Hi everyone! Here's the next chapter, as promised. Thanks so much for reading and I would really appreciate a review. Enjoy! -Kelly

CHAPTER 10

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

"You're taking the Columbus trains?" Mrs. Graves asked when they stood up to leave about half an hour later. Rose was trying to not think too much about whatever threat the Graveses had gotten.

"Yes, Mom," Alex said, sighing. "We'll only be on with Muggles for a little while."

"Well, still, be careful," she said. "Have fun," she called after them, as they left down the staircase and exited the castle once again through the back. Alex led them through the park to the nearest subway station on 81st street, where they got on and travelled to a complex called Columbus Circle.

"Come on, through here," he said, motioning them to a barred-off passage.

"That looks closed," Rose said apprehensively.

"Well, yeah, it's supposed to," he said, and suddenly ran directly at the chain-link fence and disappeared.

"Like 9 and 3/4?" Rose asked nervously. Lucy nodded.

"I guess. Come on," she said, and Rose and Scorpius followed her directly into the fence. Sure enough, seconds later they emerged on a completely new platform, now full of completely different signs showing directions to various sites: MACUSA LEFT TRAIN IN 10 MINUTES, ILVERMORNY LINE DOWNSTAIRS, SALEM INSTITUTE LINE DOWNSTAIRS, BRKLYN ARMY TERMINAL RIGHT IN THREE MINUTES…

"That's the one we want, the Terminal," Leah said, and Alex nodded. Rose was struck by how many trains there were; there were students in purple and blue robes emerging from downstairs every so often, presumably coming back from Ilvermorny or Salem; a few waved at Claire, Ilvermorny then…

"Rose, come on," Scorpius said, startling her back to attention as the rest of the group made their way towards the sound of a steadily approaching train on their right; printed on its side it said BROOKLYN. They entered the train and were surrounded by other young wizards, many of whom were dressed more like Lucy and the American students than Rose or Scorpius.

"What kind of band is this?" Rose asked Claire over the din of the train. Claire grinned.

"Uh, you don't know?"

"No, never heard of them."

"You'll see. They're pretty political. Oh, and don't get worried about time, the trains are enchanted for speed."

"Um… okay."

The train ride was in fact alarmingly fast, arriving in around ten minutes. They exited and found a staircase that ended in a small shed, out of which the concert attendants were filing with tickets being checked by officials in long robes. Claire produced nine tickets and they walked down a roped-off pavement leading them to a building that was tall, ominous, and looked slightly abandoned. The only lights Rose could see were a few shops down at the end, odd-looking within the rest of the architecture. As they got closer to the door, Rose noticed that while droves of concert-goers were filing through the doors, there was no one inside the actual building. There was a slightly muffled sound, however, that grew louder as they reached the door and Claire seemed to notice their confusion. "Just follow us," she said, and stepped through the doorway and disappeared. Only a little concerned, Rose stepped through as well and saw the empty warehouse building suddenly fill with a large crowd of people and a darkly lit stage. She looked at Scorpius, who looked almost in awe, and followed Claire and the others to an empty space near the stage. "They'll be coming on soon," Claire said, "I don't think there's an opening act."

"What did you want to talk about?" Rose asked.

"Honestly, we mostly just wanted to meet you," Carlos said. "It's been difficult without any government support or other groups. Your new Minister supports you, though, doesn't he?"

"Mostly, yeah," Rose said, before Lucy could argue.

"That's great," Carlos said. "Do you think they'd support the ICW motions we're proposing?"

"Er, probably, but not if you rush it," Rose said. "They're trying to get the minority parties to come round."

"Oh. Well, the other thing we wanted to ask is if you're going to continue writing pieces in the Prophet. We've noticed you've been less vocal in the papers lately," Claire said.

"We made an agreement," Rose said. "With the Minister."

"He wants us to basically shut up about the Statute until May," Lucy grumbled. "He thinks it'll be easier for Conservatives to stomach us until the votes."

"But isn't that what the vote is about?" Alex asked, confused.

"Well, yeah, but… some of the more right-wing groups have been calling us terrorists, so…" Rose said.

"It's also that we're at war," Malcolm added. "I hate to bring everyone down, but it's difficult to work for social change when there's a resurgence of Death Eaters to deal with."

