Chapter Six
It was one of those nights where Scorpius wondered whether it was nice in Hell, since that was quite obviously where he was headed when he died. Perhaps he was there now. That could be the only explanation for why he couldn't get Rose fucking Weasley out of his head.
They hadn't had a chance to talk for an entire week. They ended up not going on a second stakeout due to homework complications, and hadn't had a chance to do more than nod at each other in the halls since then. Scorpius had asked around, found out a few pieces of interesting information, but he had no clue what to do with it and was it really so bad that perhaps he actually liked seeing his best friend's cousin, sometimes?
Yes. Yes, because his father could put up with his going to the Potters' place over the summer and for a few intermittent Christmases, but he wasn't going to put up with his son being in love with a Weasley.
…In love?
"Shit." He uttered aloud. This wasn't even possible in the first place. How could he possibly be—feeling this way, he wasn't in love, he couldn't be, that was ridiculous, he didn't even believe in love—anyway, having these emotions about someone he'd previously only taken joy in ridiculing?
Was that true? Had he really just enjoyed teasing her? To be sure, pissing her off was absolutely among his favorite pastimes. Well… he'd always admired her intelligence. Despite the fact that he rarely dated any girls who possessed it, he liked intelligence in a woman. Sometimes.
…he liked it in Rose Weasley. He liked that, and her temper, and her bloody-mindedness, and the way her brow furrowed when she was thinking about something really hard…
Shut up, brain, he told himself. He raked an anxious hand through his hair. "You're not serious," he said aloud, to God or Merlin or the cosmos or life in general, he didn't know. "You can't fucking be serious."
Even a tiny crush on Rose Weasley wasn't permissible. For one thing, it was just bloody ridiculous in general, even if in some very private, very secluded, very ignored and repressed part of his mind he thought it might not be, might not be. For another, his father would have kittens. And calves. And several other baby animals. For a third thing, she would never return his—fancy. There we go. That's a good word, fancy, thought Scorpius. It sounded flighty and impermanent. Like this would all go away in a week's time.
But… but there was the issue of the Ravenclaw, Eva Laurence. She'd let him get away with rather a lot in that broom closet. He hadn't had sex with her, but he'd come pretty cl—for discretion purposes, he'd say he had thoroughly debauched the girl. He snorted. Prude, my arse. In any case, even that had failed to get rid of thoughts of crazy Gryffindors of little faith.
Oh, and another thing: Rose was Albus's cousin. He would feel trapped if he got together with her (the likelihood was about the same as Rose not studying for a test or not turning in a piece of homework, but even so) and became disenchanted. He wouldn't want to hurt Albus.
He could go on and on about their different values and life philosophies, all those nutty things that girls' magazines (that Rose didn't read, a trait he admired in a woman—god damn it) went on and on about and what it really meant was "if you have vastly differing views, you're setting yourself up for misery if you date/get married/become romantically involved in any way." Rose had morals; Scorpius… did, in theory, but at least half the time not in practice. At least he knew what his morals probably ought to be. Rose studied and cared about school; Scorpius cared about the subjects he liked, and knew he could do better in those he didn't, but wouldn't bother. Rose liked to read. Scorpius pretended he didn't. Rose—was not as innocent as she seemed, he noticed. There was something fishy about this whole Demetri business. For one thing, she had seemed to care not a whit about his feelings. He had seemed angry, and Scorpius knew that in this instance, angry meant hurt. So wouldn't Rose have seen that? Tried to let him down gently a bit? Maybe he had just tried her patience too often. But even so, something felt off. Scorpius suspected that she hadn't cared for Demetri at all, and was dating him for… some other reason to be determined at a later date.
But anyway. Rose's innocence or lack thereof had nothing to do with the matter. The point was that they were utterly incompatible, and there were various other reasons regarding their parents and Albus that Scorpius should ignore these feelings with all his mulish might and know that they would go away, because hoping or praying implied a lack of confidence. No, Scorpius knew these feelings weren't real, that they must be transitory. It was just the way it was. It had to be, or Armageddon had to be just around the corner.
So she was officially off-limits, and there was really no reason his heart should sink into his stomach at that thought.
He rubbed his temples. What am I going to do with my miserable, pathetic, playboy self?
He looked out the window. It was obscenely sunny, and the sky was a deep, flawless blue. He figured he'd go flying. That always helped him work out his thoughts.
He sighed and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He got dressed and strolled out of his dorm. The bright morning breathed cool, crisp fall air into the halls and he took it in, filling his lungs and then reluctantly relinquishing the fresh oxygen. He started to walk a little faster, excited. He'd had a few Quidditch practices, but it had been a while since he'd just flown because he wanted to.
