At times like these Rose wondered how her life might have been different, had it not happened, if she hadn't snuck out like that. She might not been a Ravenclaw, might not have been a Legilimens, much less an interspecies Legilimens. She probably wouldn't have been as close to Aunt Luna.

She certainly wouldn't be having this conversation with a thestral.

"Find Mate!" Rose blushed as she caught the look in the Dreadshadow's eyes. "Mating Rose less skittish. Un skittish Rose good thing." The thestral filled Rose's mind with the images and feelings of her recent encounter with Leatherwing. Rose felt a blush come to her cheeks and her rate heart increase. She was warmer. "Like unskitish Rose better. Feed now?"

She'd been back ten then. They had been visiting Uncle Charlie in Romania. She'd snuck out, wanting to get a peak of the Dragons. Her nose inside the All Dragon Issue! Of Wizarding Geographic she didn't notice the Hippogriff in the road, literally. When she walked into the grazing hippogriff, it knocked her down and was ready to claw her to death. In the midst of that, Uncle Rolf pulled her out of the Romanian mud and called off Redwing the Hippogriff and made contact.

Anyone could become a Legilimens, but becoming an interspecies Legilimens required the shock of life and death as well as the uncontrolled wild magic and open mind of youth. Since wizards usually refrained from exposing their children to dragons, hippogriffs, manticores where they might kill them, her ability was rare.

Rose dropped the raw meat into the trough. This conversation couldn't go on too long. Her heartbeat would start to match the thestrals and there would be some strain. Such details and nuances were part of her life since that day.

Rose filled her mind with the image of Scorpius's mum, Professor Mal—Greengrass, with the divorce pending; the head of Slytherin had gone back to her maiden name. She was also in residence at Hogwarts over the summer. Her polite disinterest had disappeared for whatever reason and she seemed to be going out of her way to use the situation.

Instead of going to gobble the food, Dreadshadow stared at Rose and drew up the image of a well muscled frame, long blonde hair, blue eyes and a tuft of chest hair. Dreadshadow knew her taste. Come to think about it, even her taste in men went back to Uncle Rolf pulling her from the mud. She'd planned to marry him when she was ten, but while she was waiting he met Aunt Luna (Rose had several honorary aunts and uncles as well two honorary great aunts, one who also happened to be Headmistress). Only Dad taking telling her stories about a bloke named Gildaroy Lockhart Mum had once fancied had gotten her over it.

"Better than wand?" Dreadshadow held the image in front of her and blood rushed through her. Turning what she suspected was a very interesting shade of crimson, Rose turned away, breaking the connection. Taking a deep breath deep, then another she opened her eyes. She checked. No strong urges for raw meat meant her thoughts were her own. She took a few more deep breaths. The image Dreadshadow had shared was still temptingly there.

She turned back to find Dreadshadow staring at Rose with her tongue hanging out in amusement.

The horse swished its tail and took a bite of raw meat as if nothing had happened, but definitely smirking.

I'm being outsmarted by a Thestral.

"Rose!" A voice came from the far side of the Thestral Paddock. Professor Greengrass waved at her. "Ready for our riding lessons?" Now that she was a getting divorced, taking up Hippogriff riding appeared to be her new passion. Considering that Mr. Malfoy hated the beasts, it made a twisted amount of sense.

"Nothing like keeping a flock around to keep your ex away," so Scorpius said. He said a lot about his parents, very little complimentary. Rose and Scorpius Malfoy were good friends. That friendship created, in the words of the headmistress, 'complications'. It was why the Headmistress had volunteered Rose to instruct Professor Greengrass in the care of Hippogriffs.

"Of course." Rose said, gritting her teeth with a smile that was as illusionary as Mrs. Greengrass' chest size.

She wasn't ready. The conversation with Dreadshadow had taken way too long. She still had to feed the Tirsias Snakes. The feathered serpent needed exercise. Edgar had been promised a bath. "Just give me a moment." Not waiting for permission, she turned and walked down the hall of the great barn that opened up to the many paddocks for various magical creatures Professor Hagrid had collected before ending up in St Mungo's. She'd never appreciated just how many before this summer.

"Dizzy!" The elf appeared before her. "Could you check the Snakes and let ChuckzaQuatl out for me."

