Parts (79-84)

IV

Chapter 14

The Grim Aftermath

Part 1: Mothers and Fathers

It was an uncomfortable train journey for Michael, he was still coming down from the full moon and staying up all night left his eyes - or rather eye, his prosthetic was fine - feeling as if it had been rubbed down with sandpaper. He needed to sleep. His conflicting emotions of joy and fear didn't help him either, he'd seen how bad Latimer was before Marigold had started trying to heal him and from someone with some medical knowledge, Michael knew the odds weren't particularly high and was scared of losing his friend. If he didn't think it was important that he speak to Varanian to make a plan for the Scepter, he probably would've stayed. Then on the other hand, Crystal was out of the hospital now and he'd delivered a baby.

He bade goodbye to his friends on the platform and went over to greet his mother and aunt, Crystal wasn't allowed to drive for a while following the operation and was staying with the Thornes while she recovered. Crystal seemed in much better spirits to see him and talked to him in the car while Annie drove, Jack was not there but Annie said he was never around in her letters and he still never said where he was. It was strange. Michael was still tired but he didn't say anything, instead indulging Crystal who was eager to catch up on his life. Or as much of it as he could say, he couldn't be completely open like he'd be able to talk to Annie as he couldn't tell her about the Scepter or any of that. Annie just went to watch TV and read, she knew this stuff anyway through their letters and he'd get a chance to talk to her later. He hoped.

He slept as soon as his head hit the pillow, tiredness took him even though his dreams were tormented by nightmares of Latimer dying that woke him. He was with Annie though who had the Resurrection Stone so if Latimer did die then he would be able to speak to him, he wouldn't be gone forever. No sooner had he thought that, he realized what Scorpius was on about with the stone. It wasn't life, he didn't want to talk to Latimer like he talked to Nick. He wanted Latimer to be alive, well he wanted Nick to be too but magic couldn't bring back the dead whereas Latimer wasn't dead yet. At least he hoped not. He couldn't get back to sleep after that, he got up and went into the living room/kitchen where Annie was still lying on the couch with the TV on and an open book on Healing magic on her chest.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Annie asked him with a yawn.

"I couldn't. Were you sleeping?" Michael wondered guiltily as she sat up to give him space to sit beside her.

"Not really, this isn't the most comfortable couch and I'm too sober to sleep easily."

"You could go to bed."

"The couch is my bed, there are only three bedrooms. Yours, Jack's and Crystal got mine," Annie pointed out as he sat down beside her, "So what's up?"

"Do you still have the stone?" Michael inquired, realizing he could use to test to see if Latimer was alright. Then again, it hadn't worked for Bob so it would prove nothing. So much for that.

"Yup," Annie answered readily and curiosity got the best of him.

"Have you ever used it?"

"No. Why would I use it? There's no one I want to talk who's dead."

"Your parents."

"And why would I want to talk to them? My Dad didn't care in life, he's not going to care in death and why I want my Mum to see how fucked up her kids turned out anyway?" Annie told him dismissively and shook her head, "The dead are dead, leave them be. I don't care that there's ghosts, death is final and it shouldn't be messed with. And is that really the thing that keeps you up at night?"

"No," Michael admitted and sighed unhappily before confiding in her about Latimer's suicide attempt the previous night, he felt somewhat better talking about it at least.

"Mikey, you're back," Jack greeted him, Michael jumped and Annie leaped to her feet, a conjured knife appearing in her hand unintentionally and vanishing when she saw it was him. Apparently they were just ignoring.

"I didn't hear you come in," Annie commented while Jack came over to hug him.

"Neither did I," Michael agreed as Jack pulled away, feeling somewhat unsettled. They may have dismissed what he'd seen as an impossibility but it still concerned him, Jack looked normal but... Michael didn't know, maybe he was just paranoid but something was off with him.

"I guess you both weren't listening hard enough," Jack shrugged dismissively, "Why are you both up anyway? It's the middle of the night."

"Just talking. Where were you?"

"Out. Well try get some rest, you both look like you need it," Jack offered and ruffled Michael's hair before retreating to his room.

"Is he always like that?"

"You mean weird and creepy as fuck?" Annie wondered as they stared after her brother, "Yeah."

Michael reluctantly went back to bed after mentioning they needed to see Varanian, still worried for his father and Latimer but talking had eased his concern enough to get some rest. Jack had left again by the time he got up, without telling them where he was going. In the morning, he realized something he was surprised he hadn't noticed yesterday despite being preoccupied with Crystal. Annie hadn't been kidding when she'd mentioned trying to learn more about magic, books straight out of the magical world were sprawled around especially those with a focus on healing but still plenty of others. Michael thought it was a good sign, interest in magic was a good step towards Annie accepting she was a witch. He also realized that getting to see Varanian might be harder then he'd thought, Crystal was very eager to spend time with him. He needed to think of something and sooner would probably be better than later, maybe Annie would have an idea on what to do as she was good with stuff like that.

"Michael, duck!" Annie yelled at him abruptly when he was clearing the table, he obeyed just in time to avoid a jet of orange whizzing over his head. Michael drew his wand readily and spun to face his attacker, a cloaked figure who was already raising his wand again.

"Protego!" Michael cried and his shield went up in time to protect him from the second spell.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a second spell shoot towards him from back over in Annie's direction. He jerked his body out of the way in time and glanced to see a second attacker near Annie, a knife magically conjured itself into her hand. The second attacker went to make another wand movement while the first attacker had already launched another spell.

"Protego!" Michael cried once more, the second attacker was already mid-spell though and he wouldn't be able to protect himself in time.

"No!" Annie gasped and jammed the blade into the second attacker's throat, while the first's spell deflected off Michael's shield and rebounded into a light fixture.

Annie pulled the knife away and blood gushed from the wizard's neck, he dropped his wand to clutch desperately at his wound. It didn't seem to work though as he crumpled to the ground, Michael heard a scream and tore his gaze away to see Crystal had come back in from the kitchen. The first attacker had already launched a spell at her, Michael could only watch in horror as the orange light pierced through her chest. Her hazel eyes widened in fear and pain as his body fell back, Michael raced towards her.

"Stupefy!" Michael lashed out with a sloppily aimed spell at the attacker to cover himself as he ran for his mother, he thought the guy ducked but he didn't care.

He fell to his knees by Crystal, crimson seeping from a wound caused by the spell. He tried a spell to stop the bleeding but it had no effect, nor did a basic healing one but then they wouldn't as Shadows had corrupted wands. He abandoned his wand to press his hands down on the wound to desperately try to stop the free flowing blood, Crystal gazed up at him gasping for breath uneasily. He saw another flash of orange and glanced back fearfully to see the attacker had now targeted Annie.

Annie threw herself down out of the way beside the guy she'd stabbed, her eyes flicked to the same thing that Michael's did. The second attacker's wand. The attacker turned back to him, apparently thinking he'd hit her. He raised his wand at Michael, his own eyes widened in fear but he couldn't do anything. He couldn't grab his wand in time, even if he tried then Crystal would be in trouble as she was bleeding badly. Annie abandoned the knife, it dematerialized as soon as it was on the ground to take the wand.

"Give me your necklace, kid, I'll spare you," the attacker offered and Michael realized what they wanted, the locket hid a shard of the Scepter.

"If you want it then you can pick it off my corpse," Michael refused darkly but determinedly, swallowing in fear as Annie shakily got to her feet.

"Drop your wand and get away from my nephew," Annie told the attacker with more confidence than she looked, aiming the wand awkwardly and uncomfortably at the man. The attacker looked at her for a moment, his expression incredulous and then he laughed.

"Don't be stupid, muggles can't-"

He never finished his sentence, a burst out of magic shot out the wand in Annie's hand and struck him. The man didn't have to register it as it hit him, tossing his body back and sending him crashing through the window. Annie was thrown back herself from the recoil, she must have done some uncontrolled burst of magic through the wand. She dropped the stick as if it burned her, trembling shakily on her feet.

"Annie, help," Michael pleaded, Crystal's blood was flowing through his fingers faster than he could stop it. Annie looked up and her expression became more composed, needing to focus at the task at hand.

"Don't," a gruff voice growled.

Michael looked back to see a different man stepping out of the Shadows. Annie yelped in surprise and a light bulb near him exploded, the man didn't seem concerned as if he was used to random bursts of magic happening around him. He'd never met him before but he recognized him from the pictures, from descriptions. He was especially muscular for a wizard, his six-fingered hands hung loosely by his side with a wand gripped in one. He had familiar extremely dark auburn hair and dark chestnut brown eyes but his face was hideously deformed, the eyes were overly large themselves, too far apart and the one was higher at different angle. His nose was bulbous, his thin crooked lips long and curved up the side of his mouth and his ears stuck out. The man was Brutus Ashain, his professor's Soul Eater brother.

"She'll die, you know?" Brutus commented, the professor's eyes looking wrong in the deformed setting, "Bleed to death, it's a terrible thing for a child to lose his mother. Even a filthy muggle."

"Go away," Michael blurted out stupidly, tears pricking his eyes as his mother's blood ran through his fingers.

"Even if I did, it would be too late by the time you get her to St Mungo's by muggle method and she'd die in a muggle one from effects of the spell they couldn't counter," Brutus told him calmly, oddly making no move to attack while Crystal's labored breathing grated on the eerie stillness that swept through the room, "Give me the locket and I'll take her to St Mungo's, they should be able to save her if you move fast."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Why shouldn't you?" Brutus countered.

Michael bit back a retort about him being the enemy, he had no wand and Annie wasn't holding the dead wizard's anymore. Taking the locket wouldn't be hard, Brutus didn't really have to offer to save Crystal. What did Michael have to lose? If he said yes and Brutus didn't hold up his end of the deal then he'd be in exactly the same situation as if he said no. He'd still be giving over the locket but Brutus would just take it anyway, Ashylos had been able to take it and open up so it was probably just to make sure it wasn't damaged.

"Okay," Michael agreed nervously.

"Don't do it!" Annie protested.

Brutus pretended she hadn't spoken had he strode over, scooping up Michael's wand as he did so. Annie scrambled to retrieve the Shadow's fallen wand but too late as Brutus placed a hand on Michael's shoulder, he noticed an oddly strong smell of perfume from Brutus. Abruptly though, everything shifted and Michael felt as if he was being pushed naked off a cliff. Icy air glided over his flesh as he fell through the twisting darkness, he could still feel Brutus' hand on his shoulder and Crystal's body beneath his fingers.

And then they were in a street, the cold gushed away like water draining off him. He was still kneeling with his bloody hands over Crystal's wound, Brutus removed his hand from his shoulder but Michael still smelt the perfume left presumably by Brutus' mysterious lady friend. He glanced around and realized they were outside St Mungo's, Michael was surprised despite himself. Brutus tore the locket from around his neck as he stepped away, Michael didn't even try to stop him. He had made a deal anyway. Brutus opened the locket easily, despite his deformity he was just as much Ashylos' descendant as his brother. Brutus swiped the green crystal fragment of the Scepter from it before tossing the empty locket back, followed by Michael's wand.

"Just levitate her inside, you won't get in trouble for life-threatening situations," Brutus told him gruffly, "The Healers will do the rest."

"Wait," Michael called out as Brutus went to turn to leave, his heart beating frantically. He wasn't sure why or if it mattered but something occurred to him, Brutus had saved his brother's life before, "You... You're trying to get the Scepter, right?"

"None of your concern," Brutus commented dismissively as he turned to leave.

"Your brother's dying," Michael admitted and Brutus froze on the spot, looking back to him with a face now drained of color and Michael swallowed nervously, wondering if he was doing the right thing, "The Scepter is a Horcrux of Ashylos, he was made one by Pancratius and Ashylos is your ancestor so he could possess your brother and the connection is too strong now. As Ashylos gets stronger, your brother gets weaker and when Ashylos resurrects, your brother will die. If you get the Scepter then... Atticus dies, if you care about him at all then don't help you master get it."

Brutus looked at him for a long moment, the expressions crossing his face extremely difficult to register due to the deformity before he turned away and vanished into the shadows. Michael didn't have time to think about it though, he scooped up his wand and locket, pocketing the latter for later as he levitated Crystal into the hospital. Healers swarmed immediately to help, rushing off with her to try save her and Michael could only hope it was enough. He waited around anxiously until Harry Potter showed up to speak to him with two other Aurors, Cel Rooke the family friend and a random other who Michael didn't know whether they were a Shadow or not. They wanted to know what happened, he basically told the truth as he didn't think Annie would be in trouble for killing Shadows in self-defense except for leaving out about Brutus wanting the Scepter shard in the locket. They believed him, why would they not? Except for some strange reason, he was told there were no bodies in the apartment. Signs of struggle and blood to confirm his story but no dead wizards and no Annie, he assumed she had gone to Varanian or was on her way here. The Shadows must have collected their dead, he supposed. It was still a bit odd though.

Mr Potter and the others left after the interview, promising to return and find his dad to fill him in. Or Annie, wherever she was. The Healers still weren't done with Crystal, he was restless for news and started wandering around for something to do and in hope of finding Annie had arrived. He didn't find her, however he did spot a familiar albino. Michael went over to see Orous was sitting by his father's bedside, the bald man was staring blankly ahead and rocking slightly.

"Hey," Michael greeted them, Orous glanced at him with eyes puffy from crying but Mr Knox gave no reaction, "What happened?"

"My Mum tortured him last night," Orous admitted so quietly it was barely audible.

"Is he going to be okay?"

"Physically he will," Orous told him and Michael pulled up a chair to sit beside his friend, "But mentally there's nothing they can do, they can't magically repair the mental damage my own mother caused. His mind is just shot, broken beyond help and he doesn't know anything. He never will again. He'll never recover."

"I'm sorry," Michael offered solemnly and gently, placing a comforting arm around Orous as tears leaked from the crimson eyes.

"B-But th-they say they should be ab-able to keep him here so I c-can v-v-visit him, th-that's g-good r-ri-right?" Orous asked and trailed off into tears.

Michael felt his heart sink solemnly and just hugged him, letting Orous cry into his shoulder. He couldn't think of anything to say to comfort him, there was nothing to say sometimes. Just being there with welcoming words was a poor substitute for anything useful anyway. Mr Knox tilted his head as if he could hear the sound of his son's sobs but continued staring ahead with a blank expression, staring unblinkingly with vacant eyes. Michael hugged the albino tighter, sympathy drowning his spirits.

"H-He d-didn't ev-even ask for this," Orous whispered through his tears, "Sh-She ma-made him marry her bec-because of L-Love Potion an-and then she dest-destroyed him, he didn't ask f-for this."

"None of his did," Michael admitted while a Healer approached them, the one who'd told him she'd find him if they had news of Crystal. He pulled away from Orous anxiously, "How...?"

"She's stable," the Healer told him with a warm smile, "We were able to counter the effects of the spell, all that's left is for the physical damage to heal. It will take a bit of time but she'll make it, we should even be able to fully repair her heart while we're at it. She has some kind of birth defect, I believe."

"You can fix that?"

"Yes, we just need her permission when she wakes up and we'll probably wait until she's healed more from the spell but absolutely."

"Thank you," Michael offered with a relieved smile.

"Would you like to see her?" the Healer asked him cheerfully and Michael nodded before freezing, recalling he was still beside Orous and his poor father. He felt a stab of guilt that he had such good news while Orous had such terrible news.

"It's okay," Orous said with a smile forced through his tear-streaked faced, "I'm glad she'll be alright, go be with her."

"I'll be back to see you soon," Michael promised and Orous just nodded as he left, Mr Knox still oblivious to the world. He always would be.

Part 2: Deciding

Scorpius and his friends pressed on nervously, they did still have the Scepter and the younger siblings to save. Hopefully they'd find Maurice too or at least be able to go back and get help for him when they'd done what they could, if any of them could survive that then it was Maurice. They levitated each other over the gap, he and Vern holding hands with one of those whose blood was needed when going past the wall seemed enough to stop anything else going wrong. On the other side was the door to the chamber with the obelisk, Antonius recalled the Parseltongue needed to open it so they got in to find August, Lily, Antonius and Maurice standing over a subdued Viola. Scorpius saw no sign of the Scepter but was too relieved over his friend's safety to let it bother him for the moment, with Latimer on the rocks the last thing he needed was someone else hurt or worse.

Abby, Albus and Antonius went over to their siblings, part relieved they were alive and part annoyed at them for getting into that situation in the first place. Scorpius was kind of glad that Sol was far too young to get himself mixed up in things like that, he didn't want his brother to be involved in the war. He and Vern went to Maurice with Viola, her eyes were slightly puffy and she was nursing some kind of wrist or maybe arm injury. Maurice himself was looking somewhat battered, his clothes all disheveled. His eyes were sharp though and his wand unwavering from the girl on the floor. Scorpius wondered for a second why before it clicked into his mind, she had been trained like Maurice had and Maurice identified her father on the platform as a Shadow. Her friendship with Lily but her in the perfect position to trick the girl into helping her, August was friends with them too or at least with Lily and Cassia probably jumped at the chance to do something interesting.

"I take it she's the Shadow?" Scorpius guessed and Maurice nodded in confirmation, "So where's the Scepter?"

"She used a Portkey to get it out of here," Maurice told him.

"What?!" Scorpius shot out in shock, horrified that after everything they'd failed and the Shadows would now have the first piece of it.

"Don't worry, I altered the location so it was sent somewhere else so they didn't get it."

"Where?"

"Can Viola hear what we're saying?" Maurice asked and Scorpius glanced at the girl obviously within earshot, listening to their conversation with interest.

"Yes."

"Then I'll tell you later."

Scorpius very much wanted to leave and not just to find out where the Scepter was, he wasn't fond of the chamber. It brought back bad memories of him, Calderon and Varanian both possessed and unpossessed. Knowing Varanian now and looking back, he wondered how in the world he could've been so blind to Varanian's situation. Orous had spoken to him here, when Scorpius had just ignored what he said because he selfishly didn't want to deal with it and Orous had suffered for it. Scorpius was a horrible person. He'd also lit the room on fire accidentally in his anger against Varanian, it seemed incredibly cruel now he'd seen Varanian's memory of being so horrifically burned and mangled by flames. Varanian had every right to be afraid of fire, Scorpius recalled the fear on his face yet still he had put out the fire surrounding and threatening them. What had Scorpius done when water was surrounding and threatening them? Panicked, frozen, done nothing and left it up to the little child to save them. He wasn't like Varanian at all, Varanian was so much stronger and braver then he was. Why was Scorpius even a Gryffindor if he reacted so pathetically to water?

