Parts (44-50)

IV

Chapter 8

The Way Home

Part 1: Snowfall

The next seven and a half months of Roman's life descended into a hell that actually managed to beat Hogwarts. Alzay seemed determined to hurt him in every possible way, torturing and tormenting him relentlessly. Roman was walking on thin ice around her constantly but it often didn't seem to matter as anything could set her off, he cursed himself for ever buying her nice act. He should've known better, he had known better, he was just a fool and his fragments of confidence were quickly destroyed. He lived in fear and dreaded having to return home, if he was back before her then he'd hide under the bed because he was so afraid. He had panic attacks just trying to work up the courage to walk back through the front door sometimes, he was scared to go home but even more scared of what she'd do to him if he tried to leave.

He didn't even know why, she frequently mentioned hating him so Roman could only assume that she was just a psychotic sadist. Begging for mercy didn't help - he thought she was incapable of feeling such a thing - and so was trying to defend himself never helped, no matter how hard he tried it just seemed pitiful. And it just made the Healers in St Mungo's hate him, giving him the worst kind of treatment and denying him things he needed like a potion for the pain or his increasing severe anxiety. And he was in pain, the wounds piled up and every month more had turned into scars as if his body had become a battle field. He always turned up for work though, he thought he'd die if he had to stay home. He went to work early and came home late, worked weekends and jumped at every second of overtime he could. It was the only break he got unless he was lucky enough to be home when Alzay wasn't.

Cuddling Smokey became his only source of comfort once more and gazing into the two photos he had, the one of his family and the one of himself after that Quidditch victory, memories when something had been good. Not like then. He really didn't know what to do, he was terrified to try leave alone but he was too ashamed and scared of not being believed to report her using an Unforgivable Curse - he wasn't sure on the laws for attacking your boyfriend but he knew Crucio would earn her a cell next to her precious Daddy - on him. He hadn't heard anything from Audrey, it had been exactly what he wanted and he hated it. Now he really was truly alone, Alzay was all he had and she was a psychotic bitch. And just when Roman thought there was nothing - short of murder - that she could do to make things worse, that November she managed to outdo herself. Roman felt so... violated. He hated her. And he hated himself. And he hated her.

He didn't bother cleaning anymore, what was the point? Why even try to keep up the semblance that everything was nice and neat and clean when it wasn't? He wasn't either, he wanted to peel off his own skin and burn it then maybe he'd feel less dirty. He made sure Smokey's things and litter was alright for him but stopped caring about the rest of the apartment. He gave up. He just gave up. He didn't even cry anymore. He couldn't sleep at night anymore either, not even slightly. He was too afraid to toss and turn, he just laid there willing his eyes to close but they refused. He could only sleep when she wasn't around, he tried to snatch whatever time he could when she wasn't there and at his breaks and lunch at work. Exhaustion still plagued him though. And then Alzay managed to make things even worse yet again after accusing him of poisoning her - he wished he was poisoning her - by announcing her pregnancy.

He didn't want to be father, not like this. Roman was disgusted at the thought of having a child with the person he despised the most, let alone because of something forced against his will. He didn't want to be a father to her child, it wasn't even a child. Coming from her and that situation, Roman expected some kind of mutated deformed soulless red-eyed demonic killing-machine soldier to be born. It'd probably be born fully formed and just start annihilating people while Alzay laughed maniacally until it killed her too, Roman smiled at the thought of her dying but the thought still simultaneously terrified and wanting to physically vomit in revulsion. And Alzay wanted to keep it, surely even she could see children should not be born from hate? Did she not even notice they weren't even married - Roman thought he would actually rather she kill him than marry her - and just nineteen? Well, she was twenty in December but still. She didn't care for any of his points though and was determined to go through with keeping little Voldemort re-incarnate.

The owls came in to deliver the mail, Scorpius thought nothing of it until he heard yells and looked up to see the owls had yet again decided to relieve themselves on certain people's heads. This time recipients included Grant, Midas, Elwood, four of the counsellors - not Leebin - and oddly James, as well as his cronies all got dollops. Albus and several others burst out laughing in amusement but oddly, Cassia did not and in fact looked confused. Professor Ashain threw her a dark glance and led her out, Scorpius caught a snatch of conversation as she protested her innocence.

"Oh that Cassia," Albus said as his chuckling fit finished, "She does make you laugh."

"You're so immature," Abby sighed.

"What? It's true."

They finished their breakfast and headed out anyway, Professor Longbottom was checking their slips as usual starting with the elder years so Molly and Latimer got checked before them but they got checked before the Third Years. Rose ditched them immediately to go off with her boyfriend, throwing a look at Michael as she did as she did so as if to gauge his reaction. Michael was too busy staring at the ground however, not giving any indication that he'd actually noticed and the group fragmented further. Mirra quickly slipped her fingers into her boyfriend's and they walked hand-in-hand off together, Michael still seeming despondent though. Corin, Maurice and Orous walked together in front of them, Vern and Olivia not too far away with their hands held tight. Albus, Abby and Latimer were walking together just in front of Scorpius and Molly but still within in earshot, also walking with their hands held. If nothing else, it helped keep their hands warm in the snow. It was snowing lightly too, the wind made it feel rather like being jabbed with icicles.

"So what do you think Maurice would like?" Albus asked curiously.

"You realize that he's walking like five paces in front of you?" Latimer pointed out and gestured to the trio in front, Orous looked headless due to the way his hair faded into the snow it was identically colored.

"Yeah but he's deaf and he can't translate what he can't see so there's nothing wrong with it, I'm not saying anything bad just asking about a present. C'mon, I want to get him something good."

"Why?" Abby wondered, "You two don't even get along that well."

"Exactly, I don't want him to hate me. Especially considering, you know... everything. I'd rather he is on my side and I actually do want to make it up to him if it still bothers him that I did something stupid a few years ago, he does know how to hold a grudge. I mean, do you care about one incident from two years ago?"

"When I was turning seven, my Dad finally agreed to let me have a birthday party. I invited everyone in my year in my muggle school to come, heck, I even invited my teacher," Latimer told them, "Then the day came, I was really excited. And no one came. Not a single person came."

"That's really sad," Albus admitted.

"Yes, yes it was soul-destroying. But my point is that yes, people can remember things from years ago and be bothered by it."

"Okay. Point taken."

"Think we should shop first to get a drink first out of this cold?" Abby asked, shivering.

"Shop, everyone's going to be getting a drink first," Molly pointed out, Scorpius thought this was probably true so it was a good thing his parents would already have gotten a table and were waiting.

"Don't know about you guys but I know exactly what I'm getting and for who, I'm getting the things on my list then going back," Latimer offered with a shrug.

"Not going to enjoy the village and hang out with your friends?" Albus wondered in surprise.

"Is freezing to death and going broke what passes for fun these days? Damn, I'm old," Latimer quipped sarcastically as they reached the village.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?" Molly added and Latimer threw her back an annoyed glance.

"With sugar on top?" Orous also added with a slight smile, glancing back to show that they - except Maurice - were indeed still keeping up with them.

"Fine," Latimer grumbled in agreement.

Scorpius was distracted by looking around Hogsmeade though, still trying to memorize the new layout but also looking at the people. Either a lot more Hogsmeade residents had been bitten by werewolves since the last time they were there, or the bracelets were really catching on because lots of people were wearing them. And then he noticed one woman in particular wearing one, a pretty dainty woman which made her pregnancy all the more obvious. That wasn't what drew Scorpius though, it was the fact that he recognized her from the picture that Leebin had showed him, it was Leebin's wife.

"Get inside, honey," Mrs Leebin said to the little girl accompanying her, opening a front door and gesturing for her to enter.

Scorpius again recognized the child from Leebin's photograph of his family. Except she - like plenty of Hogsmeade residents and students who'd been there for the attack - had scars on her right cheek from the claws of a werewolf. Leebin's daughter smiled happily, cuddling a stuffed fish toy that looked new as she skipped inside the house. Mrs Leebin followed her in and closed the door behind her.

"Did you see that?" Scorpius asked of the others, "Leebin's wife and daughter, I recognize them from the picture he showed me. I didn't know they lived in Hogsmeade and his daughter has scars from a werewolf on her cheek, think they were there for the attack? Did you see them?"

"If you want us to recognize someone then you should point them out to us when they're actually in sight," Latimer complained, "And no idea, I didn't ask for people's names."

"We didn't in the caves either," Abby added and Albus nodded in agreement.

"And here's your stop, Scor," Molly pointed out as they reached the Three Broomsticks, giving a kiss goodbye that made Albus sigh.

"Okay, Lat, maybe I'm a little jealous that everyone has a girlfriend except me," Albus admitted.

"That's a good thing," Maurice protested and Scorpius just held up a hand in goodbye lest he hear Maurice's rant.

"Me think you doth protest too much," Latimer was saying as he headed into the bustling crowd, Molly had been right about it being busy.

"Can't believe that upstart Ashain girl," James' awful voice grated on his ears as he passed, "Fucking brats, the both of them, out of control and complete freaks to boot. No place for them in a distinguished school like Hogwarts, stupid handsome Ashain should keep then on a tighter leash."

Scorpius clenched his fist in anger with James' insulting Professor Ashain's kids but forced himself to say nothing, not wanting to engage the bully while he was supposed to be seeing his parents. He saw them, sitting at a table nestled in the corner, waving happily. His mother was heavily pregnant now and looked heavily pregnant now, he chased away his worries thanks to Leebin's method and managed a smile as he approached. His mother stood up to hug him while his father settled for patting him on the back. They talked the usual small talk for a while, his parents asking about his classes and he asked about how they were, even asking about how the pregnancy was going without getting anxious. Everything was going well apparently. Although he did think of Lyra again, his parents hadn't mentioned her. He wondered if they ever thought of her too, especially with this other sister coming along. They had to, right? Lyra was their daughter after all.

"What we actually wanted to talk to you about that was your attendance of that wedding," his father said seriously, "The baby's due right around then so it's somewhat awkward to be dropping you off and picking you up, if you could just stay a few days with someone then it'd be a lot easier. Or even better, if you just didn't go and stayed home."

"No, I want to go," Scorpius insisted, it was half-true as he was looking forward to some extra time with his friends and Molly over break, "I can stay with someone for a few days, the wedding's right at the start of the holidays anyway. I'll talk to some people and get back to you, it'll be fine."

"As long as you're sure."

"I am."

"Alright," his father nodded, looking slightly worried but resolved, "So how's... how's things with Molly?"

They chatted for a while, longer than Scorpius had really wanted to but probably shorter than his parents had wanted. Finally though, they went their separate ways and he was given a last cuddle by his mother before he was free to go. He sighed with relief to be out of the crowded pub, he much preferred the quiet calm of the Hog's Head.

"About time," Varanian's voice growled and Scorpius jumped as he saw a man he didn't recognize stepping out of an alleyway, flashing his hand which he'd allowed his scars to show on plus his communicating ring so Scorpius would know him, "It's me."

"I recognized your voice," Scorpius admitted and Varanian nodded as his appearance shifted, changing to that of a teenager Scorpius' age and dropping his height to match his own, "Any particular reason you want to be fourteen again?"

"Looks less weird that we head off together, come on. We can use those caves for privacy and shelter to talk," Varanian explained as they headed off.

"Okay," Scorpius agreed, shoving his hands into his pockets for warmth at the still falling show with his parents still on his mind and a question popped out before he could think it through, "Do you ever think about your dead kids?"

"Yes," Varanian confirmed, looking confused by the question but the pain that flashed in his eyes so vividly was what made Scorpius regret asking. His face flushed in embarrassment at not thinking it through while Varanian added quieter, "All the time."

"Sorry," Scorpius apologized sincerely, to which Varanian gracefully awkwardly shrugged it off before they left Hogsmeade behind.

If actually possibly, Roman's life got even worse. As much as he hated her and as much as he hated the demonic thing growing in her womb, there was some universal rule that it was wrong to hurt a pregnant woman. Roman couldn't bring himself to break it, meaning he couldn't even defend herself from her tortures now which seemed even more common as she was even easier to set off. Roman could only hope she'd be the first to die when the demonic mutant killed them all, her and those stuck-up Healers. His happiest memories of the pregnancy was when she gave him a severe burn from his side all the way to near his neck, he drifted blissfully in and out of consciousness for a few days. Alzay insisted on wanting things to be 'nice' for the baby, the little crib and toys became the only thing not a wreck. He kept not cleaning - unless she insisted. With torture - and still struggled to sleep - now frequently having dreams of a nightmarish creature being born instead of a baby and tearing everyone apart - which he'd think it was good practice for a baby if he wasn't so sure a demonic mutant would be born instead.

The days dragged on in grueling misery, Roman was almost looking forward to when the mutant-demon-king would kill them all just so he couldn't have to keep living with Alzay. Almost. Until July when he came home, made dinner and then went to shower as usual but was rudely interrupted by Alzay screaming she was in labor. Roman thought she could've waited until he'd had his shower, births took time. He took her to St Mungo's at her request anyway and the Healers got her all set up, she'd be busy for a while so it was the perfect time to go get some sleep. And not be murdered by the demon-baby. How he hoped it hurt her. And Alzay wasn't exactly in a position to stop him for once.

"Well, see you," Roman offered, sounding more cheerful than he had in months as he went to leave.

"Roman!" Alzay screeched.

"Don't you want to see your child being born?" one of the Healers wondered.

"No," Roman answered truthfully, it was hardly 'his' child. It was all Alzay. However the murderous look on the Healer's face really scared, his heart started to lunge fearfully at the thought of being attacked by the Healer, "I mean okay."

Roman actually found not caring in the slightest about Alzay's wellbeing made the labor much easier on his nerves, although the anxiety returned as he genuinely had worked himself up into expecting a demonic red-eyed monster to be born and kill them all. He kept telling himself that never happened, it would just be a baby. An evil baby. Although, Alzay did seem to have gained more weight than any of the Weasleys which could be from a bigger baby. A big, evil murderous monster baby with red-eyes and blades for arms who'd come out and kill them all. And have a tail. He yawned while his heart beat only increased at the same time, he really needed to sleep.

"Roman, why don't you try saying something encouraging to your girlfriend?" one of the Healers said abruptly.

"Huh?" Roman wondered, he was sitting comfortably just out of Alzay's reach and hadn't really being paying attention except to the clock, it was the early hours of July twelfth now. He was hardly going to be nice to her now, if she didn't want to be pregnant then she shouldn't have forced him against his will. He might pay for it later but there might also not be a later if they were murdered by the mutant-thing, "Oh right. Alzay, you suck at this, you're literally the worst at labor in the entire world."

"I want my wand!" Alzay yelled, throwing him a glare.

"Oh no, that's not allowed. It's not wise to do magic at a time like this," the Healer-midwife person pointed out which only sought to make Alzay more enraged, Roman smiled. The Healer probably thought he was mad though.

"Then I want his hand!"

"Roman, why don't you take her hand?"

"No!" Roman protested, "I don't want to die."

"Why would you die?" the Healer wondered incredulously before Alzay gave a particularly loud scream, "Roman! The baby is coming."

"Fine," Roman grumbled irritably and stood to go stand over by her to take her hand, he hadn't done that since before she stopped pretending to be nice. He regretted it immediately as she squeezed his hand with enough force to cause a crack, he screamed and squeezed his eyes shut against the new pain superseding the gashes on his chest, "MY HAND! YOU BROKE MY HAND!"

"Don't be rid-," the Healer started to say but she was drowned out by Alzay's scream and then there was a baby crying.

Roman shot his eyes open, his heart racing as he looked towards the Healer. She was now holding a small wet colorless sack of skin with wisps of pure white hair sticking up from its head, its limbs were waving uncoordinatedly as it cried. Most terrifying though was the thing's eyes, blazing crimson. He... He'd been right about it being some kind of demonic mutant freak? He screamed again, his heart exploding into panic but thankfully dragged him into darkness before he could worry about, smashing his head painfully against the bedside table as the black engulfed him.

Part 2: Light In The Dark

Roman was surprised to wake up, having kind of just assumed the demon-child would kill them all. He was alive though, not on the floor and his head didn't even hurt nor did his hand. Although the wounds on his chest still did but he was fully clothed so the Healers wouldn't have noticed or been able to do anything anyway. He seemed to have been taken to a bed in a private room off the ward, a Healer was checking on him and did some spells to make sure his head had healed alright. He'd rather she didn't, he didn't feel comfortable being alone with a woman in case she start torturing him too.

"What happened with the demon?" Roman asked curiously when she was done which earned him a scowl and glare, "The thing that was born with red eyes. I didn't just dream that, did I?"

"You mean your son?" the Healer wondered to Roman's surprise.

"That thing has a gender?"

"Yes, it's a baby!" the Healer exclaimed incredulously and Roman cowered back slightly in fear at her tone, "He's an albino, he just doesn't have any pigment in his skin, hair and eyes so he looks a bit different as he lacks color. We dealt with the sight problems caused so he's a perfectly normal and otherwise healthy baby boy except for his appearance."

"Oh."

"The other one is not albino though."

"The other one?"

"It was twins, you fainted and hit your head, it's better to leave someone with a head injury like that to come to in their own time so we left you to rest. You missed the birth of your second son later that evening, it's the day after now."

"Tw-Twins?" Roman repeated in horror, his heart attempted to burst out of his chest in panic but unfortunately failed. The Healer's scowl only deepened as she nodded while he put a hand to his head, trying to shove aside thoughts of an army of red eyed monsters killing everything.

"Would you like to see them now?" the Healer asked and Roman frowned, he'd definitely rather not like that but he didn't see himself as having much of a choice.

She led him through the white halls to a different ward, there was a wheeled crib that had been brought in beside Alzay that held her demonic freak while an exhausted looking Alzay held another child. And it... it looked perfectly normal. Normal skin tone, tufts of brown hair and it was closing its non-red eyes. Roman gazed at it in amazement, genuinely shocked a normal baby could be conceived with Dark Magic. Against his will. With two people who hated each other.

"I named him Sathan," Alzay informed him, throwing him a look as if daring him to disagree, "Sathan Loren."

"Okay," Roman just nodded, he hadn't actually thought about the child not being demonic and killing anyway let alone having a name. He supposed Maurice and Magnus Rivers as name choices were out of the question, he couldn't win against Alzay.

"You can name the other one if you want. But it has to end in 'athan'. Its Loren family tradition, my Dad is called Rathan and his Dad was called Tathan and his Dad was called Qathan and so forth."

"So basically I get to pick a letter?" Roman wondered unhappily and her oceanic eyes blazed menacingly, "One letter's good."

Roman thought about it, deciding he wanted his one letter to go to something significant. Luna was the first thing that sprang to mind. Luna. He wished she was the mother of his children, conceived in love and their births celebrate by the happy couple, untainted by Dark Magic and evil and pain. He knew that wasn't possible, not now, not ever, it never had been. Just like Quidditch, it was just a dream. Nothing good ever happened in reality, there was no light in the world. Luna. Light. Love. They all began with 'L' and maybe having a name from goodness might make it less evil.

"Lathan," Roman decided.

"Lathan and Sathan Loren it is," Alzay confirmed.

Scorpius left with Varanian, following blindly since he'd never actually been to the caves during the attack. He was actually surprised by how expansive the area was around Hogsmeade, it sloped downwards to trees that either led to or were part of the Forbidden Forest on one side or was more grassland - at least Scorpius thought it was if it not covered by a layer of snow - that stretched out to the other side. The caves could be reached through either side but Varanian picked the tree route due to it being more covered, if you continued straight then you came to the trail that led up and into the caves. Varanian cast a quick spell to make sure they were alone before reverting back to his usual tawny haired appearance.