"Sorry Mistress, I'm ordered not to help in your work anymore."

"What?" The elves looked up at her reproachfully.

"All Hogwarts house elves ordered not to aid you," Dizzy replied, sounding truly sorry. Rose inhaled, wishing she had a sock to give Dizzy.

"Who gave the order?"

"Anything wrong?" Professor Greengrass said clearly, making it clear she was waiting.

"We're ordered not to tell," Dizzy said looking so sad, tear filled eyes filling half her face. Looking right at Professor Greengrass.

The professor stood at the door of the barn, on the edge of Rose's territory.

She took a deep breath, she could not show her temper, not now in front of several creatures who would love to eat her. "No problem, Professor, just getting the saddles."

She turned and started walking. She needed a solution to the latest disruption of her work. Wit beyond measure, wit beyond measure, Rose.

She walked to the end of barn, grabbing the saddle Mum and Dad had given her for Christmas last year when it had become clear that her interest in magizoology was not a passing fancy.

Then she ran into the solution, almost literally. She smiled. Edgar the mammoth had a very agile trunk and was eagerly awaited her as she approached his paddock. She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes.

"Short one ," Edgar greeted her. A few images passed between her and the mammoth, playing, and then bathing in the lake, him squirting with his trunk and her using that same trunk as diving board. He was looking forward to his weekly bath.

Rose filled her mind with the image of the Head of Slytherin House, making it very clear that she hated spending time with the dark haired witch and would much rather be swimming.

"Trample?" The mammoth looked at her and shared the image of Astoria Greengrass under his hooves. Edgar didn't like humans very much, with the exceptions of Aunt Luna, and Hagrid and herself. Seeing as his first experience with the human race had been an out of control Department of Mysteries Time Experiment taking him from the plains of prehistoric Kansas and leaving him in the middle of the M25 express way maybe fifteen years ago, she could understand.

"No, not trample her—or anyone." . She did picture the door to the paddock where he could play and promised she would be back later. Still, Edgar looked disappointed. She filled her mind with the opening of the paddock and Edgar being able to explore all day, provided, her mind filled with the image of the providing water for the Tirsias serpents, and giving Chuckzaquatl, the feathered serpent, flying time. She pictured the lock on the paddock and Edgar's trunk opening the Paddock door, provided she didn't lock the lock. Run, be free for the day?

"Slitherers not mating now?" Edgar asked, referring to the snakes. Tirsias venom during mating season didn't kill you but it was problematic. The accident last fall meant the Slytherin girls dorms were more crowded after a first year boy tried to prove to his friends that he was a parseltounge.

"No." Rose was sure about that one.

"You still owe swim," The mammoth looked at her sternly.

"Agreed," she said, not sure which was weirder, Thestrals were giving her romantic advice or owing favors to a Mammoth.

"Bad Dizzy, Bad Dizzy," She turned. Down the hall had found a riding crop and was whipping herself, probably for being unable to fulfill Rose's request, perhaps on Professor Greengrass' orders. Outside the Barn, Professor Greengrass was smiling, standing, and watching. The Chimera' and the Thestrals had their noses up, sniffing the blood, getting excited.

She turned back to Edgar. "Got to go." The mammoth nodded in reply and she ran to Dizzy.

Professor Greengrass, stood innocently, watching the situation. Every day, there would be an elf torturing itself or Astoria would offer an accidental insult to Whitherwings. Last week four cows she had frozen for the Hippogriffs had ice worms. The next day there would assuredly be something else.

The Previous April--

Rose looked down at the pictures on the mantle behind the desk. Waving and smiling was a proud looking witch with soft brown hair in her wedding gown standing besides a handsome young wizard who, like Rose, couldn't quite keep his tie straight but looked just as proud though slightly more exuberant then his new bride.

A few pictures down a young mother, the future Headmistress, held her newborn daughter, the child's her hair slowly shifting from emerald to turquoise to red.

In another picture the girl, now seven or eight was waist deep in the ocean, splashing her dad, who was laughing and happily splashing back in the surf. The man, Teddy's Grandfather, was older now, just a little plump and his brown black hair was thinner. Another family picture had him playing the spoons to the amusement of both his daughter and wife.

