Chapter 13

She couldn't face anyone. Not her family. Not anyone in the school. And especially not Scorpius. Rose could never forgive herself for getting Scorpius mixed up in all this trouble.

She knew that his father would be furious. Draco had never liked her parents before, and now, he would hate then even more. Hate them for giving birth to her. Hate them for letting Rose steal Scorpius' heart. Her family would have to disown her for bringing shame onto their family. Rose never wanted Scorpius to suffer for something he didn't do.

He father would be furious too. She was supposed to be his little girl. His heart would be broken when he read tomorrows paper. She didn't know if he would be angry at her, sad that she didn't tell him, or a mix of both. Rose didn't know who would be more mad, her dad or Draco. But she knew one thing. Both of her families were in for a wild ride this next day or two.

Scorpius. Rose didn't even think about him. After this, it wouldn't matter what his father would do. Scorpius would have already broken up with her due to embarrassment and shame. If she left right now, it would save everyone a lot of trouble.

Suddenly, she knew what she had to do. She would have to leave Hogwarts. It's not like anyone would miss her. But, the problem was she had nowhere else to stay.

Rose began to think of her older relatives that had houses or flats. Her parent's and any of her aunt's and uncle's houses were out. That is where people expected her to go. She thought of Teddy, but he had Victorie. Though she liked them both, she couldn't stay with them. As much fun as they were, they would tell her parents. They were too good of people not to tell them. All her older cousins didn't have places of their own yet. Well, except for James.

"That's it," Rose muttered to herself as she half ran down the corridor. James was always looking out for her when he was at Hogwarts. Besides, no matter what she did, he would never tell her parents where she was. Now, take it, he didn't like Scorpius that much, but he would do anything Rose said. Rose was pretty sure that she would be safe.

Now, she just needed to get there. Suddenly, Rose remembered that the Head's dorm had a fire that could be used with floo powder. She also remembered that she had some floo powered in her trunk. With that, she raced up to her dorm.

Several times, thought, she had to stop and hide from other students. Though it was late, it seemed like half of the students were out and about in the corridor. After all, there had been a Quidditch game before. Rose prayed that Scorpius would be somewhere else and not in her dorm. She couldn't face him.

When she got to the dorm, she didn't she Scorpius anywhere. Thanking her lucky stars, she ran up to her bedroom. Rose opened her trunk and pulled out the floo powered her mum had given her when she was eleven. Her mum had told her to use it for emergencies only. If this wasn't an emergency, she didn't know what would be.

Rose quickly gathered her things that were thrown around the room and stuffed them in her trunk. Even if James invited her in, Rose would need clothes. Rose also kept the newspaper that she was holding in her hand. James had the right to know why she was showing up at his doorstep in the middle of the night, even if she wanted to keep it a secret for as long as she could.

With her trunk in hand, she stepped into the fireplace. Taking the floo powder, Rose shouted, "1982 Country Street, England." With that, she disappeared from Hogwarts.

Rose arrived at James' flat almost a second later. Cautiously, she stepped out of the fireplace. She could see, even in the dark of night, that James wasn't the neatest person in the world. Magazines were thrown all over the place and half-empty cans of butterbeer were strewn about the room as well. Then, she saw a light coming from the door off of the living room. The door flew open, and out stepped James carrying a wand with light on the end.

"Rose? Is that you?" James asked, bewildered as to why his cousin was standing in his living room. He lowered his wand.

"It's me," Rose responded trying not to let her tears get in the way of her response.

"Not to sound rude or anything," James started, "but why the bloody hell are you in my living room. Aren't you supposed to be at Hogwarts?"

Rose nodded, but couldn't say anything. She was afraid that she would burst into tears. James, however, walked over to her when she didn't respond.

"Rose," he exclaimed. "Were you just crying?"

At that, Rose burst into tears. Sitting down on one of James' messy couches, she gave him the newspaper that she had been holding in her hand.

James took the paper and started to read. His expression turned from concerned to worry to anger. "Rose, is this true?" James asked after he finished the article. Again, Rose could only nod. "Why, when I get my hands on the little git, it is not going to be pretty."

"No James," Rose stated, finding her voice again. "I don't want you to beat him up. This wasn't his fault."

"What are you talking about? Malfoy obviously faked your relationship and had other people take pictures of you. He just wanted to ruin out family's reputation. He sold you to this newspaper. You don't mean anything to him," an angry James said.

"No he didn't, James. Look. It's by Lavender Brown. And it says that she had her daughter take the photos. But Lizzy must have been taking pictures of us before we were dating. Some of these are just rubbish. Like the one of us going into the Room of Requirement. That was nothing—we were just studying, so it turned into a library."

James was silent for a moment, and then he asked, "So you and Malfoy are dating?"

"First of all, his name is Scorpius. And yes, we are dating. It isn't just a cheap relationship. We both care about each other."

"You know that his father..." James trailed off.

"Yes, I know what his father has done. But that's his father, not him. Scorpius is different."

"Then, what are you doing here?"

