Gray: Scorpius Malfoy and the Son of Voldemort

by Fiery Gray

UNDER EDITING! (V): The Shadow War rages and everyone is after the son of Voldemort. While governments juggle keeping things secret from muggles and planning defenses, Scorpius is juggling OWLs, life, a potential serial killer and his own urge to fight. The war cuts ever closer to home for Scorpius and friends, while the answers they seek may not be the answers they want. COMPLETE

2. Chapter 2: The Old and The New

Parts (5-8)

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V

Chapter 2

The Old and The New

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Part 1: The More Things Change

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It turned out, Scorpius' estimate about the weather had been utterly wrong. He awoke the next morning to find sheets of rain showering down from the sky, not the ideal weather to be heading back to Hogwarts in. He'd packed his trunk ready when he returned from seeing Varanian, adding the supplies his parents bought when they returned. They'd also gotten him a book 'Choosing A Career To Be Content With: The Ultimate Guide for Young Minds' as reading material for him while in Hogwarts, he'd conveniently 'forgotten' it before heading downstairs to breakfast. His father conveniently remembered it though, Scorpius knew he should have conveniently 'lost' it instead. Scorpius started to understand why his parents were worried about his grandmother though, she barely hugged him goodbye and went back upstairs to study her articles. It was odd.

He left with his parents and Sol with plenty of time to spare to get to the platform, Sol at least liked the weather and kept trying to eat the raindrops. His mother dried them all off with a flick of her wand once they were inside, he pitied the muggle-borns who wouldn't have the luxury of magic to dry themselves. He went to go find his friends while his parents got his trunk onto the train, or at least his father did as his mother was pointing out the train to Sol and telling him one day he'd be on that.

"Scor!" a familiar voice cried just after he was out of earshot of his parents, he turned in time to recognize his friend, Albus Potter, before being pulled into a hug. Albus hadn't changed much, he had the same jet black hair that stuck up all at odd angles and emerald eyes, "How was Egypt?"

"Sandy and hot," Scorpius offered as Albus pulled away, "How was England?"

"Not-sandy and hot. Congratulations by the way."

"On what?" Scorpius wondered in confusion.

"Making prefect," Albus prompted and Scorpius' scowl only deepened, they were both Gryffindors so one of them had to have made prefect but it wasn't Scorpius.

"I didn't make prefect, I thought you did."

"Scor!" a second familiar voice called and Scorpius was hugged by the shorter Rose Weasley, another of his friends.

If all of his friends were going to hug him then it was going to get rather tedious, he was glad when she pulled away to hug Albus instead. She hadn't changed either, blue eyes set on a freckled face and red bushy hair tied back in a ponytail. Thankfully it was red, she'd gone through a phase the previous year when she'd dyed it several shades brighter then gold. He saw her Weasley grandparents nearby, they had probably brought her as both her parents were often busy working at the Ministry since the war started. He spotted her younger brother, Hugo, with them as well. The thirteen year old was the only one of the Potter-Weasley clan to not have gotten Gryffindor, instead being the sole Hufflepuff of the family. He looked a lot like his sister, freckles, blue eyes and bushy hair except shorter and not tied back in a ponytail.

"I can't wait to be back in Hogwarts, this is our OWL year! OWLs! Can you believe it? I'm so excited, I do hope I do well though, Mum did so great that it's a lot to live up to. What am I saying though?" Rose babbled, sounding excited, "What were you too talking about before I interrupted?"

"How neither of us made prefect," Albus explained with a frown but Rose brushed it off.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. They were in such a rush to get everything out that they haven't chosen prefects yet, my badge hasn't come yet either."

"Did it occur to you that maybe you just didn't get prefect?" Scorpius wondered and just Rose laughed.

"Hey guys," another familiar voice greeted him and he turned to see Vern coming over to them with his Slytherin girlfriend, Olivia Nott. Vern didn't hug him but that might have had something to do with the fact he was holding her hand, she brushed her dark brown hair from her sapphire eyes to give them a smile.

"Hey," Scorpius offered in greeting, glad Vern seemed to be doing alright and he liked Olivia well enough.

"Don't be ridiculous, of course I made prefect. Who else would they possibly choose over me?" Rose continued, almost as if she hadn't noticed their arrival and he would have thought just that if she hadn't offered a semblance of a wave for them, "Clearly, they're just too busy scrambling that they haven't chosen prefects yet."

"Yes they have," Olivia said with confidence.

"No, they haven't."

"Yes, they have."

"No, they haven't. What do you know about prefects being chosen anyway? You're the year below us, you don't have the chance to make prefect until next year."

"My brother's in your year though," Olivia pointed out, "And Maxie made prefect, if they chose the Slytherin prefects then I can't see why they wouldn't have chosen the others."

"Then mine must've been sent to someone else by mistake!" Rose insisted stubbornly.

"Yeah, clearly that's it," Albus offered sarcastically.

"It is. And they lost either yours or Scorpius' too."

"Okay," Olivia said slowly and exchanged a dubious look with Vern before apparently noticing someone, her smile returned, "Look there's my Dad! C'mon Vern."

"See you guys," Vern offered nervously as Olivia led him away, "Assuming I survive this meeting. Hi Orous and Maurice, bye Orous and Maurice."

"Where's Vern going?" Orous asked as Roman's twins came over to them, he noticed their stepdad hauling their trunks onto the train behind them.

Orous was odd looking due to his albinism, his skin was so pale it was practically colorless, his eyes as red as the Hogwarts Express and his shoulder-length hair with a slight wave to it was pure white. He looked nothing like his twin, Maurice in contrast had cold oceanic eyes and shorter light brown hair with a slight wave to it. His hands - and more of his body covered by clothing - were scarred with layers of words from years of use of a blood quill, he clutched the teardrop shaped necklace he wore which could translate what they were saying into written words so he could keep up with the conversation. He was deaf after all. They'd grown a bit taller since he'd last seen them but still weren't taller than him, they weren't too much taller than Rose in fact but they were still taller despite being a year younger.

"Apparently meeting her father," Albus shrugged while his eyes immediately narrowed on Orous darkly, "And what time do you call this? Lateness is not very becoming!"

"What?" Orous wondered in confusion, glancing down at a wrist watch that barely concealed the scars on his wrist. The three lines wrapping around were identical to his own, Maurice only had one line for some reason but it wasn't as noticeable because of the blood quill scars, "There's quarter of an hour before the train leaves."

"You decided to arrive with only quarter of an hour to spare?! What is wrong with you?!"

"I don't... what?" Orous said, his expression only twisting with more confusion as was Scorpius and Rose's. Scorpius opened his mouth to ask why when Lily came over to them.

"H-Hi Or-Everyone," Lily greeted them shakily, putting on a smile that seemed unnaturally wide and toothy. That she kept up unrelentingly, she wiped sweaty hands on her dress and tried to cover it by smoothing out her dress. He also noticed the same sticky sheen on her forehead, she also had a flower in her hair for some reason.

"Do you have a flower in your hair?" Rose asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a lily, I think?" Orous guessed.

"Y-Yes, you're right! It-It's a flower," Lily told them, sounding oddly awkward and still smiling psychotically, "The same as my name. Lily. Not flower. My name is Lily not flower."

"I know what your name is," Orous assured her and Lily laughed nervously, stopping abruptly when it became a snort. Horror flashed on her face before she regained herself and stretched out her face in a smile again but it no longer touched the terrified eyes hiding behind her glasses, the droplets of sweat started dribbling down her face. Everyone but Albus was looking at her in puzzlement, he didn't know Lily well but he hadn't seen her act like that before.

"Don't you like it?" Lily wondered as her smile slipped again.

"I-"

"I don't like it either! It was a stupid thing to do! I can get rid of it if you'd like!" Lily blurted out loudly and wrenched it from her hair, throwing it to the ground before violently and repeatedly stomping on it. This made her already untidy hair messier to give her even more of a crazed look. She turned back to Orous when she was done, smiling again, "See? It's gone!"

"I erm... was going to say it was nice," Orous pointed out uncertainly.

"Oh, I think it's nice too! I can get it back!"

"But you just said-"

"I CAN FIX IT! SEE ALL BETTER!" Lily yelled even louder and picked the crumpled flower back up, it was now falling apart but she rammed it back onto her head regardless and grinned again. It quickly died though as she apparently realized how odd her behavior seemed, she then she ran off crying.

"Albus, I think your sister's gone insane," Maurice stated calmly, his voice now broken by the sound of it despite being the younger of the twins.

"It's Orous' fault," Albus complained and Orous' eyes bulged in shock.

"What did I do?!" Orous wondered in shock, "I barely even know her!"

"She has a crush on you, you idiot!"

"Seriously, what is her problem with me?" Orous asked, looking concerned.

"She has a crush on you."

"Seriously, what is her problem with him?" Rose asked instead and Albus looked exasperated.

"She has a crush on him!"

"I think they want the truth," Maurice pointed out.

"That is the truth!"

"I'll go talk to her and find out what her problem is, don't worry," Rose assured them before going after Lily.

"Is it really that hard to believe she has a crush on you?!" Albus demanded in frustration of Orous.

"Yes," Orous admitted with sincerity, "You know I look like a freak and after what I've been through, no girl would ever want someone like me. Ever. It's mean of you to make up stuff like that."

"I didn't make it up!"

"I'm going to go help my Dad with the trunks for a minute," Orous stated, clearly not believing Albus as he went off to assistant the stepfather he considered his real father.

"I'm going to go find Lenore," Maurice told them dismissively and also left.

"I'm not making it up!" Albus moaned and slapped a hand to his face, "You believe me, right?"

"I do," Scorpius confirmed, "But you shouldn't be such a jerk to Orous about it."

"I just don't want my little sister dating, she's far too young. And little. She can't even handle talking to him, she's not ready. And he's too old for her, a year is a lot."

"I don't think it's really any of your business or mine. And you're overreacting anyway. Just because she likes him, it doesn't mean that he likes her back or that they'll start dating. You never dated any of your crushes or anything."

"True," Albus admitted and took a deep breath, "But this is the year that that is going to change, this is the year that I'm going to finally get a girlfriend."

"Really? I heard you were gay or only liked old women," a more unfamiliar voice pointed out and they both turned to the speaker, Lenore.

Lenore was a girl Maurice had a crush on who had kissed him at the end of the previous school year, Scorpius wasn't sure where they stood now but she'd came over with Maurice. She had wavy red hair and sharp features, he supposed she was pretty enough although was wearing just her Hogwarts robes already with a shiny new Head Girl badge to go with a prefect one. She was a Seventh Year Slytherin, three years older than Maurice. Her, Scorpius didn't like so much. It also meant Molly hadn't gotten Head Girl.

"What?! Who says that?!" Albus blurted out in panic.

"Everyone," Lenore said in the drawl she seemed to speak in, looking almost bored of the conversation, "I don't know who said it first but it's pretty common knowledge, your brother telling everyone you're gay probably doesn't help."

"Well it's not true!"

"Uh-huh," Lenore offered dubiously and Albus' ears burned red.

"It's not!" Albus insisted more forcefully.

"I didn't say anything," Lenore told him with a smirk before walking off with Maurice.

"Lenore's going to show me how to make out!" Maurice informed them excitedly with a grin as he went with her.

"I miss the old Maurice already," Albus sighed unhappily after them, "And I don't like that scumbag Slytherin slut."

"I do hope you're not talking about Olivia again, wasn't trying to save your sister's life enough to put her in your good books?" a more familiar voice offered and he turned to see another of his friends, Abby Longbottom, their Herbology professor's younger daughter. She usually wore her blond hair in a long braid but it had been cut short during her brief captivity last year, instead she had the shorter hair in small pigtails tied with bows of Gryffindor color. She was about Rose's height but somewhat lankier.

"Abby! It's good to see you," Albus said with a smile and pulled her into a hug, "I missed you."

"I saw you last week," Abby pointed out as she pulled away.

"Yeah but still," Albus shrugged while Abby instead hugged Scorpius, everyone was a hugger except him.

"How was Egypt, Scor?"

"Hot and sandy," Scorpius told her as he pulled away, "How are you?"

"I made prefect," Abby informed them and held out her hand to show them the badge as proof, giving them the slightly crooked smile she had.

"Congratulations!"

"That's awesome!" Albus agreed happily, "You earned it."

"Thanks," Abby nodded and her smile wavered, "You don't think Rose is going to have a problem with it though? That I got prefect and not her?"

"Rose? Nah, you know Rose," Albus brushed it off.

"I kind of do, that's why I'm worried," Abby pointed out, just as Rose happened to return.

"Would you believe it is true-" Rose started to say but stopped and smiled when she saw the prefect badge in Abby's hand, "Ah, thanks Abby. I knew they'd sent my badge to someone by mistake."

"What? No," Abby said as Rose went to take the badge, closing her fingers around it and moving her hand away which caused Rose's smile to became a scowl, "I got prefect, not you."

"That's impossible," Rose scoffed, "My parents were both prefects and only one of yours was. And my grades are better than yours. I deserve that badge, there must have been some kind of mistake."

"There wasn't, my Dad-"

"That's it, isn't it?!" Rose shrieked suddenly angrily, "You just got prefect because your Dad's a professor! That's blatant unfair favoritism!"

"You think I just got prefect because of my Dad?" Abby wondered, looking somewhere between hurt and angry, "You don't think I'm good enough to be prefect?"

