Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Just this fanfiction.

SCORPIUS

Scorpius quickly emptied the glass of punch in his hand, although he wished he had something stronger to drink at the moment. Why the hell had he had to talk to Rose? He had only managed to screw things up even more. Worse than that, he had hurt her and ruined her night.

David, the guy she'd come with, kept glaring at him from across the gym. What exactly did Rose find interesting about him? It was a mystery for Scorpius.

"You look like you want to punch someone," Theo walked over to where his best friend was. He seemed happy, probably after having fun with one of his girls, "Is it about Rose?" Nott continued

"She is not here"

"I saw her arrive with David Creevey." He looked at Malfoy, examining his reaction.

Perhaps Theo expected Scorpius to say something else but he remained silent. He wasn't going to open his heart to him or some shit like that. Theo was his best friend but he didn't seem to understand this situation. Even he didn't quite understand what he was feeling.

He only knew that these last few weeks had been the most difficult of his life, without being able to be near Rose or to speak to her. And tonight, watching her having fun with another guy, it had been especially hard. That had literally taken him to hell.

"Scorpius ... Scorpius"

Theo's voice was urgent and he lifted his face just in time to see Potter approaching him furiously. The blonde couldn't help the shove he gave him even though he managed not to stumble.

"Where the hell is my cousin?!" shouted Albus

"Get out of here Potter," Theo ran to stand between the two of them

"Fuck you Nott," he snapped pushing him back and focusing on Scorpius. "Tell me where the hell is Rose!"

"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about Potter," he replied

"Her date told me that she was talking to you outside. And that was over a damn hour ago! My cousin is not at home and I can't find her anywhere"

His heart stopped after hearing those words and his blood ran cold. The boy cursed out loud and squeezed the paper cup that he still held in his hands.

"I shouldn't have let her go alone," he blurted out as he hit the wall behind him.

"You're damn right," Potter leaned dangerously close to him, "So now tell me. Where the hell is my cousin?"

"I have no idea," he replied

"I don't believe you. You were the last to see her!"

"I don't deny that." He also approached Potter, their faces dangerously close now, "But our conversation didn't end well and she asked me to leave her alone. She said she was going back home."

"Well, that certainly didn't' happen," Potter snapped. I noticed his hand moving to his pocket, where he probably kept some kind of weapon, "What the hell did you tell her? What did you do to her?"

"Listen to me Potter, I don't give a shit if you don't believe me but I would never, ever hurt Rose," he also reached for the blade he always carried with him, "So either you decide to listen to me or you get out of my way because I'll go look for her."

Something in his voice seemed to make Albus hesitate because even though he glared at Scorpius, he ended up pulling away and started walking towards the exit door. The blonde went after him.

"Have you tried to call her?"

"You think I'm stupid? It was the first thing I did," he growled, "but she never answered. And Rose always responds instantly."

"Dammit"

"Why don't you call Cassie? Maybe she's with her", proposed Theo

Potter nodded and watched him dialed Cassie's number. As the ringtone rang he was internally begging for Rose to be with her. He didn't even want to think that something had happened to the redhead… especially not because of his negligence.

"Scorpius?" Cassie's soft voice sounded like he had interrupted her sleep

"Hey Cass, is Rose with you?" He asked

"Rose? No… isn't she supposed to be at the ball?" She was immediately alert

"She was here but ... she decided to leave and we can't find her anywhere," Albus's expression fell as he understood that her cousin was not with her friend, "Cass I have to ..."

"Don't you dare to hang up on me Scorpius Malfoy" She exclaimed in a firm voice, "Tell me where are you and I'll meet you there"

"Cassandra ..."

"Tell me where you are."

The boy told her to meet them at the main entrance of the school while he, Potter and Theo looked around. That didn't take long though, and in the end they still had no idea where Rose was.

Scorpius asked Theo to continue searching for the redhead and he agreed to check the area again with a couple of friends.

"Dammit!" Potter kicked an empty beer can a few minutes later. "Why the fuck did you have to take my cousin out of the gym? What did you say to her?"