His eyes were drawn to the obelisk and more memories came to mind of fighting the Shadows, the onslaught of Specters bearing down on them and Scorpius activated the obelisk. Willingly sacrificing his friends' lives to save the school, sacrificing Varanian's too. And Nott's. He looked down at his scarred palm, the Tiwaz run remained carved into his flesh except now with a scar over it where he'd given his blood to revive the Shadow Master. He wondered if Molly was every bothered to hold a scarred hand as he walked over to the obelisk, the runes still red and filled with his and Calderon's blood. He stood at the pedestal, it seemed shorter now as he'd grown taller. The stone was stained with blood and his small childish handprint was still there on top of the layers of imprinted adult hands, he overlaid his own hand over it. His hands had gotten bigger too. Calderon's handprints were there too, right and left beneath his. His heart twist painfully, remembering Calderon activating it to just to save him, remembering him weak still fighting to protect him and Varanian from the Specters, remembering how Calderon held him when he broke down and cried. How could Calderon be evil? How could he do that after everything they'd been through together? After they'd fought so hard against the Shadows?

"Scorpius," Vern repeated and Scorpius tore his eyes away from his memories, "Are you... Are you okay?"

"Fine," Scorpius snapped.

"You just kind of zoned out, people were talking to you. We were going to leave now."

"Good. Good riddance to this place."

Not that Scorpius was looking forward particularly to going through the drowning pipes, his mind was made up about something though. Michael was right, he had to talk to Calderon. He couldn't keep putting it off because he didn't want to deal with something like he had with Orous, he'd speak to him as soon as he could after the assistant's return. It was easier getting back although more awkward with Viola practically prisoner but they couldn't just leave her down there, Maurice levitated the fallen ground back up from the abyss for them to walk across instead of levitating themselves individually. Knowing it was necessary to hold hands through the blood points also made that much smoother, Cassia also decided to enlighten him on what had happened. He was sure it wasn't completely accurate, she was very good at embellishing but didn't stray too far from real events so that Scorpius could get a grip on what happened. The difficult part actually came from getting back up out of the pipes, they had to climb back up through them and despite Maurice's spell to give them grip on the slippery pipes so they wouldn't slide back down. It was awkward, uncomfortable and slow-moving.

"I can't believe you people didn't think on how to get out of here," Viola complained as they climbed, her broken wrist was slowing them all down and they were taking her back despite Cassia's frequent suggestions of leaving her there. If nothing else, Scorpius was afraid it would tip Calderon and the Aurors off if then she could drop them all in it. Besides, it was hard for the six with cuts on their hands to move fast as well even bandaged, "Honestly, exit plans are kind of important."

"Where's yours?" Albus snapped at her darkly, he was on board with Cassia, "We didn't realize it would be like this."

"Mine was the Portkey. And that's no excuse, Malfoy has been here before."

"How did you get out of here before, Scor?" Vern asked curiously, "Uncle Harry was carried out by a phoenix."

"First time, Varanian lowered the apparation wards and disapparated us out. Second time, Calderon just did stuff to get us out in a flash," Scorpius answered as he recalled it, "None of those methods are going to happen here, we also don't have a phoenix to hand."

"You didn't think to bring a broomstick?" August wondered.

"We didn't exactly have a lot of time!"

"Maurice, Maurice, Maurice!" Albus hissed suddenly and prodded the deaf boy to get his attention bring them to a halt, Maurice couldn't converse and climb as his hands were occupied, "You conjured those bandages earlier right?"

"Yeah, so?" Maurice said with a bemused expression.

"So can't you just conjure us up some broomsticks and get us out of here."

"Why don't you do that?"

"Because I can't," Albus pointed out, they hadn't learned about it. In fact, Maurice shouldn't of either.

"And neither can I. If I could conjure a broomstick then don't you think I would've done it already?" Maurice snapped before continuing on.

Cassia alone was talkative with boundless enthusiasm, offering encouragement to the point of annoyance and how cool it had been to go down there to stop the Shadows despite the fact she'd been inadvertently helping them. No complained at her for it though, she did have an injured hand and being irritating yet moving was better than having her bring them to a halt to cry about the pain she was in. And he didn't doubt she was in pain, she cradled her injured hand as soon as she was out. It was dark by the time they finally were back in the bathroom, Maurice magically cleaned them all up to look less suspicious.

"I'll have my wand back now," Viola announced and held out her good hand.

"Are you insane?" Abby choked out incredulously, "You're a Shadow!"

"Yes but you can hardly turn me over to the Ministry, not without admitting how you also managed to learn about their secret Scepter and steal it yourselves. So you're going to give me back my wand and we are just going to go about our lives like this never happened," Viola explained quite calmly with a smirk, Maurice pried the wand from an upset Cassia to hand it back to her. She went to take it but Maurice very deliberately dropped it abruptly.

"Whoops. Clumsy me," Maurice commented emotionlessly and deadpan, Viola's expression shifted back to one of rage as she had to pick it up off the ground, "And you're wrong, it's not like nothing's happened. We know what you are now."

"And we're not friends anymore," Lily added.

"Who cares? Friends are meaningless," Viola scoffed as she left, Lily hung her head.

"We should goer to Daddy, he'll be worried," Cassia offered when she was done glaring after Viola, "And don't worry, I menremerer not to say anything to Daddy yet."

"Good," Maurice nodded as the Ashain kids went to leave, "And well done today, Cassia, Antonius. Both of you will be good soldiers."

"I can't believe I thought she was my friend," Lily whispered quietly and sadly, Albus gave her a sympathetic look and put his arm around her, "James told me so many times."

"Welcome to life, I'm afraid," Albus offered gently to his little sister, "But if anything, James hating her probably made her more likable so please don't think you should start taking his word as law."

"I guess."

"Look on the bright side least we got to see the Chamber of Secrets," Albus told her brightly, injecting optimism into his words, "C'mon, want to see Dad's old invisibility cloak? We can use it to steal some food from the kitchens."

"Really?" Lily wondered hopefully and Albus gave her a smile as he nodded, "Okay."

"That's not a particularly good way to use the cloak," August muttered but it went unheard by the Potters who left, instead he sighed and turned back to them, "So... Are you gonna tell us me how you knew about the Scepter and what this is really all about?"

"I guess," Vern agreed uneasily with a shrug.

"Maybe," Scorpius said at the same time, not really wanting to bring in the Second Years but then it wasn't sure how much he could or should keep them in the dark when they knew some things already.

"No," Abby stated also simultaneously, except unusually loudly and more severe, "This isn't your fight, August, you shouldn't have been down there at all."

"I-"

"No, August," Abby interrupted her brother firmly, a mixture of anger and fear mingling on her face, "You're a Ravenclaw, you're smart, you didn't even like Viola, you should've known better! Are you trying to get yourself killed like Nick?! Do you really not think there's enough death already without you hurtling head first into the Chamber of Secrets?! You're only twelve! You have no business being there! Do you think Mum and Dad want to bury another son!? Do you think Heather and I want to lose another brother?! Did you think about that at all before you jumped down that hole?! How could you be so stupid?!"

"I-" August tried to speak again but Abby just turned away with eyes filled with tears and stalked off, August hung his head miserably as he walked off in the opposite direction with glistening eyes himself.

"Think we should go after them? Try cheer them up?" Vern wondered.

"Why should we do that?" Maurice asked curiously and Vern threw him a look.

"Because we're human beings."

"We barely know August and Abby seems like she wants to be alone. I'm going to check on Lat then go to bed, night."

"Scor?" Vern asked of Scorpius instead as Maurice left.

"He does have a point," Scorpius shrugged it off uncomfortably, "We don't know August and I don't know what to say to Abby, she probably needs some space anyway not to be bothered by awkward attempts to cheer her up. Why does it bother you so much? I'm sure they'll calm down and get along again."

"My parents are dead," Vern told him seriously, "I have an older brother and sister, they live with my Grandma because they're muggles while I like with Uncle Harry since I'm a wizard. I haven't seen or heard from them since the last time I saw my parents alive that Christmas break, they don't even write their names on the birthday or Christmas cards Grandma sends. They hate me, they blame me. The Shadows didn't just take my parents away from me, they took my family. I just hate to see siblings fight."

"You have the Potters though."

"Please," Vern scoffed and wiped his eyes, "You see how Al talks to me and James broke my back, they don't accept me. Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny try but it's out of pity, they don't really care about me. They're good people but I know they don't think I'm one of them, I don't belong and everyone knows it. I'm a badger in a house of lions and one of these things is not like the other."

"I'm sorry," Scorpius offered sympathetically, Vern shrugged.

"It's okay, see you tomorrow."

Scorpius called out a farewell and stood there stupidly, not sure why but he felt bad that his friends had problems he couldn't help them with. His head was still in his memories, he really wanted to talk to Calderon now but the assistant would be still be in the Ministry. He was his cousin, he should talk to him. And if he was evil then he would just have to deal with it not avoid it like the coward he didn't want to be. First though, he mentally kicked himself for not talking to Maurice about where he'd sent the Scepter so he could tell Varanian to retrieve it. It could probably wait until he'd checked on Latimer, he was sure Maurice had sent it somewhere relatively safe for the time being. He headed off to the Hospital Wing, realizing he was completely going to get into trouble if he was caught out as it was probably after curfew and he had neither the map nor the cloak.

Then again, it was the break. Firstly, was it still wrong to be out? Secondly, was there anyone out to tell him off anyway? No sooner had he thought that, he notice a light coming from Grant's classroom. And he heard what sounded like a walrus dying coming from there, he tiptoed curiously to peer into the ajar door. Grant was sitting at his desk, looking at a picture frame but it was facing away from the door so he couldn't see what he was looking. The painful noise was actually Grant sobbing. Grant was crying. Grant.

"H-Happy B-Birthday, Wyatt," Grant whispered as he choked on his tears, "I miss y-you."

Scorpius backed away slowly and continued on to leave the strangely upset professor, it took him a few minutes to recall that everyone but the Shadows believed Wyatt to be dead. Grant had no idea his son was not only alive but helping Varanian, or that Scorpius knew him. He wasn't sure whether to be amused by the awful man's ignorance or sympathetic to his supposed loss, Wyatt was likeable even if Grant was a complete asshole. He couldn't fool Scorpius. He reached the Hospital Wing but was surprised to find Molly sitting on the floor outside, her knees hugged up to her chest as she leaned back against the wall.

"Hey," Scorpius offered and she looked up as she sat down beside her.

"How'd it go?" she asked quietly.

"Conclusion is that Maurice managed to Portkey the Scepter somewhere, I'll ring Varanian to tell him where as soon as I ask him. How's Latimer?"

"He got really bad and he practically couldn't breathe, Marigold kicked me out to tend to him," Molly told him and her eyes welled with tears, "That was hours ago now. I haven't heard anything since, he told him he'd come get me when Latimer was stable again or if... if he..."

"I'm sure he's doing everything he can," Scorpius assured her despite his concern.

"What does it matter if Lat just wants to die?" Molly said, trying not cry, "I don't understand how I couldn't have known."

"We all didn't know, you shouldn't blame yourself."

"I'm a Seer, Scor! A Seer!" Molly cried, "I can have weird dreams and see weird things and know random things and have freaking premonitions but I can't see when someone right in front of me is about to kill himself?! What the fuck use am I if I can't even see that?! If I couldn't save my mother and now I couldn't save my friend?!"

"Come here," Scorpius told her quietly and put his arm around her comfortingly, she buried her head against his shoulder and he held her tight, "You know being a Seer isn't really like that, Divination isn't like mathematics when there's always a solid answer if you solve it. You know that."

"It still sucks," Molly sobbed and he stroked her hair soothingly.

"I know," Scorpius admitted and held her until she cried herself out, then they just sat on the floor together with her head resting on his shoulder. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting...

"Are you still here?" Marigold wondered in surprise and they both looked up as the doors opened, "It's well after curfew, you know-"

"We know," Scorpius interrupted, "Is he... alive?"

"For now, I need to restock some potions though."

"I'll do it," Molly agreed eagerly and jumped up, Marigold told her what to get from Vipera and she bounded off. She was a fast runner.

"Do you... Do you want to see him?" Marigold offered, "While we wait on her? And then you two really need to get to your dormitories."

"Okay," Scorpius nodded eagerly and Marigold let him in.

He went over and sat by his friend's bedside, Latimer's breathing sounded even more erratic and uneven. He loyally waited, listening to the uncomfortable jerky breaths while Marigold hovered between him and the door to wait for Molly. After a particular rattling breath, Latimer's scarred face twisted in pain. His reddish brown eyes flicked open but blinked repeatedly as if it was difficult to keep them open, his breathing became more frantic and fast.

"Latimer? Tobias?" Scorpius said and his friend's eyes shifted with difficulty to him, he swallowed nervously and hopefully that waking up had to be a good sign. Then again, Latimer did look like he was in agony and every breath seemed like a battle to get out so that wasn't a good sign. Scorpius gripped his hand to try comfort him and felt tears prick his eyes as Latimer met them, "You have to hold on, do you hear me? You have friends who love you and care about you, you have to keep fighting. Don't give up, please don't give up."

"I-I… tr-tried…" Latimer rasped out weakly and tearfully, the almost inaudible words sounded like they jarred his throat as he struggled to keep his shimmering eyes open.

He squeezed Latimer's hand gently and Latimer squeezed shut his eyes, he tried to open them again but his eyelids stopped at different points. His mouth tried to move but he failed to speak, instead his head fell back and his eyes closed as his breathing abruptly quietened, the pain faded from his face. His chest continued jolting up and down rapidly but the actual breathing seemed to stop to near nothing, Marigold came over with Molly and the potions he'd wanted. The Healer immediately shooed Scorpius away, shooed them both away with an anxious expression as he hastened to pour Latimer out a dosage of a blue potion.

"Scram both of you, I work better without people on my back," Marigold snapped at them, "Get some sleep, relish that you actually can unlike some people have to stay up to try save lives. Not that anyone cares. Come back tomorrow."

Scorpius and Molly returned to Gryffindor Tower anxiously, Scorpius still wasn't sure whether to take what had happened as good news or bad news. Albus was already in bed, tossing and turning. It was a struggle to sleep and it was only as he was drifting off that he recalled not having spoken to Maurice yet about the Scepter, he supposed it should be safe for one night.

Rabastan didn't fail her, the master must have agreed because he sat her down and started explaining their plans. He also told her about his master's origins, Salazia "Sal" Riddle. Alzay would be lying if she'd said she wasn't surprised, a child of Voldemort born and raised in Azkaban wasn't on her list of suspects. She also hadn't expected the strange assistant of Hogwarts to be Voldemort's son or the master's twin, however the age was actually surprised her most. Riddle was barely into her thirties, just a few years older than Alzay herself when she'd expected someone more Rabastan's age. In fact, she actually wondered initially whereas Riddle was just a figurehead with others like Rabastan doing all the planning work.

Meeting Riddle quelled those thoughts though, she clearly knew what she was talking about. Then again she'd have to be to have been able to get someone as smart as Rabastan to follow her when she was a teenager. Alzay was equal parts impressed and afraid by Riddle's use of magic, Riddle was powerful and made wandless magic - something Alzay greatly struggled with - look like child's play. And that was just casual use, Alzay dreaded to think what Voldemort's daughter could do if she was trying to do something serious. Alzay still wasn't quite sure what to make of her, on one hand she was impressed but Riddle wasn't without oddities. Like despite having no problem ordering murder or torture or the entire quest for world domination, Riddle was fiercely opposed to harming animals and was a vegetarian. And then there was Brutus Ashain.

Alzay's instinct was to kill it with fire and she had grown accustomed to her albino son, she was genuinely surprised that it had been allowed live to adulthood. And Riddle was in some kind of romantic relationship with him? Why!? Alzay really couldn't fathom any plausible reason for her to be with him, Riddle had money and had had him on her side before 'dating' him so what possible reason could there be? Riddle was ugly or lacking in talents, she could do much better. It wasn't even like Riddle kept him around to torture for fun or something, she never showed any signs of hurting or wanting to hurt him and genuinely seemed to respect and care about whatever he said. Rabastan too had an amicable relationship with the thing but he wasn't sleeping with it, even if Brutus had any kind of useful qualities, being attractive or datable was not one of them so Riddle really didn't need to be with him like that. It served no rational purpose.

Then again, Alzay would be a fool to believe any child of two people as notoriously unstable as Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange could be entirely sane. Especially after growing up in Azkaban. And with power in her grasp, Specters at her command. There was a dangerous edge to her, something unsettling about the shadows that danced in her eyes that disturbed Alzay. She could respect her and she would follow her but she could not feel relaxed around her. Rabastan had no problem though, his loyalty was unwavering to the point he was even a vegetarian himself. Alzay was oddly jealous, Riddle had known Rabastan longer than her and their shared hardship of surviving Azkaban was a connection she lacked. She didn't actually know why that would bother her but it did, she didn't like Rabastan caring so much over attractive women that weren't her.

"You have nothing to worry about," Rabastan assured her, "Sal's my family and you're my lover, it'd be like me feeling threatened that you have a son."

It did put her at ease somewhat, not that she was really sure why it bothered her in the first place as they weren't married or anything. Well, she was married to Cade but he was a valueless muggle who'd just been used to get her out of trouble with the Ministry so that hardly counted. She actually found that she got to spend more time with Rabastan now, she knew about things and he could tell her more things so he did. She even started helping with plans and offering suggestions of her own, it was more exciting than simply obeying blindly and besides, the faster they got through things the faster her father would be out of Azkaban. Seeing the goal within her sight and grasp made her even determined to push to get it sooner. She also learned the plan for Orous, Riddle sought both to see if making twins suffer would recreate a situation similar to her and her twin in regards to powerful wandless magic as well as give the Specters something to feed off of so the entire thing would serve some purpose if the main reason failed.

"We were going to try find some muggles to torture him, probably at around eight or nine," Rabastan explained, "It should also hopefully serve to turn the boy against his part-muggle upbringing, turn him against them. Starving him and some beatings should suffice for a year or two, then he gets saved and we see how it affects his magic. Finding muggles who know about magic and would be willing to do it is the hard part though as we know none, we want real muggles to be authentic and wizards pretending to be muggles is quite difficult especially when the boy already has knowledge of them."

"Xerxes' brother," Alzay thought aloud as the idea occurred to her, "Pyrrhus Florian had an abusive muggle father, the guy might be willing and knows about magic. If he's alive then he's a plausible candidate."

"That could work," Rabastan admitted thoughtfully, "Ask Florian next time you see him if he thinks his father would be game."

"Will do," Alzay promised and did exactly that, "So Pyrrhus, your muggle father. Is he still alive?"

"For now," Pyrrhus shrugged dismissively and a cruel smirk played on his lips, "I intend to slowly torture him to death as soon as I get some time off. It's really better than the bastard deserves. Why do you ask?"

"Because we need a muggle to send my son too, do you think he'd be willing to keep him prisoner and beat him for an experiment?"

"No!" Pyrrhus barked so fiercely and suddenly that she was taken aback, he leaped over the table he'd been lounging at to reach her. He was oddly limber, even by Soul Eater training standards.

"No, he wouldn't do it?" Alzay prompted staring into his bulging violet eyes that looked about to pop out of his skull, his acne had actually cleared up pretty nicely by now and he was much better looking without it. Still lanky, long-haired and lacking his brother's strength but not bad.

"No, you can't do that! You can't just give him children!" Pyrrhus corrected her angrily, "My father is sick! You can't just give Linden your son! Maurice is only seven! He shouldn't have to go through that, no one should! I'll kill my father before I let him lay a hand on Maurice!"

