Title: Thirteen Gifts
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Harry Potter/Theodore Nott
Content Notes: Getting together, Hogwarts "eighth year," angst, present tense
Rating: R
Wordcount: 3300
Summary: Not expecting that he would get a response, Theo sent Harry a gift to tell him how much he admired him for his defeat of Voldemort. And then, wonder of wonders, Harry replied. The tale of two people learning to see each other.
Author's Notes: This is another of my "From Samhain to the Solstice" fics, for a request by Lullyanne for another Harry/Theodore fic. This will be the first part of three.

Thirteen Gifts

Carved Raven

Theodore halts in front of the small shop in Diagon Alley, staring. The window of the shop is filled with a lot of junk, honestly; there's what looks like a miniature wand, too small to be of any use, and a piece of "unicorn's horn" that undoubtedly isn't, and a cracked bowl that might be made of mahogany. But the raven stands out.

The raven is carved from a dark wood that shimmers in the soft light pouring down from the shop's enchantment, impressive in the way that almost none of the objects are. The wood has a slight red sheen. Cherry? Theo wonders, stepping back. He shakes his head a second later. If it is, it's richer and closer to black than any he's ever seen.

The raven is crouched forwards, wings hunched and raised as if for flight. It has its beak slightly open, and its head tilted to the side. The one eye visible from this part of the window gleams with what Theo can imagine is a roguish intelligence. He doesn't even have to imagine it that hard.

Theo smiles a little. This is—he's been looking, idly, for a gift that would express his appreciation for Harry Potter's saving of the world. And nothing he's seen so far has seemed appropriate. They were too small or too large or too Slytherin. Getting Harry Potter a carved serpent would probably not be appreciated.

The shade of the wood now reminds him of Potter's hair, but honestly, it's not the color that he resembles the most in Theo's mind. It's the attitude of the raven, the way that it looks as if it's about to fling itself at life. Theo thinks Potter is like that, even though he's only seen him in newspaper photographs since the end of the war.

Theo steps into the shop. He knows he's going to buy the raven and send it to Potter. His birthday is next week. Probably he'll be flooded with gifts, and not know or care about an obscure Slytherin's.

But Theo wants to do it anyway. The raven is too perfect to let pass by.

And if this leads to something more than that, an acknowledgement of some kind—Theo would be a fool to let that pass by, too.

Formal Note

Harry leans back and smiles a little as he watches Helios wing his way into the Great Hall. He didn't intend to get another owl so soon, not when he was still reeling from Hedwig's loss, but someone sent him Helios, and Harry's attempts to set him free or pawn him off on Hermione didn't work. Every morning when he woke up, Helios was sitting on his perch again, staring at Harry accusingly.

He's a handsome bastard, a black eagle-owl with a spray of grey feathers on his head and the golden eyes that resemble the sun and got him his name. And he's big enough to carry packages when Harry wants to send them.

Right now, he's carrying a light scroll tied with a golden and red ribbon, but he bears it as proudly as if it were a package that weighed ten pounds.

Harry lets his smile widen as Helios lands on the Slytherin table in front of Theo Nott. Theo blinks at the scroll and at Harry. Either he's seen Helios flying around and knows he's Harry's—he would be hard to miss—or he's just making the logical connection when it comes to a scroll with Gryffindor colors and the Gryffindor he sent a gift to recently.

Nott opens the scroll as carefully as if it's from George's shop and will blow up in his face. Then his eyebrows fly up as he reads it. Harry inclines his head a little and goes back to his breakfast, while Helios waits imperiously for Nott to feed him with a piece of sausage or bacon. Unlike Hedwig, he won't get fobbed off with something that isn't meat.

Harry's heart aches a little at the thought of Hedwig, and at the thought of George running his shop alone. But he's healing. He's coming back to life.

And the carved raven that he keeps on the table beside his bed is one symbol of that.

"Potter? Can I talk to you privately?"