"So tell me what's going on with Ashain."

"So tell me why you've stopped trusting Calderon."

Scorpius spoke at the same time that Varanian did and knew that Varanian would win on getting who to go first, they didn't have time to waste debating it anyway so Scorpius launched into an explanation. Talking about Professor Ashain's possession, how Latimer caught on that it was Ashylos and then all the subsequent information that Ashylos had provided with his memories on Herpo's death. Varanian was as good a listener as always, holding his questions to the end which Scorpius patiently answered.

"If Ashylos is telling the truth then it's good to have him on our side," Varanian admitted when he was done, "And imagine if you can get him to teach us some of those spells, that'd be great for fighting the Shadow Master. Destroying the Scepter is perfect and Ashylos deserves to have his soul reunited if he is being honest, I think if he wasn't then he wouldn't have agreed to your deal."

"Yeah that's... that's just what I thought," Scorpius nodded and realized at the same time.

"You need to ask him on a time scale here, the Soul Eaters have been quieter or at least have just been attacking muggles as well as still foreign prisons. The Ministry are having a harder time keeping it from the muggles now but no devastatingly major events, PAW are taking over the headlines with their werewolf killings even but the Shadow Master isn't going to stay quiet forever."

"Okay."

"And tell me what you find out over the holidays. What are your plans for the holidays?" Varanian asked before hesitating, "If you're planning on running away again then you can stay with me."

"Really?" Scorpius wondered in surprise, scowling at Varanian's sudden change of heart, "You wouldn't let me stay before."

"That was when I thought that you'd go back home and work things out with your family not run off some random place," Varanian pointed out and continued quieter, "Family's important, Scorpius, even if your father was a Death Eater. If something's broken, you can work on fixing it but if something's gone then it's gone and there's nothing you can do. But I guess it doesn't matter, if you're going to run then I'd rather you be somewhere safe. Or as safe as things really are these days."

"Well thanks... And erm... You should know, I didn't just tell my girlfriend Molly some things like I did the others. I told her pretty much everything. Including about our alliance," Scorpius admitted, realizing that he probably should mention it. A flash of irritation crossed Varanian's tired face for a moment before his expression softened, "Are you mad?"

"Do you trust her?"

"Yes. If I didn't then I wouldn't have told her. Are you mad at me?"

"A bit but I'd have done the same and I trust you. If you trust her then I trust your judgment."

"Really?" Scorpius wondered in amazement and Varanian nodded, he couldn't help but smile inside. Varanian trusted him, treated him like he was capable of thinking for himself and making decisions, could see that he wasn't a pathetic weak little kid anymore. Why couldn't his parents trust his judgment too? "Thank you."

"I told someone too," Varanian told him, surprising Scorpius, "Wyatt. He's on the run from the Shadows too, he witnessed them killing someone and they want him dead too. He's an animagus, it's how he's been avoiding them. He found me and is helping now, staying there too. He's the one who found out that Potter split the Scepter, only one half is in Hogwarts which links in with things Ashylos said."

"Yeah. So what's with not trusting Calderon?" Scorpius asked, recalling the question he'd been burning to have answered and Varanian look solemn.

"Because I... I remembered something in my nightmares. Do you remember how I said that the feeling of Specter teleporting seemed familiar somehow?"

"Vaguely."

"I remembered how," Varanian admitted reluctantly, "Marius. He used Specters to transport us the first time I met him."

"That doesn't mean anything," Scorpius protested immediately in defense of Calderon, "That was when... bad stuff was happening, you're just not remembering right. Someone else must've had them transport you both."

"That's what I thought at first but I took a pensieve, I forced myself to relieve one of my most painful memories to get a fairer perspective... It was Marius, he used Specters, he controlled Specters."

"No!" Scorpius snapped fiercely.

"Scorpius-"

"NO!" Scorpius repeated more forcefully, shaking his head violently and backing away from Varanian in anger that he'd ever accuse his cousin, "You're wrong! Calderon's good! He didn't do it!"

"It's true."

"Prove it!"

"Prove it?" Varanian wondered in confusion.

"I want to see the memory, I'll show you that you're mistaken. This is Calderon we're talking about."

"I wanted to be wrong too. But I'm not."

"Then show me!" Scorpius demanded, "Show me the memory! Take me there and show me the damn memory right now because it's the only way I'll believe my cousin is capable of it."

"It's not a good memory," Varanian offered stupidly.

"I don't care, I want to see if it is real."

"Why would I lie?"

"Why would Calderon control Specters?"

"Fine," Varanian agreed and took a deep breath, holding out his hand, "Come on then."

Scorpius grabbed it with both hands, forgetting that touch was painful to Varanian in the moment of desperation but the accusation against Calderon to be disproved. It had snowed there too but Scorpius hardly noticed as he stalked through it with determination to prove Calderon's innocence driving his every step. Varanian took him down to the basement area where Roman was, looking at the board but Scorpius didn't pay him any mind as he noticed the pensieve in the corner.

"I thought you were just going to meet him?" Roman wondered in confusion before smiling, "Not that I'm complaining. Hi Scorpius, I actually wanted to talk to you."

"You're always complaining," Varanian pointed out and Roman lost his smile to scowl irritably.

"Well it's not like you listen to me anyway."

"Scorpius wait, are you sure-" Varanian started to say as Scorpius leaned into the pensieve but it was too late, Scorpius was sucked into the whirlpool of its magic before he could think twice.

Roman stood back and gazed at it, Lathan did look more like a baby now but its skin remained so pale that it seemed colorless with veins more easily visible. Its hair was whiter than snow and its eyes still that disturbing crimson, it was just lying there all alone and wriggling its limbs in an uncoordinated manner while in comparison, the normal-looking Sathan was sleeping. He was in the baby ward, studying his children if only as an excuse to get away from Alzay. He turned away when he was distracted by parents coming to get one of the babies, a different Healer warning to bring him back if the fever showed any signs of returning but thought he'd be okay. Roman watched the couple, happy at their son's returning health and doting on the little infant. He turned back to his own sadly, that was what families should be like not... not like his. He buried his face in his hands miserably, not wanting to watch others enjoy happiness lost on him.

He looked back up at the sound. It was just the boy, a scruffy red-haired teenager with crooked oval glasses that were held together with spellotape and had a crack on the right lens. He was dressed in St Mungo's uniform indicating he worked there although not a Healer, he was far too young for that. He took away the bedding of the baby who'd left to replace it with fresh sheets, humming to himself absent-mindedly as he did so. He then left with the old sheets and returned with parchment, studying the device in the remaining baby's crib and scribbling stuff down, chatting amicably to the baby about how she was improving and would be able to go home soon. He then moved over to the other and did the same.

"A newbie, eh? Well can I just be the first to welcome you to Earth, Lathan Loren," the boy offered with a kind smile and gently reached out to the... baby, it grasped the teen's finger and he moved it gently up and down as if shaking hands, it gurgled which the boy decided to interpret as sound and continue speaking as if it were listening, "I know, it's not very interesting in here but I promise you that there is actually a nice big world of fun things to discover outside of this hospital. And can I just say, you have a nice tight grip. It's a good thing because they say a firm handshake is-"

"What are you doing?" Roman demanded of the boy as he crossed the distance he'd been keeping between himself and the child, the boy jumped in surprise.

"Just talking to Lathan Loren, the Healers say it's good for the babies' health to talk to them because they get lonely and need love. Plus it brightens up taking down notes and babies are great listeners."

"I mean, what are you doing talking to that one? Do you not see anything wrong with it? Look at it," Roman complained and gestured, the teen did so and looked slightly confused, "Do you not see anything odd about it?"

"Err... No, not really. A bit pale? Nothing really bad."

"Are its red eyes not a major hint!?"

"Oh, they are red. I thought it was just me, I'm colorblind you see."

"How wonderful," Roman snapped sarcastically.

"Is he yours?" the boy asked and Roman eyed him darkly before giving his reluctant answer.

"Yes."

"Congratulations," the boy smiled but it faded when Roman didn't return it, the boy shifted nervously, "I'm guessing you're not happy with his albinism, is it? But I mean, do colors really matter that much? He's still a baby and inside he's just the same as normal babies, would you care what he looked like if his eyes were brown or blue or gray? If you couldn't see at all then you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between him and a non-albino."

"Would you just scram?" Roman snapped and the boy obediently scampered away, "Idiot."

Scorpius found himself in the shadow of a burning home in the dark of night, flames crackling and violently reaching out into the sky. He noticed shapes of people slumped around further away, he tried to move closer but it must've been outside the bounds of the memory because he couldn't even get close enough to make out who they were beyond knowing they had black robes. Instead he focused back the burning house where there was a boy moving awkwardly away from it, he only looked around Scorpius' age and had a long straggly mess of hair that melded into the night. Scorpius barely recognized him until he noticed the sleeve rolled up, revealing a crudely carved Dark Mark scar like the one that Calderon had burned off. It was Calderon, he was looking at a teenage Calderon.

And Calderon was making his way with an old black bundle of... Scorpius nearly gagged when he realized it was a person, it was Varanian. The burns were severe and he was reminded of Michael's arm except on a much grander scale, neck, shoulders, arms, chest, back, legs, feet, even his... genital region was severely burned. He was just an entirely charred lump with blackened limbs feebly moving to try aid Calderon's escape, bits of his flesh were actually peeling off and revealing yellowish segments. Varanian didn't even look human, his body like some kind of disgusting, decaying half-dead creature. Scorpius felt both sickened and saddened that people could do that to another person, even if they hated them, he really hoped his father and grandfather had never taken part anything so gruesome. It felt even worse knowing it was someone he cared about, he didn't like seeing Varanian in pain. He also didn't blame him for his fear of fire.

Varanian was conscious too, his head of scruffy tawny hair was hung over limply but he was whimpering in pain with every step. He moaned even louder when Calderon laid him down on the grass and knelt beside him, tears leaking from his eyes as he seemed to realize the extent of Varanian's injuries for the first time. Varanian's breathing was jerky and uneven, pain was plastered to his face - which also had burns on the very bottom of his chin and edges of his cheeks where he had scars in the present - and his eyes screwed fiercely against it with tear tracks running down his cheeks. Calderon held his hands over him, seemingly trying to heal Varanian but it didn't work and he was forced to move his hands away with a guilty expression. A bolt of lightning randomly shot down beside him and he groaned in frustration, squeezing shut his eyes against more tears. Varanian's own eyes flicked open, an piercing icy blue despite the agony swimming in them, they focused on the boy who'd just saved him.

"Pl-Please... H-Hospital..." Varanian croaked so weakly that it was barely audibly and Calderon's eyes snapped back open, "H-Hospital..."

"Can you apparate there?" Calderon asked as he bit his lip.

"C-Can't," Varanian whimpered shakily as his eyes closed again against the pain, tears still bubbling from them, "I... c-can't... t-too... m-much... I... c-can't... h-hurts..."

"It'll be okay," Calderon told him comfortingly before his eyes suddenly flashed with fear, "No, I don't want to."

Scorpius had no idea what he was talking about as no one had spoken, Calderon shivered though and wrapped his arms tightly around himself, rocking slightly as the shadows from the flames danced in his eyes. And then Scorpius saw it, perfectly clearly as the light from the fire made it blazingly obvious. Several shadowy figures with pitch black holes where eyes should be sped away from his cousin's shadow.

Scorpius stepped back in horror and looked around for someone to be controlling them, his heart suddenly beating inside his head with fear. Anyone but there wasn't. No one he could see anyway and the lumps of bodies remained still and out of reach. Calderon gave an abrupt hint of a nod and placed his hand on Varanian's forehead, everything descended into a swirling darkness and they reappeared in the shadows of the bright, white-walled St Mungo's.

"Help! I need help over here!" Calderon called out desperately and immediately, people rushing to help.

The memory ended there, Scorpius felt himself leaving it. He sank to his knees in disbelief, Calderon certainly had seemed to be controlling the Specters. Calderon hadn't just known about them first, he'd controlled them first? Why? How? What did this mean? Was Calderon a Soul Eater? Or worse... Was Calderon the Shadow Master?

"No!" Scorpius yelled in panic to no one in particular, "No! He's not evil, he's not!"

Part 3: Unhappiness

"I never said he was evil, just that he was controlling Specters," Varanian pointed out carefully while Scorpius tried to calm himself but failed, Roman just looked bored.

"Maybe he was being forced to control them, did you ever think about that?!" Scorpius demanded accusingly, not even sure why he was snapping when he half-wanted to hug Varanian after seeing him in so much pain but he was panicking.

"Forced by the people who know nothing of Specters?" Roman wondered sardonically.

"Shut up, Roman," Varanian complained immediately before turning back to Scorpius, "Honestly, I was shocked and confused as you are. I don't know if Marius is evil or just completely insane or what but I do know that I don't trust him right now."

"Have you thought of maybe asking him about it?" Scorpius snapped irritably, still despising the thought of Calderon being evil.

"Sure, a wanted fugitive should be able to waltz into a highly protected magical school easily and with no problem," Roman quipped.

"Shut up, Roman.

"When I get the chance, I'll ask him," Varanian offered, "But in the meantime, just don't tell him anything. You can ask him yourself if you want but I'd told off until after the break, when you've calmed down."

"I am calm."

"You sound calm," Roman commented sarcastically.

"Roman, shut up," Varanian and Scorpius shot out in unison which only made Roman scowl.

"So anyway, I was wondering how Orous and Maurice were doing? And if you know anything that Orous would like for Christmas? I figure now Alzay's not in his life anymore and our lives are in perpetual jeopardy that I can try make up for lost time and make amends. With gifts. If I leave here then Shadows are probably going to still murder me."

"It's too late to make amends," Scorpius brushed it off dismissively.

"Far too late," Varanian agreed.

"You're both assholes, you sound just the same," Roman snapped and stalked up the stairs angrily, Scorpius was too busy reeling from the revelation on Calderon to care.

"I think I just want to go back now," Scorpius sighed and Varanian nodded, leading back up and outside.

"So what are you doing for the break?" Varanian asked as they made it outside, it was raining fiercely now.

"I kind of made up with my parents but I can probably stay with you for a few days, there's this wedding and my parents are okay with me staying with someone else because the baby's due around then. I can tell my family I'm staying with a friend and tell my friends I'm staying with my family then stay with you, you'll probably have to pick me up from the platform though."

"I can do that. Have you learned Stunning yet?"

"Yep."

"Good, we can work on that. With your training, we can work on that more and firing spells in faster succession. Technique is just as important as the spells you can use."

"Okay," Scorpius nodded as they ringed back to the caves around Hogsmeade, it was taking his mind off Calderon somewhat and he did want to improve on his spellwork. Florian and the werewolf army attacking had really made him realize how important it was, he'd been a fool to want a normal life.

"And next time, see if you can get Ashain's daughter to get the bird to wait for me to reply then I'll be able to reply easier."

"Will do," Scorpius agreed and Varanian nodded.

"See you," Varanian offered before he ringed away.

Scorpius was left to trek back to Hogsmeade alone, where it wasn't raining but there was still the blanket of snow to walk through. He couldn't stop thinking about what he'd seen, the same Calderon who'd made tracks of light to save a school's worth of children, the same Calderon who always tried to help people, the same Calderon who'd always helped him, the same Calderon who banished the Shadows had been - at least at one point - controlling them. He didn't feel like Christmas shopping anymore, he didn't even feel like hanging out with his friends or his girlfriend. How could Calderon have controlled Specters? Maybe it had been his will, maybe it had been unintentional, he couldn't believe Calderon was bad. But why hadn't Calderon just told him? Why keep it a secret if there was a logical explanation?

Scorpius didn't know. And he didn't like not knowing. He wondered aimlessly in his thoughts, getting lost easily with the new layout of the expanded and rebuilt Hogsmeade. He had to come out of the town to find his way back to what he knew, inadvertently finding the way to the Shrieking Shack that seemed even further from the town now. What caught his attention though was the distant figure starting at it, he only knew one boy with a distinctive tangled mess of odd light brown-blond hair flecked with bits of red. He headed towards the lone Michael, his friend wore a melancholy expression on a face the same color as the falling snow from being out in the cold so long, transfixed by the building. The Shack had been severely damaged from the werewolf activity with Greyback back in June, they hadn't repaired it exactly but they'd just boarded the wreck back up with even more boards which made it look familiar yet different. Scorpius didn't like it, too many bad memories of Michael being turned.

"Michael?" Scorpius said, Michael flicked his mismatched eyes toward him before reverting back to the Shack, "What happened to Mirra?"

"She went to do some shopping with her friends and I said I'd do the same," Michael answered dismissively without looking at him, "I just wanted to be alone though."

"To freeze to death?"

"Can't die twice, can I?" Michael whispered and wiped his eyes before tears could fall. Not for the first time, Scorpius wished he was even remotely good at knowing what to say to comfort people. And that he and Michael were getting on again.

"Why did you come here if it upsets you?"

"I don't even know. Because I'm a stupid fucking idiot, I guess."

"You're not a-"

"Doesn't matter," Michael interrupted and turned away irritably, "I'm heading back now."

"Would you just stop that?" Scorpius snapped before he could stop himself, Michael looked back to him.

"Stop what?"

"Stop pushing me away, stop withdrawing, stop keeping things to yourself that are clearly bothering you. You have friends who care about you and are worried about you, this isn't helping. If things are bothering you then just talk to me, maybe I can help because I want to help and at the very last, talking about stuff helps and all that. I don't know why you're doing this but it sucks," Scorpius blurted out awkwardly, knowing he'd said the wrong thing when Michael's eyes flashed with anger.

"I don't want your help, Scorpius."

"You may not want it but you clearly need it," Scorpius called out but Michael just walked away.

Scorpius hung his head and threw a kick at the fence, frustrated and upset at his inability to help his friend and Michael's persistent stubbornness. And Calderon and his dark history. Damn everything. He stalked back to the town in anger, thankful it was getting dark as he wasn't in the best frame of mind to be picking out Christmas gifts. He checked the Hog's Head first and found his friends - or at least Molly, Abby, Albus and Latimer - there, laden with bags and sipping Butterbeer, looking mostly happy. He almost just left if not for Orous noticing him and calling him over, why did Orous have to be so observant? Scorpius sullenly drank his Butterbeer and didn't say much, giving short answers even when addressed.

"Can we go now?" Latimer sighed tiredly after they finished that round of drinks, it wasn't the first time

"Why the desperation to get back to the droll, dreary castle life?" Albus complained.

"Actually we probably should be getting back, it's getting dark," Scorpius chimed in, wanting to go back as well and it was true anyway.

"I suppose we should, it'll be even colder in the dark," Abby pointed out, they paid - time wasting as Latimer had to count out Knuts to afford his, refusing to allow others to make the difference - and Molly wished the barkeep a happy Christmas before they were finally off.

"You really shouldn't feel bad about letting other people pay," Albus commented to Latimer as they trudged off, "My family really has plenty to spare, Dad just likes to live where we do since it was gifted to him by his godfather and not make us too spoiled by throwing money everywhere but we still have it."

"I have money too," Scorpius added, he did get a hefty allowance - he'd even been given what he'd missed from their estrangement - and his parents would give him more if he asked.

"Its fine," Latimer brushed it off, "I could do it. Besides, I only have to hold on until I turn seventeen then kaching, I'm in the money. I'll get my inheritance from my Mother's side, may not be a kazillionaire like the Potters or the Malfoys but it's something substantial."

"There are more important things in life than money," Abby pointed out and they nodded in agreement.

