Gray: Scorpius Malfoy and the Crux of the Alchemist

by Fiery Gray

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

16. Chapter 16: Salvation

Parts (61-63)

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VI

Chapter 16

Salvation

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Part 1: Sparks of Plans

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And so Carver again spent his summer elbow deep in baby dung as he cared for his swarm of siblings with his still stressed mother, Pegasus as usual doing nothing. Well, he'd buy gifts for Meg as she was his favorite child and sometimes play with her but otherwise he'd be his usual kind-hearted self. Despite all his talk about a son he seemed to hate Amadeus most of all, claiming he wasn't a worthy to be his heir and that the boy was ugly, weak and stupid which he blamed his wife for and criticized her to tears for not giving him a suitable son.

Carver really had no idea what his problem was, Amadeus didn't seem any different from any other of his siblings as babies. James was also having a bad holiday it seemed, his uncle had died and he hadn't been able to invite Carver – or one of their other friends – to the Quidditch World Cup due to being punished for his 'bullying' behavior. Carver could empathize but he also couldn't help but feel slightly concerned by James' lack of remorse, he didn't like Dragon-breath either but he hadn't wished him blinded in one eye and would feel bad if he'd done what James did. He was sure his parents would be more forgiving if James showed this regret, which Carver was sure he had since he was such a good friend to him.

All in all, he was relieved to be going back to Hogwarts for his Fourth Year and seeing James and his friends again. Just when he thought he'd settled into a happy Hogwarts routine though, it changed. His half-sister Viola started Hogwarts and befriended James' sister, she was quite proud to have 'placed' herself in a good position with the Head Auror's daughter - and mistakenly seemed to believe that was his reason for friendship with James - to be useful at some point while James despised her due to her Slytherin status. James really, really hated Slytherins and because of this he feared telling him she was his sister although he did managed to get James to leave her alone. He couldn't let his friends harass his sister, even if he wasn't fond of Viola in particular.

Then there was romance. Some of his friends had dated before but this year the whole dating thing seemed to be increasing in popularity as their hormone levels rose, further confusing Carver and seemingly annoying James. When the others talked about girls they liked, James just looked at them like they were talking a foreign language. Carver on the other hand agreed with them, he found girls attractive but he also found boys attractive. Especially James. Were you allowed to like both? He wondered if it was just wishful thinking on his part to think James' lack of interest meant he was gay and maybe... just maybe Carver had a shot with him, James could just as easily simply not hit puberty yet after all.

"For the love of Merlin can you guys stop talking about girls for five seconds?!" James burst out at them one of the days while they were in the Library, admittedly doing more talking then working.

"But the first Hogsmeade weekend is coming up," one of them complained, "We need to have dates or we're going to look like complete losers and to get dates, we need to figure out who to ask. I'm thinking Chrissy or Sabrina, Chrissy's overall hotter but Sabrina-"

"Who cares about that crap?!"

"Everyone but you, don't you want to know what it's like to kiss a girl?"

"No," James scoffed determinedly.

"Well then maybe you're just gay," another pointed out and James' face burned bright crimson.

"I'm not gay!" James snapped and slammed his fist angrily onto the table, "I'm Harry Potter's son, his firstborn son. I'm not- Fine! I'll get a date for Hogsmeade. Who's hot again, Chrissy? I'll ask her."

"Good luck," he pointed out as James stalked over to the girl in question while the attention returned back to Carver, "What about you, Carve?"

"Eh, I'm just going to stay single for now," Carver brushed it off as he watched James talking to her, feeling like kind of a bad friend for hoping she rejected him so he'd still be single for Carver to hope about, "I don't see the rush."

"There!" James spat as he stormed back over to them and sat down, folding his arms, "I have a date, Chrissy agreed to go out with me so shut it the rest of you."

---

"Thanks for coming," Scorpius said to her as she walked over to him, for once she wasn't wearing Hogwarts robes but a skirt and a starry top, she also seemed to have done something with her hair. He hoped she remembered why she was here.

"So now what?" Martha wondered of him curiously as she looked around, gesturing, "The sky doesn't seem to be falling yet."

"Erm… I'll show you around," Scorpius decided and she nodded in acceptance so they started walking through the town with him showing her around while nothing was happening. Though upon noticing several teachers around and seeing how Martha wasn't supposed to be there and all, he changed his mind, "Do you want to try some Butterbeer?"

"Sure," Martha agreed happily.

"I know this place doesn't look like much but I like it because it's quieter and the bartender's good," Scorpius offered in explanation as he recalled the Hog's Head wasn't the prettiest place to look at. He had her get a table while he got the Butterbeers for them, she picked the table furthest away in the far corner, "There are closer tables, you know?"

"It's best to sit in the corner from a tactical position, you have the whole view of the room so you're less likely to be snuck up on," Martha told him briskly before her cheeks tinged pink in embarrassment, "Sorry, force of habit."

"It's okay, I've been friends with Maurice for years and he's worse than you about that stuff," Scorpius pointed out truthfully and she seemed to relax slightly before drumming her fingers on the bottle nervously, he should probably say something, "So… How's classes?"

They talked idly for a while, both seemingly making a conscious effort to stay away from topics that made them uncomfortable so instead talked about mundane things that didn't really matter or that they didn't really care about. Scorpius was still waiting for the loud bangs of explosions and sounds of people screaming coming from outside, they never came. Maybe they'd need to be outside for things to happen? Deciding to take the risk of teachers, Scorpius took Martha back into the streets once they finished their drinks. He found there was still nothing happening though, just regular teenagers enjoying their trip out and regular Hogsmeade residents going about their lives nothing disastrous, no attacking. He sighed heavily.

"Maybe nothing bad is happened because my being here has already prevented it?" Martha wondered of him, catching on to why he was bothered.

"But we haven't done anything!" Scorpius burst out irritably, "There has to be more to it than simply being here, you haven't had an impact on anything that I can see."

"Maybe it's like a butterfly effect kind of thi-"

"Hi Scorpius!" a familiar female voice called and Scorpius turned in surprise to see Myriam, her dainty arms full with grocery bags.

"Hi," Scorpius greeted her pleasantly as he approached, feeling a painful twinge in his heart as he thought of Leebin but she was still his mother's friend and had been helpful to him, "Do you want some help with those?"

"No, it's alright," Myriam brushed it off, "I wouldn't want to interrupt your Hogsmeade trip."

"It's okay, we're not really doing much anyway."

"Then thank you," Myriam agreed with a hint of relief and allowed Scorpius to take some of them before continuing on the way back to her home, "I don't usually buy this much at once, I went to make lunch I realized I was flat out of everything. It's not easy to leave the house right now."

"Because of the kids?" Scorpius guessed and sadness flickered on Myriam's face as she shook her head.

"With the kids it was fine, I can just bring them but Flan… It's hard," Myriam admitted and seemed to notice Martha listening to them before Scorpius could ask how Leebin was doing, "Hi there. Who's your friend?"

"This is Martha, I'm showing her around Hogsmeade. Martha, this is Myriam, she's a friend of my mother's."

"Nice to meet you," Martha offered politely, looking as if she was trying really hard not to smile as they reached Myriam's house, "Do-Do you really consider me a friend?"

"Err… Sure," Scorpius offered uncertainly, feeling somewhat embarrassed as Myriam got the door.

Scorpius had passed by the Leebin house before but he didn't think he'd ever been inside it, from the outside it looked kind of like a misshapen wreck like quite a lot of the Hogsmeade houses. They had been nicer in the past, several destructive attacks later and he didn't think the Hogsmeade citizens had enough money to properly rebuild. Scorpius wished he could do something about it.

Myriam led them in to a very cramped open plan room, a joint kitchen, dining room and living room all in one with a doorway directly opposite presumably leading into the rest of the house. The right side was where Myriam directed them, there was a large wooden table taking up most of the space – which was where she directed him to deposit the groceries - with four chairs around it while kitchen counters and cabinets were wedged around the far and right wall. On the left side where large but comfortable looking couches almost the length of the walls they were pressed against, or rather the bookcases as they took up the length of the walls as well. There was a chess table crammed in the small space between the couch and the wall and a vat overflowing with kids toys in the opposing corner, in general there was a healthy assortment of children's toys scattered across the living portion of the room.

The rest of the Leebin family was there, little Lysel was bundled up in blankets on the left wall couch and propped up by pillows. The nearing full moon was taking its toll on him already it seemed as he looked rather ill, his ashen skin looked waxy and he was looking rather pitiful snuggled up cuddling a stuffed toy. Myriam went over to check on him as soon as she'd put down the shopping, the toddler hugging her tightly and Scorpius did feel his heart going out to them. Sol was the same age and had been born on the exact same day even, it was too easy to imagine his brother going through the same.

"No, Daddy! You don't eat them!" Maurene wailed and Scorpius turned his attention to the older of the Leebin children and Leebin himself.

Maurene had all of her father's features but her mother's daintiness, she was six or seven now and seemed to be trying to play chess with her father. Any glimmer of hope Scorpius had that Leebin was doing okay in his insanity was immediately crushed seeing as he was trying to eat one of the chess pieces, the Knight being eaten protesting against this before Maurene snatched it away looking hurt. Scorpius felt hurt just looking at Leebin, he was missing several of his fingers and the hands left were buried in layers of scars. He also no longer wore glasses, making his cyan eyes stand out more but also more obvious how vacant they were. He was no longer wearing glasses and looked somewhat underweight. He cocked his head to one side at his daughter, smiling as if he didn't understand what he'd done wrong.

"Gazaborgahi!" Leebin babbled excitedly but incoherently, drumming his fingers together, "Magahaga lee na maba sa!"

"No, bad Daddy, these are not for eating," Maurene insisted, looking rather upset while Leebin continued to smile at her blankly, "This is chess, remember that you taught me."

"Mablogi," Leebin announced randomly before crashing his arms through the chess pieces, sending them flying across the room. He bounced up and down excitedly, clapping his hands as he watched them, "Nostaraga! Nostaraga! Makagago roshi tamunu gobanahatet."

"Daddy," Maurene moaned with the hurt showing in her eyes as she started to pick up the pieces, Scorpius was sure the pieces weren't what bothered her though but rather the change in her father's attitude.

