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

9. Chapter 9: The Boy From Before

Parts (33-37)

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II

Chapter 9

The Boy From Before

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Part 1: Struggling

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"You're really not mad?" Scorpius asked worriedly.

"I'm really not mad," Michael confirmed as they reached Transfiguration, "why does it surprise you so much? Anger will just consume you if you let it, make you a mean bitter person and I don't want that. You have to learn to not let James get to you though, whatever he says you just have to not let it get to you. Count backwards from ten until you're calm and walk away."

"Its not that easy to ignore somethings."

"I didn't say it was easy, I said you have to learn to deal with it."

"You wouldn't understand, you've never been through what I have."

"That's right, I've never been abused in any way shape or form at any point in my life and we should all remember that," Michael said seriously as Florian gestured for them to come into the classroom, Scorpius noticed that unlike Grant, Florian's hands were still bandaged, "but you still have to ignore James, just walk away and go tell Calderon and he'll expel James and you'll never have to deal with him again."

"What if I walk away and James curses me behind my back?"

"Then James will get expelled and you'll never have to deal with him again."

"Scorpius Malfoy, a quick word?" Florian interrupted holding a hand across to block Scorpius, he nodded and Michael continued on without him. Florian's ever present grin remained and his violently violet eyes seemed even brighter than Scorpius remembered, he clapped his bandaged hands together cheerfully, "as you are aware, you missed several weeks of school and as a result will be slightly behind. You are the best student in your year - for Transfiguration at least - so I don't think it will take you long to catch up however you still must. We have our double lesson last thing on a Friday so if its alright with you, I wanted you to stay for a bit to catch up on what you've missed. How long is up to you, although the longer you stay the less sessions you'll need but I understand you have Quidditch practices and things. Does that sound alright?"

"Sounds good," Scorpius agreed and Florian's grin widened as he clapped his hands together once more.

"Excellent! With any luck you should be back on track by December. Now go on and take your seat."

Scorpius nodded and turned back to the classroom, most of his friends were sitting on their usual side with Rose's new boyfriend and a bunch of Ravenclaws while Michael was sitting on the opposite side all by himself. Scorpius scowled as he went over to Michael who already had his things out and quill in hand ready to take notes as he did during lessons, he'd put his book bag on the seat beside him.

"Um... Can I sit there?" Scorpius asked hesitantly.

"If you want," Michael shrugged and moved the bag so Scorpius could sit.

"Any reason why you're sitting here and not with the others?"

"They'd much rather sit with Ravenclaws, barely literate scarred retards are too stupid to sit with Ravenclaws or at least not with Devin Copper's group because it makes him look bad."

"Did he say that to you?"

"No," Michael said quickly but Florian started the lesson before Scorpius could reply.

Scorpius did notice the difference in Michael during the lesson, usually Michael would be the one to make conversation but he focused solely on the work. He would talk if Scorpius made attempts at conversation but didn't initiate himself or try very hard to keep it going, their positions had been reversed only Scorpius wasn't half as good at thinking of things to talk about or say than Michael was. Scorpius was afraid to mention Quidditch or the Ravenclaws again in case he broke the tenuous thread of forgiveness. He was almost relieved when the lesson ended for lunch - with any luck he'd get to see Molly - before Michael started heading in the opposite direction to everyone else heading for the Great Hall, Scorpius reluctantly went after him to find him looking at the letter again that he hastily pocketed when Scorpius approached him.

"Aren't you going to lunch?" Michael questioned as he paused in his walk.

"Aren't you?" Scorpius countered.

"I don't bother with lunch anymore."

"You have to eat."

"I ate at breakfast."

"Come on, you can't just keep skipping meals for... why are you skipping meals?" Scorpius risked asking and Michael looked at the floor.

"I don't like how people look at me and I don't need to eat a lot anyway, its no big deal so go to lunch and I'll see you next class."

"Where are you going to go?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Sure I would."

"Okay," Michael said slowly but didn't look the slightest bit convinced, "to the room that doesn't exist."

"Seriously, where are you going to go?" Scorpius asked and tried not to scowl at Michael's lie but his friend only sighed.

"Like I said, you wouldn't believe me. I'll see you later."

Michael walked off and Scorpius stood unsurely for a moment, trying to decide whether he should go after him or just go to lunch. He decided on lunch, it had to be lunch anyway as Michael was out of sight and Scorpius had no idea where he'd gone to after him anyway. He started to feel guiltier as he trudged along, had his curse really had that much of an effect on Michael? And he knew he should have gone after Michael and convinced him to have lunch, Michael had always made sure he'd eaten and even brought food back before when Scorpius had skipped meals at the start of the first year. And Scorpius had just let him walk away. To go hang out at some secret place. Scorpius had no idea what to do about it. He didn't like his friends divided and he didn't like the others hanging out with strange Ravenclaws, he wished things were back how they'd been before his suspension.

He reached the Great Hall, noticing again the daggers looks he got from Gryffindors as he moved along the table to where Abby, Albus and Rose were sitting. He didn't see Molly at the table again but then people were still filing in, she was probably just slow getting there depending on where her last class had been. His friends weren't sitting with Corin and Maurice again, he'd found it an inconvenience to sit with them before but now it bothered him even more that they weren't there. He didn't like change.

"Why did Corin and Maurice stop sitting with you?" Scorpius asked as he begrudgingly started filling his plate.

"They were friends with you, not us," Albus shrugged through a mouthful of food, "when you got suspended they left us alone."

"Good riddance," Rose commented stiffly, "Maurice is disturbing and creepy."

"And you're an uptight bossy bitch," Maurice countered and Rose jumped as he appeared behind her, his hand on his crystal as he slotted in beside Scorpius with Corin in tow.

"What did you call me?!"

"At least I had the decency to say it to you instead of while you weren't around," Maurice offered and Rose glared at him furiously as he turned to Scorpius, "welcome back, Scor."

"Thanks," Scorpius nodded in acknowledgement and Maurice smiled his cold smile.

"And that was awesome what you did by the way, or what you tried to do anyway if Michael hadn't gotten in the way."

"You think its awesome he tried to curse my brother with the unhealable spell?!" Albus exclaimed.

"Of course, had I not been saying to do that for weeks? I'm glad someone finally listened. James deserves it."

"See, disturbing and creepy," Rose pointed out, "not to mention completely psychotic."

"Why is it psychotic? Your fathers are Aurors for a living, they go after criminals to lock them up and in the act of doing that sometimes they injure or kill them. Its basically the same thing, getting back someone who has wronged another."

"Its not even close to the same thing!"

"My brother isn't a criminal!" Albus protested, "and our fathers bring justice!"

"Don't the victims of James' bullying deserve justice?," Maurice asked completely calmly, "or do you think its okay for him to torment two of your friends? Not to mention countless others."

"We are so not having this conversation again," Corin interrupted in a firm tone, "Maurice believes its justified to use the Acutus Curse on bullies, the rest of us don't and no one is going to convince the others so let's all just drop it and talk about something else. Okay? Got it? Good."

"Hey there was something I wanted to ask you, Maurice," Scorpius spoke up, grateful for Corin's intervention in the change of subject, "why do the Aurors think that your father is involved with the Scamander twins disappearance?"

"I don't know," Maurice shrugged, "they were on him last year about the other boy that went missing too. You'd think the fact he was in a whole other country would make the Aurors realize he couldn't be involved."

"Did you ask him about it?"

"Of course, he said 'ask me about it again and you get lines. Now leave.' How do you know they think he's involved?"

"I saw him before I came back here, he was yelling at Harry Potter about being unfairly followed by Aurors."

"They should just arrest him," Rose stated seriously, "he attacked Uncle Percy at Aunt Audrey's funeral and now is kidnapping children."

"My father isn't kidnapping children!" Maurice protested, anger rolling in his ocean colored eyes, "he had nothing to do with any of it, my father is a good man."

"No he isn't!" Corin exclaimed looking exasperated, "he's a horrible person, especially to you, how can you possibly defend him?!"

"I've told you a thousand times, he has to be strict with me because I'm deaf and steps have to be taken to ensure it doesn't hold me back because if it holds me back then what use am I? Just because you don't like him, it doesn't make him a kidnapper."

"Whether he's a kidnapper or not, he's not a good person and he's the worst father in existence."

"He's not a kidnapper. He was really shaken after they talked to him the first time, most upset I've ever seen him since he pulled me out of the school I went to before Beauxbatons."

"Maybe he was upset that they were onto him?" Abby offered.

"They weren't onto him because he didn't do anything to those missing boys."

"I actually don't care who took them, I just want Lorcan and Lysander to be okay," Albus said quietly and Rose nodded in agreement, "Aunt Luna and Uncle Rolf are beside themselves."

The conversation died off for awhile and they just ate in silence for awhile, ultimately Rose started it up again as she started telling Scorpius and Corin - Maurice casually let go of his necklace as to not hear - about how wonderful her boyfriend was since they didn't know anything about him. Scorpius was almost relieved again when the bell rang before he was reminded they had a double Potions period next by Albus who began talking about how much amazing it was to be able to see Vipera's beautiful wrist now it was healed.

"Speaking of crushes, how's Molly? I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet," Scorpius interrupted while Albus was struggling to think of another word to describe her beautiful wrist, Albus, Abby and Rose immediately looked away from him again. Maurice wasn't paying attention to the conversation as they walked but Corin seemed completely unfazed.

"There's great news!" Corin exclaimed and the trio began motioning for him to shut up but Corin either didn't notice, understand or care because he continued, "Molly has a boyfriend now too, she's dating Abby's brother so you can stop having a crush on her."

"What?!" Scorpius shrieked and Corin looked suddenly nervous.

"Well um... you heard. We have to go off in a different direction now, see you Scor."

"Molly is dating your brother?!" Scorpius continued furiously rounding on his trio of friends as Corin went off in the other direction with Maurice, "and you didn't tell me?!"

"We thought you might be upset," Albus offered.

"Your wrist is on fire," Abby pointed out worriedly.

"Good!" Scorpius snapped glancing briefly at the flames that were circling his wrist but not hurting him, "it should burn! What the hell is wrong with your brother?! How can he go out with Molly?! How long has this been going on?! She wasn't interested in him last year!"

"Since like the first Hogsmeade weekend, he asked her to go with him rather than hang out alone and then they kind of started dating. Aren't you worried about your wrist?!"

"My wrist just does that sometimes when I'm angry! It doesn't hurt!"

"I don't think that's normal," Rose offered unhelpfully.

"Who cares! Molly has a boyfriend!"

"You didn't have much of a chance anyway, no offense, because she is two years older than you."

"Yeah, maybe they'll break up by the time you're old enough to interest her!" Albus said brightly.

"You shouldn't say that!" Abby protested, "if they're happy together than its none of our business."

"How can they be happy together?! Your brother is a Slytherin and on the Quidditch team, she's dating the enemy! What does he have that I don't?!" Scorpius demanded irritably, "you know, apart from age and height and looks and hair and having known her for longer and sharing classes with her and having the same position as her in Quidditch so they have more in common and not being weak and pathetic and... damn him."

The fire went out on Scorpius although his wrist continued to burn during Potions, feeling miserable that Molly was dating someone better than him and even worse, had started dating him because Scorpius hadn't been there to hang out with her like she'd asked him too. Really he only had himself to blame for losing her forever. He debated briefly somehow trying to break her and Nick up but he wasn't that cruel, besides her happiness was more important than Scorpius being with her. It hurt and he hated it but he hated himself more, he only had himself to blame after all. He'd destroyed his chance with Molly just like he'd destroyed Michael's eye, guiltily he wondered if he'd destroyed Michael's chances with his mystery crush too.

