So sorry I let you guys hanging for almost a week! I had to get a wisdom tooth removed and it murdered my posting schedule. Good news is I have another chapter almost ready to post in a few days :D

You know the drill! Review, follow, favorite.

Shoutout to The Chirpy Bitch 3 She's amazing and betaed this chapter! If it weren't for her, this wouldn't be out today.

I'd also like to thank everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited!

December 3rd, 2027

"He left you here?!"

Rose skirted around the limp figure still sprawled on her living room floor, looking down at the motionless body of Scorpius Malfoy. His eyes were still glassy, his posture still rigid from Al's little… erm… outburst earlier.

"The nerve of him!"

Everyone knew you could petrify people all you wanted, so long as you had the decency to thaw them before it started to do bodily harm. Dehydration and low blood sugar were serious business!

It was just goddamned petrifying common courtesy.

She peered at the clock. It was around eight a.m. That meant he had been frozen for three, maybe four hours.

This was bad.

"Shit. Al?"

Rose nipped to Al's bedroom. She found the door unlocked, slightly ajar. Opening it completely revealed… nothing. The room was bloody empty. Which meant that Al had hexed his best friend and then up and left. He had either been drunker than she had assumed or angrier.

She was betting it was a maudlin cocktail of the two.

"Shit."

She took the longest strides her diminutive 5'3'' allowed her and rushed back to Scorpius' petrified body.

"Sorry, let me just get my wand."

What the hell was she rushing for anyway? It wasn't like he wasn't going anywhere.

A few seconds later she was back. She murmured the incantation, like she had so often before and praised every deity she could remember that Al hadn't gotten creative with this one. She wouldn't have known what to do if Malfoy had been hit with one of his designer hexes.

Scorpius' body slowly relaxed until his eyes finally closed and he frantically blinked. He was going to need an eyedrop spell at some point. And she was probably going to have to be the one to give it to him.

Goddamnit, Al.

"There we go." She grabbed his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. His weight was crushing her. His body easily dwarfed hers. She was what, almost a whole foot, maybe a little more, shorter than him?

She flicked her wand and cast a few strengthening spells on herself until she was finally able to hold him upward.

Working at St. Mungo's had given her a few valuable life skills, that was for sure. However spells to carry bodies that far outweighed her own was one of the few she had never really imagined herself using at home.

Especially not on Malfoy.

"Nice and easy." She carefully deposited him on the couch on a sitting position. She picked up his feet and rotated him to have him lie down and threw a blanket on top of his legs. "I'll be right back."

She returned a few minutes later with a package of chocolate frogs that she tossed onto his lap and a mug of tea. She sat down on the available space next to her unusually quiet housemate and gingerly handed him the cup, lest he drop it.

"Drink up," she instructed, carefully letting go. He nodded and obediently took a sip. "And eat some chocolate, you look even pastier than the usual."

He bent his knees and she sat down on the space he freed, tucking the blanket tight around his feet. It took a few chocolate frogs and two or three tea refills before he finally managed to croak out something unintelligible.

"What was that?" she prodded, stealing a sideways glance at him.

He cleared his throat, shifting his legs away from his line of sight. "I said thanks," he croaked again, taking another sip.

"Yeah, I know," she grumbled. "It was very good of me not to let you starfished on our carpet!" The volume of her words rose. "What happened?"

"What happened when?"

"Al hexed you. Al left." She lifted a finger for each as if counting and then made a scissoring motion with them. "I'm guessing somewhere between these two happenings," she cried, her volume and pitch climbing, "something must have occurred to make him pissed enough to leave you in a full body bind!"

Scorpius was staring at her as if she were insane.

"How the fuck am I supposed to know what got his fucking panties in a twist?!" he growled back, angrily ripping a chocolate frog package apart. "Like you so sagaciously pointed out, I was in a full body bind!" He caught the frog before it leaped to the ground and gave it a bite for good measure.

"He left you petrified and bailed!" she shrilled, looking at him as if he were batty himself.

This was what happened whenever they needed to talk. It was as if there was a language barrier in which either or both of them assumed that the other party was following. They rarely were on the same page. They'd gotten better over the years, but it was like trying to see colors in the dark.

"What are you yelling at me for?!" And now he was yelling too, his voice still hoarse despite the tea. "I'm the one who got petrified! Go yell at Al."

"Because!" she shrieked, lowering her arms in defeat. "I don't get it and it worries me," she muttered.

"What?"

"I don't get it and it worries me. It wasn't that big a deal," she explained patiently, as if he were a very dumb child. "Sure he was angry, he might even be livid, but he left you here. He can't do that. He never did before."

"You're right, it's preposterous," he agreed, throwing her a Chocolate Frog Card. "What wasn't a big deal?"

"Huh?" she mumbled, turning the card around to look at what she'd gotten. She scoffed.

