I'm never gonna give you up
What do you got if you ain't got love?
-Mason Jennings
Monday couldn't have come faster for Rose. With the centaurs still missing, she was a nervous wreck. Who could possibly want to kidnap these boys? She was relieved that she wasn't alone in the case, as Scorpius was dealing with the criminal aspect of things. It was nice having someone she knew personally helping her in areas where she didn't have any authority. On the other hand, she knew that mixing business and pleasure was never a good thing. It was far too late to worry about such things now, which given how the case was escalating, were trivial.
She flooed straight to the ministry as soon as she knew Harry would be there. Marching up to his office, she got her security clearance and went to the records office. She pulled every cataloged document about centaurs out of the archives and spent most of the morning reading sheets and sheets of parchment. Once she had exhausted the older documents, she read the full length proposal for the centaur proposition currently before the Wizengamot. She was ashamed to admit this was the first time she had actually studied it. It was a very long document but the more she read the more she couldn't help but kick herself.
This proposition wasn't a reservation; it had the makings of a concentration camp. The idea of sequestering the centaurs in a reservation type environment was bad enough, she had no idea how putting them behind barbed wire fences and making them wear serial numbers at all times was anything short of criminal. As a matter of fact, she was certain it was against everything the Ministry of Magic stood for. The DMC might as well have walked up to the golden statue in the lobby and shat on it. Enraged, she immediately walked up to Harry's office, ignoring the secretary.
"Uncle Harry, you have no idea what this proposition is suggesting!" Harry looked up from what was undoubtedly an extremely important letter.
"What's wrong, pigeon?" He was used to her mother's tirades about these sorts of things, and found that it was best to just go along with whatever she said.
"Uncle Harry, you have to put an end to this, and probably sack whoever wrote it. It's suggesting that the 'centaur reservation' actually entails a barbed wire fenced in section of the forest. It also wants to require the centaurs wear serial numbers." Rose watched her Uncle pale slightly. How could this have gone through all the legal byways right under his nose? He remembered grimly his lessons in primary school about the Holocaust.
"Well, who wrote it?"
"Someone in DMC, I'm not sure who exactly. What would inspire them to do this? I've been working with DMC for years and have never experienced anything like this. They're usually SPEW's ally."
"I'm just as confused as you are, dear. Let me finish this note up and I'll look into it personally." He gave her a reassuring smile. Rose nodded and said goodbye.
Scorpius walked into the trainee room. Immediately everyone sat straighter, men messed their ties, women smoothed their blouses. He loved having this effect on his inferiors and momentarily relished the fact that they were anxiously watching his every move. He walked over to Jack Thomas's desk. The younger man struggled to keep his composure.
"So, Thomas, I hear you are the one who was asked to escort the centaurs out of the courtroom on Thursday."
"Yes, sir." He only briefly made eye contact.
"And what exactly did you do with them?" Scorpius leaned in a little closer.
"Well, as we were walking down the corridor, some fellow from DMC came up and said that he would make sure they got home and that their department would take it from there."
"Now, Thomas, creatures or no, those centaurs were in the custody of DMLE, you violated protocol."
"I didn't know, they were so brief in class about it, it's practically a trick situation!"
"That's what the kidnapper was counting on!" Scorpius was furious. They had played directly into whoever was responsible's game. The kid looked like he was going to pass out in fear.
"Did you at least get a name?"
"No." Scorpius stormed out before he could lose his composure. When he returned to his office, Rose was waiting for him with an unhappy expression on her face. While the sight of her was a relief, he did not like to see her scowl like that.
"Where have you been?" Ah, my perpetual ray of sunshine, he smirked a little as the quip crossed his mind.
"Well, I'm helping rescue your clients, what are you doing in my seat?"
"You weren't here, now were you?" She grabbed a licorice snap from the bowl on the side of his desk. She had to reach for it; he held his breath as he got a glimpse of cleavage and thanked himself for placing the bowl on that side of the desk.
Quickly popping it in her mouth, she chewed considerably, staring at him. The sun in France had suited him; she liked Scorpius with a tan.
"Interestingly enough, I spoke with the trainee who escorted your boys out, and he said that someone at DMC met them in the hall and took them."
"Who?"
"He didn't remember."
"Well I should hope you're going to go find out."
"Of course." She uncrossed her legs and rose out of his seat.