"Haven't grown to the deaf freak have you?" Alzay taunted.

"Of course I have! I've mentored him for five fucking years! I don't want him to go through that!" Pyrrhus screamed her, very surprisingly. Why did people get so attached to random children? They were just messy little idiots, she didn't even feel close to her own children so it must be much harder to feel attached to others.

"I meant Orous anyway."

"Oh," Pyrrhus muttered and his anger diminished somewhat as he stepped back, he cocked his head to one side to look at her as if seeing her in a new light.

"So would he do it?"

"Yes, he would jump at the chance. But you shouldn't, do you really want your son to suffer?" Pyrrhus asked her darkly, advancing on her and locking his eyes with her.

"I made a deal, my sons for my Father and I stand by it," Alzay pointed out truthfully and without regret.

Every Loren got to live and every Loren got to suffer, she'd still choose her father anyway. Who wouldn't choose their wonderful, loving, perfect father over some bratty kids? What had they ever done for her? She'd had to endure months of being pregnant and the pain of childbirth, she'd tended to their incessant crying in babyhood, she'd raised Orous and put a roof over his head, put with his idiocy and given Maurice a necklace to try help make him normal. And what had they done for her? Nothing! Absolutely nothing. She didn't think it was too much to ask that they go through a bit of pain to save her father from Azkaban, he was their grandfather anyway and it wasn't like she was killing them.

"You'd sacrifice innocent children for a convicted criminal?" Pyrrhus wondered curiously.

"Orous will get to go home and carry on with his life after a year or too as a captive," Alzay protested, "It's not like I'm killing him."

"No, you're just killing his innocence. And his happiness. And his hopes. And his dreams. And his future."

"And it's somehow worse than the training techniques here?"

"I'd rather scar my skin with blood quills then let my father touch it," Pyrrhus spat bitterly and Alzay turned to leave, they could just get the muggle to not do the sexual stuff and stick to their plan. He called after as she left, "It may sound like basic math in your head but think of it doesn't pan out in reality!"

Alzay passed on the information to Rabastan and tried not to think any more on it, which would be quite difficult as Pyrrhus seemed to be determined to convince her to not to let Orous go whenever she saw him or was on a mission with him. Rabastan said the muggle agreed and promised to only do what they wanted, Pyrrhus was convinced his father wouldn't keep his promise while Rabastan assumed he would keep it simply because wizards were superior to muggles so wouldn't they obey them? Alzay wasn't sure, Cade proved muggles could be pretty stubborn. She asked Rabastan to put it off the abduction until two weeks before Orous' tenth birthday, he would still be nine but the Hogwarts deadline ensured he'd only suffer for a year at most and he'd be older so better able to protect himself like a wizard should. It also meant she'd be able to tell the Aurors it was Roman who'd taken him due to it being the same age he was when his parents died or when he took Maurice, might get him to stop sending stupid letters and gifts to her child.

It made her feel nervous and at ease simultaneously to have casually planned out her son's future like that by the time they were going into his eighth year of life. And it started right off the bat with Roman finally finding out about the training tower's blood quill policy, it solved the answer to who to replace in the French Ministry's Unspeakable artifact section. Alzay was delighted to force him to work for them with a Specter, she couldn't help but enjoy his absolute terror at losing his soul. To the point of betraying his own backwards beliefs about purists like the Death Eaters and her father had been, become something he'd hate. It served him right for insulting her father all those years ago. She was somewhat surprised to find out he had a fiancée though, or had, he'd broken up with her after being recruited against her will. Her first instinct was to kill the woman anyway so Roman would lose her but travelling to Greece not on Soul Eater business was tricky, she thought of a better way to take her away from him as well as demonstrating another trait of the Specters.

She asked Rabastan to tear the memories of her from his mind so he wouldn't even have good memories to hold on to, it would also encourage him to stay in line or they'd take all his good memories or all his memories and make him an empty dreck. Rabastan did so but wouldn't also take the memories of his parents until he did something deserving of punishment, she hoped that wouldn't be long but the bastard behaved. Maurice went to the French school, she approved at it gave him a jump on wand use but still wanted him to attend Hogwarts with his twin. Cade also chose that year to have a terrible accident at work, broken ribs, collar bones, a mangled arm. It didn't leave him in the best position to defend himself from her, she could torture him as much as she liked and he couldn't do anything about it. Finally, it served him right for being a muggle. The other interesting thing of the year was Riddle fell pregnant.

Part 3: Blue

Resolved that he could cope Alzay's abuse for the sake of his son, Cade just kept on trying to make the best possible life for Orous. Especially with Hogwarts in a few years that would take him away for the majority of the year, he was also tempted to ask Alzay if she wanted to homeschool him on magic as well but thought better of it. It was selfish and it would be good for Orous to finally be around children his own age, he deserved to have friends that weren't dogs. And it was Alzay, he still lived in fear that she might start to hurt Orous too. If she did, he would go to the Ministry because there surely had to be a law against hurting children and he couldn't stand if Orous was in danger.

Generally, Orous did seem happy and unaware of the darker side of his mother's personality. He had some linger feelings of loneliness although the dogs did seem to help and insecurity about Alzay not liking him but mostly he was his kind, creative self and Cade was very proud of him. His concern shifted to Phoenix's increasing ill health, the old dog was just that and his health was failing. And then there was the accident, a burning apartment building collapsed when they were still saving people. An old structure that wasn't up to modern safety standards, seven dead and two of them fellow firefighters, friends of his. Cade himself suffered only second degree burns, broken ribs, broken collar bones, a broken wrist, his arm broken in three places and shattered his shoulder bad enough to need it to be surgically screwed back together. It was minor compared to his dead friends.

And if that all wasn't bad enough, Alzay took full advantage of his injured state and made his life hell every second Orous wasn't around. He couldn't even try protecting himself, he couldn't move very quickly or easily and his broken body was easy to aggravate pain in any way. He dreaded when Orous went to bed and despised how weak he was, it was an utterly depressing and agonizing time. His doctor actually gave him a pamphlet for alcoholism as he kept using being drunk and not remembering as an excuse for his injures, he ran out of things to explain his wounds and 'my magical wife did it' was going to get him a very different pamphlet. Assuming he wasn't simply carted off to the psych ward, living on a locked ward was not the way he wanted to spend the rest of his life, it would be horrible.

Orous was what kept him going, just seeing the concern and care in those red eyes as the eight year old volunteered to cook dinner to help him reminded him of what he was fighting for. Orous needed him, while he may not be the boy's 'father,' - as Alzay was always quick to point out - Orous was his son. He would heal, he could get through this. He tried to keep things as normal as possible as Orous, not wanting him to be effected by everything but he knew he was failing and felt bad that he couldn't do something more stimulating than watching DVDs with his son. Orous probably thought he was awful, Alzay even whisked him away for his ninth birthday and Cade missed out on celebrating his son's special day properly. He went back to work even desk work as soon as possible to get away from Alzay's abuse, his recovery still seemed frustratingly slow though. When he did recover, his spirits only sank again at how bad Phoenix was.

Despite the medication slowing down the symptoms of his spinal condition, the poor old dog couldn't get up to go outside for the bathroom anymore. It wasn't fair on Phoenix, he was blind, in pain from his arthritis and couldn't move much. The vet had done everything they could do, Phoenix was just at the end of the line and the only thing to do was put him down. It didn't make it any less painful, really it just made it harder to have to be the one to decide his beloved pet's fate. Alzay never cared but he had to explain it Orous, he very much encouraged him to scrapbook and celebrate Phoenix's life when Orous suggested it. Cade had lost his parents and sister to a fire, a fire that had not only taken them but taken their home and belongings. Meaning he didn't even have pictures, his family existed only in his memory and in his heart now.

It was a such a beautiful day, the sun was in the cloudless cyan sky glowing and sending dazzling rays of gold cascading down into the world. The day Phoenix would die. He let Orous say goodbye to him but didn't want him there for the deed, he didn't want the memories marred by seeing him die, not at nine. It was peaceful, Cade just sat there stroking Phoenix gently and scratching him behind the ears the way he liked it, Phoenix closed his eyes happily. He was talking to him about how much he was loved, how great a dog he was. He didn't even see them give the injection, he just became aware that he was stroking a dead dog. The sun had never seemed as dark as it did on the drive home or in the days that followed, his family, his friends, his dog, what next? He knew that was just his grief talking though, it was a process and he just tried his best to help Orous through it. Ironically, helping him finish Phoenix's scrapbook helped Cade himself feel better, reminding him of the good times even more and assuring him Phoenix had had a long and happy life, the old dog was gone but not forgotten. It was better than some people, he only wished he had pictures of his family too.

Cade was surprised by Orous' behavior when his own birthday came around, it was hardly the event of the century but Orous kept smiling and giggling oddly. When asked why, Orous blatantly lied about not knowing which Cade just decided to let slide. Whatever it was, Orous would clearly tell him when he was ready. He was shocked when he answered the door to his friend presenting him with a Doberman, explaining Orous had arranged it. He wandered back into the room with the dog in bewilderment, Orous' explanation was enough to warm his heart to the dog though. He was touched and proud to be raising such a kind son, he thought he must be doing something right at least. He named the Doberman Anubis as the dog reminded him of the jackal-headed Egyptian God of the dead, not that he meant it in any negative way as he loved his new pet. He had room in his heart for another dog, it was also rewarding to see Anubis starting to enjoy life again after a tough start. Alzay was right, he could be such a bleeding heart.

Alzay took an unexpected turn in the spring, she stopped being so harsh and angry, stopped hurting him. He wasn't sure why, he got the impression that something was on her mind as she was quiet and withdrawn but she didn't tell him what. When did she ever? She even started coming with them on family weekends, he was personally content with her not to come after years of abuse and jaded with distrust because of it. But those days weren't for him but Orous, he was glad that she was at the very least pretending to show interest in his life as Orous deserved his mother's love. Orous was such a great kid, it was Roman's loss to not be around to see him grow up. Alzay even agreed for a vacation, even if it was just the weekend down the coast and she didn't complain once about it being all muggle. It felt like the first real quality 'family' time they'd had for years or maybe even ever, he was pleased Orous got that. He wasn't sure what to think about her change of heart, he really wasn't eager to trust her after everything she'd done but it would be nice for Orous' sake. He didn't think there was any hope for them. And then he came home from work two weeks before Orous' tenth birthday, finding no boy to greet him and Alzay sobbing at the table.

"What's wrong?" Cade asked curiously and worriedly, Alzay was not a crier.

"Orous. I-I let him go to th-the park alone an-and h-he's n-not c-coming back," Alzay cried and Cade felt abruptly like the air had turned to ice.

"How long ago?"

"I-It's n-no use. I-It's t-too l-l-late."

Cade decided to just ignore her and run, the park was only a few minutes away. It was dark out now, there was no sign of Orous. He searched. And searched. And searched. It started raining and he stayed out all night wandering the streets looking for Orous, he rang the police who went after him by muggle means. They had no luck though and Orous hadn't returned home while he'd been gone either, Cade tried to stay calm and deal with it. That was what Orous needed right now. They had to find him. He also contacted the Ministry of Magic to go after him by magical means if possible, they had as much luck as their muggle counterparts. He had no way of knowing what had happened to his child of two worlds, he was somewhat appalled and angered - probably because he was just upset - that there was no magical way to just locate Orous out of the blue.

Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months without word, the muggle police found nothing nor did the magical wizards. Alzay was convinced Roman had taken him but that also went nowhere. Orous' tenth birthday came and went, Cade wrapped up all his presents and left them on his bed in the ridiculous hope that Orous would return for his birthday. He didn't. And Cade broke down crying for the first time, it was far from the last. He couldn't believe this was happening to him, he'd said goodbye to Orous just that morning and everything had been fine. How could Orous be missing? He was sensible, he knew not to go with strangers and he knew the way home. He knew it stupid but it still seemed incredulous that everything could suddenly not be fine, he wanted his son back, his wanted his son to be safe and sound. Everything had been fine, how could he suddenly have failed so spectacularly and lost the son he was supposed to protect? Maybe it was a good thing he could never have children, look how completely he'd failed at keeping Orous safe.

Alzay became extremely despondent and withdrawn too, they barely spoke whenever she was actually around which wasn't often. It started her with her not coming home at night then one night would turn into a few days of not seeing her, a few weeks, a few months. She seemed to take more and more stuff each time, like she was slowly moving out. She stopped coming back at all after the New Year, he wasn't surprised really. He still had the dogs, one a gift for his son and one a gift from his son. He was so glad for them, caring for them was the only thing forcing his fogged mind to even attempt to put effort into daily activities and go into the distraction of work. He wasn't eating much or sleeping, barely washing and not really bothering to shave, he had hair for the first time since he was a teenager. It was hard, so hard. Not knowing what happened, not knowing where Orous was, not knowing whether Orous was even alive. It was torturous to just not know, he thought he'd rather know. At least then he'd know what to feel, grief, hope, pain, anxiety, guilt. He was tormented, different emotions and memories tearing him apart. More nights then it was probably alright for a man, Cade cuddled the dogs and cried himself to sleep for his lost son.

It didn't help when people started telling him that Orous was most likely dead, time to give up hope and move on. He couldn't give up hope, nor could he just move on. Not when he didn't know anything, not while his son could still be out there. He clung to that lone droplet of hope. He printed out flyers for information, spending his free time walking until his feet were sore and he'd ran out of leaflets to hand out to people. June finally came, the month of Orous' disappearance. Last year Alzay had been showing interest, Orous had been smiling and happy, the closest they'd been to a family really. And this year the house just felt empty, even the dogs seemed quieter without Orous to play with them. It had almost been a year, he knew the odds were that Orous was dead. The best of both worlds couldn't find one little boy, couldn't save his son. Cade came back from a night shift the morning of June seventh, fed the dogs then sat on the couch miserably. Hopelessness tore at his soul as he ran his hands through his short blonde hair, three weeks until the anniversary of Orous' disappearance. Then the doorbell rang.

It was a wizard to tell him that Orous had been found last night, he was alive and in the magical St Mungo's hospital. It sounded too good to be true, Cade was afraid to trust the hope welling in his heart until he saw him. The wizard took him to St Mungo's to the Healer dealing with Orous, apparently thinking a muggle would be too stupid to get there alone but he didn't care about that. The Healer told him briefly Orous' status, they'd managed to heal all the physical wounds except his wrist and that it would take a few months to get his weight back up to a healthy amount as he'd been starved. He was warned Orous had been tortured magically, abused physically, sexually and that he claimed to have some memory loss. Cade wasn't a violent man but hearing all that made his fist clench, he very much wanted to beat the person or persons responsible to death with his own hands for hurting his son. It was at that moment that he realized Alzay was standing beside him, the Healer just went over to check Orous was ready to see them as someone had been trying to heal his wrist.

"Long time, no see," Cade commented as civilly as possible, Alzay's expression was neutral, "Are you coming home? Are you going to see him?"

"You can look after him, Cade," Alzay told him with a shrug, "What do I want with such a broken boy? I'm not coming home."

"You're just going to walk away?" Cade demanded, his fists shaking in barely contained rage but he didn't want to make a scene as that would be counter-productive to Orous' healing, "That's your son lying in that hospital. Your son. Your own flesh and blood that you created and carried for nine months. Your child. You're just going to walk away at the time he needs support most?"

"Yes. I don't want to see him," Alzay said emotionlessly with a nod, Cade just gaped at her incredulously as the Healer returned. Even for Alzay, that seemed low. He really struggled to believe she could care so little for her own son, had she missed all the parts when the Healer explained what Orous had been through?

"You can see him now," the Healer announced and Alzay left, the Healer frowned, "Is she not going to...?"

"Apparently," Cade muttered bitterly but tried to force it out of his mind, he could worry about it later.

For now, he just wanted to see his son. The slightly confused Healer just led him over to Orous' bed, leaving him alone with the sleeping boy and he drank in his son's appearance in relief. Despite being almost a year older, Orous actually looked smaller and his face was much gaunter, his colorless skin emphasizing this and contrasting the black bags beneath his eyes. His left wrist was bandaged and Cade very much wanted to take his hand but was afraid to, he wasn't sure Orous would remember him from what the Healer said. Orous stirred, his unique crimson eyes fluttering shakily open in panic and fear scrawled into his features as he sat up.

"Hey, Orous, it's okay," Cade offered gently, Orous' fearful eyes gravitated to him, "You're in the hospital, you're okay now."

He recalled the last time he'd seen him, Orous had been fresh-faced and happy whereas now he just looked broken and hopeless. How he hated those bastards who'd hurt his son, such a dark feeling deep inside himself that he'd never thought himself capable of experiencing. Tears pricked his eyes as he thought of his son suffering so much but they were also for relief, he was so glad that Orous was alive. Orous searched his face fearfully, eyes darting over him as if mapping his features. How badly he wanted to hug him and magically take away his pain, he was afraid to though. Orous might not want to be touched after what he'd been through, especially if he didn't remember him.

"Do... Do you know who I am?" Cade asked nervously and Orous' eyes welled with tears.

"Of course I know who you are," Orous whispered, his voice so quiet and frail, "Daddy."

"Yeah," Cade confirmed, his voice lowering to match Orous' and he smiled kindly as he fought off the tears. Orous opened his arms and Cade took it as a cue to embrace his son, Orous clung to him tightly and cried. Tears streamed down Cade's face as he just held his little boy close, cradling him gently as they cried, he never thought he would again, "I love you.

"I love you, Dad, I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Cade assured him, not sure why he would even be sorry.

"I let myself be abducted, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Orous, never think it's your fault."

"Is Mum here too?"

"No," Cade admitted hesitantly as they pulled apart, "She's gone."

Orous was devastated. He'd given the Shadows the Scepter piece but it had been too late to save his dad. The Healers said he probably hadn't made it to bed that night, she'd spend the entire night torturing him to insanity while Orous slept in another room. He'd slept while his dad was being driven mad. And his own flesh and blood mother had done it, the first time he'd seen her since his abduction and it had been to destroy his father. His dad would have been so much better off if he'd never met her, if he'd never come to consider Orous his son. Orous had helped the very people he sought to stop and it was all for nothing, his dad was already gone. He thought it was a fate worse than death, to lose everything of who you'd been and exist as a just empty shell of your former self. His dad would hate to live like that.

He hadn't told the Aurors about the Scepter, his mother was just an abusive wife as far as they were concerned who was wanted for using an Unforgivable Curse. They didn't consider it important though, not in the wake of the Shadows - which they didn't know she was a part of - and PAW attacking werewolves. A witch wife torturing her muggle husband into insanity with Dark Magic was hardly worth thinking about compared to the 'more serious' issues in the war. Orous supposed he could understand but didn't agree, bad crimes were still bad crimes even in war. Or maybe he was just hurt that his dad's horrific fate was so minimized, losing the only real parent he had was such a non-issue. And it was just that, Cade had done more for him than his biological parents combined but no one cared about that. No one in the magical world cared about what a wonderful, loving father Cade had been to him and those who actually knew him in the muggle world would never even know what happened to him. He deserved better.

