Ever since seeing her that day, sleeping through one of professor Binns' monologues, her hair under her head as a pillow, he had begun to notice her absence. He sometimes sat alone in the library now, surrounded by nothing but dust and books as he poured over his homework half-heartedly. No lone redhead with a book sat in the stance when he was playing quidditch. No girl secretly tailed him sometimes if he took a stroll outside with a girl under his arm. No one was passing him way too often in the hallways for it to be a coincidence.
He mentioned it to Al once, who had looked up at him strangely and interrogated him about secretly liking Rose. It was an understandable assumption and Scorpius assured him that wasn't the case. He didn't think Al would understand, but not having Rose around was like losing a cat. You didn't really love the thing, because it wasn't a dog, but not having it around all the time was disconcerting.
Al dropped it and Scorpius was careful not to bring it up again. He didn't want his best friend's brain spewing nonsense without reason.
It was Saturday and he had been consciously Roseless for six weeks. The first quidditch match of the year had come and went without many big surprises. Gryffindor had narrowly beaten Ravenclaw - only James, the Gryffindor captain, used the words destroyed and humiliated. It had been a fine match, as far as school matches went. Gryffindor had some real talents and Ravenclaw had the most foolproof strategy Scorpius had seen on the school pitch in years. Maybe this would finally put a stop to the ongoing debate on whether strategy or talent won. Scorpius had always valued talent over hard work. Al said that was because he was lazy.
Despite this, Scorpius had still hoped Ravenclaw would win, because now that Gryffindor had snatched the victory, Al was dragging him along to the after party in the Gryffindor common room.
"They won't want me there," Scorpius tried again. "They'll crucify me because I know where their den is hidden."
"Come off it," Al scoffed, "I've known for years and they've never had a problem with that."
While was true, it was also true that Al was related to the major part of the current residents there, not to mention that his father was the most famous wizard in Great Britain - opposed to Scorpius' dad, who was quite infamous.
Scorpius stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked around, thinking of excuses that would get him out of it. There were more portraits in this part of the castle. A little girl clad in a yellow sundress caught his eye. She ran and hid behind a tree when they walked by, peaking around it with a morbid curiosity that was ever present within children. He was watching her when his foot slipped on the stairs. Scorpius gripped the railing before he fell down, his balance lost. His heart pounded in his chest. The step disappeared and his foot sank three feet down into a trap.
"Fuck," Scorpius cursed, wiggling his foot in an attempt to free it. It sunk another three inches and felt like something sank his teeth in it. Al looked over his shoulder to see what was wrong and burst out laughing when he saw Scorpius' predicament.
"Oh yes, very funny," Scorpius snapped. "How am I supposed to know to skip over the damn step. I never come here."
"I skipped over it," Al said. He made no move to help. Scorpius tried to pull his leg free again, but to no avail. It was stuck between something down there.
"Are you just going to stand there laughing?" Scorpius asked.
"You have to admit it's al little funny. You look just like a first year." Al moved over to him and pulled him by up his shoulders. His fingers dug into his skin with enough force that they would leave bruises.
"Arse," Scorpius muttered under his breath.
Al pulled, making Scorpius' ankle crack. A sharp pain shot up his leg and Scorpius bit on his bottom lip to keep from crying out like a little girl. Al didn't seem to notice.
"Come on, wiggle it a bit," Al said, looking down at the trap with annoyance. Scorpius gritted his teeth and tried to move his foot around as best as he could. He felt it move slowly, then, with a snap, Scorpius fell backwards and just managed to catch Al's hand before he tumbled down the stairs. He looked at his friend in horror, thinking of the death, or excruciating pain, he almost plunged into. Al was sporting the same expression he was. They looked at each other for a few seconds and burst into laughter prompted by the relief of trumping death.
"There we go," Al said when he caught his breath. "Now, don't forget, this step is a trap, so be sure to skip over it, al right?" He petted Scorpius on the head.
"I am not a bloody first year," Scorpius said, the laughter still tumbling around in his voice. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the little painting girl was no longer hiding. She was giggling along with Albus.
"How's your ankle?" Al asked. Scorpius stepped down on it lightly.
"It seems fine, just a little cut. It hurt like a bitch when it was stuck down there though," Scorpius said, testing his weight on his injured foot.
"James probably cast a stinging hex on it," Al said, " But that is great news. You can still come to the party then." Scorpius opened his mouth to protest but Al spoke before he could get a word out. "Because I know you aren't the sort to make his best friend go to a party alone."
"You're family is..." Scorpius said.
