Scorpius spent the rest of the evening getting reacquainted with Antonius, the boy seemed in good spirits all things considered or rather like he was just happy to see them. He only left with Hogan shooed him away, insisting his patients needed rest. He was rather hungry by the time Lamb apparated them back to Hogan's, of course he would've gone straight to Myriam anyway.

"It took longer than you thought, huh?" Myriam guessed as he walked through the door.

"Don't even ask," Scorpius sighed heavily as he was reminded of the afternoon with Abel, "On the bright side, tomorrow is all clear."

"Good."

For once the stars seemed to be aligned in Scorpius' favor as nothing disastrous happened between then and the next morning, no emergency meetings or errands or anything. And so after breakfast he left the house with Myriam as his transportation this time, which was bothersome. He very grateful for her, Lamb and anyone willing to apparate him but the fact he needed it in the first place bothered him, he felt like a child needing someone to hold his hand all the time and it shouldn't be like that.

He said nothing about this though as the female werewolf apparated him to his family home, standing as proud and as regal as ever. He let out a relieved breath, not because he'd been worried – despite what Brutus had said, he would have heard something if his home had been attacked – but because he hadn't realized until that moment how much he missed it, it was oddly comforting. He took the lead as he approached, letting himself in with a bit more trepidation with Abel's suicide attempt still hanging in his mind despite logic dictating it was incredibly irrational to fear that for his family.

"Scorpius!" his mother fell upon him at once, running to him and flinging her arms around him. She was crying, "Scorpius, we were worried sick about you! We didn't know… We didn't even know if…"

"I'm okay, Mother," Scorpius assured her, hugging her tightly back, "You don't need to worry about me."

"But I do," his mother insisted, stepping back and wiping at her eyes.

"Scor!" he heard his little brother, Sol, before he saw him and the toddler bounded towards him with outstretched arms. Scorpius practically had to catch him as he launched his little body at him, he was chunkier then Lysel – who went off food when weak from the full moon – with hair as fair as Lysel was dark. Scorpius gave him a cuddle and he giggled, "Myr!"

"Hey Sol," Myriam offered kindly as Sol wriggled away from him to run at her instead, surprising her by throwing himself at her for a hug as well, "Oh hi, it's nice to see you too."

"Where Lysel?" Sol demanded, pulling away just as she had recovered enough from her surprise to hug him back.

"He's back at the house, I just came to drop off Scorpius."

"Can you get him?"

"Scorpius…" his father breathed and Scorpius found himself being hugged by his dad, he must've came in while Scorpius was distracted watching Sol with Myriam, "We were worried, we feared we'd lost you again…"

"I'm fine," Scorpius insisted as his father pulled away, not in tears but still markedly more emotional then Scorpius had expected.

Aunt Narcissa! Calderon cried suddenly inside his mind and Scorpius tried to ignore him,

"Oh Scorpius!" his grandmother exclaimed and he was hugged next by her, being squeezed surprisingly tightly for an elderly bony woman, "Are you alright? Are you hurt? We hadn't heard from you!"

"I'm fine," Scorpius repeated as his family – sans Sol who he could hear yammering away to Myriam a few feet away, naturally not feeling the same gravity as the rest of them – gazed at him, his mother looked like she wanted to hug him again, "I've just been with Gray."

"And you couldn't drop in for five minutes to let your family know you were okay!"

"Well I still can't apparate so it's not easy to just get here," Scorpius pointed out lamely, hoping Myriam wouldn't be mean enough to tell them plenty of people would've been willing to take him. He didn't want his family to think he'd been avoiding them when they were worried, thankfully Myriam was either too busy with Sol or too nice to throw him in the deep end, or both.

"Still?"

"Apparation is difficult, leave him alone," his mother spoke up defensively, going so far as to put a protective arm around him.

"Where have you even been?" his grandmother demanded and Scorpius tensed a little, he supposed they were just going to jump right to the point.

"With Gray," Scorpius answered and subconsciously stepped a little away from his mother, it felt a little strange to be so honest but he'd have to be if he wanted them to come with him, "I may be fine but there was a lot of injuries and death of others including some of my friends, everyone has kind of been reeling and then I've needed to help with stuff."

