So sorry about the delay! Be expecting an update every thursday from now on.

Chapter 3:

Scorpius scraped a pale hand through his silver hair.

So far his plans to seduce the Weasel weren't going so smoothly. It'd been a week and so far every time he got near her she was too busy worrying to even look at him. She was always with a large group of people. The most he could do was scowl at her, but even then she wouldn't give him a second glance.

He stared into the common room fire. His petulant gaze boring into the flames that so reminded him of her hair.

'Damn her!' He thought in frustration. He'd set himself on breaking her heart and he'd be damned if he didn't!

Scorpius tore his stormy grey eyes away from the fireplace, letting them travel across the room, his gaze finally resting on the figure of a crying sixth year. She was being cradled by the ugliest git he'd ever seen and yet… and yet, she seemed to sob into his large chest gratefully. As if he was the most beautiful man she'd ever known.

Scorpius nearly had to suppress the urge to run over and kiss the repulsive couple.

He knew how he'd get to the half-blood.

From what he'd overheard from the school gossip, her cousin was missing. So he'd offer to help her find Albus. He'd get her to trust him, she would fall for him, then give herself to him fully and then when she was finally completely vulnerable, he'd crush her fiery spirit and dull that determined spark in her eyes.

He rose from his seat near the fire and headed to his dorm room, a smirk playing on his lips as the plan he had formed circled in his mind. He could already feel the glee her heartbreak would give his sadistic drive.

~.~

"But headmaster!" Rose protested. Her hair had grown to twice its normal volume due to her constantly pulling it in frustration. She looked slightly unhinged with her dark circles and the unnatural pale that came from sleepless nights.

Standing up, the old wizard ushered her to the door and held it open patiently before replying calmly "I assure you, Miss Weasley, your cousin is quite alright." From his stance, Rose could tell his words were final, but his honey brown eyes twinkled with a glimmer of… pity?

Seeing there was no point in arguing further, Rose shouldered her bag and brushed past the old wizard, ignoring his kind farewell.

She'd seen every single one of Albus' teachers, written her aunt and uncle countless letters, talked to each of his friends and had just spoken to the headmaster. But all of them told her the same thing: "he's fine" or "he's okay". It was infuriating! He was her closest most trusted friend. Why would he just disappear without saying anything?

Rose walked down the hall mumbling insults to the craggily old Wizard and as if by his will, her book bag split open and the contents spilled onto the floor. Looking down she observed the mess with a rising temper. A week's worth of completed homework, three library books, quills and several rolls of fresh parchment; all soaked with black ink.

"Bloody Hell!" she yelled, throwing a ruined potions book down the hall in her frustration. It was times like these were she felt most like her father. The times when she couldn't control her anger and felt like smashing her fist through something. Preferably whatever or whoever had caused her to be so angry.

Feeling the beginnings of tears start to sting and blur her vision, Rose swiped a hand at her face, wiping away the tears before they could fall. With a wave of her wand the mess was cleaned and her bag repaired.

She spied the previously tossed potions book and took a minute to admire how far she'd thrown it before going to retrieve it.

However, before she reached it, a pale hand picked it up instead. "Feeling a bit destructive today Weasley?" purred an arrogant voice she knew all to well.

"Sod off, Malfoy." She spat, snatching the book from him and turning to leave.

Scorpius reached for her wrist with seeker quick reflexes and turned her back around, pulling her close. He placed his free hand on the small of her back and forced her even closer to him. "I wasn't done speaking to you." He said evenly.

"I was." She hissed, trying unsuccessfully to get out of his grasp.

Rose felt uncomfortable this close to him. They hadn't spoken since a week ago when he'd brought her to the brink of tears after the polyjuice incident. And since then, she'd spent every moment of her day ignoring him and avoiding him at all costs. For a week she chewed over what he'd said. Coming to the conclusion that she loathed him more than she'd thought possible.

"Why are you crying?" he asked, startling her. The contours of his face screaming boredom while his eyes glimmered with amusement.

