"Rose," Scorpius said, for the fourth time, "It's time for patrol!"
"I can't go!" Her wide blue eyes were frenzied, and she pointed at the mound of parchment in front of her. "I have to study for my OWLs!"
"Rose, you're a prefect!"
"My OWLs are a week away!" She shrieked maniacally. "I'm going to fail them all!"
"First of all," Scorpius said in an irritated voice, for they were going to be late and Kate wasn't going to be pleased, "We all have OWLs in a week. Secondly, the only way that you could fail is if you didn't even show up for the test!"
Rose huffed, pulled the quill out of her knot of hair, and shook it out.
"This is important," she hissed, her curls flying wildly around her face. She gathered her hair up in one hand, coiled it, and the stabbed the quill back through the soft twist of hair. "You're a big boy, you can patrol by yourself for one night."
"Fine," he hissed back, "You can just let Kate rescind your duties! See if I care!"
He stalked away from her, faintly hearing her call, "She won't do that, you know!"
Scorpius wanted very badly to slam the portrait door shut behind him, but he wanted to get back into the tower later, and the Fat Lady tended to be vindictive if she was slammed, so he restrained himself, only muttering angrily as he made his way to the Great Hall, where the prefects convened every night.
"There you are," Kate said when he finally reached her, "I was beginning to wonder. Where's Rose."
"She's not coming," Scorpius said, trying to keep his voice steady. "OWLs."
Kate accepted the word as an explanation, and said, "Never mind, since Zane landed himself in the hospital wing over his own OWLs, we've had to go three at a time. You can just go with Cassandra tonight, and things will be even again."
Scorpius looked over at Cassandra, a pleasant Hufflepuff with a long blonde plait.
"Hi," she said shyly, making her way over to him.
"Hi," he said back.
They walked in awkward silence for a moment, and then she said, "I'm sorry Rose is gone, but I don't mind this. Ever since Zane had his panic attack, Kate's had me go with the Ravenclaws."
"Oh," Scorpius said.
"They're nice," Cassandra added quickly, "But I was virtually on my own anyway, since they always went off to snog in a corner." She blushed. "I probably wasn't supposed to say anything, though, so just…"
"I won't tell anybody," Scorpius reassured her, pulling out his wand to look in the first classroom they came across.
"Thanks. I don't want them to be angry with me, they're really nice people."
"Of course," Scorpius said vaguely, and they lapsed into silence again.
"So, did you and Rose get in an argument?" She ventured after they had passed through another corridor.
"I guess you could say that."
"I'm really sorry. I hate arguing with my boyfriend."
"Oh, um… We're not… we're not, like, dating, or anything," Scorpius stammered.
"You aren't?" Cassandra looked genuinely surprised. "But you always look so… close."
"We're only friends," Scorpius reassured her.
"Sorry," Cassandra whispered again, "I didn't mean to intrude."
"It's fine," Scorpius said, shooting her a look out of the corner of his eye and wondering if she apologized for everything.
They reached the broom cupboard that was notorious for housing the Slytherin Sixth Year who, now that James was through with them, was the most popular among girls at Hogwarts.
Scorpius put his ear up against the door. He faintly heard the murmurs of two voices, one feminine, one entirely otherwise.
Grimacing, he pulled open the doorway.
Scorpius couldn't see much in the dim light of his lit wand, but he was absolutely certain that the boy, who had his back to the door, completely blocking the girl from view, was too big and broad to be the Slytherin.
Scorpius cleared his throat.
The boy shifted slightly, startled, and Scorpius caught a flash of red from over his shoulder: the girl's hair.
Rose?
He shut the door with a bang.
"Was somebody in there?" Cassandra asked, looking utterly perplexed.
Scorpius nodded.
"Listen," he called through the door, his heart pounding, "I won't cite you this time. Just… just get back to the dorms, both of you. If you're still here in five minutes, I'll take points."
Then he gripped Cassandra's wrist and hauled her down the corridor.
"Who was it?" She asked.
"I don't know," he said, letting her go, "I didn't see. I didn't see either of their faces."
"Why didn't you call them out?" Cassandra asked interestedly.
"It's… it's their first time, probably. I just think everybody deserves one free pass."
"Oh," Cassandra said, nodding contentedly, "That makes sense."
"Let's just be done for tonight, alright?"
"If that's what you want," Cassandra said faintly, and then, as he started down another hall, "Didn't you say that we were going back to check on them?"
"Cassie," he said, "I was bluffing."
"Oh. Sorry."
"It's fine."
He dropped her off at the Hufflepuff dormitory, where she went inside with a cheerful, "Goodbye!" And slowly walked back to his own tower.
He hadn't seen the boy's face, or the girl's, and there hadn't been a distinguishing feature on either of them. All he knew was that the girl was a redhead, and there were dozens of those in the castle.
He was overreacting. He had to be.
He said, "Arboretum," to that Fat Lady who had swung open sleepily before he had even mentioned the password, and made his way inside, still convincing himself that there was no possible way that the girl he had seen could be Rose. She was studying, and as he knew, when she was studying, nothing would rip her from her notes.
But when he approached the table at which she had been sitting, there was no trace of Rose behind the notes that were still heaped there.
"Hey," Scorpius said, approaching Albus, who was sitting at a table with Elsie and Lily, "Where's Rose?"
Albus shrugged. "I don't know. She left about five minutes after you did, and I sort of assumed that she had gone to patrol after all, so I didn't ask her. Why?"
"She wasn't at patrol," Scorpius informed him, "I thought she would be here."
Albus shrugged again. "She's probably at the library, or something."
"Yeah, probably," Scorpius agreed.
"I don't know," Lily inserted, "I just got back from there, and she wasn't there."
Albus gave his sister a speculative look. "I thought you said that you were at the kitchens."
"Yeah," Lily said, blushing red, "Well, I went to the library also."
Albus opened his mouth to speak again, but the portrait hole swung open, and Noah Smede walked through the opening, whistling to himself.
"Hey, Malfoy," he said genially as he passed the boys to go to the boy's dormitory, "Potter, Lily, Elsie. Beautiful night, isn't it?" He winked at them, and then climbed the stairs.
"That was weird," Albus remarked, "I've never seen him like that before. What do you reckon he was doing?"
"Probably snogging someone in a broom cupboard," Scorpius said glumly.
Albus laughed. "Maybe, although I don't know anyone who would kiss that. You could cite him, though, for being out after curfew. That would certainly make my night."
He stood, stretched, and bid Scorpius goodnight, climbing the stairs himself, Lily and Elsie following his example a moment after.
Scorpius sank down into Albus' vacated seat.
Noah and Rose?
He could hardly believe that it was true, but he was certain that if it was, it was very, very bad.