Gray: Scorpius Malfoy and the Scepter of Night

by Fiery Gray

UNDER EDITING! (IV): Scorpius is back for his Fourth Year and finds himself along with his friends fighting on different fronts with the Ministry's new approach, the resurgence of werewolf prejudice and even estrangement from his family. All the while still fighting to stop the Shadow Master from gathering the pieces of the Scepter, before it's too late. COMPLETE

13. Chapter 13: Down the Drain

Parts (74-78)

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IV

Chapter 13

Down the Drain

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Part 1: Hopeful Worry

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Roman returned to dreary old England, the city seemed even duller and more congested then he remembered it. And colder too. He missed the warmth and the quiet, working for his boss even seemed less interesting in comparison to spending every day surrounded by such a rich city of old. He'd even say he missed the sand and his quarters, they were bigger than his entire apartment. He thought Smokey missed it too, that and the pampering from the servants. The loneliness ate away at him and he missed the people too, it was a cruel thing to be afraid of people but lonely without. He was doing it for Maurice though, he had to get his son back. That was his current goal in life and anything else could wait.

It was awkward settling back into life into England, he'd almost started to forget what it felt like to feel his heart trying to beat itself to death against his ribs from his fear. Being back in England reignited the anxiety he'd hoped he'd recovered from, his sense of safety was shattered by the knowledge he was back in the same country as Alzay. His nightmares of her returned and he went back to his miserable existence as if he'd never been to Egypt at all, at least he still had Smokey. He seemed to spend all of his time writing, writing twice a week now to Alzay to plead to see Orous, writing twice a week now to the school to plead to see Maurice and writing twice a week to Leila although she was actually writing back or he was writing back as she had written to him first. Her letters were actually the best thing about the week, they played back and forth with riddles, talked about the shared literature they liked or history and they could even discuss their respective work as she wasn't an idiot in training anymore. Roman knew he was insane for missing her.

Roman suspicions of Maurice's school worsened though, they wrote back and used the apology of his being in Egypt as an excuse for the delay. This was bullshit anyway as evident by the frequency that he and Leila wrote to each other but the more pressing issue was the fact that he had mentioned in several letters by then - November - that he was in England now not Egypt, were they even reading them anymore? He started making sure to point out he was in England at the start of every letter. Leila suggested he go to the Ministry, she didn't seem to realize his Ministry wanted to murder him and he didn't have money or power to make them listen to them anyway like she did. It was March before he got another reply from them, apologizing for not realizing he was in Egypt anymore and saying his constant letters made it hard to get through instead. They still insisted it was better for Maurice's schooling for him to stay and refused to let him see his son. He still never heard anything from Alzay. Leila told him to send a Howler and demand they let him see Maurice or he would go to the Ministry, they had no way of knowing whether he'd carry out the threat or not. It took a few months to work up the courage but he did.

And to his immense surprise, he got a reply the following day. They said if he must then they could let him have Maurice for a week after his upcoming sixth birthday, Roman was overjoyed to finally get a result. He was pretty sure he wasn't sending Maurice back to that school though, Leila thought they weren't entirely legal anyway in the way they acted. He brushed up on his sign language and bought Maurice some age appropriate toys, did his room up. The day after Maurice and Orous' sixth birthday, he got a knock on the door and Maurice was standing there with someone presumably from the school. Roman was taken aback by his son's appearance, sure he had grown about a foot but he had also grown to be just like Alzay. His hair was even a similar length to her short hair, the same light brown down to the slight wave to it. His soft features were hers with the same neutral expression she carried. Even his eyes were like hers, especially his eyes in fact. Inhospitable oceanic orbs that gazed at him with the coldness that send a chill down his spine, they remained sharp despite the tiredness shadowing them. A gloved hand gripped something around his neck as the icy eyes slipped back to the man beside him and then he did something Roman had never thought he'd be capable of, Maurice spoke.

"I've seen him, can we go back now?" Maurice asked crisply of the man, his words had a slightly strange accent to them but it was still clearer than some of the people's English back in Egypt.

"You can talk," Roman gasped in shock.

"Of course I can talk, I'm not an invalid."

"Are you... still deaf?" Roman wondered in even greater surprise that Maurice had apparently heard what he'd said but his son rolled his eyes and went back to the man.

"Can I please go back now?"

"Maurice has a necklace that translates spoken words to text so he can read speech," the man explained in a drawling voice, "We did say we would take care to compensate for his deafness so he could still perform up to standards with other children his age. You shouldn't doubt our teaching methods, Mr Rivers. I'll be back for you in a week, Maurice."

---

"Dom, please can we not do this," Aurelius pleaded with her.

They were in the secret room that only those with Ashain blood could access, it was surpassingly easy to get to. All Aurelius had to do was put his hand against a particular segment of wall and it turned into the secret room as if it was a flimsy door, despite being a thick chunk of cold marble like the rest of the wall as you saw going in. There were no edges from the outside to indicate it, no indents, no cracks, no lines, rather just the same smooth stretch of marble like the other walls. It felt like it to touch too, although if Dom touched it then it didn't open even if she pushed and shoved. It didn't react to magic either, just Aurelius' hand.

It led into a small room, maybe just slightly bigger than a broom closet - a regular broom closet, not the extremely spacious ones in Ashain manor - which was all red brick except the marble entrance wall. The floor was rough dark flagstone too, not like the grand mansion it was connected to. There was no lights or torches or signs it went anywhere or anything in the room even, Aurelius touching the other walls did nothing either. The only thing that did anything was the marble wall entrance, it closed automatically when he moved his hand away on whatever side. Still though, Dom thought it had to be what Varanian had mentioned. You would only get to it if you knew it was there, she couldn't see this room build and enchanted how it was for no reason. It had to the way to get to Ashylos' wand, the final Scepter piece.

"I just want to find out if we can figure out how to get down," Dom assured him, her husband continued scowling worriedly though.

"Well patting the walls clearly does nothing," Aurelius pointed out, "I don't remember what Romulus said opened it."

"Wait, what?!" Dom burst out in surprise, "Your brother figured out how to open it?"

"I think so, I'm pretty sure he said something about it going somewhere but he would tell me when I was older," Aurelius said slowly as if it required a lot of thought.

"Did he say anything else?"

"I was only four when he died, he didn't tell me everything and it's hard to remember everything as well. What do you remember when you were four?"

"Not a whole lot," Dom admitted, understanding his point, "But it's a good sign, if a teenage squib could figure it out then we can."

"Romulus was actually pretty intelligent, it doesn't mean it will be easy for us to figure out. And again, I really, really, really don't think we should be doing this," Aurelius reiterated anxiously, "We shouldn't be messing with anything remotely to do with Varanian or the Shadows or the scary Horcrux guy possessing my son."

"It'll be fine."

"That's what Cassia said before she got herself tortured and killed and Atty tortured and traumatized. And what Brutus said before he got himself fake-killed and turned into a Shadow."

"Nothing bad has happened to me yet, has it?" Dom asked him gently, feeling bad for making him anxious but she'd feel worse if he was kept in the dark. He shook his head in conformation and she took his hands, squeezing them comfortingly, "I've found out stuff for Varanian and Corvine is none the wiser, it'll be alright."

"What happens when he does find out? He was scary even before I found out he was a Shadow and the Shadows are scary anyway," Aurelius pointed out in little more than a whisper, "I don't want you to go through being tortured because it is horrible and I don't want to see you die. And these are very real things that happen in wars in situations like this."

"What would you rather I do?" Dom wondered, "Just turn around and tell Varanian no? Just not do my part in helping fight the Shadows? Those bastards killed my mother, my uncle, my aunt and a lot of other people, half my family are all standing against them. If I have a chance to make a difference, do you really want me to turn my back just because there's a risk?"

"Honestly? Yes. We should just tell the Aurors and have them deal with it like it's their job too, I don't want to see you get hurt."

"No we can't, they tend to ruin plans and disbelieve people or else Varanian wouldn't be on the run," Dom sighed and pulled her hands away, looking down as Aurelius averted his eyes unhappily, "I know what I want to do, I want to help. If you don't want to then you don't have, there's nothing with that and you can go do whatever you want. I told you because you had a right to know and marriage should be based off honesty, not to drag you into it against your will."

"Dom, I love you," Aurelius told her seriously as he cupped her face in his hands, causing her to look up into his dark chestnut eyes, "And I'll stand by you no matter what but I'll also tell you when I think- when I know something is a bad idea. If I can't convince you then I'll still be there, this helping in the war stuff is only going to end badly. I just really wish you'd realize that before you get hurt because I don't want you to get hurt."

"I won't get hurt," Dom promised and kissed him tenderly on the lips for a moment before hugging him tightly, he held her close, "I promise. I love you too and I know it can end badly but that doesn't mean it always does, we can just be careful and it'll be alright. I just really wish you'd realize that before it ends alright."

"I guess we'll just have to see which one of us is right," Aurelius admitted weakly and nervously.

---

Alzay was feeling pleased with herself for successfully completing the translator necklace for her son, she just wished Orous was doing better with his learning. She was becoming increasingly frustrated with the whole thing, Cade kept thinking he knew how to raise her son better than she did and was suggesting things, encouraging stupid muggle things, wanting Orous to make friends with muggles. Cade was muggle! He couldn't even have children! He knew nothing about raising magical children, he had no right to think he did. She knew how to raise children, she was a good mother. After all she still managed to do more for Maurice than Roman ever had despite not having seen him since his infancy, she put up and tried to Orous despite his stupidity when a worse mother would have given up and walked away. Like Adelaide.

She couldn't help it, she started using magic on Cade to hurt him. He just made her so angry and he had an extremely bad habit of trying to walk away during an argument so they could calm down, Alzay had come to realize she couldn't stand when people tried to walk away from her. Just like her mother had done, turned her back on her and her father. Cade the muggle was actually ironically much stronger than Roman the wizard, he always fought and never broke down as a pathetic wreck. He had an annoying habit of fighting through the pain and taking her wand or grabbing her wrist to change the direction of the spell, it always left her completely stumped on what to do in that situation. Wizards never did that in duels or fights, it was just not done. And she couldn't stop him because she was too focused on the spell she was doing, physically he was much stronger than her so she could only play innocent. He bought it like an idiot so she stopped trying so hard, she couldn't be bothered to be nice to him anymore and she thought he stopped believing her.

She actually didn't care what Cade thought, he had no way of knowing the laws against using magic to harm muggles or going to the Ministry to report said laws anyway. She didn't really care if he left, it was just show Orous how bad muggles were and Cade would lose his stepson as he had no right to her child. She kind of didn't want him to leave though, a part of her that made her worry about herself wanted very much to see how long it took to break his spirit. Cade also did keep the house clean and take care of Orous quite well when she was busy, it was convenient of him to stay for that as well. Although she did put enchantments around Orous' room so he wouldn't her and Cade fighting, Orous might get the wrong idea if he saw his mother torturing his beloved father. Roman also started writing to her more frequently to beg for contact with Orous, she'd stopped reading them but thought he was either getting braver or stupider. The only thing she looked forward to was seeing Rabastan, he was the only one she felt she could talk to as an equal and confide in. He frequently got her little gifts too and she really could just relax around him, be herself. The year ended with her almost severing Cade's arm in anger, really the idiot would've deserved it for getting Orous a puppy. It wasn't magical in the slightest! Alzay did wish she had a better reign on her temper though.

Rabastan had decided she was ready to start doing more than just giving them information, she didn't think there was much more she could give them by then anyway as there was only a finite number of wizards in England after all. She was going all around the globe now though, being tasked with mostly killing specific people and leaving no trace or sometimes kidnapping or torturing for some random information instead or sometimes stealing something. Polyjuice Potion was frequently used as a precaution to protect her identity unless the target lived in a particularly isolated area, she was almost always paired up with someone. Pyrrhus Florian being the most notable of these, he frequently bounced between flirting with or otherwise trying to impress her and being insane. They did work well together and both of them knowing sign language actually helped them communicate without words to retain the element of surprise, Rabastan always went over the plan first and on rare occasions when things didn't go to plan, they still succeeded. It was all thought out and the people she worked with were as capable as herself, it made it all the more confusing that she couldn't really see a pattern to what she was doing or the people they were after in random different countries.

"It's there, I promise," Rabastan assured her, "It's deliberate so that people don't know enough to put together the overall plan so they wouldn't be able to give anything conclusive away if they were caught."

"Fair enough, I'd just kind of like to know why I'm doing these things," Alzay admitted and leaned back against him, resting her head in the crook of his neck.

"Not going soft, are you?" Rabastan wondered as he put his arm around her.

"Hardly," Alzay scoffed and he started rubbing her arm soothingly.

"I was joking."

"I know. I'd just like to know that the bigger picture is here, when my father's being rescued, when we start changing the world, when I ever get to meet your master. My only problem with what you having me doing is how little I get to know or plan, I have no problem killing or torturing or whatever. I trust you. I just want to know these things, you've been to Azkaban so you know what my father must be going through."

"Well for starters, you've actually met the master," Rabastan pointed out, much to her surprise, "You just haven't realized it because the master didn't announce who they were to you. As to the rest, your father will be rescued in the early phases of when we start making ourselves known. The master very much wants to wipe Azkaban off the map and liberate the useful prisoners - such as your father - very dramatically early on to make an impression. When we move onto that phase depends on a number of factors but it should be just a couple more years, five at the absolute maximum unless something goes horrifically wrong."

"Okay, fair enough. And in regards to the master, I meant more about learning their identity and knowingly meeting them though."

"The master just prefers their identity to be kept secret, not many people are trusted with it. At least for now, we're using the secrecy to our advantage as it'll incite more fear and panic if the world doesn't know who they're up against."

"I get that but you can trust me," Alzay offered before a painful thought struck and she pulled away Rabastan, "You do trust me, don't you?"

"I..." Rabastan began and looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, "Yes, I do trust you."

"Good," Alzay let out a relieved breath, the thought of him not trusting her bothered her strangely a lot. She didn't know why, it shouldn't as his trust wasn't necessary for the purpose of their relationship. In fact, the relationship served no real purpose and she didn't get anything out of it. She just... liked being around him, she liked Rabastan himself.

"If it really matters that much to you, Alzay," Rabastan spoke up with a smile as he caressed her cheek gently, "Then I'll speak to the master and see what I can do. Okay?"

"Okay," Alzay agreed and pressed her lips against his, she just wished she didn't have to go home soon.

