By next evening, Rose felt as prepared as she could've been for the duel.

And that was not prepared at all.

She hated the sense of inadequacy that floated in her stomach like a buoy lost at sea. It was eleven o'clock at night now – long past her normal bedtime, and long past curfew. She'd spent the entire day, morning until evening, practicing jinxes and counter-jinxes by herself in one of the spare classrooms, and yet none of it seemed to matter. One day was not enough time. A flimsy plan by Scorpius was not enough to reassure her that they'd win.

Rose was a decent duellist at best. Nothing to write home about. Why did she have the uneasy feeling that Tristan and Karlin would be more equipped to defeat her? Why was she fearing that she'd lose? She studied the thought restlessly as she drew on her travelling cloak, simple unadorned black cloth with a generous hood.

Rose couldn't lose. If Tristan hosted his stupid party in Sev Com, any authority she'd accumulated in the three weeks since term began would pour down the drain, and there was nothing she'd be able to do about it. Worse, she might actually have to help him hold this… thing.

No, she thought, double-checking her appearance and leaving her room. I won't lose. She begged her heart to pinch some of that bravery her parents had coveted over their years at Hogwarts as she tiptoed to the Sev Com lounge to wait.

It was a dirge of eerie silence. Rose could make out the noise of every creak of wood, every errant crackle of flame from the single lit wall torch, and every howl of wind outside, battering the wooden window covers against stained glass. The waterfall continued to fall, but it was so seamless Rose barely paid it mind. She'd already put the others to bed, but there were echoes of their activity everywhere in the room. Malina, most obviously, left many of her spell books lying about to continue reading tomorrow. She didn't talk much, Malina, but Rose wasn't in a position to want to encourage her.

Footsteps echoed from the staircase. Scorpius had finally emerged from his own quarters, similarly in a large black cloak and, weirdly enough, a black suit. He looked like he was dressed for a ball, not a duel. The suit was clearly tailored, moulded to his broad, lithe frame in a way that accentuated his strength, his presence, and he held his posture as he descended the multiple staircases.

What a weird thing to notice, Rose chided herself. The last thing she needed to be thinking about was Scorpius' figure. She had a duel to win. She spun on her heel and glared at the door, as if hoping the portrait on the other side would miraculously open.

"Ready to go?" he asked. In the quietness, his voice rumbled like a low drumbeat.

"I'm ready," she said.

"Remember the plan?"

"Obviously."

"I'm serious." He came closer to her, shaving the gap between them so much that even in the low light, the grey of his eyes glowed. "I know you don't like this—"

"I hate this."

"— but if you think Tristan would've backed down any other way, you'd be wrong."

"And Karlin's been desperate to fight someone." She let out a huff. "It just seems silly. A party, of all things. And why is Karlin always so pressed?"

The corner of Scorpius' lip tilted.

"… What?" asked Rose.

"Just find it funny you're asking that."

"Why?"

"Don't you think you're kind of pressed, all the time?"

Rose barely had time to process. "What? I—"

But a clattering of boots cut her off. "Wait!"

Halie hurried down the stairs, flinging on a cloak, with Minhyuk behind, equally dressed and beaming.

"Wait!" Halie skidded to a stop in front of them. "Okay… hold on, lemme' catch my breath…"

"What are you doing?" asked Rose. "I thought you were asleep!"

"Sleep? When there's a duel?" Minhyuk laughed good-naturedly. "I don't think I could if I tried!"

"Yeah, no way am I missing the opportunity to watch Karlin get knocked on his arse," added Halie between pants, grinning slyly.

Rose looked at Scorpius, but when he simply arched an eyebrow, Rose sighed. "You can't go."

"Of course we can! This is our common room, isn't it? We gotta' be there!"

"No, you don't. It's risky enough that Scorpius and I have to sneak out. There's no way four of us can go down a corridor unnoticed by someone."

"What if we follow your instructions to the letter?" Minhyuk offered. "We'll do everything you tell us to. If you say run, we run. If you say hide, we hide—"

"Answer's still no," Rose said, deadpan.

Minhyuk clapped his hands together, his face drooping— was that a puppy face? "Please, Rose? This will be really good, er, team-building!"

