Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Unfortunately.

Author's Note: This is written especially for whirlwinds of watercolours, courtesy of the Gift-Giving Extravaganza 2013. I hope you enjoy it!

Also being submitted to the Popular Songs Competition (Die Young - Write about the next generation).

Lily's return to consciousness was quick.

Her eyes snapped open, and she instantly took in her surroundings. She was in a cell, or a dungeon of sorts; three of the walls were made up of bars, and the fourth - the back wall - was solid stone or concrete. The bars were close enough together so that Lily would never be able to slip out, no matter how much weight she lost, and large enough so that there was no hope of breaking them or moving them without magic. The lock on the barred door was equally imposing; Lily knew she would never be able to break through that, either.

The dungeon was sparse and bare. A hole in the floor was the obvious toilet, and a thin, ratty blanket had been shoved halfway through the door, but apart from that, there was nothing in the cell apart from Lily. It was small, as well, perhaps eight feet by eight feet. The cell looked as though it had been built in a normal - albeit empty - basement, and Lily sighed. She could be anywhere - but then, at the moment, where she was wasn't necessarily her concern. The main problem was the fact that she was locked up.

She remembered what had happened - they hadn't messed with her mind at all, and the attack had been straightforward. She had Apparated directly from the Ministry, where she worked as an Auror, to Scorpius's house. The wards required her to Apparate on the boundary of the land, as opposed to into or right next the house, and she had done so as normal. Almost as soon as she had appeared at the edge of the property, three figures - their faces unrecognizable in the darkness - had jumped out at her, and one of them had Stunned her.

Apparently, they had taken her here while she was unconscious. That, too, meant she could have been anywhere; even though a Stunner didn't leave one unconscious for long, especially somebody healthy and young like Lily, it was still enough time to easily Apparate anywhere and stow her in this basement cell. The more important question was why - but then, it really wasn't too difficult.

Lily wasn't exactly the most low-profile individual. In addition to being an Auror - a dangerous job as it was - she was the daughter of Harry Potter, the most famous person in the Wizarding world. She was also related to several other famous people: all her aunts and uncles were war heroes in their own right, her cousin Freddie was a professional Quidditch player, and both Lucy and Hugo were writers. The Weasley-Potter family was made up of rich famous people, and Lily knew that there were many people who either wanted their money, disliked them, or wanted revenge for what the Light side had done in the war.

It was bad. Lily had seen enough kidnapping cases in the Auror business to know that most people who had been kidnapped did not return. A flare of panic surged up inside her; her instinct as a former Slytherin was to preserve her own life at all costs, and the possibility of dying was one that she fought at every turn. Lily Potter did not want to die - in fact, despite her occupation, she hadn't even accepted the possibility. She was determined to fight. Being wandless and locked in a cell, however, barely even gave her a chance to fight.

She kicked the door, feeling ridiculously childish as she did so. She was angry - not just with her attackers, but with herself. She was a grown woman - she was an Auror, for Merlin's sake. Getting kidnapped was not something that was supposed to happen to twenty-two-year-olds, especially not twenty-two-year-old Aurors.

Lily heard footsteps; her gaze snapped toward the stairs, and she backed up against the wall as two men approached the cage. Both of them were dressed entirely in black, and - bad sign - both of their faces were uncovered. She recognized neither of them, and promptly worked on memorizing their features. One of them was roughly her parents' age; the other seemed much younger, probably only a few years older than she was. The younger one was carrying a camera, and the older one already had his wand out. His nose was crooked; she wondered who had broken it.

"Lily Potter," he said. His voice was rough and deep. "Little Lily Potter...I'm sure your father will be very interested to hear where you are."

"What do you want?" Lily focused all her energy on making her voice sound strong, even though she was trembling. "I haven't done a thing to you - I don't even know who the hell you are, but -"

"It doesn't matter who I am to you," the older man said. "I didn't take you for you, stupid girl. I only care about getting at your stupid father, at the stupid Auror Department - at them all. You're nothing to me - you're a pawn in my chess game. And you know what happens to the pawns?" He was right at the dungeon now, so close that if Lily had moved to that side and stuck her hand through the bars, she could have touched him. His voice lowered on the next words. "They end up dead."

Lily couldn't stop the shudder that time, and the younger man must have noticed, because he glanced at the older one. "Shouldn't we be getting on with this?" he said. "I have...something to do."

"Someone, more like," muttered the older man, but he nodded, pointing his wand at Lily. "Smile for the camera, little girl - Crucio!"

