The woman laughs as I back away from her, glancing back at Draco and Scorpius. Scorpius is cowering near the wall, and Draco stands shielding him, wand out, ready to fight. I still have Delphi's wand and I start to reach for it. The woman laughs, waving her own, and Scorpius cries out in pain.
I look back at him to see ropes have appeared around his wrists, dragging him to his knees. I don't dare move as she strides towards him, pulling him back to his feet and putting her wand to his temple. Draco turns again, lowering his wand slightly.
"Good," the woman laughs. "You know how this works."
"Let him go," Draco says quietly.
"Convince me."
"He hasn't done anything wrong."
"How would you know?"
"Albus..." Scorpius groans. "Albus...run..."
He grunts in pain again as she pushes him towards the floor and he lands on his burnt hand. Draco starts towards him before stopping himself; the woman crouches down beside Scorpius, grinning. She looks so like Delphi and yet, she is so much worse.
"What did we say about telling people to run away?" she smiles sweetly.
"Nothing..."
"Really? Must have skipped my mind. No matter."
She stands up again and points her wand at Scorpius. He shuts his eyes tightly, as if he's bracing himself for the worst.
And then his screams ring through the room and I am running towards him, bellowing at her to stop, begging and pleading. Draco grabs me, holding me back as I fight to get to Scorpius.
"What are you doing?" I scream at him. "Let go – let me go!"
But he doesn't, and all I can do is keep fighting until Scorpius' screams turn to sobs and the woman laughs at my attempts to stumble towards him.
"What do you want?" Draco's voice is quiet and shaky.
"Good," the woman smirks. "You know the right questions to ask."
"Stop!" Draco half-shouted. "Just – please – stop. What do you want?"
I look at him to see he's shaking, his eyes swimming with tears. He's watching Scorpius, all sense of formality that I've come to associate him with long gone.
"That's the thing," the woman grins, relishing every moment. "I don't want anything."
"What?"
"The only thing that I want from you," she says quietly, "is to watch you while you suffer. And I'd say this is doing the trick quite effectively."
"Let him go," Draco begs. "Please. Please. He is my son."
"Really? I wasn't aware."
Scorpius howls in pain again and I tear myself free of Draco, charging towards the woman. I don't know what I'm trying to do. I just need to stop her, get her away from Scorpius.
I don't reach her as ropes snap around my wrists, pinning me to the floor in the centre of the room. Scorpius stares at me, tears rolling down his cheeks as he shakes. The woman walks towards me, grinning, and I stare up at her calmly. She won't get to Scorpius again.
He gets out.
He survives.
YOU ARE READING
Working Through the Rest
Fanfiction*trigger warning for basically this whole story* After they returned from time, Albus had assumed that everything would work as it always did. Maybe with a little bit of change. That little bit of change was one of the biggest things Albus had ever...