Scorpius was silent and that seemed to exasperate him. He knew he was going to hit him before Albus did it, but it didn't cross his mind to defend himself. He deserved those hits. He knew how dangerous the area could be, he knew firsthand the things that could happen to an unaccompanied girl… and yet he had let her go. He was the biggest idiot.

Potter's fist slammed into his jaw and a couple more blows followed and he continued to receive them in silence.

"No! Enough, that's enough," Cassie's voice broke the silence of the street

Potter didn't stop and continued to hit him, causing him to fall to his knees.

"Albus, please stop!"

Cass took Potter by the arm and although she didn't have enough strength to push him back he seemed to hear her because he stopped.

"This isn't helping, please Albus," Cass pushed Potter away, "I know you must be worried but use your energy in looking for Rose, not in hitting Scorpius"

"He is responsible for all this!" Potter hissed angrily.

To her surprise, Cass didn't seem intimidated by the boy's anger but instead took a few more steps in his direction.

"Let's find Rose, forget about this stupid fight for now," she asked and then added, "Now give me your phone"

"Why do you need my…?"

"Just give it to me," she demanded. Potter handed her the device and the girl started tapping the screen, "Rose always has the GPS on because she doesn't know the area very well. She told me that you bought her the phone so it's good news that you picked one just like yours because we can use it to track Rose's."

Both boys seemed astonished but Cassie wasted no time explaining her words. She started walking and they followed her through the streets that led them back to the gym, not too far from where Scorpius and Rose had said goodbye after their conversation.

"Hmmm this is strange," she turned to face the boys, "She is supposed to be here but ..."

"But there's no one here," Potter said clearly exasperated.

"I'm going to call her," Cass proposed

She put the call on speaker and a few seconds later they heard a ringtone

"It's Rose's!" Cassie gasped

The three of them hurriedly ran in the direction of the sound but upon arrival, there was no one there either.

"There!"

Potter ran to the opposite sidewalk and returned with Rose's purse. Cass inhaled heavily at realizing that the purse was broken and the phone had been left with it.

"Oh no," she sobbed covering her face with her hands

Potter released a torrent of curses and Scorpius's world started reeling under his feet. What had happened to Rose? Why were her belongings abandoned in the middle of the street?

He looked helplessly at Cassandra and she seemed to feel his gaze. There was fear in her eyes.

Fear and pain… No. He couldn't, he didn't want to imagine something happening to Rose. He wasn't going to be able to bear going through all of that again, not with his redhead.

"ROSE! ROSE!" Potter screamed in despair and ran through the nearby alleys. Scorpius continued to stare at the bag as if it could tell him what had happened.

Clues, search for clues.

The rational side of his brain began to work and he started pacing the street. There were no traces of blood, which was a good sign. There were also no broken bottles or any other signs of struggle, just the purse and the phone. Probably the sons of bitches who had taken Rose had thrown her things on the opposite site to prevent her from alerting anyone.

He went to the opposite sidewalk from where the bag was discovered and searched the place. A cigarette butt caught his eye. The boy took it in his hands and just by smelling it he noticed that it contained more than just nicotine. But there was something else… something else that made this cigarette unique.

"Cassandra," he called in a low voice. She approached immediately, "Do you recognize this wrap?"

"What?" She looked at him without understanding

"Look at this, please", he insisted

Cass took the cigarette butt in her hands and studied it for a few seconds.

"It looks like…" Cass frowned. "Isn't it… isn't that strange maroon paper that Rygel always brags about stealing from his work?"

"I thought so too," he agreed, "Rygel is the only one who covers his crap in that paper. Also, this cigar has pot in it and he's always using that shit"

"But Scorpius ... this could be from days ago or ..."

"No, it's recent," he put the cigarette butt in his pocket, "If he's the one who did this… fuck! An Slytherin is the one behind Rose's disappearing ..."

Scorpius fell silent because Potter came back to them and he wasn't going to let him know about his discovery. If he had to fix this matter and at the same time teach his people a lesson, he would do it alone. Besides, Potter's presence would only cause problems.