Conversation quietened at this point as it was snowing more heavily now and the wind was battering, Scorpius had his gloved hands jammed into his pockets but he was still cold. His friends carrying bags weren't so lucky, he offered to carry Molly's for her but she refused on the grounds that he might accidentally see what his got. Scorpius didn't see how this possible without peeking - which he wouldn't do, even if he'd actually be able to see through the snow - but relented regardless, trailing back. He noticed that Latimer was at the back, lagging behind the others and with an even more pronounced limp.

"You okay?" Scorpius asked as he slowed his pace to match Latimer, the elder boy nodded, "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," Latimer insisted and sighed, gesturing vaguely to his feet with a blush of embarrassment, "It's just my erm... you know, stump where I used to have a foot. Hurts if I walk a lot and the cold makes the prosthetic stick, that's why I wanted to go back."

"Why didn't you say that?"

"Don't want to make a big deal out of it or sound like a wimp," Latimer muttered glumly before seeming to think of something, "By the way, were you planning on staying with us again over the holidays? Or did you work things out with your folks or what?"

"Oh, I worked something out," Scorpius brushed it off, Latimer nodded in understanding, "Why?"

"Dad wanted to now."

"What are you doing for the holidays?"

"Just going to stay at Hogwarts as usual," Latimer shrugged, "Plus I figure someone should stay and keep an eye on Ashylos."

"I erm... Yeah," Scorpius offered awkwardly, feeling kind of bad for Latimer being alone for Christmas but it wasn't his choice and he knew Latimer didn't have the best relationship with his father either.

They made it back to Hogwarts, Scorpius had the luxury of being to warm up by the fire while the others took bags up to their dormitories to put away. Molly came back down and joined him, apparently recognizing he didn't feel like talking and they just cuddled up together in front of the comforting flames. It did actually make him feel better in the end, it was hard to keep thinking about Calderon with Molly right there with him, her hand nestled on his shoulder. He didn't actually realize she'd fallen asleep until the others pointed out it was time for dinner, Scorpius felt kind of guilty waking her as she wouldn't have slept if she didn't need to but she didn't mind, they walked to the hall hand-in-hand.

"Okay, maybe I am slightly jealous," Albus admitted to Latimer at dinner, "I'm like the only person who's never had a girlfriend like everyone in my family. Freddie has a girlfriend, Louis has had lots of girlfriends, James has had a girlfriend and he's pretty clueless about them and then even my little cousin now has a girlfriend before I've ever had one. How do I do it?"

"Well, not 'falling in love' with adult women probably would help," Abby commented acridly, "Especially not married adult women. Try girls your own age."

"The heart wants what the heart wants," Albus protested before they were interrupted by an irate six-year-old joining them, her scowl was deep and frustration written into every line on her young face, "Well hello Cassia, always a pleasure, do interrupt our conversations and ruin our dinner anytime it takes your fancy."

"Bite me, Albus," Cassia snapped, "I knowed what sarcmanasm is."

"Sarcmanasm is the thing these days," Corin mocked which earned him a dark look, made even darker as Scorpius recalled her with the snowmen.

"Shut up, Corin, do you want her to blow out the windows or have birds poop on us or something?" Albus complained and Cassia turned on him angrily.

"I didn'ter tell the birds to do that!" Cassia insisted desperately and furiously, "I didn't! But Daddy doesn'ter believe me and we didn't get to go to Hogsmeade acause of it but I is innocent. I even askeded them and they saided that someone else told them to do it but they won't say who acause he told them not to and Daddy doesn't believe me!"

"You can be honest with us," Albus offered gently, "We know you have issues and it's okay, everyone does."

"I am being honest! I didn't do it this time. I didn't."

"Lying is very naughty," Rose told her in a condescending tone, "Doesn't your Daddy tell you that? Not many people can speak to birdies like you can."

"Doesn't your Daddy tell you that it's not nice to judger other peoples and tell them that their ugly? It's mean and hurtingful," Cassia countered to which Albus chuckled while Rose seemed at a complete loss for words. Something occurred to Scorpius though at the mention of her father, Ashylos was an Avisora and could talk to birds too. Was Cassia telling the truth and Ashylos had gotten the birds to do that? Why?

Bringing the twins home was... interesting, they had to buy a second crib and extra baby things for double the trouble. And it was trouble, Roman knew how to deal with babies from previous experience with baby Molly and to a lesser extent, the other Weasley/Potter children while Alzay knew next to nothing. This annoyed her and she took her frustration out on him with torture, Roman was at least glad that he could fight back again now she wasn't pregnant again and did so even more vigorously. Despite the fact Alzay had maternity leave from her Ministry job while Roman did not, she still wanted him to stay with home with them so she could continue working on her insane desire to release her psycho father from Azkaban. This led to more conflict, pretty much the whole house was ruined except for the babies' cribs.

Roman always lost though. He couldn't beat her, he hated that he was so weak. It was very different to when Molly had been born, there'd been three of them with one baby to even out the workload and it was much more bearable. But now it was him alone with double the workload, trying to juggle two babies was difficult although magic helped somewhat. Sathan was both of their favorites, both because he looked normal and because he cried less while Lathan was frequently set off when they were fighting although Lathan was slightly easier to calm down, Sathan wasn't really consoled by soothing words. He still preferred Sathan, Lathan's demonic eyes and abnormal freakish appearance constantly reminding him of Alzay's evilness. Voldemort's situation had been slightly different but he hadn't been conceived in love either, Voldemort also had an inhuman appearance. He was actually scared that he was actually holding the next lord of darkness in his arms whenever he held Lathan, well, if Alzay didn't beat him to it because she was the worst.

If Roman was having trouble sleeping before, it was even worse now. And missing so much work was actually putting his job at risk, his boss putting pressure on him to show up or work from home which he couldn't do. His boss may trust him to take artifacts home but he couldn't risk precious pieces of history being destroyed in the volatile environment, he couldn't even protect himself let alone valuable artifacts. She didn't care about his job. And then his boss gave him an out, he could get his brother to rent him an apartment off the books so he could have some peace to work. It was much more important than his boss realized, it would mean that Roman could leave her with less fear of being tracked down. His battered heart begged him to leave but... if he left then he'd be alone and even worse, he'd be abandoning his sons just like his brother had abandoned him, leaving poor Sathan alone with her and the freak.

But he couldn't stop thinking about it. What was going to happen if he stayed? He'd lose his job, probably his sanity and life later on from Alzay's tortures. He was only suffering and what... what if she forced him again? He didn't want to go through that again and he certainly didn't want more demonic spawn to exist. He'd be quite happy if Alzay never had another child. Wasn't it worth at least trying to get away? At least if she killed him then it would be over, his torment would end one way or another. And then he looked at Sathan and felt bound by obligation. Roman couldn't decide which he hated himself for more, for not having the courage to leave or for not having the courage to want to stay. Until one of the days when he got into a fight with Alzay, she won and left him with a knife in his hand and probable unemployment. He dealt with it as best he could, resigning himself and went to awkwardly comfort the crying Lathan. What was he doing with his life?

His sleep deprived mind finally caught up with the date and the realization hit him that it was two weeks before his twentieth birthday, making it a decade since his parents' murder. An entire decade since his happy life had been shattered, cast into misery at the mercy of his siblings. His brother abandoned them, his sister was turned against him by Percy and those Weasleys, condemning him to his seven years of Hogwarts hell. But now he was even worse off - he was bleeding right now - and unlike Hogwarts, it wasn't going to end after it had run its course and unlike Hogwarts, it wasn't at the whim of his sister. He wasn't a child anymore, he was a man. He was the responsible for his own life, he had his own choices and he should make them if he didn't want another decade of suffering. He wanted to leave, he should just leave. But then he'd be alone and he'd be leaving the babies... He could just take them but two were difficult to juggle and he didn't want to escape just to have Alzay's demon child making him miserable... No one ever said he had to take both of them, he could just take Sathan and leave the red-eyed freak.

He moved before he could change his mind, putting Lathan down and scrambling for a bag, salvaging as much of his things as he could. Smokey was out, the cat was thankfully smart enough to flee when a fight was going on because Roman didn't think he could bear it if something happened to his beloved cat. He'd comb the neighborhood for him after he'd secured the apartment from his boss, he'd take Sathan now though. If he didn't leave now then he wasn't sure he'd have the courage to try again. He retrieved the baby Sathan - his son, he'd have to start thinking of him as such - but found himself hesitating in the doorway as he glanced back to Lathan, feeling guilt send his heart into a frenzy. He tried to shove it away, tell himself that he should have no obligation to an abnormal creature conceived against his will. He looked into Lathan's creepily crimson eyes and turned away, he didn't want to raise something evil and tainted by Dark Magic, it wasn't like Lathan would notice or care. Roman left. Lathan cried for his daddy.

"Michael, I need the map tonight," Scorpius said to his friend after they'd headed back to their dormitory for bed, Reuben and Angelo - the others who shared their dormitory - were currently in the bathroom doing their teeth or showering or whatever, "I want to talk to Ashylos, I think he might've told the birds to frame Cassia for some reason."

"Why would he do that?" Albus wondered and Scorpius would admit that maybe he was feeling paranoid because of the situation with Calderon but still, Cassia had seemed so convinced, "C'mon, Cassia's a pretty weird kid."

"Well if I'm wrong then Ashylos says no and I just look like an idiot."

"Fine, we can all go ask him then," Michael shrugged, it was the first thing he'd really said since Hogsmeade.

"I don't think we should swamp him all at once, I'll ask him about it," Scorpius offered and his friends nodded in agreement after a moment's hesitation.

"It's alright, I'm kinda tired anyway," Albus waved it off while Michael nodded, handing him the map before leaving to go use the bathroom himself. Albus jerked his thumb after him when Michael was gone in between rummaging for the cloak, "Am I the only one that's worried about him lately?"

"Nope," Scorpius admitted an Albus scowled worriedly mid-cloak retrieval.

"Any idea how we can help him?"

"Nope. Do you?"

"I wish."

Scorpius sighed while Albus' frown deepened, both going silent on the matter as Angelo returned and waved at them in a friendly manner. Scorpius hadn't been close to the other boys in his dormitory but they'd been civil until Michael became a werewolf, however Angelo had recently started wearing a werewolf band too as had much more people that he'd expected in Hogsmeade. He took this as a good sign that maybe some of the prejudice was diminishing, maybe as they realized that Michael was still Michael. He simply closed his drapes as usual but didn't get undressed, instead waiting and trying to keep his eyes open as he watched the dots. Seeing Latimer going to use the prefect bathroom again when no one was around before eventually, Ashylos was on the move. He hauled the cloak over himself and headed off, noticing oddly that despite Latimer lifting his spell, 'Ashylos' and 'Atticus Ashain' were now switching visibly on the map.

"Skorpios, you have returned," Ashylos greeted him in a friendly tone and a nod of acknowledgement, Scorpius had to suppress a yawn, "Maybe you should come back when you are more rested."

"I just wanted to ask you something," Scorpius offered, deciding to just get right down to it, "Did you make the birds erm... relieve-"

"Nai. Yes," Ashylos confirmed readily, "I needed a reason to prevent Atticus from going to Hogsmeade, moving too far from the Scepter may break our connection and I did not want to risk it. He told his daughter they would not go if she misbehaved so I told the owls to do as she had told them to do before, Atticus assumed her guilt and they did not go to Hogsmeade."

"Wait, they didn't go before because Antonius was sick...?"

"I put a little something in his water, it is not harmful in the long run. I just needed him to stay."

"You have no problem using your little descendants like that?" Scorpius wondered and Ashylos cocked his head to one sight thoughtfully.

"I do not like to do so but I will if necessary, it was necessary and it causes no harm in the long run. Unless you know a better way?"

"I never actually thought about it before but still, poor Antonius," Scorpius admitted as he recalled the eight-year-old's suffering.

"That is why I used a different method, I did not want to have to make him ill again," Ashylos pointed out, "Broken soul or not, he does not deserve it."

"Why do you call him a broken soul?"

"Because he is, so is the albino child," Ashylos explained, looking suddenly stoic, "One of the things that Herpo managed to do was steal the magic from other witches and wizards, they would always die after, surviving half an hour at most. We called it Psukhepathos which would be... Soul-Sickness in this language, magic is part of the very essence of who you are so to take that away breaks the soul and the person cannot survive without it. It does not do well to mess with essence of one's self. Does that sound familiar to anything you've mentioned about the Shadows?"

"The Specters taking the magic from their soul?" Scorpius realized and Ashylos nodded.

"Yes. I could sense these Specters somewhat, I'd feel cold in their presence and found it easier to spot them than others. I managed to create wards that protect against them."

"The Shadow Master wasn't the first to discover them then?"

"No," Ashylos told him and Scorpius felt himself surprised, he wondered if the Shadow Master knew this. It made him recall the revelation about Calderon and his conversation with Varanian, including the non-Calderon part of his conversation with Varanian.

"Do you know when you'll be strong enough to start going after the parts of the Scepter?"

"Soon, I am feeling stronger all the time and much faster. I think it is like struggling up a hill or mountain, I've already reached the top and only gaining strength faster as I come down. It should be just after you get back or maybe even before, I have never done this before so I cannot be completely sure."

"That's great," Scorpius smiled, feeling as if it was the first good news he'd heard all day.

"It is," Ashylos confirmed and returned the smile, "The Scepter shall finally be destroyed and my soul may finally be free."

Part 4: Before

At first Alzay found pregnancy to not be so bad, she took the potion for morning sickness and despite his protests about the pregnancy, Roman didn't even fight back anymore although he did seem to give up on the housework. It got more annoying though further on as the baby bump got in the way, she just wanted the kid to be born already despite the pain associated. Unlike Roman, she wasn't a coward afraid of pain. She was hoping for a son and intended to name him Sathan with taking the 's' for son or Rathan after her father, although she thought her father might prefer the former. It was more traditional for her family, while girls were just called whatever and no names sprang to mind. She was happy when she finally did go into labor but was horrified to see the pasty red-eyed child born, naturally Roman fainted. Idiot.

She didn't believe his demon drivel for a minute and it was clearly Roman's fault the baby was abnormal, it was what she got for having a child with someone so pathetic. The albino disgusted her. And then the Healers realized that it was twins, Alzay actually welcomed more exhausting hours of pain for the chance that the second child would not be albino, a perfectly normal baby born. She deserved a normal child after that and fate was kind to her late into the night, her non-albino son was born. Sathan. He looked more like a Sathan, she happily held in her arms feeling proud. She thought of naming them Sathan and Rathan but she wasn't sure she wanted that she wanted to be responsible for giving her father's name for a freak, what letter then? She dumped the task on Roman who chose Lathan. It was adequate.

However, she struggled when they got to take the twins home. She didn't know anything about babies and many aspects of caring for them were unpleasant, such as the disgusting diaper changing or how they seemed to throw up a lot or simply drool and she even thought bathing them was gross, she refused to even consider breastfeeding. And then there was the crying. Babies cried. A lot. All of those things bothered her but what bothered her even more was that it bothered her, she wanted to be a good mother but caring for the twins felt like a chore. She didn't want to be like that, she didn't want to become her mother. So much for maternal instinct, she couldn't even feel attached and overwhelmed with love like all the other mothers. She felt guilty and ashamed, she took it on Roman and threw herself back into freeing her father. Maybe her father would have some good advice. Until one day she came home and found Lathan alone, screaming his little head off. No sign of Sathan or Roman or Roman's things.

Roman had left. The pathetic bastard had actually left her and taken her favorite son. She thought it would be pretty easy to find him, she went to his work where she was told Roman didn't work there anymore and even after he obliged her request, checking - and using some spells to check for hidden areas - found nothing. She abused her job again for any kind of address but Roman had found a way to live off the books, the Ministry had nothing. Damn him. Alzay was also forced to deal with Lathan entirely by herself, she had to ask for a longer maternity leave because she couldn't afford a babysitter. Dealing with a colicky baby was exhausting, Lathan just wanted to cry and cry. She resorted to putting Silencing Charms on him at night after she put him down to sleep, she needed to sleep too. She was sure all parents did it, she thought it'd be good for teaching Lathan to sleep through the night as well. She still couldn't find Roman and Sathan though but she couldn't stay home with Lathan forever. An idea occurred to her but she was nervous.

She interviewed babysitters that she couldn't afford, ultimately deciding a filthy mudblood was the best with Lathan and had the least personal life to notice anything. She cast the Imperius Curse on her to make the girl work for free, it actually worked. And continued to work. Alzay was very pleased with herself, she was pretty good with Unforgivable Curses really. She thought - and hoped - her father would be proud. It gave her time to get back to her job and her mission to free her father, the Ministry was still revolutionizing itself backwards as usual. She also needed to find herself a new scapegoat especially with Harry Potter as the newly appointed Head Auror, she dated around for a bit - Legilimancy really helped get to know people faster - before settling on a Tiberius Bulstrode as he was rather weak minded and not as smart as Roman. She played nice with him, she wasn't going to risk treating him like Roman until they were living together which probably wouldn't be so quickly, especially with Lathan at home. Still no sign of Roman and Sathan, it had been six months since he'd left. She wanted her son back.

Alzay had five thousand signatures now however, she thought that was quite decent but the Ministry still didn't consider it enough to bother with bettering the rights of the Azkaban prisoners. It was frustrating. They were however, putting forth a law bettering the rights of mudbloods. Did they know nothing about anything? She didn't want the law to pass, not just because it was morally wrong. If mudbloods were on equal footing with purebloods then Death Eater crimes would be worse, it would be as if they'd hurt and killed actual people. She decided to test out her Imperius skills once more, using Tiberius as a pawn to Imperise the most pro-mudblood members of the Wizengamot into voting against it. It was so easy. Why was breaking the law so easily? It shouldn't be called 'breaking' the law, it was more like just walking it. Was everyone stupid but her? Were they really that weak-willed? Apparently yes.

Until the day before the vote when everything went to hell. Unbeknownst to her - or the public - the Ministry had created a new spell to detect if someone was currently under the influences of the Imperius Curse, the sudden shift in one of the Wizengamot member's beliefs had made them suspicious enough to use it. It was discovered and they were now testing others, Alzay removed the curse from Tiberius to break it from the Wizengamot members but it was too late. The names were flooding in and they were all identifying Tiberius Bulstrode as the one responsible, he in turn could identify her. She forced herself to think rationally through her panic, she just needed to stop him from identifying her. He couldn't do that if he was dead. However she rushed to his place just in time to see the Aurors arresting him, disbelieving his pleas of her having forced him to do it as he wasn't currently under the Imperius Curse. Thank Merlin that the spell could only apparently detect people currently under it not those who had been under it. She hid in the shadows to listen as he was arrested, abruptly finding the shadows were whisking her away.

Scorpius had his counselling session with Leebin quite early again the following day, it was a Sunday and otherwise he could've had a lie in as it was even later after he'd filled in Albus and Michael about what Ashylos had said about Herpo using the Specters. It was an interesting development, Scorpius had thought that it was a new thing since no one had found mention of it in the past but then Ashylos had pointed out people generally didn't realize about them. He suppressed a yawn as he joined Leebin, seeing Leebin's wife and child in Hogsmeade returned to mind.

"Good morning," Leebin greeted him conversationally.

"I saw your wife and daughter in Hogsmeade," Scorpius blurted out, "I didn't know you lived there."

"Well I do," Leebin shrugged it off, "So how did it go with your parents?"

