Harry Potter 1. Secrets Looming

**Short Summary**: Our minds are far more haunting enemies than anything the world can throw at us, and it takes a lot to overcome something you can't escape. In sixteen-year-old Lily Potter's case, her mind harbours a dark memory. But how can a barely-conscious meeting with Scorpius Malfoy set forth a chain of events that will heal the wounds of her past, reopen an abandoned murder case and unearth a disturbing new cult unwavering in their desire for wizarding purity?

**Categories**: Romance/Drama/Hurt/Comfort/Action/Adventure... yeah, they didn't fit in the category selector.

**Author's note**: First of all, I apologize for the horribly corny title. I just couldn't think of anything, but hopefully it will change by next chapter. Second, the idea for this story came from a poem about Sylvia Plath, so Lily is a little disturbed at first. Also, I'll just clarify character ages here, I tweaked a little bit. James (19) graduated two years ago, while Albus, Rose and Scorpius (all 17) are in their final year. Lily (16) is in her sixth year.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Harry Potter or any other affiliated trademarks.

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**Chapter One**: Secrets Looming

As luminous celestial bodies burned brightly in the silver-studded carpet of the midnight sky, the faint scratching of a quill was the only disturbance to the peace of the sixth year Gryffindor girl's dormitory. An ebony-haired witch looked upon the parchment of a diary, emerald eyes glazed over as she wrote feverishly, confiding dark secrets the world remained oblivious to.

_Dear diary,_

_At that__ time when I still believed in fairytales, I thought that September 1__st__ would be the day when all my dreams would come true. At ten years old I was foolish enough to believe that on that 'auspicious' day the very next year, all my imaginings of happily ever afters in the wizarding world would suddenly become reality. I had always thought that at the gateway between two worlds, a number of impossible things would no longer be so._

_At sixteen years old I am no longer so foolish. September 1__st__ is no more or less auspicious than any other day. The concept of 'happily ever after' is a construct of senile raconteurs whose talents are no more than that of lying to small, impressionable children. That's what I was when my parents told me those fairytales; an impressionable child. That's what I believed until they were murdered._

_Precisely one year before the day that should have been the happiest in my life, tragedy struck my family. Though I love them dearly, my brothers remain unaware of what I have seen. Six years later, I still allow them to remain innocent of the evils I witnessed. I deprive myself of sleep in the struggle to fight off the nightmares that would surely follow it… on the sixth anniversary of my parents' death I am, as always, alone._

_Lily Potter,_

_September 1__st__._

Wrinkling her nose in distaste at the paragraphs she had scrawled, only half-conscious, Lily Potter resisted the urge to rip up her creation; she was paranoid, as always, that someone would find out about the burden she carried with her, the memory that still haunted her nightmares. That she would be forced to share it with the world, relive the moment she had spent so many years of her life trying to fend off.

Snapping the diary shut, she dug to the bottom of her trunk, burying the incriminating text as though it was a corpse in a freshly-dug grave. Sitting back on her four-poster, the young witch allowed a slight sigh to escape her pale pink lips, scanning the room with darkness adjusted eyes and willing herself to stay awake. _Don't fall asleep… don't fall asleep…_ Lily urged herself. _But there's no harm in getting comfortable, is there?_

Mere minutes later the sixth year succumbed to weariness, a vivid nightmare flooding her mind almost instantaneously; next thing, Lily Potter was on her feet, sleepwalking down the stairs of Gryffindor tower. But in her mind, the scene fared somewhat differently…

_A ten-year-old girl lay in her single-bed, her __dark red hair spilling over the side of her pillow. Something caused her to wake with a start; a pitter-pattering noise of some kind… was that feet on the stairs? Before Lily had time to react, a hallway door was flung open by force and the startled young girl opened her door and ran, confused, into the corridor, to the sight of a dozen cloaked figures and the effervescent fireworks of spells exploding in their house…_

By this time, the sleepwalking girl had reached the girl's bathroom and unconsciously made her way to one of the stalls. But the scene she saw before her was not the lavatory. _**Please… wake up…**_ a voice inside her begged, but she was already captivated, trapped once again in her own mind.

_Lily hunched quietly in the cupboard at the end of the hall, scarcely daring to inhale for fear that they would hear her ragged breathing. She covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming as her mother was flung into the hallway, a mere metre away. _

"_Crucio," growled a cloaked man, whose mere voice sent shivers down her spine. Her parents had told her about this spell, the excruciating pain it caused. That she should never use it, no matter the circumstance. So why would someone hurt her mother like this? Her eyes welled with tears as screams of pure agony rang through the house, in slow-motion as if to prolong the suffering of her mother, and Lily for spectating. Everything seemed to move so quickly from then on, then the green light- _

_Lily screamed._

Wandlight shone dazzlingly a few corridors away, emanating from a young man whose Head Boy badge gleamed silver in the illumination. Scorpius Malfoy had always found patrolling at night a pain; he was constantly irritated from lack of sleep the next day. Unfortunately with power came responsibility, and the ambitious Slytherin was in no position to turn down authority.

His cold grey eyes flickered to the end of the corridor as a noise reached his ears. Was that a scream from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom? It was probably just the inconsolable spectre that had haunted the bathroom since before the days of his father, but then again it sounded like more of a scream than a wail… Plus, something about it seemed so real… it had to be a real person that needed help, not just the silvery imprint of one. Perhaps it was just some kids out of bed, mucking around in the moonlight, but in any case it was his job to find out what was going on and award these defiant students with detention if it were so.

_Her father falling to the ground triggered the scream; __she saw his face, mutilated and disfigured beyond recognition. Though she had been reasonably calm thus far, panic had finally set in. What had just happened? Was this some kind of nightmare? Her mother yelled at her desperately, deep gashes evident on Ginny Potter's pale body as she lay paralysed; still in shock, Lily barely comprehended the word 'run' before a second green light illuminated the room. She looked up to see him - that horrible, malicious face - advance toward her, flanked by two others. Lily dashed down the hallway, wishing her brothers were here to protect her, when she was joined by footsteps on the stairs. As she hardly managed to dodge two scarlet curses, __Lily realized she would never make it to the neighbors in time to save herself._

_Instead of heading for the door, she turned the corner and dived into the cupboard under the stairs; how was she going to keep them out? It was then that she heard curses rebounding off the door. In her panic, had Lily managed to do accidental __magic, like her father had done when he was a child? After a few more minutes the pounding of spells disappeared, as did the sound of voices outside. __Still scared out of her wits, cowering, the ten-year-old was aware that she was now the only living being in the house. Curled up and now crying, Lily remained extremely quiet for what seemed like forever. Until she heard the voice of her uncle Ron…_

As Scorpius stepped into the bathroom, it became apparent to him that it wasn't Moaning Myrtle after all. There was a shadow, a person sobbing in one of the cubicles. With his wand at the ready – for caution's sake only, in case this was some kind of trick – Scorpius stepped warily toward the cubicle.

_She had sealed the door in such a way that Ron had to blast it off its hinges to get to her. As soon as Lily saw that it really was her uncle, she collapsed into his arms in a hysterical fit of tears, unable to speak… _

It was here that the paths of her dream and reality severed. She was not crying inconsolably into the arms of her uncle, unable to tell him – anyone – what she had witnessed that night. Instead, half-asleep and with tears streaming down her pale face, Lily Potter fell not into the arms of her uncle, but the arms of a blonde Slytherin.

Scorpius felt somewhat of a jolt as the redheaded girl practically fell into his arms, wrapping both arms around his shoulders and burying her face in his chest. He was even more shocked as he realised that the girl was Lily Potter, the younger sister of his best friend Albus. He never really talked to Lily; not because he didn't like her, but because she barely talked to anyone, and Scorpius had always got the feeling that similar to her older brother James, the youngest Potter didn't exactly like him. Just as he opened his mouth to ask what the bloody hell was going on, she interjected with the words she had wanted to tell her Uncle in the dream but never been able to muster.

"I saw it, Uncle Ron… I saw them… they trapped them, tortured them and then they – they-"

These words were audible through the sobbing, but they made no sense to Scorpius. What was Lily Potter on about? One strange sensation was certain, though. As Lily buried her head further into his chest, Scorpius had the overpowering urge to stroke her hair, to tell her everything was going to be alright, to make everything better –

_No_. Scorpius said to himself forcefully. It was against the Malfoy image to be so warm and comforting – so why did he have the urge to be now? She was just a silly little girl who was having a night terror. _Instead of wanting to hold her, I should want to slap her for being such a baby_, he thought to himself. Clearing his throat, Scorpius used the coldest voice he could muster. "Potter?"

Scorpius felt a pang of unfamiliar emotion in his stomach as he removed her arms from his shoulders and held her at arms length. She was awake but unresponsive. "Potter… Lily."

At this moment it was as though something had snapped its fingers within her. Lily's eyes were no longer glazed over; they were wide and alert, and they darted around the room with obvious confusion and fear. "Wh- where am I? I was... I was in the house, and..." she whispered, before snapping out of it and realising who was standing in front of her. "Malfoy?" she questioned in her softly-spoken, rarely heard voice. "What happened?"

Scorpius grappled for words. "I... well, I heard a scream coming from the bathroom, so I came to investigate... you must have been sleepwalking or something. You thought I was your uncle... you told me that..." he trailed off, attempting to remember. What had she told him?

_I saw it, Uncle Ron… I saw them… they trapped them, tortured them and then they – they-_

Scorpius frowned. Was she talking about the night of her parents' death?

The tragic story was practically legend throughout wizarding Britain. Nineteen years after the demise of Voldemort, some deranged followers had managed to escape the wizarding fortress of Azkaban and sought revenge on the man who had defeated their master. They had attacked in the night, brutally torturing Harry and Ginny Potter before killing them.

Young Lily Potter, the only one home seeing as her brothers were at Hogwarts, had somehow managed to lock herself in the cupboard under the stairs by way of underage magic. Her Uncle Ron had heard a report about the Dark Mark hovering over the Potter home and came to find the upstairs level decimated, and the mutilated remains of his beloved sister and best friend. However there was a whimpering sound that he decided to investigate, only to find his ten-year-old niece, traumatised by the dying screams of her parents. Or at least that was what was assumed.

But that was where the story ended. While the Death Eaters were caught, some eventually escaped from custody and it was never determined whether these were the ones responsible, and if not, who and where were the true assailants? There were no witnesses to the deaths.

Scorpius replayed these words in his mind a couple of times before comprehension dawned, his eyes growing wide at the realisation. "Merlin... Lily, are you saying...? Did you _see_ it? I thought that no one... you _saw_ it happen, didn't you?"

"Please... _please_ don't tell Albus," she begged him, emerald eyes swimming with emotion. "You can't tell him..."

"But - what? Why? I don't understand - if you saw it, if you tell the authorities you might be able to find out who... and why haven't _you_ told Albus? He'd be beside himself with worry knowing that you knew this all those years..."

"Exactly," said Lily sadly. "If he knew, he'd be so worried... he'd ask me questions, agonise over things, thinking that knowing the truth will bring them back... Please, let him stay innocent of it... let the past stay buried. It can't hurt him if he doesn't know."

"But it's hurting you... wouldn't you feel better if he... if you talked about it?"

"If you'd seen your parents maimed and killed before your eyes, would talking about it help you? Perhaps I could gain a little resolution from it, but at the cost of my brother's happiness? He'd be miserable. Better for me to suffer, than the both of us."

Scorpius understood. He looked into those tortured emerald eyes, and understood. It was destroying her, but she kept it to herself in an act of self-sacrifice. _Gryffindors_, he thought to himself, but he also felt a massive pang of sympathy toward her. No wonder Lily was practically a recluse, after all she had witnessed.

"Scorpius?" she questioned softly, clutching at one of his hands with hers.

"Yes?" he nodded, surprised by the softness of those hands.

"Please don't tell Albus. Promise, promise me you won't tell him," she begged.

Scorpius nodded. Where before he had looked upon her with complete neutrality, he felt he owed Lily a great amount of respect. After all, being Albus' best friend, he knew how much their deaths had affected him, and that knowing this would send him out of his mind with worry. What she was doing was, in his opinion rather stupid, but also very brave. "I promise."

"Thankyou," she replied, letting go of his hand. "I'd better go back to my dormitory and get some sleep."

"Oh, I'll walk you back there... I have to patrol that area anyway, before I can go back to the dungeons."

Lily nodded silently in acquiescence. Thought she wouldn't admit it, she hated the dark, and the thought of having someone to accompany her made Lily feel a great deal safer.

They walked to the portraithole in silence. Scorpius had a million questions for her, but knew it was kinder to keep it to himself; she obviously didn't want to talk about it. Lily felt exhausted, both emotionally and physically, as she reached the portraithole. "Thankyou for walking me back."

"It's the least I can do," Scorpius replied. He stood for a second, just staring, expecting her to say something else, before realising that he had better leave; The Fat Lady awakened and was squinting in the darkness at him. "Well, see you at breakfast."

He turned on his heel and returned to the Slytherin boys' dormitory, quickly undressing and putting on his pyjamas. He got into bed, but spent the night tossing and turning relentlessly. Scorpius couldn't stop thinking of those haunted eyes, infuriated with himself for wanting to get involved in business that was not his. He couldn't quite understand his own odd behaviour; first he had wanted to comfort her, now he was obsessing over ways to help Lily gain closure over the issue. What had gotten into him?

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**Author's Note**: This will be the only chapter with bookend A/N's, I swear. For anyone that read Love Stings, I'll warn you that updates won't be as quick, since LS was almost entirely pre-written. If you want to see my idea of what the characters look like, check out my profile. Aside from that, I really hope you guys like the first chapter, there's a lot more action to come :) Leave a review and tell me what you think!


	2. Trust and Expectations

**Chapter Two**: Trust and Expectations

Scorpius was irritable from lack of sleep when he went to sit at the Gryffindor table with Albus. Sitting across from him was the face he had been unable to erase from his mind; their eyes connected for a second before Lily went back to her breakfast cereal and him to his toast.

"So Lily, spill," said Lucy Weasley, grinning as she sat down next to her slender cousin. Lucy was a fourteen-year-old Hufflepuff and quite the gossip sleuth, much to the irritation of her older cousins, whose business she was constantly involved in. In fact they had a running joke about her becoming the next Rita Skeeter, not that they would tell her that. "What happened last night?"

Lily threw a glance at Scorpius. "I don't know what you mean," she replied nonchalantly.

"I was waiting outside the portrait hole with some friends when the Fat Lady told me some _interesting_ information about you. She said that you returned to the common room rather late last night, with a _boy_ from another house. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Is that so, Lily? Well, out with it. Who is this berk and how would you prefer me to kill him? If you tell me now, I'll make it at painless as possible," teased Albus.

Lily relaxed visibly with the knowledge that Scorpius hadn't told after all. She rolled her eyes at her brother. Mornings were one of the rare times where Lily spoke; aside from that, she kept quiet unless she was spoken to. Perhaps she was happier in the mornings because Lily knew she could look forward to a whole day without nightmares. "You lot have your knickers in a knot for nothing. The Fat Lady must have mistaken someone else for me."

"You can't trick me, Lily, I've done my research. I talked to one of your housemates and she said she woke to find you gone at about midnight. I'll get to the bottom of this, Lils, I promise," said Lucy with a grin; she had just wanted to see if Lily was hiding something, to which the answer was obviously yes. Satisfied with this, she skipped off to meet her friends in the Entrance Hall.

"Who is he then, fess up!" demanded Rose Weasley, who was sitting on her other side, with a grin.

"Not you too…" Lily groaned as Albus snickered in amusement. She sighed, standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. She preferred to avoid confrontation where possible. "I'm going to potions."

Scorpius sprang to his feet. "Wait a second, Lily. I'm going that way, I'll walk with you."

"See if you can get a name out of her, Scorp," Albus called out to him as they disappeared into the Entrance Hall.

"I thought they'd never stop," Lily grumbled.

"Don't worry, I'll find a way to distract Albus from the topic… hopefully he'll forget by the end of today. But about last night… well, I was wondering, is there anything you'd like to talk about?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it must have been hard… er, keeping that all to yourself for all those years. I just thought you might like to talk, since I know now,"

"It's kind of you to offer, but talking about it won't bring them back, or erase what happened… plus, I'm dealing with it just fine," she replied casually, but Scorpius cause a hint of defensiveness.

"It won't bring them back, but at least it can give you some closure. I've been here at Hogwarts since your first day, and I've seen you, Lily. I've heard stories about you running away from classes, bursting into tears in History of Magic. You barely talk to anyone, you've always got bags under your eyes, you're sleepwalking… that doesn't strike me as dealing with it at all. Are you just going to let it plague you for the rest of your life?"

Lily paused, but she didn't turn to look at him, instead staring at the leather-bound book she was holding. Lily dug her nails into it, a warning sign if ever there was one. He had spoken an undeniable truth that she had never wanted to acknowledge. She had ignored this for six years, and in the space of one day he was forcing her to face up to it.

