Hey, guys! Sorry it took me longer than usual to update; I do try to get each new chapter up within two to three days, but I fell really sick (nothing serious, though) on Monday. I've spent most of my time sleeping, actually, thanks to the drowsiness-inducing medications.
So, this is the chapter where you finally get to find out what the Riddlers have been planning :D I hope it measures up to any expectations you may have had, because this was a really hard chapter to write. I had to start over twice before I felt like it was all right.
Also, thanks so much to those of you who have left reviews! You have no idea how much I absolutely love you. You're like . . . medicine . . . I just realized that could be taken in a lot of different ways. I meant you make me feel better. Or good. Or something like that . . . I'll just shut up now . . . (in my defense, I'm sick. To the point that yesterday, from under my dozen blankets, I asked my sister what year it is. Yes. I really did. I have no memory of this, but she insists it happened.)
Tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: This world and these characters belong to J.K. Rowling. The only thing I own is the plot.
Alice fought to stay awake. She should have been unable to sleep; she should have been terrified – but all she could manage was a kind of anticipation. This was finally her chance to prove that Legacy had made her better. Sure, they were all top of their class, all envied, all experienced and talented duelists - but for all they had seen in the pensieve, they'd never really experienced it themselves.
Rose let out a loud, and very fake, snore (one, Rose didn't snore, and two, she wasn't stupid enough to fall asleep after Lily's warning via Legacy coin the previous night; as a Slytherin, Devienne was guaranteed to have people watching her in case she decided to warn them personally).
Suppressing a yawn, Alice turned over and felt her eyelids drooping. Warm. . . sleep. . . Alice! Stay awake! She opened her eyes furiously, glaring at the ceiling. Think interesting thoughts.
She remembered the time the Potters had gone off to the U.S. over the holidays and stayed in some fancy, ridiculously expensive wizarding hotel that treated them like royalty – not that everyone didn't treat them like royalty. On a ridiculous dare courtesy of James, Al had eaten a grilled cheese sandwich every day for breakfast and came back completely obsessed with them. There were worse things to be addicted to, Alice supposed.
James had acquired a penchant for graffiti after seeing the huge roaring lion that spanned an entire building in the downtown area. When he had come back, he, Rowan, Fred, and Louis, who had a surprising amount of artistic talent, had vandalized the entire Slytherin common room (thank the pensieve for showing them how to sneak in) with huge, leaping lions, unflattering commentary about Slytherin House, snakes dying in blazes of fire or being beheaded by the Sword of Gryffindor, and bold scarlet and gold art.
It was absolutely beautiful in Alice's opinion, but Lucy had been furious. She'd spent a month not talking to James until she devised a plan to exact her revenge. That had started that year's Christmastime Prank War.
Alice heard a faint scraping noise and a soft thud, and she gripped her wand, tensed and ready to defend herself. She could do this. She was a Quidditch player and a Legacy member – she had amazing reflexes.
She felt someone approaching and sprang to her feet, wand pointed at them. Squinting, she recognized someone wearing a pair of old Gryffindor robes that needed desperately to be lengthened. Wordlessly, the Riddler put a hand to his lips, his outline blurred – he must have been wearing some sort of disillusionment charm.
He then pointed to someone behind him, and Alice saw in shock that one of his companions had an unconscious Al tied up, his shirt soaked with blood. She felt sick – she knew that curse; it was the sectumsempra. The question was, how did they?
Someone suddenly grabbed her from behind, and that was all she felt before the world faded into nothingness.
"What does it say?" James demanded, ripping the note out of Lily's hands. She swallowed nervously.
"No idea. You forget this was given to me by a Slytherin – it's charmed so that only someone of this family and of age can open it."
James opened it quickly and scanned the note before paling and rereading it. Frowning, Louis leaned over his shoulder to read, his face slackening almost immediately. "Bloody hell," he whispered.
Fred took one glance at the worried, horrified look on James's face before snatching the letter out of his hands and reading it before passing it to Rowan with his teeth gritted. "I'll kill them," he spat.
"Rowan, go up to the girls' dormitories and find Alice and Rose," James ordered as Louis took the stairs to the boys' dorms three at a time. Dropping the letter, Rowan sprinted up the stairs.
"James," Lily asked in a frightened voice, "what is it?" Her brother looked more serious than he'd ever looked before, and that scared her. And Fred, whose expression always had the faintest bit of humor in it, looked downright murderous.
Lily reached for the letter, but Fred snatched it up. "Before you read it, tell me honestly – did you know what was going to happen? Have the Riddlers convinced you that they're not really that bad?"
Lily frowned. She had seen enough to know that the Riddlers weren't evil. But she didn't like their methods – they were too underhanded. Hugo would have been bolder, challenging Legacy to see who was really the more talented. Lily would have thought long-term, ultimately beating Legacy to their goal – academic proficiency, excellency career-wise, or anything else they both aspired to do. Perhaps she'd have sought to bring to light exactly why Legacy members weren't as noble as they portrayed themselves to be.
Then it registered with her – whatever the Riddlers had done, it must have been bad enough to make Fred suspect her as a traitor.
