--At Hogwarts--

What Scorpius didn't know was that Holly could communicate through the mind. She told Rose. 'Ok, I'm going to lie to him. I don't know what else to do.' She went over to the crystal ball,  looked at it, and as Scorpius said, "well?" she replied, "He's...I.. can't tell. Somewhere... dark."  She looked at him. "That's all." She started to run, signaling Rose to follow, but he blocked the door. "I know you're lying. Tell the truth! What do you see?" He pushed them towards the ball again. "All right," Holly replied. She looked to Rose. "Well, I don't think it'll hurt us." She looked into the ball again. She could really see him, Draco Malfoy. He was pacing, in a big room. Then she saw a woman, with frizzy hair, and a wild look in her eyes. 'Bellatrix Lestrange,' she thought. "He's with....Lestrange. Bellatrix.. Lestrange." Then a boy came in. 'Have I seen him before? Oh! Maybe he's a student?' "And a boy... maybe from Hogwarts?" She continued. "That's all." Her head hurt.  It takes a lot out of you to see the future... She sat down in a chair. "Ugh..." Rose said, " Ok. We've done our part. Now let us out." Holly said she would tell her the rest later. "wait." Scorpius interupted. "One more thing....." 

((Ok. So. Just saw HPB. It deviated a bit but I forgive them because they made up for underusing Bellatrix in OotP. Haha, at the end, when she set Hagrids hut on fire and then danced XD I love Helena Bonham Carter. Seriously. She's *perfect* for Bella.

Hem. I'm alright.

ONWARDS!))

//Scorpius//

Scorpius cursed under his breath. "I know he's with Bellatrix! I need to know where he is!"

"How do you know?" Rose asked curiously.

Sullenly, the boy muttered, "He said so. Floo. Look, please..." Scorpius shook his head. "Please. I think he's in trouble. I- I'm sorry I attacked you. I just- I don't know what to do. And if he's with aunt Bellatrix..."

"She's your aunt?" Holly asked.

"Well, great aunt. But... My dad..." Scorpius lifted his hands to his face, shuddered. "He tells the most awful stories... She doesn't care about anyone except Voldemort. She'd kill her own sister- she almost did kill her own sister- for betraying him. I mean..." He looked up at the two girls, pleading. "If my dad's with her, he's in danger. Please, I have to find him."

Rose stepped towards the ball again. There was Mr. Malfoy, Bellatrix. "They're in... It looks like a dining room? Bellatrix is sitting down. You're dad's pacing. Um..."

"Describe the room," Scorpius said.

Rose pursed her lips. "Could at least say please. Um... It's kind of run down. Very dusty. There's a long table with chairs, mostly broken ones. Some big windows, curtains and cobwebs... It looks like it hasn't been used in years until recently. Like, I can see your dad's footprints."

"Can... can you see the rest of the house? The outside, maybe?"

Rose concentrated. The image zoomed out to reveal an enormous mansion, unkempt and broken down. She said so.

Scorpius let out a whimper and collapsed into a chair, fear making him look much older than eleven.

"Do you know where he is?" Holly asked.

Scorpius nodded slowly. "Lestrange manor. I think."

"Why...?"

"I dunno." Scorpius bit his lip, looking close to tears. "I don't have the slightest clue."

//Draco//

"Would you stop pacing? Bad enough the Dark Lord can't sit still to save his life. You're wearing a hole in my carpet."

"Like it matters," Draco muttered. "More dust than carpet anyway."

"Not anymore," Bellatrix retorted. "Look! You've cleared a trail straight through all the dust."

"You pace," Draco snapped.

"That any way to talk to your dear auntie Bellatrix?" she asked, smirking. "It's my house. I'm allowed to pace."

((ha! A Little Priest just came on!))

Draco glared at her. "It's hardly in a state to be called a 'house' anymore."

Bellatrix shrugged. "Not as if we can fix it up, not with the Ministry running all over the country trying to find me." She laughed, a high, unsettling sound. Draco shuddered. "Now that Potter's gone and announced to the world that I am most definitely not dead." She started to leave, saying over her shoulder, "Don't wear yourself out, darling."

The door slammed heavily behind her, and Draco passed a hand over his eyes. "Why," he muttered to thin air. "Why does she have to be so very exhausting to talk to?"

"I rather think it's genetic," answered a high, cold voice that Draco knew only too well. The Dark Lord stepped out of the shadows. "On the rare occasion that I spoke to Narcissa-" he inclined his head in Draco's direction- "I suffered exactly the same headache your aunt tends to trail in her wake."

"My lord," Draco said tightly, bowing.

