PART I - we were silent for a while until he started to talk.

~ ONE ~

I don't think, nor have I ever thought that you could count Scorpius Malfoy and I as friends.

Then again, I don't think you can count us as enemies either. We don't talk that often at all and sitting next to him in the one class that we have together – incidentally the one that we were forced to work as a pair - has actually become bearable. To think that just a year previously we had both been ripping each other's throats out over some stupid thing that likes to call itself family pride.

I don't know what happened to him over the course of the summer holidays between fifth and sixth year. He came back quieter, shyer and carrying all the characteristics of someone who was most definitely not a Malfoy. He had stopped hanging out with the huge group of Slytherins in our year that liked to call themselves 'popular'. Well, they were most certainly known around the school, but in my books 'popular' means well-liked, and this group of Slytherins were definitely not well-liked by anyone. He had started taking long walks around the grounds during free periods and break time; he started hanging out in the library more often although he never really opened a book, more just stared off into space. He intrigued me now more than ever. All of those unanswered questions about his sudden change of character made my head spin.

I guess you don't really miss the fighting until it stops. I know that sounds terrible, but I sort of did miss being at Scorpius' throat every other minute, it had become a routine part of my life and to have it suddenly stop was unusual and unwelcome, but completely welcome at the same time.

It was one of those situations that I didn't know whether it was good or bad. Scorpius had become a shy, quiet person and for someone who has only known him as an arrogant, bigheaded, obnoxious human being, it was strange having him change so suddenly.

His friends hadn't seemed to notice, despite the fact that he had been their leader not six months ago. It seemed like nobody noticed Scorpius Malfoy's sudden change in character. When I asked my friends and cousins, they just shrugged and changed the subject. Maybe it's just something that I haven't heard, or it's just something that people don't talk about, but my mother has always told me that I'm too nosy for my own good and I am determined to get to the bottom of this, without sounding too much like a cheesy detective novel.

~0~

"Rose, you're staring at him again," Adeola said, nudging me slightly as we ate dinner on the Friday night of the first week back.

"What?" I said, jumping slightly and dropping the chicken leg that I had been holding to my mouth, into my lap, where it proceeded to bounce – what the hell? Meat bounces? – Into Ella Longbottom's, who happened to be unfortunate enough to be sitting beside me.

"You're staring at Malfoy again," Adeola giggled, pointing over at the Slytherin table where the solitary boy with the platinum blonde hair was eating his dinner.

"I am not!" I protested immediately, "I was staring at the stained glass windows."

"Sure you were," Adeola said sarcastically, turning to Freema on her right and giggling again, sounding awfully like twelve year olds, "I think Rosie's in love," she drew out the word love teasingly.

"Shut up Addie," I said, rolling my eyes, "Stick to Freema and stop getting involved in other people's love lives."

"So you do love him?!" Freema piped up eagerly, leaning across Adeola to get closer to the gossip.

"No," I said flatly, "and even if I did, it wouldn't be any of your business."

"You're boring," Adeola said in disappointment as Freema snaked backwards into her seat on the other side.

"Why are we all seated in a line?" Ella asked, leaning forward and looking down at Adeola and Freema, "Get on the other side of the table so we can chat properly while we wait for the boys and Nicolette, what's taking them so long anyway?"

There was an outbreak of grumbling from Freema and Adeola, but they relented and scurried underneath the table to sit on the opposite side.

"So, what's the latest gossip?" Freema asked.

I rolled my eyes, "I don't listen to gossip, Freema, you know that."

"I was asking gossip girl over here," Freema said, jerking her head at Ella.

"Well," Ella said as Adeola and Freema leaned in anxiously, waiting for something that they could gush over, "Corey asked me out yesterday."

I sprayed my pumpkin juice all over Adeola, "What?!" I exclaimed, coughing violently. Ella nodded excitedly as Freema squealed with delight and Adeola siphoned off the pumpkin juice from her t-shirt, "What did you say?"

Ella rolled her eyes exasperatedly, "Yes, of course."

I screwed up my face and shook my head, "Really? El, he's not even that good looking."

"It's the personality that counts," Ella said firmly. I was about to open my mouth to retort when she started waving at someone over my shoulder. I turned to see the smiling faces of Nicolette Creevey, Jack Harper and my dear cousin Albus Potter walking up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables.

"What took you so long?" Ella asked as Nicolette slid in between Ella and I and started helping herself to chicken.

