Chapter 35. The last task


"Hey Ugly," a voice shouted up the stairs. That voice sounded familiar. He turned and looked – only to see Nott, Westlock, and Junior cracking up at him.

He turned around and darted straight down the stairs at them on the landing. Their faces turned from joyous to terrified in two seconds flat. Junior bolted backwards and left the scene as Nott and Westlock both took off left, Westlock pushing Nott to get ahead, but then Nott tripping Westlock and going down in the process. They fell in a heap upon the floor and started screaming – fighting at themselves but both preventing the other from leaving. Scorpius reached them and belly flopped on the pile.

"You're a goddamn elephant. Can't … breathe," said West who unfortunately was at the bottom of the pile. Scorpius reached over and stuck his finger in West's ear as he started rubbing his knuckles on Nott's head.

Their screams turned into scream-laughs as they pushed his hands away and struggled to get out from under him. Junior made an appearance again and jumped on top of Scorpius, landing like a heavy log on water. Everyone groaned. Nott managed to roll out from under Scorpius and the whole pile fell to the floor. They all rolled away from each other.

Westlock jumped to his feet, looking like he was about to murder someone and they all stood up and bolted; Junior headed back down the stairs, Nott continuing to the left, and Scorpius sprinting back up the stairs.

He ran until he found a rather empty corridor three floors up and stopped to catch his breath as a few students looked at him curiously. He was sure he was safe – Westlock didn't like running, especially when the running involved going upstairs.

There was a hooting in the window. Scorpius looked over. The owl was looking right at him. It hooted.

"Are you hooting at me?" he asked it. The owl hooted again.

"I'm not some lonely boy on the street you can hoot at, you know. I won't come to your beck and call."

"Are you talking to an owl?" asked a younger student who passed by.

"Yes," Scorpius snapped back. "Is that a problem?" The student raised his hands and walked away.

Scorpius tapped his foot at the owl. The owl hooted and ruffled its feathers.

He realised he wasn't going to win this game. "Fine. I'll come," he said to the universe. As soon as he was near, the owl stuck out its leg and let Scorpius remove the letter.

Scorpius. It's a nice day outside. Get out of the library and meet us near the Whomping Willow. – Al

Scorpius huffed. It's not like he spent all his time in the library. He was closer to the Ravenclaw Towers than the Entrance so ran up a few more flights of stairs to get his broom. He launched out of the window in his dorm and meandered through the air to the Whomping Willow.

The only other House he could have possibly been in at Hogwarts was Gryffindor. How could Slytherin's and Hufflepuff's enjoy having common rooms at the base of the school? Towers were the absolute best way to go. He closed his eyes for a second and felt the wind around him blow his hair. Best feeling. Nothing could compare.

He landed on the grass to a picnic of Potter, Hugo, and the little Weasley, Lucy. She was wearing her Slytherin robes with sleeves rolled up all the way to the shoulders in the May heat. He jumped off the broom.

"Oi. Right. You. We made a bet at Halloween," Scorpius said.

She rolled her eyes. Her freckled face had a sly grin. "I'm actually glad your team won. It all worked out."

"Hey now, you bet against me. By the way I wasn't in the library. Nice try." He plopped down on the grass, stretching his legs out. He reached over and helped himself to a pastry.

Hugo was using a novel as a sunshade. His curly reddy-brown hair was wild and spread out against the green grass. "You sure? Seems like you've been living there recently."

"You do realize finals are coming up hey?"

Hugo shrugged. "Still a month away. I have time."

"Right. It's OWLS for you. You only need a few days for that," Scorpius said sarcastically. He helped himself to a second pastry.

"I personally think studying two months in advance is a little excessive," he responded. "But I, in good heart, will take your advice and study one week in advance now."

Potter ripped some grass up from the ground and threw it at Hugo. "That barely cuts it. At least three weeks."

Lucy also ripped a handful of grass and threw it at Hugo as well. "I say four weeks."

There was a rumble for laughter. "Geez. Stop family. I came out here to enjoy the sun and eat your food. Not get bothered about studying. Two weeks, final offer!"