"Yeah, team-building!" Halie echoed, though with a little confusion. "Please?"

Rose huffed. "Listen, I—"

"Hold on." Scorpius faced her again. "Let's be honest, there's no question that they'll sneak out when you and I have left to go to the duel anyway."

"That's right!" Halie announced, puffing herself up. "We'll sneak out!"

"At least if they accompany us," Scorpius gave her a withered frown, "we can keep a closer eye on them."

"Whose side are you on?" Rose muttered. Why did Scorpius insist on rule-breaking so much? Did he take any of his prefect duties seriously? He was right, though; she couldn't stop them leaving and she definitely couldn't stop them following. Not unless she wanted to practice her jinxes and hexes early. "Fine. But I'm taking your word for it, Minhyuk. Do as I say and not a moment later."

It was actually cute to see Halie and Minhyuk high-five. "Sweet." Halie bounced on the spot. "And listen, not to put pressure on you both, but I bet two sickies against Minhyuk on you winning, so…"

"You bet money on us?" asked Rose, incredulous.

"You mean Sickles?" said Scorpius.

"Whatever. Your currency is weird. In Australia we just use dollars." Halie pumped her fist. "Let's go!"

The portrait door closing behind them seemed to echo noisily all throughout the tower, so Rose hurried them down the corridor to the Grand Staircase Tower. The chosen location for the duel was, luckily, on the same level as Sev Com's entrance, but it involved using the Grand Staircase to go down and up again, and since it was such a hubbub for movement Rose worried someone would spot them, even this late. The paintings on the wall gave them narrowed stares as they crept along, wands out to emit light.

"Ow!" Halie suddenly seethed. "Minhyuk, you stepped on my foot!"

"I'm not even next to you!" Minhyuk protested.

"Ssshh!" Scorpius hissed.

They were three steps away from the sixth floor landing until the stair moved, jerking Rose from her crouched position and forcing her to grab the bannister for balance. In tense silence, they waited until the stair reconnected with another lip of stone before taking a different hallway to the stairs to the seventh floor. Without meeting anyone, they reached the seventh floor and hustled into the wide passages, the ceiling raising far above them.

"What's this place called again?" Halie asked.

"The Room of Requirement," murmured Scorpius, holding out his hand to peer around the last wall. After a moment, he ushered them all forwards. "It's a special room. Only appears to people who need it."

How Tristan knew about the Room of Requirement was another mystery, but Rose suspected the answer began with an L and ended with an onnie.

"Really? Fascinating," said Minhyuk, no longer bothering to quieten his voice as they stopped by the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and his ballet-dancing trolls. "So if you wanted to use the toilet?"

"Yep," said Scorpius.

"Amazing." To Minhyuk's credit, he did sound amazed. "I wonder about the magic that had to go into that. Multiple charms to detect thoughts at least…"

Along the entire wall was nothing but bare brick. Rose placed a hand to it.

"Okay." Scorpius turned to Halie and Minhyuk. "Close your eyes. Think three times, I need a place to duel. Do it now."

They shut their eyes. Rose did too. I need a place to duel, she thought. I need a place to duel. I need a place to duel.

I need a place to win a duel, her brain added. Still, by Halie's excited squee, her first three thoughts had already worked, and when Rose opened her eyes again, the proud doors of the Room of Requirement loomed over them, wood stricken and worn from years and years of use.

She met Scorpius' eyes and watched his hard, battle-ready expression soften to a smirk. Pressed, he'd said. Was she pressed? Really? The word didn't strike her as something she could apply to herself. Finicky, maybe. Not pressed. Yet his amused eyes seemed to say otherwise.

"C'mon then." Halie didn't wait for anyone's approval; she shoved open the door. "Let's go in!"

Inside revealed a tidy room that contained only one singular long walkway. The platform for the duel. No doors, no mirrors, no windows. It was a tight space and yet large enough to fight within. Rose went to close the door behind them, but oddly it bounced once on seemingly nothing before sealing shut.

"Ready to lose?"

Rose spun around. On the other side of the hall, Karlin stretched his arms and legs in various positions, wand out and held loosely in his pale hands. He'd forgone his normal Koldovstoretz uniform for his Quidditch gear, minus the cloak – form-fitting, moveable wear. Clever. "I thought you might not appear."

