Chapter Six

Scorpius

The dungeon of my thoughts

In other words, the Astronomy Tower


"I know better than everyone. If more people listened to me then there wouldn't be so much trouble in the world."

I know my sister definitely meant this is a way where she would be the one to cure world hunger or there would never be any orphans around (though she is not great with kids, think scary, evil, creepy...) or maybe she would find the cure to Dragon Pox but it was hard to take her seriously when she was applying lipstick to her lips in Gryffindor red. Very interesting choice in colour.

Both Al and James watched her as she twirled that stick around her lips and I swear even at one point, Al licked his lips. I elbowed him in the ribs and he looked at me like he had been caught doing something he shouldn't have been doing and turned as red as my sister's lips.

James on the other hand rolled his eyes and threw a Slytherin cushion at her and she shot him a glare. "If everyone listened to you, blondey, then we would all be kissing your arse."

I hold back a snigger and put my feet up on the coffee table, waiting for whatever war that was going to ensue. "You're an idiot," Lee says. "You do realise that don't you? Or is your head so big it had to sacrifice the space where your brain would be."

"Well," he says tilting his head. "I mean it is a mighty fine arse."

Lee just stares at him with a blank face and Al looks from my sister to his brother and back then leans into my ear to say; "Am I the only one that wonders why he knows Lesath's arse is fine?"

I shrug not wanting to get into it. "Dunno."

"He's right," Al says flatly. "But something tells me he's seen it in the flesh."

"Mate. My sister, remember?"

It goes on like this for hours, or so it seems, James throws another cushion, Lee glares at him, he says something about how she plays to the colour of her hair, and she glares at him. He mentions his girlfriend, she yells at him.

"Heading off to see Rose," Al shouts over his shoulder as he gets up to leave.

"Heading off to see McKinnon, you mean?" I say with a grin. I would give Al that, when he set his mind to something, he will do it.

Al stops in his tracks and says; "Haha, no, no I'm not," in a not so convincing tone.

"You not following?" Lesath asks me. "Or are you still on a vendetta against Rose?"

This time I am the awkward idiot. "Haha, no, no I'm not."

Both of them just stare at me. Both of them watching to see what I say or they think I will stand up and run after Al, following him the Gryffindor Tower.

I would be lying if I said I didn't want to. All I dream about these days is her. I kissed her once on the porch of the Manor. I dream about that a lot. You know, because Third Year was our weird year. Everyone has a weird year. There's nothing more awkward than kissing your best friend. Or being a thirteen year old. I know the way her hair curls and the blue of her eyes. I know more than I should but my dreams... they betray me. They always have and they always will.

You learn a lot about somebody when you sit next to them in class. Out of six subjects, we share four. But for the past four years we had shared every subject. I know that when she got an answer wrong she makes this weird noise, like if you stand on the tail of a mouse. I know that when she is concentrating she chews the end of her quill and when she is nervous she bites her nails. I know that when she is angry she chews her bottom lip. Rose had a lot of cousins – but everyone knew that. She had one cousin, Roxanne, who played professional Quidditch and Molly's friend Leanne, well she had a foot fetish, according to Parkinson-Krum anyway. And after talking to Rose after Quidditch a few days ago, she didn't like Dion after all. But who would like him? I'm pretty sure his mum died during child birth because she hated him too. Or at least that's how it played out in my mind.

Hah! It is ironic that I should be the one to tell her relationship woes when he was the reason why we weren't mates anymore. I get so much satisfaction out of this that I can feel myself grinning which earns another look from my sister. I try to tame it, but the thought that Dion Wood was irritating to Rose was just too good for me. I hold on to the image in my mind when I tell him one day when he lost a Quidditch match, I start grinning to myself. It keeps me going for a while.

I look down at my Charms homework and it reminds me of Rose, her hand writing scribbled at the bottom of the parchment with notes.

