Parts (61-64)

I

Chapter 13

End of Azkaban

Part 1: Fresh Wounds, Old Scars

It was mechanical by then. Get up at the crack of dawn. Get dressed. Get to the wards. Fall to your knees in the dirt. Put your hand on the ward. Say the words. Feel the pain. Watch the stone sink and become lost in the ground, like it was never there at all. Do it over and over until Varanian said to stop, for blood-replenishing potion or to go to a meal and then carry on again. Michael collapsed into bed every night, too exhausted to do anything else and glad of it because he'd never sleep past the pain otherwise, his body didn't have a chance to heal and the pain from the rune on his chest was agony. It was how it had been through the holidays, the only difference for Christmas was that Varanian hadn't supervised him and that night he'd stayed up to open the presents he'd gotten from his friends, it had cheered him up a bit.

It was New Year's Eve but Michael's day was no different than usual. He was going through the wards and Varanian was leaning against a tree nearby, arms folded and eyes closed as usual, he had a different hair style and color every time Michael looked at him. The sun was creeping dangerously low to the ground, the dusk was settled into the sky casting long shadows all around them, sometimes Michael could swear the shadows had eyes. He kept on going and didn't bother calling to Varanian when he was almost out of the headmaster's line of sight, he didn't want, need or really care where Varanian was.

As he put his hand down on another ward, he noticed something odd out of the corner of his eye. He was so used to seeing the wards with another spare to the right, on the edge of his vision was another blood-thirsty stone but not this time. He looked to the right and saw that there was no ward. There were no other wards anywhere that he could see, he gasped as a flicker of hope danced in his heart, was he on the last one?

"What is it?" Varanian questioned irritably, now a messy redhead as he strode into sight. His eyes widened when they reached him, his body jerked for moment and his hair turned black as the night and neatened itself as he raced over to him fell to his knees opposite grinning sinisterly, "the final ward..."

Varanian guided Michael's hand over the ward, he shivered at the coldness of the headmaster's hand but Varanian didn't seem to notice or care as he moved his hand away. Varanian's smile receded and he looked up, Michael realized he was waiting for him to say the spell. His eyes were so desperate.

"I Ecifircas," Michael whispered, silently cursing that the only magic he that easily to him was the blood runes.

For the final time he felt a jolt of pain, more excruciating than any of the others combined. He felt like the rune-scarred skin on his chest was being ripped off, he screamed as it burned and the felt more drained than ever as the final crimson pulse surged out of his hand and the final ward sank into the ground. The wards were complete.

"You can go now," Varanian said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "don't get in trouble in again."

"How did I get in trouble in the first place?" Michael wondered on the verge of tears, he already knew the answer but he was curious if Varanian remembered and still thought his actions were justified. The headmaster looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Hmm... You know I don't actually remember, its not important. Whatever it was, don't do it again."

Tears pricked his eyes and Michael hurried off, he was so worthless that Varanian didn't even remember what he'd done to deserve months of pain. And he was still in pain. His chest felt raw. Just the fabric of his sweater touching the wound was agony. He didn't care about dinner, he just wanted to get to his dormitory to take it off so it would stop hurting him.

"Watch where you're going, Gryffindor!" a voice called and Michael looked up just in time to see a burst of magic whizzing out of the end of an older Slytherin's wand to strike his ankles, he fell painfully to his knees and the Slytherin muttered something to one of his friends that sounded like 'what a loser' before they walked away snickering.

"I know I am," Michael whispered as tears leaked from his eyes.

"Aw did the ickle wickle baby dragon fall down?" a painfully familiar voice sneered, one of James Potter's friends, the fat one. He'd stayed over the holidays too and had seemed to make it his mission in life to make Michael's even more unbearable than it already was, "what'cha crying for, Dragon-breath?"

"Leave me alone," Michael said more firmly than he felt as he got to his feet and tried to walk away from the older boy grabbed his wrist, twisting it awkwardly to pull him close enough to bring his knee into Michael's injured chest. The wave of pain was incredible, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to breath through it as the bully threw him onto the ground.

"I didn't say you could get up!"

"He doesn't need your permission," Calderon growled and the bully jumped surprisingly high into the air at the assistant's appearance from behind him.

The whole school was talking about Calderon and Professor Ashain getting attacked, the rumors varied drastically though, the fact Professor Ashain still had his arm in a sling made them think it was Shadows who'd attacked them while Corin had claimed that it was Dementors that got Calderon. The rumors ranged from a lone attacker with a pet Dementor to an army of Shadows and Dementors, as well as differing on which of the pair had been the one to fight them off, about half thought that it was obviously the former Auror who was now the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher while the other half thought Calderon with his impressive use of wandless and non-verbal magic was obvious, that he'd just obliterated everyone. A handful even thought that there had been no attackers, that Calderon had just gone mad and attacked Professor Ashain who had summoned a Dementor to defend himself. The bully was in the Calderon-obliterated-everyone camp.

His blue eyes bulged as he twirled to face the assistant who was leaning against the door-frame with his arms folded and an eyebrow raised. He looked a wreck, his usually neat hair was a mess and from the stubble it looked like he hadn't shaved - or slept, actually - in a few days. His unkempt appearance actually made him look more dangerous. He was also wearing a silver necklace of a dragon with gleaming golden eyes, that was new too. The bully was sweating profusely and shifting nervously.

"I'm sorry, I was just... err... joking," the bully stammered awkwardly.

"Michael doesn't appear to be laughing," Calderon pointed out.

"He was err... just err... I err..."

"Bullying first years and then lying about it, tut-tut. Why do you do these things, Carver?"

"I don't know. Its fun and he deserves it for being friends with..." Carver trailed off as he seemed to realize that Scorpius wasn't going to be an acceptable justification for Calderon and he was actually just digging himself a deeper hole.

"Well you've just earned yourself another month's worth of detentions, starting when term does. Cruelty isn't fun. And you lose twenty-eight points from Gryffindor," Calderon scolded him and Carver clenched his chubby fists as he hung his head, "and your mother will be informed of you bullying... again. Now be off with you"

"Not like she'll care with the new baby anyway," Carver muttered under his breath.

Carver didn't need telling twice though, Michael watched as he turned and walked away as fast as his legs could carry him. Michael turned back and saw Calderon offering him a hand up, he took it gratefully and noticed the same rune symbol scarred into the palm of the hand just like his friends had said. He wondered if it had hurt Calderon as much to get it as it hurt him to get the one on his chest.

"Are you alright?" Calderon asked gently and Michael forced a smile as he nodded.

"Yeah I'm fine, thanks," Michael lied and hurriedly wiped his eyes, "are you?"

"Sure," Calderon said with a dismissive wave of his hand and a smile that didn't reach his eyes anymore than Michael's had, "are you sure you're okay? Is anyone else giving you trouble?"

"No, I just... miss my friends and family, you know?"

"Yeah," Calderon nodded and a ball of blue light appeared, he flicked his wrist at it and it started morphing into random patterns.

"I wish I could do magic like that," Michael sighed, why was magic easy for everyone but him? He jumped as Calderon laughed, his laugh a much higher pitch than his voice.

"No you don't. Its very difficult to channel magic outside of your body without a wand, but that's a good thing."

"Why is it a good thing?"

"Because you can only handle so much magic at a time, your body can only physically cope with so much power surging through you. I think that's one of the reasons why its so difficult to use wandless magic, your body doesn't want to be hurt from going overboard so it subconsciously defends itself by making magic hard to get out. I imagine it like the magic is a vast ocean and your body is a wall, usually the wall keeps it at bay but when you get a strong wave of emotion it can go over the wall because you still have this power inside you. When you learn to use a wand you subconsciously learn to keep the magic in check so it takes an even stronger wave of emotion to get the magic out. Deliberately forcing water over the safety wall is difficult and draining," Calderon explained gesturing at the blue light that became an ocean and a wall, demonstrating what he was saying as he spoke, "wands make it easier, they only channel the power inside you but they channel it safely, make sure you don't use a dangerous amount at a time. Kind of like putting a giant valve in the wall and the spells and movements of the wrist are really just ways of guiding the power into doing what you want it do, non-verbal spells are difficult because you're losing half your guidance so you have to concentrate harder to make up for it."