"I just needed a place to stay without anyone realizing where I was. Scorpius and I, well, we will upset some people. Everyone, really. I just can't face that right now. I just need somewhere to collect myself. You won't tell anyone that I'm here, will you?"

James looked at his little cousin's head. "Of course not."

[-**-]

Scorpius had spent the entire night searching for Rose, but he still couldn't find her. At first, he looked in the all usual places. The Room of Requirement. The library. The Great Hall. The Owlery. Nothing. He then looked in the classrooms and the broom closets. Again, he found nothing. Rose was in no place to be found. It was about two in the morning when he finally headed back to his dorm.

On his way back, thought, he ran into Rose's cousins, Al and Lily. They stood looking at each other in utter silences. Scorpius began to slowly walk away but not turning his back to them. Even though they were noble prats and all, he bet they wouldn't be against hexing him with his back turned. Also, he knew that they would hex him because there was no doubt that they had seen the article.

But, they kept walking toward him, staring at him. "Listen," Scorpius said, his voice cracking. "I never meant to hurt Rose. We never meant any of this to happen. It just did. And it wasn't some cheap relationship. I truly love her."

It was Lily who spoke up first. "We aren't here to hurt you. We have been looking for Rose all night, but had no luck finding her. Do you know where she is?"

Scorpius could barely shake his head no. He had been terrified that they were going to curse him. "I haven't seen her since the Quidditch game. I've been looking for her all night too."

Al and Lily looked at him in a fierce manner. They seemed to be trying to determine if he was lying or not. Finally, Al spoke up and said, "I believe you." Lily gasped at him, but Al continued talking. "You never meant to hurt her. I can see that in your eyes. You care about her as much as we do. But I have to ask you something. Did you have any part of giving that story to the Prophet? I know that it says that Lizzy Brown was responsible for taking the pictures, but who told her in the first place?"

Scorpius shook his head no again. "You know that I would never do that to hurt Rose. I'm pretty sure that it was just Lizzy."

"A Gryffindor? Lizzy Brown? But she had always seemed so nice," Al thought to himself. Then, out loud, he said, "She is good friends with our parents and would never do that to Rose. She was Rose's bloody roommate for six years."

Scorpius just kept shaking his head no. "Well," he responded, "roommate or not, Lizzy Brown sold us out. She was mad when she found out that I didn't want to be with her this year. When she heard that Rose was Head Girl, she thought that I had slept with her to get Head Boy."

He stopped when he noticed that Al was giving his hard looks. Al wanted to beat the crap out of him for saying that. Scorpius hurried to continue. "I didn't sleep with Rose, just to tell you. But anyways, Lizzy said that I would regret it and I do. Rose is gone and it is my entire fault.

[-**-]

Al was still with doubt. Before he was talking to Scorpius, he and Lily went to talk to Lizzy. She had said that her mom told her to take the pictures of her. That she had no idea who actually told the newspaper about his cousin and Scorpius. He had a feeling that Scorpius was telling the truth, but he had to make sure.

He took one step closer to Scorpius. Al could practically see his breath in the dark, cold corridor. "Are you messing with us? 'Cause she told us that someone had giving her mom a tip about you and Rose. She said that her mom asked her to take pictures because of that source."

Scorpius looked at Al and Lily with disbelief. "And you believed her? Do you honestly think that I sold out relationship out? Dating Rose hurts my reputation as much as it hurts hers dating me. But I don't care. I love her."

Al was shocked by his words. He didn't think that Scorpius would admit to him that he loved his cousin. He must really be hurting inside. "Don't worry, Mal—Scorpius," Al said with some distaste in his mouth. He figured with Rose dating that poor kid, he might as well start to use his real name. He still wasn't sure he liked a Malfoy dating Rose. "We will find her. I have already owled her parents."

Al had, even before going out to search for Rose, contacted his aunt and uncle. He didn't want to alarm or worry them, but wanted to tell them the news before they heard it from the Prophet.

Lily then said, "Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if she was with them right now. And don't beat yourself up for what happened. It wasn't your fault. It was Lizzy's."

That remained Al of something. "Now," Al said with hatred in his tone to the two people standing next to him, "if you would excuse me, I have someone to beat up."

Scorpius froze. Al almost laughed, realizing that he thought that he had meant he had to beat up Scorpius. Scorpius then slowly started to back away, holding his hands up. "Hey, look mate," Scorpius said nervously, "I would never hurt Rose. She's my girlfriend for crying out loud. I love her."

Al had to laugh at this one. As if he would beat up Rose's boyfriend, even if it was a Malfoy. Rose would kill him if he did that. And Al like being healthy and breathing, thank you very much. "Don't worry, mate. I'm not beating you up. But remind me to give you the older brother talk later. Hugo is in no shop to do that. I have to go say some very bad choice words to one Lizzy Brown. Then, I have to write to my mum and dad and Rose's parents to let them know what is going on.

Al walked to the end of the corridor before turning back to Scorpius and Lily. "You two should probably get back to bed or keep looking for Rose." With that, he left his sister and Malfoy alone, at two in the morning, in an empty corridor.