Scorpius decided to let it go for the moment but he was curious about Leebin's daughter having scars that looked like it was from a werewolf, if she'd been present for the attack then maybe Leebin had been too. Instead he talked about how it had gone, about how his mother's pregnancy was still going well and his worrying technique was actually helping him.

"Maybe my sister and your new baby will be friends," Scorpius joked optimistically.

"Maybe," Leebin smiled nervously but it faded almost immediately as if he strongly doubted it.

With a painful jab, he realized that he'd only opened up to Leebin about it originally because of Michael. Michael could help him without even trying while Scorpius couldn't even get him to talk about what was bothering him, would Leebin know how to help?

"I erm... There was actually something I wanted to talk to you about," Scorpius admitted hesitantly but Leebin wasn't stupid, he had sessions with Michael so he should know that something was up with him and Scorpius didn't know what else to do, "Wait, don't you have sessions with Michael?"

"He hasn't shown up for the last too," Leebin pointed out and Scorpius scowled worriedly as he confided in Leebin his concerns for Michael, their fight and the distance between them.

"And he hasn't even tried to make up," Scorpius concluded unhappily, "I don't know how to help him. How do I make him talk to me?"

"You don't," Leebin told him immediately and Scorpius looked at him in confusion, "Scorpius, you can't force someone to talk about their problems and if you try then you can wind up just pushing them further away. You wouldn't like it if someone kept pressuring you to talk when you're not ready."

"Then what do I do?"

"Work on repairing your relationship, why are you waiting for him to try to make up with you?"

"Because he just is usually the one better with that," Scorpius answered awkwardly with a shrug.

"If he's pushing people away and being more withdrawn, what makes you think he's going to turn around and suddenly want to make amends? Sometimes if you want someone to reach out to you, you need to make the first move."

"What do I say to him?"

"What do you want to say to him?" Leebin countered and Scorpius frowned again.

"I want him to talk to me so I can help him. Why won't he just accept help?" Scorpius wondered.

"It could be a number of reasons. Maybe he doesn't feel worthy of help, maybe he feels like there's no hope for him, maybe he just doesn't want to have to face his own problems, who knows? The best you can do is make amends, make sure he doesn't drift too far away and wait for him to feel comfortable enough to talk to you."

"That doesn't seem very helpful," Scorpius complained as his frown deepened.

"Some problems can't be fixed by going at repeatedly, subtle, gentle encouragement and patience works better. The way isn't working. Would you want to talk if someone kept pressuring you? You have to know when to things lie. Maybe the break from the magical world will even be good for him."

"Okay," Scorpius sighed and Leebin looked at him for a minute as if expecting to say more but he didn't.

"Anything else on your mind? Our time is almost up and this is the last time we'll get to speak for a few weeks," Leebin told him and it dawned that it was his last session until after Christmas.

"What's happening after Christmas? With these sessions, I mean."

"Well they'll put a sheet on the notice board in each dormitory, probably tomorrow and those who want to continue with counselling after the holidays can sign up for it. We'll also have a list of people we think could benefit from more counselling."

"Am I on that list?"

"Yes. But if you are ultra super against it then you won't have to," Leebin offered, "But I think you should. And as there are less people this time, you shouldn't be missing any classes either."

"I'll think about it," Scorpius admitted truthfully and Leebin cast him a tired smile.

"I'm glad," Leebin said as he glanced at the clock, revealing their hour was pretty much up, "Have a good holiday, Scorpius."

"You too," Scorpius told him as he stood, Leebin laughed, "What?"

"I don't get any time off, I have a load of Auror assessments to do for Harry."

"Did you ever do an Auror assessment of Varanian when he applied to be an Auror?" Scorpius wondered curiously as it occurred to him suddenly.

"It's called something different for people applying to be an Auror then assessing the mental health of current Aurors but yes, I've met him two or three times."

"Only two or three?"

"I'm not that old, Scorpius, he hasn't applied in recent years due to being on the run and things so I haven't seen him," Leebin explained as he stood as well to lead him to the door.

"What did you think of him?" Scorpius asked, genuinely interested in Leebin's opinion.

"Erm... Well, he's intelligent, naturally talented and quick to excel, brave, loyal, extremely driven to the point he sometimes doesn't notice other things but impatient. He holds himself to a higher standard and is very hard on himself, deplores failure, he likes to be in control, a natural leader but not always the best follower, he'll fight for what he believes in with a passion. Scarred from past trauma though, distrustful, very much a loner and not always great with people, finds it hard to relax. Very stubborn, not one to let things go, he's a fighter," Leebin told him thoughtfully and scratched his chin, "Actually, you two are actually quite similar in personality. I can see why you get along."

"What makes you think we get along?" Scorpius demanded suspiciously.

"Well, all those times he shows up in crisis and you just jump in together. And your loyalty to the belief of his innocence."

"Do you believe he's innocent?"

"Honestly? Probably yes, it just makes more sense to me," Leebin admitted before looking slightly concerned, "But if the Ministry asks, I erm... I didn't say that. Shh, I could get in trouble."

"Okay," Scorpius smiled and went to reach for the door, catching sight of his scarred wrist and recalling his original query, "You know, your daughter has scars on her cheek like from a werewolf."

"Indeed, I do know."

"She was there during the werewolf attack, wasn't she?"

"Yes," Leebin reluctantly confirmed.

"Were you?" Scorpius asked and Leebin looked at him for a moment as if deciding whether to give it away before sighing, pulling down the yellow scarf he always wore to reveal viciously deep scars across his neck, "I'm sorry,"

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Leebin brushed it off as he fixed his scarf before opening the door, his smile returning, "Have a good break, now."

"Took you long enough, you're a whole five minutes late," James' voice spat and Scorpius turned away from the counsellor to see James was waiting, glaring at them darkly, "You know, I'm Harry Potter's son and if you value your job then you shouldn't make me waste my weekend waiting for you to stop dealing with serpents."

"Merry Christmas, Leebin," Scorpius offered, resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he decided to just ignore James as he half-waved to Leebin who returned it as Scorpius started to walk away while James went over to Leebin.

"You don't like him more than me, do you?" James demanded of Leebin insecurely.

"Everyone's equal," Leebin answered neutrally as they headed into the room but Scorpius still caught James' last statement.

"But you do know I'm better than him, right? I'm Harry Potter's son and he's a Malfoy. You know that, right?"

Alzay had the strangest, unsettling feeling as if she'd been thrown off a cliff so fast the breath was forced from her lungs. She felt as if she was naked, with icy tendrils of wind gliding across her skin and chilling her. She couldn't see anything but shadowy darkness, she couldn't hear anything but the whistling wind, she couldn't even breathe. Abruptly it ended, she gasped for much needed breath and staggered, her shaking legs betrayed her and buckled. She fell to her knees, breathing heavily and feeling sure she'd pass out for a moment but she wrestled to stay focused.

"You get used to that," a voice commented and she forced her limbs to move, jumping up and drawing her wand on the man before her even though she continued to tremble as she gasped for the air. She was definitely indoors but the room too dark to make out, the moonlight streaming through the window did illuminate the speaker in silvery light however. She lowered her wand in surprise, she'd never met him but she knew his face, "I take it that you know who I am?"

"Rabastan Lestrange," Alzay said and the former Death Eater nodded with a smile, she felt herself tense in anger. Why did Rabastan get to escape prosecution while her father was forced to rot in Azkaban? "Why did you bring me here? How did you even bring me here?"

"My Master has their ways," Rabastan brushed it off dismissively, "We've been watching you and we think our organization may benefit your skillset."

"What are you on about? What organization? Voldemort's dead."

"Indeed he is, my Master is not Voldemort but we have similar goals. To rebuild the world as it should be with Wizardkind at the top and muggles vermin as our slaves."

"A noble goal but too many have already tried and failed. Besides, getting my father out of Azkaban is the only goal I care about right now."

"You don't know my Master though, they have power that Voldemort does not and if you will get to see it if you choose to join us," Rabastan explained conversationally, "And as to your father, our goals overlap here. If you help us then we will free him from his imprisonment, my Master has plans for Azkaban."

"I'd rather try freeing him legally first so he won't have to live hunted," Alzay pointed out truthfully, she wanted him to be able to the fullest possible life.

"He wouldn't be hunted in my Master's world though, would he?" Rabastan countered, "And really, how likely do you think that is anyway? The Ministry doesn't care about your father, they try to paint everything in pretty colors but they don't give a half a damn about those former Death Eaters rotting away in Azkaban, they have no intention of releasing them or even making their lives easier. The Minister's a former Auror and Order of the Phoenix member, he'll never allow it. Especially now that your Imperius plan has been found out."

"The Aurors don't believe Tiberius."

"They're still going to look into his claims, Potter would be a fool to not. They'll see you have more motive, look into more and possibly even unearth your crimes unless you can throw them off. If you can throw them off then continuing your campaign will be like signing your confession and bringing seven kinds of hell back down upon you. You're a smart woman, Alzay, you have to see this," Rabastan explained and Alzay looked back to him at the use of her name, she knew he was right and she hated it, "This is the best chance you have and you know it, the best possible future."

"What would I have to do in return for my father's freedom?" Alzay asked hesitantly and Rabastan's lips curled into a smile.

"Information first and foremost, your job in the census department is perfect for knowing the names, addresses and blood statuses of the wizarding population. More if you really embrace this, you're a smart, talented witch and you could do well in our organization, Xerxes also credits you as a very adept in Legilimancy."

"Xerxes Seneca is part of your organization?" Alzay wondered in surprise.

"Yes, for quite a long time in fact. He had to leave because we wanted to become a permanent part of training people. He speaks highly of you," Rabastan told her before seeming to remember something, "Oh and one more thing that's an absolute, if you join us then you need to sacrifice your sons to us. My Master has an experiment in mind for when they're old enough, they'll suffer and possibly die. You need to agree to that if you want to join us. You sons for your father, isn't that fair?"

"I don't know," Alzay admitted and shifted nervously, she didn't really to put them at risk.

"Well you can have some time to think about it, you'll be useless to us if you can't get away with the discovery of your crimes anyway. You have until it's all blown over to think about, we'll be in touch. Unless you wind up in Azkaban with your father, then you'll just have to wait with the rest for My Master," Rabastan announced and gestured.

The darkness around engulfed her once more, the same uncomfortable sensation followed and she was back in the street outside of Tiberius' place. She had a lot to think about but first she did have to find a way to get away with Imperising those people, Rabastan did have a good point there. She just needed to find a way to throw suspicion off herself, make it seem like Tiberius was lying and as if she had no reason to target people to stop a pro-mudblood law. An idea occurred to her and she returned home as soon as her limbs had stopped shaking, the Imperised mudblood babysitter was watching Lathan for her naturally. She didn't think having a mudblood babysitter would be convincing enough but it was the knowledge the mudblood had that she as interested in, knowledge about dating muggles.

She had the girl use this 'the internet' way of dating to easily find men who suited her interests, someone close to her own age as it was more believable, someone who liked children and was good with babies so Lathan would have a good father, someone who was open to magic being real, someone who wanted to settle down and get married, preferably someone who didn't have much family and didn't want or couldn't have children of his own so she wouldn't have to worry about them wanting to start a family as she didn't want filthy half-blood children. And nice, she needed someone who was a good person or it wouldn't be right. The girl set her up with dates with people who fit these categories, Alzay would slip them Love Potion to make it easy to get them to come home with her so she could use Legilimancy on them to see for herself if they'd suit her plans, erasing their minds of it afterwards until she found a perfect mark.

Scorpius returned to his dormitory to get what he needed to join the others in the Library for homework, however he saw Michael was there. He was just lying on his bed, his fist clenched as if was around his stupid stone and his eyes red as if he'd been crying. He was tempted to demand what was bothering him again but he recalled Leebin's words still echoed.

"I erm... I'm sorry," Scorpius offered lamely and Michael looked to him expressionless with his mismatched eyes, "For everything with the stone. You're right, that and whatever's bothering you is none of my business. But you are my friend, if something's bothering you then it's bothering me that you're upset. I'm just worried about you, we all are, and I'm sorry if I come across too... forceful. I won't pressure you to tell me anything but just please, let's stay friends."

"I'm sorry too," Michael muttered and Scorpius walked over to him, offering out his hand.

"Friends?"

"Friends," Michael confirmed and sat up to take his hand with his scarred one.

"So do you want to know what Varanian said?" Scorpius asked and when Michael nodded, he told him about staying with Varanian and about the memory he'd said of Calderon using the Specters. Michael's eyes bulged in shock and disbelief just as Scorpius was sure his had when he'd found out.

"Damn," Michael said and ran a hand through his hair, "I didn't see that coming. Although I guess it might explain how he knows so much."

"Yeah."

"Would you like me to stay over the holidays so I can ask him about it when there's no one around?"

"No, he's my cousin and I want to be the one to ask him about," Scorpius told him truthfully before scowling, "Besides why do you want to stay? There's the wedding and you were looking forward to seeing your witch aunt again."

"What if she doesn't like me anymore?" Michael blurted out in terrified whisper.

"Your aunt?"

"Yeah. What if... What if she doesn't? It has been five years and look at me, I don't even look myself anymore. And I'm a wizard. And I'm a werewolf. And magic and everything. What if she can't handle it and she doesn't want anything to do with me anymore?" Michael wondered and hastily wiped his tear-filled eyes, "What if I go back and she just doesn't want to know?"

"Of course she will, she's not going to ditch you because of any of that. Especially if she's a witch herself. Besides, wouldn't Jack have told you otherwise?" Scorpius offered awkwardly, he really didn't know enough about Michael's aunt to know what to say, "If she really is the person you think she is then she won't turn her back on you, she hasn't yet. It'll be okay."

Michael said nothing but continued looking worried, why couldn't Scorpius ever know what to say to comfort people? He did at least convince Michael to come with him to the Library, although he thought that Michael agreed just for a distraction. It made him realize just how far behind Michael was with his schoolwork, Michael ultimately got frustrated with his difficulty writing and burned everything he'd written. Scorpius was worried but as per his attempt to make amends, he didn't say anything about how unhealthy it was. Really, he thought Professor Ashylos would rather have a terribly written essay than no essay, at least it'd mean that Michael was putting effort in.

The final week of term was as usual quite pleasant, light on serious work and homework although like Halloween, the absence of Christmas decoration was noticeable. He wasn't surprised though, Calderon hadn't even been the one to go around asking them the Christmas plans this year. Michael still seemed withdrawn but he was sitting with him in classes again, except Transfiguration while Midas continued alienating him. It was a start. Midas was the only teacher Scorpius had - minus Binns the ghost - who didn't wear a werewolf bracelet. Charms, Herbology, Study of Ancient Runes, Astronomy and Potions all had them doing fun things, pretty much anything but History of Magic and Transfiguration. Elina had them back to Tarot cards to see how much they remembered from last year. Scorpius was impressed by his knowledge, when Michael drew The Devil, he successfully interpreted it as feeling trapped which Elina praised him for, Scorpius hazarding a guess that Michael was feeling trapped due to being a werewolf and Michael went very quiet. Scorpius didn't push it though.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was the best though - when was it not? - as Professor Ashain just let them practice dueling full on in a kind of class tournament, it went down well and he gave up telling his children to focus on their own work instead of watching the duels. Scorpius won every match, successfully winning the kind of tournament. Michael and Knight took joint second when their match ended in a draw when they both stunned each other out, Abby took third, Nott fourth. Rose got seventh and Albus was disappointed to get ninth but Scorpius thought being in the top ten was still pretty good. Professor Hagrid decided to reward them by introducing them to what they'd be learning about next year, Hippogriffs. Scorpius knew his father had been viciously attacked by one during his time in Hogwarts so he stood well back and didn't volunteer. Professor Hagrid demonstrated bowing to one, waiting for it to bow back before being allowed to pet the feathery beast.

"Al, why don' yeh come up an' say hello t' old Buckbeak here," Professor Hagrid called.

Albus seemed somewhere between nervous and excited as he went up to bow, Buckbeak bowed almost at the same time and the class gave a round of applause. Albus grinned widely at this as he stroked the Hippogriff gently, Professor Hagrid had other volunteers try with the other ones but Scorpius still kept his distance. Abby and Rose both tried though, Michael didn't, he didn't bother now he was a werewolf in case the creature got the scent of werewolf off him even if Professor Hagrid assured him it didn't matter like today. Scorpius thought they seemed oddly alright for vicious beasts.

"Scor, why don' yeh come up an' try?" Professor Hagrid offered to him instead.

"No thanks," Scorpius refused immediately, "My father was attacked by one of these, I'd rather just stay back."

"Don' yeh trust me?"

"Of course, Professor Hagrid."

"Then come on," the professor insisted and Scorpius reluctantly went with him over to where Al and now Abby were not petting Buckbeak, "Go on now, don' insult him. Bow politely an' wait."

Scorpius bowed nervously, Buckbeak snorted and kicked the ground. Scorpius was tempted to back off but he held his ground, it had been easy for Albus. He bowed lower to try to assure the creature of his respect, time dragged by. Scorpius held his position so long that his back was starting to hurt, finally though, Buckbeak slowly inclined his head. Professor Hagrid roared with delight and clapped Scorpius on the back so hard in congratulations that Scorpius lost his balance and almost toppled over, it managed to right himself though and the professor gestured for him to go ahead and touch Buckbeak. Scorpius did so very cautiously, approaching on guard as if it might attack him at any moment - it eying him didn't make him feel any more at ease - before carefully reaching out to stroke the scarred beak. He frowned.

"Professor, what happened to him?" Scorpius asked worriedly.

"Fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, he did," Professor Hagrid explained and patted the creature affectionately, "Been through the mill, he has. Not so bad, yeh see?"

"Yeah."

"Wha' I didn' tell yeh is tha' Buckbeak here is the same one tha' hurt yeh Dad," Professor Hagrid told him and Scorpius froze, "That's why he was so slow to trust yeh but he sees now tha' yeh nothing like him an' didn' offend him."

"I'm some like my Father though," Scorpius pointed out as Buckbeak nuzzled his hand at the lack of attention, making an approving sound as he slowly started stroking the creature again.

"Nope. Not even slightly," Professor Hagrid announced happily and clapped him on the shoulder again before moving to help someone else, leaving Scorpius to scowl.

"Don't worry," Albus offered consolingly, "You're not alone. I'm nothing like my Father either, it sucks."

"I'm glad that I'm nothing like Jack," Michael admitted.

"I guess I should be too," Scorpius sighed, not sure why he felt bothered by his lack of Malfoy traits. Varanian's charred body came to mind, he was very glad that he didn't go around burning people alive. But still...

After that was the weekend, they were heading back on Sunday so Saturday was the last proper day in Hogwarts before the New Year. He was actually nervous about going back with juggling everyone to stay with Varanian, his sister would be born one day soon and there was the wedding. Assuming everything went well, he was looking forward to it. Assuming went well. He packed the majority of his things ready that Saturday since he was planning on visiting Ashylos to say goodbye that night, he'd rather pack now than when he was tired. Ashylos had agreed in him bringing one person at a time, he was going with Michael since he was Pancratius' descendant and Albus had - in Ashylos' own words - pissed him off. Although he'd take Albus if Michael didn't want to. Michael and Albus packed too, well Albus with Michael's help. Scorpius couldn't help but smile at the somewhat tradition that they went through whenever one of them was heading back. He spent the rest of the day relaxing with his friends, chilling in the Common Room by the warm fire and playing Wizard Chess mostly or just chatting with Molly cuddling up to him.

"Hey Scor, can I talk to you for a minute?" Latimer asked after they'd gotten back from dinner, looking somewhat anxious.

