Chapter Seven
"A horcrux?" Scorpius echoed, staring down at Rose like she'd lost her mind. "You're serious?"
"Think about it," Rose turned and began walking towards the grand staircase without warning. Scorpius had no choice but to follow her, hurrying along so that her words were still audible. "Horcruxes are pieces of a damaged soul. A violent soul, by the very virtue of their existence. If people get too close to them, then they can sort of... take control of their bodies for a time being, can't they?"
"Well, yeah," he fell into step beside her. "But the last known person to have Horcruxes was Voldemort, and your parents and uncle took care of those."
"The last known person," Rose agreed. Her mind was spinning at a million miles an hour as a hundred different possibilities sprang to life in her head. "But he wasn't the only one. People have done it before, and Voldemort managed to hide a horcrux here at Hogwarts without anyone ever finding it for fifty years. Who's to say that someone else didn't do the same?"
"It's unlikely," Scorpius hedged.
"It was unlikely that Salazar Slytherin managed to build a secret chamber and hide a fully grown basilisk in there for hundreds of years without anyone discovering it, but he did."
Scorpius reached out and tugged her to a stop in the middle of the corridor. He spun her to face him, and she tilted her head back to meet his gaze, daring him to contradict her. "You really believe this, don't you?"
"Do you have a better theory?"
"No," he admitted with a sigh. "I don't. But you know that we can't tell anyone about this until we've looked into it further, right?"
"Do you think I'm an idiot?" Rose demanded, incensed. She propped her hands on her hips in a gesture that reminded her of her own grandmother. "People would freak out. They'd start seeing Voldemort lurking in every shadow."
"We know it's not Voldemort, even if it is someone's horcrux."
"Yeah, but people wouldn't believe that. Everyone's families lost someone in the war. Everyone still carries the scars. This sort of rumour is dangerous if it gets out and we can't prove it."
"It's dangerous even if we can prove it," Scorpius muttered darkly. "Though I'm not sure how we would even go about doing that."
Rose felt some of her earlier excitement begin to ebb. "No, me neither."
For a moment, they simply looked at one another, at a loss as to how to proceed. The longer they looked at each other, the more Rose's memories of the night before began to resurface. She felt her cheeks beginning to colour.
"What?" Scorpius sounded curious.
"Nothing."
"You're blushing."
"I'm not." Rose tried to force the heat from her cheeks through sheer will. "I'm fine."
"If you're embarrassed about being drunk last night, don't worry. You weren't that cringe worthy."
"Wow, thanks," she said dryly. "That's so reassuring."
His silvery eyes gleamed with humour, but the sparkle faded into something more guarded. "Do you... remember much?"
"I remember enough."
The Sorting Hat didn't want to put me in Slytherin.
People tend to dislike what they don't understand.
I can see who you would really be if you tried.
You are the most beautiful thing. In existence. Ever.
"Rose..." He bit his lip. "Listen, about what I told you... I don't want you to tell anyone else. I don't want anyone else to know."
"Which part?" she breathed. "The part where you're really a Gryffindor, or the part where you told me that I was..."
"The Gryffindor thing," he replied quickly, and this time, his cheeks looked a little flushed. "I don't want that getting out."
"Bad for your reputation, I guess," Rose teased, trying to lighten the mood. Her heart was hammering against her chest again as she remembered how intense his gaze had been and how he'd held her as they danced.
"Catastrophic."
They smiled at the same time, and it was another moment of perfect synchronicity between them. The two of them were like one of those complicated jigsaw puzzles, Rose thought; the ones that you stared at for ages because you couldn't work out how the pieces fit together, but once you were done the arrangement seemed so obvious that you couldn't understand how it took you so long to figure it out.
"So..." Scorpius smiled. "If someone wanted information on Horcruxes, how would they go about getting it?"
"There are books in the restricted section," Rose began. She distantly remembered her mother petitioning to have them put back in the library, on account of the fact that being forewarned was also being forearmed, or something to that effect. "But I doubt anyone would let us check them out without trying to find out why we wanted them."
