"There's something wrong with Delphi, and I know it!" Rose insisted, leaning over her cauldron and sticking her head through the blue smoke emanating from Albus'. Over the past week, she had become convinced that her mum's letter to Professor McGonagall had been about Delphi. Albus didn't think it had anything to do with Delphi at all. He thought it was about Hogwarts. Scorpius didn't know what to think.

"I already told you I don't think so!" Albus hissed, and went back to chopping beetles for his potion. He'd gotten much better at magic during his fifth year, throwing himself entirely into his schoolwork to block out the memories with Delphi.

"I'm still going to find out as much about Voldemort as I can," she declared.

"Rose. There's hardly anything out there. And we're just kids. Do you really think our parents are going to tell us anything?" he asked, his voice an odd combination of angry and pleading. He could see his words had stung her, but he couldn't be bothered to feel regret. He'd told her the truth, and he shouldn't feel bad about that.

"We're not just kids," she muttered under her breath. "Dad said they learned everything when they were in their sixth year, so why shouldn't we?"

"You really want to have Delphi hunting you down?"

"No, but… I wish we could do something."

"The adults will figure it out. They always do. It's their job."

"I don't care. I still want to help."

"I have a feeling that would mean staying out of their way."

"Yeah, whatever."

Albus scooped the bits of beetles into his cauldron, and looked up to find Scorpius staring at him. "What?" he asked, annoyed.

"Will you two stop fighting?"

"It's not my fault she won't shut up."

"Of course not," said Scorpius, disbelieving.

"I mean, I could Silencio her, but that spell's not always worked so well in the past, and I'd hate to send her to the hospital wing."

"You've managed that spell plenty of times." Scorpius paused and stirred his own cauldron, squinting at the ingredients. "And don't you think she's a tiny bit right?"

"You're on her side?"

"Not exactly. I think it might have something to do with Delphi, too, but I don't want to stick my head in."

"Good." At least he could count on Scorpius for one thing. Oh, he was undoubtedly curious about the whole ordeal, but so was Albus. It was hard not to be. But Albus had little desire to get himself roped into another adventure, and that was just what Rose wanted.

"Promise you won't try to annoy Rose?" Scorpius asked hopefully, and Albus couldn't blame him. They'd only just become friends, and to go and ruin it right away?

"I promise."

OoOoO

The rest of the week passed almost peacefully between Albus and Rose. Scorpius acted as a tour guide, swerving around the topic of Delphi as much as he could, and Albus went strangely silent anytime Scorpius' efforts proved fruitless.

"Alright, study time!" Scorpius announced, jumping out of a green armchair in the Slytherin common room. He grabbed his book bag from beside him, quickly counting that it had enough quills and ink.

"Really?" groaned Albus. "First you drag me around the entire bloody school, and now this? I've hardly got five minutes of rest!"

"We needed the exercise." Exercise or not, Albus was had not been happy with their wanderings. It was Saturday, and that meant he was supposed to sleep in, not be woken up at six to take a tour of the campus. And now Scorpius wanted to go study in the library, when Albus had already spent all his capacity for human interaction that day.

"We could've studied earlier today, you know."

"It was one of the last warm days this year. And I wanted to go to the library now, anyway."

"Why now?" asked Albus, though he knew the answer.

"Rose is there." Rose was always in the library at this time, after dinner as the sun started to fall from the sky.

"I thought you weren't going to ask her out this year."

"Yes, but we're friends. C'mon, it'll be fun."

"Nerd," Albus retorted, but he too stood and walked toward the stonewall exit.

"Like you've never read a book."

"Only when I have to," said Albus as they stepped out into the dimly lit corridor outside the common room. Torches along the walls were the only reason the hall was not in total darkness. The torches threw their flickering light onto the stones, where it danced and played with the shadows. Albus blinked, his eyes adjusting quickly from years of practise. He would still always prefer the green light of the common room, but there was still something special about the magically enhanced flames. The torches continued up the narrow stairs, only ending when they reached ground level and were exposed to the sunlight that pierced through the windows in the coming dusk.