Morgan Le Fay was giving her the middle finger, the goddamned hussy.

"You said it wasn't a big deal," he repeated, shifting his legs closer to the couch to look at her. "Do you mean Thurkell?"

Rose scoffed again. Thurkell wasn't worth a passing thought, much less a full-fledged curse.

"No, not a big deal," she affirmed, swallowing hard. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry. "If it were, I would've hexed you myself."

It certainly didn't bother her anymore. Not at all. Why would it?

Except sometimes it did. Like now.

"Then why did he freak out about it?"

"I'll be damned if I know!" she huffed, indignantly. "I genuinely don't have a clue. Maybe some misguided protective instinct along with the feeling that the situation was similar to his and Zara's…" She rubbed her temples. "I don't know okay?! That's what's worrying me, the fact that I have no fucking clue."

"So Al felt Thurkell was a kindred spirit?" Malfoy still looked confused. "But he was defending you, that makes no sen-"

"What?" she cried, shaking her head with disbelief. "Why the hell would Al feel like Thurkell was anything of the sort?"

"On account of your dumping him and smashing his ticker into a million tiny pieces like Zara did?"

"What?!"

Oh. Oh. So that was what he thought happened?!

He thought she'd been the one to end it.

"I did no such thing," she started, clearly enunciating her words. "He was the one who did the dumping."

"Wait, what?!"

"Are you naturally thick or do you work for it?" she inquired, sitting cross-legged on the couch to better scowl at him. "Thurkell dumped me, not the other way 'round."

"You're shitting me."

The fool looked surprised. Shocked, even.

"I'm certainly not shitting you," she reassured him. "Wild concept, I know, but do try to keep up, Malfoy."

"You're telling me…"

Oh Merlin.

"Yup."

"That…"

"Yes."

"Seriously?!"

Merlin, give her patience.

"Yes, Malfoy," she scowled. "The wanker dumped me and then… what phrasing did you use… oh, right, smashed my heart into-"

"Ticker," he corrected, as if automatically.

He seemed entranced with what she was saying, as if he didn't quite believe it.

"What?" she asked, not missing a beat of the rather absurd conversation that was taking place.

"I said 'ticker'," he enunciated, arching an eyebrow at her. "Proceed."

"Fine, ticker. He smashed my ticker into a million little-" She paused and glowered at him. Her face was now about the same color as her hair. "Is that what you wanted to hear? Are we clear? Are you feeling fucking happy now?"

The wanker, rubbing it in. As if it hadn't been enough to live it, now she had to experience her one single romantic failure all over again for Scorpius' benefit.

"What, no, Weasley I wasn't—" he protested, sitting upwards.

"Save it, Malfoy," she growled, smacking one of his legs and chucking a Chocolate Frog packet at him.

It missed spectacularly.

"Oh, will you just listen, you stupid bint?!" he cried, throwing a Chocolate Frog packet of his own at her head. Unlike her, his aim wasn't shit and her defense was almost as bad as her throw. The chocolate frog connected right with her forehead. "That wasn't at all what I meant. I wasn't trying to rub it in."

"Then what the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I'm not an insensitive cad, Weasley," he argued and, in his defense, he sounded perfectly honest. She just wasn't sure she believed him. "I'd never have brought it up if I knew he'd been the one to… y'know."

"Come on Malfoy," she growled. "I know you think yourself above all the petty squabbles us mortals get into, but Thurkell made a big deal of advertising it when it happened. I don't think a single person in the castle—"

"Are you daft?!" he chuckled as if what she'd said was the funniest thing in the world. "The wanker bragging about how he'd broken up with you?! It only made me a hundred percent sure that you had in fact been the one to kick his sorry ass to the curb."

Well, when he put it like that, yes, she could see how he could have thought that Thurkell had been overcompensating.

Sadly, that hadn't been the case.

"Nope," she shook her head. "Dumped me after the Herbology N.E.W.T."

"Oof, our last exam? The fucker waited until after the exams?"

"I thought that was actually rather thoughtful of him," she protested, before realizing she was actually defending the jerk. "I suspect his mindfulness was probably due to the fact that I didn't give him the chance to find me or talk to me for days after the N.E.W.T.s started."

"Are you telling me that when he showed up on the Great Hall with Alyssa Mendez the fucker wasn't mending a broken heart?"

Ah. Alyssa Mendez. If we were being honest, Alyssa Mendez a big part of the reason why Thurkell could still get under her skin. Not two days after he'd dumped her, he was shagging Alyssa Mendez.

"Nope," she said, shaking her head. "Made sure I got a good look too. He could have waited a goddamned week at least."

"I figured she was a rebound," Malfoy chimed in, his eyebrows furrowing. "A damned floozy, but still! I figured he was grieving."