"Sure," Scorpius agreed and separated from his friends on their way up to the dormitory to hang back in the Common Room with Latimer, "What's up?"

"I just erm... wanted to give you your Christmas present now so you won't think it's too weird and I might not even be up tomorrow to see everyone off."

"Okay."

"Well... erm... do you err... remember how you said that um... you wished you had more photographs?"

"Yeah."

"Well erm... I couldn't do photographs but I err... I tr-tried," Latimer got out nervously and pushing a leather-bound book into his hands, "Sorry that it's not very good... Cheaper though."

Scorpius looked between him and the book curiously before opening it, finding a beautifully painted picture of him and his friends - or at least Michael, Abby, Albus and Rose - that was actually painted. Latimer had a kind of blurred style without a lot of detail but it was still easily recognizable as them, the texture and colors was brilliant. He turned the page and saw himself with Molly sitting cuddled up under a tree, orange leaves actually falling around them as light filtered through the leaves. The other one was of him and Michael walking back from Quidditch practice, they looked younger, happy and clapping each other on the shoulder. The book went on like that, pictures of his friends, of him with his friends but none of Latimer, of Molly, of himself with Molly, of himself catching the Snitch in Quidditch, of the Quidditch team - Latimer had left out himself, James and Carver - and even some of him with Calderon - he felt a pang in his heart as he recalled Calderon's potential evil - and Professor Ashain before he started to take on Ashylos' appearance, even one with his owl, Free and another with Thestrals. It must've taken Latimer ages. Scorpius was transfixed and only looked up when he was done looking through them, ready to thank him but Latimer had already gone.

Part 5: Coming Home

Scorpius headed back up to his dormitory with his book of pictures, feeling nostalgic and wishing he could help Michael even more, he wanted him to go back to being happy. Albus, Angelo and Reuben had already gone to bed but Michael remained awake, fully dressed and sitting with his knees hugged up to his chest. Scorpius would've liked to think that Michael had stayed like that in preparation to see Ashylos but he thought it was more likely that he'd gone back to worrying about his aunt.

"What did Latimer want?" Michael asked in small voice and Scorpius showed him the book of paintings, amazement breaking through his concern, "Wow."

"Yeah, Latimer's pretty good," Scorpius agreed and Michael handed it back to him.

"So when do we see Ashylos?"

"When he makes his move," Scorpius shrugged and hand the map to Michael to watch while he put his gift safely away.

"Is it just me or is the name now shifting from Atticus Ashain and Ashylos readably?"

"Yeah, I noticed that too. I guess it means that Ashylos is getting stronger, he says he should be strong enough for us to go after the Scepter soon after break."

"Good," Michael shrugged and looked away, "Why don't we go wait in the Common Room? We'll be able to see the Map better and no one else will be down there on the last night before we go back."

"Okay," Scorpius agreed and they went down, Michael had guessed - or possibly just known from the map - correctly and it was empty.

"Do we know why the Shadow Master wants the Scepter anyway?"

"Because it's powerful I guess, Herpo was pretty powerful in the memory I saw."

Michael nodded and settled down in front of the fire with the map while Scorpius wandered over to the noticeboard, the signup sheet for counselling sessions was there and had been as Leebin had said. He skimmed it for names he recognized and saw surprisingly that James had put himself down, so had Rose and Freddie's girlfriend Caitlin, she hadn't been to any practices since Molly's sudden decision to not let her play during the game. Leebin might be able to help Michael if he let him.

"Are you going to do this?" Scorpius asked curiously.

"Do what?"

"Sign up for counselling."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to," Michael said, sounding irritated and Scorpius held his tongue as he suspected he was pushing too hard again.

"I'm going to," Scorpius admitted, not sure why he'd suddenly made up his mind in that moment but he thought he'd rather sign up and turn it down later then not have it at all. Maybe it would encourage Michael to as well since he wouldn't talk to him or any of the others about what was going on with him. He wrote down his name with the quill left for it and glanced to see Michael's reaction but his friend had his mismatched eyes firmly focused on the map, "You know Leebin helped me with worrying about my sister, he's not that bad and he stood up to that Rutherford guy. Well, he thinks I'm like Varanian which is just weird and not true but aside from that, he can be helpful."

"You are like Varanian," Michael commented, still without looking up and Scorpius scowled but decided to let it slide.

"Maybe Leebin could help you too if you gave him a chance, I was really anxious about my sister being born and was even hallucinating or dreaming about Lyra but I'm okay now. I'm even looking for-"

"What?" Michael interrupted and his head shot up, "Hallucinating about Lyra? I don't remember that."

"Or dreaming. And you wouldn't remember it, it was when you were outside looking for your stone. It was just once, I went to show Albus but she was gone."

"And while I was looking, you had the stone. Didn't you? Were you holding it?"

"Err... Yeah," Scorpius admitted in confusion, trying to recall the insignificant event, "I put it down when I went to wake Albus though."

"And then she was gone?" Michael wondered and Scorpius nodded, not understanding why Michael took a deep breath and drew the stone from his pocket. He sighed, "You weren't dreaming or hallucinating about Lyra."

"I think I was. At the time I thought she was somehow alive and projecting herself somehow but..." Scorpius trailed off, unable to stop the bubble of hope from rising in his heart, "Unless you know different. Have you seen her too? Is she alive somewhere? Kidnapped by the Shadows too?"

"No, Scorpius," Michael shook his head sadly and hesitated as Scorpius felt his bubble of hope burst yet again, "This stone... It can bring back the dead, they vanish if you let go of it but you must have used it without realizing."

"This... The... I don't understand."

"I found it in the forest near the start of the year, after James managed to knock me out the window. I don't know where it came from or how it got there. If you turn it over three times then it can bring the dead back, they're more solid than ghosts but still not alive. You can only see or hear them if you're touching the stone, they vanish if you let go and you have to start again."

"You can't be serious," Scorpius managed to get out in shock but Michael simply stood and pressed it into his palm.

"Try it if you don't believe me."

Scorpius looked between Michael's serious expression and the stone for a moment, feeling his heart beat rising with every second. He took a deep breath and slowly, carefully as if it was made of glass, he turned it over. And again. And again. He looked up and saw the little girl now standing beside Michael, exactly as she'd been before. He dropped the stone, Lyra vanished the second it left his hand. Michael could it before it could hit the ground but Scorpius was too busy staring at the spot that his sister had stood.

"See?" Michael wondered.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Scorpius asked but it came out sounding more like a demand as he looked back to his friend, Michael shrugged awkwardly and guiltily, "That's why you were talking to yourself and sometimes looking as if you were listening to someone else, you were talking to dead people?"

"Yeah. Nick."

"Nick Longbottom?"

"Yeah, he's my friend."

"I... I don't even know what to say," Scorpius admitted, he didn't even know how to feel let alone what to say. Happiness that he could talk to his dead sister, shock that the Resurrection Stone from the stories was real and had somehow ended up in his friend's hands, sorrow that his sister was dead.

"Well erm... Ashylos is on the move so we could go now and talk about this later," Michael offered and pointed to the moving dot on the map, the shifting name obvious on a sea of static names and dots.

"Okay," Scorpius agreed and grabbed up the map, heading off with it as a guide to avoid the no people about, it was the last night so he couldn't see anyone being out or caring about them being out even if they did get caught. He just used the map to make sure and found his way to the entrance easily, "Hey Ashylos."

"Khairete, Skorpios, Michael," Ashylos greeted him in turn, eying Michael with interest with a smile played on his lips, "I had hoped we could meet."

"Who? Me?" Michael wondered in surprise and Scorpius realized with their rift that he hadn't actually gotten around to telling Michael that he was Pancratius' descendant.

"Nai, did Skorpios not tell you of your lineage?"

"No," Michael admitted and threw Scorpius a somewhat puzzled look.

"You are descended from Pancratius."

"The same Pancratius that destroyed his soul killing Herpo?"

"Ou, the other Pancratius that destroyed his soul killing Herpo," Ashylos quipped in a sarcastic tone.

"I erm... I'm pretty sure you've got me confused with someone else," Michael mumbled nervously and ran a hand through his hair.

"Ou, I'm sure. You have his eyes. The one that isn't from the pathos of the lykos anyway. Greatness is in your blood."

"You do have his eyes," Scorpius confirmed.

"That doesn't mean I'm related to him, lots of people have hazel eyes," Michael pointed out.

"Fair point but lots of people don't have this," Ashylos offered and held out his hand, Michael's locket was lifted from around his neck and floated over to Ashylos, "I created this for Pan's daughter to pass down her bloodline for when magic returned to one of his lineage."

"How can you be sure it's the same one?"

"Because of this," Ashylos told him as he snatched it from the air, there was a burst of red light streaming through the gaps between his fingers for a minute before it faded. Ashylos opened his palm and opened the amulet, Michael gasped in surprise before Ashylos drew an eerie green crystal from it, "A fragment of the orb from Herpo's Scepter, it was caught up in my robes when I shattered it. I sealed it inside the locket for safe-keeping, an enchantment in place to make sure only someone of my blood can open it. A failsafe so even if someone managed to reform the Scepter in all its entirety, they'd never have this part and so would never be able to complete it in full."

"Well erm... good," Michael said, looking shaken. Ashylos replaced the fragment and closed the locket with a deafening crack to indicate that it had probably sealed before handing it back to Michael.

Caden "Cade" Knox was born to Rosa and Lachlan Knox one stormy night on January twenty fifth in 1984, middle name as his Rosa feared it would make his name look too cluttered. Lachlan had a mid-level management position in company that produced chairs, Rosa worked as a secretary for a prominent law firm and Cade spent much of his infancy in the care of baby sitters and nannies. He had long blonde hair due like his mother, kept long due to Rosa's fear of cutting too much off. However, weekends were family time and some of Cade's fondest early memories were of the weekly family outings or the annual vacations. From an early age, he adored the supernatural, anything fantasy or sci-fi fed his imagination and he loved it. Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Dungeons and Dragons were all things he adored, along with comics and videogames. He was a self-proclaimed nerd.

He was shy to start school but ultimately made friends with people who shared his interests, he was nicknamed 'Thor' due to his signature long blond hair. He was a well-behaved average student and actually better at sports than more academic study, he did love to read though. He was also kind, inspired by heroes in the stories he adored, it felt good to help people. He always tried to help other people and animals. He loved animals, he always wanted a dog but his parents promised he could when he was old enough to take care of it properly. His reasonably pleasant childhood was changed forever when his mother got pregnant, his baby sister Maya was born when he was ten. Doctors notice immediately that something was wrong, the baby was diagnosed with Down Syndrome.

Rosa quit her job to care full time for the Special Needs baby, Cade was thrown into the role of older brother and his bedroom moved downstairs so Maya was closer to her parents for when she cried during the night. He didn't care about her condition and loved his sister very much, he did his best to be a good brother and often read her his favorite stories. He started getting picked on in school though, it wasn't cool to have a 'retard' for a sister and it certainly wasn't cool to spend time with them. It didn't break his loyalty to his sister though, although it showed the loyalty of his friends as he saw who stood by him and who didn't. He took refuge in the same place he always did, fantasy. He still adored Maya, enjoying reading to her even more when she was capable of following the story and was interested in it, she also liked watching him play videogames. He didn't care what anyway said, it was cool to have someone look up to you and take interest in what you said. All you had to do in return was give them time, love and to try steer them right. He liked being a big brother, it was rewarding telling her things and teaching her things. Although she also had an unhealthy fascination with watching fire.

He no longer liked school though. Entering his teenage years, the bullying got so bad that he feigned illness to get off going to school, crying if his parents made him go. Eventually his parents asked why, Cade confided in them about getting picked on and Lachlan marched to the school right then to deal with it. The bullying stopped almost overnight, if anyone gave him trouble again it was infrequent. In his teenage years, Cade also discovered a love for horror films or at least those with supernatural things like zombies or werewolves or vampires although he had to be more careful what he told Maya about that. His life went back to being bearable, he even worked out the courage to ask out Veronica Edwards who became his first girlfriend. At sixteen, his biggest worries were the stress of upcoming exams and deciding what gift was good for a one year anniversary for his girlfriend. How that would change.

There was no warning, no particular sign that anything would happen. Cade just woke up one night to find the house was in flames, he dropped to his knees to avoid the cloud of black smoke trying to clog his lungs, shaking in terror at the crimson haze all around. He managed to get the door open although it burned his hand to touch the doorknob even using his sleeve to try shielding it, he thought it was better than being engulfed by the flames. His room was on the ground floor as there were only two bedrooms upstairs that of his parents and his sister, he couldn't just leave them up there to die. He screamed for them but got no answer, instead starting to hurl himself to the inferno upstairs to try to save them. He was choking on smoke but he pressed up the stairs, trying to jump through the shield of red despite the searing pain that moving caused his feet. Halfway up, the charred steps gave way though and he came crashing down through them. The fire fell with him and caught his long blond hair, his screams were lost in the roar of the flames as he rolled to try put out the fire burning his brain. He succeeded but his head still throbbed though, he hurt all over, his body battered from the fall, cuts and minor burns also following, a cracked collar bone. Still, he couldn't leave his family, little Maya would probably just sit there and not understand how the pretty lights hurt her.

Cade tried to move but more flaming debris came crashing down on him, a burning beam or something smashed down on his thighs and pelvic region. He actually managed to scream even louder, agony as the blaze burned at the particularly sensitive region. He tried to wriggle out from under and push it away at the same time, it was so damn heavy. Tears were streaming from his eyes, he'd be screaming if he wasn't choking on the black smog, he really thought he was going to pass out from the pain before he finally manage to dislodge the beam. He lay there, gasping on poison and crying from the pain, it hurt too much to move. He still tried for his family but the effort sapped his strength, he must've passed out or just lost touch with reality because the next thing he knew, hands were lifting him up. He saw glimpses of yellow helmets, fluorescent stripes... Firefighters. He tried to tell them about his family but he couldn't breathe, he became aware the intense heat was gone although pain remained, he thought he'd been taken out of the house but he couldn't keep his eyes open long enough to tell. Someone put a mask over his face, pumping much needed oxygen back into his broken body. He did pass out then.

Scorpius didn't think he or Michael slept much that night after they got back from Ashylos, in fact he could hear Michael tossing and turning. Probably for different reasons though, Scorpius was thinking of the Resurrection Stone and his sister while Michael either his aunt or Ashylos. Was it all a trick of the magic or was that really Lyra? Really what she'd be like if she'd survived? Should he ask Michael to use it again to get to know her? Or was that just torturing himself? Clinging the shadow of a life she didn't get to live? Magic could do a lot of things but reviving the dead wasn't one of them. Not in the way that everyone wanted anyway, you couldn't restore life. He didn't think he'd sleep but he found himself eventually drifting into memory, the all too brief memories of Lyra's short life. He woke up to sunlight streaming through the windows but without the warmth to dry his damp cheeks.

"If you want breakfast before we go then you might want to get up," Michael told him in a gentle tone, apparently responsible for waking him. Scorpius wiped his eyes quickly and nodded, seeing the empty room.

"Michael, about the stone..." Scorpius began as he closed the drapes and started getting dressed, trailing off as he didn't know what to say.

"You can borrow it if you want, I probably won't be using it much with Annie," Michael offered, adding something in a mutter that Scorpius didn't quite catch but it might've been 'I hope'. Scorpius finished and closed his drapes, Michael held out the stone and Scorpius eyed it uncertainly for a minute before taking it, "Just don't lose it or Nick will be dead."

"Nick is dead."

"No he's not, not with that," Michael insisted stubbornly and happily which worried Scorpius slightly, "Gotta go say goodbye to Mirra, just wanted to make sure you were up in time to get something to eat because breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"Thank you, Mother," Scorpius quipped jokingly and Michael managed to roll his eyes and smile at the same time before leaving.

Scorpius took a nervous breath and looked at the stone for a minute, both tempted and terrified to use it all at the same time. Finally he just pocketed it, there was no rush and unless he wanted to look like a lunatic, it was better to do it when he was alone and not about to join his friends for breakfast. He headed down, still finding the lack of Christmas decorations strange.

"Scor!" a familiar voice called and Scorpius froze at the friendly tone, turning to see Calderon coming over to him. His cousin was grinning and leaving a burst of light with every step, Scorpius didn't return the smile though. It was the first time facing him since seeing the memory of him using Specters, he felt a wave of anger sweep through him, "Glad I caught you. I wanted to give you your present."

"Present?" Scorpius wondered stupidly and Calderon waved his hands, conjuring a package that he handed to him and Scorpius felt even angrier as he stared at it in shock. Scorpius had looked up to him, trusted him, cared about him and all along he'd used creatures of darkness. It was lie. It was all a lie. And Calderon just thought that he could pretend everything was okay? Scorpius shoved the present back into Calderon's hands, "I don't think we should exchange gifts, you're supposed to be a Hogwarts employee and I'm just a student."

"What? But we always do," Calderon wondered in confusion, hurt flashing in his eyes.

"Well no more."

"Well at least take this. I got it for you."

"No!" Scorpius snapped with force than he'd meant to, Calderon backed off slightly, looking very much like a child that didn't know why he was in trouble, "I don't want it."

"I don't understand," Calderon whimpered.

Scorpius just walked away before he could say anything else, his cheeks were damp by the time he reached the end of the corridor as grief replaced anger. He risked looking back to see Calderon still standing there, random blue lights sparking around him. His head was hung low, staring at the gift as if he didn't know what he'd done wrong. Scorpius tried to wipe away his tears as they came, he didn't want Calderon to be evil. He ducked inside a random classroom, afraid someone would see him cry. How could Calderon be evil after they'd been through? Why would he do that? Why?!

It took longer than he'd thought to calm down and compose himself before he continued on to breakfast, his spirits sticking to the bottom of his shoe as he walked. He'd pretty much missed the whole meal by then, there was hardly anything left. Michael wasn't there, presumably he was wherever Mirra was saying goodbye. Latimer wasn't either, Scorpius had wanted to thank him but apparently he hadn't wanted to see them off. He picked at the scraps left before they made their way to the carriages, for the first time Calderon seemed to have no part in dealing with them. At least the Thestrals cheered him up slightly, he was supposed to be cheery for the holiday. Maybe tomorrow.

"Hey!" a little voice squeaked and he saw Cassia and Antonius coming over with the huge dog lapping at their heels, "We is wanted to say goodbyes to you. And Merry Christmas."

"Goodbyes to you too," Albus mocked her vocabulary.

Cassia didn't seem to notice or just didn't care for once as she threw her arms around him, Albus' face went as red as Molly's hair and Scorpius joined the others in suppressing laughter at his reaction. He patted her awkwardly on the back and she pulled away, making a bird caw that brought a crow shooting like a dart from outside to land on her shoulder. It dropped a coin into her little hand that she handed to Albus, cawing again to send the bird soaring away.

"It's a penny since you is like them apperrantly," Cassia told him and the others did chuckle at that, Albus' face went even redder at the memory of when Antonius had outsmarted him with a penny.

"Thanks," Albus managed to get out.

"You are is welcome," Cassia brushed it over before preceding to hug Scorpius, he accepted it much more gracefully and she went on to hug Abby, Molly, even Corin and a very shocked Maurice but he did hug her back so strangely as if he wasn't used to it. She grinned when she pulled and waited for him to put a hand back to his necklace before adding, "And don't is worry, Maurice, I is practicer and be a good soldier. Goodbyes, I is have to find others now."

"Bye Cassia," they offered and waved as she raced off.

"Ashain's kids are still bloody weird," Albus reiterated, his cheeks still crimson.

"I'm still here," Antonius pointed out, Albus coughed loudly.

