Hello all. I do not own Harry Potter, I'm just writing fanfic about it. Anyway, here's the second chapter to my Unveiled story. Please review.

Anise looked at him from across the table while they waited for their food. She seemed wary of him and yet that hadn't stopped her from coming. He watched her wordlessly, still a little shell-shocked himself. She rolled the table cloth between her thumb and forefinger, watching her hands rather than Scorpius.

"So," she said, "You said you were learning to be a wizard. That means you go to Hogwarts, right?"

He nodded, though she wasn't watching him to see it, "Yeah,"

"What's it like there?" she asked, finally looking up and catching him with those jade eyes.

He shrugged, trying to ignore the feeling that she was peering into his soul.

"Uh, it's good, I guess. It's school, you know?"

She smiled, "I think so. Hogwarts has this whole fuss about houses doesn't it? We have houses at our school but we only really worry about them at our annual sports day. How do you guys do it?"

"Well, we have this magic hat…"

She laughed, a trilling, musical sound that filled the room with light, "No, really," she said, "How does it work?"

Scorpius grinned, "I'm serious. The sorting hat is old and it's been putting first years into houses since the school was founded,"

"Oh," she was taken aback.

He went on, "There's four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Gryffindor is for people too stupid to feel fear, Ravenclaw's for the eggheads, Slytherin is for backstabbing murderers and Hufflepuff is for pretty much everyone else,"

"And which house are you in?" she asked, watching him so intently that he felt like he was under interrogation.

"Umm, I'm in Slytherin,"

"For backstabbing murderers?" she asked.

"Yeah. Well, they couldn't put me in Gryffindor because I'm a complete pansy. So Slytherin it was, because I'm a sneaky son of a bitch,"

She laughed again, "Yeah, you seem really subtle,"

He sobered, "Actually, it's more because I've basically got a perfect pedigree," he sighed, "I hate pure blood wizards as a general rule. They're always insufferable, smug people,"

"Oh, so you're the perfect model, then," Anise said, with a smile to let him know that she was joking.

Their food arrived then. Scorpius didn't touch his. He was far too preoccupied watching Anise daintily pick at her salad. She looked up and caught him watching, so he wrinkled his nose dramatically. It was a bit early for him to seem that fascinated watching her do mundane things.

"Do you really like salad or do you just not like eating real people food in front of people?"

"Are you kidding?" she asked, shredding a piece of lettuce with her fingers, "You'd have to be an idiot to order a salad to seem dainty. Have you ever tried finding a dignified way to eat a lettuce leaf? It's messy stuff and there isn't really a better way to do it than eating with your hands it or stuffing the whole thing in your mouth; and God help you if it has dressing,"

"I've never really thought about it," he said, amused.

Anise pointed a shred of the accusing foodstuff at him, "See? No one ever thinks of these things. I bet you've also never thought about how difficult it is to climb down a wall lattice without being cut to ribbons on the roses your mum grows there,"

"Actually, I do happen to have some experience in that area; except for me it's Devil's Snare,"

Anise asked him what Devil's Snare was and when he explained, she seemed concerned. He smiled.

"The Devil's Snare bit was a joke; not a good one, seeing as you had no way of getting the reference but that's what it was. The garden lattice thing though, I do understand,"

She popped another shred of lettuce into her mouth, "Why do you sneak out?" she asked.

Scorpius shrugged, "Because my dad's an ass when he drinks,"

"Does he drink often?"

"Often enough,"

"What about when he's sober?"

"Oh. Well, when he's sober, he's an ass,"

She took a moment to digest that.

"I sneak out because I'm always grounded for sneaking out. It's a vicious circle," she said.

He grinned, "Why did you sneak out in the first place?"

"Because I decided that my curfew was dumb. It is dumb but apparently that doesn't stop me from getting grounded for breaking it,"

He laughed, "I could have told you that,"

"Yeah; where were you when I needed you to keep me out of trouble, wizard? From now on, you have to keep me from doing anything stupid and mindlessly rebellious, okay?"

"Okay,"

"And while you're at it, you can magic all my chores done,"

Scorpius laughed again and explained to her about the laws restricting magic used by underage wizards. She seemed more horrified at that than anything else, probably because it meant that she would have to fold her socks herself.