Gray: Scorpius Malfoy and the Blood Runes

by Fiery Gray

UNDER EDITING! (I): After a trauma, the Malfoys are reluctant to send their son off to Hogwarts, especially after Scorpius gets off to an eventful start and nothing goes as planned. He finds things are wrong at Hogwarts under the rule of a dangerous headmaster who has it in for him while in the shadows lie an even greater threat than anyone could have foreseen. COMPLETE

6. Chapter 6: Making Friends

Parts (24-28)

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I

Chapter 6

Making Friends

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Part 1: The Accident

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As soon as Varanian was out of earshot, Professor Ashain started grumbling some rather colorful curses under his breath about the headmaster and continued for the rest of the journey. Scorpius didn't blame him, it did seem unnecessarily unfair and he felt kinda bad for getting the professor in trouble. He did feel a better about Calderon though, if Varanian was having him deliver a list then he at least was alive. They bade each other goodnight at the plump lady's portrait, Scorpius returned to his bed and quickly fell into a blissfully dreamless sleep until it was time to get up.

Albus was in exceptionally low spirits that morning, Michael was more cheerful but Scorpius had a feeling he was just the kind of person who was good at putting on a brave face. At breakfast he found himself again sitting with them along with Abby and Rose, both of whom were in similar spirits to Albus and no one had any fresh ideas for how to get the word out about Varanian. Professor Ashain and Calderon were both amongst those absent for breakfast, Varanian was there though. He was now sporting long black hair and talking to Professor McGonagall, she seemed to be arguing with him. She looked furious and more than once gestured in Scorpius' direction for some reason.

Scorpius didn't have a good day lesson wise, he got sick of people asking him what happened to his face and having to stick to his lie. It didn't help that the wound continued to sear painfully for no apparent reason. Herbology was the first lesson and he regretted being between Michael and Abby, the girl let her hair flow loose rather than in a braid as usual to hide the bruise from Albus' accidental punch. She would still barely raise her head to look at her father, her awkwardness made him uncomfortable. He did feel bad for her, he tried to be nice to her and she seemed surprised but oddly, Scorpius found that they did get along well enough. By the end of the lesson she seemed more at ease.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was unusually impractical, just telling them to read a chapter while he sat at his desk reading sheets of parchment and scowling at them. Scorpius wasn't sure whether that was Varanian's list of his probation rules, if it was then there were an awful lot of rules. Then again ,Varanian liked rules. Nott wasn't mocking Michael for once though, that was good. Disappointingly, Calderon also wasn't at lunch, Scorpius had started assuming he was alive but feared for his health. After lunch was Transfiguration, usually he actually enjoyed the subject despite the fact most of the rest of the class thought it was difficult. However, the first thing Professor McGonagall said ruined the whole lesson for him.

"Mr Malfoy, I need to see you after class," she announced before starting talking about the subject matter.

He spent the whole lesson worrying about it, wondering what she could want or what he'd possibly done to offend her. He was easily the best in class and quite liked her as teacher, he didn't want to be on her bad side. Or Professor Flitwick's because staying to talk to her would inevitably make him late for Charms.

"Good luck," Michael offered as they were dismissed, the others all began filing out and Scorpius reluctantly walked over to Professor McGonagall. She was standing in front of her desk with her arms folded expectantly.

"You wanted to see me, Professor?"

"Indeed I did. I think you know what about," Professor McGonagall prompted but he hadn't a clue.

"I'm sure I don't, Professor. Did I do something wrong?"

"It's about your injury of course, the one across your face that you may notice if you look in a mirror."

"It was just some bullies. Calderon's dealing with it," Scorpius lied mechanically, hating how easily the words passed his lips.

"Hmm..." the professor mused but didn't look convinced, "Tell me, do you know what subjects Varanian taught before becoming the Headmaster?"

"No, Professor."

"Defense Against the Dark Arts and Alchemy. Do you know what was his signature spell that he taught in Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

"No, Professor," Scorpius repeated, trying not to frown as he wondered where this was going.

"The same one that was used to mark your face. It's a very nasty spell, I had to ban him from letting students practice it on each other because he believed it was the best way for them to master it."

"Well I guess the person who did this to me was probably taught it by him then."

"Marius has an identical injury to you. How do you suppose he got that?"

"I don't know, Professor. You'd have to ask him."

"I have," Professor McGonagall said, sounding slightly irritated before she sighed, "Look, Mr Malfoy, physically injuring a student is a gross breech of Hogwarts policy, Ministry regulations and not to mention basic Wizarding rights. It's very serious, regardless of the position of the teacher who committed the atrocity. If anyone did that to you then I would urge you to come forward, no one has the right to do that to you and you needn't be afraid. You can trust me, I can protect you."

"It was bullies, Professor, just bullies," Scorpius lied again, even though the professor still looked disbelieving.

"I can't do anything if don't talk to me, Scorpius. You don't have to protect him," she prompted gently.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Scorpius apologized and she looked disappointed, he couldn't tell her though. She didn't know about Varanian spying on the mail and if he found out that she knew then she could be in danger too, he didn't want that, "But it was bullies."

"Very well," Professor McGonagall sighed before her usual demeanor returned, "Best be on your way then. Be careful."

Scorpius nodded and left, hurrying along to his Charms lesson quickly and trying not to feel bad for lying to her when she was trying to help him. Maybe one day she would understand that it was for her own protection, Varanian had used the spell on Calderon despite the fact he was an adult and put Professor Ashain on probation. He wasn't beyond making his own staff's lives a misery as well as the students he was using for his spell. He got the impression that she suspected what Varanian had done to him and Calderon but couldn't prove it, meaning he likely hadn't told her. She would need proof because it was a serious thing to accuse the headmaster of.

He was grumbling Professor Ashain's curses about Varanian under his breath by the time he reached Charms, he truly despised the man. Professor Flitwick wasn't particularly angry at him at least, accepting that it wasn't really his fault as Professor McGonagall had wished to speak him. He wasn't in trouble although annoyingly, he did ask what had happened to his face. Scorpius just wanted to scream for everyone to shut up about it but he didn't, kept his lies polite and short.

They were doing about a Levitation Charm, involving trying to make a feather fly. He sat down beside Michael, who had saved him his favorite seat in the corner, Scorpius was grateful. Michael was having about as much luck with it as usual, Rose also was struggling which seemed to be frustrating her immensely. Others in the room were having more success than her, although Albus and Abby were also failing at it but then they didn't seem to be trying very hard.

All four of them were close enough to him to hear the professor telling him what they were doing, they stopped to listen too. Scorpius propped his stinging cheek on his hand and listened carefully until the professor was done talking and moved away. He very carefully repeated the incantation, willing the feather to move and waved his wand precisely the way that Professor Flitwick had described. The feather obediently rose into the air, lazily he moved his wrist and the feather followed up and down, left and right. It wasn't hard.

"Damn, you make that look easy," Michael muttered with a scowl, "I really suck at all of this stuff. You'd never think that before here, everyone thought I was a freak because all these weird things used to happen around me. Stuff I know now was magic, and it was actually magic. And it happened all the time, things used to catch fire if I was scared like I singed Jason Croner's eyebrows off once when he took my little's sister's favorite toy. Lots of other things also, made my stepdad piss rubies too, not pleasant apparently. Now I can't do anything. The more I try, the more I fail."

"You've only been here a week, you'll get the hang of it," Abby offered comfortingly from Michael's other side, "We all will, Scorpius makes it look effortless but the rest of us don't think it's so easy either."

"It's not easy," Scorpius said, somewhat defensively, "It took months of concentrating and focusing to get any kind of useful control of magic, I literally spent all my free time on it. I would keep myself awake so long that my eyes hurt to practice because I knew it was the only chance I had, I think that's the only reason I'm good at any of this. So don't feel bad, feel grateful that you get to be normal."

"Sorry," Michael offered and Scorpius realized the four were looking at him oddly, he regretted having spoken immediately, "I just wish that stupid feather would fly."

"Just do this, Wingardium Leviosa!"

Scorpius sat up and back as he spoke. He almost violently swished his wrist in frustration, somehow he'd thought that if they just saw him do it then they'd be able to do it too and shut up about him being good at spells. The feather didn't float though. The table did, he fell backward off his stool as it violently jerked upwards. He heard people crying out in panic and someone screamed, it was only as he got back up to his feet that he saw why. He hadn't just made his table rise, he'd made all the tables in the room rise. And all the stools not at his table too, carrying the students seated on them upwards too. Standing had made it worse, the table had risen higher and he assumed the others had too by more cries of panic. One girl was still screaming. Scorpius just froze as the room was filled with people shrieking to be put down and yelling for help. What the hell have I done?!

"And you want us to do that?" Michael commented, trying not to laugh. Albus had less control and burst out laughing as did some of the others from the table behind that Rose was at.

"It's not funny, Al!" Rose shrieked and whacked her cousin round the head with a book, "Put them down, Malfoy! Put them down right now!"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Scorpius called out in panic as he raised his wand to try to lower them but only succeeded in raising them higher before he unthinkingly flung his arm downwards.

"Very slowly l-" Professor Flitwick had started to say, looking panicked but it was too late.

As soon as he lowered his arm, everything and everyone came crashing down. Tables were smashed from the force that they hit the solid stone ground, stools were practically torn apart and the students hit the ground like rag dolls. No one was laughing now. No one spoke. Scorpius saw some of the positions they'd landed in, some twisted limbs that were probably broken, cuts from broken pieces of wood. Some people started crying out for help, some people actually started crying. He was horrified. What have I done?

"Someone get Madam Pomfrey, now!" Professor Flitwick demanded immediately, heading over to the injured students as more than one person ran to get help.