"Why can you do magic like you do so well then? If you don't mind me asking."

"I'm insane, aren't I? I don't think I have a wall, something snapped in my mind a long time ago. Any emotion and magic happens, I can't stop it but I've learned to control it. Its taken me sixteen years to get this level of control and it still all goes to pieces if I'm too emotional or not focusing enough. I have to be careful, its all too easy to lose control and accidentally hurt someone... not to mention without a wall its easy to use too much magic, my own power could easily destroy me. Last time I tried to use a wand it exploded so... that's not good. Believe me, you're better off as you are. You'll get the hang of it."

Calderon's smile was so genuine and sure that Michael couldn't bring himself to disagree, even though he knew he wouldn't get the hang of it. He was a stupid. And a failure. And he couldn't do anything right. Just like his stepdad, Bob, had always said. Sometimes he thought that Nott was right, they had made a mistake and he wasn't even a wizard in the first place. He struggled as much with the written work as he had in regular muggle school, he could understand something perfectly but the words got muddled when he tried to get them on the page and came out wrong, it was frustrating. He struggled with the practical work too, he was as bad as Scorpius was good with spells, the only exception was Defense Against the Dark Arts and that was just because Professor Ashain would help him if he was behind. He had yet to have a flying lesson where he didn't crash or fall off his broom at least once.

Still he thought Calderon right, no power was better than too much so he no one would be hurt accidentally. Michael didn't want to hurt anyone, not Carver, not Nott, not the other bullies, not Bob, not even Varanian. The last thing the world needed was more people inflicting pain, there was enough suffering in the world without making it worse. Revenge was pointless anyway, hurting someone who'd hurt you wouldn't change what they'd done or lessen your pain in anyway, it just made you as bad as they were.

"Marius! There you are," Varanian's voice exclaimed and Michael flinched inwardly, reminded of the burning pain on his chest. He glanced behind to see the headmaster coming over to them, he looked unusually cheerful still and Calderon lost his smile immediately, "I've been looking for you. The students will be back the day after tomorrow and there's a ton of stuff to get done, stop moping like a child."

"I quit," Calderon commented and Varanian looked bemused but the assistant looked completely serious.

"You're not allowed to quit."

"I'm pretty sure people are allowed to leave their jobs."

"Fine," Varanian growled as his hair became a wild fiery red, his eyes bulging with anger and his voice became a cruel sneer, "but you have no money, no home, no family, no friends, no qualifications, no skills and no life. What were you going to do if you left Hogwarts?"

"Go die in a hole," Calderon pointed out hopelessly but seriously. Varanian opened and closed his mouth, took one look at Michael before grabbing the assistant's arm and pulling him into the room that Calderon had came from, which Michael realized was his room.

"You're being ridiculous, Marius."

"I don't want to hurt anyone else!" Calderon cried, he could still hear them from inside the room. Eavesdropping on other people's private conversations was wrong but he wanted to hear. Maybe staying for a bit wasn't too bad?

"You won't!"

"You don't know that."

"Those people you killed were trying to murder you! They deserved it! And it was an accident and self-defense, the Aurors said so themselves and neither of you are even being charged. And all the injuries you caused Ashain have been healed, the only wound that wouldn't heal was his shattered shoulder blade and he claims that was caused by the attacker. I honestly don't get why its bothering you, get the hell over it already!"

"You tried to murder me, does that mean you deserve to die?"

"No! That was different."

"How?"

"Stop changing the subject!" Varanian screamed and Michael heard what sounded like a whip cracking against skin, he almost ran to get help, wondering whether Calderon's life was in danger, "you're not leaving, do you hear me!? You do what I say and I say you're not to leave. You begged me not to fire Ashain for disobeying me and I put him on probation instead, if you leave I will fire him. And I will make those first years carry on with the wards even though the orb is gone. And I'll fire Hagrid too. And expel Scorpius. And you won't be able to do anything about it because outside of the safety of Hogwarts, the Shadows will have attacked you again and had their Dementors suck your soul away."

"I don't want to be evil," Calderon said, his voice breaking as he seemed to start to cry,"I don't want to hurt anyone, especially not people I care about and especially not children. Everyone's safer if I go away. Why are you so mean to me?"

"I was proving a point! You're upset and I just injured you but you didn't kill me, it proves you're safe to be around and won't hurt anyone so you don't have to quit. You're not evil."

"Since when?!"

"Since always! You're... a... a... you know, a... good... person.

"Since when?"

"Since always!" Varanian snapped before seeming to realize his current tactic wasn't working, he lowered his voice and spoke in a gentler tone that Michael had to strain to hear, "you turned against those Death Eaters, you refused to do what they wanted even though they tortured you, you were just a teenager but you still stood against them and did everything you could to save my family because you're a good person at heart. Not many people would have done that. Why do you think I trust you despite you being the son of Death Eaters? You already proved yourself... I need you, Marius, please don't quit."

"What are you waiting for?" a new voice questioned and Michael jumped as Maurice tapped him on the shoulder, the deaf boy was without Corin for once and had his hand on his translator necklace although apparently it couldn't translate through doors and walls.

"Nothing," Michael said, taking that as his cue to stop eavesdropping and walk away. Maurice followed, "did you want something?"

"Can't we talk somewhere private and not walking?"

Michael sighed but nodded, motioning for Maurice to follow as he started to head back to his dormitory before realizing that probably wasn't the best idea, he didn't think you were supposed to bring non-Gryffindors into Gryffindor Tower. He detoured into an abandoned classroom, it should suffice for whatever the ten-year-old wanted to talk to him about. Maurice closed the door behind him and took out two books from the inside pockets of his robe, handing them to him before stepping back to place a hand back on his necklace.

"I just wanted to give you those to give back to Scorpius," Maurice explained, looking ever exhausted, "I was up all night finishing translating it for him but I did it. Maurice Rivers does not break his word. We're heading back first thing in the morning, first thing in the New Year so I wasn't sure if I'd see you and Scorpius isn't back to the day after so I miss him completely but you're friends so if you give those to him then I'd be grateful."

"Sure," Michael agreed and glanced at the books curiously, ice gripping his heart when he recognizing the rune from the wards on one of the books, "what... this is a book on blood runes, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"I didn't know Scorpius had a book on blood runes."

"He couldn't read it, it was in runic. He asked me to translate it for him because I read runic so I did, the translation's in the second book. Didn't he tell you that?"

"No... he didn't."

"Surprising. You seemed to recognize Tiwaz, actually from the way he color drained out of your face I wonder if one or both of you had been the Wardstone Sacrifices?"

"What?" Michael wondered blinking in surprise, did Maurice know about the wards? The deaf boy rolled his eyes at this and randomly went to punch him in the chest, only with his palm facing him. Michael gasped at the agony at the contact with the ward and staggered back, tripping backwards and falling. His breathing was jagged as he found to not cry out at the pain, when he opened his eyes again he saw Maurice was smirking.

"I thought so, take off your shirt."

"Why?"

"Because I want to see it," Maurice informed him as he whipped out his wand, Michael didn't move, "I know a few spells that could help with the pain and the healing."

Michael sighed and reluctantly pulled off his sweater, shivering at the coldness of the room as Maurice knelt in front of him and seemed to inspect the rune with interesting. Michael glanced down and winced at the bloody rune, it was the width of two fingers and about half as deep, it was caved that deeply into his skin. It wasn't small either, the bottom of the arrow went to his belly button and the tip went to the tip of his sternum. He could feel the blood still rolling down from the wound. He squeezed his eyes shut against the tears and leaned back against the wall, wondering if he was a bad person to wish he was anyone but himself.

"Why are you upset?" Maurice wondered after muttering a spell that dulled the pain, "you should feel honored."

