A/N - Guys. . .what are you doing to me? I start uni on MONDAY. I have FOUR full texts to read for then. Oh god I'm such a bad student and I haven't even started yet.

I'm sorry for any mistakes I've made.

speedsONEandONLY - SCREW YOU. I hate you. BUT she does have a pretty amazing oneshot which is rated so high due to suggested themes. Oh and - she is not my better half. I am her better half.

Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter.

Scorpius' P.O.V.

I carelessly tossed the empty glass bottle of beer over my shoulder in the direction of the rubbish bin as I made my way across the kitchen to the fridge to grab another one. I didn't care when I heard the sound of glass shattering on the tiles of the kitchen floor.

"You're drinking my beers."

I didn't glance back when I took a bottle from the fridge, twisted the cap off and took a swig. I only looked at Demi when I turned round and walked past her. She had an over night bag with her and her usual black camera case.

"I'm fine by the way. I was in Ireland following some married woman. Don't worry, I got paid." Demi called after me.

I ignored her and went back to my previous position on the sofa. I picked the remote control up and turned the television on, flicking to a channel that was playing some muggle sport. I heard Demi walk into the room and saw her sit on one of the chairs with a beer of her own.

"You owe me four beers." Demi told me sourly. "What's got your wand in knot anyway? Lily and Jessica busy tonight?"

I got up from the sofa and switched the television off, glaring at Demi as I did.

"None of your fucking business." I spat at her.

"If I come home and find you in a shitty mood; the kitchen covered in glass, fist holes in the walls then it is my business!" Demi hollered after me, following me into my bedroom despite me slamming the door after me. She sat on the bed and watched - or rather glared, as I grabbed a large bag from the wardrobe, opened that up on the bed beside her and roughly bagged all of Jessica's things that she had left all over my flat.

"You two broke up?" Demi asked me, arching an eyebrow. "Oh, I'll have that." she grabbed a jacket that I balled up and tossed on the bed.

"Not yet." I scowled, picking my beer up and taking another deep swig.

"So. . ., you're tossing her arse out to move Potter in?" Demi guessed.

I sighed again and shook my head; Demi is one of my best friends and I do owe her more than any other friend. It's not really fair on her or me if I take my frustrations out on her. "Lily's gone back to America." I muttered, going through to the bathroom and grabbing every product or item that wasn't mine.

"When?"

"Yesterday. She went to the Ministry to tell me and Dominique before she left and we had a row." I explained. It was late, almost midnight, and I had work tomorrow and really had far too many beers than I should have and no food to line my stomach either. I pulled the bag off of the bed and tossed it in a corner.

"I'm going to bed." I told Demi, pulling my shirt over my head and unbuttoning my jeans. I kicked them off and then looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm far too tired to move." Demi shrugged and slid under the covers herself. "And you have shit to tell me and if we wait until tomorrow then you'll either forget or refuse to tell me."

I scowled and ran a hand through my hair at her laid back attitude; to anybody else it would be innocent, sharing a bed with her. I however know better; Demi if furious with Albus, despite her breaking things off with him, she wants payback for him knocking Bex Cooper up. Demi's favourite form of payback - sleeping with people. What better way of hurting Albus than sleeping with me? Her ex, his best friend and his sisters ex-husband?

"Demi -"

"Talk. I swear, I won't touch any part of your anatomy." she promised me. I groaned as she fiddled under the covers and pulled her own jeans out from under them and tossed them on the ground. Her shirt followed afterwards.

I felt myself twitch at the thought of having Demi Jackson in my bed in her underwear and the male part of me wanted to let her have her pay back with Albus; the male part of me wanted to get under the covers with her and do her right here and now.

Then my inner voice reasoned with me and calmed my male part down; He reminded me that Albus is crazy about this girl and I'm supposed to be his best friend.

"Lily broke everything off with me and went back to America with her twat of a boyfriend. I'm sick of pretending with Jessica. I'm done with both of them. I'm sick of Lily playing me." I told her and then because I knew she wouldn't get out of my bed I headed for the door.

"And my best friend is madly in love with you. You can stay in here if you want to, but I'm sleeping on the sofa. Alone."

Before Lily left, only her, myself and Dominique knew of the affair. At her party, our parents found out - and now the entire Weasley-Potter family knows about our affair. Every single time I saw one of them they'd either scold me over it or tease me about it.

Or in Molly Weasley's case, slap me over the head because of it.

That was one of the reasons why I needed to break up with Jessica and that is why I was here waiting for her in the Three Broomsticks, waiting for her in a public place so I could make a quick getaway away from her.

I had a bag with all of her stuff inside of it and I made a mental note of the things I had left at her house. I was just debating on whether I could tell her to bin them when she came rushing through the door.

"Oh, babe!" Jessica came flying over to the table and fell into her chair, reaching down to nurse her foot. "I've just had the worst day ever!"

I held my empty glass bottle up so Frankie Longbottom could see it. I nodded to Jessica in front of me and he nodded back at me. A couple of minutes later he sent a tray over to us, holding a fresh bottle of butterbeer on for me and a large glass of Elf Wine.

