Parts (25-30)

IV

Chapter 5

The Enigma of Ashain

Part 1: Weakness

Roman didn't think he'd ever dreaded something so much in his life as he did going to Hogwarts, he saw no other way around it but to go to show that it was truly a terrible place. It didn't make him feel any better about it and he was scared of her going back on her word, just leaving him there on his own forever. At least he had Enas and Smokey. It was Percy's fault whatever she said, he'd just manipulated her into not even realizing that she was being turned against him. He didn't sleep at all that night after they packed up his trunk, he didn't get up until she came to wake him though and he couldn't bring himself to eat despite Audrey's attempts to get him too. And then Percy arrived, he would be there to see his evil plan come to fruition. How could Audrey possibly like someone who relished in an eleven-year-old's pain? What he ever done to Percy to deserve this?

"You're not bringing that silly old thing, are you?" Percy asked of him, gesturing to Enas. Roman hugged his stuffed unicorn tighter.

"Of course," Roman confirmed.

"Roman, you're too old for stuffed toys."

"No, I'm not. Enas is my friend and I love him and I need him since you're making Audrey send me away."

"Leave him be, Perce," Audrey sighed.

"If he brings the unicorn, the other kids are going to make fun of him and he really will hate Hogwarts then," Percy explained in a hushed tone that Roman was still perfectly capable of hearing but it seemed to change Audrey's mind.

"Maybe you should leave it, Roman."

"No!" Roman wailed and hugged Enas even closer, "I'm not going without him, I need him."

"It's only for a few months, you can have it back at Christmas break at the latest."

"No!"

"Roman, put it back or I'll take it back," Audrey growled warningly and Roman trudged to his room in misery, already crying again.

"It's only f-for a little wh-while, Enas," Roman promised tearfully as he sat Enas on his neatly made bed, stroking its head gently as Enas looked at him with eyes full of betrayal, "D-Don't look at me like that, y-you know I d-don't have a choice, you kn-know I'd take you if I could or j-just stay. W-We both of us hav-have to be strong now, d-do you understand?"

Enas said nothing.

"Y-You be good, Enas, and I-I'll b-be back as soon as I c-can w-with Sm-Smoke. You j-just stay h-here and gu-guard my room, okay? Y-You're the best," Roman told Enas and picked him up to hug him one last time, "D-Don't ever forget that. It's n-not g-goodbye, I'll see you soon. I pr-promise, I promise."

"Your brother has serious issues," Percy complained to his sister and Roman scowled angrily to see them waiting for him in the doorway, he angrily wiped his eyes and replaced Enas. He petted him a final time before following them out with a last lingering look. He hated everything about it.

And then they were off, Percy insisted on putting Smokey in a cat carry box until the train so he couldn't even hug poor Smokey for comfort. Audrey did let him hold her hand though, leaving Percy stuck carrying everything. It was a good thing too because there was a terrifying amount of people at King's Cross, Roman had never been to a train station before and he'd be quite happy to never go to one again. At least he understood why Percy was there to lead the way, he and Audrey would never have thought of something as stupid as running through a wall to get to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

Roman didn't like trains either, the train segments didn't look very securely attached and envisioning them separating to leave him to die scared him so much Audrey complained of him squeezing her hand too tight. There was too many people on the magical side too, why did there have to be so many people? He clung to Audrey for dear life while Percy got his trunk on the train but continued to carry the cat so Roman could have it with him for the journey, he kept a tight hold of Audrey's hand and wished he'd never have to let go. They followed Percy again to where his family was, or some of them anyway. Percy had been jabbering on about it, his sister had her final year and his youngest brother was seeing off his girlfriend, Harry Potter was also there to see off Percy's sister and the Weasley parents were there to see their daughter off.

"-Just have to let him sit with you for the train ride, maybe keep an eye out and that's all," Mrs Weasley was saying to her daughter before they saw them, Roman clung to his sister tighter.

"Roman!" Audrey hissed and tried to detangle his hand until he lessened his grip slightly, "Stabbing nails painful in iron grip, geez."

"Looking forward to Hogwarts?" Mr Weasley asked him in a way that was probably an attempt to be friendly, Roman was too stunned by the ludicrousy of the question to answer, "It's okay to be nervous. Ginny here will look after you."

"And Hermione," Ginny added with a gesture to the bushy brown haired girl snogging Percy's brother, teenagers were weird and gross, clearly Hermione wasn't very clever.

"You remember them, right? You met them before you freaked out," Audrey pointed out as if he'd forgotten and Roman nodded as he hung his head, his jaws clamming up around so many people.

The group was talking for a while, he knew words were being said but he couldn't hear them. He could only hear his pounding heart beating away the seconds before it was time to leave, the whistle from the train marking it was time for people to get on board if they hadn't already. Roman threw his arms around his sister and buried his face in her chest, he knew he was crying again but he couldn't help it. He didn't want to go. Audrey hugged him back for a minute before having to pry his arms away, silent tears were streaming down his cheeks. Was he really that bad a person that he deserved to be sent so far away?

Scorpius finished his food and also left, except he went to wait for Michael to finish with Leebin because he really wanted to tell him about the Ashain children's dreams and Varanian's messages. It dawned on him that standing there randomly might not be the best idea but he was eager to get Michael's opinion on the new development, an hour couldn't go by fast enough as he paced in boredom.

"Scor, what are you doing?" a voice wondered and Scorpius jumped as he noticed Professor Ashain, still not dressed in robes.

"Waiting for Michael to be done with Leebin," Scorpius answered truthfully, seeing no point in lying, "How's Antonius?"

"Still ill, been up all night," Professor Ashain pointed out unhappily, "That's where I'm going now, shortcut to the Hospital Wing to see if Marigold has anything else that can help. And thanks by the way, it was nice of you to do what you did."

"No problem," Scorpius shrugged it off awkwardly and scowled as the professor went to move by but what did he really have to lose? At worst Professor Ashain would just tell him nothing or know nothing, "Professor?"

"Yes?" Professor Ashain paused.

"I was just... well... Do you remember the Ministry attack last year? You know about how I was involved and what happened?"

"Yes," Professor Ashain admitted hesitantly, "What about it?"

"I kept having these dreams about ancient times that I couldn't remember much of after, all because I had contact with... the thing in question."

"I know... Are you having them again?"

"No. But your children are by the sound of it," Scorpius explained, "I don't know where the thing is but it's probably not very safe if they can get to it."

"You don't need to have contact with it to have those dreams, my best guess is some people are more sensitive to whatever causes it for whatever reason. I know about their dreams, I'm keeping an eye on it but it doesn't seem to be harmful," Professor Ashain pointed out, "It's impossible for them to have contact with it too, the thing is quite safe and so are they."

"It's here though, isn't it? Hidden somewhere in the castle?" Scorpius decided to risk in a whisper, the professor swallowed nervously and crossed the distance between them.

"Scorpius, wherever it is, it is safe," Professor Ashain told him in a very serious tone, "It's best not to worry about it. Or to talk about it. It's not your responsibility. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Scorpius shrugged, he'd been hoping for more, "How do you know you don't need to have contact with it to have those dreams? How can you be sure?"

"Because... It happened to me so I can assure you better than anyone it's possible."

"You have the dreams too?"

"Not now but last year I did so I know it's possible and without anything bad. Satisfied now?"

Scorpius nodded, feeling much better about the dreams although still wishing he could've gotten more on the Scepter's location. Still, it was better than nothing and the professor bade him goodbye as he left to take that shortcut. If it happened to Professor Ashain without touching it then it made more sense, it could be because they were related they were more sensitive to it. Although in that case, it was strange that he wasn't getting them while his children did or maybe not since the professor was taking something to help him sleep that could be blocking the dreams. And even if they hadn't had contact, it did seem to confirm the Scepter was inside the castle like Varanian thought as they'd have to be near it at some point to get them. The dreams themselves were still strange though, what purpose had they?

"Scorpius? I thought your session wasn't until this afternoon?" Michael wondered and Scorpius was drawn from his thoughts to realize Michael had just left Leebin's room.

"It is, I was just waiting for you," Scorpius explained and took him to an unused classroom to finally fill him in, "So what do you think?"

"I think the Scepter's probably in the school and Ashain's probably right about some people more susceptible to whatever makes the Scepter show those dreams, since the kids are related to Ashain then it's probably genetic in their case. We don't know enough, in fact, we don't know anything about what causes the dreams to take attempt a guess why but it doesn't seem to do anything bad. It's just weird."

"That's it? No ideas on how to find it or how we're supposed to guard it."

"How am I..." Michael began before trailing off and looking thoughtful, "The Chamber of Secrets."

"I thought of that too, it could be where they did it."

"Yeah and it would explain why Ashain goes there every night, he's probably guarding it."

"Wait, what?" Scorpius wondered in confusion.

"The glitch I mentioned before on the map? Every night Ashain goes to that bathroom where the entrance is and stays there as far as I can tell until morning, except the other night when he wasn't there."

"He couldn't be going there every night or he'd be exhausted, he seems in pretty good health."

"They probably take it in turns and the map's still having issues, maybe because of how the chamber isn't on the map or because they put up protection?" Michael offered.

Scorpius thought that made sense although it brought to mind something else he'd been trying to forget, he'd dismissed Professor Ashain being possessed as a dream but if Michael said he'd been there too... Possession probably would also account for why the professor wasn't tired, maybe they could control him while he slept? He didn't realize it because he was asleep and didn't seem tired because he was getting the sleep he needed. It made sense the Shadows would know about it since Varanian had most likely heard it from them, it would also explain Varanian's concern for it being stolen. Still though, he didn't want to humiliate himself again nor do anything to hurt Professor Ashain. Especially when it could still have been a dream.

"It's a full moon tomorrow night, isn't it?" Scorpius asked of Michael, almost regretting the way it made Michael's face fall but it was for a good reason. Michael nodded, "Could I borrow the map again?"

"Sure," Michael agreed in a sigh and headed to the door, "And that reminds me, I have to go drink my poison. I'll see you later."

Scorpius nodded in understanding and offered a wave. At least he had a plan, if he could confirm that Professor Ashain was there again and possessed then he'd know it was real. If Professor Ashain was there at all then he'd just cast a Patronus before the Shadow had a chance to make him think it was a dream again or hurt the professor, or the professor wasn't there and Michael was right about the map just being erroneous. The map was impressive but not perfect, it still didn't show Calderon after all.

Scorpius headed out himself, there was still plenty of time to kill before his own counselling session. He passed Professor Ashain returning with the vial of potion for his son, Scorpius did actually think he preferred it being a dream. He didn't want anything bad to happen to his favorite professor, those poor kids would have no one as well. He was on his way back to his dormitory when he noticed Latimer leaving Chastity Prinkett's room, clearly having had another awful 'counselling' session. He thought it'd been worse though, Latimer looked on the verge of tears. Scorpius felt guilty despite himself.

"Hey Latimer?" Scorpius called out and hurried to catch up to him, Latimer moved fast for a someone with a limp.

"What?" Latimer demanded, barely managing to stop the cracks from showing in his voice.

"Um... I... Are... Are you okay?" Scorpius asked stupidly, realizing pretty much anything would've been more comforting and helpful than that.

"Not now," Latimer complained, also seeming to see how useful Scorpius was and starting to carry on at his fast pace.

"Don't let her to get to you, she's just a horrible person," Scorpius offered instead as he struggled to keep up again, "And you're not, whatever she says. You're a good person and friend, don't let her get you down or any of them."

"Really?" Latimer scoffed dubiously, "I thought I was just 'Molly's friend' not yours."

"What?" Scorpius wondered in confusion.

"I just want to be alone right now," Latimer insisted as he picked up the pace again and left Scorpius behind to puzzle over his words, what had he meant by that?

"I'll see you in a few months," Audrey promised and Percy handed him the cat carry case as he wiped his eyes fiercely, Roman was shaking so much he could feel his knees knocking together although his feet remained glued to the ground. He couldn't say anything, if he did it would be a garbled sob anyway.

"This way," Ginny offered and took his arm to lead him to the train, he gripped onto her tightly in terror and allowed himself to be led into the metal death tube. People were squished in like sardines and it was so loud, so many voices. He clutched Ginny tighter and buried his face fearfully in her arm, she led him into an empty quieter compartment, "You can let go now."

Roman leaped away as if burned and squashed himself into the corner by the window, Ginny was frowning at her arm that had droplets of blood oozing from where Roman's nails had inadvertently broken the skin. She said as much - was that all Weasleys cared about? It wasn't like he did it on purpose - but Hermione offered to heal it as she withdrew her wand. Roman took Smokey out of the case and cuddled him close as he risked a glance out of the window, the train already pulling away from the station. He stroked Smokey fearfully, still unable to stop himself shaking while the girls talked. He missed Enas.

"And who's this?" a different voice asked in a distant, dreamy voice.

Roman was jolted from his thoughts, glancing up to realize a third girl had joined them. She had straggly long dirty blond hair and luminous silver eyes, she had her wand tucked behind her left ear and an easy smile on her face. For some reason, Roman found his heart beating even more bizarrely. He opened his mouth to try answer that he was Roman but words refused to come out, he couldn't even blink.

"He's Roman," Ginny answered for him and the spell was broken as the girl looked to Ginny, Roman hung his head to hide the blush on his cheeks, "Percy's girlfriend's little brother, it's his First Year and he's a little nervous and quite shy."

"Nice to meet you, Roman, I'm Luna," the girl introduced herself and Roman risked raising his head an inch to look at her, his eyes were drawn to her as she reached forward to scratch Smokey's ears. Smokey vocalized his approval and Luna smiled, "Nice cat you have there, what's his name?"

"S-S-S-Sm-Sm-oke-oke-key," Roman managed to stutter out in a voice he could barely hear, his face flushed in embarrassment but miraculously Luna seemed to have heard.

"Hello Smokey," Luna greeted the cat before leaning back in her seat, Roman hung his head to hide the smile that crept on to his face. He liked her.

Roman spent most of the journey with his eyes firmly on Smokey, half-listening to the girls' conversation but always listening to Luna. They didn't speak to him much and he relaxed slightly, if they did engage him in conversation it was usually to tell him about Hogwarts. They told him about the four houses, he'd known Slytherin was the house of evil Death Eaters and Gryffindor was Percy's house but there was also Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw - Luna's house - and he'd be sorted when he got there. He did panic when a random person came in selling sweets but thankfully she wasn't there long and didn't actually come in to the compartment, Roman had nothing. It was far too soon to have another treat after the ice cream on his birthday, plus he'd have to tell her what he wanted and he really struggled with speaking around strangers. He confined his answers to the girls in mostly nods or shaking his head, when he did speak it was a stuttering mumble. It was a long journey and Smokey had long since fallen asleep on his lap by the time they arrived, he had to leave Smokey to be brought inside and felt the panic bubbling up inside from being in the crowd again.

"Okay, Roman, we have to go a separate way to you now," Ginny told him as they got onto the platform and his heart started thundering in terror again, the other two girls said something about getting a carriage and left. Ginny pointed to a massive figure that towered over even the eldest students like a mountain. His voice was booming intelligibly as he waved a lantern about, making his black eyes glitter creepily in the darkness, "You need to go with him."

Roman whimpered fearfully at the thought of going with the looming figure and clutched onto Ginny's arm again, he'd much rather go with the girls than the scary figure of nightmares. She gave an exasperated grunt and half-led, half-dragged him over to the giant. He was even bigger up close and Roman was shaking again as he tried to hide behind Ginny, the giant smiled down at them maliciously. Roman swallowed and cowered back in terror, wondering how many students the giant had eaten.

"Roman, this is Hagrid, a good friend of ours," Ginny introduced the giant who apparently had a name, "Hagrid, this is Roman, Percy's girlfriend's brother. Hagrid takes the First Years to the castle, he's really nice and he'll take good care of you. Now let go, your nails are stabbing my arm again."

Why was everyone always leaving him alone with scary people who wanted him dead? Ginny wrenched her arm free and left him there with the giant. Roman missed Enas, then at least he wouldn't die alone. Hagrid was speaking to him but Roman didn't speak giant or maybe his accent was just so difficult, he got the impression it was something reassuring though. Trying to relax his prey before he killed them to lessen the risk of them trying to run. And even worse was the crowd of gathering First Years, vicious looking kids all dressed in black like Death Eaters and surrounding him so much that Roman felt smothered.

"One?" Jack croaked weakly into the night as he forced his body into a sitting position, dragging himself up against the wall. His body felt like it was eating itself alive, it only got worse and nothing he did helped, "I know you're listening."

Do you give up? One's voice asked in his mind.

"I'm not killing a random person," Jack affirmed as he ran a hand through his hair nervously, "But isn't there something else I can do? I can't live like this."

You need someone to pain, I suggest killing because the agony someone feels as their soul is destroyed is the worst pain imaginable. However, we're already so weak that we need to do that

"I won't."

It doesn't need to be a random person though. It could be anyone, a criminal maybe or... or someone you hate

"I don't want to kill."

