Parts (58-60)
VI
Chapter 15
Picking Our Paths
Part 1: Falling Apart
Ultimately of course, Pegasus got his way and Carver was informed of his mum's pregnancy before he started Hogwarts. Carver wasn't pleased and when Pegasus wasn't praising her for carrying his precious child, he didn't think she was pleased either. He was really quite dreading it, yet another stupid sibling he was supposed to care about. He was also increasingly nervous about starting Hogwarts unlike his mum and Pegasus, who seemed to be looking quite forward to having him gone.
And so he found himself nervously shuffling through the crowded platform amidst the other Hogwarts students being dropped off by their parents, his dad hadn't come to see him off so it was just him Pegasus and his mum. He couldn't help but notice that the other families seemed closer than he did, the kids who looked his own age especially were being hugged by crying parents telling them they'd miss them and wishing them luck.
"Bye Carve, see you at Christmas," his mum said and threw his trunk down at his feet, "Try to learn stuff and not get in trouble."
"And try to get Ravenclaw or Slytherin," Pegasus added disinterestedly, "They're the houses for smart people with futures, at least try to prove me wrong about my impression of your mental capacity. Gryffindor is for reckless fools, Hufflepuff is for naïve morons."
"I'll try," Carver assured him dully, his stepfather nodded before putting an arm around his mum to start to lead her away without another word, "Don't- Don't I get a hug? Other kids are getting hugged."
"MERLIN, CARVER, YOU ARE LIKE THE NEEDIEST KID!" his mum screamed at him in frustration earning some odd looks, she yanked at her hair and burst into tears, "And babies are worse!"
Pegasus threw Carver a glare as if he'd committed a crime before grabbing his hysterical wife by the arm and dragging her away from the crowd, muttering angrily about proper behavior in public and embarrassment.
Carver sighed heavily and started to drag his trunk onto the train, he didn't see what Pegasus was so upset about. It was his fault his mum was having a baby, if not then she wouldn't have been upset in the first place. And he might've gotten that hug. People didn't seem to care anyway, from the snatches of conversation he heard everyone was more excited to see the famous Harry Potter here dropping off his eldest son for his first year of Hogwarts.
"It's going to be tough but Teddy and I are trying long distance," a stunningly beautiful blond was saying to a slightly less beautiful blond as they went into a compartment already occupied by presumably their friends, all the girls looking around fifteen or sixteen. A bland looking redhead teen walked on by them.
Carver tore his eyes away from the beautiful ones as they were gone only to have his attention caught by a dark-skinned boy with bright red dreadlocks instead, he looked about thirteen and was with a stunningly handsome blond boy of the same age who bore enough resemblance to the beautiful to be her brother. They were also with a girl who looked around Carver's age, she bore enough resemblance to the red dreadlocks boy to be his sister. Her skin was a lighter shade though and her hair glistening black, she looked rather nervous and her possible-brother had his arm around her.
"It's okay to be nervous, Rox, you can sit with us until you make your house and meet some friends," the dreadlocks boy was saying comfortingly as he led her into a compartment before freezing on the spot to ogle a girl of his own age ducking into an apartment, "Is… Is it just me or does Caitlin look different somehow?"
"Just you," the blond laughed as he pulled him into the compartment after the younger girl while Carver had to continue his trek in search of a compartment.
"Stop worrying, Hal, I'm sure the kid will turn up," a teen was saying to his utterly depressed looking friend, "Who cares if you were supposed to watch him?"
"Ugh," Carver couldn't help but utter in disgust as he laid eyes on an ugly boy with dirty black hair and a pockmarked face.
The boy was carrying a sketchbook and glanced at him with a flicker of hurt in his reddish-brown eyes. Carver felt a pang of guilt and made to apologize but the boy had already ducked into a compartment, he would've followed if not for being distracted once more by stuff happening as a dark haired teen knocked some battered textbooks from a scruffy looking younger girl's hands. Carver couldn't help but notice the books poor shabby quality, they were falling apart.
"What's the matter, Weasley, drop your books?" the boy taunted.
"I'm not a Weasley, I'm an Avery," the girl snapped defensively as she started scrambling to pick up the books, he noticed she was wearing Slytherin robes.
"Red hair, hand-me-downs, filthy half-blood… I don't think so."
"I'm a Slytherin just like you, Kyle!"
"Don't know how you did that but you're still worthless," the boy scoffed and folded his arms triumphantly before catching sight of Carver, "What you looking at, Fatty?"
"You're worthless," the girl shot back as she finished picking up the books, recapturing the boy's attention.
He withdrew his wand as if intending to hex the girl but quickly hid it back as some older boys dressed in Scarlet robes walked by. One of them very deliberately and very forcefully elbowed her arm, causing her to drop the books once more and the boys laughed.
"Be careful, Snake, its rough being slimy because it makes things easier to slip out of your grip," another of the boys mocked making them laugh harder as she went to pick the books up again.
"Snakes aren't even slimy, you idiots," the girl muttered under her breath as she went to pick the books up again while the older boys moved on to accosting her first attacker, she left while they were distracted with him.
"So this is it, huh?" the hallucination of his dead brother questioned of him.
"Go away," Pyrrhus Florian whined at him
He went back to trying to focus on driving the car and not on looking at his brother in the passenger seat beside him. It was only a couple of weeks before the Shadow Master was due to enter the country, Antonius seemed to have been making much more progress after learning he no longer planned to kill his friends but they still needed to find Calderon. Most importantly to his current destination though, he needed to add magic to Antonius' soul to make him more powerful. It was also sentencing the boy to an early death.
"Its not even just death, little brother," Joel insisted, "You're destroying a ten year old's soul, you sick bastard. You know what it's like to be destroyed, what is wrong with you?"
"It's not the same thing," Pyrrhus snapped at him irritably.
"Destruction is destruction regardless of how the destroying is done, you're just as bad as we were just in a different way."
"Shut up."
"I'm not saying a word, Pyrrhus, you're saying this to yourself," he said and Pyrrhus turned his head in shock to see he was now sitting beside a hallucination of himself.
"Watch the road!" Antonius shrieked from the backseat and Pyrrhus noticed he was drifting off the road, he quickly corrected it.
"N-No problem," Pyrrhus croaked weakly, damn hallucinations were going to get him killed one of these days.
"Are we there yet, Pyrrhus?" another man's voice questioned from the passenger seat. Pyrrhus screeched in shock as he turned to see Jack/One now sitting there, he almost veered the car off the road once more and just pulled over instead. Jack/One laughed, "You scream like a girl."
"Don't do that!" Pyrrhus screamed at him hysterically and fidgeted while his heart thundered in his chest, trembling at having almost driven the car off the road twice within a few minutes and risked killing his son. And Antonius. And himself.
"At least then he'd die with his soul whole," Xerxes – or at least his hallucination of him - said, now from outside the window and Pyrrhus jolted in panic again.
"Go away!"
"But you need me here," Jack commented with an amused smirk.
"I wasn't talking to you! I was talking to the hallucination of my dead brother!" Pyrrhus barked irritably and rubbed his head, willing them to go away again before glancing around to check where they were. He decided they were close enough, "Okay, I'm going to get in position. I'll send up a jet of red sparks when he's incapacitated as planned then you can phase in with Antonius to… to… you know, do the… thing."
"What about me, Daddy?" Oathan questioned curiously and Pyrrhus glanced into the back seat, seeing his son sleepily rubbing his eyes as it was the early hours of the morning.
"You just wait here and get some sleep. I'll be back soon, okay?" Pyrrhus told him with a comforting smile, Oathan nodded and nestled back into his seat.
"Okay, Daddy."
"Watch for the sparks," Pyrrhus added as a reminder to Jack/One before getting out of the car.
He transformed into a moth and fluttered away towards the house, finding and slipping in through an open window. Then he just had- He landed quickly at the sound of footsteps, surprised to see the target was already up. Alaric Layton look tired, the wake of the full moon taking its toll on the lycanthropic Minister. He was wearing pajamas with the same red robe as the last time Pyrrhus had seen him, walking with a glass of water he'd probably woken to get. Pyrrhus had promised himself Alaric would pay for injuring him before.
He waited until Alaric's back was to him before jumping down, transforming back to a human and whipping out his wand before his feet had touched the floor. He slashed his wand as Alaric started to turn back around with a brutal Acutus Curse at his shoulder, Alaric cried out in pain as he fell back to the ground with his shoulder how bleeding profusely while the arm dangled loosely from the damaged socket.
"That's for hurting my shoulder!" Pyrrhus screeched at him indignantly.
Alaric tried to draw his wand but injuring his wand arm forced him to have to use the other, thus taking longer which gave Pyrrhus those precious seconds he wanted to stun the Minister. Pyrrhus smirked to the now unconscious man, served him right for attacking him and now he was going to die a horrible death. He waved his wand lazily, transfiguring the stone floor to branch out in several strips over Alaric's body to ensure he was held down and incapacitated. He also took the man's wand for good measure before heading outside to send up sparks.
"I could've done it faster," One insisted as he phased out of the shadows with Antonius, Pyrrhus shrugged. He probably could've but Pyrrhus had wanted to be the one to attack him so he could injure his shoulder obviously, just like Alaric had in their last encounter. Doing it when he was already incapacitated would've just seemed petty.
"Of course it seemed petty, you're insane," Xerxes's voice commented and Pyrrhus glanced to see the hallucination leaning lazily in the doorway.
"Just come on, let's get this over with," Pyrrhus said, trying to ignore it as he led the trio inside as Xerxes also followed.
"Who- Who's the guy you're killing?" Antonius asked nervously.
"You," Xerxes pointed out to the oblivious boy and Pyrrhus felt the guilt start to seep through him once more, Xerxes smirked confidently, "You're murdering a child, destroying his soul."
"He's the Minister for Magic," Jack offered in answer to the boy's question as the stopped by the unconscious man, crimson rivers still streaming from his shoulder.
"Is he a Shadow?" Antonius wondered with a flicker of worry on his young face.
"Nope. Just an innocent guy," Jack shrugged it off and withdrew his wand, jabbing it at Alaric, "Rennervate."
"What are you doing?!" Antonius hissed in shock as Alaric cringed, groggily coming to.
"Because we feed off pain and he'll be in more pain if he's conscious while we destroy his soul."
"What?" Alaric mumbled in confusion, trying to get up and his eyes snapping open wider as he realized he was trapped, "What's happening?"
"That's right, you're going to destroy his soul," Xerxes taunted and Pyrrhus threw him a scowl as he opened his mouth to answer.
"I don't care about Al-"
"I'm talking about Antonius! Who gives a damn about Alaric? Alaric's a man, men are bad."
"Can't you just use someone bad instead?! There's plenty of Shadows!" Antonius burst out desperately to Jack/One, distracting Pyrrhus from his conversation with himself.
"Nah, we don't want to stir up that hornet's nest," One brushed it off, seeming amused by Antonius' upset.
"You're the Ashain kid," Alaric realized aloud.
"Thank you, Minister Obvious."
"What are you going to do to me?"
"Rip the magic out of your soul to give to the kid here to make him more powerful," One explained casually and to Alaric's credit, he managed to hide his fear quite well, "You'll die, of course."
"They'll both die," Xerxes added.
"How is that possible?" Alaric questioned in quiet confused curiosity, discretely testing the strength of his bonds, "Are you the Shadow Master? And what do you possibly expect to gain by adding magic to a ten year old?"
"Exactly, Pyrrhus. Come on."
"We are better than the Shadow Master, we are One, we are what happens when you merge the Shadow of a Dementor with the soul of a human," One announced proudly before his expression twisted regretfully, "Jack. My name used to be Jack. And we're doing this to end the war."
"Any last words?" Pyrrhus asked smugly of the Minister who seemed at quite a loss, "You going to cry? Or beg? Or bargain like a pathetic coward?"
"This is a bad idea," Alaric stated, his voice calm despite the fear building in his eyes, "You two strike me as highly unstable, this is only going to end badly."
"Please," Antonius pleaded desperately and even though it was in Alaric's defense, Pyrrhus found it tugging at his heart for Antonius' own life instead, "He's innocent."
