Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any characters, settings, etc. I am not J.K. Rowling. Any characters that aren't from the Harry Potter series are creations from within my brain.

A/N: Yay! Chapter number two! Hope you guys liked the first one, and will continue to read my work throughout its many chapters. Chapter two is significantly shorter than chapter one, but I still hope you'll enjoy it as much as you did the first. Please, read and review!

Encounter

Scorpius drew out his wand. This time he would be ready to attack Alice with everything he had. This time he wouldn't lose. Watching her as she sat up, he stood, waiting for her to make a move. However, she looked around the room and then at Vincent, not intending to get up. A look of confusion settled on her face. Scorpius became disappointed, and preceded back towards his bed.

Just then Alice spoke, "Why am I here?"

Scorpius jumped and turned to face her. "You don't remember what happened?"

"What happened?"

"You honestly don't remember what you did?"

"No. I remember nothing. I don't know how I got here, or even waking up this morning. Or yesterday morning?"

"It happened yesterday."

"Well then, I don't remember waking up yesterday morning, so there's no reason I should be here. I shouldn't have skipped a day."

"Well you did! You almost ended up killing me in Dark Arts you stupid bitch!"

"Don't say that! I didn't do anything!"

"Yes you did! You almost suffocated me with the incarcerous curse and made me bleed to death with a stinging hex. You don't remember anything?"

"No. I don't."

"You're a liar!"

"She is not a liar!" Vincent hollered at Scorpius.

"Vince, what happened to me?" Alice asked.

"I'm not sure. But you weren't yourself."

Scorpius sat back down on his bed. He growled and folded his harms.

"I don't remember anything. Please, tell me what happened." Alice looked concerned at Vincent.

"You came into class and you didn't seem like yourself. You were paired up with Scorpius to practice the incarcerous spell. While everyone else was practicing… you were spaced out, and when Scorpius tried to attack you, well, you suddenly incarcerated him. Then you released him, and cast a stinging hex on him. Everyone tried to get you to stop, but nothing seemed to help until you collapsed. That's how you ended up here."

"But I don't remember waking up yesterday morning."

"I can't explain that. I'm sorry, Alice."

"It's okay. Are you alright?" Alice asked, touching Vince's shoulder.

"I'm fine," he replied.

"I'm sorry about… before."

"I know. But, now is not the time to be talking about that."

"You aren't going to try and murder me again are you?" Scorpius suddenly said, glaring at Alice.

"No, Malfoy. I'm not going to hurt you." Alice smiled.

"Don't look at me like that!" Scorpius hissed.

"Idiot." Vincent sighed.

:

After receiving Madame Pomfrey's approval later that morning, the three left the hospital wing to go to class. Vincent had History of Magic while Alice and Scorpius had Potions. Once they reached the stairs, it was time for Vincent to separate from Alice and Scorpius.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Vincent asked Alice worriedly.

"I'm fine, Vince. Calm down and go to class," Alice assured him.

"I just want to make sure that you aren't going to start attacking people again."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with me right now. I'll be fine."

"Alright. I'll see you at dinner tonight," Vince said as Alice waved goodbye. He then turned to Scorpius who was standing and shaking his head. "You! Keep an eye on her for me. If anything out of the ordinary happens, come find me! And don't leave her alone."

"I'm not taking your orders, Locke!" Scorpius growled, and then headed down the stairs to go to the dungeons.

When Scorpius reached the potions classroom he found Alice talking to the professor. He took the only unoccupied seat in the room. Alice walked over and took the place beside him.

"You're late Mr. Malfoy!" Professor Slughorn stated.

"Sorry…" Scorpius mumbled.

"You're not really sorry are you, Mr. Malfoy? We all know that you're only taking this class for the easy grades! Well, this is a new year, and you're not getting away with slacking this time. Now, class, you'll be pairing up. Groups of two, everyone," Professor Slughorn said.

The class burst into laughter directed towards Scorpius. He could feel his face go red. Alice looked at him curiously. It was a rare sight to see Scorpius look embarrassed.

"Class turn to page 342 in your textbooks, and complete the assignment on the board. All the required materials are in front of you."

The class settled down and began to work on their assignment. Scorpius stared at Alice for a moment, as she worked with his friend Alistair. He was stuck working with Mina, whom he hated. He didn't know why. She seemed to hate him too.

