Gray: Scorpius Malfoy and the Crux of the Alchemist

by Fiery Gray

UNDER EDITING! (VI): While the Shadow War continues far away from the walls of Hogwarts, Scorpius is left facing the frustration of being stuck inside starting his first year of NEWT classes. He finds himself drawn to the mysterious new Alchemy professor, the subject itself shedding light on certain things while Shadows and a defector lurk closer then he realizes. COMPLETE

4. Chapter 4: An Aura of Danger

Parts (13-17)

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VI

Chapter 4

An Aura of Danger

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Part 1: Life Goes On

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"Well thanks a lot," Scorpius spat at Elm as the three of them headed down the tower, "You got us kicked out of the class. Why don't you just drop it, you jackass!"

"Why don't you just drop it!" Elm countered equally angrily as they reached the foot of the steps and he stalked off in another direction, "And take your dog with you!"

"Don't call my friend a dog!"

"I just did!" Elm yelled back as he rounded the bend, Scorpius seriously considering going after him and dueling but he was too afraid of Rojer noticing and kicking the out permanently.

"So… I completely missed what happened. Why did I just get myself kicked out of the class?" Maurice wondered curiously.

Scorpius could only sigh in frustration, annoyed at getting kicked out of the class and angry at Elm for insulting Michael. He spent the rest of the evening working on his animagi training, in too bad a mood to feel like hanging out with his friends. They'd probably just nag him about finding out who tried to kill him anyway. Michael filled him and Maurice in on what the lesson had been about anyway, it had been focused on some of the processes used in Alchemy. Scorpius supposed at least he hadn't missed anything on souls but he still wasn't happy about it, the last thing he wanted was to be on Rojer's bad side.

"So Michael," Albus spoke up at double Herbology first thing the next day when they were preparing pots to plant some rare seeds, "See anything you like?"

"What?" Michael wondered in confusion.

"Girls. We still need to get you a girlfriend, remember?" Albus prompted and Michael rolled his eyes, he pointed to a random Gryffindor girl Scorpius didn't know the name of, "What about her? She's cute, eh?"

"She has a boyfriend," Rose pointed out testily, unlike Abby she wasn't fond of Herbology. Or at least not having to get your hands covered in soil.

"Oh right, well what about her then?" Albus said instead and jabbed his finger at another girl Scorpius didn't know the name of.

"Also has a boyfriend."

"What about her?" Albus complained, pointing at yet another girl and Scorpius scowled to himself at how few names he'd bothered to learn the past five years, "Does she have a boyfriend too?"

"No but she's got a girlfriend."

"Her?" Albus wondered hopefully, pointing to the girl next to her.

"That would be her girlfriend," Abby pointed out and laughed as Albus threw up his hands in exasperation.

"How are we supposed to get Michael a girlfriend if all the pretty ones are taken?"

"Not everyone's taken, just the ones you're pointing at. Now she's single, so is she and her. I don't know them so they might be single," Abby offered as she gestured to some of the other girls in the room, one of whom he was happy to name as Etta Hayes from Alchemy class. Scorpius decided more teachers should make them say their names.

"Before you start picking me out a girlfriend, I'd like to point out that I don't want one and I'm not dating," Michael said firmly.

"It might be good for you, it's nice having someone."

"If he says he's not interested then you can't force him," Maurice spoke up, "Nor should you pressure him, dating only ends in pain."

"Maybe you both should get dates," Albus offered and if looks could kill, Maurice would've just murdered Albus, "What? It's been like six months or around then, you should get back out there and find someone else."

"It has not been six months and I should not get back out there!" Maurice snapped, glaring angrily at his friend, "I don't want someone else, I want Lenore."

"I'm sure Lenore would want you to move on," Rose added and Maurice turned his dark gaze to her instead.

"You may have hated Lenore but I loved her, if I ever want to date anyone else it will take more than a few freaking months! Don't you people understand that?!"

"Is there a problem?" Professor Longbottom asked as he came over.

"I want to sit somewhere else, Rose is being mean to me," Maurice decided and the professor gestured that was alright.

"You know, I'm starting to think Maurice has developed some kind of issue with me," Rose said with a sigh, Scorpius thought this may be possible and couldn't help but notice that Maurice seemed distracted and upset the rest of the lesson.

The rest of the day passed by better, teachers seemed to finally be moving on from the NEWT talks and on to doing actual work. Scorpius was glad to be doing things again and doing it well, in Transfiguration and Charms they started doing non-verbal magic which only Scorpius excelled at thanks to his training with Varanian. Only he and Maurice managed anything although in his classmates' defense, those particular lessons were just single ones. It was almost amusing though, doing spells they'd learned back in First Year nonverbally – or the rest of the class failing at it – which was quite nostalgic. It was a double edged sword though, actual work meant actual homework to go with it. He had a feeling those gaps in the schedule would not be as relaxing as Albus had hoped. And finally, the day ended with Scorpius trudging back up the staircase for the final class of the day which was again Alchemy. This time, the class – unfortunately still nine of them, Elm hadn't quit – remembered Rojer's warning yesterday and they went in and took their seats.

"You see, English? Doors are your friend," Rojer commented from his usual seat at the front of the class, he had a cauldron bubbling beside him and was chopping up some stems. He tossed the in before standing, "Since all of you are now here, this day you will learn the seven planetary aspects."

"Well we would have been here yesterday if you hadn't kicked us out," Elm grumbled unhappily, "Normal people give detentions, you know?"

"When I go to school, they punish with the whip. Could be worse so do not complain, just behave."

"That's barbaric," Elm complained while Rojer started drawing seven symbols on the board, Scorpius recognized a couple vaguely from the first lesson, "Where the hell did you go to school?"

"Bratuslaw Institution in Poland."

"Are you Polish?" Knight blurted out curiously and Rojer shook his head as he seemed to finish drawing his symbols.

"No but I go to wizard school there as a child," Rojer said as he turned back to them, "So does anyone know what are the seven planets?"

"Erm… Isn't there nine planets though?" Orhan Eklund spoke up nervously.

"Yes there are but in the past they were not discovered. They look at the stars and they notice some of them move, they call these wandering stars which in Ancient Greek is where the word planets come from so you know. They did not count Earth so we have Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn," Rojer informed them and pointed out the corresponding symbols as he spoke, "Mercury is easy to remember in English, is dominate the metal of the same name. Venus dominates Copper, Mars for Iron, Jupiter for Tin and Saturn for Lead. The last two are not planets as we know today but are count here, the Sun and the Moon for Gold and Silver respectively. They correspond to different organs also and influence the different things, this is important to remember when doing practical so I advise you to take note."

The class obliged and took notes as Rojer went through the planetary aspects, including giving examples. Rojer seemed to get bored though and got them starting to make one of the examples he'd mentioned, yet again making it through with them at a slow pace. Not that it felt slow, it wasn't something to rush through or at least not when they were still getting used to calcination or edulceration because Rojer seemed capable of going much faster. They didn't have time to finish it before the lesson's end so he taught them to transmute what they had so far into a solid substance to store it, Scorpius noticed again that Rojer's limping leg seemed to pain him. Once more they filed out with Rojer willing to put everything away, again Scorpius stayed behind to help Rojer with it all.

"Let me help with that," Scorpius volunteered and Rojer sighed.

"If you wish," Rojer muttered as they started carrying things over to the sink.

I killed your father. I killed your father. I killed your father. I killed your father.

"Another good class," Scorpius complimented as Rojer filled up the sink, trying to sound cheerful and feeling quite determined to get on good terms with him.

"If you say so."

"And I erm… I… I wanted to apologize, you know for yesterday," Scorpius offered more nervously as Rojer started cleaning the things, Scorpius putting them away, "I think your punishment was pretty fair."

"I am glad you approve, I was so worry you would not," Rojer quipped dryly and Scorpius decided to just ignore it.

"And I hope you realize that I was only to defend my friend. Don't you think you should defend your friends?"

"Not in class."

"Fair enough," Scorpius nodded as he put away the last thing, he could see the logic in that. Scorpius caught Rojer rubbed his leg with a pained expression as he turned back, "Does your leg pain you?"

"All of the time. The injury cause chronic pain," Rojer admitted as he gestured to the door, "You can go now, it is done."

Scorpius left him to go join his friends for dinner, guilt gnawing at him once again. Rojer suffered chronic pain in his leg, it was no wonder he seemed so… bitter and… unfriendly. Maybe if he hadn't killed Ashylos then he'd know some way to ease his son's pain if not cure it completely, Ashylos had lived for a hell of a long time and seemed pretty knowledgeable. He wondered if Maurice had been right when he'd suggested Rojer had been tortured by Grindelwald's men, maybe Michael would have some idea of how to help. He'd murdered his father, the least he could do was something to help him in the present. He thought Ashylos would want that, he hadn't forgotten Rojer.

"Do you know Rojer's lame leg causes him constant pain?" Scorpius told his friends as he sat down with his friends, they collectively rolled eyes and threw limbs up in exasperation, "I'm serious about this-"

"Scorpius-" Michael started to say but Scorpius cut him off.

"-This is bad, we should help him. It's no wonder he's so unhappy if he's in pain all the time, Ashylos wouldn't want this-"

"Scorpius-"

"-I realize if it could be cured then he probably have been but there has to be something we can do, we can't just let him suffer-"

"Scorpius-"

"-And he mentioned they used the whip in the wizarding school he went to as punishment, do you think it's possible that could've had an impact on his leg somehow? And before you say it, I'm not obsessing over Rojer, I'm just being a good student-"

"Scorpius!" Michael snapped at him and Scorpius turned to him finally.

"What?!"

"The Shadow Master made his next move. Cairo, Egypt fell today," Michael told him and Scorpius groaned, letting his head fall into his hands, "Wow, you're talkative when you're obsessing."

Scorpius went to bed after his animagi training feeling rather unhappy, the Shadows had now launched their attack on Egypt and somehow he didn't think it would fare any better than Greece and Turkey had. If he couldn't help Rojer then the least he could do was be out there fighting the Shadows with Varanian and the rest of them, he wondered how what he was thinking and what he was planning. He wondered how Molly was doing and Latimer, if they'd learned anything, if they were helping. He was lying all cozy in bed while his girlfriend was out there risking her life, what kind of boyfriend did that? Not to mention all the others risking their lives fighting a war he was responsible for because he hadn't killed the Shadow Master when he'd had the chance, he hadn't even killed Brutus. What kind of person did that? What kind of person was he? And he couldn't even do anything, he was still bound by the trace.

Scorpius wasn't sure if he slept at all that night, he wasn't aware of sleeping and his string of thoughts ceasing but he also didn't feel exceptionally tired or anything. He trudged down to breakfast where Michael was reading a letter, his face twisted up in a scowl. He glanced up when Scorpius approached and handed the letter to him before he could ask what was going on, it was a short message but nonetheless shocking.

Michael,

Soon you will probably be taken aside and informed that the little ones and I were killed in a fire, this is not true and we are all very much alive. There is too much to say in a letter, I will explain more when I see you in person so don't risk writing back and tell no one. I just wanted you to know in case you worried, take care and stay safe.

Lots of love,

Crystal

PS: This is charmed to burn up a few minutes after reading so watch your fingers

"What the hell?" Scorpius wondered and Michael could only shrug with an expression of astonishment as Maurice joined them.

"Why are you getting mail from Lenore's owl?" Maurice questioned suspiciously as he put a hand on the necklace, Scorpius handed him the letter which he quickly skimmed, "How odd. Still doesn't explain Lenore's owl."

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't Lenore's owl," Michael insisted as they sat, the letter incinerating and leaving no trace of itself as promised, "What the hell?"

"Well technically it's her uncle's but I'm quite sure."

"Why would your dead girlfriend's uncle be letting my mother use his owl?"

"Maybe it's just that," Scorpius offered as they started putting food onto their plates, "Lenore died, maybe he had no one to write to anymore so he sold it."

"Why would my mother have wanted to buy an owl when she is well aware you can pay for public ones?"

"Your own tend to be faster and more reliable."

"Fine but how would she know that?" Michael questioned in exasperation, "Crystal doesn't know a lot about owls or magic. How could she even afford it? Money's tight."

"I think it's possible he sold the owl. What I'm curious about is how the letter was charmed, a muggle is not capable of that so she must have gotten someone to do it for her," Maurice spoke up, sounding intrigued, "An owl you can buy but someone to charm the letter is a bit more difficult and if you claim she didn't know a lot about these things, someone must have told her about it and who would do that? She might've hired an independent investigator to help her fake her death."

"And that is what I really want to know, why will people think they died in a fire anyway?! What possible reason would she have for faking her death?! What is she planning on doing?! And the little ones have school, what about that?!" Michael demanded and rubbed his temple, "They're muggles, what could possibly be going on to cause this? It's not even been a week since I left! What could've happened in less than a week?!"

"Maybe Jack returned and threatened them?" Maurice wondered and Michael sighed heavily, looking upset.

"I guess anything is possible," Michael muttered and unenthusiastically started on his food, "Why not?"