"Of course not! I'm much better then you at everything! Except Herbology! And that's a stupid subject because you have to get your hands dirty!"

"There's more to it then grades, it's also about being mature and responsible."

"I'm mature and responsible! I'm way more mature and responsible then you!"

"That's why you're throwing a temper tantrum because I was made prefect over you?" Abby demanded, her expression still hurt but her eyes flickered with rage.

"I'm not throwing a temper tantrum!"

"Then why are you yelling?" Scorpius wondered of her and Rose threw him a dark look.

"That's not yelling, THIS IS YELLING!" Rose screamed in his ear loud enough for him to cringe before storming off.

"Okay, I get why you were worried," Albus admitted, rubbing his own ear, "Wonder who the male prefect is."

"Dad didn't say," Abby said quietly, "Didn't either of you get it?"

"No," Scorpius pointed out.

"Reuben Tear might've got it, I don't think he gets in a lot of trouble."

"Nah, was probably Ren Hayashi," Albus offered a name Scorpius didn't recognize, "He's pretty smart."

"Who?" Scorpius wondered in confusion, "I don't remember that name."

"Of course you don't, you don't pay attention to anyone in our year."

"I do too."

"Okay fine, name five people in our year."

"Michael-"

"Who you're not friends with," Abby added.

"Reuben Tear and Angelo Jordan."

"They're our roommates," Albus pointed out, "They don't count."

"Devin Copper, that guy Rose used to date," Scorpius said with a scowl as he struggled to think of more, "Nott, Maximus Nott. And Knight."

"First name?"

"I don't know his first name! Byron? No wait, that's his brother."

"How can you know his brother's first name and not his?!" Albus wondered incredulously, "Just admit it, Scor, you don't pay attention to anyone in our year."

"I know their faces, just... just not their names," Scorpius admitted and realized how much like Varanian he sounds, "I'd like to see you do it. And I'm guessing that Hayashi kid is one of the Asian-looking ones? Right?"

"Hey guys," another familiar voice greeted them obliviously and Scorpius was glad for the pressure to be off him as he turned to see Tobias Latimer, another of his friends but in the same year as Molly rather than them.

Latimer was unfortunately afflicted with a heavy amount of pockmarks due to suffering from a bad strain of Dragon Pox when he was younger, even worse were the deep, think scars running across his face where he'd been slashed by a werewolf's claw a few years ago. It was miraculous they managed to miss his reddish-brown eyes though, his nose and mouth hadn't been so fortunate however. His hair was black but shockingly shorter, cropped from being almost shoulder length the last time they'd seen him. Latimer was smiling though which Scorpius took as a very good sign, Latimer had attempted suicide a few months ago.

"You got a haircut," Albus commented in surprise, "I almost didn't recognize you."

"Yeah, I did," Latimer confirmed with a nod and ran his hand through it, "Feels weird now but I thought it'd make me look more presentable because... well, guess who got Head Boy?"

"Get out, really?!" Albus wondered in shock and Latimer's grin widened as he pulled back his jacket to show he was already wearing his robes, upon which was pinned a 'Head Boy' badge along with his one for prefect, "Congratulations, Lat!"

"Well done," Scorpius added and returned the smile.

"That's great," Abby agreed as she also smiled.

"Thanks," Latimer said somewhat sheepishly, "I still can't believe it. I mean, I only got prefect because the first guy died but... well, I'm assuming their first choice didn't also die. What are the odds of that though, seriously? I just hope I do a good job."

"You'll do great, mate," Albus assured him and clapped him on the back, "You can't do any worse than your counterpart. That Slytherin bitch, Lenore, got Head Girl."

"Abby's got prefect though," Scorpius told him.

"Well done, Abby," Latimer offered and Abby smiled weakly, probably still thinking of Rose's reaction, "You'll have to come to the prefect's compartment, my first duty is to instruct new prefects on their duties."

"Bonjour," another familiar and deep voice greeted them and he saw Corin Maxime-Hagrid come over.

Corin was the year below them but even taller than all of them, he was the son of two half-giants so was extremely tall for his age and was thin unlike his father. He had beady black eyes and wild dark that his comb seemed to have tamed, his face was looking less boyish which looked less jarring on an adult-sized body. His mother was the Headmistress of the French Beauxbatons school where he lived when not in Hogwarts, he was fluent in both French and English.

"If that means hello then hi," Latimer told him with a nod in greeting.

"Yes, that is what it means more or less," Corin confirmed and sighed, "I am so glad to be here, the security travelling between countries has really been knocked up a few notches. I was afraid I'd have missed the train by the time they let me through."

"Think that's bad? I only got back from Egypt yesterday," Scorpius pointed out while some tall boy came over to them, "They banned inter-continental travel after the attack on Greece."

"That sucks," the stranger commented in an unfamiliar somewhat gravelly voice, much to Scorpius' annoyance.

"Can you not eavesdrop on other people's conversation?"

"Get your own friends," Corin snapped irritably.

"Beat it before the Head Boy gives you a detention," Albus added and gestured to Latimer.

"Guys, it's me!" the boy protested and Scorpius turned to look at him properly for the first time, gawking as he realized it was his best friend, Michael Sanford.

Gone was the small, scrawny boy shorter than girls in years below him, Michael had gotten a hell of a growth spurt and was now taller than both him and Albus, he was on par if not slightly taller than Latimer. He was also no longer scraggy, he'd filled out with more muscle tone. He was still Michael though, his left hand was as scarred as Scorpius' from when his arm had been burned and he had a scar going from his forehead across his right eye and down his chin that Scorpius had given him. That eye was a prosthetic and golden from picking up his werewolf nature now, the other was a dazzling hazel and he had the same tangled mess of light auburn hair flecked with blond, brown, red and more gray then there'd been last time. His voice was also clearly no longer high-pitched and girlie, he definitely didn't look like a little kid anymore.

"Michael?" Scorpius wondered in shock and Michael nodded with a grin, "You... You got tall."

"Guess who finally hit puberty?" Michael offered while they continued to stare.

"Merlin's ass, Michael, I didn't even recognize you!" Albus burst out and Michael laughed.

"I kinda figured as much."

"You must've grew over a foot," Latimer agreed, "Damn, you got old fast."

"I have to look up to talk to you now," Abby said what Scorpius had been thinking.

"And guess what else?" Michael continued eagerly as he pointed to the front of his robes, Scorpius had been so focused on the height increase he hadn't notice the badge on his robes. He also still had the friendship bracelet Scorpius had given him on his wrist as well, "I made prefect."

"So did I. And Latimer got Head Boy. Molly didn't get Head Girl though."

"Speaking of Molly, I'm going to go find her to make sure she's not suddenly six feet tall too," Scorpius spoke up when he found his voice as thought of the time and hugged Michael, finding it weird his friend was now taller than him before pulling away, "Catch up with you guys on the train and congratulations on making prefect."

It occurred to him just after he left that he wouldn't be able to catch up with them on the train, Michael and Abby would have to go into the prefect's compartment now. Along with Molly and Latimer, hence why he'd wanted to see his girlfriend beforehand in the first place. And he quickly did see her, his heart skipped a beat and he smiled despite himself. She was beautiful. Curls of crimson cascaded from her head, her bright eyes were the color of the sky on a crystal clear day and her face was flawless, soft, smooth skin untouched by freckles. He'd missed her. Moving over to her though, he realized why she hadn't gone off to find any of them.

"And you need to remember, just because you didn't make Head Girl that doesn't mean it diminishes your chances of a successful career in the Ministry," her father, Percy Weasley, was saying to her. She noticed him though and grinned, her smile lit up her whole face and he returned it easily, "You still made prefect and Quidditch Captain at a record-winning age, these things absolutely still count as positive things in your favor. Combine this with good OWLs and good NEWTs then Ministry will be happy to hav-"

"Hey Dad," Molly interrupted and moved over to him, "You remember my boyfriend, Scorpius?"

"Of course," Percy nodded in acknowledgement and Scorpius couldn't help but feel oddly happy hearing her introduce him as her boyfriend.

"Hello, Sir," Scorpius greeted him politely, "I didn't think you usually dropped Molly off because of work."

"I wasn't going to miss the last chance to see my little girl off to Hogwarts," Percy insisted and smiled happily, his younger daughter was a squib so Lucy could never attend Hogwarts, "I can't believe this is your last year! I can't wait to pick up here as a Hogwarts graduate! I'm so proud of you, Molly. I'll even take the day off and we can do something to celebrate."

"Sounds fun," Scorpius offered dryly as the elder Weasley seemed to have forgotten about him, speaking drew the attention back to himself though.

"And this is your OWL year if I remember correctly, did you make prefect?"

"No, I didn't."

"Ah, a shame," Percy said with evident disappointment, "But hope is not all lost, you still have a shot at Head Boy in a few years and Quidditch Captain after Molly leaves. And you still have your chance to prove your worth now by getting good OWLs, get good OWLs and that will increase your chances of making Head Boy. It also gives you a better shot at the NEWTs you want and need, you should take as many subjects as possible which is only possible if you get high enough results to continue the subject into NEWTs of course. You need good NEWTs for a good career in the Ministry, which you should certainly are thinking of."

"Dad, he doesn't want to hear this," Molly complained.

"My parents already talked about this stuff," Scorpius admitted truthfully and resisted the urge to sigh, they had continued their obsession with it at dinner yesterday, "They're also very keen for me to do well."

"And quite rightly so, all parents should be," Percy continued brightly, "You're both at very important stages in your life right now, OWL and NEWT years are the most important in the whole of your Hogwarts education."

"Scorpius, there you are!" his mother exclaimed as his parents found him, "People are starting to board the train now."

"You remember my girlfriend, Molly?" Scorpius offered and they glanced at her with Percy, "And this is her father, Percy Weasley, we were just talking about the importance of OWLs and NEWTs for the future."

"Good," his father commented dryly with an odd look at Percy before handed Scorpius the book from before: 'Choosing A Career To Be Content With: The Ultimate Guide for Young Minds' which almost made Scorpius groan, "We saved you this as reading material for the journey, it's a long trip so you should be able to make a good start on it."

"An excellent use of the journey time since he's not busy with prefect duties," Percy agreed and Scorpius felt like slapping his face in exasperation, was that all adults cared about? Not the war destroying the world out there? "Now is the time to be thinking of your future career, there are many different branches of the Ministry for you to succeed in."

"See, Scorpius? There is some variety within the Ministry."

"Absolutely."

"You were saying something about boarding the train, Mother?" Scorpius interjected, desperate to be away from the tedious lectures.

"Oh yes, you should both get going," his mother thankfully said and pulled him into a sort of three way hug with Sol as well before kissing his cheek, he failed not to blush in embarrassment at it being done in front of his girlfriend while Molly was embraced by Percy. His own father was against hugging in public and simply patted his shoulder, "Now kiss you brother goodbye."

"Mother!"

"Come on, you're not going to see him for a long time."

"Fine!" Scorpius agreed in frustration and kissed his baby brother on the forehead, Sol cooed and tried to grab his ear but he narrowly avoided the little baby hand, "Bye-bye Sol, your brother loves you very much and I'll see you… eventually. Can I go now?"

"Yes," his mother sighed, "Just take care, focus on your OWLs and we'll write to you real soon."

"And don't obsess over the war," his father added as Scorpius turned, "OWLs take priority, don't stop thinking about your future and career options."

"I got it," Scorpius insisted, "Goodbye now."

"Bye son, we love you," his mother called after him as he trudged onto the train with Molly.

"I never thought our parents would have something in common like that," Molly commented as they made it onto the train, waving briefly and leaving their parents sights.

"Neither did I," Scorpius admitted truthfully.

He turned around to face her finally, he opened his mouth but was silenced as she pressed her lips against his for the first time in months. He kissed her back as passionately as a starving man was for food, relishing the feel of her soft lips against his. He encircled his arms around her, pulling her closer and drowning in the blissful scent of cherries that always seemed to surround her. Her fingers glided through his hair, making his head tingled at her touch. He wished he didn't have that stupid book in one hand before Molly abruptly pulled away.

"Are you okay?" Molly asked him worriedly, her face still inches from his own, "I didn't mean to come on so strong, I just really missed you. I didn't freak you out again, did I?"

"No, I'm fine," Scorpius assured her, the previous year he'd panicked when they'd tried to make out as he was reminded of some bad memories from his time at the hands of abusive muggles and they were still somewhat cautious. Unfortunately. Scorpius hated that he was like that, it was shameful and embarrassing and he tried not to think about it. He caressed her face with his free hand and felt even more self-conscious, what would Molly think of his scarred hand now? He tried to shove those thoughts aside for the moment, "I missed you too. And now I'm wishing I had made prefect just so we didn't have to sit apart on the train."

"Don't worry about it," Molly said with a smile and he noticed up close the shadows of fatigue beneath her eyes, "Today's Friday, we have the whole weekend without classes and homework to catch up."

"Good, there's some stuff I need to catch you guys up on too," Scorpius pointed out as he recalled the woman, "It shouldn't take all weekend though."

"I'm glad," Molly offered and kissed him again before pulling away, "I've got to get to the prefects compartment, I'll see you later."

"We can share a carriage together," Scorpius called after her before going to find a compartment or his friends, whichever he came across first.