"Oh thank you, babe. I swear this day could not get any worse." Jessica took a long swig from her glass before she continued to talk. "So I goes to my shoot this morning. . .,"

As she began to babble on about something completely worthless to me I silently kicked her bag under my chair; there's no way I could dump her right now. Her foot is swollen, which I can take to mean she'll be expecting me to take her to my flat tonight, she's had a horrible day and she'll probably end up crying over the bad day without me breaking up with her.

". . ., and then he said to me I'm getting too old!" Jessica sniffed, actually sniffed a tear away. "ME?! Old? I'm only twenty four!"

I had to bite my tongue in order to not scoff at her; she's older than me for crying out loud! That's one of the things I really dislike about Jessica; she's so vain it's beyond a joke.

Why she can't be more like Lily? Lily may know she's beautiful but she doesn't rely on that and Lily would rather relax in sweats and a ratty t-shirt than doll herself up all day everyday. Why can't Jessica be more like Lily and less. . .well, less Jessica?

"So why are we meeting here?" Jessica asked, finally shutting up about whatever nonsense she was moaning about.

"Um. . ., I'm going to Russia tomorrow." I told her half the truth. "So I thought we could eat out tonight." I followed up with a lie.

When she smiled and grabbed a menu - even though she would order a salad and then help herself to half of my food, I silently and discreetly sent her bag back to my flat.

I took extra time in the bathroom; not really in the mood for sex with Jessica tonight. I just wanted to go to sleep and be fresh for my six o'clock start. I brushed my teeth twice, had an extra long shower and dried my hair the muggle way. I also tidied the bathroom around a little bit before I couldn't put it off any longer. I was going to have a shave but I remembered Jessica didn't like stubble so I kept it on.

"You took your time." Jessica commented from her position in bed; when she found out that she was sleeping on the side that Lily used to sleep, she made me swap sides whenever she was staying the night.

I sighed as I looked her over; obviously she was expecting sex tonight. She was wearing nothing but a lacy underwear set, the lights were dimmed and I could hear soft music playing from somewhere.

"I'm not going to be here for I don't even know how long. I wanted to make sure the place was tidy." I told her honestly. I walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a pair of pajama pants; I seldom ever wore pajama's for bed, not since I was twelve years old, but I really wanted her to get the hint.

I climbed into bed and laid back, closing my eyes.

"Good night." I pretended to yawn.

Jessica however was having none of it; almost as soon as I laid in bed she practically moved to lay on top of me and pressed her lips to my neck. She moved my hands from under my head so one was at the bottom of her back and the other she was pulling it slowly down her neck, over her breasts and then down to the tops of her lace panties.

"I need to be up and ready for work at six thirty at the latest." I told her as she began to grind against me.

"Better make this quick then." Jessica purred. "I'm just letting you know what you've got to come home to."

I sighed when Jessica sat up so she was straddling me and then unclasped her bra before throwing it over her shoulder; this girl is practically raping me.

Due to years of having experience sneaking around in silence; I managed to get my clothes out of the wardrobe without waking Jessica up. I let her lay in my bed, wrapped up in the duvet while I crept out of the bedroom and down the hall into Demi's bathroom.

"What are you doing?" Demi surprised me by standing in the doorway to her bedroom, dressed in one of my t-shirts, a pair of what I assumed were Albus' boxers and a bowl of cereal in her hands.

"Going for a shower."

"My bathroom." Demi retorted.

"My flat." I quipped back at her. I grabbed the spoon and helped myself to some of her cornflakes before I backed into the bathroom.

I switched the shower on and stepped in, using the cold water to wake myself up.

"Demi - get out!" I hissed when she sauntered into the bathroom and sat on the toilet. I groaned when I heard her pee tinkle into the toilet seat.

"You're not the only person who has a job to go to you know." she muttered and reached over for the toilet roll. "No need to be shy, I've seen your junk before." she smirked as she stood up.

I rolled my eyes but tried to ignore her while she went over to the small counter and reached for her toothbrush.

"So. . .I need your thoughts on something." Demi spoke thickly while she had toothpaste in her mouth.

"On what?" I asked, helping myself to her shampoo.

Demi sighed and pulled herself up on the counter beside the sink. I watched through the steam of the shower as she grabbed a bottle of some liquid and poured it on a piece of tissue before she rubbed her toe nails with it.

"Albus." Demi muttered.

I rinsed my hair out and shut the water off so I could hear her properly.

"I love him, Scorpius." Demi admitted softly. "I just. . .he's having a kid with Cooper of the whores he had to bang, it had to be her!"

I sighed in sympathy as I began to towel off and get dressed. "Dem, you and Albus have the most bizarre relationship ever. I swear you two have a worse relationship than Lily and I have." I told her as I pulled on a pair of jeans.

Demi shrugged. "I don't know if I can watch him raise somebody else's kid though, Scor. If the potion was in the other cauldron, do you honestly think he'd play happy families with me and. . ., and your kid?"