Then her jaw dropped. Mr. Tonks was in his work uniform during his stint at Muggle Worthy Excuses; stripped jumper with red question marks, an umbrella with a matching red question mark handle and a dark suit and what she thought Muggles called a 'Cuba hat' tipped up on his head. But beside him, arm in arm, was a much younger, prettier version of the Potions Mistress, Assistant Headmistress and Hufflepuff Head, Professor Aldred in a short skirt and leggings that had gone out of style years ago and a dark jacket with dozens of Muggle patches sewn on.

She couldn't wait to tell Hugo what she had found out about his head of house.

The next picture that caught her eye was of Nymphadora Tonks, age eleven, waveing from platform nine and three quarters and as yet, no tie. Rose had never met her, yet she felt a connection. Mum had made Rose wear her robes to the platform, almost seven years ago.

In a lot of ways the Headmistress and Mum were a lot alike, straitlaced, not of the same mind as their daughters, but also fiercely loyal. Rose felt a lump in her throat. Headmistress Tonks had taken an interest in her and her advice to her and she suspected, sometimes to Mum that had prevented a rows and eased tensions.

"Ahem." A throat cleared behind her. Rose turned to face the same woman in the wedding picture, her hair now as much gray as brown, a few more age lines, one eyebrow raised.

"Curious?"

"Yes," Evading a direct question seemed foolish, at least in this case.

"It's fine Rose."

Headmistress Tonks, walked forward, her cane bouncing against the floor. Rose hurriedly backed around the desk and stood. Self-consciously, her hand went to the blue tie around her neck. It seemed to be tight and strait. The entire time the Headmistress seemed to be inspecting her. Silently, Rose thanked Meghan Davies; she hadn't noticed her shirt had been hanging out or that her tie was a crooked. Her dorm mate's sense of style and a bit of wand work had saved her yet again.

The Headmistress motioned for Rose to sit down. "The reason I called you here is Professor Hagrid's situation."

He'd been in St. Mungos since March and had written lonely letters to Mum, Dad and Uncle Harry as well as to Rose and Albus. Aunt Luna and Uncle Rolf who had been filling in. Still, she found she was enjoying Aunt Luna's subtle touch combined with Rolf's 'these creatures can kill you if you're stupid' approach to her favorite subject.

"He won't be back until late July at the earliest and he might not be up to full strength. The Scamanders can only stay until June. We need someone to handle things over the summer.

Professor Hagrid recommended you. The Scamanders concur. On their recommendation, I'm offering you the job, for the summer, provided your parents approve."

Rose's jaw dropped. This would be the perfect thing to put on her resume, either as a research assistant with the Scamanders or with Uncle Charlie.

"One thing, Professor Greengrass will be staying up here," Rose nodded. As long it was Professor Greengrass rather then Professor Malfoy, her parents probably wouldn't make the connection to Scorpius' mum.

As they went over the details, which included the riding lessons Professor Greengrass requested Rose was already planning ahead. Scorpius would definitely come up.

She was also sure she could get Albus and Meghan here as well. They were getting serious and for some reason Aunt Ginny seemed uncomfortable, though Rose couldn't figure out why.

Because her dad's a muggle? Things she wasn't supposed hear over the years suggested Uncle Harry's muggle relatives had been cruel to him. Maybe that's what worries Aunt Ginny. It made as much sense as anything.

The quiditch pitch locker rooms, being close to Hagrid's cabin, was where she stored spare clothes and showered when she was done for the day. Today had been latest in a string of difficult days.

She stood, letting the warm water of the shower soak her, thinking. She couldn't get mad out there, the animals would notice. In here she was alone. In here she could think.

The tension between Scorpius and his mum had been palatable since she'd become Charms Professor and Head of Slytherin last year. Rose had thought it akin to the slight disappointment she and Albus sometimes felt from their cousins and uncles as the only non-Gryffindor Weasleys aside from Hugo. She'd been polite, even helpful to all her students, but her comments to Scorpius always had an edge. Thinking about it, she never had seen mother and son together outside class. Looking back, they'd had spent more time in Ravenclaw Tower last year.