"It's not his fault, dear," Myriam offered gently as she made to help her daughter while Leebin got up as if bored, skipping around his own feet in a circle and giggling with delight.

"He… He's really not doing so great, is he?" Scorpius wondered sadly as Leebin started chewing on his own sleeve, genuinely upset to see someone he'd trusted and respected be reduced to… this. All because he'd failed.

"He's really not," Myriam sighed unhappily and finished picking up the chess pieces, depositing them back onto the board before putting her hand on her daughter's shoulder, "Why don't you go clean up before dinner?"

"Okay Mummy," Maurene agreed and headed down the opposite door while Myriam went back over to her husband, leading him to the kitchen area and getting him to sit down.

"Are you thirsty, sweetheart?" Myriam asked, seemingly rhetorically as Leebin continued gnawing on his sleeve. She poured him a drink of water and sat him down to drink it, "Would you two like a drink as well as a thank you? I got some pumpkin juice."

"Sure," Scorpius said and Myriam went to get the pumpkin juice from the paper bags while Leebin instead of drinking, dipped his hand into the water and started licking the water off his hand, "He's worse than I thought."

"I know," Myriam sighed heavily as she poured the drinks for them and they sat down on the table, "At first I thought I could handle it and that being at home again would help, he hasn't gotten any better though. I think I have to send him to let St Mungo's take him, he's got the mental state of an infant with the energy of a toddler except he doesn't learn."

"What happened to him?" Martha in confusion, Myriam and Scorpius both averted their eyes unhappily.

"He was tortured into insanity by the Shadows," Scorpius admitted quietly while Leebin randomly threw the water in his glass into his face, shrieking with delight at it while Martha's scowl only deepened.

"Normal Cruciatus victims aren't like this though."

"They think it's to do with because he was using Occlumency to resist or something," Myriam told her uncomfortably, Martha cocked her head to one side with interest.

"Did they try using Legilimency on him?" Martha asked curiously, surprising both Myriam and Scorpius.

"No. I mean, they tried but it just blasted them back and upset him," Myriam told her and Martha leaned back thoughtfully, "Why?"

"Because in that case, he may still be in there," Martha said as she stood and put her hand on Leebin's forehead, he glanced up at her and she captured his eyes in her own. They widened before she closed hers, his did so in unison and started to twitch but she held firm.

"What are you doing?"

"Martha?" Scorpius prompted after a minute before she removed her hand and opened her eyes, Leebin tossed his glass to the floor idly.

"He can be saved," Martha announced, causing Myriam's eyes to widen in shock.

"How do you know?" Myriam questioned, sounding somewhere between dubious and desperate.

"A healthy mind is made up of different layers, like emotions and memories, thoughts et cetera. In an insane mind, the layers are no longer separated and become a jumbled mess, it's hard to get anything from it but it is really easy to recognize. His mind isn't a mess, it's a fortress. He's not insane because it's a jumbled mess, he's insane because he's sealed his mind away and there's pretty much nothing controlling his actions."

"What- Why didn't the Legilimens know that?"

"Probably because they tried to invade his mind, they tried to see inside his mind not look at it as a whole like I did. Legilimency and Occlumency are skills not widely taught and even fewer have true mastery."

"But you know this?" Myriam prompted in surprise probably because of her young age and Scorpius recalled her mentioning something about these things once before.

"My dad was extremely talented in these mental arts, he taught me," Martha explained with a shrug while Leebin giggled, shaking his head and sending droplets of water flying everywhere.

"Is it possible to save him?"

"Of course, his consciousness is in there somewhere. Someone just needs to find it."

"Can you do that?" Scorpius wondered of her hopefully.

"By myself? Probably not," Martha admitted, causing his bubble of hope to burst for a second, "But together, we could probably do it."

---

Carver's mood took a dark turn now that James was dating, he couldn't help the jealous rage he felt whenever he saw him with her. He didn't even like the girl herself, she was pretty whiney and not very bright. James didn't seem to like her either, in fact she seemed to annoy him even more than she did Carver yet he still stayed with her. He found himself hanging out with his uncle more when she was around just to get away with his friends and to learn from him things Hogwarts didn't teach, Pyrrhus was undeniably off the wall but he also was undeniably talented and actually quite good to be around, Carver was learning a lot. Unlike his dad, Pyrrhus listened to him when he talked and unlike his dad, Pyrrhus also didn't seem to have that supportive Soul Eater mentality despite being there on work for them.

"They're evil bastards who want to talk over the world," Pyrrhus told him outright while demonstrating a spell to conjure an illusion, "Of course I hate them. But the world is a bad place anyway so we may as well stick with them, they'd kill us if we tried to leave."

"True, although I wouldn't say the whole world is bad," Carver admitted but Pyrrhus shrugged.

"The world is bad, it's a fact and you'll realize that someday. Okay, now you try," Pyrrhus said as he finished demonstrating before finishing and turned to him with a smile, winking, "Get it fast enough and I'll teach you to take someone's wand and turn it against them, it's something I invented myself and with a little – well a lot - of practice it'll be extremely useful."

Carver enjoyed his time with Pyrrhus although Viola viewed him as a worthless lunatic who was inferior to the 'true' Soul Eaters, it was nice to work on advanced techniques actually around his skill level since the Training Tower had given him a head start on certain magical aspects putting him above his peers. Christmas came and went, for once he actually liked having time away from James since he hated seeing him with Chrissy now. Carver stayed a loyal friend though, not complaining or criticizing although James himself still didn't seem to like her despite continuing to date her through the rest of the year.

Everything just seemed to happen at once, Pyrrhus informed him of the plan to take over Hogwarts from the inside and enlist Hogsmeade as another part of the Soul Eater's werewolf army so warned him to avoid the town as he'd likely be better off in the castle. However, James also informed him that he'd finally decided to dump Chrissy.

"I tried, I really tried but I just can't stand her," James admitted to him, "I hate her personality and because she's so awful to be around I don't even find her attractive, kissing her feels wrong. I've had enough, I only stayed as long as I have to shut people up but I feel like a year is long enough."

And so Carver couldn't get him to stay away from Hogsmeade, not without seeming horribly suspicious since James was quite determined to do this. He was so anxious he didn't sleep the night before and he felt so torn about warning people, his heart thundered all day as he hung around the town with his friends – minus James who was busy with dumping Chrissy - waiting for the inevitable. When it finally came, he quickly realized his training – both at the tower and with Pyrrhus – put him in a better position than most students and even adults to defend himself from the werewolves. He was horrified by the destruction and carnage, it tore at him guiltily. He knew they'd attack but… well he'd thought it would be more like the Specters, that they'd just scare people before rounding them up and turning some later. He hadn't thought people would really be hurt, he hadn't thought people would die. And what of Hogwarts? He'd thought that would just be taken over and run by the Soul Eaters but now he thought otherwise and worried for the younger years. It made him sick to his stomach to see the dead, he could've stopped this. He should've stopped this.

Thankfully people were arranging to help, getting residents and students to caves. Carver waited until his other friends were on their way before tearing through the town in search of James and only stopping when distracted helping another, he was so relieved to find him and got him to safety. It also made him feel guiltier, his friend had survived while so many had died when he could've prevented it. He wondered if Pyrrhus had known it would be this bad, the Hogsmeade part was really all down to Greyback. Carver was glad the plan failed at any rate and it did leave with the unshakable determination to not become a Soul Eater himself.

---

Pyrrhus Florian flew around Hogsmeade in frustration, fluttering his little moth wings frantically as he searched the town for his target. He couldn't find Jack/One, he had tried but failed as the freak's phasing teleporting ability made it impossible to follow him so the best he could do is put complex enchantments on places they might go to alert him if Jack/One showed up. He knew Jack/One and Antonius still needed Calderon's location so he'd put the charms where he might go to get the information, namely Harry Potter and the Ministers' houses plus some of their close family in case he tried to go for leverage, Alaric didn't seem to have anyone but when he was hospitalized following their attack a muggle woman had visited him so he'd also put a charm on her house as she had to have connection to him to visit him.

The problem was even if Jack/One showed up there, Pyrrhus wasn't sure he could take him with his specter abilities. He'd barely gotten that Patronus Charm off last time after all, how as he supposed to compete with someone who could teleport with more much ease then apparation and just needed to reach out his hand to destroy his soul? He didn't like his odds and if he didn't succeed then he'd fail Oathan, he'd either end up dead, with his soul destroyed or just a life of suffering. Pyrrhus had to save him, a more thought out plan would do better than fighting a losing battle. So he had come up with a plan, Jack/One still cared for his son as did Antonius since the two were friends so he figured if he used Michael as leverage then they'd be less inclined to betray and kill them.

Hence why he'd painstakingly found out the date of the next Hogsmeade trip and was flying around looking for Michael, however he was having trouble locating the boy. He'd seen several of Michael's friends but not Michael himself, in fact he'd even seen Martha but she hadn't noticed him and he couldn't appear without alerting Scorpius. As the day wore on with still no sign of Michael, Pyrrhus decided he really had no choice but to confront Michael's friends on his whereabouts. He tried to find Scorpius and Martha but he'd lost track of them in his search so he decided he'd have to settle for Maurice, Orous, Albus, Rose and Corin who were walking together. He felt a pang of guilt seeing Maurice, his arms both hung by his sides as he walked but only the right had a hand poking out of the sleeve. Still, it was that or death. Although since he hadn't gone through with it was kind of pointless anyway, sadly he thought he'd burned that bridge for nothing. He didn't even care if the Shadow Master died right now, he just wanted his son to be safe.

He landed in a nearby currently empty alleyway to transform back to a human and quickly cast a Disillusionment charm on himself, he then conjured an illusion of his moth animagus form. He needed to get them away from Hogsmeade or people would retrieve the Ministry too soon, he couldn't hope to speak to them if he was busy fending off Aurors. He magically guided the illusion over to the group walking by, his plan worked as expected but it did still make him feel sad to see the spark of hatred in Maurice's eyes when he saw the moth. It reminded him of Alzay. Maurice whipped out his wand and tore after the moth illusion, his friends ran after Maurice in confusion while Pyrrhus ran after them unnoticed in his disillusionment as he guided the moth out of Hogsmeade and into the empty forest area.