Is there no one you can think of that you hate to the point of wishing death upon them?

Bob's name came to mind before he could stop it but why should he stop it? He felt hatred burn in his heart, Bob had hurt his son and his... Crystal. If anyone deserved to die then it was him. Jack felt his lips curl into a smile despite feeling only anger and hatred.

Bob it is

"I don't know where he is or how to get to him though," Jack pointed out, not sure whether he hoped that One knew or that he didn't.

But I do and we're one entity now, shadows can teleport anywhere where there are shadows. Either to the same place as one of our kind if we communicate or anywhere where there is shadow if we know it's there and have been there before. And I happen to have looked up where Bob resides these days before merging with you

"I had the power to teleport this whole time and you're only telling me this now?!"

I told you that merging left me weak, all you did was nothing while I had to put every fiber of everything I had into this! Everything!

"So what do I do?" Jack grumbled to the testy Shadow.

Well standing would be a good start, One pointed out and Jack made his starved body obey before finding images of a shadowy cell room with black walls flashing in his mind, That's the location where Bob is. You need to focus on that and will yourself to that location, just focus on that cell and wanting to be there

"Then what?" Jack wondered as he closed his eyes to think of the cell and wanting to be there.

Then I do it too and we should be there

Jack focused and felt a tingling sensation through his body, followed by the same cold flooding through his body as when One would possess him. Only this time, it didn't just seem to immerse him inside but outside and he felt almost like he was being pulled along by the current. The ground seemed to move and Jack opened his eyes in surprise, finding he was no longer in his living room. He was in the dark cell.

"What the fuck?" a voice wondered and Jack at glanced at a surprised Bob sitting up in surprise, his aura was black. Jack clenched his fists in anger, fury at Bob for hurting his family engulfing him worse than the feeling of gold, "What are you doing here? How did you even get here?"

"What now, One?" Jack demanded.

Hold out your hand and will him to suffer. Destroy his soul

Jack raised his arm out to Bob with his palm first, feeling rather foolish but he focused on wishing Bob to suffer like he'd made his family suffer. A shadowy light seemed to shoot out from his palm and strike Bob, his fat body convulsing and contorting as he screamed. And Jack felt it, his own pain stopped and strength soared inside of him, invigorating energy coursing through every fiber of his being.

Power. He felt powerful, he couldn't even hear Bob screaming anymore over his power. He felt like he could do anything, take on any challenge and he would win. How could not with this power inside his veins? Filling him completely and energizing him, there was a final powerful jolt and Jack laughed in delight, his body shaking from him laughing so hard. And then it was gone.

He still felt strong but it destroying all sense of thought, he also wasn't getting any stronger. He looked down and realized that Bob no longer had an aura, in fact he was no longer breathing. His eyes stared sightlessly up at him and devoid of their usual blue color. Bob was gone. He'd just killed a man, or whatever excuse for a man that Bob had been. And so what? Bob deserved to be dead for what he'd done. He closed his eyes and thought of his living room, he felt the same sensation of being pulled by the current and he was home.

"I don't know about you but I feel much better," One commented and it took Jack a second to realize that his own lips had spoken, "You really don't get this whole merging soul thing, do you? We're the same being, what's yours is mine and what's mine is yours. I just lacked the strength before to do anything but now I don't, we share the body."

"I don't like you speaking with my mouth," Jack complained, surprise and relieved to hear his own voice spoken by his own will.

"Don't be a body-hog, Jack, I've never had a physical body before and I'm quite looking forward to experiencing life with it. Don't you think this is cool? I've never truly gotten to speak aloud before. This will be fun."

The group started off and he clung by Hagrid's side, if only for the light because naturally he was leading them down a scary dark path. He wondered which was worse, being brutalized and eaten alive by the giant or viciously torn about by the crowd. This had been Percy's plan all along, convince Audrey to send him to the Weasley's giant friend to take care of him permanently. Then Roman would be out of the way and he'd be free to torture Audrey to death because clearly Percy liked hurting people and was evil. Hagrid brought them to a lake with boats, it was just a pool of blackness. Roman wondered if it was tainted black by the blood of victims, he choked on a sob as Hagrid told them to climb into the boats. Was he planning on drowning them too? Roman couldn't swim. He was the last into the boats, Hagrid helping him in to his death.

Roman gripped onto the sides for dear life and squeezed his eyes shut as the boats started to move by themselves, he wasn't aware of anything else but the nauseating rocking of the boat as it bobbed across the water. He hated boats. It was a battle not to throw up and he was suddenly infinitely glad for not eating or it would've made the journey even harder. The girls had commented on the beauty of the castle but Roman couldn't risk opening his eyes, just imagining himself trapped in the middle of the lake was enough to make himself have to force down bile. Eventually though, the giant was prying his hands off the boat and helping him onto solid land. His legs were wobbling so much that he practically collapsed to his knees, Hagrid had to help him up again while plenty of people snickered.

Roman definitely wanted to go home now, how could anyone possibly think this was good? Roman was sure his heart was bruised by his ribs from pounding so forcefully against the inside of his chest, he was still shaking as he continued along with the rest of the group to the castle. In contrast to Hagrid, the person who opened the door was short, shorter than even the smallest little girl in the crowd. Roman was starting to wonder if Hogwarts actually employed anyone who was a pureblooded human. Hagrid abandoned him then too, at least he hadn't eaten him. Yet. The goblin - Roman was sure there was a dash of goblin ancestry in there somewhere - introduced himself as Professor Flitwick, he led them through the castle and gave a squeaky speech about the houses being like family, blah, blah, blah.

Roman didn't listen or care, he wasn't going to be there long anyway and if houses really were like family then they'd just abandon him too. And then Flitwick left them too! Why was everyone always leaving?! He hadn't been gone a minute when ghosts floated through the doors and Roman jumped so much in panic that he slammed his arm painfully into a wall, which earned him more laughter. He felt his breathing start to come too fast again in panic, he tried taking deep breaths and counting to ten under his breath to try keep his mind off everything terrifying him. He didn't notice they'd been called back in until he realized he was alone and little Flitwick was calling out to him to follow, he obeyed and stopped clutching his chest.

He couldn't help but he awestruck by the Great Hall, the array of floating candles was incredible to see and the stars in the bewitched ceiling were beautiful. It reminded him of his home, his true home where he'd lived with his parents when you could see all the stars at night. Not like the city when they were all hidden away. He didn't even notice the sheer amount of people or the singing hat as he just gazed up at the ceiling wistfully, there was nothing he wouldn't give or wouldn't do to be back there with his parents being alive and his siblings not abandoned him. Wishes were like the stars, Magnus had once said, so beautifully within sight yet so impossibly far away. Despite the crowd, he felt very much like he was the only person in the room.

The Sorting began, a name was called and the person would go to the stool to put the battered old hat on their head, the hat then shouted the decided house after a few seconds or minutes and the student joined the table that cheered. Simple enough. Roman didn't give it much thought or care at the time, still feeling his heart ache for his family. He wasn't even listening, he just stood at the back apart from the others with his head hung low. It hadn't registered that he too would go through it.

"Rivers, Roman!" Flitwick squeaked, reading from a parchment longer than he was.

Roman yelped in surprise as he jumped back, eyes turning to him as his insides turned to ice. His heart exploded into a thunderous beating and his whole body started shuddering under the sea of eyes. The other First Years parted to let him walk through, he walked on rubber legs to the stool. Very aware that everyone was looking at him, his body trembled violently against his will as he jammed the hat down on his head. He squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn't have to see the others, he hoped it'd be a quick decision.

"What do we have here? Hmm interesting," a voice mused in his mind and Roman managed to jump fearfully despite being on a stool, his heart beating even faster in his fear. Of course the hat could talk, why would it surprise him?

"Just hurry up," Roman begged, desperate to be out of the spotlight.

"Not particularly patient, are we? A more complicated mind requires more complicated thought. You do have courage somewhere though but I don't think you'd do well in Gryffindor or even Hufflepuff. You have a brilliant mind though, what do you think? I'm on the fence as I think there's two houses that you would do well in, Ravenclaw or-"

"I don't care, just pick one!" Roman demanded, seconds feeling like lifetimes too long for people to look at him.

"Well if you insist, it better be... SLYTHERIN!"

It was too much for Roman. He'd tried to cope, tried to deal with the nightmare his sister had abandoned him into but it was the last straw. To be put into the house of evil. He couldn't. His battered heart seized up as he stood, removing the hat and dropping it because his fingers were shaking so badly. His whole body was quivering uncontrollably while his feet refused to move, even to get out of the stares of a thousand eyes stabbing him from all directions. His lungs wouldn't let him breathe and he was grateful for the oblivion as his body crumpled to the ground, pulling him into the safety of his mind.

Part 2: Confrontation

Scorpius decided that Latimer's odd phrasing had to be because of that Chastity woman upsetting him, he couldn't think of anything he'd done anyway although it couldn't hurt to ask Molly. He grabbed his things from the dormitory and headed down to the Library, he had a Transfiguration essay to do for Midas and still plenty of time to kill before his counselling session. It was an unusual study session due to Abby and Corin's breakup, the pair didn't want to sit together so his Third Year friends had their own table away from his Fourth Years friends. Minus Michael, who wasn't even there. Scorpius respected his friends' wishes but he hoped it wasn't permanent, due to the different years he didn't see the Third Years as much and due to the house difference, he saw the Hufflepuffs even less. Rose's blond hair was also weird.

Eventually he headed down to Leebin, slightly nervous considering Latimer's frame of mind but Leebin still seemed pleasant and still had on his werewolf bracelet. He didn't have his notebook out at all and had the chessboard set up already, a muggle one this time with pieces so chipped they were barely recognizable. Scorpius relaxed greatly, Leebin seemed to have realized how pointless counselling was or maybe just that Scorpius wasn't as weak as he'd thought. Leebin still talked with him conversationally about his classes and Quidditch mostly, also crossing over to talking about his friends and family, Scorpius was more cautious about what he said here but he didn't see the harm if he was careful. He was almost enjoying himself, Leebin wasn't any better or any worse at muggle chess so Scorpius was winning frequently with enough effort for it to be interesting.

"Checkmate," Scorpius announced brightly once again, Leebin flicked down his King in defeat again and Scorpius started setting the board up for another game before wondering whether he actually time for one since they only had an hour, "Do we have time?"

"Depends on how fast you beat me," Leebin shrugged and started helping him set up the board which took longer than with Wizard's Chess.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Why did you go with muggle chess instead of our kind? It's faster to set up."

"Ah but having to command your pieces and them speaking to you detracts from the conversation somewhat."

"The conversation doesn't matter since you've given up on getting information out of me," Scorpius pointed out and Leebin raised an eyebrow.

"You think I've given up on helping you? Or just given up on me being some kind of spy?" Leebin wondered as Scorpius made his opening move.

"Both? Well you can hardly learn anything important about me from just playing chess," Scorpius insisted as Leebin also made his first move and they continued the game.

"Quite the contrary."

"Like what?" Scorpius demanded with a scowl.

"Well... You don't like to lose."

"Who does? Check."

"Fair point. But you like to win, you like to succeed for slightly different reasons," Leebin told him as he freed himself from being in check, "For example classes, you're frequently amongst the best in your class but you don't work hard because you're desperate for good grades, or because you need good marks for career ambitions, or because you want to impress your teachers, or because you like bragging. You like to succeed simply because it makes you feel capable and strong, failure makes you feel weak and you never want to feel weak again. Would you say that's accurate?"

"No," Scorpius scoffed, not wanting Leebin to be right and in truth he'd never thought about it before, "I'm pretty sure that's not true."

"So you don't mind feeling weak sometimes?"

"Who likes feeling weak? And I'm not weak anymore. Like you say, I'm good in my classes, I've never lost a match and I've done plenty of other difficult things. I'm not weak and you're wrong."

"Checkmate," Leebin pointed out and Scorpius realized he'd been too flustered to think straight, he'd stupidly got his King trapped, "Let me ask you something. You get wounded in a terrible event, it may heal on its own or leave a nasty scar but it could also have unforeseen internal damage. What do we know? We're not healers. Is it weak or wrong or bad or in any way negative to go to a healer for help just to be on the safe side? Especially if the injury is more severe, isn't it better to get professional help?"

"Of course it's okay to go to a healer," Scorpius told him in confusion to where this was going.

"Exactly, it's logical, right?" Leebin asked of him and Scorpius nodded, "So is it really so hard to accept that these counselling sessions are like that except to help with mental wounds? It's natural for something traumatic to effect you and wound you, it may heal on its own or leave a nasty scar but it could also have unforeseen damage to fester later. Is it really not better to get help just to be on the safe side? How does it make you weak? Especially if someone's been through as much as you have."

"I..." Scorpius trailed off, really not sure what to say to that.

"Our time is up now anyway, I just want you to think about it for next time. That's how I think of counselling."

Roman had hoped it was just a nightmare until he realized he wasn't in his bedroom but the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts, he quickly changed his mind that it wasn't a nightmare. He'd straight out been murdered and was in hell. The dormitory could only be reached through a terrifying trek through a dark dungeon where he felt the walls were closing in on him, the dormitory itself gave you a brilliant view of the lake underwater. It gave Roman horrific nightmares about the water breaking through and drowning him, the eerie greenish glow also made him nauseous. He cried himself to sleep at night, it was the only way he actually could sleep with his fears and worries chasing around his mind. They frequently manifested as tormenting nightmares though.

"Hey," he'd greeted Ginny the first morning and tried to sit with her, this had elicited a chorus of booing and Ginny had taken him to one side as he quailed in terror.

"You're a Slytherin, you can't just come over here," Ginny complained and pointed out the house of evil, "You need to sit with your own house, get to know your new classmates and make some friends."

"I shall not befriend evil," Roman spat in a rare moment of strength.

"Not everyone in Slytherin is evil."

"Everyone except me. The hat made a mistake, it was supposed to put me in Ravenclaw," Roman pointed out, he was sure the Hat had said something about Ravenclaw.

"Well it must've changed its mind because it gave you Slytherin, now come on. They can't all be bad, go and make some friends."

"Can't I stay with you?"

"No, it's the rules. Now go before you miss all the food," Ginny ushered him away.

Roman stalked sulkily over to the Slytherin table, Ginny was clearly just as evil as her brother. Abandoning him to the house of evil like that, turning her back on him when she was supposed to look out for him. Why was everyone always doing that? He sat down at the table, eying his new classmates loathingly. He shoved his plate aside, the delicious smell making him nauseous.

"Hi, Roman, right?" a voice greeted him with a yellow-toothed smile, a boy his own age with scruffy blond hair who offered his hand. Roman neither took it nor said anything, wondering if the boy was related to any of his parents killers, "I'm Willis Dawson, reckon we Slytherins should stick together."

"No!" Roman yelled at him as fury flooded his blood and replaced his usual fear, how dare they try to indoctrinate him into their evil Death Eater ways?! He'd seen his parents die by their hand! "And all of you people stay away from me, I'm nothing like you, I'm not evil! Those Death Eater relatives of yours are either rotting in a hole in the ground or rotting in a hole in Azkaban and they belong there, so do all of you! But I don't because I'm not related to evil people, nor do I have desire to join your filthy black-clad club of monsters so stay away from me, you pieces of decaying dirt! I hate you all!"

Roman didn't regret what he said, just because he'd been in Slytherin didn't mean he was going to succumb to the darkness festering in their cruel little black hearts. However, he did have to live with the consequences of insulting psychopaths. He essentially became the most hated person in Slytherin but his righteous anger gave him strength to stand through the insults and outbursts, he was knocked into, insulted and even spat on all before his very first class. And it only got worse from there.

He wasn't the only one who'd lost people in the war or the only one angry, Slytherin was well known as the evil house because of the Death Eaters and cowards because of the Battle of Hogwarts. Aside from his own house hating him, he was also picked on by the others. In his own year and older students, he was insulted, beaten, had spells cast on him, mocked, spat on. Pointing out that he wasn't like the other Slytherins didn't help, his tormentors didn't care even though and he couldn't even fight back because they said it only confirmed he was bad. People were cruel and the whole world was against him.

Classes themselves were awful. Charms, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts were more about practical spellwork, all of which he'd learned years ago so the written element was all he had to do. It still left him with plenty of spare time to be bored in. Potions and Flying were terrifying, Potions was down in the dungeons that scared him so much that he couldn't concentrate through his fear and Flying was self-explanatory. It was leaving solid ground, he had a panic attack just from kicking off with the last thing he remembered was screaming in terror in his first lesson.

It was months before he got used to hovering without panicking and Hooch let him do the exercises from there instead of high up like the others with the ominous 'for now' every time. History of Magic was so disappointing that he left the class in tears for the first time, he absolutely loved history and it was deeply upsetting to see his favorite subject reduced to a monotonous droning spiel. Binns was an insult, destroying everything Roman loved about his favorite subject at home and leaving it barely a shell of what it could be. Herbology was also taught in a boring theoretical way but some of the facts could be interesting sometimes which left Astronomy as the only subject that he really liked. The teachers all scared him though anyway.

