Chapter Text
Caelum was staring at her and he had been since he had arrived at Potter Place.
Harry was getting increasingly worried he was going to chop one of his fingers off. Not to mention, the itch at the back of her neck was getting to be extremely irritating.
Finally, she was lying her implements down between brews and fixed him with a look.
“Out with it, Lestrange.”
He held out for a few more moments before sighing.
“Oh, well. I was just contemplating if I could stand to seduce you, but I really couldn’t stomach it.”
A pregnant Pause.
“You always say such nice things, Caelum.”
He was avoiding eye contact and was instead examining his knife’s edge with every appearance of utmost concentration. His hand not holding the knife was shaking. As she watched, he clenched it at his side, stuffing it in his pocket. She sighed.
She would better decrypt his mutterings. He was unlikely to be useful for much of anything this morning, otherwise.
“Okay, I’ll bite. Why are you contemplating,” and the mind boggled, “my seduction?”
Caelum hemmed and hawed quite a bit, looking as if he had been asked to regurgitate razor blades that someone else had forced down his throat before, but answered:
“My mother asked me to? Ordered me to, really.”
Harry stared at him, then pulled out a stool for herself and indicated for him to sit as well.
Clearly this was a conversation better had seated.
With some fits and starts, she was able to get the story out of him. Apparently his mother had approached him and questioned him about his relationship with her. He had made every attempt to convince her Harry was just a convenient source for potion knowledge, peppered with the suggestion that as a female half blood she was given preferential treatment by the new leadership of the potions guild.
She gave him the judgemental side-eye for that, but he shrugged, unapologetic. (“I am turning over a new leaf, but I am not telling my mother about it.”)
Surprising even himself, his mother seemed to believe him. Even more surprising, she was displeased about it.
“My mother thinks you know more than you let on about your temporal ‘cousin’. And she was told to inquire about my relationship with you, whether it could be… useful.”
“She was told? By who?”
Caelum raised an eyebrow. “Who would my mother ever listen to?”
“Riddle wants to use you to get to me?” For fuck’s sake. “This man is far too preoccupied with the relationships of children.”
He shrugged.
“Anyway, he apparently is aware that the two of us know each other. And he seems to think you would trust me if I worked at it.”
She could just imagine the logic in that. An impressionable, young girl like her, isolated for most of her schooling would of course be easily influenced by the handsome boy that shared her passion. Or something like that. That sounded like the back of a trashy romance novel. Hadn’t Riddle learned his lesson about underestimating the average teenager?
“How could anyone believe that could work?” she mused. Caelum huffed at that.
“I will have you know, if I wanted to, I could have you wrapped around my little finger like that.” He snapped his fingers to demonstrate the speed in which she would fall at his feet.
Harry felt her eyebrows rise almost involuntarily.
“I suppose. Telling me at our first meeting that I was the ugliest girl you had ever seen was just part of your charm offensive, then?”
He reddened. “I wasn’t trying then, obviously!”
“Mmh-hm,” was all the comment she gave to that.
“What did she say would happen if you failed to-” seduce me? catch my eye? secure my hand? “entice my secrets out of me?”
“She did not leave me that option. But from what I know of how she reacts to failures, especially in connection to Riddle, I assume the consequences would be… dire.” Lestrange went actually a little green thinking about it and she couldn’t fault him for it.
“What about the timeline? Does she expect results tomorrow?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Tomorrow would probably be suspicious more than anything. But the earlier the better, she was antsy the whole time. Riddle is probably furious, still, after how the tournament ended.”
Harry sat back and thought through the problem. She couldn’t in good conscience leave him to his mother’s tender mercies. Neither could she reveal any actual secrets to him to bring back.
This left just one possibility: A ruse.
“Alright, help me pack this up. We better make a plan.” She stood and he followed her cue, the tension in his shoulders lessened somewhat.
