Parts (56-60)
I
Chapter 12
Christmas Time
Part 1: Let The Holidays Begin
Scorpius wanted to ask more but Michael returned and they went to bed, after a short debate on whether they should take it in turns to stay up to make sure Scorpius didn't burn himself alive in which Scorpius won the argument that he would be fine and if it happened again then they'd deal with it then. He was so tired that he was asleep when his head hit the pillow and next time he opened his eyes it was morning.
Angelo and Reuben were extra cheerful to be going home for Christmas, Albus and Scorpius were extra depressed and Michael seemed to be trying to be cheerful but his smiles never touched his hazel eyes. Michael was the only one who made any attempt at conversation at breakfast, the others seemed withdrawn more so than angry but it was still silent and Scorpius actually started to feel a bit guilty that Michael was trying so hard when they weren't. He still didn't feel like talking. Corin and Maurice came in and joined them after awhile, Rose stiffened as Corin started talking to Scorpius about Christmas in Beauxbatons and Hogwarts as he'd experienced both, Beauxbatons apparently was much better than Hogwarts but Scorpius wondered if that was just because Corin had a weird dislike of his father. He said goodbye to the two ten year olds as they returned to their dormitory to pack, time slipped through his fingers and all too soon they were heading down to the carriages to go back to the Hogwarts Express.
While his friends were taking turns hugging Michael goodbye, Scorpius felt someone tap his shoulder and was infuriated to realize it was Varanian. The headmaster motioned for him to follow and brought him to an empty classroom, Scorpius reluctantly went with him.
"I just wanted to make sure we had an understanding," Varanian said, sporting short hair that was darker than the night, "that you won't say anything about the things I've done that could be construed as illegal to get me in trouble."
"Or you'll kill Michael?" Scorpius guessed bitterly and Varanian smiled a cruel smile.
"Marius too, just for you. If I'm going to jail then he's useless to me and he wouldn't harm me even to save his own pathetic excuse for a life, one less Death Eater's child in a world that doesn't care. You understand?"
"I won't say a word," Scorpius promised as he glared at the headmaster, mutual loathing he saw reflected in Varanian's silvery eyes.
"Good."
On that note they returned to the carriages, Varanian keeping strangely close to him which he was sure would have earned him a glare from Rose if his friends hadn't already left. Except Michael, he was just standing around with a wistful look on his face. Scorpius wished that Michael was coming too, he deserved to be with his family at Christmas and to be safe from Varanian's death threats. There was only one carriage left and it was full of older girls, Calderon was helping a particularly plump girl in.
Scorpius' attention was caught by the things pulling the carriage though, he hadn't really seen them with all the others and the crowd but now it was gone he saw them. He thought he heard someone say his name but he was so drawn to them that he didn't care, they had a horse-like body but were skeletal, he could see their ribs clearly from beneath their lustrous thin skin. They had huge leathery wings folded back and reptilian faces, he was reminded of the faces of dragons he'd seen in pictures, the nearest turned and looked at him with its dull eyes that lacked pupils. Scorpius smiled at the creature and reached out his hand, the creature nuzzled his hand and he petted it gently, it had incredible smooth skin.
"Come on," Calderon said and pulled his hand away, scratching the creature's ears affectionately for a moment before leading him away, "we have to leave now."
"What are they?" Scorpius wondered in amazement.
"They're Thestrals, you can only see them if you've seen someone die," Varanian answered before Calderon could open his mouth, Scorpius glanced at the headmaster just in time to see the Thestral snap at the headmaster who leaped back and scowled at the creature as it tried to move between them and Varanian, almost protectively but couldn't for being tied to the carriage, "Marius, aren't they supposed to be tame?"
"I don't think he likes you," Calderon pointed out and Scorpius recalled his wand core had came from a Thestral.
"Well I don't like him either."
"Glad we've got that settled. Shall we go now?"
Scorpius opened his mouth to say that he was going to wanted to say goodbye to Micheal but Calderon was already pushing him into the carriage where there was very little room, Varanian stood well back of the Thestrals with Michael while Calderon climbed up onto the front of the carriage. The assistant laughed his high-pitched laughter and commanded the Thestrals to go, they immediately started walking and he waved back at Michael who waved until he was out of sight. Varanian stood by his side and Scorpius was left with an ominous feeling as they continued on their way, he would have preferred to sit up with Calderon but at least he had a view of the Thestrals for the journey. The girls seemed to ignore him and started chatting about boys they liked, he rolled his eyes in disgust, he would never have a crush on anyone like that and just focused on watching the Thestrals.
Michael watched his final friend be pulled away by the Thestrals and sighed heavily as it left his line of his sight, he let his smile fall and started at the frozen ground, suddenly feeling very alone. It was going to be a long, lonely holiday without his family, without even his friends. He hoped they'd at least have a good Christmas, he knew he wouldn't. There wasn't many people staying over the holidays, Scorpius had said most of those staying were older students anyway who he didn't really know or have anything in common with. He wasn't close to the teachers like Scorpius either, some of them were going too, he knew Abby's dad was.
He supposed he shouldn't complain though, at least it wasn't Christmas in the cancer ward again. Maybe he could even catch up on the work he'd missed while he'd been sick, there was plenty of time to study and practice the practical spells. He could try make the best of it, that's all you could do.
It took him a moment to realize that he actually wasn't alone. He expected Varanian's footsteps to announce the headmaster's leave, in fact he'd been waiting for it so he could walk in the opposite direction that Varanian took. Varanian didn't leave though and Michael felt his heart sink even further back into his chest. Please let me be wrong, he begged of his mind.
"Come with me," Varanian said quietly.
Michael followed as the headmaster led him away, really he already where they were going but a tiny fragment of hope in his mind refused to give up yet. His feet remembered the way, he didn't want to go on but he didn't want to go back to being a muggle even less. They stopped beside the blood rune wards, Varanian leaned coolly back against a tree and motioned for him to go to them. Hope dashed.
"You're going to spend your holiday finishing these," Varanian explained, "you'll start at first light and carry on until dinner, you can go to bed after dinner. You break for breakfast and lunch as to not arouse suspicion, you may also relieve yourself during that time. Do you understand?"
"That's worse than last time," Michael pointed out hopelessly but there wasn't a single shard of sympathy in the headmaster's icy eyes.
"That's because Marius isn't going to find out this time. This school will be protected and this is the way to do it, you should have the wards finished over the break if you work like I want. The sacrifice will be worth it in the end. If you don't like it then you're more than welcome to be expelled, go back to your mundane muggle life and your friends can finish wards when they get back."
"No! Leave my friends alone," Michael snapped as he went over to the first ward, kneeling in the dirt before it. He thought he saw Varanian smile as he put his hand on the cold surface, bracing himself against the pain he knew was coming he closed his eyes, "I Ecifircas."
The journey wasn't actually as bad as Scorpius had thought, he was apprehensive about being on the train after what had happened last time but Calderon announced he was coming too, just in case anything did happen. He just got in a compartment with the assistant, knowing his friends probably wouldn't want to sit with him anyway and Molly had her own age friends that she was probably with. He talked with Calderon and they played Wizard chess to pass the time, Calderon played some magic music for which Scorpius was grateful for. He'd gotten accustomed to Calderon's random music and lights, he thought it'd be quiet and dark without the assistant. There was no attacks or destroyed tracks and Scorpius was almost disappointed when they stopped at Platform nine and three quarters.
"Have a good Christmas, Scor," Calderon offered with a smile, gesturing and the doors opened but the assistant made no move for the door like Scorpius did, he realized that Calderon wasn't coming onto the platform.
"You too. As long as Varanian isn't mean to you," Scorpius said as a throng of students swamped the corridor outside the compartment, he decided to wait until they'd passed.
"He's not mean to me and he doesn't even leave his office on Christmas anyway, its the anniversary of his family's death. I think he just lies in bed and cries."
"Oh yeah, I was meaning to ask you," Scorpius spoke up, to prolong the conversation as much as anything, "Varanian said he'd known you twenty years this Christmas, but surely that can't be right. He meant ten years, didn't he?"
"No. Twenty years is right," Calderon answered and quickly lost his smile, Scorpius scowled.
"So you met him when you were fifteen?"
"Yep."
"But isn't that the day his family were killed?"
"Yep."
"You met him the day his family died?"
"Yep."
"But..." Scorpius started to say but stopped as a realization dawned on him, "you're the one who saved his life after the Death Eaters tried to turn him alive."
"Yep."
"But-"
"Scor, now really isn't the time to talk about it," Calderon interrupted seriously and Scorpius closed his mouth despite his desperation to know more.
"Hey!" a voice greeted him cheerfully and Scorpius felt himself pulled out into the corridor by Molly, he couldn't help but smile as he saw her, "didn't think you could leave without saying goodbye, did you?"
"Err..." Scorpius began, really not sure what to say to that but Molly didn't seem to mind.
"I got you a present," Molly said as she shoved her hands into her pockets and pulled out a square package wrapped in brown paper, she offered it to him and he cautiously took it, "its not much, I ran out of money... again. But its something, I thought you'd like it."
"Thank you... I... I didn't expect anything."
"I get all my friends something, I'm sure I told you that," Molly pointed out and smiled again, pulling him into a hug before he could react. He felt a strange surge of happiness as well as feeling like someone had released a swarm of butterflies into his stomach... her hair smelt of cherries. He hoped he wasn't blushing but he had a feeling he was from the way he caught Calderon raising an eyebrow, he thought he might be. Molly pulled away and gave no reaction to his possible blush, "I'm sorry, I can see my parents waving at me from the platform so I have to go but I hope you'll have a good Christmas."
"You too," Scorpius managed to say without butterflies flying out of his mouth and Molly smiled warmly as she left by him, he knew he was smiling too as he glanced back to Calderon, whatever they had been talking about was gone from his memories, "bye Calderon. I'll see you."
Calderon waved a goodbye as Scorpius left, vaguely hearing the door close behind him as he joined the crowd in exiting the train and quickly found his parents. They beamed when they saw him and he almost ran to them, he was still smiling as his mother cuddled him close, he didn't even care if it was embarrassing or proper to be hugging your mother in public or not but he didn't care.
He remained in a good mood for the rest of the day he was happy to see his parents again and his grandparents and Yip and the other house-elves and his Aunt Daphne even came to dinner so he saw her too. His worries were shoved very far to the back of his mind as he told them all the things he resisted putting in letters because he didn't want Varanian to read them. He talked about his classes, he talked about his teachers, he talked about his friends, he talked about Quidditch, he talked about his detentions, all the good things about Hogwarts that were usually overshadowed by the bad but not this time. This time he focused on the good and saw their faces light up, even his grandfather looked pleased. The voice didn't bother him and his only dreams were of trying to sleep in a warm room with wood paneled walls.
The following day his grandmother took his Diagon Alley after he said he wanted to buy presents for everyone, she told him to choose whatever he liked and not worry about money. He started with Michael as he felt bad for his friend being all alone on Christmas, the first thing he bought him was a beautiful Barn Owl who could do several so Michael wouldn't actually be technically alone. Scorpius also got him some wizard robes, some notebooks, a quill that could change the color of the ink, a book on Healing Magic and a copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard and some sweets. He hadn't meant to buy so much but he thought showering Michael with gifts might make up for him being alone. For Albus, he got a huge box of fudge, sweets and a brand new Cloudcutter broom. For Rose, he got strawberry fudge - her favorite flavor - sweets and a rare book he knew she'd like. For Abby, he got cake, sweets and a slightly telepathic plant that sang the favorite song of whoever watered it.
He also got cards for all the Hogwarts staff - deliberately excluding Varanian, as well as for the whole Quidditch team - reluctantly including James - and for his friends and family too. He also found a new brand of sweets called QuidChocs, it was a box with the Quidditch balls as sweets, milk chocolate Quaffles, dark chocolate Bludgers that attacked your fingers and white chocolate Snitches that hovered around your head until you ate them, he got some for himself and a box for everyone the team - including James again, he was including the reserve team too so he thought it would seem cruel from everyone else's point of view to leave out James as no one else knew about James deliberating batting the Bludger at him, it was Christmas anyway, a time for good will.
On top of the QuidChocs, he also got Molly the charm bracelet that she'd so desperately wanted but had ran out of money for, it was very expensive silver so he decided to not get many charms so she could choose what she wanted for it. He bought a broomstick charm - because she loved Quidditch - and an Eagle Owl charm, he asked the shopkeeper to curse off the exact toe that Hopper was missing so it would be just like him, he later decided to save the broomstick charm for her birthday though. While he was in the jewelry shop, he also saw a silver dragon necklace with yellow eyes that reminded him of the color of Calderon's magic lights. He thought Calderon would like it, Calderon loved dragons and got that for him. He also got a ring for his father with his initials engraved on it, a bottle of his mother's favorite perfume for his mother, a floral brooch that actually smelled like the flower it was - he picked the one he thought smelled nicest - for his Aunt Daphne, a silver self-combing comb that his grandmother recommended for his grandfather, a big bang of owl treats for Free, sweets for Yip - the house-elf had a sweet tooth - and a different floral brooch for his grandmother at her request.