Roman was miserable, he felt as if he was trapped in a never-ending nightmare of boredom, bullying, loneliness and fear. He was so anxious, his heart physically hurt from beating so frantically at so many things terrifying him and he was never not on edge. Even Audrey not being around much was so much better than Hogwarts, Smokey was all he had and cuddling his cat was the only thing that brought him comfort. He didn't know how he'd have gotten through it without Smokey. Himself and Smokey were the only ones who he could talk to, he wrote to Audrey every day but it wasn't the same. He couldn't even be honest with her, he was too ashamed to talk about the bullying and he knew she wouldn't understand about his fears so it limited what he could mention. Even on his other issues, she insisted he not be overconfident and study hard, also saying he just wasn't trying hard enough at making friends if he was lonely. He begged her to let him come home but she kept saying to give it another week, then another month, then wait until Christmas. Even when he'd be allowed to come home, Percy had to go and ruin it since he got a letter the end of November saying Audrey had him had moved in together. Percy was now permanently living with them either way.

Scorpius still wasn't sure what to make of what Leebin said, on one hand it made sense but on the other, Leebin could just be trying to manipulate him for information. He had bigger things to worry about anyway, namely if his favorite professor was being possessed by Shadows or not. The day after that was both Halloween and the full moon, meaning he had his chance.

Michael was especially bad from the full moon already, he could barely keep his eyes open and Professor Ashain sat him out of the practical spellwork. He was wiped by lunch time and even fell asleep on Scorpius' shoulder during Charms just after which resulted in Grant asking - Grant was still sucking up to Professor Ashain apparently - him to take Michael to the Hospital Wing.

"I don't want to," Michael insisted stubbornly as he seemed to bite down a yawn and cross his arms, "I want to stay. I can handle it."

"You fell asleep," Grant pointed out and for once, Scorpius was agreed with him, "There's no point straining yourself, your health comes first so go rest up."

"I'm good. I don't need to go."

"You don't even like this class, just get some rest," Scorpius offered quietly but he got the impression Grant still heard him from the glance he got.

"Whose side are you on?" Michael demanded of him with a flash of anger in his mismatched eyes.

"Yours!"

"I'm fine. I want to stay."

"Mate, a breeze could take you down right now," Albus added which also earned him a dark look, "Get some rest and you can be bored in classes some other day."

"I'm fine! I can handle it, one little nap and you're all against me. I want to stay like everyone else who's normal."

"You're not normal," Grant told him and Michael's eyes flashed with frustration.

Abruptly, every desk in the room lurched upwards explosively while Grant was tossed back and crashed into his own desk. The desks dropped down abruptly as Michael started to collapse but Scorpius caught him, instead Michael just sat there breathing heavily with his hand to his head. At least none of the desks had hit anyone though, although people still scared and threw accusing looks at Scorpius. Given his track record, Scorpius wasn't surprised and he didn't mind letting them believe he'd caused it instead of Michael. Grant got to his feet, brushing himself off and cringing from probable bruises.

"M-Maybe I should go," Michael muttered weakly.

Grant gestured for Scorpius to take him but nothing on the incident or who had caused it, Scorpius was more than happy to leave. Scorpius obeyed, Michael needed to lean heavily on him for support. Using magic like that had probably sapped whatever strength he had.

"What were you thinking?" Scorpius asked of Michael as they made their awkwardly slow progress.

"It was an accident," Michael pointed out, looking so guilty that Scorpius regretted asking, "I didn't... I didn't mean to. You know I'd never hurt anyone on purpose."

"No one did seem hurt. Unless you count Grant. Which I don't, not after he tortured Professor Ashain," Scorpius told him, going off into a tangent slightly more than he'd meant to, "Don't feel bad, it happens to all. I meant, what was with you refusing to go to the Hospital Wing?"

"It's just frustrating, Scorpius," Michael sighed weakly looking upset as they reached their destination, Scorpius started helping him to a bed, "I never wanted to be this way."

"I know but just hang in there, after tonight you won't have to deal with it for another month," Scorpius offered, knowing it was futile in being comforting even before Michael hung his head.

"Except the two painful transformations, a night of frustration and days of being drained by it."

"I'm sorry," Scorpius muttered unhappily, wishing he could do more.

"It's okay, not your fault," Michael said and withdrew his wallet, opening it and pulling out a blank piece of parchment that looked too big to fit. He put his wallet back and handed Scorpius the paper, "There's the map you wanted. See you at the sunrise."

"What?"

"Something Orous' Dad says. Seems apt considering."

"See you at the sunrise then," Scorpius offered and left with the map as Marigold came over to see to Michael.

Roman was grateful that the term of terror was almost over, just a handful more days until he'd be away from Hogwarts for once and for all. He was so glad that he was even willing to overlook that he'd be going back to a different home than he'd left - he hadn't liked the apartment but it was something familiar to cling to at least - and that Percy would be there. He would be gone from his nightmare and he was never coming back to the stone walls of his prison, nothing could stop him.

"Hey scumbag! Where are you going, Slytherin?" an older student taunted as he was on his way to lunch, people liked making fun of him for just about everything else about himself. Roman had never thought he was perfect but they had found scores of flaws that he hadn't even realized he had. He just kept walking with his head hung low with his books clutched tightly to his chest protectively, hoping the boy would just ignore him. They never did, "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Roman felt something snag his ankles and in one smooth motion, he was falling flat on his face. He whimpered in pain and just had to hold onto his books as he was dragged backward across on the ground while still on his stomach. He was stopped and abruptly hauled to his feel so fast he felt sick, he looked up at the boy fearfully, a Fifth Year Gryffindor. He muttered a spell and Roman's books abruptly smacked him in the face, he fell to the ground and clutched his now throbbing nose as the boy laughed.

"Not even your books like to be in your hands!" the boy taunted and raised his wand again but it flew majestically from his hand.

"Leave him alone!" a familiar voice snapped and Roman glanced to see his savior was Ginny, along with Hermione and Luna. Roman felt his cheeks burning in embarrassment, for some reason he really didn't like the thought of Luna seeing him weak and in need of saving. And his nose was bleeding, "Go pick on someone your own size! Honestly, you should be ashamed of yourself! He's an eleven years old kid!"

"He's a Slytherin, they're bad."

"So what?! He's still a child and you're a teenager, what is wrong with you!? If you're picking on children who can't even fight back then you're the bad one in that scenario, regardless of the house!" Ginny barked, "Now scram unless you want to find out what it feels like to be picked on by someone older than you, you has a superior knowledge of spells and a superior experience!"

"Why did you do that? I was going to give him a detention," Hermione complained as the boy ran, the girls came over to Roman. He scrambled desperately to his feet, trying to pick up his books and clutch his nose to stop the bleeding at the same time with awkward results that dripped blood on his oddly angled books.

"Are you alright, Roman?" Luna asked him in that dreamy voice that made his insides twist even more at her seeing him humiliated, tears pricked his eyes.

"I'm fine!" Roman tried to shout at the three girls but his voice came out cracked from trying not to cry and fear for speaking in front of three people, "I could've t-taken him on, I didn't need your help! I d-don't need your help, I can take c-care of myself!"

He fled before he could make a fool out of himself even more, diving into the nearest boy's bathroom that he came across. He was glad it was empty because he was already crying, the books tumbled from his fingers and he didn't bother to pick them up as he instead made for the row of sinks. He had to clean himself up first or he'd have more blood to remove from them, his face was still red in the mirror and his heart quivering. He pulled out a handkerchief to deal with his nose, he hadn't even realized being hit in the nose could make it bleed before coming to Hogwarts because he'd never been hit in the nose. He'd never been hit at all.

He wondered what his parents would say if they could see what a pathetic piece of shit - he'd learned a lot of bad words from the insults he received - their youngest son was. They'd be ashamed. So would Aubrey. So would Audrey if the girls ever told her. He wondered what Luna thought of him, she must think he was weak and pathetic and stupid too. A child. A dumb little child. He didn't want her to think of him as that, he wanted her to like him. Maybe then he'd have a friend.

"That's it," Roman said to himself, "The next person who tries to pick on me, I'm going to fight back and show them all that I'm not wasn't a worthless waste of space."

Roman stopped his nose blood and went to retrieve his books, using a spell to clean the blood from them and from the handkerchief. He then used the clean handkerchief to wipe the dirt his books had accumulated from being dropped on the ground, satisfied he continued on his perilous journey to get to lunch. The girls were long gone but he spotted two boys from his class heading down too, they'd been held back after class to be told off for a prank with dung bombs.

"Hey freak," one of them sneered when they spotted him, "Going to freak out?"

"N-No," Roman stammered nervously, remembering he was going to be brave and fight back and ignore his heart beating furiously as the two of them drew their wands.

"Going to cry then, cry baby?" the second taunted, a cover for the first to subtly mutter a spell aimed at Roman.

Roman threw his books into the air and dived out of the way as fast as he could, the spell collided with the poor books as did the one the second threw after Roman moved. Both missed him though, although the books were knocked violently back. Roman gripped his wand so hard his knuckles went white as he scrambled to his feet, his heart beat deafening him and his body quaking with fear.

"Expelliarmus!" Roman cried at the second since he happened to come into his vision first, hitting him square in the chest and throwing him back away from his wand. The first was already aiming again, "Petrificus Totalis!"

The second jet struck just as perfectly, stopping the bully and causing his limbs to jump to his sides as he toppled over like a tree. Had it actually just worked? Had Roman really just defended himself successfully? He tried to smile but didn't think his petrified face managed it, his legs were wobbling as if they'd been cursed into jelly again. His delight was short lived however as he realized the boy he'd disarmed was crying, he didn't feel bad he was curious to why since he'd just been disarmed. Roman looked around and realized the spell had knocked the boy back, knocked him off the stairs. They weren't very high up but still, Roman peered over the side and saw the boy's arm was not in a position that arms were supposed to bend.

Roman was in trouble.

The boys lied, they said they'd just been walking to lunch when Roman attacked them without being provoked. The healer he'd gotten to help the boy yelled at him. The teacher the other boy had gotten to help yelled at him. Roman was taken to his Head of House, Slughorn, who also yelled at him but that still wasn't good enough. He was taken to the Headmistress herself and she yelled at him. Roman was too petrified from being yelled at to say a word in his defense, he was too busy trying not to cry and wishing he was home as he gripped the edges of the seat in the Headmistress' office. But that still wasn't enough, his sister had been informed and also insisted on seeing him to yell at him. He also realized for some reason Percy was there, he hadn't noticed through the torrent of soul-destroying yelling.

"Our parents would be ashamed! Have you nothing to say for yourself?! Nothing?!" Audrey demanded furiously of him as her latest rant came to a close. He just wanted her to hug him as he cried, take him away from the horrible place of pain and fear forever.

Roman swallowed. He knew he should tell the truth, say that it had been an accident to break the boy's arm and that it had been in self-defense. His parents would've approved of self-defense so Audrey would too - or at least not been so mad at him - and he thought not even Percy would have a problem with that. His mouth refused to open though. Maybe it was shame for admitting to being bullied in the first place, maybe it was fear of not being believed since he'd mentioned it to no one, maybe it was because he'd been yelled at so much he hadn't the courage left to speak at all but his jaws remained clamped shut. He couldn't speak.

"I thought so! And as punishment you..." Audrey yelled and paused thoughtfully for a moment, she hadn't really had to punish him before, "You can't come home for the holidays this Christmas!"

"No," Roman tried to say but it came out as some in audible sob, his heart twisted, he wanted to go home so badly, "Please, Aud."

"If you wanted to come home then you should've thought of it before attacking those boys and breaking one of their arms! Knowing more magic than your peers is no excuse to attack them, let that be a lesson to you! My mind is made up."

On that note, Audrey muttered something to the headmistress before leaving with the Floo powder. Percy stood there for a moment looking surprised before also saying something to the headmistress before leaving himself. Roman just sat with silent tears streaming down his eyes, he tried to ask the headmistress if he could leave. He couldn't hear himself but she must have gotten the gist, she took some points away and gave him detentions quickly before letting him leave.

Roman went straight back to his dormitory, he had no idea what time it was and he didn't care. He curled up onto his bed and cried. That was it, no hope, no relief. He was just trapped. He got bullied or he tried to fight back and got trapped. He couldn't believe it, he couldn't believe his sister would do that to him. She'd been lying the whole time, she never meant for him to go home. Audrey just wanted him out of the way, Percy had turned her against him and now she just didn't want him. So much for family.

Smokey jumped up on the bed and lay beside him, he started stroking his cat gently and felt its calming strength seep back into his battered body. He realized he was angry at her too for turning against him and betraying him, their parents would be ashamed of her too and Aubrey for leaving. Audrey was a terrible sister, she was never there for him, never had time for him and never gave a damn about his life. Fuck Audrey. If she didn't want him, she wouldn't get him. If they were going to abandon him, he could abandon them. Who needed siblings when he had Smokey? Who needed friends? Who needed people? They are terrible. Roman was on his own and he was much better off.

Grant was still so scared of... wherever prisoners went now that Azkaban was destroyed that he didn't make any move to punish Michael for his accidental magic which was one plus. The rest of the day was not pluses though, Scorpius had another day filled with impatience as he really just wanted to get to nightfall with the map. Despite it being Halloween, there was no amazing Calderon-light-magic-thing that he did, no Calderon at all. He'd have to visit him soon if he didn't see him around, Elwood really needed to lay off his poor assistant. Although in a way, Scorpius supposed it was fairer they didn't get a show since Michael was stuck suffering from his werewolf condition while they were stuffing their faces. Marigold wasn't at dinner - probably from being with Michael - but Antonius was, apparently feeling better although he did seem to be eating cautiously less than a normal meal and staying away from treats.

And then finally, it was night time. Scorpius had thought of asking Albus to borrow his cloak again but he didn't want to in case it turn out to be a false alarm, if he did notice Professor Ashain out then he'd just have to wait until the patrols stopped and be careful. He waited until the others were asleep before taking out his wand and the map, using Lumos to light up his wand before tapping it and solemnly swearing he was up to no good. The map obeyed and his eyes darted around, checking on Michael just to be cautious that he was indeed safe alone - with the Head Healer Marigold anyway - in the Hospital Wing. James and Carver were in the Fifth Year boy's dormitory, he didn't know James' other friends' names but from the layout of the dots everyone was accounted for. Except the prefects anyway, you could tell they were patrolling from the very structured movement and there was the right number of them. Near midnight the Third Year dormitories emptied to go to the Astronomy Tower for their Astronomy lesson, lasting an hour as usual before returning to their beds.

Professor Ashain's dot was with his children's in his office - the map apparently counted the living spaces off from the office as their office still - although it was doing the strange shifting thing still. It could still be a glitch. It didn't change for a while, Scorpius looked around watching as more dots left the Common Rooms for dormitories and more dots stopped moving in dormitories, offices and bathrooms as people settled down for the night. Still no Calderon dot. Or movement from Professor Ashain's strange one, the odd effect did make it easier to locate though which was a plus. Scorpius was starting to get tired by the time the prefects stopped patrolling, six dots returned to the Slytherin Dungeons, six dots returned to the Ravenclaw Tower, only four returned to the Hufflepuff basement - two taking a detour in the kitchens before also returning - and only five returned to Gryffindor Tower. Latimer went up to the Astronomy Tower for presumably another class since Latimer was taking Astronomy, much smaller but Professor Koray the Astronomy professor was still present.

Still no movement from Professor Ashain. Another hour and a half later and those names emptied out, all except Latimer who remained in the Tower alone for whatever reason. Scorpius was staring at his dot, trying to figure out why when Latimer headed back down and passed near another dot. Professor Ashain's dot. Professor Ashain waited for Latimer to go by before moving, heading straight to the girl's bathroom where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets remained.

Scorpius grabbed his wand, he hadn't changed into his pajamas deliberately and checked the map quickly to make sure Latimer wasn't near. He was alone in the prefect's bathroom on the fifth floor now so Scorpius headed out to the bathroom where Professor Ashain's dot still stood, he could feel his heartbeat quickening as he crept down the steps with the irrational fear of being heard by him. He pocketed the map when he reached the bathroom, taking out his wand instead. He readied his happy thoughts, thinking of Professor Ashain who had always looked out for him and who he was determined to save.

"Expecto Patronum!" Scorpius cried as he leaped into the room, his silver Thestral bursting into flight and soaring through Professor Ashain but... nothing happened.

"Are you still on that?" Professor Ashain questioned, not sounding like himself anymore but as if someone else spoke through his vocal chords. The same slight accent and slightly lower pitch than before, it didn't sound like a lot but it was noticeable and disconcerting, "Did you not notice its ineffectiveness before?"

"I don't know how you made Specters be immune to Patronuses but let him go, dammit!" Scorpius yelled angrily as he kept his wand trained on Not-Ashain, Not-Ashain cocked his head to one side curiously.

"I don't actually know what you're talking about, Malfoy, but kudos on the Patronus. I had not expected that from you."

