Disclaimer: I don't own anything. But then, you already knew that.
Lily stood in front of Scorpius, holding her wand at the ready, vaguely wondering what sort of spell could be used in a real duel. Scorpius didn't seem happy that his defender was a fourteen-year-old girl, but Lily had the wand, and so did not move behind him (as she probably would have were the situation reversed). The figure, who she still could not see clearly in the dark, also had his wand out, although less threateningly. "Who are you?"
He did not answer immediately, but cast a nonverbal spell that sent Lily's wand skittering across the floor toward him. She swore under her breath as he picked it up and stuffed it in his pocket. "Did you really think I'd let you keep it, little Lily? That wouldn't be good, would it? Especially not with your…prodigious skill." She was now torn between pride and anger and fear. "Now, separate from one another this instant, and your chances of living will be much better."
Slytherins were known for their sense of survival and self-preservation, and the two friends instantly scurried about five feet away from one another, although they continued to look at one another. They could barely see each other in the darkness, now that Lily's wand had been taken away and she could not produce a light, but it was a comfort to know the other was still there.
"Now, why don't we go someplace where we won't get caught? It wouldn't be good if anyone saw me with you two, of course." She still could not see who was talking, but she assumed, from the parchment that she had seen, that it was Teddy. "Why not…the Forbidden Forest?"
At that instant he stepped away from the doorframe, and both Lily and Scorpius headed for it, sprinting, but the figure was faster. He caught Lily, who was slightly slower, and held his wand to her throat. Scorpius' hesitation, despite his friend's gesture to get out, cost him. A Body-Bind was placed on him, and he fell backwards to the floor. Lily, who was struggling frantically in the man's arms, met the same fate.
She could still see, although she was completely still. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, the figure take both the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map and hide them in one of his desk drawers, muttering a quick, "Lumos" to do so. It was then that she saw his identity. It was Teddy, and, she noted, he looked rather pleased with himself. With another quick spell- Accio Parchment this time- the three sheets of parchment that Lily had taken flew out of her pockets and into his hands.
It was a bit of trouble for him to bring both Lily and Scorpius out of the castle. He was dragging Scorpius and levitating Lily, which she couldn't help but notice would have actually been rather fun if it weren't for the seriousness of the situation. They passed Luna's cottage, nearly brushing it as Teddy walked by, but her lights were off and there was no movement from inside. She must have been sleeping. Everyone was. There was no hope for them.
Teddy- it didn't seem right to be calling him that when he was planning to kill her- brought them extremely far, farther than Lily had ever been in before. She had ventured in several times- three times for a Care of Magical Creatures lesson, one to collect something for Herbology, two for detention, and another two because she wanted to wander around alone- but all of those times she had been reasonably close to the edge, probably not even a mile in. Now, it was definitely over a mile- far enough where any noise, no doubt, would not be heard. He stopped at a small clearing and set them both down on the ground.
He paused a moment, thinking, and then shook his head, propping each student against a different tree. With two waves of his wand, they were freed from the spell, but just as quickly, ropes appeared around them and tied them to that tree. Both pushed against the ropes, but to no avail- they had been tied tightly, and without a wand, there was nothing either one could do. Lily glared fiercely at Teddy. "Before…" She couldn't bring herself to say the words 'you kill us' "will you at least tell us why? Please?"
"I suppose that's harmless," he replied. "The reason I am killing you two is because you found out. You meddled with something that was none of your business. The reason for the others, however, was simple. My parents died at the Battle of Hogwarts. I never knew them. Their murderers- I cannot get revenge on them. Dolohov is in Azkaban, and Lestrange is rotting in a grave somewhere. No, the easiest thing to do is get revenge on those who lived while my parents died.
"I knew that killing or assaulting the actual survivors of the Battle of Hogwarts would be difficult. All of them are older than me, talented at magic in most of their cases, often with protective charms over their homes in case somebody tries to break in for that very reason. But then the idea came to me- Hogwarts. Children, who would never be able to defend against me. People I loved were taken from me at the Battle of Hogwarts. It is even more fitting that I take away people that these survivors loved."
"Teddy-" Lily pleaded. "We're all innocents, all of us children of the survivors. We never did a thing to you, or to your parents, and even though your parents died, it was nobody's fault but Dolohov's and Lestrange's. Nobody else."