Potter turns around with an easy smile, as if he anticipated Theo's request. His friends don't seem to have. They bristle and growl, and Theo rolls his eyes. "I'm not going to do anything to him, Weasley, Weasley, Granger, Longbottom."

"You'd better not," Longbottom says softly. He's been hovering behind Potter like a bodyguard for days now. Potter honestly doesn't seem to notice. He just nods at Longbottom with a slightly confused smile before he follows Theo into a classroom that no one wants to use now. Too many memories of the Carrows torturing people here for the unlucky ones who remained at Hogwarts last year.

Theo himself could have taken his NEWTS over the summer and probably passed, but he didn't want to. He wanted to return and walk the corridors of Hogwarts with the innocents and the ones who didn't get to come here last year.

He is not his father.

"What is it, Nott?"

"The scroll you sent me. A thanks for the gift and—a promise for a favor. Any favor I want. Don't you know the danger of that, Potter?"

Potter blinks and shakes his head. For a second, Theo thinks he looks simple, but then he looks deeper into Potter's eyes and catches his breath. Here is a man who understands some of the power that he has in their world, after all.

"Some people might take advantage of it. But I know you won't, Nott."

"How do you know? We've never so much as spoken before. I was one of the ones who stayed behind last year."

"Because you're a pure-blood and your father was a Death Eater, I know. But no one who sent me that raven could want to use that favor to entrap me and take revenge on me for winning the war."

And there it is, the source of that power shining out of those brilliant green eyes. Potter makes people around him better by believing they're better. Theo finds he has no notion of disappointing Potter, naïveté or not.

In fact, he finds something almost Gryffindor waiting at the bottom of his soul. He takes a deep breath. "Then I'm going to use that favor right now."

Potter's eyes widen a little. "If you want me to free your father, then I'm going to need more time with the Ministry. It won't be instant."

"No," Theo says harshly. Potter tilts his head like the raven carving, and Theo says, a little startled that he's explaining, "He would try to force me back onto the path into the Dark Arts. Maybe I would have wanted to explore them at one point, but I'm never going to do something I'm forced into."

"Yeah?" Potter smiles. "I'll keep that in mind."

Theo licks his lips. Maybe this favor he's going to ask for isn't completely insane after all. "Will you come to Hogsmeade with me on Saturday?"

Potter lifts his head and looks Theo up and down, as if he's looking at some extension of his body that Theo didn't even know existed. And then he smiles and nods, and it's as if Theo is walking in soft sunlight.

"Yes. I'd be delighted."

Crystalline Pendant

"It's beautiful. But I don't understand what it is."

Harry turns the chain back and forth in front of him. It's slender and seems to be made of small gold links, although for all Harry knows they aren't pure gold. No—Theo is always telling him that he needs to learn not to be fooled by shoddy imitations.

On the end of the chain is a faceted, raised piece of crystal with a boss in the middle. The facets make red and green sparks leap and dance as Harry turns the pendant. If he put the chain over his head, he knows the pendant would hang down extremely far on his chest.

And the chain also looks lopsided, as if the pendant is meant to hang to one side, too.

"Let me show you."

Theo steps up to Harry, his eyes brilliant and his cheeks glowing as though the cold winds of October have stirred them to a blaze. Harry averts his eyes a little as he turns his back so Theo can drape the pendant around his neck. Sometimes it still surprises him that anyone can look at him that way.

Theo adjusts the chain carefully, his fingers lingering and brushing against Harry's neck. Harry closes his eyes and tries to adjust his breathing the same way. He has to think before he goes charging into anything with Theo. Dating him is nice and fun, and snogging him is even more fun, but—

More than that is going to take some thinking.

"Like this," Theo breathes into his ear.

Harry snaps his eyes open, and Theo turns Harry around and kisses him.