Now Professor Greengrass polite non-interest in Rose had been replaced with malevolence. It was worse then that. Scorpius wasn't writing. Albus and Meghan had internships of their own, and they all seemed to be talking less. The whole summer seemed bolluxed up somehow. Turning off the water she grabbed her towel from the rack behind her, and wiped away some tears. She walked over to the lockers and slipped on a pair of jeans and a sports bra. She'd planned wear her green dress and jacket for a night out in Hogsmeade but tired and exausted and frustrated, she didn't feel like it. She grabbed her Cannons jersey instead.

She heard the creak of a door, the same creak she often heard from the men's side. She grabbed her wand. The only people at Hogwarts were the elves, herself, and Professor Greengrass. Some people, such as Uncle/Professor Longbottom, but it was late in the day for that.

"Rose?" The voice echoed over the barrier, but it was familiar, with the same accent as the voice that had been annoying her all summer. But this voice was deep and most definitely male, as it echoed in the changing room.

"Scorp?" She laughed in relief. "What are you doing here?

"Rose—," The voice on the other side rang out. She laughed nervously. "Mum treating you well?"

"Uh---" What could she say to that?

"I'll take that as a no." Scorpius answered for her, "Bleeding bitch."

"Nice to know you love your Mum."

"Not that you don't have Mummy issues."

"Yours seem worse though," Rose replied, and they both laughed. Mum would rather have her interning in a nice safe office at the Ministry. Every once in awhile something she said or did seemed to make the indomitable Hermione Weasley uncomfortable. But Rose knew she and Dad would back her up and in the end and she knew they loved her very much. She didn't think Scorpius had that kind of support.

"You have no idea. Can I come over? You're dressed?"

"You'll have to come and find out," She blushed at that, realizing she seemed emboldened. Casual flirting was what her friends did, a game becoming more and less a game as they got older. She knew there were consequences if they were anything more then that, especially with Scorp. Still, she felt warm inside and she felt the trace of a smile on her lips.

After a few seconds the door opened and Scorp walked in. She stood and leaned forward, giving him a hug. She could feel his warm body under their thin summer clothing. His hands felt the small of her back and she breathed in his scent as they held each other.

Oh my. The knowledge hit her like a revelation. As they parted she looked at him with new eyes. He was smaller, less muscular then Rolf Scamander. He wasn't as rugged as Daring Darian Donarsson, whose poster Meghan had put up fourth year to sway her dorm mates into supporting Tutshell. Scorp was beautiful. Calling a man beautiful seemed odd. No other word seemed to fit.

"I have a Thestral to kill," She whispered. The horse had known just what image to pull from her mind.

"What?" Scorpius said, perhaps a little shocked at his reception.

"Never mind," She likely had as many questions as he. "Why didn't you write," she blurted out as they parted again.

"Mum Obliviated me." Scorpius sounded as if he couldn't believe it. Rose stared. " After the Veritaserum."

"Say again?"

"Mum was looking for something to use in the divorce. So she used Veritaserum," Scorpius struggled, very much like the shy boy he'd been first year and had seemed to revert into at times last year. "I blurted out, among other things, that I love you, I want wild passionate sex and children with you and was trying to figure out how to deal with the fact that your parents hate Father. I hadn't even admitted this to myself, much less her."

Rose's jaw dropped and she backed against the lockers. Still, she held his hands, yet she fell back in shock. They both slid to the floor . Considering that a Thestral had just pointed out that he was her fantasy that took discipline. I love you too? The thought came unbidden and choked in her throat. To say that, to think that, she hadn't allowed herself to do. Snide remarks and worried stares from Mum and Dad as well as uncomfortable introductions had done their work. Away from Hogwarts they were in the habit of demphasizing their friendships. They never went to the other's homes and sometimes neglected to mention if one or the other would be at an outing.

"Don't get too friendly," Dad had once said.

"Forgot how good the stuff was for self revelation. She hadn't given me the serum since I was little. She always thought I was lying back then." Scorpius said, "Father objected, so she Obliviated him." There was more respect then Rose had ever heard for Draco Malfoy in those words. "He tried back then but--" he put his hands up signaling Rose not to interrupt. "Mum couldn't keep her stories straight after so many years. That's how we figured it out."