Cade was being allowed to stay in the permanent ward in St Mungo's, muggles wouldn't understand he supposed. He was being moved there when he was more recovered from the non-Cruciatus Torture, his mum had also violently slashed him up with the unhealing Acutus Curse because... mentally destroying someone wasn't enough for her? Orous was disgusted, ashamed and saddened to be related to someone like that. What had Cade ever done to her to deserve such treatment? Just because he was born without magic? Why not go after just those born with green eyes next? It made just as much sense to him as judging someone without magic, people had so many choices but they could not change the genes. And it had to be more to it than the Scepter, she hadn't had to so extensively or lengthily hurt Cade to force his cooperation. She'd done it because she'd wanted to. Ever since he'd found out she was a Shadow, he'd been hoping and thinking at the back of his mind that she wasn't that bad, that she was simply misguided like Maurice had been or forced like Roman had been. That hope was gone now.

Orous was staying with Michael and his aunt for the Easter break now so he was with a familiar face, they were also taking care of the dogs for the time being. He wasn't sure what would happen to any of them after that, the dogs would probably need to be rehomed, he'd lose all his stuff and he and Maurice would probably be split up in foster care. Both his biological parents were wanted fugitives and Cade had no living family, his mother's only living family was her father who was either dead or a fugitive depending on what had become of him after Azkaban's destruction, Roman's only living of age family was his brother the Arithmancy professor who had no interest in his nephews. He supposed Molly was almost of age but she was hardly in a position to become responsible for her dead mother's estranged brother's children, his family were such a broken mess. He'd told Michael about the Scepter as well and he'd gotten back to him later learning - via Varanian apparently - that the Shadows had made their move on the Scepter in Hogwarts, they'd tried to Portkey it away but Maurice had diverted it to his house. The Shadows had guessed he might've sent it home, which was why his mother had been unsure whether he had it but had been perfectly willing to kill Cade anyway.

He couldn't help but be mad at Maurice, the entire globe and the one place he thought to send it was home? The most obvious place? The place with just a thirteen year old and a muggle? It really didn't help when Maurice's idea of consoling him was to ask if St Mungo's offered euthanasia as a viable treatment option, he considered it kinder than letting Cade live as a permanent zombie patient. Orous knew he should try see where his twin was coming from, he could agree that Cade had received a fate worse than death but he didn't care. Either way his dad was still gone, either way it was still Maurice's fault, Maurice and their mother. His friends couldn't do much else than offer their condolences and support, he appreciated it and he was grateful to Michael especially as he was there physically - and letting him stay - but none of that helped his dad unfortunately. It was a gloomy Easter, if the Healers weren't keeping track of the date then he wouldn't have known. It was torturous to see his dad so empty but he still visited him daily, still spent the time because he loved his dad.

Not that anyone would know if they saw him now, he could no longer dress, shave, wash or even go to the bathroom without help as he'd lost the knowledge of how to function. The firefighter even tried to put his hand on a candle flame because he didn't even register what it was or that it could hurt him, he needed to be spoon-fed as he couldn't eat by himself nor did he try to. Mostly he just sat staring sightlessly into nothing, he was fond of rocking now. He couldn't understand speech, sometimes he would look towards the sound of it but he didn't follow or recognize basic commands or cues. The weather was painfully bright for such a depressing time, after the weekend the Healers started taking him outside for some fresh air and exercise. He could walk if you got him to stand and led him in the right direction, he was generally quite malleable. It was a beautiful garden, radiating an air of comfort with warm colored flowers blooming and nothing threatening. Unless you were scared of plants, Orous supposed. There was a bench to sit on and despite being in the city, you couldn't hear the traffic but only the chirping birds and rustle of leaves in the wind.

His dad was slightly more mobile there, bright colors or loud sounds tended to draw his interest from the nothing he stared at. He stopped at things frequently and walked incredibly slowly, glancing at Orous after each step as if unsure he'd done the right thing. Orous just kept forcing smiles and offering gentle encouragement, a flobberworm could move faster but then as long as Cade was happy. Or his shell was anyway. He stopped again by a bush with white flowers, gazing at them with his blank expression and Orous just waited for him patiently. The Healer was tending to other patients in the garden nearby, if anything happened she was nearby and in the meantime it gave them time alone. Not that he really mattered when his had no idea who he was. He was drawn from his thoughts abruptly as Cade cautiously reached out his hand and after a few minutes of timid movements, he plucked one of the white flowers. He held it in his hand for a long time, staring at it without expression before turning to Orous and offering it to him.

"Rainbow," his dad mumbled, on the rare occasions he did speak it was either gibberish or completely incoherent.

"It's a flower," Orous explained gently, "It's pretty, huh? Do you like the flowers, Cade?"

The Healers had told him to call Cade by his name rather than 'Dad' when speaking to him, some patients learned to respond to their name again and saying 'Dad' would take it longer to sink in. His dad said nothing though anyway, still staring at the pale petals before holding it out even closer to him. Orous slowly went to take it, Cade let go of it too soon though and it fluttered to the ground. His dad put his hands to the side of his head as he watched it fall, starting to rock himself gently back and forth as he watched the fallen flower. Orous picked it up but Cade continued to stare at the ground it had been on, his expression now screwed up with terror as he gazed with wide, bulging eyes.

"It's okay now, see Cade? I picked it up," Orous pointed out and showed it to him, his dad didn't calm though and kept his eyes firmly on the ground as he whimpered.

"Why don't we go back inside now?" the Healer offered as she came over, noticing Cade's distress. Orous hung his head as she led them back inside, his dad now rubbing his hands in circular motions on the side of his scalp, "Don't feel bad, everything and nothing can upset them randomly."

Orous nodded glumly, hating the situation as much as that he'd upset Cade. The Healer got him back into bed and gave him something to help him sleep, his dad sat there still with his hands by his head and rocked gently back and forth. His vacant expression returned and he was back to staring at nothing again, his eyes barely blinking until the potion kicked in and he fell asleep. Orous moved his dad's hands to his sides so he'd be more comfortable, he liked when Cade was sleeping as he could almost pretend that his dad was going to wake up as himself again. Almost. Michael was probably still with his own non-psychotic mother, Orous was glad she was doing well and hoped Latimer was still hanging in there. He didn't want to lose a friend as well as a dad, none of his friends had mentioned how he was doing. Either thinking he had enough on his mind to worry or not wanting to be the bearer of bad news, he was afraid to ask. He stayed sitting with Cade though, out of loyalty, out of love. Before he'd had trouble remembering past times with his dad, now he had trouble forgetting. It just made it hurt more to think what Cade was like now.

He hung his head but he'd run out of tears by now, or at least repressed them. He was trying to be strong for his dad and didn't want to constantly cry around Michael, it seemed ungrateful when Michael was letting him and the dogs stay. He was sure a random foster home wouldn't let him visit his dad daily over Easter, familiarity was better than random strangeness anyway. He sat there quietly, no one was really around as Cade hadn't been moved to the locked ward yet. The patients not outside were out of it or sleeping, occasionally there'd be family members visiting but the beds weren't close enough for it to bother him. Which was why his attention was drawn when he noticed someone closer to him, he glanced up expecting a Healer but it was a stranger. A jittery man in a black cloak, the blond hair was slick with sweat and his green eyes darted around everywhere but at the two people closest to him.

"Can I help you with something?" Orous asked of the man after several minutes of nothingness, the man leaped about a foot in the air.

"No!" the man yelped immediately and stalked off.

Orous wondered whether he was a patient that had somehow got loose and dressed in outside clothes. He figured he was gone though so it didn't matter and went back to watching his dad, almost immediately the man returned though. Pacing around them and not looking at them but not getting close enough to be in speaking distance, Orous was starting to consider risking leaving Cade to get someone when the man abruptly grabbed a chair and pulled up beside him.

"Do you love him?" the stranger blurted out without warning, Orous just looked at him in shock, "Your stepdad-dad. Do you love him?"

"Of course I do!" Orous protested and scowled, "What-"

"Do you want him to get better?"

"He can't get better. I don't know who you-"

"But if he could get better then would you want him to?" the man interrupted him yet again, Orous looked at him incredulously.

"Of course, I would but-"

"I-"

"Stop interrupting me!" Orous snapped and the man flinched away, his eyes fearful.

"S-Sorry," the man muttered and shifted nervously as he hung his head.

"My Dad was tortured into insanity, there's no way for him to recover. I don't know who you are but please, just leave us alone," Orous told him in a firm tone.

"I know what she did to him," the man whispered and withdrew something from his robes, a silver little cross thing except had a loop in place of the top bar with the palest of blue crystals residing in the center of the loop, "Do you know what this is?"

"No."

"This is an Ancient Egyptian Healing Ankh, they're extremely rare and valuable. They can heal almost anything, even things that can't usually be healed by magic like his mind. The catch is they can only be used once, only one time and the light dies."

"I'm thirteen," Orous pointed out seriously as he caught on to the guy's deal, "I know you figure I'll be gullible enough to buy into your crap but I'm not, nor do I have whatever outrageous price you're offering."

"What? No!" the man protested angrily, "It's not a trick, it's an artifact that's thousands of years old. And I don't want money, I don't want anything in return, I'm offering this for free."

"Why?" Orous wondered in surprise and suspicion.

"Bec-Because I know what it's like to lose your parents," the man admitted nervously and looked down, "As a child. It's horrible and not... not something you ever really get over. I know your parents aren't dead but Alzay... Alzay's an evil bitch so you're as good as motherless and then Roman... it's too late for him, Scorpius said so and you even said so. Your biological parents are just awful, awful people who suck. But your Dad, the muggle who you love who's so great and wonderful... That... That's the parent that you erm... you n-need, I don't want you to lose that. Long as you're taken care of and happy, that's... that's what matters."

"You really need to stop referring to yourself in third person," Orous said quietly as he caught on to who the man was, Roman looked at him in surprise as he got the reference to their conversation last year, "Why don't you look like yourself?"

"Polyjuice Potion, it changes what you look like and I c-can't risk out in public. I'm surprised you knew it was me."

"So am I. What do you want really?" Orous demanded, sharper then he'd meant but he had little desire to talk to his biological father while his real father had lost his mind. He'd meant what he said, Cade was irreplaceable. And he had no idea what Roman could possibly want from him anyway.

"I-I told you. T-To help so you don't become an orphan like I did."

"And that thing really works?"

"It should, I have a good idea how to."

"And you're just going to use it on my Dad?"

"I was saving it for in case anything happened to me, that I could save myself at the last instance but I... I want you to have it," Roman admitted and pushed the ankh into Orous' hands, his hands were shaking terrible and expression solemn as he swallowed, "You're... You're more important."

"If I'm so important then why did you leave me?" Orous asked, the question slipping out without meaning to and both looked away from each other at the same time uncomfortably but unintentionally.

"It... It just seemed like a good idea at the time," Roman whispered, "I had to get away from her, she's insane and evil and she hurt me, I still have the scars. I didn't think I'd have the courage again, caring for twins is harder than caring for one baby. I... I had this crazy idea you were evil like her, tainted by being conceived in Dark Magic and would be like her. Because you look how you do, Maurice is the dark one though. I know it sounds stupid but I... I guess I am stupid, I get anxious and worked up and I think these things especially then."

"Mother abused you?" Orous tried to piece together Roman's barely coherent ramble, it struck an odd chord with him as years of Cade's unexplained injures came back to mind.

"I don't think it's called that," Roman muttered as his eyes bulged in fear, clenching and unclenching his fists nervously. This only seemed to confirm it and something else struck him.

"We were conceived in Dark Magic?"

"Yes. Sh-sh-she f-f-for-forced me w-w-with D-Dark M-M-Magic," Roman babbled as he trembled and Orous felt his insides freezing over as he grasped the implication while Roman seemed to swallow the painful memories to find his voice again, "B-But just bec-because I left, I-I regretted it. I never stopped thinking about you, ever. An-And when I found out Maurice was deaf I tried... I tried to get you, I thought I could bargain her into letting me take you since she hadn't liked you but it didn't work. She refused to let me take you or see you or even ha-have contact. I wrote every single week, sometimes twice a week to try convince her to let me see you. I sent you a gift every birthday up unt-until y-you went mi-missing but not Christmas, Alzay's birthday is right before it so I don't like it. Did you... did you ever get any of them? The gifts?"

"No," Orous admitted and Roman nodded sadly, wiping his watering eyes.

"I di-didn't think so. It do-doesn't matter now, it's too late to be a real father for you and I'm probably never going to see you again with this war that's prob-probably going to kill me," Roman told him and finally looked back to him, his expression sorrowful but he had a weak smile, "Th-The very least I can do though is g-give you your real dad back, heal his mind hopefully with that ankh."

"Where did you get it?" Orous asked quietly, afraid to hope as he played with the ankh in his hand. Roman looked puzzled by the question, he scowled and looked very much as if he was struggling to remember.

"I don't remember, I worked in Egypt for a time and got it then but I don't... don't recall how," Roman informed him and shook his head, "I guess it's not important. I don't remember exactly how I figured out the riddle to use it either, useless and forgetful now. That's... That's me, I guess. So anyway, let's do this please before I chicken out."

"What do we need to do?"

"Well, we go over to him," Roman began and stood, closing the curtains before walking to Cade's bedside. Orous followed and Roman took the ankh back from his hands, placing it on Cade's forehead, "And we put it there. Then you put your hand on it, I'd imagine it needs the wizard activating it to be in contact. Be prepared and even if it works then he'll remember what she did to him."

"Okay, then what?" Orous inquired as he rested his hand on the ankh, feeling rather foolish.

"You just say the magic word," Roman whispered, "Akhmeneton."

"Akhmeneton?" Orous repeated uncertainly.

Immediately there was a thrum of magic and Orous' hand felt glued to the ankh, azure light shot out from crystal. Waves of brilliant blue light cascading over his father's body, Orous caught a glimpse of his reflection in the metal poles of the rack holding drapes and saw his eyes were glowing with the same dazzling light. He found himself incapable of blinking or moving, Roman seemed to be equal part in awe and equal part trying not to be blinded by the light. Orous had no problem with it, watching the waves ripple over Cade and seeing the faded scars on his bare head being washed away in the shimmering tide. There was a final thrum and a pulse of intense light burst from the crystal on the ankh, engulfing his father in a final glow before it vanished as if a switched been turned off. Taking the magic with it.

Orous felt suddenly drained and half-fell back, dropping back into his seat with the ankh in hand. The pale blue crystal was now devoid of color, Roman looked ready to weep. And Cade abruptly jolted awake, sitting up and breathing heavily as he looked around shakily in panic. Orous thought his heart might've stopped beating, afraid to hope but scared to not. He very much wanted to take Cade's hand to calm him but was afraid too as that could freak him out if he was still insane, he wasn't sure whether the healing would include Cade's mind or if he know remembered him.

"Hey, Cade, it's okay," Orous offered gently, Cade's fearful eyes gravitated to him, "You're in the hospital, you're okay now."

He was terrified to hope, this was different to the usual blank expression devoid of recognition but it could just be because he was still disturbed from before. Cade searched his face, eyes darting over him as if mapping his features. Orous very much wanted to hug him, it was more of a reaction then he usually got but he was afraid to in case Cade didn't remember. Did he dare ask the question?

"Do... Do you know who I am?" Orous asked nervously as his treacherous eyes welled with tears.

"Of course I know who you are," Cade whispered, his voice so quiet but completely coherent, "My son."

"Yeah," Orous confirmed, his voice lowering to match his dad's and he smiled in relief as he fought off the tears. Cade opened his arms and Orous took it as a cue to embrace his dad, he clung to him tightly and cried. Tears streamed down Cade's face too as Orous held him fast as they cried, he never thought he would again, "I love you."

"I love you, Orous, I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Orous assured him, not sure why he would even be sorry.

"I let myself be driven insane, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Dad, never think it's your fault."

"She didn't hurt you, did she?"

"No," Orous promised as they pulled apart, he glanced to Roman to thank him but the man was gone.

Part 4: Leaving

Maurice was completely lost with Roman, he didn't understand why he was even there. It served no purpose towards his training to be a soldier, it served no purpose for anything. Had Maurice really lived there once? He didn't remember. The environment was alien, his room had loads of strange and pointless things that Roman wanted him to 'play' with. What reason could there be for that? Roman himself was a strange one, sometimes he jumped and looked terrified just when Maurice looked at him. He also kept trying to talk to him, he seemed to struggle with that though and was disturbed when Maurice mentioned things like torture and murder. Maurice deliberately focused on steering the conversation those things, thinking Roman might send him back faster if he was uncomfortable.

He supposed it wasn't all bad though, the lack of things to do gave plenty of time to rest his tired eyes and there was a bath not shower in the apartment and the warm water soothed the pain the blood quill wounds left. In fact, having a break from torture and from the blood quill was kind of nice. If his life had ever not consisted of that then he couldn't remember it, he didn't like being pain even if it was for a good reason. Maurice felt incredibly guilty for that though, he was a soldier and he wasn't supposed to think like that. He wanted to go back to his training routine, just being away was ruining his mind and he had to be a good soldier. Finally he could go though, he thanked Roman for letting him go back to his home where he belonged. Although there was changed to his routine there too.

He was now old enough to no longer need a personal mentor, instead he had to share with the other six old years. Lines of triple bunk beds, each with a draw for their personal belongings which for most was just their clothes and tooth brush. They were expected to independently see to their own personal care, they were also not simply locked in and were given access to a Library to pursue study outside of classes although Pyrrhus did still take him to lessons and stay with him for them. The two new classes that year was wandless combat on the rare occasions they'd need it and stealth training, which was quite difficult for Maurice as he had no way of knowing when he was making a sound so he had to pay special attention. Maurice was finally used to his necklace enough to try talk to others in his class, he got the gist pretty quickly that the others looked down on him for his deafness and 'special treatment' although not as much as Viola Kalya. Her father was one of their teachers and he had her exempt from any kind of pain, like not having to use blood quills or be punished by the Cruciatus Curse. Not that she treated Maurice any better.

The year flew by with the highlight being that Maurice finally succeeded in torture class at outlasting the point of no return, taught to last until they would be driven insane so wouldn't need to give up information to the enemy. Giving in to the enemy was the worst possible thing a soldier could do after all, it didn't matter what they did to you as long as you as the cause was more important. He was the first in his class to succeed, so much for being weaker because he was deaf. He was allowed the rest of the day off too, he had too really because he was shaking so badly from residual pain but he was happy to as it was the mark of a good soldier. Pyrrhus stayed with him to make sure he was okay, people had slightly different thresholds so they had to be careful. It became less and less necessary as time went on though as he got more used to lasting the Torture Curse like that. And then Maurice was being sent back to his dad before he knew it.

'Think of it as just a break from the pain,' Pyrrhus told him, 'A chance for your body to rest without blood quill pain or torture. It's still a somewhat stupid waste of time but it's a week off from that, that's the positive way you can spin it. It could be worse, you could have my Dad.'