"I'm not crying!"

He let go of her wrist, but kept hold of her back, reaching his now free hand out to gently trace the track of a fallen tear.

She quivered with rage. "Why do you care? Get off me, you twat!"

"Twat?" he chuckled.

Scorpius let her go and took a step back. "If you're going to be so bitchy, I won't offer you my help." He turned away from her and started to walk away, a devious grin plastered on his handsome face.

Rose's forehead creased in confusion. "What?"

He stopped grinning and turned to face her again. "I was going to help you find a dear mutual friend of ours, but seeing as you don't want-"

"What are you talking about?"

Now he had her. Scorpius waltzed back over to Rose, standing close enough to inhale her scent. Oh yes, he would enjoy breaking her. Maybe once he'd had her she'd get the hell out of his head. And maybe he could have her more than once? No. No he needed to stick to the plan. Digressing from the plan might mean failure and failure was not his forte.

"Albus." Scorpius stated bluntly. "I've been worried about him as well." He said in an almost believable tone.

"You've been worried about him?" she repeated doubtfully.

Scorpius ran a hand along his jaw, looking distressed. He'd made sure not to shave the day before. His stubble making him appear almost as concerned as she was.

He was a damn good actor.

"He's my friend as much as he is yours. Why shouldn't I help you find out what's going on?"

Rose thought for a moment. Was he serious? She knew he and Albus were friends, but she didn't know they were close. And what did he mean he wanted to help her? She voiced the last thought aloud "How do you propose to help me?"

"I might know a bit of information." He murmured truthfully. Even though Scorpius was only in this to meet his own selfish ends, he had been a little curious as to where his green eyed friend had gone to. So he'd taken it upon himself to find real leads rather than stringing her along on a completely false, for lack of better words… mission.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "And what is that?"

He looked around before leaning in close. "Professor Morris has been late for class a lot recently." Scorpius whispered in her ear.

"So?"

He rolled his eyes and went over to a nearby broom closet, motioning for her to follow. Scorpius closed the door behind them and stood closer to her for the mere satisfaction of watching her squirm.

"Mufliato" Rose whispered. "It makes it impossible for people to hear what we're saying." She explained when Scorpius gave her a wondering look.

He nodded before continuing. "Morris has been late for class since the second week of term. Isn't that when Albus disappeared?"

Rose bit her lip. "Yeah, but-"

"He's also the head of Slytherin house-"

"I know he's the head of Slytherin, do I look daft?"

"Do you want the truth?" he sneered into the semi-darkness of the closet.

Rose pursed her lips and hoped he could see her annoyance in the low light.

"As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me, the other day I skipped charms and when I went up to my dorm I found him rummaging through Albus' things. I thought I was going to get detention, but he just mumbled something about keeping quiet and left."

"Why'd you skip charms?"

"Really Weasley?"

"Sorry, okay, well what has that got to do with anything?"

He gave her an incredulous look. "You have the whole school thinking you're some sort of genius and you can't even put two and two together."

Rose flushed. "You expect me to believe that Morris has something to do with Albus' disappearance?"

Scorpius shrugged. "Do you have any other guesses?"

"But he's a teacher!" Rose nearly shouted, unknowingly echoing another Gryffindor from years passed.

"Listen, Weasel. I know you have this belief that teachers are gods, but you need to grow up. Not everything is peachy and cute like your crowded little 'burrow'. You'd think after six years of me torturing you, you'd learn the world isn't nice."

Rose stammered, not knowing what to say. She didn't need any growing up. And since when did he have the right to scold her?

"If you don't want to believe me, that's fine. But you're being really immature if you're refusing to listen just because we're less than close."

She bit her lip, weighing the logic. She had to admit, the sly bastard did have a point. With an exasperated sigh, Rose threw up her hands. "Okay so if I was to believe your… theory, what would you have in mind to prove your suspicions?"

Scorpius ran his thumb over her prefect's badge. "I have a plan." He chuckled lightly to himself. He seemed to be planning a lot lately.

