Gosh, I hadn't realised it had been so long since I'd last updated this. Everything's just been so manic at the moment that I blink and two weeks have just flown by! The only good thing is that I'm FINALLY going to see Deathly Hallow P2 in two days! Thank Merlin - Haven't we all been waiting forever? It's going to be so sad though. Anyway, why am I rambling? Thank you so so much to everyone who's taken an interest in this story, especially if you took the time to leave a quick review.

I hope you enjoy Part 2 of Quidditch Can Be Violent.


I reached the stands in just enough time to watch Scorpius get punched in the stomach by Peter, lean backwards, grabbing his sunglasses from the bench that he had obviously just been sitting on, and slam them into the side of Peter's face.

His expensive glasses snapped at the same time as Peter's wand did, which he had just recovered from the floor, attempting to throw a few hexes at Scorpius.

Scorpius realised at this moment that he was, in fact, a wizard and, holding Peter still by the front of his shirt in one hand and repeatedly moving him back and forwards so that he slammed into the wooden panelling at the back of the stands, reached into his jeans pocket with the other hand to find his wand.

"You git, Maroon!" Scorpius yelled over all the cheering of the people watching around them. "You come near her again and I'll kill you, and I'll enjoy it." He threatened and I was pretty sure that I saw every other guy who could hear him sigh with relief that they weren't Peter right now.

"Scor!" Al shouted at him, catching up with me by the stands. "Get off him, whatever he did isn't worth your position as Head Boy!"

"It. Is." Scorpius called back between kicks to Peter's legs as he still attempted to find his wand in his pocket.

He finally managed to get hold of his wand and point it at a terrified looking Peter, who looked as if he had just about given up fighting back.

"Scorpius!" I reprimanded him and he immediately turned to look at me, unlike with Al. "Don't you dare curse him!"

He glanced at me for a moment. It was all quiet as everyone waited to see what was happening, trying to make sense of the situation. "Why not?" he finally asked.

"Because you're Head Boy!" I reminded him, my tone evidently suggesting my disbelief at his question, dismounting my broom and hurrying over to the two boys in the middle of an open circle surrounded by students. "You're supposed to be setting a good example."

"Come on, Rose. You know you want to punch him for what he did to you," Scorpius muttered to me.

Apparently it wasn't quiet enough because Hugo, who had caught up with me on his own broom by now, demanded loudly. "What did he do to you, Rose?"

I stuttered. I hadn't even wanted to tell my family, I felt that it was too personal, and I wasn't open to having intimate conversations with people, but now it seemed as if they were demanding to know in front of everyone else in my year as well and all of Gryffindor.

"He's lying," I heard Peter weakly mumble from his position now lying on the floor. "I didn't do anything to Rose."

"Stop it!" Scorpius lost his temper again and hauled Peter into a standing position. "Stop trying to twist everything around like that!"

"Scorpius..." I whispered. I didn't want him to get into trouble for my problems. "Stop this, please. Think rationally... this isn't goingto get you anywhere. Please stop... for me..."

His eyes locked with mine, his expression somehow trying to judge mine, and, whilst he did so, Peter pushed himself away from Scorpius and moved round to stand next to me.

I flinched.

Scorpius stepped between us quickly.

"Hey, Rose, how are you?" Peter asked weakly, putting up a pretence of being back to his sweet self, acting as if he was innocent to everybody. My eyes narrowed but before I could say anything back Scorpius beat me to it, finally ending this scene.

"Push off, Maroon, before my fist meets your face... again," Scorpius added as an afterthought and I noticed that his knuckles were red from bleeding. Looking back to Peter I realised that it was probably Peters blood on Scorpius' hand.

"What have you got here, Weasley," Peter snapped suddenly, dropping all pretence, still only addressing me. "Got yourself a little bodyguard?" he teased mockingly.

