'...and I know you can afford it, you've just been lazy, swanning around tea shops with Albus all day.'

Scorpius' eyes narrowed. 'We also go to Quidditch shops and drink pints in the Leaky Cauldron, but I want to thank you for picking the visits to the tea shops as the part to mention.'

'I'm just saying,' said Scorpius, and this time feinted high before he flung his Stun at Albus' ankles, making his friend dart to one side to avoid it. 'They think we'd hunt Thane?'

'Obviously they think we're as damaged as they are,' muttered Rose, sticking a pencil behind her ear as she rummaged through papers, brow furrowed.

'Because I thought I could convince Selena. I thought she'd come with us so I figured, hey, why start a fight about not wanting to be trapped in a tent for a month with your ex?'

'You're right. So much better for us to have a fight when it's too late to do something about it. You agreed to this, Scorpius, and so I'm not going to apologise for daring to be friendly with someone we're going to be spending this much time with!'

'This isn't what our parents did. Evil knocked on their door, and they answered. We're looking at danger in the distance and we're riding out to meet it. Last time I did that, you nearly died. And yet, I'm still saddling up.'

Rose, next to him, rolled her eyes. 'New rule: If we want to be discreet, we don't let Albus go anywhere in a t-shirt. I think his biceps are about to make girls pass out.'

'So it'd be wiser to let me go somewhere shirtless?' Albus smirked. 'I prefer them smiling at me for my biceps than my name.'

'If he doesn't wine and dine her somewhere fancy I will be astonished, and if it doesn't make her positively swoon into his arms I'll eat my hat.’

Matt flinched. 'You're a very honest person. Please stop.'

'What, so you can bottle this up and let it gnaw at you? Why the hell shouldn't we talk about it?'

'Because it's not fair to you! Because we're not just friends! Because I saw how you looked at me last night!' The words tumbled past her lips unbidden, because for all she valued Matt's company, his wellbeing was not first, or even second place on her priority list right then.

It was a bare, grey landscape, grey skies, the ground underneath rocky and flat, no sound on the air but the echo of their own breathing. It was barren and desolate and an absolutely perfect blank canvas for what was to come ahead. And she and Paquet were sat at a chessboard in the middle of the wasteland.

Paquet arched a superior eyebrow at the pieces on the board. ‘Why are we here?’

‘Because this is what I choose,’ said Rose.

She had her hand slipped into his arm, but as he spoke, her mask of tight control flickered. ‘Don’t talk like there’s more than one of us, Doyle,’ she muttered out of the corner of her mouth as they swept inside. ‘They’ll think you’re crazy.’

‘I am a little crazy,’ he sighed, gaze sweeping the tables. ‘I hate not having my wand.’

‘I don’t want to panic you,’ shouted Scorpius as a Stun flew inches past his nose, ‘but I think they’ve spotted us!’

‘Yes! Thank you, Malfoy, for that scintillating tactical analysis!’

‘The multi-pronged assault from different entrances, manipulation of the wards, diversions, and extractions, were your brain-children, though, mate. You’re getting scary.’

‘What’s scary,’ said Selena, ‘is the term “brain-children.”’

‘By any means possible? What is this, Inter arma enim silent leges?’ She looked blank. ‘Cicero. “In times of war, the law falls silent.”’

‘No.’ Her voice was flat. ‘Because I’m the law, and I am not silent.

She looked at him, not breaking step down the narrow road they’d come from. ‘I am not supposed to be seen,’ she said. ‘That is the point.’

‘Are you supposed to give heart attacks?’

Then the breeze came again, and this time it was a chill which raised not just the hairs on his arms, but the hairs on the back of his neck, and he heard Rose’s breath catch the moment realisation came thudding into his chest.

‘This isn’t normal shadow,’ he gasped - and then they were engulfed.

One of the foremost figures, whose brown clothes hung off it in rags, stumbled to a halt. When it drew breath, it was like it sucked both air and sound from the street, and when it spoke its voice was like burning parchment. ‘You ssstand for thisss one?’

