It was a warm summer Saturday evening and almost all of the third years and above were away from the castle on a weekend visit to Hogsmeade.

But Lily and Lysander were striding through the forbidden forest, hurrying to get to the meeting place- a clearing- that Scorpius had indicated they should meet at in a message through their linked pocket watches. Fides lay snuggling against Lily's neck, draped over her shoulder in his usual position.

'Lily' Lysander begin conversationally.

'Did you notice that we're being followed by a horse?'

Lily came to an abrupt halt and whipped around. A few meters behind them a palomino horse clumsily stopped in it's tracks, having realized it had been discovered.

Lily let out an exasperated groan.

'You can't come with us!' She yelled at it. 'Go back to the castle!'

Then she spun on her heel and stormed off towards the clearing at a much faster pace. Fides awoke from his doze and meowed in protest at the sudden jerking movements in her shoulders as she rushed ahead.

'Do you know that horse?' Lysander asked curiously as he jogged to catch up.

'I know that it's trouble' Lily said loudly, annoyed to see that it was still following them from a distance.

When they arrived at the clearing, Lily was surprised to discover that not only was Scorpius and Alasdair there, but so too was Nicolas. Scorpius and Nicolas were engaged in what looked to be a heated discussion whilst Alasdair stood very still and watched, acting unusually tight-lipped.

'I didn't know that you would be inviting all of your friends along too!' Nicolas exclaimed to Scorpius upon seeing them approach.

'Everyone here needs to hear what you told me' Scorpius retorted unbothered by the look of irritation on his ancestors face.

'Seems like it's every man, cat, ghost and… is that a horse?' Nicholas squinted at the large blonde animal that was moving amongst the bushes.

'Ignore the horse' Lily said through grit teeth. 'She's not with us'

Nicolas blinked back at her in confusion, whilst Alasdair eyed her suspiciously.

'I'm with everyone though' Lysander said excitedly, looking at Nicolas intently with his protuberant silvery eyes.

'Right. Anyway-' Nicolas cleared his throat, seemingly a little taken aback by Lysander's eagerness to meet him. 'Let me have a look at that neckless Miss Potter and we can figure this out once and for all'

Lily froze and narrowed her eyes at him.

'The locket? What for?'

'Nicolas thinks it might have belonged to the Anguis at some point…' Scorpius explained, though he didn't look convinced by the idea.

'…and that one of them has been searching for it'

Lily looked immediately at Alasdair but he was avoiding her eyes. Of course, she already knew that the locket was a replica of Slytherin's because he had told her as such, but she hadn't thought that anyone might be searching for it.

Reluctantly, she reached inside the collar of her shirt and retrieved it, taking it over her head and dropping it into Nicolas's open palm.

The vampire flipped it over a few times between his fingertips and said thoughtfully;

'They say you can speak to snakes… is that true?'

'That's just a story Boden Olsen made up and the papers latched onto-' Scorpius said defensively.

'I didn't hear it from the papers' Nicholas murmured, still staring intently at the jeweled neckless.

'I heard it from the creatures in this forest… there are many accounts from those who have apparently witnessed you conversing with them Miss Potter…'

Lily took a deep breath. Alasdair still wouldn't meet her eyes.

'It's true' She sighed. 'That locket is what allows me to do it'

'What?' Scorpius's mouth fell open and he furrowed his brows.

Lily shot him an apologetic look, before looking back at Nicolas.

'Who was looking for it?' she wanted to know.

'I don't know who he is, but a man has been coming to the Hogs Head asking anybody and everyone about it's whereabouts'

He pushed his long white-blonde hair out of his pale face and gave the neckless one last inspection before handing it back to it's owner.

'He has a shaven head and a scar under his right eye' Scorpius croaked out, seeming to have just gotten over his shock. 'It's the same man who came to my father's shop last summer looking for it'

'He's persistent then' Lysander commented.

'But how do you know he is an Anguis?' Lily demanded looking Nicolas over distrustfully.