"We're early." Shoulders hunched, the gooseflesh on Rose's skin prickled at the thick atmosphere. "It's only half-eleven."

"I hoped you might not appear, then, because you are married to rules." Karlin sneered and turned to his partner. "Shall we begin?"

Tristan, standing a few paces away, had meanwhile decided to appear in Muggle wear – jeans and a loose band T-shirt – and was lazily rolling his shoulders in half-hearted stretches. His wand was jammed into his back pocket – bad form, thought Rose.

"Now, now, there's no need for bad sportsmanship, Karlin," he drawled, flourishing his hands in welcome. "This is supposed to be good fun as well as a tie-breaker. You've even brought referees!"

It took Rose a moment to realise he meant Halie and Minhyuk.

"What now?" Halie called.

"We need referees, of course." Tristan unsheathed his wand and waved it around – awful form, thought Rose. "To, you know, make sure the match is fair, or whatever. Now I hear that you, my Korean-Australian friend" – he gestured to Minhyuk – "are on my side for this endeavour?"

"I'm fully Korean, but yes," said Minhyuk, beaming. "I bet two sickies on you!"

"Sickles," said Scorpius.

"Ah, sorry, your accent throws me off." Dramatically Tristan rolled onto the walkway, stood up and raised his arms. "Then if you pull for me and your other Australian friend pulls for Weasley and Malfoy, then we have an even judging stage."

"That's not how duels work, Tristan," Rose said, approaching her side of the walkway. "Whoever is defeated or yields first loses."

Tristan huffed, but there was a distinctive edge to it. "Well, you see, I was thinking— it might be more fun to judge based on performance rather than skill—"

"Can we just get this over with?" she cut across, drawing her own wand. Fir wood and dragon heartstring, she'd known instantly that she wanted this wand when she saw the intricate rose design crawling up the base. Good that it had chosen her, too. "No foul play. No spells that cause serious harm or death. And no extra points for looking pretty. All right?"

Tristan hesitated. "But—"

"Haven't you ever duelled before?"

"O-Of course I have!" He huffed. "Fine, fine, whoever is defeated first loses. You people are so boring."

As Tristan made his last stretches, Scorpius grabbed Rose's arm. His face was a mixture of seriousness and yet somehow ease, too, like this was nothing more than a normal Sunday night to him.

"Aim for his appearance, remember," he whispered. "That's what he cherishes the most."

"I know."

"Then good luck," a smirk, "Rosie."

She didn't even have the time to refute her annoying nickname as Tristan announced, "So, the conditions! If I win, you, my opponents, Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy, will not only say nothing about my upcoming party, but also help to conceal it from the professors, staff and other goody-two-shoes of Hogwarts, if I require it. If I lose, I don't hold my party. Are we in agreement?"

Rose took her place. "We are."

They met in the centre – Rose counted ten steps from her position – and bowed. Up close there was not a trace of worry or ill-content on Tristan's annoyingly good-looking face. In fact, he seemed all pleasantries and smiles as he rose and spun around, whistling as he sauntered back to his spot. Unless he was a good liar, his previous hesitation had vanished. He wasn't even taking it seriously! Rose's blood boiled as she returned to her side and raised her wand.

With Halie and Minhyuk standing by the centre of the walkway, and the seconds Karlin and Scorpius behind their firsts, it couldn't have looked like a more official duel if Rose tried.

Appearance, she thought. Simple enough. Her first spell came to her head. "Ready."

"Ready," Tristan echoed.

Halie raised her hand. "Then begin!"

"Densaugeo!" Rose roared.

The violet spell erupted from her wand, but with a quick whip of movement, Tristan backhanded it into the wall. Startlingly it exploded against the stone.

"Hah! I'm so good!" He pointed his wand. "Expelliarmus!"

Nothing happened.

Tristan's cheeks went white. "Come on. Expelliarmus!"

Seizing her chance, Rose aimed at his legs. "Tarantallegra!"

This time the spell hit the mark, and Tristan did a sudden splits, then rose to tap. He yelped as his legs flew helplessly out in all kinds of directions, like some sort of odd attempt to Irish dance. It was so hilarious that Rose started to laugh.