"Don't be a first year," Al cut him off, his green eyes sparkling with light unseen. He gave the girl in the picture a wink and continued up the stairs. The little girl waved after him. Scorpius scowled and followed his green eyes devil friend.
Scorpius' eyes searched the dim lit room full of sweating bodies once he arrived. The music was loud and not entirely Scorpius' favorite, making the air that smelled of alcohol, smoke and sex trill with every bass note. There was an abundancy of inadequacy - as his mother liked to put it - on the dancefloor that made him a little embarrassed to witness. The room was red - red walls, red post, red chairs stacked on one side, even the high windows looked like they were red with the light of the dying sun seeping through them - and a big banner with a lion drawn on it hung over two stairway entrances, which presumably led up to the dorms. There was a girl standing in front of him, two brown eyes looking into his own, red hair framing a childlike face. Lily was smiling at him, two steaming cups in her hands made it look like she made even the air around her smoke.
"What are you doing here," Al asked his little sister in a loud voice, grabbing her shoulder and trying to steer her away to the bannered stairways. She wrenched herself free and looked at Scorpius, offering him a steamy cup.
Lily smiled. "Thought I'd come and say hello," she said. "Offer you a drink, make you feel a little more at home in this lion's den." Her eyes didn't leave Scorpius. Al didn't seen to notice.
"Come off it. I know these people better than you do, Lily. Now come on, you're far too young to come to a party like this. Where is James?"
Scorpius ignored him and took the steaming cup from Lily's hands. Her lips curved when his fingers brushed hers.
"Thank you, Lily," Scorpius said to her. He sipped the drink, not taking his eyes off of her. She was looking fine that evening, her school robes replaced with a lacy dress that revealed that she no longer had a child's body. Her smile was daring him to do things to her that would make angels weep. He winked.
Al stepped on his foot.
"Quit it, mate. That is my baby sister," Al said.
"You're acting just like James," Lily said, glaring at him before legging off into the crowd.
Al scowled after her. "I'm off to find James. He'll throw a fit when he hears Lily sneaked in."
"Can't you just let her be, she's not harming anyone," Scorpius asked, sipping from his drink again. It was surprisingly strong, tasting of berries and alcohol and the heat it was creating in his belly wasn't only due to the temperature of the drink.
Al gave him an incredulous look. "I am not letting my fourteen year old sister attend a party and flirt with guys like you," he said. Scorpius raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with guys like me?"
"You're a guy," Al said and sped off to find James with a last nasty look and a "Keep your hands off my sister."
Scorpius chortled and went to the lone table, pushed against the far wall. It was decorated with bottles and cups. A bowl smelling of berries was steaming, places over a small greenish fire. Scorpius refilled his drink and leaned against the rough wall next to the table, watching other people dance on the dancefloor. He looked from a snogging pair on the dance floor to his drink and knocked a few back. They weren't his usual crowd, but with enough alcohol, that wasn't a problem.
The rest of the night was covered in a fog, even now he wasn't sure how he came to be snogging his used to be girlfriend, backing into an abandoned classroom. He leaned against the door and fumbled with the handle, not turning away from the girl who was kissing down his neck. Her hair smelled of lavender. The door opened with a crack of disuse and he fell backwards into the room, making dust-bunnies run for their lives. The girl giggled on top of him, wiggling around before climbing off of him. She stepped over him and laid her hands on a desk, facing away from him. She glanced over her shoulder and winked, biting her lip ever so slightly.
"Careful now," Scorpius said, getting to his feet and wrapping his arms around her waist. He hoisted her into the air, twirling her around and burying his face into the crook of her neck. The lavender was gone, she smelled of alcohol and sweat and sex.
She hummed contentedly, her hands resting on his arms wrapped around her, before spinning in his grip and kissing him. He was sure it wasn't a good kiss, drunk as they both were, but he was still irked when a loud scraping noise interrupted them. He tore himself away from the girl to see what the cause of the noise was.
His eyes landed on the girl they had been searching out for weeks, but there were so many things off that he needed to blink a few times before he was certain it was her.
"Don't mind me, I'm just on the way out," Rose said. Her hair was loose and with the candlelight illuminating it, it looked like someone had set her on fire. She had a book wrapped in her arms and in a moment of clarity, it occurred to Scorpius that she must have been reading here.
He quircked his eyebrow, feeling a smile tug at his mouth as he watched her make her way to the door.
"Couldn't keep away from he, huh Weasley?" he said through his thick tongue. He looked at him. Her eyes weren't as he remembered them. They were rimmed with black and held none of the warmth and gentleness he had always associated with them. The blue was cold.