"That's why it's even more important now!" Lucy exclaimed. "If we let things settle down people will be less emotional and it won't get their attention. The reason there are people who think Muggles are inferior is because they aren't exposed to them in any meaningful way. If everyone could go to Muggle schools and learn about their culture none of this would be happening! We don't need to hide, they aren't going to hunt us anymore, that's just ridiculous!"

"I didn't say I disagreed with you," Malcolm said. "I just work in the Ministry, and I'm saying that most of the high-up politicians feel that this won't do any good right now."

"Most of the high-up politicians can take their removed and privileged view of the war and shove it up their ass," Lucy muttered. There was a brief silence.

"Are you seeing anyone?" Claire asked. Lucy blushed.

"Er, yeah," she said.

"Oh," Claire said, a little put out. "Got any friends, then?"

"…I can give you Gemma O'Malley's number…"

"Anyway," Alex said, as Lucy and Claire started getting their phones out, "we'd just really appreciate if you could write anything, anything you can. Even in fringe papers or maybe you could just send it here, or anonymously…"

"We'll see what we can do," Rose said, nodding.

"Great. Thanks so much," he said. "And we'll give you our numbers before you go so we can talk easier."

"Oh, er, we don't have cell phones," Rose said. "I mean, I do, but I don't bring it to school. Nothing like that works at Hogwarts, at least not easily. Lucy can get some of it to work, sometimes, but you can't charge it."

"Oh," Alex said, looking awkward. "Um, okay, I'll owl you, then, I guess."

"I mean, Lucy's got one, since she's not in school, so…"

The limited lighting in the building was quickly dimmed then and Rose couldn't see a thing. Suddenly, bright lights started flashing red and a disembodied voice boomed through the arena.

WITCHES AND WIZARDS, JOSEPH ARMITAGE AND SALEM SURVIVOR.

A wizard dressed entirely in black with an electric guitar burst onto the stage along with several other people with various instruments and the noise in the arena was deafening. They started playing very loud music, and after a while Rose began to be concerned about the rest of the crowd pressing towards the stage. She wasn't nearly tall enough to see in front of her, and she was almost in a complete panic when she realized she couldn't see anyone from their group at all. She tried to focus on the music and not think about it too much, but after a while she was really starting to wish her cell phone wasn't sitting on her desk at home.

Suddenly, she heard faintly someone calling, "Weasley! WEASLEY!" She tried to stand on her toes to look out through the crowd but instead threw herself off balance. She fell against someone, who pushed her off of them roughly and she nearly fell the other way before suddenly, Scorpius pushed his way through to her and half caught her. "Rose, are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" she shouted over the music. "Bloody hell, I can't see anything!"

"I know, it's ridiculous," he agreed.

"At least you can see, Malfoy!"

He smiled. "Yeah. This is good, though, isn't it?"

"I don't really like this kind of thing!"

"I do," he said, shrugging. "I should probably try to find Lucy, she's not that much taller than you and I'm guessing she's just as lost—"

"No! I'll get crushed, don't leave me!" she shouted, grabbing his arm to stop him.

He grinned. "Never, Weasley." He kissed her, and Rose thought this was hardly the time—she still felt like the crowd was going to suffocate. She'd only started to relax when someone started shouting behind them.

"Could you get out of the way? I'm trying to film this song!"

Scorpius's eyes widened. "You were filming?"

"Yes! Move!"

"We're on it?"

"Unfortunately!"

"Delete it," he said.

"Are you serious? Who the hell are you?" the guy asked.

"None of your business. Get rid of it."

"Wait," he said. "Didn't you say Weasley just now?" his eyes widened. "Are you that Weasley girl?"

"It's none of your business who she is—"

"Come on, Scorpius…" Rose said, feeling uneasy.

"Scorpius? Malfoy?" the guy asked. Scorpius stepped forward, looking furious."Delete it." The guy rolled his eyes and tried to move away. Scorpius wouldn't move. Suddenly, Leah pushed through the crowd and stood between the two of them.

"What's going on here?" she asked.

"Who are you?" the guy asked.

"Leah Shafiq. I'm an Auror," she said, showing her ID quickly. The guy seemed to back off a little then.

