The regular disclaimer still applies.

Chapter 16
Courageux

...

Scorpius didn't even see it coming. When he heard the news, it was as if a giant wrecking ball had slammed into his body, sending him crashing into the side of a building.

Aurors surrounded his mother's previously occupied cell, reporters were harassing his father, photographers were snapping pictures, and Scorpius had his face pressed against the bars of her cell, staring at the name carved crudely into the stone floor.

He could hear the sounds of Rose's parents and Harry Potter calmly explaining the situation to one of the numerous reporters who really had no business being there.

"We'll find who did this," Harry was saying, looking exhausted as he ran a hand through his hair, trying to remain patient with the young reporter.

"And is it true that Mrs. Malfoy was abducted by the previously thought dead man, Scipio Xavier?"

"I can't say for sure," Harry said distractedly, teeth gritted together. "It seems it may be him, but we can't know for sure. It could just be hoax to scare us."

"And is this linked in anyway to the death of Draco Malfoy's mother?" the reporter asked.

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Hermione beat him to it. "Narcissa Malfoy's death was caused by Octavius Greyback, who could very well be the one who kidnapped Astoria. However, we have no record of Octavius coming anywhere near Azkaban in the last six months."

"Then how do you—"

"It wasn't Greyback," Scorpius said, causing heads to spin in his direction. He remained facing the cell. "Octavius Greyback is innocent on both accusations. He did not kill my grandmother. Well, he did, but it wasn't because he's evil."

Draco shot him a warning look, but Scorpius continued, turning to face the reporters.

"The enemy we all face is Scipio Xavier. Greyback wants to stop him and so do I."

"So you're saying that the man who murdered your grandmother did it just to get her out of the way?"

"He did it to warn my retarded grandfather to keep his nose out of other people's business!" Scorpius snapped angrily. "No more questions," he added, pushing past the reporter and heading down the path that lead to the exit of Azkaban.

"What a remarkable young man," said Harry.

. . .

Hermione and Ron appeared on the pathway leading to their house with a loud pop, discussing recent developments.

"This is more complicated than we had feared, Ronald," Hermione said as her husband wheeled her down the path leading to the front door. The rain had finally ceased, but thunder still rumbled in the distant.

"The bloody wanker should've just stayed dead."

"Which brings us to another problem!" said Hermione. "How is he back to begin with?"

"I dun—" Ron's voice came to an abrupt halt, and Hermione was nearly thrown out of her seat as he came to a sudden stop, staring at the front door that was standing wide open, disturbed slightly by a breath of wind.

"Bloody hell," he murmured, his face unnaturally white.

"Rose!" Hermione said in a strangled voice. "Ronald, get us in there, now!"

Once they were inside the house and they had brought some light back into the place, they were met with evident signs of defensive magic—scorch marks were present on the ground and on the walls.

"Oh, Ron, look!" Hermione cried as they rounded a corner and saw the remains of the closet door.

"That's not the worst of it, I'm afraid," Ron muttered in a grim voice. "Look, Hermione."

Hermione tore her gaze away from the scattered pieces of wood to the flaming words on the wall. His name, Scipio Xavier.

"The sick bastard wants us to know it was him."

. . .

"I can't do this."

"Yes, you can," Octavius said firmly, glaring at Scorpius through the flames.

"Not now," said Scorpius. "They've got Rose. I don't have time to—"

"To what? Gather a reasonable amount of allies to help you take this monster down? You can't go it alone, Scorpius! He'd destroy you!"

"I wouldn't go alone! You'd come with me!"

"No, I can't," said Octavius. "I'm busy trying to negotiate with the Avengers. Everyone's heard about your little stunt in Azkaban late last night, so now I have a chance to tell them the truth! If we get those allies—"

"I told you I can't—"

"I'm sending someone over there to change your mind," Octavius said, disappearing shortly from Scorpius's view. A moment later he had returned. "He'll be there within ten minutes with information on your first contact. End of discussion."

He disappeared with a final pop.

Scorpius swore under his breath and straightened up. First his mother and now Rose. But Octavius was right. To go after Xavier alone was suicide. He'd have to wait a little longer and pray that she'd still be alive, no matter how much it was killing him, not knowing if she was . . .

"Who were you talking to?" Draco asked suspiciously as he entered the room, a cup of coffee in hand and the new edition of the Prophet rolled up and tucked under his arm.

"Octavius—"

Draco's face was pained. "Scorpius, I hope you're doing this for the best."

"I am, Dad. Trust me. I'm going to save them, I promise. I can do this."

"I know you can … I just … I don't want to lose my son."

"You won't," Scorpius said with a smile.

