Parts (38-40)

II

Chapter 10

Fall

Part 1: Lightning, Water, Ice and Air

"Come on wake up, you've got a game to play!"

Albus' voice snapped Scorpius back from sleep as he was shaken awake, Scorpius rubbed his eyes in surprise as the last thing he remembered was crying on Michael's shoulder. Miserably his head fell back onto the pillow as it all came back to him, the voice being real and being Orous, that it hadn't been just muggles... at least he felt all cried out. He supposed he should be grateful to not wake up in a sweat again but he couldn't muster the emotion, how could he when the world seemed turned inside out?

"Come on, Quidditch," Albus moaned shaking his shoulder again, "not sleep, get up!"

"Fine," Scorpius grumbled but Albus beamed and skipped away to give him some space.

He sat up and saw he was still wearing his Quidditch robes, except for the thick cloak and boots, Michael must have took them up and got him into bed after he fell asleep, he'd even closed the drapes just like Scorpius liked. Making a mental note to thank him, Scorpius just pulled on the cloak, Thestral gloves and boots before braving behind the drapes. He really didn't feel like Quidditch but he couldn't not play, Molly was counting on him. He was doing it for her.

"Are you okay?" Michael asked and Scorpius jolted in shock as he pulled back the drapes to see his friend sitting on his own bed watching him, he'd gotten use to Michael being gone by the time he woke up unless he woke particularly early. 'Fine' was on Scorpius' lips but it didn't leave them, it would be pointless to lie, Michael had seen him break down completely and you didn't do that for no reason.

"Not really but I can't think about it now, I have Quidditch," Scorpius told him and Michael nodded, seemingly satisifed with the answer and Scorpius decided he would leave worrying about what to tell Michael later as well, "coming to breakfast?"

"Already had it, I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"See you later then," Scorpius offered turning to leave but hesitated to look back, "and thanks."

"No problem," Michael shrugged it off.

As Scorpius walked the route he took every day to the Great Hall he couldn't help but feel on edge, it didn't help that he felt naked without his wand but you obviously couldn't use it during Quidditch - although by law you could keep it with you - and with all the Bludgers flying around, Scorpius was afraid it would get damaged so he never bothered bringing it to games. He would glad when the match was over and he could carry it again. His eyes shot to every Auror he passed, for once not wondering whether they were working for the Shadows but whether they wanted to hurt him sin, he searched their eyes for the way Linden had looked at him and wished for his wand even more. He got to the crowded Great Hall and scanned through the crowd suspiciously, if magical people were just as bad as muggles then logically any of them could be out to get him.

He sat down with his friends but didn't find himself relaxing, he looked to the Hufflepuff table but Orous wasn't there, then again Scorpius shouldn't expect him to be as he too got an early breakfast. He noticed Vern though, the first year looked somewhere between confused and upset. Scorpius picked as his food despite his friends nagging him to eat, he wasn't hungry and he couldn't stop looking around. He saw Professor Ashain's kids sitting with him at the staff table, Cassia was showing Professor Hagrid a drawing she must have done with 'go gRiffindooR' - the fs were backwards - and a childish looking picture of a lion on a broomstick, the picture was moving. Her brother didn't look half as excited as Cassia did, it reminded Scorpius that he had to get her to direct the vulture to deliver Varanian's letter later on. He'd worry about that later too.

"Come on, eat up!" Molly told him as she appeared at his shoulder, "and don't look so glum, you're gonna fly the pants off Kyle Nott. Even though you missed a practice yesterday."

"Sorry," Scorpius apologized half-heartedly, "wasn't feeling well."

"How you doing now?" Molly asked sounding so concerned that Scorpius wished he'd just left it at 'sorry'.

"Better. Better enough for the match, not hungry though."

"Are you sure because we could always..." Molly began but trailed off and sighed, "let James be Seeker and Roxy take his place for this game... we'd lose of course, James is mediocre at best and useless compared to Nott but we might be able to survive one loss if it isn't too crushing, we'd just have to score a lot of goals against Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to make up for it, if Michael's back for them we could possibly have a chance."

"No its okay, I can play, it'll be fine," Scorpius told her with a forced smile, she returned it and he felt his palms sweating again.

"Okay, eat as much as you can then come on."

"Done then."

Scorpius waved goodbye to his friends who wished him luck and headed off with Molly as she gathered up the rest of the team to head off to get ready, he felt nervousness creeping in on him, he had to do this for Molly, he wanted to do something good for someone he cared about for once. It meant a lot to her to win and Scorpius didn't want to let her down. He sat down waiting when he was ready, holding his broom tightly. Lost in his miserable thoughts while the crowd started filling up the stands outside. From what he gathered, the Shadows had been the one responsible for what happened to Orous which meant they'd been responsible for him too. The scar probably was something to worry about, it could've been caused by dark magic, it would explain why it had reacted to the detection spell last year in the hospital. And Orous had it too, the not-bruising as well. What had the Shadows done to them?

Worry questions bounced inside Scorpius' mind. What did the scars do? What did the not-bruising do? What did the Shadows want them? Why them? What was the point in giving them up to muggles? Had the muggles been in on it or had they been controlled magically? Had he killed an innocent man when he killed Marvin? Why had his parents lied to him about the muggles? Or did they really think the muggles weren't still out there? Had his grandfather known the Shadows were responsible for his abduction? Had he really willingly worked with people who'd kidnapped his only grandson? Had it been his idea? And what about the missing twins? Were the Shadows responsible for them too? Did that mean Roman Rivers was working with the Shadows too?

Scorpius didn't want to have questions, he didn't want to think about it, he wanted it to just go away. Which was exactly his problem, he realized, he hadn't let himself consider the boy might be real because he didn't want to revisit what had happened to him. Because he was a coward. It didn't stop him wishing it would go away, living through it once was enough without having to remember or think about it ever again.

"Okay so here we are, our first match of the year," Molly began nervously and Scorpius was drawn back to reality, "some of you have been here before, some of you haven't, some of you are just used to playing reserve but here we are. I know people haven't been saying particularly confident things about us and that has some of you concerned but it shouldn't. Those people haven't seen you fly, those people haven't seen you play, those people haven't seen you train, those people haven't seen you improving like I have. Today we are going to out there and we're going to go out there and try our best, and all those people who doubted you will see you play and after today they won't say things like 'no chance with inexperienced Chasers' or 'doomed with young players'. Today we go out there and show them what we're made of and the only thing those people will be saying is 'damn, that Gryffindor team is good!'"

"Yeah!" Freddie called out from behind her and there was a cheer from the team that Scorpius weakly joined in with, he just wished Michael could be there.

"Happy now?" Molly asked of her older cousin who grinned.

"It'll do."

Michael lay on his bed, keeping his eyes wide open but moving his hand over his good eye, seeing the world go black even though he knew the other eye was open. He could feel it being open, blinking occasionally, he looked left and right and up and down and diagonally but the world remained black. He used his other hand to move his wand - lit by Lumos - right up in front of his non-covered eye, everything went a blinding white and his aching head screamed in protest. Miserably he noxed the light and moved his hand away to see again, he didn't know why he bothered, possibly to keep reminding himself that his eye couldn't see even though it killed him every time to remember it was as good as gone. Rationally he knew it would never see again, irrationally he wanted a miracle. No one understood that, his friends just thought he should get a prosthetic eye, hack out his own one and put in a new crazy magic one that could see through objects just because his one looked gross and creepy. He didn't want a magic eye, he just wanted his normal eye that looked like his normal eye and acted like his normal eye. He didn't want to lose it and if he really had to then he didn't want the 'Mad-Eye's' eye that Albus talked about.

He sighed and sat up, he had plenty of other things to worry about, like why Scorpius had been so upset and why Orous had blown him off earlier, citing friends were just traitors and to stay away from him or schoolwork or getting kicked out of his home. He headed down into the common room, trying to ignore the pounding in his head so he could think. He saw Maurice was there, sitting in one of the comfy chairs by the fire and opening a book. He noticed Michael though and waved him over, Michael obliged as the deaf boy put a hand to his translator necklace to speak. Michael noticed Maurice's hands weren't covered by his gloves for once, the scores of scars of overlapping words clearly visible.