"That's right he is, yet you're murdering the child. Destroying his soul," Xerxes said in agreement and Pyrrhus groaned in frustration, he didn't want to listen to him.
"No," Pyrrhus insisted firmly, "We're going through with this and it's going to work and the Shadow Master will die-"
"So will Antonius."
"-And the-"
"Fine! If you don't want to listen to them then listen to me!" Pyrrhus' own voice snapped except younger, he turned in surprise back to Xerxes. Except it was no longer Xerxes but Pyrrhus himself when he was Antonius' age, he looked at him desperately as his younger self took a step towards him, "Please, Pyrrhus, this is wrong. This is wrong on a fundamental level and you know it, despite everything you know it."
"Being wrong doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do!" Pyrrhus insisted to his child self, "I've done plenty of bad things before, this is just another. You just don't understand!"
"You've been a prisoner your whole life, you've been trapped in your own life. And you did bad things because the Shadows either made you or made you a little insane but this is different," Young-Pyrrhus protested firmly, "For the first time you are free to make your own choices and this is the first thing you go and do? Take a child who's already been through too much and destroy his soul?"
"We have to do it to get rid of the Shadow Master and end the war!"
"And what then? You raise your son and live your life?" Young-Pyrrhus questioned and Pyrrhus himself nodded, although he imagined it would be a little bit more complicated than that, "Is that really what you want though? To build a life on the shattered soul of child as well as your nephew's blood? Is that what you want Oathan to see? You've done bad before but you've never wanted to be bad. Do you want Oathan to go bad?"
"No," Pyrrhus whimpered and shifted uncomfortably.
"Carver didn't want this, you don't want this. Just because your name is Pyrrhus, it doesn't have to mean you walk away with a Pyrrhic victory," his younger self told him pleadingly, "Don't do this. Let Antonius have a life that I couldn't have, do the right thing. Please."
Pyrrhus opened his mouth to protest again but the words died in his throat as his younger self faded away, leaving Antonius – who was behind the hallucination – standing in his place. He swallowed the words, he already knew what he was going to do.
"Ready to die?" One taunted Alaric and raised his hand, the werewolf's eyes widened and Antonius averted his eyes guiltily but neither made a sound.
"Don't," Pyrrhus hissed and Jack/One glanced at him as if not sure if he was talking to him, "And yes, I'm talking to you! Seriously, don't do it. We're not going through with this, we're done with this plan. It's a stupid, insane plan that involves sacrificing a child's soul and we're not going to do it. We'll find another way or another plan or just… something not destroying the kid."
"After everything, this is where you back out?!" a voice he expected to be Jack/One snapped but Pyrrhus was shocked to see Antonius rounding on him instead, the boy actually trembling with anger, "You murder my uncle, you kidnap me, you ally with a soul sucking monster, you cut of my friend's hand and train me up all to then just quit at the last hurdle?! That it was all in vain?! All that crap for nothing?!"
"I'm saving your life. It's the right thing."
"I don't care about my life!" Antonius yelled at him while Jack/One watched them argue in amusement, folding their arms, "I care about ending the war so the people I care about can live their lives! My life is already ruined, my soul is already broken. I don't care about that, I want to try your stupid plan."
"Well I'm sorry, Antonius, but it's my call and I say it's over," Pyrrhus stated firmly and mimed washing his hands of it while the boy's eyes narrowed darkly, "We're done here."
"Oh yeah? Because last I checked you're not the one we need," Antonius scoffed and turned to Jack/One, "Rip the magic out of Florian's soul and add it to mine."
"What?!"
Pyrrhus started in shock but Jack/One had already raised his hand to him, a shadowy blade of light streaking out to strike him and sending a sea of unbearable agony. It was the worst pain he'd ever been in. Worse than any physical injury, worse than any spell, worse than the Cruciatus Curse itself. The pain was on a level he couldn't describe, he felt as if he was being torn apart in every way, ripped from his very soul which was true.
In the split second of thought he had before the pain drowned it, he thought of his son. He couldn't leave Oathan all alone, he had to be there to take care of his child. He through his hand out desperately back at Jack/One, thinking only of his love for his young son who needed him and desire to survive to protect him.
"Expecto Patronum!" Pyrrhus shouted the words through screams he hadn't realized were leaving his lips.
There was a flash of silver light, he briefly saw it flash as a moth before it hit Jack/One. Then it was Jack/One's time to scream as the Patronus repelled him, breaking the magic-ripping connection. Pyrrhus wasted no time, tearing to his feet on shaking legs while the residual pain continued to savage him. He transformed back into a moth and fled into the night.
Antonius couldn't believe what had happened, what he'd said. The more he thought about it, the more he thought he was opposed to the plan just because of who had come up with it – and how they went about it certainly didn't help - and now his friends no longer had to die… Well it was worth a shot and it was something his friends wouldn't agree with, they all thought he was just a stupid kid who wasn't capable of anything when he was! He could do things. He was getting better at summoning, he was ready for this and willing to pay the price. He was pretty much dead already.
So when Florian decided against it, he panicked and a dark thought slipped into his mind that solved all his problems. Why not rip the magic from Florian's soul? It spared the innocent Minister and still got him the extra magic, Florian had thought of the plan but he was hardly needed now really. And he was insane. Why not kill the bad guy instead? He'd realized as soon as the words left his lips that it was unlikely Jack/One would comply with him, surprisingly he had though. Until Florian fought back and fled. He hadn't thought evil people were capable of casting a Patronus.
"Son of a whore," One spat irritably, shaking himself off and glaring after Florian before turning back to the Minister as they raised their hand to him, "Well that was fun but I guess you'll still die because now I'm hungry, weak and pissed."
"No!" Antonius burst out desperately, "Please, can't we just go after Florian or get a Shadow?"
"No! I need to feed off pain right now this second."
"Then c-can't you just… just…" Antonius fumbled over his words as he searched his mind for an answer, "Just like… take only part of his magic? Would… Would that let him live?"
"I have no idea, we've never tried that before," One pointed out irritably, eying him cautiously while the Minister vainly tried to free his hands still.
"Tr-Try it. If you really have to use him then just try it."
"Fine," Jack agreed testily and turned on the Minister immediately.
"No!" the Minister gasped.
Antonius watched guiltily as the man screamed against a pain that he was familiar with, writhing against the bounds holding him down. In reality it was probably only a few minutes but it felt like hours to Antonius, he felt a lump swelling in his throat and tears pricking his eyes as he recalled when the magic had been ripped from his own soul.
Finally, the Minister's body arched as much as being bound would allow and a sphere of light erupted from his chest. Not quite a sphere, Antonius realized, it was misshapen and twisted. The Minister slumped back against the ground breathing weakly, silent tears streaming from his navy eyes. Antonius wondered if it made a difference it was part magic, did he feel as bad as Antonius had? Would he survive this? Would he even want to survive this?
"I'm sorry," Antonius offered quietly and guiltily to the Minister, if the man heard him then he didn't show it as he neither responded nor turned his head.
"Ready?" Jack questioned and Antonius reluctantly nodded, there was no going back now.
Jack/One then gestured to him and the shadowy light holding the tormented orb like a tractor beam turned to him, the Minister's magic shot towards him. Antonius felt as if he'd been punched in the heart by a lightning bolt as it struck him, he was knocked back to the ground. His body arched and his eyes rolled into his head, he felt shocked as if electricity was tearing though his veins. The sensation faded but he was left with a different one, one of power.
"Oh crap, I just realized something," One cursed as Antonius sat up, panting for breathe but the thing was already heading for the door, "Florian has your wand, we'll be back."
Pyrrhus collapsed into the grass out of the air as the rush of adrenaline was drowned by the residual pain, transforming back into a human just to avoid any wildlife trying to eat him. He tried to apparate but Alaric had spells up against it. He gasped for breath, his body still shuddering uncontrollably from the agonizing attempt on his soul. He knew he had to keep going though, he had to get back to Oathan and get to safety before Jack/One found them. He tried to crawl, tried to force his body to move through the trembling and the pain.
His progress was pitifully unimpressive and slow, it did start to ease though and he managed to force himself to his feet to stagger onwards. He fell back onto the grass once or twice before he was finally able to walk weakly on his still shaking legs, fighting to get back to the car. He collapsed against the side when he reached it, only to see to his horror that Oathan wasn't inside. His heart seemed to stop for an instant, he swore it didn't beat.
"Looking for this?" One taunted and Pyrrhus turned to the left, seeing the man clutching his frightened son, "Give us the wand."
"Give me my son back," Pyrrhus tried to insist but it didn't have the same edge when he was still weak and gasping for breath, One raised their hand and Pyrrhus threw himself behind the car to avoid the soul destroying. He sat against it weakly, he couldn't win against Jack/One in his current state, "And stop trying to destroy my soul!"
"You're not in any position to be making demands, Pyrrhus," One said snappishly, "You're weak from your ordeal and in no condition to fight us, and thus you're left with two choices. Surrender and give us the wand then we destroy your soul, or resist and don't give us the wand then we destroy your son's soul and then yours and we'll take the wand off your corpse. This isn't going to end well for you, the only thing you have left to choose is how it ends for Oathan."
"Daddy, I'm scared!" Oathan cried fearfully.
Tears filled Pyrrhus' eyes, he tried to do the right thing and this was what happened? He sniffed tearfully, hating every second of this situation. Option A seemed better on the outside but then he'd still be leaving Oathan alone and he had no guarantee they'd actually keep their word, he had no way of knowing if he was dead. Option B was an utter loss. A third option came to mind, he could just apparate away because they were out of the range of Alaric's protection now. He thought he had strength enough for that. That was leaving Oathan though, still it bought him time to recover and find a way to save his son since they couldn't threaten his son if they killed him so they'd have to keep him alive… right? He hated Option C but at least it was his own.
"Well?" Jack demanded, "Because we're going to start destroying soon."
"Oathan, you… you know I love you right?" Pyrrhus called back to his son, the tears leaking from his eyes.
"I love you too, Daddy," Oathan's voice called back shakily, he sounded like he was crying.
"Then you just have to trust me now because I have to go but I promise that I'll come back for you, I swear it to you," Pyrrhus said, his voice breaking as he tried not to sob before he disapparated.
Carver also used this opportunity to finally slip into an empty compartment, he sighed unhappily as his rear was sore from a thrashing from Pegasus that morning. He was sure his stepfather had done it on purpose as he knew Carver would have to sit for a long train journey and sought to make it as uncomfortable as possible, well he was succeeding. Carver sat in painful boredom, waiting until the train started moving and then waiting some more. He wondered if counting the trees passing by the window would help him get to sleep, that would kill time.
The compartment door opened suddenly and Carver's attention snapped back to it, seeing a skinny boy his own age standing there. He was handsome, he had short black hair that stuck up chaotically and warm brown eyes, a face full of freckles and… and he had a tentacle for a hand. The boy hastily tried to hide it, looking rather embarrassed.
"D-Do you mind if I sit here? There's none empty," the boy said nervously.
"Sure," Carver shrugged and gestured for the boy to sit opposite him, the boy obliged looking relieved. He expected an explanation for the hand, a name, a greeting but the boy just sat there uncomfortably, "So um… Who are you?"
"Who am I?" the boy wondered, looking rather surprised, "You don't know?"
"Not a clue," Carver admitted and the boy looked rather affronted, "Why? Should I know you?"
"Of course you should know me! I'm Ja-" the boy started to say before stopping abruptly, looking rather like an epiphany had just occurred to him, "Yeah, Jay, that's who I am."
"Never heard of you, Jay."
"Good," Jay muttered irritably as he lounged back lazily in his chair, "Ever since I got on this train everyone just keeps hassling me."
"Why?" Carver wondered curiously.
"Because my dad is only like the mega most amazing famous guy in the wizarding world, everyone keeps asking me about him or stuff in general or wanting me to show them powerful magic or stuff in general."
"You're Harry Potter's son, aren't you?" Carver deduced and Jay nodded.
"James Sirius Potter," the boy admitted and tears started to fill his eyes, "I haven't even started Hogwarts yet and people expect so much from me, I have to live up the Potter name. But I failed, I'm not even in school and this mean Slytherin scumhole turned my hand into a tentacle which feels really weird and gross and ev-everyone l-l-laughed a-a-a-at m-m-eee!"