---

Part 2: Aftermath

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"What?!" Albus burst out in shock, jumping back as if he'd been physically burned and his voice became more cracked as it went on, "No, that can't be. He-He was fine yesterday, he was out and moving and feeling better and-and he said he'd fly with me this morning..."

"How?" Scorpius asked guiltily and quietly.

"Threw himself off the Astronomy Tower," Molly answered and Scorpius flinched mentally as his grandfather's broken body sprang back to mind, having been thrown off the same tower. Except he imagined Latimer like that instead, "With a heavyweight charm on himself, it's why it's so hard to heal him and why Koray couldn't completely break his fall when he tried to save him."

"I'm sure he'll be okay," Scorpius lied with an attempt to force a smile that convinced no one, Molly was desperately trying to fight off tears and instead he put his arms around her. She clung to him tightly and buried her head into his neck.

"What's the matter with you guys?" an unwelcome voice asked and Scorpius over to see James and Carver making their way over, they were standing by the doors to the Great Hall after all. Scorpius was not in the mood for him, Molly pulled away from him to see what was happened.

"Fuck off, James."

"I only asked what was wrong," James smirked in mock innocence, probably glad to have gotten a rise out of him. Scorpius should have just said nothing.

"Latimer tried to kill himself," Albus croaked quietly, his emerald eyes glistening with tears.

"Good riddance," James scoffed as grin became greater, Molly moved as if to hit him and Scorpius grabbed her back. When had he become the one keeping peace with James? "About time that loser took a hint, world will be better without that ugly freak. Coward, I knew he never belonged in Gryff-"

"SHUT UP!" Albus screamed and there was a smack as his fist collided with his elder brother's face, James was knocked back into Carver who steadied him. He looked back to his brother in shock, Albus' eyes were openly streaming tears now, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! HOW DARE YOU!? HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!? LATIMER IS MY FRIEND! MY FRIEND! AND HE MIGHT DIE! BECAUSE OF YOU! BECAUSE OF YOUR FRIENDS, BECAUSE OF BASTARDS LIKE YOU!"

"Al-"

"DOES IT MAKE YOU HAPPY, JAMES!? ARE YOU REALLY PROUD OF YOURSELF RIGHT NOW?! FOR MAKING SOMEONE'S LIFE SO MISERABLE THAT THEY DON'T WANT TO BE IN IT ANYMORE?! DO YOU LIKE DESTROYING PEOPLE'S LIVES!? REALLY, JAMES!? IS THAT REALLY WHAT YOU WANT?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Albus continued shrieking louder than Scorpius had ever heard him yell, shaking with rage or grief as tears rained from his eyes. People were stopping to look now, James said nothing but Carver at least had the decency to look guilty, "AND YOU KNOW WHAT?! LATIMER'S MORE OF A GRYFFINDOR THAN YOU'LL EVER BE- HIS SEVERED FOOT IS MORE GRYFFINDOR THAN YOU COULD EVER POSSIBLY BE! SO JUST SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

"Why don't we go see him now?" Calderon asked as he moved himself between the two brothers and ushered the three of them away.

"Calderon, he hit me!" James whined accusingly and jabbed a finger at his sobbing brother with a glare.

"I didn't see it, I'm afraid."

"You were right there!"

"I'm sorry, I'm suffering from sudden onset temporary blindness right now," Calderon invented and continued leading them away, Scorpius was sure James was fuming but he didn't want to look back, "Toodaloo, and have a nice break."

"I thought we couldn't see him yet?" Molly wondered as she wiped her eyes.

"You can't but you can see Michael or Freddie who happen to be in the Hospital Wing where he is."

"Why's Fr-Freddie in th-the Hos-Hospital W-Wing?" Albus asked in between sobs and Scorpius patted his shoulder awkwardly to try comfort him.

"Because he's now a Daddy," Calderon informed him and the three looked at him in shock as a semblance of a smile formed on the assistant's face, "Caitlin went into labor early, the baby was born last night. Mother and baby are both healthy and alright."

"Well th-that's go-good a-at lea-least," Albus wailed, he continued crying softly as they carried on to the Hospital Wing.

Molly calmed down though, or at least she was trying to put a brave face on things. He took her hand for comfort and she squeezed his hand so tightly he could feel the uneven gnawed on nails digging into his skin, he didn't say anything though. Whatever little helped. Freddie was the one first one they saw, he was pacing the room and rocking the little bundle of blankets in his arms. Caitlin was a few beds down and he assumed the bed beside her with the curtains drawn was Latimer's, Michael and Marigold were either with Latimer or somewhere else as he couldn't see them.

"Hello fellow cousins," Freddie greeted them, he looked tired and that combined with a mess of red dreadlocks gave his smile something of a demented twist.

"I'm not your cousin," Scorpius pointed out instinctively while Calderon moved away to the closed off bed.

"You can be an honorary cousin," Freddie decided and shifted his position excitedly to show them the child in his arms, a sleeping wrinkly faced little one. Freddie was dark-skinned like his mother while Caitlin was Caucasian, the baby was somewhere in the middle although maybe more on Freddie's side, "Isn't she most beautiful little girl you've ever seen in your life?"

"She's sweet, Freddie," Scorpius admitted with an attempt at a smile but his eyes drifted back to the closed curtain, it was hard to be happy for Freddie's daughter's birth when his friend might die.

"So it's Fast Freddie junior the girl?" Molly guessed, her smile fell even shorter than his and her eyes also were drawn to the curtain.

"Actually we decided on Charla, after Uncle Charlie," Freddie told them and glanced over where they were looking as well, his expression, "Michaela as a middle name after Michael... And a second middle name, either after or chosen by Latimer. We both know him from the Quidditch team, I really hope he pulls through."

"Any word?"

"Not really, Marigold snaps at you to quit bothering him if you ask. He hasn't stopped working on him since Koray brought him in though, it's got to be a good sign in a way as we know Lat's not dead."

"Hey," Michael offered and they glanced back to see him entering, a goblet of water in hand. He too looked tired, his hair was more of a tangled mess than usual and his eyes shadowed with fatigue, "I guess you guys heard what happened last night, the good and bad."

"Freddie," Caitlin called and her boyfriend obediently went over to her with the new baby.

"Wait, why are they naming their daughter after you?" Scorpius realized as Freddie's words finally processed in his mind.

"I delivered her. Marigold had his hands full with Latimer and the other Healers aren't here full time, some only work days and the others had already gone home for Easter. Koray went to call for help and in the meantime... well, the baby wasn't waiting and it was just me and Freddie. And I know more about that stuff than he does from medical things I read, Marigold was still talking and guiding though," Michael explained with a weak smile, "It was actually kind of amazing. Except for worrying about Latimer. And worrying about screwing up."

"You h-have s-s-such a weird t-taste in r-reading," Albus said through his tears, although they did seem to be drying up a bit. Michael opened his mouth to reply but they were distracted by Calderon leaving the curtain to approach them, "C-Can't you he-heal him, Cal-Calderon? Y-You're so good an-and power-powerful?"

"I can't," Calderon shook his head sadly, Scorpius glared at him more menacingly then he probably should as hurt flicked in the dark eyes but he was still mad at him, "Marigold said it could do more harm than good with the Heavy-weight Charm, some complicated medical stuff. They can't even reverse it without knowing how much heavier he made it, we don't that without asking him or his wand."

"He didn't have his wand on him?" Scorpius wondered in surprise.

"No. It wasn't with his note either back at the Astronomy Tower either."

"That's weird," Molly admitted but it dawned on Scorpius why, he'd been saying about the birthday present for his dad and using Molly's owl. What did Austin want more than anything, especially after almost being killed by the Shadows? A wand. He'd probably sent it off with Hooper before... Scorpius shook his head violently to shake off the mangled memories and guilt tore his heart back down, that must've meant that Latimer had probably been going to the tower when he'd last looked at the map. Why hadn't he watched to make sure Latimer made it back to the dormitory? "What did his note say?"

"This," Calderon offered and withdrew a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket to hand to her, Molly took it cautiously, "Marigold says to get some breakfast, you can probably see him after as he's stable-ish right now."

"How are we supposed to eat breakfast?!" Albus demanded tearfully.

"Starving isn't going to help anyone," Calderon pointed out, "I have to go do some stuff now though, or no one will be going home for Easter. Stay strong."

"Thanks," Albus sniffed as Calderon left, they - minus Michael who had probably already seen it - peered over Molly's shoulder to read Latimer's suicide note which had the picture of his mother and him pinned to the corner. There was a drawing of stars, lights joined up magically to make shimmering words.

I don't want to die but I can't live like this anymore

It's better for everyone if I'm gone anyway

You win, world.

- Tobias

"Y-Y-You know, wh-when h-he s-said ab-about me rep-replacing him I d-d-didn't m-m-mean h-him t-to die. Y-You d-don't th-think its m-my f-f-fault that h-he...?" Albus said before breaking down in another wave of sobs, Scorpius wondered why he'd signed it by his first name. Did he prefer his first name? Had he ever bothered to ask before just calling him by his last name?

"C'mon, it's clearly not your fault," Michael offered gently and put his hand on Albus' shoulder comfortingly, "He had a lot dragging him down, I very much doubt it was because of you. Now let's get something to eat, the faster we do, the faster we can come back and see him."

Albus nodded and tried to stop crying as they headed to the Great Hall while Michael attempted to console him, Scorpius and Molly just walked in morbid silence with their hands gripped for comfort. They returned to find Elwood was giving a speech, they walked to their seats awkwardly through the silenced students. He was lecturing about how awful bullying was and how it could drive people to suicide, he encouraged any victims to come forward as it would apparently be taken much more seriously after Easter with stricter rules and harsher punishments. He also announced something else, that counselling had proved to be ineffective and was being disbanded after Easter. This felt like a blow to the gut for Scorpius, he'd just started opening up to Leebin. He wasn't better yet, surely he'd just meant the horrible counsellors like that bitch Latimer had?

"Is it true about Latimer trying to kill himself?" Rose asked as soon as Elwood was done, Albus burst into tears again. They took this to be a yes and Rose looked distraught, "You don't think it's because of me, do you? Because I used to be mean - without realizing it - to him?"

"Yes, Rose, I'm sure your opinion matters that much to him that he tried to kill himself when you started being nice to him!" Albus yelled at her before going back to crying softly, apparently not caring he was at a crowded table in a crowded room.

"You know people are looking at you, right?" Maurice commented, he alone looked unaffected by the news.

"DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE?!" Albus screamed before burying his head in his arms.

"He's still alive, Al, he could pull through," Abby offered gently and put her hand on his shoulder in comfort.

"You lot are looking at this all wrong anyway," Maurice complained, "Latimer didn't try to kill himself, someone tried to kill him. Its attempted murder, not attempted suicide."

"What gives you that crazy idea?"

"Because Latimer wouldn't try to kill himself," Maurice pointed out as if it was obvious, "He's a talented wizard and a good soldier, he's my friend and he wouldn't try to take his own life. Clearly, someone tried to kill him and pass it off as a suicide."

"Oh Maurice," Rose sighed and looked at him sympathetically, his denial did make him sound very much like young child who was trying to find a better explanation to something they didn't like . She patted his shoulder gently, "I'm sorry."

"Why are sorry?"

"Because you're wrong."

"No, I'm not," Maurice scoffed stubbornly.

"What proof do you have?"

"I told you, Latimer wouldn't kill himself. He's not the kind of person who does that. There has to be another explanation."

"Good luck with that," Corin muttered and Maurice glared at him before stalking off while Vern and Orous came over, "Well goodbye then."

"Is it true about Latimer?" Vern asked anxiously.

"And what's up with my brother?" Orous added as he watched Maurice leaving.

"It's true and Maurice is just in denial," Michael offered and the two Hufflepuffs' faces fell.

"Will he be alright?"

"Too soon to say."

"Can we see him?"

They headed back to the Hospital Wing just as Marigold was leaving the curtained off bed, the Head Healer too looked exhausted but he had clothes splattered with blood and his hands were crimson. Albus immediately broke down again before Marigold could point out Latimer was stable for now and they could see him, Scorpius let out a relieved breath and headed over to his friend. Latimer didn't look mangled but his skin did look as if all the color had been drained from it he did show signs of injury, he had a bandage wrapped around his head as well as his bare chest and shoulders, probably more was covered by the blanket. Most strikingly thought was Latimer's breathing, each breath sounded like a desperate struggle that came out as a long loud rattle. At least he was breathing though, breathing was good.

"Honestly, Al, can't you keep it together for five seconds?" Rose complained of her crying cousin, "Molly knows him better than you and she's doing better than you."

"I c-can't h-help it!" Albus sobbed, "There's enough death in th-this war - Uncle Ch-Charlie, Aunt Aud-Audrey, Aunt Fl-Fleur, N-Nick - an-and r-risk of d-death - for ev-everyone - with-without my fr-friend tr-trying to k-k-kill himself. H-He w-was th-that mis-miserable and... and I di-didn't ev-even know an-and j-just f-feel hor-horrible. I d-don't w-want to lose anyone else."

"Cry all you need, Al, everyone processes things differently," Orous offered as he went to go sit by Latimer.

They didn't really get to stay long though, Marigold told them that anyone leaving for Easter had to go and even those that weren't had to say goodbye. It was the first break that Scorpius was actually staying for, it was very strange to not be getting onto a carriage. He did go over and stroke a Thestral though, it made him feel a bit better.

"You like Thestrals, do you?" an unexpected voice asked and Scorpius jumped in surprise as he spun, seeing Ashylos standing there. He looked exactly like himself, dressed as he was in the memory he'd showed him and was clearly not possessing Professor Ashain. He was blurred around the edges as if Scorpius was looking at him through a misted window and he seemed somewhat transparent as well, similar to the shades brought by the Resurrection Stone as he retained color.

"I-Yes," Scorpius admitted as Ashylos approached and reached out, his arm passed through Scorpius' shoulder but made contact with the Thestral, "I don't understand."

"Do you know why only those who've seen death can see Thestrals?"

"No."

"Because you've witnessed a soul leave this earth, your soul saw even if your mortal eyes could not. Souls - true souls, not the shells of souls we call ghosts - move onto another plane of existence when they are not tethered to flesh. When you see someone die, that person's soul leaves their flesh and you see the pure soul of them without their body. Witnessing that makes you more open and connected to that plane so you can see Thestrals, Thestrals exist simultaneously on both planes. They are flesh, blood and soul all at the same time. You need to be more open to the other plane or you can't physically see them due to the soul part. They tend to unnerve people but not you, your Patronus even reflects that and it is your wand core."