"Sometimes its nice to let my hands breathe," Maurice answered as if he'd noticed him looking, "might as well while no one is around."

"You should tell someone about that then you could let your hands breathe all the time, and your wrists and arms if its warm weather," Michael pointed out.

"I'd still keep them covered just to avoid the questions and staring. You don't walk around shirtless even though staff are aware of your scar from Varanian."

"I don't wear gloves to hide the scar on my palm that I got from James and Scorpius though."

"Its not as obvious."

"You should still tell someone, its not right for your father to give you those scars."

"Technically I give myself those scars," Maurice told him stiffly, "and it wasn't Father's idea originally anyway, the first magic school I went to were the ones who started it. You had to write down everything what you were learning with the Blood Quill to make sure it got ingrained into your memory, then you were quizzed about it and if you didn't remember then you had to write it again, and again, and again until you remembered. Eventually you get really good at remembering so you only have to be in pain once. Father only uses it for punishment, if I don't get this Patronus by Christmas then I have to home and I'll have to copy chapters from a textbook with it."

"That's just cruel," Michael scowled feeling guilty again.

"Its an effective method of learning, learning isn't supposed to be fun. It doesn't matter how you learn as long as it gets done, there's a war coming and we need to know as much as we can to defend ourselves."

"That doesn't make it right."

"Its not what I wanted to talk about," Maurice stated bluntly changing the subject, "I just wanted to know if you were staying here for Christmas or not."

"Yeah I am."

"Okay thanks."

"Okay," Michael said slowly which Maurice simply nodded and let go of his necklace, turning back to his book. Michael just left him to it and headed off to his secret room.

They lined up and filed out onto the pitch, Scorpius couldn't help but notice that the cheer for Slytherin was a lot greater than the one for Gryffindor, he also noticed a lot of Aurors dotted around the edges of the pitch. They'd been there for the other match but they were more obvious and worrying when you were standing on the pitch with them, it was just another reason to catch the Snitch and end the game as fast as he could. He watched impatiently as Molly shook hands with the Slythern Captain, ironically it was the Beater who'd injured her in their game last year but there didn't seem to be any ill will between them, at least he didn't give her a look of loathing like the one Kyle Nott gave Scorpius. Scorpius noticed that Nick Longbottom didn't look as confident as he did last year, he didn't take his eyes off his girlfriend.

Scorpius wished time would move faster but finally they were up in the air, he tuned the commentary out of his mind because it really didn't matter, all that mattered was finding the Snitch and ending the game and he wasn't going to get sucked into paying attention to what else was happening. It was a muggy day with thick still air, no wind or rain or slow, sleet, sun, fog or hail, the sky was just empty. Hopefully it would make it easy to see and catch the Snitch, he scanned desperately for a flicker of gold and tried not to be distracted by the Aurors.

He wasn't having much luck, the first time he saw it someone swiped a Bludger at him that he had to dodge and when he had done that it was out of sight, Kyle must not have seen it because he was still searching. The second time he didn't see it but saw Kyle dive, he desperately dived too and hurtled for the ground, only for Kyle to laugh and veer up. It had just been a trick. Scorpius yanked his broom handle up to stop him colliding with the crash and impressively managed to force it turn in time so he was horizontal again, he glided over the grass so close his legs touched it. Oddly he noticed the grass was wet despite the lack of rain but it lacked importance so he climbed back up and went back to searching. The third time he and Kyle saw it together, Kyle was closer but Scorpius still thought he had a shot until a Bludger from one of the Gryffindors slammed into Kyle's outstretched hand. Kyle yelped in pain and was thrown completely off course form the force of it, it would have been good for Scorpius if he hadn't had to avoid Kyle as he momentarily spun out of control, when he righted himself the Snitch was gone again.

Scorpius tried not to feel frustrated, it would only make him lose focus and he needed to be focused. He wasn't going to let the Snitch get away from him again. The next time he saw it, it was hovering near the Slytherin rings and he shot towards it. A few moments later, Kyle caught on but mustn't have noticed it because he moved to block Scorpius instead. Tried. He paused mid-move and his jaw dropped, gazing at the ground, Scorpius simply went around him until he noticed Nick was also gaping at the ground. Confused, Scorpius spare it a glance and found himself coming to a stunned halt as well.

The pitch was water. The entire pitch inside the stands was water, from left to right and top to bottom, the rings rose out of dull murky blue water. The Aurors and referee were actually swimming to get to the nearest entrance to the stands, the players all were frozen in the air watching and the stands had gone silent, the girl commentating was ranting hysterical about the flooded pitch. Scorpius wasn't sure whether they'd be finishing the game or not but after the people were safely out of the water, he saw Kyle going for the Snitch.

Scorpius didn't hesitate to speed into the race, circling the Slytherin rings as the Snitch moved and started to go downwards towards the water. Scorpius was ahead of Kyle and had come off at a better angle to dive, Kyle also had his injured hand/arm/wrist - Scorpius didn't know the particulars of the injury or how bad it was but he'd been one armed since being hit with the Bludger - so Scorpius thought he could get it. He reached out his hand and snatched at the golden ball, at the same time his broom jerked suddenly and violently and he was thrown clean off of it.

He was falling. He was falling and he couldn't reach his treacherous broom that had also falling, only slower and higher and too far away to reach. He plunged into the water, the splash resonated around him as the cold water claimed him completely. He was all turned around but managed to right himself, the water stung his eyes but he had to keep them open to look for the light of the surface. He kicked his legs, clawing for the light with the Snitch still gripped in one hand but when he went to stick his head out, it was slammed into something hard.

Confused he tried again but still hard, he reached up with his hand and was also met with solidness, he went to run his hand along it to see what was blocking but from the slippery freezing feeling he got, he knew it was ice. He looked up and saw everything was tinted and frosted, it was hard to see but he make out what looked like people. He made out Molly's face, she looked like she was kneeling and looked terrified.

They were trying to break the ice and get him he realized. Jets of light from spells shot towards him - or rather towards the ice above him - but didn't get through, Scorpius felt his heart start to beat rapidly, either they weren't having any effect or not enough effect to break the ice yet. His lungs took that moment to start aching, reminding him he needed air, he needed to breathe.

He banged his fist on the ice desperately, maybe if he tried to break it too then they could meet in the middle and he'd get out. It didn't even dent it, he hammered his fist and the hand with the Snitch against the ice, harder and harder but it didn't make a difference, it was like pounding stone and all it did was hurt his hands. Molly's lips moved like she was trying to say something but Scorpius couldn't even hear muffled sounds, he could only hear silence, was that it was like for Maurice? He saw flames but didn't feel the heat or notice the nice melting, he wished things would randomly catch fire like had happened in the past.

But it didn't. His wrist ached but magic didn't come to save him, he tried to focus his magic but his lungs were burning for air so much it hurt. He didn't think it would help anyway, he knew how to move things with his mind, not melt ice or break through it. He couldn't do anything, his arms felt too heavy to keep up their useless pounding on the ice, it was hard enough continuing to tread water to keep up to the ice. He was tired. So tired. It dawned on him that he was going to die, they couldn't get him out, they couldn't get past it. He didn't want to die, not really, not there, not then, not like that.

Molly looked on the verge of tears, her lips were still moving but no sound was reaching him. Even through frosty ice she was beautiful, he reached up the weighted lump of rock that felt like it had replaced his arm to press his palm against the ice and she put her hand over it. He imagined that there wasn't a sheet of ice between them, that their hands were touching and they intertwined their fingers with each other, she would smile, her smile lit up the darkness. That was a much better place to die.

Scorpius' strength failed him, his arm fell down and his legs stopped kicking, letting him sink into the water's embrace, he didn't feel cold anymore, his body was too numb to feel the cold. His lungs caved, not believing his brain telling them there was no air and started to gulp water down the wrong way, he was choking on the water as it forced its way in to flood his lungs, it hurt. Dying did hurt. His eyes closed. He just clung to Molly's imaginary hand and slipped away in his mind to where nothing hurt him anymore.