"Couldn't we lie and say it was for a school project?"
They began walking again, perfectly in step. "I doubt it. Madam Pince would check with the teachers to see what projects we'd been set."
"She does that?"
"She's thorough. And irritating."
"Right. So could we sneak in and steal a couple of the books?"
"She'd definitely notice that they were missing."
"Not if we made copies and put the originals back before she came back in the morning."
Rose raised her eyebrows. "And what do we do if we're found with illegal copies of dangerous dark spell books that are pretty much read exclusively by dark wizards or people trying to catch them?"
"Well, when you put it like that..."
They reached the library a few minutes later, still clueless as to how to gain access to the books they needed. Scorpius headed for a table in the far corner, out of sight of the librarian's desk, and began unloading the contents of his school bag. Rose followed, setting her own bag gingerly down on the table.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to make it look like we're actually just here to study."
Following his lead, Rose began to pull books out of her bag. "And then what?"
Scorpius flopped down into one of the chairs, picking up a quill and twirling it between his thumb and forefinger. "Then you distract Madam Pince, and I'll try and get into the restricted section."
"How do you plan on doing that?"
"No idea."
It wasn't the best plan Rose had ever heard, not by a long shot, but it was the only one either of them had come up with yet. She pulled out the chair beside him and dropped into it, opening her Transfiguration textbook to a random page and bowing her head in a pantomime show of reading.
Scorpius chuckled. "You don't have a career as an actress in your future, in case you were wondering."
Rose peered sideways at him. "Why not?"
"I've never seen anyone sit so stiffly. You look like you're pretending to read."
"I am pretending to read."
"Do it like this." He leaned back in his chair, the picture of ease, and rested his chin in his free hand. The hand that still held the quill landed on the open book in front of him, and he dragged the feather along the words written there at a leisurely pace. His silver eyes tracked the movement, looking but not really seeing. It was a subtle difference, and anyone further away than Rose was would never have been able to tell that he wasn't actually reading.
"Why are you so annoyingly good at everything?" she grumbled.
"Practice," Scorpius replied instantly. "You've got to practice things if you want to perfect them."
"And you practice pretending to study?"
"No, but I practice pretending in general."
Rose frowned. "Why?"
He shrugged at her, and she knew that was as good an answer as he was going to give. Yet another complicated part of the most complicated person she had ever met. The more she got to know Scorpius, Rose thought, the more she understood him, but there was always another incomprehensible layer under each one she peeled back, and she went right back to being clueless.
"Go up to Madam Pince and ask if she can show you where to find a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages."
Rose blinked in surprise. "Why that book?"
"Because it's in the furthest section away from the restricted section," Scorpius replied, as though the answer should have been obvious.
"Oh. You're going to go and steal the books now?"
"No time like the present." He reached over and gave her a light shove to galvanise her into motion. "Off you go."
Rose raised her eyebrows, giving him a stony look. "I can walk by myself."
He spread his hands as if to say 'well, go then'. Rolling her eyes, Rose stood, and headed over to the librarian's desk. Madam Pince glanced up at her approach, looking annoyed at the interruption.
"What do you want?"
Rose put on her best charming smile. "I was wondering if you could help me find a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages?"
Madam Pince sighed and stood, as though Rose was just one in a long list of eternal annoyances in her life. "Fine. Follow me."
By the time Rose got back to her table, carrying a copy of a book she'd already read twice, Scorpius was reclined in his chair again. At first, Rose thought that he hadn't even moved yet, but then she saw the two leather-bound books that were half-hidden under her bag.
"How in Merlin's name did you do that so quickly?" she demanded in a whisper.
He gave her an enigmatic wink. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you. And these books probably have a few grisly suggestions as to how."
Too curious about the horcrux books to press the issue further, Rose sank back down into her seat and pulled the thickest tome towards her. Flipping it open at random, she immediately winced.
"Ugh, that's horrible."
Scorpius leaned forwards to see what it was she was referring to. There was an illustration taking up half of the page, depicting a man in the process of having his head torn off by a manticore.