After breakfast they had double Charms first thing, the nonverbal magic continued to be a struggle for those not he or Maurice although Rose and a handful of others did make their feather flutter once or twice by the end of the lesson. His friends then had a free while he, Maurice and Michael trudged back to Rojer's tower for the only morning Alchemy lesson although it was still a double. For once Rojer was not sitting at the front of the class when they sat down, instead he limped in from the other two that wasn't the store cupboard which Scorpius would guess led to his quarters. He was looking grumpier then usual and sat down with a hand over his mouth as he yawned, he rubbed his eyes.

"Are you tired?" Knight inquired worriedly and Rojer turned to him with his head propped up on an elbow.

"I is not use to wake up so early, who is wake up at such an ridiculous hour?" Rojer grumbled as he rubbed his eyes again.

"Erm… Its half past ten in the morning," Martin Hargrave pointed out.

"And? Who wake up in the morning?"

"Erm… Everyone?"

"Everyone is stupid," Rojer complained and let his head fall into his hands, "I am being too old for this."

"How old are you?" Knight blurted out curiously.

"Eighty-nine."

"Are you sure you don't mean forty-nine?" Elm wondered, the class not looking convinced, "I don't know how it is in Poland but in English eighty is a very high number, there's no way you're that old. You're not even gray."

"I mean eighty," Rojer insisted incredulously and moved his head off his hand, "I know what the numbers are and what age I am."

"Are we carrying on with what we started yesterday?" Nott questioned as Rojer rubbed his eyes again.

"No, we can do this tomorrow," Rojer shook his head vigorously, "For today, I want you to look at the Alchemy books that you should of gotten for the class. Pick a chapter, whichever of the chapters interest you most. Read it and then write an essay about what you learn, if you do not finish in lesson then you can finish on your own time. Now do this, read in silent but you can talk to yourselves when you are writing if you still are working."

The class begrudgingly pulled out text books and started skimming for the most interesting thing, no chapter titles immediately jumped out as being about soul so he settled for one about Albus Dumbledore. It talked about his discovery of the twelve uses for Dragon's blood and work with arguably the most famous Alchemist, Nicolas Flamel. Scorpius half-expected Rojer to fall asleep, he seemed about to nod off and drummed is fingers idly on the table while they read but by the time Scorpius had started writing, Rojer had acquired a deck of cards and was starting to construct a house of cards with them. Nott and Knight talked amongst themselves as they worked, Orhan and Martin too but the others didn't. Michael was still reading and Maurice hadn't put a hand to his translator necklace, seeming absorbed in the work so Scorpius worked in silence until the bell went for lunch.

"Go on now," Rojer offered without looking, gesturing to the door for them to start filing out and immediately returning to his large intricate house of cards.

"Cool house of cards," Knight commenting, sounding impressed.

"This is no house, this is the palace of cards."

"Very true," Knight laughed cheerfully as he left, giving Rojer a wave of farewell, "See you tomorrow."

"Nice palace," Scorpius told him, hanging behind as the others left despite his friends' eye rolls.

"If you say this," Rojer shrugged, still intensely focused and Scorpius still stood, "There is nothing to pack up, you realize this?"

"Yes I realized, I just erm… noticed there didn't seem to be any chapters about souls."

"There will be soul mention but Rayan teach the basics so the books he choose is basics, soul is more advance. The first fundamental law of magic is 'tamper with the deepest of the mysteries – the source of life, the essence of self – only if prepared for consequence of the most extreme and dangerous' and so soul magic is highly illegal, difficult and is associated with the Dark Magic because of this. The books on it tend to be more specialize."

"Right."

"Why is your interest in this?" Rojer questioned curiously while still working on his card palace.

"I err… my-my friend, his soul was… damaged. That's where I met Rayan, he was… helping," Scorpius stammered out as he was taken by surprise by Rojer's curiosity, something occurred to him as he said the words though as he recalled the meeting.

"…Stuff about souls is taught in Alchemy?"

"It's a branch of it, one not often looked into for obvious reasons but yes," Rayan had answered quite willingly, "A good friend of mine knows more about it then I do though, however my knowledge will hopefully be sufficient enough to help your friend…"

"Right," Rojer nodded, still focused on the cards.

"You know, Rayan mentioned he had a friend who knew more about it then he did," Scorpius prompted and caught Rojer's eyes flickering to him, "That was you, wasn't it?"

"Maybe. I do not know Rayan's mind," Rojer shrugged and leaned back in his chair, finally giving him his attention, "I do know a lot about soul magic though, like you have interest. He did speak to me about this and I advise and your friend lives."

"…Why doesn't your friend just help?" Scorpius questioned and Rayan laughed before it became a cough, quite a viscous one at that.

"My friend is not the most social. He has a brilliant mind and is a brilliant man - at least when you get to know him - but he... he is quite the Timonist. I'd have to be on my death bed for him to step foot outside his home..."

"How is Rayan?" Scorpius asked, worried suddenly that the man was actually on his death bed and Rojer's face registered surprise at the change in subject.

"He is… He is not so well," Rojer admitted, a hint of concern in his usual dry tone, "His wife is with him, she is very worry."

"I hope he'll be okay, he seemed nice and I never got to thank him for saving my friend's life," Scorpius offered truthfully and Rojer nodded, his gaze drifting off sadly. He wanted to ask more but he thought he had taken the conversation the wrong way for that.

"He is a good man, he was happy to help. He is very kind, he always like to help people."

"All the more reason he deserves the thanks," Scorpius pointed out as he turned to leave and Rojer waved his hand, reducing the cards to dust, "I'll see you tomorrow."

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Part 2: The Tryout

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Sure enough, the next day Michael was taken aside to see the Headmaster where he was informed his family had died in a fire. They didn't know any more then that so Michael had nothing more to go off of in figuring out what had really happened to his family, they neither knew nor cared the specifics of the fire or anything useful. Scorpius supposed it could be worse, at least they were alive. Michael still had to endure people offering their condolences and teachers being surprised he was in class, assuring him they understood if he wanted to sit it out. He either had to fake sadness or come across as heartless, he just had to stick to the claim of wanting to keep busy to take his mind off it.

Rojer alone didn't say anything which Michael seemed pleased with as they finished up the elixir they'd making beforehand, something that was originally lead that was used to repair the enamel of teeth since teeth was one of the things lead corresponded to for Saturn. The lesson ended just after that, first week of classes complete. Except for people who had Astronomy but Scorpius wasn't one of them. They started to file out and once again, Scorpius stayed behind with the intention of helping pack up and this time Michael also stayed to ask for an extension on his essay due to his Dyslexia. Knight stopped him though.

"Hey Michael, I um… I wanted to say I heard about your family and I'm really sorry," Knight offered, sounding rather sincere, "I know… I know how hard it is to lose people like that, if you ever want to talk… Hang in there."

"Thanks, Kenelm," Michael nodded in reply and Knight mustered an encouraging smile, clapping on the shoulder before leaving.

"What happen to your family?" Rojer questioned curiously, scowling slightly and folding his arms as Michael approached him.

"They died in a fire a few days ago," Michael lied very convincingly, doing his best to sad.

"No they did not," Rojer stated incredulously and Scorpius was glad he wasn't in Rojer's line of sight because he was sure the alarm showed on his face, Michael managed to look offended.

"How can you even say that?!"

"Because you lie to me just now when you say they died in a fire."

"I did not," Michael insisted determinedly, "The Headmaster told me this morning."

"Maybe he tell you but you know this is not true," Rojer pointed out with a disinterested shrug.

"What makes you so sure he's lying?" Scorpius asked curiously.

"He is not act like someone who just lost all this family, you do not act like your friend just lost all this family and he lies just now," Rojer explained as his gaze shifted to him, "I do well to read people, words are always different but people are the same. You pay good attention to this when you struggle with the words because there is too many language so I pick this up, he is a better liar then you but a liar none of the less."

"You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

"Scorpius!" Michael protested irritably.

"What? He knows," Scorpius pointed out and Michael put a hand to his head, Rojer just shook his.

"I really do not care, it is not affect me if this family pretend death," Rojer stated with a shrug and started clearing away the things, "Just do not tell lies to me."

"Thank you," Scorpius offered gratefully as he started to help Rojer while Michael tossed his essay onto the pile and stalked out without another word, Scorpius felt the need to elaborate, "I'm sure he's thankful too, he's just… just stressed with NEWTs and the full moon on Monday. Since he's a werewolf he… erm… he transforms and it's hard for him, you know? And then he gets this letter from his mother saying that he'll be told they died in a fire but to not worry because they're alive, they might be in danger or something so staying quiet is… good."

"You and your friends have the strangest of lifes. I will not speak of it."

"This is nothing, you should hear about the other years we've been here," Scorpius pointed out with a shake of his head before feeling an explosion of panic in case Rojer did ask him to elaborate.

"Maybe some other of times," Rojer said disinterestedly as he started filling the sink, much to Scorpius' relief. He finished helping him back things away and bade him a good weekend before heading down, surprisingly Michael was waiting for him at the bottom of the tower.

"What the hell, Scorpius?!" Michael snapped at him angrily.

"What?" Scorpius wondered in confusion.

"Why did you tell him?! Being Ashylos' son does not make him trustworthy, what if he gets my family killed for real?!"

"He already knew!" Scorpius protested defensively and truthfully, "And he won't tell anyone. Rayan said he's not very social and I think this is true, he's not going to say anything and he's not a bad guy."

"Scorpius, you don't know anything about him! He could be a very bad guy."

"He's not, I know he's not," Scorpius said with absolute certainty and Michael looked at him as if he'd gone mad, "Ashylos was a hero, and he didn't raise his son to be a bad person. Despite not liking people, he's here out of loyalty to his friend, he saved my life when he could easily have passed me by. I may not know a lot about him but I know that, your secret's safe with him."

"You better hope so," Michael muttered, his anger fading as they headed off for dinner.

Friday faded into a wet weekend, a sheet of rain pouring down outside while they were mostly indoors working on their mountain of homework. He got to his Fifth Year friends for the first time in what felt like all week due to the schedules, they were complaining about the hefty OWL workload.

"Pfft, that's nothing," Albus insisted, "OWLs are a piece of cake, you want to talk about hard? Try NEWT work, now this stuff is killer. Except Astronomy. Still sleeping through that, Koray just has a melodic, sleep-inducing voice."

"If OWLs were a piece of cake, why did you fail to get any Outstandings?" Vern inquired of his cousin and Albus' face went as red as a Weasley's hair, "Even James got some Outstandings."

"He also got several Trolls," Albus protested defensively, "And I came close. I know I could've nailed Potions if that damn written hadn't been unnecessarily complex and difficult."

"Complex and difficult, well this is going to be a fun year," Orous sighed, scratching away at his parchment, "Maybe I can make up for it by being a good Captain. I book the pitch early for Sunday, when have you booked it for?"

"Booked the pitch?" Scorpius wondered in surprise and his friends – minus Maurice, who knew little about and didn't care for Quidditch – all turned to him.

"Captains are supposed to book the pitch for tryouts, remember?"

"You have done that, right?" Albus prompted worriedly, "I can't make the team if you don't make tryouts."

"It kind of slipped my mind," Scorpius admitted and they looked incredulous, "What?! There's a lot going on and I'm not used to this, it's not the end of the world anyway. There's a whole week, plenty of time. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been busy with NEWTs."

"Grozda lives for Quidditch. She's booked the pitch first thing Saturday, she's very serious about these tryouts."

"Sequoia's got it for Saturday afternoon," Abby spoke up cautiously, "I'm going to go watch and be supportive of boyfriend."

"Your boyfriend, who was too slow to get the pitch first thing," Albus pointed out with a smirk to which Abby gave a derisive snort.

"Well of course she gets it first thing, her father is the one who controls the pitch booking."

"I'll get it booked, okay?" Scorpius assured them.

In truth, Scorpius really felt like kicking himself and was rather ashamed. Forgetting to book the pitch was not a good start to his Captainship, he needed to do better. He actually left the Library to speak to Krum, not that his speed mattered since he'd already come last and the only timeslot left was the Sunday afternoon. Krum had no issue pointing out the other three had booked their slots by the time classes started, it had been a weekend they'd arrived in Hogwarts after all and he hadn't been bedridden from the poisoning for that long.

Scorpius spent the majority of his weekend practicing his animagi training, hoping in vain he could somehow master it before the full moon but alas, he did not. He did embarrassingly keep sprouting a tail and have to go to Marigold to reverse his hands being turned into hooves again, he couldn't do the reversal spell when he couldn't hold his wand after all. His failure resulted in Michael attacking himself again, a bad start to the week.

It wasn't as if Hogwarts was terrible, as they slid into the second week it came with the nice routine of classes – where Scorpius and Maurice continued to excel at nonverbal magic where others struggled - and – more unfortunately - homework. After a few lessons, Scorpius had decided that the new Transfiguration was definitely an improvement on Midas. She was kind, helpful and knowledgeable and Scorpius could only be disappointed they hadn't had her the previous year because more would probably be taking the class then, more would have passed Transfiguration at least.

Alchemy was the most prominent subject for Scorpius though, they did have it every weekday and it was a lot to learn. He was both fascinated and guilt-ridden whenever he saw Rojer, he continued staying behind after each class to help with the clean up or just to say hello in the case of Thursday. Rojer had them do the same as the previous week and build a miniature tower out of bits of rock while they worked, his assertion in the first class that he liked to keep his hands busy seemed very true.

