Gray: Scorpius Malfoy and the Call of the Dark

by Fiery Gray

UNDER EDITING! (II): After the events of last year, Scorpius is reluctant to return to Hogwarts. The Shadows may have lost the battle but they haven't given up the war. The Shadows are after him. Scorpius finds himself with an unlikely ally in his fight against them as he seeks to save two missing boys on top of school. All the while though, the darkness is calling. COMPLETE

5. Chapter 5: Aberration

Parts (17-20)

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II

Chapter 5

Aberration

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Part 1: Reflections

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"Th-The Dark Lord has a child?" Brutus stammered fearfully, suddenly hoping it was just random children he was guarding.

"He has two actually, twins," Rodolphus told him and smirked cruelly before continuing walking, "your job is to guard the psychotic little bastards, growing up in Azkaban has left them more than a little unhinged even if they weren't the son and daughter of the Dark Lord himself. So you see, while they have the physical bodies of children... I consider them anything but, don't be afraid to Cruciate them if they become unruly, you have to keep them in line somehow and they only respond to pain."

"Can't I have a different task?" Brutus asked worriedly as they stopped by a door that looked like it led to the basement, Rodolphus wave his wand at it and he heard a click before it swung open.

"No," Rodolphus said plainly and flicked his wand again.

Brutus was knocked magically back through the door and barely managed to stop himself from falling down the stairs, grabbing the wooden railing tightly to steady himself as the door slammed and clicked locked behind him leaving him there. He had to blink a few times to adjust his eyes to the dimness, he shivered at the coldness of the room in comparison to the rest of the manor and peered down the wooden steps in the shadows.

He gulped nervously and fumbled in his pocket for his wand, gripping it tightly even if he was afraid to draw it in case it provoked them. He cautiously stepped down and their faces came into view, mathematically speaking he knew they'd be... thirteen going on fourteen? Something like that, although Azkaban seemed to have stunted their physical growth as they passed for younger than that. They were about the same height with identical haircuts, it seemed to have been hacked short just above their shoulders, the black locks were a tangled mess matted with dirt - as he stepped closer he noted they smelled horrible too. Their clothes looked old, worn and too big for their frightfully thin bodies. They both had the same dark, flinty eyes gazing up at him but that was the end of their similarities.

It was hard to tell if their facial structure was similar as the one on the right looked like they'd been badly beaten, the face was blotchy and discolored from bruises, one of the eyes was swollen shut even. There were marks on the neck as if they'd been strangled and one of the sleeves was ripped up, revealing what looked like fresh cuts in some pattern on the arm. The one on the left seemed to have been spared the abuse, their skin was incredibly pale and waxy, it looked like it had just been stretched over the skull. He thought the one on the left might be the girl, the features seemed more feminine but it was hard to tell with the state of them.

"They put you down here too?" the right one asked timidly and Brutus nodded slowly without taking his eyes from them, afraid of the pair attacking him if he let his guard down for a second, "its not so bad, there's room to walk around more and there's so many things down here. Its not as good as outside but it'll be okay, don't be scared."

"I'm not scared," Brutus growled angrily.

"Neither are we," the left one said defensively, "do... do you have a name?"

"Brutus Ashain," Brutus answered hesitantly as he sat down on one of the steps, "and yours?"

"I'm Tommy Riddle and this is my sister, Sal," the right one - Tommy - introduced himself, confirming Brutus' suspicions on which was who before Tommy darted down the stairs into the clutter of objects that had been discarded down there.

At first glance it was a mixture of junk and treasure, there were some Dark Artifacts that his grandfather would love that he could see. He was so distracted for a moment by what he was looking at that he hadn't noticed Sal coming up the stairs and sitting beside him, not until he registered that his hand was being moved. He snatched his hand away from her cold bony fingers, Sal just peered at him curiously.

"Look," Tommy said and Brutus looked away from her to the boy who was holding a mirror that he shoved at him, Brutus noticed the cuts on his arm forced a crudely cut Dark Mark, "there's a child trapped inside and we can't figure out how to save them, we've tried asking them how to help them but when their mouth moves no sound comes out and they only try to talk while we're asking the questions. Do you have an ideas?"

"Um... you know this is a mirror, right?" Brutus asked looking between the twins who both looked genuinely concerned.

"Ah so that's what its called, we couldn't decide whether it was a magical prison or a portal to another dimension that traps people."

"Don't you know what a mirror is?"

"A portal to magic prison?" Sal guessed.

"No! Its just a mirror, there's millions of them."

"There's millions of people trapped and no one can do anything to save them? That's horrible," Tommy offered tearfully, "why does no one help them? Who traps them?"

"How does it work?" Sal questioned looking intensely curious, "could we trap the Death Eaters in there?"

"There's no one trapped in them! Mirrors just show reflections, even muggles can use them. The child you see is just yourself, the mirror just reflects what it sees, you're just seeing a reflection of yourself," Brutus explained, hoping they could grasp that.

"Oh right," the twins said in unison as a look of understanding came over them both.

"At least there's no one trapped," Tommy commented taking back the mirror, "do you know what this other stuff is?"

Brutus spent the better part of two hours being presented with items from the Malfoy's basement by Tommy and Sal and asked to identify them, some of them were commonplace like the mirror and more valuable, rare or dark, more than once he told them to leave something alone because it was dangerous. Some things he didn't even know what they were, the Malfoys had accumulated quite a collection over the years.

What surprised him more than the collection itself were the twins themselves, their childish curiosity was just that, childish. If no one had told him then he wouldn't have guessed they were the children of pure evil and his most fanatical follower, they weren't quite normal he would admit and they came across as less mature than he'd expect for people nearing fourteen years of age but they didn't seem particularly sinister. Then again, he supposed they could simply be lulling him into a false sense of security.

"What about this?" Sal asked as she came over to him holding a white orb, Brutus' jaw would have dropped if his mouth wasn't too lopsided. He couldn't believe the Malfoys had one.

"Its a Blood Rune Orb," Brutus answered still staring at the white orb in Sal's hand, he blinked in surprise as he realized the daughter of the Dark Lord had a pure white soul before carefully taking it from her. He held his breath for a moment, expecting it to turn black or gray for him for joining the ranks of the Death Eaters but it remained white, "its part of a set, powerful and ancient magic, my grandfather has one."

"Its pretty," Tommy commented as he came over and took the orb, it immediately turned gray at his touch, "why did it change color?"

"You have a tainted soul apparently," Brutus informed him darkly, that was more in line with what he'd expect for the son of the Dark Lord but Tommy looked horrified to the verge of tears, "we have pure white innocent souls but you're tainted."

"I-I don't want to have a tainted soul, why do I have a tainted soul?"

"Well that's what happens when you kill someone."

"I've never killed anyone!" Tommy shrieked so high-pitched that Brutus cringed.

"Well you did something else bad then," Brutus pointed out and couldn't decide whether to feel bad or not as tears started streaming from Tommy's eyes, falling onto the gray orb he cradled in his small bony hands. Brutus cursed himself for feeling sympathy for the future lord of darkness as he added, "it could be worse, gray is tainted but black means you're pure evil and have forsaken every good part of yourself. You can't be pure good again but you can stop yourself from being evil."

"Its a good thing," Sal spoke up, eying her brother with interest, "you can kill the Death Eaters without feeling guilty."

"I'm never killing anyone!" Tommy screamed determinedly through his tears, Brutus flinched at the high-pitched sound once more and the discarded mirror exploded for no reason, shooting shards up into the sky, "I don't want to be evil."

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

---

There was a noticeable difference in two of his friend's moods for the rest of the day, Michael was ecstatic to have made the team and Albus was so withdrawn that he barely said anything at all. Scorpius wasn't sure if the others picked up on his change or not but he was worried, Michael would calm down when the excitement wore off but Albus... Scorpius didn't know whether he was just upset at not making the team or resentful of Michael for succeeding, Scorpius hoped sleeping on it would snap Albus out of it and everything would be back to normal tomorrow. It wasn't.

Albus was still in a bad mood at breakfast, he didn't make one comment on Vipera or on anything unless he was asked a question and his bad mood only worsened when Vipera congratulated Michael on making the Gryffindor Quidditch team which cheered the muggle-born up slightly. Michael's good mood had only lasted until Charms, once more Grant refused to accept his paper and wrote another zero on the front. Scorpius thought it was unnecessarily unfair, Michael's writing was actually legible that time and he also refused to accept Scorpius' as he claimed it was too short this time - despite the fact Albus and Abby's were shorter - and gave him a zero as well. It made his wrist burn again, he despised Grant and his unfair bias.

"You should tell Marius," Corin told him at dinner, "he'll make Grant back off because he is way out of line."

"I don't really want to bother him," Scorpius mumbled.

"He'd probably be glad to see you, plus he'd want to know if Grant's making people miserable. Mother is Headmistress of Beauxbatons and she'd want to know if a teacher wasn't treating students right."

"What you really need to do is get revenge," Maurice pointed out darkly with a cold smile, "you could use your friendship with the house-elves to add a little something extra to his morning pumpkin juice. I know how to make this potion that causes vivid gruesome hallucinations designed to drive the drinker insane, or this one that causes despair, or this one that makes you relieve your worst memories or this one that causes intense unbearable pain in the drinker."

"Do they really teach you that in Beauxbatons?" Rose wondered looking horrified.

"No!" Corin protested angrily.

"The school I went to before Beauxbatons taught it," Maurice explained with a shrug, "it'd be cool to try it out. Actually there's some spells I am really dying to try out that I learned there, they teach you the spells but I was too young to practice them. They would be good for revenge, some could do some serious damage but dueling a teacher isn't particularly smart whereas you could get away with the potion, well you could curse him in the back I guess but I'm not that kind of person."

"What is wrong with you?" Rose demanded shaking her head and Maurice shot her a dark look, "no one cares about your disturbing dark potions or spells and we wouldn't use them on anyone, even Grant."

"You'd probably be too weak to use them anyway. And they're not that dark, I wasn't suggesting using the Unforgivable Curses or anything. One of them is the Acutus Curse that Varanian used."

"Varanian the psychopath!"

"Varanian was innocent. Your dumb daddy's wrong about him."

"Wait," Scorpius interrupted before Rose could reply, the mention of Varanian reminded him of the former headmaster's words about learning defensive magic, "I want to learn the spells. Not to use them on Grant or James or anything like that, with the Shadows looming we should learn as much about defending ourselves as we can."

"Glad to see the Quidditch air didn't knock the sense out of your mind," Maurice commented and threw a cold triumphant smile at Rose who was scowling, "this weekend good for you?"

"Can everyone stop talking about Quidditch?!" Albus burst out angrily and everyone looked at him in surprise. Scorpius really wished he'd snap out of it already.

But he didn't.

Molly wasted no time in booking the pitch and starting them training, five times a week to train up the new Chasers. In particular Michael's struggle with stopping the broom was addressed, eight times out of ten when he yanked the broom so hard to stop that he nearly fell off and the other two times he didn't pull it hard enough and crashed into the stands or hoops, he could half-crash land on the ground but in the air he struggled. However that didn't mean he lacked talent, as long as he didn't have to stop moving he was actually good. Incredibly good, he could push Albus' Cloudcutter to its limits and still be able to weave his way through the air, dodging Bludgers and players, he was the only one who could score against Molly although his speed made passes more difficult. Latimer was the only one who seemed to find it easy to pass with Michael which made him a good bridge between Michael and either Caitlin or Louis, who both practiced.