"Why do they have to drag you into it?" his father complained unhappily.

"They didn't drag me, I tracked Varanian down," Scorpius pointed out truthfully, deciding to omit the fact he'd been twelve at the time, "I'm his second in command now."

"Oh, really?"

"Really, I'm a part of Gray and I have been since the beginning," Scorpius admitted, finding it very freeing and feeling more confident with every word, "It has always been my fight, my war and now I'm not a child anymore."

"You can't even apparate," his grandmother reiterated.

"Aside from that! I can do other things!" Scorpius insisted, his grandmother was scowling but his parents were looking more open to what he was saying. He took a breath, "I didn't come home to stay, I actually wanted to ask if you'll join me with Gray."

"What?"

"Scorpius, we're not fighters-" his father started to say as he joined his grandmother in scowling.

"Look, it's not as crazy as it sounds," Scorpius said, holding up his hands defensively, "Gray are known for fighting the Shadows but a lot of members aren't even fighters, they're just there for protection. There's people who are injured, a few muggles in Gray, some little kids- heck, the youngest member is my friend's baby! Right, Myriam?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, right," Myriam agreed, starting in shock at being put on the spot. It occurred to him that maybe he should've spoken to her about his intentions beforehand, he also realized Sol had ran off, "They don't make you fight if you don't want to."

"I didn't know you were Gray," his mother wondered in surprise, Myriam shrugged sheepishly.

"I haven't been for that long."

"Well we shan't be joining you," his grandmother decided testily, she wasn't too keen on his mother's lycanthropic friend.

"It still seems rather dangerous, Scorpius," his father said more diplomatically, "Just being with those people is going to put a target on our backs."

"There are already targets on our backs!" Scorpius insisted defensively, "The Shadow Master is related to us."

"I think it's too distant of a relation to mean anything," his father decided though Scorpius noticed his grandmother averting her eyes.

"It doesn't matter what you think, Father, it matters what she thinks. And from what I know of her, at some point she's probably going to come after all of us regardless of what you do. Sticking your head in the sand isn't going to work."

"It's worked so far."

"So far her attempts to focus on England were repelled, that's not the case anymore."

"You really think it's safer with them then here?" his mother wondered.

"Yes," Myriam agreed before Scorpius could, "Nowhere is safe from the Shadows but Gray at least has a lot of protective enchantments up and people around."

"We could just put up our own protective enchantments," his father pointed out defensively.

"The Shadow Master already knows where we live so protective enchantments aren't going to do anything," Scorpius stated truthfully.

"We can't just leave our home, Scorpius."

"Why not?" his mother wondered, "If what they said is true it could be better for us, not to mention the fact we'd at least all be together."

"If, Astoria, it's a massive if," his father insisted as he turned to his wife, much to Scorpius' frustration and he found himself feeling suddenly angry, "Expecting this madwoman we've never had contact with to come after us over a thin connection is a pretty big leap, if we're not already on her bad side then putting our family at needless risk by joining the people out to stop her is just going to get us killed."

"A big leap?! She had me kidnapped, did you just forget that?!" Scorpius found himself yelling and a still silence followed as everyone in the room froze, "Because I don't forget, I can never forget. And that was before the Shadow War- that was before anyone had even heard of the Shadows! We're already on her bad side, we've always been on her bad side, the only difference is for once you have the chance to act first while she's preoccupied."

"I think you're just confused, dear," his grandmother decided meekly, "And if anything, the reason we'd be on her bad side is because you insist on getting mixed up with the people opposing her. If Lucius had stayed out of it then maybe… maybe he…"

"You know ignoring something doesn't make it go away, right?" Scorpius told her, frustrated enough already with the pureblood attitude from dealing with Sebastian's so-called family, "Ignoring the war doesn't mean it's not happening anymore then like ignoring a depressed family member doesn't stop them being suicidal-"

"What?!"