The library itself was cheerily lit, and students sat at each table, rustling parchment and sending up clouds of dust from old books. Albus and Scorpius sat down at the table they had long claimed as their own, and unloaded their books onto it.

"Where's Rose?" Scorpius asked suddenly, looking around.

"I don't know, probably with Lily," Albus said, flipping through his Muggle Studies textbook.

"No, she's not. See? There's Lily, and Jordan, and Longbottom."

"Rose isn't over there?" Albus stopped flipping to peer around the bookshelf. Sure enough, his sister, Gabby Jordan, and Alice Longbottom were all at the table without Rose.

"Where do you think she is?"

"Talking to a teacher. Toilets. Common room. I don't know."

"I'm going to go ask."

"Scorpius, that's a really-" Albus started, but Scorpius was gone. Albus stood and followed Scorpius to where the girls were. Perhaps he could save Scorpius' dignity yet.

"-Rose is?" Scorpius was asking.

"Gryffindor common room," said Lily. She shared a glance with her friends, who all nodded approvingly.

"Why?" asked Albus, unable to contain himself. It certainly wasn't like Rose to skip a study session.

"Promise not to tell?" Alice whispered. Strands of blonde hair had escaped from her ponytail to frame her face, and the mischievous grin she was now wearing.

Scorpius and Albus exchanged a look. Something was definitely afoot. "Yes."

"She's going to sneak into the restricted section," Gabby said, so quietly she may as well have been mouthing.

"Oh," said Albus. He found it hard to believe that Rose of all people would be breaking such an important rule.

"Something about Voldemort, she said," Lily informed them.

"Oh," said Albus again. He had a feeling he now looked like a close relative of the common goldfish. "Well, tell her good luck from me, I guess." He grabbed Scorpius' shoulder before he could protest and led him away.

"We have to do something," and Scorpius.

"We're not helping her."

"You're curious too, and you know it. And Rose doesn't have much experience with sneaking around. She's going to get herself caught, get her prefect's badge taken. We're going to help her."

"As much as I'm enjoying watching you try - and fail - to smother your feelings for her, there is no way I'm coming."

"Really? Don't you want to know more about Voldemort? You said it yourself: you don't know even half of what happened. Wouldn't it be exciting to find out more? And what about Delphi? We won't ever know more than half of her if we never find out all of Voldemort."

Albus sighed. He had a point. Albus was quite curious about the whole thing, but was it worth getting caught? He'd be able to cover for them a lot quicker than Rose would, and his planning-prone mind was already devising a route to the library. "Alright, but only because I don't want Rose getting caught. I don't want anymore to do with Delphi after this. Understood?"

"Yes. Now, let's get planning." Scorpius pulled a blank parchment from his bag and drew a rough outline of the Hogwarts corridors.

OoOoO

Albus and Scorpius stayed at the library as late as they could. It'd only taken them an hour to develop the plan, but now that it was so close to execution, Albus was starting to doubt their strategy. Soon, they were the only ones left, pretending to write essays long finished, and growing more fidgety by the second. Madam Pince began to shelve books, and Albus wondered whether she had noticed them yet. She noticed them soon enough, though.

"Out, out, out!" Madam Pince said, chiding them to the door. Albus and Scorpius scurried to the exit, trying their best to look scared. But a happy, elated feeling had taken hold of Albus' stomach; perhaps they could do this.

Hiding in a broom cupboard for over an hour was definitely on the list of things Albus would never do again. Being in said broom cupboard squashed between the wall and Scorpius Malfoy had not made the situation any better. The dank smell of old, damp stone mingled with that of a smelly cleaning potion in an unpleasant brew. Albus thought there might be some lingering Mrs. Norris scent, too, which only caused his nervousness to return.