"Scorpius! Wolfsbane!" Mina hollered, smacking him in the back of the head.

"Ow! Sorry!" He lifelessly tossed the ingredient to her.

"Malfoy! Professor, Scorpius isn't helping me! Can I switch partners?" Mina complained.

"Alright then… Who do you want to work with?" Slughorn sighed.

"Alistair, please." Mina said, grinning slightly.

"Fine. Mr. Malfoy, please switch partners with Mr. Louis."

"Hi!" Alice said happily to Scorpius, smiling.

"Thank goodness I'm not working with her anymore…" Scorpius said under his breath.

"You're happy? She's very nice. What do you have against her?" Alice asked.

"Something."

The remainder of the class time went along smoothly, and nothing appeared out of place for the rest of the day. It was as if nothing had happened to Alice at all. When their final class ended Scorpius was waiting for Alice outside the room.

"Why are you still here?" Alice asked.

"Waiting for you." Scorpius started walking away from her.

She ran to catch up to him a few moments later. She felt unusual around him now, wondering why he was acting this way. The previous day she almost killed him, or so she now believed, and they had no relationship besides being simple acquaintances for the past five years. Was he just being nice? She shook her head violently and crashed into another student by accident, falling to the floor.

"Watch where you're going, bitch!" Mina shot at Alice, standing up and dusting herself off.

Alice's eyes went wide as she turned around on her hands and knees and picked up one of Mina's books. "I'm sorry, Mina! Let me-"

"Shut up! Get away from me." Mina glared at Alice and kicked her books away from her.

"Stop it! She apologized! Leave." Scorpius yelled at Mina. He was holding most of Alice's books in his arms. His face showed signs of an anger lurking deep inside him. It was then that Alice started to understand just why he hated her so much.

"Stick up for your little girlfriend, Malfoy. She tried to murder you yesterday! Now you defend her? What the hell is wrong with you?" Mina laughed darkly.

Scorpius was silent, a free hand slipped into his pocket and grasped at his wand. Alice just stared at him. She was greatly confused. He was trying to protect her, and the girl whom she thought was so nice in the past seemed to be on the verge of attempting to hurt her.

"Scorpius…" Alice said breathily.

"Shut up." Scorpius snapped.

Alice winced. Finally, she stood up, directing her gaze towards Mina. Scorpius was ready to fight, bringing out his wand. Mina snickered, looked at Scorpius pathetically and turned around without another word. She laughed lightly as she walked away, leaving her books scattered around the floor behind her.

"Why…?" Alice could barely speak. Scorpius returned his wand to his pocket and grabbed Alice's shoulder. Without speaking, he guided her down the hallway, still carrying her books.

:

All during supper Alice thought about the encounter she had with Mina. She didn't understand anything, and it swirled around in her brain. Mina hardly knew Alice, but acted so nice to her during class and in the Ravenclaw dormitory. Was Alice just shrouding Mina in a veil of respectability, because she barely knew her, or was she just oblivious to what Mina truly was? The past five years blurred away, and all she could think of was that moment in the hallway. Finally, for the first time, Alice was experiencing the feeling of anger towards Mina. What did she do wrong? She apologized, and was even going to help Mina with her books. It was as if the girl she once knew was looking down upon her. Alice's anger faded into fear. She started panicking. What if Mina was going to try and hurt her? The look in Mina's eyes had shown a strange thirst for a fight, Alice recalled. She knew that Mina wanted to fight her, alone, without Scorpius there to interfere. The only thing Alice could think of now was to try and avoid Mina. Unfortunately, they had every class together and, as an added bonus, shared the same common room. Alice sighed, defeated in her mind, believing that there was no way of evading Mina. Then there was the subject of Scorpius. She knew he wasn't acting normal, defending her when she had recently attempted to murder him. Suddenly, she felt pressure against her shoulder and jumped in panic.

"Whoa! Calm down!" Scorpius laughed, sitting down next to her at the Ravenclaw table. It was then that Alice realized that they were the only two in the Great Hall. "You were out of it good! Sorry for scaring you."

"Oh. That's okay. What time is it?"

"Just after ten."

"Seriously? How long have I been like this?"

"A few hours… Don't worry; no one thought anything of it." Scorpius grinned slyly.