The hall wasn't busy. Scorpius liked it that way. It made him forget that he was a Slytherin in a Gryffindor world, and that his father was Draco Malfoy, one of the most hated wizards currently living, and that he might be developing untoward sentiments regarding Rose Weasley. There was just the quiet, and the sun shining, and the dust motes spinning in the light, and—
And running footsteps. Scorpius looked up and Rose Weasley nearly crashed into him, his arms around her thinner ones the only thing keeping them both from being catapulted onto the stone floor.
Rose's head jerked up and she broke into a grin. "Ah, Malfoy. Just the prat I wanted to see. I swear, I've been trying to talk to you all week! Where the hell have you been?"
The gears of Scorpius's brain were working overtime in order to keep up with Rose. "Er, school? You have news on the Ella thing? I do too." He paused briefly. "What are you doing down here? This is the Dungeons."
Rose rolled her eyes. "What else is new? And don't call it the Ella thing, it sounds—lacking in respect. And if you were at school you were in the deepest, darkest corners. I looked for you everywhere at the end of each day. Just now I was looking for Albus, actually. Is he in your dorm?"
"No, he's a bloody early riser, the git. It's elevenish, so he hasn't been in the dorm since a good four hours ago at the latest."
"I know he's an early riser. I thought he might've come back—anyway. It's not as important as this. Room of Requirement or the library?"
"Library. It's closer."
"Right. Come on then, you slowpoke." A lightning flash of a grin, and then she was ten feet away, Scorpius trying to keep up with the delicate girl torpedoing down the hall at an inordinate speed.
"Goddammit, Rose, you're not tall enough to be so fast!" he huffed.
She laughed, throwing back her head. Scorpius remembered to breathe. "What happened to the Quidditch star?"
"Quidditch doesn't require a lot of running around after fire-haired crazies."
She turned to raise an eyebrow at him. "Fire-haired?"
"Shut up. I'm a Malfoy. Comes with the fucking name, okay?"
Rose's eyes were towards the floor. She seemed pensive. "Seems a lot of things do." Then she turned and continued barreling down the hall, jerking sharply left. Scorpius sighed and followed her.
"Why are you in such a hurry?"
"I've got the energy. And the sooner we discuss this, the better."
Scorpius shook his head. "Insane." He let a bit of the fond slant to the word slip through—as much as he dared.
Finally they reached the double-doors made of dark wood that lead into the grand library of Hogwarts. Madam Pince raised her eyebrows at the odd couple, which Scorpius dutifully ignored. Rose actually waved at the woman.
"Are you fucking—no, I won't even ask," said Scorpius when they were out of earshot.
"What did I do?" Rose asked confusedly.
"You waved to Madam Pince!"
Rose shrugged. "She's a nice lady. I'm here a lot."
"Of course you're here a lot. You're Rose Weasley. But waving to Madam Pince—" he shuddered. "That's not natural."
Rose shifted uneasily. "She—doesn't—that is, she might not like you because—" she bit the inside of her cheek.
Scorpius took a deep breath. "You can say it, Rose. Slytherin. Sly. Ther. In. It's not so hard." He paused. "A lot of people don't like me because I'm Slytherin. And a Malfoy, to boot. But they're the same no-good thing anyway." His eyes wouldn't move from the carpeted floor. There was a bit of a silence before Rose blurted out—
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—"
"Don't apologize. It's a fact of life. I wasn't mad at you."
"For once." But it was light, and she chuckled, and he chuckled, and the quiet became more companionable. They reached a table towards the back and sat, she resting her face on her folded hands agitatedly, he leaning back in his chair with his feet on the table. She pulled a face and shoved his feet away, but he just smiled and moved them so they weren't in her face. "So, who goes first?"
He shrugged. "I've not got much. Just a few interesting tidbits. You?"
"The same." She sighed. "Plus a few ideas of who we should talk to that I had forgotten."
"I'll start." Scorpius took a breath. "So the first bit I've got is that somebody found a quill dipped in green ink near where Ella was. I convinced them to give it over, so if we can just make sure no one relates it to the case—oh god, I sound like you now—we've got a lead."
Rose frowned. "Someone could have stolen it."
"So then we know when it was taken, possibly, and who could have done it."
Rose made a "point conceded" gesture.
"Anyway, that. The other thing I learned was that your boyfriend—"
"I don't have one."
Don't tell me that, don't tell me that, I don't care, don't tell me that… "Right. Your ex. Anyway, some Ravenclaws—" Rose raised an eyebrow—"Okay, fine. Eva told me that Ivers was only there for part of the Ravenclaw planning session."