I didn't answer, leaving the talking to Scorpius. "I said push off," he threatened again, his voice deadly. Peter looked like he wanted to hide for a split second, frightened of Scorpius' venomous tone, but quickly hid it. He was seriously pushing his luck, his face was already showing bruises and both his eyes were black.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he waved vaguely in Scorpius' direction as if he had the conversation under control, even though his voice wavered slightly, dismissing him altogether. "See you around, Weasley."

"No you won't, Maroon," Scorpius yelled at him and, in one quick motion punched him right in the nose. For a moment I was shocked until Scorpius took my hand to lead me away, Peter clutching his face to stop the blood.

"Come on, Rose," Scorpius tried to pull me away from Peter and I realised that this was my chance to get, somewhat, even.

Stop being sweet, kind, caring, push-over Rose Weasley and handle your own problems for once, I heard myself say in a moment of bravery. Maybe I was destined for Gryffindor for a reason.

"No," I told Scorpius firmly, stopping dead in my tracks and pulled my hand out of his grip, marching back over to Peter. "You are a selfish little boy, Peter, and you don't even deserve to have friends!" I snapped at him in front of everybody. "You don't deserve anything as far as I'm concerned. And, you know what? The only thing that is more annoying than your name is your face, so I think I'll just rearrange that for you," I spat and then, before I could take it back, I slapped him hard across the face, a red hand print marking his cheek, mixing with the blood from Scorpius' punch, and kicked him in the shins.

Peter toppled over, literally, and hit the wooden floor hard. I stood over him, Scorpius by my side and hissed furiously. "You even come within an inch of me again and I'll personally hex you to where Voldemort's soul rots."

Kicking him once again in the shins and pulling a slightly terrified looking Scorpius away by the hand, I picked up my broom again and made my way out of the stands.

I could hear everybody else whispering between each other and my family calling after me but I ignored them all. Whatever they said about this later, I didn't care – Peter had deserved that. And I felt a lot better.

Silence fell between me and Scorpius; he played with his broken sunglasses in the hand that wasn't holding mine.

"I'm sorry you broke your sunglasses," I muttered.

He actually laughed at that. "Rose, I broke more than my sunglasses," he told me. I looked at him enquiringly and, for the first time, noticed the continuous flow of blood from his broken nose.

"Oh my... Merlin...," I struggled for words, watching him smirking at me, amused.

"It's not that bad, Rose, it just hurts a little," he assured me.

"Not that bad..." I repeated, dazed. "Scorpius, your nose is broken." I quickly switched from shocked to over-reacting mode. "We should get you to the Hospital and get it fixed right away. It could get infected and I read somewhere that the longer you leave a broken nose the more likely it won't heal properly with magic—"

"Rose!" He waved his hand that was holding his sunglasses in front of my face to shut me up. "Calm down, I could probably just fix it, but I don't really trust myself with something involving my face. I'll go to the Hospital Wing, don't worry."

I followed his sunglasses with my eyes and then noticed him looking at me. "They were expensive?" I asked guiltily. Of course they were - everything he owned was expensive.

He laughed again at this. "About sixty galleons," he told me and I thought I would faint again.

"Sixty galleons?" I asked, completely shocked. I hadn't thought they were that expensive.

What sane person would pay sixty galleons for sunglasses? I tried to reason with myself, then realised the answer.

Scorpius Malfoy would.

"Yes," he assured me again. "But enough about my sunglasses, I can buy more of them, or attempt to reparo them again. Either way, they're unimportant, are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine," I told him.

"Uh huh, sure you are... now," I scared me a little how well he'd gauged my emotions. "But what about in five seconds when your family comes asking questions?"

"What about it?" I asked him.

"You're still not going to tell them?" he asked me, seeming shocked by this. I shook my head.

"Merlin, your nose is really bleeding, Scorpius," I tried to tell him but he just waved that comment away.

"Rose, you have to tell them!" He practically pleaded with me whilst I fished in my pocket for a tissue. "It'll just make things so much easier if you—what are you doing?" he asked, finishing his sentence with a completely different question.