"Let Professor Ashain go or I will hurt you," Scorpius insisted, trying to sound threatening instead of terrified. How else was he supposed to get rid of the Specter if a Patronus didn't work? Was it just him or had they made them immune somehow?

"You realize attacking this body would injure Atticus not me?" Not-Ashain told him before giving a dismissive wave, "But I think its past your bed time. Go now or I'll put you there again."

"Not until you let Professor Ashain go," Scorpius protested and decided maybe stunning him would be the best option, it might give Professor Ashain control again, "Stupefy!"

"Feu!" Not-Ashain spat as he leaped out of the way with impossibly good reflexes even by Professor Ashain's spectacular standards, "My turn!"

"Protego!" Scorpius cried preemptively.

Not-Ashain held out his hand, a jet of white light shot out and obliterated his shield. The force of the magic was still enough to throw him back, cracking a mirror before falling painfully to the ground. Scorpius had a feeling that whatever the spell had meant to do, would've done more than that if not for his shield. He couldn't compete against that kind of magic and he had no idea how to help Professor Ashain, now was the time to get help... Professor Longbottom's office was nearby.

Scorpius tried to stand and noticed Not-Ashain readying his hand again, Scorpius threw himself out the door to avoid it barely. He slammed it shut behind him, already running and not knowing whether Not-Ashain was following. He pushed his legs onwards until it was at the professor's door, he barged in without thinking as he assumed the professor would be in his quarters and he'd need to knock in the office itself. Professor Longbottom was awake though, sitting at the desk and crying over a picture that he dropped in surprise at Scorpius' arrival. He wiped his eyes immediately.

"Professor, Professor Ashain's possessed and my Patronus doesn't work and he attacked me," Scorpius blurted out.

"Where?" Professor Longbottom asked, jumping into a serious face.

"The girl's bathroom on the second fl-"

Professor Longbottom had rushed past him before he'd even finished his sentence, Scorpius scrambled to keep up as he rushed back to the bathroom. No sign of Ashain, possessed or not. In fact, there was no sign of anything having happened at all as Professor Longbottom looked round. Scorpius went to point out the broken mirror he'd been thrown against as evidence but it was completely intact, bearing no sign of damage. Had Not-Ashain repaired it? It hadn't taken him that long to get Professor Longbottom, his office wasn't in the greenhouses.

"A-I-He was right here," Scorpius babbled uselessly but the professor was already moving and Scorpius in his wake as they headed to Professor Ashain's classroom, Professor Longbottom actually knocked fiercely.

"Atticus! It's an emergency, open up!" Professor Longbottom yelled without pausing in his hammering frenzy.

Just as he was about to barge in, the door opened and Professor Ashain was standing there. Professor Longbottom flicked his wand and Patronus light shot thorough to the increasingly confused looking Professor Ashain, nothing happened again. The professor was no longer fully dressed in robes but in plaid pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt, Scorpius realized, his hair was also messy as if he had just gotten out of bed and he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"The emergency was that you felt like hitting me with a Patronus?" Professor Ashain complained, his voice completely normal except for the edge of irritation and Professor Longbottom hung his head in embarrassment, "I've barely slept all weekend with Antonius being sick, couldn't you have just waited until morning instead of the middle of the frickin' night?"

"I had a bad tip," Professor Longbottom growled with a dark look in his direction. It was Scorpius' turn to hang his head in humiliation.

Part 3: Things

Roman stopped writing letters home to Audrey and she stopped writing letters to him, he'd been right all along. She didn't care, she never had and just wanted him rid of him. Just like Aubrey, twins were awful people. He stayed in Hogwarts for the Christmas break which wasn't quite as awful as he'd expected, most people left so there was less people to pick on him and less people to make him anxious. He still didn't like it though and there was something painful in being alone for the holiday that was supposed to be all about family, Christmas was only nice for people who had that. He missed his sister's birthday too.

Unfortunately the masses did return and Roman's life went back to being absolute hell. Somewhat anyway, for whatever reason people seemed to be picking on him less and Luna, Ginny and Hermione sometimes sat with him in the Library to see how he was doing. It made him nervous at first but desperation to talk to someone other than Smokey helped, even if he still spoke quietly and things came out garbled sometimes. He tried not to because he didn't want to look a fool in front of Luna but they didn't make fun of him for it, Luna was so nice. And unique, Roman had never met anyone like her and it made her even more special, she was so interesting even if he doubted everything she said was truth. He couldn't stop thinking about her sometimes or looking at her, she was very beautiful and his eyes were drawn to her at meals. He wished he'd had the presence of mind to say Ravenclaw to the hat at the time, then maybe he wouldn't be so alone.

After a few months, he finally heard from Audrey in a short awkward message as if she didn't know what to write asking how he was. No apology though and Roman burned it, if she wasn't going to apologize for stabbing him in the back then he didn't care what she had to say. He got another letter a few weeks later, slightly longer and in oddly less formal style but still no apology so it joined its brother in the fire. The next one wasn't until just before Easter, telling him that she and Percy had booked some time off work to spend time with him, they were thinking of going on vacation over the holiday. But still no apology. And Percy? Roman forced himself to be strong. She wasn't getting him unless she apologized and it was all lies anyway, he was invisible with Percy around. He wrote a curt reply to inform her that he was staying for Easter and wishing her and Percy a nice vacation. She sent him several letters explaining how she'd meant the three of them as a family - since when was Percy family anyway? - not her and Percy, insisting he should come home. Roman burned them all without reply.

Roman stayed for Easter, more people stayed than at Christmas but people were so busy studying for exams that it didn't matter so much. After that it was the final term, Audrey continued writing to him every few weeks but he burned them all without replying as she still didn't apologize. He had to sit through a painful memorial on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts where the Headmistress gave a long speech about it and they all lit a candle for those who died, releasing them into the sky. Roman was very proud of how he didn't cry when thinking of his parents, he'd gotten much better at bottling up his tears and fears over the second half of the school year, he'd even started flying a few feet off the ground now. Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup, Hufflepuff won the House Cup and Roman got good grades on the end of year exams. Then it was time to head home. Roman wished he could've just walked to the platform because he didn't like the scary looking creatures that pulled the carriages but he managed to not panic about, nor did he in the train where he got to sit with Luna, Ginny, Hermione and of course, Smokey.

Audrey and Percy were there to pick him up from the station, people were happily hugging their families after being reunited all around him but Roman didn't. He wouldn't even give Audrey a smile and only spoke to answer questions, giving one word answers whenever he could. They took him to a different apartment, he wasn't sure whether it was where Percy had lived or somewhere new - he didn't really care - but it wasn't that different to their one from before. Two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen/dining/living room in a slightly different layout, Percy's things loitered about but it did have a more lived in and cluttered feel than theirs, it seemed maybe brighter too. And there were pictures. Of Percy's family, some of Percy and Audrey together and even some of Roman's family that Audrey must've had but just hadn't put up. He was drawn immediately to the only one with all five of them, Magnus despised photographs but had relented for one not long before his death.

"Come on, your room's this way," Audrey offered and led him through to a room slightly larger than his previous one - although both were much smaller than the one from their home in the cottage - where thing were neatly put away but there was an odd amount of absences, "We gave away some of the things that you're too old for and don't play with anymore."

"Okay," Roman nodded reluctantly, spotting his favorites were all thankfully still there. All except... "Where's Enas?"

"Enas?" Percy wondered in confusion.

"My stuffed unicorn."

"Oh. I got rid of it, you're much too old for stuffed toys," Percy brushed it off dismissively while Roman felt his heart beat frantically in terror.

"Y-You k-killed Enas? You ki-killed my fr-friend," Roman repeated in horror, Percy sighed and corrected his glasses while Roman started to choke up.

"And this is exactly why, you're almost twelve and still referring to stuffed toys as living things. Maybe if you stopped with them then you could make some actual friends with real people."

"I want Enas! I-I pr-promised I'd s-see him ag-again b-but y-you k-k-killed him."

"Grow up, Roman," Percy complained.

"I h-h-hate y-you!" Roman screamed through the streaming tears, "You son of a bitch!"

"Roman! No swearing!" Audrey snapped at him, "And be nice to Percy."

"He k-killed my friend!"

"It's no reason to be rude," Audrey protested while Percy said something about dinner and left.

"W-Why are you s-siding with h-him over me?! I'm your br-brother!"

"And he's my fiancé and you're the one swearing at him."

"F-Fiancé?" Roman wondered, his surprise overcoming his grief for a moment.

"Yes. Percy and I are engaged. To be married," Audrey explained as if he'd mistaken it for something else, a rare smile cracking on her face and making her look her age for once, "He proposed a few days ago. So be nice to him, he is nice to you."

Roman wanted to point out that killing his friends wasn't exactly being nice to him but he bit his lip, seeing the futility of it as Audrey told him to settle in and left. He was confused anyway, wasn't marriage something that was supposed to be arranged? Not from dating. It was official though, he'd officially lost his sister to Percy Weasley. He'd completely corrupted her mind and turned him against her.

Roman sat down on the edge of his bed, feeling the tears pricking his eyes. And they'd gotten rid of Enas, gotten rid of his favorite toy like it was nothing. Enas, who he'd had since before he could remember. And now Enas was gone. Forever. He'd said he'd come back and Enas had died not even knowing. Roman buried his head in his pillow and cried. He'd lost his parents. He'd lost his brother. And now, he'd lost his sister and Enas. He cried until his hurt but still couldn't stop. He was alone.

Scorpius felt utterly humiliated. Either the possessor was really good at covering his tracks and had completely made Scorpius look - and feel - like a fool, or it really had been all in his head again which made Scorpius look - and feel - like a fool. He couldn't prove it either way and really, he was doubting himself now. He could merely hang his head in shame when Professor Longbottom brought him back to his office to tell him off, chastising him for being out long after curfew and for coming to him with a ludicrous story. Scorpius was docked a full fifty points from Gryffindor, given detentions and - worst of all - banned from playing in the Quidditch match against Slytherin. Scorpius trudged back to his room in absolute misery, dreading the dawn.

He couldn't sleep for the rest of the night, or most of the night because he heard melancholic howling at one point. He couldn't get comfortable anyway, his shoulders and back were sore for some reason. Then there was the crushing feeling of failure and humiliation, concern that if he was right then Professor Ashain could still be in danger and disappointment at letting Molly down. For once, he wasn't up before Albus and it Albus poking him to tell him to get up. He dragged himself downstairs still in his depression, he couldn't even bring himself to look in the direction of the staff table as he chewed on tasteless food and brushed off his friends concerns.

It didn't help the first class they had was double Herbology, he couldn't even look at Professor Longbottom and his distraction was upsetting the plant he was supposed to be calming. Another tedious double History of Magic and it was back to lunch where he was finally badgered into giving up why he was so upset, although he didn't elaborate on why he'd been out or what he thought he'd told Professor Longbottom. They tried to be comforting but it didn't help, Molly also tried to be kind to him about it but he could see the disappointment in her eyes. And that was worse than anger, maybe he deserved to be yelled at, but disappointment? He'd never wanted to let her down. It started a new regime to prepare Lily for her first match.

And if all that wasn't bad enough, Scorpius went to see Michael in the Hospital Wing the next day. Michael's right arm was in a sling and his other hand was also bandaged, he also had bruises on his face. Scorpius' first instinct was that he hadn't been paying enough attention and that James had attacked him again.

"James didn't do anything to me this time," Michael pointed out, sighing and hanging his head, "I... I did this to myself."

"What?!" Scorpius blurted out in shock.

"I got frustrated and I don't know, I just... lashed out and got hurt. I'll be okay in time for the match though, don't worry."

"Isn't the whole point of using Wolfsbane so that doesn't happen?!" Scorpius demanded.

"You don't know what it's like!" Michael snapped back, looking upset, "Wolfsbane or not, you just feel... energy and then being cooped up alone with nothing to do, it's a bad combination with hating being a werewolf. Wolfsbane lets you keep your mind but it doesn't stop you being a werewolf... You wouldn't understand. No one does. It's just hard sometimes... It's really hard."

"Time to leave now, you're making him irate, Michael needs rest," Marigold complained and was pulling Scorpius away before he could say anything. Scorpius was about to protest but a glance back revealed Michael's outburst had actually sapped his strength, his eyes flickered before falling closed and his head lolled back into the pillow.

"It doesn't concern you that he attacked himself?" Scorpius wondered of Marigold who seemed surprised by the question.

"It happens, especially with new werewolves and young ones. Their own frustrations mingle with the werewolf's usual reaction to frustration and they can lash out, typically at themselves or sometimes others especially those they don't like or may be mad at. Don't worry, he'll get used it and I can give him something to help him sleep next time."

"That makes me feel so much better," Scorpius muttered sarcastically as he left with something else to worry about as he started trudging back to his dormitory.

"Where are you going?" Latimer's voice called out and he froze, "We have Quidditch practice now."

"I don't want to go to Quidditch practice," Scorpius moaned as Latimer appeared by his side, he really didn't feel like it.

"Neither do I but we still owe it to Molly to show up."

"Yeah," Scorpius sighed as he reluctantly started to head to the pitch with Latimer, "You're actually playing in the next match though."

"You still gotta train up Lily and there'll be other matches later in the year. Chin up," Latimer offered and clapped him on the shoulder, Scorpius cringed in pain and Latimer jerked his hand violently away as if burned, "What?"

"It's not you, I just banged my shoulders and back. It's still sore."

"How'd you manage that?"

Latimer's question gave him pause and he tried to think what he'd done, he hadn't given it much thought under the press of every other negative emotion but in that moment, it clicked. It was from being thrown against the mirror by Not-Ashain. Assuming it wasn't psychological and there were actual bruises, he'd know for once and for sure whether it was all real.

"I need to check for bruises," Scorpius announced to himself, Latimer just looked at him strangely and something else occurred to him as well, "You stayed out late the other night."

"No, I didn't," Latimer lied.

"Halloween night, the same night I got in trouble for. You were out too."

"I wasn't. Apart from class and patrolling obviously."

"You were. You stayed for ages in the Astronomy Tower after everyone left then went to the prefect's bathroom," Scorpius protested, knowing full well he was right while Latimer looked somewhat shaken.

"Are you following me or something?" Latimer asked him worriedly and Scorpius realized he didn't have a good excuse, he couldn't actually think of any rational explanation for how he'd known it if not for the map or from following him. Could he trust Latimer with the map? Latimer knew about the cloak after all and he'd let him stay over August. It was important.

"You didn't tell anyone about the Invisibility Cloak, did you?"

"Of course not, I'm not completely stupid. Did you use that to follow me? Why would you even follow me?"

"I didn't follow you!" Scorpius insisted and held out his arm to stop Latimer to get his full attention, "Look if I trust you with this, then you need to promise not to tell anyone. Most of my other friends don't even know about it."

"So now I'm your friend again?"

"Why do you keep saying that?" Scorpius demanded as he was sidetracked by recalling Latimer's behavior from a few days ago, Latimer muttered something that sounded like nothing, "If it's anything she said then don't listen-"

"It's nothing to do with what she said," Latimer interrupted seriously, "You said it yourself."

"When?" Scorpius wondered with a confused scowl, he was pretty sure that he'd never said that to Latimer.

"It doesn't matter. Just forget," Latimer brushed it off and started to walk again.

"It matters to me," Scorpius protested and Latimer took a long time to elaborate.

"In Hogsmeade. But like I said, it doesn't matter."

"In Hogsmeade?" Scorpius repeated, trying to think since he hadn't seen Latimer much after his parents... "Wait, because of what I said to my father?"

"You were pretty clear," Latimer muttered, apparently finding the ground suddenly very interesting to look at.

"That was just for my father, I didn't want him to figure out that you were the one I stayed with. I didn't mean that you weren't my friend," Scorpius explained unsurely, had Latimer really been bothered by an offhand comment like that? He'd thought they'd know what he meant, "You know that, right?"

"Why would I know that? I'm not a Legillimens."

"Of course you're my friend, you helped me out when I really needed it and I'd do the same for you. I wouldn't just use someone like that," Scorpius told him seriously and took out the map, "Look, I wouldn't show you this otherwise. This is how I knew you were out of bed and why I was, it's a map."

"A map?" Latimer repeated, raising his head in confusion and Scorpius pulled him into an empty classroom to show him.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Scorpius said and tapped his wand onto the page, showing it to Latimer who gazed at in amazement, "It's a map of Hogwarts, it shows everywhere and where everyone inside it is. Almost anyway, it doesn't show Calderon or the Room That Doesn't Exist but mostly it's pretty thorough, it even shows some secret passageways."

"Where did you get it?"

"Err... James Potter. It got mixed up with my friend's things when he was bullying him the year before last, he gave it to me and we kind of decided to hold on to it."

"Wise decision. Where'd James get it? This is so far beyond on him, even by his current standard of magic."

"No idea. Stole it probably."

"Classic James. So you watched me with this map?" Latimer asked curiously as he studied the map.

"Not just you. But yeah... Why were you in the perfect's bathroom anyway?"

