"This has been the worst summer."

Vega Potter glared out his window as rain continued to beat against it. Ever since he had gotten home from his first year at Hogwarts, it had been raining almost nonstop. He hadn't been able to get out at all, and being confined to his house was no way to spend the summer holiday. Trudging back to his bed, he keeled over onto it and muttered darkly under his breath. He couldn't even write to anyone, as he didn't want to send either of the owls out into the storm. And while Viola and Hydrus had come over a few times, it didn't change the fact that they'd had to stay indoors.

Making matters worse, he'd barely had any time to speak with his father. Harry had been out in the bad weather as he continued to help the Aurors search for the cult that was apparently still out causing a lot of trouble. When Harry got in, it was always late, and he always looked completely exhausted. For every step they took towards the cultists, the cultists would take two steps away, it seemed. They were no closer to figuring out who was running the show than they had been the previous year.

With a sigh, Vega rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. He really wanted to talk to Harry, alone, about how he'd handled his split personality problem. It didn't seem like his father's was quite as helpful as Vega's had been thus far, but it was still an issue he wanted to deal with. And while he was sure his mother would be able to talk to him about the matter, it didn't feel right talking to her about it. Something had kept him from saying anything when it was just the two of them, and he wasn't entirely sure why.

'This sucks.' Vega thought, letting his eyes slip shut.

'What does?' Replied Cygnus.

'All of this! Trying to figure out how to deal with you, being unable to write to anyone, being unable to go outside and have some fun, dad being out with Wolf all the time...'

'Not much to do for that, though. The longer dad and Wolf are out there, the closer they're likely to get to figuring out who's pulling the strings. Faster that happens, the faster we don't have to worry about things coming to attack us.'

'Yeah, but it still sucks.' Vega thought. 'Wanted to write Eskander to see how he's holdin' up. And, y'know, to taunt him about how we're totally gonna beat Ravenclaw this year.'

Cygnus snorted at this. 'I wonder if the girls are treating him a bit better. They were still bickering when we saw them last.'

'Did we ever figure out why they were fighting?'

'Don't think so.'

Vega smirked slightly. 'Maybe I'll ask. Providing the storm ever lets up. Berith and Eligor would get blown away by those winds. And Hyde said their hawk isn't making any deliveries, either. Can't say as I blame 'em. Nothing should have to get out in this storm.'

"Vega?"

Blinking, Vega snapped out of his daze and turned to look across the room, where Tonks was poking her head in. "What's up?" He asked, pushing himself up.

"Harry's on his way home. Lock's coming over for dinner, so wash up, alright?" Tonks said, smiling at him.

"He's bringing Wolf by? Wonder why..." Vega said, getting up out of bed and heading for the doorway.

"Who knows. Probably want to keep 'talking shop,' as it were. We're probably gonna be bored to tears by it." Tonks said, rolling her eyes. "He needs to stop bringing his work home with him. It's not good for his nerves."

"I'm surprised they haven't caught anyone yet." Vega said. "For as long as they've been out searching for those guys and all."

"They're doing a good job covering their tracks." Tonks said, shaking her head slowly. "But Harry's nothing if not stubborn. They can't run forever."

"Yeah, they're just gonna drag dad and the Aurors on a giant chase all over the country first." Vega said, sitting on the couch in the living room. His mother sat next to him, ruffling his hair and making him scowl. "Stoppit!"

Grinning, Tonks moved her hand away. "Just like Harry."

"Yeah... unfortunately." Mumbled Vega, trying to fix his hair.

"Things'll get easier." Tonks said, putting her arm around Vega and pulling him into a hug.

"They didn't for you guys. From everything you guys've told me, and from all I've read on it, things got worse for you as you went. It didn't get easier until after dad got rid of Voldemort. And even then, he's got that memory problem still..." Vega said, leaning against Tonks and closing his eyes. "I just want to have a nice, boring time at school. Except for Quidditch. Gonna win this year..."

"Well, whatever happens, you know you can talk to us." Tonks said. "And for heaven's sakes, Vega, try not to get yourself nearly killed this year. You had me up worried sick so often this year that I was this close to sending you a howler."