"You will not believe the amount of trouble that department is in with me right about now. Give them hell for good measure will you?"
"As you wish." He kissed her hand, abruptly turned and walked toward the lifts.
"I wish we didn't share an office, I don't like to watch you two with all your sexual tension." Rose turned to Al, the ghost of a dreamy look on her face.
"O shut up, Al." She chatted with him for a few minutes and decided she had delayed herself long enough. She walked towards the lifts. Scorpius was gone already. As she got in, she waited for a stream of interdepartmental memos to fly in over her head. She looked up at them, the paper air plane charm was a favorite of her and her cousins. Suddenly, one of the paper airplanes came into sharp view. It was addressed to the Department of Mysteries, from the DMC. Rose was alone in the lift. She knew what she was about to do was highly illegal, and anything she got from it would be fruit from the poisonous tree. She would worry about that later. She grabbed the memo without another thought and hurriedly opened it. She had about 5 seconds before the lift opened again.
Subjects in facility. Need to work quickly.
It wasn't signed. Damn it! What did this mean? She knew it had to do with her case, she just knew. What kind of experiments would the Department of Mysteries do on centaurs? Why against their will? She quickly recharmed the paper and let go of it just as the door opened on the level of the archives. Rose quickly brushed out of the lift, put all the documents she had borrowed back and left for her office.
Scorpius walked into the DMC on a mission. He blew past the receptionist and knocked firmly on the door of the centaur liason official, Marcio McCray. There was no answer.
"If you hadn't been so rude I would have told you he isn't in." The receptionist said in a snide voice.
"Well where is he? It's an emergency."
"He took a long weekend, he should be back tomorrow."
"Tell him that the DMLE has a few questions, please." He stormed out of the office. Every minute that passed was another minute those boys could have been at home with their father.
Scorpius spent the rest of the day going over every detail in the file. At five, he went to Rose's office.
"Did you talk to the DMC?"
"McCray wasn't in."
"Where could he possibly be?"
"Took a long weekend."
"O that's not suspicious at all."
"I know something's definitely not right with the Department." Rose looked at Scorpius for a long time before she spoke. He could see the trepidation in her eyes.
"I did something bad." He raised an eyebrow and walked over to her side of the desk and sat on it, close enough to be barely touching her knee with his.
"And what was that bad thing, Rose?" She could tell he was trying to bait her into something promiscuous.
"I may or may not have opened an interdepartmental memo in the lifts today." Scorpius stood abruptly and looked at her.
"Rose…"
"I know! I know! It was addressed to the Department of Mysteries from the DMC, I couldn't resist!"
"This isn't good Rose, really. We're in trouble now. What if they put a tamper detection charm on it? They would know it was you who opened it."
"Uncle Harry says they're largely unregulated, why would they take such a precaution? I didn't feel a charm when I opened it."
"What did it say?"
"Subjects in facility. Need to work quickly."
"You don't think?"
"Yes, I do." Rose smirked as she noticed how quickly they had reverted to their old ways. Scorpius looked deep in thought, Rose let him hash everything out and let her mind wander back to Hogwarts. They had studied together all the time at school. Although she was top of the class, Scorpius was always close behind, and both of them wanted to keep an eye on Al to make sure he didn't let his grades slip too much. Once they reached NEWT level, they had become a little team, and always partnered together in the classes they shared. It was part of the reason Rose began avoiding Scorpius. They had become pretty close during seventh year, she had been sure he would make a move at Al's graduation party. He showed up with Priscilla Brown. Quickly dismissing the thought she returned to see him staring at her.
"Did you tell your uncle?"
"No, but I did tell him about the proposition."
"What about it?"
"It's not a reservation, it's a prison. It is in direct violation of at least three major clauses in the charter between wizards and centaurs."
"So, you think it has something to do with this Department of Mysteries thing."
"I'm sure of it." Scorpius's brow furrowed at that and he turned to sit in the seat across her desk. They were quiet in thought for the next few minutes. Rose scratched notes into the margins of the parchment in front of her, used to his need to think in silence.
"OK then, I guess we need to get Internal Affairs involved. I'm hungry. Can I buy you dinner?" Rose looked at him. The expression on his face was earnest, and his eyes were hopeful. She was hungry having skipped lunch, and they were dating she had to remind herself.
