Chapter 1

Scorpius' gray eyes were huge and anxious as he sat down next to Rose at the Gryffindor table that morning. Albus shifted his attention from his annoying brother, who was trying to levitate Roxy up from the bench again, to his worn-out looking best friend.

"Scorp?" he said, gaze scanning the frightened looking eyes with huge bags under them and the paler than usual skin of the young Malfoy. He hadn't seen him the night before; Scorp still hadn't come back to the dorm when he'd gone to bed himself. His mate shifted uncomfortably in his seat, looking around him quickly, and leaned towards Albus across the table.

"I have to talk to you." He muttered, while pretending to take some toast from Al's plate. It was important, that much Al could tell by looking at his friend, and this called for some back up. Looking over at his favourite cousin, who was completely engrossed in a book, as usual, Al sent a well-aimed kick at her ankles under the table.

"OW!" Rose yelped, instantly ruining Al's hopes of appearing conspicuous, looking up from the enormous manuscript sitting on her lap towards her cousin in deep annoyance. "What the hell, Al?"

He inclined his head towards their best friend and Rose's eyes got huge as she took in Scorpius unusual state.

"Oh," she whispered, leaning towards him, voice worried. "Scorp, what's wrong?"

"Later." The blond boy stage-whispered and cautiously looked around him again. Rose's questioning gaze met Albus' dumbfounded one. They had absolutely no idea what was wrong with their friend. As Scorp got up and left the great hall without having eaten anything, Al turned his attention back towards James, a million questions turning in his head, while Rose frowned at the older Weasley cousins, who were now trying to levitate the entire Gryffindor table.

"Enough." She said in the bossy voice she'd inherited her mother and lightly tapped the golden badge on her robe, "Or I'll give you all detention, family or not."

oOo

"Scorp, what's wrong?" Al said for the third time that day as the threesome exited Potions class. His best friend had been jumpy and fidgety all day, enough that he'd actually almost blown up their work today, and he was determined to know the reason behind it.

"You're scaring us," Rose added, grabbing her friend's sleeve to stop him from running off again. The rest of the class had left the corridor by that time and Scorpius, after casting another long look around them again, nodded and pulled the two cousins into a dark corner of the empty hall.

"Something happened last night," he started and swallowed. "You guys remember Gregory Goyle?"

"He was one of your dad's friends. Before the war, I mean." Rose said slowly.

"That's right! One of Voldemort's followers." Al recalled, remembering some of his father's stories of the war (and there were quite a few of them, to be honest).

Scorpius nodded. "Yeah. The bloke was imprisoned, along with his death-eater of a father, after the war ended. And then,… Well, you know."

Albus nodded, along with Rose. They did know. Not so long ago, Goyle had been freed from Azkaban, mostly because of Scorpius' dad. Draco had pleaded his former friend's case, explaining how the two of them had only been children during the war, not understanding the consequences of their actions, and how Goyle shouldn't be punished for his father's choices. Besides, Goyle's good behaviour and "evident remorse for his inexcusable past actions", as the Prophet had said, had played in his favour, and for the first time since the fall of their dark lord, one of Voldemort's followers had been released from Azkaban. Albus remembered how everyone in his family had been shocked by the ministry's decision to let Goyle go, uncle Ron especially. James, who was really cocky and who always said that he'd have loved to participate in the war, being the idiot he was, had started cussing out the man during a family dinner, until their dad angrily shut him up. Later on, Albus had gone to ask his father what he thought about Goyle being freed,; he'd answered that he believed that everyone deserved a second chance. Sometimes, he'd said, people made the wrong choices, which didn't mean that they were evil and beyond being helped; everyone could change sides. He hadn't gone into detail, only getting that sad, empty look he always got when anyone mentioned the war, as if he was looking far into the past, and Al, who hadn't really understood what his father had meant anyway, had left him alone.

"Well, what about him?" he now asked his friend, confused. What could Gregory Goyle possibly have to do with any of Scorpius' problems?

"He came here." Scorp's voice had dropped so low that the two cousins were forced to move even closer to him so they could hear his whispers. "To Hogwarts. My dad sent me a letter, ordering I go see him but saying that I couldn't let anyone know about him being here."

"That's where you'd gone to last night!" Rose whispered and Albus shushed her, eyes glued to Scorpius. He was getting a really bad feeling about all of this.

"We met in the clock tower, and it was creepy, honestly. The guy is completely off his rocker, kept saying it was time someone did something to change things. He told me to come back tonight, and that he would give me a mission of the utmost importance." Scorpius swallowed again. "He said I'd help bring Voldemort back."

A short silence followed.

"Weird." Al finally said, speaking out everyone's feelings.

"Totally." Rose's eyes looked close to bulging out, and she was chewing on her lip something crazy.

"He was an old friend of my father's, you know. He probably thinks I'm like him, a death eater in the making." Scorp whispered nervously. He kept tugging on his sleeve.

"Only you're not." Rose finished as the blond boy shot her a grateful look. Albus knew how hard it was for him to be a Malfoy. People used to cuss him out in the hallways with things like "Voldemort lover" and "death eater spawn". The only thing was that, Scorp was completely different from the rest of his family; first and foremost, he was in Gryffindor, and if that wasn't explanatory enough, he was also top of his class, a very friendly, quiet, smart boy. He was best friends with Rose and Albus, and close to the rest of the Weasley family, who had pretty much accepted him as one of their own, as he was always around. His father didn't know what his only son was like (or maybe he just chose not to see it), as the two of them never talked and weren't close at all.

"Are you going to go?" Al asked his friend and Scorpius shrugged.

"Well, it's not as if I have a choice, is there? My father will be furious if I don't show up."