Lucy looked deviously happy. She had two dimples in her freckled cheeks. She turned to Scorpius. "We bet five galleons by the way. If Al wouldn't have said anything I probably wouldn't have paid you since you forgot about it. But apparently it's good morally to keep my word, or whatever he said. Here."

She pulled out a small colourful drawstring bag and indicated for him to put his hand out. She counted out five galleons in his outstretched hand. "Don't say I didn't pay you."

"Umm … I wasn't going to. Thanks, I guess." He sat and chatted with them until all the pastries were gone.

Being outside was as good an excuse as any to go flying. It had been a week since they won. A week since he'd flown his broom around.

A lot had happened in the week. Rose started taking Wolfsbane again since the full moon was coming up. She showed him the potion, though it left a lot to be desired. About 125 ml of an opaque dark purple liquid. She said the colour was different every day. Scorpius had a hard time pinning the smell down. Based on all the smelly ingredients he knew were in the potion it smelled like none of them.

He also told her he knew about Sprocket and was giving him a copy of the potion as well as going over it with him. Scorpius didn't want it to seem like they were meeting behind her back. He was going to be upfront and honest and let her know that the secret was safe with him.

She took it rather well, minus the threatening to gut him if he ever hurt Sprocket.

His flight was glorious. He flew over and around the school (which took a considerable amount of time since it was a castle), the pitch, and then went over the Forbidden Forest. The ground was hidden from sight by the dense conifers when he tried to peer through to see if anything was there.

Somewhere hidden in the trees was a safe hut for werewolves. An emergency shelter if anything ever went wrong.

Scorpius couldn't lie, he was curious. Most things about the forest made him curious – it was the wild side of magic. Neither good nor bad but more chaotic, and unpredictable. The unknown chaos was interesting and it was a safer interesting than Dark magic. Though perhaps it was a fine line, one he should be careful not to tread on. Most people could get away with walking that line. He was positive he wasn't one of them.

Nothing could be seen down below, however. The forest seemed like it went on forever. He flew far enough away that the school was about the size of his index finger and then turned back around.

It scared him that he could continue flying and nobody would stop him. People could leave, nobody could enter. Another part of him wondered how long it would take before people realised he was not there … and would they really care?

He shuddered on his broomstick and turned around to fly back. He did have friends and family in the school, even if he was a terrible friend sometimes and forgot important dates or ignored important events.

June hit harder than a Bludger and the whole school was up in arms about studying. The library, already a busy enough place most evenings, was absolutely packed. The Hufflepuff Quidditch team was tutoring away and helping students study all the time now.

Scorpius had his little corner with Jazz, Rose, Nadir, and all the other friends and teammates that came along to sit down or ask for help.

He made Westlock and Nott take a study break with him one warm morning when he found out that Nott had never been to his own girlfriend's dance class. He forced them out of bed and down to the Hogwarts grounds. It turned out to be a terrible idea. Westlock kept singing deliberately off-tune to the songs, Nott was sullen and barely made any movements, and Scorpius couldn't stop laughing at the movements Nott did make since he had never seen Nott be so adamantly against dancing while still dancing. They all got kicked out of the class halfway through for being terrible participants. At least they tried, Scorpius told himself, even though Gold was fuming.

He had one more painting session with Emmanuelle and Rose in the common room. Emmanuelle was her usually happy self, but brokered no arguments about him being there.

He painted another memory – this time it was when two of the wild chickens from Malfoy Manor chased one of the peacocks around the yard. Things were getting heated so his Father went outside to sort things out and ended up getting run over by the chickens. The painting depicted his Father on the ground with two chickens on him and the peacock ahead, almost out of the frame.

"It looks like a ten year old painted this," Scorpius complained later.

"You didn't start painting when you were ten years old so you have six years of catch up to do," Rose said.

"When are you going to paint a human in yours?"

"When humans stop annoying me." They were studying in the library at this point and she gave him such a stink eye that he shut up and let her be.