She was such a know it all. But the thing was; she actually knew it all. I didn't know anyone that knew what she knew. She was the sort of person you would want in your group discussion in Transfiguration or on your Quidditch team as a Keeper, she was always a good Keeper. She was the sort of person you'd want to go to Muggle London with because she'd help you buy tickets for those buses or the sort who knew how to cook a meal Muggle style. She knew stuff. Zoe didn't exactly excel in classes and at one point she asked Lorcan for study advice.

Lorcan.

Being a know-it-all wasn't the only issue with Rose. She was loud; she could be annoying, she was always so damn angry! Her angry face was the funniest, the way she screwed up her nose and that piercing glare, sometimes I piss her off just to see that crease in between her eyes brows...

"Earth to Scor? Hello? Anyone behind those eyes?" says Lee.

I shove her hand away that's waving in my face. "What?" I snap. "Can't you see I'm studying?" Or day dreaming about Weasley's angry face.

"Huh. You are alive. Your girlfriend is outside the Common Room, waiting for you."

"That's Zoe by the way, if you had forgotten," James says through a laugh. It wasn't funny; I knew exactly who my girlfriend was contrary to popular belief.

"Oh, that one," I say smacking my head as if I had forgotten. "Thanks for clearing that up, I thought you meant Courtney," I say sarcastically.

James snorts. "Or Rose," he says under his breath.

I see that my sister finds this comment amusing too because she laughs. I feel like saying for her to kiss James' arse but she's probably waiting for me to leave so she can.

I get out of their weird triangle of love and head out of the Common Room and sure enough, there is Zoe grinning back at me. She was wearing 'weekend clothes' as my dad would call them, never wanting to use the word 'Muggle', jeans, a singlet and a green cardigan. There was always something about a girl in Slytherin green.

I try my best to smile back at her, this morning had been a drag and as much as Weasley used to tell me that study was the best form of distraction, I would really have to enquire to see where she gets such information from. "Hey," I say to her.

Her eyes tell me she is excited to see me. It had been, after all, two days since we had really seen each other and as much as I try not to take my sister's words of wisdom seriously, 'All girls like a boy that needs fixing'.

I scoff to myself while standing in front of Zoe. I didn't need fixing, that would mean all I needed was a quick Repairo and it would be over with. I needed Muggle style, the sort where they use the glue and tape and nails...

Zoe looks at me like I am going mad. "You ok?" she asks.

I nod and raise my eyebrows. "Oh yeah!" I say a little too enthusiastically.

"You made a weird noise." The word is scoff.

"Dust up my nose," I reply stupidly.

This seems to sway her and she wraps her arms around my waist and puts her head on my chest. She smells sweet. Vanilla. She always smells like vanilla.

I noticed that she always wanted to put her head on my chest. One might say it was because she wanted to hear my beating heart. I also find this ironic because for the last eight months or so I had tried to turn said heart into iron.

Through the summer, Zoe's family had moved nearby. I saw her on the street one day in one of mum's attempts at getting me out of the house so I wouldn't have to watch her cry. Even though the last few days before hand she hadn't bothered. That was an exceptional example of mum's parenting style: Say something or lay down rules but never follow through.

Zoe was everywhere I turned. She was in the streets, at the local markets, flying at the same local pitch. And then one day at the pitch she was close I could smell the vanilla and her lips were so inviting and she was so happy and she...

She wasn't a red head with a foul mouth.

"Are you even here today?" she asks me looking me dead in the eye.

It is obvious that I am here; she is literally holding me right now. Why do people keep asking me this? "Yes, sorry, so much to do for Charms..."

She doesn't seem so convinced by this answer. "We do the same Charms, what are you struggling with?" he eyes falter though. "Oh, I guess you're at the top of the class though."

I assume this is about the place where I should say something to encourage her to work harder in class, or you know, work at all. "Second from the top," I correct.

She purses her lips and takes a step back from me. "Yes, to Weasley. As always."

"Granger-Weasley."