"What about it?" Scorpius asked, not really in the mood for this. He wanted to get back to Latimer.

"I do not know but it's interesting," Ashylos shrugged.

"Why can you touch the Thestral and not me?"

"I currently exist on the other plane as I'm no longer tethered to flesh, the Thestral is flesh and soul so it can be touched by things on either plane. Me or you. You exist on the other plane so I can't touch you," Ashylos explained as he moved his hand away, "I'm getting stronger, Skorpios. I can move further away from Atticus, he went to Hogsmeade with his children several times since and the connection holds. I have been keeping an eye on you, I now have the strength to bring myself into this plane like this even if not particularly substantial. We're running out of time, it is only a few months before I'll live again. Which means Atticus will not, he'll start showing signs of his strength being drained as well."

"I'm working on it," Scorpius assured him with a pang of worry.

"Alright," Ashylos nodded uneasily and something occurred to Scorpius as he moved his own hand away from the Thestral.

"Why can Antonius see Thestrals if he's never seen death?"

"Because he has a broken soul," Ashylos pointed it out as if it were obvious.

Scorpius went to ask him to elaborate but he was called over by Rose as she'd found a carriage, he looked back to Ashylos but he was gone. Scorpius moved back over to them instead, Rose, Corin, Orous, Michael and Molly were all going home.

"I'm not going," Molly announced as the other four said their goodbyes and started getting into the carriages, "I want to be here for Latimer."

"Are you even allowed to change your mind this late?" Corin asked.

"I don't really care. My Dad will understand."

They returned to Latimer to find Maurice had gone to him while they'd been gone, they stayed with Latimer for the rest of the day. Leaving in shifts at meals to make sure someone would always be with him in case he woke up, although Marigold would be there anyway. The other Healers had left, leaving Marigold alone to care for the struggling Latimer. He hovered nearby and frequently administered potions, Scorpius recognized Blood-replenishing potion but he wasn't savvy enough on healing magic to know the others. Marigold also did things with his wand to Latimer every so often, probably checking on him and once chased them off several times when Latimer's breathing became even more ragged. After a depressing - on average - hour-long wait, he would allow them to come back in and say Latimer was stable again.

No one really said much, Maurice didn't even bother holding his translator necklace. Mostly Scorpius just sat with Molly leaning back against him, finding comfort in their closeness as they watched Latimer's rattling breaths with fear everyone would be his last. Sometimes other teachers popped in to see how he was doing, Professor Koray - he had been the to try stop Latimer's fall when he saw him and had brought him to the Hospital Wing - especially who seemed quite shaken, Professor Ashain who looked sympathetic, Professor Longbottom who was just saying goodbye to Abby as he was heading home, Professor Vipera to restock some of Marigold's potions, Professor Kresmir just to see how Latimer was doing before he left and even the Headmaster Elwood himself, who looked concerned.

"How is the boy doing?" Elwood asked of Marigold.

"Stable but not great," Marigold informed the headmaster, a disapproving scowl on his face, "I need him to be stronger before I go after the other bone fragments, the more blood he recovers the more obvious it is he has internal bleeding still. I might have to risk it anyway, I don't know how long I can wait especially as the weakened immune system might cause his Dragon pox to resurface."

"Why don't you know? Aren't you supposed to be a Healer?"

"Do you know anything about healing?" Marigold wondered tiredly, dislike his eyes as he watched the younger man for an answer.

"Well no but I'm not a Healer, I'm the Headmaster. It's your job to know these things," Elwood told him before folding his arms, his expression becoming harsh, "If this boy dies then you're fired."

"Well thank you for that, I totally wanted that extra pressure," Marigold muttered sarcastically, "Have you got in contact with his Father yet?"

"No, they're having trouble tracking him down. Until then, his health decisions lie with Hogwarts so they lie with you. Do whatever it takes. Or I'll fire you."

"I heard you the first time," Marigold complained and Elwood nodded before stalking off without another word, the Healer glared after him, "And you know, if you made the other Healers come back to work and help me then the odds of his survival would go up! Two wands are faster than one."

"It's their vacation," Elwood insisted incredulously as he paused in the doorway to look at Marigold as if he'd spoken another language, "You can't call someone in on their vacation, that's just mean. You're Head Healer because you're supposed to be able to handle it so do so."

"Ass," Marigold scoffed as the headmaster left, Scorpius wasn't entirely sure that Elwood hadn't heard it although he definitely did miss the angry string of mutterings about hating Elwood and that he should have let him die when he was injured the other year.

Scorpius went back to wallowing in silent guilt, his friends' faces falling lower at Marigold's less than positive outlook. He kept going over and over the day, over the past few months even. He'd known Latimer was unhappy, why hadn't he done something? He looked at things Latimer had said in a new light, wondering how he could possibly have not realized. He should have said something, he should have done something. He wasn't sure what - why would he know what when he never know what to say to people ever? - but something might've helped at least. He'd never even gotten around to thanking Latimer for the Christmas present or for figuring out about Ashylos possessing Ashain, he'd never done anything to stop Latimer getting picked on, he'd never even James to shut up when he'd taunted Latimer at practices. He was useless. Latimer had given him a place to stay when he'd ran away, what had he ever done for Latimer? For anyone?

"I need some air," Scorpius announced as he felt tears prick his eyes and stood but was always knocked down by Cassia who raced over to Maurice and tugged on his sleeve.

"What?" Maurice asked as he put a hand to his translator necklace.

"You wanteder to know when Calderon was leave Hogwarts," Cassia told him and Scorpius groaned mentally, not now, "He is just leave Hogwarts now."

"Thank you, Cassia."

"You is welcome," Cassia smiled, "I have to go now and do importanter stuff. I is hope your friend's betterer soon."

"Bye," Albus offered dismissively as the little girl ran off before looking at Scorpius, "Does this mean we have to go after the Scepter now?"

"Of course it does," Maurice snapped, "We need to get it to it before the other people do."

"Can't it wait until Latimer's in better shape?" Molly asked with an anxious glance at him.

"No, Maurice is right," Scorpius sighed sadly, "We need to go."

"It's probably what he'd want," Abby agreed hesitantly, "He wouldn't want us to lose the Scepter because we were moping out here."

"Shouldn't one of us stay with him at least? We can spare one of us to sit with him surely?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, I don't think he should be alone if he wakes up. Or... Or if he..." Albus started to say but trailed off as his eyes threatened to leak again, his last words were barely audible, "Of if he dies. He shouldn't die alone."

"Is that acceptable?"

"Fine," Scorpius and Maurice said in unintentional union.

"You know, I just thought of something," Vern spoke up with a thoughtful expression, "If Ashain can't go down because he'll die and the others with his blood aren't in Hogwarts, which just leaves Cassia and Antonius who can open the chamber right now."

"And?" Maurice prompted.

"And if someone else is going after the Scepter, they will need one of Ashain's kids too. If Cassia's 'important stuff' doesn't involve helping the Shadows make their move then she's in danger, we shouldn't have just let her go."

---

Part 3: Descending

---

"I don't know how they expect you to pick next year's classes without tasters," Lorcan pointed out, he and August were in the near-deserted Library together in the wake of a lot of people having left for Easter break, "Why did they even stop that?"

"Because it was Calderon's idea and Elwood doesn't like him," August shrugged it off and tried to focus on the sentence he'd been trying to read for the past few hours.

His nerves were crunching their way through him as they had been since agreeing to help Viola. He still hadn't been able to figure out if she was telling the truth about the Scepter or not, on one hand finding nothing would indicate it was false but it was also supposed to be secret so he shouldn't be able to find anything else. Lily was annoyed with him for doubting her friend, let alone even open to the possibility it wasn't entirely true and he had been sworn to secrecy so he couldn't talk to Hugo, Lorcan or even Abby about it. Although in Lorcan's case he supposed it was a good thing, he was on edge enough without added concerns about the Scepter.

"Did your Dad tell you that?"

"My sister," August offered unhappily, "I haven't had a conversation outside of Herbology class with my Dad since Christmas and even those were pretty short, he hates me."

"At least he doesn't hate you because you incinerated his hands," Lorcan said bitterly, his amber eyes reflecting the misery of his mood.

"You've got to stop beating yourself up, you didn't do it on purpose."

"I can't help it," Lorcan sighed before the grip on his ever-present wand tightened, his eyes narrowed and his expression. The typical reaction when Lorcan saw someone approach and August turned in the direction to see it was Viola, pretty much the last person he wanted to see.

"August, you know that thing you were going to help me with?" Viola asked as she stopped beside them.

"No," August lied and her violet eyes narrowed darkly.

"Well you need to come on now."

"He doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to," Lorcan snapped defensively but August got up in defeat.

"It's okay, I think I remember now. I'll see you later, Lorc," August offered and his friend looked confused as he watched them leave, Lily was waiting outside with a backpack slung over her shoulder. August wished he was taller, both girls were taller than he was.

"Where's Cassia gone?" Viola asked immediately.

"She said she had to do something and that she'd meet us in the bathroom," Lily shrugged it off.

"And you let her go?"

"I didn't see the harm."

"Next time, don't," Viola insisted as they started walking, "We need to stick together, what if she doesn't come back?"

"She will," Lily said confidently and Viola apparently decided to let it slide as she took the backpack from Lily, August felt his heart beat quickening with every step.

"Aren't we going to talk about this first?" August inquired nervously and the two girls looked at him darkly, "Take five minutes to prepare, to think about it, to digest it."

"Come on, Aug, don't be such a girl," Lily teased, "This is fun."

"This is serious too, so focus," Viola complained as they reached the bathroom, "And the plan is simple, we go in and get to the Scepter. My Dad gave me a Portkey, in this bag so we can take it to him and be back before Calderon returns and realizes it's missing."

"Wait, we're leaving Hogwarts?!" August exclaimed in shock, "I don't... You didn't say anything about that."

"Will we get to see Greece?" Lily asked, seeming excited rather than frightened by this revelation.

"The Portkey will take us to where my Dad is in England right now so no," Viola explained and started drumming her fingers on a faucet impatiently, "Where is that girl?"

"Hopefully not coming back," August muttered to himself nervously, liking Viola's plan even less now. He didn't trust her or what she told him. However, Cassia came running in promptly and out of breath.

"Ready," Cassia announced with a smile. August wondered if it was he or the girls who were crazy.

"Next time, don't run off like that," Viola chided her.

"But I had something to do, I maded a promise and you should keeper your promises."

"You should also learn to speak correctly, you're almost seven. Grow up."

"I is growing up," Cassia insisted but Viola had lost interest.

The normally confident Viola actually looked nervous for a minute and bit her lip as she took a breath, concentrating before a hissing sound escaped her. Her attempt at Parseltongue, relief spread across her face as it worked. One of the taps lit up with a brilliant white light before the sink started to move downwards leaving a large pipe exposed and open before them, Cassia gasped in amazement and grinned. Despite expecting it and having heard about it, August and Lily both still looked on in awe. This was the stuff of stories, it couldn't be happening to August.

"So do we just jump down there?" Cassia asked curiously as she peered down the pipe.

"Yes," Viola nodded as she composed herself, "I doubt-

"Echo!" Cassia yelled abruptly and giggled as the sound bounced around, receding further and further into the depths of the darkness, "It looks like a giant slide, I bet its fun."

"Stop acting like a child."

"She is a child," August pointed out.

"She is listerning to you," Cassia added as she crossed her arms.

"Any volunteers to go first or shall I?" Viola questioned of him and Lily instead.

"I will!" Cassia agreed immediately and threw herself into the pipe.

"Don't move when you reach the bottom! There could be enchantments!" Viola yelled down after her, "Foolish child."

"You know, Al just might be right about Ashain's kids being a little off their rockers," Lily commented.

---

"So who gets to stay with Latimer?" Albus asked as they left the Hospital Wing so Marigold wouldn't hear.

"Vern," Maurice said immediately, "You and Abby are needed for you blood, Scorpius has been there before so he knows the layout better so he should come, I should go because I have the most training and Molly is the most magically advanced as she's the eldest. By process of elimination that leaves Vern."

"Wait, are you saying I'm the least important out of all of us?" Vern wondered, looking hurt.

"For this mission, yes."

"I should stay, I know him better," Molly pointed out while Vern looked down unhappily.

"No. We need you to get the Parseltongue memory from Scorpius to open the Chamber."

"Why can't you do that?"

"Because I'm deaf, Parseltongue is sounds so I won't hear it."

"Well why can't one of us do it?" Abby asked curiously.

"Because it's an advanced spell and Molly will be best at it," Maurice insisted, looking somewhat annoyed with them, "Her wand is Silver Lime, sign of a Seer and a Legilimens. This spell is to do with Legillimancy since it involves taking something from someone's mind."

"Can't Molly open the entrance then go back to wait with Latimer then?" Scorpius inquired and Maurice reluctantly nodded.

"It would work but we need to hurry."

"Alright, I'll get Antonius and meet you guys there then."

"Hurry."

Scorpius raced off and realized he didn't know where he was going, he stopped and withdrew the map as a pang of guilt picked at his mind as he thought of last night with Latimer but he forced it away. He had other things to worry about, first though he put his wand to the ring to contact Varanian.

"Calderon's gone. Going after Scepter," Scorpius told him, realizing Michael probably hadn't gotten to him yet so they could make a plan to do but it wouldn't really matter unless they could get to the Scepter. Next he tapped the parchment, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

He watched the lines crafting themselves across the page along with the dots, words forming as names. He scanned it and glanced at Latimer's dot briefly, still there which had to be a good sign. He saw Antonius' dot in an empty classroom alone not too far from the bathroom, then again they were mostly empty as a good majority of the school had returned home for Easter. He looked for the dots of Cassia, Lily and August as well since they might be targeted as well but he couldn't find them. They were off the map, the Chamber didn't show up on the mind so they could actually be there already or no longer in Hogwarts or... not alive anymore. That was probably least likely though, odds were they were inside the Chamber. He hated Maurice was right sometimes. The Shadows did indeed move fast, their timing sucked.

Scorpius raced off to find Antonius, not bothering to knock as he burst in on the boy. Antonius was sitting at the window, stroking his dog and sobbing softly. Scorpius froze and Antonius looked at him briefly returning to what he was doing, Scorpius approached him cautiously. He really didn't have time for this... But what was he really supposed to do? Drag Antonius away in tears? Should he really just ignore the boy was upset anyway? He hadn't done anything about Latimer's misery, then again Antonius was just a child. Eight was too young to really think about things like they did.