"Professor, I didn't mean to. I swear," Scorpius babbled fearfully, running over to him, "I didn't mean to, I didn't, I swear I didn't!"

"Not now. Need to help the injured."

"Professor, I may not know a lot about magic but I know a lot about first aid, I can-" Michael started to say, appearing on the professor's other side but bolted towards one girl who was trying to free her shoulder from being impaled on a jagged piece of broken stool, "No, no, don't do that. It'll make it bleed more and do more damage internally, leave it for now. Here, just put pressure around the wound, one of you get over here and help her with this!"

Abby rushed over to Michael's side as ripped off the sleeve of the girl's uninjured arm and started using it to press around the wound, he got Abby to take over and started checking the girl near her. By the time Professor Flitwick reached them, Michael was ordering about the other uninjured students and telling the injured what to do and to stay calm. Michael seemed to be in his element, whatever he was doing had to be right because the professor didn't tell him to stop or that he'd done something wrong.

Professor Flitwick started helping out where he could, going to the most seriously injured first and using some spells to help ease the internal bleeding mostly, he said. Scorpius could barely believe it, not five minutes ago the class had been full of lively students. Now they were all broken and bleeding from falling at least the height of a two story window. And he had done it. His wand. His spell. His magic. Maybe he was evil. Without even trying, he managed to hurt and kill. He dreaded to think what he was capable of if he wanted to do bad.

"Scorpius!" Michael called, snapping him from his daze and he saw Michael trying to put pressure on a Hufflepuff boy's bleeding shoulder with a large chunk of ripped cloak, "Come over here, help me with this. Just hold this here, put pressure on the wound."

"No!" the injured boy screamed as Scorpius went to help, "You've done enough! Get someone else please, not him!"

"I want to help," Scorpius protested, feeling hurt by the anger in the boy's eyes. Although he supposed he couldn't blame him.

Before Michael could reply, Madam Pomfrey arrived with a cluster of other nurse personnel and he immediately launched into an explanation of who was injured and how, what was more serious. She looked incredibly surprised by this, she probably wasn't used to hearing a break down about injured pupils by a First Year. When he was finished, she just looked at Professor Flitwick in askance.

"What he said," the professor told her and she nodded before taking charge, tending to the injured and having everyone brought to the Hospital Wing.

"I want to help," Scorpius said quietly to no one in particular, feeling very apart from everything else.

"If you want to help then bring Marius Calderon here," Professor Flitwick commented and Scorpius realized the small man was beside him.

Scorpius didn't need telling twice. He ran, leaping over the ruins of a table to get to the door and ran the whole way to Calderon's room. Breathlessly, he knocked on the door and got no reply. He hammered his fists against the door as he caught his breath, if Calderon wasn't there then he didn't have a clue where he was or even if he was alive. After a moment though, the door swung open.

He was so shocked that he momentarily forgot the whole reason that he was there, Calderon's other cheek now bore a fresh welt. It looked a lot deeper and more painful than the other one had. The other welt looked just as bad, fresh and vivid as if Varanian had gone over it again. He really hated Varanian. He averted his eyes guiltily, if he hadn't said anything then Calderon never would have tried to confront Varanian and got injured. At least he was alive though.

"Scor?" Calderon wondered and Scorpius looked back up at him.

"How'd it go with Varanian?"

"He err... wasn't happy much. But he agreed to only make them do it for an hour each day after class and half a day at the weekends rather than from before dawn to after dusk. And he promised he wouldn't lay a hand on you again. Best I could do. I know it's not good enough," Calderon answered, sounding unusually saddened, "Did you really run all the way over here to ask me that? I didn't think your classes had finished for the day yet."

"Oh yeah. They... they haven't, you better come with me and I'll tell you as we walk."

Calderon grabbed his walking stick before following him, Scorpius told him what happened as they returned to the Charms classroom. Peering in, it looked more like warzone though now, bits of broken stools and tables littered everywhere. Many of the students must have been moved to the Hospital Wing because most were gone, more of the ones with minor injuries were being led away by one of the nurse people. His heart sunk when he saw that Varanian was there, now a redhead as he watched what was happening. His silvery eyes flicked to them as they approached though, narrowing angrily on Scorpius.

"What did you do?" Varanian demanded of him and he felt Calderon's hand on his shoulder.

"It was an accident," Calderon said protectively, "Scor doesn't know his own strength."

Varanian didn't say anything and someone called Calderon over to help. For a second he didn't think Calderon would but Madam Pomfrey called him again, ever so slowly he felt Calderon's hand leave his shoulder as he went to help. Scorpius suddenly felt very alone.

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Part 2: Almost

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"Follow," Varanian commanded turning on his heel.

"Shouldn't we try to help or something?"

"No, I think they've got it. Follow."

Reluctantly Scorpius followed after the headmaster, he had an idea what Varanian wanted and it made him miserable. He hung his head hopelessly and walked in the headmaster's shadow, he was led astray from the corridors that he had memorized. Oddly Varanian stopped in front of a large and incredibly ugly looking gargoyle statue.

"Ethel."

As he spoke, Varanian's hair changed from a neatly combed red to become very scruffy and a tawny color. Immediately the gargoyle stepped aside and a circular staircase started to move upwards, Varanian stepped onto it like it was normal and Scorpius hesitantly jumped after him.

"Ethel?"

"My wife's name."

"You have a wife?" Scorpius wondered in surprise.

"I had a wife," Varanian corrected him irritably and pushed him roughly out of the staircase as it came to a halt, "Death Eater's murdered her."

"I'm sorry."

"No you're not!"

Scorpius closed his mouth before he could protest, he didn't think Varanian would believe him regardless of what he said. Death was bad, no matter whose wife it was. Poor woman had to be insane to marry Varanian though, or maybe he just threatened her into doing what he wanted like he seemed to do for everything else.

Varanian led him through a door and into what Scorpius assumed was the headmaster's office, it was larger than he'd imagined and odder. He'd heard there were supposedly portraits of all the previous headmasters, to give advice to the current one or something and indeed the walls were full of pictures but every last one had been turned around so the painting was facing the wall. It was unnerving.

"Erm... Shouldn't they be the other way around?" Scorpius questioned as Varanian took a seat behind the huge ornate desk and gestured for him to sit opposite.

"No, they're irritating!" Varanian snapped angrily, "and its not important. The only thing you should be worried about right now is explaining yourself! You severely injured almost a whole classroom of students and practically destroyed the furniture."

"You're actually worried about the furniture?"

"Yes! No! You're just lucky that no one died! Because someone very easily could've."

"It was an accident! I just meant to rise the stupid feather and everything just flew into the air, I tried to put them down too fast and... and they just came crashing down. But you know, it was an accident."

"You still did it though! Are you so much of a hazard that you can't do a simple levitation charm without almost killing the whole room?!"

"It was an accident!" Scorpius protested angrily, "at least it was an accident! You're actually magically cutting runes into students' chests and sucking their blood for some evil spell, on purpose! That's worse! It's dangerous and evil! It could kill them!"

"It's to protect the school from the likes of your kind! And its not dangerous or evil or fatal, they're not doing anything I haven't done myself! I know what I'm doing. I don't have to explain myself to children and crazy people with tainted souls. You however do answer to me and you have done a very serious thing!"

"I know," Scorpius whispered as he hung his head and placed his wand on Varanian's desk, "I never meant to hurt anyone but I still did, I don't want to hurt anyone else. You can expel me if you want, I know you want to, maybe its for the best."

He didn't look up, he didn't want to watch as his wand was broken by the man he despised. He heard Varanian pick it up though, over the sound of his pounding heart. He didn't want to be expelled, he didn't want to be cast away from magic but maybe it was for the best. He'd already killed someone and seriously injured most of his class, that wasn't good.

At least he'd be able to put a stop to Varanian. When he went to get his thing then he'd take Rose's letter to her parents, the Ministry would be alerted and the headmaster would be dealt with, he couldn't hurt anyone then. It was the right thing to do. It was the best thing for everyone that he be expelled. Everyone but Scorpius himself, of course. He would lose his future. Practically his life.

"Remorse? Interesting wand," Varanian commented and Scorpius glanced up, the headmaster was peering at his wand with a scowl, "thirteen inches is fairly standard but that's Redwood, is it not? Rare. They're endangered now yet someone still hacked one up for your wand. And the core is Thestral tail hair. Really unique, difficult, unstable. Powerful though."

"I know, none of the wands in Mr. Ollivander's shop liked me. Father had to pay a small fortune to have one specially made for me."

"A powerful unstable wand for a powerful unstable wizard. Figures."

"I like my wand," Scorpius said defensively. Despite being embarrassed over how he had gotten it, the first time he'd held it he'd felt... complete, it just felt right.

"Of course you do," Varanian snapped looking furious and to Scorpius' immense surprise, threw the wand and Scorpius grabbed it quickly, "I'm not going to expel you. This time. School is about teaching control and you will learn some, a detention a day for a year will encourage you with this."

"A year?!"

"Silence, Scorpius. A year is very lenient I feel, it starts tomorrow. And this is your very last chance. Now get the hell out of my sight before I change my mind."

Scorpius practically fled the room before Varanian could change his mind. It was only after he got back to the common rooms that he began to wonder if the one only reason he hadn't been expelled was because the headmaster had also realized that if he let Scorpius go then he couldn't control him anymore, he couldn't stop him telling anyone about the blood runes. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, Scorpius recalled and decided it was an apt quote, if you were close to them then you could keep an eye on them.

