As she pulled her face from the Pensieve, Lily let out a gasp as though she had been drowning in it's silverly waters, although in fact she had just been holding her breath from sheer shock. She stood before the basin heaving deep breaths until Fides slunk up by her ankles and peered at her questioningly.
'What is it? What did you see?'
Lily stared back at her familiar for a moment, unsure of what to say.
'…Scorpius… with Albus…'
Lily raised her hands to her face and massaged her forehead as she tried to gather her thoughts. Her mind was racing. She was shocked, but more than anything she was worried. Albus had looked so wretched; she had never seen him break down like that before. What's worse, she now finally understood that without even having meant to, she had contributed to his wretchedness. She had been the one to encourage Scorpius to keep an eye on him, to get closer to him. She had also been the one to insist that she and Scorpius keep their relationship a secret. Actions which had felt harmless at the time suddenly weighed her down with guilt.
Lily picked up the empty glass jars that she had left on the Headmistress's desk and began to coax the floating silver memories back into them with some magic from her fingertips. Tears rolled down her face as she worked. The least she could do was make sure she got the memories into the right hands; to ensure that Raleigh didn't get away with all the hurt he had caused her brother. Lily then gathered up all the jars of memories, including the ones that she had not yet seen and returned them to her pockets.
'You're looking for them are you?' a soft, contained voice sounded from above her.
Lily jolted in surprise. Her eyes flew upwards in the direction of the sound. On the back wall, high above the Headmistress's desk, was a golden frame. Inside that frame was the Half Blood Prince.
Lily staggered forward, suddenly filled with an inexplicable sense of relief to see a familiar face. It had been three years since she had last seen him in the room of requirement, the night that she had run there in the hope she might be able to gain a hint about how to stop Noirmorter. He of course hadn't changed. The portrait continued to depict a Professor Snape around her father's age, the age that he had died. She, on the other hand, was a good deal taller than before (though still the smallest of all her siblings and cousins bar little Louis Weasley) and had matured into a young woman.
'Your Highness- I mean-' Lily flushed in embarrassment as she suddenly remembered that he wasn't, as she had first thought, a real Prince after all.
The hook nosed man shifted in his frame, looking just as uncomfortable.
'Sir is fine' he coughed.
'Sir,' Lily corrected herself. Then, because she couldn't think of a politer way to say it, she burst out 'What are you doing here?'.
The man brushed a strand of greasy hair behind one ear before answering.
'Well, I was once a Headmaster of this school, even if it was only for a short period of time and under… unconventional circumstances'
Lily looked around at the other portraits. There was a dark haired woman with a mole, encased in a silver frame labeled 'Dame Phyllida Spore'. Beside her an elderly woman wearing a white habit snoozed in a Mahogany frame engraved with the name 'Professor Edessa Skanderberg'. A plate on an elaborate wooden structure carved to resemble a snake eating it's own tail, read 'Professor Phineas Nigellus Black'. Inside of it, a man with a grey beard and a large black felt hat was snoring. Lily knew them from her History of Magic lessons; all of them were old Headmistresses and Headmasters.
'Oh, but of course' Lily replied weakly. It was still difficult for her to connect him with the sad tale of Professor Snape that her father had told her. To her, he was still the half blood prince; her first confidant at Hogwarts, her first true friend.
'They're in the dungeons' Snape told her, his black eyes flashing with urgency. 'I was wandering through the portraits down there, wondering what had become of everyone when I saw them. I thought you ought to know'
'Who?' Lily asked in alarm. She was still struggling to focus after her strange journey in the Pensieve.
'Your brother and Draco's son. You said their names just now.' Snape said with a curious frown. 'Aren't you looking for them?'
Lily inhaled sharply. Then she quickly bent down to speak to Fides.
'Stay here and let the Headmistress know where I've gone when she returns' Lily instructed the cat. Fides yowled in protest, but by that time Lily was already half way down the stairs.
'Be careful!' Snape called out to her as she rushed away. 'He's not in a good way!'
Lily didn't know if he was referring to Albus or Scorpius, or what exactly he meant by it, but the proclamation only increased her urgency.
When she finally made it to the dungeons, Lily stopped and tried to catch her breath. The empty castle corridors were playing on her nerves and she worried that her panting would alert some hidden assailant to her presence.