"-and ignoring a family member you don't like or approve of because they're not pure enough or whatever doesn't stop them from existing, it doesn't stop them from existing and maybe- just maybe if they weren't shunned in the first place they wouldn't turn into raging psychopaths who want the world to pay!" Scorpius shot out and couldn't help but notice his grandmother flinch at this, it did make him reign himself back as he was on a bit of a tangent here. He sighed, "Maybe if people did what was right instead of what was easy then things wouldn't be so bad. That's not my point though, my point is you shouldn't and can't ignore the war. It won't protect you, it won't protect anyone. Just come with me. Please."

"We can't," his father told him regretfully.

"We can at least talk about it," his mother spoke up, glowering a little in the direction of the other Malfoys.

"There's nothing more on the subject to talk about," his grandmother insisted, "Instead we should talk about Scorpius staying with us instead of Gray, we can just put up protective enchantments and everybody wins."

"No, I'm leaving," Scorpius decided, them preventing him from going back to Gray was the exact thing he'd been afraid of. He also felt like they were done here anyway, he knew they were alive and he could come back later, "I have things to do. Come on, Myriam."

"Oh erm… okay," Myriam said awkwardly as Scorpius had already made to leave.

"You're going already?!" his mother wondered in distress as she made to stop him.

"I can't leave Gray," Scorpius insisted knowing it was true even though he felt bad, "I'll come back."

"You better," she said and hugged him once more, he hugged her tightly back and she dropped her choice to a whisper, "I'll try talk to your father about it, I fear your grandmother is a lost cause though."

"I really think you're in danger, probably you and Sol more than the others," Scorpius whispered back, if his mother came she'd no doubt take Sol and if they were gone he thought the others might be more inclined to go after them, "If you leave go to one of the Ministry shelters, we're allied with them now so they should contact me if anyone shows up there."

"I love you, so much."

"I love you too."

"Please stay, Scorpius," his father pleaded as he pulled away from his mother, his tone sounding very much like he didn't want to beg.

"I'll be back," Scorpius assured him in a firm tone to try conveying the note of finality, more to the point that he was most definitely leaving in order to be able to return later.

"Wait! Don't go away!" Sol cried loudly, barreling back in with an armful of toys and almost tripping over one that fell. Scorpius was momentarily surprised his brother was that concerned with his leaving before he opened his mouth again, "I want that you take these to Lysel so he can see!"

"Sol…" his father said in a chastising tone while his grandmother grabbed him by the arm to stop him running forwards, Sol pouted like a sad puppy. His father sighed, "Okay, only one."

"Yay!" Sol cried happily and his grandmother begrudging released him so he could run forwards – dropping something else from his stack of toys – to get to Myriam, he then promptly dropped them at her feet.

"Sol!" his mother complained, "You didn't have to make a mess!"

"Sorry, sorry, I pick it up in the minute," Sol brushed it aside distractedly as he rooted through the pile of toys, occasionally picking one up then putting it down before finally seeming to settle on a large stuffed three headed dog. He then handed it to Myriam, "This one, this makes me think of Lysel. Tell Lysel I missed him."

"I will," Myriam promised and Sol smile gratefully before running to give Scorpius a quick hug.

"Bye Scor, good of luck at NEWTs!"

"Erm… thanks," Scorpius offered in confusion, realizing both that Sol was out of the loop but also that it made sense because he was three and a lot more sheltered then the same aged Lysel since his home hadn't been overrun by Inferi. Not yet, anyway… He tried to hug his brother back but he had already barreled off to pick up the dropped toys, he supposed that was just how the attention span of toddlers went.

"Take care, Myriam," his mother added pleasantly.

"You too," Myriam countered before following Scorpius out, his family watching regretfully but not trying to stop him. It actually made him feel a lot better about visiting them, the fear of not being able to return to Gray was what tended to stop him most but they seemed to respect his wishes so that was good. He knew the whole meeting could've gone a lot better though.

"I'm sorry," Scorpius offered to Myriam as they meandered through the grounds of his childhood, knowing it must've been awkward for her, "That could've gone better, I erm… I didn't really think all of that through."

"Yeah… I kinda sensed that," Myriam admitted, "If you'd told me beforehand you were going to ask them to come back with us, I probably could've helped."

