This story has been on my mind for a while now, and I got the inspiration from the TV show Eyewitness which sadly was cancelled after one season (if you're interested, the show is based on the Norwegian series, Oyevitne, and there's even a French version). I have the first nine chapters written and most of the story mapped out in my head so I'm hoping to update this weekly. I was waiting to be more than halfway done, but I got impatient. :)

Also, it's been a long time since I last wrote a story on here so I don't know if disclaimers are still a thing. In case they are, I do not own the rights to the Harry Potter franchise.

Enjoy!

Two can keep a secret

Chapter 1

James woke to the sound of his mom's voice calling his name - a familiar tone that let him know she thought he was up to no good and needed to "straighten up." Wiping the sleep from his eyes, he glanced over at his bedside table and noticed the time. He would be a seventh year - the big man on campus; the excitement and anticipation should have had him bouncing around his room. Instead, he'd partied a little too hard at the end-of-summer party last night and only wished for a gallon of water, a hangover potion and more sleep. Much more sleep. As James sat up in his bed, yawning as he wondered if he would have enough time for a ten minute nap, a knock sounded at his door. "In a minute!" He shouted, more irritably than necessary.

His dad poked his head through the door and noticed his eldest son still in bed looking worse for wear. Opening the door wider, he stepped inside and went to sit on the edge of James' bed, facing him. "We're leaving soon. You all packed?"

James let out another yawn before answering, "The beauty of being eighteen is that I can magically pack everything in all of ten seconds without getting into trouble."

Harry gave his son a small smile and chuckled lightly. "You ready for your last year? I can't believe how fast the time has gone."

"You sure I can't skip this year? It worked out well for you," he half-joked.

The smile from Harry's face dropped, and he shook his head. "Listen, Jamie. You know I try not to get onto you for having fun and being a kid, but you're an adult now. This is your last year at Hogwarts, and soon you'll be out in the real world. You need to start taking life more seriously because you won't be able to get by on my and your mum's laurels forever. I want to see you be successful and earn a name for yourself by your own merits."

James fought hard not to roll his eyes. He'd heard this lecture before and was in no need to suffer through it again. "Dad, I'm tired. I have a massive headache. Can we not do this right now?"

"There's never been a good time for you, James," Harry chided him. "Now, your mother and I have been very easy on you kids, and maybe that's our fault. But you need to take your seventh year seriously. Study hard, do well on your N.E.W.T.s and figure out what it is you want to do with your life."

"Yeah, okay, Dad. I get it. Can I please get dressed now?" He loved his parents - his entire family, really; they were amazing, and he wouldn't trade them for the world. But "taking things seriously" just wasn't in his programming, and that wasn't likely to change now just because he was a seventh year. He knew he needed to figure out what the hell he wanted to do for the rest of his life, and soon. Did he want to try out for professional Quidditch? Work in uncle George's shop with Freddie? Maybe even travel the world? James had no idea, and to be honest the thought of having to choose made him sick to his stomach. Growing up seemed like the worst idea ever, and James would have been perfectly happy putting it off forever.

When his dad left, the auburn-haired Gryffindor got dressed and quickly packed up his trunk in time to eat the last of breakfast.

The compartment inside the Hogwarts Express was rather quiet by James' normal standards. It was just him and Fred with a compartment all to themselves. Their other two best friends - Louis Weasley and Frankie Longbottom - were both in the prefects compartment, as well as Albus, Rose and Molly. The fact that several of his family members had been made prefect was not lost on him - not that he wanted to be a brownnosing rule-follower, mind; but it was like they were all part of some exclusive club that he would never be a part of thanks to his blatant disregard for the rules and consistent spot in detention. At least he had his partner-in-crime and fellow troublemaker, Freddie, right by his side.

"I wonder what those prats are going on about," James thought aloud.