I thought about that as I pulled a thin t-shirt on and then a shirt over the top of that. I moved over to the mirror and used my wand to dry my hair out. I really needed to cut my hair, it was getting to the point where it flopped over my eyes and fanned over my ears too.

"Yes." I told Demi honestly, looking down at her reflection as she began to apply make up, having finished doing whatever she was doing to her toes. "I think he'd raise an army of my kids if that meant you'd be there with him."

Demi put her mascara down and looked up at me through the mirror, biting her lip nervously.

"I'm going to Russia today. I'll see you when I see you." I hugged her from behind and pressed a friendly kiss on her forehead.

"Be safe." Demi called out softly.

"Hey, Scor?" I turned in the doorway at her voice. "You do know you're probably my best guy friend, right?"

I smiled sincerely back at Demi and nodded. "Yeah, and you're my best girlfriend. Practically a sister. . ., a sister who sucked my dick." I winked and laughed at her, dodging the roll of toilet roll she threw at me.

"I only did that once!"

As I sat in the canteen of the Ministry, eating a breakfast and waiting for Dominique, Harry, Ron and Lyreco to show up, I couldn't help but think about Demi. About Demi and our very diverse relationship.

She is like a sister to me. . . which is slightly scary because we've done things that no siblings should ever really do. I couldn't help but think of where I would be right now if it wasn't for Demi and what she did for me.

I let the strange girl grind into me while I tried to picture her dark skin lighter, her black buzzcut hair a long red and her small dark eyes a beautiful brown instead. I let the girl run her hands all over me as I tried to pretend the fingers roaming my chest over my shirt were Lily's and not this random girls I found in a nightclub.

I let the girl lead me from the dance floor and through a fire door. I watched as she got to her knees in front of me and hurriedly unbuckled my belt and pulled the zipper down on my jeans.

"What the hell is going on?!"

The girl stood up and looked panicked when a girls voice came over the two of us. I lazily turned my head but was surprised when I saw Demi Jackson standing in the doorway, a camera on a neck holder around her neck.

"What the hell has it got to do with you?" the girl who's name I never caught, sneered.

"That's my boyfriends dick you're about to blow, whore!" Demi lied through her teeth and then surprised me and the girl by leaning forwards, grabbing her by her hair and pulling her out of the fire exit. "Stay the fuck away, slag." Demi pushed her roughly into the crowd and slammed the door shut on her.

We both ignored the banging on the door and the muffled yells.

"What do you want Jackson?" I sighed and pulled my zipper to my jeans back up. "Or do you wanna finish this off?" I waved a hand over my area and smirked at her. "We both know it wouldn't be the first time."

Demi just scoffed and pulled her wand out of her knee length sock; as she did I looked her over once; she was wearing a short black skirt, a black shirt tucked into it, ankle length black boots with silver spikes and studs and black knee length socks.

"Why aren't you home with your wife?" she asked, waving her wand so a leather backpack conjured in front of her. "Don't worry Mr. Auror, there's no cameras in here." she mocked me when I glared at her wand.

"Oh shit, Selena told me." Demi bit her lip and put the bag on the floor.

I wasn't really too concerned over what she was saying; I was more concerned about turning round so I could throw up.

"Nice. Real attractive." Demi muttered as I splattered vomit all over the wall. "Wait - is that blood?" I heard the hurried zipper of her backpack followed by the motion of magic in the air and then her hands were on my shoulders, helping me into a standing position.

"Oh my Merlin - look at you!" Demi put my arm around her shoulder and pulled me into a standing position. "Come on, Mungo's for you."

"No - I-"

Before I could protest to anything she had already apparated me and the next thing I knew my feet were slamming into the ground.

It didn't take long for me to be put into a bed and a Healer to be ramming potions down my throat. I didn't pay attention to what they were saying, but Demi waved her wand over her hair causing it to turn bright red and smudged her make up so it looked like she had been crying and managed to convince the young Healer she was Lily; meaning he told her everything.

I waited until they took my potions off me and told me they'd check on me in an hour before I apparated out of there.

I had barely managed to get into my apartment before Demi apparated into my living room, took a look around the pace and shook her head.

"Fuck me Scorpius!" Demi shouted, looking at all the empty bottles of fire-whiskey that littered the place. "What the hell? When was the last time you ate anything?"

I ignored her and just stumbled into the kitchen where I grabbed a fresh bottle. I had just popped the cap and let the usual steam blow away from the Fire Whiskey before I felt it smash in my hand.

"Do you mind?!" I hissed at her, shaking the glass fragments and liquid from my hand.

"Do you? That Healer just told me you could die!" Demi yelled, she walked into the kitchen with me and paused when she saw her reflection in the darkened window. With a face like she was concentrating on something extremely complicated her hair began to change colour to its normal black. "I'm good at what I do." Demi shrugged when I just arched an eyebrow at her.

