A/N: I've made major modifications to chapter two, least of which is the title of said chapter. Worth re-reading, in my opinion, but to sum it up, said changes make Alia make much more sense and not be so shallow. I've made her not be such a ditz.

Thank you for the kind reviews :)

Albus couldn't decide whether to be angry with Rose or Scorpius. It was ridiculous - in the kindest sense of the word, of course - that she let herself be so at his mercy when nothing had actually happened between them aside from their savage fights. As for Scorpius, Albus sometimes wondered how they had ever become such close friends when the Malfoy had proven himself to be one of the most sadistic people Albus had the misfortune to meet.

He had tried to bring it up, once, towards the start of sixth year, when Rose's demeanor and actions made it clear that she no longer had it in her to spar with Scorpius anymore.

"What's up with you and Rose?" he had asked as casually as he could. "You guys don't really fight anymore."

"Nothing," the Malfoy had answered offhandedly.

"Really?" Albus had prodded.

"It's nothing," he had repeated, still supremely detached. "She fancies me is all."

Albus had concealed his astonishment. His friend had been far more perceptive than he could ever have expected him to be, but that was only a small part of his shock. It was how dispassionate he was about it. After years of going head-to-head with Rose, the only emotion Scorpius had to offer upon discovering that she was enamored with him was indifference. It bewildered and confused Albus. He had no idea what to think or feel.

So when Scorpius had begun to use Rose's emotions against her, purposely and cruelly antagonizing her, Albus had been so at a loss of what to do that all he had done was watch one of his best friends destroy the other. On several (only several, a voice in his head whispered viciously) occasions he had expressed his opinions on the matter; that Scorpius should stop stringing Rose on, that he had no idea how much he was hurting her. The Malfoy had shrugged off every single word without so much as a hint of remorse or sign that he had heard Albus' words at all.

Albus had never known Scorpius to be so callous, and he simply could not understand why. In the meantime his beloved cousin kept retreating further and further into herself, morphing into a person he did not know.

Albus knew that if he severed ties with Scorpius, the Malfoy would become even more malicious than he already was. The Potter had no choice but to sit helplessly in the sidelines, hoping like hell that Rose would rally and throw Scorpius off from her shoulders.

"Is there at least any chance you'll stop saying 'Mudblood?'" he had asked tiredly. Albus hadn't gotten an answer from him, but the incidences had duly decreased; he only ever said it in front of her.

When he heard that Rose had punched Scorpius in the face in the middle of the hallway on the train trip back home, he had said nothing to his friend but "serves you right" and ignored him for the rest of the journey, immersing himself in smug silence. But he couldn't quite forgive himself for having not punched Malfoy for her himself.

When he heard that Rose had started to go out with Kevin Freeman, he had masked his hurt with his surprise. Once upon a time, he would've been the first to know about this. She would've - should've, he thought automatically - told him before anybody else. It hurt even more when she ignored his attempts, however weak, to talk to her. He felt disowned.

When he heard that her Ravenclaw boyfriend had jinxed Scorpius on the way to class because he had called her a half-Mudblood, he looked down and kept quiet. The other Slytherins assumed this was so either because he was torn between Scorpius and Rose or because he was humiliated that his best friend had been so easily brought down. They didn't know that he was excruciatingly ashamed of himself; ashamed that he had done nothing to help her when they had been so close for such a long time, when she had defended him in the past, even as children; ashamed that someone who barely knew her, had no ties to her but light romantic ones, had stood up for her in a way that he, Albus, never had but should have. He fiercely wished that he had been the one to jinx Scorpius. He wished he hadn't been so silent.

He was so wrapped up in this that it didn't strike him to ask his best friend why he had begun to pay attention to Rose again in the first place.