Luck of Nines

Fin

Slowly the feeble heartbeat thudded stronger again, more regular, until abruptly Theo took a sharp, gasping breath. His eyes met Harry's green ones and that frozen, content smile grew.

"Harry?" Theo croaked.

"Theo." Harry replied, his voice shaky with relief as he hugged Theo tightly to himself.

They were alive. He was alive, Theo was alive. Everything was going to be okay. Theo burst into laughter, sounding slightly insane as he did so, but Harry couldn't help but join all the same as they sat there clutching each other and laughing until finally they stopped long enough to get something to eat.

Neither of them said much of anything, nor did they sleep much despite the exhaustion that weighed on them, as if should they say the wrong thing or close their eyes the illusion would be over and they would be left to struggle with the cold reality that they were alone again.

But finally they both did manage to drift off to sleep and slowly, day by day, normalcy returned. Theo researched with a renewed vigor, necromancy, warding, rituals, defense, anything and everything it seemed to Harry's eyes, but that wasn't too unusual. Harry managed to tolerate flipping through the occasional book on counter and antidotes, but he could never bring himself to devote the amount of focused willpower to books which Theo seemed to effortlessly manage, more often instead ending up frustrated or drifting off. But Chippy helped explain it to him, and he learned faster that way.

Slowly, Harry began noticing that something seemed to be dwelling in the corners of Theo's mind. The stack of books which Theo was researching from had always been in a constant state of change, books leaving and being replaced, the number and sizes of the various stacks of literature changing sometimes even by the hour. But now that had slowed down tremendously, one book, an old and unadorned black tome with uneven pages sat on the table which had been moved into Harry's room and which Theo frequently worked at.

At first Harry only briefly took note of it, but slowly he began to notice Theo's attention wandering to it more and more frequently. Theo didn't read it anymore, but he'd still stop to look consideringly at it every now and again. As if reluctant to take action but still unable to shake the idea.

Theo was lingering uncertainly in his doorway again the next morning after breakfast. Harry tilted his head from where he lay lounging in the warm sunlight to listen to the sound of heeled boots scuff gracefully across the floor- Draco had insisted that they had all been taught to move smoothly and soundlessly as part of their heir training when they were back in Hogwarts every time he claimed he had heard one of them coming, the female Slytherins being particularly offended by the statement to the extent he had instead changed it to feeling their magic coming something which left them feeling very pleased instead. He didn't quite understand the logic of lying to oneself about how loudly you walked, but he supposed it didn't matter anyway given humans were not hunters.

But he was getting distracted.

Theo was still pacing just to the side of the door, hesitating.

With a sigh he pushed himself up, moving to the door, and, waiting until Theo was out of the way, he opened it and leaned his head out to look at Theo who looked quite startled, "Would you like to come in?"

Theo hesitated, "Very well, thank you." Theo followed Harry in, taking a seat on the end of the bed rather than the rocking chair as Harry always followed him anyway. Harry flopped down in front of him and looked up waiting for him to continue. "What if... you could see your parents again?" Theo finally asked uncertainly.

"My parents?" Harry asked, "I never had any."

"Well, yes, but I was asking," Theo paused, "I know you've never had much interest in people you have never met, so I suppose I already knew your answer, I just felt I should ask. Samhain is coming up and for wizards and witches there is a ritual you can do to speak with the dead. I felt it was only fair to give you the chance if you wanted it. You can only speak with them briefly of course, so it's best not to get too attached, but it does offer closure for many."