Before stepping back to the counter, she caught his eye. “Oh, by the way-” she leaned slightly into his space. His eyes widened at the look on her face. She smiled just that little bit wider, let her eyes glisten that little bit more, until he was caught.
“If anyone were to seduce anyone…” she trailed off and abruptly turned around. A moment later, she heard an amused huff behind her.
They cleaned up quickly, Lestrange by now having learned better than to try to foist the cauldron scrubbing on her.
After everything was packed away, they reconvened at the table. What they came up with was this:
Caelum would pretend to follow his mother’s orders. In hindsight, they both agreed that Bellatrix had been sparse with details on his “assignment” and would likely reveal more as she was more assured of his obedience. Since it had taken him mere hours in her company to reveal the plan, her distrust was warranted.
Since proving her right on that account was hardly likely to yield positive results, he was not to mention that.
Harry stared at the blank piece of parchment she had pulled out to jot down their thoughts. Hm.
“Well, what would you do if you were actually trying?” she asked him. She had no earthly idea how anyone went about- courting? leading someone astray? stepping out? At least, not in the long term. And he was ostensibly older and more experienced.
His expression of baffled surprise was quickly papered over with sneering condescension.
“Obviously, I was always more busy discouraging advances than making them.”
Ostensibly, indeed. She snorted.
“I can’t imagine it was very difficult. I trust you proved to have some natural talent in the area?”
He huffed. “At least that talent was called for.”
She did her best impression of a snooty pureblood.
“I’ll have you know, I have received several offers.” From the same person, but still true.
His shock at that was unflattering. Not really wanting many questions on that - Aldon was hardly going to relish having his kind offers be known of - she hurried the conversation along.
“Clearly, neither of us are experts. I am getting Archie into this.”
“What?!” Caelum stood.
“Archie at least managed to get Hermione to like him well enough. He also has a secret appetite for romance novels, though you didn’t hear that from me.”
“Who else would I have heard this from?” Caellum mumbled before refocusing. “I don’t trust him.”
Harry was already halfway to the door. But she stopped at those words, and turned around to look at him.
He had told her a secret. A dangerous secret. She sat back down.
“Let’s think about this. You want me to trust you. There has been a huge scandal because of a secret I was involved in. So, you would want to lull me into a sense of security. Also, to be honest, if you just asked me out, I would not believe you.”
“That’s probably a good instinct.”
Harry rolled her eyes at the barb hidden in a compliment. “Thanks.”
“So on the venn diagram of usual courting behaviour and things I would not be suspicious of us doing, there is really only going out to eat.”
She thought for a moment. “At least, I won’t be paying for once. Your family can definitely bankroll this one.”
At this, Caelum sat up. “I could buy you expensive potion ingredients as gifts!” he announced excitedly.
Harry could hear the unsaid ‘and keep them to myself’ and shot him a reproachful look.
“... and we use them together as a bonding experience?” he finished lamely. She nodded.
“Don’t ask for too much, though,” she cautioned him.
“Do you know anything about your parent’s courtship? It’s your mother we need to convince,” she asked.
He sneered. “They were matched. And I hardly believe my mother expects something quite so official.”
“So we are aiming for sordid secrecy?” she asked.
“Sordid secrecy that everyone including my mother knows about,” he agreed with a wry twist to his mouth.
“Well, hopefully not so sordid that my father comes after you.”
Caelum visibly stilled. “I forgot about him.”
“He let you in!”
He waved her off. “Yes, but I forgot who he is.”
“So sordid secrecy is out?”
He put his head in his hands. “The whole plan is out! I am dead either way.”
“There, there,” she said. “My father won’t really kill you.” She thought for a moment longer. “He might arrest you. But only if you have actually done something illegal.”
His grumbling at that made her think her father could probably find something to arrest him for if he tried. Black market dealings, for one.
“Listen, let’s just keep our imaginary knickers on and leave the pregnancy belly in the drawer. All will be well.”
He looked so scandalised she had to laugh. They would manage something. They had no choice.