Scorpius completely forgot about finding Michael until he was already sitting with his other friends and a scan revealed Michael sitting at the far back alone, his eyes glued to that letter. Much like his previous two lessons, Vipera took him aside to arrange for him to catch up, like Florian she wanted extra classes with him - much to Albus' distress. Albus was rambling about getting suspended to have to catch up and being able to spend time with her as the they headed for Herbology, Scorpius had been meaning to walk with Michael but had lost sight of him in the crowd of students until they were at Herbology where Scorpius made sure to stand beside him.

Professor Longbottom still was missing one arm but seemed in good spirits nonetheless, or maybe it was just because he was so enthusiastic about plants. Again Scorpius struggled to make conversation with Michael, he wished Michael would just talk like he would before because Scorpius really wasn't good at initiating conversation himself especially with his mood soured from hearing about Molly but silence bothered him even more, he missed talking to his friends. Professor Longbottom called him back after class to arrange for sessions to catch up as well, Michael didn't wait for him - nor did Rose - but Abby and Albus at least had.

"Where are the others?" Scorpius asked curiously.

"Rose went to go meet up with Copper," Abby explained as they started heading back towards the main castle, it was cold outside, "we were going to join them in the library if you're up for that."

"What about Michael?"

"Michael always slips away and goes wherever he goes these days."

"Well we should try to find him, he shouldn't be alone just because he's self-conscious about his face."

"Is that why he likes to be alone?" Albus questioned.

"Its why he skips meals at least so come on, where would he have gone?"

"We tried asking but he just says that room, the one that doesn't exist, if he doesn't want to say then he could at least not lie."

"We should try the Library, Gryffindor Tower and the Great Hall, that's kind of where people hang out," Abby offered as they made it back inside the castle.

"Sounds like a plan," Scorpius agreed while Albus nodded in agreement and they headed off, "is your dad getting a prosthetic soon for his arm?"

"Over Christmas, they need to fit and it may take some getting used to so he said he'd rather wait until the holidays."

"Cool."

They tried the Library first where Rose was studying with her boyfriend and his Ravenclaw friends but there was no sign of Michael. They tried the Great Hall but he wasn't there either and finally they tried Gryffindor Tower, Michael wasn't in the Common Rooms or their dormitory and they even checked the bathroom but it was empty. When they clambered back down the stairs, Scorpius did notice Dom sitting writing something.

"Hang on, I just need to talk to Dom for a sec," Scorpius told the others as he went over to her, "hey Dom."

"Hey Scorpius," Dom greeted him neutrally with a flick of her eyes in his direction as acknowledgement.

"Can I ask you for a favor?"

"Depends what it is."

"Are you still friends with Aurelius Ashain?" Scorpius asked and she smiled brightly.

"Yep. Writing a letter to him now in fact. He's really great, I'm actually succeeding in Transfiguration and Potions thanks to him and I even have a boyfriend now but still make time to write to him. Makes me feel bad that his life still sucks and I can't do much to help him."

"Can he still make vultures work like owls?"

"Yep. He's smart like that."

"Could you ask him if he'd consider letting me use one of them?"

"Why?" Dom questioned curiously looking up properly.

"Could you just ask him please? I'd just like to use one if I could."

"Sure. I'll ask him."

"Thanks," Scorpius said with a slightly forced smile to express his gratitude before rejoining the others.

They continued their search for Michael in places of decreasing likeness but still didn't find him, eventually giving up in favor of homework and Scorpius had to endure sitting with the Ravenclaws. Copper he noticed, was very fond of bragging. Scorpius also noticed they had a habit of asking him what his answer to a certain question was to 'compare notes' then would hurriedly start scribbling down and would give extremely vague answers if he asked the question, Scorpius really didn't like it and found an excuse to leave - lying about needing to unpack and returning to his dormitory to work on his homework alone.

Scorpius actually thought he preferred suspension, he didn't like his friends being divided, he didn't like Molly dating Nick and he didn't like Michael wondering off on his own to... wherever. He fingered the friendship bracelet on his wrist miserably, Michael had always been by his side even when Scorpius hadn't thought he wanted a friend or when the others turned on him or lost their memory, he had still been there but now he didn't try to sit with him or wait for him or try talk to him or do their homework together or play Quidditch together. Scorpius missed that. Forgiven or not things were different. Scorpius didn't like different.

He went down to dinner but Michael wasn't there either, Molly was though but she was sitting with Freddie and his girlfriend. She didn't notice and Scorpius for which he was grateful, he'd been hoping that at least her dating Nick would end his crush on her but he started to sweat when he saw her, his breathing quickened and his heart twisted painfully at her being with someone else. Miserably he joined his other friends, feeling Michael's absence once more. Michael would be the one that Scorpius would talk to about it, it felt weird talking to the others with Molly being Albus and Rose's cousin and Nick being Abby's brother. He picked at his food miserably, completely devoid of appetite. He would have to find someone to get the old Michael back and repair their relationship properly, he had to.

When they returned to the dormitory Michael wasn't there either, the others insisted it was normal and that Scorpius should just get ready to bed as usual. Scorpius wasn't convinced but did so anyway, waiting for the curfew for when the Prefects would have to do something. In panic he wondered whether Ellisar or other Shadow Aurors would have done anything to Michael, it wasn't safe for Michael to be alone. The minute before curfew Michael returned though, unharmed and after a few minutes in the bathroom he climbed into bed and pulled shut the drapes like Scorpius always did. Scorpius hadn't said anything purposely waiting to see what Michael would say but he hadn't even said goodnight, miserably Scorpius pulled his own drapes shut and slowly slipped into an uneasy sleep.

"Marvin?" Scorpius questioned fearfully over the ringing in his ears as he gazed down at the green eyes, glittering in the light from the headlights of the parked van but staring back at him sightlessly.

The night suddenly felt so still, Scorpius was very aware of his own breathing and beating heart because Marvin didn't seem to have them. There was no movement, not a twitch, not a blink of the eye. His chest wasn't rising and falling. No breath was leaving his lips. He wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing. There was a tear in the center of his shirt that hadn't been there before, a rip with a red stain seeping through the fabric from the small hole in his chest. Scorpius gulped nervously, he'd never seen a corpse before, he'd never seen someone die either but he was certain Marvin was dead. He was so lifeless.

Scorpius realized he'd stopped crying. Every beat of his heart pulsed another wave of fear through his soul but he wasn't crying, he didn't even feel like crying. He wondered if he was supposed to feel something, there was a dead man lying in front of him but he felt nothing. He wasn't sad. He wasn't happy. He just felt... empty, there was nothing left to feel.

He sat back down on the dirt without taking his eyes from Marvin, expecting at any moment for Marvin's killer to step from the darkness and make themselves known. His hand carefully pried the cold gun from Marvin's fingers and gripped it tightly on the ground, fearing his savior was just another muggle who wanted to hurt him too, muggles were bad. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to bring himself to use it or if he even could but it made him feel slightly comforted knowing he wasn't completely helpless. He hoped it was a witch or wizard though, come to lift him from his nightmare and take him home, he just wanted to go home. No one came though.

Scorpius started to feel even more afraid, why weren't they showing themselves? Someone had to have killed Marvin, why would they do that and then just leave him? For better or for worse, he was in the middle of nowhere and had no idea how to get back. He hadn't heard anything, no sound of a second person and there'd only been one bang that could have masked one apparation. Where they just standing there? Completely still and silent, the night was so quiet it was unbearable. He gripped the gun tighter and even more horrible thought struck him, had he killed Marvin?

He felt a cold flood through him that had nothing to do with the chill in the air. Surely that wasn't true, he couldn't have killed Marvin. He just couldn't. He was just a kid, he didn't even have a wand, he hadn't meant to. He couldn't be a murderer, he didn't want to be a murderer, he wasn't a murderer. He wasn't. Even if Marvin deserved it. You couldn't just kill someone by accident? Could you? No, it had to have been someone else and they were just standing there creepily silent because Scorpius was pretty sure people didn't die with holes in their chests of natural causes. Someone had killed Marvin. Someone...

"It wasn't me!" Scorpius cried to no one in particular and was running before he realized it.

He didn't know why he hadn't ran before, he had to run, he had to get away. Away from Marvin's corpse, away from Marvin's gun, away from Marvin's van. He just had to be away, he just had to get away, he didn't care where he was going, he just had to run.

Abruptly his ankle caught on something and twisted painfully, he fell hard onto the uncaring ground. He just lay there in the dirt, breathing heavily from the exertion and trying to ignore the pain. He squeezed shut his eyes, he didn't want to be there. He just wanted to go home, he just wanted to be away. He heard a pop and his eyes snapped open again, there was a faint light from the end of the stick the newcomer was holding. A wand. Scorpius realized suddenly, it was a magical person.

The stranger offered him their free hand, Scorpius blinked in surprise at the oddness of the large hand. The stranger had six fingers rather than five and all of them seemed the wrong lengths and angled slightly the wrong way, Scorpius didn't care though, help was help and at that point he didn't care who. He took the stranger's hand and was awkwardly helped to the feet, he kept his eyes on the ground on his injured ankle as moving it was painful but bearable.

"Thank you," Scorpius whispered.

He held tight to the stranger's misshapen hand for support, the hulking muscular man was easily strong enough to handle it and Scorpius eyes trailed from the hand to the arm. The man had his sleeve rolled up, on the inside of the thick forearm was a skeletal snake twisted into a random position with its head in the center, the forked tongue flicked at him as its body shifted. It looked like it had been burned into the skin, a brand, a strange brand that seemed to move or maybe he was just seeing things in the dark. He went to flick his eyes to his silent savior's face but a jet of light struck him from the wand, he collapsed against the man, unconscious the second the spell had touched him...

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Part 2: In Denial

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Scorpius woke with a start. It had been awhile since he'd had a memory dream and he'd never dreamed about after Marvin's death before, he just sat there in the still silence listening to the beat of his heart. He hadn't actually given it a lot of thought or any thought, he tried very hard not to think of anything related to the whole ordeal but now... Had he dreamed it correctly? His savior couldn't possibly be one of the Shadows, the Shadows who were responsible for his grandfather losing his soul, Molly's mother losing her life - not to mention countless others - and who had nearly cost Professor Ashain his.

They couldn't have been involved in his rescue, they were responsible for so much pain and death, why would they even want to save him from his own pain and death? They couldn't be... Or could they? He'd known for awhile the man who had claimed to have saved him wasn't the man who'd saved him. He'd always thought the Shadows' symbol looked familiar. And his grandfather had been involved with them, maybe he'd had a hand in Scorpius' freedom? Had his other family members been involved with the Shadows if they really had hired them to save him? No, the Shadows weren't involved, Scorpius told himself firmly and hugged his knees to his chest, he couldn't owe his life to the maniacs he was trying to stop and destroy.

His thoughts drifted to the boy from his dreams the previous year, the Shadows had been involved with hie entire ordeal, it was the only way he could've known about the attack on Azkaban before it actually happened if the six fingered man and the others had been involved with it. NO, it was a dream! he told himself even more forcefully, or more likely some kind of semi-mental breakdown but it hadn't been real. He knew it hadn't. It couldn't have been, people just weren't randomly connected to each other mentally. And it had been muggles who'd hurt him and only muggles, magical folk were still safe to be around. It was just muggles. It couldn't have been real, he refused to believe it was real.

There were other explanations, it was all psychological especially since now he knew his grandfather had been involved with the Shadows. Subconsciously Scorpius must have realized his grandfather was involved with the Shadows and realized his grandfather at least knew about the attack on Azkaban and the Shadows and Azkaban had worked their way into his dreams, a Bludger to the head had just knocked a few bristles off his broom and caused it all. Now was the same, talking about missing boys earlier and everything Shadow-fighting orientated with Varanian had just combined them into his dream. He'd been hurt and distraught and it had been so dark there was no way Scorpius could have noticed the symbol, he wasn't that observant, it had just been melded into the memory because it was on his mind. Simple.