The Dark Lord cocked his head to one side, studying the tired man before him. "Why did you answer the call?" he asked quizzically. "Certainly not out of any fiendish devotion..." They both glanced towards the door Bellatrix had exited. "But not fear, either." He narrowed his eyes.

"I... honestly don't know myself, my lord," Draco replied.

"You regret it." It was a statement, not a question.

Draco sighed. "Are you going to kill me, my lord?"

"No. I have rather too few people to rely on to kill you. I may, however, torture you in the near future."

Another sigh, and Draco bowed once more. "I'll keep that in mind, my lord."

The Dark Lord vanished without another word.

//Belinda//

Belinda had been trying to read; she was distracted, however, by a series of crashes and yells coming from Wolfbar's room.

The girl sighed, marked her place in the book, and went to find a quieter place to read. She settled down in one of the parlours, curled up in an armchair, and opened her book once more.

Barely two minutes later she was interrupted once more when Oliver burst into the room, unnaturally pale and scared-looking.

"You know," he said tremulously, "A few months ago I was looking forward to another year of drudgework, trying out for Quidditch, being a keeper..."

"Mm-hm," Belinda said, glancing up at her friend. "And?"

"Why am I here, then?" he flopped into an armchair as he spoke.

"Because you followed me," Belinda said placidly. "Or rather, Dru followed me and you followed Dru."

"Dru's dead!" Oliver shouted suddenly. "Dru's dead! Your hero killed her! Don't you care?"

"Of course I care," Belinda said softly. "But it was nearly a month ago, and if you get stuck on that you're never going to go anywhere."

Oliver snorted. "She's doing this to you, don't you see? Pretty soon, I bet, if you're not careful you'll be just as heartless as she is!" His voice took on a hysterical note.

Belinda just stared at him for a long moment. At last she said, "She's not heartless."

The boy let out a half-scream of mirthless laughter, flung his hands into the air, and fled the room.

//Scorpius//

"What do I do now?" Scorpius inquired of the air. It didn't reply, and the youth sighed and crumpled into an overstuffed armchair.

His gaze fell on the blazing fire. If his father was at Lestrange manor, unable to leave (as was presumably the case, since he was with Bellatrix), that meant he had contacted his family from Lestrange manor, which meant that Lestrange manor was still connected to the Floo network.

With a sudden burst of energy Scorpius launched himself over to the fireplace, searched the small cabinet sitting nearby. He found a small cup filled with the shimmery powder and quickly grabbed a handful. He stared at the powder for a moment, then turned jerkily and threw it into the flames, which flared emerald green.

Scorpius drew a quick, nervous breath, stepped into the fire, and shouted, "Lestrange manor!" as clearly as he could manage. With a swirl of warm air, he was gone...

...and a moment later tumbled out of a new fire, smacking his chin on cold flagstones. He looked up slowly, and found himself staring into the shocked face of his great aunt. The Dark Lord, he noticed with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, was standing slightly behind her, also temporarily frozen by surprise.

The boy made a brave attempt to speak, opening and closing his mouth several times and producing a series of shrill squeaks and gasps. At last he managed, in a tiny voice, "Is my dad here?"

((No offense, but I thought this was a RP! Why is everyone writing as everyone else's character? Sorry I went missing, I was on vacation. I'm also finding this whole thing rather confusing; first Rose sees through the crystal ball and Rose and Holly cry (I think - did they?), then Scorpius appears, then the girls leave, then he starts crying, then Rose goes to comfort him and Holly doesn't want her to, then suddenly it's Holly (not Rose) who can see through crystal balls, then Scorpius makes them look again, then they all forget what Rose saw before (?), then Holly tells Scorpius what she saw even though Rose doesn't want her to, then Scorpius goes to Lestrange manor? Oh well, I'll just assume that's right and post.))

"Why did you have to help him?"shouted Rose. We could have stopped him, I know we could have, both of us put together could have definitely stopped him! Now he has to go and help - him! Is that what you wanted?"

"2 against 1 is not a fair fight," countered Holly. "If it was, I would agree with you, but it wouldn't be right! And I sure can't think of anything else we could have done, can you?"

"We could have at least thought of a more convincing lie. And if he still knew we were lying, we could have just ran."

"You mean like before? That didn't work. I knew it wouldn't, and I only followed you because I wanted to try and get you to come back. I'm not sure what we should have done, but we should have said something. Running is what people do when they're too afraid to face the truth. And that truth is that a father is a father, no matter what. Speaking of familys, I'm going to go write to my mother."

And Holly left. Rose didn't know whether to cry, follow Holly, or write a letter to her own family. After a great deal of consideration, she chose the last option.