"That's, Rose struggled, "wicked."

"Yeah." He cocked his head to look at her. " She also wants you dead." He said it as if this was normal, typical. Perhaps for Scorpius it was.

"Say again." Rose wasn't sure she believed her ears.

"She wants you dead accidentally if possible." Scorpius repeated it with urgency.

"Oh," came out of her mouth, but that seemed inadequate. She was used to creatures wanting to eat her. She liked Chuckzaquatl, for instance, but planned to be somewhere else when his once every fifty two year feeding schedule came due in 2064. But no one had ever wanted her dead for her own sake and as the information sank in, the summer began to make a horrible sense. There were a lot of ways to die around Magical Creatures. Being on edge made fatal mistakes more likely and also less likely to be questioned if 'arranged'.

"Why?"

"She's a strict reconstructionist, unlike Father."

She nodded. It must have bothered her greatly that her son was a Ravenclaw while Mr. Malfoy had even been relieved that the family was making a new start. Reconstructionists looked back to 'the positive side' of Voldemort's reign and tried to live as if they hadn't lost the war. As long as they were quiet and behaved themselves, everyone waited patiently for them to die off.

Third year DADA, his Bogart had been his Mum.

As she recalled that last piece of information she was stunned as the revelation unlocked her like a riddle unlocking the common room door. The good daughter, the girl who blushed at a Thestral's lewd suggestion, who even cared that her professor wanted her dead, all of them were beside the point. The most important thing in the world was getting very friendly with Scorpius Malfoy.

"Rose?" She heard the words and turned, as if in a trance. Scorpius was worried. Scorpius needed to be unlocked. She pushed forward and their lips met hesitantly, barely touching. Their tongues met and the kiss, first tenderly then fiercely as their hands began to explore each other.

"Mum know you're here?" She asked as they came up for air; the one question that needed to be answered.

He shook his head.

Their eyes met and in her mind's eye she knew the tunnel he had taken.

"Rose, you're in my brain."

"Trust me?" She said in his mind, looking at him, he could feel his heart racing. She'd never done this outside class, not with a person. She knew this might be an issue, and Scorpius shuddered, but she comforted him and opened herself up and Scorpius could see everything, the little girl crying over spilled ice cream, she and Albus on Christmas day, her first ride on a broom, her accident, her Sorting.

Hesitantly, shyly, he nodded. She opened her mind and now he was inside her, or rather inside her memory. It was a warm summer's day on Puffin Island. Meghan and her father were teaching her to climb, muggle style on the seaside cliffs. She, was looking halfway up a cliff face when a streak came passing by. She looked up to see the streak behind her just in time to see a bludger coming right at her. She pulled herself as close to the cliff face as she could, feeling the rush of wind on her back it went over.

Dr. Davies said something in Welsh that sounded like a curse. She screamed something impolite and turned her head to see whom she should curse. Scorpius twisted and turned and her heart stopped as Scorpius' feet hit the ground and he reversed direction, just in time for the bludger to smash into the limestone floor in a feat of inspired maneuvering that made her forget her anger. Meghan's mum, a former Ravenclaw seeker herself, followed in the in the air and with a flick of her wand another bludger came down at him from the clouds and he turned, just in time to for it to miss the handle.

Rose's scream was one of thrilled joy and Scorpius was inside Rose, experincing it as her.
The scene faded and shifted and it was fifth year, she was sitting at her table at the Valentines Day formal, jilted by Thomas Weatherby. Professor Boot was trying to comfort her, giving a sympathetic lecture about avoiding boys that wouldn't dance with her, didn't dress well, and were obsessed with other girls. After she turned down several Weasely cousins, Scorpius came over and without a word, took her hand and led her to the dance floor.

"It had better only be one dance," she whispered in his ear and he nodded and when the dance was over she graciously returned Scorpius to Amelia Macmillan. Cheered, she spent the rest of the night dancing with Meghan, Jessica and James Potter who she freely admitted was a handsome stud despite being her cousin.

"You evil"---Scorpius had interrupted this memory of one of his own, thirteen year old boys, including Albus where sitting in the boys dorms, all leaning over to get a view Victorie Weasley in Gabrielle Delacour's Wicked Witch Wear Catalog.