"Moving on - your stomach was burnt Scorpius. Badly fucking burnt. They healed it up and said you're healthy but - stop it!" Demi smashed another bottle with her wand again when I grabbed one from the fridge.

"Scorpius I am not letting you damage yourself like this!" Demi growled at me and literally jumped on me. We both fell to the floor but she moved us both so she was straddling my chest, her knees pinning my wrists to the floor next to my head. I couldn't help but watch as she banished every form of fire-whiskey in the fridge, in the cupboards and the crates that were on the worktops. Due to me not tidying up in almost a month, every single ounce of alcohol was on display.

I dug my fingers into her knees so she jumped with a surprised yelp, allowing me to reverse our positions. I went to grab her wand to conjure them back again but she surprised me by fighting dirty and bringing her knee up to slam into my back, distracting me so that she could get on top again.

We both lay and sat like that, panting and just staring at each other for a minute before she spoke.

"I'm not leaving you here alone. You'll end up killing yourself - oh Merlin!" she gasped when she saw something on my face. "That's what you want isn't it?"

I couldn't move her; I physically couldn't move her so I just turned my head to the side so I didn't have to look at her.

"Scorpius, why? Why do you want to kill yourself?"

"I sometimes wonder if anything we do is even worth it. If I'm worth it." I spoke softly, not trusting myself to look up into her face; frightened to see her reaction. "I sometimes even wonder if everybody in my life would be better off without me here." I know if I wasn't still under the influence of so much alcohol and so little food that I wouldn't be telling her this.

"My parents, Lily. . .my friends -"

Demi stopped me by putting one of her fingers over my mouth.

"Your parents adore you. Your friends respect and love you. . .and Lily? Scorpius, Lily is madly in love with you. She's just going through a bad time right now."

I tried not to pay any attention to her while she assured me loads of rubbish. I tried to focus on something else - but she wouldn't let me. Every time I looked away she physically pulled my face to look up at hers. When that didn't work she did what Demi does best - she kissed me.

"You're brave -" she kissed my neck.

"Compassionate -" she pulled my shirt open and kissed my bare chest.

"loyal to those you love -" she moved down and kissed my stomach.

I admit to being in love with Lily and wanting Lily. . .but she's in America in Scott William's bed. Maybe that's why I grabbed Demi by her shoulders, pulled her up so her face was near mine and kissed her fully and passionately.

"Earth to Scorpius."

I blinked when I felt a piece of toast hit me in the face; Dominique was sitting opposite me with her own plate of breakfast in front of her.

"Oh, morning." I cleared my throat and started eating my breakfast again.

"So we enter here. . ., there should be a guard there and - the action begins." Dominique moved her finger over a map of the old warehouse we would apprehend the target sometime this week.

"Yeah, um. . . there's been a new development." Harry told the two of us awkwardly.

I sighed and shook my head while Dominique looked up from the map and looked at her uncle suspiciously. "What?" she snapped.

"Before we could only get the coordinates for the warehouse but we now have the location for the village that it's in." Harry told us slowly; he nodded to someone behind me so I turned and saw his assistant standing at the open door.

"Thank you, Dixie." he smiled at the young girl fresh from Hogwarts as she carried what looked like a heavy box into the room and put it down on the desk. He waited until she was gone and the door was closed before he spoke again.

"It's in a muggle village and in order to prevent what happened last time. . .we received orders to command you to not use any magic if possible. Apparation and patronus's are allowed."

I had to take several deep breaths to keep calm or else I'd have yelled at Harry and I didn't want to do that.

Unfortunately, Dominique doesn't have the same values.

"Are you insane? How the hell are we meant to protect ourselves if we aren't allowed to use magic?" Dominique glared at her uncles, completely ignoring Lyreco which was probably for the best.

"With these." Harry tapped the box with his wand, making it spring open.

I sighed deeply at the sight of the two muggle guns fitted into two outlines in the box; I hated using muggle weapons. They're beyond dangerous; if these got into the wrong hands. . . it only takes one idiot to misuse them and you've killed somebody. At least with a wand you can stun or disarm people.

"Why do I get the girl gun?" Dominique demanded when I picked up the bigger one and made sure it was loaded before I slid it into the back of my jeans. I just rolled my eyes and ignored her.

"Seriously, why do I get the smaller one?" she grumbled; she picked it up and checked it over before she put it away though.

"Because you're smaller than I am." I teased. "So, we go in through here and then . . ."

Dominique and I apparated into the one roomed flat the Defense Association set up for us together.

"Nice to know they aren't afraid to spend money on our comfort." Dominique sighed and straight away went over to the heater. Even though we weren't supposed to use magic, she conjured up a roaring fire in the ancient muggle fire place. Since she didn't care about breaching instructions, I waved my wand over the flames, vanishing the smoke.

I looked around the room once the fire had warmed and lightened it up a little; there was a two seated sofa, a small wooden table with two straight backed chairs and a cardboard with enough basic rations to last us four days at the most.

Two sleeping bags were set up side by side in front of the fire place.

