Scorpius hadn't thought he could study more than he already was, but between helping Avina and trying to beat Rose in every class – though there were days when he was afraid the best he could do would be to become a very close second – he didn't have time to explore the castle with Albus and Ruby. They never abandoned him and Avina in the library, though; Albus stayed close to Avina for some reason, and Avina seemed very happy about that. Ruby had said that she didn't want to have any adventures alone, so she studied with them, even though it meant she wouldn't be the best Ravenclaw of her year.

"I wouldn't have been anyway," she told them one evening. "Isabel's a lot smarter than I am, and I heard she's working on mastering second year spells."

"Professor Zahradnik said that Rose was the best student, though," Scorpius said.

"I never said Isabel was a good student. She loves learning magic but hates homework. She's probably the only Ravenclaw who might get bad enough marks to retake her first year." Ruby yawned and stretched. "Well, this book is useless. Have any of you found anything yet?"

Scorpius shook his head, and Albus had already moved on to another book. Avina was muttering something under her breath, and when Scorpius leaned close enough to listen, he heard that she was saying over and over, "Nothing, nothing, nothing." With a groan, she closed the book and buried her face in her arms. Albus set a hand on her shoulder, and Scorpius looked back to his own book. It was in English, at least – Ruby had promised to handle any written in Latin, though a lot of the time she had to consult a Latin-English dictionary – but none of the words seemed to make sense. It was an old book, old enough that it had been hand-written, and whoever had written it had done it in a fancy cursive that was nice to look at but nearly impossible to read, and that was before he had to deal with all the s's that looked like f's and the words that were spelled differently from now.

"I can't handle much more of this," Albus said.

"All right." Scorpius closed his book and grabbed another. "Let's work on Transfiguration, then." He still had to turn a nail into a screw, which was far harder than Professor Osborne made it look. "Did any of you bring a nail?"

"I didn't mean looking up things to help Avina," Albus said. "I meant all of this. My head hurts, and I'm tired, and I think we missed dinner."

Scorpius's stomach growled, and he realized that he hadn't even noticed he hadn't eaten since lunch. "Go get something to eat, then," he said, opening the Transfiguration book and digging around for a nail inside his bag. "Ruby, Avina, you should go too. I'll be here when you're done."

"Do you want us to bring you anything back?" Avina asked as she got to her feet. She looked a little worried, but he supposed they all looked like that. "We could at least grab some bread and a bit of dessert."

Scorpius was about to thank her, but Albus shot to his feet. "No," he said, his voice sounding stronger than Scorpius had ever heard it. "You need a break, too."

"I don't have time for a break," Scorpius said. "I need to figure out how to turn a nail into a screw." So far, the best he could do was make a few notches in the nail's head and have a bit of uneven threading appear around the side. "Just sneak in some bread or something. I'll be fine."

"Albus is right," Ruby said. "We need to get out of the library." She grabbed Scorpius's arm and tugged him out of his seat. "You're going to eat dinner, and then we can come back. If no one's taken our books, then we can get right back to studying." She laughed a little. "This feels so weird. I mean, a Ravenclaw trying to convince a Slytherin to leave the library? That's got to be a first for this school."

"But what if someone takes our books?" Scorpius asked. He couldn't think who would want to take any of the books on Essemeulia or transdimensional travel; most of them had been so dusty that they couldn't have been touched for years. He wanted to hang on to the book on Transfiguration theory, though, since it was a lot more interesting than the Standard Book of Spells, Grade One. He was sure that one of the chapters would help him with the class.

"No one's going to take our books," Ruby said, dragging him out of the library. "No one even goes into that corner anymore. I was flipping through one of the books on those shelves, and I swear the author called for virgin blood to go in a potion. Those things are so dated that I can't imagine why they're still around. I'm pretty sure virgin's blood is discredited by most witches and wizards."

"Madam Pince goes back there," Scorpius said, and he shuddered. For the most part he wasn't afraid of people at Hogwarts, but the librarian managed to spook him no matter what. Ruby had once said that she looked just like a witch in a fairy tale, and after reading a few Grimms' fairy tales from one of Ruby's books, Scorpius had to agree. He wouldn't put it past Madam Pince to try to eat children if they destroyed one of her books. "What do you think she'll do if she finds out we just left books lying around instead of putting them away?"

"We'll just have to avoid her for a while," Ruby said. Her arm was firmly wrapped through his as they walked down the stairs, and she kept him tightly by her side so he couldn't wriggle away to study more.

