Author's Note: Eep, I broke my bookend promise! But you need to know a bit about the Weasleys, so I don't have to spend a paragraph on it: Hufflepuff: Lucy (4th), Fred (5th) Slytherin: Molly (2nd), Dominique (5th), Gryffindor: Roxanne (3rd), Ravenclaw: Hugo (5th), Louis (3rd).

Chapter Four: Daunting Possibilities

Scorpius had peacefully tucked into his bacon and eggs at the Slytherin table the next day. He was flipping through the news pages of the Daily Prophet when a shadow loomed over him, blocking out his light. He looked up to find that Albus was standing rather awkwardly on the other side of the table.

"Hi," said Albus as Scorpius returned his gaze to the newspaper.

"Hi," Scorpius replied coolly.

"Look, I'm sorry about going off at you the other day," began Albus, taking a seat on the bench across from Scorpius. "If you and Lily are together, it's okay with me. I wasn't angry because I think you'd be a bad boyfriend to her or anything, it's just that I don't think Lily would handle it too well if you broke up. She does strange things sometimes, and has really sudden mood swings… Don't tell her I told you, but I once found her in the astronomy tower, babbling incoherently. I don't know if she was sleepwalking, but she was talking nonsense about some shield, disappearing…" Albus trailed off, looking in the direction of the Gryffindor table, where Lily was sitting with her friend Mollie.

Scorpius' eyes flickered up at this, realising that Albus had found her speaking about the hoplon. He had seen it on the neck of the adversary down the hall in Lily's memory; it disappeared when Lily saw it, so Scorpius had assumed there was some kind of magic that made it invisible to those outside the Ekklesia. Perhaps she had realised it after all, though subconsciously. "I found her sleepwalking too," admitted Scorpius, and Albus turned to face him, "on patrol duty. Remember the boy that Lucy was talking about the other day, the one that was outside the portrait with her? It was me… I was making sure that she got back safely. But I didn't lie to you, Albus. Lily and I aren't together... I really was just trying to help her,"

Albus looked somewhat bemused. "But why? I mean you've never paid much attention to her before. I don't think you know what you're taking on, here,"

Scorpius shrugged. "I guess I never really realised how difficult it must have been for her… I can't imagine seeing my parents dead."

"But she didn't," Albus corrected him; if Scorpius didn't have a naturally pale complexion, the colour would certainly have drained from it at this. He had been so close to giving away Lily's secret, but was relieved that Albus did not seem to have cottoned on. "She didn't see them. Uncle Ron found her in the closet."

"Oh, of course. Forgot," he replied quickly, before Albus had time to question. "But still, she dodged their curses to get to the closet, right? It must have been traumatic… alone in such a small space for hours, knowing your parents were dead, unsure whether the attackers would return… it must have been pure torture. I guess I just… I know that pity is probably the last thing she wants, but I can't help but feel sorry for her. And if I can help her, or comfort her, or whatever… I will."

Albus smirked at Scorpius, causing him to frown in bemusement. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing," replied Albus, wiping the expression from his face instantaneously as he stood up, though it was replaced with a grin. "Just be careful with her, okay? See you in Charms,"

Albus left Scorpius in utter befuddlement, passing by Lily, who was on her way over to the Slytherin table to join Scorpius. "Good morning," she said brightly, taking the seat across from him.

"Morning," he replied, folding up his copy of the Daily Prophet.

Lily looked around to make sure Albus had left, before leaning closer to Scorpius. "Did you tell him about the Ekklesia?" she questioned, her voice low, so as to not be heard by the others at the Slytherin table.

Scorpius shook his head. "I wanted to make sure he's not still angry at me. That, and I'm not sure how we can explain this without telling him about the memory,"

Lily bit her lip nervously. "There must be another way. I mean, you figured out a lot without the memory… maybe we should tell him you overheard everything in your common room, and leave out the part about my parents. Do you think he'd believe that?"

Scorpius nodded slowly. "It's definitely worth trying… but still, just telling Albus isn't going to help in the long term. We need to find out who we can trust, tell them as well,"

Lily frowned. "Well, I know I can trust Mollie, and my family, of course… there are a couple more who I think can be trusted, but how can I tell? Like you said yesterday, anyone could be part of the Ekklesia,"

"How about we come up with a plan, and only tell those we're sure we can trust… as for the others, we'll talk to them about the Ekklesia, so they'll be on their guard if they aren't members. If they are secretly members, they'll know that we know about them, but not that we have any plans,"

Lily sighed. "I suppose you're right. When do you think we should tell them? After we've told Albus?"

Scorpius nodded. "Yes. The sooner they know, the better they can prepare, brush up on their defensive spells and whatnot. And I'm sure Albus will want to be part of the planning process, he's good at that sort of thing,"

Lily took a deep breath, her eyes fixed on the grain of the table. She seemed reluctant to leave, or to look him in the eye; Scorpius didn't know what, but he could tell something was wrong. "Okay… I guess I'll see you then." She replied, leaving him frowning in her wake before he jumped up to run into the Entrance Hall after her.