Draco looked as if he wanted to say more, but after a few seconds of struggling with himself, he gave up and sat down at his favorite spot at the table with the newspaper.

Scorpius dragged himself to his room and began stuffing clothes and other essentials into a bag. If he was going to search for these gifted witches and wizards, he was at least going to be prepared.

When he came back into the kitchen, Draco looked at him with raised eyebrows, eyeing the bag Scorpius had slung over his shoulder.

"Planning on going somewhere?"

"Yes."

Draco looked at him expectantly, but Scorpius merely stared right back.

"Are you going to tell me where you are going?"

"Not exactly, no."

"And why not?"

"Because you'd try and stop me."

"Are you going after Xavier?"

"No."

"Then by all means go! I'm sure it's important," Draco eyed him suspiciously. "It is, isn't it?"

"Octavius thinks so."

"All right." And his father went back to his newspaper.

Scorpius took a seat across from his father at the table, drumming his fingers restlessly on the surface, waiting for the person Octavius had threatened him with.

After fifteen minutes or so of waiting, there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it," Scorpius automatically said, standing up and walking towards the door.

Draco put down his paper to watch and see who the visitor was.

Scorpius cleared his throat and opened the door.

"Lupin?"

. . .

Rose woke up to the sound of heavy machinery clanking all around her. Groaning, she heaved herself up into a sitting position and looked around the desolated factory filled with all sorts of ominous looking machines. The factory, old and frail, looked abandoned. Then why had the machines suddenly come to life?

"Rose, dear, you're awake!"

Rose jumped and spun around, causing her neck to make an uncomfortable cracking sound. Astoria leapt up from her position on a crate and was at her side instantly.

"I haven't been able to wake you up. But he got you too!"

"Who did?" Rose asked, her throat rough and dry.

Astoria looked at her in confusion. "Scipio Xavier, of course. Didn't Scorpius tell you he was behind all of this?"

Rose shook her head sadly. "After Narcissa's funeral he told me had to join up with Octavius to protect me. He said nothing about anyone named Scipio Xavier. The name's unfamiliar. Who is he?"

Astoria looked past Rose's shoulder, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "He's a madman and a murderer."

"Then how come I've never heard of him?"

"Because he's anachronistic, Rose."

"Come again?"

"Out of his time. He's not from this century, or even last century. His own time was hundreds—possibly thousands—of years ago. The Founders' Time, if I'm not mistaken."

"Then how is he—?"

"Alive? I don't know. The Fallen Brother suspects he may have used Horcruxes, like Voldemort—"

"Who's the Fallen Brother?" Rose asked, looking terribly confused.

"I can't say," Astoria said sadly. "Xavier is probably listening to everything we say."

Silence stretched out between them. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, it was just a fearful and wary one.

"Where are we, anyway?" Rose asked quietly, unable to handle the silence while she knew so little of what was happening around them.

Astoria scoffed. "A muggle factory. Scipio is amusing himself. He knows Octavius would never think to look in one of these."

"So Octavius is a good guy?"

Astoria smiled and put her arm around the young girl. "As far as good guys go," she said, planting a motherly kiss on the girl's forehead, "yes, Octavius is a good guy."

. . .

Teddy Lupin smiled and stepped around the surprised Malfoy. He raised his hand in greeting when he saw Draco, who snorted and raised his newspaper to his face again.

"You're one of Oct—?"

"Not since recently, no," said Teddy. "I was working with the Avengers. But Octavius has been trying to work something out with the old F.B., so here I am!"

Scorpius looked at him suspiciously.

"The Fallen Bro said Astoria gave you a letter a couple of weeks ago?"

Scorpius nodded cautiously.

Teddy smiled. "Well, I'm the Changeling mentioned in there. Stupid name, huh?"

"Why are you called—"

"Hello? Nymphadora Tonks? She happened to be my mother?" As he said it, his hair turned bubble gum pink. Scorpius raised his eyebrows and Teddy laughed. "Yeah, pink was my mother's color. I like to stick with blue," and his hair turned blue. "Anyway! Octavius has sent us on a mission. Oh, hello, Mr. Malfoy! How are you?"

Draco grunted from behind the newspaper in greeting.

Scorpius watched as the older man looked around the room with interest, hands in his pockets and whistling casually.

"Who is this 'first contact' Octavius wants us to recruit?" Scorpius asked.

Teddy casually took a folder out of the inside of his jacket and slapped it onto the table in front of Scorpius. "Sami Collins. Specializes in surveillance and covert operations. She's close by and works for the Ministry. She should be easy enough to get to."

Scorpius opened the folder and looked over the files tucked inside. "She's younger than I would have expected," he remarked, holding up the picture of the young woman.