James then broke down crying, burying his face in his hand and… tentacle. Carver felt bad for him, he wasn't sure what to say to comfort him but he thought he could reverse the spell at least. He withdrew his wand for the first time in too long.
"Conversio," Carver cast and aimed it at James' hand shifted back into a regular human one, the boy stopped crying in shock and glanced up at him with blotchy eyes, "Does that help?"
"That helps," James sniffed and wiped his nose with his sleeve, "What's your name?"
"Carver Edwards."
"Carver's a cool name. Makes you sound tough," James offered and Carver laughed, blushed and smiled at the same time.
"Thanks, no one's ever thought my name was cool before," Carver admitted and James returned his smile weakly before holding out his human again hand to shake which Carver did, "Nice to meet you, Jay."
"Nice to meet you."
"Anything off the trolley, dears?" a kindly female voice offered as an elderly lady opened the door to the compartment, James wiped his eyes quickly.
"No, my parents didn't give me any money," Carver turned it down and felt a wave of disappointment, "I didn't even know there would be snacks."
"I got you covered, Carve," James said with a confident wink, sounding more sure of himself now as he took out a pocketful of gleaming Galleons that could only make Carver's jaw drop. He never got money, "What would you like?"
Scorpius felt a bit strange after Albus' revelation, he wanted his friends to be happy but Abby still seemed to be happy with Sequoia… And he did kind of like Sequoia too. He supposed like Albus he'd just have to wait and see what happened, Albus did seem to have taken his advice. That weekend Albus, Abby and Rose - along with everyone else in the year who'd had their birthday already – took their apparation test and all three passed. He also heard through his Potter/Weasley friends that Freddie and his girlfriend Caitlin had their second baby, it was another girl. They named her Louisa.
Of course for most of that week he just had to focus on training up his team for his Quidditch match that weekend, it didn't help he was battle Sequoia for custody of the pitch. It was his last year, Scorpius thought he was more eager to win then usual to leave with a cup. The day of reckoning finally came, he got an anti-sickness potion from Michael so for once his friend didn't end up losing meals from nerves. He felt nervous himself though, this was his first final match of the year as Captain. He had to not only beat Ravenclaw but make sure they scored enough to beat Hufflepuff for the cup as well, he paced anxiously in the changing rooms and found his team looking at him expectantly. He cleared his throat.
"Alright team, this is the final match of the year, the very final match for some of us," Scorpius began his pep talk and realized he had absolutely no idea what to say so he just rambled awkwardly, "We haven't had the best year. In Quidditch. But neither have Ravenclaw. We've both had some losses and some wins. Sequoia's a talented Seeker with a good team but so are we so we have to play hard but being on the same level means we have a chance of winning if we fight for it. And we want a win, we need a win, so go out there and win."
"Mate," Albus said as he stood to clap him on the shoulder with a sympathetic expression, "You're terrible at giving uplifting speeches."
"Oh shut up," Scorpius complained at him and shrugged off his arm, now feeling annoyed rather than nervous, "Come on people, let's get on the pitch."
They headed out onto the pitch to the cheers of the crowd, still finding it felt rather strange to be the one leading the team. He shook hands with Sequoia and idly wondered if Abby would still cheer for her house over her boyfriend's final match, he shoved that thought aside though because he needed to focus. Sequoia was good and Scorpius needed to win, he wanted to succeed at something this year even if it was just a stupid cup.
The Quaffle was released and the game began. Michael snatched it up in a crimson blur but the Ravenclaw Beaters were ready, they pelted at him with Bludgers and he was forced to drop the Quaffle to avoid it being knocked from his hand. A Ravenclaw Chaser was waiting ready, she caught it and shot back down the pitch to score only to be blocked by the Gryffindor Keeper as Rufus Rhett had managed to get to the rings in time. Scorpius gave him a thumbs up of encouragement and the boy beamed back as the game continued.
Sequoia had been training his team well, the Beaters were precise and on point especially and making his life difficult as a Seeker. Seeing how good they were, Scorpius was actually surprised his Beaters seemed to be holding their own. In fact, Scorpius started to notice his team seemed to be coming out on top. Michael was once again a star, within half an hour they were up 50-10 with four of those goals being from Michael. They were actually managing more or less to keep that margin ahead of Ravenclaw as the match went on.
Scorpius was relieved when he saw a streak of gold while the Ravenclaw Beaters were busy with the Chasers, he dived for it but so did Sequoia. He urged his broom to go faster, willing desperately because he wanted to win but Sequoia was still inching ahead with his faster broom and longer arms. He was going to get it, Scorpius felt his heart sink until- WHAM! A Bludger smashed into Sequoia's outstretched arm head on. There was a horrible breaking sound and Sequoia screamed in pain, he was almost knocked off his broom but Scorpius instincts overtook his logic sense as he grabbed Sequoia to stabilize him.
"Get the Snitch, Scor!" Kemen Arkaitz called desperately, the Beater who'd fired the Bludger.
Scorpius almost did for a second but Sequoia's face had drained of color, for a second Scorpius thought he'd pass out and fall off his broom. He didn't although his one handed grip was shaky, Scorpius cringed to look at the bloody, mangled hand. This wasn't something Sequoia could shake off, he'd need healing attention but still he seemed stable for the minute. He felt bad for Sequoia but… damn, he needed to succeed at something right now. Was it really necessary to guide him to the ground? Surely it wasn't something Sequoia would do for him.
So Scorpius left him to fly back down to the ground by himself to tear after the Snitch, the glimmer of gold. It turned though and in one of the most ironic moments of Scorpius' life, happened to pass right by Sequoia on his way to the ground. Sequoia lunged for it in desperation before Scorpius could reach it, he had to since he only had one hand and couldn't hold on anyway. He caught it but fell the final few feet to the ground, he raised his Snitch hand shakily and the crowd went wild before Sequoia's head lolled and his arm dropped as he seemed to pass out. Scorpius buried his face in his hand.
"And Ravenclaw win thanks to the valiant efforts of Captain Sequoia Pentakel, 240-120, putting them into joint first with Hufflepuff for the House Cup!" the female commentator whose name he didn't know announced happily while Scorpius landed in defeat, feeling worse than ever.
Despite the discomfort sitting caused, Carver no longer found himself hating the journey now he was sitting with James. They talked and laughed happily amongst themselves while engorging themselves on the cache of sweets that James had kindly bought for them to share together. Carver was delighted, it was so easy to talk to James and James wasn't being mean to him like the kids from the Training Tower. Of course he did do more listening then talking, James knew lots of things and had plenty to say whereas Carver was sort of afraid to say things. He wasn't supposed to talk about the Training Tower and he didn't want to whine about Pegasus to his potential friend lest he scare him off, he didn't mind listening though.
In fact, Carver was almost disappointed when the train came to a stop and the pair had to change into their Hogwarts robes. It was bitingly cold outside, Carver thought of using a charm to warm himself up but no one else seemed to be doing it and he wanted to fit in. He also understood what James was talking about before, once in the crowd again he was drawing looks as people pointed and murmured under their breath about the son of Harry Potter.
"Wow, the firstborn of Harry Potter," one boy was whispering rather loudly, "Do you reckon he's as amazing as his dad?"
"I don't think so," the girl he was talking to scoffed and giggled in amusement, "I heard he had his arm turned into a tentacle, Harry Potter would never have let that happen to him."
"Hey!" James snapped irritably at them and waved his hand furiously in their faces, "Look at my hands! What do you notice?! Oh wait, no tentacles!"
"I think they get the point," Carver offered and took James' arms, gently guiding the boy away despite the glares he continued to throw the dispersing pair, "Where do we even go nex-"
"Firs' Years! Firs' Years over here!" a loud voice seemed to answer Carver's question and he turned, almost starting in shock when he recognized the hulking being as a half-giant.
"Don't look so afraid, it's just Hagrid," James brushed it off and led him over, calming down after a final dark look in the direction of those kids, "Hey Hagrid!"
"'Lo James," the half-giant greeted him friendly and gave the boy a hug, when he pulled back his black eyes were watering and he wiped a tear away, "Yeh know, it felt like jus' yesterday when I was greeting yeh Dad fer his firs' time at Hogwarts too. Great man, yeh Dad."
"I know," James said seriously while Hagrid went back to calling for First Years, James tapped Carver on the shoulder and pointed out the boy he'd seen hassling the redheaded girl from before, "That's the boy who jinxed me, scumbag Slytherin."
"I think his name's Kyle," Carver offered as he recalled the girl saying as much, he also remembered hurtfully what he'd been called, "He called me Fatty."
"That's Slytherins for you, they're the worst. They're evil snake slime, pure evil," James explained to him darkly, "Watch out for anyone named Malfoy especially, a Malfoy was mean to my dad when he was in Hogwarts so you know anyone of that bloodline is going to be bad."
"If you say so," Carver shrugged, not wanting to disagree lest James hate him and he lose his potential friend but he wasn't sure he agreed. Plus, his mum had been a Slytherin so they couldn't be all bad. Would James be friends with him if he knew that?
"Come on, we're moving."
Carver went with James, Hagrid and the swarm of other First Years. Instead of cozy carriages, they went to rickety boats. At least he supposed the walk had given his butt a break from having to be sat on, the hard wooden boat was even more uncomfortable then the train and just when he thought he was used to it. Damn Pegasus. Apart from that the boat trip was rather pleasant, Carver had never been on a boat before – and rather liked the rocking sensation - nor seen the famous castle which was a rather magnificent sight and much more impressive than the ominous Training Tower. They sat with Hagrid who chatted away to James, it seemed the part-giant was a family friend. He was also surprisingly sentimental, Carver had always heard they were monsters like giants themselves.
They reached the castle and were led inside by yet another person James seemed to know, a man who introduced himself as Professor Longbottom yet expected to still be taken seriously. He explained about the Sorting and Houses, much of which James had already covered. When they finally got to go inside, Carver felt his nerves pricking up as they had to walk through four long full tables of older students already there. Standing waiting for them was a handsome man with a smile on his face and his arms folded, tall and lanky with neat dark black hair, contrasting with his very pale complexion which also made his dark eyes pop. He was dressed in muggle clothes and standing beside a stool with the tattered old hat on it, Carver might have actually thought he was a muggle if not the strange flurry of light dancing around him.
"Hi!" the man greeted them enthusiastically as he gave them a random sweeping bow, "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the most one, only and very best ever. We hope you'll enjoy your time here but first you need houses. When I call your name just come forwards, we'll drop this old grouch on your head and he'll call your house then just go to the table whooping with delight. So shall we begin?"
Part 2: Fighting Back
The Sorting started, Carver watched nervously as the names were called and they had to go sit before the whole school with the hat. He very much wished he had a last name that was further down the alphabet as all too quickly, the handsome assistant called 'Carver Edwards' to the stool. He approached nervously and the man magically dropped the hat onto his head, his heart was pounding but a second later it shouted:
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Carver felt a rush of relief for his short Sorting and went over to the cheering table with his new peers, his potential friend James also applauded from the middle of the students. He could only hope James would join him in Gryffindor, despite what Pegasus had said – in fact maybe because of what Pegasus had said – he was happy to get Gryffindor and not one of the houses his horrible stepfather had wanted for him. He waited in boredom as the ceremony was not as interesting now he was done, clapping on cue and listening to his stomach rumbling. Finally after 'Sequoia Pentakel' made Ravenclaw, 'James Potter' was called up. The hat took longer with him, James' freckled face was screwed up in a scowl until finally.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
James looked relieved and quite pleased with himself as he came on over to the Gryffindor table to squeeze in beside Carver, the cheer noticeably louder than it was normally for the son of the famous Harry Potter. The Sorting went on for a bit longer until finally, 'Roxanne Weasley' joined them in Gryffindor and the feast could begin. And what a feast it was, there was far more then they got at the Training Tower and just appeared on the table. Roast beef, chicken, pork and lamb chops, sausages, strips of bacon, thick juicy steak, steak and kidney pie, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, swede then all kinds of potatoes, boiled, roasted, mashed and enough gravy to drown a small cat.
