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The room in his former home vanished before his eyes, and darkness reigned in front of him. He was in the cemetery. He had arrived. He clutched his bag tightly in his left hand, while his right hand raised his wand defensively. It took him a moment to make his feet move, too dazed and unsure. He walked among the gravestones, paying attention to every corner and glint. He walked until he reached flat ground behind a small chapel. Ahead, a sloped area led to more flat terrain. He took a few steps and looked around. Ready to continue, he glanced once more, and then he saw him. At the end of the slope, behind a tree. Sebastian. Waiting for him.
His heart came alive and he ran all the way up the incline toward him. Sebastian took a tentative step out of the shadows. By the time Blaine reached flat ground, only a few meters separated them. Blaine gasped with a smile and stepped toward him.
“Well done, little Smythe.” The deep voice of a man came from the shadows.
Blaine turned to him and recognized him as one of the Dark Lord’s closest followers. A man who had escaped from Azkaban two years ago. No one had ever done it.
His heart raced, then died. He looked at Sebastian with tears in his eyes. It wasn’t happening. Sebastian hadn’t done it. He begged him with his eyes, but Sebastian lowered his gaze to the ground.
Blaine’s heart was pierced by hundreds of killing curses. His shared life flashed before his eyes in an instant. He had lost everything. Closing his eyes and gathering the little dignity that hung by a thread, he faced the man. If he was going to die, it would be confronting the most wanted Death Eater, not watching as the other half of his soul destroyed him from behind.
The blow from behind never came. But then the green light shot out of the wand in front of him and struck him square in the chest. He couldn’t react. He couldn’t make his limbs move.
He hit the ground with a scream. The dull pain of the fall spread across his back, but it didn’t stop there. His blood boiled and consumed him unbearably. He convulsed on the floor while he heard the man’s mocking laughter in the distance.
“Crucio!” the voice shouted, and the pain burned him all over again.
His teeth clenched and ground against each other as he rolled on the floor.
“The Dark Lord wants him alive,” someone else said, but Blaine didn’t hear.
The man rolled his eyes and went on. “Let me have some fun, boy.”
Sebastian watched the scene without flinching. He smiled at the man’s cruelty and circled them, walking around to get better angles of the torture.
And then a red light shot from his wand when he aimed at the Death Eater. The man’s body flew through the air and landed several feet away, lifeless.
The pain stopped for Blaine. His eyes were blurry, his ears ringing. The confusion was nearly as unbearable as the sight of Sebastian walking toward him. He wanted to move away. He wanted to stand and run, but he couldn’t. His mind and body wouldn’t cooperate. So he stayed there. Even when Sebastian gathered him into his arms. “I’m sorry. It had to be believable. God, I’m sorry.” He heard a sob. But in his haze of pain, he might have been mistaken.
“They’ll come soon,” Sebastian said once he steadied himself. “Where?” he asked. “Blaine, tell me where.”
Blaine hesitated for a second. One single second that cost them their lives. If he had waited just one more, they wouldn’t have made it back to the Burrow.
The last thing he saw before blacking out was Sebastian being surrounded by dozens of wands.
His consciousness flickered in and out for days. He had survived one of the Unforgivable Curses without lasting damage. Madam Pillsbury said he had been lucky. He’d be on his feet soon.
The first time his eyes opened, he tried to get up. Panic gripped him at the thought that Sebastian was still out there. “Where is he? Cooper, please, protect him, don’t let—” he begged, before fading again from the effort.
“He’s fine, B. Sleep. I’ll handle it.”
On the third night, he was fully conscious. His body still ached like hell, but at least he was present. Sebastian was fine. He knew from Nick and Jeff, who had stepped in when Sebastian was cornered that night. Cooper had joined them as soon as he returned from a raid.
He hadn’t been sent to Azkaban either. Sebastian said he hadn’t killed anyone. Not until that night in the graveyard. Blaine still thought about it constantly, knowing what he had witnessed, but praying Sebastian would give him his own version of the truth. He knew Sebastian didn’t remember. So why had he done it?
“Because I’ve never trusted my parents, or their obsession with blood purity that goes way beyond that,” Sebastian cut into the conversation Blaine was having with the boys, Cooper, and Headmistress Sylvester.
Everyone fell silent immediately. “I’ve seen my parents use curses on house-elves. Dispose of them like they were flies. I’m sure they’ve done it to Muggles and wizards they didn’t think were worthy.” He paused and inhaled. “I used to have this elf; Kreecher.” Yes, Blaine knew. He knew everything about him. “They killed him right in front of me because my cousin spilled her pumpkin juice and blamed him. He was my only friend.”
Blaine’s heart twisted, just as it had the first time he’d heard that story.
“I don’t know you. I know I’m supposed to, but I don’t.” Sebastian shrugged, apology written across his face. “But something tells me you’re telling the truth. And if I have to choose between you and my shitty family, I think it’s an easy choice.”
Blaine looked at him, and Sebastian met his eyes too. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I knew he’d notice if I didn’t let him do it. And he was too powerful to take on one-on-one. I know there’s no honor in it, but this is war.”
Blaine nodded, tears burning his eyes. “I know. Thank you.” He meant it. He would endure a thousand curses if it meant bringing Sebastian back.
Sebastian gave him a half smile at the foot of his bed.
The vote to decide Sebastian’s fate took place three nights later. Blaine walked into the room with Nick and Jeff’s support. His heart pounded with fear. He tried to convince himself the worst was behind them. That Sebastian was there, safe. Even if he didn’t remember him, he was safe. And that was enough.
“My vote is absolutely no,” Santana snapped, cutting off Sylvester’s question. “He’s a fucking Death Eater.”
Many murmurs of agreement followed. Blaine saw Sebastian shrink back a little.
“Not by choice,” Cooper argued from where he stood beside Sebastian.
“He looked pretty damn comfortable posing for the Prophet with that Mark,” Puckerman’s voice added from a few rows back.
“Try saying no when you’ve got fifty Death Eaters and the most powerful Dark wizard of all time staring you down,” Sebastian spat in his defense.
Blaine curled in on himself. He couldn’t imagine what Sebastian had endured, what he had been forced to accept just to survive. Maybe he was biased, but he knew him. Even if Sebastian wasn’t a part of his life now, he knew him.
“I say he belongs in Azkaban,” came Finn Hudson’s suggestion, boiling Blaine’s blood.
“He committed no crime,” Nick spoke up firmly. “He came back of his own free will, even without his memories.”
“That’s worth a hell of a lot more than running when you see a werewolf,” Jeff snapped in Noah’s direction.
Blaine saw Puckerman clench his jaw before looking away, ashamed.
“If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t be here, Hudson,” Sylvester cut in. “And I don’t mean three months ago in Hogsmeade.”
That caught everyone’s attention. They turned to Sebastian, who shrank under their stares.
“Three weeks ago in Diagon Alley. The explosion that threw you across the street when the Killing Curse was aimed at you?” Finn’s eyes widened before he dropped his gaze. “Yeah. Try thanking him by not being an idiot.”
“He has the Mark,” Santana pressed.
“If he goes to Azkaban, I go too. And if you exile him, you exile me.” Blaine’s words rang out through the chaos.
Sebastian turned toward him. They shared a look neither of them could put into words. Not now.
The meeting ended without a clear verdict. Weeks passed, and things grew a little better. The losses were minimal with each passing battle. Cooper, Jeff, and Nick came back from every mission unharmed, with barely a scratch.