Finals arrived faster than they all realised. There was some frantic last minute studying sessions and some tears, but they made it through. The patronus he cast in Defence left a lot to the imagination, though it was more substantial than the glowing wisps he had produced in class. Maybe it was a turtle? A chicken? A falcon? It was a smaller species, but hard to make a guess when it changed so much. Though … those were definitely wings of some sort.

And then there were only days left before school was done for the year.

The seventh-years were graduating. That hit Scorpius hard one night and he crept to the window to open it for fresh air. He didn't want things to change. He wanted all his friends around next year.

It sucked.

"We're going to have a party," he told Rose, Westlock, and Nott the night before they were due to leave on the train. They were out laying in the sun, talking vaguely about the cloud shapes in the sky. "Tonight. A final goodbye. A sendoff for the summer. All of that encompassed in one sha-bang."

"Okay? You're going to throw a party for the whole school last minute? … Good luck with that." Nott, ever the pessimist.

"I've thrown at least one successful party thanks very much."

"No you didn't."

"What are you talking about? After our win with Hufflepuff I organized that rager."

Nott laughed and laughed and curled up on his side as he wiped at his eyes. "No you didn't! Half the school wouldn't have shown up if Rennings didn't start spreading her birdies and inviting everyone. And who do you think brought all the food?"

"Parties don't need food!"

"Of course they do!" Westlock said. "If there's alcohol there needs to be food. Who do you think brought the drinks?"

"Hey." Scorpius bolted upright. "I brought firewhisky to share."

"Do you really think your two bottles of firewhisky would sustain all those students for the whole night? Who do you think brought the music as well? Rennings organized the party. You may have initiated it. She sustained it and carried it out."

Scorpius' mouth opened. He didn't notice any of the extra help that night. Not that he thought about the logistics at all besides telling everyone he passed in the hallway that it was happening.

Rose cut into his thoughts. "She's an event planner. If you want the success tonight, go to her. She'll help."

His neck cranked looking over at her. Even she was telling him to go to her. What the hell.

Fuuuuck.

"Well. I guess … I'll go find her."

Westlock's eyes were wide. "Shiiiiit. Look at him listen to her. Bloody miracle."

"Seriously Rose, wish you would have befriended us eons ago. Would have saved many headaches," Nott said with a grin. Scorpius whaled him on the shoulder.

"Whatever. I'm headed out. Party tonight, by the way. I'm not a complete dunce, I can organize some of it." Scorpius glared at his giggling friends laying on the grass and left to find Rennings.

Rennings.

The thought of her and her long fingernails tapping creeped him out.

However –

Things between them had been okay recently. She'd calmed down her attacks on Rose and seemed to be spending most of her time with Emmanuelle and Melody.

She was more reasonable than he'd ever known her. With only a few misgivings, he asked her assistance for this year end, last minute, hastily planned event.

She was sitting on the grass staring out at the lake with her eyes closed. "Oh, you're willingly talking to me?"

He shrugged. "Not totally willingly. But I've been told you're the person to go to for events."

She gave a wry smile, eyes still closed. "The one and only."

"What are you doing?"

"Meditating."

Scorpius' eyebrows raised. "Oh."

She cracked an eye open. "What? The Bitch of the school can't meditate? Is there an exclusive membership to meditation?"

Scorpius shuffled his feet back and forth and then sat down reluctantly. "No. There's not." He pulled up a blade of grass and pulled it apart in his fingers. He glanced up at Rennings with her face calm and relaxed, hair loosely braided. "Why were you so mean to Rose all year?"

"Why were you so nice to her?"

"I mean … She's my teammate. I like her."

Rennings gave a small sigh. "She's going to break your heart, you know."

He threw the grass at the ground and pulled up another. "What are you talking about?"

"You're going to fall in love with her and she's not going to reciprocate. She doesn't care about anyone but herself and only thinks about survival. It's the world she's part of. Perservere or die … unless you have something that she can benefit from."

"I'm not going to fall in love with her. She's my friend." His face was hot. He didn't need to explain himself to her.

"She was my friend too. Yet now we're enemies. Friends to lovers is as easy as friends to enemies."

"Friends staying friends is also a thing."