I had stopped walking and faced him. "Stay still." I muttered to him and leaned forwards to wipe away the blood on his face.

It was a strange moment. It felt, on one hand, completely normal to be this close to Scorpius (even if it did make my heart race a little), tending to his wounds, but, on the other hand, I felt a little confused and... Scared, I suppose. What was happening to me? Not that long ago Scorpius had been 'Scorpius Malfoy' – the boy who mocked me every few seconds and who I couldn't stand to be near for more than ten minutes. And now he was 'Scorpius Malfoy' – the boy who had beaten someone up and been beaten up for me, who caught me every time I fell and who I felt like I could talk to about anything.

Seriously messed up, Rose, that oh-so-helpful part of my brain told me.

Luckily it was interrupted by quite a few loud voices, which I recognised immediately as my family. Nobody else in Hogwarts went round in groups that big.

"What, in the name of Dumbledore, was that all about?" Alice exclaimed, as her, Al, Lily, Dom, Hugo, Angie, Fred, Roxanne, Molly, Lucy and even Louis approached us, running.

I shook my head, "Nothing."

"Come on, we're not that stupid. What could Peter do that would really be that bad? He's really quite sweet if you think about it," Dom told me.

"I try not to," I snapped at Dom.

"He... he attacked Rose," Scorpius told all of them.

I grimaced. 'Attacked' didn't seem like the right word, and yet... I couldn't think of any other.

"What?"

"No way!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Attacked?

"I'll kill him!"

"Scorpius!" I shoved him slightly and he flinched. "What did you do that for?"

"Sorry, but they have a right to know," he replied as I continued to wipe away the blood on his face. "That twat should be hated by everyone, Rosie, and they're your family, after all."

I sighed at him, frustrated, "Fine!" I gave in.

"Wait," Hugo stopped our conversation. "He what?"

"He, quite literally, attacked her. I swear, one minute everything was fine and the next he was pushing her up against the wall and had his hand up her shirt," Scorpius fumed.

I blushed. "He didn't have his hand up my shirt," I muttered weakly.

"He did," Scorpius told me, the boys looking murderous and the girls looking shocked. I blinked in surprise at this new knowledge.

He had? I guess I was so wrapped up in not kissing Peter that I didn't notice anything else going on around me.

"It was disgusting. He's so... so..." I watched Scorpius at a loss for words. It was so unlike him. Scorpius Malfoy always knew what he was going to say, always had everything planned out and ready so that nothing went wrong for him and he was always immaculate and flawless, and never... well, never like how he was now: careless and a total mess.

To be honest, it was kind of sexy.

Merlin, had I just thought that? Okay, I may as well tell the truth. Yep, I had just said that because... well, Scorpius was beautiful and charming and proper.

In his own way, obviously.

What was wrong with me lately!

I quickly tried to steer my thoughts away from other images like this by joining the conversation again. However, this only caused images of the night in the library to come back to me and I quickly wished I was seeing Scorpius shirtless again like I had dreamt of last night.

Not that I dream about that often, or anything.

"He tried to kiss me, and he... he kind of crushed me against the wall and-and..." I stopped and shuddered, remembering the other night vividly with this new knowledge that Scorpius had told me. I felt tears start to well up behind my eyes, as much as I tried to stop them, and looked down hastily at the floor.

Scorpius pulled me into a hug; I already stood really close to him, stroking my muddy hair and whispering that I was safe in my ear. It felt nice, better than nice, even, to have him there, next to me, when I felt vulnerable and scared, to look after me and trust to keep me safe, so I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him back. The others were silent.

"Are you alright, Flower?" Al asked half-teasingly, calling me the nickname that my dad called me, his voice soft and gentle. I saw Alice, who was standing next to him, practically melt from hearing his emotions.

I pulled away from Scorpius and sniffed, wiping my nose on my sleeve. "Thanks, Al, but I'm fine."