"Erm... Mind if I sit?" Scorpius asked awkwardly and Antonius shrugged as he tried to wipe his eyes, his mind blanked. Why did he never know what to say in these situations?! "What... What are you crying for?"

"Everything. Nothing. I don't know," Antonius answered in a small voice and looked at him, "Did you want something, Scorpius?"

"Yes," Scorpius admitted, jumping at the chance to move things along but felt bad to gloss over whatever was wrong with Antonius but it could wait whereas the Scepter couldn't it the Shadows were going after it, "Something very important and very urgent. Do you remember at the start of the year how some Aurors came?"

"Yes, it's my memories before the hurt my soul that are difficult not after."

"Okay so this is the short version as we don't have time but they came to hide a part of an ancient and powerful Scepter here because the Shadows want to steal it, they tried last Christmas when it was at the Ministry but failed. And they're trying again now, we need to get to it first and stop them. But the thing is, Professor- your Dad, Professor Longbottom and Harry Potter enchanted it they'd need their blood or their children's blood to get in. We can't get to it in time without your help."

"Why can't we just tell my Dad?" Antonius asked as he met Scorpius' eyes and he realized he shouldn't be honest but couldn't help it, he had a right to know and it wasn't like he'd gone around blurting out secrets in the past.

"You know how he's been sick but they don't know what's wrong with him?"

"Yeah, I'm scared something will happen to him."

"It's because he's been possessed by a spirit named Ashylos who lives in the Scepter, he's your ancestor so he can possess your Dad. Ashylos didn't mean to hurt him, it's a long story but your Dad can't go near the Scepter or he'll die. If we tell him then he'll try to stop the Shadows and die, so we can't tell him."

"Where is my sister?" Antonius questioned, his tone suddenly turning gravely serious that didn't match his youth, "If they need blood and my Dad only has two children, I'm one. Where's Cassia?"

"I think they have her, they're going after now which is why we have to hurry."

"Okay," Antonius agreed and jumped up, suddenly urgent, "I'll help you, anything to save my sister."

---

Lily went down next followed by August himself with Viola bringing up the rear, he used Lumos to try give himself some light before sliding into the slimy blackness. Icy air slipped over his skin and sent shivers through him, for some reason he kept feeling like he was gliding down the gullet of some creature. The light from his wand did nothing as there was nothing to see except the darkness trying to eat him whole, hurtling down faster and faster so that August started worrying that the momentum would throw them straight into a death trap. Oh Merlin, what if it does?! August thought to himself anxiously, it seemed like a logical measure that Aurors might make. The incline lessened and August screamed in panic as he was flung carelessly from the pipe onto damp ground, he was laying face first in bones. He screamed again in horror and leaped up shakily.

"You scream like a girl," Cassia giggled and August spun to see her and Lily standing there, covered in green ooze, "That was fun."

"We're covered in slime," August pointed out, trying to hide the fact he was blushing from her first comment. He was making a fool out of himself, he sucked at this. So much for making his dad proud.

"Think of it liker a water slide."

"I don't know what that is."

"Wow, Aug, you don't something? Is the world ending?" Lily asked jokingly as she laughed and August colored crimson even further, "You don't need to be scared."

"I'm not scared! I screamed because we're standing on dead animal bones, doesn't that bother you?"

"A bit. I'm really glad I only used Lumos after I was already standing or I might've had the same reaction as you," Lily admitted while Cassia looked unconcerned.

August felt somewhat relieved by this and opened his mouth to speak but was distracted by Viola coming out of the pipe, coming to a gently stop and stepping off without a touch of slime. She too had her wand lit up and surveyed them briefly with her violently violet eyes as if making sure they were all there, she then turned her attention to their surroundings. They did the same and he saw there were three circles of clean red brick wall build into the wet walls around it, each had two hand indent prints on them. They walked around studying them curiously, the one on the right had an unusual mark going from the center of each palm down and a slightly wider bit at the base of the index finger as if a wedding ring usually resided there. The one directly opposite the entrance pipe were the same except without the unusual mark on the palm and the left had the right hand normal with the same wedding ring mark as the other two, the left hand though lacking normal palm lines and the fingers were more oddly shaped. Just like his father's prosthetic.

"I think each of them used a different wall," August said.

"No shit," Viola shot at him and glared but let it slide.

"This was my Dad's, you can tell which hand was a prosthetic."

"Oh, well that's actually useful. How do we figure out the other two though? I don't think anything good would happen if we put the wrong blood-"

"This one is my Daddy's," Cassia interrupted and gestured with confidence to the right wall.

"It's not a guessing game, we need to be sure."

"I am sure."

"How can you be sure?" Lily asked with a scowl.

"Because Daddy has a scar going down each palm to near his elbow, like that," Cassia explained and pointed to her own palm and dragged her finger down halfway to her elbow to demonstrate, "The marks on this one is Daddy's scars, the others don't haver it."

"Oh, okay. So what do we do, Vi? Cut our palms and put them onto the brick?"

"Yeah," Viola agreed and walked over to Lily.

"No," August blurted out and hurried over as something occurred to him, "My Dad has a prosthetic for his left hand because he lost his arm two years ago."

"So?!" Viola snarled at him.

"So he wouldn't be able to get blood from that hand, if he can't do it then Dad wouldn't have he and Ashain do it without him," Lily offered, surprisingly picking up on what August had realized.

"It's probably the right for all of them," August offered.

"The second hand print is just a trap," Cassia said with a grin, "Wait till I tell Daddy we figureded it out, I'm is going to be the best Auror. Well second to my Daddy because he's the best."

"My Dad's pretty good too," Lily pointed out proudly and defensively.

"My Daddy's betterer."

"My Dad defeated Voldemort."

"My Daddy's defeateder a lot of baddies," Cassia announced proudly as she folded her arms, "Much more than just one Voldemort so my Daddy's the best, and I is saw him take on werewolves and Shadows and punched Grant right in the face and he was a badass. Harry Potter is just a nice well-mannered pencil pusher."

"My-"

"You'll get nowhere arguing with a six year old. Just hold out your right hand," Viola interrupted and Lily seemed to agree as shifted her wand to her left before holding out her right palm nervously, "This will probably hurt a little."

Lily nodded and visibly braced herself, Viola muttered an incantation and slashed her wand over Lily's palm. Lily gasped slightly in pain as crimson liquid started oozing out from between her fingers, she took a deep breath and pressed her hand over the right indent her father had left. The wall immediately started shimmering and Lily's hand went through it, she grinned.

"C'mon, it's working!" Lily announced excitedly and took Viola's hand to pull her through, however he and Cassia felt a solid brick wall when they came up against it.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Viola burst out and pulled away when she noticed this, "Sometimes these things will only let the person of that blood though and one other person they're in contact with, there's probably something up ahead that needs all three of you anyway from each wall. Lily you go through that wall, August can go through his father's wall and I'll go with Cassia."

"Okay," Lily agreed nervously and went through completely, the wall stopped shimmering and turned back to solid brick. Her voice was muffled when she spoke next, "Can you guys still hear me?"

"Yeah, what do you see?"

"Just this pipe I'm standing in."

"Okay, wait for us to get in place and we'll go through the pipes together."

"Okay!"

"Come on, Cassia," Viola announced and led the six year old to her father's wall, Cassia swallowed nervously.

"Will it hurt a lot?" Cassia whispered.

"Just a little sting, you're not scared of a little pain?" Viola said in a tone that attempted to sound kind, Cassia's expression became determined as she shook her head and shakily held out her right palm, "Acuta!"

Viola violently slashed her hand of the small palm and Cassia cried out in pain, tears bubbled in the dark chestnut eyes as rivers of red rushed down her hand. She fought them back though as she seemed to bite down on her tongue, trying to be strong. August thought it was incredibly unnecessary, Acuta was a spell that couldn't be healed by magic and it hurt.

"What's the matter, Cassia?" Viola asked with a sickly sweet smile, "Can't handle a little sting like the big kids can?"

"My Daddy could do it then I can," Cassia told her quietly, her eyes determined despite the pain on her face. He was very much reminded of the professor when he'd been fighting what illness he'd had recently, "I can be a good soldier."

"Good. What are you waiting for, August?"

"My hand-" August started to say and immediately regretted it as Viola stalked over, yanking his right hand, "I changed my mind, I can do it mys-"

"Acuta!" Viola cried and slashed her wand across his palm, he bit his tongue hard enough to taste blood to stop himself from crying out as a searing pain accompanied the blood pouring from his hand. Viola threw his arm way, "Done, now get moving."

August swallowed unhappily and pressed his palm against the prick as the Slytherin girl went back over to Cassia, taking the little girl's uninjured hand as Cassia raised the one streaming blood to press it against her father's mark. August felt a tingling sensation as his own hand touched the brick, he looked back to see his arm becoming immersed in the shimmering wall.

"Don't let go of my hand," Cassia was saying to Viola on the other side.

"That is so childish, I am not-"

"Listen!" Cassia yelled in interruption and Viola shut up, "I see all my Daddy's classes and I listen more than I do to my work that I is supposed to do, he said in a NEWT class for Seventh Years that in protective enchantments that require a condition to meet it could be necessary to keep it up until you get out of it. Like this, when you letted go just a second the floor started to leak with more water. See."

"Okay, okay," Viola agreed hastily, Cassia was apparently right, "August, are you there yet!"

"Err... Yeah!" August lied and quickly through the wall, his body tingling before he came out the other side into an empty dripping pipe.

"Lily, you still there?!"

"Yeah!" Lily called, August noticed he could hear them better here. Their voices echoed a lot but were no longer muffled.

"Let's go then, yell stop if you see anything suspicious because there might be other protective things!"

---

"About time," Maurice grumbled as Scorpius and Antonius joined the other five in the bathroom.

"We weren't that long," Scorpius complained.

"Every second counts when you're Maurice," Albus pointed out.

"And Maurice is right, they have my sister!" Antonius exclaimed, the dog barked as if in affirmation or just spurred on by its owner. Albus and Abby's expressions became worried.

"Is that true?"

"Can't find your siblings on the map," Scorpius admitted, realizing Antonius didn't know about it but was too desperate to get moving to care at that point.

"I told you so," Maurice offered unhelpfully and Scorpius threw him a scowl, "Alright anyway, I already explained Molly what to do. What you need to do is just close your eyes and focus on a memory of Calderon using Parseltongue to open it, just think of him saying that sound and only that over and over."

Scorpius nodded and closed his eyes, anger bubbled within him at the thought of Calderon's betrayal - he should have known really, Parselmouths hardly had a good reputation - but he shoved it aside. Instead focusing on hearing Calderon's hiss of Parseltongue, just that and only that. And suddenly he felt pain, like a band aid being ripped off. Except it was inside his mind and the pain was much more intensely, like a piece of his brain was being ripped out with the band aid. He screamed and clutched at his head, he felt his knees hit the ground. Distantly he heard a hiss.

"Scor! Are you okay?!" Molly asked desperately in panic, he raised his throbbing head to see her drop to her knees before him with a look of guilt and horror mixing on her face as she cupped his face gently.

"Yeah, I-I think so," Scorpius admitted, the pain was gradually receding anyway. He also noticed the entrance was now open as Molly helped him to his feet, "Did it go wrong or work or...?"

"It worked," Maurice pointed out casually and Molly jumped to her feet to round on him angrily.

"Why didn't you tell me it would hurt him?!" Molly demanded of her cousin angrily.

"Because you wouldn't have done it."

"Of course I wouldn't, he's my boyfriend!"

"Exactly, it was necessary," Maurice insisted while the others glared at him, "Don't look at me like that, if any of you had a better way of getting some Parseltongue in our time scale then I would like to hear."

"Well... erm..." Albus babbled as he tried and failed to think of something.

"See?"

"It was still wrong!" Molly yelled.

"Its fine," Scorpius assured her as he stepped towards her to touch her arms, moving made him feel slightly dizzy but the pain continued to fade, "Maurice is right, there's no time. It's worth it."

"There's no permanent damage and you should be okay in a few minutes," Maurice informed him with confidence.

"Should?!" Molly screeched as she turned on him again.

"Why don't we go now?"

"Stay," Antonius told the dog firmly.

"I'll go first to make sure-" Maurice started to say but stopped as Antonius threw himself down the pipe, "SURE THERE'S NO DANGEROUS ENCHANTMENTS WHEN WE LAND! LET ME FINISH MY SENTANCE!"

"Told you, Ashain kids are cuckoo," Albus pointed out with a shrug before following down.

"Good luck," Molly said as she turned back to Scorpius, encircling her arms around him and still looking guilty, "I'm sorry."

"It's really okay," Scorpius promised and they leaned in for a last kiss before they rested their foreheads together, "Back as soon as I can, tell Latimer we'll be there as soon as possible if he wakes up before then."

"I will. And I should probably take the dog too while I'm at it before it jumps."

"We don't have all day," Maurice complained and they pulled apart, the dog barked again. They were the only ones left, Molly glared at the deaf boy.

"I'm still mad at you," Molly pointed out to Maurice moodily as Scorpius moved away to go down, casting one last look at his girlfriend before sliding down into the darkness.

---

Part 4: Pipework

---

Scorpius found himself hurtling down the slimy pipe into darkness again, he had really thought the last time would be the last time he was down there back in his First Year. They weren't exactly good memories. He pipe came to an evitable end and he managed to brace himself somewhat, somehow managing to stay on his unsteady feet instead of crashing into the floor. Vern, Abby, Albus and Antonius were all there covered in dirt and slime and all but Antonius - who didn't have a wand yet - had gotten their wands out with the Wand-lighting Charm on. Scorpius wasted no time in doing the same as Maurice finally joined them, managing to not fall on his face or get covered in slime somehow either.

"How did you do that?" Abby wondered in surprise and envy as Maurice put a hand to his translator necklace.

"Magic," Maurice shrugged as his oceanic eyes took in the room.

"So erm... Was it like this last time you were down here?" Albus asked and nodded to their surroundings, Scorpius looked and saw three new red brick walls where open pipes once were.

"No," Scorpius admitted and noticed they all had handprint indented into them, the right ones were all dripping but with a less innocuous substance than water.

"Its blood, isn't it?" Antonius inquired solemnly.