"Wait a second, Lily. What's wrong?"

She sighed, stopping in her tracks. "You know, I always thought about how thrilling a real battle would be. My brothers and I liked re-enacting the Battle of Hogwarts when we were younger… But now that we really are in danger," Lily looked up, her eyes revealing her fear. "There's no way we can win this. Our home is going to be attacked by a group we know nothing about. We don't know when, or how many followers they have. We know that people in our school are part of it, but we don't know who, or how to identify them. Last time they at least had the Order to help them, and they knew who they were fighting, and still, look hw many they lost. We have nothing. How are we even going to survive?"

He seized her shoulders, then tilted her chin upward to look into her eyes. "Calm down, Lily. I know it seems impossible, and that the odds are against us. But now we know something is going to happen, we have time to prepare for it."

"But we're just teenagers, Scorpius, what good can we possibly do? I couldn't fight to save my life,"

"Lily, if your magic is as strong as your will is, I have no doubt in your abilities. You doubt in yourself where you don't need to… I heard that you're top of your defence class, and Albus said your dad used to do defence practise with you all. You have nothing to worry about, I promise,"

Lily sighed. "I suppose you're right. I'm sorry for acting like this, the possibilities just worry me is all…"

"Don't be sorry. We all have a lot to lose, it's a completely rational thought process to go through. Don't worry, you'll be fine," he replied, smiling reassuringly at her as he allowed his hands to drop back to his sides. "See you at lunch, okay?"

Lily couldn't fully explain it, but something about the honest conviction in his eyes and gentle but assuring touch on her shoulders made her feel comforted, his rationality allowing her fears to be temporarily forgotten.

Until now, Lily had never realised it, but now saw that Scorpius was the perfect counterbalance to her; when she was gripped by anxiety, he kept his sensibilities about him, calming her frantic wits. He was better a handling her mood swings than any of her friends had ever been. Instead of growing annoyed as her friends sometimes did, or changing the subject as her brother often did, Scorpius reasoned with her kindly, and hadn't lost his patience with her despite hardly knowing her or having any reason in particular to help her. His presence seemed to make it easier to accept and face her fears.

But he doesn't see me as anything more than his best friend's manic little sister, Lily thought to herself, the feeling of warmth and security fading as quickly as it had come. Pushing this aside, she smiled brightly and nodded at him, before both of them went off to their respective classes.

"So you're sure about what you heard?"

"Positive, Albus. There's no way I could have misconstrued what he was saying,"

Scorpius, Lily and Albus were sitting on comfortable chintz armchairs in the Room of Requirement that lunchtime. Albus had listened raptly to what they had to tell him, but this did not mean he was pleased to receive such news. "I can't believe it… for the past few years it's been safer than ever. And all this time, the Ekklesia has been carrying out its business under the Ministry's nose. We have to get the message to them somehow, do something."

Scorpius nodded. "I think the best thing to do is make a strategy. We can come up with a list of spells, and come up with ideas for tactics… You two have lots of relatives in the Ministry, right? Write to them, let them know what's going on. And we should all get some friends together and tell them about the Ekklesia. Then, the ones that we really trust, we can tell them our plan."

Albus scratched his chin, pensive. "Sounds like a good idea to me. But first we need to make a plan…"

Rather than going to their next classes, the three sat in the Room of Requirement. After a lot of brainstorming, and countless leatherbound tomes had appeared to aid them, they had a blanket plan that could be easily adapted in the heat of battle. Albus and Scorpius both had a keen interest in battle tactics, and by the end felt that they had something rather sophisticated, considering their age. They had even come up with a method of communication involving sets of modified extendable ears, so they could keep in touch from different sides of the castle while with individual squads. Despite a keen interest in it, Lily had very little knowledge of the subject, and instead decided to write a letter to her uncle Ron.

Once they had finished, they decided who would be told the full story and who would not. After the bell signalling the end of classes, they sent a message around to all of the persons concerned. Before long, their friends began to file in, looking slightly bemused at what was happening. There was quite a large congregation; Lily and Albus had told all of their relatives that still attended Hogwarts, which included everyone except for James, Victoire and Teddy.

Albus scanned the crowd to ensure everyone was present; all the Weasleys were surprisingly prompt, which was a stark contrast to what usually happened at Weasley family dinners. Last to join the group were Lysander and Lorcan, friends of the family who were both in Ravenclaw. Lily had invited her friend and fellow Gryffindor, Mollie Pucey, and one of her dorm-mates called Ariadne Twist. Scorpius had invited fellow Slytherin Elias Nott and a Hufflepuff named Pandora Bailey, whereas Albus had invited Alessia and Anneliese Poletti, Gryffindor and Slytherin respectively.