He wasn't really sure what he was supposed to be doing in that moment, most students were still in classes but his last lesson had been double Charms and he had a feeling that was canceled for the day. He still felt guilty. An idiotic part of him still wanted to do something to help the students he'd injured but he'd do more harm than good being underfoot at the hospital wing, plus he got the impression he was not popular amongst his class. Not that he'd ever been popular amongst his class. He opted to just try catch up on his homework, he hadn't had a chance with everything yesterday so he was frustratingly behind.

He stayed in the common room for once though, he had the books he needed here and he didn't feel like walking all the way there when the common room was blissfully empty. He wanted solitude. He wasn't safe to be around people anyway. He tried to engross himself in his homework but it just reminded him of his worries and guilt, he was seriously starting to regret his decision to come to Hogwarts, was he just being selfish? No one else wanted him to be there, with the exception of his grandfather and as for himself... what did he want? He wasn't sure what he wanted, he just... he just wanted to be happy again. That seemed pretty impossible though.

"Can I sit here?"

Scorpius was jolted from his thoughts by the speaker, he didn't know her personally but he was sure he'd seen her around. She looked about fifteen or sixteen maybe even if she was unusually flat chested, she had a shock of red hair that was combed over to her eyes and a ponytail. He guessed she was probably a Weasley, there were quite a lot of them in Gryffindor.

"Sure," Scorpius answered politely and the girl sat down opposite him, dumping her stack of books unceremoniously on the table as she did so.

"I'm Dom by the way. Dom Weasley," Dom introduced herself bluntly.

"I'm Scor-"

"Everyone knows who you are. We all heard you're name being called when you were late to be sorted."

"Okay," Scorpius muttered and glanced at the room, now filling up with Gryffindors. Lots of people were staring at him and immediately pretended not to be when they noticed him looking, exploding into hushed whispers amongst themselves, "what the..."

"Word's kinda got out about your Charms class. Congratulations. You're the talk of the school."

"I don't want to be the talk of anything."

"Well you are. Everyone's talking about the Death Eater's son trying to kill his class."

"I didn't try to kill them!" Scorpius protested and he lowered his voice as the others' eyes turned on him once, "it was an accident."

"Just telling you what they're saying. Afraid to go near you, they are."

"Great. Just when I think my life can't get any worse."

"Yep. Sucks to be you," Dom pointed out without looking up from the schoolwork and he started to wonder why she'd wanted to sit there, "although they already thought that you were evil. A lot of people think that you shot that symbol and creepy message into the sky at the train, attacked Calderon for trying to stop you and the new professor intervened and took your wand."

"That's ridiculous! Not to mention completely wrong, I'm just a first year."

"They think you're already been taught the Dark Arts by your Death Eater family. Most first years don't almost kill their whole class."

"I didn't-"

"Yeah, yeah, accident. I remember," Dom interrupted dismissively, "just telling you what they're saying about you. Its not what I think happened. Just thought you should know."

"Well... thanks... I think," Scorpius offered, not really sure what he was supposed to say or what she wanted.

"Oh don't thank me, I don't like you. You turned my favorite teacher into a psycho."

"What?" Scorpius wondered feeling incredibly confused and Dom looked up for the first time to shoot him a dark look.

"Varanian. He was my favorite teacher when he taught Defense Against the Dark Arts, way better than that bimbo that replaced him before the new guy. But now I saw you attack him and I saw him give you that mark in retaliation so thank you for turning him into a psycho."

"I didn't turn him into a psycho! He was already... argh, nevermind I give up," Scorpius snapped noticing everyone's eyes on him again, "I need to go to my dorm now."

"Have fun."

Scorpius scooped up his books and tried not bolt to his room, going to the sanctuary of his bed where he yanked the drapes shut. He'd just wanted a nice easy Hogwarts experience, focus on lessons and stay out of trouble, meld into the background and be normal. How had he managed to go so far wrong in less than a week? Miserably he sighed, wishing he was home and away from it all. Maybe his family were right, he was weak and not ready for anything. But no, he didn't want to be weak. Marvin had thought he was weak.

With renewed determination he kicked off his shoes and went back to tackling his homework, forcing everything else on his mind back, maybe if he tried hard enough to just ignore it then it would go away. He managed to succeed for awhile and managed to immerse himself in his homework long enough to stop worrying, until Albus and Michael returned. He heard them talking as they came up their stairs and pulled back the drapes from both side.

"Did you ever think that the drapes are closed because I want to be alone and you know... not disturbed?" Scorpius pointed out somewhat irritated at them for ruining his peace.

"You do realize that closing those drapes doesn't make you invisible?" Albus retorted and scowl, "why are you doing homework in bed anyway?"

"Haven't you heard those rumors about me?"

"Which ones? About you trying to kill the class or-"

"All of them! Everyone's talking about me and looking at me," Scorpius told them miserably, "I wanted to be away from it."

"People have been talking about you since you got here though, why is it only bothering you now?"

"Because I didn't notice it until now!"

"Well we know its not true so that's all that matters," Michael offered comfortingly leaning against the post, "who cares what they think?"

"I don't care what they think, I care what they say and do," Scorpius snapped and tried to reign back his irritation, he shouldn't take his frustration out on them, "did you two want something?"

"We were worried about you, wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Worried about me?" Scorpius repeated before laughing bitterly, it felt like forever since he'd laughed. It sounded strange and wrong to his ears but he couldn't help it, it amused him, Gryffindors worrying about him, it was laughable. A mudblood and a Potter/Weasley hybrid worrying about a Malfoy, "that's a good one!"

"We were!" Albus protested glaring at him but Michael was smiling oddly, "we thought Varanian had chopped you into little chunks or expelled you or... or... or something! Dammit stop laughing!"

"I-I'm sorry," Scorpius tried to apologize but he couldn't stop himself from laughing, "its just you-you said that you were wo-worried about me!"

"Well it'll teach us to worry about you, Malfoy!"

"Ex-Exactly! Malfoy an-and you're Potter! It's just so..."

"If you don't stop laughing I'll... I'll... hit you with this pillow!" Albus stammered grabbing a pillow from his bed but Scorpius only laughed harder, he wondered if he'd gone insane but was he supposed to be scared of a pillow? It was ludicrous. And then Albus hit him in the face with the pillow. He stopped laughing.

"Did... Did you just hit me with a pillow?" Scorpius wondered in surprise and Albus erupted into laughter.

"Merlin's beard, you-you should see the look on y-your face!"

"Dammit stop laughing!"

As Scorpius snapped the Gryffindor only laughed harder, angrily Scorpius grabbed his own pillow and hit Albus in the face with it. Albus just carried on laughing. Scorpius batted him with it again and again, he just carried on laughing. Finally he jumped onto his bed to give him some leverage to hit the taller boy on the top of the bed, Albus finally stopped and seemed to blink in slight surprise before leaping onto the bed and whacking Scorpius back.

Scorpius went to hit him again and Albus ducked, laughing triumphantly as he got Scorpius in the chest. Not to be outdone, Scorpius swung at him again only this time when Albus ducked he brought the pillow down on the other boy's head. Scorpius heard his own triumphant laughter as he bounced on the bed and hit him again, Albus raised his head and smirked as he whacked Scorpius in the head with the pillow. Scorpius made a mental note to get better at dodging as he went for Albus again. They were fighting. With pillows. It was insane! After a few minutes he heard a third person laughing and realized Michael was in stitches watching them.

"Get him!"

Scorpius wasn't sure if it was him or Albus who spoke but they both lunged at their new target, Michael shrieked at the barrage of pillows before yanking the two pillows off his bed to try to fend them off with. Scorpius wished he'd thought of that as Michael fought against them with a pillow in each hand, laughing with glee at the double weapons even though Albus and Scorpius were still gaining ground on him, backing him round the circular room towards Reuben and Angelo's beds.

"You-You both hit l-like girls!" Michael called out in between bursts of laughter.

"What are you doing?!" Rose's voice demanded shrilly all of a sudden, the trio stopped to see her and Abby standing near the entrance to the dorm, despite the fact it was supposed to be boys only, "you said you were just going to check for Malfoy, you sounded like you were dying up here!"

"Forget that!" Abby snapped grabbing the pillows off Reuben or Angelo's bed as a playful grin appeared on her face, "I'll show you how to hit like a girl!"

Abby launched herself at Michael in a flurry of pillows and immediately the chaos started up again with Abby joining in, they were howling with laughter and ganging up on Michael. Scorpius had actually forgotten he'd been worried about, he was so caught up in the pillow fight while Rose just stood there looking at them with a horrified expression.

"You're all behaving like children!" Rose pointed out irritably.

"We are children!" Michael called back and flung a pillow at her, it struck her directly in the face and the stunned look on his face must have been similar to the one of his that Albus had found hilarious, "lighten up Rosie."

"Right that's it!" Rose yelled and for a second Scorpius he thought she was going to do something drastic, they all stopped moving but she grabbed up the pillow, "everybody get Michael!"

"No! Not everyone get Michael!"

Michael yelped in surprise as the redheaded girl ferociously batted him in the head with the pillow, trying to run away from four people attacking him with pillows. Scorpius was laughing again before he realized it, he remembered Michael hopelessly calling for surrender and then it was everyone for themselves, everything was just a blur of laughter and pillows while a flurry of feathers seemed to be snowing down all around from burst pillows.

He didn't know how long it lasted but at some point it was over, leaving the five of them breathless and scattered around at the foot of Scorpius' bed amongst a hail of feathers. It was the most fun that Scorpius had had since before he'd been taken, the others were all smiling. Scorpius' smile died though, sobering as his moment of joy slipped away like water through his fingers leaving him empty but for worry again.

"Been ages since we had a good pillow fight like that," Rose commented, "how long was it that the whole clan shared a tent for the Quidditch World Cup, Al?"