"Obviously," Maurice pointed out and the younger boy's face fell even further, "But it's not a bad thing, the whole point is their blood would be necessary. Don't be worried until you see a corpse. If anything, this is a sign that they got through. I'm guessing there's a different path for each of them, probably a defense mechanism in case any of them wound up being forced to lead the enemy to the Scepter. I'd say the wall will open for any of them but choosing the wrong path would probably alert the Aurors so they'd know something was up without alerting the enemy, beyond might even be rigged some enchantment to attack those not of that person's blood. There's probably another wall beyond that requires all three as well, if not any one of them could get to the Scepter alone so it's not as safe as a security measure."

"How do we figure out which is which then?" Vern asked worriedly, "Or even know if we got through without alerting them?"

"The fact Aurors aren't here leads me to believe the others got it right, if they can figure it out then there must be a way."

"Well that was has to be my Dad's, the left is like his prosthetic," Abby offered and gestured to the left wall.

"Okay, easy enough but what's different about my Dad's and Ashain's hands then?" Albus wondered.

"Scars," Antonius spoke up, "My Dad has scars on his hands from the palm to down his arm, and I don't think Harry Potter does."

"This one has scar lines," Scorpius pointed out as he noticed it on the right wall.

"Alright so Longbottom - left, Ashain - right and Potter - middle," Maurice nodded as he studied the walls one last time, "Who wants to test it first?"

"I'll do it," Abby agreed readily and Maurice moved over to her.

"Hold out your right hand - palm up - and brace yourself, this will hurt a bit," Maurice commanded as he let go of his translator necklace and Abby took a deep nervous breath as she did so.

"Ok- Ow!" Abby started to say but exclaimed instead as Maurice moved his wand across her hand quickly, leaving behind a small gash.

"Done. Now put your hand on the wall on the handprint, don't go through though. We just need to see if it shimmers or opens, shimmers means it will only let one other person through who is in contact with the blood donor whereas opening is much more simply but less secure from the Aurors' standpoint."

"Why do you know all this stuff?" Antonius wondered as Abby obediently put her hand over the bloody handprint left by her father and brother, the wall started shimmering.

"I looked into this stuff as soon as I found out about the blood needed, didn't anyone else?"

"No," everyone chorused at different times.

"Hmm... Well, I wish I was more surprised," Maurice admitted.

"Alright, clearly we have to split up and there's six of us so we go in pairs," Scorpius announced, bringing them back to focus, "We do not separate from our pairs. I'll go with Antonius, Maurice can go with Abby and Albus with Vern."

"Why do I have to go with Vern?" Albus grumbled under his breath and Vern looked concerned.

"Is there just something wrong with me?" Vern wondered, Scorpius really couldn't be bothered to explain the choice was because Maurice didn't like Albus very much and he wanted to be with Antonius to make sure he could keep him safe. He'd brought him there after all, he was responsible for the boy's safety and it was on him if anything happened. He suddenly very much wished that Antonius wasn't there.

"Okay, Albus, hold out your palm face up," Maurice told the older boy as he walked over, Albus cringed and held his hand closer.

"Will it hurt a lot?" Albus asked and Maurice looked incredulous.

"It's just a small cut."

"But it still hurts, right?"

"Don't be so squeamish, give me your hand," Maurice demanded instead and Albus moved his hand even further away.

"You wouldn't understand this pain, you're not having your hand sliced open."

"Would it make you feel better if I cut my already incredibly scarred hand or can we just get back to stopping the Shadows and saving your siblings?" Maurice inquired and Albus' nervousness faded as he took in the words and glanced at Maurice's hands, indeed scrawled with layers of blood quill scarring. Albus squeezed his eyes shut, bit his lip and held out his hand. Maurice drew his wand over the skin lazily and a small cut appeared identical to Abby's except maybe smaller, Albus cracked his eye open a fraction to inspect the wound.

"Huh, well that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Albus commented to which Maurice rolled his eyes but was already moving over to Antonius.

"Now this will hurt just a littl-"

"Go ahead," Antonius interrupted and held out his palm readily, unafraid but unenthusiastic.

"The little kid's braver than you, Al," Maurice smirked as he ran his wand over Antonius' hand, Albus blushed slightly and Antonius cringed slightly as the cut was made. Scorpius was about to complain at Maurice for giving Antonius a bigger wound before he realized he hadn't, their hands were just different sizes so Albus' cut looked smaller than Abby's as his hand was larger while Antonius had tiny hands as he was much younger than the teenagers. Scorpius felt even worse for dragging him into it, Antonius should be safe back up in the castle not forced into their fight with the Shadows. He wanted to protect him.

"I'm not brave."

"Okay, we all go through together and hopefully will be able to hear each other if anything goes wrong. If anything does go wrong, just try get back here," Scorpius told them as Maurice conjured bandages for Abby, Albus and Antonius, "How many of us can do full body Patronuses?"

"Just wrap them around your hands when we get to the other side," Maurice explained and his neutral expression soured, he had still had no luck with Patronuses, "And just you and Abby can do corporeal Patronuses, only Michael can make them talk and he's not here."

"Yeah but if you see a Thestral or a tapir then you'd know we're in trouble, the Patronus is the message."

"If you were in trouble then you really shouldn't be wasting energy casting a Patronus."

"Fine, never mind then. Let's just go on."

"And remember to hold hands or you won't get through," Maurice added as they moved over to their respective walls.

Maurice and Abby grimly held hands, Vern and Albus were extremely reluctant while Scorpius took Antonius' easy. Antonius raised his hand and pressed it against the bloody handprint, Cassia's hands were even tinier. Immediately the wall started to shimmer, except Antonius pushed through and his hand vanished into the wall. He stepped through along with Scorpius, Scorpius felt his whole body tingle before they came through the other side. They were ankle deep in icy water but the rest of the pipe passage was empty, Antonius wrapped Maurice's bandage around his wound like instructed before they moved off.

"Would you like me to check that for you?" Scorpius asked, wanting to make sure it was right. Wounds could get bleed really badly, blood loss could be severely injuring or fatal. The wound could also get infected and that could cause severe sickness or be fatal. He didn't want to be the cause of anything fatal or severe to Antonius.

"It's fine," Antonius brushed it off and Scorpius reluctantly went back to keeping an eye out for threats as they moved along the pipe, was it just him or was the water level rising? "You know you said my Dad's life as in danger?"

"Yeah."

"If we do get the Scepter and bring it back to the main castle, will it kill him?"

"It shouldn't do," Scorpius offered although it was more of a guess, "I have a magic map of Hogwarts that shows where everyone was, if it comes to the worst then I can use it to keep the Scepter as far away from him as possible until we can get it out of the castle to safety. I don't want anything to happen to Professor Ash- your father either."

"He's all we have," Antonius said quietly as he hung his head.

"You have your mother."

"They're divorced now," Antonius scoffed bitterly, "She didn't want anything to do with us, she wanted Dad to have full custody and not even see us."

"I'm sure-"

"Don't give me any of that bullshit about her just needing time, I'm eight not an idiot."

"No one said you were an idiot," Scorpius pointed out, the water was up their knees now. It was definitely getting higher, was it rising or did the pipe just go that way?

"Lots of people do."

"Like who?"

"People. Scorpius, is this water getting higher?" Antonius inquired worriedly, knee height for Scorpius was almost up to Antonius' waist.

"I don't know, can you swim?" Scorpius said and felt an icy coldness worse than the water grip his insides at the thought of drowning. He tried to force the thought away, he could swim and water didn't equal drowning but the stayed like an iceberg jammed into his throat when he tried to swallow.

"Yeah but it probably wouldn't make a difference if we're trapped in this pipe, we'd have nowhere to get air if the whole thing fills up."

"Shut up!" Scorpius snapped at him in panic, suddenly finding it hard for his heard to beat with the glacial fingers caging it. The water was up to his waist now and Antonius' stomach.

"Can't you swim?" Antonius asked in surprise.

"I don't like water drowning me," Scorpius managed to get out, feeling his heart seizing up at the memories of water filling his lungs as he died. Except this time, there was no Michael or Calderon or giant squid to save him. He was trapped in a tube with a helpless child, flooding with water. He couldn't breathe already.

"Scorpius?" Antonius prompted as Scorpius' feet rooted into the spot, "Do you want to go bac-"

Antonius was cut off as water suddenly burst through the pipe from high up, Scorpius screamed as he was hit with the blast of icy liquid that continued pouring in. He scrambled to move away and his body seized up again, he knew he should be thinking of spells to get out of this. Something. Anything. But he couldn't, his mind seemed to have shut down and was just screaming at him in stark terror of drowning. He must've dropped his wand because it suddenly felt darker, blackness engulfing him already. His body felt numb and he still couldn't breathe, he was choking already and the water was only up his chest.

And Antonius... Antonius? Where was Antonius? Scorpius couldn't see him. He must've drowned already. He'd killed Professor Ashain's son! He had to try to save him but his body wouldn't obey him, he tried to breath and he couldn't even do that. He managed to move slightly, his numb limbs waded awkwardly through the neck high water. It was coming in from everywhere. Everywhere! His heart was going haywire, he tried to breath. He couldn't breathe. He wasn't sure if he screamed but he did know blackness engulfed him as he passed out...

---

Having a puppy was a lot of fun and it did Orous' mind of his lack of friends, as much as he loved Phoenix, the dog was older and already well behaved whereas Lumpy needed to be taught things. It was fun and Orous was amazed his little puppy grew to be almost as tall as he was, he didn't mind as it meant there was more dog to cuddle. He always felt safe going to sleep when his dad had to leave at night with the two dogs curled up protectively on the end of his bed, his mum didn't like the dog though. Orous hadn't realized how much until he saw how much she glared at Lumpy and screamed at both him and the dog if Lumpy did anything bad, the feeling was mutual though as he started to notice the dogs didn't like her either. Their heckles went up if she drew her wand around them, they sometimes growled if she drew it around his dad.

Orous tried telling them his mum was nice really - in her own way - even if she yelled at them, he didn't think they got it though as they were dogs. He also started noticing his dad was injured more and more, it made him even more nervous about his dad going to work but his dad's promise to see him with the sunrise already made him feel better. The year seemed to go by quickly and before he knew it, Orous was celebrating his seventh birthday. He didn't really feel like a party, it wasn't like his mum would be there and he didn't really know any of his dad's friends' kids that well as they tended to be too old or too young to connect very well with him anyway. Instead it was just a nice quiet birthday with him and his dad, his mum had better things to do then even bother stick around while he opened his presents. Orous wished he was good enough to matter to her, his dad stayed though even though he looked suddenly battered this morning. How long did it take bruises to show up? He hadn't had work since a few days ago. His dad encouraged him not to worry about and enjoy his birthday, he got some nice presents including a new, better camera and set of toy knights, some DVDs and videogames, a wizard chess set, books, Lego, a new stuffed toy, chocolate and Oreos. His dad took him to a carnival to celebrate instead, it was insanely fun. He was treated to a pizza after and had his big chocolate birthday cake at home after, having a relaxing evening exploring the new games and finally fell asleep cuddled on the couch together watching the new DVDs. Best birthday ever, his dad was the greatest.

It was a fun year, Orous became very glad to realize creativity made up for the lack of friends. You were less lonely when you were exploring a new land with your noble steeds - the dogs - or inventing epic quests for your knights to go on, he also really discovered the joy of music for the first time and started to have great fun making up lyrics since you couldn't always tell what they were supposed to be singing about and dancing. He also continued scrapbooking with his new and improved camera, mixing it with his make-believe stories and turning camping into a quest for the triforce for example. His dad encouraged all this and naturally, his mum hated it. It was extremely confusing to know what to think when your parents had polar opposite views. For his eighth birthday where his mum yet again chose not to be with him, he vowed that year to connect with his her better which included forcing himself to focus more on what she was trying to teach him every day. It was actually interesting, she just had a way of making it sound boring and even when he was right, she still expected better. He thought it might be paying off though as she did seem to be talking to him more, then again her expression was always so neutral that it was hard to tell.

It wasn't a good year, Phoenix was getting old and he had to be taken to the vet several times for things. He was going blind, suffering from arthritis and had some disease wrong his spine. Medication helped for a while but there was no permanent solution, Orous was sure some magical potion could help but his mum refused to even look into it for a dog she despised. Lumpy was his dog but it didn't mean he didn't love Phoenix too, the old dog had been there as long as he could remember. He also started noticing that a good majority of his dad's injuries had no correlation with the days he worked as he still got hurt for no reason even when he was on vacation, he couldn't figure it out. His mum screamed at him for asking about it, Orous didn't understand why. Didn't she care that her husband was getting hurt? She had to love her husband even if she didn't show it and they never agreed on anything or liked anything similar, people married loved each other. She didn't even seem to care when he was injured in work, Orous was considered too young at eight to be told details but it was something to do with a burning building collapsing unexpectedly. He did know two of dad's firefighter friends died, one in the incident and the other at the hospital later while two more were injured.

His dad had broken a lot of bones pretty badly but thankfully he'd be okay, it made Orous feel guilty for being glad when two people he knew had died but he couldn't help it. He loved his dad, he didn't know what he'd do without him especially since his world pretty much revolved around his parents. He saw how distraught the families were of the two who'd died and how concerned the families of the two who were injured were, then he saw how his mum's apathy to her husband being injured. It really was like she didn't care at all, she wouldn't hear of Orous' suggestion they take him to St Mungo's the magical hospital who could heal easily what would take weeks or months to heal from. He was sure being married to a witch should get you perks of being healed by magic, if he ever had a muggle wife then he would expect her to be healed by magic if she got hurt. His mum refused though, she didn't say they wouldn't do it, just refused. She wasn't any nicer to him when he got home either, Orous volunteered to do any chore to help his dad who's left arm was in a sling and had impeded mobility. His dad just hugged him and told him he loved him.

His dad's recovery did take time although he was back to work - purely 'desk' work - surprisingly quickly, their family weekends usually just involved watching DVDs together as his dad couldn't really go anywhere easily nor seemed to want to as he was in pain. Although sometimes he would take him to the park or the cinema as it didn't require much effort, Orous was content to stay at home until his dad recovered. The time with his dad was what mattered a lot more than the activity, having a Star Trek marathon cuddled up with his dad and a bowl of popcorn between them was just as good as scaling rock climbing walls. They did get back to usual as he recovered though, Orous' ninth birthday passed by this time and his mum not his dad was the one arranging it for once. It was mostly books about magic and she took him to a Quidditch game despite not caring much for it herself, it was magical so automatically better than anything muggle. It was almost like she had a problem with muggles which couldn't be true, she had married one. Orous had never been particularly in organized team sports but he would admit to thinking zooming around on broomsticks looked awesome, what wasn't cool about flying? He wished his dad had got to come too though, he would've liked it.