"He's got a video on his phone of—well," Scorpius quickly paused and said, "Er… he won't delete it."

"Show me," Leah said. Rose couldn't believe this was happening. The guy, looking even more annoyed, shoved the phone at them and Leah didn't even blink. "Okay. Just get rid of it, mate."

"God damn it, all right, fine," he said. He swiped the picture into the trash icon. "Happy?"

"Thanks," Scorpius muttered, and the guy disappeared into the crowd. Rose glanced at Leah apprehensively, who was looking at them knowingly.

"I'm not going to tell your parents, if that's what you're thinking," she finally said, and Rose breathed a little easier. She was still a little embarrassed and Leah seemed to notice. "It's all right, guys. Just… if you're trying to keep a secret, maybe not at a concert."

"Sorry," Scorpius mumbled.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to force Malcolm to enjoy himself for once." Leah was gone then as quickly as she'd come and Rose could hardly look at him. She tried to forget what had happened and the concert raged on around her. The band was clearly anti-Statute and at one point gave Lucy a shout out, which she was apparently incredibly happy about, but to be honest they kind of seemed a little scary to Rose. It was nice, though, to think that everyone there wanted the Statute gone. After the concert they returned to the manor and went upstairs to see that they were staying in the guest wing. Rose tried not to think too much about how rich someone had to be to have a guest wing and saw that there were three guest rooms. Apparently Maggie and Claire were already sharing one, so Scorpius and Malcolm would be in the second room with Carlos and Rose, Leah, and Lucy would be in the last. At this point Rose had a headache and she needed quiet desperately, but Leah and Lucy were still so excited from the concert that they were up for a while and eventually she escaped to the terrace. It was only a few minutes before the door to the inside opened and Scorpius stepped out.

"Hey," he said. "Are you okay? I was falling asleep and I saw you were out here."

"Oh," she said. "I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine, Weasley," he said, and she shrugged. "Rose?"

"Well, how many people know about us now?"

"Er, three? Four if you count the random git? Don't worry," he said. "It doesn't change anything."

"Of course it does," she said. "What if they find out?"

"It won't matter to me," he said. "I don't care what they think."

"Because you hate your parents," she said.

"Okay… I don't hate my parents, but anyway, I can't imagine they won't—they love you, Rose. More than my family ever loved me. This won't change that."

"They'll hate me," she sighed. "I can't—they can't know."

"They're going to have to eventually," Scorpius said. "It's not like you can hide this for the rest of your life." Rose had no idea how to respond to that, and it was silent for several seconds before he said, "Rose?"

"There's… a lot implied in that, Scorpius."

"What?" It seemed to dawn on him. "Oh… oh. You don't… do you not think of me like that?"

"I—I don't know! How can I know something like that?" Rose exclaimed, and walked further down the terrace. She needed—time. Or space. Both.

"Yes, you can. I've known for ages." Okay, now that was scary.

"Well… good for you, I just—" She took a deep breath. "This is something you have to think about."

"No offense, but you overthink everything," Scorpius said. "No amount of thinking is going to change that I want this."

"Scorpius…"

"I love you, Rose." She froze. "I do. I have for years. And I'm sorry if I'm wrong about this but I think you love me, too. So screw them. Screw everybody. I want to be with you and I don't care who knows."

Rose couldn't breathe. "How—how am I supposed to respond to that? I—" she took a deep breath and tried not to blush too much. "I love you, too. But that doesn't mean—"

"Stop. That's it. That's all you need to say. That's all that's really important," he said. When she had stayed silent for more than a few seconds, he broke into a grin. "You really do?"

Rose blushed again. "Yes. I've never admitted it, but—yes."

He walked over to her and hugged her tightly, and she wished she could forget about everything the way he seemed to be able to. "I can't just block it out."

"Yes, you can. Honestly, Rose, you're absolutely brilliant, but your mind won't let you have a moment of peace."

"I know. It's just… the war and—there's so many things that I can't just let go. I was born for it."

"After the war we'll run away. Far away where no one can find us and we'll never have to think about any of it again."

The prophecy flashed through her mind and she looked up at him frantically. "Don't die."

"Oh, God, Rose, of course I won't," he said, and kissed her. "I won't." She had no idea how long they stood there, but she knew that she didn't ever want to go.