Rose frowned, thinking. Then she relaxed and sighed. "No, he wasn't. He was there the whole time."
Scorpius frowned too. "Was he? How do you know?"
Rose was shaking her head. "I don't know. But I'm going to ignore it completely."
Scorpius was incredulous. "Why? What if he is involved?"
"It would be too fucking easy to blame him, damn it!" She hit the table hard with the flat of her hand. "Oh, I know I—I didn't treat him as well as I could have, but that's not the issue. But anyway, he was an ass too, and it would be so, so easy to point at him and say, 'He did it! He's my ex! I know he's evil!' But I'm not going to do that. I'm solving this by blood, sweat and tears and that's final." Her eyes burned holes in the table.
"You're being irrational," he said quietly, gently, "We should take all the leads we can get." He frowned. "Are you still carrying a torch for him or something?" Did I misread you entirely?
She snarled. "Did it look like I was still carrying a torch for him back in the hall? Of course not. He's an asshole."
Scorpius put up his hands in a placating gesture, trying to comprehend. "I'm sorry, I just don't get what the big deal is. The fact that you dated him doesn't mean he couldn't have done this!"
"That's as it should be," she snapped. "And I don't want to investigate him further until we have more proof, all right?"
Scorpius rolled his eyes, exasperated. Good, good. This is why you ha—dislike Rose Weasley. "How are we going to get more proof if we don't dig deeper? I intend on investigating everyone who might have been involved in this! I thought that's what you intended too—"
"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, if you continue speaking, you won't live to see tomorrow." She sighed. "I—please. I'm not putting this well. What I mean is that it would be too easy to blame him because we both dislike him, and I feel like we would work more effectively if we did everyone else first." She looked down. "I also want to be in as little contact with the prat as possible."
Scorpius nodded, sighing. "Why didn't you just say that at first?"
Rose shook her head. "I'm a bit—disoriented. Anyway, is that all you've got for me?"
"Yeah." Scorpius ran a hand through his hair, thinking. "I'm sorry," he said uncertainly, "I don't want to pry, but—what the fuck is up with you and Yellow Boy?"
"Yellow Boy?"
Scorpius grinned. "That's Albus's and my nickname for Ivers."
She laughed, but the merriment soon faded from her face, replaced by clear discomfiture. "Can—can we not talk about this now? I'd just rather get on with my news. My feelings about Demetri are—conflicted, in some ways, and rather straightforward in others, and altogether too difficult to explain in brief."
Scorpius nodded slowly. "Okay. What did you find out?"
Rose's findings were in greater detail and number than his. Number one, she had mentioned the Ella Rhees thing ("We need a better name for it, but privately, and until further notice," had been her response to Scorpius's smug grin) to Demetri before they had fought and Scorpius had intervened, and his reaction had been a bit strange—he'd been scared and then had seemed almost offended, then said it was obviously the Slytherins who had done it. Scorpius thought about commenting on this, and about how he'd been right, but took one look at her face and thought better of it.
Next she had gone and gossiped extensively with Lily Luna, which failed to yield just about anything that didn't involve Scorpius (who snickered until he received a swift kick under the table that shut him up for the time being). Rose was not spared by the rumor mill either. She spent about ten minutes convincing a highly amused Scorpius that no, they should not tell people they were having regular threesomes with Eva Laurence, nor that the case was all a cover-up for these threesomes.
"But think what it would do for my rep!"
"Shut your pointy face and let me finish." She paused. "And forget about the threesomes, even in the realm of the imagination."
"Dammit! But it would have been such a brilliant wank fantasy!"
She shoved him. "Sod off!"
Finally three days ago (Thursday) she had collapsed on her bed in exhaustion and happened to glance over at her bedside, where she found a list of people to interview for the case that she'd made during the first three or four days they had been working on it.
"Who's on it?" Scorpius asked curiously, leaning across the table and tilting his body slightly to get a better look at the crumpled paper now resting between them.
"Ella, Evan, Zabini," Rose rattled off in a clinical tone.
"So are we actually going to talk to them?"
Rose frowned. "Of course. They're the best lead we've got, pretty much."
Scorpius leaned back, rubbing his temples. He really, really didn't want to talk to Bella Zabini. He'd been actively avoiding her for the past few weeks, since—well, since the Ella thing. Quite frankly he'd gotten sick of her ineffectual flirts and her flattery. Why couldn't she accept that she was different, that she meant enough to Scorpius that he didn't want to sleep with her, like he would with any other empty tramp? Although she wasn't really a tramp, she could sometimes act well below her age and station. Not that he much cared for station.
