The next morning when Scorpius woke up, he had an awful taste in his mouth and a sick feeling in his stomach. For a moment he couldn't place what was wrong, but then he remembered: Rose and Celestia were gone. By the time he got to work, they would be getting on the train home.
Work, Scorpius repeated to himself. At least he was going back today. It felt as if he hadn't been in weeks. With the promise of paperwork to file and emails to respond to, Scorpius threw back his sheets and climbed out of bed and presumed his usual morning routine. Shower, get dressed, have breakfast and be on the road by seven-thirty.
The commute to work was long. Scorpius' car crept slowly along the asphalt as tufts of white crawled across the sky above him. The traffic was no worse than usual, but Scorpius felt as if the drive dragged on for hours. Finally, he reached the firm—three minutes early instead of his usual ten—and headed towards the doors. He stopped to take a deep breath before pulling open the glass door and stepping inside.
Christina, the receptionist, looked up with a smile as he entered. 'Good morning, Mr Malfoy,' she said.
'Morning,' he smiled back and made his way through to his office.
'Malfoy!' called Bannerman as he strode past her office, and he held up a hand in acknowledgement as he continued. Sharpe and Alcorn did not appear to have arrived yet.
Scorpius opened his office door and stepped inside. It was exactly as he had left it the previous Friday afternoon, except for a yellow sticky note in the top left corner of his computer screen. He plucked it from the screen as he sat down.
It read:
Welcome back—hoping you are well-rested.
—J
Succinct, but sweet. Scorpius wondered if his secretary had left that for him this morning, but looking around, Julia did not seem to have arrived yet. That was peculiar, he thought—she was usually at least ten minutes early.
Oh well, there was no time to muse, for there was work to be done. Scorpius straightened his desk while he waited for his email inbox to load. A few moments later, he was sorting through a fresh batch of messages.
Before Scorpius knew it, it was almost noon and Alcorn was knocking on his office door.
'Alcorn,' Scorpius said by way of greeting, and his colleague stepped into the room.
'How're you feeling, mate? You must've caught quite the ailment, huh?'
'Oh yes,' Scorpius lied. 'I couldn't talk, could barely get out of bed.'
'That sucks. We missed you at Morrison's party. And here, actually. Everyone's been saying how unusual it is not to have you around for so long.'
'I heard. Julia emailed me while I was gone and left me this note.' He handed the square piece of paper to his colleague.
'What a flirt. Hey, speaking of, did you get to meet up with your hot friend?' Alcorn teased.
Scorpius smirked in response, causing Alcorn to laugh.
'No wonder you took so much time off work,' he joked.
Knowing it was better to go along with the office banter, Scorpius laughed. Alcorn didn't need to know that the real reason Scorpius had been off work for three days was because he was meeting his daughter.
'I'll let you get back to it,' Alcorn said, moving back towards the door. 'You must have a mountain of work to get through.'
'There's a fair bit,' Scorpius admitted. It was more tedious today, as he hadn't had his second fix of caffeine—wait. 'Say, do you know why Julia's late?'
'My bet is that she's not coming in today, mate. She wasn't here yesterday.'
'Why didn't she tell me?'
'You weren't here, and I suppose she didn't know when you'd be back, so she went straight to Mr Wright.'
'I wonder why?'
'If I didn't know any better, I'd say you got her sick,' Alcorn jested with a wink.
Scorpius chuckled, dismissing his colleague, and got up to make himself a cup of coffee. Should he try to contact Julia? He didn't want to come on too strong. Perhaps he could ask Mr Wright about her absence later.
As the day dragged on, Scorpius found himself thinking more and more about Rose and Celestia. At around half-past one, he found himself wondering if they had arrived back home yet. What would they be doing? Was Rose thinking about him too?
Another knock on the office door made Scorpius start. Another visitor so quickly? Didn't everyone else have their own work to do? He glanced down at the clock and saw that almost half an hour had passed since Alcorn came in to chat with him.
'Scorpius?'
He looked up at the figure in the doorway. 'Mr Wright. Come in, sir.'
'Are you alright?'
'Yes, fine. I must have zoned out for a moment,' Scorpius said. 'Do you need something?'
'No, nothing like that,' Mr Wright said, 'I just thought I'd come and check on you. Say welcome back.'
