Author's Note
To Clarify: Everything between these brackets {...} is a flashback.
Chapter 2: The Past Doesn't Die
Scorpius
I would never forget how beautiful Lily was.
I remembered waking next to her in the Room of Requirement night after night, watching her sleep so peacefully in my arms…
I remembered waking on top of her, remorseless and confused, and staring stupidly as I took in the damage of what I'd unwillingly done – staring in horror at her destroyed clothes, her bruised and bleeding alabaster skin, the cuts on her face, the broken bones in her arm. I remembered the fear that turned her sapphire eyes black, and the way she'd run the second I was off of her.
I'd had to Incarcerate her to explain. The Black Knight – Lord Sin – loved watching the suffering of others. Everyone had heard the tales of Lord Voldemort's cruelty. Lord Sin made him look like an innocent child. The depravity of his mind and his actions, combined with the sheer force of his magic made him unstoppable. And so it had been with me.
Lord Sin had found a way to take control of the Dark Mark. He had summoned back all of the followers of Voldemort – including Father. He had somehow managed to enable a blood spell and summon the children of the Death Eaters – and those who had not been brought up in the way of the Dark Arts had been sent out Imperioed to wreak havoc on their own lives at the Black Knight's command.
Father had raised me with a thorough knowledge of the Dark Arts, and a working command of them. But he had never tried to sway my view of the world, and so I had grown into the beliefs that unnecessary pain and evil were wrong. I was thoroughly Slytherin, as anything less would be an abomination to the Malfoy name. But I was not Dark.
Lily had suffered for that. I had beaten her, not with magic, not with words, but physically beaten her, and lost her because of it. It had been unwillingly, and I had tried to fight the Imperius, but one did not fight Lord Sin. His magic was too strong, his mind too evil, to be thrown off through sheer strength of will.
It had lost me Lily. She didn't believe me, didn't believe that a terror greater than Voldemort could exist. She was a product of her blind Gryffindor parents. It was something I never thought I'd see from someone as brilliant as her, but she was in denial of the evil in the world. She saw it as clearly as anyone else.
She hadn't believed me. The moment I'd unbound her, she'd wordlessly summoned her wand, stupefied me, and run.
I would kill Lord Sin for my loss. But not before Lily believed the truth. Not before she had seen the reality of the situation.
"Scorpius…" she sighed again, and she curled closer to me on the carriage seat.
My heart ached in my chest. I'd loved her so deeply. I loved her even more now that we had been apart.
Her eyes flashed open, and the icy tone they had to them warned me a second too late of what was to come.
"EVERTE STRATUM!"
The spell hit me like a brick wall, and glass shattered around me. The momentum flipped me, and I had time to see the glass spewing onto the floor just before my body went skidding across it.
Lily
I was bloody terrified.
The last time I'd seen his eyes that close had been… that night. But where I had been too hurt to move then, I could defend myself now.
"EVERTE STRATUM!"
My magic churned and roiled within me, fighting for a way out. I hated this feeling of fear and helplessness. I hated the feeling of magic trying to push through my skin more. But if it defended me from him, I would take it.
He groaned from where he had skidded on the floor, trying to push himself up on hands and knees. Glass crunched and the faint metallic smell of blood tinged the air. I heard him suck in a shaky breath as he overcame the pain.
"Lily, I need to talk to –"
"SILENCIO!"
His mouth kept moving, but his wretched silky voice was gone. I was bloody terrified. His voice could make everything ok. His voice could convince me things were alright. His voice could…
{ "I love you Lily," he said, kicking me in the ribs. I heard something crack and I screamed hard enough to curdle my own blood. " I love you –" he punched my face as he said the words again and again, blood spewing everywhere as he broke my nose, cut my skin, bruised me and made me beg for him to stop. "I love you – so – fucking – much!" With every word, he beat me closer to unconsciousness – and to death.}
His voice could lie with such purity and beauty it almost made me believe. It had made me believe him then, and it would make me believe him now, make me remember that…
It will make me remember that I love him.
I hated how he still had the power to make me think that I couldn't live without him.
My feet crunched loudly on the glass-covered floor, and it sounded like the crunch of bone under fists. My wand hung loosely in my hand, and my magic pulsed beneath my skin. Soon, I wouldn't be able to keep out of Parseltongue. The power of my magic would explode, and the strength of my spells would increase exponentially.
That was my curse: immeasurable magic and all of the responsibility that came with it. For the thousandth time, I cursed my parentage. I loved them dearly, but Father's battles during the war, the rending of a part of his soul away from the rest when Voldemort died… It had changed him, but it had changed us more.
I heard blood drip on the floor as I neared Malfoy. Hoping his pretty face would scar, I raised my wand to curse him again. "Sectumsemp—"
"Incarcerous!"
Thick snakes wrapped about me and squeezed. They were pythons – black pythons. Scorpius's favorite snake. It was only then I realized that he had somehow managed to keep his wand with him in the crash and reverse the Silencing charm.
The memories rushed back in again, and I nearly fell to the ground with the weight of past pain and fear.