"Good job Gran loves us." Dominique muttered and pulled her backpack off of her shoulders. I smiled gratefully when she put her entire arm in there up to her arm pit and pulled out a load of blankets, half a dozen fluffy pillows and endless amounts of tins and flasks. "We have pies, cakes, pasties, soups, tea - oh her dragon meat stew. Charlie must be visiting." Dominique laid them all out and straight away went for the flask labeled 'Dragon Meat Stew.'

"How about we have some food, catch some sleep and then do a small tour of the town tomorrow? It doesn't look that big." I suggested.

Dominique agreed and played mother for us; she served up two generous helpings off Molly's famous stew and then opened a tin with a dozen hot homemade rolls in there.

"So, are we gonna talk about Lily?" Dominique asked me quietly as we both ate.

"What's there to talk about? She left, we're here." I shrugged a shoulder. Normally I would hate to discuss something so personal. . .but if I'm talking to Albus, Demi or Dominique I actually don't mind. There's things I tell those three that I don't even tell Maddison Goyle and we grew up as brother and sister.

"Why did she leave? One day she was all horny and wet for you and then the next she's leaving." Dominique stated bluntly.

"I don't know. Maybe. . .maybe she had an epiphany or something." I suggested weakly. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Well you told her what was wrong didn't you? It was clear, Lily told me she would speak to you and then she did and you're back to your old self." I connected the dots as I picked my third roll up and practically swallowed it whole.

Dominique sighed deeply and put her half empty bowl down. "I'll be fine. She's only a phone call or a letter away. Besides, she helped me a lot while she was here. I need to do this on my own." Dominique picked her bowl up and drained the last few bits of stew down. "Come on, it's just after four a.m. We'll get some sleep and then around lunch time we'll wander around."

I cleaned both our bowls and put the food back in her backpack while she unzipped the sleeping bags and the shared the quilts and pillows out.

"Here," I went over and took one sleeping bag off of her. "If we lay on one together, put a blanket over that and a pillow over our feet and then we sleep together with the other quilts on us and then the sleeping bag we'll be nice and warm." I told her. Even with the fire it was still a little cold.

Dominique nodded and let me wrap my hands around her as we both lay down on the thin sleeping bag. After a couple minutes arranging and fidgeting, we both finally got comfortable and most importantly warm.

The first thing I noticed about the small town we were in is that we got watched everywhere we went. By men, big burly men with very large guns in their arms and very big dogs on leads at their feet.

We didn't pay them much attention because nobody else did and they didn't watch us any more than they watched the other citizens of this town - but it still unnerved me and judging from the look in Dominique's eyes, it unnerved her too.

"What does that sign say?" I whispered to Dominique when we were looking at a market stall; I nodded to a sign behind the stall which was obviously written in Russian.

"I don't know." Dominique narrowed her eyes up at me.

"You're the departments leading Multilingualist!" I glared down at her.

Her eyes narrowed so they were practically two slits. "I can speak French, Italian, Spanish, German. I'm fluent in Mermish, Gobbledegook and Troll. I can understand Mandarin, I can read Latin and Japanese - would it harm you to pick up a language?"

I glared down at her and just shook my head lightly.

We easily found the warehouse but since it had a wired fence and guards surrounding it we decided to come back again at night.

So we did just that, when it was darker - just after six o'clock it turned so black it was practically all blind to us - we apparated out into the country and made our way over to the warehouse.

It was practically the same, except it had lights on now. It didn't take me long to figure out if the fence was electric or not.

"We have to somehow get past the guards and then we'll just climb through the fence." I told Dominique in a whisper. She nodded and signaled to return to the flat.

I had to keep flexing my fingers underneath my gloves so the blood would continue flowing through them; Russia is cold.

After three days of stakeouts we were finally able to act. After three days of being in a room with Dominique with no other contact from the outside world. - I was ready to kill somebody.

We had to apparate five miles out of the small town where the warehouse was situated, meaning we had to trek through endless amounts of snow filled fields. I was just grateful that the small uniform the D.A. sent us in was weather proof; thick boots, jeans that were flexible enough they felt like second skin, form-fitted t-shirts, jackets; all black of course. Over the top of those Dominique and I wore leather jackets. Rose sent me my own version of the one she designed for Dominique so we had those on. We also decided to wear gloves, thick black scarves and beanie hats to hide our pale skin and light hair as much as possible.

"Do you think we should jog?" Dominique suggested; her voice muffled behind the thick scarf that was hiding not only her face but the smoke that came out of her mouth from her breathing and talking.

Jogging would get us there faster, warm us up and get us psyched up for the inevitable fight that was about to happen.

"Go!" I hissed and began jogging quickly.

I was glad that Dominique suggested it; not only did we make it to the trees where we were at the other night in a quicker time, but when we stopped I could feel my body warm up a little and I had adrenaline shooting through my veins at a hundred miles an hour.

"What's the plan?" Dominique asked me, pulling her scarf down so she could get a good look at the guards.