"Of course. Let me finish this sheet." The broad smile on his face confirmed her decision.
As they were walking out of the office, Scorpius offered his arm.
"Do you have a place in mind?"
"How do you feel about Vietnamese food?"
"I've never had it."
"Well then, I guess we have no choice." He smiled and apparated them into a small alleyway. Rose grinned as he led her into the small, dingy restaurant. It was so un-Malfoy. He opened the door for her and they sat down at a table for two. She smiled again at the mismatched table cloths and dinnerware.
"So what do you think?" Scorpius asked just as an old Vietnamese woman approached the table.
"What can I get you do drink?"
Scorpius looked at Rose and then ordered.
"Two cà phê sữa đá please." The old lady's eyes lit up. She nodded and went off to get the drinks.
"What did you get us?"
"Iced coffee, trust me you'll love it."
The old woman returned with a tray. On it were small glasses lined with condensed milk. There were odd little aluminum pots over them. Rose watched as coffee dripped from the little pot over the condensed milk.
"Cool, huh?" He resembled a child in his excitement.
"Very."
"Wait until you taste it." Rose followed his lead as he removed the pot, stirred the coffee and milk together and poured it over a glass of ice. He was right, it was delicious. Probably the best coffee she had ever tasted. She made eye contact with him and nodded in approval as she took a sip.
"What should I order?"
"Well I'm probably going to get the special house phò, it's a beef soup but it has all sorts of bits in it I'm not sure you'll like. What are you in the mood for?"
"I think I want chicken, and lots of vegetables."
"I like the lemongrass chicken."
"OK, lemongrass chicken it is. Can I try your soup when you get it?" He smiled broadly at her.
"Of course." They ordered from the lady, who was smiling constantly and nodding her head.
"So how did Scorpius Malfoy find out about a place like this?" He had been waiting for that question.
"Well, my father wanted to look for new potion ingredients so one summer he took my mum and me to southeast Asia. Vietnam was my favorite, when I came home I looked around for a good restaurant and this one was the best."
"Interesting." The food was quick. Rose looked at his giant bowl of soup, there were definitely some mysterious pieces of cow floating around in it. She decided to be brave and ask for a taste.
"I made it spicy." He warned.
"You know I like things hot." He dropped his spoon. Rose's laughter rang out through the quiet restaurant.
As they were leaving, Scorpius offered to see her home. She could say no, really, but she didn't want to. The apparated together to Penzance. Rose unlocked the door and let him in.
"Do you want a drink?"
"Nah, I'm fine." She looked at him, a little surprised.
"Mind if I have one?"
"Not at all." She poured herself a glass of wine and made her way to the couch where he was sitting. She let herself sit right next to him. He put his arm around her shoulder.
"Thank you again for dinner, it was so good."
"Any time." He looked at her significantly and leaned in for a kiss. She let him. It started off soft enough, Rose was surprised that he was being so gentle, taking her wishes into consideration. She couldn't imagine where his restraint came from and she gave in, opening her mouth slightly hoping to deepen the kiss. He responded, taking her lower lip between his teeth. She hissed and reached up to pull him closer. Somewhere along the way tongues got introduced. He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap so that she straddled him. She remembered what that position had been like last week, when there was a conspicuous absence of clothing. The thought only fueled her fire, she could feel him growing beneath her, she moved her lips to his earlobe, and down his neck. He gave a deep groan and bucked a little, she heard her name. It was like crack. They were fast approaching the point of no return as one of his hands cupped her ass as the other moved up her back. He buried his face in the crook of her neck; she could feel him breathe her in. Was her scent as intoxicating as his was? She moaned at the idea. His desire for her was so apparent, it only made hers grow. She whispered his name as his lips traveled down her chest, eliciting a response that sent vibrations across her collarbone. His hand roamed up and down her thigh.
"Rose, what are you doing to me?" She smiled and drew him into a deep kiss, her fingers gripping his hair. She shifted a little in his lap, the friction causing his eyes to close tightly.
"Your killing me, babe."
"I'm killing me too." She looked at him intently. He understood.
A.N. Thanks to Imossm, ice, Perkier and munchkin-poo for making my weekend with your reviews. Thanks also to everyone who has been subscribing, I hope you enjoy it! As always, please review so I know if I'm any good at this stuff! XOXO Belle
