Author's Chapter Notes:

A huge thank you to Sarah/TheCursedQuill for her help with this story! Please R/R, people! I love reviews. And for those who hadn't already read this chapter- you may want to read Black With a Hint of Red before this one if you were planning to, because this chapter spoils that story.

Oh, and I've got rid of the Al/Albus problem here. :)

1. Aiden Wilde

A few months ago
September the first, 2022

"You have a good year at school," said Astoria Malfoy fondly, kissing her son goodbye.

Sixteen-year old Scorpius, who was slightly embarrassed at his mother kissing him, accepted it anyway and nodded. "Yes, Mother, I will." They were at platform nine and three-quarters and the Hogwarts Express stood before them, spewing out huge amounts of steam into the autumn air.

"Don't get into trouble like you did last year," Draco Malfoy added in his drawling voice. "And if you do, at least choose the right company for it."

"Potter, Flynn and Rose are decent company. And I didn't deliberately get into trouble. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"They belong to Gryffindor- a house full of nothing but people who are perpetually in the wrong place at the wrong time. You being a Slytherin must stay clear of them. And I see you took the Weasley girl's name."

"Yes." Scorpius shrugged. "She's a good friend."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "I have heard rumours, Scorpius. I even told you about them last Christmas. Are they true?"

"I… don't know what you're talking about," replied Scorpius, not meeting eyes with his father. "Whatever you've heard is a lie."

"And you'd better-"

"Draco!" Astoria said warningly. "Let him be."

"He's mingling with that Weasley girl, Astoria."

"I don't see anything wrong with that," Astoria replied. "Don't pull him into those old fights of yours."

Draco looked at her and then his son. There was silence. "Well goodbye, Scorpius," he said at last, deciding not to continue on his previous topic. "We will see you this Christmas. Take care."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Even if I don't take care of myself, I'm sure that bodyguardyou've hired for me will." He glanced around at the wizard standing quietly a little behind them and frowned.

"That's for your own good," said Draco firmly. "After what happened this summer, I don't want any more unpleasant surprises. And I don't see why you're complaining. He's not coming to Hogwarts with you. It's only for the time while you're at home."

Scorpius nodded and Draco gave him a stiff, one-armed hug. Astoria hugged Scorpius once again and as he leaned over, she spoke into his ear quietly, "Tell me all about her in your letters, okay?"

Scorpius broke away, nodding and smiling faintly at her before getting into the train. He put his luggage in an empty compartment nearby as the guard blew his whistle. At that moment, all the other students who had been waiting at the platform with their parents began to rush into the train. Scorpius sat at his seat and waved at his parents as everybody got in and the train started to move. He watched his parents till the train rounded a corner, after which they disappeared. Then he sat back on his seat, sighing.

The last leg of his fifth year at Hogwarts had turned out to be pretty action-packed and when he had just started to think there couldn't be anything worse to happen after that, his mother had almost been attacked just a few weeks ago at a party that the Malfoys had hosted at their mansion. Scorpius could still remember watching horrified and frozen as the blast of green light soared towards his mother from nowhere and just narrowly missed her. Everyone in the party had been shocked for the next few minutes. The attacker though had fled immediately after, without a second trial because it was only too easy to trace the direction from which the curse had come. Of course, the whole area had been searched, but there wasn't any evidence leading to anything related to the attacker.

That was when Draco Malfoy, worried for the safety of his family, had gone and spoken to some freelance Auror called Nathaniel Moore and arranged for protection for the entire family. Now there was security personnel around their house and as if that wasn't enough, Scorpius had a 'bodyguard' to follow him around. Well, now he wasn't really bothered by it because father had promised him that he wouldn't require this 'bodyguard', or whoever, once he was in Hogwarts because he would be safe enough. His mother's attacker was very obviously not a student from Hogwarts.

Scorpius leaned back on his seat and shut his eyes, thinking about the other thing that his father had talked about. Draco had heard rumours. Well, of course he had. Scorpius and Rose were amongst the most popular couples in Hogwarts. And their popularity had increased ever since that other Merlin-awful incident a few months ago.

For a little more than five years at Hogwarts, Rose, Potter and Flynn had had two more members in their little group- Abby Clarke and Ian Murray. All five of them had been a very closely knit cluster of friends. They seemed to have no secrets from each other- no flaws at all. Rose and Scorpius and even Clarke and Murray had been in happy relationships and everything seemed to be perfect. Except that it was not.