He nodded. "Okay, by the way, I'm going to get to Maroon after this and I'm going to kick his arse."

I laughed shakily as Hugo, Scorpius and Dom all agreed forcefully.

"I'm going to crush his fingers until he can't feel them," Dom warned menacingly.

"I think he'll find that, perhaps, he'll receive a few howlers in the post soon from a lot of angry people..." Alice trailed off, leaving us all slightly scared of her.

"If he lives through the weekend," came Hugo's voice and we were all shocked from the emotion that bubbled up inside of him. Hugo was possibly the worst of all us, though. He rarely got angry but when he did, Merlin, it was like listening to both our parents screaming. We all knew to stay out of his way.

To change the subject quickly, Al ignored the others who were still absorbed in their own murderous thoughts, turned to me and asked, "What are you doing now?"

"Staying away from Peter," Scorpius muttered from next to me, his arm was still flung over my shoulders.

"Merlin, I forgot," I exclaimed as I looked at his face and then back to the bloodied tissue in my hands, gently placing it back on Scorpius' face. "Hospital Wing."

"That was some punch, Scor," Al told his best friend as we all continued heading up to the castle.

"Erm, thanks," Scorpius muttered.

"You punched him more than once," Louis commented helpfully.

"You are so in trouble with McGonagall," Molly told Scorpius.

"I know," he sighed.

"Oh, no," I exclaimed sadly as I realised something terrible. "What if I get in trouble for slapping him—"

"And kicking him," Lily commented.

"And threatening him," Dom added as well. I glared at them both before continuing.

"What if I get given detention? I've never had detention before. What if McGonagall takes away my Head Girl badge?" I think I might have gotten a little hysterical.

"Well," Scorpius started calmly. "She doesn't have to know."

"Peter will say that I kicked him, though," I reasoned with him.

"And I'll just tell McGonagall that he's lying and that it was me who kicked him."

I looked up at Scorpius, "You'd say that?" he nodded and we both stared at each other for a moment.

"Oh, Merlin," Lucy commented suddenly. "Malfoy, you look totally... err, well..."

"He's a total mess, Lucy," I told her, turning away from Scorpius. To be honest, I didn't know what to say in reply to his suggestion - I could see in his eyes that he wouldn't accept 'no' for an answer... I'd just have to come up with a way to repay him later.

"Gee, thanks, Rose," Scorpius retorted sarcastically, lighting the mood.

"Anytime," I smiled. "You can repay me from these kind comments with expensive gifts," I told him jokingly. The others all laughed.

"Hey, I might have to get back to you with that," he joked. "I still have to buy new sunglasses." He held up his smashed ones that only just clung together.

"Can't you just fix them with Reparo?" Lily asked.

"No," Scorpius sighed. "This is only half of them, the rest of it's in tiny pieces back up in the stands, and, besides, they're supposed to be immune to breakages so Reparo doesn't work on them very well after a while."

As if to prove his point he took out his wand and tried to spell. The glass pieces fidgeted, tried to connect together, then snapped again rather pathetically.

"The sellers should probably fix that..." Angie commented.

"And, Merlin!" Lily added. "How expensive were those glasses?"

"Sixty galleons," I told them all in disbelief and Scorpius pretend-glared at me.

"Must you tell everyone?" He asked, incredulous. I nodded.

We continued to mock Scorpius all the way up to the Hospital Wing like nothing was wrong but I was still holding the piece of tissue to his broken nose, afraid to fix it myself in case I lost concentration and he had to spend the rest of his life as a Goblin or half a Hippogriff or something. As much as I fretted over him, the other were fretting ocver me: I could feel the eyes of at least one of my family on me all the time, even if they did look away when I glanced at them.

We entered the Hospital Wing, all thirteen of us attracting the attention of Madame Pomfrey within a record time of about two second.

She hurried over to us and greeted Scorpius by taking a step back and informing him bluntly, "Dear me, Mr Malfoy, you look hideous."