Growling in his first sign of irritation, Tristan whirled his hand. "S-Stupefy!"

But the spell that knocked into Rose sent her flipping five feet into the air, screaming.

"Spongify!"

The ground undulated beneath her like a bouncy castle, killing her momentum, before leaving her on a rigid surface again. Heart in throat, Rose found Scorpius' frazzled gaze, his wand out – his quick-thinking saved her a trip to the infirmary. Their eyes clashed, and Rose hoped he could see the thanks in hers.

"ILLEGAL!" yelled Karlin, drawing his own wand and pointing it at Scorpius. "Intervention by the second means I duel too! Expelliarmus!"

Scorpius parried the blow, and the two began a fierce trade of spells. Violent beams of energy flew from their wands like wayward fireworks. In the mayhem, Rose made out the taunts Scorpius was freely lobbing at Karlin, doing his best to rile him as much as possible; it seemed to be working, judging by the ugly shade of purple Karlin's face had turned.

Narrowly avoiding a parried Knockback jinx, Rose scrambled back to the walkway, where Tristan was desperately pointing his wand at his dancing legs and shrieking, "Finite Incantatem! Finite Incantatem! Spellus Stoppus! Come on, wand!" Nothing was happening.

Rose levelled her own at him. "What's wrong with your wand? Why is it messing with our spells?"

"I don't know!" Gritting his teeth, he suddenly pointed his wand at Rose. "Aqua Eructo!"

But a bouquet of roses sprouted from the tip.

Giggles fell from Rose's lips at the same time she realised. "It doesn't even obey you!"

"It does! Sometimes!" he snapped, pointing it again at her. "Flipendo!" Nothing. "Stupefy!" Nothing. "Expelliarmus!"

A gushing green goo shot out of the tip of his wand and covered Rose in seconds. She shrieked as its gungy quality sank into her hair, her clothes, everything. It stuck between her wand and hand like glue.

"Huh. Useful." Tristan was suddenly grinning again, and worse, his legs had stopped dancing. To Rose's horror, he managed to stand upright and point his wand again. "Everte Statem!"

"Protego!" The green bolt bounced off her shield. "Calvorio!"

Tristan lunged out of the way – the spell caught his side and shaved off one side of his tea-brown hair. Stumbling onto the floor, he raised a hand to the side of his head and felt only prickles.

"My… my hair!" he cried. "You got my hair!"

Rose grinned. The goo was still too viscous to move very much, but oh, she could've danced at the haunted expression on Tristan's face.

"Yield now," she demanded, "or I'll give you a buzzcut!"

He raised his wand. "Never!"

The blast hit Rose square in the stomach, ripping her feet from her shoes and slamming her into the back wall. Black stars burst into her vision, and though she floated harmlessly down and crumpled on the floor, the pain was too much.

Everything went black.

Rose Weasley was unconscious.

Bugger.

Rhys Kekoa grabbed Albus Potter's arm before he could run out from beneath the Invisibility Cloak and reveal them.

"But— my cousin—" Albus hissed.

"I know," said Rhys. "But they can't know we're here."

Unsatisfied but temporarily subdued, Albus fell back in line. Funny that. This was Albus' idea, after all, to spy on the duel. Yesterday evening around the roaring Gryffindor common room fire, Albus hadn't exactly told Rhys what they'd be doing today – only to stay awake. Rhys, as chill as he was, agreed to do whatever Albus wanted of him, and Albus had thanked him kindly. A good guy, he was, Albus Potter, to want to go to help his cousin. Not like Rhys, standing near Rose's inanimate body with a horrified but morbidly fascinated expression.

She was meant to win the duel. That was why he'd agreed to come along at all. Her falling unconscious? Her losing? Not supposed to happen.

"Bugger that," he swore, this time under his breath, if only to cement the inconvenient circumstances in his head, and ran a hand through his unkempt shoulder-length dark brown hair. It tangled in his fingers.

"Tch, you're telling me," whispered Albus.

"Oh, no, no, no!"

Rhys pulled Albus back again as the two foreign students sprinted across the hall towards Rose, folded on herself by the wall. The blonde, Australian one – Halie? – knelt to Rose's level and sat her upright, then startled to see Rose's peaceful expression, eyes shut. She swore a string of unrepeatable words.