Once satisfied they were far enough away from the town, Pyrrhus used Maurice's deafness to his advantage and stunned the boy from behind. He didn't expect the others to me much of a challenge, however the part-giant turned much faster than he'd expected with his wand in his hand. He was a victim of still needing verbal magic though and Pyrrhus disarmed him before he could utter a spell, hitting the wand with a windy charm to shoot it further away than usual to account for the taller longing reaching arms the kid had. Orous dropped to his brother while Rose turned to face him, both taking out their wands intending to revive Maurice and attack him respectively but he waved his wand to summon their wands off them. Albus was standing closest to him yet fumbled for his wand slowest of all and Pyrrhus plucked it from his grasp, tossing it aside. Albus swung his fist at him instead, Pyrrhus pirouetted to avoid it and in the same fluid motion caught Albus' legs with his foot to sweep them out from under him sending the boy sprawling to the floor. Pyrrhus had taught all three Potter kids during his tenure as a professor and Albus was easily the least talented of the bunch.

"Would you people calm down? I'm not here to attack anyone," Pyrrhus insisted and held up his hands in protest of his innocence but did keep his wand in hand, "I just want to talk."

"Tell that to Maurice," Rose spat out glaring at him while Albus sat up, rubbing his head where he'd hit it while falling.

"I would but I'm pretty sure he wants to murder me which makes communication difficult."

"Well he's not the only one!" Albus burst out also angrily as he got to his feet, looking very much as if he still wanted to punch him, "You murdered my best friend's brother!"

"That's hardly relevant right now, I'm trying to save a life not take one right now," Pyrrhus told them quite truthfully, seeing no reason to lie, "So if you could just direct me to where your buddy Michael is, I'll leave you to continue enjoying your weekend."

"Never!"

"Michael's not here," Orous said at the same time, still crouching by his brother's side.

"What do you want with Michael?" Corin questioned also at the same time.

"We're not telling you anything," Rose also said at the same time.

"One at a time, please," Pyrrhus complained and pouted as he folded his arms, "And what do you mean Michael's not here? Why would he stay behind on his Hogsmeade weekend? Who does that?"

"Michael does that," Corin scoffed as if it were a well-known fact, "He hates Hogsmeade after being turned here and he's weak from the upcoming full moon so he didn't feel like coming, you really should've done your research."

"Corin, don't mock crazy psychos," Rose hissed at him.

"Yes, don't!" Pyrrhus barked at them irritably while internally panicking at his crumbling plan to get Michael for leverage.

He kicked a rock in frustration and tugged at his hair as he started pacing, feeling his heart thundering as his breathing became rapid. There was only a few days until the attack, if they didn't get the Scepter by then for all he knew then Jack/One would consider the chance gone and not care about getting the Scepter anymore so he'd kill Oathan. He had to save his son. But what? Aurors guarded the outskirts of Hogwarts, including between Hogsmeade and checked students. As a spell had been invented that could tell if someone was currently under the Imperius Curse, he couldn't risk using it on one of the kids to get Michael for him and use it on him too if he didn't comply. Even the Aurors weren't stupid enough to not scan for that kind of thing. He supposed he could threaten them into helping him but that was pretty risky, too many variables and it'd likely look pretty suspicious. He didn't like his odds at breaking into Hogwarts anyway, not also leaving with Michael anyway.

"Dammit, I need to save my son!" Pyrrhus screeched at no one in particular and kicked another rock, catching sight of Corin reaching for his wand. He jabbed his own at the part-giant and zapped his hand away with a weak jolt of lightning that still had him snap back, "No wands for you!"

"Wait, what do you mean save you son?" Orous questioned, a new kind of worry crossing his face while Pyrrhus fidgeted anxiously, "As in the one that's my half-brother?"

"Of course, that's my only son!" Pyrrhus spat at him, very literally feeling the spittle flying from his mouth, "Jack/One took him because I tried to save the stupid kid, that's why I need his own stupid son as leverage because I can't take him alone with his stupid spectral powers!"

"Like we believe that," Albus scoffed and folded his arms determinedly.

"What if we just help you?" Orous said at the same time at him, earning looks of astonishment from his friends and Pyrrhus included, "Did you even think to ask?"

"Why would we help him?"

"Because that kid is my brother. And maybe it can save Antonius too."

"Good luck, Antonius made it perfectly clear that he doesn't want to be saved," Pyrrhus stated bitterly, earning some confused looks himself as he thought on the suggestion and stroked his chin thoughtfully. Idly noticing he needed a shave and in fact probably looked quite frightful from utterly neglecting his own self-care and needs lately, he also realized that he really had nothing to lose at this point, "If you helped me that could work, you kids can cast Patronus right? They repel him but I only did one once and I don't think I could focus properly on doing it again and saving Oathan at the same time."

"Orous, he's lying to you," Rose told him in her know it her stupid whiney know-it-all voice, she opened her mouth to speak again but he waved his wand and transfigured her lips into a zip that was shut. She gave a muffled scream and clutched her mouth in shock.

"Zip it!" Pyrrhus snapped at her before realizing how literal it was, he couldn't help but laugh. A giggle welled up inside him and escaped through his own lips, he tried to stop himself but he burst out laughing. He laughed. And laughed. And laughed. So hard he doubled over clutching his sides at his own hilarity with a tear in his eye which he wasn't sure had been intentional or not, the others just looked at him in confusion minus the now crying Rose. He stopped laughing, "Don't you get it? I said zip it. And her mouth is a zip."

"We get it, it's just not funny," Corin said, putting a comforting arm round the much smaller girl due to is freakish height as he was now around seven feet tall.

"Why are you even laughing if your son has been kidnapped apparently?" Albus wondered incredulously, Pyrrhus rocked backwards and forwards on the balls of his feet still with his arms wrapped around himself. It was a pretty horrible thing to do, pretty random too and for nothing really.

"I don't know!" Pyrrhus moaned and burst into tears.

He fell to his knees, sobbing and rocking himself back and forth to sooth himself as he often had done as a child to comfort himself. Just that errant thought made him recall his harsh childhood and he cried harder, pushing at his stinging eyes with his palms as if it could possibly push away the memories. And he thought of Oathan, what was to stop Jack/One or Antonius hurting his son while he wasn't there? He hit the ground in frustration at his inability to save him or do anything right, also noticing Corin reaching for his wand again which he zapped away again.

"I SAID NO WANDS, DAMMIT!" Pyrrhus screamed at him as he jumped back to his feet, blinking away his tears and the gravelly feeling in his eyes from his tiredness. He also noticed how empty his stomach felt, when was the last time he ate? Or slept? No! He needed to focus, not fall apart because of his plan failing. He hit himself repeatedly in the side of his head as he choked on a sob, "Focus, focus, focus!"

"Orous, this guy's completely insane," Albus whispered to Orous, drawing Pyrrhus' attention back once more, "You can't seriously buy this crap he says?"

"I'm not insane, you're insane!" Pyrrhus yelled stupidly and tore at his hair again for a minute before trying to calm himself as he continued, lowering his arms again, "And it's not crap its true! My son is gone and I have to save him."

"We'll help you," Orous assured him as he finally stood, holding out his palms in a non-threatening way, "Just tell me more. Without you know, yelling or crying or laughing."

"We're not helping that maniac!" Corin spat with a murderous glare glittering in his black eyes, still with his arm protectively around Rose.

"Damn straight we're not!" Albus also burst out in agreement, "Orous, can't you see he's nuts? This alleged 'son' is probably a spoon he misplaced."

"MY SON IS NOT A SPOON!" Pyrrhus cried, upset at the insult to his son and feeling more tears flying from his eyes, "He's a real child, he's a good child not evil like you clearly are. Your brother is sick, he's a sadistic monster and I bet you're just the same. And since you're not helping me, I really have no reason to let you live."

"No!" Orous shot out and jumped protectively in front of the Potter boy who looked upset, "I won't help you if you murder my friends or my twin!"

"I wouldn't kill Maurice," Pyrrhus scoffed, scowling at the accusation of killing the boy he'd mentored even if Maurice did hate him now. Good, Pyrrhus thought he was probably pretty hateable. Even he hated himself, "He's not even conscio-"

"Not the point," Orous interrupted and Pyrrhus supposed he was right, they were running out of time and he needed to refocus again. He quickly summoned Orous' wand to his wand and held out his free hand to Orous.

"Okay I'll leave them alone, just come on now and I'll fill you in."

"Orous, no!" Albus protested.

"Don't do it!" Corin added while the still zipped Rose's eyes bulged as if horrified at the thought of him leaving as well.

After a moment's hesitation though, Orous' face became a steely mask of determination and he willingly took Pyrrhus' hand. His friends cried out again in protest but Pyrrhus was already disapparating with Orous.

---

Part 2: Following

---

"Orous, no!" Albus whined in frustration as his albino friend was disapparated with the crazed murderer, he slapped his hand to his face unhappily, "Great, now Florian has Antonius and Orous. What was that boy thinking?"

"I have no idea," Corin admitted with a sigh as he retrieved his wand, muttering a counter-curse to fix Rose's zipped mouth.

"I can't believe Orous was stupid enough to believe his delusional lies!" Rose burst out as soon as her lips were unsealed while Corin went over to crouch by Maurice to revive him, Albus got up and he and his cousin went to get their own wands, "And I can't believe that delusional nutjob sealed my mouth shut! I mean what kind of sick, twisted-"

"WHERE IS HE?!" Maurice screamed in fury as he was revive, jumping to his feet with his wand in his hand as if he'd never been unconscious as his oceanic eyes darted around wildly searching, "WHERE IS PYRRHUS FLORIAN?!"

"Calm down, Maurice!"

"WHAT?!" Maurice yelled before reluctantly grabbing at his necklace, "I SAID WHERE IS-"

"He's gone!" Corin shot back at the deaf boy, earning himself a murderously dark look.

"YOU PEOPLE LET HIM GET AWAY?!"

"Stop yelling, not all of us are deaf!" Rose chastised him and Maurice threw her a look of rage instead that actually had Albus take a step towards her protectively, Maurice was actually pretty scary when he was angry and looked as if he might really hurt someone.

