cause the tide is high | and it's rising still

[undoubtedly]

WHO Theo Nott and Lucius Malfoy (Closed)
WHAT Theo thinks he has a good work around to getting registered. Lucius is probably wondering when new Slytherins got so dumb.
WHEN October 10, 1980
WHERE the grounds of Nott Manor
WARNING none
STATUS complete



He's in the past.

He's in the the past and, somehow even more jarring and explainable than that, he's...in the wrong past.

It takes him a few days to really wrap his mind around it, although if he's honest with himself he knew from the moment he woke up that something was wrong. It's in the air, in the wary suspicion flickering in across the faces of strangers regarding each other in the streets, something heavy and foreboding that clings to even the faintest whispers snaking through the grapevine with the most recent edition of the Prophet he manages to get his hands on.

Time deviants, he's noticed no one wants to say too loudly despite the Riddle Administration's seemingly welcoming stance, but Theo has always been good at listening. You heard about what the papers said. All the bad magic they brought with them. Untrustworthy lot--

He's dealt in ministry politics too long not to see the sort of strings this new administration is pulling the public along with, siding them against the unknown, the other. It's not a promising start for anyone who falls outside of their narrow view of normal.

He doesn't trust the registration program, or the trace, or any of the resources available to those misplaced if they make themselves known when he is intimately, uncomfortably familiar with some of the individuals receiving high praise in the papers for their work inside the Ministry. But the ugly reality is that he's going to need allies--allies within this time-- if he wants any hope of getting back to his own. Ones, unfortunately, he isn't entirely confident he'll be able to secure while carrying around the label of time deviant.

But he's heard about the magic anomalies, of witches and wizards waking up too young or too old without explanation, and Theo is a lot of things but he has never been accused of being too stupid to seize an opportunity when one presents itself to him.

If pressed into something like honesty Theo may or may not admit that the last place in this time (or any other) he'd choose to willingly step foot into would be Nott Manor, especially if it happened to be occupied by a Nott other than himself, but his options are few and far between. Either he can take his chances with the trace, with making himself known as he is, or...or he can take his chances under an assumed identity and stolen memories long enough to dig what he needs out of this time. Neither is a safe gamble, but it seems to him that one carries quite a few more useful perks than the other.

It's dark by the time he apparates to the edges of Nott Manor, standing inside the final line of trees before the grounds open up properly to sprawling lawns and meticulously groomed gardens. The manor itself is a looming shadow ahead of him, as dark as the sky above it save for the faint yellow glow of a handful of windows lit along the ground floor, and Theo can feel the very distinct hum of magic running along the perimeter of the property without having to get too close. It's warded. Of course it's warded against anyone his father didn't trust, against anything he hadn't been expecting. His father had always been too paranoid for anything else.

But unfortunately for him Theo learned to bring that magic down years ago. By the time he realizes his spells have been dropped it will be too late to do much about them.

He grips his wand a little tighter, steeling himself, and--

--hesitates. It occurs to him then, with a painful twist inside his chest, that wrong time or not his mother may be inside that manor. That he may be in that manor, all of two months old if that and blissfully unaware in her arms. Dealing with his father is one thing, but there are some kinds of collateral damage too heavy to carry the burden of, some kinds of time meddling that can't be fixed.

In a better time, with better options, without his luck running closer to out with every second he doesn't make a decision on what to do in this new world, he knows he wouldn't be here at all. But he doesn't have the luxury of waiting any longer to make a move. Whatever is waiting for him in that manor, whatever his actions leave him with once the dust settles, he's just going to have to deal with it once it's in front of him. One way or another he'll find a solution. he always does.

He takes a long breath through his nose, jaw set in determination, and raises his wand.

Comments

[malificence]

The visions have been fast and furious this week, Lucius thinks as he apparates to the perimeter of Nott Manor and stands silently in the shadows. As usual since the time deviants have started showing up, they've not made much sense - snatches of moments, no context to be had - and it's only when he sat down to put them together that he was able to paint a picture. First Elektra Burke, the woman he knows and yet not quite the woman he knows, bringing a dark-haired boy to Malfoy Manor to play with Lucius' own son. Another vision where the boy comes with Theodore Nott, a member of their cohort as hateful and irritating in the future as he is their present. Lucius standing behind a slightly older Theo Nott (because naturally Nott would name his son after himself) and helping him with a potion. Both of them older yet, after the war that he's already seen does not entirely end well, at a house he recognizes as the one in Cornwall.

Then the last one, just today, Theo putting Senior under the Imperius and impersonating him, an idea that seems reasonable in theory and would be nothing but trouble and a one way ticket to Azkaban in practice.

"Theo," he says, and his voice is quiet and even. His wand is out and at the ready, because if one is going to startle a powerful pureblood wizard intent on a path, one better be prepared to defend. "This is not going to work out." And here's a question to ponder later, when he's not possibly going to be cursed. Why has he gotten visions of this boy who isn't even his blood? And why has he gotten enough of them that he can feel the surge of affection for this Nott when he's seen nothing of his future with Scorpius, or with Scorpius' father?