Still the practices were different than they'd been last year, the extreme lack of reserves meant they really didn't have enough for fully fledged practice games like Captain Cole had frequently used meaning Molly had to improvise training more to hone their individual skills in a more variety of ways. Scorpius still enjoyed it though, Michael and Molly were his friends and he got along well with Freddie and Louis. he hadn't known Roxy or Caitlin but they were nice enough to him. Latimer was very withdrawn and focused, he didn't smile when he succeeded and cursed himself when he failed, Scorpius supposed he'd just have to get to know him better but he didn't blame him for being shy. Latimer's skin was badly pockmarked on his face and hands, his long dark hair was greasy and filthy, which didn't make him seem very approachable. James enjoyed mocking Latimer behind his back and Roxy, Louis and Caitlin admitted to finding him off-putting. James still despised him and tried to knock him off his broom at every opportunity although he had started to target others now, he hated Michael and Latimer to a lesser extent so tried to hit them too to a lesser extent.

Albus seemed to be in a worse mood after they had had Quidditch practice, Scorpius tried not to mention it but Michael was still excited and would talk about it. The week passed surprisingly quickly but Scorpius still wasn't having a great time of things, the dreams that he couldn't remember continued to bother him, Charms was officially his most hated subject because of Grant and yet again he failed to produce anything in the Patronus lesson. He still didn't hear anything from Varanian nor did he get a reply from Jack.

"This is Jack we're talking about," Michael pointed out on breakfast on Saturday when the owls arrived without a letter from Michael's dad, "don't be surprised if you get a reply three years later about something completely irrelevant. He's not reliable. Not even slightly."

"Did you tell him about making the team?" Abby asked curiously.

"No. Why would I do that? Its not like he cares what happens in my life."

"Oh... What about your mum?"

"No. I can tell her in the summer when the school year ends and I go home."

"Why don't you keep in touch with her over the year?" Corin wondered, "I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't stay in contact with my Maman over the year."

"Because my stepdad doesn't allow it, okay?"

"That's mean."

"Bob's a mean person," Michael said shortly looking exasperated, "can we talk about something else?"

"Okay... Scor, why are you writing to Michael's dad?"

"Its just nothing. Can we talk about something else?" Scorpius answered quickly.

"Well okay, you guys are boys," Rose spoke up, "how do I get Devin to like me?"

"No idea," Michael commented immediately, "none of us have been in relationships, you're asking the wrong people for advice. Next conversation."

"Did you say your Quidditch practice was tomorrow morning or afternoon?" Abby asked.

"Next conversation!" Albus interrupted loudly before Scorpius or Michael could reply.

"Gee, at this rate we'll have nothing to talk about," Corin complained scowling.

"Then go back to your freaky friend, wherever he is," Rose shrugged it off.

"He was writing a letter to his father, Roman is really obsessed about Orous doing as well as him right now. And he's not freaky, he's just a bit dark sometimes and its understandable."

"Okay. Here's another question, what's with the gloves he always wears?"

"Its not my place to say."

"Its weird, do the teachers not have a problem with it?"

"Let it go," Michael spoke up surprisingly and Corin gave him a sideways glance while Rose scowled.

"Do you know why?"

"Yes, so let it go."

Their conversation came to a halt even though Rose didn't look satisfied with this answer, in truth Scorpius wasn't either, he hadn't given Maurice's gloves a lot of thought but now he was curious about Michael knowing. They stopped talking about as Maurice came over to them though, dressed in brown robes that gave him an air of maturity. Scorpius stupid called out hello but it literally fell on deaf ears as Maurice wasn't holding his translator necklace, in fact Scorpius didn't know about the range of it anyway. Maurice put his hand to it as he reached them though and his normally neutral expression was replaced by something resembling excitement.

"So ready to go?" Maurice asked.

Rose steadfastly rejected the idea of going and criticized them for it, Abby already had plans to be with her brother and father and Albus refused after Michael said he was ready to go. Corin also nodded in agreement and hurriedly wolfed down the last of his food. Scorpius snatched up his last slice of toast and ate it as he, Michael and Corin followed Maurice as he led them in the direction of the exit to the grounds. They weren't far from it when they ran into Vern and Orous, both of whom were oddly splattered in yellow paint.

"What happened to you?" Michael wondered worriedly and Vern stared at his feet, Orous remained looking continually depressed.

"James... thought it would be fun to magic paint on us," Vern reluctantly told him, "but its not important. I was looking for you, we're doing about the twelve uses of Dragon's blood in Potions and its really hard, I wondered if you could help me? Potions is my favorite subject and I don't want to do badly."

"I would love to, I just kind of already have plans but I'll help you as soon as we're done."

"Ooh I need to work on that essay too, there's so many to remember," Corin sighed and looked anxious, Maurice hadn't had his hand on his necklace and had evidently missed out on the conversation. He gestured to Corin who made a few gestures back before Maurice rolled his eyes and Corin looked upset at whatever Maurice had gestured.

"Oh all right, thanks," Vern said brightly and obliviously, "congratulations by the way, on making the Gryffindor team. We'll be rooting for you and Gryffindor at the Quidditch game, even though I don't really understand it."

"You can come with us if you like," Maurice offered to the fellow first years as he stopped his sign conversation with Corin, placing a hand on his translator necklace as he spoke, "come and learn some powerful magic spells."

"Thanks for the offer but I have a ton of homework so I can't and... well spells scare me anyway."

"Spells scare... are you wizard or not?" Maurice demanded looking bewildered at Vern's line of thought, Vern seemed uncomfortable.

"Well yes but I didn't want to be wizard."

"Fine, whatever. What about you, Orous?"

"No thanks," Orous whispered with a slight shake of his head.

"Enjoy being pelted by paint and treated like dirt then, do you?" Maurice questioned as Orous flicked his crimson eyes up to meet Maurice's, the pair were identical in height, "do you want to be weak and pathetic forever?"

"No."

Maurice didn't say anything else but turned away and carried on walking, they hurried to keep up while Michael called to see them later as Vern and Orous were left. Scorpius glanced back at them to see Orous clench his fist and whisper something to Vern, Vern looked worried but the two boys raced to keep up with them. Maurice led them outside, skirting along the edge of the Black Lake to a quiet out of the way area near the edge of the forest with a large boulder by the lakeside. Maurice climbed onto the boulder to give himself a bit of height before turning to them, placing his hand on his translator necklace once more.

"We're starting with the Acutus Curse, both because its quite simple and you can channel your emotions - particularly frustration I'm thinking - into it. And don't pretend like there isn't something frustrating you because that's why I said it. Line up by the water," Maurice told them and they immediately obeyed, "I'm going to levitate some sticks or rocks into the air in front of you and you are going to slash your wand at the item hovering directly in front of you as you say the incantation. There is no wand movement beyond whatever way you slash it because it'll be the direction the spell takes, funnel your emotions into the magic as you do it and put strength into the movement. When I say go, do it. The incantation is Acuta."

Maurice let go of his necklace and levitated a stick high into the air then let it go, swiping his wand vertically as he said Acuta to demonstrate. The stick was severed clean in half. Vern swallowed nervously. Maurice cast the Levitation Charm again, this time five sticks rose into the air and one hovered in front of each of them before Maurice said go. He didn't drop this time - he didn't need to - so they simply took aim and said the spell, Scorpius thought of his frustration with his inability to get in contact with Varanian, let it build up before he slashed with the spell. His stick broke completely in half and the shards fell into the water, looking around he saw that the only other person to have succeeded was the left-handed Orous.

Maurice levitated him and Orous fresh sticks while managing to keep the other three hovering for the others who were still trying, Scorpius and Orous effortlessly severed their sticks once more. And again. And again. Maurice kept raising them and they kept hitting them, he started lifting stones that were in more abundance and he and Orous continued to destroy them. Again, and again, and again. Left to right. Right to left. Up to down. Down to up. Diagonally left to right. Diagonally right to left. Scorpius slashed every which way and then some, it was good target practice and he was enjoying it. Unleashing his pent up frustration into the spell was oddly cathartic, not just his frustration either, his anger, his pain, his worry, his grief, he put it all into the power of the spell and lashed out with all the strength he had. Thrice Maurice went to stop to get them to do something else and twice Scorpius yelled at him not to stop - even though he didn't think volume made a difference to the translator neckalce, the third time it was Orous who begged him not to stop.

Scorpius didn't know how long it went on for, Corin, Vern and Michael had long since upped and left but they kept at it. He didn't want to stop until there was nothing left of his inferno of emotion, his wrist was burning and had been for awhile but he didn't care. He pretended the rocks were all the people he hated, the Shadow Master, the Shadows, Marvin, Joel, Linden, Grant, James, James' friends and destroyed them all repeatedly. It made him feel so much better.

"Your wrist!" Maurice cried suddenly and dropped the stones before they could hit them.

Scorpius looked in panic at his wrist but saw nothing, out of the corner of his eye though he thought he saw Orous had a ring of fire around his left wrist. He went to do a double take and the fire was gone, Orous was just standing there lowering his wand and panting, much like Scorpius was. He hadn't realized how incredibly drained he felt until they'd stopped, he staggered back and sat on the stony shore. Orous did the same only he hugged his knees to his chest and gripped the ends of the wand in each hand, Maurice stepped down and came over to them, looking more tired than usual.

"Your wrist was on fire," Maurice repeated anxiously, sitting down on the shore with a view of them both as he put a hand to his translator necklace.

"No it wasn't," Orous said quietly.

"Yes it was, I saw it."

"No it wasn't. You must have been seeing things."

"You saw it right, Scor?"

"I thought I did," Scorpius admitted and tried to shrug but it made him dizzy, "but just a glimpse, it could've been a trick of the light. I feel kind of worn out."

"Because we've been at this for hours," Maurice pointed out, "the others already left to work on their homework. Are you sure that you're okay, Orous?"

"I'm sure. My wrist is fine," Orous whispered still staring into the lake although Scorpius wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or not or if he'd been seeing things or not. It seemed unlikely Orous would be afflicted by whatever strange thing happened to Scorpius' wrist but then Maurice had thought he'd seen it too. Orous stood up, his white hair blowing gently in the breeze, "I'm done for today. Goodbye. Thank you for that though, that was good. Maybe we do have something in common."

"We have nothing in common," Maurice said firmly but Orous had walked away without another word.

---

Part 2: Building and Breaking

---

"So what's this one a picture of, Brutus?" Tommy asked as he showed him an old picture of a dragon in flight, painted by one of the famous wizard artists his grandfather would kill for but the Malfoys had discarded it in the basement like it was nothing.

"A dragon," Brutus told him tiredly, the twins showed no sign of getting sleepy despite the late hour and he was being subject to more questions about the basement items. Brutus was sure there couldn't be much left that he hadn't seen yet, then again he hadn't left the basement steps and it was so dark down there that he wasn't sure how big it was or how many things there were.