Lily yelped as the curse struck her, her legs collapsing underneath her body so that she slumped against the wall. The curse was like nothing she'd ever felt before - pain beyond pain, indescribable agony that swallowed her up, knives piercing her body, fire burning her up and leaving everything around her untouched. She could see the camera flash - several times - through her half-closed eyes, and she tried to contain herself, clamping her mouth shut so that she would not scream - wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

She didn't know how long he held the curse - forty-five seconds was her guess. She only knew that when he finally lifted it, she panted for breath, rolling over onto her hands and knees, shaking from the aftereffects and the shock. That wasn't something that happened - even to Aurors. She had never felt the curse before, and she hoped with all her being that she wouldn't feel it again.

From the look in the older man's eyes, she somehow doubted that.

"Go develop those pictures," the older man said. "You know where to send them."

Just like that, they disappeared upstairs, and Lily was left alone once again, with only her thoughts to torment her now.

o0o0o

"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Malfoy." Auror MacDougal snapped her notebook shut, sliding it into the wide pocket of her Auror robes. Scorpius watched her numbly. "We will be in touch - and I promise, we will do all we can."

She hovered there for a moment, as though she expected Scorpius to do something - shake her hand, probably, or open the door - but he didn't make a move to get up, and she saw herself out. The door creaked shut behind her, and Scorpius sighed, sinking back into the couch, slumping down even further than he had been already. This sucked. This royally, absolutely, sucked. The fact that Lily was missing was something that he couldn't even comprehend, even though he had been the one to notify the Aurors when she hadn't shown up at his house.

After all, it was Lily. She was badass - and despite the fact that, as her boyfriend, he knew he was biased, he truly believed it. She was a talented Auror, albeit new. She was a firecracker, bold and confident for a Slytherin. This couldn't be some random, ordinary kidnapping - because if one person alone had attacked Lily, the chances of them overpowering her were pretty doubtful. She would have had time to Apparate away, at least, if it had been only one person. This had to be something more serious than just some pervert who thought Lily was hot. This was bad.

He could feel his eyes getting wet, and he furiously wiped them, throwing himself to his feet and pacing around. He hated not being able to do anything. He hated that - for once - the family money wouldn't help in this situation. He hated the fact that he couldn't help; there was no way he could assist the investigation, because he had no training in, well, anything. His time after Hogwarts had been spent in typical rich-boy fashion: traveling for several months, then returning home and enjoying a completely unproductive life. Normally, he enjoyed it - but now, it was infuriating.

"Damn it," he whispered to nobody in particular. The sound seemed to echo in the room. "Damn it all to hell." He thought back to Auror MacDougal; she had had this look in her eyes, the look of somebody who had already begun to lose hope. He knew that the Auror Department would put a lot of work into solving this case - the fact that Harry Potter's daughter had gone missing was something that couldn't be taken lightly - but it was still a bad feeling to see it in an Auror's eyes that they didn't believe anything would come from the investigation.

Scorpius looked around the house; it felt empty and large. Malfoy Manor was large and empty at the best of times, but it had always felt less so when Lily was there with him. The house had become his when he turned eighteen; he had asked if he could get his own flat, and his parents had decided to move out and leave Scorpius the house, citing his father's bad memories there as an excuse anyway. It had been a generous gift, one he appreciated, but now, at this time, it just felt uncomfortable.

He was just about to find Rose, or Al, or Leda, and ask if he could spend the night, when a head appeared in his fireplace, and he jumped backwards about four feet.

"Nice one, Scorpius." Leda's black hair contrasted sharply with the flames that surrounded her face. "Same coordinated person you were in Hogwarts, huh?"

"This isn't the time." Scorpius's voice was harsh, and Leda frowned, a mixture of curiosity and horror growing in her dark eyes. Leda's mind almost always jumped to the worst possible situation; she saw a lot of worst possible situations in her line of work as a Hit-Wizard (Hit-Witch? Scorpius was always confused about what to call her).

Leda's head disappeared, and moments later her whole body appeared in the fireplace. She awkwardly unfolded her tall, wiry frame from the fireplace and walked over to Scorpius. "What on earth is going on?" She scanned the room, then tilted her head slightly, obviously listening for nonexistent noises. "I thought Lily was going to come over."

"Lily's missing." Scorpius couldn't say more than that; he felt a lump in his throat, and he sat down heavily on the couch. Leda sat near him, her eyes wide.

"Lily? Missing? Who on earth could kidnap that girl without her eviscerating them?"

Scorpius wasn't particularly in the mood to hear anything about evisceration or other injuries; just hearing the words made him think of Lily being hurt and injured. "Don't, Leda," he said.

She shrugged. "How long has she been gone?"

