Again, I'm really sorry for the delay. I don't suppose you'd expect moving back home for the Summer and exams as an excuse? Any way, enjoy, and if the mood takes you, review!
Mouse's heart thudded violently in his chest as the not-Minna guided him through the halls of Hogwarts. He thought about trying to get out of her grip, running to get help, but she was grabbing his arm so that the 'guidance' could be quickly shifted to a carry lock.
The Siren would have to be possessing the one teacher in school with significant Muggle martial arts training...thought Mouse, bitterly.
Not to mention, her wand was grasped firmly behind his back – if he even tried to get away, she would only have to stupefy him – or worse. Mouse had to use all of his pureblood training to stop his thoughts careening in to panic, as he started to imagine just what exactly was going to happen. To use his Slytherin ancestry, to be Scorpius Malfoy, not Mouse. Right.
I have to be sneaky, if I want to come out of this alive. He gulped, realising that for once, his flair for the over dramatic was actually quite accurate.
As Scorpius tried to marshal his thoughts into something resembling coherency and not blind panic, he realised they were going up and up, through the stairways and corridors, which echoed weirdly thanks to the complete lack of students in the halls. The uneasy, poisonous silence between Scorpius and 'Minna' didn't help much, either.
Eventually, they reached the entrance to a small rickety tower that Scorpius was sure he had never seen before, and from the brief glance he got before he was roughly shoved over its threshold, the door was covered in the same arcane markings as the door they had foolishly entered on Halloween.
Inside, the room seemed larger than it had looked from the outside, but as Scorpius reminded himself, this was a magical castle, and so it was hardly surprising.
The same symbols decorated the pillars inside, as well as the stone altar upon which lay a robed figure with dark hair. Scorpius stomach clenched as he took in Nat's pale unmoving form.
Please don't be dead...he thought.
"What do you mean you think that Professor Grey might be being possessed? Or that she's killed her fiancé for that matter? For the love of Merlin Becky, calm down!" Professor Longbottom's usually reassuring presence was doing nothing of the sort. Becky was just frustrated.
For Christ's sake, these people are bloody magic! Why can they not just flipping understand that I'm telling the truth, that I'm not some stupid kid making up stories?! She thought, exasperated.
"Exactly what I bloody said! Sir." She added hastily. "Look, all that stuff at Halloween, none of it stopped sir, and we told Professor Carter as DADA prof, and we thought he told all of yous! Why're you finding this so hard to believe?" She demanded angrily. Mouse was in danger, why was this taking so long!?
"Well, yes...he did mention something, but" Professor Longbottom, started to say, before seeing the determined look on Becky's face, which combined with his own gut instinct told him that the blonde first year wasn't actually lying. He sighed deeply before frowning. "Ok, ok, I believe you! But this opens up a whole other can of worms. We're going to sort this out, but first." he paused and gazed sternly at Becky, Albus and Rose. "I know you three are friends with Scorpius Malfoy, and I know you two" he directed at Albus and Rose "Come from two sets of authority distrusting parents which a knack of throwing themselves into danger to help friends." despite the severity of the situation, the cousins grinned, sheepishly. "So please listen to me when I ask you to let the adults sort this out. You are not, I repeat not to go running off to try and save your friend. None of your parents would forgive me if I let any of you do something so foolishly reckless! Now, stay here while we try and get this under control." He turned away and loped across the field, where the large majority of the school body was milling around, unsure of how to react to Becky's dramatic and rather public exclamation.
The trio waited until Professor Longbottom's attention was completely distracted before running off in the direction of the school. They did have some respect for their Head of House's authority after all.
"Is he-?" Scorpius started, and broke off, his throat closing in panic.
Not-Minna, who's hair seemed oddly lighter and longer now Scorpius really looked at her, turned to look at him from the other side of the altar and grinned, an icy, malicious smile.
"Oh no, I need you both alive." the crocodile grin widened. "For now"
"So what's our plan?" Rose's echoed throughout the empty halls, and the three of them skidded to a halt. They hadn't actually thought about a plan. Albus looked at her dumbly.
"Run in and grab Mouse back?" he suggested weakly. "Bash her over the head with something and tie her up til we get Miss Min back?"
Rose tutted in irritation, and turned angrily on her cousin, loose hair flying, eyes flashing.
"Honestly, you are such a Gryffindor! Why on earth James thought you could ever be sorted into Slytherin, I have no idea! Charging blindly against an unknown foe, who is a lot older and more powerful that us and I-"
"Rose, Al, this isn't the time!" Becky said, forcefully, breaking up what looked to be the start of yet another sibling-like bickering match. "Mouse is in danger, and he needs our help. We need to stick together and be the loyal friends we are, not bicker between ourselves, right?" The cousins looked at each other mutinously, and she repeated herself, a little more forcefully. "Right?"
"Right." they said together, albeit grudgingly.
"We need to work out where they've gone, first of all." Rose said, after a moment of silence. We can't just run around the school blindly 'til we find them. Al, have you got the map?" She asked, a little bossily, and he scowled.
"No. After the Great Library Heist, I had to lend it for a prank, and James's still not given it back." he grimaced. "Stupid prat."