It was more the things not happening that had Scorpius feeling glum, he wasn't succeeding at his animagi training, Michael had no more news or idea what was going on with his family, his guilt over killing Rojer's father didn't fade nor did his efforts to be kind to the Alchemist improve his general happiness, no one was stopping the Shadows' conquest of Egypt – despite fierce radio debate on the topic – and while he knew Gray were still fighting, he was no longer privy to what was happening. This was made even more frustrating now that Molly and Latimer were amongst them, they were helping and risking their lives while he was not. Their absence was also noticeable, he missed his girlfriend. And Latimer. And Calderon. There were no more lights in the hallways or random music, no more demented, high-pitched laughter echoing the halls. Scorpius missed that, he missed his cousin.

"I am so looking forward to the tryouts tomorrow," Albus said happily as they were getting to bed Saturday night.

"That's because you don't have to Captain them," Scorpius grumbled, anxious at the prospect of having to judge who was best.

"You're overthinking it," Michael insisted, "You just need to have some confidence, you know how to tell who is better at what."

"You looking forward to them tomorrow?" Albus questioned of Michael who shifted uncomfortably as he lay down.

"I don't know, I was thinking about not going."

"What?!" Scorpius and Albus both burst out in unison, Michael was the star Chaser.

"It's a hefty workload and there's a lot going on, I'm not sure I waste time on something fun and relaxing like Quidditch."

"That's all the more reason to do it," Albus protested and Scorpius actually found himself agreeing, "You need something to take your mind off things, something good. The stress will eat you alive if you don't have anything to ease it and we haven't managed to find you a girlfriend yet so you don't even have that, you have nothing. You need Quidditch."

"If I try out for Quidditch will you stop trying to make me get a girlfriend?" Michael sighed.

"No. But you should still do it."

"Please Michael, don't abandon me now," Scorpius pleaded and Michael sighed again, regardless he nodded before rolling over, "Night."

Scorpius did feel as if he'd be quite lost without his friend, it would be weird enough having Quidditch practices without Molly let alone without Michael too. Besides, he was their star Chaser and he'd rather have people he knew in positions then random strangers as much as possible. Plus, he did genuinely think it was good for Michael to have something to look forward to, he didn't want him slipping back into drinking and in general he'd prefer Michael be happy. Apparently Michael wasn't the only one with doubts.

"What do you mean you're not trying out?" Scorpius protested of Abby the next day at lunch, "You were a Reserve last year, this year you can be a full player with Michael and Al."

"Look," Abby began and looked around as if making sure there was someone absent, Albus had gone to warm up but she lowered her voice anyway, "I only became a Reserve last year to spend time with Al because I liked him but now I have Sequoia, I don't need to do that and I don't really want to play. I don't want to be against my boyfriend."

"He's a Seeker like me, I'm the only one he's really against."

"I'm sorry, Scor," Abby insisted with a shake of her head, she looked sympathetic though, "I'll watch the trials and if you're really short on players then I'll try but otherwise I'm not interested, I can take or leave Quidditch."

Scorpius could only sigh heavily, not looking forward to the tryout at all. He trudged on to the pitch with Michael to get the equipment ready for the trials, he supposed he should be grateful for the lack of rain but couldn't manage it. It was so strange walking onto the pitch and not seeing Molly there. He was greeted with a surprise though as a small girl in Hufflepuff robes tugged as his sleeves, he glanced down to see it was Martha from the train and she gave him a nervous smile.

"Hey Martha, what are you doing here?" Scorpius asked of her in surprise, "You know you can only make the same team as your house?"

"I know," Martha admitted as she fidgeted, "My Dad wasn't big on Quidditch but Auriga is really into it so I'm trying to get a better sense of the game by watching the trials, I watched Hufflepuffs already and I just wondered if I could watch Gryffindor's too?"

"Sure, no problem," Scorpius agreed and gave the girl an encouraging smile, gesturing to the stands for her to sit at with the other spectators.

"Thank you. You're a really nice person, you know that?" Martha offered kindly – not that Scorpius agreed - before walking off with an oddly solemn expression, he went to do a double take but she was already moving away with her back to him.

"Who was that?" Michael wondered curiously.

"Some First Year I met on the train, she lost her Dad in Hogsmeade and doesn't really have anyone else," Scorpius explained, feeling a pang of sympathy for her again, "Some kids were being mean to her so she was just standing in corridors crying, I helped her get a compartment."

"How was she?"

"How was she?" Scorpius repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, how was she? Do you think she could've poisoned you?" Michael elaborated to which Scorpius rolled his eyes, "Don't roll your eyes! I'm serious, people you had contact with on the train are suspects and she's a random stranger. Do you think she might've poisoned you?"

"No, I do not. She's a good kid, she made Hufflepuff for crying out loud."

"What? And anyone in Hufflepuff is automatically good?" Michael scoffed before shaking his head, "I don't think so. Besides, she could've been Imperised or Specters could've been involved."

"I don't think so," Scorpius insisted as people started showing up for the tryout, "She seemed fine not murderous or anything. And seriously, would you people forget the poisoning thing? I'm sure the Shadows have bigger things right now, if they wanted me dead then the Shadow Aurors patrolling the ground have had two weeks of nothing."

"That doesn't mean they've given up."

"Are you going to start now or what?" Albus complained as he walked over to them, Scorpius glanced to the crowd of about twenty was still quite small yet somehow more then he'd expected.

"Sure," Scorpius agreed and took a deep breathe, hoping he didn't screw this up as he tried to speak louder, "Okay so welcome to the Gryffindor Quidditch team trials, anyone who's not a Gryffindor cannot make the team so go to the stands or leave. Everyone else, divide yourself into the positions you want. Chasers go over there, Keepers to their left, Beaters to their right and Seekers just stand there. Since my position is Seeker, I will only be taking a Reserve so bear that in mind anyone who wants a full position."

Scorpius waited as they divided themselves up, glad to see some familiar faces as took in his potential teammates. Lily Potter had been the Reserve Seeker the last few years, she and a gangly girl who looked a Seventh Year were the only ones for Seeker. There were five Beaters including Roxy Weasley who had been a Reserve and finally a full player last year, the others he didn't know. There were four Keepers, the smallest of which was the scrawny Third Year Rufus Rhett who had been the Reserve Keeper for a few years and the others were all older people he didn't know. The most was six for Chasers, including Albus and Michael, the only other one he recognized was the young, mousy haired Creevey kid who was a Second Year.

"Alright, let's start with the Seekers since there's not a lot and it's just a Reserve position. I'll release the Snitch, whoever catches it first gets the spot," Scorpius decided since there was the least of them and he didn't think it would take long, this proved to be quite true. Lily caught it first by miles within a few minutes, "Alright, Lily Potter is the Reserve Seeker. Good try though, feel free to try out for something else."

"Okay," the girl nodded and went to go stand with the Chasers, Albus whispered something to Michael as she passed which was likely a comment on her potential for being a girlfriend due to the scowl Michael gave him.

"Next up we'll do some basic flying exercises since all of you will need that then we'll specialize so everyone up in the air," Scorpius commanded them and they actually did it, he didn't know why this surprised him, "Lily, since you're already in can you help me with this equipment stuff?"

"Sure," Lily agreed readily, "What do you need?"

"Just release the Bludgers when I say so."

"Got it, Captain."

"Thank you," Scorpius offered as he took the skies with the assorted students, "Now I want you to just do laps of the pitch, in a minute we'll release the Bludgers and test your dodging ability."

The students obediently started doing laps just like he'd said to do, was it really that easy to get people to do what you say? It was quite strange. And oddly, Scorpius found that he kind of liked being obeyed. He paid attention to the students' flying ability to see how they did normally for a few minutes, having them go faster and slower at random to test their speed before getting Lily to release the Bludgers to see them dodge. The Creevey kid dropped out, Calum or Colin Scorpius thought his first name was due to his poor flying and struggle to dodge. He went to go watch from the stands though, Scorpius spared a glance to the spectators and looked for Martha briefly. She was watching him and quickly averted her eyes, he turned back to the potential fliers. Some were better than others but it would depend on their skills too, he was somewhat open to working on their flying like Albus.

"Alright, that's enough. Land and go back into your groupings," Scorpius decided and the group landed, he gestured for the Beaters to come over and Lily pre-emptively started handing out the bats to them which he muttered a quick thank you for, "Beaters, get back on your brooms because I'm going to conjure some targets and I want you to try hit them. I'll be taking into account accuracy, strength and speed."

The Beaters complied and shot into the air while Scorpius whipped out his wand, feeling quite proud of being able to conjure targets thanks to Wyatt's teaching. He kept them stationary at first, immediately dismissing one of the five due to his struggle to bat and balance on his broom at the same time making each shot weak and clumsy. He then started making the targets move thanks to Varanian's training for them to try hit moving targets, gauging the remaining four contenders. He dismissed another who was faster but for a poorer swing and absurd inaccuracy when trying – and failing - to hit any of the moving targets, that left Roxy and two boys. Roxy's hits weren't as powerful as the other two but it wasn't bad she was fast and with impeccable accuracy from her prior experience, he decided to but her back and counter her with a more forceful hitter which the other two both were quite evenly. It was a close call, one was faster but less accurate and one was slower but more accurate. He ultimately decided on the faster, he thought accuracy was easier to improve on with practice and overall he thought the boy was the better flier of the two.

"Okay that's enough," Scorpius spoke up and had them land, "I've decided to take on Roxy Weasley and erm… you."

"You don't know my name?" the very burly and very tall boy he'd chosen wondered incredulously, "I'm in your year!"

"I'm sorry, I'm bad at names," Scorpius offered lamely and somewhat truthfully, outside of his room in the dormitory and friends he didn't pay much attention, "Who are you?"

"Kemen Arkaitz."

"Well, welcome to the team Kemen Arkaitz," Scorpius congratulated him, forcing a smile and hoping this made up for not knowing it, "Was a close call though so well done to the rest of you and feel free to try out for another position. Next we'll be doing Chasers and Keepers so get back up into the air. Chasers will try to score at the Keepers."

One of the Beaters moved over to the Chasers, making the number seven once again while the other two left in defeat. It was only after that that Scorpius realized he could've and should've picked someone to be a Reserve, he supposed it wasn't the end of the world and he could focus more on just improving those he had, and it was less people to manage as well. He had the Keepers alternate in who was defending the hoops and trying to defend from shots the Chasers took turns in making, it immediately became clear who the new Keeper was. Rufus had always been the small, quiet little boy in the background who helped carry equipment but Molly had mentioned training him up and training him up she had. Rufus blocked aside almost every shot, only really struggling against the notoriously good Michael but even then he managed to save them. The good outweighed it though, he was fast and focused and none of the other Keepers came remotely close to being as good as him.

"Rufus Rhett is our new Keeper," Scorpius announced while still in the ear, earning a somewhat smug grin from Rufus, "The rest of you good try but no, feel free to try Chaser or better luck next year."

Two of the Keepers landed and left, throwing disgusted looks at Rufus as if angered to lose to the younger year. The last failed Keeper joined the opposing side and one Chaser who constantly fumbled the ball to throw at all dropped out, meaning they stayed still with seven Chasers. Scorpius had them try to score against Rufus a bit more, this time having his new Beaters hit Bludgers at them to try see how they'd score under pressure. He then kept grouping them into three, having them work on passing to get up to the goal before scoring and seeing how they did with passing, teamwork and generally testing the dynamics. He then had three more try to stop them and get the Quaffle to the other side instead, testing their ability to tackle as well as still teamwork since what was very important with Chasers especially.

Michael was in hands down, he was still like a shot out of a canon and supreme at scoring. The Seeker original was out, she was a fairly poor flier and bad at all things Chaser. The Beater original was also out, his inaccuracy was just as bad with a Quaffle and one time even managed to hit Albus in the head with it despite the fact Albus was several feet away from who he was supposed to pass to. The only other girl Chaser was also out, she hogged the Quaffle too much – seeming unwilling to pass – and avoided tackling. This just left Albus, the failed Keeper and the Chaser to choose from. Albus was only mediocre at flying, putting the other two ahead but Albus was excellent at passing and decent at getting the Quaffle, he was also good at keeping up with Michael which was something the Keeper especially struggled with.

Latimer had been kind of the strongest, he was good at getting the Quaffle and could also score if need be then Michael had kind of been the fastest, he shot through the field like a ping pong ball and scored like a demon then Albus was in the middle, he was the one who passed between them and could tackle if need be. That dynamic had worked which was why he ultimately decided to go with Michael, Albus and the last Chaser. Scorpius resisted the urge to smile to himself, being the Captain wasn't actually that bad after all and now he had a team.

"Alright, I've made my decision so let's all land," Scorpius announced and everyone came to the ground, "Another close call and good flying out there everyone but ultimately, I've decided to go with Michael Sanford, Albus Potter and err… you."

"Oh thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you Scor!" Albus burst out immediately before he could learn the kid's name, Albus flung his arms around him and hugging him, "You're the greatest friend I ever had, I promise I won't let you down. I'll do everything in my power to be the best Chaser I can be, I swear it."

