Chapter Eight: Triumvirate

Scorpius re-emerged into the chaos of the Great Hall with renewed energy and hope. Things had looked up greatly; Lily was safe, they were no longer on their own, and upon brief inspection the Ekklesia's numbers seemed to have dwindled. Of course the bodies of students and Ministry workers littered the floor alongside their enemies, but it did not look as though Hogwarts would be taken, at least not today.

Scorpius started toward the doors of the Entrance Hall, about to go in search of familiar faces, or at least one in particular. If he was lucky, she would still be unconscious on the grounds. But if this were not the case, Scorpius felt sure he would be able to recognise the woman when he saw her again. No combatant contested his path as he left the Hall, out into the darkness of the Hogwarts grounds.

He was greeted by total silence, all the troops having gone to the other side of the grounds or back into the castle. A slight breeze caressed his cheeks as he made his way over to the exact spot where he had found them. Scorpius cursed loudly when he found the area to be completely deserted, aside from the blood on the ground which was barely visible in the darkness as the moon moved behind a cloud. Damn, the dark-haired woman was revived… I wonder who she was anyway, he pondered to himself.

Scorpius ignited the tip of his wand and bent down to observe the blood; there were two pools, not one, as he had first suspected. Lily must have put up a good fight, then. I should have known, he thought with a smile. He was just about to re-enter the castle when the light from his wand fell on something in the periphery, something he had not noticed before. Was that a person's shoe?

He went toward the body cautiously, until he realised he had nothing to fear, no one waiting to spring to their feet and curse him; he was looking at a deadman. Scorpius took another step forward and placed the beam on the man's face, recognising it immediately. It was the man that had killed Lily's parents, the one that had haunted her dreams for so long; his face was frozen in a confident smirk, which told Scorpius that the man certainly hadn't expected what had come next.

But surely Lily didn't… she wouldn't have killed him, would she? Did she fight both of them at once? Scorpius thought to himself, wondering if he had underestimated not only the Ekklesia, but Lily too, this entire time. But he didn't have much time to think, because he was soon joined by the sound of footsteps.

"NO!"

He heard a cry of despair, followed by a woman who shoved past him and dropped to her knees next to the pale body of the man. She squeezed his shoulder, whispering, "Callixtus? My love, wake up!" She shook him gently then checked his pulse, and was very still for a second; Scorpius gripped his wand tightly, convinced that she was about to spring up and attack him straight away. What happened next, however, was completely unexpected.

She began weeping and held his body up against her chest, rocking back and forth ever so slightly as she shuddered with the force of great sobs; it was as though she hadn't even noticed Scorpius standing there. Despite the fact that this woman in dark robes was quite obviously not on his side, Scorpius couldn't help feeling a pang of sympathy. Hadn't he done the same thing but half an hour ago? Lily had come so close to being the one lying there. He had come so close to losing her forever. At there mere sight of this, the mere thought, Scorpius lost all desire for revenge; he just wanted this to be over. He just wanted to go back to Lily, and find her smiling and awake.

"Go on then," the woman rasped without turning around. "Kill me. Kill me, so I can join him among the stars."

"No. I have no reason. Instead, think of all the other people who lost their loves, their friends, their children… all because of you."

Scorpius turned around and re-entered the castle, leaving the woman to her grief. A couple of seconds after, he heard that same voice reverberating throughout the castle.

"Brothers, sisters… it is time to retreat."

"The lady is very distressed. I should think it kinder to poison her than to allow her to endure like this," spoke the cool, unsympathetic voice of Cassius Novak. "Any word on Marise?"

"Perhaps she was killed in the battle… well, if we are lucky," replied Adrienne Traverse, unconcerned that not only was she definitely out of a job, but her identity had been compromised as an unfortunate side-effect of their unplanned loss. "Though I doubt we are. Speaking of unlucky, I can't believe I was taken down by that brat of a student…"

"You weren't the only one," Novak replied gravely, implying the downfall of their leader.

"I wouldn't be so quick to assume, Cassius," replied Traverse, her eyes travelling to the only person in the room that had thus far not spoken, about to voice her suspicions. "Callixtus was not killed by a student, was he Alexis?"

Lexi O'Brien looked unfazed, despite being accused of murdering their leader, her very own brother. But the tone of Adrienne Traverse was not accusing or angry, more questioning, curious. "There's no keeping anything from you, Adrienne. As such, surely you've realised by now that Callixtus never planned to share his power with any of us; he just realised that he could never take over wizarding Britain with only himself and Verity. Both of you have known this from the beginning, but remained nonetheless, for motivations I don't plan to question," she began.

Lexi drummed her manicured nails on the meeting room table, then casually observed them before continuing on. "I decided that disposing of him before we took over the castle would be the best solution, considering that once we took the castle his help would no longer be needed. Of course I thought that by that time we had enough of a stronghold to win, but that's a different story entirely."

"I can understand why you would dispose of Callixtus, for it was evident that he was becoming problematic," began Cassius, "but what I do not understand, is why, if you believed we would win the battle, you revived both myself and Adrienne. Obviously you realised Devereaux would not be returning, and that Verity would be no less than incapacitated with grief. Why did you not kill us then, if you believed we would be the only ones left? Why not take over and rule on your own?"

"Because, dear Cassius, I realise that would be impossible. Once you take something, you must be prepared to fight for it for the rest of your life. Now look at us separately… all three, dispatched, though with dumb luck, by mere students. Singly we are as good as any, but together we are something not to be easily reckoned with. And I don't know about you, but one-third sounds much more attractive than one-sixth."

"So you are proposing a strategic alliance, or a life of being lorded over by you rather than your brother? How can we be sure you won't start ordering us around?"

"Because I value my life. Say, for instance, I angered Adrienne. With just the two of us in battle, the outcome could be anyone's guess. But say I mistreat both of you, any battle would be two-on-one... not very favourable odds for me. Unlike my brother I am capable of sharing… and I have a vision, the importance of which surpasses greed."

"I'm interested," said Cassius, and Adrienne nodded her agreement. "What is this vision?"

"My vision, friends… Equals… is the formation of the most formidable Triumvirate since the Roman Empire."

Author's Note: Well, my exam hiatus is over! (For those familiar with the system, my UAI was 92.65!)

I apologise for the shortness of this chapter, this was the only place I could cut it off (I wanted to finally post something). It's because the latter part of the chapter was about Scorpius, and having him do what I want him to do and stay in character is proving very difficult. Since he's a very cautious, 'closed-book' type of person, I have to emotionally manoeuvre him, and I want this important scene to be realistic. By the time it's posted, I promise it will be worth it!