"Honored?!" Michael burst out but forced himself to be calm, Maurice was only ten and he thought yelling would be lost on the deaf boy anyway, "it hurts a lot."

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, unless you're weak enough to let it destroy you," Maurice said darkly and abruptly let go of both his necklace and wand, pulling the gloves off his hands for the first time that Michael had seen, he yanked up his sleeves as he spoke. Michael's eyes widened in shock. Maurice's hands, wrists and forearm were covered in scars that looked like words. Letters upon letters upon letters, words at every angle, different sizes all overlapping at varying depths into the boy's skin. He noticed another scar too, on the left wrist, it wrapped itself around completely identically to the middle one of Scorpius' scars. He looked back to the cold oceans in Maurice's eyes, "do you know what a blood quill is?"

Part 2: The Calm

Lucius slumped down into the chair in his study, as of half an hour ago it was 2018. Tomorrow Scorpius would be heading back to Hogwarts and that day the Soul Eaters were up to something, he couldn't go to sleep for worrying about both. His head was throbbing again and he let it fall into his hands as he sighed, nothing helped with the pain and nothing eased his worries either.

"Glad you're still up," Brutus' voice commented and Lucius looked up to see the Soul Eater's lopsided grin, "the master needs to keep the master's strength up for tonight so not having to wake you is good. Happy New Year by the way."

"I've been trying to talk to you for days!" Lucius burst out angrily and Brutus lost his smile.

"I know."

"So why have you only come now?!"

"Because you work for us, not the other way around. You have no right to demand an audience or answers," Brutus pointed out and reached out a deformed hand, Lucius noted he smelled of perfume again, "come on."

"No! I want answers."

Brutus rolled his eyes and without warning his arm jerked forward and grabbed the front of Lucius' cloak, he immediately felt the uncomfortable sensation of the shadow teleporting and a second later he falling onto wet grass. It hurt to breathe and his head was throbbing worse than ever, he glanced irritably up at Brutus who was looking incredibly unsympathetic. Lucius tried to get to his feet but the wave of nausea was too much, he fell back down and his stomach heaved. He tried to speak but vomit came up instead of words, black, burnt-tasting bile.

"Yeah... its worse if you fight it," Brutus pointed out as he cocked his head to one side looking down on him, "come on, the Aurors will be here soon."

"Aur..." Lucius tried to speak but his stomach churned again, he groaned and looked back to the stained grass before he felt Brutus hauling him to his feet.

His legs were being uncooperative and he staggered against the Soul Eater, Brutus actually allowed Lucius to lean against him until his shakiness wore off and he could walk by himself. He still felt nauseous though and stayed his tongue, despite the fact he was dying to ask - or rather demand - to know if there was any connection between the albino boy and Scorpius, they had the same scar after all. He had a niggling, sickening feeling that they had had something to do with what happened to Scorpius.

Brutus stopped walking and Lucius was snapped from his thoughts, they were standing in front of a dilapidated looking house. Stars littered the sky, but there was no rain or snow or even much of a wind wherever they were, it was still cold though. He looked back from the depressed building to Brutus, who had taken out a piece of paper and was studying it. Lucius assumed it was something shady and peered over Brutus' shoulder to look, it was only a photograph though.

He recognized Brutus' father - Aurelius Ashain - he had the dark chestnut eyes and extremely dark auburn hair as his sons, it was wavy and nearly reached his shoulders though, he looked in his thirties maybe in the picture. It was impossible to tell the age of the deformed Brutus but he was a young adult or late teen maybe, his hair was shorter than his father's but he had it combed neatly back. Atticus Ashain was in the center of the two men who both were clapping him on the back and hugging him, he was clean-shaven and looked a gangly teen in the picture, his hair was slightly longer and parted to either side. They were all smiling. Brutus caught him looking and shoved the picture back into his pocket quickly.

"What?" Brutus growled, "I can't have a picture of my family? Taken just after Atty graduated Hogwarts, was proud."

"Its just weird," Lucius risked speaking but quietly to not aggravate his stomach too much although it seemed to be settling down, he bit back a cruel comment about how surprised he was that Brutus could have feelings that resembled human emotion when he clearly wasn't. He didn't think it was a particularly smart to piss Brutus off at that moment, especially if he wanted any answers, "that you care... since you were on opposing sides of the war and all, didn't your brother try to kill you?"

"Its not like I planned on being a Death Eater, Father's way of thinking was as long as the war doesn't directly effect you then stay out of it, if it doesn't matter who wins if it doesn't effect you and I thought pretty much the same except I hoped Voldemort would win because mudbloods are filth who abandon their newborn sons. Father's an oddball and lazy as shit but a talented wizard, that and being a pure-blood made the Death Eaters want to recruit him. They approached us when we were out - the year that no one believed he was back - and tried to get him to join them, he refused. They tried to convince him and he still refused, they tortured him and he still refused. Finally they were going to kill him and the lunatic still fucking refused so I offered to join in his place, they laughed of course so I clocked him, snatched back my wand and used the Cruciatus curse on him instead - jerk didn't like the curse then - they stopped laughing too. Took me instead and let Father go, he hasn't left home since for fear of being attacked again. An- shit they're here, its go time. Come on, we have to get inside."

Lucius wasn't entirely who was where but Brutus hurried inside and Lucius reluctantly followed, inside didn't looked much better than outside. The floorboards were coated in dust, the wallpaper had peeled so much there was practically nothing left but patches of damp. The only furniture was a lone, battered armchair that was so filthy the original color was unguessable, Seraph was seated on it with entirely black eyes - or rather one entirely black eye, he still had the eye-patch on the other for which Lucius was glad if the rest of the right side of Seraph's face was anything to go by. The Shadow Master was controlling him. Brutus pulled something from the inside of his cloak, Lucius barely had time to wonder what it was before the Soul Eater threw it over both of them. It was a fabric that covered both of them completely but Lucius could still clearly see through it, it dawned on him that it was an invisibility cloak. The possessed-Seraph cast a smile in their direction, or at least the side of Seraph's face that wasn't a wreck did.

"What are we dong?" Lucius hissed to Brutus before he heard chimes, echoing all around, "what's happening?!"

"Be quiet unless you want to die," Brutus growled under his breath.

Lucius wasn't content with this but reluctantly shut his mouth, he didn't see why they'd dragged him to a wreck in the middle of no- His thought died mid-sentence as a flurry of chaos swamped the room, doors, windows and even walls being blasted away in flashes of magic. He jumped but Brutus gave no reaction, nor did he move to defend Seraph as seven Aurors burst into the room after the magic blasts. Seraph didn't even move out of the chair as they circled him, in fact he perched his good arm on the arm of the chair and rested his cheek on it.

Lucius studies the oblivious Aurors, most looked in their thirties or forties and had an experienced air about them with the exception of a particularly short woman who seemed to be in her twenties, from the nervousness on her face, Lucius thought she was new to it all. He had to repress a gasp when he recognized the Auror that the others were looking to as if he were their leader: it was Celestine, the Soul Eater.

"Cast aside your wand or we will disarm you by force," one of the older Aurors commanded in a practiced tone.

"Hmm... I don't think so," the Shadow Master mused through Seraph's voice with an even more disturbing smile.

The Shadow Master flicked Seraph's wrist and a pulse of darkness shot out, Lucius couldn't help but shiver as it went through him - as did Brutus and Celestine - but it had a worse effect on the Aurors. The six of them staggered back, dropping their wands and falling to the ground as if dazed. Brutus tossed aside the invisibility cloak and Seraph's body shuddered as the Specter left him, it swooped towards the fallen Aurors and passed over each. Every time the shape twisting by their bodies as if repulsed or repelled before it reached the young woman and stepped into her. The girl's body jerked and when she opened her eyes again they were entirely black, she was now nothing more than a puppet for the Shadow Master.