He went home laden with things and feeling ecstatic but shattered, his father's eyes bulged when he saw how much they'd bought but his grandmother insisted it was fine. The next day he insisted on wrapping all of the gifts by hand himself - after Yip showed him how - rather than leaving the house-elves to do it, even though it took up most of the day. Being Calderon's assistant had really made him realize how much effort went into things, it consistently bothered him when Calderon was dumped with things purely out of laziness on the part of the teacher that could easily and simply be done themselves. Scorpius didn't want to be like that, if he could do something himself than he would, he wasn't lazy and he wasn't useless. The only present he didn't wrap himself was Michael's owl because the bird would have to fly to Hogwarts herself, he also wrote all the cards and felt incredibly pleased with himself when he went to bed that night.
His good mood started to wane after that, he wanted the people he cared about to have a good Christmas and to like their presents but for himself... he couldn't care less. He'd been asked what gift he would like but he really couldn't think of anything, last year he'd been taken away from every object he owned and he hadn't given any of them a first thought, let alone a second. He could've gone home and found they'd lost all their money, possessions and home and not cared as long as he had his family. People were what mattered, they were irreplaceable but objects were just objects. The only things he wanted weren't things they could give him, they weren't things that anyone could give him really.
His parents also seemed upset that he didn't want to decorate the house or tree for Christmas like he'd always done with his mother, he said he would to make them happy but they still seemed sad. He supposed they knew he was just doing it for them and not because he'd stopped caring about silly decorations, they used less decoration than usual but it still depressed him. The last time they'd been decorating for Christmas was when his mother had been pregnant, they'd all been happy at the news of a new Malfoy, there'd been cause to celebrate. The next year Lyra had been dead and Scorpius had been missing, there'd been no cause to celebrate. Scorpius still didn't think there was a reason to celebrate, Lyra was still gone and a part of him would always be gone too.
Lucius was in the closest thing to a good mood as he'd been in awhile, he thought as he sat at his desk, despite his desire for Scorpius to be at Hogwarts he was actually pleased with his grandson's return for Christmas. Scorpius still didn't seem the same as he had been before his disappearance and Lucius certainly didn't approve of his friends but he was doing better than he had been in the summer, he'd barely speak two words then.
He was penning another letter to Corvinus Ashain, he'd been corresponding with the man as he'd been told. Lucius wasn't particularly fond of the assignment, Corvinus had a habit of talking down to him and the subtle yet effective insults that Corvinus wove into his writing were not lost on him. He had to keep pretending that it didn't matter and that he actually cared about the man's opinion, Lucius could tell from the first letter that Corvinus was a pompous egotistical ass and he'd taken an immediate dislike to him. He still had to grit his teeth, grip his quill and bear it as he wrote his reply.
"Hey," Brutus' voice grunted in greeting and Lucius glanced up to see the Soul Eater standing there in the shadows, he thought he was finally getting used to Brutus appearing.
"Ah, you're in luck, I've just about finished the next letter to your lovely grandfather," Lucius commented pleasantly but sarcastically and Brutus snorted as he walked over.
"I hope that bastard dies kicking and screaming, broke, miserable, alone and dressed in filthy rags that he soiled himself. He deserves it," Brutus commented as he craned his neck to read the letter, "reads okay just add a note about getting him a gift for Christmas, he likes white wine. Give him your very best."
"Fine. Is that all?"
"No, you need to come with me."
"Ugh, do I have to?"
"What do you think?" Brutus questioned and held out his hand for Lucius to take, he smelled of perfume again and Lucius sighed as he took the disgustingly deformed hand.
The shadows consumed him but the uncomfortable sensation of the teleporting left him with more breath than it had last time, he hoped that didn't mean he was getting used to it. Looking around, Lucius saw they were in a similar wood-paneled room that he'd been in when he'd 'met' the Shadow Master only this seemed like the drawing room. It was huge with a crimson divan and some other seats, a huge mahogany desk was pressing against one of the walls and Brutus gestured for him to sit down. Lucius did so and saw it was a list of names that he recognized as mostly Death Eaters, each with a small paragraph detailing a crime and sentence length for Azkaban.
He looked back to Brutus in askance, the Soul Eater looked lost in thought. It was Lucius' best estimate anyway, he thought it was difficult to read Brutus' facial expression because of the deformity or maybe he just didn't like looking at such an ugly person for long enough to figure it out. Brutus ran a hand through his hair, leaving tufts of extremely dark auburn sticking up on the misshapen planes of his head, Lucius thought he must be trying to grow it. He looked around before finally seeming to realize that Lucius was waiting on an explanation.
"It's a list of everyone in Azkaban, Celestine got it. You knew a lot of Death Eaters, you have some idea on who was useful and dependable and trustworthy and who wasn't. You need to go through all the names and write down who you think is worth saving and who isn't," Brutus explained, "the ones who aren't Death Eaters or who you didn't know then hazard a guess based on the information provided, put a star by their names so the master knows. All of us who are former Death Eaters have done it, the master is taking it all on board before we make the final decision."
"Why does it matter? They're in Azkaban," Lucius complained, he'd really rather be sleeping, "and can't it wait? Tomorrow's Christmas Eve, I want to sleep."
"Would you rather be doing this on Christmas Eve?"
"Fine," Lucius muttered and turned to the seemingly infinite amount of parchment before him, Brutus started to walk away, "wait! Are you really not going to answer my question? And are just going to leave me here unsupervised?"
"I'm not in the mood, Lucius, you're a jerk and I have stuff on my mind," Brutus said tiredly and ran his hand through his hair again, "and yes. Its not like you're going anywhere and I have to check on something, I'll be back soon."
"I didn't realize you had a mind."
"Do you want me to hit you again?"
"Fine, fine. I'm reading names now," Lucius grumbled and turned back to the list but watched Brutus leave out of the corner of his eye.
Part 2: A Night To Remember
"Hey! Varanian!" Atticus Ashain called as he spotted the headmaster, the currently-blond Varanian glanced at him disinterestedly and carried on walking, "I said wait! Pay attention."
"I'm busy," Varanian stated without slowing his pace and Atticus couldn't suppress the shiver he felt whenever he was around the headmaster.
"Well fine. I just wanted to ask you something, can I leav-"
"No."
"What?"
"The answer's no, Ashain," Varanian said firmly to which Atticus frowned in irritation.
"You didn't even hear what I was going to say."
"Because I don't care what you have to say, if you wanted to leave for the holidays then you should have done so with the rest of the teachers when the holidays started."
"But somethings come up."
"I don't care."
"But-"
"If you don't like my rules then complain," Varanian offered with a slight smirk and Atticus managed to stop himself from saying that he had complained and the Ministry always insisted it was nothing and sided with Varanian, the Ministry really had gone downhill since he'd been an Auror, "if that's all then night."
Atticus stopped walking after him as Varanian turned off, scowling after the headmaster frustratedly. He really hated Varanian, the headmaster was crazy, cruel, creepy and the Ministry were fools for dismissing his concerns. Regardless of anything with the blood runes, something was not right with him. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, he'd already made up his mind on what he was going to do and he didn't care what Varanian said. He shouldn't need Varanian's approval to leave the school during the holidays of all times in the first place, it was just stupid of him to even bother trying to ask. He should have just gone. He would.
He headed back to his office quickly, he couldn't help but glance at the brick in the wall holding the orb and closed his injured hand instinctively. He hated that orb but he hadn't a better idea of what to do with it at that moment, it wasn't even relevant to his current goal and he shoved it out of his mind as he said the password to get to his private quarters off the office. He didn't think Skye would be too pleased if he showed up in wizard robes after all, he changed into a muggle plaid shirt, jacket and jeans and hesitated for a moment, debating over whether to bring his wand but he didn't see how he would need it and left it on the bed before leaving.
The corridors were deserted, it was evening and after dinner anyway so not many people would be about. He didn't see anyone as he left the castle, mentally recalling the way to Hogsmeade as he walked through the snow. He shivered. There was a chill that hung in the air but it wasn't windy, it was dark though as no stars were out and he regretted not bringing his wand for the light. He certainly wasn't going back for it though.
He walked until he could see the snowy thatched roofs in sight but wasn't in the actual town, he should still be able to apparate and it would be preferable if no one would notice he was gone, he would rather keep his job if he could help it. He closed his eyes and focused. When he opened his eyes again he was in the forest opposite his home, he'd gone there in case any neighbors were up. There was no snow but it was still cold. He shivered and sighed nervously before he walked across the street and rapped on the gray door of the terraced house. He stepped back and waited, listening to his heart beating so loudly he started to wonder if he had drums in his ears. Finally his wife opened the door, holding the phone to her chest and looked slightly surprised to see him.
"I didn't hear a car," Skye pointed out.
"Err... I didn't come by car," he answered awkwardly, he had a sinking feeling that apparating may not have been the best idea.
"What did you do? Teleport?"
"Err... well... technically its called appa- yeah its not important how I got here. I err... you called and left a message telling me to come so I did. And appa- I came as fast as I could."
"Alright," Skye said, seeming to decide not to press the matter before she ducked back inside, "wait here."
He stood there awkwardly, not sure what else to do or say really and cursing himself for it. Everyone else would know what to say, there were plenty of other witches and wizards who married muggles without their spouses freaking out about magic. It was the first time he'd seen his wife in six months, he'd gone over the possible conversations they could have but he still couldn't think of what to say. Not even slightly. Why did words fail him when he needed them most? He was distracted from his thoughts by a loud bang like a gunshot, he spun around and scrambled for the wand he didn't bring but it was only Calderon, having apparated in the middle of the street. The assistant grinned as he literally skipped over to him.
"Did you see that, Ticcy?" Calderon offered excitedly, "I apparated, all by own. I only passed the test this year, failed it fifteen years in a row and I still really don't like it and its really hard but I can do it and I did it."
"Yes, yes, well done," Atticus said quickly at Calderon's childish enthusiasm and started to panic internally, Calderon couldn't not to magic for more than five minutes, the last thing Skye needed was more magic, "but what are you doing here?! Go away, Skye will freak if she sees you and you do magic in front of her. Magic is the problem, not the solution."
"Pippy has wards in place that detect if someone enters or leaves Hogwarts grounds, he sent me to investigate and I remembered what you said about your wife leaving a message so I thought it was probably you so I came here."
"Varanian has what?! That really doesn't bother you?"
"Sort of but he's worried about everyone's safety," Calderon said slowly and cocked his head to one side, "we should go back."
"No! No. Absolutely not yet. Look I'm just waiting for Skye to get back, she could be back at any minute so just go."
"I can't just leave without you, that would be-"
"Fine then go and... go and wait across the road," Atticus interrupted not wanting to waste time arguing, Calderon eyed the forest for a moment, "just until I'm done talking to Skye, please Calderon."
"Fine but if you don't come soon then Pippy will be looking for us both."
"Fine, just go."
Calderon very reluctantly and with frustrating slowness went across the road to the edge of the woods, he sighed with relief before jumping as the front door opened again. Skye handed him a piece of paper and for one horrifying moment he thought it was divorce papers, it wasn't though. It was a picture, a crayon drawing that looked like one of the kids had drawn it, probably Cassia and he felt a depressing stab as he was reminded how long it had been since he'd seen them. There was a big bright sun in the sky above some body of water with a red boat on it, it took him a moment to realize that the picture was moving, the blue lines rippled like waves and the boat moved left across the page then right and then left, even the suns rays were waving.
"Cassie did that," Skye explained, "it keeps moving and well... pictures aren't supposed to move, I figured you could stop it or just take it away."
"I err... could just take it away," Atticus offered, he hadn't brought his wand and he didn't actually want to destroy his daughter's beautiful magic, Skye just nodded as he folded it up and pocketed it.
"What happened to your hand?"
"It's nothing, just a scratch," he brushed it off and swallowed nervously, "can... can I see them?"
"Oh. Well Atty, I would if they were here, really, but they're staying with my brother and the girls for a few days. Over Christmas actually, I'm driving up tomorrow because I couldn't get time off work until Christmas Eve."
"Oh. Sounds... nice."
"Yeah, I just got off the phone with them, they like the snow... I told Justin about the whole... magic... stuff... so he knows but he also knows not to say anything. His girls aren't in danger are they?"
"No, its unlikely they'd accidentally hurt their cousins with magic."
"No, that's not what I meant. I meant... that its not contagious, the magicness won't rub off on the girls and make them like... you know... how they are."
"You're either born magical or you're not," Atticus pointed out and tried not to scowl at the way Skye made it sound like their children were diseased lepers, "its not something you can catch and I'm pretty sure the girls aren't magical."