"What happened?" Maurice said instead, every syllable shaking with barely contained anger, "Where is Pyrrhus Florian? And for that matter, where is my brother?"

"Florian was on this crazy rant about needing help to save his son," Albus offered in explanation, "And Orous stupidly volunteered to go with him so they disapparated, no idea where they-"

"YOU LET HIM TAKE MY BROTHER?!" Maurice cut him off in a furious shout and violently kicked at a rock in frustration, "YOU PEOPLE HAVE BLOODY WANDS, WHY DON'T YOU USE THEM!?"

"Why don't you not be knocked out?" Rose countered testily as she folded her arms and Maurice lurched at her as if he was going to attack her for a second before backing off, his lips still curled into an enraged snarl, "Florian is tough, we're just teenagers. Calm down, we can tell the Aurors and they can go after Orous."

"Because they do such a great job saving people," Corin muttered to himself bitterly and unhappily, a flicker of worry betrayed in his black eyes. For once, Albus was forced to agree with him.

"No," Maurice shook his head although he did seem – slightly – calmer, Albus could practically see the cogs turning in his mind, "You say he disapparated away? And this was a short time ago?"

"Literally minutes."

He figured Maurice was thinking of something but he didn't see what the deaf soldier could possibly do though, if he had any idea where Florian would be then he'd have said so already to save Antonius. Without warning, Maurice yanked up his stump-arm sleeve and started ripping away the bandages. He then whirled his wand over the stump and a black, molten substance appeared. It writhed before falling onto the stump, crawling over his skin and reforming into a perfectly shaped hand and wrist. Albeit jet black as if he was wearing some kind of strange metallic glove, he thought it looked creepy.

"That's not recommended," Corin commented lamely.

"I can't be dealing with this, I need one hand to hear with my necklace and to duel with my wand. If we're going to be in a danger zone, I need to be able to do both more fluidly," Maurice explained, he had no way of hearing but seemed to guess they'd have questions, "And now…"

"What do you mean by 'we're going to be in a danger zone?'" Rose wondered as Maurice briefly seemed to test his hand, clenching it and unclenching it as if to make sure it worked.

Her question was quite useless though. Despite having just said he needed to use his necklace and wand more fluidly with a conjured second hand, he hadn't touched it and instead had moved on to making complex motions with his wand as he walked around the clearing. Albus wasn't sure what he was doing but he knew he was doing something magical, he could hear a faint thrum and felt oddly tingly now.

"Okay," Maurice said finally, grasping his necklace with his black hand to address them, "Fortune is in our favor, I just picked up Florian's trail. I know where he just apparated to so we can follow him, Albus and Rose are of age now so the Trace is broken and you have your apparation licenses so you can go where I tell you."

"That's insane," Rose protested while Albus had an odd squirming of his insides in disagreement, Maurice threw a dark look at her once more, "We need to tell the Aurors so they can go after him."

"They're useless!" Maurice snapped, "We can do much more than they can. And even if they weren't useless, by the time we'd get them the trail will be cold."

"You just want revenge."

"Of course I want revenge but that doesn't mean I'm not right and while my revenge may not be urgent, securing Antonius and Orous' safety is. We don't have time for this."

"I'm in, I'll go and help," Albus blurted out before he could stop himself, earning a mad look from Rose now, "What? He's right and the clock is ticking, what would our parents have done?"

"Well what would they tell us to do now?" Rose countered.

Albus was forced to agree it was what his dad would say, he didn't think it was the right thing to do. He had to do this, because his friends needed him, because it was in his blood, because they were the only ones who could and hey, even if it failed horribly and he died then at least he'd not feel humiliated over Abby's rejection anymore. He couldn't turn his back on Antonius, he couldn't even turn his back on Orous despite his stupid mistake and he couldn't just let Florian get away after the things he did.

"I'm still in," Albus reaffirmed and Corin surprisingly nodded in agreement which had his girlfriend pout, "You can warn the Aurors if you want."

"Sorry, Rose, but I want to help my friends and I've read about this tracking magic, he's right about time being of the essence," Corin added and Rose sighed heavily.

"Fine," Rose agreed with irritated reluctance as she threw her arms up in the air in defeat, "If you people are going then I'm not staying but for the record, I still think this is a bad idea."

"Okay then let's go," Maurice announced impatiently and jabbed his wand at him then Rose in turn, Albus suddenly had a vivid flash of a city street, "That's where he went, take us there. The street is so busy he's probably going through several points to throw off trackers but I should be able to pick up the trail there if we're fast enough."

"Okay," Albus nodded in agreement, feeling his heart twisting up with a mixture of anxiety and adrenaline as he touched Maurice's shoulder and disapparated them.

---

Carver was sad for his uncle being found out and having to flee but still glad for the plan to fail, he was actually glad to be home from that stressful place. Sort of anyway as home was still terrible, his little sisters were now sticky fingered toddlers who his mother let run wild because she was too exhausted and heavily pregnant to bother. Pegasus also had seemingly decided that Amadeus was ugly and had the baby wear a sack over his head, albeit with holes to see and breathe. Pegasus was his usual awful self, he hated Pegasus.

At least his dad decided to take an interest in him that year, apparently frightened by the fact he'd been at risk in Hogsmeade. Carver was glad to get a break from them, it was an actual break as he wasn't learning in the Training Tower just getting to see his family which was good considering his decision to not become a Shadow. Stephan was no longer there, he was an adult now and more involved in real activities. Ethan had passed the test and must've been too as he wasn't around, Viola was staying with her mother so the princess was no longer commanding his dad's attention. Instead he was left with the likes of Martha, Andreas, Davin and got to meet his baby sister Rocio. The difference to his maternal siblings was highly noticeable, they were much better-behaved and mature as a result of the Training Tower regime. Martha especially seemed mature for her age, always watching out for her younger siblings. It reminded him of Ethan, he missed Ethan.

"Any chance I'll get to see Ethan while I'm here?" Carver asked to Andreas one of the days when he was trying to teach the boy chess, something he regretted as the eight year old was trouncing him.

"Ethan's here, you can see him if you want to. Check," Andreas told him with a disinterested shrug as he shifted his Knight to put Carver in check, his intelligent eyes focused on the game despite kneeling on the chair childishly, "Just make sure you don't let him out."

"What do you mean?" Carver wondered in confusing, distractedly moving the wrong piece.

"He has to stay in his room, he's not allowed out," Andreas said and grinned brightly as he checkmated him, "Checkmate, I win."

"Forget that, what about Ethan," Carver growled, "Why is he being treated like a prisoner?"

"I don't know, people don't tell me stuff. Want another game?"

"No, I want to see my brother! Show me where he is."

Andreas sighed but nonetheless jumped down obediently and led to where Ethan apparently was, before being called away by a passing teacher and Carver impatiently unlocked the door, he ran in to see his brother. Ethan was lying back on the bed but sat up where he saw him, his grassy eyes looking tired. He was both taller and thinner then Carver remembered, he embraced his brother happily.

"Carver, it's so good to see you," Ethan said with a weak smile as he held him close, "It's been too long."

"Yes," Carver agreed as he pulled away, "I have so much to tell you. But first, what's going on with you? Why are you locked up here?"

"Didn't anyone tell you?" Ethan wondered and Carver shook his head, Ethan looked at him for a long moment, "It's because of not wanting to be a Soul Eater."

"They locked you up because you don't want to do it?"

"Yes… It's horrible," Ethan told him as his expression shifted sadly, "It feels like forever since I got to go outside."

"Well come on, I'll take you outside. Who cares what they think?" Carver decided determinedly and Ethan gave him a watery smile as he let himself be led out with Carver.

"This is nice," Ethan said quietly as they walked, Ethan taking the lead but seeming in better spirits.

"We should go to dad, see if he can sort this out and get you out of here," Carver offered, not wanting to leave his brother here as a prisoner, "Does he even know?"

"Oh he knows. Why don't you do that? I want to see the roof, see the sky."

"Erm… No I think we should go together," Carver insisted, somewhat disturbed by how cheerful and unconcerned Ethan seemed, "One quick stop on the roof then and we go talk to Dad?"

"Okay, I won't need long anyway," Ethan agreed and put Carver's mind at ease somewhat as they went up onto the roof, Ethan smiled widely as the breeze sifted through them. He then turned to him and hugged him tightly, "Thank you for this freedom, Carver, I love you."

"Erm… Okay," Carver muttered unsurely, now doubly confused by his brother's behavior as Ethan stepped out onto the parapet, "Ethan, be careful on there or you'll fall."

"I know," Ethan told him before stepping backwards off the tower.

"NO!"

---

"So what- what do you need?" Myriam wondered as if daring to hope while Leebin dipped his hand into Scorpius' half-empty drink without warning, starting to lick the pumpkin juice off his fingers when he removed it. Scorpius moved his glass further away in case Leebin decided to throw it over himself again, the man didn't seem to notice though.

"Somewhere to lie down," Martha said, "The three of us will be unconscious and it will probably take a while, time doesn't work the same way inside people's minds."

"Okay, you can use my room. This way."

Myriam stood and took Leebin's sleeve to guide him, Scorpius and Martha followed as she led them through the closed door. It opened into a narrow and slightly crooked corridor that Leebin idly ran his fingers over the walls, the first two doors seemed to be the kids' bedrooms if the color changing plaque reading 'Maurene' was anything to go by. Opposite to that was 'Lysel' was painted on with some poorly drawn shapes decorating it, almost as if Lysel had been allowed to decorate it himself. There was a door on the far end and to right was another, Scorpius would guess it led to the bathroom as it was the far door Myriam led them in.

It had the same kind of cozy but cramped feeling of the front room, there was a small double bed with a handmade quilt over it and a window seat to the left. Some drawers, a wardrobe and another bookcase were scattered to the right, along with a long mirror in the corner. There was a healthy scattering of photographs around, mostly seeming to be of family and friends too if the few with his mother and Sol were anything to go by.

"Well this is it," Myriam announced and let go of Leebin, started to cleaning him up, "Anything else?"

