A/N: My darling readers, I am so delighted! So many of you have reviewed and read my story! Keep it up! I apologize sincerely for the long wait! I am so so so so so sorry! Please forgive me! I hope this chapter will help compensate for my ill-excused absence from Fanfiction.

Also…The main reason I put so much effort into getting this to you this weekend is because November is NaNoWriMo. For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. During the month of November, I must write a 50,000 page story. So, I would have no time for fanfiction. I really didn't want you guys to go another month without a chapter, so hopefully this will hold you over until December. :/

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

(Leilani's POV)

I was talking with Scorpius, and my two best friends Lisa Nott and Francesca Goyle after torturing that turquoise haired boy. We had orders from Father not to kill him, though I wondered why. After the boy fell unconscious, he was moved back to his cell in the dungeons. Now, we were currently discussing the tactics I used during torture as we drank butterbeer.

"How do you do it Lani?" Lisa asked curiously. She had black hair and shimmering blue eyes that seemed to dance. "I can never make them scream like you do."

I rolled my eyes and fingered my wand; nine inches, alder, with a dragon heartstring core. "It's simple really. You just have to give it to them in certain doses. Like at first, curse them with a five on a scale from one to ten, ten being the worst, one being the least. Then they wonder, 'How can the pain get worse than this?' After that, you blast it up to a ten on the same scale."

Scorpius smiled at me. "You're insanely smart you know that?"

"She's insane period," Lisa said, leaning back on the couch with a smirk.

"Huh?" Francesca Goyle asked. She wasn't the sharpest sectumsempra in the spell book. She thankfully hadn't inherited her father's looks; she was gorgeous. Alas, she was literally and figuratively blond.

"Never mind," Lisa said. We all laughed.

"So why didn't you come back to Hogwarts this year?" Francesca said, changing the subject.

"Yeah, we've all missed you," Scorpius said. His eyes suggested that he missed me most. I stared down at my butterbeer.

"Father said he wanted to teach us beyond the Hogwarts curriculum. He wasn't satisfied with our level of learning. He's hired a tutor to continue our regular studies, but he wants us to be at home so that he can teach us what he wants."

"I see. I just wish we could see you more," Lisa said.

"Maybe I'll come to visit on a Hogsmeade weekend," I said.

Scorpius, Francesca, and Lisa smiled. "That'd be great," Francesca said. We continued to talk and drink our butterbeers for a while, before Scorpius asked to talk to me privately. I led him to the nearest room away from the noise of the party.

"What is it?" I said.

"I've missed you so much, Lani," he said.

"You came over for lunch and you've been here all day; how can you miss me?" I said, giggling. Scorpius rolled his eyes and pushed me gently against the wall. "No, Scorpius, what if someone sees?" I said, looking around.

"No one will see," Scorpius whispered, pressing his lips to mine. I felt something similar to a fire build inside me as I brought him closer against me. A few minutes later, we pulled apart. We were quite breathless. "For someone who didn't want me to kiss her…" Scorpius trailed off, smirking.

"I never said I didn't want you to kiss me, I just wanted to be cautious," I said, folding my arms. I giggled when I saw Scorpius' lips. "My lipstick looks good on you."

He immediately wiped his lips. I laughed before wiping it off for him. I smoothed out my red dress and fixed my shoulder length dark hair. Scorpius helped me, smoothing his hands over my curls. "Your hair is always incredibly soft," he told me.

"I like yours," I said, reaching up to run my hand through his blonde hair. He smiled. Soon we realized that we would be missed, and returned the party.

Something caught my eye. Coming down from the stairwell were my parents. My father had his arm around my mother. He never did that. Mum would always shove him off. As I watched, he kissed her on the cheek. Again my mum did nothing. What was going on? I wondered. I almost shrugged it off as nothing, but Mum looked strange. I could sense something wasn't right. I looked over at Zosimos, but he wasn't paying attention. Cara Flint was practically throwing herself at him.

"Is something wrong?" Scorpius asked me.

"I'll be right back," I said, making my way over to my brother.

(Zosimos POV)

As soon as I finished torturing the blue haired dude, Cara was blabbing in my ear. "Oh mi gosh Zosimos you are amazing! You're so smart and talented and evil and smart-"

"You said that."

"Oh did I? Well it's true! You are so smart! Like uber smart! I'm not as smart as you. Could you tutor me? Please, oh please, oh please?"

I rolled my eyes internally. "On what Cara?"

"Like...everything! 'Cause you're way smarter than me! In like everything! You're AMAZING!" Her shoulder-length dirty blond hair bounced up and down and her green eyes were wide and insane. I suppressed a groan. She was so annoying. However, she was the daughter of one of my father's more trusted servants, Marcus Flint. For my father, I put up with her...Most of the time. "Please?" She sounded so screechy when she whined! She grabbed my hand while pleading, tugging lightly on it. I glared at her, my eyes narrowed. She instantly let go.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Cara," I said in a warning voice. She didn't notice.

"Oh, but Zosi I need your help!" There she went again, jumping up and down like she was high. Had someone spiked her drink with firewhiskey? I sighed.

"Excuse me, Cara, but I need to talk to my darling brother for a moment." Leilani came to my rescue. Thank goodness.

"Oh..." Cara said, looking pathetically heartbroken. She left and I turned to Leilani, sighing in relief.