"I'm sorry, Malfoy, for having the audacity of being in a room you barged into and not vaporising on the spot," Rose said. She crossed her arms. "It must have seemed so rude."
He allowed his eyes to roam her body for a moment - more to rile her up than to enjoy the view, he had trouble seeing more than shapes in his current state - and felt a lazy smile settle on his face. "Don't worry about it, red. You can't help it."
He threw in a wink for good measure.
She stood for a moment, watching him, before turning and walking away without a word. She didn't do as much as a backward glance and slammed the door on the way out.
"Well that was rude," Scorpius' used to be girlfriend that he had been snogging a moment before said, snaking her arms around his waist. "Someone should get laid."
Scorpius chuckled and turned back to her, sprawling her out underneath him on the desk.
"I was thinking the same thing," he said, trailing kisses down her neck.
Someone was hammering nails into his skull, thinking him fit to be the major component of an artwork. Scorpius let out a soft whimper and cracked his eyes open, resting his hands on his head to stop whomever was torturing him. There were no nails sticking out of his head, only strands of dirty hair. The light that flooded the room was painfully bright and made the pounding in his head tenfold. He reached around to try and close his drapes - but they were closed. Fat load of good they did.
"What was I thinking?" he muttered, pushing his covers away and setting his feet on the ground. He sat up. His head swam and his stomach protested against the sudden movement. He was still clad in the jeans and shirt he had worn yesterday. Hopefully they hadn't been so filthy then.
Fighting his way past the curtains and the wasteland that was his dorm, he stumbled to the bathroom to get a well due shower to wash the stink off of him. If his state was anything to judge by, it had been a good party.
A smile spread across his face as he stepped in the shower and remembered his conquest of last night wiggle underneath him. It certainly hadn't been bland.
When he was out of the shower and had established he looked like a zombie, with his bloodshot eyes and parchment yellow skin, by looking in a mirror, he crawled back into bed, escaping the pounding in his head for a few more hours before he had to deal with it.
This time, he was woken by Al, who stole his pillow from under his head.
"I said, wake up," Al said. His glasses were asque and his eyes were bloodshot. He wasn't wearing a shit, but for some reason, he did have a tie tied around his neck. It wasn't his tie either, if the red colour and golden stripes were anything to judge by.
"Quidditch in an hour," Al said. He looked down at his tie and frowned. "What in the name of…" he trailed off, heading for the bathroom. Scorpius sat up. The searing pain in his head had died down to a persistent thumping and Scorpius wondered if he could nick hangover potion off anyone. Filch, the caretaker and adversary of everything that would bring students joy, had confiscated his when he had arrived at Hogwarts. He had done it with a smile on his face and a glint in his watery eyes, no doubt making a mental note to write Scorpius' name on his list of enemies.
"Al," Scorpius shouted. A muffled reply came from the bathroom, followed by a loud thump.
"You got any hangover potion?" Scorpius stepped out of his bed and looked around, hoping to find some clean clothes between the litter on the floor. The bathroom door burst open and Al stuck his head outside, a yellow toothbrush hanging out of his mouth.
"Wha?" he asked unattractively. The toothbrush bobbed up and down and he sprayed foam over the floor. Scorpius scrunched up his nose but didn't say anything.
"Hangover potion. Filch took all of mine," Scorpius repeated. Al scratched the back of his head and took the toothbrush out of his mouth this time before replying.
"Somewhere in my trunk, you can look if you want."
"You don't need any?" Scorpius asked, heading over to the most dangerous part of the room; Al's domain. Al shrugged. "I ain't old yet. I don't get those granny ailments."
Scorpius grinned. "What about last summer when we went to that muggle bar?"
"That never happened," Al said before slamming the door shut. Scorpius shook his head and opened to Al's trunk, fishing through his rubbish for the potion that would mean his salvation. A sharp pain shot through his finger and he snatched his hand back. A bright bead of blood gathered on the tip of his ring finger. He absent-mindedly put the finger in his mouth and rummaged through the trunk a bit more carefully. The potion was stuffed in a dirty sock, hidden between Al's toiletries. An odd hiding place. Scorpius would try that next time.
Throwing the sock away, he pried the bottle open and threw the concoction back. The potion was as foul as Al's socks smelled, but the relief of the absent head pounding was immediate. Scorpius smiled and let himself fall backwards, landing in a pile of Al's dirty laundry. It smelled worse than the socks.
"You've had a good time last night?" Al asked, appearing from the bathroom. His green eyes swept over the ground. "I didn't see much of you. You better not have bothered Lily." Al gave him a look. Scorpius held up his hands, shaking his head. He couldn't stop a smile from playing with his lips.