The Soul Eaters seemed to have already planned this and with ruthless efficiency, Brutus, Celestine and Seraph - now himself again - went around killing the incapacitated Aurors. Lucius may not like Aurors particularly much but he didn't think they deserved that, they were too dazed to even try to fight back. At least they didn't make me kill any of them, Lucius thought to himself bitterly as another figure stepped from the shadows carrying a tray with three goblets. He blinked as he recognized him, it was yet another former Death Eater: Rabastan Lestrange. He had aged since Lucius had last seen him... almost twenty years ago? He struggled to remember exactly when but it had been the year of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's defeat at any rate.

The years seemed to have been kind to Rabastan, Lucius thought he was one of those people whose looks had improved with age rather than faded. His hair was now iron gray but somehow it suited him and he was still thin but held himself with much more confidence than Lucius had ever seen before, Azkaban had taken its toll before but now Rabastan looked impressively fit and healthy for a man in his early fifties.

"Since its your birthday, you may have first pick. I like birthdays," the Master said through the girl to Brutus with a smile, Lucius had forgotten it was his birthday.

"Thank you," Brutus stated returning the smile as he walked over to the dead Aurors, peering at them for a moment before reaching down and yanking a hair from the head of one. Lucius groaned inwardly as Brutus dropped the hair into one of the goblets and downed it, not polyjuice potion, again.

"Cheer up, Lucius," Rabastan offered as he flashed him a smile, "you can pick next. I'm not bothered, there's enough males to go around."

"I'm surprised the Soul Eaters got you too," Lucius sighed as he glanced between the remaining dead Aurors, Brutus had picked the best looking one of the dead leaving two women - he was definitely avoiding the strangeness of being a woman again, he wondered if it bothered the Shadow Master to be possessing the body of a woman - and two men. Lucius chose the one closest in height to him and grimaced as he pulled a brown hair from the corpse, staring sightlessly up at him with an open mouth and went over to Rabastan to drop it in a goblet.

"I was the very first to join the Master actually," Rabastan pointed out rather proudly, Lucius noted the jealous looks from Celestine and possibly Brutus as he took the goblet, a golden color this time, "before Voldemort had fallen."

"I always thought you were more loyal than that," Lucius growled as Rabastan took the final goblet and put the tray down, kneeling to pluck a hair from the final Auror while the other Soul Eaters conversed a few feet away with the Shadow Master.

"Its not like I randomly upped and abandoned everything I believed in to follow some stranger, Voldemort's blood runs through the Master's veins," Rabastan said cheerfully as he dropped the really short hair into the last goblet, "do you remember what you saw when the Master was possessing you?"

"Watching myself torture that poor boy?"

"Yes. That wasn't a random hallucination or dream or something, you were seeing the Master's memory through the Master's eyes, that truly happened. After Voldemort fell, we erased all memories that you had relating the Master - as we did to everyone except for us, Tommy and my brother - that's why you don't remember. But it did happen. Bottoms up."

"I don't understand," Lucius muttered guiltily as Rabastan clinked the goblets together and they downed the polyjuice potion. He felt sick again.

"The Master is Voldemort's child," Rabastan whispered as the effects of the potion started to take hold, Lucius felt his skin bubbling and saw it happening to Rabastan.

"Lies!" Lucius spat as he staggered against the wall from the sensation tearing through him, "He... wasn't... interested... in family. He had... no children!"

"But he was interested in Horcruxes," Rabastan told him in a voice that was no longer his own, Lucius glanced back to see Rabastan now looked like the Auror he'd been left with, "and an Heir of Salazar Slytherin seemed a worthy option. Unfortunately he was defeated before the Master was born and by the time he returned... let's say he'd changed his mind so it never happened but the Master still existed. Voldemort put me in charge of taking care of the Master, so I have, the Master is more brilliant and more powerful than Voldemort ever was."

"I still don't believe you," Lucius snapped in a harsher voice than he was used to, indicating he now looked like the brunette on the floor.

"You'll get your questions answered tonight, my friend. The Master's giving you a demonstration of why we want the power of victims whose souls the Specters tear apart and as to you panic about the identical scar the boy had to your grandson... Yes," Rabastan told him with a cruel smile, "the Master put a lot of effort into making your baby granddaughter's death look like an accident - I am sorry for that by the way but the Master believed her a necessary sacrifice - just so the parents would send Scorpius away, its a simple charm to ensure he would lose his way and... well, the muggles did the rest except for the protection we put on the house to ensure he couldn't escape, the amulet to protect those filth from any accidental - or intentional - magic from Scorpius and the Master personally scarred his wrist, scarred the other boy's too."

"Why would you do that?!" Lucius yelled furiously and miserably, he hadn't even considered aboutu Lyra, "what in the fuck is wrong with you!? Lyra was a newbornand do you even know what those muggle scum did to Scorpius?!"

"It wasn't just one reason," Rabastan informed him in a conversational tone as if he hadn't just been screamed at, "the Master wanted to make you join us, figured your love for family was the most likely thing you'd sell your soul for. Decided on using Scorpius as he could also be part of the experiment - despite not being a twin - but the Master felt he might be slightly unwilling to join us in the future if we'd caused him pain, as well as that he was sympathetic to muggles which made him dangerously close to being a blood-traitor - which is worse than being a muggle or mudblood - so the Master decided to kill several birds with the same stone. Muggles could keep him prisoner instead of us while we let you stew and it worked out pretty well, Scorpius is never going to sympathize with muggles again, is he? He's performing well magic-wise too and he's already proved himself capable of murder, he will make an excellent Soul Eater in time. All that and the Master wanted you to suffer."

"You bastards! You evil bastards!" Lucius shrieked as he drew his wand, "I'll kill you!"

All at once he felt pain, like claws were tearing up him up from the inside. He screamed and fell to the ground, writhing against the invisible claws digging into his flesh. As abruptly as it had started, it had stopped and the Master was standing before him with arms folded.

"I don't think so," the Master smirked with the young Auror's mouth, "you can either get back up right now and resume being obedient - I'll forgive you for your outburst - or the Specter will take over - they're sentient enough to take control without me controlling them directly once they've been taught - until you can see me welcome the New Year with a bang to remember because I am so looking forward to you seeing that, after which it'll just destroy your soul. Its your choice, Lucius."

Part 3: The Storm

Lucius stared up at the smirking Shadow Master, for a moment his anger almost making him defy the master and refuse to willingly go along with it. But he didn't. He couldn't. He wasn't brave or foolish enough, there's no way he would survive it. Miserably he got back up and waited for his next instruction. Silently though, he vowed that he would find some way to free his soul and he would find some way to stop the Soul Eaters and wipe the self-satisifed smile from the Master's face - the Master's real face, not the puppets that the Master used to speak through like a coward - and watch the delusional psychopath die a hopefully painful death.

"I thought so," the Master sneered triumphantly before turning back to the others, Lucius saw that Seraph now had his one good arm chained to a metal loop on a belt that he hadn't before, "Brutus you take him, Rabastan you're with me and Cel with Seraph. Switch clothes with them quickly and take their wands first though."

"Vice versa," Rabastan said almost before as soon as the Master had finished speaking, pointing his wand at the person whose body he was then identical too and in the blink of an eye the clothes were switched, Rabastan stood in the Auror's clothes and the corpse wore Rabastan's black robes. Brutus and Lucius both followed suit before they took the dead Auror's wands, pocketing their own out of sight, "err... Master, you may want to put the hair in front of the eyes so the darkness is less noticeable."

"Made sure that Brenner's on tonight, he's old and half blind really, retiring this summer anyway," Celestine pointed out dismissively as the Master did as Rabastan suggested, "well he would if he were to live long enough but he won't notice about the eyes."

"I don't doubt you, Cel, but I'd rather be thorough," the Master commented before turning back to the bodies and gesturing.

Two shadows glided into to the two bodies they hadn't polyjuiced, they both shuddered and their glazing eyes became entirely black like the possessed girl. Lucius watched in horror as the corpses got up, their movements slightly jerky but rise they did and stood grinning like idiots, one of them had the head titled slightly and the tongue was lolling out of the mouth. The Master gestured again and they corrected themselves to stand in more passably human ways, albeit still grinning madly as they too pulled the air in front of their blackened eyes.