"You've never spoken to me for more than five minutes, and now you think you know what's best for me?" she questioned as coolly as possible, her voice shaking slightly; Scorpius was unsure whether this was with anger or upset. Lily never showed much emotion around those who weren't family, her face was carefully controlled; that he had made her lose this control, worried him.

"No, no, of course not," he replied as softly as possibly, attempting to placate her. "It's just that after six years, you don't seem to be anywhere near dealing with it. I just want to help you,"

"And how exactly do you plan to do that?"

Scorpius frowned. "I don't know… how about… what about you let me see it? I can search for the people involved and you don't have to hear about it from me unless I'm sure I've found the right person. Would you feel better knowing the persons responsible have been brought to justice?"

"Oh, I see what this is," she said quietly. "You want to be the one that solves the famous mystery of the deaths of the Potters so you can fast-track your career as an Auror, that's what this is about."

"What?!" he blurted out, irritated that she would think he would only want to help her for his own personal gain. Then again, her paranoia wasn't completely surprising, and was to be expected after what she had been through. "It has _nothing_ to do with that and everything to do with me trying to _help_ you. If that won't help, then please, tell me how I can,"

"I don't know," replied Lily exasperatedly. "If I knew how to deal with it do you really think I'd be… like this? Whatever's wrong with me, there is no answer to it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be late to potions."

Scorpius sighed as he watched her disappear into the shadows of the dungeons. He couldn't remember being so at a loss before. He couldn't fathom the reason why this was affecting him so; he helped people when they asked for it, but he had never bothered to go out of his way. Now that he had, he had no idea of a possible solution. Frustrated, he headed to the library for his free period to study.

* * *

"Hey Albus. Where's Lily?" Scorpius questioned casually as he sat down across from Albus at lunch, scanning the room to make sure she wasn't sitting with a group of friends at another house table like he tended to do.

"Hmm, you two walk off together after breakfast today and now you're asking where she is… I must tell you Scorpius, I'm getting a little worried here," Albus joked.

Scorpius rolled his eyes, snickering. "I was just asking out of curiosity, not because I want to seduce her or anything."

"To be serious for just a moment, I honestly don't know what to do with her," Albus sighed, the joking nature evaporated. "Her friend Mollie asked me if anything was wrong with her, she walked out of potions halfway through, apparently, crying. It's because of the anniversary of mum and dad's death, that much I'm sure about, but that was six years ago. James and I have managed to move on, but she can't let go… I don't understand it."

Scorpius felt a pang of guilt at this, wondering whether he should tell Albus. He was obviously worried, and had a right to know. But he had promised Lily that he wouldn't tell him. "Er, do you want me to go talk to her? Perhaps she might open up to someone from outside the family," he offered, desperately hoping that his talk with Lily earlier hadn't been the cause of her leaving class early.

Albus shrugged. "Go for your life, if you think you'll be able to help. I already checked the map; she's in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. If you get anything out of her, tell me, alright?"

* * *

"This is the girl's lavatory, you know," said a girl from a younger year on her way out, a cheeky grin on her face and a Ravenclaw crest on her robes. Her companion giggled. Scorpius blushed furiously but did not reply.

Once they left there was silence. Scorpius wondered whether Lily had left the bathroom. "Lily," he called out awkwardly, stopping to listen to the door of the first stall, "Lily, are you in here?"

A door two stalls down a door was slowly unlocked, and Lily stared down the row at him. "Scorpius?" she questioned softly. Realising she had not imagined the voice and was not seeing things, she wiped her puffy eyes and walked past him to the sink to wash her hands. "What are you doing here?"

"Albus was worried about you," he replied. "And… well, I owe you an apology for this morning… It was obvious you didn't want to talk about things, but I pushed you anyway… I didn't mean to upset you."

"It wasn't you. After all, you said it this morning; I burst out into tears all the time don't I," Lily replied, her eyes stinging. Scorpius felt paralysed, mentally hitting himself for his comments, despite his good intentions. He had assumed that his words would have little effect on Lily, and once again he had been proven incorrect by her unpredictable nature. He stood stock-still, his mouth opening and closing like a fish taken out of its bowl; what was he going to say now?

All his plans had been thrown out the window; now he was going to have to play it by ear. Scorpius had never been too good at dealing with the emotions of women, which was clear as he stood dumbstruck. He walked over to her slowly, attempting to think of a reply.

"That's what everyone thinks of me, isn't it?" she questioned, unable to contain her emotions anymore; her shoulders shook with quaking sobs. Scorpius placed a hand gently on her shoulder and felt what was becoming a familiar jolt as she buried her head in his chest, sobbing. After the couple of seconds his mind took to comprehend what was happening, he placed a comforting arm around her, the other one stroking her soft hair. "Just like Peeves says – Loony Lily Potter."

"It's not your fault," Scorpius said gently, finally finding his voice. "You saw something really traumatic, something that can't just be erased from memory… if I was in your position I wouldn't be coping half as well as you are."

* * *

_Scorpius has been gone for quite a while now_, Albus reflected, as he sat at the Gryffindor table eating the crust of his sandwich. _I guess I shouldn't have expected him to be back so soon. He's hopeless with women_, he thought to himself. _In fact, she's probably crying_ more _now._ _Better go see what's happening_…

He walked briskly to the girl's lavatory, nonchalantly saying hi to a few of his classmates as they passed him. When he reached his destination, however, he paused at what he saw from the doorway, then sprang to the side so he was out of sight. He wondered if his glasses were failing him, because surely Scorpius couldn't have been kissing Lily. It looked like it, but Scorpius had told him just this morning that he didn't want to 'seduce her'.

Albus heard their voices, but the echo in the bathroom made it incomprehensible to him; footsteps seemed to be approaching the entrance, so he set off to his next class, Charms, as quickly as possible.

* * *

Scorpius was the last to enter the Charms classroom, and was slightly out of breath as he took a seat behind Albus. "Hey," Scorpius whispered as Professor Traverse begun her lecture. He frowned slightly as he got no reply from Albus, and decided to kick the back of his chair to get his attention. "Hey, Al. Aren't you going to ask about Lily?"

"Yes, I think I will," hissed Albus coldly, as to not draw attention from the teacher. "What exactly were you doing snogging _my sister_?"

"What?" Scorpius blurted, a little more loudly than intended. "I wasn't _snogging_ your sister!"

"Well it sure looked like it to me," Albus replied, not troubling to keep his voice down as he turned around angrily to face Scorpius.

"Excuse me Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy," said Professor Traverse coldly, "I'm very sorry to be interrupting what I'm sure was a _fascinating_ conversation, but you may want to consider paying attention. That is, if you wish to pass your N.E.W.T.S., which, may I add, are becoming ever closer. And Mr Malfoy, as Head Boy you are setting an astonishingly bad example for your fellow students. You can both join me for detention."

Albus, who had been staring Scorpius down, turned back to face the front, leaving Scorpius to stew in questions. What was Albus on about? Had he mistaken his comforting hug for trying to beguile his sister? And if that was the case, why was he so upset about it? He clearly remembered Albus once saying 'I'd rather you than someone else', though he hadn't really thought about that until now. So what was his problem?

* * *

Scorpius tried kicking Albus' chair numerous times that lesson, but to no avail. During their detention all was silent as they scrubbed the desks in the classroom by hand, as Professor Traverse was breathing down their necks.

When they finally were allowed to leave the classroom, Scorpius wasted no time in trying to figure out what was happening. "So, what exactly is going on here, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Nothing, just you lying to me about my sister. I saw you two kissing in the girl's bathroom. Is that why you walked her to potions as well? I should have guessed, you said you were _walking her way_… yeah right, last time I checked, the dungeons and the library were on completely _different_ sides of the castle."

"You got it wrong, mate. She was upset and I was comforting her, not _snogging_ her," Scorpius replied, angry that Albus wouldn't believe him. Even if all signs did point in that direction, his best friend should have believed his honesty.

"Comforting her? I've known you for six years, you're not the comforting type," Albus replied disbelievingly.

"What else was I supposed to do? She burst out crying, was I supposed to tap her on the shoulder and command her to stop? And for the record, _she_ put her arms around me,"

"That's the case, is it? What was she so upset about then?" questioned Albus, his tone no less accusatory.

"I'd tell you, but I promised her not to tell anyone, especially you," said Scorpius truthfully. His tone was even, but inside he was growing increasingly frustrated.

"How convenient," Albus replied sarcastically.

"Get it through your thick head, Al! I'm _not_ dating your sister. Even if I was snogging your sister – which I _wasn't, _and I'm_ not_ – what's the problem? Don't you trust me or something?"

"Well aside from the fact that you lied to me, Lily is a _fragile_ person. If you haven't got it so far, I don't know how to make it more obvious to you other than saying _she has problems_. There's enough on her plate without having a boyfriend to deal with,"

"_Deal with_? I'm your best friend, why do you think I'd be bad for her? Maybe I want to _help_ her. But look, the point is I'm not dating her, so that doesn't even matter. I don't know why I'm even having this conversation with you."

"Good, that means it can end now," said Albus as they entered the Great Hall for dinner.

Scorpius walked to his house table, throwing a couple of murderous glances over his shoulder as he did so, while Albus flounced down angrily next to Lily.

"Hey Albus," she greeted him, considerably more cheery than she had been earlier. Talking to Scorpius had actually made her feel a lot better. He had been positively _sweet_ to her; that was a side of him that she had never before seen, or expected to see. She had decided that perhaps showing him the memory would help, that way she could have someone to talk about it with, someone who understood the horrors of what she had witnessed. However these thoughts were pushed from her mind at the furious look Albus gave her. "What was that look for?"

"When were you planning to tell me, exactly?"

Lily's stomach dropped. He knew. _Scorpius_… _He couldn't have… he wouldn't have_… she thought to herself. After going to all that effort to gain her trust, surely Scorpius wouldn't have told her brother about what he had found out? _He promised…_ "Scorpius told you?" she choked, her eyes already starting to water once more.

"He may as well have. I can't believe it… hey, where are you going? Lily?" Albus watched as his sister rose from her seat and ran from the Great Hall.

Over at the Slytherin table, Scorpius was unaware of the conversation between the siblings. He angrily stabbed at a potato, feeling absolutely livid at Albus. For someone who was supposedly his best friend, Albus sure expected the worst from him. Scorpius felt relieved once dinner was over, he wanted nothing better than to go to his dormitory and sleep right away. He stood up and made his way toward the Entrance Hall. Maybe tomorrow Albus would be more inclined to listen to reason.

However his plans for peace and rest were shattered when Lily walked over to him and slapped him hard on the side of the face, the loud echo gathering the attention of the exiting students. "I can't believe you told him!" Lily yelled.

"What the hell are you on about? I swear, your whole family is stark raving _mad_-"

"Don't pretend, Albus was furious, he said-"

"Wait a second-" Scorpius attempted to interject, aware of the crowd of onlookers.

"No! I trusted you, and you did the one thing I asked you not to!"

"Lily, listen to me," Scorpius said loudly but calmly, gripping both of her arms firmly with his. He was somewhat surprised as she did as he asked. Scorpius lowered his voice, bending down to eye level. "Your brother has it in his head that I've been snogging you, that's what he's talking about. I haven't broken my promise, nor was I planning to."

Lily's green eyes scanned his grey ones, as though she could ascertain the truth from the look in his eyes. Scorpius saw a flicker of realization reflected in them before he dropped her arms and drew himself up to his full height, trying to look unconcerned about the fact that everyone seemed to be watching them. "But thanks for listening to me before jumping to conclusions. I guess it just shows that like everyone else, you expect the worst of me."

Scorpius turned on his heel and began walking toward the dungeons as quickly as he could, willing this day to end. He rubbed his jaw somewhat sorely, wonderful if it was possible for a bone to bruise. At least she hadn't punched him in the eye.

"Scorpius, wait! Please, _wait_ Scorpius," called Lily, chasing after him. She was thankful that he stopped to wait for her, though he crossed his arms defensively as he turned around to lean on the wall.

"What is it, Potter," he replied coolly.

"Look, I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions. I didn't believe you'd do that; it's just that when he said it, I didn't know what else he could have been talking about. I should have listened to you, instead of making a bad day more rotten – for both of us."

Scorpius sighed. "You know, you really need to learn that not everyone is out to get you."

"I know. I'm trying … I'm trying to trust you. But trusting someone isn't as easy as you'd think. People can surprise you, even when you think you've got it all figured out… but you've surprised me in a good way. I'm sorry for assuming the worst; I promise I won't do it again."

Scorpius nodded. "I forgive you. But I'm afraid if I don't get some sleep soon my head is going to explode… are we still on for tomorrow? You know, the memory?"

Lily nodded. "Of course. That is, if you still want to help me after seeing this side of me…"

Scorpius laughed. "Well, if that's the worst you get, I think I can handle it… goodnight."

"'Night, Scorpius."

* * *

**Author's Note**: No luck with finding a better title, but I did change the summary. And as you can see, this Albus is different to my other Albus. He's mixed with James; antagonist and best friend all in one, how is that for multi-tasking?

Anyway, sorry it took me so long to update... I'd love to say I'll be quicker next time, but I just got this MASSIVE essay to do. It's HUGE. So updates may be sporadic for the next month. That being said, I'm not going to give up on this story, so hang in there :)

**Disclaimer**: I own Mollie and Professor Traverse, and some more characters to come... you won't want to steal them, trust me. However, Albus, Lily and Scorpius are all trademarks of JKRowling, who I am not affiliated with in any way, nor am I pretending to be. Therefore, please don't sue me.


	3. Megalomaniac

**Chapter Three**: megalomaniac

_there was never meant to be only one…_

Scorpius was irritated to find that Albus was completely ignoring him throughout classes the next day. But that didn't matter to him at the moment, because Scorpius knew that Lily would probably talk to him and set the record straight, or Albus would have time to think about what Scorpius had said to him. Albus would apologise sheepishly for the way he had reacted, and things would go back to normal.

But for now, there was the consolation that he had managed to borrow his friend Julian's pensieve for the meeting he was to have with Lily after dinner. Helping her would surely get rid of the nagging feeling his conscience had been giving him lately. He could barely concentrate in his classes, and decided to resort to mentally preparing himself for what he could possibly see in Lily's memory. It had to be something significant to have scarred her so severely.

After dinner he slipped away from the crowd easily, moving swiftly toward his destination. He didn't think there was much chance of him getting caught by the teachers, but there was always the possibility Al could gaze at the map and see Scorpius with his little sister, which would make things even worse. Pushing this possibility into the dark recesses of his mind, he continued on, closing the door of the Room of Requirement quietly as he slipped inside. Lily was already there, sitting on a comfortable chair, with an empty chair across from her.

"Hi," she greeted him.

"Hi. Er, are you ready to get started?"

Lily nodded her reply.

A table materialised in front of Scorpius and he gently placed the pensieve there. Lily extracted the silver spindle of memory with her wand and placed it with a flick on the surface of the foggy liquid. "Well, there you are. I just hope you realise that once you see this, there's no way to erase it."

Scorpius nodded. "Are you coming too?"

"I've been seeing this in my dreams for the past six years. I have no desire to see it if I don't need to."

"Oh, yes. Of course… well, er, here goes then." Scorpius leaned over the bowl of silvery fluid, delicately dipping in his index finger, and was drawn in by it almost immediately.

Lily sat quietly once he had vanished, her hands in her lap, looking around the Room of Requirement as she waited for him to return from her memory; she wished something would materialise to occupy her thoughts. Lily wondered what Scorpius would think, what he would say to her after this; would he notice any details that she had missed? What if he did figure out who had killed her parents? She couldn't push the image of herself sitting in a courtroom, face to face with the killer, from her mind. Her emotions were conflicting, one side of her saying that their murderers needed to be bought to justice, while another part of her prayed Scorpius wouldn't see anything.

A few minutes later, he reappeared opposite her with a silver flash. He was red in the face and out of breath, and he sat panting for a couple of seconds before speaking. "Merlin- I ran - down those stairs - after you, and-"

"Stop. Catch your breath, then tell me," replied Lily. "Why don't you have some water or something?"

A glass of water materialised in front of Scorpius, and he mumbled his thanks before drinking deeply from it. A couple of minutes later, he had recovered. "Okay, I've got my breath back now. That was… whoa, I certainly didn't imagine a such an intense scene."

"Did you get a good look at any of them?" she pressed.

Scorpius nodded. "Yes, a few… the man who ki- er, the man who was at the end of the corridor, and a couple more."

"Were any of them Death Eaters from the escape from Azkaban? You know, the ones they showed in the _Prophet?_"

Scorpius shook his head. "No,"

"I never thought so either. But why would the Dark Mark be above our house if it wasn't the Death Eaters? And they were certainly dressed like them," Lily questioned.