---

James Sirius Potter was miserable. He'd gotten his OWL results back and his mum had been angry about them, apparently three bad grades cancelled out the good ones. He'd been so upset he'd accidentally blurted out his shameful secret and now his family hated him. His parents had said it didn't matter, that it was alright and they loved him anyway but he knew it was a lie. He could see it in their eyes, see the way they looked at him. Disappointed, ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated, maybe even a little disgusted. He knew that was the reason his dad had had to work instead of coming to the platform to see them off, he'd been spending more time at home with the lately so it was the obvious reason.

His best friend, Carver, thought he was overreacting but James knew his own parents better then Carver. He knew they hated him now, it wasn't acceptable for the first born son of Harry Potter to be gay. It would be fine for Albus or Lily but not him. He was the eldest, he was the one supposed to carry on the bloodline. Maybe that was even why Albus had gotten given the Invisibility Cloak and not him, deep down maybe his dad had known all along and that was why he didn't want to be around him. Carver was the only one of his friends who knew so he couldn't talk about it while they were in the compartment or in the carriages, he just sat in brooding silence as he felt his anger built. It wasn't fair. Why did everything have to go wrong for him? What had he done to deserve this? Was he not a good person?

On the way to the Great Hall, he noticed someone. That Slytherin brat, the cocky, stuck-up, little git who thought he was better than everyone else. Just sauntering along like he owned the place, like he belonged there just because he was straight and James wasn't. The boy had a perfect life, his dad loved him, his dad spent time with him, his dad wasn't ashamed of him, he didn't have to worry about his dad being killed in the war. He'd show that little bastard how to have a good life when James' sucked, the boy deserved to suffer much more than he did. He slipped out his wand and went over to the much shorter boy, he was only like twelve or something. James put his arm around him and aimed his wand at the brat's neck, the arrogance in his eyes wavered.

"Come with me or I'll jinx you," James hissed and the boy nodded meekly as James led him into an unused classroom nearby.

"Please, don't hurt me," the boy whimpered pathetically as James closed the door, the boy fumbled for his wand but James was faster. Plus he already had his in his hand.

He disarmed the boy and removed the two prosthetic legs he had to stop him trying to get away, the boy was crying before James landed his first punch like the pathetic animal- no. Animal was too good for a Slytherin, thing. Like the pathetic thing he was. He wasn't a person, he was a thing. He wasn't even hurting a person so why should anyone be mad at him? James straddled him and hammered his fists against the smaller boy over and over, the boy just kept trying to protect his face while James pummeled out his rage until his hands started to feel sore. James stood but he still didn't feel any better, it didn't make his dad love him, it didn't make him like women.

He gave a cry of rage and lashed out with his foot again, kicking the boy where guys don't want to be kicked. The boy clutched his privates in pain, which left his face unprotected. James launched another kick, this time at the boy's face and heard a crunch as foot struck nose. James smirked, liking the sound of the crunch and the crimson that sprouted from it. It showed the boy was suffering, which was what he wanted. He kicked him a few more times before dragging the battered lump in the corner furthest from the door, putting the boy's wand in the furthest corner from that and a leg in the other two.

James flicked his wand again, sending the stacked desks and chairs crashing down on the boy before leaving. He locked the door behind him and went to wash his hands, feeling somewhat better about himself. He then returned to the Great Hall, having missed the boring Sorting and could dive right in to the delicious meal. He was in a much better mood, laughing and joking with his friends as normal. Except Carver, who seemed oddly quiet. Carver was muscular, strong, handsome, he had a perfect voice that James could listen to for hours. He decided he'd wait until they were back in the dormitory with more privacy before asking what was wrong, it might be something personal. His worry for his friend ebbed away his good mood, his dampening cheer allowing his previous concerns to resurface. He wanted to hit someone again by the time they were back in Gryffindor Tower.

"Where is he, James?" Carver asked him the second they were alone while their other dorm mates were in the bathroom.

"What?" James wondered in confusion.

"Byron Knight, your favorite punching bag. He never hobbled back into the Great Hall."

"Maybe he crawled back to the Slytherin hole in the dungeon where he belongs?"

"Without the password?"

"He's in some classroom near the Great Hall. What does it matter?" James asked while Carver took off immediately, "Where are you going?!"

"To make sure he's alright!" Carver called back.

James scowled, worried that Carver could get caught from being out after curfew. And for what? Something inhuman? Something his dad had fought two wars to stop? He closed Carver's drapes to cover for him and got ready for bed himself, lying there later listening to the others snore and wondering whether he should go after Carver. Or whether Carver had been caught already. He was starting to feel incredibly anxious and was relieved when Carver did finally return.

"Why did you leave?" James demanded of him, "You could've gotten in trouble!"

"It's a good thing I did go," Caver insisted, looking almost annoyed with him, "You crushed him with desks, I think some of his ribs were broken because he could barely breathe."

"Brat deserved it," James shrugged it off uncaring, he hoped it had hurt him to barely breathe, "What did you do?"

"I took him to the Hospital Wing," Carver recounted and James started to scowl at the thought of being ratted out, "Don't worry, I just left him outside the door. I knocked so Marigold would come investigate and then ran so it wouldn't be traced back to either of us. Unless Byron talks anyway."

"He won't if he knows what's good for him," James snapped darkly and rolled onto his side.

The brat would pay for making his best friend risk getting in trouble. That had clearly been the Slytherin's plan all along after all, deliberately make James mad so that he'd beat him bad enough for Carver to be concerned. Then Carver would get caught and be stuck in detentions instead of being able to hang out with him and the others. It was a diabolical scheme to say the least, the Slytherin manipulation knew no bounds but James was smart enough to figure it out. James would make him pay for that, how dare he plan to get his friend in trouble.

---

Part 2: To Hogwarts and Rutherford

---

It wasn't the most pleasant journey back to Hogwarts in recent memory with Molly, Michael, Abby and Latimer being in the prefect's compartment. Vern sat with Olivia and her friends in a different compartment, Corin buried his head in a book about early preparation for OWLs despite being a year away, Maurice wouldn't stop talking about how amazing Lenore was, Rose wouldn't stop talking about how unfair it was that Abby had gotten prefect instead of her, Albus wouldn't stop glaring at Orous. As he and Orous were more soft spoken of the group, any attempt at alternate conversation were quickly overridden by the louder Rose and Maurice. Scorpius almost resigned himself to reading his parents' stupid career book.

Once the train pulled up, they headed out and where quickly soaked by the lashing rain. Professor Hagrid's booming voice managed to trump the downpour, he pitied the poor little First Years who'd be drowned by the time they reached the castle. Thankfully the carriages were now hooded, the coverings preventing them from becoming drenched further. He got a carriage with Molly as planned along with Michael and Orous. Albus, Abby, Latimer and Corin - Scorpius suspected he was sick of Rose and Maurice talking - got a second while Rose, Maurice, Olivia and Vern got a third. That was more pleasant, he got to get a word in at least and talk about some of the things - not Shadow related, he'd rather tell them that together - he'd seen in Egypt, Orous talked about how they'd moved house over the summer and Molly about how her dad had been constantly on at her about NEWTs and careers all summer. They arrived before Michael could say much about his beyond how Jack had been helping out Crystal with his younger siblings, Michael had a strange habit of referring to his parents by first name. Although he was still getting used to Michael being taller than him now.

As much as Scorpius did still think he could help the war more outside of Hogwarts, it felt good to be able to walk the familiar stone halls again. Vern and Orous went over to the Hufflepuff table while the rest of them joined the Gryffindor one, they sat on the end closest to the staff table due to Maurice's deafness and need to be near the front to translate. His eyes drifted to the staff table where he saw familiar faces, both welcome and unwelcome. In fact, there only seemed to be one staff change. Professors Ashain, Longbottom, Koray, Vipera, Kresmir and Elina were all there who he liked well enough, he also had no issue with Oring or Krum but he wasn't in their classes and Marigold the Head Healer too. Professor Ashain's children, Antonius and Cassia, were also there and gave him a wave as he was on friendly terms with both. Grant was unfortunately still there, as was Midas and Rivers - whom he was glad to not have classes with - along with the young and somewhat moronic Headmaster, Silvanus Elwood. Which left just one person unaccounted for, a strong looking man whose robes seemed too tight because of it. He had very short, scruffy dark hair, a square jaw buried in stubble and dark eyes that seemed to emanate rage. He looked vaguely familiar though, Scorpius thought he may have been one of the counsellors from last year, the one he'd seen threatening Leebin. That couldn't be a good sign.

Professor Hagrid returned momentarily, carefully avoiding the three legged stool with the old Sorting Hat up at the front. Which was torn, tattered, battered, scorched, singed, and he doubted the recent taking of it out after the Scepter at the end of the previous year had helped its health any. The new First Years came in a few minutes later, led by none other than his cousin, Marius Calderon. Calderon - or Tommy Lestrange before he'd changed it to hide his parentage - was the son of his Great Aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange, and they'd been through a lot together. The tall, lanky assistant lived and worked at Hogwarts helping out the Headmaster and other staff, he was somewhat eccentric to say the least but a good person and could do incredible feats with wandless magic which came in handy. He always dressed like a muggle and today worse his common attire of thin sweater, jeans and sneakers along with a silver dragon necklace that Scorpius had given him as a gift, in turn he'd given Scorpius the silver thestral ring he always wore. Calderon was incredibly pale but considered handsome nonetheless even if he was in his later thirties now, his short hair was neat and black like his eyes. He led the First Years up to the front cheerfully with sparks of light shooting up around his feet as he walked, Calderon's uneasy control of magic meant he tended to have lights around him.

"I know I don't look pretty

Time has worn me down

But make no mistake, my friends

I'm still the smartest hat in town

For I can see inside your mind

Deep down there in your heart

See you for what you truly are

Know where you should start

Perhaps Gryffindor is for you

Where courage finds its mark

Those with bold and daring

As others would remark

Or maybe Slytherin is your place

For those with ambition and guile

If cunning is in your mind

You might fit in with this pile

Or Ravenclaw could be yours

If all you want to is learn

Those with wit and wisdom

If knowledge is what you yearn

Or none of those you think is you

Maybe Hufflepuff is your home

The fairest out of all the four

Where loyalty and kindness roam

Its dark times we live in now

Regardless of where you'll be

Remember we all still are one

What the future holds... Wait and see."

The hall burst into applause while the First Years looked around in confusion, uncertain whether they should be clapping or not. He noticed that the newcomer didn't applaud, his expression was set somewhere between boredom and a scowl as if the song had offended him.

"When I call out your name, come forward and sit on this stool. I will then place the Sorting Hat on your head and it will decide your house, go towards the applauding house and join your new housemates," Calderon said to the First Years, speaking slower than usual as Elwood made him and saying the words he was told to.

Scorpius glanced to the Headmaster as Calderon called the first name he didn't recognize, Elwood was rather young to be in the Headmaster's chair. His hair was bouncy, bright, blond curls but part of his face was severely scarred by some kind of burn from a previous attack. It cut through his eye and widened on his cheek and carried down onto his neck, the scarred eyelid was drooped making it permanently semi-closed and hard to see but the good eye was a blue so dark it was almost navy, the good side of his face had dimples. Despite his injuries, Elwood usually looked quite cheerful but not today. He just seemed unhappy. He rested his face on his hands and watched the Sorting with an expression more befitting of a funeral.

"What's the bets that's Calderon's going to forget the names and have to check a list?" Albus offered to no one in particular, "He can't remember them all again, that's hundreds of names already. I say, this is the year he'll forget."

"I'll take that bet, Al," Latimer agreed, "Two Sickles say that Calderon remembers."

"Deal!"

Scorpius went back to watching the Sorting, Calderon would call a name and the child would run forwards so he'd magically raise the hat then lower it back onto their head until a house was called. The hat would magically be lifted and the child would run to the applauding table, Scorpius just had to listen for the Gryffindors and clap for them. It was a sea of faces he didn't recognize and for a long time he thought that there wouldn't even be any family names he recognized, it wasn't until the N's that he heard a name he knew vaguely.

"Nott, Aloysius!" Calderon called and Vern's girlfriend's younger brother stepped forward with confidence, he had the same dark brown hair and sapphire eyes as his siblings but he had rosy, chubby cheeks.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat decided quite quickly and the boy happily ran off to join his siblings in Slytherin. It wasn't long after that another semi-familiar name was called.

"Ollivander, Gaston!"

A boy buried in scraggly brown hair stepped forward shakily, almost fearfully. His hair was so long it covered most of his face but he could see scared slivers of silvery eyes peeking though, much like the other wandmakers in the family. His bony fingers drummed the side of the stool and from the bits of his mouth he could see through the strands of hair, he was biting his lip.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Gaston quickly scurried over to the Ravenclaw table and the Sorting returned to a string of names that Scorpius didn't recognize until finally, Ryker Zylan joined Gryffindor and the ceremony ended. Albus heaved a sigh and handed over the sickles to Latimer, having lost the bet on Calderon not remembering all the names. Calderon took the hat and stool out the side door near the staff table, when he returned he folded his arms and leaned against the wall in wait. Elwood stood and cleared his throat nervously while Calderon was doing that, he made an attempt at a smile but it failed.