His mum seemed to start being nicer to him after that, rewarding him with a trip to the park if he did well with learning and not being so hard on him if he screwed up. His dad finished recovering but unfortunately, Phoenix had only been going downhill and couldn't even walk anymore to get outside to use the bathroom. His dad explained that there was nothing else they could do, about having to put Phoenix to sleep. Orous was devastated and dedicated a whole scrapbook to celebrating Phoenix's life, wishing he was a real phoenix so he'd just come back when he died. His mum didn't understand why he was upset as he hugged Phoenix goodbye for the very last time and assured the old blind dog he was loved, he buried his face into Lumpy's neck and cried for hours after his dad left with Phoenix. Seeing his dad finally return home with the empty leash sent him into a storm of tears, his dad hugged him and cried as well.

"He had a good life, Orous," his dad told him quietly, "We loved him and he loved us, we made each other and had some good times. That's the best hope for, that you gave them as much as joy as they gave you and you can always hold on to those memories in your heart because not even death can take that away from you."

"I miss him," Orous admitted tearfully as his dad rocked him gently and stroked his hair comfortingly.

"It's normal to miss someone, it's okay to be sad when someone dies. I miss him too."

It was a painful time for Orous, his first real loss and it didn't help his mum constantly snapped at the both of them for caring about Phoenix. His dad helped him through it though, Orous could always talk to him and it made him feel somewhat better to know he wasn't going through it alone. They finished the scrapbook for Phoenix together, it helped to remember the good times. It was strange just having Lumpy alone, in fact he was sure Lumpy missed Phoenix too as he often would lay by Phoenix's bed and whine sadly. It was the first Christmas without Phoenix, it was strange not having him there to inspect the new gifts. Orous also noticed that he got much more presents than his parents, even though his mum's birthday was the day before. He wanted to get them something too, especially his dad who did so much for him and put so much effort into being there for him and making things fun for him when he wasn't even Orous' biological father so he had no obligation to. His dad never got anything in return, especially not from Orous. He loved his dad and he wanted to get him a really great present for his upcoming birthday in January.

He wanted to get his dad another dog, not to replace Phoenix as nothing could do that but just because he felt the family should have another dog and his dad should have a new friend. After all, his dad had gotten him Lumpy and it hadn't made them love Phoenix any less. His mum wouldn't help naturally but his dad had a friend who had gotten them Lumpy, he ran a dog charity or something. He waited until his dad was sleeping to catch up on working all night before scouring through the phone book, calling him up to ask for aid in getting his dad a dog. Explaining his thoughts and offering all of his pocket money, hoping it would be enough. The guy agreed and Orous pretended his mum had said it was alright - she had said yes without listening to his question - to go with him to choose a dog, he snuck out while his dad still slept and his mum had gone... to wherever she spent her free time. It was hard to choose, there was about ten dogs all in little rooms - they had cage doors but walls inside, all had comfortable beds, water and toys to amuse themselves - and they were all adorable. Even the more scarred ones, Phoenix had been scarred from the fire after all and as an albino himself, Orous also felt sympathetic to things that weren't quite usual. He finally settled on a dog that reminded him of Lumpy in coloration, the same black fur with brown bits around the legs, chest and face. Except he wasn't lumpy, he was smooth, narrower to the point of almost being skeletal - they were all rescue dogs - and with pointed not floppy ears.

Orous was so excited for his dad's birthday now, just as much as if not more so than his own. He sat trying desperately not to smile as he waited for the doorbell to ring that morning, his dad noticed but Orous pretended to have no idea what he was talking about. Orous was so sly and great at keeping secrets, he felt cool. He forced himself to sit rooted to the spot when the door did go, excited and suddenly nervous for how his dad would react. When his dad walked back in with the new dog - which Orous was pleased to see had put on enough weight to look healthy by then - with a surprised expression, Lumpy went over to sniff the new arrival curiously as soon as he saw him.

"You thought to get me a dog for my birthday?" his dad wondered and Orous nodded.

"I thought you could use a friend, Daddy, like you got me Lumpy," Orous explained as his dad walked over to him, "You can name him and everything, you have to take care of him though."

"Thank you," his dad offered with a gentle smile and opened his arms, Orous hugged him happily and his dad kissed the top of his head.

His dad named the dog Anubis since he reminded him of the Egyptian god, Orous thought it was a good name as it would have probably named him Smoothy. His mum wasn't happy but when was she ever? Anubis was much wearier than Phoenix or Lumpy had been, he got much more affectionate, happier and vocal as he settled in though. Orous thought it was kind of nice, they hadn't just got a family member but given Anubis a whole family after he'd had a tough start. It made him feel good to think he made a difference, gave a dog a new chance at life. Like his dad had given Phoenix, he hoped Phoenix would approve if he was still alone. If dogs could even think that much like people could.

It was actually quite a good time in Orous' life, he was definitely getting along better with his mum during spring and she stopped being so harsh or short with him when he did anything wrong. His parents also seemed to start getting on better too and his dad didn't seem to be hurt anymore, his mum even started coming with them for family weekends in June and with them to walk the dogs even if she didn't like the dogs still. She seemed almost oddly quiet and distracted but he was just glad she was having an interest in his life, he was happy. They even took a car trip to the coast for the last weekend in June and stayed in a nice hotel, he was overjoyed to have both his parents on the beach on a real vacation. She mostly just sunbathed and watched him and Cade, her expression strangely sad but she did listen to him when he was telling her and showing her things. All three of them helped build a magnificent sandcastle at least, even his mum. He had a great time building the long envisioned home for his knights with his parents, both his parents.

His spirits were high as they returned home, maybe he would even get a birthday with both of his parents that year as it was just over two weeks after that. Exactly two weeks before his tenth birthday was a Wednesday, his dad was at work and his mum was being extremely nice to him. She'd let him have ice cream and Oreos for lunch, played some wizard chess with him and praised everything he did for his work that day. Usually she would take him to the park at this point but told him she thought he was old enough to go by himself, he was so proud she thought so highly of him. Being almost ten was great, although it was both exciting and scary to think in one more year he'd be looking for his Hogwarts letter. He got to the park easily, he knew the roads like the back of his hands from walking the dogs daily anyway. He pretended he was an a knight fighting through all these challenges - the equipment in the playground part - to prove his worth now he'd come of age, he lost track of time and only noticed it after he was hit by something.

Orous stopped in shock, looking around to see who'd thrown something at his arm but he couldn't see who as no one else was there but him. In fact, he couldn't even see what he'd been hit with nor was there a mark on his arm, it didn't even hurt. He had to have imagined it. Looking around the deserted park also made him realize that it was getting dark, he should be getting back as his dad had told him never to be out alone after dark. He started to walk back but stopped abruptly at the road, his mind completely blanking on how to get home. Which way was it? He knew it, he knew he did and he'd walked it a thousand times before but... he just couldn't remember for some reason. He just starting walking, hoping it would jog his oddly befuddled memory as he knew the streets quite well so he could pick it up or find a street sign. He found that didn't work though, everything just started looking the same as if he was walking through a maze of identical homes and he didn't notice any street signs. His head was just spinning, why couldn't he remember something he knew so well? Was he ill? He was sure he was just wandering around in aimless circles, getting himself even more lost.

He stopped suddenly, unsure what had provoked his feet to still. He realized he was staring at a man planting a single flower in a garden, it had five large lemon petals with purple tips. The man stood up and Orous backed away, recalling very firmly warnings about strangers and something lewd in the way he looked at him disturbed him slightly. He turned and almost walked straight into another man, he bore a resemblance to the gardener but was younger, stronger and had an even more disturbing air about him.

"Lost, are we?" the man asked, "Maybe I can help."

"No, just going home. I live here, I don't need your help," Orous lied and went to walk around him, "But thanks for offering."

"Where do you think you're going?" the man snarled and grabbed Orous' arm roughly to pull him back, Orous tried to scream but felt a hand slammed roughly over his lips. A hand holding a strange smelling cloth, suddenly his eyes felt so heavy they couldn't stay open and his limbs were going limp. The last thing he saw was the gardener, having walked over to them with a slightly concerned expression.

"Careful, Joel," the older man chided as Orous slipped in unconsciousness, "We don't want to mess up his pretty face."

---

Scorpius became aware that he could hear running water, he also became aware that he was lying in about an inch of water and he was damp. He sat up slowly, seeing he was still in the pipe but the flood of water was gone. There was a giant blown out hole in the side though, water was gushing out of it. Antonius was leaning against the pipe wall opposite it, as drenched through as Scorpius was. His extremely dark auburn hair plastered to his head and dripping, knees hugged up to his chest.

"What... What happened?" Scorpius asked quietly, recalling what had happened and feeling an overwhelming tide of shame at his inability to act.

"There's a hole in the wall now, all the water flooded out of it so you don't need to worry about it now," Antonius answered simply and stood, "Can we keep moving now?"

"Err... Yes," Scorpius agreed and scrambled for his wand, it was easy to find as it was still lit up and creating an eerie glow from the water. He got up and they headed onwards, he had been hoping for more detail, "So what happened?"

"I told you."

"I meant how did the hole get there?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Antonius told him expressionlessly.

Scorpius was forced to shut his mouth and ignore his starving curiosity, saying nothing and simply going along the pipe. Shame still nipping at his heels, what had happened to him back there? Why hadn't he been able to function? He also became concerned for his friends, had they almost drowned too? Then again, if anything did go wrong they wouldn't panic and freeze up like he had. The others were also probably more capable of dealing with threats as there were two of them wizards - or witches - with wands, Antonius was too young for a wand and Scorpius apparently became completely useless in perilous situations involving water. Self-disgust tore at him inside, what was wrong with him?

They continued in silence down the pipe, passing occasional streams of water pouring in but it was no longer dangerous as the hole allowed the water to pour out instead of drowning them. They finally came to the end, which was another brick wall except this time with just the right hand print. Antonius unwound the bandage and poked at the wound to make sure it was bleeding before pressing it onto the indent, he took Scorpius' hand the two went through the shimmering wall. It opened up into another kind of junction, this time with just one wall with all six handprints. The other four were also already there.

"Hallelujah!" Albus exclaimed immediately.

"Glad you made it, Scor," Abby agreed with relief.

"Yeah, Scor, we were worried," Vern added and Scorpius noticed Antonius hang his head unhappily.

"What took you so long?" Maurice asked.

"Water tried to drown us," Scorpius muttered, noticing the others didn't look soaked through like he and Antonius.

"Us too but we dealt with it."

"All you needed to do was keep holding hands," Albus pointed out, "Vern and I noticed the pipe starting to fill as soon as we let go, it stops if you hold hands and starts if you don't."

"Well not everyone noticed that. We got through it alright anyway and we'll know that for when we go back, so come on people with Auror parents. Hands in position."

Abby and Albus removed their bandages and Maurice went over all of their cuts to reopen them, the trio them located the right hand positions and pressed their palms into the indents. This time however, the wall didn't shimmer but rather the bricks just started falling into themselves and folding themselves back to leave a large opening in the center with just two red brick pillars on either wall. Maurice grinned triumphantly and stepped through the gap, completely without thinking or not thinking it necessary about needing to hold hands with the person's blood. The floor started to shake, the walls shuddering around them deafeningly.

A crack shot out across the ground where Maurice was standing, fissures starting up all over beyond the red brick pillars as if the ground itself was shattering and it started to give way underfoot. Maurice tried to leap around to avoid falling into the chasm, inadvertently getting himself moved further away from them. And even worse, the red brick wall was resealing itself. Scorpius tried to rush through to get to Maurice to help the deaf boy but Albus pulled him back in time to prevent him being crushed by the wall, it reformed back into place and the shaking stopped.

Abby, Albus and Antonius slammed their hands back against the wall immediately to reopen it. The bricks started moving back again, reverting to pillars back by the wall. Except this time, there was no wide open chamber. There was just a gaping void where the floor had been. And no Maurice.

---

Part 5: Winning and Losing

---

Maurice realized his error the second he stepped through, stupidly not thinking that measures could still be in place. The ground started to fall away from him under his feet, dodging the breaks got him further from the others as the floor just happened to be falling from that direction. A glance revealed the wall was also sealing itself, trapping him. It didn't matter, if there was no door then you simply had to make one. He ran desperately across the room giving way, wand in hand and lashed out with one of the most powerful explosive spells he knew against a random segment wall. He put up an arm to protect his face from chunks of flying rock and threw himself into the hole he'd created.

He fell through it, battering his body with broken pieces of rock and tumbled downwards. He cast a spell to slow his momentum, just in time to stop himself smashing his skull against solid ground and instead landing with a somewhat gentler thud onto hard ground beneath a small depth of water. He got to his feet readily, allowing himself a slightly relieved breath that he had survived that. The Shadows may have cruel methods of teaching but Maurice couldn't argue with their results, could Beauxbatons or Hogwarts survive that at thirteen? He found himself in a long, dimly lit chamber decorated with serpentine pillars. He was somewhere in the middle of the chamber but to the side of the pillars not in the main walkway, through them he saw two things of immediate interest. The first was an obelisk engraved with blood red runes, before that was a pedestal upon which rested a broken green orb with rusted silver snakes wrapped around the bottom of it.

He noticed movement too, the Shadows may have gotten their first but they hadn't gotten the Scepter yet. He was sure they probably calling out for him to reveal himself, it was the logical thing to do to but of course he couldn't hear. Maurice cautiously stepped out from the shadows of the pillars, wand ready and saw to his surprise Viola Kalya halfway between him and the items of interest with Cassia, August and Lily. No one else? Viola had her wand raised at him, the other two lowered theirs and of course Cassia didn't have one. Maurice couldn't help it, his lips curled into a smirk.

"You?" Maurice wondered of Viola in amusement as he slipped his free hand onto his translator necklace, he kept his wand trained on her though and was ready to stop translating and start attacking if need be, "The Shadows sent you? I'm surprise, I'd dismissed you as a suspect because you're just too useless."

What's he talking about? appeared around August's head as he seemed to demand it of Viola.

Nothing, Viola assured him but he saw the glint of anger in her violently violet eyes.

"If you three are here of your own free will then you should know that whatever she told you was a lie," Maurice told them as his mind started to connect the dots of their probable plan, "Probably a bad lie."