"But I'll need those books," Scorpius said. "How am I supposed to get into the library for anything if I have to avoid the librarian?" He wondered why Avina wasn't speaking up to help him, but when he glanced over his shoulder, he saw that she and Albus were holding hands and whispering. Annoyed that neither of his friends was willing to stand up for him, he glared at Ruby. "I thought you wanted to help Avina get home and me beat Rose."

"You've got other friends than us, right?" Ruby asked. "Just ask them to check out books for you? Madam Pince doesn't need to know."

Scorpius gaped. "Ruby, that's… devious. I didn't know you thought like that."

Ruby grinned and tapped his nose with her finger. "Maybe I should be in Slytherin with you two, huh? Then I'd be able to figure out if that Sally Vane's as bad as you make her out to be."

Scorpius bit his lip and narrowly avoided a vanishing step. "But who would be able to check things out for me? A first year could get away with getting school books and things for Transfiguration, but I think it would look strange if I got someone to get a book about some world that only one person here's ever been to."

"Couldn't you ask a Prefect to get it for you?" Ruby asked. When Scorpius stared at her, she shrugged. "I made friends with the Ravenclaw Prefects. Didn't you do that?"

"Not really," he admitted. "Margaret's nice, but I don't think Eli would want to help very much. I don't know any of the other Prefects."

"Well, we'll figure something out," Ruby said. "If nothing else, you could sneak into the library. You'll have to be careful, but I think most of the ghosts will look the other way if you tell them you've got some noble cause. The Bloody Baron's surprisingly nice to people who say they're sneaking out to meet their secret lovers." When Scorpius gaped again, she laughed. "I snuck out a couple times and ran into him once. It was the only story I could think of, and he just gave me a sad look and floated off through a wall."

"I've got an idea," Albus said. Scorpius jumped; he hadn't realized the two of them had gotten so close to him and Ruby.

"Well, what is it?" Ruby asked. "Is it better than my plan of having Scorpius sneak out? I could always go if he doesn't like breaking rules that much."

"I heard you talking about asking someone to check out the books for us, and I got an idea," Albus said. "I would have said something before, but you kept talking, so I decided to wait."

"So, what's the plan?" Ruby asked. "Is it Polyjuice Potion? I might be able to get someone to make it for us. There's this girl, Marissa, and she makes potions for people for a little money. If we pool our Galleons, she ought to make that for us."

"It isn't that," Albus said. "I know who might be able to get away with checking out all sorts of books for us, but I'm not sure you'll like it."

Ruby frowned. "Who – oh. Albus, you're brilliant!" She spun around, nearly whipping Scorpius down the remaining three stairs. "You're wicked, but brilliant."

"Who are you talking about?" Scorpius asked.

"She's the only one who can get away with it," Albus said. "The only problem is in getting her to help."

Were they talking about some seventh year who could get them into the Restricted Section? Why hadn't they told him they knew a seventh year? "Why would it be difficult?" Scorpius asked, but as before, the two of them ignored him. Judging from Avina's face, she was just as confused as he was, but she went up the stairs with Albus without complaining.

"Are we going to see her right now?" Ruby asked. "Won't she be at dinner or out with her friends?"

"We can hang around and wait for her to get back," Albus said. "I'm sure she'll help me, but it's Scorpius I don't know about." He glanced back at Ruby. "I didn't know you knew her."

"We met in the library," Ruby said. "She's nice, but I've been too busy to hang out with her much. We're going to see a Quidditch game together once I get a break from all this studying." She patted Scorpius's arm as though he were her little brother. "It's not that I don't like studying," she said gently. "It's just that I haven't had a chance to see a Quidditch game yet."

Scorpius still wasn't sure where they were going or who they would meet, but whoever and wherever it was, it was up. The four of them trekked up the stairs, nearly to the top floor of Hogwarts, though it was difficult to do on empty stomachs. None of them complained; Avina bore it as a princess ought to, Ruby was too eager, and Albus had been the one to suggest they visit this person, so it wouldn't do him any good to complain. Scorpius hadn't wanted to go to dinner anyway, though he had been hoping to get a little food.

They went up to the seventh floor of the castle, to a place Scorpius had never been before. He had a sneaking suspicion that he knew where they were going, but he wasn't at all sure until they reached a large portrait of a fat lady who looked imperiously down at them.

"I'm not even going to assume that you four know the password," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"Albus," Scorpius said. "Why are we going to the Gryffindor common room?"

"We're going to see my cousin," Albus said. "We don't know the password, but Rose will, and she'll help us."

Scorpius pulled his arm from Ruby's and glared. He didn't like this at all.