Harry falls easily into the familiar rhythm of sweeping tongues, his hands rising to grip Theo's shoulders. Theo laughs and breaks away from him, shaking his head. They're on the path leading from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts, and any second someone is going to come along, Harry reminds himself. He coughs a little and tries to adjust his stance so that he's not so obviously hard.

"Look at where the pendant hangs," Theo says, licking his lips with a motion that Harry traces with his eyes.

When Harry actually listens to those words, he blinks and looks down. The pendant is hanging off to the side of his chest, not in the middle. In fact, that raised boss, which is shining now with a color deeper than steel usually has, is hanging right over his heart.

"So you mean—"

"Yes. It'll deflect curses aimed at your heart. It'll defend you from spells aimed at your chest in general, but not as well. They'll probably only break apart if they hit the crystal's facets. Anything that hits the boss is just going to be dispelled."

"It's like you."

"What do you mean?"

Harry can feel his face changing colors. Fuck, he should not have said that. But Theo is looking at him intently, and his cheeks are still bright, and Harry reaches out and winds his fingers through a curl of Theo's crisp hair.

"I mean that it's beautiful and—a lot stronger than it looks under the surface."

"Beautiful, am I?"

"At least I didn't say pretty," Harry retorts, because Theo's voice is full of gentle laughter and Harry is no longer worried that he's deeply offended.

Theo lifts his fingers and nips at Harry's thumb with sharp teeth. "I'm too sharp to be pretty."

And that's true at least, Harry has to admit. Theo's face has the sort of pointy look that used to belong to Malfoy, but it's more the keenness of his intelligence that sets his eyes alight and makes him look so sharp.

"Come here, so that I can snog you more deeply for giving me such a nice gift."

Theo does that with a will.

Mirror

"How did you even find out that it was my birthday?"

Harry only grins at him, the kind of grin that Theo knows by now means that he won't say, and continues to shove the box at him. It's wrapped in deep blue paper, and even though Theo is learning to attach less importance to House colors now, he's still grateful for the lack of red and gold. "I have my sources. Some of whom are easily bribed and talk a lot when they're on Firewhisky."

"Draco. I'll—"

Theo says that and then ends up catching his breath and staring stupidly because he lifted the lid off the box. It wasn't wrapped at all, only covered in a dark blue velvet like a jewelry box. Staring up at him from the bottom of the box is a shimmering mirror that has communication runes carved around the sides of it.

"Harry. Do you even know what this is?"

Harry smiles sadly. "Yes, I do know. It's one of a pair of mirrors that my godfather gave me during—during fifth year." He sets his shoulders and leans against the wall beside the door of the Slytherin common room. "He said we could use them to communicate, and like an idiot, I forgot about them. It was partially the cause of his death."

Theo touches the mirror gently. He has no idea what to say.

"I got so angry that I broke mine," Harry continues softly. "I've repaired it now, but it still shows this skewed image when someone else tries to talk with me. I thought I'd give you the better one."

Theo swallows. The expense of the gift is one thing; he doesn't know anyone who has a functioning pair of these mirrors. Black must have dug them out of some family treasury somewhere. The meaning of it is something else entirely.

"You don't have to."

"Oh, yes, I do, birthday boy. How else am I going to talk to you over the Christmas holidays when you go off to your gloomy manor house somewhere and I'm at the Burrow with the Weasleys? Helios will be happy to deliver messages, but I want to talk to you more often than that. And see you."

Theo hesitates, his fingers playing with the velvet pile in the box that the mirror lies on. He hadn't got to the point of asking for what he wanted yet, but knows the moment's come. "I sort of hoped that—you'd spend a few days at that gloomy manor house with me."

Harry straightens up and looks at him, eyes ablaze. It's an odd reaction, but Theo knows by now that odd reactions are par for the course with Harry Potter. His—boyfriend. That's odder than anything.

"I'd love to," Harry says softly. "I do need to go to the Burrow, but a few days—maybe New Year's?"

"Yes," Theo says, and smiles. He can stand being alone on Christmas Day for the promise of having Harry to see in the new year with him.