"For new students, welcome to Hogwarts! And for old students, welcome back!" Elwood greeted them, his attempt to sound welcoming did do better than his attempt at a smile. He paused briefly to glance at the door as if expecting an attack, it had happened before but not this time, "I'm sure we're all hungry and eager for the feast so I'll keep this short. The Forbidden Forest is off-limits to all students, this is for your own safety so do well to remember that. Quidditch tryouts will be held the second week of term, it's the responsibility of Quidditch Captains to consult the Flying Instructor to arrange them and put up a notice in your house Common Room for those who want to try out. And finally, in light of the Shadow War the Ministry thinks that the safety of the next generation of magical minds takes priority. They have err... kindly sent an attaché, Mr Gerhard Rutherford, to ensure high standards of safety are kept here in Hogwarts. That's all so-"

"Thank you for the introduction," a voice interjected and Elwood gaped in surprise as Gerhard Rutherford - Scorpius could only assume it was him, it was the same counsellor who'd threatened Leebin last year - stood, Elwood closed his mouth promptly but uncertainly as if he hadn't expected Rutherford to speak. The man strode around the table so he was in front of the staff table and idly rubbed his hands together, Elwood only looked more unsure and seemed to hover between deciding whether he should sit or stand, "As your current Headmaster said, I am Gerhard Rutherford the attaché from the Ministry responsible for your safety during your education here and I have the power to change whatever I see fit in order to ensure your continued safety.

"First and foremost, this seating arrangement is... just awful. There's older students mixed with younger students and younger students mixed with older students, it would be difficult to tell if anyone was missing with everyone mixed up like that. As of tomorrow morning, there will be a strict seating arrangement. When you come for breakfast, each place shall be named and that will be your seat for the entire year. This is for your own safety, to not comply will result in detention," Rutherford continued as he paced at the front, pausing suddenly and snapping his fingers at Calderon like he was some sort of dog, even Calderon blinked in surprise, "Assistant, I'll give you more details on that and I except that worked out by tomorrow morning."

"Alright. Thanks for that, Mr Rutherford," Elwood spoke up, "Now let's begin the-"

"I wasn't done!" Rutherford barked and threw a murderous look back at the headmaster. Elwood immediately plonked himself down unhappily, burying his face in his hands before the attaché turned back to them, "The seating arrangement is for your own safety and failure to comply will count as a minor offense. The system of punishment is being overhauled to make it more clear to both students and staff what constitutes as acceptable behavior, misbehavior is now divided into two categories: major and minor depending on the severity of your crime. Three minor offenses is the equivalent of a major offense, three major offenses or nine minor will result in suspension. Whether the suspension is temporary or a permanent expulsion, depends entirely on the individual's situation and record.

"For those interested in what constitutes a major or minor offense, a list of guidelines will be put on the notice board in all Common Rooms by tomorrow. Assistant-" Rutherford paused to snap his fingers at Calderon once again, Scorpius hated him already, "- I will give you the guidelines, I want them put up by the morning. All prefects are required to come to a mandatory meeting here at three o'clock sharp tomorrow to discuss the guidelines and your role in enforcing them, failure to attend proves you're unworthy to be prefect and will be stripped of your badge in favor of a more deserving student. All students are also forbidden from using magic in the corridors, staircases, Great Hall, Hospital Wing or Library. For your benefit, at the end of every term your teachers will provide a grade level you're working at and an effort level you're working at. This is to get a better sense of how you're doing, low grades and lack of effort can be a sign of turmoil, possibly something threatening your safety so we need to know to rectify it.

"And I think that is all for the moment," Rutherford finally concluded and cast them a smile that clashed with the coldness of his eyes, making it look very ominous and twisted before he made his way back to his seat, "I hope we have a pleasant year. And back to you, Headmaster."

"Now you can eat," Elwood offered as he freed his face from his hands quickly.

Elwood gestured vaguely to Calderon as he sighed, Calderon clapped and the tables were immediately filled with food and the delicious smell. Calderon left just after and he noticed Elwood shove his plate away and slip out while the rest of the hall burst into conversation, no one being particularly in favor of the new rules. Especially the one in regards to seating arrangements.

"Scor, could you please ask Abigaia to pass me the apple sauce?" Rose asked him stiffly, drawing his attention away from the staff table.

"She's right there," Scorpius pointed out in exasperation, "She's within earshot."

"Scorpius, I'm not speaking to Abigaia. So you could please ask her to pass me the apple sauce?"

"Abby, can you do that?" Scorpius asked of her, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"Do what? I didn't hear anything," Abby told him and he did roll his eyes then.

"Rose would you like you to pass the apple sauce."

"Ah, well please tell Miss Weasley that if she wants the apple sauce then maybe she should work harder to reach it instead of getting mad that someone else happened to be close to it."

"Abby, don't be like this too. Be rational."

"I am being rational, I'm not the one who thinks making prefect is more important than friendship. I wouldn't hate my friends for making prefect."

"You're not my friend anymore!" Rose snapped at her venomously.

"I see your hearing has returned," Latimer quipped sarcastically but Rose continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"You knew that was mine and you took it from me!"

"I was chosen!" Abby protested.

"You could have turned it down!"

"Why should I turn it down?!"

"Because you were supposed to be my friend!"

"I'm supposed to turn down something good happening to me just because you wanted it?" Abby wondered in confusion.

"Yes!"

"Rose, don- Ow!" Scorpius started to say but was cut off by a violent kick to his shins from Albus, "What was that for?!"

"You don't want to get in the way of women when they're fighting," Albus pointed out.

"We're not fighting! We're not even talking! We're done!" Rose insisted and flicked her hair back over her shoulder, "I just need someone to pass me the apple sauce!"

"Oh sure, Rose, you should have said," Abby said and picked the small container up as if to hand it to her before emptying the entire contents onto Rose's plate to drown the whole plate, she then handed the container to a fuming Rose, "There you go."

"How mature of you, prefect," Rose sneered darkly, "But you know, at least my hair isn't ugly. You look stupid with that style at that short length."

"Well, when you're being tortured by Shadows then maybe you can remember to tell them to not cut your hair off," Abby said much more quietly and her eyes flickered with pain at the memory while Maurice's face lit up like it was Christmas.

"What spells or potions or items did they torture you with? What techniques did they use? Was the purpose punishment or for information? Was it a solo or group?" Maurice questioned immediately brightly before scowling and his body jerked slightly, "Ow! Albus, did you just kick me?"

"You can't ask things like that!" Albus hissed while Abby picked at her plate unhappily, "Don't be so insensitive!"

"I was being sensitive," Maurice insisted, sounding somehow genuine, "That's why I waited a few months. So Ab-"

"Why don't you tell me about Lenore again?" Albus blurted out to cut him off asking Abby again, a fake smile plastered onto his face, "I so enjoy hearing about her."

"Oh, sure," Maurice grinned, "I can give you advice on how to snog a girl, I'm a master of making out now."

"Maurice, you've snogged her once and it was for like five minutes!" Corin protested and Maurice looked slightly puzzled.

"Five minutes? It felt like five hours, I knew it wasn't that long but I still thought it was a more substantial length of time. Interesting."

"Why do you have to make everything sound weird?" Albus complained.

"Why do you have to keep talking about that stupid Slytherin slut?!" Rose snapped even louder and Maurice's eyes darkened at the insult to Lenore before his lips curled into a cold smirk.

"Well you may think that but at least she could make prefect," Maurice commented acidly and Rose responded by throwing her plate at him, showering him in the overflowing apple sauce.

"Asshole!" Rose yelled at him before storming off.

"Good to be back," Scorpius grumbled under his breath.

The rest of the meal passed uneventfully but somewhat awkwardly, he was glad when they were finished and could go. Scorpius didn't even know why Rose was so upset, he wasn't mad that Michael got over prefect over him and was happy for his friend. In fact, seeing Michael's easy smile and the kind welcoming way he spoke to the First Years, Scorpius wasn't even surprised he hadn't got it. Sure, Scorpius' grades were better but Michael was responsible and better with people, Scorpius wouldn't know what to say to the First Years and he probably wouldn't even have remembered to smile.

He didn't sleep when he got back to their dormitory though, for the first time in months he was able to use magic freely which meant he could practice for becoming an animagus. Michael's transformations were difficult for him to the point he accidentally hurting himself during it and he wasn't allowed to be around him despite Michael talking Wolfsbane - which was provided free to all werewolves by the Ministry as part of Lupin's Law - but animals could be around him safely. Lupin's friends had become animagi to be with him to make his transformations easier for him, Scorpius had been determined to do the same for Michael since learning about it. Wyatt had told him how, it just took time and practice. And it was something that took a long time to even start to show progress. Still, he would keep trying. He drew the drapes shut around his bed and cast the first spell, Facila, which caused a spark of white light and the feeling of being rained on overcame him. The second spell was Fianima, he felt a slight pressure to indicate it had worked and the rest was simply sitting there and willing yourself to change. Sometimes he felt tingly sensations but otherwise, there was no progress. You just had to keep practicing over a long period of time and eventually you'd start to get results. Eventually.

It was almost relaxing really, got his mind off the stressful things in his life. Which, were most things in his life actually. He crawled under the covers much later then everyone else and fell back into an easy sleep, he thought using his magical muscles also tired him out more so he could sleep easier. He woke the next day and dressed into normal clothes as it was a Saturday, including his leather jacket which was his favorite item of clothing. He pulled back the drapes and jolted in surprise at seeing the now tall Michael, he was still getting used to that. He pulled them back on the other side and jolted in worse shock at Albus in his underwear.

"Geez, Al! Put on some clothes!" Scorpius complained at him as he looked away.

"Oh good, you're up!" Albus exclaimed, sounding relieved, "I wanted to ask you guys something, really, really important."

"Sure," Michael agreed, coming over to them.

"Okay, so do I look fat to you?"

"I thought you said this was important?!" Scorpius burst out.

"It's important to me!" Albus protested, "If I'm fat then no girl will want to go out with me!"

"Your love life and weight isn't important!"

"It is to me. You already aren't fat and you have a girlfriend so you don't understand but this is really important to me, everyone has or has had a girlfriend but me. I'm almost sixteen years old and the son of Harry Potter, it's humiliating," Albus continued and sighed heavily, "So tell me, do I look fat? I've been really trying."

"I never thought you were fat in the first place," Michael pointed out and Albus let out a breath of relief.

"Neither did I, so can we go to breakfast now?" Scorpius wondered of them, his irritation at the pointlessness of Albus' worry coming through more then he'd meant.

"Someone's cranky today," Albus commented before he got dressed while he and Michael waited.

After Albus was ready, they headed down for breakfast. They had to wait for the staircase instead of just walking down easily in true Hogwarts. They were just nearing the doors to the Great Hall when he noticed the two familiar faces of Professor Ashain's children, Antonius and Cassia. Antonius was the eldest, having turned nine over the summer while Cassia was seven. Like their father, they both had dark chestnut eyes but only Antonius had the same extremely dark auburn hair like every Ashain he knew except Cassia. Cassia's hair looked rather like someone had dumped a pile of straw on it, both in texture and color. Usually it did anyway, the almost shoulder-length hair was a light blue right now for some reason.

"Hey guys!" Cassia exclaimed excitedly as she saw them, racing over and throwing her small arms out to try hug all three of them at once, "I missed you so much! You got tall, Michael!"

"I missed you too," Albus offered while scowling deeply as she pulled away, Antonius walked over much more calmly with his huge, hulking, hairball of a dog and held up a hand in greeting to go with his smile while Albus scratched his head, "But err... what... what happened to your hair?"

"Daddy let me charm it blue! Isn't it cool?"

"Very cool," Michael told her kindly which only widened her toothy grin, she wasn't fond of her hair because it was like her mother's. Clearly, she hadn't gotten over that yet.

"And very blue," Scorpius added.

"Much better than the time you poured ink over it," Albus agreed with a nod.

"I think it looks better than that but I do think that black hair would be cool," Cassia pointed out while Albus raised an eyebrow.

"And since when did you speak proper?"

"People grow up, Albie," Cassia stated with the utmost seriousness in her tone.

"Yeah, Albie," an unwelcome voice mocked and Scorpius threw a glare at James but James was pushed out of the way by a scrawny First Year with mousy hair, the boy made a beeline for Albus.

"Hello!" the boy greeted him, grinned from ear to ear before erupting into rapid speech, "I saw you yesterday at the feast. And on the platform. And on the train. And on the other platform. You're Harry Potter's son, aren't you?! You look just like him!"

"Err... Yes, yes I am," Albus admitted uncertainly while James scowled deeply, "Albus Severus Potter."

"I'm Colin Creevey!" the boy informed them with a squeal of delight while pulling out a photograph, of Harry Potter no less, "My Dad knows your Dad and my uncle who I was named after died in the Second Wizarding War and he also knows your Dad, they were friends. I just wondered if I could get your autograph since you're the son of the greatest wizard in the world. And your Dad's would be great. And your Mum's. But that's just because I love the Holyhead Harpies."

"Sure," Albus agreed and took the photo from the boy, Colin immediately plunged his hands into his pockets to withdraw a quill and vial of ink.

"Hey!" James barked and stalked over angrily, "You know I'm Harry Potter's son too! I'm the eldest! I'm the first born!"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't recognize you. Your brother looks much more like your Dad then you do," Colin apologized while James' eyes burned with rage which Colin was oblivious too as he started grinning again while Albus awkwardly started trying to autograph the photo with nothing to lean on, "Can I have your autograph too? Your Dad is the greatest wizard in the world."