"Is she…?"

The Korean-with-the-Australian-accent, Minhyuk, pressed two fingers against her throat. Unlike Halie, he seemed entirely calm as he said, "No, just unconscious."

Albus breathed a sigh of relief.

As Minhyuk worked to clean away the goo, Halie whirled on the three remaining boys. Scorpius Malfoy and Karlin Zolotov were still locked in a furious duel – neither had even noticed Rose – and Tristan Asher, who had recoiled off his own blasting spell and landed sprawled four feet away from where he'd been standing, was staggering to his feet, dizzy.

Rhys chest constricted. Stupid… annoying… idiot…

Tristan massaged his forehead the same time as Halie yelled, "Hey, you morons! Stop!"

Scorpius turned instantly. Karlin looked like he wanted to get one more spell off, but thought better of it, and Tristan limped over. All three had converged on Rose's body in a matter of moments, pushing Rhys out of view.

"Oh no." Scorpius knelt at once. Rhys couldn't see his expression with his back turned, but the strained quality of his voice spoke volumes. "No, no. Is she—?"

"Unconscious," said Minhyuk, more kindly this time.

Scorpius pulled out his wand. "Rennervate."

To a great sigh of relief, Rose made a muffled hng noise and groggily stirred, fingers twitching and eyelids jolting. She seemed to flit between waking and slumber.

"Rest easy, Rosie," said Scorpius, inspecting the rest of her for damage. "You got hit pretty bad."

"Because of you!" Halie pointed at Tristan, lips curled in a snarl. "You hit her with— the hell was that? A bomb spell?"

"I didn't use a bomb spell!" Tristan protested; there was a bruise blooming by his jaw where he'd smacked the stone wall that Rhys thought was mightily deserved. "My wand—"

"Your wand, your responsibility!" Halie shrieked. "You could've killed her!"

"But I didn't," Tristan insisted, cheeks going as ruddy as a Gryffindor robe. "She's alive!"

"She lost," said Karlin. He raised his chin over the others, his sly smile devoid of any warmth or sympathy. "She yielded."

"She didn't—" But the words rammed down Scorpius' mouth. Falling unconscious was pretty much the equivalent of being defeated, and he knew it.

"So… we won?" Tristan, at least, had the heart not to seem ecstatic at this violent victory. "The party is on?"

Ah yes, this stupid party. The school grapevine was ripe with the rumour of it; Lonnie couldn't stop alluding to it between mooning over their newest celebrity. Rhys hated the way she completely drifted whenever Tristan was involved. Sure, typical of Lonnie to fall head over heels for a tall, handsome, rich, famous bloke, basically the complete opposite of Rhys, but to abandon all common sense? It struck him sideways.

Albus had seemed pretty neutral to Tristan before, but now… his brow was hard as it fixated between him and his cousin.

Rhys pushed the thoughts out of his head and looked to Halie and Minhyuk for more information, but the pair only deferred to Scorpius with frowns. Scorpius grimaced, looked between Tristan and Rose, and sighed.

"Yeah. You win."

"Exce— I mean, yes. Good." Tristan crouched by Rose and scanned her superficially. "She'll be fine… right?"

Like you care, Rhys thought, scowling.

"Don't think she's broken anything," Scorpius said, after another quick glance of his own. Then a low rumble, "Get that wand in check, Asher. You're lucky she's alive."

It was a scramble to organise transport back to respective common rooms. Karlin didn't seem keen to join the party back to the Seventh Common in the Central Tower, especially given the cold expression Scorpius was giving him, but made no argument when Scorpius replaced Rose's shoes and levitated her towards the door.

"Well, I hope she ends up rested," said Tristan, pushing passed into the hallway with his wand out. "I'll have the details sent to you by Friday. Oooh, this party is going to be awesome! Lonnie is going to be so pleased."

Of course she'd be pleased. She loved parties. What a stupidly redundant comment to make.

"How're you getting back?" asked Halie.

"By going the way I came. Duh." Tristan waved his fingers. "I'll see you all tomorrow!"