"Yeah, that kind of dawned on me later," Scorpius agreed as she held out her hand for him to take to be disapparate, he spared one last lingering look at the mansion on the vain hope someone would run out and change their minds. No one came though. He took Myriam's hand and she apparated them back to outside Hogan's, "Maybe Mother will change her mind."

"I'm pretty sure Astoria could come around, it's the other two I'm not sure of and I don't know if she'd leave without Draco."

"Malfoys," Scorpius sighed.

"Sly? Are you awake?" a familiar but unwelcome voice inquired as the door creaked open a crack.

"Of course I'm awake," Sly snapped irritably at the intruder, lifting the cold compress off his head to glare at Milton who was barely recognizable due to how utterly generic he looked, "I came to lie down because I had a headache not to take a nap, weren't you listening to me earlier?"

"I was or I wouldn't be here?" Milton pointed out in confusion, it wasn't hard to confuse his pea-sized brain, "Making sure you were awake just seemed the natural thing to do."

"Nothing natural about anything you do," Sly scoffed as he sat up, rubbing at his head. The pain hadn't subsided as much as he'd like but it had still eased, he'd opted to skip lunch and rest because the canteen would've made it worse and still had afternoon classes to get through. Milton had promised to come get him when lunch ended and it was time for them.

"Does your head feel any better?"

"A little," Sly admitted as he put the compress down and got up, stretching a little as he'd laid curled up, "So did I miss anything?"

"Just lunch?" Milton wondered in more confusion as Sly stood up, he sighed in exasperation and pinched the bridge of his nose. Why was it so hard to find intelligent conversation? Even his mother was capable of such things… when she wasn't high at least, "Why did you just sigh?"

"Because I hate you, Milton, very much," Sly informed him as he followed the older boy out of the small room they had to share, "You see when us actual human beings converse, the implication of the question would be if I missed anything noteworthy that happened to occur in my absence not to state the ridiculously obvious."

"Oh… Well that blind kid you hate but like to talk to was starting to give some strange anti-Soul Eater speech after he got back from being tortured, does that count?"

"Of course that counts!" Sly exclaimed delightedly, "Come on, let's go and heckle him."

"But we have classes."

"And we really don't have time to quickly go and mock him? Come on, Milton, I know you must've left sufficient time."

"Well, I did but I don't think its worth-"

"We've established you can't think so that doesn't matter, come on."

Milton sighed but begrudgingly changed direction as he started leading them to Cyrus, Sly resisted the urge to mock him for being an easily led sheep lest it delay them. After all, Cyrus would no doubt be shut down and get in trouble pretty quickly so they'd have to be quick to have time to heckle him, it was also why he was confident they'd have time to detour before class. He hoped it would be a nice distraction from the remnants of pain pressing against the sides of his skull, Cyrus was such an easy target and such an easily wound up idiot.

"And we should rise up! Against them!" Cyrus' voice could be heard before they saw him, he was actually standing on a side table in the corridor outside the canteen with a small handful of on looking human drones. Unlike usual crowds of onlookers, their expressions were utterly blank and uninterested with most just stopping briefly to glance at him before continuing onto their classes, "You're all child soldiers and we outnumber them, if we could just overpower them we could all get out of here!"

"What are you doing, Akram?" Sly asked smugly of the older boy, "Practicing your dead mother's eulogy?"

"She's not dead, Sly!"

"You know, I've heard denial is the first sign of grief."

"Go away! I'm trying to do something here."

"I'm just saying, there's easier ways to commit suicide then incurring the Shadows' wrath doing… whatever on earth you think you're doing here."

"Trying to encourage people to fight the Shadows, then we can all go home."

"Erm… this is our home?" Milton pointed out in confusion, scratching at his head and Sly instinctively went to tell him to shut up before realizing it just helped prove his point on how stupid this exercise was. The other Training Tower kids looked equally bamboozled, there were a few nods of agreement with Milton.

"Yeah, Akram, you self-centered dick face," Sly also agreed, "Did you forget that most of these kids don't even have homes? You're speaking an alien language to these zombie folk and they lack the creative capacity to grasp the mere concept of a life outside of here, you're not just barking at the wrong tree but it's not even a tree in the first place. I suppose it's natural to mix those up when you're blind but I still feel compelled to tell you that you're an idiot."