"Erm... Not this year because our dads had to work, I think it was two or three years ago now because Teddy still had Hogwarts," Albus answered and grinned, "think this is mad, try having a pillow fight with the whole Weasley-Potter clan plus Teddy, that's thirteen of us for anyone who doesn't realize how many there are. More if any of the adults join in."

"I have two brothers and a sister, what we lack in number we make up for in determination," Abby pointed out somewhat proudly.

"It shows, you have a mean swing," Michael added with a nod.

"I was at that world cup too," Scorpius realized aloud, "father paid for the best seats in the stadium as birthday present. My birthday's in August."

"Must be nice being rich," Abby commented.

"Money doesn't buy you happiness."

"No but it can help sometimes," Michael pointed out as he plucked a feather from Rose's hair carefully and twirled in his fingers, "my mum works three jobs and we can still barely afford the rent and to put food on the table, stepdad blows all the money on booze and spends all day watching TV. Must be really weird for you to not have TV, is there no wizard equivalent? And now on sports we have Quidditch followed by unicorn racing, place your bets folks!"

"We err... we don't have unicorn racing," Rose informed him snatching the feather from him.

"Ah figures, my sister will be disappointed to hear there's no unicorns."

"Oh no, we have unicorns, we just don't race them. And you know for us its weirder for you to not have magic at all."

"I don't know, my stepdad has this magic way of making his wedding ring disappear when my mum's at work."

"What like make it invisible or move it to a new place?" Rose asked with curiosity and Michael laughed tiredly.

"I didn't mean it literally... nevermind. Muggles aren't that interesting."

"I don't know, that was really cool the way you were helping all those students. You just knew what to do and everything."

"My aunt was a paramedic, before she went to jail anyway, I was close to her and she taught me a lot about stuff like that," Michael explained taking back the feather.

"What's a paramedic?" Albus wondered.

"Was I ever really that hopeless about muggle stuff?" Scorpius said with a heavy sigh, starting to understand why Marvin would be so frustrated with him every time he asked a question about things that were normal to him.

"Why do you know so much about muggle stuff? Your family are pure-blood supremacists, not to mention former Death Eaters," Rose pointed out and he flickered her a dark look, "what? Its just odd that you know so much about them considering your family hate them."

"I don't want to talk about it. Let's just get these feathers cleaned up."

"Wait!" Abby protested getting up, "there's something I want to do first. Wait here, don't move."

Before any of them could protest, Abby was up and running down the stairs. Irritably forcing the rest of them to just sit in wait, unmoving and clueless as to what she wanted. She was only gone a few minutes but it felt like longer in awkward silence, Michael plucking more feathers from Rose's tangled hair which seemed to annoy her as she preceded to scowl and whack him with a pillow just before Abby returned. She was holding a camera.

"What's with the camera?" Albus questioned immediately.

"Well y'know I brought this because well... I kinda always thought that it'd be good to have pictures from when I'm at Hogwarts to look back on, my parents always talk about how much they enjoyed school despite everything and that they wished they had more photographs," Abby explained with a slight blush in her cheeks, "so I wanted to take a picture of all of us, if that's okay with you. This is the most fun I've had since I got here and with everything Varanian... I don't know how many happy memories they'll be so... what do you say? To new almost-friends?"

---

Part 3: Acceptance

---

"Draco, would you just stop!" Lucius called out irritably stalking after his only son as Draco turned down another alley way, "this is ridiculous."

"I have to find my son," Draco said firmly without slowing or stopping.

"You're not going to find him like this! Do you actually expect him to just be standing in some random filthy alley waiting for you? Come now, Draco, you're not thinking."

"Of course I'm not thinking! My son is missing or haven't you noticed?!" Draco snarled angrily pausing to face him as he realized the alley was a dead end, "are you going to help me look or what?"

"I'm not indulging your nonsense. Just listen to me, we need to act normal like nothing's wrong. That's what the kidnappers want, they're just making sure we won't go running to the Ministry before they contact us about a ransom, we need stay calm and stay quiet, I've used all of my influence to keep this out of the paper. They'll contact us soon enough if we keep going the way we are, we do what they want and we get Scorpius back. Trust me, I know what we're doing."

"That's right because you know everything, don't you?"

"Draco-" Lucius started to protest to his son's sarcastic comment but was interrupted.

"We have been doing it your way and we haven't heard anything! It's his birthday today! His birthday. His tenth birthday. He should be at home right now, surrounded by his family, eating his birthday cake and opening his presents, I got him a broomstick because he's so obsessed with being a Seeker, I was going to teach him properly to fly. He should be there not... not... wherever godforsaken hell he's in now. It was my idea to send him away, my fault," Draco said firmly, his voice thick with guilt,"I can't just sit in that house where he should be and do nothing anymore. Not today. Just not today. I have to do something even if you think its useless."

"It's the middle of the night! Scorpius wouldn't want this, he would want you to stay calm."

"No! What Scorpius would want is to be home safe and sound, where he belongs," Draco pointed out tearfully before he hardened his expression, "now either help me search or get out of my way, father."

Lucius sighed heavily and stepped aside slightly to let Draco get past, his son's behavior was irritating him. He was worried about Scorpius too but he wasn't losing his mind over it, someone needed to be calm and rational or they really would never see the boy again.

"I couldn't help overhearing your predicament," a voice spoke from behind him and Lucius spun to see a man stepping out from the shadows, he was slender and good-looking with a mop of sandy hair. A hint of a smile played on his lips that put Lucius at ease, if he overheard a conversation about a missing child he certainly wouldn't be smiling. Unless it was someone he particularly hated, "maybe I could be of some help, my master is particularly talented at finding those of us who are lost."

"I don't want your help, I would appreciate your silence on the matter but aside from that everything's under control," Lucius spoke bluntly and stalked away to find Draco before the man could say anything more, some people were unbelievable.

---

Despite the levity of the pillow fight, none of them were incredibly pleased to be having Abby take a photograph of them. With the exception of Michael who was positively excited for the possibility of being part of a moving photo. None of them refused though, Abby seemed so desperate and if it made her happy then Scorpius supposed it would be cruel to deny it.

He was starting to feel very stupid for even letting himself engage in such foolish childish behavior in the first place, not to mention the mess they'd caused, what would his father say? Scorpius decided he was either very stupid or very mad or possibly both. She did sort of have a point though, he would admit, a detention for a year couldn't be fun even if it wasn't bad as having strange blood runes scar your chest. Although he thought he would prefer that to having a tainted soul. No good could come of being tainted.

He tried to put it out of his mind and force a smile as he found Albus and Michael either side of him as they sat on the floor, Rose on Michael's other side while Abby set the camera for a timer before running over to sit down on Albus' other side. Michael randomly threw a handful of feathers into the air that floated around them like snow, Scorpius gave a nostalgic smile thinking of snow. They were watching it fall the camera flashed.

"Why on Earth did you do that?" Rose demanded immediately.

"Its a moving picture, I want to see if other stuff will move," Michael answered with a shrug and a smile, "lighten up Rosie."

"I think I've been quite light enough for one day," Rose stated firmly standing up, "I'm going to the library to study, no point surviving Varanian if I let my grades slip. Anyone who wants to join me is more than welcome too."

"I thought we're not your friends so we can't study with you?"

"We may not be friends but we have to stick together if we're to find a way to stop Varanian so... until he's fired, dead, imprisoned or put into a deep coma the likes of which he'll never wake up from then we're... allies. And allies can study together," Rose explained heading to the door and pausing in the frame with a look back at them, "if you and Malfoy want to, of course."

"That's her way of saying she doesn't hate you anymore," Albus explained as Rose left and the rest of them got to their feet, "also her way of aloofly ditching us to clean up the mess without her."

"My way of ditching you to clean up the mess is much simpler," Abby added and giggled slightly as she grabbed the camera and skipped to the exit, "this is a boy's dormitory and really girls aren't allowed so I'll just go pack away this camera and leave you three to it."

"Hey!"

---

You could have heard a blade of grass falling, it was so quiet. It was Christmas day. Not that it felt like Christmas day, there were no decorations around the house as Lucius had become accustomed to since Astoria moved in. She'd claimed she wouldn't decorate until Scorpius was back, Scorpius always helped. There was a tree though, a huge tree just sitting there in the corner of the drawing room. It wasn't decorated either but they'd got it, in case Scorpius returned. There were no presents under it though, it seemed wrong to even consider celebrating without Scorpius.

Lucius had never thought he'd miss the frivolity of it all, in fact it had positively infuriated him in the past, how Draco consistently allowed his wife to turn their ancient estate into a ridiculous folly. Lucius missed it now though, all of the stupid things that annoyed him, even the stupid singing that drove him mad. He wished it was like that now, singing and lights and people laughing, Scorpius laughing with the stupid house-elf and bothering him to... build snowmen or something equally ridiculous. He'd give anything to play one of those stupid games with the boy now, or the girl if she'd have lived long enough. Last year Christmas had been when Astoria and Draco announced the pregnancy, he'd been as delighted as the rest of them at the prospect of gaining another grandchild. Now he had no grandchildren.

"This is stupid," Astoria whispered drawing Lucius' attention back the room, the four of them were scattered about and had been sitting in melancholy silence but now she looked upset, "this is stupid! Just sitting around here like nothing's wrong!"

"What would you rather we do? Run around aimlessly looking for the boy like some people?" Lucius commented irritably, he didn't like it any more than she did.

"SCORPIUS!" Astoria screamed angrily jumping to her feet and they jolted in shock as the tree abruptly caught fire, "his name was Scorpius! Scorpius! Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, not the boy! And her name was Lyra not the girl! They had names! They may be dead but they still have names, Lucius, they have names. Do you even care?!"