It hadn't looked that way to her, not the way the asshole had waltzed into the Great Hall with her in arm the next morning and then proceeded to making a spectacle of himself and the damned floozy at the breakfast table.

And then there was the crux of the matter. "He insinuated it had been happening for a while too."

"The asswipe," he scowled, looking appropriately angry on her behalf.

"Yup. Are we clear on this now?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "Can we–"

"Wait, wait," Malfoy interrupted, waving his hands to stop her. "I still don't get the bit where he was the one to break up with you."

"This isn't a goddamned bedtime story, Malfoy," she growled, her brows snapping together. "Is your brain still petrified or something?"

"Why would he?!" He was still scowling, muttering between gritted teeth, as if there was some sort of piece in the puzzle that was missing. "I mean—"

"You keep saying shit like that!" A crease showed up between her eyebrows, her face red. "Like it's incomprehensible!"

"And it is!" he protested, lowering his legs to look straight at her. She turned her head to avoid looking at him. "I mean, you were beautiful, intelligent, witty, connected… I could go on!" Wait what?! "You were a bloody prize! And he… was not."

What?!

She didn't pause to wonder what was wrong with him. Instead she found herself beaming at him, grinning like an idiot.

"Wow, Malfoy. Did you just—"

She could feel her face flushing red.

"Yeah, I know what I said," he grinned sheepishly, throwing another packet her way. This one missed. "I regret nothing."

"You said I was pretty!"

"Sod off Weasley."

Well, he hadn't denied it. And the word had been 'beautiful', but she wasn't about to repeat that out loud. She might die of sheer embarrassment and Merlin only knew what Malfoy would do.

"You said I was smart!"

"This is why we can't have nice things," he groaned, covering his eyes.

She could see he was also flushed. It was endearing but also hilarious and highly mockable.

"I mean, I'm touched!" she claimed, theatrically brushing her fingers through her red hair. "I didn't know that was what you-"

Once more she was cut mid-sentence.

"That's enough now, Weasley," he punctuated, throwing her a dirty look.

Ah, getting under Scorpius Malfoy's nerves was always a pleasure. She decided she was going to give it one more shot before closing shop. "You said I was—" The glare he shot her was nothing short of murderous. Her eyebrows shot upwards and she raised her hands in defeat. "Fine, I'll stop."

"You better," he snickered. "And you still haven't told me why he did it."

"Well, he told me that I wasn't as invested in the relationship as he was."

Well that had been a bloody lie. She'd worshipped him.

"Said that I didn't have the time for him."

This had maybe not been as much of a lie.

"That I prioritized studying over him."

That part was just plain true and there was no way to deny it. She'd always been more concerned about school than their relationship, mostly because she had trusted him. She had trusted them. Thurkell had known this was their last year and that she was going all in.

"Those were his reasons?!" Malfoy's face was a mix between shock, disgust and… laughter. Pure laughter. Oh great, now he was just laughing. "He was dating you what did the tosser expect? For you not to study?!"

Man had a point.

She'd warned Thurkell that that was how it was going to be. And he, like the weak-minded tosser he was, had chosen to throw away a perfectly good relationship. He'd thrown it away because he had walked into it thinking he was going to change her.

Except that had never happened because, at their core, people rarely changed. Not for other people, they didn't.

"Yeah. I mean, he did have a point," she assented, grinning to herself. "I once forgot he existed for a whole week."

Scorpius had started laughing again.

She smiled for a second and then added sternly: "We had been dating for months at that point."

That only made him laugh harder. There was a tear streaming down his cheek now.

After a minute or so of quiet chuckling and a lot of head shaking, he suddenly stopped and gazed earnestly at her.

"I'm really sorry, though," he apologized. He looked sincere, too. "I oughtn't have poked fun at—"

"Oh, it's fine, it's fine," she reassured him, giving his leg a friendly pat. "You didn't know."

"I should have, that's the problem," he retorted, looking serious as he wiped the stray tear with the back of his hand. "Al was flailing like a madman behind you and I just dismissed it because I thought I knew better. It was stupid of me."

Albus knew his shit. Albus was the glue holding the three of them and this house together. He had probably known beforehand that she and Scorpius would be able to sit here together in peace and actually find each other's company something other than grating, exhausting or just sheer awkward.

He would have known even if he hadn't known.

"It was indeed stupid of you. Al usually knows his stuff," she murmured, uncrossing her legs and leaning against the back of the couch. Which reminded her of something else Albus had silently warned her about. The lack of eye contact gave her courage. "Are you still trying out for the Magpies today?"

She inhaled and waited.

"It's only at eleven. I'll be fine by then."

"Al was flailing about that too," she mumbled, her hand resting on top of his ankle. "Are you alright?"

She could feel him stiffening. After a few seconds, he relaxed again.

"Yes," he said simply.

She let go a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding.

"Is it an issue?"