"We could spy on them and find out," Fred absently suggested, engrossed in drawing something on his parchment. Although not the spitting image of his namesake's appearance, all of the adults said that Fred the second was exactly like Fred the first. He was always inventing new pranks and gag items to test on the unsuspecting Hogwarts population. Whereas Fred was the brains of their little operation, James liked to believe that he was the face of it. He wasn't the most capable wizard, but he had charm and charisma - two things that couldn't be obtained by studying. Fred had always known that he would work at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes with his dad and uncle Ron before eventually taking it over. James thought it must be great to know exactly what you were going to do for the rest of your life. Reminded of the conversation that he'd had with his dad hours earlier, James worried that he would never know what he should do with his life. Damn if that thought wasn't a major mood-killer. Seventh year hadn't even begun yet; he needed to survive that first before thinking about boring adult things.

"I've got an even better idea," he said, slowly grinning. Standing up, he told his cousin his plan before both Gryffindors exited the compartment.

Scorpius hated meeting in the prefects compartment. The meetings were long and the compartment, although magically enlarged to fit everyone, was cramped. He was sitting shoulder to shoulder with his best friend, Cady Goyle, and Albus Potter, an annoying git but certainly not the worst of the Potter-Weasley clan - almost half of whom sat in this very compartment. Hogwarts was littered with them, but thankfully Lily Potter was the only one to invade Slytherin's Potter-Weasley-free zone. The worst of them were the four seventh-year Gryffindors who called themselves 'The Marauders 2.0,' whatever the hell that meant - Louis, Frankie (not related but might as well be), Fred and James. After this year, they would all be gone, thank Merlin. Not that they went out of their way to make his life hell or anything, but they were all too loud, too full of themselves and too Gryffindor.

Case in point… Scorpius' thoughts were interrupted by loud banging on the compartment door. He looked over and, of course, saw Fred and James banging on the door throwing what looked like exploding confetti, an asinine and useless invention if you asked him, and shouting such things as, "stuck-up wankers" and "brownnosing prats." The blond sixth-year glanced at Frankie who could barely contain his laughter. Louis, the Head Boy, did a better job of hiding his smile, at least. Willow Pieters, the Head Girl and a fiercely intimidating Ravenclaw, scowled at Louis before calling everyone to order once Fred and James ran off, howling with laughter, to whatever hellish place they came from.

"Fucking dumbarses," Scorpius muttered to himself.

"I'm sorry, Malfoy, what was that?" Louis turned his full attention to Scorpius, his face practically glowing with smugness. "What kind of example are you setting as Prefect with that potty mouth? Unless you have something of value to say, which I highly doubt, I suggest you keep quiet."

Scorpius' ears reddened as he scowled at the Head Boy. He could hear Albus snickering beside him.

"That goes for you too, Al," Louis sharply said, clearly enjoying himself. Scorpius silently cursed the Headmistress for obviously falling for Louis' stupid veela charm and inflating his already massive ego even more by putting him in charge. This was going to be a long year.

After the insufferable meeting, Scorpius and the other prefects patrolled the Hogwarts Express which gave him and Cady a chance to catch up. He'd known Cady since they'd been in diapers, and the two had been inseparable since.

"Merlin, Willow talks forever," Cady said as they leisurely strolled down a corridor, peering through the compartment windows to ensure everything and everyone were in order. "So, when will I get to meet this César?" She asked Scorpius, linking arms with him.

Scorpius grinned at the mention of that name. He had met César while he and his parents vacationed in the French Riviera. César was a devilishly handsome French boy who had just graduated from Beauxbatons, and they had had an incredible summer love affair. The romantic walks along the Promenade in Nice while holding hands, making out in the dead of night on the pebble beach, taking spontaneous day trips to Monaco; it had been the best summer of his entire life, and of course he had written Cady all about it. Before leaving to go back to dreary England, he and César promised that they would write each other every week.

"He told me before I left that he would visit me at Hogsmeade in a couple of weeks," Scorpius exclaimed, unable to keep the huge smile off his face.

"Brilliant!" Cady shared in his excitement. "But you better tell him that he's on thin ice until he gets your best friend's seal of approval."