Scorpius was gratefully pulled from his thoughts by the sounds of rustling and movement, he was surprised as it seemed really early for someone to be up. He carefully reached out and pulled back one of the drapes, seeing Michael was the source of the noise. He was awake and fully dressed in his school robes, holding that letter in his hands again as he scanned it with his mismatched eyes.

"That from your mother?" Scorpius asked quietly, partly for curiosity and partly to take his mind off his thoughts. Michael pocketed it as he shook his head.

"Its from my stepdad," Michael answered in a whisper, "its really early, go back to sleep."

"Why are you up?"

"I always get up this early for breakfast."

"Can I come?"

"If you don't mind missing out on some sleep then sure."

"I couldn't sleep right now if I tried," Scorpius admitted closing the drapes, "just give me a minute to get dressed."

"Okay."

Scorpius got dressed quickly and pulled back the drapes to find Michael had gone on without him, frustratedly Scorpius threw his arms in the air and headed down to the Common Room. He immediately regretted his frustration when he realized Michael was waiting for him down there instead, hovering near the exit scanning over his stepdad's letter again that he immediately put away when he noticed Scorpius was there.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Michael wondered curiously as they headed out.

"Wasn't sure you'd wait for me, you didn't yesterday," Scorpius pointed out, "we spent ages trying to find you."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? Because we're your friends and we like hanging out with you. Don't you like hanging out with us?"

"I don't like hanging out with Rose's boyfriend and his Ravenclaw friends."

"I'm not keen on them either, in fact yesterday I excused myself and did my homework alone. I don't mean them, I mean you know us being friends again and you not wondering off alone all the time."

"I'm not alone all the time," Michael protested.

"Well good because its not healthy or safe, especially with the Aurors around."

"The Aurors are here for our protection."

"What we really need though is protection from them," Scorpius pointed seriously and Michael looked at him with an anxious expression, "what?"

"You just sound kind of paranoid is all," Michael said worriedly, "what did the Aurors ever do to you?"

"Aside from unfairly stalking my family and assuming they're involved with the Shadows? They refuse to believe me about Varanian being innocent," Scorpius explained and bit his tongue, he couldn't tell Michael about the attempt on Varanian's life.

"Scorpius, I'm not even sure that I believe you about Varanian being innocent."

"How can you even say that?!" Scorpius gasped in shock, of all people he expected Michael to believe him.

"Don't get me wrong, I think the Aurors were wrong to be so dismissive of you and I believe you about Duvall and I don't think Varanian did anything to yours or Calderon's memories and I don't think he's really the Shadow Master either. I mean if no Shadows have been caught because they have the resources to remain underground then surly they would have the resources to hide their leader but there's been sightings of Varanian, clearly Varanian does not have access to the resources of the Shadows," Michael informed him, "but that doesn't mean Varanian himself is innocent and that he was being controlled, he could have had some kind of deal with the Shadows that went sour."

"He was possessed, Michael trust me, I know he was. He feels terrible about it and he'd risk his life doing something good to make up for it," Scorpius said and realized he was subconsciously fiddling with the ring he could use to communicate with Varanian, he quickly let go but Michael seemed to notice anyway, "I'd bet my life on it."

"Okay... Is that a wedding ring?"

"Of course not, its just something my grandmother gave me for good luck. You know grandmothers."

"I nearly knew my grandmothers, they both died long before I was born," Michael told him quietly as they reached the Great Hall, it was nearly empty except for the Flying Instructor, an older Ravenclaw girl and a boy he recognized as the Ravenclaw Seeker, "grandfathers too."

"Well I didn't know that, you don't talk much about your family," Scorpius pointed out as they sat down at the Gryffindor table and started putting food onto their plates.

"Not much to say," Michael told him indifferently as he went to pour some juice only to miss the goblet and pour it onto the table instead, a mixture of hurt and frustration crossed his face as he hastily tried to clean it up, "stupid eye."

"Do you want some help?" Scorpius offered as he started to dab at the spilled liquid with a napkin.

"No!" Michael snapped and pushed his hands away, "I can do it!"

"Okay," Scorpius muttered resignedly as he sadly watched Michael clean it up, "does... does that happen often?"

"No... Not that I'm getting used to it anyway, have to be more observant to make up for the lack of an eye, depth perception and stuff."

"You know, you could always get a prosthetic eye," Scorpius offered cautiously as they went back to eating their food, "they're really good, you can actually see out of them and they can actually see better than your real eye."

"I don't need a prosthetic eye, I still have my eye, see," Michael protested as he gestured to the grotesque eye with the scar running through it.

"But you can't see out of it so its... useless, you'd be better off with a prosthetic and I can pay for it."

"My eye isn't useless! It still looks up and down or left and right when I look and... and if there's light then everything is pitch white instead of pitch black or a lighter black..."

"But a prosthetic could see properly and they can do cool things like see through things and-"

"I don't want a magical prosthetic eye that can do things!" Michael interrupted looking even more upset, "I... I want my eye."

"Even though its useless?"

"Its not useless! I'm not ripping out my actual flesh and blood eye to replace it with a cold hard magical lump. It could get better."

"I don't think..." Scorpius started to say but trailed off as he noticed Michael wiping an eye quickly, aggravating and upsetting him probably wasn't the best way to prepare their relationship, "so um... did I miss anything interesting?"

"Calderon really outdid himself on Halloween," Michael shrugged prodding at his food with a melancholy expression but seemed to visibly relax at the change of subject, "obviously you missed class stuff, I have notes you could look at but you probably couldn't read them and the teachers seem to be trying to help you catch up in your own time anyway. You missed Quidditch practice too, Molly was hysterical at losing three of her team."

"You still have Quidditch practice?" Scorpius wondered brightly recalling how much Michael had liked it before but disappointingly his friend shook his head and Scorpius' spirits sank.

"The crack in the face skull and muscle damage needs time to heal, meaning I can't fly until then which the healer thinks won't be until late December to the New Year. Albus didn't get to take my place though, Molly said he wouldn't be her first choice after Louis anyway."

"Well that's not too bad, I mean you'll miss the match against Slytherin but you should be able to play against Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw in the new year."

"Scorpius, one eyed people can't be Quidditch players," Michael pointed out solemnly and Scorpius bit back the urge to comment that a prosthetic would solve that problem, "prob-probably for the best, the team is better off with Louis. He'll do a better job then I ever could."

"You should talk to Mol... Did you know Molly has a boyfriend?" Scorpius asked bitterly before he could stop himself.

"Yeah, Abby's older brother," Michael nodded.

"It sucks."

"I know."

"What do you think I should do about it?" Scorpius wondered, both to keep the conversation going and out of curiosity.

"What I think you should do?" Michael repeated thoughtfully, "what do you want do to?"

"I don't know, I want her to like me and date me not him but I don't know how and I think it would be cruel to try break them up."

"If you want her to go out with you then just do nothing."

"Do nothing?"

"Odds are it won't last but if you act angry or cold towards her because you're upset about her dating Nick then you'll lose her friendship and any chance you have of ever being with her. So remain friends with her, she's had enough people deserting her anyway, if you're still friends then she still likes you and it proves your loyal and care about her. Then when they break up, you'll still be on good terms and will have a chance with her."

"You really think that will work?"

"I don't know but its the best advice I got," Michael shrugged as he shoveled down his food while Scorpius picked at his.

"What if they don't break up?" Scorpius wondered worriedly.

"Then if you really care about her, you'll just be glad that she's happy."

---

"What do you mean you're not the Shadow Master?" Brutus wondered looking at Sal, "what does that even mean?"

"Well all shadows - not just the Shadows of Dementors - are attached to whatever person or animal or object or thing or whatever they came from, those things are like the shadow's master. If a Shadow is broken from the Dementor then the person who broke it away becomes its new master and it follows them instead, unlike normal shadows though they can be separate from the master if that's what master wills but still completely under their control," Sal explained pacing around and eying the Shadows with a curious expression, "and I'm not the Shadow Master, I didn't break them from the Dementors. But you know, I wonder if its possible to break them from their master just like how they can be magically broken away from the Dementors."

"I don't know or care," Brutus admitted truthfully, he didn't like being around Dementors and Shadows, even more so than Death Eaters or his grandparents, "if you didn't break them away from Dementors then who did?"

"Who do you think?" Sal retorted folding her arms and jerked her head at her sleeping brother, "Tommy's the Shadow Master not me."

"Tommy?"

"Does it really surprise you after what you've seen him do accidentally with magic before? He tried to get rid of them before but all he got was less control and they remained bound to him, when this other prisoner grabbed him through the bars the Shadow leaped to his defense and took the guy's soul. Tommy tried to make it stop but failed, it attacked someone else and he managed to get it back under his control before the person lost their soul, that's why he doesn't free them but they're always there."

"Well that's... not disturbing at all," Brutus offered sarcastically and shivered.

"No its not," Sal nodded in agreement, not seeming to notice the sarcasm, "it could be useful, Brutus, if I was the Shadow Master then I could use them to free myself. Imagine what you could do with Shadows at your command."

"I'd really rather not."

---

Scorpius found Tuesday to have a similar pattern to Monday, Michael left the Great Hall after he'd finished breakfast when everyone started to arrive and just went to wait at History of Magic early. Scorpius still struggled for conversation which was particularly frustrating since he craved the distraction of having to worry about the Shadows potential involvement in his rescue from the Shadows, Michael seemed as indifferent to the silences as he was to the conversation. At least Michael was slightly better at waiting for him when they were leaving classes although again he slipped away during lunch when Scorpius was distracted by being greeted by Corin, he also noticed Michael took unnecessarily long routes to classes and seemed to try to sit as far away from everyone else as possible. At least he got to have a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Ashain again and unlike his friends, Professor Ashain seemed his usual self.

Then it was Quidditch practice.

It was the first time that Scorpius had ever truly dreaded a Quidditch practice, fearing both that he'd be so badly rusty after a few weeks of no lying that he'd be terrible he would let Molly down and also fearing seeing Molly herself. It was also the first time he'd not looked forward to spending time with her. He wasn't looking forward to seeing James either or that Michael wouldn't be there, in the ideal world it would be the other way around with Michael there and James gone but unfortunately for Scorpius it wasn't.

You could have cut the tension in the air with a knife, the rest of the team went completely silent and looked between James and Scorpius unsurly. James eyed him with a familiar look of loathing and kept glaring at the rest of the team as if bothered by their lack of greeting, Latimer alone seemed unfazed and promptly went over to Scorpius to strike up conversation about how he was finding being back. James looked at Latimer like he was something disgusting at the bottom of his show before attempting to talk to his cousins and Freddie's girlfriend, Scorpius was too busy talking with Latimer about trivial things to hear but he noticed James' mouth moving a lot more than theirs and James seemed frustrated.

"Alright team!" Molly announced as she arrived briskly, Scorpius' breath caught in his throat as he drank in the sight of her, her fiery hair billowing beautifully in the wind behind her. His palms were sweating again as they all turned their attention to her, "as you know, we are supposed to play Slytherin this weekend while Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw play each other two weeks after that. Due to events though, it has been agreed that we swap so Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw play this weekend while we take on Slytherin in their slot. So you can relax slightly as we will have more than a week to prepare with our returned team members.

"Now James and Scor, very obviously you have issues with each other but Calderon's complete lack of interest in Quidditch spared you from being banned from the team. For now I'm keeping you on the team, however if you put one toe out of line, any dueling, any fighting or otherwise causing harm to each other or fellow team members, any spitting, slapping, any exchanging of words not positive or related to Quidditch, even so much as looking at each other funny and you will be off the team, you'll have to face the unspeakable wrath of a Quidditch Captain scorned and I hope you survive to regret it. Understood?"

"Yes," Scorpius and James said in unison.

"Excellent now get in the air, we have work to do!"