"A dragon?" Tommy repeated enthusiastically and gazed at the picture, "I like that one. Dragons look awesome, it looks so free. It must be amazing to be free."

"Must be."

"We'll be free one day," Sal pointed out determinedly, "if the Death Eaters don't release us and treat us like they should treat the children of our Father then I'll kill them all. We'd be free already if you hadn't moved the chandelier. Why did you do that? They deserved to die."

"I don't know, my first instinct was to protect them," Tommy said slowly as he went to put the picture back, "we shouldn't kill. You shouldn't want to kill."

"It would prove to our parents that we shouldn't be down here."

"Killing is wrong."

"Why don't you sleep on it and talk about it tomorrow?" Brutus growled as he went to check the watch on his wrist, pulling back the sleeve and he heard two gasps. He glanced back up and saw the twins looking at his arm in horror, he started to wonder why before he noticed the Dark Mark he'd been given was now clearly visible, "its just the Dark Mark, it can't hurt you."

"That's like what Death Eaters have!"

"I am a Death Eater," Brutus pointed out, even though it sounded weird to be saying it and the looks of horror only deepened, something else exploded in the basement, "why do you think I'm down here?"

"We thought you were one of us," Sal spoke up as her face twisted into an angry snarl. There was another small explosion from the dark, "not one of them."

"No its my job to guard you but-"

Brutus didn't bother to finish his sentence as the twins bolted down into the darkness like their heels were on fire, he had to cast the wand-lighting charm to see where they'd went. The pair were huddled together in the furthest corner from him, eying him with a mixture of fear and betrayal that made him feel incredibly guilty. Brutus let go the light and headed back up the stairs, suddenly feeling wide awake.

---

Scorpius actually didn't give Orous' wrist a lot of thought, he didn't want to give it a lot of thought. He barely gave his own any thought, he didn't know why it happened and he didn't want to know, he'd taken to wearing Michael's friendship bracelet over the scar on his wrist so he didn't even have to look at it although the bruising that wasn't bruising seemed to be returning. He was sure he'd just been seeing things, a trick of the light from too much magic or Orous had simply been doing the magic wrong, that seemed like the most plausible explanation.

He had other things to worry about anyway, class wise he was failing Charms and Astronomy and he still had to produce even a speck of silver in the Patronus lesson. Astronomy became an hour to worry about the Shadow situation and lack of news from Varanian although he was still scraping good marks on his homeworks for the subject, Professor Koray was baffled but Scorpius was pretty sure the professor would think him weak if he knew Scorpius had a hard time concentrating because of the events of last year so he said nothing. Charms was a different matter, he seemed just as able to master spells at he had before but Grant forever found fault with them and continually marked his essays down if he couldn't find a good enough excuse to give him a zero like poor Michael. Scorpius had pretty much given up on the subject by the end of September, using the time instead to fantasize about dating Molly.

On the other hand he was still the best in the class for Defense Against the Dark Arts - ignoring the Patronus lesson - and Transfiguration, both of which remained his favorite subjects. While he wasn't the best at Potions, Herbology or History of Magic, he consistently got high marks so he wasn't doing terribly overall. The other good thing in class was Professor Longbottom's return, they turned up for their double lesson first thing on a Wednesday in the third week of September and there he was. He was still looking pale and the absence of his left arm was painfully obvious but he was in good spirits considering, Scorpius supposed he was glad to finally be out of the hospital wing. Herbology lessons became enjoyable again, they were more practical than last year much to Scorpius' delight and the only major difference because of the professor's missing limb was that he needed volunteers to help him demonstrate things and people were more than willing to volunteer, he was a popular teacher.

In general the teachers seemed to be healing as October dawned though, the minor cuts were vanishing, the major cuts were becoming scars instead - such as Professor Ashain's cheek. The bandages remained but in general the teachers movements seemed less stiff, less pained and less hindering. The Aurors were still there though, suspiciously stalking around like any one of them could be planning to kill them all. The lack of another attack made him more anxious rather than less, in a way he wished that it would happen so he could stop worrying about it but in other he was glad nothing else bad had happened.

He still hadn't heard anything from Varanian about it, or anything from Varanian at all, there hadn't been much about in the paper either. Scorpius figured it was either a good thing and Varanian had just improved his ability to hide or it was a bad thing and something bad had happened to him. Scorpius really hoped it was the first thing. He did finally get a reply from Jack though, in surprisingly neat handwriting no less.

Hey Scorpius

I tracked down those people you asked me about, least I think so anyway as you didn't give me a helluva lot to go on so flying a bit blind there. You'd be surprised how many Ethel Embrys there are, even within the years you gave me there were quite a few, pretty sure I got the right one though.

Ethel Hyacinth Embry (unfortunate name if you ask me), born February 4th 1972. Went to a normal nursery and primary school but then drops off the face of the planet when she should have gone to high school (figured that was because Hogwarts). Resurfaces at eighteen to get a driver's license and a marriage certificate to a Philip Jareth Kenyon Varanian (urgh name, no record of him outside of that) and then dies on Xmas day 1997 at twenty-five (poor chick, she was hot). No death certificate or cause of death that I could find but she has a grave in Plymouth along with her three young kids (no records of them outside of their graves either but same date of death, real sad). That sound like whose parents you wanted? She was an only child to her parents who are still alive and kicking.

Mother is Gail Glenda Embry (nee Walters) born October 1st 1949, a retired real estate agent. Father is Richard David Emrby, born January 22nd 1949, owned his own construction business. They married when they were twenty-one and moved into the house that they've lived in ever since for nearly fifty years (lame if you ask me, staying in the same place is for suckers, boring). The address is: 3 Penrose Street, Plymouth, England.

Okay now I'm done being awesome, I reckon that lines up. I don't know why you want to know but there you go, anything else you need to know or want done or want to find anyone else just ask. But you owe me one, remember that, favors work both ways.

Jack

PS: say hi to Mikey for me

Scorpius memorized the address and names of the Embrys for future reference, even though he kept the letter. He knew it was right - assuming the rest of Jack's information was accurate - because it did line up, plus how many Philip Jareth Kenyon Varanians could there be? He at least felt he'd made some progress with knowing the address of Varanian's in-laws. Although there was still no guarantee they actually knew where Varanian was or that they he could get them to tell him, he was just going off a brief mention anyway and he couldn't even get to them while he was in Hogwarts anyway but it was something. He was tempted to just write them and ask about Varanian but even if they told him - which he thought was unlikely - then it risked being intercepted, he didn't want Varanian to get caught or killed and he certainly didn't want to be responsible.

The only other major change in his routine was spending sessions with Maurice and Orous to practice spells, Scorpius and Orous were content to vent their frustrations with Acuta but Maurice insisted on trying the other spells at least some of the time. There was a flame throwing spell they practiced, not a small candle light but a major burst of fierce flame, the Dragonfire spell it was called - they excelled at that one - and another that produced a bolt of lightning, that one was much more difficult but dangerous if mastered, Maurice demonstrated it by killing a spider with it and that was just his weak version of it. Maurice seemed determined for them to do better at it before he moved on so they remained with those spells, the Acutus Curse was still the one that both Scorpius and Orous favored.

"I don't get why you like it," Michael commented one day with a sigh, "its the spell Varanian used to attack you and Calderon, your feet are scarred from it."

"Doesn't mean the spell is bad," Scorpius said defensively, "you would understand if you could do the spell, its good to get everything out."

"Its dangerous magic, it can't be healed remember?"

"Its not like I'm planning on using it on anyone."

"Do you promise?"

"Promise?"

"Not to use it on anyone."

"I can't promise that," Scorpius complained with a roll of his eyes, "what if we get attacked again? The whole point is being able to protect myself because I'm not going to be weak and pathetic and let anyone hurt me ever again."

"How about promise to not use it on anyone unless your life is danger?" Michael prompted.

"Will it stop you nagging me?"

"Sure."

"Then fine. I promise. I won't use it on anyone unless my life is in danger."

"Thank you," Michael offered looking extremely relieved.

Scorpius' friends weren't the only ones who disagreed with him using the spell, Vern thought it was dangerous and even Corin had asked them to be careful or to just stop because it was borderline Dark Magic. The trio ignored it though, it wasn't like they were hurting anyone and the reason Maurice used stones and sticks was purposely to not damage walls or trees because the damage done by the spell was irreversible on more than just human targets. It was therapeutic, Scorpius had a lot of things to be frustrated about and he liked not feeling weak, he was incredibly proud of his aim with it too. He didn't mind spending time with Maurice and Orous either, he knew Rose didn't like Maurice but Scorpius thought got along with them both.

In some ways he actually preferred them to his friends, Albus' attitude was increasing cold and resentful towards Michael and if they hadn't noticed before they did then. Albus shot down all of Michael's conversation attempts which just seemed to confuse the others and upset Michael, Scorpius didn't know what to do about it. On one hand he thought he wanted to confront Albus and tell him he was being an idiot but on the other, he didn't want to risk that it wouldn't work and just kept hoping things would get better.

Not all things got magically better though. Scorpius continued to fail miserably at casting a Patronus, or rather anything resembling a silver wisp. By the time October came everyone bar him - and Nott - had produced a sliver of silver light at least once, Scorpius was settle for that. No one had cast a real Patronus yet but Professor Ashain didn't expect them too, he wanted them to all be able to produce a wisp of silver every time before worrying about making it into a shield or making it last longer. The majority - including Albus and Rose - were in the usually able to but not always group while the minority were either better or worse, a few - including Abby - could produce silver almost every time while others - including himself and Michael - couldn't almost every time. Michael at least did do it on the rare occasion, Scorpius hadn't produced a speck of silver once, no matter how hard he tried. As long as Nott hadn't either, he felt as though it was forgivable for him to not be the sole worst person in the class who couldn't do anything at all.

The first years were worse off then them, at the start of October his first year friends claimed most people were only in the only rarely able category like Corin and Vern. Much like Scorpius, Maurice and Orous had yet to produce anything silvery despite being naturally skilled at other spellwork. The older years were better off, from Roxy he learned people in the third year were in a similar boat to the second years except everyone had at least produced something at least once by that point. The fourth years had also all produced something, there was no one who could only do it rarely and the worst off were people - such as Latimer - who could only do it half the time. The fifth years could all do it nearly all the time or all of the time without fail, they were moving on to trying to expanding it and making it last longer. The sixth years were in a similar boat to the fifth years except they were further along, although Dom wasn't sure exactly as she was still able to produce a full-bodied Patronus, she was very proud of her silver Golden Eagle and didn't pay a lot of attention to the others.

It was at the end of the first week of October that Scorpius heard a sound he'd dreaded near the end of their Patronus lesson, Nott exciting exclaiming that he'd produced a wisp. Scorpius even glanced over and saw the silvery wisp for himself before it vanished. It was official. He was the worst student in the class. Not just any class but Professor Ashain's class. His favorite professor. The professor who'd saved his life at nearly the cost of his own. All he asked was them to produce one fleck of silver and Scorpius couldn't even do that. He felt tears well in his eyes as all hope of finally getting it was crushed.

The class ended and everyone but him filed out, he waved his friends off that he wanted them to go on without him. He didn't trust himself to speak lest the lump in his throat choke up the tears, he didn't trust himself to move either in case it lodged the tears from his eyes.

