Chapter 144: 5-3
—Theodore made his move.
The moment the words appeared on the enchanted parchment, I dashed out on impulse. Slipping past the hands of Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Common Room, I sprinted down Gryffindor Tower. It was the dead of night. Relying on the castle's secret passages that I had memorized by heart, I made my way out onto the grounds.
On the lush, grassy lawns, with the looming shadow of the Forbidden Forest behind them, Draco and Theodore stood glaring at one another. Or rather—Theodore appeared completely unbothered.
"Draco!"
"Bringing your girlfriend along? You never cease to surprise me, Draco."
"I've been keeping a constant watch on you. —What are you trying to pull at a time like this?"
Draco's wand was pointed straight at Theodore. Theodore, on the other hand, was practically unarmed. Smiling with absolute composure, he looked terrifyingly eerie, as if the shadows themselves belonged to him.
"It means that today marks the end of Hogwarts."
"...Is Delphini involved in this?"
Theodore blinked with childlike innocence at my involuntary groan. —Wait, what?
"Did you say Delphini? Did you just call her Delphini instead of the Augurey? —Maria Potter, you truly are an anomaly."
The smile vanished from Theodore's face as if it had been wiped away. That alone sent a chilling darkness bearing down on us.
"What exactly do you know?"
"I'll return those exact words to you, Theodore. What are you plotting by imitating Malfoy?"
"...So you know that much."
Stepping up beside Draco, I aimed my wand at Theodore as well. Even with two wand tips pointed directly at him, Theodore stood his ground, showing no signs of resistance or retreat.
"I... met my future self."
"...Huh?"
My wand remained steady, but a bewildered sound slipped out of me. Out of place as it was, Theodore let out a light laugh and continued.
"A Time-Turner. You can at least guess that much, can't you?"
"But—with a Time-Turner—you must never let yourself be seen."
"Did you think I'd be the type to obediently follow the rules? It seems you don't understand what it means to be a Slytherin."
He finally drew his wand, swaying its tip as if conducting an orchestra. Theodore's voice was now the only sound in the area.
"I already knew my family had been focusing on Time-Turners since my grandfather's time. The future me, who said he traveled to the past using a prototype, brilliantly guessed little mistakes and the hiding spots of things that only I knew about. He even looked exactly like my father. After talking for an hour, all my doubts had vanished."
"And during the three hours before he had to return, my future self kept repeating it to me: You are the one who will seize the Malfoy glory. You are the one who will create the Scorpion King."
"──!!"
The Scorpion King. The title of the other Scorpius that Scorpius himself had caught a glimpse of. He shouldn't know that. There was no way Nott could know that—not if he was the Nott from the future that we had walked!
The one who contacted him wasn't Delphini. Delphini didn't exist in this world. It was the Nott from the world where Voldemort reigned supreme who had manipulated his past self.
"This happened during the summer holidays before my second year. He never appeared before me again after that, but—he left me with more than enough information."
"That Malfoy was a Seeker. That Malfoy was Harry Potter's rival. That Malfoy was the leader of Slytherin. That Malfoy built a connection with Umbridge by serving on the Inquisitorial Squad. And... that Malfoy was the hero who led the Death Eaters into Hogwarts."
"I was thrilled. I decided right then and there that I would usurp his role. And yet, look how it turned out! You—Malfoy hasn't followed history at all! I thought it was only a matter of time before I became the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and took a seat on the Hogwarts Board of Governors! But then... there was you. Maria Potter."
Theodore's wand turned toward me. His eyes were filled with a dangerous gleam, reminiscent of the savage beasts in the Forbidden Forest.
"My future self told me it was impossible for Harry Potter to have a twin. He said that during the final battle, Harry Potter was absolutely alone in the world—and that he died a pathetic death, ending his bloodline once and for all. ──Just what are you?"
Keeping my wand leveled at him, I maintained absolute silence. What exactly is Maria Potter? ──That's what I want to know more than anyone.
Suddenly, Draco lowered his voice, sounding almost as if he were talking to himself.
"...So the reason you relentlessly targeted me was because Malfoy was in your way?"
"Ah, yes. I was planning to offer up the achievement of killing you as a gift, so I could have the Dark Mark branded onto this arm."
"And... did you use Astoria?"
Draco was brimming with quiet fury. To Draco, Theodore's grand speech meant nothing. There was no need to digest a single word of his nonsense. The only thing that mattered—his only grave sin—was that this man had put the love of his life in danger.
"Ah... Astoria Greengrass, is it? I was told she becomes Malfoy's wife in the future, and—didn't I tell you? I'm going to usurp Malfoy. Thanks to everything, my father is currently in Azkaban. I needed the hands of a useful adult."
"Did you order Astoria to take the poison?"
The infuriated boy pressed on, dismissing any need for superfluous words. It was my first time seeing his eyes harbor such pure, ice-cold rage.
"Don't be absurd. I merely ordered her to deliver it to you. ────What a foolish girl."
Draco's wand was suddenly crushing Theodore's throat.
"──No, Draco, don't!"
"To a piece of scum like you──!"
"Draco! ──Draco Malfoy!!"
Hurrying after him, I grabbed Draco's hand, causing his restraint to loosen just slightly. For a brief moment, Theodore, his airway previously blocked, fell back onto the damp earth and gasped for oxygen.
"............Potter."
"You'll end up killing him like this. And that would be too heavy a burden for you to bear. At the end of the day, it's completely impossible for Death Eaters to infiltrate Hogwarts anyway. You know that too, don't you? Let's just hand him over to Dumbledore."
"But, Potter—"
"Malfoy."
I stared into his eyes, which had swallowed the darkness and turned a deep, murky blue-grey. I knew how he prayed for Astoria. I had seen him plead, seen him terrified. Once you've seen that side of him—it isn't hard to imagine just how much Draco hates Theodore. But still.
Draco Malfoy is not a killer.
—Heh, heh, heh. It was laughter. Right beneath Draco's hand, Theodore was laughing.
"What...?"
"Impossible—yes, it is impossible. Dumbledore isn't at Hogwarts right now. Didn't I tell you? —Hogwarts is finished."
Still pinned to the ground, Theodore thrust a finger toward the heavens. I looked up. The starry sky was covered in dark clouds, stretching out as though it was about to burst into tears.
"It can't be..."
High above the peak of Hogwarts Castle hung the spectral image of a massive skull.
Comments (1)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.