"You're the Weasley I want," his younger self said and with that the connection broke. Scorpius put his head under her too loose jersey and his kisses tenderly moved up her abdomen. His lips massaged her breasts with his tongue as she gasped in surprised pleasure as he bit into her tender nipple as his hands lifted her shirt and bra over her head. She heard the clang of the lockers behind her as she fell back against them as each kiss built arousal.

With instinct and boldness she didn't believe her hand reached into his pants and found his hard member while her lips returned his kisses. Her other hand reached for her wand and with a word, and a gasp of surprise from Scorpius, their clothing vanished. In mutual agreement they partook greedily of each other, as their lovemaking, inexperienced but passionate built rhythmically. His hand played upon her clit and she gasped in pleasure, thoroughly wet as he finally entered her, riding her. She gasped in pain as her hymen broke and then wrapped her legs around him, somehow ending up on the hard wooden benches when at last she came, moaning her pleasure to the world.

Draco Malfoy had alerted the Aurors and they came, only to find Astoria Greengrass pinned under the foot of a mammoth, screaming, but untrampled. In time, Headmistress Tonks would apologize profusely to Rose for leaving her alone in the school with a psychopath who wanted her dead.

When a young Auror named Karait walked into the girl's showers she found them, holding each other and looking deeply into each other's eyes. Looking closely, she noticed there were tears in their eyes, but also a smiles. Wisely, she stepped out and told her immediate supervisor that the two of them were safe, but not to be disturbed.

When he asked her where she found them, she mentioned the showers and suggested that not be included in the report to Head Auror Potter or Department Head Granger.

In the private world of their thoughts, Scorpius shared what it had been like to grow up and in Scorpius' world was not near as pleasant as her childhood had been.

The little boy lay in bed. Dad had been away, so Mum hadn't allowed him to eat today. He'd knocked over a vase, a genuine Tang dynasty antique. "Why, why, why," he asked between his tears.

The scene shifted to the next day and, getting dressed, Mummy told him.

"Because you're mine and you will always be mine," Mum said proudly, lovingly and to Rose's way of thinking, chillingly, as she helped young Scorpius dress. The tie was a little too tight and Scorpius winced in memory. It was silk and the suit was more fancy then anything Rose wore at age five. Invisible to the memory of Mum, Rose stood by comforting the boy he had been.

Then he was at Hogwarts, on his first day.

"You're always asking 'why'," the sorting hat said, "the mark of a Ravenclaw!" As Scorpius was cheered for the first time in his life, his new housemates cheered Scorpius. As he got up and walked to the table, secretly happy he wasn't Mum's. He belonged to Ravenclaw now.

Mum and Dad waving at him as he got off the train that first Christmas break.

Dad was smiling and gave him a tight hug as he greeted them, while Mum berated him for not making Slytherin.

"It's good the Malfoy name has a chance at a new start," Draco Malfoy had said as they sat together after they flooed home, happy to have his son home but catching the interplay between mother and son. The next summer Father arranged for his son to spend part of the time with the Davies on Anglesey and part on with his father on his business trip to America. It had been the best time he had up until that point. He only spent a couple days around Mother.

The scene shifted again. Scorpius was older now, at his Mother's quarters at the Leaky Cauldron. Muffilato had been cast and he was sharing his deepest secrets.

"You're going to marry Violet Zabini," Mum informed him casually. "I'm arranging everything right now." She wasn't paying attention to Scorpius, who was tied to the bed.

"You'll be so happy," With that Rose shuddered as she remembered an incident with her cousin Lily. Rose had never been much of a doll girl but she had joined her cousin one Christmas morning as she was marrying off the boy doll and the girl doll. For a moment, Lily Potter and Astoria Greengrass sounded exactly the same.

"Obliviate." They both shuddered and the connection broke.

"Violet Zabini?" Rose's visibly shuddered as she named the pug nosed Slytherin.

"I think she was brewing Amortentia somewhere."

"Explains why 7th floor of the castle smelled like wet grass and Christmas dinner." Rose had been wondering about that.

"Doesn't matter anymore." Scorpius' smile was wistful, happy. He knew 'why' and he knew he was loved. As he cuddled with Rose, holding her close, that was enough.