"Something wrong, Scor?" Professor Ashain questioned coming over to him.

"I'm sorry," Scorpius managed to get out before the tears burst from his eyes. He pressed his hands into his eyes to try and stem the flow of tears but it didn't work, he sobbed into his hands and willed his eyes to stop crying. He was just making things worse. Now he was a failure and pathetic. He cried harder.

"Hey its okay, you don't have to be sorry. Whatever's wrong it'll be okay," Professor Ashain offered awkwardly and he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, the professor seemed unsure whether to pat his shoulder or rub it soothingly so instead made a strange jerky movements. It made Scorpius feel more at ease nonetheless and he managed to hold off his tears enough to speak, "are you okay?"

"I'm s-sorry that I'm a f-failure."

"You're not a failure, you're the best in your year. At my subject anyway."

"Not at casting a Patronus! I c-can't do it and ev-everyone else can. I'm a failure," Scorpius explained and went to bury his face in his hands again as the tears leaked fast his eyes again but Professor Ashain stopped him.

"You're not a failure and no one in the class has managed a proper Patronus yet anyway, its difficult magic. Do you know how long it took me?" Professor Ashain explained and Scorpius met his chestnut brown eyes as he shook his head, "two years, I was nineteen when I first cast it. My father decided to teach us it as soon as we came of age and I spent my last year of Hogwarts failing miserably at what my father and brother had mastered in weeks, in my Auror training I still failed much to Mad-Eye's irriation. I'm not just saying its difficult to make people feel better at the lack of success, it really is difficult and witches and wizards have spent longer than I did with it with no success."

"Re-Really?"

"Yes, really! I've known Aurors who couldn't do it. Although failure is better than maggots, I remember my grandfather proclaiming I was struggling because I was lazy and stupid so to prove it was easy he tried to cast it and instead a swarm of maggots came from his wand and tried to devour him, we had to fight them off to save him. But not the point, the point is that is hard to do. You're barely twelve years old, give yourself a break. Worrying about it and getting upset isn't going to help, you'll get it in your own time."

"Why is it so hard for me?" Scorpius asked wiping his eyes, "I'm usually good at spells, since I've gotten my wand magic just comes easily to me but not for this and I don't know why I'm suddenly doing terribly and I don't like failing."

"I don't know. You can't be good at everything, its okay to have high standards but not so high they're impossible."

"I don't want my family to be right about me being... ruined and unable to anything."

"I'm sure they don't think that and if they do then its wrong, you're a talented wizard and having difficulty with a difficult charm doesn't mean you're unable to do anything."

"Why was it hard for you?"

"I'm not sure exactly. I wasn't very good at understanding my emotions let alone using them in magic, I wasn't really very happy either and I had a hard time feeling positive, had a hard time choosing a memory in fact. The more I failed the worse I did because I started expecting to fail, you can't think like that or you will fail. Its self-defeating. Take your pick."

"How did you get it in the end?"

"I just worked on my issues and eventually got it, in a way it worked to my advantage. Dementors unhinge you, make you feel like there's no hope left and make you relive your worst memories, its what makes it hard to fight them off because you have to push past it to cast the Patronus. Because I already had struggled and overcame it I found it easier than most to push past it to use the spell," Professor Ashain told him, "you'll get it, Scor, just don't be so hard on yourself. Have a think about what you think you're struggling with and tell me next week so I can try to help, sound good?"

"Yeah," Scorpius nodded and gave him a weak smile, "thanks, Professor."

"No problem," Professor Ashain offered with a strained smile in reply, Scorpius had gotten so accustomed to the bags beneath his eyes that he'd almost stopped registering the professor's lack of sleep, "just don't get upset about it, eh?"

"Does it still hurt a lot? The wound you got saving my life?" Scorpius asked worriedly.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine. Come on now, we don't want to miss the whole of lunch."

---

Brutus sighed heavily, sitting on the steps staring down into the darkness where he knew the twins were huddled in the corner where they'd ran the second he'd returned. Just as they had the last few times he'd been set to the guard them, from what he'd gathered it was fairly standard behavior in reaction to their Death Eater guards, they stayed away from the Death Eaters and the Death Eaters stayed away from them which was an arrange the others were happy with. But not Brutus.

It was boring just sitting there doing nothing and he didn't think it was healthy or fun for the twins to just sit there silently in the dark everyday, unless they were being 'taught' to do magic with a wand. He didn't agree with that, torturing a child was wrong regardless of who their parents were and they were children. The other Death Eaters just tended to think of them as monsters, to be fair Brutus had thought that at first too but if they spent five minutes with them then they'd see that they were people, slightly odd maybe but still human. Then again people were judgmental bastards like that, he'd had a similar problem being judged his whole life from being deformed, the other Death Eaters looked down on him for it and avoided speaking to him unless they had to. The twins hadn't been like that though.

He twiddled his wand in his hands before making up his mind. He got to his feet and headed down the steps, lighting up his wand to see in the darkness. He shivered violently at the cold down there, despite the fact it was almost summer. He approached the twins, Sal was furthest in the corner with Tommy on her right, he put his arm out protectively in front of her.

"Look I'm not going to hurt you," Brutus said firmly but they didn't look convinced, although it was harder to tell with the bruises on Tommy's face, it gave him an idea, "I'm not evil. Look I'll help you."

He aimed his wand at Tommy's face and tried to recall the spell, he knew he'd succeeded when he saw the bruises healing. Tommy gasped in surprise and put his hands to his face as if to check that the pain was gone, Sal looked between the wand and her brother's face curiously. Brutus smiled cautiously, if anything at least he'd remembered the spell and Atticus said he never listened to him.

"See? All better," Brutus pointed out and he saw a shadow of a smile on Tommy's face, "my brother taught me that."

"You have a brother?" Tommy wondered in amazement.

"Yeah, Atticus," Brutus told him and fumbled in his pocket to withdraw the picture he kept on him of the pair of them with their father, the twins stood up to peer at it intently, "that's my brother, my father and me."

"Are they Death Eaters?" Sal asked.

"No," Brutus answered firmly, for whatever bizarre reason he had his father would have preferred to die rather than be a Death Eater and Atticus still hated them because of his mother. Brutus still hadn't figured out how to sway his brother from his beliefs but Atticus was smart, he'd have to see reason when the war started, he'd have to. Being a Death Eater earned his family protection, at least as long as they weren't fighting against them anyway which meant he'd have to change Atticus' mind somehow.

"Can we meet them?" Tommy inquired and Brutus nearly laughed trying to imagine a ludicrous scenario where the half-mad son of Voldemort could ever get along with his brother.

"No."

"Why is everyone happy in the picture?" Sal wondered.

"Because my brother had just recently graduated Hogwarts and got really good grades."

"Your brother went to Hogwarts?!"

"Did you go to Hogwarts?!" Tommy asked, the twins both looking wide-eyed with awe.

"Yes we both went to Hogwarts like most people," Brutus pointed out and stopped himself from saying 'like you will' because there was no way they'd ever get to.

"What was it like?"

"Tell us about it," Sal pleaded at the same time as Tommy spoke up, he had to blink as a blinding golden light rippled through the darkness from the excited Tommy. Brutus eyed the pair warily but he supposed accidental magic as normal before he started his account of the school.

---

Scorpius was feeling more relaxed about struggling with his Patronus after talking to Professor Ashain, he didn't feel any better about failing but he felt more confident that he could succeed. He thought about it all weekend and decided the problem was probably that he struggled with thinking of a wholly happy memory and letting the positive feeling fill him up, there was always niggling doubts or worry or something bothering him with everything which was what made him change the memory he used so much. He wasn't sure how to overcome this exactly but he was sure Professor Ashain would have some idea when they talked about it the next lesson, satisfied with that he was looking forward to the week.

Scorpius finished brushing his teeth, Angelo was still in the shower and Reuben had just started on his teeth while Michael and Albus were already in the dormitory. Scorpius headed back into the dormitory looking forward to sleep only to find himself arriving in the middle of an argument.

"You do have a problem!" Michael was saying, standing facing Albus who was lying in bed, "you just ignore me and hardly say anything at all, what is going on with you? What is your problem?"

"My problem is you!" Albus roared, throwing off the covers and sitting up to glare at Michael who looked immediately hurt and confused, "all you do is go on about Quidditch practice, just to rub it in my face that you're on the team and I'm not! That you're skilled and I'm not! I practiced all summer, like every single day and you don't even a broom but you stole my spot! I could've been on the team if not for you!"

"What? You're mad at me for making the team?"

"Of course I'm mad!"

"I only tried out in the first place because you convinced me too."

"Only because I didn't think you'd be any good! I didn't think that you'd be better than me! You suck at everything, why couldn't you be bad at this one thing that I needed?!"

"So-So what, I can't be good at anything?!" Michael yelled with tears welling in his eyes.

"And then to make it worse you use my broom! I should be the one on the broom! I should be the one on the team! I should be the one Vipera likes!"

"You said it was okay!"

"Of course I said it was okay! If I'd said no then it would make me seem like an asshole!"

"Well what do you expect me to do? Quit the team?!"

"That makes me seem like even more of an asshole! I'm not going to deliberately sabotage my team, I want Gryffindor to win. I expected you to be a better friend! I expected you to let me have this one thing!"

"Well you... you are being an asshole! There's plenty of things I could resent you for but I don't, you don't struggle to read or write or spell, you don't have everything you do torn apart by Grant, you don't not know things everyone else does because they grew up in the magical world and you didn't, you don't get bullied, you don't struggle so much with magic, you don't have a rune scarred into your chest, you didn't have the Cruciatus Curse used on you over and over and over again, your dad actually gives a damn about your life, you... you get to have a good home life!" Michael cried, tears leaking from his eyes before he finished, "there's a lot I could resent you for, everything about your life is better than mine! But I don't because I accept that things are just different the way they are and I'm glad that you have good things in your life and talents."

"I just wish you hadn't made the team. I wish you weren't on the team," Albus said quietly before lying back down, throwing over the covers and pulling shut the drapes, "I wish you couldn't play."

---

Part 3: Something to Regret

---

Brutus got used to his Death Eater duty revolving around guarding the twins, until the Ministry would admit to the Dark Lord having returned they weren't in outright war and while there were things being done it wasn't believed to be within Brutus' skill set. Plus only a handful of people knew about the twins in the first place and everyone would rather keep it that way, the majority of the handful were so high-ranking that they were busy with more important things so people like Brutus were left to watch over them.

Brutus didn't mind so much, it was a distraction from the looming war that he knew could officially start at any moment, the war that his little brother was an Auror in. Besides, it was rather a nice change being listened too and being the one who knew things, the twins never looked at him with disgust like most people did, they were more than happy to listen to him talk about... pretty much anything, Hogwarts in particular seemed to fascinate them and they never grew bored of listening to him talk about it. He spent more time with Sal than he did Tommy though, Tommy was the one frequently taken away to be taught to use magic leaving him alone with Sal.

