Zander's pov
After end of semester. At Zander's home

I closed my trunk after placing the last thing in and closed my eyes, trying to ward off the headache that had sprung up. I had been getting more and more of those lately. The girl told me it was because our connection was getting shaky and that took a toll on our heads.

"Think fast!"

Without flinching I snatched the ball from the air that Matt threw at me.

"Dude!" He laughed. "That was cool!"

I smiled.

They had come over to help me pack and move. We were going to go to Diagon Alley after to hang out.

"Ah ha!" Millie wiggled out from under my bed and held up a Slytherin scarf victoriously. "Found it!"

I took it from her and put it on, dramatically flinging the ends over my shoulders. She laughed as I helped her up.

"Z, I can't believe you already have a job," Matt said as I tossed the ball back. "I mean, you haven't even taken your N.E.W.T.S. yet."

"Well, I passed my O.W.L.S.," I said innocently.

"How'd you do that, mate? I barely passed!" Matt asked, throwing his ball up in the air and catching it. He had gotten on the quidditch team during the school year now that his brace was off, but he still limped.

Don't blame yourself.

"Gah!" I dug my fingers into my temples.

"What?" Millie asked, concerned.

"N-nothing. Headache."

"If you say so."

"Look, I think I got it here," I said, smiling. "All I need to do is transporting and luckily I just passed the apparating test."

"Lucky," Matt tossed the ball in the air again. "I flunked."

I shrugged. "Should we go?"

They nodded and Millie and I grabbed Matt and apparated to Diagon Alley.

We walked over to the ice cream shop, ordered some ice cream, and talked as we ate.

"Oh my gosh!" Millie said as she looked at the clock. "Is that really the time?! I've got to get home!"

"It's about time I get home to," Matt said.

I knew they forgot about paying so I slipped enough money on the table for all of us without them noticing.

"I'll apparate you home," I told Matt.

"Oh, no need," Millie grabbed Matt's arm. "You get to your new home."

"Thanks, Mil. See you two later."

"Bye!" They chorused and then disappeared.

I quickly apparated back to my father's house. I had apparated into the hall that had the stairs that led to my bed room. I walked up the stairs and using my wand floated my luggage downstairs. A latch came undone on my trunk so I bent over and re-latched it. When I stood my father stood there. He looked determined.

"Zander, I've decided something."

"Have you?"

I considered the best way to transport everything.

"Yes. You are going to stay here."

"Am I?"

Maybe I should take the trunk first.

My father could tell I wasn't listening.

"Hey!" He grabbed my shoulder and, without meaning too, I flinched away. He didn't seem to notice. "Listen. I want you living here. You are the Whitehurst legacy and I'm not going to let you throw the name through mud."

I glared at him. "I don't really care about the Whitehurst name!"

"You'd better care!" He grabbed my shoulder.

I threw his arm off. "Don't. Touch. Me."

I could feel my anger bubble. I pushed it down.

"You're my son! I can do what I want with you!"

I leaned forward in his face.

"I AM NOT YOUR SON!"

He suddenly struck me across the face, hard. I fell on my hands and knees and froze, my jaw began to clench and unclench.

"Zander, you can not be like this!" He yelled.

I stared at the carpet and finally, after many years, I let it rise.

"Mr. Whitehurst, you shouldn't have done that," I whispered. I slowly turned my head to look at him. I began to shake and black mist curled around me.

He stepped back. "Z-Zander?"

I slowly stood.

"You," I seethed. "You left me. You only want me to be your legacy. But I am more than a family name."

Zander, what are you doing?

I ignored the girl and continued to talk slowly.

"I was physically abused, did you know that?" I asked. My father blinked and lowered his head a little. I couldn't tell if he was ashamed or scared. "Yeah, you know now. If you had maybe called or at least sent an occasional letter you would have known."

Zander! Stop! Now!

I blocked our connection and let my body slowly turn to the black mist inside of me.

"And then it turns out my father is alive and a wizard," I continued. "I was raised being lied to and then I'm supposed to forget it?"

"Zander, calm down," my father said, putting his hands out as if to stop me.

I laughed. "You know, he tried to kill me? My step-father, the abusive one. He almost did too. But I burst."

"B-burst?"

"It's funny," I laughed again and smiled insanely. "He didn't go to jail, he went to an asylum. When the police arrived at what was left of our home he was screaming about a big fog! He said I had turned into a black fog with a face and torn the place up!" I laughed again. "He somehow forgot it and went to prison."

My father stepped backwards and tripped. I looked over him.

"Somehow or other, he was found dead. No one knows how. He looked really beaten up and half the jail was torn to pieces, but no one knows how."

He pulled out his wand and I easily disarmed him with my wand.

"Best part of this all is some lady senses I have I have strong powers so she killed my friends and their families as ransom. But she has no idea what my powers are. Do you know?"

"You're an Obscurial!" My father breathed.

"Yeah," I said as the red light started to show through my skin. "And you're a dead man."