"Well I saw we make a distraction so the side guards have to go to this side here." I suggested; the warehouse's fence had four sides and from our observations three nights ago, all four sides had five guards and five guard dogs.

"Ok, you wait here and I'll go sort a distraction out." Dominique pulled her scarf back up and pulled her gun out of the back of her jeans. Before I had a chance to stop her she had began to climb a tree; thankfully due to her small stature and because she was so flexible, she soon scaled right to the top and I watched as she jumped from tree to tree.

I only had to wait for a couple of minutes before I became aware of what Dominique's distraction actually was.

Gunfire came out of nowhere and I heard shouting in a Russian voice; it all sent the guards facing where Dominique and I were hiding, running in the direction she had just been. They had no sooner ran to the commotion with their guns and dogs at the ready then Dominique had dropped lightly to her feet beside me; her face flush with either excitement or blood rushing to her face.

Most likely excitement.

"What did you do?" I asked her, taking her hand and hurrying towards the fence while we still had time.

"I shot a guard." Dominique told me non-cholantly.

I glanced at her in wonder; how could she act so indifferent about shooting people?

"What? It was in the foot! I haven't killed him! No serious harm no foul." Dominique shrugged.

I didn't have bother to reply to her, we had arrived at the fence. Before we got a chance to get shot, I grabbed the barbed wire and yanked them farther apart so it was large enough for the two of us to climb through. Grateful that I had thick gloves on because the barbed wire looked sharp enough to cut through bone.

After I followed Dominique through the fence I arranged the wire back in order, or as much as possible, and led the way towards the warehouse.

"We're going to have to split up." I murmured when we actually got to the wall of the warehouse. "Do you want the front or back entrance?"

Dominique looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I knew she was biting her lip to stop herself from laughing.

"Alright Miss Sexually Frustrated - you take the back, I'll take the front. Usual drill if you need help." I ordered her; in live action where we're under imminent threat maybe when Dominique is in charge but until then, I'm the more experienced Auror meaning I'm in charge.

"Going in alive," Dominique held out her fist.

"coming out the same way." I pumped her fist with mine.

Somehow I managed to get into the warehouse undetected. I managed to get past the guards at the front, silently knocking them both out with two bricks that were laying around in front of a small extension that I guessed was a station area for the guards to be in when the weather turned even colder. I pulled their unconscious bodies into the unfinished hut, emptied their guns of bullets and hid their bodies with debris and bricks.

I got into the warehouse and quickly made my way up a set of stairs to where I knew a security system would be. As I expected, there was two people on patrol there. I quietly crept up so I was standing behind the closest one, pulled my gun from my jeans and pressed it against his head, putting my spare hand over his mouth.

"The cameras. Off. Or I shoot." I ordered the second man who turned at the sound of his friends' muffled groans.

The first man muffled something but I just pressed my hand over his mouth more firmly and tug my gun into his temple, looking directly at the man on the controls. I poised myself ready to shoot the guy in front of me and then mentally prepared for how I would kill the first guy when he surprised me by turning to the controls and beginning to shut the security off.

I knew it was too good to be true though because when the first guy turned his back on me, the guy in my hands grabbed a knife from a holder on his waist and stabbed me in the leg, just above my knee.

"Son of a bitch!" I hissed in pain and turned the gun over in my hand so I slammed the handle over his head, sending him falling to the floor.

Before the other guy could do anything to the controls I dived for him, sending the two of us crashing to the floor. I pinned him to the ground and repeatedly slammed the handle of the gun into the temple of his head.

"Damn it." I sighed and got off of him. "I wanted no deaths." I muttered to myself, using the toe of my boot to flip the two over so I didn't have to look at their lifeless faces.

I quickly went over to the controls and worked the screens so I could bring the security cameras up.

"Thank Merlin." I muttered when I noticed that none of the guards close to where I was had heard me kill the two guards in here. I fiddled around with a few buttons until I got up the footage from where Dominique was.

"Does she just not pay attention to anything I say?!" I hissed when I saw her strapped up to a chair with four guards standing around her. Almost as if she knew exactly what I was doing she looked into the camera and smirked at me.

"Stupid wench." I growled and quickly checked where our guy was - safe and sound in his office counting out piles of money. I switched all the security cameras and alerts off before I left the room. I winced in pain when I stepped too heavy on my injured leg though and took several deep breaths before I put my weight back on it and put the pain to the back of my head.

I ran through the warehouse, hiding behind lorries and walls that led to high cubicles so people didn't see me. As I made my way slyly towards where Dominique was trapped I wondered why they didn't know we were here.

One guard had been shot, an intruder had been apprehended. Two guards were dead in one room and another two were most likely dead under some bricks outside - why aren't they aware?

"No zen. . .what to do wiv our friend?"

A gruff voice with an average talent at the English language was speaking when I finally got to where Dominique was sitting. I hid behind a group of metal drums filled with what looked like tar, making sure I had a good view of what was going on.