He thought it was rather a stupid way of doing it. They hadn't been to Hogwarts, they hadn't even learned the basic of basic spells so trying to pressure them to do magic of their age group was foolish as naturally they were three years behind their peers. That and torturing them wasn't the best incentive, how they were supposed to focus on what they were doing when they were in pain or terrified of failing and being in pain? They may be lacking in some knowledge but at the core they were intelligent kids, it never ceased to amaze him how they could bounce from extreme childishness and unusual maturity but they weren't stupid.

And they weren't squibs. Tommy especially had an increasingly worrying amount of accidental magic, he literally glowed when he was excited and things had a habit of exploding when he was upset, all that was nothing compared to when they pushed him too far in training. Once he'd even come down to tell him he'd accidentally knocked out Rodolphus and didn't know what to do, on that occasion Brutus had erased Rodolphus' memory of the incidence and just told Tommy to say nothing to spare him some sadistic punishment. There was no point making their lives even more miserable if Brutus could help it, even though Rodolphus' wrath scared him just a little bit.

"Where's Tommy?" Sal asked him one day - or rather night, Brutus was fairly sure it had rolled into being - after he'd finished going over everything he knew about the Blood Rune Orb to appease her curiosity, they were sitting on the floor in the freezing cold - Brutus didn't know how the twins could bear it - basement of Malfoy manor.

"Still being taught," Brutus answered with a slight shrug, it wasn't unusual unfortunately.

"Is he going to come back?"

"Of course."

"When?"

"Why the sudden desperation to see him?"

"Because today's June sixth," Sal informed him and looked at him like she expected understanding but he couldn't recall anything significant about the date, "its our birthday. Our fourteenth birthday. We've never spent a birthday apart yet or without Mother but she's not exactly around very much anymore, she's a master not one of us."

"A master?" Brutus wondered as Sal nodded neutrally and idly took his hand, probing his fingers with her slight bony ones but he snatched his hand away. Again, "what is with you and my hands?"

"You have amazing hands."

"Well erm... thanks for that but don't keep doing that, people don't really play with other people's hands regardless how amazing the hands are."

"Why?" Sal asked bluntly.

"Because its just... weird. Its not like we're dating."

"Oh. Can we be dating?"

"No!"

"Why?"

"Because you're too young. Do you even know what it is?" Brutus questioned and Sal studied him thoughtfully for a moment.

"No. What is it?"

"Erm... I'll tell you some other," Brutus offered, not really feeling like explaining it to a child, "what did you mean by masters?"

"You know the masters, the ones with control and then there's us," Sal told him darkly, "but we should be the masters. We're better than them, we're more powerful, more intelligent, more important, we're special, Brutus. The masters fear us, they fear our power, they fear what we're capable of. Or at least they do Tommy. I'm just as good as Tommy. They just forget I exist half the time I think but they shouldn't. I hope they live long enough to regret it, I'll be a master someday and the world would do well to watch out."

"Okay well you do that, I'll go see how its going with Tommy."

---

Albus and Michael stopped speaking. At lessons they didn't sit in the vicinity of each other. At Quidditch practice Michael didn't use the Cloudcutter. At meals they deliberately sat away from each other with a clump of other students in between, it was extremely awkward having to choose who to sit with and even more awkward for Scorpius having to tell the others when they asked what was going on. They had to pick who to sit with which earned them dark or hurt looks from whoever they didn't sit with, it was frustrating. Scorpius sat with Michael for the first two meals and Albus at dinner to try convince him to apologize which he steadfastly refused to do.

"I don't see why I should apologize," Albus complained loudly on the way back to the dormitories from dinner, "make him apologize for stabbing me in the back and taking my position and girl, oh and for calling me an asshole then I'll think about forgiving him."

Scorpius would have been dreading the dawn if not for having planned an Acutus session with Maurice and Orous for after classes, having History of Magic first thing didn't help any. Not only was it boring but Michael had started sitting next to Rose instead of him in it, Michael had started sitting next to Rose in any classes that they shared with Ravenclaws in fact. In Potions after it Michael sat with him though while Albus sat with the girls again, it was only at the end of the lesson that their was an unexpected visitor.

"Here are the ingredients you said you ran out of," Calderon voice spoke and Scorpius' head shot up so fast that his neck hurt but sure enough, there was the former assistant with his leggy puppy by his side. He was dressed in what he seemed to wear those days, a black cloak with a silver trim over his muggle sweater and jeans, up close he realized the silver fastenings were two serpents and it looked old. He still wore the silver dragon necklace that Scorpius had gotten him too, he had a bit of stubble but was otherwise as Scorpius knew him, even if he looked particularly tired as he magically placed six spinning vials down on Vipera's desk, "teaching Polyjuice Potion or something?"

"Well spotted but those ingredients are used in other potions, I'm not sure how I ran out so fast, some overenthusiastic sixth years I think," Vipera pointed out as she cast Calderon a sly salacious smile, "thank you, although you didn't have to bring it all the way over here yourself, Cal, looking for an excuse to see me?"

"Cald-er-on," Calderon corrected her irritably with a scowl but their conversation was cut short by the bell announcing the end of the class, Calderon quickly slipped away as Vipera dismissed the class.

"Can you pack up my stuff?" Scorpius asked Michael and didn't wait for an answer as he bolted to go after Calderon, "Calderon!"

"Hey Scor," Calderon greeted him brightly as Scorpius reached him, waves of light were now surrounding the assistant and dancing as they started walking, the dog chased the lights excitedly. Calderon gave the shrill high-pitched laugh that Scorpius had actually missed, he grinned and Scorpius returned the smile even though he had no idea what was amusing to him, "you know its funny, people used to call me crazy for the lights and since I got stuck being Acting Headmaster they just ignore it or pretend like its completely normal."

"I guess they respect you now."

"Respect or sucking up because they want something, people are bizarre," Calderon said shaking his head and Scorpius tensed, he had wanted something after all and Calderon seemed to notice, "what can I do for you then?"

"Well um... its just... just I've been having problems with a teacher."

"Let me guess, this teacher's name is Grant?"

"Yes. How did you know?" Scorpius wondered in surprise.

"I didn't, I guessed. He asked me to expel you so... if he has a problem with you and you have a problem with one of the teachers, it seemed like he would probably be the one who it was. Him or Vipera because she is just weird," Calderon explained, "so tell me about it."

Scorpius launched into a explanation about Grant's treatment of him and Michael as they walked, only pausing when they reached the Gargoyle leading to the Headmaster's office so Calderon could give the password - which was 'dragons' - but resumed speaking as they started climbing only to stop again when he saw the room. He was aware it was where his grandfather had lost his soul but the difference in appearance distracted him from it, last year the portraits had been turned to face the wall but now he could see the faces of all the previous Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts, although most of them seemed to be asleep.

There was a dog's bed by the headmaster's desk that the dog immediately went to lie down on as Calderon approached the desk with Scorpius in tow, his eyes were drawn to the largest portraits either side of the Headmaster's chair. One he recognized from the attack at the memorial, although this Dumbledore was noticeably more healthy in appearance, he was smiling kindly and his eyes were a normal blue that seemed to sparkle behind his half-moon spectacles. The other was a younger man who was scowling at them, he had a hooked nose and shoulder length black hair. Scorpius wasn't sure but he thought the man might be Severus Snape, Albus' other namesake.

"When do you next have Charms?" Calderon asked shaking him from his thoughts.

"Err... next thing," Scorpius answered.

"I'll talk to him now then and if he doesn't back off next lesson then tell me after classes, I'll have to take more serious action."

"Okay. Thanks Calderon," Scorpius said gratefully and smiled but the former assistant looked worried.

"Does Michael really have that much of a hard time with his Dyslexia?"

"Its real, he wouldn't make it-"

"I believe him about it," Calderon interrupted holding up his hand to silence him, the Tiwaz scar very visible on the palm, "I'm asking whether it really effects his work that much, whether he would benefit from some help... I may not have wanted to be Acting Headmaster - thanks a lot Ticcy - but I still have to do what I think is right, if Michael's really struggling because of his Dyslexia then I should do something to help."

"Oh um... I don't know, you'd have to ask him," Scorpius shrugged it off awkwardly, wondering if he was a bad friend for not paying too much attention to Michael's writing. Calderon nodded, glanced around the room before he started to head to the exit again, the dog and Scorpius both scrambling to keep up, "Calderon, wait."

"What?" Calderon asked as he stopped in the corridor and Scorpius stared at his feet stupidly.

"Do... Do you have to go now? I mean I know your busy but I... I miss you, I miss being your assistant and talking to you and... I know you're busy now but..." Scorpius trailed off uncertainly, realizing how stupid it was to ask for Calderon to prolong their conversation because he missed seeing him.

"Look, Scor, I'd love to talk to you but if I need to talk to Grant before your next lesson and lunch isn't that long," Calderon pointed out and Scorpius nodded glumly, "but why... why won't you come see me some time this weekend? And we can catch up? How does that sound?"

"Good," Scorpius said brightening up and smiling as he started to walk away, "see you then."

Scorpius' good mood lasted even after he had to sit down with only Michael, the girls and Albus sitting on the other side of a clump of students. Molly, Maurice and Corin joined them though, Scorpius wasn't sure whether they had noticed the rift or not or whether they simply didn't care. He didn't tell Michael about talking to Calderon about Grant in case it didn't work but for the first time in a long time he was looking forward to a Charms lesson.

There was nothing out of the ordinary at first, Grant was cheerfully talking about the new spell to change the color of objects they were learning and having them take notes on it before the practical part of the lesson started. Scorpius succeeded effortlessly to change the feather he was trying to turn red and waited for Grant to approach him, he gave Scorpius the filthiest of looks before speaking.

"Not bad," Grant grunted out through gritted teeth, "try practicing it in different colors, its the same spell just the different Latin color name, page twenty-two if you don't know them. Sometimes its trickier with different colors, people are more adept at some than others and practice makes perfect."

"Okay," Scorpius agreed, it was infinitely better than being insulted. Grant glanced between him and Michael, looking like uttering the next words were killing him.

"I'm sorry for not taking your claims of Dyslexia seriously and I'm sorry if my unbiased professional opinion of either of your work upset your sensitive minds. I will try to be more constructive and less... abrasive in the future as the goal of Hogwarts is to encourage not discourage and I apologize if my behavior seemed so out of line you went running to the only barely semi-sane Acting Headmaster. Good day."

Scorpius and Michael exchanged a look and Scorpius told him about talking to Calderon, Grant didn't chastise them for speaking, he didn't chastise them for anything in fact. He seemed to try to avoid them unless he happened to be near them for speaking to other students nearby them, he only reluctantly offered helpful advice to Michael instead of putting him down for struggling with the spell and seemed to force himself to utter the slightest acknowledgement of praise for Scorpius' success. He still didn't treat them in the friendly way he treated the other students that made him so popular but Scorpius considered it a win.

After classes he started to head outside to meet up with Maurice and Orous for their Acutus session, Orous' hair was drenched in ink that James had poured on him to make his hair 'normal' and it made Orous extremely focused to tearing apart the rocks. Afterwards they went back to the library to find their friends, Vern and Michael were there as expected but oddly enough Corin was not. Maurice looked at him in askance as he put his hand to his translator necklace and the trio joined the table.

"Where's the others?" Scorpius asked curiously.