Scorpius hesitated, staring at her for a second without saying anything. A thin frown line appeared on his face. He did, in fact, have an idea, it just happened that he really hoped he wasn't correct. There was no way he wanted to explain it to Lily, who was fragile enough without him placing more frightening ideas in her mind.

"What is it? Scorpius, what's wrong. You look worried. Do you…" she paused, her eyes searching his until she came to her conclusion. "You know something, don't you?"

Scorpius sighed at the fact his expression had given him away; there was no way he could sidestep this question. "If I'm correct in my suspicions, well… I don't want to believe it, but…" he began, staring at the floor. He looked up to meet her curious gaze. "I saw something in your memory that I think you may have overlooked… or maybe you saw it, but didn't think anything of it because you didn't know the context. Have you heard anything, even in passing, about the Ekklesia?"

Lily shook her head, bemused. "No, never. What is it?"

"They're a group of people who have values you might equate with the Death Eaters, though their mark is different. The people who killed your parents may have sent up the Dark Mark, but the mark I saw on one of the men's necks, was the hoplon."

Lily frowned, a million questions quickly surfacing in her mind. Who were these people, and what would they have wanted with her father?

"It originates from the wizards of Sparta, I believe… in their society, people without pure Spartan blood were made slaves, and children that were deformed or disabled were… well, to be blunt about it, disposed of. Their shield was called the hoplon, and this new group has appropriated it as their version of the Dark Mark." He explained.

Lily frowned, contemplating what he had said. All of it seemed so surreal, it sounded like something that had come from a myth. "How do you know all this stuff?"

"I overheard some people in my common room… One was showing a friend his mark. He was talking about how Ekklesia have finally managed 'unification'. I think it means their recruitment isn't restricted to Slytherin house… I only thought of them because Albus mentioned something a few years ago… he said that your father was worried, but none of his colleagues were taking them as a serious threat." Scorpius scratched the back of his neck as he paused to think. Why would the Ekklesia want Lily's father dead? After a few minutes of silence between them, with careful pondering on both their parts, Scorpius pieced together the pieces of the puzzle.

"What if… what if sending the dark mark into the air was just a ploy? Think about it… your father was trying to raise awareness to their activities, not to mention being Head of the Auror Department. After timing it to coincide with the Azkaban breakout, they send up the Dark Mark and everyone believes it's the Death Eaters, so there's no investigation... less chance they would be caught. Do you know what this means?"

Lily shook her head. "No… I completely understand what you're saying, it makes perfect sense. But what do you mean by that?"

"I thought they were a fairly new group, but your memory proves that they've been around for at least six years, possibly more. Everyone knows how it started last time. But this time there have been no unexplained deaths or disappearances, nothing…"

Lily nodded slowly in understanding, beginning to see his point. "They're lying low, so they don't draw attention from the Ministry."

"Exactly, and that probably means they're recruiting. What I heard in the common room proves it. And if they've been laying low for the past six years, imagine the amount of followers they could have amassed in that time," he replied.

Lily bit her lip. "But why have they been recruiting _students_? Voldemort did that on a tiny scale, but only in Slytherin… why are they so interested in the students?"

"They've learned, I suppose, from studying the Battle of Hogwarts... We did stuff on it last year in History of Magic, battle tactics, that sort of thing… having students on their side would be a huge advantage. They can spy, report to their leaders, maybe even destroy obstacles in the castle from within. You wouldn't want to believe your classmate or fellow student was part of the Ekklesia, so you would try not to injure them… but if they're as power-hungry and unscrupulous as the Death Eaters, they wouldn't hesitate to kill a fellow student."

Once again a resounding silence befell the room. Independently, they had stumbled on another horrific truth, one that neither wanted to acknowledge; Lily was the first to speak.

"Scorpius?" she questioned, her voice even, but somewhat fearful at the conclusion she, and undoubtedly Scorpius, too, had come to. "Recruiting students wouldn't be necessary unless… unless they were planning to take over the school, would it?"

Scorpius cringed at the very thought of it. "I came to the exact same conclusion. Hogwarts would be extremely useful as a base… if the castle was captured in a siege and the Ekklesia managed to reinforce it, it would be almost impossible for the Ministry to take it back. And they'd have all the students to brainwash into fighting for them, against the Ministry… Not to mention that they've had at least six years to plan the perfect attack. And we don't know when, or even _if_ it's going to happen…"

"Scorpius, we have to tell someone… the Headmaster, anyone," said Lily urgently, standing abruptly from her seat.

"Stop," said Scorpius, grabbing her wrist before she could leave, then gesturing for her to sit down. "We don't know who could be spies, or under the imperius curse. That includes teachers. Imagine if a spy were to hear us, they would tell their leader and bring about an immediate attack. We wouldn't have a chance to prepare."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Lily asked, horrified. "We can't just do _nothing_."

"Of course we can't. But we have to do it _quietly_,"

* * *

"Verity, my love," said the deep, silky voice of Callixtus O'Brien. He stood with an effortless sense of command, his comrades hanging off his every word, enraptured.

"Yes, my Lord?" replied the misleadingly soft voice of Verity O'Brien. Her pale blue eyes connected with the dark eyes of her husband, as always portraying nothing but the utmost innocence, an ability that she prided herself on.

"What guidance do the stars give us? You know what I speak of. Is the time yet upon us?"

"Not yet, my Lord, but it is swiftly approaching. I suspect that within the next two months we will have our opportunity,"

"Excellent, my love, you have done well. Sister, what news?"

"As far as I am concerned there is little awareness within the Auror Department," replied Lexi O'Brien. Easily the shortest of the congregation, her raven-coloured hair was in waves, contrasting starkly with her porcelain skin. There was a hint of eagerness in her dark eyes, betraying her excessive pride. "They believe the Ekklesia to be a student organisation that bears them little threat. As for the impending breakout, they are clueless. The guard will be easily taken care of when the time comes,"

"Good work," he replied, taking his seat at the head of the table. "See that no more light is shed upon us. Use whatever means necessary, so long as you are careful not to expose us. Now, Marise, how are you progressing?"

"I continue to gain new recruits for our forces," began Marise Devereaux. She looked far less certain than her comrades, and seemed to be having difficulty containing the urge to fidget in nervousness. "It is progressing well. But I must confess, my Lord. I continue to feel unsafe about our base of operations. Why do we have no spells, protective charms on the walls of this estate? Surely it would be advantageous. In case of a sudden attack, we would at least have a few minutes' notice."

"We have no protective charms because they are unnecessary," Callixtus snapped. "Let the enemy know that we do not fear their attack. We welcome it with open arms; our wands are the only defence we need. Now, Cassius, my friend. Is the hospital aware of your conduct?"

"No, my Lord," replied the softer voice of Cassius Novak. He had a deceptive innocence about him that was alluring, a shy persona that was ruined only by the palpable self-certainty in his green eyes. "I have been careful to subtly push important patients to brink of death, then claim their lives with a poison that is untraceable by their usual testing methods. I do not believe that any of my colleagues are suspicious, and I have disposed of many important persons who would oppose us."

"Very impressive, Cassius. Let us hope that your progress continues. Now, Adrienne?"

"I have gained more numbers in the student body, my Lord, particularly from Hufflepuff house," began Adrienne Traverse, whose hazel eyes managed to hide the feelings of confidence that had been unrestrained in most of the others. However her vain mannerisms ruined her emotionless appearance. "A fact of great surprise, but I believe they are tired of being undervalued by their peers. I have chosen to target the senior years. They are ambitious, and easy to coerce… they see the Ekklesia as a form of security for their futures, a gateway to power,"

"And I too have progressed in the training of our recruits. They are strong and ready, and will serve us well. Now, all that remains is to continue to progress until the stars tell us we are fit to attack. You are dismissed,"

The assembly nodded curtly at the imposing figure of Callixtus, three of their number disappearing instantly.

"I worry about Ms. Devereaux. She is unfocused and weak, and could well be the link that breaks the chain. What we heard tonight proves that she does not truly believe in our activities,"

"Your implication does not escape me, Lexi. I would take care of her myself, were she not important to this operation. She has gained the trust of her new recruits. If we were to dispose of her we would lose it; we do not want them to think they're expendable,"

"Very well, Verity... you raise a good point, as always." Lexi replied. "But comparable to Adrienne and Cassius, she is nowhere near worthy of sitting at this council,"

"Be patient, sister, I assure you this problem will be dealt with," reassured Callixtus. "Do either of you have doubts about the others?"

Lexi shook her head confidently. "I trust greatly in Adrienne, she has great strength of will and character. As for Cassius, you said it yourself in the past. He may as well be our brother."

"Verity, do the stars tell us to be careful of either?"

"No, my love. They tell me to be careful of someone, but have not yet seem fit to reveal much else to me. It could be Marise, but I have not yet divined whether the person is within or outside the organisation. We must have a keen eye,"

"It goes without saying that we must keep our eyes and ears open. Now, sister, were you not expected at our parents' estate?"

"Yes, I must leave immediately. Send if you should need my aid." She replied with one last, respectful nod.

There was a loud crack and the dark-haired girl had disappeared from the room.

"I do worry about her, Callixtus. Her thirst for power is becoming more obvious; I don't need the stars to see that,"

"She will be of no consequence to us. I know what you are thinking, but naïve as she is, Lexi realises that she will not rise to greatness on her own. Her plan is to overthrow us once we have, and by this time she will be dead. As for Adrienne and Lysander, neither of them have the strength, nor the intention. They are happy at their level, and would prefer a share in the power to absolute authority. We have nothing to fear from them,"

"You have thought of everything, then,"

Callixtus smirked. "Did you ever doubt in my abilities?"

Verity returned his smirk, placing one soft hand on his. "Never."

* * *

Preview (note: NOT for next chapter)

Scorpius saw a jet of light come toward Lily from a third person, which sent him into a fit of rage; this Ekklesia bunch weren't strong at all, they were winning by sheer numbers, dirty tactics and cowardice, and he wasn't going to give up without a fight. Too angry to utter a word, Scorpius ran as hard as he could and barreled into the hooded figure, knocking him over, and began punching him in the stomach. The man was outstretching a hand to his wand, which had fallen to the side of them, but by the time he reached it he was too winded to have any effect; a stream of feeble yellow sparks flew at Scorpius' ear, before Scorpius decided to finish him off with an utterance of 'stupefy'.

XX

There were no boundless plains in front of them, only a wasteland of bloodied fighters. Something about the situation told him that Lily was not the pursuer, but the prey; she was the willingly hunted. He was gaining on her, but she had almost reached the doors.

"Lily, stop! It's a trap, it's a-" _Thump!_

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own the song 'Megalomaniac' by Incubus, it just happened to be the perfect chapter title. I don't own any recognisable characters, they belong to JKR, Warner Bros and co. You may also notice a lot of historical terms, but as history doesn't really _belong_ to anyone... I do however own Mollie Pucey, Callixtus, Lexi and Verity O'Brien, Adrienne Traverse, Cassius Novak and Marise Devereaux; steal them and a painful death will be wrought upon you... or something like that.

**Author's Note**: Well, I'm not quite finished my essay but I felt like I should update with some plot revelations. Speaking of which, I apologise for Scorpius' excessive info-dumps, but unfortunately it's not the type of information they could learn from a library book :S. As for the new characters, what do you think of the six villains? None of them are near the likes of Voldemort when it comes to power, so I decided to compensate by sheer number XD Also, I had an anonymous review to reply to:

gkhkhlfgdg - I like reading Rose/Scorpius, but when it comes to writing I prefer Lily/Scorpius. I just tend to get better ideas for this ship, sorry...

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, tell me what you think in a review, if you please :D


	4. Daunting Possibilities

**Author's Note**: Eep, I broke my bookend promise! But you need to know a bit about the Weasleys, so I don't have to spend a paragraph on it: Hufflepuff: Lucy (4th), Fred (5th) Slytherin: Molly (2nd), Dominique (5th), Gryffindor: Roxanne (3rd), Ravenclaw: Hugo (5th), Louis (3rd).

* * *

**Chapter Four**: Daunting Possibilities

Scorpius had peacefully tucked into his bacon and eggs at the Slytherin table the next day. He was flipping through the news pages of the Daily Prophet when a shadow loomed over him, blocking out his light. He looked up to find that Albus was standing rather awkwardly on the other side of the table.

"Hi," said Albus as Scorpius returned his gaze to the newspaper.

"Hi," Scorpius replied coolly.

"Look, I'm sorry about going off at you the other day," began Albus, taking a seat on the bench across from Scorpius. "If you and Lily are together, it's okay with me. I wasn't angry because I think you'd be a bad boyfriend to her or anything, it's just that I don't think Lily would handle it too well if you broke up. She does strange things sometimes, and has really sudden mood swings… Don't tell her I told you, but I once found her in the astronomy tower, babbling incoherently. I don't know if she was sleepwalking, but she was talking nonsense about some shield, disappearing…" Albus trailed off, looking in the direction of the Gryffindor table, where Lily was sitting with her friend Mollie.

Scorpius' eyes flickered up at this, realising that Albus had found her speaking about the hoplon. He had seen it on the neck of the adversary down the hall in Lily's memory; it disappeared when Lily saw it, so Scorpius had assumed there was some kind of magic that made it invisible to those outside the Ekklesia. Perhaps she had realised it after all, though subconsciously. "I found her sleepwalking too," admitted Scorpius, and Albus turned to face him, "on patrol duty. Remember the boy that Lucy was talking about the other day, the one that was outside the portrait with her? It was me… I was making sure that she got back safely. But I didn't lie to you, Albus. Lily and I aren't together... I really was just trying to help her,"

Albus looked somewhat bemused. "But why? I mean you've never paid much attention to her before. I don't think you know what you're taking on, here,"

Scorpius shrugged. "I guess I never really realised how difficult it must have been for her… I can't imagine seeing my parents dead."

"But she didn't," Albus corrected him; if Scorpius didn't have a naturally pale complexion, the colour would certainly have drained from it at this. He had been so close to giving away Lily's secret, but was relieved that Albus did not seem to have cottoned on. "She didn't see them. Uncle Ron found her in the closet."

"Oh, of course. Forgot," he replied quickly, before Albus had time to question. "But still, she dodged their curses to get to the closet, right? It must have been traumatic… alone in such a small space for hours, knowing your parents were dead, unsure whether the attackers would return… it must have been pure torture. I guess I just… I know that pity is probably the last thing she wants, but I can't help but feel sorry for her. And if I can help her, or comfort her, or whatever… I will."

Albus smirked at Scorpius, causing him to frown in bemusement. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing," replied Albus, wiping the expression from his face instantaneously as he stood up, though it was replaced with a grin. "Just be careful with her, okay? See you in Charms,"

Albus left Scorpius in utter befuddlement, passing by Lily, who was on her way over to the Slytherin table to join Scorpius. "Good morning," she said brightly, taking the seat across from him.

"Morning," he replied, folding up his copy of the Daily Prophet.

Lily looked around to make sure Albus had left, before leaning closer to Scorpius. "Did you tell him about the Ekklesia?" she questioned, her voice low, so as to not be heard by the others at the Slytherin table.

Scorpius shook his head. "I wanted to make sure he's not still angry at me. That, and I'm not sure how we can explain this without telling him about the memory,"

Lily bit her lip nervously. "There must be another way. I mean, you figured out a lot without the memory… maybe we should tell him you overheard everything in your common room, and leave out the part about my parents. Do you think he'd believe that?"

Scorpius nodded slowly. "It's definitely worth trying… but still, just telling Albus isn't going to help in the long term. We need to find out who we can trust, tell them as well,"

Lily frowned. "Well, I know I can trust Mollie, and my family, of course… there are a couple more who I think can be trusted, but how can I tell? Like you said yesterday, _anyone_ could be part of the Ekklesia,"

"How about we come up with a plan, and only tell those we're sure we can trust… as for the others, we'll talk to them about the Ekklesia, so they'll be on their guard if they aren't members. If they _are_ secretly members, they'll know that we know about them, but not that we have any plans,"

Lily sighed. "I suppose you're right. When do you think we should tell them? After we've told Albus?"

Scorpius nodded. "Yes. The sooner they know, the better they can prepare, brush up on their defensive spells and whatnot. And I'm sure Albus will want to be part of the planning process, he's good at that sort of thing,"

Lily took a deep breath, her eyes fixed on the grain of the table. She seemed reluctant to leave, or to look him in the eye; Scorpius didn't know what, but he could tell something was wrong. "Okay… I guess I'll see you then." She replied, leaving him frowning in her wake before he jumped up to run into the Entrance Hall after her.

"Wait a second, Lily. What's wrong?"

She sighed, stopping in her tracks. "You know, I always thought about how thrilling a real battle would be. My brothers and I liked re-enacting the Battle of Hogwarts when we were younger… But now that we really are in danger," Lily looked up, her eyes revealing her fear. "There's no way we can win this. Our home is going to be attacked by a group we know nothing about. We don't know _when_, or how many followers they have. We know that people in our school are part of it, but we don't know who, or how to identify them. Last time they at least had the Order to help them, and they knew who they were fighting, and still, look hw many they lost. We have _nothing_. How are we even going to_ survive_?"