"Fresh out of Hogwarts, from what I understand. Pretty cute, huh?"

"Rose is the only one for me," Scorpius said with a frown as he remembered where exactly she was at the moment.

Teddy frowned too, looking worried. "Yeah, I heard about what happened. I sure hope she's all right. She's practically family, after all. Anyway, Collins is our first recruit and Octavius wants us to talk to her ASAP. So when you're ready …"

Scorpius set his bag on the floor. "I figured we'd have to travel a bit," he explained upon seeing Teddy's questioning look.

"Eventually we will," said Teddy. "Victoire won't be very happy about it, but she understands there's a madman trying to kill everyone."

"How's it going with her, anyway?" Scorpius asked as they walked towards the door.

"She wants to have a baby, now that she's seen how happy Neville and Hannah are with the twins."

"Hannah had twins?"

"Oh, that's right, you weren't there! The whole family turned up and we celebrated right outside the Hospital room."

Before they left the apartment, Scorpius turned back and lifted his hand in farewell to his father. "I'll be back later tonight, Dad."

Draco nodded, a strange expression crossing his face as Scorpius closed the door.

. . .

"As far as I know, we're allowed to walk around, Rose," said Astoria. "We haven't been brutally locked in a cage or tied together, so I guess it's okay if we take a look around this dump."

"I've got nothing better to do," Rose said with a shrug as she stood up from the floor and dusted off her pants. "And this gives me the perfect opportunity to bond with my boyfriend's mother."

Astoria laughed gently. "It's a shame it has to be under such dire circumstances. Now, would you like to hear embarrassing things that my son has done in the past, or how much he talks about you at home—even before you knew he was madly in love with you?"

Rose laughed, walking next to her companion. "I could use some cheering up, so we'll talk about the most embarrassing things he's done."

Astoria smiled. "I'm glad he chose you, Rose. You're intelligent but also humorous, and that's what I like about someone."

Rose blushed. "I guess I get my smarts from my mom and—"

"Your laughs from your dad?"

"I was actually gonna say Uncle Fred and Uncle George," Rose said with a teasing smile. Astoria chuckled and merely said, "Poor Ron…"

"Astoria," Rose said, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "is there any possibility we could escape?"

Astoria adopted a thoughtful expression, her eyes dark and calculating. "It wouldn't hurt to try," she said firmly. "Especially if we're free to go anywhere we want in this huge place. There are many places to hide."

"Let's just hope Xavier isn't good at 'seek'."

. . .

As Scorpius and Teddy walked through the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic, they failed to miss the suspicious and heated glares that were sent their way. By now everyone had heard of Scorpius's defensive stunt of Octavius pulled in Azkaban at the scene of his mother's abduction.

"Collins is in the Department of International Magical Cooperation," Teddy explained as they pushed past the many witches and wizards tarrying in the Atrium.

"International Magical Cooperation? What does she do?"

"She's a spy," Teddy said in a low voice, looking around cautiously to make sure no one could over hear them.

"How did Octavius find her?"

"Through the Avengers, of course. We have quite a bit of Ministry Officials in the Avengers."

Scorpius followed Teddy through the long and steady line of witches and wizards slowly making their way to the golden lifts.

"Sami's department is on the fifth level," Teddy said as they entered a lift, Ministry memorandums flying overhead. He and Scorpius fell silent as more Ministry officials entered the lift, casting them suspicious glares. Teddy smiled pleasantly at them all, nodding once and then burrowing his hands in his pockets and whistling a merry tune.

When they got to the fifth level, Teddy lead Scorpius to the very end of the corridor, to a door marked clearly:

Department of International Magical Cooperation

~Criminal Intelligence~

"Criminal Intelligence?" Scorpius asked with a raised eyebrow.

"They gather intelligence on criminals. Under cover stuff."

"I knew that," Scorpius muttered, a pink tinge coming to his face.

Teddy chuckled, shaking his head as he opened the door.

"That that, evil muggle man! Bahahahaha!" was the first thing they heard when they entered the room: all the lights were off, the only source of it coming from the huge screen built into the wall opposite them. The room resembled something exactly out of a muggle sci-fi movie.

A large young man was sitting in a swivel chair, staring intently at the screen, this thumbs moving at the speed of light on some sort of controller he held in his hands.

"Die, villain! DIEEEE!"

"TREVOR! How many times must I tell you—don't play video games on the equipment! We use this tech to spy on evil wrongdoers, not to blow up muggles!" a stern voice cracked through the air, causing the young man to jump. Scorpius and Teddy turned around and watched as a dark-skinned man with graying hair entered the room from a door marked "Office." A young woman Scorpius recognized from the photo of Sami Collins was sitting at a desk with a muggle computer, snickering behind her hand.

