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The Rarest Type of Seer

"Smiling faces sometimes pretend to be your friend / Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within
Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes / They don't tell the truth"

~Undisputed Truth

Chapter 13

No Matter Who You Trust…

Lily walked for hours, contemplating her life's choices (and the choices made for her when she was a baby) and where they had brought her. She couldn't say she wasn't expecting the bond between herself and Scorpius, she had seen it in a vision years before, but that didn't mean she liked it.

She came to an abrupt halt at the edge of her grandparents' property. The brook that Scorpius had fallen in the evening before, curved around this part, and flowed between her and the house. From where she stood she could see the back of the dinner tents and a group of people standing with their heads huddled together. She was certain that one of those people was Thomas McLaggen. 'What in the bloody hell is he doing here?' She cast a disillusionment charm on herself, and moved stealthily to them, making sure not to let her magical signature get away from her.

She skirted trees, jumped over rocks, and slinked over the small bridge. The field was more open here, and she sprinted from where she stood behind a tree over to the side of the tent, close enough to hear the conversation, but still hidden by the corner.

She was not surprised to have her assumption confirmed. Thomas McLaggen was definitely among the group. So was Chase and two others that she did not recognize. They stood around Rose, who was looking terrified. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her eyes were red and puffy. Her nose was running and her hair was not in the sleek curls it usually held. She was bent over with her arms crossing her stomach in a protective move.

(Lily wondered what had happened after she and her friends left the day before. Her main focus had been on getting away from the situation, and then on saving Scorpius. But now she wished she had thought to send one of her cousins to check out the aftermath.)

Thomas was sneering at Rose, and Lily's skin crawled in an automatic, empathetic response. (She didn't even need to be an empath to sense her cousin's fear; it was that palpable.) She wanted to feel some sort of happiness or triumph over the situation Rose found herself in, but some little voice in the back of her conscious mind told her that she was better than that. "Thanks, Cham," she muttered wryly.

"…No, no. Rose is just going to have to go with us. We can't have her messing anything else up," came Chase's smarmy voice (and she was gratified to know that she had been right not to trust him.).

"I didn't mess up though. I did exactly what they said. Ask Thomas! He'll tell you!" McLaggen shifted uneasily and scuffled his feet. Lily couldn't see his eyes from where she stood, but she knew that he wasn't going to step up.

Chase pulled Rose upward, grabbed her hands, and pushed her to one of the lackeys. Henchman one, as Lily dubbed him in her mind, took hold of Rose while henchman two cast a bondage charm on her wrists.

She struggled against them, screaming out, "No! No! But I did it! Dammit! I did what they said!"

"Someone should cast a muzzle on her," one of the henchman muttered. As soon as he said it, Rose stopped struggling and looked at Chase in dawning realization.

"I thought you were friends with Cham and Lily, though…"

"That just goes to show that you know nothing. Come on, I have people that need to be answered to," was Chase's ominous reply.

Rose wouldn't budge no matter how much they pushed and pulled her. (Lily admired her just a tiny bit for that.)

Chase scowled. "You'll find that I am not above using magic to get you to do what I want. You'll also find that I couldn't care less about what type of effect that magic will have on your unborn child." He pointed his wand at her stomach, moved into her personal space, and hissed, "Get moving, Weasley."

Rose made a last-ditch effort to get out of her predicament. "Okay, but think about this for just a second, someone will miss me and come looking. They saw me leave with you, so they'll know that you had something to do with it." Lily could almost feel the sob that was hitched in Rose's throat.

Chase grinned and ran a finger down her cheek, "I'm counting on it."

A sudden movement against Lily's leg caused her to jump against the tent, making the fabric rustle. She looked down to see a silver cat purring and rubbing against her. She nudged it gingerly out of the way.

Chase jerked his head in the direction of the sound. He had a vain hope that the person he truly wanted to capture would stumble into this and save him time. But – no.

'Damn.' "Get moving, guys. And don't you worry, Rosie. You won't be our guest for too long."

Four cracks of apparition rent through the air as they disappeared.

"Bloody f***-ing hell," Lily whispered.

~SL~SL~SL~SL~

Lily quite literally ran into Cham in her rush to get back to Ginny's tree. She knocked the blonde to the ground, falling on top of her, and then rolling off and into a standing position, wand at the ready.

"Whoa. Lils, just whoa. It's cool. It's me. Chill," Cham said, getting to her feet and using her hands in a placating manner.

"Cham? What are you doing out here? I thought you were staying with the others until I got back."