"I know it," Scorpius offered and patting his friend on the back, thankfully Albus pulled away before crushing all of his ribs. He approached his new Chaser, a short teen who looked like a Fifth Year. He had oak brown hair that flopped to one side which he suspected was at least partially to try hide a scar beside his right eyebrow, "So what's your name?"

"Montague Stanton, I'm in Fifth Year," the boy introduced himself and confirmed Scorpius' suspicions, he looked quite serious

"Well welcome to the team new members and old welcome back, this is my first time as Captains and this is a good team so let's… make this a good year for Gryffindor," Scorpius offered lamely and the group nodded collectively – Rufus gave a delighted whoop - before dispersing minus Michael.

"So Roxy, Lily, do you have any single lady friends who might be interested in Michael by any chance?" Albus asked of his cousin and sister as he walked off with them while Scorpius sighed heavily.

"I thought you did good," Michael assured him.

"I was okay on the Quidditch choosing but I'm not great at the speaking to them," Scorpius pointed out seriously as they started packing up the equipment, the spectators starting to disperse although not Martha that he could see. Had she left early? He supposed it was quite possible or maybe she'd just needed to use the little girl's room or something, "I hope they don't expect pre-game speeches because I have a feeling I will suck at those."

"I guess we'll see."

---

Part 3: Temptation

---

December 2nd 1980 was the date Xerxes Hektor Panagiotis Seneca was born, barely seven months after the marriage of his parents, Hektor and Hecate. They were both from noble pure-blood families in Greece, it was a respectable match. Hecate was noted to be a beauty with milky white skin, fiery red hair and violently violet eyes which was a rarity in Greece. Hektor was more plain, olive-skinned and stocky yet thin with a square jaw, dark eyes and dusty brown hair. Baby Xerxes was thought to take very strongly after his mother, a square jaw being the most he had in common with his father.

The family lived in a villa in the Greek countryside, Hektor Flooed daily to Athens where he was an up-and-comer in the Greek Ministry. Hecate stayed at home with their son, leaving his care and housework to servants while she did as she pleased. Xerxes was a happy child of an unhappy union, Hektor often putting silencing charms on his room so he would not hear his parents screaming at each other. The more free spirited Hecate feeling bored, neglected and accusing Hektor of being controlling while the more traditional Hektor felt she was lazy, unappreciative and didn't always behave the way a respectable pure-blooded wife was supposed to. Xerxes loved his mother over his busy father, despite how frequently she would leave him alone with servants to spend time with strange men. It wasn't until a month after he turned five that he saw her packing suitcases like they did for vacation.

"Are we going on holiday, Mommy?" Xerxes asked of her curiously and she gave him a sickly sweet smile.

"I'm going on holiday for a while, you have to stay here," Hecate told him gently while one of her male friends started carrying out the suitcases for her, "You know, where there are servants to take care of you."

"But I want to come. Don't you want me to come, Mommy? Don't you love me?" Xerxes questioned fearfully, upset at the thought of her leaving without him. Hecate caressed his cheek loving before sighing and putting her hands on his shoulders.

"Of course I love you, Mommy loves you very much," Hecate assured him seriously, "But… Mommy just loves herself more… And that man's ass. But I'll see you again sometime… You'll understand when you're older."

On that note, she kissed him on the forehead and walked out of his life. Xerxes didn't quite understand the permanency of her vacation at first but Hektor did, he was furious that his wife cheated and consumed with rage that she left, the humiliation it brought to the Seneca name. He tried not to be angry at his son but he couldn't help it and resented him as he was tainted by his mother's blood, Xerxes looked so much like her and he couldn't look at him without the sting of betrayal angering him. He threw Xerxes to his tutors and actively avoided spending time with him, focusing on his work at the Ministry and trying to move past it. He got them divorced since she'd left and eventually started courting another, not wanting the adulterer's son to be the sole Seneca heir. Two years after Hecate left, he married again to another pure-blood named Xanthe and had two children with her. His daughter, Nausicca, was born the following year and a son, Panthor, two years after that.

Unlike Xerxes, the new children were doted on by both parents. The most time Xerxes spent with his father was meals, where Hektor would sit on the opposite side of the huge eight seated table. Xerxes couldn't even spend time with his half-siblings, the eight and ten year age gap made it hard to be able to connect, play or communicate with them. He desperately craved his father's attention, his mother remained absent – and he came to share his father's anger at being left by her - and Xanthe had no time for her stepson. His extended family was no better, wanting to forget about Hektor's failed first marriage and the result of it and he was often confined to his room during family gatherings. His grandfather alone always made time for him, unfortunately this put him at odds with Hektor so their time together was more infrequent then Xerxes would've liked. He developed an interest in girls quite early and had gone through multiple crushes before even starting school.

---

Crystal Sanford was having a rough time of things, although when was that not the case? John had been kind enough to let them stay with him, only making her feel even guiltier for imposing on him after he'd already saved her children's lives and been injured in the process. She was very torn between wanting to just stay home with her poor, traumatized children who she was afraid to let out of her sight or try to get a job because she needed money. She hadn't thought to take any of the bank before pretending to be dead, not that she'd had much to take because money was consistently tight. It was also made difficult by the fact she had no car now and John lived far from places, meaning she needed him to take her anywhere.

She couldn't get a job in the wizarding world in case a Shadow saw her and in the muggle world she couldn't get anything official or it would be known she was still alive. If she couldn't get a job, she couldn't money and unfortunately money was needed for things like rent, a car, the cost of living in general. She didn't know what she was going to do about Michael either. She wasn't doing any better with her children, she had similar problems with enrolling them in a new school so they were just home. Bertie clung to her constantly as if terrified if he left her site then he'd never see her again, he'd clammed right up once more and had started suffering night terrors again. Ivy was worse off, she actually had lost two of her fingers which John had treated but he was incapable of growing them back. She was a clingy too but less so then Bertie, she'd taken a liking to John as well and tended to follow him around as well. Both of them were jumpy, as was Crystal herself.

Crystal lived in perpetual fear of the Shadows returning for her children, she lay awake at night and when if she eventually did slip into sleep then she woke frequently drenched in cold sweat and checked to make sure her children were alright at random. During the day she always kept one eye over her shoulder, every sound sending her mind spiraling into anxiety. She felt safer with John even though his injuries seemed to be taking their toll, he was sluggish and weak, needing to rest quite a bit. As a result, Crystal had offered to help him out as it felt like the least she could and he'd eventually, reluctantly agreed. He'd shown her how to take care of the animals and tend to his garden, he'd set the kids up with chores caring for it as well to help keep them busy or homeschooled them while she was out with the animals since it wasn't as energy consuming as being on his feet.

"You already have a glass of water, Ivy, come on now," John's voice drifted through the silent night while Crystal was trying to sleep or maybe she had been asleep, she wasn't sure these days.

At any rate she rose and pulled herself out of the uncomfortable double bed John had told her she could use, walking by the boy's room and reaching the girl's room where the voices were coming from. She stopped in front of the open door and leaned against the frame, John was tucking Ivy back into bed with his wand lit up on the bedside table.

"Your hand is fine," John was assuring her, sparing a glance for it before finishing with the blankets where Ivy was nestled in nice and cozy but she looked anxious. He sat on the bed beside her and spoke in a gentle tone, "Now come on, what's really bothering you? Why do you keep wandering downstairs in the middle of the night?"

"Because I erm…" Ivy started to answer but halted to bite her lip nervously, "Because there's light down there and I… I like it."

"There's no shame in being afraid of the dark, not after what happened to you."

"Being scared of the dark is for babies."

"Not for wizards," John offered as he retrieved a jar from under the bed, "There's even a special spell for it."

"Really?" Ivy wondered hopefully as John flicked his wand at the jar, some blue flames appeared inside it.

"Really," John confirmed as he screwed the lid back on and put it on the bedside, he gestured to it, "You see, this is magical fire. Specially designed to be blue so it's easier on the eyes to sleep with but still there so you won't be in the dark. Okay?"

Ivy's blue eyes looked only a brighter shade in the light of the flames as they flickered to it and apparently decided it was satisfying, she nodded and gave him a grateful smile in reply. He made to move but was stopped as she threw her arms around him in a hug, John froze in shock before patting her back and tucking her in yet again. He picked up his wand to leave, Ivy's eyes already closed. John's own oddly watery cerulean eyes widened when he saw her but he didn't say anything until he was out, they move unanimously made the decision to move away and head downstairs where they didn't have the risk of waking her.

---

He was accepted at the Mount Olympos Wizarding School and started aged twelve, which was how it was in Greece. There were eight initial subjects and a language choice of English or Ancient Greek, Xerxes was forced to take the latter as English was something he'd been tutored in at home. Xerxes loved school, he was put in Zeus House – which was naturally the best in Xerxes' opinion – like his father before him and just loved it. He found it great to be learning magic, making friends and away from Hektor, he didn't feel neglected and unwanted there. It all came secondary to girls though, his love life was the important focus of his actual life and he started dating as soon as he could get a pretty girl to say yes. He found it oddly difficult though, dating someone didn't stop him becoming attracted to other girls and he didn't see why you were supposed to be limited to one. This caused him some issues with 'cheating' – which he objected to, it wasn't like they were married then it would be – but he kept at it, after losing his virginity in his Second Year he was only more interested.

In Third Year, Flying became replaced by your language and you chose two to four optional subjects. Since he already knew English, he chose Latin because he figured it would be easy and Muggle Studies because he didn't care about blood when it came to women and learning about muggles would widen his dating pool. He wanted easy subjects, the less time he had to spend on classes the more time he could spend with girls. He'd already decided on his career anyway, he was going to be an artist, art was something he enjoyed and tutored in and magical was an option for Fifth and Sixth Years so he could learn it. He enjoyed his Third and Fourth Years even more then he had his first two years, wondering how he'd survived without sex. He breezed through his KIU exams and was quite pleased with his results, he'd passed all the subjects he'd wanted to take or needed for the final two years at least. Hektor had other ideas.

"What the hell is this, Xerxes?!" Hektor yelled at him angrily as he stormed into the room, jabbing at the paper with his exam results and completely disrupting Xerxes' make out session with… Fia? Hektor grabbed her and shoved her out the door much to Xerxes' irritation, "Go back home to your family or I'll drag you home myself, you filthy slut!"

"I passed all the subjects I needed or wanted," Xerxes pointed out defensively and somewhat angrily, now his father decided to care? "I even got the highest grade for Muggle Studies."

"I don't care what you got for Muggle Studies! This is not good enough, you failed three subjects and three you passed aren't high enough grades to continue them anyway!"

"I don't want to take those wants though so it doesn't matter. I'm taking Muggle Studies, Charms, Magical Arts and Latin."

"No!" Hektor barked angrily.

"What do you mean 'no'?!" Xerxes demanded irritably, "It's what I want."

"You're a child, it doesn't matter what you want! You're my son and you're going to go back to repeat the year, take the exams again and get good enough results for a full roster for a complete magical education for a good job in the Ministry!"

"Dad, no! I don't want to do the year again!" Xerxes protested furiously, scrambling up, "It's my exams, my life and my choice! I'm fine with my results, I'm not going to go back and do the year again like a moron while all my friends move on! I can do what I want!"

"It doesn't matter what you want, only what I want!" Hektor screamed as he slapped him across the face, Xerxes was so stunned that he could only gape, "I'm your Father and you'll do as what I say. You're repeating the year and if you don't get better grades then you can do it again, try using your brain not your dick this time!"

The rest of the summer, Hektor hired a tutor to reach him Legilimency and Occlumency so he'd have a special skill to help make up for the fact he'd had an extra year in school. He hated it, it was the most uncomfortable process for the stupidest skill. Xerxes had to repeat his Fourth Year. He'd never felt more humiliated in his whole life, some of his friends had even done worse than him but they still moved on to the next year. He had to endure sitting in the classes with the younger year, listening to them snickering and mocking his intelligence. He felt like everyone was mocking him, he couldn't believe his father had done this to him. It was the most miserable year of his life, he had to focus on his studies – much of which he'd already done – for fear of repeating the year again. This time, he passed every subject and his father 'helped' him pick his subjects for the final years.

He was forced to not take Magical Arts and the languages like he'd wanted, he managed to convince his father Muggle Studies was more useful then Astronomy but that was all and he still hadn't wanted the maximum amount of subjects because it was a hefty workload. He also still was forced to keep up his Legilimency and Occlumency training over the summer, it was of little consolation that he was apparently good at it. Fifth Year was exhausting with so many subjects but his father only gave him 'permission' to drop the two subjects he most wanted to learn so he didn't, he was looking forward to the summer break more than anything. Apart from still learning Legilimency and Occlumency, however he finally started to see the value in it. He wasn't just good, he was great and came to realize he'd actually surpassed his teacher in terms of skill. He was so good he could actually read minds – if they didn't know the skills – without the other person noticing, you just needed to be delicate and gentle.

---

"I'm sorry if that was out of line, she kept wandering downstairs," John offered immediately when they were back in the front room, he waved his wand and they were left with just the crackling flames in the fireplace, "Considering when I found her she was being kept in a windowless room with no light, it seemed like the right thing to do."