"Sorry, boss," said Trevor, pausing his game. "It's a slow day—"

"I don't care! I'm expecting someone at a ten and I don't want them walking in here to find my employee in here blowing up muggles on your stupid xWand!"

Teddy cleared his throat loudly and the dark-skinned man whipped around.

"I'm here to speak to Mr. Jonathan Bauman?"

"Ted Lupin?" the man asked in horror. "Please don't think we are slackers! Trevor just—"

Teddy laughed. "It's okay, really. It looks like a fun game."

"It is," Trevor spoke up. "It's the bomb."

Sami's shoulders shook with silent laughter. Bauman threw a dirty glare at Trevor. "Please, Mr. Lupin, allow me to speak to you in my office, where no man children are crowding the place and contaminating my air."

Teddy laughed again. "Scorp, stay here, this won't take long."

Scorpius awkwardly stood to the side and watched as Teddy followed Bauman into the office. Trevor stared at him for a split second before he un-paused his game and went back to blowing up muggles. Sami watched him with interest, her feet propped up on her desk.

"You're Scorpius Malfoy!" she said suddenly. Trevor paused his game and looked at him again with wide eyes.

"Um … yeah, I am."

"You're the one who stood up for Oliver Greyback last night in Azkaban."

"Octavius Greyback."

"Yeah, right. Him."

"Word travels fast," Scorpius muttered, leaning against another desk and crossing his arms.

"Well, here at the Ministry it does," Trevor said with a smirk.

"Why are you here?" Sami asked.

Scorpius gestured to the closed office door. "Teddy will explain it to you."

"Can't you tell us?" Sami asked casually.

"I would if I could, but I can't so I won't."

Sami smiled with a roll of her eyes and then looked back at her muggle computer.

Trevor looked at his game. "Is it about Greyback? Word has it you're building up a team. Is that true?"

Before Scorpius could answer, the office door opened again and Teddy came out with Bauman.

"Collins!" Bauman shouted, causing the girl to fly out of her chair.

"Yes, Mr. Bauman?" she asked, quickly replacing her annoyance with a blank expression.

"I have a new assignment for you."

"Awesome—! I mean, yes, sir! What is my assignment, sir?"

Bauman glanced at Teddy who stepped forward and grasped her hand. "Welcome to the Sentinel."

"W-what?" said Sami blankly.

"The Sentinel? What kinda name is—" Scorpius began.

"Well, if you don't like it than you come up with it! And yes, Sami. We're recruiting you."

"I-I don't know what to say—"

"I wanna join!" Trevor said, heaving himself to his feet.

"Sorry, Mr. Davis, but I need to keep one of my two employees here in the Department," said Bauman, "and seeing as Sami will be more useful to the Vanguard than, well, you—"

"Vanguard? Really?" said Scorpius.

"It's hard coming up with these names!" said Teddy defensively.

"W-why me?" Sami asked.

"Because you're friggin awesome, that's why!" said Teddy with a kind smile. "And because you're the best of the best in what you do. Bauman tells me you're the one who brought in that whack job Kyra Dempsey in your first week on the job. I don't know much about your division, but that sounds pretty impressive to me. And apparently Octavius thinks so too."

"Wow," was all she said. "I need to sit down."

"You do that."

. . .

Rose was bored. So bored, in fact, that she'd probably be having more fun in History of Magic than she was having right now. And that's saying something.

So far, she hadn't seen nor heard anything from her captor. Apparently neither had Astoria, who had been here even longer than Rose.

"In all my time I've been here, I have not seen Xavier once. I just wake up every morning to find a plate of food in the middle of the floor. Quite unsanitary, if you ask me, but I'm not complaining."

"But you think he's watching us?"

"Maybe," said Astoria. "It depends. Not all the time, for sure. He probably checks up on us every now and then, to make sure we're still breathing. I think he has some evil henchmen watching us instead. Which is a good thing."

"How?" Rose asked miserably.

"It's a good thing because we have a better chance of escaping. You've watched muggle movies, surely? Aren't all villainous henchmen really stupid?"

"This isn't a movie, though, Astoria," Rose pointed out sadly.

"It seems like one, though," Astoria said, nodding. "Either that, or an adventure novel written by a really cruel person who enjoys making us suffer."

"Authors are supposed to be cruel," Rose said with a smile.

Astoria scoffed. "Who told you that?"

Rose shrugged. "I just heard it somewhere."

Astoria lowered her voice. "I have an idea on how to get out of here."

Rose tilted her head towards Astoria, a twisted smile on her face and one eyebrow lifted. "Do tell."

. . .