He checked the time - ten o'clock. "She was supposed to come here at seven," he said. "Never showed up. She gets off work at seven-ish, so I guess she's been gone for about three hours."

Leda brushed a strand of curly hair back from her face. "Aurors come already?"

"They left not even ten minutes ago. Merlin..."

"Shit," Leda said, "I'm sorry, mate. This is rough." Even Leda - untouchable Leda, who had seen some pretty horrible things - looked a little shaken up; Scorpius reminded himself that Leda was friends with Lily as well, and that this couldn't be easy for her, either. "Look, Scorpius, if there's anything you need -"

"You busy tonight?"

"Nah."

"Can you stay?" It was a purely platonic question. Scorpius had absolutely no interest in Leda - even if she hadn't been with Al, she was still related to him in a way that was close enough to make it uncomfortable-sounding. They had been friends since the age of eleven, however, and he ranked her right below Lily when it came to people that he trusted.

"'Course. Not like I go out every night." Leda flicked her wand in the general direction of the kitchen; a few seconds later, a bottle of Firewhiskey floated out. Scorpius rarely drank it, but Al had bought it for him for his last birthday, and he had decided to keep it around in case it was ever necessary. This, Scorpius thought, was a necessary situation. "You sick?"

"Nope."

Leda opened it and took a long swig straight from the bottle. "To Lily getting back safe."

"To Lily getting back safe," Scorpius echoed.

o0o0o

Lily had tried everything.

As soon as the two men had left, she had examined the whole cell, checking for some possible way out. She didn't expect one, but Auror training had drilled it into her head to be thorough. The process didn't take very long, considering the size of the cell, and finally she dragged the blanket to the back of the cell. It was pleasant enough outside so that she wasn't cold, and she instead wadded it up and placed it underneath her head as a pillow.

It took a while to fall asleep. Half of her instincts were telling her to stay awake and alert; the other half were telling her that she was going to be there a while, and she would need to sleep sometime. Arguably, this was the smartest time to sleep - the people keeping her prisoner had just came down, so it was likely they were going to leave her alone for a while, and chances were that they slept nights as well. She didn't think she would ever get some sleep, but after a few hours, she drifted into unconsciousness, plagued by nightmares.

When she woke up, she was glad that she still had her watch on. The lack of windows in the basement made it impossible for her to tell - even vaguely - what time it was; she would have estimated any time between three and eight in the morning, but discovered that it was six. Any other time, she would have rolled over and tried to fall back asleep; she decided that staying awake for the daylight hours was smart, and hurriedly used the hole-toilet before anybody could come downstairs.

The whole situation was still mildly confusing to her. The older man had mentioned both her father and the Auror Department, and she couldn't be sure exactly what his plan was. It was absolutely infuriating to be on this end of a criminal scheme; she was always the one who was catching the people who did this, not the person on the receiving end of it. She felt helpless and weak, and more than anything, it bothered her. Lily had spent almost her entire life learning things so that she wouldn't be such a damsel in distress, and now -

She kicked the wall; it didn't do anything, but it felt good. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't had supper last night, but she didn't allow herself to focus on that. She had a feeling that starvation would not be the preferred method of killing her.

Lily was right; the younger man came, a couple hours after Lily had woken up, and brought her an apple. He threw it through the bars of the cage - how perfect did his aim have to be for that? - and she caught it neatly, rubbing it with her shirt before hurriedly eating it. Another thing that was taught in Auror training: if food is available in a bad situation, eat it, because it's always unknown when the next food will come.

She tossed the core in the hole on the floor, and sat back down against the back wall. Her mind flicked to Scorpius. Surely he had been the person to inform the Aurors when she hadn't shown up - hopefully he had assumed that she was in danger and not just skipping out on him. Having the Aurors looking for her was definitely a good thing, but finding her could take days or weeks, and she wasn't sure if she had days or weeks to live.

That thought just made her frantic again, and she pushed her mind back to Scorpius. They had started dating in her last year of Hogwarts, when she had come home over Christmas holidays. It had only gone on from there, lasting all this way - almost five years, she realized. In three and a half months - if she made it - they would have been dating five years.

If she made it.

o0o0o

"Scorpius?"

Scorpius jumped again, glancing over at the head in the fireplace. Why did everyone insist on sticking their bloody heads into his house? His own head ached, and he glanced ruefully towards the Firewhiskey bottle on the table; there was not much of it left. Leda and him had both fallen asleep on the couch, her on one end, him on the other, and she was still there, sprawled out. Scorpius looked over at the head. "Hey, Mr. Potter."