"I know they don't have homes but they can get them," Cyrus insisted and Sly actually laughed out loud at his idiocy.

"Do you have any idea what they do with children who don't have families? Any at all?"

"He has a point, Cy, this is what I was trying to tell you," Davin pointed out and Sly realized he was standing near his friend he was just standing on the floor, he was looking a little down, "Most of us don't have a place to go, your society will probably put is in those prisons. We're not like you."

"Nonsense!" Cyrus insisted, "They wouldn't put you in prison, Davin, you're good. You'd just stay with me, my mom would let you live with us."

"Would she really?" Davin questioned dubiously.

"Of course! You're my best friend."

"What about my brothers and sisters? I couldn't be separated with them."

"She'd let them stay too, I'm sure," Cyrus continued though he was sounding a little less sure.

"Don't be ridiculous," Sly scoffed, earning as much of a glare as the blind could give, "Your dead mummy isn't going to let him and his eighty-zillion siblings live with you just because you're friends, that's not how the world works."

"Oh and suppose only you know the world works?"

"Of course I do, I've been there."

"So will they-" Davin started to say.

"Cyrus, what are you doing now?" a strong southern accent spoke up and Sly instinctively glared in Mo's direction as he approached, the 'crowd' – if such a small number could even be classed as such – parting for him, "The Shadows ain't gonna like you causing a ruckus, just get down from there."

"I'm trying to make people see there's another way!" Cyrus reiterated to which Mo raised an eyebrow and looked either side at the dispersing, disinterested crowd.

"Well it don't seem to be working so I reckon you can stop, we all have classes to get to anyway."

"You know, Mo, you're a powerful wizard and you weren't raised here," Cyrus said but nonetheless climbed off the table with a little help from Davin, "You're exactly the kind of person who should and actually could stand against them, don't you want to go home?"

"Our homes are gone, Cyrus, the Shadows won the war already," Mo pointed out seriously as they all started making their way towards classes like the others, "And I'm the last person who can stand against them, I owe them my life. You need to just move on, make the most of this. My offer to help is still open."

"You're wrong."

"So they would put us in prison?" Davin wondered resignedly and Sly realized he was speaking to him.

"They might, it's more likely they'll put in foster care and then you'll wish you were in prison," Sly pointed out bitterly.

"Didn't you say your parents were in prison or something?" Cyrus asked of him with a scowl.

"Yes, I did," Sly confirmed the obvious and dripped more sarcasm into his words, "I truly marvel at your ability to retain this basic information since such other basic information tends to elude you, you know like the Shadows' victory and your mother's timely demise."

"See Davin, don't listen to him," Cyrus told his friend, his teeth gritted now, "He just thinks prison is good because his parents are there, he doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Oh please," Sly gave a derisive snort, "It has nothing to do with my father's wrongful arrest and imprisonment, foster is awful for everyone. Ask Emerald's brother, if he could talk he'd tell you he despised it. Just because you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, it doesn't mean the rest of us were. It's possible for people's lives to suck without the Shadows, as hard as that is for your spoiled rotten brain to comprehend."

"What about my brother?" Emerald asked worriedly but Sly ignored her.

"He's right about that," Mo agreed sadly.

"I'm not spoiled! I know people can have rough lives without the Shadows," Cyrus insisted though it wasn't entirely convincing in Sly's opinion, "But there's nothing worse than the Shadows."

"Of course there's worse than the Shadows, you fucking idiot," Sly spat irritably at the older boy, "They're not the be all and end all of evil, this place right here is so much better then foster care. You don't know how lucky you have it!"

"Being tortured every day is not lucky!"

"Oh, and you think the Shadows are the only ones who torture?"

"Erm... well duh, no one else would hurt kids."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, kid," Mo offered regretfully, "But people do."

"My dad used to hurt us a lot," Emerald pointed out quietly and Cyrus looked legitimately surprised by this, Sly laughed.

