Albus paused as he entered the mostly-deserted common room. Perhaps Lily hadn't gone her dormitory yet, in which case he could try to make sense of what had just happened between her and Scorpius in the Room of Requirement. While scanning the round the predominantly scarlet room for her, he glanced over at the fireplace and spotted her sitting in one of the comfortable armchairs, her eyes glazed over in thought as she watched the flickering embers dance.

Frowning, Albus decided that confronting her about what she had said now would be better than leaving it until later. When he sat down next to her, there was no reaction from Lily, no acknowledgement whatsoever; over the years he had observed her behaviour, often pondering the reason, and it was not unusual for Lily to be unresponsive to her surroundings as she was at the moment. Truthfully, despite being concerned about her, neither he nor anyone in their family had any real idea of how to deal with Lily's problems. Very little was known about the cause of her instability, since she communicated so little and shied away from questions wherever possible. But in this instance, Albus wanted to understand her motivation; why did Lily think it acceptable to kill another human being?

After a minute or so of sitting next to her, his presence continued to escape her notice; he wondered whether Lily really hadn't noticed him yet, or whether she was just ignoring him. "Hey," Albus said finally, hoping that she wasn't angry at him for not backing her up in the Room of Requirement.

Lily turned her head slowly, blinking and stifling a yawn. Albus noticed there were bags under her eyes. Perhaps she wasn't sleeping, as seemed to be common for her at this time of the year; if it was re-adjusting to school, or whether it had to do with the deaths of their parents, he didn't know. "Oh, hi. I didn't see you there."

"Are you alright? You looked tired," he commented.

"Yeah, I've just been thinking…"

"About what you said to Scorpius?" he questioned, but instantly wished he hadn't; Albus had planned to ease into that subject rather than blurting it out immediately. If you wanted to speak about something Lily didn't want to, you had to bring up a subject subtly, or you risked her becoming cross and leaving, or evading the question entirely. But in this instance, Albus was surprised by her reaction, or lackthereof.

"Yeah… did he say anything to you?"

"I think you can guess how he reacted. It was a low blow, Lily; I never would have expected something like that to come from you. You can't blame Scorpius for what his family did," replied Albus. Lily pursed her lips, her eyes looking rather glassy, but she didn't say anything. "Have you been sleeping lately? You've got bags under your eyes… I don't know if you've realised it, but you act like a completely different person when you're like this. And not in a good way, either,"

"I'm sorry," Lily said quietly, bowing her head low to hide her eyes in a dark red curtain; Albus could tell that she was close to tears. He felt a surge of guilt at this; it wasn't his intention to reprimand her, but in her mind it must have sounded like it. Lily looked even more fragile than usual. "Scorpius hates me now, doesn't he?"

"Scorpius couldn't hate anyone, and if he were to hate someone I think it would be anyone but you. But… you didn't mean it, did you? What you said about using whatever force necessary?"

She shook her head lightly. "No. I… I guess I just thought of the people who killed mum and dad, and… well, you understand that, right? But I didn't think of people who aren't participating willingly, or were tricked… I wasn't thinking clearly. I'll apologize in the morning."

"Good. I'm so glad you've realised that," he replied, smiling in relief. "In the meantime, Lily, I don't want to sound like I'm lecturing you, but you really should go to bed."

"I know…" she paused to yawn again. "I'm exhausted. See you at breakfast,"

"Bye."

Next morning Albus got up early to ensure that he could meet with Scorpius before Lily got there. Scorpius had seemed pretty upset at her the night before, and Albus wanted to make sure that Scorpius wasn't going to be too hard on her. As predicted, Scorpius was awake bright and early, sitting at the Slytherin table with a copy of the Daily Prophet and a plateful of bacon and eggs. "Hey Albus," he said as his dark-haired friend took the seat across from him. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, perfect. But speaking of sleeping, I need to talk to you about Lily… I spoke to her last night about what she said in the Room of Requirement, and she said she didn't really mean it. I think she's just not herself because she hasn't been sleeping lately," Albus replied, grabbing a piece of toast and smearing it with marmalade.

Scorpius nodded. "I thought about it before I went to bed last night, and I suppose I can't blame her for what she said. I mean I'm not happy about what she said about me, but that little comment aside, her stance is understandable. But I still don't agree with it,"

Albus nodded as he finished his first slice of toast, relieved at the fact that Scorpius wasn't still angry at her; he didn't know how Lily felt about Scorpius, but he knew that she would be upset if they had another screaming match.