"Do you think she's almost here yet?" Albus whispered, trying to stuff a yawn back down his throat. They'd debated going back to the common room to find some waking potion, and the decision against it wasn't helping Albus.

"Soon."

Soon, it turned out, was about five seconds later, when a small, hunched-over figure snuck down the middle of the hallway. Scorpius cracked open the door.

"Rose!" Scorpius called."Psst, Rose!" She looked around, frightened. "Over here!" She finally spotted them, and came over.

"Why are you here?"

"To help you. Let's go." Scorpius had now opened the door all the way, and Albus savoured the fresh air, and absence of the stink from the cupboard.

"Alice told you, did she?"

"Yes. Now follow us. We've got a plan."

"A plan?" Scorpius offered up their map, which was missing details, but useful all the same.

"See? We go along this corridor and turn right, up those stairs and turn left. Then-"

"Are you sure this will work?"

"It's bound to throw off Filch. And with you the middle of the hallway… anything's better than that, really."

Rose wrinkled her nose at the criticism, but changed the subject quickly. "Why are you here, Albus?"

"Because you're my cousin, and you're going to get yourself dead into trouble."

"Thank you," she said sarcastically, not missing the jab at her sneaking skills.

"Let's go," Scorpius said again, and this time he grabbed both their sleeves and tugged, forcing them along the wall to the next turn.

As silently as they could, disguising themselves as shadows, they crept forward. They took turns that led them away from the library, only to circle back with the next. It took over an hour to get there, and the one clock they saw, hanging in an empty classroom, read just past two. Albus didn't quite hate the sneaking part of this, after all. It was fun, to plan something, down to the last footstep, and then take each footstep, landing on the stones and rugs with light feet, and tiptoeing past the disappearing stairs.

When they arrived at the library, Albus guessed it was nearly three in the morning. Scorpius guided Rose into the Restricted Section with ease, and she got to work straightaway.

"What are we looking for?" Albus asked, fingering the spine of a dusty book.

"Voldemort."

"I know, but specifically about him? First war? Second war? In between?"

"No, just his whole life," she said distractedly. Funny, Albus thought. That was one of the tactics he used when lying. Pretend you don't care.

"You're an awful liar."

"Safe-Objects, Albus," she relented. "I'm looking for Safe-Objects."

"But you can't," said Scorpius. "There's no way you'll find anything about them at Hogwarts."

Safe-Objects were a banned subject, everyone knew that. Voldemort had enchanted a certain number of objects that had to be destroyed before he could die. That was the story the Golden Trio had told the world, and while journalists back then weren't pleased with the answer, Albus certainly was. Nothing about Voldemort pertained to him, so why should he care? He knew it was probably a little heartless, but he was more concerned with the Death Eaters. They were the ones who had gone out and killed, done Voldemort's dirty work. They were the ones who had chosen to do so. The ones who were still human enough to change.

"Let's just look," Rose said. "Please?"

"Alright," Scorpius sighed. He knelt down next to her and heaved a large book from the bottom shelf. A cloud of dust erupted from it, drifting over to Albus and making him cough.

"Shh!" Rose warned. A retort bit at the tip of Albus' tongue, but a knowing look from Scorpius cut him off. Instead, he picked up his own book and scanned the table of contents.

They flipped through book after book, never finding the answer they were looking for, finding ideas that led in the right direction, but were cut off abruptly. Even Rose grew discouraged, and agreed to go back after only an hour. They re-shelved the books, and quietly left the library.

"You manage from here?" whispered Scorpius.

"What?" said Rose.

"Get back to Gryffindor yourself from here?"

"Yes." They crept off in different direction after that; Rose up, Scorpius and Albus down. Albus' and Scorpius' plan proved a success, and they were back in their dorm by five a.m. Happy with their victory, Albus decided that maybe it hadn't been as bad of an idea as he had thought.


*Finally catches up to the chapter I was supposed to have finished 3 days ago* But hey, I got this one out! Thanks for reading, and please review!