"You see, Cyrus?" Sly taunted him, "Outside of your protective bubble, life sucks and it has nothing to do with the Shadows. The Shadows may have harsh techniques but at least we get something out of it, we're learning useful skills and that's more than can be said from outside of here."

"Yeah…" Emerald agreed hesitantly and Mo also inclined his head at this.

"You're just being an ungrateful brat, you have it good here. They're teaching you to be an accomplished wizard instead of treating you like an infant, they only put you through pain to facilitate learning useful techniques instead of degrading you because you don't fit their mold because surprise, surprise the supposed good guys also try to brainwash you! They try to convince you that your father is evil just because he made you smarter and deals some illegal substances, all the while ignoring the fact that intelligence is a positive trait and that maybe if poverty wasn't such an issue then my father wouldn't have had to turn to dealing drugs in the first place! There's also nothing equivalent to muggle rehabilitation in the wizarding world, you know maybe drugs wouldn't be so rampant if they actually made an effort to actually help people get off them!"

"Erm… What are drugs?" Cyrus wondered in confusion.

"They're substances idiots take to make themselves feel better, you fucking moron!" Sly barked at him, frustrated at his ignorance but he was on the tangent train now, "But who cares, right? They don't care about helping anyone from Knockturn, that's the den of evil because obviously humans aren't known for being a nuanced mix of light and dark. You know, the only real difference between their propaganda and the Shadows is that the Shadows are actually right, they are winning the war because they're more competent then the monkeys at the Ministry!"

"I-"

"Because of the Shadows they already have more orphans then they have foster homes available so they either dump kids in strict group homes where they usually put the degenerate kids - so you're stuck with those assholes - or with overcrowded families, naturally they'd rather exacerbate this issue by throwing perfectly good fathers for petty reasons and leaving their kids to their shitty system! They think throwing money at them solves the issue but parents don't really have enough space for all the kids - because rich people are selfish stuck up pricks so naturally only poorer people volunteer – nor do they have the time to properly juggle the little bastards, they don't even do anything to stop your foster brother molesting you!" Sly snapped and quickly panicked as he realized he'd said too much, "I mean, that's what I've heard happened to others. It didn't happen to me personally, clearly."

"I don't even know what that means," Cyrus complained and Sly noticed the others mostly shared the blank expression, except Mo who had given him a sickly sympathetic look. He hated that kid.

"That's because you're stupid and sheltered," Sly scoffed though was secretly relieved, still he would prefer the subject to alter, "Your dead mummy didn't teach you anything."

"She's not dead!"

"Okay, maybe you're right," Sly played along, smirking at the fleeting relief on the blind boy's face, "Maybe instead she just doesn't care."

"She cares, Sly," Cyrus insisted in a growl and actually came to a halt, "You don't know her."

"I know you though and I know your daddy already ditched your dumb ass before you were born, is it really that much of a stretch? You're a self-centered spoiled brat who can't see, you're just a burden on her, on everyone. She doesn't love you, if she's not dead then the fact she never tried to save you just shows that she never really cared."

Cyrus abruptly lashed out with his fist in an attempt to punch him, Mo whipped out his wand faster than Sly could flinch and cast some kind of slow motion spell on him. Milton yanked Sly out of the way and Davin grabbed Cyrus, this seemed to snap him out of the spell and Davin stabilized. Stupid Mo with his stupid cool spells that Sly couldn't do, he could barely do Lumos.

"C'mon, let's not fight," Mo told them in his southern drawl, his tone casual yet somehow commanding. Cyrus glared – in the wrong direction, unless the wall had incurred his wrath – and stalked off, Davin guiding him and muttering something that sounded like 'don't let him get to you.'

"That boy's a savage," Sly scoffed as he brushed Milton's arm off, Mo gave him a firm look.

"Stop provoking him, Sly."

"Or what?"

"Or you'll regret it," Mo told him in a way that didn't sound like a threat.

"Why?"

"Because you're gonna grow up one day, you'll either become a good man and you'll regret being such a dick or you'll stay a dick and good men will make you regret being such a dick."

"Somehow I doubt that," Sly sneered but Mo was already walking away, "That's right, walk away. You know you're wrong."