"You say you think it's because she's not sleeping? Wait a minute… I think I have an idea." Scorpius stood up suddenly, knocking his plate onto the floor, though he didn't seem to notice. "Thanks Albus, I have to go. I'll talk to you later,"

Albus stared in bemusement after his friend as he made his way in the direction of the dungeons, before shrugging and returning to his toast.

Lily had found neither her brother nor Scorpius in the Great Hall at breakfast. Scorpius was an early riser, she had noticed, so perhaps he had already eaten and left, and Albus tended to wake up after her. Her appetite had deserted her, so instead of staying for breakfast she decided to go seek out Scorpius in his common room. As she carefully navigated the labyrinth of corridors, she hoped there would be a Slytherin leaving the common room, someone who could go inside and tell Scorpius that she needed to speak to him.

However, this didn't turn out to be necessary. As she paused to wait near the hidden door of the blank stone wall in the hopes that someone would soon leave the common room, it opened to reveal the exact person she was searching for.

Scorpius looked up from the glutinous, unpleasant looking burnt sienna-coloured substance in the vial he was holding. He paused awkwardly at who he saw; he had been just about to go looking for Lily, as until now he had forgotten that they hadn't yet made up after the argument they had had. But now it resurfaced and he wasn't entirely sure what to say to her.

"Before you say anything, I came here to apologise for what happened yesterday. I can hardly believe I even said such a thing… the mistakes of your relatives have nothing to do with you, and I know that… I only said that because I knew I was wrong. I was losing the argument and I didn't want to admit it, so I resorted to insulting you… and I don't really think we should use deadly force, I just… I wasn't really thinking about the consequences, at all. I'm sorry, Scorpius,"

"I forgive you,"

Lily frowned; the look in his eyes seemed to suggest otherwise. She got the feeling that he was deliberately censoring himself, that he had something to say but didn't want to upset the delicate balance of their reconciliation. "Are you sure? Please, Scorpius… it's all well and good for you to say that, but if you're going to resent me because of it then it counts for nothing. You have something to say, I know it. You may as well say it now, rather than have it create problems later."

"It's alright, truly. Well, of course it's not alright, but I'm used to it… I've been hearing it all my life. I suppose I just never expected to hear it from you," Scorpius admitted, a hint of disappointment in his eyes that made Lily feel more remorse than heated words ever could have. "But I suppose you keep finding ways to surprise me, Lily. I forget that you're not like every other girl… you're damn sight less predictable, for a start."

"Is that an insult or a compliment?" she asked, though Scorpius' good-humoured expression as he looked at her made Lily smile.

"I wouldn't say that… it was more of a statement," he laughed. "Oh, before I forget… I made this for you," Scorpius held up the vial he had been holding for her.

Lily wrinkled her nose as she eyed the putrid-looking substance. "Poison?"

Scorpius laughed again. "Poison? I think you're a little paranoid there. It's dreamless sleeping potion – Albus told me you were having trouble sleeping, and I remembered your nightmares. I can't believe I didn't think of it before, actually. And I know it looks putrid, but I assure you it's absolutely tasteless."

"Oh… thanks," replied Lily, genuinely lost for words; no one had ever pinpointed her nightmares as one of her greatest problems, let alone come up with such a simple but infallible solution. And the fact that he had made this for her prior to any apology made the gesture all the more heart-warming. "That was really thoughtful of you, Scorpius... I can't believe it, no one else has ever… Thank you." She couldn't help throwing her arms around him and squeezing him tightly in thanks. Scorpius was beginning to get used to the feeling this gave him, this time the sensation felt warm rather than strange and slightly unwelcome like it had the first time she had surprised him.

"That's alright," he replied nonchalantly, though his cheeks were slightly redder than before. "But enough of that. Did you get a reply for the letter you sent to your uncle?"

"Oh, yes, this morning," she replied, remembering the owl that she had sent prior to the meeting the previous day. "I haven't opened it yet, I wanted to wait for you and Albus."

"In that case, let's go find him,"

Ten minutes later the three of them were sitting on a divan together in the Room of Requirement, a place they adopted out of convenience as a sort of headquarters.

"WHAT? Is he mad? I can't believe what I'm reading," exclaimed Scorpius. "How can he not want to know anything about it?"

Scorpius reread the messy scrawl, in case he had somehow managed to misinterpret the meaning of it; he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Dear Lily,

I appreciate your correspondence, but please do not send any further communication on the matter.