"Right. So about the magic... is... is there a cure?"
"A cure?"
"Yes, you know to fix them and make them normal people."
"They are normal people."
"You know what I mean," Skye protested and he couldn't not scowl then, "isn't there any way to get rid of the magicness and make them human?"
"No, they are human. Its not something you can change, anymore than you can change the color of your skin or your blood type. It's just... a part of you."
"Well isn't anyone working on a cure?"
"It's a not a disease!"
"I know! I just... you know, was wondering. Look I'm tired and I have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow, okay? But I'll call you and on Christmas so the kids can talk to you too. Goodnight, Atty."
Before he could respond, she closed the door on him. He opened and closed his mouth a few times regardless, still trying to grasp how magic could be construed as a disease. He was extremely confused and even more depressed than he'd been before, he sighed and started over to Calderon who was still standing by the forest edge and staring into the darkness. He shivered violently.
"Do we have to go back right away?" Atticus questioned hopelessly when he was close enough that the assistant would be able to hear him, "I could really do with a drink right now and-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Calderon ran into the forest. He threw his hands up in the air in exasperation, seriously considering just apparating back and leaving Calderon to do... whatever he hoped to accomplish by running into a forest in the middle of night. He sighed frustratedly and started muttering a string of curses under his breath as he ran after Calderon, he seemed wrong to just go and leave him there.
It was dark in the forest, the trees blocked out the light from the streetlamps, he wished not for the first time that he'd brought his made no effort to run quietly though so Atticus followed by sound which was good because it was really, really dark as the got deeper into the dense woods and Calderon changed direction so randomly and so often it was hard to keep up regardless of who good a runner he was. He thought it was slightly odd though, the exercise had warmed him up but he couldn't stop shivering. He was actually starting to wonder whether he was sick when he came to an abrupt halt as a chill swept through him. He'd been an Auror long enough to recognize the early warning signs of Dementors when he saw them.
"Calderon, wait!" Atticus called out desperately but Calderon's footsteps didn't stop, he heard a high-pitched scream.
Atticus darted after him and came out of the trees into a small clearing, there was not one but five Dementors and all of them had swarmed around Calderon who was lying limp on the ground. Atticus went to take out his wand and cursed himself again for not bringing it, he didn't hesitate as he ran towards Calderon regardless, if he could just grab him then he could apparate them both to safety.
He'd just started to fall to his knees to reach the assistant when he felt a burst of magic strike his right shoulder, pain exploded where he'd been struck as he was flung violently backwards through the air and way back into a tree, way over on the other side of the clearing to Calderon. He fell to the ground and sat up with his back against the tree, breathing through the pain and trying to get his bearings in the darkness. He saw the man who had to have attacked him, his wand trained on Atticus who didn't dare move as the man moved closer to him. He was young with wild eyes, dressed in black and had a cocky smile. Atticus stretched out his legs and hoped the young man would make the common error of getting to close to a subdued opponent.
"I know I'm really not supposed to kill you but Seraph will reward me greatly," the attacker said as he raised his wand but he had made the fatal mistake.
If you can't win fair then fight dirty, Brutus' words came to mind, in a life or death situation it really won't matter about etiquette, it just matters that you don't die. Atticus swept out with his outstretched leg, the young man was knocked off his feet and his wand went flying into the air. Atticus caught it in his left hand as he scrambled to his feet, turning it on its very stunned-looking owner.
Another burst of magic came out from the other side of the clearing, he barely ducked in time to avoid it and saw two more people emerging from the shadows. They both immediately set about attacking him, he wasn't used to using his left hand to duel but pain shot through his right from his shoulder if he moved his body, let alone the arm. They had covered it in Auror training though and an excessive amount of practice with Brutus had drilled it in surprisingly well, he found himself holding his own against both of his opponents.
A flurry of magic filled the air as they dueled completely non-verbally, multicolored jets of power streamed between them so fast that if he hadn't been the one dueling then he wouldn't be able to keep up with what was happening. The spells and counter-spells came instinctively to mind and his left quickly came to be in tune with what he wanted, it'd been years since he'd dueled but he didn't feel the slightest bit rusty. In fact, he was actually gaining ground on his attackers which they seemed to realize.
"Retter! Don't just sit there, grab the target now!" one of his opponents commanded without missing a beat in their duel.
The man whose wand Atticus was now using had remained on the ground just watching the duel but at his accomplices words he started rushing towards Calderon, who remained unmoving on the ground surrounded by Dementors. Atticus quickly cast the strongest shield charm he knew to protect himself as he launched a spell at the man - presumably Retter - before he could reach the assistant, it hit him at a strange angle and he was thrown forcefully backwards from Calderon but to Atticus' right.
The tree Retter was thrown against happened to have a branch sticking out in that direction and he was unfortunate enough to become impaled on it, Atticus flinched in horror as the suddenly slippery scarlet branch shot through the center of the young man's chest. His mouth opened in silent scream, his wild eyes bulged for a moment and then never moved again. He was dead. Atticus felt a painfully familiar sick feeling at having killed someone, regardless of the somewhat justified circumstances, guilt gnawed at him and he couldn't help but think of his brother. To his surprise though, Retter's corpse spasmed violently and a strange ball of light floated out of his gaping mouth. That was definitely not familiar. Atticus shivered again but used the distraction to his advantage and stunned one of his opponents, they were thrown out of sight and he hoped they hadn't died too.
"Look, Ashain, we're not after you!" the man who'd spoken before called out, "we only want the assistant, just apparate out of here and you won't be harmed."
"No!" Atticus yelled immediately, it wasn't even an option but he used the reprieve to his advantage as he turned his wand against the Dementors, "Expecto Patronum!"
He summoned memories of his family and his patronus immediately materialized out of the end of the wand, it was a silvery sea turtle that gracefully but ferociously charged at the Dementors, driving the cloaked figures back. The light from the patronus also illuminated the clearing much better than the duel had, out of the corner of his eye he saw three more people materialized from the shadows behind him, silently apparating? They seemed to step from the darkness rather than just pop out of thin air or dark air.
He wasn't a bad duelist but he couldn't fight so many people from so many different angles, or at least he couldn't for long and he couldn't hope to win. He needed to get him and Calderon out of there, otherwise they would die or be Kissed or whatever they wanted with Calderon.
He cast a spell, swishing the wand which created a crescent of air that shot out and knocked several of the newcomers off their feet. It caused all the spells they'd tried to cast at him to shoot off into random directions, the poor trees were hit by a random assortment of curses and one narrowly missed the ball of light by Retter's body. This seemed to terrify the man who'd dueled with Atticus.
"Don't hit that or we're all dead!" the man screamed looking seriously frightened.
Atticus tried not to think about what it as he ran towards Calderon, he cast a shield charm to try protect himself from the barrage of curses being thrown at him as he ran, most of them bounced off but it wasn't all encompassing. A jet of red slipped past just when he thought that he might actually make it to Calderon and survive, it struck Calderon's extremely high-pitched scream tore through the night, and so did the light.
Magic erupted from Calderon as he screamed, a blast of vicious light burst out from him and pulsed out in every direction. The ground cracked and was left scorched where it touched, Atticus noticed the man who'd spoken vanishing into the shadows before the magic could reach him. The rest of them were left to feel the effects, Atticus wasn't exempt from this. It felt like he'd been physically struck by a ball of fire at any place the magic had touched him, with enough force to knock him to the ground and pain seared from all the wounds, he was glad the wand was also thrown from his hand because it exploded. All of the wands exploded.
He was on his stomach but he fought through the burning pain to look up just in time to see Calderon's magic hitting the ball of light, the coward's words were on his mind as he scrambled to run to Calderon in time. The explosion was the definition of deafening, his whole world shook and he couldn't stay on his feet as he fell beside the assistant. It ripped through the air, obliterating anything it touched and he desperately grabbed Calderon's arm and apparated as it was about to reach them, he could feel the intense heat on his skin.
He had to grip Calderon's arm so tightly because the force of the blast still caught them and the second they landed in the snow outside of Hogsmeade he was thrown away from Calderon and crashed against another tree before thudding painfully onto the treacherously hard ground. He couldn't hear anything over the roar of the explosion that continued to echo inside his mind but he hadn't a moment to breath before another burst of Calderon's magic caught him, catching his still injured shoulder painfully.
He raised his head enough to see Calderon had curled up in the fetal position in the huge brown circle as the snow had been evaporated by the magic, clutching his head as waves of light continued to cascade from him, his lips were moving but his eyes were closed. Atticus frustratedly tried to move towards him, every time being hit by another wave of burning magic even if it wasn't as intense as the first had been, he screamed Calderon's name with every breath left in his body but he couldn't even hear his own voice so he doubted Calderon could.
He made a run for him, trying to dodge the magic with little success and shield his face but was knocked to his knees as he reached Calderon's side, shaking his shoulder to which Calderon's dark eyes shot open and recognized him. The latest and final surge of magic stopped and shimmered in the air around them, Calderon sat up and looked around them fearfully, he was talking but Atticus still couldn't hear him.
Finally having a moment to breathe without being attacked, he mentally assessed their current situation as he looked around. No attackers. No dementors. Just outside of Hogsmeade. He didn't have his wand. He didn't think Calderon even had a wand. He was injured, the piercing pain in his shoulder remained from Retter and he was covered in stinging burns from Calderon and probably bruises from everything. He wasn't hurt enough to incapacitate him though, as much as a part of him thought passing out from the pain would be a blessing he was still able to move. He needed to get them back to Hogwarts, they'd be safe there.
He forced his legs to get up off the ground and told Calderon to come on, but he still couldn't hear. Calderon didn't get up though, he remained staring ahead in their bubble of light. Atticus rolled his eyes and offered the assistant his left hand but Calderon still didn't react. He took Calderon's hand and finally the assistant stood up, looking around and still talking but Atticus still couldn't hear. It was strange not being able to hear and put them at another disadvantage but he couldn't do anything about it, certainly not without a wand at any rate.
He got his bearings and started to head towards to Hogwarts but Calderon didn't follow, he remained silently babbling and staring at the ground. Atticus took his hand again and led him, Calderon would slowly walk slightly him then but continued staring off in a random direction and would stop walking as soon as Atticus let go of his hand. At least Calderon's lights illuminated their way so they could see and Atticus continuously scanned the area for any sign of attackers, it also would allow attackers to see them easier but since he couldn't hear it helped having one sense at least. It wasn't like he could really get Calderon to stop anyway, the assistant had picked a bad time to have a mental breakdown.
As they walked - albeit painfully slowly - his hearing did start to return and he could understand what Calderon was saying, or at least hear him, he wasn't sure what the assistant was on about but he didn't stop speaking. It was just rapid random non-stop babble.
"Anyone want to dance with the shadows? Anyone dare to take on the night? Can you stay sane as you stare down their gaze? Do you still want to do what is right? You'll lose your soul if you let them take hold, Never again shall you walk in the light. How many times have I told you not to tease your brother like that? You know he's not stable. A lot of times. Then don't do it. I can do what I wand. Just for that the dementors can guard you both. Not the dementors please. Isn't that worse than me teasing him? Do you want me to hurt you? I hate them. I hate them all. You should kill them, Tommy, you should kill them all. I don't want to kill anyone, killing is bad. Killing bad people isn't bad. Why don't you kill them then? You're more powerful than me, they just stop me. That's because they're the masters and they're better than us. No they're not, we're better than they are, we should be the masters, Tommy, they're beneath us and we're greater than now they'll ever be. When you talk like that, you sound crazier than I am."
Atticus just zoned him out and focused on keeping them alive, they weren't attacked again though. Calderon continued talking through most of the journey before falling silent just as Hogwarts came into view, he sighed with relief as he led Calderon towards it and the assistant didn't say another word. Atticus hoped he'd be okay once he had some chocolate, he really wanted to get the hospital wing but he stopped by the kitchens to get chocolate for Calderon and handed it to the assistant.
Calderon looked at the chocolate like he'd forgotten out to eat, Atticus was seriously considering demonstrating before Calderon nibbled the corner. He managed a weak smile as started heading to the hospital wing, Calderon still didn't follow and he reluctantly took the assistant's hand again to get him to follow which he did and continued eating the chocolate as they walked. Finally reaching the hospital wing, he got Calderon to sit down on one of the beds and handed him the rest of the chocolate to eat. He didn't think he needed any for himself even though he felt a bit lightheaded, if anything he just needed a drink because he was basically fine, Calderon was hopefully fine, everything was fine.
"What in the world happened to you?!" Madam Pomfrey's voice demanded and he turned just enough to see the aging witch striding out from her office.
His body chose that moment to finally succumb to his injuries and pass out.
Part 3: Pain
Lucius was incredibly bored from looking through the names on the list, picking through the not entirely pleasant memories of the Death Eaters and having to guess over the usefulness over those he didn't know was just as bad. He really wanted to go home to bed, it was late and he was tired. He heard a tremendous crash and immediately felt wide awake again, without even thinking about whether he was allowed or not, he jumped up and went out to investigate the noise.