Carver dug in hungrily, devouring the delicious meal which he felt was probably a once off treat. It was so much better than his mum's cooking. Because he was busy stuffing his face, he didn't say much but did listen as the other First Years introduced themselves. Most of the attention though was on James, people asking him about his famous father and how much like his father he was, how excited they were to have someone who'd be so obviously talented since he was the eldest son of Harry Potter after all. James kept a smile on his face but Carver thought he spotted a sliver of anxiety in those warm brown eyes at the expectations being laid onto him.
After the delicious feast complete with a mountain of desert, they were led to their Common Rooms by Prefects. The dormitory for their year was divided into several rooms with five large comfortable four poster beds in each, Carver was relieved to find he shared a room with James and in fact his bed was right next to his new friend. They were too full to do much more then climb into bed and close their eyes, he was looking forward to his education at Hogwarts... He just wished Ethan could also be there to enjoy it.
"So Florian got away with my wand?" Antonius wondered of Jack/One after they returned for him, phasing him back into some hotel room where Oathan already was. The small child desperately tugging at the clearly locked door.
With a flash, Antonius suddenly found himself in dark room that seemed to be a basement of some kind. Except he wasn't himself, he was closer to Oathan in size and he felt terrible. Like he was ill or something, he felt exhausted and weak yet till was desperately pulling at the doorknob. He was also crying, he could taste the tears and snot running down his face into his mouth.
"Mummy! Daddy!" he cried out desperately between sobs as he tugged uselessly at the door in a voice that wasn't Antonius' own, "I don't like it here, please! I'll be good when I turn, I promise! Mummy! Daddy!"
It was gone as quickly as it had started, Antonius was once again standing in the hotel room with Jack/One moving over to get Oathan away from the door. He was no longer crying or small, in fact he was quite certain he had neither moved nor spoken. It was more like he'd been experiencing a memory except it wasn't his memory.
"Get away from the door, there's a Silencing Charm on this room anyway," Jack/One was saying to Oathan as they pulled him away from it, the boy yanked himself free of their grip and moved away sulkily, "And yes, Antonius, Florian got away with your wand. As long as we have the boy though, we can use Oathan as a bargaining chip to get it back off him."
"You too?" Oathan spoke up and Antonius glanced at him, seeing the hurt wavering in his eyes and the look of betrayal on his face, "You turned on Daddy too?"
"Oathan, your dad is a bad person. We're doing the right thing here," Antonius told him determinedly and without remorse, Florian had kidnapped him, murdered his uncle and cut off is friends hand. There was no way he was in the right here, it wasn't betrayal if he'd never been on his side to begin with. He wasn't even on Jack/One's side, they were monsters. Poor Oathan was just unfortunate enough to be caught up in it all, "You're just too young to understand."
"Just cause I'm young, it doesn't mean that I'm stupid," Oathan snapped bitterly as he wandered over to the bedside table, he hung his head unhappily, "I undersand things. I undersand Daddy was right about you and everyone."
"Look…" Antonius started to say but trailed off as the violet eyes glanced back to him, the irony wasn't lost on him because he knew what it felt like to feel that way. This was different though, Oathan actually was too young to understand anything. The boy was only four and Antonius really didn't have time for this, taking in the magic meant he'd die… He'd really actually die. He swallowed and tried to take that thought with him, he couldn't think about that right now, "It doesn't matter what you think, I'm right and you're wrong. We need to figure out how to get my wand off Florian."
"And Calderon, we're going to need him," Jack added.
In another flash, Antonius saw Calderon lying on a bed in a cell staring blankly up… Then it was gone.
"Hey, when… when you took magic," Antonius began curiously, "Did you… Did you keep seeing things?"
"Seeing things?"
"Yes, I keep seeing flashes and I… I know it sounds nuts but I think it's the Minister's memories."
"It's not that nuts," One shrugged as they folded their arms, "Mind includes memories and is the link between soul and body, since magic is part of the soul it's not that bizarre for there to be a lingering connection."
"But you didn't have that?"
"No. But then the people we took magic from died, we ripped it all out of their soul whereas yours we only took most. Alaric living might change things."
"Great," Antonius muttered unhappily before hearing an odd click.
"You took my wand but not my gun or knife," Oathan stated and they both looked back to see the kid holding a handgun, aiming it up at Jack/One with a slightly trembling grip, "I want Daddy. Take me to Daddy and I won't press this button to make the gun hurt you."
"I'm sorry? Am I supposed to feel threatened?" One wondered in amusement and Antonius took in the situation, the four year old holding a gun to the fully grown teleporting, soul destroying man. It was just so unbelievably ridiculous he burst out laughing as did Jack/One, much to his own surprise as he couldn't remember the last time he laughed.
"Stop laughing at me!" Oathan whined but Antonius couldn't stop, he didn't even really know why he was laughing. It was stupid, it was just so stupid.
BANG.
Antonius jolted in shock, the laughter dying immediately as the gun went off. Oathan's arms jerked and he was thrown back from the recoil of the gun while a crimson spray erupted from Jack/One as they fell flat on their back. Antonius clambered over to him, seeing their body lying on the carpet with a bullet hole in the center of their forehead. He stepped back in surprise, Oathan had… Oathan had actually killed them? He couldn't believe it. Antonius couldn't muster sympathy, after all he hated him. He was a monster who killed innocent people, unfortunately though Antonius also had no idea how he was supposed to complete the plan by himself. He hated himself for needing that monster.
Then Jack/One sat up. Antonius almost fell back off the bed in shock as they sat up, their sapphiric eyes still dancing with shadows opened. Antonius could only gape as a trickle of blood slid down from the bullet hole still in his face, he casually withdrew his wand.
"Accio bullet," One cast and Antonius watched in shock as the bullet flew back out, Antonius caught the disgusting mangled piece of bloody metal while Jack cast a quick healing spell to heal the bullet wound before standing as if they hadn't just survived a fatal wound, "Accio gun."
"Wh-" Oathan started to say as the gun flew from his small, he gaped at Jack/One in equal surprise, "I thoughted being hurt in the head means you're dead."
"Apparently not," One stated darkly before turning the gun on Oathan and dropping to his level, he pressed the barrel against Oathan's scar.
"What are you doing?" Antonius asked an instant before One pulled the trigger causing another deafening bang, Oathan screamed but the bullet seemed to have just grazed his cheek, "Don't shoot him! What the hell?!"
"Hurts, doesn't it?" One questioned of the now crying boy as Oathan put a hand to his bloody wound, he nodded through his tears, "If you hurt me then I'll hurt you so don't you dare do anything like that again. Do you understand?"
"Y-Yes," Oathan stammered out tearfully and Jack/One stood, leaving him to clutch his wound and cry.
"I didn't know you could survive being shot in the head," Antonius pointed out as Jack/One m moved back to him, his shock wearing off.
"Neither did I," Jack admitted while Antonius felt sympathy for Oathan.
"Heal him."
"No."
"There's no reason for him to be in pain," Antonius insisted irritably.
"He has to learn or he's going to keep resisting," One countered firmly as they folded their arms once more.
"I think he learned his lesson, I say heal him."
"Yeah well just because we turned on Florian it doesn't mean we take orders from you, boy," One told him seriously, "And don't you forget it."
"I won't," Antonius said with a dark look at the specter-merged human before going over to Oathan, "Come on, let's get your wound looked at."
"Okay," Oathan sniffed as he allowed himself to be helped up so Antonius could bring him to the bathroom to clean it up, as he passed by Jack/One though he couldn't help a chilling thought strike him. If they could survive a bullet to the brain, what could actually kill them?
Carver came to sorely regret his optimism in the coming days, Hogwarts was not nearly as great as he thought it was. While he was used to classes, he wasn't used to homework as the work tended to be confined in the classes purely because they didn't get the vast amount of free time they got in Hogwarts. Also, while he was used to some classes – the spellwork ones and Potions – others seemed utterly pointless like Astronomy, Herbology – because it was mostly boring lectures about plants that they could've just read in text books – and History of Magic. He found it hard to stay awake during Binns' lectures, let alone be able to learn anything.
And on top of all that, he deliberately had to hold himself back to pretend he hadn't been to a magic school prior to Hogwarts. Then there was Flying, he hated Flying. The first class he'd broken his nose trying to summon the damn thing to his hand and had flat out fallen off – repeatedly – while trying to balance on it, much to the mocking amusement of his peers. James was better at it though and even went as far as to tryout to be on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Carver watched to support his friend. James fared much better than the other First Years foolish enough to try out but still could do with some improvement.
"So did I make the team?" James asked the Captain eagerly once it was over.
"Err… Well, for Harry Potter's son… Sure," the Captain agreed with a nervous smile, "Just as a Reserve though, we'll train you up this year and come next year I'm sure you'll be dominating. You'd make a fair Beater I think, you have a good swing."
"No, I want to be a Seeker," James insisted and stamped his foot determinedly, surprising the Captain.
"Err… Sure, we can work on that."
"Excellent," James stated eagerly and rushed to join Carver in his excitement, grinning from ear to ear, "Did you see that, Carve? I made Reserve to train me up and next year I'm going to get to be a Seeker just like my dad! Isn't that great? Aren't I great? Next year those other losers won't stand a chance against me."
"Good job, buddy," Carver offered and clapped his friend on the shoulder in congratulations.
"It just doesn't make any sense," Cel was complaining to him as Aurors wandered around the Minister's house to track his attackers, he seemed completely stumped.
"I agree," Harry admitted with sigh and rubbed his stinging eyes, sleep did not come easily when your eldest son and was a Shadow and your oldest friend had betrayed you.
"So Florian abducts Ashain's son, allies with this bizarre Specter-powered man to rip most of the magic out of the Minister of Magic's soul to give to Ashain's son then is betrayed by them and flees," Cel recounted quite accurately, "What the bloody hell is he playing at?! Literally, what in all of Merlin's ashes does he expect to gain from this? What does any of them? I knew Florian was nuts but I figured there'd be some kind of method to his madness even if it's extremely twisted. I'm really just at a loss here."
"I know," Harry agreed once more, he was as clueless as his protégé while he caught sight of the Healer coming back down from Alaric's room, "Head the search outside, I'll see how he's doing."
"Okay," Cel agreed and headed off while Harry approached the Healer, a woman he didn't know.
"Is he ready to be moved to St Mungo's yet?"
"No," the Healer told him and shifted uncomfortably.
"Why not?"
"Because he woke up while I was treating him and he doesn't want to go to St Mungo's, Minister Layton feels his injury has been adequately treated and would prefer to remain at home for his recovery."
"But that's insane," Harry protested incredulously while suspicion gnawed at his mind, "He had a piece of his soul ripped out according to him, surely that's worth having some extra care for especially with this 'condition' of his."
"I'm sure he has his reasons," the Healer mumbled and shifted once more, Harry frowned at her suspiciously.
"Do you know something I don't?"
"Erm… I… Maybe," the Healer admitted nervously, Harry took her arm and led her off into the stairwell away from the handful of Aurors still around.
"Look," Harry began and lowered his voice, "I know he's the Minister but I'm the Head Auror, if you know anything that I don't that's even remotely important you need to tell me. Times are too dangerous for me to not know things."
"It's just that erm… well… um…" the Healer stammered out, her eyes bulged anxiously before she took his arm and led him upstairs to ensure they were even further away from the others, "I'm not really supposed to tell you this so… Please don't tell anyone, I could lose my job."
"Okay. What is it?"
"Well… Okay…" the Healer agreed and took a deep breath before continuing, "While I was treating his shoulder Acutus caused injury, I noticed an older injury. A bite."
"A bite?" Harry repeated in confusion and the Healer nodded before dropping her voice to a whisper.
"He's a werewolf."
"He's a-" Harry started to say in shock and the Healer just nodded knowingly, he swallowed, "Thank you for telling me, you can go now. I'll talk to him."
The Healer nodded yet again before heading back downstairs while Harry stalked off to get to Alaric's bedroom, he barged in without bothering to knock. The Minister was lying propped up in his large double bed, his pajama top was unbuttoned revealing some of the bandages around his injured shoulder. Harry slammed the door behind him and Alaric's navy eyes flicked open, drifting to him weakly.
