Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters end up in. Everything else belongs to someone else and that's the way it is. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy.

Way To Start The Day

Sitting on his bed, Rorake was in the process of tying his shoe laces when he heard his bedroom door being opened. Assuming that it was Scorpius, Rorake didn't bother to look up as he finished what he was doing. "Did you two kiss and make up or has your ass finally been dumped by someone?"

"You need to come with me."

Slowly lifting his head Rorake stared at the woman, a fissure of awareness going down his spine as he identified his visitor. "Excuse me?"

Natalia thought she'd been pretty clear. "I need you to come with me. And if you're still drawing you should bring all your sketches of the prince with you."

Rorake thought about refusing, but only for a moment. She wouldn't be stopped after all, and the fan club was legion. They'd get him sooner or later. No point in putting off the inadvertable was his philosophical decision. "All right, just give me a minute."

Getting to his feet Rorake walked over to pick up his satchel, shrugged it onto his shoulder after making sure everything he needed for the day was inside. He had his regular, everyday sketchbook in the bag and there were some old pictures of Weasley in it. He wouldn't show her or anyone else the sketchbook he'd started that was devoted solely to the Gryffindor. Those drawings were for his eyes alone.

Following her out of the room Rorake ignored all the looks he was getting, letting Natalia lead the way since she knew where they were going. Their destination turned out to be an old, unused classroom near the Slytherin hallway. Walking inside after holding the door open for her Rorake paused in the doorway, having caught sight of what and who waited for him.

Not being an idiot, Rorake knew as soon as he saw the other three presidents of the Prince Louis fan club that he was in trouble. Serious trouble. He could potentially end up castrated kind of trouble. One or two of them he could handle, but all four of them was a whole other story. That could definitely be a problem. A very big problem. Especially since Louis wasn't around to rein them in.

Lamia Holmes of Gryffindor, Marie Whistledown of Ravenclaw, Natalia Trenton of Slytherin, and Magdelena Bohner of Hufflepuff.

Almost the four most dangerous women in Hogwarts.

From the stories he'd heard from Al, Professor Tonks was in a league of her own.

"You know why you're here." It wasn't a question Lamia was asking and Rorake didn't take it as such. "We want to know your intentions."

His intentions? Were they serious? Yup, judging by their faces, they were dead serious, he surmised. And he would be the one who would end up dead if they didn't like what he told them. But just what was he supposed to tell them? That he had honorable intentions? What healthy eighteen year old man had honorable intentions when it came to someone they were attracted to? And he was starting to think that he wouldn't mind adding sketches to his notebook that Louis Weasley willingly modeled for. Wearing a lot less clothing. On a bed or comfortable flat surface.

But he was still working out his precise intentions towards Freckles, other than to continue drawing and irritating the other man. Those were now a given. "I don't know what's going to happen between us but I'd appreciate you all letting us find out." Rorake finally said, hoping to buy time while he thought of something better to say.

Marie of Ravenclaw nodded her head, a hint of amusement in her eyes as she studied him with great interest. "You should be aware that our prince gave all members of the club rules when the club was originally founded. We aren't allowed to interfere in his love life and we're not allowed to cause physical or mental harm to the man he's seeing unless we have his permission first. He gave us several sheets of parchment detailing how we're supposed to behave towards anyone he became romantically interested in. We all gave our word to follow those rules and we will stand by it. We just wanted to let you know that we're aware of the situation, have researched every aspect of your life thoroughly, and have decided not to…politely suggest you stop breathing the same air as our prince."

"Good to know." Rorake wanted to ask what sort of information they'd found out, but knew better than to ask. He was probably better off not knowing. Not that he was ashamed of his life so far, but there were definitely some skeletons in his family's closet. Still, they weren't going to curse him and that was something.

The Hufflepuff now stepped forward with several sheets of paper in her hand. She held them out to the Slytherin who took them with a questioning look in his eyes. "This is paperwork I need you to fill out for me as soon as possible." Her voice made it clear that she wasn't asking.

Reading the title of the first page Rorake's eyebrows rose when he realized what the paperwork was for. "You want me to apply for dual citizenship? To Canada?" It was true that his mother's people were from Canada and that his mother's grandparents still lived there, but why would he want dual citizenship? Did the club want to ship him out to the colonies?