The room exited into another wood-paneled corridor at the top of a curved staircase, the noise was coming from downstairs and almost against his better judgement he found himself going down until he was on the ground level. Brutus, Seraph and a stranger were there.
"What did you expect me to do?!" a man shrieked, he was getting up from the ruins of a table that it looked like he'd been thrown through, "stay there and die like the others?! How is my fault that they didn't get out of their faster?!"
"You should have gotten the target!" Brutus screamed, his voice filled with rage and the stranger cringed back, Lucius had a fallen that Brutus was the reason the man had been thrown through the table, "he could have died! Don't you know how important he is to the master?! Not to mention my brother could have died!"
"Your brother drove away the dementors and the target used magic, how are we supposed to stop magic like that?! He's powerful!"
"That's why he's important! And you fucking improvise if something goes wrong! You don't leave empty handed! You don't fail the master!"
"Please, I'm sorry, I won't do it again," the man said as he broke down sobbing but Brutus didn't look in the forgiving mood, rage blazed in his eyes as he drew his wand, "please, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It wasn't my fault!"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Brutus yelled the words and the flash of green was blinding, Seraph looked infuriated by this as the stranger's corpse hit the ground. His blue eyes gazed sightlessly at Lucius, he was about to look away before the body spasmed and a ball of light left the body, much like he'd seen it leave the woman when Brutus had been demonstrating what the Specters were capable of.
"What the hell, Brutus?!" Seraph snapped irritably, "you can't go around killing my people! Boone was a coward but he was one of the more skilled I had."
"HE FAILED!" Brutus roared and turned his wand on Seraph, Lucius detected a flicker of fear in Seraph's eyes, "I can kill who I want! And you! You told Retter to kill my brother! I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT! AVA-"
Lucius felt control of his body wrested away from him, it wasn't like the Imperius curse where you force to obey, it was like someone else had taken over his body and he could only watch helplessly through his own eyes. His legs darted towards to Brutus with a speed he hadn't had since his youth and his arms grabbed Brutus' wand arm, shoving it out of the way so the curse missed Seraph completely and instead blasted a nearby door. His head was turned to watch Brutus, the Soul Eater's rage diminished as he looked at him.
"Seraph is off-limits," Lucius heard his own voice saying with someone else using it, "Boone and his team failed, if any of them were left then I'd kill them myself for it. Failure is not tolerated. Failure proves unworthiness, weakness and worthlessness. But Seraph isn't responsible, do not kill him, Brutus."
"But S-" Brutus started to protest but Lucius' voice shushed him and caressed his face.
"Seraph is useful for now, regardless of your dislike of each other. He will not be killed," Lucius' voice said before he leaned in close to Brutus to whisper into his oversized ear, "yet."
Brutus nodded as Lucius moved away from him, seemingly content with this but while he no longer looked about to kill someone, he still didn't look particularly pleased with the turn of events. He lowered his wand though and Lucius felt his mouth curl into a smile that wasn't his own, he really didn't like the feeling of his body being used as a puppet for the Shadow Master. He tried to fight it but felt almost as if he'd been shoved back, he was no longer able to see or hear or feel what was happening to his body.
He was aware but he couldn't feel anything, he couldn't do anything. He started to panic. Was he dead? Was this what it felt like to lose your soul? He started to panic and tried to reach out, he couldn't physically so he tried magically. He wasn't particularly skilled at legilimency or had much experience with it let alone wandlessly and non-verbally but he tried to use what little he knew to regain control or at least figure out what was happening, at first nothing happened but he focused intensely, he focused all of his energy into it. And he felt it, he felt like he was dipping into cold water that chilled every fiber of his soul. He pushed past it with all of his strength and-
"-and don't leave this room until he's done magic or died trying!" Lord Voldemort snapped shoving a boy forwards, he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
"Yes, my Lord," Lucius said obediently.
If he had eyes at that point then Lucius would have blinked in shock, he could see himself standing before him as clear as glass, a younger version of himself anyway, maybe his early forties? It looked like a room from his own house, whoever's eyes he was seeing through seemed content to stare at the door after Lord Voldemort rather than taking in the room. They wanted to say with Lord Voldemort, Lucius wasn't sure why but he knew that was what the person wanted, they didn't want to be dragged there with people they considered beneath them.
The boy stared back at the door too, he was maybe a bit older than Scorpius was although the state of him made it hard to tell. He seemed on the same height level as the person whose eyes Lucius was seeing out of, was short and frightfully thin, his hands, arms and face looked as if someone had just stretched his waxy skin over the bones. The clothes looked old, worn and too big for him and one of the sleeves had been ripped open to reveal a strange series of cuts that Lucius couldn't quiet make out from that angle. His shaggy tangled hair was dark black and his eyes were dark too, in contrast to his incredibly pale skin, he looked like he'd never seen sun at all. He looked familiar though. Lucius couldn't place him, he couldn't actually remember any of it.
Another man grabbed the terrified boy and flung him onto the dusty floorboards, Lucius recognized him as Rodolphus Lestrange and from his gaunt appearance, Lucius would guess that his brother-in-law had only just got out of Azkaban. Rodolphus launched a cruel kick at the poor boy, who yelped in pain and darted his eyes between the two men fearfully. Lucius watched Past-Lucius walk over to stand in front of the lone window, sunlight trying to shine through the thick dark drapes. It was indeed a room in his house, he recognized it as one of the unused rooms, there were pictures on the walls and two sets of shelves on the opposing laden with dusty old books and useless junk, one of which doubled as a desk and there was a spindly chair in front of it.
"Why don't you give Tommy your wand?" Past-Lucius said to Rodolphus who had it out and aimed at the boy, "he doesn't have one and he'll need one if we're to make him do magic."
"You better not be a bloody squib like that caretaker Filch or Marius Black," Rodolphus snarled at the boy - presumably Tommy - and tossed his wand in front of Tommy, "if you're another Marius then you'll die. Painfully."
Lucius felt the lips of the person whose eyes he was seeing - he assumed it was the Master- curl into a snarl, for a start clearly Tommy wasn't a squib as he could actually see dementors, was everyone stupid but the Master? The Master walked over to a shadowy section of the wall and sat down, leaning back against the wall and hugging their knees to their chest. The trousers the Master wore looked old and worn and also too big, there was a hole in one of the knees revealing a pale bony knee.
Tommy picked up the wand shakily and got his feet, holding it awkwardly as if he'd never held a wand before or had much clue on how to use it, in fact he was aiming the handle at Past-Lucius. Rodolphus furiously snatched it from him and handing it back so he was holding it the right way, he grunted and went to sit lazily on the chair while Past-Lucius told him to use Expelliarmus to disarm him as he should be more than capable of doing as a thirteen year old. Something clicked in Lucius' mind as he heard Past-Lucius give the boy's age, hadn't some crazy person recently accused him of torturing them when they were that age?
"Ex-Expellimus," Tommy said nervously but nothing happened, clearly as he'd said it wrong and not even moved his wrist. Past-Lucius also noticed this.
"Its Expelliarmus not Expellimus, you idiot!" Past-Lucius barked.
"Say it right and you have to move your wrist."
"Expelliarmus," Tommy said it correctly that time but brandished the wand wildly and uselessly.
Past-Lucius rolled his eyes just as Lucius wished he could as Past-Lucius started lecturing him on how to do it right. Tommy kept trying for awhile but was having no luck, it was as if he'd never performed a spell before but Lucius knew that couldn't be right if the boy was thirteen.
"Why don't you give him some incentive?" Rodolphus sneered and Tommy hugged his injured arm fearfully to his chest.
The Master furiously turned away and stopped listening, pulling down the sleeves to look at flawlessly pale, bony arms. The Master wanted incentive too, the Master wanted the Mark too, it wasn't fair that Tommy got it and the Master got nothing. The Master was just as important as Tommy was, it wasn't fair that he got all the attention and the Master's existence was barely even registered at all. It wasn't fair.
"Crucio!"
Lucius heard his own voice use the unforgivable curse and Tommy's scream cut through the Master's thoughts, attention returning to the thirteen year old who was on the ground convulsing and screaming as Past-Lucius coldly kept the curse on him, Rodolphus watched on with a look of sadistic pleasure. He could feel the Master's distress at Tommy's pain, the Master was considering doing something before Past-Lucius finally stopped.
"Every failure will be punished," Past-Lucius said coolly, "failure is not tolerated amongst the ranks of the Death Eaters. It shows you're weak, worthless and unworthy. Now get up and pick up your wand."
Tommy was shaking as he scrabbled for the wand and got back up, he struggled even more than he had before, too scared and hurt to concentrate properly. Past-Lucius and Rodolphus didn't seem to realize this though, or maybe they just didn't care. The Master looked away into the darkness, not wanting to watch anymore than Lucius did. He could still hear though, he could the boy's failed attempts, hear his own voice inflicting the curse on the child, hear the screams. The Master hated Lucius. In the moment Lucius did too.
The Master wanted them to suffer, the Master wanted to hear Lucius and Rodolphus screaming instead, the Master wanted Lucius to watch someone he cared about be tortured and see how he liked it, his wife or son maybe. The Master would make them suffer for what they were doing, no matter how long it took. Lucius felt a stab of panic at the Master's line of thought, was this an actual memory or just a bizarre dream that Lucius was having? It couldn't be real, Lucius couldn't remember any of it. He didn't want it to be real.
"Get up!" Past-Lucius was yelling and the Master looked back, Tommy was on his hands and knees seeming to have fallen, "I said get up!"
"Please, I just... I just need a rest," Tommy pleaded and Lucius wished Past-Lucius would listen but he only shifted his position and raised his wand.
"A rest?! You haven't done anything! Cruc-"
"NO!"
Tommy's scream was so high-pitched that Lucius wanted to recoil from it, he wasn't sure how the Master managed not to. A burst of magic shot out from the boy at the word, a yellow light that pulsed out in all directions. Cracks spread out wherever the light touch, branching out through the dusty floorboards, the ceiling, the peeling walls, the pictures all shattered and smashed to the ground. The shelves were broken, the books ripped apart, the items destroyed, shards of glass rained down on Tommy from the chandelier above him. The windows were blown out and everyone in the room was thrown violently back against the wall - Past-Lucius only narrowly missed bring flung out of the window, the Master only got a slight shove for already leaning against it.
Tommy was definitely not a squib.
The two men got to their feet but Rodolphus reacted first, the veins on his forehead were bulging with fury at having been attacked and he went to draw the wand he didn't have. Instead he angrily stormed over to Tommy and snatched up the wand from the glass graveyard, the torture curse was on his lips but Past-Lucius quickly crossed the gap between them and grabbed his arm.
"Do you want him to do that again?" Past-Lucius demanded and Rodolphus seemed to concede it was a good point, instead launching a brutal kick at the boy that knocked him to the ground and to the right towards the Master, "I don't want my house or myself in pieces, thank you very much. Did the Dark Lord want the other one to magic too or can I go back to doing something worthwhile? We still have to get that Prophecy."
"I don't know," Rodolphus grunted and his eyes met the Master's, Past-Lucius looked directly at them as well, "hey... what was your name again?"
"I don't remember," Past-Lucius offered with a chuckle and waved his hand dismissively, "its not important, I'll go ask and inform him of Tommy's progress, you can babysit."
Lucius felt the Master's rage, hands clenched in balls of anger. How dare they forget the Master's name?! The Master was important, the Master's name was important and how dare they not realize that! The Master looked up at the chandelier, Rodolphus and Past-Lucius were standing under it as Rodolphus arguing angrily against being called a babysitter. The Master raised a hand and tugged it back down, in response the huge heavy chandelier was pulled from the ceiling and started to fall towards the oblivious adults.
Tommy alone realized this, his dark eyes twitching with panic and desperately threw his arm aside. Lucius saw the cuts on his arm clearly for the first time: it was the Dark Mark, someone had carved the Dark Mark into Tommy's arm. He didn't have time to dwell on it though as his attention was still captured by the turn of events, the chandelier obediently jumped in the direction that Tommy had moved his arm and crashed to the ground a few feet away, saving the adults lives. They didn't realize this though. They hadn't seen what the Master had tried to do, they only saw Tommy, they assumed it was just Tommy.
"You were trying to kill us?!" Rodolphus yelled and Tommy glanced at the Master miserably but didn't rat them out as he looked back to the ground, "you worthless brat! Think you can kill me?! You could never kill me, you ungrateful piece of shit."
Rodolphus threw another violent kick at Tommy. Then another. Then another. Past-Lucius just walked away, taking the opportunity to get his way and leaving Tommy to a merciless undeserved beating. The Master hoped that Tommy would live to regret saving the two Death Eaters. Past-Lucius returned shortly, a cruel smile played on his lips as he looked directly at the Master as he spoke.