"Nah, Lily is a nice bird, but I'd never go there."
Al raised an eyebrow. He picked up a shirt, sniffed it and threw it back on the ground with a disgusted look on his face.
"I'm serious," Scorpius said. "She'd only be with me to rile you up."
"Ahh," Al laughed. "Your ego couldn't handle than now, could it." He picked up the next shirt. Apparently this one smelled clean enough because he pulled it over his head. Scorpius composed his face when he saw red lipstick stains on his shoulder.
"Not even for Lily's wonderful snogs," he said. The smile melted off Al's face faster than food disappeared from his plate, his neck almost snapped as he turned back to Scorpius, his eyes fixing on him.
"Lily's what?" Al asked, his voice oddly high and feminene. Scorpius shrugged, the smile was still playing with his lips. He stood up and headed for the door. "Let's go to breakfast. I'm ravaged."
"I asked you something. Scorpius? Scorpius, What the hell mate, stop." Al's hand closed around his wrist just before he was out the door. Scorpius couldn't help but laugh when he turned around and saw the shillyshally look on his face.
"Don't worry, don't worry. I'm just winding your wand."
"Where were you last night, then?" Al asked, loosening his vice like grip on Scorpius' wrist.
A sly smile slipped over Scorpius' face and he scratched his neck, making the hairs at the base of his neck stick up slightly.
"Let's just say that Heatherwing missed me over the summer," he said, his eyes sparkling. Al let go of his wrist and thumped him on the back, grinning.
"Good on you, mate," Al said, before he began talking about the little adventure he had had last night - the same adventure the lipstick on his shirt probably came from - with a little more details than Scorpius would have liked. Scorpius steered him towards the Great Hall for breakfast, hoping that food would shut him up.
When Scorpius sat down and loaded his plate with the usual - toast, eggs sausages and beans -, his eyes searched the red and gold table at the other end of the room without his consent, like they did every time. For the first time, his eyes landed red hair that looked like it had been electrocuted into model.
"I totally forgot," Scorpius said, his eyes not leaving Rose. Al looked at him, his mouth full of whatever he was devouring whole. "I saw Rose last night."
Al's eyebrows rose and he followed Scorpius' line of sight. "At the party?" he asked through his mouth full of food. Scorpius could count the carrots between his teeth.
"No, no. I ran into her when I was looking for a place a bit more private for me and Heatherwing," Scorpius said. "I think she'd been reading. Can't remember it precisely though. Everything's a bit hazy."
Al looked away from Rose, the dark look that slipped over his face announced the bad mood he was working himself in, and he began prodding his food with his fork. "I'm getting a bit annoyed with her, to be honest. I mean it's great and all that she's finally leaving you alone, but what the bloody hell is she avoiding me for?"
Scorpius glanced at him. "How should I know. She isn't talking to me."
Al scowled and flicked his hair out of his face. "Don't be savvy with me, Malfoy. You just said you saw her yesterday," he said.
"Don't Malfoy me, Potter," Scorpius said sharply. "And if you're upset with Rose, go and pick a fight with her, not with me."
Al grumbled something indistinct to have the last word and scowled at a first year at the Hufflepuff table, who had been looking at him in awe for the last weeks, hiding behind a daily prophet. The little boy turned white and looked down at his plate, his entire attention switched to his food. Scorpius stifled a laugh.
He and Al ate in silence for a while - or, Scorpius ate. Al was covertly glancing in Rose's direction and making the food on his plate inedible by mashing everything together with his fork.
"Did she say anything?" he asked eventually. Scorpius shook his head.
"She saw me and practically bolted out of there."
Al nodded, still refusing to eat.
"Look, mate," Scorpius said, looking at his friend who apparently was a lot more bothered with Rose's disappearance than he let on. "We have to head out now, so why don't you just leave it alone for now and ask Lily when we get back? I'm sure she knows what's up."
"Like Lily's gonna tell me anything," Al grumbled, standing up to follow Scorpius.
"If you want, I can ask her for you if she doesn't tell you anything," Scorpius reassured him, clapping him on the back. "Now cheer up, the weather is great today."
Al nodded and grinned. His green sparkled again, but that could just have been the sun, that had taken that exact moment to come peaking through the clouds.
AN. So, anyone catch on how Scorpius is a dog person. The traitor. I, personally am a cat person. Cat's are much more sophisticated, plus, I feel like their hearts are filled with sarcasm too.
I was absolutely over the moon with all the reviews I got. I hope you lot like this chapter as much as the last!
Don't hesitate to tell me what you think about it.