"Specters can control corpses?" Lucius wondered to Brutus who nodded as he replied.

"Its actually easier to control corpses, they're just empty shells and you don't have to waste energy suppressing the puppet's consciousness. Downside of course is that you can't tap in the puppet's power - assuming they're not a filthy muggle - because the magic's in the soul, can use the wand's though but basically you have to use your own power if you want to use magic through them."

"The Shadow Master can control three people at once?"

"The Master's controlling four people at once right now actually, more if the Master tried. Its harder the more people you try to control at once but it is possible, you tend to give the Specters more-"

"We're leaving now," the Master interrupted and one of the possessed-corpses walked over to them, "Brutus you take that one as well as Lucius and Rabastan you take the other as well. Let's go."

Brutus didn't hesitate as he placed one hand on Lucius and the other on the possessed-corpse, to Lucius' surprise he felt himself being apparated rather than shadow-teleported. From the way he also had his hands on the shoulders, Rabastan also seemed to have apparated himself as well as the Master and the other possessed-corpse and similarly Celestine had one hand on Seraph's arm with his wand trained on him with his free hand. Lucius looked around and saw they were in some empty concrete bunker... his heard skipped a beat as he recognized where they were, it was Azkaban.

The room was the only place in the whole prison - for a while fifty-mile radius in fact - that didn't have anti-apparation wards, it was built into the ground beneath as a way of getting in and out of there. Once you apparated in wards were set back in place to stop you from from disapparating, only those who'd brought you knew the specific spell to lower the protection again so they would be able to leave. No one wanted to stay in Azkaban for longer than necessary. Daily the food and drink for the prisoners was also brought in the same way, anything else was brought as required, the delivery folk just used to leave it in another part of the bunker for the Dementors to distribute as they ran the prison really. Lucius wasn't sure how it worked now as Dementors were no longer employed by the Ministry.

The place still made him shiver though, the memory of his imprisonment with the Dementors was more than enough and he noticed Rabastan had a similar reaction. Celestine muttered for them to take out their wands and hold them by their sides and for two to keep them trained on Seraph, it was apparently Auror protocol in case the prisoner tried anything before he went over to the door to the left and knocking several times. The only other door was to the right and that was to the storeroom, it was locked. Lucius had a really bad feeling as he fingered the handle of the dead Auror's wand, he was almost glad for his anxiety though as it took his mind of being around he people responsible for taking or ruining his grandchildren's lives.

"Who is it?" a voice called from the other side.

"Cel Rooke, passcode castle," Celestine answered cheerfully, "got one incoming, Roland Seraph."

"You caught Seraph?" the voice wondered, followed by the sound of something unlocking and a creek and then the door was opened revealing an aging Auror with slick gray hair, Celestine flashed a handsome smile, "you're on fire, kid, although he don't look like much to catch if my eyes aren't deceiving me."

"Yeah, apparently he didn't escape as unscathed from his last encounter with Aurors as previously thought."

"That's what you get for being on the wrong side of the line," the Auror pointed out, casting a glare in Seraph's direction as he took out his wand. Lucius wasn't entirely sure why they were there but somehow he doubted it was to lock Seraph up, he couldn't see what they could possibly hope to gain from that.

"We got a bunch of them in a raid, the others are clearly more higher ranking so Harry's interrogating them now and we'll get to Seraph later."

"Right, hope it goes well, would be nice to go out by taking those slippery Shadows with me," the Auror stated, shaking his head and starting to raise his wand before lowering it again and smiling at Celestine, "congratulations on your engagement by the way, Cel, you're a lucky man. One thing I'm looking forward to about retirement is spending more time with my beloved Belinda, we've been married thirty years next month, you know? Was going to take her one of those muggle cruises and relax around the world, I think she'll like that. Have you thought about where you're going for the honeymoon?"

"Too much work to do, I'm afraid, my friend," Celestine shrugged it off conversationally as the Auror raised his wand and flicked it, the doorway flashed purple for moment and then became clear.

"You know, I wouldn't mind coming back to cover for you for a bit so you can have some time off for it, you deserve a break."

"You're a good person, Jack," Celestine returned the man's smile and moved his wand so fast that the Auror hadn't time to even realize what was happening, "Avada Kedavra."

A flash of green light shot out from the wand and struck the Auror in the chest, he was dead the moment the curse touched him and Lucius actually felt a stab of sympathy. The corpse started to fall back only for another Specter to form behind him, the body fell through it and became possessed like the others.

"How many Specters do you have anyway?" Lucius wondered worriedly and the Master gave a twisted smile.

"A lot. Now clear the way, Brutus and Lucius stay with me," the Master commanded and Celestine, Seraph, Rabastan and the three Specter-possessed corpses all went through the doorway. They followed a moment later, it came out into a dark, dingy, black-stoned corridor that Lucius recognized, all the corridors in Azkaban looked the same. There was a desk with a chair by the door with a ledger on it, the Master jerked the posessed-girl's head and Brutus started flicking through it as the others disappeared round the corner at the end of the corridor, the torches lining the walls lighting automatically as they went past each, "not quite the same without the Dementors, is it Lucius?"

"No."

"I was born here, you know?" the Master commented, now Lucius knew the Master was completely mad, why in the world did the Soul Eaters still follow? Then again, he supposed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wasn't too much better, Brutus continued flicking through the ledger and the Master continued ranting to no one in particular, Lucius was only half-listening, "of course you do, you just don't remember anymore. My mother was pregnant when she was sent here, those incompetent bastards didn't bother to check before they locked her up and threw away the key. Literally. Dementors were the closest thing to people I saw besides us until we escaped, twenty-one years to the day, it was raining then too.

"And so Lord Voldemort's progeny - not to mention the heirs of the great and incredible Salazar Slytherin - were raised in the darkest shadows of the world with a mad mother and the foulest creatures to walk the Earth as guards rather then raised as the royalty we are. I'm gonna to pretend it was anything but complete hell, you can't even imagine what is like growing up there, a prisoner, never knowing anything good in the world with the Dementors... I wouldn't be who I am today without them though, I wouldn't be the Shadow Master, there would be no Shadow Master and all the good I've done would never have happened. But one of two things happen when you suffer like that, either you're weak and you let it destroy you or you're strong and you let it define you. I'm strong and there'll be no place for the weak in my world. The weak don't deserve to live. You're granddaughter was weak, if she was strong then she wouldn't herself be killed-"

"SHE WAS A BABY!" Lucius screamed so violently that Brutus actually jumped and glanced briefly up from the ledger, the Master's smirk returned, "a newborn baby! An innocent newborn baby. She didn't do anything to you."

"I know, I was just making sure you were still listening, although you did something to me instead. You shouldn't be so upset though, she was dead before you even got to know her, she didn't even have a personality yet but if she had I like to think that she'd be honored to be a sacrifice for me."

"I think she'd rather have gotten to live! You're insane."

"Actually I'm the sane one."

"Well you're evil!" Lucius spat, he wasn't going to argue with a lunatic.

"There is no good and evil, they're just labels we give based on our morality. Am I evil, Brutus?"

"No, Master," Brutus spoke up quickly and the Master's smile became more genuine.

"See, Lucius? Good and evil are subjective. So where was I? Ah yes, we escaped and we met our father for the first time, I'm going to pretend that was a warm reunion either. He wasn't capable of love anyway, of course, but he was disappointed. The only thing he cared about was magical ability, not having access to wands and having your magic repressed by Dementors for so long had left us rather lacking in that department. That's why you were commanded to make us use magic, we didn't deserve to live if we were squibs, imagine squib descents of a pureblood family and the noble and great Salazar Slytherin? The fact that we'd been capable of seeing Dementors our whole lives seemed lost on him though, my father was very flawed, very flawed. I still loved him though, he was my father after all and he did have good points. None personality-wise ones unfortunately. Its a shame he won't be here to see me succeed where he failed, he would be proud. Like he should have been all along. My mother too, although I- its done."