"No, I… I approve," Crystal assured him and he relaxed only slightly, his nervousness returning to his usual stoic expression and she wrapped her arms around herself as she became embarrassingly and shamefully aware she was only in her nightgown while he was still dressed. She hoped she didn't blush, "You were good with her. Thank you."

"Glad you approve," John nodded and she jumped nervously and stupidly at the sound of an owl hooting outside, she looked back to him where he was still watching her with his jagged wound-scar still livid and fresh on sickly, waxy flesh which made her feel a pang of guilt.

"I'm really sorry about that, you know?"

"I know and it's fine, I have come to accept my beauty pageant days are over," John pointed out jokingly and she smiled as he started walking over to the chair to sit.

"I'm sure your parents were proud."

"They would've been," John scoffed, sounding serious again, "I was supposed to be a girl."

"You were?" Crystal wondered in surprise and he nodded.

"They already had two sons, they wanted a girl and expected a girl. They already had a name picked out - Christabelle I was supposed to be called – and the nursery had all been done up in pink frills, dolls and little dresses had been bought. But no, I had to go and have a penis," John recounted and Crystal couldn't help but laugh, it felt like a long time since she'd laughed and even John had the corners of his mouth curl upwards in the weakest of smiles. It was the closest she'd seen him get to a smile, it quickly faded as he added almost to himself, "And my Mother never forgave me for it, Father refused to have more children lest we become like the Weasleys. She acted like we'd conspired to rob her of a daughter."

"I'm sorry," Crystal offered sympathetically as John rubbed his wounded side, "My Dad died when my Mum was pregnant with me and my Mum died giving birth to me, neither of them even got to see me before they died and I had a defective heart, I could've died too. I was never really bothered by gender, long as they're okay."

"I'm sorry," John told her softly and she nodded in understanding as they drifted into quiet, "We should get some rest. Goodnight, Bambi."

"Goodnight, Christabelle," Crystal stated as she turned on her heel to leave, she disliked being called that. She got halfway up the stairs before working up the courage to ask him about it, "Why do you always call me Bambi?"

"Because you're so skittish, you know like a deer," John answered as she returned, he'd started unbuttoning his shirt and didn't notice her return, "You need to have more confidence in yourself."

She was torn between coughing to loudly announce her presence or simply moving back upstairs to give him some privacy, she froze though as she caught a glimpse of his chest. He wasn't fat like Bob or thin like Robin, he wasn't as muscular as Jack either but just nicely toned which was almost very attractive but he had an assortment of scars marring his body along with his fresh wounds he'd gotten saving her kids. Most noticeably and deeply disturbing was the wound he'd got on his side, it looked raw and black, blotchy almost like a river of mold and oozing dark… blood? John looked in pain, his eyes closed and his head lolled as if he was about to collapse. She rushed over to help him and steadied him, his eyes shot back open and he gripped the table for support.

"The… The wound looks bad," Crystal pointed out stupidly, unsure of what to say.

That's useful, you dumb whore! Bob's voice barked at her inside her mind, He has eyes. And it's his body, of course he knows its bad you stupid bitch

"I know. It's a curse wound, a nasty curse. It keeps getting worse, festering. Dark Magic," John told her as he stood, she hovered by him, "I need to lie down."

"Should… Should you go to St Mungo's?" Crystal asked less stupidly as John lay back on the couch but he shook his head.

Why didn't you say that in the first place?! You're so god dammed stupid!

"They won't see me. They don't treat people with the Dark Mark."

"Is it… I mean, it's not fatal… right?"

"Without treatment, it is. It's not just the wound that festers you see, it spreads and eats you alive inside," John explained, letting his eyes close while Crystal felt panic shoot through her, "It's a slow and painful way to die, even slower since I killed whichever one of the Shadows was the caster. Weeks at least, months at most."

"Do you know how to treat it?" Crystal questioned worriedly and John stared into her eyes for the longest moment as if debating the answer, "John?"

"No. No idea."

---

Xerxes quickly realized how fantastic a tool this was, if you knew what people were thinking or liked or disliked then it was easy to manipulating them. It was also perfect for seducing women. Partly out of morbid curiosity to see if he could and a desire to get back at his father, he tried using it seducing Xanthe his stepmother. He shocked and pleased to succeed, she felt ignored by his father and surprisingly lonely. Unfortunately, his father knew the skills so Xerxes couldn't be able to get inside his head to see what he really thought. He kept it from Hektor despite initially planning on revealing it, Xanthe's fear of his reaction making him think of his younger siblings. He may not be close to them but they were still his family, he didn't really want to screw up their relationship with their parents the way Xerxes' had been ruined by Hecate. He started his sixth and final year, his newfound skills really helped him speed up the dating process despite the still heavy workload and he could cheat answers off others.

He graduated with the top grades in his year because of this, they did nothing to stop Legilimency being used on other students. He didn't think they thought a student were capable of doing it, let alone without a wand or incantation. Xerxes was just that good. Forget good, he was great, he was downright brilliant and awesome. Hektor gave nothing beyond a grunt of approval at his results and Xerxes decided just screw his parents, his so-called mother had left and his father too bitter to recognize how fantastic a son he had. His father did take more interest in them, trying to get him a job in the Ministry by throwing parties and introducing him to these high-ranking officials while pointing out his high grades. Xerxes even met the Minister, however he was more interested in the man's wife. His poor lonely wife, starved of affection and attention. Forget art, seduction was the only art he cared about. She wasn't especially attractive and was pushing sixty but nonetheless, she was probably the most powerful woman in Greece and power was sexy. He began an affair with her.

This would prove to be a mistake for Xerxes though, for a few months he did enjoy her company until her husband came home early from a function and caught them. Xerxes tried to stay hidden under the covers and fled while he was busy yelling at his wife, he thought he'd gotten away with it too as nothing eventful happened the rest of the night. The next day he carried on as usual, relaxing and his good spirits returning as a maid he was also sleeping with was working that day. He'd just started snogging out her when she was yanked off him, Xerxes blinked in surprise to see Hektor pushing her towards the door.

"Get to work or you're fired! I'm paying you to clean not screw my son!" Hektor yelled at her and she scuttled away, Xerxes resisted the urge to roll his eyes as his father's incredibly poor timing but the older man was already rounding on him, "And you! The Minister's wife, Xerxes?! Really?!"

"How… How do you know about that?" Xerxes questioned nervously as his father stared him down stoically, shaking with pent up rage.

"How do you think I know?! The Minister told me this morning! It's a scandal, an outrage, do you have any idea how badly this reflects on me?! How badly this reflects on our family?! My job is in jeopardy and forget about a good job for you now, the Snitch is lost! You're just like your Mother! A selfish slut who can't keep his pants on, how hard is that?! What is wrong with you?! You're a disgrace to the Seneca name, a disgrace to pure-bloods, a disgrace to wizards in general! You disgust me!"

"I disgust you?! You disgust me!" Xerxes spat back angrily at the outburst, "How can you accuse me of being selfish when you never think of anyone but yourself?! You never take into account how anyone aside from you feels because you don't care! You don't care about anyone but yourself! You don't care about me and you never have!"

"Don't try to turn this on me, you're the one who did something wrong! Have some shame, have some dignity!"

"I'm not the one married," Xerxes scoffed defensively and truthfully, finding himself stunned when his father slapped him across the face for the second time in his life.

"Get out, Xerxes, I'm done with you," Hektor said quietly.

"What do you mean, you're done with me?"

"I'm done with you. I'm done trying to help you, I'm done trying to protect you, I'm done trying to raise you. Just get out. Get out of this house and get out of our lives, I'm just done with you."

"You can't be serious," Xerxes protested despite the fact Hektor looked very serious, then again he always did.

"Walk out right now or I'll make you walk out!" Hektor yelled, jabbing a finger angrily at the door while Xerxes continued trying to process what was happening.

"C-Can't I pack first?"

"NO!" Hektor barked and went to draw his wand, Xerxes fled and his father slammed the front door on his heels.

Xerxes stood there in shock. It was raining too, the skies pouring down on him as he just stood there. He stared at the door, waiting for it to open and his father to let him back in because surely he couldn't be serious. His father wouldn't go this far, surely. But it continued to rain and he continued to stand there like an idiot, he used a charm to keep the rain off him but the door didn't open. Was Hektor waiting for an apology? Was that it? He heaved a heavy sigh and went back over to the door, he knocked. And knocked. And knocked but still got no answer, was he just supposed to apologize though the door?

"I'm sorry!" Xerxes yelled at the wood, feeling rather foolish, "I'm sorry, okay!? Would you just let me back inside now?! I'm sorry!"

He was about to yell again when the door opened, it wasn't his father though but Xanthe. She had some travel bags with her, for a stupid second he wondered if she was leaving Hektor like Hecate had but instead she started handing the bags to him.

"Hektor is serious about kicking you out, he's just gone to work right now so I've packed your things and given you as much gold we have to hand," Xanthe told him and he could only gape, still trying to believe this, "Don't stay in Greece, the Minister is a powerful and angry man. You can't stay here and you can't come back here."

"What… What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go?" Xerxes wondered of her fearfully and desperately, "This is my home."

"Go to England," Xanthe offered after a moment of thought as she caressed his cheek tenderly and pressed a last kiss to his lips, "That's where your Mother went, she might be able to help you. If not then I don't know but you're smart, I'm sure you'll think of something. Be careful."

---

Part 4: Without Wings

---

Xerxes felt utterly and hopelessly lost, he didn't want to go to a far off country he'd never been to before where they spoke a language he hadn't used since he was twelve. England was cold and wet, he didn't even have that much money with him and he didn't have any servants. How did people do things without servants? He didn't know how to cook or clean, he was a pure-blood for crying out loud. He didn't even want to find his mother, Hecate had made it perfectly clear where her priorities were. How did you even go about finding people? Why was this even happening to him? He hadn't done anything wrong. How could his father do this to him? It was worse than forcing him to repeat a year, Hektor had actually managed to top it. He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to his half-siblings or his grandfather or friends.

He took an immediate dislike to England, it was dreary and dull and the language sounded stupid. He missed his own country, Greece was such a beautiful place. He rented a room in the Leaky Cauldron for the time being while he got his bearings, it also meant food was easy to come by since he could get it there and the cleaning service took care of that. He spent a good deal of time in the pub, brushing up on his rusty English and trying to learn as much as possible. Legilimency came in handy, he frequently used it to win at card games and for seducing women, at least England did have women because he didn't think he'd survive without them. He had no luck finding his mother, no one seemed to have heard of her although it was suggested she may simply be in hiding after some wizarding war he'd heard of vaguely that had ended a few years ago.

For a few months things were going okay, he didn't intend to live in the Leaky Cauldron forever but he was feeling a bit more secure in the country finally and more confident. But also saddened as he reached his twentieth birthday, he got nothing. No gifts, no cards, not even a note. Had his family just forgotten he existed completely? Did they really not care at all? Was there really no one who cared about him? It wasn't like he was a bad person, he'd never been violent or cruel. He was a good person. His parents were the bad ones, they'd turned their backs on him for their own selfish reasons. They were terrible parents, they were the worst. If he ever had kids then he'd never turn his back on them, no matter what he would help them because that was what parents were supposed to do.

He didn't realize he'd become a father that night, he just poured alcohol into the vacant hole his parents had left and talked about his sorrows to some woman. Senna or Sienna or Sierra or Charlotte… He didn't care what her name was, she was tall and beautiful though with dark hair and coal colored eyes. He was so drunk he didn't remember much of the – for once, not Legilimency influenced - conversation, he didn't even remember the words of the Contraceptive Spell he'd been supposed to cast. He didn't give her anymore thought then he had to any other of his women, not until she showed up in his room after the New Year had started. An unhappy new year as he was sent word of his grandfather's death, he was also told the funeral was over so he shouldn't worry about attending. He was feeling pretty down until he returned to his room after supper, the woman was sitting right there.

"Do you know who I am?" the woman questioned of him, looking rather unimpressed.

"I think we had sex once," Xerxes half-guessed and tried to pry into her mind, only to find himself locked out. He felt his heartbeat start to quicken in panic, she was an Occlumens.

"We did and now I'm pregnant with your child," the woman nodded vaguely, looking more interested now while Xerxes jumped so high in shock his head hit the ceiling, "That was an impressive attempt at Legilimency, you didn't use a wand or verbal spell, your eye contact wasn't even obvious."

"I'm good at Legilimency," Xerxes brushed it off, wondering how in the world she could give a damn about that at a time like this, "Did you say that you're-"

"You're going to be a Father, congratulations. It's not really important though, I was only really telling you as a curtesy. Do you know Occlumency too?"

"Of course I know Occlumency!" Xerxes snapped irritably, thinking it was hardly relevant, "I'm going to be a Father, who cares about Occlumency or Legilimency?!"