"Your turn."
Lucius abruptly felt as though he was being violently pulled away, pulled through the icy coldness before being shoved forwards and his body was thrown against the ground painfully. He cringed and actually cringed, the stinging in his branded arm confirming he was himself again and Seraph was standing over him but his eyes were entirely black, the way Celestine's had been when he was being controlled by the master. They positively glowed with darkness and rage, the side of Seraph's face that was capable of expression looked... in crude terms, pissed off.
"STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!" Seraph roared and held the good arm over Lucius, there was no wand or verbal incantation but the pain that shot through Lucius' body was unbearable.
Scorpius was trying to muster up excitement for Christmas, it would be Christmas Eve in the morning after all. When he was younger he'd have been so enthusiastic that one year he had literally bounced himself off the walls, he hoped his parents wouldn't be upset that he didn't feel excited about it.
He was actually more excited about wondering if everyone would like the presents he'd gotten them, before his parents had basically chosen the presents and just let him choose which gifts he wanted to be from him but this year he'd picked himself and they hadn't a clue what they were getting from him. He almost wished he could see everyone opening their presents to see their reaction, he hoped they'd like them, he hoped they'd have a good Christmas. He fell asleep hoping.
"If you keep that up then you'll kill him," the gruff voice that belong to the man with the deformed hands was saying, "we need him if we're to get the orb from Corvinus. Master?"
He was in a bedroom with wood-paneled walls, he'd dreamed of the room before. Except this time the door seemed to have been attacked, splinters and chunks of wood were strewn across the room. He was sitting on the end of the bed staring through the wreckage, he could see two fairly distant figures from behind.
What are you doing? Scorpius couldn't help but wonder of his dream body. Did you destroy the door?
"No," his dream-body said quietly, "it was a stray killing curse from in there, everyone seems angry and murdery tonight. I think I can slip away while they're distracted though, I don't think they realized the door was blown apart."
What are you waiting for then?
"They were talking about attacking Azkaban, it was interesting," his dream-self offered as he stood up and quietly went to the door, "they're going to attack it soon. You should warn someone but be careful, someone's a spy on their side."
This is a dream
"I can't argue with you right now, voice."
His dream-body complained as he slipped out and started to head down an empty corridor to the left, all wood-paneled walls. He started to feel a giddy surge of hope that he might be free, as fell as a surge of fear that they could realize at any second, he started to run. He ran and ran through the maze of corridors, further away from the people, trying to find an exit.
He heard a door open and dived through another one in panic, inside the room was the strangest thing. There were shelves lining all four walls and every shelf was stacked with glass boxes containing balls of light, he stopped counting after he hit a hundred. There were a lot to say the least. He found them oddly disturbing, something about them was just... wrong. He started to back away and the door, only for it to swing open and rough hands grabbed him. He tilted his head back hopelessly and recognized Selwyn.
He wanted to cry, why could nothing go right for him? He just wanted to go home. Selwyn started half dragging him back the way he'd come, he struggled but the man's grip was unshakable. He had no choice but to be forced back the way he'd came, his hope being pushed further and further into the ground with every step.
"The kid tried to escape. Again," Selwyn announced as they reached the big room outside of the bedroom he'd just escaped from, "and I'm not surprised. Which one of you obliterated the door?"
Before anyone could answer a shadow shot out of the backs of one of the people he could see from behind and sped towards him, it stopped right in front of him. It was a human-shaped shadow like he'd seen before, two pitch black holes where eyes should be was the only feature it had. He frantically tried to lunge away from it but Selwyn still refused to budge as the shadow-being stepped towards, he recoiled but it stepped into him. He felt a chill spread through, it was so cold that it physically hurt and for a moment he actually wondered if he was going to vomit ice before it passed. He closed his eyes and felt a smile on his lips, Selwyn let him go.
"Would someone tell our guest to refrain from speaking?" his dream-body said with his dream-voice but it sounded slightly different, "wouldn't want him to recognized but I want him to see this."
Why can't I move?! the voice stated in panic.
I can never move in these dreams, only you can
"A tad overcrowded in here, isn't it boys?" his dream-body spoke again as his feet started to move until he sat down in what felt like an armchair, "don't worry I'm going to fix that, sever that connection between you. Is everyone who hasn't seen me do this before watching?"
"They're watching," the gruff voice sighed.
"Excellent. Then bear witness as I rip out a wizard's power from his still breathing body."
He felt like he was being torn apart from the inside, deeper than his skin, deeper than his bones. It hurt worse than anything he'd ever experienced, it hurt on a level he couldn't describe. His body was convulsing, trying to rid itself of the invisible claws tearing through his soul. He screamed so loud his throat hurt, he screamed so loud his lungs hurt and then he felt it. Like an icy hand had just gripped his heart, for the briefest of moments the pain was gone and he could only hear his own heart beating against the ice holding it. Then the hand started to pull it out, his scream was deafening, the pain was unimaginable.
Scorpius sat bolt upright in his own bed, he was drenched in freezing sweat and his parents and grandmother were rushing to him. The pain was still reverberating through his bones, his screams echoing in his mind, he was shaking so badly. His father reached him first and put his arms around him, Scorpius clung to him and buried his head in his father's chest. He swallowed down big breaths of air, it hurt to breathe. His shoulders shook and his eyes fought to cry, he wanted to cry but the tears refused would come. What was wrong with him? What was wrong with him in general?
"Why is this happening to me?" Scorpius said aloud without meaning to and he felt his father hold him closer, his mother hugged him from his other side. None of them had an answer.
Lucius stared at the boy, he looked about ten and was clearly an albino. He had a scar on his wrist. His skin was colorless more so than pale, his hair was whiter than snow and almost shoulder length with a slight wave to it. Devoid of the Specter, Lucius saw the irises of his eyes were crimson, tears were streaming from them. He wasn't vocally sobbing though, he didn't look like he had the strength to do that. His body had collapsed into the chair as soon as he'd stopped convulsing as both the ball of light and Specter left him, at first Lucius had assumed he was dead but the albino had opened hopeless eyes that darted between them. The rise and fall of his chest also indicated he was alive and the tears rolling down his cheeks.
"I taught the Specters to rip out the magic without killing the victim," Selwyn said and Lucius spared him a glance to see his eyes were now entirely black, the master was speaking though him, "the only problem is that your power is a part of your soul, you can't survive long with a chunk of your soul missing, maybe half an hour if you're unlucky enough, its a horrible way to die."
"What is wrong with you?" Lucius whispered but the Shadow Master only smirked through Selwyn and gestured, the ball of light went into the albino's chest and the boy gasped, his breathing becoming easier. He glanced at Seraph and Brutus, Brutus looked wracked with guilt and Seraph looked impressed.
"Specters are born from suffering, take a hint," the Shadow Master offered and walked over to Lucius, offering him a hand, "take my hand, I want to show you something. The rest of you guard the boy, remove the corpse and don't kill each other while I'm gone."
Lucius reluctantly took the possessed-Selwyn's hand and felt the increasingly familiar sensation of the shadow teleporting, it didn't leave him out of breath that time. The sickening stench of burning flesh filled his nostrils immediately. He looked around and saw he was in the middle of what he thought had once been a forest, the earth was scorched and blackened lumps that had probably been trees, he saw several charred skeletons scattered around. He was standing in the wake of something devastating.
"This is what happens when you destroy a wizard's magic," Shadow-Master-possessing-Selwyn announced with a flourish and a smirk, "and its not even the best use of it, you'll see come Brutus' birthday why they're so useful to me. Keep an eye on your grandson. And take a good look, this is what the world is going to look like while I'm rising to power. I wanted you to see because its partly thanks to you that this is all possible."
The Shadow Master took out Selwyn's wand and aimed it at the sky, a crimson pulse shot out into the air and formed into the same skeletal snake symbol that had been branded into Lucius' arm. Another blast out, this time making words: Anyone else want to dance with the Shadows?
Part 4: Worries and Weasleys
Scorpius just clung to his parents for a long time, even after he stopped trembling and his body felt normal again. He wondered if they thought he was pathetic and weak - he was pathetic and weak, he reminded himself forcefully - but he couldn't bring himself to lie about being fine, he had an irrational fear that losing contact with them would mean losing them forever. He couldn't shake that the fear, anymore than he could shake the feeling that he was missing something but if he tried to think about it then his head started to ache.
He kept waiting for his parents to get sick of holding him, to tell him he was being childish and getting so upset over what was just a dream - it had to be just a dream - was pointless. They didn't though. He felt a twinge of warmth in his heart as he glanced between his parents loving faces as the sunlight bled through the drapes to touch them. It didn't matter what he got for Christmas, he already had the greatest gift of all: family. He smiled weakly and they smiled back.
"I love you," Scorpius whispered.
"We love you too," his mother whispered back and he felt her kiss the top of his head.
"Are you feeling better?" his father asked gently, "it was just a dream. You're safe now, no one's ever going to hurt you again, we won't let anyone hurt you again."
"Yeah," Scorpius muttered but he couldn't stop himself from thinking of Hogwarts at his father's assurance he would keep him safe, they couldn't keep him safe there.
They didn't even know how close he'd come to dying on the first night alone, they didn't know about Varanian or the scars he now bore on his feet, they didn't know about the voice or the dreams or his wrist. It wasn't that easy to keep someone safe, it wasn't that easy to protect someone you loved, no matter how badly you wanted it. He wished his parents were right, he wished he was safe.
He didn't want to even attempt going back to sleep so the Malfoys gathered for breakfast instead, it was one of the rare occasions when they were still in their nightclothes. With the exception of Lucius, his grandfather was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and looked lost in his own concerns, he didn't even seem to be paying attention to the rest of them and spend the meal pushing food around his plate rather than eating. His grandmother did the most talking, trying to put the nightmare behind them by attempting to get them excited for Christmas instead. He zoned out after awhile.
Scorpius couldn't get the dream off of his mind though, he even found himself considering whether maybe - maybe - there was a very - very - slight distant possibility that it might possibly not be a dream. He still didn't think it was real, he didn't want it to be real, if it was then he was the worst person in the world for ignoring the boy's situation. But it couldn't be real, it was just muggles who had taken him and no one had strange colorless skin like the boy had. There was a really easy to find out though.
"Can I ask you something?" Scorpius spoke up and his grandmother stopped mid-sentence as all eyes turned on him, even his grandfather stopped staring into space to glance at him.
"Of course," his mother pointed out gently and Scorpius stared down at his plate. He didn't want to ask. But he had to, it was the right thing to do.
"You know... You know the muggles who..." Scorpius started to ask and swallowed nervously, it was hard to get the words out, "the ones who... the ones..."
"We know who you mean," his father said quickly.
"What happened to them? You told me they were locked up."
"They are, one of them died and the others are in jail."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course! Do you think we would rest while the bas- the filth, they don't even deserve to be called people, who hurt you walked free?" his father pointed out looking angry, was he angry at Scorpius? "the man who found you assured us of their arrest, we paid him extra to see to it."
"Yes," his mother confirmed with a nod and reached over to squeeze his hand comfortingly, looking him directly in the eyes as she spoke, there wasn't a flicker of dishonesty in them, "they're locked up, they'll never hurt you again, they'll never get out... is that what your nightmare was about? You're scared they'll come after you again?"
"I..." Scorpius began, there was no way he could tell them the exact truth, "I was scared they'd hurt someone else. In my dreams another boy was prisoner."
"Mother of Merlin! His wrist!" his grandfather exclaimed randomly and looked at him horrified, "what did the boy look like?!"
"What?"
"In your dream, what did the child look like?" his grandfather questioned and everyone looked confused, not seeing how it mattered but his grandfather slammed his fist down on the table so hard everything on it jumped in the air, Scorpius flinched, "tell me what he looked like!"
"I... I don't know, I was just looking through his eyes."
"Then how did you know it wasn't just your memories?!"
"I don't think it matters," his father growled.
"His voice was different and he had weird skin... it was like colorless," Scorpius answered awkwardly and confused, his grandfather looked like he was going to be sick.
"I have to go."
His grandfather got up and stormed out before any of them could react, leaving immense confusion in his wake. Scorpius did feel a sliver of relief though, despite his grandfather's bizarre reaction, his parents seemed so sure that the muggles had got punishment and he believed them. It meant there was no way Joel or Linden could have kidnapped and abused the boy in his dreams, no way they could have been involved with the wizards, no way the dreams could be real. They were just dreams, extremely disturbing dreams. He kept expecting the voice to correct him, complain and insist it was real but it didn't, it didn't say anything.
All in all, Christmas Eve was a weird day. He still felt shaken despite his best efforts to not be, he had a strange disconnected feeling and felt more alone than he had in his life. He missed having things to do to stop him from dwelling on things, in school he was busy with lessons, studying, Quidditch practice or detentions but at home there were only idle hours. He jumped at the chance to get his grandfather from his study when dinner was ready, Lucius had been in there all day since breakfast.