The dungeons were a labyrinth of dank corridors connecting to caves, pits, potions classrooms and of course the Slytherin Common Room. Usually the place was dimly lit with wall mounted torches. But today, with the castle apparently almost empty, their magical flames had been extinguished.
With her heart beating hard against her chest, Lily wandered through the shadows on the lookout for any sign of movement or life. She made it as far as the potions classroom before she found anything.
When Lily stepped inside, the first thing that she noticed was a broken wand lying on the stone floor beside a pile of empty cauldrons. She bent down to pick it up, looking around her as she did, afraid that at any moment someone might jump out of the shadows to attack her. The second thing that Lily noticed was that several stools had been pushed over and there were rolls of parchment dispersed out onto the floor as though there had been some kind of scuffle.
With trembling fingers, Lily held the wand up close to her face so that she could examine it through the darkness. Whilst she had never seen the unicorn hair which now stuck out from where it had been snapped in two, she recognized the shape and the color of the holly as Albus's.
Lily left the classroom and proceeded down yet another dark corridor. She kept her palms raised, ready to protect herself against whomever had broken her brother's wand. But there was still no sign of anyone; each room she passed was empty and quiet.
But then, as she made her way past the entrance to the Slytherin common room, Lily saw something in the distance. The knowledge that Albus was out there somewhere wandless and unable to defend himself helped her to let go of her nerves. No longer worried about making too much noise, she rushed to the end of the corridor and found herself in a damp cave. Stalactites lined the ceiling and droplets of icy water rained down onto her.
Lily's heart stopped at the sight of bundle of shimmering fabric. Right before her, discarded in a corner, was her brother's invisibility cloak. But as Lily reached out a hand to pick it up, she heard scuffling and a stifled yell from behind her. She left the cloak where it was and instead ran deeper into the cave in the direction of the sound.
At the very far end of the cavern, shrouded in darkness, Lily could see two figures thrashing about on the ground. In her haste to get to them, one foot slipped against the stone floor. Looking down, Lily realized that she was standing in a shallow puddle of blood.
'Albus-stop!' Scorpius's panicked voice reverberated around the small cavern. Lily's chest tightened. As she darted forward, her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could now make out the shape of Scorpius's body as he crawled across the floor, his white-blond hair clearly visible through the gloom.
He was struggling to inch forwards using only his arms. One trouser leg had been ripped open to reveal a great gash down his thigh. A shadowy figure with dark messy hair had a hold of his other ankle and was attempting to pin him to the ground.
'Albus- this isn't you-!'
As Scorpius rolled onto his back to yell back at Albus, Lily caught sight of his face in the dim light. His left cheek sported an newly swelling bruise and his lips and teeth were tainted with blood.
Albus silently raised his face up to look back at him, his emerald eyes glazed over.
'You killed my sister- now I'll kill you'
In one quick movement, he climbed on top of Scorpius and raised his fist high into the air. Without a moment's thought, Lily lunged forward and threw her arms around Albus's torso.
'Albus, what are you doing? I'm here! I'm not dead, I'm here!'
She tried to wrestle him off of Scorpius. But although Albus tensed up at her contact, resisting her attempts to pull him away, he didn't turn to look at her or respond. Mentally, he didn't appear to have noticed her presence at all.
'Lily, get back!' Scorpius directed her with wide eyes. 'He's been imperiused'
But as Albus still had his first raised threateningly at Scorpius's face, Lily continued to try and restrain him. she reached up to grab his raised arm.
'Albus, I'm here-!' Lily pleaded, moving her face closer to his to get him to look at her. Then, without even a glance in her direction, Albus's elbow suddenly jolted, ramming straight into Lily's stomach.
The wind was completely taken out of her. Lily's grip around Albus slackened and within moments he had his hands around Scorpius's neck. Scorpius's arms flew up and he took ahold of Albus's wrists in an attempt to stop him from squeezing the air from his throat. But Albus was faster and more forceful and soon Scorpius was choking.
Without a second thought Lily lifted up her palms and screamed 'BAUBILLIOUS!'
The jet of white sparks that left Lily's finger tips collided with Albus's shoulder and sent him flying sideways off Scorpius and onto the floor. But to Lily's horror he soon got up again and scrambled straight back over to Scorpius, his hands curled into fists and his face blank.
Lily put herself between them, her hands on Albus's shoulders, her eyes appealing to him.
'Albus, I'm right here! You have to stop-'
A flash of confused hurt briefly crossed Albus's features, before his face went blank again.