"My Daddy is the greatest wizard in the world," Cassia scoffed which earned her a venomous look from James, "Even better then Harry Potter."

"HOW DARE YOU?!" James spat at her darkly, his eyes glittering with murderous rage while others around stopped to see what was happening, "My Dad is Harry Potter, Ashain is no one! My Dad defeated Voldemort!"

"My Daddy defeated lots of Dark Wizards when he was an Auror. He's just more modester, which makes him even better because bragging is bad."

"My Dad doesn't brag, he just is heroic and everyone worships him because his deeds were that great."

"What great deeds?" Cassia demanded and crossed her arms determinedly, James looked incredulous.

"Oh, I don't know... KILLING THE DARKEST AND MOST EVIL WIZARD OF ALL TIME!" James screamed at her but Cassia remained entirely unfazed, movement seemed to slow to a halt at this to see what was happening. Cassia frowned.

"What? Harry Potter hasn't killed the Shadow Master."

"I don't mean the Shadow Master! I mean Voldemort!"

"You think Voldemort was is worse than the Shadow Master?" Cassia wondered and snorted in disbelief, "Yeah right. And if Voldemort is worse than the Shadow Master then why hasn't Harry Potter beat him yet?"

"Yeah, why hasn't he?" a random person from the crowd called out and James swiveled his head furiously as a muttering erupted from the crowd.

"He hasn't beaten him yet because the Shadow Master is a coward!" James yelled at her, "He hides in the Shadows instead of stepping forward to fight like a man! Even Voldemort had the balls to do that but his son hides like the pathetic weakling he is because he knows Harry Potter would slaughter him!"

"Or he just doesn't think Harry Potter is worth killing," Cassia pointed out casually.

"He doesn't think the man who killed his Father is worth killing?! Of course he wants my Dad dead! My Dad is the Chosen One! The one destined to defeat Voldemort and he did!"

"It's easy to do something that is prohofmenorized acause it's supposed to happen, its much braver to fight when you aren't special and don't already know the outcome."

"You're just a pathetic, insolent little brat who doesn't understand anything! He knows my Dad is the Greatest Wizard in the world! My Dad, who killed his father and defeated him on multiple occasions while he was still a child! How many Dark Wizards have you killed, huh?!"

"At least five," Cassia told him and James jolted in surprise.

"LIAR!"

"She's telling the truth, she had birds slaughtering the enemy," Albus offered helpfully and James flashed his brother a dark look before turning back to the girl.

"Well my Dad survived the Killing Curse, twice. He's special and everyone who is smarter than an idiotic child can see that," James spat and Cassia smirked.

"My brother survived the Killing Curse, it's not that special," Cassia announced casually and an even louder wave of whispers swept the ever-growing crowd.

"LIAR!" James screamed again.

"Cassia, shut up!" Antonius hissed at his sister.

"She's not lying, it's true. I saw it," Scorpius spoke up without thinking and James threw him a murderous look, Antonius just looked desperate.

"Scorpius, shut up!"

"Liar!" James repeated his seemingly new favorite word, "You honestly expect me to believe a slimy piece of scum like you?"

"For once you're right," Antonius lied immediately, "They're making it up. I didn't get hit by a Killing Curse. My sister likes to exaggerate and Scorpius likes to be nice to us."

"We have prove," Cassia announced, "My brother has a lightning bolt scar just like Harry Potter's. Except it's bigger. Bigger is better."

"No, I don't! Shut up all of you!"

"I don't see a scar," James spat, eying Antonius' face.

"Because there's none."

"It's on his chest, silly, under his shirt," Cassia pointed out before turning to her brother, "Show them."

"No! There's nothing to show because there is no scar," Antonius insisted stubbornly and folded his arms tightly across his chest as if afraid she might try yank it up anyway.

"Show us this great scar then," James sneered disbelievingly and Antonius looked exasperated.

"Is no one listening to me?!"

"Yeah, show us this alleged scar!" someone else called out.

"Yeah, prove it!" called another.

"Put your money where your mouth is!"

"Prove Potter wrong!"

"You're scared because you know you're a liar!"

"Lift up your damn shirt or I'll lift it myself!" James spat and Antonius took a step back.

"I want an adult!" Antonius yelled to no one in particular.

Scorpius didn't see who fired the spell nor did he hear an incantation if it hadn't been non-verbal at all but the jet of light struck Antonius, the boy was knocked back and his buttoned red shirt was immediately undone. Revealing the angry, fresh lightning bolt burned into his flesh over his heart for all to see. James' jaw dropped and the crowd erupted into all out noise, Antonius closed his shirt immediately and started fumbling to button it back up while looking on the verge of tears. James' shock slowly turned to anger, his fists clenched and he started trembling with barely controlled rage.

"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO DIMINISH MY FATHER'S GREATNESS WITH YOUR TACKY IMITATION!?" James screamed.

Everything happened at once. James threw a punch at Antonius. The dog leaped up to defend its master. Scorpius drew his wand and cast a stunner. James' punch landed first, clobbering the child and throwing him against the wall from the force of the fist smashing into his small face. The dog's bite landed second, sharp white teeth chomping down on pink flesh and causing crimson to bubble out. Scorpius' spell landed last, colliding with James and throwing the unconscious boy back through the crowd to thud to the ground. The dog continued to bark viciously at James' unmoving body while Scorpius went to help Antonius up like Michael and Cassia were doing, he was blinking rapidly as his eye was already red and starting to swell.

"What in the hell is going on here?!" a voice demanded and Scorpius looked back up to see a tall figure parting the crowd, Gerhard Rutherford. He paused and looked around as if to survey the scene, the students continuing moving back to leave James in a clearing along with Scorpius, Albus, Michael, Colin, the Ashain kids and the dog who stopped barking but stood in front of Antonius protectively regardless. The man strode forward and flicked his wand at James, immediately reviving him.

"My hand!" James howled in pain and clutched his bloody hand as he got up, "That beast bit my hand!"

"What do you expect? You punched its owner in the face," Scorpius protested and gestured to Antonius' wound, "It was just defending him."

"He had it coming for trying to diminish my Father's heroics! And you stunned me, you son of a bitch!"

"Is that what happened?" Rutherford wondered and James seemed to notice him for the first time, "You punched the child, his dog attacked you in defense and the boy stunned you also in defense?"

"I'm Harry Potter's son!" James blurted out as if it was the most important thing in the world, "That Malfoy psycho attacked me, I demand you expel him along with Ashain's brats and execute that damned mutt!"

"What?! He attacked a little kid, we were just acting in defense!" Scorpius protested, "If anyone should be expelled then it's him!"

"I've heard enough," Rutherford insisted as he held up his hand as if to silence them, "Atticus Ashain's children are not yet Hogwarts students therefore not my responsibility, I have no power to punish or expel them or their pets from these grounds so whatever issues you have them do not matter. That is solely at the discretion of their parent and guardian."

"That's a load of-" James started to say but was interrupted, Scorpius was rather glad Rutherford had no power over them.

"I said I'd heard enough, Mr Potter. It also means that I have no obligation or reason to punish you for harming one of them."

"And quite rightly too!" James scoffed with an air of arrogance that caused Rutherford's eyes to dart back to him while Scorpius scowled, angered James wouldn't be punished for hurting a nine year old. Did just no one care what happened to nine year old wizards?

"When do you come of age, Mr Potter?" Rutherford asked of him curiously and James looked slightly surprised for a minute before recovering.

"December," James told him and Rutherford gave something resembling a smile that wiped James of him.

"I may have no right to do anything now but you should be aware that coming of age changes things, you'll be an adult and things that slide for children won't for adults. It's a crime for an adult to physically assault a child like you did, you probably wouldn't get severe punishment for a single punch but someone would still be well within their rights to arrest you. Someone such as the boy's father, Atticus Ashain and Neville Longbottom have both been technically reinstated as Aurors after all. If the assault was more than a punch then you'd be in more severe trouble, especially as he's not even of Hogwarts age and defenseless. You might do well to bear that in mind," Rutherford informed James and paced over to him, taking James' injured hand to inspect it. James cringed as it apparently aggravated the wound but Rutherford seemed to be looking at something else, "Interesting, I've never seen someone with such badly grazed knuckles from a single punch."

"I... I have sensitive skin."

"You wouldn't have anything to do with the attack on Byron Knight last night, would you?" Ruther asked him calmly, meeting James' eyes, "Someone beat the Second Year Slytherin half to death, it was a brutal assault."

"No, Sir," James said rather quietly while Rutherford held his gaze, "I wouldn't know anything about that. Who attacks a Second Year the first day back?"

"Hmm... Very well," Rutherford mused and abruptly let go of James' hand, James cringed again at the pain. The attaché's eyes darted to James' other hand and Scorpius looked too, seeing on both hands the knuckles were grazed. Scorpius would bet that James had attacked that poor kid after all and he was near certain that Rutherford knew it too, even if he couldn't prove it. Scorpius was just starting to wonder whether he was really so bad after all when the attaché turned to Scorpius, "Now you on the other hand, Mr Malfoy, you deliberately broke the rule I just gave last night about not using magic in the corridors and assaulted a fellow student."

"It was in defense!" Scorpius protested and Rutherford gave him the psychotic semblance he had for a smile instead.

"I really don't care. If something happens then you get an adult, you do not under any circumstance take matters into your own hands. You also have no obligation or reason to defend non-students anyway. This is going down as a major offense, fifty points from Gryffindor and you will be receiving detention from me," Rutherford informed him as he rubbed his hands off each other again, losing his smile, "You haven't even been here a day and already stirring up trouble? It does not bode well for your future, Mr Malfoy, your OWL year is especially important so wasting time not on that makes your future even more grim."

"That's not fair," Cassia spoke up but Rutherford ignored her completely.

"Two altercations before even breakfast on the first day... It just goes to show that Hogwarts is in more need of change then I thought."

---

Part 3: Different

---

"Asshole," Scorpius spat as Rutherford stalked into the Great Hall.

This seemed to put the crowd back into motion, the flurry of footsteps murmuring amongst themselves as they shuffled past them into the Great Hall. James headed off to the Hospital Wing for his hand while Albus and Cassia glared between his brother and Rutherford, Antonius brushed off Michael's offer to heal him. Colin Creevey grinned brightly however, snatching the photograph, quill and ink from Albus' hands to shove at Antonius instead.

"Can I have your autograph?" Colin asked of Antonius, the younger boy scowling in confusion and making no move to take the things from him.

"I'm nine, I don't have an autograph," Antonius pointed out.

"It's easy, you just write your name. You are old enough to do that, right?"

"Yes."

"Hey, what happened to wanting my autograph?" Albus complained as he snapped out of glaring.

"I still want it," Colin protested, "I just want his first, he survived an actual Killing Curse and has an actual scar just like Harry Potter! He's even more like him then you are. Is he Harry Potter's son too?"

"No, I'm not! And you can't have my autograph!" Antonius snapped at him before stalking off himself with his dog to presumably find his dad, Cassia scampered after them.

"You can't have mine either," Albus added as he, Scorpius and Michael left Colin to head into the Great Hall, "Can you believe that kid? Do you really think Antonius is more like my Dad then I am? Can you believe that guy as well? You get in trouble for defending Antonius and James gets nothing? And can you believe James? Punching a child half his age? What kind of person hits a little kid?"

"Aside from my stepdad?" Michael wondered dryly and Albus' expression flickered from anger to sympathy while Michael frowned, "Oh yeah, I completely forgot about the seating arrangements."

The trio came to a halt and Scorpius noticed that instead of simply sitting wherever they wanted with friends as usual, students were looking at little name cards wedged in napkins on their plates. They seemed to be arranged by year from what he saw, except for Maurice at the far end amongst the sea of Gryffindor First Years. It also seemed to be arranged by gender, there were only boys on the left and only girls on the right. They set about finding their names and saw they were arranged alphabetically by last name, splitting them all up. Scorpius had to sit in between one of the roommates he barely interacted with, Angelo Jordan, and nervous blond boy he didn't know at all, although he did have Abby opposite him. There were six girls in between Abby and Rose - although considering the current state of their friendship, he didn't think that was such a bad thing - and two boys between Scorpius and Albus, one between Albus and Michael so Rose was diagonal to Rose. Rose was also unfortunate enough to have to sit opposite her ex-boyfriend, Reuben Tear, the other of the roommates he barely knew. And those were the friends closest to him, he had no shot of seeing those in different years.

This would also make it harder to get his friends to come to the Room That Doesn't Exist - also known as the Room of Requirement - to fill them in on the woman in Athens. He'd have to catch them all separately now on their way out as Abby was the only one within speaking range, he should've told Albus and Michael before he sat down. The thing with James and Rutherford had thrown him though, it wasn't fair he got in trouble for stunning in self-defense. They should just be glad stupefy rather than acuta had come to mind first considering he'd ended up scarring his best friend the last time he'd cast that spell within the school walls. And even worse was that James went unpunished, Scorpius could accept being punished if at least some sense of justice prevailed. He hoped James' bite hurt. A lot. Bastard.

"So... How was your summer?" Scorpius asked uncertainly of Abby, he didn't often speak to her alone. Although he supposed that would be changing now.