And it wasn't like she was going to tell them anything useful. Had she seen anything, she probably would have said something to someone, unless she was involved, which was highly unlikely. And if she hadn't, she'd just throw herself at Scorpius.
Finnigan—well, whatever. He was obviously a useless puppet.
Rose's voice interrupted his train of thought. "Scorpius? Opinions?"
"I don't want to talk to Bella."
Rose shrugged. "Fine. I'll do it."
Scorpius looked at her with patent disbelief. "You really think you're going to get anything worthwhile out of her? She won't even give you the time of day. In any case, she won't have anything to say. If she'd seen something, she would've said something, and the news would have reached me by now."
Rose pulled a face. "Maybe. But we should check anyway. What's the harm?"
"The harm is that she's going to spend the entire time trying and failing to seduce me."
It was Rose's turn to give him a skeptical look. "You keep yammering on and on about how she's trying to sleep with you and you hate it, but I've seen no evidence of this. You're also being rather unsympathetic, though I can see where you're coming from on your side of the story. If you really hate it so much, tell her to stop."
"I have," he bit out, getting annoyed, "and you don't know what it's like. I mean, every single fucking day she makes up some excuse to 'escort me to my next class' or go to Hogsmeade together or something. She's a nice girl, but she's so clingy!"
"And she likes you." Rose flipped her hair out of her eyes, which were currently on low heat, but which could easily smolder their way to volcanic if properly provoked.
"She thinks she likes me. I've told her time and again to forget about me, but she won't even try."
Rose shrugged. "She likes you a lot, and she's beautiful. Do you know how many guys must envy you? Just because she likes you?"
Scorpius gritted his teeth, reading between the lines. "What exactly are you implying? That I give her a try and break her heart?"
Rose shook her head, playing with one of her auburn curls. "I just don't see how you're so sure you'll grow tired of her so easily."
"Look, you hate her too!"
Rose shrugged. "I'm just saying. I feel kind of bad for her."
"Don't." He said it sharply, too sharply, going from Rose's face, which looked shocked and not a little—disgusted? Horrified? Something like that. Scorpius ignored it. She can't know, she's prying into what's not her business…
There was silence. Finally Rose said, "You really hate her, don't you?"
"I don't hate her."
"Look, I'm sorry. That was an invasion of your privacy, and I guess I can't really know, but—"
"Just drop it before you negate your apology, Weasley." He wouldn't look at her, couldn't. Bella… that was just a line most people never bothered to try and cross with him, not even some of his closest friends. Only Albus really knew the long and short of it. He was not planning on letting his cousin in on it as well, though.
She cleared her throat. "But… I think talking to her and to Finnigan could be really helpful. Even if they didn't see the culprits, maybe they noticed someone walking down the halls—"
"While snogging in a closet?"
But Rose bravely forged on, "Saw someone walking down the halls, or maybe heard some shuffling. I don't know. It's a wisp of a chance, but you said we could get by on barely-mores. We won't even have those if we don't make use of everything we've got."
He stared at her face for a while, the eyes now on full passionate volcanic heat, her freckles like rock expelled from the summit, her hair like lava running down the mountain's sides.
And then she softened, her eyes melting into—well, the obvious comparison would be warm chocolate, her milky skin an admirable complement. The red hair became more honey than lava, and her facial features spoke of sad passivity and helplessness that he knew she didn't actually possess. "For Ella," she murmured.
Scorpius banged his fist against the table, much like she had done when they had discussed Demetri. "Fuck! Fine! We'll talk to Bella. I'll even come with you, damn it." He sighed shakily. "I don't know. It'll probably be fine."
Rose smiled glowingly. "Thank you, Scorpius. Who knows? Maybe we'll learn something really important." She reached across the table, putting her hand over his. He let her, even though he was still royally pissed, because he was a Slytherin, and Slytherins are nothing if not opportunists.
#
There was some back and forth about when and how, but it was solved much quicker than Scorpius might've hoped. At half past seven, they stood in front of Bella's dorm, Scorpius agitated and still angry that he'd been duped into this by a Gryffindor, Rose excited and chattering at him about the questions she'd formulated.
"Okay, okay, that's great—but can I please do the talking?" Scorpius said distractedly. "Like I said, she won't respond well to your asking her."
Rose shrugged. "Sure. Take the sheet as your guide." She handed him the parchment she'd written the questions on. There were only three.
Scorpius raised an eyebrow. "Are you going steady with Evan Finnigan?"
She shrugged again. "Well, it's a valid question. And I haven't told him to break up with her, by the way. She might mean well by him."