"Boss said he don't want to be intruded. . .we 'av to keep you quiet." the speaker laughed a little and barked something in Russian to the other guards who all laughed too.

I watched as they dropped their guns and one of them advanced towards Dominique - with his hands flying towards his trousers.

I felt a little sick when I realised they were planning to rape Dominique one after the other and then most likely kill her.

I kicked one of the drums over and jumped away from the tar, aiming my gun at the guy who was unfastening his trousers. I pulled the trigger and watched as he fell to the ground, a hole in the middle of his forehead.

"ABOUT TIME!" Dominique screamed when she saw me.

"Sorry! Got a little caught up with security!" I shouted back, sending a bullet to another guy's chest, making him fall down to the ground.

I felt something heavy smash into my stomach and then felt myself getting flipped over. I couldn't do anything but double over on myself and cradle my head as one of the big guys who was going to rape Dominique kicked me repeatedly with their steal capped boots.

I heard the sounds of wood being smashed up and then what felt like minutes later but was probably only seconds I heard a painful groan come from the guy, he stopped kicking me and then his groan turned to a wet gurgling sound.

Dominique helped me up and straightened me up while I looked round; my attacker was thrashing around on the floor, a wooden leg from Dominique's chair sticking out of his throat while the fourth guy was laying face down in the tar, his feet stirring every couple of seconds before they stopped moving all together.

"I killed three outside, bound and gagged two more." Dominique told me as I took several deep breaths and stretched out all the injured parts of my body.

"I knocked out two outside but they're most likely dead by now. Killed two in the security room." I told her, feeling a sense of relief when I clicked my back. "That felt good. Come on, if we get this guy to the Ministry we might make it back for Sunday lunch at your Gran's."

"Mum! Ow!" Dominique hissed when Fleur attacked her as soon as we walked - or rather limped, through the front door of the Burrow. "Yeah Mum, three hours ago some seven foot guy stood on my ribs - thank you!" Dominique gasped when Fleur let her go.

After Ginny and Molly came over and fussed over the two of us, Dominique and I found ourselves sitting in the kitchen while the women all cooked around us. Most of the men were sitting at the table; Harry and Ron sitting in front of us.

"How did it go?" Ron asked the two of while the women were distracted.

"We got him." Dominique nodded. "Alive."

A huge sense of relief was visible over Ron and Harry's faces and they both smiled happily.

"How many didn't make it?" Harry asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

It didn't matter though because everybody heard and everybody stopped talking and listened to what we had to say. The tension in the room was so uncomfortable I squirmed in my chair before I answered.

"Six for me." I muttered, looking down at the table.

"Five." Dominique spoke in the same voice as I did; I can't imagine how it must feel like for her. Having to sit and tell her family, her parents - her grandparents, that she killed five people just hours ago.

I don't know about her, but I felt sick to my stomach at the thought of the six men who's lives I ended.

Nobody said anything about the mission. Not until Dom and I were sitting in the garden, taking a breather and both silently thinking about what we did today, when Louis came out of the house. He had Bobby and Selena with him.

"I need to ask you guys a question and I want an honest answer." Louis spoke nervously.

"How does it feel when you kill somebody?" Louis asked when nobody stopped his question.

I let out a shocked breath and glanced over at the other three Auror's outside with us. Selena and Bobby exchanged looks with each other and Dominique just closed her eyes.

Bobby spoke first.

"When you do it. . .you'll think of Logan and Harley." he told Louis. "and you'll think 'I'm doing this for my boys. I'm getting rid of people like this for my boys.' Well, that's what goes through my mind whenever. . ., yeah. . ." Bobby trailed off rather uncomfortably.

Selena didn't say anything. She just wrapped her arms around her torso tightly and shook her head slowly, looking very sad and very childlike as she did it.

"It never leaves you." I told him quietly, looking out into the sky at a pod of birds flying in 'V' formation over us all. "No matter how many people you save, no matter how many people that one person hurt or frightened or. . ., it never leaves. You've taken somebody's life away from them. A mothers son, a fathers daughter." I told him, clearing my throat a couple of times.

"You have to tell yourself that it's for the best." Dominique spoke from beside me on the bench. "You have to tell yourself that there's people in this world who don't deserve to die. . .Molly for example." she didn't look at anybody when she spoke. She just pulled her feet up on the bench and wrapped her arms around her legs. Staring intently at her knees.

"Molly?"

"Bruno's next target was Molly." Bobby told Louis softly.

"He'd have killed her and she - Robbie wouldn't be here. She wouldn't be pregnant." Dominique pointed out bitterly. "If Hilda hit Mum with that curse - it's things like that which make it so we have to kill." she told Louis strongly, looking up at her brother for the first time.

Louis nodded slowly, taking in the thoughts of people he would be working alongside in eighteen months time. He excused himself after a moment and Selena and Bobby followed him back inside.

I waited until they were inside before I looked at Dominique.

"Are you saying that when we eventually go up against Hilda, you're going to kill her?" I asked her quietly.