"Fred," James snapped.
Fred turned to James, his expression unchanging. "Don't be blind just because it's your sister, James!"
At that moment, Rowan and Louis returned and chorused, "They're not here."
As James and Fred swore in unison, Hugo took the letter and began to read, Lily, Roxy, and Xander crowding around him:
You have been thinking of us as Slytherin House. That is your first mistake. We have not been thinking of you as Gryffindor House. Your second mistake is deadly – you have underestimated us, and for that you will now suffer. Just a suggestion – have a look at the fifth year dormitories. Notice anything missing?
– The Riddlers
P.S. Funny story – the other day, a Slytherin came up with a memory that had previously been obliviated, although evidently not very well. Further investigation revealed that memories of two other Slytherins had been tampered with. They told us something interesting about the Whomping Willow – and three members of your family. Ring any bells?
"They found out about that day at the Shrieking Shack," Hugo stated flatly, "and they're using it as blackmail. They've kidnapped Rose, Al, Scorpius, and Alice."
Lily felt a sense of horror. She'd never imagined anything like this would happen. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "When I warned you, I didn't think it would be this serious."
"We're going to search Hogwarts," James growled, "and then we're going to end this thing with the Riddlers. It's gone too far."
As he crumpled the paper up, however, it shivered and snapped up, apparently activated by something – something he'd said, maybe the action of crumpling the paper up?
A shower of gold sparks erupted from the letter, and words formed in the air:
We considered not telling you at all. We guarantee, you wouldn't have noticed without this letter. But someone wanted to take this further than ruining your lives. That someone suggested we take them away. Some of us want to prove ourselves better than you. Others believe in justice – a recreation of the War; one life on your side for every life you took on ours. Some of us are orphans. Others have had wizarding society hating us since birth. Then there are those of us who want the world to see that you are not perfect – that you can fall. So we will drag this game out a little. See if you can find what you're missing – after all, wasn't the famed Harry Potter asked to do that in the Triwizard Tournament? Have fun playing at being your father, James Potter. Enjoy playing the part of a hero. If you're not fast enough, you may lose what you're looking for forever. And who knows – you could be next?
They sat there, stunned, staring as the gold words faded away. You can fall. Lose what you're looking for – forever. You could be next.
"They're going to kill them," Xander said in horror.
"They're more serious than we'd ever imagined," Fred realized. "This is no longer just a school rivalry. This is an old grudge against our parents, played against us. 'A recreation of the War.'"
"How did they get into Gryffindor Tower?" James demanded, rounding on Lily. He gripped her shoulders urgently. "They've brought the graduated Riddlers into this, Lils. Did you give them the password?"
"No," she promised. "I asked you earlier because Devienne told me I'd need to leave this letter behind. I know an old Gryffindor with a grudge against Teddy is here, so it's not about our parents for everyone – only the ones with convicted or killed Death Eaters for parents. I think they're the ones that pushed the idea of killing Al, Scorpius, Rose, and Alice."
She had told Devienne that she acquired the password by telling a Gryffindor first year that she was Lily Potter, and she wanted to see her brother, James Potter, Gryffindor Quidditch Captain and legend, but didn't know the password. The Riddlers thought that Lily wasn't speaking to her family, but to the public, they were still on good terms. At least, this was their excuse to still meet in public and such. The reason for this, told to the Riddlers with the disgusted curl of her lip, was the family didn't want the world to know anything that was not perfect within the family, and frankly, despite wanting to show their "true colors" to the world, Slytherins were private and secretive by nature and Lily, Morgan, and Lorcan didn't think that knowing they were outcasts in the family was any of the world's business.
James closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again they were alight with the fearsome determination particular to Gryffindors and a dark, terrifying rage on behalf of his family.
"Roxy, get Del Pryce. Rowan, sneak into the Ravenclaw common room and find Cecy." He strode past the others, headed towards the portrait.
"Where are you going?" Rowan called after him.
James didn't looked back. "It's time to call the others back." Dom was in Romania, Lucy and Will were on an assignment in East Ayrshire, Teddy had an Auror mission somewhere in Northern Ireland, Vic had been sent to Egypt for some dangerous problem that had required a team of six Cursebreakers, and Molly was off on some top secret Diplomatic service in an unnamed foreign country.
But while all that was very important, Legacy had perfected the art of finding time to sneak off in the dead of night and still be the first one back in the morning, hard at work. And this was something that could not be ignored, something that required all of their skills.
Legacy was out for blood, and when they got the four back . . . there would be hell to pay.
Rose felt like there was a sledgehammer steadily pounding away at her skull. She tried to groan, but only a rasping sort of croak escaped her lips. Unable to move her body, she gently pried her eyes open, wincing as the crust that had formed on her tangled lashes broke.
She looked around. . . and saw nothing. Fighting back panic, Rose tried to move again and succeeded in shifting this time. She struggled to lift her hands – there seemed to be something weighing them down. Searching the ground, she hooked a finger around a heavy metal object. . . a chain?