"What's done?" Lucius asked disinterestedly, still seething with hatred and anger.

"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!" the Master sang before laughing, a slightly deeper laugh than he'd expect for the possessed-girl's voice and throwing the hands into the air. Shadows immediately swarmed from everywhere and were cast into every direction surrounding the Master who continued to laugh maniacally as darkness scattered everywhere, "we collect the powers now, the new recruits are being possessed and teleported for induction, those left are unworthy. The others are starting from the top, we'll start from the bottom and should meet in the middle. Be fast and keep Lucius close to you, you go right and I'll go left."

"Yes, Master. And the ledger seems to confirm what we know," Brutus said immediately and threw down the ledger, grabbing Lucius arm and pulling him away.

For once Lucius didn't mind, he actually preferred Brutus' company to the Shadow Master and that was saying something. Not that he would admit that anywhere beyond a tiny dark buried corner in the very back of his mind. Not that he didn't still hate Brutus, of course.

Brutus quickly explained that they were collecting the magic from souls the Specters had just destroyed, a glass box would appear in front of each of them in a blur of shadow and they were to use their wand to move the balls of light through the bars and put them inside, they then immediately vanished in a blur of shadow. It wasn't particularly difficult and they were making fast progress, each took a side of their corridor and skipped over the empty cells or cells with people in them, the illumination from the orbs of raw power in the otherwise extreme darkness made it easy to tell if you had to collect or not, the worst part was stepping over the dead Aurors littering the floors. Apparently they needed to be boxed to ensure nothing would touch them and cause the destruction as in the forest, the box protected them and trying to teleport them without made them explode.

"So tell me, Brutus," Lucius started after awhile as they continued their work, he had to ask, "were you the one who murdered Lyra?"

"No!" Brutus snapped shooting him a glare, "I don't like kids being hurt and I don't like babies being killed. The only thing I had to do with that was try convince the Master not to do it, to think of a new plan but best I got is a promise that if it was twins then the babies would live and we'd think of a new plan. The Master has a thing about twins, understandably. The Master considered it necessary, or at least the best way to get Scorpius away. I'm sorry, Lucius but its done now."

"Do you know who... who killed... how..." Lucius' mouth suddenly didn't seem to be working, he didn't want to ask the question but then he didn't want Lyra to have been murdered. Because of you, his conscience sneered.

"Poison, polyjuice into the midwife. The Master did it personally."

"I've met the Master!?"

"Yep."

"Merlin's asscrack. Well what about Scorpius? Did you help abduct him?"

"No, that was Celestine and Seraph did the second boy."

"Well now I want to kill him."

"So do I," Brutus growled, sounding remarkably like himself for a polyjuiced body as they moved onto another floor, there were thirteen in total and they were on three by that point, "jumped up brat that thinks he's better than me just because he's better looking."

"I think my reasons for hating him are more intense than yours."

"Yeah, I'd probably agree with you there," Brutus grunted and Lucius blinked in surprise, he hadn't expected Brutus to ever agree with him on anything.

"So what were saying before about the Specters? You tend to give the Specters more...?"

"What? Oh yeah... control. You tend to give them more control, they are sentient to a certain extent, capable of thinking and following simple instructions and stuff."

"Really?"

"Yeah, like the one in you knows certain things that you can do that allow it to take your eat your soul without the Master having to say. Most know things like that or they know to take away your control just so you can't control your body until the Master can do something, only downside of that of course is the eyes being noticeably not normal, the puppet has to be a metamorphmagi to be able to hide it."

"Isn't there anyway to fight off the Specters?" Lucius wondered desperately.

"Not while its dormant. If the Specter or someone is using it to control you then you can but its kind of pointless, you can't get rid of it without the spell so you can only regain control of your body temporarily. It makes your body physically ill though, fighting for control of your own body with a Specter isn't very good for your health and when it gets control again it will almost certainly know to destroy you for fighting, unless its really important you not lose your soul and that doesn't apply to you so its basically suicidal to do that," Brutus explained as they moved onto the next floor.

Lucius fell silent and considered what Brutus had said, if he could fight it off then would it be worth sacrificing his soul for brief freedom? Possibly he could try tell someone as much as he knew but he didn't think he'd really have time. Possibly he could try avenge Lyra but he was pretty sure that killing the Master would only kill the body they were possessing which was essentially pointless. Possibly he could try avenge Scorpius' abuse but he wasn't sure that killing Celestine was the best use of his soul. He carried on miserable silence for a long time, none of his options seemed particularly appealing. What was he going to do? What am I actually doing now? He thought and was drawn from his pondering by his surroundings.

"Brutus err... what's happening?" Lucius asked suddenly frantic,"with Azkaban and these things and all the empty cells. What's going on?!"

"Well basically we've divided up the prisoners into two categories, those we want to join us and those we don't. The ones we want have been teleported to err... somewhere to be offered the chance to, refusers will die. The ones we don't either had their souls ate - so we're collecting their magic - or are gray souls so Specters can't touch them so... they'll die."

"But there were hundreds or thousands of names on that list?!"

"Exactly," Brutus grinned and winked at him, "we don't actually have an awful lot of Soul Eaters in number - unless you count Specters - so we had this brilliant idea of recruiting from Azkaban, an army in an instant. Pretty neat, huh?"

"Not neat, not good," Lucius wondered in horror, the last thing he wanted was for them to be stronger.

"That's enough," the Master called and Lucius glanced up to see the Master, Seraph, Celestine and Rabastan approaching them, "the rest of the floors are done, the ones left here I'll use for the next phase of my plan. Seraph and Cel head back to torture Cel, you need to be injured if Potter's going to buy you were being tortured while all this was going down."

"Yes Mas-" Celestine started to say but he was cut off as Brutus' fist smashed into his face, there was a loud crack and Celestine fell hard to the ground with blood streaming from his newly mishapen nose, "what the actual fuck, Brutus?!"

"Helping with your cover," Brutus sneered smirking as he shook his fist, "stupid weak polyjuice body."

"Leave my face alone! And that didn't feel weak."

"Because you're so weak a fly could fell you."

"Oh shut up, you u-"

"Cel, be nice to the birthday boy," the Master interrupted deadpan, "Brutus... try not to hit things so much."

"Yes Master," Brutus offered but looked cheerful as Seraph and Celestine were taken by the shadows.

"Master-"

"Rabastan, I'll be fine. We've been over this. Repeatedly," the Master interrupted with a glare at the former Death Eater, "you can go back now, wait with me and I'll be back momentarily. This won't take long."

"But Master-"

"Do you think I'm weak or something?!"

"No, Master! I'm just... concerned for your health because I care about you and I don't want you to tax yourself."

"Leave now or Brutus gets to hit you."

"Yes, Master," Rabastan sighed before also vanishing into the darkness.

"Now," the Master said triumphantly raising the possessed-Aurors arms into the air, the orbs of power that were left immediately sped towards the Master and shot into them, the Master laughed, "you get to see my power, Lucius and what the orbs are capable of. To give us more power than any normal lone witch or wizard is capable of wielding. Girl whose body I'm possessing, this will pretty much completely destroy you as its too much power for your weak, pathetic and frustratingly short body but please be honored that you got to be a vessel for the Shadow Master which is especially an honor considering your blondness is also irritating. I wish Tommy could be here to see this, how many times did we wish Azkaban destroyed?"

"Come on," Brutus whispered as he took Lucius' arm, casting one last look concerned look at the Master, "be careful."

They were taken by the shadows before the Master had a chance to reply and abruptly Lucius found himself outside in the freezing cold. It was lashing ran, literally it was so heavy that Lucius felt as though it were whipping him or possibly it was the ferocious wind. They were standing - or trying to stand, it was difficult - on some slippery black stone somewhere, Brutus raised his wand to the dark sky and yelled a spell that was lost to the elements, a ball of light shot from his wand and hovered above them to give them some light.