"It's Harry," said Harry Potter, in a tone of voice that suggested he had corrected Scorpius on this before. "Can you come over for a moment? I think you need to see this."

Scorpius nodded. "Give me a second, sir." Harry nodded; his head disappeared, and Scorpius walked over to Leda. "Oi," he said, nudging her foot. "Wake up."

Leda's eyes opened slowly. "There better be an amazing reason for waking me up before ten, Malfoy, or -" She didn't finish the threat. "What is it?"

"I have to leave," Scorpius said. "I'll be right back, though."

"Okay. I should freshen up, anyway." She stood up and headed towards the loo; Scorpius stepped into the fireplace, and soon after, he had spun out into the Potters' sitting room.

It felt weird to be there without Lily. He had been friends with Al before Lily, but even then, young Lily had trailed them around. Al and James were there, both looking very grave; Al looked as though he had been crying, and James wore an expression that was the most serious look Scorpius had ever seen on him. Mrs. Potter wasn't there, but he could hear sobs from another room; Harry kept glancing in that direction, as though he wanted to go and comfort her. Finally, he nodded towards his son. "Show Scorpius," he said. "I think he deserves to know what's going on."

He hurried into the other room; Scorpius could hear him trying to comfort his wife, although he couldn't make out the words.

"What's going on?" Scorpius asked. "Did the Aurors -"

"Bloody idiots haven't found her yet," Al said, with a sideways look at James. Normally, Scorpius knew, James would have protested the use of 'bloody idiots' to refer to Aurors. Normally, James would have protested Scorpius's presence in the house; although he had mostly accepted Scorpius's role as Al's friend and Lily's boyfriend, he usually couldn't resist the occasional jibe. Not now, apparently. James looked completely somber. "But today...we found these on the front step." Al reached toward the table. Scorpius could see a few photographs, but they were turned facedown. "Here."

Al gave the photographs to Scorpius, who inhaled sharply. Lily. Without a doubt, it was her; the photos were of good enough quality that it was clear. She was in some sort of dungeon, collapsed against the back wall, her mouth open in the throes of agony. In normal fashion, the photograph was moving, and it was painful to watch Lily go through such torture. Scorpius could feel his eyes watering. "Oh, shit," he said. "Shit."

He put the photographs back on the table, facedown so that none of them had to watch the image in real time - of course, it was being replayed over in Scorpius's mind, and he was sure that the same was true for Al and James. The three young men couldn't have been more different, but for once, they had found one thing in common - they all loved Lily, albeit in different ways, and they all wanted her safe. "The Aurors came to check out the photographs," James said. "They took a couple back, to see if they could be traced in any way, but..." He let the sentence trail off, shrugging. "I-" His voice broke, and he closed his eyes. "Merlin."

"I know," Scorpius said quietly.

o0o0o

"What was that for?" Lily shoved herself back to a standing position. Her whole body ached from yet another Cruciatus Curse that the older man had placed on her, but she'd be damned if she would show any weakness. The younger man was nowhere to be seen, which Lily found rather odd - he was the photographer, wasn't he? Taking pictures of her torture so that the photographs could be sent to torment her family? That was the goal, wasn't it?

The older man shrugged. "I have a prisoner in my basement. It's always important to practice spells, you know, or you lose them."

"You're using me as curse practice?"

"You aren't here solely for that purpose. I'm merely taking advantage of your presence in order to improve my abilities."

"Sadistic bastard," Lily muttered, and this time, when he flung the curse, she dodged it, ducking and rolling. Her body slammed against the bars of the left wall, but the curse missed her; she flung herself up again, right to the front door of the dungeon, where the man was. She stuck her arm through the bars and grabbed for his wand, but his perfectly-timed spell flung her backwards. Her body hit the back wall; stars danced before her eyes, and she collapsed to the ground, fighting to remain conscious.

His next curse shocked her back into full consciousness as pain exploded all over her body.

Dear Aurors, come find me, please.

o0o0o

"They have a lead."

It was Leda giving the news. She hadn't even bothered to stick her head through the Floo Network and see if Scorpius was home; she had simply popped into his parlor, brushing soot off of her Hit-Wizard (Witch?) robes. It had been a few days since Lily's kidnapping, and Scorpius had been going back and forth the past day, trying to decide whether or not there was a chance Lily was still alive. His heart said yes (or rather, 'please, yes') but his mind said probably not. "And?" Scorpius said, throwing himself off of the couch. He stumbled slightly - he had tapped into the liquor cabinet earlier - but regained his balance.

"They're sending a team almost immediately." Her words rushed together. Leda didn't normally talk so fast; Scorpius wondered if she was even supposed to be here. "Apparently the Aurors - I don't even know. I'm guessing they traced the photographs somehow, but I don't know their methods."

