A/N: I don't own the characters.

Point of clarification: In this story, Scorpius is a Slytherin. In the last chapter, during the duel, I grouped Rose and Scorpius into one group and their opponents into another and called them "the Slytherins" to save time so I wouldn't have to list their names every time. I apologize, bickering sidekicks, for the confusion.

PS: This is the halfway point.

Hugo

I couldn't believe it. I have to be the most irresponsible person in the whole castle. I mean, who else would get a Dugbog for his birthday and lose it? Uncle Charlie and Hagrid would be so disappointed in me. How was I supposed to get a career in looking after magical creatures if I couldn't go a week without losing my pets? I mean, I usually find them before something dangerous happened (except that one time I thought it would be a good idea to take my baby manticore for a late night walk. It chewed through its leash, and ran away before I could stop it. By the time I found it, it had attacked Mrs. Norris and almost killed her. She needed to go to St. Mungo's veterinary ward, and Filch has hated me even since. He gives me detention every time he sees me, even if I'm not doing anything. I've taken to walking down the hall next to James and Scorpius, hoping they will do something stupid to direct Filch's attention from me.), but then, maybe it isn't a good idea to raise bowtruckles in my bed room. They nearly gouged my dorm mates' eyes out. Anyway, I needed to find this dugbog before someone mistook him for a log-he looks remarkably like one so he can blend into the swamp-and tries to sit on him. No one, or no creature, really likes being sat on, and I don't think that would end well considering the size of his sharp teeth.

I had searched the dungeons, the Astronomy Tower, the kitchens, the Great Hall, all the dormitories, even the Room of Requirement (I don't know how it would know how to get in there, but it was worth a shot.), but I found nothing. Being the creature genius that I am, I even looked all the places that resemble a marsh, the dugbog's habitat, but found nothing. I really thought I would strike gold in Myrtle's bathroom-it's always flooded; therefore, kinda marsh like- but no such luck. I was on my way out to the grounds when I walked past the library and saw my sister Rose sitting at one of the tables writing some essay. Rose is pretty much the genius of the family, so I decided to ask if she had seen my dugbog or had any idea where he could be.

"Hey Rose!" I called and jogged over to her table. She smiled at me as I sat down in the chair next to her.

"Hey Hugo. What's up?"

"Well…" I said, unsure how to tell her a living, magical log was loose somewhere on the grounds. "You know Martin?"

She looked confused, "The illegal dugbog Uncle George got you for your birthday?"

"Yeah."

"What about him?"

"Have you seen him?" I asked with a half hopeful, half guilty smile on my face.

"Hugo!" she cried indignantly, putting her hands over her eyes and shaking her head. She was going into big sister lecture mode. "You just got Martin for your birthday a week ago! You're fifteen years old! Don't you think it's time you were more responsible (I had already admitted that.)?" She took her hands off her face and looked at me. "How many times do I have to tell you that it's probably not a good idea to keep your "pets" in the castle?"

"Well, where am I supposed to keep them?" I asked indignantly. "The Chamber of Secrets? The only way to get in is using Parsletounge. I'm pretty sure Lily would never help me get in again after what happened last time." She looked at me incredulously. "What?" I added. "I've considered it. I even went as far as looking around the place, but it's too inconvenient." I wasn't totally irresponsible. I knew I couldn't keep my pets in my room much longer. I was running out of space.

She looked at me as if weighing options in her head before asking hesitantly, "What happened last time?"

I flinched and was about to make up some completely bogus answer, but was saved by another person strolling up to the table and plopping down across from Rose. "Hey Weasley," Scorpius said to Rose. "Weasley," he nodded at me.

I nodded back, "Malfoy." He's really not that bad of a guy. I mean, he's super annoying, but what else would you expect from James' best friend. Anyway, the guy had impeccable timing. I was grateful. Rose turned toward him, her face set in a look that plainly said 'I'm going to try to tolerate you, so make it easy on both of us and don't do anything stupid', but there was also a flush to her cheeks that hadn't been there before.

"What Malfoy?" she said.

"You," he leaned toward her, placing his elbows on the table, "are going to study History of Magic with me."

Rose looked at him in disbelief. "I don't want to study with you."

He seemed to ponder this for a moment. "Noted," he said. "Filed," he pointed to his head. "And ignored," he leaned back in his chair carelessly. Why did he have to look so cool doing that? I'm pretty sure I could never pull it off. The look on Rose's face seemed to agree with me (about Malfoy looking cool, not about me not pulling it off). She had a strange look on her face, like she was trying to decide whether to give in or be incredibly annoyed at his arrogance. After a moment, she seemed to decide to be annoyed, because the weird look vanished, and she scowled at him.

"Why would I help you?"

He smirked at her and whispered conspiratorially, "Because you love me. And who wouldn't want to spend time with this?" He gestured at himself. Gag.