{ He fell asleep, which was a small mercy. That he was flat on top of me and too heavy to move was not. He was crushing me and I could barely breathe. I didn't dare move, lest he wake up and continue his beating – it would surely kill me this time. I didn't sleep, though my eyes tried to close, and my body demanded rest. I had to be awake to run the second I could. The second he woke, I had to get out of here. This person, this thing, was not who I loved. But he had more power over me than Scorpius ever had.
He stirred just a bit on top of me, and my heart leapt in both hope and fear. Could this mean freedom?
His eyes opened slow and fluttering, and it sent pain through me. He looked so much like my Scorpius, but this monster could never be him. My Scorpius had died when he hit me the first time. My Scorpius would never be real again.
He raised himself up and over me on hands and knees and studied me. I had no idea what he was seeing, but no look of regret crossed his beautiful features. There was no remorse, no recognition of wrong – nothing. Just a blank, uncaring expression in his slightly glazed eyes.
And then his eyes became sharp and clear. He studied me, and I saw a look of love and horror in his eyes as he stared at me, bloodied, bruised, and broken on the floor.
He rolled off of me.
I ran. He caught me, and I fought him as hard as I could with broken bones and pain everywhere. But in the end it didn't matter.
"Incarcerous!"
I fell to the floor, black pythons twining around me, fear choking me, and pain taking over my mind. The pythons squeezed against every possible bruise, every broken bone. But I wouldn't scream for this monster anymore.
"Lily, you have to listen. You have to believe me love. I would never do this to you under my own control. But last night I… I wasn't under my own control. Lord Sin was controlling me. It was the Imperius Lily. I would never hurt you, I could never hurt you. I love you," he said stroking my hair. "Do you remember what I promised in the beginning baby? Do you remember…"}
"… how I promised to protect you from everything? I would have Lily." He kissed me, and my stomach churned and my skin crawled. "I love you Lily. I would have protected you. I fought. I fought so hard, but Lily, He's like you. His magic explodes, and you get sucked in, and you can't fight. There's no way to fight love." He kissed me again, and I almost threw up. I felt dirty and wrong. I felt like it was my fault. But it wasn't and it never would be. He had hurt me.
"Do you understand Lily? It wasn't me! I would never hurt you, and I will kill him for what he did to me and for what he did to the way we were. I love you Lily."
He unbound me. "We can go back to how things were now Lily. You don't have to be afraid of him anymore, because I'll protect you. He won't hurt you again." He kissed me one last time.
It broke me. I flipped over, and everything that had been in my stomach came up. He had touched me again, after I had sworn to myself that he never would again. He had been close enough to kiss me. He had said those words again. He had told me… told me that he… that he lov –
No! I won't listen. I won't let him hurt me. I WON'T!
"SECTUMSEMPRA!"
My magic exploded out of me with that spell. It burst into the air around me, pulsing and alive, roiling and hot, nearly choking me. As the spell launched him backward, a deep bleeding gash opened from his left shoulder to his right hip, and blood poured from the wound.
"Lord Sin? The new Dark Lord? Don't give me that Malfoy! Sectumsempra!"
Another gash opened, shallower, from his right temple to the middle of his cheek. It matched perfectly to mine – the only scar I could never hide.
"No excuses Malfoy," I spat. "No more lies. Things will never be the way they were." I rose from my position on the floor, moving slowly to where he had fallen, seeing the blood gathering on his white shirt, a dark accusing line. He still had his wand.
"Expelliarmus." There was a faint clink in the distance as his wand landed somewhere in the shadows of the deserted train car.
Through the silence, the train horn blared. The Hogwarts Express lurched forward, and I stood over my betraying love, hatred in my mind, my eyes, and my magic.
"I will never believe you. The Black Knight isn't real. He doesn't exist. That much evil would have shown itself before now. You hurt me Malfoy. You almost killed me. You beat me for hours. You trapped me like an animal. And now you blame a lie?" My control broke, and I slipped into the hissing spitting tones of Parseltongue. "You will not hurt me again. I will not let you. We were done the second you raised your hand against me."
Our eyes locked. I looked into his silver eyes, and my anger and rage slipped. It fell away until there was only pain and sorrow. There was no way for me to hate him when I loved him. There was no way to forgive him and there was no way to change what was. But I couldn't do this. I couldn't continue to define myself by what had happened. This mess, this anger, this confrontation and useless violence would be the only result.
I knelt next to him, tears falling from my eyes. What we had suffered should never have happened, and it didn't matter who was to blame. The loss of something beautiful and right was what mattered. We still loved each other. But neither of us could live like this.
He kept his gaze locked to mine. I saw the grief in his eyes. I saw the love. I knew that mine reflected his.
I aimed my wand at the cuts on him. Channeling the whole of my magic to him, I cast the strongest healing spells I knew on the cut across his torso. I aimed at the cut marring his perfect face.
"Episkey," I cast weakly. I would not let him forget this. When he looked at himself now, with that scar, he would think of me. And maybe he would learn from this.