Lisa’s hand finally fumbled up at his, grasping his fingers in an iron hold. ‘Don’t,’ she whispered.

Albus’ chin tilted half an inch up. ‘I do.’

‘Ah,’ said Lisa in a low, flat voice, her chest heaving. ‘That was only a matter of time.’

Rose didn’t struggle, remained pinned against the wall. ‘I’m -’ She stopped herself. Apologising would be churlish. ‘Yeah. It was.’

Then there was a soft thump on the cabin floor, and Selena was on her feet, wand levelled at the back of Lisa’s head. ‘Okay. What’re we doing?’

The wizard coughed, dust lodged in his throat, before beady eyes locked on Lisa. ‘You. You’re supposed to be -’

Then her boot moved to his throat. ‘Dead, yes, I know,’ said Lisa. ‘Tell me something I don’t know.’

Selena cocked her head. ‘You know, they talk better when you don’t stomp on their necks.’

‘Now that’s unsettling.’

‘What? I can say nice things.’

‘You just usually say them under layers of sarcasm, or pointing out how incredibly foolish someone was at the same time.’ Matt hesitated. ‘Don’t get me wrong. People need to be called on how ridiculous they’re being. But that’s, like, your job.’

‘Pfft. I was going to tell the Prophet. Sell my story, make some money on the side. Do you think maybe they’d let me be the Potter in the headlines if I did that?’

His fiddled with the bag strap to avoid meeting her gaze. ‘Yeah.’

‘Hey.’ She bounced over and swatted his hands away. ‘That was a joke. You can tell, because I was wearing my joking face.’

‘Oh! Sorry!’ Astoria gave another sunny smile so like her son’s. ‘I’ve been making up six rooms, though you can use as many as you like.’

Had Rose’s intentions been less serious, she would have happily curled up and died at such a comment from her boyfriend’s mother.

‘There should be bodies,’ said Rose as they walked down the main street. Albus led the way, she and Selena had taken the flanks, and Scorpius watched their backs as much as he could. They’d never trained in formations or anything like this. It was just sense and instinct as their footsteps provided the only hint of life.

‘Don’t say that,’ Selena muttered. ‘You know why there aren’t.’

‘Compromise,’ Scorpius said, lifting his wand alongside Albus'. ‘We run away together.’

‘It’s the Slytherin way.’

‘Can you stop your male bonding so we can flee for our lives!’ Selena yelled from the back window.

‘War.’ Scorpius rested his hands on the railing and frowned up the cliffs to where his mother’s house sat. ‘I didn’t think of it as a war.’

‘Wizarding wars aren’t armies lining up. They’re daggers in the dark, scraps down Diagon Alley. Infiltrations and ideologies. That sort.’ Harley sipped his coffee. ‘Saw it all over the world with the task force. Council’s been finding isolated pockets of wizards and trying to kill them. Just to show they can.’

The voice - voices - rumbled and rolled, and the coloured light coalesced before them to take the shape, once more, of the Guardian. It seemed more real now, no less anonymous, but the colour gave it life, form, emotion. ‘Do not presume to claim it if you are unworthy.’

Selena’s lip curled. ‘I’m not sure I’m up to being judged by the ghost of crazy murderers dead for centuries.’

‘Oh, Kirke.’ She shook her head. ‘The woman who makes Rose Weasley at her most uptight look laid-back and open-minded. Can you imagine how this holiday would have gone if they’d brought her instead of you and me?’

‘It would have probably contained one hundred percent less death, dark wizards, and international hunts for ancient artifacts.’

‘What’re you doing here?’ was all he asked in the end, his voice filled with ashes.

Raskoph gave a flourish of the wrist towards the scaffolding which could only be mocking. ‘Welcome, Malfoy, to Project Starfall. Because the rising star that was Eridanos is falling, and something new shall come from its remains.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Tears were how Rose coped. Selena could understand that. Tears and anger and hiding from everything and eventually an international rampage of vengeance were how she had coped. But being sardonic was how Selena now coped with Rose coping, and she had to remember it wasn’t helpful.