"We should separate," Cassie proposed suddenly, "Scorpius can search the area of the factories and Albus ... you and I could go to the hospitals. Maybe Rose had an accident or an emergency"

"I don't know…"

"We must rule out all possibilities," she assured, "And we also cover more ground that way"

"I think it's for the best," Scorpius bet

Potter ended up accepting. He took his phone to make some calls and Scorpius led Cassie to the other side.

"You'll be fine? Alone with him, I mean"

"Albus is not a bad person," she assured him, "Besides I'm doing this for Rose. We better find her as soon as possible. I don't want to… no… Just find her. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure Cass? Cause I could tell Theo to come back and join you"

"I think we both know that that wouldn't be a good idea." Cass turned and looked briefly at Potter. "He cares about Rose, I'm sure of that. I'll be fine."

Cassandra shyly reached her hand towards Scorpius's and grabbed it for a few seconds. He looked at her, surprised for the contact, and she nodded. Scorpius mimicked her action and wasted no time heading toward the garage where he knew Rygel and his friends were meeting. The place reeked of alcohol as there seemed to be a party. He entered without knocking and went straight to one of the boys.

"Turn off that damn thing," he ordered pointing to the stereo

The music stopped and everyone stared at him in surprise. A quick sweep of the place was enough to tell him that Rygel was not among them, which only fueled his suspicions.

"Get out", he said to a group of hookers who were there, "Now"

"Malfoy is in a bad mood, you heard him, get out"

Dante Goyle, one of Rygel's friends approached Scorpius.

"What's wrong Scorp? What…?

Dante didn't finish speaking because the blonde grabbed him by the jacket and pushed him against the wall. Although Goyle was considerably taller and larger, he didn't dare stand up to the boy. The others murmured, surprised at the scene, but did not come near.

"You will tell me right now where I can find Rygel"

"No ... we don't know," Dante replied nervously

"I'm not going to repeat it," Scorpius hissed. "So tell me what you know or this won't be pretty"

"Scorpius I ... I don't know..."

"NOW"

He fixed his dark gray gaze on him, who looked scared to death.

"Scorpius… Rygel said that he had… that he had some business to take care of. He didn't say where he was going though," replied one of the other guys in the room

"What kind of business?" Scorpius turned to him

"We don't know," the other shrugged.

"I'm starting to lose my patience"

"Just ... something about a girl ... a redhead," Scorpius focused his attention once again on Dante, who seemed more nervous than ever, "You know ... Rygel said that Val asked him for a favor ... he said that you knew about it and that you were agree"

"Agree on what exactly?" Scorpius inquired

"To scare the girl," he shrugged, "Val said that that girl screwed up your life or that she wouldn't leave you alone or something like that. And that you wanted to scare her… she is also Potter's cousin and a Gryffindor so it's ok, right?"

Unable to restrain he punched Dante on the face. His nose was bleeding profusely so Scorpius had to hold his chin to look into Goyle's eyes.

"What the hell Scorpius?"

"Who the hell is Val to give orders here," he demanded to know

"She's your girlfriend right? She said she was your girlfriend, and we saw her with you so we thought…"

"You're a bunch of idiots," he spat. "Now tell me where the hell Rygel is or you're going to regret it."

It didn't take five seconds for them to blurt out everything they knew.

"He left with his van a couple of hours ago," replied Dante, "he didn't give us an exact location ... but we know that he's been hanging around the abandoned warehouses of the paint factory."

"I hope you're right about that"

He released Dante causing him to stumble and left that damn place.

The warehouses were a good place to hide someone, now that he thought about it. Also, Rygel knew them well as his father used to work there when he was a child.

He called Theo to ask him to pick him up in his car and his friend was there in just a few minutes. Scorpius indicated the location and outlined the situation. Theo seemed surprised but just like Malfoy, he was determined to save Rose.

"I'm coming for you redhead" he said to himself. He only hoped that he would arrive in time to avoid something horrible happening to her.

A/N: As always, I would love to read your thoughts or impressions. Those keep my writer's spirit up, so please leave a comment :)

A magical day to all of you ^^