"You're a werewolf?!" Harry burst out at him angrily and from the look on Alaric's face he was cursing himself mentally, "This whole time your condition, the reason you miss work, the reason I have a hard time trusting you was just because you're a werewolf?!"
"I guess," Alaric mumbled tiredly.
"How long have you been a werewolf for?! Why did you impose a law about the werewolf bracelets if you are one?! Wh-"
"Would you calm down? There's no need to yell," Alaric insisted, sounding a bit more like himself and Harry went over to sit by him, "And if you must know I was bitten by Greyback during the Second War, I was five and Voldemort set him on me because my daddy didn't do what he was told. I imposed the law for political reasons, tensions were high and I had to seem like I was doing something while doing nothing. Okay?"
"No, it is not okay! You lied to me."
"Oh get over yourself, Potter," Alaric stated irritably, rolling his eyes, "I didn't lie I just omitted the truth. Nothing personal, I do that with everyone."
"You have to tell the public the truth."
"No, you have to join me in keeping it secret," Alaric said and Harry opened his mouth to object but Alaric cut him off, "I know you don't care but other people would, it's a sensitive issue right now. If it gets out I'm a werewolf, it risks inciting a civil war over the subject when we need to be focused on stopping the Shadows right now. Try think about this from a political standpoint, whether you like politics or not it's important. Not to mention I'll either lose my job or have to step down, you may not be my biggest fan but there are worse people who could replace me. Okay?"
"Okay," Harry agreed hesitantly although he was still annoyed at the secrecy, they did have more pressing concerns.
"Don't tell anyone. And I mean it, not a soul. We don't want another Leebin incident," Alaric said and Harry felt a pang of guilt as he recalled the whole thing, "Unless I die then who the hell even cares."
"You think Florian wants you dead?"
"I just had a large chunk of my soul torn out, I'm not sure that I'm not dying right now."
"How are you feeling?" Harry asked, realizing Alaric's attack had managed to slip his mind.
"In a word? Bad. Really, really bad," Alaric admitted and his flicked back to him seriously, "You have to find them, Harry, I need my soul to be whole again. And to a wider extent this guy who can rip parts of people's souls out and teleport in past apparation wards is extremely dangerous, Patronuses seem to hurt him though so that's something. The public should be warned."
"For once I agree."
Worst of all about Hogwarts though, was the bullies. Carver had had a hard time before but having his dad in a position of power and his own talents had helped, this time though he didn't have his dad able to help him and he had to hold back to maintain his cover. The bully boy he'd first seen on the train he learned was named Kyle Nott, he seemed to make it his personal mission in life to make them miserable. Not that other Slytherins were much better, plenty seemed to have it out for Harry Potter's son and his fat friend. James was too proud to ask for help though and denied it if asked.
"They'll think less of me if I complain," James insisted unhappily, "My dad never went whining to teachers when he was in trouble, he always came through."
Carver supposed Hogwarts wasn't all bad, he did have a friend at least even if he couldn't be entirely honest with him about his past and he was away from Pegasus plus the food was great. Well mostly, his stepdad still wrote to him even if it seemed to just be to complain about his house or berate him for his failures. His mum wrote albeit less frequently, usually to either complain about pregnancy or praise Pegasus for stupid things like telling her he was pleased she was carrying his child or that he thought she was still beautiful. If he wrote back with too much mention of his own life, he was chastised for selfishly going on about his own problems by Pegasus or according to Pegasus as his mum insisted. His dad wrote even more infrequently but his words were kinder albeit as self-centered and oblivious to Carver as usual.
Contrary to feeling upset about the doomed situation his life seemed to be in, he felt increasingly angry. It sucked that he felt as if he couldn't catch a break and it wasn't fair dammit, why should his life have to go wrong when no one else's seemed to? Why did he have to a lousy stepfather like Pegasus? Why did he have to have the most self-centered parents in the world? Why did he have to have a million siblings his parents cared more about them him? Why did he have to get picked on constantly? What right did they have to treat him that way?! What had he ever freaking done to deserve this?! He knew he wasn't perfect – no one was - but he was hardly the worst person in the world still, he was only eleven.
He was so angry, he could feel this rage building up inside him with every spell, with every insult, with every mocking line of Pegasus' letters. He just felt so angry, he just wanted to explode, he just wanted to hit someone, hurt someone so his pent up rage had a target. Christmas was upon them before he knew it though, he just tried to bury it back down inside as he returned home. James was in better spirits, excited to see his family again and celebrate both his twelfth birthday and Christmas. Carver's holiday was about as lousy as he expected, his dad only stopped by briefly to see him once and he didn't see Ethan or his other siblings at all, Pegasus was his usual cruel jerk self – although seemed slightly kinder to his pregnant wife - and his mum seemed more moody then usual and constantly craving a weird food combination. Going home did make him realize one thing though: as much as he disliked Hogwarts, he disliked home even more.
Scorpius was miserable following his loss to Ravenclaw and secluded himself in the dormitory as much as possible, he couldn't believe that he'd failed. He'd failed his team, he'd failed his friends, he'd failed his house, he'd failed whoever had been foolish enough to put any faith in him. What had possessed them to do that? Didn't they know he was a failure? He failed to stop the Shadows, he failed to save Antonius, he failed to save Calderon, he failed to save Leebin, he failed to apparate, he even felt as if he'd failed himself or at least his morals by trying to get the Snitch instead of helping Sequoia which ironically would have allowed him to catch the Snitch. Could he do nothing right?
"Are you seriously still moping about this?" Albus questioned of him as they trudged down to breakfast on Monday, "I'm bummed we lost too but, come on."
"You wouldn't understand, it's not your responsibility," Scorpius pointed out bitterly, keeping his head hung.
He went through the day unhappily, he was glad at least that they were piling on the NEWT work as the end of year was nearing as it gave him something to do to distract himself from his failures. Maybe he was just imagining it but he was sure the other Gryffindors kept looking at him, they knew what a failure he was, everyone did. He just wanted to curl up in his dormitory and be alone or alternatively drown in difficult work some more, for that reason he was both relieved and disappointed when the last class of the day – Alchemy – rolled around. He stayed behind unhappily to help Rojer pack things away.
"You know that you do not have the obligation to stay and help," Rojer pointed out, drawing Scorpius away from his thoughts, "If this does make you so upset then go."
"It's not that," Scorpius admitted and shook his head as he deposited the last of the equipment into the sink where Rojer was washing them, "I just have other things on my mind."
"Uh-huh."
"Have you ever failed at anything before?" Scorpius wondered as he started to dry and put away the equipment Rojer washed.
"No, I am the perfect human being and I never have failed," Rojer stated with dry sarcasm before glancing at him neutrally, "Yes, of course I have done this."
"I feel like I've been failing a lot recently, that's why I'm upset not from helping you."
"Is this still because of the boy that was taken? Because you know this is not the responsibility of yours."
"It is partly because of… It's a long story," Scorpius changed his sentence midway through as he put away the last of the equipment.
"Are you ever going to finish telling me this longer story from the before?" Rojer wondered and Scorpius glanced at Ashylos' son who was drying his hands.
Scorpius had forgotten he'd promised to tell Rojer about his history with the Shadows. He was about to say no or at least not right now but… well maybe it would be good to tell a neutral outsider, it couldn't hurt and at least it meant he could stay with Rojer in isolation for a bit longer instead of going back to face the world. And so they sat down and Scorpius told him, he told him about his abduction and killing Marvin, about the Blood Runes and sacrificing his friends, about Varanian's possession and stopping the Shadow Master. He told him about when the Shadows were after him, about the wrist scar connection, about saving the Scamanders, about the Shadow Master being in a coma and how he revived the guy then let him go.
He told him about the werewolf army, about the broken souls, about the search for the Shadow professor, about Florian's flight and Michael turning. He told him about the Scepter, at least what he hadn't told him already then about the revelation of the Shadow Master being Voldemort's son, saving Varanian from his arrest, the attack on Hogwarts and repelling them, the birth of Gray and finally his year of failing. Glossing only over things he deemed more personal and irrelevant to the Shadows as well as details regarding his contact with Varanian, plus the location of the base. Rojer listened in absolute silence with his usual unreadable grim expression, listening quite patiently.
"Interesting," Rojer mused finally when he was done.
"Interesting? That's all you have to say?" Scorpius wondered in surprise and Rojer gave a half-shrug.
"I am not one who says much of what I think of out loud. But you should not have worry, if anything Florian probably took Antonius because of my father's wand not to hurt him like you have been."
"Why would he want Ashylos' wand?" Scorpius questioned in confusion, "And if he wanted the wand then why take Antonius?"
"Because of the wand was originally part of Herpo's Scepter as a whole, they may be separate but they will always have this connection. Alone that may not mean much but since the wand chose Antonius, it trumps the blood connection this Shadow Master has. Florian might think he can have use it and Antonius to get Herpo's Scepter off the descendant."
"Why?"
"I don't know, I am not aware of the goals of this man I have not met," Rojer scoffed irritably, "Why does any people do anything?"
"Would that actually work though?" Scorpius wondered worriedly, "I mean the Shadow Master is pretty powerful, like insanely powerful."
"This is probably why he wished for the connection to be broken to the scarred wrists, to weaken this descendant somewhat. I do not know if it would have work, when Pancratius died he cursed my father and his bloodline. My father was immortal and his children could live longer lifes then most of the wizards, well into the two hundred years and are powerful with reflexes better than the most have. It is weaker as the generations go by so I do not know where this Antonius stands or to compare to the Shadow Master, he is also a child with a broken soul so may be more in tune with the magic he has. These Shadow Master is powerful though, Scepter or not. The connection made to have be able to access your magic means it was a connection of the soul, this was not done with the Specters, this was done by his self."
"How is it done if not through Specters?"
"Through power and will," Rojer offered dismissively, "Soul is the hardest of the magics in practice but also one of the most simple in theory. As you know, magic is part of the soul because magic is the soul. Muggles may not have the consolidation of magic they can use as wizards can but the soul itself is still power, a raw energy of life that exists in all of us. It is hard to break this powerful thing and even harder when we cannot see it because the soul is on a different plane, hard but not impossible. Power and will go a long way in manipulating the soul similar with the mental arts or non-verbal tasks like the apparation, some knowledge and the ability to see the soul through the Specters eyes would help them with this."
"Scor?" a voice called and they both glanced to the door to see Maurice wandering in, his remaining hand went to his necklace, "What are you doing up here? Don't you know what you're missing?"
"Dinner?" Scorpius guessed, annoyed at the interruption.
"Japan just fell to the Shadows."
Carver was actually glad to be going back to Hogwarts, he was however surprised to find that James didn't share in his enthusiasm. On the contrary, he hid himself away unhappily in the corner of his compartment looking as if he wanted to cry.
"What's wrong, Jay?" Carver asked gently as he sat down beside his friend, putting a hand on James' shoulder.
"You know my dad's invisibility cloak that I told you about?" James prompted and Carver nodded in confirmation, "That special cloak passed down in the Potter family in generations from father to firstborn son."
"You've told me."
"At Christmas my dad gave it to my younger brother, Albus," James told him and looked at him with tear-filled eyes, "My dad gave it to my brother. H-He doesn't think I'm g-good enough to be his s-son, he loves Al-Al more than he does me."
"I'm sure he-" Carver started to say but James burst into tears, he instead awkwardly put his arm around him and James buried his face against Carver's shoulders to cry and Carver realized idly he kind of liked being that close to James, "I'm sure he loves you just as much, I mean he's a famous hero, he's good so he must."
"He doesn't! If he did then he wouldn't have given it to Albus!" James sobbed angrily, "H-He said he thinks Al-Albus is more responsible for it then me b-but I've been tr-trying s-s-so hard to be responsible, I h-haven't pranked an-anyone, I hav-haven't gotten in trouble, I tr-tried on my work b-but he still thinks my brother is better than me!"
"Well, I erm… I'm sorry," Carver offered unsurely, parents had their favorites – his mum with the unborn baby and his dad with Viola – which sucked but was true and there wasn't anything you can do about it. Instead he just hugged his friend to comfort him before the door slid open.
"Hugging each other? Gay," a voice mocked and they both turned to see Kyle Nott standing there smugly.