"Rose doesn't know how to be a friend. She changed after she was bitten. Changed after she cursed me. And now she's different again. I'm sure after Hogwarts she'll continue changing to suit her circumstances, like all of us will." Rennings eyes opened and she looked over at Scorpius, face blank. She uncrossed her legs and popped up on her feet. "I'm not saying don't be her friend right now. I'm warning you that she may turn at some point. May get tired of you or think you're holding her back …" He couldn't help but hear some bitterness in her voice.

Her voice became quiet. "May be scared of love and turn you away … my money's on that one. It's who she is and who she will continue to be ... She was the worst person to be bitten by a werewolf."

And there were Rose's words echoed back to him from her mouth. Did they say anything to each other or were those independent assessments?

"Anyway," she cut into his thoughts. "Sounds like I have a party to plan. I'll leave you be. See you in the Room of Requirement tonight."

He made faces at her back. Screw her. Way to fuck with his head. He was never going to fall in love with her; they were friends. Friends could remain friends.

He went back and joined his friends, finding all sorts of shapes in the clouds up above: pigs in tutus, basiliscs, furry trees, and fireflies.


Rennings sent runners out for food and drinks. She went early to the Room of Requirement and set the place up. It was a nice ode to the graduating class – there were colourful banners draped on all the ways, neverending confetti flying from random places around the room, and music floating around the room – filling all the quiet crevices and creeping into everyone's bones.

Almost every single person from fourth-year and up was there. All Houses. All saying goodbye for the year. There were a few drunken speeches. The Head Boy who single handedly docked the most points from Ravenclaw for the year said a few words that almost made Scorpius tear up.

He wrapped his arms around Jazz and Nadir and gave them both the biggest hug. He saluted Gold. He nodded at Sarrasin. All worthy of a portion of his time. All contributed to his sixth-year in ways he couldn't even explain.

There were two proposals, a breakup, and a niffler on the loose.

Jazz found Scorpius near midnight when he was sitting by himself at the peripheries of the party, deep in thought. She was hiccupping but had a big grin.

She sat down next to him and looked at him with wide eyes. "Have you ever felt like spontaneously kissing someone you've never kissed before?"

Scorpius jolted backwards. "Ew. Don't kiss me!"

She made a face. "EWWWW. No you dummy. I don't want to kiss you. I'm asking your opinion."

"Oh! No. I've never."

She sighed and pulled her long hair to the front to braid the ends of the ponytail. She leaned back in her chair and looked out at the crowd. "You're young."

"Literally only one year younger than you, let me remind you again! Who do you want to kiss?"

"Oh … just someone. I don't think they're interested though. I decided to talk to you instead of being spontaneous."

He tried to contain the grin. "Jazz. You shouldn't overthink it. Go be spontaneous."

"You're safer."

"I know, you're a chickenshit." He pushed at her shoulder. "Go talk to who you actually want to talk to."

"I don't know. Maybe one day."

He threw an arm around her. "Jazz. The team supports you. I can say this because literally everyone likes you both and thinks you two have good chemistry."

"What do you mean the team and everyone? You don't know who I'm talking about."

He gave her a look. "Jazz. I know."

"Ewww. We're going to school together next year. I don't want to ruin things or let it be weird."

"Jazz. Go talk to him. Regardless of the outcome you need to talk. It'll all be okay."

She made a face at him, leaped up, took five assertive steps across the floor and then turned on her heel. Her long ponytail whipped out and hit Potter across the face. He went down holding his eyes. Jazz beelined for the door. "Okay, I chickened out. Bye I'm going to bed!" she called to Scorpius. "La la la la la don't try saying anything. La la la la byeeeee!" And she was gone.

Huge chicken, he thought. But he sort of thought things would eventually work out how they were meant to.

They packed up the next day and got on the train, slightly hungover.

The train ride home was quiet. Rose looked out the window almost the whole time, curled up on the seat in her fire themed leggings. She had a pile of snacks around her. Nott and Gold were passed out on the seat, curled up together. Westlock was reading a thick muggle novel, legs sprawled out like they were worms trying to escape his body.