'He needs to die- I have to kill him' he breathed robotically as he tried to push past Lily.
'No!' Lily yelled this time. She didn't want to have to hurt him again with a spell. She needed to get through to him. 'You have to stop Albus- I'm right here Albus!'
'Lily-!' Scorpius called to her in warning from where was still bleeding heavily and lying incapacitated on the floor. He had seen it coming.
With one fowl swoop, Albus grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her roughly to the ground. Lily's knees clashed together and her waist collided violently with the stone floor. There was a tinkling of glass breaking as one of the jars in her pocket burst open.
Lily tried to sit back up again and blink away the dizzying stars that blurred her vision. A silvery cloud was masking her view of Albus and at first she thought it was a result of her light-headedness after having been pushed so roughly. But soon Lily realized that it was one of Albus's stolen memories.
The silvery wisp floated through the air towards it's original owner, gliding gently towards his temple. Albus had raised a foot and was about to stamp down onto Scorpius's neck. Lily watched in horror as Scorpius closed his eyes in anticipation of the pain.
But all of a sudden, Albus froze. The wisp of memory was disappearing in through his temple and out of sight, and as it did so, his eyes suddenly filled with light again, a hundred different emotions seeming to cross his face all at once.
'Albus, stop!' Lily begged again.
A single tear ran down Albus's cheek and he looked down at where his foot was resting on Scorpius's neck with a startled expression as though he had just awoken from a dream.
But just as abruptly as he had frozen, Albus soon blinked away the emotions that had taken hold of his features and his face transformed back into the blank mask it had been moments before. Then he pressed his foot down.
Scorpius's cry was stifled in his throat, his wind pipes blocked.
'Albus, no!'
Lily threw her hands into her pockets to retrieve the remaining jars. One after the other she threw them at the ground at Albus's feet where they smashed, sending shards of glass scattering all over the floor. Suddenly Albus was encased in a thick silver cloud which floated swiftly towards his temples. It was like watching a tornado forming slowly in reverse; the memories spun themselves into a smaller and smaller wisp of silver until they had completely disappeared back inside Albus's skull.
As the memories returned to him, he seemed to loose all the strength in his body. His foot slipped backwards off of Scorpius's neck and returned to the floor. Lily rushed forwards to help Scorpius to sit up so that he could refill his lungs with air more easily.
'Scorpius, Merlin, Scorpius-' Lily clasped his face between her palms and looked him in the eyes. She was worried he was about to pass out, but he looked steadily back at her and put an arm around her waist to let her know he was alright as he continued to gasp for air.
They turned to look at Albus, who had fallen into a crumpled heap on the ground. Slowly his shoulders began to shake and the sound of soft sobs emitted from his turned back.
Scorpius gave Lily a serious look to let her know he would be fine and that she should leave him to attend to Albus. Gingerly, she backed away from Scorpius and approached her brother.
'Albus?'
When he didn't respond, she moved forward and put a hand hesitantly on his back.
'Albus, I'm sorry, this wasn't how I wanted you to get your memories back…' Lily said softly.
'Merlin, what have I done?' Albus cried in a thick voice. 'What is all this? This can't be me…'
Then suddenly he looked up at Lily. His eyes widened as though he was seeing her for the first time.
'And you're alive! I don't understand, you were dead-'
Lily moved closer and hugged Albus from behind.
'No, Albus, he's fed you false memories. He's been doing it for years. He's been using you-'
'Who?' Albus asked wildly, his eyes were darting around at each crevice of the cavern as though he expected someone to come out at any moment.
'Professor Raleigh' Lily choked. She lent her forehead against his back, suddenly overcome with emotion. 'I tried to stop him, I tried to warn everyone but I wasn't able to-'
Albus was still looking around the room, in complete confusion. He didn't seem to be able to follow along with what she was saying.
'I hurt you' he sobbed. 'I really hurt you at the duel. I didn't want to believe it… I really didn't want to believe it but now I can see it… the first memory of the duel but also this second one where I used Confringo-'
'That wasn't you, he made you do it-' Lily told him hastily.
Albus put his face in his hands.
'I don't understand. I don't understand what's real anymore-'
Then all of a sudden he looked over at Scorpius with an alarmed expression.
'That night in the bathroom-'
'That bit was real' Scorpius cleared his throat awkwardly, his eyes darting over to Lily with worry.
