Friday November 26th 2021:
A reserved twenty-four-seven watch was set on Roger Parkinson-Jones from the act of Hermione Granger-Weasley speaking for the Ministry to order each professor to keep their eyes open, and none were more eager to volunteer than Filch.
From that act, Roger no longer carried through any cruelty towards his peers, but it was clear to all of those people who were there to witness the use of the Cruciatus Curse that his square pugnacious face was even grimmer than the norm as a result. Even his posse: featuring Dylan, Horace, and Mary were all especially careful while speaking to him and often kept their distance. Even his wand was confiscated from him when he was not in classes.
"Albus," Scorpius whispered.
Scorpius and Albus were sitting in Transfiguration class, jotting their notes down that were no doubt important for their upcoming O.W.L.s.
"Yeah?" Albus whispered, his palm supporting his chin.
"Don't turn your head, but Roger is staring at me."
"Why?"
"I don't know, but he is doing that a lot lately. Looking like he wants to strangle me or something," Scorpius said.
Albus side-glanced over at Roger at the desk to the left of them without turning his head, and saw that his friend was right. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. He can't do anything, remember?"
"I know, but I just have a feeling that he's hatching something, and it's... scaring me."
Persistent to forever protect his friend, Albus looked at Scorpius and tenderly grazed his hand with his. "Well, if he is. I'm not going to let it happen."
Scorpius smiled, slightly feeling better. He didn't even say a word about Albus' hand lingering on his longer than it should have.
Albus forced himself to remove his hand and inattentively advanced with his notes.
The bell rang and the teens gathered their textbooks, parchment, and quills. Luckily Roger was not paying attention to them anymore.
Roger was the aftermost student to exit the classroom, wretchedly walking out into the hallway — escorted by Professor Medlis — and he inspected the right to him, and then the left, desperate to discover a way of escaping. With his wand currently in hand and his intelligence of limitless jinxes that most of his brain-dead classmates could only dream of memorising, it would be simple enough to conjure up a spell to knock out the professor guiding him. The level of complications to conjure an effective spell was not the problem, but the professor ratting him out afterwards. Not even a memory spell would do because it would attract plenty of suspicion, not that he knew how to do one anyway.
Glancing to the right of him into a narrow-down separate corridor steering into the Prefect's Bathroom, emerging from the door was something highly conspicuous: James Sirius Potter appearing out of thin air. Although he was of the age to Apparate, Roger knew of the rule of not being able to do so inside the castle, so he knew that was not the case. He was proved to be correct when James tugged away at nothing but air, until a silvery woven material revealed itself from the place James was tugging at. He looked pleased with himself. Roger theorized that he snuck into the lavatory fully invisible without needing the password because of it.
That little bit of silver lining was everything Roger required: it was the Invisibility Cloak Harry Potter used in his Hogwarts years! He was told of its uses from stories, and upon hearing about it, he yearned to have it in his possession.
"What are you looking at, young man?" Professor Medlis demanded sceptically.
Commonly, Roger didn't speak, but performing spells was the only exception. He shifted his wand at the rear of his back as he whispered, "Reducto."
Medlis jumped from an immediate and unexpected blast emanating from her classroom, and Roger acted like he was bewildered himself while immediately tucking away his magic tool.
"What in blue blazes?" Medlis exclaimed, aiming her attention to her possibly destroyed classroom. "Listen here, young man. You stay right here. It could be dangerous."
Roger sensed that Medlis didn't feel contented enough to be leaving him unsupervised, examining from her hesitation, but sooner or later she made sure nobody was around for Roger to bother, missing the sight of James hiding the opposite side of the Boris the Bewildered statue to the right of the prefect's bathroom, and left to examine the damage.
Just in time too, because James was about to scram.
"Petrificus Totalus."
Roger shot a blazing white molecule of light from his wand and binded James' arms and legs together, causing him to tumble facedown on the floor. His eyes were still open and shifting side to side in utter turmoil and fear.
"Accio Invisibility Cloak."
The cloak abandoned its owner and blew into Roger's craving grip.
He rebounded to the spot the Transfiguration professor told him to stay put as a smarmy grin incurved at his lips.
In the interim, a distressed Professor Medlis reappeared and dragged Roger with her to enlighten Headmistress McGonagall about the unknown source of all the embellished books and chairs in her study. Roger mentally plotted for the foolproof opportunity to do what he thirsted to do, but he was cunning enough to not expose his pleasure by contorting his face to a miserable grimace. It was uncomplicated with McGonagall eying him distrustingly when Medlis explained the situation.
The foolproof opportunity came when Scorpius was entirely isolated leaving the Charms classroom after helping Rose with her tutoring that night.
Roger tricked Filch into entering the Slytherin dungeons to make it seem like he was going to turn in for the night, only to drape the cloak over his whole being and flee as quickly as he entered the passage leading to the common room.
XXX
"I think that went pretty well," Scorpius said, lending Rose a helping hand with clearing off any leftover quills, parchment, or books from the desks.
"Excellent!" Rose said. "I think we did well today. Same time tomorrow?"
"Sure!" Scorpius said, walking alongside the Gryffindor to the door.
"Still keeping your hair like that, huh?" Rose teased.
Scorpius ran his fingers through his spiky, cluttered platinum locks and grinned. "I like it. It's like my... my thing that sets me apart from others.
"Yeah, because nobody else in this school has that untidy look," Rose mocked.
"I meant as a Malfoy," Scorpius mumbled.
"Oh I know what you meant. Sheesh."
"Besides, others seem to like it. Even Albus."
"Of course he does..."
"What?"
"Nothing." Rose opened the door and gave Scorpius' arm a benevolent punch. "Goodnight, Scorp."
"Goodnight!"
The second Scorpius shut the door behind him and not a single being was in view, an anonymous violent force knocked him in the face. The punch was so powerful that it sent him collapsing to the floor. He strained to move, his grey eyes dilated, cheeks swollen, nose flowing with blood, as well as his mouth. Consumed by terror, he tensely moved his head around to seek out the felon.
Luck was not on his side when all he could seek out was a desolate corridor, particularly with something jolting at his stomach just as powerful as the foregoing assault.
Every region of his body ached as he curled up into a ball and securely cradled his stomach. The attack eventually stopped, and he was left there, bewildered, alone, hurt, but mostly terror-stricken.
"Wow, I didn't know tutoring would take that lon— BLOODY HELL! What happened?!"
Albus rushed to the bewildered teen, sharing his horrified wide-eyed expression.
"I-I don't know," Scorpius stuttered. He was trying everything he could to hold back his tears, but it was difficult.
"What do you mean you don't know, Scorpius?! You are bruised and bleeding!" Albus fumed.
"I-I felt it, b-but I couldn't s-s-see anyone or anything," Scorpius whimpered.
Albus thought his friend had gone mad until he came to a realisation. "Roger."
"What?"
"It was Roger! James kept whining to me that someone stole his cloak today, but the person immobilized him and he couldn't see who it was. "Honestly, this has that arsehole written all over it!"
"But, how c-could he know about the c-c-cloak?"
"Must have seen him use it or something," Albus growled. "I'm going to kill him! If I get expelled along with him, so be it. Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"To McGonagall's office."
"But, we don't have any proof."
Albus gritted his teeth. "Fine. You're right. We'll need James for this, and of course that git. Come on." His tone was then calmer when supporting his friend's injured body all the way down to their dormitory.