"Abby was helping Corin with his Herbology in the greenhouses, Albus and Rose are with the flawless Devin Copper and his Ravenclaw buddies over there," Michael answered solemnly and nodded in the direction of the table with the cousins at it, Copper - Rose's crush - said something and they all laughed, Rose laughing the hardest of them all, "looks like they're having fun."

"Well good for them, if at least one of us could get with their crush then it would be an achievement."

"Yeah... as long as she's happy, that's what matters right?"

"Obviously."

Albus still didn't apologize the next day and Wednesday was as painful as Monday and Tuesday had been during lessons and mealtimes. At least they were halfway through the week, Scorpius was looking forward to his Patronus lesson for once and getting to talk to Calderon.

"Am I selfish?" Michael asked as they made their way to Quidditch practice after classes, including another bearable Charms lesson, "for not wanting to Quidditch because it bothers Al. I only tried out originally because he made it sound like it would make for a fun afternoon but I really like it, being on the team and flying and not feeling like I'm completely useless for once and not completely useless at a magical thing too. Sometimes I really feel like they made a mistake in thinking I'm a wizard when I struggle with spells and get all the magical things mixed up and everything but I can actually fly, I'm actually good at something for once... am I bad person for not wanting to give that up for Albus?"

"No. Albus is way out of line, don't feel bad," Scorpius told him and Michael nodded although still looked worried.

It was a cold day despite the lack of wind or rain, the clouds hid the sun but it was a good practice nonetheless. Even if Michael still refused to use the Cloudcutter so was stuck on a school broom that veered particularly sharply to the left, in credit to his skill he managed to use this to his advantage when trying to score against Molly, as the broom veered to the left she veered to the left but Michael threw the Quaffle violently to the right and she changed direction just in time to brush it with her fingers as it went in. Michael laughed with delight at his triumph, lighting up his somewhat tired hazel eyes. Although after a month and a bit in Hogwarts he was still scrawny and thin but not so much that he looked unhealthy.

"This weekend is the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year so I figured you can have the day off, there is still practice on Sunday though and Friday morning as well as Friday afternoon to make up for it. It won't be a long practice in the morning but I still expect to get an hour in before classes so be there, you're doing great everyone," Molly announced as the practice came to an end, the older students - except Latimer - looked somewhat relieved to have their Hogsmeade trip unhindered by practice, especially Roxy and James as it would be their first ever trip for being third years. They started heading back to the castle, Michael going to put the school broom back first and Molly came to walk beside him while he waited for his friend, "Al and Michael still at odds?"

"Yep," Scorpius nodded.

"Al's got to get over it, James is bad enough without Al having his wand in a twist over Quidditch positions too."

"I know," Scorpius agreed with a sigh and Molly looked thoughtful for a moment.

"You know that this is the first Hogsmeade weekend, right?"

"I know but I'm not old enough to go yet so it doesn't really effect me, except that the castle is emptier."

"I know that's why I was wondering if I could hang out with you on Saturday?" Molly asked and Scorpius felt his heart lurch, was he dreaming? "I don't really feel like going to Hogsmeade and hanging out by myself, plus I have a ton of homework and I always enjoyed doing homework with you late last year, company makes the endless amount of essays bearable."

"Yes! I mean yeah I think that too," Scorpius lied, in truth he had no problem with his work and enjoyed getting on with it alone or with people but Molly wanted to spend time with him! He thought his heart might explode with excitement it was beating so fast and he was trying very hard not to let his face be split in half by his smile as he didn't want to seem too eager but then if he didn't smile enough she might think he wasn't really okay with it, he tried to go for something in the middle and was sure his smile came off demented in the end, "it'll be fun to hang out. This weekend. Together."

"Great," Molly grinned perfectly, she had no trouble smiling before Michael came back over to them and they headed back the castle.

Scorpius couldn't wait for the weekend, on Friday he would finally overcome his Patronus problem, he could see Calderon on Sunday as he hadn't specified a day or time and then hang out with Molly on Saturday. Because Molly had wanted to spend time with on Saturday, not Nick, not anyone else but him. Maybe his fantasy relationship with her wasn't completely hopeless after all. He didn't let the potentially Shadow Aurors get him down and he didn't let the rift between his friends get him down, not even when he saw Albus talking to James did he let himself dwell on it. He was in a good mood and for once it was going to last more than one hour, that night was the first night in weeks that he didn't wake up shaking and soaked in sweat from dreams he couldn't remember.

He was feeling fully refreshed as he headed off to breakfast with Michael, Albus trailing along behind for not wanting to be around Michael but still wanting to get there early to watch Vipera eat. The harmony was shattered as they reached the end of the staircase, James flicked his wand and Michael was violently thrown off of his feet to land with a loud smack onto the ground.

"That's for stealing my brother's spot on the team!" James roared angrily as Michael struggled to get back to his feet, his legs shaking for having hit the stone so hard, "animals like you shouldn't even be allowed on the team, Dragon-breath."

"Hey! Leave him alone," Scorpius snapped immediately as he whipped out his wand.

"Oh yeah because I'm so scared of you," James smirked and nodded to his friends behind him who took out their wands too, "six against two, right Al?"

"What?!" Albus squeaked frightfully, "just because I'm mad at Michael doesn't mean I want to help you attack him or Scor."

"Pick a side and stay on it!" James snapped but Albus just hurriedly slipped by them and left, James rolled his eyes, "eugh, brothers. Well five against two then."

"Very brave of you," Scorpius pointed out sarcastically without moving his wand off James, he knew he had promised not to use Acuta but it would be a good spell for getting all of the bullies at once since they were outnumbered more than double... not he'd think of something else, "attacking two kids younger than you with a lot more people."

"Who two don't even make the classification of human let alone kids."

"Move along now!" a voice bellowed and all of them jumped in surprise at the Auror who had spoken, Albus had returned with a pair of them. They put away their wands quickly and started onwards towards breakfast, Michael saying he needed the bathroom and leaving in another direction.

"We'll finish this later," James snarled at them as he passed.

"S-Sorry about that," Albus muttered guiltily coming over to him, "he asked me what was up, I didn't know it would get him to attack you."

"I'm surprised you stopped it," Scorpius complained, not relieved in the slightest to be unable to duel James especially not because Albus had got potentially treacherous Aurors to step in, "you're more like James everyday."

"What?! No I'm not! I'm nothing like him."

"Mad at someone for getting the position they wanted, holding a grudge... sound familiar?"

"I-I never accused Michael of cheating!"

"No, you didn't. You did worse," Scorpius snapped, "I get that not getting the position is frustrating and you tried really hard but its not his fault, its no one's fault, at the end of the day Michael - and Latimer and Caitlin and Louis - were just the better fliers, in fact I would have picked Abby too before I picked you based on skill alone. It sucks that you didn't get it but life just sucks sometimes, you're supposed to be his friend, friends are supposed to support one another got get mad at them for succeeding. You have five years still to tryout and now you're allowed your broom - which Michael has completely stopped using by the way - you can practice, get better, failing one tryout is not the end of the world. Latimer tried out in his second year and failed to get it, he practiced hard and improved so when he tried out again this year and got it, people can bounce back from bad things especially if you're determined enough. What you really have to decide is whether one bad tryout is worth losing one - two - friends over. Think about that."

Scorpius stalked off before Albus had a chance to reply, his good mood extinguished as they made it to breakfast. Albus looked unusually thoughtful but made no effort to apologize or even speak to Michael or even Scorpius during the meal or lunch or any of the lessons, Scorpius hoped he was just stubbornly taking his time rather than following in his brother's footsteps. The lessons took his mind off things at any rate as he focused on the work, History of Magic wasn't a lesson he didn't enjoy on Thursdays - except Astronomy in the night - so he was good.

"I want everyone to do their essay for the next lesson, no essay and no taking part in learning to duel," Professor Ashain told them as the double lesson came to an end, there was excited murmurings throughout the class and the Slytherin who usually forgot to raise his hand shot it in the air so fast and so hard that Scorpius was half-surprised the boy didn't dislocate it.

"We're learning to duel!?" the Slytherin burst out before Professor Ashain could call on him.

"Yes, learning defensive spells is useful but knowing how to use them should you ever be attacked is useful too. As long as you hand your essay in."

"One essay, two essay, you can have one for every day of the week if you're teaching us to duel!"

"Just the one will suffice," Professor Ashain offered as they filed out excitedly.

Scorpius was no exception, knowing how to duel properly was exactly something he needed to know to fight the Shadows or Shadow Aurors that attacked him. He would never be weak again. It was exactly the kind of thing that Varanian would want him to learn if he was too help. He and Michael headed back to the common room, Scorpius reeling off every fragment of information he knew about dueling as they walked.

"You can talk the talk but can you walk the walk?" James sneered as they neared the top of the Grand Staircase, Scorpius noted he was alone.

"We're not in the mood," Michael said irritably making a move to carry on walking.

"Scared, Malfoy? You're not outnumbered anymore."

"I have better things to do than waste my time on the likes of you," Scorpius bit back, which wasn't untrue as he wanted to work on that essay for Professor Ashain right away.

"I don't blame for you being afraid, I mean if you're scared of powerless muggles then a wizard such as myself must be terrifying," James mocked and Scorpius froze on the step, "must be all you can do to not wet yourself and run to your room crying."

"Shut up! I'm not scared of you," Scorpius spat angrily spinning back round to face the smirking James.

"Oh right, just muggles. They had the right idea, locking you up like the monster you are."

"I said shut up!" Scorpius yelled drawing his wand and aiming it at James who had taken his own out while Scorpius had been drawing his, his wrist was burning with pain.

"Come on, calm down, let's not fight," Michael offered unhelpfully trying to step in between them while the other students gave them a wide berth.

"What's the matter?" James continued taunting as if Michael hadn't spoken, "does it bother you? Want to go home and cry to your grandaddy- oh wait, he's dead."

"Expelliarmus!" Scorpius cried before he realized he was speaking, Michael jumped back to avoid it but Scorpius had aimed too high to avoid him anyway. It hit a portrait and the thing fell of the wall.

"Pathetic!" James laughed and said a spell that Scorpius didn't recognize but he recognized its effect as it tripped him up, he would have to learn that one.

Scorpius quickly realized he didn't actually stand a chance against James, he didn't know half as many spells as James did to attack with and the ones he did use James seemed to just dodge or counter. The wall behind James was barren and the floor littered with the portraits that he kept hitting, James wasn't firing as many spells back at him - in favor of using his voice for taunts - but the ones he did just seemed to knock him back or trip him up, Scorpius had a feeling that James was just toying with him.

It made him so angry, failing to beat James and the taunts and Michael unhelpfully was just vainly saying words to try to get them to stop but at least he wasn't going to get a teacher or worse, an Auror. He wanted to beat James, he didn't want to fail, he didn't want to be weak. You could beat him, his mind taunted, stop holding back. He knew some dangerous magic, he wasn't good at the lightning spell Maurice was teaching but that would shut James up, so would the fire one - he'd like to see James dodge that - but that was maybe a bit far, even for James. The Acutus curse hovered on the edge of his mind, he'd promised Michael he wouldn't use it but- his thoughts were cut off as James hit him with the tripping spell again, his knees were already throbbing from repeatedly colliding with the painfully hard stone steps.