Molly seemed serious about her speech, the only really noticeable difference in practice was that she did seem to be keeping an exceedingly close eye on Scorpius and James if they were in the vicinity of each other. The threat of missing out on Quidditch seemed to work for James because he avoided glaring or snide comments, he seemed determined to ignore Scorpius completely in fact. Scorpius was surprised and also surprised by how well he was playing, he may not have been playing Quidditch during his suspension but Varanian's incessant dodging practice had honed his reflexes in a way Scorpius hadn't expected, several of the team praised his reflexes and agility - including Molly - which he had a feeling irked the slightly rusty James, who apparently hadn't been allowed fly as part of his punishment. Scorpius didn't find it as relaxing as usual, in fact it just made him feel guilty. Why should he be allowed to do something he loved when Michael couldn't because of him?

"You gonna help me pack up?" Molly asked of Scorpius after she called the practice to a end, Scorpius nodded numbly and went to help her as he had done before while the others headed back to the castle.

"I um... heard you have a boyfriend," Scorpius couldn't help but say slowly, Molly smiled to his surprise, "is he... is he nice?"

"Yeah he is, Nick Longbottom, he's really great. But don't worry, it won't effect Quidditch, we have this deal about it you see, Keeper's Code of Honor, Nick calls it but..." Molly told him cheerfully before seeming to calm herself which Scorpius felt his heart twist so painfully it hurt to hear her talking so happily about her boyfriend, he wished so badly it was him not Nick, "not what I wanted to talk about. Did you have a good suspension?"

"Was alright," Scorpius commented trying to seem nonchalant as he gave a vague shrug.

"I'm glad, I was worried how you'd be. I almost wrote to you but I was kind of mad at you for what you two did to Michael."

"I don't blame you, I wish I could take it back."

"I know and that's why I forgive you especially since its not wholly your fault, James shares culpability as far as I'm concerned," Molly told him before sighing quietly, "its probably partially my fault too... I dreamed about him getting hurt, jumping in front of a spell and getting blinded in that eye. I didn't see who did it in my dream but I saw him get hurt, if I had warned him... I don't know, maybe it would have made a difference."

"You shouldn't blame yourself, it was just a dream."

"Its another dream I had that came true and maybe it wouldn't have if I wasn't in such denial about my dreams, just because I don't want it to be true that I might be a Seer doesn't mean it isn't true. You can't deny the truth forever," Molly explained and Scorpius was reminded of everything he'd been trying to push out of his mind but he angrily shoved it away again, he wasn't denying any truths because he knew things weren't true, "I just wanted to ask you if you're sure you can handle practicing with James or I'll have to alternate the sessions you come to so you're not together, I don't want anyone else to get hurt again if I can help it and I know James can be an ass."

"I'll be fine," Scorpius promised.

"Good. Glad to have you back, my friend."

---

Part 3: First Years

---

Scorpius finished helping Molly pack up and they headed back inside, splitting up sooner than usual because she was meeting Nick in the dungeons. He stalked back in the direction of the Common Rooms furiously, the curse words he'd heard from Professor Ashain rolling through his mind. He wanted to be the one Molly was meeting in the dungeons, he wanted his name to be the one that made her face light up, he wanted to be her boyfriend not her friend, it practically sounded like an insult. He knew he shouldn't still like her but he did, he wanted to be the one dating her and he hated that he hadn't done something about it sooner. Not that he could have anyway, he didn't know how to make someone like you or how to get them to go out with you, it couldn't be as simple as just asking. He knew he didn't deserve her, he should be happy that she was happy but he still wished she was with him instead and he couldn't make it stop.

"Hey- Hey wait up!" a voice called and Scorpius froze in horror mid-step, his heart thundering in his chest that after all that time the voice had returned only for Orous to come over from behind him to stand by his side.

"Don't come up behind me, you scared the life out of me," Scorpius complained with a heavy sigh as he relaxed greatly, "I thought I was hearing voices."

"Sorry," Orous mumbled looking down, his voice dropping to his usual low volume and Scorpius noticed some black liquid that looked like ink was matted into the pure white hair and dripping down, "you just didn't seem to notice or stop when I was calling you until I spoke up, you walked right past me."

"Sorry I had stuff on my mind. What happened to your hair?"

"I ran into James and his friends... He took my quill and ink, snapped my quill and poured the ink on my head and said I should be happy and grateful that now I look more normal. But I don't, now I have to wash it off and I have no ink."

"That evil jerk," Scorpius spat angrily, "he hasn't even been back in school that long!"

"Its nothing new, his friends picked on me and Vern all the time while James was suspended. They pick on Michael too, they blame him for James getting suspended."

"Why don't you tell someone?"

"I don't want my dad to worry, he's been very sad since my mum left and I don't want him to think I'm weak either... But its not important, I just wanted to show you something," Orous told him and pulled some parchment out of his robes, "remember when you said that I couldn't make a map of the school?"

"Yeah," Scorpius said slowly as he vaguely recalled it, Orous pushed the paper into his hands nervously.

"I did it. The map of the school. That's it."

Scorpius carefully looked at the parchment, noticing it was all folded up neatly but when you opening it, he saw in fact that it was a map of Hogwarts and accurate too. Orous had drawn all the lines very carefully the walls, doors, even windows were on it and he'd marked the names of the rooms in his neat little handwriting, Scorpius was actually impressed. And then he noticed that Orous had marked a room as 'The Room That Doesn't Exist' on the corridor that Michael had thought there'd been a room before but they hadn't been able to find it.

"Well I guess you were right. Its very good, Orous, but... The Room that Doesn't Exist? There is no room on that floor, Michael got it confused with someplace else."

"No, its there, that's where Michael goes a lot."

"There's no room there," Scorpius pointed out slowly and firmly as Orous took the map back, carefully folding it up, "when did you start hanging out with Michael?"

"Sometimes he helps us with homework and stuff. Plus we both eat breakfast really earlier, if we get there at the similar times then we eat together. He's really kind."

"What happened to you?!" Corin's voice demanded so loudly that Orous jumped and looked around fearfully until he saw it was just Corin and Maurice, relaxing slightly which still made him seem on edge, the younger boy always looked somewhat on edge just like he always looked sad. There was still something about him that Scorpius couldn't quite put his finger on.

"James," Orous answered in a nervous whisper, "its not important. I'm just going wash it off, I finished showing Scorpius my map."

"You have got to learn to stand up for yourself," Maurice pointed out with a disapproving snort, "you're more than capable, just do what Scorpius did only make sure that you hit him and not Michael. Try it horizontally then you may be able to get both eyes in one slash."

"Maurice!" Corin burst out in exasperation but Maurice's seemed unfazed.

"What? Jerk deserves it. Its not like they don't have prosthetic eyes anyway, be good for him to see what its like to suffer for a change instead of inflicting it on others."

"I don't want to hurt anyone," Orous mumbled staring down miserable at his ink-spattered feet, "not even James."

"Or get suspended or expelled," Scorpius added and the others except Maurice nodded in agreement.

"You've been spending too much time with Michael, pacifism is tiresome. Do you want to be weak?"

"Michael isn't weak," Scorpius growled defensively and guiltily, "it had to take a lot of courage to do what he did."

"I didn't mean Michael! Just pacifism in general, my father says to never start a fight but always finish one. Not wanting to go around picking fights is different to defending yourself or at least trying to defend yourself, if we all lived with that in mind then the Specters- Shadows rather, would have won already."

"Still struggling with the Patronus?" Orous asked quietly, whether he just wanted to change the subject or figured it was on his mind

"No," Maurice answered severely and upset flickered in the oceans in his eyes.

"How is that going?" Scorpius questioned curiously, recalling for the first time that he'd been meaning to try it again now he was back in Hogwarts with Varanian's advice about the emotions being what was important not the memory itself.

"Everyone except Maurice and Orous have made some speck silver at least once in our year."

"I haven't either. Its a difficult spell and its understandable that none of us have got it yet."

"Its just unfortunate because its the probably the most useful spell we'll learn with the Specters."

"Some people are untouchable to them," Orous said quietly.

"Its usefulness doesn't matter," Maurice said in a grim tone, "Father says if I haven't made anything silver at least once by Christmas then I'm in big trouble."

"Your father would punish you for not being able to cast a spell that's way beyond your skill level?" Scorpius wondered in surprise when Maurice looked at him again.

"Of course," Maurice informed him as he averted his eyes which was unusual for him, he always had to keep his eyes on them or he wouldn't be able to read their words

"Some parents aren't as nice and fair as others," Corin pointed out morosely, "you know, Maurice, you could always-"

"You promised, Corin, don't you dare say a word," Maurice interrupted darkly and Corin shifted guiltily before peering down at Scorpius curiously.

It was lost on Scorpius what they were talking about and from the befuddled glance he exchanged with Orous' crimson eyes, he didn't think Orous knew either. It made him feel slightly guilty though, whatever it was Corin seemed to be keeping his promise whereas he'd broken his to Michael and it had cost his friend his eye. His insides twisted up painfully as he wondered if that was why Michael had risked jumping in front of the Acutus Curse, had he thought Scorpius would remember and keep his promise and not be casting such a dangerous spell at James again? If Michael did forgive him then he didn't deserve it.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but your parents must be really nice for former Death Eaters."

"Err... thanks," Scorpius muttered.

"Well what do we have here?" James' mocking tone interrupted their conversation, they glanced up and saw him at the top of the stairs, he'd changed out of his Quidditch clothes and found his gang, he pocketed a wad of parchment when he saw them, "you're one dumb Dursley short of a freakshow gathering."

"You're supposed to stay away from me," Scorpius told him threateningly and James met his eyes coldly.

"Your freaky firsty friends are fair game though, this is aimed at them so either run along or get in the way and get expelled for not staying away from me."

Scorpius pondered his options. He thought James was probably right, if he only was picking on the others then he was technically staying away from Scorpius so Scorpius would be the one to initiate a fight if he tried to defend them. His training with Varanian was fresh in his mind and screaming to be used but he knew he couldn't do that, he also couldn't just knowingly leave them. He wondered if James had planned it purposely to try get him expelled or just realized the situation as it happened.

"Vern isn't dumb," Orous pointed out defensively, albeit quietly but still louder than usual which was normal volume for everyone else, there was something about his voice when he spoke normally that reminded Scorpius of something.

"He's too far away the pendant isn't translating it, what is he saying?" Maurice wondered and Corin made movements with his hands again.

"Shut up freak, no one was talking to you," one of James' friends snapped and Orous flinched fearfully fiddling with his map.

"Hey! No one calls me a freak and gets away with it!" Maurice yelled so loudly that Scorpius actually cringed, "was that shouting?! I was trying to shout!"

"Yes!" Corin hissed as the rest of them nodded while James' friends chuckled, James went to take a step forwards as he spoke.

"I can call you whatever I want, you deaf freak son of a child-kidnapping psycho-"

The rest of James' sentence was cut off as Maurice's spell struck his ankles, he'd moved so fast that Scorpius had barely registered the wand being drawn let alone the bullies. Despite everything, Scorpius admired Maurice's aim as James' ankles snapped together violently causing the older boy to completely lose his balance and tumble down the stairs. James' friends moved hastily to help and draw their own wands but Maurice had moved onto them while James was still falling, muttering the curses under his breath so quietly it was barely audible but Scorpius was proud to recognize it as the Full Body-Bind Curse movement from his sessions with Varanian. They started falling before James was at the bottom of the stairs, their limbs snapping together causing them to topple down like dominoes and join their leader.

It happened so quickly and efficiently that no one had enough to react, a few of James' friends had managed to get their wands out but none got so far as even firing a counter spell, Scorpius and Corin had done nothing to stop it - why would they? - and Orous was knocked over by one of James' friends on his way down giving him no chance to react even if he wanted to. He started scrambling to his feet quickly and flinched when Corin went to help him, Corin looked slightly confused and backed off as Orous snatched up his wad of map from the ground.