Scorpius snorted. "And the moon might be made of cheese," he murmured as the door opened. Rose pulled a face at him.
Inwardly, Scorpius groaned. Bella was wearing a blindingly shiny lip-gloss and green eyeshadow that highlighted her eyes. She had changed out of her uniform and into a flattering green sleeveless dress with a sparkly butterfly on her left breast and smaller ones along the hem, which was very short. Her smile was seductive and she was completely ignoring Rose, boring holes into Scorpius. He cleared his throat. "So. Miss Weasley and I wanted to ask you a few questions."
"Of course. Come in." She stepped aside, and Scorpius saw that the dress had no back. He refrained from rolling his eyes and did, practically shoving Rose inside before him. Shit. This was a terrible idea. Why the fuck does she always have to throw herself at me?
"Sit down," said Bella, indicating her bed. She still wasn't looking at Rose.
"Uh, Bella, this isn't exactly a social occasion. We need to ask our questions and be done with it," said Scorpius, taking as much of the edge off of his voice as he could.
Bella giggled. "Of course, Scorpius. Prefect business, I understand. I always liked a man in uniform."
Oh shit. Shut up, you stupid bint. I'm not in any uniform but the school one. Stop making an ass of yourself. He stole a glance at Rose, who was shaking with pent-up laughter. "Er, why don't you start with the questions, Scorpius?" she forced out, eyes alight with merriment.
He glared at her, annoyed that she was taking pleasure in his pain, but said, "Bella, did you notice anything strange last night? Hear anything, see anything?"
"Well, I'm not too observant when I've got someone's tongue down my throat," she said in a boastful tone, grinning salaciously.
Scorpius gritted his teeth, not looking at her. Damn it, just let this be done with. "Please just answer the question."
"Let me think." She bit her lip in a way she obviously thought was attractive. Scorpius ignored her, and grew a bit more irritated. "Well, I know I saw Annabeth Winston when I was taking a walk with Evan. We were by the Ravenclaw dorms."
He and Rose shared a look. They had found Ella by the Ravenclaw dorms and Scorpius had heard Annabeth around there as well. It was just too coincidental. Finally Rose said faintly, "That can't be right."
Bella raised an eyebrow. "It is. We talked to her a bit."
Rose and Scorpius spoke at the same time:
"What did she say?"
"What time was it?"
"It was around nine, just before curfew. Evan waved and introduced us. We exchanged pleasantries and moved on."
"Which way did she go?"
"Towards the Ravenclaw dorm. Isn't she a Ravenclaw?"
"Hufflepuff," Rose corrected absently. Scorpius frowned and asked, "And when you were going back to your dorm? Did you see anything then?"
Bella shook her head.
There was quiet for a moment while both prefects thought. Then Rose asked, "Was Evan friendly with her, do you know? Were they close at all?"
Bella shrugged, resting her attention on Rose for as long as it took for the girl to ask her question before returning it to Scorpius and replying, "They seemed friendly enough. They were close enough for him to introduce me to her."
Scorpius privately thought that Finnigan might just be showing off, but refrained from saying so. "Did she seem to be acting strange to you in any way?"
Bella shook her head, frowning slightly. "Is she a suspect? She seemed perfectly docile. And Hufflepuffs don't do things like what happened to Miss Rhees."
"They don't go to another dorm right before curfew either." Scorpius said flatly. "And are you sure you heard nothing out of the ordinary while you were—with Mr. Finnigan?"
"I didn't hear much at all except his fevered whispers."
Rose let out a giggle loosely concealed by a cough. Scorpius said stiffly, "That's a bit more than we needed to know, Bella."
"Sorry. It's just that we're so much in love—"
"Thank you for your time," he cut her off and grabbed Rose's wrist. "Before we go, is there anything related to the incident that you'd like us to know?"
Bella frowned. "I also saw Dana Carrow sneaking around on my way back."
"Thank you," said Scorpius again, "Your information has helped us greatly." He practically dragged Rose out the door after him and speeded down the hall until they turned a corner. He sighed, letting go of her wrist, and leaned against the wall.
"Scorpius, I know you think she's—"
"Please don't. I'm tired, and we've both got a lot to process." He paused. "Can we meet at the library tomorrow to discuss this? I want to sleep on it and mull it over a bit, see what I come up with on my own."
Rose raised her eyebrows a bit. "Fine. Are you sure you're feeling all right?"
"I'm fine. Spending time with Bella is… draining."
She sighed. "Whatever you say. Good night, and see you tomorrow."
"Good night." He watched her walk away, irritation slowly dissipating. He stared after her for a bit, then shook himself and lurched off to his own dorm.