"Alright, I guess," Abby shrugged unhappily, she looked oddly tired as if she hadn't slept, "August and I were just helping out Mum with the Leaky Cauldron as usual, the entrance to Diagon Alley is a checkpoint now and everyone going through has to be searched and questioned by Aurors so Dad did security like that. People are crazy rowdy since the reveal of Voldemort's son being behind it all. August's taking all five optional subjects this year and Mum tried to get my sister, Heather, to come home to surprise my Dad on his birthday but she couldn't with the magical inter-continental ban. That's pretty much everything."

"What work does your sister do again?"

"She erm... well... I don't know actually, she's kind of vague about it but some kind of liaison position I think. It's in the Bahamas though, Mum wanted us to go visit her over the summer too but Heather went bat-shit crazy about us not going. Mum thinks she just doesn't care about her family anymore, Dad thinks she's just afraid of the Shadows."

"Wouldn't blame her, that's why my Aunt took off," Scorpius told her truthfully, "And I think my Grandmother's scared too, or just nuts. She's started collecting all the articles about the Shadow Master being Voldemort's son."

"That does have a lot of people freaked out and scared. And with good reason," Abby admitted and inclined her head in agreement, "Bill Weasley is really upset about it."

"Why?"

"Because Victoire is already an Auror and Louis has signed up for it too."

"I thought he wanted to be a journalist or something like that?"

"He does but the push for more Aurors to fight the Shadows and his mother being killed by Shadows and all... I think he just wanted to help, like we all do. He says he'll go back to that when the war's over, I think Bill would rather he do that first though," Abby informed before giving a slight snort of laughter, "It's funny really, our parents fought in the war and taught others to yet they're mad at us for wanting to do the same. Maybe it's a good thing Bill doesn't know Dom and her husband are helping Aaron now."

"That reminds me, after this we need to go round up the others so I can fill you in on stuff."

"Okay, just don't ask me to go after Rose."

"Fair enough."

"So how was Egypt?"

Scorpius spent most of the breakfast talking about his trip to Egypt, the sights he'd seen and Abby would chime in with the occasional question about something she thought was particularly interesting. After that they split up to find the others, which proved to be a rather fruitless search. Maurice and Vern went off with their respective girlfriends, Molly went to talk to Viktor Krum the Flying Instructor to book the pitch, Albus and Latimer had actually gone to practice Quidditch, he decided to wait until they came back which ended up being until lunch. They again were stuck with the seating plan, he and Abby ended up talking about classes. After which, they had to find his scattered friends again although at least they were less scattered this time. He just had to get Maurice and a quick scan of the Marauder's Map found 'Sathan Loren' - Maurice and Orous' birth names showed up on the map, by process of elimination, Maurice was Sathan and Orous was Lathan - in an empty classroom with 'Lenore Callaway.'

He considered knocking but Maurice was deaf so it would be rather pointless, it only occurred to him that Lenore wasn't deaf after he'd already barged in. They were sitting on one of the couches the counsellors had put in when they were using some of the unused rooms last year, lips locked together and hands running over each other but thankfully Lenore heard the door and pulled apart. Scorpius couldn't help but feel a pang in his heart, Maurice hadn't even been with Lenore very long and in fact had considered dating - and kissing - disgusting and wrong until just as recently yet he was still better at it then Scorpius was. He didn't freak out like Scorpius had that time with Molly, it was a sad day when he realized the war obsessed soldier boy was actually more normal when it came to relationships then him.

"Heard of knocking?" Lenore commented to him while Maurice turned in confusion and scowled as he grabbed his translator necklace, "It's this new thing, you hit the door with your hand to alert those inside to your presence instead of... I don't know, simply barging in."

"I didn't think of it because Maurice is deaf and he's the one I wanted to talk to," Scorpius told her icily, disliking her tone of voice. And her in general.

"How'd you know he was in here?"

"Lucky guess."

"I don't believe in luck," Lenore told him sharply and Scorpius realized he really didn't have a better excuse, he was hardly going to tell her he had a magic map that kept track of where almost everyone was in the school at any time.

"So Maurice, if I could just talk to you for a minute."

"No," Maurice shot him down immediately and Scorpius started in shock, he'd thought Maurice the least likely of his friends to turn down talking about things war related.

"It's important," Scorpius insisted and Maurice's lip twisted slightly, Lenore's cold eyes darted between them but her face was impassive.

"Can't it wait?"

"Maurice!"

"Fine," Maurice agreed reluctantly, throwing him a dark look before turning back to Lenore and kissing her briefly, "I promise this will only take a minute."

"I guess I'll sit here and watch the grass grow," Lenore said snarkily as Maurice joined him in the corridor and Scorpius closed the door behind him, Maurice stopped to lean against the wall.

"Why do you have to bother me when I'm with my girlfriend?"

"It's to do with the war!" Scorpius protested in exasperation, "The war with the Shadows that are destroying Greece right now that no one seems to care about except me!"

"I get that, I just don't see why you couldn't have told me before I agreed to hang out with her. This weekend is the only time when we won't have classes and school work, prefect and Head Girl duties in her case too, to take up our time and I promised to help her with her Study of Ancient Runes since I'm fluent."

"I couldn't warn you, we have a stupid seating plan now and I didn't see you!"

"I don't think it's stupid, from a strategic standpoint it makes it easy to determine who is missing," Maurice stated as if it was obvious, "If everyone has a set place and to be and there is an empty place then they'd immediately know that person is missing. However, it's also pointless because and especially on weekends people show up for meals at different times, like studying for a part of the lunch hour before coming down or coming later for breakfast to sleep more or leaving to go to the toilet part way through, sometimes meals are skipped completely. Therefore, it's not a major alarm if someone is missing so it's pointless unless they make the meal times more rigid. It's also unnecessary to plan everyone like this, there's no reason they couldn't have allowed students to choose a seat and just had that as their allocated seat for the year. Although in a way it's nice that the First Years hang off my every word, I was telling them about the war."

"And exactly that kind of obsessive overthinking is why I want to talk to you about this stuff," Scorpius told him seriously, "You think about these things differently, you might have some idea what they're doing to the cities they take over."

"Well it's not that difficult to figure out, there are only three possibilities really for what they're doing with the muggles. A: killing them all, B: enslaving them or C: keeping them prisoner. Or possibly a combination. The unusual mark on that Greek leader's cheek implies B to me, I'd guess they're branding their slaves and probably setting them to work rebuilding what they're destroying in the way the Shadow Master desires," Maurice explained in a tone no different than talking about the weather, "They've taken over the Greek magical school so my guess is they're now training Greek magical children to be soldiers like they did to me, they may even have taken the younger children to my first school. The magical adults are probably Shadows now too, whether they joined willingly or out of threat and fear or torture or possession, I don't know. Anything else?"

"Yes! There's something else, come with me to the Room That Doesn't Exist and I'll fill you in along with the others."

"Is there a lot to cover."

"No."

"Then just tell me now," Maurice insisted and flicked his wand at the door, "Now Lenore can't overhear and this area is deserted, hence why we picked it because we didn't want to be disturbed."

"You know, relationships where all you do is make out don't tend to end well."

"We don't just make out. We talk."

"Talk about what? Making out?" Scorpius shot out before he could stop himself.

"No. Work, the war, the world, whatever," Maurice told him before giving him a cold smirk, "In fact, she noticed something clever that I didn't. The majority of the Ministry workers that the Shadows have killed were people who supported and played a part in the revamping of the Ministry that Kingsley and Potter were leading, that's why he doesn't have a lot of support anymore. Lenore's just brilliant like that. I hadn't even noticed, my knowledge of British politics is limited but in my defense I've only lived in this country for three years."

"She could be wrong."

"Well the fact Potter's being overruled by the Minister implies otherwise, it could just be a fortunate side effect and the Shadows killed them for other reasons I suppose. So just tell me what is you wanted to say."

"Fine," Scorpius sighed and quickly told him about the attack in Egypt with the woman.

"Fascinating," Maurice mused, "We really should find this woman if she's not already dead, her interest in the Scepter and the fact she claims to be from Athens could mean she knows something about it as well as more detail on the Athens situation. The Scepter is Greek and was in Athens before it was loaned to England to be studied there, she might've studied it while it was there like Roman did while it was here. Or that she studied something else of Herpo's as I believe there are some ancient texts on him which naturally are in Ancient Greek, in Greece where Herpo is from. Or some kind of Historian who's studied Herpo and his conquest, his use of the Scepter. They may know something about it, maybe even something about stopping it, which we don't."

"Any idea how to find her?"

"No."

"Alright," Scorpius sighed and gestured for Maurice to go, "That's it then, go back to your make out session."

Maurice headed back into the room with Lenore and Scorpius trudged up to tell the others about the woman, they didn't really have any more idea then Maurice on anything. In fact they were more worried about Rutherford, Scorpius was the one having to have detention with the guy and even he didn't think it was that big of a concern. So what if he was an asshole making changes? Last year they'd had the counsellors but that worked out. There were far greater things to worry about it, like the war and the people dying over in Greece because he'd failed to destroy the Scepter properly. After, Rose and Corin - despite not being in their year - went to get in some early studying for OWLs, Orous and Vern wanted to get some Quidditch practice in for the tryouts and Albus opted to go with them.

"Molly," Scorpius held her back as she started to file out with Latimer, Abby and Michael. He took her arm and she turned to him, he tried to smile and hoped it didn't look as nervous as he felt, "Want to hang out here with me? Maybe have another go at making out?"

"I'd love to," Molly agreed but his hope was quickly quashed, "But I have Rutherford's prefect meeting to go to. Maybe after or tomorrow."

"Ah, of course. I forgot, I'm sorry," Scorpius apologized and jolted away from her as if burned, waving her off in farewell, "Have fun."

"I'm sorry, I-"

"It's fine, it doesn't. Just go," Scorpius brushed it off, feeling rather like an idiot for forgetting about that, "Before Rutherford gives you a major offense too."

Scorpius didn't turn back around and heard her leave with the other prefects, leaving him alone in the Room That Doesn't Exist. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, he standing in a room very similar in decoration to the Drawing Room in Malfoy Manor but smaller and with only an armchair and fireplace for furniture. The same dark purple walls, almost black wood for the floorboards and the large chandelier glittering overhead. He plopped himself down on the very comfortable armchair in front of the fire blazing in the ornate marble fireplace, he propped his head on his elbow and watched the flickering flames burn.

He wondered how many fires were burning in Greece, how many people were dying, how many were screaming in pain, how many children were being torn from their loving parents arms to become soldiers, how many people were crying, how many lives were irreparably destroyed. He sighed and buried his face in that scarred hand, recalling the pain of the flames searing his flesh while Varanian's screams of agony echoed inside his mind. Memories of the Shadow Master played out silently before him, the power he possessed even before getting the Scepter, the memories Ashylos had shown him of Herpo's duel and defeat with the Scepter. So much power. And he'd destroyed Ashylos' soul, the one person in the world who would know what to do. He was beyond even the reach of the Resurrection Stone now. Scorpius should have been able to save him, if he was a better person then he would have been able to save both Ashylos and Professor Ashain. But he hadn't. He hadn't even destroyed the Scepter so that it couldn't be repaired and now Ashylos' country was paying for Scorpius' failures. And he was doing nothing to help them. And the world didn't even care.

The ground shuddered abruptly, knocking him forcefully off the chair. Everything around him was shaking like it was an Earthquake, he got up and ran outside to see what was happening. Somehow leaving the castle entrance from the Room That Doesn't Exist, he saw see chaos raging, people dueling figures emblazoned with the skeletal snake symbol of the Shadows. The symbol burned in violent flames in the sky above them, high up he could see the Shadow Master with the Scepter laughing. He realized the person closest was Abby, just in time to see a spell hit her face and she screamed as she was disintegrated. He turned and saw the next closest person was Corin, again recognizing him just in time to be disintegrated. And Rose. And Vern. And Latimer. And Orous. And Albus. And Michael who didn't die immediately, Scorpius drew his wand and ran desperately towards his friend to save him but Michael was instead pounced on by a werewolf. He cast Expulso without opening his mouth and the werewolf was blown away, he tripped on something on his way and fell onto a corpse. Calderon's. He hadn't realized he was crying until he saw the tears falling onto his cousin's pale face, lifeless glazed eyes gazing up at him unseeing.

He tore himself away and tried to run again, only to be shoved out of the way by Professor Ashain and he saw the professor struck by a flash of a spell meant for him. He scrambled to see how Professor Ashain, seeing him struggling to breathe through the blood he was coughing up before he went still and his eyes fell closed. He was dead. Scorpius scrambled away shakily and tried to wipe the rain of tears from his eyes, continuing on to Michael and falling by his friend's small again body, all bloody from the werewolf. He was too late. He heard kissing sounds oddly and got back up, spotting Maurice on a bench making out with Lenore. He hadn't even noticed the battle, Scorpius tried to call out to him but the deaf boy didn't hear and he watched in horror as Lenore drew a knife. He rushed forward, screaming for Maurice to look up uselessly and for some reason forgetting he had a wand. Lenore drove the knife through her boyfriend's heart and shoved Maurice's lifeless body to the ground, Scorpius raised his wand to avenge him but Lenore had vanished.

He spun around to find her and caught a glimpse of a red haired teenager, he lashed out with an Acuta which knocked her to the ground. And again. And again. Over and over as he raced towards the girl, violently throwing his pain and rage into the spell. It was only as he got closer that he realized she wasn't dressed like Lenore and her hair was much curlier, he dropped to his knees and turned over the body he'd mangled. It was Molly. He called her names but her eyes didn't open, he'd killed Molly. He pulled her body to him as he sobbed, cradling her gently in his arms. What had he done? He heard a child screaming and looked up to see Cassia, convulsing on the ground and screaming in pain like she was being tortured. He stood, Molly disappearing somehow but her blood remained on his hands.