Two broomsticks appeared in a blur of shadow and Brutus grabbed them quickly before they could be blown away, shoving one at Lucius and mounting the other. Lucius followed suite and managed to keep up with Brutus as they took off, not flying very far before Brutus skillfully veered his broom around to face the direction they'd came from. Lucius realized that they'd been standing on top of Azkaban, the black structure loomed like a pillar of evil out of the sea, the violent waves attacking it at the bottom. They just hovered there in the air, having to force the brooms to stay put against the battering wind and rain, he was now completely soaked through. Lucius was about to ask what was the point in what they were doing now when his skin started to feel bubbly, he glanced at Brutus and saw the polyjuice potion was also wearing off on him and he reverted back to his hideously ugly deformed self. Lucius preferred the look of the dead Auror. A deafening boom of thunder echoed around them as lightning cracked the sky. He shivered.

A column of red light shot out from Azkaban, ripping though the flat roof and shooting straight up into the sky. Crimson cracks began to spread out through the building, glowing disturbingly as they tore through the thick black stone like it was nothing until it reached the ground. There was a moment of calm as the red light just pulsed gently in the darkness.

It erupted.

The explosion was brighter than the sun, the heat was scorching as it shot through the night with the blast. Lucius was flung backwards from the force of it and spun through the air, clutching to his broom for dear life as he tried to right himself. He couldn't even hear his own breathing but he could feel his heart violently thudding against the inside of his ribcage as if it was fighting to get out, the roar of the explosion still screamed in his mind as he finally corrected himself.

He turned the broom back to Azkaban. Only there was no Azkaban. A huge fiery version of the skeletal snake Soul Eater symbol above the spot where the prison had been, the sea rolling around beneath like there had never been a building there before. Azkaban was gone. The Shadow Master had destroyed Azkaban. And taken three quarters of its inhabitants to be their army. And Merlin only knew how many more of those balls of power they'd collected, that' he had helped to collect. That was not good.

Part 4: Hypocrites

Lucius couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene, unaffected the fiery symbol cast an eerie bloody light across everything. He thought it was fitting considering what the Shadow Master had just done but extremely disturbing nonetheless, he shivered and not from the cold. The rain couldn't wash the blood off him. What kind of nightmare had he wound up in this time?

Brutus flew towards him, not seeming to have the trouble that Lucius was having keeping himself stable against the tempest raging around them but then Lucius wasn't the most skillful on a broom. Brutus grinned and offered his hand, Lucius actually gratefully took it, anything to be away from there. The shadow-teleporting didn't even bother him as he found himself back in the wreck of a building, Rabastan's Auror was already wearing their own clothes again and Brutus quickly switched his own back, using another spell to repair the slight rips his real muscular body had caused in the thinner man. Lucius switched his own clothes back and Brutus offered him his hand, defeatedly Lucius took it only to be brought back to his study.

"Why is the Master doing this to me?" Lucius asked the silence.

"Partly because you're useful, partly because the Master has this insatiable urge to prove themselves. But mostly because the Master hates you for treating the Master and Tommy so cruelly, cruelty can come back and bite you in the butt. Really it was kind of dumb of you to torture them like that, I mean the Cruciatus curse is known to have an effect on the victim's mental health so you just made them more unstable," Brutus answered for him, "so really its your fault. The Master can go overboard with vengeance though."

"I get it."

"Kindness pays a lot more than cruelty. Usually."

"Hypocritical much, Brutus?"

"I can be kind. To people who deserve it. Most people are just bastard pricks who treat you like dirt when you look like I do, why be nice to people like that?" Brutus said shaking his head as he started to turn away into the darkness.

"What? No stealing my best alcohol this time?" Lucius wondered going over to the cabinet and taking out a bottle, he could use a drink.

"Nah, have to get back to the Master."

"You work for a madman."

"Nothing about that statement is right," Brutus growled.

"Well then... take it with you," Lucius offered him the bottle, if he was going to get anywhere in finding some way to fight back against the Master then he would need help and Brutus was all he had. Kindness would probably get him further than cruelty in this instance. Brutus looked at him like he was speaking in a different language.

"Why?"

"Its your birthday."

"I punched you."

"Yes you did."

"And I branded your arm."

"Yes you did."

"You hate me."

"Would you just take it before I change my mind?!" Lucius snapped and shoved the bottle at him, Brutus took it painfully slowly with the freakishly deformed hands that Lucius hated.

"Thank you," Brutus said quietly, looking completely dumbstruck as he vanished into the shadows with the bottle.

"Insanity must be rubbing off on me," Lucius sighed as he took out another bottle and sat down with it, he was going to just drink until there was nothing left, "a bad combination with desperation and doom. Happy New Year to you and me, world, let's hope its not our last."

Scorpius was torn between feeling glad and sad about it being his last day home. On one hand he liked being with his family, they were treating him much more normally so he hoped they'd finally realized he wasn't going to shatter into a thousand pieces if the wind was too strong. On the other hand he missed Hogwarts, he enjoyed his lessons and missed Calderon and his friends, it was strangely silent without the assistant.

He'd written to Molly and Abby to thank them for their gifts and both had replied with thank you letters of thanks also, Abby's also apologizing for overreacting as spending time with her family and not telling them about Varanian had reminded her that she was keeping things from people she cared about too so it was hypocritical to criticize him for it and she was sorry. He hadn't heard anything from the others, he assumed they still hated him - except Michael, with the mail delays it was better to not contact each other as they'd probably not receive letters until they got back, in fact he half-expected Michael to go back and find the presents hadn't actually reached his friend yet. He wouldn't put it past Varanian.

He woke up early and snuck down to help make breakfast with Yip, he'd taken to doing it to spend more time with Yip and because he missed helping out with things, he liked feeling like he was doing something useful. The house-elves were obligated to obey him in not telling and as long as he helped rather than took over then they didn't mind his help, Yip certainly didn't, they had the most interesting conversations in the early hours of the morning.

He went back up to sit down and pretend he hadn't helped when he happened to glance at the to-be-send mail pile, the name caught his eye and he was surprised to see 'Corvinus Ashain' written in his grandfather's neat handwritten. He scowled as he looked at it, why was his grandfather writing to a relative of Professor Ashain? Hadn't he claimed that Professor Ashain and his family were a disgrace that Scorpius should stay away from? It was odd. His grandfather was a hypocrite.

"Didn't any of us teach you to not snoop through everyone's mail?" his grandfather complained and Scorpius flicked his gaze to see the man had just entered the kitchen, they both quietly moved over to the table.

"I wasn't snooping," Scorpius pointed out as his grandfather rubbed his temples, "the name caught my eye as I walked by, why are you writing to Professor Ashain's father?"

"Firstly, Corvinus would be your professor's grandfather not father and secondly its none of your business why I write to him."

"I don't think Corvinus is a very nice person from what Professor Ashain's said about him."

"Well if Professor Ashain said it then it must be true because adults never lie."

"Erm..." Scorpius hesitated as his grandfather closed his eyes and carried on rubbing his temples, "are you alright, grandfather?"

"Yes I'm perfectly fine. Just a little hung- headache, I have a headache."

"He gets cranky when he gets those," his grandmother said as she also joined them for breakfast, casting a worried look at her husband as she sat down beside him, "you know, if you would just come to see a healer like I keep saying then they might be able to do something for your headaches."

"I've told you, Narcissa, I don't need a healer," his grandfather told her firmly as he opened his eyes again and sat up straight, "none of those potions work anyway."

"Well if you would just come in and see them then they could figure out what's causing them and help you, its not ideal me describing your symptoms and them trying to help from that."

"For the love of... Father just go to the healer and put all of our minds at ease," his father complained as his parents joined them, holding hands as they walked to the table and sat down.

A debate started up about his grandfather's headaches, he stubbornly refused to even consider going to see about it and wouldn't budge no matter what the other three said. Scorpius got the impression they'd had the conversation before. He just tried to focus on his breakfast but was glad when an owl arrived with the Daily Prophet, until he saw what the headline was: AZKABAN OBLITERATED! With a picture of a massive fiery version of the Shadows skeletal snake symbol that he'd seen above the train, hovering over the ocean. Scorpius felt sick.