He seized her shoulders, then tilted her chin upward to look into her eyes. "Calm down, Lily. I know it seems impossible, and that the odds are against us. But now we know something is going to happen, we have time to prepare for it."

"But we're just teenagers, Scorpius, what good can we possibly do? I couldn't fight to save my life,"

"Lily, if your magic is as strong as your will is, I have no doubt in your abilities. You doubt in yourself where you don't need to… I heard that you're top of your defence class, and Albus said your dad used to do defence practise with you all. You have nothing to worry about, I promise,"

Lily sighed. "I suppose you're right. I'm sorry for acting like this, the possibilities just worry me is all…"

"Don't be sorry. We all have a lot to lose, it's a completely rational thought process to go through. Don't worry, you'll be fine," he replied, smiling reassuringly at her as he allowed his hands to drop back to his sides. "See you at lunch, okay?"

Lily couldn't fully explain it, but something about the honest conviction in his eyes and gentle but assuring touch on her shoulders made her feel comforted, his rationality allowing her fears to be temporarily forgotten.

Until now, Lily had never realised it, but now saw that Scorpius was the perfect counterbalance to her; when she was gripped by anxiety, he kept his sensibilities about him, calming her frantic wits. He was better a handling her mood swings than any of her friends had ever been. Instead of growing annoyed as her friends sometimes did, or changing the subject as her brother often did, Scorpius reasoned with her kindly, and hadn't lost his patience with her despite hardly knowing her or having any reason in particular to help her. His presence seemed to make it easier to accept and face her fears.

_But he doesn't see me as anything more than his best friend's manic__ little sister_, Lily thought to herself, the feeling of warmth and security fading as quickly as it had come. Pushing this aside, she smiled brightly and nodded at him, before both of them went off to their respective classes.

* * *

"So you're sure about what you heard?"

"Positive, Albus. There's no way I could have misconstrued what he was saying,"

Scorpius, Lily and Albus were sitting on comfortable chintz armchairs in the Room of Requirement that lunchtime. Albus had listened raptly to what they had to tell him, but this did not mean he was pleased to receive such news. "I can't believe it… for the past few years it's been safer than ever. And all this time, the Ekklesia has been carrying out its business under the Ministry's nose. We have to get the message to them somehow, do _something_."

Scorpius nodded. "I think the best thing to do is make a strategy. We can come up with a list of spells, and come up with ideas for tactics… You two have lots of relatives in the Ministry, right? Write to them, let them know what's going on. And we should all get some friends together and tell them about the Ekklesia. Then, the ones that we really trust, we can tell them our plan."

Albus scratched his chin, pensive. "Sounds like a good idea to me. But first we need to make a plan…"

Rather than going to their next classes, the three sat in the Room of Requirement. After a lot of brainstorming, and countless leatherbound tomes had appeared to aid them, they had a blanket plan that could be easily adapted in the heat of battle. Albus and Scorpius both had a keen interest in battle tactics, and by the end felt that they had something rather sophisticated, considering their age. They had even come up with a method of communication involving sets of modified extendable ears, so they could keep in touch from different sides of the castle while with individual squads. Despite a keen interest in it, Lily had very little knowledge of the subject, and instead decided to write a letter to her uncle Ron.

Once they had finished, they decided who would be told the full story and who would not. After the bell signalling the end of classes, they sent a message around to all of the persons concerned. Before long, their friends began to file in, looking slightly bemused at what was happening. There was quite a large congregation; Lily and Albus had told all of their relatives that still attended Hogwarts, which included everyone except for James, Victoire and Teddy.

Albus scanned the crowd to ensure everyone was present; all the Weasleys were surprisingly prompt, which was a stark contrast to what usually happened at Weasley family dinners. Last to join the group were Lysander and Lorcan, friends of the family who were both in Ravenclaw. Lily had invited her friend and fellow Gryffindor, Mollie Pucey, and one of her dorm-mates called Ariadne Twist. Scorpius had invited fellow Slytherin Elias Nott and a Hufflepuff named Pandora Bailey, whereas Albus had invited Alessia and Anneliese Poletti, Gryffindor and Slytherin respectively.

"Right, you lot, quiet down," began Albus. Despite the fact that he was normally anything but serious, Albus was perfectly capable of being an authority figure when he wanted. Not only was he a good public speaker, a trait he inherited from his father, but he was the type person that people tended to gravitate to. "Now, we've invited you all here because we need to tell you something very important. And it's not good, mind you."

At this, a few people looked at each other in bemusement, exchanging glances. A couple looked apprehensive, others frowning.

"Basically, we think there's a group that might be going to attack Hogwarts,"

As they had predicted, this announcement caused an outburst of commotion, in which neither Albus nor Scorpius was able to gain the attention of the formerly captive audience. This lack of decorum continued until the surprisingly commanding voice of Lorcan Scamander called out, "Everyone, be quiet! Let them explain some things, for Merlin's sake! Thanks. So where did you find this out exactly?"

"It was heard in one of the common rooms," replied Albus. He was unwilling to give details about which common room, as he realised that it was liable to start an argument between the congregation of the four houses, which was the last thing they needed at the moment.

"Who said it?" questioned Ariadne curiously.

"We're not exactly sure who at this stage, but it was definitely not misinterpreted," answered Albus.

"If you don't know who said it, how can you be sure that the source was reliable?" asked Anneliese.

"We can't be sure," began Scorpius. "To be honest, we can't be sure of anything. But wouldn't you prefer that you know at least something, rather than be caught by surprise if it were to happen? We're not saying anything other than be on your toes."

"Exactly. And it's really important you don't pass this information on to anyone else, not even your closest friend. Any more questions?" Albus was surprised that no hands were raised; either they understood that there was no information available, or they were too fearful of the answer to any of their possible questions. In any event, Albus continued on. "Right, you can all go now. Except for you, Weasley bunch, we have a family matter to talk about – oh, and Mollie, could you wait too?"

They kept a keen watch as everyone filtered out, ensuring that those that had not been invited did in fact leave. Once they had left, Scorpius cast an imperturbable charm on the door, while Albus conjured the board they had drawn up earlier, to illustrate part of the plan.

"Right everyone, this isn't actually about the family, so you can all relax. No one is sick or dead, or getting married. We know a little bit more than we let on,"

Scorpius nodded in agreement with Albus, finding it necessary to explain a little bit more. "If you're wondering why we're only telling you this it's because anyone could be a spy for the enemy, even the people that just left. We need all of you to be exceedingly careful, and don't reveal to anybody what we're about to say. It is of the utmost importance that you remain constantly vigilant,"

Their younger relatives, specifically Molly and Roxanne, looked positively terrified at this, but Scorpius didn't seem to notice.

"Err, thanks Scorpius. You're all here because we know we can trust you, and because you need more details. Right, so let's start at the beginning. The group we speak of is called the Ekklesia, and they have members in every single house at this school. For all we know they may even be part of the teaching staff."

"Basically they want control of the school, as a part of their plan to control wizarding Britain. We don't know how big they are, who their leaders are, how to identify them, or when they're going to attack,"

"Thanks Scorpius," Albus interjected, before Scorpius could continue to frighten his young cousins, no matter how unintentional it may have been or how true his words were. "Since we don't know much, we've come up with a plan in case it does happen,"

For the next half an hour, they explained the ins and outs of the plan. Louis and Lucy were both rather disappointed that they would probably not be able to participate in the battle if it did happen; to pacify them, Albus eventually agreed that they could find the safest hiding spot possible and jinx any enemies than ran past. Molly and Roxanne, on the other hand, were quite happy with the idea of going to the nearest hiding place and staying there as quietly as possible.

"Are there any other questions?" asked Scorpius as they neared the very end of the meeting.

"I have one," piped up Dominique. "What level of curses should we use if we're attacked? I mean, I know how to use Sectumsempra, but should I use it?"

"Yes," replied Lily; Scorpius and Albus' gazes turned to her immediately, but she was staring rather determinedly at Dominique. Not only was this the first time she had spoken throughout the whole meeting, but this was not the answer they expected. "Use whatever force necessary. If they use deadly force don't hesitate to return-"

"No," interrupted Scorpius, before she had a chance to finish her sentence. He stared directly at Lily while addressing the group. "Even if any of us were capable of deadly force it should _never_ be used, no matter the circumstance,"

"And why not, Scorpius?" questioned Lily, the hard look in her eye indicating that she was not planning to back down; she certainly seemed nothing like the normally quiet, non-confrontational Lily they were all used to. Scorpius couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had always thought that her opinion would be entirely contrary. "Do you really believe that they would show the same mercy? Of course not," she replied, turning back to the group of assembled students. "All is fair in love and war. They will not hesitate to kill you if they get the chance. To them, you're an obstacle, not a person. Use any force necessary."

There was silence for a few minutes, wherein the group looked rather confused, most of all Dominique, who wasn't sure who to listen to. Rose had a grave look on her face, deep frown lines appearing on her forehead. Scorpius was staring at Lily uncomprehendingly, incapable of speech; she avoided his eye. Eventually he looked away, shaking his head in disappointment at the fact that she had managed to surprise him once again, and not in a good way.

"Err, right," said Albus, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "So, um, if there are no more questions, you lot can get back to your dormitories now."

The group stared between the three of them for a couple of seconds, before slowly shuffling out of the door with varying expressions on their faces. Lily's friend Mollie mouthed that she would see her later, before leaving with Rose. After watching everyone leave, Albus turned to see Scorpius staring into space, one leg crossed over the other as he chewed his thumbnail meditatively. Lily was staring straight at her feet, also thinking, it seemed.

"So, er… are we going back to our common rooms now?" asked Albus somewhat nervously at the tension that seemed to have developed. He was just waiting for an argument to erupt.

"You know, I can't believe you," Scorpius said, completely ignoring Albus; he was focused on Lily instead, who looked up from the floor.

"I'm not wrong Scorpius, and you know it," she retorted.

"You think you're _right_? How can anything about killing another human being be _right_? Lily, you of all people… I can't believe it. What about people under the imperious curse? What about people who have been threatened into joining them? Did you even think of how many innocent people could lose their lives if everybody thought this way?"

"The Death Eaters didn't care about innocent people getting killed, and I'm sure the Ekklesia don't either," Lily replied stubbornly.

"And neither do _you_, obviously. Sometimes fighting with honour and mercy is the only thing that separates us from Death Eaters, or the Ekklesia. Surely you see that if that's your belief, you're no better than _them_,"

"Because your family know all about honour," she snapped coldly.

"That was a cheap shot, Lily," he replied coolly. "I'm not even going to dignify it with an answer, because we both know you're still wrong. If you won't listen to me, then think of this. Your own father refused to use the killing curse, even against the man who is arguably the most dangerous wizard of all time. What would your father say if he heard you talking now?"

They stared at each other, neither relinquishing eye contact, but Lily remained silent. Albus didn't know what to do, even if he did want to interrupt their heated argument and risk being forced to take sides.

"Exactly," said Scorpius when there was no reply. Lily looked briefly at Albus, perhaps hoping for a defence, but there were no words from him, just a grave look. Without another word or even a look at Scorpius, she left the room.

Albus ran a hand through his messy black hair, a sigh escaping his lips. "Merlin, I never would have thought that she would think that way… I told you she has problems."

"No matter what I do, no matter what distinction I make from myself and my family, it always, _always_ comes back to them," said Scorpius quietly. "Why must I be condemned for _their_ sins?"

"Don't worry about it, mate, no one thinks of you that way. Lily just… she digs her heels in and defends herself to the death, even when she's wrong. When she knows she's losing she resorts to childish insults… I think a part of her just never grew up. See, this is why I was worried about you dating her."

"Well, you don't need to worry about that. If that's what she really believes, there's no way I could ever, _ever_ love your sister."

* * *

"I find it hard to believe what I am hearing. Would you kindly explain it to me again, in case I have mistaken you?"

"Certainly, Professor. Albus and Lily Potter, along with Scorpius Malfoy, called a meeting today to warn a select few about a possible attack on Hogwarts."

Adrienne Traverse scratched her chin, pondering how she was going to handle this situation, and how her superiors would take this news. "How did they find out? Did they appear to know much about the Ekklesia?"

"No, ma'am, they seemed to know very little at all, aside from the fact that there are members in all houses. They said nothing about the mark, or even our name. Apparently they heard about it in one of the common rooms, but didn't say which one, or even who heard it. They kept a few people behind after the meeting, which struck me as odd. I tried to listen in, but there was an imperturbable charm on the door."

"That is, indeed, very odd… did they appear to have intentions of telling anyone?"

"No, Professor. In fact they wanted us to tell no one, even best friends."

"Hmm… this is extremely vexing, and must be dealt with as soon as possible. Thankyou for this valuable information, the O'Briens will be pleased. I will ensure that they are told of your achievement. You may leave."

"Thankyou, ma'am."

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I'm feeling lazy, so please refer to the previous chapter if you're desperate to read it (which, somehow I doubt you will be).

**Author's Note**: I've handed in my massive essay, so here's an update! Unfortunately, since there are only four months until my last high school exams (ever!), updates are going to be an extremely rare and sporadic thing for a while. Sorry :( It just means the story will take longer to finish, but I will finish it.

Anyway, it looks like one of our trio has invested their trust in the wrong person(s) :p But whose lapse in judgement was it, and who is not what they would appear? You'll find out in the battle scene, which is not all too far away…


	5. Reconciliation

Albus paused as he entered the mostly-deserted common room. Perhaps Lily hadn't gone her dormitory yet, in which case he could try to make sense of what had just happened between her and Scorpius in the Room of Requirement. While scanning the round the predominantly scarlet room for her, he glanced over at the fireplace and spotted her sitting in one of the comfortable armchairs, her eyes glazed over in thought as she watched the flickering embers dance.

Frowning, Albus decided that confronting her about what she had said now would be better than leaving it until later. When he sat down next to her, there was no reaction from Lily, no acknowledgement whatsoever; over the years he had observed her behaviour, often pondering the reason, and it was not unusual for Lily to be unresponsive to her surroundings as she was at the moment. Truthfully, despite being concerned about her, neither he nor anyone in their family had any real idea of how to deal with Lily's problems. Very little was known about the cause of her instability, since she communicated so little and shied away from questions wherever possible. But in this instance, Albus wanted to understand her motivation; why did Lily think it acceptable to kill another human being?

After a minute or so of sitting next to her, his presence continued to escape her notice; he wondered whether Lily really hadn't noticed him yet, or whether she was just ignoring him. "Hey," Albus said finally, hoping that she wasn't angry at him for not backing her up in the Room of Requirement.

Lily turned her head slowly, blinking and stifling a yawn. Albus noticed there were bags under her eyes. Perhaps she wasn't sleeping, as seemed to be common for her at this time of the year; if it was re-adjusting to school, or whether it had to do with the deaths of their parents, he didn't know. "Oh, hi. I didn't see you there."

"Are you alright? You looked tired," he commented.

"Yeah, I've just been thinking…"

"About what you said to Scorpius?" he questioned, but instantly wished he hadn't; Albus had planned to ease into that subject rather than blurting it out immediately. If you wanted to speak about something Lily didn't want to, you had to bring up a subject subtly, or you risked her becoming cross and leaving, or evading the question entirely. But in this instance, Albus was surprised by her reaction, or lackthereof.

"Yeah… did he say anything to you?"

"I think you can guess how he reacted. It was a low blow, Lily; I never would have expected something like that to come from you. You can't blame Scorpius for what his family did," replied Albus. Lily pursed her lips, her eyes looking rather glassy, but she didn't say anything. "Have you been sleeping lately? You've got bags under your eyes… I don't know if you've realised it, but you act like a completely different person when you're like this. And not in a good way, either,"

"I'm sorry," Lily said quietly, bowing her head low to hide her eyes in a dark red curtain; Albus could tell that she was close to tears. He felt a surge of guilt at this; it wasn't his intention to reprimand her, but in her mind it must have sounded like it. Lily looked even more fragile than usual. "Scorpius hates me now, doesn't he?"

"Scorpius couldn't hate anyone, and if he were to hate someone I think it would be anyone but you. But… you didn't mean it, did you? What you said about using whatever force necessary?"

She shook her head lightly. "No. I… I guess I just thought of the people who killed mum and dad, and… well, you understand that, right? But I didn't think of people who aren't participating willingly, or were tricked… I wasn't thinking clearly. I'll apologize in the morning."

"Good. I'm so glad you've realised that," he replied, smiling in relief. "In the meantime, Lily, I don't want to sound like I'm lecturing you, but you really should go to bed."

"I know…" she paused to yawn again. "I'm exhausted. See you at breakfast,"

"Bye."