Wishing desperately that she could see, Rose curled her fingers around the chain and tugged. They didn't give way – and she understood. She was shackled to a wall, and judging from the heaviness of her feet, her ankles were in cuffs as well.
Legacy coin . . . she thought vaguely. Lily had warned them to keep their coins hidden on them. Speaking of Lily – was she all right? Were the others all right? Last Rose had seen, Al had been cursed into unconsciousness, brutally beaten and utterly mangled.
With difficulty, Rose lifted her hand to the inside of her robes and retrieved the coin, hiding it in her palm in case someone was watching. Pretending she was searching with her fingers, she traced the Legacy pattern into the coin and waited for it to heat up.
When it did, she opened her mouth to speak, but stiffened when she heard a voice.
"Is she awake yet?" asked someone harshly.
Rose heard a door rattle somewhere nearby and immediately let her eyes slowly fall shut, discreetly slipping the coin up her sleeve. She heard footsteps near her and forced herself not to flinch when fingers brushed her cheek softly before someone slapped her face experimentally.
She let her head fall lazily to her other shoulder. "No," decided the person in front of her. Standing up again, the person walked away, slamming the – cell door? – shut and locking it. "What do you think her reaction will be when she wakes up and discovers she'd blind?"
The other man chuckled, but Rose stiffened, going cold. It couldn't be true. She wasn't blind, was she? Kidnapping her for a scare was one thing, but blinding her? The Riddlers couldn't be willing to go that far.
"They used sectumsempra on the Potter kid, and he refused to say anything until he fell unconscious," the first person said. "We won't get anywhere with him. We decided to try the girl next. If that doesn't work, we can always hurt the Malfoy kid next. You know what they say about Malfoys – cowards, the lot of them."
Rose felt a flash of fury at that – they couldn't judge Scorpius based on his father's actions as a child. Besides, exactly what did these people want? What had Al refused to tell them; why were they torturing them for it?
After a few raucous laughs, the two men's footsteps faded away, and Rose deemed it safe to whisper. "Are any of you listening?" she whispered, contacting Alice, Al, and Scorpius.
After a moment, Scorpius groaned and said, "Hello? Who is it?"
"Rose," she croaked, hating how raspy her voice sounded.
She heard a sudden movement, as if he'd sat up very fast. "Damn – what happened? Last thing I remember, I was –"
"Can you see?" Rose interrupted.
A pause, and then, "What?" His voice had taken on a very different tone.
"Can you see?" Rose repeated desperately.
"Yeah," Scorpius said quietly. "I'm in a cell, and the walls are stone, but the door has got bars. It's dark, although there seems to be a bit of light coming from somewhere. Every so often I'll get a cold draft of air, but I can't see where it's coming from. I'm chained to the wall like some sort of animal."
Rose felt sick. "The men were in here earlier," she said in a subdued voice, not at all sounding like herself. "And they said – they said I was blind."
A sharp intake of breath, and then, "Are you?" in a soft voice.
Rose said nothing, miserably opening her eyes and seeing nothing. She didn't know what she was expecting – maybe some sympathy, or fluent swearing and anger on her behalf, which would be very characteristic of Scorpius.
Instead, she got: "Well, it's not as if you can't get it back. Don't you dare start feeling sorry for yourself, Rose – the first question I expected to hear from you would be, 'So how are we getting out of this hellhole?' Not silence and the miserable revelation that you're blind, as if you're accepting everything that's occurring at the moment.
"We're wizards, Rose, and there are loads of medical advancements. It was recent, and it was no doubt done by magic, so you can get your sight back – provided we get the hell out of here as fast as possible!
"Now stop feeling sad and start thinking of ways to escape, because you're Rose bloody Weasley, and that's what you do! You don't sit around letting others help you out of bad situations, you don't let anything get you down, and when life gives you bloody lemons, you eat them raw and wonder why everyone else isn't doing it! You don't say, 'Hmm, life is pretty bad right now, so I think I'll just skip around being optimistic.' You don't say, 'Oh, life is so horrible, I'll just sit here wallowing in my self-pity.' And you sure as hell don't say, 'Life sucks. I'll just wait out the storm.'
"No, you're the type of person who knows she's in a bad situation and takes it as it is, determined to get out of it without 'making the best of it' or 'accepting that not everything always goes your way' or whatever other inspirational nonsense adults are always spouting. So either you get back to normal and help me escape like the Rose Weasley I know and love, or you can rot in that cell, because apparently, your sight isn't the only thing these idiots knocked out of you!"
He didn't yell, or even sound angry – this was all spat at her in a matter-of-fact, fervent whisper, and it stunned Rose. Scorpius was one of her best mates, and she loved him; she really did – but she thought this was the moment where she really started to . . . feel . . . that way about him.
She was speechless for a few moments, until she heard him give a testy, "Well?"
Rose grinned faintly, despite everything. "I'm not sure where we are, but I do know that there are two men who came to check up on me, and they're willing to torture us for questioning. They want something, and I don't intend to stick around to find out what it is."
Somehow, Scorpius managed to smile.
"Excellent."