Michael's head was still aching as he reached the corridor with the Room That Doesn't Exist, although he was sure that it did exist, it became whatever he wanted it to be like, he just had to think about it. He wondered again if he should show it to Scorpius, that would probably cheer him up from whatever thing he would never talk about that was upsetting him as he was a private person and a private space would probably appeal to him.

"Why the hell did you go ahead with the plan, you moron?!" someone was yelling when Michael went to round the bend leading to the corridor with his room, he froze on the spot, "we have orders to wait! They can't make their mind up whether it matters if he's alive or dead!"

"Well I'm in the 'it doesn't matter camp'! Its been nearly six months, we need Scorpius now! Dead the Specters can take control of his body so does it really matter if he's alive or dead? Controlled by a Specter should work well enough, what else does it matter? He doesn't even know what he did so his memories, thoughts and personality isn't important."

"Its not your call! We don't know as much as they do."

"Way I see it, if I'm right then we're back on track and if I'm wrong then the Master won't be able to kill me anyway. Too late now, kid's probably dead by now."

Michael backed away slowly and started to leave as quietly as possible, really he wanted to hear more but it wouldn't matter if he couldn't get to Scorpius. He was running as soon as he thought he was out of earshot, his heart was pounding as he ran faster and faster, hurtling down the staircase - not for the first time - as fast as he could force his legs to go. His first instinct was to get to the pitch but then he thought of Calderon, if anyone could save Scorpius from whatever those two men were planning then Calderon was the best bet. He bolted in the direction of the headmaster's office, forgetting that he didn't know the password but he saw Calderon walking towards the gargoyle with his dog and his thundering heart skipped a beat with relief.

"Calderon!" Michael burst out breathlessly and Calderon paused to look at him curiously, "I think Scorpius' life is in danger and we need to hurry."

"How do you-"

"I heard these guys talking, they said he should be dead already come on!"

Michael didn't wait for a reply and just started running again, either Calderon would follow or he'd have to warn the other staff at the match. Calderon did follow though, Calderon actually took over his lead and the dog raced ahead of both of them, its tongue lolling out with delight at the unexpected exercise. They pelted outside and didn't stop until they were at the pitch.

It took moment for it to register that it was the Quidditch pitch, inside the stands was a sheet of ice where the pitch would normally be, like someone had suddenly put a giant ice rink with gaps for the ring poles. Most were still in the stands but there was a crowd gathered on the icy pitch, the dog whined as it slid along and ran back to off it, Calderon patted its head before they went onto the ice towards the people while the dog waiting barking or yelping. Michael was glad for the grip on his sneakers as they made it across the slippery surface, the assembled crowd was mostly staff, Aurors who looked soaked and Quidditch players with a handful of students, Ashain's two small children were both standing by their father.

The teachers, Aurors and some of the students were desperately shooting spells at an oddly colored section of the ice, fire seemed popular but it didn't last very long or melt the ice. Michael noticed Albus, Abby, Corin, Vern and even Rose were all there looking fearfully at the ice. It felt like forever since he'd seen Rose without Copper by her side, he pushed it out of his mind, it wasn't important right then.

"What happened?" Calderon called to the others, sounding impressively not out of breath like Michael was.

"Pitch turned to water then Scorpius was thrown in then it froze over and won't budge," Ashain answered without pausing in his rigorous shooting of non-verbal spells at the ice, "Scorpius is trapped beneath the ice."

"Stand back!" Calderon yelled firmly and held out an arm to stop Michael from going further forwards, the crowd shuffled back and stopped firing, "further!"

They shot Calderon a mixture of expressions from doubt to awe to confusion to fear as they moved even further back, Michael hoped it was far enough as the former assistant raised his hand into the air. Immediately a swirl of light appeared high up in the sky, pulsing and bulging before Calderon violently swung his arm down. A blazing bolt of lightning shot down from the swirl in the sky and slammed into the ice, the explosion was earsplitting as chunks of ice were thrown back, some the size of Michael's head and people held out their arms to protect themselves from the ice debris although no one got hurt.

Calderon didn't seem to have broken a sweat and marched towards the hole he'd created, Michael followed after him fearfully but didn't see Scorpius climbing out of the jagged star shaped gap. Calderon tossed off his cloak, still wearing a muggle sweater, jeans and sneakers beneath before jumping into the hole. The others seemed to be shaken from their shock and headed over to look into the hole, the Aurors were telling students to go back into the stadium but no one moved or looked away although some had to have gone back already because there were only ten players, Ashain was grumbling that he'd told his children to stay put but no one else said a word. Just watching with baited breaths before finally Calderon emerged with Scorpius. Koray, Freddie and a Slytherin player - those three happened to be closest - immediately began pulling Scorpius out, laying him down on the ice. He didn't look like he was breathing.

Someone yelled to get a healer but no one else moved, frustratedly Michael stormed over and fell to his knees by Scorpius' side, reaching for his friend's cold damp wrist to check for a pulse. There was none. His heart was thundering so loudly that Michael was surprised no one could hear it, he looked at Scorpius' still face with his wet white-blonde plastered to his skull, so completely different to his great-grandmother but still he thought of her oddly.

Shoving that aside and without waiting for a healer, he started doing chest compressions. He could practically hear the unanswered questions wondering what he was doing, Michael felt oddly and determinedly calm as he pushed down on his friends chest. He would be damned if he was just going to give up on his friend. One, two, three. One, two, three. One two-

Scorpius spluttered up water, he sat up coughing it out violently and gasping down much needed lungfuls of air. He couldn't stop shaking, either from cold or shock Michael wasn't sure and he noticed a small golden ball rolling away from Scorpius. The gathered people - Michael included - breathed a collective sigh of relief and Ashain took off his thick cloak and knelt to put around Scorpius' shivering shoulders, Scorpius collapsed against his favorite professor weakly, still breathing deeply and unsteadily. But he was breathing. That was good. Calderon was still in the water but he held out a palm, gently pulling it back and all the droplets of water seemed to peel off Scorpius and back into a ball in front of Calderon's hand, leaving the twelve year old dry.

Part 2: Dawn

Brutus was falling asleep on the basement steps, he'd been on guard duty since the early afternoon and had done an all-nighter, the dawn light was streaming through the miniscule basement window. He hadn't seen Tommy since he'd arrived, Rodolphus had been bringing Sal back and taking Tommy up instead although he had heard the boy screaming when he'd gotten his and Sal's dinner, he wondered if it hurt Tommy's throat to scream so high pitched as much as it hurt his ears to listen. While initially gloomy about having had a torture/training session with Rodolphus, Sal had cheered up and decided to be energetic. All night. She was practically bouncing off the walls. He supposed he should be grateful she hadn't complained about not learning magic. Brutus couldn't wait to crawl into his bed and sleep, which he couldn't actually do until Rodolphus gave him permission to leave.

"Tired, Brutus?" Sal asked him suddenly and drew him back from the edge of sleep.

"What gave you that idea?" Brutus grunted in reply and she only smiled.

"Its daytime."

"I've been up all night. Can't you just sleep?"

"Its Christmas, Brutus! Rabastan said when it Christmas you're supposed to be too excited to sleep, we don't get presents so I thought I'd just be excited. I don't know why you're supposed to be excited but I think I nailed it."

"You're supposed to be excited for gifts, not getting any means there's no reason to be excited and you could've just slept," Brutus complained and let his head fall into his hands, had he really not been paying that much attention to the days? "is it really Christmas?"

"Yep, yesterday was Christmas Eve and today's Christmas according to Rabastan. Don't you get presents?"

"Yeah but it loses its excitement as you grow up, especially when Christmas at seventeen you get an owl first thing saying your brother tried to kill himself."

"Well cheer up, here I got you a present, hold out your palm," Sal told him cheerfully and skipped over to drop a ripped piece of fabric into his palm when he outstretched it, he noticed an identical rip at the end of sleeve, "I ripped it off for you... I'm not sure where you're supposed to get presents from and Rabastan had only started talking about it when Rodolphus came for me."