"Bungee jumping. Why do people usually go to bathrooms?" Latimer quipped with heavy sarcasm.

"In the middle of the night?" Scorpius wondered dubiously and Latimer's cheeks tinged red in embarrassment.

"Yes. I get really self-conscious so I only bathe at night... When it's dark... And no one's around... So no one can see me... And laugh at my pockmarks and scars..." Latimer answered quietly, awkwardly and unhappily, "More than usual anyway."

"I'm sorry," Scorpius offered sympathetically before curious nipped at him, "How... How did you get with the... pockmarks anyway?"

"Gee, you really don't want to get to Quidditch practice," Latimer commented semi-jokingly while looking surprised and it dawned on him that it probably wasn't the most sensitive question.

"You don't have to say if you don't want to," Scorpius added quickly but Latimer brushed it off a dismissive wave, seeming to relax a bit.

"I don't mind, people just don't usually ask is all. It's because of Dragon Pox."

"Dragon Pox?" Scorpius repeated in puzzlement, he was pretty sure he knew people who'd had it and weren't covered in scars. Latimer seemed to understand his confusion completely.

"There's different strains of Dragon Pox, that's why it still exists even though there's cures. They only work on a certain strain and are less effective on others, I got infected with a less common but much more aggressive strain when I was five. I got better but it left me looking like this."

"I thought you told Chastity that you had it a few years ago?"

"I have to be careful if I'm sick because if my immune system gets too weak then it can resurface. Have to go on lockdown in St Mungo's, afterwards it leaves me looking even worse. Good times."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I'm used it by now," Latimer shrugged it off but there might have been a glint of sadness in his eyes, "Can I borrow that map at some point?"

"What? No. Maybe. Not now," Scorpius said as he gathered his thoughts and recalled his original line of thought, "What I wanted to ask about the other night was if you saw Professor Ashain out."

"That's what you wanted to know?" Latimer wondered curiously, "Yeah, I saw him. I've seen him a couple of times the past few weeks, it's not that unusual for teachers to be doing rounds themselves for a bit. Although they don't usually use magic to conceal them but I figure it's because he was an auror, you know?"

"He used magic to conceal himself?" Scorpius asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I use this charm and if they're within range then it picks them up so I can avoid them up to not get caught. Prefects are only supposed to be out for patrolling so I could still in get trouble. I wouldn't notice him otherwise but he's never tried to tell me off or anything if he did notice me. Why's Ashain's name being weird like that?"

"That's what I was investigating the other night," Scorpius pointed out, it was basically true and even more so now. He wasn't crazy and the map wasn't failing them in that regard, Professor Ashain was out at night. Something was wrong with him.

"Can we go to Quidditch practice now and talk about this later?"

Scorpius agreed and they headed down after he wiped the map, Molly wasn't mad at them for being late since Freddie and Caitlin arrived even later than them. Scorpius used the locker room mirror the first chance he got to check his back, confirming the bruises to his shoulders and back. He was right. He'd been right all along. The bruises and Latimer's confirmation proved it. Something was possessing Professor Ashain at night. Either by some super Specter that didn't leave his eyes black and wasn't affected by Patronuses, or... something else that Scorpius didn't have a clue about. What now?

Celestine looked around him, baskets with cute little babies sleeping happily and then he looked down at the... thing in the basket in front of him. He didn't think he'd ever hated anything as he much as he hated the thing he was supposed to call a son, it disgusted him. It had only been alive a few hours but he already despised it and wished death upon it, his hand itched to take his wand and end its life. Every manner of dark, deadly, agonizing spell he knew circling his mind as the thing looked up at him with its big eyes. He wondered if it would be alright to kill it and switch baskets with one of the actual babies, he could live to love one of them as a child much easier than the thing before him. Or destroy its soul if the thing even had one.

"Even your mother hates you," Celestine hissed at the thing as it continued staring at him, "She wanted a girl to name after her sister, the one I killed. You have no name. No one's ever going to love you and one of these days, you're going to die in agony by my own hand."

"Well I was going to say 'congratulations' but after hearing that, it may be the wrong phrase."

"Shut up, Brutus," Celestine snapped darkly and glanced to his left at the newcomer, he knew something was bad he thought even the deformed Brutus was preferable to look at and to be around, "I hardly think that was your soul reason for being here."

"Of course not. Although my advice is to try being nice to your son, if only to maintain your cover. It's not his fault that he got landed with you as father anyway, be a human being for once."

"Did you actually want something?"

"You said you information."

"I did?" Celestine wondered for a moment before recalling what he'd wanted to pass along, the thing had decided to be born at a rather inopportune moment and to take an excruciatingly long amount of time. He was actually starting to pity Gabrielle and had no idea why any woman anywhere in the world would want a child that wasn't adopted, "I did. Heard something strange about the Scepter's hiding."

"What?" Brutus asked, his gruff tone immediately becoming serious.

"Apparently Scorpius Malfoy became convinced your brother was possessed and hanging around the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets at night."

"Is he okay?" Brutus asked, concern clearly obliterating everything else from his mind.

"Scorpius? Yes, in trouble for being out but perfectly health-"

"I meant my brother!" Brutus barked angrily, stepping forwards and Celestine smirked at having provoked a response.

"I know what you meant. Your precious brother is fine as far as anyway can tell, a few nights of observation and no possessed wandering or signs of the Imperius Curse or Specter possession," Celestine explained and smelled her scent off him, what did Brutus have that he didn't? "The Scepter's safety holds. It is odd, unless you know something I don't."

"I don't, it's not us. We can't enact our plan until after Christmas break and it doesn't involve my brother, it doesn't involve possession at all and it hasn't changed since we last discussed it. I have no idea why Scorpius would think that."

"My guess would be Varanian, if he managed to catch on to anything and told Scorpius where the first half is hidden. Although what claiming your brother is possessed has to do with it, I don't know," Celestine offered with a shrug, "If anything is wrong with your brother, they do an excellent job of remaining hidden. I don't think it should affect our plans if nothing continues to come from it but it's worth noting and being given a second look, as a spy I must keep up my due diligence."

"Well thanks," Brutus growled as he stepped back into the shadows, "We'll look into it."

"I know," Celestine sighed as Brutus was whisked away, probably to go fill her in while he was stuck with the despicable thing. The thing was still looking at him, "I really, truly hate you. You know, that?"

Part 4: Mixed Up

It was a miserable summer for Roman, Enas' loss was painful and he hated Percy for it. Made even worse by Percy's constant presence in the apartment, in fact the summer had far too many Weasleys for his liking. Meals with Percy's parents or brother and sister-in-law or assortment of siblings and general family members were frequent, Mrs Weasley had also volunteered to babysit - he thought that offensive, he was not a baby - while Audrey worked so he would be stuck with her at the Burrow. Mrs Weasley actually wasn't too bad for a Weasley although she could be fussy, the mess of the Burrow and the fact she was a random stranger bothered him more than anything. She did let him help her with cooking though, that was a plus and Audrey could definitely stand to take lessons from her, Percy was a better cook than his sister.

His Hogwarts letter came for his Second Year, Roman didn't want to go but Audrey didn't ask his opinion so he didn't give it. He just shut his mouth and accepted his fate, continued being cold to Audrey and Percy for betraying him and murdering Enas. Ginny, Luna and Hermione had all graduated Hogwarts so he wouldn't know anyone this time around, Ginny had been drafted to play for the Holyhead Harpies so Quidditch was also frequently discussed. Roman and Audrey both lacked the Weasley enthusiasm for the sport, Mavis had been American where Quidditch wasn't as popular or well-known and Magnus... Magnus just had no interest in a lot of things so the appeal was lost on the both of them. It was also annoying not being able to use magic outside of Hogwarts now, starting at the school had marked him with the Trace so he didn't even have that. He pitied muggles and squibs for not being able to do magic, it wasn't fun being so cut off from a big part of yourself.

Before long, he was back on the platform to go back to hell with Audrey and Percy - Roman still had no idea why Percy had to be there - where he again didn't hug Audrey. He sat alone in a compartment with Smokey, playing and petting his cat without a shred of hope for the year. Roman was right. They'd lost Flying just when he'd been starting to enjoy it, at least Herbology was more practical now. The bullying was also much worse despite being an older year, Roman didn't dare try to defend himself again and had to endure their cruelty but he was still much better at not crying. That had to be a plus, didn't it? There was also no more Luna. Audrey wrote to him sporadically, asking how he was and giving him news such as Percy's brother's wife being pregnant but never apologized so Roman continued his policy of not writing back to her. He also stayed in hell for Christmas again, although Audrey insisted he had to come back for the Easter break because they'd arranged the wedding specially to tie in with the holiday date so that he would be able to be there.

Roman didn't want to go to the wedding, what was to celebrate about his sister losing herself to Percy? He was dreading it and time didn't go slowly enough, he had to pick the electives for next year as well. Percy sent him a long, detailed letter about the subjects in regards to future careers - since when did Percy care? - with advice. In the end Roman went with Study of Ancient Runes because it sounded genuinely interesting and Care of Magical Creatures because it was taught by Hagrid, the giant still terrified him but it was better than a stranger who could be even worse. That was the only reason he chose it over Arithmancy, he didn't want to know the future and he couldn't see when Muggle Studies would be useful. He also didn't want extra subjects, nine classes crammed with people was more than enough for his poor heart.

Roman got bundled into a carriage with random people to make up the numbers like when he'd arrived to head back for Easter, the loners who didn't sit in friendship groups but that also meant being one of the last to get to the platform. This didn't matter arriving at Hogwarts but heading to the train, it meant all the compartments were taken already. Roman stood there in the corridor for a full quarter of an hour, trying to work up the courage to ask a random stranger if he could share their compartment. Until the Trolley Lady found him and volunteered to do it for him, he hung his head in embarrassment and obliged as she skipped past compartments until finding one with a lone occupant. Roman stood back while the lady asked and the answer must've been yes because she was smiling as she stepped away from the door, gesturing with a kind smile for him to go in.

"Anything off the trolley then? You can something for free for your generosity if you'd like," the lady asked of the boy in the compartment as Roman sat down nervously opposite with Smokey.

"No thank you, ma'am," the boy turned her down in a polite but girlish gentle voice, holding up a lone hand for emphasis although he gave her a soft smile, "I'm saving my appetite for Easter but I appreciate the gesture."

"None for me either," Roman added quickly, "And thanks."

The lady nodded and left them alone, Roman glanced up at the boy. He was still dressed in his Hufflepuff robes, a Third Year if Roman had to guess. His incredibly bony hands grasped a book titled 'Harry Potter: Secrets Behind the Scar' by Rita Skeeter, his dark eyes darted across the pages eagerly. He had to keep brushing back his sandy hair when it fell across his eyes, he had an incredibly gaunt face to match the skeletal frame but there was an overwhelming amount of pimples.

Still though, someone who didn't hate him, wasn't from the house of evil and seemed not to already have friends? Could Roman make a friend? He was often lonely but he'd rather be lonely than befriend evil Slytherins, the other houses hated him on principle. He didn't know how to make friends anyway, talking to people was a nightmare. He thought he might as well try though, they had a long journey ahead.

"I-I kn-know Ha-Harry Potter," Roman blurted out, his voice stammering from nerves as his heart started pounding and the boy flicked his eyes to him but his face remained expressionless, "I'm s-seeing h-him ov-over the hol-holidays even for m-my s-sister's wedding."

"Cool. I'm dining with the muggle Queen myself, I'm her nephew you see," the boy told him and Roman didn't catch the sarcasm in time.

"Wow, will you be inside her palace?"

"Idiot," the boy muttered and glanced back to his book. Roman caught on, he hung his head in embarrassment and his heart twisted up from humiliation.

"S-S-Sorry. I-I'm n-not ly-lying though. He's ac-actually pret-pretty scary, he w-wants t-to kill me bec-because I off-offended him," Roman explained, the boy glanced at him dubiously but said nothing and returned to his reading a moment later, "D-Did I thank you f-for letting me s-s-sit here?"

"If you want to thank me then please be quiet while I read, I'm hoping to finish it before I get home. We're staying with my muggle grandparents for Easter so I won't be allowed to bring it since they don't know of magic."

Roman sighed and hung his head again as he stroked Smokey. Making friends was hard. Even talking to people was hard. People were just incredibly difficult in general. At least he had Smokey. Smokey was much easier to talk to and befriend, why couldn't people be like that?

Calderon loved the holidays, dressing the castle up all spooky like or all jolly like was fun and exciting especially since he'd never gotten to celebrate any of them as a child. Elwood forbade it. He thought the last thing the students needed was to be scared by decorations - he'd spent exactly half his life in Hogwarts now, nineteen years and hadn't once seen a student terrified into being traumatized by decorations - plus it apparently was not 'cost-effective' so Calderon was forbidden from it. Only very minor things were done and all of it was dumped on the poor house-elves instead of Calderon, Calderon was still stuck on paper duty. He wasn't allowed to do anything magical at the feast - or even attend at all - and Elwood hadn't gotten any alternate entertainment in either, the students had a dull Halloween indeed.

That night was also when Scor had accused Ticcy of being possessed in the very entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, or the bathroom that led to the Chamber of Secrets but he thought entrance made it sound slightly more grand which he thought his ancestor would prefer. Elwood then accused Calderon of not protecting the Scepter which he thought was unfair, you stand in the bathroom until pigs learned to fly and dragons became the overlords of the Earth but not get in to the Chamber. He'd put magical wards in place, he would know if the Chamber was opened and if any of the check points to get to the Scepter - that half of it anyway, the other was in a cave with similar protection - were passed and if the Scepter itself was reached. Not even the first ward had been broken, no one had touched the Chamber. He was also quite sure that Ticcy's possession was impossible, if his sister was capable of breaching Hogwarts with Specters then she would have used more than one and not needed an army of werewolves or rampaging creatures.

He wasn't an expert on Blood Runes but from what he understood, the protection would hold as long as the person who activated it was within the boundaries of its protection. Since both he and Scor had done that, both of them would need to leave for it to be breached even inside an object now. He hadn't left Hogwarts since the previous school year since Elwood deemed him unfit to deliver acceptance letters to muggle-borns from being... what was the word? Unstable. Ticcy had arrived while he was there, thus the protection would've prevented him from entering if possessed by a Shadow. He'd left briefly to help protect the second Scepter half with Harry but Scor had still been in Hogwarts so the protection would still have held. Plus there was a whole bunch of other protective spells that he, Harry and other Aurors had put up to protect Hogwarts. He was quite confident a Shadow could not enter. Nor did know how they'd be able to not have black eyes, Ticcy was no metamorphmagi and Polyjuice potion could not turn someone into a metamorphmagi either.

That left it as either being another kind of possession or that Scor was mistaken, Calderon thought the latter was more likely and liked Ticcy's theory. The Scepter had been giving Ticcy's kids strange dreams and had given Scor strange dreams in the past, Ticcy thought it was the Scepter messing with Scor's dreams somehow. Calderon couldn't hazard a guess why, he knew the Scepter needed to be hidden because Sal was after it but that was pretty much it. He could only guess randomly unless he knew more. Everyone was pretty sure Ticcy wasn't possessed though after testing him from the usual methods and looking for signs, proving his own mind and keeping an eye out to make sure he wasn't wandering at night. Possession took its toll on the person's body from being controlled against their will and if anything Ticcy was the opposite, he was cited as being in extremely good physical health by anyone's standards.

Calderon had to shove it all out of his mind though as at the beginning of November, Harry called upon him to test the first sample of the power-blocking potion they were trying to develop. He wasn't sure whether he hoped more that it failed or that it succeeded as he headed to Elwood's office to Floo there, muttering the password - 'Godric's Hollow' - and climbing the staircase. Harry had advised he bring an overnight bag since they weren't sure how long it's effects would last, he had it slung over his shoulder as he whistled in tune with his lights. He was leaving Hogwarts for at least a day anyway so he couldn't see why Elwood should complain.

"Ready to leave?" Elwood asked him coldly as he entered.

"Yep," Calderon confirmed with a nod as he approached the fireplace.

Elwood threw him a murderous look as he crossed his arms. Calderon was taller than him so he constantly seemed to feel the need to try make himself bigger by puffing out his chest, standing on his tippy-toes and holding his chin up. Calderon thought this just made him look rather silly but what did Calderon know? He was just a crazy, unstable lunatic-type person with severe issues according to Prinkett and Rutherford the counsellors. Calderon could hardly call them wrong considering his parents and sister, instability pretty much ran in the family as far as he could tell.

"And don't think I don't know what you're doing," Elwood added in a hiss, genuinely confusing Calderon. He wanted to say: 'going to test a power-blocking potion' but he had a feeling that would be the wrong answer.

"What am I doing?" Calderon decided to just ask instead tiredly, he knew he wouldn't get it.

"Sucking up to Harry Potter so he'll think more highly of you and get you to have my job, you're taking cruel advantage of the greatest hero of all time who happens to be a kind and trusting human being just to further your twisted desperation for power. You should be ashamed of yourself."