Lily avoided looking back at him. This wasn't the time for this. The gash in Scorpius's leg was still bleeding onto the floor. Lily encouraged Albus onto his feet before making her way over to Scorpius again and bending down to tend to his wound.
'It's not so bad' Scorpius told her. 'Best just to use a bandaging charm on it. I can heal it once I get back upstairs to my wand'
Lily nodded and complied, sending streams of bandages out of her open palm. They wound themselves around Scorpius's upper leg as Lily put a palm to Scorpius's cheek and healed the bruise there. It was a much simpler spell which Lily was more confident in performing than Vulnera Sanentur.
'We need to go. We need to get to Professor McGonagall to let her know about Raleigh so that he doesn't get away with this' Lily told Albus firmly.
She pulled one of Scorpius's arms around her so that she could help him walk. But as he was much taller than her, their progress was slow and soon Albus had nudged her out of the way so that he could help prop Scorpius up instead. The boys avoided each others eyes as they limped together along the corridor.
'Where is everyone?' Albus asked after a while, looking around at the empty corridors.
'I don't know' Lily was surprised to hear that Albus knew less about what had happened in the castle during the hours she had been locked in the Professor's office than she did. 'The statue in front of the Headmistress's office mentioned something about an evacuation…'
'So that's why everyone was running around when we went down to the dungeons' Scorpius said thoughtfully. 'I thought the castle was being attacked'
'Why were you down in the dungeons anyway?' Lily asked sharply.
Scorpius looked uncomfortable.
'When I woke up in the hospital wing, Albus was there…' he said.
Albus turned to look at him, his brow creased and his face ashen.
'I stunned you and carried you down to the dungeons…' Albus said hoarsely. 'I don't know why, Merlin, I can't believe that I was going to try to-'
'You were obviously under the imperius curse' Scorpius told him dismissively.
'Raleigh left the office not long after you did' Lily explained. 'He must have gone after you and used the curse on you before he went wherever it is that he went…'
'I still have a memory of Scorpius using the killing curse on you in Raleigh's office' Albus said closing his eyes and scrunching his face up in distress.
'That never happened Albus' Lily told him soothingly 'He must have adjusted your memories again. Scorpius would never-'
'I know' Albus retorted firmly. 'But it still seems so real'
Lily exchanged a worried look with Scorpius.
After a long, slow journey up the many flights of stairs to the ground floor, the trio finally made it to the entrance hall.
It was at this point that Lily handed Albus back his broken wand, which she had stuffed down her long grey socks for safe-keeping. Scorpius flinched at the sight of it.
'Sorry about that' he mumbled to Albus.
Albus glanced at him and shook his head.
'If you hadn't have done it, I would have got you with the killing curse' he said through a dry throat.
'We should go and retrieve your wand from the Hospital wing' Lily told Scorpius, eager to change the topic.
Scorpius nodded.
'LILY POTTER!'
Lily jumped at the sound of Poppy's voice crying out from the other end of the corridor. She spun on her heel, turning just in time to see a flash of Lysander's curly hair before he collided with her in a bear hug.
'WHERE IN MERLIN'S NAME HAVE YOU BEEN?' Poppy rushed over to her side, her face flushed with anger. Despite her strict tone, Lily could see that her eyes were shining with worry.
Lily let go of Lysander to pull a reluctant Poppy into a hug.
'We were looking everywhere for you!' Poppy blubbered fiercely. 'The Headmistress is gone. Everyone's been evacuated to the room of requirement-'
The room of requirement! Lily thought to herself. But of course. If Hogwarts was the safest place to be, then the safest place to evacuate students from an intruder was somewhere hidden within it.
'We snuck out though after Montespan left to go looking for you all. We'd lost track of you since yesterday and then Montespan said even Scorpius wasn't in the hospital wing where he had left him-' Lysander explained.
'What in the bloody hell happened to you?' Poppy asked Scorpius suddenly, seeming to have just realized that he was injured.
'It's complicated' Scorpius shrugged as Albus shifted awkwardly. 'But we're all alright now…'
'But I don't understand. Why was everyone made to evacuate?' Lily frowned at Poppy.
'After we heard what had happened to Scorpius we went to tell the Headmistress that something was definitely wrong. That you hadn't returned to the Gryffindor dormitory last night and that we thought Raleigh was behind it' Lysander said.
'And she believed you?' Lily asked skeptically.
'She'd already received an owl from your father that morning, expressing strong concerns about Raleigh' Poppy explained, still looking amazed at the coincidence herself.