September ended quickly after that with a normal couple of weeks – I went to classes, studied hard in the library and just hung around with my family and Angie, Alice and Scorpius in the evenings that I wasn't busy.

I had taken care to avoid Peter as much as possible but the precaution was unnecessary because he stayed away from me. Those hundred or so howlers sent to him by Alice over breakfast probably had something to do with it but it could also have something to do with the death-glares all my cousins sent him daily, the fact that Dom had crushed all the bones in his right hand during their Care of Magical Creatures lesson (she told McGonagall it was 'accidental'), the attack from twenty or so bludgers which miraculously escaped their confinements one Saturday when Peter was nearby, that potion he had unknowingly taken with his lunch that turned him into a large ball of pink and green hair and caused him to sing the number one hit 'A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love' by Celestina Warbeck every time he opened his mouth and, finally (my personal favourite), that charm that somebody had placed on him so that whenever Peter sat down he felt the sudden need to stand up again, which was tremendous fun to watch every lesson and meal time for two weeks, until he figured out how to stop it.

Apart from this, things had kept me busy. Head Girl duties also took up a lot of time. I had only been on duty for rounds twice after that incident in the Quidditch stands but not with Scorpius.

He had been temporarily demoted by Professor McGonagall, which basically meant that he wasn't allowed his Head Boy badge back until he had done enough detention for her to feel satisfactory about whether he had learnt his lesson or not. Luckily she hadn't expelled him then and there after marching up to the Hospital Wing a few minutes after we had arrived. Apparently Scorpius' parents weren't too pleased with him after they received a letter home about his behaviour, but they only stopped his allowance for a week and refused to let his sister write to him during that time also. Scorpius told me that he was only upset about not being able to speak to his sister; anything else didn't really matter to him.

I felt incredibly guilty about his temporary demotion every time I saw him because he had been demoted because he was defending me. I had told Professor McGonagall this to no effect. Scorpius had even told McGonagall that I had had nothing to do with the fighting. She had simply told me that "Perhaps Mr Malfoy shouldn't have been quite so gallant,", sending me a quick knowing smile, and then ignored my other protests.

The news of the 'dance' that we were hosting around Christmas time had spread almost as fast as the news about Peter's beating had. Everybody had actually responded well to this idea, despite what my friends thought about it originally. The hype about it had practically doubled as the notice for the first Hogsmeade weekend was posted in early October. Like normal, it had been scheduled for Halloween.

Even though we didn't patrol on rounds together at the moment, Scorpius and I still met in one corner of the library most evenings (I told the others that I was busy studying, which I usually did, too) and just talked like we had done before, like the first time on rounds.

It was good to be able to vent my anger or share my happiness with someone who wouldn't immediately go to the other members of my family and tell them all my secrets, as if a secret was still a secret if kept within our family. Because it wasn't.

I sat in the library one evening, quietly reading a book that I had found in the restricted section entitled 'Fearing Death', which was informing me exactly why some people were afraid of dying when it was promptly yanked out of my hands by Scorpius as he sat down in the seat next to me.

"'Fearing Death'?" He asked, reading from the front cover. "Okay, Rose, you've officially gone creepy."

I snatched it back, shoving the book into my bag and kicking it far under the table. "It's not creepy, it's interesting. And there's a sequel," I added with mock enthusiasm.

"Joy," he muttered sarcastically.

"It's called 'Conquering Death', but it's not actually about conquering death, it's about why people want to conquer death. And there's whole three sections on Voldemort and my uncle and parents," I told him.

"And you want to read it to learn more about why Voldemort did what he did with Horcruxes and how it affected your uncle?" he asked, leaning forwards on his elbows on the table.

"Exactly," I copied him and turned my head to the right to see him clearly. "Do you think I'm a freak now?" I asked.

He chuckled. "No, just interested in the past, that's all," his voice turned cold.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing...," he muttered and then met my eyes with his. "People change from how they were in the past, Rose."