"You gonna tired yet? Gonna cry and beg me to stop? Did you say that to the muggles?" James taunted as Scorpius got to his feet, fury replaced conscious thought, he wanted to hit James again and smash his face until he couldn't speak anymore...

"ACUTA!" Scorpius yelled angrily and violently swiped his wand through the air, filling the spell with the force of the frustration James was causing him. James deserved it. He'd crossed a line. Maurice was right. For the first time during the duel James' eyes bulged in fear and he ducked barely in time to dodge the horizontal spell, it instead struck the blank stretch of wall leaving a nasty scorched crack in the stone. The staircase started to move with the three of them stuck on it, he won't be able to dodge a vertical one, his mind told him coldly, "Acuta!"

"No!"

It happened too fast for Scorpius to stop it, Michael jumped protectively in front of James as he slashed the wand vertically. It was too late to take it back, for the briefest of seconds he met Michael's bright hazel eyes before the spell struck his friend's face. Michael cried out in pain and was knocked back, he collapsed on the steps against the bannister clutching at the right side of his face. All thoughts of his anger, of the duel left his mind, his wand clattered uselessly to the ground and he ran to Michael. He fell to his knees besides his friend, blood was oozing from inbetween Michael's fingers.

"Are-Are you okay?" Scorpius asked stupidly and guiltily.

"I need something to put pressure on the wound," Michael said in a strained voice, his left eye squeezed shut as if in pain the other covered by his hand, "until I get to the hospital wing."

"Hey! Its just a stupid scratch, stand back up and duel me," James barked irritably.

"No," Scorpius shook his head firmly, he had to get Michael to the hospital wing and something to put pressure, he searched his pockets for something cloth-like.

"Oh please, we learned a healing spell in Charms. I'll fix him up and then we can finish our duel," James complained and memories clicked in Scorpius' mind, the Acutus Curse couldn't be healed and trying just made it worse...

"No! It'll make it worse!" Scorpius cried almost at the same time Michael did.

Scorpius made a grab for James' wand but James was too far away for him to reach, the bully snorted with disbelief before casting the spell and Scorpius' grab fell way short. He didn't see the spell hit Michael but from his friend's howls of pain behind him, he knew James' spell had hit. Scorpius snatched his wand from the ground while James backed away and fled as the staircase reconnected, he glanced back to see Michael lying on the steps with blood flowing more freely from his now crimson fingers, tears mingling with the red.

---

Part 4: The Consequences

---

Scorpius frantically took out a quill he'd had in his pocket and transfigured it crudely in a piece of fabric, it wasn't his best work but it was a tricky spell and they hadn't actually started the practical in class yet but he hoped it was good enough to put pressure on it like Michael needed.

"Will this do?" Scorpius asked fearfully and Michael's left eye flicked open to see the fabric.

"G-Give it," Michael croaked and reached out for it as he struggled to sit up, the part of his face not covered by his hand was screwed up in pain and his breathing was uneven.

He removed his right hand from the right side of his face for the first time and Scorpius glimpsed the jagged vertical wound running from his forehead to his cheek, going straight through the bloody mess that was his right eye. Scorpius felt sick, had he really done that? Michael was trembling as he pressed the fabric against the injury and yelped in pain.

"What?!" Scorpius burst out desperately and - not for the first time - wished he knew more about injuries.

"I-Its just really painful, o-okay?" Michael told him in a strained tone, squeezing his good eye shut again and leaning back against the stone bannister, "need to... need to get to the hospital wing, my eye..."

"Okay," Scorpius nodded and helped Michael to his feet, Michael was still shaking and leaned against him for support as they headed off to the hospital wing at a staggering walk, Scorpius guiding their way with Michael pressing the now red fabric against his face and breathing jerkily through whatever pain he was in, "so... so its not as bad as it looks, right?"

"I haven't seen how it looks," Michael pointed out weakly.

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't bother apologizing."

"But I am sorry, I didn't mean to hurt-"

"Not now! Too busy not passing out from pain," Michael snapped and Scorpius shut up immediately and tried to pick up the pace for the final stretch to the hospital wing.

"Help, over here!" Scorpius called out as they arrived, the snow-haired head healer rushed over and got Michael onto one of the empty beds - all were empty except one in the corner where he knew Elwood was, "don't try to heal it magically, he got hit by the Acutus Curse and someone already tried it and made it worse."

"Merlin's beard, why was a first year messing around with magic like that?!" the healer burst out incredulously.

"Second year," Michael moaned as the healer bustled around him as pulled back the blood-soaked piece of fabric, Michael's face looked even worse than it had before, the right side around the bleeding jagged wound was now swollen and beginning to bruise badly, his eye was too bloody to make out.

Scorpius looked away guiltily and sat down on the edge of the bed beside Michael, just letting the healers do their thing and hoping Michael would be okay. He thought Madam Pomfrey had a better bedside manner, the new guy cursed a lot and complained about the amount of work he was having to do. Scorpius decided he didn't like him very much but he hoped the man was at least competent enough to help Michael.

"Alright, that's all I can do," the snowy-haired healer announced.

Scorpius glanced back to see he must have been stitching the wound, he seemed to have given Michael the potion to reduce swelling that they'd learned in first year - or some other better kind possibly - as his face no longer looked swollen. The bruising remained though, as did the jagged recently stitched wound that still looked raw and painful but seemed to have stopped bleeding at least. Michael's right eye was no longer a bloody mess but he realized it was still bad, the eyelid was entirely purple from bruising and stitched up. At the healer's words, Michael seemed to try to open it and cringed in pain as he half managed it revealing a bloodshot eye but where the pupil and iris would be, there was a vertical wound in line with the stitched eyelid. The healer complained at this and started bandaging over the stitched wound, Scorpius noticed Michael's right hand was also bandaged.

"Why is his hand bandaged?" Scorpius wondered timidly.

"He had his hand on the main wound when the healing spell was cast," the healer answered without pausing, "when you try to magical heal an Acutus Curse wound it reacts badly, it makes the wound spread and if you have a hand over the wound say then it spreads to the hand. Its actually a good thing he did that, it took some of the edge off of the main wound. Lucky the healer was pretty incompetent too, if someone skilled had tried it then it would have killed the boy."

"Why?!"

"Because the better the healing the worse the magic will react, the wound worsens and deepens and spreads. The wound occurred on his face, if it went deep enough then it could have damaged the brain causing permanent brain damage or even death," the healer explained matter-of-factly as he finished bandaging Michael's face, leaving him looking like a kind of Phantom of the Opera, "its impossible to tell how much damage was done by the original spell and how much was caused by the healing but he got lucky, it could have been much worse."

"So its not so bad then?"

"I didn't say it wasn't bad but relatively speaking yes. I've already got the swelling down, the bruises should heal in a few days, the crack to the skull and damage to the facial muscles should heal nicely with no negative ramifications. There will be an incredibly nasty scar obviously, the hand will probably scar too but not half as badly as the face, I don't envy that. The worst part is the eye, the eyelid was completely torn in half but it should heal back together and in time it should function properly again. Of course he's lost all sight in that eye."

"Wh-What?" Michael stammered opening his non-bandaged eye and the healer jumped in surprise.

"Ah, I hadn't realized you were still conscious!" the healer exclaimed and chortled slightly, "but yes, completely blind in your right eye."

"Are you sure?" Michael asked, his voice breaking tearfully before good eye went back to being squeezed shut.

"A hundred percent, either the spell or the healing completely wrecked it."

"Do... Do you know which?" Scorpius wondered hopefully desperate that he wasn't the one to blind his friend.

"I already told you, no," the healer complained, "now I have to go get someone with more standing, its a very serious injury after all and I suspect the culprit will face expulsion."

"N-No!" Michael called out as the healer started to walk away and Scorpius felt his heartbeat quicken fearfully as the healer turned back, "there... there was no one, I c-cast the spell and accidentally injured myself and tried to heal myself. There's no one to get in trouble."

"We all know that's a lie," the healer pointed out before carrying on walking away.

"I'm sorry," Scorpius apologized again when they were alone as he realized when he left the hospital wing he very well might never get to speak to Michael again, "I never meant for you to get hurt."

"I told you not to bother apologizing. You promised you wouldn't use that spell," Michael said mournfully as he flicked his one eye half-open to glance at him, "you can't apologize for breaking a promise."

"James deserved it. Why did you have to try to protect him?"

"Because it was the right thing to do. Didn't you notice the staircase was moving? When you practice the spell it knocked the sticks and stones backwards, you could have knocked James backwards, he would have fallen to his death. James isn't a nice person but that doesn't mean he deserves to die, he doesn't deserve to be scarred and blinded in one eye either..." Michael explained and Scorpius realized he hadn't actually thought of that, "and I wasn't just trying to protect him, actions have consequences and I didn't want you to end up in wizard jail for killing him."

"I didn't think about the staircase thing," Scorpius admitted quietly.

"Doesn't matter anyway. What's done is done. We made our choices and we just have to deal with the consequences now," Michael whispered tearfully as he closed his one eye again and Scorpius could only nod sadly.

"I really am sorry, you know."

"It's l-like Bob says, the part of brain supposed to t-take a hint isn't wired together properly. I j-jumped in front of a c-curse I knew was d-dangerous, I'm j-just as much to bl-blame f-f-for l-losing m-my eye."

---

Brutus left the basement, magically sealing the door behind him. Rabastan Lestrange was sitting in a chair opposite, leaning against the wall and leafing through a book before he noticed Brutus and lowered it to speak to him. He and Rabastan were far from friends but as far as Death Eaters went, he was alright. Nothing like his brother at all. He shared Brutus' sympathy with the twins situation at least, after being charged with teaching them to read. The dusk light was filtering in through the dark drawn drapes in the kitchen and the only other person in the room was also reading.

Narcissa Malfoy was sitting at the table - from which Rabastan had taken to sit on - sipping a cup of tea and going through the evening edition of the Daily Prophet, she gave no indication of having noticed him coming up. Not that he expected her too, it didn't take a genius to realize she didn't like sharing her house with Death Eaters even though they'd be moving the twins to a new location the following week because the Malfoy child would be returning for the summer holidays. She seemed indifferent to the treatment of the twins as well which he didn't like, they were her own flesh and blood niece and nephew after all regardless of who the other parent was, the twins were her family and she didn't care. If he ever had a niece or nephew he would treat them better. Although he would admit he preferred Narcissa to her sister, Bellatrix was just... disturbing.

"Something wrong, Ashain?" Rabastan questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Rodolphus is just taking a long time with Tommy," Brutus grunted and tried not to look concerned.

"Just follow the sounds of the screams," Narcissa commented icily without looking up and almost on cue a high-pitched pierced the air coming from upstairs.

Brutus inclined his head in acknowledgement and headed upstairs, the screams getting louder as he went higher. He didn't need to follow the sound as he got to the corridor, the yellow glow from the furthest door was a good indication of Tommy, his outbursts of magic were becoming more frequent rather than less as you would typically expect. Then again, Tommy wasn't a typical person. He thought it would probably be just Tommy and Rodolphus in the room, Lucius was probably still preparing for some prophecy thing that the Dark Lord was after. A waste of time in Brutus' opinion, any kind of Divination was a useless waste of time that panned out to nothing.