~.~

The plan was to happen this weekend when Rose was patrolling. She'd give her partner a lame excuse about being sick and sneak down to the dungeons with Scorpius after dinner. Then they'd stalk Morris to learn where he went at night. According to Scorpius, he was never in his bedchambers after dark.

It was only Wednesday morning, but Rose was beginning to feel anxious. If they were caught she was to give the excuse of escorting him back to his common room after she'd found him lurking during her patrol. But what if something went wrong? What if Morris found them following him and gave them detention? Or worse: expulsion.

Scorpius was working on mastering the concealment charm while Rose tried to read every book in the library to keep from panicking and chickening out.

"Rosie, are you alright?" asked a concerned Hugo who was looking down at her with a frown.

She nodded and dusted a piece of toast off of her robes. "Yeah, why?"

He shook his forever-tousled ginger hair and took a seat at the Gryffindor table beside her. "No reason. How were your team's tryouts?"

Rose glanced around the table to insure everyone was busy eating or talking before speaking. "Horrendous! A fight broke out between a third year and a fifth year over a position they both wanted and I had to break it up myself!" she dropped her face into her hands and sighed.

They had a slim chance of besting any house besides Hufflepuff. But maybe there was hope for Ravenclaw. "How was yours?" she inquired, secretly hoping his report would be worse.

Hugo tried not to look so happy about his team, but with little success. "We have a few good kids." He chuckled into his goblet before continuing. "But we have an incredible keeper. Really, I've never seen quality keeping like his. He's the best keeper Ravenclaw has ever seen"

Rose snorted and lifted her head. "I bet he's real modest too."

Hugo grinned. "Yeah and his sister is extremely jealous. He got all the brains, good looks and quidditch skills and all she got was bright red hair and a silver badge."

They were both laughing now. "Well I hear that his sister is the best seeker at Hogwarts. Ten times better than that prat, Scorpius Malfoy."

"That's a given." Hugo growled between bites of muffin.

If Rose's relationship with Malfoy were considered rocky, Hugo's was a jagged cliff face jutting out of the side of a gigantic mountain, looking down over a raging sea filled with every type of underwater evil imaginable.

In other words, Hugo and Scorpius loathed each other more than she thought was healthy.

Remembering this made Rose feel slightly guilty about what she was doing. Sure she wasn't betraying her brother, but she couldn't help swallowing a bit of guilt as he rambled on about his "impeccable team".

After a light conversation with Hugo, that mostly involved him speaking through enough food to feed an army and Rose just nodding and gasping when appropriate, she bid goodbye to her table and tottered over to defense against the dark arts. All the while biting the tip of her tongue in thought.

She wanted to trust Malfoy, but a huge part of her refused to give in to her optimistic side. She couldn't trust him! He'd been nothing besides rude to her for the last six years of her life. Not to mention the fact that her brother would have an aneurism if he ever found out. How could she trust him?

Rose had been so enveloped in her own thoughts that she didn't notice the low whispers until they were in the corner of her vision.

"Sh-sh-she asked me about him! Sh-she knows s-s-something"

Rose gasped and hid in a dark alcove. Silently praying they hadn't seen or heard her. There was something about the conversation that made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and a cold dread sweep down her spine. Rose was powerless over her urge to eavesdrop.

"So the girl is curious. She's no threat to us." Retorted a cold voice Rose didn't recognize.

"You don't understand! She's not like th-the other idiots at this school. Sh-she's clever."

By now Rose could distinguish the scared voice as Professor Nolan's, but as for the second…

"I don't care if she's the brightest witch of her fucking age, she means nothing. The boy is all that matters!"

"But-"

"Don't test me, Nolan. I will not hear anymore of your fears." The cold voice spat "You are as cowardly as the rest of your pathetic family. If your blood wasn't so pure, I'd rid the world of the disgusting stench of fear that emanates from your horrendous skin."

"I am s-sorry-"

"I don't want to hear your stuttered apologies. Get out of my sight."