And I burst.

***
Millie's pov

We apparated to Matt's house and realized at the same time that we had both forgotten our Hogwarts scarves at Zander's.

"Let's go back?" I suggested.

We apparated near Zander's house but not as close as I wanted.

"You need to work on it," Matt observed. "Didya splinch yourself?"

I checked myself. "Nope."

"Let's go, then!"

We raced to Z's house and stopped at the front step. Matt was about to knock on the door when the house shook.

"What was that?" I asked.

We peeked in the window and gasped. Mist curled around Zander and his skin was slowly cracking and turning into the mist, revealing a weird red light underneath, and his eyes were turning white. He loomed over his father who was on the ground.

"He's an Obsurial!" I screamed and apparated to Zander's father as Zander burst into the raging mist. I grabbed Zander's father and apparated away just before it touched us.

When we appeared at the place I had apparated to a few minutes before I realized I had left Matt. We looked at the Whitehurst household as obscurial Zander beat it to ruins. Matt was somewhere under it all. A second later Matt suddenly popped out of the ruins and ran towards us.

Zander seems to sense we had left and he started to barrel towards us.

"Run!"

We did. Mr. Whitehurst was the closest to Matt so he grabbed him and apparated away. I was about to do the same when I suddenly stopped and turned around.

"Zander!" I yelled.

The cyclone froze just a foot away from me.

"Zander, it's me! Millie!"

It moved slightly.

"Zander, please! Calm down!" I continued. "You of all people should know that taking your anger out on someone else is the worst possible thing you can do! Your step-father did that for years, didn't he? You have always stayed away from stuff that will make you be anything like him, right? But now look at you."

He stirred in agitation as I began to raise my voice.

"Look at you! You are trying to hurt- trying to kill a man just because you have been hurt!"

Zander's form appeared in the mist. I looked him in the eyes.

"Sometimes people run to the very thing they were running from in the first place. A dog returning to it's sick." I lowered my voice. "I get it, you're mad and confused. You've been lied to and told to ignore the scars that aren't on your body, but on your heart. You look at how the world judges you and pretend not to care. You've been told you're normal, then you're a wizard, then you're a half blood, and then a pure blood, a criminal, and then the son of someone who you are expected to pretend he didn't ditch you in the world. Zander, you've been trying so hard to find yourself... that you've lost yourself."

Slowly the dark fog retracted into Zander until it was just him standing there.

"The world expects so much of you," I pressed on. "And it's not giving you what you need. I understand."

I started to slowly walk towards him. He watched me warily, like I was an animal that could pounce at any moment.

"I understand," I repeated. "You also feel like a monster with this in you, don't you?" I stopped a few inches away from him. "You just want to be loved unconditionally, to not be used. You want the world to see through your perspective and for it to understand you. For the people in it to understand you. You've been putting on a facade all these years so that people won't know more than the obvious. But..." I stepped forward and slowly wrapped my arms around him and he let me. "The world will never do it, will they? Only a few pieces. And if this got out you might even be killed. But I understand. I understand and... I love you."

Zander slowly brought his arms up and rested them on my back, hugging me gently back. By his shaky breathing I could tell he was crying.

"I understand," I whispered soothingly.

"Will you always understand?" He asked.

"Maybe not," I answered. "But I'll do my best. I'll do my absolute best."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

He choked and moved his hand up and a second later I felt the tip of his wand pressing into my skull.

"Oblivarate."

**
Nobody's pov

[Insert pictures of Aurors standing over a wrecked house as they repair it and another of a dirty faced Zander looking around in confusion and shock.]

Boy saves Father and Friends in Monster Attack

Cosmo Whitehurst's home was the scene of an unfortunate accident last Wednesday when a large unknown magical beast beat down his house and nearly killed him and his son, Zander C. Whitehurst, as well as his son's school friends, Millie Marowski and Mathew Ludiker. The ministry is still trying to find out what the beast is but have made no lead way.
Cosmo Whitehurst, Marowski, and Ludiker say the don't remember anything, just waking up and Zander Whitehurst telling them that the house had been attacked. Zander says that he was actually in the middle of moving to his own house with help of his friends when suddenly the house started to crash down and wreck around them. He has quoted as saying "I was re-strapping my trunk when suddenly Millie [Marowski] screamed and I looked up to see the living room collapse on her and Matt [Ludiker]. My father and I tried to dig them out but a beam collapsed on us as well and it knocked my father unconscious. I grabbed my father and I apparated out and I went back and was able to dig out my friends and get them away before the building entirely collapsed on us."
When told these events, Cosmo Whitehurst, Marowski, and Ludiker say they don't remember any of it.
Even with taking into consideration the fact that Marowski and Ludiker's lives have been threatened before, Aurors have decided that there was no foul play.

A/n: Whew, that was fun. In case you didn't get it, Zander erased their memories of him being an Obsurial. I'm going to update soon as I can!