Zoe bats her lashes quickly. "Err," she says. "Right."

Her last sentence confirms that A) she is not happy with me and B) she is wondering why the hell I have corrected her for not saying Granger-Weasley. "You don't understand, Rose corrects me every time."

"She corrects me too," she says a bit too quickly, gees, and she says that Rose doesn't bother her. She exhales to calm herself. "She corrects me too, I have lived with her for years, you know."

But Rose was my best friend and had been since First Year. Rose had been to my home and met my parents and stayed over with me at the Potters and was there when I first rode James' Nimbus and... Well, my first awkward, tongue tying kiss. So in theory, it should be more irritating for her to have to correct me! "You're right," I say instead.

Zoe's yellow based eyes flicker, I could almost see them shaking. She was mad at me. It was somewhere between the frown on her face and her snapping at me that made me notice. I guess because I was just so observant.

Sarcasm.

"I don't know why we're even arguing about Rose," she replies quietly.

I nod. "I know, it's stupid!" I say, finally, something to turn me away from Rose. I throw up my hands in celebration which earns me a new sideways look from Zoe.

I grab onto Zoe's hips and pull her closer, the smell of vanilla was stinging my nose and makes me wonder if maybe the Scamander-Longbottom's had made her necklace of vanilla pods and if not, there goes a sales pitch. Her hips bump against mine, her chest somewhat squashed against mine and I really did appreciate a good set of tits through a singlet...

She was beautiful and she was mine and if I had another questioning look from Al or just straight up, 'why aren't you two sexing yet?' from Dorian Nott, I would have to do something about it.


You know your life has come to the end of all ends when you aren't a Prefect but you may or may not have told your best mate that you will go on Rounds with him.

My life had resorted to such extremes out of boredom and not realising that the thing called studying that will literally be the be all or end all of your life sucks. And it doesn't matter how rich your father is, you really don't want to be living off his money. It would seem that by the time I end things here and move on to the next phase, he would have probably ran away with Vera and they would have a completely different set of children and Lee and I would be there to dry mum's tears. Or at least I will.

"You could come on Rounds with me if you really want to get out of this place?" Al offers.

"Oh sure, because that is completely up my alley. Scorpius Malfoy the Non-Prefect just absolutely loves the Ravenclaw Towers," I say rolling my eyes.

"Your sarcasm really starts to get on my nerves. Dick," Al says.

As much as I struggle to communicate in anything other than sarcasm (it actually comes from both sides of the family), it is sad to say that not all of that was sarcasm. "I will come."

Al halts and spins around quickly. "Wouldn't you rather beat your head against a window?"

Huh, that did sounds tempting but I was lying around for so long that I could feel my eyes drying out from under my eyelids from staring at the ceiling, so maybe, the Ravenclaw Tower might actually do me some good. "Fuck you," I say and he looks at me guiltily. "I'm sure you would love nothing more mate, than to see my head lodged out a window."

He shrugs. "It wouldn't work out; you would be the sort of idiot to follow me around even after the grave."

The walk up to the tower was longer than I had anticipated. First years would stop Al to talk to him and second year girls would stop and stare at him and Third years wanted to be him. It had always been like this but got worse once he became a Prefect. And good old Scorpius Malfoy was there for the First Years to stare at like I was some sort of Judas.

We get to the Ravenclaw Tower and leaning on a door was Rose; "About bloody time I was going to pass out up here from boredom," but then she notices me. "Scorp?"

Al sighs and shoves his hands in his pockets; "Scorp," he says in a high-pitched voice. "What happened to Malfoy?"

"I do not sound like that Albus!" she snaps and Al turns red from Rose using his full name. And now he sulks.

I feel like my iron heart has faltered because what I was looking at right now was like old times. The three of us roaming around the castle, Rose arguing with Al, Rose arguing with me. Rose arguing...

"What are you doing here?" she asks.

"Surprise! I'm a Prefect!"