James' gang may have been completely immobilized but James wasn't, his hand went for his wand the second his body stopped moving and Maurice wordlessly slammed his foot down on James' hand to pin it while keeping his wand very steadily aimed at James. James tried and failed not to wince as Maurice's foot collided with his hand, trying uselessly to get up off his stomach before turning his brown eyes to gaze at the younger boy with a look of loathing that Scorpius hadn't seen directed at anyone else but him before, Maurice's expression on the other hand remained as neutral as ever, he hadn't even broken a sweat. Scorpius had expected to see anger from James' comments - although it dawned on him that the deaf boy had been unable to catch James' last sentence - or possibly delight at getting one up on James and his gang but Maurice's expression betrayed no hint of what he was feeling or thinking but he met the older boy's eyes unblinkingly before they darted to Corin.

"What was the thing he was saying at the top of the stairs?" Maurice questioned of his friend, Corin made movements with his hand as the necklace seemed forgotten. Maurice's eyes darkened as they went back to James, "don't say a word against my father."

"I can say what I want," James spat furiously despite the futility of his situation, again Maurice's eyes flicked to Corin to wordlessly translate, "let me go now and maybe I'll go easy on you, Rivers."

"Apologize."

"Apologize?!"

"Did I stutter? I wasn't trying to. Apologize for the things you've said to my friends, the things you've done to them and for insulting me, then I'll let you go."

"Drop dead."

The second Corin's hands stopped moving, Maurice launched his free foot at James' face, specifically his mouth. There was a sickening crack that time as his boot hit, Orous jumped at the sound and Scorpius had a feeling that he would have reacted worse if it had been more than one kick. Scorpius had a feeling he would objected himself if it was more than one kick, he braced himself ready to argue against the logic of beating James up. As it was, the one had done enough damage, from little Scorpius could see through the blood, some of James' teeth were smashed. Maurice muttered the curse one last time and James' limbs sprang together like those of his gang, the gang that Scorpius noticed still had eyes darting frantically around.

"Should have apologized," Maurice shrugged, turning on his heel to walk away. Scorpius, Corin and Orous hastily jogged after him, he stopped when they were out of earshot of the bullies and smirked his cold smile as his hand went to his translator necklace, "and that, Orous, is how you deal with bullies and as you saw, I didn't even blind them."

"You smashed his teeth in!" Orous protested looking upset, "are you really just going to leave them there frozen?"

"Yes. They'd leave us, someone will find them and revive them sooner or later."

"You shouldn't sink to their level."

"I didn't sink to their level, I acted in defense of myself and the group. Very calmly and effectively I dealt with the threat, what is so wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Corin affirmed, "I wouldn't have added the kick myself but otherwise, tres bien. They poured ink in your hair earlier and have tormented you all year, how can you possibly feel sorry for them?"

"I don't feel sorry for them, I feel sorry for you," Orous said quietly, "there's a fine line between some things, when punishment becomes abuse, when justice becomes revenge, when fighting back becomes just fighting, one becomes the other when you go too far and attacking subdued people is going too far."

"If I revived them then they wouldn't be subdued anymore," Maurice pointed out and Orous sighed, the boy looked so tired and sad.

"Kindness does a lot than cruelty. The Shadows are going to destroy the world we know, there'll be enough cruelty then, we may as well use kindness while we have it."

"The Shadows are going to be stopped and the Shadow Master is going to die," Scorpius heard himself say before he realized his lips were moving but Orous just shook his head sadly.

"People will try to stop them, try to fight back but they won't succeed. The Shadows are too strong, there's no hope."

"How can you even think like that?!"

"Because its the truth."

"So what, you think everyone should just give up and give them whatever it is they want?!" Maurice demanded seeming to share in Scorpius' belief about the limited days of the Shadows and Orous shook his head again.

"No, sometimes its worth fighting a losing battle just so that you can say that at least you fought and tried with all the strength you had. My dad always says that it doesn't matter if you win or lose if you just try, you should always try your hardest even if you're pretty much dead already. We've still lost though, you can't beat the Shadows or their Master," Orous told them solemnly, "please can you revive them, James should get his teeth seem to in case he chokes on his blood or something."

"He's on his stomach, he'll be fine. You revive him if you want."

"I don't know the spell."

"Oh well then, dilemma solved, let's go to dinner."

"You go, I'm going to find Michael. He'll know the spell."

---

Part 4: Routine

---

The following day Scorpius got his answer from Dom, Aurelius was willing to let him use the vultures but they weren't owls and he had to turn into his animagus form to tell them where to go. Meaning they would have to fly back to Aurelius first so he could tell them the address on the letter so they'd know where to do, unless he had another way of communicating with birds. Scorpius thought it could work, they could use another address just for mail like the Embry's perhaps but wasn't sure Varanian would go for it so he decided to wait until Varanian contacted him again or until he had desperate need of a letter before he worried it. He told Dom to thank Aurelius regardless and he'd ask again if he needed it.

The next week flew by, it reminded him of his first year when he'd had chunks of his free time taken by his detentions and Quidditch practices only this time it was catch-up sessions and Quidditch practices. It wasn't actually bad, Scorpius preferred being busy to distract from his gloomy thoughts over the Shadows and Michael's eye. Scorpius wondered if it made him a bad person for almost preferring one-on-one sessions with his teachers as opposed to in classes, they got through it at his own pace which was faster than they would otherwise of done.

History of Magic and Charms were the only subjects he didn't have extra sessions for, Binns just told him to read certain bits of a text book which actually was the best thing he'd ever heard from the ghost. It was almost interesting when reading about it from a text book, it made Scorpius realize how Michael could possibly enjoy the subject. Grant expected him to catch up in his own time and test him on it later, Scorpius got the impression he just didn't want to spend time helping him and the feeling was mutual. It wasn't safe to be around someone working for the Shadows if he could help it, Grant might try something especially now he was healed. Also Astronomy was caught up in one night of arriving hours before class, only having one lesson a week meant there was less that he'd missed.

The downside was not being able to spend time with his friends which was unusually difficult, Michael was still being distant and Rose seemed determined to spend a lot of time with her boyfriend and his Ravenclaw friends. Abby and Albus didn't seem to mind hanging out with the Ravenclaws or Scorpius and Michael, however usually by the time Scorpius' session were finished they were already with the Ravenclaws and it would be rude to get them away when the Ravenclaws welcomed Scorpius to join them. Michael wasn't. As Scorpius learned on Thursday when he slipped into the library and saw the others sitting with the Ravenclaws, immediately going to leave having no desire to be around them only to run into Rose's boyfriend, Devin Copper.

"What's the rush, friend?" Copper asked with a flash of white teeth.

"Friend?" Scorpius repeated finding it odd to be called that by someone he barely knew.

"Any friend of my girlfriend is a friend of mine."

"Well I have to go find my friend."

"Your friends are already there," Copper offered gesturing to the table as he tossed his head slightly to get his curly brown hair out of his eyes, hazel eyes like Michael's use to be only a duller different shade, "Rose, Al Potter and the professor's daughter."

"I was looking for Michael," Scorpius informed him, disliking the way Copper referred to Abby as the 'professor's daughter.'

"Michael Sanford?" Copper repeated looking surprised and for just a second Scorpius thought it was understandable he'd be confused after the Acutus incident before Copper continued, "why would you want to be friends with someone like him?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean you're obviously smart and talented like we are and he's not, guy's a loser, he's useless, he can't do magic well and he's practically illiterate," Copper explained with a confident smirk and Scorpius felt his wrist burning, "he's clearly just trying to befriend people to advance himself because he's never going to get anywhere himself especially not with that grotesque eye that makes you want to throw up just from looking at it and hideous scar, the professor's daughter not to mention her sister, Harry Potter's son, Harry Potter's closest friends daughter and the boy who banished the shadows. He's just holding you back."

"Holding me back?" Scorpius managed to get out through gritted teeth as his fist clenched while Copper nodded, "wait you didn't say this to him, did you?"

"Of course not," Copper said with exaggeration without losing his smile or blinking.

Scorpius hadn't trusted himself to speak, thankfully he hadn't had to as suddenly their were shouts as Copper's essay had abruptly caught fire. The Ravenclaw rushed off to deal with and Scorpius slipped away without a shred of guilt, serves him right. He wasn't going near the Ravenclaws after that. But he was afraid to tell the others about what Copper had said, what if they didn't believe him? Or worse, Copper had said the same thing to them and they actually believed him. He was afraid to ask Michael about it too, he was afraid of saying anything to upset his friend in case Michael took back his forgiveness.

Scorpius never thought he would have been able to honestly say he preferred Varanian's company but he did, it was better than having your friends frustratingly scattered. On the other hand, Corin and Maurice still wanted to hang out with him as did Orous and by extension Vern, he found himself spending time with the first years more often when Michael was vanished and the others were with Copper. Scorpius had tried to find the mystery room, just in case but once more he was met with an empty corridor and no door. He tried tapping on bricks, guessing passwords at random but no door nor room appeared so he gave up and returned to his dormitory.

James had been leaving him alone just like he'd promised though, although Scorpius was still greeted with looks of loathing that James also extended to Maurice as did James' friends. The day after though, James did storm over to them at breakfast and demand to know who had stolen his map much to everyone's confusion, James had angrily stalked away when they started asking what he was talking about. It was the last time Scorpius had actually spoken to them, they went through practices without speaking a word to each other and instead James focused his insults on Latimer. Maurice was never in trouble, Scorpius supposed the older boys were too humiliated about being incapacitated by a first year to speak up and one of them must have healed James' teeth. Scorpius never did ask if Orous had gotten Michael to revive them or if someone else had, he was afraid of speaking about James in front of Michael in case it reminded him of what happened the last time James and Scorpius had dueled and he hadn't wanted to risk upsetting Orous either, he seemed more on edge than usual.

Quidditch practices even seemed different to before, like Professor Longbottom the team - minus Molly and Latimer - seemed colder to him but started to be themselves more as time progressed. Except James who still avoided him and cast him looks that Scorpius was sure James wished would kill. Some practices Nick would come meet Molly afterwards, his wrist burned every time and one time they actually kissed in front of him, the stand closest to Nick caught fire and the Aurors rushed over from their watches to put it out, ushering them inside for their safety. Scorpius found it hard to feel sympathy, he was doing his best but every time he saw them he couldn't help but feel a gnawing hurt on his heart that she wasn't with him and a burning jealous rage towards Nick for taking him from her. He knew it was irrational, he only had himself to blame but logic wasn't good at making his emotions see reason. He was sure Latimer realized because the older boy would always touch his arm to snap him from his thoughts and offer to walk him inside, Scorpius hoped it wasn't that obvious and that Latimer was just observant but he was grateful all the same, Latimer was alright.

Scorpius still wasn't particularly enjoying being back, he felt constantly on edge especially with the Aurors and Grant lurking around and perpetually irritated by the things bothering him. He thought maybe the lack of sleep was getting to him, he was still waking up drenched in sweat and shaking most nights with his wrist searing in pain. It didn't help he struggled to get to sleep in the first place, he could hear Michael tossing, turning, sighing, quietly playing word games that seemed some attempt to sleep for hours.

Friday was the Patronus lesson that Scorpius had been looking forward to, he hadn't really had time to practice since his return but he was determined that he would succeed, it was essential if he wanted to help Varanian with the Shadows. He was slightly off-put when the lesson began though, people seemed to be having success more often than before and he even noticed Nott get a silver sliver once. Michael still had nothing though, he hadn't produced anything silvery for weeks before Scorpius' expulsion.

Scorpius focused on what Varanian had said about it being how the memory made you feel not the memory itself, he thought about when Molly had held his hand and had to repeatedly force his thoughts away from Nick to think only on the memory. He closed his eyes and imagined her hand around his, her beautiful smile lighting up her sky blue eyes.