"Why? Was he not nice?" Maurice wondered and Pyrrhus looked like he laughed with a demented expression.

'Depends how you look at it, he was perfectly nice if he could've just kept his hands off me. Trust me, being bored for a week is hardly the worst thing in the world. We'll see if you can bring some reading material, which should take the edge off.'

At Pyrrhus' advice he tried to look at it as a 'break' rather than a waste of time and he would admit it was nice to have baths, soothing for the layer of blood quill wounds. Roman surprised him that year though, teaching him Wizard Chess. Maurice took it immediately, it encouraged exactly the kind of tactical thinking that was required of soldiers and gave his mind something to work on. Maybe Roman wasn't so bad and completely useless after all. After a week he returned to the grind, the two new classes were tracking and spying and the year was more geared for preparing them to start using wands as eight was the youngest age certain countries let wizards own wands. Maurice couldn't wait, he'd show them all how being deaf didn't make him any less of a soldier. They started doing fun practical exercises to prepare for things like dueling, they would be given sticks to do the correct wand movements and spells against each other. Each would be paired with their mentor to do the spells they wanted on the opponent if they did them correctly, if they did it wrong then their mentor had to do nothing. They did similar for more complex scenarios such as a version of capture the flag that involved hiding your flag then having to win a duel and torture the location out of the other person. Maurice was good at it.

"Protego! Expulso! Expelliarmus!" Maurice cried as he made the wand movements rapidly.

Pyrrhus' shield slammed up to cover him obediently while casting the second two. Brett - the boy he was against - barely managed to convey the wand movement in time for his mentor to protect him from the damaging spell, however the spell by nature was explosive and he was knocked back, put off-balance. It made his attempt to dodge the Disarming Charm clumsy and useless, sending him flying back on his ass and the stick leaving his fingers. The mentor threw down his wand as he was supposed to when his mentee was disarmed, throwing a glare at the boy to indicate his displeasure with Brett's course of action. Brett tried to reach for his the stick but Maurice made another movement.

"Fracturo," Maurice cast simply and gestured to his opponent's reaching wrist, Pyrrhus carried out the spell and Brett looked like he screamed in pain as he yanked his arm back. Much to the frustration of his mentor who was forced to leave his wand still on the ground, Maurice casually walked closer to the fallen boy cradling his broken wrist and retrieved the stick - ensuring Brett couldn't use any spells - before he put a hand to his translator necklace, "You're going to tell me where you hid your flag and what enchantments to get past."

No, Brett's defiant words formed around his head and visible braced himself for the waves of Crucio he was expecting. Maurice had expected this but hadn't wanted it, he didn't like torture. Even if he was the one carrying it out.

"Fracturo," Maurice spoke again, this gesturing at Brett's highest right rib which seemed to elicit another scream. Then he moved onto the next rib and the next, breaking them as simply as snapping twigs, "Fracturo. Fracturo. Fracturo. Fracturo. Fracturo."

Stop, Brett burst out and Maurice paused, keeping his expression guarded as neutrality was better than giving away your emotions as it could be used against you, Why are you doing this? You should be torturing me

"There's other ways to torture then just the Cruciatus Curse, you should know this," Maurice pointed out truthfully and kept his gaze cold, "And since we're trained to resist it, I thought I'd change it up. There are twenty-four ribs in the human body, two pairs of twelve as you know and two-hundred and six bones in the adult human body. We have more as infants but they fuse together as we grow, meaning you're unlucky enough as a child to have even more bones to be broken. And then there's the other internal damage that broken bones can cause, damaging muscles and nerves and organs and all that stuff. While this is not as painful outright as the Cruciatus Curse, it causes more serious internal damage and even death. Do you want to die, Brett?"

We're not allowed to kill each other

"We're not allowed to use the Killing Curse on each other, there's a difference. Including how much slower and painful your death will be this way," Maurice continued, he ignored the look Pyrrhus was giving him as he did very much doubt Pyrrhus was allowed to keep the exercise going until Brett's death. It wasn't the point though, Brett just needed to think he would do it so he'd be scared enough to give in, "And don't think I won't kill you, if you're no use to me alive then I'd rather you die as it increases my odds of being against someone who is cooperative next time. So are you going to tell me?"

No, Brett reaffirmed but he started to sweat and his eyes were green orbs of terror set in a face full of pain.

"Alright," Maurice shrugged, trying to make it seem like it didn't bother him as he casually made the wand movements, "Fracturo. Fracturo. Fracturo. Frac-"

Okay, Brett spoke up desperately as tears leaked from his eyes, I'll tell you. You win, please just stop

"The person you're telling is your mentor and it better be right not misinformation because you're retrieving it together, hop to it," Maurice commanded and Brett looked defeated as he got up - his mentor refused to help him when he reached out his good hand - to go retrieve it, he turned to a grinning Pyrrhus as soon as they left, "How was that?"

'Excellent work, Maurice,' Pyrrhus signed and Maurice returned the smile, he may not enjoy it but he did enjoy being praised for success, 'But you should know that we're not allowed to kill each other, Killing Curse or just killing.'

"Brett doesn't know that though," Maurice pointed out and Pyrrhus' violently violet eyes bulged in surprise before his smile slowly seeped back onto his face.

'You're a good soldier, that's brilliant.'

"Yeah. I still don't... I don't like it," Maurice admitted reluctantly.

'That's a good thing.'

"It is?"

'Bad things are still bad things regardless of how good your reasons are for doing them or how necessary it is, when you stop feeling bad then you stop being human and when you start feeling good then you start being something worse than human,' Pyrrhus explained, 'It's good to still be human. As long as you can still do the bad things, everyone has to do things they don't like at some point and it will be a useful tool when you start doing missions.'

"I can do it," Maurice promised, "Even if I don't like it. I'll be a good soldier, you can count on me."

'I know,' Pyrrhus nodded.

He returned to Roman not long after that, Pyrrhus had actually managed to get him some reading material this time. The problem was that it was an absolutely scorching summer, constantly wearing long sleeves and legs didn't help nor did his gloves as his poor hands were sweltering. Maurice wondered why it was necessary, Roman was the only one around and Maurice was under the impression that he was perfectly aware of the blood quill usage. It must be purely be for aesthetics that he didn't want Maurice to show the marks, surely his discomfort trumped usage? He decided to take off his gloves and let his hands breathe, it was just his hands so it shouldn't be that bothersome for Roman. Who wasn't even interacting with Maurice in that moment as he was trying to read, he could put them back on if Roman tried to talk to him or play chess with him again.

He felt much better to not have hands drowning in sweat, until Roman came over and grabbed his hand for no good reason. Apparently Roman didn't know about using blood quills, it showed how much attention he paid. Maurice didn't understand the expression of horror, surely it couldn't be that unusual? It was a valid teaching method, they remembered things must better and learned much better out of the desire to not want to suffer through it again whereas Viola was behind because of not using a blood quill. Painful but effective, the gain outweighed the cost and it just made them stronger as soldiers. Then Roman demanded he take off his shirt, Maurice was reluctant to obey the bizarre request but he was supposed to be behaving so he did. Roman seemed even more shocked as he looked at him back and front, Maurice started to feel extremely uncomfortable. Was there something wrong with his body? He went to ask this but Roman abruptly hugged him. Maurice was shocked, he'd never been hugged before or if he did then he didn't remember it. It... It was actually kind of nice, it was a good feeling even though he wasn't quite sure why exactly and some of the blood quill wounds didn't appreciate it. Maurice still felt himself smile weakly as he attempted to hug his dad back, unsure exactly how but it felt right.

It turned out that one night was one night too long. After waking from a horrible nightmare about drowning, Scorpius asked Maurice the next day where he'd sent the Scepter and passed it along to Varanian with the ring. Varanian ringed him back later with a depressing message: Shadows already got it. After panicking for Orous' - and to a lesser extent, Orous' dad - life, he got a Patronus from Michael that explained what had happened in more detail as well as about Brutus taking the shard from the locket. Scorpius was frustrated and furious, with Maurice for sending it to such a stupidly obvious location and with himself, if he hadn't freaked out about drowning then they could've gotten to the Scepter faster. Now he might've lost their change to save Professor Ashain and Ashylos' soul.

"Oh there you are," Maurice commented as he came back into the Common Room and found Scorpius moping, "Marigold kicked us out as Latimer got bad again. I thought I'd try to investigate who tried to kill-"

"No one tried to kill him!" Scorpius snapped, harsher than he'd intended as he practically jumped at him, "And what the hell were you thinking?!"

"Latimer's my friend, he wouldn't-"

"I'm not talking about Latimer right now! The Scepter! Why did you send it to Orous?!"

"Because the spell requires sending it somewhere you have been and could picture quite clearly, I haven't been to that many places," Maurice pointed out and there was a hint of a frown on his face, "Why?"

"The Shadows got the Scepter! Of all the places in the world you send it to the most obvious place they'd think to look and they got to it! They got the Scepter!"

"Is Orous alright?" Maurice asked, immediately worriedly.

"Yes. But his father was tortured into insanity."

"Oh, well that's unfortunate," Maurice muttered as his expression reverted back to neutral.

"Unfortunate?!" Scorpius spluttered out incredulously, yelling even if he realized it was pointless, "That's all you have to say!? An innocent man was tortured into insanity and the Shadows got the Scepter! The Shadow Master is a third of the way closer to getting its power! We never may be able to save Professor Ashain now! We may never be able to save Ashylos' soul now! And the best you can say is 'unfortunate?!'"

"What would you rather I say?" Maurice demanded, "It's not the outcome we wanted but it could've been worse, Viola didn't kidnap Cassia, August and Lily at least which would've meant they'd probably have all the parts now. Orous is unharmed, he and Cade would've been in danger anyway as it is a place to look first. I would've sent it somewhere better if possible, I didn't have much of a choice. And you have some nerve to go off on me, could any of you diverted a freaking portkey? No? So stop snapping at me, it's not the end of the world. We just need to get the Scepter back as well as get the other pieces, focus on solutions not problems. That's what a soldier needs to do, keep his calm not lose it."

"I am calm!" Scorpius yelled and lashed out with his fist before he realized it, Maurice casually jerked his head out of the way and Scorpius' fist collided painfully with the brick wall. He cried out in pain and clutched his now throbbing hand, Maurice stepped away from him and cocked back his fist to punch himself before dropping it abruptly.

"If you're going to hit someone, you make sure the victim can't dodge it and get in a counter blow. Even James has that down," Maurice said acridly as he stalked off, "When you're calm enough to talk instead yell because that all looked like yelling then we can talk again."

Scorpius went to apologize but realizing calling after the deaf boy was pointless and he wasn't sorry enough to be bothered to go after him, he just rubbed his hand and just trudged up to the empty dormitory. Well empty except Latimer's cat that he scratched behind the ears in greeting. His anger now feeling more like an awkward fog that he couldn't quite clear from his mind, merging with his misery and all just clumping there. He lay down on his bed and sighed, he knew he shouldn't have tried to hit Maurice. Since when did he go to hit people anyway? What was wrong with him? It wasn't even really Maurice's fault, just the whole situation. He hated to fail. And he hated to fail even more when it put lives at risk. He'd failed as a friend and now Latimer might die. He'd failed as a 'soldier' and now Professor Ashain might die. Ashylos might lose his soul. And the Shadow Master now was one step closer to victory. How were they supposed to get the Scepter piece back? The Shadow Master probably had it and after four years, they still didn't even have a face let alone a name or where they were. How were you supposed to win when things had a habit of falling apart when you actually thought things were okay?

He pulled out the book of artwork that Latimer had given him for Christmas, flicking through the wonderful moving paintings of happier times. Not for the first time, he wished he could be a happy image left in a picture rather than dealing with everything. He also wished Latimer had put himself into the book, guiltily recalling how Latimer had thought he was no longer his friend from the comment to his parents. Latimer had realized that, hadn't he? They'd cleared it up? Scorpius got out the Marauder's Map, checking the Hospital Wing to make sure Latimer's dot was still there with Marigold's hovering around him and probably doing things. Professor Ashain's dot was fluctuating again. How long before he looked at the map and there was no more 'Tobias Latimer' or 'Atticus Ashain' because they weren't alive anymore? Gone like his grandfather and sister. His eyes drifted to the 'Flannery Leebin' dot and he headed off, figuring he might as well try getting as much help as possible before Leebin left. He really needed to get over his fear of water.

"Knock, knock," Scorpius offered as he rapped on Leebin's door, wincing at stupidly using the hand he'd punched the wall with.

"Come in," Leebin called and Scorpius entered to see the desk was empty, Leebin was clearing it off and sorting it into a bag. He looked up when Scorpius came in though and corrected his oval glasses, his expression sympathetic, "Hey Scorpius, how are you doing?"

"How am I doing? What are you doing? You're leaving already?" Scorpius wondered incredulously as he felt his heart sink even lower, it must have showed on his face because Leebin looked apologetic.

"I'm sorry. Elwood wants us out by dinner or he'll have Hagrid throw us out, those were his exact words."

"Why is he getting rid of all counsellors anyway? Latimer only saw that awful woman."

"Overgeneralizing again, he thinks one might be bad so they all must be. Why waste Hogwarts money on something that isn't working? Plus I suppose it looks better that he fired all the counsellors instead of just one, makes it seem like he's doing more to combat suicide with more change," Leebin seemed to half-guess and half-deduce as he went back to packing stuff up as he spoke, "On the bright side, at least the Ministry won't be trying to get information out of students now."

"That was what they were doing then?"

"The Ministry kind of jumped on Elwood's idea to try spy on students in case they know anything about Soul Eaters, sprinkled in some real counsellors to give some legitimate help in there. But you didn't hear that from me," Leebin told him with a wink and Scorpius felt somewhat satisfied to have his suspicions confirmed, "On the down side though, the entire idea of counselling is probably going to be crucified."

"What will you do now?"

"Me? I still have my job working in the Auror department, I have to take a severe pay cut though and probably will need to take on a second job to make up for it but Harry said it was the best he could do. And I'm one of the lucky ones, the others were either fired completely from the Ministry or demoted to a degrading position that a troll could probably do."

"That's not really fair," Scorpius admitted, although he did hope the likes of Latimer's counsellor were suffering to help make him so miserable. He felt bad for Leebin, and the other non-evil counsellors, "I mean, did you even meet Latimer?"

"Nope," Leebin confirmed and looked regretful, "Unfortunately. I would've liked to have helped him, the entire reason I got interested in my line of work was wanting to prevent suicide and help people in situations like that. I really do hope he recovers, Scorpius, and he's in good hands. Marigold complains a lot but it's just the way some Healers cope with the stress of the job, he'll do everything he can."

"Why?"

"Why what?

"Why did you get into this line of work? Why did you want to prevent suicide?" Scorpius asked curiously to which Leebin seemed slightly surprised by the question as he paused in his packing for a moment, "If you don't mind me asking. It's just a weird line of work for a wizard."

"Well I guess you got me there, it is weird for wizards," Leebin chuckled as he resumed packing, "There's not even a real job title for what I do, wizards don't have an equivalent to muggle psychologists and they wouldn't know what that is if I called myself that. My official job title is so long, odd and confusing that I'd have to look it up to tell you what it is. Ron always calls it a 'Psycho Healer' but that kind of gives the wrong impression."

"Yeah, it kinda does," Scorpius agreed as it brought to mind the image of some kind of serial killer.

"It all started with my Father, who was an Auror and fought in both Wizarding Wars against Voldemort. It's a stressful job and why wizards have a rare interest in making sure those they take on to train meet such high standards including being considered mentally sound, however they have little concern after that. My Father was one of those who started struggling and having mental issues, he was eventually given some time off for R and R around when I finished my First Year of Hogwarts. It didn't help though and that summer he... he killed himself when I was alone with him, everyone kept telling me not to feel guilty though as they'd known he was struggling. I asked why no one do anything help him then if they knew he was like that and they told me there just is nothing you can do, I was still haunted by it and ultimately flunked out of Hogwarts after failing my OWLs. It was after that that I met my wife, who has a muggle father and knows all about the muggle world. And she's the one who told me about the muggle mental health system and psychology, it was my first time hearing about that any of that and my first reaction was why don't wizards have any of that?! It was exactly the kind of thing that could've saved my Father.

"I thought there should be some kind of wizard equivalent so I decided to make one, I couldn't help my Father but I could maybe help others. So I studied muggle psychology and started researching as much into wizard mental health as possible to see how it would apply to wizard life, I actually got the muggle degree in psychology which is worthless garbage to wizards of course. I then went to the Auror Office and try get a job, I don't know whether Harry took me on because he believed there was a need or just out of pity as he was friends with my Father but either way, he gave me a chance. And that's how and why I came to do this bizarre alien job," Leebin concluded as he finished packing up his things.

"I'm sorry about your Father," Scorpius offered.

"Thank you."

"Will Latimer be okay? I mean if he does get better, will he be okay or will he just try to kill himself again?"

"I don't know, I haven't even met him once and I don't know that much about him so I really don't know that he's thinking or going through or how badly his depression is. It's really something that varies from person to person. Generally, people don't so much as want to die but just want to stop hurting and death feels like the only way out."

"Is there anything I can do to help him?"

"I'd recommend counselling but I guess that's unlikely. All you can really do is support him, be there for him and show him that there are people who care for him. Try make sure he's taking care of himself, eating, sleeping and regular exercise helps. Encourage him to do activities he used to like, even if he's not in the mood. Don't let him be alone, just try make sure there's someone with him as much as possible. And most importantly, remember to take care of yourself first and foremost," Leebin told him and Scorpius nodded in understanding but scowled worriedly, something occurring to him as Leebin put a Featherlight Charm on the bags before shouldering them.

"I never know what to say though," Scorpius admitted.

"It doesn't really matter, sometimes just being a good listener is better than saying thousands of words. Being there matters more, actions speak louder than words as the saying goes."

"Okay, thanks," Scorpius said gratefully as Leebin walked over to him to leave, "Can't you just stay for a little bit? I really need your help to get over my fear of water."

"It'll take longer than 'a little bit' to get over a fear of water but at least you've accepted you have a fear, it's the first step to overcoming it," Leebin explained and looked guiltily as he scratched his head, "I really can't stay, Scorpius, its Elwood's decision and I can't just hang around the castle so I can't help you while you're in Hogwarts. But if you ask your parents if its allowed and write to me over the summer then I might be able to see you then to help you with it, it's the best I can do."

"What if I need to face water before then?"

"It's only a few months away, is there really that much of a rush?" Leebin wondered before they both turned at the sound of someone clearing their throat, Scorpius' mood soured back to anger at the sight of Grant.

"Elwood asked me to make sure you and the others are going now," Grant explained, trust Grant to want get rid of Leebin.

"I am, I am, just saying goodbye," Leebin protested and Grant nodded but didn't leave the doorway.

"I'll write to you then," Scorpius offered, realizing their conversation had to end now. He could just hope he wouldn't have to face water before the summer, he mustered a semblance of a smile for Leebin, "Bye, take care."

"You too, Scorpius," Leebin said as he returned the smile, holding up a hand in farewell as he left. Stupid Grant.