* * *

Next morning Albus got up early to ensure that he could meet with Scorpius before Lily got there. Scorpius had seemed pretty upset at her the night before, and Albus wanted to make sure that Scorpius wasn't going to be too hard on her. As predicted, Scorpius was awake bright and early, sitting at the Slytherin table with a copy of the Daily Prophet and a plateful of bacon and eggs. "Hey Albus," he said as his dark-haired friend took the seat across from him. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, perfect. But speaking of sleeping, I need to talk to you about Lily… I spoke to her last night about what she said in the Room of Requirement, and she said she didn't really mean it. I think she's just not herself because she hasn't been sleeping lately," Albus replied, grabbing a piece of toast and smearing it with marmalade.

Scorpius nodded. "I thought about it before I went to bed last night, and I suppose I can't blame her for what she said. I mean I'm not happy about what she said about _me_, but that little comment aside, her stance is understandable. But I still don't agree with it,"

Albus nodded as he finished his first slice of toast, relieved at the fact that Scorpius wasn't still angry at her; he didn't know how Lily felt about Scorpius, but he knew that she would be upset if they had another screaming match.

"You say you think it's because she's not sleeping? Wait a minute… I think I have an idea." Scorpius stood up suddenly, knocking his plate onto the floor, though he didn't seem to notice. "Thanks Albus, I have to go. I'll talk to you later,"

Albus stared in bemusement after his friend as he made his way in the direction of the dungeons, before shrugging and returning to his toast.

* * *

Lily had found neither her brother nor Scorpius in the Great Hall at breakfast. Scorpius was an early riser, she had noticed, so perhaps he had already eaten and left, and Albus tended to wake up after her. Her appetite had deserted her, so instead of staying for breakfast she decided to go seek out Scorpius in his common room. As she carefully navigated the labyrinth of corridors, she hoped there would be a Slytherin leaving the common room, someone who could go inside and tell Scorpius that she needed to speak to him.

However, this didn't turn out to be necessary. As she paused to wait near the hidden door of the blank stone wall in the hopes that someone would soon leave the common room, it opened to reveal the exact person she was searching for.

Scorpius looked up from the glutinous, unpleasant looking burnt sienna-coloured substance in the vial he was holding. He paused awkwardly at who he saw; he had been just about to go looking for Lily, as until now he had forgotten that they hadn't yet made up after the argument they had had. But now it resurfaced and he wasn't entirely sure what to say to her.

"Before you say anything, I came here to apologise for what happened yesterday. I can hardly believe I even said such a thing… the mistakes of your relatives have nothing to do with you, and I know that… I only said that because I knew I was wrong. I was losing the argument and I didn't want to admit it, so I resorted to insulting you… and I don't really think we should use deadly force, I just… I wasn't really thinking about the consequences, at all. I'm sorry, Scorpius,"

"I forgive you,"

Lily frowned; the look in his eyes seemed to suggest otherwise. She got the feeling that he was deliberately censoring himself, that he had something to say but didn't want to upset the delicate balance of their reconciliation. "Are you sure? Please, Scorpius… it's all well and good for you to say that, but if you're going to resent me because of it then it counts for nothing. You have something to say, I know it. You may as well say it now, rather than have it create problems later."

"It's alright, truly. Well, of course it's not _alright_, but I'm used to it… I've been hearing it all my life. I suppose I just never expected to hear it from you," Scorpius admitted, a hint of disappointment in his eyes that made Lily feel more remorse than heated words ever could have. "But I suppose you keep finding ways to surprise me, Lily. I forget that you're not like every other girl… you're damn sight less predictable, for a start."

"Is that an insult or a compliment?" she asked, though Scorpius' good-humoured expression as he looked at her made Lily smile.

"I wouldn't say that… it was more of a statement," he laughed. "Oh, before I forget… I made this for you," Scorpius held up the vial he had been holding for her.

Lily wrinkled her nose as she eyed the putrid-looking substance. "Poison?"

Scorpius laughed again. "Poison? I think you're a little paranoid there. It's dreamless sleeping potion – Albus told me you were having trouble sleeping, and I remembered your nightmares. I can't believe I didn't think of it before, actually. And I know it looks putrid, but I assure you it's absolutely tasteless."

"Oh… thanks," replied Lily, genuinely lost for words; no one had ever pinpointed her nightmares as one of her greatest problems, let alone come up with such a simple but infallible solution. And the fact that he had made this for her prior to any apology made the gesture all the more heart-warming. "That was really thoughtful of you, Scorpius... I can't believe it, no one else has ever… Thank you." She couldn't help throwing her arms around him and squeezing him tightly in thanks. Scorpius was beginning to get used to the feeling this gave him, this time the sensation felt warm rather than strange and slightly unwelcome like it had the first time she had surprised him.

"That's alright," he replied nonchalantly, though his cheeks were slightly redder than before. "But enough of that. Did you get a reply for the letter you sent to your uncle?"

"Oh, yes, this morning," she replied, remembering the owl that she had sent prior to the meeting the previous day. "I haven't opened it yet, I wanted to wait for you and Albus."

"In that case, let's go find him,"

* * *

Ten minutes later the three of them were sitting on a divan together in the Room of Requirement, a place they adopted out of convenience as a sort of headquarters.

"WHAT? Is he mad? I can't believe what I'm reading," exclaimed Scorpius. "How can he not want to know anything about it?"

Scorpius reread the messy scrawl, in case he had somehow managed to misinterpret the meaning of it; he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

_Dear Lily, _

_I appreciate your correspondence, but please do not send any further communication on the matter._

_Love,_

_Your Uncle Ron_

Albus frowned to himself as he too reread the reply, until a realisation came upon him. "Hold on a minute, Scorpius, I don't think we're reading this right. Uncle Ron would never ignore something serious like this. And surely he would have heard something similar from dad before we contacted him,"

"Albus, what are you trying to say?" questioned Lily, unsure of his meaning at present, but quite sure there was some kind of point he was trying to convey.

"In the past, owl post leaving the castle has been intercepted, correct? He's telling us not to send him anything else because the Ministry _does_ know about the Ekklesia, but he doesn't want the Ekklesia to _know_ they know… do you follow me?"

Scorpius nodded slowly in reply. "I suppose I follow you… I really hope that is the case, because if not, we could be losing a valuable ally."

"No, I think Albus is reading it right. Uncle Ron would never ignore something like this, he knows we wouldn't lie… but I suppose since we can't ask him ourselves, we're just going to have to have faith that he knows."

Scorpius nodded. "Alright. All the same, I'll rest easier if we have some kind of precaution, something to give us a few minutes notice when the Ekklesia enter the grounds… like a Supersensory Charm, that way we can get organised straight away. As it stands, we won't know anything until we start hearing jinxes, or one of us happens to glance at the map."

Lily nodded, observing Albus scratching his chin in thought. "That's a good idea, but how can we do it?" she questioned, coming up rather short on ideas.

"Well, maybe we can create a modified Supersensory Charm or something… I remember Dad mentioning that my namesake made up his own spells, why can't we at least modify one that already exists?" suggested Albus hopefully.

"How about we figure out a way to link the charm to the Marauders' Map? After all, it sees everyone who's in the castle. We could somehow make it sound an alarm when people who aren't in the school grounds right at this moment try to enter,"

"That's brilliant, Lily," replied Scorpius. "But we'd have to make sure the alarm is only audible to us. Otherwise, imagine the commotion if some screeching alarm went off suddenly, for no apparent reason."

Albus nodded slowly, feeling somewhat frustrated; they knew exactly what they needed to do, but were completely lost for ideas about how they were going to accomplish it. "Well, you know what? I've got no clue. How about we go talk to Rose, she's good at this type of stuff."

Lily and Scorpius nodded in agreement, all three of them silently ascending from the divan and leaving the Room of Requirement as swiftly and quietly as possible.

* * *

"My love," Verity called through the dead silence of the old, abandoned manor; the sound echoed through the entrance hall. It was a fairly dimly lit area, and the lack of anything stirring in response to her voice made the witch wonder whether her husband had not gone for a walk outside the property. But it was much too dark and cold outside for a leisurely walk, and it was not long before she received a response.

"In the study, love,"

Verity swept from the entrance hall to the library at once, finding the dark-haired man engrossed in a tome entitled _Dark Personalities Throughout the Ages: Angra Mainyu._

"Callixtus, the stars bring us grave news,"

Callixtus shut the book immediately, alerted by the severe tone of her voice. "Tell me what you know."

"They inform me that unless we attack within the next few days, our advantage will be lost. Perhaps we have somehow been found out?"

"But how could that be so? We've guarded the secret of our existence jealously, unless one of our recruits or lieutenants have made a mistake and not felt obliged to tell us. Do the stars tell us anything else?"

Verity shook her head gravely. "I'm afraid not, my love. They give us guidance and advice, but rarely reveal why things must be done."

"In that case, we must make haste in assembling the troops. Everyone knows their role in the plan, and we must execute it immediately."

Verity baulked in shock. "Immediately? But my lord, surely it would be better to wait until the second day, we can better organise our lieutenan-"

"No, my love, I think it best we strike immediately. For a while I've believed the time was drawing near, and now the stars have confirmed it for me. I grow impatient. Never fear, for what reason do the stars have to lead us astray, and have they failed us before?"

"I suppose not," Verity replied, though still slightly insecure about the idea.

"My thoughts exactly; and with that it is settled. We attack tonight."

* * *

Previews

"'Oh'? Why 'oh?'," asked Lily, fright evident in her eyes; she knew something was wrong, other than having chosen the wrong friends, but wasn't quite sure what.

The look of fear in her eyes sent a shiver down his spine; Scorpius never wanted to see that look again. He looked at her with sorrow, silently reprimanding himself; Albus had entrusted him with her protection, and they had already been captured by the enemy. _What a great bodyguard I was_, he thought to himself bitterly. Scorpius sighed. "Traverse is one of them."

* * *

**Disclaimer:** Check the previous chapter.

**Author's Note**: I had a bit of a creative block while writing this chapter, but I promise the next two are better, due to some major events. Scorpius finally accepts his feelings, but is it possible he's too late to tell her? Leave a review and tell me what you think :)


	6. Betrayal

**A/N:** For optimum shock potential, reread last chapter's meeting invitees before reading this chapter. Names should give you a clue (hint, hint)

**Chapter Six**_:_ Betrayal

Dinner that night hadn't turned out to be as somber as Scorpius had expected it to be. He had doubt that even Rose would be able to help them invent – or even modify – such a simple charm into something so complex. But she had come through for them with flying colours, and in the process restored some hope into everyone, who silently felt that they were in way over their heads.

But after the charm had worked they became much more cheerful, and rather than dwelling on the fact that this meal, or the next, could quite possibly be their last, they finally dared to think that perhaps they had a chance after all. In light of this, Scorpius decided to come and have dinner with the Gryffindors, which was unusual for him; he usually spent breakfast and lunch with Albus, but dinner, being a more formal meal, was always passed with his housemates.

There was raucous laughter throughout the feast from their side of the table, and in general the inhabitants of the castle seemed to be in high spirits. When the feast was over, a vast majority of students went out into the grounds, as the weather was a great deal more pleasant than it normally was at this time of night.

Without need for conference, they headed near the lake and flopped down on the grass, sighing happily in relaxation as a cool breeze caressed their pale faces.

"You know, Hogwarts looks so beautiful on nights like this," Lily commented peacefully; Scorpius observed the full moon reflected in her emerald eyes, the way the light played off those pale lips and the shadow that covered half of her face as the grounds began to darken. His stomach did an odd flip-flop as she turned to face him, obviously having noticed he had been staring. He cleared his throat, casually turning his head toward the lake and scratching the back of his neck.

"Hard to believe anyone would-"

Scorpius was about to say '_hard to believe anyone would want to attack it'_, but he was interrupted by the eruption of a high-pitched whistling that began simultaneously in each of their ears; the alarm. Looking at each other in horror, Albus searched frantically for the map, only to find what seemed like hundreds of black dots appearing in Hogsmeade at once; all four of them leapt to action at once.

"Everyone ready?" asked Albus gravely, to which everyone nodded.

"Wait, the extendables!" Lily exclaimed, reminding them of the pairs of Extendable Ears they had modified to use as a form of battlefield communication. They summoned and distributed them evenly, each attaching one to their ear and placing a couple of spares in their pockets so they could hand them out to people who wanted to help lead the squads.

"I just need to talk to Scorpius for a sec," commented Albus, pulling Scorpius over to the side, the girls eying them quizzically. "Scorpius, slight change in plans. I know everything was already organized, but I want Rose to come with me and Lily to go with you,"

"What? No, Albus, she's going with you-"

"No, listen to me, we have no time to argue. She has to go with you,"

"Why? Albus, if something happened to her when I'm supposed to be looking after her, you'll never be able to forgive me. _I'll_ never be able to forgive me. Rose, however, I won't have to worry about," Scorpius hissed in return.

"Lily can protect herself too. Look, I've tried so many times to help her, but you've got through to her more in one week than I have my entire life,"

"Come on!" yelled Rose impatiently from where the girls were standing.

"What's that got to do with this?" Scorpius questioned angrily, exasperated that they were wasting valuable time.

Albus kept his face blank, replying in a tone as calm as Scorpius' was angry. "It means you're better at protecting her than I ever was. _That's_ why she has to go with you."

Scorpius relented at this, not willing to argue the matter any further when time was a precious commodity they had far too little of. He turned on his heel and joined the girls. "Lily, you're coming with me and Rose is going to go with Albus."

Both girls looked somewhat confused, but they nodded in compliance nonetheless.

"Now, we'll go see if anyone in our year wants to help, thank goodness everyone is out on the lawns…" said Albus, scanning the area quickly to see who they could ask first, chief among them being Mollie and the other friends that had been invited to the meeting. "You and Scorpius go tell Headmaster Cresswell so he can make an announcement."

Everyone nodded at this, then went their separate ways, Albus and Rose to separate groups on the lawn while Scorpius began to run full pelt with Lily following swiftly and wordlessly. In no time they had reached the staircase leading to the Headmaster's office; usually it needed a password, but it was already open. Scorpius didn't like the look of this; had the Ekklesia already got to the Headmaster? He took the steps two steps at a time, stopping dead as he reached the doorway.

"Lily, could guard the bottom of the staircase?" he questioned casually, keeping any emotion that came to him when he saw the terrible sight, out of his voice. He knew full well that no Ekklesia member would be coming back here, because their task had already been done, and Scorpius didn't want Lily to see the result. She had stared death in the eyes far too many times already.

There the Headmaster sat slumped over his desk; it only took one look for Scorpius to tell that he wasn't just unconscious. Walking forward a couple of steps for closer inspection, he observed the horrible disfigurement of Cresswell's face. It was clearly not done by a spell, but a potion of a complexity Scorpius wouldn't have dared attempt. He bent over, only to see a pool of blood on the book the Professor had been reading. His death had been caused by massive blood loss, the spell _Sectumsempra_, not the potion; perhaps that had been their grim calling card, a warning of their ghastly intentions and abilities. Shaking his head gravely, he went to the entrance and closed the door solemnly behind him.

Lily looked up at him with an inquiring look. "Well?"

"We're on our own."

Lily nodded gravely. "Albus," she said into her extendables. He must have replied, because she continued speaking into it. "The Headmaster is dead, what should we do? Okay, we'll meet you out there in a minute."

When she had finished speaking into the extendable, she turned to Scorpius. "Albus is going to make an announcement," she explained, his voice ringing throughout the castle as she finished her sentence. "Come one, we've got to get the Great Hall," she said urgently, heading off again.

"Let's go over the plan again, shall we? They're going to brace the doors and throw a whole heap of Instant Darkness Powder and Decoy Detonators outside to confuse the Ekklesia and keep them out of the castle for as long as possible. Albus, Rose and most of the staff are going to stay outside with squads to hide on either side of the entrance doors, hopefully surround them and keep them out for a while – flank them, as you and Albus said," Lily paused for a second to catch her breath. When she caught it, Scorpius nodded that she was correct and they continued.

"Wait – Albus is talking in my ear. What, Albus? Alright, I suppose we haven't got a choice," Lily spoke, obviously not to him. "Okay, I'll tell him now. Okay, Scorpius, a lot of the fourth years are going to hide around the castle and jinx anyone in non-school robes who runs past. Your friend Elias and my friend Mollie are each going to lead groups to protect other entrances. Professor Traverse is locking the first through to third years in their common rooms, then she's going to come and meet the remaining staff so we can all organize the people inside the Hall who want to fight."

"Wait, did you say the fourth years? They shouldn't be allowed to set foot anywhere _near_ this battle, even if they are only hiding. I suppose they're letting the fifth years _fight_," Scorpius said, mostly to himself, frowning in concern; it was only the start of the year. The fifth years only had four years of experience under their belts, which in his opinion, was not nearly enough; not even the sixth years should have been allowed, according to him, but unfortunately that was not his decision.

"Lily, wait a second," he said, stopping. He took off his cloak to hand to her. "I want you to have this."

"Thanks, Scorpius, but I'm not cold," Lily replied, slightly bewildered at why he was offering her his clothing at a time like this.