"A howler about how I should stop getting hurt?" Asked Vega.

"Yes!"

"I don't know what you're even worried about, mum. Who's gonna know if you have grey hair? You can change it whenever you want." Vega said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, except for when I'm sleeping or not feeling good." Tonks stated. "It's not as fun a gimmick as it was when I was younger. Still nice for variation, though. Wondering if it skipped a generation, though, our Metamorphmagus powers..."

"Kinda looks that way." Vega said. "But who knows. Might pop up at some point. How long'd it take dad to get his under control?"

"Mm, can't remember exactly." Said Tonks, tilting her head in thought. "Second or third year at Hogwarts, I'm wanting to say. Somewhere around then, anyway. Plus he had me helpin' him."

"Yeah, if I suddenly wake up with blue hair, I'll kinda be stuck with it 'til I can write you or come home or somethin'." Vega said. "...Ugh, rather not think about that. I get enough unwanted attention."

"Comes with the name, I'm afraid." Tonks said, smiling. "Now go on and get washed up, alright? They should be here anytime now."

Vega nodded and hopped up, heading back upstairs and into the bathroom. Turning on the faucet, he let out a yawn and asked, "Cygnus?"

'Yes?'

"Let's try and change our hair color."

'Why? You just said-'

"I know, but I wanna be able to control it if it pops up. Let's try red. Red's different." Vega said.

Staring at himself in the mirror, Vega focused on his messy, blond hair and squinted like he'd seen his mother do. But after a minute of doing this, he let out a scowl and his focus returned to washing his hands. "Nevermind."

Cygnus snorted. 'Wow, that was quick.'

"We'll work on it some more later." Vega murmured.

'Whatever you say.'

From downstairs, Vega could hear some noise starting up. Apparently his father and Wolf had finally arrived. Turning off the water, Vega reached for a nearby towel to dry his hands off with. As he headed out, he looked downstairs. In the doorway, Tonks was standing next to Harry, who looked bothered by something. Next to him was a slim, tall man who looked about his father's age. Despite this, his face had many more lines than Harry's, and when he spoke, it was in a rather deep voice that belied his appearance.

"Yeah, we're not sure how long they'd been there. Couldn't have been too long or we would've received more reports on it, though." Said Wolf.

"How many were there?" Asked Tonks, her voice quiet.

"Four bodies, only two of which were immediately identifiable. I'd worked with the Eskanders before on a few cases, and they'd always seemed like good people, so I'm not sure what the devil's going on here, to be honest. It's rattled a few cages back at the office, though."

"Eskanders?" Vega said, making his presence known as he started down the stairs. "I know an Eskander at school..."

Wolf glanced aside to Harry, who paused for a moment before nodding at him. Looking back to Vega, Wolf explained, "A large crate and a handful of dead bodies were found near Hogsmeade. Two are still being identified, but I knew the other two on sight. It wasn't pretty."

"It can't be Lapis' parents, can it? They were missing for a long time last year..." Vega said, feeling something turn over in his stomach.

"It was." Harry said, letting out a sigh. "The boys at the Ministry think that they went 'missing' while trying to get ahold of whatever was in that crate. Because it had broken out and from the way the bodies were laid out, I'll give you one guess as to where the blasted thing headed..."

"Do you know what was in it?" Asked Vega, swallowing hard.

"No..." Wolf said. "But it's dangerous. The mother, Sogand, looked like she'd been poisoned. Our healer had no idea what could've done it, though. He'd never seen a poison like the one she had in her blood. It looked like something sharp had bitten her leg, and the skin around that bite mark was rotten. Now, there's no way the bodies were out there long enough for that to start occurring naturally, so it must have been a side effect of whatever got her. There wasn't anything we could've done for her, I'm afraid. The father, Rostam, had been gutted."

Now Vega really felt sick. "Does Lapis know? I haven't had a chance to write him in this rain, and... even if I could, I dunno what I'd say now..."

