APOV

The knocking continued, louder this time.

"Go away."

"Al, we need to talk." Dad said coming into my room.

"Frictional and multi dimensional kinetic ruptures can occur when witches and wizards tamper with certain magical VY frequencies." I said sadly as though he should understand me. Before me stretched the great expanse of rolling hills so characteristic of Devon and Somerset. I had been staring out of the lightly frosted window pane for hours, watching my breath freeze on the glass. My whole room had chilled in response to my sadness. Nothing was as it should have been. The images had returned. The countryside had transformed into immense oceans of fire. The skies were moss. The very air was sadness made manifest in swarms of thick poisonous smoke. All the things that float endlessly on the other side were before me again. A great painted veil, swirling and dancing endlessly.

"What?" He asked confused.

"Nothing dad, I'm just tired."

"I know you're still unhappy that we sent Scorpius home, but there's something else we need to talk about. I'm not sure how else to put this." He said sitting on my bed. I blinked emptily as the fabric rippled and danced where dad had descended.

This wasn't good. Any conversation that began this way couldn't bode well. "There has been a serious threat made against you by members of the Radical party. Your mum and I don't think its safe to send you back to Hogwarts, for now."

"WHAT?" Now it was my turn to be confused. My chest was really hurting. Everything was blurring. Please why this? Why?

"You'll also need to have an auror guard you round the clock."

"But Dad I need to be in school. How… am… what about…" I stumbled jumbling my words. I was too terrified of what was happening. Too deep beneath the waves to risk taking a breath.

"Your aunt Hermione can teach you in the meantime." His face distorted as he spoke. His cracked lips smudged as they opened and closed. His eyes seemed more like glass than living tissue. Nothing made sense through the fog. Hyperion was changing colors angrily, scratching desperately at the window.

"I… but my friends… I... can't... Dad..."

"Al…"

"Hermione runs the DoM. She… she… can't have the time to… teach me."

"Viv will sub for your aunt when work at the Ministry overextends her." Why was he so blurry? His sweater seemed to unravel, and him with it. Like snakes uncoiling, the threads separated.

"I don't think it will be too long Albus. We'll catch them and you'll be back to Hogwarts in no time. You'll see." dad was trying to reassure me, but every word came out a hiss. Lies...

"Why are you lying to me?" I asked, suddenly realizing…

"What? Al I'm not—"

"Scorpius…" I whispered interrupting dad. This had all been to keep us apart.

"I'm sorry, none of your friends will be allowed to visit… Apparently Draco responded similarly when I told him his son was also named on a list of other targets." Lies, all lies. Something was going on.

"Get out" I spat coldly, turning away from him. I had no use for liars, not when everything that frightened me about my powers had returned. The world was upside down, the veil had returned and i couldn't be bothered by these fools any longer. I turned my back on the wretch.

"Al?"

"You're lying again. I can smell it, feel it. GET OUT." I said louder.

"Your mother and I…"

"QrASJHH!" I screamed in parseltongue charging the air with magic. Cuts were forming all along my body. Everywhere my skin ripped open violently only to heal again immediately afterwards. Blood began dripping from my eyes... If i wasn't careful... huff... i'd light myself on fire... huff... he would have pounced on me had he seen what i was doing to myself. I grabbed the corner of the bed so hard that my fingers dug five splintery holes into the hard wood beneath them. The pressure in my left eye was building so fast that I... nhhhhh...

"…ok Al. We can talk later." he offered finally, standing to leave. Why had dad lied? Why was I missing hours of memory from christmas day?

When the door closed I walked slowly to the window staring sadly into the starless gloom that descended. I could feel the additional security magic going up around the property. I wouldn't be able to send Scor a message now I thought grimly. I looked down at Hyperion who mewled sadly on the sill. My tears froze on my cheeks as we howled our sadness to the pale moon. This is how it will consume me… this is how my strength will fail. I wiped the ruby liquid from my face, feeling my lips tingle from a strange memory. At least I hadn't lost my eye I thought vomiting up blood all over the carpet.

Everything was shifting before me, like the white noise when a broadcast signal cuts out. Something bad was coming.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~)◊(~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Months went by with little for me to do but work and study. I was accompanied everywhere by aurors and received stares from every wizard in Diagon Alley or the Avalon court.

I would watch them go about their business, without sorrow, without real awareness. It is a sung truth that Fire burns in magical blood. A sort of fire that can breathe life into the lifeless. But I was cold now. A veil had been draped about me and all the colored flames of meaning had been snuffed out. The raw blackness was all that remained. I had been left bare before it, was exposed to it. The Great Gaping Maw.

Dad continued to give me updates on his pursuit of the Radicals, and each time I dismissed his reports as lies. I would ask him why he had made me a prisoner in my own home, how he could torture his own blood. Everyday I would ask when next i could see Scorpius.

One weekend Louis got special permission to visit from Hogwarts. He arrived by flu, smiling and covered in soot. He hated having to travel by flu, it messed up his clothes. I attempted normal conversation for the first five minutes, but somehow ended up spending the whole day in tears. My sole companion was Lily who with all her genius was still too young to know how to comfort me. There was Hyperion too, who served better than my sweet sister. But even he was not immune to the sorrow of being parted from his brother.

Every day my chest would hurt more and the tingling in my hand would increase. I was slipping away...

My parents started to notice the changes when I couldn't steady my wand hand during practice duels. Hermione informed them that I was developing a very bad case of bluescale.

All the while I sat and stared, the formulas would float about and I would contemplate the weird world I used to live in before I met Scor. Like a mist of myth. The world was filled with threads and filaments. All one had to do was trace and reconnect them. If you knew how, you could bend magic itself to your liking. Wands… words… both were irrelevant next to this kind of power. Wandless and Wordless, In this place, I could rewrite the laws themselves. The world itself.

Blind but with sight beyond what the outer eyes could see. A second set of lids. One that was closed to most, but through which I could see all the light in the world. Those lids were now closing and the true darkness was seeping in. Something was taken from me and all the threads that lead to my soul were throbbing, calling for some lost piece of magic.

My friends distracted me from this. My teachers, my classes. How was I to live without a life worth living?

I could hear Mom and Dad whispering in the blackest hours of the night. Arguing about what to do. The potions prescribed for me had no effect and my bluescale was getting worse. They could tell I was far from ok. I would sit and sit, staring into the darkness until the darkness took form. Time wasn't the only thing passing by. All my magic was leaving me too. I could feel it… slipping away.

"I need to get out. I need to get out. I need to get out."

I would repeat it like a mantra as my skin cracked and my blood boiled.

"Chra jiss sach aris shrasz!"

"Chra jiss sach aris shrasz!"

"I am going to get out… Now." I said grabbing my birthright from the closet and cloaking myself from the world. It could protect me from death itself, but there was only one thing that would breathe into me life anew.


A friend and fellow writer suggested I pause my story for awhile. She said it was a mistake for me to continue releasing chapters so soon after posting chapter 38. Again if you are following this story please leave some feedback for chapter 38, it was the hardest to write and a point in the story i would like most to hear about from my readers.

(T_T) i cried the entire time writing it...