I tucked my wand away after I'd tended to the cuts from the glass scattered on the floor. We sat in silence as the train droned onward, staring into each other's eyes. I wasn't afraid anymore. I saw how broken he was, and it mirrored the breaks in me. This had changed us both. The lies, the pain, the fear – it didn't matter anymore. We both grieved for what had been perfect. We grieved for the death of the bliss we had had.
"You never once said it Scorpius. Even in your lie, you never once said it." Snake Speak had left me. The rage was gone, and tears fell from my eyes.
His hand reached up and stroked my cheek, over the scar he had left with that very hand. Nothing happened to me. My stomach stayed quiet, my skin felt the same. The only sense I had was of grief and silence.
"I'm sorry Lily. I'm sorry for your pain."
A sob shook me, and once the one had escaped, it all came out. I knelt there weeping with joy and with regret because –
Because that's what I've always wanted to hear. Those are the words to make me forgive him. And now they're too late.
He pulled me against him, cradling me as he had so many times before. It only made me cry harder. He stroked my hair, and stayed silent.
Eventually the sobbing died down. Day faded to dusk, and I knew that soon my friends would find me. I couldn't be here when they did.
He knew it too. He let me go without a word, but the look in his eyes said enough.
I love you. I need you. "I'm so sorry Lily. I will never regret anything more than I regret your pain."
"I know," I whispered, not looking at him. "But it doesn't matter anymore."
It took all the strength I possessed to raise my eyes to his. It took all my will to continue. But I did. He had to know.
"I love you Scorpius."
"Lily, I lov –"
"Stupefy."
He slumped gracelessly to the floor. I checked him one last time for cuts and bruises, healed what I found, and brought him to a shadowed corner of a populated room. I left him there, amongst his Slytherin peers, and I went back to where I belonged.
I went back to my friends and even then I was alone.
Rose
I was frantic – all of us were. He'd disappeared with Lily and after what he had done to her – what he would do again if there was no one to stop him – it was terrifying to know he was with her god-only-knows where. We had to find her.
We'd searched every place he could have possibly taken her at least 10 times. The entire train even, except the dilapidated back cars. He would never take her there. They were nowhere. It was like they'd disappeared for real – vanished into thin air. And with Lady Raven the Seer following me, there was almost no hope of staying positive.
"Where are you where are you where are you," I chanted again and again. I had to find her. I had to find Lily before he damaged her more and broke her for good.
"Rose. We cannot interfere with this. This is what they need. This is their fate and –"
I almost slapped Raven as I whirled. "Don't give me that Raven! I know you See things and I know you've Seen this. But damn fate and damn the future! I will not let him hurt again. I'll die first."
I turned and continued my search. I barely heard Raven's whisper.
"Rose."
I kept walking. I wouldn't let her convince me there was no chance for finding Lily.
"Rose please," she said, voice trembling.
Crying won't work. Don't let her stop you Rose. I kept walking.
She gasped and it sounded like a scream. I heard a thunk as she fell to the floor. I whirled and the sight that caught my eyes scared me more than I'd ever been afraid before.
Raven's eyes were engulfed in black. The glowed with a throbbing dance of colors and her back was arching impossibly. Her head rolled from side to side, hair swirling like an inky cloud in a wind that touched only her.
She was Seeing something. This was a vision.
She screamed like a banshee. I didn't think, didn't feel fear. I ran to her, kept her head still, called for help. There was no one near enough to hear.
She went stiff as a board, and her hands shot to mine. I'd never know there was so much strength in her grip, but it felt like she was breaking bones. I couldn't hear anything but the sound of her sliding ethereal voice.
"The blackest sin has come to pass,
Intent on breaking down the glass,
Of spells divide and boundaries plain,
Ensuring all who live are slain.
Evil horrors of before,
Outdone and mocked fore'er more.
The once-protectors blind by fear
The new defenders short in years.
The death of all decreed by Fate,
The greatest hope destroyed by hate,
The Eden hidden and undone
Of darkened Daughter and shining Son.
The symbol of two black wands crossed
The only sign when all is lost,
And only to the Lover Wands
Is it that Light in Dark responds."
She slumped back, and her hands released me. She stayed too still, unbreathing, for and eternal second. Then her eyes blinked open, their normal sage green returned, and she smiled.
"Did you hear it all?"
I stared at her in shock and nodded automatically.
"Do you remember it all?"
I nodded again, unable to speak.
"Tell me."
I did.
She blinked a few times, and her expression clouded with something akin to trepidation, reluctance, and fear.
"Dark times lie in store for us all." She looked over to her right, and something caught her vision. "There is a burden only you can carry Lily."
I snapped my head to where she was looking, and to my shock, Lily was there, nearer than I had thought and silent as the grave. She dropped to a crouch before Raven, and they gazed at each other for the longest time.
"How many will die if I fail Raven?" Her voice shot shivers down my spine, but it was Raven's reply that made me afraid.
"The ones that don't will be the ones to suffer."
Author's Note
Next: Chapter 3: The Eyes of the Monster