"Have you seen Mina?"

"It bothers you, doesn't it?"

"I'm just worried that she'll…" Alice was getting worked up to the point where tears welled up in her eyes.

Scorpius took her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Don't worry. Nothing will happen. I promise. Now let's go. It's late." His cold gray eyes were unusually sincere, and there was just the slightest bit of warmth within them to convince her.

They headed out into the Entrance Hall. There was no one to be seen. Alice started up the stairs towards the Ravenclaw common room, but Scorpius grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Not that way. The Head students are guarding the stairs up there. We're taking another way." Scorpius said.

"But what if you're wrong and we get caught?" Alice worried.

"We won't get caught," He smirked.

"But-"

"Come on. Hurry!" Scorpius warned her, hearing heavy footsteps and a mumbling voice in the distance. They hurried back down the stairs and down the pathway to the dungeons.

Once in the dungeons, Alice followed Scorpius, having no idea where they were or where they'd end up. She felt almost that he was leading her in circles, continuing through a seemingly never-ending series of pathways and portrait holes. Eventually, they came to a portrait hole that led them to the west side of the school.

"We're almost there," Scorpius told her quietly, coming up on a doorway.

"Can we stop for a moment please?" Alice asked, sliding down to the floor against a wall.

"Fine." Scorpius shook his head and sighed heavily.

"I thought that Vincent was supposed to meet us earlier. Do you know what happened to him?"

"No. I never saw him though at dinner. Maybe he was busy."

"I see. I'm sort of worried about him…"

"You worry a lot, don't you?"

"Yeah. But I have my reasons."

"And I'm sure those reasons are good ones…" Scorpius said sarcastically.

Alice looked at him irritably and stood up again, ready to continue on. Passing through the now familiar passages of the school, Alice began to feel confident as they came closer to reaching the Ravenclaw dormitory. Soon they headed through the doorway to Ravenclaw Tower and up the high spiral staircase. At the top, Alice was quick to answer when questioned by the eagle doorknocker, and the door swung open immediately.

"Are you going to be alright getting back by yourself?" Alice asked Scorpius before heading through the doorway.

"I got the two of us here fine, right? It'll be simple from here on," he answered, smiling.

"Well, thank you for helping me. I appreciate it very much. I certainly say, you may look almost exactly like him, but you are nearly nothing like your father," she nodded.

"My father?" Scorpius was taken by surprise. He knew that she had never met his father, so why would she assume this? Scorpius had never told her about Draco, and it made him curious as to why she knew of his father.

Alice was about to explain her words when the door to the common room slammed shut behind her. She turned around to see Mina, standing with her arms folded, her long, wavy dark hair framing her face which was showing an expression of malice and determination. Alice couldn't move; she was petrified. Scorpius just stood there with a nasty glare towards Mina, who shook her head, smirked, and started down the stairs.

After Mina was long gone, Scorpius paid his attention to Alice, who remained as still as stone. "She's gone now. You can move," Scorpius assured her. "She won't lay a delicate little finger on you as long as I'm around."

"That's what I fear. When I'm alone, what will she do?" Alice squeezed her eyes tightly and cringed. "And what if she's gone off to tell someone that you and I were out after curfew?"

"She wouldn't do that. It's too easy. Besides you'll lose house points. I don't think she'd squeal on a fellow Ravenclaw."

"I should let you leave now, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah, I guess. I'll see you tomorrow though in class. We can talk then."

"Alright." Alice smiled weakly as she watched Scorpius descend the stairs. The common room door opened again to let her enter, and closed shortly after with a light thud.

:

"Well, anything to report?" a hooded figure asked another deep within the dungeons of Hogwarts.

"Nothing has happened yet," the low raspy voice replied.

"Yes. Nothing since that one minor incident that almost destroyed our plans! What the hell were you thinking? This should've been over with months ago!"

"I know, brother. I'm gravely sorry. I wasn't strong enough. No need to worry, though, for I will dispose of the girl soon enough. I have a plan that will work."

"It better or I may just have to dispose of you instead and kill her myself!"

"No! I will do it, brother! I swear I'll make this work!"

"I've changed my mind. Understand this… you bring her to me, alive. Get rid of anyone who tries to protect her."

"But what about her-"

"Just bring the damn girl to me! If you fail, you're dead."