"No, we're good," Martha brushed her off, "Just give us some privacy because like I said it could take a while, and whatever you do don't wake us up. No matter how long it takes, just don't try to wake us. Our minds will be interconnected and yanking us out could do some serious damage, you have to let us come out of it on our own."

"Okay," Myriam confirmed and looked a little worried, "Are you sure you want to do this? I want Flan to get better but not at the expense of your health, this seems dangerous."

"I'm sure," Scorpius agreed readily and glanced at Martha.

"I'm in if you are," Martha shrugged it off.

"Okay, I'll um… I'll leave you to it then I guess. I have to get back to my kids anyway," Myriam offered as she gave one last wistful look at Leebin before turning to leave, "And thank you, for doing this."

"It's nothing," Scorpius brushed it off as Myriam left, closing the door behind him before he turned back to Martha, "So now what?"

"Now we need him to be unconscious, come on Flanny," Martha said and switched to a childish voice when speaking to Leebin, taking his arm and guiding him to the bed, "Lie down now, isn't the bed nice and comfy?"

"Mublubla hai," Leebin commented cheerfully.

Martha helped him to lie down on the bed, he didn't seem to want to lie down though and tried to get up. She placed her hand on his forehead and caught his eyes, Leebin's eyes immediately fluttered closed and he slipped into a slumber. Martha took a deep breath.

"Okay, now it's your turn," Martha announced and gestured for him to lie down in the bed beside Leebin, Scorpius nervously did so.

"So how does this work?" Scorpius wondered uncertainly as Martha clambered onto the bed and knelt in between them.

"Well, I have to put your consciousness into his mind and maintain the link while you search for his consciousness inside his mental fortress."

"You won't be with me?"

"I'll drift in and out," Martha admitted reluctantly, "I'll do my best but I'll need to but effort into maintaining the link so I probably won't be able to be with you always, it'll be up to you. But it'll be easier for you anyway, having a connection to the person helps and you know the guy. Now even though I'll be doing most of the work, Occlumency is still important. It keeps your own mind together so stay good and focused, if not you won't be able to traverse his mind and I'll have to save you too."

"Okay," Scorpius nodded and lay back comfortably.

"You ready?"

"Yes."

"Then I need you to close your eyes and think of Leebin, memories of him is better especially if he's speaking, especially if it's showing you his personality. Think of that and only that, clear you head of everything else," Martha commanded and Scorpius did as instructed, he felt a hand on his forehead and was aware of himself slipping into unconsciousness…

---

"What were you thinking?!" his dad screamed at him furiously, Carver could only hang his head and try hide his tears. Ethan was okay, someone lower down had magically halted his fall and saved his life but it still had almost resulted in his death, "Ethan is suicidal! He's only locked up because I want my son to live and you not only let him out but take him to the roof?! You almost killed your brother!"

"I didn't know," Carver croaked and looked to his dad, seeing he was on the verge of crying too, "You never told me."

"Worrying you seemed pointless!" his dad insisted, glaring at him angrily, "Pack your things, it's time to go home. I've seen enough of you this summer."

"Can I see-"

"NO! YOU CANNOT SEE ETHAN!"

Carver trudged off unhappily to pack, hurt and shaken by what had happened, what he hadn't known about his brother. Martha came in to console him, kindly helping him pack. His dad returned not long after that to take him back home, Pegasus greeted him with a smug smile on his face and his wand in his hand.

"What's the matter, boy?" Pegasus taunted him, "You that awful your daddy and stupid siblings got sick of you already?"

"Shut up about my siblings," Carver snapped at him immediately darkly, feeling defensive over them. Especially Ethan. Pegasus smirked at having struck a nerve.

"Language, boy, you just earned yourself a spanking," Pegasus told him and something in Carver snapped angrily, he was sick of this, he was sick of Pegasus and he was not in the mood.

Without thinking he swung back his fast and hit his stepfather in the face as hard as he could, the man would've fallen if not for the wall behind him that he fell back into. Pegasus angrily raised his wand but still enraged and empowered by his success, Carver grabbed his wand arm and twisted it as hard as he could. There was a sickening snap and Pegasus screamed in pain, his wand fell from his useless fingertips. Carver was bigger and taller than Pegasus now after all, he was outmatched and if Carver wasn't bound by his age then he was sure he could outmatch his stepdad with wands too.

"No," Carver said, forcing the words through gritted teeth, "I'm done. We are done. I'm not going to take your crap anymore, whatever you do to me I'll do to you and if you go whining to the Ministry that I broke your wrist then I'll sure as bloody hell go whining too. Understand?"

"You can't threaten me," Pegasus snarled and Carver twisted his wrist further, Pegasus screamed again and met his eyes murderously but Carver didn't flinch.

"I said do you understand me, boy?" Carver stated darkly to his stepfather, preparing to twist again when Pegasus showed no sign of wavering.

"I understand," Pegasus growled and Carver let him go, Pegasus slumped to the ground immediately without Carver holding him up. Carver walked away from him and returned to his room without further hassle.

---

Michael leaned back comfortably in the bath, the prefect's bathroom specifically. Since virtually everyone old enough to be a prefect went away to Hogsmeade, it was the perfect time to get in without being disturbed. He could be alone and relax his tired – because of the approaching stupid full moon - body as much as he wanted, it was also the perfect time to drink since his friends weren't there. He had a glass and his wand, he could just keep conjuring the water and transfiguring it to alcohol. He swirled the liquid around before taking another gulp, the taste not even bothering him anymore. He needed a drink.

His quiet moment of solitude was disturbed however by the arrival of someone else, he glanced in their direction and recognized her as Roxanne Weasley who was a Beater on the team. She had a pretty heart shaped face, light brown skin, chocolate brown eyes and dark hair rather than the typical Weasley red. She blushed though when she saw him, averting her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Roxy apologized, "I didn't realize it was occupied."

"It's okay, I should be getting out anyway. I didn't realize it was so late that everyone was back," Michael said, noticing the slightest of slurs in his words, "And if it makes you feel any better, I'm wearing trunks."

"Oh right, good," Roxy muttered quietly, blushing again and keeping her eyes away from him, "And it's not that late, I have NEWTs real soon so I figured I should come home early to get some studying in. Then I thought I may as well enjoy a bath in the prefect's bathroom while everyone was probably still in Hogsmeade before I got to it… Studying isn't very fun."

"Guess not," Michael commented disinterestedly as he got out of the bath, pulling on his robe.

"Y-You know I didn't see you in Hogsmeade."

"That's because I didn't go," Michael stated dismissively as he pocketed his wand and picked up his glass.

"Oh, I had hoped to see you," Roxy said, sounding disappointed and he scowled in confusion at what she could want him for.

"Why? Quidditch is done for the year."

"It wasn't about Quidditch."

"Prefect stuff?"

"No."

"Then what?" Michael questioned in confusion as he approached her, noticing her face had gone even redder. He should probably just let it go, apparently it didn't bother her anymore, "Well it's all yours, Roxy."

"Thanks," Roxy said as she turned back to him, quickly averting her eyes as she blushed once more before having to do a double take and her eyes widened in shock, "Is that alcohol?"

"So what if it is?" Michael demanded irritably, "I can drink if I want to."

"It's against the rules."

"And you care about rules?"

"No but I care about you doing something to hurt yourself," Roxy protested and frowned at him, "Drinking alone in a bathroom doesn't seem healthy."

"I don't care if it's healthy or not," Michael scoffed and her eyed her distrustfully, trying to gauge whether it was likely she would get him in trouble or not. He supposed it didn't really matter if they did, since his friends were in Hogsmeade there was no way they should be able to.

"You used to care. About people, about things, about doing the right thing. Now you don't care about anything," Roxy told him sadly and disappointedly, he opened his mouth to protest but she'd already turned her back on him, "If you want to drink alone in a bathroom then go ahead, Michael."

"I will," Michael muttered as she left him there, he shrugged it off and went back to his drink.

---

The rest of Carver's summer was actually not so bad, his words seemed to have worked as Pegasus actually left him alone. He barely spoke to him and merely glared whenever he saw him, his mum on the other hand was furious at him for attacking Pegasus. Knowing Pegasus who was milking his victim status, he wasn't sure his mum even knew the truth of their exchange. At any rate, he didn't care and was still focused on being upset about Ethan anyway. What was the point in trying to convince her?

He'd never had a good relationship with his mother and he doubted he ever would, she was too wrapped around her husband's finger to care what he had to say. She was also busy as she gave birth to Pegasus' fourth child that summer, a second son they named Damien. Now he had two girls and two boys, he really shouldn't have a reason to complain about his children. Ironically, Carver thought Damien was an especially ugly baby unlike Amadeus who had to wear the sack for his 'ugliness' despite being perfectly normal. He doubted Pegasus really cared, he just liked being difficult. He spent a good deal of time flying, it cleared his head and he thought if he was good enough then maybe he'd get on the team with James.

Carver was glad to get back to Hogwarts, the work would be a welcome distraction from his misery and guilt about Ethan's suicide attempt. It was his OWL year so he thought it would keep him busy especially, he'd forgotten there'd be a new Headmaster though. The new guy hardly instilled him with confidence, he was both dubious and intrigued by the counselling sessions though. It did strike him as a ploy for information and something unlikely to work but… well, the idea of being able to talk to someone about his problems was nice in theory. James managed to get himself suspended early on but Carver was pleased to make the Quidditch team, even if it was just as a reserve.

His counseling session started off with some unimpressive oddball named Leebin, Carver decided to test the waters on how useful this counseling could be and if they were really only after information. So reluctantly opened up to him about his confusing feelings of sexuality, it had absolutely nothing to do with the war and was something he wanted help over. He decided it was a something he could risk sharing. Leebin didn't try to change the subject to war, instead actually listening to him and offering advice which made Carver think he was likely bisexual and he was okay with that. He found it rather freeing being able to be so open with someone, without having to worry about how he'd react like he did with James.