Wolf gave Vega a strange look for a moment. Then, slowly, he nodded. "I sent a few men to the Eskanders' house to search for any clues as to what they were transporting, and unfortunately they had seen fit to leave their kid there, unattended. Had no idea what had happened. As I'm to understand it, Rostam's brother is coming in from Iran later in the week. But until then..."

"Until then... what? Lapis is gonna be stuck in his house all by himself?" Vega asked, looking pale.

"No, a friend was contacted and came to get Lapis. We have a few people watching the house until Rostam's brother arrives." Wolf said. "We questioned the kid, but..."

"Wait, what? You couldn't think he knew about it, could you?" Vega asked, looking from Wolf to his father.

"We're not sure, Vega." Harry said, sounding about as tired as he looked. "From what we were told, Lapis took the news as poorly as you could imagine. For the time being, Lapis will be allowed to go back to school this year. Their house is going to be searched from top to bottom, though. Anything we can find to help us determine what they transported. Whatever it was could cut down a four man team of adult wizards. The fact that ti's also poisonous doesn't help. Adel Eskander apparently has a cabin up north somewhere that he stays in during the winter, so I can only assume that's where Lapis will stay until things calm down once he gets here."

"You don't have any leads at all, Lock?" Asked Tonks, walking over and putting her hands on Vega's shoulders.

"We don't. Of course, we went up and searched Hogwarts, but you know how that goes, Tonks. We didn't find a damn thing up there. Harry checked the Chamber, my men checked around the Forest, we scanned the outside of the castle, and we didn't find anything. This thing wasn't small, either. It wouldn't be able to squeeze through a small passage like those boggarts did last year. That's really all we have to go on - it's big, it can poison, and it can gut a grown man. The slice was as clean as it could be, so whatever did the cutting was incredibly sharp." Wolf explained, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "I've got people scouring compendiums, trying to figure out what we're dealing with. If it's in Hogwarts, we should've been able to find an entry point..."

"Give it awhile," Vega said, staring down at the ground. "I'm sure it'll come after me..."

Tonks squeezed her son's shoulders. "It might not even be at Hogwarts, sweetheart."

"I'd really love to believe that." Vega said, leaning back against Tonks. "I really, really would love to believe that..."

"It's been a long day. We found them this morning after someone in the village reported seeing a body. That was Sogand. She was closest to the town. Rostam was furthest along. It almost looked like he had tried to run. And yes, for all we know, it isn't in the school. But that is the direction the bodies were stretched out in."

"How... how did the other two guys...?" Vega began, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"Similarly to Rostam." Wolf said. "One got his face messed up pretty badly, but neither were very presentable."

"I'll be going back to Hogwarts tomorrow." Harry said. "I told Minerva I'd help the staff search the school. I'll be getting in touch with Dobby and hopefully one of us will find something of note."

"We've posted a number of Aurors throughout Hogsmeade, as well." Wolf said, looking from Harry to Tonks. "Just in case it turned around at some point and decided to try hunting there. With the Forest still regrowing, there's not a whole lot living in it yet. That puts the main source of prey for this thing at the school and in town."

"Was Draco out with you?" Asked Tonks.

"No, he and Pansy were home with the twins today. Draco's apparently caught a cold, and Pansy's forcing him to keep out of the rain." Harry said, smiling faintly. "I'll be fire-calling him later, though. I need to bounce some ideas off him, see what he thinks."

"So... now what?" Vega asked, looking at the Auror.

"Now, we wait and keep scouring the grounds, the village, and all the areas surrounding them both. We haven't ruled out something being in the lake, either." Wolf said. "We've got a few weeks until school starts for the year, so hopefully by then we'll be able to either find and kill this thing or give it an all-clear. Try not to worry too much about it, alright?"

"Hard to do when one of my friends just had his parents killed..." Vega said. "Just when he finally got them back, too. He was a mess when they went missing. I... dunno how well he's going to deal with this..."

"Keep an eye on him." Harry said. "Lapis will probably be an emotional wreck for awhile."

"We were going to fly together again this year." Vega said. "He stepped down as Ravenclaw's Seeker when his parents vanished, and I kept getting hurt so I was out for the rest of the year, but we promised to get back in the air this year..."

