Author's Notes: Written for the sortinghatdrabs community on Livejournal where it won 2nd place! I blame the HBP trailer that so many of us had the same idea for this drabble.


Scorpius wasn't afraid of heights.

He loved to fly. Always had. His mum had loads of pictures of him flying in her great big book of "Precious Scorpius Moments That Will Only Embarrass Him Later". The first photo is of him as a toddler, flying around his dad's legs on his new toy broom. His earliest memory happened a year later, when his dad took him flying on a real broom and Scorpius kept insisting they go higher and faster. Flying was joy and freedom and the thrill of being alive.

But looking over the ramparts now, stomach swooping, all he could think was it was a long way to fall.

"There you are!" Rose came crashing through the door with all the grace of a herd of hippogriffs. "I went down to your common room but no one had seen you--"

Scorpius hadn't told anyone he was going to the Astronomy Tower. "How did you find me?"

"Maybe my Divination skills aren't crap after all," she said with a shrug before growing serious. "Or maybe I'm in the same History of Magic class as you."

They had learned about the First Battle of Hogwarts that morning. Whatever he'd known or thought he'd know hadn't been enough. It hadn't prepared him for the whispers and glances from his classmates as his family was put under a magnifying glass. How Rose and her cousins stood it, he didn't know.

"I keep wondering what I would have done if it were me, if I had to..." His words trailed off into nothing. How could someone choose between protecting their family and murder? How did you wake up every morning and look at the person you were going to kill?

Silence fell over the pair. Scorpius wondered if Rose was uncomfortable with the reminder that their families fought on different sides. Sometimes the past felt like a ghost, always hovering near.

Rose's hand slipped into his as she came to stand beside him. Giving his hand a small squeeze, she smiled. "I reckon that's why they did it. So we wouldn't have to."