Nicolas shrugged.

'I don't. But that locket was in the possession of the leader of the Anguis during my time, Gerhad Gaunt. So I'm willing to bet that anyone who spends almost a year looking for it is more than just an innocent antiques collector'

'This isn't the original neckless though' Lily pointed out. 'Slytherin's original locket was made into a horcrux by Voldemort and destroyed by my uncle during the war'

Nicolas frowned. 'It looks just the same to me…'

'It's a replica' Alasdair spoke up for the first time. 'It was made by Corvinus Gaunt in order that someone might take over his duties as the keeper of the Chamber of Secrets once he graduated.'

'And how do you know this?' Nicolas inquired sharply.

'Because I was alive then' Alasdair said simply. 'And these were the things that Slytherin students whispered about to each other'

Nicolas was thoughtful for a moment. He regarded Alasdair apprehensively.

'Replica or not-' He said finally, holding his arms out and appealing to them all. 'A man has been searching for it for 10 months at the least. So I think it might be a good idea to find out who he is, don't you?'

'How would we go about doing that?' Scorpius asked dubiously.

'You forget, dear cousin!' Nicolas gave him an enormous grin, flashing his pointed teeth. 'I'm a vampire!'

And with that, he transformed into a bat before their eyes and flew up and out of the clearing.

'That doesn't bode well' Scorpius muttered, rubbing his forehead.

'So who's clever idea was it to get a former Anguis turned vampire involved in all of this?'Alasdair demanded with obvious irritation.

'We haven't told him anything about becoming animagi or about the blood bond' Lily said quickly.

'And how much have you told the horse then?'

Lily sighed and turned to look into the shrubbery. The palomino horse was still there, just as conspicuous as before.

To Lily's surprise, Scorpius strode forward through the long grass and beyond the tree trunks and bent forward to converse with the creature in a hushed voice. A few moments later, the horse was trotting out of it's sheltered spot behind him as he returned.

Upon reaching the middle of the clearing where Lily, Lysander and Alasdair, it turned promptly back into the familiar young blond haired girl that had always caused Lily to tense up defensively.

'That horse can take on the form of a human' Lysander said impressed.

'I am a human you dimwit' Poppy replied silkily, folding her arms. 'We've been at the same school for three years now'

'Oh!' Lysander said with sudden realization. 'Is she the one you despise?' He asked Lily with innocent curiosity.

Lily clenched her jaw and remained silent. She wasn't sure how she felt about Poppy lately. But she did know that she didn't want her to know all about their rule-breaking and scheming.

'Poppy is an animagus' Scorpius said fervently. 'She can help with the blood bond'

'Scorpius…' Lily said warningly.

'I'm not helping with anything until you give me more information' Poppy cut in quickly looking at Alasdair through narrowed eyes. Alasdair glared straight back at her just as distrustfully.

Lily shot Poppy a disapproving look before grabbing Scorpius's upper arm and pulling him aside.

'What are you doing?' She hissed at him.

'You said this was my choice and I don't think she should be-'

'That was before you almost died' Scorpius said pointedly. 'For the second and third time' He added with emphasis.

'We can't wait anymore. We need to stop Raleigh now- and Poppy can help us with that-'

'But we're not ready yet anyway!' Lily cried out in frustration. She didn't like where he was taking this.

'You're ready. Lysander is ready' Scorpius said steadily. He gave her a steely look.

'And so is Poppy'

'We're not doing this without-' Lily burst out in a pleading tone.

'I can't do it Lily' Scorpius shook his head without letting his eyes leave hers. 'I just can't'

'You have to keep trying-' Lily began but she stopped herself. That was just what her father had told her about using her wand and that advice hadn't served her well at all.

Scorpius looked silently back at her, seeming to understand. Lily felt overcome with a sudden feeling of loneliness. She had only ever imagined performing the bond with Lysander and Scorpius and it just didn't feel right to go ahead without him.