"You're thinking about you're dad," I stated softly.

He nodded and answered even though it wasn't a question and I wasn't asking him to tell me anything. "Some people still see him as evil or still think he believes in Voldemort and all this pureblood stuff but he's not like that, Rose, he's just like every other parent... every other parent with a Dark Mark branded into his arm, that is."

"Scorpius," I whispered to him gently, placing my hand over his. "You don't have to tell me."

"I think I'd feel better if I told someone," he whispered back and looked at me as if asking whether it was OK if I was that person.

"He loved his parents and he was just doing it for them, he felt like he didn't have a choice and he was just really young – younger than we are – that's the only reason why he did it. I mean, he could have been killed if he hadn't followed Voldemort's wishes. You know, some people say that he still calls Voldemort 'The Dark Lord', as if to suggest that he still follows Voldemort, still likes his ideas, but he doesn't. He calls him 'Voldemort' like everybody else, or 'Tom Riddle' sometimes, when he's particularly angry about it."

Scorpius looked up at me, his gaze having previously fallen to the table where our hands were intertwined. "I'm glad he changed, Rose, otherwise I would have never been allowed to talk to you."

I noticed he meant me, specifically, not the others in my family too. Scorpius would not have been able to talk to any of us if his parents were still prejudiced against half-bloods or muggle-borns, but he was specifically talking about me this time. The realisation warmed me.

"I'm glad too," I whispered back.

He sighed, "Sorry, I've probably just really depressed you."

"Don't worry about it," I told him, smiling. "You can talk to me."

He smiled back and then became much happier, "Let's play our game."

"Alright, you can go first," I sighed and closed my eyes.


I entered the Great Hall one afternoon in the second week of October to find that Lucy, Angie, Alice, Lily and Roxanne were talking about what they were going to wear to the dance over lunch. I joined them, sitting next to an incredibly-bored looking Fred who seemed like he wished he hadn't sat there but couldn't get up in case it drew attention to him and he was drawn into the conversation about clothes and shopping.

"So I eventually decided on silver because it goes with everything and I could check out all the accessories in Hogsmeade and just pick my favourite without having to worry about the colours clashing," Alice was telling them all.

Within the last few weeks she had become a permanent part of our group, everybody loved her because she got on so well with them all. I could see why Al liked her, because it was so obvious that he did - she looked kind of mysterious with her unusual violet eyes and dark, today curly, hair and full fringe.

"Did you find a date yet, Alice?" I asked her as I reached across the table for some potatoes.

"Nope," she sighed sadly. "Not yet."

"Just ask him," Angie sighed too, this time slightly annoyed.

"W...what?"

"Al," Angie elaborated. "Just ask him."

"Who says I want to go with Al?" Alice asked shyly, trying, but failing, to defend herself and scoff.

"It's so obvious," I piped up, causing a few faces to stare back at me.

"See," Lily added. "Even Rose has noticed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, hurt by her tone. Even me?

"I meant that you're the one who's here less because you're always studying or on rounds and whatnot, but you've still noticed," Lily explained.

"Oh."

"How is rounds going, Rose?" Alice asked me, no doubt jumping at the chance to change the conversation. I decided to help her out a little.

"Okay, I suppose," I reasoned. "Actually it's pretty boring now I have to patrol with James Falcon,"

"Scorpius still on parole?" Roxanne joked.

"Yeah," I sulked.

"He can't be that interesting," Fred joined us. They all looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"No, no, that's not what I meant," I stuttered back at them all, Fred was twisting my words into something more than what I had said. I tried not to blush. "I just meant that he was... y'know, nice to talk to... when I didn't want my whole family to know how I was feeling..."

There was an awkward moment in which none of us spoke. I think they had all just realised how much more Scorpius and I had become friends since the start of the year.

I was saved, yet again, by the arrival of Al and Scorpius, who both looked annoyed at something but were laughing and joking in a way that I knew meant that they were making fun of one of their teachers.