They were talking about attacking Azkaban, it was interesting, he recalled the words the dream-boy had spoken, they're going to attack it soon. You should warn someone but be careful, someone's a spy on their side.

Had his dreams been real after all? How had the dream-boy known? The Shadows wouldn't have anything to do with kidnapping children and muggle monsters so there was no way the boy could've overheard them. It was ludicrous. It was impossible. The dreams weren't real, they couldn't be real. They just couldn't. But then... how had he dreamed about it? Maybe he was destined to be a Seer? Or somehow he'd realized it subconsciously and it had been worked into the dream, that was how dreams usually worked... he thought so anyway. He still felt guilty though. If he had tried to warn someone then... could it have been stopped?

According to what he could read of the article, it was estimated that all of the prison guards had been killed along with several Aurors they'd murdered beforehand - they thought that the Imperius curse or polyjuice potion had been used on captured Aurors to gain them access, one of the captured Aurors had been tortured but had managed to escape but the warning came too late and he was in hospital from 'moderately severe injuries.' Azkaban had been completely destroyed. There was nothing left. They didn't know whether the prisoners had all escaped or had perished, they were treating it as a breakout to put more security measures in place against possibly escaped convicts. One thing was agreed on though, the Wizarding world was terrified by the power of the Shadows, perhaps as much as they had feared He-Who- Voldemort, Scorpius corrected himself, Calderon wasn't afraid to use the name then neither was he.

"I don't want to know!" his grandfather burst out suddenly, rubbing his arm, when his father started to read a part of the article aloud, "f-for Scorpius' sake. He shouldn't be hearing this stuff."

"I'm fine," Scorpius protested, he didn't like being used as an excuse.

"I need to lie down," his grandfather announced as he got up and walked away, Scorpius noticed the other adults exchanging bewildered and anxious looks. He didn't think that was normal.

He tried not to think about it all day but his mind kept going back to it, even without the guilty burden of wondering whether he could have stopped it was an incredible feat. The Shadows had destroyed such an old and famous prison supposedly protected by the best, not to mention the score of criminals could now be on the loose. He hadn't been alive when the Wizarding Wars with Voldemort had been going on, he wondered if it was anything like it was now. He hoped the Shadow Master would be stopped soon. The last day still managed to fly by, despite his concerns, and all too soon he found himself lying down in bed for the last time until Easter.

"Voice?" he whispered into the silent night, "I'm sorry I was mean to you, that was... that was wrong of me but you have to understand that you're a voice in my head and that... well its not healthy for my sanity even if you didn't upset me. I don't know for sure if you're the same as the dreams or not but... I think that... its a possibility. A very slight possibility that you could maybe be real. Or something. If you're the same as the dream then you should know that you were right about Azkaban and... just please talk to me, I need to figure this out."

No answer. He lay there for a long time waiting but he still got no answer. He hadn't heard from the voice since his nightmare, nor had he had anymore of those dreams and thankfully not lit anymore fires in his sleep. He did keep waking up repeatedly during the night for no apparent reason though, it was rather frustrating but he supposed it was better than the nightmares. It happened three times that night but the voice didn't say one word. Eventually he just got up early to pack for Hogwarts, he still didn't feel the excitement that he wanted, he was glad to be going back but his worries were like a positive emotion sucking vortex.

"Scorpius?" his grandfather called and rapped on the door, "are you awake?"

"Yes, you may enter," Scorpius told him and his grandfather quickly came in, looking at him with a strangely sad expression. He went over and sat on Scorpius' bed, patting the bed for Scorpius to sit down beside him. Scorpius closed the trunk and obediently obeyed the silent command.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"I figured."

"How do you feel about muggles?" his grandfather asked suddenly, Scorpius was taken aback by the question, he opened and closed his mouth wondering what he was expected to say.

"Err... I don't like them very much and I certainly don't trust them."

"One of your friends is a mudblood."

"But he is magical and I feel bad for him for being raised by muggles, they didn't even let him come home for the holidays."

"You shouldn't hate muggles, Scorpius," his grandfather snapped harshly and Scorpius knew the confusion was showing on his face.

"Since when? You always told me that they're no good, that nothing good can come from associating with such filth and we should stay away from them," Scorpius protested frustratedly and his grandfather looked away ashamedly, Scorpius looked away in the direction hopelessly, "and you were right. I wish I listened to you. If I had then I wouldn't have been in a muggle neighborhood and I wouldn't... I wouldn't have been taken. Its all my fault. I'm sorry I didn't listen."

"Its not your fault, Scorpius. You were only nine. If anything its our fault, we should have protected you, we should never have send you away, we should have known better after Lyra... we should have protected you both better," his grandfather trailed off sounding upset as he put an arm round Scorpius protectively, he looked back to him, "for that I'm sorry. But... you can't... you can't hate muggles even though they... they... they hurt you, they r-"

"I know what they did to me," Scorpius interrupted miserably closing his eyes, he didn't want to think about those muggles on top of everything else, his grandfather rubbed his shoulder comfortably, "since when did you like muggles?"

"Because I don't want you to make the same mistakes I've made, nothing good can come of joining an organization that wants to change the world by killing and destroying like the Shadows do."

"I would never join them!" Scorpius yelled, snapping open his eyes and jumping to his feet, how could his grandfather even think he would join them like that?! What kind of person did his grandfather take him for?! "I'm not evil! And I don't want to be! I don't want to kill people or hurt people or destroy prisons or whatever else those psychopaths are doing! I may not like muggles - and I have every right to hate them! - but that doesn't mean I want to go out and kill them all!"

"I'm sorry," his grandfather mumbled, oddly enough not telling him off for yelling but Scorpius almost wished he would, anger blazed through his veins, "I wasn't trying to upset you, you're just the kind of person they'd try to enlist. I don't want you to make my mistakes, have as many things to regret as I do, I don't want you to be able to look in the mirror and hate yourself."

"I already do hate myself! I hate everything about myself!"

"You don't mean that, you're just upset."

"I do mean it!" Scorpius screamed, his wrist starting to sear with pain and his bed caught fire. His grandfather jumped up quickly and had out his wand to put it out in an instant, Scorpius' anger was replaced by horror, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean... Are you okay?"

"Its alright," his grandfather muttered replacing his wand, "I think you get that from your mother, last Christmas she set the tree on fire."

"Really?"

"Yes, I think everyone loses control sometimes... that reminds me. I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Err... sure," Scorpius offered, still reeling from almost accidentally setting his grandfather on fire. What was wrong with him? Maybe deep down he was evil.

"You know that assistant, the one that... the one that said I tortured him?"

"Calderon."

"Yes him. I err... I wanted you to tell him that I think I remember him, there was four of us in the room. Rodolphus Lestrange, him, me and a fourth person. I was trying to get him to do magic and... and..." his grandfather trailed off and actually looked almost guilty, "I tortured him when he didn't, until he blasted the room with light. The fourth person tried to kill us by making the chandelier fall on us but he saved our lives, we didn't realize this at the time though. Can you... Can you ask him who was the fourth person? A name and description would be useful, I'm having trouble remembering that particular individual."

"You can't be serious."

"Deadly serious. Its really important that he tells me... unless that wasn't him, of course."

"I can't ask him that," Scorpius protested, feeling much less guilty as he recalled how upset Calderon had been, "you tortured him, its upsetting. He destroyed his room he was so upset and he looked like he'd been crying, he was still sadder for awhile afterwards, I'm not going to bring that up just because you can't remember, he's been through enough."

"Asking him to remember one person isn't going to kill him, the fourth person didn't even torture him. I think they were a child too."

"They were still there."

"Its really important that I know who that person is, Scorpius please. At least think about it, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't so important," his grandfather pleaded, "and erm... tell... tell him that... erm... that I'm... that I'm sorr... nevermind."