Scorpius slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out the envelope that contained the folded pages of Helga Hufflepuff's diary. He handed it to Lily with a small nod and walked swiftly away.

Lily swallowed hard and took a moment to look down at the thick envelope and think. Deep down, she knew that Scorpius was right. She knew that the most important thing now was stopping Raleigh and not her own particular feelings about Poppy.

Slowly she stepped forward and handed the sour-faced, blond haired girl the envelope.

A few days later, Lily was awoken in the middle of the night by Fides butting his head into her cheek.

'Your pocket watch has a rather urgent message in it' the kneazle yowled at her.

Lily bolted upright, throwing off her covers and almost knocking over Fides in the process.

She scrambled to pick the watch up off her side table and read what was inside it.

Not a few moments later, she was rushing down through the dark stone corridors towards the entrance hall in her fox form. Once she had made it out through the huge oak doors and onto the lawns, she could see a dark figure hurrying across the grounds in the distance ahead of her and she dashed towards him.

Scorpius was in the same grey and blue striped Pyjamas that she had seen him wearing on Christmas Day of his third year, only now they seemed a little small for him, his white ankles and wrists exposed to the moonlight.

He turned towards her as she approached.

'Might be best to stay that way until we get there...' He warned her.

'...just in case someone sees us outside of the school grounds past curfew'

Lily couldn't answer him as she was but she did as he suggested and trotted along beside his legs. Once they arrived at the Whomping Willow he picked her up and carried her in his arms as he slid through the opening in the roots and then all the way down the dirt tunnel until the trapdoor.

They had left the hole in the boards open from the last time they had snuck out of the Shrieking Shack and into Hogsmeade to meet Nicolas. Lily had the impression that Scorpius had used it several times since to rendezvous with his ancestor, who despite his best attempts to seem otherwise, he appeared to be getting along with much quite well recently.

Lily ran ahead to make sure the coast was clear of professors or of anyone else that might recognize a lone Hufflepuff out of bed. Scorpius followed her at a distance, waiting for the flick of her bushy tail to signal that it was safe to follow.

As always, the sign over the Hog's head was dripping eerily with blood. Lily was just wondering what the least conspicuous way for a red fox and a boy in his pajamas to enter would be when the cellar door at the side of the inn burst open.

The white-blonde haired head of Nicolas appeared and he threw an arm up motioning for them to come inside.

Scorpius picked Lily up again and cautiously descended the steep stone steeps into the darkness below. But half way down Nicolas slammed the wooden doors shut behind him, cutting off any last semblance of light and causing Scorpius to stumble a little on the steps in surprise. In her animagus form, Lily's eyes were far more adept at seeing through the darkness and so she leapt out of his arms and led the way again.

With her hearing amplified past what she could have ever picked up as a human, Lily could make out the sound of stifled breathing and of metal scraping concrete floor.

'Lumos!'

Scorpius lit the dank room up, before immediately clambering backwards in shock.

In front of them a bald man with a small scar under one eye was tied to a chair, his mouth gagged with a sealing spell.

Scorpius shot around to berate Nicolas.

'Are you insane?!'

'No' the vampire replied evenly. 'I told you I'd help you find him and I have'

'We wanted you to find out who he was, not kidnap him!' Scorpius cried in frustration.

'We're going to do that too, don't you worry'

Nicolas pulled out a vial of a colorless, water-like potion and gave it a playful shake for emphasis.

'No, no, no…' Scorpius held his palms up and widened his eyes. 'We could get expelled for using Veritaserum-!'

'You won't be using it, I will' Nicolas countered.

And with that he strode over to the trapped man, and pulled a long, nobly wand out of the pocket of his robes.

'Are you supposed to have that?'

Scorpius looked at the wand in Nicolas's hand dubiously.

'Oh here we go…' Nicolas turned back around in annoyance.

'Are you going to give me a lecture about Clause Three of the Code of Wand Use cousin?'

