The Black Rose

Chapter 1: The Shadow

The solid floor of concrete shook before it split in two and fell towards the ground, joining the layers of smoke and crumbled pieces of debris. Scorpius panted as he kept running, the sound of his footsteps becoming quicker and quicker as he panted and panted for breath. But he didn't stop running. He kept his eyes forward and kept highly alert of his surroundings.

Thunder rumbled from above in the dark clouds as the sound of a strong gust of wind made itself known to Scorpius' ears. The young Malfoy's eyes widened in fear as he searched for the nearest rubble and hid himself behind the broken piece of concrete, possibly from a building before and looked up to the sky. Surely enough, Scorpius had narrowly managed to escape as the trail of black smoke along with the sound of roaring wind came into the skyline view. Scorpius kept insanely still, not daring to take his eyes away from the shadow in the sky and kept quiet.

The shadow hidden among the clouds made a series of spins and turns, seemingly searching for someone, before rising up even higher and stopped. A ball of light came from its wand as multiple spells were fired towards the ground, and some hit the buildings, exploding below and lighting up the dark apocalyptic city. Rubble and debris flew everywhere, but nonetheless, Scorpius remained alert as the wind from the force of the spells blew his platinum hair. He didn't move.

The figure in the sky made another series of spins in the air and stopped, before finally turning around and disappearing amongst the clouds. Scorpius followed its movements closely before blinking twice, and resumed running.

He ran and jumped over bits of debris and rocks, hiding behind them whenever he heard something unusual and continued his journey without ever looking back. Until finally, he arrives upon a old factory building. He finally stopped and stood in front of the old factory, looking around him before letting out a sigh of relief that he was alone. His ragged pants for breaths were audible from all the running, he took one look at the old metal steel door leading to the inside... and let out a smile.

...

The gears to the machine whirred as Hermione stood beside it in intense concentration, typing on the computer while casting spells at the moving machine. She flipped through the screen of the tablet as she glanced back and forth between the machine and the tablet, casting more spells along the way when a voice from the door caught her by surprise

"Aunt Mione!"

She glanced towards the voice with a gasp before seeing Scorpius Malfoy standing by the back entrance of her laboratory, a small smile on his face as Hermione's face brightened and she smiled in delight.

"Scorpius!"

Scorpius smiled back warmly at her and slowly made his way down the metal staircase that led to Hermione and the machine.

"Oh thank goodness, it's great to see you." She smiled at him. "You're looking well."

"More or less." Scorpius chuckled rubbed the back of his head. "And you haven't changed a bit, Aunt Mione. Looking as beautiful as always-"

Scorpius' sentence was cut off midway as his attention was on something else. A strangely shaped transparent container was settled on the end of Hermione's machine and inside was a strange type of glowing purple liquid, only filling up halfway of the whole container. Hermione noticed this and let out a sigh.

"That should be enough to make a one-way trip." She sounded worn out.

"That's all of it?" Scorpius sounded shocked. "After an entire year of work?"

"Come on, don't look so upset. Let's stay positive." Hermione smiled brightly at him. "A one way trip is all we need. We just need to get you and Albus there, it's the best we could do."