"That girl is insane," I groaned. "I'm thinking about finding a girl to date just to get her off my back-"

"Zosimos," my sister interrupted. I stopped talking. "Does Mum look different to you?"

I looked over where my parents were. Father was grinning in a way that almost looked smug as he sat next to my mother. Mum had a strange expression on her face that I couldn't quite put a name to. "Yeah, she doesn't look normal. What happened?"

"I don't know; that's why I was asking you."

I studied my mother's expression. "Do you think she's just upset that we tortured that guy?"

My sister chewed her bottom lip, which, now that I was looking at it, seemed swollen. "I suppose that could be a possible reason, but we've tortured people before and she hasn't had this severe of a reaction."

"Sis, what'd you do to your lip?"

"Hm?" My sister turned to face me.

"Your lip," I said again, "it's swollen."

Lani looked confused, and then her eyes seemed to widen. "Oh, um, I bumped it," she said. I raised an eyebrow and she nodded. "Anyway, I'm still confused about Mum."

I had a vague feeling that she was deliberately changing the subject, but I went with it. "I'll go talk to her then."

"Not with Father there! What if he has something to do with it?" Leilani pointed out.

"What do you want me to do, then?" I said.

Leilani thought for a moment before saying, "I'll distract him, and you can go talk to Mum."

I looked curiously at her. "How do you plan to distract him?"

Lani smirked. "Leave that to me, my dear brother."

I raised an eyebrow. Leilani looked at the people around us. "Randy!" she called out to my best friend. He had dark skin, hair and eyes. She waved him over, and soon he stood beside us.

"Hey," he said.

"I need you to do me a favor," Leilani said. "I need you to help me distract my father."

Randy's eyes widened. He immediately began backing away, but I stopped him. "No way, man, he'd kill me!"

"No, he won't," Lani said. She stared Randy down. "However, he may kill you if I tell him you have displeased me. I am daddy's little princess, after all."

I held in a laugh. Sure, she was daddy's princess, but only if she did what he wanted her to. Leilani sent a quick glare at me before turning back to Randy. "A-alright," Randy said, "what do you need me to do?"

"Dance with me," she said, taking his hand.

"What?"

"Dance with me," she said. She glared at him and tugged him to the middle of the room where a few other people were dancing. Randy looked to me for help but I just smirked. I saw her place his hands low on her hips and pull him close against her. I began to understand her plan as Father caught sight of this. In a total of one second, Father was by Leilani's side.

Father soon left the room with Randy following him shakily. Leilani smiled at me and pranced over to her friends. I quickly walked over to where my mother was sitting. "Mother," I said, sitting down across from her at a table. She didn't look up at me. "Mum, are you alright?" She gave me no reaction. I placed my hand on her folded ones. "Did Father do something?" Her eyes flickered and stared at my hand on hers. She began stroking it softly. "Mum?" I was concerned; what was going on?

"Be a good boy, Zosi," she said. I wasn't sure if I was meant to hear that quiet whisper.

"What?"

She finally looked up at me. I was shocked at the vacancy seen in her once sparkling light brown eyes. "What happened?"

"Be a good boy, Zosi. Follow your dreams, not your father's." She stared at me.

"What are you talking about?" I stared back, trying to read her unfathomable expression.

She squeezed my hand. "Take care of your sister. Find a nice girl, find your true love."

"Mum-"

"Be with your true love when I couldn't, Zosi!" my mother exclaimed.

"Mum, calm down!" She finally calmed. She also looked utterly defeated. "Mum?" I asked. She seemed to ignore me.

"What's going on?" It was Leilani. She sat beside Mum.

"I have no idea," I said.

"Mum?" she said. Mother didn't acknowledge that her daughter had spoken. "Mother?"

Mum sighed and turned to Leilani. "Be a good girl, Lani. Go live happily ever after with that boyfriend of yours."

"Mum!" Lani said in a warning voice. Her eyes were wide.

"What boyfriend?" I said, looking around at the many possible suspects in the room.

"No one, Mum must be confused," Leilani said. "Come on, Zosimos, let's go." She took my hand and dragged me away. Before I could ask her anything she began talking. "What did Mum say to you?"

"She wanted me to not obey Father, and to find a girl. What did she mean when she mentioned 'that boyfriend of yours'?" I folded my arms over my chest.

"Oh! Coming, Lisa!" My sister was gone, leaving me without an answer. I was about to walk back over to my mother when Francesca Goyle stood in my way.

"Hi, Zosimos," she said.

"Hi," I said, trying to move around her.

"Won't you dance with me?" Before I could protest, the blonde beauty had wrapped her arms around my neck. Reluctantly, I placed my hands on her hips.

I had so many questions with no answers. Who was Leilani's supposed boyfriend? Had he hurt her? My mind clicked. Had he made out with her at this very party, explaining the reason her lip was swollen? I was going to kill that boy! Perhaps it was Randy? No, she would've been more cautious than that. I pushed these thoughts to the back of my head.

What had happened to Mum? Why did Mum want me to find a girl? I knew Mum didn't like me obeying my father, but I thought she had accepted that I was going to.

"Zosimos?"

I snapped out of my reverie, realizing that Francesca must've said something. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I said, have you had a nice birthday?"

"Oh…Yes, I suppose so," I said, not wanting to confide in my sister's friend. I looked over at my mother and saw that Father sat beside her now. As I watched, he leaned in and kissed her on the lips. Mother didn't move. Normally, she would've shrugged out of his grip. Something was seriously wrong.