Rose's face lights up and then she realises I was joking. "Not funny – you deserved to be a Prefect! You're top of all our classes."

"Second only to you," I reply.

She smiles back but Al waves his arms in the air. "Excuse me! I am the real Slytherin Prefect, if he was then I wouldn't be!"

"Oh shut up," Rose hisses, "As if being Quidditch Captain wouldn't be enough for you next year!"

"Well they might make Scorp the Captain..."

We all start laughing, as if they would choose me over Albus Potter for Slytherin Quidditch Captain. There would be as much a chance of that as Rose failing every subject this year.

There was a loud crash and then a scream. "Shit," says Al, "I'll run and go and see what that is, you two keep watch out here."

"Oh yeah," I say rolling my eyes. "There's heaps to keep an eye on I don't know what to watch first."

Al shoots me a glare and runs off down the corridor leaving Rose and I by ourselves.

It had been a long time since we had been stuck together just us two, and now it had happened twice in two weeks. Merlin was punishing me.

She took long strides down the corridor and I scoff. "Are you avoiding me?" I ask her.

Rose was most definitely avoiding me because she spins quickly on her heels and the way her eyebrows were raised and her eyes were widened and her hair, well, a little less tamed than usual, told me so. "No way," she says instantly. "No-ho-ho."

"Er, right," I say and I sound just like Zoe.

I watch her curly hair bob up and down, the swing in her hips and she takes long strides again – most definitely avoiding me.

Al ways said there was a lot to be said about a silent Weasley. I had seen it in action when we were First Year. I stayed at the Potters house and James had got into Mr Potter's wand and managed to Hex all of Lily's hair off. Mrs Potter was silent for a long time that was until she strung James from the ceiling until he apologised to his sister. Mrs Potter was scary when she was silent. But I think there is more to be said about a silent Granger-Weasley, her mum is skilled in Muggle fighting. Or so I am told by my dad.

I could count on with my hands how many times Rose has been this silent. I could count on one hand. Rose didn't do silence well and that used to annoy the shit out of me.

"Look, Rose," I start but she turns to look at me.

"I don't want you to start talking to me and then it all goes down hill and you stop talking again, ok?" she says throwing her hands in the air. She stops and puts her hands down, taking a deep breath. "Sorry, I just had to get that out."

Typical Rose, blurting stuff out. I knew there was something more to her silence. I could read her better than she could read a book. "I won't," I tell her honestly. "I don't want to go through that again, ok?"

I lean against the wall in front of her and I can see her ears turning red, a tell-tale sign that she was not impressed. "Good," she says curtly. "So enough with the mind games, agreed?"

Mind games? I was not aware that this was a game to her. Maybe the whole Dion Wood hexing me was in fact all a game, if that was the case then the game was not as fun for me as it must have been for him. "There are no mind games, Rosie."

"Excellent!" she says, her hair flying all over the place. "It's dragged on for so long."

How can I tell her it has dragged on for so long because I needed to forget her? Or that all I think about is her and that prat she's with? Or that I wanted to carry on with my boring life but there were so many obstacles in the way? "Sorry," I say instead.

Her eyes grow larger and I can see her body releasing the tension. Maybe that would be all it takes to get Rose Granger-Weasley to stop being so uptight. If that was true, I should have said it a few years ago...

"You're sorry?" she says quietly.

Was I sorry? Sometimes I forget what I am sorry for. But I am sorry for losing one of my best friends. It was something I had been sorry for, for months.

She was dressed in her Gryffindor uniform. No jersey today, just her skirt, stockings, blouse and tie. She used to smile at me all the time. When I used to get good grades she'd always pat me on the back and tell me she always knew I would do well. She used to stand at the pitch, even if we had beaten Gryffindor and tell me I flew well. She would wait for me to get back from Christmas and give me something she had made for me as a present, always smiling.