"I erm... I hope your friend makes it," Grant told him hesitantly and with false sympathy, Scorpius grunted as Grant went after Leebin or to get the counsellors or whatever. It didn't even sound convincing.

Scorpius trudged off unhappily, it was practically dinner time and he'd be able to tell the others the bad news or at least after as they'd be all together. The others were already there, including Vern who was sitting at the Gryffindor table with them. And why not? There weren't a lot of people there so it wasn't as if he was taking a Gryffindor's seat, there wasn't even any Gryffindors sitting near them as Lily was with August and Lorcan at the Ravenclaw table. Viola sat alone with a smug look on her face at the Slytherin table. He pecked Molly on the cheek in greeting before sitting beside her, Maurice alone was eating at a normal pace. Not really wanting to let the others know what he'd almost done but wanting to apologize, he made use of the bit of sign language he'd learned to sign his apology. Maurice signed back it was alright, at least Scorpius thought that was it meant if he remembered right. The staff table looked emptier without the counsellors or the teachers who'd gone home for the break, Marigold wasn't there but he hadn't been at any of the meals recently as he was too busy trying to save Latimer. Cassia was wearing Maurice's fingerless gloves oddly.

"Why is Cassia wearing-"

"To hide the wound on her hand," Molly answered before Scorpius had finished his question.

"Viola gave worse injuries than I did," Maurice elaborated, "Antonius can get away with hiding his minor wound whereas Cassia needs a bandage, which would alert Ashain to what had happened as he knows about the protection he helped create obviously. So I gave her my gloves to cover it after resizing them to fit her."

"Good thinking," Scorpius offered as he started putting some food onto his plate.

"Naturally."

"So... How's Latimer?"

"Marigold still won't let us see him," Abby pointed out and glanced at Albus, "Marigold. Marigold the man. Are you even listening to me, Al?"

"Yeah I am. So?" Albus wondered disinterestedly.

"Marigold. C'mon, you always get a kick out of his name and laugh immaturely. It cheers you up."

"Who gives a fuck about his name? He's trying to save Lat," Albus blurted out irritably before bursting into tears again.

"Can you go five seconds without breaking down? Honestly its-" Maurice complained testily before stopping abruptly, his gaze captured by something beyond them and his pupils widened. Scorpius wondered if he realized that his mouth was hanging open slightly.

Even the sobbing Albus turned to see what Maurice was looking at, Scorpius was shocked to see that it was actually a girl. She was slender and looked around Molly's age with had red hair as well, although hers wasn't curly and styled more like Rose's when she had her hair down. She was wearing a short red skirt that showed off long legs and a white shirt with the same red color in a dot pattern, the shirt was tied oddly in the middle to show off more skin. She had sharpish features and bright red lipstick, she walked right over to them and smiled kindly while Scorpius noticed Molly roll her eyes.

"Hi, I'm Lenore Callaway," the girl introduced herself to them, Maurice's eyes remained glued to her, "Your possible future Head Girl next year, I just wanted to express my sympathies for your friend Tiberius Latimer and give my wishes for his recovery."

"I'm sorry," Maurice offered, seeming to get a hold of himself as he finally closed his mouth, "I'm Maurice, my name's deaf. I didn't quite catch that."

"That's alright," Lenore smiled and flicked her hair over her shoulder, Scorpius wasn't sure whether Albus was crying still or trying not to laugh, "Lenore Callaway. As possible future Head Girl next year, I want to let you know that I am all for doing more to help the deaf community at Hogwarts."

"You mean all one of them?" Vern wondered in confusion.

"Absolutely, no minority is too small to deserve equal treatment," Lenore continued and moved her hand to show off the werewolf bracelet she wore, "I also am against the persecution and discrimination against werewolves, werewolves suffer enough as a result of the pain and stress of their condition without people's unfair and ancient prejudice. Bullying in general is something I, as a person, am opposed against. Harsher measures need to be used on these horrible people."

"I've been saying that for years," Maurice complained to which Lenore flashed him another smile.

"I'm glad. I hope your friend Tiberius Latimer recovers, enjoy your dinner," Lenore offered before turning on her heel to leave, Maurice watched her walk away.

"You might want to be less obvious when you're ogling someone," Abby commented when Maurice's gaze had shifted back to them, he looked offended.

"I wasn't looking," Maurice scoffed stubbornly which result in Albus laughter becoming very obvious.

"We were getting ready to wipe the drool."

"I was just paying attention to what she was saying, she reminds me of Rose except less intelligent in her vocabulary. You must have me confused with someone else, I wasn't looking or drooling."

"Sure, it must have been your twin," Abby rolled her eyes and Maurice looked confused, "And how is she anything like Rose?"

"Orous isn't here."

"I meant-"

"What was that all about anyway?" Scorpius asked of Molly.

"She wants to be Head Girl next year, Lenore is trying to seem more responsible and more like she cares about people to get it," Molly explained with a shrug, "Pretty low really. You shouldn't be someone you're not just to win something. And don't believe her, she's one of the people whose constantly mean to Lat."

"I don't think anyone was taking her seriously after she got his name wrong but at least we got a good laugh," Albus pointed out as he wiped his eyes, "See the appeal of girls now, Maurice? Or is your name deaf now?"

"No," Maurice protested angrily, "Also what?"

"You said you were Maurice but your name was deaf," Albus mocked, Maurice being unable to hear must not have realized the slip of his tongue.

"Now you're just making stuff up, let's talk about something else. Like how the Shadows have the Scepter?"

Part 5: Accepting

Roman was cleaning up the dishes unhappily, thinking about what his sons were doing right now for Easter break with the perfect muggle Knox. Probably happy, probably having a good time. He hoped so, they could use a break from the stress of that awful Hogwarts and the Shadow War. He just wished he could be with them. He'd given up on being a part of lives after seeing them at Christmas, they were better off without him and Scorpius was right anyway. Too much had happened to ever make right, plus he was his unlikeable socially awkward self. It didn't stop him from caring though, stop him mourning the loss of his hopes of finally being able to be a real father to them. He stopped abruptly when he heard the front door, expecting Wyatt as he wasn't back yet but seeing instead that muggle woman, Annie Thorne.

"Is he in?" Annie asked breathlessly as if she'd run all the way there and considering how far this place was from muggle road, she might well have ran a few miles.

Roman just nodded mutely and she headed down the trapdoor, she scared him. Women scared him. Like Alzay. They hurt you. They hurt you bad. And Annie wasn't exactly stable or predictable anyway, plus she'd killed some people before. He thought it must be very difficult for a muggle to kill without magic, making it even more frightening that she had. Unless she had killed them with magic, he supposed. He still very much wished she never came there, his heart was pounding already. He finished with the dishes and curiously wandered down to see what they were talking about, he felt braver with Varanian around to protect him if she did anything and was just perched on the stairs anyway. Maybe it was an irrational fear as she didn't have a wand or know how to use it but fears weren't always rational and telling himself that didn't help ease his heartbeat. She was telling Varanian about the attack - which involved her murdering two more people, Roman's fears felt suddenly more justified - and Brutus, she didn't know how to get to St Mungo's though or if Brutus had even been telling the truth. Roman hoped otherwise but doubted it, evil psychos weren't remembered for honesty. He'd probably gotten the shard of the Scepter after all.

"And erm... after the... err... wand thing, I was thinking... um..." Annie added nervously after she'd finished filling them in, looking so anxious it made her look human as she ran her hand through her hair, "Thinking that you... err... could've been right about what you said before, that... I might... possibly maybe... be a... a... erm... Please don't make me say it."

"A witch?" Varanian concluded for her as he folded his arms, his expression shifting from concerned to amused as he smirked. Annie threw him a dark look that Roman would've quailed from if directed at him, Varanian was unfazed though.

"Yes. That. Maybe," Annie admitted, very much sounding as if the word was poison as she fidgeted, "And I... I erm... would err... think that it um... might be good if erm... you could um... teach me."

"Could you try phrase that at least with some semblance of coherency?" Varanian commented and Annie threw him an even darker look, Roman thought Varanian must either be very brave or very crazy to not be bothered when a woman looked at him murderously.

"Could you teach me to use magic?" Annie managed articulately but continued shifting nervously despite still looking angry at Varanian, "To... To fight the Shadows."

"Why?" Varanian asked, sounding genuinely curious as his expression lost his amusement.

"Because magical people keep breaking into my brother's apartment to try kill my nephew and I want to be able to protect him," Annie said seriously before shrugging as she started idly fiddling with Varanian's collection of wands, "It's not like I have anything better to do with my life than fight Shadows anyway."

"No," Varanian told her firmly and snatched the wand back down that she'd been going to pick up irritably, "And for the last time, leave my wands alone!"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't have the time to teach you magic."

"You teach Scorpius."

"That's different, he's already learning the bigger chunk of things in Hogwarts and I'm just honing his skills when he's not in school whereas you'd be learning everything from scratch," Varanian explained, "You should go to the Ministry, prove you're a witch and they'll set you up with whatever training there is for adults."

"I don't want to do that, that's a stupid idea," Annie complained and Roman was inclined to agree, the Ministry had a fair number of known Soul Eaters and plenty of others suspected. Plus they were just untrustworthy in general. And there were plenty of Potter/Weasleys there, "Can't you just give me one of your wands and teach me to do all that... stuff?"

"No, I don't have the time but if my schedule ever opens up then I'll let you know," Varanian decided with a note of finality that made Annie scowl again as he headed to the staircase, "I'm going to the hospital now to see what went down if anything, you might possibly maybe come if you want to."

"I might possibly maybe kill you one of these days, or is that not coherent enough for you?!" Annie snapped irritably as she went after him, Varanian smirked again. Presumably enjoying her being the one annoyed for once before addressing him in passing.

"If Wyatt gets back before I do then tell him to watch Selby, okay? I have to check this out, its worrying the Shadows figured out about Michael having the shard."

Roman nodded as they left him alone, just like he wanted and hated. He sighed as he pulled himself up, heading back upstairs to get back to his work now the dishes were done. Which was mostly researching Herpo the Foul's Scepter and looking into the international Shadow connections since Roman had more experience abroad than Varanian or Wyatt combined due to traveling for his work, even if he was sure Alzay had ripped out a lot of his memories from those times. He didn't know why though, if she had tried to take away happy memories of his work then why had she left other enjoyable work memories perfectly intact? He couldn't think of anything else it could be though, Specters were probably just sloppy with memory destroying.

It was when they got back that he learned what else had happened that morning, the Shadows hadn't just gotten another shard of the Scepter orb but they'd gotten the first part of it. From awkward distance communication, they got that the Shadows had gone after it in Hogwarts and the children had tried to stop it. Which resulted in Maurice having to divert the Portkey, he'd sent it to Orous and the Shadows had guessed as much. They'd taken it - or rather Alzay had - and driven Knox insane, Orous was unhurt thankfully but Roman's priorities jumped to his son. He felt a ray of hope that with Knox out of the picture that maybe he could be a part of his sons' lives after all, he then felt immediately guilty for thinking that. And realized the futility of it all, he was still a fugitive after all. Instead he worried how Orous was feeling with Knox's zombification and ultimately worked up the courage to use the Polyjuice Potion to see him in St Mungo's, Knox was completely destroyed mentally and Orous just looked so down and so alone. Loyally staying by Knox's side though, where he seemed to be every time Roman went there.

Roman's heart twisted horribly as he was painfully reminded of losing his own parents, an orphan was essentially what Orous was now or what he was feeling anyway. Alzay hardly classed as a mother, she was psychotic and evil. She'd willing sacrificed her own children's health and happiness for the sake of the Shadows, she didn't care about them or at least not how parents should. And Roman? He couldn't be there for Orous the way he wanted to be, not as a fugitive and a virtual stranger who had no idea how to connect with his own sons. Even if he could, it wasn't going to take away the pain of losing Knox any more than having his siblings had taken away the agony of losing his parents. Knox was dead even if he was alive, in all but body and there was nothing the Healers could do. Nothing the Healers could do. Roman clutched the healing ankh tightly, that should be able to save Knox.

But he couldn't do that, it was last resort, his sense of safety. He couldn't waste it on a muggle whose first name he didn't even know, the muggle whose parenting ability he was fiercely jealous of. But then looking at Orous' watery crimson eyes, he wondered how he could not? It was selfish. Orous had already been through enough with the Shadows' hell, lost enough already without losing the muggle 'father' he loved and depended on. He wasn't doing it for a stranger, he was doing it for his son. Roman might never even need to use the ankh for himself but he could use it to help his son now, which was more important really? He couldn't be the father he wanted to be but he could give Orous the father he wanted, make sure he still had a loving home and life even if Roman didn't get to be a part of it. He wanted his sons to have a better life than he had. And with frayed nerves, he worked up the courage to speak to Orous.

Naturally, he didn't know what to say so he probably came across as a crazy person but Orous managed to deduce his identity anyway. He didn't care really, it was too late for them so he just tried to be honest although he genuinely didn't recall how he'd received the ankh to tell Orous when he'd asked. It gnawed at his heart for some reason, he didn't remember though and he barely even remembered how he'd solved the riddle. He just hoped it was right, he wanted to do this for Orous even if it was painful to be losing something that mattered so much to him. Orous mattered more. He didn't think he'd have the courage to use the ankh for its one and only chance to shine so he had Orous. And it worked, more brilliantly and incredibly than he'd imagined before it faded away, leaving Roman feeling as empty as the ankh now was. Knox came to and seemed to be himself again, he slipped away while Orous embraced the man he called 'Dad'. It was such a bittersweet moment. Roman didn't belong there. He knew that now.

Maurice didn't understand why Roman was being so mean to him, he thought they were getting along better and then out of nowhere Roman decides he can no longer go back to his school. Why would he do something so cruel? Maurice needed to be there, he needed to learn to be a soldier, he had to be a good soldier and he was missing out on learning to use a wand. This was the most important thing for a soldier, for any wizard in fact as it was the very core of their lives. And he was missing out on it, just because it was suddenly wrong to use blood quills on a child. It was ridiculous. And Roman just kept acting so nice to him now, if he wanted to be nice to him then he should just let Maurice go back to his school like he wanted. Even if it was nice not using blood quills, it was still necessary to do things you didn't necessarily like. Roman didn't even seem to understand why he would want to go back to a school that was hurting him, he seemed horrified they'd used a blood quill on him. Was it really that shocking to non-soldiers?

Then just like that, Roman changed. They were apparently moving to France so he could attend the French Beauxbatons school, allowing him to start using a wand without going back to his school. Maurice didn't speak French, he knew English, Runic, Greek, Ancient Greek and Sign Language but not French. He didn't know anything about France. Roman claimed to not know French either but still was going for his work, it was completely unfair. Roman gave him parchment, blood quill and a French dictionary, telling him to copy it out to learn the language. Maurice was disgusted, Roman had made a big deal out of blood quills being bad but then used them? Clearly it wasn't that big of a deal after all, Roman just wanted him out of that school for other reasons. Maurice didn't like it. He'd much rather be scarring his skin for a purpose instead of to learn a language to start a new school, a pathetic non-soldier institution. And Roman wasn't nice to him anymore either, he was distant and no longer tried to spend time with him.

The only decent thing was that after the move to France, he did get a wand. It was awful being in France, his necklace wasn't designed to translate any language but English so the words - like when they were doing any other spoken languages - came out how it sounded as best as possible which looked like gibberish rather than how it was supposed to look in the French he was trying to learn. He had to awkwardly decipher it, for example people saying 'we' randomly actually meant 'oui' which was 'yes' in French. Maurice wanted to go home, his school was his home and he missed it. From what he gathered from what he could decipher between Roman and the wand maker, it worked different in France than England. And they had to get the wand from France as England didn't sell to those under ten as they didn't start magic until eleven whereas France started at eight so seven was the youngest they'd sell to, always going a year younger to account for birthdays that happened in the summer before school.

Maurice was taken behind a screen where he stood on a strange set of scales with various dials and different colored moving hands, he thought every inch of him was measured by a tape measure before the man bothered with the scales though. He was given different wands to hold of varying lengths and woods, each would change the readings on the dial as the man wrote it down. He was then given different wand cores to hold which also changed the readings that he recorded, the man seemed extremely surprised that Maurice could see the Thestral tail hair. After that, they were told to come back in a fortnight where he'd have the wand as they made them personally fit you instead of whatever the British did. Maurice didn't care, he just wanted his wand. Roman gave him a Latin dictionary next as it was part of the Beauxbatons curriculum when he was finished with the French, he missed when he felt like he was in pain for a good cause not his father's delusional beliefs. Non-soldiers weren't mentally sound after all, they weren't disciplined and didn't see things properly. At least the day finally came when he got his wand.

The man opened a box for him to reveal his wand, it looked rather gnarly but Maurice wasn't going to complain. He picked it up, the moment he did he felt a warmth connecting him to his wand as if it was an extension of his wrist. He slashed it across the air curiosity and lights erupted, shades of red and brown showering the room, shadows dancing amongst them where the light failed to touch. He smiled as the lights faded, a chill settling down in the emptiness left by the absence of his magic. Twelve inches. Thestral hair. Yew. He liked his wand. Thankfully Roman didn't waste any time in starting him learning spells at home, years of using his translator necklace and learning about wandless magic as one of his classes had prepared him quite well for the use of a wand. He finally felt like he was back on track to being a soldier, even the spells were pretty basic but he had to start somewhere he supposed. It was tiring though and he was back to wanting to spent his free time sleeping but that didn't matter. Maurice also received his very first letter, delivered by a large elegant owl. It featured the crossing golden wand crest of the French Beauxbatons school on the back, shooting out three stars each on the back of the envelope.

L'academie de magie de Beauxbatons

Directrice: Olympe Maxime

Monsieur Rivers,

Nous avons le plaisir de vous informer que vous avez ete accepte a l'academie de magie de Beauxbatons. S'il vous plait trouver ci-joint une liste de tous les livres et le material necessaires, les etudiants sont tenus d'avoir tout avant le debut du terme.

Terme commence le 1 septembre 2015, nous hate de vous rencontrer.

Salutations distinguees,

Mathis Moreau

Directeur Adjoint

Maurice's French was still far from perfect but the gist was that he was accepted into the school, he thought it was really something that should've been delivered sooner as August was almost over. Then again, they had only recently come to France that summer so it wasn't a lot of time before the term began. He had kind of hoped it wouldn't be enough time, if it fell through then surely he'd have to be allowed to return to his home. Roman had also received a letter from the school, presumably detailing how to get there or how it worked. Maurice's letter also came attached with a list of things he would need:

L'academie de magie de Beauxbatons

UNIFORME

Etudiants de premiere annee, il faudra:

1. Quatre ensembles de robes de soie (bleu clair)
2. Un chapeau pointu (bleu clair)
3. Une paire de gants de protecteurs (peau de dragon)
4. Un manteaux d'hiver (bleu clair avec attaches d'or)

S'il vous plait pas tous les vetements des etudiants devraient avoir des tags de nom

LIVRES

S'il vous plait pas livres sont fournis par l'ecole pour la premiere annee, mais toutes les annees futures, il faudra manuels personnelles.