Leebin had encouraged him to try dating other people to see how he felt, it helped him to think he had a plan and got a date with a nice girl he liked, Mia, who was quite kind and pretty. James returned in time, seeming in quite a bad mood these days. Carver also learned from him about Michael's stepdad had been arrested, he'd abused him and his mother. It made Carver feel incredibly guilty for all those times he'd harassed him, he'd had a tough time at home and it was something Carver could relate to even if his situation was a little different. After his success with Leebin, he started to open up to him about other things like that guilt, his poor relationship with his parents, having to deal with so many siblings and even Ethan's suicide attempt. Of course he did have to be more careful with what he said then, still Carver liked having someone to talk to. Someone who actually listened.

---

Part 3: Lost in the Depths of the Mind

---

Scorpius opened his eyes and found he was staring up at an overcast sky, dark clouds hovered over him with flashes of lightning through the cracks in the clouds the only illumination he had, he could hear it crackling ominously above him. He was definitely outside, he could feel the icy breeze slicing against him. The skies opened, a sheet of rain was pelting down and soaking him, his clothes sticking to him and letting the cold seep into his bones. He was so cold. And thirsty, despite the falling his throat felt raw and parched. He was tired too, so tired his eyes were physically sore yet he couldn't close them.

"Focus, Scorpius!" Martha's voice snapped and he sat up in surprise, seeing the red-headed girl standing before him oddly untouched by the rain.

Scorpius looked around in confusion, seeing he was sitting on long damp grass on the edge of a cliff. He also realized he was in shadow, he turned his head and saw a massive fortress looming over him. Layers and levels of solid brick, statues of threatening looking eagles sticking out of the sides.

"Where am I?" Scorpius wondered in confusion as he glanced back to Martha.

"Leebin's mind," Martha answered shortly and gestured to the fortress, "It's called a mental fortress, it's an advanced Occlumency technique that he must've used to help cope with the torture. You imagine your mind like an impenetrable fortress and seal away different thoughts, emotions, memories or feelings, seal them even from your own consciousness unless you choose to access them."

"How does that help resist torture?"

"If you keep doing that with your pain it stops it becoming overwhelming, only works on fresh pain though or rather the memory of it. Wouldn't help against the constant pain and discomfort he was left in," Martha explained as she folded her arms, "It would also help against the Legilimency attacks, the basic Occlumency you know involves clearing your mind so they have no way in but with this way everything is sealed away so even if his mind wasn't focused on being blank they wouldn't be able to get in because the information is sealed away even from himself unless he's actively accessing it. And then even if he wasn't initially focused, he'd be able to throw them out before they managed to navigate through his mental fortress to find the information they want."

"Won't he throw us out then?"

"No, he managed to seal away his own consciousness and set his fortress to instinctively lash out at intruders trying to invade it. I linked with his mind rather than attacking it so it's not seeing at us as invaders or lashing out at us, his consciousness could throw us out but since that's what's lost and we're trying to find… It would be good if he did because it would mean he's back. Long as we don't attack his mind, it'll be fine."

"So… So what to do we do?" Scorpius wondered in confusion, "This isn't like people's minds, usually I just cycle lost between memories."

"You need to get inside the fortress, his mind including memories sealed away in there. You're not looking for memories though, you're looking for his consciousness."

"How will I know his consciousness?"

"He'll manifest like himself like you are, he'll be self-aware and talking to you. He'll either he lost and you'll have to help him leave the fortress or he'll be confused and you'll have to explain to him that he's trapped in his own mind," Martha told him and Scorpius stood up, glancing at the fortress which looked rather impenetrable, "And stay focused, don't become lost in his mind too. You need to be aware of you are, don't let his mind infect yours like you were before."

"Infect mine?" Scorpius repeated at an utter loss and Martha scowled at him.

"It's freezing cold outside the fortress in his mind, I'd guess because he physically cold when he was imprisoned and created the fortress. You feeling cold or even being wet means you're letting his feelings be entangled with yours, you can't allow that to happen or you'll lose yourself. It's not raining, this is not physically real, this is all inside his head. You have to remember that. Use your Occlumency, keep your mind your own. Do you understand?"

"Um… not completely," Scorpius offered truthfully but it didn't stop the rain hitting him and glanced at the fortress, "So how do we get inside his mental fortress?"

He glanced back to Martha and jolted in shock, seeing she was gone. He spun around, looking in every direction but he saw no sign of her. He even glanced over the cliff, despite hearing the water crashing against the rocks he saw nothing. No sign of Martha. He supposed she had said that she wouldn't be a constant presence, still he wished she'd told him how to get inside before leaving. She'd said not to attack so blasting a hole in the wall was likely not the best way to go with this, was there a door somewhere?

Scorpius started walking around the fortress in search of a door, staying close to the brick wall of the fortress and keeping his eye out. He walked and walked and walked, and walked. There was no sign of a door though, there wasn't even any sign of any difference between any part of the wall in fact. It was the same, Scorpius realized, it was exactly the same and seemed to stretch out infinitely. What if it did? Scorpius scowled in worry and glanced up, it was just a blank stretch of wall. It was far too high to be able to climb or jump, he wasn't even sure what he would climb or jump to anyway considering he didn't see anything resembling a window or door. Did he need to dig? Jump off the cliff? What was he supposed to do?

He put his hand on the wall, hanging his head as he rested against it. Feeling the rain dripping down his face from his hair which Martha insisted wasn't real, feeling the stone beneath his fingertips which… also probably wasn't real. Scorpius looked up, if it wasn't real then there was no real wall so he should just be able to go in if he wanted to… Right? He pushed gently on the wall and a heavy oak door swung open, revealing a long corridor of the same stone walls and a flagged stone floor although it was mostly hidden by a long blue rug lined with bronze. Scorpius stepped inside before turning back to close the door, only to find it was just enough stretch of corridor.

He looked around, seeing to his left and right the corridor extended looking exactly identical to ahead and behind of him. He also saw there were doors lining the walls, doors that were completely identical. Arched blue doors with a bronze eagle perched on the stone around the edge, at least they didn't seem to be infinite. After walking forwards for a bit, he saw after five there was another crossroad corridor with the same doors leading off. Every five there were corridors of five that led to corridors of five where five it led to corridors of five… No wonder Leebin had gotten lost in here. He supposed that might've been part of the protection though, even if someone did get into his fortress they'd be lost in an endless maze themselves of corridors and doorways.

Scorpius supposed he should probably try some of them, maybe they actually led somewhere or had Leebin inside. He approached a random door and cautiously took the bronze handle, biting the bullet he pushed open the door. He found it led into a dungeon and he was surprised to see it wasn't empty, there was a white haired man he didn't recognize sitting against the wall and the other two were Leebin and James. Leebin was chained to the floor while James stood over him brandishing his wand, he seemed to be using some kind of whipping spell because every time he brought it down another bloody welt appeared on Leebin's body as he screamed in pain with a voice that sounded hoarse. He was already soaked in blood, his body buried in the painful wounds. James didn't seem to care though, he just kept inflicting wound over wound over wound without a hint of slowing down. He already knew this wasn't Leebin's consciousness, it was just a memory.

He stepped back sadly as he didn't want to see this, feeling a burning hatred for James well in his gut. James gave a cry of rage and abruptly kicked him, seemingly frustrated with his lack of progress as he kicked Leebin while he was down. He jabbed his wand down at Leebin who screamed intensely, his broken body writhing from the Cruciatus Curse, twisting in ways it didn't look like it should be possible to twist. Scorpius stepped further back, looking away. He knew he should probably close the door but he didn't really want to see Leebin's suffering, he could hear him screaming still. He reached forward to close the door, except the opposite seemed to happen as he heard doors opening followed by Leebin's screams.

Scorpius looked around in surprise, seeing all the doorways in sight had opened. He quickly closed the door but it snapped back open, Scorpius ran from it to the one opposite which depicted a very similar scene and tried to close it but it also snapped back open. Leebin's cries of pain echoed around him from all the open doors, Scorpius started to run to get away from it, suddenly missing the closed doors. Every open one seemed to be scenes of his torture, mostly in the same room and mostly with James but there were sometimes others dressed in Shadow robes. Wherever he ran the unpleasant memories chased him, then he realized they weren't chasing him anymore. The doors were gone and there were just Inferi all around, clawing at him and making inhuman cries. Scorpius found a large spiraling staircase and ran onto it, the same blue rug with bronze trim and more bronze eagles on the end of the bannister.

He raced onto it, trying to get away from the Inferi with height rather distance as their sickening skeletal discolored bodies struggled to climb because their limbs were all twisted and broken. They stank, the putrid stench of rotting flesh made him want to retch so he ran. Finding – somehow unsurprisingly – that he was now on a staircase that seemed to have no beginning or end, he also didn't seem to be putting any distance between him and the Inferi. If anything they were gaining on him, he could feel their bony fingers clawing at him. Finally one grabbed his wrist, he cried out in fright and immediately swung with his fist to punch it away. The creature gave an oddly human sounding yelp of pain, causing Scorpius to look back in surprise.

He saw the Inferi he'd punched hit the ground, he also realized it wasn't an Inferi at all but Leebin. They were all Leebin, their wounded bodies were mangled from the torture. The one he'd punched looked at him with tear-filled eyes, a look of hurt and confusion as if he didn't know why he'd attacked him. Scorpius was hit by guilt, after all he wanted to help Leebin not hurt him. Scorpius reached out a hand to help him up, the Leebin took it and as it did all the Leebin's seemed to consolidate into the one he was helping up. There were as a gust of wind from behind him and he saw the top of the stairs was suddenly there with a large door, a massive double doorway that was open and blowing wind at him. He felt a rush of anger and hatred towards the injured Leebin for some reason just as it got to its feet, he pushed it away and it fell over the side of the bannister.

Scorpius scrambled over to the side to see if it had died. He then had to grip onto the banister for dear life as the staircase seemed to start to fall, plummeting lower and lower through the darkness. He almost screamed in panic before wondering if it was even possible for him to die while lost in Leebin's mind since it wasn't real, he wasn't really here. The staircase halted abruptly, somehow not affecting his momentum in the slightest. Down it led into darkness but up to a landing not a door like before, he walked up and found himself in another corridor of doors like before except this one had maybe slightly darker shade of blue color. He wished Martha would reappear, he really wanted to go home now. What had possessed him to try this in the first place? It was insane and he was exhausted, he just wanted to sleep.

