A little bit of Rose/Scorpius shows up in this chapter. This isn't my favourite chapter, though. Next chapter is when it will get more intense. This chapter is basically about him dealing with himself and what he agreed to. The whole Man vs. Self conflict. May I remind everyone before you read that Rose and Scorpius are NOT dating currently. Just so everyone knows. They're just really good friends. Like Ron and Hermione were.

II

Regret

My parents came to see me off for my seventh and final year of Hogwarts. It was a lie to say that I was excited to back, but it was also a lie to say that I was dreading it. I was right in the middle of being extremely satisfied and utterly dissatisfied. My father ruffled my hair obnoxiously and I frowned at him, straightening it again.

"Last year, Scorpius," he said, rather proud. I was a pretty good student. I followed in my fathers footsteps in Quidditch. I'm captain and seeker of the Slytherin team. I also got my mothers brain. I'm extremely good at potions. I could make virtually anything anyone asked. A rather handy gift in my opinion.

"Yeah," I said with a sigh as I looked at the train. I was still rather nervous about my task. My parents have accepted and were not at all bothered by my two best friends. Lily and Rose. Their parents and siblings, however, were not as happy with the combination. My father sensed my unpleasant silence and stopped stalking but not before my mother grabbed me in a hug.

"Be good this year," she said with a smile on her face. She always said that when I left. I could hardly force myself to smile back. I wouldn't make such a promise as I was already sure I was going to break it. Mother, too, sensed my silence and backed off. They must have sensed that something was wrong.

"Goodbye," I said lowly, avoiding their eye contact as I slowly headed to the train. As invisible as I washed to become I was instantly recognized by a number of people. Like my father, I inherited the title of Slytherin Prince and people fawned over me left and right. He was extremely obnoxious. Unlucky as I am, the first person I didn't want to see was the first person that came up to talk to me. She greeted me in a hug that I so did not deserve.

"Scorpius!" Lily greeted and squeezed me tight. "I can't believe this is your last year!" she yelled. Her voice almost made me smile but I forced myself not to. She didn't notice but someone else did. She came over to me but didn't say anything. She, too, sensed my hesitance today. Rose.

"Good to see you," I said, feeling guilty. Knowing what I had to do did not make it easier to talk to them. I felt so ashamed of myself.

"Likewise," Rose said, scrutinizing me slightly. I pried Lily off me as she smiled. Rose and I were the same age, but Lily was one year younger. We were al really good friends. That's what killed me.

"I'm going to sit with Neil on the train, if that's okay," I told them both. Lily looked severely disappointed but Rose folded her arms with a blank stare that would even make Tera proud.

"Fine," Rose said blankly. "Come on, Lily. Let's find your brother." Lily's brother. Albus Severus Potter. He was in my year and we definitely did not get along. Old rivalries never truly die, I suppose. I watched Rose pull Lily on to the train and I let out a breath I hadn't known I had been holding as they left. IT was already awkward between us. I didn't even want to know how awkward it would be after I had to kidnap Lily.

I felt a pat on my shoulder and looked over to see my best friend. Don't get me wrong, Lily and Rose were great, but my guy best friend was Neil. My go to guy. Neil Puce y. We'd been best friends since first year.

"Trouble with ladies, Scorpius?" he said with a sly smirk. I looked at him guiltily . He didn't know the half of it. Besides the reason being my best friend was Neil, there was another reason I wanted to sit with him. Noth had told me to recruit as many as I possibly could, as well as to kidnap Lily. I figured Neil would be the way to start.

"You could say that," I replied. The thing was, I was terrified at the idea of kidnapping Lily, but I still needed to be faithful to Noth. So I was pretty sure I was still going to do it. We both went to a compartment and shut the door. Neil knew something was up. I was normally a rather pleasing guy and a rather nice one in fact. I wasn't hard to realize that something had changed over the past summer.