One day during his Prefect duties, Scorpius had caught Murray in a broom cupboard snogging, not Clarke, but Flynn. As bewildered as Scorpius was to see the two of them together, he had sent them back to the Gryffindor Tower. And that very night, the picture-perfect group of friends got to meet the big mess it was in- a love triangle; well, actually a quadrangle. It was like this: Potter was crazy about Clarke, who was crazy about Murray, who was crazy about Flynn. There was also some nonsense about Clarke knowing about all of this and kissing Potter or something, but Scorpius had not cared to find out so much.

Days passed on after the eventful night and Clarke seemed to shrink before Scorpius's very eyes. She died suddenly one day and Murray was found to be the culprit a few days later. But it wasn't as if Scorpius had not been suspected at all. He had been the prime suspect- even in Rose's mind, and had suffered days of being under her suspicions too. It had injured him almost physically to see the loss of trust from the eyes of a girl he loved so much. It had all ended though and he got Rose back a few months after that.

Scorpius opened his eyes and smiled a little dreamily just as a muffled voice called out his name. "Oi, Malfoy!"

He turned to see Albus Potter open the compartment doors with his wand as Brianna Flynn and Rose Weasley beamed at him from behind Albus. The four of them had become good friends ever since the closing of the Clarke case. It seemed certain incidents brought you close to people you never even thought you'd be anything more than just basically acquainted with.

Presently, Albus walked in and slapped Scorpius's shoulder before grinning and wedging his trunk under the seat. Brianna gave him a small hug and Rose just stood at the doorway with a smile on her face. She had grown even prettier during the summer. She had let her fiery red hair grow longer and the curls now dropped right to her waist. Her blue eyes sparkled with happiness at all the good time she had spent at home and her face was alight with even more joy. She walked to him and planted a soft peck on his lips. "How have you been?"

"Fine," he replied. "You?"

"Good," she said. "I heard about that attack at your place…"

"And I received all your letters," replied Scorpius. "I know I didn't reply, but I was watched all the time. I couldn't afford to confirm Father's suspicions about you and me and suffer through his disapproving speeches."

Rose nodded understandingly and pushed her own trunk below the seat before speaking again. "Aren't we supposed to go to the prefects' carriage for the meeting? We're already slightly late, actually."

"Oh yeah," replied Albus, standing up. "Let's go then."

"You filthy bastards… and bitch," muttered Brianna jovially, trying to glare at them before breaking into a grin.

"What's with the pleasant language, Flynn?" Scorpius asked her.

"Oh, I'm just displaying my happiness at having to sit here all by myself for the next hour."

"We'll be back soon," said Albus softly, ruffling her hair as he exited the compartment along with Scorpius and Rose.

"Still fluttering with love for Flynn are we, Potter?" Scorpius asked as the three of them headed to the prefects' carriage.

"Well, we're still together if that's what you mean to ask me about," replied Al.

"That's exactly what I meant to ask."

"Excuse me," said a strange voice.

Scorpius stopped in his steps and so did Rose and Albus, only to see a strange boy of about the same age as the three of them stand before them with his arms folded across his chest. He was tall and well built, with black hair and blue eyes. Something about him seemed strange to Scorpius.

"May we help you?" Albus asked the boy.

"No, thank you," replied the latter, a small smile appearing on his face. "I was just looking around for a place to sit."

"Oh, well, you can join us. We'll be away for a while, but a friend of ours is in there," said Rose, gesturing to their compartment, much to Scorpius's annoyance. He had a bad feeling about this strange teenager. Something wasn't quite right.

"Thank you," replied the boy and walked away in the direction towards which Rose had pointed. Scorpius immediately started towards the prefects' carriage again and Albus was right with him. When Rose caught up though, she was positively flushed.

"Who was that?" she asked Scorpius. "I've never seen him around at Hogwarts."

"I haven't seen him either. He's probably a seventh year Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw whom we've never noticed," said Scorpius. "There's something off about him, though…"

"I don't think so!" Rose said defensively. "How can you say that?"

"It's just a feeling," Scorpius replied to her.

"Oh, the only feeling I got was that he's very attractive." Rose sighed.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow at her. "You do remember that you have a boyfriend, right?"

"You know, I might just forget about that at times like this…" she replied, giving him a small wink and walked on. He followed her quietly, now positively bewildered about girls and the strange kind of people they got attracted to sometimes.