"Dammit! I know you can hear me! I know you can!" his grandfather was yelling and Scorpius heard something smash, "stop ignoring me! I want answers or I won't do anything else! Answer me! Appear! Brutus!"
"Err... grandfather?" Scorpius called as he rapped politely on the door before peeking in, wondering who in the world his grandfather had been talking to. Lucius Malfoy was alone. Scorpius glanced around and saw no one, no one but his grandfather and the shattered glass that looked like he'd thrown against the wall, "dinner's ready."
"Ah of course. I was just... yelling at one of the house-elves," his grandfather lied unconvincingly, "you just missed him."
"Which house-elf?"
"How am I supposed to know? Let's just go to dinner."
"Do you hear voices too?"
"No! I told you, it was a house-elf," his grandfather barked as they started walking to the dining room, Scorpius knew it couldn't have been a house-elf because they'd been making the dinner and bringing it out, "wait, what do you mean too?"
"How am I supposed to know? Let's just go to dinner," Scorpius repeated his grandfather's words and the man fell silent but didn't look happy. They never spoke of it again.
Scorpius did add wondering about his grandfather's sanity to his long list of worries though, he lay awake that night wondering whether insanity was genetic. He had an uneasy night when he finally did fall asleep, he had no dreams but he kept waking up with a strangely empty feeling and a pain in his scar. He was relieved when Christmas morning finally came.
Albus usually fought with Lily to see who would be the first one up on Christmas but he was actually the last Potter up that Christmas, he overslept as he'd had trouble sleeping and only woke up when he did because of Lily waking him in desperation to open her presents - they didn't begin until everyone was awake. He sleepily went downstairs but woke up a bit, feeling a pang of excitement when he saw his stack of presents. James was pleased to finally be able to open his presents even though their mum chastised Lily for waking up her brother, it took Albus a few minutes to realize that his dad wasn't there.
"Where's dad?" Albus wondered and everyone's face fell slightly.
"He has to work," Lily complained moodily as she plopped herself down beside her own pile of presents, "he always has to work."
"Lily, his job is very important," their mum pointed out, "he's busy keeping the world safe from the Shadows. He says to go on and open your presents without him, he said he'd try to be back this morning but if not then he'd meet us at your grandparents' for Christmas dinner. He will be there."
"I just wish we were important too," Lily sighed but only Albus and James were close enough to hear it.
It felt weird to open his presents without his dad, it took the wind out of his sails so to speak but he felt immediately guilty for missing his dad when Michael was all alone. All alone with a psycho who would murder him if they said anything. He hoped Michael was okay. He supposed in one way it was good his dad wasn't there so he could go for than a minute without fighting the urge to blurt out about Varanian, he hated keeping the secret but he hated the idea putting his friend's life at risk even more. He tried not to think about it as he got tore through his presents, he had a good haul that year and enough sweets to ensure Scorpius could keep his to himself for awhile. Assuming they survived the Christmas holidays. He felt another pang of guilt as he thought of Scorpius, he felt bad for how they'd left things and he wanted to apologize, he'd considered sending him a letter but it was something he thought should be said in person. He hoped Scorpius was okay too.
Lily seemed happy with her presents too and James was beaming at having gotten a Nimbus 3500 broom, he'd been begging for a new broom since Scorpius had beaten him to Seeker, he still insisted it was just the brooms and that Scorpius was a cheat. They'd just finished opening their presents when their mum brought in more, from their Hogwarts friends. James had a lot more than Albus but Albus was surprised to have any at all, Rose was his cousin so he'd opened her gift in the family pile, Michael had no money as he'd apologized excessively for not being able to get them anything, Scorpius had been at odds with him and he knew money was tight with Abby. Only one of them were from Abby, the rest of them were all from Scorpius. He felt even more guilty, he hadn't even gotten Scorpius a card and they'd been so mean to him but Scorpius had still gotten him presents.
He opened Abby's gift first and felt even worse, it was a framed picture of them after the pillow fight with feathers raining down everywhere, he really wanted to apologize then as he moved onto Scorpius' gifts and left the largest until last. One was sweets and the other a huge box of fudge, not the cheap stuff either. He moved onto the huge, long thin one and gasped as he saw the misty white handle.
"Albus got a Cloudcutter?!" James burst out immediately, mouth hanging open and everyone gathered around Albus as he held the beautiful white broom, "why does Albus get a Cloudcutter?! He's not even on the team, he's a terrible flier! The Cloudcutter is brand new, its way faster than the Nimbus 3500! Was there some kind of mix-up?!"
"No, the Cloudcutter costs a fortune, we can't afford that. And the Nimbus 3500 is a brilliant broom, on the same level as the Dart. Who sent you that, Al?" his mother wondered admiring the broom.
"Scorpius did," Albus said staring at in amazement, he couldn't wait to try it out. Scorpius really shouldn't have spend so much on them though, he glanced at the picture with his friend in the center, giving him a genuine smile. Scorpius was just hard to figure out.
"That's not fair!" James exploded furiously, "he gave me a box of sweets, as if that'll make me forgive me for being a Malfoy and stealing my position! That slimy jerk barstard! Why didn't he get me a broom?! Its not like Al can even bring it to Hogwarts with him for a whole year."
"Language!" his mother snapped and James looked sulky.
James remained in a bad mood for the rest of the morning, even after Albus offered to let him try out the Cloudcutter which James angrily declined. He, Lily and even their mother tried it out though, it flew like a dream and he decided to bring it with him to let his cousins also try it out - and he'd bet a few of his uncles and aunts would too - as they got ready to go to their grandparents for Christmas dinner. His dad still wasn't back though. After putting on his knitted sweater - his grandma always knitted everyone a sweater for Christmas and it was tradition to wear it for the huge family Christmas dinner - they flooed over and was smothered in kisses from his grandma, she hadn't seen him since the summer so he decided he didn't mind as much. He also got a warm hug from his grandfather and from Uncle Charlie, Uncle George, Aunt Angelina and his cousins Freddie and Roxy who were the only ones currently there. They happened to be a particularly Quidditch branch of the Weasley family tree and all marveled over his broom, taking it outside to try out - even the adults, as he'd predicted - and Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, Rose and Hugo arrived just as they'd made it out the door.
He ran to his Uncle Ron eagerly, he hadn't seen him since he'd gotten hurt and Albus noticed bandages peeking though his sleeves and shoulders. His movements seemed stiff and he winced in pain if he moved too much but he seemed in good spirits and was at least very much alive, Albus had been worried about him. Uncle Ron and Hugo also went outside to see the broom after they'd been hugged by everyone, although Uncle Ron couldn't try it due to the injuries he hadn't recovered from yet as Aunt Hermione felt the need to remind him. Hugo and Rose both tried it though, as long as Rose didn't look at the ground then she alright in the air.
"That Cloudcutter is actually really impressive," Rose pointed out as she handed the broom over to hand.
"I know right? I'm amazed Scorpius got it for me," Albus exclaimed, "what did he get you?"
"Oh... I didn't open what he got me, I'm still mad at him. I was going to send them back unopened."
"You can't do that, that's really mean!" Albus protested and Rose looked away but didn't answer.
Hugo's feet had just touched the ground again when the next branch arrived; Uncle Bill, Aunt Fleur, Vic, Dom and Louis, along with Aunt Fleur's sister Gabrielle as well as Teddy and his grandmother Andromeda too who were honorary members of the Weasley/Potter clan. They weren't as eager about his broom, Dom had an aversion to flying and Andromeda, Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur could take it or leave it. Vic and Teddy were both good fliers though, Teddy had been Quidditch captain in his time at Hogwarts but they seemed more interested in spending their time with the hands and faces glued to each other after saying hello, Louis went out to have a turn though. Albus was surprised that Uncle Percy's branch were the last to arrive - excluding his dad and Cel - as they were usually the most punctual, everyone was starting to come back inside when they finally arrived. They had gained a person though. Uncle Percy, Aunt Audrey, Molly, Lucy and a man that Albus recognized from Hogwarts as one of the professors for the elective subjects, he was pretty sure he was the one that Scorpius didn't like. He was quite obviously related to Aunt Audrey, they both shared the same shade of brown hair, the same muddy brown eyes and the same almost regal bearing. None of them looked happy.
"This is my twin brother, Aubrey Rivers," Aunt Audrey introduced him to them as they stepped out of the fireplace, "he's decided to join us for dinner."
"Are we eating here, Aud?" Aubrey Rivers wondered looking around with a look of disdain, "its rather cramped, isn't it? And messy. Shouldn't we eat at a restaurant. I know a great restaurant in the Wizarding segment of New York, they do the best Caviar that I've ever had in my life."
"Then go have Christmas there, Aubrey" Uncle Percy growled.
"Because by the state of this place I don't think you could afford it," Aubrey explained, seemingly completely oblivious to the fact that Uncle Percy had clearly meant for him to go alone, "maybe we should go back, I think the third robe I had on would suit the mismatched look of this place more than this one. What do you think, Aud?"
"I think you're fine as you are, Aub and if we go back then it'll be New Year's by the time you've decided on what to wear," Aunt Audrey answered looking exasperated, "you already made us this late. Honestly, you're worse than Mother."
"Well Mother was right, you should always respectable. Do you want your in-laws to show up looking better than you? Then you'll lose face and they'll think they're better than you, they'll look down on you. You don't want riffraff to look down on you, Aud."
"You realize everyone can hear you talking?"
"So?"
"So at least try to be polite!" Aunt Audrey hissed and stalked away from her brother, Aubrey blinked a few times as if she'd said spoken in another language.
"I do apologize for my sister, she's in a really bad mood."
"I wonder why," Uncle Percy muttered under his breath but Aubrey still heard and again seemed to miss the true meaning, mistaking sarcasm for a genuine question.
"I think its her time of the month. I wish someone would invent a spell to stop that, its very tedious having to deal with women during it, its exhausting for me."
"What does that mean, Uncle Aubrey?" Lucy questioned looking up at him with a frown, "mother isn't a werewolf, is she?"
"No, she's just a woman."
"No, of course she's not a werewolf," Uncle Percy choked on the words and glared at Aubrey who didn't seem to notice, "let's all go sit down for dinner."
Albus was starting to understand why the Arithimancy professor drove Scorpius mad and probably the real reason Aunt Audrey was in a bad mood, Uncle Percy and Molly looked exasperated and rolled their eyes virtually every time Aubrey spoke which was what everyone really started to do. The ten year old Lucy alone seemed to like him, hanging on his every word. Albus wished she wouldn't, it would only feed his ego and her questions gave him an opening to talk more. Dom actually had a go on the Cloudcutter just as an excuse to get away from his never-ending stream of talking, made more annoying by the fact he seemed completely oblivious to when he was saying insulting things or when he was being insulted, Uncle George seemed to enjoy using sarcasm which went right over Aubrey's head. Albus offered to help out in the kitchen just to get away from him, a lot of his cousins offered to help in the kitchen just to get away from him too. His dad and Cel still weren't there by the time dinner was ready, they waited for a bit before being forced to start without them.
The kitchen and kitchen table had both been specially extended and things had been transfigured into extra chairs as there were thirty of them, on the side opposite to Albus was from left to right; Uncle Charlie, Uncle George, Aunt Angelina, Aunt Fleur, Uncle Bill, Andromeda, his mum, an empty seat - saved for his dad, Uncle Percy, Aunt Audrey, Aubrey, Lucy, Rose and Aunt Hermione. On Albus' side from left to right was; Roxy, Lily, Hugo, Louis, Freddie, James, Dom, Albus, Molly, an empty seat - saved for Cel, Aunt Gabrielle, Teddy, Vic and Uncle Ron. His grandmother was to sit at the far end of the table between Uncle Charlie and Roxy while his grandfather sat at the head of the table between Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron. Everyone was crammed together and it was chaos but it was family, he wouldn't have it any other way.
"Everyone's packed together like sardines, its worse than Hogwarts," Aubrey complained to his sister who looked like she wanted to kill him, "aren't we having lobster?"
"No, Aub," Aunt Audrey told him firmly, "there's turkey, ham and beef."
"But no lobster?"
"No lobster."
"Mother always made sure we had lobster on Christmas."
"Well there's no lobster here now."
"In Hogwarts that assistant always gets lobster especially for me."
"There's still no lobster here!"
"I know, Aud, I heard you the first time, there's no need to yell despite the noise. I'm sitting right beside you," Aubrey pointed out and eyed the food as if it might be poisoned, "I was just saying. The assistant isn't always great that, you know he refused to buy your presents for me? I complained to Varanian and do you know what he said? He said he'd fire me if I complained about the assistant again and that's not he's not my errand boy, would you believe that? He works the assistant half to death and yells at me for asking for one reasonable task, isn't that completely unfair?"
"Is that why you didn't get us any presents this year, Uncle Aubrey?" Lucy asked, the only person who was really interested in what Aubrey was saying.