"You don't have to do anything about the child," the woman waved it off dismissively while Xerxes felt a bubble of excitement brewing after he said the words from his own lips, he was going to be a Dad, he was going to have a child. He was so proud and ecstatic, "Have you ever considered teaching Legilimency and Occlumency? My employer has plans to-"

"I don't care about that, I care about my child," Xerxes blurted out and sat with her, she looked quite taken surprised by his enthusiasm, "Is it a girl or a boy? Or twins? Or more? Have you thought of names? How long do I have to wait until it's born? And if you haven't thought of names can I suggest Viola for a girl, it is my absolute favorite girl's name and Stefanos for a boy, after a grandfather I'm particularly fond of who just died. I don't remember your name but whatever it is, I'd like to suggest Seneca is a better last name choice because it sounds way better than anything English I've heard and I am a pureblood, Seneca is a well-respected pureblood back in Greece. I-"

"Xerxes, shut up," the woman interrupted calmly, looking bored again as she stood, "My name is Asenneth Hunter, I usually go by Senna. My child will be a Hunter but I'll take your first name suggestions under advisement, if you want to be involved then fine. Think about what I said about teaching, I'll be in touch."

---

Now that Scorpius had a team, he also had to go through the process of training them. He'd always taken for granted just how easy it was to turn up to practices and do what Molly said, now he was the one doing it. He had to arrange the practices, he had to make sure the times he picked fit in with everyone on the team's schedules and then he had to make sure the pitch had not already been booked on those times. It was really quite tedious and then there were the practices themselves, instead of his own training he had to instead direct everyone else and work on their skills. He wasn't as in depth as Molly but he did take to keeping notes, he didn't have an infinite amount of space in his mind to dedicate to Quidditch.

He wrote to Molly, finding it quite strange to do so when he was so used to her being at Quidditch practices without her made him miss her even more. He felt more like a Captain though and tried out the Prefect's bathroom he was now entitled to use, it was nice there he would admit. He also hadn't paid much attention before to the spectators for practices, if there was any then it wasn't a lot of people but this time he noticed because Martha would always come down afterwards to help him pack the equipment away along with Michael. She didn't come to every practice but she came to a lot, she was a good kid, somewhat shy but curious about Quidditch and what it was like in NEWT classes.

"You don't think it's a little suspicious?" Michael complained after they split up from Martha to head to Gryffindor Tower to change before dinner, "She just happens to meet you on the train where you were poisoned then she just happens to take an interest in watching the Quidditch practices?"

"Everyone was on the train and so what if she likes watching?" Scorpius countered, fed up of his friends bringing the poisoning up, "It's not strange for a magical child to like Quidditch."

"Why not watch her own house practices then?"

"Probably because she knows me," Scorpius insisted and Michael rolled his eyes in exasperation, "Besides, if she was the poisoner and is going to poison me then what is taking her so long? We've had two full weeks of Quidditch practices, I've seen a lot of her and I'm perfectly fine. If you're right then she didn't wait on the train, what's stopping her now?"

"I don't know, maybe she needs more potion?"

"Or maybe she's just innocent and you're just paranoid. "

"Have you asked Varanian what he thinks of the attempt on your life?" Michael questioned desperately.

"Yes and he hasn't replied yet," Scorpius lied, he didn't think it was worth bothering Varanian about and if he agreed with his friends then he'd never hear the end of it so he hadn't. It could wait until the Christmas break, "So could you just drop it?"

Michael did so but Scorpius wasn't sure he was convinced, despite how he continued to not die even after being around her. September settled into being a pretty uneventful month and drifted into a drizzly October, classwork – and homework - continued and other people were improving with nonverbal. Not all though, Albus seemed to really struggle with it. Scorpius didn't mind, he liked to keep busy because when he wasn't his mind was consumed by guilt about Ashylos' death and frustrated at his inability to do anything of use in the war still raging now in the sands of Egypt, he wanted to do more. Rojer continued to teach Alchemy, Rayan still unwell as far as Scorpius knew and Scorpius would still always stay behind to speak to him as he packed up. No major developments on soul but Rojer had reiterated some things he already knew.

The second week of October was the next full moon and with it increased Scorpius' frequency of practicing his animagi training, desperate to get it so he could stay with Michael. He swore he was getting closer, he could feel it, he could feel his body trying to compress itself into the new creature. It didn't look like he was going to make it though, the night of the full moon Michael was already in the Hospital Wing – probably already transformed – while Scorpius was in his dormitory practicing. He sat cross-legged on his bed with his eyes closed and the drapes pulled closed, Albus was the only one still awake though.

"So where do you think I should Grozda for our date in Hogsmeade?" Albus was questioning while scarfing down fudge, frustratingly distracting him from his training although Scorpius felt his teeth turning to his fangs. He could do more when he was more focused, teeth were nothing.

"I don't know," Scorpius insisted and continued willing his body to change, feeling the flesh on his face and chest hardening on what he'd learned to recognize as scales.

"I was thinking of taking her to the place I first took her too, it is like our anniversary practically so I thought it might be romantic to take her back there," Albus continued annoyingly while Scorpius continued his practice, he wasn't sure what he did but he felt… strange.

"Yeah, do that," Scorpius stated dismissively, focusing harder and felt an uncomfortable ache that he had to grit his teeth against as his flesh compressed itself to cling to his bones.

"But then I worry that she'll think I'm being boring, repetitive and running out of ideas, you know? Maybe she doesn't even remember that place," Albus prattled on, still frustratingly while Scorpius felt more of his body erupting into scales, he kept focusing and willing.

"Sounds good," Scorpius muttered and suppressed a gasp as a sharp pain shot through his back. Come on, come on, come, his mind pleaded, he was going to transform whether his body wanted to or not.

"Are you even listening to me?" Albus demanded and Scorpius did cry out then as the pain intensified, "Scorpius?"

Scorpius' body lurched forward to be on his knees and he bit his tongue to stop himself screaming, he felt as if the skin on his back was being ripped off. He heard the swoosh of the drapes being opened and fabric ripping but barely noticed it at the pain, he cried out as he felt as if his back erupted and heard Albus yelp in surprise, a flapping followed by the sound of things being knocked over. The pain stopped immediately but it was replaced by a strange feeling, it was as if he now had a part of himself on his back like his arms had been moved there or… or he'd grown an extra limb.

"Keep it down," Reuben Tear grumbled sleepily and Scorpius tensed, feeling an alien part of himself tense as well.

Albus grabbed his arm roughly and Scorpius was hauled downstairs without another word, he noticed something bizarre about Albus though. For some reason, he now had some kind of glowing white aura around himself. The Common Room was empty and only once there did Albus turn to face him, he noticed Albus had a bright orb coming out of his chest where his heart should be, it had a tint of green.

"What happened to you?" Scorpius wondered in shock, momentarily forgetting his own situation.

"What happened to me?! What happened to you!" Albus burst out incredulously, "Were you trying to turn yourself into some kind of demonic vampire?!"

Scorpius opened his mouth to reply but froze when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, his eyes were not glittery and devoid of pupil, the sharp fangs, his flesh was mostly scaled but most of all it was the wings. He'd sprouted wings, a huge pair of black, leathery wings like a bat. He too also had a weird aura, except his was gray as was the glowing orb coming from his chest. He tried to stretch his wings and was surprise as they opened, he willed them to close and they did. Open and closed. Open and closed. Open and then closed. He had wings. He actually had wings. They were his wings. It was… unbelievable. He wondered if he could fly.

"Scor!" Albus snapped at him, still looked stunned and had fudge on his face.

"It's just my animagi training, it's no big deal," Scorpius tried to brush it off and looked away, his surprise turning to excitement at the thought of being something capable of flight, "First time growing wings. Do you think it'd be fun to be a bat?"

"Maybe or a demonic vampire. You can reverse it right?"

"Of course," Scorpius brushed it off, taking in Albus' strange aura again, "I'm more curious why we suddenly have auras and glowing balls in our chests."

"Err… We don't," Albus pointed out with a scowl, "Are you sure you're not just going to be a mental patient?"

"I'm sure," Scorpius complained and flicked his wand, using a nonverbal reversal spell to untransfigure himself. He felt his fangs recede to normal teeth, his body fleshed out again and his scales reverted. But not the wings.

"Why do you still have wings?! And weird eyes?!" Albus hissed at him in panic while Scorpius tried a different, a more powerful spell and the auras vanished. But not the wings, "They're still there."

"I know they're still there, I can feel them!" Scorpius complained, gesturing wildly with his arms and accidently his wings which knocked a portrait down, he cringed apologetically, "Sorry."

"We should get a teacher."

"No, I'm not supposed to be trying to become an animagus. Get… Get Maurice, he's good at stuff. I'll put this picture back up."

"Fine," Albus grumbled and headed back towards the steps while Scorpius put the portrait back up, apologizing profusely, "Got him."

"Huh, for some reason I thought they'd be more like a butterfly," Maurice commented, causing Albus to double take before the deaf boy continued on to Scorpius, "Anyway, the reason the your spells won't be working is the wings are too far from your body so it can't transfigure back. The ones you know won't be strong enough."

"Can you fix-"

Albus never got to finish his question, Maurice had flicked his own wand and Scorpius felt his wings snap to his back. Maurice waved his wand again and the wings seemed to meld back into his flesh, as if they were being melted down into his skin.

"You're welcome," Maurice offered as he put a hand to his necklace to translate, Scorpius didn't often see him in pajamas with his hair in utter disarray, "Is that all or can I get back to sleep?"

"I erm… I saw these weird auras before my eyes turned back to normal?" Scorpius asked cautiously.

"Isn't it obvious? Whatever animal's eyes you shifted to, you were seeing through their eyes. Whatever animal sees auras," Maurice answered with a dismissive shrug before turning on his heel and heading back up the stairs, he waved his hand behind them as he did so, "Night!"

---

Senna left without another word but Xerxes nonetheless, impeding fatherhood did inspire to aspire for more than his current situation. He was going to be the father now, he couldn't rely on his own worthless, deadbeat father. He decided to become a tutor, teaching Legilimency and Occlumency, sometimes Ancient Greek which was sometimes relevant with Ancient Magic or history related artifact things… It was his job to teach the language not to know what it was used for. He saved up his money to buy an apartment, it was a magical floor of a muggle block. Two bedrooms, he made one pre-emptively into a nursery for his future child. He researched baby and childcare, he thought caring for the baby himself was a good step to being a better father then his parents. Servants were expensive anyway, he had to learn a few cleaning spells himself since he couldn't afford a maid. Cooking… Cooking was just impossible, he had to eat out all the time and so would his kid.

It wasn't too much but it was a start, Xerxes was quite proud of himself. He didn't other people would do as well as he had when his family threw him out with nothing, he was uncommonly gifted. He knew it, his parents had turned their back on an uncommonly gifted child because they were fools. Look what he'd accomplished without them, he was everything and they were nothing. Screw them. He stopped searching for his mother at this point, he cared more for his unborn child then the mother who'd abandoned him.

Senna finally returned in August, a few days after their son, Stephan Drogo Hunter, had been born. Xerxes loved him the moment he laid eyes on him, delighted to have a son. She allowed them to share custody of him, apparently she travelled a lot so she would leave him with Xerxes for weeks at a time then take him back when she was in the country again. He had mixed reactions to parenting, sometimes it was incredibly exhausting and sometimes it was incredibly rewarding. Stephan actually helped him with women too, random people would fawn over the baby or simply view good fatherhood as an attractive quality. Xerxes doted on his son, he was a better parent then his combined. He was pretty sure he was a good father, a great father, the best father in fact. It made him want to shove it in his parents' faces, it was just another way that he was better than them.

And Stephan was better than them too, it was his parents' loss to miss out on their grandchild's life. He had a nasty temper but otherwise he was good, he was a very smart kid, he was bright for his age. And cunning, good at lying from an early age as well. He blamed Senna, she always encouraged it. He thought Senna was a strange woman, she was very secretive and not very empathetic. One time Stephan threw a rock at a very elderly muggle with a walking stick but it missed and instead of telling him off, she handed him another and advised he aim for the stick so they'd fall without its support. She high-fived him when the man fell and went to buy him ice-cream as a reward, it was really rather odd. Senna was very curious about him though, especially about his beliefs and views.

When Stephan turned too, Senna announced she was sending him to a special magic school for a head start. She was very proud, claiming he was one of the very first in this new regime for this new school her mysterious employer – Senna frequently refused to comment on who this person was or what Senna even did for a living - had created. He was only allowed to see his son once a month, apparently it was far away with an intense regime and was on an island so it wasn't like he could move closer. Stephan started to seem different after that, he was literate before he was three but he had an obsessive fascination with war. Xerxes had no say in the matter though, with his next child he wanted more control over their lives. He missed the time with his son, it wasn't the same. It give him more time to dedicate to women again though, he tried to pay more attention to them though and make sure they were aware of his name and how to contact him just in case something went wrong and he had another child. Unlike his parents, he would love any and all future children he had.

He tried staying in longer term relationships, he could never stay faithful for very long but that was their problem because he was young, handsome and a skilled Legilimens, he could easily find someone else. If teaching it had taught him anything, then it was that he was more talented at it then most. He spent New Year's night at a lady friend's house but when returning home the next morning, he noticed a girl was standing on the roof of his building about to jump. Xerxes apparated to the roof immediately, the girl jumped as he arrived. His wand was in his hand faster then he'd thought possible to levitate her back onto the roof, she scampered up in shock and spun to face him. She was a very dainty thing and pale, undoubtedly a teen too. Her short, mousy hair hung messily around her head, her face might've been beautiful if not coated by tears and her eyes were a lovely shade of sage but so sad.