When Nolan apparently didn't move there was a smack of some type of wood, maybe a cane, and a spluttering sound as Nolan gave a few more mumbled apologies before scampering away.

Rose didn't even dare to breathe. From where she stood in the shadow she could see the sweep of a black cape before the distinguishable pop of apparation.

Her heart was beating so furiously she could feel it in her ears. She took a shaky breath and steeped hesitantly out of the alcove.

Wasn't it impossible to apparate inside Hogwarts?

Her robes billowed around her as she sped down the hall to defense against the dark arts. Not wanting to be caught in the corridor if the cold voice was to return. And most importantly: not wanting to skip her most important class. Even if it meant sitting through a lecture, scared out of her wits.

When she entered the classroom, Nolan looked up at her with his usual uninterested stare. "Nice of y-you to join us, Miss We-easley." He said before restarting his tedious lesson about shielding charms.

Rose focused on her feet as she took her usual seat next to Joy. And to Joy's displeasure, didn't say anything the entire lesson. She tried to calm down, but to no avail.

The entire class, Rose drummed her fingers impatiently on the bare skin left exposed by her skirt. Internally counting the minutes until lunch.

When they were dismissed Rose was the first out of the classroom, racing to the dining hall at record speed.

Spotting a head of white blonde hair, she darted forward and nearly tackled him. "Malfoy, I need to speak to you" when he didn't move, she grabbed his sleeve and pulled him away from the other Slytherins "now."

"Help! Weasley is trying to sexually assault me!" He said for the benefit of causing a few chuckles and the reddening of her ears.

Rose was too shaken to let go of his sleeve until they were well into the confines of an empty classroom.

Only then did she exhale slowly and cross her arms over her chest.

"Well?" he asked impatiently, eyeing her with distaste.

Rose searched for the right words but couldn't seem to grasp any, instead she settled on just regurgitating the story as it came to mind. She repeated everything she'd heard and twirled her red and gold striped tie nervously between her fingers as she tried to calm down.

Scorpius closed his eyes as he listened. When she finished, he opened them to find her sitting on a broken desk with a trance-like look on her face.

There was something oddly familiar about this "cold voice" in her story. "I take it that you trust me now?" he asked, moving a stool to sit in front of her.

She looked up at him with petrified eyes. "Yes." And truthfully she did. It wasn't like she could tell anyone else what she'd heard, but telling Scorpius seemed to lift the terror she'd felt prior. Though that left her with a new terror: the fact that Scorpius Malfoy had made her feel... safe.

"Good." Before he knew what he was doing, he reached out a tentative hand to grasp her cold fingers. Idly stroking her palm as her breathing slowed to a normal pace.

'What the fuck am I doing?' Scorpius though as he felt his throat dry up and his tongue become useless in his mouth. Was he comforting her?

Rose came to the same realization as she looked bewilderedly down at their hands.

Without meeting each other's gaze they snatched their hands back. Not daring to comment on the almost affectionate moment they'd shared.

Scorpius cleared his throat and stood. "Saturday." He confirmed before hurrying out of the abandoned classroom, slamming the door behind him with obvious horror at touching her 'filthy half-blood hands'.

She watched as the dust that had risen in his wake fell back down to the floor. The eerie quiet that remained was both soothing and a sigh, Rose lay across the desk and looked up at the ceiling.

What went on in that head of his? Surely he wasn't all that evil. Maybe, somewhere deep down, he might be kind. She'd seen him hug his mother before at King's cross-station. They way he'd held her while she cried into his broad shoulders was proof enough that he was partly human at least.

She pouted her lower lip, and for the second time in her life, genuinely wanted to know what went on in his head.

a/n: So what'd you think… too soon for the giddy feelings? Not fast enough? Just right? What about Hugo, did you find him amusing? Did he remind you of his dad? And does Rose seem confident enough to you? Let me know in a review!

Cassie is the best beta any gal could ask for.

Anonymous Amaya, lol let me love you please. Your review is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much for your helpful criticism and beautiful compliments!