"For the three-hundred and fifty-fifth time, I don't want your job," Calderon pointed out with great and truthful emphasis, he much preferred being an assistant. Although that being said, he wished he was doing actual assisting instead of tedious paperwork. Still, he had no interest in taking Elwood's job nor to suck up to Harry. Naturally, Elwood still didn't believe him.

"And you won't even admit it, you're an awful person. An awful crazy person."

"There's nothing to admit!"

"Only a guilty person would deny it. Who are you trying to convince?"

"I'm trying to convince you!" Calderon complained in exasperation, shifting the magic coming out of him into making his magical lights flicker safely.

"Just go, Calderon," Elwood said dismissively as he sat at the desk.

Calderon rolled his eyes and reached the fireplace, Flooing over to the Ministry of Magic with an automatic redirect to the Auror Office where Harry Potter was waiting for him. He looked incredibly stressed - and Calderon felt incredibly guilty considering his sister was the cause - but smiled in relief nonetheless. It saddened him to think it was all a lie, the people he was close to would turn on him if they knew his past. With Sal stirring everything up, he thought it only a matter of time before his life crumbled around him. It actually didn't scare him so much anymore, he couldn't have a happy childhood, normal control over magic with a wand, a Hogwarts education, friends, a wife or any kind of romantic life, children, a pet dragon or even his parent's love. But he still had people he cared about, a rewarding - at least pre-Elwood - job and had had fun in his half-life which was more than he could've hoped for or deserved, he was okay with that. He'd had a good run and when the time came to pay for the crimes of his family, he would accept it. In the meantime, he could just live his life as fully as possible.

"Glad you could make it, Marius, this way" Harry greeted him and started leading him away through a maze of doors and offices, he felt magic bubbling in his excitement which he chose to manifest as orange bubbles, "And thank you again for doing this."

"What's that?" Calderon questioned curiously as they passed a model of a creepy looking building that reminded him too much of Azkaban.

"The design for New Azkaban prison, since the Soul Eaters destroyed Azkaban entirely a few years back. Construction was awkward to get going due to needing the muggle Minister's approval and knowledge to build but it halted in the wake Kingsley's death and the Ministry attack, it finally started going again but the new Minister stopped it because he's not sure the new design will be safe from Shadow attacks. Considering the Shadow Master seems to have a vendetta against prisons, - he obliterates all the ones they target after taking a majority of the prisoners, according to the Shadow werewolves we've interrogated - I think it's about as safe as it can be in the current climate."

"You want my advice about it?"

"Sure."

"Don't use Dementors," Calderon blurted out before he could stop himself, "And I think a great suggestion would be to put it within the bounds of the magic that detects when magical children are born in the UK. You know, in case there's a child born on New Azkaban."

"I don't think it's likely," Harry admitted as they came to a halt by a balding, weedy looking man who held out a luminous green vial with a toothy grin, "Marius, this is Seward Fitz the lead Potioneer on this project. Seward, this is Marius Calderon."

"Nice to meet you," Calderon offered politely and held out his hand, Fitz took it but used it as an anchor point to yank him to a door that led to a small - but still bigger than all but his current bedroom - bland-looking room with a bed, table and chairs in it. Fitz pushed the vial into his hands.

"That's where you can stay while we test its effects, there's a bathroom door you can't see from this angle if you need it and a bed for later if you want to sleep," Fitz explained in a garbled voice, "The vial contains the sample, it takes a few minutes to kick in so you won't feel the effects immediately. When you do, try to use magic and see if you can or not. Drink up!"

"He only just got here," Harry complained, "You could've tried saying 'hello', Seward."

"Hello! Now drink up."

"You can still change your mind if you want to."

"I'm good," Calderon agreed with a smile to hide his hesitation as he drank the green liquid, coughing and cringing, "It feels like I'm swallowing thorns."

"Certain kinds of thorns are an ingredient. You are not permitted to eat or drink anything but water for the first twenty-four hours in case it interferes with the potion, if the effects haven't worn off after that window then we'll find something bland and non-interfering for you to drink," Fitz told him in the same garbled tone, not necessarily speaking fast but garbled as he took the empty vial, "I can get you some water though, if you'd like?"

"That'd be nice," Calderon nodded as he went to sit down at the table, Harry hovered in the doorway while Fitz left.

"How are you feeling?" Harry asked with concern.

"Aside from the stabbing feeling in my throat, pretty normal," Calderon answered truthfully, Harry nodded and fell silent for a minute.

"How are my children doing?"

"Lily and Albus are pretty consistently doing okay in classes with a few issues with History of Magic and Astronomy - Astor complains Albus falls asleep - and haven't been in trouble recently, in fact Lily's playing Seeker in a real match for the first time in the wake of Scor being banned for the first match. James is... well he's notably talented in some subjects but also lazy in others especially when it comes to written work, if he's still bullying then he hasn't been caught recently," Calderon told him, Harry said nothing but his face tightened stoically. Calderon noticed his magical lights had stopped, he was starting to feel a bit dizzy actually. Well, a lot dizzy actually. Maybe it was kicking in?

"And Vern?"

"Finally seems to be overcoming his avoidance of spellwork, he's improved a lot in that regard and is still doing pret-pretty well in his other subjects."

"Are you okay?" Harry questioned, noticing the change in tone.

"Need to lie down," Calderon muttered weakly, hating the feeling so much after having to endure being so ill last year from the poison for so long. It was just awful.

He felt so dizzy, he needed to lie down before the world spiraled. He tried to stand and stagger to the bed but everything was moving so fast, he started to fall but Harry caught his arm to keep him on his feet. Calderon was breathing heavily as Harry helped him to sit on the edge of the bed, his body moved sluggishly into a lying down position. He gazed up at the inky light over his bed, feeling entirely exhausted. As if his body had suddenly became a massive weight, one that was too heavy to lift or even to move.

"Is it working?" Fitz's voice asked and Calderon managed to fight the weight dragging him down, shifting his eyes to glance at the Potioneer but couldn't muster speech as the man clutched a glass of water excitedly. Calderon still rather liked the water but he hadn't strength to ask for it. Or reach it. Or drink it, "Try using magic."

Calderon didn't think he could move, let alone do magic. He tried to feel the power and his body jolted, a snap of pain sparking through him as if the magic was repelled and the weight increased. He was breathing even more heavily now, he tried again. And again. And again. Still getting nothing but the volt of pain. But it was just that, pain. He'd been through worse and so had Sal, she'd fight much harder than he was right now. He'd prefer death to eternal imprisonment again and he knew she would too, pain was worth freedom.

Feeling newfound determination, Calderon tried to feel the power inside him and the wave of pain came. He rode it out and felt the flood of magic fill his veins, pulsating with pain but still there. He tried to move the deadweight of his arm dangling off the side of the bed, surprised by how easily the limb moved upwards. He focused a burst of energy and a jet of power shot out, dashing upwards and shattering the inky light. Calderon felt his consciousness vanish with the light.

"Doesn't work..."

Knowing that he was right helped Scorpius to pull himself out of his rut of misery. He still wasn't sure it was enough to convince a teacher and he certainly didn't want to risk humiliation again but it was enough for him, he was sure Michael would agree when he could tell him. Michael's injuries put him in the Hospital Wing for longer than usual to recover and Scorpius couldn't risk talking to him about it with marigold hovering around, he hoped at least it'd distract Michael from his condition to have something else to think about. He couldn't think of anything else to help Michael, he was a failure as a friend but the distraction helped.

Michael having to stay longer did let him hold onto the map for longer, however Professor Ashain's blurring dot didn't go to the entrance at night. The first night it stayed in its office with Professor Longbottom outside in the classroom, almost as if they were taking precautions in case the professor was possessed. Despite not seeming to believe him, they must have decided safe was better than sorry. The possessor must also have realized this too and was lying low to avoid suspicion, it seemed too coincidental for the change in pattern to be because of anything else. Professor Longbottom didn't say anything to him about any of it during his detentions though, just set Scorpius his task - usually cleaning pots or pulling weeds - and let him get on with it in silence. He had really taken a turn for the worse since Nick's death, his eyes carried heavy black bags and he never or rarely smiled even outside of class now.

Scorpius had tried to research possession in case there was another method aside from Specters but had only managed to find vague references, he'd also considered that Professor Ashain could actually be an imposter with that Polyjuice stuff or another metamorphmagi but non-Ashain had said hurting him would hurt the professor. Not-Ashain could've been lying though and it might explain the odd shifting name but then why was he so much like himself during day time? He could even cast the same Patronus during their lessons, it seemed unlikely the Shadows would have someone like that handy. That also seemed against Specter possession, were they really able to possess someone casting the very thing that warded them away? He'd been meaning to ask Calderon since he thought if anyone knew, the assistant would. Calderon hadn't been there though.

The Librarian - who Scorpius was still on good terms with from his First Year - had also hinted that more on possession would be found in the Restricted Section, available only to NEWT students and staff unless you received permission from a staff member. That was unlikely but luckily, he knew NEWT students and had asked Latimer to look into it as a favor. He'd promised to explain later to quell Latimer's curiosity and the older boy had agreed, he hadn't gotten back to him on finding anything yet though. Molly's increased number of Quidditch practices to prepare Lily might have been a contributing factor, Latimer took Michael's place as kind of lead Chaser while he was still recovering.

It was Friday before Michael was finally released from the Hospital Wing, now with mostly-healed wounds on his hands from the full moon. Scorpius made a mental note to look into ways to make werewolf transformations easier or more bearable when he had the chance, that hadn't been covered when learning about werewolves so Scorpius wasn't sure how much luck he'd have but it was still worth a shot if it could help Michael. And he would help his friend, just like he would save Professor Ashain and would make it up to Molly for being unable to play in the match, somehow. Scorpius could finally fill Michael in, determined to distract him and figure out how to save Professor Ashain from the Shadows.

"Can't this wait until morning?" Michael wondered worriedly in a whisper as they were getting dressed behind the drapes to go to the Room That Doesn't Exist to discuss it, the others were sleeping, "I don't want you to get in trouble again."

"It's important. And it's about why I got in trouble," Scorpius insisted as he finished and went to put on shoes, "Besides, we'll have the map. We can use it to make sure we avoid all people, I only got caught because I actually went to Professor Longbottom."

"Okay," Michael agreed as Scorpius pulled back the drapes as he finished, seeing Michael had also done the same and was just finishing his laces, "Is it about the Scepter?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you when we get there. Ready? Let's go."

"Yes, let's," a new voice chimed in and they both turned in shock and horror to see Albus standing in the doorway that led out.

"I-I thought you were asleep," Scorpius stammered out stupidly before he could stop himself, Albus' emerald eyes narrowed in the night.

"I know. I was having trouble sleeping because I have a lot on my mind so when you said 'is anyone awake,' I just didn't say anything because I thought you'd be quiet and I could carry on trying to sleep," Albus explained, looking somewhere between angry and upset, "And then I hear you going to chat in the Room That Doesn't Exist about important stuff and something about a Scepter. Way to include me, guys."

"It's not like that," Michael said quickly, "You just don't know all the things we do and we know some things in confidence, your father himself told us not to talk about the thing to other people. You're better off not knowing anyway."

"That makes me feel so much better, I thought we were friends."

"We are!" Scorpius protested in panic and Reuben or Angelo gave a loud snore in their sleep, remind Scorpius it wasn't the best place to discuss anything when they could wake up at any moment, "Look, let's talk about this tomorrow."

"Yeah so you two go off and have your chat then but we will talk about this tomorrow," Albus grunted and stepped aside, gesturing for them to go past. Scorpius exchanged a look with Michael before complying as they now also needed to talk about what to do about Albus, leaving the dormitory where it occurred to him that he'd grabbed his wand but not something equally important.

"The map," Scorpius muttered to Michael and went to turn back to get it, Albus was in the doorway again except facing them with a familiar piece of parchment in his hand.

"You mean this map?" Albus questioned and Scorpius felt a stab of shock for the second time in five minutes, "Yes, I know about it. That time you ran down to blast Ashain with a Patronus in your pajamas, you left this in plain view right by your bedside. I just didn't say anything because I figured you would tell me about it in your own time since we're supposed to be friends and all."

"I erm..." Scorpius trailed off, what was he supposed to say to that?

"I'm not stupid," Albus said, his voice cracking as if he was holding back tears, "Just because I'm not good at anything, it doesn't mean I'm stupid."

"We know, of course you're not stupid," Michael offered and Albus carelessly tossed the map at them, tears leaking from his eyes.

"If you don't th-think I'm st-st-stupid then why-why d-d-don't y-you tr-trust m-me? I-I'm jus-just n-not g-g-good en-enough f-for y-y-y-anyone!" Albus cried, his voice devolving into sobs before he fled back into the dormitory. Michael looked at Scorpius and Scorpius looked at Michael.

"Well, we sure fucked up there."

Part 5: Jittery

Roman was picked up from the station by Audrey and Percy - was it really necessary for Percy to be there to pick up his fiancée's brother? - where he again didn't hug his sister and so began his week of wedding hell. He was dragged to be fitted for dress robes, had to endure meals with the Weasleys, constant wedding babble, having to stay at the Burrow for the wedding night and Percy drunk out of his mind after being dragged away for a bachelor night by his brothers. Audrey did nothing of the sort though, no respectable child of Magnus Rivers would allow themselves to get into that state. Audrey had no friends anyway, being on friendly terms with co-workers and Weasleys was different to being friends.

The only upside was being able to see photographs of his parents again, there was a lot more pictures of his mother as Mavis had not been camera shy. Magnus had permitted a picture to be taken on their wedding day though and another that he'd sent Mavis when she'd requested to know what he looked like before agreeing to marry him, that along with the family photo literally made just three of Magnus. He wasn't smiling in any of them, he had the same serious look that Audrey frequently had and the same look Roman would recognize from the mirror. Roman didn't mind though, Magnus had rarely smiled so it captured his essence better and only made him look more powerful. He wondered what they'd think of Audrey marrying Percy. Thinking of his father made him recall the letter in the secret room for the first time, in the wake of death it hadn't ranked high on his mind but now he thought about it. Hadn't the letter been addressed to a supposed future grandchild with the last name of 'Weasley'?

He still didn't like Audrey marrying Percy. Percy had murdered his friend and turned his sister against him, it was unforgivable. The wedding was to be held at the Burrow in a set up outside, Roman was stuck helping with the decorating which he much preferred to having to be around people. There still seemed a lot of people, despite mentions it was smaller than Bill's wedding due to Audrey not wanting - or knowing - that many people there. The only good thing was her. Luna. Wearing a jaw-dropping bright yellow dress, she shone with the radiance of the sun in her beauty with a sunflower tucked away behind her ear. She literally took his breath away, his mind forgot to breathe for a moment when he saw her.

It was a dreadful day, rain soaking everything in an otherwise sunny week. Roman was forced to hang around the crowd who seemed much more interested in meeting Harry Potter than anything else, not that Roman minded but he still hated boring, stuffy people with useless small talk. He hated being around people in general, his heard was thundering like the sky outside and he found himself skimming close to the Weasleys. He got stuck sitting with the scar-faced Weasley brother and his extremely pregnant wife through the immensely boring ceremony, why people got married or had children was beyond him. He vowed to do neither.

It was painful to watch his sister giving herself away to such a horrible person, losing everything she had left of who she was. He felt himself choking up as he watched his sister walking away from him, the last few steps she'd take as Audrey Abia Rivers before becoming just another 'Mrs Weasley'. It was like his sister was dying and being replaced by someone else, there'd be no chance for her to ever apologize or for her to ever break free of Percy's control to be herself and be there for him again. That was it, she was dying. He couldn't watch another family member dying. Roman slipped away from his seat and fled, pushing himself to a run. He didn't have anywhere to go though, he just ran. He was unable to even see through his tears, mingling with the snot dribbling down his nose and the pelting rain hammering down upon him. He only stopped when he couldn't run anymore, his lungs burned out from the unusual heavy exercise and the stitch in his side tearing him up.

He collapsed onto the muddy ground, probably ruining his dress robes and it was dirty and disgusting but he didn't care. He pulled himself up to his knees as his stomach lurched, bile spewing out before he could stop it which he also blamed on running or the situation. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and then wrapped his arms around himself protectively from the rain, his body still shaking but whether from vomiting, the cold or something else, he didn't now. He didn't care as he cried in the rain. His parents. His brother. His sister. Why did everyone he loved leave him all alone? He hated being alone so much. He squeezed his eyes shut, wishing he was back in his nice neat home with his siblings, loving, adoring mother and his unfaltering father. They'd never have let any series of events occur that would wind up with him kneeling in the muddy ground in the middle of nowhere in the freezing rain all alone. He didn't even have Enas to cuddle. He'd been happy before, he'd been happy, he'd been loved. Why did all that have to go away? Why did everything have to be ruined? Why did he have to be alone? Roman cried and the sky cried with him.