"H-How did you do that?" the girl stammered out fearfully and he delved into her mind, she was a muggle teenager but had passed the age of consent nonetheless.

"I'm a wizard," Xerxes told her truthfully, deciding the cat was out of the bag, "I used magic to save you."

"M-Magic?"

"It's real, there's this whole magical world you don't know about. Come down with me and I'll tell you about, I know you're curious," Xerxes continued and noticed her eyes drift to the edge, "I also know why you're doing this. You're an only child and your parents died in a car crash two years ago, on their way home after dropping you off at a friend's house for a sleepover. The guilt and grief tear you up inside, you had to move here from your lovely home in the country to stay with your only living relative. A great grandmother but you have to take care of her, of you both, not the other way around. She doesn't even know who are and it kills you to see her like this, you can't focus in school, you can't even focus on making new friends or dating. I know your name is Edythe Blake and you're in your last year of high school, you're so alone and so stressed."

"How-How do y-you know all that?" Edythe wondered shakily.

"I'm a Legilimens. That means I can read minds," Xerxes added, realizing she wouldn't know the word. She also wouldn't know if he lied, "And I can also see hear spirits and right now I hear your parents, they're crying and begging you not to jump. They don't want you to die."

"R-Really?" Edythe asked tearfully as more dribbled down her face, he nodded, "I-It's just s-so hard, you know? It's j-just so h-hard."

"I know it's hard," Xerxes offered gently and held out his hand to her, "Come on. Let's go inside and talk about this, please."

"O-Okay," Edythe agreed hesitantly and took his hand.

---

Scorpius felt slightly better about failing to become an animagus yet after the wings, surely growing such a huge and complex limb was a sign he was getting closer. He may not be able to do anything about the Shadow War but he could and he would help his friend, he thought Michael needed it especially since he was worried about his family. The auras also raised questioned, what animal saw auras like that? Albus had also had a point about Hogsmeade, not the restaurant with his girlfriend but the trip was a chance for him to see Molly. She still hadn't replied to his initial letter but he sent her another one anyway, asking her if she'd like to meet him then they could still have a date.

"Professor," Scorpius said as he walked to Professor Hagrid the next Monday after a class where they'd been learning about Griffins.

"What can I do fer yeh?" Professor Hagrid wondered pleasantly as he tossed the last scraps of raw meat to the herd.

"I was just wondering, is there any creature that sees auras?" Scorpius asked and the half-giant looked slightly surprised.

"Auras?" the professor repeated and Scorpius nodded, he scratched at his massive beard, "No, can't say tha' anything comes to mind. To be honest with yeh, I'm not even sure they're real."

"Okay, thanks Professor Hagrid," Scorpius offered politely and gave him a smile of gratitude before leaving.

He headed back inside the castle where everyone was going to lunch, wondering who else he could ask. Was aura something spell related? Runes? Divination? And how did it link to creatures? Would Professor Vipera know? Some ingredients came from creatures. The same could be said for Alchemy, Rojer might know. He could ask Rojer when he stayed behind to talk to him after class.

Scorpius' thoughts were interrupted by a scream, an ear-splitting screech that was getting closer. He glanced up, seeing a body plunging down. He withdrew his wand with a speed Varanian had taught him and cast a perfect nonverbal spell to slow moment, the boy came to a halt before hitting the ground then Scorpius let him down gently. They were wearing Gryffindor robes and when he went to give a hand up, he was shocked to see it was someone he knew: Lysander Scamander. The kid was trembling.

"Are you okay?" Scorpius asked fearfully, his heart still pounding and Lysander nodded mutely, his eyes completely wide, "D-"

"Thank you," Lysander gasped and abruptly threw his arms around him, "I prayed to my fairy guardians to save me, I'm glad they passed the word along to you. Thank you, thank all of you."

"No problem. How high did you fall from?" Scorpius wondered as Lysander pulled away, wiping his eyes quickly. He was still shaking.

"The top floor, I was putting away my things before lunch," Lysander told him, looking anxious, "I was just about to walk down when I felt like I was hit in the back then I was knocked over the side and I was just falling and falling and falling and falling and falling and falling and falling and falling and falling and falling and falling and fall-"

"I get it, Lysander," Scorpius interrupted the loop Lysander had seemed stuck in, his eyes filled with tears and he threw his still shaking arms around him again, "It's okay."

"Thank you! I thought I was going to die," Lysander wailed and Scorpius felt him sobbing onto his shoulder, "I don't want to die. Someone tried to kill me, they tried to kill me dead and my fairy guardians were helpless but you saved me. Thank you so much. Falling has become my new scariest way to die."

"Okay, you're welcome," Scorpius assured him and pried Lysander's arms off him, he continued to cry and Scorpius awkwardly patting him on the shoulder. He wasn't sure what else to do.

It was a worrying thought though, why did the Shadows want to kill Lysander? Why give him his memories back if they were going to kill him? Were they false memories? Were they trying to be misleading? What were they even being misleading about? Why not just kill him instead of giving him his memories back? Was it linked to them wanting to kill him? Or maybe he was jumping to conclusions, someone had tried to kill him with poison but Lysander had been essentially thrown to his death. It could have been bullies who just unintentionally pushed him into fatal situation when trying to knock him down.

"Did you see anyone around when you were hit?" Scorpius asked of the still crying Lysander, the boy nodded.

"Of course I saw people, its lunch time!" Lysander burst out in a sob, "Lots of people are walking up and down the stairs. I didn't which of them cast the spell, it could have been anyone there or no one at all. I read about these smoke people that can-"

"Did you see anyone who had it in for you? Do you have any enemies?"

"No," Lysander moaned with a shake of his head, "I didn't notice anyone but I wasn't really paying attention, most people are so boring. I don't have any enemies, I'm a nice person. I try to be a good person. Why? Did someone tell you I'm their enemy? Do I have an enemy? What did I do to this enemy?! Are they going to go after my family?! What kind of person did I inadversantly wrong?! What am I going to do?!"

"I don't know, just calm down," Scorpius told him gently and Lysander burst into tears again, throwing his arms back around him.

"How c-can I b-be calm? I j-just ne-nearly died!" Lysander cried, sobbing uncontrollably, "I w-was falling and falling and falling and falling…"

---

Part 5: The Eye of the Thestral

---

Xerxes didn't want to sound arrogant or anything but he was quite sure he was the greatest human being on the planet, he had saved someone's life and a muggle life no less. How many people could say that? And not only had he saved Edythe but he helped her, he listened to her problems – he was one step ahead with his Legilimency but her talking about it was more productive to the healing process – when she needed to talk and let her cry on his shoulder when she needed to cry, all the while offering advice, support and encouraging her to live and improve her life. And on top of that, he helped her out more practically. Checking on and caring for her grandmother when Edythe was in school, cleaning up the house and giving her money for things and food. How wonderful a person was he? Xerxes thought he might be a saint, he was the kindest person he knew.

He spent a lot of time with her, when not consumed entirely by suicidal thoughts she was curious about magic and magical world. She was amazed by the most common things, he found it really quite adorable and showing her spells almost never failed to draw a smile from her. She had a beautiful smile. In truth, she was quite a beautiful person and not just in appearance. She was very kindhearted and gentle, she'd go out of her way to help random animals, strangers on the street and even insects. It was really quite amusing and also kind of pointless, where had these random people and things been when she'd been about to literally throw her life away? Nowhere because and he alone had saved her. He took it as a good sign of her recovering though, taking an interest in things and it made her happy to think she'd made a difference.

And of course he started sleeping with her, he actually waited over a month to make sure she was more stable from her attempt before making a move. She reciprocated of course, she was so alone, grateful and flattered really by his attention, she just wanted to feel loved but then didn't everybody? She was a bit reluctant to lose her virginity for a while but eventually caved and he should hope so, he deserved it after being so good to her and he'd been too busy with her for other girls so it was actually monogamous for the time being which was big for him. For a few months at the start of spring things were wonderful and he was quite satisfied, she lived only two floors below him and was went nowhere but school and grocery shopping so he could see her whenever he wanted essentially. Until May when she walked in on him during breakfast, he wished they delivered so he wouldn't have to go out and get it.

"Hey Edythe…" Xerxes greeted her uncertainly, she was dressed for school and it was a school day, "Not that I'm not always pleased to see you but don't you have school?"

"Xerx, I'm pregnant," Edythe admitted and started trembling fearfully, her voice breaking from the effort of not crying. He stared at her in surprise for a minute, he had been lax in his precautions considering how frequently he saw her. Somehow, he'd also thought muggles would be harder to have children with since they were a different breed of human, "I've missed a few months and I took the test just now… I'm pregnant."

"Edy-" Xerxes was cut off as she burst into tears, he walked over to her and encircled his arms around her, he rubbed her back gently while inwardly excitement brewed once more, "Oh Edythe, come on. Don't cry, this is a wonderful thing."

"I-It is?" Edythe stammered out fearfully, pulling away just enough to meet his eyes, "Y-You're not g-going t-to leave me?"

"Of course not," Xerxes assured her and caressed her cheek, "Creating life is a beautiful thing, tough at times but worth it and we'll get through it together."

"I love you," Edythe whispered and buried her head back into his chest, he held her close.

---

"Now do you believe us, Scorpius? Are you going to start taking this seriously?" Michael questioned of him after Scorpius told him and Maurice - the others were probably already at dinner since they had had a different class - about what had happened to Lysander, "Someone's gunning for you and Lysander both."

"We can't be sure it wasn't the same person, it might've been unrelated," Scorpius protested and Michael threw his arms up in exasperation, "Lysander wasn't poisoned."

"When are these things ever coincidences?!"

"No one saw anyone fire a spell at Lysander," Maurice pointed out, "I think they used wandless magic to be more discrete and that's something the Shadows teach. Viola had to leave after her involvement in the kidnappings but there's a whole school of trained children they could've used to replace her, or were already there."

"What about the blood quill scars?" Scorpius wondered skeptically, "Shouldn't they have the scars like you and have an obsession with war?"

"They could have been taught to blend in and scars can be hidden, or it could be another of Xerxes' children. I know he had a bunch, more than just Carver and Viola. They were both trained but didn't have the scars because he decided to spare them."

"Even if you're right," Scorpius admitted with a heavy sigh, "What do we do about it? There are hundreds of students. It's not like we can check everyone in the school to see if they have tainted wands, trained kids might not even have tainted wands."

"Mine doesn't."

"Exactly!"

"We'll think of a way, we always do," Michael assured him, "In the meantime, we just need to be careful and keep an eye out."

"The question is: why do the Shadows want you and Lysander dead?" Maurice wondered curiously, folding his free arm, "You maybe I can understand since they're fools if they haven't realized your connection to Aaron but Lysander has never been involved so that can't be it, they're the ones who gave him his memories back so it can't be that he knows something they don't want him to. Pyrrhus was the one trying to kill him though, we still don't know why so it's possible he's still trying to kill him and this wasn't the Shadows at all so he could've snuck in somehow and wants you dead for some reason as well."

"Great," Michael sighed and rubbed his eyes, "So now its Florian or the Shadows, we can't even be sure who we're looking for. Florian can turn into a moth and knows Hogwarts from when he was a teacher, it might not be a student at all and he just snuck in."

"True, somehow I doubt the Aurors outside are patrolling for moths," Maurice nodded in agreement, "I'll tell Cassia to have birds kill any moth they see. I'm sure some birds eat moths anyway."

Scorpius supposed he couldn't argue with that, he still wasn't sure what to make of it or what to do about it. Why would Pyrrhus Florian want them dead? It was like Maurice had said, Scorpius was involved in things and had foiled his plans but Lysander hadn't. If Florian was on some twisted revenge mission then surely he'd have more reason to kill Lorcan then his twin since he'd stood up to him not Lysander, Florian had taught them so would be aware of the differences. They may be physically identical but their demeanors and mannerisms – not to mention house colors if they were in uniform - marked them easily as who was who, Florian knew this. Unless Lysander had just pissed Florian off in class or something and he was out for petty revenge against the poor, strange child. Or maybe his friends were wrong, Florian was after Lysander and the Shadows tried to kill him because they were Shadows. It wouldn't be the first time they had wanted him dead.

He tried to put it out of his mind and get back to focusing on his classes, he'd made up his mind to ask Rojer about the auras and if he didn't know then he'd try Professor Ashain in case it was some dark creature more related to defense. Scorpius thought they were getting a good grasp of the common processes used in practical alchemy, Rojer was having to hold their hands less and less and they were getting things done faster. Although progress did tend to feel slow still, some things just took multiple lessons to complete because of the complexity. They hadn't done any and Scorpius had since dropped the subject but he knew some more advanced potions would also take longer than even a double lesson. As usual, Scorpius stayed behind to help Rojer pack up the equipment with the guilt weighing on his mind.

"Good class," Scorpius offered as an opening, Rojer paused momentarily and slid him an odd look.

"Do you know that every class you stay behind and say this to me?" Rojer pointed out.

"Well you're a good teacher. Maybe you should even do it permanently."

"No, I do not like to teach and I never wanted to," Rojer shook his head vigorously as he started to wash up while Scorpius put away, "I wish to go back home, there I can work in the peace and the quiet."