*~*~*

"So, let me get this straight," Neil said frowning at me slightly. "You joined an evil uprising organization called the Night Terrors and have been assigned to kidnap Lily Potter, your best friend, and hold her for ransom" he said as if wishing it weren't true.

I nodded involuntarily and Neil widened his eyes in astonishment. It was hard to tell something like that to your best friend and see them have that kind of reaction. I knew I had done something truly terrible. To agree to such a thing, but I had no other choice. I didn't expect anyone else to understand but it was true.

"That's not the worst part," I mumbled darkly. Neil's eyes widened as he hear this. More? Not the worst part? How much worse could it possibly get? Much much worse. "I'm supposed to recruit more people," I told him. Neil seemed to know where this was going. He looked at me darkly and leaned back away from me in his seat. For now, that was the only way he could get away.

"No, Scorpius. You-you're not dragging me down with you," he said definitely. I buried my hands miserably into my face.

"I know. I just don't know what to do. I don't have any other-" Suddenly, the door opened. I didn't have to look to know who it was. Rose. Out of all the people there were, Rose knew every thing about me. My interests, moods, and even anything I was thinking at the time. Rose knew it all. I couldn't tell you if her knowing everything was a good thing or not. Surely, in most cases, it was a trait that was widely discredited. In my case, it was something I dreaded. I didn't want someone knowing exactly what I felt. It wasn't that she had some super power, but she was great at reading people. It must have come naturally to her.

Rose had her arms crossed, staring at me as she had before. Her eyes turned to Neil. "Would you mind giving us a minute alone?" she said in a commanding voice. Neil sent me a sympathetic look and nodded, leaving the compartment. Her stare was torturous. She may not know what I was up to, but she was ready to pester me until she did. I couldn't tell her. I just couldn't. It would break her heart.

"What do you want, Rose?" I said sternly, determined not to lose face. I didn't want her to think anything was wrong, even though it was obvious. Rose was someone I always cared for. My best friend. She always seemed concerned about me. Especially now.

"I'm not an idiot, Scorpius," was the first thing she said to me. I sighed. Hell, I knew that. Rose was the smartest in our grade. Picked it up from her mother, I suppose. Her mother was bloody brilliant and Rose was equally as smart. Gosh, I hated smart people. They knew everything.

"I know," I said in a very defensive tone. She only lowered her eye brows. Rose sat next to me and looked straight at my face. I couldn't bare the look of sadness on her face so I set my attention on the ground.

"Something is bothering you, is it not?" she asked concerned.

"No. I'm fine," I said annoyed. Gosh. Would she just leave me alone? If she could read people as well as she could, couldn't she understand that I wanted to be alone right now?

Rose rolled her eyes and chuckled slightly as if to say 'yeah, right'. "Again, I'm not an idiot. I know when something is wrong. Is it your father?" she asked. Rose knew that my father and I didn't always get along and that I complained about him a lot. That doesn't mean I don't respect him. I do. He's still my father. But every father and son have their issues every so often. Let's just say, he didn't like that I seemed to be following in his old footsteps. I let it out a few times the term 'Mudblood' and that always made my father flip. He had changed from when he was a kid, that was for sure.

"No! God, Rose. No! Just…leave me alone," I yelled at her. I stood up from my seat and rushed out the compartment door leaving a rather worried Rose. Maybe if I stayed away from them, it would make the idea of kidnapping Lily less painful. As I walked to the back of the train, I ran into someone.

"Jeez, watch where your going, Malfoy?" I heard a rather cross tone say to me as I bumped into him. Who else but Albus Potter? The very person I absolutely despise. Old habits die hard, I suppose. The Malfoy and Potter boys never got along. Never. Albus completely disapproved of my friendship with his sister and cousin. He was always very protective over them. Stupid brat.

"Where's Rose?" he commanded, as if he thought that I had tied her up and left her to die somewhere. I frowned at him.

"I'm not responsible for the whereabouts of your family, Potter," I spat at him.