"Good. Now, come here for your birthday snog."

Theo does make sure to put the mirror carefully out of the way before he leans in for his other gift.

Offered Bracelet

"Harry, what is that?"

Ginny's voice is so sharp that Harry glances at her in concern as he unwraps Theo's gift. He actually would have preferred to do it in private, but Helios arrived with the package yesterday, and Molly insisted on it being put under the tree with everything else.

"It's a bracelet," Harry says, turning back to the box and blinking a little. Theo got him the pendant, and Harry thought that would be enough jewelry considering they're both boys. Then again, the pendant has defensive magic, so maybe Theo is mentally putting it in a different category. He holds the bracelet up. It has red gems, he thinks maybe rubies, interspersed on shining silver and copper wire with bright clear stones.

Hermione gasps and surges to her feet in one motion. Harry tucks the bracelet down near his side. His first thought, absurd as it is, is that she's going to try to take the bracelet away and have it tested for charms the way she did with the Firebolt in their third year.

"Do you know what that is?" Hermione demands, stepping up to him and making a snatching motion at the bracelet. Harry holds it closer to him.

"No. I was just explaining to Ginny that—"

"It's set with rubies and moonstones."

"What does that have to do—"

"Rubies are symbolic of kings, and the wealth and power of kings." Hermione is speaking in a low tone, her eyes wide, locked on the bracelet as if she expects the rubies to get off the wire and dance. "Whoever sent you this is saying that she values you more than all the wealth she possesses, and offering to share it with you. And the moonstones…they have a lot of associations, but on a lover's bracelet on this one, they're a symbol of true love."

"Lover's bracelet?" Harry is just glad that he managed to get a complete sentence out when Hermione turns to him with a sharp exhale, shaking her head.

"Do you even understand what it is?"

"No!" That finally makes Hermione take a step back. Harry takes a sharp breath and continues, "That's what I've been trying to tell people. No, I don't understand what this is. I don't know what the stones symbolize. And now you tell me that it's a lover's bracelet? Come on, Hermione, do I look as though I was doing research on things like that?"

Hermione's face softens. "No. It means—it's the same function as an engagement ring in the wizarding world. For pure-blood wizards and witches, anyway. Most of them don't use engagement rings. They use rings only for the marriage itself. Harry, this is a serious declaration."

Harry stares at the bracelet. Theo was talking about courtship in the days before they left Hogwarts for the Christmas holiday, but it all seemed to be about how his father courted his mother. Harry listened and liked the stories the same way he liked the Tales of Beedle the Bard, but he didn't make the connection. "So someone wants to court me?"

"Yes, that's the way I would put it."

Harry looks around the bright, lighted Weasley drawing room, and blushes when he sees how many eyes are intently focused on him. Then he swallows and locks the bracelet around his right wrist. It shimmers and then settles into his skin, the silver and copper actually blending with the skin itself. Now it looks like he has a sort of complicated tattoo on his arm with real jewels attached to it.

"Harry! Why did you decide to do that? You can't take this off unless you both agree that the courtship is ended and you return all the gifts she's given you…"

"I know who it's from. I know he's serious."

That makes Ginny gasp and Molly stare at him and George lift his head as though he's heard a whistle down the wind. Hermione clamps her mouth shut.

Harry knows they would call him reckless if he told them, but there's a longing so old and deep in him that he doesn't know if he has the words for it. He wants to be loved. He's felt that way since he lay under the stairs in his cupboard at the Dursleys' and heard Petunia and Vernon cooing about how much they loved Dudley.

Theo is never someone he would have thought before this year would want to court him, but he's serious. Harry wants that seriousness. Maybe it'll all end up crumbling to pieces anyway—with his luck, Harry wouldn't be surprised—but he wants to take the risk. If Theo can love him, and this bracelet says he might, then Harry can't bring himself to reject him.

Harry looks down at the bracelet, and smiles.