"Then do just that." Harry said, walking over and kneeling to look Vega in the eyes. "Lapis is going to need his friends to be there for him this year. Try and convince him to fly - to focus on that instead of what happened. He might not be able to, and if he isn't, don't push the matter. Just tell him the offer stands, and that you'll be waiting for him to be ready."

Vega nodded a little, and Harry offered him a weary smile, ruffling his hair as he stood. "Well, I know we didn't bring home good news, but we all still need to try and eat. I'll go start that. What do you think, Lock? Hang around the kitchen and talk, or try to unwind in the living room?"

"I'd like to unwind. So I'll be in the kitchen with you." Wolf said, giving Harry a wry smirk. "Can't slow down this early into the evening. Might make a normal bedtime. Haven't done that in years. No sense in starting now, right?"

As Wolf and Harry made their way into the kitchen, Tonks looked down at Vega, who had gone very still. Giving his shoulders another squeeze, she asked, "You okay?"

"Just trying to imagine what Lapis is going through... like I said, I dunno what I'd say even if the weather was good enough to send a letter. Been meaning to write to him, but what do you say to a person whose parents were just killed by a monster?" Vega asked. "...Mum?"

"Yes?"

"Can I go back upstairs until dinner's ready? I'll come down when it's time, but I'm not very hungry."

Tonks nodded. "Alright. I'll come get you when it's done, okay?"

"'Kay..."

Tonks let go of her son, and Vega turned and slowly climbed back up the stairs, heading for his room. His brain didn't seem to want to work correctly, as he was trying to process everything at once and wasn't getting the results he wanted. As he entered his room, he looked over to his desk for a moment, shook his head, and went to sit on the edge of his bed. He was still feeling sick, and he was trying not to close his eyes, as every time he blinked, he saw a flash of the mental image he had pieced together of the scene his father and Wolf had described.

"Lapis didn't know until the Aurors came." Vega said.

'He must be staying with Valerie or Samantha. Whatever fight they were having would be put aside for something like this.' Cygnus replied.

"What do we do?" Asked Vega. "Do we write? What do we say?"

'I think... it would be best to simply wait. We need to see how he looks. Then we'll make a judgment call based on that. Lapis is strong... but they were right. He's going to need his friends to be there for him this year.'

"...I'll tell him about the Pit." Vega murmured, staring down at the floor. "If I had something like that happen, I wouldn't want to be around anyone else. People are going to know. One way or another. He needs somewhere he can escape to."

'I was thinking similarly.' Cygnus said. 'I want to get him in the air, too. He looked terrible just from his parents being missing... if we can provide him with a distraction, even for awhile, then that's what we need to do. I don't know how bad he'll take this, but he won't be alone.'

"Yeah..."

'Try not to spend too much time worrying about it.' Cygnus said. 'I know it's hard, but until we get back to Hogwarts, there's nothing we can do to help him.'

"I know, but..."

'But you feel helpless and want to do something for him. I know. And we will. If he's with one of the girls, and I'd bet everything on that being the case, then they're also probably helping. Hell, he might be doing better by the time school starts. Eskander's nothing if not resilient. He'll get through this. We'll make sure he gets through this.'

Vega nodded, laying back on his bed and closing his eyes, trying to push out the mental image that kept trying to show up. "If dad's gonna talk to Mr. Malfoy, Hyde and Vivi'll know soon, right? I'm gonna see if I can go over to their place tomorrow..."

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

The rain continued falling for almost the entirety of the summer holiday, only clearing a few days before school was set to start back up. Vega had spent the majority of his time feeling uneasy over how things were turning out. Try as they might, no one from the Hogwarts staff or Wolf's teams had been able to find an entry point into Hogwarts. Neither the staff nor the house elves had reported seeing anything, either, so the school was still scheduled to begin on time. Something in Vega's gut told him that no one would see anything until after he got there.