"Who is it?" Scorpius asked, his hand slipping into his pocket and pulling out his wand.

Leda huffed. "Whoever it is, they're holding her on the Nott property. I'll see you -"

"I'm coming."

"You're mad." Leda's words were point-blank, delivered in the same rapid manner. "You can't go - you're a civilian. You'd be dead in a second."

"Please." Scorpius's voice was plaintive. He couldn't imagine waiting here, knowing that a team was going in to rescue Lily - or, at least, bring her kidnapper to justice - but not knowing the outcome. Any other instance, he would have described it as exquisite torture (a phrase he had also previously used to describe essays and early mornings), but he was now rethinking his use of the phrase. "I have to - Leda!"

She whirled on the spot, and he leapt forward, grabbing hold of her sleeve just as she Disapparated.

The two of them popped into a room Scorpius didn't recognize, but seeing its bareness, he instantly understood its purpose; it provided a place for people to Apparate right into the Auror Office, without actually Apparating into the offices themselves, which would pose a security threat. Not a whole lot of people knew about it, and as a result, couldn't go there; one could only Apparate to a place they could visualize, after all. Leda glared at Scorpius. "You are an idiot," she muttered, and stalked out of the room, Scorpius trailing behind her.

Leda led the way - although she probably didn't appreciate leading him - to another room. It seemed to be a briefing room of sorts, as it was mostly bare except for a table. The meeting seemed to be getting over, and Auror MacDougal raised her eyebrows at Leda and Scorpius. "Miss Lestrange - "

"Leda," Leda corrected. "And he dragged his sorry arse along, for the record."

"I want to help," Scorpius said, feeling very Gryffindor-ish at the moment. "That's my girlfriend that you're all rescuing, and I have to - I have to see -" He took a deep breath. "I can't let somebody else tell me what happened. I need to see it for myself, whatever it is." If Lily's dead. "Please."

Auror MacDougal sighed heavily. "We don't have time for this at all. Miss - Leda - he's your responsibility. This is completely against protocol, but as I'm the Auror in charge of this...just this once, Mr. Malfoy, and don't expect such leniency in the future. I'm still half-tempted to lock you in here."

"I vote for that," Leda said, with a pointed look at Scorpius, who ignored it.

"Alright," Auror MacDougal said, "we're off."

o0o0o

It was late - or, what passed for late now. Lily had started attempting sleep around ten most nights, as they never bothered her after that time, and it was now ten-thirty; yet something was keeping her from even trying to sleep. She sat against the back wall, the blanket drawn around her. Her body ached; after her attempted attack on the man, he had taken to cursing her more and more frequently, each session worse and worse, the effects lingering much longer than they were supposed to. She felt exhausted and woozy.

A bang issued from upstairs, and she tossed the blanket off. The soreness of her body prevented her from what her Auror instincts screamed at her to do: stand up and be prepared for anything. The bang had cleared her mind a little, though, and she listened intently for any noise, anything at all, and -

The basement door slammed open, equally loud, and the older man - her torturer - ran down the stairs, right to Lily's dungeon. He stood next to it, his wand pointed at Lily. She judged the distance; it wasn't close enough for her to grab through the bars. He had already made that mistake once, standing too close; apparently he was smart enough to not do it again. Footsteps thundered down the stairs, a group of Aurors and Hit-Wizards, including Leda Lestrange and what the hell was Scorpius doing there?

"Come any closer," the man thundered, "and she's dead."

"Stupefy!" Five different Stunners - Auror MacDougal, Scorpius, and Leda being three of the casters - hit the man, and he collapsed, unmoving. Scorpius rushed over to Lily's dungeon, his wand snapping the padlock and opening the door within seconds.

"Lily," he murmured, as the others rushed over to the man. "Lily, are you - oh, Merlin, I can't believe you're here, you're safe -"

Lily maneuvered herself into his arms. He was safe, warm, and comforting; it had been days since she felt anything so wonderful. She tilted her head upwards, and brushed his lips with her own, a light touch only. She had no idea why - or how - he was even here, since civilians were rarely allowed on Auror missions, but she certainly wasn't going to complain about it.

It would take a while to fully recover from this experience; it would be easier, though, with Scorpius by her side.

Yes, I left it rather open-ended. This is namely because I didn't want to go into the full story of Lily recovering from the experience and all of the interrogations and Auror procedures, etc. Basically, the reasons that Lily's kidnapper mentioned in the first section - hating both Harry Potter and the Auror Office in general - are correct, and those are the reasons behind his crime.