He completely ignored her, continuing with his monologue. "I meant to kill Sara Creevey. I meant to kill Daisy Zabini. But then, with Roxanne, I decided that her still being alive would be even more horrible for her parents. I used the Cruciatus Curse on her multiple times, but she fell unconscious and I could not wake her up. I'm very curious as to what she'll be like…whether she'll still be sane. I certainly hope not, it would rather defeat the purpose. I thought that if she was alive, but unable to recognize anyone, unable to do even the simplest of tasks…that would be even worse for those who knew her. I got the idea from Professor Longbottom, of course.
"His parents suffered that fate- which I assume you already knew. That's supposed to be rather secret, but naturally, the whole school knows about it. But enough about them- I'd rather kill you and get it over with. Dump your bodies somewhere, where they'll never be found. It'll be assumed that…perhaps you went looking for the killer and found him. Or maybe you ran away…a Potter and a Malfoy, it's believable, after you both making it into Slytherin. I saw your family's reactions, Lily Luna. They'd never approve of you and Scorpius; it would be a rather heartbreaking end for you to run away together. Maybe that's the story I'll plant. Like Romeo and Juliet, they met their tragic end." He raised his wand. "Goodbye."
"Wait!" Lily said. It wasn't that she had anything to say, exactly, but that she hoped to prolong it as long as possible. Teddy had rambled on for a while, so could she. She had been excessively chatty when she was younger, although she had forced herself to curb the habit after she entered Hogwarts. Maybe she could pick it up again. "Can I have some last words?" Before he even expressed consent, she started talking. "Life…life is short. Life is long. People's opinions differ on that. But one thing everyone can agree on is that life is unpredictable. You never know just what is going to happen, and that's why it's so exciting.
"I wasn't expecting, when I got to Hogwarts, to make it into Slytherin. Not after the stories I heard from everyone. It was a surprise, yes, but I don't regret it. I don't regret anything I've done, because there's no time to focus on the past. There's no time to look back on what happened and mope about it." She was now adapting the words from the 20-year memorial for those dead at the Battle of Hogwarts, with a couple changes to fit her. "What's done is done. I won't regret my life's decisions, because it doesn't matter. None of it matters, because it all ends here. Right now." She looked up at Teddy, a pleading look on her face.
"I have something to say as well," Scorpius said, his eyes looking past Teddy. Lily saw moving figures, heading toward the clearing in which they were. Please, she begged, just another minute. "Lily's right. Life is short. Life is long. It's both, really, when you look at it from a different perspective. In the grand scheme of things, life is short." The figures were getting closer. "What are a hundred, a hundred fifty years when civilization has been around for thousands and thousands? But then, a hundred fifty seems so long when you're sixteen and about to die. And I just wanted to say…"
Scorpius glanced at Lily just as the figures burst into the clearing. "Your plan failed. Ha ha."
Teddy whirled around. All the Hogwarts teachers were there, wands pointing at him. He glanced back at the two students, who both had equal looks of surprise and great relief on their faces. The teachers were led by Luna and Rose, who were both in regular clothing, as opposed to the other teachers in their nightclothes. Luna disarmed Teddy, causing both his and Lily's wand to fly over to her, and Professor MacDougal Stunned him so powerfully that he was thrown backward into a tree and did not get up.
Rose ran over to first Lily, then Scorpius, cutting through their ropes with a murmured, "Diffindo." They stumbled forward. "Are you two alright?" she whispered, looking over at Teddy. "Oh Merlin, it was Teddy?"
"Yeah. He wanted revenge because his parents were killed," Scorpius explained. "Lily got him to go on and on with his long spiel, and then both of us started giving last words, these long, elaborate speeches about life. Mine was from my grandfather's funeral, and Lily's…"
"The 20-year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts memorial service," Lily explained. "Some of it just stuck with me, I guess. Came in handy, though. How did you find us?"
"It scared me, you two wandering around in the middle of the night like that," Rose admitted. "So I told Aunt Luna earlier, right after dinner. She saw people going into the Forbidden Forest, knew it was the wannabe killer, probably with you two, and then came and got everybody else. I insisted on coming. I had been hiding in Aunt Luna's cottage."
Everybody trooped back up to Hogwarts. Teddy Lupin had been tied up, and was being levitated in the same way that Lily had been. Professor Clearwater was at the very front, the three students directly behind her. "You three, up to my office," the Headmistress said. "We need to go over a few things."
A/N: 'That's supposed to be rather secret, so naturally the whole school knows about it' is from the movie adaptation of Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone, although the context is different. Just thought I'd use that in there, I've always loved that quote. Anyway, this is getting near the end, probably only a couple more chapters left.