"You can say that again," Scorpius muttered as he scooped up the map and headed off with Michael, desperate to speak but unwilling to until they were safely within the room and not in a public forum. He did feel guilty now for not telling Albus anything but he had a good reason, Varanian's life would be at stake if Albus' father ever got a hold of him. Scorpius blurted out the question while Michael was still closing the door to the room, "What should we do about Albus?

"Honestly? I think we should just tell him," Michael offered as he ran a hand through his unruly mane of hair, "And not just because now I feel guilty. He knows about the map and he heard us mention the Scepter, it'd be easier to just tell him instead of him just finding out things on his own. He is our friend, I think we can trust him."

"But what about Varanian? I don't know if Albus even believes in his innocence."

"You told me when I wasn't sure if I believed in his innocence," Michael pointed out, "Besides, we don't have to tell him about Varanian. Just the Scepter, map and whatever you wanted to tell me that was super important today."

"We'd have to mention Varanian, he's the one who told us about the Scepter being in the school."

"Even if we did tell him about Varanian, you don't need to blurt out his location which is the only way it'd put him at risk."

"Fair point. How about I tell you what happened first and then we discuss whether we should tell Albus?" Scorpius offered, realizing that Michael wouldn't even be aware of what he was divulging otherwise. Michael sat and gestured for him to do so, Scorpius explained everything had had happened with Professor Ashain and realizing the truth while Michael listened patiently, "So what do you think?"

"I think I feel bad for Ashain's kids, their mum walking out and now their dad's possessed," Michael sighed, "Have you told Varanian yet?"

"No, I can't really give the right amount of detail with the ring."

"He might know something, if the Shadows have figured out a way to improve Specters than he might know about it. Or if there's a new threat that has a better way of possessing people than he might know about that. Or he might even know more about possession, he was possessed by a Specter so he'd know what it's like too."

"I guess I'll need Cassia again," Scorpius admitted as he also sat, he sighed, "I think we should tell Albus too. This thing with Professor Ashain isn't really anything to do with Varanian so it's not betraying him and it's just hurting Albus."

"You should take him with you next time you go after midnight wandering to the bathroom, if we'd told Albus from the start then you could've done that anyway and everyone would find it harder to shrug off two students seeing it."

"If we're telling Albus then I think we should tell Molly too, I think she deserves it," Scorpius said truthfully, maybe she'd be less disappointed if she knew why he'd gotten banned from the first game. She was good at not asking or pushing him but he knew she wanted to know, plus he'd been debating whether to tell her everything or not since she'd asked, "And Latimer. He already knows about the map and I'll have to tell him something when he asks why I had him researching possession."

"Abby and Rose, if Albus knows then it's hardly fair to keep it from them too," Michael added.

"Maurice we should tell, he already knows about the Scepter and us being in contact with Varanian. Plus he does know a lot about magic and everything."

"We might as well just gather everyone and tell them all, Albus, Abby, Rose, Maurice, Orous, Vern, Corin, Molly, Latimer and Mirra."

"Not Mirra," Scorpius disagreed immediately, already thinking that was too many people and Michael scowled angrily.

"Why not Mirra? She's my girlfriend."

"I don't even know her."

"Well I do! She's trustworthy, and smart and helpful," Michael protested defensively.

"I still don't know her."

"So what?! So only people that you know counts?! My judgment isn't good enough for you now that I'm a werewolf?! What I think doesn't matter anymore?!" Michael yelled at him, his mood shifting dramatically as he jumped to his feet, Scorpius could only sit there in surprise, "Why do you even bother telling me these things if my opinion is invalid?! You just think you're better than everyone else?! That you know better than everyone else?! That you know everything?!"

"Michael, I-"

"Whatever! You always get your own damn way!" Michael snorted and stalked out of the room without another word.

Scorpius sat there in still stunned silence for a moment at being yelled at before grabbing the map to hurry after him, he glanced at it quickly to make sure the coast was clear. It wasn't, Michael's dot was heading straight for 'Astor Koray' - the Astronomy professor - who was moving down a corridor that would intersect. Scorpius rushed to get there in time to warn Michael but even as he did so, he knew he wouldn't make it in time. He saw Michael's dot and Professor Koray's meet and halted, watching the professor lead the caught Michael away. Glumly, Scorpius returned to his dormitory. That had definitely not gone as planned.

"Are you awake, Al?" Scorpius questioned into the darkness, wanting to clear the air and apologize for keeping him in the dark until now but he got no reply.

Scorpius sighed heavily and got into bed miserably, unable to fall asleep with worry for his relationship with his friends. Was he being a bad friend? Or a bad boyfriend for that matter with Molly? Or a bad ally with Varanian? Was he just bad in general to be around? He could feel his insecurity coiling around his gut. He didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know how to be a good friend. He didn't know how to be a good boyfriend. He didn't know how to be a good ally in fighting the Soul Eaters. He didn't even know how to save Professor Ashain. He just tried to do his best on all fronts although clearly he was failing, he'd managed to upset Latimer and now Albus and clearly he was failing to help Michael if he was attacking himself and yelling at him. Was he wrong to discount Mirra? In a world where Shadow spies could be anywhere, he had to be careful. He was clearly failing with Molly, she was disappointed in him and they'd never made-out like Michael and Mirra so he had was doing something wrong if couples were supposed to make out a few weeks after starting to date, he'd been with Molly for months. And then with Varanian and fighting the Shadows... What did he contribute, really? If anything, Varanian just wasted his time telling him things and teaching him things.

For a dark, depressing moment, Scorpius thought of that moment when he'd been on his knees with Marvin about to take his life. Would it have been better if Scorpius had died and Marvin had lived? Scorpius would've died with a pure white soul instead of surviving to screw everyone else's lives up. There was his family, his grandfather would still be alive for having never sacrificed himself, and his parents probably preferred him to die then deal with their pathetic ruined son. There was his family, Orous would never have had to have the magic torn from his soul, Michael probably would've had a happy experience in Hogwarts instead of being scarred and turned to the thing he hated most, Molly would probably be much happier with Nick because he was better than Scorpius in every way. The Shadow Master wouldn't have been revived if Scorpius died, the world would quite literally be a better place if Marvin could've just succeeded in shooting him. He couldn't change the past though, just keep on trying to help... And failing. Leebin was right, Scorpius did not like failing.

"Hey Scorpius?" Michael voice questioned and tore Scorpius from his unhappy thoughts.

"Yeah?" Scorpius croaked, not realizing how close he'd been to crying.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you, I just... get frustrated and... I don't know, I don't even know what I was saying, I'm sorry," Michael apologized guiltily and awkwardly as Scorpius sat up.

"It's okay, I'd rather you lash out at me then yourself," Scorpius shrugged it off truthfully, he'd rather be yelled at than Michael attack himself as a werewolf to relieve the feeling, "We all get frustrated sometimes. I'm sorry too."

"And I get it, about Mirra. I won't tell her if you don't want me too but we should still fill in Albus before the rift becomes so wide it swallows us all."

"Yeah. Still... Maybe I was unfair. How about we only tell people that we both agree on?"

"Okay," Michael agreed with a weak smile.

"Am I still agreed on?" Albus' voice wondered distantly from his unusually drape-enclosed bed.

"Yes," Scorpius confirmed, "We'll fill you in tomorrow."

"But only if you get some sleep, it is way past your bedtime and you have a hard enough time getting up as it is," Michael chastised in a lighter tone.

"Yes, Mother," Albus chimed up as he'd often said in the past, sounding much more like himself. They all laughed.

"Roman!"

Roman jolted up at the sound of his name, not realizing he'd been asleep. He rather wised he hadn't been woken, he was lying on the muddy ground and soaked through to his soul. He shivered violently as the rain unrelentingly continued battering his small body. Actually he wasn't sure he had been asleep, maybe he'd just passed out. At any rate, it was awful.

"Roman!" the voice snapped much closer and he realized it was Percy, the Weasley wore a look of false concern as he fell to his knees in the mud beside Roman. Apparently taking in his appearance because he removed his suit jacket, wrapping it around Roman and started rubbing it to try warm him up.

"D-D-Don-Supos-Wedd-" Roman tried to form a coherent sentence to ask why he wasn't at the wedding - he was pretty sure attending your own wedding was important - but his chattering teeth made it an impossible task.

"Come on now, we'll get you back to the Burrow and get you all warmed up," Percy said in a gentler tone than Roman had ever expected of him, "Can you walk?"

Roman simply nodded and Percy helped him to his feet, his knees were shaking so much that knocked together frequently. Percy kept his arm around him, maybe to stop him fleeing again or maybe to keep him upright. As much as Roman despised being so physically close to Percy, he wasn't sure he could slog his trembling limbs through the mud in the face of the stabbing rain and burning wind. He just kept his head hung low and focused on putting one numb foot in front of the other, he was sure Percy was speaking but the words were lost in the wind. They reached the Burrow at some point, Roman wasn't sure how long it took or how far away he'd initially managed to run.

He was pounced upon immediately by Audrey and Mrs Weasley, a change of clothes, someone toweled his hair dry, bundled in blankets and put in front of a roaring fire. Roman felt rather out of it all and everything passed in a blur, he vaguely remembered Audrey cuddling him but that might've been a dream because the new Mrs Weasley wouldn't care about him at all anymore. The warmth finally started to seep back into his body though, with his strength returning, so did the anger. Audrey yelled at him for running off into the terrible weather like that, where he could've 'caught his death' and had her 'worried sick'. Roman thought she was probably more upset about having her wedding ruined, he couldn't decide whether he felt bad or not. He holed himself up in the room he'd been given to sleep in in the Burrow for a few days, curled up on his bed in bleak hopelessness.

"Roman?" a familiar and very welcome dreamy voice called with an accompanying knock, "Can I come in?"

"Yes," Roman agreed and sat up immediately, trying to smooth his hair and clothes to look nicer for some inexplicable reason as Luna came in, "What's up-How do you-Hi."

"Hi," Luna echoed with a kindly smile and didn't comment on his mid-sentence changes as he attempted to say the most proper thing to impress her, "How are you doing?"

"G-Good," Roman lied, not wanting her to think lowly of him for being unhappy and having issues, "How are thing-you?"

"I just came to say goodbye."

"Goodbye?" Roman repeated anxiously.

"Yes, you know I was becoming a Wizarding Naturalist and wanted to study Magizoology. I'm going to travel the world in search of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack and other new creatures, there's a group of us leaving tonight."

"Sounds fun, write if you find anything interesting," Roman offered with an attempt at a false smile but feeling his heart slowly shrivel up and die inside at the thought of her leaving forever, everyone always left him one way or another. People were cruel creatures, if they weren't outright cruel then they just cursed him in the back as they walked away, "Bye Luna, good luck."

"Bye Roman, take care of yourself," Luna offered as she left. Roman waited until her footsteps had retreated entirely before throwing himself onto his bed to cry.

The wedding wasn't cancelled though, they just had it a few days later instead. This time much less fancy decor, only home cooked food - thankfully none by Audrey - and a severely shortened guest list. Except for the absence of Luna, Roman much preferred the lack of people to scare him but still hated the fact the wedding was happening. It was also on a nicer day but still in the Burrow and on a special day too, the two-year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. Roman was once again stuck with the scar-faced and pregnant Weasleys but he thought the scary scar guy was glancing at him an unusual amount of times, as if he was keeping an eye on Roman. It made his already pounding heart twist painfully in apprehension, so much so that he was barely paying attention to the wedding but on the two Weasleys either side of him.

The pregnant one didn't seem to be paying attention either, she looked in pain. Roman was starting to wonder if her husband was looking at her too and making her nervous, until liquid randomly started dripping from her chair. Roman jumped up in surprise and the scarred Weasley grabbed his arm, did they think he was going to run again? He pointed to the pregnant woman.

"I don't want to get wee-wee on me," Roman complained to the scarred one and jabbed an accusing finger at her, "Your wife just wet herself."

"I theenk my water just broke," the pregnant one confirmed in her thick French accent, he supposed that must be what they called it in France.

To his surprise though, Roman was shoved aside and the pregnant one became the center of attention. The baby was arriving apparently, he thought she must have wet herself in fear for childbirth being painful. Another reason to never have kids, if the Weasley really loved his wife then he wouldn't want her to be hurt by having to go through childbirth and wouldn't have made her be pregnant. The wedding was again ruined though, Roman was dragged along with the Weasleys and a few others to St Mungo's Hospital while the guests presumably got to go home. Roman was stuck waiting for hours with the majority of the Weasley clan except for the scarred one and his parents, he liked the cleanliness but not the amount of people.

"Can we go home, Aud?" Roman pleaded after a while.

"No," Audrey told him firmly.

"There's a new Weasley joining the world, family should be here," Percy insisted without stopping his pacing although Roman thought he did seem a bit disappointed at his wedding being ruined again.

"Me and Audrey aren't family," Roman pointed out, somewhat hopeful that they'd get to leave and Percy froze on the spot.

"Aud, can I talk to you for a minute in private?" Percy asked of his bride-to-be and Audrey gave him a bemused look but obliged. Roman went back to being bored, the others were mostly talking to each other or doting on the metamorphmagi toddler. Percy and Audrey returned after a minute, holding hands as Percy cleared his throat to get their attention, "We're getting married."

"Gee, really? So all that wasn't an elaborate and unusual celebration to welcome the newest Weasley into the family?" the one-eared Weasley joked.

"No, I mean today," Percy elaborated and flicked his wand to conjure a piece of paper, it was very official looking but 'wedding license' was all that Roman managed to get without moving closer.

"Not going to try for third time lucky?" the dragon person Weasley wondered.

"I'm a twin, two's the lucky one," Audrey pointed out as she conjured a pen and signed her name, handing it to Percy who also signed it. The man who'd been marrying the pair shuffled over to them in surprise and asked for witnesses to sign it, Harry Potter and Charlie Weasley happened to be closest and signed it before Mr Weasley came bolting breathlessly into the room.

"It's a girl! A healthy baby girl!" Mr Weasley announced excitedly as the Weasleys collectively vocalized their approval. And so two Weasleys joined the family and Roman lost another River. He stared at his feet, feeling suddenly as cold and alone as he had the first wedding day in the rain.

Part 6: Tells and Tales

Roman felt most unfortunate with the turn of events, although he held nothing against the baby - named Victoire Fleur Weasley from being born on the victory of the Second Wizarding War and after her mother - who couldn't help being born. However it was the end of the holidays so he didn't have to deal with any of it, for once he was almost glad to be back on the way to Hogwarts and managed to get a compartment by himself that time. He soon wished he was back home with the amount of people and bullying pressuring his poor heart. Home or Hogwarts, he was trapped in a life with no good options or places to be unless he retreated into his mind where he clung to the fragments of happy memories or his imagination with fantasies of better things and Luna or books. She was true to her word about writing to him, her letters were even more infrequent than Audrey's - he thought she only wrote when she'd actually found something - but often came with pictures of the creatures and things that fascinated her. He treasured every picture - especially the ones that included Luna - and reread the letters, mostly informative about the creatures but it was the closest thing he had to a friend.

He couldn't reply to her though, she was out of the country and Hogwarts owls - which he had to use because Smokey was a cat not an owl - were only allowed to be used with the UK. He still didn't reply to any of Audrey's letters either and often put off reading them, he wasn't even sure if she was sister anymore. Percy had turned her against him and destroyed her personality to make her who he wanted her to be, only the mere shell of herself remained. He again got decent marks for the end of year exams and then it was back on the train, miraculously managing to get a compartment by himself this time where he could just sit stroking Smokey. Percy was there to pick him again with Audrey, Percy smiled in greeting but Roman didn't return it. He was glad when he could just curl up in bed and wish himself into a better life.

He was destined to not get any peace in his life however, Roman was sure Percy only spent so much with his family to make up for abandoning them. Unfortunately this also put Percy's new wife with them and by extension Roman too, he hated being at the family gatherings with the Weasleys. He felt like an outsider looking in on a one big, loud happy family but it wasn't his family. He didn't belong there, he wasn't part of it but rather just... there while everyone else talked, joked and laughed. He didn't know what to say, he didn't understand the jokes - Audrey also seemed to have trouble with this - and couldn't laugh. It was like being at the Slytherin table at Hogwarts, except most people had red hair and they were slightly less evil. He didn't know why he had to be there, it made him feel even worse to be around them because it reminded him of something he was sorely lacking. He wanted his own family. He frequently took the family portrait into his room and gazed at it for hours, craving the closeness he's once felt with them. What he wouldn't give anything for them to be alive, to have his mother hold him so tight and tell him he was loved as she kissed him goodnight. He needed the picture, otherwise he just tended to see her corpse dancing at the Death Eater's spell.

"C'mon, Roman," the one-eared George said to him, pulling Roman from the book he'd been trying to read while the Weasleys were talking and cooing over baby Victoire as she tried to roll over. George and Ron had apparently come over to him though.

"Is dinner ready?" Roman asked.

"No."

"Okay," Roman nodded and went back to reading, only to have it pulled from his hand, "Hey!"

"There's more to life than books, c'mon we're going to do something fun," George insisted and Roman felt filled with dread.