"Yeah, it's not going to be pleasant reading."
Rose studied his carefully neutral expression. "Doesn't that picture gross you out?"
"I've seen worse."
"When?"
He didn't answer, but there was a faraway look in his eyes that made her think that, whatever he was seeing, was something beyond the four walls of the library. Curiosity was an itch beneath her skin, but she didn't press the matter.
Truthfully, she wasn't sure that she wanted to know.
He snapped back to the present and shot her a disarming, unexpected grin. "You've got a delicate constitution for the daughter of two war heroes, if a picture makes you cringe."
"Yeah, well, I'm not my parents."
"Thank Merlin for that."
"Besides," Rose flipped the page, and winced at yet another horrific illustration. "I've never had to fight a war. My parents were looking at things like this from when they were first years."
"True," he agreed, silver eyes sparkling. "But, for the record, if I had to fight a war, I'd want you on my side."
Rose smiled at that. "Why?"
"You're smart, and brave, and would be a nice thing to look at amid all that horror." He grinned. "Plus, I'm not brave enough to make you angry."
"You do it all the time," she dismissed.
"Not for real." Scorpius laughed. "If I ever made you really angry, I'd fear for my life."
"Do I scare you that much?"
"Only sometimes."
Rose laughed, rolling her eyes at him again. She was pretty sure that he was only teasing her, but it was light, and easy, and gave her a warm feeling all over. He looked amazing like that, she thought, with that mocking glint in his eye and that grin that lit up his whole face. Rose had no idea why it had taken her so many years to really see him, but now that she had, he was all she saw. Her heart stuttered in her chest, and she made an instant decision.
Scorpius was still grinning as she leant in and pressed her lips to his. It barely had the chance to be called a kiss before he jerked back.
"Rose, what are you doing?"
Rose recoiled slowly, a flash of white-hot rejection stabbing through her. It felt like her stomach had just dropped out of her. "I... I thought..."
Scorpius looked away. "Sorry. I just don't..."
Feel that way. He didn't say it, but Rose finished the sentence for him in her head. She bent closer to the book on the desk, letting her hair fall as a curtain between them to hide the tears that had sprung up in her eyes.
"That was stupid. I don't... can we just forget that happened?"
"It's not that... I just..." Rose had never heard him have such trouble with words before. It didn't do much to help her embarrassment, and it certainly didn't soothe the pain in her chest. Scorpius sighed. "Okay, yeah, let's just forget it."
They continued reading in silence for a few minutes. It was a horrible, uncomfortable silence, and none of the words on the pages were penetrating Rose's brain. She felt as though she were sitting on shards of broken glass – she didn't dare move an inch in case she hurt herself more.
"Are you okay?" Scorpius said gently, when the silence threatened to break both of them in two.
"I'm fine." She couldn't have sounded less convincing if she tried. "But I just remembered that I'm supposed to meet Lily in a minute." It was the lamest excuse in the world, and Rose knew he could see right through it, but she couldn't bear another second of stewing in her own humiliation.
She stood, sweeping her books from the desk and into her bag with one arm, and threw the strap over her shoulder.
"Rose..."
"I'll see you later. Bye."
Without so much as a glance in his direction, she turned on her heel and fled.
Scorpius watched her go, long red hair swinging behind her, and felt like the biggest idiot that had ever drawn breath.
What in Merlin's name had he pulled away from her for? All he knew was that he froze, and then he panicked, and then she was gone.
I'm not good at this, he thought miserably. I don't even know how to have a friend, let alone anything more complicated than that.
Well, a snide inner voice piped up. You've ruined any chance of that happening, now.
He stared down at his textbook miserably, too numb to even grimace at the gruesome pictures in the margins. What was wrong with him, he wondered? How could he spend his whole life brushing off the pointed looks and cruel mutterings of the wizarding world without much effort, but he freaked out at the smallest hints of affection?
"Some Gryffindor I would have been," Scorpius muttered to himself. Then, because he couldn't seem to think of anything else to do, he packed up his bag and did the only thing he knew for sure he was good at.
He walked away.
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