He slid through the door and was gone, and all the tension Rhy felt whistled free of his body with him. Tristan had, of course, never met Rhys. He'd barely glanced in his direction during Care of Magical Creatures, and they weren't in the same Charms class, but Rhys' blood boiled at the sight of him, flipping his stupid hair and waving his stupid hands around like he owned the place.

Three weeks he'd been here, and he'd upended Lonnie. Turned her into some mechanical fangirl that thought of nothing but him. All of her attention was locked on him, trained like a hunting dog sniffing out its fallen prey, and given that she was one of Rhys' only friends (the other being Albus), it hurt to see her only half-there for their brief conversations.

When he'd decided to slip out and watch this duel, it had been for research. Duelling research. But he'd also been half-hoping Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy would knock Tristan off his golden pedestal. Not the total opposite.

Scorpius sighed. "We should go."

"Yeah, she needs to get to bed." Halie jerked her thumb towards the door. "I'll go check it's clear."

Albus tugged on Rhys' arm then. Rhys understood. They had to time themselves again, leave as the others did, so they wouldn't notice how suspicious it would be that the Room of Requirement's door was still there. Once Halie gave the all-clear, Rhys and Albus escaped behind Minhyuk and Karlin, who were holding the rear of their group, and thankfully didn't turn around when the door bounced against Rhys' heel.

"Follow me," said Scorpius, and he gave an extra hard glare at Karlin when he said, "Don't make a sound."

"You cannot boss me about anymore, Scorpius," said Karlin matter-of-factly, as he remained upright as the others fell into a crouch. "If it were not for the interruption, I would have beaten you in our duel."

"Doubt it."

"Do you? I am very happy to begin again—"

"What is your problem?" Scorpius whirled on him, more irritated than Rhys had ever seen him as Scorpius was usually rather aloof and hard to anger. "You've known Rose and I less than a month—"

"I do not appreciate your badgering!" he sniped, clenching his fists. "First I do not get the room I requested—"

"You're still mad about sharing rooms?"

"Then you embarrass me in front of multiple teachers—"

"You did that to yourself." Scorpius turned back around, checked the corner wall. "Now be quiet."

"You see? Even now, I am not afforded the respect I deserve—"

The sound of a door opening at the end of the hallway rendered the group statue still. Someone had heard them arguing. Thinking quickly, Rhys dragged Albus around the corner, where the door was closing behind a shrivelled, crooked hand.

The Mole. Her beady eyes were trained down the length of the corridor, staring straight through them under Albus' Invisibility Cloak. Her white hair stuck out in all sorts of directions, her nightdress and floral bloomers at odds with her muddy boots. It wasn't her sight that had earnt her that nickname, though – her head bent as she redirected her attention to the wall corner.

But there was nothing to be done for Scorpius, Karlin, Minhyuk and Halie, and unconscious Rose, who was still floating behind them, red curls dripping down her body. And despite her tiny frame, the Mole was lethally fast, shuffling down the corridor with frightening speed.

Scorpius shoved Karlin, who shoved Halie, who shoved Minhyuk, who bumped into Rose, and the group pelted back down the other way they came. There was no time to pace about for the Room of Requirement doors. The Mole approached the corner, close. Too close. Albus held his breath. Rhys clenched his shaking hands.

Even if he was caught doing a minor offence, such as being out of bed after hours… he'd get expelled for sure.

The Mole's milky eyes scanned the area, but it was her twitching nose and jolting head that sent her forwards. "I know you're here," she said, voice low. "I promise, you won't be in trouble if you reveal yourselves!"

The two boys went deathly still. Please don't notice us, Rhys thought desperately. Please, please. Suddenly he wished he'd had a shower before doing this stupid night-time escapade. At least his smell couldn't give him away.

The Mole was still, leering, then she passed Rhys and Albus and was nearly at the end of the next corridor before she called out again. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

Out of earshot, Albus exhaled shakily. "We need to do something! Scorpius! And Rose! They'll get caught!"

"So will we!" Rhys warned. "And you know— I can't—"

Albus shoved Rhys around the corner again and snatched the cloak free. Rhys was left standing alone, his jeans and Gryffindor jumper bared to the world.

"Let me handle it. Stay here. I don't want you to get in trouble!"