"Mister Potter over here decided to blow up a cauldron," Jack said as he and Albus sat down on either side of Freema and Adeola.

"Why?" I asked disapprovingly, my eyebrows raised at my cousin's stupidity.

"Because it was too good an opportunity to miss," Albus said, piling his plate high with vegetables and meat.

"Now I would expect that behaviour from Jack, but not from you," I said, looking disapprovingly at Jack who grinned back at me, "Maybe he's rubbing off on you."

"Wha' are 'ou, my 'other?" Albus said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes. With another eye roll, I let Albus shove his face with food. He was right, I wasn't his mother and whenever he pulled that excuse I always felt stupid.

I found myself staring at Scorpius again as Jack recounted exactly what Albus had done to make a cauldron blow up so badly that he and Nicolette had had to stay for hours afterwards to help clean up the mess.

Jack Harper was a complete enigma to me. He was also absolutely stunning and gorgeous, the object of every girl's fantasies with his hot body and American accent. But then there was the fact that he was completely gay… well, more omnisexual actually. He'd shag a girl if the opportunity arose, but mostly he just stuck to blokes. I knew for a fact that Nicolette had gone out with him at one point, but it had only lasted for a week because after being friends for nearly five years at that point, she and Jack didn't know how to be anything more than friends… that and Jack had told her that he was really just gay but opportunistic.

Jack and Nicolette got on well, better than the rest of us and Jack actually. It was probably because both of them were not born in England. Both had one English parent and one foreign parent; Nicolette's mother was from France, and Jack's father was American, but he had been sent to England to live with an aunt at six years old because his parents had been killed in an explosion.

Then there was Adeola and Freema, or better known as the twins. Of course, they weren't really twins at all, but they looked incredibly alike and shared enough common interests to be twins. They even finished off each other's sentences and were rarely seen without the other by their side. Although they had assured me on numerous occasions that they were both straight, I couldn't help thinking that something was going on between them. They had a friendship that was closer than friends, but less than lovers. I guess you could call it an intimate friendship if that sort of thing even exists.

Then there was Ella. She and I have known each other since birth, and seeing as we're only born a few months apart, that's quite a long time. As a child, I had spent more time at her place than I had at my own, and as a teenager, she spent more time at mine than she did at hers. It was nice to have someone around the place when I was a child that wasn't Albus.

And now we come round full circle to Albus, who has been pining after Nicolette for nearly three years now, however, that love seems to be unrequited, although he's never acted on it so who knows. Nicolette remains blissfully oblivious to this day.

"… and then, Slughorn was all 'you all clean this up now or I'll be calling your parents' and Jack just turns around and says to him, 'good luck with that, my parents are dead,'"

I was brought back to reality as Albus finished off their recount of their misadventures in potions and everyone else banging the table and struggling to breathe as they laughed their heads off. I smiled fondly at them as they tried in vain to pull themselves back together. Sometimes I had no idea why I was friends with such a weird, diverse bunch of people. We did fit well together though, I had to admit. If we didn't then we wouldn't be friends today.

I felt my eyes starting to get heavy as the dessert finally faded off of the plates, but all thought of sleep was driven from my mind as I remembered the stack of homework waiting for me back in Gryffindor tower.

"Did Slughorn give you any work?" I asked Jack as the seven of us made our way back up to the common room, "We got truckloads from Halmarick."

"Nah, he was too busy yelling himself hoarse at Al," Jack grinned, "Got a bit from McGonagall though, way to ruin a week, don't you reckon?"

"Tell me about it," I said, rubbing my eyes as I dragged my feet up the many stairs.

Talk quickly turned from what we had done over the summer holidays to complaints about how much work there was to do before Monday. We were in sixth year and the teachers had all explained to us on the first day back that this year was all about preparing us for our NEWTs which would take place the next year. If you asked anyone else, they would tell you that it was absolutely ridiculous, but I can see the way that the teachers are thinking; if they get us into good study habits a year before the exams, it won't be so hard to adjust.

"I'll tell you what though…" I said, hurrying to catch up with Jack when something barrelled into me at full force, knocking me into Freema,

"Watch it," Jack said, walking up to the blonde boy who was carrying a large book. That was when it struck me, it was Malfoy. I don't know how it could've escaped my notice that he had snuck out of the Great Hall during dinner. I guess that I was too interested in the Chocolate Gateau that had made its way to the dessert menu.