***

Brianna sighed at the exit of her friends and rummaged in her bag for a book to read while they were gone. She could remember the year before this one, when Rose and Albus going away to the Prefects' carriage didn't matter much because Ian and Abby were there anyway. But now everything had changed. Even though being with Albus and having Scorpius's company as a friend was good enough, Brianna still found herself ardently missing those old days when she, along with Rose, Albus, Ian and Abby had had all their fun chatting and pulling each other's' legs, playing games, sharing joys and sorrows, freaking out together during exams and the best part of all, making fun of Ian and Abby's cheesiness.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Brianna looked up to see a teenager standing outside. She gestured for him to come in wondering who he was as he opened the door and walked in, smiling at her. She couldn't help but notice that he was quite good looking. "Your friend said I'd find you here," he said to Brianna, his smile unwavering.

"Who?" Brianna asked him, feeling a little stupid.

"You know… she has red hair. She was with Albus Potter and she asked me to sit here. I hope you have no problem."

"Oh… no, not at all," Brianna said, righting herself. There was something odd about this strange boy, she realised. For starters, she had never seen him at Hogwarts. But he clearly was a student there- he couldn't obviously be a first year. But how hadn't he known Rose's name, but known Al's? That was impossible if you were a student at Hogwarts. Everybody knew Al, of course, but everyone knew Rose too. She was Ron and Hermione Weasley's daughter who was dating their arch enemy, Draco Malfoy's son, for the love of Merlin!

"By the way, I'm Aiden," said the boy, pulling Brianna out of her reverie as he held out his hand for her to shake. "Aiden Wilde."

"Brianna Flynn," she replied, shaking his hand. "Actually, I've never really seen you around at Hogwarts."

"Oh, that may be because I'm joining this year," said Aiden nonchalantly. "We just moved back into England from Bulgaria."

"Which year will you be joining?"

"The sixth year."

"Oh, looks like we'll be classmates!"

He looked a little relieved. "Well, at least I'll have a friend in my class, then."

Brianna nodded. "They let you join Hogwarts like this, do they?"

"Apparently, they do," replied Aiden.

"So… if you weren't at Hogwarts before this, how did you learn magic?" Brianna asked him.

"I went to Durmstrang," he said. "I guess you must have heard of it."

"Nope," she replied. "I'm Muggleborn. What is Durmstrang?"

"It's another school for magic."

"That's wicked! I didn't even know that schools other than Hogwarts existed for magic."

"There are plenty of them," replied Aiden. "How do you think other people around the world learn magic?"

"Well, I never thought about that, I guess," replied Brianna.

She and Aiden talked on until the lunch trolley arrived and they were able to buy wizarding snacks and sweets to quell their hungers. Soon after, Rose and the others arrived from their meeting and they blessed Brianna when they saw all the snacks saved up for them. But as Aiden and the others got introduced, Brianna realised that she couldn't quite shake off the strange gut feeling she was having about Aiden. She ignored it though, because she had realised during their conversation that Aiden himself was a little aloof and strange. Maybe that was why her gut feelings were nudging her so much. Anyhow, last year had been way too eventful for her to expect this year to beat it, so Brianna wasn't worried. She was sure that the worst was over.

***

Knockturn Alley
London

A strange man in hooded robes walked through the dark lanes of Knockturn Alley, not looking around at the other strange people going about, doing their business or shopping or whatever else they had to do in the shops around them. He just walked on, taking a path he seemed to have taken many times in the past. At last, he reached a small office-like shop at the end of the narrow alleyway.

He opened the door and walked straight to the receptionist, who was buried completely in the Daily Prophet and didn't seem to have noticed him enter. He cleared his throat and she looked up at him. "Yes? How may I help you?"

"I was here previously for-"

"Just give me your number," she said, interrupting him.

"Eleven," replied the hooded man.

The receptionist drew out a piece of parchment and checked it. "What do you need to know?"

"I need to know how long it will take."

She nodded. "It is under execution. It will take a while since this is a special case. Hogwarts is not an easy place to go through with this operation."

"Time is not my problem at the moment," replied the man. "However, I will not entertain an extensive delay."

"It will be done as soon as possible."

"Good. So can I meet Garrotte?"

"I am afraid not."

The man considered trying to convince the receptionist to let him meet Garrotte, but she did not look as though she could be persuaded. Deciding that he wasn't concerned as long as his work was done, the man left Garrotte's office, stopping only to look at the dirty sign outside.

Garrotte - Wandslinger

The sign was pretty much self-explanatory, and Garrotte did have nerves to put that up so boldly. But of course, the board must have been charmed to change when the Ministry folk came to inspect Knockturn Alley. However, one would think that a professional killer like Garrotte would at least keep a better signboard than that, with all the money he was getting on being one of the best hit wizards in Britain.