"You were born prematurely in the country when your mother went to visit her grandparents there. Due to that fact you have a legitimate reason for applying and being accepted." Magdelena told him with a piercing gaze, explaining herself since she doubted the Slytherin would figure it out on his own. "Should you be caught in a compromising position with our prince I would have a chance of getting you off without even a fine if I could argue that you're a Canadian citizen. Over there it's not only legal for wizards to be involved with each other, but you two could actually get married if you so chose to. It's not a get out of jail free card, but it would certainly help me convince the courts that trying you would be a waste of their time and money. The courts would probably dismiss the charges since our prince can't be tried anyway."

"Ah." Damn but they were good, Rorake thought as he opened his satchel and slid the paperwork in, impressed with their ingenuity. "I'll give it to Natalia as soon as I'm finished."

"That will be fine." Natalia's gaze watched him move to secure the clasp on his bag. "You might as well keep the bag open and get out your sketchbook."

Retrieving his sketchbook Rorake showed them the pictures that included their beloved Louis. He took it as a good sign when they asked for copies of the pictures instead of demanding them like he was at their mercy. And he honestly didn't mind sharing them when it was so obvious how much they appreciated them. In fact, they were so obviously gaga over the pictures that Rorake saw a lot of picture bribing in his immediate future.

Which was fine by him, Rorake thought as he watched them copy his pictures onto fresh pieces of parchment. He'd trade his pictures for access to their prince any day.

)

Once they'd gotten their pictures and his promise to supply them with more the presidents departed, leaving Rorake behind with Natalia. Putting his sketchbook away Rorake gave the Slytherin president a questioning look. "Are you the reason they went easy on me?" He was from her house after all.

"Do I look like the saving type?"

"Not really." Was his honest answer. "But I can't believe that promise would keep you girls from leaning on me. I'll bet you do plenty behind his back that he's never found out about."

She nodded her head in acknowledgement of that fact. Her prince was far too delicate to carry the weight of some of their…after school activities on his behalf. "True. But the fact remains that you're the first man our prince has shown interest in. That makes you special. At least in our eyes. And after reading over the information Marie and Magdelena collected on you, I suppose I'm seeing you in a different light." And now she straightened as she forced the words out. "And I owe you an apology. I've said less than kind things about you and your…intelligence. Marie analyzed your OWLs essays and she says that odds are you suffer from Delsym Syndrome. She explained what that is…and why you were probably never diagnosis as having it."

Oh they were good, Rorake thought, not bothering to acknowledge their findings. He and Al thought he suffered from Delsym Syndrome too. But as she had said, his parents would never have allowed him to be tested. Just as his grandparents hadn't had his father tested. Because those who suffered the effects of the learning disability had centaur blood in them. The disease showed up four generations after the blood was introduced into the line and had been plaguing the men of his line since his grandfather.

And like any good Slytherin, the men in his family had preferred to be labeled stupid. That was better to them than admitting their blood had been polluted by something even worse than a Muggle.

"If you need any help we would all be willing to help you." Natalia offered when he didn't deny or confirm.

Rorake nodded his head in acknowledgement of the offer. "Thanks, but I have help if I need it."

"The offer stands…so long as you treat our prince right."

"There's always a catch with you."

)

Louis was waiting for Lysander when the Ravenclaw came out of his dorm room with his twin. Both were surprised to see the Gryffindor, Lorcan picking up on the other man's undercurrents while Lysander remained blissfully oblivious. Happy to see his friend, Lysander hurried over to their friend with a skip to his step.

"Hi, Louis! What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to ask you a question before I forgot." Louis kept a smile on his face as he moved to walk in between the twins, not wanting Lorcan to get in his way as they headed for the Great Hall. "Someone asked me if you were friends with that Slytherin guy, the one whose dad was Draco Malfoy's lackey. I told them you weren't, but she said she saw you hugging the guy so…well I thought I'd ask. You know me and my curiosity."

"Oh, he's not really my friend, though now that I know how nice he is I hope maybe he'll want to be." Lysander was all wide eyed innocence. "He has really beautiful eyes, very kind. I never noticed before."

Louis had to work hard not to grinch his teeth. It was not good for his perfect teeth, he reminded himself. "Does he? I never noticed." Which was a bold faced lie of course, but he'd fall out the nearest window before he'd admit it.

"Lysander found the guy's sketchbook in the library." Lorcan volunteered, still a little annoyed that his brother had so unexpectedly found such an awesome birthday present for their mother. "The Slytherin gave Ly one of his pictures as a thank you, one of the two of us. He's going to give it to our mother for her birthday."

"He's an artist?" This was news to him.

Lysander nodded enthusiastically, sorry he didn't have the picture to show his friend. "He's amazingly good, Louis. I looked at the book and I've never met someone so talented. He does people best, though he draws other stuff really well too."