He pushed through one of the doors, hoping to find a bed before freezing for a minute in panic at the thought of it being another dungeon. It wasn't though, it led into a kitchen. There were white units and corridor beyond them that led to a front-looking door, a staircase barely visible leading up the other way. There was a wooden table in the center with four chairs at it, a table that bore a remarkable similarity to the one in Myriam's kitchen. There was only person in this room and it was Leebin, this one younger than the present as he stood as a rather gangly teen. In fact, he looked around Scorpius' age. Leebin took a deep breath before tearing open an envelope, Scorpius caught a brief glimpse of the Hogwarts seal and walked in to peer over his shoulder at the letter. It was his OWL results, he'd not done well.

Flannery Logan Leebin has achieved:

Arithmancy: D

Astronomy: P

Care of Magical Creatures: A

Charms: D

Defense Against the Dark Arts: D

Herbology: A

History of Magic: T

Potions: P

Transfiguration: T

He'd done terribly, in fact worse than terribly as he'd failed. He'd never be allowed to continue most – if not all – of those subjects for NEWTs, not unless he repeated his OWL year to get better results. He'd failed, he was a failure. Leebin choked on a sob and scrunched the paper up to his face, he'd tried. He'd really tried, so hard but still he failed, he failed so badly. Scorpius felt a wave of sympathy hit him, his own eyes tearing up. He was a failure too, he'd failed to save Antonius, he'd failed to save Calderon, he'd failed to save Leebin, he'd failed to apparate, he'd failed to win the Quidditch Cup, he failed at magic, he'd failed to help Michael, he'd failed at his OWLs, he'd failed to stop the Shadows, he'd failed to save his dad and now he was lost in someone else's mind. He'd failed. He was just a failure, a worthless failure. He was too stupid to be a Ravenclaw like everyone said, he was such a loser.

He sat down at the table, burying his face in his hands with the letter crumpled as the weight of his failure crashed against him and the tears fled from his eyes. He cried, he couldn't stop crying. His uncle was right, he was just a terrible waste of space. Why couldn't he do anything right? He wanted to help so badly but he just failed, he just kept failing. He didn't know why, it wasn't from lack of trying. He wanted to help, he wanted to save his friend, his cousin, the world. But he didn't, he couldn't even do a simple apparation or pass a few tests.

"Scorpius!"

He looked up in surprise at the mention of his name before immediately scowling in confusion, that wasn't his name. His name was Flan. Wait no, he was pretty sure it was it was Scorpius. No, that didn't sound right, it had to be Flan. No, he was definitely Scorpius.

"You're Scorpius!" the voice insisted as if she could read his mind and he turned to face the redheaded pre-teen girl… Martha, that was it and he was Scorpius. They were just inside Leebin's head. He then found he was standing beside her, he looked around and saw teenage Leebin still crying over his results at the table, "You need to focus, I told you. Don't get mixed up in his thoughts or memories like this, your mind is not a physical thing so if you don't focus it'll get mixed up like that and you lose track of your identity."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize," Scorpius admitted nervously, feeling rather hopeless, "Can't you just find his consciousness? I'm really struggling here."

"It's hard to keep this link in place, ironically it's much harder than Legilimency. I can't keep it up and search for his mind so unless you have a secret knowledge of the mind, you have to do it," Martha insisted and Scorpius sighed heavily, her expression flicked to one of concern, "Look, we don't have to do this if you don't want to. We tried, we just couldn't f-"

"No!" Scorpius cut her off desperately, thinking of how he'd just been upset over his failures not five minutes ago, "We can't just give up. I won't let him down, I won't fail again. I've been failing a lot lately, a lot of the things I want or try just seem so unreachable but this is actually something within my grasp. I'm not giving up. I just don't know how to find him in this place."

"It's not a real place," Martha reiterated as she folded her arms, "And think about it, if you were him and you wanted to hide in your mind then where would you go?"

"I don't know, this place is insane."

"Of course it's insane, if the guy was in a healthy mental state then he wouldn't be lost in his own mind."

Scorpius glanced back to the teenage Leebin, he was drying his eyes and trying to smooth out the letter because he had to be strong for his mother, keep going. He supposed she was right, he went to look back to her but found she was gone yet again. He sighed heavily and backed out of the room, closing the door on the memory behind him.

Now what? He was going to get nowhere by wandering around aimlessly, he had no idea where everything was or how to navigate. According to Martha none of it was even real so he was just wandering around in… nowhere? He did need to change his tactic, he wanted to get out of here. It was cold and strange.

He had no idea where Leebin would go if he wanted to hide in his mind, Scorpius didn't even know where he would go if it were him. He didn't think he'd want to be in his own mind, not with the bad memories he had in there… Maybe happy memories he'd hide in? How did he get to Leebin's happy memories? Maybe it was like the door, he just needed to will it. He tried to focus, willing happy memories too him…

The whole world suddenly swirled around him into a dark mess and the floor crumbled beneath his feet, he would've cried out as he fell into the darkness but he seemed to be floating there instead. Fireflies started to emerge around him, gently plodding through the air. Scorpius scowled, he'd wanted happy memories not fireflies. The fireflies bobbed over to him and he realized they weren't fireflies at all, they were small orbs with images playing out on them like a muggle movie. One on the fritz as the images flickered, he also became aware of hearing quiet echoy sounds coming from them.

"It's a girl!" one of the voices cried and he saw one of images was a Healer handing Leebin a bundle of blankets, he smiled lovingly down at it with tears of joy seeping from the corners of his eyes.

"Make it go higher, Flan!" another voice called and Scorpius shifted his attention to one of Leebin as a young child, maybe four or five running through a field with a similar aged boy with brown hair and a kite trailing behind them.

"Will you marry me?" Leebin's own voice said and Scorpius spun hopefully at the thought of having found him, it was stupid though as the voice had the same echoing quality as the others and there wasn't any reason for him to be saying that. Sure enough, he located the memory he was speaking in.

"Of course I'll marry you!" Myriam laughed and happily threw herself into his arms, Leebin held her close and looked evidently relieved at her saying yes.

"Focus, dammit!" a gruff voice barked and Scorpius quickly found it coming from a memory of a teenage Leebin being smacked around the back of his head by his uncle, he was confused why it was a happy memory before he noticed Leebin blushing as a younger Myriam was walking passed them nearby in what looked like St Mungo's and in fact his uncle was dressed in Healer robes. Hogan scowled as his nephew as he scoffed, "She's way out of your league, Flan. Girls aren't into worthless losers who fail so bad they flunk out of Hogwarts."

"Daddy!" a child's voice cried happily and he turned to another of a child Leebin rushing to his father – the eyebrow scar gave away which otherwise identical twin was which – as he stepped out of the fireplace, Logan scooped him up in his arms.

"Daddy!" a girl child's voice cried happily and Scorpius turned to see an almost identical memory, except Leebin was the one returning home and Maurene was the one being scooped up. Their house looked nicer than it did now, more spacious and less cobbled together.

Scorpius found it bittersweet rather than happy, obviously it was nice that he had happy memories but considering how far removed from that he was now it was sad. He realized simultaneous both that that was how he'd feel about his own memories and that was why Leebin wasn't here, he wouldn't want to torture himself with memories of better times. Without warning there was a grunt from behind the memories and they suddenly were knocked aside by an Inferi, he gave a groan and swiped at the again to cast them aside.

Not an Inferi, he realized once more, the same tortured Leebin form with the emaciated, twisted body a mess of wounds. Wounds that a real person wouldn't be able to walk around on as most of its limbs were clearly broken, most importantly the ones you needed to walk in the first place. It swung its ruined arms at the memories, scattering the firefly-like things so they flew away and he was once more back in the stone corridor with the blue and bronze rug. Except this time, there were no doors.

"Leebin, it's me," Scorpius told him as his felt his feet touch the floor, the way it stared blankly at him assured him that it wasn't his consciousness but rather… well he didn't know what it was. A nightmare? A bad memory?

Where was Leebin? He wasn't in good memories and he wouldn't be in bad memories either, if anything he'd be getting away from them. Would he just be in feelings? Good happy, positive feelings? Was that even possible? Couldn't hurt to try it. He focused on wanting to positive feelings and a door that hadn't previously been there opened, a white mist seeped out and slowly started to fill the endless corridor.

Scorpius found himself started to feel inexplicably happy, almost as if he'd been hit with a Cheering Charm except this was much stronger and more natural. The Leebin moaned again and swung its arms through the mist, it swirled around them and dispersed up into the suddenly large high domed ceiling above them. It took his joyful feeling with it, he sighed once more feeling extremely tired.

"Guess that was a stupid idea, huh?" Scorpius commented to the Leebin even though it didn't seem capable of understanding him, whatever it was. It said nothing, just looked at him with eyes that didn't look as if they were really seeing him.

He wasn't in his memories, he wasn't in his feelings, he didn't think he'd be in his thoughts or dreams – if that was even possible – to do their chaotic nature. Scorpius wouldn't want to be there, he didn't think Leebin would either. He looked at the Leebin before him thoughtfully, all those horrible wounds…

If he'd been through that, he couldn't blame Leebin for wanting to escape the pain in his mind… He'd just want to go to some secure part of his mind, somewhere sealed off, somewhere safe where he wouldn't be in anymore, where no one could hurt him anymore. If he'd constructed some kind of bizarre mental fortress, was it not possible he'd construct some kind of… safe room?

He focused once more, trying to think of some kind of safe part of Leebin's mind. The world around him lurched and Scorpius was abruptly thrown off his feet as the world went white, he groaned before feeling ran pelting down on him and realized he was now laying on dirt not a rug. Had he somehow managed to go backwards?

He stood up and jolted in pain as he felt something prick him, he struggled up and saw he was surrounded by a mass of brambles. Thick thorny vines were erupting from the ground everywhere, meandering their way through the space all around him in every direction and as far above him as his eyes could see. He also realized the other Leebin was still with him, standing there immobile.

