The aurors' questioning went on for days, but Astoria's mind was far from the death of her husband. Each evening when the questioning was over, Astoria would search for a person who could undo the curse to her son.

She had collected little knowledge as to what had even been done to him. The curse was so old that it predated surviving texts. But Scorpius was growing colder by the day. The glow that she had felt around him was gone, and replaced by a frigidness. A hellish look was in the boy's eyes, like he thirsted for something horrible.

The wind blew horribly that day as Astoria skirted down the walkways of Knockturn Alley. She was dressed in black but had an emerald green cloak on. She adjusted the hood of her cloak as she passed a group of wizards, and tightened her grip on Scorpius.

At the end of the alley was a beaten down wooden door. There was no sign on it, and most people who passed it wouldn't even notice it, but through this door was the only thing that could save Scorpius' life. Astoria put her hand on the knob and turned it.

"I've been expecting you," a woman's voice said as Astoria crossed the threshold. It was a small room which the Malfoy's had walked into. There was a simple table in the middle of the room, and a large fire burning just past it, crackling. Lining the walls were shelves and cupboards, filled with potions, ingredients, and other strange looking objects.

The woman stood facing the fire. She wore an old fashioned dress with buttons down the back. Her silvery hair was upturned, a style that was very popular in Astoria's great grandmother's day.

"How?" Astoria asked, pausing at the doorway. The old woman spun around at incredible speed for someone her age.

"Dozens of known death eaters grouped together for the first time since the war on the only night in 400 years where Jupiter's moons were aligned with Orion's belt? I may be old dear, but I am more aware than you will ever be," the woman replied and motioned for Astoria to take a seat.

Astoria had never met Matil before, but she had always heard mention of in the most desperate of times.

Matil was an incredibly powerful witch, but her practices spanned the typical. She tapped into all sorts of magic cultures had, and pushed it beyond any limit the wizarding community had ever seen. Because of this, society had shunned her away, afraid of her potential. She wasn't bad, but the position she was forced in made her deal with bad people. She simply existed as a forgotten, fairy tale figure in the back of some wizard's minds.

"So you know what they did to him?" Astoria asked. She was hopeful for the first time that someone could put a name to what had happened to her son.

"Yes, I do," Matil responded. She sat and a chair and folded her hands in her lap. Sitting this close to her, Astoria could tell that she was blind. "It's a little known spell known as Donnum Surminstrato, but in the hands of your husband and his friends, it was used as a curse. Anything your son was, had the potential to be has been ripped from him and replaced with the gifts your husband and his friends gave him. Tell me, what were the gifts presented?"

Astoria recited the gifts that had echoed in her soul since Halloween night. All the traits that she never wanted her son to be were now all he was. Matil pursed her lips when Astoria finished.

"Can you undo it?" Astoria asked holding her breath. Matil laughed.

"No."

"Can you do anything?" Astoria countered, enraged by Matil's laughter.

"The best thing you can do for this child is kill him," Matil replied with every bit of seriousness. Astoria gasped and clutched Scorpius tighter.

"You would have me kill my own son? What sort of monster are you, you crazy old fool!"

Matil did not appreciate this. Her entire countenance changed, and she stared daggers in the direction of Astoria.

"This child is pure evil, Mrs. Malfoy. Death clouds his future, no matter which way I see it. There is not a redeeming thing about him, nor will he ever be redeemed. Death now, before he grows to murder and spread his evil, is the best option," Matil stated matter of factly, but it incensed Astoria. She stood.

"I will not murder my son," Astoria replied.

"Than there is nothing I can do for you," Matil replied and put her hands back in her lap.

"Don't be so quick to forget the debt you had with my husband. His passing does not absolve you of this. Do I need to remind you the extent to which you owe the Malfoy family?" Astoria spoke, Matil did not cower, but Astoria saw that she was unsettled. "Help me fix my son."

"Let me hold him," Matil said after a minute. Astoria was reluctant to let go, but she placed the baby in Matil's outstretched arms.

Matil closed her eyes and Scorpius fidgeted, his anger growing. She rocked Scorpius back and forth, chanting words under her breath that Astoria could not make sense of. Astoria began to pace the room, biting her thumbnail. After a minute, Matil said, "I can not cure him, but I can give him the ability to love."

"Do it," Astoria replied, but Matil continued to sit and speak.

"He will not love everyone, only those who protect him. The beast inside him will even test him with that." Astoria watched Matil as she spoke.

"Do it."

"When he grows older, he will meet a girl, and they will fall madly in love. She will save him," Matil said and Astoria's mouth grew into a smile.

"I knew he could be saved!"

"But in saving him, he will consume her," Matil said.

"Do it," Astoria replied, her son would be saved.

"You would be so quick to save your son this way, but do you realize that you are giving him a fate worse than what he already has, a fate worse than death?" Astoria paused, all she could see was that her son would survive.

"He will love a girl more than anything in the world, and he will be responsible for her death. How is this any better than the life he will lead? Than killing him right now?"

"Do not speak of that option again," Astoria said through clenched teeth. "I will not kill my son. He is innocent in all of this! It is not his fault!"

"You are trading your son's life for the one person who he will care most about in this world, an innocent child who will love the boy despite the monster inside of him?" Matil asked, because Astoria agreeing to this was almost unfathomable.

"Please, Matil," she said less aggressively, she was pleading for the woman's help. "This is his only chance."

"You Mrs. Malfoy, are the true monster." Matil stood up and turned for the fire. She pulled some rubs off the mantle and rubbed them on Scorpius' head, muttering enchantments that sounded foreign to Astoria's ear. A green smoke began to wrap around Scorpius and he reached out to grab it. Slowly it settled on him, and the baby inhaled it.

An eerie calm resonated in the air, and for the first time in weeks, Astoria relaxed her shoulders and took a deep breath. Matil handed Scorpius back to his mother.

"It is done." Matil sat in her seat. "I just hope love is enough to save him."

Astoria put on her cloak and looked at her baby. He slept quietly now. His glow hadn't returned, but she felt a tether between him and her.

"It will be." With that she turned and headed out of Matil's home into the blustery wind.

In the years to come, Astoria would have doubts and guilt creep up on her, but she squelched them. Love was powerful, and it was enough to save her son. Whatever else happened, her son would survive.