"I meant erm... Look at the little puppy!"

"Little?" Antonius repeated - the dog was taller than he was - and put a hand to his face, shaking his head in exasperation. So much like Professor Ashain that Scorpius had to smile, he hugged Antonius and was hugged tightly back.

"Merry Christmas," Scorpius offered before pulling away, Antonius smiled.

"Merry Christmas."

"C'mon, there's a carriage," Abby pointed out and gestured to the free one that was currently pulled up, empty and waiting. Scorpius turned to say goodbye to Antonius, only to see his face had drained of color.

"Antonius, what's wrong?" Molly asked, apparently noticing this also.

"Those... Those things pulling the carriages," Antonius stammered out fearfully.

"They're just Thestrals," Scorpius told him comforting, "They're nice really, my-"

"But can't you only see them if you've seen someone die?"

"Yeah. So?"

"But I've never seen someone die," Antonius admitted anxiously in a whisper, "Why can I see them?"

Cade woke up in the hospital much later, he almost wished he hadn't when he got the news. The fire had started upstairs in his sister's room, they'd found the remnants of matches that she must've gotten a hold of. Maya and his parents had been dead before the fire had spread far enough to even wake him, before the Firefighters had had a chance to save them. Cade didn't think he'd cried so much in his entire life, he was devastated. Just like that his entire family was gone, everyone else was more distantly related who they'd only been on greeting card terms with. He was an orphan at sixteen. If he'd thought he'd at least have his girlfriend Veronica to lean on for support, he'd be wrong as apparently having your hair burned off wasn't very attractive and she broke up with him. He was almost glad he had to stay in hospital because he really didn't know what he was supposed to do. He didn't give it too much thought at the time but would later on, the damage to his pelvic region was severe enough to render him infertile.

The guilt at surviving while his family didn't ate away at him daily, he lay in the hospital bed day after day, feeling as torn up inside as he was outside. He should've died too, he wished he had. His true friends again showed their loyalty by visiting him, the only reprieve he got from his torment of grief, guilt and pain. He also got a surprise visit from the firefighter who'd saved his life and tried to save his family, just wanting to see how he was doing. Cade was inspired but the man's kindness, the man had put his time into saving him and Cade shouldn't waste the extra life he'd been given wallowing in misery. He should do something good, he should give back. He vowed to become a firefighter himself, to try save other people since he couldn't save his family. It gave him something to fight for. He recovered in time to graduate high school, his grades were average at best but Cade thought it wasn't bad considering he'd missed weeks for his recovery. The government gave him an apartment to live in but he didn't to pay his own way as soon as he could, he got a job as a cleaner in the interim until he was old enough to apply to be a firefighter. He spent a good deal of his free time working on get his physical health back up and researching things he'd need.

It was still a rough year adjusting to living without his family, both the loss of them around and dealing with practical things like money and housework. He watched cooking shows to make himself healthier food with great success unless he tried to do it without the guides. He was initially pleased when his hair started to grow back, it wouldn't have if the burns were severe enough but ultimately shaved it off on the anniversary of the fire out of respect for his family. He kept it that way, it just felt right. He was more on top of things for the second year, he even started hanging out with his friends more again and getting back into things he liked. He also got his driving license. He also finally got to send his application to be a firefighter off a few months before his eighteenth birthday, the absolute minimum age you could apply. He had to have a psychological assessment, have his eyesight and hearing tested as well as general physical fitness and health, that worried him the most but his scars had healed well and wouldn't affect his performance on top of an interview. He was delighted to pass and started his twelve week training course on his eighteenth birthday, best birthday present ever. He completed it with flying colors and after a written test, became an actual firefighter. Or at least a trainee.

Being a firefighter could be stressful and losing people cut deep but Cade found he could cope with it, it felt cathartic to fight the thing that claimed his family's lives and there were other aspects to it as well such as inspecting buildings for fire safety regulations or bringing awareness to the public such as talking to schools. He was good at his job, he worked hard and was also willing to put in overtime or go the extra mile, and he made friends with the other fighters easily too. He also finally fulfilled his childhood wish of owning a dog, an old lady died smoking a cigarette which lit her place up and almost killed her poor dog but they saved it. Cade's heart just went out to it, he paid its veterinary bills and ultimately adopted her when she'd recovered, he named her Phoenix as she had a new life from the flames. He also moved closer to the fire station so he could get there faster when he was on call, it was also a nicer area in general for him to walk Phoenix in. There was still one thing - aside from his family - that was missing from his life and something his friends teased him for: a girlfriend.

He hadn't dated anyone since Veronica, recalling being dumped all too well because of his burns just when he'd needed support the most. He was also odd for a nineteen year old, maybe it was because it was something he couldn't have but settling down with a wife and having children was much more appealing to him than just dating excessively and not seriously. He didn't get out much either, unable to go out drinking as he was on call and needed to be sober for emergencies. Even when he wasn't, he felt obligated be sober anyway, just in case. With encouragement and nagging from his friends, he did ultimately get back out there though and tried dating. Cade wasn't particularly successful, his dates seemed to alternate between not being interested in settling down and being put off by his infertility, assuming they weren't put off by his scars when they tried to get intimate first.

Outside of dating, his career was going well and he'd successful moved from trainee to fully-fledged firefighter after his two year probation passed, which also upped his salary. He bought a car just before turning twenty-one and he managed to afford to buy a small house by the time he was twenty-three, he was comfortable. For his twenty-forth birthday, his friends signed him up for a dating website. Cade didn't think anything would come from it but he still decided to give it a shot since it had been a gift. And so, he agreed to a date with an Alzay Loren.

Scorpius really didn't have an answer for Antonius, all he could think of was that it was from having the magic ripped out of his soul and put back or Ashylos' influence or that Antonius just hadn't realized he'd seen someone die. He didn't want to voice any of those to him though. They bade goodbye to the Ashain kids and got a carriage, Scorpius in with Molly, Abby, Albus, Michael and Mirra, the Third Years got a carriage with Vern's girlfriend Olivia and Rose was with her boyfriend. He rather liked sitting in the carriage with his fingers intertwined with Molly's as he gazed out at the snowy landscape, it wasn't snowing but the wind was so piercing it felt as if knives were jabbing into so he was glad for the carriage.

He was disappointed that Molly had to go sit with the other prefects still, so did Mirra but he missed her presence. The compartment felt oddly empty with just the four of them, Corin was still keeping something of a distance from Abby since their breakup so the Third Years got their own compartment. He'd be seeing them at the wedding so he supposed it was too bad, still it would've brought some much needed life to the compartment. Michael and Abby were as quiet as he was, Albus did the most of the talking and managed to snap Scorpius from his thoughts with promise of Wizard's Chess, Albus was a worse player than Leebin. With a pang, he recalled playing it with Calderon the first time on the train, he didn't feel much like playing after that. Rose decided to bring her boyfriend to sit with them about halfway there, Scorpius thought the boy was actually kind of run down. Maybe dating Rose was taking its toll on him. It didn't stop Rose from giving exaggerated laughter at everything he said, kissing him repeatedly and constantly glancing to Michael to see reaction. Michael just stared out of the window, too lost in his own thoughts to notice - much to Rose's irritation - and Scorpius thought he preferred when Albus was doing the talking.

He was glad when the train finally arrived and they could start filing out, Corin gave them a wave and headed off to get his things over to the other platform for the train to France. Mirra found Michael and they must've snogged for a full five minutes in goodbye before Mirra hurried over to her... well her sister since her parents were dead, her very stressed looking sister. Rose watched her leave with a murderous glare. Abby also saw her mother quickly and waved goodbye as she went off to greet the plump, kindly woman. The rest of them hung out looking for their families, it occurred to Scorpius that he actually had no idea what Varanian would be looking like when he picked him up. Maybe he should have ringed him for more information earlier. He heard a gasp and glanced to see Maurice looking unusually shaken, his wand had slipped into his hand and he was staring at a man with violently violet eyes and red hair. He bore a strong resemblance to Florian... Scorpius wasn't the only one who noticed it.

"Daddy!" an excited voice cried and he saw Viola Kalya - the girl in the year below Maurice who'd also been to Maurice's Shadow-training-school-place - literally drop the books she'd been holding to race over to the man, actually looking like a regular girl as she threw herself into his waiting arms.

"He's just there for her," Maurice breathed a sigh of relief.

"Who is he?" Albus wondered suspiciously

"Xerxes Seneca, one of my old teachers. He's Pyrrhus Florian's elder half-brother and Viola's father, he's a Soul Eater."

"Shouldn't we like tell someone?"

"There's no proof or he wouldn't be so blatantly out in public, think about these things," Maurice complained and his relief turned to suspicion, "Although it's curious he's here for her now, he dotes on her sure but to collect her himself now must mean he was given the free time too."

"So?" Scorpius pressed, not understanding the significance.

"So he should be teaching right now, it's odd the Soul Eaters are letting him go to take her. They must want her for back to them for some reason."

"But why?" Albus asked as Viola collected her things and left with her father.

"I don't know."

"Michael!" an unfamiliar female voice called.

Scorpius turned to see who'd spoken but Michael's face had already broken into the widest grin it had for a while as he'd launched himself towards the speaker, a woman that Scorpius didn't recognize. She had reddish brown hair that was tied back into a ponytail that kind of stuck up, she looked in her mid-thirties and was pretty despite the rings beneath her eyes, a sea-blue that reminded him of Jack... Michael's aunt?

"Annie!" Michael cried happily as he hugged her, she smiled as she hugged him back.

"Damn," Albus sighed from beside him, "Why is every woman in Michael's life drop dead gorgeous?"

Part 6: Juggling

Caden "Cade" Knox suited Alzay's needs perfectly, he ticked all the boxes. She thought he came across the nicest before being doused with Love Potion as well, Legilimancy confirmed his sincerity. She would stop giving him Love Potion later on, without revealing that it had been Love Potion he should think he'd just been caught up in the romance before the honeymoon was over. With any luck and if she played the part right, he'd stay with her but she could also work with him leaving her. After erasing his mind of Legilimancy, she pretended to return the love the potion was making him feel and spent the night - Monday - with him, most of the next day too until he went to his muggle job. The Aurors picked the perfect time to decide to question her, she denied any involvement with Tiberius or the Imperius Curse and lied that she'd been dating her fiancé - the muggle Cade - for six months. They let her go but she had a feeling they'd look into it more, she wasn't worried though as Cade would be a solid alibi by the end of the week.

Wednesday, she introduced him to Lathan and Cade was successful in caring for the child, the Love Potion probably blinding him to the boy's freakish appearance. They spent that day more as a 'family' and talked more, he lapped up any information she told him about her life although she left out the magic for the moment to try pace things and had him tell her things about his own life. She'd need to know pointless things like his job, family, pets, likes and dislikes if the Aurors were to buy they were in a loving engagement. Thursday was when she introduced him to magic, he accepted and loved the fact fantasy things that fascinated him were real. She took him to Diagon Alley and told him about the magical world, which he would also need to know about for their relationship to be convincing. Friday, she proposed they get married which he was overjoyed with in his Love Potion haze, she also asked he pretend they'd been together for six months as people wouldn't take their love seriously otherwise. He accepted and was delighted to start hastily arranging their marriage for that Sunday, she moved in with him and his ugly - apparently it had been in a fire at one point - dog on Saturday. At least it was saving her money although it was riddled with muggle things she despised.

Alzay invited her friends from Hogwarts that she'd fallen out of touch with as well as some people from work which including those of bad blood statuses, Cade invited whoever mostly friends and co-workers since he didn't have any immediate family. Just like, she was married in a small but adequate ceremony, just a week after meeting Cade but secretly six months as per their lie. She kept her name - she was not giving up the Loren name - but was going to give Lathan his name. She'd also been thinking about Rabastan's offer and had decided she was going to accept, the abnormal's life was nothing compared to her beloved father and with any luck, Sathan would be forgotten about as he was somewhere unknown with Roman. Even if he wasn't, who was more important really? The father she loved rotting away unfairly or mindless children who couldn't even crawl yet? Although Lathan had recently starting calling her 'Mama' but still... Rathan was more important than the twins. She thought renaming him something Knox would help her feel less attached, ease her guilt. She told Cade she was changing his name to make him feel closer to his stepson, she asked him what he'd like to call him, expecting a stupid boring muggle name.

"Ouroboros," Cade told her immediately, he was playing with his stepson on his lap by jingling keys, "You know since it represents like a cycle endlessly repeating itself, like the life he's going to live. And he's a wizard, right? So he needs a cool name."

"Clever," Alzay lied with a smile, hating it and his pathetic attempt at being clever, she wanted it to be something that she could live with saying, "A bit long though? How about we shorten it? How about Ouro? Ouros? Orous? I like Orous. Orous Knox."

"Sounds perfect, my love," Cade agreed before there was a knock at the door that he went to get for her, she caught snatches of his conversation, "Hello? My wife? Alzay, people from the Ministry want to talk to you."

"Coming," Alzay called and went over, smiling and kissing Cade in greeting before facing the Aurors as her new husband put an arm around her, "What can I help you with now?"

"We erm... How long have you been together?" the Auror asked in confusion.

"Six months," Cade lied for her happily and Alzay smiled.

"Best six months of my life," Alzay continued the lie, "If this is about that crazy guy from before, I really have no idea what he's on about. We went on like one date and his bigoted, lying nature made sure it didn't go anywhere. Why do you people keep harassing me?"

"Don't wizards have laws against harassment?" Cade asked protectively and only pulled her closer.

"I erm... we," the first Auror babbled.

"We're sorry for bothering you, ma'am," the second Auror offered more fluently and the two left, Lath- Orous waving them bye-bye.

It worked so well, the Aurors backed off and people stopped eying her suspiciously in work. Tiberius was tried for her crimes and given a life sentence in Azkaban for multiple counts of use of an Unforgivable Curse. She just had to keep a low profile and play nice wife with Cade, brewing her own Love Potion in case they suspected that. Something else positive from Cade was his hours, he mostly worked nights so could watch Orous while she worked and there was less need for the mudblood babysitter. The mudblood knew too much and she couldn't keep her Imperised forever, Alzay thought she'd have to kill her but for the moment she kept her alive as she needed to see how Cade would react to coming off Love Potion. Rabastan contacted her again and she started feeding them the information they desired from her job at the Ministry, they told her that when Orous turned two, she'd need to send him to their training school. She preferred not to know what they'd do specifically. She did learn more about what she'd signed up for though, they called themselves 'Soul Eaters' and 'Specters' were strange shadowy-silhouette things they used to teleport. Rabastan hinted there was more to it than that but for now, it was all she was given.

After a couple of months, she stopped giving Cade the Love Potion but didn't change her behavior so he wouldn't think anything was wrong. The change in behavior was noticeable, he didn't wake up and come in with a sickly sweet smile on his face, professing his love for her. He just seemed confused and withdrawn. He didn't say anything about it though, although he did start wanting more information on things that he just hadn't cared about in the haze of Love Potion such as more detail on the Wizarding Wars and her father's role in it, why the Aurors had been interested in her and what had happened with her and Orous' real father. She was mostly honest, she left out her guilt in regards to the Aurors inquiry and her sharing the beliefs on blood purity. She was honest as well about Roman taking Sathan although she bend the truth in regards to their relationship, talking about he attacked her - without mentioning it was self-defense - and flipped things to pretend Roman had been the one to torture her, exaggerated Roman's hatred for Orous. Cade was such a bleeding heart, he bought it and didn't bring up Roman again. Not that she thought she'd ever see him again. Cade didn't leave her.

"Albus!" Rose complained.

"What? I didn't say I was in love with her," Albus protested defensively, "Just that Michael is weirdly surrounded by beautiful women. Think I'd have a shot with her though? I mean, I'm assuming it's his aunt and she just got out of prison or something so she might be desperately lonely."

"Albus!"

"Why are Michael's relatives always just getting out of jail?" Vern wondered as Michael finally pulled away from his aunt, talking to her excitedly but out of earshot instead.

"Dad!" Orous cried happily and ran to the tall, bald man who was his stepfather - Cade, if Scorpius remembered correctly - and hugged him.

"Wish my Dad was here to pick me up," Albus sighed mournfully while the Knoxes came over to get Maurice who just stood awkwardly by them.

"Greetings friends of Oro- Whoa, cool hair," Cade commented jokingly to Vern with a smile, "Almost as cool as mine."

"Yeah," Vern laughed and ran a hand over his bald head, "I'm awesome like that."

"Ready to go, Maurice?"

"Yeah," Maurice nodded and started to move over to them, "Bye."

"Vern, what did you do to your hair?!" Mrs Potter wondered in shock as she came over to them, Scorpius was more focused and surprised to see Austin Latimer a few feet away, casually pocketing a stolen wand. He went over to him.

"Give it back, Austin," Scorpius told him tiredly and Austin jumped, he was looking unusually on edge and tired.

"Give what back?" Austin wondered, Scorpius just scowled and Austin rolled his eyes before addressing Mrs Potter who had been listening to Vern talk about his hair cut, holding out the stolen wand, "Excuse me, ma'am, I think you dropped your wand."

"No, my wand is right..." Mrs Potter brushed it off confidently as she went to draw her wand apparently but noticed its absence, patting herself down but finding nothing and instead frowned as she took her wand back from Austin, "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Perhaps a small reward might be in order," Austin offered, rubbing his hands together eagerly but Mrs Potter's expression made him back off, "Merry Christmas, ma'am."

"What are you doing here anyway?" Scorpius asked as he moved away with Austin while Mrs Potter started talking to Cade instead, "Didn't Latimer tell you that he was staying?"

"Of course he did, treacherous brat. I'm just here to look for lost wands."

"Taking the Head Auror's wife's wand may not be the best idea," Scorpius pointed out and noticed the telltale movement of Austin's hand, "Give it back."

"Fine," Austin grumbled and handed him back his wand, "But if I wind up dead then I blame you. Shadows are out to murder me and I need a bloody wand to protect myself."

"Shadows are after you?" Scorpius wondered doubtfully and Austin looked offended by his lack of belief.

"Yes, they are. They asked me to join them and I said no and now they want me dead, Aurors don't believe me and don't care that I'm in danger. Neither does Lat apparently. I need a wand."

"You can use wandless magic."

"Wandless magic is bloody difficult, wands are reliable."

"Being sent to jail for stealing someone's wand is not going to help you there."

"Hey Scor, we need to find your parents. My Mum wants to talk to them about the wedding," Albus told him as he came over.

"What about the wedding?" Scorpius asked worriedly, not keen on asking Varanian to impersonate his father to talk to Mrs Potter.

"They want you to stay in the Burrow the night before the wedding, they reckon it'll be easier for you since your parents aren't coming, same for Michael. And for Orous and Maurice, well Cade is invited but he's a muggle. It'd be cool, like a sleepover."

"Looking forward to your boyfriend spending the night?" James taunted from nearby, smirking as he approached them.

"James, he's not my boyfriend," Albus complained with a roll of his eyes and James' smirk only widened.

"Oh yeah, that's right. Malfoy only likes being with muggles."

Scorpius couldn't help it, he was already worked up from Calderon already and James' words snapped the anger inside him. His hand had coiled into fist and he'd launched a punch instinctively, Albus grabbed him before the punch could land and literally held him back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Austin make a subtle gesture and James' fist launched itself at his own face. James yelped in surprise, there was a loud smack as his fist collided with his nose and he fell back with blood streaming from his nose. Austin winked at him before moving away, Scorpius resisted the urge to smile as Albus let him go.

