine shakes his head. “Even if it were a possibility, I can’t.”
Cooper scoffs. “You won’t die of love, Blaine. You’ll die when the Killing Curse comes straight at you.”
“I actually could,” Blaine says, reckless, overwhelmed by the emotions consuming him. “And Sebastian would take the curse for me. But then I would die too, because I can’t exist in a world where he doesn’t.”
“What are you talking about?” The sudden calm in his brother’s expression makes him nervous. He sees it in his eyes as the pieces slowly come together.
Blaine swallows and gathers his courage. He lifts his chin, trying not to feel diminished by their height difference. “That ‘until death do us part’ is real for us.”
“Damn it, Blaine.”
Months later, Sebastian has sent him hundreds of parchments, which Blaine deciphers late into the night. He lets his brother help with some, but he keeps the most important ones to himself. He knows, rationally, that it would be better with help. But if this goes wrong, many people will die. And he is not risking Sebastian. Not when no one but Cooper knows the truth that lives in him. So he forces himself to stay awake a little longer each night, telling himself it will end soon, that soon they will stop hiding. That they will be together as they promised. As they swore.
The weight of the ring hanging around his neck feels like Sebastian’s body. His husband. Especially in those hours when he is alone, wrestling with darker magic than he was ever meant to touch.
His mind begins to strain under it, all the research and spells he was never supposed to cast. But it is fine. He just has to take the ring in his hand and close his eyes, see Sebastian, and when he opens them again, he will return to work.
“I’ve got it.”
The owl arrives a week after Blaine sends his own news through the mirror.
They have avoided owls because they are always intercepted. They have used them only a handful of times, for small things that would not raise suspicion. Like now. Because when the message arrives, it looks like nothing. But Blaine understands everything.
He looks at Cooper while the Minister speaks about the meeting that night at the Smythe Manor. It is their chance, since the Dark Lord will not be there. The perfect plan to capture at least fifty Death Eaters.
Cooper protests. It is suicidal. “What guarantees he won’t be there?”
“What choice do we have?”
“People keep dying.”
A sea of voices rises, clashing against one another. Blaine has to leave. If everyone goes to the Smythe Manor, it will be a bloodbath. Everyone will attack anyone bearing the Dark Mark. The very thought turns his stomach. Sebastian is not dying tonight. Nor any other night.
In the end, it is decided that a group of Aurors will go to a meeting point nearby. Blaine slips in among them. His heart pounds with anxiety with every passing second. Something is wrong. Something feels very wrong.
He grips the mirror wrapped in cloth in his hand so tightly it almost burns.
He tries to come up with a plan to get past the walls surrounding the manor. But unless he wants to die, he has no idea how.
The distraction comes with an explosion from inside. Dozens of lights fly back and forth. Aurors. The plan has been compromised. Someone has acted against the group’s decision.
They barely exchange glances before everyone Disapparates, leaving Blaine and Cooper last.
Cooper runs to grab him by the arms. “Stay here.” But Blaine shakes his head. Cooper closes his eyes and growls. He knows. He knows there is no power on earth that will keep him out.
“Listen, Cooper. He knows,” Blaine says. Cooper looks at him with desperation and uncertainty. “Sebastian figured it out.” He enunciates every word clearly, even as his whole body trembles.
Cooper’s eyes widen as it hits him.
“We have to find him,” Blaine says firmly.
Blaine has never been inside the Smythe Manor. Which would be unthinkable for someone who has been in Sebastian’s life for years. At least in any other family. But if even Sebastian was abused and hurt behind these walls, despite being the heir to the name, Blaine does not have time to dwell on it.
He rushes through the corridors, the echoes of screams and blasts ringing throughout the manor. The cold is as brutal as expected in times like these. The high ceilings trap the wind and hurl it against his skin, but somewhere along the way, Blaine left behind every sensation that might slow him down.
He keeps the mirror raised, glancing at it again and again, waiting for Sebastian to appear at any moment. His wand has already cast two Killing Curses. His hands are covered in blood, but it no longer matters. Because if he dies, Sebastian dies too. And as he promised himself before, Sebastian is not dying tonight. Nor ever.
“If everything goes wrong…”
Blaine starts, cut off by Sebastian’s look, by the slow shake of his head in refusal.
“But if it does…” Blaine insists.
“You are not leaving this world without me,” Sebastian finishes.
“I’m not getting rid of you, am I?” Blaine grimaces, and Sebastian finds it amusing.
“You’re stuck with me in this life and the next, Anderson.”
Blaine snorts before leaning in to kiss him.
“A Gryffindor and a Slytherin. That’s a scandal if I’ve ever heard one.”
“We’ll make all the front pages of the Daily Prophet.”
Sebastian looks down at his hand. The veins are draining of color. But as he processes it, with the little time he has before someone comes in, he realizes he is not as alarmed as he should be. Or perhaps his mind and body have crossed that line between panic and resignation. He does not know. He only knows this is his chance.
