Fog, Ice and the Green Earth

Full Circle

It's late. I should be getting home.

Scorpius rubbed his tired eyes. He had been working long and dangerous hours lately. There had been an inexplicable upsurge in the activities of Dark wizards in recent months that kept the newly-expanded Auror Department on its toes. But that wasn't what was costing him his sleep.

The dreams are getting worse.

At first he had clung to them. A little window into Corrina's life; a glimpse into Faerie. He had read everything he could find, but there hadn't been much. Hints existed in 'Hogwarts, a History', a few tales by Beedle the Bard, and not much else.

When the luck stone he wore at his throat warmed he knew she was thinking of him and touching the delicate emerald raven he had given her one springtime dawn. It was a bittersweet reminder.

As the years went by he buried himself in work and firewhiskey, working hard and playing even harder. He cut the love-knot out of his hair and threw it away one drunken night. The next morning, he had retrieved the ribbon and put both it and the luck-stone in the bottom drawer of his desk, telling himself he had to move on.

His indifference had acted like a love potion to single women, witch and Muggle alike, but no one touched his broken heart.

We always want what we can't have . . . .

And through it all the dreams continued. Snippets of her life, glimpses of battlements and battles, of halls where dancers moved with grace and a raven-headed harp played heartbreaking songs.

For the last year the dreams had been getting steadily darker, full of sounds of metal on metal, smells of ozone and fire. The pounding of horse's hooves and wild laughter filled them. Last night there had been bitter weeping and sadness. A keening loss and the sound of a funereal dirge. Longing and dread.

He didn't know what was happening in her world, but the when the dreams woke him, there was no return to sleep.

A gentle tapping at the door of his office interrupted his thoughts.

"Come."

Nadine's head peeped around the door.

"Oh! Come in!"

She was preceded into the room by a ripe belly, her face glowing with health and happiness. He eyed her size, and with a casual wave of his wand produced a comfortable chair.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" He smiled wanly at her.

"Oh," she beamed. "Well, I was here to remind Grandpapa Weasley to leave off his tinkering and come home to the Burrow. I saw the light on and thought you might appreciate a dinner invitation?"

He shook his head.

"I should be heading to the Manor soon."

And to all the dark memories that have soaked into the walls. I'm still surprised Father ever let me become an Auror. He must have know that there would be no hiding what he and Grandfather have been and done.

His mouth twisted. His knowledge of their past had put a wall between him and his family, one that was taking on a sad permanence.

"And I just wanted to see how you were. You didn't look very happy the last time I saw you." She cocked her head and considered the weary look on his face. "And you don't look all that happy now, either."

"I'm not." It just slipped out, his tired mind unable to stop the truth.

"I still miss her, too."

Scorpius looked at his neat and orderly desk. The office supplies, organised and tidy. The piles of reports, corners perfectly aligned and square. The luck-stone and the still bright ribbon that he had taken out of his bottom drawer sat at the centre of it all, the only things out of place.

It was a love knot. Love. Not.

"You know, Scorpius, no one knows what happened to her. We expected her to stay with the band after we graduated. After all, she started it; you would think she would want to be part of it now that we are so successful. But she vanished."

Like a dream. Except they won't go away.

"You know something, don't you?"

He didn't meet her eyes.

"I thought so."

Nadine considered him shrewdly.

"Scorpius, you have always gotten what you have gone after, whether it was Quidditch Captain, or Head Boy, or persuading your family to allow you to become an Auror, of all things.

"A Malfoy Auror."

She snorted and shook her head.

"So if you still love her - and I think you do - then I think you should stop looking all woebegone and get off of your sorry, sad wizard's behind and do something."

She got up and leaned over the desk, staring him full in the face.

"Now, if I needed some help on a really difficult problem, I would think about talking to Mama Hermione, because I don't know anyone who has read more books, Muggle or Magical. You just might want to think about that, especially since she is right next door in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"You deserve to be happy, Scorpius, and I don't know that you can be happy without her."

The door clicked shut behind her. Silence grew around him, a palpable thing, and with it a tentative feeling of hope.

He reached out to the luck-stone on his desk and felt it warm as his hand closed about it.

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Epilogue:

When did I last see her? It has been a long and hard journey here to the place where all magic begins. . . .

The woman on the throne watched him approach, her expression remote. Her hair was as dark as he remembered, as dark as a raven's wing, but now it was bound with a moonstone circlet, not tumbling down her back. A large black tomcat sat at her feet, his purring audible, a smile on his cat face.

As his footsteps echoed in the twilight dimness of the empty hall, he thought of the dreams she had sent him. Of the clues that had led him here, that had been strewn by the tales of Andersen, and Grimm like breadcrumbs on the forest floor. Of the luck-stone that, like a compass, had helped guide his journey.

He stopped at the foot of the throne, and went down on one knee, drawing his wand out and laying it at her feet.

"I give you my allegiance in all things. I have already given you my heart."

Her hand reached out to his face, touching the spot where his tears had once lain glimmering in moonlight.

"My love. . . ."