"Stop!" Antonius cried and he turned to see the small boy holding out the wand-handle from the Scepter out at him, he was bare-chested to show the scar on his chest, "Stop torturing my sister, Shadow Master! Wasn't killing your family enough?"

Scorpius looked down in shock and saw he was the Shadow Master. It was him holding the Scepter in one hand out at the bodies of his family, his parents, his grandparents, his aunt and even little Sol. He cried harder and saw his other hand was aimed at Cassia, a red jet of light shooting from his palm to hurt her. Varanian pulled her out of the way and tried to carry her to safety but he ran right into the trap, Scorpius tried to call out a warning but it was too late and fire shot up to consume the pair of them. He threw aside the Scepter and ran forwards to try save them, plunging his hands into the flames that stopped for some reason and he was instead combing through ash. Nothing was left of them but ash. And it blew away, billowing away with a flock of birds singing a melancholy song for Cassia.

"I bet you wish that I'd killed you now," a familiar and horrible voice said to him.

He turned back in horror to see Marvin, one of the muggles who'd kept him prisoner, the one he'd killed. Marvin was alive now though, the gun aimed at Scorpius' head and his other hand digging his nails into Antonius' shoulder. Antonius' hopeless eyes stared at him wordlessly and somehow he managed to look like Scorpius while still being himself, Marvin pulled him closer and tears rolled from his broken eyes. Marvin smirked at him cruelly and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

Scorpius jolted awake with such a start that he fell off the armchair, his eyes were stinging from the tears and his heart thundering. It was just a dream. A horrible, horrible dream. He buried his face in his trembling hands, thankfully not covered in blood. Trying to breathe to calm himself, deep shuddering breaths. He wiped his eyes from the pathetic flow of tears. It was just a dream. Why couldn't he just have normal dreams? He picked himself up headed out, not wanting to be alone with his thoughts anymore. He wandered through the halls, feeling his panic recede somewhere as he was comforted by the normalcy and seeing people going about their regular lives. And then he spotted Antonius and Cassia, he ran over to them immediately and dropped to Antonius.

"Antonius, I need to tell you something very important," Scorpius told him seriously as he put his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"What?" Antonius asked him worriedly, his eye now healed.

"If a dead man with green eyes tries to take you, don't go with him."

"Those dead people with green eyes are the ones to watch for," Cassia commented before bursting out laughing, it occurred to him that it might have sounded a bit odd. In fact the whole thing was rather irrational but still, he didn't want Antonius to go through what he had, "I'm sorry, Scor. Did getting detention make you go crazy though?"

"No, it didn't," Scorpius confirmed and turned back to Antonius, "It's just that you're nine, when you're nine and ten some bad people might want to hurt you so you just have to be extra careful."

"Be careful of dead people with green eyes?" Antonius repeated in bemusement and Scorpius hung his head, "Err... Sure, Scorpius, if it makes you feel better than I promise I won't go with them."

"Thank you," Scorpius said gratefully with a sigh as he stood, "Where are you two going anyway?"

"Dinner," Cassia supplied helpfully and he scowled, he'd been asleep way longer then he'd thought, "Scor, were your eyes crying?"

"Let's go then. Dinner awaits."

---

Part 4: Beginning

---

Scorpius headed down to dinner, still feeling shaken although seeing his friends helped but him at ease somewhat. Even if Abby was the only one of them that he could sit with, he really hated feeling cut off from them. Especially after having been cut off from everyone because of the bans put in place after the attack on Athens. After he returned to his dormitory, he set about his animagi practice. That relaxed him and he didn't really feel like going back to sleep anyway, after sleeping for a long while in the afternoon it wasn't like he needed it. He still had no luck though. It was only when he'd finally worked up the courage to try get some sleep that he noticed a light, he pulled back the drapes in puzzlement and saw Michael looking over some scraps of paper from the light of his wand.

"What are you doing?" Scorpius asked of him curiously.

"Nothing," Michael said quickly and shoved the papers under his pillow, they looked like articles.

"What's the big secret?"

"It's not a secret, you just... wouldn't approve."

"Well how can you know I wouldn't approve if you don't tell me?" Scorpius wondered with a scowl, "Don't you trust me?"

"It's not even about the Shadow War," Michael told him before nox-ing his wand and placing it on the bedside table.

"If it's keeping you up into the middle of the night then it's got to be something worrying. I-"

"I did have to stay up for prefect duties but fine, just don't say I didn't warn you," Michael sighed and turned over to face him, "You remember how my stepdad died suddenly of a heart attack in jail?"

"Yeah, good riddance," Scorpius scoffed and Michael frowned slightly but continued.

"And his mother also suddenly died of a heart attack."

"Yeah."

"I found out over the holidays that Crystal's ex-boyfriend, the guy who tried to beat us to death-"

"He tried to beat you to death?!" Scorpius burst out in shock and Michael nodded, "You didn't tell me that, your mother has terrible taste in men."

"Yeah but anyway," Michael continued quickly, "He also died suddenly of a heart attack last year."

"I'm glad! Psychotic bastard."

"And on the last full moon, Agnes' - my great-grandmother not my sister - killer-"

"Your great-grandmother was murdered?" Scorpius interrupted again in more shock and Michael looked somewhat exasperated.

"Yes, she tried to stop a mugging and... well, failed. The guy killed her and the guy he'd been robbing, would've killed me too if floating knives didn't scare him off."

"I'm sorry," Scorpius apologized although recalled vaguely Michael being able to see Thestrals back from their First Year, that would explain why. What else didn't he know?

"Thank you. So the killer suddenly died of a heart attack last full moon in his jail cell. Are you seeing the connection?"

"Karma?"

"Scorpius, I think they were all murdered," Michael said seriously, "And I think it was the same person who went after PAW, the ones who didn't die when the headquarters were blown up also died of heart attacks. I think someone's killing people who've wronged me in some way."

"I think you're overreacting," Scorpius stated dismissively, "Lots of people die from heart attacks and it's not murder. Just because you got lucky with some bastards dying, it doesn't make it murder either. Why do you even care? These were horrible people by the sounds of it."

"People are losing their lives, my little brothers and sisters lost their Dad and their Grandma. I don't like the thought of people dying and I don't like the thought of people dying because of me, maybe they deserved it but whoever's killing them has no right to decide that and to take their lives. Two of them were already in jail paying for their crimes anyway."

"What kind of murderers kill by heart attack anyway?"

"They could've used poison or magic."

"Did any of the muggles or wizards who investigated the deaths find any evidence of poison or magic?"

"No, not really," Michael admitted with a sigh, "But they do know PAW was murdered by some unknown magic, that person could've done that to the others."

"Fine. Let's say you're right, who do you know who could possibly be doing that on your behalf?" Scorpius asked of him seriously, "Your parents are muggles, your aunt is only just starting to learn magic and was in jail for at least one of the supposed murders, it's not one of your friends or siblings. So who?"

"Maybe Jack hired an assassin? He has been acting odd and weirdly helpful to Crystal, he has money now for no reason and isn't afraid to come into the magical world so he could have hired the weird magic user."

"You're suspicious of your Dad because he's trying to be a better Dad? C'mon, don't you think that's a little unfair."

"I just have a bad feeling about this, okay!?" Michael snapped at him, "I knew you wouldn't get it."

"I don't get it because it's insane! There's no serial killer assassin, it's just karma."

"Fine. Whatever," Michael sighed unhappily and rolled over onto his other side away from Scorpius, "Just forget I said anything."

"Look, I'm sorry," Scorpius apologized, "I just don't think it's likely, you're reading way too much into it."

"Alright," Michael insisted and Scorpius fell silent for a minute.

"Do you ever have nightmares about him?" Scorpius asked quietly, "Bob, I mean."

"No, not really."

"Do you ever think about him?"

"Why?" Michael asked, rolling back over to face him, which revealed his frown of confusion.

"Just wondered," Scorpius shrugged it off and rolled over himself, not wanting to talk about his dream right before he tried to sleep, "Night."

He supposed he should be grateful that at least he didn't have nightmares that night. The next day was the last before classes began, he once again had to deal with the tediousness of the seating plan. He spent the whole morning playing some Quidditch with Molly, Latimer, Albus, Michael, Orous, Vern and Abby for the practice. Molly and Vern were Keepers - the position they played - and the rest of them rotated on Beating and Chasing because dodging Bludgers was important as was dealing with the Quaffle as Albus was trying out for Chaser, Seeking didn't affect him so they didn't bother with that. After stopping for lunch - it was really annoying having to split up for the stupid seating plan - Molly decided to remember them spending some time alone together from yesterday, he wasn't in the ideal mood for it but he tried to shove the dream from his mind regardless. He just wanted to be normal with her, even Maurice managed that with his girlfriend. Maurice!

"Are you okay?" Molly asked of him as they made it to the Room That Doesn't Exist, it now looked more a cross between the Gryffindor Common Room and Malfoy Manor.

"Fine," Scorpius lied and flashed a smile as they sat down on the couch.

"You seem kind of distracted."

"Well I'm not," Scorpius insisted maybe a little too firmly. He didn't want to talk about disturbing dreams, he just wanted to snog his girlfriend like a normal person.

"Are you sure?" Molly wondered as she rubbed his arm gently, "You're tense. We don't have to do this if you don't feel comfortable, we can just sit and talk or something."

"It's just this stupid dream I had," Scorpius admitted and sighed heavily as he gave up on a normal afternoon, he was the worst boyfriend ever. Except maybe for people Crystal dates.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"We haven't seen each other in months and the first time alone we get, you want to talk about my disturbing dreams?"

"I'd rather try help you with what's bothering you then both of us be awkwardly worried and trying to be cheerful instead of actually being cheerful. What would you do if I was upset about something?"

"Fine," Scorpius agreed and ashamedly told her about his dream yesterday, averting his eyes more and more, "And then I ran into Antonius and Cassia when I left, told him to be wary of a dead guy with green eyes because I had this irrational fear of Marvin coming for him."

"It's not irrational to be worried about the people you care about dying in this war or thinking about Marvin, Antonius being the same age as you were is probably dredging things back up," Molly offered comfortingly as she put a hand on his shoulder, "You can get through this."

"It's been years, Molly, years!" Scorpius protested as he stood, trying not to snap but was feeling frustrated as he turned back to her, "I don't want to get through it, I want to be over it already! I want to be normal! Am I going to start dreams again whenever someone I care about turns nine? When Cassia does? When Sol does?"

"Maybe," Molly told him unhelpfully and stood when he threw up his arms in exasperation, coming over to him, "Some things just have a lasting impact, some things you don't get over but you just have to accept that a bad thing happened. For the most part you cope okay and move on with your life but sometimes it comes back, it's been years since my Mum died or Uncle Charlie and I still get upset about it sometimes. And that's okay. I know it's not exactly the same thing but my point is that some things stay with you forever, you can't 'get over it' instead you just have to learn to live with it and have a normal life."

"Now you sound like Leebin."

"That's probably where I got it from."

"How do I that then?"

"I don't know but try being patient and not so hard on yourself, it's not a race," Molly pointed out and he sighed as he took her hands, smooth and soft in comparison to his scarred ones.

"I'm sorry. I just... it bothers me, everything I want feels so impossibly unobtainable right now," Scorpius admitted quietly and let go of her hands fearfully that the scars might make her uncomfortable but she took his hands herself, "Sorry."

"I don't care about your scars, I care about you," Molly whispered and he looked back to her, sincerity shining from her beautiful sky blue eyes.

"I care about you too, I'm so glad I have you in my life," Scorpius told her seriously and bit back adding that he was scared of losing her because really, she could do better than a scarred loser who still couldn't get over being abducted years ago. And he was afraid of water. And he was a complete failure. And he was useless. He was pathetic. What did she even see in him?

He reached his arm up to brush a strand of hair from her eyes gently. She smiled weakly and they leaned in simultaneously to kiss, a long and lingering kiss while the scent of cherries took his sense of smell. He'd missed that. Their lips parted to draw breath and smacked back together more passionately, he cupped her face in his hands and she ran hers through his hair. The couch relocated to them through and they sat back down with their lips still locked.

---

"I've been chosen, Cissy, chosen to help create the Dark Lord's next and greatest Horcrux. He has deemed my blood to be pure enough for his honor, mine!"

Memories of her sister's words echoed in Narcissa Malfoy's mind as she looked around her at what had once been her bedroom. She'd found every article she could on the Shadow Master being the son of Voldemort out so far, every scrap of news she could scour, even from less reputable sources like the Quibbler. She was that desperate. And now they were stuck up on the walls all around her, she'd even cleared out and rearranged furniture to make it easier to see the word-filled walls. The news hadn't freaked her out or terrified her like her family believed, it had instead struck a chord deep inside her mind. Awakening a distant, long forgotten memory.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Narcissa had asked with concern as she picked baby Draco up from his playpen, "You're not going to be sacrificed are you?"

"Sacrificed?" Bellatrix had laughed, shaking her head as she crossed the distance between them and calmed herself. She cocked her head to one side with a grin and ran a finger down Draco's face, "No. I've been chosen to bear the Dark Lord a child to be his heir, for what is a more perfect choice for a Horcrux vessel then his heir?"