"Expecto Patronum!"

At first Scorpius thought it was working, he felt a slight surge of power flooding into his wand but instead of bursting out as anything it shot right back, speeding back up Scorpius' arm and into the other, leaving his left feeling tingly as if he'd hit his elbow. He gasped at the pain in his wrist, he was used to the burning but this felt like his wrist was being devoured while the skin around it throbbed. His wand dropped from his fingers as he instead clutched as his wrist and did his best to breathe through it.

"Are you alright?" Michael asked concerned, looking at him with his mismatched eyes through the jagged scar, Scorpius wondered how much it had hurt.

"Fine," Scorpius lied, not wanting to tell anyone about his wrist but realized immediately that he couldn't insist nothing was wrong if he was going to hold his wrist for a while, "just a twinge in my wrist from twisting it weirdly, not a good idea to do spells with your eyes closed."

"Well don't hold in a death grip, that won't help, just massage it gently until the feeling passes."

"Okay," Scorpius nodded and he rubbed his wrist, after a few minutes the pain did recede but his worry about it kept him distracted and unfocused when he went back to trying to conjure a Patronus.

He was in a gloomy mood on Saturday, made more noticeable by the cheerful atmosphere for the Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff Quidditch match. Scorpius actually wasn't sure who to cheer for for a change, Ravenclaw was Professor Ashain's house but Hufflepuff was Orous' and he felt obligations to wish well for both sides. Rose was cheering for Ravenclaw because of her boyfriend and Albus was too while Abby was cheering for Hufflepuff as it was her elder sister's house, even if her elder sister was in Beauxbatons for the Triwizard Tournament rather than at Hogwarts and so was Corin, except because it was Vern and Orous' house not because of Abby's sister. Maurice had no intention of attending the match and Michael was gone before any of them were up so Scorpius had no idea who he was cheering for, he didn't even feel like going really. All thoughts of that went out of his head when he left the Great Hall and noticed someone walking by with his dog chasing orbs of light by his side.

"Calderon!" Scorpius called out happily.

"Whatever it is, its on my list and I'll get to it!" Calderon protested a he spun on his heel before noticing Scorpius, his body relaxed immediately as he grinned insanely, "hey Scor."

"Busy day?" Scorpius wondered coming over to him and waving the others to carry on without him as he'd catch up with them after speaking to Calderon.

"Busy job, isn't half as easy without some mad assistant running around doing most of it for you."

"Need an assistant again?"

"Be careful what you volunteer for," Calderon pointed out as two Aurors walked by on their patrols, Scorpius felt immediately on edge while Calderon also lost his smile.

"Something wrong with the Aurors?" Scorpius questioned immediately as he started walking casually further away from the crowd hurrying outside and Calderon instinctively walked with him with the dog in tow, Scorpius wasn't sure what breed it was but it was getting big.

"Not exactly wrong, dealing with them is just extra work. And I don't mind work-work but paperwork makes me want to run around pulling my hair out while the papers go up in flames, poof," Calderon answered and waved his hand as he did so to cause a flame to appear and vanish in a puff of smoke.

"Is it really that bad?"

"I suppose not if you don't mind sitting still for long periods of time."

"Why don't you just... send the Aurors away?" Scorpius asked hopefully but Calderon shook his head sadly.

"Can't do that I'm afraid."

"Why not? It'd be easier for you and the school would be better off, you can keep Hogwarts safer than they ever could, you vaporized those last guys who attacked."

"Scor!" Calderon hissed looking shocked while orange lights flared around him, he glanced around the now empty side corridor before pulling him into an empty classroom, "firstly, I'm not that great at keeping the school safe look at what happened last year and at the start of this year and secondly I didn't vaporize anyone and that's exactly why the Aurors should be here."

"I don't understand," Scorpius stated in confusion, Calderon hesitated as if unsure whether to tell him.

"Harry and I have talked a lot about what happened to the Shadows who attacked us, he thinks what you think is a possibility but I know I didn't kill them. Except that one guy who didn't vanish. That leaves two options, they managed to escape out of the school somehow or they simply managed to get out of the Great Hall and are still in the school."

"You don't think they're still in the school?"

"Its a possibility, I mean Salazar Slytherin built a secret chamber that no one discovered for a thousand years or so, its not like Hogwarts doesn't hold secrets if you know where to look," Calderon said carefully, "and if it is the right possibility then sending the Aurors away would be asking for trouble, there's a lot more students than their are staff and they can't be everywhere at once, I can't be everywhere at once, the Aurors can cover more ground. I can't send the Aurors away without knowing the attackers truly are gone, they may be a hindrance in a way but the good outweighs the bad right now."

"Okay," Scorpius nodded in understanding although he didn't feel particularly at ease and still thought it was better with the Aurors gone, what if they and Grant were helping the attackers left behind? Or were trying to get as many Shadow Aurors in Hogwarts before attacking? Scorpius didn't say that though, Varanian had told him not to because if Calderon didn't have the power to send the Aurors away then it was pointless to bother him when he had enough on his mind, "are you going to the Quidditch match?"

"What?" Calderon blinked in surprise for a moment, Scorpius didn't blame him, he'd blurted out the change of conversation so fast he'd surprised himself but he was afraid he would confide in Calderon about Varanian regardless if the conversation continued on Aurors, "no."

"Even though you're Headmaster?"

"Acting Headmaster and yes, I don't have to go so I'm not."

"What about my game in two weeks?"

"No," Calderon told him and Scorpius wished he'd picked a different change of subject, feeling his heart drop like a brick for allowing himself a sliver of hope that Calderon might see him play, he still found the former assistant's support childishly mattered to him, "what's wrong? You know I can't watch Quidditch."

"But you could, just once to try it because I bet you could control it," Scorpius shrugged uselessly, "why don't you like Quidditch anyway?"

"I don't not like it, its just... Its a dangerous game, people can get hurt and I can't just sit around and watch people get hurt or when those Bludgers fly near people's heads and they nearly get hit, the urge to do something to protect them is overwhelming. I'm sorry, Scor."

"Its okay," Scorpius lied, "I'll see you around."

Later Scorpius would regret feeling stupidly upset and leaving when he had the chance to truly talk to Calderon for the first time all year, he regretted it almost as soon as he stepped outside into the drizzling rain and he almost went back but he knew Calderon would have gone by then. Instead he trudged onto the game, Rose, Albus and Abby were sitting with the Ravenclaws to watch the match - even though Abby was wearing a hat with a stuffed badged on top and had her cheeks painted with Hufflepuff colors - and Scorpius couldn't see Michael amongst the crowd, he did see Corin with Vern and Orous though so instead went to sit with them. Orous was explaining the rules to them - or trying to, speaking quietly wasn't the best way to speak at a Qudditch game - as while both boys were aware of the game, they weren't aware of the rules or at least not in depth. Scorpius joined in the explanation to hurry it along as the match started, feeling sadly reminded of telling Michael about the game. It made Scorpius feel worse, it should of been Slytherin and Gryffindor playing and it should have been Scorpius and Michael in their air. But it wasn't. Because of him.

Scorpius noticed he wasn't the only one seeming glum, Vern and Corin watched the game with intrigue while Orous hung back and stared at the ground with his arms hugged around himself. He looked almost ready to cry and Scorpius moved back to talk to him.

"Are you okay?" Scorpius asked to which Orous nodded silently.

"My mum used to take me to Quidditch games sometimes is all. Before she stopped loving me and left," Orous told him sadly.

"I'm sorry," Scorpius offered gently, not sure what he should really say to that, he could never think of comforting things to say but decided to keep close in case Orous needed support while his mind drifted to his conversation with Calderon, he'd have to be more alert.

"Thank you."

They might not have enjoyed the game but Vern and Corin did, they seemed to become more immersed and more vocal as it went on and where cheering their heads off with the rest by the time the game ended. Scorpius thought it was only unfortunate their first team match was a loss for Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff had been winning until the Ravenclaw Seeker caught the Snitch, Hufflepuff's lack of a good Seeker was a rather big disadvantage. He had a feeling Ravenclaw knew that though, they kept Hufflepuff's attention focused on their Chaser's victories rather than on the eagle-eyed boy they should have been making more an attempt to stop. It put his other friends - except Michael and Maurice who were indifferent - in a good mood though and despite the loss, Vern and Corin were still excited about the next match which they thought was more interesting because someone they knew would be playing. Scorpius wished he could share their excitement rather than Orous' depression about it.

The next week went just as - if not more - quicker than the first week, the work continued piling on although Michael finally seemed to be making more of an effort to spend time with him and at times he, Scorpius, Vern, Orous, Corin and Maurice would wind up studying together in the library - if the Ravenclaws weren't there. It was a different dynamic than with Abby, Albus and Rose, having different things to work on in different years meant there was less discussion on their work unless it was Vern - or sometimes Corin - asking for advice about things or frequently reading their answers back and asking their opinion since they'd done it already. Orous seemed indifferent to his work, he would do it but didn't seem bothered whether he did well or not, his work was average while Corin - and surprisingly Vern - received generally good marks. Maurice neither needed nor wanted help and was the best in his class for all but Flying, his deafness made it awkward. Orous and Vern were quite good though and Corin was getting the hang of it. Orous and Maurice still hadn't done any silver yet in their Patronus lessons while the other two had, like Scorpius they excelled at spellwork otherwise but fell short on that.

Scorpius was nervous about the Patronus lesson but was determined to get through it and not worry about the strange wrist pain from last time, he couldn't let that stop him. That time he focused on last Christmas, having to forcefully shove aside the intruding thoughts about his grandfather no longer being alive and think only of the thoughts. How good it felt to just relax with his family again, like he'd never been hurt and Lyra hadn't died, like everything was okay and just for a short time everything had been okay. He focused on that and cast the spell, he felt the surge of magic and the pain in his wrist but he forced it through, he was going to do it, for his grandfather's justice, for his family's protection, for himself to prove he wasn't weak and pathetic.

He forced the magic though and silver sparks burst from the end, Scorpius had to suppress the urge to scream 'yes!' at the top of his lungs and punch the sky while Michael congratulated him as did Professor Ashain when he came over. He thought he would have if he had breathe left but he felt so drained and his wrist was agony, not just the scar but around it felt like the skin had been ripped off leaving it feeling raw. He was glad his face seemed stuck on smile because he wasn't sure he could've kept his wrist from them otherwise, but he was smiling because he knew then that he could cast a Patronus, with time and practice. He wasn't evil, he was good and so were the Malfoys and he was strong not weak and powerful not pathetic, in that moment he actually felt so good that the pain barely touched him.

His good mood carried him through the pain even though he had to go to bed after lessons were over, he knew it was possibly a waste of time but he felt so tired. He looked at his wrist after the drapes were closed, the bruising-that-wasn't-bruising seemed a lot lighter and the scar itself didn't seem as bulging. He wasn't sure what caused the pain or the not-bruising or if he was simply imaging the changes and he didn't wand to know, it was caused by muggles and he didn't want to know. Whatever it was, he wasn't letting it beat him and that was definitely the best and most important thing.

---

Brutus found his routine was changed by Achan's decision to join the Death Eater's, he was very determined that they should be on assignments together if possible and as Achan proved his abilities they started giving him what he wanted. Brutus wondered if he was a bad friend for being bothered at first, Achan bragged about torturing and killing his targets in excruciating detail, it made his eyes light up while Brutus felt his go dark. If it wasn't mudbloods, blood-traitors, half-bloods and muggles being the ones suffering then Brutus would have been horrified. But as it was they deserved it, they did and he had to remind himself about it a lot at first.