"Thank you for that, Sal," Brutus offered kindly before pocketing the piece of fabric, it was completely useless of course but he supposed it really was the thought that counted considering the situation. He didn't have anything to offer in return but he doubted she'd be allowed to keep anything anyway, he didn't feel bad when he remembered he'd forgotten to get any other gifts anyway, "Merry Christmas."

Sal opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by the door swinging open, she jumped back and a crack cut across the wall closest to her, Brutus felt a pang of sadness, wondering how long before she got to Tommy's level of non-control. Brutus got up quickly and stepped up rather than down, predictably it was Rodolphus and he lazily hurled Tommy down, Brutus grabbed the boy's arm before he could fall down the stairs which earned him an angry glare from Rodolphus. Tommy's face was all bruised again, one of his eyes was swollen shut, he had a split lip and blood was oozing from both his nose and mouth, on top of that he was cradling one of his arms and one of his feet was at the wrong direction and angle then it would normally go. He leaned heavily against Brutus, trembling shakily.

"I have errands to run," Rodolphus announced coldly, "you can stay on guard until I get back or when Tyler arrives to replace you at midday."

"Fine," Brutus growled in agreement as the Dementors breezed past, he suppressed a shiver while Tommy whimpered and flinched when Rodolphus slammed the door shut. Brutus wasted no time in getting out his wand to heal Tommy's injuries as best he could, he wasn't the best at healing spells although he had improved since he'd become one of their guards.

"You know if you just killed me than you wouldn't have to waste your time healing me," Tommy whispered in a quiet hoarse voice as he looked pleading into Brutus' eyes, "I don't know how to make it up to you anyway."

"I'm not killing you and I don't mind healing you."

"He's worse than Uncle Lucius and he hates me more than ever now."

"Things will get better."

"When?" Tommy wondered tearfully and Brutus didn't have an answer so he remained silent.

It was the silence that made the commotion upstairs more noticeable, Brutus made sure the worst of Tommy's injures were healed enough to no longer be the worst before heading upstairs to check it out. He opened the door and peered out, seeing Narcissa Malfoy looking outraged and screaming at one of the other Death Eaters.

"Rodolphus just came and gave my son a message from the Dark Lord! Rodolphus Lestrange! I demand to know why he was broken out of Azkaban but my Lucius wasn't!" Narcissa yelled furiously and Brutus was reminded that she was in fact Bellatrix's sister.

"To train the twins. Now go back! The Aurors are surveying your use of the Floo Network and they'll know you're here and know where we are!" the Death Eater protested.

Almost on cue there was an explosion from somewhere that sounded like it was the front door, the color drained out of Narcissa's face with the anger and the Death Eater looked panicked. Brutus felt his heartbeat quicken, trying to remember where he was supposed to get the twins too if they were breached before a painfully familiar voice drew an even bigger problem to his attention.

"Its not protocol to-"

"Shut up, Ashain," a louder voice snapped.

"Not my brother, anyone but my brother," Brutus begged hopelessly of no one under his breath while the Death Eaters went to launch an attack, "want to make it up to me, keep my brother alive."

Brutus' position was both an advantage and disadvantage, the door opened in the direction the Aurors were coming from which meant he was covered and Atticus wouldn't be able to see him but it also meant he couldn't see the attackers. He would have swore if he wasn't too afraid that Atticus would hear him.

"Not fun not being able to wake up is it?"

Scorpius shot up, coughing up water so forcefully it hurt, his lungs ached and his throat felt raw as if he'd been spluttering out gravel rather than water. He gulped down precious air, half-afraid that it might be taken from him at any second. He wanted to look around but his body didn't want to cooperate, his eyes refused to stay open and his body couldn't top shaking, he felt cold all through like the icy water had replaced his blood. Something warm was wrapped around him and he fell against it, consciousness was too much work. He flicked in an out of waking or maybe he was just dreaming, he wasn't completely sure and he could barely remember it anyway, vague voices, blurry people but nothing concrete.

Sunlight was streaming through the windows when he stirred properly, he could feel the rays dancing across his face and opened his eyes just a crack. He was met with the big windows in the hospital wing, the November sky was filled with colors weaving through the air. It was a beautiful sunrise. Scorpius blinked in surprise, hadn't he been drowning? He sat upright and frantically looked around the empty hospital wing, the Head Healer came out of his office looking rather tired and disgruntled.

"Ah, Mr Malfoy you're awake," the snowy-haired healer greeted him neutrally, "how are you feeling?"

"Erm... Not dead," Scorpius answered unsurely, "wasn't I dying?"

"You were until Calderon waved his hands and shattered the ice with lightning, swam in and pulled you out himself - I wasn't there as I was transferring Elwood to St Mungo's but I heard it was pretty impressive - and then that Michael Sanford boy - whose eye you destroyed - brought you back to life with a muggle technique. You're very lucky to be alive, Mr Malfoy."

"If I was really lucky then I wouldn't have nearly died," Scorpius muttered to himself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Right."

"Can I go?" Scorpius asked hopefully before noting a neat pile of fresh clothes and his wand piled beside his bed, "you brought my clothes and wand?"

"Michael thought you would want your wand with you and need a fresh change of clothes in case you woke up. And you should be able to go this afternoon if all is well. Let's get you something to eat, it'll get your strength back up. And you must be hungry, quite frankly I'm starved so you must be worse."

Scorpius was too busy reeling to feel hungry, he would give that the healer was hungry as the old man was all skin and bones, more bones than skin in Scorpius' opinion. The healer returned with food quickly and encouraged Scorpius to eat it all, if Scorpius paused even slightly than the healer had a habit of asking him he wasn't feeling alright which was frustrating as pausing even to chew seemed to merit the question. Afterwards Scorpius had to endure having spells casted on him to check for this and that while answering question upon question, upon question. Scorpius missed Madam Pomfrey... he didn't actually know the replacement healer's name but he still didn't like him.

"Do you have to ask me so many questions? I feel... better and I really want to get out of here, no offense," Scorpius complained, at the very least he wanted to be alone to think through what had happened. He'd nearly died. The Shadows had gone after him again.

"Yes," the healer snapped, "unless you'd prefer a thorough physical examination? Which I thought you wouldn't considering your history."

"Oh... sorry, that's very nice of you."

"I'm a very nice person," the healer said stiffly, "and you can't go yet, wait a few hours and if you're still okay then you can go. But I want you to come back tomorrow for a check up if you have gone by then and have no problems, I'm not sure how trustworthy the muggle technique is."

Scorpius nodded in understanding and waited patiently after the healer went back to his office, grumbling about difficult people and being overworked. His eyes drifted back to the sunlight streaming through the window, the sun now fully risen into the sky but not managing to project its warmth fully through the cold of near-winter, the gentle calmness of it all seemed strange after nearly dying. Drowning wasn't gentle and calm. It did raise questions though, did that mean the Shadows wanted him dead now? Or had they had some plan to kidnap him after he was separated from everyone beneath the ice and either hadn't had a chance with Calderon showing up or something went wrong? His eyes drifted to his wand by his bed, he wanted to tell Varanian but really they should talk about it more detail than the short messages through the rings. He decided it could wait, it was only three weeks to the Christmas holidays and he'd see him again in person then anyway or he could try the vulture mail again next week.

"Hey, you're awake," Michael's voice greeted him and Scorpius' head shot back round to see his friend coming over to him, he smiled weakly, "how are you feeling?"

"Not bad I guess," Scorpius shrugged, "I heard that was because of you and Calderon saving my life."

"It was pretty much all Calderon really, he broke the ice and dived in to pull you out of the water. I just gave you CPR."

"And CPR wasn't important?"

"Would be useless if Calderon hadn't gotten you out of the ice first."

"I'm just saying don't sell yourself short," Scorpius pointed out to which Michael smiled sheepishly.