DIVERS

1 baguette magique
1 chaudron (etain, laiton ou cuivre dans deux taille)
1 ensemble de flacons (verre ou cristal)
1 ensemble de balances
1 telescope (petit)
1 animal de familier (optionnel)

S'il vous plait pas seulement la troisieme annee et au-dessus sont autorises leur propre balai comme lecons de vol ne commencent pas avant

Salutations distinguees,

Emeline Solene Laurent

Premier Prepose des Dispsitions de Sorcellerie

Maurice wasn't exactly used to shops, the wand shop had been more isolated but the general magical section of Paris was very different than the home was used to. He was aware of currency but it was still new to see it being used as Roman got him the various things he was required to have, wasn't his real school cheaper? Free in fact? Shouldn't Roman prefer to send him there? Why could he just not go home?! Wizarding Paris was nice he supposed, the streets were paved with tiles that formed various magical creatures if you looked at them from far away or from the upper story of one of the shops. It was more creative than his home-school but then that wasn't necessarily a good thing, it could be distracting after all. And everyone was speaking French, he was getting a headache from having to decipher the poor French gibberish his necklace produced.

They did get all his things - minus the pet anyway, it was optional and Maurice didn't want one - and just in time too as the start of the Beauxbatons term was upon him, Roman still hadn't changed his mind. He just had to be dressed ready in his uniform when the carriage pulled up outside, he felt rather ridiculous in blue silk robes. Although he would admit it felt nicer on his skin, he still didn't like it though. Roman brought him down with his stuff, two house-elves wearing blue silk scarves put his trunk in the back of the large gilded carriage. Also blue, Maurice was hating the color more and more by the minute. At least the huge winged horse pulling it wasn't blue, rather a mottled white and gray which he much preferred. The house-elves then opened the door for him to enter, he raised a dismissive hand at Roman in farewell as he climbed in.

James Sirius Potter was not in a good mood.

First, his little brother had punched him in public. This was utterly humiliating, his brother - his younger brother no less - had hit him and he was too good of a brother to hit him back. Everyone thought less of him now, everyone was laughing behind his back at him, everyone thought he didn't deserve to be the firstborn son of Harry Potter, everyone thought Albus and Lily were better than him. He was shorter than Albus and now everyone thought he was weaker too. And Albus had just gotten away with it. Calderon had been right there and done nothing to protect him, nothing to give him justice. Leebin was wrong, staff wouldn't help him if he was actually a victim. They were too busy being scummy Slytherin lovers to care, he didn't understand why Elwood didn't just fire the lunatic. Why was he criticized for 'bullying' while Albus got a free pass to do whatever he wanted to him? How was that in any way fair or right? His mother didn't care either.

Second, his best friend actually got upset, feeling guilty for a random loser's suicide attempt and getting mad at James for not feeling bad. James didn't see why he was supposed to feel bad, he hated Latimer. Latimer was a freak, he was such a weirdo and so ugly. Not just unattractive but just hideously, grotesquely ugly with a gross prosthetic foot unlike Neville's that looked much better. And he was terrible at Quidditch, he didn't even cheat his way into seeming good but was just outright awful and one of the reasons they kept losing. Why was James supposed to feel bad that such a despicable person had tried to kill themselves? Latimer was suddenly a saint just because he was too much of a weak coward to hold on? It only proved that he'd never belonged in Gryffindor like James had said all along. And to the allegations of guilt, he was hardly responsible as plenty of other people picked on the loser so Carver had no right to feel guilty.

Third, his knuckles still hurt. The first two things had riled him up so much that he'd had to take it out on his Slytherin punching bag, that First Year with prosthetic legs who'd deliberately and manipulatively gotten him in trouble before. Now the little bastard made his knuckles hard from beating him so badly, James was sure the boy had put some kind of spell on himself so it would hurt James to punch him so much. Stupid little brat was probably back at his rich Slytherin mansion now, laughing at how great his life was with his parents as obviously his father would be around because the bad people got everything while he got nothing. While James was stuck nursing grazed knuckles, that Slytherin was an asshole and clearly very much in need of another beating when he got back to Hogwarts. Prick couldn't even be there now for him to punch, bastard.

Fourth, Uncle Charlie's memory was being defiled. Freddie was kindly choosing to name his newborn daughter after their loving dead uncle, Freddie's slut was tainting Uncle Charlie's new name by putting Dragon-breath's name as a middle name. It made absolutely no sense to James, it completely ruined the sentiment of her first name. And why? Just because Dragon-breath had delivered the baby. It seemed absurd to him, so what if Dragon-breath had delivered the baby? If Marigold had delivered her then they would've named her after that Slytherin piece of slime? The mother was the one doing the work, any idiotic illiterate loser - like Dragon-breath - could deliver a baby. He could have understood naming it after Caitlin, it at least made some logical sense but Dragon-breath? It was an insult to poor Uncle Charlie's memory, he'd be rolling in his grave if he knew of such an atrocity. And there was even talk of giving her a second middle name after freaking Latimer and why? Just because he'd pathetically tried to kill himself on the night of the birth? It was incredulous.

Fifth, his mother had yelled at him when he'd gotten home. Was she happy to see her son? The only one of her children who had actually bothered to come back for Easter to see her? No, she was angry of course. Just because he'd gotten caught beating up that Slytherin First Year months ago and for knocking Vern off his broom. Did she care that he'd been picked on first? No. Did she care the boy - Byron? - had been deliberately trying to humiliate him and deserved to suffer? No. And then the whole thing with Vern, Marigold had twisted it completely out of proportion just because the Slytherin Shadow scumbag had it out for him. And he didn't see why he should be in trouble anyway, it wasn't his fault that Vern couldn't keep his grip on a broom which was a fundamental basic in flying. Despite the fact that Vern was taunting him about his own parents liking Vern more than him, he hadn't been trying to knock the boy off his broom and break his back just to hit him with the bat. Naturally Vern screwed that up and got himself injured like the idiotic Dursley he was, the son of a bitch just got everything he wanted and that freak caught the Snitch. Further proving that Malfoy was a talentless cheat who'd stolen James' rightful position, not that anyone believed him on that. Why could no one see that he was clearly the victim?

Sixth, because of the previous point he was grounded all break and buried in chores which was unfair, it took all the fun out of the week. He didn't deserve it. Seventh, his dad couldn't even be bothered to yell at him. Generally, telling him off was the one time that he got attention from his dad so James didn't mind but this time his dad hadn't. Any time he'd seen his dad over the break, it was always his back as he walked away. He hadn't seen Cel either. He'd seen other relatives though, most of his time had been at the Burrow watching everyone coo over baby Charley while he was stuck on chores or watching Cel and Gabrielle's baby Vale as his grandparents tended to babysit. This was where he was at that moment for Easter. Naturally, his dad was not there. Nor were Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, Uncle Percy, Aunt Gabrielle, Cel, Teddy, Victoire, Dom, Molly, Lucy, Albus or Lily. They were either too busy working – Uncle Percy had thrown himself into work to cope with the death of Penelope – or had chosen to stay at Hogwarts – Lucy was staying at her muggle school for some reason this break – except Dom who was cleverly staying away to avoid the wrath of Uncle Bill.

"Isn't she the most beautiful baby you've seen?" Freddie asked of Uncle Bill as he showed him the baby, Uncle Bill grunted.

"You know who else was a beautiful baby? Dominique. And then she grew up and was stolen away by an ancient fossil who is older than her own father," Uncle Bill grumbled, he had a way of bringing everything back to Dom running off with Aurelius or the Aurors of the family not doing anything as they hadn't broken any laws, "She's probably utterly miserable right now with that slimy old nutjob."

"Actually, she's standing by her decision and says she's happy with Aurelius," his mum pointed out, Uncle Bill shot her a look of betrayal.

"You can't possibly approve of this abomination claiming to be 'marriage?'!"

"It really doesn't matter, its Dom's choice to make for better or for worse. In this war, I think it's better to stick together than be driven apart. Wouldn't you rather be civil to Aurelius than lose Dom from your life completely?"

"Look, Charla's smiling!" Freddie exclaimed excitedly before it wavered as several of the others and Caitlin went over to see, "Or maybe it's just gas again."

"Still gas, dear," his grandmother pointed out as the baby started to cry.

James rolled his eyes and went back to watching Vale as he'd been tasked to do, the little guy was propped up against cushions with some toys around him. Vale was old news now that Charla was on the scene, in James' opinion Vale was more deserving of the attention though. Vale was thin not chubby like Charla which must be healthier, he was so much quieter too and never cried unlike Charla who was discovering the usefulness of lungs. Vale was actually pretty easy to look after, James thought it might be because Vale was dumb. Vale didn't even try reach for his toys, he just stared off into space with a sad looking expression. Babies couldn't be sad though obviously so Vale was probably just stupid, or really boring. He picked up one of the toys and waved it right in front of Vale, the baby glanced at it disinterestedly. James had yet to see Vale smile once.

"C'mon Vale, do something for once. You're not a lettuce, get the toy. C'mon, don't you want to play? Its fun," James tried to sound encouraging and smiled as he jiggled the stuffed… whatever the odd lump was supposed to be.

Vale continued to watch it but did nothing, James gave up and put it back down to go back to sulking with Vale's gaze following the toy. His mum couldn't say he didn't try, Vale was just thick. She probably would complain at him any way though, as if Vale's lack of intelligence was somehow his fault just because he was watching him. He got blamed for everything. And now he wouldn't even have Leebin to talk to anymore, which brought him to the eighth thing bothering him. Thanks to Latimer's stupid suicide attempt, the counsellors were being sent away and Leebin with them.

Leebin was the only person who listened to him and cared what he thought, outside of his friends anyway but they also had lives and there were some things he didn't even feel comfortable talking about with them. But with Leebin he could, it helped to talk and James felt happier to let it out. Leebin was helping him with the pressure of living in the shadow of his father's - and family's - reputation, his anger issues, stress of OWLs, upset at being kicked off the Quidditch team, his father's absence and had even helped James accept it was okay to be gay whether he was the firstborn son of Harry Potter or not. Not that James was, it was a complex and personal thing and only he could know his own sexuality regardless of what Albus said, there was also no rush to define himself and he could take his time to discover what he was.

Although Leebin wasn't perfect, he could be helpful but then he also tried to get James to think about his 'bullying' - he didn't see why it should be called that when he targeted only those who deserved it - and that Slytherins were people too. He thought James' anger, hatred and insecurity could warp his perception, tried to get to the root of it and see beyond it. James tended to change the subject on those things or just zone out and start undressing Leebin in his mind, he very much doubted the quill-thin man had Cel or Carver's muscles like he envisioned but fantasy-Leebin could look however James wanted. Leebin's voice didn't have the delightful gravelly quality that Carver had but it was oddly relaxing regardless, Leebin had soft features but his hair was the best as it looked so soft - like Cel's except different - that he very much wished he could run his fingers through it. James was quite happy to keep those thoughts about Leebin to himself though, not that it mattered now he was losing his counsellor.

Vale finally and very cautiously reached out to the toy James had given up trying to get him to play with, talk about a delayed reaction. He picked it up again and held it out to Vale helpfully, the baby backed off and just kept his hand opening and closing while staring at the toy uncertainly. James felt like slapping himself in the face in frustration, where all babies this stupid? It only fueled his frustration and anger, he wouldn't even be able to talk to Leebin about it all because Leebin was leaving. Leebin was abandoning him, he was supposed to help him but he was just ditching him. Just like his dad was supposed to be there for him but could never be bothered. Leebin couldn't be bothered, damn Leebin for pretending he was going to help him then turning his back. Fucking lying bastard. Vale finally reached out ever so tentatively to the toy, his little hand grasping at it ever so gently but James snatched it away irritably and put it down out of Vale's reach.

"You had your chance, you lost it," James complained to the baby moodily, Vale lowered his hand and his eyes in defeat. Why should Vale get something he wanted when James never got anything he wanted? He'd tried to help Vale and the baby hadn't been interested, one time was enough, "People don't get second chances, remember that for next time. Don't be so slow."

Part 6: Bloody Nights

Alzay was actually feeling good about the future, things were lining up and the attack on Azkaban to free her father was within sight. Riddle was planning to go after Azkaban in the midst of setting the Blood Runes up in Hogwarts to weaponize the students, get Riddle's twin on their side and give them a protected base, which should all go down next year. They just needed Lucius Malfoy, a credible yet somewhat trustworthy - at least in Potter's eyes - former Death Eater to warn them so they'd change up the security to better suit them with Rooke's aid. The problem was getting Malfoy, Riddle fully intended to force him to help them like Roman as she had some kind of irrational hatred for her uncle. They were going to kidnap the elder Malfoy's grandfather, Scorpius, to force his cooperation. However they didn't want to do it with magic in case it put Scorpius against them who already had laxer views on blood purity in the times already, Riddle very much wanted the Malfoys related to her by blood to be on her side willingly eventually after all. It was hard to figure out a way to abduct him without magic though, not when the Malfoys were so reclusive.

It was less important though, they weren't going to anything major until Riddle's pregnancy was over. There were still plenty of minor things to set up though, Alzay very much enjoyed getting to torment Roman when giving him things he had to do as well. Maurice started Beauxbatons and naturally her son excelled, his years in the training tower had given him a serious advantage on the little morons attending the French school. She wondered why she was surprised, she had been gifted herself and clearly Maurice had inherited her talents. Unlike his twin unfortunately, Orous was as mediocre as Roman in regards to work and frustratingly focused on random unimportant things that Cade actually encouraged. She loved being able to torture the injured Cade so easily. She supposed it could be worse though, Orous' personality was infinitely better than Roman's and he thankfully lacked Roman's obsessive fears and anxieties. Orous wasn't as pathetic as Roman and she thought he could outgrow his failings, he was still a child after all. Children were imperfect and growing up was the chance to iron out the imperfections to make them better adults, it depended on how it went with his abduction went really. She very much hoped he wouldn't end up like Pyrrhus. It was strange though, Orous very much acted like he was trying to get along better with her and focus more on his work. It was about time, the boy was learning.

"So do I get to meet the next future Dark Lord?" Alzay asked of Rabastan as he led her through the mansion Riddle was using in England late spring to see Riddle about the information she'd gotten from Roman on an item of interest, the baby should have been born by then.

"No," Rabastan answered shortly and stopped her, his expression sorrowful, "The baby was stillborn, don't mention it."

"Okay," Alzay agreed, somehow not surprised. How could any child of someone as deformed possible survive really?

"Seriously," Rabastan insisted as she went to start moving, looking genuinely concerned, "Don't say a word about it."

"I won't."

"Good. I'd rather not see you accidentally exploded."

"I get it!" Alzay protested and Rabastan finally seemed satisfied, he kissed her gently before leading on her onwards.

Brutus was surprisingly not there, he rarely missed a meeting unlike Rooke who seen less from having to keep up his cover. Riddle was there, sitting in an armchair that looked too big for meager frame and in a position that normal people would probably consider uncomfortable. She was facing the window so was in profile to them, rain was pouring outside despite having been dry where Alzay lived. Riddle's eyes were closed but that wasn't uncommon, she'd seen Rabastan, Rooke or Brutus do it as well. Rabastan said they were seeing through Specters' eyes when they did that, it was clearer when not overlapping with your own vision apparently but you were still aware of what was happening where you were. Alzay couldn't decide whether she was glad or concerned she couldn't control Specters, Rabastan claimed it was incredibly difficult though and required focus or they'd turn on you. It worked different for Riddle though since she was the one they were bound to. It was why he said you needed to be capable of casting a Patronus in some way to defend yourself to regain control, she didn't know what forms Rooke or Brutus had but Rabastan had shown her his antelope Patronus, she wasn't sure if the claims Riddle could produce a basilisk Patronus was accurate though. She couldn't see the children of Voldemort producing any Patronus, Alzay couldn't even do it. Not even slightly. Then again, Alzay didn't exactly need to.

"What is it?" Riddle asked without sparing them so much as a glance or even opening her eyes.

"Word on the Herpo Scepter you want," Alzay pointed out.

"Interesting information on the Malfoy boy," Rabastan offered.

"Rabastan, you can go first," Riddle decided and her dark eyes finally flicked open, shadows dancing dangerously within them.

"Your aunt was having some health problems with a cough, they kept her over in St Mungo's to make sure it didn't evolve into anything worse. Scorpius was sent to stay with his parents' friend Pansy Davis and her family while that happening to try spare him the stress I suppose, they live in a wizarding neighborhood right by a muggle one. It would be the perfect place to kidnap him from to pin it on muggles."

"We could even get Pyrrhus' father to do it, a test to make sure he can succeed with Orous next year," Alzay piped up and Rabastan nodded in approval.

"Exactly and with Astoria's pregnancy, it-"

"What?!" Riddle burst out in shock, Alzay jumped as something blew up near Rabastan unexpectedly, "Draco's wife is pregnant?!"

"Yeah," Rabastan confirmed and didn't seem concerned by... whatever had blown up that Alzay hadn't been looking at, "I thought I'd told you already, sorry Sal. But she is and they'd be even more likely to send him away if his pregnant mother fell ill, Draco would be more protective of her."

"NO!" Riddle snapped as she stood with grief and rage twisting her features, the window before her shattering into the storm. Alzay failed not to jump again, such displays of wandless magic never ceased to disturb her, "No! Why should my cousin get to have a child?! Why should he when mine..."

Riddle trailed off as her anger turned to sorrow as she looked down, if Alzay didn't know any better then she'd say Riddle was actually wrestling with tears. Riddle made an effort to compose herself, her expression set with anger engraved on her young face. She had a strange dress sense that Alzay could never understand, always something black and always pants under a cloak or robes. Alzay tended to as to fit in with muggles but Riddle didn't need to, she probably wouldn't even pass for a muggle in robes or a cloak over it anyway. Slowly, her fist clenched and the shards of glass flew back from outside to repair the window as well as the vase - that was what it was - by Rabastan, who looked sympathetic. The cracks still showed in the window though, Riddle raised her head.

"We kill the baby, they'll send Scorpius away for sure," Riddle said in a quieter, darker tone as she approached the window, "He can join Orous in the experiment and we'll still trick Lucius into giving up his soul for his grandson in the meantime. Let's see if it's in the blood for pain to trigger powerful magic, if Scorpius succeeds then he earns his right to live and if not then he dies too."

"Sal, are you sure about this?" Rabastan asked worriedly, "You're not thinking straight-"

"I'm sure!" Riddle insisted and ran her fingers over the glass, blue light shone through the cracks and they were healed when the light faded as she moved her hand away, "I'd kill the child myself, Draco shouldn't get everything. I'm sure, of course I'm sure."

"Still two weeks before his tenth birthday for consistency, right?" Alzay wondered, needing more similarity to still be able to blame Roman.

"Fine, as long as he's still away from home though it doesn't really matter," Riddle brushed it off with a dismissive wave of her hand, "Get it done."

