Hello. If you're reading this, it means you haven't given up on Rose! Hooray for us all. I hope this update is worth the wait; I had to iron out a few (a ton of) plot wrinkles before posting. Chapter 15 will be up soon. As always, I hope you tell me what you think. Enjoy!
Scorpius scowled as he handed me a tube of General Toebright. "You didn't have to hex so hard," he said. "The Aurors will have our hide if we come back all quilt-like from brawling."
We were slumped against a tree, wands beside us. The ointment was his, but he let me use it first. I squeezed a tiny blob on my finger and tried to spread it as thinly as I could before giving the tube back.
"Brawling? I thought this was practice," I said, watching him gingerly apply the balm.
He raised his eyebrows at me. "Yes, that's what I thought too."
I closed my eyes, flexing my fingers. With any luck, I can help our welts recede before reporting to the mess hall. Though we ended the duel minutes ago, my heart was still racing. The blur of wands and limbs, and jets of light, and his voice, sounding like he meant to hurt me so much—
I must be losing my mind, I thought. I still wouldn't put him in charge of feeding my owl, but I no longer felt like hitting him just for breathing next to me. So although strange, his methods did work. Still, there's one thing he didn't do that I would have liked to observe. I opened my eyes and saw him staring.
"Sickle for your thoughts?" he said. I looked away.
"I was just wondering why you skipped your wandless magic bit. That would've been cool."
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him sit straighter, suddenly alert. I looked at his profile—he ran a hand through his hair and squinted in the distance. I made a mental note of these reactions; it would do me well to spot them again in the future. Just in case.
"Where do you remember me doing that?"
"Our duel at Portus." He nodded, as if expecting me to say so.
"It takes time to perform a wandless spell," he said. "I need to focus on what I want to do."
That made sense. The next question I had for him would have been where he learned how to do that, when a scream broke the silence. We looked at each other, scrambled for our wands, and bolted to the direction of the sound. We didn't find anyone but we did come upon a ditch. Someone (or something) was rustling at the bottom. Scorpius leaned closer to the hole.
"Hello? Are you alright?"
"Scorpius?" Connor's voice went. "Yeah, but I can't use my wand. Some charm's blocking me."
Alarm flitted across Scorpius' face, but it was gone just as quickly. "We'll help you, hang on," he said.
"We?" Connor fell silent for a beat. "Is Rose with you?" he said. I felt some heat on the sides of my face, and I was annoyed my haircut didn't hide my ears anymore. I yelled at the ditch, something about Connor assuming a lot about me, which cracked him up.
"Evening, Rose," he said. "Before you jinx me to kingdom come, why don't you help me out of here first?"
Turns out, Connor was tracking, whatever that meant. It looked like Scorpius understood. He nodded gravely, a quiet fury on his face. "They put the traps here, meant it for us. To catch us like animals."
"It gets better." Connor stays quiet and nods at the other boy. I hear Scorpius mutter something under his breath and point his wand forward. They stayed like this for a long time, looking at each other. I was about to make a joke about it when Scorpius broke the gaze and swore.
"Best to keep your head down, mate. Don't go charging at any of them yet."
"I know, but we are running out of time. We haven't learned anything new in weeks. And now this?"
"Excuse me, but what are you talking about? Who's trapping whom? Catch you doing what? A little explanation would be great, boys, thanks," I said.
They turned to me, looking at me like I just arrived. Some understanding passed between them before Connor smiled and clapped me on the shoulder. "I'll leave that to Scorpius. See you at dinner, Rose," he said, winking before walking away. I faced Scorpius, my hands on my hips.
"An inventory: you have bruises, a cut lip, a bleeding nostril, and you're favoring your left foot. We both know I can make you look brand new, kind of, but I'm not doing any of that until you tell me what's going on. Why are you two acting sketchy?"
I hoped I looked threatening despite my equally beat-up appearance. He sighed.
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."
"Why don't you at least try, Scorpius."
He faced me squarely, like he did Connor, and pointed his wand. I was about to protest when he met my eyes and said, "Invitomens."
I felt like I was yanked off my feet and plunged through something inky. Though I can't see it, ice seemed to brush my skin as I hurtled through space. I curled up and prepared for impact when Scorpius caught me and steadied me as we landed. "Easy," he murmured, and my heart did that thing where it sped up at the sound of his voice. I looked around; we were at Hogwarts.
"We're at school," I said. Some students were milling about, walking to their next class.
"Yes and no," Scorpius said. "This is Hogwarts as I remember it. We're in my memory, I let you in it."
I detected a hint of pride in his voice. I'd be proud, too—this is quite a bit of advanced magic, much like his wandless spell. "You were going to tell me something?" I said. I wasn't about to let him know I was impressed by what he did.
He nodded. "Let's follow—er, me." He pointed at his younger self, and I got a jolt of déjà vu. That was really how he looked like, from the hairstyle, to the Slytherin robes, down to the dragonhide shoes. Younger Scorpius was heading down a corridor, away from the classrooms, past a lavatory, and up several flights of stairs. I tried to keep up with him, with present-day Scorpius at my heels. The chatter of students faded as we went further from the main hallways.
"Dissendium," he said, tapping a sculpture of Andros the Invincible. It moved to one side and revealed a passageway. A girl had her back to us. She had long dark hair, past her shoulders, and she was in dark robes. When she turned to face Scorpius, she smirked.
"I knew you'd be back," she said. She reminded me of someone, only it's too dark to tell if they're one person. And I didn't want to ask.
"You told me an interesting story," younger Scorpius said. "I want to find out if it's true."
The girl threw her head back and laughed. "You're a different man from your father. When we tried to make him join our cause, he mumbled something about having had his fill of secret societies."
