In a rage I stormed through the empty church, kicking the ancient pews and cursed like I never had before.

"Where the bloody hell are you?" I screamed. Suddenly I shivered, my wand hand twitching as it remembered the fatal spell I had just cast. Furiously I shoved the thought away.

I had to! If I hadn't killed Hermione, she would've gone on the kill so many more people than just President Harold. But, as it had been for the last hour, my defense for murdering my mother in-law couldn't shake the guilt and sheer hopelessness. And walking around the deserted church in the middle of the storm which shook London, I was desperate for someone to tell me I had done the right thing; someone had too tell me that what I had just done had saved hundreds of lives.

Because I had done the right thing... right?

After I had killed her, the three Americans who knew the truth said they would meet me here, in this church. Three times I had searched and twenty time I had called. They weren't here, and as time went by the small bubble of hurt and fear that I had successfully lodged deep down a long time ago exploded.

Rose's voice rang like a bell through my head. "Scorpius— do you have to be so naive? It's cute, sure, but one day..."

"You believed that!" Hazel let out her high-pitched laughter. "Like that would ever be true."

They tried to warn me, all throughout my life, I realized with an emptiness in my gut that I had never felt before. They knew that one day I would get in trouble.

The horror swamped through me again and again, and for a moment I thought I might be sick all over the polished tiles in the church. I clasped a hand over my mouth and kneeled on the ground. I shook my head with denial.

"No, no," I moaned. Closing my eyes, instead of seeing black I saw Hermione's face all over, filled with uncharacteristic fear as I sent the spell—. "No," I whispered hoarsely. Stepping to one knee, I blinked hopelessly at my surroundings.

I wasn't brave or noble. I wasn't wise or clever. I wasn't cunning or loyal.

I was stupid.

Suddenly a cold wave of ice went through me, and I realized that I was a Malfoy.

I was Lucias Malfoy's grandson.

The floor was cold beneath my hands, but I still lent my forehead against it anyway. I had done something I had sworn never to do, and I knew that however far I tried to run I could never escape my awful memories.

But I could still try to run from them.

"A church? You really think that a Malfoy would be in a church?"

The voice to answer seemed tired of the other individual. "This is where the last Apparition took place."

"Well maybe he burst into flames as soon as entering."

The Auror's voices echoed throughout the church, and immediately I froze, pinned in-between a pew and the front of the pastor's pulpit. There was nowhere to run. Slowly, tersely, I removed my blackthorn wand from the waistband on my jeans. For a moment I imagined what Hazel must feel like— unafraid of anything.

"You see anything yet, August?"

I nearly dropped my wand, and all of the bravery I just summoned disappeared. I was suddenly afraid of my best friend August.

"Not yet, but I'll tell you— if Scorpius is here, it won't be hard to capture him. He's pretty timid." I bit my lip as I recognized the friend who I had regarded closer than a brother speak.

"Not cut out for a life of crime like his family?"

"That's right." I narrowed my eyes at August's condescending tone.

Dropping to my stomach I peered through the crack between the pews and the floor. Two sets of shoes bordered the set of pews on the right, sweeping it from both sides. August was almost unrecognizable in his Auror jacket, but his bald black head could be stopped anywhere. Another man was with him, one I had never seen.

I tried to Apparate to the abandoned Malfoy Manor, to hide from them. But I couldn't. I stayed in the same place. August yelped, as if something had shocked him. My magic. Immediately the two Aurors made eye contact, and renewed their search with added vigor.

Sliding on the floor, I tried to move further away from them, wondering whether to try and Stun them or run. Then my shoes squeaked on the church's polished floor. It seems that nature had chosen for me.

"Do you hear that?" The other Auror said, the hint of a smile in his words.

"Either it's an adventurous church mouse or," August too, had a smile in his response, "It's my old friend."

Notice the word old, I thought, certain that August was no longer the friend who had helped me gain the courage to ask Rose out, or the friend who had helped me understand Ancient Runes through long hours of the night.

The moment the two Aurors stepped closer to my section of the church, I slid on my knees to the aisle, and hoped that nothing would happen.

A crack of blue light, and the pews I hid behind were thrown into the air, smacking the walls and bringing candle-lit chandeliers to the ground. I stood in the middle of the now empty space, oblivious of the objects falling around me.

"Nice entrance," I remarked.

August narrowed his eyes, but didn't move his wand arm from it's resting position at his side. The other Auror, however, raised his wand higher.

"Put the wand down, Scorpius," he snarled. "I'm not afraid to hurt you."

I raised my wand higher and tried to ignore the pounding, echoey sound of my heart.

"Scorpius, be reasonable," pleaded August. "Don't you want to be brought to the Ministry? We can straighten everything out there."

He doesn't believe I killed her. My lips threatened to part into a smile.

Sensing he might have swayed me, August cautiously approached me. "You can't keep running forever," he warned me. "You know that."

I did, but that didn't mean that I wasn't going to stop trying. I was going to run as far as I could, for as long as possible.

There wasn't anything anyone could do to change that anymore.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the other man cast a spell. I saw myself put up a shield spell faster than I had ever done at school or in training. Then I sent a Stunning Spell towards the man. The red beam of light struck him, making him fall to his knees with his face on the floor.

For a moment, August and I made eye contact as two old friends.

Then he raised his wand and sent spell after spell at me. I either reflected or dodged most, but one spell hit me in my wand shoulder, instantly making it numb and useless. I pointed my wand at him with only my elbow being useful.

His Shield Spell was cast a moment too late. He froze in place, his face in a look of horror to see your best friend duel with you after he killed the Prime Minister. Silence cloaked the church, sudden after the barrage of spells that had been cast only a few moments beforehand.

Feeling more guilt and sadness than I had ever in my life, I crossed over to my old friend, whose black eyes stared at me defiantly.

"I'm sorry for what I did," I whispered, my heart slowly breaking. "But this way you won't have to see me again. I'm going to keep running away, just like you said." I pulled away from his furious stare, and walked to the church doors. Then I turned with one last thought.

"August... please tell Rose I love her."

I expected that to be the last time I could ever tell her.