"Well, now's not the time to complain, but I reckon at least that gives us a starting point, You go two go to the dorms, and see if it's there, I'll go find James." Rose said practically. The three of them nodded, a little less uneasy now they a sort of plan of action. I'll meet you halfway in ten minutes, okay?"
"Okay."
As Becky and Albus ran up the staircase, dodging the trick stair, Albus looked sideways at Becky, and smiled gratefully.
"Thanks, Becks." he said, as they rounded a corner, careening off the wall.
"For what?" She panted, not quite as practised at pelting through the corridors at speed.
"For just now – that stuff about how we need to stick together – stop me and Rose from arguing – be loyal – you would have made a pretty good Hufflepuff, I reckon – watch the vanishing step."
"Thanks!" she smiled back at him brightly, and although he wasn't sure she was thanking him for the warning, or the quasi-compliment, and despite the fact his friend was in potential mortal danger, he couldn't help feeling lightened by her smile. Encouraged, they put on a burst of speed, rounded the corner and skidded to a stop outside Gryffindor Common Room's portrait hole.
Scorpius was now convinced that he was not in fact imagining things and in fact, Minna looked considerably more like the woodcut in the book Nat had showed them at the beginning of the year than her usual dark haired self. He was equally convinced that if he didn't think of something soon, or the cavalry managed to somehow come to the rescue at the last second, he was going to die. Very soon, and possibly painfully.
"I don't understand – why go to all this trouble just to kidnap me and Nat?" Scorpius managed to say, and the Siren actually hissed through her teeth.
"Silence, boy. I do not explain myself to men. Not least those descended from my nemesis!"
Despite the severity of the situation, Scorpius's eyebrows rose significantly.
Who the hell uses words like nemesis any more? Although that was sort of the point, he reflected, then gulped as the Siren came over to him and roughly dragged him to the altar next to Nat's body. She slowly ran the point of the ceremonial blade up Scorpius's throat and he had to fight not to whimper as it dug in.
"But you're going to kill me anyway...right? It's not like it matters to you," he whispered, hoping desperately that if Minna was stillin there somewhere, she would able to hide the joking rants she'd given about villains in Muggle literature's tendency for dramatic monologues and the Evil Overlord list. Or that the Siren would think fictional tropes were just that. Oddly, he got a faint wave of exasperation as he thought that, but he put it down to the stress of the situation.
Scorpius breathed a sigh of relief as the Siren drew away, smiling slightly at the boy's pathetic last request – but still, he was just a child and she had secured the man herself. Her plan was falling into place, and if it weren't for the mental strength of that pesky woman she had possessed almost everything would be perfect. And after all, the boy was her kin too.
"Very well." she said, and Scorpius blinked surprised. She miled coldly. "After all it is too late for you to alter what is set in motion now. You see, I was once the student of Rowena Ravenclaw, beloved by all. I fell in love with a man-"
"Big woop."
The Siren hurled a hate-filled glare at Scorpius.
"You are arrogant without a knife to your throat. You know, the ceremony doesn't require your death to be painless, boy. As I was saying I fell in love with a man and soon I was with child. But it turned out that he was married. He was a wizard, but his wife was not and she accused me of bewitching him. Despite my innocence of that with which I was accused, the Founders did NOTHING to protect me. Instead I was sentenced to be hanged as a witch, but before I was killed I broke free and swore never to love another as long as I lived. I fled that place and became that which I was accused of – I bewitched men to show to the world how weak they truly were, how petty, and I used dark magics which only made me stronger. Oh it was good for a time but I could not last. The Founders feared what I became and so trapped me." She paused suddenly in her tirade and smiled maliciously at Scorpius. "Trapped me in the chamber you and your little friends so kindly opened on All Hallows Eve..."
"Wishing we hadn't. Believe me."
The Siren actually hissed, digging the knife into Mouse's throat again. Beside him, Scorpius could feel Nat beginning to stir. He began to panic, praying Nat wouldn't wake, as he guessed that once Nat had woken, the Siren would start the ritual, before thinking of another way to stall the clearly deranged revenant.
"But surely you don't need me? I mean, my family still has money, some influence...and I'm friends with the kids of two of the most influential people at the Ministry! I'm more use to you alive, right?"
The Siren cackled.
"Oh, child, do you really think I would have brought you here just to witness? I need your blood, your very soul. You are my descendant child, and with your soul I can take this body as my own, I can return to my work..." She gave a rictus grin, and Mouse thought he might throw up, but outwardly Scorpius just managed to stay calm.
"And Nat?" he asked hoarsely. The Siren cocked her head, then moved over to Nat, running the tip of her knife down his face.
"I need him too. If I did not, I would have used the body of your little friend, that Rebecca child – after all, no one would look for a pathetic Muggle-born with an inferiority complex if she were to just...disappear. No...I need love, true love – you may laugh boy, but do not underestimate a power of which you know nothing," she spat, as Mouse had let out a disbelieving snort. "I need his love...and for that, I need his heart." The grin was back. "And then the world will be free of yet another, disgusting, male."
Nat let out a groan, and stirred. Scorpius thought he saw a flash of confusion and fury on the Siren's face, but it vanished as quickly as it came.
"Oh look who's awake." crooned the Siren, caressing Nat's face with the dagger again. "Just in time to watch your precious little cousin die."
And with that, she raised the dagger above her head, brought it down, and suddenly Mouse's world suddenly went black.