"No, it's not that, it's a shield cloak. I told Albus I'd protect you, and by Merlin I will. I know you want to protest, Lily, I can see it in your eyes, but this is non-negotiable. Just do it," said Scorpius firmly.

"Fine, I'll wear it, but what about you?" Lily questioned, concerned.

He held up his hands and flexed them. "Shield gloves, a new prototype your Uncle was testing. He gave me and Albus both a pair. The cloak's a prototype too, they should work against stronger curses than the old ones. But _only_ if hit the curse hits the material, so if you don't have time to fire a shield make sure it does. Doesn't work on the Unforgivables, though, so be careful, okay?"

Lily nodded, smiling ever so slightly at the concern he quite obviously held for her; she hadn't noticed it before. Was it possible that he didn't think of her as his best friends' manic little sister after all? "I'll be careful. We better get going."

They took the last staircase two, three steps at a time and found a large group of people congregating in the centre of the Hall. Everyone was either looking downward or getting on tiptoes to see what was in the centre. As they joined the group, Lily tapped someone on the shoulder. "What's going on?"

"It's Professor Savage. A flash of light came from somewhere and she just dropped unconscious, and-"

Before the student could finish his sentence, a jet of gold sparks was issued into the air and numerous stunning charms were fired simultaneously into the crowd; one hit Lily's cloak and rebounded, protecting the both of them. Scorpius whirled around, realizing that he had to get Lily out of the circle. _I don't understand… how could this happen when the Ekklesia aren't even inside the school yet?_

As they stepped backward to the sight of several unconscious students and their frantic friends, he realised on his own. "It was a diversion! They wanted to round us up… Lily, we were right, some of the students are with them. They're in the Ekklesia!" At this, numerous duels erupted as the students in the crowd realised that the attackers were not only within the castle, but within the student body.

"Very good, Malfoy. If only your judgment, and that of your friend, had been so sound earlier," said a malicious, condescending voice. Scorpius didn't recognize the voice, but Lily froze momentarily in realisation. She looked at him for a second, before they both turned around to look at their adversary, who had her arms crossed and a satisfied smirk on her face. Ariadne Twist.

"Ariadne?" exclaimed Lily in shock. "But, I thought that –"

"You thought incorrect, I'm afraid. But don't worry, you're not the only one," replied Ariadne, stepping to the side to deal another emotional blow, this time to Lily's white-blond companion.

"Pandora? But I don't understand-"

"And I was under the mistaken impression you were intelligent. Apparently there are a lot of mistaken impressions going around at the moment," Pandora Bailey replied coolly, looking thoroughly pleased with herself for hiding her true nature. "Now, in saying that, I have no delusions about either of you wishing to join us, so I'm afraid we'll have to kill you."

"Now girls, I'll have none of that,"

Scorpius felt relief seep through him as they were joined by a familiar voice. "Professor Traverse! These girls are part of the Ekklesi-" Scorpius began, stopping when he felt a sharp prod in the back of his neck. "Oh."

"Yes, 'oh'," replied Traverse; Scorpius could practically feel the glee radiating from her.

"'Oh'? Why 'oh?'," asked Lily, fright evident in her eyes; she knew something was wrong, other than having chosen the wrong friends, but wasn't quite sure what.

The look of fear in her eyes sent a shiver down his spine; Scorpius never wanted to see that look again. He looked at her with sorrow, silently reprimanding himself; Albus had entrusted him with her protection, and they had been captured by the enemy before the battle even started. Now they were both going to die, before either had the chance to do any good. _What a great bodyguard I was_, he thought to himself bitterly. Scorpius sighed. "Traverse is one of them."

"Clever boy, though not clever enough, I'm afraid. Now, girls, we have to unblock that door as soon as possible, which means making short work of these two troublemakers. Bailey, Twist, take Potter. I'll take care of the Head Boy here."

Lily and Scorpius exchanged dark glances, nodding good luck to each other as they prepared to duel.

Scorpius wasted no time in taking the offensive as he directed his wand at Traverse and yelled, "_Sectumsempra!"_

With a smirk, Traverse yelled, "_Protego_!" causing the spell to bounce off the shield and hit the roof above their heads. "Well, well, well, what's this I see? Trying to cut me in half, Malfoy? I wouldn't expect such spells to come from you… impressive," said Traverse, sneering, "but not quite good enough. _Everte Statum_!"

Scorpius was flung into the wall behind him. Thankfully not that far, because with longer distances came more momentum and bigger risk of injury. "_Expelliarmus_!" he yelled, though the spell went slightly wide as he struggled to regain balance.

"Not exactly your day, is it?" jeered Traverse with a look of satisfaction. "_Crucio_!"

Scorpius jumped to the side and the spell hit the stone wall, wasting no time replying to the Professor's jeers. "_Levicorpus_!"

This time she was caught by surprise; she flew up into the air, shrieking as she did. Scorpius smirked, having found her weakness; quite obviously, she was afraid of heights. When she landed, he took advantage of her disorientation and cast the impediment jinx. He took this moment to look over his shoulder to see how Lily was faring in her battle, smiling as he saw her handling them quite well; she was clearly in her element.

Traverse had recovered far quicker than he had anticipated; rather than being on the ground as he had expected, she was on her feet with her wand directed at him. "_Sectumsempra_!"

"_Protego_!" he yelled. He barely had time to cast the spell, but the shield had appeared just in time, forcing Traverse to dive to the side to avoid it; Scorpius grinned at the look of surprise on her face at his quick reaction. He smirked as he turned to see Lily still dueling the two fellow students without breaking a sweat or coming anywhere close to being hit.

But the bottom of his stomach dropped in horror as a flash of green light from Pandora soared toward Lily's left ear, missing her by a mere inch; before it had all felt dreamlike, like he had been sailing through the viscous fluid of a pensieve rather than living this surreal event. But that green light snapped him right out of his stupor; either, or both of them, could die tonight. Scorpius couldn't, and wouldn't let that happen. With that thought now seared into his mind, he placed aside his fear and redoubled his efforts, directing his surge of emotion into a stunning charm that finally toppled Traverse.

Scorpius saw a jet of light come toward Lily from a third person, which sent him into a fit of rage; judging by what he had seen thus far, this Ekklesia bunch were nothing special, and if they were to win it would only be by sheer numbers, dirty tactics and cowardice. Despite the gravity of the situation and the ruthlessness of their attackers, no one was going to give up without a fight. Too angry to utter a word, Scorpius ran as hard as he could and barreled into the third hooded figure, knocking him over, and began punching him in the stomach. The boy was outstretching a hand to his wand, which had fallen to the side of them, but by the time he reached it he was too winded to have any effect; a stream of feeble yellow 

sparks flew at Scorpius' ear, before Scorpius decided to finish him off with an utterance of '_stupefy_'.

He searched for another challenger, staring across the hall before a flicker of movement caught his peripheral vision; the doors to the Entrance Hall had finally been removed of their barricade. A black-hooded crowd was entering, and walking at the front was a familiar face; the last time he had seen it, it had seemed a mere apparition. While it seemed in full physical form, if he had reached out to touch it then, it would have slipped through his hands, but not this time; opposite him stood Harry and Ginny Potter's murderer.

"Lily!" he called, turning around to alert her to the mysterious man's presence; something about him was foreboding. He had an air of authoritarianism that made Scorpius certain that this man was the leader of the Ekklesia. He did not like the idea of dueling him alone, but maybe together he and Lily could make a plan to capture him. To his horror, Lily did not hear his yell, for she was already running full pelt at the smirking figure against which she would surely have no chance. The man was retreating slowly out the doors of the Great Hall as his followers began mingling and dueling the inhabitants of the castle.

"Lily!" he called again, immediately giving chase. Lily was focused on one thing alone, like a merciless lion chasing an antelope across the wild savannah. But there were no boundless plains in front of them, only a wasteland of bloodied fighters. Something about the situation told him that Lily was not the pursuer, but the prey; she was the willingly hunted. The doors were slowly closing of their own accord; he was gaining on her, but she had almost reached the doors-

"Lily, stop! It's a trap, it's a-" _Thump! _

As soon as she exited the hall, the doors swung rapidly shut and made a sound suspiciously like they were locked, behind her. _Uh-oh_, she thought to herself, _Perhaps I should have waited for Scorpius_. She listened for the two squads who were supposed to be guarding the Entrance doors, however she could only hear shouts from a slight distance away, around the corner; the squads had unwittingly been drawn away from the entrance by the Ekklesia.

"If it isn't loony little Lily Potter," came a voice from the darkness. Callixtus stepped forward, into the light of torch brackets burning with Gubraithian fire the Ekklesia had conjured to combat the Instant Darkness Powder. "I hoped I'd be seeing you and your pestilent brothers here tonight, but this is quite good enough. You can join your parents, and I can take care of their only witness, assuming you haven't told anyone else. It would be a shame for me to have to kill them, too."

"So you came here just to kill me?" she asked, her knuckles white as she grasped her wand tightly, ready to strike at a moment's notice. His tone was businesslike, and she doubted he was going to waste too much time talking; she had to be poised.

A booming laugh came from Callixtus, amusement dancing in his eyes. "My dear, you value yourself far too much," he replied, any trace of amusement evaporating as he paused. "You're here only out of convenience. This is more of a 'two birds, one stone' deal. Tonight I take Hogwarts _and_ get rid of the Potter brats… or at least one of them. I figure if anyone is likely to be troublesome, it would be the children of Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived, only to die again. He was a troublesome man. He knew something was going on right off the bat… always looking over the shoulder of our inside woman, didn't trust her from the start..."

"He was a wise man, wiser than _you'll_ ever live to be, assuming you do live. But you already know that… after all, you had to surprise him in his sleep with a whole group of people to defeat him. How do you expect to lead your fighters to victory when you can't even stand up against your greatest threat alone, and _awake_, let alone in a fair fight?"

Callixtus laughed coldly, not hint of remorse in his voice. "My dear, have you not yet learned that _life_ is not fair? It is a cruel lesson that we all must learn. And you learn yours today. _Crucio_!"

The doors had swung shut just in time for Scorpius to crash straight into them, knocking the wind out of him. Scorpius gasped for breath, pounding on the doors with a clenched fist. '_Alohamora_', he rasped, but he could barely breathe, let alone cast a spell. He looked desperately around the Hall for someone to help him, but he could barely see for the swirling mass of people and the brightly coloured spells rocketing around, as though they were at some sinister kind of dance. Finally, out of the chaos he noticed Albus, emerging from a corridor, with two or three members of his squad and Rose.

Although he was steadily gaining his breath, he knew they wouldn't be able to hear him if he yelled, and in his moment of panic he had forgotten all about the extendables. Instead, he non-verbally cast loud pink fireworks into the air, the gigantic crack managing to garner attention from Rose, who he waved to emphatically. By the time they had sprinted across the Hall, he had got his voice back. "It's Lily," he explained frantically, "she followed the leader into a trap, the doors swung shut before I could reach them." Now that they were here, perhaps there would be a fighting chance to help Lily; he knew that every second she was alone with the man, her chances of coming out unhurt decreased. He just prayed that they weren't too late…

* * *

Lily had to spin to the side quite rapidly to dodge the curse hurtling toward her, almost losing her balance in the process. Pointing her wand at the attacker, and cried, "_Petrificus Totalus_!"

"_Protego_," Callixtus called out, the spell bouncing off his shield. "Is that the best you can throw at me? If that's the only kind of spell you know, you're going to be child's play to defeat,"

"I don't know what child you're talking out, but I certainly refuse to be beaten by you. _Everte Statum! Conjunctiva_!"

Callixtus sidestepped the first curse and ducked the second. "You sure fight like one, you haven't yet come close to hitting me with a decent curse," he jeered, his sneering face as cold and hard as his tone. "Tell me, you're not actually planning to leave these grounds alive tonight, are you?"

Lily decided to ignore his taunting and just focus on fighting as hard as she could. "Stupefy! Impedimenta! Diffindo!"

Callixtus laughed in his deep, booming voice, a smile of victory on his face as he ducked the first curse. He was clearly about to stop and resume his jeering, but his arrogance came at a price; the second curse hit him square in the chest as he straightened up. His inability to move quickly caused the third spell to hit, a small but deep cut appearing on his right cheek. However he unfroze momentarily, the smirk returning to his features. "I haven't fired a single curse on you and you're already losing. How pathetic,"

Lily was growing increasingly frustrated with her lack of success; he was dodging and deflecting all of her curses, and if this was the standard of his defence, she wanted to make sure he was disarmed before he decided to go on the offence. "_Oppungo_!"

Callixtus didn't even flinch as a flock of birds began flying toward him, chirping noisily with obvious aggressiveness. He calmly directed his wand at them and cried, "_Incendio_!"

Lily had to duck to avoid being singed as the inferno came toward her, cursing herself for not thinking to cast the flame-freezing charm; all her birds had disappeared when they were engulfed in the flames. Lily was beginning to feel hopeless; nothing had worked so far and all the more complex jinxes she had learned about from her father had vanished from her mind under the pressure. "Stupef-"

"_Expelliarmus_!" bellowed Callixtus, Lily's wand flying over her shoulder before she had a chance to cast a defensive spell. _Now I have no way of getting out of this_, she thought to herself hopelessly, a lump rising in her throat. _I wanted to avenge my parents, and now I'll be joining them instead. They'd be so disappointed in me…_ The back of her eyes pricked, but she was not going to give Callixtus the satisfaction of letting him see her cry. She would face her death nobly, just as her father had done so many years ago.

"Lily, Lily, Lily, I'm so very disappointed in you. I expected so much more. But I'm afraid I have no more time to waste. I have to go and direct my army, you understand. Farewell, Lily Potter. _Avada_-'

* * *

Preview:

"People like _me_? Look at you! You're just some nutter in a mask trying to kill a few _teenagers_, yet you call _me_ pathetic?"

--

Scorpius ran straight to Lily, dropping to his knees next to her, hoping it wasn't too late. _Oh god, I'm too late. She's gone, she's dead_, he thought to himself. Scorpius held her still, pale form to his rapid-beating heart, gently kissing her forehead. Scorpius tried to hold back the tears that were forming, but he couldn't seem to control himself. "I'm so sorry, Lily. I thought I could - but I wasn't good enough - to protect… I'm so sorry Lily… I - I love you."

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything you recognise. Ask for permission if you want to use anyone you don't recognise, though I doubt you'd want to.

**Author's Note**: Perhaps the poll was wrong about this story being a good idea. If no one's reading it there's not much of an incentive to keep going... if I can improve anything please tell me. Otherwise, if people aren't enjoying it, I'll just discontinue the fic...


	7. One Battle Ended

'- _Kedavra_.'

Lily stared her death in the eyes. Her outward demeanour was calm, but she had never been this petrified in her entire, soon-to-end life. Even seeing his face repeatedly was not enough to prepare her for coming up against her parents' murderer. Now, she too was going to die at the hand of Callixtus O'Brien. Now she wondered whether their deaths been agonizingly slow, like the moments before hers were, or was it over in a flash?

However when the green jet of light had not struck her after the two fatal words had been uttered, she realized that something was wrong. Why wasn't she dead?

Callixtus' dark eyes suddenly grew blank. She watched, mystified, as the tall figure toppled over, his lifeless face inches from her feet. She stared at him, bewildered, her eyes unseeing of her surroundings; where had the curse come from? Her mind raced to find a solution. It had certainly not come from behind her, and the two of them were the only people in the vicinity. Had the curse come from behind him, from the forest?

Her eyes travelled upward, to meet those of her friend, her savior. A slender figure towered over her, a heel dug into the back of the dead enemy sprawled before them.

"So this is the daughter of Harry Potter? I expected so much more than you… pathetic. I thought you were a Gryffindor, and a strong witch at that, not some sniveling, cowardly little girl. Oh, the world will be a better place when people like you are eradicated."

Any relief, any joy at being alive had evaporated after the words of the condescending female voice. If this woman was not a friend, then why had she killed Lily's enemy? But Lily bit back her fears and laughed coldly out of irony. "People like _me_? Look at you! You're just some nutter in a mask trying to kill a few _teenagers_, yet you call _me_ pathetic?"

"I wouldn't be so dismissive if I were you. After all, I just saved your life, and I'm infinitely superior in magic. Not only that, but you don't even have your wand, little witch. I wouldn't be calling me pathetic, when I'm the one who's going to walk away from this alive."

Lily's expression conceded nothing, but inside she realised that the woman was right; Lily wasn't sure she could hold a candle to her when it came to a wand fight. Rather than taking her chances, Lily picked herself and did the only thing she could think of – tackled her. This bony little witch whose name she did not know didn't stand a chance against her in a physical fight.

"GET OFF ME!" shrieked Lexi at the top of her lungs.

Lily fixed her arms around Lexi's neck, trying hopelessly to squeeze the consciousness from her.