"Beat it, Nott!"
"Why what'cha going to do fatty? Scare me with a musical number? Smother me with your rolls of flab? Eat me?"
"Are you causing trouble?" the elderly voice of the kindly Trolley Lady complained, Carver couldn't see her but he saw the trolley come into view beside Kyle, "Because I can pass your name along to the prefects if you are."
"No, I was just… stretching my legs," Kyle insisted and stalked off without further incident, much to Carver's relief. He bought some sweets from her while James seemed to calm down, anger seeming to replace his tears.
"I'm sick of being picked on by those slimy snake scum," James announced bitterly as he tore into the wrapper of his Pumpkin Pasty, "If they can get us, we have every right to get them, get some payback. You up for some revenge, Carve?"
"Definitely," Carver agreed in surprise, he was sick of it too.
Antonius had not been having a great few weeks, he didn't know what he'd expected but he felt as if time was crawling by exceedingly slowly. A whole lot of nothing was happening, he was now more confident than ever on his summoning but it was too bad they still hadn't managed to get his wand back from Florian. It was hard to use Oathan as leverage to force Florian to give him the wand back when they couldn't actually find Florian, since he was a fugitive and all he didn't exactly have an address.
In the meantime, he was still getting flashes of the Minister's memories – although he thought that actually might be useful – and they were running out of time before the Shadow Master attacked. And on top of that, the more time Antonius had to think about things the more time he had to think about things. He missed his sister's ninth birthday and it made him realize that he'd never be there for one of her birthdays again, adding magic to his soul meant he'd die. He tried not to think too much about it but her birthday really got to him, he was really going to die. Despite everything, despite not feeling alive, despite not being particularly happy, he didn't want to die. He wanted to be there for his sister's birthdays, he wanted to see the look on his dad's face when he – hopefully – made Ravenclaw when he started Hogwarts.
He didn't want to die, not really. Maybe it was selfish but sometimes he did truly wish he hadn't so hastily given himself a death sentence, maybe he should've heard Florian out. If he didn't get his wand back and they didn't find Calderon and got him to agree then it would all be for naught anyway, he didn't want to have killed himself for nothing. He didn't want to die knowing the war still waged and everyone he loved was still at risk, which he supposed was a chance anyway since he had no idea if the plan would work even if everything went perfectly. He could only hope it would because he wanted to win, at least then he could die knowing his sister would definitely live to have other birthdays even if he couldn't be there. He missed them. He selfishly also hoped he'd win just so he could see them again, even if it was just for a little while. It had been less than six months that he'd been gone but it felt like so much longer. And it would be even longer when he died, he'd never see them again then.
"Your eyes are leaking," One taunted and Antonius hastily wiped his eyes, tearing them away from the people walking their dog that had triggered the memories of his family, "You alright?"
"Alaric just really hates ketchup," Antonius lied as he went back to nibbling at his food, well it wasn't a lie but it wasn't why he'd been upset.
"Enough to cry?"
"Shut up," Antonius snapped although it did remind him of what he'd been about to say before he was side tracked, "I've learned quite a lot about what Alaric is like, you know? From his memories."
"And?"
"And some of those memories are of this muggle woman," Antonius recounted, he did have quite a few rather interesting memories of her, "Claudia her name was. She was this woman that he dated, that he loved – and still does I think, that he was even going to marry at one point but his severe trust issues had her end it."
"Not getting why this guy's love life is relevant," One complained and Antonius set down his knife and fork to look his captor turned ally in the eye.
"It's relevant because she's one of the few people he trusts and she's the one he came to when he needed to hide Calderon," Antonius explained and One also set down his cutlery, giving him his complete attention, "He gave her money to rent a muggle place, it's harder for magical records to trace. That's where Calderon's hidden. We find her, we find him."
"We can find her if we know her name, her full name."
"Good thing I know it then, isn't it?"
Part 3: Time and Triangles
And so they started on their revenge, James introduced him to the concept of 'pranking' which they used on Slytherins in their own year since they couldn't get to Kyle. Carver found it all… rather tame, he'd learned of torture and murder but James' idea of revenge was unleashing a bad smell upon their enemy? Carver knew he was trying to abide by their societal conventions but did he really have to go along with something that was so pathetic? He decided it couldn't hurt to try steer James into more effective ways of fighting back, with any luck there'd get to a happy medium between James' pathetic pranks and his own overly vicious ideas.
It did wonders for James' self-confidence at any rate and kept his mind off his father's favoritism, cheering him up and bringing a smile to his face, it made Carver feel better about being picked on too. Punishing the Slytherins also made them more popular with their fellow Gryffindors, a couple of other boys started hanging out with them too and joining in on the pranks. Carver couldn't help but fear that James would abandon him because he liked these new kids anyway, normal kids who hadn't spent years in the Training Tower removed from regular society. Carver only felt more upset in fact, his parents replaced with new kids and now his first friend was going to replace him with better friends. At least taking that rage out on random Slytherins made him feel somewhat better.
Easter was upon them before he realized and this time, it was insisted upon that he return home because they wanted him to see the newly born baby. Pegasus named her Maeghan using Meg as a nickname, Carver found in unbelievable that after forcing his mum to lose her name he could have the nerve to use it on the baby just to make his mum think he loved her. Maybe it was even more believable that his mum actually seemed to believe it, was it really so hard to see that he was just so obviously manipulating her? Apparently not. And the new baby herself… He was used to his dad having babies but he'd never had to sleep near them or help with them unlike now when the baby seemed to cry all of the time, if it wasn't hungry it had a dirty diaper and if it didn't need a diaper change it was hungry. He thought his mum was right in the first place, children were exhausting and he didn't know why people wanted them. He was more than glad to return to Hogwarts where at least he'd a night of uninterrupted sleep.
Scorpius could only feel increasingly anxious, the fall of Japan marked ten countries under the Shadows' control. That made ten countries now under their control, too many. Not to mention the fact that with that much power, it made it even more worrisome if Rojer was right about Florian planning to pit Antonius against the Shadow Master. He wasn't the only one worried, the political world seemed to blow up on the wireless and in the papers. Muggles wanted more than ever to take action – there were talks about 'missile strikes' from the United States which apparently was bad – and the wizard governments were trying desperately hard to calm them, insisting it was a magical issue. Their own Minister, Alaric Layton, was reported as being ill so England was less involved with this debate.
Scorpius did have his own issues to deal with though, the next Hogsmeade trip was that weekend. He hadn't forgotten about what Molly had said when experiencing her premonition, about wishing Martha had come on the trip even though she wasn't technically allowed. He had no idea how or why but he'd rather the girl be there just in case, Molly was a Seer and he knew better then to ignore what she said. Of course, that also meant getting Martha to agree to it. He hadn't talked to the girl since Maurice had argued with her and after Carver's death, he had no idea how willing she'd be to go along with him. He had to try though.
And so he used the map to locate Martha, keeping an eye on it in his spare time and waiting until he noticed she was alone before going to her. He found her at the top of the Astronomy Tower, sitting with her knees hugged to her chest and staring out at the grounds. She glanced at him as he approached before looking back out, he sat down beside her nervously.
"Hey," Scorpius offered in greeting which had her shift her cloudy gray eyes to him.
"Hey," Martha said in turn and he shifted uncomfortably, what was the best way to approach this?
"So um… What you doing up here?"
"Auriga is close to her father, when she visits him I like to wait outside," Martha explained and gave a half-shrug, "I like the view, reminds me of home."
"I thought you were in the Shadow school?"
"I was, the Training Tower it's called and you can see from miles into untouched scenery like here, that's home. Dad lived there since he taught, it's where I grew up. It may not be the nicest environment but the view is good. And I had family there."
"I'm sorry about your brother," Scorpius offered as sincerely as he could considering Carver had been bad although he supposed he had shown the occasional glimmer of humanity, more than James at least. And regardless, he could sympathize with the loss of a sibling and Martha averting her eyes sadly. He didn't wish that upon her.
"It's okay. First Dad, now Carver, I'm not a fool. I know war has risks, so did he," Martha offered quietly before meeting his eyes once more, "So what did you really want to talk to me about? Somehow I doubt it was to talk to my brother."
"No, I didn't," Scorpius admitted and shifted awkwardly again, "I wanted to… um… ask you if you'd like to come to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?"
"What? Really? Me?" Martha wondered in shock, looking completely taken aback and Scorpius' mind took that moment to recall that she supposedly had a crush on him "Why?"
"Because… Okay this is going to sound a little weird," Scorpius began and tried to think of what to say, he didn't want her to get the wrong idea. It was probably best to just go with the truth, he had no reason not to, "But my girlfriend is a Seer and last time I saw her she had a vision of something bad happening but you coming to Hogsmeade with me might help stop it maybe."
"So you want me to go with you to Hogsmeade because it might help with something bad that could happen?"
"Well when you put it like that it sounds rather stupid," Scorpius realized in embarrassment and Martha laughed in amusement, "Okay, I know it doesn't sound like much but... these visions shouldn't be taken likely. If you're really in this because you want to help, you should come and even if it amounts to nothing you get a trip to Hogsmeade out of it. And if nothing else, do it because you owe me one for trying to murder me."
"Fair point," Martha nodded in understanding, "Okay, I'll go with you."
Carver returned to Hogwarts and was happy to be reunited with James, plus it was nice to be able to sleep again and getting back at the Slytherins was a good way to vent his frustrations. It didn't help James was still friends with those other kids, they were chatty and normal then he was. He feared more than ever James would abandon him, feeling increasingly more jealous and angry that he was spending so much time with those clowns. Ultimately to the point he was so moody that James actually seemed to notice.
"What is going on with you lately?" James complained at him one of the days after he snapped at the other friends for something stupid.
"Nothing," Carver grunted irritably, causing his friend to frown.
"Well okay then, let's meet up with the others and-"
"Then go meet up with the others!" Carver barked at him in frustration, further confusing James.
"How about we try one of your pranks then?" James offered instead as a lone Slytherin from their year walked by, Carver raised an eyebrow at him but his friend, "Hey snake scum!"
The Slytherin glanced at them just in time for James to smash his fist into the Slytherin's face in passing, sending the small boy to the ground. James shook off his punching hand with an expression of surprise before a smile slipped onto his face.
"Why didn't you tell me it feels so good to hit someone?" James queried of him as he withdrew his wand, "It's such a rush."
"What did you do that for?" the Slytherin boy wondered, his eyes watering.
"Quiet you!" James snapped at him before glancing back at Carver while keeping his wand on the boy to discourage fleeing, "So now what? You're the one with the spell knowledge."
"I'm not really in the mood," Carver brushed it off.
"Is that not why you're mad at me? For not using your ideas more?"
"Of course not!"
"Then why?" James pressed, looking completely confused and Carver sighed heavily.
"Can… Can I go?" the Slytherin asked as he looked between them, James jerked his head indicating he could leave and watched him go darkly before his attention shifted back to Carver as he folded his arms.
"Well? Talk to me."
"I'm scared that you'll replace me with your new friends," Carver admitted and found his voice cracking from a lump in his throat, he wiped his eyes hastily and realized how pathetic he sounded.
"Carver," James began and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, Carver felt his heart skip a beat, "I could never replace you, those guys may be my friends but you're my best friend."
"Really?"
"Really," James assured him and Carver smiled, James returned it and pulled him into a hug that Carver happily returned.
Albus Potter was miserable. After wrestling and trying to figure out his feelings for months, he'd come to realize he loved Abby. Except she was dating Sequoia Pentakel and his friends insisted the best thing to do was just to wait it out, doing that was so hard though. She was one of his best friends, he saw her every day and he saw her every day with him. It was so hard to be around that, it always had been but now to realize why just made it that much harder.
He knew his friends had advised silence but dammit, it wasn't easy to keep his feelings to himself. He couldn't even stand to be alone with her recently because he itched to vomit words at her, to kiss her and hold her and tell her he loved her. And he really wanted to tell you. Not just because it felt wrong to keep it bottled up but because he lived in fear that he was really going to lose her, he was going to lose her because he just sat there and watched her walk away with another man. She and Pentakel seemed to be going strong and despite being dull as mud he had a lot going for him, he had a lot of badges, he got better grades then Albus, he was a more talented flier then Albus… Albus probably trumped him in looks but only because Pentakel was scarred from his werewolf mauling and even then he thought Pentakel was more physically fit. If he didn't fight for her, he doubted she'd even notice him as a romantic candidate.