Scorpius sighed, folded his arms and shifted his weight onto his other foot in preparation for Nicolas's bitter outpour.

'I'm well aware that magical creatures are not permitted to use wands! But old habits die hard and as it so happens, one of the perks of everybody thinking you have died is that you can get away with a lot of rule breaking!'

A satisfied smirk crept onto Nicolas's face as Scorpius shook his head.

'Potter, be a dear and don't tell your father about this…' He added, flashing her a charming smile for good measure.

Lily swiftly transformed back into her human-self and folded her arms too.

'I'm not going to tell my father about any of this' she cried, shaking her head in dismay. He seemed to have already forgotten that he had made her complicit in the crime of holding a wizard captive against his will.

'Good' Nicolas said cheerfully, his mood restored. He turned back to the captive man and promptly undid the sealing spell on his mouth.

The bald wizard immediately opened his mouth to cry out, but before his voice had left his throat, Nicolas had sent the truth serum forcefully down it with another wave of his contraband wand.

He choked and spluttered for a few moments, but Nicolas didn't wait for him to recover before sending a barrage of questions his way.

'What is your name? Who do you work for? How long have you been an Anguis?'

The man slowly lifted his head. He appeared to be trying to keep his mouth shut, but the magic of the potion forced it awkwardly open.

'M-my-name-is-'

He clenched his teeth but they soon flew open again.

'-V-Voyer-Turnkey-'

He thrashed about in the chair trying to get away but it was to no avail.

'I-w-work-ffff…for the M-Ministry of Magic-'

Scorpius swore and put a hand to his forehead. Lily felt her stomach drop and her skin go cold. Even Nicolas looked rattled.

'aaaaa-and-I'm-n-not-an-Anguis!'

Scorpius strode quickly over to Nicolas and grabbed him by the front of his robes.

'What in Merlin's name have you done!' He hissed angrily.

'Your hostage is a Ministry worker!'

Lily began to pace in a panicked frenzy. There was no way they were going to get away with this without her father finding out.

'…Miss Potter?' To her surprise, the bald wizard lifted his head and addressed her softly.

She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him in horror. Nicolas had called her by her last name in front of him and now the cat really was out of the bag.

'I have reason to believe you have what I'm looking for…' He spoke of his own volition now.

Lily swallowed hard and exchanged a panicked look with Scorpius.

'So you have been looking for the locket… but why?'

Without even considering the fact that her question would magically force an answer from him, Lily asked it out of a burning desire to know.

'I need to get it before the Anguis…' He looked back down at the ground. Lily could sense that he was trying to stop himself from saying any more than the potion required him to. Though guilt tugged at her heart as she did, this time she intentionally used his magically induced honesty against him.

'Why do you need to do that?' She pressed him.

Turnkey let out a ragged sigh.

'All I know is that there will come a time when they will want it more than anything else in this world. And so to draw them out into the light it is essential that the Ministry has it'

'But how do you know that?' Scorpius spoke up this time.

Turnkey rolled his eyes before narrowing them as he looked upon Scorpius.

'I heard it in a prophecy' He shot back reluctantly through grit teeth.

'What prophecy?' Nicolas asked immediately.

The bound wizard shook his head in frustration but the words escaped his lips regardless.

'Josephus Durer's prophecy'

Lily's lips parted in surprise and she exchanged another look with Scorpius.

'Was he an Anguis? How did you hear this prophecy? What else did it say?'

Lily had a million burning questions and no more patience for Turnkey's short answers.

'The Ministry found Durer guilty of being so….' Their hostage choked out before biting on his bottom lip.

Lily waited for the magic to force out the rest of the answers to her questions and sure enough, Turnkey's mouth flew open once again.

'I was charged with taking Prisoner's from Azkaban to the Hall of Prophecy so that they could retrieve the prophecies about them. My job was to be a scribe as the prisoner's heard their prophecies and to report the findings to the other…'

Turnkey scrunched his eyes up tightly and bit down on his bottom lip again, this time drawing blood. It dribbled down his chin causing Lily to cry out in surprise and rush over to him.