"You're not a secret society. You're not even supposed to exist."
"True. But that's beside the point. If you're here, you wish to join. Are you ready to take the oath?"
She stepped into the light, wand out. I gasped.
It was Chancellor Fowler.
A younger her, but there was no doubt about it—the doll face, the dark hair, the calm self-confidence was all her. "You mind telling me what's going on, Scorpius Malfoy?" I said, my voice an octave higher.
He shushed me. "Just watch," he said.
Scorpius extended his arm toward her. She used her wand to make a lengthwise cut on his arm, her face remaining expressionless. The blood was bright red against his paleness, but he didn't wince. He stared straight ahead. Chancellor Fowler made an incision on her own forearm. She pressed her wound against Scorpius'.
"May by the pain of death would you betray us."
"By the pain of death," Scorpius repeated.
They broke their contact, and she healed both their arms. And then, she hugged him. I couldn't see younger Scorpius' expression, but the chancellor looked happy. Honestly so.
I wouldn't be so excited, it's just Malfoy. I was about to say as much when I felt a hand steer me away from the scene. "Let's go," my companion said.
The blackness covered us again. One moment, we were swimming in blind coldness; the next, we were at Tower Way. This memory seemed to be from our first day at Portus-we followed Scorpius as he made his way down the road. He was wearing the velvet-trimmed robes from the night we rolled down the hill; it seemed like years in the past now.
Scorpius was walking out of the Tower, into the surrounding forests. He met up with Connor at the mouth of the forest, and together, they walked eastward.
"They're taking care of someone again," Connor said. Past Scorpius scowled.
"Who is it?"
"Some third year initiate."
We were nearing a clearing, where I made out some figures and voices. They seemed to be talking about something urgent. The Scorpius in this memory crouched behind some bushes, right before entering the clearing, and Connor followed suit. I walked on, my companion behind me. In the clearing were two Auror trainers, a man and a woman, and an initiate.
"You have been consistently failing your classes," one Auror said. "We've switched you with a dozen training partners but nothing seems to work."
"Please, sir. Give me more time. I know I can be a good Auror," the initiate said. He looked like he was about to cry. The second Auror looked at him in disgust.
"Rules are rules, Dunbar. This is the first thing you learned, right?" the Auror said. Dunbar closed his eyes and sobbed in earnest, which seemed to irritate the Aurors further. The male muttered something to the other, and they both smirked, shaking their heads.
"You are being given the choice to depart from the training program. If you do, however, you may not speak of why you did not finish."
"Please, sir. I don't want to wash out. I have months before graduation-surely, you can cut me some slack?" the female Auror rolled her eyes.
"Don't make us discharge you without honor," she said. Dunbar wailed, which seemed to anger the Auror even more. He took out his wand.
Despite Dunbar's cries, the Auror pointed his wand forward. A flash of green light filled the clearing, and Dunbar fell to the dirt. My stomach felt leaden, and I think a tear or two fell from my eye. "He was alive, just now," I whispered to Scorpius.
He took my hand and we disappeared from the clearing, plunging into blackness once more.
The scene swirled around us and re-formed into a garden. Seated around an outdoor table were the chancellor, Connor, Scorpius, and a couple of other Portus members. This seemed to be just a few months before training began—the copies of The Prophet on the table were dated earlier this year.
"Things are moving at Montrose," Connor began. "The kelpies I set free at River Esk were spotted near Wharf street. Local Muggles are convinced it's a publicity stunt for some TV show, but at least they're taking notice."
"What's a teevee?" one of the other Portus members said.
"It's a Muggle device that lets you view stories," Fowler said. "Any news from the Tower?"
"Five second-year trainees have been reported 'out of action,' as of last week," the other Portus member said darkly. "People are almost dying back there. Also, a third army base has been completed just outside Upper Flagley. The Minister's sending officers to protect it as we speak."
The chancellor tutted. "That's bad. Well, how about the Ministry's lapdogs? Has anybody figured out who they are yet?"
Shaking heads all around the table, and Fowler sighed.
Scorpius banged his fist on the table. "We're messing around with kelpies and Tower kids and whatnot, when we should be taking the local council of wizards," he said. Fowler shook her head, a patient look on her face.
"We need stealth, Scorpius. We don't have the manpower for anything more forceful."
Scorpius was opening his mouth in response when the scene shifted again. Something pulled me from behind, and I felt like I was rushing backwards into a cold, black river.
When I came to, it was nearly dark. Wordlessly, I healed his and my wounds, and we headed for the mess hall. I couldn't bring myself to talk. What he showed me didn't answer my questions—they gave me even more. I thought back to the training we've been having. I saw him watching me.
"Let me get this straight," I said, keeping my voice down. "You're risking a breach of the International Statute of Secrecy—because you don't like how training at the Tower's going? Bit of overkill, yeah?"
"That's barely the entire story, Rose," he said. "Even I'm still learning new things about it. All I can say is that you should be alert. You'd be surprised at how much we don't see because we don't look properly."
"I suppose you know Legilimency," I said. "That trick you did, that was a form of Legilimency, wasn't it."
He nodded. "Although Occlumency is much easier for me. Don't worry, I don't read your mind for fun. I need to exert much effort to do it; I need to speak and be holding my wand." We stopped a few paces from the mess hall.
I took a deep breath. "Why did you choose to show all of that to me?"
"Two things," he said. "First, because according to Connor, there will be an organized strike against this Fort tomorrow. They don't know which trainees are members of the resistance, only that there are a lot of us here." I was about to explode from the injustice, wanted to hurt someone—anyone—badly, when Scorpius spoke again.
"Second, because your mother has been placed on house arrest. By the Minister of Magic."