"Malfoy," Jack spat, "You're still out to cause trouble aren't you?"

"No- I didn't mean, I-" Malfoy stammered, refusing to look up and meet Jack's eyes.

"Look, why don't you just go and slither back to your snakey friends and leave Rose alone for once," Albus said, backing Jack up.

"Yeah," Jack said, "Run along before I smash your face in."

"Hey," I said, finding myself putting my hand on Jack's arm to restrain him, "He didn't mean to run into me."

Both Jack and Albus looked taken aback at the sudden change in heart for me. I smiled at them before turning to Malfoy, who was still in the same position.

"Just look where you're going next time, okay?" I said kindly. Malfoy nodded fervently before turning around and running off. I turned back to my friends to find them all looking at me with their mouths slightly open.

"What?" I asked, walking past Jack and Albus towards Freema, Adeola and Nicolette who stood frozen half way up the steps.

"Since when have you ever been nice to Malfoy?" Jack said, completely puzzled.

"Since Malfoy stopped being antagonistic," I said, not turning back as I took the stairs two at a time. I could still hear them behind me which meant that they hadn't died of shock, but I still wasn't sure what had made me stop Jack and Albus from putting Malfoy in his place. He had seemed shy and weak when Jack had started to reprimand him, whereas he would normally sneer in his face and slither off.

"I hate it when she uses big words," I heard Jack mutter to Nicolette from behind me. I found it incredibly hard not to laugh.

"Hey," Ella said, running to catch up to me, "What was that all about?"

"He didn't mean to run into me, Ella, didn't you see that?" I said exasperatedly as we reached the portrait hole.

"Yes but he's in Slytherin, when are we ever nice to Slytherins?" Ella asked before turning to the portrait hole, "lantern," she said and the portrait hole swung open, revealing the comfy, plush armchairs of the Gryffindor common room.

"Look, Ella, he didn't mean to do it and I'm not going to have him beat up for that. If I want him beat up, I'll do it myself," I said, emphasising the last three words as Jack and Albus walked past me. Jack winked while Albus did nothing.

"Why has your attitude towards Malfoy changed over the summer?" Ella asked curiously. I opened my mouth to say exactly why it had, but shut it abruptly, remembering what Ella had said the last time I had brought it up to her on Wednesday afternoon when we were doing homework together in the library. She had told me that it wouldn't last long.

I just shrugged. Ella pursed her lips at me before turning around and striding to the opposite side of the room where Freema, Adeola and Nicolette already had their work spread out over the table and were making a start on it so that they wouldn't have to have the usual Sunday night/Monday morning rush to finish it before classes started.

I summoned my bag down into the common room and sat down at a separate table near them and spread out my work, starting with my favourite subject, Transfiguration, and working my way through them in order of which I liked best, which meant that potions was on the bottom.

It was hard to concentrate on my work when my mind was so evidently somewhere else. It was still back in the corridor with Scorpius, running over and over the events that had happened, completely over-analysing the way that he hadn't looked up at Jack when he had started to berate him. The way that he had stammered when he had talked, the way that he had run off so quickly when I had spoken to him.

"I'm going to bed," I announced no more than twenty minutes later when it was obvious that I was not going to be able to concentrate any time soon.

"G'night," Adeola grunted softly. The rest were silent as they worked diligently on their homework.

I picked up my books and put them neatly back into my bag and slug it over my shoulder. It had been a long week, and the next was sure to be even longer.

AN: Okayyyy, so hello friends new and old. I didn't expect to be publishing a new multichapter story so soon, but this idea came to me and I couldn't shake it and now that I've gone and planned it to the final chapter I have no choice but to write it.

People may recognise Ella from my other Scorrose multichip Light of Day, but all of the others are brand new, although I did steal Adeola from Light of Day as well. It's strange not writing Rio, Mae and Jade but I'm rather attached to Adeola, Freema and Nicolette already.

Anyway, I've written this for a few challenges on HPFC as well:

The Multi Chapter Challenge – Round 1

The OTP Bootcamp – Prompt #19: Kindly

The Multi Chapter Bootcamp – Prompt #39: Focus

The Songfic Bootcamp – Prompt #47: Always (Song: Caught in the Crowd by Kate Miller-Heidke)

I would really love to know what you thought of it so far and reviews will always be appreciated.

Until Next Time

~The Original Horcrux~