"He punched me!" James spluttered out angrily and jabbed an accusing finger at Scorpius while the other hand went to the red pouring down his face.

"He didn't, I was holding him back the entire time," Albus pointed out while Mrs Potter hurried to help James to his feet, "You hit yourself, I saw it."

"Trying to make it look like Scorpius hit you with witnesses? Geez," Rose complained and shook her head, tutting in disapproval, "That's not just mean but stupid."

"He made me hit myself!" James protested while his mother handed him something to put to his nose to stop the bleeding, "I didn't do it on purpose!"

"Hitting yourself hard enough to draw blood is just desperate."

"I didn't do anything," Scorpius admitted truthfully while Mrs Potter frowned at her son.

"Really, James?" Mrs Potter sighed, "You haven't been back half an hour and you're already trying to cause trouble. You need to be civil or so help me, I will ground you for the rest of the break."

"But Mum!" James moaned, "I didn't do it!"

"I'm going to go find my parents," Scorpius announced, shaking his head in mock disbelief at James' behavior.

"Bring them over here if you find them, I'd like to talk to them," Mrs Potter told him as she continued fussing over James' nose.

"Already covered it, Mum," Albus pointed out.

"Will do," Scorpius promised as he headed off in search of Varanian, really just wanting to get away from there as he was not in the frame of mind to deal with James. He was just standing to wonder how he should go about finding Varanian when a hand grabbed his arm, he turned to snap at the guy but he waved a burned hand before it shifted back to smooth flesh, "I was just looking for you."

"I was waiting forever for you to be alone, what took you so long?" Varanian complained irritably, his voice his own, "Get your things and hurry up."

"That's the thing," Scorpius admitted and scratched his head nervously, "I told my friends I was staying with my parents - naturally - but erm... Mrs Potter wants to talk to them about wedding arrangements."

"You want me to go out and come back in here as your father to talk to the wife of the Head Auror who's hunting me?"

"Pretty much... Yeah."

"Scorpius-"

"Unless you have a better idea," Scorpius interrupted, Varanian gave him a dark look before stalking off. Scorpius shifted nervously and realized that Michael and his aunt were watching them, "H-Hey."

"Annie, this is my friend Scorpius," Michael introduced him brightly, "Scorpius, this is my Aunt Annie."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, ma'am."

"I'm not the Queen, Annie'll do," Annie brushed off his politeness.

"Um... Okay."

"Scorpius," Varanian's voice said awkwardly and he looked back to see Varanian had taken on his father's appearance, "Can we please move this along?"

"Who are you?" Annie asked with an eyebrow raised.

"He's my f-father," Scorpius lied, it sounded strange to say it and he didn't know whether to laugh or panic.

"Are you a shape-shifter or something?" Annie wondered curiously, Scorpius, Michael and Varanian all did their best to try hold their composure.

"Excuse me?" Varanian demanded, looking indignant.

"You were just in here looking like someone completely different."

"I was not. What a ludicrous suggestion."

"Nah, I'm pretty sure it's not."

"You must have gotten me confused with someone else... muggle," Varanian insisted, apparently trying to sound more like the man he was imitating.

"Someone wearing the exact same clothes as you?"

"These are... common clothes. Lots of people are wearing this."

"I don't think so," Annie commented and Scorpius too thought he was more shabbily dressed than his father, thankfully he'd chosen to wear a cloak, "And the same wedding ring?"

"All these rings look alike," Varanian protested stubbornly.

"Same voice?" Annie smirked confidently, Scorpius exchanged a desperate look with Michael for his unusually observant aunt risking Varanian's capture. Varanian coughed.

"You must've misheard," Varanian said, changing his voice to sound eerily similar to his father, Annie cocked her head to one side.

"Do I look like I was born yesterday?"

"He is a shape-shifter just don't say anything about it, please," Michael interrupted hastily before Varanian could form a reply, noticing what he and Varanian could not.

"Ah, there are you Mr Malfoy," Mrs Potter's voice said from behind them, they turned and Scorpius could feel his heart thundering in his chest.

"Yes, I hear you wished to speak to me," Varanian greeted her in a haughty tone that was a near-perfect impression of his father when addressing those outside of family, trying to stay on his game while Annie continued to look amused.

"Yes. And Michael, where's your father? I wanted to speak to him too."

"Where is Jack?" Michael asked of Annie curiously.

"No idea," Annie shrugged and thankfully said nothing about Varanian being a 'shape-shifter' because Mrs Potter would get the metamorphmagi meaning thus realize she was speaking to Varanian, Scorpius' heart still didn't relax any, "He didn't say where he was going."

"And you are... his girlfriend?" Mrs Potter guessed.

"Sister," Annie corrected and offered her hand, "Annie Thorne. I can pass on a message for Jack."

"It's just about wedding arrangements, we think it would be easier if Michael and Scorpius stayed the night before the wedding since you won't be there. Considering you're muggles and it's a bit awkward, and with you with the baby. How is she doing?"

"Good," Varanian invented shortly, Scorpius realized that Varanian probably had no idea what was happening with the Malfoy family right now which could catch him out.

"She means about the pregnancy how it's going with my baby sister due any day now," Scorpius prompted and he thought he noticed Varanian relax slightly at understanding what they were going on.

"Yes, it's going well, nothing outside of the usual complaints. My wife is at home resting right now so if we could hurry this along that would be appreciated," Varanian told them, Scorpius cringed inwardly in panic at the use of 'my wife' but then he probably didn't know her name, no one seemed to notice though. Except Annie who was looking somewhat amused, "She is eager to see Scorpius and we still have to pick up her almonds. Cravings."

"I understand," Mrs Potter smiled, apparently buying Varanian's lies.

"Its fine for Scorpius to go there and stay the night, he can Floo over the day before whenever you want."

"Any time is fine, there'll be people there."

"Very well."

"What's a Floo?" Annie whispered to Michael.

"If you just ask Jack to drop Michael a day earlier so he can stay the night then that'd be fine," Mrs Potter offered to Annie, "Or just stick to the original plan if he prefers. Tell him to owl us if he could, you know what to do, Michael."

"Got it," Michael nodded, "See you then."

"See you then," Mrs Potter agreed with another friendly smile to Varanian and Annie, "Nice seeing you both."

"Bye," Scorpius and Michael offered in near perfect unison to Albus and Vern who bade them farewell as well, James was glaring as it nursed his nose with a bloody cloth, Rose had apparently gone with her grandparents or whoever was picking her up. Scorpius also realized he hadn't had a chance to say goodbye to Molly, she'd probably already gone. Damn prefect separating compartments.

"So what's the deal?" Annie asked conversationally of Varanian as soon as the Potters and Vern were gone, Scorpius let out the breath he'd been holding in in relief, "Can you shape-shift into anyone?"

"It's not called shape-shifting, it's called being a metamorphmagus," Varanian told her darkly, slipping back into his usual voice, "And stop asking about it."

"Can you turn into just guys or women too? Because if you can then it must be difficult to get away with since you suck at changing your voice."

"I don't suck at changing my voice."

"Dude, I can do better impressions than you."

"You could not..." Varanian started to say but trailed off, apparently giving up or just not caring, he probably wanted to be out of there just as much as Scorpius, "Look I don't have time for this, goodbye. Come on, Scorpius, let's get your things and go."

"You're an asshole," Annie complained as Varanian led Scorpius over to get his trunk and owl from the much emptier platform, "Do you need to get things too, Michael?"

"Yeah," Michael confirmed and they came over with them, Varanian rolled his eyes.

"You're not the real Mr Malfoy, are you?"

"What makes you say that?" Varanian sighed as Scorpius got their trunks and owls.

"Partially because of the way you said 'my wife' instead of a name but mostly because otherwise your twin's over there," Annie pointed out and jerked her thumb back, Scorpius turned and saw his father wandering around. Varanian ducked behind the wall and changed his appearance to be a shorter, red-haired man with different features, "Can all wizards do that?"

"No, it's something you're born with. And silence. Scorpius, why is he here?"

"I don't know," Scorpius admitted in panic, "It was their idea, I don't know. He probably just wanted to see me off or something since my parents think I'm a complete imbecile."

"Go and ask him," Michael suggested as Varanian stepped away from the wall, his father spotted him anyway so Scorpius didn't have much choice.

"Hello Father," Scorpius offered and his father smiled brightly, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to make sure you were picked up okay," his father explained and Scorpius had to try very hard not to roll his eyes, his heart was still pounding, "You were vague on who you were being picked up by too, I wanted to meet them."

"I'm staying with friends, I told you," Scorpius protested and gestured vaguely to Varanian, realizing how utterly he'd just doomed them. Varanian couldn't be a pretend student friend and the parent picking them up at the same time.

"And you are?" his father wondered suspiciously.

"Um..."

"Annie Thorne," Annie introduced herself, jumping up and offering her hand that his father took, "Michael's aunt. Pleased to make your acquaintance, my good sir. And this is my boyfriend, Aaron, we're picking up Scorpius. Sorry if there was any confusion."

"It's alright," his father offered, seeming to relax, "We were just concerned about the specifics of where Scorpius would be staying."

"I understand, these are troubling times. How's your wife doing with the pregnancy? Aaron, why don't you finish getting Scorpius' things?"

"Yes, Aaron," Michael agreed and Varanian threw him a look of irritation but he and Scorpius went to get both of their things onto a trolley while Annie casually chatted to his father.

"Well it was nice meeting you but we really have to get going if we're going to beat the traffic, you understand. Or maybe not."

"Bye Father," Scorpius offered and his father stopped him from walking by, looking like he was about to hug him for a moment but apparently deciding it was too public, instead patting him on the shoulder.

"You shouldn't of been nervous about telling us you were staying with your werewolf friend," his father told him quietly, apparently thinking that was the reason for the deception and Scorpius relaxed a little more, "We just have to make sure you're back home before the full moon, you should be back well before then I believe."

"Okay."

"Don't forget to write, just because you're not staying with us doesn't mean we don't want to hear from you as well as to make arrangements for going home."

"Okay," Scorpius repeated, feeling anxious to just get moving, "Can I go now?"

"Well... yes," his father agreed but looked slightly hurt at his eagerness to be away.

"Bye father, I'll write as soon as I get there," Scorpius told him and joined the other three to head back through the barrier, no one said a word until they were safely outside the station.

"So is anyone going to tell me what's going on? What did I just lie for? Is that what you really look like?" Annie wondered curiously but no one answered, Michael looked like he was going to but a look from Varanian silenced him, Annie scowled, "C'mon, don't I get anything? Not even a thank you?"

"No," Varanian said finally, "We didn't need your help, I would've thought about something. And Scorpius, never say 'um' because it's terrible for credibility."

"Thought've something when? I haven't slept in two days and I thought of something faster than you and I don't even what we're doing."

"I haven't slept in five but-"

"I recommend caffeine."

"-There's no 'we'. It's us and you."

"You're an asshole," Annie commented while Varanian came to a halt, stopping all of them, "So where's your car, Aaron?"

Varanian gave no answer, instead looking around as if to make sure no one else was around. It dawned on Scorpius and Michael what he was going to do before he do it, Scorpius opened his mouth to say goodbye but Varanian had already activated the ring to take him, Scorpius and Scorpius' belongings away.

Roman managed to get settled quite quickly, his boss set him up with that apartment off the books and he retrieved Smokey. He kept it nice and neat to try make himself feel calm but Roman's anxiety was through the roof at first. He spent every waking moment petrified that Alzay would find him and punish him for leaving with Sathan, he spent every sleeping moment lost in nightmares of her torturing him, he woke up screaming louder than his son in absolute terror and had panic attacks if he saw anyone resembling Alzay. He tried to buy Calming Draughts and they did help but more often than not, he needed to spend the money on baby things for Sathan so the stress continued to eat him alive. Sathan crying didn't help his nerves any, loud noises made him panic. He was working from home so he could still care for Sathan, he often had conflicting negative thoughts about this. On one hand, he felt as if he should have left Sathan because raising her son was a waste of his time but on the other, he felt as if he shouldn't have left Lathan because raising his sons was his responsibility since Alzay was heartless.

After a few painful weeks of mental torment and exhaustion, he was giving Sathan as was necessary in baby care but Sathan did something strange. Sathan smiled at him. Roman was so shocked that he just stared, then ever so slowly, he returned the smile. As if a light had gone on in his head, he realized that he'd been thinking about it all wrong. Sathan wasn't just an obligation, he was a person. And he'd chosen to smile, maybe because he liked his Dad, maybe because he appreciated what Roman was doing or maybe just because he thought baths were fun but he'd smiled. All those times that Roman had felt alone but here he wasn't alone, he had a little person who depended on him, just as he'd depended on people when he was young and everyone had failed him either through dying, abandonment or turning against him. He had to be doing something right if Sathan felt like smiling, he could continue doing right and give his son everything he'd wanted, he could raise him right. He was in control for once.

The first thing he did with his new resolve was to change Sathan's name, if he was going to raise his son then he was going to raise his son and not Sathan Loren. It was a toss-up between Magnus - after his father - and Maurice - the name he'd always loved the sound of - and ultimately decided on Maurice, if only because he knew his sister had also wanted to name a son Magnus so it would be weird if they both had sons named Magnus. Maurice Rivers it was. Roman soon started to enjoy fatherhood, showering Maurice with affection to make sure he felt loved, talking to him, cuddling him, playing with him, singing lullabies, buying him toys. Every time Maurice smiled, it encouraged him that he was doing the right thing. For the first time in what felt like forever, Roman started to feel happy with his life and started to love his son despite the circumstances of his conception. It was rewarding to see Maurice grow, hear him laugh for the first time, see him sit up for the first time, crawl for the first time, use magic for the first time - he made his favorite stuffed lizard toy dance - and do general baby things that mattered more when it was your own child.

Although things weren't perfect, the memory of Alzay haunted him. In his nightmares, whenever he saw a woman with light brown hair, whenever he saw his body in the mirror. The wounds healed to scars but the scars marked him forever. He could only hope that neither of his sons ever had to go through any kind of pain like he'd been through. Stroking Smokey or cuddling Maurice helped chase away the bad memories and remind him it was over, he did feel safer the more time that went by without Alzay coming to hurt him and felt less on edge. The other thing on his mind was Lathan. The closer he got to Maurice, the worse he felt about leaving Lathan. Demon child or albino or whatever. Not a day went by when he didn't think about him, wondering how he was doing, wondering if Alzay bothered to kiss him goodnight and tell him he was loved like he did with Maurice. More than once he resolved to go back for Lathan but he never could bring himself to, he was so scared of Alzay. He could work himself up into a panic attack or bring himself to tears just thinking about having to face her again, painful memories bombarding him cruelly and leaving him literally shaking in fear. He could see why the hat put him in Slytherin, he was a coward and he was evil. He hated himself for leaving Lathan and hated himself more for being too scared to go back.

He also started to become worried about Maurice's health as he grew, Maurice didn't respond to his own name and sound never drew his attention. He could walk and crawl, he also could babble nonsensically but never any real words, not even once, not even a 'dada'. Maurice also didn't seem to understand things, not reacting if Roman said 'no' or 'look' the way that Weasley babies would. In his experience, babies tended to start saying and responding to things by the time they were nearly a year old, especially reacting to their own name. He knew all babies were slightly different but still, it bothered him and Maurice was alright in every other way, he was already trying to stand and walk but had no interest in speech. It was strange and bothered Roman so much that he finally took him to St Mungo's to see a Healer about it. He sat there waiting nervously with Maurice on his lap, amusing the infant with a stuffed lizard toy that Maurice was fond of, howling with laughter whenever Roman brought it to his face to 'lick' him with the fabric it had for a tongue. He smiled at how little it took to amuse his son.

"Daddy loves you," Roman offered and kissed Maurice on the top of his head, "But in reality, it's probably better to run away from lizard things that want to lick you because odds are they want to eat you. I bet you didn't know that, huh? Can you try saying lizard? Lizard."

"Mr Rivers, the Healer is ready for you now," a voice offered and Roman jumped in surprise, seeing a girl who looked around the same age as he was with a nametag reading 'in-training' and went with her to see the Healer.

Thankfully the Healer was a man, Roman was somewhat scared to be alone in a room with a woman. He told the Healer about his concerns with Maurice, the Healer listened patiently before Roman handed him over. The Healer did some spells on Maurice especially focused around his head and ears which didn't seem to bother him although he did keep watching Roman in confusion, he used some device things that weren't too dissimilar from the things that monitored babies on the ward. Finally he used a spell that caused a bluish misty light around Maurice's head while simultaneously using a device, pressing different buttons that caused different sounds. After that he seemed done and handed Maurice back to him, Maurice smiling happily at this and stretching out his little arms to reach him faster, Roman smiled and cuddled him.

"So erm... Did you find anything?" Roman asked before the Healer could open his mouth, "Is he sick or just slow to develop or what?"

"He's deaf," the Healer stated and Roman jumped for the second time, this time in shock.

"You can't be serious. How long has he been deaf?"

"Since birth. He can't hear any range of sound at all, he never has been able to. He was just born that way, it's very rare in magical children."

"But I talk to him all the time and he like reacts," Roman babbled anxiously.

"He was just reacting to your facial expressions," the Healer shrugged.

"Can you fix it? He can't just be deaf, hearing is important."

"There's nothing we can do, we can do things to enhance hearing that is already there even so severely impaired that it's as if he's deaf but Maurice doesn't have that. He's incapable of hearing any sound at all, we can't give him the ability to hear," the Healer pointed out and Roman said nothing, too stunned to think.

Maurice was deaf and he was never going to get better, his son smiled at him but Roman didn't return it. What was the point? He didn't understand anything, he couldn't hear. He felt He blamed Alzay, she'd made Lathan albino and made Maurice deaf. He knew children shouldn't be conceived in hate and force. He felt cheated, he'd spend months doting on his son and showering him with attention, getting close to him. But it was all a lie, all for nothing. He wasn't close to Maurice, Maurice couldn't hear a word he said, how could you be close to someone if you couldn't talk? You couldn't communicate? Maurice probably couldn't even think, you needed sound to think.

"It's not the end of the world," the Healer lied, "In fact you caught it early enough that it's the perfect time to start learning sign language to communicate. He's otherwise in perfect health, he can still have a good, full life."

"Yeah right," Roman muttered bitterly.

Part 7: Preparation

Scorpius could understand why he left so quickly but he still wished he'd have gotten to say goodbye to Molly and Michael. If Scorpius had been hoping to be filled in on the current state of things, he'd have been disappointed. Varanian showed him to his room, the same one as before except there was a bed this time before retreating to the basement to presumably sleep. He was instead left with Roman who fed him and pestered him with questions about how his sons were doing, he was delighted with Orous' success in Quidditch although it did send them off into a tangent about Quidditch before Scorpius decided to go to bed. Or at least tell Roman he was going to bed for some time alone.

After writing the promised letter to his parents, he took out the Resurrection Stone. He sat there on the edge of the bed with it in his hands, trying to decide whether he should use it. Ever so slowly, he started turning it in his hand. Sure enough, the not-quite-a-ghost shade of the platinum blond little girl appeared again. Scorpius scratched his head nervously.

"I'm sorry we got cut off last time," Scorpius apologized.

"It's okay," Lyra shrugged and smiled, "I is forgiving you."

"I'm glad," Scorpius returned the smile and tried to think of what to say or do but he was never good at that, he wasn't even sure what he wanted. To get to know her, he supposed, spend time with her. He thought of something he loved to do and they could do together, "Want to learn to play Wizard's Chess?"