I'm pretty sure he was right about her loving him, but I could have told him that was a bad thing to say. Rose didn't like people telling her what to think or feel. She smiled condescendingly at him, "Well, Malfoy, if you think that me yelling at you all the time means I love you, I hate to think about the kind of relationship your parents have." Malfoy's smirk fell off his face. I couldn't tell if it was from disappointment, or shock that she had insulted his parents. "And as for 'all that'" she continued, mimicking his gesture, "I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at."

Malfoy was silent for a moment, which made Rose laugh in triumph. She had rendered the all powerful Scorpius Malfoy speechless. I was pretty surprised myself. He always had a response. Her laugh seemed to bring him back to life. He quickly lost the surprised look and replaced it with a smile. "Well done Rose. It's been a pleasure arguing with you, and you have won this round." His smile got bigger as he added as an afterthought, "For once." Rose looked like she was about to retort, but he continued, "Now can we study?"

"No! I'll ask again: why would I help you?"

Malfoy looked uncomfortable and looked down at his hands. He took a minute trying to decide whether or not to tell us, then mumbled something I couldn't hear. Rose, however, heard perfectly fine and burst into laughter. "You're failing?" she laughed again, slapping her hand against the table in mirth. "That is the best news I've heard all day!"

Malfoy looked pissed. "Yeah. Laugh it up Weasley. It's bad enough that I have to resort to coming for you for help. Will you help me now?"

"No," she said decidedly.

"Come on Weasley," he implored. "You can't let me fail. How could you live with that on your conscience? I don't think you could."

"I think I'd cope somehow," she replied nastily.

Malfoy sighed, "I really didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice. If I don't pass, I will haunt you even more annoyingly than I do now to remind you that it was all your fault. You have a chance to prevent that, you heartless girl."

Rose brushed off his attempt to make her feel guilty, "Go bother someone else Malfoy."

He changed tactics. "But I need your help," he said, completely serious this time, practically pleading with her. "No one knows the material like you do, and I know you'd be a really good teacher. Please, Ro."

If the flattery didn't work, he had her with the pet name. He was the only one allowed to call her that. I tried it once, and she hexed me so badly I was seeing spots for a week. I must have got off lightly for being her brother because when James called her Ro, she cursed him so that every time someone said his name, he sang the Hogwarts anthem. It was hilarious and extremely embarrassing for James, but the Professors got so annoyed that they removed it too quickly for Rose's liking. I don't know what she did to him after that, but he avoided her like she had Dragon Pox for a month. I personally think she overreacted. I mean, I don't know why the rest of us can't call her that. It sounds the same, right? Well, anyway, when Malfoy said it, her resolve crumbled, and she seemed to melt. It was gross.

"Alright," she said, trying to cover up her meltage (yeah. I'm allowed to make up words), "but I'm not doing this for free. You owe me a favor."

"Deal," Malfoy agreed immediately, pulling his books out of his bag in order to begin studying.

Rose however, paused. "But you don't even know what it is yet. Aren't you afraid I'll make you do something terrible?"

Malfoy laughed. "Rosie, dear, you don't have the kind of conniving mind that could make me do something terrible. That's something us Slytherins have, not you Gryffindors. You could never pull it off. I'll be fine with whatever you come up with," he said confidently.

Rose looked affronted, probably at the insult to her scheming abilities, but maybe at his use of Rosie. She hates being called that. "Is that so?" she asked in a defensive tone. I took this as my cue to leave. I had been on the receiving end of that tone, and it never ended well. I don't know what Rose had on her mind, but as far as I was concerned, things were not going to end well for Scorpius Malfoy. He should know better than to challenge Rose Weasley by now.

I ran off to continue looking for Martin. I found him, by the way, in the Greenhouses once I remembered that dugbogs are particularly fond of eating Mandrakes. The good news: he only ate five of them before I got there. The bad news: Professor Longbottom was furious. He wrote home to my parents and tried to take all my pets away from me. Luckily, I was able to get James and Fred to sneak them out of my room and into theirs before Longbottom could take them. That didn't stop the Howler from coming though. I did find a place to hide them though. The Shrieking Shack! I know. Stroke of genius.

Anyway, it wasn't until a week later that Rose called in her favor.

Rose had rashly volunteered to help Hagrid clean out the hippogriff pen a month earlier. Once she came to her senses and saw the amount of work she would be doing, she decided that making Malfoy do it would be the perfect punishment. The day she was supposed to clean them out, she "sprained" her wrist and couldn't do the work. Instead, she and Hagrid watched as Malfoy shoveled tons of hippogriff waste out of their living space. He had to do it by hand because Hagrid insisted that magic would scare the hippogriffs and cause a stampede, seriously injuring Malfoy. He couldn't risk that kind of lawsuit again. It was awful (I mean awful. Even an animal freak like myself wouldn't want to do the job), but Malfoy couldn't really complain because he had gotten an O on the exam Rose helped him study for. Personally, I think he was slightly impressed at the level of horribleness of the favor she had thought up, seeing as he didn't complain the whole time.