Those words chilled her soul just as much now as they had in her memory, one Dark Lord running around was enough. She believed in the importance of pure-blood even still and had stood by her husband and sister when they signed up to be Death Eaters but she had never joined herself, she had no desire to serve someone as vile as Voldemort. Some... things just weren't supposed to procreate and she especially didn't think children should be born purposely as vessels for a Horcrux.

Reading through the articles helped jog that memory free and now it came to her easily but she was sure there was more, her memory had just been tampered with by someone for some reason. After all, what were the odds that someone else had been the Shadow Master's mother when she remembered her sister's pride over being chosen? No. Even if she couldn't remember, she definitely got the feeling that Bellatrix had indeed bore him a child even if she wasn't quite sure of the exact circumstances.

That was why she collected every shred of information she could and re-read them until she could recite them by heart, she was trying to remember. She couldn't tell anyone of course, they'd probably think she was mad after all and if they did believe her then it would be worse. The Malfoys had it bad enough for their involvement in the other two Wizarding Wars, what would happen if the world knew they were related to the Shadow Master? The son of Voldemort? She couldn't do that to her family, especially not when all she had to go on was a fragment of a memory and a feeling there was more. She needed to know more before she knew what to do. The information was inside her head already, she just needed to find it. And she would.

---

OWLs. OWLs. OWLs. That was all Scorpius heard when classes started the next day, he had expected a waste of a lesson being lectured by their Transfiguration professor Midas - who again had Michael sit separately from everyone else because of his Dyslexia, supposedly - but not from others. Elina talked about it, Professor Ashain - he'd apparently said the same speech before because Cassia was mouthing word for word what he was saying, which had Albus struggling not to and eventually failing not to laugh, earning them both a reprimand - and even Professor Hagrid, Binns and Professor Vipera. They did essentially nothing for that entire first day except listen to what was pretty much the same spiel just applied to different subjects, they got the same thing for every other first lesson too the rest of the week but at least the ones they'd already gotten speeches from started work.

A lot of the work was revision though, part of the reason they'd started on OWL work last year was so that they could revise it this year to ensure they knew it. Scorpius was immensely frustrated, he didn't like doing things he'd already done. And all Rose wanted to do was study! Why did they need extra study when that was basically what they were doing in lessons anyway?! Thankfully it wasn't all revision though and some had said they'd alternate between revision and new material as well, Midas insisting on going over everything Florian had taught them had cost her and she had to teach them practical magic now. They could only do practical things one by one though so she could ensure they didn't actually hit someone but he'd take it, it was better than purely theoretical. Professor Ashain started teaching them the exploding Confringo spell that Varanian had mentioned, Scorpius mastered it even faster than he usually did. He could see why Varanian had liked it, it was oddly cathartic to blow things up.

He also got a letter that first week from Rutherford about the detention he would be receiving, he said he'd allow Scorpius to get settled for the first two weeks and detentions would begin in the third week on Saturday in his office. Not something he was looking forward to. Classes became more important for talking to his friends since he only had Abby had meal times, the others tended to talk to over homework sessions. Molly and Latimer mentioned getting similar lectures on NEWTs, the Fourth Years were rather lucky to not have to deal with it yet. Vern's girlfriend, Olivia, sometimes joined them now and other times Vern would go with her and her friends instead. In contrast, Maurice's girlfriend, Lenore, never sat with them and he would frequently abandon them to help her alone. In fact, Maurice would leave them to hang out with Lenore a lot.

"Hey Maur, I finished that Potions essay faster than I thought," Lenore commented one of the days as she came over to their table with her book bag slung over her shoulder casually, Rose threw her a murderous look as Maurice was helping her with her Ancient Runes homework, "Want to hang out?"

"No, Maurice would not like to hang out with you," Rose spat at her and Lenore cast her an expressionless gaze, "He's helping me."

"I wasn't talking to you, Weasley."

"Tell her, Maurice!"

"Well um... I was kind of helping Rose," Maurice stated awkwardly, looking very torn while Rose grinned triumphantly.

"Fine," Lenore drawled disinterestedly and shrugged, "It's admirable how loyal you are to your friends, most guys wouldn't risk winding up single to ditch their girlfriends like that. Have fun."

"Sucker," Rose smirked as Lenore started to leave while Maurice looked somewhere between horrified and terrified.

"Lenore, wait!" Maurice called after her in panic and scrambled to follow, leaving with Lenore. Rose's face went as red as her hair in rage.

"That bitch!"

Scorpius was inclined to agree, the more he saw of Lenore the more he disliked her and was surer she was just taking advantage of Maurice. However, he was kind of hoping Maurice would realize it soon because if not then they'd have to try tell him and Scorpius didn't think that would go well. Rose and Abby were also still not speaking, they'd sit as far away from each other as possible while still being in the group and just ignore the other's existence. Scorpius didn't know how to heal their rift, Abby said she was willing to forgive Rose and work things out if Rose got over it and apologized, Rose said she was willing to forgive Abby if she gave up her prefect badge to her and apologized. At least with practicing for Quidditch, they were apart even more as Rose hated flying despite enjoying watching matches. Scorpius almost thought that was a bad thing though, they couldn't avoid each other forever although talking could just lead to arguing so he really had no idea what to do to fix things there.

"You ready for the tryouts?" Michael asked of Albus as they headed down to breakfast that Saturday, their tryouts were that afternoon after the Slytherins.

"I was actually thinking that I wouldn't try out," Albus told him and Scorpius jolted in shock as did Michael.

"But-But you've been practicing so much," Scorpius protested and Albus shrugged, looking incredibly nervous.

"Exactly, I feel good about myself right now and that I can do good. I'll just fail the tryouts and then I'll feel like crap again, really disappointed in myself and miserable like I do every year. Except this time it'll be worse because I tried that much harder so it'll be more crushing when I fail," Albus explained quietly and worriedly, "Why put myself through that again?"

"Because you have a real chance this time! Because we've put so much time and effort into helping you practice! Because you have put so much time and effort into becoming better at this!" Scorpius insisted determinedly, "Are you really going to give up after getting this far and trying so hard?! Wouldn't you rather fail then live the rest of your life never knowing if you could've succeeded or not?!"

"You really think I can do this?"

"Absolutely! I haven't seen someone so abysmal at flying turn it around so much."

"Thanks," Albus muttered with a scowl.

"What Scorpius means is that you've improved a lot and we think you have a real shot," Michael offered as they reached the Great Hall, "And everyone's going to be rooting for you."

"Okay, okay, I'll try," Albus took a deep breath, "Okay, I can do this."

"That's the spirit," Michael grinned and clapped him on the back.

---

It was June 6th, 1982. Bellatrix Lestrange knew because she'd been keeping track of the days, it was important to document the date of the birth of the Dark Lord's child. She wasn't afraid of the Dementors, she wasn't afraid of Azkaban, she knew what the others didn't after all. She knew about his Horcruxes, she knew that even the rumors about his physical body being destroyed had been true, he was still alive. And he would return. Her master would return for her, return for all those who remained loyal to him, return to see the newest vessel for his fragment of his soul. And she would soon meet the Dark Lord's heir as she was in labor.

It was six in the morning, counting the seconds helped her through the pain. Not that she minded the pain, she relished it even. It was physical pain, real pain, it kept her grounded in reality and not lost in her mind as the Dementors tried to trap people. Any pain was worth it for the Dark Lord, she'd do anything for the master, he was everything to her. And his child was about to enter the world, their child because he had seen her as worthy above all others, her blood pure enough to merge with his. She got the impression that her husband, Rodolphus hadn't liked the idea but well... she didn't give a damn what he thought.

A cell wasn't the ideal location for the Dark Lord's child to be born, someone of such royal blood deserved much better than the squalid excuse she had to call home. It was tiny. There was a plank of rotted wood held to the wall by rusting chains for a bed, a burlap blanket that was so rough she often had to choose between the slivers of warmth it provided or not waking up feeling her skin was all scratched up. There was a cracked porcelain toilet screwed into the wall on the end of that, she wasn't sure what color it was supposed to have been originally but she was quite sure it hadn't been the dark dirt color it was now. There was a small window just over the top of her head if she stood further down the wall on the opposite side to the toilet, it was deeper than the height or width and of course iron riddled with iron bars.

The window wall, bed wall, the wall opposite the bed wall and half of the fourth wall were the same black stone as the grubby ground while the rest of the wall was barred, that was also where the door was. She was lying on the filthy floor now though, her head resting on the edge of her 'bed' and two Dementors hovering at her feet to deliver the child. There was barely enough room for them, their hooded forms actually looked too big for the cell. Their presence - not those two specifically - made it perpetually cold, the seldom seen sun cast no warmth even in the summer month it was now. She wouldn't have known if she hadn't been counting that it wasn't still winter, she wouldn't even have known it was day either as thick black clouds clung to the sky outside. It was pouring with rain, she could hear it cascading outside. And this was where the Dark Lord's child was to be born, the child of the greatest and most powerful sorcerer in the world was going to be born here.

Bellatrix laughed. She didn't know why but she laughed, maybe it was the pain or the ludicrously of the situation but she laughed. Her crazed cackle became a cry of pain as a final push ejected Voldemort's child from her body into the waiting hand of one of the Dementors, her head fall back against the bed and her body collapsed weakly. Time of birth was one minute past six. A crack of thunder and violent explosion of blue had her sit bolt upright as Voldemort screamed for the first time in its life, air filled its little lungs at it cried. Bellatrix watched with curiosity as the Dementor lifted the pale, sack of flesh and severed the chord with one of its long bony fingers. It held her child in those twisted hands, it sounded more like it was screaming instead of crying, screaming against the touch of inhuman hands. She gasped as another wave of pain overcame her, frantically continuing to count, unsure whether it was part of normal labor with the afterbirth or if there was more to come. With the amount of fertility potions and spells used, multiple births were a side effect she was aware of.

She went back to counting the second, bearing through the pain while the newborn's cries continued. She thought it was a good sign really, crying meant it was alive at least and strong enough to make use of its lungs. She'd been afraid it wouldn't live, afraid the meager sustenance provided in Azkaban wouldn't be enough to sustain her pregnancy. It had apparently been enough, it just gave her no strength. She groaned a final time against the pain and with a final heave, her second child was born, she hoped it was the last because her energy was gone. Time of birth was six minutes past six. A second crack of thunder smashed over her firstborn's cries and she jolted upright as an explosion of yellow light erupted from the second baby, bouncing off the walls all around her as its screams joined its twin's. Bellatrix smiled as the light receded, pleased and impressed with the early magic usage as the Dementors would probably repress it now. The younger twin was now her favorite, she liked that one.

She breathed deeply, eyes darting between the babies the Dementors held, their little bodies bathed in the shadows. They were just holding them, if they had eyes they'd be staring. She felt her heart seize up in true fear for the first time that the Dementors would kiss them or worse, take them away from her. They were her children, dammit! Hers! And Voldemort's! They couldn't be taken away, they needed to be with someone who knew their heritage not raised away from them! They could be raised by half-bloods or blood traitors or mudbloods or muggle filth, which thought was even more disgusting then the fact they'd already been born in a cell in Azkaban. She'd be damned if anyone thought she was willingly going to let muggle hands touch her precious pure-blood vessels, it would taint them and they'd be worthless as potential Horcruxes then.

She needn't have worried though, the Dementor holding the firstborn swooped over to her and pushed the baby into her arms, followed almost immediately by the Dementor holding the second. They calmed down quickly away from the Dementor's hands, the dark creatures left and sealed the cell door behind them while she held the babies awkwardly. She'd been arrested and sent to Azkaban before she'd had time to learn more about infant care, she'd thought she'd had more time. They weren't what she'd expected babies to be really, they were tiny, wrinkled, blue-faced, shivering and covered in gunk. They barely looked human, a glance between their legs revealed they were or at least had genders. The firstborn was a girl and the second born was a boy, that was useful as she'd have trouble telling them apart. She smiled to herself, deciding it was a good thing they looked barely human because they weren't. They were better than mere mortals, they were the children of the Dark Lord. They were destined for greatness.

She already had a name planned for a son, Voldemort's birth name had been Tom Marvolo Riddle. Tom for his father and Marvolo for his grandfather so she'd do the same for her son, Tom for his father and Cygnus for hers. Tom Riddle III was born, what was a more perfect birth name for him then to share the birth name of the Dark Lord after all? He could always fashion himself a more impressive name when he grew into someone to make the Dark Lord proud. And the girl... well, she'd think of something for the girl. Salazar Slytherin was a rather important part of the Dark Lord's heritage, maybe something to do with that. She looked up at the sound of the door as one of the Dementors returned, tossing two sets of prison clothes through the bars that looked barely big enough to fit a goblin but she guessed it was probably the smallest they had. She put the girl down to pull the clothes to her, wrapping little Tom up in one set to keep him warm before having to put him down to wrap the girl in one too. Twins were going to be a tad awkward, she realized as she managed to pick them both back up with difficulty and cradle their little bodies close. She scowled at them, it wasn't befitting of the Dark Lord's heirs to be wrapped in prison clothes from birth. She had no choice though really, they'd freeze otherwise and she didn't fancy the burlap blanket. She hoped the Dark Lord wouldn't hold it against her.