"Well I can't really sell myself tall. You know because I'm short," Michael offered jokingly before sobering, looking at him seriously with his painfully mismatched eyes that shot guilt into Scorpius' heart. Michael had saved his life after he'd scarred him and blinded one of his eyes, "are you really okay? You nearly died yesterday and you were completely distraught the night before, can't be easy."

"Its not easy but I can deal," Scorpius told him firmly feeling guilty again about Orous, glumly he wondered if he'd died if he would have deserved it for being a horrible person, "we knew the Shadows would attack again eventually, I told you those Aurors were no good."

"I'm sure they did their best."

"Did their best to kill me."

"The Aurors are the ones trying to keep the school safe."

"I'm sure some of them are but some of them are working for the Shadows, those are the ones that attacked me."

"It can't have been them or at least not them completely," Michael said seriously, "someone in the stands cast the spell that threw you off your broom, all the Aurors were either too busy getting out of the water or not near enough to the match to have done anything."

"Who cast the spell?" Scorpius wondered in a scowl, he hadn't thought of that. It had to be Grant.

"Well it wasn't any of the players, me, Maurice or the handful of others who weren't at the match but it could have been any of the other students there. Eben was referee and also too busy getting out of the water to do it so not him, Calderon, Binns - obviously, Rivers, the head healer and the Divination teacher weren't at the game so not them, Longbottom can't cast spells very accurately with his right arm since he lost his wand arm so he's been ruled out as they would need to be accurate and also Hagrid has been ruled out, something about not having an umbrella and Ashain is ruled out because he nearly died saving your life before so it would be weird that he tried to kill you. Plus Longbottom, Hagrid and Ashain all know Al's dad and are seen as trustworthy."

"So they don't know who did it."

"Yep."

"It was Grant. It had to be him."

"Just because Grant's not a nice person it doesn't mean he tried to kill you and is in league with the Shadows."

"It makes perfect sense, he hates me for stopping their plan last year and he doesn't seem to like Calderon either, also because he stopped their plan."

"Don't you think if the Shadows made a point of sneaking someone in to be a spy then they would get someone more subtle? Grant's dislike makes him an obvious choice and the Shadows wouldn't want their spy to get caught," Michael pointed out.

"I said he was a Shadow, I didn't say he was a particularly skilled one."

Michael didn't look convinced but he didn't press the issue further, instead changing the subject to trivial things like lessons and homework to take Scorpius' mind of things. It was only halfway through the conversation that Scorpius realized that Michael was being like himself again, Scorpius didn't have to pry conversation out of him like he had been since he'd gotten back. He smiled to himself and hoped that it would last, he much preferred it like that, like how it was supposed to be.

It wasn't too long after that that Abby, Albus and Rose came to see him as well - without the Ravenclaws for which Scorpius' was incredibly grateful - and joined the conversation, tediously asking him if he was okay but it didn't bother him so much. It was just like old times, it felt like forever since he'd had all four of his friends together. He'd missed that. Michael's spirit seemed to waver though, he went quieter and kept looking at Rose.

"So... Where's Copper? And his friends?" Michael blurted out abruptly and the other three stiffened, "you know... they're usually with you."

"Me and Devin had a fight," Rose answered stiffly, "apparently he thinks trying to help a friend isn't worth the risk of walking onto ice, he's either being incredibly selfish or incredibly cowardly so I haven't spoken to him since yesterday at the match."

"So... Does that mean you're broken up?" Michael asked sounding almost hopeful.

"It depends what he has to say," Rose told him with a shrug before turning back to Scorpius and swallowing nervously, "that reminds me, I've been meaning to say this all year but I keep putting it off because I think it can wait... Except you nearly died and so I want to say this now: I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Scorpius wondered in confusion shared by Albus and Abby, Michael's expression was more reserved but Rose looked guilty.

"For last year, I didn't believe you about the letter thing with Varanian and I was so mean to you for the rest of the year because of it but you were in the right all along and you saved everyone's lives and I feel really horrible for how I treated you and I'm really sorry, Scorpius, you didn't deserve that."

"Its okay, I forgive you," Scorpius told her truthfully and she looked relieved, "its ancient history, it was a rough year for all of us."

"This year isn't much better," Albus grumbled while Maurice entered and came over to them, "bloody Shadows. Sooner they catch Varanian, the better."

"Varanian's innocent!"

"Well they won't know that for sure until they catch him."

"Its still a waste of effort really," Maurice spoke up earning a glare from Albus and Rose while Abby just rolled her eyes, "a waste of your father's lives, not to mention how it damages the lives of the people they're hunting. If they just accepted the innocent were innocent then they could focus on fighting the Shadows which is a much more productive use of their time. How are you doing, Scor?"

"If they just believed everyone was claimed to be innocent then they'd catch no criminals," Abby pointed out firmly before Scorpius could reply.

"I'm not saying they do that but then they know for sure that someone's innocent then they should let it go, Varanian for one and my father for another."

"They don't know that they're innocent, your opinion isn't fact," Albus snapped, "and where's Corin? Shouldn't you be in his shadow?"

"His father wanted to talk to him, making sure he was feeling alright after what happened yesterday," Maurice explained with a flicker of disapproval on his normally neutral expression, "he said he'd catch up. How are you doing, Scor?"

"I'll be fine," Scorpius told him and Maurice gave him one of his cold smiles, Scorpius wondered if he ever smiled warmly or laughed.

"I'm glad. Maybe I should start coming to Quidditch matches if they're this exciting."

"Exciting?!" Rose burst out furiously, "Scorpius nearly died! The Aurors and referee could have died or lost limbs if they'd still been in the water when it became ice! The other players could also have been in danger if they were knocked off their brooms too! You think lives being at risk is exciting?! You think lives being at risk is fun?! Why are you even here?!"

"Scorpius is my friend. I-"

"Scorpius isn't your friend! You just decided he was your friend and latched onto him and us like a parasite! No one likes you and no one wants you around, not us, not Scorpius and not even Corin! He's just friends with you because he had no one else and now he's befriending Vern and Orous and he's going to ditch you any second! You're creepy disturbing freak and I hate you, everyone hates you! Do the world a favor and drop dead or at least get lost and stop dredging up and making light of Scorpius' bad memories from yesterday!"

"I don't have to take that from you," Maurice said calmly and let go of his translator necklace, "I have got some homework to do, rest up Scor and I'll see you later."

"See you late..." Scorpius started but trailed off when he realized the futility of saying it to a deaf boy who had already let go of his necklace, turned on his heel and started walking away. He expected Michael to see something before noticing Michael had wandered away at some point and was in conversation with the snowy-haired head healer - that Scorpius realized he didn't know the name of - a few beds down. Michael seemed to think the conversation was over and started to head back over to them but the healer grabbed his arm and continued speaking to him, leaving it to Scorpius to complain, "bit harsh maybe, Rose?"

"Come on, he had it coming," Rose protested still raging, "all his anti-Auror talk and my father this and I know everything that, he's such an emotionless cold-hearted heartless stuck up uptight condescending opinionated bastard, always with that stupid neutral expression like he doesn't care about anything happening but always acts like we're idiots compared to him. I can't stand him!"

"What if you hurt his feelings?" Abby added.

"Did he look upset?!"

"No," Abby and Scorpius agreed in unison.

"Well there you go, I'd actually be surprised if he had feelings."

"He's not that bad," Scorpius said defensively but he knew there was no convincing her.

The Death Eaters attacked first and in seconds the place from being the center of calm to a war zone, Brutus closed the door more to protect himself from the flurry of lights blazing through the air, two more Aurors came up on the Death Eaters from behind and the chaos only increased. Narcissa had been caught up in the center of the fight but had noticed Brutus and managed to make her way towards him, she was trying to get close enough to get in but was engaged in a duel with one of the Aurors that had come from behind, she was superior in talent but kept knocking him down or back or if she stunned him then he would be revived by the other one.

"Kill him then he'll stay down," Brutus urged her in a voice so quiet he hadn't thought she heard him but the next jet of light to come from her wand was a blinding green, it struck the Auror and he was thrown lifelessly back to the ground. He wouldn't get up then. Narcissa looked slightly surprised before hardening her expression and closing the distance between them, Brutus let her in but made her stay on the edge with her head out.

