Harry Potter 50 Shades of Gray

Nicolas was stunned to silence at the sheer indignance in her voice. Calming himself down, he took another look at the child and saw the familiar furrow of her brows whenever he asked her an idiotic question—they weren't actually idiotic questions. They were just questions that were so easy to her that she thought he was asking them as a way to mock her intelligence. He wasn't. But he would secretly admit to asking them to rile her up and ruffle her feathers. The way her brows furrowed and the way her posture straightened as she puffed out her chest slightly was—must he admit it? Adorable.

And that was the exact posture the child took at this very moment.

Nicolas closed his eyes. "I have never trusted lightly," he said bitterly.

Cyrna flinched but met his eyes again with a hardened glint. "Don't you dare attempt to guilt me." Cold. Her heart was beating faster, but she swore that the blood did not reach her body despite that. "I never asked for your trust," she hissed quietly, "and while I may owe you many things, everyone has secrets that they want to keep—you have no right to demand or guilt me into sharing them."

"No one should've known!" Nicolas cried, pinning her down with frantic eyes, showing her his distress. "You knew and pretended that you didn't—how am I supposed to interpret that? This knowledge can shake the Wizarding World! Cyrna, this isn't the sort of information I can turn a blind eye to you knowing—I need to know how you know and what you are going to do with it!"

Cyrna glared at him, but she knew that Nicolas wasn't lying. The success of the Albus' plan hinged on its secrecy, and it was true that Nicolas had every reason to want to know how she knows. But she was selfish; she didn't want to tell and risk her security. Not yet, at least. Could she trust the Flamels not to change the future once they knew? She couldn't imagine anyone who would be willing to die for a plan that ultimately did little to prevent Voldemort from coming back.

Would the Flamels be so accommodating with Dumbledore's plan if they had known it would lead to their deaths? They had only chose to destroy the Stone after they knew Voldemort had been after it—meaning that they couldn't have been all that eager to die. One of their reasons for dying must have been for the good of the Wizarding World.

Cyrna was still debating with herself when the irritation and anger in her mentor's eyes suddenly disappeared. He folded in on himself; his back hunched even more so than usual—weary, she realized sharply in distress.

"You stupid, stupid child," he murmured as he stared at her with a sorrow and disappointment so great that it left a biting cold in her chest; she thought it was momentary, but this one was persistent, sinking only deeper into her gut. It felt horrid; she didn't like it at all.

"I'm not here for the Stone, Nicolas," Cyrna finally said—if only to relieve that feeling.

"What else would anyone be here for?" Nicolas chuckled tiredly. "Even Albus was only really here for the Stone."

"I'm not here for the Stone." Cyrna stared steadily at her mentor, trying to convey her sincerity.

Nicolas made a noise of disbelief, and Cyrna's lips twisted down with displeasure when she realized that she had lost his trust. She didn't know why she cared, why it was his trust in particular that she seemed to desire so much all of a sudden. But what she did know—quite simply—was that she hated what she was currently feeling. She wanted it to stop. Cyrna hesitated then resigned herself. She would not lie to them, but this was not a secret she had been prepared to share. "An unbreakable vow," she said. "I'll do it. Any vow that doesn't include me telling you how I know about the Stone; I will swear on my life."

The vow was only dangerous if she broke it; but she had no plans to, so that was a moot point. It was also the only way she could repair what she had with her mentor, without giving up her secret. Besides, there was more to gain in staying with the Flamels than being obliviated and left in some random village, wasn't there?

"On your life?" Her mentor echoed with disbelief.

She gave a tight nod.

The resolve was genuine, Nicolas observed as he approached the child. She held her stance, trusting him not to attack her. The fact that she was willing to offer a vow sworn on her life in exchange for keeping her secret only made him more curious about what she was hiding—the fact that she was even willing to offer a vow of that caliber…

Cyrna's eyes were cold, but when he ruffled her hair and her eyes teared up slightly—a small spark of hope peering shyly through the icy cracks—he realized that she had chosen them. Even if her entire story had been a lie and she had been working with evil to obtain the Stone, with the power she was giving him right now… it was clear that she was choosing to side with him and his wife.

Nicolas wished it didn't need to come down to a vow. But ultimately, there was more at stake than whatever he and his wife may feel for this child. He gave her another firm pat on the head, and the quiet sniffle he heard melted the bitterness that had prickled his chest. "I assume you are intelligent enough to make a vow that will satisfy me?" he asked quietly as he removed his hand to sit on a chair to watch her.

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