He takes the fake locket and places it back on the shelf. He takes the real one and ties it around his neck.
A weight crashes over him, making him tremble and hiss softly. He breathes three times, regaining enough control.
He looks at his hand again and sees ink stains on his fingers. It will probably be the last note he ever writes. But it will carry the weight of a thousand letters. He smiles to himself. He cannot help feeling a little smug about it. He has beaten the Dark Lord. Right under his nose.
He exhales, tucks the locket beneath his shirt, and turns around.
“Even if you find it. Whatever the object is. How do we destroy it?” Blaine asks a month earlier, during one of their increasingly rare meetings.
Sebastian pulls him tightly against his chest. They have not had the will or the desire to separate since they arrived.
“I don’t know,” he says simply. Because he doesn’t.
It has taken them an entire year to decipher magic the rest of the world has ignored in favor of physical combat. But here they are, one step ahead. He and Blaine have achieved something that, even if it does not end with them, will at least give someone else a chance in the future.
If they fail, they will still be part of the reason there is hope at all.
Blaine reaches one of the most desolate wings of the manor. He has lost contact with his brother, but it is too late to turn back. His heart is pulling him forward with every step. That is all he has. No communication, no certainty. Only instinct and his heart telling him he is close.
Then the mirror in his hand vibrates. A faint flash, and his reflection dissolves. Two figures appear. Sebastian. Blaine gasps in relief. Sebastian’s profile is there for a second before it shifts to someone else.
Sebastian’s mother. Lethal, terrifying, spitting venom at her son.
“You filthy traitor rat. Wretched and—”
Blaine does not hear the rest. The mirror swings toward a door. The family crest. He does not understand. Panic sets in until he makes a decision. He saw the crest at the entrance. Only there. There must be another important place where it appears as well. A study. A meeting room.
He starts running, ignoring corners, ignoring everything but the urgency driving him forward. Please be alive, he begs whatever gods and magic will listen.
Sebastian raises his wand at his mother. She gasps. Surprise flashes in her eyes. And something else. Doubt. Perhaps fear. He is no longer the child she nearly killed with the Cruciatus Curse. Perhaps she thinks he would never hurt her. But then again, Sebastian never imagined a mother would hurt her own child. In wartime, it does not seem to be a rule in this family. It never was.
They stare at each other, daring the other to move. Sebastian tightens his grip on his wand, ready, waiting for her to strike first. This time, he will respond.
A glint catches his eye. An object behind his mother’s back. He sees it now. A cup.
His mother gasps, her eyes widening so much he can see the green and blue of her irises from here.
He has a second to decide when she screams the curse at him. “Cruci—”
This time, green light erupts from his wand and slams into her body, sending her flying across the room.
Sebastian moves on instinct. He will think about it later, when he is more than shaking limbs and a fogged mind.
He runs to the object and grabs it without stopping to think.
A surge of light and power explodes in his face. The energy floods his chest, races through his body, bursts from his fingertips, and he drops to his knees. Fire scorches his blood, almost as badly as that night when he was fifteen. It is almost exactly the same. Even the ending.
His eyes stay open just long enough to see Blaine fall in front of him and gather him into his arms. “Sebastian,” his husband whispers, small and desperate. “Stay with me. Please.”
Sebastian lets the tears spill down his cheeks, soaking into Blaine’s hands as they hold him. The warmth of his husband’s touch drives the pain away.
“Say it,” he whispers weakly.
Blaine shakes his head, squeezing his eyes shut. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Sebastian answers with the last of his strength.
Blaine holds Sebastian’s body. He is gone. Or so he thinks. His eyes are closed. He looks asleep. So Blaine believes that must be it. Even as his own body burns everywhere.
There is no time to break apart. He has to get him out. He cannot leave him here. He cannot let them desecrate his body. Sebastian never let them desecrate his soul, nor his heart. Blaine is not leaving him.
When the door begins to open, Blaine looks up just in time to see him. Cloaked in black. Evil made flesh. Or something like it. Fear always comes before the name. But standing face to face, Blaine does not feel it.
The thing in front of him has taken everything from him. And now Blaine is taking everything from it.
With the last chance he has, he summons the cup back to them. He clings to his husband’s body and Disapparates.
The echo of a furious scream grows distant. Left behind. But green light follows them.
When they reappear, back in the Burrow, the impact hits. Blaine falls over his husband’s inert body.
Sebastian blinks then. He comes back for one last moment. He feels Blaine on top of him, looks at him, and understands. He swallows his pain, and with what he knows is his final breath, he lifts his hand, touches Blaine’s curls, and leans forward to press his lips to his forehead.
The curse bound to the locket or the cup will end it today. Or tomorrow. That much is clear. Everyone understands it when they find them. Cooper understands it before anyone else.
Sebastian dies holding his husband’s body. The magic of the Unbreakable Vow claims him. Not because he failed his oath. But precisely because they swore to follow each other everywhere. And so they do. They leave the world together.
A world to which they gave hope.