"My gift to you this year is my time."
"You can't be serious?" Uncle Percy wondered after almost choking on his potato.
"Obviously, why else would I be here? It was Scorpius' idea actually, he was there when the assistant refused to do his job because he's the assistant's assistant. I was saying how ridiculous the whole thing is when my own twin sister won't spend Christmas with me so he said 'why not spend it with her family instead, it could be your gift to them because your time is so precious and they adore you and look up to you because you're so amazing and smart and talented and everyone is blessed to be around you.' So I said 'that's a brilliant idea, ten points for Gryffinclaw!' and he said 'Professor Rivers you're too generous, I would never have thought of it if not for your inspiring presence, you're my hero.'"
"Wow, Scor really said all that?" Molly muttered in disbelief as she twirled a new-looking charm bracelet on her wrist, clearly aware of Scorpius' feelings about the professor and Albus shared her doubt, as did from Rose if he went by the look on her face.
"Well I'm paraphrasing obviously but it was along those lines," Aubrey explained, nibbling a piece of food and putting it back on his plate, "Scorpius looks up to me, its exhausting being a role-model for so many students, you know?"
"We're here! Happy Christmas!"
A familiar voice announced and they looked up to see Harry Potter striding into the room with the handsome sandy-haired Cel behind him, the Potter children and Gabrielle immediately jumped up and ran to them. Gabrielle kissed her boyfriend passionately on the lips while Albus, James and Lily all threw their arms around their father, he laughed and hugged them tightly back. His dad kissed his mum in greeting before everyone went back to their seats, Aubrey eyed his dad stiffly as Audrey introduced.
"Harry Potter? The man who killed Voldemort?" Aubrey said and his dad hesitantly nodded, not liking the attention being a celebrity hero got him but Aubrey looked angry rather than impressed, "you don't think you could have killed him sooner?"
"What?" his dad wondered, taken aback by the question.
"Voldemort. Why didn't you kill him sooner?"
"Why didn't you kill him sooner?"
"Because I'm not the Chosen One. Death Eaters killed our parents because Father was a Seer and he refused to join them and if you had just killed Voldemort sooner then they'd still be alive so why didn't you?"
"Aub!" Aunt Audrey hissed glaring at her brother.
"What? It's a logical question."
"No its not, be glad he killed at him at all before Death Eaters killed you!"
"They couldn't kill me, I was in a different country."
"Yes because you took our family's money and ran off like a coward," Aunt Audrey spat bitterly, everyone else shifted uncomfortably at the change in conversation.
"If you wanted money then you should have asked for it before I left, clearly. And its not cowardly to want to leave a dangerous situation, its smart."
"You didn't even say you were leaving!"
"Because I didn't want Death Eaters to find out and kill me before I left, obviously. Haven't we been over this enough times?"
"It doesn't matter how many times we go over it, it doesn't change the fact that after our parents were killed, you took their money and abandoned me and Roman!"
"When you put it like that you make me sound like a bad person," Aubrey complained, "I thought you would have had the same idea as me and left, I was trying to set up somewhere for us to live for when you and Roman came. You never did though."
"How did you expect us to go to a different country when you'd taken all of the money that we had?!"
"Why am I supposed to do think of everything? I thought you would be smart enough to think of something, Aud, you're not as smart as me, clearly, but that doesn't mean you're stupid."
"You're unbelievable!"
Part 5: The Last Christmas
"So... how's work?" Uncle Ron asked of Uncle Harry and Cel as an awkward silence descended on Albus' half of the table after Aunt Audrey and Aubrey's argument, he wished he'd sat on the other half.
"Hectic," his dad sighed, "still dealing with the aftermath of the most recent Shadow attack. We think they used some kind of magic bomb, the area was devastated by the blast. It was in a muggle area though, their symbol and message were seen by over twenty muggles so we had to erase their memories. Except this one woman who claimed to be married to a wizard, she was furious that we were erasing memories and I wasted an hour in a debate on the morality of what we were doing."
"Should have just erased her memory too," Uncle Ron offered jokingly.
"That's not very moralistic, is it?" Aubrey pointed out seriously.
"It was a joke."
"Oh. Well its not a very good joke, is it? And evil lunatics attacking people isn't a topic to be joked about anyway, you think you would understand since you were attacked, it was in the paper and everything. Why haven't you caught the Shadow Master yet anyway? Or any of the Shadows for that matter? They're dangerous and they should be stopped, isn't it your job to stop them? Are you even trying?"
"Aubrey!" Aunt Audrey hissed, "stop being rude or they'll throw us out and I will kill you."
"How could that possibly be construed as rude? How can anything I've said possibly be construed as rude?" Aubrey wondered looking genuinely bemused, "now threatening to kill me, that is rude but I forgive you because I understand you can't help it at the moment."
"I'd like to see you just try to stop the Shadows, its not actually that easy," Cel stated giving Aubrey a dark look, "and since I've been temporarily taking over from Ron as Deputy Head Auror, believe me I know, its exhausting - I can't wait for you to come back, Ron! - but at least we finally got the new security plan in place for Azkaban though, can actually sleep tonight."
"If you're home tonight then we won't be doing much sleeping, mon amour," Aunt Gabrielle said with a wink and Cel managed to blush and grin at the same time in response, the meaning was lost on Albus before the healer became serious again, "and Ron won't be well enough to return until the new year. And no strenuous physical activity still for a few more months or apparating or dueling Shadows until you've recovered fully which will take several weeks to months at least, we're not sure. So you will probably still be working extra for awhile, unfortunately."
"Well that sucks."
"I'm sure you're doing a great job," Uncle Ron offered comfortingly and Cel blushed again as he mumbled a reply.
"I'm just trying my best."
"He is doing excellently," his dad pointed out beaming.
"You know, I've been thinking," Teddy spoke up and eyes turned on the metamorphmagi as he brushed back his currently longish forest green hair and cleared his throat, "about my career a lot recently."
"I didn't realize there was a lot to think about being a waiter," Uncle Ron offered jokingly and Aunt Hermione gave him a shush-this-is-serious-look and he went quiet.
"I want to be an Auror."
"Have you really thought about it?" his dad said with a suddenly deathly serious expression, "the world is kind of... in a bad place right now, its not an easy profession, its difficult and dangerous."
"I've been thinking about it since I was a toddler and even more seriously since I graduated and the state of the world with the Shadows has just made me even more sure that its what I want to do, it feels right. I want to make a difference, I want to help, I want to do something worthwhile."
"Well if its what you really want to do... then I support you completely. But we don't usually take on applicants until the summer so you'll have to wait until then to apply, I'm afraid."
"I know. I just thought I'd say it now so its not like we're springing it on you this summer," Teddy explained and a relieved smile showed on his face, Albus thought he'd probably been nervous of how everyone would react but those nearest were offering their support and best wishes.
"Wait, what do you mean by we?" Aunt Hermione pointed after a minute and Teddy exchanged a look with Vic.
"If my grades are good enough then I'm going to apply too," Victoire announced firmly but her blue eyes held a hint of nervousness, "I really want to be an Auror, that's why my studies are so important and why I gave up Quidditch."
"Ugh, you're both insane if you ask me," Aubrey spoke up and Albus saw Aunt Audrey roll her eyes, "why pick a career with a guaranteed death at the end of it?"
"Why pick a career with a guaranteed class of unruly children?" Dom countered deadpan.
"I know its incredibly tedious but as a highly intelligent, talented and great wizard, its my duty to the world to pass along that knowledge to the next generation lest they be unable to cope after my eventual untimely death."
"What do you teach again?" James wondered, catching the tail end of their conversation.
"Arithimancy."
"I know what subject I'm not taking next year," James whispered with a smirk but Aubrey was too far away to hear and had already veered off into another tangent.
"You know two of the staff used to be Aurors? Longbottom and Ashain. And you know Varanian wants to be an Auror?"
"I know," his dad complained with a sigh, "he's applied to be an Auror every year since the Battle of Hogwarts. I have to reject him every time but he still comes back. Except this year actually, didn't hear from him all summer. Maybe he's finally given up?"
"Why does he get rejected?" Rose asked curiously.
"He's not healthy enough, physically or mentally. Perfect aside from that really. Actually if he applies this year I might take him because he's not badly unhealthy unless he's gotten drastically worse or something, we need as many as we can get with the Shadow threat."
"I don't like him," Aubrey stated sulkily and for once Albus agreed with him, "he never remembers my name, he remembers all the older teacher's names and Ashain. He remembers Ashain's name and he only started this year, although in that case it might be because he really hates Ashain for some reason. You think they'd get along because they have so much in common, both are pure-bloods, both married into muggle families, both like that silly broomstick game and were on their house teams in Hogwarts, both of them wanted to be Aurors at some point in their lives, Varanian's only a few years older than Ashain and I don't like either of them. You know Varanian called me Oceans last time he saw me? Can you believe that? He either calls me by the wrong name or asks that assistant - I forget his name - what my name is, do you know how degrading it is to constantly not have your name remembered? I deserve more respect than that, don't you think?"
"I think its ironic you complain about having your name forgotten but forget the assistant's," Dom commented under her breath and Albus inclined his head in agreement.
"And Varanian probably can't be an Auror if he's incapable of remembering one name plus his health isn't good, he gets headaches all the time these days and he had a random illness for weeks. No one could figure out what was wrong with him and then he randomly got better, he was in such a bad state and then he just recovers. It was awful for me while he was ill, he couldn't be bothered to hide his gross burn scars and I had to look at them. How could he be so selfish? Its disgusting, his hands didn't even have fingernails."
"I don't think he can really help that he looks like that," Aunt Audrey pointed out tiredly.
"Yes he can, he's a metamorphmagi, he has different hair every meal. People with scars are disgusting, they can at least try to hide them."
"You have a scar on your hip!"
"And I'm hiding it."
"My father has scars on his face because he was attacked, he is a brave man," Vic spoke up irritably, "does that disgust you?"
"Obviously, yes."
"Aub!" Aunt Audrey hissed and her brother looked bemused again.
"What? You can't think that's rude too? You're unbelievable, Aud," Aubrey commented, seemingly oblivious to the fact everyone nearby was glaring at him, even Lucy who like all of them liked Uncle Bill but he started talking again before anyone could reply, "oh and speaking of unbelievable, did you know Roman has a deaf son and he lives in France?"
"What?!"
"Yes, Maurice. He's friends with Hagrid's kid and they're both staying at Hogwarts, a freaky child, he uses this necklace to translate but it only works if he's touching it. You know Hagrid talks about his kid all the time, its so annoying, like I care abou-"
"You've been staying with us nearly a week and you only think to mention this now?!" Aunt Audrey interrupted to which Aubrey scowled, "I've been trying to get in contact with Roman since he left or at least find out what happened to him, I would like to see my youngest brother again at least once before I die."
"I wasn't finished speaking, interrupting is definitely rude. And it kept slipping my mind, its not like I enjoy thinking about a freaky child who can't hear. Did I mention he's deaf? No wonder Roman left, the shame of having a child whose deaf. Not as bad as having a squib mind but still bad to have something like that wrong with you, although I dated this blind gypsy witch once despite the fact she was blind. I actually really liked her, even though she was blind and I wasted two years of my life with her but eventually I realized that I couldn't keep dating her without marrying her but I couldn't sully the blood-line by marrying someone who was blind, Mother would roll in her grave if she knew I'd even considered it! So I had to let her go and she was very upset and would you believe, she cursed me! When I actually felt bad, you'd think she would have understood like any decent person would. Said that I would lost everything and everyone born into my family would have something wrong with them, that everyone would suffer and die until there was no one left or I stopped being blind."
"What has that got to do with anything?!"
"Nothing really, thinking about deafness made me think of her and it. It wasn't a real curse, don't worry, Molly and Lucy are perfectly healthy and there's nothing unfortunate about our lives and I'm not blind, I have perfect vision. I wouldn't really do anything to endanger you or your girls, I love you."
"We are going to talk about this when we get home. In great detail," Aunt Audrey said darkly and Albus noticed both her and Uncle Percy glance at Lucy strangely when Aubrey had mentioned her.
"You're quiet today, Al," his dad started up a conversation with him and the people nearby looked to him, Albus had really just been listening to everyone else, he felt guilty when he talked because he felt as though he should be telling on Varanian although he couldn't bring himself to risk Michael, it didn't change the feeling that protecting Varanian was wrong. He felt like a coward for being so terrified of Varanian, his parents would be ashamed of him if they knew, "something on your mind?"
"Err... just thinking about my friend Michael, I feel bad that I'm here surrounded by family and he's all alone in Hogwarts," Albus answered finally, it wasn't a lie.
"Dragon-breath is still at Hogwarts?" James sneered, "is he really that much of a loser that his own family don't give a damn about him?"