"Right, you lot, quiet down," began Albus. Despite the fact that he was normally anything but serious, Albus was perfectly capable of being an authority figure when he wanted. Not only was he a good public speaker, a trait he inherited from his father, but he was the type person that people tended to gravitate to. "Now, we've invited you all here because we need to tell you something very important. And it's not good, mind you."

At this, a few people looked at each other in bemusement, exchanging glances. A couple looked apprehensive, others frowning.

"Basically, we think there's a group that might be going to attack Hogwarts,"

As they had predicted, this announcement caused an outburst of commotion, in which neither Albus nor Scorpius was able to gain the attention of the formerly captive audience. This lack of decorum continued until the surprisingly commanding voice of Lorcan Scamander called out, "Everyone, be quiet! Let them explain some things, for Merlin's sake! Thanks. So where did you find this out exactly?"

"It was heard in one of the common rooms," replied Albus. He was unwilling to give details about which common room, as he realised that it was liable to start an argument between the congregation of the four houses, which was the last thing they needed at the moment.

"Who said it?" questioned Ariadne curiously.

"We're not exactly sure who at this stage, but it was definitely not misinterpreted," answered Albus.

"If you don't know who said it, how can you be sure that the source was reliable?" asked Anneliese.

"We can't be sure," began Scorpius. "To be honest, we can't be sure of anything. But wouldn't you prefer that you know at least something, rather than be caught by surprise if it were to happen? We're not saying anything other than be on your toes."

"Exactly. And it's really important you don't pass this information on to anyone else, not even your closest friend. Any more questions?" Albus was surprised that no hands were raised; either they understood that there was no information available, or they were too fearful of the answer to any of their possible questions. In any event, Albus continued on. "Right, you can all go now. Except for you, Weasley bunch, we have a family matter to talk about – oh, and Mollie, could you wait too?"

They kept a keen watch as everyone filtered out, ensuring that those that had not been invited did in fact leave. Once they had left, Scorpius cast an imperturbable charm on the door, while Albus conjured the board they had drawn up earlier, to illustrate part of the plan.

"Right everyone, this isn't actually about the family, so you can all relax. No one is sick or dead, or getting married. We know a little bit more than we let on,"

Scorpius nodded in agreement with Albus, finding it necessary to explain a little bit more. "If you're wondering why we're only telling you this it's because anyone could be a spy for the enemy, even the people that just left. We need all of you to be exceedingly careful, and don't reveal to anybody what we're about to say. It is of the utmost importance that you remain constantly vigilant,"

Their younger relatives, specifically Molly and Roxanne, looked positively terrified at this, but Scorpius didn't seem to notice.

"Err, thanks Scorpius. You're all here because we know we can trust you, and because you need more details. Right, so let's start at the beginning. The group we speak of is called the Ekklesia, and they have members in every single house at this school. For all we know they may even be part of the teaching staff."

"Basically they want control of the school, as a part of their plan to control wizarding Britain. We don't know how big they are, who their leaders are, how to identify them, or when they're going to attack,"

"Thanks Scorpius," Albus interjected, before Scorpius could continue to frighten his young cousins, no matter how unintentional it may have been or how true his words were. "Since we don't know much, we've come up with a plan in case it does happen,"

For the next half an hour, they explained the ins and outs of the plan. Louis and Lucy were both rather disappointed that they would probably not be able to participate in the battle if it did happen; to pacify them, Albus eventually agreed that they could find the safest hiding spot possible and jinx any enemies than ran past. Molly and Roxanne, on the other hand, were quite happy with the idea of going to the nearest hiding place and staying there as quietly as possible.

"Are there any other questions?" asked Scorpius as they neared the very end of the meeting.

"I have one," piped up Dominique. "What level of curses should we use if we're attacked? I mean, I know how to use Sectumsempra, but should I use it?"

"Yes," replied Lily; Scorpius and Albus' gazes turned to her immediately, but she was staring rather determinedly at Dominique. Not only was this the first time she had spoken throughout the whole meeting, but this was not the answer they expected. "Use whatever force necessary. If they use deadly force don't hesitate to return-"

"No," interrupted Scorpius, before she had a chance to finish her sentence. He stared directly at Lily while addressing the group. "Even if any of us were capable of deadly force it should never be used, no matter the circumstance,"

"And why not, Scorpius?" questioned Lily, the hard look in her eye indicating that she was not planning to back down; she certainly seemed nothing like the normally quiet, non-confrontational Lily they were all used to. Scorpius couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had always thought that her opinion would be entirely contrary. "Do you really believe that they would show the same mercy? Of course not," she replied, turning back to the group of assembled students. "All is fair in love and war. They will not hesitate to kill you if they get the chance. To them, you're an obstacle, not a person. Use any force necessary."