"Can't argue with that, I wouldn't want to be a teacher either," Scorpius admitted and Rojer nodded in understanding, "I was just wondering something though because you seem to know a lot of things."

"All of my previous teachers would disagree with this but wonder if it pleases you."

"I was just wondering if you knew of any animals that could see auras."

"Auras?" Rojer repeated in confusion, "Describe these."

"Like a white or gray glow around a person with a kind of orb of light around the heart area," Scorpius explained and Rojer stopped what he was doing to stare at him, Scorpius wished Rojer's face was more expressive to figure out what he was thinking, "What-What is it?"

"You are the strangest boy," Rojer told him and dried his hands, leaving Scorpius alone without another word to clean up as he retreated into the door suspected of leading to his private quarters. Scorpius finished packing up, unsure if Rojer would return when the man did and with a small vial in his hand. He offered it to him, "Drink."

"D-Drink?" Scorpius wondered uncertainly as he took it, glancing down into the crystalline liquid it contained, "What is it?"

"Drink and I will answer. It is not poison and even if this was that then I can just save your life again," Rojer commented with a hint of a rarely seen smile as he sat on one of the workstation tables, Scorpius sat on the stool facing him.

Scorpius took a deep breath and nervously swallowed the vial, there was literally just enough for one mouthful. It was the strangest substance he had ever drunk, it was entirely tasteless and he almost felt like he was swallowing air. His eyes started to feel funny as if he'd just woken and needed to wipe the sleep from then, he couldn't help but rub them. When he reopened them, he noticed that Rojer too now had an aura. A gray glow surrounded him and in his heart was another orb of light, this one with a tint of crimson.

"Is this the auras you speak of?" Rojer questioned and Scorpius could only nod in surprise, the alchemist jerked his head at the vial, "This is named 'The Eye of the Thestral' and is supposed to show you their vision, supposed to let you see souls."

"Souls?" Scorpius repeated in shock while something else dawned on him surreptitiously, Rojer was a gray soul. He'd taken a life.

"There is more than one plane of existing, there is the physical realm and the… other one," Rojer started to explain, seeming to struggle for the English word there and giving up, "The worlds exist simultaneously overlapping but we do not, our bodies is in the physical and our souls are on the other but tethered to our flesh. Our minds are the link between them, the mind is part of the both and is holding us together. Thestrals are a special and unique creatures, they are not split in two and exist as flesh and soul at the same time in both of these realms. Because of this, their eyes see the flesh and the soul of men."

"Fascinating," Scorpius mused almost to himself, so it was Thestral eyes he'd transfigured into.

He usually kept his eyes closed to help focus though, he hadn't really noticed if his eyes had ever taken on another animal's sight or appearance. He knew it was unusual – although considering animagi weren't overabundant anyway, he wasn't sure how much – to have a magical creature as your animagus form but he wasn't sure how common it was to manifest some of their traits while learning it. After all, Wyatt had said the body was still figuring out what it was supposed to be and if everything that had ever happened during his training was part of his final form then he'd be some kind of mutated, monstrous freak of nature.

"I always thought so," Rojer admitted as he wandered back over to his desk, apparently having lost interest while Scorpius started off into space thoughtfully.

"I didn't know that about Thestrals though, I never heard of this potion before," Scorpius offered as he also walked back over to him, Rojer had started constructing something out of small sticks.

"It is Alchemy. And I am not surprised by this, I am probably the only one of the people in the world who can make it. There is few Alchemists anyway and this was invented by a serial killer."

"A serial killer?!" Scorpius blurted out in shock, for a split second connecting it to Rojer's gray soul, "Was it you?"

"No, it was not me," Rojer answered, throwing him an offended scowl, "It is before my time by multiple decades, he was a notorious serial killer right here in your country."

"Who?"

"Jack the Ripper. He was a Dark Wizard, he started doing experimenting with the souls of the victims when he ran out of experiments with the flesh of the victims. It is a cruel irony that he did actually learn a lot about the soul from these, a lot of what is known today and it is not more well-known due to being tainted by the badness," Rojer explained and shook his head, a disgusted expression on his face, "If you have to learn something by torture and death experiments like him then it is not worth learning, I would never do this."

"Neither would I," Scorpius agreed, his curiosity piqued but his eyes unable to shift from Rojer's soul, "You would kill though in other circumstances, wouldn't you?"

"Maybe."

"You have killed," Scorpius specified and Rojer glanced at him as he stood.

"So have you," Rojer stated quite calmly and Scorpius felt his heart start to pummel his chest, Rojer had either taken some too or had at some previous time, "The both of our souls are tainted by blood."

"Who… Who did you kill?" Scorpius asked in scarcely more than a whisper, finding it hard to imagine the innocent child killing. He met Rojer's dark chestnut eyes but there was a long moment of silence, he wasn't sure he'd answer and feared overstepping his bounds.

"A man," Rojer admitted finally, averting his gaze and shifting uncomfortably, "A muggle. I did not know of his name. What about you?"

"A man," Scorpius muttered as he swallowed, his body shaking and his palms sweaty as he also averted his eyes, "He was a muggle too, a bad person. I err… I don't really want to talk about it."

"Neither do I," Rojer said shortly, sounding equally uneasy, "See you the next day."

"Bye," Scorpius stated, grabbing his bag and practically fleeing the room without even a backward glance at Rojer.

---

Xerxes really didn't know what to say to that, he liked her certainly but he didn't know if he'd say he loved her. She seemed too preoccupied to notice his response so all was good, he was looking forward to being a father again especially since Senna wasn't the mother so he had more control. Edythe was extremely lacking in confidence, she was very afraid of doing something wrong that would hurt the unborn baby or worrying her young age and small stature would be bad for it or being inadequate as a mother when it was born and frequently looked to him for advice since he had Stephan. He would definitely get more control this time. As the months started to progress he started to realize another problem though, Edythe started showing and he found it really quite unsettling and repulsive to have sex with her when he knew his child was in there. He had the perfect excuse though.

"In the wizarding world this is just how it works," Xerxes concluded his lie explaining why he was going on a date with another woman that night.

"But we're not in the wizarding world," Edythe protested, looking upset, "Do you really have to? I don't mind doing things with you."

"Edythe, that harms the baby."

"It does?"

"It does when one of the people magical and it's a magical baby, it's almost certainly a magical baby. Do you really want to take the risk that it could kill our baby? Don't you want to be a good mother? Am I the only one that what's best for our child?!" Xerxes insisted and Edythe put her hands up in defeat, she sighed heavily and rubbed her bump.

"Okay, whatever you have to do," Edythe agreed and kissed him, "Bye."

Muggles were so gullible. Not that wizards were any less gullible about muggle things. He knew about both though naturally because he was brilliant and life really was good, even not long after that when Edythe's elderly grandmother died on her. It was quite fortunate as now Edythe could move in with him and in general good for the grandmother, she'd lost any sense of who she was years ago and Xerxes liked to think she was better off in the afterlife with her mind intact again.

"At least she's at peace now," Edythe agreed, sniffing as she'd just finished crying about it onto Xerxes' shoulder where she remained nestled against him while he kept his arm protectively around her, "Do you think we could name the baby after her if it's a girl?"

"Maybe as a middle name for Viola, it's my favorite name," Xerxes countered, trying not to sound desperate, "For a boy, I was thinking Andreas, Kyran, Aldous, Everard or Davin."

"I like Ethan."

"Ethan?" Xerxes repeated and she nodded against his shoulder, really rather disliking the sound of it.

"It's my favorite name."

"On second thought, naming a girl after your grandmother sounds perfect," Xerxes spoke up to change the subject, he could just save Viola for the next girl. He'd prefer the grandmother's name then Ethan.

He drank to the poor old dead lady next night at the Leaky Cauldron, drank way too much and ended up in a ménage a trois with two girls who were celebrating graduated Hogwarts. Edythe got a job waitressing to help with money, she wanted to be a nurse as a career – being neither rich nor smart enough grade wise to be a doctor or vet like she'd originally desired – but was putting it off until after the baby was born so the waitressing was temporary.

Xerxes wasn't complaining, it got her out of the apartment so he could bring women back there. He actually quite liked living with her though, she knew how to cook and it saved on having to keep bouncing between the two apartments. He thought it would be great when the baby was born, they could share the workload and much better for the baby to have both parents under the same roof. Things were good a few months, it was until September he got an owl from one of the women from his drunken tryst asking to meet. He obliged out of curiosity but was sorely disappointed to see it was the ugly one, her face was misleading as it was delicate, her skin milky and her teeth pearly but she was so burly and stocky.

"What do you want?" Xerxes asked of her icily, not wanting anything to do with this woman, "What even is your name?"

"Maeghan," the woman introduced herself acidly, looking offended that he didn't know to the point of looking on the verge of erupting into rage, "Maeghan Maryanne Edwards... AND YOU BLOODY WELL SHOULD KNOW MY NAME BECAUSE I'M PREGNANT WITH YOUR BABY!"

---

Scorpius left Rojer in a rush, not wanting to have to explain about the muggles and feeling panic that Rojer knew he'd killed before. His panic eased though, he also knew that Rojer had killed and doubted he would say anything when Scorpius could just as evil say something about him. They also knew each other was a gray soul so regardless of the circumstances, they hadn't lost all hope yet. His panic reverted back to curiosity about Rojer, who had he killed? When? Why? Had he caused a hail of birds to attack his father's killers? That's what Cassia would've done and according to her, Rojer was also an Avisora so entirely possible. Maybe Maurice was wrong and Rojer had gotten away from Grindelwald's men, it would explain how he'd survived. Although it still didn't explain what had happened to cripple his leg or anything.

He was feeling calmer by the time he'd put his things back in his dormitory and was walking down to dinner, really it was quite lucky Rojer hadn't asked why he had inquired about the auras. It was on that thought he got to the Great Hall around people again and he realized he'd never asked for the antidote or how long until the Thestral vision wore off, he was greeted by a sea of white auras. It was almost dizzying. He quickly hurried along to find his friends, they were almost all white auras except for Maurice and Michael. It was quite curious because they were different shades, Michael's was only a pale gray while Maurice's was a much darker shade. Because Maurice had killed more? Wait, Maurice had killed before…

"What took you so-" Michael started to say but Scorpius cut him off.

"Hang on a second," Scorpius interjected and turned on his heel.

He started walking up and down the tables of students, looking for anything other than a white soul as it was very likely the assassin had killed before. Some seemed a more off-shade of white but there were no gray, not in Gryffindor, not in Ravenclaw, not in Slytherin – the supposed bad house – nor in Hufflepuff. He stopped at Orous though as he didn't have a soul or immediately not one noticeable, there was a blur around him where the aura should be and a barely noticeable, weak glow from his heart which was more in a ring like an eclipse. Was that what broken souls looked like?

Scorpius tried to discretely walk past the staff table to get a good look, now they were more a mixture of varying shades of whites and grays. It didn't surprise him, anyone gray he knew to have killed before and anyone white he didn't think had. Cassia was a gray soul, evidently killing people with birds was enough to mar the soul and Antonius was just like Orous. Broken souls were apparently colorless, they'd had the light taken from them.

"Can we help you with something?" the man sitting in the Headmaster's chair asked in a squeaky voice and Scorpius jumped in surprise, glancing at… Weedy Larry.

He couldn't recall his name, just the childish nickname Cassia had mentioned. He was weedy looking, he was very tall but thin like a stick with prominent elbows and large, long-fingered hands. He seemed middle-aged, his eyes were a dull brown hiding behind small, circular spectacles perched on his nose and his short hair was more equal parts salt and pepper. He wore white robes that blended in with the white of his soul, Scorpius opened his mouth to say something but the sentence would've started 'sorry, Weedy Larry' so he settled for shaking his head mutely.

"Then go back to your table with ten less points from Gryffindor for disrupting the staff, you should treat your elders with respect," the Headmaster – forget it, Scorpius decided he deserved to be called Weedy Larry – snapped in his apparently squeaky and rather annoying sounding voice. Who took points for that? He nodded politely regardless at what he deemed unfair and started to walk back, feeling the beady eyes following him as he went.

"What was that about?" Albus complained as Scorpius sat down with them finally, he shook his head again. Deciding to tell them when the Headmaster's eyes were not on him.

The Thestral vision wore off by the time he woke up the next day and the week passed uneventfully, he and Rojer didn't speak again of their killings at least and there was no further assassination attempts. He also didn't get a reply from Molly until that weekend, the response was sorely disappointing.

Dear Scor,

It's great to hear from you and I'm sorry for the slow reply but I've been busy, I'm sure you'll do great as Captain (sounds like you're doing good so far!) and on your NEWTs. Try not to worry about this Rojer stuff too much. I'm alright, I can't say more until I see you in person. Considering the way owls were treated in your First Year, I'm sure you're not surprised. You're halfway through the term pretty much so it shouldn't be too long before we see each other again anyway.

Unfortunately, I can't meet you in Hogsmeade next week. I'm busy with some important things right now, I'm really sorry. I might be able to for the next one though, owl me when you know the date.

Lots of love (and apologies),

Molly

PS: Good luck against Slytherin!

"Well Michael, it'll be just you and me in Hogsmeade since everyone else I'm pretty sure is with their dates and Molly can't make it," Scorpius said with a heavy sigh.