Seventh-Year: The Next Generation

Author's Note:

HIIIYAAAA!!!! KA-CHING!!! I'm back! Sorry guys, I know I promised a new chapter every ten days and that this one was due days ago. I'm so sorry. What it comes down to is that I was traveling cross country once more and didn't have internet access. Anyways, NaNoWriMo is over and I managed to stick it out. Wooohooo!!! Alright, so now back to fanfiction. I'll get back into the old rhythm where I get AT LEAST one chapter a week out, but hopefully I'll be able to get at least two out in that amount of time. Enjoy.

Chapter 20: Found Out

Scorpius followed Lily's captors down the stairs, into the darkness. Torches along the wall leapt into life as they approached, and then went out again once they were past.

Eventually, they came out into a long corridor that stretched out to their left and right, running out of sight.

Again, torches leapt alight as they approached, and then would extinguish themselves once they were gone.

They followed Lestraud down the hall, their boots making no sound on the thick wall-to-wall carpeting.

Rich tapestries adorned the wall. Different images of wars and counsels and invasions depicted in each one.

One particular scene caught Scorpius's eye, bringing him to a halt. Hordes of men and beasts were swarming the earth. But there was something strange about these creatures, these people. They were all very thin and gaunt, seemingly on the point of starvation. And their skin was tinged blue, as if from cold.

Scorpius stood staring at it for several moments, until he realized that the rest of the group was drawing away. Snapping back to himself, he strode quickly to catch them back up. The torch by the tapestry he had been inspecting went out with a little puff.

Driscoll looked back over his shoulder, his brow furrowing in confusion that the light had taken so long to go out. But after a second or two, he shrugged, and turned his back, continuing on.

Finally, Lestraud went around a turn in the corridor, and entered a room at last, followed by the rest of them.

Scorpius had to move quickly and slip through the doorway nimbly in order to enter without accidentally touching the door and swinging it open once more. For a brief moment he feared that he had brushed up against Driscoll's back as he did this, but the man didn't seem to notice anything. Scorpius let out a quiet breath in relief.

They were in a sitting room. Large, stuffed armchairs of a rich green color were set in a semicircle around a large marble fireplace. An expensive looking Persian carpet was spread across the floor. Tall windows that overlooked the ocean and the forest below were set in the wall.

Babcock, Zabini, and Bulstrode (the sons) were waiting there for them. Each one greeted his father, saying a brief phrase of greeting and clasping hands.

"What should I do with this one?" asked Zabini, indicating with his head the bound form of Lily in his arms.

"Put her in one of the spare guestrooms," said Lestraud.

"I'll take her," said Driscoll.

Zabini looked at him in surprise, then shrugged. "Sure, it's not like I immensely enjoy lugging people around." He set her on her feet, and with a shove sent her stumbling over to Driscoll. Driscoll steadied her by grabbing her shoulder.

"I'll be back in a moment," said Driscoll, leaving the room, pulling Lily roughly along by the shoulder.

Scorpius hesitated for a moment, torn between wanting to hear more of their plans, and wanting to know exactly where Lily was going to be located. Making his decision, he rushed after Driscoll.

They went along a couple of corridors, down a set of stairs, and to a door. Driscoll swung it upon, and pushed Lily inside. With a wave of his wand, he released Lily from her bonds.

"Don't even bother trying to get out, the door can only be opened from the outside," said Driscoll with amusement.

"Fun time," said Lily dryly, rubbing at her wrists were she had been magically bound.

"And you, you'll be joining her," said Driscoll coolly.

Scorpius, who was standing behind Driscoll, turned around, looking to see if someone else he hadn't noticed had come along. There was no one there.

Scorpius turned back in confusion, to see Driscoll staring straight at him, even though he was under the Invisibility Cloak.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Scorpius collapsed over backward, onto the stairs.

Driscoll bent over, and snatched the cloak from Scorpius's unmoving limbs. He smirked as he looked down at him. "You need to be more careful. Lagging behind and letting a torch stay on longer than it should, is not taking care. Neither is brushing up against someone."

Scorpius glared up at him, but couldn't do anything.

Lily pulled out her wand, put Driscoll spun on his heels. "Expelliarmus!" Lily's wand went flying across the room.

Driscoll turned back to Scorpius. "I thought I had killed you, apparently not. Anyways, I'm glad I didn't. This way is more fun. Don't worry though, I'll let you guys enjoy each other."

With a wave of his wand, Driscoll sent Scorpius's body flying through the air and into the room. Scorpius's locked-up body crashed into Lily, knocking her to the floor with him on top.

"We'll stay in touch."

With that Driscoll slammed the door shut, locking them within.

***

"Yes, I know about it, Albus. But why do you know about it?" asked Hermione slowly, dreading what the answer might be. Whenever something big and disastrous happened, Scorpius and Albus tended to be somewhere near by.

"Well, um, maybe because it was I who broke in?" said Albus as innocently as he could manage, which wasn't very convincing under the circumstances.

"What? This better be a joke, Albus," said Hermione, staring at him.