Since his class schedule was lighter than his friends and one of his classes was Astronomy at night – obviously – anyway, he had more breaks then him. Without fail, every morning he had a break while most if not all of his friends had other classes. He knew they were supposed to be used for the avalanche of homework but he tended to just use them to nap, he did have Astronomy cutting into his sleeping time every weeknight so he considered it justified. He needed his naps especially since he tossed and turned so much, he worried about the war and everything too. He just didn't like talking and thinking about it every waking second, he didn't think he could cope if he did. Thursday was the only exception, after Charms Abby and Rose also had free as well while the others were in Alchemy. These days, he left the girls to do… whatever while he went to his dormitory to nap.
"Hey Al!" Abby called after him, causing him to freeze stupidly in shock instead of continuing on and pretending to not have heard her in the dispersing Charms crowd like a smarter person would've done, "Wait up!"
"Hmm," Albus mumbled uselessly while he his insides felt as if they were solidifying, where was Rose when you needed her? She'd wanted to ask Grant about something.
"Where are you going in a hurry?" Abby wondered as she caught up to him.
"To nap," Albus shrugged her off and she frowned at him worriedly.
"Are you okay, Al?"
"Fine."
"You just seem a little… distant lately," Abby offered unsurely with notable concern in her tone, she touched his arm gently and he felt his innards crumbling, "If there's something on your mind you can talk to me about it, you know that right?"
"I know," Albus whispered and met her gaze, his stomach squirming. Did being able to talk to her about anything include being in love with her? "I'm okay."
"Are you sure? I know it must be rough about James and Loui-"
"I'm sure," Albus insisted more forcefully then he meant to but she did back off like he'd wanted.
"Okay," Abby said in defeat as she made to move away, "Enjoy your nap, I was going to go meet Sequoia anyway since he's also free now."
"You're going to meet…?!" Albus started to say before angrily trailing off, frustration getting the better of him that even when she was being concerned about him it was only her way to meet freaking Pentakel, "You know what's on my mind?! That!"
"I know you don't like Sequoia but I've told you before, it's none of your business," Abby shot out defensively, folding her arms crossly, "What is your problem with him anyway? We're in love and we're happy, you should be glad for us."
"L-Love?" Albus stammered out in surprise, feeling tears prick his eyes and a hopeless lump swelling in his throat. If they were in love it was serious, it was just as he feared he was losing her. Despite what his friends had said, he felt he had no choice and the cracked words came from his lips, "W-Well w-would it make a difference if I told you that I love you?"
"Alb- What?!" Abby wondered in absolute shock and he took her hands desperately.
"Abby, I love you. With all my heart and soul, Pentakel couldn't possibly love you as much as I love you. I know on paper he seems great but he seriously the dullest person on the planet while we've known each other all our lives, I know you better than he ever could and I'd make you happier than he ever would."
"It's just a crush," Abby told him but she didn't pull away, "Al, you get these 'love' feelings all the time but-"
"No! I don't, not like this," Albus protested and squeezed her hands to pull her closer to him, irrationally fearful if he lost her hands he'd lose her forever, "At first I thought it was nuts too but I've been thinking about this for months, trying to figure it out and I figured out that I love you. That's why I couldn't stand it when you dated Corin or Sequoia. Because you shouldn't be with them, you should be with me because I love you. And I know you at least considered it before."
"I considered it but I got over it… Look, Al, I love you-"
"Abby?" an unwelcome voice said and they both turned to see Sequoia Pentakel standing there, a look of utter hurt dawning on his face. For a second Albus was confused why before realizing they were still holding hands and her words could be taken out of context, he was assuming the worst. He turned away with tear-filled eyes and for the first time, it occurred to Albus that maybe Pentakel did possibly genuinely care about her… slightly.
"Sequoia, wait, it's not what it looks like!" Abby protested and tore her hands away from Albus to run after him, pulling him back desperately, "I was just telling Al I loved him as a friend."
"From where I was standing it didn't look like friendship!" Sequoia shot out angrily, his voice cracking as if trying not to cry.
"Sequoia, please!" Abby yelled desperately but he brushed her aside and continued stalking off, she watched him go with hurt-filled eyes.
"Oh, who needs him," Albus offered awkwardly, trying to be comforting and her eyes flashed to him angrily before she also walked away. Albus buried his face in his hands, what had he done?
Feeling more secure after that, Carver found the last few months of his First Year passing by much more enjoyably and James started taking more of his own 'pranks' into account too. Carver was disappointed to return home, back to his psychotic stepfather and screaming baby sister. He found himself increasingly jealous of Meg, he hadn't realized before how much attention babies got while all he got was yelled at to do things. He supposed at least Pegasus was laying off him so he could help his mum with the baby, Pegasus desperately seemed to want kids but not to spend time with them. He left that to his mum and Carver while already starting to make comments about needing a second child since he needed a son to continue the family name not just a daughter, Carver couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts.
On the bright side, he did get to see his dad over the summer along with his paternal half-siblings including Ethan who seemed rather solemn. They were better to be around then Meg, they didn't require constant attention and they were people not crying poop machines. He was still glad to be back on the train to Hogwarts with James and their other friends though, he hoped it would be a good year. James was all excited too, looking forward to getting to be a Seeker. Their journey was interrupted though by randomly coming to a halt, where someone cast the Shadow Mark into the sky. Of course Carver was the only one who recognized it, he didn't say anything lest he out himself. It was written off as a prank but Carver knew different, still nothing seemed to come of it so they'd probably gotten whatever they wanted secretly.
The year got off to a further bad start where James' Seeker dreams were crushed by some First Year getting the spot even though James still made Beater, earning the boy a permanent spot on James' hate list, right up there with Kyle Nott and also coming from a Slytherin family didn't help even though he made Gryffindor. It didn't help that a boy from their year became the Ravenclaw Seeker, earning himself a spot on James' hate list too out of jealousy. Another First Year Gryffindor also joined them after standing up to James in defense, he later earned the nickname 'Dragon-breath' after being the recipient of a spell causing him to cough up fire which Carver had taught James. Kyle was picking on them less though, that was good.
Christmas was crept up on him before he realized, he chose to stay as he figured what was the point? His mum would only care about the baby and he learned in a letter that she was expecting her second child, frustrating him further and giving him more fuel for pranking. He was glad when James returned although as the year progressed, he had the increasing feeling that something was happening behind the curtain he wasn't aware of. He brushed it off though, he didn't really have anything to fear from the Soul Eaters since he was one of them. And then came the attack on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts.
Carver was shocked, he was horrified. He'd been made aware of Specters, he'd been brought up on learning about war but… somehow it had never occurred to him that people got hurt. The enemy wasn't a bunch of trained people fighting back, they were just regular people caught up in a battle they didn't want to be a part of. They were causing chaos and people got hurt in chaos. He got away physically unscathed but it gave him a lot to think about, this was the side he was on? The one causing pain and death? Sure he took his anger out on random Slytherins – plus those on James' list – but this was different.
"Albus, you idiot, what did you go and do that for?!" Scorpius complained and slapped his palm to his face in frustration after Albus told him what had happened with Abby.
"I didn't know that would happen!" Albus protested unhappily as he flopped down onto his bed, "I wasn't thinking. And now Abby hates me and I'm worse off them ever. What do I do?"
"Do what you should have done in the first place which is nothing," Michael insisted, "You'll just make things worse, you need to give Abby some space."
"I guess," Albus sighed unhappily and rolled over, picking up his pillow and pulling it over his face, "Why can I do nothing right?"
Albus' actions did not make the next few days particularly easy, neither Albus nor Abby – nor Sequoia for that matter - showed up for dinner that night and Scorpius spent the whole meal listening to Rose complain about how foolish Albus had been. They did for breakfast though – well not Sequoia – and Abby made a point to sit away from Albus, making Scorpius feel incredibly awkward about sitting with Albus. He hated when any of his friends fought, he didn't want to feel like he was picking sides and it was frustrating having to try juggle his time between them. He hated seeing them like this too, both Abby and Albus seemed miserable all through classes and outside of classes. The Hogsmeade trip was Sunday so he also had to endure Saturday, Albus stayed in their dormitory while Abby quietly worked on homework with them but her eyes shot to the door as soon as it opened then fell in disappointment.
"Looking for someone?" Corin wondered after a while of this.
"Sequoia," Abby admitted unhappily, "I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet and with NEWTs literally a week away studying has been a priority so I hoped I'd see him here, he hasn't left his dormitory since Thursday."
"Maybe it's a sign you should just give up on him?" Corin wondered which only made her look more upset.
"I don't want to give up on him."
"We don't always get what we want," Michael pointed out truthfully with a shrug and Abby fell into a melancholic silence.
Scorpius couldn't stay with them all day though, tomorrow was Hogsmeade and he had to make arrangements for Martha to come. He'd been going to get Albus' permission for his cloak and how to get through one of the passageways, however she informed him she already knew how to get to Hogsmeade without getting caught and arranged to meet him outside the Shrieking Shack at midday. He was rather nervous about it, his way seemed more secure and the last thing he wanted was for her to get caught or lost and not end up being there. He also had no idea what he was supposed to do with her, Molly had said she should be there but not why or what would happen or where they should go. Since Molly had warned him, he also thought he should be ready in case something went down.
Usually when he put thought into what he wore going to Hogsmeade it was to look good for a date with Molly, that day though he instead put thought into what was best for potential dangerous scenarios. He tried to pick clothes that were equal part comfortable for ease of movement, durable as who knew how long or what he might have to wear them through and protective for obvious reasons. Which is why he went with his leather jacket despite not wearing it so much in the hot weather, it was a tough material.
"Dude, don't you think you're going slightly overboard with this?" Albus complained at him after he'd spent over an hour going through his clothes, "What are you expecting to happen?"
"I don't know, that's kind of the point," Scorpius insisted and glanced between his two friends, who were still lounging around in their pajamas, "You two aren't even dressed yet!"
"We weren't going to go," Michael shrugged.
"How can you not go?! Don't you know something could happen!"
"Yes, you've told us. Many times," Albus pointed out tiredly to which Scorpius scowled, "Look, with this stuff with Abby I really don't feel like it, she'll be there and I can't even be around her right now."
"Plus it's the full moon in a couple of days," Michael added truthfully, "I'm already starting to feel a worn down and I don't even like Hogsmeade, I was just going to stay here and take it easy."
"But what if something happens?!" Scorpius protested, feeling like tearing at his hair, "You really want to be lounging around here in your pajamas while the Shadows are attacking?!"
"Molly never said this bad thing she saw actually happens on the Hogsmeade trip, just that it could prevent it or something."
"Dammit, you guys," Scorpius complained at them but they both shrugged dismissively, "Are you at least coming to breakfast?"
"Sure, if you're done with obsessively changing your outfit," Albus agreed and Scorpius left them to get dressed as he headed down to the Great Hall where Abby, Rose, Corin and Maurice were already sitting.
"Someone overslept," Corin commented as he joined the.
"Yeah, overslept…" Scorpius muttered as he started piling food onto his plate, trying to put on a lot in case he didn't get to eat for a while. Or should he not eat so much in case he had to move around a lot and it was impeding to have a full stomach? "Looking forward to Hogsmeade?"
"Sort of," Corin said with a flicker of disapproval towards the Hufflepuff table while Michael and Albus arrived, "Us Fifth Years were planning to hang out together this trip while Rose and Abby but Vern bailed on us for some big date with Olivia instead and Abby decided she isn't coming."
"Abby isn't coming?" Albus wondered in surprise, stopping before he got to a seat.
"I don't feel like it," Abby muttered, seeming to make a point of not looking at him before pushing away her half-eaten plate of food, "And I'm full. I'll see you guys later."
"Bye," they chorused as Abby headed off while Albus and Michael joined them, Albus watching her go sadly.
"Well, Scor, I guess I'm going to Hogsmeade after all."
"I'm still not," Michael added.