"You'll love him," Scorpius promised, keeping his voice low. "He's the most perfect person ever." Cady was the only one who knew about César, and he preferred to keep it that way. Scorpius had known that he was gay for a few years, but he hadn't ever acted upon it before this past summer. It had started out innocently enough - he had met César at one of the dinner parties that he and his parents always attended. A friendship blossomed before it led to something more. Kissing César for the first time - the first time he had kissed anyone, in fact - had felt so right. He was terrified of his parents finding out, though. Although they were far from prejudiced, evident in his dad's charity work to try to right the wrongs of his Death Eater past, they were still a pureblood family, and his parents had certain expectations for him. Being gay definitely did not fall in their plans for him, and the last thing he ever wanted to do was disappoint his parents.

Once the start-of-term feast ended and all the prefects did their "prefectly" duties, James and the other seventh-year Gryffindor students gathered in the boys' dormitory. "A toast!" James exclaimed, slurring his words, as he stood unsteadily on a dresser to be seen and heard by everyone. He was slightly drunker than everyone else, and that was entirely due to Fred's daring him to take as many shots of firewhiskey as he could without taking a breath. He made it to two and one-fourth before choking. Not the smartest idea, and one he would most certainly feel in the morning. "This is without a doubt the best class in all of Hogwarts. You all are awesome, and I'm gonna miss you shitheads come June. Here's to making our last year the best one yet!" James raised his half-full glass of a pumpkin juice cocktail in the air, and his fellow students did the same, whooping and hollering.

Wobbling even more, James lost his balance and fell right into the arms of Louis. "Hello dear cousin of mine," he drawled.

Louis rolled his eyes and grinned as helped James to his feet. "Frankie and I helped the first-years twenty minutes ago and you're already wasted," he playfully chastised in his signature silky French accent. "How are you such a lightweight?"

"'M not a lightweight," James loudly slurred, leaning against the wall to regain balance. "Blame Fred. It's his fault."

"Oi! You twat!" Fred shouted at James from across the room. He was cuddling with his long-time girlfriend of three years, Cassidy Thomas. "I'm four shots in, and you don't see me falling off dressers."

James flipped off his best mate who, by the way, was sitting down, so that was totally not a fair comparison! He turned back toward Louis to voice this, but the blond was about to be swarmed by his "posse." Every damn party, Louis got swept away by members of his fan club. Yes, he actually had a fan club. Louis took great pride in using his one-eighth veela charm and beauty to his advantage, and girls and boys alike did everything they could to win his affection. It was strange, but hey; Louis got way more action than the three of his best mates combined, so who was James to complain? More power to him.

"I see we've already lost Louis for the night," Frankie mused as James approached him. He stood at the beverage table counting each bottle and cup. James watched him for a moment before asking, "What are you doing?"

Frankie stayed silent until he finished. "Taking inventory," he stated simply. "I don't want anyone taking a bottle and thinking they can get away with it." At James' cocked eyebrow, he added, "I'm a prefect and Louis is Head Boy. Do you have any idea the risk we're taking by participating in this soirée?"

"You're not even drinking."

"That doesn't matter. It's being held in our room." Frankie broke eye contact to yell at someone about not exploding any of the furniture. James couldn't help but grin. Frankie was definitely the sensible one of the group, always trying to keep his friends out of trouble. James used to think it was because his dad was a professor, and professors tended to gossip more than the students. But being protective of his friends was just in his nature.

"You know these parties can't be a regular thing, right?" Frankie told James.

"Yeah, yeah," James waved him off. "That just means we've got to go all out tonight. Live a little, Franks! It's the start of our last year here!"

"Yes, and our most important one." Before Frankie could launch into another wretched lecture, James nodded as he backed away slowly before turning and disappearing into the crowd. He didn't know why everyone was making such a big deal about seventh year and the N.E.W.T.s. He had performed dismally in his classes the last couple of years, yet he was still here like everyone else. There was no need to worry.