'Nicolas!' She pulled out a handkerchief and held it to the cut in the man's lip.

'We shouldn't be doing this! Don't you have a reversal potion?'

'It'll ware off soon enough' The vampire replied roughly, folding his arms and staring down at the bleeding wizard. 'But first, you must tell us-the other what?'

Lily's hand that held the handkerchief jumped back as Turnkey's mouth flew open again, sending blood spitting out as it did.

'The other Unspeakables' He gasped out. The potion was forcing his body to propel him to tell the truth as though it were as essential to it's survival as breathing.

Scorpius paled.

'You're an Unspeakable?'

With a look of utter dejection at having blown his own cover, the man nodded.

Lily felt as though her blood had frozen in her veins and she began to sweat. She knew little of what Unspeakables actually did for the Ministry. Her father had told her that even he didn't know. All that she was certain of was that their work was very, very sensitive and incredibly important and that holding one against his will and forcing him to drink truth serum was surely a very serious crime by Ministry standards.

'And the rest of the prophecy?' Nicolas prompted him mercilessly.

'It said…'

Turnkey swallowed hard and clenched his jaw shut but it was no use.

'...It said that a time would come when the Anguis would want the replica of Slytherin's locket more than any other treasure, that they would seek to bring death and destruction to all with it, and that when that time came Durer would need to rely on his most faithful of allies to find freedom again'

A look of horror came over Turnkey's features and he hung his head. Lily still held her blood covered handkerchief up but her hand was shaking now and he jerked his head away from her.

'Miss Potter…' He murmured quietly, his eyes darting back and forth as he tried to read her expression. 'You understand now why I need the locket…'

Lily slowly nodded, her heart beating fast.

'…I've heard whispers that you speak to snakes... You must tell me the truth now- Do you have it?'

Lily took a deep, shaking breath and looked over at Scorpius and Nicolas. They both looked just as shell-shocked as she felt.

She knew that she couldn't keep the locket with her after everything that he had told her, but she also knew that she needed to find a way to ensure that they would not end up on trial before the Wizengamot for kidnapping an Unspeakable.

'If I give it to you, will you promise not to tell my father about this…?' She whispered back to him.

'Please Mr Turnkey, we thought you were an Anguis…'

Lily appealed to him with pleading eyes and the unspeakable looked back at her through his dark ones. He was covered in sweat from his ordeal battling the effects of the truth serum.

'Your father knows nothing of my mission… that kind of information is only available to the head of the Auror department. Nothing that has happened this night will get you into trouble… I'll see to it'

Lily let out a breath she had been holding in relief.

'So long as you release me and give me the locket' Turnkey said firmly, his eyes locked with hers.

With a shaking hand, Lily reached inside the collar of her shirt and enclosed the locked in her palm. Turnkey was still under the influence of Veritaserum and that was a comfort. But it was the steely look in his eyes that gave Lily the confidence to trust him.

She lifted the locket over her head and held out her other hand towards the ropes that bound him.

'Finite Incantatem'

The ropes fell and Turnkey brought his arms forward.

With a deep breath, Lily let go of the locket and watched as it fell into his open palms.

'You are never to speak of this to anyone,' Turnkey warned, looking them each in the eye sternly.

'-if you do, I shall be forced to tell my side of the story'

Nicolas hurried forward and sheepishly handed him the nobly wand that he had stolen from him.

'We won't say a thing' He said emphatically, his signature smile pasted over his face.

'Be aware that if you do, the unspeakables will know of it' Turnkey said roughly, before disapparating with a loud crack that made them all jump.

A/N: Sorry again for the wait! Gah, so many spelling mistakes, sorry to all the people who read it right after I posted... I've gone and fixed them all now I think. Please tell me what you think of the story in the reviews. It really helps with inspiration and motivation as I work on the next chapter. Please know that I take all of your suggestions seriously and am very thankful for the feedback.