"That's not nice, James!" his mum snapped firmly and his dad's expression darkened, "we don't talk about people like that- wait, isn't Michael the name of the boy that you attacked?!"
"You make it sound like I'm the bad guy here, its not my fault that Dragon-breath got in the way of my spell against the Malfoy."
"You shouldn't be attacking first years at all! It doesn't matter if they're Malfoys or not."
"He attacked me! The psycho was going to drop me from the top of the grand staircase! Why don't you care about that?!"
"Of course we care!" his dad exclaimed glowering, "Scorpius Malfoy was wrong to do that and he deserved to be punished but that doesn't change the fact that you were just as bad for attacking him in the first place! And you're the one who started it, people tend to react if you attack them."
"I didn't nearly kill anyone though!"
"You put Michael in the hospital for three whole weeks!" Albus burst out, surprising himself but thinking about it made him angry, "three! He was suffering and he still wasn't a hundred percent okay when he got out!"
"Well its his own fault for hanging around that psycho! He deserved it! And I'm glad he's alone, I hope he's miserable! It'll teach him to befriend the wrong sort of people!"
"JAMES!" his dad yelled and James looked surprised by the anger, "no one deserves to be bullied! And no one deserves to be alone and miserable and certainly not an eleven year old child whose done nothing wrong! Show some compassion! I had enough miserable Christmases as a child with the Dursleys to know what it feels like and I know that no child deserves anything like that, no child of mine will wish that upon anyone!"
"I can't believe you're not siding with me again! I'm your son and Dragon-breath is friends with-"
"You're grounded!"
"But its Christmas! You're supposed to be nice on Christmas!"
"Well you weren't being very nice, were you?" his dad pointed out and James sulkily went back to his food, his dad turned back to Albus, "if he has nowhere to go next year then your friend is more than welcome to stay with us if he'd like, there's plenty of room at Grimmauld Place."
"Why didn't we think of that?!" Rose exclaimed slapping her forehead in frustration and Albus glumly realized she was right, none of them had thought to ask if Michael could spend Christmas with them, then he would be safe from Varanian. Albus felt like an idiot.
"If Al gets a friend to stay over, I should get a friend to stay over," James muttered irritably under his breath.
"Wait, you're friends with Scorpius Malfoy?" Aunt Gabrielle wondered.
"Yep," Molly said brightly with a smile as she flashed her charm bracelet, sometimes Albus forgot Scorpius was also friends with his cousin although he wasn't sure how when Scorpius mentioned her name every other sentence when he was talking about Quidditch practice, "he got me this, isn't it awesome? The charm is Hopper, even with the missing toe!"
"Charm bracelets are just silly little trinkets, they're worthless," Aunt Audrey pointed out glowering and Molly rolled her eyes and lost her smile, "I've told you a thousand times, Molly, honestly sometimes its like you purposely do the opposite of what your father and I say."
"Well we're not friends with him anymore, we fell out," Rose stated stiffly deciding to ignore what Aunt Audrey had said.
"Speak for yourself," Albus countered.
"I didn't know you guys had fallen out, what happened?" Molly asked looking concerned.
"He is just... too secretive," Rose offered awkwardly, trying to explain without mentioning Varanian's name and looked at Albus desperately for help, "he wouldn't tell us things."
"Yeah... like how he got that scar on his wrist or what happened on the train," Albus improvised and Aunt Gabrielle looked suddenly angry.
"You shouldn't be so hard on him about his wrist," Aunt Gabrielle hissed and looked between them, "I'm surprised at you two, I thought you'd be more considerate of someone else's situation. Did you ever think maybe its difficult for him to talk about? That he went through something horrible to get the scar and its hard for him? Its got to be hard for him to trust people after what happened."
"That's why I feel bad and I'm going to apologize," Albus said seriously and Rose's wavering expression seemed to indicate that hadn't dawned on her.
"Did you ever find out why it couldn't be healed?" Aunt Hermione asked.
"No," Aunt Gabrielle with a shake of her head, "I have no idea why, I healed the rest of his injures without issue, they weren't magical and caused by muggles. It was the first time I had to heal a child from those kinds of injuries though, it makes me sick that people could do that to a little boy."
"I think it makes everyone sick," his dad said quietly and Albus bit his tongue to stop himself from asking what they were talking about, what had happened to Scorpius? The adults lowered their voices even more but Albus strained to hear them, as did Molly and Rose who both stopped touching their food but continued staring at their plates to be inconspicuous like he did.
"And you know according to the man who found him, he'd been taken two weeks before his tenth birthday, just like that boy in the papers. Do you think its connected?"
"I don't know, its not my department... it is probably just a coincidence. Why would muggles abduct two nine year wizard children exactly two weeks before their tenth birthdays? I don't think Scorpius and the other boy are connected anyway, last I heard they were investigating the other boy's biological father as the abductor because the parents are split up."
"What are we talking about?" Aubrey spoke up nosily, stopping mid-sentence from something he'd been talking about with Cel, "what happened to Scorpius?"
"Nothing," his dad lied.
"But you were just saying-"
"Hey Aubrey, I think I get why the assistant laughed at you," Cel interrupted and pointed at the professor's head, "you have a gray hair."
"What?!" Aubrey shrieked in panic, "where?!"
"On your head, just like there."
"What here?" Aubrey wondered, grasping vaguely at where Cel had just gestured but Albus didn't see anything but thick brown locks.
"No, more like to the left there."
"Here?!"
"No, the other - Oh wait," Cel paused to laugh, "I'm sorry, there's more than one. Wow, guess age really hits you when you get to fifty!"
"I'm forty!"
"There's no need to lie about your age, we're all family here. You don't look that bad for fifty."
"But I'm only forty!"
"Oh... well... I'm sorry," Cel offered in a more serious tone, Aubrey looked on the verge of tears, "the grays make you look really... mature."
"I-I have to go to the bathroom, there is a mirror, right?" Aubrey said jumping to his feet and Cel nodded, trying very hard to suppress a smirk before the professor ran off like his hair was on fire.
"I didn't see any grays," Aunt Gabrielle pointed out frowning in confusion, "and he doesn't look close to fifty."
"I know," Cel pointed out with a grin, "but it got rid of him didn't it?"
"That's brilliant!" Uncle Ron laughed and offered Cel a high five that he took, Albus joined the nearby people in laughing, Cel was awesome. Everyone looked amused except Aunt Audrey.
"That was mean," Aunt Audrey complained.
"Oh lighten up, Audrey, he was driving everyone mad."
"Madder," Cel added as he got to his feet, Aunt Gabrielle was positively glowing as she jumped up beside him, "and I wanted him gone for our announcement."
"Announcement? You didn't get her pregnant, did you?"
"You say it like its a bad thing, congratulations!" Vic offered brightly, "you'll have such beautiful children."
"She's not pregnant! You Weasleys are so impatient," Cel complained with a half-hearted roll of his eyes but his smile didn't waver while Gabrielle banged a glass to bring the table to silence, his dad alone didn't look surprised but pleased nonetheless as if he was in on their news, "as you all know, I have been dating this wonderful woman for awhile now-"
"Ten years," Lucy interrupted eagerly, "you started dating when I was born."
"Yes Lucy, ten years now and-"
"You didn't get her pregnant did you?!" Aunt Fleur burst out and Uncle Ron chuckled at the exasperated look on Cel's face.
"No! Now if you would let me finish my sent-"
"We're engaged!" Aunt Gabrielle exclaimed before he could and a deafening cheer broke out across the table from the assembled Potter/Weasley clan, the happy couple beamed.
Christmas was much more like Christmas after that. It had lifted the cloud of gloom that Aubrey had brought. Everyone was standing up to congratulate Cel and Gabrielle, shaking hands and hugging then forgetting they'd already gone and shaking hands and hugging again. Gabrielle was showing off the ring and everyone was excitedly talking about wedding plans and joking about him becoming Uncle Cel to the assorted cousins, Cel didn't mind as long as it wasn't Uncle Celestine, if you wanted to make him angry then you needed only call him by his full name. Albus was as happy as the rest of them, he liked Aunt Gabrielle and Cel was practically family anyway - he and Aunt Gabrielle had been living together for more than half the time they'd been together - but he was delighted at it being more official. He glanced in Teddy and Vic's direction, if there was wedding bells in their future then they'd really all be official family in some way or the other.
After the meal they bounded outside for a huge clan snowball fight and games of Quidditch - minus some of the adults and Lucy - who Aunt Audrey refused to even let touch a broom, she never had despite Molly being allowed at her age. Albus brushed it off - Aunt Audrey really didn't like broomsticks or Quidditch, she was really a severe woman and was probably afraid Lucy would like flying like Molly - and sped off into the air on his brand new Cloudcutter, his thoughts went back to Scorpius and the mystery of his past. He really did feel bad and he really was going to apologize, for then though he was going to try to enjoy the rest of Christmas and he hoped his friends could too.
Christmas was enjoyable in the end for Scorpius, it wasn't the same boundless enthusiasm and excitement as he'd had when he was younger but it was good to spend time with his family. It was a calmer Christmas, he didn't rush into his parents bedroom at the crack of dawn out of his mind with excitement, in fact by the time he reluctantly went downstairs his parents and grandparents were already down there waiting for him. In fact from the look of exhaustion of Lucius Malfoys face, Scorpius wondered if he'd slept at all, unlike the others he was fully dressed too and didn't join the others in smiling.
He was actually more excited to see his family opening their gifts than his own, although his own presents were good and he was surprised to get a gift from Abby - the only one of his friends to send him so much as a card aside from Molly - which was a framed photograph of the five of them after the pillow fight. He'd actually got quite a few cards not from his friends though, everyone on the Quidditch team - minus James - had gotten him a card and most of the reserve team too, several of the staff had - including weirdly enough, Rivers - had also gotten him cards and he'd received a huge card from the Hogwarts house-elves, every last one managing to scrawl their individual name, it made him smile. Calderon had sent him a card too and wrote 'Scor' on it and that made him smile too, he'd never seen his nickname written down before.
He spend most of the morning breaking in his new Wizard Chess set, playing with the Librarian, Professor Ashain and Calderon had actually improved his skills greatly and he found himself winning more often then not, he even started teaching Yip to play despite his grandfather's growl of disapproval. After morning his Aunt Daphne turned up to spend Christmas with them, she was the only family he had on his Greengrass side as his Greengrass grandmother had died before he was born and his grandfather had died when he was younger, his mother didn't like her sister to spend the holiday all alone. Scorpius didn't mind, he liked his Aunt Daphne - even though she proved to be a terrible Chess player, considering how hard to beat his mother was - it also gave him the opportunity to ask about the letter but she didn't know anything else than what she'd said, like most of her jobs it hadn't lasted long because she had a habit of not staying sober long enough to work to their standards.
They had dinner together and Scorpius thought that they seemed much more relaxed, much more themselves rather than just putting on a happy front for his sake. He was glad for that. Except for his grandfather who looked extremely worried and picked at the food but he did make an effort to be a part of the festivities regardless, which was odd because usually he did nothing but complain about the festivities. After desert, Aunt Daphne insisted on seeing him fly and they all ended up in the air eventually - even his grandfather, trying to dodge the falling snow and Aunt Daphne actually started a snowball fight in the air.
Scorpius wasn't the best with his aim but was spectacular at dodging, weaving in and out like he was born in the air, although he thought that might just be because he was the smallest. He was having a great time, unofficially they'd paired up and were trying to win against the other pairs, hitting the others universally got you points although it was incredibly pointless. When it stopped snowing they landed but wound up carrying on on ground level and his mother - who was paired with him - started making a wall out of snow to duck behind, from that they managed to move on to making snowmen and snow-things in general although Scorpius wasn't entirely sure how but they were all just swept along - including his grandfather, for once. They made a variety of magical creatures and animals and his mother used a spell to bring them to life - temporarily, of course.
It was dark by then, Scorpius was half-frozen from the cold and half-exhausted from the effort - all of them were - but he was happy, he was actually happy. He didn't remember the last time they'd done something like that, it was stupid and ridiculous but it was with his family. There was nothing more to do then go inside and have something warm to drink, snuggle by the fire and bask in its warmth after saying goodbye to Aunt Daphne. His parents were snuggled up together smiling and laughing and even the occasional kiss, his grandmother looked like she'd fallen asleep in the armchair and Scorpius was sitting by his grandfather who surprised him by putting his arm around him.
"It was a good Christmas, wasn't it?" his grandfather whispered and Scorpius glanced at him briefly as he leaned back against him, even more surprised to see tears on the senior Malfoy's face.
"Yes," Scorpius said cautiously, he'd never seen his grandfather cry and he felt himself hugged tighter, "it was. I'm surprised you took part."
"You never know when it'll be your last Christmas, Scorpius, we should make the most of the time we have with each other because you never know how long it'll last, how long we'll still have each other."
"I know," Scorpius mumbled as he thought of the horror of last Christmas.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I'm just sorry."