Shut up, Maurice. Lower your wand

"She's working for the Shadows, trying to steal that piece of the Scepter for them. I'm guessing the plan is to transport you all away with a Portkey, wouldn't want to risk getting out of the castle any other way with someone so talentless. Where it takes you, there'll be Shadows waiting to capture you to force you to get the other half and then they'll kill you. Except maybe Cassia," Maurice explained and felt a jab of anger at Viola, "You should really be ashamed, you know? Working for the enemy is one thing but betraying your friends, leading people who trust you and care about you to their death? That is just wrong."

I said shut up, Maurice, Viola said and the expression on her face indicated she had probably shouted them. He really didn't know why people bothered to do that when speaking to him, Drop your wand or I'll drop you. He's lying, he's the one working for the Shadows

"Your siblings are back further, coming to save you and stop Viola here if you don't believe me then wait and ask them," Maurice continued unafraid and Cassia started to move over to him which elicited a murderous glare from Viola, trusting his word more already as he'd built up trust with her. Lily might be more difficult as she was closer to Viola, August too might be difficult as Maurice had been there when his brother died, "That's a good soldier, Cassia. Unlike you, Viola. Honestly, should you even be allowed to do missions? Have you even passed the test? I can't believe they left something so important to you."

Of course I've passed the test, Viola admitted stupidly in her frustration, not that the others would have any understanding of what it meant.

What test? Lily asked.

"The real test or a dumbed down easy one that your Daddy approved for you?" Maurice inquired curiously, he knew it sounded like a taunt but it was also true. Viola had been spared torture as punishments, spared the entire torture class, spared ever having to use the blood quill and he doubted very much she'd had to endure what he had for the test. She could probably have just walked outside and been declared as having passed.

Maurice is the Shadow. Take off your shirt and show them the skeletal snake symbol, you have two I believe

"You can't beat me in a duel, Viola, surrender now," Maurice told her seriously, if she knew about the symbol then she knew he'd passed the test and she knew full well what he was capable of.

It was true you should never underestimate your enemy but he was better than her and he knew it, he saw the recognition in her eyes too. But she was too proud and too dedicated to give up, he recognized the spell movement she was using as she flicked her wand. He abandoned his necklace immediately to counter the jet of flames that shot from her wand, using the water around and throwing it at the fire. Cassia jumped behind him to avoid the water he was levitating and shooting at the fire in a continuous stream, he increased the intensity of the water and Viola couldn't match it. The water drowned her fire and hit her, sending her hurtling backwards to collide with the obelisk and drop painfully to the ground, now soaking and spluttering water.

He advanced forwards confident but wary, August and Lily were too shocked to move while Cassia followed in his wake. From what he'd gathered through the years, shooting fire at each other was not a normal practice amongst students and it presumably had them doubt her credibility as it seemed much more of a Shadow thing. Lily was saying words to Viola but he didn't dare translate them, she looked upset and maybe was yelling. What would he do if he knew his plan was ruined? He wouldn't be able to take the hostages with the Portkey he would presumably have on him, he could use it to escape but to come back empty handed was not acceptable. He'd probably try to scrape by what he could, Portkey the Scepter to them since the more difficult thing to get out of Hogwarts as the hostages would have to leave for the summer anyway. As if on cue, he saw her throw a tattered blanket at the Scepter. He cried out a spell he'd never used but had read about recently that diverted the Portkey location, he thought of the Knox's house as it was the first and only place he could think to send it. There was a blinding cyan flash and both blanket and Scepter were gone, that should hopefully mean it had worked and diverted it.

Or maybe that wasn't such a good thing, the Shadows would figure that would be where he would send it which would put the others at risk. He didn't have a choice though, the spell only worked for places the caster had been and there was no one else to send it too as he had no idea where Varanian or Roman were let alone had been there. He just had to hope the Shadows didn't find out and that Orous would realize it was the Scepter, hide it until Scorpius could contact Varanian to send for it. Viola jumped up and threw an unknown spell - he hadn't seen the wand movement as it happened behind the pedestal - at him, he dodged rather than defended it in case it was an Unforgivable and cast a stunner back at her.

"Give up, Viola, its over," Maurice called out.

Viola apparently thought not as she went to cast another spell, August fired a simple Disarming Spell that she deflected with a flash of a Shield Charm. Lily looked like she was screaming at them to stop maybe? She dodged his second stunner and launched a spell at August, deciding to take out the weaker and easier opponent. Maurice threw up his own Shield Charm to defend August, he fired a stunner immediately as her spell deflected off August's shield. Viola dodged as expected, falling straight into the path of her own deflected spell. It knocked her clean off her feet, her wand fell from her grasp. She lunged for it and Maurice lashed out with a fracturing spell at her wrist, he couldn't hear the supposed snap it makes but he saw the limp jerk wrongly and she looked like she screamed in pain. It was an effective way to stop disarmed enemies going for their wands, it was one of his favorites as he found it worked quite nicely. Even if they did fight through the pain, they couldn't cast spells properly or at all as wand movements were necessary. Viola yanked her injured limb to her predictably while Cassia scuttled over and snatched up the wand, aiming it threateningly at her.

"Good work, Cassia," Maurice told her with a smile, genuinely impressed she'd remembered something he'd taught her. Cassia grinned proudly and Maurice continued his approach without taking his wand aim off of Viola, he put his hand free hand to his translator necklace, "That was pretty pointless, you know?"

Are you going to kill me? Viola said, her violet eyes radiating terror.

"Kill you?" Maurice repeated and realized that was why she had fought, she'd thought he would kill her. Should he kill her? He cocked his head to one side thoughtfully and she started crying, he lowered his wand in disgust, "You're not worth killing, you're too pathetic. Did you try to kill Latimer?"

What?

"Tobias Latimer," Maurice snapped and raised his wand again, pathetic or not he'd kill her for hurting his friend. Her eyes bulged, "Did you throw him off the Astronomy Tower and fake his suicide?"

No

I'm pretty sure he just tried to kill himself, August added and Maurice threw him a dark look, he refused to believe his friend would do that. Latimer was a good solider, intelligent, talented, not distracted by dating and he wouldn't do that to them. Maurice would know, he should.

Why would I even kill him?

Evil don't need reasons, they're evil, Cassia pointed out, incorrectly but he appreciated her support nonetheless. She needed to be a soldier, was today not proof enough that even those as young as Ashain's kids should be taught to protect themselves?

I'm not evil.

But you are working for them? You did lie to us? August asked with a dark and disgusted expression of his own, Lily just looked betrayed.

Yes, Viola admitted, But that doesn't mean I'm evil, our cause is the right one. The world is bad and it needs to be fixed, you people just can't understand. And you, Maurice, you should understand. You're a traitor, you're betraying everything you were raised to believe, everything you were taught

"You're the one who just can't understand," Maurice told her seriously, "And in a way, I actually pity you. There are two kids of soldiers, those who have to be and those raised to be. Most people just have to be, they lack focus because they aren't just soldiers but people too with lives they want to live and things they want to do, they just have no choice but to fight or they'll die because of the war. The second kind were people once too, they destroy children and build soldiers out of the pieces of child left, leaving out what they don't want and keeping in what is useful as much as possible. They teach them to be killing machines, designed solely to fight and die in the war. They didn't break you before they build you back up so they couldn't make you quite the same because you're Daddy protected you, that's why you'll always be weaker than me and why you lost. They don't realize it though, they'll keep expecting you to keep up with the real soldiers and you'll die.

"What they don't teach the raised soldier is what you're fighting for, you're just supposed to fight for what you're told is right. But what is right? Morality is subjective to your personal beliefs and even raised soldier still have minds even if they don't have lives. For me, fighting for the people I care about and who care about me is what's worth fighting for not those who've hurt them. If you don't think fighting for friends who risk their own lives to come down here for you is worth fighting for, more so then people who are going to get you killed surely, then I pity you. People are what matter, not things. You're either incredibly stupid or incredibly evil."

You're just crazy and you'll die, Viola said as Maurice noticed his friends had reached them while his back and chest burned with the snake scars writhing again. He couldn't say she was wrong, dreams about dancing scantily clad women made him doubt his own sanity and he knew he would die eventually. He was just going to die fighting not falling into a stupid trap, and he'd take as many Shadows down with him as possible.

---

The guy left, leaving Roman alone with his son. He desperately wanted to hug Maurice and tell him he'd missed him, tell him he loved him, tell him he was sorry that it had been so long. But he didn't, it felt somehow inappropriate after so long even if Maurice didn't look so much like Alzay and didn't seem to like him. They needed to get to know each other again, that was all. Roman showed him around, having to keep remembering to make sure he was in his son's line of sight so he could still understand. He was absolutely amazed by the translating necklace and Maurice's ability to speak, maybe his son would have a chance at normalcy after all. Maurice just followed mutely with the same neutral expression as his mother.

"So erm... Are... Are you hungry?" Roman asked nervously when he was done, not sure what he was supposed to say or do now.

"I had breakfast," Maurice commented, standing still as he watched him with her eyes. Roman recalled Teddy Lupin at six having trouble staying still, he thought it must mean Maurice was quite well behaved.

"Right, good. Do you erm... want to... to sit down and talk or play or... what do you want to do?"

"Go back to school."

"Besides that."

"Be told that I can go back to school," Maurice insisted, "Every second here is just a waste of time that could be spent learning."

"There's more to life then learning, wouldn't you like to do something fun?" Roman wondered as he recalled his utter misery in Hogwarts and Maurice's expression twisted into a scowl that was terrifyingly alike to Alzay's.

"What kind of question is that?

"Are you happy?"

"If you want me to be happy then take me back to school."

That was what Roman had to deal with, if he tried to talk to him then Maurice would ask to return to his school and if he tried to play with him then Maurice would demand to go back to school. Maurice was incredibly well behaved - not like any of the assorted Weasley clan - and didn't make messes or break things, he was also quite capable of taking care of himself in regards to personal care such as bathing, teeth brushing or getting dressed. Maurice was mature for his age now, lacking interest in toys or playing. Roman was actually sad about that, he wasn't good at conversations and had hoped playing would help them reconnect and make Maurice happy. So much for that, nothing made Maurice happy. He never saw his son smile, not at anything and didn't even look twice at things that had once captured his attention.

He was just like Alzay, in looks and personality. Cold and emotionless, quick to anger with icy oceanic eyes that resonated hatred. He missed the deaf toddler who always smiled and laughed at stupid things, at least Maurice was happier and... Not Alzay-like. His nightmares resurged with a vengeance, being constantly around someone who reminded him of her so much made him think of her more and more. It didn't help that Maurice had a morbid fascination with war and death and torture, Maurice tended to bring them up when Roman tried to talk to him. Almost like he knew it bothered him, Roman frequently had to go into another room when he felt a panic attack building to calm himself and down calming draught to try combat it. He'd been right all along, Alzay had conceived the twins against his will and there was nothing of him in their appearance or personality. They were all Alzay, future sadistic psychotics just like her. The thought actually made him cry but for some reason he still kept trying to get along with Maurice, still kept writing to want contact with Orous for an ember of hope that refused to give up and die.

Roman had had plans, he'd wanted to take Maurice from that school and take him with him back to Egypt but when they came back for Maurice, he let his son go. It was what Maurice wanted, Roman recalled all too well his sister and Percy never caring what he wanted. The school may have awful communication skills but they did results, Maurice was well-mannered, intelligent and even articulate as they were adjusting for his deafness. He could hardly blame them for Alzay's blood making Maurice act the way he did, Maurice thanked him for letting him return before he left. It was the closest to anything positive he'd gotten, he could only wonder how bad Orous was if Maurice was like that without having even seen the woman since babyhood. And the bad news just kept coming that summer, he went to cuddle Smokey and give him his dinner - as he did every day - one of the days only to discover that Smokey had passed. Old age, they said, he'd just died of old age. Roman was devastated, his beloved companion who he'd had since he was eleven was dead. The only one who'd ever been there for him unwaveringly, he cried his eyes out repeatedly. He'd lost his parents, he'd lost his brother, he'd lost his sister, he'd lost Luna, he'd lost his sons and now he'd lost his cat. Not all of them necessarily lost to death but still lost to him, it hurt like a knife to the heart.

Leila's letters were all he had for comfort now, offering support and kindness although how genuine it was still under question as Alzay could pretend to be nice too. Then again, what did he really have to lose by trusting her? She lived in Egypt, if she hurt him then he could just go back to his own country. He went to sleep sobbing for Smokey and woke screaming for nightmares of Alzay, it wasn't like his life was in a good place anyway. The thought even occurred to him to reach out to one or both of his siblings, life was too short and really their parents wouldn't have wanted them to have fallen so completely out of contact with each other. On the other hand, why should Roman reach out? They were the ones at fault, they were the ones who had betrayed him and he deserved his apology from the both of them. The fact neither had bothered his entire just showed that they didn't care, they didn't love him, they didn't care about him, they didn't give a damn about him. What would he even say to them anyway? He returned to Egypt, he had missed it.

And he had missed Leila much more than he cared to admit, they stayed up talking all night when he first got there until they ran out of things to say. They just sat there by the fire, she was looking into his eyes and he was looking into her eyes with the warm flame reflecting. Then he kissed her, she kissed him back passionately and his life took an unexpected turn. It was different being back then it had been before though, they no longer spent their days in the ancient city but studying the artifacts like he did back in England except for the Egyptian Ministry rather than privately. He was no longer working with Leila, sometimes their work overlapped but predominantly they were given different things and frequently gave each other farewell riddles to solve throughout the day. He was still staying in his generous quarters at her father's house though, although sometimes he was in hers or vice versa and they saw a lot if not more of each other than they had before. Or maybe it just felt like it because she no longer annoyed him so much.

Dating Leila was very different than dating Alzay, she enjoyed - or pretended to enjoy - being around him much better and he loved seeing her smile. It was a welcome distraction from his complete failure as a father and Smokey's death, Leila had yet to turn on him and even comforted him when he had nightmares or gave him space when he needed it, didn't pressure him. He thought other people probably thought they were mad though, when he bought her gifts - or vice versa - he hid them and she had to solve a riddle to find them. It was fun for them though, puzzles and riddles were something they both enjoyed and the challenge made the presents more special. Not long before Christmas, they were offered to work on loan for the Greek Ministry and relocated to Greece for six months. Personally he preferred the quieter Egypt as they were staying in the city of Athens but he did prefer it to London, the wealth of history helped offset the crippling amount of people. He found it easier to cope with people with Leila there, he had come full circle where he now had his girlfriend's hand to hold on to for comfort rather than his sister's. Leila loved it though, Ancient Greece was one of her favorite periods in history and Greek - Ancient and modern - were some of her favorite languages as she was fluent in over ten languages as learning them both fascinated her and came easily. Leila was intelligent but could become focused to the point of obsession over her work or things in general.