'Thank you, sir.'
The salt-and-pepper-haired lawyer gave a brief smile. 'I'll let you get back to it, then. We've fallen a bit behind with you out of the office, I must say.'
Scorpius returned his brief smile. As Mr Wright turned to walk out, Scorpius called after him, remembering his secretary. 'Mr Wright, sorry, do you know why Julia's out today?'
Mr Wright turned back to face Scorpius, although did not re-enter his office. 'I believe she said she had been having some family issues, or something of the sort. She didn't go into detail. Sounded very upset on the phone, though.'
Family issues? What could that have been? Perhaps Scorpius would try to contact her, just to ask after her. He thanked his boss, who then left, and finished his day's work.
X
The traffic on the way home was only a little bit lighter than it had been on the way to work earlier in the day. Scorpius arrived home earlier than usual. He entered the house, kicked his shoes off and poured himself a drink before dropping down on the couch and pulling out his phone.
First, not particularly feeling like cooking dinner that night, Scorpius ordered himself some Indian takeaway. Then he dialled Julia's mobile number, which immediately went to voicemail. He hung up before leaving a message and called her home phone number. It rang six times before anyone answered.
'Hello?' came a deep voice—a male, sounding quite frustrated.
'Hello. I was wondering if Julia was there.'
'Who's calling?' growled the person on the other end.
'Uh, Sc—I mean, Mr Malfoy. Her boss.'
There was a brief pause. Then, 'She's not here right now.' And the line went dead.
Scorpius stared at his phone. That was odd. He guessed that the man on the receiver was her fiancé, but this was a work matter; there was no reason for him to respond so gruffly. If he had only asked… Oh well, no use dwelling. Scorpius would simply ask Julia when she returned to work. She couldn't be gone too long, right?
X
Indeed, she wasn't gone too long, returning to work the following Monday. Scorpius arrived at the firm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and set down to begin work, having fallen back into the swing of things. Julia arrived at the firm on time, but she looked tired. Beneath her eyes were dark rings, and her hair and makeup looked rushed.
'Morning,' Scorpius said as she entered the office. He expected silence in response, or perhaps for her to start crying, but she gave a sweet smile instead.
'Good morning, Mr Malfoy. Would you like a cup of tea?'
'Thank you,' came his response.
'I'm just going to freshen up in the bathroom first, if that's alright.'
'Of course.'
With his permission, Julia slinked away to the ladies room while Scorpius started up his computer. When she returned, her hair was neat and her makeup had been noticeably touched up. Her eyes were now shadowed and lined, and her previously bare lips were now a stunning bright red. The rings beneath her eyes were still there, but they were far less obvious. She set down his cup of tea and folded her hands.
'Will there be anything else, sir?'
'Thank you, Julia, that will be all,' Scorpius replied. Julia did not move.
'Are you sure, sir?'
Scorpius stopped tapping away at his keyboard and looked up. 'Is something wrong?'
'We've both had some time off lately,' Julia observed. 'I thought perhaps you might have fallen a bit behind in your work. Is there nothing you need me to do?'
Scorpius eyed the secretary. 'I've managed to catch up. Really, there's nothing out of the ordinary for you to do at the moment. I'll call you in if something comes up.' The blonde turned back to his work. Julia lingered for a moment, as if willing him to change his mind, and then turned to leave.
She did not return until midday, giving a tentative knock on the office door. Scorpius called her in.
'It's almost lunch time, sir,' she said. 'Would you like me to get you something?'
'Actually,' Scorpius said, stretching his arms out in front of him, 'I thought I'd go to the café down the street and buy something myself today.'
Julia looked almost disappointed. 'It's no trouble. I'm sure you're busy.'
Scorpius shook his head. 'It might do me some good to go for a walk. This chair seems less comfortable than before I had time off.' He shifted in his seat, before turning his attention to Julia. 'What's wrong today?'
Julia did not respond. Scorpius invited her to sit and she obeyed, though not without some reluctance.
'Tell me,' Scorpius said gently. 'You can tell me.'
A glossy lock of hair fell from behind Julia's ear as she took in a big breath. 'Nathaniel and I broke up,' she confessed. Her voice sounded strained, as though she had to force the words out. Scorpius waited silently for her to elaborate. 'Our relationship started going downhill months ago, and lately our arguments have been much more frequent. I swear, for the past two weeks we've done nothing but fight.'