"Huh." Very pissed off that the other man knew something this important and he hadn't, Louis made a mental note to up the intended punishments for his misbehaving Slytherin. Maybe Lysander had just hugged the other man as thanks, Ly was the affectionate type, but Rory had let him and that was a big no no. That the other man was drawing pictures of Lysander pissed him off too.

There had better be pictures of him in that sketchbook too or the Slytherin was going to die, Louis thought darkly. He'd show the guy's quill down his throat.

Lorcan wasn't sure what was going through Louis's head but he thought it best to finish the conversation and than move onto another topic. "You can tell your friend that it's only a matter of time before Goyle becomes Lysander's friend. If the girl really cares, I mean." His twin could be very tenacious about some things. If Ly was determined to be someone's friend than his brother would dog that person until they gave in. Trust his brother to want to make friends with a Slytherin.

Louis nodded, keeping his thoughts to himself as he grimly replied. "I'll do that."

)

Arriving at the Gryffindor table Louis raised an eyebrow at the sight of Al with his head buried in his arms. Since his best friend was surrounded by their family, Louis got as close as he could, nudging Hugo questioningly as he sat down. "What's wrong with him?"

"We're not quite sure." Hugo answered, shrugging his thin shoulders. "Other than saying he's alright, he's been doing nothing but muttering something about being a Bond babe. That was about all we could get out of him."

Well that didn't sound good. Really didn't sound good, actually.

Getting to his feet again Louis walked over to tap Rosie on her shoulder. "Let me at him. I'll get all the facts."

"Good luck." Getting to her feet Rosie headed off to sit with her brother, hoping that Louis would have better luck getting a straight answer out of Al than she had. All that muttering about being a Bond babe had sort of freaked her out, not the least because bad things so often happened to the babes who fell for Bond. Assuming he meant James Bond, which was the only Bond she could think of.

Taking her seat Louis slugged an arm over Al's shoulder, giving the man a little shake. "You were already gone when I woke up this morning. You had something you had to do?" He'd gone to bed early and when he'd woken up to find his cousin gone he'd just assumed that Al had decided to go running or do some exercising in the Room of Requirement. Now he was thinking Malfoy had had something to do with Al's early rising and that whatever had happened was not good for his cousin's mental well being.

Al raised his head, looking plenty miserable. "I went splat."

"You went splat?" Louis repeated, his confusion obvious.

"I hit bottom."

Louis's brows furrowed with concentration, trying to figure out why Al would be depressed about falling. The man was a Quidditch player, falling was second nature to him. And then Louis's eyes went wide as he realized just what Al was implying. "You…Bond made you hit bottom?"

Al nodded, looking very much like a man who'd just been told he had terminal cancer.

"Well crap."

"I don't understand. Why do you keep talking about Bond? Who is Bond and what did he do to you, Al?" Lily sat on her brother's other side, reminding the two that they had company and couldn't talk as freely as they would have liked. Because even though she was Moneypenny, neither Louis nor Al had any intention of filling her in.

"Long story, Lily. Long story." Was all Louis would say, giving Lily a look that told her not to ask for more information.

Al, meanwhile, went back to staring at his plate. He'd always figured that the day he fell in love would be the happiest day of his life. Or at least in the top ten. Of course he'd never expected Malfoy to be the love of his life either. It had hit him out of nowhere and yet he should have seen it coming, Al thought ruefully. He'd known he'd been falling, but he'd been so convinced in the back of his mind that he could stop himself before he took that final fall. That he had too much sense to give his heart to a Malfoy. But he'd fallen, and he'd hit hard.

Scorpius Malfoy had looked him dead in the eye and told him that he belonged to him whether he liked it or not.

And so he'd fallen like a ton of bricks, just like that.

Dammit.

It was said that Potters loved young and only once. Of course that could just be a romantic legend, but Al had always believed it to be true. Which meant he was now doomed, at the age of only seventeen, to spend the rest of his life in love with a man who would never love him back. Who would never, even for a moment, entertain the idea of making a life with him. He was in love with someone who was completely and totally out of his emotional reach.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

Shifting his hold Louis rubbed his best friend's shoulder in what he hoped was a soothing manner. After all, there was nothing he could say that would make this remotely better for the other man and they both knew it. At least the Slytherin he was interested in wasn't a Death Eater in the making.

And remembering that he was interested in the Slytherin at all was enough to depress Louis too.

Neither ate much of anything for breakfast.

Which Andromeda didn't fail to notice.