Rose was pushing it, she knew that.

But Albus wasn't here. Which meant she owed it to Albus to be his Albus while Albus was off not being his Albus.

It made more sense in her mind, let's be honest.

"Yes."

Her thumb brushed lightly over his ankle and she turned to face him.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not until I know whether I got it or not," he said, shaking his head. His gaze rose to meet hers and his mouth curved into a smile. "Thanks, though."

"Okay," she replied, returning his smile. "For what it's worth, I really do hope you get it."

"So do I." He paused for a second, looking pointedly at her. She immediately let go of his ankle and looked away. "Thanks for the tea and the chocolate. It's doing wonders for me."

"What good is it living with me if not for the free medical care when your idiot housemate hexes you and then up and leaves?" Rose sniggered.

"Yeah, that's a hundred percent the reason why I moved in with you."

The two of them quieted. Al's absence hung heavy on the room.

"We need to talk to Al," she groaned, pulling a pillow toward her.

"I know."

"This isn't normal," she replied, burying her head into the pillow. Sometimes dealing with Al was a real problem.

It hadn't always been. There had been a time when Al didn't even need maintenance. He'd been a jolly old fellow, with little to no issues.

And then Zara had happened.

"No, you're right. It isn't," he agreed, slowly nodding. "But I don't know what to do or say. Do you?"

"I don't," she replied, shaking her head. "Maybe he needs help."

"Of course he needs help!" the blond boy protested. In that moment he looked younger than he really was. "Isn't that what we're talking about?"

"I mean help."

Malfoy looked at her as if she were insane. Maybe she was insane for suggesting it, but if they had gotten to the point where Albus was randomly hexing people and not regretting it immediately, there might be serious problems coming their way.

Preemptive striking the shit out of them seemed as good a plan as any.

"You mean like a shrink?" Malfoy's nose scrunched up, his face filled with distaste at the very thought. "Al isn't crazy. He's just hurting."

What was this, 1920?

"No. A therapist," she groaned, shaking her head. "Someone for him to talk to. Someone who knows what they are doing rather than us poking around aimlessly."

"I don't see how that would help." He sounded like a petulant child who'd been told his favorite toy is defective. "You think he'd talk to someone he doesn't know when he won't even talk to us?"

"That's precisely why. Part of the reason he doesn't talk to us is because it's us." She certainly felt like she was talking to a child. "It might do him some good."

Scorpius still looked skeptical.

Ah, these people who didn't suffer from mental handicaps were the very fucking worst.

"Let's say I accept the premise," he started, holding his hands up defensively. "How do we go about getting him to—"

Now they were talking.

"I have no idea. He's probably going to tell me I'm overreacting."

"Yes he will. He'll say that if hexing me is material for therapy you should have been in the loony bin for years now."

"For the last time, it's therapy, not the loony bin," she groaned, burying her head on the pillow. "We could stage an intervention…?"

"He would hate that," he sniggered. "It'll never work."

"Yeah, we wouldn't see him for weeks," she replied, her words muffled by the pillow. She looked up at him once again and he moved his legs away to meet her eye. "I'll need to catch him in one of his talking moods."

Trying to get Albus to talk when he wasn't up for it was like pulling teeth.

From an angry shark.

In a tin of acid.

While the entire world was burning.

"Please do that. And please remind him that I'm his best chum and that he genuinely loves me," he reminded her, his mouth twitching.

"Don't worry, I will," she said, shaking her head. "Man can hold a grudge."

"It's the Slytherin in him."

"I don't think it's the Slytherin. It think it's the Albus in him," she scoffed. "The boy was born that way."

"Yeah, even I'm not as petty."

The pair exchanged a look and grinned.

"Our best friend is an idiot," Rose groaned.

"I just wish I could kill Zara sometimes," he replied, tiredly rubbing his forehead. "Get a time turner and kill her before they ever meet."

"So do I dear, so do I."

"Did you just 'dear' me, Weasley?"

Rose shoulders gave a single dismissive shrug. "You called me 'beautiful' not ten minutes ago, Malfoy."

"Does that makes us even and therefore mean we'll never speak of it ever again?"

"Not even close," she sniggered. "I still have to repay you for the 'intelligent', 'witty' and 'connected'."

"Oy, I said you were beautiful, intelligent, witty and connected, past tense," he protested, giving her a nudge with his leg. "I didn't say you are. I mean, have you even showered?"

"Oh, no." She grinned. "It's not that day of the year yet."

"You're ridiculous," he quipped, grinning back. "Go back to bed."

Surprisingly, she found herself thinking that might not be such a bad idea. Her bed was sounding pretty great about now. She yawned. Maybe she'd actually get some shut eye if she went back.

"I will," she said, getting up to her feet. "Good luck with the Magpies, dear."

"Sleep tight, Weasley."