Lyra agreed happily and Scorpius got the board out, explaining it to her even though it confused the chess pieces as they couldn't see her. He just had to tell the pieces what move she'd asked of them so it was just like she was playing, he deliberating kept letting her win since he was afraid of disheartening her and putting her off the game. She was ecstatic every time she won and was thankfully was more talkative than him, asking him questions with childish curiosity and enthusiasm. He said goodbye to her when it was late enough that he thought he should sleep and fell the sorrow hit him like a boulder crushing down on his heart, she was dead and gone. He clenched the stone tighter, vowing she wouldn't be for long.

Scorpius had a lie in, apparently still tired from having been up introducing Michael to Ashylos. It didn't matter though as he was up before Varanian, Roman was alone and fully dressed, sitting at the kitchen table with a copy of the Daily Prophet to read as he munched on what looked like French Toast. Much like Maurice who always read the paper, Scorpius didn't like to read it since the end of his First Year when they'd ran all those vicious lies about Varanian. He thought Maurice would tell them if anything noteworthy was happening, the headline that day was 'PAW Strikes Again' apparently. Scorpius scowled as he sat down with Roman, pouring himself a drink as he did so.

"Would you like some?" Roman offered him some of the French toast from the place in the center, it did smell.

"Yes please," Scorpius agreed and Roman got him his own plate to help himself, "So what's the news about PAW?"

"They're always in the news," Roman shrugged as he sat back down, "If they're not attacking werewolves then they're trying to rally support against werewolves. They went after Mordekai Krane - the werewolf guy who I found to save Hogsmeade - again since he's such a prominent werewolf, having his werewolf support group thing. It's really not good, the Ministry are having to waste their time dealing with them instead of fighting the Soul Eaters. It's no wonder they haven't attacked England in a while, we're doing enough damage to ourselves without them."

"Can't they just arrest these PAW people?"

"Rallying support and being part of the group isn't a crime, they can only go after the ones who actually have done illegal and it's proved. They've captured a fair few for attacks and murders but they always just claim to have acted without the knowledge or support of the rest of PAW or its leader, Tyrone Helmut. Naturally, Helmut and the rest of PAW claim to have had nothing to do with the criminal activities, claiming to not be responsible for the actions of its members."

"Morning," a cheerful but unfamiliar voice offered, Scorpius jumped in surprise as he was sure the stranger hadn't been there a minute ago. He looked in his early twenties with striking azure eyes and shiny hair that looked like it hadn't decided whether it was blond or brown, he reminded him of someone. Why Varanian would randomly join them in a different appearance than usual was beyond him, or the different voice and had managed to lose the piercing quality his eyes always seemed to retain, "Ah Rome, you didn't jump that time!"

"Yes, your attempt to give me a heart attack failed, Wyatt," Roman insisted and glared at... Wyatt? "I saw you crawling along the ceiling. And it's Roman. Ro-man."

"Got it, Romeo, old boy. You don't need to tell me twice."

"I'm confused," Scorpius admitted before recalling Varanian mentioning someone new vaguely while Roman rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"He's an animagus, he crawled on the ceiling to try avoid notice before dropping down and turning back into a human to say hello."

"So I suppose you're Scorpius Malfoy? I'm Wyatt Grant," the newcomer introduced himself and offered out his hand for Scorpius to shake, Scorpius had moved to do so before he caught the name and eyed him suspiciously instead.

"Grant? Any relation to Wynston Grant?" Scorpius wondered.

"I guess you've met my father, eh? And that you don't like him?"

"Yes," Scorpius admitted hesitantly and Wyatt's grin only increased as he sat down with them.

"Well I'm glad we have something in common then."

"You don't like your father?" Scorpius asked and recalled finding that letter on Grant, his son had ran away or died or something?

"It's why I ran away," Wyatt pointed out and started helping himself to the French toast, "Mmm... Tell me, Romollio, did you get good at making French toast because you lived in France? Or does the name have nothing to do with the country?"

"Weren't you dead?"

"Presumed dead but I got away and now I'm a certified kickass Shadow-Spying machine for Varanian's Army."

"We're not Varanian's Army," Roman complained irritably.

"Well I was going to say Varanian's Angels but you purebloods in the audience might not get the reference."

"It's a muggle movie or show, something like that," Scorpius remembered vaguely, Wyatt grinned.

"See, Romeo, even Scorpius gets these things," Wyatt told him, still cheerfully and quite quickly, "Although I do think Varanian's Army is kind of bland, something like Varanian's Lizard Army would be cooler. Ooh or just like The Lizards so it's more mysterious."

"The rest of us aren't lizards," Roman protested, "And what the heck is mysterious about 'The Lizards' anyway? It's just a species of animal."

"Fine then, what cool name would you like us to have, Romulo?"

"I don't know... Something like Knights of Light would be good," Roman offered and Wyatt burst out laughing, much to Roman's offense, "I didn't laugh at your stupid suggestion!"

"Only because you have no sense of humor. At all. Like not even slightly. Am I right, Scorpius? Which is cooler?"

"I think they're both equal," Scorpius admitted hesitantly, not wanting to pick a side and really he didn't prefer either anyway. Wyatt nodded.

"Smart, taking the strategic route. Care to toss your suggestion into the ring for an awesome name?"

"There's no name," Varanian scolded them from the doorway as he came in, back to his usual face and his short, scruffy, tawny hair, "How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Tell us whatever makes you happy," Wyatt offered as Varanian sat down with them and turned to Scorpius.

"After this, we'll get right on to your training."

"Yes, much training is needed to become one of Varanian's Knights of Lizard Light."

"Seriously, Wyatt, knock it off," Varanian complained.

Roman was devastated that his son was deaf and there was nothing to be done to fix him, the Healer's words just bounced off his skull. Maurice couldn't have a life if he couldn't hear, hearing was important and moving your hands to 'sign' just seemed stupid. That wasn't talking, it was just stupid. He dumped Maurice in his playpen and left him alone unless he cried or it was time to feed him, really what was the point in playing with him if he couldn't understand? What was the point in doing anything with him if he didn't understand? Maurice was just completely cut off from the world, he couldn't learn or know anything if he couldn't hear, why didn't they have a special ward in St Mungo's for it? Smokey was a cat and even he looked when Roman said his name, Smokey could at least understand things.

He'd been wrong, Maurice wasn't a person just an imitation that was missing a crucial part. He wanted a son not an imitation. Damn Alzay, he knew normal healthy children couldn't be born if they were conceived in... That. Lathan came back to mind again, he'd not only turned on his back on his son but on the only one who was capable of thinking. Assuming he wasn't completely demonic. He was hoping that wasn't the case. Roman had to face her, he had to at least try to get Lathan. For once his courage didn't fail him, maybe because he was too upset to feel too much fear, maybe because he didn't feel he had as much to lose now. Maybe if he confronted her in a public place then she'd just let him have Lathan, or at least swap Maurice for Lathan since he'd been her favorite. He could offer the swap fist, make it seem like taking them both was his least preferred option, she may be more receptive if she thought he wasn't getting exactly what he wanted. His plan failed though as Alzay - while she did still work in the Census Department of the Ministry - was not in work although a co-worker gave him her address.

He considered just trying again some other day but he thought he might lose his nerve then, his plan was essentially the same except now there was the added risk. Alzay could just take Maurice and murder him, then he wouldn't have to worry about anything. Except being dead. Maybe he'd finally get to see his family again. But still dead. He went through a range of emotions. He was terrified to the point of starting to panic when seeing Alzay, immensely surprised to find out she was living in a muggle house - as evidence by the muggle looking things that Mr Weasley would love, she had to have an ulterior motive for it though and he strongly suspected the muggle she'd married was Imperised or on Love Potion - when she invited him in, he was overjoyed to see Lathan - and see him respond to sound, he was playing just like a regular baby not a demonic fiend - despite how Alzay didn't take long to turn her wand to torture him as punishment for leaving as well as demanding to know why he wanted to swap children. He wished that surprised him but it didn't, the pain was unbearable but what had he expected with Alzay? His plan failed though, she had no interest in Maurice after learning of his horrific condition nor did she want him to take Lathan - apparently renamed Orous - but worst of all, she wouldn't even agree to let him even see Orous.

Roman felt even worse. He didn't want to never see Orous, he didn't want Maurice to be deaf. He could never have anything he wanted. He started writing to Alzay ever week to beg to be allowed to see Orous, even offering her money and sending a birthday gift that he asked Alzay to pass along. He didn't want Orous to think that he didn't care about him at all, he wished he hadn't left him. He started trying to teach Maurice sign language too, he used the book the Healer had given him but still felt incredibly stupid doing it as well as finding it difficult to try teach something that he was still learning himself. Maurice started trying to copy the signs quite quickly - probably thinking it was some kind of game - but it was a few weeks before he seemed to start to grasp that they had specific meanings. Roman didn't do anything for Maurice's first birthday, he was too depressed about Orous. What was the point? Maurice couldn't understand it anyway.

The second year wasn't fun, he wallowed in his misery and was constantly frustrated with all the stupid, fiddly signing although Maurice did pick it up shockingly quickly after he'd grasped the initial concept. This wasn't actually good, Roman struggled to remember the actual signs and had to look them up, Maurice's imperfect signs and faster use also made them harder to recognize. Maurice succeeded in walking before the summer was up, although he preferred trying to run and Roman set to work on potty-training right after. It saddened him though that he'd never hear his son's first words, Maurice would never learn to speak, never be able to have a real conversation. It was painful to watch him and know he'd never have a proper life, especially for a wizard who needed his hands to hold a wand not sign and speak for spells. But the more Maurice grew, the more he started to grow out of babyhood and more into his appearance which unfortunately could only remind of the one person he wished he could wipe from his mind. His light brown hair stayed light brown and grew out with a slight wave to it, just like Alzay's. His eyes were oceanic, just like Alzay's. Even his features were like her, sometimes his expressions too. He wasn't surprised there was nothing of him in his son - he strongly suspected the same of Orous - as they had been conceived against his will but he was surprised at how uncanny the resemblance could be.

He thought more and more about the school Alzay had given him the leaflet for, his first thought was to reject it outright since it had been suggested by her but... Well, it sound good and mentioned it made allowances for children like Maurice, it was as if it had been designed just to appeal to him. Roman had wanted to homeschool him like he had preferred to learn as a child but he didn't see how was he supposed to do that if he couldn't speak and could only communicate with random hand movements? He wasn't equipped to deal with it and Hogwarts wasn't either, assuming Maurice would be even let go from being deaf and Maurice was still unsure how he was supposed to learn magic anyway. It wasn't like Maurice would experience anxiety like he had, how could he when he couldn't hear? He wouldn't understand. But the school could maybe teach him how to be normal enough to maybe manage to get a job sweeping floors at a grubby tavern, really it was the best that Roman could hope for. He wrote to them to sign up Maurice up, they accepted and promised to come for Maurice on the day after his second birthday. Roman did put effort into the birthday and sent Alzay another gift to give to Orous, he let Maurice have ice cream for the first time as a treat despite it being bad for his health.

'I like ice cream,' Maurice signed when he was done, grinning before pointing to something with an excited expression, a fluttering colorful shape, 'Look, Daddy, butterfly.'

"Yes," Roman sighed sadly and signed as he spoke, "Yes it is."

The man who came from introduced himself as Xerxes Seneca, he was nice enough and could already sign. He said the school would provide everything and only needed Maurice himself, Roman didn't need to give him any clothes or anything to bring which was curious as he was going to let Maurice bring some of his toys but Seneca also citing it was better that he didn't. Roman felt his heartbeat starting to increase in panic at saying goodbye to Maurice, he felt like crying and changing his mind but he forced himself not to. He hadn't expected to be that upset, how could parents send their children off so easily? It was what was best for Maurice, this was the thing with his condition. He hugged him so tightly before letting Xerxes walk him outside the apartment into the corridor, Maurice was smiling and not realizing what was happening.

'I love you, Daddy,' Maurice signed happily as he was led away, Roman felt the tears building behind his eyes.

'Bye-Bye,' Roman signed back, unable to do anything else.

Maurice had time to look puzzled by this before there was a thunderous crack as Seneca disapparated with his son. Roman closed the door before sinking to the ground, the water burst from his eyes and he cried. He didn't know why it was so hard to say goodbye to the mindless Maurice, he'd see him in a few months anyway for Christmas. He refused to celebrate Christmas because it was almost simultaneous with Alzay's birthday but he'd still see him. It wasn't that long. And it was for the best, he was deaf and he needed special was wrong again though and it was four years before he'd see his younger son.

Scorpius' life quickly settled into a routine for the next few days, evenings were all about spending time with his sister and days were all about training. Varanian did not use the basement this time but rather one of the unused rooms that Roman had revitalized or through the house in general, it still looked a wreck from the outside but on the inside, it was unrecognizable as the filthy ruin it had been originally. Furniture was sparse and non-existent in places but it was clean, things were repaired. Varanian was having him practice Stunners mostly since they were the most useful but focusing more on his aim and speed of casting. It started with Scorpius having to practice firing spells in as rapid succession as he could at a stationary target, then upping it to a target that moved or one that changed positions every time it had been hit and finally, Varanian ended each session with having him run through every vacant room - meaning not the basement or any of their bedrooms - of the house hitting every target he saw.

It was exhausting keeping up the pace but as Varanian said, in reality enemies wouldn't stop just because he was tired. In reality, he also wouldn't have to duel all day - barring breaks - but if he could get better at using magic all day then he should be able to last a regular skirmish. Scorpius thought it was glad the Fidelius Charm only protected the building from his Trace because he did not fancy being outside, the wind ferociously battered the almost walls every day and night, the snow was thick and he was sure ice was abundant. It was a cold winter, Scorpius was given extra blankets and still needed to bundle up in all of them to feel warm against the chill. It was even worse outside and he didn't envy Varanian and Wyatt having to go out in it, nor his poor owl to deliver the letters to and from him and his family. His new baby sister still had yet to be born, she passed her due date but he was advised not to worry as it was just a few days. In fact, it may even be better since he and Lyra had been born a few days early.

Scorpius was enjoying the break - even if it was tiring - as he liked feeling like he was doing something useful, keeping busy also kept his mind from thinking of Calderon's past. He did get along with Varanian, he was focused on the task at hand which was exactly how Scorpius was and also wasn't particularly good at small talk any more than Scorpius was at meals. Wyatt was alright too, friendly and to be around although Scorpius still didn't entirely trust him because he didn't know him as well. Plus he was Grant's son. Roman was... Roman. Varanian had decided to apparate him to the Leaky Cauldron so he could use the public Floo fireplace to get to the Burrow the day before the wedding, Scorpius had also realized he needed to get dress robes which his parents reminded him of and sent money and he did still need to get presents. However, Varanian was not the one to take him but Roman. Varanian had been brewing Polyjuice Potion in recent months in case Roman needed to leave, Roman was the only one who wanted to go to Diagon Alley so he was to go in disguise. He would've liked to see the potion working but Roman just came out of his room, already changed into a random muggle apparently with a hooked nose and brown hair.

Roman was still incredibly anxious though, they braved the fierce cold and Roman apparated them there. It was no warmer in London, the cobbled streets were slippery and coated in snow, everything was coated in snow but the place did look less dilapidated and less deserted than when Scorpius had been there last. Whether it was just the holiday season or whether business had generally picked up, he didn't know. He did however see plenty of people with werewolf bracelets, maybe not as many as in Hogsmeade - although being bundled up against the cold could contribute to him not noticing - but still a good few. Every so often, Roman took a swig from a flask to ensure the Polyjuice Potion didn't wear off and had a separate vial of Calming Draught. Shopping with Roman was tedious, he alternating between asking Scorpius if any random person looked like they knew who he was and were going to murder him or asking Scorpius if he thought Orous or Maurice would like some random object as a Christmas gift.

"What?" Roman complained when Scorpius scowled at being asked if Orous was into flowers, "My life's in danger from Alzay no matter what I do now so I might as well try to make up for lost time with Orous. I can't just magically know what he likes. I'm trying."

Roman also lectured him on how awful weddings were due to the terrifying number of people while Scorpius was being fitted for dress robes, as well as telling him what to expect since all Weasley weddings were unimaginative and identical as they always took place in the Burrow. He also frequently pointed out how evil and scary the Weasleys were and that they'd wanted to murder him since he was a child. Especially Molly's father who apparently stole his sister, turned her against him, made his life miserable, 'killed' his stuffed unicorn Enas and who he thoroughly blamed for his sister's death. Scorpius really wasn't sure how much was true, what Roman perceived to be true and what actually happened weren't mutually exclusive events. As evidenced by Roman assuming any large group of people around wanted to murder him, Scorpius thought he really needed a stronger Calming Draught.

Scorpius did at least manage to get gifts for everyone. Jewelry and clothing for his family, as well as a different perfume for his mother, grandmother and aunt that he knew each specifically liked. Roman also helped him in picking out baby gifts that would be best suited to a newborn - assuming his sister was born by Christmas - which included some toys, some clothes, a blanket and stuffed toys because... well, Scorpius wanted to be a good brother and it was being positive about his new sister not dying despite Roman suggesting he bought too much. Mostly books - aimed at their specific interests - and sweets - aimed at their specific tastes - for Abby, Albus and Rose, as well as a homework planner for Rose, a BroomCare kit for Albus and a rare plant that changed color depending on the mood of those around them that he thought Abby would like. He got Michael mostly clothes since his were getting too small, he was still short comparatively but slightly bigger than a ten year old now as well as some new books on Healing, he also got him a BroomCare kit now that he had his own broomstick that had been Nick's. For Molly, he bought a new charm for her bracelet - a snowman - as well as a silver necklace with her birthstone, chocolates, a book on the most recent Quidditch tactic, flowers, a new scarf, new Quidditch gloves and some incense that was supposed to help with relaxing for exams, he worried he hadn't bought her enough though. Roman was no help with this, insisting dating was wrong and women just wanted to hurt you. Scorpius pitied Maurice, it was no wonder his mind was warped against dating.

He also got some sweets and a warm hat - he thought he'd need it in the cold - for Vern, a homework planner and book on study tips for Corin, a stuffed bird toy for Cassia, dog treats - for his dog - and stuffed dragon toy for Antonius, a Golden Snitch ornament for Professor Ashain, a new sketchbook and a new broomstick - a Firebolt Mark IV - for Latimer, a fantasy book for Yip, a box QuidChoc sweets for everyone on the Quidditch team and an expensive ivory handled cutlery set as a gift for the wedding. Scorpius actually managed to do something unthinkable, he ran out of money. For the first time in his life, he was without money as he couldn't get more from his family without them being around. It was... shocking for a Malfoy. Even when he'd run away he'd had money.

Roman was amused by this and agreed to pay for Orous and Maurice's gifts, as long as Scorpius helped him pick something each boy would like. Then finally, they could head back to the hideout. It was later than he'd thought when they got back so Varanian didn't bother getting him to train, giving Scorpius even more time to spend with Lyra as he wrapped all the presents up. He'd have gotten something for her but she couldn't interact with anything. Varanian did continue with his training the next morning but stopped at midday as Scorpius needed to get over to the Burrow, he packed things he'd need for the wedding and overnight stay and put all the gifts in a bag - for those he'd see at the wedding anyway - that had been magically extended for him since he figured it would save poor Free having to deliver them in the cold. After that, Varanian apparated him to the Leaky Cauldron, telling him to go back there after the wedding and ring him to he picked up. Scorpius went in and nervously approached the fireplace, wondering just how accurate Roman's complaints of the Weasleys had been. Regardless though, he hurled the powder into the flames and stepped into the emerald fire.

"The Burrow."