"Which one did that?!" the loudmouthed Auror called, Brutus thought there was probably another Auror with him and Atticus because of the four Death Eaters, three seemed to be engaged in separate duels in that direction while the fourth dueled the other guy who had came from behind.

"Come on, let's go," Narcissa hissed, "you know the password to open the tunnel to get out of here."

"No. My brother's out there," Brutus protested as loudly as he dared to which the woman rolled her eyes.

"Which one is your brother?" Narcissa wondered peering her head round the door to see.

"The one with hair like mine."

"Well I can see he's fine, let's go."

"I'm going over, cover me Conners!" the loudmouthed Auror yelled followed near immediately by a yelp of pain and Brutus saw one of the Death Eaters - Selwyn? - smirk triumphantly.

"He's still fine, let's go."

"Alright then, cover me Ashain!"

Apparently having subdued the third Auror, Selwyn fired a killing curse at the other Auror from behind still dueling one of the others, killing him instantly. Rapidly he swung back round and launched another spell in the direction Atticus and the other two Aurors would be, the entire corridor became engulfed in flames and Brutus' tongue was silenced as he yanked Narcissa back out of the way by a cry of pain that sounded like his brother.

"Selwyn's good," Sal pointed out and Brutus would have jumped that the twins had crept up so close behind to see what was going on if his legs weren't too busy keeping him upright despite shaking so much in fear for Atticus.

Brutus gripped his wand tightly and started following the movements to put out the fierce flames to get to his brother or stop the flames from hurting him, he fought the urge to throw up imaging his brother burning in that fire. At that point the four of them were thrown back as the door exploded outwards, Selwyn either feeding the flames with more magic or losing control as they started to tumble down the stairs with the fire almost on them-

Part 3: Surviving

And then Brutus felt like he'd been thrown of a cliff, the breath was forced from his body and he felt like he was falling naked through a torrent of cold wind cutting him through to the bone. All he could see was shadow darkness and for a second wondered if he was dead before they were tumbling again, only this time onto grass under the gently glow of the dawn light, gasping for breath as if they'd been drowning.

Brutus couldn't stop shivering, his shaking limbs felt as weak and useless as infant's and his insides were churning. He opted to just lay on the grass for a moment and catch his breath, the sun gave him no warmth and he felt cold through to the bone. He tried to look around but things were spinning and spotty patches of darkness plagued his vision, he wasn't sure if he was going to pass out or if he actually did.

He didn't seem to be physically hurt and gradually his body seemed to recovered from... whatever in the hell had just happened and they were on a grassy hill in some kind of a field, Narcissa and the twins were with him and seemed to be doing better than he was. A sense of masculine pride prompted him to join them in sitting up, immediately regretting the way it made his head spin and his stomach do another somersault.

"What just happened?!" Narcissa demanded an answer to the question that Brutus was also wondering about.

"I think we were transported, Aunt Narcissa," Sal pointed out quietly looking at her brother, Tommy was sitting with his arms wrapped protectively around himself as he rocked back and forth.

"Aunt Narcissa doesn't like to be called Aunt Narcissa," Tommy whispered to his sister.

"I meant how!" Narcissa snapped giving her nephew a glare.

"Tommy does a lot of weird stuff with magic," Brutus offered worriedly and Narcissa opened and closed her mouth a few times as she glared at the boy before seeming to decide she wasn't likely to get a straight answer out of him.

"Fine," Narcissa said finally and stiffly before looking at him, pausing as if trying to remember his name but coming up with a blank, "er... you. Why don't you go and get help or something?"

"Why don't you?" Brutus countered irritably, he didn't answer to some snotty Malfoy.

"Because you're the Death Eater!"

"Well fine but you have to guard the twins, m-"

Narcissa apparated away before Brutus could even finish his sentence, he started to shake his head at her bias but stopped. Partially because he supposed it was understandable, he'd envisioned monsters when he first heard 'Voldemort's children' too and partially because it made his head start spinning again.

"The Shadows can teleport!?" Sal yelled at Tommy as she got to her feet, "the Dementor's Shadows can freakin' teleport?! You didn't think to mention this earlier?! You didn't think to use it to get the hell away from Azkaban years ago?!"

"I didn't know!" Tommy protested in a high pitched shriek looking up and starting to get to his feet shakily, golden light was pulsing around him.

"I don't believe you!"

"Its the truth!"

"How did you know how to do it then?!"

"I didn't! I just thought we had to get out of there and then my Shadows took us out of there."

"Liar!"

As Sal screeched, a pulse of blue light shot out from her to her brother, it collided with Tommy's pulsing lights and exploded. The three of them were thrown backwards by the shockwave and Brutus was glad for the grass that made for a soft landing, he didn't think he'd been thrown as far as back as the twins for being furthest away. He heard Tommy's maniacal high-pitched laughter as he sat up, blinking in surprise as he saw the grass between where each of them had been standing was scorched. He couldn't see Tommy, he'd been knocked down the hill but Sal was getting back up and surveying the damage. It reminded him of Atticus' unknown fate. He had to go back and see if his brother was alright, he could need healing or... he didn't even want to think of the possibility of his brother being dead.

"Tommy?" Brutus called out as he approached where the boy had been standing, the demented laughter echoing around them.

"That was fun!" Tommy yelled back and Brutus saw he was sitting on the grass laughing, "I rolled down the hill!"

"That's great now come on, I have to go find my brother," Brutus told him as he came down the hill with Sal who still looked angry while Tommy remained sitting and laughing to himself with his eyes closed, not wanting a repeat of what had just happened he grabbed Sal's arm to pull her back to speak to her before she could reach her brother, "leave Tommy be, I don't think he did know and even if he did, he's mad. What do you expect?"

"Okay, I wonder what else the Shadows can do," Sal mused as she nodded in understanding and her anger seemed to fade, he let go of her arm and continued on before she took his hand and he frustratedly yanked it away.

"What did I tell you about doing that?!"

"To not to."

"So don't do it!"

"The grass is longer here," Tommy told them seriously, smiling to himself as he ran his hand over the blades changing their color every time his palm touched them. Brutus just sighed and hauled him up, Tommy didn't fight it and continued watching the color-changing grass with interest.

"Now I have to go check on my brother to see if he's alright and you two are coming with me because I'm not just abandoning you here so-"

"Your brother is alright, he cried out because his arm was burned getting the injured guy and the loud guy out of the path of the flames before they were burned up but he's alive, he blew out the window and got them out before the fire consumed the room. The fire killed one of the Death Eaters though, the Aurors killed another one as he tried to escape but Selwyn and the fourth got away."

"And you know this how?" Brutus wondered dubiously.

"If Shadow bound to you is in a different place to you then you can see through its eyes," Sal explained for him.

"Wanna see?" Tommy asked darkly.

Without giving Brutus a chance to reply, Tommy reached up and placed his hand on the side of Brutus' face. Brutus felt like he was being engulfed by icy cold water and his vision seemed to cloud over with a shadowy haze that started to shift into an image, overlaying his current view of the sky, grass and a tree behind Tommy which just left everything as an indistinguishable jumble of colors.

"Close you eyes," Tommy commanded and Brutus felt obligated to obey.

The instant his eyes were shut, the image that had overlayed his vision became clearly but still oddly misty. It still took him a minute to realize what he was seeing, it was St Mungo's, a rather empty ward that. The man sitting on the closest bed shivered and drew Brutus' attention to him, with relief he recognized the man as his brother. His relief halted when he saw Atticus' arm was all burnt and blistery, which was probably why the man dressed as a healer was looking at it. There was another man dressed an Auror in the bed beside Atticus, Brutus thought he was probably more seriously injured as he looked unconscious and two healers were working on him.

There was something extremely odd about it all though, every one of the people he could see seemed to be burning in flames that didn't seem to be hurting them, they didn't seem to notice them either or maybe were just ignoring them. The Auror in the bed was burning in gray flames but the other seemed to be slightly different shades of white, Atticus' seemed to be brightest.