"Of course I care! The- Scorpius," Lucius forcibly corrected himself, "isn't dead. We just need to keep calm until the kidnappers contact us."

"No one's going to contact us! Don't you get it?! He's dead! Scorpius is dead! They never wanted money from you, they wanted revenge against you and they did by killing your grandson, your sweet, innocent grandson. This is all your fault. Scorpius is dead because of you!"

"Err... sweetheart, the tree is burning," Draco pointed out awkwardly standing up beside her and gently putting his arm around her, Lucius found himself lost for words.

"I want it to burn!" Astoria screeched before she burst into tears, "I want it to burn. I don't care anymore."

"We'll find him," Draco told her gently encircling his arms around her and she buried her head in his shoulder as she cried, "we'll pay someone to find him and bring him home."

"You can't do that!" Lucius protested as Narcissa glared at all of them as she brought out her wand to deal with the burning tree that she happened to be closest to, "then the kidnapper's will kill him and not bother with getting a ransom! Not to mention the fact you'll be wasting the ransom money on some clueless moron!"

"What kind of kidnapper doesn't ask for a ransom for six months? Whatever they want, its not money. We have to do this."

"But Draco, you can't-"

"He's my son! It's not your decision and we're going to do something, we're going to bring him home whether he's alive or... We're going to get him back, no matter what."

"Narcissa, tell your son that he's being unreasonable!" Lucius demanded of his wife who had finished putting out the flames and was looking between them awkwardly.

"I'm sorry, Lucius, I think I agree with Draco."

Lucius opened and closed his mouth a few times, glowering with fury. How could his wife and son both turn on him? They were going to get Scorpius killed, why couldn't they see that he was right? Angrily he stalked outside, he couldn't stand being in the room a second longer.

He started walking across the snow covered ground, the wind was biting and the sky was overcast. He regretted not grabbing his cloak but didn't go back for it, just kept walking aimlessly around the grounds. He didn't understand why they were being unreasonable when he was clearly right. They just weren't not thinking straight, it was hard on all of them and it was taking its toll. He knew Narcissa was having as much trouble sleeping as he was, Draco and Astoria looked equally exhausted, that wasn't helping their anxiety. Clearly he was the only one coping well enough to think about what was best for Scorpius.

They were the ones who were going to get Scorpius killed not him. It wasn't his fault Scorpius was missing after all. It couldn't be his fault. It was just people looking for a ransom, it was. They were just being careful and taking their time, they were. It wasn't his fault. It couldn't. If they were after revenge then it meant Scorpius was dead, that he'd really lost his grandson forever and Lucius couldn't lose him. He couldn't. It couldn't be someone trying to get revenge through Scorpius, although there were a lot of candidates if it had been for revenge. He was despised by the wizarding world for being former Death Eaters and despised by the Death Eaters for changing sides, there were too many uncaught Death Eaters and too many people he had wronged to keep track of who could want revenge. But it wasn't revenge, it couldn't be. Besides, if you were going to get revenge by taking someone's child and killing them then you would want the person to know what you'd done. They hadn't found a body. Scorpius was alive until they found a body.

"Is everything still under control?" a voice spoke out and Lucius nearly jumped as a man stepped out from the trees, he scowled at the man who he vaguely recognized as the guy who'd overheard him and Draco in the alley, "would be a merrier Christmas if you had your grandchild back, wouldn't it?"

"Get off my property!"

"Come now, my master is just offering to help you as its Christmas. My master can find your grandchild and bring him back to you, my master is vastly talented."

"Not that its any of your business but we're already hiring someone to find the boy," Lucius snapped, the last thing Scorpius needed was a delusional lunatic and their 'master' in the mix, "so there. Take your imaginary master and get off my property."

"My master is very real, my master just prefers to stay in the shadows for the time-being," the man answered defensively and cocked his head to one side thoughtfully as Lucius noticed it was now oddly dark, "my master isn't interested in your money, do you really want to waste it all on charlatans who will be unsuccessful?"

"Fine. Make your master find and bring him to me now, if they're really not doing it for profit."

"I said my master isn't interested in your money, not that there wouldn't be a cost. My master only offers help three times, the first is for a favor, the second is for your allegiance and the third is for your soul."

"No," Lucius said firmly shaking his head, "becoming a Death Eater was a mistake, it's caused my family and I nothing but trouble, not to mention You-Know-Who's failure. I'm not risking it all for a stupid lost cause and an empty offer of help."

"It is neither an empty offer nor a stupid lost cause. Although my master had a feeling you would say that."

"Go away!" Lucius demanded angrily and drew his wand at the man. It was so dark, Lucius glanced briefly back to the manor to see if it still had light before turning back and finding the man had gone, "good riddance."

---

Scorpius did go with the others to the library after they had cleaned up, they were allies after all and he didn't want to be the one to refuse. He just hoped no one would bother him if he was in a group. No one said anything to him exactly but he did catch a lot of people looking at him, they pointed and whispered to their friends. It was very off-putting.

Studying in a group was a new experience, like when he had Michael done their homework together he found it was useful having people to bounce ideas off. Rose wasn't being so bad either, she hardly glared at him at all but then she didn't care about much beyond ideas on how to get Varanian. It wasn't easy, while Varanian was headmaster he did have control over pretty much everything and everyone. Any student they told would be just as helpless as they were and any teacher would be at risk. It did seem hopeless. Although as Rose pointed out, he couldn't stop them going home for Christmas and it was pointless to try, the parents would know something was wrong then anyway. Christmas seemed a long way away though.

They also were curious about what exactly the blood runes were doing and Scorpius told them about what Professor Ashain had told him, although it didn't help much. They still had no idea what they did, Varanian using Dark-ish magic wasn't news to them. The fact their souls were now linked to it worried them though and also raised a bunch of questions on how he'd even got a hold of such unusual magic. It really did seem hopeless, they could only guess. It was frustrating.

At dinner Scorpius was at least relieved to see all the students he'd injured were safely at their tables, although a handful still had bandages or a scrape or a bruise. Scorpius turned his attention instead to the teacher's table, Varanian now had black hair with gray highlights and a worried expression on his face. He also seemed unusually talkative to Calderon who kept alternating between scowling and nodding. Scorpius wished he could hear what they were saying.

"You could always try levitating him to death," Rose offered unhelpfully at dinner, catching Scorpius glaring at the headmaster again.

"It was an accident!"

"I was joking, it was a joke. Obviously you're not a murderer and neither am I. If Varanian dropped dead I wouldn't complain though."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry," Scorpius muttered turning back to his food and wishing she was right about him not being a murderer.

"Can we stop worrying about Varanian for five seconds?" Albus complained rolling his eyes, "tomorrow's our first flying lesson, at least pretend to be excited."

"You know I don't like heights," Rose pointed out looking anxious, "I'm scared of falling off. Although if I did get injured maybe I wouldn't have an hour of Varanian's detention."

---

Lucius woke with a start, he was trembling a

nd he was soaked in sweat. He felt exhausted and wasn't quite sure why, he'd just had a dream. A horrible dream. A horrible dream about Scorpius, in his dream the boy was being forced to dig what appeared to be his own grave by some random guy. He wiped his brow shakily, he didn't usually have dreams that effected him so, it felt so real, so vivid. He glanced at Narcissa, still blissfully asleep beside him.

He got out of bed, being careful not to disturb her, she needed her sleep and he needed some air. He went straight to his study, opened the window wide and leaned against the pane. He breathed in the freezing night air and tried very hard not to think about the dream.

"It wasn't a dream," a voice spoke and Lucius jumped, spinning around to see a man sitting in the corner of his couch watching him. The same man with the master that he'd seen twice before, "it was real time, what was really happening to your grandchild. My master wished you to see it, to prove the offer was not empty. Its my master's birthday today, you see, so my master is feeling most generous."

"That can't be..." Lucius started to protest that it wasn't real but trailed off. What if it was? That man was going to kill Scorpius.

"It is," the man breathed with a cruel smile dancing in his shadowy eyes, "my master wished me to tell you that there's still time to save his life, his life for your soul. That's the deal. You need only accept and my master will save him."

"How do I know that you're telling the truth?"

"My master is not a liar. Although I suppose whether you believe the truth or not is another matter, the choice is yours of course. You have two choices. Accept the deal then my master will save your grandchild and return him to you before the rising of the sun, or deny the deal and never hear from me or my master again."

"What happens to Scorpius if I don't accept?"

"I don't know, you're the one who saw what his life is like at the moment."

"Can't you just tell me where he is?! I'll give you money!"

"I told you, my master has no interest in your money nor a desire to give away charity to the ungrateful. Either accept the deal or not, your soul or you grandson. Its your choice."

Lucius swallowed nervously and turned away, his heart was thundering in his chest. He closed his eyes and saw Scorpius being dragged out of the whole, he looked so hurt and desperate. Lucius had to do something, the boy was out of time! But it was his soul. He was scared. It was so dark everywhere. He didn't want to lose his soul but Scorpius... Lucius picked up one of the photographs from his desk, Scorpius smiled back happily and innocently. His family was the only good thing he'd ever done, even if they could be so frustrating sometimes, he still loved them. Scorpius was innocent, he hadn't asked for any of it and he didn't deserve to die but then it was his soul.

Lucius shook his head, he was terrified, probably more terrified than he'd ever been in his life but in that instant he found an inner strength inside himself. He let it anchor him, he needed to be strong, he needed to do the right thing for once. Scorpius deserved a chance at life more than Lucius deserved a corrupted soul.

"I accept."