"Bloody Longbottom," Scorpius muttered and Al laughed.

"What's happened now?" Fred asked them.

"Uncle Nev is moving us all around in Herbology," Al informed us and we all groaned. "He said that we should be able to work with people we don't know very well as well us our friends."

Whilst they all muttered and grumbled about being moved around in Herbology Scorpius caught my eye and smiled at me as if there was something I should be getting. I stared back at him and we had a silent conversation with our eyes. I looked very confused, shaking my head and looking baffled whilst he simply smiled and stared at me until understanding dawned on me and I noticed what was different about him.

Interrupting the conversation around me, I jumped to my feet, glancing from Scorpius' face to his shiny badge on his chest and back to his face again. "You're back?" I asked. He nodded, beaming.

Without thinking I jolted forwards and flung my arms around him. He responded after a moment, probably from shock, and hugged me back, chuckling in my ear.

As we pulled apart he told me, "McGonagall decided that it was time the school had their Head Boy again."

"Just like that?" I asked.

"Well..." He hesitated and then blurted out quickly. "I may have suggested that she didn't want to put too much stress on you, what with NEWTs and Head Girl duties and everything. Especially considering the amount of studying you do."

I slapped him on the arm playfully and we smiled at each other.

"Which reminds me..." I told him mysteriously after a moment and held up a finger with one hand, signalling for him to give me a moment, and dived into my school bag, producing a large, rolled-up piece of parchment tied together with a blue bow.

I handed it to Scorpius, watched by the rest of my friends, who looked thoroughly confused. "What's this?" he asked after a moment.

"It's a present," I informed him.

"I know that," he muttered back.

"For Claire..." I expanded slightly.

"Oh," Scorpius actually looked a little shocked. "Thanks Rose. But now I feel kind of bad, you shouldn't have. You haven't even met Claire."

"I know enough about her to buy her a birthday present," I told him firmly. "Besides, it was something I happened to come across at the right time."

"Err...," Al said to get our attention, the others were all staring at us like our conversation made no sense. Actually, it probably hadn't. I'm not sure whether even Al knew Scorpius had a younger sister. The next words out of his mouth confirmed that theory. "Who's Claire?"

"Scorpius' sister," I told them all.

Al turned to his best friend. "You have a sister?" Scorpius nodded. "How come you haven't told me this before?"

"I dunno..." Scorpius replied quietly. "Never came up, I guess."

"What's she called?" Roxanne asked.

"Clarinda,"

There was silence until Al asked, seemingly very confused and, most likely, a little hurt that Scorpius hadn't told him. "How come Rose knows about her and I don't?"

"I don't know... Rose asked, I suppose, so I told her," Scorpius answered him fairly and we smiled at each other, remembering some of the funny things we had asked each other. We had come up with a new game where the other person could ask you as many questions as possible in a minute and you had to answer them with only the truth.

"So, Scorpius..." Lucy asked slowly and we both snapped out of our 'happy bubbles' and turned back to my family, slightly embarrassed by our blatant show of friendship. "I was wondering what you were doing for a date to the dance."

"Me?" he stuttered, completely shock covering his face. Lucy nodded, smiling at him. "Erm, I wasn't actually planning to go."

"Why not?" Al asked him first.

"You know..." he muttered, glancing at some of the girls in the hall. "Process might kill me."

We all laughed at this, except Lucy, who looked slightly put out, and Al, who looked annoyed at his best friend. It was common knowledge that Scorpius had a lot of lady admirers in the school (and outside of it, to be honest) but he hadn't dated anyone since the middle of last year.

"I thought we were going to go together..." Al muttered.

We all turned to stare at him with raised eyebrows. Apparently he hadn't realised how that had sounded. It finally dawned on him, probably after he played back what he had just said in his mind.