"Did it just get really cold in here?" Atticus asked, his voice sounding muffled and distant.

"No," the healer seeing to his arm answered, "but if you're feeling cold, it could be a sign of infection."

"No, no, I'm pretty sure I'm fine," Atticus said quickly before cringing at whatever the healer just did to his arm, "apart from the burned arm. Will it take long to heal? I want to get back to work."

"Back to work?!" Brutus repeated furiously, "you nearly got incinerated by magical fire and you want to get back to work?! Are you insane, Atty?!"

"He can't hear you," Tommy told him as he moved his hand away from Brutus' face.

He felt like he slipping out of the cold water he was immersed in, falling out of the cold and he realized he was actually falling in reality and hit the ground with a thud. Brutus suppressed the urge to groan as he got up, his vision was back to normal and the images of his brother in the hospital were gone, everything looked a lot brighter after the tinted Shadow sight.

"So that's really real?" Brutus wondered, "why are the people on fire?"

"You see through their eyes, that's how see. Its not fire, its their souls," Tommy explained quietly, "they can see the color of people's souls, its important to them. They feed off pain and they destroy souls because tearing a soul apart is the worst kind of pain so its the most... filling I guess - not that they're ever full - usually they do that to white souls. Dark souls have already torn their own soul apart by choosing to do such evil things, they don't get much sustenance off them. Gray souls are their favorites though, their souls are already damaged but not too far gone so they... taste the best or they get the most out of them or something. They're also the hardest to get, they can't touch them unless the soul is willing."

"Why would someone willingly do that?"

"Enough time with a Dementor and they think its preferable I guess," Tommy shrugged and suddenly looked at him fearfully, "don't make me ask them, I don't like talking to them."

"You can talk to them?"

"Not with words. But yes."

The topic changed and Michael came back over to them shortly before Corin came to drop in his best wishes, Hal, Professor Ashain and everyone from the Gryffindor Quidditch team - minus James - came to check on him at some point before the head healer let him at lunch. Molly's visit was the best though, she hugged him and he didn't feel cold anymore then, the scent of cherries flooded his senses. He wished he didn't have to let her go. Molly stayed with him and his friends until he was assessed by the head healer and let go for lunch, she sat with them at lunch too. Scorpius thought she felt a bit bad about him nearly dying during her first Quidditch match as Captain, it was only then that he remembered that he'd caught the Snitch and won the game before he fell.

It was an interesting lunch, the first time since he'd been back from his suspension that Michael was there and everyone within earshot were asking him about how he'd brought back Scorpius from the dead and he could bring back some dead relative or friend or famous dead person they thought it would be cool to meet, Michael had to calmly and patiently more than once - sometimes to the same people - that he couldn't. Maurice wasn't at lunch, nor was Orous though and poor Vern was looking very lonely by himself. Molly split with them after lunch to go off with Nick, Nick had the audacity to say he was glad that Scorpius was alright and congratulate him on his win.

"That bastard," Scorpius grumbled after Molly left with Nick, hand in hand.

They headed to the library after that to catch up their work, although he thought the teachers - except Grant - would be lenient on it considering the events of Saturday. It felt good to be sitting doing homework with his friends again, his usual group of friends, he'd missed hanging out with them. Even though people still kept coming up to Michael to ask him about reviving the dead, he had more patience than Scorpius thought he would have if people were asking him instead. Dinner was thankfully quieter though, sitting near the same people helped lessen the amount of people asking Michael questions. Maurice wasn't at dinner either but Orous was, the albino didn't seem interesting in anything Vern was saying though, he looked depressed even for him.

Scorpius thought he would go asleep quickly that night but he lay awake, his eyes wouldn't close no matter what way he tossed and turned. That made it worse, his mind went back to nearly drowning or actually drowning and being revived. Either way, he'd nearly died and he'd really thought he was going to die. What bothered him more than the thought of dying was the thought of dying without having done things, important things. If he died then Varanian would be alone in his fight against the Shadows, Scorpius wasn't sure how much he really helped but abruptly dying almost made him feel like he was abandoning Varanian and he didn't want to do that. He couldn't let himself die until he and Varanian had the Shadows jailed, disbanded or dead. There was also avenging his grandfather, if he died then who would kill the Shadow Master? There was no guarantee that anyone would do that. He couldn't let himself die until he'd avenged his grandfather's soul.

Then there was Orous. The guilt still weighed heavily on his mind, memories of his time with muggles pricked at his mind and let it bleed through into his thoughts, tears leaked from his eyes as he tried to imagine what it would have been like if he'd been connected to someone then, someone who could've spared him but had stupidly and selfishly decided to just leave him to suffer. He didn't blame Orous for being hurt and angry. It was too late to help Orous, nothing eased the pain of the memories and he wasn't even sure where to start on the magic being ripped out of his soul and put back or what effects that specifically had. But there were those other two missing boys, Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, maybe he could help them. He could at least try. He would have to work up the courage to tell Varanian and ask his help, maybe he knew a spell to retrace his steps from the park to the house to find the muggles, if the Scamander boys were being held in the same place then maybe he could save them. He would at least try, he couldn't let himself die without at least trying to help them.

Michael was also on his mind, he'd been happy to have discovered a talent for Quidditch before Scorpius had taken his eye and destroyed his chances. Scorpius wasn't sure how to help him but he wanted to, he wanted Michael to get a prosthetic eye and get back on that broom. Ideally he also wanted Michael to also not have a family who didn't care enough about him to let him go home for any holidays or contact him all year unless it was a letter to send him worrying for weeks, where he was in a bunch of car crashes and broke his wrist falling down the stairs... For a brief moment Scorpius felt like he was missing something but the feeling passed, there was nothing he could do for that anyway. He didn't want to die until he knew Michael was okay, not half-blind, grounded and isolated.

And finally, his most selfish thought: Molly. His thoughts about her had nothing to do with fixing something he'd done wrong with her. His thoughts about her was that he liked her, he really liked her and he didn't want it to just be a fantasy to date to her, to hold her hand and kiss her, hug her and be overwhelmed by her beautiful smell of cherries,. He wanted it to have actually happened. He didn't care that she was two years older than him, he didn't care that she was with someone else and seemed happy with him. He wanted to go up to her and blurt out that he liked her, she was the most beautiful girl in the world and he loved the way she smiled or that her eyes were the color of the sky on a perfect day or the way she veered off into tangents and ranted about Quidditch faster than a motorcycle and she could make him smile even when he felt down and the list went on. He wanted her to know how much he liked her, how much she meant to him, how wonderful she was. He wanted her to know and to like him back, for her to smile at him the way she smiled at Nick. He knew he'd die before that happened though.

"Brutus, what's that?" Sal questioned and Brutus was grateful for the change in conversation, Shadows just disturbed him. He glanced in the direction she was pointing and saw it was a sheep, plodding over to much on the grass near them, Tommy also looked at it and shared Sal's expression of amazement and awe.

"Its a sheep," Brutus pointed out blandly but they continued to look amazed, the grass all around them was now golden which didn't seem to bother the sheep.

"What does it do?"

"Nothing, its just an animal."

"I like it," Tommy announced brightly as his smile returned, "it looks fluffy."

"It does," Sal agreed looking intrigued and Brutus sighed tiredly, "it also looks kind of like a cloud with legs and a head."

"Do you think it can turn into a cloud?"

"Brutus, can it turn into a cloud?"

"No!" Brutus snapped in a growl, "its just a stupid sheep! The only thing it can turn into is a scratchy sweater and a mutton steak."

"What does that mean? Its some kind of transfiguration creature?"

"No! People shave them and get the wool when they get too much... hair which becomes clothes or they kill them and use the meat for food or to sell for food or however it works. I don't know, I'm an Ashain not a peasant farmer."

"They-They kill them?" Sal stammered out looking horrified, he noticed Tommy's eyes filling with tears, "but its not hurting anyone, why would they kill it?"