Scorpius thought back to three years ago, when he and Rose broke up. Although the end of their relationship had come far more abruptly, in the days leading up to it they didn't speak, except to argue.
'On Monday night he told me that it was over for good, and he moved out.' Julia bit down on her bottom lip to stop it from quivering.
'I'm sorry, Julia,' Scorpius said.
'Thank you,' she replied. 'It hasn't been easy.'
'Hold on, did he tell you that I called?'
'No,' Julia said, looking surprised. 'When did you call? Oh no, what did he say?'
'Thursday evening. Mr Wright told me that you had taken time off because of "family issues", so I called to check if you were alright. He told me you weren't home.'
'Oh, for heaven's sake,' Julia huffed. 'I'm so sorry. I was home. We had probably just had an argument. But that's so sweet of you to have called. Thank you.'
'You'd have done the same for me,' Scorpius smiled.
Julia returned the smile. Then, in a swift motion, she rose from her chair and moved around to the other side of the desk, dropping to her knees in front of Scorpius. He shifted hurriedly in his chair as her hands reached for his zipper.
'What are you doing?' he asked, trying to move away from her reach.
'Returning the favour,' the girl responded.
'What favour?' Scorpius asked, glancing at the office door.
'You called to make sure I was okay, and you asked me what was wrong. You listened to me. It's okay now that Nathaniel and I aren't together anymore.'
'Julia, I—there's no—that's just what decent people do,' Scorpius stammered.
Julia retreated, looking offended. 'Are you saying you don't want me to—?'
'I—no. No.'
Slowly, Julia stood up and smoothed out her skirt. 'My apologies,' she said shortly, before walking out of the office.
X
The end of the workday was drawing near. Scorpius had almost forgotten about the incident from earlier on by letting his mind wander to thoughts of Rose. He missed her so much already that he felt it in his stomach, like a great knot. And Merlin help him, he even missed the little girl. He remembered how cute she looked asleep on his couch only a few nights ago. He remembered the way she giggled when he told her she looked like a princess in her dress.
As he reminisced, the ache in his gut grew. How was it possible to miss someone so intensely, so soon, and under such strange circumstances? It was peculiar, and yet he couldn't stop thinking about the way the light hit Rose's face before he leaned in to kiss her. The way her eyes sparkled when she laughed. In that moment, he felt an unshakeable urge to go see them; to plan a trip, to book the train today, to leave as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he had just taken three days off work. There was no way he would be allowed more time off, and he couldn't call in fake sick again.
But, as "luck" would have it, he didn't need to call in fake sick. Julia knocked on his door only a few minutes after and, without waiting for him to respond, she told him that Mr Wright would like to see Scorpius. Right now.
Odd. Scorpius rose from his desk almost immediately and made his way to Mr Wright's office. He rapped his knuckles against the already open door and waited to be invited in.
'Mr Malfoy, do you know why you've been called in here?' Mr Wright asked, stone-faced.
Scorpius' mind raced. 'No, sir,' he said.
Mr Wright gave a miniscule nod and rose from his seat, folding his hands behind his back. 'Julia came to me just a short while ago with a rather unsettling story.'
'Oh?' Scorpius' body tensed, and he tried to look calm.
'Indeed. She told me that for some time now, you have been… making advances. What she described to me, Scorpius, quite frankly sounded like sexual harassment. She said that today, you tried to take advantage of her. Is this true?'
'Of course not!' Scorpius said, feeling his face grow hot.
Mr Wright shook his head. 'I've seen evidence, Mr Malfoy. Photographic evidence.'
How was that possible? Nothing had happened today. There was nothing for Julia to take pictures of. And even if there was, how would she have done so without Scorpius noticing? Then he remembered—she had taken her phone out once, many months ago, perhaps even last year, before she had put an end to their sessions. Scorpius wondered if that evidence was the reason Julia's fiancé broke up with her.
'I'm sorry, Scorpius, but this type of behaviour will not be tolerated here. Frankly, it's despicable,' Mr Wright said. 'You will clean out your office this afternoon, and you shall not be returning to the firm tomorrow morning.'