Everything started becoming foggy for Lexi as she began to lose sight of the world around her. Unable to talk, she struggled, making faint sounds as her eyes became red and began to water. After a bit more struggling she managed to kick Lily off her. She kicked Lily in the stomach, causing her to gasp in pain. She stood up and trampled as hard as she could on Lily's right hand, presumably her wand hand, and felt the bones break with a sickening crunch on impact.

Right about now, Lily knew she was in huge trouble. Half the fingers in her wand hand had been broken, meaning that it would be impossible to throw punches, and now Lexi was standing up, about to retrieve her wand from wherever it had landed when Lily tackled her. Instinctively, Lily's legs lashed out and Lexi fell over backwards, on top of Lily, who pushed her off.

Lexi landed face first and hard on the cold ground, she felt her nose break upon the harsh impact. _That little... she's gonna get it now!_ thought Lexi furiously, reaching out in front of her to get her wand.

Lily sat up quickly and dived forward, restraining Lexi by pinning her arm behind her back.

Lexi cried in pain as Lily held her arm back, her eyes watering. If she pulled her arm any further it would break and become useless to her. Desperately, she threw out her left hand and managed to feel around for her wand. "_Sectumsempra_!"

The spell hit its target and Lily's calf began to bleed profusely; luckily for Lily, the weakness in Lexi's arm had meant her Sectumsempra curse was not at full strength, otherwise Lily would have been dead in a matter of minutes. But it still had the desired effect, and with a cry of pain, Lily let go of Lexi's arm. Lexi pushed herself up, her right arm weak. "_Everte Statum! Crucio_!"

Lily flew up against a tree, her head hitting the wood quite hard but not quite enough to knock her out. As the Cruciatus curse hit her, Lily felt waves of pain course through her, searing her every nerve to the core, as though she was encapsulated in ice so cold it burned.

Smirking in cruel satisfaction, Lexi flicked her wand upward and the curse was removed.

Lily, not wishing to experience that again any time soon, reached immediately forward where she had spied her wand, directing it at Lexi and yelling a desperate incantation which ripped Lexi's achillies tendon.

After letting out another yell of pain, Lexi bent over immediately, gripping her ankle in pain. Blood began to pour from it, and the immense pain made her powerless to stop it.

Lily got up, exhausted, her face pale and set, but inside she was smiling - she had won. Lexi couldn't do anything now, as the pain was unbearable and she appeared unable to move her right leg any more. Lily drew herself up to her full height, preparing to cast a curse to knock Lexi out.

Lexi's uninhibited leg flew out desperately to prevent herself from being knocked out. Unprepared for the blow, Lily fell over forward, hitting her head hard on the cold earth. Lexi sat back against a tree, panting as relief coursed through her body - Lily had been knocked out.

* * *

"Okay, it's organized then, Scorpius goes after Lily while Rose and I keep giving orders to the others," said Albus quickly, after what was possibly the shortest argument he and Rose had ever had.

"Alright everyone, stand back," Rose cried reluctantly to their party, moving everyone back a large number of paces before directing her wand at the hinges. "_Roteggia_!"

With this the hinges groaned, and one of the giant doors fell down almost instantaneously with an echoing thump. For a second, Scorpius stared in bewilderment; the spell had rusted them to the point where they had almost disintegrated. But he wasted no more time observing.

* * *

_I didn't expect her to be that aggressive,_ Lexi thought to herself. _Perhaps I underestimated her._ She leaned against the tree and used it for balance, finding a way to rise on one foot. _Oh well, it matters no longer._ "Avada!-"

Scorpius ran out the door, surprising the adversary standing before him. He looked in horror at the still figure of Lily on the ground to the one that stood over her, and immediately raised his wand. "_STUPEFY_!" he bellowed. Unprepared for the newcomer, Lexi toppled over, unconscious.

Scorpius ran straight to Lily, dropping to his knees next to her, hoping it wasn't too late. _Oh god, I'm too late. She's gone, she's dead_, he thought to himself. Scorpius held her still, pale form to his rapid-beating heart, gently kissing her forehead. Scorpius tried to hold back the tears that were forming, but he couldn't seem to control himself. "I'm so sorry, Lily. I thought I could… but I wasn't good enough - to protect… I'm so sorry Lily… I love you." Scorpius hadn't wept in years, but the sight of her body broke his heart; Albus had told him to take her with him, to protect him, and now the complete opposite had happened and it was entirely his fault. He had only just begun realising how he felt about her, and now she was gone. He could barely handle such a thought.

_No, stop it. She's not dead, she can't be. Think logically, Scorpius_. _Pulse_! In his panic, Scorpius had forgotten to check for breathing or a pulse. Scorpius checked her pulse immediately; while it was weak, he was relieved to find that she was still alive. A smile lit his face in hope. First, he checked her breathing, which was shallow but not of great concern. Secondly, observed the pool of blood that had come from her calf, which was still bleeding, and cast a couple of simple healing charms, then ripped off the bottom of his robes to staunch the bleeding.

Then he searched for any other injuries that could be cured on the spot; he found that the fingers of her wand hand were broken and bleeding, but he didn't know how to fix that. _I just hope she has no internal injuries_, he thought to himself gravely.

While Lily was still alive, she still wasn't out of the woods just yet. If Scorpius couldn't get her to the hospital for a blood replenishment potion in time, the outcome would be no different to what he had first thought. In his panic he didn't think of conjuring up a stretcher. Carrying her would be difficult enough in a normal situation; the fact that they were in the middle of a war only exacerbated things. He went through the collapsed door, noticing that a large amount of Ekklesia reinforcements had entered the castle through some other entrance, but they weren't the only newcomers to the fight. The sight that greeted him brought a smile to Scorpius' face despite the seriousness of Lily's condition.

The anti-apparation charm on the castle must have been removed, because appearing in great numbers and converging on the hall from several entrances, were Aurors, Hit-wizards and other assorted Ministry workers. _Brilliant_, he thought to himself, _a diversion_. This would make it a great deal easier to get Lily to safety while their adversaries were distracted by the surge of people.

Scorpius managed to get to a set of stairs unnoticed. Once he went up it he could no longer hear the battle below, aside from some faint echoes from close to the staircase. It struck him as odd that there were no battles on this level, or indeed, as he found when he ascended another staircase, the next. Apparently the Great Hall and Entrance Hall were the epicentres, and presumably the grounds of Hogwarts too; this was good, as it meant that the Ekklesia were being contained. Perhaps he had overestimated their numbers? While they were still in the danger zone, they could win if the Ekklesia didn't have more reinforcements were on the way.

He adjusted his hold on the unconscious Lily to prevent her from slipping, then went up the last staircase quickly as he possibly could without losing his grip. He heard a commotion coming from the Hospital Wing, which from the doorway looked extremely crowded; they had not only been joined by Ministry workers, but by St. Mungo's workers too. Scorpius rushed to the open door, where he was attended to immediately by a blue-eyed witch with silvery blonde hair.

"Please, help. She was - in a fight - with one of their leaders. Her calf is sliced - and her fingers are broken," he panted, ignoring the frantic and chaotic nature of the environment surrounding him. Scorpius swallowed and regained his breath a bit. "I didn't see the fight so I'm not sure, but she could have internal injuries too."

"Lily," whispered the witch in a low voice that Scorpius missed, giving Lily a once-over before directing Scorpius to set her on a nearby bed.

"She is going to be alright, isn't she?" questioned Scorpius, terrified by the pallid colour of her face that perhaps he had been too slow. He took her hand in his and surveyed her, his eyes not leaving her face.

"If I work quickly. Once I get her to take a blood replenishment potion and make sure there isn't anything wrong internally, she should be alright. But we'll have to keep her under a dreamless sleep potion in observation for a couple of days," replied the witch.

Scorpius kissed Lily's hand gently, missing the smile that flickered across the Healers' face at this. _Thank goodness_, he thought to himself, waves of relief coursing over him. He hadn't been good enough to protect her, but he had got her to the Hospital Wing in time, and for that, he was grateful. Scorpius stood silent for a few seconds stroking her hair with one hand while the other held her cold, pale hand.

"Of course, it would be just like her to go straight for the most dangerous person here," commented the witch.

Snapped from his stupor, Scorpius reluctantly tore his eyes from Lily and looked in curiosity at the Healer. Something about the facial structure and the light dusting of freckles on her cheeks looked familiar, though he was unsure why. "You know her?"

"I'm Victoire Weasley. She's my cousin."

"Oh, er…" Scorpius regretfully let go of Lily's hand. He knew how protective the family was of her; after all, initially Albus had been furious at the idea of them dating, and he was his best friend. And plus, being a Malfoy meant he didn't have the greatest reputation, let alone being accepted in the Weasley clan.

"Don't stop on my account," Victoire said with a knowing smile.

Scorpius smiled back lightly, before turning around to look at Lily as Victoire got to work checking vitals and consulting with another Healer to obtain a potion, but Scorpius wasn't paying attention to that. At the moment, Lily was the only thing in the world that mattered.

But now that he knew she was safe, another thought came to his mind; his friends, the battle raging downstairs that he had temporarily forgotten. Scorpius tore his eyes once more from her pale visage and turned to Victoire. "I better go and help downstairs… er, listen, if I don't come back-"

"I have no doubt that you'll return," replied Victoire. "But if by chance you should not, I'll take good care of her."

Scorpius nodded gratefully, looking at Lily one last time before he turned and dashed down the corridor, down the three staircases as quickly as possible.

The fight for Lily was over, another was just about to begin.

* * *

**Diclaimer**: You recognise, I don't own. You don't recognise, I own. Don't sue me JKR )

**Author's Note**: Yes, Lily is alive and quite safe, but I hope last chapter's preview gave you a couple of seconds of anxiety :p And of course, Scorpius isn't out of the woods yet. And what will happen when Lily wakes up? Just because Scorpius has realised his feelings doesn't mean everything will fall into place...

However, I regret to inform you that this story is going on a hiatus. In one month exactly I will begin my final exams, and if I don't do well I can't go to uni (or 'college'), so I'll be studying. But when I've finished I'll have plenty of time to write.

In the meantime, please leave a little review telling me what you think of the chapter/story!


	8. Triumvirate

**Chapter Eight:** Triumvirate

Scorpius re-emerged into the chaos of the Great Hall with renewed energy and hope. Things had looked up greatly; Lily was safe, they were no longer on their own, and upon brief inspection the Ekklesia's numbers seemed to have dwindled. Of course the bodies of students and Ministry workers littered the floor alongside their enemies, but it did not look as though Hogwarts would be taken, at least not today.

Scorpius started toward the doors of the Entrance Hall, about to go in search of familiar faces, or at least one in particular. If he was lucky, she would still be unconscious on the grounds. But if this were not the case, Scorpius felt sure he would be able to recognise the woman when he saw her again. No combatant contested his path as he left the Hall, out into the darkness of the Hogwarts grounds.

He was greeted by total silence, all the troops having gone to the other side of the grounds or back into the castle. A slight breeze caressed his cheeks as he made his way over to the exact spot where he had found them. Scorpius cursed loudly when he found the area to be completely deserted, aside from the blood on the ground which was barely visible in the darkness as the moon moved behind a cloud. _Damn, the dark-haired woman was revived… I wonder who she was anyway, _he pondered to himself_._

Scorpius ignited the tip of his wand and bent down to observe the blood; there were two pools, not one, as he had first suspected. _Lily must have put up a good fight, then. I should have known,_ he thought with a smile. He was just about to re-enter the castle when the light from his wand fell on something in the periphery, something he had not noticed before. Was that a person's shoe?

He went toward the body cautiously, until he realised he had nothing to fear, no one waiting to spring to their feet and curse him; he was looking at a deadman. Scorpius took another step forward and placed the beam on the man's face, recognising it immediately. It was the man that had killed Lily's parents, the one that had haunted her dreams for so long; his face was frozen in a confident smirk, which told Scorpius that the man certainly hadn't expected what had come next.

_But surely Lily didn't… she wouldn't have killed him, would she? Did she fight both of them at once?_ Scorpius thought to himself, wondering if he had underestimated not only the Ekklesia, but Lily too, this entire time. But he didn't have much time to think, because he was soon joined by the sound of footsteps.

"NO!"

He heard a cry of despair, followed by a woman who shoved past him and dropped to her knees next to the pale body of the man. She squeezed his shoulder, whispering, "Callixtus? My love, wake up!" She shook him gently then checked his pulse, and was very still for a second; Scorpius gripped his wand tightly, convinced that she was about to spring up and attack him straight away. What happened next, however, was completely unexpected.

She began weeping and held his body up against her chest, rocking back and forth ever so slightly as she shuddered with the force of great sobs; it was as though she hadn't even noticed Scorpius standing there. Despite the fact that this woman in dark robes was quite obviously not on his side, Scorpius couldn't help feeling a pang of sympathy. Hadn't he done the same thing but half an hour ago? Lily had come so close to being the one lying there. He had come so close to losing her forever. At there mere sight of this, the mere thought, Scorpius lost all desire for revenge; he just wanted this to be over. He just wanted to go back to Lily, and find her smiling and awake.

"Go on then," the woman rasped without turning around. "Kill me. Kill me, so I can join him among the stars."

"No. I have no reason. Instead, think of all the other people who lost _their_ loves, their friends, their children… all because of you."

Scorpius turned around and re-entered the castle, leaving the woman to her grief. A couple of seconds after, he heard that same voice reverberating throughout the castle.

"Brothers, sisters… it is time to retreat."

* * *

"The lady is very distressed. I should think it kinder to poison her than to allow her to endure like this," spoke the cool, unsympathetic voice of Cassius Novak. "Any word on Marise?"

"Perhaps she was killed in the battle… well, if we are lucky," replied Adrienne Traverse, unconcerned that not only was she definitely out of a job, but her identity had been compromised as an unfortunate side-effect of their unplanned loss. "Though I doubt we are. Speaking of unlucky, I can't _believe_ I was taken down by that brat of a student…"

"You weren't the only one," Novak replied gravely, implying the downfall of their leader.

"I wouldn't be so quick to assume, Cassius," replied Traverse, her eyes travelling to the only person in the room that had thus far not spoken, about to voice her suspicions. "Callixtus was not killed by a student, was he Alexis?"

Lexi O'Brien looked unfazed, despite being accused of murdering their leader, her very own brother. But the tone of Adrienne Traverse was not accusing or angry, more questioning, curious. "There's no keeping anything from you, Adrienne. As such, surely you've realised by now that Callixtus never planned to share his power with any of us; he just realised that he could never take over wizarding Britain with only himself and Verity. Both of you have known this from the beginning, but remained nonetheless, for motivations I don't plan to question," she began.

Lexi drummed her manicured nails on the meeting room table, then casually observed them before continuing on. "I decided that disposing of him before we took over the castle would be the best solution, considering that once we took the castle his help would no longer be needed. Of course I thought that by that time we had enough of a stronghold to win, but that's a different story entirely."

"I can understand why you would dispose of Callixtus, for it was evident that he was becoming problematic," began Cassius, "but what I do not understand, is why, if you believed we would win the battle, you revived both myself and Adrienne. Obviously you realised Devereaux would not be returning, and that Verity would be no less than incapacitated with grief. Why did you not kill us then, if you believed we would be the only ones left? Why not take over and rule on your own?"

"Because, dear Cassius, I realise that would be impossible. Once you take something, you must be prepared to fight for it for the rest of your life. Now look at us separately… all three, dispatched, though with dumb luck, by mere _students_. Singly we are as good as any, but together we are something not to be easily reckoned with. And I don't know about you, but one-third sounds much more attractive than one-sixth."

"So you are proposing a strategic alliance, or a life of being lorded over by _you_ rather than your brother? How can we be sure you won't start ordering us around?"

"Because I value my life. Say, for instance, I angered Adrienne. With just the two of us in battle, the outcome could be anyone's guess. But say I mistreat both of you, any battle would be two-on-one... not very favourable odds for me. Unlike my brother I am capable of sharing… and I have a vision, the importance of which surpasses greed."

"I'm interested," said Cassius, and Adrienne nodded her agreement. "What is this vision?"

"My vision, friends… _Equals_… is the formation of the most formidable Triumvirate since the Roman Empire."

* * *

**Author's Note**: Well, my exam hiatus is over! (For those familiar with the system, my UAI was 92.65!)

I apologise for the shortness of this chapter, this was the only place I could cut it off (I wanted to finally post something). It's because the latter part of the chapter was about Scorpius, and having him do what I want him to do _and_ stay in character is proving very difficult. Since he's a very cautious, 'closed-book' type of person, I have to emotionally manoeuvre him, and I want this important scene to be realistic. By the time it's posted, I promise it will be worth it!


	9. Encouragement

**Author's Note**: I finally realised why it was so difficult to manoeuvre Scorpius to confess in a romantic way – it's not in his character. He's not a 'bleeding heart' by any stretch of the imagination, he's plain and sensible. Once I stopped trying to push the boundaries of his character the words came easily. So, drum roll please, then onto the main event!