---

Part 4: Freedom

---

Scorpius found it difficult to sleep that night, every time he got comfortable his cheek seared with pain as a reminder of his worries that kept him up. He was relieved when the dawn finally came and he could get up, he awoke before the others and got ready then just carried on reading his Divination book while he waited.

"Are you up, Scorpius?" Michael questioned pulling back the drapes and Scorpius jumped in surprise, he'd been so engrossed in his book that he hadn't even noticed the sound of the others getting up, "oh you are. Good."

"Can't you ask before pulling back the drapes? What if I was getting dressed?" Scorpius grumbled putting the book down, he hoped the library wouldn't mind him turning back the corners to mark his place.

"Ah stop complaining," Albus said cheerfully popping his head around, "its flying today!"

"Not until the afternoon, its the last lesson of the day unless you count Astronomy tonight."

"Yeah but still!"

Albus didn't lose his smile all through breakfast, even when Rose started trying to talk about Varanian. The headmaster was a short-haired redhead that morning, Scorpius wondered if it was normal for metamorphmagi to change their appearance so frequently. Calderon was there for once, although he looked exhausted and seemed to be watching the food enviously while Varanian was talking.

Usually Scorpius like lessons but all that day he didn't, he was still getting looks and his classmates kept looking at him with a mixture of fear and anger. Every time he tried to apologize and point out that it was an accident they would moodily tell him to go away, he heard more than one person mutter insults under his breath as he would turn away. He was actually terrified during lessons of causing another incident, he was extremely careful in everything he did and kept his wand aimed as far away from any person that he could. He was both relieved and anxious when it was time for flying lessons, Albus was practically bursting with excitement he was so happy.

"I can't wait!" Albus stated excitedly, still beaming, "its going to be so awesome, you know both of my parents are brilliant parents and my mum even played professionally so its in my blood that I'll do well. I wish we could run there!"

"As long as I don't fall off then I'll be happy," Rose muttered scowling, not sharing her cousin's enthusiasm.

"My dad broke his wrist the first time he flew, you know," Abby pointed out and Rose's face was immediately drained of all color.

"Y-You don't think th-that I'll... that sounds painful," Rose stammered fearfully.

"I'm sure you won't, Rosie," Michael offered comfortingly, seeming to notice her discomfort, "most people are fine though and I'm sure with Abby's dad there were extenuating circumstances, you'll do great, you'll s-"

Michael was cut off as he tripped and fell abruptly down the stairs they'd just been about to walk down, they started to run after him before Scorpius heard people howling with laughter. He stopped and glanced back, seeing James Potter with his wand out and standing there with his friends behind him high-fiving.

"Take that!" James called gleefully, "teach you to sympathize with Death Eater scum!"

"Leave him alone," Scorpius growled and had his wand in his hand before he realized it.

"Well you get the message," the fat one muttered as they darted away down a corridor to the right, Scorpius started to run after him before Rose and Albus pulled him back.

"Leave them," Rose told him, "James doesn't mean anything by it, I'm sure. They're not worth it."

"Yeah, he's just messing around," Albus agreed.

Scorpius shot them both a dark look but said nothing, they were right about leaving him because he didn't want to get in any more trouble. It didn't make it right though, James was out of line and his friends, they deserved to be punished. It bothered him especially that they were going after Michael just for defending him, he didn't want anyone to get hurt because of him, especially not just for being nice to him. He turned away and went to go check on Michael, the mudblood was getting to his feet.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked gently, "I'm sorry about my cousin."

"Nah don't worry about it, I'm fine," Michael said brushing it off with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"We should tell a teacher," Scorpius stated bluntly, whatever Calderon had said to them seemed to be making them leave him alone but all four of them looked horrified.

"We can't!" Albus burst out desperately.

"I know you want to protect your brother bu-"

"Teachers report bullying to the headmaster," Michael interrupted to his surprise, "if you tell on them then what's to stop Varanian from torturing them too? We can't let it happen to anyone else if we can help it. We have to protect the others."

"Yes but..." Scorpius started to say but trailed off in frustration, Michael did have a point and he hated it. They did have to protect the other students, even if some students didn't deserve it but he still hated it, Michael didn't deserve to get picked on. It wasn't fair.

"I'll talk to my brother," Albus offered, "maybe he'll leave you alone if he knows we're friends, its Scorpius that they really hate, not you. Although you did really make them mad."

"Nah, best they pick on me and not someone who'll report them and get them put on Varanian's torture list," Michael pointed out and Scorpius' scowl deepened, he really hated the situation, "now, don't we have a flying lesson to get to?"

---

The darkness screamed and Lucius felt a chill spread through him, it was almost painful it was so cold and then it was gone. He turned around fearfully, not sure what he'd been expecting when he'd just agreed to give up his soul but when he turned around he saw that the man was gone. He started to panic, wondering what was happening. Had he done something wrong? Was it too late to save Scorpius? Had the man rescinded his offer? Or was this supposed to happen? He didn't know and a quick search of the room revealed the man was actually gone, he hadn't just moved somewhere. Lucius sat down at his desk, lost in worry and panic but he didn't what to do. He didn't know how to get in touch with the man, he didn't even know the man's name.

He must have fallen asleep though because the next thing he knew there were voices and people in his study. Lucius' eyes snapped open and he saw two men, the first was the nameless sandy-haired man with the master and the second also looked familiar. He was broad-shouldered and incredibly muscular, he appeared to be holding something bulky. Lucius almost recoiled when he caught a glimpse of the man's face, the bulbous nose looked crooked, the eyes too far apart, his ears were too big and his overly wide mouth was crooked. Lucius did remember him, it was hard to forget such an ugly face although he had thought the man dead.

"Spindly git with a girl's name, can't even lift a freakin' ten year old," the ugly one muttered tossing what he was holding lazily onto the couch. Lucius' breath caught in his throat, it was Scorpius.

"Shut up, Brutus!" the second voice shrieked irritably, "you're just jealous because you're ugly as shit."

Lucius wasn't listening anymore, nothing else mattered as he ran to Scorpius. He looked as he had in the dream, he was only wearing underwear and a white t-shirt. Well it had been white at one point, now it was stained with dirt as were Scorpius' arms, legs and face. His bare feet were caked in dirt too and beneath his fingernails, his once white-blond hair was now darkened from the dirt it was matted with. There was blood too, his one arm was half crimson from some nasty looking gashes wrapping around his wrist and more dried blood was mixed in with the dirt on his legs and face, his skin was discolored in places from bruising and he was so frightfully thin.

The boy seemed to be unconscious, his bagged eyes were closed but his chest was rising and falling as he breathed. Lucius felt tears welling in his eyes, wondering how anyone could treat such an innocent like that as he pulled Scorpius to him and cradled him close, not caring about the dirt or blood as he rocked his grandson gently.

"It's okay, Scorpius," Lucius whispered kissing the boy's forehead gently and stroking his hair, "you're okay now, they can't hurt you anymore. I've got you, you're safe now."

"You can't keep him," Brutus pointed out and Lucius shot the pair an angry glare, opening his mouth to protest about the deal, "master doesn't want credit for this, we're to take him to the guy your kid paid to find him. Reckon the guy'll keep his trap shut so he'll get paid and then you can have him, master just wanted to prove to you that it was us first."

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"He would have been if not for my master's intervention," the man replied with a smirk as he turned to Brutus and folded his arms, "wasn't it your little bitty baby brother who almost killed you? Shameful."

"Oh shut up, Celestine. Atty just got lucky, is all," Brutus growled glaring,"and stop smothering the boy, Lucius. The kid killed a guy, he's not exactly a porcelain doll anymore."

"What do you mean he killed a guy?" Lucius asked in horror as Brutus roughly took Scorpius from him, Lucius tried to follow but Celestine had his wand out warningly so he miserably resigned himself to just watching and having to abide by their deal.

"The muggle went to blow his brains out so kid deflected the bullet through the guy's heart, pretty neat huh?" Brutus explained backing away and seemed oddly excited by it as he gave a lopsided grin, "kid's not as weak and helpless as you'd think."

"Wait but I just agreed to give you my soul in exchange for his life?"

"Was slightly unnecessary, kid killed the muggle before the master could intervene but you still agreed. No backsies, Lucius. If you try to turn against the master then Scorpius' life will be forfeit, don't doubt it," Brutus told him darkly and Lucius turned to Celestine angrily feeling like he'd been tricked, the man's expression was unreadable though but when he looked back, Brutus and Scorpius were gone. He could only trust that they'd hold to their end of the bargain.

"So how... how does this work?" Lucius asked, managing not to sound as nervous as he felt, "I don't feel any different."

"We'll be in touch, tell no one," Celestine told him blandly stepping back into the shadows and vanishing. Lucius shivered, what had he just gotten himself into?

---

Scorpius felt oddly saddened as they all lined up by their brooms for their first flying lesson, he'd been looking forward to the day he'd learn to fly since watching his very first Quidditch match when he was little, the snitch had been caught so close to their box that he could almost reach out and touch it. It had seemed so amazing, he'd wanted to be a Seeker ever since, wanted to fly. But now it was happening... He tried to feel happy but it seemed pointless now, it was just sitting on a stupid stick, it didn't change anything.

"Now everyone, put your hand over the broom and say up," Madam Hooch was saying.

A chorus of people saying 'up' broke out as they tried to make their brooms rise, some people were having more luck than others. For all Albus' enthusiasm his broom refused to do more than roll around on the ground, Rose's rose a few inches off the ground and proceeded to hover there unhelpfully, Abby's went to her hand fairly quickly which seemed to surprise her while Michael's smacked him in the face with enough force to knock him back onto the ground and then remained upright. Michael scowled at this as he got back up and grabbed it out of the air before glancing to him.