"No, no," he amended. "I meant as friends," he pointedly looked at Fred and Roxanne who were laughing the hardest, most likely getting their sense of humour from their father, "and just mess about."

"Alright," Scorpius agreed. "That does sound like fun."

"You're not looking for a date?" Alice spluttered to Al, apparently unable to hold her question in any longer.

He looked shocked and confused for a moment and then tried to find the right answer. "No... I mean, yes, of course... well, not like desperately or anything – not that I'm desperate or anything... I mean, I wouldn't mind going if I was... y'know, asked by someone – or asked someone, I meant... " he finally stopped talking.

I looked over to Alice to see that she looked as if she was about to cry. That was really strange, Alice was always happy all the time, I don't think I'd ever seen her cry once and now she was on the verge of tears simply because Al had said that he wasn't looking for a date.

I coughed, sending the attention of everyone, but Alice and Al, who kept staring at Alice, onto me. "We should get going to Herbology..." I muttered, grabbing Alice's bag with mine and ushering her out of the hall with me and Angie before she could cry.

"T-thank... thank you, Rose..." she managed to say before her sobs took over and I couldn't understand anything else she said.

Alice collapsed on the floor outside the front door of Hogwarts and Angie and I sat either side of her whilst she cried for a couple of minutes. I shivered; it was freezing cold and I had forgotten my coat. Pulling my wand out of my pocket I quickly performed a spell which warmed me up temporarily.

"I'm sorry..." Alice mumbled into her hand. "It's stupid getting this upset. I just... I just thought that maybe, there might have been a chance, that he liked me."

"He does like you, Alice," Angie tried to reason with her. "I bet if you asked him he'd jump at the chance to go with you."

"Maybe Angie's right," I told her, squeezing her shoulder. "Maybe you should just ask Al instead of the other way around."

"I think I'd rather just not go," Alice confessed quietly, her whisper even quieter when the wind violently whipped it away from me. Her voice was so timid, so unmotivated, that Angie and I silently agreed to let her be for now.

We stood up and made over way quickly to the Greenhouses where we had Herbology as our first lesson after lunch, trying our hardest to make Alice laugh. It looked as if it would rain very soon so, instead of waiting outside, we found our class already inside the Greenhouse, people sitting in different places than before.

I resumed our previous conversation as I stood with Alice at her desk. "At least go with me, I won't have a date but I'm still going, mostly to follow Dom around and trip her over, but you're welcome to join me." I smiled when Alice, thankfully, laughed, and Dom sent me a glare as we reached her.

"I think I will then, if you don't have a date," she reasoned.

"I won't," I was clear on that.

"How do you know?"

"Have I ever been known to have a date?"

"How about Billy Johnson two years ago?"

"Have I ever been known to have a sane date?" I amended and Alice giggled beside me whilst putting on gloves. "And to anything other than Uncle Neville's 'Slug Club Reunited' that one time?"

Scorpius called me over to his table on the opposite side of the room before Alice could even answer me. I rolled my eyes at him, which only Alice caught, picked up my bag and wandered over to him.

"Yes, Mr Malfoy?" I teased.

"Wanna be my partner today?" he asked me, smiling sweetly.

"Why...?" I cautioned. "Can you not be bothered to do any work today?"

He pretended to look shocked that I would suggest such a thing. "Actually, I thought that maybe you wanted to be saved from working with Billy for the rest of the year."

I turned quickly and scanned the room. Sure enough, the only seat left available was next to Billy Johnson, because Dom had snatched my seat beside Alice to avoid it, with the exception of the one besides Scorpius.

There was nothing wrong with Billy Johnson as such; most people just avoided him because he had a tendency to get strangely attached to you within one lesson working together and follow you about until you threatened that you'd raise Dumbledore's corpse and animate it to haunt him.

Not that that ever happened or anything.

I beamed at Scorpius and took the seat next to him, "I'd love to."

Oh, I thought. How things had changed.


Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it enough to review? What do you think is coming up and any predictions on dates for the dance?