* * *

Standing passively outside the Hospital Wing, Scorpius was deliberating. Inside, he could hear Lily and Albus talking and laughing, relief emanating from their every word. Three days had passed since her near-fatal encounter and she had just woken up from the dreamless sleep potion she had been placed under. Scorpius had spent those entire three days by her side, except for the couple of hours when the school matron had kicked him out to get some sleep, not that he had been able to while Lily was constantly on his mind.

Now that he had had time to think about things, Scorpius was of two minds. On one side, he felt absolutely furious, and he couldn't quite understand why. Perhaps he was angry with himself for not protecting Lily well enough. Maybe it was the unfamiliar territory of his newly-discovered feelings for her, or perhaps he was truly angry at her for not listening to him when he called out after her. Maybe he was scared about what becoming attached to her could mean, especially if he came close to losing her again. He wasn't sure.

On the other hand, one thing Scorpius was sure about was his feelings about her. He felt somewhat ashamed that it had almost taken her death to accept them, that he had continually pushed away even the slightest thought of that nature. Perhaps he was a colder person then than he was now. He was in love with her, he didn't doubt that now, but what was he going to do about it? Scorpius had no idea what her feelings were. And even if his feelings were returned, a million complications came to mind such as her family, and what would happen to his friendship with Albus, especially if things didn't work out.

Scorpius took a hesitant step forward. He wasn't going to venture inside, he just needed to look at her, see her up and about and know that she was alright, without being seen. Albus, however, caught sight of him in his peripheral vision a second before he moved out of the way.

"Albus, what are you looking at?" Lily questioned curiously, craning her neck toward the door as she sat cross-legged on her bed.

"Excuse me for a minute, will you?" Albus questioned in return, jogging to the door and catching Scorpius on his way to the stairs at the end of the corridor.

"Scorpius!" he called out, though not loud enough for Lily to hear. Scorpius froze mid-step and swivelled to face him. "You know, I don't understand you, Scorpius. You refuse to move from her side for over two days, then when they tell us the potion's wearing off you decide to go for a three hour walk. Now, as soon as she wakes up, you're skiving off."

"I'm not skiving," Scorpius said defensively. "I was just-"

"Sneaking off before she realises you're here? Yeah, I can see that,"

"I'm not, I just came to see if-"

"Lily! There's someone here to see you!" called out Albus before Scorpius could finish his sentence, with a grin somewhat reminiscent of the resident poltergeist spread across his face. Scorpius rolled his eyes as Albus clapped him on the shoulder with a knowing grin, then gave him a shove in the direction of the Hospital Wing, before leaving the corridor.

"Er, h-"

"Scorpius!"

Lily launched herself at him before he had even had the chance to say hello, quite possibly attempting to squeeze the life out of him as she embraced him tightly. For the first moment he was surprised at Lily being so open and willing to show her emotions, but then Scorpius returned the hug gently, suddenly conscious of the warmth of her body and the softness of her hair. He felt more nervous being around her than he had ever been before, finding himself unsure of how to behave; how was he going to tell her how he felt now?

When they broke apart he was slightly dazzled by the brilliant smile on her face, a sight that was rare and never before more than half-hearted. "Come on, come sit with me," said Lily, settling into a cross-legged position on the bed as he sat in the visitor's chair. "Victoire told me that if you hadn't brought me to the Hospital Wing so quick I might not be here today, so… looks like you saved me for a second time."

Scorpius cocked his head in confusion. "A second time? What are you-"

"You may think this is silly, but… when you found me that day, in the girl's bathroom. You saved me from… well, I don't know how much longer I could have kept my sanity if it was just me, alone with my memory. You could have just ignored what you saw, but you decided to help me. As trite as it sounds, you really did save me from myself," Lily explained, smiling. Scorpius rolled his eyes at her choice of words, but Lily knew he wasn't really poking fun at her. "But speaking of the memory… I told them. When James was here, I told him, and Albus. Neither of them wanted to see it, of course. They aren't ready for that yet… but I feel a lot better not being alone in the knowledge. I have you to thank for that, too,"

"But Lily, I didn't do that. You did – _you_ found the strength to tell them."

"That might me true, but this all started with you, so… thankyou," Lily replied, still smiling brightly, a lot more cheery than she had been for the past six years; facing Callixtus and Lexi (these were their names, according to the Auror she helped to identify them), though neither duel had ended very successfully, had brought back some of her old spirit. If she were ever to meet Lexi again, she knew the outcome would be different, because she wouldn't allow herself to be defeated again.

"By the way, Victoire didn't say anything else to you, did she?" Scorpius questioned, hoping Victoire hadn't mentioned the way he had stroked her hair and kissed her hand. Albus was apparently aware of the fact, but if he decided to tell her about his feelings at all, Scorpius wanted it to come from him.

Lily smirked knowingly. "As a matter of fact she did,"

"Oh. Er-"

"Yes, what's this I hear about you carrying me up three flights of stairs?" she questioned, grinning.

Scorpius flushed slightly; it hadn't been what he had expected it to be, and for that he was thankful. He wanted to observe her reaction himself. "Oh, _that_. Yes, yes, _I know_, everyone asked why I didn't just conjure a stretcher. I know it was stupid, I just panicked, lost my head… Lily, I really thought you were dead."

"But I'm not, so you don't have to worry any more," she replied, smiling reassuringly. She leaned over to squeeze his hand, sending a pleasant jolt up his spine.

"I know, it's just, it's not a sight I want to see again. Promise me you won't do anything like that again, _ever_,"

"How could I? Callixtus is dead," Lily replied nonchalantly, attempting to appear as if she would never do something like looking for their enemies.

"Yes, but his sister isn't, and I suspect she and Traverse will be back sooner or later," Scorpius began.

"I still can't believe one of the ringleaders was in our scho-"

"If you thought I wouldn't notice you trying to change the subject, you thought wrong," Scorpius interjected, a slight smirk on his face as Lily rolled her eyes at being caught. "I know you quite well now, Lily, which is why I want you to promise me you won't go looking for revenge, alright? Trouble will probably come looking for you sooner or later, but until it does, promise me you'll lie low, alright?"

"Well, since there's no fooling you I suppose I have no other choice… I promise. But when did you come to know me so well?" she questioned jokingly, a small grin on her face. "You told me I was less predictable than most girls."

"Well, now that you've stopped having those _violent_ mood swings…" he grinned jokingly, laughing as he remembered the events that had lead up to that conversation, which encompassed heated arguments and misunderstandings. One of them led Lily to slap him in the Entrance Hall, another of which was a screaming match which led to Scorpius telling Albus that he would never be able to love a person like Lily, a sentiment that had changed markedly.

"I've been able to get to know you a lot better. Not only, that, but… well, don't you think this whole experience has brought us… closer?" Scorpius' face reddened and when she did not immediately reply, he added in a mumble, "Er, maybe it was just me." He scratched the back of his neck, silently making a decision; he wouldn't tell her, not after the blank, somewhat confused stare she had given him. His stomach dropped slowly in sickening disappointment.

Lily shook her head, giggling lightly at the strained look on his flushed face. "No, no, of course it wasn't just you – forgive me, you just surprised me is all. I've never really heard you talk this way before."

Scorpius regained his composure – and a sense of hope – at this reply; his face lost its reddish tinge. "Well, we can talk more openly now – can't we?"

Lily frowned slightly. "I don't know, can we? I get the distinct feeling there's something you want to say, but for some reason feel you can't. Am I right?"

Scorpius had been staring awkwardly into his lap, but at this he looked up directly into those emerald eyes; apparently she too had grown to know him better, or perhaps he had become less adept at controlling his emotions in front of her. Scorpius heaved a sigh and looked away for a moment, a gesture that invariably confirmed her suspicions.

"You can tell me, you know," Lily encouraged softly, gently placing a hand on his; Scorpius inhaled sharply at the surprise of this, his breath momentarily caught in his throat. A fleeting look of confusion over his reaction graced Lily's features before she decided to continue on, slowly. "Whatever it is – if you think it will hurt me, enrage me, make me scared, make me cry… If you think I'll laugh at you, I promise not to. But please, _tell me_."

Scorpius inhaled deeply before starting, only just keeping an even voice as he attempted to control the broth of adrenaline, fear and anticipation being pumped around by his palpitating heart. "Have you ever watched one of those muggle romance movies? It never struck me until now, how very ridiculous they are. How can the hero never stop to think… how can he never stutter or waver as he attempts to relay the indescribable... and to a person with whom he feels nothing? I've been standing outside, agonising over what I would say to you, wondering why the words didn't come to me. But I think I understand. If I felt nothing, then I would need pretty words to hide behind, like they do in those movies. I wish I was a more articulate person, that I could find some kind of… unforgettable, world-shattering way to say this. But it's my nature to be blunt, even if it means using the biggest, plainest cliché in existence, and hoping that will be enough. Lily, I love you."

* * *

**Author's Note**: Oh, how I love cliffhangers. What will Lily's reaction be, and how will it all end up? Find out in the next and final chapter! BUT - **I won't update until I get to 30 reviews. **24 people have this story on alert, 4 on favourites… surely 7 reviews isn't that much to ask?


	10. A Different Kind of Battle

**Author's Note**: I didn't expect to get the 7 reviews so quickly! But, I did, so as promised, here is the final installment. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter Ten:** _A Different Kind of Battle_

"_I wish I was a more articulate person, that I could find some kind of… unforgettable, world-shattering way to say this. But it's my nature to be blunt, even if it means using the biggest, plainest cliché in existence, and hoping that will be enough. Lily, I love you."_

Lily sat silently, momentarily gazing in awe at Scorpius. _This can't possibly be real_, she thought to herself as she stared into his eyes, hoping to glean an idea on whether this was some kind of cruel joke, or worse, as her mind jumped to the strange conclusion that perhaps this Scorpius was an imposter sent by the Ekklesia to finish her off. Then she frowned slightly, wondering if she was just paranoid as she remembered something Scorpius had told her earlier that year. He had sighed, before saying, _"You know, you really need to learn that not everyone is out to get you."_

But that didn't mean this was real. All she could think of was the conflicts they had had, the fact that Scorpius couldn't possibly see her as anything more than Loony Lily Potter, Albus' crazy kid sister – how or why would he? _No_, she thought, _of course it's not real_. "Is this some kind of joke?" she asked coldly, having already made her decision that it was. Lily was upset that someone she felt she had become close to, and had learned to trust so deeply, could want to play with her feelings in such a way.

Scorpius looked crestfallen, tearing his eyes from hers as he came to the conclusion that she was making fun of him. Despite the hurt he felt at her thoughtless reaction, he answered her in a cool and – as much as possible - even voice. "If you don't feel the same way, that's fine, but you don't need to be nasty about it,"

Lily's stomach dropped at the expression on his face, the way he avoided her eyes and his voice wavered, as much as he struggled not to. This was the real Scorpius, of course, she knew that any other assumption was ridiculous paranoia, and it looked like he really did mean it. _But how could he possibly be in love with me? How could I not have noticed something like that? _Lily stared into her lap, thinking deeply; all at once, a whole host of memories bombarded her. They had been lurking in the shadows of her mind, like a puzzle waiting to be pieced together then comprehended, and they were now as clear as a memory from a pensieve.

--

_Despite all her disbelief and curiosity as to why a person she had never really talked to until today had decided it was his mission to help her cope with her parents' murder, Scorpius' words seemed to echo and reverberate in her mind: "I just want to help you,"_

_--_

_Until now, Lily had never realised it, but now saw that Scorpius was the perfect counterbalance to her; when she was gripped by anxiety, he kept his sensibilities about him, calming her frantic wits… Scorpius reasoned with her kindly, and hadn't lost his patience with her despite hardly knowing her or having any reason in particular to help her._

_--_

"_That's what everyone thinks of me, isn't it? Just like Peeves says – Loony Lily Potter." She buried her head in his chest, sobbing. He placed a comforting arm around her, the other one stroking her hair softly._

_--_

"_I forget that you're not like every other girl." Scorpius' good-humoured expression as he looked at her made Lily smile._

_--_

_He held his hand out to her; in it was a small vial of a strange-looking substance. "I made this for you,"_

_--_

_Rose, Albus, Scorpius and Lily sat in the grounds, talking peacefully as they observed the full moon, oblivious of what was soon to come. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily thought she saw Scorpius staring at her, but he soon looked away, convincing her that it was wishful thinking on her part._

_--_

"_I told Albus I'd protect you, and by Merlin I will." _

_Lily nodded, smiling ever so slightly at the concern he quite obviously held for her; she hadn't noticed it before._

_--_

_Lily gasped as a green light soared by her ear from a third attacker who had attempted to curse her while she fought off the other two. Before she had even had time to return fire, Scorpius had knocked him over and was fighting him the muggle way, raining down blow after blow. She could almost sense his fury, unsure of whether she had seen him this angry before. In any case, she was sure it was more due to the dirty tactics of the Ekklesia than for her sake._

_--_

_Victoire sat attentively by her hospital bed. They had been chatting for several minutes when Vicky smirked knowingly, in a way that was her trademark. "That reminds me. I met a friend of yours… Scorpius Malfoy, I believe? That boy carried you up _three_ flights of stairs. He was very… concerned about you," she grinned teasingly, as though she knew something Lily was unaware of._

_--_

"_Scorpius!" she called as her savior entered the room, hugging him tightly. At first his body tensed in surprise; she half expected him to push her away. Instead, he returned the hug tenderly, as though she was something fragile, valuable._

_--_

"_I've been able to get to know you a lot better. Not only, that, but… well, don't you think this whole experience has brought us… closer?"_

--

Lily looked up suddenly, realizing that it really wasn't a joke. His feelings had been unnoticed by her because everything had happened so gradually and so naturally that she barely even noticed a change in him, or in herself. "You really do mean it, don't you?" Lily asked quietly, attempting to stare penetratingly into those grey eyes of his, but he avoided her gaze. "It's not a joke after all."

Scorpius straightened at this, their eyes meeting as he realised he had misunderstood her. She hadn't spoken in cold rejection of him, but in sheer disbelief; it seemed like Lily thought he was poking fun at _her._ He shook his head. "Of course not, Lily. I would never, _ever_ toy with you like that,"

"I know you wouldn't. I don't know why I thought, even for a second, that you would… forgive me for my shock, it's just that, when you saw me in the bathroom on the first night of school, I never expected-"

"To end up in the hospital?" Scorpius joked to hide his nervousness, awaiting her true answer.

"-to fall in love with you," Lily replied, smiling brightly as she once again placed her hand on his. She giggled slightly as he exhaled audibly; obviously she had kept him in a somewhat anxious suspense.

"I'm so relieved you feel the same way," he replied, stroking her hand gently but never for one second allowing his gaze to leave those brilliant emerald eyes. "I know it will be difficult for us, what with an impending war… and of course, at first, I don't expect our families to approve, but-"

"But if they don't they can get stuffed?" Lily joked innocently, making him snicker.

"I was actually going to say, '_but we'll jump that hoop when we get there'_, but now that you mention it, I suppose that's not entirely out of the question either," he replied, grinning back at her. "But to be serious for a moment… the reason I'm saying this is, I just want to make sure that… well, that you're okay with that."

Lily nodded with certainty, without a second thought, though she knew they faced a daunting gauntlet of obstacles, both magical and non-magical. There were the magical, such as the Ekklesia, whose mere presence in the wizarding world brought the ever-present possibility of injury or death to either or both of them. After this year, they'd have to juggle seeing each other with Lily's ongoing education at Hogwarts and Scorpius' employment, presumably at the Law Enforcement Department. Then there were the plainer threats, such as the shared animosity of their families, and the numerous flaws in every relationship and would inevitably enter theirs.

But if there was even the slightest chance that it would work, that they could share something beautiful (even if only for a short time), then Lily was prepared to take that risk, as she knew Scorpius was also. "I realise that it'll be hard… but when I was younger, my dad told me a saying. 'If it's worth it, be prepared to fight for it'. I love you, Scorpius Malfoy, and I believe that you… are worth fighting for."

For a moment they stared silently as they stared fondly at each other. Scorpius tucked a tendril of wild red hair behind Lily's ear, softly caressing her cheek as he did so. With an unspoken mutual desire, Scorpius leaned forward, closing his eyes as their lips touched softly, tantalisingly. She tasted of the unidentifiable but sweet flavour of the potion she had drank minutes before; he was now close enough to smell her saccharine shampoo. Lily slung both her arms around his shoulders and leaned forward, deepening the kiss. He smiled into her lips before they broke apart, then placed one soft kiss on the end of her nose.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Ah, the long-awaited kiss! I wanted the chapter to be longer, but I think everything worthwhile has been said (I dislike unnecessary filler). I think it's a rather nice place to leave things – a happy open ending allows you to draw your own conclusions and let the imagination run wild.

Well, there's not much else for me to say except for a big thankyou for your support, and I hope you enjoyed the fic!


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Harry Potter, Drama, Romance