He had seen the twins the day after the bodies had been found. Wolf's team were doing what they could to keep the Daily Prophet reporters from getting any information, but he wasn't sure how long that would last. The Malfoys had heard via Harry when he had called Draco, and the two had talked for a good many hours while trying to think of what could've attacked the Eskanders and their two still unnamed cohorts. When they had arrived, Viola had promptly latched onto Vega as tightly as she could manage. She had been something of a nervous wreck, which Hydrus confirmed, saying that ever since the news had reached them, she had been feeling sick.

Vega had left his father's grimoire at the Pit, back in Hogwarts, else he would have looked through it in an attempt to find any relevant information. Without this, he was stuck with just his second year books, which Tonks had gone to get for him since he hadn't felt like going out in the rain, and a load of unanswered questions. Harry had been out almost constantly since the crate had been discovered, keeping posted in Hogsmeade, since he was confident the staff at Hogwarts could hold their own should it appear there.

When the rain finally cleared, Vega had put on a pair of boots, grabbed a jacket, and decided to go out for a walk. He had been cooped up inside for far too long and had to get out and get some fresh air, even if it was soggy. And soggy it most definitely was. Godric's Hollow didn't take well to long, heavy rainstorms. While the town had grown considerably since Harry and Tonks had come to live there, it still looked like a completely backwoods city. Some nonsense about buildings over three stories tall being outlawed, as Vega had always been told.

Harry had decided against living in the same house his parents had been killed in, claiming that it just didn't seem right. They had picked an empty lot on the far side of town from Lily and James' old house, somewhere well out of sight of most of the other houses in the area. One of the first things that Harry and Tonks had done was to clean up the surrounding landscape a bit, growing fields of multi-colored flowers and hiding their house with large pine trees. The town was more wizarding than Muggle these days, though the latter population was still none the wiser. It was something that Harry had wanted to do once he moved there, and he helped the stranger residents of the town learn to blend in naturally with their non-magical neighbors.

The most important thing that Harry had done was ensuring Godric's Hollow was a safe place to live. The local law enforcement was comprised entirely of wizarding folk, including a few retired Aurors. With the police out on patrol day and night, Harry and Tonks had always felt safe with letting Vega go out on his own. He had never strayed too far, and even if he did, he was fairly acquainted with a good deal of the town's residents due to Harry's popularity. If he ever got lost, all he had to do was get someone to point him in the right direction.

His favorite spot was a small park that sat along the side of one of the cobblestone roads near the town square. It was never very quiet, but it was relaxing to Vega, who often sat around the park and watched as people went about their daily chores. It was there that he found himself the day the rain finally stopped. Depositing himself in one of the swings, he lazily pushed himself as a few younger children ran around, watched by their parents. One of the Muggle families, Vega recalled. Across the street was the baker's, and next to that a restaurant - one of the few that had come to the Hollow over the years. It was Muggle-run, though most of the employees were wizards. Vega didn't care for the food there, though. It was always way too spicy for his blood.

'Having a hard time focusing still?' Asked Cygnus.

Jumping slightly, Vega blinked before staring down at the ground. Giving himself another little push, he nodded. 'Yeah. Was it obvious?'

'You're just staring at things.' Cygnus observed. 'We look like we've not slept in a week, too, so people keep looking at us.'

'Nothing I can really do about that, though, ya know? No news on whatever attacked Lapis' parents, and school's just a couple days away. Between the knot in my stomach at finding out how Lapis is and knowing the stupid creature's going to come for me eventually, it's been hard to keep asleep...'

'Just once, let's hope you're wrong.' Cygnus said. 'If it does come for us, we'll be ready. As vile as it sort of is to say, I almost hope that the only bad thing to happen this year is Lapis' parents getting killed. I hope whatever cut them down fled.'

'Wolf's men can't keep those idiots from the Prophet away forever. That's what I've been worrying about. There's no good solution there. Either the news breaks before school starts or after. No matter what, people are gonna know who died and that their cargo might have gotten into Hogwarts.'

'We'll keep an eye on Lapis. If he needs help, we'll provide it. He didn't have anything to do with this.'