"If this is his safe place then it's not very safe," Scorpius said to the Leebin as he rubbed where a thorn had pricked him, "I think maybe my mind navigating skills aren't as good as I thought, this would be difficult to get through…"

Scorpius trailed off as he said it, it would be difficult to get through. Maybe that was the point? The thorn thicket was a defense, it was hard to get past it so he felt safe hidden behind it. It was worth a shot, too bad he had absolutely no idea which direction to. Once again, there was nothing to distinguish any direction. Not that he needed a direction since nothing was real apparently, that didn't really help him though.

He started heading forwards, deciding it was as good a direction as any and made the most sense since thinking of the safe place had drawn him in this particular spot. He considered drawing his wand to get rid of the brambles, at least to clear his path but he thought that might be construed as an attack and get him kicked out.

Instead, he was forced to push on and to do his best to avoid being stabbed by thorns by ducking and weaving. It didn't work no matter how hard he tried, they just kept pricking him and it didn't help he kept slipping in the wet muddy ground. He heard a grunt and turned to see the Leebin was limping along with him, shuffling uncaring through the field of pain and swinging his arms to bat them away.

Scorpius wondered why he would be so callous, especially since he was so injured already and surely this was just aggravating his wounds. Not for the first or likely last time in his life, Scorpius wished he was good at healing magic. If it was even possible to help… whatever this Leebin thing was since it wasn't what he was looking for.

Except the Leebin wasn't being injured, he realized. The thorns slicing it were having no effect, nor was it getting wet from the rain just like Martha hadn't. Because none of it was real, it wasn't really raining and there weren't really thorns there. He tried telling himself that as he ploughed onward with them still battering him, he closed his eyes thinking maybe if he couldn't see it would help him realize that.

At first he didn't think it did, he could still feel the thorns slicing him and the thick vines bumping into him, still feel the rain falling on his skin. But he kept at it, just thinking of getting through to find Leebin to help him. Slowly though and very gradually the amount of times he was hitting them seemed to diminish, he was being pricked less and less until finally he was just walking unhindered.

He forgot about the thorns eventually and finally stopped, wondering why he was even walking when he was so tired that all he wanted to do was lie down and rest. He opened his eyes and saw he was standing on the edge of the thicket, the rain still pouring down but it just had no effect. He was looking at a house that reminded him of Leebin's, at least when it had been nicer a few rebuilds ago but not entirely like that either. The windows all had shutters, shutters that were all closed.

"Leebin?" Scorpius called, hardly daring to hope as he approached the door. It could just be another memory but… this felt different somehow, he went to open the door but found it locked. Was that a good sign? It had to be a good sign, what kind of safe place didn't have a door that locked? He banged on it instead in desperation, "Leebin? Leebin, are you in there?"

"Scorpius?" a startlingly familiar voice came from the other side of the door.

And it wasn't the random gibberish of the insane or the echo of a memory, it the true voice of Leebin. Scorpius had found him, he'd finally found Leebin's consciousness. He heard movement and the unclicking of a lock before the door opened, Leebin was standing there. He looked exactly as he had the last time Scorpius had seen him before is disappearance except not tired, the correct age, unscarred and healthy with his ovular glasses back in place and his reddish-brown hair shorter with something of a natural unruly upwards spike.

"I can't believe I found you," Scorpius said with relief while Leebin looked at him in confusion.

"What are you even doing here?" Leebin questioned in bemusement.

"I came to find you, to-"

"Get inside!" Leebin cut him of suddenly in panic and Scorpius heard a groan before Leebin pulled him quickly inside, Scorpius turned just fast enough to see the other Leebin was there and lunging at them as if to attack. Leebin slammed the door shut on it and quickly locked it, quickly locked the several layers of locks climbing the door in fact, "You shouldn't be there, Scorpius, it's dangerous with those Inferi."

"Inferi…" Scorpius repeated in surprise that Leebin hadn't realized the Inferi was himself.

"Yes," Leebin confirmed, seeming very certain of this fact as he moved further back into the room before giving him comforting smile, "But it's okay, you can stay here. It's safe here."

Scorpius turned to take in the rest of the room, he wasn't sure if it was a living room or a library. Book shelves lined the walls to his left and right, literally from ceiling to floor and taking up the length of the wall between the two far doors leading off it and the walls. The wall opposite seemed only not to have books because it was taken up by a massive fireplace with a bronze eagle statue perched overhead the roaring flames, two windows were either side of it and shut like the front ones. The floor was leveled as a step down in the center was a small table upon which rested a jug and goblet along with a book, there were two comfortable blue armchairs resting comfortably, the thick carpeted floor was blue with a bronze trim which was identical in color to the rugs lining the corridors earlier.

"What is this place anyway?" Scorpius wondered in confusion as Leebin wandered back over to the armchairs, Scorpius followed and Leebin turned back to him with another look of confusion as he scratched at his chin.

"I don't know," Leebin admitted after a minute's thought before brightening again, "But it's safe here, I assure you. There's everything you need, comfortable bed, bathroom, food and water plus this great book collection, everything I've ever read is here."

"Ever wonder why that is?" Scorpius questioned as Leebin took a seat, looking puzzled again before shrugging.

"I've wondered but I have no idea why. Would you like a glass of water? It's very refreshing and not scalding," Leebin offered as if this was some kind of miraculous instead of regular thing.

"No, I don't want a drink. We need to leave this place."

"We can't," Leebin insisted as the smiled was wiped off his face, looking horrified at the thought, "It's not safe out there, the Inferi will tear you apart and that's assuming you can even get through that forest of thorns. No, Scorpius, it's best just to stay here where it's safe, they can't get in here."

"Leebin," Scorpius began, not sure how to break this to him as he sat on the other chair which was angled towards Leebin and took a deep breathe, "This place is not real, we're inside your head right now."

"Inside my head?" Leebin repeated slowly as his cyan eyes shifted around the room, his expression becoming disheartened, "I suppose that would explain why there are only books I've read here…"

"It would," Scorpius nodded in confirmation, "My friend made this mind connection so I could find you, snap you out of… this."

"I guess deep down I've always kind of suspected that…" Leebin said before swallowing, "So you're really you?"

"Yes. And I'd like to wake up now so we need to get out of here."

"Right," Leebin muttered and looked down, wringing his hands before looking back up to him, "There is some important information about the Shadows and Florian that I know should relay to you, things you need to pass on."

"Tell me after we get out of here," Scorpius told him, very desperate to be back in the real world and Leebin averted his eyes uncomfortably.

"Well um… that's the thing, I think that I'm going to just stay here so… you can just go on without me."

"What?!" Scorpius burst out in shock and anger, Leebin looked further away ashamedly, "I came all this way, through all that chaotic screwed up stuff and you want to stay?! What part of inside your mind don't you understand?!"

"I understand but… You- You know it's safe in here."

"Safe?!" Scorpius spluttered out, "You want to stay in here because it's safe?! What about your family?!"

"What about them?" Leebin asked sharply as his eyes shot back to him, looking surprised, "Are they alive?"

"What? Of course they're alive," Scorpius answered the obvious and realized from the expression on Leebin's face that he hadn't known that, "Why? Did you think they were dead?"

"That's… That's what they said, the Shadows I mean. They said they'd killed them," Leebin said quietly as the window blew open the shutters behind them, he swallowed, "I knew they could be lying but I also knew it could just be wishful thinking on my part."

"Well they're very much alive, even Lysel," Scorpius told him with certainty, thinking it would snap Leebin out of wanting to stay, "So come on, let's go and you can see them."

"I-It's still not safe-"

"That's not an Inferi outside, that's you! The only thing you're hiding from is yourself! A weird tortured version of yourself that's like a nightmare or a bad memory or something but…"

Scorpius trailed off as he realized that made it sound worse, it was worse really. You could get away from Inferi, you could stop them but you couldn't escape the pain in your mind. Leebin would have to face that if was to take proper control of his mind and life again, he glanced at Leebin who was looking away with a melancholy expression. Scorpius had no doubt that Leebin had also figured this out.

"Look, I get it," Scorpius offered carefully, fiddling with his own thumbs as he realized how much he could relate to that, "I wouldn't much want to face my bad memories either, in fact I avoided them too but… we have to accept the bad as well because it's just as much as a part of us as the good. You can't have one without the other in life, locked up here you're safe from the bad but you're cut off from the good as well, from the things that matter, the things that make life worthwhile.

"It's letting the bad win, letting the people who hurt you take even more from you by losing the good things you have left. The bad is bad but you face to face it too, feel the feeling and get through it," Scorpius told him and felt more confident in what he was saying with each word, for once finding he knew what to say, "That's what you'd say, right? If our positions were reversed?"

"I wouldn't be feeling the feeling, I'd be broken. Maybe I don't want to be broken," Leebin insisted gestured vaguely around, he continued before Scorpius could argue to the contrary, "Look around you, I couldn't cope before and my mind broke from it. What's to say it won't happen again? Except next time I wouldn't even be able to save my consciousness."

"Well…" Scorpius started to say and realized he really had no idea, he looked around hoping Martha would appear and offer him answers about the mind but she didn't, "Okay honestly I don't know but… Isn't it worth trying? You can't just hide away in here like a coward because of what might happen."

"Maybe I'm just a coward."

"No, you're not," Scorpius said with certainty and a shake of his head, Leebin scowled at him.

"No offense, Scorpius, but you barely even know me so-"

"Exactly, I don't even have to know you well to know you're no coward. You know what you have to do," Scorpius cut him off and Leebin looked at him for a long minute before sighing.

"You're right," Leebin nodded quietly as he stood, the door bursting open as he did so from the storm outside and sending icy winds blowing inside the sanctuary. The fire died and the room seemed rot around them, the shelves and books rotting away as if the place had been abandoned for years, "But um… in case I go mad, there really is some important that you should know about the Shadows-"

"Tell me after we get out of here, I have faith it'll work out," Scorpius insisted as he also stood, hoping he wouldn't regret it but feeling more worried about it.

Leebin didn't look convinced but nonetheless fell quiet as the tortured Leebin form from before limped in, groaning like a zombie and swinging its broken arms as if they were weapons. The real Leebin took a deep breath and approached it with extreme reluctance, he looked away and squeezed his eyes shut but nonetheless held out his arm to it as it lunged for him. Instead of being hindered by the blow, the second it touched him it was frozen and a blinding light erupted from the space where the two touched.