After that they were offered to go work in South America, they'd be pretty far from civilization which made Roman both nervous and relieved. He was getting his week of Maurice though so she went on ahead of him while he returned to dreary England, increasing the tempo of his letters to Alzay for Orous while he was in the country. He missed Leila like crazy despite staying in contact with letters, he wished she could've come as she hadn't actually been to England before - which she insanely wanted to do - and he also desperately wanted her to meet Maurice, see what she thought of him. There was always next year, or with any luck Maurice would have changed his mind about the school and want to leave in which case Roman had no reservations of taking him out. Unfortunately, Maurice hadn't though. He'd grown a bit taller and had near perfect English now but otherwise, he hadn't changed. Much to Roman's disappointment, he was actually feeling more confident and much better about himself but still struggled with social interaction especially when Maurice's similarity to Alzay continued to terrify him. He got lucky with Maurice when he suggested wizard chess as something to pass the time which Maurice hadn't played before. And Maurice actually seemed to enjoy it, maybe because he turned out to be incredibly adept at it. By the end of the week, Roman was shamefully losing every single match to his seven year old but it was hard to focus when you were fighting off memories of Alzay brought on by your opponent's uncanny resemblance.

It wasn't enough though and Maurice still wanted to go back to his school although at least didn't ask about it constantly like he had the previous year, Roman sadly bade his son goodbye again for another year. Then he went to South America to be with Leila, the landscape was breath-taking beautiful and the work was fascinating. The terrifying amount of people was replaced by with a terrifying amount of wildlife but he thought he preferred it, or maybe it was just Leila's sense of adventure rubbing off on him. That woman even managed to convince him to sleep with her under the stars, it was beautiful. Roman thought he might actually love her. Everything was completely perfect and he still didn't have his sons the way he'd like, they had their share of fights as she could be impractical and childish at times but she didn't turn around and torture him or try to destroy his spirit. In fact, they both threw down their wands in an argument as an unspoken rule so they could actually argue instead of wind up with him having a panic attack. He was more than his anxieties around her, he could be himself and he was happy. He was happier then he'd been in a long time, the world didn't seem so impossibly scary when he had such an incredible person to face it by his side. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, he wanted to marry her.

After South America, they went back to Egypt which was perfect as it was traditional to ask the bride's father for her hand in marriage first. Roman was a nervous, sweating, shaking wreck but Malik was delighted to accept, even offering to provide him with a ring that cost more than Roman could ever afford. He refused though as he wanted to choose it himself, if he couldn't pick a ring she'd like then he didn't deserve her. They went to work with the Italians for a few months over winter, that was where Roman bought the ring quite perfectly as it was the origin of the engagement ring so she - he hoped - would appreciate that historical aspect as well as - hopefully - the design. At least enough to say yes. He just needed the ring time and opportunity to present itself, what could be more perfect then being asked back by the Greek Ministry? Leila's favorite place. It was still near impossible to work up the courage, she could very easily say no and turn on him like everyone else ever had. Eventually in spring, he hid the ring in the Parthenon and wrote an elaborate riddle for her to find it. He sat there trembling in terror, waiting for her to return with her answer or never return at all and regretting not doing a simpler, shorter riddle. Finally though, she returned.

"Do-"

"Yes!" Leila cried happily and through her arms around him as he turned to face happy, practically glowing and had the ring already on her finger, "Of course I'll marry you, Rome."

"R-Really?" Roman wondered, feeling about to faint from joy. In answer, she kissed him passionately and Roman smiled through the kiss.

Roman was elated as was Leila, he didn't think he'd smiled so much in his life. Every time he saw her, he'd remember she was his fiancée and his spirits would soar a little higher. They were offered permanent positions in Greece too rather than leaving at the start of summer, they decided to accept for the time being. It was almost like the world wanted them to settle down, Roman could live with that and he was sure the school had mentioned teaching Maurice Greek so his son was fine. There was Orous but Roman still had no luck with him, he still wrote weekly and sent a gift every birthday. Leila decided if he still hadn't heard anything after they were married, she was going to 'deal with it' as she wanted to see her stepsons and thought he had a right to see Orous when he hadn't done anything wrong. She was getting to meet Maurice though, summer was upon them and with it the week he'd get to see his son. He wasn't sure whether she'd help make him stay or make him want to stay away more, he hoped the former. Maybe it would help Maurice turn good to be under the influence of a non-evil mother figure, as long as Leila didn't turn. Something went wrong though, Malik fell severely ill just before so Leila was going to go to him.

"I have great news," Leila announced to him delightedly on the day they were set to leave, "I hope you'll think it's great anyway."

"Is your Dad going to be okay?" Roman asked and her smile wavered.

"Still don't know. It's not about him."

"Is it about work?"

"No."

"Erm... The wedding?"

"No. But it is to do with us and our future."

"Okay, I'm stumped," Roman admitted, completely unsure what good news she could know about them that he didn't, "What is it?"

"I'm not just going to tell you," Leila laughed and handed him a folded up sheet up paper, "Your riddle to solve to get the answer and you have to do it within the next eight months or I'll have to tell you and you lose the riddle race."

"How cryptic," Roman commented curiously before she leaned in to kiss him in farewell, "I love you."

"I love you too. See you soon, Rome."

Roman was intrigued but didn't have much time to think about it, her riddle was a long and difficult one. It was a swelteringly hot summer, even in England and he was looking forward to seeing his son with the optimistic hope he would be less like Alzay. Unfortunately, he was not. Maurice was a little taller and now spoke in perfect English but looked as just as much like his mother, nor had his attitude changed beyond refusing to wear short-sleeved shirts or pants or take of his gloves despite the fiercely hot weather. Roman settled himself in for another week of awkward struggling with at least the riddle to distract him, he was wrong though. He walked into the other room one day and say Maurice sitting reading a book, he had finally taken Roman's advice and removed his gloves to reveal horrific scars. Despite the heat, Roman suddenly felt a nauseating coldness sweep through him. When he demanded an explanation, he also realized the scars extended and had Maurice remove his shirt to see how far it went. The cold feeling chilled him to his core as the entirety of his son's, his little eight year old son's torso was riddled with blood quill scars.

Layers upon layers of words in random languages and sizes scarred into his skin, years upon years worth of damage to his innocent child. He was afraid to see if they extended below Maurice's waist, he thought he might throw up as it was. It was torture and while he had no idea why Maurice would continually want to go back to a school abusing him like that, he didn't see him as looking as Alzay anymore. Maurice wasn't a monster, he was a victim. Roman's heart twisted in agony, his son was a victim because he kept sending him there, because he hadn't protected his little boy, because he had bloody listened to Alzay in the first place as she had suggested it. And no wonder, was she really so cruel a person that she'd want her own flesh and blood child to have some much pain inflicted on them at such a young age? Roman didn't know what to do, he just hugged Maurice for the first time since toddlerhood. No longer thinking it felt inappropriate, his son was hurt and hugs felt like they cured everything. Maybe they wouldn't cure everything but he wasn't sending his son back now.

Roman realized he was angry, he was so angry. At himself, at Alzay, at that school. And why shouldn't he be?! How dare they lie to him?! How dare they hurt his son?! And how dare they convince Maurice that it was normal?! He waited for the bastard to arrive to take Maurice back, pacing with his wand twirling in his hand as the rage ran through him. They arrived perfectly on time, he opened the door and the man was flung explosively backwards into the opposing wall without vocalizing a spell. He really didn't care that he'd lost control over his magic, he was shaking and for once it wasn't from fear.

"What is the meaning of this?" the man asked as he got wearily to his feet.

"HE'S NOT GOING BACK WITH YOU!" Roman screamed, his voice coming out several decibels louder than he'd meant to but he really didn't care, "I KNOW WHAT YOU BASTARDS DO TO HIM! I'VE SEEN THE SCARS! STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY SON, DO YOU HEAR ME!? STAY THE FUCKING HELL AWAY FROM MY SON OR I AM GOING INTO THE MINISTRY AND I AM NOT COMING OUT UNTIL YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING OPERATION IS WORKING OUT OF AZKABAN PRISON WHERE YOU SICK SONS OF BITCHES BELONG! DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND ME?!"

"I understand you."

"THEN GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SIGHT AND STAY THE FUCK OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Roman roared and to his surprise, the man simply disapparated without protest.

---

It was a very quiet trip back to Hogwarts, if anyone did speak then it was usually Rose asking if a different particular thing she'd said or done had caused Latimer to try kill himself. As if any of them magically knew more than she did about his thought process or reasons, Orous supposed it was just her way of dealing with it. Corin was just quiet and Michael just tried to stay awake, still weak from the full moon and now exhausted from being up all night delivering a baby. Orous just felt guilty, now feeling worse for not staying in Hogwarts to be with Latimer as well as in case anything happened with the Scepter. He hoped not, people were hardly going to be in the mood for it. He felt sad too, he didn't want Latimer to die.

He bade the others goodbye and found his dad with a heavy heart, he wished Maurice was there in a way or rather that Maurice wanted to be there. He tried to make his twin feel welcome but he got the impression he failed spectacularly, Maurice didn't seem to like it there after all. He guessed he couldn't blame him, after all Orous hadn't been able to stop him from being abducted and messed up even worse by the Shadows. And by their own mother. He really hadn't the heart to tell Maurice that the Alzay he despised who'd burned the skeletal snake symbol onto his chest was their mum, his brother had yet to realize it was her nickname. He was glad to see the dogs and his dad again though, maybe a break would be good for him. They talked for a while and his dad played some games with him to take his mind off things.

It was only when he was going to bed that he noticed a tattered blanket on his bed, covering something. He cautiously removed it and saw it was a broken green orb, rusted snakes encircled the bottom of it. Orous thought it looked rather a lot like the description of the Scepter they were all after, or at least a part of it and he knew it hadn't been left there by his dad. Not only would his dad not get him such a weird present, he wouldn't leave it on his bed undiscovered for several hours. Besides, it hadn't been there when he'd brought his stuff in after getting back. How had it gotten there? Why would someone put a piece of the Scepter on his bed? Orous didn't know but he was pretty sure it was not a good thing to leave out in the open, he wrapped it back in the blanket and hid it in his pillowcase. It made it awkward to get comfortable to sleep but at least it was close by, he could figure out somewhere to hide it when it was morning.

Orous woke up as normal and thankfully no nightmares, checking to find the orb still there. He'd still have to think of somewhere to hide it, maybe he could just bury it in the garden. Would that suffice? He'd think about it a bit more over breakfast, he headed down to the living room and kitchen as usual. And froze. His dad was on the floor in a pool of crimson, covered in blood too and looking rather like he was having a seizure. His mouth was open like he was screaming but no sound was coming out. His attacker sat in the armchair beside, wand still aimed with the Cruciatus Curse still in effect. He had forgotten what she looked like aside from vague memories but he still recognized her as he saw her, she really did have a strong resemblance to his brother. She had the same light brown hair with a slight wave to it, a similar length and the same cold oceanic eyes settled into a perfectly neutral expression. They both had soft features but hers were more feminine, she was also older obviously. He was looking as his mother.

"Did you miss me, Orous?" his mum asked as she cocked her head to one side curiously.

"Let him go!" Orous demanded and tried to run towards his dad but she flicked her free hand, he was knocked back against the wall.

"I don't think so, if you want me to let him go then I expect something from you," she told him, "There's a piece of a Scepter that might or might not be here, bring it to me and I'll let him go."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Orous lied, fighting the lump welling in his throat but he didn't want to help the Shadows.

"Alright, you lose a father," she shrugged and flicked her wand, supposedly breaking a Silencing Charm as his dad's hoarse screaming becoming audible.

"Don't you care?!" Orous demanded as tears rolled down his cheeks, why had he left his wand in his room? "Don't you care at all?!"

"About Cade? No. I only married him to get away with crimes, tricked him with Love Potion. I don't give a damn about him, he's just an idiot muggle," his mum scoffed as if insulted by his insinuation she cared about her husband before composing herself and continuing calmly, "If you're telling the truth then I pity you because I'm going to kill him then we're going to tear this house apart and the grounds up to look for it to assure you of it. If you're lying then I suggest you bring it to me, the more time you waste the more pain he goes through. Although his mind's probably mush by now, I've been at this all night so I'm rather tired of it. I'm going to count down from ten and when I get to zero, Cade's life is going to end. Either get running for the Scepter or say goodbye. Ten..."

Orous choked on his sobs, his dad's screams echoing his mind while his mum's oceanic orbs met his eyes unflinchingly. He had to stop them from getting the Scepter but they were going to get anyway when they searched the house, there was no way they wouldn't find it. The only difference was in one his dad might have a chance of living, he couldn't lose his dad, he was all Orous had. There was no choice really. He pelted back to his room and guiltily, retrieved the Scepter orb. He wished Maurice was there even more, Maurice would probably be able to transfigure something to look like it or just fight them off or anything. All Orous could do was run back with the Scepter piece to hand over to the enemy, his mum finally dropped the Cruciatus Curse and his dad was silenced immediately. Instead, he just lay there trembling.

"You lied to you mother? You horrible, horrible child," his mum chided him and held out a hand for the Scepter, he threw it and she simply levitated it to her free hand, "Don't be such a cry baby."

"What about me? Do you care about me?" Orous called out but his voice broke and it came out sounding much quieter and pathetic then he'd intended.

She paused in turning and looked at him over her shoulder at him, her expression was unreadable and she gave no answer as she turned away into the shadows, vanishing. Orous shoved his thoughts of her aside and instead ran to his dad, throwing himself down beside his father. His dad was still shaking, bleeding was over a dozen open wounds across his back. He was breathing very certainly but his eyes had a sightless quality to them as they gazed into nothing, not registering him, not registering anything. He wished Michael was there now, Michael would know how to help. Was it possible that his mum had driven his dad insane through torture? It happened, it had happened to Abby's grandparents.

"It's going to be okay, Dad, I'm going to get you some help and you're going to be okay now," Orous promised through his tears, trying to sound comforting as he squeezed his dad's hand. His dad said nothing, he didn't move or give any kind of reaction at all. Just continued to stare unblinkingly at nothing through broken eyes.