They finished their breakfast, the small talk managing to grate on Scorpius' nerves as it clashed with his sense of imminent danger. After that, he had to bid goodbye to Michael as they headed outside to wait for their permission slips to be checked. Since it went in reverse year order, he couldn't help but notice that Sequoia wasn't there. His year was called up next so he, Rose and Albus could their slips checked then the Fifth Years with Corin, Orous, Maurice – despite taking Sixth Year classes, he was still technically a Fifth Year hence his prefect status and continued stay in Corin's dormitory – and Vern, also his girlfriend Olivia who he went off with while the rest of his cluster of friends stayed together.
"Aren't you meeting with the assassin child who tried to murder you today?" Maurice quipped after noticing Scorpius walking with them, due to the forced amputation – plus his moody withdrawal - and loss of a hand he used his necklace less to translate especially during times he needed his hands like in class or at meals where he'd missed their whole conversation on Hogsmeade plans.
"Martha's meeting me there later, I have time to kill so I'll be with my friends," Scorpius explained to him, Maurice nodded in understanding and let go of his necklace as they walked.
Scorpius still found himself feeling antsy, his eyes swiveling in paranoia as if he expected the Shadows to attack at any second. In truth, he kind of did. It wasn't an unpleasant day, it was hot and sunny true in the spirit of the start of June which wasn't the weather he'd associate with ominous attacks although he supposed it didn't matter the weather then the Shadow Master could suck the light out of the sky. With Cistro being dead, a different Auror was acting as a guard and didn't put Scorpius through any more hassle then everyone else. For once he was almost glad of the Auror presence, if there was an attack as long as they were genuine and not traitors it would be good to have them around.
Despite usually favoring the Hog's Head as a place to go for a drink, his friends headed to their preferred place of the Three Broomsticks. After a few nice Butterbeers and admittedly Rose and Corin doing most of the talking which was mostly about classes, Scorpius left to go meet with Martha outside the Shrieking Shack. He could only hope she actually did show up, still there was no sign of imminent danger just yet. He hovered around the Shrieking Shack, drumming his fingers impatiently on the fence despite it only just being twelve and there being absolutely no reason to think she wasn't going to show up and then the bad thing would happen because he failed to get the girl to be in Hogsmeade.
"Hey Scorpius," Martha's voice greeted him and he spun to see the girl in question standing there with a smile on her face.
Carver did his best not to think about the Soul Eaters, he was just a kid and it wasn't really any of his concern or business. He just needed to focus on his nice normal life. Until they attacked again, this time Varanian was revealed to have been possessed – Carver guessed his ability was used to hide it, it explained his illness too – and had Specters possess everyone. While everyone was screaming and flailing in panic, Carver didn't fight it although Malfoy and several of his friends got away. The Specter passing through him was unpleasant but unlike everyone else, it must've recognized his Soul Eater status in his memories as it moved out of him, leaving him the lone unpossessed in an army of Specter-kids.
He again was forced to rethink his status in the war, he didn't like every last person in Hogwarts. In truth aside from Kyle, he only really had a problem with people who James did but he felt like it was wrong to use them like this. And what of his friend? Would James have to be a Specter-possessed zombie for the rest of his life? And what did they plan on doing to the rest of the world? He sat there and cried, hoping that by some miracle the plan would fail. And he'd be damned but it actually did fail, he didn't know what happened but it did.
He was so relieved when it was over, he could've jumped for joy if he wasn't crying so hard and so were other people presumably upset from the brief possession or they were tears of joy. Who cared though? It was over, they were free. He threw his arms around James and clung to him tightly, holding him tight as if his life depended on it. When he pulled away he was so happy he could've kissed James, he literally and desperately wanted to smack his lips against James' which made him freeze in confusion. That… That was a weird thought. Why wouldn't he want to kiss James though? He was so incredibly handsome… Carver shoved those shameful thoughts and moved his arms firmly away from James, friends weren't supposed to think that about other friends. James didn't seem to notice though, he seemed unusually quiet but not tearful.
"What is it?" Carver wondered of him as he dried his face.
"I don't know," James admitted as he eyed the rest of the hall before averting them and looking almost ashamed, "I think those things that controlled us wanted to cause pain… Am I a bad person because I… I don't know, I felt like a part of me wanted to as well. Am I a bad person?"
"Of course not, you're perfect," Carver assured him and mentally kicked himself for feeling the attraction again, he shrugged, "It's probably just a normal side effect of those things."
"Yeah, you're probably right," James agreed with a hint of relief, "Glad that's over."
Abby was miserable. She'd been happy – at least in regards to her dating life – with Sequoia then out of nowhere Albus had gone and ruined it, what the hell had he even been thinking? Who even came out of nowhere confessing their love for someone already dating someone else? And there she'd just thought he'd been upset about his brother or cousin.
She couldn't help but feel angry at him for throwing a wrench into her romantic life like that, especially it was Albus. He had no idea what love even was, how many times had he declared someone his soul mate? She had had a crush on him for awhile before yes and in truth she'd be lying if she said she'd never thought about him, if his confession hadn't stirred this back up. But she was – she hoped still at least – with Sequoia, she was loyal to Sequoia because she loved Sequoia even if she had fleeting thoughts about Albus.
Sure, Albus was great, he was fun to be around and he made her laugh which were great qualities in a friend but Sequoia was different. He was mature and serious, he made her feel safe, he was stable and reliable which were qualities she wanted in a boyfriend. Life was unstable especially with the war, people could leave or die or just lose it for a while, she had to worry about that with friends and family so what she really craved in a boyfriend was security not childish fun. Albus… Albus was like a boy while Sequoia… Sequoia was like a man, she wanted a man. She didn't want to lose him, if she could just talk to him she was sure she could straighten this out. He wasn't making it easy though.
And that was why she found herself heading over to the Ravenclaw Tower, very much wishing August hadn't gone to Hogsmeade to let her into it. On the bright side, you didn't need a password only Ravenclaws knew but to just answer a riddle. On the downside, you still had to answer a riddle. Abby didn't consider herself especially smart and she certainly wasn't any good at riddles, after trying and failing to solve it she decided to wait around for a Ravenclaw to come by with the hope of explaining the situation and giving her the answer. No one showed up though because the majority was in Hogsmeade, forcing her to have to try puzzle it out some more. Eventually – and several hours later then she'd have liked to admit – she managed to get the answer correctly, allowing her entry.
She was slightly surprised to find their Common Room empty, she'd assumed Sequoia would be in there but presumably was in his dormitory instead. It had an airy elegant kind of air, the amount of bookcases also made her feel almost as if she was in a Library and should be quiet. Being in the Ravenclaw Tower when she had no real right to be there also made her feel like she also had reason to be quiet, in fact maybe this was a bad idea since she could get in trouble… Oh well, she was a Gryffindor so she was supposed to be reckless. Besides, she was already here so she may as well. Hoping she didn't run into anyone, she crept up the staircase to the boy's dormitory all the way up to the Seventh Years then it was just a case of weaving through the different rooms.
She was just starting to worry he wasn't there at all before she finally found her boyfriend, he was lounging on a bed with an assortment of text books strewn around him. He had one book in his hand, his drifting over the same area as if focusing on one line that he was reading but not truly absorbing.
"Sequoia," Abby called out nervously, Sequoia turned to her with his eyes widening in shock as he sat up and put the book down.
"Abby? What are you doing here?" Sequoia questioned of her as she walked over to him, rubbing her arm anxiously while hurt twinged in his eyes.
"I thought we should talk."
"What's to talk about? You love another guy."
"Not in that way!" Abby insisted determinedly and he looked dubious as she sat down beside him, "Which you would know if you had just stuck around instead of running off and hiding for three days."
"I have to study, I have my NEWTs," Sequoia muttered and gestured vaguely to the books scattered around while he averted his eyes.
"That's just an excuse," Abby said and went to touch his hand but he pulled away, "There's nothing going on between me and Albus!"
"How am I supposed to believe that?!" Sequoia shot out angrily while blinking back tears much to her surprise.
"Do you really feel that threatened by Albus?"
"How am I supposed to not feel threatened by Albus?" Sequoia wondered of her, sounding genuinely as if at a loss for an answer, "He's Harry Potter's son, literally the most famous hero of our time. He so cheerful, confident and funny, not to mention smart the way he pretends to be bad at flying to blindside people with his talent as a Chaser. He's known you so much longer then I have, he wasn't mauled by a werewolf-"
Abby silenced him by pressing her lips against his passionately, desperately, trying to show her passion from him without words. He didn't pull away like she'd expected but she also didn't feel him kissing her back, at least not at first. She felt him tense but after a minute he relaxed into the kiss and allowed their lips to lock, she wrapped her arms around him and ran her fingers through his hair while he slowly encircled his own arms around her. She'd missed kissing him. She pulled away breathlessly but didn't break the physical embrace.
"You have nothing to feel threatened by," Abby assured him as she caressed his neck, his sharp sapphiric eyes latching onto her own.
"Promise me… Promise me that you won't leave me for him," Sequoia whispered seriously and errant thoughts of Albus filtered through her mind, she forcibly shoved them aside.
"I promise," Abby said quietly and the last flecks of anxiety leaving behind his eyes.
She felt his body relaxing before his lips crossed the short gap between them to capture hers, kissing her more passionately. She returned the kiss readily and tightened her grip on his head, feeling the soft threads of hair through her fingers. Their lips parted and their tongues intertwined, saliva dancing between their mouths as they fell back onto the bed.
Carver was also glad it was over, he was even gladder after learning that the Shadow Master had been put in a coma from the whole ordeal. With any luck they'd just stay that way. The return home revealed that his mum had had her baby, a second girl they named Emerald of all things. This one though, was not such a welcome addition to the family. Pegasus was bitterly unhappy and angry at his mum for giving him a second daughter, especially after he'd been 'kind' enough to name their first daughter after her and was already pressuring her about having another child since he needed a male heir as well as daughters.
It didn't contribute to his mum's mental state, she was clearly struggling caring for two babies and cried almost as much as they did. Carver tried to be annoyed at her but in this instance, he just felt pity. Especially after walking in to the nursery one of the days, she was just curled in a ball looking utterly disheveled with her hair in a chaotic mess sticking up at every angle, she was covered in baby throw-up and milk. She cried while the babies both screamed for attention while Pegasus was reading downstairs, Carver just went over and sat with her. He wasn't sure what to say to comfort her so instead, he just held her close and let her cry against his shoulder. He had to help out more caring for the babies, she needed support.
He did get to see his dad for a bit, he tried to talk to him about his concerns over the Soul Eaters but as usual his dad wasn't interested. He was sure the Shadow Master would be revived and in the meantime, welt like traveling for no reason leaving Carver to care for infants while still feeling confused over his own thoughts on his attraction to James especially since he did actually like girls. He kept hoping it would go away but it didn't, he thought he did but seeing James on the platform brought it all rushing back. Apart from that and some concern for his mum, he was glad to be back in Hogwarts though. It was interesting to say the least, with Varanian on the run and the Triwizard Tournament Calderon was the Acting Headmaster, there were Auror guards, the uncle he'd heard of but never really met was now teaching Transfiguration and he now had two extra classes.
He and James had both chosen Muggle Studies – it was notoriously easy – and Care of Magical Creatures since James knew the teacher. James' muggleborn cousin also joined his best friend's hate list for his father's sins. Transfiguration was what he found most interesting though, mostly because it gave him a chance to meet this uncle of his. The Soul Eaters seemed to be after Malfoy for some reason but otherwise were pretty quiet and their leader still comatose, he tried to put it out of his mind. That Christmas though he was surprised but delighted when James asked him if he'd like to stay with him for the holidays, he was overjoyed and could easily say that it was hands down the best Christmas he'd ever had. For once, he was actually sad to go back to Hogwarts rather than pleased. He was however upset to learn that both his mum and dad were expecting, he'd have not one but freaking two new half-siblings.
The rest of the year passed rather uneventfully in the grand scheme of things, until the end when he learned the Shadow Master had been revived. So much for his hopes of not having to worry about the war. He learned his dad had had a daughter named Rocio and when he got home, he met the newborn Amadeus, Pegasus finally had his son. And yet, he still wasn't satisfied.