"You've been gone for hours, Lily." Cham's face was twisted in exasperation. "Scorpius is begging to get out of there, and the others are about to go stir crazy." She took in Lily's frazzled form, the windswept hair, heaving chest, fidgeting hands, and asked, "Why are you in such a hurry? Did you find something out?"

Lily stalked past her, assuming she would follow. "Of course I found something. I was right all along. Chase isn't on our side at all. He's part of Lux Lucis, or at least one of their underlings. We need to get to the others."

Cham hurried in front of Lily, and frowned at her. They weren't all that far from the tree now, and the others were spilling out watching Lily and Cham face off with one another. "What do you mean, a part of Lux Lucis? He's one of the most trusted in our school, and one of the few who can walk in the Dream Realm. He wouldn't betray us like that."

Lily sighed. "I mean exactly that. He and McLaggen and a couple of other idiots took off with Rose. They apparated right out of my grandparents' backyard."

There was a gasp from the group. "But, no," Dominique piped in. "You cannot apparate in or out of the Burrow."

"Yeah, and you can't apparate in or out of Hogwarts either, and yet I do it all the time," Lily practically snarled. Her cousins and friends stared at her wide-eyed. "Good Merlin, you guys! It's not impossible, just incredibly difficult. That's all beside the point, though. What I want to know is, why her?

She looked directly at Scorpius, moving toward him slowly, as if coming to a realization. "It's got something to do with you… I know it does – I think I've always sort of known…" she murmured. He leaned against a tree, his head cocked back, head to the sky and his eyes were closed. He was pale and drawn and he looked thoroughly exhausted. (Lily vaguely wanted to know what made them even contemplate saying that he was ready to leave. It was clear to her that he wasn't even near healthy enough yet.)

She grabbed his hand, making his eyes pop open, and she was grateful that for once he wasn't projecting any of his thoughts.

He stared at her, not sure what to think of her sudden contact. "Wha -" he started.

"Don't be ridiculous, Lily," Albus interrupted. "What could any of this possibly have to do with Scorpius.

"What indeed?" A voice asked happily from behind them. They all turned to see Isabelle Zabini walking into the clearing. "Well isn't this a welcoming sight? What have all of you been up to?"

To say that they were stunned would be an understatement. "Wha -" Molly cleared her throat, tried again, and spoke for everybody when she asked, "What are you doing here?"

Isabelle's grin widened. She circled around them, coming to a stop in front of Scorpius and Lily. "Well, well. What happened to you?" She murmured. She cupped his cheek in a playful gesture, making him cringe.

"I fell," He quipped, and then in a tired voice, "What do you want?"

Instead of answering him, she clapped her hands, grin widening, and making Lily think of the Cheshire cat.

"I'm certain our precious 'Lily Love' has been taken good care of you." She moved the hand that had been cupping Scorpius' cheek to trail down Lily's arm. Lily stiffened and pulled as far away as she could. Scorpius wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to his side. She shivered from the warmth of it, but tried not to let her pleasure show.

"Seriously Isabelle," her voice snapped at the unwelcome guest, "What do you want? How did you find us?"

Isabelle's perfectly trimmed eyebrows rose in mock consternation. "Don't you know? Oh, but I guess she just forgot to mention it then."

"What?" Scorpius ground out.

Lily knew, in that moment, from the look of relish on Isabelle's face, that whatever she was about to say would change Lily's entire worldview.

"Cham invited me," she grinned widely. "Didn't you recognize your best friend's kitty patronus?" She tsked and walked away. Lily was shivering for an entirely different reason now. She stared at Cham, trying to suss out what she was playing at, but the blonde was giving nothing away.

Isabelle walked to the center of the group and placed a small stick on the ground. She gestured for everyone to come closer, "Well, come on then. Let's not make this any more difficult than it already is. You want to save your stupid cousin, and I happen to know where she is."

"How do we know this isn't a trap," Albus asked.

"You don't. But I'll tell you that I want no harm to come to my cousin," She glanced at Scorpius. "Therefore, no harm can come to yours. It's a win-win for all of us. Also, it would be a bad idea to confront the Lux Lucis in their own dominion without any insider help."

At their dubious looks, she qualified her statement with, "I"m the insider."

'Marvelous,' was Lily's dry thought, and she was sure that Scorpius had squeezed her a little tighter for that.

A/N: Special shout out to all of you marvelous, most patient readers. I hope the action and tension in this chapter was enough to make up for the long wait. Thank you for all the faves, reviews, and story alerts! You guys rock! I'm glad you're enjoying this!

Reviews and Faves are love!

CHEERS!

~Jeni