There was silence for a few minutes, wherein the group looked rather confused, most of all Dominique, who wasn't sure who to listen to. Rose had a grave look on her face, deep frown lines appearing on her forehead. Scorpius was staring at Lily uncomprehendingly, incapable of speech; she avoided his eye. Eventually he looked away, shaking his head in disappointment at the fact that she had managed to surprise him once again, and not in a good way.

"Err, right," said Albus, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "So, um, if there are no more questions, you lot can get back to your dormitories now."

The group stared between the three of them for a couple of seconds, before slowly shuffling out of the door with varying expressions on their faces. Lily's friend Mollie mouthed that she would see her later, before leaving with Rose. After watching everyone leave, Albus turned to see Scorpius staring into space, one leg crossed over the other as he chewed his thumbnail meditatively. Lily was staring straight at her feet, also thinking, it seemed.

"So, er… are we going back to our common rooms now?" asked Albus somewhat nervously at the tension that seemed to have developed. He was just waiting for an argument to erupt.

"You know, I can't believe you," Scorpius said, completely ignoring Albus; he was focused on Lily instead, who looked up from the floor.

"I'm not wrong Scorpius, and you know it," she retorted.

"You think you're right? How can anything about killing another human being be right? Lily, you of all people… I can't believe it. What about people under the imperious curse? What about people who have been threatened into joining them? Did you even think of how many innocent people could lose their lives if everybody thought this way?"

"The Death Eaters didn't care about innocent people getting killed, and I'm sure the Ekklesia don't either," Lily replied stubbornly.

"And neither do you, obviously. Sometimes fighting with honour and mercy is the only thing that separates us from Death Eaters, or the Ekklesia. Surely you see that if that's your belief, you're no better than them,"

"Because your family know all about honour," she snapped coldly.

"That was a cheap shot, Lily," he replied coolly. "I'm not even going to dignify it with an answer, because we both know you're still wrong. If you won't listen to me, then think of this. Your own father refused to use the killing curse, even against the man who is arguably the most dangerous wizard of all time. What would your father say if he heard you talking now?"

They stared at each other, neither relinquishing eye contact, but Lily remained silent. Albus didn't know what to do, even if he did want to interrupt their heated argument and risk being forced to take sides.

"Exactly," said Scorpius when there was no reply. Lily looked briefly at Albus, perhaps hoping for a defence, but there were no words from him, just a grave look. Without another word or even a look at Scorpius, she left the room.

Albus ran a hand through his messy black hair, a sigh escaping his lips. "Merlin, I never would have thought that she would think that way… I told you she has problems."

"No matter what I do, no matter what distinction I make from myself and my family, it always, always comes back to them," said Scorpius quietly. "Why must I be condemned for their sins?"

"Don't worry about it, mate, no one thinks of you that way. Lily just… she digs her heels in and defends herself to the death, even when she's wrong. When she knows she's losing she resorts to childish insults… I think a part of her just never grew up. See, this is why I was worried about you dating her."

"Well, you don't need to worry about that. If that's what she really believes, there's no way I could ever, ever love your sister."

"I find it hard to believe what I am hearing. Would you kindly explain it to me again, in case I have mistaken you?"

"Certainly, Professor. Albus and Lily Potter, along with Scorpius Malfoy, called a meeting today to warn a select few about a possible attack on Hogwarts."

Adrienne Traverse scratched her chin, pondering how she was going to handle this situation, and how her superiors would take this news. "How did they find out? Did they appear to know much about the Ekklesia?"

"No, ma'am, they seemed to know very little at all, aside from the fact that there are members in all houses. They said nothing about the mark, or even our name. Apparently they heard about it in one of the common rooms, but didn't say which one, or even who heard it. They kept a few people behind after the meeting, which struck me as odd. I tried to listen in, but there was an imperturbable charm on the door."

"That is, indeed, very odd… did they appear to have intentions of telling anyone?"

"No, Professor. In fact they wanted us to tell no one, even best friends."

"Hmm… this is extremely vexing, and must be dealt with as soon as possible. Thankyou for this valuable information, the O'Briens will be pleased. I will ensure that they are told of your achievement. You may leave."

"Thankyou, ma'am."

Disclaimer: I'm feeling lazy, so please refer to the previous chapter if you're desperate to read it (which, somehow I doubt you will be).

Author's Note: I've handed in my massive essay, so here's an update! Unfortunately, since there are only four months until my last high school exams (ever!), updates are going to be an extremely rare and sporadic thing for a while. Sorry :( It just means the story will take longer to finish, but I will finish it.

Anyway, it looks like one of our trio has invested their trust in the wrong person(s) :p But whose lapse in judgement was it, and who is not what they would appear? You'll find out in the battle scene, which is not all too far away…