'What?' Lily was utterly flabbergasted. All this time her father had dismissed her concerns. But then suddenly, right on the morning she most needed him he had decided to believe her? It didn't make sense.
'He was the one who encouraged her to get everyone into the room of requirement so that he could hunt Raleigh down and make sure he didn't escape the castle. He was planning to arrest him' Lysander told her adamantly.
'How could he change his mind so soon, after all this time?' Lily wondered out loud. He hadn't even known that she'd gone missing.
'We don't know' Poppy said. 'We were just as confused as you are. Then just as the Professors were starting to round up students, the Headmistress announced she needed to go to the Ministry to provide back up'
'Back up?' Lily asked with dread.
'Raleigh had apparently shown up there. Apparently your father immediately ordered the Aurors to detain him and a fierce duel broke out. So the Headmistress left to go and help' Lysander explained in a tense voice.
'And then what?' Lily demanded. She was really worried about her father now. Whilst it was good news that he had somehow discovered that Raleigh was a danger, it wouldn't do any good if he wasn't able to capture him- or worse, was hurt by him.
'We don't know' Poppy replied, 'That's the last we heard. We've been here looking for you. We couldn't even get into Raleigh's blasted office because we didn't have the ring. When we couldn't' find you anywhere else, we thought for sure he'd kidnapped you and taken you away somewhere when he left to go to the Ministry-'
'No he just left me up there inside his office' Lily said shaking her head. 'He didn't even try to finish me off before he went, he left in such a hurry…'
'Perhaps he was planning to come back' Albus spoke up suddenly. Lily turned to look at him. His face was still stained with tears and he looked exhausted but at least the light had returned to his eyes.
'Perhaps he was still hoping to keep his cover and return' Albus repeated. 'Otherwise he wouldn't have bothered to imperius me into trying to murder Scorpius. He would have just done it himself and you along with him…'
Lily opened her mouth to respond. She could see that Poppy and Lysander were exchanging surprised looks at the mention of the imperius curse and murder. There was no use dwelling on what might have led Raleigh to do what he did without first speaking to the Headmistress or her father. They really needed to get Scorpius to the hospital wing and to find Montespan, who was probably still wandering the castle in search of them.
But just then, footsteps sounded from above them and the group of five students froze. It was coming from the direction of the marble staircase.
Poppy and Lysander immediately drew their wands and Lily raised her palms. With Albus and Scorpius wandless, she was keenly aware that she would need to defend them.
But as a pair of boots came into view at the top steps, Albus put out a hand to urge Lily to lower her arms. Lily didn't need the encouragement, however. She threw her arms down and ran up the stairs in relief.
'Dad!'
Harry stopped his decent and looked down at her in surprise. Lily rushed towards him and flung herself into his arms.
'Dad, Professor Raleigh-' she began in a flurry of panic.
'He got away' Harry said gravely, hugging her tightly to him. 'I'm so sorry Lils. I should have listened to you from the start... We weren't able to capture him at the Ministry and he got away. I came here to look for you. The Headmistress said you were missing-'
Lily tried to hide her disappointment. After everything he'd done to Albus, that Raleigh had somehow managed to slip through the grips of the Ministry felt to her like a truly intolerable injustice.
'I'm fine but Scor-' Lily began. She stopped when she saw that Harry's eyes had travelled over her shoulder. Lily followed his gaze to where Albus stood behind her at the bottom of the steps. He had his face lowered and was crying again. Harry quickly released Lily and hurried down the steps to embrace his son.
'I'm sorry Albus' Harry whispered, clutching his shoulder from behind and patting him on the back. 'I'm sorry…'
Lily knew that her father didn't yet know the extent of everything that had happened and that once he did he was bound to feel a much heavier weight of guilt upon him. She felt an immense sadness at the thought. In her distress she looked around for Scorpius's eyes in search of comfort. But to Lily's surprise, whilst Poppy and Lysander still stood watching the reunion between Harry and Albus, he was nowhere to be seen. She turned around on the spot in confusion.
Then, out of one of the arched windows, she spotted a limping white fox disappearing out into one of the courtyards.
A/N: More will be explained/ revealed next chapter, but I'd love to hear your thoughts and theories on this chapter! Is there anything that you liked about this chapter? Anything that didn't make sense? Anything you want to see more of? Your feedback always inspires me, so thank you very much xox