"Come on, Sly, let's just get you to class," Milton urged him, tugging at his arm a little.

"Fine," Sly sighed and begrudgingly allowed himself to be led by the older boy, he also realized Emerald had walked off at some point so it was just the two of them, "Best not make your robot brain self-destruct for failing to complete your primary objective."

"What's a robot?"

"Shut up, Milton."

Stephan Hunter stepped out of the Shadows as he had a Specter transport him to where his leader was, the ruins of some muggle town. He wasn't sure where, every place looked the same when it was reduced to ruin. It wasn't like he was particularly knowledgeable on the British landscape as it were, his focus had been pouring over maps of South America and the Middle East in preparation for their assault there. He'd go over them with James soon, that way they should be set by the time he'd recovered. He did intend to report to her about that but it wasn't his main reason for coming here.

He looked around, finding himself somewhat high up which he wasn't sure was a natural hill or the amount of rubble piled together just raised it up. He could see bodies littered amongst the ruin and could still hear screams, likely as a result of numerous fires running rampant because Sal didn't seem to be actively aggravating them right now.

Nestled amongst this pile of broken bricks was a massive dragon, its sleek black scales seemed to shine as they reflected the light of the flames. Stephan cautiously made his way around the end of its tail, the spines were as long as swords and probably just as sharp. It was curled up like any other animal so he came face to face with its ferocious head which was almost as tall as he was, its breath came out as a low growl and wisps of smoke left its large nostrils with every exhale. Its eyes were just black holes as it was controlled by a Specter, they blended into the rest of its dark body.

The Shadow Master was sitting casually on its back at the beginning of its tail, lying lazily as if it was a divan instead of a vicious monster. Stephan swallowed as he approached her, he wasn't too fond of being up close and personal with dragons which he was sure was because he found them much harder to control then people. For her it was no issue though, she looked almost bored as she twirled her staff idly which was a replacement to the Scepter of Night, she'd created herself using Herpo's notes.

"Master?" Stephan prompted to alert her to his presence, she didn't look but he was sure she heard, "How goes the conquest?"

"Lousy," Sal complained irritably, waving her staff and he couldn't see what she did – the dragon was in the way – but he heard bursts of screams, "I can't find my son and I can't just obliterate everything until I do, I have to keep checking and I keep not finding him."

"That's unfortunate."

"I'm thinking going to start targeting smaller towns amongst the larger cities, I think it's more likely Brutus would take him there as he knows we need to go after the large targets. There's just so fucking many of them and I need to do it myself because no one else can check for him as easily as I can, I can't think of another way to find Omega though."

"Well, try the smaller targets for a while and see how that goes," Stephan offered encouragingly, "We can throw the issue out there if it doesn't work, see if any of our people have ideas for solutions."

"Yes, nothing much else we can do," Sal agreed with a sigh and she finally looked at him, "So what is it you wanted, Stephan?"

"I'd like to discuss the Ministry."

"The Ministry?" Sal wondered and laughed, actually giving him a smile, "Oh please, they're too busy running around trying to help survivors to do anything remotely threatening, hiding in some kind of bases like cowards. I'm not worried about them."

"They've made an alliance with Gray."

"And? Gray are clearly too busy reeling to do anything, we must've burned them pretty badly to think the Ministry are worth allying with."

"They gave the Ministry information on our spies and a spell to pick up the tainted wands," Stephan pointed out though Sal continued to look uninterested, "All of our people were arrested, and they're being held in New Azkaban prison."

"And? We don't even need information on the Ministry anymore, they're done for. All they're doing is delaying the inevitable."

"We should still save our people, even if they're not useful anymore," Stephan insisted and actually moved a little closer, "It'll boost morale amongst our own people and show the Ministry not to fuck with our people, Aurors guard the prison so it'll take out a chunk of them at once. We have nothing to lose from this and everything to gain, we'd destroy the prison eventually anyway and it's just another city to rule out Omega's location for."

"Hmm… you're not wrong," Sal agreed after a moment's thought, "Very well, we'll prepare the extraction and show the Ministry they never should have built an Azkaban two."