Then Brutus started going with him, the first one was when they were supposed to kill a blood-traitor. Achan thought it was necessary to torture him first, Brutus just had to keep the muggle wife out of the way after they subdued the blood-traitor. He took her into another room so she wouldn't have to watch her husband suffer - he wasn't being sympathetic to muggle garbage, he just thought it would maker her more compliant, he wasn't sympathetic, he had to tell himself that a lot too - but his screams still upset her. Brutus was glad they weren't high-pitched screams like Tommy or Sal's or he thought he would have been upset too, the woman just sobbed and begged him to help. After an hour, the man was still screaming and Brutus couldn't stand it anymore.

Brutus marched into the other room, he'd been going to tell Achan to hurry up but seeing the man stopped him. Achan hadn't just been using the Cruciatus Curse, the man looked mangled, bloody and had one hand less than he'd had at the start while Achan simply grinned with sadistic delight and raised his wand on the man again. Brutus was faster, the killing curse passed his lips before he realized what he was doing and the man was dead. The man's pain was over. The mission was complete. The world was a better place without a blood-traitor. They could go home. Death Eaters wouldn't kill his family for failing. He'd done the right thing, they hadn't been told to torture, it was an unnecessary cruelty. Even if he was a blood-traitor. At the very least, Brutus didn't like listening to it.

"Now to get rid of the witness," Achan announced cheerfully.

Without missing a step or losing his smile, Achan skipped into the other room and the second round of screaming began. Brutus stood still for a while, listening and staring at the mangled body of the man he'd killed. He walked back in and raised his wand again, ending the woman's life before she could reach the same stage as her husband. Achan did scowl at him then, grumbling about missing out on the fun but at least they left then.

Brutus went straight to bed even though it was only mid-afternoon, he couldn't sleep though, he couldn't even close his eyes, they remained as frozen and open as the couple he'd killed. He couldn't stop seeing the man's mangled body anymore than he could stop hearing the woman crying as she begged for his help. He didn't feel sympathy, he didn't feel bad. He didn't. But he still needed a drink, he went to fetch some of their finest bottles of Firewhiskey and drank until their voices stopped and he couldn't see them anymore, by that point he couldn't see anything anymore and he was eternally grateful.

Things didn't improve, he had to go on killing missions with Achan who was far more interested in inflicting pain than murder. More and more, Brutus found himself taking their lives because he hated the extended torture. Maybe they deserved to suffer a bit but after a certain point they were completely incapable of fighting back and it was just... pointlessly cruel. He considered himself to have a choice of killing them before they suffered too much or not killing them but having to wait until they were satisfactory destroyed before Achan did it, he wondered if his choice to kill them made him an evil bastard or a really evil bastard.

---

Scorpius overslept by a lot the next morning but he woke feeling very refreshed, pain-free and not shaking or soaked in sweat much to his delight. Michael was long gone though as were Rose, Corin and Maurice at breakfast, in fact the Great Hall was looking rather empty. Albus was still there - on the weekends he liked to dawdle as long as Vipera was still there - with Abby who seemed to have barely touched her food. She was nibbling and looking nervous, he noticed her casting glances to her father who looked equally nervous.

"What's up?" Scorpius asked of her as he sat down.

"Was about to ask you the same question, sleepy head," Albus retorted.

"Before Vipera, you used to be the sleepy head. Its one time and I was tired."

"Fair point, long as you're not coming down with something."

"I'm not," Scorpius said firmly and turned back to Abby who didn't seem to be paying much attention to them, "are you okay?"

"Just nervous," Abby shrugged and swallowed deeply.

"About what?"

"You know, my sister."

"What about her?" Scorpius wondered and both of his friends look at him with surprised eyes.

"You know because of today being the first task of the Triwizard Tournament."

"I don't understand," Scorpius pointed out feeling confused, he didn't think the people watching the tasks would be in much danger.

"You don't know?" Albus said with a raised eyebrow, "thought everyone did?"

"Know what?!"

"That my sister was chosen as the Hogwarts Triwizard Champion," Abby told him.

---

Part 5: Not Right

---

"Your sister was chosen as the Hogwarts Triwizard champion?!" Scorpius burst out in shock to which Abby nodded quietly, "which didn't you tell me?!"

"I thought you knew, I thought everyone knew," Abby pointed out, "I know you were suspended when Calderon announced the names of the three champions but it was in the papers and everything."

"I didn't know," Scorpius admitted, his aunt didn't buy the paper and he'd been getting his information from Varanian, the Triwizard Tournament being held in France probably had little to no impact on Varanian's life so either didn't know or didn't think it was worth mentioning.

"Well now you do. I'm worried about her, when Uncle Harry was in the tournament the first task was having to steal a golden egg from Dragons, Dragons. I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish Heater is facing something less life threatening but I'd also be stupid if I thought it was going to be easy, even with new safety precautions."

"I'm sure she'll be fine, she wouldn't have been chosen if she wasn't capable after all."

"Yeah, she'll do great," Albus added brightly grinning although Abby didn't exactly look convinced.

"I hope so," Abby muttered.

Albus continued offering assurances that Abby's sister would be fine and it wouldn't be that bad while they ate, Scorpius opted to just shut up about it and try change the subject to get her mind off it. He still wasn't good at thinking of things to say though, eventually they headed off together to get cracking on their homework and Scorpius was glad that for once they weren't spending time with the Ravenclaws. He'd missed them more than he realized, he just needed Michael and Rose and their group would be complete. He wouldn't mind Molly being their either, he saw her most days - Molly had them on a rigorous training schedule to make up for Scorpius and James' missing weeks of practices for the match the following week - but he missed spending time with her outside of that, he missed talking to her at meals and over homework as she spend a lot of her free time with Nick.

It was actually a hectic Saturday work wise, Scorpius was behind a whole day's worth of homework from going to bed so early before. He had a Quidditch practice later on too which would cut even more into his time, he headed off early to hand in one of the assignments - one of his extra catch up ones - he'd finished for Professor Ashain. He was slightly surprised when he found the door closed, he was in a hurry though so he simply knocked and went in without waiting for a reply.

He'd completely forgotten about Professor Ashain's children visiting over the weekend. They were there, the little girl - Cassia - was sitting at her father's desk, kneeling up and seemed to be drawing or coloring something when he came in, she stopped to look over at him though with the same eyes as her father at the same time he did, the professor seemed to have pulled up a chair beside her but rose when Scorpius entered. The boy - Antonius - didn't seem remotely interested though or maybe just didn't notice, he was sitting beside the desk with his nose buried in a book, his extremely dark auburn hair was combed as neatly back as the professor's, in stark contrast to Cassia's tangled mess of straw-colored hair.

"I'm sorry," Scorpius apologized awkwardly, "I just wanted to drop this off, I didn't know you were busy. I'll come back."

"No its okay if you're just dropping something off," Professor Ashain offered before quickly saying something to the kids that Scorpius didn't catch but he had a feeling it was along the lines of stay for a minute before coming over to him, "what do you have?"

"Just the last extra catch up assignment you gave me, thought I'd give it quick before Quidditch practice now its done," Scorpius explained as he handed his work over.

"You have Quidditch practice!?" Cassia burst out from the desk, excitement almost seemed to be bubbling out of her, "that is so cool, Quidditch is awesomed and we saw the game last weeks and we gotted to sit in the staff box even though we're not staff and we sawed it and it was awesome acause they fly in the air and it was so cool and I want to do that acause it is so cool acause you're flying. Flying! Like in the sky cept not with a plane or a... a helcuptur, more like a bird and the birds I talk to like flying and it looked so cool and Daddy said he would teach us at some points and have you ever tried to taste a cloud? I always wanted to know if it was like vanella candy floss acause thats what I think but my brother thinks they would just tasted like rain acause they rain and Daddy never tried to eat a cloud and the birds didn't either so I don't know."

"Cassia, shush for a moment, Daddy's talking," Professor Ashain told her putting a finger to his lips and the little girl pouted but mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key, it was slightly illogical but Scorpius stopped caring about that as something about her slapped him across the face. She could talk to birds, she could tell the vulture where to go without Aurelius having to know and direct them himself. Varanian couldn't argue with that, little kids didn't have good memories and she'd probably forget address after directing the vulture, it was perfect.

"Its okay," Scorpius pointed out with a smile, being nice to the girl was probably a good start if he wanted her help in the future, even if she didn't know it yet, "and no, I'm sorry but I haven't tried tasting the clouds before."

"Well be sure to give it a go. Thank you for the assignment, you'll be caught up in no time."

Scorpius nodded and said goodbye, Cassia waved from the desk with a grin while her brother still hadn't looked up from his book. Scorpius was still feeling better as he headed off to Quidditch practice, he'd finally reached the first step to casting a Patronus and had a way to be able to write to Varanian, not to mention no strange dreams. He thought things might finally be looking up slightly, he'd take any win he could get.

---

Brutus soon found he was developing a reputation amongst the other Death Eaters for being such a brutal, cold murderer due to the high body count from killing those Achan tortured. Some even seemed afraid of him, not the Lestrange brothers though. He supposed it was fair, he was good at killing and he hated himself for it. Even though the victims deserved it, they were going to die anyway so it wasn't like Brutus was doing any favors by prolonging their agony. He still did it though. He knew his soul was probably in shreds and if he held a Blood Rune Orb then it would probably turn as pitch black as the night sky when the moon and stars were away, he knew there was no hope for him, really he'd known it the moment he'd volunteered to join to spare his father's life. And that was exactly the reason he hardened his heart and forced himself on, for his family.

He found himself relishing the time he spent guarding the twins, he much preferred that despite the Dementors and their Shadows. Tommy was getting worse, the more they pushed him the more magic he did. Just not with a wand. Even walking him upstairs to the 'training room' proved hazardous, Brutus would frequently hear explosions and crashing and people cursing, they needed Dementors on him most of the time to suppress his magic. Brutus felt bad for the boy, he didn't deserve that. In fact, Brutus thought their methods were the reason for Tommy's overwhelming amount of accidental magic. Sal had an unusual amount of accidental magic too but hers wasn't as frequent or drastic - yet - as her twin's, the outbursts were more like how Tommy's had been before it got bad which made sense to him as she wasn't trained as much as he was.

He'd actually been having luck teaching her magic, whenever they were Dementor free they practiced on base level spells for first years, or rather beginners. She did struggle and shot him an almost fearful look every time she failed, expecting torture but he never did, he'd always found encouragement rather than criticism had helped him learn so he attempted to do the same with her. The more they practiced the more relaxed she seemed, then she finally started succeeding and when she succeeded, she succeeded. First time she used Lumos successfully the light almost seemed to explode out of the wand tip, it engulfed the whole room and was so blinding that Brutus had to squint and try shade his eyes just to look back at her. The entire wand blazed with bright light and he had to take his wand back to put it out, it was still imprinted in his mind for ages after he still saw a wand shape wherever he looked. She had done it though.

It was only when he got home that he noticed the cracks in his wand, tiny little things that covered the entire surface from its tip to its handle. They hadn't been there before he'd given Sal his wand to practice with, he'd used it to heal Tommy as he was taken away just before and he definitely hadn't had cracks in his wand. It worried him, his wand felt like an extra limb and he didn't want to be without it, he went to Ollivander's to ask the old man about it as soon as the dingy little shop opened.

"Ah, Mr Ashain!" Mr Ollivander greeted him immediately, "twelve inches, ash with phoenix feather core if I remember correctly?"

"You know you do," Brutus pointed out tiredly as he approached the counter.

"Your father's was another ash wand, only a half inch longer than yours and instead with a dragon heartstring core. Every Ashain I've sold a wand to has had an ash wand, interesting no? Your mother's on the hand was maple, ten inches but with a phoenix feather core like yours."

