Chapter Two

How the hell did I find myself in this situation?

Its two days after my surprise run in with Rose in Diagon Alley and now, for some unknown, suicidal reason, I'm standing outside her house, trying to muster the courage to knock on the stupid door.

Part of me wants to run and hide- preferably quickly before her dad realises the son of his childhood enemy is standing on the doorstep. But then, Rose did tell me to come and see her. And any chance to spend time with her sounds great to me.

My hand hovers over the knocker when, suddenly, I'm deprived of the option of choosing to knock or not because the door swings open. Standing on the threshold is not (thank God!) Ron Weasley, but Rose's younger brother Hugo who's going into his fifth year but is already taller than me and practically everyone else in the school.

'Hi', I say warily.

He stares at me for a moment, as if trying to work out why Scorpius Malfoy is standing on his doorstep.

I am friends with Al for God's sake, it's not like I've come to attack him.

'What are you doing here?' he asks rather bluntly.

Just then, someone else skips to the front door in a flurry of red hair.

Great.

'Hi, Lily,' I say reluctantly.

'Hey, Scorpius,' she choruses.

I've never been entirely comfortable around Lily, mainly because she's one of the craziest people I've ever met. I honestly don't know how Al copes with living with her.

'Is Rose in?' I ask them pointedly.

They both give me identical scrutinising looks for a moment. I appear to pass the secret test, however, because Hugo turns his head and shouts Rose's name.

'So, are you parents not in?' I ask conversationally.

'Nope,' says Hugo, 'They're both at work.'

Thank God.

'Oh, hello Scorpius.'

Rose has appeared at the door, brushing Lily and Hugo to one side. She looks mildly surprised that I took her up on her offer.

'Still want to hang out?'

She nods and heads out the door with a passing wave to her brother and cousin.

I laugh as we begin strolling down the country road together, 'My God, they're like interrogators.'

She rolls her eyes, 'I know. Lily didn't want to go to Egypt so she's been staying here. Harry and Ginny didn't trust her home alone for some reason.'

I have a flashback to watching her accidently set fire to her bedroom when I was round there once and decide that Harry and Ginny probably made a sensible decision.

'So what do you want to do?' I ask nervously, suddenly aware of the fact that I have nothing planned. Maybe she was expecting an extravagant day out.

Of course she wasn't, I mentally scold myself; I'm the only one who is considering this a sort of date.

She shrugs, 'I don't know really. The beach is just down there if you want to go for a walk or something.'

We end up at the beach, which it turns out is more of a private cove. There's no one else around when we get there, so we sit down next to each other on the sand.

'So, how's the new Rose thing going?'

She laughs at this, which makes me quite pleased, 'Well all I've done so far is refuse to de-gnome the garden, which is hardly radical.'

I realise with a shock how strange her words seem to me. While I've been growing up I've never had to lift a finger. There's always been various servants to de-gnome the gardens, defrost broomsticks in winter and generally keep the house tidy. I suddenly have a strange desire to do some household chores.

She misreads my expression.

'Oh yeah, you probably have an army of servants to do stuff like that,' she says rather sharply.

'Yeah,' I say simply and find myself staring out across the sea.

'I don't know if that's a good thing though,' I say finally.

She hesitates for a few moments and then says rather tentatively, 'How do you get on with your father?'

It's my turn to hesitate this time, but I find myself wanting to talk to Rose. I've never really spoken to anyone about my family before. Al would be horrified if I tried to talk about my feelings to him.

'When we were younger we got on really well. But just before I started Hogwarts I began to realise that I didn't want people to think I was like him. I didn't believe in any of his pure blood shit, so I guess I just made sure I was the complete opposite of him.'

She nods and looks as though she's thinking about something, 'You know you're nothing like him don't you?'

I look at her and find she's smiling at me. My God she's pretty.

'I guess that means I'm nothing like my dad either,' she laughs, 'Because from what I've heard our dad's couldn't be in the same room without cursing one another.'

'I'm glad we're not,' I say, slightly alarmed with the amount of emotion I'm displaying.

'Me too.'


A couple of hours later and I've reluctantly apparated home. In an ideal world, I would have liked to have stayed with Rose and not gone back, but since I value my life I'm guessing that wasn't a great idea. I purposely apparate into the little hamlet a mile or so away from my house so that I can delay the time before I get home.

I walk slowly, thinking about the day, but mainly about Rose. I can't believe how well we've been getting on, especially since we spent most of last year rowing about Potions test scores. She told me to come and see her again.

Is yesterday okay or does it seem too needy?

Do I care?

After a while, I unfortunately, arrive back at home. As usual, it strikes me just how quiet and sinister the manor is. No chatting, no laughter. Just oppressive silence. I can't wait until this time next year when I can move out.

I stomp back inside, hands in the pockets of the jeans which my father hates me wearing. I hear voices coming from the drawing room, and reluctantly go inside, feeling I should at least let my mother or father know that I'm home. I try to remember if I actually told them I was going out.

I realise my mistake as soon as I enter the room. Sitting in various armchairs, all wearing equally furious expressions are not just my father and mother but also Lucius and Narcissa.

Great.

'Scorpius!' booms Lucius (I've not called him grandfather for about a decade.)

I notice my father seems to be glaring at me particularly strongly, 'Would you care to explain yourself?'

Oh God.


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