Dominique looked away from me and up at the birds that were still in sight. "I'm saying that when I get my chance. . .I'll kill her before I get the chance to arrest her." she spoke in a strong yet quiet and gentle voice.

"What about you? Are you really gonna say you'll be happy seeing her back in a cell for the rest of her life? Sleeping in a comfortable bed everyday for the rest of her miserable life; knowing what she did to you? What she took from your flat?" Dominique argued in that same strong, yet quiet and gentle voice.

I felt my face harden and my fists clench at the mention of her stealing Olivia's hair from my flat.

"No." I decided right there and then. "When I see her. . .I'm going to kill her myself."

I said goodbye to the Weasley's and intended on walking down to the muggle village to test the pain in my leg from getting stabbed. I made it til just over the boundaries of the Burrow before someone called my name, making me turn around.

"Harry?"

When Harry finally jogged up to me I grabbed hold of him by his shirt and grabbed my wand from my pocket.

"What did you say to me when I first visited your house?" I demanded, pointing my wand against his throat.

"Don't judge the son by the father's actions." Harry told me calmly. "You haven't judged my son on my actions so I won't judge your fathers on his."

I let go of Harry and carried on walking. "Sorry."

"I'd have been more annoyed if you didn't do that." Harry waved my apology off. "So. . .I overheard your discussion with Dominique"

I stopped walking and looked Harry in the eye; how will my boss handle the fact that Dominique and I had clearly just broken the code. We've just technically plotted to kill somebody. Auror's don't do that.

"I'd like to make it clear. . .I heard what you two were talking about, not Auror. Potter." Harry told me just as calmly. "And as Harry, your father in law and Dominique's uncle. . .I'd like to ask you something."

I stopped walking again and looked at Harry, wondering what exactly he wanted to ask me concerning my plan to kill Hilda.

"Are you afraid of dying, Scorpius?"

Harry's question surprised me; mainly because I wasn't expecting something so deep coming from him. Partly because Harry is like my father and I can't ever imagine having a conversation about my impending death or my fear over my impending death. Partly because I don't know how to answer that question.

"Are you?" I retorted.

Harry just smiled slightly and took his glasses of so he could clean them before he answered. "Scorpius. . .I've been hit with a killing curse more times than needed. I know what dying feels like. I'm not scared of death. When my time comes I'll welcome it like an old friend."

I carried on walking again as I took in his answer.

"Scorpius. . . the fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time." Harry told me, walking evenly with me.

I stopped again and looked at Harry with a confused scowl.

"What I'm trying to say is - if you and Hilda go up against each other there's only one of you who will come out alive." Harry told me truthfully and honestly. "Merlin this is like a blast from the past." he joked slightly; easing some of the tension surrounding us.

"I'm just saying if you've lived your life to its full then maybe you shouldn't be afraid of losing it." Harry suggested.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning if you love my daughter then you go get her." Harry told me abruptly, sounding much more like the Harry I knew.

Before I could say anything in response to that, Harry apparated away from me.

I apparated straight back to the flat instead of walking the rest of the distance to the village. Harry's words had given me too much to think about.

If I saw Hilda tomorrow and we dueled or fought and I killed her - the majority of my problems would be over.

If I saw Hilda tomorrow and we dueled or fought and she killed me - I'd die having not told Lily how I feel about her, how I still feel about her. How I've always loved her. How that affair wasn't enough. How I'm so very sorry for walking away two years ago. How I'm sorry for messing her around last year. How I'm sorry that I didn't fight hard enough.

I'd die stringing Jessica along; giving her false hope that I'm in this joke of a relationship for the long run when in the reality I don't even care enough for her to be in a lasting relationship.

"That settles it then." I spoke to myself as I landed in the living room. I didn't look to see who was in there, I just headed straight for my bedroom to get Jessica's bag and then I would take it over to her house and break things off with her.

"Scorpius?"

The woman herself was actually standing in the doorway, an apron on with a bottle of beer in her hand.

"Albus came by here this afternoon, told Demi you and Dominique were back." Jessica explained when I just stared at her. "I've made dinner."

I summoned up everything in me, all my supposed ruthlessness as a Slytherin. My ability to hurt people's feelings as a Malfoy. My ability to make cut throat decisions as an Auror. My ability to put my thoughts and feelings first like a man.

"We need to talk."

"I need to tell you something."

We both spoke at the same time. I was shocked at her statement whereas she looked like she was expecting mine.

"I'll go first." I offered, not really giving her chance to go first. "Jessica, we don't really -"

"Scorpius -"

"mesh well together do we?"

"Scorpius you really need to listen to me -"

"I think it's better on both of us if we just end this here. Now. Tonight."

"Scorpius, I'm pregnant."

A/N 2 - so. . .now you know why Scorpius always insisted on having Demi around. That flashback could have went on for ages but I thought it was best to stop it there. Scorpius didn't keep her around because she slept with him. He kept her around because;

1. she needed a place to stay
2. she saved his life.

Oh, what Harry says: The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. ~Mark Twain

What do you think?