"Reading is fun for me. Please, give me back my book."

"Not until you come with us," Ron volunteered and Roman sighed heavily as he went with the two men outside into the spectacular chaotic mess they had for a backyard, "You learned to fly, didn't you? In Hogwarts?"

"Yes, of course," Roman confirmed while George retrieved three brooms from one of the out-buildings, not wanting them to think he was incompetent in case they decided he would be an easy target to murder, "But I don't want to fly right now, I'd rather read my book."

"Since we're family now and all, we're going to teach you Quidditch," George offered, "Family tradition."

"How are we family?"

"Perce married your sister, which makes her our sister and you our brother."

"I'm pretty sure that's not true," Roman pointed out with a scowl as George tossed him a broom that Roman barely managed to catch and almost dropped several times, George tossed a second to Ron, "And I don't want to play your silly broomstick game, teach Audrey."

"Tried," Ron admitted, "She can't even fly though."

"The broom hit in her face every time she tried to get it off the ground," George added, looking almost amused at his sister's pain.

"And then whenever she tried to kick off, she just fell over."

"And then whenever she actually managed to stay in the air, she fell off."

"And then Percy insisted we stop before his new wife was completely battered."

"Not the most naturally Flying inclined, your sister. But let's give it a go with you, eh? It's fun, I promise you or your money back."

"I didn't give you any money," Roman complained and George rolled his eyes.

"Just do it, okay? Need a new brother since this one's ditching me to go play Auror."

"I'm not ditching you, I just-" Ron started to protest.

"Yadda, yadda, yadda. C'mon, Roman, show us what you got. Unless you're scared of course."

"I'm not scared," Roman insisted stubbornly as he got onto the broom and kicked off, rising a few feet into the air like he'd managed in Hogwarts. He smiled proudly to himself at remembering how as they joined him, one on either side, "See? I'm pretty good, right? Can I have my book back now?"

"This is nothing, you need to fly higher than that in Quidditch!" Ron told him seriously.

"I don't like flying high, I don't want to fall and die. This is as high as I'll go."

"You need to worry less," George offered before smirking, "You thinking what I'm thinking, Ron?"

"Unless it's about dinner than probably not," Ron said.

George mouthed something to Ron - which was most rude with Roman in the middle - and pointed at Roman's broom, Ron looked confused for a moment before seeing to get... whatever it was. Roman opened his mouth to ask why before a hand from each snaked out and grabbed the handle of his broom. They then shot straight up onto the air, taking Roman with them as he screamed in terror and closed his eyes. They stopped and Roman hugged the broom, shaking from fear as they let go.

"Let me down, I don't like being up high!" Roman cried.

"It's no different to being further down."

"C'mon, just open your eyes," George insisted.

"If you really still don't like it then we can come down."

Roman was breathing heavily now, his heart beating ferociously fearfully in his chest but he couldn't see another way out of it. He opened his eyes just a crack, seeing nothing but blue sky in front of him so he pushed them open further. And gaped in amazement, the view was incredible. A sea of green fields stretching out in every direction, segments of trees that looked like clumps of wool and the Burrow itself, which looked rather like a bizarre doll's house. Why had he been worried about falling? He had the same control that he had lower down, just with a better view. He could handle this. And it was actually kind of nice and freeing to feel the wind blowing through his hair as he hovered in the sky.

"You okay?" Ron asked, sounding slightly concerned now.

"Okay," Roman nodded as he tore his eyes from the scene, "So what do I need to do for this broomstick game?"

Scorpius knew he shouldn't have even attempted to think of Marvin, he had an uncomfortable nightmare-filled night and was more than glad when Michael roused him from his latest terror at the earlier hour that Michael got up. Albus also was up surprisingly early and seemed in a better mood again, it was odd being down to breakfast o early, Scorpius didn't get up late but it was mostly empty. Maurice was there already, reading the paper and sipping from a mug in such an adult way that it surprised him to remember that Maurice was merely thirteen. They joined him and Michael tapped his arm to get his attention, he put his hand on his translator necklace to listen to them.

"Anything good in the paper?" Albus commented conversationally.

"Another werewolf killed," Maurice stated bluntly and Albus made a disgruntled sound.

"I asked if there was anything good. Not... death...y and morbid."

"There's never anything good in a war, Albus," Maurice pointed out seriously and Albus sighed.

"Why did I think there could ever be a conversation with you that didn't involve weirdness? So when-"

"Can I sit with you?" a small voice asked and Scorpius jumped in surprise at Antonius' stealthy approach.

"Sure," Scorpius agreed and Antonius slid in beside him unhappily with the dog beside him.

"Why do you agree to these things?" Albus complained with Antonius' arrival but Scorpius was more focused on Antonius' melancholy mood and the strange looks he was giving his father, "We can't talk freely in front of the little kids."

"Something wrong, Antonius?"

"No," Antonius lied and looked away, "It's just nothing."

"Then it doesn't matter if you tell me," Scorpius prompted uncertainly.

"Just this weird thing with my Dad," Antonius tried to shrug it off.

"What weird thing?" Michael pressed when Antonius didn't elaborate and the smaller boy shifted uncomfortable before apparently deciding to give in as he sighed.

"Last night, I got up to get a glass of water. When I went out of my room, I saw that Dad was standing by the exit door but doing nothing so I asked him why he was doing that. And he got weird..." Antonius explained, looking hurt and confused, "He told me to go to bed but he did it in a weird voice and when I asked why he talked in a weird voice, he told me to go to bed or he'd hurt me. So I went back to bed but I couldn't sleep and I don't know why he was mean like that and I got scared he didn't love me anymore like Mum and I started crying. It was light by now and he came in when he heard me crying to comfort me, sounding normal again and when I told him what happened, he said I must have been having a bad dream and that never happened."

"Well there you go, you need to worry less," Albus told the boy brightly with a cheery smile that Scorpius thought was probably meant to be consoling but came across more as demented. Michael exchanged a look with Scorpius, clearly thinking along the same lines as it being the possessor that Antonius had spoken to. Clearly it still had a hold over Professor Ashain."

"And he called me something weird too, like pathis passis, pathis pais? Something like that."

"Pathos pais?" Maurice commented abruptly and Antonius nodded, Maurice scowled, "That's Ancient Greek, he called you a suffering or diseased child."

"I didn't know Ashain spoke Greek," Albus mused while Antonius looked on the verge of tears, he buried his face in his hands.

"He didn't mean it," Michael added to Antonius quickly, "Your Dad was probably sleepwalking and having a weird dream, that's why he thinks it never happened."

"I don't think it's that," Antonius muttered and Scorpius opened his mouth to also add something comforting but stopped himself. What was he supposed to say? 'Don't worry about your Dad, he's just possessed by some weird evil thing and we don't know how to save him'. Although the Ancient Greek was interesting, did the Shadow Master know Ancient Greek? Or was it something else, the Scepter was from Ancient Greece.

"It'll be okay," Scorpius lied as he patted Antonius on the shoulder. He really did suck at comforting people.

"Thanks," Antonius said as he lowered his hands, not looking the slightest bit convinced as he stood, "I'm not hungry but thanks anyway."

"What a weird kid," Albus pointed out as the boy left with his dog, "And kinda sad but anyways, when are we going to get into the cool stuff?"

"Not at the breakfast table," Scorpius told him, thinking it was fairly obvious they couldn't discuss it in public, "Even though there's not really anyone near us."

"Guessing Maurice is going to be in on it?"

"Yep."

"You're telling Abby and Rose too, right? I already told Abby at about the m-a-p."

"You told her?!" Michael wondered in surprise while Maurice just looked confused.

"Yeah, she's the one who said to not say anything and trust that Scor would tell us when we were ready. I didn't tell Rose though, I figured she'd just storm over to you and demand answers. You'd know if Rose knows. But I didn't tell anyone else."

"Am I missing something?" Maurice asked in confusion.

"Yes but we'll fill you in later," Scorpius explained and they went back to small talk as they waited for the others too arrived, the girls came first and Corin begrudgingly later. He waited until their food was nearly done, "So there are some important things that we need to tell you... Shadow-related things."

"I told you, Al," Abby pointed out happily, "Patience."

"No," Rose snapped immediately with an angry expression, "Whatever it is, just forget about it."

"Are you mad? We need to know as much as possible if we're going to fight the Shadows," Maurice said as if it was obvious.

"No, Maurice! We're not bloody soldiers, it's not our responsibility to fight the Shadows," Rose insisted, looking upset, "We're teenagers. We're supposed to just be worrying about homework and studying and how we look, not defeating the Darkest Wizard of our generation and his army of nightmares!"

"You'll die with that attitude, we need to-"

"No, we won't! I trust my Dad, I trust my Uncle Harry, I trust my Mum, they can deal with this and then everything will be back to normal. We're just teenagers, it's so far beyond us and you're just so screwed up in the head that you just can't see it! And the rest of you, do you not remember what it felt like to have those runes brand you? What it felt like to be possessed by one of those things? What it was like watching werewolves attacking everyone? How can you possibly want to willingly put yourself into those dangerous situations without even having OWL level magic?! You're the ones who'll die with that attitude!"

"Coward," Maurice commented casually and in a single swift motion, Rose slapped him across the face. The crack of skin echoed and a look of utter bewilderment crossed his face.

"You can all die if you want but don't take me down with you! I can't... I can't deal with that," Rose spat out before stalking off.

"Did... Did she just slap me?" Maurice wondered as if still trying to grasp such an event had occurred, he touched his probably stinging cheek cautiously with his free hand.

"Yep," Albus confirmed with a smirk, "It's not quite funny actually."

"You would think that," Maurice grumbled with a scowl, "Want me to get Orous and Vern?"

"Sure," Scorpius agreed and looked around for Molly and Latimer while Maurice went over to the Hufflepuff table, they weren't there yet, "No Molly and Latimer though."

"Sanford," a voice said and Scorpius spun back to see Professor Koray had approached, "Elwood will see you now if you're done with breakfast."

"Err... Yeah," Michael agreed as he stood much to the others' confusion, "Got in trouble for being out after curfew, I'll catch up with you later. Start without me."

Scorpius frowned at this, he'd kind of been hoping that Michael would be there. He took a bathroom break to check the map for Molly and Latimer, Latimer was in his dormitory and Molly in the Prefect's bathroom which were both places he couldn't get to. Well, he could get to Latimer's dormitory but considering how Latimer was probably sleeping due to the lack of movement, he doubted Latimer would want to be woken up. Rose had gone back to her own dormitory as well. He'd have to tell them at some other point, he really wished Michael was there though, he was a bit nervous. After breakfast he led Abby, Albus, Maurice, Corin, Orous and Vern to the Room That Doesn't Exist, much to Abby, Albus' and Corin's surprise. The other three were either better at hiding it or new more about it than the others.

Michael usually thought up the room so Scorpius hoped his came out all right, he'd envisioned a Drawing Room from Malfoy Manor since they were supposed to be used for entertaining larger people and he knew it well. It still surprised him to see just how perfectly it mirrored his thoughts, the same dark purple walls, marble mantelpiece and even the large crystal chandelier was perfectly replicated. He gestured for them to sit down and closed the door behind them, feeling nervous again.

"So... So I'm going to tell you some important things with the Shadows that needs to stay within this room, anyone who doesn't want to have to know can just leave now," Scorpius offered and to his surprise, Corin stood.

"I'm out then," Corin said, "I really don't have time for this but good look and stuff."

"Okay," Scorpius nodded, Corin gave him an apologetic look then glanced back to Abby miserably before leaving. Scorpius wondered if he was leaving because he didn't want to be around Abby since she'd broken up with him, or because he didn't want to know, "Okay, so first let me tell you about the Marauder's Map which some of you already know about..."

Michael left with Koray, the professor had explained the previous night that he wasn't allowed to punish him without the Headmaster's approval but Elwood didn't like being woken so he'd have to wait. Once, the thought of being in trouble terrified him due to being afraid of getting kicked out of Hogwarts or another torturous detention but it didn't bother him now. Painful detentions felt like nothing compared to being a werewolf and Hogwarts was hardly the paradise he'd once admired. He turned the stone over in his pocket to summon Nick to him, he'd been curious to see Elwood.

"Godric's Hollow," Koray said to the gargoyle and it obediently moved aside to let them get up the staircase, Koray knocked on the door into the Headmaster's office.

"You may enter," Elwood's voice called from the other side and they went in to the room buried in portraits.

"You see that guy there?" Nick said and jerked his finger to the sleeping portrait of a wizard with a long flowing silvery beard, "That's the Albus Dumbledore. You should try summoning him, it'd be awesome to meet him. One of the greatest wizards of the time, probably would still be one of the greatest these days too. And that greasy-haired guy next to him is Severus Snape, my Dad used to be scared of him but he was also important in the war with Voldemort."

"Would you like to sit down, Mr Sanford?" Elwood offered and Michael tore his eyes from Nick to sit in front of the scarred Headmaster, Nick turned to watch the exchange curiously while Elwood smiled at him, "So Mr Koray here tells me that you were out of bed last night."

"Yes, Sir," Michael admitted hesitantly, not seeing the point in lying after already being caught.

"Well now, Michael, may I call you Michael?"

"Erm... Sure.

"Now, Michael, I don't want you to think that we at Hogwarts are discriminating against you for your condition but there is a curfew and being out after it is against the rules of the school. Do you think that you can understand that?"

"Erm... Yeah, I know the school rules. So what's my punishment?"

"Well I think we can let you off with a warning, I'd like you to know that we at Hogwarts are not discriminating against you in any way."

"You're not giving me a punishment for knowingly breaking a rule?" Michael wondered incredulously.

"Shh... Michael, do you want to get in trouble?" Nick complained.

"Of course not, we at Hogwarts do not believe in discrimination against those... humanity-challenged individuals like yourself," Elwood told him, still with a smile firmly in place.

"You can't be serious, you're not going to punish him for breaking a rule just because he's a werewolf?" Koray wondered in shock and Michael was forced to agree.

"Any discriminatory opinions on the part of Mr Koray are his own personal beliefs and not a reflection of Hogwarts' attitudes. Prejudice is not tolerated, Mr Koray."

"It's not prejudice, its treating all the students equally. I'd give any student a detention for being out of bed, werewolf or not - heck, I'd give my own son one!"

"Your presence is no longer necessary, Mr Koray, you're dismissed," Elwood said coolly, Koray did not look happy but left obediently and Elwood waited until he was fully gone before turning back to him with his smile returned, "Sorry about that. And I again want to reiterate that Hogwarts is in no way discriminatory against you and supportive of Mr Koray's views."

"You know what would be a fun drinking game to play when you're an adult?" Nick commented as he crossed his arms, "Have a conversation with Elwood and drink every time he tells you that he's not discriminating against you."

"You recently attacked yourself in your alternate body form, is that correct?" Elwood asked and Michael nodded while clenching his fists irritably, he wished people would stop bringing it up. He had trouble controlling his emotions lately, keeping his mind as a werewolf also meant having trouble controlling his emotions as a werewolf. On top of the surging werewolf energy that didn't want to curl up in bed and sleep, it was hard, "Right, right. I also understand that Flannery Leebin has made himself your counsellor? He mustn't be doing his job right if you're having such difficulty with things, maybe you'd be more comfortable with a different, better counsellor who could be more useful? Gerhard Rutherford perhaps? He is particularly excellent. Or Chastity Prinkett if you'd feel more comfortable in the presence of a female due to your history of abuse at your... erm... uncle?"

"Stepdad," Michael corrected, not wanting to talk about it. He glanced at the portraits and realized both Snape and Dumbledore were no longer sleeping.

"Ah yes, yes. You've heard of his demise, I trust?"

"What?" Michael wondered in shock, "Bob's... Bob's dead?"

"Yes," Elwood confirmed nodding, "So what shall you say? Would you like me to pass the word along to Miss Prinkett? She is quite competent, I assure you."

"No, I'm happy with Leebin," Michael admitted truthfully, even if he wasn't then he certainly wasn't going to agree to a session with the woman who'd had Latimer. According to Scorpius, she was most unpleasant.

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure."

"Well alright, if you feel more comfortable with someone who recently came back from stress leave instead of more talented counsellors than that is perfectly alright. It's your decision and we at Hogwarts wouldn't want to pressure you into making a decision to choose the better counsellor, we at Hogwarts respect your rights as a humanity-challenged individual to choose," Elwood reeled off and Nick rolled his eyes, something Michael felt very close to doing himself, "So are you sure you'd rather stay with Leebin?"

"Yes," Michael insisted, he wasn't sure whether Elwood was telling the truth and he didn't care either way.

"Alright. Now let me make this clear, this is in no way a punishment because we at Hogwarts do not discriminate," Elwood began and Michael's eyes itched to roll themselves, could Elwood really not go a single sentence without mentioning that? "But your Head of House wished to see you about your grades and Transfiguration professor Hypatia Ayn Midas and others have also expressed concern about this, if you could be so gracious as to see Mr Longbottom about it right now then that would be preferable. Have a good day, Michael."