"I don't have a mother," Brutus growled frustratedly, she didn't deserve to be called that after she left him, it seemed to halt the old man's rant on wands, his silvery eyes looked at him sympathetically which annoyed him even more, he was better off for not knowing his mudblood mother as she was the kind of person who abandons newborns so he didn't want sympathy. Instead he simply laid his wand out on the table, "something happened to my wand, I want to know if you know what and if you can fix it. I have enough money for it."

"What were you doing with it?" Mr Ollivander wondered, his eyes bulging in shock as he picked up the wand and studied it carefully.

"I was trying to teach this kid I babysit how to do magic and after she cast a spell I realized that had happened," Brutus told him, trying to stick as close to the truth as possible so the old man could help, "she's homeschooled so she doesn't go to Hogwarts and her parents don't trust wandmakers so she doesn't really have one."

"Well you shouldn't really be doing that, for starters ash wands bond strongly to their owners and generally dislike being passed around."

"Is that what caused the cracks?"

"No, no, no, no, the damage to your wand was caused by something different," Mr Ollivander informed him as he shook his head, "its something I've heard of but never seen. Wands are designed to channel the innate magical ability we possess, they make it much easier to tap into that power and also make sure we use it safely. There's only so much power surging through us that our bodies can physically cope with at a time, wands make sure we only use a safe amount at a time. Now, what your girl did was inadvertently channel too much power into your wand, wands can't cope with more magic than they can safely channel and if you force them to try then they break. If it was too much by a lot then the wand is simply obliterated by power but if its too much but not completely overwhelming then the wand may splinter or crack before exploding if the excess power is not removed before then. Its exceedingly rare and with good reason."

"Can you fix it?" Brutus asked worriedly.

"Of course, of course. But I recommend you tell this to the girl's parents, considering this incident any accidental outbursts will be dangerous for her if she can regularly use too much power. I don't know a lot about it as it veers away from my are of expertise here and with wands making magic safer and easier to use these kinds of problems become even more uncommon but its dangerous, painful, physically and mentally damaging... its easily fatal."

---

Abby needn't have worried about her sister, she not only was unhurt - or at least nothing noteworthy for them to pass along - but completed the task, coming second to Beauxbatons. Abby couldn't stop smiling and was practically bouncing off the walls, Scorpius found it hard to feel school pride but he was fully behind Abby's sister. Hogwarts was too although he thought the competition would carry more weight if it wasn't being held in a different country but still Hogwarts was glad to be in second place and in with a chance for a Hogwarts champion. The good mood carried throughout the school for the following week, the memories of Shadow attacks receding from the forefront of most people's minds.

Scorpius was too busy with practices and work to feel the spirit though, the week flew by and he arranged it with Dom to get Aurelius to let him use a vulture for Saturday when Cassia Ashain would be there again, with any luck he would be able to get her to direct the vulture and deliver the letter. He asked Varanian to reply with anything he'd found out that was too long to be told him via the rings, there wasn't too much to say otherwise but he wrote about Calderon's suspicions and about casting his first piece of silver Patronus. He succeeded again in making a dash of silver but again it agonized his wrist and left him feeling utterly drained, in hindsight it probably wasn't the best thing to try when he had a Quidditch match the following day and a practice later that day. He was exhausted through Transfiguration and the after session, normally he enjoyed it as it was one of his favorite subjects and he rather liked Florian but he was so tired.

"Why don't we finish early today?" Florian announced brightly after about half an hour, clapping his still bandaged hands together cheerfully as his ever-present grin widened, "you should rest up for your Quidditch match tomorrow, you're looking a little sleepy."

"Thank you," Scorpius said gratefully even though he still had a practice to go first.

"No problem, good luck by the way. I'll be rooting for you, go Gryffindor!"

"Thanks," Scorpius told him with a weak smile that the teachers were excited for Quidditch too, everyone but Calderon.

Scorpius packed up his stuff and headed back to his dormitory, intending to get some sleep in the now extra time before his practice. He expected it to be empty but was surprised to see Michael sitting in his bed reading, not that it was a bad thing. Scorpius smiled and waved a hand in greeting.

"Not in the Room That Doesn't Exist?"

"Its not working right now, sometimes it doesn't," Michael answered with a shrug, "not in a Transfiguration catch up?"

"Florian let me go early to get some rest before the match tomorrow."

"Right," Michael nodded losing the hint of a smile from his scarred face as he put down the book and Scorpius felt his heart sink a little bit more.

"Are you coming to the match tomorrow?" Scorpius asked quietly and noticed Michael avert his mismatched eyes.

"I'm not really feeling that well."

"Suppose you weren't feeling well for the Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff match either?"

"No, I just didn't want to go," Michael told him firmly and Scorpius must have scowled because Michael reacted like he did, "what do you want me to say? Watching Quidditch just doesn't seem as fun anymore and I'm not lying about not feeling well, I've been getting headaches since... you know and I have one now, being around a load of cheering people is torture."

"You never mentioned headaches before," Scorpius pointed out dubiously and Michael looked taken aback, he fiddled with his fingers for a moment before answering in a tone quiet enough to rival Orous.

"I didn't want anyone to know, in case the school tells my mum and stepdad, I'll be in so much trouble with Bob."

"Oh," Scorpius muttered feeling bad, "I'm sorry."

"I'll go if it really means that much to you but they usually last a few days and I'd rather not."

"No its fine," Scorpius told him before having to suppress a yawn as he was reminded of his reason for being there, "I have practice in just over an hour, I was going to get some sleep. If you could wake me then I'd be eternally grateful."

"Sure," Michael agreed immediately looking relieved at the change of subject, "knock yourself out."

Scorpius just kicked off his shoes and climbed under the covers, the clothes would be going to be washed anyway as it was Friday and changing would just cut into his sleep time. It felt like no time passed at all, he lay his head down on the pillow and then Michael was shaking him gently awake, he almost thought Michael had just woke him the second his eyes were closed but he couldn't have moved the distance so fast unless he could suddenly apparate and inside Hogwarts no less. He rubbed his eyes, not feeling like he'd slept at all as he thanked Michael and pulled shut the drapes to change sleepily.

He trudged along, dragging his leaden feet down so many flights of cruel stairs, he almost hoped the exertion would make him collapse with exhaustion so he could sleep. It was only as he neared the bottom that he realized he'd forgotten his gloves, he groaned at the thought of going all the way back and decided to just go without, the faster the practice was over the faster he could sleep.

"Watch where you're going, fossil!" James' voice taunted and Scorpius forced his head up in time to see James violently shove Orous down the last flight of the stairs that the first year had been going up, knocking all the books and papers from Orous' hands and scattering them about the floor.

Scorpius almost wanted to call out for James to back off but he was actually too tired to feel bothered, he'd yell at him next time. James - oddly - stopped briefly to root through Orous' fallen things, he grunted in anger and kicked Orous as he tried to get back up before stalking away, Scorpius would kick him next time. Orous rubbed his side where James' kick had landed as he started to pick up his things, Scorpius reached him halfway through and went to kneel down to help him. Either because he was tired and unfocused or just the awkwardness of starting to crouch on steps but Scorpius slipped.

Orous' hand snaked out to stop him and caught his scarred wrist at the same time that Scorpius grabbed Orous' left for support, his fall was halted but he noticed something. Beneath his fingertips he felt a raised segment of skin and saw the bruises, Scorpius shakily drew his hand away to shove back Orous' sleeve further, so focused he didn't notice doing the same to him. Orous had the same scar, the three lines wrapped around his left wrist with the center one solid and the other two broken up, surrounded by bruising that probably wasn't bruising. Scorpius' eyes flicked to the horrified crimson ones as the realization hit him so hard that his heart almost felt like it stopped beating.

"You're the voice," Scorpius and Orous said in perfect unison, it only confirmed what he knew deep down.

"I always thought you sounded familiar," Orous said at a regular volume as tears pricked at his eyes.

"So did I," Scorpius whispered, "I..."

"What?!" Orous demanded sounding angry despite the way his voice was breaking, "going to tell me that I'm not real again?! Going to tell me to shut up again?! Going to tell me to go away again?! Tell me, Scorpius, tell me that I don't exist one more time!""

"I'm sorry, Orous."

"You're sorry?! All I ever did was try to help you and all those times I begged you for help, you just ignored me and yelled at me that I didn't exist. You could have helped me, even if you just told someone then I could have had a chance, I could have been saved. You knew what it was like and you just let me rot."

Scorpius became aware that the bannister was on fire but it didn't seem important, he felt too devastated to reply, he felt like his world was imploding in on itself. The voice had been real, it had all been real and the fact it had been his friend was like a knife twisting in his heart as one final screw you. He'd just let an innocent child suffer because he couldn't handle that it hadn't been just muggles who'd taken him, magical people had been involved. Magical people were just as bad as muggles, muggles were just as bad as magical people, everyone could take him, everyone could hurt him, there was no safety for him. Tears welled in his eyes and he just looked hopelessly at Orous, the boy looked as upset as he felt.

"I really did think you weren't real," Scorpius managed to choke out through the lump in his throat, "and then you went away."

"Do you know why?!" Orous yelled tearfully but angrily, "because they had a Specter tear the magic out my soul just to break the connection to you, do you have any idea what it feels like to have a part of your soul ripped out?"

"But... you can do magic."

"They put it back, you die with a chunk of your soul missing and weren't kind enough to let me die because they still have plans," Orous explained stopping shouting as he fought the tears from coming, "its not like screwing a light-bulb back in, they don't just put it back and everything is right. Its like ripping out your heart, just because you drop it back into place doesn't repair all the connections, not the way it was before and there's still unmovable scars where you forced it back together. My soul is ruined now. Everything feels different and nothing feels right, I'm pretty much dead already. And... And if you had just listened to me, just helped me then I could have been spared half a year of agony, I could have been saved."

"I really am sorry," Scorpius offered timidly "I don't know what else to say, there's nothing I can say."

"No there isn't," Orous agreed, a moment of calm from the torrent of emotions crossing his face, "to hell with you."

Orous turned and ran and Scorpius didn't try to stop him, there was no point. Instead he ran back up those steps as the tears spilled from his eyes, the railings all were burning but he didn't notice starting it. He didn't care, it was just stone and someone would get to it. He could barely see through his tears as he got back to Gryffindor Tower, screaming the password and wondering why the hat had put him in the house when he was a coward. He just kept on running back to his dormitory and threw himself onto the bed crying.

He was a monster. For once he didn't even try to stop the memories of his ordeal by muggle hands flooding his mind, the worst things he'd ever been through and he'd just let Orous suffer that and possibly worse. It wasn't muggle hands either, it was magical too, magical people were just as bad. Everyone was bad and no one was good, they could all be out to get him.

"Scorpius, what's wrong?" a voice asked gently and Scorpius sat up seeing Michael looking at him with concern.

Looking at him with his mismatched eyes, the one grotesque with the jagged scar running from his cheek to his forehead through the eye. Scorpius had done that to him. After everything Michael had done for him he couldn't keep one stupid promise and not destroy his closest friend's eye. He was a monster. He just hurt the people he cared about, his baby sister died, his grandfather lost his soul, he'd been willing to sacrifice his friends, Professor Ashain was nearly been torn in half saving his life, Orous was the boy he left to rot in his worst nightmare and he scarred Michael for trying to help someone. You are a Monster.

Scorpius couldn't speak, from crying, from being out of breath from running, from not knowing what to say. He couldn't stop, sobs wracked his body and Michael seemed to realize it was pointless as he sat down behind him, patting his shoulder.

"It'll be okay," Michael offered with a small comforting smile.

Clearly Michael had no idea what was wrong, he couldn't possibly know. He couldn't possibly know that nothing could ever be okay again, not when he was a monster, not when nothing was safe because even magical people were bad. Scorpius' head fell onto Michael's shoulder and just cried, Michael hugged him awkwardly and continued saying general kind things while Scorpius cried, his eyes were sore from tears that didn't run out but he still couldn't stop. He only stopped when he cried himself into sleep.