He vanished under the cloak and took off, leaving Rhys with his heart in his throat and shame coursing through his chest. It had all been too fast for him to process, especially once the thought occurred… if he got expelled…

Gritting his teeth, he peered around the corner. Everyone was gone. Albus had told him to stay there, but how could he? What sort of person was he to sit out and let one of his only friends get potentially exposed? He might've been the son of a famous wizard, but Albus Potter wasn't exactly smart when it came to putting nail to the grindstone. He'd always sacrifice himself for others. It was in his nature.

Rhys used to be like that, too. Until…

No. Rhys shoved the thought from his head. Come on, Rhys. He lunged out of the corridor and ran down until he came to a three-way split. Which way did they all go? Did they split up? Frustrated, he chose the left fork and followed the light spilling from the moon into the hall, passing inanimate suits of armour and slumbering paintings, their snores echoing around the walls.

"Is someone there?"

A worse fear shot down Rhys' spine as he scrambled to the side and hid inside an alcove. That wasn't the Mole. That was Professor Ruthven. What the heck was he doing down here at this time? He peered out, and to his horror, saw the professor gliding down from a staircase from one of the towers – and Scorpius and levitating Rose hiding behind a suit if armour just paces away.

No sign of Albus under the Invisibility Cloak.

Ruthven was fast approaching. Scorpius' wand was already in use, levitating Rose off the ground. Rhys curled his hand into a fist and thumped the armour– it was the first thing that came to his head. It rattled loudly.

The effect was instant. Ruthven's honed gaze turned to Rhys' spot, and he passed Scorpius and Rose without even looking.

Rhys' delight was short-lived.

Now he's coming for me.

But there was nowhere to run. Rhys desperately ran through his Charms lessons for something to use, but without the Invisibility Cloak he was hopelessly cornered. Maybe expulsion isn't so bad, he thought to himself, as Ruthven took another three steps towards his position, so close he could see the narrowed whites of his eyes. No one will miss me anyway.

He braced himself.

Then everything went dark and then light again, and startlingly Albus was next to him, tugging him beneath the cloak and going ramrod still. Rhys held his breath.

Ruthven checked the spot, but he could see nothing. Brow furrowed, he let out a grunt and turned swiftly back up the stairs. Heart hammering, Rhys dared himself to peer around the suit of armour.

Scorpius and Rose were gone.

"Oi, you," said Albus, shaking Rhys' arm. "I thought I told you to stay put?"

"I just couldn't."

"Obviously."

"Where'd you go, then?"

"To save the foreign students," snorted Albus. "They separated and got cornered by the Mole. Had to lead her away before I could come back for my idiot friends." He peered around the corridor. "What's Professor Ruthven doing up so late?"

"No idea." Now that he wasn't in any immediate danger, Rhys sank against the wall. "Thank you. For coming back for me."

"You were included in idiot friends, you know." Albus nudged him and grinned. "Besides, it would suck if you got expelled. Who else would go on night-time adventures with me?"

"Hekate? Scorpius? Literally anyone?"

"Don't kill the moment, bro." He stood up, forcing Rhys to stand up, too. "Come on. Let's go back to the common room."

"Hope it was worth it," Rhys grumbled. "For whatever you have planned."

He left it open-ended, a question, an opportunity for Albus to share with Rhys the reason they had come out tonight. But Albus only grinned knowingly.

"It was worth it."

A/N: Hello everyone! I know I said I wasn't doing weekly updates but I wanted to put ACOR and TRATR on alternating Sundays (or at least, I don't wanna post them both at the same time lol), so here we are, a treat for you. I hope you enjoyed this one!

So looks like Tristan's party is a-go, though there seems to be consequences from the duel... what's up with his wand?! What is Albus planning? In this chapter we give a warm welcome to our first POV switch and Gryffindor with an shady past, Rhys Kekoa! Thanks for much Altomi for him! (You should definitely all check my Pinterest because Altomi has made AMAZING CHARACTER ART for all the students! Please send her your biggest uwus.)

Fun fact that no one asked for: the Mole is based off one of my real-life English teachers. We called her the Mole because she was beady-eyed like one. I am sorry not sorry, Miss. You made great character inspiration.

Let me know what you think in the reviews, and thanks for reading!

~ GWA

NTT: "Oh yes, my near-death. So hilarious."