Scorpius alternated between reading a plant book, thinking about wolfsbane, trying to blow a stubborn piece of hair out of his face, and jotting down random ideas and notes related to potions and Quidditch. The countryside passed quickly and they were in the heart of London sooner than he realized. Scorpius poked the sleepy birds with his finger and eventually everyone was moving.

Summertime. The train stopped and they all stood up, stretching and grabbing trunks. Rose grabbed Scorpius's arm and nudged her head towards the window indicating she wanted him to wait a second. Her hair was the frizziest-straight he'd ever seen. Almost verging on 'curly' if he dared say so himself – not to her face of course. But it was a nice look for her.

"I'll meet you guys outside," Scorpius said to the others. He swiped his hair back from his face. It fell in it again. Annoying hair.

Then it was the two of them, alone.

"I have the last task for you," she said. "Again, it's entirely optional – I don't want to force it on you or anything."

"What? It's illegal again?"

"Err. No. No it's not."

"Okay. Well, nothing can be as mentally scary as that again."

"This one is mentally scary for me."

"Does it have anything to do with waiting until we're literally on the train home from Hogwarts?"

"Yes."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Working on it." She paused.

"Remember when Cap said that all the tasks had to be completed by Christmas? Boy, you really took liberties with that."

She was quick. "Remember when it took you all year to call me by my first name when that was the first task? Boy, you really took liberties with that."

"No fair. There was no time frame for me! There was for you."

She reached out to him and pushed hair to the side of his face, out of his eyes. It stayed in place. Scorpius blinked, surprised at her touch. "Shush. I didn't want them to be meaningless things. They actually had to challenge you a bit more than normal since you were so bullheaded."

"That's too polite. I was a complete moron."

"That's too rude. You were a doorknob."

"Accepted. So?"

She took a breath in. "Well, the last task is to invite me over sometime this summer to go flying or running. Doesn't have to be for long or anything. And only if you really –"

Scorpius threw his arms around her and cut her off. "You're awesome Rose Weasley. Yes. Please come. Want to come once a week? Can we make a regular training schedule of this? I bet we could get Astrid, Bitz, and Junior to join once in awhile for a game."

He let go and looked at her. Both sides of her mouth were lifted – this was a real, not hidden smile. Freckles actually moved because of the muscle movement on her face. "I'd like that."

He slugged his arm around her and they walked off the train together, pulling their trunks behind them. "Merlin, what a year it's been. Wouldn't change a thing."

He could feel her hand on his side tighten a second in a pinch. "Oooookaaay. Don't look back with rose-tinted glasses too soon. This was a hell of a year."

"Yeeaaaaaaaah. Okay. Maybe in some respects."

"All respects."

"Okay. Okay. But it all worked out in the end and here we are about to blow our parent's minds. Who do you think will be more flabbergasted, my parents or yours? Hey I have a book at home that I think you'd like."

"I have about 200 I think you'd like. Oh there's my parents over there looking like they were run over by the Knight Bus. I'll send you a message when I get home.

"Ha, there's my parents looking like Volde-poo was just resurrected. I win."

She pinched his side again and let go of him. "Bye Scorp. Thanks for the year. Don't know how I could have done it all without you."

He gave a wave. "Ditto Rose. Ditto. See you soon?"

"Yes."

And that was another real smile.


La fin.


A/N: Well, she's done!. If you've made it here I want to say a huge thanks for reading and sticking with this story. I really enjoyed writing it the past few years and it definitely took turns I never anticipated. When I first started writing I intended them to get together at the end; however, I quickly realised that it would probably not happen as quickly as I thought and would probably need a sequel to delve into it, if I decided to go that route (I know a few people were speculating at different points). Prob no sequel though unfortunately (anytime soon). Will be trying to work on some personal stories for the next little bit!

Wheeew. Crazy that this is complete and officially online. Huge thanks again! Hope everyone is staying safe out there. Until next time!

[Also, if anyone is interested: this story tops out at 251 pages in Word and over half a million characters. Also spent over 86000 minutes / 60 days working on the story ... xox ]