Now she stares at me blankly. She had changed over the summer. Her face was thinner, her cheek bones were high and her hair was darker. Her body curved and her waist dipped in and her hips poked out and well... her chest had certainly grown. I had never noticed until she was standing in front of me now waiting for me to say something.

"You're not sorry," she concludes.

"I'm sorry. And I call truce."

She raises her eyebrows and looks at me. "Of course you'd be the one to call truce."

"I am," I say matter-of-factly, "because it seems I am the one losing."

She grins at me this time. "That's very noble of you."

I shrug, "You know us Malfoy's; as brave as Gryffindor's."

I was glad Al wasn't here for any of this because if he was, he'd either tell us both to shut up or he would tell me to piss off and get back to the Dungeons. I did feel a little awkward at the moment because I didn't fare well with telling people how I feel and sometimes I think that if I think too much about Rose, she will know I am thinking about her which was neither wise or good for me.

Al doesn't seem to be coming back any time soon and Rose seemed to think that maybe he had to take the kids to McGonagall's office for punishment. I wish I was a fly on the wall just to see the look on McGonagall's face.

Since the beginning of the year I had been sneaking to the Astronomy Tower in the night time for my evening smoke. Right now I could do with one and I summon the guts to ask Rose if she wants to come with me. "Wanna go with me somewhere?" I ask her.

She eyes me suspiciously. "Where?" she asks cautiously.

"To a Death Eater gathering."

Rose snorts. "Yeah, sure. You never told me you were a Death Eater these days."

"Just don't have my Dark Mark yet."

She follows me any ways and I head up towards the opposite tower. "I am starting to get rather worried. Especially since you thought it would be a good idea to turn up to Al's thirteenth birthday dressed as one..."

I push her shoulder gently and I feel like we're weird Third Years again. "Lucky you talked me out of it, what the fuck was I thinking?" I say laughing. "Rosie, I really don't want this to be our real weird year."

Rose eyes flicker to mine. "We still have enough time to fix it," she says easily. "I wouldn't worry about it too much."

"My sister keeps telling me not to worry," I tell her honestly. "But surely this year can't be as weird as our weird year."

Rose shakes her head. "Third year was not our weird year!" she says loudly. "But your sister is right... for once... You do worry too much."

Rose was like most people in the school and did not find my sister the loveliest bunch of flowers on the stand. I don't know if it is because she doesn't put up with shit from people or because my sister has a tendency to tell people the worst about themselves...

"You don't think that Third Year was weird?" I ask her.

"Not in comparison to the last three months we've had here. Trust a Weasley and a Malfoy to start the grudge war."

I laugh. "Yeah but what about our kiss?"

Shit, I shouldn't have said that.

Rose spins to look me in the eye just like she has done several other times tonight. Rose always scared me when she did this. Like she would dig through my thoughts. "Did you think it was weird?"

No, I didn't. And I will never forget it. "Yeah," I say instead. "I guess."

We get up to the Astronomy Tower and I open the door.

It was the same as it always was. Breezy, borderline freezing and the stars were out. If people didn't understand why I enjoyed it up here then I don't understand them. I loved it up here and I loved the peace.

Rose looks around and then summons an old blanket that was lying in the corner then sits down on it. "Your new room?" she asks.

I nod. "Yeah, I come up here to smoke, I've got my bed over there in the corner," I say pointing to a three-legged chair in the corner of the room.

"Of course you do..."

I grab my packet of smokes out and put one in my mouth and offer her one. "Come on Weasley, live a little."

Rose eyes me again and shakes her head. "Live a little," she says quietly. "You won't be living long smoking these things."

She does, in fact grab one and I make a shocked face. "The goody-two-shoes Rose Weasley, smoking!" I clap my hand to my mouth. "Ring the Ministry!"

She scowls at me and puts her smoke in between her lips and I sit down next to her, bending forward to light her smoke.

She inhales and exhales cautiously, then takes the smoke out from between her lips to take a look at it. She had done this before. She must be able to tell I am wondering how she knows how to smoke because she says; "Roxie smokes and she coaxed me into doing it once. Or twice. Or maybe more."