He peered into the room and was proven correct, Rodolphus was standing over Tommy's crumpled body with his wand aimed at the boy. The wand Tommy was probably supposed to be using was lying uselessly a few feet away from him, there was just misty waves of light clogging the air and a few inches of water covering the floor but seemed confined to the room despite the open door - no doubt a result of Tommy's accidental magic. Rodolphus gave a sadistic smile as he waved his wand once more at the boy.

"Crucio!" Rodolphus cried and Tommy's scream was unbearable as his body writhed under the curse.

"Stop!" Brutus barked and Rodolphus was so surprised by his appearance that he did indeed stop, Brutus had his own wand in his hand in readiness in case Rodolphus tried to stop him as he waded through the murky water to Tommy and hauled the trembling boy to his feet, "that's enough for today, you're not even letting him try to use magic."

"I'm punishing him for his failure and doing all this," Rodolphus explained darkly looking furious as he gestured to the misty lights and water, Tommy collapsed against Brutus' weakly and he had to support him with his non-wand arm to stop him from falling onto the ground, "and who are you to question me anyway?"

"He's had enough for one day, you'll kill him if you keep it up," Brutus answered firmly as his eyes danced on Rodolphus' wand that was hovering precariously close to being aimed on him, he wasn't sure how he'd do in a duel with the Death Eater as Rodolphus was supposedly skilled and a killer to boot. Then again, Brutus had only ever lost a duel to Pip Varanian and even then he had won as much as he'd lost, if not more, "the Dark Lord wants him trained not killed. I'm supposed to guard them, I wouldn't put it past him to kill us both in retaliation for killing him so lay off him for today, he can barely stand. You have all of tomorrow."

"Th-Thank you," Tommy croaked weakly and coughed droplets of red onto his robes.

"Why is he coughing up blood?"

"Is he?" Rodolphus wondered and his anger wavered, as if to prove the point Tommy coughed up more, "alright he's had enough for today. Heal him."

"What? I don't know how to do that, I don't even know what's wrong."

"Well then take him to St Mungo's, get someone to heal him and then kill them," Rodolphus commanded as his confidence returned, "if he dies or gets found out then its on you."

Brutus grunted in understanding and apparated them both away before Rodolphus could change his mind, appearing in a deserted alleyway leading to the street with St Mungo's. He pocketed his wand once more, pulled his hood over his head, pulled Tommy's sleeve down and scooped up Tommy, the boy was incredibly light and seemed to have lost consciousness at that point anyway. He carried him into the hospital and started to wish he hadn't gone looking for Tommy, Rodolphus had pawned him off on specifically with the intention of blaming everything on him should anything happen. He tried not to worry about it as he went into the hospital, there was a queue to the Welcome Witch so he just approached a random healer.

"I need help, I don't know what happened to him, I just found him like this," Brutus said to her, "its an emergency, I have money if you could make him a priority and give him a private room."

He for a second he wasn't sure she would do it but she eyed Tommy with kind sympathetic eyes before glancing at his face, a flicker of disgust crossing the amber orbs but he was unfortunately used to it by then. She led them into a private room and he laid Tommy down on the bed, wondering if he'd ever gotten to lie in a proper bed before. The healer introduced herself as Avlyn McCallister and asked him about what had happened, in all truth Brutus didn't know, he didn't know - or want to know - about the torturous training. He did edge closer to the door as she examined Tommy though, waiting for her to notice the Dark Mark carved into his arm. Sure enough, her eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth to cry out but his wand aimed at her face silenced her.

"His mother's insane, now just heal him. He's just a child, he never hurt anyone," Brutus told her trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible although he knew it wasn't quite true, Tommy had to have done something to taint his soul.

"H-His ribs are broken, I think one of them pierced his lung and he's seriously underweight, he needs-"

"I don't care what's wrong with him, I care that he gets healed. Fast," Brutus interrupted her explanation, afraid of someone bursting in at that very moment.

His heart was pounding, he was actually starting to wonder if his heart had somehow moved up to his brain because it sounded like it was beating against the inside of his skull. Actually it wouldn't surprise him if it was considering his deformity. He managed to keep his expression blank, although even if his fear showed on his face the healer probably wouldn't be able to tell. He tried very hard not to fidget as she worked on Tommy, it probably wouldn't seem very threatening and if she wasn't threatened then she wouldn't help. It was hard though, his mind kept trying to cycle through scenarios when she'd somehow alerted people to his presence and Aurors would be on the way there and Atticus would show up...

"Okay, done," the healer announced and he realized that her face was streaked with tears as Tommy started to stir, it took him a second to realize why, "pl-please don't kill me, I did what you wanted."

"How are feeling, Tommy?" Brutus asked his charge gently as Tommy sat up, his eyes darted wildly around as if trying to take it every part of the room at once.

"Not in pain. Where are we?" Tommy wondered in amazement.

"St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies, we-"

"Is that a person? A person whose not a Death Eater?" Tommy interrupted gazing at the healer awestruck, he started glowing golden, "why is she crying?"

"Yes, she healed you. Come on, we have to go," Brutus told him as he kept his eyes trained on the healer as he recalled he was indeed supposed to kill her.

"Pl-Please don't kill me," the healer pleaded again as if realizing what was on his mind and Brutus swallowed nervously, "please, I-I have a husband and a son, he's j-just a little baby. Its his first birthday next month and-"

"Shut up!" Brutus barked and the woman fell silent, tears continued to fall and Tommy's glow died as he looked fearfully between him and the healer. Hearing her begging for her life was just making it harder, he didn't even know her blood status - and he didn't want to know, if she wasn't a mudblood then it would just make it even harder. It was easy. It should be easy. One spell. He knew the words. He just had to get it over with it, the quicker it was the more painless it would be, for everyone.

His wand quivered in his hand, she had a family and actually gave a damn about her son, that was a rarity. It meant she probably wasn't a mudblood, mudbloods were the ones who gave up their children the same day they were born because they were heartless and incapable of feeling. Brutus fought the tears stinging his eyes, he had to do it, he had to kill her, he had to. Even if she'd just took him to a private room to help a child out of the goodness of her heart, she wouldn't have if she'd had any idea he was the son of Voldemort. Even if it left the son motherless... would the boy be as upset about it as Atticus had been when he'd lost his mother? He shoved the thoughts angrily aside. He didn't have a choice, he had to kill her, he knew he would have to kill at some point. He blinked at the sobbing woman who had taken a photograph out of her pocket to stare at, she kept a picture of her family just like he did? It didn't matter. He had no choice, Ashain lives came first, well except his grandparents. He swallowed the lump in his throat and waved his wand, a spell leaving his lips.

---

It wasn't too long before the healer returned with a professor, Grant with James in tow, James had evidently gone to Grant after the duel. Scorpius couldn't bring himself to say goodbye to Michael in case it really was the last time he saw him, he wasn't even sure if Michael was still awake after Michael had cried he'd gone silent. Scorpius had tried speaking to him but got no reply, Michael either hadn't wanted to talk or had cried himself to sleep. He thought both were equally likely considering the circumstances, he said nothing as he went Grant to be brought to the Headmaster's office.

"You'll be expelled for this, you're a psycho and now everyone knows it too," James sneered triumphantly under his breath as they followed Grant, "Seeker is mine. And Chaser is Al's because its not like Dragon-breath can play half-blind. From your spell."

"Michael got injured, protecting you," Scorpius pointed out incredulously, "how can you still talk like that about him?"

"Its not like I asked him to get in the way, clearly he has some kind of death wish and besides, I had a spell ready to block it. I didn't need his stupid help."

"You're unbelievable!"

"Malfoy, shut it!" Grant spat before adding in a more reasonable tone, "you be quiet yourself too, Mr Potter."

James went silent but continued to look smug at Scorpius' imminent expulsion, Scorpius found it hard to care. He didn't want to be expelled but then he knew he deserved it, the shards of guilt stabbed him every which way at his walked with his head hung low. He didn't lift his head again until he was in the Headmaster's office, expecting to see Calderon glowering at him angrily with things exploding behind him but Calderon wasn't there. Grant just told them to wait in silence as he took a seat to rest his injured but healing leg, they just stood and Scorpius lowered his head again.

"Where is the lunatic? My legs are getting tired," James complained after a while.

"He wanted to speak to Sanford and the healer first as well as your Head of House, wants you both to wait before he speaks to you," Grant informed them and didn't call James up on referring to Calderon as 'the lunatic.'

"Why does he have to speak to me? I already told you everything I know and Malfoy is the one who attacked Dra- that boy."

"Calderon prefers to hear things first hand. Besides, you'll probably be reprimanded for dueling."

"Me?!"

"Dueling classmates is against school rules, Mr Potter, you were both in the wrong before Sanford was injured. You won't be expelled like Malfoy but you'll undoubtedly get detentions, probably lost a few points."

"That's not fair!"

"I'm sorry but those are the rules."

James looked irritable as they went back to waiting in silence, Grant looked like he was drifting off to sleep even. Scorpius was too immersed in guilt to care. It felt like a long time before Calderon returned with the dog on his heels, his was the most expressionless that Scorpius had ever seen him. He sat down in the Headmaster's chair and Scorpius lowered his head again, he couldn't bring himself to look into the eyes of his hero when he knew he had done something so wrong to someone he cared about.

"You're going to tell me what happened from the start. No one is to interrupt the person speaking," Calderon said in a quiet neutral tone that demanded obedience, "Potter, you can start."

James launched into his account, he made it sound like Scorpius was the instigator and missed out the fact he was taunting him. Apparently Michael also hadn't been defending James, he'd been praising James' dueling ability and Scorpius had become enraged and viciously attacked his friend, James had also tried to heal him out of kindness for a fellow student and Michael had claimed it would work. Calderon asked him a few questions when James was done, questions that made it sound like he was very aware of the inaccuracies in James' account but James didn't seem to notice. Then it was Scorpius' turn. He didn't lie and he didn't leave anything out, he wasn't going to lower his opinion of himself anymore by lying to Calderon. Whatever would happen would happen, it was out of his hands. Calderon didn't ask him any questions when he was finished.

"Okay, I've heard enough to make my decision," Calderon began when Scorpius was finished, his tone still incredibly neutral and quiet, not like Calderon at all, "firstly, you're both to lose a hundred points from Gryffindor. Each."

"Each?!" James burst out as his jaw dropped and Calderon held up his scarred palm, Tiwaz flashed with fire although whether for dramatic effect or whether Calderon was just struggling to keep his magic in check for the conversation, Scorpius wasn't sure. James fell silent anyway.

"I have talked it over with your Head of House and he agrees its fair, you were both in the wrong and both will be punished accordingly. Essentially Michael was caught in the crossfire of the duel that the two of you were having, Scorpius was the one to cast the spell but you have your fair share of blame to bear, which is why as of this moment, you're both suspended from Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Suspended?! Y-You can't suspend me, I'm Harry Potter's son!"

"I don't care who your father is or what he's done, I care who you are and what you've done. And you helped scar and blind a twelve year old in one eye," Calderon continued darkly, "both of you return to your dormitories and pack whatever you wish to bring back home, owls have already been sent to your parents and someone will come and get you when they arrive. Go now."