Love,

Your Uncle Ron

Albus frowned to himself as he too reread the reply, until a realisation came upon him. "Hold on a minute, Scorpius, I don't think we're reading this right. Uncle Ron would never ignore something serious like this. And surely he would have heard something similar from dad before we contacted him,"

"Albus, what are you trying to say?" questioned Lily, unsure of his meaning at present, but quite sure there was some kind of point he was trying to convey.

"In the past, owl post leaving the castle has been intercepted, correct? He's telling us not to send him anything else because the Ministry does know about the Ekklesia, but he doesn't want the Ekklesia to know they know… do you follow me?"

Scorpius nodded slowly in reply. "I suppose I follow you… I really hope that is the case, because if not, we could be losing a valuable ally."

"No, I think Albus is reading it right. Uncle Ron would never ignore something like this, he knows we wouldn't lie… but I suppose since we can't ask him ourselves, we're just going to have to have faith that he knows."

Scorpius nodded. "Alright. All the same, I'll rest easier if we have some kind of precaution, something to give us a few minutes notice when the Ekklesia enter the grounds… like a Supersensory Charm, that way we can get organised straight away. As it stands, we won't know anything until we start hearing jinxes, or one of us happens to glance at the map."

Lily nodded, observing Albus scratching his chin in thought. "That's a good idea, but how can we do it?" she questioned, coming up rather short on ideas.

"Well, maybe we can create a modified Supersensory Charm or something… I remember Dad mentioning that my namesake made up his own spells, why can't we at least modify one that already exists?" suggested Albus hopefully.

"How about we figure out a way to link the charm to the Marauders' Map? After all, it sees everyone who's in the castle. We could somehow make it sound an alarm when people who aren't in the school grounds right at this moment try to enter,"

"That's brilliant, Lily," replied Scorpius. "But we'd have to make sure the alarm is only audible to us. Otherwise, imagine the commotion if some screeching alarm went off suddenly, for no apparent reason."

Albus nodded slowly, feeling somewhat frustrated; they knew exactly what they needed to do, but were completely lost for ideas about how they were going to accomplish it. "Well, you know what? I've got no clue. How about we go talk to Rose, she's good at this type of stuff."

Lily and Scorpius nodded in agreement, all three of them silently ascending from the divan and leaving the Room of Requirement as swiftly and quietly as possible.

"My love," Verity called through the dead silence of the old, abandoned manor; the sound echoed through the entrance hall. It was a fairly dimly lit area, and the lack of anything stirring in response to her voice made the witch wonder whether her husband had not gone for a walk outside the property. But it was much too dark and cold outside for a leisurely walk, and it was not long before she received a response.

"In the study, love,"

Verity swept from the entrance hall to the library at once, finding the dark-haired man engrossed in a tome entitled Dark Personalities Throughout the Ages: Angra Mainyu.

"Callixtus, the stars bring us grave news,"

Callixtus shut the book immediately, alerted by the severe tone of her voice. "Tell me what you know."

"They inform me that unless we attack within the next few days, our advantage will be lost. Perhaps we have somehow been found out?"

"But how could that be so? We've guarded the secret of our existence jealously, unless one of our recruits or lieutenants have made a mistake and not felt obliged to tell us. Do the stars tell us anything else?"

Verity shook her head gravely. "I'm afraid not, my love. They give us guidance and advice, but rarely reveal why things must be done."

"In that case, we must make haste in assembling the troops. Everyone knows their role in the plan, and we must execute it immediately."

Verity baulked in shock. "Immediately? But my lord, surely it would be better to wait until the second day, we can better organise our lieutenan-"

"No, my love, I think it best we strike immediately. For a while I've believed the time was drawing near, and now the stars have confirmed it for me. I grow impatient. Never fear, for what reason do the stars have to lead us astray, and have they failed us before?"

"I suppose not," Verity replied, though still slightly insecure about the idea.

"My thoughts exactly; and with that it is settled. We attack tonight."

Previews

"'Oh'? Why 'oh?'," asked Lily, fright evident in her eyes; she knew something was wrong, other than having chosen the wrong friends, but wasn't quite sure what.

The look of fear in her eyes sent a shiver down his spine; Scorpius never wanted to see that look again. He looked at her with sorrow, silently reprimanding himself; Albus had entrusted him with her protection, and they had already been captured by the enemy. What a great bodyguard I was, he thought to himself bitterly. Scorpius sighed. "Traverse is one of them."

Disclaimer: Check the previous chapter.

Author's Note: I had a bit of a creative block while writing this chapter, but I promise the next two are better, due to some major events. Scorpius finally accepts his feelings, but is it possible he's too late to tell her? Leave a review and tell me what you think :)