"Aren't you going to say up?" Michael wondered and Scorpius sighed heavily.

Reluctantly holding his hand over his own broom, it was still stupid, he wasn't a naive child with stupid dreams that were impossible if you thought about it rationally. He was about to say up before the broom surged obediently into his hand, he gasped. He was overcome by a similar sensation to when he'd first held his wand, it just felt right. He wanted to fly.

"Well done," Albus offered before frowning and more furiously demanding his broom to rise.

Scorpius tried not to roll his eyes, feeling increasingly impatient, the broom in his hand was practically itching to be flown. Albus was the last one to not have his broom in his hand, he seemed disappointed by this but finally got it and the lesson could begin. They did a few simple exercises of mounting their brooms and getting off the ground then landing again, it was so easy it was frustrating although Rose looked immensely proud to have not fallen off and Albus struggled with it, Michael crashed painfully into a wall and Abby fell off twice.

He was much more pleased when they got to go more into the air, he didn't actually want to come down. Flying came as naturally to him as breathing, the broom felt like an extension of himself rather than an object he was using and almost seemed to know what he wanted to do before he did. He could weave left and right, up and down, spin around even. It was amazing, he felt so free. He wasn't trapped, he wasn't chained, he wasn't restricted, he was just free. He could go anyway he wanted and soar through the air, he just wanted to go higher and faster, feel that breeze on his face some more.

Before he realized what he was doing he was out of the training grounds, he was just flying free and fast even as his broom trembled beneath him. He weaved between the towers and dived towards the lake, zooming just over the surface as he drew his fingers through the water and said hello to the Giant Squid that was somewhere beneath the surface. He pulled up and spun around as he started to get higher, he wanted to go higher and touch the sky, literally touch the clouds. It was incredible. Nothing could touch him up there, no worries, no problems, nothing bad, everything went out of his head and he just relished the moment. It was just him and the vast space that was his to explore, he just wanted to fly forever, he loved that feeling of freedom.

He sighed heavily, he didn't want to go back, he wanted to be free forever. Some small rational part of his mind knew that was impossible though as it brought him back to the training grounds, the other students were already dissipating although Madam Hooch remained looking disapproving as he returned to the ground. He had to force his feet to touch the ground and it sucked away the feeling, he did sigh then and gave her the broom. He couldn't wait for his next flying lesson though.

"Care to explain what that was that all about, Mr Malfoy?" Madam Hooch questioned raising an eyebrow at him.

"I'm sorry, I lost control of my broom," Scorpius lied staring longingly at the broom he'd just given up.

"Of course you did," the elderly witch stated in a tone that left no doubt that she didn't believe him.

"Am I in trouble?"

"Not this time as Calderon informs me that you already have detention but the next lesson you better not 'lose control of the broom.' Do you understand?"

Scorpius nodded solemnly and she gestured that he was allowed to go, he headed towards the door and saw Calderon standing leaning against it with his walking stick. Scorpius was smiling by the time he reached him, cheering up at the prospect of telling Calderon what it was like to fly and he didn't mind detention so much if it was with him.

"You seem in a good mood," Calderon commented with a hint of a smile as he motioned for him to follow and led him inside.

"Flying is amazing," Scorpius told him happily, "just amazing. You're just free, completely free and you can do anything and there's no worries just the air and its amazing, Calderon, such a rush when you're going fast. Its just amazing, you know?"

"Never flown before."

"Really? Well you must try it, you'd probably like it. It's just..."

"Amazing?"

"Yeah. Its so good, its just indescribable how amazing it feels. You're so free."

"So you mentioned, once or twice," Calderon pointed out and Scorpius felt himself blushing but he couldn't help it, flying just was... amazing, "I'm glad you enjoy it, Scor. Because now you have a detention."

"I don't mind," Scorpius said still smiling, "bring it on. I feel like I can do anything."

"Well good," Calderon told him as he waved his hand and the door to the great hall opened, oddly enough the tables were gone and the only thing in the room was a mop and bucket of water, "because you're detention for today is to mop the floor of the great hall. Enjoy."

---

Part 5: Punishment

---

Scorpius was left alone with the bucket and mop with Calderon promising to return soon, the great hall looked even bigger with the furniture gone. Scorpius got to work, dragging the sopping mop across the floor and wishing it was a broom that he could fly on. He didn't seem to be getting very far though, there was so much floor and only one Scorpius and he could only go so fast. He was nervous that he wouldn't be finished by dinner and he'd have a swarm of angry starving students and teachers to deal with it. There had to be a better way. There was, he realized as he got out his wand.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

At his word the mop floated off the ground, he focused intently and moved his wand to make the mop drop into the bucket then back out and across the floor. It was more difficult than he thought, if it touched the ground too forcefully then the spell would be broken and he'd have to do it again but gradually he got better at it, it was a balance of not breaking the spell by touching the ground and not levitating it so high that it didn't clean the floor at all and then you had to move it constantly to each new bit of floor to be cleaned. It was tricky but Scorpius was enjoying the challenge and he was succeeding, once you got the balance right it was faster, you just had to focus.

"What are you doing?" Calderon questioned and Scorpius' concentration was so abruptly broken that the mop dropped to the ground.

"I... I''m sorry, I just thought it would be faster so I'd be done by dinner," Scorpius answered awkwardly but to his surprise Calderon only laughed his shrill laugh.

"Well its certainly using your initiative, never had a first year do that."

"Do you want me to do it by hand?"

"Nah," Calderon brushed it off and went to slump down beside the door, Scorpius noticed for the first time that he held a plate stacked with food in his free hand, "you could probably use the practice after what happening in Charms, power is useless if you can't control it. I always do it by magic anyway, although if Pippy asks, best you say you did it by hand just in case. He might expect you to do it by hand although considering he put me in charge of giving you detentions I don't see why I can't decide."

Scorpius nodded in understanding and went back to his work, only know occasionally glancing back to Calderon who seemed content to sit on the floor and eat. After awhile Scorpius decided to risk moving over to him, his legs protested at moving from the spot they'd been glued into for at least an hour but he managed to keep the mop mopping as he walked sideways and backwards towards Calderon.

"Well done," Calderon congratulated him and light burst out in front of them, forming into hands that applauded before vanishing, "here, have a chip."

"Thank you," Scorpius muttered awkwardly, trying to retain his focus on the spell as he sat down beside the assistant and was handed a chip. He failed and the mop clattered to the ground again, "damn."

"You'll get the hang of it, Scor, these things don't happen overnight," Calderon offered comfortingly and with a flick of his hand, the mop was once scrubbing the floor only more vigorously than when Scorpius had been doing it.

Scorpius nibbled at his chip thoughtfully as he watched the mop. There were a million things he wanted to ask him, about what the blood runes did, where Varanian had got them, why Varanian was doing it, if he would be willing to help them stop Varanian and on a more personal level he was curious who Calderon had killed to taint his soul and how you lived with it but he wasn't sure where to start or if it would offend Calderon. He also considered telling him about James picking on Michael, maybe Calderon would keep it quiet like he had for him but he stopped himself as he looked at the marks on his cheeks. Scorpius' still seared with pain and Calderon's looked worse, he didn't want to risk the assistant to get hurt again. He sighed.

"Something on your mind?"

"A lot of things are on my mind."

"Want to talk about it? Here, have a chip."

"Well there's Varanian, using those blood runes and he hates me."

"He doesn't hate you," Calderon stated defensively, "he just doesn't like you that much. Because you're related to former Death Eaters and he really hates them."

"Because they killed his wife?" Scorpius wondered already he was sure he already knew the answer and it didn't make it fair, being related to Death Eaters didn't make you evil and his family had changed sides anyway.

"Not just his wife, his whole family basically. He comes from a family of Aurors, his parents and elder siblings were all Aurors and every one of them died fighting Death Eaters before he'd even finished school. Then there was his wife, they married right out of Hogwarts and had three kids. He's a pure-blood but his wife was muggle-born so when the Ministry was taken over they went into hiding, but he wasn't as smart as he thought. It was Christmas when they were tracked down...they fought back, hard, they could've escaped if they hadn't tried to save their children but they did because they loved their children like parents should but they were outnumbered and subdued. They didn't just kill his wife, they killed the children in retaliation for their fighting back... Some Death Eaters believed blood traitors were worse than the muggle-borns, they didn't consider muggle-borns or muggles to have the same level of sentience as us, as if they're animals or at least less than human but blood-traitors weren't. They chose to 'betray' their blood, their magical heritage and some believed that was the worst crime of all and the ones who attacked Pippy believed that but ultimately its what saved him."

"What do you mean?"

"The spell they use to kill is so quick, the smallest of mercies I suppose," Calderon explained and Scorpius wondered if he'd accidentally used the spell to kill Marvin, "but they wanted him to suffer first, they tortured him for awhile before deciding to kill him but not quickly, they wanted him to be burned alive in purifying flames. They tied him up, used a spell to shield his face from the smoke and flames so he'd survive for as long as possible then set his home on fire and then left him to die. But they left. Someone went back and saved him then, he was badly burned but still saved, by the time he'd recovered the war was over though. He doesn't know what Death Eaters did it because they wore their masks the whole time, instead he views all Death Eaters as the ones responsible which is why he hates them so much and... by extension kinda doesn't like people related to them. I think he wants to protect the school so bad to make up for not being able to protect his family."

"Well that's horrible that that happened," Scorpius would admit, not even Varanian deserved that and neither did his family but it didn't lessen his hatred or excuse his actions, "but it doesn't make what he's doing right."

"I know," Calderon sighed, "but what can you do? He's stopped listening to reason, he's so freaked out about what happened with the train."