Jack had been extremely anxious since killing and taking the magic from the two PAW soldiers,afraid that any second the Ministry would know his secrets and come down on him. They were magical after all. His concern eased as the months went on but he still found himself looking over his shoulder constantly, fearing that he wasn't alone. Not that he was ever really alone with One sharing his body. But still, sometimes he felt he was being watched and Annie's interest in his whereabouts didn't help ease his mind. One wasn't concerned, not thinking it strange in the slightest that they might be being followed which he also admitted to suspecting. Jack didn't see anything he could really do about it, he lost anyone he tried to confront who he thought was following him. That or he'd confused them with a scared innocent, his tainted vision wasn't the best for scanning further distances for assailants.

There were other things wrong in his life, the hunger from not feeding gradually started gnawing at him more and more as the months went by. Minor pain - minor compared to destroying souls anyway - started satisfying him less and less, he kept refusing One's desire to kill. They'd taken two last time, it was helping him last longer but he knew it wouldn't be forever. He also became increasingly annoyed with Annie, she had just gotten out of jail for driving and drinking so what was she doing? Still driving. And still drinking. Not necessarily at the same time but still, she needed to stay away from cars for her own safety. And she needed to stay away from drink, not only because of her safety but because of her health. Had she just forgotten that their own dad had drank himself to death? Jack was managing to stay sober, why couldn't she? It seemed to be all she did, lounge around drinking and reading about magic if she wasn't out. She claimed to be trying to get a job but had had no luck, Jack wasn't surprised as she got so little sleep and didn't even wear makeup to hide the fact she looked like a decaying zombie. Who would hire someone that looked like they'd drop dead of exhaustion rather than work? She wasn't even trying, talk about being completely ungrateful for everything he was doing for the deadbeat.

"She's doing it on purpose," One whispered barely audibly to him as he came in one of the days, seeing her on the couch with a magical book in one hand a bottle of half-drunk scotch in the other, "Lying there, reading about magic just to taunt you, flaunt that she was born magical while you weren't. How unfair is that really? Your sister gets born with a power she doesn't appreciate while you who would love magic, gets born without. She hogged all the magic your muggle parents could squeeze out between them, leaving nothing left for you. Selfish, ungrateful bitch. It's no wonder that no one likes her."

"You in, Jack?" Annie called out and Jack stalked by her irritably.

"Just shut up," Jack snapped at her as he passed into his own room, "Good-for-nothing worthless alcoholic. You're just like Dad, you know?"

"I know," Annie admitted unconcerned under her breath, Jack furiously slammed his door behind him.

There was good in his life though, killing the last two and taking their magic had given him just that. Magic. And the wands to use it from the two dead, they each favored a different wand and hand. Jack right, One left. They bought a book of spells and started teaching themselves, it wasn't as easy as it was made to look but gradually they started to get the hang of it. They started from the most basic spells and worked their way up to more advanced, they probably weren't on par with adult wizards and weren't on to non-verbal magic yet but they were getting there. Jack thought they'd be pretty lethal in a fight regardless, he and One could both control their preferred arm at the same time although they were still bound by using the spell being spoken. They could still fire in two directions or at two different targets at the same time which would surely take anyone by surprised, Jack liked using magic even if it required extended conversation with One. It never ceased to make him feel incredible to be able to wield such power, even if it wasn't entirely usual. Plus, he'd rather be working with One on magic than One wanting to kill.

The other good thing of course was Crystal's recovery, he'd started visiting her again so they could feed off the pain of the people in hospital but not her. Never her. He offered her to stay with them since she had no house now and Bob's evil mother wouldn't let her. Michael would be back for Easter shortly so he thought it was nice for them to be in one place, except Crystal's other kids. Bob's mother wasn't even letting Crystal see them and promised to fight for custody, it actually didn't look good for Crystal as she couldn't work until she'd recovered more.

"A good victim for a soul?" One wondered of him, "To get Crystal her children back? The dead can't stop the living taking custody and the mother of a monster is hardly a saint."

"Alright," Jack agreed, feeling very much like he should be putting up more of a fight to killing someone, "But not until Michael gets back, it'll be a nice surprise for him and Crystal. I want them to be happy."

"Very well," One agreed with a smile forming on their face.

Jack chose not to pick Michael up from the platform, he was afraid that being around more magical people would encourage One to start wanting him to take their magic again. Plus he'd have to be in a car, he still didn't travelling in them. They got caught up in training so he decided to just wait, scout out Ruth Wilson's - Bob's mother - house while they were out to be able to return later as they could only teleport to places they had been to before. It wasn't their first scouting, they'd tracked down the leader of the PAW group who went after werewolves, who went after his son. Found their headquarters, found the hidden supply of silver masks. The Aurors didn't have enough evidence, they would if they went there. The only reason the leader still drew breathe was because One wanted to storm the base and kill everyone, Jack would rather keep the soul-destroying bloodshed to a minimum. They couldn't agree so they left it, they could agree on Ruth though. It was so tempting to destroy every picture of the bastard who'd abused his son and Crystal lying around the house, that would alert them that someone had broken in though so the evil bitch might be more on guard which they didn't wand. It was an old rickety house, three bedrooms so the boys and the girls shared a room each while Ruth had the master bedroom.

"We'll come for her in here," Jack and One said at the same time, disturbing him slightly but his next words were purely his own, "So that she'll be alone, we don't want the little ones involved in this."

They went back to training to pass the time, only returning to that street when night fell and magically shutting off the closest street lights so they could hide in the shadows. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the lights to go off in every room but Ruth's, watching the stamps of light for each window go out one by one in the darkened street outside like candles being snuffed. The boys' room went out first - it made sense as they were the youngest so would go to bet sooner - followed later by the girls' room, eventually the downstairs lights. Leaving just Ruth's room. Their lips curled into a smile of One's design as Jack closed their eyes, focusing on the old hag's room and felt the scene shifting.

His eyes snapped open and there he was, standing just in the door. Ruth didn't notice him, their method of transportation was silent and elegant after all. There wasn't much in the room really, an old Victorian armoire nestled in the corner by the huge but flimsy four poster bed that looked as if the touch of air current could collapse it. It didn't though, it did make the translucent tattered curtains dance and the mournful whistle of wind sounded almost like a beautiful swan song for Ruth. It was more than she deserved. Opposite the bed was an equally old Victorian vanity, littered with an assortment of Bob pictures and beauty products. Ruth had changed into an ancient white nightgown that matched the drapes, sitting before the vanity with her head in hands and her shoulders gently shaking from silent sobs.

"Oh Bobby," Ruth wailed barely audibly. The last thing she'd ever say.

Jack ignored it though as he reached out his right arm to the light switch on that side, flicking it off immediately. She froze and turned, a muttering Silencing Charm left his lips as One flicked One's wand with his left. She tried to speak but no words came out, instead she stood looking enraged as she approached. Jack grabbed her and threw her frail body onto the bed effortlessly, striding over to stand facing her. She looked scared now, Jack held out his right palm in readiness.

"You'll join your son in non-existence now," Jack or One taunted - he wasn't sure which - as they willed on desiring her pain.

The shadowy beam of light shot from his palm to destroy her, her body convulsed as violently as her son had while her mouth opened to scream sounds that couldn't come. The euphoric feeling flooded through him, he shivered with excitement as the rush drowned his senses. It was so horrible to see what they were doing was but it was so beautiful to feel it. Its abrupt end was slightly jarring as they finished destroying her soul, he felt invigorated as he lowered his hand and looked at her limp body. She didn't look at peace though, her mouth was frozen open in a scream while both her body and face remained contorted in pain. He heard a gasp and a thud, shooting his gaze in time to see the door closing while childish footsteps scampered fearfully away. His legs started to move on One's command but he stopped them.

"We have to go after the child, they're a witness," One insisted in a whisper.

"We're not harming a child!" Jack hissed, "Especially not Crystal's."

"But they saw-"

"We don't that that! It's dark, we're wearing black and we don't know what they say but if we go after then they will have definitely seen instead of just maybe having seen. We just need to put her into her bed, make it look like she died of natural causes in her sleep and no one will know. Who'd believe a child? Certainly not the muggle police who'd deal with this, probably not wizard Aurors if they got involved for some reason either."

One said nothing but seemed to agree to this as they quickly tucked Ruth into her bed, closing her mouth and eyes before teleporting back to the apartment. Annie and Michael were bizarrely still up, he thought his lie held though. He didn't have to explain himself to them. He left early the next day, checking on Ruth's house to find the police there. It wouldn't be long before the children were right back, hopefully not recognizing him. It was only when he returned home to see if the police had contacted Crystal yet that he found the body, he desperately hoped it wasn't from his apartment but looking up he saw the smashed window from his place. Fear and anger infused in his blood as they bolted upstairs, fear for his family and anger at PAW for going after his son again. He saw no sign of his family though, just a body and a blood pool. He rang Annie but her ringtone sang out from the end table by the couch, she didn't have her phone with her and Crystal didn't have one yet as her old phone had been somehow lost in the hospital. They transported to St Mungo's and raced around looking for them, eventually finding Crystal being attended to and Michael was comforting an incredibly strange child. It wasn't even that the boy was albino, he just didn't have an aura.

"He had the magic ripped out of his soul and put back," One answered the question he was going to ask, "Putting it back didn't make him okay, his soul is functional but still broken. He is untouchable to us."

"Why is he crying?" Jack wondered as he moved away to go back to searching for Annie.

"I don't know everything, you know?" One scoffed irritably, "Now can we go back and get rid of those bodies now?"

"Alright," Jack sighed in agreement, Crystal was the one injured so Annie had to have brought them here. She was probably just off in a bar somewhere drinking her troubles away, "Michael probably killed those guys and I don't want him to get in trouble."

They teleported back to the apartment, taking the bodies and dumping them into the ocean like he had to the other PAW members. His anger was reignited as he cast them aside, twice now those bastards had gone after his family. Attacked his son, attacked his sister, put his... Crystal in the hospital. He knew where PAW was, he could stop them going after his family once and for all.

"Are we thinking the same thing?" One asked, Jack felt the smile in his words.

"We kill them," Jack said darkly as his hands clenched into fists of rage, "We kill them all tonight."

They spend the rest of the day honing their combat spells as much as possible before the night came although it would prove to be unnecessary, they teleported to outside the old mansion. They stalked towards the two doors, the eerie building casting them in to darkness. It was of no matter though, they were the ones who should be afraid. He would never know how he could be so blinded by rage but so methodical at the same time, an insipid cold anger that lingered in his blood. It wasn't Jack who walked that night with One. It was Death with his Shadow.

Two guards stood outside the door, they went to speak but their palms went up and shadowy beams turned their words to screams. He clenched his fists and pulled, tearing the magic from their souls and pulling one to himself while he threw the other at the doors. They teleported and reappeared on the spot to escape the explosion that shattered the silent night, the mansion was gutted and burning when they returned. Fire was its blood, smoke was its screams, ruin was the ripped open insides. Injured figures tottered around weakly, scouring the rubble for the corpses of their friends. Jack raised his palms at any one he saw, they might've been able to magically protect their bodies but they couldn't protect their souls. Send them down, take their magic. Over and over. More and more.

Finally he was left with no one standing, no auras standing left but scores of glowing orbs hovering over their owner's bodies. Magic from their souls. They raised their arms to the sky and tugged. The orbs shot to him like he was magnetic, hitting him from every angle which was the only thing keeping him upright. His eyes rolled back into his skull and his body jerked as they hammered into him, feeling like electricity was jolting him every time. Then they were gone, his body slumped forwards but he kept on his feet as he stood breathing heavily. He could feel it, power pulsing through him or maybe from fed off so much pain. A quiet laugh escaped him, a chilling laugh that might've belonged to One that twisted louder and into derangement as he slowly straightened himself up. One threw out their arms and looked up as the skies opened, showering them in fields of rain.

"WE ARE ONE!" Jack or One screamed to the night, the sound of disapparation masked by the boom of thunder as a lone survivor escaped, "AND THAT IS WHAT YOU GET FOR GOING AFTER MY FAMILY! NEVER AGAIN! NEVER!"

And they did, well Alzay didn't really do much but it happened. Although Alzay did come to regret pushing for the two weeks before his tenth birthday, Scorpius would need to stay abducted for a while or at the very least until Lucius gave his soul to them. As a gray soul, he had to be willing which further pushed back the deadline before they could go after her father. It still wouldn't be long though, what was one more year when she'd already been waiting for so long already? She planned Orous' ninth birthday for once, knowing full well that it would be his last before his own kidnapping. She took him to a Quidditch game without Cade because he was a muggle and there was no place for him there, she'd never really been a fan as it was far too pointless and cheerful but it was something magical that was popular. It was better than anything muggle and it got him away from Cade.

She started rewarding Orous with trips to the Muggle Park to set up for his own abduction, in a way she couldn't wait for it to just be over. She made an effort to try be nicer to him, knowing every day that passed was one day closer to losing him. He wasn't a bad kid when he was trying, he could actually be intelligent when he applied himself. He just lacked an edge that she had, like Maurice had, he was too innocent, too young. Why did Alzay have to start feeling attached to him now? The time when she needed to feel least close to him. Although she didn't understand the care for the dogs, they were just animals. Not even magical animals. She was really starting to have second thoughts about it, Pyrrhus' words haunted her mind as she lay awake at night. She was too upset to even bother hurting Cade anymore, she even started spending more time with them out of guilt.

Guilt gnawed at her every single day, wearing her down worse and worse come June. Two weeks before Orous' tenth birthday - July 12th - was at the end of June after all, the twenty-eighth was the day to dread. It didn't help that Scorpius' abduction ended, the boy killed the muggle - Pyrrhus' half-brother Marvin not his father - who'd been ready to kill him for not doing anything significant and they got Lucius. This meant they were on track for Azkaban, they'd tricked the Headmaster into using the Blood Runes already. They just needed to possess him when he left Hogwarts for his annual attempt to become an Auror after the school year ended. But Pyrrhus had been right, the muggles hadn't stuck to the script of things they were allowed to do.

"They said it was just the one who got killed, they promised to behave," Rabastan assured her, "One of them is dead, I'm sure they know better than to mess with wizards even underage ones."

Alzay wasn't convinced, muggles weren't to be underestimated. Cade was a muggle but aside from magic, he was stronger than Roman in every possible way. It wasn't that she liked muggles but they were just more like rats than slugs, despicable and disgusting but still capable of doing things or fighting back. She kept telling herself all her justifications but it didn't ease the guilt trying to eat her, she didn't want him to be hurt and was starting to feel physically sick over it. She was physically sick in fact, it was the kind of sickness she had only felt once before though. She was pregnant and St Mungo's confirmed it, Cade couldn't have children so there was no doubt it was Rabastan's child. Despite everything, she actually felt oddly happy. She actually Rabastan, cared about him, respected him, their child would be much better than Roman's. She was nervous about telling him though, Roman hadn't exactly been pleased and Rabastan was in his fifties, he might not be keen on becoming a father so late in life. She needn't have worried though, his initial surprise turned into a smile as wide as if he'd found out he'd just won the lottery. She found herself returning the smile, the first time she'd truly smiled for a while. He embraced her and she kissed him passionately before just letting herself being held close, relishing the comforting moment of joy.

The timing actually was perfect, Orous would be gone so it didn't really matter if she left Cade to hide her pregnancy. And her good mood folded up on that thought, Orous would be gone to suffer. She'd carried him once too, given birth, raised him from a baby. Even if she often thought it was tedious, he was still her son, still her own flesh and blood despite not looking like it due to his albinism. At least she knew what he looked like, she hadn't physically seen Maurice since he was a baby. She felt so guilty that she even agreed to a 'family' vacation down the coast on the last weekend in June before the abduction day, took an interest in Orous and everything mothers should do. Orous was so happy, seeing him with Cade actually reminded her of her own childhood with her father. And then she'd lost him, changing her life for the worse forever. Did she really want to drastically change Orous' life for the worse? She tossed and turned the night before, finally getting up to go see Rabastan.

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Rabastan complained of her as he reluctantly let her in, "You need your rest right now."

"I couldn't sleep, tomorrow my son will be kidnapped," Alzay pointed out.

"Yeah, it's all in place so you don't need to worry about it going wrong so go and get some sleep," Rabastan insisted and went to leave but she grabbed his arm to stop him, "I have to give a briefing in a few minutes for an assassination, Alzay, I don't have time for this."

"I'm having second thoughts," Alzay blurted out and Rabastan turned back to her, "I don't want Orous to be taken. Can't you get him out of it?"

"No, the whole point is that they're twins. I don't get what you're worried about, Maurice went through years worse and I told them not to touch Orous. Ask them, I said it several times."

"Isn't Maurice enough?"

"No," Rabastan told her before sighing, "But if you want to renege on the deal then I can probably get him out of it, you wouldn't get your Father though."

"There's a mass escape happening anyway, how can I not get my father back?" Alzay wondered.

"A deal's a deal. Sal would honor it if you change your mind but honoring it means not getting your Father and since she's wiping Azkaban off the map, he would be killed," Rabastan explained and looked somewhat sympathetic, "I'm sorry. It's the best I can do, either you son is abducted or your father dies."

"That's not fair."

"It's perfectly fair, you agreed. A year of your son's life or your Father's life completely, it's not a difficult choice really. I don't know why you're so upset. Just stick to the plan, Orous can go back to his life after with a hatred for muggles now and you get your Dad back, its best for the Soul Eaters and for you."

"For the Soul Eaters? Really? That's your go to argument?!" Alzay yelled irritably, "In that case, you should be all for sending our child to the training tower to be a good soldier!"

"Absolutely," Rabastan agreed after a moment's hesitation.

"You agree to that?"

"Okay."

"Rabastan, we don't have all night," Seraph snapped from the doorway, the mangled half of him was almost as hideous as Brutus. Alzay didn't like him, "People need to die, your little girlfriend can wait."

"I need to-"

"Its fine, we're done here," Alzay snapped in interruption as she stalked off.

She may feel guilty about what she was doing to Orous but if she had to choose between him and her beloved father, she'd drag Orous out the back and take him out herself. She hated it but she'd do it. Dawn came, Cade had work so it was just her and Orous. She tried to be as nice to him as possible, he could do no wrong on his final day of freedom. Every smile touching his pasty face felt like another knife to her heart but she'd made her choice, the thought of losing her father forever was just too much to bear and Orous was nothing in comparison.

"Are we going to go to the park now?" Orous asked eagerly as it had become commonplace by then, she forced a smile.

"I think you're old enough to go by yourself. You're a big boy now, almost ten!" Alzay told him and he looked slightly surprised, "I trust you, Orous."

"Really?" Orous wondered as he returned her smile.

"Absolutely, have fun," Alzay said sweetly, only widening his smile.

"I will. I love you, Mum," Orous grinned as he left.

Alzay watched him go with her smile still on her face, only after did she let her head drop onto the table. She was a monster. For the first time since childhood, Alzay cried. She buried her face in her hands and cried, maybe it was just hormones getting to her but she couldn't help it. She was still sobbing by the time Cade came home, it was too late by then though. Orous wasn't coming back.