Albus scoffed. "Don't play dumb with me, Malfoy. I know the kind of person you are. Where is she?!" he demanded. At this, I got a bit angry. Did he think I was that kind of person? Then, I reminded myself that I was going to kidnap Lily this year. Maybe I was that kind of person. Even still, it did not put me in a great mood and I took a rather drastic action. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and hit his head and back hard against the wall.

"I. Don't. Know!!" I screamed, banging his head once more into the wood before I made my way back to the end of the train. Clearly, I was not in the mood to be pestered. I was just so frustrated. Normally, I would never had done such a thing to Lily's brother, but I just couldn't take it. I had had a horrible summer. Just awful.

Before I knew it, Albus had grabbed me and knocked me over with a punch, then pinned me on the ground with his wand to my throat. "You'll pay for that one, Malfoy!"

I laughed. "What is Potter going to do, huh?" I asked in an obnoxious mimicking voice. "Hex me? Go on! Do it! I dare you!" He was just about to when it was interrupted.

"Expelliarmus!" we looked over and saw Rose holding her wand out with her other hand out as she caught Albus's wand. "That is enough, Albus!" she yelled coming over to her cousin and pulled him off me. She held out her hand for me, but I didn't take it, letting myself up. I straightened my clothes and glared at Albus.

"You picked the wrong time to mess with me, Potter," I glared at him.

"Oh, really? And who's fault is that?!" he said rather crossly.

Argh, I hated this kid! He was just like his father! Cold and prejudice to the bone. I swear Harry Potter was such an asshole. I know that he taught his son to be like that. I just know it. Lily was fine, but her brother was a piece of work.

"Both of you stop or I'll hex you both right here, right now!" she yelled at the two of us. Rose placed herself in between Albus and I with her hands outstretched. "Shake hands, get over it, alright?!"

Neither of us budged. Neither of us held out our hands. I gave him one hard glare and turned around, heading for the back of the train again. I couldn't take much more of this. When I got the back, there was an area at the end where you could go outside. I leaned against the gate around the back of the train and buried my face into my hands. I couldn't take much more of this. It was too hard. I had to kidnap my best friend, recruit more kids to doom at this school, and I had to help the rise of a new dark lord that was going to slaughter, not kill, but slaughter all of the mudbloods out there, and possibly a few muggles too. I was such a monster.

I heard the door to the back open but didn't budge. It wasn't for another couple minutes that I felt an arm around my waist and a head lean against the side of my chest. I lowered my hands and saw Rose, looking up at me with tears in her eyes.

"Scorpius. Please…what has happened to you?" she asked miserably.

I didn't say anything yet but I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her a bit closer to me, burying my face in her hair.

"A lot," I finally said. That was all I was going to say. She didn't question me any further. Rose seemed to guess that something was bothering me that I just couldn't talk about. She recognized that much…she knew something had changed for the worst.

~*~*~

I sat silently at the Slytherin table, not making eye contact with anyone. Lily and Rose and all their family all were in the Gryffindor house. It wasn't a surprise that the Malfoy family generations have all been in Slytherin. We've been in Slytherin for generations on end. I liked my house, for the most part. Neil Pucey was there with me as well, but we sat at the table in silence. Obviously, our previous conversation still had taken a rather unpleasant hold on him. I couldn't blame him either.

When the feast began, after all the kids were sorted, I rarely touched my food. Neil stared at me sadly and one of his friends, Alice, seemed worried about me too. Alice Parkinson and Neil Pucey were dating and the were pretty good friends of mind, I guess.

"Scorpius, are you okay?" Alice asked.

I glared at Neil and Alice. They both cringed back into their seats a bit. I had a rather menacing expression when I was angry. Most people were usually terrified of me.

"Would people stop asking me that!?" I yelled. With that, I stood up from the table and made my way back to the Slytherin common room. Most of the table heard my outburst and stared silently up at me. A few people from the other tables stared at me, too. I caught Rose's glance but didn't make any smile or any other expression towards her.

I went up to my common room and went straight to bed. I just couldn't take it.

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