"Well, if it's any consolation, all of these people were there too. Lily and Scorpius, too, but they are, er, somewhere else at present."

"Albus, you better do some quick explaining," said Hermione, glaring at him.

Albus took a deep breath, and then plunged in. "Basically I was blackmailed by Aubrielle Lestraud. She demanded that I break all the prisoners out of Azkaban, so that her mom could escape in the confusion. I brought in Scorpius to help me. While we were there, it turned out that something else was going on, because Aubrielle was clearly not there only for her mother, but for a few other people as well.

"A fight started between us and them, and that's when Hugo, Monique and Lily showed up. Lily was dragged away by them, and Scorpius followed. We got hindered, and were unable to pursue with Scorpius, so we came back here."

Hermione stared at him as if he had just told her he was a world-class murderer. Albus shifted uncomfortably.

"Will you stop looking at me like that, Aunt?" asked Albus.

"I will look at you exactly however I darn well want to," she said.

"If it's any consolation, I didn't know anything about the blackmail till right now," said Hugo.

"And where do these two gentlemen play in, who are they?" demanded Hermione, indicating Lasair and Meallan.

"Oh, them? They're Hugo's guardian angels," said Albus with a wry smile.

"Hugo's what?" asked Hermione in confusion, looking to Hugo for explanation.

"I don't know if that's exactly what they would call themselves," said Hugo, giving Lasair a grin. He turned back to his mother. "I'm a Diviner, mother."

"A what?" gasped Hermione.

They were all surprised by a sudden outburst from Monique. "Aaaah, guys, we can't sit around here explaining everything to each other. What's happened just needs to be accepted, at least for now. Lily is out there somewhere, and needs our help!"

"And Scorpius," said Albus.

Hermione pursed her lips. "Right, you're absolutely right. But Miss...?"

"Monique, call me Monique."

"Monique, if you do not know where they are, and I do not either, we need to explain to each other what is going on so we know how to best handle the situation."

Monique opened her mouth, and then closed it again. "Whatever," she muttered.

"You said there were others that Aubrielle needed broken out, who were they?" asked Hermione of Albus.

"Babcock, Driscoll, Bulstrode and Zabini."

Hermione nodded absentmindedly. "I should have seen something like this coming..."

"Aunt, you need to fill us in. We can help. This is my sister and my friend we're talking about," said Albus urgently.

Hermione looked at Albus intensely for a moment, then made her decision. "Okay. But I suppose Rose will want to be involved, too." She snapped her fingers, and a moment later a House Elf appeared by her, out of thin air.

"Yes, Headmistress?" asked the Elf.

"Noll, I need you to go find Rose Weasley and tell her to come to my office right away. Can you do that for me?"

"Of course, Headmistress," said the Elf, and with a crack it disappeared.

"So, what's this about being a Diviner, and who are these two, really?" asked Hermione, turning to her son.

"It's new to me too," said Hugo. "I only just found out like a week ago, when I came into power. You know that birthmark on my left shoulder? Turns out it's one heck of a birthmark. As for these two," he indicated Lasair and Meallan, "they watch over me, apparently."

"Do you talk?" Hermione asked, directing the question at them.

Meallan made something that sounded like a muffled laughing sound in his throat.

"Something like that," said Lasair.

There was a crack, and the House Elf reappeared.

"Well?" asked Hermione.

"Noll apologizes, Headmistress, but Rose Weasley is not in the school at present," said the Elf.

"What?" demanded Hermione.

"I do not know where she is, Headmistress, only that she is not within the school grounds," said Noll apologetically.

"Why does she randomly have to run off at a time like this?" asked Hermione, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "Very well, you can go, Noll."

With a crack, Noll vanished.

Hermione sighed. "Do you know why those four wizards, and that witch, were put in Azkaban in the first place?"

Albus shook his head.

"They were convicted for the murder of eleven people, and thievery. They broke into the Ministry and raided the Department of Dark and Forbidden Artifacts. The item they were after was this." Hermione shoved the book she had been looking at before they entered across the table.

"The Culling Blade?" asked Monique, reading the title.

"Yes. It's a very dangerous weapon. Whatever living thing it strikes will over the period of a couple weeks weaken and start to lose control of its body. Eventually it turns into a sort of walking zombie that must obey the commands of the one who drew its blood. At that point it gains its own infernal strength."

Albus looked up at her from beneath dark lashes. "So basically, whoever has it has the power to raise an army."

Hermione nodded. "Either of beasts, or even humans."

"So, Lestraud and them were trying to get this dagger, but got busted. End of story, right?" said Hugo.

"Not exactly," said Hermione. "All five were apprehended, and sent to Azkaban. But the catch is, the dagger wasn't found on any of them. This all was a year ago. Nothing happened for awhile, but just two months ago, things started to happen.

"Some Muggles started to disappear. Mainly guys who we really wouldn't notice. People like construction workers and the like. People who are strong and physical, but wouldn't cause a big fuss if they didn't show up one day. But they weren't the only ones, orphans and homeless people started to disappear in mass. As well as dogs from the pound.