'Won't stop people from placing blame. Especially if people get attacked. ...'Attacked.' More like 'killed.' If whatever-it-is could take out four full-grown wizards, what hope do the students have? Lapis' parents had to've known what was in the box, and I'd imagine it didn't just spontaneously break out of the crate without a fight, so they even knew it was about to get loose. They still couldn't stop it? What the hell were they transporting? And why? Why me? Why Hogwarts?' Vega asked, planting his feet so he could lean forward on his knees.

'Must be that cult that dad's been after. If people are seriously trying to figure out how to get Voldemort out of the Void and resurrect him, then who knows what insane crap they'd pull. For all we know, they want to kill you as some kind of twisted sacrifice to their dead god-figure.' Cygnus said, sounding bitter. 'We can only hope that the school's clean this year. We need to focus on the present, not the future.'

'Right. Lapis' well-being. I'm going to fly this year, and I'm going to drag him into the air one way or another. It'd be good to vent his frustrations, I think, getting out there and flying. I know flying helps me clear my head sometimes. I wonder if it's the same for him. I mean, he's the one who told me the rest of the stupid team buggered off and left me in the air that one time, remember? Lapis was out there on his own...'

'You've been referring to himself by his first name for awhile now, ya know.' Cygnus pointed out.

'Dunno how he'd feel about me using his last name, really. I guess it all depends on how he views his parents and what they did...' Vega said, shrugging as he glanced up, watching the Muggle children playing. Smiling faintly, he continued, 'Whatever happens, we'll get through it, right?'

'Right. We're the hero. It's our job to win.'

'I thought dad was the hero. Shouldn't it be his job?'

'His job's trying to stop the nutters from bringing Voldemort back. He's already 'killed' Voldemort like a dozen times now or something. Apparently, Voldemort's harder to get rid of than carpenter ants.'

Vega snorted. 'Yeah, that's the last thing we need, a self-repeating immortal frankenwizard. Ugh, maybe you're right. I'm thinking too much. Okay, gimme something else to think about.'

'Uh... okay, who's gonna replace Tadygbbo?'

Vega hmmed quietly, tilting his head as he thought. As the parents of the children rounded them up to go have lunch, he murmured, "Not sure. Dumbledore's obviously not gonna stick around. But I don't remember if McGonagall mentioned anyone last year..."

'You'd have to be insane to take the position, it seems cursed.' Cygnus stated. 'Lotta Defense professors died when mum and dad were there too, didn't they?'

"Yeah. Hmm... dunno. I'll hafta ask them if they know who's filling the spot." Said Vega, pushing himself up off the swing. Slipping his hands into his pockets, he smirked. "Wanna go see if the bakery's got any fresh doughnuts left?"

'The longer you stand here, the less likely it is. Get moving!'

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Author's Notes: And here we are, the start of a new book. And a dark beginning it is, to be sure. Poor Lapis has already lost the parents he had been missing for a good chunk of Fear Within. Not a good way to start the school year, certainly.

And here I am, updating on time. It's a Christmas miracle! ...In March. Shut up. Post-edit note: This almost didn't go up at all. FFN's been having some weird glitch or something, apparently. I had to go on the forums, into a large thread where others were having the same problem. I got the workaround from a user name o' Advent of Shadows. Hopefully it'll do the trick. I won't be able to update the characters and whatnot until FFN's tech people get off their lazy asses and fix the problem, though. I'm hoping that'll be before I get chapter 2 done.

The plan is one chapter every two weeks for book 2. If I don't force myself to stop being lazy, it'll take forever to get book 2 done, as well. And I don't want that. Book 3's where a ton of important plot points converge, so I want to hurry and get to that one! Which isn't to say book 2's going to just be a sort of transitional thing. It isn't! I've also been looking forward to this one, though to be fair, that's mostly to do with the creature I've chosen. Naturally, it'll come after the students at some point. You've already been given some pretty strong hints. Guesses are welcome! But remember - they haven't found an entrance to the school yet.

This book will have Lapis growing closer to Vega and the twins, as well as exploring a bit more of Vega's internal problems with who he is and how he views those around him. In addition, very early into the story, another old friend will return to us. One that was also thought to be dead. Now who could that be?

Here's a hint: He was already in Fear Within a few times.

Until next time, boys and girls!