"Scorp, you have got to tell someone." Rose said, her prefect instincts taking over, as always. "This is too big a thing for just the three of us to handle! If the guy keeps saying he wants to bring Voldemort back, then he should be rotting away in Azkaban for the rest of his life!"

"Rose, no!" Scorpius grabbed the young witch's wrist as she started to take off, most likely to the Headmistress' office. "I can't tell anyone, don't you get it? My dad would skin me alive!"

"But you have to! Who cares what your dad thinks?"

"I do." Scorpius simply answered. Despite their clear differences, it was evident that Scorpius constantly sought his always-absent father's approval.

"Well, what about James, or Fred, Rox or Dom? They might know what to do…" Albus started but the two others cut him off.

"Them? Are you kidding me? They're even more childish than Hugo-"

"Forget it! You know what James is like; he'd go and fight Goyle without even understanding what was going on-"

"OK, fine!" Albus put his hands up, as if asking for a ceasefire, "It was only a suggestion!"

"And I didn't tell you two so you could run off to tell everyone as soon as I was done speaking!" Scorpius finished nonetheless.

"Why did you tell us then? What can the two of us possibly do about this, huh?" Rose challenged angrily as Albus mutely watched the two of them argue like they always did.

"I…" Scorpius ran a hand through his blond hair and sighed in frustration. "I'd like it if the two of you went with me tonight. Just in case he gets violent or tries something crazy or something. And if he does," he added as Rose stern gaze met his, "I'll go and tell McGonagall first thing in the morning, I promise."

Rose nodded and Albus spoke up nervously. "I don't think he would try anything. It's probably just empty talk and all. The guy is crazy after all. Plus, it's not like he can actually bring Voldemort back. Right?"

"But still." Scorp added "I'd feel better if I knew that you guys were there to back me up if things got ugly."

"Right," Rose said, "well, I'm in. Al?"

Albus rolled his eyes dramatically. "Of course I'm in. What are best friends for if not to help each other stop a crazy maniac from bringing back the evilest wizard of all times to life, huh?"

Scorpius smirked and punched his shoulder lightly; suddenly, Albus' stomach growled loudly. He grinned sheepishly at Rose's exasperated look.

"I swear, sometimes you're worse than my father," she muttered as they made their way together towards the great hall for dinner.

oOo

Lily could sense something was up. For one thing, her brother, Rose and Scorpius weren't sitting with the rest of the family, which was highly unusual; the Weasley-Potter kids always sat next to each other during meals, it was almost a tradition. Whenever the threesome decided to sit elsewhere, it was always at the end of school years, when exams were coming up and Rose couldn't stand to watch her cousins mess around when she was trying to study and eat at the same time. Today was clearly not one of those days, as it was the middle of October, and sixth year wasn't even such an important year, as far as exams were concerned. Secondly, the three of them were all leaning towards each other and whispering amongst themselves in a secretive way. This could have been considered normal behaviour for James, Fred and Rox; one could assume the three trouble-seeking cousins were in the middle of pulling yet another prank. Only, this was Albus, Rose and Scorpius she was talking about, the "nerds", as James called them; the planning behaviour thus seemed pretty unusual. And lastly, the thing that was worrying Lily the most was that they all looked pretty anxious; Scorpius kept casting looks around him like he was afraid something might jump out of the shadows and come get him. Several times; Lily had noticed Al looking at the rest of the family, his eyes scared like he wanted to come and speak to the older members of the Weasley-Potter clan.

She'd gone over to them and had asked them what was going on, only to be shooed away. Lily finally resolved to speak to the others about it; she got up and went to stand behind James decidedly. Her older brother instantly turned towards her, forgetting about the joke he'd been about to tell Fred to focus entirely on his sister. James might appear arrogant and conceited at times, but truth was, he was very caring when it came to his younger siblings. Albus called him an attention-seeking moron who only cared about his hair and multiple girlfriends, but Lily did not agree with him; she knew her father has asked an eleven year old James to look after his cousins at Hogwarts, being the oldest, and James, even now that his youngest sibling had just turned fourteen, had never stopped doing so, and Lily really admired him for it. He immensely cared about his family; she wondered why Al couldn't see that and why the two of them always fought, at home as well as at school.

"What is it, Lils? Something wrong?" James asked in his older brother voice, eyes scanning the room as if she was here to ask him to get rid of a stalker for her.

"Hey. It's nothing important, don't worry."

His shoulders relaxed and he grinned at her. "Well, then what's up? I'm a very busy man, you know, so make it fast."

"It's just, I'm kind of worried about Al. He and Scorpius and Rose seem kind of weird, don't you think?" she stuck her thumb towards where the threesome was sitting at the table, talking secretly together again. James looked at the group, eyebrows furrowed. "They've been acting strange all evening."

"I'm sure it's nothing important. Maybe they lost a book or something." James grinned as Lily hit him on the arm reproachfully. She hated how her two brothers never got along; the two of them were very different, James a carefree prankster and Albus more of a lonely bookworm, but that didn't mean that they couldn't take care of each other, did it?

James sighed under her pleading look. "Fine, Lils. I'll go talk to them and make sure everything's okay, how about that?"

She smiled sweetly. "Thanks Jamie."

"No problem. What are older siblings for, huh?"

"Yeah, thank Merlin Fred and Rox weren't the oldest. They can barely take care of themselves, let alone look after someone else." Lily smirked, watching as Fred tried to balance a spoon on his nose under the applause of the Gryffindors.

"I resent that!" Fred bellowed as she walked back to her seat next to Hugo. She smiled to herself, relieved. If James was taking care of things, then there was nothing to worry about anymore.

oOo

Not a beautifully written piece of literature, obviously. Just having fun with Rowling's characters and trying to evade boredom. Hope you still enjoy, though! Feedback is appreciated, as always.