"Of course this eventually caught our attention. We started to investigate, but weren't able to turn up with much until we found this dog who had been too sickly to survive the effects of the Culling Blade.

"We recognized the symptoms on the body, but this was only a couple of weeks ago. And realize that when I say 'we', I mean the Aurors and such. The Ministry just dragged me in because they value my opinion.

"Anyways, so we agreed to have a Ministry Official's meeting to discuss what was going on-- that took place today. Nothing much was solved, and we didn't really think that Lestraud and her crew could be behind it. We thought that since they were all safely locked up in Azkaban, that they couldn't be involved. But what you said makes me wonder if Aubrielle has been carrying on their plans from outside Azkaban, all the while planning on how to get them out..." Hermione trailed off in thought.

"So what do we do? Do you think that they took Lily to wherever they're hiding these victims of the Culling Blade?" asked Albus.

"Quite possibly, but we have no clue yet where that is. There's nothing really that we can do. Unless we hear something from Scorpius. At this point I think we have to go about things as if he was captured by them."

"But he may be dead or something," began Albus angrily.

"And what do you propose to do?" snapped Hermione, losing her temper briefly.

"I don't know, something," he said.

"Well maybe if you hadn't broken into Azkaban, things wouldn't be nearly as badly as they are, and Scorpius wouldn't be in danger!" said Hermione, her voice rising in volume.

Albus's face went as white as a sheet. "Yo- you don't understand. I was blackmailed. I was protecting Scorpius. I couldn't not do it."

Hermione felt the anger flooding out of her. Albus looked young and tired, his face pale and miserable looking between the darkness of his hair and jacket.

"I'm sorry, Albus," she said, rubbing the back of her hand across her eyes wearily. "I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. Of course I believe you. If you say you had no choice, you had no choice."

Albus looked relieved.

"But unless you know something that you haven't told me, what can we do? We have to wait and let the Aurors try and find out where they're located."

"And if they haven't had any luck so far, what's to say they'll be able to find them now?" asked Monique.

"The longer criminals run their crime, the more times they have to screw up," said Hermione. "Either they'll keep doing what they've been doing, and we'll catch them in the act, or be able to follow them back to their hiding place. Or, they'll actually unleash their army, and then we won't have to go looking for them."

"And in the mean time, what are we supposed to do? Act like everything's normal?" demanded Albus.

"Yes. Go to your classes, be yourselves."

"You don't think someone will notice that certain students are missing?" asked Monique wryly.

"They probably will, and then I'll have to give an explanation of some sort. Until then, we must do what we can to keep up an image of normalcy."

"You're kidding me," said Albus under his breath.

"Why? Would you have me send the whole school into panic and worry, Albus? Tell me, is that what you would do?" asked Hermione.

"I don't know. I guess I just hate feeling like I'm not doing anything to help my friend," said Albus.

"We all feel that way, Albus. Believe me," said Hermione quietly. "It's always worse when it's someone you know who's in danger, and not yourself. I've faced a lot of that over the years."

Albus shook his head, and turned and left the room. He was followed by Monique.

Hugo stared at his mother. "Did you know?"

"Of course I didn't," she said.

"You must have. You know more than anyone else alive. You must have seen the mark and known it for what it was."

"I think we should go," whispered Meallan to Lasair.

"No. Stay," said Hugo. "You knew, I know you knew."

"I may have guessed," admitted Hermione. "But I was never sure."

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked. "I've gone through my whole life up until this point thinking that I was nothing. That there was absolutely nada that separated me from the rest of the kids. I thought the only way to be unique was to try and be as funny and relaxed as possible. But there was no need, no need at all. Look at me, I'm a Diviner for crying out loud!"

"Hugo, you are special. And you would be even if you weren't a Diviner. It's not what you can do that makes you unique. It's who you are," said Hermione.

Hugo looked surprised, as if the thought had never crossed his mind. "But...but I want people to give me recognition. I want to feel accomplished."

"Hugo, even if others won't, we will give you all the recognition you need. We, you're family. We love you and you don't need to do anything, or be anything, to be accomplished to us. We're proud of you no matter what."

"But that's not what I want. For me, myself, I want to do things. I want to be able to look at myself and feel content. I don't want just my family to proud of me, I want Hugo Weasley to be proud of me."

Hermione did not know what to say to this, and was caught momentarily speechless.

"I'm going to help save Scorpius and Lily, and maybe even England. Watch me do it. I've got something to prove, and I will," said Hugo, his brown eyes hard and determined. He looked up at Lasair and Meallan standing on either side of him. "Let's go."

"Alright," said Lasair quietly.

The three turned and walked from the room.

Hugo couldn't quite be sure, because their eyes were such a deep, crystal blue. But when he had looked up at the brothers, he almost thought he recognized satisfaction in their eyes while they looked down at him.

Author's Note:

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and are already looking forward to Christmas! I know I am. Anyways, don't forget to review people!!! =D =D =D