This does not surprise me in the least.

We sit here, like old times when we used to lie down by the lake. It feels easy and at the same time, this is the most relaxed I've been in ages.

"You come here often?" she asks me.

"That's the best pick-up you can come up with, Weasley?" I say with a wink. "That's terrible. I expected better from you."

She prods me with her foot. "You know what I meant!"

I nod. "Lately yeah, almost every night. No one comes around here because it smells weird and Dumbledore died up here."

Rose swallows loudly. "You've always been terrible. Uggh, why did you say that?"

"I always lie, but not to you."

She sighs. "So you think I should be gentler on you because you're honest?"

"It always has been one of my greater attributes."

Rose smiles to herself. "I guess it has been."

I blow a cloud up into the air, watching it swirl and disappear. Most nights I could stay out here until after midnight, sometimes I would see Zoe first and then head off after that. I never knew how much I missed the company when I came out here, but I didn't want to tell Zoe in case one day she started following me all the time.

The stuff with my parents meant that I enjoyed a bit of alone time. Without my sister backing up my dad and without Al and all his bouncing positivity. Sometimes I just wanted to be a dick-head-lonely-arsed-Malfoy.

With Rose though, it was different. Her new found silence was fitting up here in the Astronomy Tower.

I laid down on the concrete and sighed, it was so nice being up here and actually having company. She eyes me suspiciously though. "Looks so comfy down there," she says sarcastically.

I pat the floor next to me. "Plenty of room for you to fit in."

She smiles at me and sits down next to me anyway, crossing her legs. She plays with a strand of her hair. "I thought a lot more would happen this year, but it feels nothing has happened at all – apart from you losing your voice and capability to write," she says with a shrug.

She keeps mentioning the fact that she thinks I couldn't talk. "You're so weird," I say. "It's like you have convinced yourself that there was something really wrong with me."

I always tried to hold back laughter when she turned red and I was struggling with it right now. "I did not!"

"I think you did," I say pointing at her ears. "Your ears are telling me!"

"Thanks for not thinking I'm a bitch, Malfoy," she says turning even redder. "You make me feel like shit for holding a grudge but you're not holding it against me, that's really nice."

"Like I've said, Malfoys are as nice as Hufflepuffs!"

"You probably would have been more suited to Gryffindor," she says cheerily. "Imagine that, us in the same house! We would never sleep!"

I choke on my smoke and my eyes widen, "What do you mean?"

Her eyes grew wide too. "Shit, I meant like we would be up chatting all bloody night, what did you mean?"

"Sure you did," I say with a wink. I was looking up at her, her blue eyes and her wide grin, her long hair framing her face. No longer two First Years trying to keep each other from getting homesick.

"Malfoy," she says. "Let's just forget about the whole Dion thing, ok?"

Thank Merlin, her head is still screwed on! "Sure," I say coolly.

She seems relieved by this. "Thanks," she says. "For coming back."

I didn't know what she meant by this. "Huh?"

She tilts her head. "You know," she looks a little embarrassed. "To me."

"I never left you, Granger-Weasley."

"Hah, you said my name."

I had never left her, but fuck, I wish she would leave my head. My dreams are going to be messed up and I pray Zoe can't see them in my eyes tomorrow morning.


Author's Note: Hey guys! I am not getting so much interest in this so I may move onto something else... Not sure yet. I will see. I should really just finish this one until the end before moving on as I am notorious for half finishing things! Please review, I appreciate all reviews! Shout out to my friend Bekah or StupendousMysticWerewolf, go and read her fics too.

Preview:

He looks down at his feet. "Because I had a major crush on my best mate."

What was he saying? Did he mean me? Surely not. Well, maybe. Possibly. It was me? "And how did Al feel about that?" I say trying to play it cool.

"I'm not sure what he would have thought; I didn't tell him I had a crush on his cousin."