"You could tell Albus' dad, he's the Head Auror and he'd stop Varanian."

"No!" Calderon protested and Scorpius flinched as the bucket of water exploded, "he'd put him in Azkaban. He doesn't deserve to go to Azkaban, no one deserves to go to Azkaban, its such an awful, evil place with those dementors... dementors are the worst thing ever, Scor, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

"I can think of something worse," Scorpius muttered and shivered thinking of the muggles, "besides, didn't think they get rid of the dementors?"

"Yeah, I had heard that. But its besides the point, the only time I've ever left Hogwarts for non-school business was to visit Minerva when she was retired and now she's not so Pippy would be awfully suspicious if I suddenly wanted a life. It'll be okay, when the wards are completed then he won't lay a hand on a student ever again, he promised."

"What do those wards do anyway?" Scorpius wondered as Calderon clicked his fingers and the almost empty plate vanished.

"I told you not to worry about it."

"Well I still do."

"They're to protect the school," Calderon told him with a sigh as he got to his feet, wincing slightly as he put pressure on his injured foot and Scorpius jumped up after him, "when its completed then no evil should be able to get past the wards, he's paranoid about an attack on the school."

"Well where did he get them from?" Scorpius questioned with a scowl, why would anyone want to attack a school? Then again why would anyone attack the train tracks? Who knew what the Shadows were after. Although Scorpius still thought it was pointless, even if they did work and magically protect the school from evil, what would protect the school from Varanian? He was more of a threat that anything, headmaster came him so much control, control that he was just abusing.

"There's people who donate things to the school, money usually or sometimes equipment or books and things like that. This one donor, Restam Wodahs, who is Greek and they donated these things for protection as well as instructions which are mostly in Greek because their English isn't too good but Pippy speaks the language so he understands."

"And that's not weird?"

"They've been donating for years, since before Pippy took over, since before Pippy even worked here. This is the first time that they've given anything besides money though. Minerva always rather liked them, some people only wish to donate so they get something in return such as special treatment or allowances or a tower named after them but Wodahs is perfectly content to remain in the shadows. Is that all?"

"Erm..." Scorpius started to say, trying to think of a polite way to ask him who he'd killed in the past but stopped himself as Calderon started moving his hands.

Immediately all the water that had been thrown every which way when the bucket exploded started moving, gathering up into a floating ball of soapy water that hovered in the center of the room. Calderon laughed maniacally as he threw his arms outward and the water shot out from the ball, zooming across the floor all around them and up the walls, the windows, you could see the color of everything go lighter as the water touched it before finally it jumped into the air and fell down on them like rain. Calderon clapped his hands and the shards of bucket reformed, the mop plopped into it and vanished.

"Wow."

"I always liked the rain. I was thirteen the first time I went outside and it was raining, water falling from the sky seems like magic when you're experiencing it and not watching it from inside," Calderon told him brightly, turning back to him with a grin and gesturing with his hand again which returned all the tables and benches in a shimmering of light, "same time tomorrow, Scor."

---

Lucius sighed irritably as he saw his son leaning against the door-frame and staring into Scorpius' room. Again. The room had been almost a shrine when Scorpius had been missing, they'd all spent some time sitting on the boy's bed and wishing he was home or standing in the doorway and also wishing he was home. Sometimes he wondered if Draco even realized that Scorpius had been saved, he was in Hogwarts not in some muggle hell anymore so they could all relax.

Well relax slightly, the boy's first letter had been received that morning and his house placement had been a shock to them all.

"Draco, please," Lucius said rolling his eyes at his son who didn't bother moving, "do you really have nothing better to do than stand there?"

"Don't you have anything better to do than bother me?"

"He's not missing anymore, he's in a school. The school that you wished to send him to."

"I still miss him, okay? Is that so wrong?" Draco snapped irritably, "my little boy is all alone hundreds of miles away in a house full of people who probably hate him. I should never have let him go, he's probably miserable and that's why his letter is so short, he just doesn't want us to worry or take him home. He wasn't ready, I should take him home."

"He was miserable here!" Lucius exclaimed rolling his eyes and Draco shot him a hurt look, "smothering the boy won't help him, it'll kill him. He has to learn to be alone-"

"I think he already knows how to be alone! He was alone for almost a year, all alone surrounded by those evil sick bastards while they... When he needed us most we weren't there for him, I can't help but feel like he shouldn't be alone now. I worry about him. Sometimes he wakes up screaming from the nightmares, what if he does it at school and they pick on him for it? What if they make fun of him for the scar on his wrist? What if he gets picked on because he's a Malfoy? Kids can be cruel and I know how the rest of the wizarding world looks at us. Or what if the teachers give him a hard time? What if the work's too much for him? What if he struggles with magic because he's been around those filthy muggles for so long?"

"I'm sure he's stronger than he looks, he survived," Lucius pointed out and almost wished he could tell his son about Scorpius killing the muggle, if he could kill a man then surely he could handle anything Hogwarts could throw at him, "I don't think we need to worry about his magic and he'll learn to deal with everything else as it happens. Don't worry so much, I'm sure he's having a great time. Except for being in the wrong house, did you ask him if he was joking or accidentally wrote the wrong house yet?"

"I don't care about that anymore! And I don't care about your expectations! Merlin's beard, father! I just want him to be happy again, I just want him to be okay. Do you even care about him about all?" Draco snapped glaring at him before he turned and walked away.

"You have no idea what I would do for him," Lucius muttered under his breath as he sighed and continued on his way to his study, almost wishing he hadn't when he recognized the person sitting in his chair.

"Shut the door," Celestine commanded and Lucius hesitated to obey, the sandy haired man instead flicked his wand and Lucius heard the door slam behind him, "maybe you don't realize how this works, Lucius. You sold your soul to my master, my master owns you now and the only reason you still have a soul is because thinks you could be useful for awhile. If you aren't going to be useful than my master will just have the Specter consume your soul, how long you have left is up to you."

"What Specter? What are you talking about?" Lucius wondered as he scowled deeply, Celestine only smiled.

"Look carefully."

Lucius didn't really understand but as Celestine spoke the shadows around him seemed to multiply, he opened his mouth to ask why but Celestine only pointed at the darkness. Lucius sighed and looked at the shadows, it took him a moment to realize the shadow was now human shaped but seemed more corporeal than normal shadows. In fact it didn't seem to belong to Celestine at all, it seemed to be standing up and it had eyes or at least pitch black holes where the eyes would be if it was person or even it had any other features. Lucius shivered, it felt... wrong.

"Some people are better at noticing them than others, depends on how observant you are I guess. My master calls them Specters although they have been known as Shadows too," Celestine told him, still grinning, "my master controls them, uses them as eyes and ears as well as the obvious, they can hide inside objects or people. Most people anyway, they can't touch those with gray souls unless the host willing agrees. The second you agreed to give up your soul one went inside you, its been there ever since so my master could keep an eye on you and should you do anything that displeases us... well it will consume your soul."

"Th-That thing is inside me?" Lucius stammered, he felt sick and stumbled towards the couch. He needed to sit down.

"One of them, yes. As a gray soul you needed to agree and so you did, now you can't get rid of it."

"I don't feel any different."

"Well you wouldn't, its dormant at present. Just there so the master can observe you and be ready for when its needed."

"What if I die?"

"It'll be there to take your soul before it can move beyond."

"Did you sell your soul too?" Lucius wondered feeling incredibly hopeless.

"No, I choose to serve my master," Celestine stated almost dreamily with the most devoted expression that Lucius had ever seen on anyone, "I love the master. I would do anything that is asked of me, I would give

my soul up in a heartbeat if it was required. Anyone who wouldn't is despicable, my master's going to remake the world and turn it into a better place."

"And how exactly does one do that?" Lucius asked deadpan, what have I gotten myself into now?

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Celestine shot back as he seemed to regain his composure, "if you're lucky you might survive long enough to see it. For now though you just have a task to test the defenses of Hogwarts."

"Take my soul. I won't help you do anything to put Scorpius at risk."

"Would you just let me finish?" Celestine snapped glaring at him, "we just need you to go into the school, say its to visit your grandchild but with you you'll have an object containing a Specter. Just place the object anywhere, when its alone the Specter will try to step outside the object. Some old magic protects the school from them, they can survive inside people or things but not outside of them, we're taking steps to overcome this and my master wishes to see if its working. The Specter will either be banished from the castle like the others or will go back inside the object, you can pick it back up as you leave. Your grandchild is safe."

"I can't just randomly show up at the school."

"My master thought you might say something like that to try get out of it so my master thought of a cover story for you. The Quidditch tryouts are coming up, you will say you wish for Scorpius to tryout and bring him a new broom on which to do so. The Specter will be hidden inside your cloak, you'll claim to be hot and leave your cloak near your point of arrival before being escorted to meet your grandson. While you watch him tryout, the Specter will be alone and can carry out the test. After the tryout you just pick up the cloak as you're leaving, simple."

"I guess... well..." Lucius tried to protest but really couldn't think of anything to say to that, "why do you want to do this anyway?"

"Because my master desires it."

"But why?"

"That's all you need to know. I suggest you make arrangements for it unless you don't wish to comply and the Specter consumes your soul, my master will just find another way to test it so it would be extremely pointless of you," Celestine informed him standing up, "we'll be in touch."

Lucius watched as Celestine stepped back into the shadows and vanished, the Specters along with him. Except the one supposedly in him. He sighed and looked across at the mirror, he saw a tired old man staring back. He let his head fall into his hands, he felt like a tired old man, he felt too old for all this. He'd just wanted his grandson back, for Scorpius to be okay. He'd wanted a good thing, wasn't good supposed to win? Why was he being punished for doing the right thing?