"For food. This can't be news for you, where do you think the meat you eat comes from?"

"Magic."

"You can't conjure food."

"I know, I thought you magicked it from... the place... where the food is."

"S-So every time we ate meat, we were eating poor cloudy sheep?" Tommy managed to ask before he fell to his knees and started crying, "I'm sorry sheep!"

"Different meats come from different ani- Don't you think you're overreacting?" Brutus complained but Tommy looked distraught and even Sal seemed to have abandoned him on reason as well.

"Don't you think you're under-reacting?" Sal countered giving a glare.

"You want to kill all Death Eaters but you have a problem with sheep?"

"Sheep never did anything to me. Death Eaters did."

"I'm never eating meat ever again," Tommy announced firmly.

"You can't do tha-"

"Neither am I," Sal agreed stubbornly folding her arms.

"Lots of animals eat other animals, its normal!"

"Well I'm not normal."

Brutus opened his mouth but decided against it, simply throwing his hands up in defeat, he was too tired and too worried to bother arguing with them, Tommy was simply insane and Sal was very difficult to sway from something she believed. He just hoped he wouldn't be blamed for their vegetarianism or that they would get over it.

Rodolphus took that moment to arrive with a handful of Death Eaters, Narcissa wasn't with them, Brutus had his wand back out the second he heard apparating before he saw who it was. And then he saw Selwyn was amongst them and the grip on his wand tightened, Rodolphus was saying words but Brutus wasn't listening. All he could hear was his brother's cry of pain and the burned up arm, he didn't realize what he'd done until Selwyn was on the ground writing and screaming. He didn't release him from the Cruciatus Curse though. He didn't feel a shred of sympathy.

"Stop!" one of the other Death Eaters commanded.

"Fine," Brutus snapped and obeyed even though he wasn't sure if it was Rodolphus who'd spoken or not, Selwyn lay breathing heavily on the ground and Brutus raised his wand again, he wasn't done yet. No one was going to hurt his brother and get away with it, he flicked his wand again causing a crack and Selwyn screamed clutching the arm - the same one injured as Atticus - Brutus had just non-verbally broken. Crack. Crack. Crack. Selwyn's arm was becoming increasingly bent out of shape, the Death Eater was howling in agony and demanding he stop and what had he ever done to Brutus, "you tried to burn my brother alive! MY brother!"

"Okay I think that's enough," Rodolphus announced smoothly stepping between them, he had Tommy in tow and Brutus' anger recoiled seeing in the few minutes since they'd arrived Rodolphus had already given poor Tommy a fresh split lip and a cut on his cheek, "we have the twins now, you're relieved. We'll be in touch."

It had been a hectic November for Scorpius and in comparison, December was incredibly mild. He finished catching up his work in the first week and was back in line with everyone else - meaning no extra sessions - and either Calderon or Molly had decided there were no Quidditch practices until they came back for the New Year after the Christmas holidays - meaning no practices - so Scorpius found his time especially free. Not for the first time he missed being Calderon's assistant. He missed Calderon in general. At least he'd feel safer.

Because he didn't feel safe. Every corner he rounded the Aurors were there, every doorway he passed, maybe he was just feeling paranoid but the school was crawling with them. Every time he saw them, he couldn't help but if they were one of the ones who'd nearly killed him, if they were the Shadows that he and Varanian were after. It wasn't just that though. The realization that the Shadows had been in his abduction had ruined the illusion of safety he felt in the wizarding world, that as long as he stayed in and not wander into the muggle world than he'd be safe from reliving that nightmare even with everything going on, nothing seemed as bad as that so it was a little safety net at the back of his mind. But not it had burned up in the flames that had scorched the bannisters up the stairs. He wasn't safe. He never had been.

Rose spending so much time with them had only lasted the first week until she and Copper patched things up, she seemed oblivious to it being an issue as Copper liked them well enough. Either she didn't know about Copper's issue with Michael or Copper had changed his mind after what Michael had done. It didn't matter though, he had no intention of spending a single second with Copper and neither did Michael. Abby and Albus seemed to have picked up on their dislike of Copper because they alternated their time between Rose and the Ravenclaws or Scorpius and Michael.

Michael at least seemed to be more himself again, he still went off on his own sometimes but mostly he would hang out with Scorpius like he used to, act like himself and had even stopped pouring over his stepdad's letter every other waking moment, Scorpius had also managed to coax him into having dinner a few times. Molly was still spending a lot of time with Nick but she did sit with him at meals sometimes leading up to Christmas. Things with his first year friends wasn't great though, he hadn't spoken to Orous since learning he was the voice and he was pretty sure Orous had no intention of carrying on being friends with him, Maurice was also giving him the cold shoulder and had apparently had a falling out with Corin because it was all Corin would complain about at meals or when he and Vern sat with them in the library.

"What do you think I should get her for Christmas?" Albus asked one night at the beginning of the second week of December as they were getting into bed.

"Who?" Scorpius wondered as he pulled the drapes back open to talk to him.

"Professor Vipera, of course."

"You're getting her a present for Christmas?"

"You got Calderon that dragon necklace he always wears, think I should get her a necklace?"

"That's different."

"How?" Albus demanded propping his head up on his elbow.

"Well for one, I actually know him and you don't know Vipera-"

"I know she's beautiful."

"That's not knowing her," Scorpius complained, "and for another, I was just giving him a gift because I care about him not because I had a crush on him and was trying to impress him. And for third, you're thirteen and she's like thirty, you can't seriously think this will work out?"

"I'm in love with her, you don't give up on love," Albus pointed out and smiled, "did you notice today that she spoke to me?"

"You mean when she told you that your shoelace was undone?"

"Yes! It shows she likes me back, she was caring about my wellbeing."

"Sure she wasn't just doing her job?"

"Obviously," Albus snorted as if he should have known that, "but I don't know what she would like for Christmas."

"Just get her a card," Michael offered from his own bed on Scorpius' other side, "and go to sleep."

"Hey that reminds me, are you staying at Hogwarts over the holidays again?"

"Yep."

"That also reminds me," Scorpius spoke up recalling Jack's offer and the fact they would be starting to collect names of who was staying or going soon if they hadn't started already, "I... saw your dad briefly while I was suspended, he said to tell you that you could spend the Christmas holidays with him if you wanted."

"No."

"You're not even going to think about it?"

"There's nothing to think about."

"You'd really rather spend Christmas alone here than with your own father?" Scorpius wondered in disbelief.

"Yes! Its really not that bad here and you don't know Jack like I do, he's unreliable," Michael said firmly, "he promises this and promises that but never keeps them. Do you know how many birthdays or Christmases he forgot? Do you know how many times he promised he'd show up to a school play or a sports day and then just didn't? Do you know how many times he agreed to see me or take me somewhere or something but then he just didn't show up? Its always 'I'm sorry, was that this Saturday?' or 'I'm sorry, I was so wasted last night I forgot my alarm' or 'I'm sorry, I met this girl and time ran away with me' or 'I'm sorry, I was winning in poker and I didn't want to break my lucky streak' or like a million other reasons. You can't apologize for breaking a promise, if you really meant it then you'd have kept it."

"Maybe he will be there this time, maybe he's trying and you should give him a chance."

"No, I'll just turn up and he'll forget and I'll have to call my mum and then I'll be in big trouble with Bob. You don't know him like I do, Scorpius, he never cared about my mum and he never cared about me and he never will."

"I think he does care ab-"

"No, Scorpius. Let it go," Michael interrupted with a note of finality in his voice that made them fall silent, only Reuben and Angelo's snore and sleep sounds could be heard.

"You know Michael," Albus began nervously, "my parents really wouldn't mind if you stayed over the holidays, James is getting a friend to stay over with him and my dad is sympathetic because he knows whats it like to have to stay in Hogwarts for Christmas."

"I really appreciate the offer but I can't, I'm sorry."

"Why not?"

"Well... no offense but your brother kind of picks on me enough at school, spending two weeks in the same house as him doesn't seem like a good idea."

"Ah fair point. Sorry."